;)
The Commentariat -- October 30, 2020
Late Morning Update:
From the New York Times' live election updates Friday: "Texas, a 2020 jump-ball state once considered a layup for Republicans, is shattering turnout records, with the number of early in-person and mail-in ballots now exceeding the total number of votes cast statewide in the 2016 election. Early-voting turnout has been enormous across the country, spurred by the coronavirus pandemic and one of the most bitterly contested presidential races in history, accelerating a years-in-the-making shift away from Election Day-only voting.... Though ... Senator Kamala Harris, is making a late swing through the state today, with visits to Houston, McAllen and Fort Worth, the Biden campaign has not put significant time or money into the state, arguing that it is a bad investment: Texas has multiple expensive media markets and is not an essential stop on Mr. Biden's path to 270 electoral votes." ~~~
~~~ Will Weissert & Paul Weber of the AP: "Texans have already cast more ballots in the presidential election than they did during all of 2016, an unprecedented surge of early voting in a state that was once the country's most reliably Republican, but may now be drifting toward battleground status.... Texas is the first state to hit the milestone. This year's numbers were aided by Democratic activists challenging in court for, and winning, the right to extend early voting by one week amid the coronavirus pandemic."
Mark Caputo & Matt Dixon of Politico: "Democrats are sounding the alarm about weak voter turnout rates in Florida's biggest county, Miami-Dade, where a strong Republican showing is endangering Joe Biden's chances in the nation's biggest swing state. No Democrat can win Florida without a huge turnout and big winning margins here to offset losses elsewhere in the state. But Democrats are turning out at lower rates than Republicans and at lower rates than at this point in 2016, when Hillary Clinton won by 29 percentage points here and still lost the state to Donald Trump.... Part of the problem, according to interviews with a dozen Democratic elected officials and operatives, is the Biden campaign's decision to discourage field staff from knocking on doors during the pandemic and its subsequent delay in greenlighting -- and funding -- a return to door-to-door canvassing."
Ron Suskind, in a long New York Times opinion piece, lays out some of the scenarios that Trump could instigate on November 4 if he doesn't rout Biden on November 3. What makes Suskind's projections all the more frightening is that they are not Suskind's ideas; they come from "senior officials, mainly in jobs that require Senate confirmation.... They are worried that the president could use the power of the government — the one they all serve or served within -- to keep himself in office or to create favorable terms for negotiating his exit from the White House." Mrs. McC: If you enjoy getting upset about speculations on what a madman might do, and in any case are beyond your control, this article is for you! OR, you might want to read it on the theory that forewarned is forearmed. The news that Trump is apparently cancelling his election-night victory party, which came out after Suskind wrote his piece, suggests to me that Trump indeed will be hunkered down with Jared, et al., in the White House, plotting his post-election strategy.
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Donald Trump Jr.'s rant on Fox “News” Thursday night was "a particularly vivid illustration of the true nature of the case his father is making for reelection, and why Americans should reject it.... The careful reader will note that, in addition to being dismissive about death numbers, he claimed the media is not discussing the 'almost nothing' death levels precisely because it's such an admirable accomplishment.... Media figures are hyping coronavirus as part of a broader effort to deliberately discourage Trump rallies, he and [host Laura] Ingraham agreed.... The idea that elites -- whether we're talking about scientists, media figures, Democratic governors, what have you -- are deliberately discouraging conservatives from associating with one another, that they are enemies of conservative community, is a mainstay of Trumpist propaganda.... [Junior] is telling us exactly what reelecting his father stands for: the proposition that the current level of viral spread, sickness, misery and death constitute an acceptable trade-off for resuming total normalcy and reaping the benefits of doing so, as if that were even possible amid pandemic conditions in the first place."
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Election 2020
Michael McDonald of the University of Florida is keeping track of early voting -- both mail-in and in-person -- state-by-state and, where available, by party affiliation. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As of Friday morning, more than 82 million people have voted.
