;)
The Commentariat -- August 4, 2020
New York Times: "Five states hold primary elections Tuesday, with voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington State choosing nominees for Congress and local offices." ~~~
~~~ James Arkin & Ally Mutnick of Politico outline some of the most hotly-contested races to be decided by today's primaries, starting with the GOP Senate battle in Kansas.
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "New York City's health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, resigned on Tuesday in protest over her 'deep disappointment' with Mayor Bill de Blasio's handling of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent efforts to keep the outbreak in check. Her departure came after escalating tensions between City Hall and top Health Department officials, which began at the start of the city's outbreak in March, burst into public view." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: During his interview with Jonathan Swan of Axios, "Trump held a number of loose sheets of paper, each with a graph that, he clearly believed, showed how well the United States has done in combating the coronavirus pandemic.... These were the emperor's clothes, and he was proud of them. But Swan, given one of the few opportunities for a non-sycophant to interview the president, revealed them for what they were. Trump was left fumbling, unable to rationalize his repeated claims that all was well. Because, of course, it isn't.... It quickly became apparent that he didn't have a grasp on what was happening with the pandemic.... On Tuesday morning, Politico published an article looking closely at how the White House operates under its new chief of staff, former North Carolina congressman Mark Meadows. One White House staffer who spoke with Politico's reporters said that Meadows and his team were protecting Trump from bad political news.... The Swan interview certainly suggests that someone is keeping Trump from understanding what's actually happening with the pandemic. The odds are that the person who is doing so is Trump."
AP: "A massive explosion shook Lebanon's capital Beirut on Tuesday wounding a number people and causing widespread damage. The afternoon blast shook several parts of the capital and thick smoke billowed from the city center. Residents reported windows being blown out and a false ceilings dropping. The explosion appeared to be centered around Beirut's port and caused wide scale destruction and shattered windows miles away."
Trump says he has done more for black Americans than John Lewis -- and everybody else -- did. Also, Trump has nothing good to say about Lewis because Lewis did not attend his inauguration:
~~~ Maggie Haberman & Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "President Trump played down the accomplishments of Representative John Lewis, the recently deceased civil rights icon, and criticized him for not attending the Trump inauguration in an interview conducted while Mr. Lewis was lying in state at the Capitol. The comments from Mr. Trump, which aired on 'Axios on HBO' Monday night, were unsurprising, given his penchant for grievance. But they were nonetheless stunning for the degree to which Mr. Trump refused to view Mr. Lewis's life and legacy in terms beyond how it related to Mr. Trump himself.... When asked to reflect on Mr. Lewis's contributions to the civil rights movement, Mr. Trump instead talked up his own record."
Mrs. McCrabbie: The video below came up after the video of Trump's remarks about John Lewis. Kind of interesting how this dyed-in-the-wool, life-long Republican gave up on Trump & the cult of Trump:
Black Lives Matter. Paul Murphy & Devan Cole of CNN: "The US Navy distanced itself on Sunday from an incident organized by the privately run Navy SEAL Museum, which is not sponsored the Navy, in which a Colin Kaepernick jersey was worn by a 'target' during a military working dog demonstration. In a pair of nearly two-year-old videos that were posted in January but went viral on social media over the weekend, a man can be seen wearing a red jersey emblazoned with Kaepernick's name and former player number during the working dog demonstration conducted by the museum. After a man in military fatigues begins the demonstration, a total of four military working dogs charge toward the jersey-wearing man and attack him, clinging to his arms and legs while a crowd of visitors watch on." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Akhilleus mentioned in his commentary below that the so-called museum was in Fort Pierce, Florida. To double-check that, I clicked the link, and I'm so glad I did because now I plan to enter the raffle the "museum" is sponsoring: "A Chance to Win Two Weapons at Once!": a Shepherd Knife and a Cabot Pistol. Maybe I can pretend to be a SEAL & attack some terrorists (or football players exercising their First-Amendment rights) with those weapons.
Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Donald Trump has told more than 20,000 lies since becoming president* according to a mid-July Washington Post account (or to put it as delicately as the WashPo does, "more than 20,000 false and misleading claims). But perhaps the biggest lie of all was one he told back in April 2016, before he was elected: "I will be so presidential." No, he would not. He never has been "presidential." He has no idea how to be "presidential." He doesn't seem to have any idea what real presidents do. Just look at this: ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "On the first day of the first full week when tens of millions of Americans went without the federal jobless aid that has cushioned them during the pandemic, President Trump was not cajoling undecided lawmakers to embrace a critical stimulus bill to stabilize the foundering economy. He was at the White House, hurling insults at the Democratic leaders whose support he needs to strike a deal. Mr. Trump called Speaker Nancy Pelosi 'Crazy Nancy,' charging that she had no interest in helping the unemployed. He said Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, only wanted to help 'radical left' governors in states run by Democrats. And he threatened to short-circuit a delicate series of negotiations to produce a compromise and instead unilaterally impose a federal moratorium on tenant evictions. The comments came just as Mr. Trump's own advisers were on Capitol Hill meeting with Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Schumer in search of an elusive deal, and they underscored just how absent the president had been from the negotiations. They also highlighted how, three months before he is to face voters, the main role that Mr. Trump appears to have embraced in assembling an economic recovery package is that of sniping from the sidelines in ways that undercut a potential compromise."
