;)
The Commentariat -- June 19, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Pete Williams & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday denied a request to order a Tulsa arena to enforce federal recommendations for preventing the spread of the coronavirus at ... Donald Trump's campaign rally. The groups suing could not establish a clear legal right to the order they were seeking, the court said in a unanimous, one-page order."
Lara Seligman & Connor O'Brien of Politico: "The Navy has decided to uphold the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved of duty after raising the alarm about a Covid-19 outbreak on his ship in March, according to two people familiar with the investigation. 'The results of the investigation justified the relief,' said one person who has seen the investigation. 'He failed to take appropriate action, to do the things that the commanding officer of a ship is supposed to do, so he stays relieved.'"
Astead Herndon of the New York Times: “Hundreds gathered along Greenwood Avenue [in Tulsa, Oklahoma] — the site of one of America’s worst racist attacks — to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates when enslaved black Americans in Texas formally learned of emancipation. The end of a centuries-long massacre.... Organizers planned to cancel their annual Juneteenth celebration amid the national coronavirus pandemic. Then President Trump announced a campaign rally in the city, originally slated to be held on the Friday holiday but later moved to Saturday evening. With that event looming, and national protests raging about racial injustice and police brutality, what was typically a celebration of resilience had transformed into one of defiance. 'Black Lives Matter' was painted in bright yellow letters across Greenwood Avenue. Attendees said they were celebrating not only how black ancestors were freed from enslavement, but also the persistence of black Americans today — from a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black communities, police departments that disproportionately kill black people, and a president who has shown little willingness to acknowledge the reality of both.”
Ziva Branstetter, et al., of the Washington Post: “As thousands of Trump fans and protesters poured into [Tulsa] in advance of President Trump's first campaign rally in months, authorities imposed a curfew as fears of potential violence mingled with anxiety about a spike in new cases of coronavirus. Metal barricades went up around downtown and police cars began blocking off streets after Tulsa announced a last-minute curfew for the downtown area Thursday night that will continue Friday and Saturday.... The move came after Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum declared a 'civil emergency,' saying law enforcement informed him that 'individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally,' according to his executive order.... Trump ... [tweeted] Friday that 'any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma, please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!'” An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how Trump threatens protesters exercising their First Amendment rights & lumps them in with "anarchists, agitators, looters [and] lowlifes." ~~~
~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump warned those protesting his planned rally in Oklahoma they could be treated roughly, an opening threat a day ahead of what he says is the new kickoff of his reelection campaign. Writing on Twitter, Trump lumped together 'protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes' and said they would not be afforded what he's decried as gentle treatment if they gather outside his Tulsa event. It came the morning after he used a blatantly false video of young children to decry media coverage of American race relations, a move that drew a rebuke from Twitter. The messages, which came as the nation marks the day in 1865 that the last enslaved Black people in the US learned they had been freed from bondage, made no attempt at striking a unifying or commemorative tone. Instead, Trump used his platform to heighten the drama surrounding his return to the campaign trail after a 110-day pandemic-forced absence and warn those who oppose him to stay away."
Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Senators on Friday announced legislation to make Juneteenth, a widely observed holiday that marks the federal order to free slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, a national holiday.... The day, which began as a Texas holiday in 1980, is now recognized by 47 states and the District of Columbia as a state holiday or observance and is marking its 155th anniversary this year.... The bill was proposed by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., [Corey] Booker, [D-N.J.,] Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is a cosponsor.
Ray Sanchez & Elizabeth Joseph of CNN: "The city of Louisville, Kentucky, and its police department are taking the first steps toward firing an officer involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor last March. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has initiated termination proceedings against Louisville Metro Police Det. Brett Hankison, Fisher said in a statement without elaborating. The 26-year-old African American EMT was killed more than two months ago when police broke down the door to her apartment in an attempted drug sting and shot her eight times. Hankison and two other officers remain on administrative leave.... They have not been charged with any crimes." Mrs. McC: Oh, they're just thinking of firing the officer now? Every time I see a well-circulated photo of Taylor's smiling face, my heart breaks.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.
