;)
The Commentariat -- August 29, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "With her blond mane rippling, [Ivanka Trump] was full-on MAGA [at Thursday night's fantasy convention], shoving the amped-up Don Jr. and fortissimo Kimberly Guilfoyle out of the way and positioning herself as the heir to her father's political dynasty. The night was so Borgia, it made sense to end it with opera.... The old joke that if Trump became president, he'd slap his name on the White House almost came true during the egomania jubilee, when fireworks spelled out the name 'Trump.'... In New Hampshire on Friday night, the president considered his dynastic possibilities. 'I want to see the first woman president also,' he said, but called Kamala Harris 'not competent.' 'They're all saying, "We want Ivanka,"' he said."
Jack Tapper & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence has informed the House and Senate Select Committees on Intelligence that it'll no longer be briefing on election security issues, a senior administration official told CNN. It'll provide written updates, the official said. The official added that other agencies supporting election security, including the Department of Justice, Department of Defense and Department of Homeland Security, intend to continue briefing Congress.... The abrupt announcement is a change of course that runs counter to the pledge of transparency and regular briefings on election threats by the intelligence community. Last month, the top intelligence official for election security, Bill Evanina, reiterated a commitment to providing 'robust intelligence-based briefings on election security' to key stakeholders that include Congress, along with the political parties and presidential campaigns." Mrs. McC: There's a reason for this, and I doubt it's an innocent one.
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Presidential Race, Etc.
Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "As a weeklong Republican offensive against Joseph R. Biden Jr. ends, the Democratic nominee plans to resume campaigning in swing states and has released a multimillion dollar barrage of ads attacking President Trump's handling of the coronavirus. The moves come as the presidential campaign barrels into the critical last 10 weeks. They represent a bet by Mr. Biden that a focus on Covid-19 will prevail over Mr. Trump's 'law and order' emphasis and his attempt to portray Mr. Biden as a tool of the 'radical left.' Mr. Biden's ads also celebrate the history of peaceful protests. Mr. Biden's team on Friday made clear that they were determined to prevent Mr. Trump from framing the debate over the violent unrest in some cities and would aggressively move to prevent the president's narrative from taking hold."
Biden Punks Trump. Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "The 'Keep America Great' website might sound like something that belongs to President Trump, but the site says it was paid for by Biden for President. Mr. Trump's 'Make America Great Again' slogan got a slight facelift for his 2020 presidential run, with the campaign adopting 'Keep America Great' as its official new slogan. Keepamericagreat.com, however, features what it says are promises made by Mr. Trump that were broken.... Biden -- who has taken to Twitter during the Republican National Convention to denounce the president -- tweeted out a link to the 'Keep America Great' website on Thursday night, the last night of the convention...."
Zeke Miller & Kevin Freking of the AP: "... Donald Trump said Friday he was the only thing standing between 'democracy and the mob,' as he lashed out at protesters who accosted his supporters as they left the White House the night before.... Speaking in New Hampshire, a state he lost in 2016 by fewer than 2,000 votes and is a top pickup opportunity for him in 2020, Trump repeated unfounded allegations that thousands of voters were bused into the state from neighboring Massachusetts four years ago.... In New Hampshire, a campaign advisory said masks for attendees are 'required' in accordance with Republican Gov. Chris Sununu's [R] executive orders, and would be provided.... Before Trump arrived, many in the crowd did not put their masks back on after singing the national anthem. They later booed when a campaign staffer called on them to do so.... Eric Gravel, 39, of Burlington, Vermont, who waited in line at a food truck before Trump spoke, wore a T-shirt that read 'COVID-19. Just tested positive for FRAUD.' He was not wearing a mask." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Trump, for bringing more Covid-19 to my state, you irresponsible, narcissistic prick.