The New York Times' live election updates Friday are here: "With Election Day less than 100 hours away, the Trump and Biden campaigns are fanning out across the crucial swing states that are likely to decide the race. The president will campaign in Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin on Friday, while Joseph R. Biden Jr. heads for Minnesota, Wisconsin and Iowa. ~~~
~~~ "President Trump has called off plans to appear at the Trump International Hotel [in Washington, D.C.,] on election night, and is likely to be at the White House instead, according to a person familiar with the plans."
Katie Glueck & Patricia Mazzai of the New York Times: "... the presidential battleground of Florida lured the two White House contenders to the same city [-- Tampa --] on Thursday, as President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. confronted some of their biggest political vulnerabilities in a state that is once again shaping up as the most elusive prize in next week's election. Mr. Trump returned to one of the tougher parts of the state for him four years ago, Tampa, one of the few areas he lost to Hillary Clinton in the vote-rich I-4 corridor.... Mr. Biden, in turn, faces an increasingly urgent need to build up his margins with Latinos, a diverse demographic in Florida that he has struggled to broadly galvanize so far. He made a blunt appeal to Cuban-Americans and Venezuelan-Americans, reminding them of human rights abuses in Havana and Caracas.... 'If we win Florida, it's game time, it's over, it's over,' Mr. Biden said as he swung through an outdoor campaign office in Fort Lauderdale earlier in the day."
Harry Stevens of the Washington Post: "Coronavirus cases are surging in every competitive state before Election Day, offering irrefutable evidence against President Trump's closing argument that the pandemic is nearly over and restrictions are no longer necessary. In the 13 states deemed competitive by the Cook Political Report, the weekly average of new cases reported daily has jumped 45 percent over the past two weeks.... 'The more the conversation is about the pandemic, the more that's going to mobilize Democratic turnout,' said [American University professor] Jan Leighley ..., an expert on voter turnout. Yet as the danger from the coronavirus mounts, so do concerns that voters in these crucial states may choose to avoid the polls rather than risk exposure. Others who contract the virus may remain in isolation as voting concludes."
Dr. Vin Gupta, speaking on MSNBC, noted that the states where it's hardest to avoid in-person voting are also the states where the lowest percentage of people wear masks.
Jeremy Merrill of The Markup: "The Markup analyzed every known Trump and Biden ad purchased between July 1, 2020, and Oct. 13, 2020, and found that Facebook has charged the presidential nominees wildly varying prices for their ads, with Biden paying, on average, nearly $2.50 more per 1,000 impressions than Trump. The difference was especially stark in advertisements aimed primarily at Facebook users in swing states in July and August, where Biden's campaign paid an average of $34.34 per 1,000 views, more than double Trump's average of $16.55.... [O]ver the course of tens of thousands of advertisements placed since July, Biden's higher average price means he has paid over $8 million more for his Facebook ads than he would have if he had been paying Trump's average price." --safari: Reminder that Facebook recently demanded NYU researchers cease scraping & analyzing this same data.
