The Ledes

Friday, October 11, 2024

Washington Post: “Floridians began returning to damaged and waterlogged homes on Thursday after Hurricane Milton carved a path of destruction and grief across the state, the second massive storm to strike Florida in as many weeks. At least 14 storm-related deaths were attributed to the hurricane, which made landfall south of Sarasota at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, officials said. Six of them were killed when two tornadoes touched down ahead of the storm in St. Lucie County on Florida’s central Atlantic coast. The deadly tornadoes, rising waters, torrential rain and punishing winds battered the state from coast to coast as Milton churned eastward before heading out to sea early Thursday.”

Washington Post: “Twelve people were rescued from an inactive Colorado gold mine after they were trapped 1,000 feet underground for about six hours following an elevator malfunction. One person was killed in the accident, which happened about 500 feet underground at the Mollie Kathleen Gold Mine near Cripple Creek, Colo., Teller County Sheriff Jason Mikesell said at a Thursday news conference. The site is a tourist attraction. Eleven other people aboard the elevator at the time, including two children, were rescued shortly after the mechanical malfunction, which Mikesell said 'created a severe danger for the participants.' He said four suffered minor injuries.... Twelve others in a separate group remained trapped in a mine shaft 1,000 feet underground for several hours after the incident, before they were rescued Thursday evening, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said.”

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The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Jun192020

The Commentariat -- June 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump on Saturday personally fired the United States Attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, whose office has pursued one case after another that has rankled the president and his allies, putting his former personal lawyer in prison and investigating his current one. It was the culmination of an extraordinary clash after years of tension between the White House and New York federal prosecutors. In a letter released by the Justice Department, Attorney General William P. Barr accused of Mr. Berman of choosing 'public spectacle over public service' because he would not voluntarily step down from the position. 'Because you have declared that you have no intention of resigning, I have asked the President to remove you as of today, and he has done so,' the letter read. Mr. Barr said Mr. Berman's top deputy, Audrey Strauss, would become the acting United States Attorney.... Speaking briefly to reporters outside the White House before heading to a campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., Mr. Trump appeared to try to distance himself from the firing. Mr. Trump insisted that he was 'not involved,' despite Mr. Barr's letter, which made clear that Mr. Trump had dismissed Mr. Barr.... In a statement released Saturday evening, Mr. Berman said he would step down immediately in light of Mr. Barr's 'decision to respect the normal operation of law' in replacing him with Ms. Strauss." Emphasis added.

Donald Judd of CNN: "The Trump campaign confirmed six staffers working on the Tulsa rally tested positive for coronavirus."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... John R. Bolton can go forward with the publication of his memoir, a federal judge ruled on Saturday, rejecting the administration's request for an order that he try to pull the book back and saying it was too late for such an order to succeed. 'With hundreds of thousands of copies around the globe -- many in newsrooms -- the damage is done. There is no restoring the status quo,' wrote Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia. But in a 10-page opinion, Judge Lamberth also suggested that Mr. Bolton may be in jeopardy of forfeiting his $2 million advance, as the Justice Department has separately requested -- and that he could be prosecuted for allowing the book to be published before receiving final notice that a prepublication review to scrub out classified information was complete.... The judge wrote that after viewing classified declarations and discussing them in the closed hearing, he was 'persuaded that defendant Bolton likely jeopardized national security by disclosing classified information in violation of his nondisclosure agreement obligations.'... Judge Lamberth will also oversee the part of the lawsuit that seeks to seize Mr. Bolton's proceeds...." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: On the other hand, Bigmouth Donald may have hurt the so-called "Justice" Department's case for clawing back Bolton's profits. As Savage notes, "Mr. Trump has accused Mr. Bolton of lying -- and false information is not classified." ~~~

~~~ Fortunately, Donald Trump accepted the ruling in a mature & circumspect manner: ~~~

~~~ Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump touted a judge's ruling on former national security adviser John Bolton's memoir that allowed the book to proceed with publishing but panned its author as possibly threatening the nation. 'BIG COURT WIN against Bolton. Obviously, with the book already given out and leaked to many people and the media, nothing the highly respected Judge could have done about stopping it...BUT, strong & powerful statements & rulings on MONEY & on BREAKING CLASSIFICATION were made,' Trump tweeted. 'Bolton broke the law and has been called out and rebuked for so doing, with a really big price to pay. He likes dropping bombs on people, and killing them. Now he will have bombs dropped on him!'" Mrs. McC: You may find it odd to characterize a loss as a win, but you're not Donald Trump. And you probably don't have a phalanx of obsequious aides telling you, "You won, Sir. You won!"

