;)
The Commentariat -- September 4, 2020
Afternoon Update:
** Kathy Kiely in USA Today: "In a heretofore unpublicized recent memo, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has been a lifeline and a voice for American troops since the Civil War. The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that 'dissolves the Stars and Stripes' by Sept. 15 including 'specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.' 'The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,' writes Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., the memo's author.... The memo ordering the publication's dissolution claims the administration has the authority to make this move under the president's fiscal year 2021 defense department budget request. It zeroed out the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes.... [The budget] the House approved earlier this summer explicitly overruled the decision to pull the plug on Stars and Stripes, restoring funding for the paper.... So far, the Senate hasn't acted." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Kiely points out, normally funding for Stars & Stripes -- which is a tiny portion of the Pentagon's $700-billion budget -- would be folded into a continuing resolution. But instead of following SOP, the Trump administration has gone out of its way to shut down a publication that "is not answerable to the brass." But, gee, I'll bet Trump doesn't like the paper's top headline today: "More than 3,000 VA patients have now died from the coronavirus." And he likes the most popular headline even less: "Trump denies reports that he disparaged U.S. war dead as 'losers,' 'sucker.'"
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here: "On Friday, a team of Russian scientists published the first report on their controversial Covid-19 vaccine. Writing in the Lancet, they reported that volunteers produced a relatively modest amount of antibodies to the coronavirus. In August, President Vladimir V. Putin announced with great fanfare that the vaccine -- called Sputnik V -- 'works effectively enough' to be approved. He declared to be a 'very important step for our country, and generally for the whole world.'" ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.
Ursula Perano of Axios: "Over 190 law enforcement officials on Friday endorsed Joe Biden for president, per a campaign statement.... The endorsements rebut a theme of the Trump re-election campaign, which has falsely claimed that Biden wants to defund the police.... It's a blow to Trump, who's sought to brand himself as the law-and-order candidate.... 'Joe Biden has always stood on the right side of the law and is offering a much needed vision for our Nation. When asked the question, would you feel safe in Joe Biden's America? The answer is yes,' said Tom Manger, Retired Chief and former President of the Major Cities Chiefs Association."
Shane Harris & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Russia is seeking 'to undermine public trust in the electoral process' by spreading false claims that mail-in-ballots are riddled with fraud and susceptible to manipulation, according to a new intelligence bulletin by the Department of Homeland Security. Many of the claims made by Russian sources are identical to repeated, unsupported public statements aired by President Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr, who have said that mailed ballots aren't trustworthy while warning of the potential for rampant fraud in November's elections.... The bulletin doesn't cite any particular statements by Trump, Barr or other U.S. officials, but it states that Russia is 'amplifying' claims that mail-in voting is prone to fraud." An ABC News report on the same topic is linked below. The Post story notes that ABC was first to report on the bulletin. ~~~
~~~ AND Count Pompeo In. Laura Kelly of the Hill: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said there is a 'real risk' to the U.S. elections if states mail ballots to registered voters, echoing President Trump's criticism of efforts by states to ramp up mail voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Pompeo, speaking on Fox News' 'Fox and Friends,' was responding to a question about whether he shared Trump's worries about mail-in voting. The president has attacked the idea of mail-in voting as ripe for fraud despite little to no evidence of such risks. 'It's a little out of my lane as secretary of State, but it's a matter of logic,' Pompeo, a former Republican congressman from Kansas, told the program."
David Mack of BuzzFeed News: "In a Twitter thread late Thursday night, [Trump] denied that he had ever called McCain a loser.... 'I never called John a loser,' Trump wrote on Twitter.... But Trump, of course, famously did call McCain a loser. 'He lost [the 2008 election], so I never liked him as much after that because I don't like losers,' Trump said in 2015 as he ran for president in Iowa. 'He's not a war hero. He's a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren't captured.' At the time, Trump even reshared his comments on Twitter."
