The Commentariat -- August 16, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she is 'very clear-eyed' about the kinds of attacks ... Donald Trump will lodge against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in 'lies' and 'deceptions.' The interview -- Harris' second publicly release since being announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week -- comes on the heels of Trump fanning false conspiracy theories about whether Harris is eligible to run as vice president."

Jacob Bogage & Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.... On Thursday and Friday, [the USPS] began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.... The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide.... White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals. Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: My, my. It does sound as if there's panic in the White House following the public uproar over Trump/DeJoy's cavalier moves to "kneecap" the postal service. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN's 'State of the Union' that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a 'political narrative' and 'not based on fact.' NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS's letter sorting machines across the U.S." Read on for Meadows' exchange with Jake Tapper. ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Bohn & Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. [Mark] Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned reallocation. Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for 'reduction' in dozens of cities this year. The USPS's own document calls the move a 'reduction' of equipment. A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, 'Why are these machines being removed?'"

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would consider pardoning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who faced criminal charges after leaking classified documents about vast government surveillance. 'There are many, many people -- it seems to be a split decision -- many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to take a very good look at it.' The remarks signal a shift for the president, who repeatedly denigrated Mr. Snowden as a 'traitor' and a 'spy who should be executed' in the years before his election. The disclosures by Mr. Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia in 2013, set off a broad debate about surveillance and privacy." Mrs. McC: This is weird for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump goes batshit when someone in his own administration leaks something fairly inconsequential.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

** Jennifer Senior of the New York Times reads about Joe Biden in "'What It Takes,' Richard Ben Cramer's gonzo classic about the 1988 presidential primary.... His youthful energy never came from his ideas or any particularly revolutionary philosophy. Rather, it came from his hustle, his sociability, the way he locked in with people and related to them -- 'the connect,' as Cramer called it. 'You were more likely to hear from Biden what Jill said the other day about teaching ... what his mother used to say ... or a wonderfully embroidered story about a nun in Scranton ... than you were about his five-point education plan,' Cramer wrote.... What was the one bedrock of his conviction? His decency. His identification with ordinary, bone-weary, underappreciated Americans. His commitment to them, his compassion for them. The connect.... You could argue that the biggest Biden/Trump contrast, the mother of all remedies, is his capacity for compassion, identification -- the ability to make the connect, the very thing he's been peddling from the start."

Christopher Cadelago & Natasha Korecki of Politico: "In less than a week as [Joe Biden's] running mate, Kamala Harris is showing signs she can act as an accelerant to his bid -- and give the campaign a new dimension to excite voters heading into the Democratic convention this week. In the few days since Harris joined the ticket, Biden has seen surging fundraising, promising polls and the rare sight of a hometown crowd -- despite not being able to hold a rally.... When Biden spoke on a campus [in Wilmington, Delaware] earlier this summer, the parking lot was near-empty, and the only activity was a few reporters waiting to have their temperature taken. But a day after Harris was announced, the same high school parking lot was jammed with cars. Supporters with custom signs and Biden and Harris t-shirts ringed the sidewalk with iPhone cameras to catch their first glances of the tandem that will take on Donald Trump."

This is the Biden campaign's first ad featuring Kamala Harris:

From the New York Times' election updates Saturday. Michael Levenson: "President Trump on Saturday falsely accused Democrats of refusing to fund the United States Postal Service.... Speaking at a news conference [Mrs. McC: or whatever it is] at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump also continued to rail against mail-in voting, calling it 'a catastrophe.' But he did not directly say whether he supported the removal of mail-sorting machines and other changes made under the leadership of his postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. 'I don't know what he's doing,' Mr. Trump said.... Democrats have pushed for a total of $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on the COVID-19 response bill. That figure, which would include money to help with election mail, was down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. [Mrs. McC: The House passed the bill three months ago. The Republican-controlled Senate has been MIA.] ~~~

“Mr. Trump on Saturday also refused to say that Kamala Harris ... is eligible for the vice presidency, but insisted he was not stoking a racist conspiracy theory that has taken hold among some of his followers. 'I have not gotten into it in great detail,' Mr. Trump said, when asked if Ms. Harris is eligible for the vice presidency. 'If she's got a problem, you would have thought that she would have been vetted ... by Sleepy Joe.'... He also praised John C. Eastman, a conservative lawyer who wrote a widely discredited op-ed article written in Newsweek that sought to raise questions about Ms. Harris's eligibility. Mr. Trump called Mr. Eastman 'a brilliant lawyer.' Newsweek apologized on Saturday for publishing the op-ed, saying it was 'being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.'"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "President Trump represents the last primal shriek of retrograde white men afraid to lose their power. He's a dinosaur who evokes a world of beauty pageants, "suburban housewives,"' molestation, cheating on your wife when she's pregnant, paying off porn stars, preferring women to be seen and not heard, dismissing women who challenge you as nasty, angry and crazy."

Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are considering cutting short the August recess and bringing the chamber back into session to deal with the unfolding crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, according to Democratic sources. The House could return to vote with the next two weeks, the Democratic sources suggested. The chamber is currently in recess, with no votes scheduled until the week of Sept. 14.... On Friday, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a scathing statement accusing ... Donald Trump and Republicans of waging an 'all-out assault on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election.' Their statement came after Trump said he opposes a federal infusion of funds to save the flailing postal service because he doesn't support mail-in voting." Mrs. McC: I don't know what good it would do to bring the House back unless Mitch agrees to bring the Senate back, too -- and both Houses have similar bills to vote on.

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "... accounts of slowdowns and curtailed service are emerging across the country as [Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy pushes cost-cutting measures he says are intended to overhaul an agency suffering billion-dollar losses. But as President Trump rails almost daily against the service and delays clog the mail, voters and postal workers warn a crisis is building that could disenfranchise record numbers of Americans who will be casting ballots by mail in November because of the coronavirus.... At risk are not just the ballots -- and medical prescriptions and paychecks -- of residents around the country, but also the reputation of the Postal Service as the most popular and perhaps the least politicized part of the federal government.... Mr. DeJoy has said he is trying to reform an organization with a 'broken business model' facing a litany of billion-dollar losses and declines in mail volumes. But voters and postal workers said the Postal Service was more than a business."

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The breathtaking moves by the Trump administration this summer to disrupt a government service during the coronavirus pandemic -- under the argument that it will boost operational efficiencies -- represent the culmination of Trump's grievance-fueled crusade against the Postal Service that dates to the start of his presidency. Many of his complaints have centered on the post office's chronic financial problems, which have worsened during the pandemic.... Trump's fury with the Postal Service and mail-in balloting has become something of an obsession in recent weeks."

Eric Holder Weighs in. Daniel Politi of Slate: "On Saturday morning, law professor and legal analyst Barb McQuade pointed out [in a tweet] that obstructing mail is a federal offense and wondered who would prosecute Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in the Department of Justice headed by William Barr. 'The next, real, Justice Department,' [former Attorney General Eric] Holder replied [in a tweet]. Earlier, Holder posted a tweet that simply stated the law regarding the fines and imprisonment of up to six months that anyone who 'willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail' can face. Holder has been posting quite a bit on the Postal Service lately...."

Mitch's Man at the USPS. David Sirota & Matthew Cunningham-Cook of Too Much Information: In the lead-up to the current crisis, "Trump nominee Mike Duncan was appointed to the USPS's board of governors in 2018, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in December 2019 to a full seven-year term. Duncan currently chairs the board. In 2018 federal disclosure filings during his confirmation, Duncan listed himself as the current chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund -- a $100 million Senate-focused Republican super PAC whose 2020 electoral goals could hinge on vote-by-mail systems.... Duncan was listed as a director of the Senate Leadership Fund in an annual report the super PAC filed in Virginia in August 2019. CNN reported in January 2020 that the Republican effort to retain the Senate includes '[Mitch] McConnell's super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which is helmed by Mike Duncan, the former RNC chairman and a Kentuckian.'" --s

Khalida Volou & Kolbie Satterfield of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "A group of protesters staged a 'noise demonstration' Saturday morning outside of United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's home in Northwest D.C. amid allegations of limiting mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. The demonstration was organized by the direct action group Shut Down D.C.... The organization believes DeJoy is 'dismantling' the U.S. Postal Service in favor of ... Donald Trump's re-election. They said his actions contribute to voter suppression.... Protesters chanted, sang, and banged on pots and pans outside of DeJoy's District resident for about an hour Saturday morning. Some neighbors, who seemed confused at first, joined the protest which had a portion of Connecticut Ave. closed to traffic. Some protesters stuffed fake absentee ballots and letters into the Postmaster General's apartment lobby door." Mrs. McC: Interesting that neighbors joined the protest. This is one of the ritziest neighborhoods in D.C. I wonder if the neighbors who joined the protest were Barack Obama & Jeff Bezos.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Spit Take. Zach Lowe of ESPN: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization on Saturday allowing public use of a saliva-based test for the coronavirus developed at Yale University and funded by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. The test, known as SalivaDirect, is designed for widespread public screening. The cost per sample could be as low as about $4, though the cost to consumers will likely be higher than that -- perhaps around $15 or $20 in some cases, according to expert sources. Yale administered the saliva test to a group that included NBA players and staff in the lead-up to the league's return to play and compared results to the nasal swab tests the same group took. The results almost universally matched, according to published research that has not yet been peer-reviewed. The leading coronavirus saliva test, developed at a Rutgers University lab and given the same permission by the FDA in mid-April, costs individual consumers up to $150 -- though that can be reduced to $60 or $70 in some circumstances...."

