The Commentariat -- Nov. 27, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Patrick Wintour & Oliver Holmes of the Guardian: "An Iranian nuclear scientist described as the guru of Iran's nuclear programme has been gunned down in the street in a town near Tehran. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was ambushed in the town of Absard, about 40 miles east of Tehran. Four assailants opened fire after witnesses heard an explosion.... An adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, vowed that the country would retaliate against the perpetrators.... Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, identified Israel as the likely culprit. 'Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,' he tweeted. 'This cowardice -- with serious indications of Israeli role -- shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators. Iran calls on international community -- and especially EU -- to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.'"

Kent Babb of the Washington Post: "... when it comes to coronavirus testing, this is a nation of haves and have-nots. Among the haves are professional and college athletes, in particular those who play football. From Nov. 8 to 14, the NFL administered 43,148 tests to 7,856 players, coaches and employees. Major college football programs supply dozens of tests each day, an attempt -- futile as it has been -- to maintain health and prevent schedule interruptions. Major League Soccer administered nearly 5,000 tests last week, and Major League Baseball conducted some 170,000 tests during its truncated season. [Meanwhile, nurses & other front-line coronavirus workers are among the have-nots.]... This month, registered nurses gathered in Los Angeles to protest the fact that UCLA's athletic department conducted 1,248 tests in a single week while health-care workers at UCLA hospitals were denied testing. Last week National Nurses United, the country's largest nursing union, released the results of a survey of more than 15,000 members. About two-thirds reported they had never been tested.

Words to the Wise. James Gorman & Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "In a 1988 essay on pandemics Joshua Lederberg, Nobel laureate and president of The Rockefeller University, reminded the medical community that when it comes to infectious disease, the laws of Darwin are as important as the vaccines of Pasteur. As medicine battles bacteria and viruses, those organisms continue to undergo mutations and evolve new characteristics.... But vaccines won't put an end to the evolution of this coronavirus, as David A. Kennedy and Andrew F. Read of The Pennsylvania State University ... wrote in PLoS Biology recently. Instead, they could even drive new evolutionary change. There is always the chance, though small, the authors write, that the virus could evolve resistance to a vaccine, what researchers call 'viral escape.' They urge monitoring of vaccine effects and viral response, just in case." More on poor old Darwin at the bottom of the page.

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A Thanksgiving Day Message from Joe & Jill Biden ends like this: "May the emptiness at our tables and in our hearts be filled with memories of love and laughter. May we cherish our traditions, even when they are out of reach, and hold on to the hope of what's still to come. We're going to get through this together, even if we have to be apart. Happy Thanksgiving, from the Biden family to yours."

A Thanksgiving Day Message from Donald Trump goes like this: Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that he will leave the White House if the Electoral College formalizes President-Elect Joe Biden's victory -- even as he insisted such a decision would be a 'mistake' -- as he spent his Thanksgiving renewing baseless claims that 'massive fraud' and crooked officials in battleground states caused his election defeat.... But Trump -- taking questions for the first time since Election Day -- insisted that 'a lot of things' would happen between now and then that might alter the results.... While there is no evidence of the kind of widespread fraud Trump has been alleging, he and his legal team have nonetheless been working to cast doubt on the integrity of the election and trying to overturn voters' will in an unprecedented breach of democratic norms. Trump spoke to reporters in the White House's ornate Diplomatic Reception Room after holding a teleconference with U.S. military leaders stationed across the globe.... Trump announced that he will be traveling to Georgia to rally supporters ahead of two Senate runoff elections that will determine which party controls the Senate. Trump said the rally for Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler would likely be held Saturday. The White House later clarified he had meant Dec. 5.... At one point he urged reporters not to allow Biden the credit for pending coronavirus vaccines. 'Don't let him take credit for the vaccines because the vaccines were me and I pushed people harder than they've ever been pushed before,' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Joe Biden is not going to try to "take credit for vaccines" because Joe Biden (a) knows he did not develop the vaccines and (b) is not so stupid as to think scientists around the worldlogged overtime because U.S. president*. Trump, on the other hand, thinks that because his whining & barking orders causes the fraidycats who work for him to jump, that real people everywhere must do the same thing. They don't. ~~~

~~~ Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "The president was also strikingly testy at one point, lashing out at a reporter [-- Jeff Mason of Reuters --] who interjected during one of several of his rambling statements about the supposedly fraudulent election. 'You're just a lightweight,' Mr. Trump snapped, raising his voice and pointing a finger in anger. 'Don't talk to me that -- don't talk -- I'm the president of the United States. Don't ever talk to the president that way.'... At times, Mr. Trump shifted his explanation of his defeat from claims of fraud to complaints that the political battlefield had been slanted against him.... 'If the media were honest and big tech was fair, it wouldn't even be a contest,' he said. 'And I would have won by a tremendous amount.' After seeming to concede reality, Mr. Trump quickly caught himself and revised his conditional statement. 'And I did win by a tremendous amount,' he added." MB: Sorta like Donald is caught between two ferns: the reality tree & the fantasy plant. ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Even as most of his lawyers have quit and many campaign officials say the effort to overturn the election is going nowhere, Trump said it was going 'very well.'" ~~~

~~~ In an official presidential* Thanksgiving "proclamation," a White House writer conveyed Trump's message. Arris Foley of the Hill: "President Trump issued a proclamation encouraging Americans to gather 'in homes and places of worship' ahead of Thanksgiving, even as his successor and public health officials have urged people to practice social distancing and avoid large gatherings during the holidays to curb the spread of COVID-19." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The proclamation itself actually interested me as it pegged the Mayflower Compact as a precursor to American democracy. I had always thought of the Mayflower Compact as more of a religious document describing church rules & regs. But historians point to its democratically-established rule of law & to the reason it was necessary to work out the agreement in the first place: non-Puritan Mayflower passengers had proclaimed their "own liberty" & vowed not to follow church rules. It was, therefore, a secular social contract that bound all settlers, & which 41 of the passengers (all men, of course!) signed.

