The Commentariat -- June 23, 2020

Kendall Karson of ABC News: "Just two weeks after Georgia's messy day at the polls, another six states are testing the waters of voting during the coronavirus crisis on Tuesday in the final stretch of the primary season. Among the six, two are drawing outsize attention -- Kentucky and New York -- where a competitive Senate Democratic primary to take on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a handful of congressional races are expected to be settled, but likely not on election night -- further fueling trepidations for the fall. Virginia, Mississippi, South Carolina and North Carolina are holding statewide races and primary runoffs."

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.

** USA = Shithole Country. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "European Union countries rushing to revive their economies and reopen their borders after months of coronavirus restrictions are prepared to block Americans from entering because the United States has failed to control the scourge, according to draft lists of acceptable travelers seen by The New York Times. That prospect, which would lump American visitors in with Russians and Brazilians as unwelcome, is a stinging blow to American prestige in the world and a repudiation of President Trump's handling of the virus in the United States, which has more than 2.3 million cases and upward of 120,000 deaths, more than any other country."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday insisted he was serious when he revealed that he had directed his administration to slow coronavirus testing in the United States, shattering the defenses of senior White House aides who argued Trump's remarks were made in jest. 'I don't kid. Let me just tell you. Let me make it clear,' Trump told reporters, when pressed on whether his comments at a campaign event Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., were intended as a joke." ~~~

~~~ This Was a Big Fat Lie, Because ... Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The government's top infectious disease expert told a House hearing Tuesday that he and other health officials have not been told to slow coronavirus testing, just hours after ... Donald Trump again suggested he had asked for fewer tests. Anthony Fauci ... told the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the administration continues to focus on scaling up testing capacity and that, to his knowledge, none of the White House coronavirus task force members had been told to do otherwise. 'It's the opposite,' Fauci said in response to a question referencing Trump's remarks. 'We're going to be doing more testing, not less.'"

In Search of a Scapegoat. Nancy Cook & Adam Cancryn of Politico: "White House officials are putting a target on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, positionin the agency as a coronavirus scapegoat as cases surge in many states and the U.S. falls behind other nations that are taming the pandemic. Trump administration aides in recent weeks have seriously discussed launching an in-depth evaluation of the agency to chart what they view as its missteps in responding to the pandemic including an early failure to deploy working test kits, according to four senior administration officials.... Aides have also discussed narrowing the mission of the agency or trying to embed more political appointees in it.... Politically, Trump aides have also been looking for a person or entity outside China to blame for the coronavirus response and have grown furious with the CDC...."

D'Angelo Gore of FactCheck.Org: "Contrary to President Donald Trump's repeated claims that he inherited a Strategic National Stockpile with 'empty' or 'bare' cupboards, the federal government had more ventilators in stock than it ended up distributing amid the COVID-19 pandemic, FactCheck.org has learned. The SNS had 16,660 ventilators 'immediately available for use' when the federal government began deploying the breathing machines to states to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients in March, according to a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson. None of those ventilators was bought by the Trump administration, the spokesperson told us. In a separate email to us on June 17, another HHS spokesperson said the federal government has distributed 10,640 ventilators during the pandemic." --s

Karoun Demirjian & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "The House Judiciary Committee is preparing to subpoena Attorney General William P. Barr to testify before the panel early next month, setting up the latest showdown between congressional Democrats and the Trump administration over its handling of the Justice Department. Panel Democrats want Barr to testify on July 2 as part of a broader investigation into what they warn is dangerous politicization at the agency, where they charge that Barr has been perverting traditional judicial independence to cater to the president's political interests....It is unclear if Barr will comply with any subpoena.

Mack Burke of the Commercial Observer: "The massive retail condominium owned by Kushner Companies at 229 West 43rd Street in Midtown Manhattan is headed for a Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) foreclosure auction scheduled for June 30[.]" --s ~~~

~~~ Wendy Siegelman in Medium (Dec 2017): "The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Federal prosecutors in New York are looking at the loan made by Deutsche Bank to Jared Kushner's real estate company a month prior to the 2016 election related to the deal with [Soviet-born oligarch Lev] Leviev. The New York Times also reported on Friday about the subpoena issued out of the Eastern District of New York. The Brooklyn U.S. attorney's office sent a request mid-November to Kushner Companies for information related to a $285 million Deutsche Bank loan which was used to refinance the purchase of retail space at 229 West 43rd Street in the old New York Times Building." --s

