The Commentariat -- August 27, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Max Cohen & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Support for Joe Biden's White House bid is growing among staffers of past presidential campaigns -- Republican ones, that is. Several dozen former staffers from Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) presidential campaign, the George W. Bush administration and the campaign and Senate staff of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have signed on to an effort to elect Joe Biden. For the Romney and McCain staffers, they're working to elect the same man they tried to defeat in 2012 and 2008, respectively.... In an open letter obtained by Politico, the group 'Romney Alumni for Biden' says Trump's rhetoric and actions are antithetical to the Republican Party they believe in.... The 34 total signatories include finance, operations, policy and events staffers from Romney's presidential bid. Politico also received in advance a letter from Bush alumni supporting Biden, whose signatories include former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Bush domestic policy adviser Sally Canfield, former Ambassador James Glassman and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin. The group praised Biden's decency and ability to work across party lines and launched a website raising money for ... [Biden]." ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Shabad & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Several hundred former aides to President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain announced Thursday that they are endorsing Joe Biden for president.... A political action committee, 43 Alumni for Biden, that launched last month posted a list of nearly 300 members of the Bush administration or campaigns who are publicly backing Biden.... Earlier this week, more than two dozen former Republican Congress members backed Biden for president." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "More than 100 former staff members for Senator John McCain are supporting Joseph R. Biden Jr., a show of support across the political divide that they hope amplifies the 'Country First' credo of the former Arizona senator. That motto and 'his frequent call on Americans to serve causes greater than our self-interest were not empty slogans like so much of our politics today,' the group of aides, most of them still Republicans, wrote in a joint statement, praising Mr. McCain and implicitly taking aim at President Trump.... The list of signatories includes a range of people -- from chiefs of staff in Mr. McCain's Senate office to junior aides on his campaigns -- who worked for him over his 35 years in Congress and during two presidential bids. Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's longtime chief aide and speechwriter, helped organize the letter.... Coinciding with Mr. Trump's renomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday and the second anniversary of Mr. McCain's death this week, the joint endorsement of Mr. Biden represents the latest effort from anti-Trump Republicans to lure conservatives and moderates away from the president." ~~~

     ~~~ Salter's letter is published as an op-ed in the Washington Post. Here's the statement by the McCain group, published in Medium, & the list of signatories.

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The third night of the Republican National Convention yet again offered a cascade of false claims, especially in Vice President Pence's speech. Here are 20 claims that caught our attention." Mrs. McC: This is a remarkable list of whoppers. All of the puppet-makers in all the world could not make enough Pinocchio marionettes to cover one GOP convention.

Shutting the Stable Door After the Horse's Ass Has Bolted. Vivian Salama of CNN: "The Department of Homeland Security sent an agency-wide email to its employees Thursday morning reminding them not to participate in partisan politics, citing "heightened scrutiny." While directives like this are standard in election years, the warning comes days after acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf participated in a swearing in ceremony with ... Donald Trump for naturalized Americans as part of the Republican National Convention, raising ethics concerns.... Signed by Joseph Maher, the agency's designated ethics official, the email references the Hatch Act, which stipulates that most executive-branch officials must not engage in political activity in an official capacity at any time...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, the official name of the Hatch Act is "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities." Nearly everything Trump does is a pernicious political activity.

Now, Don't Get Confused by Another Quasi-Reversal by Another Gutless Wonder. From Thursday's NYT coronavirus updates: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has scaled back the agency's recommendation advising some people not to get tested after exposure to the novel coronavirus, now saying 'testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable Covid-19 patients.' The statement by Dr. Robert R. Redfield was issued to some news outlets late Wednesday, and more broadly Thursday morning, after a storm of criticism over the new C.D.C. guidelines -- involving potentially asymptomatic people -- which were the product of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and not C.D.C.'s own scientists. Dr. Redfield made the statement in an effort to clarify the new policy, an official said. However, the guidelines issued earlier this week remained on the C.D.C.'s website as of Thursday morning, and it appears unlikely that the agency will change them."

Dropping the Mic. Ben Strauss of the Washington Post: "About 30 minutes into a makeshift pregame show without any basketball to follow it, TNT's 'Inside the NBA' cut to former NBA star Chris Webber. Webber was supposed to call one of Wednesday night's playoffs games from the Orlando bubble. But all three games were postponed after players, led by the Milwaukee Bucks, said they would not play in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake, the unarmed Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wis. Choking back tears, Webber delivered an impassioned monologue supporting the players' historic actions.... Webber's words came just a few minutes after the opening moments of the show, during which Kenny Smith, a former NBA player and host, walked off the set in solidarity with the players. 'For me, I think the biggest thing now -- as a black man and a former player -- I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight,' Smith said before taking off his microphone and leaving his chair." The Colbert segment embedded below has video of Smith's extraordinary protest.