Rich Guy Notices Trump, et al., Defrauded Him. Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "A major contributor to a group backing ... Donald Trump's fight to overturn the presidential election sued to recover $2.5 million in donations after the campaign failed in several court cases and was unable to prove any fraud. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Texas by North Carolina venture capitalist Fred Eshelman argued that the nonprofit group True the Vote promised to keep him informed of how his millions were being used in what was pitched as a strong case against alleged election fraud. Instead, the suit alleged, he was fed 'vague responses, platitudes and empty promises of follow-up' that never occurred. He was kept in the dark when weak cases filed in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania were voluntarily withdrawn in a decision the investor claimed was made in 'concert with counsel for the Trump campaign,' the suit said."

Pardon Me. Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Writing in The Atlantic this Wednesday [firewalled], columnist David Frum says that when it comes to ... Donald Trump's recent pardoning of former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn, one must remember that the crime Flynn is accused of committing was not about lying to protect himself -- he lied to protect Trump. 'Flynn had dubious dealings of his own to cover up, yes,' Frum writes. 'He had failed to register as an agent of the Turkish government as he should have. But that omission -- and Flynn's lies about it -- only became an issue after Flynn was caught lying about the ... conversations [Flynn had with Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyac]. In the end, Flynn was never charged for violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act [re: the Turkish affair].... 'Flynn sensed that Trump's preferred Russia policy was based on motives that everybody around Trump recognized as dangerous, even if they could not quite define where the danger lay,' Frum continues. 'So when asked by the FBI about the conversation, Flynn acted like a man aware of a terrible secret that must be concealed at all costs.'" Frum's Atlantic column is here.

The Way We Are. A Gruesome Thanksgiving. Thanks, Don & Bill! Hailey Fuchs of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has created new regulations allowing for the use of more methods for federal executions, including firing squad and electrocution. The new rule, which is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register on Friday, comes as the administration rushes to execute five more prisoners before the end of President Trump's term. It is part of a spate of moves and rule-making processes before he leaves office.... President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., who can rescind the rule, has signaled his opposition to the federal death penalty. Last week, the Justice Department announced that it plans to execute three more inmates on federal death row. If the administration does so, along with two other executions already scheduled, it will have put 13 prisoners to death since July, marking one of the deadliest periods in the history of federal capital punishment since at least 1927...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Biden could save himself from possible carpal tunnel symptoms by signing just one executive order: "What he said ... is out!"

The Way We Were. Ramin Ganeshram of the Washington Post: "On the third Thursday of February 1795, President George Washington proclaimed a day of national thanksgiving to thank God 'for the Constitutions of Government which unite and by their union establish liberty.' The second such proclamation by Washington, it called for a religious rather than a feasting holiday, and that day's menu is unknown. As a regular night for the Congress dinners hosted by the president, it would have been presided over by Washington's cook, Hercules Posey -- a chef so notable that he was famous in his own time. Yet, the liberty Washington extolled was not something Posey enjoyed: He was enslaved.... Working in the kitchen of a fine household -- much less a presidential one -- would not have been easy. Meals were elaborate, multicourse affairs.... As described by Rep. Theophilus Bradbury (Federalist-Mass.) in 1795, the average Thursday Congress dinner would have put any modern Thanksgiving feast to shame, featuring 'an elegant variety of roast beef, veal, turkeys, ducks, fowls, hams, & puddings, jellies, oranges, apples, nuts, and almonds, figs, raisins, and a variety of wines and punch.' Producing these meals meant a 12-to-16-hour workday with a variety of cooks and assistants working under Posey. Remarkably, the Washington household accounts tell us that these staff members would have been hired and White indentured laborers -- all taking orders from an enslaved Black man."