Axios has published Jonathan Swan's full interview of Donald Trump here. Poppy Harlow & Jim Sciutto of CNN urge you to watch it. ~~~
~~~ "It Is What It Is." Sam Baker of Axios: "Trump said in an interview with 'Axios on HBO' that he thinks the coronavirus is as well-controlled in the U.S. as it can be, despite dramatic surges in new infections over the course of the summer and more than 150,000 American deaths. 'They are dying, that's true. And you have -- it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it." Here's an outrageous clip where Trump argues that the both number and percentage of deaths/population -- compared with incidences in other countries -- are irrelevant:
~~~ Trump persists in saying "you just can't do that" when Swan says the deaths/population ratios are relevant in comparing the U.S. response to the virus with efforts of other countries. Trump insists the only figure that matters is the percentage of deaths/cases. Mrs. McC: Trump's "logic" is doubly-nonsensical when you consider that Trump has repeatedly argued that the reason the number of cases in the U.S. is so high is that the U.S. has done so much more testing than other countries. If that were true, then the percentage of deaths per cases counted should be really, really low in the U.S. That is, if 1,000 people died, but we tested for & found only 100,000 cases, then the deaths/cases would be ten times higher than if those 1,000 people died and we had counted 1,000,000 cases. ~~~
~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$: "... the most consistently underrated fact about Trump is how genuinely stupid he is. And I don't mean stupid compared to how smart you would want a president of the United States or the manager of a Wendy's to be. Just flat out stupid in comparison to the average human being. Watch this clip and then imagine trying to brief him on anything."
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: @11:35 am "White House staffers received an email Monday notifying them of a new mandatory system of random coronavirus testing for those working throughout the executive complex, according to senior administration officials. In addition to the stepped-up testing, those expected to come into contact with President Trump and Vice President Pence will continue to be tested beforehand.... Another official said that random testing has been occurring for several months, but until now it had been voluntary. The new move comes a week after the White House announced that Robert C. O'Brien, Trump's national security adviser, had tested positive for the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Mind you, Trump is still complaining that there's too much testing going on in the U.S.
It's hard to believe this has to be said, but if I';m elected president, I'll spend my Monday mornings working with our nation's top experts to control this virus -- not insulting them on Twitter. -- Joe Biden, in a tweet Monday afternoon ~~~
~~~ Max Cohen of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday slammed White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx after the public health official said the pandemic was 'extraordinarily widespread.' Trump's attack comes shortly after top White House officials admonished House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for undermining trust in Birx. 'So Crazy Nancy Pelosi said horrible things about Dr. Deborah Birx, going after her because she was too positive on the very good job we are doing on combatting the China Virus, including Vaccines & Therapeutics,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'In order to counter Nancy, Deborah took the bait & hit us. Pathetic!' Politico reported last week that Pelosi tore into Birx in closed-door negotiations with administration officials, saying the White House was in 'horrible hands' with the public health expert leading the coronavirus taskforce. Pelosi continued her criticism of Birx on Sunday during an appearance on ABC. Past reporting by The New York Times presented Birx as a coronavirus optimist who told Trump that the United States was on its way to flattening its curve like Italy and that outbreaks were easing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Birx complained on CNN yesterday that the Times did not contact her for comment when the paper's reporters wrote weeks back that in mid-April, "Dr. Birx was the chief evangelist for the idea that the threat from the virus was fading." But according to Maggie Haberman, who was one of the story's five writers and who spoke today on CNN, the Times did contact Birx before publication, and Brix declined to comment. In fact, in the story, dated July 18, the authors wrote, "Dr. Birx declined to be interviewed." So besides being Dr. Pollyanna, Birx is a liar. As Trump says, "Pathetic!" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Betsy Klein of CNN: "While Trump and other top White House officials have publicly attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci, the tweet marked the first time Birx ... publicly drew Trump's ire. The dust-up comes as the country continues to be ravaged by coronavirus, with more than 150,000 US citizens dead and more than 4 million cases. Trump has consistently lied and misled mostly in attempts to downplay concerns about the virus as he presses for schools and businesses to reopen." Mrs. McC: Worth noting, too, that Trump demeaned two older women in one tweet, calling one "crazy" and the other "pathetic." Trump believes women should "know their place" and not criticize or even disagree with a big, strong boy like him. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update, from Monday's New York Times coronavirus updates (also linked above): "Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... agreed on Monday with his colleague Dr. Deborah Birx that the United States has entered a 'new phase' of the coronavirus pandemic, in which the virus is now spreading uncontrolled in some states by asymptomatic people -- comments that drew fire from President Trump.... In backing up Dr. Birx, the Trump administration's coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Fauci indirectly put himself at odds with the president.... "