Bible Boy. Pranshu Verma of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an evangelical Christian, created a commission last July to provide a new vision for human rights policy that would more closely align with the 'nation's founding principles' and uphold religious freedom as America's most fundamental value. Human rights scholars have criticized the panel, saying it is filled with conservatives intent on promoting views against abortion and marriage equality. Critics also warn the commission sidesteps the State Department's internal bureau tasked with promoting human rights abroad. And former agency officials caution that elevating the importance of religion could reverse the country's longstanding belief that 'all rights are created equal' -- and embolden countries that persecute same-sex couples or deny women access to reproductive health services for religious reasons."

Juan Cole: "As if the coronavirus pandemic, depression-era unemployment, and Mad President in the White House were not enough, Mother Nature has decided to remind us what the Big Kahuna really is. It is the climate emergency.... The small Siberian town of Verkhoyansk had a temperature of 100.4° F. on Sunday, something that has never happened since Thomas Edison's incandescent light bulb was first used outside in 1880, and likely hasn't happened for millions of years. AP reports that 680,000 acres are on fire. In.The.Arctic. These fires are not just a summer phenomenon, and are being called 'Zombie fires' because they have kept being rekindled since last winter." --s

~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. "As the coronavirus spreads at record speeds around the world, the United States accounted for 20 percent of all the new infections worldwide on Sunday, according to New York Times data, even as the country's population makes up about 4.3 percent of the world's." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here. "Twenty-nine states and U.S. territories showed an increase in their seven-day average of new reported cases on Monday, with nine states reporting record average highs. In the states where cases are spiking the most, hospitalizations are also rising sharply. More than 2,290,000 cases and 118,000 deaths have been officially reported in the United States."

Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "After months of lockdown in which outbreaks of the coronavirus often centered in nursing homes, prisons and meatpacking plants, the nation is entering a new and uncertain phase of the pandemic. New Covid-19 clusters have been found in a Pentecostal church in Oregon, a strip club in Wisconsin and in every imaginable place in between.... The newly emerging clusters -- which vary in size from a handful of cases to hundreds and have cropped up in large cities as well as small towns -- reflect the unpredictable course of the coronavirus. They also underscore risks that experts say are likely to persist as long as states try to reopen economies and Americans venture back into public without a vaccine. New known virus cases were on the rise in 23 states on Monday as the outlook worsened across much of the nation's South and West."

Putting Our Money Where His Mouth Is -- In a Hidey-hole. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "The Trump administration has been sitting on nearly $14 billion in funding that Congress passed for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, according to Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington. The top Democrats said in a letter Sunday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that ... Congress passed these funds as part of a coronavirus relief bill in April.... Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters at his first campaign rally in months Saturday that he wanted to slow down testing for the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jessie Hellmann & Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday refused to say whether he told staff to slow down COVID-19 testing to make it look like the U.S. had fewer cases, while White House officials denied he had ever given such an order. Trump has been blaming rising case numbers of coronavirus in the U.S. on increased testing, arguing the country has been doing 'too good a job.'... Trump generated outrage this weekend when he said at his first campaign rally in months that he told staff to 'slow the testing down, please.' Trump aides later said his comments were a joke." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ No, Trump Was Not "Just Kidding" about Reducing Testing. Steve Benen of MSNBC elaborates: The "White House quickly insisted ... that Trump was simply kidding during an unscripted moment [when he said he had told his staff to slow down testing].... CBS News reported that Vice President Mike Pence spoke to a group of governors [Monday] morning and said Trump's comments about slowing down testing were merely 'a passing observation,' but not necessarily meant in jest. Soon after..., [Trump said,] 'Uhh, if it did slow down, frankly, I think we're way ahead of ourselves if you want to know the truth. We've done too good a job.'... [That is,] the president [said] ... quite seriously that he sees value in having his administration do less testing, even as the number of coronavirus cases in the United States climbs higher."