The Washington Post's live updates for coronavirus developments Saturday are here. "New daily coronavirus cases in the United States on Friday exceeded 30,000 for the first time in seven weeks as states in the South and West continued to report alarming spikes in new infections.... The last time new daily cases in the United States topped 30,000 was on May 1...." The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here.

Kaelan Deese of the Hill: "The Trump Death Clock truck moved in to join the camaraderie in Tulsa, Okla. ahead of President Trump's rally there Saturday evening. The truck displays digital statistics on three different faces of the vehicle, delivering a real-time tracker of alleged needless American deaths due to Trump's response to the coronavirus pandemic, The Guardian reported. The mobilized death clock is strategically placed outside of the Bank of Oklahoma (BOK) Center, where Trump's rally is scheduled for at 7 p.m. CT Saturday. Eugene Jarecki, an award-winning filmmaker, is the administer behind the clock, and said the truck's presence in Tulsa is a public service. 'We want everyone who attends Trump's rally to have an opportunity to make an informed choice based on real numbers,' Jarecki said. webpage, which claims, 'Experts estimate that, had mitigation measures been implemented one week earlier, 60% of American COVID-19 deaths would have been avoided.' The tracker currently suggests around 71,700 American deaths could have been avoided had the administration acted sooner in response to the pandemic."

~~~~~~~~~~

Fired by Press Release: Your Friday Night News Dump. Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Friday abruptly tried to oust the United States attorney in Manhattan, Geoffrey S. Berman, the powerful federal prosecutor whose office sent President Trump's former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, to prison and who has been investigating Mr. Trump's current personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani. But Mr. Berman said in a statement that he was refusing to leave his position, setting up a crisis within the Justice Department over one of its most prestigious jobs. 'I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position,' Mr. Berman said, adding that he learned that he was 'stepping down' in a press release from the Justice Department. Attorney General William P. Barr's announcement that President Trump was seeking to replace Mr. Berman was made with no notice. Mr. Barr said the president intended to nominate as Mr. Berman's successor Jay Clayton, current chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Barr asked Mr. Berman to resign but he refused so Mr. Barr moved to fire him, according to a person familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump had been discussing removing Mr. Berman for some time with a small group of advisers, the person said. Mr. Berman has taken an aggressive approach in a number of cases that have vexed the Trump administration, from the prosecution and guilty pleas obtained from Mr. Cohen to a broader investigation, growing out of that inquiry, which focused on Mr. Trump's private company and others close to him." Read on. ~~~

~~~ "Friday Night Standoff." Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration announced Friday night that Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman, who has handled a number of investigations involving the president or his campaign, will be leaving that job, though Berman fired back that he hadn't resigned and would stay on to ensure his office's cases proceed unimpeded. The surreal Friday night standoff marks the latest battle over the Trump administration's management of the Justice Department. Democrats have decried what they charge has been the politicization of the department under President Trump and his attorney general, William P. Barr." An NBC News story is here. An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: In a tweet, "House Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY) invited Berman to testify before Congress at a previously scheduled hearing on Wednesday featuring DOJ whistleblowers." ~~~

~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime explains why Barr may not be able to dispatch Berman: 1. Berman said he isn't going anywhere till the Senate confirms a new U.S. attorney. 2. "Berman noted [in a statement last night] that he was appointed to his position by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York not the President. In 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions first appointed Berman as interim SDNY U.S. Attorney. After the 120-day interim stint expired, the court appointed Berman to his current position. Trump never sent Berman's nomination to the Senate. The April 2018 court order said that Berman was appointed U.S. Attorney 'unless the President of the United States nominates and the Senate confirms a United States Attorney for this district [...]'.... [However,] NYU Law Professor Ryan Goodman pointed to the United States v. Solomon case, which happens to have been decided in the SDNY. That decision noted that 'the President may, at any time, remove the judicially appointed United States Attorney, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 504 [...] regardless of the nature of his appointment.'"


Justin Moyer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Demonstrators spread across Washington[, D.C.,] on Friday to celebrate the death of slavery 155 years ago and continue the national street crusade against the racial oppression that pervades the country today.... By late evening, the marches and speeches of the day near Lafayette Square had given way to music and laughter along U Street, making the protests feel more like a street festival.... Around 10 p.m. a small group of protesters scaled the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike near Judiciary Square. They had come prepared with ropes and chains in hopes of toppling the statue, which has long been the site of protests. After more than an hour they succeeded, and then set the statue on fire. Police were nearby but did not intervene.... Celebrations and marches were held in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, in Richmond and Minneapolis.... In Richmond, [Va.,] hundreds of protesters gathered for a candlelight vigil around the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which has been the focus of demonstrations on police brutality. Like the scene in Washington, a diverse group of people danced and sang as they demonstrated."