Grifter-in-Chief. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump has now visited his own properties 270 times as president, according to a Washington Post tally -- with another visit planned for Thursday, when he is scheduled to meet GOP donors at his Washington hotel. Through these trips, Trump has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies and GOP campaign groups. Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump's businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. At least $570,000 came as a result of the president's travel, according to a Post analysis. Now, new federal spending documents obtained by The Post via a public-records lawsuit give more detail about how the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service -- a kind of captive customer, required to follow Trump everywhere.... The documents show that the Trump Organization charged daily 'resort fees' to Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Pence in Las Vegas and in another instance asked agents to pay a $1,300 'furniture removal charge' during a presidential visit to a Trump resort in Scotland. In addition, campaign finance records have provided new details about the payments the Trump Organization received from GOP groups, as a result of the 37 instances in which Trump headlined a political event at one of his properties. Those visits have brought the company at least $3.8 million in fees, according to a Post analysis of campaign spending records." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie's Financial Planning Advice to Future Presidents & Vice Presidents: Buy or build an expensive resort in some isolated place in the USA & go there at every opportunity and charge the federal government exorbitant rates for every possible thing. I'm sure Republicans wouldn't mind if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tried this stunt.

~~~ AND There's This from the WashPo report: "In response to questions for this report, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement..., 'The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop.... Please be advised that we are building up a very large "dossier" on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Oliver Darcy of CNN: David "Fahrenthold wrote on Twitter that if anyone knows 'anything about a dossier the White House has supposedly compiled' on him, to let him know or provide him a copy. Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for 'casting doubt' on Trump's 'generosity toward charities' in his coverage. He has also reported on Trump's businesses. Last summer, The New York Times reported that allies of the White House had compiled dossiers on hundreds of people who work for top news organizations. The White House's boasting of building a dossier on Fahrenthold and other journalists is jarring, but perhaps not surprising from an administration that has branded the press as 'the enemy of the people.' Trump and his allies have for years aimed to discredit journalists and news organizations, often through the use of lies and dishonest rhetoric." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Jarring? Compiling dossiers on reporters & warning them off negative stories about a "leader" & his cohort are exactly what repressive dictators & their henchmen do in repressive, non-democratic regimes. I don't of an American president* who has done so and admitted to it. Richard Nixon, infamously, did have an "enemies list" (or two) that included journalists, the purpose of which was to "screw" the "enemies" with tax audits & other means. But Nixon didn't kept his tactics secret. John Dean revealed it to the Senate Watergate Committee during hearings, & journalist Daniel Schorr -- who made the list -- obtained a copy of the original list "and read names from the list live on CBS television on this day." (Schorr didn't realize he was included until he read it on TV.)

Gangsta Rap. David Corn of Mother Jones: "On December 10, 2015, Donald Trump took time off from campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination to spend hours sitting for a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit alleging that he and Trump University had defrauded people who had plunked down thousands of dollars to learn the secrets of his financial success as a developer. During a break in the proceedings, the camera continued to roll. And Trump and his attorney, Daniel Petrocelli ... were captured discussing the case. In this 13-minute hot-mic video ... Trump boasted about how his company threatened the Better Business Bureau to change the D rating it had assigned Trump University to an A. He complained about the federal judge overseeing the suit, Gonzalo Curiel, elliptically talking about how to challenge him and referring to 'the Spanish thing.' Trump also griped that he had been sued personally in this case, and Petrocelli had to explain to Trump that he, not just Trump University itself, was in the legal crosshairs because Trump had been accused of making false statements to promote the venture. And Petrocelli pointed out that the case was not a lock for Trump because some of Trump's 'guys' had been 'sloppy.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

     ~~~ As NiskyGuy writes in today's Comments, "Colbert got it right last night. Again."

Matt Flegenheimer & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "The America that many speakers described on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention did not sound like a desirable place: fractious, violent, functionally lawless in some pockets. But their case that only President Trump could shield Americans from this fate was complicated by a nettlesome fact. He is in charge, at present.... The third night of the Republican convention steered into a bit of messaging jujitsu that has become a dominant theme of the week: Mr. Trump's ability to turn back Trump-era ills that have, in this telling, been largely out of his hands to date.... 'You won't be safe,' [Mike Pence] said, 'in Joe Biden's America.' Even as president, Mr. Trump has often appeared most comfortable in the role of back-seat driver, jeering his own government like a common bystander, insisting that someone really ought to do something about all this.... Through it all, the intended takeaway has seemed clear: Mr. Trump is in control of the good but not responsible for the bad, worthy of praise for America's successes and exoneration for its struggles." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I can tell you right now why Republicans, especially evangelicals, will buy this paradox: it is exactly what they believe of the Hebrew God. Their god is almighty, but bad things befall believers because they -- or someone -- has succumbed to Satan. Trump and his disciples are presenting him as an earthly god, while Joe Biden and "Democrat mayors" are Satan and his band of evil-doers. Trump is no theologian, but he has -- perhaps intuitively -- recognized & adopted the structural core of Christianity & Judaism.

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans used the third day of their national convention to portray President Trump as a strong defender of conservative principles on law enforcement, defense and the economy -- emphasizing his law-and-order credentials as social unrest flared again after another police shooting of a Black man.... None of the speakers specifically addressed the police shooting of Jacob Blake Jr., a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday...."

Politico has a "highlights" report of Wednesday night's The New Trump Show, featuring women who said what a caring feminist Trump is. The fact-checking here is weak, though. For instance, one of Kayleigh McEnany's big points was that Trump would make sure people with pre-existing conditions were guaranteed coverage, even though Trump has fought throughout his presidency* to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the law that guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One likely outcome of the Republican National Convention: it will become a coronavirus super-spreader. Besides a number of maskless people sitting together for Melanie's speech Tuesday night, there were even more maskless people sitting close together for pence's speech at Fort McHenry Wednesday. Then Donald Trump showed up. According to CNN, a number of audience members Wednesday said they were not tested for coronavirus, and at Tuesday's event, only the people sitting closest to Trump were tested. After pence's speech, Trump & the Mrs. stood around chatting with guests.

The New York Times' live updates of Wednesday's episode of Trump TV programming are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~

~~~ Here's New York Times reporters' live snark chat about the convention's Wednesday session. Politico reporters' live analysis is here.

Gene Robinson of the Washington Post: "What country does Vice President Pence live in? During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Pence sounded as though he lived in some kind of fantasyland that perhaps had encountered a few tiny little bumps in the road. His party has spent the week claiming to represent 'the common man,' but Pence spoke as though he knew next to nothing about the daunting challenges that Americans are having to deal with every day. The most he could muster was an acknowledgement that 'we're passing through a time of testing,' as though he were consoling a motorist after a fender bender. He did offer 'our prayers' for victims of Hurricane Laura, and he acknowledged there had been deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, though not how many. But his only pointed and specific words were his attacks against the Democratic nominee -- 'You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America' -- and his full-throated endorsement of President Trump's 'law and order' rhetoric."

Abraham Lincoln once famously said, 'America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.' -- Lara Trump, Wednesday at Republican convention, citing a right-wing meme which both PolitiFact and Snopes have debunked

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. -- @Real Abraham Lincoln, January 1838

What would make anyone think Lara's "quote" reads anything like something Lincoln would have said? And yeah, if we Americans re-elect Lara's father-in-law we will ourselves be the authors & finishers of our own destruction. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

** Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The National Park Service (NPS) is in hot water with ethics watchdogs for a slickly produced video promoting President Trump along with its plans to host a fireworks spectacle after his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Trump is slated to give his convention speech on Thursday from the White House South Lawn, followed by fireworks at the nearby Washington Monument on Park Service property. Those plans come on the heels of an NPS video publicly praising the president for his involvement in legislation providing more funding to parks. The two instances are leading to allegations that federal employees are engaging in political activity while at work -- a violation of the Hatch Act." --s

Yes, Donald Trump Can Go Lower. Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump is calling for drug tests to be administered before the first presidential debate between him and Democratic nominee Joe Biden next month. Trump made the demand in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Examiner Wednesday, saying he noted a sudden improvement in Biden's primary debate performance against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in March. He offered no evidence to support his suggestion that the improvement could have been the result of a drug.... The president said he was going solely based off of his own observations and not any inside knowledge into Biden's campaign. 'All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember the Taco Bowl! When considering Trump's "message" in pardoning a Black felon and in attending a naturalization ceremony for people of color at the White House yesterday, then playing back video of these events at the convention last night, we should bear in mind Trump's infamous May 2016 tweet in which he is pictured sticking a fork in a Trump Tower Grill taco bowl and declaring "I love Hispanics!" These White House events are not efforts to "soften" his image, as most in the media have asserted. Trump is a cruel person, and all of these "gestures" are, to put it as delicately as possible, mind-fucking exercises. He knows you know he is a racist xenophobe, and his intention is to mess with you.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "One of the GOP founders of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project said Wednesday that polls undercount the level of support that exists for President Trump. 'It is historically difficult to defeat an incumbent president, No. 1,' Steve Schmidt, a former adviser to Sen.& John McCain (R-Ariz.), told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. 'I suspect there is at least a point or two of undercount for Trump voters.'... [Joe] Biden has smaller leads in most of the six core battleground states, although recent surveys have found the race is tightening." --s

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Mail-in voting for the November presidential election is safe from foreign intervention, intelligence and election security officials said on Wednesday, saying that standard security measures and decentralization make the United States' election system extremely difficult for a foreign power to penetrate and change the results. The assessment contradicts President Trump's attacks on mail-in voting and comments by Attorney General William P. Barr that have also sowed doubt about its security.... 'You guys like to talk about Russia and China and other places,' Mr. Trump said in July. 'They'll be able to forge ballots. They'll forge them. They'll do whatever they have to do.'... Mr. Barr ... told NPR News in June that he did not think an election conducted by mail-in vote could be secure. Mr. Barr told lawmakers in July that ... mail-in voting increased the risk of fraud. And he defended Mr. Trump's claim that foreign governments could print fake mail-in ballots, saying that 'it is not disinformation.' The United States ... has no intelligence that any nation-state is making a coordinated attempt to undermine absentee voting or create fake mail-in ballots, a senior official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said."