Shannon Pettypiece & Monica Alba of NBC News: "The White House has stopped conducting mandatory temperature checks for all staffers and visitors entering the grounds, removing another layer of safeguards put in place after two officials became ill with the coronavirus last month. While those who come in close contact with the president and vice president are still having their temperature checked and being questioned about symptoms, the steps are no longer being taken for others who enter the White House campus, said spokesman Judd Deere. Tents that had been manned for the past month by staffers with thermometers were being taken down on Monday.... The White House had already stopped requiring all staffers in the West Wing to wear masks.... The move comes after the virus once again touched on Trump's orbit last week when six staffers preparing for his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, tested positive for the coronavirus." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: @3:40 pm ET, NBC News is reporting that two more members of Trump's Tulsa advance team have tested positive for coronavirus. @4:05 pm ET, CNN reported that the two staffers attended the rally "but were wearing masks." CNN also reported that two Secret Service agents who went to Tulsa tested positive for the virus.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "This is what American exceptionalism looks like under Donald Trump. It's not just that the United States has the highest number of coronavirus cases and deaths of any country in the world. Republican political dysfunction has made a coherent campaign to fight the pandemic impossible.... The rot starts at the top. At the beginning of the crisis Trump acted as if he could wish the coronavirus away, and after an interval when he at least pretended to take it seriously, his administration has resumed a posture of blithe denial.... So while countries with competent leadership haltingly return to normal, ours will continue to be pummeled."

Paul Krugman: "... in America, and only in America, basic health precautions have been caught up in a culture war. Most obviously, not wearing a face mask, and hence gratuitously endangering other people, has become a political symbol: Trump has suggested that some people wear masks only to signal disapproval of him, and many Americans have decided that requiring masks in indoor spaces is an assault on their freedom. As a result, social distancing has become partisan.... America's uniquely poor response to the coronavirus isn't just the result of bad leadership at the top.... There's a belligerent faction within our society that refuses to acknowledge inconvenient or uncomfortable facts, preferring to believe that experts are somehow conspiring against them. Trump hasn't just failed to rise to the policy challenge posed by Covid-19. He has, with his words and actions -- notably his refusal to wear a mask -- encouraged and empowered America's anti-rational streak. And this rejection of expertise, science and responsibility in general is killing us."

AND There's This Stupid Trump Trick. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Republicans are increasingly worried that their decade-long push to repeal the Affordable Care Act will hurt them in the November elections, as coronavirus cases spike around the country and millions of Americans who have lost jobs during the pandemic lose their health coverage as well. The issue will come into sharp focus this week, when the White House is expected to file legal briefs asking the Supreme Court to put an end to the program.... Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seizing on the moment, will unveil a Democratic bill to lower the cost of health care, with a vote scheduled for next week in the House. Republicans have long said their goal is to 'repeal and replace' the Affordable Care Act but have yet to agree on an alternative. This week's back-to-back developments -- Ms. Pelosi's bill announcement on Wednesday, followed on Thursday by the administration's legal filing -- has put Republicans in a difficult spot, strategists say." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Notice that Republicans aren't worried that Americans who get sick will have no health insurance coverage; they're worried it will hurt their re-election chances.

Michael Shear & Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "President Trump on Monday temporarily suspended new work visas and barred hundreds of thousands of foreigners from seeking employment in the United States, part of a broad effort to limit the entry of immigrants into the country. In a sweeping order, which will be in place at least until the end of the year, Mr. Trump blocked visas for a wide variety of jobs, including those for computer programmers and other skilled workers who enter the country under the H-1B visa, as well as those for seasonal workers in the hospitality industry, students on work-study summer programs and au pairs who arrive under other auspices.... The directive, which has been expected for several weeks, is fiercely opposed by business leaders, who say it will block their ability to recruit critically needed workers from countries overseas for jobs that Americans are not willing to do or are not capable of performing."

AP: "The White House's stance on China was thrown into confusion on Monday night after trade adviser Peter Navarro announced a trade deal between the two countries was 'over', only to be quickly contradicted by Donald Trump.... Navarro told Fox News the 'turning point' came when the US learned about the coronavirus only after a Chinese delegation had left Washington following the signing of the phase one deal on 15 January.... 'It's over,' he said. But shortly after, the US president tweeted: 'The China trade deal is fully intact. Hopefully they will continue to live up to the terms of the agreement!' Navarro then said his comments had been taken out of context...Navarro's initial comments caused momentary panic on the markets, with contracts on the S&P 500 index falling as much as 1.6%, according to Bloomberg, and the offshore yuan weakening." --s