Quid Pro Quo. David Badash of RawStory: "President Donald Trump on Friday afternoon granted a full pardon to Alice Marie Johnson, less than 24 hours after she endorsed him in a speech during the final night of the Republican National Convention.... In 2018 Trump commuted Johnson's sentence of life in prison without parole, following a campaign by the ACLU and at the request of Kim Kardashian and Jared Kushner. It is not known why he did not grant her a full pardon at that time. Attorney Adrienne Lawrence, author of a book on sexual harassment in the workplace, suggested the pardon was 'quid pro quo.'" --s
Elements of the Farce
At the Unmasked Ball. James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump could not truthfully appear at the Republican National Convention as a president who got America safely through the Covid-19 pandemic. But he could play one on TV.... Mr. Trump sandwiched the virus discussion among his preferred topics, as if it were a speed bump.... This is a technique first articulated by the political strategy guide 'Seinfeld.' 'This administration accomplished great things through 2019, yada yada yada, we'll do great things in 2021.'... The mostly maskless guests [of the show] seated cheek by jowl for hours, like the teeming crowd for the big finale of a pandemic reality show: The Celebrity Appestilence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "For more than 10 hours this week, President Trump and his allies used the unfiltered platform of a national political convention to paint a portrait of two Americas that do not exist. In one -- a misrepresentation of life under Trump -- the coronavirus has been conquered by presidential leadership, the economy is at its pre-pandemic levels, troops are returning home, and the president is an empathetic figure who supports immigration and would never stoke the nation's racial grievances. In the other -- a hypothetical preview of a Joe Biden presidency that mischaracterizes many of his proposals -- police are defunded, taxes are increased, infanticide is legal, suburbs are abolished and cities burn as violence spreads nationwide.... While Trump, a former reality television star, has long trafficked in mistruths and innuendo, the broad cast of characters who took up his tactics during prime-time speeches underscores how his brand of politicking has taken root in the GOP." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Cowardly Liar v. the Straw Man. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In his speech accepting the Republican Party's nomination, Trump outlined a series of positions that he claimed are held by Biden but that, overwhelmingly, are not. It is, of course, not a new political tactic to stretch reality to cast your opponent in a negative light, but it is unusual to simply fabricate an opponent out of whole cloth.... Trump is ... running against a straw man whom he describes as a Trojan horse for socialists and communists. Here is what Trump said about Biden, in bold, contrasted with the positions Biden actually holds."
Trump & the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "The president was telling his closest aides that he was determined to beat his rival Joe Biden in the TV ratings. He was requesting daily ratings for the Democratic National Convention and insisted that his RNC spectacle would demolish their 'pathetic' numbers, according to a senior administration official. In the end, apparently not even all of the unethical pomp and circumstance of a Trump-branded White House as the backdrop of his big speech Thursday night could draw more viewers than Biden's solemnly rousing speech to an empty auditorium. According to initial Nielsen numbers, President Trump's speech Thursday night drew 14.1 million viewers across the three broadcast networks and three major cable news networks. That is more than three million fewer viewers than the 17.5 million who tuned in to watch Biden's speech one week earlier. When those numbers are expanded out across nine broadcast and cable networks, Biden still beat Trump by a fairly wide margin, 23.6 million to 21.6 million. Biden's DNC beat Trump's RNC across the board on all four nights.... None of this stopped Trump from tweeting Friday morning, 'Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!'" Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
A Green-Screen Canvas. Andrew Limbong of NPR: "When first lady Melania Trump appeared at the last night of the RNC Thursday, she wore a Valentino dress in a lime green shade -- a green screen green, of sorts. And as she walked down the steps of the White House, everyone who spent the past four nights hate-watching the proceedings saw their time to shine. Images referencing the more than 180,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the immigration crisis at the border were plastered onto the dress, online, last night." With images. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Great Lego Mystery. Martin Belam of the Guardian: During her convention speech "On Thursday [Ivanka Trump] said: 'When Jared and I moved with our three children to Washington..., my son Joseph promptly built grandpa a Lego replica of the White House. The president still displays it on the mantel in the Oval Office and shows it to world leaders, just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth.'... Andrea Bernstein, a WNYC reporter who wrote the book American Oligarchs about the Trumps, noted that in 2007 Ivanka said she had once made a Lego model of Trump Tower for her father, only to have it criticised by him several days later because it wasn't accurate enough. Bernstein also cast doubt about the veracity of the earlier story.... There is, however, photographic evidence that, as recently as March 2019 at least, there was a Lego model of the White House in the White House." Mrs. McC:Joseph would have been not quite 3-1/2 years old when Trump became president. I would be really surprised if a child that young could build a Lego replica of the White House. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Another Trumpy Con -- AND of Course It's Illegal. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: "... Lynne Patton, a longtime Trump associate who oversees federal housing programs in New York ... told a leader of a tenants' group at the New York City Housing Authority ... that she was interested in speaking with residents about conditions in the authority's buildings, which have long been in poor repair. Four tenants soon assembled in front of a video camera and were interviewed for more than four hours by Ms. Patton herself. They were never told that their interviews would be edited into a two-minute video clip that would air on Thursday night at the Republican National Convention and be used to bash Mayor Bill de Blasio, three of the tenants said in interviews on Friday. 'I am not a Trump supporter,' said one of the tenants, Claudia Perez. 'I am not a supporter of his racist policies on immigration. I am a first-generation Honduran. It was my people he was sending back.' The episode represents another stark example of how President Trump has deployed government resources to further his political ambitions. Ms. Patton is head of the New York office of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and under the Hatch Act is barred from using her government position to engage in political activities." ~~~
~~~ The Hill has a summary report here.
