;)
The Commentariat -- August 25, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates Tuesday are here.
Hahn Apologizes. Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: At a White House briefing Sunday, with a maskless Donald Trump breathing down his neck, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn claimed that 35 percent of coronavirus patient "were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease.... But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn't accurate, scientists said Monday.... [Experts were horrified by what was a false claim.] On Monday night, Hahn in a tweet acknowledged he had misspoken during the news briefing about the findings of the convalescent plasma study. 'I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,' Hahn wrote. 'What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.'... Essentially, the Trump administration figures had compared one group of patients who got a certain kind of plasma with a group who got a different concentration at a different point in the disease, thus showing the relative difference between those groups. It was not a measure of what happens when some patients get plasma and some don't -- the kind of research necessary to send a signal of whether a treatment is truly helping." The AP's story is here. Related story linked below.
Ben Gittleson, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will nominate Chad Wolf to be the permanent Secretary of Homeland Security. Wolf has been acting secretary since November and his tenure has been controversial, most recently in his role carrying out Trump's orders to use federal agents to respond to violent protests in Portland, Oregon.... Two weeks ago, a government watchdog agency found that Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were named to their current roles illegally, in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, in part because they had not faced Senate confirmation. In response to a letter from DHS which called the ruling 'baseless and baffling,' the Government Accountability Office reaffirmed its decision that the two top DHS officials were serving illegally. Democrats had demanded they resign, and on a call with reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer blasted the decision to nominate Wolf."
Falwell Flipflops. Again. Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell, Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as president of Liberty University, after agreeing to step down Monday in the wake of scandals involving personal conduct, and then reversing course."
Here's a story I missed: Melanie Zanona of Politico (August 21): "The House Ethics Committee formally admonished Rep. Matt Gaetz for a threatening tweet about ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer -- the lightest form of punishment that the panel can take. While the 10-member panel determined that the Florida Republican's 'actions did not reflect creditably upon the House of Representatives,' the committee also concluded in its report that he 'did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws' and declined to issue more severe sanctions against the Florida Republican.... The case stems from an incident on February 2019, when on the eve of Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, Gaetz vowed to release embarrassing information about allegations of Cohen's infidelity. The tweet sparked immediate backlash on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing Gaetz of witness tampering. 'Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat,' Gaetz wrote. 'I wonder if she'll remain faithful to you in prison. She's about to learn a lot.'"
Michael Nienaber & Joseph Nasr of Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.... 'In light of the prominent role played by Mr. Navalny in the political opposition in Russia, the authorities there are now urgently called upon to investigate this crime to the last detail - and do so in full transparency,' Merkel said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas." Mrs. McC: Gee, no word from Donald Trump.
"Diplomats Aghast." Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "Diplomats who are barred by law from mixing work and politics say they're appalled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, breaking with long-standing traditions aimed at isolating American's foreign policy from partisan battles at home. It would be problematic enough, current and former U.S. diplomats said, if Pompeo were simply showing up at the convention to speak. But Pompeo's decision to use a stop in Jerusalem during an official overseas trip as the site for his recorded speech to fellow Republicans raises even more troubling questions about the message it sends to other countries and whether U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, they said.... Pompeo's speech in service of ... Donald Trump's re-election appears to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of three legal memos issued by the State Department's legal adviser. One of the legal memos, intended to guide political appointees, says explicitly in bold letters that 'Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention.'" Mrs. McC: But will Mike speak from the Temple Mount?
Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: The mean people on Twitter are suggesting that Donnie Junior was coked up when he gave his convention speech. Brigham cites many opinionators. I like that "scientific analysis," where a Tweeter tested the color of Junior's eyes against a color chart & finds that the "whitest" spot in the whites of his eyes was actually a deep rosy pink.
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race. Etc.
