;)
The Commentariat -- June 4, 2020
Late Morning Update:
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Filings for unemployment insurance claims totaled 1.877 million last week in a sign that the worst is over for the coronavirus-related jobs crisis but that the level of unemployment remains stubbornly high. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.775 million new claims. The Labor Department's total nevertheless represented a decline from the previous week's upwardly revised total of 2.126 million. Filings under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program totaled 623,073. This was the first time the government's weekly jobless claims report came under 2 million since the week ended March 14."
The New York Times' live updates of protest developments Thursday are here.
Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Iran has freed Michael R. White, a Navy veteran held in that country for nearly two years, and he was on his way home, his mother announced on Thursday in the United States.... The release of Mr. White, 48, a cancer patient who had been infected with the coronavirus while incarcerated in Iran, came a day after an Iranian scientist held in the United States was returned to Iran. American officials had insisted the two cases were not linked. But Iranian officials had suggested last month that once the scientist, Sirous Asgari, was back in Iran, they would look favorably at permitting Mr. White to go home."
Mike Baker of the New York Times: "A black man who called out 'I can't breathe' before dying in police custody in Tacoma, Wash., was killed as a result of oxygen deprivation and the physical restraint that was used on him, according to details of a medical examiner's report released on Wednesday. The Pierce County Medical Examiner's Office concluded that the death of the man, Manuel Ellis, 33, was a homicide. Investigators with the Pierce County Sheriff's Department were in the process of preparing a report about the March death, which occurred shortly after an arrest by officers from the Tacoma Police Department, said the sheriff's spokesman, Ed Troyer."
New York. George Joseph of The Gothamist: "In hours of secretly recorded telephone conversations, police officers in Mount Vernon, New York, reveal widespread corruption, brutality and other misconduct in the troubled Westchester County city just north of the Bronx. Caught on tape by a whistleblower cop [Murashea Bovell], the officers said they witnessed or took part in alarming acts of police misconduct, from framing and beating residents to collaborating with drug dealers, all as part of a culture of impunity within the department's narcotics unit." --s
BBC: "The BBC's anti-disinformation team has been tracking misleading videos and conspiracy theories about the protests, which have been circulating online. So, here's what to look out for - and avoid - on your social media feeds." --s
Charles Rabin of The Miami Herald: "The Fort Lauderdale patrol officer who inflamed a tense demonstration on Sunday, knocking over a seated protester just before a peaceful protest against police abuse turned violent, has been reviewed by internal affairs for using force 79 times in his roughly three-and-half years on the force, according to department records.... Most notably, Steven Pohorence has drawn his firearm more than once a month on average since he was hired in October 2016, according to personnel records released by the law enforcement agency on Wednesday." --s
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. "The coronavirus pandemic is ebbing in some of the countries that were hit hard early on, but the number of new cases is growing faster than ever worldwide, with more than 100,000 reported each day. Twice as many countries have reported a rise in new cases over the past two weeks as have reported declines, according to a New York Times database. On May 30, more new cases were reported in a single day worldwide than ever before: 134,064. The increase has been driven by emerging hot spots in Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Over all, there have been more than 6.3 million reported cases worldwide and more than 380,000 known deaths."
John Wagner of the Washington Post: "President Trump strongly hinted Thursday at a pardon of friend and longtime political adviser Roger Stone, who has been ordered to report to prison later this month. Trump said Stone was the 'victim of a corrupt and illegal Witch Hunt' and should 'sleep well at night.'Trump made the comments on Twitter in response to a tweet by conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who complained that Stone would be serving more time in prison than '99% of these rioters destroying America,' a reference to violent protests in the wake of the death in police custody of Minneapolis man George Floyd." A Politico story is here.
