The Commentariat -- September 8, 2020

New Hampshire's Democratic primary is today.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Michael Wilson of the New York Times: "The police chief of Rochester, N.Y., and several of his department's highest ranking officials resigned on Tuesday in the aftermath of the death of Daniel Prude, a Black man who suffocated after he had been placed in a hood by city police officers and pinned to the ground. The resignations of the police chief, La'Ron D. Singletary, the deputy chief, Joseph Morabito, and, according to Mayor Lovely Warren, others in the department, came three days after the state attorney general, Letitia James, announced that she would impanel a grand jury to consider evidence in Mr. Prude's death. 'As a man of integrity, I will not sit idly by while outside entities attempt to destroy my character,' the police chief said in a statement. He later added: 'The mischaracterization and the politicization of the actions that I took after being informed of Mr. Prude's death is not based on facts, and is not what I stand for.'"

When Is a Denial Not a Denial? Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The White House is in full denial mode about the damning report first published last week in the Atlantic that President Trump had repeatedly denigrated members of the military and the nation's war dead. But as allies -- and one prominent erstwhile ally -- stepped forward to offer versions of events similar to the line touted by the White House, it's worth emphasizing that not all denials are created equal. Some address only specific aspects of the report, while leaving open the possibility that others are true or that such things were said at other points. Others vouch for Trump while very notably declining to address anything specific.... Let's look at what [those who supposedly vouched for Trump] ... have said."

Katherine Wu of the New York Times: "As the world awaits the arrival of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, a team of researchers has come forward with a provocative new theory: that masks might help to crudely immunize some people against the virus.... Masked exposures are no substitute for a bona fide vaccine. But data from animals infected with the coronavirus, as well as insights gleaned from other diseases, suggest that masks, by cutting down on the number of viruses that encounter a person's airway, might reduce the wearer's chances of getting sick. And if a small number of pathogens still slip through, the researchers argue, these might prompt the body to produce immune cells that can remember the virus and stick around to fight it off again."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "As senators returned to Washington on Tuesday, their leader, Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky, announced that the Senate would vote to advance a scaled-back stimulus plan, which is expected to reinstate lapsed federal unemployment benefits at $300 per week -- half their previous level -- and allocate $105 billion for schools and funds for testing and the Postal Service, according to Republican aides familiar with the discussions. The plan represents an effort to intensify pressure on Democratic leaders who want to fully restore the $600 unemployment benefits and have refused to consider any measure below $2.2 trillion."

Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "The chief executives of nine drug companies pledged Tuesday not to seek regulatory approval before the safety and efficacy of their experimental coronavirus vaccines have been established in Phase 3 clinical trials, an extraordinary effort to bolster public faith in a vaccine amid President Trump's rush to introduce one before Election Day.... Trump has increasingly tied his reelection hopes to introduction of a vaccine before Nov. 3.... The [drugmakers'] statement left open the door for the use of partial data from the massive Phase 3 vaccine trials -- which require the participation of at least 30,000 test subjects -- to seek emergency-use authorization. Such trials typically take years to complete and require lengthy follow-up to see how long protection from a vaccine may last." A Hill report is here.

So here are Kamala & Barack chatting happily about Joe: ~~~

~~~ AND here is Donald sending out tweets endorsing violence, complete with graphic videos: ~~~

~~~ Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.... Over the holiday weekend..., he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire. One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song 'Footloose' and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer. 'These are the Democrats "peaceful protests,"' Trump wrote. 'Sick!' On Monday, he retweeted a prediction that political unrest 'could lead to "rise of citizen militias around the country."'" ~~~

~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump's refusal to pointedly denounce right-wing vigilantes has alarmed many national security veterans who are warning that political violence in America could quickly spiral out of control. In an interview with Vanity Fair, former Homeland Security Department Under Secretary for Intelligence John Cohen warned that Trump was setting the stage for sectarian conflict on American streets when he justified his own supporters taking the law into their own hands.... Trump recently told Fox News that he would prefer professional law enforcement control violent protests, but added that 'my supporters are wonderful, hardworking, tremendous people, and they turn on their television set and they look at a Portland or they look at a Kenosha'''. They are looking at all of this and they can't believe it.' The president has also defended supporter Kyle Rittenhouse, who has been charged with first-degree murder after he fatally shot two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin last month."

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump has reportedly been weighing whether to invest up to $100 million of his own money in his 2020 reelection campaign. Trump 'has talked about the idea with multiple people, though he hasn't yet committed to any self-funding,' according to a Tuesday report from Bloomberg. 'Trump has sought advice about whether he should self-fund as he scrutinizes heavy spending by his team earlier this year that failed to push him ahead of the former vice president in the polls,' Bloomberg reported, noting that Democrats and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden 'have recently raised more than Trump and his allies.'" Related NYT story linked below. ~~~