The New York Times' live election updates Thursday are here: "... Joseph R. Biden Jr. held a drive-in campaign event on the other side of Florida in the Democratic stronghold of Broward County, making an explicit pitch to Hispanic voters.... 'Cuba is no closer to freedom and democracy today than it was four years ago,' Mr. Biden, in shirt sleeves and sunglasses, said at Broward College's North Campus in Coconut Creek. 'In fact, there are more political prisoners and secret police are as brutal as ever, and Russia once again is a major presence in Havana.'... He also dismissed Mr. Trump's rally on the other side of the state as a 'super-spreader' event. ~~~
~~~ "Democrats braced on Thursday for what promised to be a rare good-news cycle for President Trump in the 2020 homestretch: the release of a report showing gross domestic product grew about 7 percent in the third quarter, or 30 percent on an annualized basis. But Mr. Trump, campaigning in Tampa just hours before Joseph R. Biden Jr. was set to appear at a rally across town, spent only about 10 minutes on the economy, calling the increase the 'biggest event in business' of the last 50 years. He quickly moved on, mocking Republicans who have repeatedly advised him to focus on his economic record.... Mr. Trump offered a rambling and confessional speech that began with vitriolic attacks on the media, a takedown of Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security official who penned an anonymous anti-Trump op-ed in The New York Times, and then segued into his typical wisecracks about Mr. Biden's mental acuity. Mr. Trump predicted a massive 'red wave,' that would sweep him to victory.... 'Could you imagine losing to this guy?' he asked about Mr. Biden." ~~~
~~~ Neither Cold Nor Rain. But Wind. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Nearly a dozen attendees at President Trump's rally in Tampa, Fla., on Thursday were sent to the hospital after waiting for hours in the steamy heat. The incident follows a similar weather-related occurrence at the president's rally in Omaha, Neb., on Tuesday evening, where hundreds of attendees were left waiting in the freezing cold after shuttle buses taking attendees to the rally were unable to return. At least seven people were reportedly hospitalized and 30 were treated on site after waiting in the cold weather. The Trump campaign has postponed a rally scheduled to take place in Fayetteville, N.C., on Thursday evening to Monday due to a wind advisory." Mrs. McC: Some might think the Fayetteville cancellation suggests Trump does care about his supporters, after all. I think not.
Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "Trailing in the polls and with little time left to change the trajectory or closing themes of the presidential race, President Trump has spent the final days of the campaign complaining that the coronavirus crisis is getting too much coverage -- and openly musing about losing. Trump has publicly lamented about what a loss would mean, spoke longingly of riding off into the sunset and made unsubstantiated claims that voter fraud could cost him the election. He has sarcastically threatened to fire state officials if he doesn't win and excoriated his rival Joe Biden as someone it would be particularly embarrassing to lose to.... His unscripted remarks bemoaning a potential loss -- and preemptively explaining why he might suffer one -- offer a window into his mind-set as he barnstorms the country in an attempt to keep himself from becoming the one thing he so derisively despises: a loser."
Paul Krugman of the New York Times turns to George Orwell's essay "Looking Back on the Spanish War" to evaluate Donald Trump's lies: "What Trump has been revealing, more clearly than ever before, is that he has a totalitarian mind-set.... He doesn't accept that there is such a thing as objective truth. There are things he wants to believe, and so he does; there are other things he doesn't want to believe, so he doesn't. What's scary about all this isn't just the possibility that Trump may yet win -- or steal -- a second term. It's the fact that almost his entire party, and tens of millions of voters, seem perfectly willing to follow him into the abyss. This strategy may or may not work; this year it probably won't. But either way, it will poison America's political life for many years to come." Orwell's essay is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I remain of the school that holds that Trump is merely a grotesque extension of the political party of lies. Because Republican goals are so self-serving & anti-democratic, Republicans have to lie in order to appeal to the broader public. This has been true for decades. Trump is merely a big, bumptious buffoon of a caricature of the GOP politician. Surprisingly, Republicans don't seem aware that Trump, for the moment, has exposed their scam. Luckily for them, voters have no long-term memory, and the next, smoother charlatan who comes along will turn their fat heads.
Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security's cybersecurity division is mounting the largest operation to secure a U.S. election, aiming to prevent a repeat of Russia's 2016 interference and to ward off new threats posed by Iran and China. On Election Day, DHS's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency will launch a 24/7 virtual war room, to which election officials across the nation can dial in at any time to share notes about suspicious activity and work together to respond. The agency will also pass along classified information from intelligence agencies about efforts they detect from adversaries seeking to undermine the election and advise states on how to protect against such attacks."