Mrs. McCrabbie: This morning when I posted the story about Trump's "signing a healthcare plan," I thought he probably had given some hapless junior G-man the job of coming up with a plan -- in two weeks' time! -- that would provide healthcare benefits only to white people in Trump country. Well, congrats to that junior G-man! Dan Diamond, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order Monday aimed at boosting health care in rural areas, where struggling hospitals have faced worsening economic conditions during the pandemic." Now, it's true that people of every ethnic persuasion live in rural areas, but maybe the junior G-man figured out a way to direct funds to the "right" rural areas. Ah, yes: "Under the new plan, the federal Medicare agency will leverage its authority to test new pilot projects...." Whaddaya bet the "new pilot projects" are initiated in rural Iowa, not in the Mississippi Delta? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "If you spend much of your tenure openly subverting the nation's interests to your own -- while manipulating the levers of government in service of unabashedly corrupt and megalomaniacal ends — then voters will ultimately grow wise to the scam. We are now learning, via an extraordinary new report in the New York Times that many scientists fear that Trump will attempt the ultimate 'October surprise.' These scientists -- which include some inside the government -- worry that Trump will thoroughly corrupt the process designed to ensure the safety and efficacy of any new vaccine against the coronavirus." Sargent goes on to elaborate on why the scientists are right to be concerned, citing examples of how Trump has done similar things numerous times before. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Kleptocracy, Ctd. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: The Congressional Oversight Committee wants to know why Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin took $700 million out of a "special pot" of coronavirus money, a pot which Mnuchin alone controls, to give YRL Worldwide trucking company a $700 million loan. YRC "had lost more than $100 million in 2019 and was being sued by the Justice Department over claims it defrauded the federal government for a seven-year period." In addition, YRC was not very profitable, and the funds specifically were not to be used to prop up companies that were in trouble before the virus hit. But the company had friends in high places in the Trump administration. "YRC has financial backing from Apollo Global Management," AND ... Surprise! ... so does Jared Kushner's family: in 2017 Apollo lent $184 million to the Kushner family real estate business."
They're All Crooks. Paul McLeod of BuzzFeed News: "The chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration's program investing billions of dollars into discovering a coronavirus vaccine, says media scrutiny of his stock ownership may delay a vaccine or make its discovery less likely because it is distracting him from his work. Moncef Slaoui made the remarks on the official Health and Human Services podcast, released Friday, while being interviewed by HHS assistant secretary of public affairs Michael Caputo. The interview quickly descended into a lengthy rant about the media.... [Slaoui] is working as a contractor voluntarily, drawing payment of only $1 [which] exempts him from ethics rules that would apply to federal employees. Slaoui worked for 30 years in senior roles at pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline. He still holds significant stock in the company. The HHS inspector general ruled that he can continue to own stock in the pharmaceutical industry and is exempt from disclosure rules that would apply if he joined the government." --s
[Pennsylvania. "Just Not Handling the Pandemic Well." Tim Elfrink of th Washington Post: "When a cigar shop clerk told Adam Zaborowski on Friday he had to wear a mask in the shop, the 35-year-old angrily refused. Instead, he grabbed two stogies, stormed outside -- and then pulled a handgun and shot at the clerk, Bethlehem Township, Pa., police said. The next day, cornered near his home, Zaborowski allegedly fired at police with an AK-47, sparking a wild shootout with at least seven officers that ended with him shot multiple times and under arrest. [His lawyer told the local newspaper 'He just wasn't ... handling the pandemic well.']... In recent weeks, police say arguments over masks have led to the vicious beating of Trader Joe's employees in New York, the fatal shooting of a Family Dollar store security guard in Michigan, and the shooting of a McDonald's worker in Oklahoma. That violence adds more challenges for retail stores and restaurants where workers are left to dictate mask rules that authorities often haven't given police the option to enforce."] ~~~
~~~ The Mask Slackers Will Always Be With Us. Christine Hauser of the New York Times reports on the controversy over mask-wearing during the 1918-1919 influenza epidemic (or what Trump calls the pandemic of 1917). In San Francisco, which was badly hit by the epidemic, an Anti-Mask League formed: "Their objections included lack of scientific evidence that masks worked and the idea that forcing people to wear the coverings was unconstitutional."