~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump defended his campaign's financial decision-making on Tuesday, after a report provoked new scrutiny of his reelection team's spending habits and squandered cash advantage over Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. 'My Campaign spent a lot of money up front in order to compensate for the false reporting and Fake News concerning our handling of the China Virus,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Now they see the GREAT job we have done, and we have 3 times more than we had 4 years ago - & are up in polls. Lots of $'s & ENERGY!'... The president's ... post came after The New York Times published a review on Monday detailing how the Trump campaign has already spent more than $800 million of the $1.1 billion it raised in coordination with the Republican National Committee from the beginning of 2019 through July. The Times report raised questions about former campaign manager Brad Parscale's financial stewardship of Trump's war chest.... Among the campaign's expenses were a car and driver for Parscale, who was replaced atop the campaign in July by Bill Stepien." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Trump thinks $100MM is the price of a "Stay out of Jail" card; that is, if he is re-elected, his chances of ending up in a New York jail diminish considerably. However, can he afford it? ~~~

~~~ Dan Alexander of Forbes: Donald Trump's "net worth has dropped an estimated $600 million since last September, to $2.5 billion. That puts him at No. 339 on The Forbes 400, down 64 spots from a year ago."

Trump v. Obama, Then & Now. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The imminent release of a memoir written by President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen drew new attention to a weird footnote from the 2012 campaign: a video produced by Trump in which he 'fires' then-president Barack Obama.... Watching the video now is revelatory. It's Trump, making the case to an Obama impersonator for why Obama doesn't deserve a second term. And the metrics he uses to make that case are ones against which Trump himself now fares particularly poorly."

Robyn Dixon & Ruby Mellen of the Washington Post: "Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned last month with a nerve agent similar to the Soviet-era chemical weapon Novichok, was brought out of an induced coma, and his condition has improved, German doctors said Monday. A statement from the Charité clinic in Berlin said he was responding to voices, but it was too early to know the long-term impact of the poisoning. The clinic's statement said that Navalny, an acerbic critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was being weaned off a ventilator."

Presidential Race

Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Joe Biden spent Monday in Harrisburg, Pa., the first of two Pennsylvania visits on his schedule this week. Recent polls have shown the race tightening in that state, which Trump took by fewer than 70,000 votes in 2016. Both Biden and Trump will visit Shanksville, Pa., on Friday to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The Democratic ticket has maintained a clear geographic focus in its first few weeks, holding multiple virtual events geared toward Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Florida -- battleground states likely to determine the ticket's fate in November.... Sen. Kamala D. Harris visited Milwaukee on Monday for her first in-person campaign stop since being named the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, highlighting the campaigns' continued convergence on Wisconsin, the epicenter of ongoing protests against police violence and a state President Trump won by fewer than 30,000 votes in 2016. Hours after Vice President Pence toured an energy facility in La Crosse -- and just days after Biden himself visited Kenosha and Milwaukee -- Harris toured an International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers training facility and held a roundtable with Black business owners in Milwaukee.... Harris began the visit with a private meeting with the family of Jacob Blake, the Black man left paralyzed after police shot him seven times in Kenosha last month. Members of his legal team were also in attendance.... According to a statement released by Blake's attorney Ben Crump, Blake told Harris he was proud of her."

David Smith of the Guardian: "After turning the south lawn into a convention stage last month, Donald Trump held a surprise press conference-cum-campaign event on Monday at the White House's front door.... Despite the lofty surroundings, the president dropped all pretense of rising above the political hurly-burly. Over 46 minutes, he branded ... Joe Biden 'stupid', falsely accused Biden and ... Kamala Harris of peddling anti-vaccination conspiracy theories, and unleashed a torrent of half-truths and non-truths. But unlike the loyalists on the south lawn for the convention speech, or the devotees who gather at Trump's increasingly frequent airport-hangar rallies, there was a stony silence from mask-wearing reporters sitting under columns, ornate carvings and a giant lamp on the White House driveway.... Trump wanted to use Labor Day to boast about economic recovery. The numbers are 'terrific', he said. 'We are in the midst of the fastest economic recovery in US history,' he claimed. Some 10.6m jobs had been added since May, he said, though he did not acknowledge nearly half the jobs lost in the pandemic had still not returned.... No mention of the more than 100,000 small businesses that shut down or the unemployment benefits that had expired for millions of Americans." Read on. Also, there are several related stories linked below.

Darlene Superville of the AP: "The prospect of a vaccine to shield Americans from coronavirus infection emerged Monday as a point of contention in the White House race as ... Donald Trump [Mrs. McC: falsely] accused Democrats of 'disparaging' for political gain a vaccine he repeatedly has said could be available before the election [at his fake briefing Monday.]... Trump insisted he hasn't said a vaccine could be ready before November, although he has said so repeatedly and as recently as Friday. The president then proceeded to say what he had just denied ever saying. 'What I said is by the end of the year, but I think it could even be sooner that that,' he said about a vaccine. 'It could be during the month of October, actually could be before November.'"

Gabby Orr of Politico: "With minimal hope for further coronavirus relief from Congress, the White House is pressing ahead with a revised pitch to voters at the outset of the fall campaign season: American grit will keep the economy afloat, not the government. It was this message that Vice President Mike Pence brought to voters in the all-important swing state of Wisconsin on Labor Day, the unofficial start of the final sprint before the 2020 election. Schools may remain shuttered, a congressional aid package is likely a lost cause, and there's no guarantee of a Covid-19 vaccine before the end of the year. Yet Pence pressed on with a positive message about declining unemployment, the headline-making August jobs report and downtrends in coronavirus infection rates across states that faced major outbreaks earlier this summer."

Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Brad Parscale, [Donald Trump's] former campaign manager, liked to call Mr. Trump's re-election war machine an 'unstoppable juggernaut.' But interviews with more than a dozen current and former campaign aides and Trump allies, and a review of thousands of items in federal campaign filings, show that the president's campaign and the R.N.C. developed some profligate habits as they burned through hundreds of millions of dollars. Since Bill Stepien replaced Mr. Parscale in July, the campaign has imposed a series of belt-tightening measures that have reshaped initiatives, including hiring practices, travel and the advertising budget.... Of the $1.1 billon his campaign and the party raised from the beginning of 2019 through July, more than $800 million has already been spent. Now some people inside the campaign are forecasting what was once unthinkable: a cash crunch with less than 60 days until the election, according to Republican officials briefed on the matter." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't worry. Trump knows just what to do. Declare bankruptcy & don't pay the vendors, just as did so often in the good ole days.

Trump Tries to Prove He Would Never Insult the Military by Insulting the Military. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump accused the top brass of the Department of Defense of needlessly waging wars to boost the profits of defense contractors during a Labor Day press conference held at the White House. 'I'm not saying the military's in love with me, the soldiers are, the top people in the Pentagon probably aren't because they want to do nothing but fight wars so that all of those wonderful companies that make the bombs and make the planes and make everything else stay happy,' Trump argued. There was widespread shock over Trump's accusation.... 'In an unprecedented public attack by a sitting US president on the leadership of the US military, President Trump has accused US military leaders of seeking to start wars to boost the profits of defense contractors,' CNN national security reporter Ryan Browne tweeted. '... President Trump has appointed all the top level people at the Pentagon, which includes both uniformed military officers and civilian personnel, Browne noted.... 'What's also notable about Trump now railing against the "military industrial complex" is that he spent most of his first term touting how much funding he got for the military for those very same planes and bombs,' [Abby Phillip of CNN tweeted]." A CNN story is here.

Apparently He Sounds Better in the Original German. Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: Donald "Trump is emerging as a kind of cult figure in Germany's increasingly varied far-right scene. 'Trump has become a savior figure, a sort of great redeemer for the German far right,' said Miro Dittrich, an expert on far-right extremism at the Berlin-based Amadeu-Antonio-Foundation.... His message of disruption — his unvarnished nationalism and tolerance of white supremacists coupled with his skepticism of the pandemic;s dangers -- is spilling well beyond American shores, extremism watchers say. In a fast-expanding universe of disinformation, that message holds real risks for Western democracies, they say, blurring the lines between real and fake news, allowing far-right groups to extend their reach beyond traditional constituencies and seeding the potential for violent radicalization."

Nikki Ramirez in Business Insider: "The belief that immigrants arrive in the United States with the intent to 'steal' has been ubiquitous in right-wing politics for decades: Immigrants have been accused of stealing jobs, stealing tax dollars, and stealing benefits. But lately, some of the GOP's most stalwart voices have drummed up a more explicit accusation that immigrants are here to steal the very essence of America and replace it with something foreign -- an idea plucked directly from far-right-wing media.... Often intermingled with a "white genocide' conspiracy theory, it proposes that a variety of factors, such as an influx of nonwhite immigrants, multiculturalism, and falling birthrates among white Europeans, will result in white populations losing their position as the dominant demographic.... [The movement] seeks to mobilize believers into action against their supposed 'replacement.'... Elements of the "great replacement" conspiracy theory have also recently appeared in the statements of prominent conservative politicians [like] Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL).... Fox News is home to a near-constant stream of claims that America is being subjected to an immigrant invasion.'"

Andrew Selsky of the AP: "Hundreds of people gathered Monday afternoon in a small town south of Portland for a pro-President ... Trump vehicle rally -- just over a week after member of a far-right group was fatally shot after a Trump caravan went through Oregon's largest city. Later, pro-Trump supporters and counter-protesters clashed at Oregon's Capitol [Salem]. Vehicles waving flags for Trump, the QAnon conspiracy theory and in support of police gathered about noon at Clackamas Community College in Oregon City. The rally's organizers said they would drive to toward the state capital, Salem, and most left the caravan before that. A smaller group of members of the right-wing group the Proud Boys went on to Salem, where a crowd of several dozen pro-Trump supporters had gathered. At one point Monday afternoon, the right-wing crowd rushed a smaller group of Black Lives Matters counter-demonstrators, firing paint-gun pellets at them. There were skirmishes, and the Black Lives Matter group dispersed shortly after local police arrived on the scene."

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "House Democrats are launching an investigation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and called for his immediate suspension following accusations that he reimbursed employees for campaign contributions they made to his preferred GOP politicians, an arrangement that would be unlawful. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement late Monday that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which she chairs, would begin an investigation, saying that DeJoy may have lied to her committee under oath. Maloney also urged the Board of Governors of the U.S. Postal Service to immediately suspend DeJoy, whom 'they never should have hired in the first place,' she said."

Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump says he's open to an investigation of Postmaster General Louis DeJoy following published reports that former employees of DeJoy, a major donor to Trump and other Republicans, said they felt pressured to make campaign contributions to GOP candidates. The president also said Monday that DeJoy should lose his job if campaign finance irregularities are uncovered while describing the GOP fundraiser as a 'very honest guy.' Trump replied 'sure, sure' when asked at a news conference whether he would support an investigation into DeJoy. DeJoy already faces unrelated scrutiny from Congress for U.S. Postal Service changes that some fear will slow delivery of mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 elections." A Washington Post story is here.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Hey, Kids, It's Back-to-School Day! ~~~

     ~~~ Sorry, Kid. Donald Trump Will Not Call on You. Here's Trump at his "briefing" yesterday: ~~~

The Washington Post's live updates for coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "From Memorial Day weekend through the unofficial end of the season Monday, the number of Americans who died of covid-19 shot up from just under 100,000 to more than 186,000, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, as infections more than quadrupled to upward of 6.2 million."

Fake Author of "Art of the Deal" Too Good to Deal as Americans Suffer. Orion Rummler of Axios: "President Trump told reporters at a Labor Day briefing on Monday that he is 'taking the high road' by not meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats to negotiate the next coronavirus stimulus package.... Unemployment benefits have expired for millions of Americans, but House Democrats and the White House are no closer to a deal -- while nearly one in eight households are struggling to get enough to eat.... 'I don't need to meet with them to be turned down,' Trump told reporters. 'They don't want to make a deal because they think if the country does as badly as possible ... that's good for the Democrats.'"

The Rich Get Richer & the Poor Get Poorer. Megan Cassella of Politico: "The path toward economic recovery in the U.S. has become sharply divided, with wealthier Americans earning and saving at record levels while the poorest struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table. The result is a splintered economic picture characterized by high highs -- the stock market has hit record levels -- and incongruous low lows: Nearly 30 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits, and the jobless rate stands at 8.4 percent. And that dichotomy, economists fear, could obscure the need for an additional economic stimulus that most say is sorely needed. The trend is on track to exacerbate dramatic wealth and income gaps in the U.S., where divides are already wider than any other nation in the G-7.... Spiraling inequality can also contribute to political and financial instability, fuel social unrest and extend any economic recession. The growing divide could also have damaging implications for ... Donald Trump's reelection bid. Economic downturns historically have been harmful if not fatal for incumbent presidents, and Trump's base of working-class, blue-collar voters in the Midwest are among the demographics hurting the most." ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Are you better off now than you were in July?... Stocks are up; the economy added more than a million jobs in 'August'...; preliminary estimates suggest that G.D.P. is growing rapidly in the third quarter, which ends this month. But the stock market isn't the economy: more than half of all stocks are owned by only 1 percent of Americans, while the bottom half of the population owns only 0.7 percent of the market.... What Friday's [jobs] report actually gave us was a snapshot of the state of the labor market around Aug. 12.... The next employment report, which will be based on data collected this week ... will probably (not certainly) be weaker than the last.... And the situation remains dire for the hardest-hit workers.... One disturbing fact about the August report was that average wages rose.... Rising average wages at this point are a sign that those who really need jobs aren't getting them. So the economy is still bypassing those who need a recovery most. Yet most of the safety net that temporarily sustained the economic victims of the coronavirus has been torn down."

I'm Going to Disneyland --! To Get Covid. Tarpley Hitt of the Daily Beast: "... the Downtown Disney district [in Disneyland Anaheim] had no on-site testing. In a letter to the unions in June, Disney Labor Relations Director Bill Pace called testing 'not viable' and prone to 'false negatives,' in spite of the fact that it has been implemented in Orlando. Likewise, the district did not contain its visitors, but allowed streams of thousands to pass in and out of the area with little more than a temperature check. But the most alarming difference, cast members told The Daily Beast, involved the district's shadowy contact tracing. Four sources familiar with the matter told The Daily Beast that Disney has kept the total number of positive cases at the district under wraps, alerting unions only to the positive test results of their members -- often days after the fact, risking further exposure.... 'We want to know if any cast members have tested positive. But Disney has taken the position that they're only going to tell us if our cast members do,' said Matt Bell, a spokesperson for UFCW Local 324, one of a dozen unions representing workers, or 'cast members,' at Disneyland."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Belarus. Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "A leading opposition activist and several other members of an opposition council in Belarus went missing Monday and their colleagues feared they were detained as part of the authorities' efforts to squelch nearly a month of protests against the re-election of the country's authoritarian leader. Maria Kolesnikova, a member of the Coordination Council created by the opposition to facilitate talks with President Alexander Lukashenko on a transition of power, was reportedly put on a minibus in the capital, Minsk, and driven away by unidentified people. Her disappearance follows a massive rally Sunday that drew an estimated 100,000 protesters pushing for the resignation of Lukashenko, who extended his 26-year rule in the Aug. 9 election that the opposition sees as rigged." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: The Belarus Government Tells a Different Story. Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "A Belarus opposition leader [Maria Kolesnikova] who played a key role in leading recent anti-government street protests was arrested after she resisted being expelled to neighboring Ukraine early Tuesday, according to Ukrainian authorities. The Belarus state news agency maintained that she was arrested while trying to leave the country.... Ivan Kravtsov, a member of the opposition Coordinating Council and Anton Rodnenkov, its spokesman, were also seized Monday." A Guardian story is here.

U.K. London Bridges Falling Down. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "... Hammersmith Bridge, a majestic but badly corroded 19th-century suspension bridge that connects the district of Barnes with much of London, was closed last month for safety reasons.... Two major crossings in the city center, Vauxhall Bridge and London Bridge, are closed to car traffic while they receive urgent repairs. Tower Bridge, the very symbol of London, was closed for two days last month after a mechanical glitch jammed its drawbridge open.... Hammersmith Bridge is an apt metaphor for all the ways the country has changed after a decade of economic austerity, years of political wars over Brexit, and months of lockdown to combat the pandemic, the last of which has decimated already-stressed public finances." Mrs. McC: Apparently our "special relationship" with Britain extends to a shared dedication to neglecting vital infrastructure.

News Lede

AP: "Helicopters rescued more people from wildfires Tuesday as flames chewed through bone-dry California after a scorching Labor Day weekend that saw a dramatic airlift of more than 200 people and ended with the state's largest utility turning off power to 172,000 customers to try to prevent more blazes. Three early morning helicopter flights pulled another 35 people from the Sierra National Forest, the California National Guard said. California has already set a record with 2 million acres (809,000 hectares) burned this year, and the worst part of the wildfire season is just beginning. The previous record was set just two years ago and included the deadliest wildfire in state history, which swept through the community of Paradise and killed 85 people."

The Commentariat -- September 7, 2020

Presidential Race, Etc.

Alexander Burns, et al., of the New York Times: "A presidential campaign long muffled by the coronavirus pandemic will burst into a newly intense and public phase after Labor Day, as Joseph R. Biden Jr. moves aggressively to defend his polling lead against a ferocious onslaught by President Trump aimed chiefly at white voters in the Midwest. Private polls conducted for both parties during and after their August conventions found the race largely stable but tightening slightly in some states, with Mr. Trump recovering some support from conservative-leaning rural voters who had drifted away over the summer amid the worsening pandemic. Yet Mr. Biden continues to enjoy advantages with nearly every other group, especially in populous areas where the virus remains at the forefront for voters, according to people briefed on the data."

Matt Viser & Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "In an urban church near looted downtown buildings in Kenosha, Wis., Joe Biden told the diverse group in the pews that President Trump was the accelerant for the country's burning racial divide. An hour later, in a leafy Milwaukee suburb that is 90 percent White, Biden discussed the challenges of going back to school when districts are struggling to reopen -- a problem they wouldn't have, he said, if Trump hadn't bungled the coronavirus response. The next day, Biden said in a nationally televised speech that the nation's recovery would be racing ahead if not for one man, Trump, whose coronavirus response he said cratered the economy.... Biden has settled on a through line meant to appeal to everyone: Trump is the reason for all of America's most pressing ills, no matter which one matters most to a specific audience." Mrs. McC: That works for me. Because it's true.

Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris said she believes Russian interference could cost the Democratic ticket the White House, when paired with President Trump's attacks on the credibility of the voting system. Harris, in a CNN interview that aired Sunday, said she is certain that Russia is actively trying to interfere, as U.S. intelligence officials have said. 'I am clear that Russia interfered in the election of president of the United States in 2016,' the senator from California said. 'I serve on the Senate Intelligence Committee. We have published detailed reports about exactly what we believe happened. And I do believe that there will be foreign interference in the 2020 election, and that Russia will be at the front of the line.'"

Amazing Grace. Ann Colwell of CNN: "Anita Hill never pictured herself voting for Joe Biden. But given the political reality the nation is facing, she's not only going to vote for Biden -- she's also willing to work with him, should he become president. 'Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those -- at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,' Hill told CNN's Gloria Borger. But it's not just because he's running against Donald Trump, she adds. 'Its more about the survivors of gender violence. That's really what it's about.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump & the Lying Liars Who Lie. Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "For President Trump and his allies, it was a week spent spreading doctored and misleading videos. On Aug. 30, the president retweeted footage of a Black man violently pushing a White woman on a subway platform under the caption, 'Black Lives Matter/Antifa' -- but the man was not affiliated with either group, and the video was shot in October. White House social media director Dan Scavino shared a manipulated video that falsely showed ... Joe Biden seeming to fall asleep during a television interview, complete with a fake TV headline.And Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the second-ranking House Republican, released a video splicing together quotes from activist Ady Barkan ... to falsely make it sound as if he had persuaded Biden to defund police departments. For the president and his top supporters, it was a campaign push brimming with disinformation -- disseminating falsehoods and trafficking in obfuscation at a rapid clip, through the use of selectively edited videos, deceptive retweets and false statements.... Trump has built a political career around falsehoods...." Parker cites many, many more instances of Trump's campaign lies & deceptions. ~~~

