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.”

The Wires
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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


Sunday
Sep202020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 21, 2020

Mid-morning Update:

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump plans to announce his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, he said in an interview on 'Fox & Friends' Monday morning. 'I think it'll be on Friday or Saturday,' Trump said when asked when he would announce his decision, adding that he wanted to 'pay respect' to Ginsburg ... by waiting until after her funeral services. Trump also said that he had narrowed his list down to five potential nominees. Trump has already committed to choosing a woman to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Suggests Ginburg's Granddaughter Is a Liar. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Asked about Ginsburg's dying wish, in which she reportedly said she doesn't want to be replaced until a new presidential is installed, Trump said, 'I don't know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second, okay, you know. It came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that that came out of the wind.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: According to Nina Totenberg of NPR, who is a long-time friend of Justice Ginsburg, "Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: 'My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'" (Also linked here Saturday.) So either Totenberg made up that story out of whole cloth about her friend of decades, or Ginsburg's own granddaughter did -- according to Trump. Trump is withholding his nomination to "pay respect" to Ginsburg? Right. He's just teasing his next show.

Sam Levine & Alvin Chang of the Guardian: "The United States Postal Service (USPS) saw a severe decline in the rate of on-time delivery of first-class mail after Louis DeJoy took over as postmaster general, according to new data obtained by the Guardian that provides some of the most detailed insight yet into widespread mail delays this summer." --s

Yihyun Jeong & Holly Meyer of The Tennessean: "Former Nashville Council Member Tony Tenpenny has died due to complications from COVID-19, Vice Mayor Jim Shulman confirmed Sunday. Tenpenny was hospitalized for more than a month at one of the St. Thomas hospitals and was placed on a ventilator earlier in September. He died overnight, Shulman said on Sunday afternoon.... In the months before his death, Tony Tenpenny shared social media posts calling into question the veracity of the ongoing global pandemic and the government's response." --s

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The wealthiest 1% of the world's population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

Chuck Schumer & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez speak at James Madison High School in Brooklyn Sunday evening. Both, along with Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, are alumni of the school. AOC begins speaking at about 4:45 min. in. Chuck was smart to bring her along: ~~~

~~~ John Leland of the New York Times: "Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a child of Brooklyn long before she was Notorious -- daughter of Jewish immigrants, graduate of P.S. 238 and James Madison High School (class of 1950), cheerleader known as Kiki Bader, member of the East Midwood Jewish Center.... Over the weekend, as news spread of Justice Ginsburg's death on Friday, makeshift memorials of candles, signs, flowers and even an R.B.G. action figure went up outside James Madison High School and her childhood home. Hundreds gathered Saturday night outside the courthouse in Foley Square in Manhattan, holding candles and singing the civil rights anthem 'Woke Up This Morning With My Mind Stayed on Freedom,' and a vigil was also held outside Kings County Supreme Court.... Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced that the state would erect a statue in her honor in Brooklyn." ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "For women, the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg brings a particular grief." ~~~

~~~ Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: "The grounds of the Supreme Court bloomed into a memorial to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, drawing thousands who came to honor and remember the trailblazing icon. Mourners began arriving at the high court soon after news of her death came Friday evening, growing to a crowd of more than 1,000 who cried, sang and occasionally applauded. On Saturday, as the sun rose, dozens of people stood in silence as a flag flew at half-staff. And they kept coming by the hundreds. Bouquets, signs and chalk messages honoring Ginsburg multiplied by the minute. Joggers stopped mid-run, bikers paused and rested on their handlebars, and mothers from across the D.C. region brought their daughters to pay tribute to the pioneering liberal lawyer and advocate for equality. Even as lawmakers began to clash over when she would be replaced, the space outside the court was mostly one of quiet reflection. By nightfall, thousands packed the plaza, holding candles and listening to speakers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katie Glueck & Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "In his first extensive remarks on the looming Supreme Court battle since he acknowledged the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday, Mr. Biden ... appealed directly to the few pivotal Senate Republicans 'who really will decide what happens,' urging them to oppose an effort to push through a new nominee before the election. 'Please, follow your conscience,' he pleaded in a speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. 'Don't vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell have created. Don't go there. Uphold your constitutional duty. Your conscience. Let the people speak. Cool the flames that have been engulfing our country.'... He also said that he did not intend to release his own list of possible Supreme Court choices before the election, as Mr. Trump has done. But Mr. Biden reiterated his pledge to put a Black woman on the court, which he first made during the Democratic primary race. 'I made it clear that my first choice for the Supreme Court will make history as the first African-American woman justice,' he said.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Joe is awfully good at showing how small Donald Trump & Mitch McConnell are.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Sunday that the Senate should not take up a Supreme Court nomination before the election, becoming the second GOP senator to voice opposition to a vote before Nov. 3. 'For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed,' Murkowski said in a statement. 'I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia. We are now even closer to the 2020 election - less than two months out - and I believe the same standard must apply,' she added.... [Mitch] McConnell has not weighed in on the timing. If he wants to hold a vote before the election, he will need to hold together at least 50 of his 53 members, which would let Vice President Pence break a tie. That means in addition to [Susan] Collins [Maine] and Murkowski, Democrats need to win over at least two additional GOP senators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Sorry, Senator, You're Not Donald's Type. David Cohen of Politico: "... Donald Trump took a swipe Sunday morning at Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who subsequently announced she doesn't support moving forward immediately with his Supreme Court pick. Trump picked up a tweet from the Alaska Chamber promoting an upcoming event with Murkowski and retweeted it with an emphatic 'No thanks!"