Russia. Vladimir Soldatkin of Reuters (August 1): "Russia's health minister is preparing a mass vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus for October, local news agencies reported on Saturday, after a vaccine completed clinical trials. Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said the Gamaleya Institute, a state research facility in Moscow, had completed clinical trials of the vaccine and paperwork is being prepared to register it, Interfax news agency reported. He said doctors and teachers would be the first to be vaccinated. 'We plan wider vaccinations for October,' Murashko was quoted as saying." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Mary Trump's scathing takedown of her uncle, the president of the United States, sold more books in a single week than Donald Trump's Art of the Deal sold in 29 years, according to sales stats.... The tell-all also debuted at the top of bestseller lists in the U.S., Canada, Britain and Ireland." --s
William Rahbaum & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office suggested on Monday that it has been investigating President Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud, a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past. The office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., made the disclosure in a new federal court filing arguing Mr. Trump's accountants should have to comply with its subpoena seeking eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns. Mr. Trump has asked a judge to declare the subpoena invalid. The prosecutors did not directly identify the focus of their inquiry but said that 'undisputed' news reports last year about Mr. Trump's business practices make it clear that the office had a legal basis for the subpoena.... The clash over the subpoena comes less than a month after the Supreme Court, in a major ruling on the limits of presidential power, cleared the way for Mr. Vance's prosecutors to seek Mr. Trump's financial records." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An NBC News story is here.
The FBI Has Not Let Jared Off the Hook Yet. Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed News file a report & publish FBI interview summaries of principals in the Mueller investigation. The documents include a 5-page interview of Jared Kushner, which is completely redacted. "The FBI's notations indicate that much of the material relates to an ongoing law enforcement investigation. Senior Assistant Special Counsel Andrew Goldstein told Kushner that answering a question with 'I don't recall' if he indeed did recall was considered a lie." Interviews of "former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland, former White House lawyer and senior Justice Department official James Burnham, and former Stone associate Randy Credico are also almost entirely redacted. McFarland and Credico's summaries include markings that indicate redacted information relates to ongoing investigations."
Zoe Tillman, et al., of BuzzFeed News file a report on and publish e-mails that flew among Aaron Zelinsky, one of the lead prosecutors in the Roger Stone case, and other DOJ officials (and a Fox "News" reporter!) after Bill Barr recommended a lighter sentence for Stone than Zelinsky & the three other prosecutors on the case had proposed to the judge. For one thing, Zelinsky's supervisor told him he could not withdraw from the case minutes after Zelinsky formally withdrew from the case.
Fred Kaplan of Slate: "President Trump's insouciant rampage of lawlessness continues. His latest violation -- less serious than some of his actions, but more brazen than most -- involves his desire to give Anthony Tata a senior job in the Pentagon without the Senate's consent.... [O]n Sunday night, it was announced that Tata would be appointed to a job described as 'Performing the Duties of Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.' Trump ... gave Tata this ungainly, unprecedented, and legally dubious title.... [Tata] doesn't hold any sort of official position. As his title puts it, he is merely 'Performing the Duties of' the deputy undersecretary.... However, Trump might legitimately be wondering if anybody in Congress cares about the fine print of the law. For instance, his secretary and deputy secretary of homeland security, Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, are both acting; neither has been confirmed by the Senate.... Cuccinelli isn't even an acting deputy; like Tata at the Pentagon, he is 'Senior Official Performing the Duties of' deputy secretary.) Under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, an acting secretary cannot serve in that role for longer than 210 days. Yet Chad Wolf has been acting DHS secretary for 263 days, meaning that all of his decisions for nearly the past two months -- including the ordering of armed border guards to battle protesters in Portland -- are illegal. Yet nobody has raised a fuss...." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Nick Miroff & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post write about how Chad Wolf has become a Trump favorite, "a DHS chief giving [Trump] the answers he wants." The reporters don't mention that Wolf remains in his acting job illegally; either Kaplan is wrong -- or he's right and nobody cares.