Not All of the Corruption of the Trump Administration is Up-front & Noisy. Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "When the coronavirus kills, it attacks the lungs.... But earlier this month, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a federal health agency, abruptly notified companies and researchers that it was halting funding for treatments for this severe form of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. The new policy highlights how staunchly the Trump administration has placed its bet on vaccines as the way to return American society and the economy to normal in a presidential election year. BARDA has pledged more than $2.2 billion in deals with five vaccine manufacturers for the coronavirus, compared with about $359 million toward potential Covid-19 treatments. But the shift in strategy also shows that the administration is backing away from the relatively modest funding it has provided so far for treatments that address the severe lung ailments, while continuing support for antiviral therapies that could treat people earlier in the course of the disease."
Rick Noack of the Washington Post: “As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. 'It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,' said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the last three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.... China’s actions over the past week stand in stark contrast to those of the United States. In the wake of a new cluster of more than 150 new cases that emerged in Beijing, authorities sealed off neighborhoods, launched a mass testing campaign and imposed travel restrictions.”
Tim Mak of NPR: "The Transportation Security Administration withheld N95 masks from staff and exhibited 'gross mismanagement' in its response to the coronavirus crisis – leaving employees and travelers vulnerable during the most urgent days of the pandemic, a senior TSA official alleges in a new whistleblower complaint. On Thursday evening, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that handles whistleblower complaints, said it had found 'substantial likelihood of wrongdoing' in the complaint and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to open an investigation. TSA Federal Security Director Jay Brainard is an official in charge of transportation security in the state of Kansas and has been with the agency for almost 20 years. He told NPR that the leadership of his agency failed to protect its staff from the pandemic, and as a result, allowed TSA employees to be 'a significant carrier' for the spread of the coronavirus to airport travelers.... His allegations include that personal protective equipment was withheld from TSA employees, that local supervisors were not permitted to mandate masks, that the TSA failed to adequately execute contact tracing, and the TSA declined to require that employees change or sanitize gloves between passengers."
David Nakamura & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "President Trump was in a White House event with governors Thursday when he took a moment to punch out a tweet from his cellphone – threatening to decouple the U.S. economy from China, the world’s second largest economy [Mrs. McC: a virtual impossibility]. The missive was another salvo in a long bilateral trade dispute but it also represented an effort by the president to reestablish himself as a hard-liner on China – a day after shocking revelations from his former national security adviser John Bolton painted him as obsequious to Chinese President Xi Jinping in private conversations. Trump’s urgency underscores how Bolton’s disclosures ... could complicate a key pillar of the president’s reelection strategy as his campaign has attacked former vice president Biden ... as soft on China."
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: “President Trump’s campaign is under fire for employing a symbol once used by Nazis in a new batch of Facebook ads — a red inverted triangle that appeared alongside a warning about the dire threat posed by 'antifa,' a loose motley group allied against neo-fascist activity. An internal Department of Homeland Security document — which I obtained from a congressional source — makes the Trump campaign’s use of this symbol, and its justification for it, look a whole lot worse, by undercutting the claim that antifa represents any kind of threat in the first place.... The document — which is an assessment of ongoing 'protest-related' threats to law enforcement dated June 17 — makes no mention at all of antifa in its cataloging of those threats.... The broader story here ... is that the continued fearmongering about antifa by Trump and many top officials seems designed to distort the true nature of these multiracial, largely peaceful and broadly representative national protests in a very fundamental way.”
Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Rep. Matt Gaetz created a social media frenzy Thursday when he revealed he had a teenage son named Nestor and later introduced the young man during an appearance on Fox News. Gaetz (R-Fla.) shared that he has a Cuban-born son to explain why he became so irate when Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), who is black, said the white lawmakers in the room couldn’t understand what it was like to father a black child.... Gaetz told People Magazine in an interview that he never formally adopted 19-year-old Nestor but that Nestor has lived with him since immigrating from Cuba at age 12." Here's the committee-room exchange:
Joe Concha of the Hill: "ABC's Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday announced he will be taking the summer off after facing criticism over wearing blackface in a recurring skit he performed while working on 'The Man Show' on Comedy Central.... Kimmel, as a co-host of the 'The Man Show,' performed a recurring skit that included him dressed in blackface as then-NBA star Karl Malone. Videos and photos of the skits on the show, which ran from 1999-2004, have been circulating online recently with calls for Kimmel to apologize."