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "Despite the Biden team's confidence, the prospect of Mr. Trump's appointing a third justice to the Supreme Court in his first term injects a highly volatile element into the race just six weeks before the election. Court battles have long been seen as greater motivation for Republican voters than for Democrats, though the record sums of money flooding into Democratic campaigns in the hours after Justice Ginsburg's death offered progressives hope that they might be equally energized this time. Still, Biden campaign officials said on Saturday that they did not see even a Supreme Court vacancy and the passions it will inevitably inflame as reason to fundamentally reorient the campaign';s approach.... While confirmation fights have long centered on hot-button cultural divides such as guns and especially abortion, the Biden campaign, at least at the start, plans to chiefly focus on protecting the Affordable Care Act and its popular guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions." A Politico story, by Marc Caputo, is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Parkinson of ABC News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid tribute to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sunday, calling her a 'powerful, brilliant brain on the court' in an appearance on ABC's 'This Week,' while refusing to take another impeachment inquiry off the table in order to block ... Donald Trump's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court. 'We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I'm not about to discuss right now but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country. This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election,' Pelosi told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. 'Our main goal would be to protect the integrity of the election as we protect the people from the coronavirus.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that President Trump is rushing to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg because he 'wants to crush the Affordable Care Act....' Pelosi wants to steer the conversation around the potential Ginsburg replacement to health care, which polls show is a top issue for voters, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has urged the courts to strike down the law, and with it, protections for millions with pre-existing conditions.... The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the ACA on Nov. 10, one week after the general election. In 2017, 20 Republican attorneys general sued to get rid of the ACA, with the Trump administration's support, charging that because Congress had repealed the individual mandate, the entire law was no longer valid. The law has worked its way back to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ruled the law was unconstitutional and an appeals court said the law's individual mandate was unconstitutional." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dana Milbank: "You don't have to be a Jew, or a believer, to see the symbolism -- the loss of this great woman at the very moment that, in the Jewish tradition, God begins the renewal of the world -- to know that there is powerful, spiritual meaning here that should call us all to reflection on the meaning of Ginsburg's life. Instead, some 80 minutes after her death was reported, Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a man without a shred of decency and seemingly without a soul, announced his intent to replace her as fast as possible, before the next president is sworn in. (Even President Trump showed more humanity at first, citing the traditional Jewish expression for the dead, 'May her memory be a blessing,' with a Trumpian flourish: 'May her memory be a great and magnificent blessing to the world.')... Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) soon joined the Senate majority leader, announcing a 180-degree reversal from his position toward Obama Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland in 2016, and somehow blaming the Democrats for his rank hypocrisy and dishonorable conduct.... It is difficult to find that courage amid hurricanes, fires, a melting planet, racial injustice and strife, a pandemic, financial suffering and bitterness among nations. Now we can't even pause for a day to reflect on a life well-lived, to mourn the loss of a righteous voice, and to listen for the shofar and the 'still, small voice' that might help us find the way out of all of our misery."

Chris Kahn of Reuters: "A majority of Americans, including many Republicans, want the winner of the November presidential election to name a successor to Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Sunday. The national opinion poll, conducted Sept. 19-20 after Ginsburg's death was announced, suggests that many Americans object to ... Donald Trump's plan, backed by many Senate Republic ans, to push through another lifetime appointee and cement a 6-3 conservative majority on the court. The poll found that 62% of American adults agreed the vacancy should be filled by the winner of the Nov. 3 matchup between Trump and Democratic former Vice President Joe Biden, while 23% disagreed and the rest said they were not sure."

Democratic Voters Wake Up. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "For decades, Republicans have galvanized voters around reshaping the Supreme Court, and they have benefited from it at the ballot box. But in a stark reversal, polls indicate that Democrats have the edge this year. National and battleground state surveys taken before Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday showed that voters trust Joe Biden more than ... Donald Trump to pick a Supreme Court nominee and that Democrats rate the court as more important to their votes than Republicans do.... In a political environment in which Democrats are energized over the court, rejecting the dying wish of the leader of the court's liberal wing risks a voter backlash [against Republicans]."

Julie Pace of the AP: "In the coming days, the number of U.S. [Covid-19] deaths is set to clear ... 200,000, according to the official tally, though the real number is certainly higher.... Yet the grim milestone and the prospect of more American deaths to come have prompted no rethinking from the president about his handling of the pandemic and no outward expressions of regrets. Instead, Trump has sought to reshape the significance of the death tally, trying to turn the loss of 200,000 Americans into a success story by contending the numbers could have been even higher without the actions of his administration. 'If we didn't do our job, it would be three and a half, two and a half, maybe 3 million people,' Trump said Friday, leaning on extreme projections of what could have happened if nothing at all were done to fight the pandemic. 'We have done a phenomenal job with respect to COVID-19.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Pace doesn't say so, but the fact is that the toll would be even higher -- by a lot -- if governors & mayors had not implored the Trump administration to do its job to help supply PPP & testing kits & defied Trump when he ignored & discouraged ("LIBERATE MICHIGAN!") compliance with national standards. ~~~

Jordan Novet, et al., of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Saturday he has approved a deal in principle in which Oracle and Walmart will partner with the viral video-sharing app TikTok in the U.S., allowing the popular app to avoid a shutdown. 'I have given the deal my blessing -- if they get it done that's great, if they don't that's okay too,' Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for North Carolina. 'I approved the deal in concept.' The U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would delay the prohibition of U.S. transactions with TikTok until next Sunday. Shortly after Trump's comments, Oracle announced it was chosen as TikTok's secure cloud provider and will become a minority investor with a 12.5% stake. TikTok confirmed Oracle's role and said it was working with Walmart on a commercial partnership." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Alexis Benveniste of CNN: "The back-and-forth of the TikTok deal has been rocky, but ... Donald Trump is certain that he wants to use the deal to create a $5 billion fund to 'educate people' about the 'real history of our country.' 'I think Walmart is going to buy it along with Oracle,' Trump said on Saturday at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He went on to say that as part of the deal, he requested '$5 billion into a fund for education so we can educate people as to real history of our country -- the real history, not the fake history.'" Mrs. McC: Real History, according to Prof. Trump: Donald Trump never told a lie. Donald Trump freed the slaves. Donald Trump led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. Donald Trump saved the crew of PT-109. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ Jeanne Whalen of the Washington Post: "A federal court granted a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration's planned ban of Chinese app WeChat, in response to a plaintiff lawsuit saying the ban would harm their First Amendment rights. The United States District Court in San Francisco said the plaintiffs, a group of WeChat users, had shown there are 'serious questions' related to their First Amendment claim. The Trump administration had planned to effectively ban WeChat in the U.S. late tonight by preventing it from appearing in mobile-phone app stores, and by blocking the app's access to Internet hosting services in the U.S. The planned ban stemmed from Trump's Aug. 6 executive order that declared that WeChat posed a threat to national security because it collected 'vast swaths' of data on Americans and other users, and offered the Chinese Communist Party an avenue for censoring or distorting information." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha. Ben Smith of the New York Times: "... the story of [Donald] Trump and [Jeff] Zucker ... -- who put 'The Apprentice' on NBC in 2004 and made Mr. Trump a household name -- ... is a kind of Frankenstein tale for the late television age, about a brilliant TV executive who lost control of his creation. And it illustrates the extent to which this American moment is still shaped not by the hard logic of politics or the fragmented reality of new media, but by the ineluctable power of TV.... When Mr. Trump ran for president, Mr. Zucker briefly dismissed him as a 'sideshow' in an early 2015 email to his political team, according to one of its recipients. But as soon as he saw the ratings his old star could still deliver, he spent 2015 and 2016 turning CNN into a platform for his ambitions." Mrs. McC: A fine reminder -- with new material -- of how Jeff Zucker made & sucked up to Donald Trump.

