The Ledes

Friday, October 11, 2024

Washington Post: “Floridians began returning to damaged and waterlogged homes on Thursday after Hurricane Milton carved a path of destruction and grief across the state, the second massive storm to strike Florida in as many weeks. At least 14 storm-related deaths were attributed to the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.”

Washington Post: “Twelve people were rescued from an inactive Colorado gold mine after they were trapped 1,000 feet underground for about six hours following an elevator malfunction. One person was killed in the accident, which happened about 500 feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek, Colo., Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at a Thursday news conference. The site is a tourist attraction. Eleven other people aboard the elevator at the time, including two children, were rescued shortly after the mechanical malfunction, which Mikesell said 'created a severe danger for the participants.' He said four suffered minor injuries.... Twelve others in a separate group remained trapped in a mine shaft 1,000 feet underground for several hours after the incident, before they were rescued Thursday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said.”

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The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Saturday
Oct172020

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2020

Presidential Race, Etc.

From Saturday's New York Times election updates: Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s campaign is urgently warning against complacency in the final stretch of the race despite national and some state polling showing a wide Democratic lead over President Trump. In a memo that was to be sent to supporters on Saturday, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden's campaign manager, stressed that polls can be faulty or imprecise -- as they were in 2016 -- and warned of only narrow advantages in a number of key states. It is a message that appears designed to keep Democratic supporters focused and engaged in the last days of the race despite national attention on Mr. Trump's challenges, and to motivate Biden backers to turn out and continue donating." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, at a Michigan rally, dangerous white supremacist, conspiracy-theorist leader Donald Trump "joined in a crowd chant of 'lock her up,' referencing ... Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer," whom some of Trump's followers plotted to kidnap & "try" & dispose of. "'This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government official' lives in danger,' Ms. Whitmer, responded on Twitter while the rally was still in progress."

Res ipsa loquitur:

Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Wearing costumes and carrying signs, thousands of people gathered for the Women’s March in downtown Washington and cities across the country Saturday to protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and to build momentum to vote President Trump out of the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Anita Snow of the AP: "Thousands of mostly young women in masks rallied Saturday in the nation's capital and other U.S. cities, exhorting voters to oppose ... Donald Trump and his fellow Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 elections. The latest of rallies that began with a massive women's march the day after Trump's January 2017 inauguration was playing out during the coronavirus pandemic, and demonstrators were asked to wear face coverings and practice social distancing." Mrs. McC: But are they "suburban women?" ~~~

~~~ Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "Women of the 'burbs -- like those enclaves they inhabit -- are not who Trump thinks they are. He needs them in his bid for reelection. But by clinging to the notion that suburban women are White housewives who need to be saved from scary threats such as (gasp!) low-income neighbors and protesters for social justice, his wooing isn't working. Across America, the suburbs are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and dynamic. They're not the little boxes and fenced yards of Levittown, but a mix of homeowners and renters, apartments and condos, cottages and McMansions.... Houston[, Texas,] and its suburbs are so diverse, the man running for the 22nd Congressional District there -- former Foreign Service officer Sri Preston Kulkarni -- has campaign literature in 21 different languages.... 'Donald Trump is right to think that suburban women will be voting for safety, but he's wrong to think that means they'll be voting for him,' said Shannon Watts, a suburban woman and mother of five who has become a force in American politics with her group, Moms Demand Action."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jason Campbell & Pam Vogel of Media Matters: "In the final weeks before Election Day, CBS is validating a likely foreign intelligence operation against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In its own reporting, CBS has pointed to the suspicious smear campaign as similar to mainstream media's obsession with the nefarious leaking of Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 -- yet its reporter still fell for the same trap years later and elevated the pseudo-scandal anyway. During an impromptu press gaggle on October 16, CBS reporter Bo Erickson asked Biden for a response to unverified claims from a series of suspicious articles from the New York Post related to his son Hunter and business dealings in Ukraine. Biden reacted by calling the story a 'smear campaign' and said he had no further response.... MSNBC's Joy Reid praised Biden for refusing to engage with a 'Russian hatchet-job' pushed by [Rudy] Giuliani. Meanwhile, some of Erickson's colleagues at CBS have joined right-wing media figures like Laura Ingraham and Steve Cortes in defending the reporter's question."

Patrick Marley & Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Thousands of Donald Trump's fans, many without masks, prepared to welcome the president on an airport tarmac Saturday evening as Wisconsin continued to struggle with a soaring number of COVID-19 cases. 'This entire pandemic is a hoax,' Brandon Rice of Eau Claire said as he waited in line at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport. 'I think it was done to make him look bad. It's fake news.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks for your expert opinion, Brandon. ~~~

     ~~~ Updated Lede: "... Donald Trump packed thousands together for a re-election rally Saturday, arguing that his own recovery proved the response to COVID-19 was working and claiming the pandemic was 'rounding the corner' in a state setting records daily for new cases. The president didn't mention that Wisconsin is grappling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, with nearly 4,000 new cases reported just on Friday and a surge of infections that has pushed state officials to open a field hospital to give relief to hospitals in the northeastern part of the state." Mrs. McC: Excuse me? You guys already forgot this entire pandemic is a hoax?

Helaine Olen of the Washington Post outlines Trump's long con, & comes up with what she thinks is the explanation for the popularity of "outlandish conspiracies such as QAnon.... As crazy as it is, it's less embarrassing than admitting you are just another patsy in Trump's lifelong con." Mrs. McC: Maybe she's right: delusion begets more delusion. IOW, Trump is bad for everybody's mental health, not just normally-sensible people's. (Also linked yesterday.)

Nebraska Senate Race. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump berated Sen. >Ben Sasse (R) after audio leaked this week of the Nebraska lawmaker leveling harsh criticism against the president in a town hall with constituents. ['Blah-blah.'...] Given Nebraska’s solid red tint, Sasse is not expected to be punished at the ballot box this year over his criticism." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Christina Maxouris & Jason Hanna of CNN: "Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new Covid-19 infections Friday, and the country reported its highest one-day total since July, as experts say a dangerous fall surge of coronavirus infections is well underway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brittany Shamas & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Within weeks of the [Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota], the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest.... In many ways, Sturgis is an object lesson in the patchwork U.S. response to a virus that has proved remarkably adept at exploiting such gaps to become resurgent."


Elizabeth Ireland of the Times of San Diego (Oct. 16): Former Rep. "Duncan Hunter's attorney announced Friday the ex-congressman will serve his federal prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institute La Tuna in Anthony, Texas.... The California Republican will report to the federal prison's adjacent minimum-security satellite camp on Jan. 4, 2021. Hunter, 43, who pleaded guilty last year to a federal conspiracy charge for misusing campaign funds, was sentenced in March to 11 months in federal prison." Mrs. McC: The facade of the main prison looks like a beautiful Spanish mission-style resort, so here's hoping the satellite camp isn't so nice.

Comments Off
Friday
Oct162020

The Commentariat -- October 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Res ipsa loquitur:

Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Wearing costumes and carrying signs, thousands of people gathered for the Women's March in downtown Washington and cities across the country Saturday to protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and to build momentum to vote President Trump out of the White House."

Helaine Olen of the Washington Post outlines Trump's long con, & comes up with what she thinks is the explanation for the popularity of "outlandish conspiracies such as QAnon.... As crazy as it is, it's less embarrassing than admitting you are just another patsy in Trump's lifelong con." Mrs. McC: Maybe she's right: delusion begets more delusion. IOW, Trump is bad for everybody's mental health, not just normally-sensible people's.

Christina Maxouris & Jason Hanna of CNN: "Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new Covid-19 infections Friday, and the country reported its highest one-day total since July, as experts say a dangerous fall surge of coronavirus infections is well underway."

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump berated Sen. Ben Sasse (R) after audio leaked this week of the Nebraska lawmaker leveling harsh criticism against the president in a town hall with constituents. ['Blah-blah.'...] Given Nebraska's solid red tint, Sasse is not expected to be punished at the ballot box this year over his criticism."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

"What the Hell Is Wrong with This Guy?' Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tore into President Trump on Friday over his response to a foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), accusing him of stoking tensions across the country. Biden said the plot by a militia group to kidnap Whitmer, which the FBI foiled earlier this month, is 'the sort of behavior you might expect from ISIS [that] should shock the conscience of every American.... But all President Trump does is fan the flames of hatred and division of this country,' he said at a rally in Southfield, Mich. Biden, at another campaign event later that day in Detroit, also noted that Trump continued attacking Whitmer on the day the plot was revealed, with the president taking shots at the governor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she did a 'terrible job' and 'locked down her state for everyone.... What the hell is wrong with this guy?' Biden asked."

Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Television ratings matter to President Trump. So these numbers may sting. In a victory that few in the TV and political arenas predicted, Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s town hall-style forum on ABC on Thursday night drew a larger audience than President Trump's competing event on NBC, according to Nielsen. Mr. Biden's town-hall meeting, which aired on a single network, was seen by an average of 15.1 million viewers, compared with 13.5 million for Mr. Trump even though the president monopolized three networks -- NBC, MSNBC and CNBC -- simultaneously.... The numbers were a bracing outcome for the president, whose aides had been promising a decisive ratings win over his Democratic rival. 'We're going to have a much bigger audience than Joe for next Thursday,' Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign, told Fox News last week." ~~~