Black Lives Matter, Ctd.

Here are the New York Times live updates of the police shooting of Jacob Blake and of the Trump supporter's killing of two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin: "Wisconsin's attorney general Josh Kaul on Wednesday identified the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, multiple times in Kenosha, Wis., as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the city's police force."

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An Illinois resident has been arrested in connection to a shooting that left two people dead and another person wounded during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., officials said on Wednesday. A court document from Lake County, Ill., shows that Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Antioch, Ill., on Wednesday morning after being charged with first degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting that took place only hours earlier. Antioch is about 30 minutes southwest of Kenosha, just over the Illinois line." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Ellie Hall, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The law enforcement-obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January. Kyle Howard Rittenhouse's social media presence is filled with him posing with weapons, posting 'Blue Lives Matter,' and supporting Trump for president. Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa, rally on Jan. 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you wove this detail into a work of fiction, you (or your editor) would take it out as too trite.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story, citing a tweet by Shannon Watts: "'Cell phone footage shows Kenosha police telling armed insurrectionists, 'We appreciate you guys. We really do,' and giving them bottles of water. Shortly after this video was taken, one of these men shot and killed two protesters and wounded another.' Another video shows Rittenhouse open fire with a rifle after he fell to the ground and then calmly walk toward police vehicles with his hands raised in surrender. Other people can be heard yelling that he had shot someone. However, no officers are seen getting out of the vehicles, which continue advancing toward protesters, to apprehend Rittenhouse -- who then fled the state and was considered a fugitive." Mrs. McC: An eyewitness told Anderson Cooper on CNN Wednesday that he saw the shooter talking to police, who were in their vehicle, and he heard a cop tell the shooter to clear away from the area. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Time to Fire the Kenosha Police Chief. Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "During the Kenosha Police Department's first press conference in response to the Blake shooting and subsequent protests, Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed the unidentified victims in Tuesday night';s shooting for their own deaths, saying the violence was the result of the 'persons; involved violating curfew[.]... 'It is the persons who were involved after the legal time, involved in illegal activity, that brought violence to this community,' Miskinis [said].... In describing the shooting of two protesters, Miskinis also declined to call it a homicide and instead referred to it by various euphemisms often used to describe killings by a police officer, which [Kyle] Rittenhouse is not. He said that the shooter 'was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place' and that there was a 'disturbance that led to the use of deadly force.' Additionally, Miskinis refused to comment on the video of [Jacob] Blake's shooting, but offered that there may have been a reasonable explanation for the man being shot seven times.... When asked about the vigilante groups, Miskinis defended them as civilians out to protect property and 'exercise their constitutional right.'"

Marc Stein of the New York Times: "The Milwaukee Bucks responded to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin, by refusing to take the court Wednesday afternoon for their N.B.A. playoff game against the Orlando Magic. An hour later, the N.B.A. postponed two other playoff games scheduled for Wednesday night, thrusting its ambitious restart at Walt Disney World during the coronavirus pandemic into sudden chaos and doubt. The postponed games were first-round playoff matchups pitting the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers. All three games will be rescheduled. Players from the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. have long been at the forefront of protests against racism and police brutality but especially this year, after the police killings of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman in Kentucky. Still, the boycott was an extraordinary escalation in the athletes' demonstrations, a move that had virtually no precedent in the league's history." A Deadline story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Carla Russo of the Huffington Post: "Several Major League Baseball teams postponed their games on Wednesday in an apparent show of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds were the first MLB teams to postpone their game, multiple sources reported. They made their decision not long after the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks staged a walkout during a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, also on Wednesday. Later Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres decided to postpone their Wednesday game as well, according to multiple reports." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Critically, the Reds decided to join the strike rather than undermine it by accepting a forfeit. This is a big deal.... I dunno, making a lifelong champion of arbitrary violence against Black people president of the United States seems like a bad idea in retrospect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Russell Brandom of the Verge: "In the wake of an apparent double murder Tuesday night in Kenosha, Facebook has faced a wave of scrutiny over posts by a self-proclaimed militia group called Kenosha Guard, which issued a 'call to arms' to in advance of the protest. Facebook took down Kenosha Guard's Facebook page Wednesday morning, identifying the posts as violating community standards. But while the accounts were ultimately removed, new evidence suggests the platform had ample warning about the account before the shooting brought the group to prominence. At least two separate Facebook users reported the account for inciting violence prior to the shooting.... In each case, the group and its counter-protest event were examined by Facebook moderators and found not to be in violation of the platform's policies."

Minnesota. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A Black man who was wanted in a homicide fatally shot himself as the police closed in on a downtown Minneapolis street on Wednesday evening, prompting a fresh round of protests and looting, the authorities said, three months after the killing of George Floyd in the city set off global demonstrations against police violence. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said the State Patrol was headed to the city to help restore order, and that he had deployed the National Guard. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said he had ordered an immediate curfew.... Wednesday evening, the police released video of the man shooting himself, saying it was important to quell rumors that he had been killed by the police."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for a second consecutive week as the economy tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday.... Last week marked the 22nd time in 23 weeks that initial claims were above 1 million."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "Over the past six months, about 1.5 billion children around the world have been told to stay home from school to help minimize transmission of the coronavirus. More than 30 percent of these students -- around 463 million -- were unable to gain access to remote learning opportunities when their schools closed, according to a report on Wednesday by Unicef, the United Nations agency for children.... Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, said in a statement. 'The repercussions could be felt in economies and societies for decades to come.'"