Florida. Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union: "A local judge and head of Duval County's [Jacksonville] vote-counting board has donated repeatedly to President Trump's re-election campaign and other Republican efforts, and his home is covered in signs supporting Trump, despite rules requiring judges like him refrain from donations or public support. Duval County senior Judge Brent Shorehas served as chairman of the canvassing board because of his role as a county judge. Yet judicial rules bar judges from political donations of any kind. And canvassing board rules bar members from 'displaying a candidate's campaign signs.'" The article includes a photo of Shore. His appearance is exactly what you would expect. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union: "Duval County Canvassing Board Chair Brent Shore has resigned from the board. Chief Judge Mark Mahon said that although Shore resigned, 'he indicated he has always conducted himself fairly and impartially.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Minnesota. Zach Montellaro of Politico: "A panel of federal appellate judges ruled Thursday that ballots that arrive after polls close in Minnesota on Election Day must be segregated from ballots that arrive earlier, suggesting that future rulings could invalidate the late-arriving ballots. In Minnesota, ballots are typically required to be returned to election officials by mail by the time polls close in order to count. But for the 2020 election, a consent decree agreed to by Secretary of State Steve Simon mandated that ballots postmarked on or before Election Day and received within seven days would count. The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals panel split 2-1 on its order that the late-arriving ballots be segregated, which would allow them to be removed from the final count if a court later threw them out. The judges ruled that the case was 'likely to succeed on the merits.'... Judges Bobby Shepherd, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, and Trump appointee L. Steven Grasz formed the majority. Judge Jane Kelly, who was appointed by former President Barack Obama, dissented." ~~~
~~~ "Outrageous." Rick Hasen: "The majority suggests that a consent decree extending the deadline for absentee ballots in Minnesota, entered into by the Secretary of State and plaintiffs and approved by a state court, usurps the power of the state legislature.... The court reached this conclusion despite the fact that the Legislature did not object..., that the Legislature delegated the power to the Secretary of State to take these steps, and despite the fact that we are on the eve of the election. This timing issue is doubly troubling. First, the Supreme Court has said that federal courts should be very wary of changing election rules just before the election.... More importantly..., Minnesota voters ... have been told until today that they have extra time to mail their ballots. Now there is the very real chance that those late-arriving ballots won't count through no fault of their own.... It is voters that are going to be on the short end of things."
North Carolina. John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Thursday denied a Republican bid to block a mail-ballot extension in North Carolina, a day after rejecting a similar GOP effort in the key battleground state. The court's three most conservative justices -- Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito -- would have granted the Republican request. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the bench Tuesday, took no part in considering the case. The voting breakdown mirrored that of a similar Wednesday night ruling in which the court rejected an effort by the Trump campaign and North Carolina Republicans to reverse a six-day mail ballot due date extension."
Donald Trump launched the biggest voter suppression campaign in U.S. history. -- Brian Williams, on MSNBC, Thursday night ~~~
~~~ David Siders & Zach Montellaro of Politico: "The president's inability to capture a majority of support sheds light on his extraordinary attempts to limit the number of votes cast across the battleground state map -- a massive campaign-within-a-campaign to maximize Trump's chances of winning a contest in which he's all but certain to earn less than 50 percent of the vote.... Never before in modern presidential politics has a candidate been so reliant on wide-scale efforts to depress the vote as Trump. 'What we have seen this year which is completely unprecedented ... is a concerted national Republican effort across the country in every one of the states that has had a legal battle to make it harder for citizens to vote,' said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain's two presidential campaigns."