Axios: John "Bolton told ABC News that Trump 'directly linked the provision of that [security] assistance with the investigation' into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in Ukraine -- the central allegation that saw him impeached in the House and later acquitted in the Senate. No official that testified was a direct witness to Trump explicitly tying aid to the investigations.... In January, Trump tweeted: 'I NEVER told John Bolton that the aid to Ukraine was tied to investigations into Democrats, including the Bidens. In fact, he never complained about this at the time of his very public termination. If John Bolton said this, it was only to sell a book.'" Mrs. McC: This is why GOP Senators wouldn't allow Bolton to testify in the impeachment hearings. They knew Bolton was, as he likes to say, "in the room" when Trump demanded the tit-for-tat. They're all scum.

Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Donald Trump has falsely accused former President Barack Obama of committing treason in his latest unfounded accusation aimed at his predecessor. Trump for months has publicly accused Obama of committing crimes, but has repeatedly declined to say which crimes in particular when asked by reporters. But speaking with CBN News in an interview that aired Monday, Trump offered, without evidence, that Obama had committed treason for spying on his campaign. 'It's treason,' Trump said. 'Look, when I came out a long time ago, I said they've been spying on my campaign. I said they've been taping, and that was in quotes, meaning a modern day version of taping, it's all the same thing.... But they've been spying on my campaign.' In reality, there is no evidence that the Obama spied on Trump's campaign or committed any acts that reach the definition of treason. Under the Constitution, treason is narrowly defined: 'Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.'"

Paul LeBlanc, et al., of CNN: "The White House on Monday admitted that ... Donald Trump was involved in the removal of US Attorney Geoffrey Berman after Trump had claimed he was 'not involved' in the process this weekend. Speaking at the White House Monday, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump was 'involved in the sign-off capacity' as she sought to explain the removal of Berman as a simple swap that would allow Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to take the post. Clayton and Trump also discussed the job, which leads the powerful Southern District of New York office.... On Monday, however, McEnany wasn't able to fully explain why Berman was dismissed before Clayton was confirmed by the Senate...."

Mrs. McCrabbie: According to Rachel Maddow, among the people Bill Barr lied to about Geoffrey Berman's "resignation" was Craig Carpenito, the New Jersey U.S. Attorney whom Barr had slated to fill Berman's post until the Senate confirmed Trump's choice for the job, Jay Clayton. Barr, according to Maddow, told Carpenito that Berman had resigned. Berman had not & refused to do so after he learned from Barr's press release that he was "stepping down."

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to sign a letter criticizing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) for okaying protests but not religious gatherings a day before Attorney General William Barr announced he would be replaced, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Justice Department supervisors asked both Berman and Eric Dreiband, the head of the agency's civil rights division, to sign the letter, but after a brief back-and-forth, Berman objected to its characterization of de Blasio's handling of the protests as a double standard and said signing the letter would hurt relations between the city and his office, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The letter was never sent. It is unclear whether the episode contributed to the Justice Department's removal of Berman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Quinta Jurecic & Benjamin Wittes in the Atlantic: "The administration's handling of [SDNY U.S. Attorney Geoffrey] Berman's firing was comically -- and typically -- inept.... And yet, for all the drama, the little matter of why Trump and Barr decided to get rid of Berman in the first place remains a mystery.... The most benign explanation -- though not exactly a comforting one -- is simple patronage. According to Barr's original statement, Trump had decided to appoint Jay Clayton ... to the job. Clayton, according to The New York Times, had recently golfed with the president ... and had expressed interest in the U.S. attorney job.... A second, more troubling possibility is that Berman's removal was retaliatory.... Trump has a long history of firing people who cause him trouble -- often those who are investigating him -- as a means of retribution.... Then there is the third possibility, the most sinister: that the removal of Berman was a specific effort to interfere with a specific investigation.... Trump does this as well.... If the goal of Berman's firing was to send yet another message to law-enforcement officials around the country that those who are no on the team will have to look over their shoulders at all times as long as Trump is president and Barr is running the Justice Department -- well, that message has been heard loud and clear." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ For context about Bill Barr's attempts to install Jay Clayton at USDNY. Press release 8 March 2017: "U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) ... sent a letter to Jay Clayton, the Trump Administration's nominee for Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), regarding concerns about Clayton's ability to effectively serve as SEC Chair, citing Clayton's numerous conflicts of interest and work on behalf of corporations with ties to Russia and Iran." (Emphasis mine) --s