The RNC's Brazen Copyright Theft. Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "A lawyer for the estate of late singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen said on Friday that legal action is being considered after the Republican National Convention used a cover of Cohen's 'Hallelujah' during a fireworks show after President Trump's acceptance speech.... 'We are surprised and dismayed that the RNC would proceed knowing that the Cohen Estate had specifically declined the RNC's use request, and their rather brazen attempt to politicize and exploit in such an egregious manner "Hallelujah"...,' said Michelle L. Rice, legal representative of the Cohen Estate."
After the Ball Was Over. AP: "A crowd of protesters surrounded U.S. Sen. Rand Paul as he was leaving the White House following the Republican National Convention early Friday, shouting for the lawmaker from Kentucky to acknowledge the shooting of Breonna Taylor. Video posted on social media showed dozens of people confronting Paul and his wife, who were flanked by Metro Police, in a Washington street after midnight. Protesters could be heard shouting 'No Justice No Peace' and 'Say Her Name' before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul's shoulder.... After the encounter Friday morning, Paul tweeted that he 'got attacked' by a 'crazed mob' one block away from the White House, later thanking police for 'saving his life.' It was not clear whether any protesters made physical contact with Paul. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have suffered any injuries." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Paul, he did write a bill titled "Justice for Breonna Taylor Act," which would prohibit no-knock warrants, the type of warrant that led to her killing. The confrontation Thursday night might have been a good time for him to mention that. ~~~
~~~ Matthew Choi: "During [a] Fox & Friends interview, Paul said he and his wife were unharmed.... Paul hypothesized the protesters were compensated and flown in to instigate a violent riot, but didn't offer any suggestions on who might have paid them or evidence to support his assertion. That protesters are paid to cause disruption is a common talking point among some conservative figures for which there is no substantive evidence. Such claims have been regularly challenged by fact-checkers."
The Leader of the Free World Reacts: We Are Amused. Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "Asked during her annual summer news conference about a claim made by Richard Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, that he had 'watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany,' [Angela] Merkel drew her eyebrows together, tilted her head and leaned toward the reporter. 'He did what?' she asked. 'Charmed,' repeated Marina Kormbaki, a journalist with the German reporting collective R.N.D. 'Ah, OK,' Ms. Merkel said. Then she added with a laugh, 'I don't talk about internal discussions.'... [Grenell's] comment [-- made during a speech at the Republican convention --] sparked outrage over social media ... and brought derision on both sides of the Atlantic." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lolita Baldor of the AP:"The U.S. armed forces will have no role in carrying out the election process or resolving a disputed vote, the top U.S. military officer told Congress in comments released Friday. The comments from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscore the extraordinary political environment in America, where the president has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots will make the vote 'inaccurate and fraudulent,' and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses. Trump's repeated complaints questioning the election's validity have triggered unprecedented worries about the potential for chaos surrounding the election results. Some have speculated that the military might be called upon to get involved, either by Trump trying to use it to help his reelection prospects or as, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has suggested, to remove Trump from the White House if he refuses to accept defeat. The military has adamantly sought to tamp down that speculation and is zealously protective of its historically nonpartisan nature." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trumpidemic, Etc.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "Groups representing nearly every public health department called Friday for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse 'haphazard' changes the agency recently made to its public testing advice. The CDC's decision to stop recommending that asymptomatic people who were exposed to the virus get tested is 'bad policy' that 'costs lives and livelihoods,' the groups wrote -- a striking rebuke of the premiere U.S. health authority by towns and cities across the country. ~~~
~~~ "Nearly all of the California Senate's Republican caucus is now under mandatory quarantine after being exposed to one senator -- a skeptic on government statistics about the coronavirus -- who tested positive, state lawmakers said this week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sheila Kaplan & Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "Two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration have been ousted from their positions after fumbled communications about a blood plasma treatment for Covid-19. President Trump and the head of the F.D.A. had erroneously boasted on the eve of the Republican National Convention that the treatment sharply lowered mortality from the disease. On Friday, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, removed Emily Miller, the agency's chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed Ms. Miller, who had previously worked in communications for the re-election campaign of Senator Ted Cruz and as a journalist for One America News, the conservative cable network, in this post just 11 days ago. Ms. Miller's removal came one day after the F.D.A.'s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of a public relations consultant [-- Wayne Pines --] who had advised Dr. Hahn to correct misleading comments about the benefits of blood plasma for Covid-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Rachel Maddow pointed out that Trump and Hahn's false claims are not a "P.R. problem" that can be attributed to spokeswomen & consultants.