** Hansi Wang of NPR: "The Census Bureau is ending all counting efforts for the 2020 census on Sept. 30, a month shorter than previously announced, the bureau's director confirmed Monday in a statement. That includes critical door-knocking efforts and collecting responses online, over the phone and by mail.... These last-minute changes to the constitutionally mandated count of every person living in the U.S. threaten the accuracy of population numbers used to determine the distribution of political representation and federal funding for the next decade. With roughly 4 out of 10 households nationwide yet to be counted and already delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, the bureau now has less than two months left to try to reach people of color, immigrants, renters, rural residents and other members of historically undercounted groups who are not likely to fill out a census form on their own.... The bureau's announcement comes after NPR first reported that the agency had decided to cut short door-knocking efforts for the 2020 census." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Coincidentally, I just completed my Census questionnaire on line Sunday, even though I received an "invitation" in the mail months ago. Obviously, there are millions of procrastinators like me, who moved the Census letter to the bottom of the to-do pile, where it remains. Like everything Trumpish, this is surely going to be the worst Census endeavor in U.S. history. AND, as Wang points out, the sloppiness and undercount are unconstitutional. If you haven't completed your questionnaire, today would be a good day to do it, unless you live on the East Coast and your power is out of course. BTW, I think you need the letter from the Census Bureau to do it, because the letter contains a code that has to be input before answering the questionnaire. I don't know if there's a workaround.
Black Lives Matter. Katie Mettier of the Washington Post: A Secret Service cruiser apparently purposely ran into a legally parked vehicle in which two women were sitting as they got ready to take their two babies -- then in the back seats -- for an outing on the National Mall near the White House. "Within seconds, [one of the women] recalled, a uniformed Secret Service officer was pointing a rifle at them, yelling 'Get out!' and 'Put your hands in the air!' More officers surrounded them with guns pulled, the women said. Over the next hour, Winston and Johnson said, they were handcuffed without reason, separated from their crying babies, and handled by police who, at first, did not wear masks to protect against the novel coronavirus. Initially, the women said, an officer told them the vehicle had been reported stolen and that the suspects were two Black men. But the women, both African American, said no men were with them and provided proof that Johnson was the owner. She told the Secret Service she had never reported the car stolen. Eventually, the women were released -- without an apology or answers to their questions, [one of the women] said."
Elections 2020
Michael Martina of Reuters: "Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Monday that ... Donald Trump was telling 'bald-faced lies' about voting by mail to distract from his own failures, after Trump last week suggested it could be cause to delay the election. Biden's remarks were his strongest on the issue since Trump, who trails the presumptive Democratic nominee in opinion polls, tweeted on Thursday that he would not trust the results of an election that included widespread mail voting - a measure many observers see as critical during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.... Speaking during a virtual campaign fundraiser on Monday, Biden said he believed Trump would do everything in his power to 'argue this election is fraudulent.'"
Domenico Montanaro of NPR: "It's hard to believe that the hole President Trump dug for himself could get deeper, but it has. A record and widening majority of Americans disapprove of the job he's doing when it comes to handling the coronavirus pandemic; he gets poor scores on race relations; he's seen a suburban erosion despite efforts to win over suburban voters with fear; and all that has led to a worsened outlook for Trump against Democrat Joe Biden in the presidential election. As a result, in the past month and a half, the latest NPR analysis of the Electoral College has several states shifting in Biden's favor, and he now has a 297-170 advantage over Trump with exactly three months to go until Election Day."
Elizabeth Drew, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that the presidential debates should be scrapped: "The debates have never made sense as a test for presidential leadership." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York Times: “In his latest assault on voting by mail, President Trump said Monday he thought the Democratic primary in New York's 12th Congressional District should be rerun because of lengthy delays counting mail-in ballots in the race.... On Monday evening, Mr. Trump focused his attention on the New York Democratic primary, where large numbers of voters mailed in their ballots to avoid standing in lines at crowded polling places for the June 23 primary where Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is facing Suraj Patel, a challenger. Nearly six weeks later, all the ballots have yet to be counted. , a fact that Mr. Trump said Monday proves that his critique about mail-in balloting is correct.... Prompted by a question at an afternoon news conference, Mr. Trump also claimed that he has the right to take executive action to stop the broad use of mail-in ballots nationwide, but said 'we haven't gotten there yet.' He offered no details on what authority he would cite to override state laws that allow mail-in voting." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Do bear in mind that a real president would be encouraging calm and patience and would be suggesting & implementing ways to help make elections run more smoothly.
Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump threatened legal action Monday after Nevada's Legislature passed a bill to mail ballots to all active voters, suggesting the measure would make it impossible for Republicans to win there in November's general election. 'In an illegal late night coup, Nevada's clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump's unfounded attacks on mail balloting are discouraging his own supporters from embracing the practice, according to polls and Republican leaders across the country, prompting growing alarm that one of the central strategies of his campaign is threatening GOP prospects in November. Multiple public surveys show a growing divide between Democrats and Republicans about the security of voting by mail, with Republicans saying they are far less likely to trust it in November. In addition, party leaders in several states said they are encountering resistance among GOP voters who are being encouraged to vote absentee while also seeing the president describe mail voting as 'rigged' and 'fraudulent.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
George Conway, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... it should have come as no surprise that Trump finally went where no U.S. president had ever gone before. In a tweet last week, he actually suggested that the country 'Delay the Election.' That trial balloon was a brazen effort to see if he can defraud his way into four more years in the White House. And why not try? After all, Trump has managed to swindle his way through life, on matters large and small essential and trivial.... Now he peddles a different lie: that somehow extensive 'Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good)' would produce 'the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. Hence the supposed need to 'Delay the Election.'... For the sake of our constitutional republic, he must lose, and lose badly. Yet that should be just a start: We should only honor former presidents who uphold and sustain our nation's enduring democratic values. There should be no schools, bridges or statues devoted to Trump. His name should live in infamy, and he should be remembered, if at all, for precisely what he was -- not a president, but a blundering cheat."
Josh Marshall of TPM: "As I've mentioned a few times, we are so locked in the house with Trump, so surrounded by his predation, that the nature and scope of much of his abuse and wrongdoing are only partly visible to us.... Taken together he is actually depriving the whole nation of the ability to conduct a free and fair election. He is hanging over us as we do the normal work of campaigning and election-ing the possibility he'll disrupt the process, won't accept the result or most directly that the whole process won't end up mattering at all. This in itself is a grave crime against the constitution and the republic." --s
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Jerry Falwell Jr. posted and then quickly deleted a strange vacation photo, leaving some to question what was actually going on. The photo, captured by Relevant Magazine, shows the Liberty University president on a yacht with his pants undone and his shirt hiked up. Next to him stands a young woman identified as a 'friend' whose pants are similarly unzipped and Falwell was holding up her shirt to expose her abdomen. In his hand was a glass of dark liquid." Story includes photo. Mrs. McC: Luckily, an associate of Falwell's had some equally weird excuses for the photo. Falwell, the president of the Christian confederate post-high-school institution Liberty University, is an important booster of Donald Trump. Falwell, who is 5 years old, has been having a midlife sex crisis for quite awhile, most or all of which you don't want to think about. (See "Personal Life" at the bottom of the linked Wikipage.) It won't be long before he he caught in flagrante with a four-legged, hoofed beast on the portico of Arthur DeMoss Hall.
Way Beyond the Beltway
U.K./Russia. Jack Stubb & Guy Faulconbridge of Reuters: "Classified U.S.-UK trade documents leaked ahead of Britain's 2019 election were stolen from the email account of former trade minister Liam Fox by suspected Russian hackers, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.... The hack of Fox's account - which has not been previously reported - and subsequent leak of the classified documents ahead of last year's election is one of the most direct examples of suspected Russian attempts to meddle in British politics." --s
Earth. Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "The growing but largely unrecognized death toll from rising global temperatures will come close to eclipsing the current number of deaths from all the infectious diseases combined if planet-heating emissions aren't constrained, a major new study has found.... 'A lot of older people die due to indirect heat affects,' said Amir Jina, an environmental economist at the University of Chicago and a co-author of the study, published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. 'It's eerily similar to Covid -- vulnerable people are those who have pre-existing or underlying conditions. If you have a heart problem and are hammered for days by the heat, you are going to be pushed towards collapse.'" --s
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Isaias ... will race northward near the East Coast through late Tuesday with damaging winds, flooding rainfall and tornadoes. Isaias made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane at 11:10 p.m. EDT Monday near Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina, with maximum sustained winds of 85 mph. Isaias is now centered over eastern Virginia and is moving to the north-northeast at 30 to 35 mph. Rainfall has spread northward ahead of the storm to locations as far north as New York and New England. A tornado watch is in effect until 12 p.m. EDT from eastern Maryland to Delaware and far southern New Jersey. There is a separate tornado watch in effect until 4 p.m. EDT for southeast Pennsylvania, central and northern New Jersey, southeast New York and southern Connecticut. There have been at least a dozen reports of tornadoes since last night from North Carolina to Virginia, Maryland and Delaware."
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Reader Comments (14)
Hadn't taken a swing at Douthat, who I see is stlll trying to find a reason to be a Republican, in a couple of months but did this AM.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/04/opinion/trump-republicans-tea-party.html#commentsContainer&permid=108466483:108466483
Didn't mention in my comment all those executive order promises from our go-it-alone pretend president, but they sure fit the flailing pattern of Republican incoherence.
In that sense, one could say the Pretender's disjointed and fact free speech makes him the perfect party spokesperson.