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "One of President Trump's most trusted economic advisers will leave the White House this summer amid one of the worst economic crises in decades. Kevin Hassett, who returned to the White House as an unpaid volunteer in March, said in an interview that his departure is in line with the administration's initial plan when he was brought back. Hassett said his agreement was to return to the White House for about 90 days, and he has already stayed for more than that amount of time. But Hassett's upcoming departure -- first reported by Axios -- could alarm critics who worry that the White House lacks respected economic officials to guide the nation through the economic calamity caused by the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York. Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down. The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism. For many, the equestrian statue at the museum's Central Park West entrance has come to symbolize a painful legacy of colonial expansion and racial discrimination." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Virginia. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: The person responsible for developing the legal justification to allow Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) to take down Richmond's equestrian statue of Robert E. Lee is Rita Davis, a descendant of slaves & Northam's legal counsel. "It won't be easy. On Thursday, Richmond Circuit Judge Bradley B. Cavedo extended an injunction that bars the statue's removal, giving opponents more time to save it and making clear that he took a dim view of Northam's action." A good read about an impressive woman.

Washington, D.C. Fredrick Kunkle, et al., of the Washington Post: "Protesters attempted to topple a bronze statue of former president Andrew Jackson in a park next to the White House on Monday night but were thwarted when police intervened.... Protesters threw ropes around the statue of the seventh president astride a horse in Lafayette Square and began trying to pull it down, before police officers removed them from the area. Hundreds of protesters had locke arms around the statue. In a chaotic scene, a helicopter flew low over the park as 150 to 200 U.S.Park and D.C. police responded. Officers used a chemical irritant to disperse protesters and sweep them back to H Street NW. Protesters did manage to smash the wooden wheels of four replica cannons at the base of the Jackson statue. Protesters threw things at police, and officers shoved people in the melee." ~~~

~~~ Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "The US Secret Service on Monday evening told members of the White House press corps to immediately leave the White House grounds, a highly unusual decision that did not immediately come with an explanation. The decision came during an ongoing demonstration in Lafayette Square, across the street from the White House where protesters were trying to bring down a statue of former President Andrew Jackson that stands in the middle of the park. Those protesters were eventually pushed back out of the park by police." ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated: "The US Secret Service issued a statement early Tuesday, saying 'four members of the media were misdirected' to leave the White House grounds." Whatever that means.

Presidential Race

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "... Joe Biden's campaign is committing to participate in three debates in the fall, while President Trump's campaign is pushing for four events. Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dilllon, confirmed in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates sent on Monday and obtained by The Washington Post that the former vice president would debate Trump on the dates previously scheduled by the commission -- Sept. 29, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. Biden's running mate, who has not yet been announced, will debate Vice President Mike Pence on Oct. 7.... Biden's commitment to the debates comes days after several Trump aides, including ... Rudy Giuliani, started advocating for another debate and to conduct them earlier in the day than usual. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said last week that the aides don't want the debates to compete with football games." Mrs. McC: The candidate who wants more debates is usually the candidate who's losing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ A Debate in Search of a Venue. David Jesse of the Detroit Free Press: "The University of Michigan is withdrawing from hosting a presidential debate between ... Donald Trump and ... Joe Biden, sources told the Detroit Free Press. The official announcement is expected to come Tuesday. U-M is making the move because of concerns of bringing the campaigns, media and supporters of both candidates to Ann Arbor and campus during a pandemic, two sources with direct knowledge of the move told the Free Press. The sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak on behalf of the university. U-M had been scheduled to host the second debate of the cycle on Oct. 15 and had been planning a wide range of events and education around it."

Hallelujah! Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's my favorite entry from the Washington Post's live coronavirus updates for Monday, also linked above:

"President Trump will hold a rally Tuesday at an Arizona megachurch that claims its air purification system kills '99.9 percent of covid within 10 minutes' -- despite no scientific evidence that is the case. In a video posted by Dream City Church, senior pastor Luke Barnett and chief operations officer Brendon Zastrow touted an ionization system by CleanAir EXP that, Zastrow said, 'takes particles out and covid cannot live in that environment.' Barnett said, 'You can know when you come here you will be safe and protected. Thank God for great technology and thank God for being proactive.' Air purifiers can help reduce airborne contaminants but, on their own, cannot kill the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency said....CleanAir EXP said on its website that 'lab tests confirm that CleanAir EXP eliminates 99.9% of coronavirus surrogate from the air in less than 10 minutes.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: Who is responsible when the dummkopfs who attend the Trump revival get Covid-19 in a couple of weeks? God? The Devil? Trump? Luke & Brendon? The liars at CleanAir EXP, who are apparently Luke's parishoners?

Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Donald Trump is increasingly preoccupied "over perceptions of his mental and physical health, at a time when critics have mocked him for episodes in which they say he has appeared frail or confused. The attacks Trump has previously levied against [Joe] Biden -- dismissing the former vice president as 'Sleepy Joe,' secreted away in his basement and enfeebled -- have boomeranged back on him, as opponents have seized on Trump's own missteps to raise concerns.... Saturday night in Tulsa..., the president devoted more than 14 minutes to regaling a campaign rally crowd with the tale of 'the ramp and the water.'" The article includes a photo of the West Point ramp, which Trump described as being as slippery as 'an ice-skating rink.' The ice-skaking ramp has non-slip strips every couple of feet.

Just can't get enough of these Trump rally fiasco postmortems: here's one from Alex Isenstadt of Politico, who focusses on Trump's inability to effectively attack Joe Biden. "Trump advisers have long been convinced that if the race is a referendum on him, rather than a choice between him and Biden, Trump will likely lose." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Mrs. McCrabbie: Most of the mail-in voter "scandal" in the U.S. seems to be coming from Trump, his relatives and allies: ~~~