~~~ Trump Whines about Town Hall. Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "... Donald Trump cranked up the sarcasm on Friday as he swiped at NBC's Savannah Guthrie during the prior night's town hall special in Miami. 'Another evening in paradise, I call it,' Trump said at an unrelated event in Fort Myers, Fla.... 'I had someone [NBC host Savannah Guthrie] going totally crazy last night.' Guthrie piqued Trump on multiple occasions during the town hall event, including pressing him on the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory ... which Trump refused to disavow even though it has been deemed a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI.... Guthrie also challenged Trump on retweeting a separate bizarre theory that Osama bin Laden is still alive and that Joe Biden secretly had members of SEAL Team Six killed after the president said it was intended as food for thought. 'That was an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet,' Trump said. [']I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves[.]' 'You're the president. You're not like, someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever,' Guthrie shot back.... Trump also lashed out at George Stephanopoulos, who moderated a dueling town hall with Joe Biden... for not pressing the Democratic nominee about allegations against his son Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When you live in Crazyland, you just can't understand why fake stories made up by the Kremlin or right-wing Norwegian wackos (his Nobel Peace Prize nomination) don't get more respect. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday slammed President Trump for refusing to denounce QAnon.... 'The president's unwillingness to denounce an absurd and dangerous conspiracy theory last night continues an alarming pattern: politicians and parties refuse to forcefully and convincingly repudiate groups like antifa, white supremacists and conspiracy peddlers,' Romney said in a statement tweeted Friday afternoon. 'Similarly troubling is their silence regarding anti-vaxxers, militias and anarchists,' he added. 'Rather than expel the rabid fringes and the extremes, they have coddled or adopted them, eagerly trading their principles for the hope of electoral victories.'"

Say What? Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday vowed to shield America's senior citizens from the coronavirus and directed them to stay home amid the pandemic, addressing a crowd of elderly supporters at an indoor event where mask-wearing was sporadic and not mandated. 'Stay. If you feel good, if you feel safe -- because it's going to be gone -- stay where you are,' Trump said in his speech in Fort Myers, Fla. 'Don't leave. Don't say, "Oh gee, I have to get out. The president said, let's get out." Stay where you are.'... The more cautious remarks from the president contradicted the tone Trump has struck at campaign rallies and other official events, where he regularly downplays the threat of the pandemic and urges Americans to restart their daily lives with little regard for the highly contagious disease."