Oklahoma. 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nikki Carvajal of CNN: "Vice President Mike Pence declined to say the words 'Black lives matter' during an interview with an ABC affiliate in Pennsylvania on Friday, instead saying that 'all lives matter.' The reporters repeatedly asked pence to say "black lives matter," and he repeatedly refused to do so. pence also defended Trump's posting of what was a sweet video which was manipulated to become racist propaganda, claiming it showed that Trump had "a good sense of humor." Mrs. McC: Yeah, ha ha. If the photo that accompanies Carvajal's report is any indication, the reporter who asked pence to say "black lives matter" is black. It takes either a tremendous Fear of Trump and/or fundamental racist bigotry to refuse to tell a black man that his life matters. ~~~

~~~ Oh, and Trump's "good sense of humor" also was a copyright violation: ~~~

~~~ Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Facebook and Twitter on Friday removed a video posted by ... Donald Trump's account that had twisted a viral video of two toddlers after one of the children's parents lodged a copyright claim. The video had more than 4 million views on Facebook ... and more than 20 million views on Twitter ... before it was taken down. The now-removed clip is a crude and misleading edit of a video that went viral last year which shows a Black child and a White child running to hug each other. The version posted to Trump's account made it first appear as if the Black child was running away from the White child. Jukin Media, a company that represents creators of videos including the parent who owns this video, said in a statement..., 'Neither the video owner nor Jukin Media gave the President permission to post the video, and after our review, we believe that his unauthorized usage of the content is a clear example of copyright infringement without valid fair use or other defense.'... Responding to Trump's use of the video, [Michael] Cisneros[, father of one of the toddlers,] wrote in a Facebook post Thursday night [of Trump], 'HE WILL NOT TURN THIS LOVING, BEAUTIFUL VIDEO TO FURTHER HIS HATE AGENDA!! !! !! !!'"

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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump declined on Friday to say he retains full confidence in Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and said Esper and Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley should have been 'proud' to join him on the now-infamous walk across Lafayette Square.... Trump initially said of Esper and Milley, 'I don't think they broke with me' and 'I think they should do what they want to do.' But the president soon pivoted to say, 'I would have handled it differently.' He said he understood that their responses appeared to be prompted by their desire to adhere to 'exact, strict' regulations, but that 'if I were in their position I would have done it somewhat differently. Under regulation, perhaps they're right,' Trump said, but claimed, 'I know the regulation even better than they do. But they also would have been right to say, "We're proud to walk alongside our president and we want our president to be safe."'... Asked whether he considered firing Esper -- as Axios and others reported -- Trump hesitated and chose not to directly deny it. 'I really wasn't focused on it," he replied, "because I have many things that I do focus on very much.'"

** Your Government Is Spying on You. Zolan Kannos-Young of the New York Times: "The Department of Homeland Security deployed helicopters, airplanes and drones over 15 cities where demonstrators gathered to protest the death of George Floyd, logging at least 270 hours of surveillance, far more than previously revealed, according to Customs and Border Protection data. The department's dispatching of unmanned aircraft over protests in Minneapolis last month sparked a congressional inquiry and widespread accusations that the federal agency had infringed on the privacy rights of demonstrators. But that was just one piece of a nationwide operation that deployed resources usually used to patrol the U.S. border for smugglers and illegal crossings. Aircraft filmed demonstrations in Dayton, Ohio; New York City; Buffalo and Philadelphia, among other cities, sending video footage in real time to control centers managed by Air and Marine Operations, a branch of Customs and Border Protection. The footage was then fed into a digital network managed by the Homeland Security Department, called 'Big Pipe,' which can be accessed by other federal agencies and local police departments for use in future investigations, according to senior officials with Air and Marine Operations." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is astounding. The federal government is widely using military-style equipment to spy on Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.

Georgia. Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of pages of personnel records regarding the former [Atlanta police] officer, Garrett Rolfe, [accused of murdering Rayshard Brooks] were made public Friday, including investigations into several misconduct allegations made about him. In what appears to be the most serious misconduct case previously lodged against Rolfe, the former officer was issued a written reprimand for pointing his gun at a fleeing car. The police department's office of professional standards found the September 2016 chase, which hit speeds over 100 miles per hour, violated policy and culminated in unreasonable force against a 15-year-old suspect, who was black. One officer was arrested, while several others faced disciplinary actions. A sergeant retired before the investigation concluded."