Mini-Trumps Con the SBA. Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has made at least 41 criminal complaints in federal court against nearly 60 people, who collectively took $62 million from the Paycheck Protection Program by using what law enforcement officials said were forged documents, stolen identities and false certifications. They are just 'the smallest, tiniest piece of the tip of the iceberg,' said Hannibal Ware, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration, which led the program. But with their ostentatious spending and clearly faked records, those examples have also been the easiest to spot.... More than five million businesses received loans, which could be forgiven if used for payroll and certain other expenses. Now, that hastily created and frequently chaotic program is entering its next messy stage, one that lenders and government officials expect to take years: the hunt to recapture illicitly obtained cash."
Black Lives Matter
But Not So Much to Donald Trump. Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Two former top Homeland Security officials in the Trump administration have told The Daily Beast that there was an unwritten policy to not utter phrases like 'domestic terrorism' and 'white supremacy' around the president, for fear that he would take such conversations as implicit criticism of him. The directives, said Elizabeth Neumann, previously assistant secretary at the Department of Homeland Security for counterterrorism and threat prevention, were never formalized. But both she and Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at DHS, say that they were explicitly told by White House brass not to use such phrases or terms around Trump.... Neumann said that it's been standard operating procedure for years among top officials and Trump aides to avoid 'trigger words' when briefing the president -- severely complicating efforts to respond to high-profile killings that have occurred during the Trump presidency. She said that such trigger words have included 'white supremacy,' 'Russia,' 'election interference,' and 'domestic terrorism.'... Trump's abhorrence for the term 'domestic terrorism' did eventually soften, Neumann recalled..., only when he concluded he was able to use it against the anti-fascist group Antifa and other 'left-wing radicals.'..." ~~~
~~~ Mike German , former FBI agent, in the Guardian: "For decades, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has routinely warned its agents that the white supremacist and far-right militant groups it investigates often have links to law enforcement. Yet the justice department has no national strategy designed to protect the communities policed by these dangerously compromised law enforcers.... [I]n June 2019, when Congressman William Lacy Clay asked the FBI counter-terrorism chief, Michael McGarrity, whether the bureau remained concerned about white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement since the publication of its 2006 assessment, McGarrity indicated he had not read it.... Since 2000, law enforcement officials with alleged connections to white supremacist groups or far-right militant activities have been exposed in [12 states]. Research organizations have uncovered hundreds of federal, state and local law enforcement officials participating in racist, nativist and sexist social media activity, which demonstrates that overt bias is far too common." --s See related Guardian story, also linked yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Joshua Shanes in Slate: "In the final week of August, the United States saw its biggest deterioration in societal norms and steps towards outright fascism since President Donald Trump came to office four years ago under a mantle of barely veiled authoritarianism.... A president pushing fascist rhetoric with autocratic tendencies is running America and our democratic safeguards are greatly weakened. Paramilitary violence by an enraged, white minority -- organized and stoked by the president, to whom they are loyal, and local police who tolerate or empower them -- is becoming a new norm.... No matter what happens on November 3, we should be ready for white violence. It is the new normal, stoked and validated by the highest office in the land." --s
Ta-Nehisi Coates, in a Vanity Fair issue he edited & features Breonna Taylor on the cover, interviews Taylor's mother Tamika Palmer. All the words in the story are Ms. Palmer's, and her story really is more about Ms. Palmer than about Breonna. Mrs. McCrabbie: One of the more striking part of her story is the way police treated her after the shot and killed Breonna. (1) The cops gave Ms. Palmer the runaround for hours, sending her on a wild goose chase to the hospital when Taylor's body was still at the scene -- where again she could get no information -- and then not telling Ms. Palmer that her daughter was dead when she returned to Breonna's apartment. (2) AND, either the police "investigators" were trying to concoct a coverup or -- if you want to be more generous -- they were trying to debunk a coverup perpetrated by the cops involved in Breonna's killing. In any event, detectives repeatedly asked Ms. Palmer who would want to hurt Breonna, obviously implying that the shooter was unknown. Vanity Fair stories are subscriber-firewalled, but there is limited access.