~~~ William Bredderman of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump went postal on Twitter Monday morning over the threat he claims mailed ballots pose to the integrity of U.S. elections -- but his family seems to have never gotten the message.... 'RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!' Trump tweeted.... The White House has acknowledged the president mailed in ballots in New York in 2018 and in Florida this year, and the Orlando Sun-Sentinel reported that First Lady Melania Trump had recently also taken advantage of the Sunshine State's remote voting program. On reviewing records from the Manhattan Board of Elections, The Daily Beast discovered that Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and the First Lady all had ballots mailed to them in Washington D.C. as recently as the 2018 election cycle, and have done so since decamping to the capital three years ago. Eric Trump, who remains in New York, similarly exercised his franchise via envelope and stamp in 2017. Various errors -- from the First Lady's forgetting to sign the crucial affidavit, to the First Daughter's sending her ballot back too late, to Kushner's failure to mail it back at all -- prevented the Washington-based wing of the family's votes from counting in 2017. But the Board of Elections documents show they all successfully returned their votes in the most recent election cycle." ~~~

~~~ Homeless Couple Claim Governor's Mansion as Their Residence. Marina Pitofsky of the Hill: "Vice President Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, voted by mail in Indiana earlier this year using the address of the Indiana governor's mansion, Business Insider reported. The couple mailed in their ballots for the June GOP primary in their home state of Indiana on April 13, according to voter files obtained by the outlet. They used the address of the governor's mansion in Indianapolis, where they have not lived since December 2016, when they transitioned to Washington, D.C. It is not illegal for the Pences to use their previous address to vote by mail. They remain registered to vote in Indiana. Pence's press secretary Devin O'Malley said in a statement to The Hill that the Pences do not own another home in Indiana, so the governor's mansion remains their 'legally correct' address for registration." Mrs. McC: O'Malley is probably right, but it seems weird for someone who hasn't been governor for years to use the governor's mansion as his legal residence. ~~~

~~~ Brian Slodysko of the AP: "A half-dozen senior advisers to ... Donald Trump have repeatedly voted by mail, according to election records obtained by The Associated Press, undercutting the president's argument that the practice will lead to widespread fraud this November." Among them, Bill Barr, Brad Parscale, Kayleigh McEnany & the lovely Betsy DeVos. "DeVos, the education secretary, has voted absentee in all but three Michigan elections over the past decade, according to records. Trump threatened last month to withhold federal funding after Michigan's Democratic secretary of state mailed out absentee ballot applications to registered voters. DeVos' family has donated millions of dollars to Republican causes, including groups that are now part of a fierce court fight to limit the expansion of vote-by-mail." And others.