Kentucky. 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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Tweet from the Darkest Side. Colby Itkowitz & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday promised to renew his effort to end the Obama-era program that protects undocumented immigrants brought here as children from deportation, a day after the Supreme Court ruled to keep it in place. In a morning tweet, Trump seized on the fact that the 5-4 decision did not address the merits of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA program[)], but rather said that the administration had not provided proper legal justification for ending it. 'The Supreme Court asked us to resubmit on DACA, nothing was lost or won. They "punted," much like in a football game (where hopefully they would stand for our great American Flag). We will be submitting enhanced papers shortly in order to properly fulfil the Supreme Court's ruling & request of yesterday,' Trump wrote." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As I read Trump's tweet, he is promising to ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people in order to save face for losing a Supreme Court case. What a twisted monster. Dorian Gray hid the picture of his real self in the attic; Trump tweets his out nearly every day. ~~~

~~~ Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The DACA decision contained a message threaded through its dry language of administrative procedure -- a warning to the Trump administration not to assume that it gets a free pass, not to take the Supreme Court for granted. 'This is not the case for cutting corners,' the chief justice wrote.... Given the decisions due in the next few weeks on abortion, religion, the president's tax returns and the Electoral College, among other cases, it's too soon to place a label on this pandemic-disrupted Supreme Court term."

Oregon. Thomas Elfrink of the Washington Post: "As hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters marched through Medford, Ore. earlier this month, one driver ... drove steadily into the mass of demonstrators. When one woman stopped to hold up her sign, the bright yellow car struck her with its left bumper and mirror. The woman who was hit now says ... the driver ... was ... Chris Luz -- the mayor ... [of] the neighboring town of Phoenix, Ore." The victim, Mikala Johnston, confronted Luz during a Phoenix city commission meeting. "Medford police have now opened a criminal investigation into the allegation, Sgt. Jason Antley told The Washington Post on Thursday."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Lawyers for the Justice Department and John R. Bolton, President Trump's former national security adviser, clashed on Friday as a federal judge [Royce Lamberth] weighed a Trump administration request to order Mr. Bolton to somehow claw back his memoir even though hundreds of thousands of copies were printed and distributed around the world.... The main elements of the book, an unflattering account of Mr. Trump's conduct in office, have already been widely reported.... The judge opened the hearing with a suggestion that he may be inclined to agree with Mr. Cooper about the request for an order. 'The horse, as we used to say in Texas, seems to be out of the barn,' Judge Lamberth said. But he also will be asked to decide other matters -- like the government's request to seize Mr. Bolton's $2 million advance -- and asked why Mr. Bolton had walked away from the prepublication review and did not tell the government that he had told Simon & Schuster to start printing.... Judge Lamberth made no ruling on the request for a restraining order from the bench, and he said that before making any decision he needed to hold a second, closed-door hearing with only the government to discuss the details of information in the book the administration now says are classified. He held the closed hearing later on Friday -- in person because it involved discussion of classified information -- according to a notation added to the case's electronic docket." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story is here.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "In Friday's New York Times, the paper's White House bureau chief, Peter Baker, tut-tutted the 'normalization' of Donald Trump's presidency -- as if he himself, along with his colleagues, weren't among the people most responsible for it.... [Baker's piece is here, also linked yesterday] Reading, listening to and watching the news coverage of Donald Trump, I am often struck at the lack of context, alarm, and outrage from the mainstream political media. There's an awful lot of stenography and credulousness.... Way too often, especially in his daily articles, Baker has downplayed the profoundly aberrational, deviant nature of the Trump presidency. He has taken what Trump says at face value even when he knows better. He has internalized Trump's framings, refused to call lies lies, and engaged in mind-boggling false equivalence." Mrs. McC: There's an art to reading articles MSM writers like Peter Baker & Dan Balz. You have to look for the things they find remarkable. My commentary on a piece by Baker, for instance, should always begin, "Even Peter Baker says ..." because Peter Baker not only find the most aberrant presidential behavior or remark normal, he tries to normalize it.

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "New details from the Justice Department's inquiry into Russian influence over the 2016 election released on Friday underscored President Trump's keen interest in weaponizing information stolen by the Russians and funneled to WikiLeaks for use against his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton. The new disclosures also emphasized prosecutors' doubts about whether Mr. Trump told them the truth when he was questioned during the two-year investigation by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, into Russian interference in that election and whether the Trump campaign conspired with Moscow to influence its outcome. Over all, however, the new information shed little new light on the special counsel's inquiry that dominated the first two years of Mr. Trump's presidency. It was released in response to a lawsuit claiming that the Justice Department's redactions of sensitive information in the Mueller report violated the Freedom of Information Act." ~~~