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The New York Times live updates Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was instructed by higher-ups in the Trump administration to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 -- even if they have been recently exposed to the virus, according to two federal health officials. One official said ... the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN. 'It's coming from the top down,' the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.... A CDC spokesperson referred all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.... The new directive also lines up with a trend in policy and rhetoric from the White House.... Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the US should do less testing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Amy Goldstein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "An abrupt shift this week in government testing guidelines for Americans exposed to the novel coronavirus was directed by the White House's coronavirus task force, alarming outside public health experts who warn the change could hasten the disease's spread. The new guidance, introduced this week without any announcement on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replaces advice that everyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested to find out whether they had caught the virus. Instead, it says that those without symptoms 'do not necessarily need a test.' Several leading infectious-disease experts predicted that, after months of public health exhortations encouraging people to get tested, the turnaround could heighten public confusion, impede contact tracing and lead to more cases. The CDC estimates that 40 percent of those who test positive for the coronavirus have no symptoms but may be highly infectious and spread it to other people.... On Wednesday, Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary who oversees testing, denied the impetus for the shift came from the White House. He said the idea of altering the testing guidance originated with him and CDC Director Robert Redfield, based on concerns that people can have negative results if the test is given too early." ~~~

     ~~~ Then, this: "On a conference call with reporters, Giroir said they discussed the idea with all the physicians on the White House's coronavirus task force, including Anthony S. Fauci ... and Scott Atlas, a new member influential with Trump from his appearances on Fox News who is a fellow at Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution. Atlas has said fewer people need tests for the virus, which has led to more than 5.7 million cases in the United States and at least 175,000 deaths. He is not an infectious-disease specialist. 'All the docs signed off on this ... before it got to a place where the political leadership would have ever seen it,' Giroir said." Emphasis added.

~~~ Really, Brett? Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was undergoing surgery and not in the August 20 task force meeting for the discussion on updated US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that suggest asymptomatic people may not need to be tested for Covid-19, even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. 'I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations' at that meeting, Fauci told ... Dr. Sanjay Gupta. 'I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,' said Fauci.... Fauci's comments undercut claims by Adm. Brett Giroir.... Asked whether Fauci signed off on the guidelines, Giroir said, 'Yes, all the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level.' 'We worked on this all together to make sure that there was absolute consensus that reflected the best possible evidence, and the best public health for the American people,' Giroir also said earlier in the call...." ~~~

     ~~~ Conspiracy Theory Alert. Mrs. McCrabbie: The change in the guidelines sounds like it was organized by a conspiracy of task members to sabotage the guidelines in response to Trump's "asks" to reduce testing in order to keep the number of cases down. On August 20, Bill Chappell of NPR reported, "Dr. Anthony Fauci underwent surgery to remove a polyp from one of his vocal cords Thursday, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the agency Fauci has led for decades." This wasn't a scoop; Fauci's surgery was widely reported. Moreover, it's the type of surgery for which a patient makes an appointment. In one story I read, Fauci said he had been trying for a while to find a time to schedule the surgery. So you can bet people on the task force were forewarned Fauci would be unavailable on August 20, the day of their task force meeting. Scott Atlas, called the "anti-Fauci" in this headline, had joined the task force just ten days earlier. I know it seems unlikely that Trump could plan anything ten days in advance, but mike pence runs the task force, and mikey can plan. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: By the way, Admiral Giroir isn't a "real" admiral who might have commanded a ship sailing the high seas or at least held a Pentagon post. Rather, Trump appointed him as a direct-commission officer with the rank of admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has no enlisted ranks & reports to the Department of Health & Human Services.

Quoctrung Bui, et al., of the New York Times: "On March 15, as the novel coronavirus was beginning to surge in the United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci accomplished a rare Washington feat: He appeared on all five major Sunday talk shows. But the White House worried that Dr. Fauci might upstage (and sometimes contradict) President Trump, and soon his media handlers were no longer approving his high-profile interview requests. So Dr. Fauci found another way to get his message out: He said yes to pretty much every small offer that came his way: academic webinars, Instagram feeds and niche science podcasts, as well as a few celebrity interviews. That's how Dr. Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease scientist, found himself talking to the American Urological Association in June; the Economic Club of Chicago in July; and the 'Brazda Breakfast' briefing this month." Mrs. McC: I once heard a rabbi say, "Absent evil, there are no heroes." Covid-19 has given us many heroes, most of them unsung. There's a good chance you're one yourself.

Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota drew hundreds of thousands of bikers to the small town earlier this month -- despite coronavirus concerns. Now, about three weeks after the rally kicked off, the repercussions are starting to become clear. More than 100 cases of COVID-19 connected to the rally have been reported in at least eight states, the Associated Press reports."

Another Gross Failure of Leadership. Tessa Stuart of Rolling Stone: "The National Hurricane Center has warned [Hurricane Laura] could bring with it an 'unsurvivable' surge -- waves up to 20 feet high that may cause 'catastrophic' damage up to 30 miles inland.... If those predictions bear out, Laura could be one of the most destructive Gulf hurricanes on record. It's particularly bad timing considering that, less than three weeks ago, instead of working with Congress to craft comprehensive legislation to address the ongoing crisis and deliver desperately-needed aid, President Trump looted FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund to the tune of $44 billion -- authorizing the agency to pay for a $300 per week supplement to regular unemployment benefits.... [In other words] because the Senate won't sign off on the House bill and Trump didn't work with lawmakers to reach a compromise, the unemployment supplement isn't coming from money appropriated by Congress. It's coming from the government account meant to cover natural disasters like the one presently bearing down on Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas." --s ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Just before the election in 2012, Donald Trump scolded President Barack Obama for campaigning while victims of Hurricane Sandy were still reeling. 'Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong!' Trump tweeted eight days after the storm struck. Actually..., both Obama and Mitt Romney had suspended their campaigns for a while -- and now his old criticism of Obama makes Trump look ridiculous. On Wednesday, Hurricane Laura approached the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas with a storm surge that the National Hurricane Center called 'unsurvivable' and 'catastrophic.' But Trump decreed that the show would go on.... Just two weeks earlier he signed an executive order stripping the Federal Emergency Management Agency of up to $44 billion from its Disaster Relief Fund. Before that, he did everything in his power to dismantle efforts to ameliorate climate change, which is fueling higher-intensity storms. It's another timely reminder that Trump is a man without a plan."

CPB Suggested Microwaving Asylum-Seekers. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Fifteen days before the 2018 midterm elections, as President Trump sought to motivate Republicans with dark warnings about caravans heading to the U.S. border, he gathered his Homeland Security secretary and White House staff to deliver a message: 'extreme action' was needed to stop the migrants.... At a meeting with top leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection officials suggested deploying a microwave weapon -- a 'heat-ray' designed by the military to make people's skin feel like it is burning when they get within range of its invisible beams. Developed by the military as a crowd dispersal tool two decades ago, the Active Denial System had been largely abandoned amid doubts over its effectiveness and morality. Two former officials who attended the afternoon meeting ..., said the suggestion that the device be installed at the border shocked attendees, even if it would have satisfied the president. Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of Homeland Security told an aide after the meeting that she would not authorize the use of such a device, and it should never be brought up again in her presence, the officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The GOP-controlled Missouri House on Tuesday advanced a bill that would make it legal to give guns to children without their parents' permission. The bill comes after Gov. Mike Parson (R) called lawmakers back for a special summer session on crime and asked the legislature to penalize criminals who unlawfully use firearms, then pass them off on children to avoid detection. The legislation is the exact opposite of what Parson called for, according to The Associated Press." --s

News Ledes

New York Times: “Hurricane Laura pounded the Louisiana and Texas coasts as it made landfall near Cameron, La., as a Category 4 storm early Thursday, delivering a barrage of 150-mile-an-hour winds and a surge of water that was predicted to reach as high as 20 feet. The National Hurricane Center called the expected storm surge 'unsurvivable,' and said that it could push as far as 40 miles inland. Officials also said that low-lying areas facing the brunt of the storm, like Cameron Parish in Louisiana, would essentially be annexed by the Gulf of Mexico until floods receded. Landfall came after officials in both states issued the gravest of warnings, sounding the alarm about a storm that could be one of the worst to hit the region in decades." This is a live-update report. Access to the WashPo's live updates is free. ~~~

~~~ The AP's live updates of Hurricane Laura news are here. The Weather Channel's main report is here.