** Pennsylvania. Trump's Plan to Steal the Election. Nick Corasaniti & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "President Trump's campaign in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania is pursuing a three-pronged strategy that would effectively suppress mail-in votes in the state, moving to stop the processing of absentee votes before Election Day, pushing to limit how late mail-in ballots can be accepted and intimidating Pennsylvanians trying to vote early.... The campaign's strategy is backed up by public statements from the president, who barnstormed the state on Monday and repeatedly made false claims about the security of voting in Pennsylvania along with ominous warnings. 'A lot of strange things happening in Philadelphia,' he said during a stop in Allentown. 'We're watching you, Philadelphia. We're watching at the highest level.'" Mrs. McC: Worth reading. Back in the heyday of city bosses, I thought Democrats' handing out "walking-around money" to buy votes was mighty dicey, but stopping voters from voting is even worse. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania state officials are in the extraordinary position of actively taking defensive steps to preempt a situation in which the Supreme Court helps Trump suppress untold numbers of lawfully cast ballots -- as Trump has openly declared he expects it to do.... Trump's open effort to conscript the Supreme Court is only the latest in a long line of efforts to bend the government and the machinery of justice toward his reelection. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. But, with a massive enough effort, it can be defeated." Sargent outlines a few scenarios where the confederate Supremes easily could rationalize throwing out some or all mail-in ballots. It's stomach-churning. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Wisconsin. Scott Bauer of the AP: "Hackers have stolen $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party's account that was being used to help reelect ... Donald Trump in the key battleground state, the party's chairman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The party noticed the suspicious activity on Oct. 22 and contacted the FBI on Friday, said Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ben Collins & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "One month before a purported leak of files from Hunter Biden's laptop, a fake 'intelligence' document about him went viral on the right-wing internet, asserting an elaborate conspiracy theory involving former Vice President Joe Biden's son and business in China. The document, a 64-page composition that was later disseminated by close associates of ... Donald Trump, appears to be the work of a fake 'intelligence firm' called Typhoon Investigations, according to researchers and public documents. The author of the document, a self-identified Swiss security analyst named Martin Aspen, is a fabricated identity, according to analysis by disinformation researchers, who also concluded that Aspen's profile picture was created with an artificial intelligence face generator. The intelligence firm that Aspen lists as his previous employer said that no one by that name had ever worked for the company and that no one by that name lives in Switzerland, according to public records and social media searches.... The document and its spread have become part of a wider effort to smear Hunter Biden and weaken Joe Biden's presidential campaign, which moved from the fringes of the internet to more mainstream conservative news outlets." See also the Daily Beast's story on Glenn Greenwald's resignation from the Intercept, linked at the bottom of this page. ~~~
~~~ It Once Was Lost & Now It's Found. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "A spokesman for UPS told The Daily Beast on Thursday that they had located a mysterious packaged that Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested had been deliberately misplaced or intercepted because it contained 'damning' materials on the Biden family. 'After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return,' the spokesman said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Georgia Senate Race. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "In the final 10 minutes of a blistering debate in the waning days of a tight race, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) on Wednesday night took aim at his Democratic opponent, Jon Ossoff, for his fundraising haul from out-of-state donors. 'They want this radical socialist agenda,' Perdue said. In response, Ossoff unleashed on Perdue over the GOP's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a topic the challenger spent most of the hour-long debate relentlessly hammering.... The heated exchange, which went viral in a Twitter clip that was viewed more than 3 million times as of early Thursday, illustrates a central challenge faced by vulnerable GOP senators forced to follow President Trump's lead in arguing that the pandemic is improving even as case numbers again significantly rise nationally." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The second part of this video consists of remarks by Brian Tyler Cohen. I was going to look for a different video of Ossoff's takedown of Perdue, but Cohen's remarks provide context for Ossoff's critique. AND he reveals what happened next: ~~~
~~~ Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The third and final televised debate in the race between U.S. Sen. David Perdue and Democrat Jon Ossoff was canceled Thursday after the Republican incumbent pulled out to join ... Donald Trump in a planned rally in northwest Georgia. The debate was scheduled weeks ago to air Sunday on Channel 2 WSB-TV, but Perdue backed out shortly after word spread that Trump would hold a rally for his reelection campaign in Rome the same day. Locked in a statistical tie in the polls, Ossoff accused the Republican of ducking another face-to-face meeting after 'millions saw that Perdue had no answers when I called him out on his record of blatant corruption, widespread disease and economic devastation' at a Wednesday debate. 'Shame on you,' Ossoff added."