AP: "A woman suspected of sending an envelope containing the poison ricin, which was addressed to White House, has been arrested at New York-Canada border, three law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on Sunday. The letter had been intercepted earlier this week before it reached the White House. The woman was taken into custody by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at the Peace Bridge border crossing near Buffalo and is expected to face federal charges, the officials said. Her name was not immediately released."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. -- "The FinCEN Files"

Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "A huge trove of secret government documents reveals for the first time how the giants of Western banking move trillions of dollars in suspicious transactions, enriching themselves and their shareholders while facilitating the work of terrorists, kleptocrats, and drug kingpins. And the US government ... fails to stop it. Today, the FinCEN Files -- thousands of 'suspicious activity reports' and other US government documents -- offer an unprecedented view of global financial corruption, the banks enabling it, and the government agencies that watch as it flourishes. BuzzFeed News has shared these reports with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and more than 100 news organizations in 88 countries.... Profits from deadly drug wars, fortunes embezzled from developing countries, and hard-earned savings stolen in a Ponzi scheme were all allowed to flow into and out of these financial institutions, despite warnings from the banks' own employees. Money laundering is a crime that makes other crimes possible. It can accelerate economic inequality, drain public funds, undermine democracy, and destabilize nations -- and the banks play a key role. 'Some of these people in those crisp white shirts in their sharp suits are feeding off the tragedy of people dying all over the world,' said Martin Woods, a former suspicious transactions investigator for Wachovia."

Tom Warren, et al., of BuzzFeed news focus on Deutsche Bank's massive money-laundering operation: "The FinCEN Files investigation reveals that Deutsche managers, including top executives, had direct knowledge for years of serious failings that left the bank vulnerable to money launderers.... In all, more than 100 internal alerts were raised on the companies at the heart of the Russian mirror trade scandal between 2012 and 2015. During these years, some of the world's worst criminals used the network to move dark money around the globe, with the help of shell companies and corrupt financiers.... In recent years, Deutsche's share price has plummeted under the weight of scandal after scandal. In the last decade, the bank has paid fines for everything from evading sanctions against Iran and Myanmar to rigging foreign exchange markets to doing business with Jeffrey Epstein. And it has come under scrutiny for lending Trump hundreds of millions of dollars despite his history of defaulting on loans."

Alicia Tatone for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: "The records show that five global banks — JPMorgan, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York Mellon -- kept profiting from powerful and dangerous players even after U.S. authorities fined these financial institutions for earlier failures to stem flows of dirty money. U.S. agencies responsible for enforcing money laundering laws rarely prosecute megabanks that break the law, and the actions authorities do take barely ripple the flood of plundered money that washes through the international financial system. In some cases the banks kept moving illicit funds even after U.S. officials warned them they'd face criminal prosecutions if they didn't stop doing business with mobsters, fraudsters or corrupt regimes."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Not surprisingly, all three stories linked above mention Donald Trump & his crooked associates, especially Paul Manafort.

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Ted Armus of the Washington Post: "As a freshman Kentucky legislator, state Rep. Robert S. Goforth (R) joined his colleagues to pass a bill that would make it easier to prosecute strangulation. Last week, that same bill -- now a state law after it passed at the urging of domestic violence advocates -- came back to bite him: A grand jury in Laurel County, Ky., on Friday indicted Goforth, a former candidate for governor, on one count of first-degree strangulation and one count of assault in the fourth degree, according to the Corbin Times-Tribune. Earlier this year, a woman said Goforth, 44, strangled her with an Ethernet cable to the point where she had trouble breathing and threatened to 'hog tie' her, according to a police report reviewed by the newspaper. The charges have renewed calls from local Democrats for Goforth, a staunch supporter of President Trump who had previously been accused of sexual assault, to resign from his seat."

Nebraska. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Jake Gardner, a White bar owner who was indicted last week in the fatal shooting of Black protester James Scurlock during a late-night Omaha demonstration in May, died by suicide on Sunday, his attorneys said at a news conference. Attorney Stu Dornan said that Gardner, 38, had died 'at his own hand' in Oregon on the same day he was scheduled to return to Omaha to turn himself in. Gardner faced four felony charges, including manslaughter, that were handed down by a special prosecutor last week. The indictment came months after a county attorney initially agreed with Gardner that he'd shot Scurlock, 22, in self-defense and declined to prosecute the bar owner. A grand jury thought otherwise, pointing to Gardner's own words in text and Facebook messages as probable cause for an indictment."

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Saturday
Sep192020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

In a compelling speech, Vice President Joe Biden addressed the nation on the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: ~~~

     ~~~ Joe is awfully good at showing how small Donald Trump & Mitch McConnell are.

Emily Davies, et al., of the Washington Post: "The grounds of the Supreme Court bloomed into a memorial to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, drawing thousands who came to honor and remember the trailblazing icon.Mourners began arriving at the high court soon after news of her death came Friday evening, growing to a crowd of more than 1,000 who cried, sang and occasionally applauded. On Saturday, as the sun rose, dozens of people stood in silence as a flag flew at half-staff. And they kept coming by the hundreds. Bouquets, signs and chalk messages honoring Ginsburg multiplied by the minute. Joggers stopped mid-run, bikers paused and rested on their handlebars, and mothers from across the D.C. region brought their daughters to pay tribute to the pioneering liberal lawyer and advocate for equality. Even as lawmakers began to clash over when she would be replaced, the space outside the court was mostly one of quiet reflection. By nightfall, thousands packed the plaza, holding candles and listening to speakers."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on Sunday that the Senate should not take up a Supreme Court nomination before the election, becoming the second GOP senator to voice opposition to a vote before Nov. 3. 'For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed,' Murkowski said in a statement. 'I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia. We are now even closer to the 2020 election - less than two months out - and I believe the same standard must apply,' she added.... [Mitch] McConnell has not weighed in on the timing. If he wants to hold a vote before the election, he will need to hold together at least 50 of his 53 members, which would let Vice President Pence break a tie. That means in addition to [Susan] Collins [Maine] and Murkowski, Democrats need to win over at least two additional GOP senators."

Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "Despite the Biden team’s confidence, the prospect of Mr. Trump's appointing a third justice to the Supreme Court in his first term injects a highly volatile element into the race just six weeks before the election. Court battles have long been seen as greater motivation for Republican voters than for Democrats, though the record sums of money flooding into Democratic campaigns in the hours after Justice Ginsburg's death offered progressives hope that they might be equally energized this time. Still, Biden campaign officials said on Saturday that they did not see even a Supreme Court vacancy and the passions it will inevitably inflame as reason to fundamentally reorient the campaign's approach.... While confirmation fights have long centered on hot-button cultural divides such as guns and especially abortion, the Biden campaign, at least at the start, plans to chiefly focus on protecting the Affordable Care Act and its popular guarantee of coverage for people with pre-existing conditions." A Politico story, by Marc Caputo, is here.