New York. Gwynne Hogan of WNYC & Jake Offenhartz of the Gothamist: "The vehicle used by a driver to plow through a crowd of Black Lives Matter marchers in Times Square on Thursday was carrying a group of Trump-supporting counterprotesters who had just received an NYPD escort, according to police and videos of the incident. A spokesperson for the NYPD said the black Ford Taurus was filled with several counterprotesters, who had been told to leave the area shortly after 8 p.m. They were being ushered by police officers through the parking lot of a nearby hotel, but 'missed the turn,' the spokesperson said, and instead drove straight toward the crowd of protesters.... Video taken at the scene shows an NYPD officer helping the counter-demonstrators into the vehicle.... NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea said on Friday morning that police were still investigating whether a crime was committed. The vehicle has not been located and no arrests have been made, the department confirmed.... The vehicle's license plate matches that of another car frequently shared on social media by Hakim Gibson, a pro-NYPD activist who currently runs a 'law enforcement support page.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Missed the turn"? I'll bet. Sorta like I "missed the turn" when I accidentally drove into a Dunkin' Donuts drive-thru while I was on a diet. Oh, my mistake. Make that a Boston cream-filled, please. And a hazelnut latte.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race, Etc.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Drawing a sharp contrast with President Trump, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Thursday aligned himself strongly and sympathetically with protesters of racial injustice and with Black voters during an afternoon of raw interactions with people still grappling with the police shooting of Jacob Blake. Two days after Mr. Trump traveled to Kenosha to focus attention on street violence and disorder, Mr. Biden sought to strike a drastically different tone, as he repudiated the president's divisive approach to matters of racial injustice and civil unrest and offered an alternative vision focused on national unity.... The former vice president emphasized his commitment to correcting decades of systemic racism, as he acknowledged racial disparities in health care, education and the criminal justice system and said that 'we're finally now getting to the point' of addressing 'the original sin: slavery. And all the vestiges of it.'" A Washington Post story is here. ~~~
~~~ Eric Bradner of CNN: "... Joe Biden said he had spoken by phone Thursday with Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old Black man who was shot in the back by police, while meeting with Blake's family in Wisconsin. 'He talked about how nothing was going to defeat him. How whether he walked again or not, he was not going to give up,' Biden said. His comments came at a meeting in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the site of Blake's shooting, with local political, law enforcement, religious and nonprofit leaders. Earlier Thursday, Biden had met privately in Milwaukee with members of Blake's family, who he said put him on the phone with Blake, who is out of the intensive care unit. He said he had spoken about faith with Blake.... Biden met in Milwaukee with Blake's father, brother and two sisters, with Blake's mother and attorneys joining by phone. Blake attorney Ben Crump tweeted a statement saying that it had been a 'very engaging' 90-minute meeting.... While in Kenosha Tuesday, [Donald] Trump did not meet with the family of Blake. Trump claimed that he's not meeting with Blake's family during his Wisconsin visit because they wanted to involve lawyers."
~~~ A Biden-Harris campaign ad, released Thursday:
~~~ Another ad released Thursday:
Former Michigan Republican Governor Endorses Joe Biden. Rick Snyder in a Detroit Free Press op-ed: "I will continue to support and stand up for Republican policies and values, and support Republican candidates, but I will not support Donald Trump for reelection.... He is a bully.... In addition, President Trump lacks a moral compass. He ignores the truth.... I had the opportunity to interact with Mr. Biden when he served as vice president. My interactions were always constructive and respectful. He has shown the desire to heal a deeply divided nation; has demonstrated strong moral character and empathy; and he seems willing to listen to people who have different perspectives from his own.... While I am endorsing Joe Biden for president, I am still a Republican who also will be publicly supporting Republican candidates at the local, state and federal level." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Tim Reid of Reuters: "Nearly 100 Republican and independent leaders will endorse Democrat Joe Biden for president on Thursday, including one-time 2020 Republican presidential candidate Bill Weld and the former Republican governors of Michigan and New Jersey, people involved in the effort told Reuters.... Called 'Republicans and Independents for Biden', the group is headed by Christine Todd Whitman, a former Republican governor of New Jersey who has become one of Trump's fiercest critics and who spoke at the recent Democratic National Convention in support of Biden." (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Teo Armus of the Washington Post: "In 2016, Army veteran David Weissman was an 'unapologetic, red-hat wearing' Donald Trump supporter.... Four years later, Weissman -- who served two tours in Afghanistan -- has now sparked a Twitter campaign of former service members against President Trump, over reports that he derided fallen U.S. soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers.' 'I recommend all veterans to use their Military pics as a profile pic,' Weissman wrote on Twitter on Thursday evening, 'to let Trump know how many people he has offended. 'Weissman's online call to arms underscored the outpouring of anger that erupted from military veterans and their families overnight against Trump, following a bombshell article in the Atlantic that Trump and several top aides have vehemently denied.... As first reported by the Atlantic and later confirmed in part by other media outlets..., Trump said wounded veterans should not march in a military parade and canceled his visit to a French cemetery for American Marines killed in World War I because he had no interest in honoring his country's war dead." ~~~