Montana Gubernatorial Race. Oops! Jonah Bromwich & Ezra Marcus of the New York Times: "Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, on Thursday became the latest Republican politician to be fooled into making a campaign video on behalf of a Democrat. Mr. Christie is one of many of Mr. Trump's current and former associates available for hire on Cameo, an app that allows users to commission personalized videos from minor -- and increasingly major -- celebrities. The video, which cost $200, was framed as a jovial message to a person named Greg, who Mr. Christie was prompted to encourage to return to New Jersey, Greg's former home. What Mr. Christie did not know was that the video was meant for Greg Gianforte, the Republican nominee in Montana's governor's race. It was commissioned by the campaign of Mr. Gianforte's opponent, Mike Cooney." ~~~
a special message for @gregformontana pic.twitter.com/YEWM0dEi2S
— Mike Cooney (@CooneyforMT) October 29, 2020
Trump Is Corrupt. Trump Is a Corrupt Traitor. Eric Lipton & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times on how Donald Trump and some of his henchmen -- like Rudy Giuliani & Michael Flynn -- backed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey when Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Southern District of New York's attorney, wanted to further investigate & criminally prosecute members of Erdogan's family & political party & the Turkey-owned Halkbank. Trump got help, of course, from Attorney General Bill Barr & Acting AG Matt Whitaker. "At the White House, Mr. Trump's handling of the matter became troubling even to some senior officials at the time. The president was discussing an active criminal case with the authoritarian leader of a nation in which Mr. Trump does business; he reported receiving at least $2.6 million in net income from operations in Turkey from 2015 through 2018, according to tax records obtained by The New York Times.... Former White House officials said they came to fear that the president was open to swaying the criminal justice system to advance a transactional and ill-defined agenda of his own." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
All in the Family. Josh Lederman of NBC: "Less than three months after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was sworn in, his son, Nick, reached out to thank State Department officials for a private tour they had given him and his mother, Susan Pompeo, of the agency's in-house museum.... 'We view this as a family endeavor, so if you think there is any place I can add value, don't hesitate to reach out.' [Nick Pompeo wrote]... [I]n hundreds of pages of emails obtained by NBC News..., the Pompeos have repeatedly blurred the lines between official government business and domestic or personal matters.... Both Congress and the State Department's inspector general have been investigating potential misuse of government resources by Mike Pompeo and his wife...[who] routinely gives instructions to State Department officials from her personal email address[.]" --s
All the Best People, Ctd. Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection [Mark Morgan] railed against Twitter on Thursday after he said the social media platform locked his account for violating its policies on hate speech when he tweeted about the U.S.-Mexico border wall.... Screenshots of the tweet provided to the conservative site The Federalist and confirmed to Politico show Morgan's tweet hailed the efficacy of the border wall, saying that 'every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators and drugs from entering our country. It'a fact, walls work,' the tweet read. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that Morgan had been locked out of his account but said 'the decision was reversed following an appeal by the account owner and further evaluation from our team.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "Weeks after the Interior Department halted diversity training to comply with an executive order from President Trump a top assistant at the agency is under scrutiny for defending Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager accused of fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, WisThe official, Jeremy Carl, a newly appointed deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, also called peaceful Black Lives Matter protests racist and cited an opinion piece in a white supremacist publication, American Renaissance, to support an argument denouncing the anti-discrimination work of former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. American Renaissance, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, 'has been one of the vilest white nationalist publications, often promoting eugenics and blatant anti-black and anti-Latino racists.' Featured on the publication's website are articles such as 'Twelve Steps to White Recovery: Recovery from white conditioning' and 'The Dangers of Diversity: What happens when races mix.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: To be clear, then, Trump is not merely defending white supremacists as "very fine people"; he is giving them top political jobs in his "administration."
AND We Thought Trump Didn't Have a Second-Term Agenda. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "... Donald Trump's senior adviser Stephen Miller has fleshed out plans to rev up Trump's restrictive immigration agenda if he wins re-election next week, offering a stark contrast to the platform of Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In a 30-minute phone interview Thursday with NBC News, Miller outlined four major priorities: limiting asylum grants, punishing and outlawing so-called sanctuary cities, expanding the so-called travel ban with tougher screening for visa applicants and slapping new limits on work visas.... And he said he intends to stay on to see the agenda through in a second term if Trump is re-elected.... Miller has spearheaded an immigration policy that critics describe as cruel, racist and antithetical to American values as a nation of immigrants. He scoffs at those claims, insisting that his only priority is to protect the safety and wages of Americans."