~~~ John Harwood of CNN: "From the outset of Donald Trump's presidency, Americans have told pollsters they consider him dishonest. That makes his re-election campaign entirely on-brand. In ways large and small, in targeted advertising and public remarks, Trump has made deceit the hallmark of his bid for a second term.... Trump uses outright fabrications against Democratic rival Joe Biden.... Trump falsely describes the conditions he inherited and presides over today.... On the core 2020 campaign issues -- coronavirus, the economy, and racial justice protests -- he offers fables.... Some falsehoods have grown ... familiar.... Trump says his border wall with Mexico 'will soon be complete' (just five miles of all-new border barriers have been built), that his tariffs bring billions into the US Treasury from China (American purchasers of Chinese imports pay them) and that he 'essentially' kept his promise to kill Obamacare (seven states have expanded Medicaid under Obamacare provisions during his presidency)." And so forth.

Peter Baker of the New York Times Gets Real: "Not in generations has a sitting president so overtly declared himself the candidate of white America.... After a summer when hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets protesting racial injustice against Black Americans, President Trump has made it clear over the last few days that, in his view, the country's real race problem is bias against white Americans. Just days after returning from Kenosha, Wis., where he staunchly backed law enforcement and did not mention the name of Jacob Blake, the Black man shot seven times in the back by the police, Mr. Trump issued an order on Friday to purge the federal government of racial sensitivity training that his White House called 'divisive, anti-American propaganda.' The president then spent much of the weekend tweeting about his action, presenting himself as a warrior against identity politics. 'This is a sickness that cannot be allowed to continue,' he wrote of such programs. 'Please report any sightings so we can quickly extinguish!' He reposted a tweet from a conservative outlet hailing his order: 'Sorry liberals! How to be Anti-White 101 is permanently cancelled!'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Sorry, President* Racist. You can't make me fear people who don't look like they might be my first cousins.

Alayna Treene of Axios: "House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is privately encouraging voting by mail and warned President Trump the party could be 'screwed' by his fight against mail-in voting.... McCarthy [told me] the party can't afford for Republicans to sit home, afraid of getting COVID-19, while Democrats flood the field with mail-in ballots. McCarthy is particularly worried about deterring senior citizens. McCarthy said he's spent hours telling Trump that this preoccupation will hurt the president's own re-election, as well as Republicans running for Congress."

All the Best People, Ctd. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "A man who received thanks from Donald Trump for organizing boat parades showing support for the president is accused of using anti-Semitic language and sending threatening messages to a Florida resident. Carlos Gavidia, 53, was charged with sending a written threat to kill or do bodily injury after surrendering himself to police on Tuesday morning.... The 53-year-old received national attention for organizing a number of Trump boat parades.... Gavidia's Instagram page also shows him attending the president's RNC nomination speech on the White House lawn last week, as well as pictures with Trump at Admirals Cove and with the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, taking part in one of his boat parades." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Thanks to RAS for the link.Most Hilarious Weekend News Report:

Trump Skipped Cemetery Visit to Swipe Art Forgeries, Smuggle Them on AF1. Daniel Politi of Slate: "After Trump's cemetery trip was canceled, the president suddenly had a few hours to kill inside the U.S. ambassador's historic residence in Paris and it seems that during that time he took a particular liking to a few pieces of art. The next day, he ordered a Benjamin Franklin bust, a Franklin portrait and a set of figurines of Greek mythical characters be loaded on Air Force One to go back to Washington with him, reports Bloomberg.... 'The President brought these beautiful, historical pieces, which belong to the American people, back to the United States to be prominently displayed in the People's House,' White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.... But the truth is that they were fakes and replicas. The figurines that now sit in the Oval Office are from the early 20th century by an artist who was trying to claim they were from the 16th or 17 centuries. The figurines have little value and are really '20th century fakes of wannabe 17th century sculptures,' according to an art dealer.... White House officials ended up borrowing the original portrait [of Ben Franklin] from the National Portrait Gallery and hanging it up in the Oval Office rather than the replica Trump brought back from France." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump may think American soldiers fighting & dying in France were "suckers" & "losers," but when it comes to art appreciation, Trump is a sucker AND a loser. How perfect that he shirked his official duty to the American military so that he had time to pick out art forgeries to redecorate his own office. Yo, Donnie, I have the actual portrait of the Monna Lisa and it's bigger than that little fake in the Louvre. (This is 100% true, if you switch the words "actual" and "fake.") You can have my painting for $10mm, and if you want to use your campaign haul to pay for it, I'm good with that. Cash only.

Remembering Cadet Bone Spurs. Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Long before Trump's views of the military would emerge as a flash point in his 2020 reelection campaign ... Trump had a long track record of incendiary and disparaging remarks about veterans and military service. Many of his remarks are memorialized in television interviews and the tapes of radio conversations with shock jocks, dating to his years as a private citizen and businessman.... The roots of Trump's view of the military were formed at an early age, according to friends and family. Growing up in a mansion in Jamaica Estates in Queens, Trump heard the family criticize those who joined the military instead of going into business. Trump and his father, Fred Trump Sr., were especially harsh in criticizing the decision by Donald's older brother, Fred Jr., to join the U.S. Air National Guard, according to Fred Jr.'s daughter, Mary L. Trump."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Top administration officials on Sunday said they've never heard ... Donald Trump make disparaging remarks about veterans or the military, a subtle attempt to dispute a report in The Atlantic. But the president's top defender was the president himself.... Trump's defense of himself Sunday was to go on the attack. The president accused news organizations of partnering with the Democratic Party on 'a massive Disinformation Campaign' and urged his 85 million Twitter followers to let the magazine's owner [-- Laurene Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs --] 'know how you feel!!!'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Alexis Benveniste of CNN: "Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said his magazine's story about Trump calling Americans who died in battle 'losers' and 'suckers,' was just the tip of the iceberg. 'I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this and more confirmation and new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks,' Goldberg told CNN's Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter on 'Reliable Sources' Sunday.... 'We all have to use anonymous sources, especially in a climate where the president of the United States tries to actively intimidate,' Goldberg said of his editorial decision to cite nameless people. 'These are not people who are anonymous to me.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