~~~ Colby Itkowitz, et al., of the Washington Post confirm more details of the Atlantic report & add a few of their own. A former senior administration official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to speak candidly, confirmed to The Washington Post that the president frequently made disparaging comments about veterans and soldiers missing in action, referring to them at times as 'losers.' In one account, the president told senior advisers that he didn't understand why the U.S. government placed such value on finding soldiers missing in action because they had performed poorly and gotten caught and deserved what they got, according to a person familiar with the discussion. Trump believed people who served in the Vietnam War must be 'losers' because they hadn't gotten out of it, according to a person familiar with the comments. Trump also complained bitterly to then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly that he didn't understand why Kelly and others in the military treated [Sen. John] McCain, who had been imprisoned and tortured during the Vietnam War, with such reverence." ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump heatedly denied on Thursday night that he referred to American soldiers killed in combat during World War I as 'losers' and 'suckers,' moving quickly to avoid losing support among the military and its allies just two months before an election. Marching over to reporters under the wing of Air Force One after returning from a campaign rally, a visibly angry Mr. Trump rebutted a magazine report that he decided against visiting a cemetery for American soldiers in France in 2018 because he feared the rain would mess up his hair and he did not believe it was important to honor the war dead.... People familiar with Mr. Trump's comments say he has long scorned those who served in Vietnam as being too dumb to have gotten out of it, as he did through a medical diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels. At other times, according to those familiar with the remarks, Mr. Trump would marvel at people choosing military service over making money. [Joe] Biden ... sought on Thursday night to capitalize on the Atlantic article, quickly issuing a statement condemning the president and saying it demonstrated that Mr. Trump was not fit for the office. Mr. Biden said the article, if true, showed 'another marker of how deeply President Trump and I disagree about the role of the president of the United States.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: You know, Donnie, when you lie more than 20,000 times in 3-1/2 years, people are not going to believe you when you deny a report that has been verified by multiple MSM outlets & which fits perfectly into your M.O of derogating other members of the armed services like John McCain & Jim Mattis. ~~~
~~~ ** Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic: "In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of [a] scheduled visit ... to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018..., Trump said, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers.' In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood as 'suckers' for getting killed.... According to sources with knowledge of the president's views, he seems to genuinely not understand why Americans treat former prisoners of war with respect. Nor does he understand why pilots who are shot down in combat are honored by the military.... Trump has been, for the duration of his presidency, fixated on staging military parades, but only of a certain sort. In a 2018 White House planning meeting for such an event, Trump asked his staff not to include wounded veterans, on grounds that spectators would feel uncomfortable in the presence of amputees. 'Nobody wants to see that,' he said." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Read the article. It is not long. It is probably the most shocking report I've read about any American public figure. James LaPorta, an AP reporter, told Rachel Maddow he found the report so unbelievable that he started calling around to verifying it. He has found two sources who have verified all most of Goldberg's reporting. Maddow also pointed to two related anecdotes: (1) that Robert Trump, Donald's brother, had told Mary Trump that Donald told Don Junior that he would disown him if Junior joined the military, something which Junior had expressed interest in doing; and (2) that as part of the pre-nuptial agreement between Donald Trump & Marla Maples, Donald would stop paying support to daughter Tiffany if Tiffany joined the military of the Peace Corps. Goldberg's report fills in perhaps the final piece of the Trump puzzle. Once you understand that Trump is a completely hollow man, lacking even the ability to understand self-sacrifice & love of country or liberty, then most of his other actions make a kind of "sense." ~~~
~~~ James LaPorta of the AP: "A new report details multiple instances of ... Donald Trump making disparaging remarks about members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed, including referring to the American war dead at the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018 as 'losers' and 'suckers.' Trump said Thursday that the story is 'totally false.' The allegations were first reported in The Atlantic. A senior Defense Department official with firsthand knowledge of events and a senior U.S. Marine Corps officer who was told about Trump's comments confirmed some of the remarks to The Associated Press, including the 2018 cemetery comments." ~~~
~~~ Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Jeffrey Goldberg has a stunning story today about President Trump's attitude toward the military. In a nutshell, he's contemptuous of anyone who served, anyone who was captured on the battlefield, or anyone who died.... I think Stalin had approximately the same view of the soldiers under his command. But then again, Stalin was a psychopath." ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemiuex in LG&$: "It's odd how much skepticism there was about this story before AP confirmed it, given that it's merely one of many expressions of Trump's fundamental worldview[.]... You don't become as successful a con artist as Trump without being remorselessly contemptuous of your marks, and he hates his actual and theoretical supporters more than anybody. It goes without saying that if a Democratic candidate for president said anything remotely resembling this there would be three A1 NYT stories a day about it for weeks but it is what it is."