Tom Philpott of Mother Jones: "On Oct. 27, a week before the final day of voting, Andrew Wheeler, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, [went to rural Georgia] to deliver the agency's much-awaited verdict of a controversial herbicide [called dicamba, made ... by chemical giants Bayer (formerly Monsanto) and BASF, and] widely used by the nation's cotton and soybean farmers, including Georgia's.... But ... the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco back in June, rul[ed] on a lawsuit filed by environmental and progressive farm groups: dicamba has a lavishly documented tendency to drift off-target and damage crops and other foliage in neighboring fields.... Citing the drift problem, the court vacated the EPA's previous approval of the Bayer and BASF products, making them illegal to use going forward.... The move marks the second time the Trump EPA has intervened on the side of gigantic global chemical company to keep a high-selling pesticide on the market over the objections of scientists." --s
Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department decided more than a year ago to effectively shut down its civil-rights investigation into the high-profile killing of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy carrying a pellet gun who was shot by a Cleveland police officer in 2014, according to people familiar with the matter. Career prosecutors had asked in 2017 to use a grand jury to gather evidence in their investigation, setting off tensions inside the department. In an unusual move, department supervisors let the request languish for two years before finally denying permission in August 2019, essentially ending the inquiry without fully conducting it. But more than a year later, the department has yet to take the bureaucratic steps to close the case.... And it has not told the Rice family or the public that it will not charge the police officer."
Vanessa Romo of the NPR: "Walmart pulled guns and ammunition from its store shelves as a precautionary measure, following the unrest in Philadelphia this week after police fatally shot a Black man more than a dozen times on Monday. Both weapons and bullets are still available for purchase in the stores that carry them, but customers will have to specifically request the items as opposed to grabbing them from display shelves. 'It's important to note that we only sell firearms in approximately half of our stores, primarily where there are large concentrations of hunters, sportsmen, and sportswomen,' a Walmart spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. The retail giant operates 4,700 stores in the U.S."
Kenny Jacoby & Ryan Gabrielson of ProPublica: "Introduced in memory of a young woman murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Marsy's Law was created to offer crime victims a slate of rights, including protecting them and their families from harassment by their attackers. Now, as police across the nation face cries for accountability amid mounting evidence of brutality and systemic racism, law-enforcement agencies in Florida are using Marsy's Law to shield officers after they use force, sometimes under questionable circumstances.... Marsy's Law passed first in California in 2008 and, through a well-funded campaign by the woman's brother, is the law in 11 other states. It happened each time by ballot initiative, allowing voters to adopt all of its implications with a single yes.... The law increasingly has been co-opted by police.... At least half of Florida's 30 largest police agencies said they apply it to shield the names of on-duty officers, a USA Today and ProPublica investigation found."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "On Thursday, the country recorded at least 90,000 new cases (that's the equivalent of more than one per second) and crossed the threshold of nine million cases since the start of the pandemic.Over the past week, the United States has recorded more than 500,000 new cases, averaging more than 77,000 a day, and nine states reported daily records on Thursday.... Daily reports of deaths from the virus remain far below their spring peaks, averaging around 800 a day, but those, too, have started to tick upward.... Reports of new cases are increasing in 42 states.
"As the nation heads into what some public health experts warn could be a 'dark winter' of coronavirus illness and death, a growing cadre is coalescing around Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s call for a 'national mask mandate,' even as they concede such an effort would require much more than the stroke of a presidential pen. Over the past week, a string of prominent public health experts -- notably Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of food and drugs under President Trump -- have said it is time to seriously consider a national mandate to curb the spread of the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times maps the surge.