DeJoy Gained Influence via Illegal Straw-Donor Contributions to GOP. Aaron David, et al., of the Washington Post: "Louis DeJoy's prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates -- money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say.... Two other employees familiar with [DeJoy's company] financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers b boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful.... Another former employee with knowledge of the process described a similar series of events, saying DeJoy orchestrated additional compensation for employees who had made political contributions, instructing managers to award bonuses to specific individuals.... Between 2000 and 2014, 124 individuals who worked for the company together gave more than $1 million to federal and state GOP candidates." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) Mother Jones has a summary report here. A Hill summary report is here. ~~~

~~~ The Gentleman Doth Protest Too Much, Methinks. Catie Edmondson, et al., of the New York Times: "At a hearing last month, [Louis] DeJoy angrily denied a suggestion by Representative Jim Cooper, Democrat of Tennessee, that he had reimbursed his employees' political donations. 'That's an outrageous claim, sir, and I resent it,' Mr. DeJoy responded. 'What are you accusing me of?'... 'These are very serious allegations that must be investigated immediately, independent of Donald Trump's Justice Department,' Senator Chuck Schumer of New York ... said in a statement.... Josh Stein, North Carolina's attorney general [D], said in a statement that 'it is against the law to directly or indirectly reimburse someone for a political contribution' and that 'any credible allegations of such actions merit investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities.'"

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sarah Watson, et al., of the New York Times: "... [at] about 100 college communities around the country ... [coronavirus] infections have spiked in recent weeks as students have returned for the fall semester. Though the rate of infection has bent downward in the Northeast, where the virus first peaked in the U.S., it continues to remain high across many states in the Midwest and South -- and evidence suggests that students returning to big campuses are a major factor. Despite the surge in cases, there has been no uptick in deaths in college communities, data shows. This suggests that most of the infections are stemming from campuses, since young people who contract the virus are far less likely to die than older people. However, leaders fear that young people who are infected will contribute to a spread of the virus throughout the community.... The result often is an exacerbation of traditional town-and-gown tensions...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Brian Dunleavy of UPI (Sept. 3): "Vitamin D deficiency increases a person's risk for catching COVID-19 by 77% compared to those with sufficient levels of the nutrient, a study published Thursday by JAMA Network Open found." Mrs. McC: I found several reputable new organizations that published this study's findings. See remarks by Victoria & Linda in yesterday's Comments. For years, I've been taking 4000 IU ((100 mcg)/daily of Vitamin D3, an inexpensive over-the-counter, supplement recommended by more than one of my doctors. I'm not a doctor, and I'm not advising anyone else to do the same, but it might be a good idea to ask your doctor what s/he advises for you on this. Taking a Vitamin D supplement seems far less wacky to me than anything Trump & the My Pillow guy have suggested.

Black Lives Matter

Jessica Wolfrom of the Washington Post: "Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., in late August, spoke from a hospital bed, describing his physical pain and appealing to others to 'change y'all lives' in an emotional video released by his lawyer Saturday night. It was Blake's second public appearance since being shot seven times in the back in late August by Rusten Sheskey, a Kenosha police officer. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down. 'Every 24 hours, it's pain,' Blake said. 'It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat.'" The Hill's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ben Matthis-Lilley of Slate: "When an incident of police brutality against a Black person in the United States is captured on video, the aftermath follows a pattern. Activists, members of the community, and certain writers say that American policing and police discipline are fundamentally flawed.... In response, elected officials, police chiefs, and certain other writers say that most police officers are decent people doing a tough job to the best of their ability.... Which side are the police on? Do they favor the candidate [Biden] who believes law enforcement basically means well, as long as it keeps working to 'root out the bad apples' in police departments? Or the candidate [Trump] with a record of supporting criminal behavior, extrajudicial violence, and racism -- and of celebrating the bad apples? The country's largest municipal police union (the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York) picked ... [Trump]; its leader, Patrick Lynch, spoke at the Republican convention. On Friday, the largest national police organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced that it was endorsing Trump on behalf of its 355,000 members as well. The police say that they want members of minority communities to believe the officers patrolling their neighborhoods are motivated by the principle of upholding the law.... Those officers also keep choosing to endorse Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "The college football season has begun and, during an era of protests and a coronavirus pandemic, ESPN's first Saturday telecast was anything but usual. []Link fixed. The hosts were far apart, broadcasting from their homes rather than appearing before a boisterous, sign-loving crowd on a campus somewhere, and 'College GameDay' devoted time to the protests of systemic racism and police brutality that have taken place across the country. Kirk Herbstreit broke down in tears as he spoke of the need to change.... '[Benjamin Franklin] said, 'Justice will not be served until those who are unaffected are as outraged as those who are.' The Black community is hurting. ... How do you listen to these stories and not feel pain and not want to help?' Herbstreit asked, weeping." Mrs. McC: Herbstreit is white. It doesn't seem Trump can scare him, either.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Sunday that he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have agreed to work on a short-term spending bill to avert a government shutdown Oct. 1, weeks before the election. 'The speaker and I have agreed we don't want to see a government shutdown,' Mnuchin said on 'Fox News Sunday.' Mnuchin said his expectation is that this so-called 'continuing resolution' would extend government funding into December -- although the date has not yet been agreed on. Without action by Congress, agency funding would expire at midnight Sept. 30, and the government would begin to shut down.... Mnuchin's comments appear to suggest that the White House is not girding for a clash over this spending deadline, though White House officials have in the past tried to negotiate deals with Democrats in Congress, only to have President Trump announce that he is opposed at the last moment.... Lawmakers will return to the Capitol on Tuesday, and leaders in both parties say they hope to reach agreement on a new coronavirus relief bill. But they remain far apart, and it's unclear whether a deal will be possible."

Owen Bowcott of the Guardian: "The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, is due to appear at the Old Bailey in the latest stage of his legal battle against extradition to the US, where he faces a prison sentence of up to 175 years. The hearing, which is scheduled to last four weeks, will hear allegations from the US Department of Justice that Assange tried to recruit hackers to find classified government information. A US grand jury previously indicted Assange on 18 charges, 17 of which fall under the US Espionage Act. They cover conspiracy to receive, obtaining and disclosing classified diplomatic and military documents."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Neil Vigdor, et al., of the New York Times: "... about 200 people -- many of them unaware that a rapidly growing wildfire was closing in on a popular campground area in the Sierra National Forest -- found themselves suddenly trapped while trying to flee Saturday night into Sunday morning.... It took a treacherous rescue operation by military helicopters to evacuate them from the Mammoth Pool Reservoir area, the authorities said. Others posted videos on social media showing themselves escaping by driving through a labyrinth of fire and ash.... Dozens of evacuees were packed into the helicopters. Two UH-60 Black Hawks and a CH-47 Chinook transported them to Fresno Yosemite International Airport, said Brad Alexander, a spokesman for the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services. About 20 people were injured, he said, and some were taken to hospitals. Two people remained in very serious condition from burns, Daniel Lynch, the director of emergency medical services for Fresno County, said on Sunday."

Way Beyond

U.K./E.U. A Bitter Divorce, Ctd. Luke McGee of CNN: "The EU's chief [Brexit] negotiator, Michel Barnier, has warned that the UK must abide by the terms of the Brexit deal it agreed last year, after reports that the British government was planning new legislation that would undermine elements of it. The Financial Times, quoting three people familiar with the plans, reported that sections of a market bill slated for publication Wednesday, are expected to 'eliminate the legal force of parts of the withdrawal agreement' in areas including state aid and Northern Ireland customs. This 'could undermine the agreement on Northern Ireland that Boris Johnson signed last October to avoid a return to a hard border in the region,' one person with knowledge of the plans told the FT. The report has inflamed tensions between London and Brussels as post-Brexit trade negotiations enter their eighth round this week. 'The withdrawal agreement has been signed and ratified by the UK and the EU, it is in force,' one EU diplomat told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity. 'If the UK chose not to respect it, then theoretically the EU would have to take legal measures,' the diplomat added."

News Ledes

Hill: "The National Weather Service (NWS) said Los Angeles County saw its highest temperature on official record Sunday after a high of 121 degrees Fahrenheit was recorded in the San Fernando Valley earlier in the day. The federal agency said the temperature was recorded around noon in Woodland Hills at Pierce College, which runs one of the country's oldest cooperative weather stations." ~~~

~~~ KGO San Francisco: "Records were smashed all across the Bay Area Sunday as a heat wave impacting millions of Californians intensified. More than 10 cities in the Bay Area set new records. San Francisco hit 100 degrees for the 1st time since 2017. Concord, Livermore, Gilroy, Napa and Santa Rosa had high temperatures between 110 and 112, all records for this date." Mrs. McC: San Francisco broke a same-day record set in 1904. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post: "California just witnessed one of its hottest weekends in memory, which intensified destructive wildfires that erupted. The scorching temperatures forced the National Weather Service to issue heat alerts for nearly the entire state. Many areas were also under red-flag warnings for high fire danger as the heat worsened blazes already burning and helped fuel new ones. Numerous locations in California experienced their hottest September day on record Sunday. A few spots saw their highest temperatures ever observed in any month.... San Luis Obispo, just 10 miles from the Pacific Ocean, reached a sweltering 120 degrees. This may be the highest temperature ever measured so close to the ocean in the Americas."