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "... as Mr. Trump seeks to become the oldest individual ever elected to the office for a second term, recent questions about his mental and physical condition have sent him into paroxysms of pique. They have complicated his own efforts to question the health of his challenger and fellow septuagenarian, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The president elevated the issue this week by taking the bait of a critic's tweet and denying that he had 'mini-strokes' last year around the time of a mysterious trip to the hospital. But Mr. Trump only raised more questions when he could not keep his explanations for that hospital visit straight. He wrote that it 'was to complete my yearly physical' -- contrary to how he explained it at the time, when he said it was 'phase one of my yearly physical' to be completed later." The story has more detail about Trump's remarks & tweets concerning his and others' fitness. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "Donald Trump Would Like to Momentarily Pause This Campaign to Tell You How Good His Brain Is." Asawin Suebsaeng & Scott Bixby of the Daily Beast: "Following a carefully manicured, four-day convention in which Donald Trump's chief lieutenants branded him as an avatar of stability and Joe Biden as the pied-piper of race riots, the president did what he always does: He casually disposed of his team's messaging in the service of nursing personal grudges. This week, it was about how his brain isn't dying.... Shortly after Trump's [tweeted] tirade about 'mini-strokes,' his re-election campaign called for CNN to fire an analyst [-- former Bill Clinton press secretary Joe Lockhart --] who asked his Twitter followers whether the president was hiding a past stroke from the American public.... When the Drudge Report ... led the site on Tuesday with Trump's furious denial [of having had 'mini-strokes,'] Trump blew up again.... Joe Biden's presidential campaign was practically thrilled to play along, arguing that Trump's focus on his own mental acuity was rooted in his failures on a more pressing health matter: the coronavirus pandemic...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jesselyn Cook of the Huffington Post: “... Donald Trump's campaign launched a series of Facebook ads on Thursday featuring a manipulated photo of his presidential opponent Joe Biden edited to make the former vice president appear older. The ads, which label Biden 'Sleepy Joe,' show him gazing out against a dark background with his mouth slightly agape. The Trump campaign is also running near-identical Facebook ads featuring the same text along with the original, unedited photo of Biden, in which his skin looks much brighter and healthier. It's among the latest examples of Trump officials circulating imagery that has been deceptively altered or pulled out of context to attack Biden."
Trump's Vote-Twice Advice Alarms North Carolina Officials. Tucker Higgins of CNBC: "Officials in North Carolina are scrambling to counteract ... Donald Trump's call for residents of the state to attempt to vote twice in the upcoming contest for the White House, issuing a notice on Thursday warning voters that doing so intentionally is a felony. Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said in the memo to voters that the board also discouraged people from showing up at polling sites on Election Day to check whether their absentee ballot had been counted." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Bell's notice is here. It begins, "The following is a message to North Carolina voters from Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the North Carolina State Board of Elections: It is illegal to vote twice in an election. N.C.G.S. § 163-275(7) makes it a Class I felony for a voter, 'with intent to commit a fraud to register or vote at more than one precinct or more than one time ... in the same primary or election.' Attempting to vote twice in an election or soliciting someone to do so also is a violation of North Carolina law." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Richard Hasen in Slate: "... Donald Trump on Thursday repeated his encouragement to his supporters to vote twice, first by mail and then -- if election officials allow -- in person. Voting twice -- as the president requests -- is not only illegal, but a recipe for chaos in November. Perhaps that is exactly the point. Trump defended his call as a way to test the system against voter fraud, but it's like encouraging his supporters to try to rob the 7-Eleven to make sure that the police can respond adequately to robberies.... Many people may hear his comments and think he is serious. This is particularly true given that he repeated the comments the very next day and his attorney general, William Barr, refused to acknowledge that double voting is illegal.... What's worse, the comments are going to put a strain on an election system stretched to its limits by trying to conduct a presidential election in the midst of a pandemic and with one of the candidates constantly casting doubt on the election's legitimacy. Again, this is probably Trump's real intent." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Stephanie Saul & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: Trump's "comments have now created a new headache for state election officials, who are already dealing with the formidable task of holding an election during a pandemic.... Elections officials in North Carolina also hinted that the president himself could have committed a crime.... The state's Democratic attorney general, Josh Stein, said it was outrageous for the president to suggest that people 'break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election.' And Jena Griswold, Colorado's Democratic secretary of state, said, '2020 has been unprecedented in so many ways, but I never imagined that as secretary of state I would have to inform both the president and the U.S. attorney general that it is illegal to vote twice.' That was after Attorney General William P. Barr suggested during an interview with CNN that he was not sure whether voting twice in North Carolina was illegal.... During a campaign speech in Latrobe, Penn., Thursday night, Mr. Trump repeated his claims from Wednesday, saying, 'Send in your early ballot and then go and make sure that ballot is tabulated and counted. And if it's not counted, then vote.' Then the election staff 'have the job of making sure they don't count it' twice."