A Story Told by Cranks and Misfits. -- Joe Scarborough of MSNBC
Jonathan Lemire & Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump aggressively asserted control over the Republican National Convention on Monday, overshadowing the prime-time speakers, as he made clear he wants voters to focus on him.... Republicans are not known as the party of diversity. But on Monday, the party showcased two of its stars, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and the state's former governor, Nikki Haley, to try to tell a different story. Both argued that the president and his party had done a lot to help minorities across the nation.... Trump complained last week that Democrats 'held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.' But on opening night of their convention, Republicans are doing their share, spreading fear of a Biden victory on Nov. 3.... Trump made an appearance at the White House with everyday Americans, without recommended social distancing and with no one wearing a mask.... Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump's most bombastic backers, testified to Trump's 'intensity and his willingness to fight. But what I also appreciate is something most Americans never see -- how much he truly cares about people.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Clearly, no one at the RNC saw the irony of having the party's most vicious attack dog, Jim Jordan, praising Trump's caring & empathetic character. ~~~
~~~ Beware the Invading Hordes! Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump and his political allies mounted a fierce and misleading defense of his political record on the first night of the Republican convention on Monday, while unleashing a barrage of attacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party that were unrelenting in their bleakness. Hours after Republican delegates formally nominated Mr. Trump for a second term, the president and his party made plain that they intended to engage in sweeping revisionism about Mr. Trump's management of the coronavirus pandemic, his record on race relations and much else. And they laid out a dystopian picture of what the United States would look like under a Biden administration, warning of a 'vengeful mob' that would lay waste to suburban communities and turn quiet neighborhoods into war zones. At times, the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality.... [Donald Junior] delivered that framed the election as a choice between 'church, work and school' and 'rioting, looting and vandalism.'... 'Rioters must not be allowed to destroy our cities,' [Junior's girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle] said, before abruptly changing her tone and smiling broadly. 'The best is to come,' she said, her voice rising to a shout.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This might be a good time to remind you that Guilfoyle knows cities. After all, she was the wife of liberal California Gov. Gavin Newsom when he was San Francisco's mayor, though she was working in New York City for Anderson Cooper for some of that time. And, as I learned today, Guilfoyle also had a professional relationship with Kamala Harris, which Harris suggests Guilfoyle has completely misrepresented.
New York Times reporters' snark analysis of the Republican National Convention Monday night is here. It includes live video, but you can mute it. This seems like the most painless way to "watch" the convention without having to listen to it. The Times is also doing some "formal" fact-checking on the page.
Politico's live analysis is here. Seems to be a slow-loader. It's not bad. For instance, Charlie Mahtesian: "Next up is St. Louis couple who stood outside their home pointing guns at protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.... The McCloskeys seem like litigious neighbors from hell."
Here's a fairly good summary of Dark Night 1 of the Trump Show:
The New York Times' live updates of Monday's Trump Show are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Republicans have already held a live roll call in Charlotte, N.C., but MSNBC played it on mute (Trump just complained that CNN didn't cover the roll call at all; who knows if that's true); the audio was the House hearing on the USPS. Mrs. McC: Fortunately, I had already read a preview of the roll call, thanks to historian Kevin Kruse (linked yesterday), so I didn't miss a thing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Robin Givhan of the Washington Post watched: "The roll call on opening day of the Republican National Convention was sleepy. Low energy. And sad.... It was technically stultifying. It was also devoid of Black people and sorely lacking in people of color.... In essence, it was White men in a room simplifying complex issues and repeatedly pledging their fealty to guns, fetuses and the importance of kneeling to pray and standing for the national anthem.... Arizona's ... delegation chairman extolled the 'miles and miles and miles of big beautiful wall.' Montana made note of there being almost five guns in every home.... It was Trumpian politics as television. And it was dismal.... [By contrast, the Democrats' roll call] was a homey and expansive view of America -- from the majesty of the Black Hills to the calamari of Rhode Island.... In the midst of the roll call..., the man himself strolled into the ballroom.... Trump talked on and on. He'd leave a topic only to circle back to it. He'd begin to wrap up with a declaration of thanks and then he'd think of something else he wanted to say."
** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Republicans chose not to produce a platform for their convention, no statement of values or declaration of principle. Instead, the party has approved a resolution to 'enthusiastically support' President Trump's 'America-first agenda,' whatever that may be. And while the White House has produced a bullet-point outline of its second-term agenda, this week's convention itself has little content planned other than cultural grievance and worshipful praise for the president. As one veteran congressional aide told Politico, the only thing Republicans believe now is 'Owning the libs and pissing off the media.'... Rather than bring a new program to bear on the party, he has made the equivalent of a trade: total support for his personal and political concerns in exchange for almost total pursuit of conservative ideological interests."
Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was a fire hose of false or misleading claim[s], mostly drawn from President Trump's arsenal of falsehoods. Here are 19 claims that caught our attention."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lloyd Grove & Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "When two of the major broadcast networks -- CBS and ABC -- broke into their regular programming Monday to carry live portions of ... Donald Trump's largely false musings after his official nomination, departing from their announced policy of giving only a hour of daily airtime to each party's political convention, the Biden-Harris campaign was not amused. Indeed, operatives for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were fuming Monday about a perceived lack of fairness in which the nation's major television outlets permitted Trump -- in an ominous echo of the 2016 campaign in which the former reality-TV star received an estimated $2 billion of free airtime -- to manipulate the media to his advantage.... CBS ... broadcast around 20 minutes of Trump's 53-minute venomous and lie-filled stream-of-consciousness[;...] ABC ... aired around 7 minutes of the president's rant.... While CBS offered a soupcon of fact-checking by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell and chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett before signing off, ABC did zero fact-checking.... [A Biden campaign operative said] that the demand for parity in airtime is not the same as saying that more airtime for Trump will necessarily advantage him over Biden." ~~~
~~~ "Wrong, Misleading and Outright Lies." Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Television's ability to handle a Trump-centric Republican National Convention faced an early test on Monday, when the president delivered a kickoff speech in Charlotte, N.C., that was filled with false claims about the integrity of mail-in voting and the policy positions of his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr.... President Trump's well-documented penchant for falsehoods presents a unique challenge, according to network executives.... As the president spoke in Charlotte on Monday shortly after delegates formally renominated him, a hodgepodge of journalistic strategies emerged. CNN took the most drastic approach, cutting away from Mr. Trump in the middle of his remarks.... Anchor John King told viewers, 'but a lot of what you just heard from the president of the United States is wrong, misleading and outright lies. Wrong, misleading and outright lies.'... MSNBC carried the entirety of Mr. Trump's speech live, opting for real-time analysis in on-screen graphics.... After Mr. Trump finished..., News anchor Chuck Todd ticked through a lengthy fact-check, noting that the speech was 'filled with so many made-up problems about mail-in voting that if we were to air just the truthful parts, we probably could only air maybe a sentence, if that much.'... Fox News carried the president's speech live, but did not offer a correction to Mr. Trump's false claims."
~~~ Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen will appear in a series of ads for the Democratic group American Bridge in the coming days, telling voters that Trump 'can't be trusted' and that they 'shouldn't believe a word he utters' during the Republican National Convention this week.... The ads ... They will begin running digitally on Monday night and on television starting Wednesday, as the convention enters its final two days."
Jim Acosta & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "Former chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele is joining the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans working to prevent ... Donald Trump's re-election. 'Today is the day where things should matter and you need to take stock of what matters to you -- and the kind of leader you want to lead in these moments. And for me, it ain't him,' Steele, a political analyst for MSNBC said making the announcement to host Nicole Wallace on Monday afternoon."
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "A group of onetime Republican presidential appointees who served as senior ethics or Justice Department aides are endorsing Joe Biden for president, warning that Donald Trump has 'weaponized' the executive branch and is putting in peril the legitimacy of the U.S. Justice Department. 'I think a lot of us are extremely alarmed, frankly, at the threat of autocracy,' Donald B. Ayer, former deputy attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Politico. 'He's going to be unleashed if he gets a second term. I don't know what's going to stop him.'"
Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration who endorsed Joe Biden last week, has started a group of current and former administration officials and other Republican leaders who want to see ... Donald Trump defeated in November. Taylor and Elizabeth Neumann, another former senior DHS official who served in the administration, have started the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform (REPAIR), which will include people who work or have worked for Trump but want to elect Biden and reform the Republican Party."
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress on Monday that the Postal Service could be trusted to carry out the largest vote-by-mail program in American history without political bias, even as President Trump repeated baseless accusations that mail-in voting would be used by his rivals to rig the November election against him ... [and] claimed without evidence that Democrats were 'using Covid to steal the election.' Under tough questioning by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Mr. DeJoy, a major donor to Mr. Trump and other Republicans, mounted an outraged defense of the modifications he has made at the Postal Service that have thrust the agency into a political firestorm, denying that they were motivated by partisanship. He refused to commit to reversing the changes, which he characterized as vital cost-cutting measures for a cash-strapped agency badly in need of an overhaul, and scolded Congress for failing for years to attend to the post office's financial woes."