Georgia. Scott Trubey & Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "President Trump's coronavirus task force warns that Georgia continues to see 'widespread and expanding community viral spread' and that the state's current policies aren't enough to curtail COVID-19. The task force 'strongly recommends' Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp's refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery. 'Current mitigation efforts are not having a sufficient impact,' the report said. Businesses, such as nightclubs, bars and gyms, currently open with some restrictions in Georgia, should be closed in the highest risk counties, the report said.... Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities."

South Dakota. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "An order signed by President Trump to boost unemployed workers' weekly benefits will not deliver any new aid to South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi L. Noem [R] appeared to become the first state leader to decline the heightened federal support. Noem, one of Trump's most vocal allies, said South Dakota did not need to accept the additional federal jobless aid because workers in the state are being rehired, and its economy is on the mend...." Mrs. McC: In case you might think Noem is just fiscally conservative and not mean, there's this: "Roughly 20,000 people in the state are currently collecting jobless benefits.... Michele Evermore ... [of] the National Employment Law Center, said...: 'If you're an unemployed person in South Dakota, it's not going to matter to you there aren't a lot of unemployed people.'..."

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Karoun Demirjian & others of the Washington Post now have a story on this: "The Republican and Democratic chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee notified federal prosecutors last year of their suspicion that several individuals, including President Trump's family members and confidants, might have presented misleading testimony in the panel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said. The list of individuals included ... Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, whose accounts of their pre-election meeting with a Russian lawyer were contradicted by the president's former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates in interviews that were part of the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, these people said.... But the intelligence committee, one person said, reserved its harshest allegations for the president's former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis and private security contractor Erik Prince, saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators -- a potential felony.... It is unclear whether the Justice Department took action on the referrals."

Gene Johnson of the AP: "... Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management, a senior administration official said Saturday -- much to the relief of environmentalists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them. Pendley, a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming, has been leading the agency for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have Pendley removed from office."

AP: A riot was declared in Oregon's biggest city as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in Portland. Officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building, news outlets reported. Protesters had thrown 'softball size' rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers, police said on Twitter. The department also said security cameras had been spray painted and other vandalism occurred. The actions came after what started as a peaceful protest.... Saturday afternoon, a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators quickly devolved as they traded paint balls and pepper spray with counter-protesters. About 30 people were participating in the Patriot Prayer rally in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center. Several were armed with automatic weapons, KOIN-TV reported."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A series of fire tornadoes -- genuine twisters made of smoke and flame -- struck Lassen County, Calif., on Saturday, churning around as the Loyalton Fire rapidly expanded to more than 20,000 acres. Extreme fire behavior and pinpoint lightning strikes accompanied the massive blaze, which was 5 percent contained Sunday morning after burning for two days. The powerful fire and potent rotation inside the wildfire even prompted the National Weather Service in Reno, Nev., to issue what is believed to be the first weather alert of its kind: a 'fire tornado warning.'" The accompanying photo (which currently also appears near the bottom of the WashPo's front page) is stunning.

New York Times: "Robert S. Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, died on Saturday night in Manhattan. He was 71. The White House, which announced his death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, did not give a cause.... Simply being a close family member did not shield him from his brother's rages when Donald Trump needed someone to blame.... In one meeting, [Jack] O'Donnell [-- a former Trump Organization executive --] recalled, Donald Trump screamed at his brother, putting the blame for [a] slot machine debacle [at Trump's Atlantic City casino] entirely on him. 'Robert calmly got up, walked out of the room, and that's the last time I ever saw him,' Mr. O'Donnell said.... The rift [took] years to heal.... The relationship between the brothers ... was illustrated by Donald Trump in his book 'The Art of the Deal.' In it, he recalled stealing his younger brother's blocks when they were children and gluing them together so that Robert couldn't reclaim them." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: I cited those two anecdotes about Donald's relationship with Robert to help you adjust your sympathies in case your good nature has caused you to feel a pang of sorrow for Donald.

New York Times: "James R. Thompson, a Republican known as Big Jim who used his enthusiasm for campaigning and his canny understanding of state politics to become the longest-serving governor of Illinois, died on Friday. He was 84."

The Commentariat -- August 15, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Just saw this ad on run on CNN. Pretty good:

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into ... Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Davey Alba of the New York Times: "... false and misleading information about [Kamala] Harris has spiked online and on TV.... Here are three false rumors about Ms. Harris that continue circulating widely online.... The falsehood that Ms. Harris is connected to a child-trafficking conspiracy known as PizzaGate was published on the conspiracy-mongering website Infowars, which set off a round of sharing on social media.... One of the most convoluted lies that has spread on social media involves the actor Jussie Smollett and the baseless allegation that Ms. Harris is his aunt and knew in advance that Mr. Smollett was planning to stage an assault against himself early last year.... Falsehoods about Ms. Harris's heritage -- in particular that she is 'not Black' -- were among the most widely spread misinformation that Zignal Labs tracked." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While the first two rumors are just plain nuts, I think the last may be simply misunderstanding, even though in many cases that misunderstanding is embedded in purposeful racism. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times does a fine job of explaining what it means to be African-American or Black in the U.S.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine's recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor's op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris' U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden's running mate. 'This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,' read the editor's note that replaced their earlier detailed defense of the op-ed.... Hammer -- a former Ted Cruz aide and member of the Federalist Society and the right-leaning Claremont Institute, who joined Newsweek in May after writing for Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire -- declined to comment, telling The Daily Beast in a brief phone conversation, 'I'm not interested in speaking. Thank you.' And then hung up the phone." ~~~

~~~ Mark Stern of Slate: "... the conservative legal movement continues to entertain their lie [that children born in the U.S. do not automatically receive American citizenship], lending it a patina of legitimacy. In turn, media outlets give these charlatans a megaphone through which to launder their racist falsehoods. And that, in short, is why ... Donald Trump is floating the fictitious claim that [Kamala] Harris may not qualify to serve as vice president.... Why ... do outlets like Newsweek and the Washington Post keep publishing articles that promote this lie? A coterie of racists based at the Claremont Institute hope that if they repeat it enough, they can leave the door open for a mass expatriation of second-generation Americans, most of them minorities. Indeed, there are few if any supporters of this falsehood who lack connections to the Claremont Institute.... The Claremont Institute masquerades as an intellectual salon of the right, but it is really just a racist fever swamp with deep connections to the conspiratorial alt-right."

Edward Moreno of the Hill: "Marge Simpson says she's 'pissed off' after Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted this week that Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) ... 'sounds like' her." ~~~

Marge Simpson has something to say. pic.twitter.com/viux96bAPf

— TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons) August 14, 2020

Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "A Virginia mayor is facing calls for his resignation over a Facebook post in which he said that Joe Biden 'just announced Aunt Jemima' as his running mate. Luray Mayor Barry Presgraves posted the comment about two weeks ago on his Facebook page.... 'I thought it was humorous,' he said. 'I had no idea people would react the way they did. I think people have gone overboard on this ... It's an election year.' [Presgraves is not running for re-election.] The comment was condemned by members of the Luray Town Council and other residents before he took it down.... Presgraves apologized at a town council meeting on Monday night.... The town council voted 5-1 to censure Presgraves for what they described in a statement as 'his choice of harmful words posted on social media.'"

MEANWHILE, in Australia. Sonali Paul & Joseph Ax of Reuters: "A cartoon in Australia's biggest national newspaper was denounced as racist by some top government figures on Friday for a portrayal of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.... The cartoon by Johannes Leak in The Australian newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is known for its conservative views, depicted a beaming Biden saying, 'It's time to heal a nation divided by racism.' The drawing then showed him pointing to Harris, the first Black woman on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket, and saying, 'So I'll hand you over to this little brown girl while I go for a lie-down.'"

A FactCheck Backtrack. "Trump Proves Biden Right." Eugene Keily of FactCheck.org: "In late June, Joe Biden claimed ... Donald Trump 'wants to cut off money for the post office so they cannot deliver mail-in ballots.' At the time, we wrote that ... [Biden] had no evidence of Trump's ulterior motive -- but now he does. In an Aug. 13 interview, Trump admitted that he opposes a coronavirus pandemic relief bill crafted by the House Democrats because it includes funding the U.S. Postal Service and state election officials -- funding that Trump said is needed to allow the Postal Service to handle an expected surge in mail-in voting.... Hours after his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said he wouldn't veto the bill if it includes money for the Postal Service and state election planning -- but he repeated his statement about the agency being unable to handle mail-in ballots without it.... Trump provided Biden with the evidence that he earlier had lacked."

Ha! Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Joe Biden gained the presidential endorsement of the National Association of Letter Carriers on Friday, a union that boasts nearly 300,000 active and retired postal workers.... The endorsement comes ... a day after ... Donald Trump said he opposes Postal Service funding pushed by Democrats.... Congressional Democrats, backed by Biden, have sought $3.6 billion to help equip states for an expected surge of mail-in votes, as well as $25 billion to shore up the Postal Service. Trump opposes it.... [Union president Fredric] Rolando said the postal worker union's decision to endorse Biden is 'partly informed by what we have seen from the current administration with regards to the Postal Service.... In 2018, legislative recommendations from the White House Postal Task Force report called for the revocation of collective bargaining rights by America's postal unions, massive cuts to services and the potential privatization of the agency,' he said. 'Since that time, we have continued to see the administration take steps outside of the public eye to undermine the Postal Service and letter carriers.'"

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Ads, speeches, campaign strategy — all the usual detritus of a normal political cycle -- are minor concerns in the face of the only story that really matters right now: Donald Trump is trying to destroying the U.S. Postal Service in order to keep votes by mail from being delivered on time and counted. This election, at the end of the day, is coming down to one single question: Will Trump be able to steal it?... Trump's efforts to undermine the Postal Service, so Americans can't reliably or effectively vote by mail, are working.... The president is trying to steal the election, he has the means to do it, and he very well may succeed unless he's met with massive, organized resistance.... The good news is that there's a real opportunity for voters to rally and take real action to make sure their vote is counted.... Postal slowdowns are the sort of thing even low-information voters tend to notice."

Louie DeLuxe.Marshall Cohen & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "The internal watchdog at the United States Postal Service is reviewing controversial policy changes recently imposed under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and is also examining DeJoy's compliance with federal ethics rules, according to a spokeswoman for the USPS inspector general and an aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who requested the review. Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over disruptive changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery. Democrats claim he is intentionally undermining postal service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election -- a charge he denies.... A spokeswoman for the USPS watchdog told CNN in an email, 'We have initiated a body of work to address the concerns raised, but cannot comment on the details.'" ~~~