Bill Barr Is So Trumpy He Makes Up Stuff. Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "In his latest warning about the dangers of mass mail-in voting, Attorney General William P. Barr pointed to a case in Texas that he said highlighted the risk of fraud. 'Elections that have been held with mail have found substantial fraud and coercion,' Barr told CNN on Wednesday. 'For example, we indicted someone in Texas, 1,700 ballots collected, he -- from people who could vote, he made them out and voted for the person he wanted to. Okay?' Federal prosecutors brought no such indictment. And while a Justice Department spokeswoman said Barr was referring to a local prosecution involving suspected mail-in voting fraud in a city council election, the assistant district attorney on that case said Barr's description doesn't match the facts. 'That's not what happened at all,' said Andy Chatham.... 'We didn't find any evidence of widespread voter fraud, and instead the ballots that were returned were consistent with the voter's choice,' Chatham said.... [One man] ultimately pleaded guilty in the case to improperly returning a marked ballot.... Chatham said he believed [the man] was a low-level player in a possibly larger scheme that never came to fruition, and that prosecutors never were able to fully unravel." Barr's spokesperson blamed his misstatement on an inaccurate DOJ memo he received. ~~~
~~~ Josh Margolin & Lucien Bruggeman of ABC News: "Russia has sought to 'amplify' concerns over the integrity of U.S. elections by promoting allegations that mail-in voting will lead to widespread fraud, according to an intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC News, again echoing a frequent and unfounded complaint raised by ... Donald Trump. Analysts with the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence branch issued the warning on Thursday to federal and state law enforcement partners after finding with 'high confidence' that 'Russian malign influence actors' have targeted the absentee voting process 'by spreading disinformation' since at least March." Mrs. McC: We know the Russians are working hand-in-glove with Trump. I wonder if Russia has put Bill Barr on retainer. It is a bit odd that an arm of the DHS is effectively "telling on" Trump & Barr, the country's top disinformation officials.
Jacques Billeaud of the AP: "A judge has barred Kanye West from appearing on the Nov. 3 ballot in Arizona, concluding that a voter who challenged his candidacy had shown he would probably prevail and had established the possibility of an irreparable harm if the rapper's name were to appear on the ballot.... West has already qualified to appear on the ballot in several states, including Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Tennessee and Utah. He didn't qualify in Ohio, Montana, West Virginia, Wisconsin and other states, though he has filed lawsuits challenging some of those decisions." ~~~
~~~ Laura Vozella of the Washington Post: "A Circuit Court judge ordered state officials to remove ... Kanye West from the Virginia ballot Thursday, granting an emergency order sought by two voters who said they were duped into helping the rapper-entrepreneur qualify for the ballot.... Justin Sheldon, who represented the two voters, asserted that West's campaign had 'secured the signatures to get on the ballot by fraud.'"
Elizabeth Dwoskin & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "Facebook plans to block new advertising the week before the presidential election -- the first time the company has taken action to limit political advertising in the United States, the company said Thursday.... The company also said that it would label posts by any candidate or campaign that tries to declare victory before the final results are in, directing people to the official results from Reuters. It will do the same for any posts that try to delegitimize the outcome of the election -- for example, a claim that voting by mail could lead to fraud. It has also started to limit users' ability to forward articles on its Messenger platform to large groups of people.... The Trump campaign blasted the company for its new policies." A New York Times story is here. The Guardian's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Trump campaign is pissed because there's been every indication that Trump does intend to declare victory prematurely, while Biden has not expressed any such inclination. The Guardian's story spells that out. Donie O'Sullivan of CNN said the Facebook move is a joke, that campaigns can still advertise in the last week before the election as long as they book the ads before the last week.