** The New York Times is featuring an extraordinary Sunday Review making "The Case Against Donald Trump." The Editors' cover essay begins, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Mr. Trump's ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds." The linked page has links to "a series of essays focused on the Trump administration's rampant corruption, celebrations of violence, gross negligence with the public's health and incompetent statecraft. A selection of iconic images highlights the president's record on issues like climate, immigration, women's rights and race." It appears there will be more to the section than the articles & essays linked here Friday. Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is a unique journalistic response to any president's tenure. What a shame Trump can't read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jake Tapper of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that ... Donald Trump 'is the most flawed person' he's ever known. 'The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else...,' the retired Marine general has told friends.... The reporting comes from a new CNN special scheduled to air Sunday night, 'The Insiders: A Warning from Former Trump Officials,' in which former senior administration officials -- including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Health and Human Services scientist Rick Bright and former Department of Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick -- explain why they think the President is unfit for office. Kelly's sentiments about the President's transactional nature and dishonesty have been shared by other former members of the Trump administration who also appear in the special." Mrs. McC: That's saying something, because Kelly himself is pretty "flawed."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out Donald Trump has far closer ties to QAnon that I surmised. Knows nothing about it? Hell, he's funding it, & QAnon nuts share attorneys with Trump's family: ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory. While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Backfire! Trump Has a Rudy Problem. Eric Tucker of the AP: "A New York tabloid's puzzling account about how it acquired emails purportedly from Joe Biden's son has raised some red flags. One of the biggest involves the source of the emails: Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.... The FBI [is] investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have surfaced as U.S. officials have been warning that Russia, which backed Trump's 2016 campaign through hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign, is interfering again this year. The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk he poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "The health department's top lawyer is warning in an internal memo that ... Donald Trump's plan to give seniors $200 discount cards to buy prescription drugs could violate election law, according to three officials with knowledge of those legal concerns. The lawyer's objection, coupled with his advice to seek approval from the Department of Justice, is a significant blow to Trump's hope to promote the hastily devised plan before Election Day. Robert Charrow, a political appointee who serves as the Health and Human Services department's general counsel, warned in the memo that the plan's timing and design could invite legal challenges.... 'This plan is quickly becoming radioactive,' said one official briefed on the proposal.... Congressional Democrats this week requested that a watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, begin an immediate review of the drug-discount card plan."

This Country Is Teeming with Armed Nuts. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "With the approaching election ratcheting up tensions in recent months, armed groups that assembled via a few clicks on the keyboard have become both more visible and more widespread. Some especially violent groups were rooted in longstanding anti-government extremism, like the 14 men charged with various crimes in Michigan this month.... Starting in April, demonstrations against coronavirus lockdowns prompted makeshift vigilante groups to move offline and into the real world. That trickle become a torrent amid the nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- with some armed groups claiming to protect the protesters while others sought to check them." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Georgia Senate Race. "Otherizing" a Woman of Color. Matthew Choi of Politico: "Republican Sen. David Perdue mocked Sen. Kamala Harris on Friday, derisively mispronouncing the Democratic vice presidential candidate's name during a campaign rally in Georgia. 'Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever,' Perdue (R-Ga.) said at a rally in Macon, just before ... Donald Trump was set to take the stage. Mispronouncing Harris' first name has become a common attack within the Trump camp. The president routinely does so in a mocking way during his political rallies, even though he has correctly said it in less rowdy settings. Perdue and Harris (D-Calif.) have served together in the Senate since 2017. Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of color nominated to a major political party ticket." ~~~

     ~~~ Mary Kornfield of the Washington Post: "'This kind of vile, race-baiting trash talk is what President Trump has unleashed from sitting Republican members in the Senate,' ... Jon Ossoff[, who is the Democratic nominee for Perdue's seat,] said in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC.... 'Sen. David Perdue has served in the Senate alongside vice-presidential nominee and Senator Kamala Harris since 2017. He knows her name and he knows how to say it, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Helen Kalla wrote in a statement. 'His disgusting performance today is nothing more than a desperate dog whistle from a losing politician who was already caught running anti-Semitic ads against Jon Ossoff,' Kalla wrote, alluding to a previous Perdue ad that depicted Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff with a longer and thinner nose, which the Jewish candidate alleged played on anti-Semitic tropes."

Iowa Senate Race. Joni Doesn't Know Beans about Beans. Donna Provencher of the American Independent: "In her third and last debate with the Democratic challenger for her Senate seat, Theresa Greenfield, on Thursday night, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) bungled a softball question on the break-even price of soybeans, a major Iowa crop. Moderator Ron Steele first asked Greenfield about the break-even price of corn, which she correctly answered as approximately $3.68 a bushel. He then turned to Ernst, a self-styled agricultural expert who grew up on a farm raising soybeans, and asked her about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst changed the subject to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, but Steele [asked her again].... Ernst hesitated, then told him he had asked about the break-even price for corn.... Ignoring the question, Ernst told him the break-even price of corn was 'about $5.50.' When pressed by Steele, she continued talking about corn, criticizing Greenfield's answer to the question. She never did answer the question about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which authorizes most farming and conservation programs.... It was an odd gaffe for a senator who has frequently leveraged the fact that she grew up on a farm raising soybeans."

Massachusetts Senate Primary Race. AP: "U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III's campaign improperly spent $1.5 million earmarked for the general election during the Massachusetts congressman's failed bid to capture the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat, he said Friday. Kennedy said in a statement to The Boston Globe that he did not know about the improper spending before the Sept. 1 primary election, and has since reimbursed the campaign with ... $1.5 million of his own money. He and his campaign self-reported the violation to the Federal Election Commission last week, he said."


Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Lots of people believe the president owes $400 million, especially after Trump seemed to agree with that figure on national television Thursday night. In reality, however, he owes more than $1 billion. The loans are spread out over more than a dozen different assets -- ;hotels, buildings, mansions and golf courses. Most are listed on the financial disclosure report Trump files annually with the federal government. Two, which add up to an estimated $447 million, are not. It is important to note, as Trump did Thursday night, that he also has significant assets. Forbes values them at $3.66 billion, enough to make his net worth an estimated $2.5 billion. He is not broke, despite what many critics claim."

This Was Friday at Noonish ET. Thomas Fuller & Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has rejected California's request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California's fires, escalated a long-running feud between the Trump administration and California on the issues of climate change and forest management.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2019. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.' Mr. Trump's threat at the time alarmed both Republicans and Democrats in the state. And wildfire experts say Mr. Trump's analysis is problematic because most of California's forests are on land owned by the federal government and their maintenance largely falls under the responsibility of his administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Gee, This Story Has Been Updated. New Lede: "President Trump reversed himself on Friday, approving a package of wildfire disaster relief for California hours after officials from his administration had explained why the state should not receive the aid. The abrupt turnaround came after the president spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican and the House minority leader, with the White House saying the men 'presented a convincing case' for the state receiving the aid. The disaster relief aid covers six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month." An AP story is here. Mrs. McC: Apparently somebody convinced the Meanest Man Alive that less than three weeks before an election is not the best time to deny a standard federal disaster relief package.

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Facing the prospect that President Trump could lose his re-election bid, his cabinet is scrambling to enact regulatory changes affecting millions of Americans in a blitz so rushed it may leave some changes vulnerable to court challenges. The effort is evident in a broad range of federal agencies and encompasses proposals like easing limits on how many hours some truckers can spend behind the wheel, giving the government more freedom to collect biometric data and setting federal standards for when workers can be classified as independent contractors rather than employees. In the bid to lock in new rules before Jan. 20, Mr. Trump's team is limiting or sidestepping requirements for public comment on some of the changes and swatting aside critics who say the administration has failed to carry out sufficiently rigorous analysis. Some cases, like a new rule to allow railroads to move highly flammable liquefied natural gas on freight trains, have led to warnings of public safety threats."

Well, Of Course It Will. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review President Trump's attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants when calculating how congressional seats are apportioned among the states. The unprecedented proposal could have the effect of shifting both political power and billions of dollars in federal funds away from urban states with large immigrant populations and toward rural and more Republican interests. A three-judge panel in New York said Trump's July 21 memorandum on the matter was 'an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to' him by Congress. It blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information about the number of undocumented immigrants -- it is unclear how those numbers would be generated -- in their reports to the president after this year's census is completed."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rebuked the Justice Department and the White House Counsel's Office on Friday for dismissing without explanation President Trump's 'emphatic and unambiguous' tweets ordering the declassification of all documents in the government's probe of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. 'I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,' the president tweeted Oct. 6. 'Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!' Trump's blanket statement came the day after he returned to the White House from three days of treatment for the novel coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.... The tweet has since created a headache for government lawyers in pending open-records lawsuits filed by news organizations seeking fuller disclosure of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report and investigative materials. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer maintained in a court filing Tuesday that the White House Counsel's Office informed the Justice Department that notwithstanding the president's statement, 'there is no order requiring wholesale declassification or disclosure of documents at issue.' At Friday's hearing, however, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court in D.C. expressed bafflement at the claim that President Trump's words were not to be believed." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge demanded on Friday that the White House counsel's office confirm directly with ... Donald Trump whether he stands by a series public statements he made declaring that he'd declassified all information related to the probe of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.... 'I think the American public has a right to rely upon what the president says about what his intent is,' said [Judge Reggie] Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush. 'It seems to me that when a president makes an unambiguous statement of what his intent is, I can't rely upon White House counsel saying, "Well, that was not his intent." Maybe White House counsel talked to the president. Maybe they didn't, but I can't tell.' The 25-minute telephone hearing include the kinds of exchanges between judges and government lawyers that would have been considered stunning under any other president, but have become commonplace under Trump. Walton said, in essence, that he did not trust that the White House counsel's office was accurately relaying the president's view."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "For the first time since late July, the tally of newly reported coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 64,000 on Thursday and Friday. In 44 states and the District of Columbia, caseloads are higher than they were one month ago, and many of the new infections are being reported in rural areas with limited hospital capacity. More than 8,000,000 cases have been reported nationwide since February, and at least 216,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19...."

"A Self-Inflicted Defeat." Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "There won't be a coronavirus vaccine ready before Election Day, despite ... Donald Trump's repeated promises and vaccine makers' breakneck speed. The president's last best hope for meeting that deadline fizzled Friday as Pfizer announced that it would not seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before the third week of November. The company is the only frontrunner in the vaccine race that has said it could have proof its vaccine works by Nov. 3. For Trump, the failure to meet that deadline is a self-inflicted defeat. The Election Day target was always an artificial one, created by a president who for months has touted it on the campaign trail and press briefing stage. When his administration's top scientists disputed the timeline, Trump accused them of slowing down progress for political reasons."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nick Perry of the AP: "New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a second term in office Saturday in an election landslide of historic proportions. With most votes counted, Ardern's liberal Labour Party was winning 49% of the vote compared to 27% for its main challenger, the conservative National Party. Labour was on target to win an outright majority of the seats in Parliament, something that hasn't happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Typically, parties must form alliances to govern, but this time Ardern and Labour can go it alone. In a victory speech in front of hundreds of cheering supporters in Auckland, Ardern said her party had gotten more support from New Zealanders that at any time in at least 50 years.... Her popularity soared earlier this year after she led a successful effort to stamp out the coronavirus. There is currently no community spread of the virus in the nation of 5 million and people are no longer required to wear masks or social distance."