~~~ Trump Held Secret Meeting with DeJoy, Lied about It. Abby Phillip, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump met with United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at the White House last week amid his ongoing attacks on mail-in voting and ahead of DeJoy's meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.... The meeting took place on August 3, Deere said. DeJoy met with Pelosi and Schumer on August 5. Asked days later, August 9, in New Jersey about the Post Office's issues, Trump said he 'didn't speak' to DeJoy.... 'It was a congratulatory meeting,' White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN. DeJoy, a longtime ally and prolific Trump fundraiser, took the post office's top role on June 15.... News of the meeting comes ... as the President has explicitly admitted he is blocking postal service funding to stop mail-in votes and spreading lies about mail-in voting." As Rachel Maddow said, on the same day DeJoy met with Pelosi & Schumer, August 7, DeJoy pulled off his "Friday Night Massacre," reassigning or removing 23 top USPS executives. Mrs. McC: Funny time for a "congratulatory meeting": nearly two months after DeJoy took office. Or was Trump congratulating DeJoy for something else? ~~~

     ~~~ In an update of a story also linked yesterday, the Washington Post reported that "DeJoy ... is in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials...." Mrs. McC: Now, what would be the purpose of those "frequent contacts"?

** Erin Cox, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted -- adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest. The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state's election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes. The ballot warnings, issued at the end of July from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, and obtained through a records request by The Washington Post, were planned before the appointment of Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, as postmaster general in early summer. They go beyond the traditional coordination between the Postal Service and election officials, drafted as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented and sudden shift to mail-in voting." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "The Postal Service is practically boasting that it won't deliver your mail-in ballot on time.... We might be tempted to believe that the bad guy here is not President Trump's hatchetman, Louis DeJoy, the recently appointed postmaster general [since, according to the WashPo, the letters were planned "in early summer"].... Except that according to a Vice/Motherboard story ... [linked below], the plans coincide with DeJoy's appointment rather precisely.... To me it seems obvious that DeJoy was in on the planning of this as his appointment was being finalized. The Postal Service is clearly trying to steal the election for Trump.... Of the six largest reductions in sorting capacity, two are in obvious swing states: Michigan and Pennsylvania. Two are in states that weren't expected to be swing states but now appear to be: Texas and Ohio. But why the sorting reductions in New York and California?... [Trump] doesn't just want to steal an Electoral College win. He wants to steal a popular vote win." ~~~

~~~ "A Most Desperate Ratfucking." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "You can see a major part of the strategy here: to use uncertainty about the outcome to declare victory on Election Night. (Relatedly, the Trump administration is pretending Bush v. Gore was constitutional law to try to get the courts to suppress the vote in Nevada.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I see these letters as part of the effort to suppress the Democratic vote, too. Since millions more Democrats than Republicans are expected to vote by mail, and since voting by mail is a bit of a hassle -- request a ballot, look for the ballot in the mail, fill out the ballot, make sure you properly complete all the bells & whistles, mail the ballot -- Trump & DeJoy want Democratic voters to think, "Why am I going through all this effort when the Post Office will just turn my ballot into paper pulp?" See also the Postal Employees union president on this, too, reported by Zoë Richards of TPM & linked below. ~~~

~~~ Pam Fessler & Miles Parks of NPR: "... a bipartisan group of secretaries of state, who are responsible for running elections, requested to meet this week with postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who was appointed to the job in May. But that meeting has yet to be scheduled.... It was not clear why the invitation has yet to be accepted, but ... the delay is unusual, considering that election officials will begin sending out absentee ballots as soon as September.... In his first public statement last week, DeJoy ... reaffirmed the Postal Service's commitment to delivering election mail and said the organization has 'ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time.' President Trump has contradicted that claim, saying repeatedly that the Postal Service will not be able to handle the expected flood of absentee ballots without a large infusion of funds, which he opposes." ~~~

~~~ ** Aaron Gordon of Vice: "The United States Postal Service proposed removing 20 percent of letter sorting machines it uses around the country before revising the plan weeks later to closer to 15 percent of all machines, meaning 502 will be taken out of service, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.... USPS workers told Motherboard this will slow their ability to sort mail. One of the documents also suggests these changes were in the works before Louis DeJoy ... became postmaster general, because it is dated May 15, a month before DeJoy assumed office and only nine days after the Board of Governors announced his selection. The title of the presentation, as well as language used in the notice to union officials, undermines the Postal Service's narrative that the organization is simply 'mov[ing] equipment around its network' to optimize processing.... The May document clearly calls the initiative an 'equipment reduction.' It makes no mention of the machines being moved to other facilities.... Multiple sources within the postal service told Motherboard they have personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster." ~~~

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The removal of dozens of mailboxes in a handful of states set off a social media panic and some high-profile attention this week, but the U.S. Postal Service said the iconic blue boxes are just being moved to higher-volume areas.... Mailboxes have reportedly been removed in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) wrote to DeJoy on Thursday requesting more information about the Postal Service's plans for its mailboxes. 'These actions set my hair on fire and they have real life implications for folks in rural America and their ability to access critical postal services like paying their bills and voting in upcoming elections,' Tester said in a Friday statement. 'Postmaster General DeJoy must immediately provide Montanans with an explanation for the actions of the USPS, or he can do it under oath before a Senate committee.'... Tester said in a later statement Friday that the Postal Service had paused mailbox removal in his home state, but ... demanded the postmaster general replace the collection boxes that were already removed." ~~~

     ~~~ Maritsa Georgiou of MBC Montana: "NBC Montana confirmed with the Montana State Association of the National Association of Letter Carriers the orders to remove 13 boxes in Missoula, 9 in Bozeman, 3 in Lewistown and 30 in Billings. A source that wishes to remain anonymous sent us the directive for Missoula, which lists addresses in front of the Target store, and several downtown Missoula." The story has been updated: "At 3:10 Friday afternoon, NBC Montana confirmed that the removal of USPS collection boxes has been put on hold statewide. A union leader says the decision came after Friday's pressure." That pressure came from Sen. Tester and later even from Sen. Steve Daines (R) & Rep. Greg Gianforte (R).