Yo, Louie, you don't want to go before Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) if you don't know nuthin':
Nor rain, nor snow, that sleet nor hail will make our delivery. -- Louis DeJoy, trying to recite the USPS unofficial motto
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. -- Actual motto ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of the DeJoy hearing are here. "In one tense exchange, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) asked DeJoy 'what the heck are you doing,' complaining that the postmaster general had ended a 'once-proud tradition' of the Postal Service. Lynch asked, 'Will you put the machines back?' DeJoy said he would not." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Here's the rant that contributor Jeanne mentioned in yesterday's Comments, which preceded his question of DeJoy:
Molly Redden of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's selection for a key Postal Service position, Robert M. Duncan, once ... steer[ed] the Republican Party while it undertook some of its most brazen voter suppression schemes. Duncan is now the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, but he previously served as general counsel and then chair of the Republican National Committee from 2002 to 2009, a time when the committee and its state counterparts oversaw an unprecedented escalation of voter disenfranchisement efforts in swing states. From 2004 to 2006, when Duncan was the committee's general counsel, party officials challenged the eligibility of at least 77,000 voters, a 2007 report by the nonpartisan group Project Vote found. As it happens, one of the party's favored tactics relied on the U.S. mail. In 2004, Republicans in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania sent thousands of nonforwardable letters and postcards to select voters -- particularly minority voters -- and used the mail returned as undeliverable to come up with voter registration challenge lists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of conavirus developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lying on a Life-and-Death Matter. Katie Thomas & Sheri Fink of the New York Times: "At a news conference on Sunday announcing the emergency approval of blood plasma for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, President Trump and two of his top health officials cited the same statistic: that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent.... Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said 35 out of 100 Covid-19 patients' would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.' But scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed this data, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study.... For the first time ever, I feel like official people in communications and people at the F.D.A. grossly misrepresented data about a therapy,' said Dr. Walid Gellad..., [of] the University of Pittsburgh.... Dr. Robert Califf, who was F.D.A. commissioner under President Barack Obama, said on Twitter on Sunday that Dr. Hahn should correct his statement..., [as did] Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif.... Although there have been some positive signs that [plasma] can reduce deaths in Covid-19 patients, no randomized trials have shown that it works."
Jeff Mason of Reuters: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not harbor 'deep state' elements, the agency's head [Dr. Stephen Hahn] told Reuters on Monday, rejecting criticism from ... Donald Trump that staff there were trying to delay a coronavirus vaccine.... 'I have not seen anything that I would consider to be 'deep state' at the FDA,' Hahn told Reuters in an interview.... Hahn said the FDA's recent authorization of a coronavirus treatment using blood plasma from recovered patients was not made because of political pressure and emphasized that on his watch any decision on a vaccine would be based on science.... Hahn acknowledged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, and Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health had expressed concern that the data did not justify the authorization." Mrs. McC: What Hahn evidently did not acknowledge was that he got on the teevee & "grossly misrepresented" those data.
Julie Steenhuysen & Carl O'Donnell of Reuters: Anthony Fauci, "the top U.S. infectious diseases expert is warning that distributing a COVID-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines.... [Donald] Trump stoked concerns of politicizing the regulatory approval process with an announcement on Sunday of an emergency use authorization for plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat current patients before its benefits have been assessed in randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials."
Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "A Florida judge Monday granted a temporary injunction against the state's order requiring school districts to reopen schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying in a harshly worded decision that safety concerns had been ignored. Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson, in a 16-page decision, granted the request in a lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association to block the order issued by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on July 6 compelling schools to reopen five days a week for families who did not want their children to do all virtual learning. Districts were threatened with loss of state funding if they did not comply. Dodson said, however, that parts of the order were unconstitutional and that state officials 'have essentially ignored the requirement of school safety by requiring the statewide opening of brick-and-mortar schools to receive already allocated funding.' He also said the state had wrongly removed the right of local districts to decide for themselves on safe reopening plans." The Tampa Bay Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Nick Schwellenbach & David Szakonyi of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO): "Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov owns four coal mining operations sprinkled across Appalachia that received loans intended to help small businesses keep workers on payroll during the pandemic. They received a total of $21 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to a statement Akhmetov's company provided to the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).... [T]he oligarch's United Coal Company and its subsidiaries had estimated sales of $1.5 billion last year.... Akhmetov ... reportedly owns two of the planet's most expensive homes and ... had a cameo in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report last year.... The total value of the loans also exceeds the amount of civil penalties United Coal has racked up [$13.4 million for 14,030] for federal worker health and safety violations.... Unlike past Small Business Administration programs, it does not matter if PPP loan recipients are owned by a wealthy foreign national." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Crime Family Trump & Friends