Jordan Cairney of The Hill: "Steven Linick, the ousted State Department inspector general, told lawmakers that he was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for allegations of misusing government resources and that he had discussed the probe with other State Department officials.... In addition to a potential misuse of funds by Pompeo and his wife, Linick was also investigating a Saudi arms sale. Linick, according to Democrats, told lawmakers that [Under Secretary of State for Management Brian Bulatao and Marik String, the acting State Department legal advisor, said that the watchdog's office should not pursue the investigation.... 'Mr. Linick also testified that Under Secretary Bulatao -- a longtime friend of Secretary Pompeo -- attempted to "bully" the Inspector General on several occasions.'" --s
** Josh Marshall of TPM: "Trump and Barr are patrolling DC with federal prison guards from the units trained to deal with prison riots and emergency situations in federal prisons. These appear to be at least some of the federal police who have been refusing to identify themselves on the streets of DC. Whatever you can say about these teams and the tactics they use these are not people you want doing crowd control with civilians." --s
Molly Schwartz of Mother Jones: "With the human obstacles beaten and smoked out of his path, Trump made it to the church. He stiffly held up a Bible, announcing, 'It's a Bible,' and got his photos.... But there was one small detail that adds a delicious layer of irony to this latest Trumpian stunt. If the whole performance was in order to send a message of solidarity with his evangelical voters, their adored leader used the wrong Bible.... [T]he Bible that Trump held over his head was a Revised Standard Version (RSV).... Not only is the RSV outdated (the New Revised Standard Version, NRSV, was published in 1989 to replace it), but it's not a Bible that evangelical Christians consider authoritative. 'It would be pretty much rejected by the vast majority of evangelicals. It would be seen as a deficient translation of the Bible. A distinctly liberal one,' said Rev. Rob Schenck, an evangelical clergyman, the president of The Dietrich Bonhoeffer Institute, and the author of Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister's Rediscovery of Faith, Hope, and Love. 'And for many, especially in the very conservative or fundamentalist wing, they might see it as not a version of the Bible at all.'" --s
Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd. Emma Howard, et al. of the Guardian: "British-based banks and finance houses have provided more than $2bn (£1.5bn) in financial backing in recent years to Brazilian beef companies which have been linked to Amazon deforestation. according to new research. Thousands of hectares of Amazon are being felled every year to graze cattle and provide meat for world markets. As well as providing financial backing for Minerva, Brazil's second largest beef exporter, and Marfrig, its second largest meat processing company, UK-based financial institutions held tens of millions of dollars worth of shares in JBS, the world's largest meat company." --s
Javier Hernández, et al., of the New York Times: "Chanting slogans like 'Liberate Hong Kong,' thousands of people in Hong Kong flouted a police ban on Thursday as they gathered to memorialize the Tiananmen Square massacre, a striking display of defiance against Beijing's tightening grip on the territory.... On Thursday, in a move opposition politicians said would inhibit free speech, Hong Kong's legislature, which is dominated by pro-Beijing lawmakers, passed a law that would criminalize disrespect for China's national anthem and make it punishable by up to three years in prison."
~~~~~~~~~~
When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the Constitutional rights of their fellow citizens -- much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander-in-chief, with military leadership standing alongside.... Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people -- does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us. We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society. This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children. -- Gen. James Mattis, Donald Trump's former Secretary of Defense
Mattis's full statement is here, via CNBC. Read it. It is stunning. He compares Trump to Hitler.
Barbara Starr & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "The retired Marine general had been pressed many times to comment on Trump, troop policies, the Pentagon, and other current events and had always refused because he didn't want to get involved and be a contradictory voice to the troops. Instead, Mattis always insisted he had said everything he wanted to say in his resignation letter."
Brace yourself for a tweetstorm. -- Matt Naham of Law & Crime ~~~
~~~ AND Here We Go! Probably the only thing Barack Obama & I have in common is that we both had the honor of firing Jim Mattis, the world's most overrated General. I asked for his letter of resignation, & felt great about it. His nickname was 'Chaos', which I didn’t like, & changed to 'Mad Dog'... ...His primary strength was not military, but rather personal public relations. I gave him a new life, things to do, and battles to win, but he seldom 'brought home the bacon'. I didn't like his 'leadership' style or much else about him, and many others agree. Glad he is gone! -- Donald Trump, in tweets, Wednesday night
The Last Real President Speaks Out. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Former President Barack Obama threw his support behind the efforts of peaceful protesters demanding police reforms during his first on-camera remarks since a wave of protests over the killing of George Floyd convulsed the country and upended the 2020 election. Mr. Obama, offering a strikingly more upbeat assessment of the protesters than President Trump and White House officials, said he believed only a 'tiny' percentage had acted violently. 'For those who have been talking about protest, just remember that this country was founded on protest -- it is called the American Revolution,' Mr. Obama said from his home in Washington. He made the comments during an online round-table event with his former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. and activists from Minneapolis sponsored by My Brother's Keeper Alliance, a nonprofit group Mr. Obama founded." A Guardian story is here.
Matthew Choi of Politico: "Former President Jimmy Carter on Wednesday expressed his dismay at racial injustice in the country, while also condemning violence as protests consume cities across the nation. In a statement, Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, called for people to stand up to 'a racially discriminatory police and justice system, immoral economic disparities between whites and blacks, and government actions that undermine our unified democracy.' Still, he wrote, 'violence, whether spontaneous or consciously incited, is not a solution.'... Carter said that he has fought as governor of Georgia, president and former president for human rights, saying in his 1971 gubernatorial inauguration, 'The time for racial discrimination is over.' 'With great sorrow and disappointment, I repeat those words today, nearly five decades later,' his Wednesday statement read."
"An Intervention." Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "Four U.S. presidents spoke this week about systemic racism and injustice. They used their platforms to illuminate the humanity in all Americans and to decry the dehumanization of some. And they summoned the nation to confront its failures, make change and come together. A fifth U.S. president[*] spoke instead this week about using military force to dominate Americans who are protesting racial injustice. He declared winners and losers among state and city officials trying to safeguard their streets. And, with his reelection campaign in mind, he sought to apply a partisan political lens to the national reckoning over racial inequities.... Rarely has the dichotomy been clearer than this week, when Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter injected their voices into the national discussion of race and justice following last week's death of George Floyd.... The four former presidents were measured and compassionate in tone and conveyed an urgency in their lengthy messages. It presented a sharp contrast with the incumbent's hard line and unemotional leadership." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I missed President Clinton's statement on the death of George Floyd, released May 30.
Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday joined a crowd of demonstrators outside the Capitol protesting police brutality toward black Americans following the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Minneapolis man who died in police custody. Pelosi wore a mask and was accompanied by her usual entourage of staff and members of her security detail while walking through the crowd.... Pelosi's show of solidarity with the protesters comes as House Democrats weigh legislative options for responding to the public outrage over the recent string of deaths of unarmed black Americans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pause Heard 'Round the World. Catherine Porter of the New York Times: "When asked what he thought of President Trump's call for military action against American protesters and the tear gassing of peaceful demonstrators to make way for a photo-op, [Canada's] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau paused at his podium for 21 uncomfortable, televised seconds. He opened his mouth, then shut it -- twice. He softly groaned. Finally, in a scene on Tuesday that has now spread wildly around the internet, Mr. Trudeau said: 'We all watch in horror and consternation what's going on in the United States.'" ~~~
The Guardian's live updates of protest developments for Thursday are here.
Carol Leonnig of the Washington Post: "President Trump was rushed to a secure bunker in the White House on Friday evening after a group of protesters hopped over temporary barricades set up near the Treasury Department grounds, according to arrest records and people familiar with the incident. The security move came after multiple people crossed over fences that had been erected to create a larger barrier around the White House complex around 7 p.m.... Officials familiar with the incident told colleagues that the president, the first lady and their son Barron were rushed to the bunker because of the episode, according to two people familiar with their accounts.... Two of the people who were arrested said they were stunned by the idea that their actions prompted the abrupt relocation of the president. 'I didn't even realize what I did was illegal,' said one of the protesters.... 'I stepped over a barricade. I never got onto the Treasury grounds or White House grounds.' The events contradict the president's claim Wednesday that he went to the bunker simply to inspect the secure location.... The entire White House fence line was recommended for replacement after a 2014 fence-jumper incident, but the portion around Treasury had been delayed by Secret Service budget constraints." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Those budget constraints? Having to spend an extraordinary amount on Trump's many trips to his resorts & his family's business trips abroad. ~~~
~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday denied that he was rushed to an underground bunker at the White House as protests grew violent on Friday evening, claiming he only visited the space briefly during the day. 'It was a false report,' Trump told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade during a radio interview Wednesday morning, insisting that he went down to the bunker to 'inspect' it during the daytime and not during the protests at night. 'I went down during the day and I was there for a tiny, little, short period of time and it was much more for inspection,' Trump said. 'These problems are during the night, not during the day.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) (Leonnig also covers Trump's ridiculous lie in her later-published report, linked above.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hey, Cowardly Liar. Reminds me of the time I rushed to inspect the city's hurricane shelter for a tiny, little, short period of three days. After the shelter had passed my inspection, I ventured outside, crossed the street, stood in front of a boarded-up church, grabbed something called the "Holy Bible" from my $1,500 designer bag & held the book over my head. I was way surprised when the passing clean-up crews didn't cheer my heroism. P.S. How come Melanie & Barron had to "inspect" the bunker, too?
Esper Grows Some. (Oops, Revised Below). Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "Breaking with ... Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using military forces for law enforcement in containing current street protests. Esper said the Insurrection Act, which would allow Trump to use active-duty military for law enforcement in containing street protests, should be invoked in the United States 'only in the most urgent and dire of situations.' He declared, 'We are not in one of those situations now.'... Just before Esper spoke, Trump took credit for a massive deployment of National Guard troops and federal law enforcement officers to the nation's capital, saying it offered a model to states on how to stop violence accompanying some protests nationwide. Trump argued that the massive show of force was responsible for protests in Washington and other cities turning more calm in recent days and repeated his criticism of governors who have not deployed their National Guard to the fullest. 'You have to have a dominant force,' Trump told Fox New Radio on Wednesday. 'We need law and order.... You notice that all of these places that have problems, they're ... run by liberal Democrats.'... But interest in exerting ... extraordinary federal authority appeared to be waning in the White House. ~~~
~~~ [Affix Bayonets!] "The soldiers on standby in the Washington area are armed and have riot gear and bayonets. After the AP first reported the issuing of bayonets Tuesday, orders came down that soldiers would not need the knife-like weapons that can be affixed to rifles, according to two soldiers from the 82nd.... The idea that bayonets could be used in confronting civilians provoked an outcry on social media and among some members of Congress." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Axios: "The combination of [Esper's] interview [with NBC News, linked below,] plus Wednesday's press conference -- in which he undercut the president -- has the Secretary of Defense in precarious standing with the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany sidestepped questions Wednesday on whether President Trump still has confidence in Defense Secretary Mark Esper after the Pentagon chief publicly broke with Trump on using active-duty troops to quell nationwide protests. 'With regard to whether the president has confidence, I would say if he loses confidence in Secretary Esper, I'm sure you all will be the first to know,' McEnany told reporters at a White House press briefing. Pressed again..., McEnany replied that 'as of right now, Secretary Esper is still Secretary Esper. And should the president lose faith, we will all learn about that in the future.' McEnany gave a similar response when asked about Trump's confidence in FBI Director Christopher Wray, who has come under increasing fire from Republicans who feel he has not been willing to make changes to the agency after an internal watchdog report found errors in surveillance warrant applications." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: MacInaney's responses are stupid. If the answer is not a clear "yes" or "no," why not, "I cannot give you any information on that at this time. Next question"? Sleight of speech is not appropriate coming from the President*'s press secretary. As for Esper, when he disagreed with Trump on calling out the Army to forcibly repress Americans & their local representatives, he should have tendered his resignation. This is not a small quibble. Update: BUT, however stupid MacInaney's remarks, they worked! Esper is not going to resign. He's goiing to ~~~