~~~ Closed for Lunch. Paul Murphy of CNN: "The US Postal Service will stop taking letter collection boxes off streets in Western states following accusations the removals would further limit some voters ability to send back mail-in ballots. The change came after CNN and others reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has started reducing post office operating hours across several states and removing letter collection boxes, according to union officials.... In a statement Friday night..., a USPS spokesperson for the service's the Western region told CNN that the service will stop the removal of letter collection boxes in 16 states and parts of two others until after the election.... It's not clear if the removal freeze would go into effect across the nation.... In the St. Louis area, some post offices that had been open until 6:30 p.m. -- specifically to serve people getting off-work -- would start to close at 5:00 p.m.... Union officials in West Virginia, Florida and Missouri also said workers are being told that post offices must close an hour for lunch...." ~~~

~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama, in an interview released Friday, slammed ... Donald Trump for trying to 'actively kneecap the Postal Service' to affect mail-in voting in the 2020 election and urged lawmakers and citizens to take actions to 'protect the integrity' of the election.... Obama ... accused Republicans of having tried for years 'to discourage people's votes from counting in all kinds of ways,' like voter identification laws and gerrymandering, but said Trump's threats were 'unique to modern history.'" ~~~

~~~ Zoë Richards of TPM: "President of the American Postal Workers Union Mark Dimondstein on Thursday called it 'truly shameful' that ... Donald Trump would 'hold the post office hostage,' amid the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to suppress and discourage Americans from voting. 'The cat's out of the bag,' Dimondstein told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, referring to revelations earlier this week that -- by his own admission -- Trump said blocking a Democratic proposal for $25 billion of much-needed additional funding to the U.S. Postal Service would prevent widespread mail-in voting.... Dimondstein ... accused the President of what he called attempts to 'keep people from voting,' since ongoing health concerns have made it increasingly difficult for many people to vote safely in-person during the upcoming November election. Dimondstein also criticized the President for perpetuating the 'dangerous' and false claim that voting by mail wouldn't work as a way to discourage people from voting at all."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "During a news conference Friday, the Associated Press's Jill Colvin asked Trump specifically about QAnon. 'You congratulated Marjorie Taylor Greene in a tweet. You called her a future Republican star,' Colvin said. 'Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory. She said it's something that should be -- would be worth listening to. Do you agree with her on that?' 'Well, she did very well in the election,' Trump replied. 'She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state, and she had a tremendous victory. So absolutely I did congratulate her.' This, in a nutshell, seems to summarize Trump's view of the situation: she's popular and can get votes, so who's he to object to what she does?... 'Specifically on QAnon and her appearance to embrace that conspiracy theory,' Colvin pressed. 'Do you agree with her on that?' Trump ignored the follow-up..., calling on another reporter.... By not specifically denying or rejecting the theory, he gave it oxygen...." A CNN story is here. ~~~

~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Anything that threatens the integrity of the vote needs to be treated as one of the biggest stories out there -- even if it's not the sexiest.... All news organizations need to turn up the heat.... Democracy itself depends on it."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what the Constitution says about postal services: "The Congress shall have Power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads[.]" Although one of the reasons for establishing a national postal service seems to have been to raise revenues, there's nothing in that Constitutional clause that suggests the USPS must be a profit center. And surely one good purpose -- very much in the national interest -- of maintaining the Post Office is to make sure it is able to facilitate the franchise, that right most fundamental to democracy.

Belarus May Be Our Future. Julia Ioffe in GQ describes the horrific conditions in Belarus, where 6,000 people were rounded up and jailed for protesting a rigged presidential election "in which Aleksander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, claimed to win over 80 precent of the vote.... After hundreds of protestors and journalists were released, they described being severely beaten and humiliated, handcuffed and packed in jail cells and forced to lie face down on the concrete, 'like a living carpet,' in pools of their own blood. Others described being in a cell with 65 other people and being given one loaf of bread for everyone to share. People fainted from hunger, thirst, and a lack of fresh air.... In the meantime, liberal, pro-Western Russians and Belarussians are asking: where are the Americans?... Once upon a time, we cared about people like this.... But when the same authoritarianism came home, how did we respond? When a man who didn't hide his authoritarian fantasies won an election, when he openly admired the dictators who crush their dissenters, what did we do? People like [Lindsey] Graham turned into Trump's biggest enablers.... The institutions didn't anticipate such cynical party loyalty, even to a man who has repeatedly said that he may not accept the election results if he loses, a man who would likely be all too happy to make the presidential election of November 2016 our last."

Connecticut Congressional Race. Daniela Altimari of the Hartford Courant: "The arrest of Connecticut Congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer on the eve of this week's Republican primary threw the race into disarray. But details of his alleged violent domestic assault were known in Republican circles for more than two months before anyone contacted authorities. Gilmer's primary opponent, Justin Anderson, spent weeks showing a graphic video of the alleged attack to his fellow Republicans as he worked to defeat the party-backed Gilmer. The state party chairman, J.R. Romano, acknowledged he knew about the allegations as early as May.... Anderson did not report the matter to the police until whispers of Gilmer's past behavior spilled onto social media in late July -- two months after the party's nominating convention. Other Republicans who were shown the video or informed of the allegations also did not contact the police, nor did party leaders alert rank and file Republicans, who selected Gilmer as the nominee." According to the New York Times, the race still has not been called & Anderson leads Gilmer by only 15 votes. The numbers have not changed since I last looked a few days ago.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here.

Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "... for the first time, the number of known tests [for coronavirus] conducted each day has fallen. Reported daily tests trended downward for much of the last two weeks, essentially stalling the nation's testing response.... The troubling trend ... may in part reflect that fewer people are seeking out tests as known cases have leveled off at more than 50,000 per day, after surging even higher this summer. But the plateau in testing may also reflect people's frustration at the prospect of long lines and delays in getting results -- as well as another fundamental problem: The nation has yet to build a robust system to test vast portions of the population, not just those seeking tests. Six months into the pandemic, testing remains a major obstacle in America's efforts to stop the coronavirus.... 'We are doing the appropriate amount of testing now to reduce the spread, flatten the curve, save lives,' [Adm. Brett Giroir, Trump's virus testing czar,] said this week." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet one reason some people choose not to get tested is that they believe Trump that "There are those that say you can test too much" and his repeated nonsensical claim that testing increases cases. They think either that the testing itself makes people sick, as Trump implies, or that they're helping Trump reduce the number of cases.

Joseph Guzman of the Hill: "The nation's leading infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser said on Thursday he is not pleased with the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. as the nation continues to lead the rest of the world in the number of cases and deaths. 'Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going,' Anthony Fauci ... said during an exclusive conversation with National Geographic"

Florida. Lori Rozsa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week forced one of the country's largest school districts to reopen campuses by the end of August, threatening to withhold up to $200 million in state aid. The Republican's administration told Hillsborough County -- the eighth-largest system in the country -- that it would lose state aid if it did not drop plans to reopen schools remotely for the first month of the 2020-2021 school year. So the county revised its plan and will start with just one week of remote learning. Then parents will choose whether to send their children into school buildings.... DeSantis's administration is playing hardball with other school districts, too, in a state that is one of the nation's coronavirus hot spots, forcing them to reopen buildings now or earlier than they want. Other governors had linked reopening schools to state funding, but none as explicitly as DeSantis."

Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump drew stinging backlash on Friday with his boast on Twitter that he'd 'done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY!' Trump also proposed in his post -- which came ahead of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment passing, which granted women the right to vote -- building 'a BEAUTIFUL STATUE in Washington D.C. to honor the many brave women who made this possible for our GREAT COUNTRY.'" Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: And thanks to Donald Trump for all he's done for me.

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday. The Government Accountability Office said Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed those jobs under an order of succession that was issued by an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job. That former acting head was Kevin McAleenan, who took over after the last Homeland secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned. GAO's conclusion has no force of law, but the agency said it is referring its conclusion to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Friday's findings could, however, be cited in lawsuits challenging DHS policies, including stricter immigration controls." A Washington Post story is here.

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday. The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith's lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague." The Daily Beast's story is here.

Carol Leonnig & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service sought to bolster its protection of the White House with surveillance aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a 'fast rope' commando team after crowds protesting the police killing of George Floyd knocked down temporary barricades and one man got onto the complex grounds in late May, according to newly obtained government correspondence. That breach -- combined with the throngs of protesters that converged outside the White House the night of May 29 -- prompted agents to rush President Trump to a reinforced bunker and spurred a deeper concern about the White House's vulnerability. In a letter a week later, the Secret Service asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide aircraft that could be used in a rapid-response helicopter operation, the records show.... The Secret Service also asked CBP to help the agency gather information on protesters by flying a surveillance plane equipped with infrared imaging over the city starting that weekend."

Lomi Kriel of ProPublica: "Guards in an immigrant detention center in El Paso sexually assaulted and harassed inmates in a 'pattern and practice' of abuse, according to a complaint filed by a Texas advocacy group urging the local district attorney and federal prosecutors to conduct a criminal investigation. The allegations ... maintain that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- often in areas of the detention center not visible to security cameras.... According to the complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and shared with prosecutors, several guards 'forcibly' kissed and touched the intimate parts of at least one woman. She faces deportation next week -- meaning investigators could lose a key witness."

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday issued an order calling on Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the popular video app TikTok, to divest from the social media platform's U.S. operations, citing national security. 'There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd. ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,' Trump said in the order released Friday night. The order cites ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of the social media app Musical.ly, which merged into TikTok...."

Your Second-Amendment Rights Are Amazing. David Li of NBC News: "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the state of California and its ban on high-capacity magazines, calling it 'well-intentioned' but unconstitutional. A split ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state's ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition would infringe on the Second Amendment right to own firearms.... In dissent, Judge Barbara Lynn said the California law didn't trample on anyone's core Second Amendment freedoms."

But the Emails! Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court panel has unanimously overturned a lower-court order requiring Hillary Clinton to provide a sworn deposition about her use of a private email account and server during her four years as secretary of State. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 3-0, that the conservative group Judicial Watch was not entitled to depose Clinton in connection with an 8-year-old Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of details about information national security adviser Susan Rice discussed during interviews in 2012 about the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.... Clinton answered written questions under penalty of perjury about her email practices. However, in March of this year, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the former first lady, Cabinet official and two-time Democratic presidential candidate to sit for a deposition. Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan who has tangled with Clinton administration aides in a series of cases for decades, called Hillary Clinton's earlier answers 'incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory, at best.'"

The Commentariat -- August 14, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Edward Moreno of the Hill: "Marge Simpson says she's 'pissed off' after Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted this week that Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) ... 'sounds like' her." ~~~

Marge Simpson has something to say. pic.twitter.com/viux96bAPf

— TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons) August 14, 2020

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday. The Government Accountability Office said Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed those jobs under an order of succession that was issued by an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job. That former acting head was Kevin McAleenan, who took over after the last Homeland secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned. GAO's conclusion has no force of law, but the agency said it is referring its conclusion to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Friday's findings could, however, be cited in lawsuits challenging DHS policies, including stricter immigration controls." A Washington Post story is here.

Aaron Gordon of Vice: "The United States Postal Service proposed removing 20 percent of letter sorting machines it uses around the country before revising the plan weeks later to closer to 15 percent of all machines, meaning 502 will be taken out of service, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.... USPS workers told Motherboard this will slow their ability to sort mail. One of the documents also suggests these changes were in the works before Louis DeJoy ... became postmaster general, because it is dated May 15, a month before DeJoy assumed office and only nine days after the Board of Governors announced his selection. The title of the presentation, as well as language used in the notice to union officials, undermines the Postal Service's narrative that the organization is simply 'mov[ing] equipment around its network' to optimize processing.... The May document clearly calls the initiative an 'equipment reduction.' It makes no mention of the machines being moved to other facilities.... Multiple sources within the postal service told Motherboard they have personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster."

Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama, in an interview released Friday, slammed ... Donald Trump for trying to 'actively kneecap the Postal Service' to affect mail-in voting in the 2020 election and urged lawmakers and citizens to take actions to 'protect the integrity' of the election.... Obama ... accused Republicans of having tried for years 'to discourage people’s votes from counting in all kinds of ways,' like voter identification laws and gerrymandering, but said Trump’s threats were 'unique to modern history.'"

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday. The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith's lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here.

Joseph Guzman of the Hill: "The nation's leading infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser said on Thursday he is not pleased with the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. as the nation continues to lead the rest of the world in the number of cases and deaths. 'Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going,' Anthony Fauci ... said during an exclusive conversation with National Geographic."

Carol Leonnig & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service sought to bolster its protection of the White House with surveillance aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a 'fast rope' commando team after crowds protesting the police killing of George Floyd knocked down temporary barricades and one man got onto the complex grounds in late May, according to newly obtained government correspondence. That breach — combined with the throngs of protesters that converged outside the White House the night of May 29 -- prompted agents to rush President Trump to a reinforced bunker and spurred a deeper concern about the White House's vulnerability. In a letter a week later, the Secret Service asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide aircraft that could be used in a rapid-response helicopter operation, the records show.... The Secret Service also asked CBP to help the agency gather information on protesters by ­flying a surveillance plane equipped with infrared imaging over the city starting that weekend."