News Ledes

NPR: "Bernard Cohen, who as a young lawyer successfully argued the Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia's ban on interracial marriages, has died at age 86.... Cohen was an attorney in Alexandria, Va., just a few years out of law school when the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was a volunteer, asked if he would take on the case of Richard and Mildred Loving."

New York Times: "Rhonda Fleming, the red-haired actress and sex symbol in Hollywood westerns, film noir and adventure movies of the 1940s and '50s, died on Wednesday at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 97."

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Thursday
Oct152020

The Commentariat -- October 16, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** The New York Times is featuring an extraordinary Sunday Review making "The Case Against Donald Trump." The Editors' cover essay begins, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Mr. Trump's ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds." The linked page has links to "a series of essays focused on the Trump administration's rampant corruption, celebrations of violence, gross negligence with the public's health and incompetent statecraft. A selection of iconic images highlights the president's record on issues like climate, immigration, women's rights and race." Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is a unique journalistic response to any president's tenure. What a shame Trump can't read.

Thomas Fuller & Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has rejected California's request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California's fires, escalated a long-running feud between the Trump administration and California on the issues of climate change and forest management.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2019. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.' Mr. Trump's threat at the time alarmed both Republicans and Democrats in the state. And wildfire experts say Mr. Trump's analysis is problematic because most of California's forests are on land owned by the federal government and their maintenance largely falls under the responsibility of his administration."

Biden Town Hall Tops Trump Town Hall in Early Numbers Tallies. Will Thorne of Variety: "Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump appeared in directly competing town halls on Thursday night, after the President dropped out of the second debate. Trump's hourlong appearance on NBC, which drew criticism across the industry and even an angry letter from top talent and showrunners who work with NBCU, appears to be trailing Biden's 90-minute session with ABC in the ratings, at least according to early numbers. Biden drew 12.7 million total viewers on the Disney-owned network, while Trump drew 10.4 million in the same 9-10 p.m. time slot on NBC. Across the entire runtime, the Biden town hall averaged 12.3 million viewers.... Those numbers are of course subject to significant adjustment given that the Trump town hall aired simultaneously on NBC, its broadcast affiliates, and cable channels CNBC and MSNBC.... This story will be updated with more accurate figures, including the cable numbers, once they become available later in the day."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out Donald Trump has far closer ties to QAnon that I surmised. Knows nothing about it? Hell, he's funding it, & QAnon nuts share attorneys with Trump's family: ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory. While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall."

This Country Is Teeming with Armed Nuts. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "With the approaching election ratcheting up tensions in recent months, armed groups that assembled via a few clicks on the keyboard have become both more visible and more widespread. Some especially violent groups were rooted in longstanding anti-government extremism, like the 14 men charged with various crimes in Michigan this month.... Starting in April, demonstrations against coronavirus lockdowns prompted makeshift vigilante groups to move offline and into the real world. That trickle become a torrent amid the nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- with some armed groups claiming to protect the protesters while others sought to check them." Read on.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

The New York Times is live-updating the Biden & Trump "town halls" here. Big surprise: Trump is lying, whining & being "contentious." Mrs. McC: I've been half-listening to Biden, and I'm reminded again that I forgot real presidents know a lot. ~~~

~~~ New York Times reporters' split-screen snark report is here. As Lisa Lerer notes (@8:28 pm ET): "The split screen is so jarring here. Trump is fighting with the moderator over mask wearing. And Biden is calmly talking about how he'll guarantee down payments for first-time homebuyers and help young Black entrepreneurs." ~~~

~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live updates of the dueling candidate teevee shows. These updates are free to non-subscribers. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Choi & Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico select "key moments" from both broadcasts. Helpful if you didn't watch. ~~~