~~~ ** CAVE! Fast! Zeke Miller & Robert Burns of the AP: "... Donald Trump's Pentagon chief shot down his idea of using troops to quell protests across the United States, then reversed course on pulling part of the 82nd Airborne Division off standby in an extraordinary clash between the U.S. military and its commander in chief.... [Defense Secretary Mark] Esper angered Trump early Wednesday when he said he opposed using military troops for law enforcement, seemingly taking the teeth out of the president's threat to use the Insurrection Act.... After his subsequent visit to the White House, the Pentagon abruptly overturned an earlier decision to send a couple hundred active-duty soldiers home from the Washington, D.C., region, a public sign of the growing tensions with the White House amid mounting criticism that the Pentagon was being politicized in response to the protests.... Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Associated Press that the decision was reversed after Esper's visit to the White House. [Mrs. McC: Despite his telling NBC News that 'I didn't know where I was going,' when Trump led him & other officials to St. John's church,] Esper [later] said that while he was aware they were heading to St. John's, he did not know what would happen there. 'I was not aware a photo op was happening,' he said, adding that he also did not know that police had forcibly moved peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square to clear the way for Trump and his entourage." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's not that comforting to realize the Secretary of Defense & the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs are both invertebrates.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "From an FBI command center in Washington's Chinatown neighborhood, Attorney General William P. Barr has orchestrated a stunning show of force on the streets of the nation's capital -- a battalion of federal agents, troops and police designed to restore order, but one that critics say carries grim parallels to heavy-handed foreign regimes.... One Justice Department official said Barr's strategy is to 'flood the zone' by putting 'the maximum amount of law enforcement out on the street.'... Some law enforcement experts contend the dramatic scenes are counterproductive in the long run, affirming the very criticism leveled by protesters -- that police and government officials treat citizens unjustly." A Daily Beast story is here. ~~~
~~~ You'll Never Know Who Shot You with a Rubber Bullet. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... it wasn't only components of the Defense Department that had been brought to the nation's capital to help with the 'domination' that President Trump sought to display in the wake of the turmoil. Washington residents have also been confronted with a number of other heavily armed law enforcement officers who share an unexpected characteristic: Neither their affiliation nor their personal identities are discernible.... 'The idea that the federal government is putting law enforcement personnel on the line without appropriate designation of agency, name, etc. -- that's a direct contradiction of the oversight that they've been providing for many years to local police and demanding in all of their various monitorships and accreditation,' former New York City police commissioner William Bratton said in a phone interview.... 'If those officers engage in any type of misbehavior during the time that they are there representing the federal government, how are you to identify them?' Bratton said.... [To make matters worse,] it's not uncommon for civilians to dress in paramilitary gear and show up at the protests, often doing so as self-appointed assistants to police and other law enforcement officials."
Greg Miller of the Washington Post: "In interviews and posts on social media in recent days, current and former U.S. intelligence officials have expressed dismay at the similarity between events at home and the signs of decline or democratic regression they were trained to detect in other nations.... 'It reminded me of what I reported on for years in the third world,' [Marc] Polymeropoulos[, who formerly ran CIA operations in Europe and Asia,] said on Twitter. Referring to the despotic leaders of Iraq, Syria and Libya, he said: 'Saddam. Bashar. Qaddafi. They all did this.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Marc Tracy of the New York Times: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), in a New York Times op-ed, "argued for the federal government to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would enable it to call up the military to put down protests in cities across the country.... In the essay, Mr. Cotton also described instances of looting in New York City as 'carnivals for the thrill-seeking rich as well as other criminal elements' and warned that the antifascism movement 'antifa' had infiltrated the marches. (On Monday, a Times article described the theory that antifa was responsible for the riots and looting as 'the biggest piece of protest misinformation tracked by Zignal Labs,' a media insights company.)... The outcry from readers, Times staff members and alumni of the paper was strong enough to draw an online defense of the essay's publication from James Bennet, the editorial page editor.... The NewsGuild of New York, the union that represents many Times journalists, said in a statement on Wednesday that the Op-Ed 'promotes hate.... Cotton's Op-Ed pours gasoline on the fire. Media organizations have a responsibility to hold power to account, not amplify voices of power without context and caution.'" A Deadline story is here. A Daily Beast story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess you can't take Arkansas out of the boy. It is hilarious that Cotton's view of New York City is a town where the wealthy go out looting when they get bored. "Where did you get that roomy handbag, Ivanka? I need one large enough to hold a Bible." "Why, I picked it up at Max Mara on Madison. They're closed for some reason, so I just smashed the front window & popped right in. It was fun!"