~~~~~~~~~~

Helen Sullivan of the Guardian: "S.V. Dáte [of the Huffington Post] had waited five long years to ask Donald Trump one question: 'Mr President, after three and a half years [of Trump’s presidency], do you regret at all, all the lying you've done to the American people?' Confronted with Dáte's question at Thursday’s White House briefing, Trump ... asked, 'All the what?' Dáte: 'All the lying, all the dishonesties.' Trump: 'That who has done?' 'You have done,' said Dáte.... 'Tens of thousan--', he began to say, before Trump cut him off and called on another journalist, who asked a question about payroll tax.'" Mrs. McC: And shame on the payroll tax reporter -- along with every other "White House correspondent" who has failed to ask this or any similar question about Trump's lying. ~~~

** Kyle Murphy in Just Security: "I recently resigned as a senior analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency after experiencing firsthand the actions of U.S. government leaders to suppress nonviolent dissent during the recent nationwide protests for racial justice. I was among the thousands of peaceful Black Lives Matter protesters tear-gassed in Lafayette Square and nearly knocked to the ground by the downdraft from a military helicopter hovering over Pennsylvania Avenue. In the course of my work, I have watched autocratic leaders around the world employ similar tactics, actions that often precede broader uses of violence against domestic opposition. Unidentified federal forces in cities across the United States committing abuses against demonstrators is an evolution in the Trump administration's authoritarian approach to dissent, not an anomaly. I left government service after more than a decade because I lost faith in the courage of the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to refuse unlawful orders from the President.... Recent events should be put in the context of a continuous slide toward authoritarianism.... Each day, Trump's approach looks more like the autocrats I warned about as an analyst."

Presidential Race, Etc.

Trump Brings Back Birtherism. Way back yesterday, I linked to an AP story reporting that conspiracy-minded dimwits were spreading a false claim on Facebook that Kamala Harris was not eligible to be president because her parents were immigrants. The Facebook users predicted that if Joe Biden became president and was subsequently unable to serve, we'd just have to skip right over the not-qualified Harris & immediately make Nancy Pelosi president. Those dummies of course skipped over something else: the Fourteenth Amendment, which grants full citizenship to "all persons born or naturalized in the United States." Harris was born in Oakland, California. So now..., ~~~

~~~ Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Trump on Thursday encouraged a racist conspiracy theory that is rampant among some of his followers: that Senator Kamala Harris, the presumptive Democratic vice-presidential nominee born in California, was not eligible for the vice presidency or presidency because her parents were immigrants. That assertion is false. Ms. Harris is eligible to serve. Mr. Trump, speaking to reporters on Thursday, nevertheless pushed forward with the attack, reminiscent of the lie he perpetrated for years that President Barack Obama was born in Kenya. 'I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements,' Mr. Trump said of Ms. Harris. 'I have no idea if that’s right,' he added. 'I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.'" Newsweek published a "widely-discredited" op-ed Wednesday by John Eastman “who has long argued that the United States Constitution does not grant birthright citizenship.... Mr. Eastman's column tries to raise questions about the citizenship of Ms. Harris's parents at the time of her birth, and argues that she may have 'owed her allegiance to a foreign power or powers'.... In an interview on Thursday, Laurence H. Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School, compared Mr. Eastman's idea to the 'flat earth theory' and called it 'total B.S.'" ~~~

~~~ Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Thursday gave credence to a false and racist conspiracy about Kamala Harris' eligibility to be vice president, fueling an online misinformation campaign that parallels the one he used to power his rise into politics." Mrs. McC: A perfect lede. ~~~

A little more about John Eastman from the AP article: "According to his bio..., he ... served as a law clerk to Supreme Court Justice [surprise, surprise!] Clarence Thomas. He also ran in the Republican primary to serve as California's attorney general in 2010. Eastman was defeated by a candidate who went on to lose to [surprise, surprise! Kamala] Harris."

I heard it today that [Harris] doesn't meet the requirements. And, by the way, the lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer. I have no idea if that's right. I would have assumed the Democrats would have checked that out. -- Donald Trump, remarks to reporters, Thursday

It's a open question, and one I think [Sen. Kamala] Harris should answer so the American people know for sure she is eligible.-- Trump campaign legal adviser Jenna Ellis, in comments to ABC News, Thursday

In 2018, Trump said he would end birthright citizenship. This year, the president and a legal adviser for his campaign are suggesting birthright citizenship perhaps never existed, at least not for some people born to immigrant postgraduate students in California in the 1960s, or at the very least not for one of them: Harris. -- Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Newsweek editors Nancy Cooper and Josh Hammer would really like the world to think that they did not publish a racist article attacking Kamala Harris's eligibility to serve as vice president of the United States. In fact, Cooper and Hammer wrote an entirely separate article -- stylized as an 'editor's note' [here] -- to insist they are not racists for promoting the second great wave of American birtherism aimed at [Kamala] Harris, whose parents are Jamaican and Indian.... In essence, and most of the article and its arguments are not worth repeating, [John] Eastman is taking aim at the idea of birthright citizenship -- which is the standard that [United States v.] Wong Kim Ark [1898!] definitively established over 100 years ago -- but attempting to paint his own longstanding opposition to the concept as a debate among legal scholars where no such debate actually exists in any serious form whatsoever.... 'The entire editor's note here is also ridiculous,' noted immigration law expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. 'There is no genuine scholarly debate about any of these issues. There are a handful of outliers like Eastman who try to argue that the Citizenship Clause is debatable, then there's the 99.9% of scholars who think that's bunk.'"