Ross Lincoln of Yahoo!: "Self-described 'fanatic about voting' Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to put his considerable money where his mouth is on Wednesday with an implied offer to fund the reopening of thousands of polling places in states that have shut them down. The former California governor was responding to a 2019 Reuters article which noted an enormous number of polling place closures that have occurred since the 2013 Supreme Court decision, Shelby County v. Holder.... Since then, there has been a wave of so-called reforms in former Jim Crow states that critics say are deliberately intended to disenfranchise nonwhite voters, along with the closure of more than 1200 polling stations...While it's unclear if anyone will take him up on this offer, the ex-Governator has pretty deep pockets. His current wealth is not known, but estimates from 2011 put his personal fortune north of $400 million." --s
Black Lives Matter
White You Win, Black You Lose. Bill Barr Puts His Fat Thumb on the Scale of Justice. Aris Folley of the Hill: "Attorney General William Barr said that he doesn't think the cases of George Floyd and Jacob Blake are 'interchangeable' when asked about both in an interview on Wednesday.... Pressed by host Wolf Blitzer for an explanation, Barr said Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died in Minneapolis earlier this year after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for more than eight minutes, was 'already subdued, incapacitated, in handcuffs and was not armed.... In the Jacob case, he was in the midst of committing a felony, and he was armed. So that's a big difference,' Barr claimed before adding moments later that he doesn't want to talk about either of the cases 'as if they're interchangeable.'... It's unclear if [Blake] was armed with a knife at the time of the shooting. The [Wisconsin Department of Justice] said the knife was recovered from the floorboard of Blake's car and that no other weapons were recovered during the search.... 'Attorney General Barr is misinformed. The police officers were the aggressors from start to finish, based on video and witness accounts,' [Blake's] legal team said in a joint statement. 'There was never any point in time when there was justification for deadly force. In fact, there were innocent bystanders in the line of fire when he shot seven times into Jacob's back.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Oregon. Hallie Golden, et al., of the New York Times: "Law enforcement agents shot and killed an antifa supporter on Thursday as they moved to arrest him in the fatal shooting of a right-wing activist who was part of a pro-Trump caravan in Portland, Ore., officials said. The suspect, Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was shot by officers from a federally led fugitive task force during the encounter in Lacey, Wash., southwest of Seattle, according to four law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.... An arrest warrant had been issued by the Portland police earlier Thursday, on the same day that Vice News published an interview with Mr. Reinoehl in which he appeared to admit to the Aug. 29 shooting, saying, 'I had no choice.'... In the Vice interview, Mr. Reinoehl said he had acted in self-defense, believing that he and a friend were about to be stabbed. 'I could have sat there and watched them kill a friend of mine of color, but I wasn't going to do that,' he said." An AP story is here. The Oregonian's story is here.
New York. Sarah Nir, et al., of the New York Times: "Seven Rochester[, N.Y.,] police officers were suspended on Thursday in the suffocation of a Black man as he was being detained in March, although the mayor and senior state officials faced escalating questions about why more than five months passed before action was taken. The man, Daniel Prude, who was having a psychotic episode, was handcuffed by officers after he ran into the street naked in the middle of the cold night and told at least one passer-by that he had the coronavirus. Mr. Prude began spitting, and the officers responded by pulling a mesh hood over his head, according to police body camera footage. When he tried to rise, the officers forced Mr. Prude face down on the ground, one of them pushing his head to the pavement, the video footage showed. Mr. Prude was held down by the police for two minutes, and had to be resuscitated. He died a week later at the hospital."
California. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "A California police officer was charged on Wednesday with felony manslaughter for fatally shooting a Black man inside a Walmart in April in a swift confrontation that the district attorney said displayed an unreasonable use of deadly force. District Attorney Nancy E. O'Malley of Alameda County said in a statement on Wednesday that charging Officer Jason Fletcher of the San Leandro Police Department 'is not a decision that is made lightly, nor rashly.' She faulted the officer for 'his failure to attempt other de-escalation options,' which 'rendered his use of deadly force unreasonable and a violation' of state law." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4% as the U.S. economy continued to climb its way out of the pandemic downturn. The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March, according to Labor Department figures released Friday.... Government hiring helped boost the total, with the growth of 344,000 workers accounting for a quarter of the monthly gain. Most of that hiring came from Census workers.... The total of those on furlough also fell dramatically.... August's job gains mean that more than half of those displaced during the pandemic are back at work." Mrs. McC: Needless to say, those Census jobs are very temporary.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "Moncef Slaoui, the chief adviser for the White House vaccine program, said on Thursday that it was 'extremely unlikely but not impossible' that a vaccine could be available by the end of October. In an interview with National Public Radio, Dr. Slaoui, the chief scientific adviser of the Trump administration's coronavirus vaccine and treatment initiative, called Operation Warp Speed, explained that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidance to states to prepare for a vaccine as early as late October -- a notification Dr. Slaoui said he had learned of through the news media -- was 'the right thing to do' in case a vaccine was ready by that time. 'It would be irresponsible not to be ready if that was the case,' he said. However, he described that as a 'very, very low chance.'"
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "New filings for jobless claims totaled 881,000 last week, better than estimates as the employment market continued its gradual progress during the coronavirus pandemic recovery. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for a total of 950,000. The number reflects an improving labor market as well as a change in methodology from the Labor Department to address seasonal factors. Unique circumstances associated with the coronavirus likely caused jobless claims totals to be overstated during the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Scott Horsley of NPR: "Without the seasonal adjustment, state unemployment claims rose by more than 7,500. In addition to the state unemployment claims, 759,000 people applied for benefits under a special federal program for gig workers and the self-employed, who are ordinarily not eligible for unemployment. Those claims also increased from the previous week." (Also linked yesterday.)