David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The New York attorney general is investigating President Trump's private business for allegedly misleading lenders by inflating the value of its assets, the attorney general's office said Monday in a legal filing. In the filing, signed by a deputy to Attorney General Letitia James, the attorney general's office said it is investigating Trump's use of 'Statements of Financial Condition' -- documents Trump sent to lenders, summarizing his assets and debts. The filing asks a New York state judge to compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators -- including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president's son Eric. The attorney general's office said it began investigating after Trump's former lawyer and 'fixer,' Michael Cohen, told Congress in February 2019 that Trump had used these statements to inflate his net worth to lenders. The filing said that Eric Trump had been scheduled to be interviewed in the investigation in late July, but abruptly canceled that interview. The filing says that Eric Trump is now refusing to be interviewed...." A New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jerry Likes to Watch. Aram Roston of Reuters: "In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell's wife and the evangelical leader. Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.... Becki Falwell, 53, is a political figure in her own right. She served on the advisory board of the group Women for Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Susan Svrluga, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell Jr. has agreed to resign as president of Liberty University on Monday, according to a school official.... Opposition to his presidency had been growing but came to a dramatic head after two new reports about a young man Falwell and his wife befriended at a Florida pool, went into business with and who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple.... Falwell had been placed on paid leave Aug. 7 after he posted a provocative picture of himself and his wife's assistant on social media." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Great. Now Jerry & Bambi Becki have plenty of free time to go around the country campaigning for Trump. Hope Jerry will be giving the invocation at one of the episodes of this week's Trump Show. ~~~
~~~ Update Update. Maggie Severns, et al., of Politico: "Jerry Falwell Jr. says he is not resigning as president and chancellor of Liberty University, contradicting news reports announcing his departure from the Evangelical school. 'I have not resigned,' Falwell told Politico on a phone call on Monday evening. Asked how the news reports of him resigning had gotten out, he replied, 'I don't know.'... Falwell [is] one of ... Donald Trump's most prominent evangelical supporters...." ~~~
~~~ Update Update Update. This story has yet a New Lede: Jerry Falwell Jr. said he planned to resign Monday as president and chancellor of Liberty University only to backpedal on that decision several hours later after it had become public, according to a statement from the Christian university. Falwell 'agreed to resign as its President and from its Board of Directors but following media reports about the resignation, withdrew it,' the university said in a statement late Monday evening. The university's board of trustees was scheduled to meet on Tuesday."
~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$ righteously provides the Christian response: "Let he who has not made [a] fortune running a billion dollar non-profit boiler room cum 'Christian University' that obsessively monitors the romantic inclinations of its marks students, while recording three-ways between his wife, his wife's hot young Latin lover, and himself, cast the first stone." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Paul. Now I'm so ashamed of snickering. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An afternoon that had begun with peaceful marches in protest of a police shooting gave way to fires, destruction and looting in Kenosha[,Wisconsin,] as a strip of businesses in a central residential neighborhood was consumed in flames early Tuesday.... Lost in the blaze, neighbors said, was a mattress store, a storefront church, a Mexican restaurant and a cellphone store. Less than a mile away, a probation and parole office was also on fire. A line of National Guard members, called to Kenosha amid rising tension over Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black resident who was shot by a white police officer, prevented anyone from getting close as firefighters worked to douse the flames." Here's the Washington Post's story. An AP report is here.~~~
~~~ Claire Proctor of the Chicago Sun-Times: Jacob Blake's "father said there are now 'eight holes' in his son's body, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors don't yet know if the injury is permanent." ~~~
~~~ ** "Stop Killing Unarmed Black People." Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "From the NFL to the NBA to MLB, athletes used social media to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, Sunday evening by police in Kenosha, Wis. Michael Thomas, the New Orleans Saints wide receiver who was the guiding force behind NFL players' powerful video message about George Floyd in June, summed up his feelings in five words: 'Stop killing unarmed Black people.' Blake, 29, was shot at least seven times in the back as he tried to get into a car in which his three children were seated. He underwent surgery and is in serious condition in the intensive care unit of a Milwaukee hospital. The officers were placed on administrative leave, but protests rocked the city, which was placed on a curfew that extended into Monday morning. LeBron James was one of several athletes who shared an old video of actor Denzel Washington asking, 'Is the sheep preaching hate when he says I'm not going to let a wolf eat me anymore?'" ~~~
~~~ Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "Cops in Wisconsin 'must be held accountable' after shooting a Black man in the back in front of his young children, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Monday.... 'This calls for an immediate, full and transparent investigation and the officers must be held accountable,' Biden said in a statement Monday. 'These shots pierce the soul of our nation. Jill and I pray for Jacob's recovery and for his children,' the former vice president continued. 'Equal justice has not been real for Black Americans and so many others. We are at an inflection point. We must dismantle systemic racism. It is the urgent task before us.'"
Jeremy White of Politico: "Former Rep. Duncan Hunter's [R-Calif.] wife, Margaret Hunter, was sentenced to eight months of home detention on Monday after assisting federal prosecutors in a corruption case against her husband. U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan lauded Margaret Hunter's 'remarkable cooperation' in sparing her jail time despite what prosecutors call her involvement in the couple siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign finance funds for personal use. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty in December to violating campaign finance law and was sentenced earlier this year to 11 months in prison, although efforts to reduce prison crowding during the coronavirus pandemic has delayed the start of his prison term." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Duncan Hunter was one of the first two members of Congress to endorse Donald Trump. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who endorsed Trump the same day Hunter did, got a 26-month sentence for insider trading, but as with Hunter, Collins' surrender-date has been delayed because of the coronavirus.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Jenny Gross of the New York Times: "The California Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death penalty for Scott Peterson, who was found guilty in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, in a notorious case that became fodder for the tabloids and cable news and spawned at least one made-for-TV movie. The court upheld Mr. Peterson's conviction, but it said that the trial judge had made mistakes that hindered his right to an impartial jury during sentencing.... The court said, '... before the trial began, the trial court made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection.' The court said prosecutors could again seek the death penalty for Mr. Peterson at a new hearing. Prospective jurors whose views on capital punishment would impair their ability to follow the law could be dismissed as unqualified, the court said. But jurors could not be dismissed simply for having expressed opposition to the death penalty."