(~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: It's worth remembering that in 2008, "In order to counter the views of some pundits, a group of senators, including Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.)..., introduced a measure that clarifies that presumptive GOP presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) is eligible to hold the office." McCain was born to American parents "on a U.S. naval base [in the Panama Canal Zone where his father was a Navy officer] and not in the U.S." McCain was then the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Neither Obama nor Clinton was a shoo-in to beat McCain, so this wasn't some gesture of noblesse-oblige; it was an act of common decency, something Donald Trump completely lacks.)

RNC Plans Illegal "Convention." Anita Kumar of Politico: "The Republican National Convention is coming to D.C. -- and to government property. The Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, a grand historic federal building located close to the Trump International Hotel, will serve as a 'central hub' for speeches, according to two people familiar with the plans.... The convention will spread out across federal properties in, and possibly, around Washington.... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are expected to deliver their acceptance speeches on federal property -- including even the White House.... The unusual arrangement is already drawing ethical concerns that federal resources will be used for campaign events and that administration officials will violate the law by campaigning for the president on government property. And it's not lost on Trump critics that the president's flagship hotel, already a gathering spot for Republicans, will be conveniently located a short walk from the Mellon Auditorium.... Trump said Thursday that he plans to deliver his acceptance speech on the fourth and final night of the convention from the White House, though some aides had pushed him to choose another location.... Democrats asked for clarification on the issue from the Office of Special Counsel, the independent agency that probes possible Hatch Act violations. In a letter, the agency wrote that while Trump could deliver the speech from the White House, there could be Hatch Act implications 'for those employees, depending on their level of involvement with the event and their position in the White House.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Kumar, who so likes to stay in the good graces of the Trumpies that she planned a going-away party for former Trump press secretary flak Sarah Sanders, calls the RNC's hoo-hah an "unusual arrangement." No, it's an unlawful arrangement.

As you read the stories linked below, keep in mind this Palm Beach Post report: ~~~

~~~ Hannah Morse of the Palm Beach Post: "For the second time as a Palm Beach County voter..., Donald Trump has requested a vote-by-mail ballot ahead of Florida's primary election on Tuesday. And the president who has just spent the past few weeks excoriating mail-in voting has less than a week to cast it. The request for himself and first lady Melania Trump came Wednesday, the Palm Beach County elections website shows. The ballot would have been picked up, not mailed to his Palm Beach private club, Mar-a-Lago, because the deadline to send out ballots has passed. Now it must travel to Washington, D.C., where the president and first lady can vote and then return before 7 p.m. Tuesday, when all mail-in ballots must be submitted."

Pure Trump. He doesn’t want an election. -- Joe Biden, on Donald Trump's opposition to aid to the USPS ~~~

~~~ ** Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday said he opposes both election aid for states and an emergency bailout for the U.S. Postal Service because he wants to restrict how many Americans can vote by mail, putting at risk the nation's ability to administer the Nov. 3 elections.... Trump's remarks prompted swift outcry from Democrats and even some Republicans, while voting rights advocates denounced what they described as an unprecedented threat by a sitting president to undermine the election for his own political benefit.... The Republican National Committee and conservative groups are pursuing an unprecedented effort to limit expansion of mail balloting before the November election, spending tens of millions of dollars on lawsuits and advertising aimed at restricting who receives ballots and who remains on the voter rolls.... And the RNC and Trump campaign advisers are now mapping out their post-election strategy, including how to challenge mail ballots without postmarks.... Trump's claims about voting by mail have been echoed by Attorney General William P. Barr, who has repeatedly said without evidence that mail-in voting could lead to a 'high risk' of fraud and interference by foreign countries. At the same time, changes put in place at the U.S. Postal Service by a top GOP donor have sparked mail delays across [the] country...." A Guardian story is here. ~~~

~~~ ** Saying the Quiet Part Out Loud. Felicia Sonmez & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Thursday that he does not want to fund the U.S. Postal Service because Democrats are seeking to expand mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic, making explicit the reason he has declined to approve $25 billion in emergency funding for the cash-strapped agency. 'Now, they need that money in order to make the post office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,' Trump said in an interview with Fox Business Network's Maria Bartiromo. He added: 'Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money. That means they can't have universal mail-in voting, they just can't have it.'" Mrs. McC: Many Americans have died for the democratic freedoms we enjoy. Trump wants to ensure that many more Americans die this year for that particular democratic freedom: the right to vote. This is premeditated murder. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Yeah, the Post has at least two major stories that cover much of the same ground, but this is a really, really big deal: a POTUS* using the power of his office to toss the lawful votes of potentially millions of Americans who are likely to vote for his opponent. ~~~

     ~~~ OR, as Inae Oh of Mother Jones' headline reads, "Trump Makes It Official: He's Sabotaging the Post Office to Rig the Election": "During a pandemic that he and his administration have badly mismanaged, the president is refusing to restart congressional negotiations for coronavirus relief if the legislation includes emergency funding for a service that, in addition to helping society function normally, would make voting safer and more accessible at the exact moment when requests for absentee ballots are soaring.... 'You'd never have a Republican elected in this country again,' Trump said back in March while discussing voting reforms aimed at expanding access to the ballot. Here at least we get to the core rationale that's likely governing Republican silence on the issue. They, like this president, worry that if more people are able to vote, Republicans will be less likely to win." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... Donald Trump will not support a coronavirus relief deal that includes 'voting rights' provisions backed by Democrats, White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow said Thursday. 'So much of the Democratic asks are really liberal, left wish lists -- voting rights and aid to aliens and so forth,' he told CNBC's 'Squawk on the Street' when asked about the administration's stalled aid talks with Democratic leaders."

"To Bind the National Together." The Postal Service shall have as its basic function the obligation to provide postal services to bind the Nation together through the personal, educational, literary, and business correspondence of the people. It shall provide prompt, reliable, and efficient services to patrons in all areas and shall render postal services to all communities. -- Title 9, U.S. Code

"A National Emergency": Trump's Attack on the USPS. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "The White House made sure that grants for the Postal Service would not be included in previous coronavirus pandemic rescue packages ('We told them very clearly that the president was not going to sign the bill if [money for the Postal Service] was in it,' an administration official told The Post in April), and as the problems at the Postal Service worsen seemingly by the day, Trump is sending the same message about any new rescue bill Congress might pass.... In 34 states, including the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, ballots can't just be postmarked by Election Day to count. It has to be received by Election Day. If you mail it three days before, thinking you did everything right, but it doesn't arrive at the board of elections until the day after the election, it's tossed in the trash. This is election theft in progress." Emphases added. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you believe the oft-repeated canard, as I once did, that Trump's moves to toss mail-in ballots will hurt Republican candidates more than it will hurt Democrats, you have another think coming: ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Democrats are now 50 points more likely [than Republicans] to say they're at least somewhat likely to vote by mail, with fully half saying they're very likely to do so. Meanwhile, the number of Republicans saying they will probably vote by mail has fallen to 22 percent." Mrs. McC: I found Bump's numbers rather confusing, so I checked the Monmouth poll itself (pdf): "Nearly half of all voters report they are either very (32%) or somewhat (17%) likely to cast their own general election ballot by mail. This includes 72% of Democrats and 48% of independents, but just 22% of Republicans." Emphasis added.

Notes from a Banana Republic. Steve M.: "This is a democracy, and while elected officials are partisans, they should be strictly non-partisan when dealing with election issues. If they use their power to put a thumb on the scale in their own favor so they'll win more elections, that's corrupt. That's a sign of an illiberal state. That means we're living in a degraded, debased parody of democracy. This needs to be explained to people. Americans don't understand it instinctively. That's why there's never been an outcry against the GOP's long-standing 'voter fraud' witch hunt, or the other efforts by Republican state officials to limit voting in Democratic-leaning precincts, such as closing down polling places so presumed Democratic voters often have to spend all day waiting to vote. Americans have never fully grasped the anti-democratic inclinations of the GOP, and most are likely to say 'Well, that's just partisan politics' based on the reporting of Trump's remarks.... The press is revealing that it's not equal to the task of reporting on President Trump's efforts to hamper mail-in voting."

Judge Calls Trump's Bluff. Katelyn Polanz of CNN: "A federal judge in Pennsylvania told the Trump campaign and the Republican Party that they must produce evidence they have of vote-by-mail fraud in the state by Friday. The judge's order, in a high-profile case about vote-by-mail in the battleground state, essentially forces the Trump campaign to try to back up ... Donald Trump's false claims about massive voter fraud in postal voting.... District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan [told] Republicans that they need to provide evidence of fraud to the Democratic Party and the Sierra Club, which are part of the lawsuit. The Democrats had asked for information and documents that would show steps the Republicans took to study the possibility of fraud, especially related to the use of dropboxes, ballot collection and mailed-in ballots in the primary elections. The Trump campaign and Republicans had refused to do so. But with Thursday's court order, they must answer questions from the Democratic groups and turn over records of communications -- or say they have none." ~~~

Portrait of a Corrupt Postmaster General. (Yeah, Louis DeLay thought this photo was so good he shared it.)