"Two Systems of Justice." Aaron Morrisson, et al., of the AP: "Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. famously laid out a vision for harmony between white and Black people 57 years ago, his son issued a sobering reminder about the persistence of police brutality and racist violence targeting Black Americans. 'We must never forget the American nightmare of racist violence exemplified when Emmett Till was murdered on this day in 1955, and the criminal justice system failed to convict his killers,' said Martin Luther King III, speaking to thousands that gathered Friday to commemorate the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.... Some stood in sweltering temperatures in lines that stretched for several blocks, as organizers took temperatures as part of coronavirus protocols. Organizers reminded attendees to practice social distancing and wear masks throughout the program, although distancing was hardly maintained as the gathering grew in size." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post live-updated the event. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
NEW. Will Jones, et al., of ABC Chicago News: "Friday afternoon, [Jacob] Blake's lawyer told ABC News that the cuffs have been removed. The lawyer said [a] felony warrant out for Blake before Sunday's shooting has been vacated."
AP: "The Kenosha police union on Friday offered the most detailed accounting to date on officers' perspective of the moments leading up to police shooting Jacob Blake seven times in the back, saying he had a knife and fought with officers, putting one of them in a headlock and shrugging off two attempts to stun him." ~~~
~~~ Guardian: "A judge postponed a decision on Friday on whether 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse should be returned to Wisconsin to face charges in the killing of two people on the streets of Kenosha during unrest following the police shooting of a local Black father, Jacob Blake, last Sunday. The Illinois judge granted Rittenhouse's request to delay the extradition hearing to 25 September, during a brief hearing that was streamed online from the Lake county courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois, about 16 miles directly south of Kenosha, on the shore of Lake Michigan. Rittenhouse did not appear.... He also faces one count of attempted first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.... Rittenhouse was also charged with possession of dangerous weapon by someone under the age of 18.... Under Wisconsin law, Rittenhouse, who is 17, was too young to legally posses the rifle he was alleged to have been carrying...." ~~~
John Diedrich of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "One of Rittenhouse's lawyers said on social media the 17-year-old did not own the AR-15 he was carrying the night of the shooting or bring it across the Illinois/Wisconsin line. 'Kyle did not carry a gun across state line,' L. Lin Wood said in a tweet Friday morning. 'The gun belonged to his friend, a Wisconsin resident. The gun never left the state of Wisconsin.' Wood is part of the Texas-based #FightBack Foundation Inc. that is raising money for Rittenhouse's defense.... In a statement late Friday, Rittenhouse's attorneys said he was defending himself from a "mob" of attackers who 'accosted' and 'verbally threatened and taunted' him...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There are two huge lies in two short grafs of this news item by Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: (1) Kenosha Police Chief Daniel Miskinis, in defending his cops for allowing a killer to walk away from the scene, said, "Nothing suggested this person or anybody else who was armed around them was the person [who did the shooting]." But multiple reports, including this one, say people were shouting at the cops that Rittenhouse had shot people. Miskinis said the cops probably couldn't hear the shouts. (2) "The Kenosha County Sheriff [David Beth] said ... that he hadn't seen video of the shooting [of Jacob Blake], by now viewed by millions around the world, of police shooting Blake seven times in the back.... Video of a recent protest, however, shows him watching the recording on a protester's phone." ~~~
~~~ Robert Mackey of the Intercept: "When Tucker Carlson set off a firestorm of criticism on Wednesday -- by describing a 17-year-old Trump supporter who opened fire on protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, killing two, as a well-meaning kid who decided he 'had to maintain order' in the Democrat-run state because 'no one else would' -- the Fox News host was surfacing an idea that had already spread widely on the far-right.... Pro-Trump YouTubers, bloggers, and commentators [including Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.-Crazy)] ... decided ... that the young man ... was merely acting in self-defense [after he had shot someone in the head!]... [A Glenn Beck producer] described the ... the protesters attempting to disarm the gunman as Rittenhouse 'being attacked by #BLM rioters.'... As the momentum to excuse Rittenhouse's crimes as justified spread online Thursday, amplified by far-right figures around the globe, Jamelle Bouie [of the NYT] called it 'the single most ominous development of the year.'"