Way Beyond the Beltway
** Russia. William Glucroft & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition figure and Kremlin critic, was poisoned, Berlin's Charité hospital said in a statement Monday, citing clinical results. Although the exact substance that poisoned Navalny is not yet known, it is believed to be a cholinesterase inhibitor, Charité's statement said, adding that the effect of the toxin -- blocking cholinesterase, an enzyme needed for the proper functioning of the nervous system -- was confirmed several times by independent laboratories.... Navalny remains in a medically induced coma but 'there is no acute danger to his life.' He is being given atropine, a medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "A gospel-singing Brazilian congresswoman [Flordelis dos Santos de Souza] has been accused of masterminding the 'barbaric' murder of her preacher husband after at least six failed or aborted attempts to kill him with poison or in staged robberies. Anderson do Carmo was 42 when he was shot dead in June 2019 as he returned to the home he shared with the church crooner-turned-politician Flordelis dos Santos de Souza.... [A]llegations of a bizarre and lurid family plot to murder the evangelical preacher emerged on Monday as police arrested five of Flordelis' children and one granddaughter for involvement in the crime.... The 59-year-old lawmaker -- who has made records for one of Brazil's top gospel labels and was elected to congress in 2018 -- could not be arrested because she enjoys parliamentary immunity.... Do Carmo's grisly murder -- he was reportedly shot more than 30 times, predominantly in the groin and thighs -- made nationwide headlines and has continued to do so since." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "Gail Sheehy, a journalist who plumbed the interior lives of public figures for clues to their behavior and examined societal trends as signposts of cultural change, died on Monday at a hospital in Southampton, N.Y. She was 83."
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Laura is intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico and is forecast to become a major hurricane prior to striking the upper Texas or southwest Louisiana coasts late Wednesday or early Thursday. Life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds will batter the coast and a threat of flooding rain and strong winds will extend well inland. Residents along the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts should prepare now for a hurricane strike. Follow any evacuation orders issued by local or state officials."
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Reader Comments (18)
Scanning yesterday's RNC offerings, sans a hint of policy or planning for the next four years as they were, the question recurs:
If you're going to offer a person in lieu of an agenda, wouldn't you try to find someone likeable to take planning's place?
And the implied corollary:
Whst's wrong with sll those millions who appaently do?
Didn't get it four years ago, and get it even less now.
THEY KNEW THEN––THEY KNOW NOW:
Video of voices from 2016 describing Trump: Lindsay, Cruz, Rand Paul, Rubio, Haley, Kellyanne, Pompeo, Beck, Perry, and that sweet Susan Collins.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P43wDpKQxaM&feature=youtu.be
Since I declined to watch the Great American Scotophilia I delighted in hearing all about it from Colbert ( loved his wife's laughter in the background). Ms Gilly-Foil hit the high note for me––she of the shrieking voice that would cause ships to sink and vessels to burst!
I recall fondly the story of her showing pictures of "Dicks" to her Foxy friends and had them–- just for fun!–– guess whose they were and we wondered then and we wonder now were these guys aware of their Johnsons being paraded around like this?
Be that as it may–-given what Colbert showed us I feel blessed I didn't watch the proceedings––-truly stomach turning.
I must say how delighted I was to hear about Jerry Falwell, another junior who is now exposed as a hypocrite and a guy that gets off by watching his wife frolic with the pool tool. That news gives me the same kind of satisfaction one gets after learning all Fatty's henchmen get hauled into court.
From yesterday: @Marie––re: Fox's remarks about Kamala's speech. I agree with you that her speech wasn't up to par but I heard Laura, Tucker and others go quite a few steps further with the criticisms that had nothing to do with her speech, therefore I speculated that she poses more of a threat than Biden–-or perhaps they sense the good sense of Biden's pick compared with Pence who has little appeal––but maybe they are just mean somabitches who need to rant and rail.
Caught some more of the DeJoy hearing yesterday––the question still stands: if he wasn't the one who ordered the changes (except the trucks) then who did and why???? And again––why won't he allow the machine sorters to be reinstalled? And why won't he release the material that might give us some of those answers?