~~~ Jonathan Lai & Ellie Rushing of the Philadelphia Inquirer: "The U.S. Postal Service has warned Pennsylvania that some mail ballots might not be delivered on time because the state's deadlines are too tight for its 'delivery standards,' prompting election officials to ask the state Supreme Court to extend the deadlines to avoid disenfranchising voters. The warning came in a July 29 letter from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, to Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, whose department oversees elections. That letter was made public late Thursday in a filing her Department of State submitted to the Supreme Court, asking it to order that mail ballots be counted as long as they are received up to three days after the Nov. 3 election date. If the court agrees, that could increase the likelihood that the results of the presidential race between Donald Trump and ... Joe Biden won't be known for days after the election.... Pennsylvania [is] a battleground state that was decided by less than 1% of the vote in 2016...." Firewalled. The Raw Story has a summary report here. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Gordon of Vice: "The United States Postal Service is removing mail sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation or reason given, Motherboard has learned through interviews with postal workers and union officials. In many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots, calling into question promises made by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that the USPS has 'ample capacity' to handle the predicted surge in mail-in ballots. Motherboard identified 19 mail sorting machines from five processing facilities across the U.S. that either have already been removed or are scheduled to be in the near future. But the Postal Service operates hundreds of distribution facilities around the country, so it is not clear precisely how many machines are getting removed and for what purpose." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "The process of removing those machines has stoked fears that ... Donald Trump and his allies ... are intentionally sabotaging mail operations in order to diminish the capability of the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to sort and deliver mail-in ballots in a timely fashion.... 'Tampering with the mail and federal elections are crimes no matter who does it,' federal criminal defense attorney Tor Ekeland told Law&Crime. 'Just because you run the bank doesn't mean you get to steal the money. This reeks of mail and election fraud -- the scheme to defraud using the removal of mail sorting machines without reason as a means to inhibit mail in voting. These are felonies and should be investigated and prosecuted appropriately.'... 'If this is being done at the direction or suggestion of the President to intentionally slow or minimize voter participation, in other words to sabotage the election, then it's a clear abuse of Presidential power,' [former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah] said in an email. 'Congress must act and the press must hold elected Republicans accountable for not stopping this.'"

~~~ Tess Riski of the Willamette (Oregon) Weekly: "A spokesman for the United States Postal Service confirmed that the agency has removed four blue boxes from Portland, and 27 from Eugene this week. The USPS plans to remove a few more boxes from Portland next week. 'The reason we're doing it is because of declining mail volume,' USPS spokesman Ernie Swanson told WW. "Ever since the pandemic came along, people are mailing less for some reason.'... Swanson said USPS is only removing mailboxes where there were already multiple boxes stationed next to each other. USPS has not removed any mailboxes in locations where there was only one, Swanson said.... Earlier today [Thursday]..., Donald Trump said he is intentionally undermining the USPS to make it more difficult to vote by mail, causing concern among Americans as the November election approaches."

(Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Thursday demanded that the U.S. Postal Service's internal ethics watchdog investigate what she suggested was 'corruption' in the purchase of Amazon stock options by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after his appointment to that job. The Massachussetts Democrat Warren, in a tweet, wrote that DeJoy's 'investments in @USPS competitors were already deeply problematic. But his purchase of @Amazon stock options after his appointment is inexcusable,' she added.... A spokesperson for the OIG in an email to CNBC wrote, 'Inspector General Tammy L. Whitcomb received a congressional request last week and our office is reviewing it for appropriate response. We cannot comment on details of any ongoing work.'")

New Jersey. Brent Johnson of NJ.com: "November's elections in New Jersey ... will be mostly mail-in as the coronavirus pandemic continues to affect the state, Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to announce Friday.... That means all of the state's 6.2 million registered voters will be sent ballots to vote by mail in the Nov. 3 elections, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. There will also be a select number of local polling places across the state for people who choose to vote in person, the sources said."

Stupidest Senator Admits He's Corrupt. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Sen. Ron Johnson this week said his probe of Obama-era intelligence agencies would help ... Donald Trump win reelection, igniting fury from Democrats who say it was an explicit admission he's using his committee to damage Joe Biden's candidacy for president. 'The more that we expose of the corruption of the transition process between Obama and Trump, the more we expose of the corruption within those agencies, I would think it would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection and certainly be pretty good, I would say, evidence about not voting for Vice President Biden,' Johnson said in a little-noticed Tuesday interview with Minneapolis-based radio hosts Jon Justice and Drew Lee.... Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, similarly said during another radio interview this week that the evidence his committee had uncovered was so 'outrageous' that 'it should completely disqualify Biden from president.'... 'This damning acknowledgment totally exposes that Ron Johnson's disgraceful conduct is the definition of malfeasance,' said Biden spokesman Andrew Bates."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a request from Republicans to block a trial judge's ruling making it easier for voters in Rhode Island to cast absentee ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. The judge's ruling suspended a requirement that voters using mailed ballots fill them out in the presence of two witnesses or a notary. The Supreme Court's unsigned order included an explanation, which is unusual when its acts on emergency applications. The case differed from similar ones in which state officials had opposed changes to state laws ordered by federal judges, the order said. 'Here the state election officials support the challenged decree,' the order said, 'and no state official has expressed opposition.' The order added that Rhode Island's last election was conducted without the witness requirement, meaning that instituting a change now could confuse voters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "Officials across the United States reported at least 1,470 deaths on Wednesday, the highest single-day total yet in August, according to a New York Times database, and a reflection of the continued toll of the early-summer case surge in Sun Belt states. More than half the deaths reported on Wednesday were spread across five states that saw some of the most dramatic case spikes in June and July. Texas reported more than 300 deaths Wednesday. Florida more than 200. And Arizona, California and Georgia all reported more than 100 each. Even as the number of new cases has fallen from its late July peak, deaths have remained persistently high. For more than two weeks, the country has averaged more than 1,000 deaths a day, more than twice as many as in early July." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "Several of the first U.S. schools to reopen their classrooms are already experiencing covid-19 outbreaks. The news is particularly grim in Georgia, where Gov. Brian Kemp (R) declined to issue an order requiring masks in schools. One district there has been forced to quarantine nearly 1,000 students and staff."

"Excess Deaths." Denise Lu of the New York Times: "Across the United States, at least 200,000 more people have died than usual since March, according to a New York Times analysis of estimates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is about 60,000 higher than the number of deaths that have been directly linked to the coronavirus. As the pandemic has moved south and west from its epicenter in New York City, so have the unusual patterns in deaths from all causes. That suggests that the official death counts may be substantially underestimating the overall effects of the virus, as people die from the virus as well as by other causes linked to the pandemic. When the coronavirus took hold in the United States in March, the bulk of deaths above normal levels, or 'excess deaths,' were in the Northeast, as New York and New Jersey saw huge surges.... But as the number of hot spots expanded, so has the number of excess deaths across other parts of the country."

Joe & Kamala Show Donnie & mike How the Job Is Done. Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Joe Biden on Thursday called on governors across the U.S. to issue mask-wearing mandates to stem the spread of COVID-19. 'Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months, at a minimum,' Biden told reporters at a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware, with his newly minted running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. 'Every governor should mandate mandatory mask-wearing,' he added. 'It's not about your rights, it's about your responsibilities,' Biden said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Thursday launched a partisan attack on Joe Biden at a White House press briefing, inaccurately suggesting the presumptive Democratic nominee wanted a national mandate on mask wearing while assailing Biden as 'regressive,' 'anti-scientific' and 'defeatist.' Speaking to reporters from the lectern in the James S. Brady briefing room, Trump claimed Biden advocated a national mask mandate to fight the virus -- an act that Trump said ignored the different needs of individual states and trampled on governors' authority. Earlier Thursday, Biden and recently announced running mate Kamala Harris called on governors to issue mask mandates amid a national effort to curb the pandemic.... Trump himself urged Americans to wear masks during his briefing, saying it was the 'patriotic thing to do.' Trump also said Biden advocated 'locking all-Americans in their basements for months on end.'..." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Audrey McNamara of CBS News: "This fall could be the worst in the history of American public health if people do not heed guidance from health officials to stop the coronavirus, CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield warned Wednesday. Redfield said skyrocketing cases of COVID-19 combined with the annual flu season could create the 'worst fall' that 'we've ever had.... I'm asking you to do four simple things: wear a mask, social distance, wash your hands, and be smart about crowds. If you do those four things it will bring this outbreak down," Redfield said in an interview with WebMD. "But, if we don't do that ... this could be the worst fall from a public health perspective we've ever had." ~~~