The Midnight Ride of Amy & the Confederates. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: Around midnight Thursday morning, the Supreme Court "justices issued six opinions, several of them unusually bitter, in upholding challenges from churches and synagogues to state pandemic restrictions on religious services.... Justice [Amy] Barrett dealt the chief justice a body blow. She cast the decisive vote in a 5-to-4 ruling that rejected restrictions on religious services in New York imposed by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo to combat the coronavirus, shoving the chief justice into dissent with the court's three remaining liberals. It was one of six opinions the court issued on Wednesday, spanning 33 pages and opening a window on a court in turmoil.... The most notable signed opinion came from Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Mr. Trump's first appointee. His concurrence was bitter, slashing and triumphant, and it took aim at Chief Justice Roberts.... 'Even if the Constitution has taken a holiday during this pandemic, it cannot become a sabbatical,' he wrote.... Roberts made a point of defending his colleagues from Justice Gorsuch's attacks, saying they were operating in good faith.... In a separate dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justice Elena Kagan, said the majority was being reckless. 'Justices of this court play a deadly game,' she wrote, 'in second-guessing the expert judgment of health officials about the environments in which a contagious virus, now infecting a million Americans each week, spreads most easily.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of these days, when things get back to "normal" post-pandemic, Col. Gorsuch will show up in court carrying a sheathed sword & will challenge Justice Sotomayor to a duel. ~~~

~~~ As unwashed pointed out in yesterday's thread, it's a shame the righty-right Roman Catholic Supremes don't read the elite-leftist New York Times, where they might have explored Pope Francis's op-ed -- adapted from his recent book -- on how to respond to the pandemic: Francis comes to Covid-19 with his experience as a young man suffering from a deathly illness that concentrated in his lungs. He praises both the nurses who saved him then & those who are now risking their own lives to save Covid-19 patients. As for the overall worldwide pandemic response, he writes "With some exceptions, governments have made great efforts to put the well-being of their people first, acting decisively to protect health and to save lives. The exceptions have been some governments that shrugged off the painful evidence of mounting deaths, with inevitable, grievous consequences. But most governments acted responsibly, imposing strict measures to contain the outbreak.... Looking to the common good is much more than the sum of what is good for individuals.... If we are to come out of this crisis less selfish than when we went in, we have to let ourselves be touched by others' pain." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's almost as if Francis is speaking directly to nasty Neil, the same empathetic guy who thought a trucker should freeze to death if his boss told him to do so.

Wherein recently-hired Trump lawyer a/k/a recently-fired Trump lawyer Sidney Powell (or is it "Sydney"? -- who cares, she misspells her top expert's name twice in one complaint) filed election fraud suits in Michigan & Georgia Wednesday night. Unfortunately, she (or an aide) drunk-typed the complaints & drunk-pasted them together. (Also, it would help if she turned off full justification & if sheputspacesbetweenwords.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Rebecca Robbins & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "The announcement this week that a cheap, easy-to-make coronavirus vaccine appeared to be up to 90 percent effective was greeted with jubilation.... But since unveiling the preliminary results, AstraZeneca has acknowledged a key mistake in the vaccine dosage received by some study participants, adding to questions about whether the vaccine's apparently spectacular efficacy will hold up under additional testing. Scientists and industry experts said the error and a series of other irregularities and omissions in the way AstraZeneca initially disclosed the data have eroded their confidence in the reliability of the results.... It was ... Moncef Slaoui, the head of Operation Warp Speed..., not the company -- who first disclosed that the vaccine's most promising results did not reflect data from older people."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "When President Trump talks about efforts to deliver the coronavirus vaccine to millions of Americans eager to return to their normal lives, he often says he is 'counting on the military' to get it done.... In reality, the role of the military has been less public and more pervasive than this characterization suggests. When companies have lacked the physical spaces needed to conduct their drug trials, the Defense Department has acquired trailers and permits to create pop-up medical sites in parking lots.... [The military has facilitated vaccine development & trials with logistical support through its contracting system.] But the distribution of vaccines will be left largely to their producers and commercial transportation companies. Black Hawk helicopters will not be landing next to neighborhood drugstore to drop off doses. No troops will be administering shots." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No doubt Trump makes this claim about the military because (a) he's too stupid to understand the details, and (b) he wants people to think -- as he does -- that he has personally ordered & orchestrated vaccine distribution. And you can bet there will be plenty of Trumpbots who sit for the shots & and exclaim, "Ouch! Donald Trump has saved the country!" Ironically, President Biden likely will get personally involved in some of the details, & he might specifically order the military apparatus to facilitate particular aspects of the distribution. Trump likes to pretend he is doing presidenty things; real presidents do them.

Jesse McKinley & Liam Stack of the New York Times: "In a 5-4 decision [released around midnight Thursday morning], the [Supreme C]ourt struck down an order by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo [D-N.Y.] that had restricted the size of religious gatherings in certain areas of New York where infection rates were climbing. The governor had imposed 10- and 25-person capacity limits on churches and other houses of worship in those areas.... "Cuomo accused the court of partisanship, suggesting the[ir] ruling [for religious organizations] reflected the influence of the three conservative justices who have been nominated by President Trump in the past four years. 'You have a different court, and I think that was the statement that the court was making,' Mr. Cuomo ... said on Thursday. 'We know who he appointed to the court. We know their ideology.'... Mr. Cuomo maintains that those outbreaks have since been brought under control, in large part by the measures that the court struck down." MB: Apparently the confederate Supemes believe some religious services can't be Zoomed even though many places of worship do just that.

Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: “Earlier this month, with coronavirus cases rising dramatically across Wyoming, a coalition of medical experts and nearly every county health officer in the state wrote to Republican Gov. Mark Gordon with an urgent demand: to issue a statewide mask mandate. Gordon declined. While he has stressed the importance of wearing masks, he has also argued that it's an individual choice to do so.... Now Gordon, 63, has tested positive for the virus, his office announced Wednesday. 'He only has minor symptoms at this time and plans to continue working on behalf of Wyoming remotely,' Gordon's office said in a news release." ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: I know we've said this hundreds of times before, but it seems to be even the most obtuse winger could understand this: "You do not have an individual right to spread a deadly illness to others."