John Parkinson of ABC News: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid tribute to the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Sunday, calling her a 'powerful, brilliant brain on the court' in an appearance on ABC's 'This Week,' while refusing to take another impeachment inquiry off the table in order to block ... Donald Trump's upcoming nominee to the Supreme Court. 'We have our options. We have arrows in our quiver that I'm not about to discuss right now but the fact is we have a big challenge in our country. This president has threatened to not even accept the results of the election,' Pelosi told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos. 'Our main goal would be to protect the integrity of the election as we protect the people from the coronavirus.'" ~~~

~~~ Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on ABC's 'This Week' on Sunday that President Trump is rushing to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg because he 'wants to crush the Affordable Care Act....' Pelosi wants to steer the conversation around the potential Ginsburg replacement to health care, which polls show is a top issue for voters, especially amid the coronavirus pandemic. The Trump administration has urged the courts to strike down the law, and with it, protections for millions with pre-existing conditions.... The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the constitutionality of the ACA on Nov. 10, one week after the general election. In 2017, 20 Republican attorneys general sued to get rid of the ACA, with the Trump administration's support, charging that because Congress had repealed the individual mandate, the entire law was no longer valid. The law has worked its way back to the Supreme Court after a federal judge ruled the law was unconstitutional and an appeals court said the law's individual mandate was unconstitutional."

Jordan Novet, et al., of CNBC: "... Donald Trump said Saturday he has approved a deal in principle in which Oracle and Walmart will partner with the viral video-sharing app TikTok in the U.S., allowing the popular app to avoid a shutdown. 'I have given the deal my blessing -- if they get it done that's great, if they don't that's okay too,' Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn before departing for North Carolina. 'I approved the deal in concept.' The U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would delay the prohibition of U.S. transactions with TikTok until next Sunday. Shortly after Trump's comments, Oracle announced it was chosen as TikTok's secure cloud provider and will become a minority investor with a 12.5% stake. TikTok confirmed Oracle's role and said it was working with Walmart on a commercial partnership." ~~~

~~~ Alexis Benveniste of CNN: "The back-and-forth of the TikTok deal has been rocky, but ... Donald Trump is certain that he wants to use the deal to create a $5 billion fund to 'educate people' about the 'real history of our country.' 'I think Walmart is going to buy it along with Oracle,' Trump said on Saturday at a rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He went on to say that as part of the deal, he requested '$5 billion into a fund for education so we can educate people as to real history of our country -- the real history, not the fake history.'" Mrs. McC: Real History, according to Prof. Trump: Donald Trump never told a lie. Donald Trump freed the slaves. Donald Trump led the Rough Riders up San Juan Hill. Donald Trump saved the crew of PT-109.

~~~ Jeanne Whalen of the Washington Post: "A federal court granted a preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration's planned ban of Chinese app WeChat, in response to a plaintiff lawsuit saying the ban would harm their First Amendment rights. The United States District Court in San Francisco said the plaintiffs, a group of WeChat users, had shown there are 'serious questions' related to their First Amendment claim. The Trump administration had planned to effectively ban WeChat in the U.S. late tonight by preventing it from appearing in mobile-phone app stores, and by blocking the app's access to Internet hosting services in the U.S. The planned ban stemmed from Trump's Aug. 6 executive order that declared that WeChat posed a threat to national security because it collected 'vast swaths' of data on Americans and other users, and offered the Chinese Communist Party an avenue for censoring or distorting information."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: The Washington Post adopted the alliterative slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" in early 2017, to an appropriate degree of mockery. While we probably can agree that "sunlight is the best disinfectant" -- a less menacing expression of the same sentiment -- what we have learned these last few years is that democracy is dying in the light of day. We see evidence of its slow, painful death almost daily. A more accurate, if less catchy, saying might be "democracy dies in increments." It may be impossible to pinpoint the first incident that began the United States' descent. You might push it all the way back to nearly the birth of the nation, when the founders adopted a Constitution with a built-in undemocratic structure. Some of the fundamental errors of that original document have been cured, but others continue to plague us: the Electoral College, unequal representation in the Senate, the absence of a right to vote. In our recent history, surely one pernicious infection to our limited democratic body occurred the day the unscrupulous Mitch McConnell became the Senate's Republican leader in November 2006. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: As proof of how very undemocratic the courts are, Ian Millhiser of Vox provides the numbers: "Trump's two previous Supreme Court appointees, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh..., share a dubious distinction.... They are the only members of the Supreme Court in history to be nominated by a president who lost the popular vote and confirmed by a bloc of senators who represent less than half of the country.... The [Senate's] Democratic 'minority' represents 15 million more people than the Republican 'majority').... If Trump fills the Ginsburg seat, fully one-third of the Court will be controlled by judges with no democratic legitimacy." ~~~

~~~ Maureen Dowd is not optimistic: "As it turned out, the founders created a country painfully vulnerable to whoever happens to be president. They assumed that future presidents would cherish what they had so painfully created, and continue to knit together different kinds of people from different areas with different economic interests. But now that we have a president who takes those knitting needles and stabs the country mercilessly with them, we can see how fragile this whole thing really is. All the stuff we took for granted -- from presidential ethics to electoral integrity to a nonpolitical attorney general -- is blown to smithereens.... He clearly doesn't see himself as president of a majority of the country. Whenever he talks about the half of the country that didn't vote for him, he paints a picture of a Scorsese urban hellscape the minute you cross state lines. On Wednesday, the president offered the heinous hypothetical that the death toll from the coronavirus would not be as bad 'if you take the blue states out.'"


** The Good. Nina Totenberg of NPR writes of her decades-long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Bad & the Ugly. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump pressed Senate Republicans on Saturday to confirm his choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'without delay,' setting up a momentous battle sure to inflame the campaign even as party leaders weighed whether they could force a confirmation vote before the election on Nov. 3. Mr. Trump appears likely to nominate a successor to Justice Ginsburg this coming week after her death on Friday, a selection that if confirmed would shift the Supreme Court to the right for years. But with some Republican senators balking, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky, was canvassing to figure out whether he had enough votes to rush a confirmation in the next six weeks. We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,' Mr. Trump wrote Saturday morning on Twitter. 'We have this obligation, without delay!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. "Mr. Trump said he expected to announce his nomination in the next week and told a campaign rally that it 'will be a woman.'... In a telephone conversation on Friday night with Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, according to two people familiar with the call, Mr. Trump identified two women as candidates: Judges Amy Coney Barrett of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago and Barbara Lagoa of the 11th Circuit in Atlanta." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: At the rally, which was held in Fayetteville, N.C., Trump celebrated & joked about his chance to pick another Supreme Court "justice." "The raucous nature of the rally stood in contrast to the vigil held for Ginsburg in Washington by the legions of the liberal justice's fans." Mrs. McC: I was surprised when someone at the White House released an appropriate statement about Justice Ginsburg's death, but I'm sure it comes as no surprise to anyone that it took Trump less than 24 hours to start showing the world how glad he is she died. ~~~

     ~~~ Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "Moments after vowing to nominate a woman to the Supreme Court at his campaign rally in North Carolina on Saturday night, President Trump asked some of his female supporters in the crowd if their husbands had approved their attendance ... when he apparently recognized some of the women in Fayetteville from other rallies." Mrs. McC: This is yet another way Donald the Feminist mocks a chunk of Ruth Ginsburg's life's work. Ginsburg expanded women's rights by applying the equal protection clause to women; in Trump's view, the concept doesn't even exist, and wives remain chattel who must ask their husband's permission before doing anything. I doubt the mockery is intentional; it's just what Trump thinks is the "natural" order.