"I worship the ground you walk on, I told him––so he sent me a bit of that ground he walks on." a fictional voice from a Fatty fan.
They promised a convention of optimism to contrast with Democrats gloom and doom. If yesterdays rambling, disjointed shoutfest was their idea of optimism I don't want to see despair.
Wondered where the laughable claim that the Pretender is the defender of western civilization first arose.
This book, which was somehow not on my reading list, might be part of the answer.
https://thejewishvoice.com/2020/04/trump-churchill-comparing-
defenders-of-western-civilization/
Without reading it, I'd have guess the Right Wing trope has Churchill and the Pretender holding hands, standing stalwartly against those invading black and brown hordes (which England had first provoked by invading and plunderling their territories--but no matter), which now threaten all the freedoms associated with white privilege.
But pairing the Pretender with Churchill?
Was Churchill fundamentally corrupt? Ignorant? Was his notion of western civilization tied to the stock market? Would the Pretender have risked his life in the Boer War? Is the English language the friend of the one and the sworn enemy of the other?
If one (a reporter?) were to ask the Pretender what western civilization means to him, his answer would be no more specific than DeMisey's were yesterday when grilled by Rep. Porter.
@Ken Winkes: You should have read that Trump-Churchill book, where it cites Trump's most famous speech:
"We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in Florida, we shall fight on the Intercoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean, we shall defend Mar-a-Lago, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight in the gilded hotels and in the exclusive golf clubs, we shall fight in the sand traps and on the fairways, we shall fight in the roughs; we shall never surrender even if we have to take a lot of Mulligans."
Ken,
If Churchill were the 1939 version of Trump, he would have hopped, quick as a bunny, like Fatty does when Putin is near, up to Berlin to fawn over Hitler, kiss his swastika and toddle off back to London to try out his own fascist ways. There would have been no war. Churchill would welcome the Nazis with open arms. “Hitler says he’s a good man. I have no reason to doubt anything he says. He said he didn’t send those V-2 rockets that destroyed the West End, and I believe him.” Must have been the deep State Labour Party radicals who hate freeeedom!”
@Akhilleus: Now that you mention it, Trump should more closely be compared to Churchill's predecessor Neville Chamberlain, although Chamberlain was far more dapper & had way better hats. He would never have donned a MEGA billed cap.
Hey kids, breaking news! I've been able to get hold of a secret video of the last night's post coronation party, attended by all the big deal traitors and liars in the GOP.
Who says confederates don't know how to have fun? Here they are cavorting (unmasked, natch) at a disco. By the way, the one frothing at the mouth is Junior. He was still going on about the deep state. Or maybe he just had mouth full of guano. Our intrepid camera person wasn't about to get too close to find out. Get down, Junior! Oh look! There's Jim Jordan flashing the crowd! Is that an old wrestling move, Jimbo?
As we watched the sad debauchery and politicized ratfucking infecting the USPS, it's important to recognize that Fatty is racing around like a 12 year old on the Tilt-a-Whirl, debasing and hollowing out one government agency after another. Just look at the rogues gallery in the cabinet (that'll be a later entry; can't handle that right now). Even Nixon and Reagan didn't have as many crooks, con artists, scary incompetents, and self-dealers (well, okay, maybe Reagan did, but at least his crooks pretended they were doing their jobs; oh, except for Ed Meese) in their cabinets.
Just in the last few weeks we've seen Trump debauch the CDC, the USPS, and now the FDA, all government services that Americans have counted on, without fail, to keep them safe and connected. Of course the lagniappe here, at least for guv'mint hatin' confederates, is that these three agencies have been trusted for generations, and now they've become enslaved by the right and forced to bow to ignorance and incompetence. Killing successful government departments, casting doubt on the need for their very existence, is dearer to the shriveled little pumps of wingers than seeing their own kids grow up and succeed in life (I guess they don't have to worry about that; rank nepotism is the next thing dearest to those black hearts).
But the thing that really kills me, is when the fat little king whines that Democrats are "politicizing" things. This, to him, and to other whining wingers, seems to be their primary bête noire: making things political.
Because we all know that politics don't ever enter into any of the schemes of the traitors on the right. They're all clean-gene, good government patriots, apolitical to their core.
Yeah.
Meanwhile, let's get back to destroying the public trust in longstanding government agencies. Such fun!