Bonnie Rubin of the Washington Post: "When the pandemic upended their wedding plans, Emily Bugg and Billy Lewis tied the knot at Chicago's city hall last month instead. But ... what to do about their $5,000 nonrefundable catering deposit? The newlyweds decided to turn it into 200 Thanksgiving dinners for people with severe mental illness. 'This just seemed like a good way to make the best of a bad situation,' said Bugg, 33, an outreach worker at Thresholds, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and other psychiatric conditions. In the week leading up to Thanksgiving, dozens of Thresholds clients received a boxed dinner of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans and other fixings from Big Delicious Planet, a high-end Chicago-based caterer." MB: Hey, what do you think Trump would have done in a similar situation? Gone ahead with a superspreader ceremony anyway? Or sue the caterer?

AP: "Bruce Carver Boynton, a civil rights pioneer from Alabama who inspired the landmark 'Freedom Rides' of 1961, died Monday. He was 83.... Boynton was arrested 60 years ago for entering the white part of a racially segregated bus station in Virginia and launching a chain reaction that ultimately helped to bring about the abolition of Jim Crow laws in the South. Boynton contested his conviction, and his appeal resulted in a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited bus station segregation and helped inspire the 'Freedom Rides.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

AP: "Cambridge University launched an appeal Tuesday to find two valuable notebooks written by Charles Darwin after they were reported as stolen from the university's library. The notebooks, estimated to be worth millions of pounds, include the 19th-century scientist's famous 'Tree of Life' sketch. They haven't been seen since 2000, and for years staff at the library believed that the manuscripts had probably been misplaced in the vast archives. But after doing a thorough search, library staff now conclude it's likely that the notebooks were stolen. Police are now investigating and Interpol has also been notified." MB: Talk about cold cases. It took them 20 years to decide the notebooks had not been misshelved?

News Lede

New York Times: "Dr. Mary Fowkes, a neuropathologist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan whose autopsies of Covid-19 victims early in the pandemic discovered serious damage in multiple organs -- a finding that led to the successful use of higher doses of blood thinners to treat patients -- died on Nov. 15 at her home in Katonah, N.Y., in Westchester County. She was 66. Her daughter, Jackie Treatman, said the cause was a heart attack. When Dr. Fowkes ... and her team began their autopsies, little was known about the novel coronavirus, which was believed to be largely a respiratory disease. The first few dozen autopsies revealed that Covid-19 affected the lungs and other vital organs, and that the virus probably traveled through the body in the endothelial cells, which line the interior of blood vessels."

Thanksgiving Day 2020

Real Political News

Split Screen. The President & the Pretender. Jenna Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden urged Americans on the eve of Thanksgiving to recommit to fighting the coronavirus, not one another, and to take it upon themselves to make decisions that can save lives. In a somber and at times pleading speech, Biden reflected on other times in history that Americans have suffered, on the pain felt by the families of the more than 260,000 people who have been killed by the virus, on the sacrifices many Americans are making by scaling back or canceling their holiday plans and on the additional deaths that will undoubtedly come in the months ahead. He urged Americans to take 'simple steps' like wearing a mask, limiting the size of gatherings and socially distancing from others.... As Biden called on Americans to come together, President Trump spent the day tweeting a steady stream of grievances and baseless accusations, twice scream-tweeting: 'RIGGED ELECTION!' The president made no mention of the pandemic, which has killed more than 260,000 under his watch, offered no suggestions to Americans conflicted about how to celebrate Thanksgiving safely and publicly expressed no gratitude. Just before Biden began speaking in Wilmington, Del., Trump called the cell phone of his attorney Jenna Ellis, who was at a news conference about voter fraud in Pennsylvania. As she put him on speakerphone, he continued to unleash his grievances over the sometimes scratchy line.... At the event, [Rudy] Giuliani appeared without a mask, even though he had been in close contact with campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, who tested positive after appearing last week at the RNC with Giuliani. Much of the White House was empty on Wednesday morning, and several advisers said they were no longer paying attention to Trump's antics." More on Trump's spectacular performance linked below. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Dan Diamond of Politico: "Trump administration health officials on Wednesday kicked off a series of planned meetings with the Biden transition team on 'Operation Warp Speed,' the administration's effort to rush Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, according to two people familiar with the hastily scheduled session. The focus of the initial meeting was on Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and distribution, said one person familiar with the agenda, with a goal of bringing President-elect Joe Biden's agency review team up to speed on Operation Warp Speed's workings. A second person familiar with the meeting said it was scheduled about 24 hours after the General Services Administration's announcement on Monday that the transition could proceed and that Wednesday's meeting was intended to be the first of multiple briefings in coming weeks." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Meredith McGraw of Politico: "...Donald Trump's campaign has gone quiet. Some aides are leaving their posts for the holidays. It has been days since Trump's aides held a briefing for the press on its dwindling legal efforts to overturn the election, replaced by Rudy Giuliani's Twitter feed and YouTube videos. The campaign's communications director, Tim Murtaugh, hasn't tweeted himself for almost a week. A senior campaign official described the campaign manager, Bill Stepien, as 'MIA.'... But back in Washington, Trump is clinging to the White House, attending to the bare minimum of presidential duties and improbably boasting on Twitter that he 'will soon prevail!' in the already-settled presidential election. In other words, he's soldiering on -- publicly, at least. Almost everyone else is going home." (Also linked yesterday.)

Pennsylvania. Fake "President' Fake-"Testifies" at Fake State Senate "Hearing." Jill Colvin & Mark Scolforo of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday baselessly claimed anew that he had won the election and uttered repeated falsehoods when he called into an event held by Pennsylvania Republicans to investigate unproven allegations of voter fraud. 'This was an election that we won easily. We won it by a lot,' Trump declared to the group gathered at a hotel in Gettysburg.... Wednesday's event, hastily organized by Republican state lawmakers, including Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, an outspoken Trump supporter, came with trappings of an official hearing -- flags, a gavel, and unsworn 'witnesses' who 'testified' in person and by phone. Among them was a special guest -- the president -- who at one point had been expected to attend in person, but did not after another member of his legal team announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday morning. Trump spoke for about 11 minutes via a phone held up to a microphone by his lawyer Jenna Ellis and insisted again that the election had been 'rigged' for Biden." ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "... Donald Trump has invited Republican lawmakers from Pennsylvania to the White House on Wednesday night, following a 'hearing' the lawmakers hosted in Gettysburg over baseless allegations of voter fraud in this month's election that Trump called in to. Trump is expected to meet with them in the West Wing, two sources said.... Trump is also considering attending a similar event in Michigan next week. The Michigan State Board of Canvassers certified Biden's victory in that state on Monday, after Trump's legal efforts and a pressure campaign on state and local officials collapsed." ~~~