** Minnesota. Josh Campbell, et al., of CNN: "The former Minneapolis Police officer who pressed his knee into George Floyd's neck was charged with second-degree murder and the three other officers on scene during his killing are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, according to court documents. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's official announcement of the charges is expected to come Wednesday afternoon, more than a week after Floyd was killed while in police custody in Minneapolis, sparking nationwide protests that call for the end to police violence against black citizens. The three other officers on scene, Thomas Lane, Tou Thao and J. Alexander Kueng, are charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nevada. Michelle Price & Scott Sonner of the AP: "Three Nevada men with ties to a loose movement of right-wing extremists advocating the overthrow of the U.S. government have been arrested on terrorism-related charges in what authorities say was a conspiracy to spark violence during recent protests in Las Vegas. Federal prosecutors say the three white men with U.S. military experience are accused of conspiring to carry out a plan that began in April in conjunction with protests to reopen businesses closed because of the coronavirus. More recently, they sought to capitalize on protests over the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis after a white officer pressed his knee into his neck for several minutes even after he stopped moving and pleading for air, prosecutors said." Mrs. McC: Gosh, Donnie & Bill, how come so many of the terrorist-protesters are described as "right-wing" when you said they were "far left-wing extremists"? ~~~
~~~ CBS/AP: "What the local sheriff says were two protest-related shootings in Las Vegas Monday night left a Las Vegas police officer on life support and resulted in the death of a suspect at another scene. Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Joe Lombardo ... said officers were attempting to disperse a large crowd of demonstrators in front of the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino on the Vegas Strip and were being hit with rocks and bottles form the crowd. While trying to detain some people, Lombado said, 'a shot rang out and our officer went down.' The officer was on life support and a suspect was in custody. Downtown, city police and federal officers were posted at the stairs of the federal building to protect it from protesters when a man with 'multiple firearms who appeared to be wearing body armor' reached for a firearm, Lombardo said. He was shot by an officer and pronounced dead at a hospital."
New York. AP: "New York City police officers surrounded, shoved and yelled expletives at two Associated Press journalists covering protests Tuesday in the latest aggression against members of the media during a week of unrest around the country. Portions of the incident were captured on video by videojournalist Robert Bumsted, who was working with photographer Maye-E Wong to document the protests in lower Manhattan over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The video shows more than a half-dozen officers confronting the journalists as they filmed and took photographs of police ordering protesters to leave the area near Fulton and Broadway shortly after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect. An officer, using an expletive, orders them to go home. Bumsted is heard on video explaining the press are considered 'essential workers' and are allowed to be on the streets. An officer responds 'I don't give a s---.' Another tells Bumsted 'get the f--- out of here you piece of s---.' Bumsted and Wong said officers shoved them, separating them from each other and pushing them toward Bumsted's car, which was parked nearby. At one point Bumsted said he was pinned against his car.... Both journalists were wearing AP identification and identified themselves as media." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Virginia. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia plans to order the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond to be removed, an administration official said on Wednesday, the same day Richmond's mayor said he would propose removing additional Confederate monuments from the state capital. Demonstrators in at least six cities have targeted symbols of the Confederacy in recent days after George Floyd was killed while Minneapolis police officers arrested him, marring some statues and monuments whose presence has long ignited controversy. [An administration] official said the Robert E. Lee monument was the only Confederate statue in Richmond over which the state had control." An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mark Robinson of the Richmond Times-Dispatch: "Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney said he wants four other famous statues honoring the Confederacy removed from the [Monument Avenue] strip in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests that already have left an indelible mark on a changing city." Mrs. McC: Maybe the Confederate statues could be replaced with likenesses of Virginians who weren't traitors.
Zuck Is Almost as Bad as Trump. Shirin Ghaffary of Recode in Vox: "In an internal video call with Facebook employees on Tuesday obtained by Recode, CEO Mark Zuckerberg doubled down on his controversial decision to take no action on a post last week from ... Donald Trump. In the post, Trump referred to the ongoing protests in the US against racism and police brutality and said, 'when the looting starts, the shooting starts.'... 'We basically concluded after the research and after everything I've read and all the different folks that I've talked to that the reference is clearly to aggressive policing -- maybe excessive policing -- but it has no history of being read as a dog whistle for vigilante supporters to take justice into their own hands,' Zuckerberg said on the call." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That's not the point. Trump is threatening to order or sanction police to shoot looters and suspected looters, people who have not even been charged with crimes. That's not a "dog whistle" to armed citizens; it's a direct threat to the lives of American residents. Stealing a TV is a crime. It is not a crime punishable by death. Yes, Zuck, murdering robbers would be "excessive policing." "Everything you've read" apparently isn't on point.