The Commentariat -- August 26, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Yes, Donald Trump Can Go Lower. Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump is calling for drug tests to be administered before the first presidential debate between him and Democratic nominee Joe Biden next month. Trump made the demand in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Examiner Wednesday, saying he noted a sudden improvement in Biden's primary debate performance against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in March. He offered no evidence to support his suggestion that the improvement could have been the result of a drug.... The president said he was going solely based off of his own observations and not any inside knowledge into Biden's campaign. 'All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff,' he said."

** Ellie Hall, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The law enforcement obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January. Kyle Howard Rittenhouse's social media presence is filled with him posing with weapons, posting 'Blue Lives Matter,' and supporting Trump for president. Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa, rally on Jan. 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you wove this detail into a work of fiction, you (or your editor) would take it out as too trite.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story, citing a tweet by Shannon Watts: "Cell phone footage shows Kenosha police telling armed insurrectionists, 'We appreciate you guys. We really do,' and giving them bottles of water. Shortly after this video was taken, one of these men shot and killed two protesters and wounded another.' Another video shows Rittenhouse open fire with a rifle after he fell to the ground and then calmly walk toward police vehicles with his hands raised in surrender. Other people can be heard yelling that he had shot someone. However, no officers are seen getting out of the vehicles, which continue advancing toward protesters, to apprehend Rittenhouse -- who then fled the state and was considered a fugitive." Mrs. McC: An eyewitness told Anderson Cooper on CNN Wednesday that he saw the shooter talking to police, who were in their vehicle, and he heard a cop tell the shooter to clear away from the area.

Marc Stein of the New York Times: "The Milwaukee Bucks responded to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin, by refusing to take the court Wednesday afternoon for their N.B.A. playoff game against the Orlando Magic. An hour later, the N.B.A. postponed two other playoff games scheduled for Wednesday night, thrusting its ambitious restart at Walt Disney World during the coronavirus pandemic into sudden chaos and doubt. The postponed games were first-round playoff matchups pitting the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers. All three games will be rescheduled. Players from the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. have long been at the forefront of protests against racism and police brutality but especially this year, after the police killings of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman in Kentucky. Still, the boycott was an extraordinary escalation in the athletes' demonstrations, a move that had virtually no precedent in the league's history." A Deadline story is here. ~~~

~~~ Carla Russo of the Huffington Post: "Several Major League Baseball teams postponed their games on Wednesday in an apparent show of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds were the first MLB teams to postpone their game, multiple sources reported. They made their decision not long after the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks staged a walkout during a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, also on Wednesday. Later Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres decided to postpone their Wednesday game as well, according to multiple reports."

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Critically, the Reds decided to join the strike rather than undermine it by accepting a forfeit. This is a big deal.... I dunno, making a lifelong champion of arbitrary violence against Black people president of the United States seems like a bad idea in retrospect."

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidance for coronavirus testing this week. It now says that many people who have been exposed to the virus through close contact with someone who later tested positive 'do not necessarily need a test' if they are not experiencing symptoms. Experts are expressing concern about the change, noting that people without symptoms are responsible for a large share of transmissions." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times live updates Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was instructed by higher-ups in the Trump administration to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 -- even if they have been recently exposed to the virus, according to two federal health officials. One official said ... the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed."

~~~ Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN. 'It's coming from the top down,' the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.... A CDC spokesperson referred all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.... The new directive also lines up with a trend in policy and rhetoric from the White House.... Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the US should do less testing."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember the Taco Bowl! When considering Trump's "message" in pardoning a Black felon and in attending a naturalization ceremony for people of color at the White House yesterday, then playing back video of these events at the convention last night, we should bear in mind Trump's infamous May 2016 tweet in which he is pictured sticking a fork in a Trump Tower Grill taco bowl and declaring "I love Hispanics!" These White House events are not efforts to "soften" his image, as most in the media have asserted. Trump is a cruel person, and all of these "gestures" are, to put it as delicately as possible, mind-fucking exercises. He knows you know he is a racist xenophobe, and his intention is to mess with you.

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An Illinois resident has been arrested in connection to a shooting that left two people dead and another person wounded during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., officials said on Wednesday. A court document from Lake County, Ill., shows that Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Antioch, Ill., on Wednesday morning after being charged with first degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting that took place only hours earlier. Antioch is about 30 minutes southwest of Kenosha, just over the Illinois line." This is an update of a story linked below.

CPB Suggested Microwaving Asylum-Seekers. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Fifteen days before the 2018 midterm elections, as President Trump sought to motivate Republicans with dark warnings about caravans heading to the U.S. border, he gathered his Homeland Security secretary and White House staff to deliver a message: 'extreme action' was needed to stop the migrants.... At a meeting with top leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection officials suggested deploying a microwave weapon -- a 'heat-ray' designed by the military to make people's skin feel like it is burning when they get within range of its invisible beams. Developed by the military as a crowd dispersal tool two decades ago, the Active Denial System had been largely abandoned amid doubts over its effectiveness and morality. Two former officials who attended the afternoon meeting ..., said the suggestion that the device be installed at the border shocked attendees, even if it would have satisfied the president. Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of Homeland Security told an aide after the meeting that she would not authorize the use of such a device, and it should never be brought up again in her presence, the officials said."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Reality Chek. Matthew Choi of Politico: "Hillary Clinton is predicting Donald Trump's reelection effort will be a messy affair, and the former Democratic candidate has some advice for Joe Biden: If the race is close, don't concede. Speaking with Jennifer Palmieri for Showtime's 'The Circus,' Clinton said Trump would likely try to take the election by going after absentee voting.... Democrats, she said, should be ready to fight if the results come back too close to call."

New York Times reporters' snark analysis of Tuesday night's Trumpalooza is here. It includes a live video feed of the convention, which is best left on mute. Speaking of snark:

The New York Times' live updates of the Republican National Convention's Tuesday show are here. The Washington Post's live updates of the convention are here. Includes a video livefeed. The Guardian live updates are here, and it's admirably unforgiving.