When I got to the story about the Secret Police's despicable handling of the two women with their babies in tow, I was ready to scream. There is simply no justification for this kind of treatment––none–-and those women should sue those bastards or at least demand their firing.
This story, of course, bundled up among the constant shit storms we are hit with each and every day will probably not get much press––just another "black lives don't matter none" kind of every day occurrence.
Josh Marshall, of TPM, said:
"He [Trump] is hanging over us as we do the normal work of campaigning and election-ing the possibility he’ll disrupt the process, won’t accept the result or most directly that the whole process won’t end up mattering at all. This in itself is a grave crime against the constitution and the republic."
The Trump "hanging over us"–– envisioning this corpulent orange blob quivering like jello constantly hovering above in a web spun by him and his sinuous spider spinners.
I once had a dream in which this kind of web was hanging over me and I wondered how terrifyingly big this spider must be to spin such a gigantic web. I found a large stick and destroyed it.
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Yesterday our pool guy, John, came to replace a leaky hose. He wore a mask as did Joe. John told Joe about an encounter with a customer who was angry that John was wearing a mask. "You don't have to wear one of those things in my backyard" the customer said. When John told him differently the man got belligerent and John packed up his gear and started to leave. Suddenly the man backed down, said he was sorry. John stayed.
We seem to have a lot of folks who are still in the "me-twos" when little children start rebelling against one thing after another. No government gonna take my rights away–-nobody gonna tell ME what to do!
Joe and I just received our mail-in-ballots which we will complete and send back pronto. Here is another biggie that the big orange blob wants to muddy up––our postal service which is one of the bulwarks of our democracy. He puts an unqualified person in charge that is doing damage to mail delivery along with all the postal workers.
Where's the damn stick!!!!!
Prezidunt Mean Girl
“No! I’m not saying anything nice about that awful John Lewis. Hmmph...HE didn’t go to MY inauguration, so why should?! C’mon girls, (to the half-pence, Fatso Barr, and Dainty Hannity) let’s go up to my room and bitch about everyone we hate!”
He didn’t go to my inauguration...
What is he, seven?
And people are still gonna vote for this...this thing?
QED
Meanwhile, how are things in Racist Amerika, the place of fear and hatred from which Fatty hopes to get all his votes?
A video made a while back has surfaced showing a garrulous MC describing, with obvious glee, how military dogs attack a guy wearing a Colin Kaepernick game shirt during a demonstration at the US Navy Seal museum in (where the fuck else?) Florida. Fort Pierce, to be exact.
So, here we have a demonstration of how deadly force (four vicious dogs trained to attack) can (should?) be used against unarmed black people.
Um, not for nothin’, but isn’t this exactly the sort of thing Kaepernick was protesting?
Or is this just Navy Seal humor? Laugh? I thought I’d die.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/03/politics/navy-museum-colin-kaepernick-dog-attack-investigation/index.html
Anand Giridharadas started a newsletter “The Ink”. He recently left the NYT as an opinion writer. His 1st interview is with Joy Reid. He talks about James Murdoch’s donation to Unite America and asks if it makes up for the damage the Murdoch’s have done. Reid talks about giving people “an off ramp” when they really want to change. She uses her own issues with homophobic blog comments as an example. His book “Winners Take All” is a good read.
https://bit.ly/31kOox4
I don't usually (as in hardly ever) pull for someone with an R after their name in an election, but today I'm all about...
Go, Kobach, you racist rat bastard sonuvabitch! Win that Kansas primary!
Love to see that fake news fabulist fuckhead get his lying confederate ass kicked in the general.
This Jerry Falwell, Jr. thing...
Are these people all mentally ill or are they so wrapped up in their own wonderfulness that it never occurs to them that running the freak flag up the pole and bathing it in spotlights is probably not the best idea.
So, first, it wasn't really ol' Jerry. He'd never do something like THAT...pose with a (presumably) much younger babe (Evangelical babe? Is that the new thing with Evangelicals? Pull your pants down and your shirt up?), zippers down, shirts up, while holding a dark looking beverage which, judging by the extreme lack of decorum displayed was most likely not the first of the day? Then it was "Oh yeah, um...that was ol' Jerry, but, um, that's not an alcoholic drink. It was...um....lesse....a....um....a PROP! Yeah, that's the ticket. It was a prop."
A "prop"? What is he, making a movie? From the looks of it, it must be Evangelical soft porn. Or maybe we missed the hard stuff. From the looks of it, that glass is holding something like a Black Russian.
It would be Russian, right? Prob'ly the favorite drink of Trumpy supporters these days.
Fucking hypocritical losers (and weirdos), all of them.