Trump Proves Mail-in Voter Fraud by Personally Committing Voter Fraud. Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post: "President Trump originally tried to register to vote in Florida while claiming his 'legal residence' was in ... Washington, D.C. -- according to Florida elections records. The September 2019 registration application listed Trump's legal residence as 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.... On one of his forms ... he was telling Florida officials that his 'legal residence' was Washington, D.C., and on another he was saying he was a 'bona fide resident' of Palm Beach.... Florida law requires voters to be legal residents of the state. A month later, Trump resubmitted his application to use a Florida address and in March he voted by mail in Florida's Republican primary. The revisions complicate Trump's own record as a voter at a time when the president has made unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in mail-in balloting.... Florida voter-registration applicants are warned on registration forms that they may be subject to fines and even prison time if they do not provide truthful information.... On Monday, [Trump] declared, 'I live in Manhattan,' during a call with the nation's governors.... Afterward, prominent Democratic lawyer Marc E. Elias tweeted: 'Sounds like New York may have a good claim for taxes. And Florida for voter fraud.'" There's more. Emphasis added. A Guardian story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what it says at the tippy-top of Florida's voter registration form: "To Register in Florida, you must be: a U.S. citizen, a Florida resident...." Then, to make sure you got that, the form highlights in red print, "If you do not meet any ONE of these requirements, you are not eligible to register." Of course Trump is a total fraud, so maybe it's not fair to pick on him for this one teeny-tiny fraudulent act. P.S. Where is Melanie registered to vote?
** Eric Lipton, et al., of the New York Times: "The C.D.C. Waited 'Its Entire Existence for This Moment.' What Went Wrong?... The C.D.C., long considered the world's premier health agency, made early testing mistakes that contributed to a cascade of problems that persist today as the country tries to reopen. It failed to provide timely counts of infections and deaths, hindered by aging technology and a fractured public health reporting system. And it hesitated in absorbing the lessons of other countries, including the perils of silent carriers spreading the infection. The agency struggled to calibrate its own imperative to be cautious and the need to move fast as the coronavirus ravaged the country, according to a review of thousands of emails and interviews with more than 100 state and federal officials, public health experts, C.D.C. employees and medical workers.... Even as the virus tested the C.D.C.'s capacity to respond, the agency and its director, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, faced unprecedented challenges from President Trump, who repeatedly wished away the pandemic." This is a lo-o-ong article. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Julie Bosman & Amy Harmon of the New York Times: "In the last week, the United States has abruptly shifted from one crippling crisis to the next.... Suddenly America no longer looks like a nation cooped up at home. The demonstrations have spurred fears that they could cause a deadly resurgence of the coronavirus. And for those sympathetic to a growing movement, deciding whether to attend protests has been complicated: Some people have avoided them entirely, reasoning that the chance of contracting the coronavirus in a crowd is too high. Others have joined despite the risks. 'The police violence against black people -- that's a pandemic, too,' said Kelli Ann Thomas, a community organizer who joined protests in Miami.... Health experts know that the virus is far less likely to be spread outdoors than indoors. And masks reduce the chance of infected people transmitting the respiratory droplets that contain the virus. But many uncertainties remain. Yelling, shouting and singing can increase how far those droplets are projected. Crowds and the length of time an uninfected person is near someone who is infected also increase the risk of transmission." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Presidential Race
"Good Riddance." Charlotte Observer Editors: "For those who've long wanted Charlotte to rid itself of the 2020 Republican National Convention, Donald Trump's tweets on it Tuesday were a strong reminder why. The president packed a lot of wrong into a handful of words. He said N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper refused to guarantee Republicans 'use of the Spectrum Arena,' which was untrue. He said the governor was 'still in Shelter-In-Place Mode,' which isn't accurate. He said, finally, that he was forced to seek another home for his convention 'because of @NC_Governor.' That's wrong.... Roy Cooper wanted to protect the health of North Carolinians. Donald Trump was thinking about himself.... The president made the governor an offer he couldn't accept -- guarantee a full convention, a packed Spectrum arena with no requirements to wear masks or practice distancing. In other words, pretend that COVID-19 wasn't too big of a deal, just as the president has so often tried to do. To guarantee Trump his triumphant final-night convention moment three months before it happens, while COVID-19 metrics are still rising in our state and with little sense of the landscape in August, would have been a dereliction of duty for Cooper."
Way Beyond the Beltway
U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson raised the stakes in a brewing confrontation with China on Wednesday, promising to allow nearly three million people from Hong Kong to live and work in Britain if Beijing moves forward with a new national security law on the former British colony. Mr. Johnson's offer, made in a column in The Times of London, opens the door to a significant influx of people fleeing Hong Kong, should the situation in the territory deteriorate further. But it leaves unanswered thorny questions about how difficult it would be for these arrivals to obtain British citizenship. Describing it as one of the biggest changes in visa regulations in British history, Mr. Johnson said the roughly 350,000 Hong Kong residents who hold a British overseas passport, as well as some 2.5 million who are eligible to apply for one, would be granted 12-month renewable visas that would allow them to work in Britain and put them on a path to citizenship." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Hey, Stephen Miller. We've got plenty of room here for another 3 million Hong Kong ex-pats. Most speak English, they are better-educated than Americans, many are prosperous, they know how capitalism works, AND they're all famililar with how democracy works (including how to stage First-Amendment-type protests & how to wear masks to protect from air-borne diseases). They would know how to be model Americans from the get-go. They're perfect. What could be the problem?
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It’s becoming harder and harder to avoid the Hitler comparisons, what with threats to murder Americans in the streets and bayonet any the first few volleys miss, then blaming the protesters for the chaos rained down upon them by his brownshirts.