~~~~~~~~~~
... Which nobody ever heard of before Donald Trump made it famous. Just ask him.
~~~ Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: “The National Archives on Thursday located what appears to be the original handwritten 'Juneteenth' military order informing thousands of people held in bondage in Texas they were free. The decree, in the ornate handwriting of a general’s aide, was found in a formal order book stored in the Archives headquarters building in Washington. It is dated June 19, 1865, and signed by Maj. F.W. Emery, on behalf of Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger. 'The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, “all slaves are free,’” the order reads.... The order was located by Trevor Plante, director of an archives textual records division, who, because of current interest in the subject, was asked to search for it. Printed versions of the order have long existed, Plante said Thursday. 'But this is something that we haven’t tracked down before,' he said. The handwritten entry 'absolutely' predated the printed versions of the order, he said.” ~~~
~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “Who freed the slaves? The slaves freed the slaves. 'Slave resistance,' as the historian Manisha Sinha points out in 'The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition,' 'lay at the heart of the abolition movement.... Prominent slave revolts marked the turn toward immediate abolition,' Sinha writes, and 'fugitive slaves united all factions of the movement and led the abolitionists to justify revolutionary resistance to slavery.'” ~~~
~~~ John Parkinson of ABC News: "Late Thursday afternoon, the gold-framed portraits of four former Speakers of the House of Representatives who shared ties to the Confederacy were removed from the walls of the U.S. Capitol, as efforts to strike down symbols of racism around the country continue in the wake of George Floyd's killing last month. In a letter addressed Thursday to Cheryl Johnson, clerk of the House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of the paintings in observance of Juneteenth on Friday. The portraits were taken down hours later. They had hung in the Capitol for decades, honoring Robert Hunter of Virginia, who served as speaker from 1839 to 1841, Howell Cobb of Georgia, 1849 to 1851, James Orr of South Carolina, 1857 to 1859, and Charles Crisp of Georgia, 1891 to 1895. 'There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy,' Pelosi, D-Calif., proclaimed." ~~~
Wherein John Roberts Tells Donald Trump He's a Sloppy Coward
** Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court’s four more liberal members. The court’s ruling was a blow to one of President Trump’s central campaign promises — that as president he would 'immediately terminate' an executive order by former President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump had called an illegal executive amnesty for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.” This is a breaking news story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “... as lower courts had found, Roberts said the administration did not follow procedures required by law, and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally.... 'We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner,'” [Roberts wrote]. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, this is a "procedural" decision & not the big win for DACA beneficiaries that a proper act of Congress would grant. Not for the first time, Roberts has refused to accept the cavalier, ham-handed way Trump & his minions try to undo standing rules & laws. Trump can do it again, and if he does it right, DACA recipients could lose their right to stay in the country where they have lived most of their lives. We need a Congress who will fix this. ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to several legal experts I heard on the teevee, Trump could "cure" the defects in the DHS's procedural mess by executing his own order to screw all the DACA kids. But DACA is popular even with Republicans (including, no doubt, evangelicals), so he didn't have the guts to do that. Instead, he ordered DHS to screw the kids administratively in hopes his own fingerprints wouldn't show up on the deportation orders. ~~~
~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday lashed out at the Supreme Court after it issued a ruling against his move to rescind deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants.... In a pair of tweets, Trump [wrote,] 'These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,' Trump tweeted. 'We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!'... 'Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?'" Mrs. McC Translation: It is "horrible" to deny me the authority to ruin the lives of millions of innocent people on a whim. And I will use violent language to say so. (Also linked yesterday.)
Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: “A senior State Department official who has served in the Trump administration since its first day is resigning over President Trump’s recent handling of racial tensions across the country — saying that the president’s actions 'cut sharply against my core values and convictions.' Mary Elizabeth Taylor, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, submitted her resignation Thursday. Taylor’s five-paragraph resignation letter, obtained by The Washington Post, serves as an indictment of Trump’s stewardship at a time of national unrest from one of the administration’s highest-ranking African Americans and an aide who was viewed as loyal and effective in serving his presidency.... Taylor’s decision to leave the administration amid the racial tensions flaring nationwide appears to be the first high-profile resignation made in protest of the president’s actions that has been made public.... Taylor was viewed as a loyal member of the administration and is a lifelong member of the Republican Party.” The Raw story has a summary report here.
Eric Schmitt & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "The Air Force inspector general is investigating whether the military improperly used a little-known reconnaissance plane to monitor protests in Washington and Minneapolis this month, the Air Force said on Thursday.... The Air Force’s action comes days after the Pentagon’s top intelligence policy official told Congress that the nation’s military intelligence agencies did not spy on American protesters during the wave of nationwide demonstrations. In a letter last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Joseph D. Kernan, the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, said he had received no orders from the Trump administration to conduct such surveillance, and he underscored citizens’ constitutional right to protest peacefully."
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: “... Donald Trump on Thursday gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he made a number of outlandish claims.... Here are some of the highlights.... 1.) ... China may have deliberately allowed the novel coronavirus to spread to the United States in retaliation for his tariffs.... 2.) ... he hired John Bolton to make foreign leaders fearful that he’d go to war with them unless they gave him what he wanted.... 3.) ... he actually was threatening to have looters shot in his now-infamous tweet.... 4.) ... calls COVID-19 testing 'overrated' then brags about how many tests the United States has done.... 5.) ... brags that he made more people aware of Juneteenth by holding a rally on that date in a city known as the site of the worst anti-black pogrom in American history.... 6.) ... suggests some people are wearing face masks to damage him politically.” The Wall Street Journal's report of the interview is here. The transcript of the WSJ interview is here, & it may load for nonsubscribers. ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: “After more than three years of the Trump presidency, it has become easy to forget at times just how out of the ordinary it really is. The normalization of Mr. Trump’s norm-busting, line-crossing, envelope-pushing administration has meant that what was once shocking now seems like just another day.... In 494 pages..., [John Bolton] becomes the first person with daily access to Mr. Trump’s Oval Office to catalog the various ways that he has seized the presidency to suit his own needs.... The portrait he draws in 'The Room Where It Happened,' due out Tuesday, is of a president who sees his office as an instrument to advance his own personal and political interests over those of the nation. That is what got Mr. Trump impeached in the first place, but the book asserts his Ukraine scheming was no one-off. The line between policy and politics, generally murky in any White House, has been all but erased in Mr. Bolton’s telling.... Wwhat Mr. Bolton argues is that Mr. Trump’s personal and political interests are the essential elements of this particular presidency....”
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday is here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Gaslighting the Foxbots. Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg, in Time: “The coronavirus pandemic will 'fade away' even without a vaccine, but researchers are close to developing one anyhow..., Donald Trump said. 'We’re very close to a vaccine and we’re very close to therapeutics, really good therapeutics,' Trump said Wednesday night in a television interview with Fox News. 'But even without that, I don’t even like to talk about that, because it’s fading away, it’s going to fade away, but having a vaccine would be really nice and that’s going to happen.' Trump’s comments come as the U.S. continues to see 20,000 new daily cases from a pandemic that so far has killed 117,000 people in the country.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is not 'fit for office' and doesn't have 'the competence to carry out the job,' his former national security adviser John Bolton told ABC News...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Edward Wong & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “As national security officials and some trade advisers in the Trump administration tried crafting get-tough-on-China policies to address what they viewed as America’s greatest foreign policy challenge, they ran into opposition from ... President Trump himself[, who] was undermining their work. That has been the underlying tension of the last three and a half years, laid out in blunt language in the new memoir by John R. Bolton.... The book supports what administration officials have said in interviews and private discussions since 2017, and what, in many ways, had been out in the open in Mr. Trump’s fawning statements about China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, many made on Twitter. Taken together, the accounts reveal that there has been no coherent China policy, despite efforts early in the administration by senior aides to frame foreign policy around what they labeled 'great power competition,' outlined in their own national security strategy document.” ~~~
~~~ “Make Sure I Win.” -- Trump to Xi. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: “John Bolton’s account that Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping last June to buy more American farm products to help Trump’s reelection is so explosive that White House officials prevented Bolton from directly quoting Trump in Bolton’s new tell-all memoir. 'I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise,' Bolton writes in The Room Where it Happened.... According to an unredacted passage shown to Vanity Fair by a source, Trump’s ask is even more crudely shocking when you read Trump’s specific language. 'Make sure I win,' Trump allegedly told Xi during a dinner at the G20 conference in Osaka, Japan last summer. 'I will probably win anyway, so don’t hurt my farms.… Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win.'...