~~~ Jason Leopold, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "Donald Trump was told in advance that Wikileaks would be releasing documents embarrassing to the Clinton campaign and subsequently informed advisors that he expected more releases would be coming, according to newly unredacted portions of special counsel Robert Mueller's report into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. In July 2016, political consultant Roger Stone told Trump as well as several campaign advisors that he had spoken with Julian Assange and that WikiLeaks would be publishing the documents in a matter of days.... The new revelations are the strongest indication to date that Trump and his closest advisors were aware of outside efforts to hurt Clinton's electoral chances, and that Stone played a direct role in communicating that situation to the Trump campaign. Trump has publicly denied being aware of any information being relayed between WikiLeaks and his advisors." ~~~

~~~ Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Robert Mueller examined whether ... Donald Trump lied to him in written answers during the Russia investigation, a possibility House Democrats have said they continue to look into even after Trump's impeachment. With fresh detail, the special counsel's investigation also documented how several Trump campaign officials heard from the then-candidate abou WikiLeaks releases that ultimately helped his campaign, a new version of the Mueller report said on Friday.... 'According to multiple witnesses involved with the Campaign, beginning in June 2016 and continuing through October 2016, [Roger] Stone spoke about WikiLeaks with senior Campaign officials, including candidate Trump,' Mueller wrote.... 'No wonder they kept this hidden,' Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff ... tweeted Friday night." ~~~

     ~~~ A Whopping Benefit of the Doubt. Mrs. McCrabbie: Mueller apparently decided that "I forgot" was a plausible excuse for Trump's lying in his written responses, just as comedian Steve Martin explained to the IRS his failure to pay taxes on a million dollars. Martin's "I forgot" was a joke. But in a real case, Mueller decided to credit Trump with forgetfulness and let him get away with a lie in an answer made under oath.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Are You Ready for Some Football? Max Cohen of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday rebuked his administration's top infectious disease expert, rejecting Dr. Anthony Fauci's warning that the ongoing coronavirus pandemic could keep football from returning this fall. 'Tony Fauci has nothing to do with NFL Football,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'They are planning a very safe and controlled opening.'... 'Unless players are essentially in a bubble -- insulated from the community and they are tested nearly every day -- it would be very hard to see how football is able to be played this fall,' Fauci told CNN's Sanjay Gupta on Thursday. 'If there is a second wave, which is certainly a possibility and which would be complicated by the predictable flu season, football may not happen this year.'" More on Trump's rejection of Fauci's advice linked under "Presidential Race."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Aaron Gregg & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Small Business Administration and Treasury Department announced Friday that they would release a data set showing which businesses received many taxpayer-funded Paycheck Protection Program loans, walking back an earlier stance that all of the business names would remain hidden because the Trump administration considered them proprietary. The disclosures will include the names of recipients who received loans of more than $150,000 and it will also reveal a dollar range for each loan.... The announcement came after several weeks of tense negotiations with congressional leadership, in which members of both parties pressed for some form of disclosure. The plan announced Friday amounts to an attempted compromise.... It was the Trump administration's latest reversal on the matter. The SBA said in response to open records requests throughout April and May that it would release 'individual loan data' in accordance with its past practice for subsidized loans. But [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin claimed in a June 11 hearing before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship that the business names and loan amounts were considered confidential and therefore would not be disclosed."

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.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "Navy Capt. Brett Crozier has been vindicated after warning of a dire coronavirus outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt -- just not by the Navy, which on Friday announced that it will not reverse Crozier' firing for the infraction of trying to save his sailors' lives. Instead, the Navy leadership implied that Crozier was responsible for the outbreak that he loudly warned he needed urgent help from the Navy to redress.... A final report into Crozier's firing, released Friday, accused the Roosevelt commander and his team of being 'biased by groupthink, emotion and a loss of perspective as to the real risk at hand' -- as well as an insufficient appreciation of how the fleet commander was working tirelessly to aid evacuation from the ship, something Crozier had challenged. The report ... levied the extraordinary claim that Crozier's team 'took little to no action within their own span of control to improve the crew's safety.'... [Crozier's firing] was a debacle for the Navy. An initial outbreak afflicting around 100 sailors among the 4,000-strong crew ultimately swelled to 1,273 -- including Crozier himself."

Florida. Michelle Marchante of the Miami Herald: "Florida's Department of Health on Friday morning confirmed 3,822 additional cases of COVID-19, setting another daily total record high since the start of the pandemic. The state now has a total of 89,748 confirmed cases. And as bars, gyms, vacation rentals and movie theaters reopened at partial capacity in all but three South Florida counties, the number and rate of new COVID-19 cases were rising statewide -- a troubling indicator that the disease could be spreading more quickly." ~~~