~~~ Kevin Breuninger & Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A lawyer for ... Donald Trump's campaign on Wednesday revealed that the campaign could be relying on pulling off a complicated -- and possibly unprecedented -- legal and legislative trick shot to undo President-elect Joe Biden's victory in Pennsylvania and possibly in other states. That far-fetched strategy would require a federal court to invalidate Pennsylvania's certification of its election results, and then get the state's General Assembly to agree to send Trump electors to the Electoral College. The idea is buried in a footnote in a three-page letter that campaign attorney Marc Scaringi wrote to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit. The Trump campaign is asking that appeals court to hear its bid to block the effect of Tuesday's certification of a win for Biden in Pennsylvania."

'In Wisconsin, somebody has to be indefinitely confined in order to vote absentee. In the past there were 20,000 people. This past election there were 120,000...and Republicans were locked out of the vote counting process.' @VicToensing @newsmax -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, November 24

In case anyone needed a reminder that Trump simply cannot be believed on the election, this is it. He is casting doubt on Wisconsin's results, but every part of his claim is demonstrably false. -- Salvator Rizzo of the Washington Post (Also linked yesterday.)

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a USA Today op-ed: "By all accounts, Georgia had a wildly successful and smooth election. We finally defeated voting lines and put behind us Fulton County's now notorious reputation for disastrous elections. This should be something for Georgians to celebrate, whether their favored presidential candidate won or lost. For those wondering, mine lost -- my family voted for [Trump], donated to him and are now being thrown under the bus by him." Raffensperger knocks both Democratic (Stacey Abrams) & Republican losing candidates.

Criminal Pardons Criminal. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Trump pardoned on Wednesday his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down. 'It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Ken Vogel & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "It's not just Michael T. Flynn. The White House is weighing a wave of pardons and commutations by President Trump in his final weeks in office, prompting jockeying by a range of clemency seekers and their representatives, including more allies of Mr Trump.... The end of any presidential administration is a time for intense lobbying related to pardons. But in Mr. Trump's case, it extends to his own personal and political considerations, his lingering bitterness over the Russia inquiry and his transactional approach to governing.... There are at least 13,700 people who have formally applied to the Justice Department for pardons that are listed as 'pending.'... There is open speculation about whether he might go even further in using his clemency power in his self-interest, possibly issuing pre-emptive pardons to members of his family and even himself for federal crimes." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "President Trump is leaving the White House just as he entered it: a total disgrace.... Mr. Flynn freely pleaded guilty to lying to FBI investigators, a felony, about whether he discussed anti-Kremlin sanctions with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. 'I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,' Mr. Flynn said then. 'I accept full responsibility for my actions.' But then ... Mr. Flynn switched lawyers, hiring Sidney Powell -- yes, the same Sidney Powell who last week alleged a vast international communist plot to flip the 2020 presidential election to President-elect Joe Biden.... As he so often does, Mr. Trump grounded his decision in a half-baked conspiracy theory, insisting Wednesday through his press secretary that Mr. Flynn was 'the victim of partisan government officials engaged in a coordinated attempt to subvert the election of 2016.'"