The Most Dishonest Senator. Matthew Schwartz of NPR: Lindsey "Graham [R-S.C.], who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee would oversee confirmation hearings, said Saturday that he would support President Trump 'in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.' But this is a reversal from his earlier position; Graham has said multiple times that if a vacancy opened up in the run-up to a presidential election, he would hold off on confirmation. 'I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, "Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,"' he said in 2016 shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. 'And you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.' Graham repeated the sentiment in October 2018 in an interview with The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. 'If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait till the next election.'" Graham has recently put forward phony rationales for going back on his word." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key centrist vote in the Senate, said Saturday that the Senate should not vote to confirm late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's successor before the election and the nominee should be chosen by whoever wins on Nov. 3. 'Given the proximity of the presidential election ... I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,' Collins said in a statement. 'In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on Nov. 3.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my cynicism, but this likely means that Mitch has secured assurances from 50 or more senators that they will vote to proceed with the confirmation process. Collins is behind her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon in recent polls, so Mitch can afford for her to take a fake "principled stand."

Steve M. "I think voters who aren't politically engaged will learn about this, see Trump and McConnell defying her last wishes, and be repulsed by their defiance of her final request. This has been an election about decency vs. cruelty. This will be another reminder of Trump and McConnell's cold-blooded, unfeeling nature. It's not a good look a few weeks before an election." Mrs. McC: I sure hope Steve, who is a cynic nes plus ultra, is right about this. (Also linked yesterday.)

New York Times Editors: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg ... will forever have two legacies. The one Americans could be focusing on right now is the one of legal trailblazer: Justice Ginsburg, the second woman ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court, paved the way for women's equality before the law, and for women's rights to be taken seriously by the courts and by society.... The other legacy of Justice Ginsburg's that the country is now urgently forced to confront is the cold political reality that she died in the final weeks of a presidential campaign, at a moment when President Trump and Mitch McConnell ... appear to be dead-set on replacing her with someone who would obliterate much of the progress she helped the country make. The court now faces a serious crisis of legitimacy. Senate Republicans, who represent a minority of the nation, and a president elected by a minority of the nation, are now in a position to solidify their control of the third branch of government."

Katelyn Burns of Vox: "According to the Democratic donor site ActBlue, $6.2 million flowed through the site in the 9 pm hour Friday, immediately following news of Ginsburg's death. It was more money raised in a single hour on the site since its launch 16 years ago -- and it was immediately eclipsed by the 10 pm hour, which saw $6.3 million raised." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Elena Schneider of Politico: "Democratic online donors set a new one-day fundraising record on ActBlue in the hours following Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, pouring money into Democratic Senate campaigns and other causes as Republican senators pledge to vote for a new justice nominated by ... Donald Trump. Donors gave more than $42 million to candidates and groups Saturday via ActBlue, the digital fundraising platform widely used by Democratic candidates and political committees, with more than eight hours to go in the day, according to the ticker on the front page of ActBlue's website." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Just hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death was announced on Friday, the leaders of three of the left's most potent advocacy groups, Demand Justice, Naral Pro-Choice America and Indivisible, were on a call with 1,000 progressive activists and strategists to begin to unfurl a plan they hoped they would not have to use. Demand Justice, a relatively new group led by the longtime Democratic aide Brian Fallon to match the powerful conservative legal apparatus, quickly pledged to spend $10 million 'to fight to ensure no justice is confirmed before the January inauguration.' At the same time, a coalition of President Trump's conservative allies said Saturday that it was preparing for an intense confrontation over Justice Ginsburg's seat, and was gearing up for a lobbying and public relations blitz. The message: Move quickly to replace her." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race, Ctd.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The first signs of the impact of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's absence may come in a flurry of election-related disputes expected to reach the Supreme Court on an emergency basis in the coming weeks.... With scores of court challenges underway across the country seeking or opposing coronavirus-related changes to voting procedures, the change in the ideological balance of the high court could affect the outcome of such fights -- even if a new justice doesn't take the bench until after the election.... Donald Trump signaled Saturday night that he expects federal judges to play a key role in achieving a definitive result within hours of the polls closing on Election Day."

Trump Again Plays "How Low Can He Go" Against Himself. Mark Joyella of Forbes: "At a rally in Minnesota, President Trump described an MSNBC anchor hit by a rubber bullet while covering protests after the death of George Floyd in May as 'a beautiful sight,' comments quickly condemned by journalists including CNN's Jake Tapper. 'Absolutely heinous,' Tapper said on Twitter Saturday afternoon. 'Ali Velshi didn't deserve to be shot by a rubber bullet...and it's twisted for anyone, least of all a president, to call it "law and order."'... Velshi was reporting live in Minneapolis when police began firing rubber bullets and using tear gas against protesters -- while seeming to make no effort to avoid targeting journalists. Velshi, who told MSNBC viewers that there had been 'no provocation' before police began using force. 'The police pulled into this intersection, right into the middle of the crowd.' Velshi, video shows, was retreating -- and warning other journalists to take cover -- when he was hit. Despite the president falsely claiming that Velshi fell to the ground wailing 'my leg, my leg,' no such thing actually happened. Velshi told viewers he'd been hit and appeared to lean against a parked car."

Virginia. Nick Corasaniti & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A group of Trump supporters waving campaign flags disrupted the second day of early voting in Fairfax, Va., on Saturday, chanting 'four more years' as voters entered a polling location and, at one point, forming a line that voters had to walk around outside the site. County election officials eventually were forced to open up a larger portion of the Fairfax County Government Center to allow voters to wait inside away from the Trump enthusiasts. Election officials said that the group stayed about 100 feet from the entrance to the building and, contrary to posts on social media, were not directly blocking access to the building. But they acknowledged that some voters and polling staff members felt intimidated by what some saw as protesters.... In an unnerved electorate, where concerns about voting rights and safely voting amid the coronavirus pandemic are at a fever pitch, the demonstration outside of a polling place served as preview of a likely contentious election season, and how groups may be utilizing tactics that rattle or even deter voters over the next six weeks." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's notable that this incident of voter intimidation grew out of a Republican party-sponsored event: "The demonstration originated from a 'Trump Train' parade that began in nearby Prince William County and featured Tommy Hicks Jr., the current Republican National Committee co-chairman. The event was set to end in the parking lot of the government center, which was also serving as the polling location on Saturday. Some of the people who attended the parade walked over to vote. Others gathered outside and began chanting, 'four more years, four more years!'" A party official defended the Trump backers' actions.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. Several news outlets, including NBC News (but not the Times or WashPo) are reporting that more than 200,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** A Dangerous Power Grab. Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: "In a stunning declaration of authority, Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, this week barred the nation’s health agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, from signing any new rules regarding the nation's foods, medicines, medical devices and other products, including vaccines. Going forward, Mr. Azar wrote in a Sept. 15 memorandum..., such power 'is reserved to the Secretary.' The bulletin was sent to heads of operating and staff divisions within H.H.S. It's unclear if or how the memo would change the vetting and approval process for coronavirus vaccines, three of which are in advanced clinical trials in the United States.... Dr. Peter Lurie, president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest and a former associate commissioner of the F.D.A., called the new policy 'a power grab.'"