** “Another passage shows Trump’s racist views on immigration. Bolton describes how Trump derailed a White House meeting about Iran strategy by bringing up a right wing conspiracy that Black South Africans were killing white South African farmers and stealing their land. According to Bolton, Trump blurted out that he wanted to grant the white South Africans 'asylum and citizenship.'”
Presidential Race
Marc Caputo & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar late Thursday said she personally called Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to advise he pick a woman of color as his running mate, effectively announcing the end of her vice presidential aspirations. 'I truly believe, as I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket,' the Minnesota Democrat told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. 'And there is so many incredibly qualified women.'... Klobuchar's credentials as a former prosecutor with a tough-on-crime record didn't sit well as her home state became a locus among protests and calls for structural change in law enforcement."
Jonathan Swan & Margaret Talev of Axios: "President Trump's campaign plans to turn this weekend's Tulsa rally into a massive pro-Trump festival complete with musical acts, and it's flying in high-profile backers and camera crews to show the world the fervency of his supporters.... Organizers are leasing a jet to fly in surrogates the night before and multiple film crews are being brought in to record the event.... The June 20 'Great American Comeback' event is partly a kickoff for a comeback tour amid the coronavirus pandemic. It's also a giant commercial for Trump's re-election campaign, an answer to protests outside the White House and a trial run for Republican National Convention events in Jacksonville this August.... Speakers, performers and surrogates will appear both inside and outside the arena, and Trump plans to speak at both the indoor and outdoor stages, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plans." ~~~
~~~ The “Great American Comeback” Is a Fiasco. Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: “... instead of offering Mr. Trump a glide path back into the campaign season, where he could sell a message about a country overcoming daunting challenges, Mr. Trump’s Tulsa rally has become yet another flash point for a candidate who has repeatedly displayed insensitivity about race in America.... Mr. Trump and his aides failed to grasp the significance of holding a rally on Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated annually on June 19 that honors the end of slavery in the United States. Nor did they appear to realize that Tulsa was the site of one of the country’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence.... Mr. Trump has responded to the protests by insisting that he has done more for African-Americans than any other president in history, save for Abraham Lincoln, and that his campaign 'loves the black people.' On Thursday. he tried to take credit for making Juneteenth 'very famous,’ saying 'nobody had ever heard of it’ until he scheduled his rally for that day. Adding to the anxiety in Tulsa are heightened fears about the risks of the coronavirus. Officials announced Wednesday that there were 96 new cases, the largest single-day increase since March.” ~~~
From the WSJ interview transcript:
Trump: I made Juneteenth very famous.... But nobody had heard of it. Very few people have heard of it. Actually, a young African-American Secret Service agent knew what it was. I had political people who had no idea. [To aide Alyssa Farah:] Did you ever hear of Juneteenth before?
Farah: I did from last year when the White House put out a statement.
Trump: Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?
Farah: Yes.
~~~ “It's Just a Question of How Many Will Die.” Jonathan Partlow, et al., of the Washington Post: “The managers of the arena in Oklahoma where President Trump plans to hold a controversial campaign rally requested on Thursday that the Trump campaign provide a detailed written plan outlining 'health and safety' measures ahead of the event to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a statement from the venue.... A number of Tulsa residents and business owners ... have sued the venue manager attempting to block the event unless it is held in accordance with social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Tulsa County judge on Tuesday denied the request for a temporary injunction, but the decision was appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.... The court [will] decide the issue Friday. During [a] hearing [Thursday], Paul DeMuro, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said that ... 'This is not a question of whether additional people will be infected and die in Tulsa,' he said. 'It’s just a question of how many.'”