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "An Army private confessed to sharing secret information with a satanic neo-Nazi-group in a plot to attack his own unit while it was overseas and cause 'the deaths of as many of his fellow service members as possible,/ federal prosecutors in Manhattan said on Monday. The private, Ethan Phelan Melzer, was charged in an indictment unsealed this week with collaborating with the Order of the Nine Angles, or O9A, a group that prosecutors described as 'an occult-based neo-Nazi and racially motivated violent extremist group.'"

AP: "Venezuela's socialist government tried to recruit then-Congressman Pete Sessions to broker a meeting with the CEO of Exxon Mobil [-- Darren] Woods, then Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's successor --] at the same time it was secretly paying a close former House colleague $50 million to keep U.S. sanctions at bay.... The purpose: to lure Exxon back to Venezuela after a decade's absence and inject much-needed dynamism into the OPEC nation's collapsing oil industry.... [F]ormer Miami Congressman David Rivera ... at the time was collecting part of a whopping $50 million contract for three months of consulting work..., now being investigated by federal prosecutors in Miami because he never registered as an agent of a foreign government.... It's not clear how Sessions, who is running again for Congress this fall, acted on the request.... But Sessions did engage in other mediation efforts in Venezuela over the next 15 months." --s

Nina Lakhani of the Guardian: "Millions of ordinary Americans are facing rising and unaffordable bills for running water, and risk being disconnected or losing their homes if they cannot pay, a landmark Guardian investigation has found.... Analysis of 12 US cities shows the combined price of water and sewage increased by an average of 80% between 2010 and 2018, with more than two-fifths of residents in some cities living in neighbourhoods with unaffordable bills.... Water bills exceeding 4% of household income are considered unaffordable.... Meanwhile, federal aid to public water utilities, which serve around 87% of people, has plummeted while maintenance, environmental and health threats, climate shocks and other expenditures have skyrocketed...In Washington, 90 lawmakers from across the country -- all Democrats -- are pushing for comprehensive funding reforms to guarantee access to clean, affordable running water for every American." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

U.K. Thomas Colson of Business Insider: "Brexit is set to have cost the UK more than £200 billion in lost economic growth by the end of this year -- a figure that almost eclipses the total amount the UK has paid toward the European Union budget over the past 47 years.... The British economy is 3% smaller than it might have been if the UK had not voted to leave the EU.... That means the combined cost of Brexit since 2016 is likely to soon eclipse the total cost of the EU's budget payments, which were a central part of the Leave campaign's case for Brexit in the first place." --s

Comments

[Bobby Lee]

Originally I was worried about delegates to the RNC bringing C-19 virus to Florida. Now those Delegates could be taking our home grown virus back all over the country.

No way of knowing nine weeks in advance what conditions will be, but delegates could be reluctant to travel to a C=19 hot spot and their states could be reluctant to send them.

[PD Pepe]

Here is the New Yorker column by David Rohde who was on Rachel's program last night parsing the Barr and the Beast business concerning the doings at the Southern district of N.Y. He claims that both of these feisty feckless fellows have lost their way and are heading for some intense scrutiny as to their ways and means.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/for-now-donald-trump-and-william-barr-are-losing-their-way

[Jeanne]

A-Mazing!! All during this time of covid fears and contagion, and the Nightmare Church people had the key, and we are just finding out about it? Buy me a ticket so I can fly to Phoenix and get my toxic clock cleaned by the Sooper-Dooper Covid Cleaner! Sorta like a drive-thru car wash, but then all the "rally" attendees will then be pure as the driven snow! And I am sure there is no shortage of idiots who will believe the nonsense and go there with their friends and relations, all Bears-Of-Very-Little-Brain...
Well, they ain't brainy, but they have faith and do believe that the obvious corruption of the regime is jes' fine... (Low Barr is counting on that as he moves forward--) Sheesh--

[Akhilleus]

Fake president and actual traitor accuses actual President of being fake traitor...

Or something like that. I wish I had a buck for every report that begins “Trump claims, with no evidence...” I’d be rich enough to...buy Greenland! If it were for sale, that is.

And what does this latest baseless claim involve? The last real president was “spying” on poor widdow donnie-kins?