~~~ Gov. Ron DeSantis is not about to blame people enjoying Florida's recreational amenities -- bars, vacation spots, movie theatres, etc., for the uptick in coronavirus cases: ~~~

~~~ Amanda Woods of the New York Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis pointed to clusters of 'overwhelmingly Hispanic' day laborers and agriculture workers driving the state's recent coronavirus spike -- but farmworkers and industry associations argue that resources and testing came too late to those communities, according to new reports. The Republican governor told reporters Tuesday that cramped living and working conditions for migrant workers and Hispanic construction workers are partly to blame, according to WFOR-TV. 'Some of these guys go to work in a school bus, and they are all just packed there like sardines, going across Palm Beach County or some of these other places, and there's all these opportunities to have transmission,' DeSantis said during a press conference in Tallahassee. He pointed to cases in migrant camps, a watermelon farm and Immokalee, a major hub for tomato production, as evidence of the uptick. But Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried argued that the majority of farmworkers left several weeks ago after harvests ended and that the real uptick is in non-agricultural areas, according to the Miami Herald." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So Ron's message to Americans is a kind of tourist boosterism laced with overt racism & classism. To nice, middle-income (mostly white) people: come to Florida, have fun, enjoy the beaches, lie in the sun, chill out in a cool movie theatre and stop in a bar. Unless you're a Hispanic tomato-picker who likes riding around sardine-style in old school busses, you won't get sick.

Presidential Race

Monica Alba, et al., of NBC News: "Leading members of the coronavirus task force warned White House officials about the health risks of holding large-scale indoor campaign rallies and advised against such mass gatherings, according to two people familiar with the discussions. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, and task force response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx both vocalized concerns internally in the last week about the safety of holding a rally on Saturday with as many as 19,000 people in an enclosed arena in Tulsa, Oklahoma.... It has been nearly two months since the last coronavirus task force briefing and four weeks since Birx answered questions about the coronavirus pandemic from the White House briefing room.... Asked whether the [task force] briefings will ever return, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Friday it was unlikely and that instead she will be the one to present new information after consulting with Birx." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's really unfair for reporters to claim that Trump & pence pay no attention to their own task force medical advisors. After all, Trump has required attendees at his Tulsa rally to hold him & his campaign harmless when said Trumpbots contract the coronavirus at the rally. However, in the weeks to come, many people may contract the virus in contacts with rally-goers, and those new victims of the Trumpidemic will not have signed any waivers.

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "President Trump defended his decision to move ahead with a controversial large-scale Tulsa rally this weekend amid the pandemic, saying in an interview Friday with Axios that 'we have to get back to living our lives" and "we're going to have a wild evening tomorrow night at Oklahoma.' Pressed on why he wasn't using his presidential bully pulpit to encourage rally attendees to wear masks, Trump described masks as 'a double-edged sword.' When asked if he recommended people wear them, he added: 'I recommend people do what they want.'... Ahead of the rally expected to draw tens of thousands of supporters and protesters, the president's comments underscore his skepticism of the effectiveness of strict enforcement of masks and social distancing to combat the virus that has killed more than 118,000 Americans and devastated the U.S. economy. And his advice flies in the face of warnings from Trump's own government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci."

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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how Trump threatens protesters exercising their First Amendment rights & lumps them in with "anarchists, agitators, looters [and] lowlifes." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Barbara Sprunt of NPR: "The city [of Tulsa] was originally intended to be under curfew for the weekend, but it was lifted at the request of the Secret Service, according to a city press release. 'Last night, I enacted a curfew at the request of Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, following consultation with the United States Secret Service based on intelligence they had received,' Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement. 'Today, we were told the curfew is no longer necessary so I am rescinding it.'"

~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

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." (Also linked yesterday.)

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Arden Farhi, et al., of CBS News: "Brad Parscale, Donald Trump's campaign manager, did not vote for President Trump in 2016. In fact, he didn't vote in the general election at all, according to election records obtained by CBS News.... He did cast a ballot in the 2012 and 2018 federal elections. And his 2018 vote was submitted by mail. 'In 2016, I was in New York working to elect Donald Trump and encountered a series of problems receiving my absentee ballot from Texas and missed the deadline,' Parscale said in a statement to CBS News. 'Just further proof that vote-by-mail is not the flawless solution Democrats and the media pretend it is.'" Mrs. McC: No, it's evidence either that (1) you couldn't get your act together to properly request an absentee ballot, OR (2) Texas needs to improve its absentee-ballot request system. Jerk.

Kentucky Senate Race. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "With just over a week until the Democratic primary, the fury in Kentucky over [Breonna] Taylor's death, uncertainty about voting in a pandemic and a host of late endorsements from progressive leaders have provided fresh momentum to [state Rep. Charles] Booker's candidacy [for the U.S. Senate] -- upending a nominating contest few in the national party were even following last month. Polls indicate Mr. Booker is closing the gap against [heavy favorite Amy] McGrath, even though she had raised nearly $41 million to his $788,000 as of the start of the month. In just a few weeks since then, though, he has raised almost $3 million.... An unabashed progressive, Mr. Booker is running on 'Medicare for all' and the Green New Deal.... Kentucky ... amounts to something of a dry run for the left, a test of whether grass-roots energy can overcome fearsome fund-raising, and whether [Chuck] Schumer's ability to keep coronating candidates from Washington can be sustained...." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "Fewer than 200 polling places will be open for voters in Kentucky's primary Tuesday, down from 3,700 in a typical election year. Amid a huge influx in requests for mail-in ballots, some voters still had not received theirs days before they must be turned in. And turnout is expected to be higher than in past primaries because of a suddenly competitive fight for the Democratic Senate nomination.... Because of a shortage of workers willing to staff voting sites during the health crisis, each of the commonwealth's 120 counties is opening a very limited number of polling locations. The two largest counties will have just one in-person location each." Mrs. McC: But another looming voting disaster in the backward, third-world nation known as the USA.


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." (Also linked yesterday.) Here's the committee-room exchange:

~~~ Happy Father's Day, Matt! Mrs. McCrabbie: As is often the case with Gaetz, the story of his relationship with Nestor is not exactly what he claimed. Ken W. made a comment in yesterday's thread that forced me to look a teensy bit further into the "reason" for Gaetz's manufactured outrage we hear in the clip above. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Navarro of CBS News: "In a tweet featuring a picture of him and Nestor Galban, whom he calls his son, Gaetz said, "We share no blood but he is my life. He came from Cuba (legally, of course) six years ago and lives with me in Florida...," he said.... He added that Galban arrived to America when he was 12 years old and is now 19.... In an interview with People, Gaetz said Galban has been living with him for most of the time he's been in the U.S., about four years, before he went to Miami to live with his biological father.... Gaetz has not formally adopted Galban.... Jose Felix Diaz, a former state legislator who served with Gaetz, tweeted that the congressman had dated Galban's sister." Gaetz has previously referred to Nestor as "a House page." Mrs. McC: IOW, Gaetz used his relationship with a young man to grandstand in a very public forum. Pretty disgusting.

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (12)

Rt's new and improved--as in presumably more accurate--algorithm now (6-19) has 26 states in the red 1.0 or higher category.

We're batting over 500! Great time for a rally.

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Donnie Trumpy, King of HR Directors !

HR directors, in their capacity of finding, hiring, and overseeing the training and ongoing management of personnel, provide a vital service to their respective operations, whether working in industry, banking, hospitals, public safety, or...government. Getting the right people for the job, training them, and making sure to retain the best people are essential tasks in the ongoing success of any business.

Or not.

HR Director Trumpy promised, with his usual level of humility and honesty, that he was the greatest in the world at hiring talent, “all the best people” he usedta say. Each new hire in the Fatty Administration was accompanied by great fanfare and epic encomiums. “Oh, yes! This person is the absolute tops in his or her (mostly hises) field. Even if they’ve never spent a millisecond working in that field. All the best.

But soon “all the best” start lining their pockets. Giving sweetheart deals worth millions in taxpayer payouts to their stunningly unqualified buddies, they spend $670,000 to take a private jet (or commandeer military jets) to fly to self promoting events where they stay in nine star hotels and feast on ambrosia from the gods costing hundreds of dollars for each spoonful. Eventually they are forced to resign for being greedy, inept con artists, or if they are one of the 56 press secretaries, lie so transparently that they can only find work on Dancing With the Stars, or Fox, which is all the dancing but none of the stars.

In HR Director Trumpy’s favor, not all of his hires end up under investigation, indicted, jailed, forced out, or fired by tweet. Just most of them. Suddenly, these sterling individuals are “losers”, “liars”, “the worst!”

That’s some HR resume there, Director Trumpy.

How would this sort of hiring record fare in other businesses?

Fire departments couldn’t put out a fire. At the firehouse.

Automobile plants would turn out cars with no engines and square wheels.

Railroads would run backwards.

Hairdressing establishments would send patrons out the door bleeding, with concentration camp hairdos.

Restaurants would specialize in ptomaine.