The Commentariat -- September 6, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Most Hilarious Weekend News Report:

Trump Skipped Cemetery Visit to Swipe Art Forgeries, Smuggle Them on AF1. Daniel Politi of Slate: "After Trump's cemetery trip was canceled, the president suddenly had a few hours to kill inside the U.S. ambassador's historic residence in Paris and it seems that during that time he took a particular liking to a few pieces of art. The next day, he ordered a Benjamin Franklin bust, a Franklin portrait and a set of figurines of Greek mythical characters be loaded on Air Force One to go back to Washington with him, reports Bloomberg.... 'The President brought these beautiful, historical pieces, which belong to the American people, back to the United States to be prominently displayed in the People's House,' White House spokesman Judd Deere said in response to questions from Bloomberg News.... But the truth is that they were fakes and replicas. The figurines that now sit in the Oval Office are from the early 20th century by an artist who was trying to claim they were from the 16th or 17 centuries. The figurines have little value and are really '20th century fakes of wannabe 17th century sculptures,' according to an art dealer.... White House officials ended up borrowing the original portrait [of Ben Franklin] from the National Portrait Gallery and hanging it up in the Oval Office rather than the replica Trump brought back from France." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump may think American soldiers fighting & dying in France were "suckers" & "losers," but when it comes to art appreciation, Trump is a sucker AND a loser. How perfect that he shirked his official duty to the American military so that he had time to pick out art forgeries to redecorate his own office. Yo, Donnie, I have the actual portrait of the Monna Lisa and it's bigger than that little fake in the Louvre. (This is 100% true, if you switch the words "actual" and "fake.") You can have my painting for $10mm, and if you want to use your campaign haul to pay for it, I'm good with that. Cash only.

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Top administration officials on Sunday said they've never heard ... Donald Trump make disparaging remarks about veterans or the military, a subtle attempt to dispute a report in The Atlantic. But the president's top defender was the president himself.... Trump's defense of himself Sunday was to go on the attack. The president accused news organizations of partnering with the Democratic Party on 'a massive Disinformation Campaign' and urged his 85 million Twitter followers to let the magazine's owner [-- Laurene Jobs, the widow of Steve Jobs --] 'know how you feel!!!'"

Alexis Benveniste of CNN: "Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, said his magazine's story about Trump calling Americans who died in battle 'losers' and 'suckers,' was just the tip of the iceberg. 'I would fully expect more reporting to come out about this and more confirmation and new pieces of information in the coming days and weeks,' Goldberg told CNN's Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter on 'Reliable Sources' Sunday.... 'We all have to use anonymous sources, especially in a climate where the president of the United States tries to actively intimidate,' Goldberg said of his editorial decision to cite nameless people. 'These are not people who are anonymous to me.'"

DeJoy Gained Influence via Illegal Straw-Donor Contributions to GOP. Aaron David, et al., of the Washington Post: "Louis DeJoy's prolific campaign fundraising, which helped position him as a top Republican power broker in North Carolina and ultimately as head of the U.S. Postal Service, was bolstered for more than a decade by a practice that left many employees feeling pressured to make political contributions to GOP candidates -- money DeJoy later reimbursed through bonuses, former employees say.... Two other employees familiar with [DeJoy's company] financial and payroll systems said DeJoy would instruct that bonus payments to staffers be boosted to help defray the cost of their contributions, an arrangement that would be unlawful.... Another former employee with knowledge of the process described a similar series of events, saying DeJoy orchestrated additional compensation for employees who had made political contributions, instructing managers to award bonuses to specific individuals.... Between 2000 and 2014, 124 individuals who worked for the company together gave more than $1 million to federal and state GOP candidates." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Amazing Grace. Ann Colwell of CNN: "Anita Hill never pictured herself voting for Joe Biden. But given the political reality the nation is facing, she's not only going to vote for Biden -- she's also willing to work with him, should he become president. 'Notwithstanding all of his limitations in the past, and the mistakes that he made in the past, notwithstanding those -- at this point, between Donald Trump and Joe Biden, I think Joe Biden is the person who should be elected in November,' Hill told CNN's Gloria Borger. But it's not just because he's running against Donald Trump, she adds. 'Its more about the survivors of gender violence. That's really what it's about.'"

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Sunday are here.

Sarah Watson, et al., of the New York Times: "... [at] about 100 college communities around the country ... [coronavirus] infections have spiked in recent weeks as students have returned for the fall semester. Though the rate of infection has bent downward in the Northeast, where the virus first peaked in the U.S., it continues to remain high across many states in the Midwest and South -- and evidence suggests that students returning to big campuses are a major factor. Despite the surge in cases, there has been no uptick in deaths in college communities, data shows. This suggests that most of the infections are stemming from campuses, since young people who contract the virus are far less likely to die than older people. However, leaders fear that young people who are infected will contribute to a spread of the virus throughout the community.... The result often is an exacerbation of traditional town-and-gown tensions...."

All the Best People, Ctd. Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "A man who received thanks from Donald Trump for organizing boat parades showing support for the president is accused of using anti-Semitic language and sending threatening messages to a Florida resident. Carlos Gavidia, 53, was charged with sending a written threat to kill or do bodily injury after surrendering himself to police on Tuesday morning.... The 53-year-old received national attention for organizing a number of Trump boat parades.... Gavidia's Instagram page also shows him attending the president's RNC nomination speech on the White House lawn last week, as well as pictures with Trump at Admirals Cove and with the president's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, taking part in one of his boat parades." --s

Jessica Wolfrom of the Washington Post: "Jacob Blake, the Black man who was shot by a police officer in Kenosha, Wis., in late August, spoke from a hospital bed, describing his physical pain and appealing to others to 'change y'all lives' in an emotional video released by his lawyer Saturday night. It was Blake's second public appearance since being shot seven times in the back in late August by Rusten Sheskey, a Kenosha police officer. The shooting left Blake paralyzed from the waist down. 'Every 24 hours, it's pain,' Blake said. 'It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat.'" The Hill's story is here.

Ben Matthis-Lilley of Slate: "When an incident of police brutality against a Black person in the United States is captured on video, the aftermath follows a pattern. Activists, members of the community, and certain writers say that American policing and police discipline are fundamentally flawed.... In response, elected officials, police chiefs, and certain other writers say that most police officers are decent people doing a tough job to the best of their ability.... Which side are the police on? Do they favor the candidate [Biden] who believes law enforcement basically means well, as long as it keeps working to 'root out the bad apples' in police departments? Or the candidate [Trump] with a record of supporting criminal behavior, extrajudicial violence, and racism -- and of celebrating the bad apples? The country's largest municipal police union (the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York) picked ... [Trump]; its leader, Patrick Lynch, spoke at the Republican convention. On Friday, the largest national police organization, the Fraternal Order of Police, announced that it was endorsing Trump on behalf of its 355,000 members as well. The police say that they want members of minority communities to believe the officers patrolling their neighborhoods are motivated by the principle of upholding the law.... Those officers also keep choosing to endorse Donald Trump."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris said that ... Donald Trump's word alone on any potential coronavirus vaccine is not enough. Asked by CNN's Dana Bash in a clip released Saturday whether she would get a vaccine that was approved and distributed before the election, Harris replied..., 'I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about,' she [said.] 'I will not take his word for it.'" ~~~

We remain on track to deliver a vaccine before the end of the year and maybe even before November 1st. We think we can probably have it some time during the month of October. -- Donald Trump, to reporters Friday

A Shot in the Arm -- to Trump's Campaign. Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump is so fixated on finding a vaccine for the novel coronavirus that in meetings about the U.S. pandemic response, little else captures his attention, according to administration officials. Trump has pressed health officials to speed up the vaccine timeline and urged them to deliver one by the end of the year. He has peppered them questions about the development status and mass-distribution plans. And, in recent days, he has told some advisers and aides that a vaccine may arrive by Nov. 1, which just happens to be two days before the presidential election. Trump's desire to deliver a vaccine -- or at least convince the public that one is very near -- by the time voters decide whether to elect him to a second term is in part a campaign gambit to improve his standing with an electorate that overwhelmingly disapproves of his management of the pandemic."

The Omen: Sunk. Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "Police in Austin, Texas say they have received several 911 calls about boats sinking into the waters of a large local lake during a boat parade being held in support of ... Donald Trump. According to local CBS affiliate KEYE-TV, the Travis County Sheriff's Office (TSCO) has received numerous distress calls from sinking boats -- apparently all along the route of the aquatic parade.... 'Several have sunk,' the TSCO reportedly told KVUE's Pattrik Perez.... According to citizen journalists who took stock of live updates from EMS response crews via the aptly-titled Citizen app, the parade participants were 'unruly' and 'not adhering to safety measures.'"(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Bryan Pietsch & Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: "... a spokeswoman for Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services, said no injuries had been reported.... 'We had an exceptional number of boats on the lake today,' [a spokesperson for the Travis County Sheriff's Office] said. 'When they all started moving at the same time, it generated significant waves.'... Other boat parades to display support for President Trump have taken place this summer. In Oregon, a boat sank after it was swamped by waves from a passing boat parade, The Oregonian reported."