Re the destroying of agencies: I keep wondering who, like Hahn, are the people in charge that bow to His Fatness and corrupt the agencies? It's not like most of them couldn't stand a good tweaking, but was it Grover N who wanted to entirely kill them? Where are the noble creatures of yesteryear that would resign rather than soil themselves and their agencies? I don't mean the garden variety loudmouths in congress-- I mean the people hired to people the agencies, led by someone who earned the job? There must be something in the baptism water that converts everyone on the right/religious end of things. It's not just the goobers-- it's people like DeJoy, who apparently doesn't care that he is a know-nothing on teevee. It's those who shouldn't be within a mile of the cabinet and heading the other agencies...how did they decide to be less human back when the repugs started converting them? I always knew the religious right was dangerous-- I just did not know how deep the disease is in these people.
Did not watch the "CON-vention" but saw some tweets by a guy named Aaron Rupar, and mostly they were horrifying. The first guy, Charlie Kirk, was a robot or an alien, not sure which. Of course the gun couple was lovely, Kimberly the Screamer has the biggest downturned mouth I ever saw and I wondered who wrote her screed-- How did she get from CA to this?? The consensus in the twitterverse is that Kimberly the Halloween pumpkin and the little worm DJTJ were both on coke-- just for therapeutic reasons, of course...
And they are right. I don't recognize the country portrayed in their snapshot of the USA-- only trouble being that they have us well on our way of becoming that country already. I am hearing that song from Fiddler on the Roof: ProjeckSHUN! ProJECKshun!
And how 'bout the vapid blondes, talking about horrible public education and giving thanks to Jesus and Trump?
"Jesus," is right...as an exclamation--
Marie,
You’re right about Neville Chamberlain. Hitler played him like a pop goes the weasel Jack in the Box, the same way Putin plays Fatty. Hey, I wonder how Fatty in the Box toys would do in Russia. I bet they’d be a hot seller. The only hitch would be whether or not the portly little effigy would actually pop up. He might get stuck in the hole. Well, then the kids could play Whack-a-Trump.
Jeanne,
I think you have something there, a version of "Fiddler" re-written for the Trump crooks:
"Fatty on the Roof!" Featuring the songs "Yes, I Am a Rich Man", "Sunset, Sunset" (there is no sunrise in the Land of Trump), "Now I Have All Your Things", "To Me, To Me, L'chai-im!", and of course, the ever popular "Ratfucker, Ratfucker"...
Ratfucker, ratfucker
Fuck me a rat
Hide them Dem votes
Under your hat
Sure to be a dinner theater hit in all the red states.
Yeah! O.J. did this, tool!
Back in those days, the bright, perky, and pretty Kimberley Guilfoyle (Court TV) as well as Jeanine Pirro, a savvy pundit on the O.J. Simpson case—earned both spots on the national TV circuit.
What happened to them in the years in between? Both are now unrecognizable from who they once were. Attitudes, viewpoints, political leanings drastically seem changed...and oh, must not forget all the Botox and boob enhancements. I looked at the image of Guilfoyle with her long flowing hair, the overly mascaraed eyes, the plunging neckline and thought I had accidentally clicked on a promo for a Netflix series on narcotraffickers....where 'girlfriends' share that hyper-sexed appearance.
AK: thanks for the laugh!!
So DeJoy says he's not going to reinstall the sorting machines taken out of service. What is going to happen to those in Washington that were hooked up again in defiance of those orders? Also, what will happen to the employees wh hooked them back up?
@MAG: Excuse our cattiness, but I too thought Guilfoyle looked grotesque. Since Kate McKinnon is out of a job impersonating Kellyanne Conway, perhaps she can slather on makeup, a brown wig & falsies & do Guilfoyle.
And, so as not to be sexist or anything, Twitter thinks Guilfoyle's boyfriend delivered his speech while impaired. (Story linked above.) And how come Matt Gaetz -- who apparently also made a fool of himself in his own convention speech -- looks as if he came from 1982, the year of his birth, if not 1962? The hair!
This noon I watched Peter Navarro try to spin his way out of the Hahn health debacle; Andrea Mitchell would have none of it but since the conversation wasn't in person so that she could put a hand over his mouth and kick him under the table the exchange was frustrating; later when Navarro lavished praise on Melania saying she was like Jackie Kennedy poor Andrea looked aghast. I, of course, let out a WHAT?????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P43wDpKQxaM&feature=youtu.be">https://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P43wDpKQxaM&feature=youtu.be
PD,
Navarro, Trump (tiny) ball washer that he is, was simply taking a cue from the Dear Leader, regarding Melanie (aka: Eva Braun), when he instructed all his groveling imps to refer to his soft core porn model wife as "Our very own Jackie Kennedy". Ooofah, as my Italian friends would say. "Our own Jackie Kennedy"? This is like referring to Sarah Palin as "Our own Marie Curie". She could see Russia from her kitchen periodic table.