Jacob Crosse of World Socialist Web Site (of all places) has quite a good summary of protests and events throughout the U.S. this week and weekend. Mrs. McC: As far as I can tell, based on MSM reports I've read and heard, Crosse's report of the facts is pretty accurate, and his report is worth a read because it includes details that are scattered here and there in other reports. However, I do read Crosse's editorializing with a healthy skepticism, as when he describes "the bankrupt politics of the speakers ... [who] painted police murder in purely racial terms, obfuscating the class character of police repression...." Generally speaking, of course, we should consider the editorializing, conscious or not, of every news report, even when we agree with the "editors" of supposedly straight news reports. And not all of Crosse's editorialized is necessarily off-base.
Ryan Mac of BuzzFeed News: "In a companywide meeting on Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that a militia page advocating for followers to bring weapons to an upcoming protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, remained on the platform because of 'an operational mistake.' The page and an associated event inspired widespread criticism of the company after a 17-year-old suspect allegedly shot and killed two protesters Tuesday night. The event associated with the Kenosha Guard page, however, was flagged to Facebook at least 455 times after its creation, according to an internal report viewed by BuzzFeed News and had been cleared by four moderators, all of whom deemed it 'non-violating.' The page and event were eventually removed from the platform on Wednesday -- several hours after the shooting.... A previous story from the Verge noted that the page had issued a 'call to arms' and hosted a number of commenters advocating for violence in Kenosha following the police shooting of 29-year-old Black man Jacob Blake." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Ryan Mac: "Frustrated Facebook employees slammed CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday during a companywide meeting, questioning his leadership and decision-making, following a week in which the platform promoted violent conspiracy theories and gave safe harbor to militia groups. The billionaire chief executive was speaking via webcast at the company's weekly all-hands meeting, attempting to address questions about violence in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and the QAnon conspiracy that has proliferated across Facebook." Mrs. McC: This is not a First-Amendment issue. Only the government is required to allow free expression (and that's not carte blanche); private entities can shut you off even if they do so in an arbitrary manner.
Ben Golliver of the Washington Post: "NBA games will resume Saturday after an agreement was reached between league governors and players on a series of social justice initiatives that will end a three-day shutdown caused by the Milwaukee Bucks' decision not to take the court for a playoff game Wednesday to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis.... These initiatives included: the establishment of a social justice coalition composed of players, coaches and governors to focus on voting access, civic engagement and criminal justice reform; the coordinated use of NBA arenas as voting locations in the upcoming elections; and the airing of new televised advertising messages promoting civic engagement and voting access during upcoming games." ~~~
~~~ Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Several cities with NBA arenas could see those facilities turned into in-person voting sites this fall thanks to a deal reached Friday between players and franchise officials to resume the NBA playoffs this weekend. The NBA and NBA players' association announced the agreement -- which also includes the establishment of a social justice coalition and an NBA ad campaign promoting civic engagement -- after several playoff games were put on hold this week due to team boycotts.... 'In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election[' according to the NBA statement].... NBA arenas are often located near public transportation, making them accessible to low-income voters.... [A] civic engagement group launched by NBA star LeBron James has helped craft deals to use sporting facilities in other parts of the country for voting. These partnerships between election officials and sporting facilities have also facilitated the use of arena employees as poll workers, helping to solve the poll worker shortage COVID-19 has caused." --s
Another Two-Tiered System of "Justice": The Hatch Act. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The [Office of Special Counsel] says it does not track how many political appointees it has warned or disciplined for political activity on the job. But Special Counsel Henry Kerner, who was appointed by President Trump, has cited at least nine high-level Trump appointees for abusing their government roles to further the president's reelection or disparage his rivals. And they have largely thumbed their noses at the law -- with the president's blessing. Career employees, meanwhile, have faced warning letters, reprimands, suspensions without pay and, in extreme cases, been fired and debarred from returning to government.... For them, the law cannot be scornfully dismissed -- as White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows did this week when he said that 'nobody outside of the Beltway really cares' about the Hatch Act.... Discipline for [Kellyanne] Conway and others [who have been cited] was up to Trump, according to Office of Special Counsel's interpretation of the law."
The Rich Get Richer. Fred Imbert & Yun Li of CNBC: "Stocks rose on Friday to wrap up another strong week on a high note as the Dow Jones Industrial Average erased its losses of 2020. The 30-stock Dow closed 161.60 points higher, or 0.6%, at 28,653.87. The S&P 500 gained 0.7% to close at 3,508.01. It was the index's first-ever close above 3,500. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.6% to end the day at 11,695.63. Friday's gains put the Dow in positive territory for the year. The Dow had not sported a year-to-date gain since late February, when it traded around an all-time high. After Friday's close, the Dow was up 0.4% for 2020."
Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A coalition of 21 states sued the Trump administration Friday for rolling back what they say is a 'rule that is, at its heart, the gutting' of America's bedrock environmental law. The White House in July finalized a rollback of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which for 50 years has required the government to weigh environmental and community concerns before approving pipelines, highways, drilling permits, new factories or any major action on federal lands. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D) called the law the Magna Carta of environmental law."
More Tales of the Dysfunctional Trump Family
Emily Fox of Vanity Fair reviews a new book by one-time Friend of Melania Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, -- titled Melania and Me -- wherein we learn that Wolkoff took a lot of notes and they reveal that Melania Trump is as cold-hearted, selfish, and transactional as her husband. And Melania despises Ivanka Trump. For instance, "During the inauguration, Wolkoff writes that she and Melania launched 'Operation Block Ivanka,' making sure that she was seated out of frame in the photos of President Trump being sworn in.... This iciness appeared to play out on the national stage on the final night of the Republican National Convention Thursday evening --an unintentional bit of native advertising ahead of the book's release next week. A video of Ivanka breezing past her stepmother without much acknowledgment and making a beeline for her father went viral. In it, Melania's face appears to sour almost immediately after Ivanka walks past.... Melania is not cloistered away, above the muck. She is rolling around in it."
Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "President Trump's niece, Mary Trump, on Friday revealed audio recordings that reportedly capture Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, swiping at the president's children, Ivanka and Eric Trump. The audio, released by Mary Trump on MSNBC News late Friday evening, includes Trump Barry taking aim at Ivanka for an Instagram post around the start of the Trump administration's policy separating families at the U.S. border.... 'Meanwhile, Eric's become the moron publicly. Ivanka gives a s--t. She's all about her,' Trump Barry says." ~~~
Way Beyond the Beltway
Another Trumpish Bankruptcy. David Fahrenthold & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "The company that owns the Trump International Hotel in Vancouver, Canada, has filed for bankruptcy, according to Canadian records -- raising questions about the future of one of President Trump's newest hotels, just three years after it opened. Trump does not own the Vancouver hotel; the building's owner pays Trump's company to operate the hotel and to license the Trump name. The Trump Vancouver hotel has already been closed for four months because of the coronavirus pandemic. By Friday -- a day after the bankruptcy filing -- the hotel's website was taken down, its name was missing from Trump Hotels' corporate website, and the Vancouver hotel's accounts were deleted from Twitter and Facebook." A Reuters story is here. Thanks to safari for the lead.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Chadwick Boseman, who found fame as the star of the groundbreaking film 'Black Panther' and who also portrayed pioneering Black figures like Jackie Robinson, James Brown and Thurgood Marshall, died on Friday. He was 43. A statement posted on his Instagram account said he learned in 2016 that he had Stage 3 colon cancer and that it had progressed to Stage 4. It said he died in his home with his wife and family by his side...."
Washington Post: "While Hurricane Laura largely missed major cities and left the Texas coastline almost completely unscathed, the low-lying wetlands in far southwestern Louisiana took a significant hit, with crushing storm surge and whipping winds dramatically altering the area and destroying numerous homes and properties. In and around Cameron, La., where Laura's eyewall struck first before rampaging north, rescuers and homeowners were getting their first looks at the damage late Friday and early Saturday.... Out on the Intracoastal Canal -- the waterway serving as an access point to the damaged southern portions of the parish -- stark scenes made Laura's devastation clear. A luxury speed boat, still strung with the rope that once connected it to a dock, now sat half-sunken in the water. Coyote puppies paced back-and-forth, marooned on a strip of land that had recently become an island, as an alligator slowly prowled the edges. Few boats traversed the water; helicopters whirred overhead. The tops of cars poked out of inundated streets."
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https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/28/opinion/stephen-millers-dystopian-america.html?
Notes on the Miller cesspool in which the RNC splashed happily for four days, and about which I learned a bit more than I knew.
Hope the author's relatively optimistic conclusion is borne out, but have my doubts--or should I say, fears.
But if one were positing a link between stupidity and race, the mere existence of white supremacists makes a great argument for the case.
Complicated, I know, but their stupidity seems to be tied to a mean gene, too.