Denise Grady, et al., of the New York Times: "AstraZeneca revealed details of its large coronavirus vaccine trials on Saturday, the third in a wave of rare disclosures by drug companies under pressure to be more transparent about how they are testing products that are the world's best hope for ending the pandemic."


Emily Shugerman of the Daily Beast: "The doctor at the center of a scandal over unwanted hysterectomies at an immigrant detention facility in Georgia is not a board certified OB-GYN, The Daily Beast has learned. Dr. Mahendra Amin came under scrutiny after immigrant rights groups issued a report accusing him of conducting unnecessary or unwanted gynecological procedures on women detained at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. On Friday, a spokesperson for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology told The Daily Beast that its records show Amin is not certified by the organization."

Evan Perez of CNN: "A package containing the poison ricin and addressed to ... Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement earlier this week, according to two law enforcement officials. Two tests were done to confirm the presence of ricin. All mail for the White House is sorted and screened at an offsite facility before reaching the White House. A US law enforcement official told CNN that investigators are looking into the possibility the ricin package sent to Trump came from Canada. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off
Friday
Sep182020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** The Good. Nina Totenberg of NPR writes of her decades-long friendship with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

The Bad & the Ugly. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump pressed Senate Republicans on Saturday to confirm his choice to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg 'without delay,' setting up a momentous battle sure to inflame the campaign even as party leaders weighed whether they could force a confirmation vote before the election on Nov. 3. Mr. Trump appears likely to nominate a successor to Justice Ginsburg this coming week after her death on Friday, a selection that if confirmed would shift the Supreme Court to the right for years. But with some Republican senators balking, Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader from Kentucky, was canvassing to figure out whether he had enough votes to rush a confirmation in the next six weeks. We were put in this position of power and importance to make decisions for the people who so proudly elected us, the most important of which has long been considered to be the selection of United States Supreme Court Justices,' Mr. Trump wrote Saturday morning on Twitter. 'We have this obligation, without delay!'" ~~~

~~~ The Most Dishonest Senator. Matthew Schwartz of NPR: Lindsey "Graham [R-S.C.], who as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee would oversee confirmation hearings, said Saturday that he would support President Trump 'in any effort to move forward regarding the recent vacancy created by the passing of Justice Ginsburg.' But this is a reversal from his earlier position; Graham has said multiple times that if a vacancy opened up in the run-up to a presidential election, he would hold off on confirmation. 'I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, "Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,"' he said in 2016 shortly after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. 'And you could use my words against me and you'd be absolutely right.' Graham repeated the sentiment in October 2018 in an interview with The Atlantic's editor-in-chief, Jeffrey Goldberg. 'If an opening comes in the last year of President Trump's term, and the primary process has started, we'll wait till the next election.'" Graham has recently put forward phony rationales for going back on his word.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), a key centrist vote in the Senate, said Saturday that the Senate should not vote to confirm late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's successor before the election and the nominee should be chosen by whoever wins on Nov. 3. 'Given the proximity of the presidential election ... I do not believe that the Senate should vote on the nominee prior to the election,' Collins said in a statement. 'In fairness to the American people, who will either be re-electing the president or selecting a new one, the decision on a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court should be made by the president who is elected on Nov. 3.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Pardon my cynicism, but this probably means that Mitch has secured assurances from 50 or more senators that they will vote to proceed with confirmation. Collins is behind her Democratic opponent Sara Gideon in recent polls, so Mitch can afford for her to take a fake "principled stand."

Steve M. "I think voters who aren't politically engaged will learn about this, see Trump and McConnell defying her last wishes, and be repulsed by their defiance of her final request. This has been an election about decency vs. cruelty. This will be another reminder of Trump and McConnell's cold-blooded, unfeeling nature. It's not a good look a few weeks before an election." Mrs. McC: I sure hope Steve, who is a cynic nes plus ultra, is right about this.

Katelyn Burns of Vox: "According to the Democratic donor site ActBlue, $6.2 million flowed through the site in the 9 pm hour Friday, immediately following news of Ginsburg's death. It was more money raised in a single hour on the site since its launch 16 years ago -- and it was immediately eclipsed by the 10 pm hour, which saw $6.3 million raised." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Just hours after Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death was announced on Friday, the leaders of three of the left's most potent advocacy groups, Demand Justice, Naral Pro-Choice America and Indivisible, were on a call with 1,000 progressive activists and strategists to begin to unfurl a plan they hoped they would not have to use. Demand Justice, a relatively new group led by the longtime Democratic aide Brian Fallon to match the powerful conservative legal apparatus, quickly pledged to spend $10 million 'to fight to ensure no justice is confirmed before the January inauguration.' At the same time, a coalition of President Trump's conservative allies said Saturday that it was preparing for an intense confrontation over Justice Ginsburg's seat, and was gearing up for a lobbying and public relations blitz. The message: Move quickly to replace her."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. Several news outlets, including NBC News (but not the Times or WashPo) are reporting that more than 200,000 Americans have died from Covid-19.

Evan Perez of CNN: "A package containing the poison ricin and addressed to ... Donald Trump was intercepted by law enforcement earlier this week, according to two law enforcement officials. Two tests were done to confirm the presence of ricin. All mail for the White House is sorted and screened at an offsite facility before reaching the White House. A US law enforcement official told CNN that investigators are looking into the possibility the ricin package sent to Trump came from Canada. The FBI and Secret Service are investigating the matter.