Just wondering, then, if little donnie schicklgruber will have cyanide capsules in his bunker for himself and Melanie on election night, just in case electoral shenanigans don’t work this time. If so, maybe he can have some extras on hand for Herr Barr, Tom Cotton, Lindsay Graham...oh, what the hell, he should stock up on them. I, for one, won’t mind him using my tax dollars to provide such a great aid to the republic. I’m told a Clorox chaser wouldn’t be a bad idea as well.
Is it possible under Florida law to be charged twice for voter fraud by providing false information on the registration form? I recall reading that when Marred-A-Lago was converted from a residence to a club that it could not be converted back to a residence. Did he* list it's address on his* form in violation of that code change?
Back in the good old days when police could do as they pleased and tease among themselves the fun they had putting down whomever they felt like putting down there was an incident in Florida on June, 2015, where a black 14 yr. old girl who had tried to go swimming in a closed community pool was manhandled by a brute of a policeman who threw her down on the grass, put his bulk on top of her back, pressing as hard as he could while she screamed and cried. I remember being outraged (after viewing the video) at not only the incident but at the fact this officer was not given the boot–––some weeks off without pay was the rule of the day.
And speaking of pools: We know that once upon a time blacks were allowed only several days a week to swim in community pools which were then drained and refurbished with fresh water cuz you know, sotto voce, those people....
So here we are––once again taking up the racism that hangs on in this country like a bad virus––the kind that we still have no vaccine to stop. This may be a turning point, this display of outrage not only in one area but throughout the country but it's what action, what laws, what changes will take place that will finally make a difference, she says with hope in her heart.
And from what I understand is that the police union is separate from conventional unions and the head of this P.U. loves Trump, was seen hugging Fatty at some of the rallies. So according to those who want reform say this guy and this union has to go.
And finally Mattis speaking out: I have been waiting for this, chided him for containing his assessment of the man we knew he had little respect for. Old Mad Dog bit his leash and ran with it!
And Obama––his speech–-well, you couldn't really call it a speech–-it was exactly what we would want to hear from a president; words that solidified the need to change, to heal and then offered practical ways of managing this.
I imagined how his words would pass over all the people and with the palm of his hand, soothe them and still their shiver.
And yeah––"You'll miss me when I'm gone."
@unwashed: You're right. Leonnig addresses this briefly in her story. (That's kinda the "There's more" I mentioned.) About a month ago, Manuel Roig-Franzia of the WashPo wrote a story about Trump's applying for a dock permit (an application he subsequently dropped because of the little personal-residence/private-club problem).
As MRF writes, the distinction between residence & club is important. The property is taxed as a private club. “Trump’s own attorney assured local officials in Palm Beach before they voted to approve the club in 1993 that he would not live there.... 'It’s one or the other — it’s a club or it’s your home,' Reginald Stambaugh, an attorney who represents a neighbor opposed to Trump’s dock plan, said in a recent interview. 'You can’t have it both ways.'
“In August 1993, Trump got his club, signing an extraordinarily detailed document called a 'use agreement' that governs to this day how Mar-a-Lago can be used. The document makes clear that Mar-a-Lago would no longer be a single-family residence and was now a private club.... The deal he struck made it clear that no one could live permanently at the property. It stated that the guest suites could be used only by members for a maximum of three times a year for no longer than seven days at a time, and that those seven-day stays couldn’t be strung together consecutively....
“What would happen to his voting status, some of his adversaries in the dock fight have begun to wonder, if Palm Beach declares that he doesn’t have the legal right to use Mar-a-Lago as his official domicile?”
Trump clearly is breaking his agreement, which surely is binding, with Palm Beach. He has spent much more time at Mar-a-Lago than the agreement allows. But because Mar-a-Lago can't be a residence for anybody, according to that agreement, he can't declare it as his permanent residence, either. So I guess he wasn't "stupid" when he filled out the voter registration form; he was trying to be cagey. But the cagey didn't work. He had to have a true domicile in Florida. And to do that isn't easy. You have to prove Florida is your actual domicile, and you have to do that by numerous actions: getting a Florida driver's license, registering your vehicles there, insuring them there, living there more than 6 months a year, filing a Florida Declaration of Domicile, etc. That is, it has to look like you actually live there. Trump's agreement with Mar-a-Lago means he can't declare his 183-day-year residence as that place. He'd have to declare his home as somewhere else in Florida. I know this from personal experience, as I've had second homes outside of Florida the whole time I owned a home in Florida. And because Florida has a generous property tax break for residents which is not available to non-residents, they enforce it. Among other things, I had to sign a form of declaration of residence every year. When I asked a Florida county tax assessor if I could vote in another state, she said no, unless I wanted to give up my Florida residence.
So when Trump signed the second voter registration form, he broke Florida law. And when he voted in the GOP primary there, he broke it again. Lock him up. (If Florida authorities locked up Trump long enough, he could declare the jailhouse his domicile.)
Mrs. Bea: That's a good suggestion, that the Richmond Dixie monuments be replaced by people who weren't traitors.