Yesterday John Donne's poem title kept going through my head:
"Batter My Heart, Three- Personed God"––always liked that description of the three-in-one deity. But what had reminded me of that poem was the dual persona of this president although we could perhaps add on a third, a hole in one ghost like thingy? The portrait painted of Trump throughout the convention was antithetical to the real Donald Trump and as one of the reports above suggested, there was a similar portrait of two America's–-Trump's and Biden's––and neither exist.
So in essence we are all living in a GOP make-believe world where nothing "is what it is!" We criticized Reagan for his Hollywood scenarios; THIS bozo has thrown in MGM, FOX, and every other power outlet possible to create his circus, ignoring any "hatching" along the way.
What is real and significant are the civil rights marches and gatherings, not giving up––determined finally to be heard and heard and heard!! And those voices are not going to be silenced this time––at a time when we are going through such a turmoil, such a goddamn turmoil!
"How many died today"? once yelled at LBJ; A similar chant might be at the ready soon.
So let me get this straight. According to white nationalist dung heap Tucker Carlson, “maintaining law and order”, the goal of a “well meaning kid”, means murdering innocent American citizens in cold blood who don’t go along with your authoritarian, racist screeds.
Got it.
Won't link it, but in her WAPO op-ed Kathleen Parker, whose writing I have always admired--as an example par excellence of how it is possible for a few to write well but yet think poorly-- says the RNC showed Democrats how it is done.
Read it twice, but found no mention of of the Repugs offering the White House to the Dems as a backdrop for their convention, which brought to mind the whole equal time issue that Reagan scuttled.
Another instance of the double standard that informs so much of Republican thinking.
The IOKIYAR meme applies to everything. I can monopolize wealth, air time and the nation's resources; I can flout the law without consequence; I can promote violence; I can use racial slurs with impunity.
I can do all these things, but you can't....because I'm a Republican.
And I can think of no better definition of 21st century American privilege.
Ken-- so Kathleen Parker luved her some white nationalism, bragging, lying, stealing, using things that belong to all of us, ignoring of all things COVID, all in harmony with an SOB who has NO redeeming value, does she? Last week she was bored with the DNC convention. It was probably too diverse, too positive, too planned, too warm and fuzzy, too organized, too much real information for her. Last week was the last time I will read her column. She lives in South Carolina-- she probably can't help it that she is stupid and mean like all of them in the GOP. The head bastard has not changed his spots-- he has lived up to and surpassed every expectation and dread we all have had, and now his extended family is ringing loud alarm bells. They know him, know what he is, and hate him. Couple their opinions with what we all saw before he was elected and since, it is clear that he is a vastly disgusting person, a lazy bastard, and mostly a lunatic. Biden/Harris have their work cut out for them. They are running against an enormous vat of muck and poison, and an entire network of liars. Ick.
In Michigan there is a conservative organization called The Michigan Freedom Fund, (partly financed by our Ditsy Betsy Devos) who rallied thousands of protesters in Lansing after Gov. Whitmer imposed stricter guidelines re: Covid. It was the first major anti-lockdown demonstration in America and not by chance, says Luke Mogelson, who has written a piece in the New Yorker on Michigan which we know is a swing state that is as divided as it is diverse, and "contains many of the national fault lines that the pandemic has deepened."
Luke explains that the MFF was created in 2012, to lobby for legislation that curbed the collective-bargaining powers of organized labor (same as Wisconsin did under Walker). Then there is that nifty group called Americans for Prosperity, the national Tea Party advocacy group supported by the brothers Koch (didn't one of them die?) and by the way–-Michigan is an open carry state––perfect for these anti-covid protestors who think they are perfectly entitled to stand in the way of the rules of law. "Currently there are more than a dozen militias in the state, some with only a handful of members, others with thousands."
and this is only Michigan. Somehow, in another midwest state, Wisconsin, a 17 year old from nearby Illinois, came to Kenosha to save the day––with his long guns and his baby face was able to shoot his way out of a crowd of peaceful protestors, killing two, and go on his way–––till the next day when his sorry ass was hauled into jail.
And yes, Ak. re: Tucker––we do indeed "got it!"
Let’s be clear about these Trump supported “lawnorder” Second Amendment types racing to wherever citizens are protesting police violence. They are most decidedly NOT there to “keep the peace”. They are there to strut their stuff, show off their hardware, threaten those they hate, and, with luck, to beat up or shoot them some lib’rul commies who don’t accept the fat little king as their god-given ruler.
And they do this with the full support of the Party of Traitors, the head traitor, many cops sympathetic to their political stances (black people and their supporters need to be taught a lesson) the right wing media monster, and anyone who votes for this kind of lawless chaos.