Jim Salter of the AP (Oct. 23): "With the number of coronavirus patients requiring hospitalization rising at alarming levels, Missouri and perhaps a handful of other states are unable to post accurate data on COVID-19 dashboards because of a flaw in the federal reporting system.... But The COVID Tracking Project said in a blog post that it has 'identified five other states with anomalies in their hospitalization figures' that could be tied to the HHS reporting problem. The project noted that the number of reported intensive care unit patients in Kansas had decreased from 80 to one without explanation. It said Wisconsin's hospitalization figures stayed unexpectedly flat while other indicators worsened. And it said Georgia, Alabama, and Florida reported only partial updates to hospitalization data." --s
"Essential Worker" MIA. Adam Cancryn & Dan Goldberg of Politico: "When Vice President Mike Pence first took charge of the White House's coronavirus task force, among his earliest moves was establishing a standing call with all 50 governors aimed at closely coordinating the nation's pandemic fight. Yet as the U.S. confronts its biggest Covid-19 surge to date, Pence hasn't attended one of those meetings in over a month. Pence -- who has been touting the Trump administration's response effort on the campaign trail for weeks -- is not expected to be on the line again Friday, when the group holds its first governors call since Oct. 13, said a person with knowledge of the plan. It's a prolonged absence that represents just the latest sign of the task force's diminished role in the face of the worsening public health crisis it was originally created to combat.... [Pence's] presence on the campaign trail ... has dismayed public health officials, coming soon after five members of his inner circle contracted Covid-19." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember that the White House's phony excuse for sending pence out on the campaign trail in flagrant violation of CDC guidelines was that he was an essential worker. The kicker is that it turns out he is not even doing his "essential work"; rather, Typhoid Mike is is doing "work" that is not part of his job, description but is in his own self-interest & against the interests of the people around the country with whom he comes into contact.
Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "Donald Trump Jr. brushed off concerns about the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, blithely claiming that deaths from the virus have dropped to 'almost nothing' on a day when more than 1,000 Americans died from the outbreak. Appearing on Fox News' The Ingraham Angle, Trump's eldest son slammed CNN for calling out his father's mostly maskless, non-socially distanced campaign rallies as potential super-spreader events.... 'These people, these people are truly morons,' a somewhat manic Trump Jr. told host Laura Ingraham, hitting back at CNN." Update: a Washington Post story is here.
"Ursula Perano of Axios: "Former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. announced Thursday that he had filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that it had 'needlessly injured and damaged his reputation' after his resignation earlier this year.... Falwell resigned in August after a series of controversial scandals culminated in a Reuters story alleging that he and his wife had a years-long intimate relationship with a business partner." Mrs. McC: Uh, Jerry, it might not be the school that damaged your reputation. Check your mirror. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
"Incredibly Sad News." Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice: "In news that I'm sure will have everyone here incredibly sad, Glenn Greenwald; professional contrarian; faux erudite bullshit artist; asshole; seemingly unaware Russian intelligence dupe; professional victim of everyone else's intolerance, shortsightedness, stupidity, and inability to appreciate his brilliance; and person running an investigative journalism venture built on his reputation of publishing information provided by leakers; but unable to actually protect one of the leakers because he never actually established any standard operating procedures to vet and protect leakers and he and his crack team are morons; has quit The Intercept.... As you can imagine, he wasted over 10,000 words in his diatribe against the publication he established with someone else's money for not letting him do whatever it is he wanted to do because they are all a bunch of partisan hacks and don't understand Glenn's genius for producing overwrought garbage." Mrs. McC: Thank you, Adam, for saying it so much better than I could have. ~~~
~~~ Well, Andrew Sullivan is upset. And so is Donald Trump, Jr. Thanks to Robert Farley in LG&$ for these links. ~~~
~~~ Maxwell Tani & Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast write a straight report on Greenwald's resignation: "Glenn Greenwald on Thursday announced that he had resigned from The Intercept -- the digital outlet he founded in 2013 with fellow journalists Laura Poitras and Jeremy Scahill, and with funding from First Look Media -- claiming 'repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity' at the publication. In response, the outlet disputed his claims of censorship and suggested his exit was essentially 'a grown man throwing a tantrum.'" Greenwald was pissed, according to the Intercept's editor-in-chief Betsy Klein, because the Intercept's editors asked him "to support his claims and innuendo about corrupt actions by Joe Biden with evidence."
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