(Oh, and Marie...I got a good laugh out of your description of this idiot..."Falwell, who is 5 years old, has been having a midlife sex crisis for quite awhile, most or all of which you don't want to think about." Don't know if you meant the 5 years old crack, since he's 58, but it'd be weirdly appropriate. That is, if in Hypocrite Evangelical circles 5 year olds now have sex crises. That would explain a lot. Hahahaha.)
Melanie Makes Her Mark! Bring on the Manure!
We're in the middle of a worldwide plague which finds the United States, under the Trump "leadership", leading the world in deaths. The economy is in the toilet, unemployment is worse than a Caucusus village after being raided by Mongols, income inequality threatens to make the Robber Baron age look like an era of unalloyed economic parity, and protests about police brutality against black people have encouraged Trump to, well, increase police brutality against black people. And bring in the Feds to help!
So what's a grifting, former naked model, First Lady to do?
Redo the garden. Yippers. Cuz that's what the nation needs from its First Family, grifting, lies, violence, death, and...roses.
She wants to renovate the Rose Garden. Melanie sez her plan is to demonstrate the "possibility of a bright future." Really? Well, great. Get Fatty to resign, we'll get going on that bright future, toot sweet. Oh yeah, she's also adding plenty of new lighting and wiring so Fatty can get his bloated racist on in the Rose Garden and broadcast it more efficiently to the waiting world. Just what we need.
Fatty, who simply cannot stand that other presidents (real ones, anyway) get better press than he does, refers to Melanie as "Our very own Jackie O." Ewww...more like Jackie zer-O.
And not to be picky, but is August in Washington, DC really the best time to plant roses? Call me silly, but rose experts all say ixnay to that idea.
Maybe she's thinking she only has a few more months to do something historicky. Her whacko Christmas decorations didn't do it, maybe a crab apple tree will.
I guess she gave up on that "Stop the Bullying" campaign. Wonder why? Might as well get some manure and toss it around.
Ha-- As for Melanie's tossing around of manure, I think she already has... the I-don't-care jacket was a great example. She is such a useless human being. I doubt if she is as rotten as her spouse, because very few people are, perhaps, but she comes close. I guess she is disappointed that no one has taken her anti-bullying stance seriously, and I wonder why that is... Could it be she is married to someone who learned bullying early and has perfected it on a national scale?
I just watched the AXIOS interview, or Fat Bastard's whiny take on whatever he perceived that Jonathan was "accusing" him of-- that bully, Jonathan... And that John Lewis, so ungrateful for all the things FB has done for minorities... gaacchh. I expect Jonathan had to wash out his ears with bleach after that episode. When FB is done presidentin', I think we should stake him out on the WH lawn for the vultures to have for dinner. At least he would be doing some good for one species...
Am horrified about the two ladies in DC. I didn't know the Secret Service is that toxic...You know how everyone keeps saying "that's not who we are" every time there is a serious lapse in judgement, being nice to people, beating up on innocents, etc? They are wrong.
While working up a hoeing sweat thought a little more about my Douthat comment linked earlier. Just like Douthat who's still thinking abouit why he's a conservative Republican ( a rigid Catholicism have anything to do with it?), I'm still thinking about how my mostly moral father could have maintained his allegiance to the party through the Reagan years, until his death
Maybe more to my intended point, about how the party and with it the nation has changed since then.
I think I hit on one element of that transition in what I said to Ross.
This part especially: " With public interest tossed overboard, all that's left (to the Party) is self-interest and the varying assessments of where their interest lies that party leaders choose to make. Some Republican leaders see their fate tied to corporate money, others to white grievance, but no one of them now believes they will do well for themselves by doing good for all."
My thought: As the Republican Party came to rely more explicitly on white grievance, maybe the most self-centered, narrow, selfish point of view of all, one that cannot see beyond the skin color in their mirror, for its support, the self became all, squeezing out all vestiges of concern for the other.
Since the 1920's the love of money with its hefty component of selfishness was always there, but adding outright racism to the mix ensured that nothing else remained.
Another reason we now have the Pretender's particularly noxious brand of the Greedy Old Party, and the reason the Lincoln Project will never get its old party back.
I’m sure it was prude juice.
Oops.
Prune juice.
Jeanne,
Vultures wouldn't touch that fat carcass. They're not that desperate. Road kill would be preferable. Or maybe some squashed squirrel guts. At least they'd be eating a clean animal.
Squashed road kill, also known as "street pizza".
Two headlines:
McConnell prepared to support $600 stimulus unemployment checks (Forbes) and Kentucky may hold key to Senate majority (CNN).
Wonder if they're related?