Anne Gearan & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "The White House on Thursday denounced the poisoning of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and suggested that the United States might retaliate if the Kremlin is to blame, but President Trump has failed to repudiate the attack himself, prompting criticism that he is once again being soft on Russian President Vladimir Putin. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the poisoning 'completely reprehensible' but did not address a question about whether Trump has 'made his voice known to the Russian government.' It was the strongest U.S. condemnation yet of the attack two weeks ago using what a German military lab says was a banned chemical weapon. Navalny survived and is now under treatment in Germany."
Pentagon Boosts Republican Senators. Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "President Trump's decision to use Pentagon money to pay for his border wall created problems on the campaign trail for Republican senators seeking reelection in states that lost military construction projects to the president's effort. But the Defense Department's move in recent months to restart many of those domestic projects has provided political cover to several Republican incumbents facing tough reelections.... Some of the revived projects are in states with two Democrats representing them in the Senate. But others are hot-button projects in states such as North Carolina, Colorado and Arizona, where Republican senators in competitive races had been taking heat over their defunding." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Trump administration has quietly named a new acting State Department inspector general, the latest personnel shift to hit the troubled watchdog unit since Secretary of State Mike Pompeo engineered the firing of its longtime leader. Matthew Klimow, the U.S. ambassador to Turkmenistan since mid-2019, has been handed the reins of the inspector general's office for at least 90 days, according to a Wednesday email seen by Politico.... Klimow is a career government employee with a lengthy resume that includes receiving a Silver Star for valor in combat when he was in the Army. It was not immediately clear if Klimow is giving up his position as the U.S. envoy in hermetic, energy-rich Turkmenistan although in a note to the inspector general's staff, he said he would be with them for 'a relatively short time.'" Mrs. McC: I wonder how many coverups Klimow is supposed to finesse in that "relatively short time." (Also linked yesterday.)
Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel privately went along with a plan for the Trump administration to sell advanced weapons to the United Arab Emirates, despite publicly saying later that he opposed the arms deal, according to officials familiar with the negotiations. Mr. Netanyahu chose not to try to block the deal as he took part in a broader effort in recent months to secure a diplomatic breakthrough normalizing relations between Israel and the Emirates, the officials said. President Trump announced the initiative to great fanfare last month, without mentioning the arms discussions that were proceeding on a parallel track. But after news of the arms sale became public late last month, the Israeli prime minister repeatedly denied that he had given assurances to the Trump administration that Israel would not oppose the Emirati arms deal. The officials said Mr. Netanyahu's public statements were false."
Jason Leopold, et al. of Buzzfeed: "The federal government has once again released hundreds of pages of previously unseen records from former special counsel Robert Mueller's two-year investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and President Donald Trump's attempts to obstruct the inquiry.... They reveal what hundreds of people ... told federal investigators when they were questioned as part of the probe, which began in May 2017.... One witness said the Trump campaign had almost no fundraising structure and as late as May 2016 was 'dormant or non-existent.' The campaign seemed to have few controls, the witness said, and it was unclear whether anyone was checking to ensure that non-US citizens weren't donating to the campaign." --s
David Folkenflik of NPR: "At the Voice of America, staffers say the Trump appointee leading their parent agency is threatening to wash away legal protections intended to insulate their news reports from political meddling. 'What we're seeing now is the step-by-step and wholescale dismantling of the institutions that protect the independence and the integrity of our journalism,' says Shawn Powers, until recently the chief strategy officer for the U.S. Agency for Global Media, which oversees VOA.... [I]t appears that [the new CEO, Michael] Pack is, in fact, interested in influencing which stories get told, and how.... This story is based on interviews with 18 current and former executives and journalists at the U. S. Agency for Global Media and the Voice of America. Citing the tumult and firings at the agency, most would not speak to NPR on the record, saying they feared for their jobs or professional reputations." --safari Read on. They're destroying VOA.
Jeffrey Lambe of Law & Crime: "A privately-funded 3-mile section of border wall built thanks to Steve Bannon and Brian Kolfage's 'We Build the Wall' (WBTW) organization is destined to fail [structurally], according to a pair of engineering reports reviewed by ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. The inspections, both of which were conducted in relation to ongoing litigation surrounding the structure, confirm reports from May that said heavy erosion and inclement weather had left the wall 'in danger of falling into the Rio Grande.'... [T]he North Dakota construction firm that built the structurally unsound wall, Fisher Sand & Gravel, was also awarded a record-high $1.3 billion government contract to erect a portion of the federally funded U.S.-Mexico border wall. Despite FSG's prototype being rejected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for lacking in both 'quality' and 'sophistication,' President Trump directly inserted himself into the process for evaluating and awarding the contracts, lobbying on behalf of FSG and the firm's CEO Tommy Fisher." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's hard to conjure up any outrage against Bannon & Kolfage's grift when you realize that every aspect of "the wall" was a scam. Trump, who isn't all that bright, is still able to grasp the concept of metaphors, and I expect the wall began as a metaphor -- a virtual wall to keep the brown people south of the border, similar, for instance to Thomas Jefferson's "wall of separation between Church & State." But his fans, who are dumb as rocks, thought he meant a real wall, and that suited Trump. Since he was pretending to be fiscally responsible during the 2016 campaign -- a facade he quickly dropped -- he first said Mexico would pay for the wall. That actually would be possible if the wall were strictly metaphorical; after all, the fake author of The Art of the Deal should be able to negotiate an arrangement where Mexico asserted a lot of border control. Once the concept of the wall became real, Trump had to convert it into a grift: contractor friends of his would build a POS, and somehow or the other, there would be a payoff for Donald.