Andrew Solender of Forbes: “President Trump appeared on his son Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast ‘Triggered’ on Thursday, where he released an ad claiming Osama Bin Laden 'endorsed' Joe Biden, predicted Democrats would work with him if wins a second term, and said there would be 'tremendous bedlam' if Biden wins in November.... Trump Jr. then unveiled an ad as a 'Father’s Day present,' approved by Trump, which claimed Biden was 'endorsed' by Bin Laden and called Biden 'China’s candidate, Iran’s candidate and Osama’s candidate.' Trump called Biden 'unequipped' and 'in no condition' to be president, and described him as 'China’s dream,' just a day after former National Security Adviser John Bolton released an excerpt from his forthcoming book in which he claims Trump pleaded with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help Trump win reelection and praised Xi’s plan to build concentration camps for Uighur Muslims.”
Facebook Has Principles! -- No Nazi Symbols, Donald! Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: “Facebook on Thursday deactivated dozens of ads placed by President Trump’s reelection campaign that included a symbol once used by the Nazis to designate political prisoners in concentration camps. The marking appeared as part of the campaign’s online salvo against antifa and 'far-left groups.' A red inverted triangle was used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties incarcerated by the Nazis. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners ... featured a yellow triangle overlaid by a red triangle so as to resemble a Star of David. The red triangle appeared in paid [Trump] posts [and] ... was featured alongside text warning of 'Dangerous MOBS.'... Facebook removed the material following queries from The Washington Post, saying ads and organic posts with the inverted triangle violated its policy against organized hate.” (Also linked yesterday.) A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Trump Cannot Stop. Taylor Hatmaker of Tech Crunch: “On Thursday night, Trump shared a crudely edited video of two children with a fake CNN chyron reading 'Terrified todler [sic] runs from racist baby.' Ironically, the video goes on to declare 'America is not the problem, fake news is.' The video, which had 7.9 million views at the time of writing, quickly earned Twitter’s 'manipulated media' warning label, indicating just under the tweet itself that the content is not what it seems. Clicking through the warning label leads to a page fact-checking the tweet, including links to the original CNN share of the video of the two kids with the framing 'These two toddlers are showing us what real-life besties look like.'” Includes Trump's tweet. ~~~
~~~The president tweeted a doctored version of a popular video that went viral in 2019, which showed two toddlers, one black and one white, hugging. In the version Trump shared, the video has been edited with ominous music and a fake CNN headline that says, 'Terrified toddler runs from racist baby.' 'Racist baby probably a Trump voter,' the headline then says in a subsequent screen.” Mrs. McC: I don't need to remind you that if a real president had sent out a video like this, it would create a huge scandal & the Congress would censure him. Trump is not a real president.
Alex isenstadt of Politico: “... Donald Trump called mail-in voting the biggest threat to his reelection and said his campaign's multimillion-dollar legal effort to block expanded ballot access could determine whether he wins a second term.... Trump and his campaign argue, despite a lack of evidence, that widespread mail-in voting will benefit Democrats and invite fraud. The Republican Party is spending tens of millions of dollars on a multi-front legal battle.... Trump was asked a two-part question during the interview: Would a substantial amount of mail-in voting — which is widely expected because of coronavirus — cause him to question the legitimacy of the election? And would he accept the results no matter what? 'Well, you can never answer the second question, right? Because Hillary kept talking about she’s going to accept, and they never accepted it. You know. She lost too. She lost good.' Clinton conceded the day after the 2016 election.”