An airline would blow its entire budget installing gold toilet seats with the owner’s giant initials printed on linen toilet paper, and go out of business after six months. (Oh, wait...)

The Justice Department would go after the good guys and give the bad guys medals.

Law enforcement would use chemical tear gas—deemed illegal for use on a battlefield—against peaceful citizens so a fat clown could take a stroll across the street.

The Department of Interior would destroy public lands, the ones they didn’t try to sell to cronies.

The Defense Department would be more concerned about picking up dry cleaning than protecting the nation.

And “all the best people“, the ones not in prison or headed there, would be replaced every month or so by a band of increasingly incompetent morons, self promoters, and carny con men.

Donnie Trumpy: personnel genius. No, no...STABLE personnel genius.

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: As it turns out, Mick Mulvaney -- former Trump acting chief-of-staff, now relegated to a northern corner of a northern European island -- agrees with you: “'If there was one criticism that I would level against the president, [it] is that he didn’t hire very well. He did not have experience at running government and didn’t know how to put together a team that could work well with him,' Mulvaney, now the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, told CNN’s 'New Day.'”

June 20, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Here is an extraordinary piece by Jeff Sharlet at Vanity Fair. He goes inside the cult of Trump–-interviews countless rally renegades whose minds are filled with conspiracy theories that are so sick and demented that it shocks. The photos that accompany this article are graphic and alarming. Jeff weaves a religious cloak around these rallies that he likens to the Church and Trump is the Gospel. "I am the chosen one" he claimed; some thought he was joking––he wasn't.

Here's a taste:

"Trump invokes a personal trinity: his father, Fred, who taught him strength; his mentor, the red hunting Mafia lawyer, Roy Cohn, who taught him cunning; and his childhood pastor,...Norman Vincent Peale... Quid pro quo––a deal with God [believe in Him and power shall be yours]––Trump's campaign channeled a convergence of conservatisms."

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/06/inside-the-cult-of-trump-his-rallies-are-church-and-he-is-the-gospel

And tonight he once again will put people in harm's way but believes the sway he has over "his people" will protect them––he and they in the big bubble of B.S. whose smell corresponds to its messages.

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

P.S. forgot to add the triad's gifts to Fatty:

"Fred Trump's brutality, Cohn's corruption, and the cross wrapped in a flag preached by Peale."

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterPD Pepe

@PD Pepe: Yeah I'm waiting for a new DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to come out that lists Trumpism as a mental disorder.

June 20, 2020 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@PD Pepe. The Sharlet article was so disturbing. It was horrifying to realize there are more than 2-3 people who are so damaged that they find a Messiah in Trump's sadistic, vile cult. Sharlet has a gift for staring such soul wrenching crazy right in the face and making you feel the perversion. The photos are quite disturbing, the definition of madness. Its not anger or hate you feel for these people, its a terrible sadness.

Sharlet's book "The Family" (2008) is about the C Street group of Congressmen / Senators and beyond that were / are part of that cult. They were behind the annual "Prayer Breakfast" that is mandatory attendance for presidents. I've always found it disgusting and anti-American. In 2019, Netflix released a 5 part documentary on the "Family", that includes but goes beyond the legislators' membership. Its based on a lot of Sharlet's work, but not exclusively. It's interesting, I watched it over several days.

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterAnonymous

Is Agent Orange, the "square wheel" president, or the president for all the square wheels? The imagery works. Regarding the DSM for Orange Turd: I've long thought he was at the very least severely dyslexic. ADHD, too. Like everything he does, he throws shade on all the good people with those two conditions. Few of those reading and attention challenged people are as incurious and mean spirited, however. What can you say about a guy who makes Shrub Bush look 'smarter'?

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

Lessee here: Barr announces Berman is retiring. Berman says "I'm not retiring". Barr says Trump has fired Berman. Trump says "I'm not involved". Is this merely a clusterbump or does it rate clusterbump on roller skates staus?

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterBobby Lee

Jimmy Kimmel video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eY8GGBYvNDw. Cringe-worth, definately. Reminds me of Al Franken. After Amy Klobuchar as the Hennipen county attorney, I think care has to be taken judging these people. Amy, Al, and Jimmy are or were all in the public arena and more or less forward thinking. Kamala was hanging with Willie Brown before she made it and more than 30 years older. Simply put, everyone has a past and things they'd like to redo.

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered Commentercitizen625

"Make my day," said the tough cop with the big gun.

This report made mine:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/20/us/trump-rally-tulsa.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

June 20, 2020 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

SSOS* returns the the WH

*sad sack of shit

June 21, 2020 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed
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