~~~~~~~~~~

John Kruzel of the Hill: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal leader of the Supreme Court and a trailblazing champion of women's rights, died on Friday. She was 87 years old." ~~~

~~~ ** Linda Greenhouse writes the New York Times obituary for Justice Ginsburg. ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes & Michael Fletcher write the Washington Post's obituary of Justice Ginsburg. "The death was announced in a statement by the U.S. Supreme Court. She had recently been treated for pancreatic cancer. Born in Depression-era Brooklyn, Justice Ginsburg excelled academically and went to the top of her law school class at a time when women were still called upon to justify taking a man's place. She earned a reputation as the legal embodiment of the women's liberation movement and as a widely admired role model for generations of female lawyers. Working in the 1970s with the American Civil Liberties Union, Justice Ginsburg successfully argued a series of cases before the high court that strategically chipped away at the legal wall of gender discrimination, eventually causing it to topple." ~~~

~~~ Joan Biskupic & Ariane de Vogue write Justice Ginsburg's obituary for CNN. ~~~

~~~ Nina Totenberg, a friend of Justice Ginsburg's, writes the Justice's obituary for NPR. "Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: 'My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'" ~~~

President Barack Obama's statement on Justice Ginsberg's passing.

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "'The American people should have a voice in the selection of their next Supreme Court Justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,' [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer tweeted, quoting [Majority Leader] McConnell, who made the same statement during Barack Obama's presidency after Justice Antonin Scalia died in 2016 [Mrs. McC: about 10 months before the election & nearly a year before the next president* was sworn in]."

John Santucci & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is expected to put forth a nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat on the Supreme Court in the coming days, multiple sources close to the president and with direct knowledge of the situation told ABC News." ~~~

     ~~~ Anita Kumar, et al., of Politico: "Trump is expected to make a formal nomination as soon as the middle of next week, according to two people familiar with the plans."

~~~ Remember Merrick Garland. Ted Barrett of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released a statement following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, saying President Trump's nominee to fill her seat 'will receive a vote on the floor of the United States Senate.'" Mrs. McC: McConnell put out this statement while Justice Ginsberg's body was still warm. Actually. ~~~

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "President Trump, who counts his two Supreme Court appointments as among his greatest successes, last week issued a new list of 20 potential nominees to the court. There was no vacancy at the time, and the exercise seemed aimed at focusing attention on an issue that had helped secure his election in 2016." Mrs. McC: Nina Totenberg appeared on MSNBC last night, and she said she had learned a few weeks ago that Ginsberg was dying. Therefore, I would be willing to bet that Donald Trump knew, too, and that is why he flaunted his list of horribles for her "replacement." Perhaps I'm wrong, but I doubt it. Cruel, ghoulish bastard.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A small crowd gathered outside the Supreme Court last night to mourn Ruth Bader Ginsburg. CNN reported that a few hecklers showed up. I saw a clip of a man pushing a woman in the group, which is more than "heckling." ~~~

Mrs. McCrabbie BTW: The documentary film "RBG" is available on Hulu & you can rent it on YouTube.

Presidential Race, Etc.

Trump's Racist Rally & Superspreader Spectacle. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump said his Democratic rival Joe Biden would 'turn Minnesota into a refugee camp' and bragged about deporting Somali nationals, sharpening his play for the battleground state during a Friday rally."

Sydney Ember & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Early voting began in four states on Friday, 46 days before Election Day on Nov. 3. Among the states where voters can now vote in person is Minnesota, where both President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. will be making campaign stops on Friday. Voters also began casting ballots in South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming. Elected Democrats, aiming to encourage their supporters to vote early, are eschewing the traditional Election Day photo-op for appearances at early voting sites. In Virginia, Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner voted in Richmond and Alexandria, while Gov. Ralph Northam cast his ballot in Richmond, where he was the fifth person in line at 8 a.m.... In 2012, Barack Obama became the first president to vote early, casting a ballot for himself at an early-voting site near his home on the South Side of Chicago." This is an item in the Times' election updates. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. David Eggert & Ed White of the AP: "A federal judge has blocked Michigan's longstanding ban on transporting voters to the polls, ruling it conflicts with U.S. election law. District Judge Stephanie Dawkins Davis in Detroit issued an injunction Thursday against enforcing the restriction in November's presidential election. A form of the prohibition has been on the books since 1895." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Eggert & White: "A judge on Friday cleared the way for more absentee ballots to be counted in Michigan, saying envelopes postmarked by the eve of the Nov. 3 election are eligible, even if they show up days later. The decision is significant in a state that is anticipating waves of absentee ballots this fall; about 2.3 million have already been requested. For absentee ballots to be counted, Michigan law requires them to be received by the time polls close on Election Day. But Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens said there's a crucial need for flexibility in November, especially after more than 6,400 ballots were disqualified in the state's August primary election.... An absentee ballot can be counted if postmarked by Nov. 2 and received within 14 days after the election, said Stephens, who noted that it can take two weeks to certify Michigan election results anyway."

Arizona Senate Race. Yvonne Sanchez of the Arizona Republic: "If Mark Kelly [D] defeats incumbent Sen. Martha McSally [R] in Arizona's high-stakes [special] U.S. Senate race..., two Republican and Democratic election attorneys agree that state law and Senate practices would make Kelly eligible to take over the seat once held by Sen. John McCain as soon as Nov. 30, when the state election results are expected to be canvassed." McSally is an appointee. The November race is to take over McCain's Senate seat, not fill McSally's. Mrs. McC: How surprised would we be if Mitch McConnell refused to seat Kelly in December? For a normal leader, the fact that Kelly is an astronaut-hero married to former Congresswoman hero Gabby Giffords would make stiffing Kelly far more difficult. But Mitch is Mitch.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

David Lim of Politico: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says that close contacts of people with Covid-19 should be tested, regardless of whether they have symptoms -- reversing controversial recommendations it made last month, reportedly over the advice of agency scientists. CDC's testing guidelines now bluntly counsel people who have been within six feet of a person 'with documented SARS-CoV-2 infection' for at least 15 minutes to get screened. 'You need a test,' reads the latest version of the document, released Friday.... In addition to recommending testing for close contacts of sick people, the CDC now says that contacts should self-quarantine at home for 14 days, even if they test negative -- and stay away from other household members in a separate bedroom if possible."

White House Put Kibosh on Mass Mask Distribution. Benjamin Siegel & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "The United States Postal Service drafted plans to distribute 650 million reusable cotton face masks to Americans last spring -- five to every household -- as the country grappled with the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak, according to USPS internal documents obtained by a watchdog group.... 'There was concern from some in the White House Domestic Policy Council and the office of the vice president that households receiving masks might create concern or panic,' one administration official told The Washington Post about the proposal. Instead, the initiative, announced by the Trump administration under the 'Project: America Strong,' was a more targeted program to send face masks to critical infrastructure sectors, companies and health care, community and religious organizations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "... emails obtained by The New York Times ... illustrate how [Michael] Caputo and Dr. [Paul] Alexander [of Health & Human Services] tried to browbeat career officials at the C.D.C. at the height of the pandemic, challenging the science behind their public statements and trying to silence agency staff. On Friday, two days after Mr. Caputo went on medical leave and Dr. Alexander was dismissed from the Department of Health and Human Services, the C.D.C. reversed a heavily criticized recommendation suggesting that people who have had close contact with a person infected with the coronavirus do not need to get tested if they have no symptoms. The emails shed light on the monthslong fight that led to their departures.... Current and former C.D.C. officials called it a five-month campaign of bullying and intimidation."