Earth to Fatty. No one needs to spy on you, clownshoes. You tell everyone everything. All the time. It’s amazing that someone who can’t shut his trap for two seconds, who blurts out incriminating stuff with every exhalation, and whose administration leaks like a three quart saucepan hung up for target practice at the firing range, thinks anyone would waste time spying on him.

But, ever the victim and never responsible for anything, he’s outraged...OUTRAGED, I tells ya, that anyone knows anything about the inner workings of his tiny brain. He’s like the three year old who runs to tell his mummy and daddy that HE didn’t spill that milk on the sofa, before they’ve even seen the mess. He’s a bumbling, babbling child. And a not very bright child at that.

And I make that claim with plenty of evidence. Puh-lenty.

[PD Pepe]

Another New Yorker piece, this time by Adam Entous on Fiona Hill–-an extremely lengthy but fascinating account of her foray into the disastrous modus operandi of the Trump wheelings and dealings. Adam ends his piece with Hill delivering the commencement address to the class 2020 at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. "She had been invited by Eliot Cohen, who had warned that serving in the Administration would lead to “moral self-destruction.” Hill had been in lockdown with her husband and daughter for more than two months, talking to colleagues from Brookings and delivering speeches on Zoom. She was considering writing a book about her life and the international rise of populism...

She prerecorded her remarks in an empty auditorium on the school’s campus in Washington. In full academic regalia, she sat in front of a blue Johns Hopkins backdrop. “Here, in 2020, everything seems to have come crashing down,” she said. Hill did not mention Trump or her time at the N.S.C., speaking allusively about “domestic and global crises compounded, blame cast, rumors spread.” Near the end of her speech, she quoted from one of her father’s favorite songs, with lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose, “It’s Only a Paper Moon.” “The song ends with lines that somehow capture our moment in time,” she said, quoting them: “It’s a Barnum and Bailey world, just as phony as it can be, but it wouldn’t be make-believe if you believed in me.” She got a thumbs-up from one of the camera operators, then took off her robes, put her face mask on, and drove home. When I texted her to ask how it had gone, she responded, “A bit wooden sitting on the stage, but I did my best.” ♦

[Anonymous]

An interesting piece, "My Family Saw a Police Car Hit a Kid on Halloween. Then I Learned How NYPD Impunity Works." in Pro Publica.

https://bit.ly/31g562e

The moronic tiny paws always win out....

@realDonaldTrump at 3:45 a.m. today:
Cases are going up in the U.S. because we are testing far more than any other country, and ever expanding. With smaller testing we would show fewer cases!

[Bobby Lee]

Say it ain't so, Joe!

There's more than 20 states with fewer C-19 cases than Miami-Dade county, and you're going to a debate there?

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-53154890

Any US judges willing to take the lead from Brazil jurisprudence?

Though he doesn't think so, a mask would vastly improve the Pretender's looks. Mikey's, too.

[Bobby Lee]

@Ken Winkes How about a burqua instead? Then we wouldn't have to look at that damn Tribble perched on top of his head.

[Hattie]

ABSENT(ee) BALLOTS / JUNE 23rd 2020

Today’s New York’s Primaries.
I live in NYC.
My ballot finally arrived late this afternoon.

Called Jerry Nadler(my Senator)’s office and was told ‘The Board of Elections messed up big-time’. Called The Board and was informed, since my P.O. had now closed, that I was out-of-luck: today’s postmark was needed. Only by conversation’s end was it suggested - off-handedly - that I might try stopping by my voting site (where I had planned to avoid). Thankfully, my ballot was accepted there. Learned from our Block Association’s V.P. that many have not recieved their ballots.

I fear (anticipate) more of the same come November.
Will be thrilled if my pessimism’s proven wrong.

[Ken Winkes]

More from Mr. Tough Guy:

https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-06-23/trump-prepares-order-to-protect-monuments

On federal land, sure, he can do that. On private land, assuredly not; any public land, city, county, state, I doubt it.

More huffing and puffing from the cream puff in chief.

[Hattie]

Just receievd the following from my life-long pal.
He’s Native American and Black.
And a most peace-loving guy.

“So this bullshit has finally descended on the (very) sleepy, left wing town of Santa Fe. I’m thinking seriously of obtaining a firearm!”

http://sfreporter.com/news/2020/06/22/downtown-restaurant-vandalized-in-white-supremacist-attack/