~~~ Trump Used the Town Hall to Elevate QAnon. Really. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: During the NBC town hall, Savannah Guthrie asked Donald Trump if he would "disavow QAnon in its entirety." For the audience, she described QAnon as "this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that." Trump insisted he knew nothing about QAnon, but said, "I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard...." Bump: When Trump "fails to say, 'of course QAnon is ridiculous,' he's not only giving the group a stamp of approval, he's actively reinforcing the idea that he's aware of the purported conspiracy. By saying they're 'fighting very hard' against pedophilia, adherents -- attuned to picking out signals that reinforce their position! -- are not going to have to look hard to find a positive message. This is dangerous. QAnon adherents have been implicated in murders and kidnappings and threats.... Guthrie tried to move on. Trump, angry, insisted they not.... The president of the United States, asked if there is a satanic pedophile cult with roots in the U.S. government, says he 'has no idea.' Further, that a journalist for a major news network can't honestly claim not to know whether this idea is legitimate." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "The contrast between the dueling NBC/ABC town halls featuring ... Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was nicely captured by the difference between what each of them was saying at 8:13 pm Eastern time. On NBC, Trump was getting angry as host Savannah Guthrie grilled him on his reluctance to disavow white supremacist groups and dangerous conspiracy theories. He finally did so after repeated questioning. But asked specifically to categorically condemn QAnon ... Trump refused.... At the very moment Trump was making that display, Biden on ABC was talking about the importance of wearing masks and following public health measures endorsed by experts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 'When a president doesn't wear a mask, or makes fun of folks like me when I was wearing a mask for a long time, then people say it mustn't be that important,' Biden said. 'If you listen to the head of the CDC, he stood up and he said, "You know, while we're waiting for a vaccine" -- he held up a mask -- "you wear this mask, you'll save more lives between now and the end of the year than if we had a vaccine."'... Minutes earlier, Trump defended his ongoing reluctance to wear masks in public ... with a lie about how 'just the other day they came out with a statement that 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch [coronavirus].'" ~~~

~~~ Scott Bixby & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On one channel, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. On the other, a rerun of Celebrity Deathmatch. Or, at least, that's how it felt.... Biden seemed to genuinely care if the person he was addressing felt heard.... Over on NBC, President Trump was busy doing a kinder, gentler impression of his usual self. Still, it included some of the same excesses.... The Trump campaign appeared flummoxed at how to spin what they had been hoping would be a humiliating defeat for Biden in the race for ratings.... 'He didn't spend the whole time yelling, he didn't piss himself ... so this was as best as we could have hoped for,' said one Trump campaign adviser. 'After the last debate, that is an improvement.'" ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "NBC faced sharp criticism this week for scheduling a Thursday night town hall with President Trump, with even network employees chiding their employer for giving him an hour of airtime -- 'a free hour of television,' he said, sounding pleased, at a rally earlier that day. Even worse, critics said, it was matched up against ABC's town hall with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.... But, despite fears that the event would amount to a free promotion for Trump's campaign, it ended up being one of the toughest grillings he has faced as president, with questions about white supremacy, covid-19 deaths and his taxes.... The event ... included a lot of direct pressing by the moderator, 'Today' co-host Savannah Guthrie, who repeatedly challenged the president's evasions."

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "When NBC News drew fire for scheduling Thursday night's town hall with President Trump directly opposite an ABC News town hall with Joe Biden, the excuse was parity.... I'd describe that gambit with an entirely different word: specious. It may sound plausible, but it is wrong. In fact, NBC News is doing what so much of mainstream media has done time and again: allowed Trump to steal the spotlight and command attention on his terms. 'I am dismayed -- more like disgusted -- by NBC's decision to air Trump's "I won't play by the rules so let me make my own rules" town hall opposite Biden's,' wrote a former NBC News executive, Cheryl Gould. She wasn't alone. MSNBC marquee host Rachel Maddow obliquely signaled her unhappiness with the decision.... More than a hundred actors and producers from NBC's entertainment division are protesting the move in a letter to top executives, as well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times story by John Koblin & Michael Grynbaum.

Molly Nagle of ABC News: "The Biden campaign has announced that someone who flew with former Vice President Joe Biden to Ohio on Monday and Florida on Tuesday has tested positive for COVID-19. The positive result was discovered through contact tracing that the campaign undertook following the positive diagnosis of Sen. Kamala Harris' communications director and a non-staff flight crew member.... However, the campaign says that Biden and the member who tested positive did not have any passing or close contact during the flight and he is not required to isolate." Mrs. McC: You may recall that when people in closer contact with Trump tested positive, Trump told them to keep it quiet. ~~~

~~~ Chelsea Janes & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris canceled her travel through this coming weekend after two people who were around her tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday night.... Harris ... tested negative for the virus Wednesday and will be tested again Thursday, the campaign said. Harris has not been in close contact recently with either communications director Liz Allen or the other person who tested positive, a flight crew member who is not a campaign staff member, aides said. Former vice president Joe Biden..., also has not been in contact with those affected, according to a statement from campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The next lede is so rare, it seems surreal: ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, castigated President Trump in a telephone town hall with constituents on Wednesday, accusing the president of bungling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, cozying up to dictators and white supremacists, and offending voters so broadly that he might cause a "Republican blood bath' in the Senate." And off we go: "In a dire, nine-minute indictment of Mr. Trump's foreign policy and what Mr. Sasse called his 'deficient' values, the senator said the president had mistreated women and alienated important allies around the globe, been a profligate spender, ignored human rights and treated the pandemic like a 'P.R. crisis.' He predicted that a loss by Mr. Trump on Election Day, less than three weeks away, 'looks likely,' and said that Republicans would face steep repercussions for having backed him so staunchly over four tumultuous years." Read on, if you have a subscription. ~~~

     ~~~ The (right-wing) Washington Examiner's story, by David Drucker, is worth reading, too. It includes audio, which is labeled "RINO Ben Sasse," where RINO = Republican In Name Only.

** Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.... The information that Giuliani sought in Ukraine is similar to what is contained in emails and other correspondence published this week by the New York Post.... The [intel] warnings ... led national security adviser Robert O'Brien to caution Trump in a private conversation that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia.... But O'Brien emerged from the meeting uncertain whether he had gotten through to the president.... Earlier in 2019, U.S. intelligence also had warned in written materials sent to the White House that Giuliani, in his drive for information about the Bidens, was communicating with Russian assets." Mrs. McC: O'Brien was uncertain he'd gotten through to Trump? Ha Ha. ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday slammed Facebook and Twitter over their decisions to limit the spread of a New York Post story that included allegations about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. Trump accused the companies of seeking to help his opponent's campaign by enforcing policies that limit users' ability to share the story.... 'Now, Big Tech -- you see what's going on with Big Tech? -- is censoring these stories to try and get Biden out of this impossible jam. He's in a big jam,' Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. 'He and his family are crooked and they were caught, they got caught,' Trump added." Mrs. McC: Yeah, O'Brien, you really got thru to Trump. ~~~