The Biggest Grifter. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "President Trump was proudly litigious before his victory in 2016 and has remained so in the White House. But one big factor has changed: He has drawn on campaign donations as a piggy bank for his legal expenses to a degree far greater than any of his predecessors.... The spending on behalf of Mr. Trump covers not only legal work that would be relatively routine for any president or candidate and some of the costs related to the Russia inquiry and his impeachment, but also cases in which he has a personal stake, including attempts to enforce nondisclosure agreements and protect his business interests.... [For instance,] Mr. Trump and his campaign affiliates hired lawyers to assist members of his staff and family -- including a onetime bodyguard, his oldest son and his son-in-law -- as they were pulled into investigations related to Russia and Ukraine.... Mr. Trump's tendency to turn to the courts -- and the legal issues that have stemmed from norm-breaking characteristics of his presidency -- helps explain how he and his affiliated political entities have spent at least $58.4 million in donations on legal and compliance work since 2015.... By comparison, President Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee spent $10.7 million on legal and compliance expenses during the equivalent period starting in 2007.

Trump Again Urges North Carolina Republicans to Commit Felony Voter Fraud. Dianne Gallagher, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump suggested to his supporters on Friday night that if they vote by mail they should also attempt to vote in person as a way to check that their vote is counted, which risks causing chaos at the polls and undermining confidence in the election. In a North Carolina 'telerally' Friday night, which was later posted on Facebook, Trump spent the first few minutes of the call explaining in detail how he wanted his voters to vote. If they vote by mail, they should go to their polling place anyway to 'see whether or not your mail-in vote has been tabulated or counted,' Trump said, noting that if it's been counted, they won't be able to vote. It's a federal crime to vote twice in the same election, and it's also a felony in almost every state, including North Carolina. Trump also addressed the possibility that a voter's mail-in ballot would be tabulated after they had voted in person." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mark Niquette & Kartikay Mehrotra of Bloomberg, republished on MSN: "If the outcome of this November's election comes down to fights over counting mail-in ballots and claims of fraud by ... Donald Trump, Democrat Joe Biden may have a quiet advantage: The top election officials in many of the key states that could decide the election are Democrats." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.

Jim Acosta of CNN: "... Donald Trump referred to fallen US service members at the Aisne-Marne cemetery in crude and derogatory terms during a November 2018 trip to France to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, a former senior administration official confirmed to CNN.... The former official, who declined to be named, largely confirmed reporting from Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine, which cited sources who said Trump rejected the idea of a cemetery visit and proceeded to refer to the fallen soldiers as 'losers' and 'suckers.'... Trump said [Thursday] he ... 'called home, I spoke to my wife and I said, "I hate this. I came here to go to that ceremony." And to the one that was the following day, which I did go to. I said I feel terribly. And that was the end of it.'... First lady Melania Trump was on the same trip and was scheduled to visit the cemetery with the President. She was not in the US....Fox News, the Washington Post, the New York Times and the Associated Press have also corroborated parts of The Atlantic's reporting." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how Trump embellishes his lie about going to the Aisne-Marne cemetery with another lie: an anecdote that cannot possibly be true; it puts Melania on the wrong continent. ~~~

... Jennifer Griffin should be fired for this kind of reporting. Never even called us for comment. Fox News is gone! -- Donald Trump, in a tweet late Friday ~~~

~~~ Kill the Messenger. Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump is calling for a Fox News reporter to be fired after she confirmed some details of a bombshell story that said he disparaged veterans.... Jennifer Griffin [of Fox 'News'] wrote a Twitter thread and also went on the network to lay out how she had confirmed several claims in the [Atlantic] piece." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "... the fact that [Jennifer] Griffin works for Fox, whose opinion hosts and corporate owners are seen as reliable supporters and defenders of the president, turned her revelations into a watershed development. It led to Trump's call for her firing late Friday on Twitter -- and an impassioned pushback from Fox News colleagues defending her journalistic honor.... Before the president took aim at her reporting, Griffin took veiled shots from some of her colleagues, most notably contributor Mollie Hemingway, a senior editor for the Federalist.... 'The Five' co-host Greg Gutfeld ... called the Atlantic's story 'a hoax' and 'a scam' that was 'created in a lab.' But Trump's attack on Griffin was a bridge too far for her colleagues, seven of whom took to Twitter over the weekend to defend her. 'Jennifer @JenGriffinFNC is a great reporter and a total class act,' wrote [Bret] Baier, the network's chief political anchor."

"You're All Losers." David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "... the fabric [of Trump's relationship with the military] began to fray by mid-2017. Trump increasingly treated the military as props in the reality-TV show of his presidency. He wanted them for parades and victory celebrations, not the anguish of combat. He seemed to take his strategic guidance from Fox News more than his commanders.... The bad marriage exploded this week, when former senior staff members told Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic of their shock at Trump's crude comments about combat and loss -- and his reported characterization of fallen warriors as 'suckers' and 'losers.'... It has been an open secret in Washington that many prominent retired four-stars have regarded Trump with growing horror.... The more [defense secretary & retired Gen. Jim] Mattis tried to educate Trump, as in his ... July 2017 seminar in the 'tank' at Pentagon, the more Trump became resentful. Trump berated his generals at that gathering -- with language that's eerily similar to what was reported in the Atlantic this week. According to Philip Rucker and Carol D. Leonnig in their book, 'A Very Stable Genius,' Trump said: 'You're all losers. You don't know how to win anymore.'"

Steve Benen of MSNBC: "Asked if he supports the military, Trump is quick to point to symbols and gestures: he has military flags in the Oval Office, for example, and his interest in military parades is borderline creepy. But there's no depth of thought or seriousness of purpose. It's what leads Trump to celebrate those accused of war crimes, while ridiculing those who serve honorably." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Special Relationship. Ben Riley-Smith of The Telegraph (UK): "[A]ccording to a cache of official notes taken during high-level UK-US meetings whose details have leaked to The Telegraph. The Prime Minister [Boris Johnson] is quoted telling the US ambassador to Britain in August 2017, when he was foreign secretary, that Mr Trump was doing 'fantastic stuff' on foreign policy issues like China, Syria and North Korea.... Mr Trump pushed back hard on Theresa May's pleas to expel Russian diplomats after the Skripal poisoning, saying 'I would rather follow than lead'.... The US president wondered why there was so much 'hatred' in Northern Ireland and asked Mrs May during a lunch why Mr Johnson was not prime minister.... The president was at times 'hectoring' towards Mrs May in 'nightmare' phone calls and would ask other world leaders what they thought of her.... Mr Trump cancelled his planned first visit to Britain as president at the last minute over the schedule and scrapped a call with Mrs May due to a foreign policy clash.​" --s

Your Tax Dollars at Work Lying about Latinos. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A fictionalized video produced by the Border Patrol and posted this week to its YouTube channel shows a Spanish-speaking attacker stabbing and killing a man in a dark alley after escaping from U.S. agents, a clip apparently created to dramatize President Trump's depiction of migrants as fearsome criminals. The three-minute video, titled 'The Gotaway,' is produced in the visual style of a television show..., with aerial drone footage, actors and fake blood.... The video ends with the lurid image of the stabbing victim bleeding and dying on the ground. 'Every apprehension matters,' a message on screen reads. 'Do you know who got away?' The message fades to a Fox News headline about the 2015 killing of Kate Steinle in San Francisco, followed by a rapid-fire cascade of other news clips and headlines about killings linked to immigrants illegally present in the United States. The Border Patrol's logo appears in the final scene, metallic and glinting. 'Protecting America Everyday,' it says. 'Honor First.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's no secret that the Border Patrol is out of control. I expect the majority of them should be fired.

Kentucky. AP: "An airplane circled above Churchill Downs on Saturday, flying a banner behind it: 'Arrest the cops who killed Breonna Taylor,' it said. The 146th Kentucky Derby became a surreal distillation of the crises facing the country in 2020, in the hometown of Taylor, a 26-year-old Black emergency medical technician shot dead in her home in March when police burst in to serve a search warrant in the middle of the night. Inside the racetrack, the stands were mostly empty and wagering windows closed as fans were banned because of the coronavirus pandemic. Outside, thousands of protesters leaned into the gates, chanting Taylor's name. Armored police vehicles in the parking lot replaced the normal throngs of Derby-goers in seersucker and showy hats.... The protests were peaceful. The demonstrators marched 2 miles from a city park and circled the track. They chanted 'No justice, no derby!' and carried signs imploring people to say Taylor's name. Inside the gate, police stood guard in riot gear with clubs, some on horses and some with armored military vehicles."

New York. Laura Ly & Nicole Chavez of CNN: "New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Saturday that she's forming a grand jury to investigate the death of Daniel Prude, who was pinned on the ground with a spit sock on his head.... Prude died in Rochester, New York, in March following an encounter with police, but protests began earlier this week after police dash and bodycam videos of the incident were made public by attorneys representing Prude's family." ~~~

~~~ Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: "A fourth night of protests over the death of Daniel Prude was the largest yet, and again ended with pepper balls, tear gas and fireworks. Rochester police said they arrested nine people, including two on felony charges. Three officers were 'treated at local hospitals for injuries sustained as a result of projectiles and incendiary devices which were launched against them,' said Lt. Greg Bello in a news release.... Social media showed images of protesters hit by projectiles, including Monroe County legislator and former journalist Rachel Barnhart."