Georgia Senate Race. Brian of the AP: "As the ravages of the novel coronavirus forced millions of people out of work, shuttered businesses and shrank the value of retirement accounts, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to a three-year low. But for Sen. David Perdue, a Georgia Republican, the crisis last March signaled something else: a stock buying opportunity. And for the second time in less than two months, Perdue's timing was impeccable. He avoided a sharp loss and reaped a stunning gain by selling and then buying the same stock: Cardlytics, an Atlanta-based financial technology company on whose board of directors he once served. On Jan. 23, as word spread through Congress that the coronavirus posed a major economic and public health threat, Perdue sold off $1 million to $5 million in Cardlytics stock at $86 a share before it plunged, according to congressional disclosures. Weeks later, in March, after the company's stock plunged further following an unexpected leadership shakeup and lower-than-forecast earnings, Perdue bought the stock back for $30 a share, investing between $200,000 and $500,000. Those shares have now quadrupled in value, closing at $121 a share on Tuesday." ~~~

~~~ Katie Benner, et al., of the New York Times: Federal "investigators found that Cardlytics' chief executive at the time, Scott Grimes, sent Mr. Perdue a personal email two days before the senator's stock sale that made a vague mention of 'upcoming changes.'... Ultimately, [investigators closed] the case...." ~~~

     ~~~ Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: "Earlier this year, Sen. David Perdue (R-GA) personally directed his wealth adviser to sell off $1 million worth of stock in a financial company before its share price cratered, The New York Times reported on Wednesday -- a finding that flies in the face of Perdue's repeated insistence that he has no input whatsoever over his considerable investment portfolio."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Oh, God. Amy Rules! Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court late Wednesday night barred restrictions on religious services in New York that Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo had imposed to combat the coronavirus. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court's three liberal members in dissent. The order was the first in which the court's newest member, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, played a decisive role. The court's ruling was at odds with earlier ones concerning churches in California and Nevada. In those cases, decided in May and July, the court allowed the states' governors to restrict attendance at religious services. The Supreme Court's membership has changed since then, with Justice Barrett succeeding Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who died in September. The vote in the earlier cases was also 5 to 4, but in the opposite direction, with Chief Justice Roberts joining Justice Ginsburg and the other three members of what was then the court's four-member liberal wing."

Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "For the first time since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States, the country has added more than one million cases in each of the past two consecutive weeks. Covid deaths, which lag reported cases by weeks, are also at a level not seen since the spring." (Also linked yesterday.)

Glenn Rifkin of the New York Times: "Honestie Hodges, who was handcuffed by the police outside her home in Grand Rapids, Mich., when she was 11, a frightening incident that drew outrage and national headlines in 2017, died on Sunday. She was 14. Her death, at the Helen DeVos Children's Hospital in Grand Rapids, was caused by Covid-19, her grandmother Alisa Niemeyer wrote in a post on the website GoFundMe."

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The pace of first-time filings for jobless claims picked up last week, with the jobs market showing increasing vulnerability to the coronavirus spread. Claims totaled 778,000 for the week ended Nov. 21, ahead of the 733,000 expectation from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and up from 742,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "A veteran C.I.A. officer was killed in combat in Somalia in recent days, according to current and former U.S. officials, a death that is likely to reignite debate over American counterterrorism operations in Africa. The officer was a member of the C.I.A.'s paramilitary division, the Special Activities Center, and a former member of the Navy's elite SEAL Team 6.... It was unclear whether the officer was killed in a counterterrorism raid or was the victim of an enemy attack, former American officials said."

Aaron Katersky of ABC News: "The Justice Department filed a notice of appeal Wednesday as it seeks to intervene in the defamation lawsuit against ... Donald Trump by E. Jean Carroll. Last month, a federal judge in New York rejected the Justice Department's attempt to substitute for President Trump as the defendant in a suit that claimed he defamed Carroll when he accused her of lying about an alleged rape in a department store dressing room."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Korea. Putting Life Skills to Work. Jaclyn Diaz of NPR: "A North Korean man seeking to escape his homeland took a nearly 10-foot leap of faith earlier this month. The jump, which occurred under -- or more accurately over -- the noses of soldiers, brought him to safety in South Korea, where he told troops he wanted to defect. It's no surprise that the man claims he is a former gymnast. The unnamed man, who is described as being in his late 20s, crossed into South Korea through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) at around 7 p.m. Nov. 3, evading capture for 14 hours. He was found by South Korean soldiers at around 10 a.m. the next day less than a mile away from the border, according to The Korean Herald and Yonhap News Agency.... If the man's story is accurate, it's all the more remarkable because he managed to avoid detection by North Korean troops, evade landmines that litter the DMZ and not trigger sensors on the surrounding fences." The article includes a photo of the double fence, which looks impossible to leap.

The Commentariat -- Nov. 25, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Criminal Pardons Criminal. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "President Trump pardoned on Wednesday his former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, who had twice pleaded guilty to lying to the F.B.I. about his conversations with a Russian diplomat and whose prosecution Attorney General William P. Barr tried to shut down. 'It is my Great Honor to announce that General Michael T. Flynn has been granted a Full Pardon,' Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ken Vogel & Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "It's not just Michael T. Flynn. The White House is weighing a wave of pardons and commutations by President Trump in his final weeks in office, prompting jockeying by a range of clemency seekers and their representatives, including more allies of Mr. Trump.... The end of any presidential administration is a time for intense lobbying related to pardons. But in Mr. Trump's case, it extends to his own personal and political considerations, his lingering bitterness over the Russia inquiry and his transactional approach to governing.... There are at least 13,700 people who have formally applied to the Justice Department for pardons that are listed as 'pending.'... There is open speculation about whether he might go even further in using his clemency power in his self-interest, possibly issuing pre-emptive pardons to members of his family and even himself for federal crimes."

Split Screen. The President & the Pretender. Jenna Johnson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden urged Americans on the eve of Thanksgiving to recommit to fighting the coronavirus, not one another, and to take it upon themselves to make decisions that can save lives. In a somber and at times pleading speech, Biden reflected on other times in history that Americans have suffered, on the pain felt by the families of the more than 260,000 people who have been killed by the virus, on the sacrifices many Americans are making by scaling back or canceling their holiday plans and on the additional deaths that will undoubtedly come in the months ahead. He urged Americans to take 'simple steps' like wearing a mask, limiting the size of gatherings and socially distancing from others.... As Biden called on Americans to come together, President Trump spent the day tweeting a steady stream of grievances and baseless accusations, twice scream-tweeting: 'RIGGED ELECTION!' The president made no mention of the pandemic, which has killed more than 260,000 under his watch, offered no suggestions to Americans conflicted about how to celebrate Thanksgiving safely and publicly expressed no gratitude. Just before Biden began speaking in Wilmington, Del., Trump called the cell phone of his attorney Jenna Ellis, who was at a news conference about voter fraud in Pennsylvania. As she put him on speakerphone, he continued to unleash his grievances over the sometimes scratchy line.... At the event, [Rudy] Giuliani appeared without a mask, even though he had been in close contact with campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn, who tested positive after appearing last week at the RNC with Giuliani. Much of the White House was empty on Wednesday morning, and several advisers said they were no longer paying attention to Trump's antics." ~~~

Dan Diamond of Politico: "Trump administration health officials on Wednesday kicked off a series of planned meetings with the Biden transition team on 'Operation Warp Speed,' the administration's effort to rush Covid-19 vaccines and treatments, according to two people familiar with the hastily scheduled session. The focus of the initial meeting was on Covid-19 vaccines, therapeutics and distribution, said one person familiar with the agenda, with a goal of bringing President-elect Joe Biden's agency review team up to speed on Operation Warp Speed's workings. A second person familiar with the meeting said it was scheduled about 24 hours after the General Services Administration's announcement on Monday that the transition could proceed and that Wednesday's meeting was intended to be the first of multiple briefings in coming weeks."

Meredith McGraw of Politico: "...Donald Trump's campaign has gone quiet. Some aides are leaving their posts for the holidays. It has been days since Trump's aides held a briefing for the press on its dwindling legal efforts to overturn the election, replaced by Rudy Giuliani's Twitter feed and YouTube videos. The campaign's communications director, Tim Murtaugh, hasn't tweeted himself for almost a week. A senior campaign official described the campaign manager, Bill Stepien, as 'MIA.'... But back in Washington, Trump is clinging to the White House, attending to the bare minimum of presidential duties and improbably boasting on Twitter that he 'will soon prevail!' in the already-settled presidential election. In other words, he's soldiering on -- publicly, at least. Almost everyone else is going home."

"In Wisconsin, somebody has to be indefinitely confined in order to vote absentee. In the past there were 20,000 people. This past election there were 120,000...and Republicans were locked out of the vote counting process." @VicToensing @newsmax -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, November 24

In case anyone needed a reminder that Trump simply cannot be believed on the election, this is it. He is casting doubt on Wisconsin's results, but every part of his claim is demonstrably false. -- Salvator Rizzo of the Washington Post

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The pace of first-time filings for jobless claims picked up last week, with the jobs market showing increasing vulnerability to the coronavirus spread. Claims totaled 778,000 for the week ended Nov. 21, ahead of the 733,000 expectation from economists surveyed by Dow Jones and up from 742,000 the previous week, the Labor Department reported Wednesday."

Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "For the first time since the coronavirus outbreak hit the United States, the country has added more than one million cases in each of the past two consecutive weeks. Covid deaths, which lag reported cases by weeks, are also at a level not seen since the spring."