First nominee (and no, we can't move him from his Circle at Vermont and Mass Aves in DC) is General George Thomas, "The Rock of Chicamauga", who was born in Virginia but unlike many other southern-born U.S. commissioned officers took his oath seriously. Aftah tha wa-ah, he worked to advance freedmen's rights and to counter the emerging KKK and other redeemer forces in the South. He is buried in New York, none of his family attended, and they did not want him carried back to ol' Virginny. Among other things he wrote:
"T]he greatest efforts made by the defeated insurgents since the close of the war have been to promulgate the idea that the cause of liberty, justice, humanity, equality, and all the calendar of the virtues of freedom, suffered violence and wrong when the effort for southern independence failed. This is, of course, intended as a species of political cant, whereby the crime of treason might be covered with a counterfeit varnish of patriotism, so that the precipitators of the rebellion might go down in history hand in hand with the defenders of the government, thus wiping out with their own hands their own stains; a species of self-forgiveness amazing in its effrontery, when it is considered that life and property—justly forfeited by the laws of the country, of war, and of nations, through the magnanimity of the government and people—was not exacted from them.
— George Henry Thomas, November 1868.[34]
That would make a fine, fine plaque for the pediment, ne pensez pas? And it could have been written today, after more than a century of Daughters of the Confederacy treacle !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Henry_Thomas
Every administration of every city knows that a curfew is not going to be obeyed. Large groups of protesters are never going to be intimated by a curfew. Civil disobedience is the only weapon they have.
The real reason for a curfew is to give cover for those that like to
smack those blacks and hippies. L.A. grabbed twenty five hundred protesters last knight for curfew violation. How many were abused? To what end?
Curfews are an abuse excuse.
Let's see now.
In what other era and place have prison guards ahieved infamy?
The answer does not start with WWII, but that's not a bad place to begin answering the question, working both forward and backward in time.
I have known some prison guards, not bad people per se, but prisons naturally breed a culture antithetical to most provisions of the Bill of Rights, even more so than does civilian policing or military service.
Mr. Electrico/Driftglass linked this CNN story, in which various GOP Senators opine that Maddog's opinions don't 'mount to diddlysquat because, hey, it's politics.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/04/politics/republican-senators-reaction-mattis/index.html
The last timne I was up at the Senate (some time back) the committee seats had backs, but I don't think they really need them now, because you can just pour those spineless slugs into buckets and they'd be OK.
@Patrick
Liked you nomination of Gen. George Henry Thomas. Just as budgets reveal what we think important, our statues and building names tell us who we are.
As for "just politics" explaining anything, that's just another way of saying nothing but power means anything at all.
No wonder politics has a bad name. It's too often practiced by bad people. These days, they're mostly Republicans.
Ken,
I knew a prison guard some years ago. He was, not to put too fine a point on it, a real prick. He was younger than me but most guys in the neighborhood knew him as a bully and a sucker puncher who would mysteriously disappear when any real fighting started, fighting he often initiated. He wanted to become a cop but he was too much of a loose cannon even for city cops.
When he got the job at the state penitentiary, a mutual acquaintance told me that he’d found his dream job. A place where he could beat up on restrained and defenseless prisoners with no consequences. And he wasn’t the only one, apparently, who loved doing that. Now, I realize that there are probably decent people who work in prisons, but I’m betting there are a lot more like that guy. It’s a dangerous atmosphere and a culture of violence made much worse by the outrageous overcrowding promoted by policies championed by Republicans, which sent many to prison for minor offenses, which in turn promoted the hiring of violent assholes to deal with any problems (and cause a few of their own).
The thought that Trump and Barr are drafting creeps like that to crack heads out among civilians is just too much to handle.
Warden Trump is in his glory. Let heads be cracked for his further glorification.
My comment to the WAPO on Paul Waldman's op-ed, where he properly excoriated Tom Cotton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/04/tom-cottons-ugly-screed-hints-terrible-backlash-come/
"Paraphrasing Waldman, If Trump loses.....the conservative cry will be he was not tough enough.
If we read "tough" as autocratic and violent we see clearly how "conservatism" has evolved.
Two decades ago Republican losses were explained by saying that the candidates were not conservative enough. Not pure enough. But that purity test was primarily economic in nature, Pay as you go. Shrink government. Get off the back of business. And oh yeah, support family values (as long as those values don't (can't help myself here) cotton to abortion.
Now conservative purity is avowedly racist, violent and autocratic. Deficits don't matter and government must be big and powerful enough to crush all political opponents and all dissent.
Welcome to 2020 conservatism.
Earlier I should have said "devolved" from civilization to savagery."
Pass me the salt please, but at least they put some numbers together at the end of Dear Leaders physical this year,
https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/03/politics/donald-trump-annual-physical/index.html
What a missed opportunity! If DiJiT and Barr (Is he REALLY Roseanne's twin?) had waited until today for their flashbanggas assault on peaceful protesters in Lafayette Park (where Jackson is the central statue - go figure), the anniversary would be the same as China's TianAnMen Massacre, June 4. He and She (oops, Xi) could have chuckled over the coincidence, but Xi would be able to remind DiJiT that democracies don't get no tanks. Even so, the Park Police can do a fair imitation of cossacks or Qing cavalry.
States with Rt's at 1 or above now back up to 11.
Bobby Lee, you were right. Florida made the list.