Zoë Richards of TPM: "White supremacists pose the most serious terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security. Three different drafts of the report obtained by Politico characterize the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat in the United States. All three documents also report that 2019 was the deadliest year for domestic violent extremists since the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995.... Later drafts of the report refer to 'Domestic Violent Extremists' -- shifting away from the terminology 'white supremacist extremists' -- as 'the most persistent and lethal threat.'" --s

Literary Corner, Ha Ha

Ashley Parker & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "President Trump's longtime lawyer and personal fixer, Michael Cohen, alleges in a new book that Trump made 'overt and covert attempts to get Russia to interfere in the 2016 election' and that the future commander in chief was also well aware of Cohen's hush-money payoff to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during that campaign. In the book, 'Disloyal: A Memoir,' which was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its Tuesday publication date, Cohen lays out an alarming portrait of the constellation of characters orbiting around Trump, likening the arrangement to the mafia and calling himself 'one of Trump's bad guys.' He describes the president, meanwhile, as 'a cheat, a liar, a fraud, a bully, a racist, a predator, a con man.' The memoir also describes episodes of Trump's alleged racism and his 'hatred and contempt' of his predecessor, Barack Obama, the nation's only African American president.... 'The whole idea of patriotism and treason became irrelevant in his mind,' Cohen writes. 'Trump was using the [2016] campaign to make money for himself....'" ~~~

~~~ Erica Orden of CNN: Donald "Trump's model of a man in power, according to [Michael] Cohen, is Vladimir Putin, and Trump is described as enamored of Putin's wealth and unilateral influence, and awestruck by what he sees as the Russian president's ability to control everything from the country's press to its financial institutions.... In the wake of Trump's presidential kickoff announcement in 2015, in which he called Mexicans criminals and rapists, he dismissed concerns that he had alienated Latinos. 'Plus, I will never get the Hispanic vote,' Trump allegedly told Cohen. 'Like the blacks, they're too stupid to vote for Trump. They're not my people.' (Trump won 28% of the Latino vote in 2016.) Trump's contempt, in Cohen's telling, extends broadly. Cohen characterizes Trump bluntly as racist, and says that while he never heard Trump use the 'N-word,' Trump used other offensive language. Ranting about [Barack] Obama after he won office in 2008, Trump said, 'Tell me one country run by a black person that isn't a sh*thole...They are all complete f*cking toilets,'..."

Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Former FBI agent Peter Strzok alleges in a new book that investigators came to believe it was 'conceivable, if unlikely' that Russia was secretly controlling President Trump after he took office -- a full-fledged 'Manchurian candidate' installed as America's commander in chief. In the book, 'Compromised,' Strzok describes how the FBI had to consider 'whether the man about to be inaugurated was willing to place his or Russia's interests above those of American citizens,' and if and how agents could investigate that. Strzok opened the FBI's 2016 investigation into whether Trump's campaign had coordinated with the Kremlin to help his election and later was involved in investigating Trump personally. He was ultimately removed from the case over private text messages disparaging of the president.... [Even now, Strzok says,] '... I do think the president is compromised, that he is unable to put the interests of our nation first, that he acts from hidden motives, because there is leverage over him, held specifically by the Russians but potentially others as well.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "[Peter] Strzok's team had uncovered so many suspicious contacts and communications between the campaign and Russians that they began debating whether to open a case on Trump himself.... Four months into Trump's presidency ... the discussion at the bureau had shifted from whether a case on Trump should be opened at all to whether there were any compelling arguments against it. In Strzok's telling, by May 16, 2017, there weren't. So Strzok's team, with permission from then-deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe, opened a counterintelligence case on the president that proved far more complicated than many at the FBI had anticipated. 'When you step back and look at it, it[']s fucking huge, Strzok said in an interview this week. At the time the FBI opened the case, Trump's financial disclosure forms detailed his ownership of more than 500 limited liability companies (LLCs).... Investigators would need to root through those records to identify areas where Russia might have financial leverage over him, not only now but 30 and 40 years ago. And despite his belief that tracing money was the most critical investigative trail the probe could follow -- 'even more than proving contacts with Russia,' he writes -- Strzok is fairly confident that that thread was never tugged at, let alone unraveled, after he was removed from the investigation in August 2017.... [Strozk] emphasized how suspicious he and other senior FBI leaders were of [Rob] Rosenstein's motivations...." --s ~~~

~~~ Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former senior F.B.I. agent [Peter Strzok] at the center of the investigations into Hillary Clinton's email server and the Trump campaign's ties to Russia, defends the handling of the inquiries and declares President Trump a national security threat in a new memoir, while admitting that the bureau made mistakes that upended the 2016 presidential election.... In a scathing appraisal, Mr. Strzok concludes that Mr. Trump is hopelessly corrupt and a national security threat. The investigations that Mr. Strzok oversaw showed the president's 'willingness to accept political assistance from an opponent like Russia -- and, it follows, his willingness to subvert everything America stands for.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpidemic, Etc.

Bad News for the My Pillow Huckster. Jen Christensen & Jamie Gumbrecht of CNN: "The US Food and Drug Administration has rejected a submission from Phoenix Biotechnology Inc. to market oleandrin as a dietary supplement ingredient, citing 'significant concerns' about the safety evidence the company presented. Last month, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who recently joined the board of Phoenix Biotechnology and has a financial stake in the company, said he had participated in a July meeting at the White House with ... Donald Trump regarding the use of oleandrin as a potential therapeutic for the coronavirus. The extract comes from the Nerium oleander plant; the raw oleander plant is highly toxic and consuming it can be fatal. There are no peer-reviewed, published studies on the impact of oleandrin on Covid-19, and there's no public evidence it has been studied in patients with Covid-19.... Lindell ... has no scientific background or medical training...." Mrs. McC: So it's potentially fatal and completely untested. Otherwise, it's a great snake oil! Worth remembering: after Trump had kicked most of the scientists & doctors off his made-for-TV fake coronavirus briefings, he let the My Pillow guy lead off one of the briefings. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond the Beltway

Jason Burke of the Guardian: "The terrorist [Carlos the Jackal], whose real name was Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, had gained global notoriety with a series of attacks carried out on behalf of Palestinian extremists between 1973 and 1975. In the west, the polyglot Venezuelan radical was frequently portrayed as an agent of the KGB, trained and armed on behalf of Moscow';s security service by counterparts in the Soviet satellite states of central and eastern Europe. Now, classified documents discovered in archives in eastern Europe reveal a different picture: not of a master terrorist working hand in glove with ruthlessly efficient regimes to launch attacks in the west, but of an arrogant, demanding, and unreliable terrorist entrepreneur who manipulated the anxieties of insecure decision-makers and the ignorance of security officials from the Baltic to the Black Sea until they finally ran out of patience." --s

News Lede

New York Times: "Lou Brock, the St. Louis Cardinals' Hall of Fame outfielder who became the greatest base-stealer the major leagues had ever known when he eclipsed the single-season and career records for steals in a career spanning two decades, died on Sunday. He was 81.... Louis Clark Brock was born on June 18, 1939, in El Dorado, Ark., and grew up in Collinston, La., in a family of sharecroppers who picked cotton.... As a boy, Brock never played organized baseball. Instead of a ball and bat, he swatted rocks with tree branches. But he received an academic scholarship to Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and played baseball there...."