Ben Casselman & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The federal aid to unemployed workers that President Trump announced last weekend looks likely to be smaller than initially suggested -- and it remains unclear when the money will start flowing, how long it will last or how many workers will benefit. The uncertainty comes at a delicate time for the economy. New applications for state unemployment benefits fell below one million last week for the first time since the pandemic took hold in March, the Labor Department said Thursday. But filings remain high by historical standards, and other measures show the economy losing momentum.... The Senate adjourned on Thursday until early September, and House members had already left Washington. The departures all but end any chance of a quick agreement on sending stimulus checks to American taxpayers, reviving lapsed unemployment benefits and providing billions of dollars for schools, testing, child care, small businesses, and state and local governments.... Here is what we know about the program and how it will work." Mrs. McC: Or not.

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. More Kodak Shenanigans. Judd Legum of Popular Information: A $765 million loan from the Trump administration to Kodak to allow the company "to enter the generic pharmaceutical business ... is on hold, pending multiple investigations by the SEC and Congress..., [primarily because] ... [Kodak awarded its CEO] and other top executives lucrative options the day before the deal was announced.... [One] Kodak board member [who] took advantage of [Kodak's] temporary spike in stock price to secure a massive tax exemption [was George Karfunkel. He] and his wife ... 'donated 3 million of their 6.3 million Kodak shares to Congregation Chemdas Yisroel in Brooklyn, N.Y.' On that day, the donation was worth approximately $116.3 million, making it the largest charitable gift to a religious institution in history. As a result, the gift 'could generate tens of millions of dollars in income-tax benefits for the couple.'... What do we know about Congregation Chemdas Yisroel?... The only evidence of the congregation's presence is a 'small nameplate on the building's exterior.' Karfunkel has a history of trouble with the SEC." --s

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "President Trump took a swing at his FBI director, Christopher A. Wray, on Thursday, expressing impatience with the bureau's level of cooperation with inquiries into its investigation of the Trump campaign in 2016. Speaking by phone with Maria Bartiromo of Fox Business, Trump railed against past investigations of his former adviser Carter Page, his former national security adviser Michael Flynn and his own conduct as president. Asked whether Wray was withholding FBI documents that could shed more light on those cases, Trump noted there was an election coming up before saying: 'I wish he was more forthcoming. He certainly hasn't been. There are documents that they want to get and that we have said we want to get. We are going to find out if he's going to give those documents. Certainly, he's been very, very protective.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Betsy Klein & Evan Perez of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Thursday again attacked his own FBI director, whom he appointed, and pushed Attorney General William Barr to pressure the Justice Department's investigation of the Russia probe.... 'Bill Barr has a chance to be the greatest of all time. But if he wants to be politically correct, he'll be just another guy,' [Trump said]. Barr said in an interview aired on Wednesday that he is aiming to release some conclusions from [John] Durham's investigation [of the investigation] ahead of the November election, putting a finer point on a timeline that has shifted in recent weeks and also opening up the possibility that the review could extend into the winter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Literary Corner, Ha Ha. Kara Scannell of CNN: "Michael Cohen released the foreword of his upcoming book on Thursday, teasing what he claims is a behind-the-scenes exposé of his acts as ... Donald Trump's fixer -- from stiffing contractors on a business deal to lying about extra-marital affairs to the President's attempts to 'insinuate himself into the world of President Vladimir Putin.' 'I know where the skeletons are buried because I was the one who buried them,' Cohen wrote in the foreword, which was published Thursday on a website for his tell-all book 'Disloyal: A Memoir. The true story of the former personal attorney to President Donald J. Trump.'"

Bill Barr Sticks up for White (and Asian) Students. Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday accused Yale University of violating federal civil rights law by discriminating against Asian-American and white applicants, an escalation of the Trump administration's moves against race-based admissions policies at elite universities. The charge, coming after a two-year investigation, is the administration's second confrontation with an Ivy League school; two years ago, it publicly backed Asian-American students who accused Harvard in a lawsuit of systematically discriminating against them. The department's finding could have far-reaching consequences for the ongoing legal challenges to affirmative action, which are expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court."

Sarah Okeson of DC Report: "The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, influenced by Donald Trump, hired a firm to look at a proposal for a copper and gold mine in southwest Alaska, home to sockeye salmon. The engineers, known to gloss over disaster potential, reached polar opposite conclusions of the Obama EPA. The EPA said the mine would result in a 'complete loss of fish habitat' in the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.... AECOM, a Los Angeles-based global engineering firm ...claims the mine proposal, which has been scaled down 'would not be expected to have a measurable effect' on fish populations in Bristol Bay." --s

Anna Phillips of the Los Angeles Times: "The Trump administration has canceled plans to open tens of thousands of acres for oil and gas drilling near three national parks in Utah next month, a victory for environmentalists and residents angered by its proposal. In all, the Bureau of Land Management's plans had called for more than 114,000 acres of federal land across southern Utah to be auctioned off in September, one of many lease sales across the West planned for the end of this year. But from the outset, the proposal generated fierce debate because most of the land -- about 87,000 acres -- is close to three of the state's biggest tourist attractions: Arches, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef national parks." --s (Firewalled.)

Ankush Khardori of Slate: "Tuesday's four-hour hearing before the full D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on whether District Judge Emmet Sullivan must grant the government's motion to dismiss Michael Flynn's case certainly had all the trappings of a legal proceeding.... However, it was, at bottom, a farce.... The way that Sullivan's attorney presented his case made it clear that the judge and the judicial system are now uninterested in revealing to the public the behind-the-scenes manipulation and possibly outright corruption that went into securing the Department of Justice's decision to let one of Donald Trump's closest former allies off of the hook. Because of this failure, the public may never learn the full extent of the stunningly irregular process through which the Justice Department intervened in the case.... Having been cowed by a conservative political-legal-media complex into taking this silly position, anything more than a pro forma hearing appears unlikely.... The end result will be vacuous legal proceduralism." --s

Bianca Quilantan of Politico: "A federal judge refused a multi-state effort to strike down Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' new Title IX rule, clearing the path for the policy to take effect Friday.... Attorneys general in 17 states and the District of Columbia have brought the lawsuit challenging DeVos' policy change, which mandates how colleges and K-12 schools must respond to reports of sexual misconduct. Former Vice President Joe Biden has vowed to put a 'quick end' to the controversial rule if he becomes the next president.

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "Israel struck an agreement with the United Arab Emirates on Thursday to establish 'full normalization of relations' even as it forgoes for now plans to annex occupied West Bank territory in order to focus on improving its ties with the rest of the Arab world. In a surprise statement issued by the White House, President Trump said he brokered a deal that will lead to Israel and the U.A.E. signing a string of bilateral agreements on investment, tourism, security, technology, energy and other areas while moving to allow direct flights between their countries and set up reciprocal embassies.... The extent of the president's role in forging the deal was not immediately clear. But he was eager to claim credit.... He was surrounded in the Oval Office by a large delegation of aides and officials who heaped praise on him, including Jared Kushner..., who has been spearheading Middle East peace efforts for more than three years." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Leela Jacinto of France 24: "A former senior Saudi intelligence officer [Saad Aljabri] in exile filed a lawsuit in a US court last week accusing Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him. The allegations, including using children as bargaining chips, have sparked calls for President Donald Trump ... to intervene on moral grounds.... As a right-hand man of Saudi Arabia's former interior minister, Aljabri was a key link between Saudi and Western intelligence services and privy to highly sensitive information on the kingdom's rulers.... The 170-page document details chilling but as yet unverified plots to target Aljabri. They include the arrival at a Canadian airport of a Saudi 'Tiger Squad' hit team -- similar to the one used to kill journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Turkey -- to target Aljabri. The complaint also sheds light on the moves by global intelligence and law enforcement agencies to contain some of bin Salman's human rights excesses on foreign soil." --s

California. Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. James Ward of Visalia Times-Delta: "The Tulare County District Attorney has charged executives of the ousted company that ran Tulare Regional Medical Center with more than 80 combined felony and misdemeanor criminal counts, including suspicion of embezzlement, conspiracy, money laundering, grand theft, and campaign finance violations. Named in the charges were Healthcare Conglomerate Associates CEO Dr. Yorai Benzeevi, HCCA CFO Alan Germany, and HCCA attorney Bruce Greene.... The sprawling investigation spanned over six states including Arizona, Idaho, Maine, Georgia, Colorado, Michigan, and Washington D.C., Ward said. Fifty-eight total search warrants were served." --safari: Better get some Fox News lawyers.