Beyond the Beltway
New Mexico. Andrew Hay of Reuters: "A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday dropped a shooting charge against an Albuquerque man suspected of shooting a protester and called for further investigations after allegations the protester was armed at the time he was shot. Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said he had serious concerns an initial police investigation into the Monday shooting did not identify who owned multiple weapons collected at the scene, including knives, nor interview key bystanders and police. Torrez dropped an initial aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge against Steven Baca, 31, after images emerged online showing protester Scott Williams, 39, holding what was rumored to be a knife before he was allegedly shot by Baca. Torrez said he expected Baca to claim self defense in the case." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (13)
It's only early Friday, but this looks like a strong contender for stupidest idea of the week, from the always-strange Marco Rubio, commenting on Bolton's book-like assertions:
“You’re not there, you don’t know,” he said. “It’s a book. People write things in books, but how are we, if you’re not physically there to hear and see it, how can you possibly opine on something [if] you weren’t there?”
If true, this concept could put the Senate, the House, the Supreme Court, all newspapers, all historians, all courts ... heck, everything ... right out of business. What will I do with all those books?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3FPleejIEg
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/russia-ukraine-china-bolton-account-highlights-pattern-of-trump-welcoming-foreign-political-help/2020/06/18/90c6675c-b183-11ea-856d-5054296735e5_story.html
@Patrick: A very Trumpy idea, akin to the notion that if I don't know it, then nobody else knows its. Ergo, nobody ever heard of Juneteenth, nobody knew Lincoln was a Republican, nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated, nobody ever heard of Osama bin Laden before 9/11, nobody ever heard of an executive order, etc.
Your own experiences determine reality. As for Marco, nearly every damned time he expresses an opinion on some event, others should ask, "How can you possibly opine on something [if] you weren’t there?"
CAPTAIN QUEEG IS ALIVE AND WELL:
I have spent almost an hour reading the WSJ's transcript of the interview with Trump. I had to take breaks because my breathing was beginning to falter and the "Oh, my gods" coming out of my mouth scared away the birds. Below is just one example of the demented word salad that was on display in this soft-ball question and answer charade otherwise known as an interview.
"Mr. Bender: Some people wondered why some of the black supporters didn’t walk over to St. John’s with you, or why they haven’t been to many events.
Mr. Trump: Because they weren’t here. I just made that decision very quickly. I’m the only man that can walk three blocks—in danger—can walk three blocks, hold up a Bible in front of a church that protesters just burned the hell out of and get bad publicity. I’m the only person that’s capable of doing that. Think of what I did. I made a speech which people thought was a good speech. I then walked across the street. Not across the street, I walked a long distance away. It’s like a three block walk. And there is danger, because of buildings. I’m not saying there is danger with the protesters, because the Secret Service had that in very good shape. We had no problem. But this danger from above right? I walked three blocks, go to a church that had just suffered a major fire that was built at the same time as the White House. So very important. John Adams was the first parishioner. Was he the fifth or sixth? Whatever. You’ll figure it out. First supporter. First parishioner. I hold up a Bible in front of the church that just got burned badly the night before, and I got bad publicity than me"
A consistent theme that runs through this man's playbook, right from the beginning, is the need to "best" everyone and everything. We have been experiencing in living color, a mentally disturbed human being playing the role of the President of the U.S. and to date, nothing and no one has stopped him.
Bea: Not only does one's own experience determine reality, but one has not yet grasped the idea of object permanence.
Like, the virus is gone if I'm not sick.
Peek-a-boo, it's back. Now you're dead. Surprise!
About 37% of the country seems to have this problem.
Maybe another way of describing the epistemological nightmare we're living in would be to say that Republicans must necessarily reject objective reality or they could not remain Republicans.
In yesterday's WAPO Michael Gerson had another of his anti-Trump apologias in which he said when the Republican Party rids itself of the "erratic" Pretender, maybe it can revisit and refine what it really stands for....as if the current state of Republicanism were all the Pretender's fault and without him the party might become more palatable. I notice he did not say realistic.
But without the Pretender, what's left?
Their belief system, which can be summarized thusly:
Racism is a public good.
Environmental destruction makes the world a better place.
The more advanced firearms people have in their homes, the safer we all are.
Voter suppression strengthens democracy.
Unregulated capitalism distributes resources fairly.
A few wealthy self-serving white men operating in total secret provide the best possible government.