~~~~~~~~~~

Joe Is Being President Because We Don't Have One. John Bowden of the Hill: "President-elect Joe Biden will deliver a Thanksgiving address on Wednesday, his White House transition team announced in a press release. A news release Tuesday evening indicated that the live-streamed speech would touch on the 'shared sacrifices Americans are making this holiday season'' while delivering a message 'that we can and will get through the current crisis together.'"

Alana Wise & Barbara Sprunt of NPR: "President-elect Joe Biden stressed a return to multilateralism Tuesday as he introduced key national security and foreign policy appointees and nominees for his incoming White House Cabinet, moving forward with the traditional transition process.... The group joined Biden in his announcement on Tuesday. Biden hailed the group, saying the team gathered behind him 'reflects that America is back.'... Following Biden's remarks, each nominee delivered introductory comments.... Four of the six roles Biden announced require Senate confirmation. [John] Kerry and Jake Sullivan, tapped for national security adviser, will not need such a vote." You can watch the event here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

The Washington Post's live election updates Tuesday are here. They are free to non-subscribers. "Pennsylvania certified Biden's victory on Tuesday, effectively handing him 20 electoral votes while further dashing Trump's hopes of overturning a loss in a key battleground state. After receiving official confirmation of the presidential vote totals from all 67 Pennsylvania counties, Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D) formally certified the result for president and vice president, a news release from her office stated. Gov. Tom Wolf (D) then signed a certificate selecting Biden's slate of electors, which was submitted to the federal government...." ~~~

~~~ "The Dow Jones industrial average reached 30,000 points for the first time in history, after Trump authorized the government to begin the transition processes and Biden signaled his pick for treasury secretary -- steps Wall Street interpreted as further progress in stabilizing the nation's economy." MB: Wall Street is jumping for joy at the prospect of being rid of you, Donnie Boy. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Investors of all political persuasions say they are ready to turn the page on what was a profitable but extraordinarily politicized and stressful period for the financial markets, where they had to contend with an unpredictable force whose pronouncements frequently moved stock prices. For the most part, investors supported Trump administration policies; it was the president's unpredictable tweeting they found hard to stomach. In the past four years, Mr. Trump used his bully pulpit to praise and berate companies, escalate a trade war with China and signal the economy's strengths ahead of official announcements. In the process, his Twitter account became a singular source of market volatility." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Last Days of the Kaiser

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "... Donald Trump briefly emerged Tuesday to tout the Dow Jones Industrial Average breaking 30,000 for the first time ever, and then vanished after a minute without taking questions.... Trump bragged about the stock market's latest milestone.... Trump has repeatedly claimed that if Biden won the election, the stock market and the economy would 'crash.' But the Dow's record-setting rally came weeks after news outlets called the race for Biden, and days after the president-elect started revealing the top officials who would occupy his Cabinet."

Trump's Last Stand for the Confederacy ... and Slavery. Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "For what may be the last policy fight of his administration, [Trump is] going to bat one last time for the Confederacy. At issue is the National Defense Authorization Act, the yearly bill that funds America's military colossus. For 58 straight years it has never failed to pass; this year's version spends $740 billion.... But included in the bill -- with the support of all Democrats and some Republicans -- is a provision to rename the 10 military installations still named after Confederate officers, people who waged war on the United States of America to maintain the ability of wealthy White southerners to enslave other human beings. President Trump has said that if the renaming provision is not removed, he will veto the defense bill.... Republicans are now urging Democrats to agree to remove the provision so as not to make the petulant toddler in the White House too upset." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Lazy, Good-for-Nothing Twitter King. Karen Yourish & Larry Buchanan of the New York Times: "In the three weeks since Election Day, President Trump's most visible presence has been on Twitter. Since Nov. 3, he has posted some 550 tweets -- about three-quarters of which attempted to undermine the integrity of the 2020 election results. In total, the president attacked the legitimacy of the election more than 400 times since Election Day, though his claims of fraud have been widely debunked.... Mr. Trump's public calendar, meanwhile, has been remarkably light, especially relative to his pre-election schedule, when he often attended multiple campaign rallies in a single day.... He has managed to maintain his weekend golf plans at his club in Virginia, as he has done most weekends in Washington.... Mr. Trump also used Twitter twice to take care of personnel issues, firing the defense secretary, Mark T. Esper, and the top official in charge of election cybersecurity, Christopher Krebs. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kaitlan Collins & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Three weeks after the election, the White House has given formal approval for President-elect Joe Biden to receive the President's Daily Brief, a White House official told CNN Tuesday. Coordination on when Biden will receive his first briefing is currently underway, but the move is another step toward a transition of power that ... Donald Trump held up for weeks after it was clear he lost the 2020 election. It follows a formal notice by the General Services Administration Monday night that the formal transition of government can proceed." ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Herb & Kristen Holmes of CNN: On "Friday, November 20..., Donald Trump's lawsuits challenging the election result were going nowhere, Georgia was certifying its hand recount for Biden, and both Michigan and Pennsylvania were preparing to certify their elections early the next week. So GSA officials gave the White House a heads up that if Michigan and Pennsylvania certified their elections as expected, [GSA Administrator Emily] Murphy would formally start the transition for Biden in a process known as ascertainment, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.... The message to the White House on Friday set up Murphy's decision to finally send the letter to Biden on Monday saying he could begin the transition -- as well as an effort inside the West Wing preparing Trump for his administration's first official acknowledgment of his defeat, something the President has refused to accept.... GSA did not give the Biden transition team a heads up it was planning to send a letter. But a little more than an hour after Michigan certified its election, Murphy sent a letter to Biden saying that he could begin the transition. The letter failed to refer to Biden as President-elect, nor did it say she explicitly was granting ascertainment."

Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "While Mr. Trump's mission to subvert the election has so far failed at every turn, it has nevertheless exposed deep cracks in the edifice of American democracy and opened the way for future disruption and perhaps disaster. With the most amateurish of efforts, Mr. Trump managed to freeze the passage of power for most of a month, commanding submissive indulgence from Republicans and stirring fear and frustration among Democrats as he explored a range of wild options for thwarting Mr. Biden.... Important, legal and political experts said, is the way Mr. Trump identified perilous pressure points within the system.... In [some] scenarios, it might not be such a long-shot gambit for a losing candidate to attempt to halt certification of results through low-profile state and county boards, or to bestir state legislators to appoint a slate of electors or to pressure political appointees in the federal government to block a presidential transition. Indeed, Mr. Trump managed to intrude on normal election procedures in several states."

Trump Secret Sauce Ingredient: Brainwash Juice. Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "... according to a new CNBC/Change Research poll..., only 3% of Trump voters surveyed said they accept Biden's victory as legitimate, the survey released Monday found. A staggering 73% of respondents consider Trump the legitimate winner. Another 24% said they are not sure." ~~~