** Donald Trump, Friend of Immigrants and People of Color. Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "President Trump made a bid to sand down his divisive political image by appropriating the resources of his office and the powers of the presidency at the Republican convention on Tuesday, breaching the traditional boundaries between campaigning and governing in an effort to broaden his appeal beyond his conservative base. In an abrupt swerve from the dire tone of the convention's first night, Mr. Trump staged a grab-bag of gauzy events and personal testimonials aimed in particular at female and minority voters. In videos recorded at the White House, Mr. Trump pardoned a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery and swore in five new American citizens, all of them people of color, in a miniature naturalization ceremony." Quite a good summary.

Quint Forgey, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump staged a norm-busting show on the second night of the Republican National Convention, pardoning a convicted bank robber, hosting a naturalization ceremony, and providing a primetime platform to Americans with a history of incendiary social media posts. Trump also blurred the line between the presidency and electoral politics.... Melania Trump delivered her speech from the Rose Garden, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered a taped message from Jerusalem, an unusually partisan move for the nation's top diplomat." ~~~

~~~ As Ben Rhodes said on MSNBC after the second episode of the Trump Unreality Show, Trump knows he's violating the law, but he just doesn't think he has to obey U.S. law. ~~~

~~~ Michelle Lee & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The decision by the Republican National Convention to feature President Trump conducting official business inside the White House underscores how he is leveraging the powers of his office for political gain, raising questions about whether an event featured Tuesday night violated federal law. In a remarkable pretaped scene packaged as part of the convention's prime time programming, Trump took part in a naturalization ceremony for five new citizens as acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf administered the Oath of Allegiance.... Kathleen Clark, a legal and government ethics professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said that the event appeared to be designed as part of the convention, an action that would violate a criminal provision of the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from participating in politics in their official capacity.... She ... [called] Trump and Wolf 'breathtaking in their contempt for the law.'... Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for ... Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, [said,] 'This is so obviously, blatantly, insultingly a Hatch Act violation that it's starting to seem like the Trump administration is going out of its way to find new ways to violate the law. We'll be filing a complaint.'"

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Melania Trump pushed for racial unity during her keynote on the second night of the Republican National Convention, offering a far more conciliatory address than other speakers who used their lecterns to bombastically promote the president.... Closing out the evening, the first lady reflected on a number of her own experiences in the White House, thanked front-line workers combating the coronavirus, and ... made a call for civility and peace both at home and abroad, evoking her childhood dreams of America in communist Yugoslav Slovenia.... Her consoling comments [about Covid-19 deaths], however, appeared out of sync with her surroundings, as she delivered them to a packed Rose Garden with little room for social distancing.... It wasn't until deep into her speech that Melania Trump spoke about her husband.... 'In my husband, you have a president who will not stop fighting for you and your family,' Melania Trump said. 'I see how hard he works each day and night and despite the unprecedented attacks from the media, he will not give up.' She also touched on her husband's penchant for blasting out his thoughts on Twitter or at his news briefings. Though those messages frequently include falsehoods or exaggerations, Melania Trump cast his unfiltered nature as unvarnished honesty." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Melanie, we know "how hard" Donnie works for us & how "honest" he is. Apparently, you new Rose Garden comes equipped with rose-colored glasses.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump sought Tuesday to wrap himself in pro-immigrant sentiment -- even though his administration has waged a yearslong assault on the nation's immigration system -- by presiding over a naturalization ceremony at the White House during the second night of the Republican National Convention. Using the majesty of the White House for blatantly political purposes, Mr. Trump appeared during the convention's second hour as 'Hail to the Chief' played and strode to a lectern where five immigrants were waiting to take the oath to become citizens. 'Today, America rejoices as we welcome five absolutely incredible new members into our great American family,' he told them in a 10-minute ceremony that had been taped in the afternoon.... And Mr. Trump's explicit claim that he loves and appreciates immigrants stands in stark contrast to his record over the past four years, during which he has repeatedly pursued anti-immigrant policies, often fueled by xenophobic language." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Offensive on every level, the entire charade was an extended, living, breathing 10-minute lie. Of all of the lies, slander, hypocrisy, denialism, abuses, & absurdities of the Big Dog-and-Pony Show, this would be my pick for the worst. The only thing they could have done to make it worse would have been to have Stephen Miller instead of Chad Wolf officiating. But Wolf, who is holding his "acting" position illegally, is bad enough. As Maggie Haberman asks in the NYT snark chat, "... can a Cabinet appointee violate the Hatch Act if he's serving illegally in that capacity anyway?!?" ~~~

     ~~~ Clara Chan & Ross Lincoln of the Wrap: "Tuesday's Republican National Convention sparked uproar on social media from some politicians and commentators for including a naturalization ceremony in the White House, featuring a government official [-- Chad Wolf --] who may be illegally occupying his position, at a political campaign event -- and also at a time when U.S. immigration has been delayed by the Trump administration amid the pandemic.... [After swearing the new citizens,] Afterward, Wolf effusively praised Trump and the newly inducted citizens were encouraged to do the same." ~~~

Mr. President, I want to again commend you for your dedication to the rule of law, and for restoring integrity to our immigration system. Thank you for hosting such a patriotic celebration here at the White House today. -- Chad Wolf, at a naturalization ceremony Tuesday ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Embraces Immigrant from "Shithole Country." Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The event was cynical and dubious in an avalanche of ways. The appearance of Wolf, for example, who earlier in the day had earned an honor of his own: Twitter-nominated to officially serve in the position he's now held in an acting capacity for almost a year.... [Wolf has] been reliable in putting into effect policies introduced by Trump aide Stephen Miller, a notorious advocate for broadly limiting immigration.... The words that struck closest to Wolf's heart weren't his praise for the patriotic celebration but, instead, for Trump's 'dedication to the rule of law' -- despite the irony of Wolf making that assertion while serving without legal authorization. And while also apparently violating federal prohibitions against using government resources for campaign purposes.... Here, convention viewers were asked to set aside years of Trump antagonism toward immigrants entering the country both legally and illegally and, instead, to believe that he offers warm embraces to new Americans.Trump had the audacity to tell the life story of and pose for a photograph with an immigrant from Ghana[, one of the 'shithole countries' Trump complained were sending immigrants to the U.S]."

Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee..., has opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's controversial decision to address the Republican National Convention.... The decision to speak to the political convention in prerecorded remarks from Jerusalem breaks with longstanding precedent of sitting secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics, particularly while abroad, and appears to violate guidance on political activities that Pompeo himself emphasized in a cable to diplomats just last month." ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "The Hatch Act bars federal officials from engaging in political activity while on duty, yet Pompeo recorded his speech during an official diplomatic visit to Israel.... 'It is also a complete abdication of leadership (and flouting of Pompeo's own much-ballyhooed "ethos") for the rank and file to abide by the rules while the boss does whatever the heck he pleases,' Laura Kennedy, an ambassador to Turkmenistan under George W. Bush, told me." ~~~

~~~ Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... what Pompeo said was only slightly less objectionable than where and how he was saying it. For instance, he boasted that Trump 'has ended the ridiculous unfair trade arrangements with China' -- when, in fact, only the first phase of a trade deal has been completed, with no additional phases on the horizon. The jobs lost to China over the decades, he added, 'are coming back home.' In fact, not so much. On North Korea, he said Trump 'lowered the temperature and, against all odds, got the North Koreans to the table.' Yes, but once at the table, the North Koreans did nothing and, in fact, continued to build ballistic missiles and enrich uranium.... 'Because of President Trump,' Pompeo claimed, 'NATO is stronger' -- when, in fact, he has done more to foster doubt about the U.S. commitment to NATO than any president since the treaty's signing after World War II. He said Trump gave Ukraine 'defensive weapons systems' -- referring to the anti-tank missiles that Trump tried to withhold if Volodymyr Zelensky did not help him smear ... Joe Biden. But Pompeo failed to note that, even after Trump let the missiles go, the Department of Defense insisted that the weapons be stored in western Ukraine, far from the battlefield in the east."