How Jared Kushner Knowingly & Viciously Sickened & Killed Americans. Katherine Eban of Vanity Fair: On March 20, some of the U.S.'s top business leaders asked for a White House meeting to offer their help to fight the coronavirus pandemic, which had already hit New York hard. They "came armed with specific commitments of support, a memo on the merits of the Defense Production Act, a document outlining impediments to the private-sector response, and two key questions: How could they best help? And how could they best support the government's strategy?... [Jared] Kushner, seated at the head of the conference table, in a chair taller than all the others, was quick to strike a confrontational tone. 'The federal government is not going to lead this response,' he announced. 'It's up to the states to figure out what they want to do.'... 'Free markets will solve this,' Kushner said dismissively. 'That is not the role of government.'... [An] attendee [said] ... he feared that the system was breaking. As evidence, he pointed to a CNN report about New York governor Andrew Cuomo and his desperate call for supplies. That's the CNN bullshit,' Kushner snapped. 'They lie.' According to another attendee, Kushner then began to rail against the governor: 'Cuomo didn't pound the phones hard enough to get PPE for his state.... His people are going to suffer and that's their problem.'... Kushner was accompanied by Navy Rear Admiral John Polowczyk, who had just been posted to FEMA to lead supply-chain efforts. He heaped flattery on Kushner, calling his ideas 'brilliant,' and expressed skepticism concerning the motives of those in the room and on the phone."

Other Craziness, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After months of heated accusations and painstaking negotiations, the White House and the pharmaceutical industry neared agreement late last month on a plan to make good on President Trump's longstanding promise to lower drug prices. The drug companies would spend $150 billion to address out-of-pocket consumer costs and would even pick up the bulk of the co-payments that older Americans shoulder in Medicare's prescription drug program. Then the agreement collapsed. The breaking point, according to four people familiar with the discussions: Mark Meadows, Mr. Trump's chief of staff, insisted the drug makers pay for $100 cash cards that would be mailed to seniors before November -- 'Trump Cards,' some in the industry called them. Some of the drugmakers bridled at being party to what they feared would be seen as an 11th-hour political boost for Mr. Trump, the people familiar with the matter said."

Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Lawyers representing the United States at Julian Assange's extradition trial in Britain have accepted the claim that the WikiLeaks founder was offered a presidential pardon by a Congressman on the condition that he would help cover up Russia's involvement in hacking emails from the Democratic National Committee.Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer, told the court that she had attended a meeting between Assange, then Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, and pro-Trump troll Charles Johnson at Assange's hide-out, the Ecuadorian embassy in London, on August 15, 2017. Robinson said the two Americans claimed to be emissaries from Washington and 'wanted us to believe they were acting on behalf of the president.' The pair allegedly told Assange that they could help grant him a pardon in exchange for him revealing information about the source of the WikiLeaks information that proved it was not the Russians who hacked Democratic emails." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Dan Alexander of Vanity Fair: Donald Trump has a 30% interest in a building in the San Francisco financial district that "is worth an estimated $442 million after debt -- making it the most valuable holding in his entire portfolio. It's worth more than twice as much as [his remaining interest in] Trump Tower, more than seven times as much as Trump's property in Vegas, 16 times as much as his Doral golf resort in Miami.... [On the] 43rd [floor is] a ... sign that read[s], 'Qatar Investment Authority Advisory (USA) Inc.' and, in smaller type, 'A subsidiary of the Qatar Investment Authority.' Nothing inside the place looked as if it had been touched.... [T]he office is just 5,557 square feet. If the Qataris are paying the average rate in the building, that would amount to $450,000 a year, and Trump's 30% would total $135,000.... Strip away the layers and it boils down to just the sort of arrangement the founding fathers feared. A foreign government, it seems, has been paying the president of the United States for more than a year. With so many other scandals brewing, this one has managed to go entirely undetected -- until now." --s ...

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I hope someone sometime figures out who got paid what to effect the supposed Trumpish Qatar-Israeli peace deal.

Aubrey Beldford & Adam Klasfeld of the OCCRP: "It was the day before Donald Trump's inauguration and, over lunch at Washington's Watergate Hotel, a foreign government was trying to break into the new U.S. administration.... The meeting on January 19, 2017, which has never before been disclosed, was key to building a close relationship between the administrations of Trump and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It has perhaps been the most successful foreign lobbying effort of the Trump presidency -- no mean feat for an administration mired from the beginning in foreign influence scandals.... The warm relationship that followed would see Trump administration officials, and the president himself, make decisions that baffled advisers who believed they put Erdoğan's interests over America's. In a recent memoir, Trump's former national security adviser, John Bolton, described a 'bromance' between the two leaders. But behind that bromance is a deeper story -- one that involves Russia-linked oligarchs, alleged crooks, and key players in Trump's Ukraine impeachment scandal, an investigation by OCCRP, Courthouse News Service and NBC News has found." --s

Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "A pattern of campaign contributions by employees and relatives of Loui DeJoy before he became postmaster general indicates a possible effort to reimburse his associates for donations as recently as 2018, according to a Federal Election Commission complaint filed Thursday by a government watchdog group. The filing by the nonprofit Campaign Legal Center is the third complaint seeking a state or federal investigation since The Washington Post this month reported allegations that DeJoy and his aides urged employees at New Breed Logistics, his former North Carolina-based company, to write checks and attend fundraisers on behalf of Republican candidates. DeJoy then defrayed the cost of those political contributions from 2003 to 2014 by boosting employee bonuses, two employees told The Post.... 'There is reason to believe that Louis DeJoy violated [the Federal Election Campaign Act] by reimbursing his employees for federal political contributions, using his own funds and/or corporate funds from the company he led, XPO Logistics, and its predecessor, New Breed Logistics,' the complaint states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration said Friday it would bar the Chinese-owned mobile apps WeChat and TikTok from U.S. app stores as of Sunday, striking a harsh blow against two popular services used by more than 100 million people in the United States.... TikTok is currently in talks to be acquired by the American software maker Oracle, and could announce a deal that assuages the administration's national security concerns. In its announcement, the Commerce Department said that the president had given until Nov. 12 for TikTok's national security concerns to be resolved, and if they were, the prohibitions in the order could be lifted.... [TikTok] has also been utilized as a political tool -- hundreds of teenage TikTok users claimed credit for low turnout at a rally for Mr. Trump in Tulsa, Okla., earlier this year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Tom Batchelor of Newsweek: "Hundreds of pro-gun activists have demonstrated at Michigan's State Capitol in support of the right to open-carry firearms inside the government building. Heavily-armed protestors, some waving Confederate flags and Trump campaign banners, stood on the lawn outside the capitol building in Lansing brandishing AR-15 firearms and wearing body armour. Among those in attendance were members of the Proud Boys -- a far-right, all-male organization with a history of violence against political opponents -- and the Michigan Liberty Militia, a paramilitary group. After two hours of speeches a group gathered on the steps of the Hall of Justice chanting 'U-S-A' and 'four more years' for Donald Trump."

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