Mark Hosenball of Reuters: "Attempts by former White House adviser Steve Bannon to export President Donald Trump's brand of populism to Europe are on the rocks, according to several of his current and former political partners in Italy and Belgium.... [T]wo people working with [Bannon] said an effort to found an academy [the Dignitatis Humanae Institute] for right-wing Roman Catholic activists in Italy faces a criminal inquiry by the Rome criminal court and a project aimed at ending the European Union has closed up shop.... In October, Italy's Culture Ministry revoked the institute's permission to use the monastery, saying [the] organization did not meet the requirements to manage it and had lied when applying to use the building.... In making its application, the institute said that it had operated an abbey in central Italy since 2015. However state television RAI said in a documentary that the abbey was an inaccessible ruin closed to the public.... In a separate action, Italy's Court of Auditors said the institute did not pay rent of around 200,000 euros ($236,340) for 2018 and 2019." --s
Update on the Horrifying Scandal of the Year. Ryan Saavedra of the Daily Wire: "Christine Pelosi, the daughter of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), released a letter from a law firm on Wednesday afternoon that attacked the owner of the salon that Pelosi recently visited in apparent violation of coronavirus lockdown rules. The letter from attorney Matthew Soleimanpour was on behalf of Jonathan De Nardo, a California Certified Cosmetologist based out of San Francisco, California." Thanks to Anonymous for the link. Mrs. McC: The lawyer's letter, which Saavedra cites in full, completely exonerates Speaker Pelosi & implicates the salon owner Erica Kious in a sting. It's kinda worth reading, at least if you read any of the stories that preceded this one. (Also linked yesterday.)
Danny Hakim & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The National Rifle Association's former second-in-command is breaking with the group's orthodoxy and calling for universal background checks and so-called red flag laws in a new book assailing the organization as more focused on money and internal intrigue than the Second Amendment, while thwarting constructive dialogue on gun violence. The former executive, Joshua L. Powell, who was fired by the N.R.A. in January, reinforces the kind of criticism made of the organization by gun control groups and state regulators, but it is the first critical look at its recent history by such a high-ranking insider. He describes the N.R.A.'s longtime chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, as a woefully inept manager, but also a skilled lobbyist with a deft touch at directing President Trump to support the group's objectives, and who repeatedly reeled in the president's flirtations with even modest gun control measures." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
California. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "It was an image that seemed destined to go viral: a masked mother holding a crying infant, while delivering an impassioned speech on the legislative floor. It was as if, for a single moment in the California State Capitol, the near-impossibility of the demands of new motherhood and work and pandemic living had converged in a swaddle in Buffy Wicks's arms. Ms. Wicks, a veteran of the Obama and Clinton presidential campaigns, said she had never expected to become a symbol when she took her month-old child with her to vote on several crucial bills on Monday, the last day of the legislative session. Ms. Wicks lives in Oakland, just over an hour southwest of the capital, Sacramento.... [In an interview, Wicks told Medina,] 'I asked the speaker directly if I could vote by proxy. He was really trying to make it work, but the legal interpretation he was advised was that it would leave us open to litigation if there was a close vote.... I felt compelled to go and decided to bring my daughter because we're feeding every two or three hours....'" Mrs. McC: Wicks seems like a lovely young woman. But, you know, she cares about other people, and she's making sacrifices. So I guess that makes her a loser in Donald Trump's mind.
News Lede
New York Times: "A study published on Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that the experimental treatment [two] ...Brown student[s, Joshua Cohen and] Justin Klee, conceived might hold promise for slowing progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis [A.L.S.], the ruthless disease that robs people of their ability to move, speak, eat and ultimately breathe. More than 50 clinical trials over 25 years have failed to find effective treatments for A.L.S., also called Lou Gehrig's disease, which often causes death within two to five years. But now, scientific advances and an influx of funding are driving clinical trials for many potential therapies, generating hope and intense discussion among patients, doctors and researchers."
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