~~~ "Diplomats Aghast." Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "Diplomats who are barred by law from mixing work and politics say they're appalled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, breaking with long-standing traditions aimed at isolating American's foreign policy from partisan battles at home. It would be problematic enough, current and former U.S. diplomats said, if Pompeo were simply showing up at the convention to speak. But Pompeo's decision to use a stop in Jerusalem during an official overseas trip as the site for his recorded speech to fellow Republicans raises even more troubling questions about the message it sends to other countries and whether U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, they said.... Pompeo's speech in service of ... Donald Trump's re-election appears to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of three legal memos issued by the State Department's legal adviser. One of the legal memos, intended to guide political appointees, says explicitly in bold letters that 'Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention.'" Mrs. McC: But will Mike speak from the Temple Mount? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pranshu Verma & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday pardoned a man convicted of robbing a bank in Nevada who now runs a nonprofit for prisoners, shortly before the Republican National Convention entered its second night. The White House announced the pardon of the man, Jon Ponder, in a seven-minute video in which the president called Mr. Ponder's life 'a beautiful testament to the power of redemption.'... Mr. Ponder met the president in 2018, when he was invited to a Rose Garden ceremony for a National Day of Prayer.... Since he took office, Mr. Trump has pardoned or granted clemency to people he personally knows or whose cases strike a chord with him.... As Mr. Trump's bid for re-election enters its last stretch, the announcement appears to be an attempt by the president to draw voters' attention to criminal justice, a subject that he has promoted as a signature initiative of his time in office." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That's a generous interpretation. Trump is appealing here to two constituencies: (1) evangelicals, and (2) Black people. Ponder is Black, and Trump likely thinks Ponder's pardon will resonate with Black voters because most Blacks are criminals. ~~~

     ~~~ UPDATE: Oh, surprise! The video showed up as the first segment of the Trump Variety Show Tuesday.

Edwin Rios of Mother Jones: "Long before racist birther Melania Trump made a plea for unity, the undercard of the RNC's second night featured what can only be described as a parade of Good Ones. These were the good kinds of immigrants, the good kinds of Black and Brown folks, people living or at least aspiring to live clean, capitalist lives on the bright side of the American Dream. Donald Trump delivered a stunt pardon of a bank robber turned Christian prison reformer. He presided over an unspeakably cynical stunt naturalization ceremony. The message of all these various gimmicks was that 'hard work and determination' plus chance opportunities plus the beneficence of beaming white saviors can shape and shift the lives of the lower orders for the better. We don't have to enumerate all the ways the administration has in fact worked to block the various pathways to success that speakers were touting all night.... [Also at the convention,] the Good Prosecutor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, peddling tired attacks about Democrats' 'all-out assault on Western civilization' and decrying the notion that one's skin tone dictates one's political leanings.... Cameron, the state's first top Black prosecutor, is ... the guy overseeing the investigation into the cops who killed Breonna Taylor." Mrs. McC: Five months after Taylor's murder by cop, Cameron still has not brought charges.

All the Best People, Ctd. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "One of the speakers for the second night of the Republican National Convention was pulled from the program after The Daily Beast surfaced a tweet from her, earlier in the day, urging her followers to investigate a supposed Jewish plot to enslave the world.... [Mary Ann] Mendoza, an 'angel mom,' was scheduled to speak Tuesday about her son's 2014 death at the hands of a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. But a Republican source familiar with the programming said the speech had been cancelled amid uproar over her tweet.... Mendoza had linked to a lengthy thread from a QAnon conspiracy theorist that laid out a fevered, anti-Semitic view of the world. In its telling, the Rothschilds -- a famous Jewish banking family from Germany -- created a plot to terrorize non-Jewish 'goyim,' with purported details of their scheme that included plans to 'make the goyim destroy each other' and 'rob the goyim of their landed properties.'" ~~~

~~~ Amanda Becker of The 19th: "Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, who will speak on Tuesday during the second night of the Republican National Convention, has advocated in recent months for a head-of-household voting system that has historically barred women and people of color from casting ballots.... Johnson's prime time RNC remarks come on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women. (In practice, many women of color were excluded for many years thereafter.)... Head-of-household voting would permit only the head of a household -- and not all household members who are citizens over 18 years of age -- to cast a ballot. Johnson believes the male member of the household would be the de facto decision maker."

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a registered lobbyist for a foreign government that Donald Trump's Justice Department has implicated in a corruption scandal, used her speech at the Republican convention on Tuesday to criticize former Vice President Joe Biden for alleged self-dealing abroad.... Bondi was hired by the White House to assist with impeachment messaging late last year. When she took the White House job, Bondi wound down her work on behalf of the government of Qatar, which U.S. authorities recently implicated in a corruption scandal involving their hosting of the 2022 World Cup. In March, Bondi left the White House and restarted her work for Qatar. An executive order imposed by Trump in the early days of his presidency ostensibly bars former administration officials from lobbying for foreign governments, but Bondi appears to have benefited from a loophole in the rule. Bondi's relationship with Trump goes back years and has itself been the target of corruption allegations. In 2013, Trump's since-dissolved foundation made an illegal $25,000 contribution to a political group affiliated with Bondi as the then-attorney general was weighing whether to pursue a fraud investigation against the notorious Trump University. Bondi subsequently passed on the investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Bondi began by trying to re-litigate claims that [Joe] Biden had improperly intervened in Ukraine to protect his son Hunter.... Notice that we can't discuss [Bondi's] claims ... without repeatedly mentioning that Donald Trump was ... impeached after the House found that he abused his power in an effort to do precisely what Bondi was doing: using Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine as a campaign gambit against his father."

"Obvious Lie After Obvious Lie." Sahil Kapur of NBC News: Joe Biden's campaign "shared media fact checks on Tuesday about the GOP convention on health care, crime and COVID-19. 'Last night's incoherent charade was sad, underwhelming, and devoid of vision to the point that it bordered on self parody,' Joe Biden's campaign said in a statement that pointed to myriad fact-checks by news organizations debunking claims regarding health care, crime and the coronavirus pandemic.... Biden's campaign said the speeches amounted to 'obvious lie after obvious lie.'" ~~~