Glenn Greenwald, early photo.     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And Glenn Greenwald also is in high dudgeon over Facebook's & Twitter's decisions, too. (To be fair, Greenwald existss in a state of high dudgeon. His first full sentence, uttered at the age of 18 months, was, "Waaah, it's not fair!" It's pretty much the only thing he's said since.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mike Isaac & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "President Trump called Facebook and Twitter 'terrible' and 'a monster' and said he would go after them. Senators Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn said they would subpoena the chief executives of the companies for their actions. And on Fox News, prominent conservative hosts blasted the social media platforms as 'monopolies' and accused them of 'censorship' and election interference.... Late Thursday, under pressure, Twitter said it was changing the policy that it had used to block the New York Post article and would now allow similar content to be shared, along with a label to provide context about the source of the information." ~~~

~~~ Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice: "It has been clear for a long time that Rudy was being used by Russian intelligence officers and assets.... But what we did not know, though it was a logical suspicion to have, that the US Intelligence Community had signals intelligence (SIGINT) from communications intercepts of Russian assets that clearly indicated this unfortunate reality. We also did not know that they had done their jobs and pushed their assessment up the chain to the Assistant to the President for National Security (AP-NSA) O'Brien, that O'Brien had briefed the President, and that the President blew him off! We also did not know that ... O'Brien then briefed the President to warn him off of Giuliani and the disinformation and agitprop Rudy was pushing as the centerpiece of the President's defense in his impeachment trial in the Senate! This was, of course part of the plan to turn both chambers of the US Congress into an information laundry for the Russian disinformation and agitprop Rudy was being used to promote, which was then repeated during the hearings Senators Johnson and Grassley held this past August and September." Silverman republishes quite a bit of the WashPo story. And has more analysis. ~~~

~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Federal investigators are examining whether the emails allegedly describing activities by Joe Biden and his son Hunter and [Mrs. McC: purportedly] found on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. The FBI seized the laptop and a hard drive through a grand jury subpoena." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The New York Post has another story out about Hunter Biden today. Didn't read it, not gonna, not linking it. ~~~

~~~ Alex Kaplan of Media Matters: "A user on TheDonald.win, a far-right message board, was hinting at and promoting a series of dubious articles from the New York Post about Hunter Biden days before they were published. The user also claimed to know the people involved with the articles.... In the days leading up to October 14 (a Wednesday), an account on TheDonald.win called 'Freedom_USA_88' had repeatedly posted threads that claimed that a 'massive' story about Biden was coming out that day. As noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), '88' is 'a white supremacist numerical code for "Heil Hitler." The account's username also has exactly 14 characters, a reference to the white nationalist "14 Words" slogan that is often combined with '88,' as noted by the ADL.... The user claimed that they [he] had been 'authorized to drop a hint about Wednesday's story' and 'know the parties involved.'" Mrs. McC: That's actually believable, not only because he was right but also because he's a Nazi aficionado; IOW, just Rudy's type. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Summer Concepcion of TPM: Rudy's daughter "issued a scathing rebuke on Thursday against the President's re-election efforts and urged voters in next month's presidential election to throw their support behind ... Joe Biden instead. In an essay published in Vanity Fair on Thursday, Caroline Giuliani ... argued that 'none of us can afford to be silent right now' when 'the stakes are too high.'... Giuliani wrote that felt that it was important to speak her mind 'in Trump's era of chest-thumping partisan tribalism.'" ~~~

~~~ Phillip Halpern in a San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed: "After 36 years, I'm fleeing what was the U.S. Department of Justice -- where I proudly served 19 different attorneys general and six different presidents.... [William] Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He's a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.... Over the last year, Barr's resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump's will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases.... This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.... More recently, Barr directed federal officers to use tear gas in Lafayette Park to quell what were, at that time, peaceful protesters. Barr's assertion the square was not cleared due to the president's desire for a Bible-carrying photo op is laughable.... Barr's longest-running politicization of the Justice Department is the Durham investigation -- a quixotic pursuit designed to attack the president's political rivals."

Trip Gabriel, et al., of the New York Times: "With polls showing the president behind Mr. Biden nationally and in key states, Mr. Trump has descended into rants about perceived enemies, both inside and outside his administration, triggering in his staunchest supporters such fears for the outcome -- possibly a 'stolen' election, maybe a coup by the far left -- that he is emboldening them to disrupt the voting process, according to national security experts and law enforcement officials.... None of [the right-wing violence] has stopped Mr. Trump from fear-mongering about leftist violence. 'Biden will disarm law abiding Americans,' the president told supporters in suburban Virginia last month. 'At the same time, they'll have riots down your street and that's just fine.'... It was notable, national security experts said, that none of the nation's top officials from the Justice Department or the F.B.I. spoke at the news conference to announce the arrests in the Whitmer case."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you ever wonder what happened to the ugly misfit rowdy boys who dropped out of your high school class, it seems they got uglier & rowdier, are packing rifles & are dressed up in camo.

One Degree of Separation Is Not Far Enough to Spare You the Curse of Trump. David Bauder of the AP: "C-SPAN suspended its political editor Steve Scully indefinitely Thursday after he admitted to lying about his Twitter feed being hacked when he was confronted about a questionable exchange with former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci. The news came on the day of what was supposed to be a career highlight for the 30-year C-SPAN veteran. Scully was to moderate the second debate between ... Donald Trump and ... Joe Biden, which was canceled after Trump would not agree to a virtual format because of his COVID-19 diagnosis. A week ago, after Trump had criticized him as a 'never Trumper,' Scully tweeted "@Scaramucci should I respond to Trump.' Scaramucci, a former Trump communications director and now a critic of the president, advised Scully to ignore him. Scully said that when he saw his tweet had created a controversy, 'I falsely claimed that my Twitter account had been hacked.' He had been frustrated by Trump's comments and several weeks of criticism on social media and conservative news outlets about his role as moderator, including attacks directed at his family, he said."

Florida. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida will seek to push former felons from voter rolls if they have outstanding court debts, a surprise, late-hour move that comes after more than 2 million people already have voted in the presidential battleground. The announcement, which was distributed to local election officials but not the wider public, drew immediate pushback from county election supervisors and suspicion from Democrats who say it could be used to challenge the eventual election results.... Unwritten in the email ... was the assumption that local officials should start acting on any information they receive. The email also instructed supervisors to act on information from other sources, including court clerks, that raises eligibility questions." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the link. Mrs. McC: Numerous media outlets have reported that Florida's records of court debts are scattered, outdated & disorganized. IOW, election officials who follow this order are sure to obtain records that falsely indicate a former felon/voter has an outstanding court debt. It's not clear from the story whether the voter will be notified of a decision to nullify his vote or have an opportunity to challenge the decision.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases.... 'We are headed in the wrong direction, and that's reflected not only in the number of new cases but also in test positivity and the number of hospitalizations,' said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. 'Together, I think these three indicators give a very clear picture that we are seeing increased transmission in communities across the country.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was recently battling a coronavirus infection, said on Thursday that he was 'wrong' not to wear a mask at an even honoring Judge Amy Coney Barrett and in his debate preparation sessions with President Trump, and that people should take the threat of the virus seriously. In an interview with The New York Times and in a written statement, Mr. Christie said that he had believed he was in a 'safe zone' at the White House while he was there. He urged people to follow best practices, like mask wearing and social distancing, but argued there's a middle ground between extensive, large-scale shutdowns and reopening cities and states without taking proper precautions."

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump called Thursday for even more stimulus spending than the $1.8 trillion proposed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in his talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, injecting yet more chaos into the unruly negotiations as the election nears. 'I would take more. I would go higher,' Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network, repeating his directive from earlier in the week to 'Go big or go home!!!['] Trump said he's communicated his views to Mnuchin. 'I've told him. So far he hasn't come home with the bacon,' the president said." Mrs. McC: Trump's advocacy for a bigger stimulus package deal is B.S. Obviously, he wouldn't have to twist Mnuchin's arm to get him to up the administration's offer. Usually, the devil is in the details, but I'd say here the devil is in the Oval. And, for pete's sake, you don't complain that a Jewish person hasn't brought home the bacon. Idiot. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cited progress Thursday in their ongoing coronavirus-relief negotiations less than three weeks before the November elections, though the Democratic leader raised concerns about whether any big spending package could pass Congress given fierce resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate."