Science, like religion, is a matter of belief.*
Only if all these propositions are true can Republicans, top to bottom, face reality.
If they are not, obfuscation, self inflicted delusion, and denial are the only alternatives left to them. That cannot change.
*Though it would seem if science is just another religion, the Pretender should have held up both the Bible and The Origin of Species in his recent botched photo-op, just like Clarence Darrow did in the final scene of "Inherit the Wind."
The whole idea about something not being real (Or even in existence) if you can’t see it, is typically worked out just past infancy.
Child psychologists have done numerous tests on babies and very young children to see at what point they understand that when you play peek-a-boo with mommy and daddy, they don’t really disappear when you cover your eyes. I could be off on the exact age, but usually around a year old, babies realize that the jellybean is still under the cup even if you can’t see it.
Hopefully Little Marco will celebrate his first birthday soon. 🤡 🎉
Fatty is permanently mired in infancy 🍼. No hope there.
As for Fatty making Juneteenth famous, I’ll go along with that. He made it more famous by planning to hold a white supremacist rally to counter a day commemorating the end of slavery (at least one form of it). Hooray for Massa Donald!
Goofy Gaetz:
Everett Electric (I know him well) commented on the WAPO account of the incident:
"If anyone listened to the exchange between the congressmen, he or she would know Gaetz' "son's" DNA has nothing to do with the point Congressman Richmond was making.
It was about what the committee was going to do about police brutality toward blacks, not about who slept with whom and who fathered which child.
Gaetz, who apparently learned his politics at Trump's knee, just wanted a distraction. Much better to distract than actually admit, face and deal with a problem.
Gaetz is a good Trump lackey but a lousy congressman."
And Everett (and I) have learned from one of the other WAPO comments that Nestor is NOT Gaetz' son. He is the son of one of Gaetz' girlfriends and has a biological father whom Nextor lived with during his junior and senior years in high school.
Definitely booby hatch time for the whole bunch of 'em.
Lock him up.
Michael Harriot in The Root writes a very enlightening piece on Sen Tim Scott’s policing reform proposal compared to that of the Dems. It definitely made me take a closer look at my assumptions. I follow him @Michaelharriot. This piece is worth your time.
https://bit.ly/2AUqTln
When Anon says a link is worth your time, I oblige. And yes, indeed, quite an interesting piece.. I'm still wondering, though, why Tim Scott was always standing next to Fatty smiling from ear to ear and during hearings lapping up the Republican fairy tales. Never could figure that out.
Hmmmm, his 37%. Hard wired? I recall a poll, maybe in the '70's, during a teaching-of-evolution kerfuffle, found that 37% of Americans believed the earth to be 6000 y/o. Le plus ca..............
So Happy Kimmel’s Been Called Out
I’ve only twice ever experienced his “humor” - as a captive in others’ livingrooms - and those two times were more than sufficient.
#1) Child Abuse:
He filmed very young children telling him what they wanted for Christmas. The consenting “adults” played along with Kimmel. (Hey - My kid’s gonna be on teevee!) The children were then filmed on Christmas Day opening up their “gag” (indeed!) gifts. Instead of the what the children anticipated, they were handed (these exact items, or ones of equal “value”) brown paper bags containing a half-eaten chicken leg or a rotting peanut butter sandwich. The parents behaved as if all was normal (“Sweetheart. Don’t you like your gift?”) And each child’s confused and disappointed (devastated?) face was filmed. Jimbo and audience laughed. I cried for those children.
2) African-American Hair:
The entire skit was so repellent, I can only recall the “punchline”: An African American woman’s wig was yanked off of her head. She’s left screaming in horror, trying to cover her scalp with her hands while desperate to retrieve the wig. Bigtime yucks from all.
Note to Jimbo:
ONE *NEVER* MESSES WITH A BLACK WOMAN’S HAIR!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2020/06/19/juneteenth-official-holiday-americans-harris-poll/3221973001/
Though the calendar doesn't cooperate, would be nice to schedule a "Juneteenth" national holiday in November, the first of second Tuesday thereof.
Call it a moved and movable feast.