~~~ Because the Grifters. David Corn of Mother Jones: "I've heard from Eric Trump, Donald Trump Jr., and Lara Trump. I've heard from Rudy Giuliani, Ronna McDaniel, and Newt Gingrich. And I've heard from Donald Trump. Over and over again. The 2020 election was stolen from Trump. The left-wing mob, the Democrats, the fake news media -- they successfully plotted together to pull off the greatest political heist of all time. Trump really won. But fake ballots were counted. Real ballots were trashed. American democracy was undone. The people have been robbed of their rightful president.... Each day I have received a steady stream of emails signed by Trump or one of his minions. These missives all request money for Trump's so-called 'Election Defense Fund' -- that is, his effort to overturn the election results and retain power -- and they are obvious acts of grift. Though they generally ask for small amounts -- from $5 to $45 -- the fine print on the donation page notes that unless you kick in about $8,000, the money goes to Trump's political operation and the Republican National Committee.... This barrage is doing more than squeezing cash out of Trump fanatics. For the recipients, it is solidifying a dangerous message: the election was illegitimate." ~~~

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "By lodging baseless claims of voter fraud and embracing -- or declining to reject -- outlandish conspiracy theories about the electoral process, Trump and his allies have normalized the kind of post-election assault on institutions typically seen in less-developed democracies, according to historians, former administration officials, and lawmakers and diplomats from across the political spectrum.... Trump has been undeterred by the cascade of court losses, and his allies have continued to make the case that the election was stolen from him. Unable to change the results with lawsuits or by persuading state lawmakers to overturn the will of voters, Trump has resorted to pressing the last avenues of protest that remain open to him.... The lack of pushback from Republican lawmakers signaled a willingness by them to accept Trump's post-election denial despite the danger it poses, said Julian Zelizer, a presidential historian at Princeton University."

Jonathan Swan & Zachary Basu of Axios: "President Trump has told confidants he plans to pardon his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty in December 2017 to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts, two sources with direct knowledge of the discussions tell Axios.... Sources with direct knowledge of the discussions said Flynn will be part of a series of pardons that Trump issues between now and when he leaves office." The New York Times story is here.

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is part of the team of ... Donald Trump's administration working to make life difficult for the incoming administration. Bloomberg News reported Tuesday that there is about $455 billion in unspent funds from the CARES Act, which Congress passed to help Americans get through the COVID-19 pandemic.... [According to Bloomberg,] 'moving the unspent money [into the general fund, as Mnuchin plans t do,] will make it virtually impossible for [Janet] Yellen, if confirmed by the Senate as Treasury secretary, to deploy on her own. The Biden transition team last week called Mnuchin's clawing back of unspent money from the Fed "deeply irresponsible."'" The Bloomberg story is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Michael Isikoff of Yahoo! News: "Just as star anchor Sean Hannity and other high-profile Fox News figures were due to be deposed about their promotion of a bogus conspiracy theory about the death of former Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich, the cable network last month threw in the towel and moved to settle a lawsuit brought by Rich's parents that threatened to expose a wealth of new details about one of its most embarrassing screw-ups in recent years. The settlement between Fox News and Rich's parents, Joel and Mary Rich, was publicly disclosed Tuesday, but with no details about the terms. But legal sources tell Yahoo News that the settlement includes a lucrative seven figure payment to the Rich family consistent with the size of payouts Fox News and related corporate entities have made in other cases that have brought them negative publicity. The hastily arranged settlement also had the benefit of sparing Hannity and other Fox News figures -- including network president Jay Wallace and contributor Newt Gingrich -- the ordeal of being grilled under oath about claims in a series of broadcasts in May 2017 that blamed the leak of DNC emails to WikiLeaks on Rich."

Arkansas. When a Pardon Doesn't Matter. John Moritz of Arkansas Online: "The Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Democrat Jimmie Wilson is ineligible to serve in the state Legislature due to decades-old misdemeanor convictions in federal court, wiping out Wilson's victory at the polls earlier this month in House District 12. Wilson, a former state lawmaker who was convicted of selling mortgaged crops and illegal use of farm loans, had argued that a pardon he received from President Bill Clinton in 2001 removed any barriers to his potential return to the Legislature.... After the ruling Tuesday, state GOP chairman Doyle Webb released a statement declaring [Republican David] Tollett the winner in the District 12 race. Tollett will become the first Republican to represent the district -- which is centered in the Democratic-stronghold of Phillips County -- since Reconstruction, Webb said."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "The United States logged nearly 2,100 coronavirus-related fatalities on Tuesday, marking the deadliest day in more than six months. Record numbers of fatalities were also reported in nine states -- Maine, Alaska, Missouri, North Dakota, Indiana, Wisconsin, Washington, Ohio and Oregon -- according to data tracked by The Washington Post. Tuesday's tally of 2,092 deaths is the highest the country has seen since May 6, when 2,611 deaths were reported."