~~~ MEANWHILE. Dan Primack of Axios: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he would not put a potential $1.8 trillion+ deal struck by Democrats and the Trump administration on the Senate floor. 'My members think half a trillion dollars, highly targeted is the best way to go,' he said." Mrs. McC: I expect McConnell knows or fears that a majority would vote for such a bill as in extremis Republican senators peel off & vote with Democrats to pass the bill. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times story by Emily Cochrane & Alan Rappeport that relates the GOP divide on a stimulus package: Trump's "comments directly contradicted Republicans' efforts to foist blame onto Ms. Pelosi and Democrats as the impasse has dragged on for months."

Trump-o-nomics. Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "After an ambitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and poverty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new studies have found. The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic's start as a result of an $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act. Using a different definition of poverty, researchers from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame found that poverty has grown by six million people in the past three months, with circumstances worsening most for Black people and children.... The recent rise in poverty has occurred despite an improving job market, an indication that the economy has been rebounding too slowly to offset the lost benefits." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Descended into rants"? I wonder if the POTUS* realizes that the paper of record, the realm of the Gray Lady, is happy to publish news stories -- not opinion pieces -- that more-or-less describe him as a raving lunatic. It is a remarkable evolution.


"Just Doing His Job." Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "What, in the Trump era, does the face of complicity look like?... It's just a man in rimless glasses and a dark suit. I'm talking about Rod J. Rosenstein. Years from now, I think we should remember the men and women like him, and the role they played in this administration's vilest deeds.... On a conference call with the Justice Department in the spring of 2018, five U.S. attorneys from our border states -- three of them Trump appointees -- expressed their alarm about the 'zero tolerance' policy of prosecuting all undocumented immigrants, even if it meant separating them from their sons and daughters[, including] some ... so young that they were still breastfeeding, so young that they were preverbail.... Rosenstein's complicity in this machine was ugly, but it was by no means unique. Top officials at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services all played a role. They were all sowing chaos, inflicting cruelty and causing unfathomable trauma at the behest of a small, vicious cadre up top.... Separating families was the objective of the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, not a byproduct."

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "A District judge has ruled that a Trump appointee overstepped his authority when he fired the board of an agency that helps dissidents and journalists in repressive countries and sought to replace it with his own slate of directors, including himself. Shortly after taking over as chief executive of the federal agency that supervises the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other government-funded media operations in June, Michael Pack began a sweeping overhaul of the six organizations, firing five of their directors; two others resigned in anticipation of his cuts. But the board of the Open Technology Fund, which Pack dismissed along with its director, rejected his order, arguing that he didn't have the authority to replace them, and at one point, it blocked Pack's chosen slate of directors and his new chief executive designee from taking over its offices in the District. The District's attorney general, which oversees nonprofits in the city, sued on the agency's behalf. And on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini agreed that Pack was not authorized by the fund's bylaws to replace its leadership...."

Sheldon Whitehouse Lays Down the Gauntlet. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Republicans are confident a vote confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the the Supreme Court is only days away, but Democrats are looking farther ahead and warning that this swift process on the eve of an election won't be quickly forgotten.... 'The rule of "because we can," which is the rule that is being applied today, is one that leads away from a lot of the traditions and commitments and values that the Senate has long embodied, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said. 'Don't think that when you have established the rule of "because we can" that should the shoe be on the other foot that you will have any credibility to come to us and say, yeah, I know you can do that but you shouldn't because of X, Y, Z,' he said. 'Your credibility to make that argument in the future will die in this room and on that Senate floor if you continue to proceed in this way.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Japan. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "Japan's government has reportedly decided to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, setting it on a collision course with local fishermen who say the move will destroy their industry. Media reports said work to release the water, which is being stored in more than 1,000 tanks, would begin in 2022 at the earliest and would take decades to complete." --s

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