~~~ Reverse Reality. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "Faced with a pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 Americans, President Trump used glitzy video and misleading testimonials to spin a tale of heroism and resolve far removed from the grim reality of a country in the throes of an uncontrolled public health crisis. At the Republican National Convention on Monday, Trump was hailed as a bold and lifesaving leader who 'was right' on the coronavirus while Democrats, doctors and pundits were wrong from the beginning. One campaign-style video that aired during the convention hailed Trump as the 'one leader' who stood up to the virus while quoting Democratic figures who played down the severity of the virus in its early stages. It's a revisionist version of recent history belied by hours of videotape in which the president minimized the threat of the virus for months, falsely predicted that it would 'disappear' with warmer weather, promoted several unproven miracle cures, pushed states to reopen before meeting federal government benchmarks, equivocated on mask-wearing, defied social distancing guidelines and repeatedly told Americans that everything was under control." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The problem, of course, is that millions of dimwits & low-information voters may believe these head-spinning lies. Covid is the Democrats' fault! ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC asks the obvious: "If the case for Trump is strong, why isn't the truth good enough? To hear Republicans tell it, the 2020 presidential election is effectively a no-brainer: Donald Trump has been a great success, the argument goes, and Joe Biden is a failure pushing ideas that would take the country backward. The choice, from a GOP perspective, couldn't be clearer. Of course, if this were accurate, all Republicans would need to do is tell the public the truth. There'd be no need to mislead anyone, since the facts would serve as a boon to the incumbent president and his party, and prove devastating to his Democratic rivals. And yet, on the first night of the Republican National Convention, the party made one thing painfully clear: the truth would not be good enough." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Donald Trump screwed up everything he touched, he's as crooked as a dog's hind leg, he doesn't give a flying fuck about the job or about you, but, you know, 'Four More Years!'", while true, is not an excellent campaign pitch.

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: The mean people on Twitter are suggesting that Donnie Junior was coked up when he gave his convention speech. Brigham cites many opinionators. I like that "scientific analysis," where a Tweeter tested the color of Junior's eyes against a color chart & finds that the "whitest" spot in the whites of his eyes was actually a deep rosy pink. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shadow Chief of State & Secretary of Everything Hannity Gets His Own Convention Platform(s). Brian Stelter of CNN: "When representatives from all the major TV networks visited the White House's South Lawn on Monday ... to prepare for President Trump's Thursday night speech there, there was a surprise: A mystery anchor platform.... the network executives discovered that the platform was built for one of the president's biggest supporters: Sean Hannity.... It's the latest in a long line of examples of Trump favoring the Fox News personalities who promote him the most. Hannity said on his Monday night program that he will be live from the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday ahead of First Lady Melania Trump's speech; live on Wednesday from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where Vice President Mike Pence will be speaking; and live from the South Lawn on Thursday."

Florida Congressional Race. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) joked about sex with 15-year-old girls on Facebook with a friend. 'One of the comments involves a Feb. 23, 2009, photo of a bar outing posted by Rocco LeDonni, who is now Mast's campaign manager. The photo was taken during LeDonni's vacation to South Africa,' reported Skyler Swisher. 'Mast commented, 'im so proud of you... i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there.... its legel there right."; Mast also joked with leDonni that he should turn a planned rape into a murder. Mast says he's sorry and is trying to be a better example to his children. Mast's Democratic opponent, former Navy JAG officer Pam Keith, was not amused. The Sun Sentinal report, which is firewalled, is here.

Kansas Legislature. Jenny Gross of the New York Times: "The 19-year-old candidate for the Kansas Legislature who admitted to sending revenge porn and bullying girls online when he was in middle school said Tuesday that he was breaking his pledge to withdraw as the Democratic nominee. The candidate, Aaron Coleman, a dishwasher and community college student, defeated a seven-term incumbent, Stan Frownfelter, earlier this month by 14 votes in the Democratic primary for the 37th District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.... Writing in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald criticized Democratic leaders for their contempt for Mr. Coleman, who said he had reached out to his middle school victims in attempts to make amends." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That just brilliant, Glenn, because ... Ryan Grim of the Intercept (you know, your own damned news org, Glenn): According to Coleman's ex-girlfriend Taylor Passow, during a disagreement about three-way sex "on December 27, 2019..., 'He sat there for a few seconds, then he jumped on top of me, put his hands around my throat and started squeezing, and slapped me three times, and said "I don't know where the fuck you think you're going."..."' A few days later,"in text messages with Passow, Coleman disputed her recollection."

Oklahoma. The New York Times has state primary results here. Looks as if the only federal race is between Republican candidates for the Oklahoma City-based House district, which is too close to call at 10:00 pm ET.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Hahn Apologizes. Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: At a White House briefing Sunday, with a maskless Donald Trump breathing down his neck, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn claimed that 35 percent of coronavirus patients "were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease.... But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn't accurate, scientists said Monday.... [Experts were horrified by what was a false claim.] On Monday night, Hahn in a tweet acknowledged he had misspoken during the news briefing about the findings of the convalescent plasma study. 'I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,' Hahn wrote. 'What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.'... Essentially, the Trump administration figures had compared one group of patients who got a certain kind of plasma with a group who got a different concentration at a different point in the disease, thus showing the relative difference between those groups. It was not a measure of what happens when some patients get plasma and some don't -- the kind of research necessary to send a signal of whether a treatment is truly helping." The AP's story is here. Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

More FDA Corruption. Brad Reed of RawStory: "The Twitter account for the Food and Drug Administration has started promoting propagandistic announcements lauding the Trump administration's 'achievements' in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic -- shortly after President Donald Trump appointed a gun-loving former reporter for One America News [Emily Miller] as the agency's spokeswoman.... Miller's work as a right-wing journalist over the years [includes] fabricated quotes from former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, while also pushing conspiracy theories about the Obama administration trying to 'track law-abiding citizens' with its promotion of 'smart gun' technology that would allow guns to be fired only by authorized users. Miller is also the author of a book titled, 'Emily Gets Her Gun... But Obama Wants to Take Yours.'" --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. David Lieb of AP: "As South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster prepared to announce the end of a coronavirus stay-at-home order, his top staff received an email from the state health department. The message ... was clear: Wait longer before allowing customers back inside restaurants, hair salons and other businesses where people will be in close contact. Instead, McMaster pressed ahead with a plan written by the state restaurant association to resume inside dining on May 11.... South Carolina later experienced a surge in infections that forced McMaster to dial back his reopening plan. He was hardly alone. Thousands of pages of emails provided to The Associated Press under open-records laws show that governors across the U.S. were inundated with reopening advice from a wide range of industries.... Some governors put economic interests ahead of public health guidance, and certain businesses were allowed to write the rules that would govern their own operations." --s

Texas. CBS Dallas Forth-Worth: "Following 46 cases of bleach ingestions in the North Texas Poison Center region since the start of August, experts are again warning people that drinking the chemical won't prevent COVID-19. The organization pointed to 'misleading and inaccurate information circulating online about how to prevent the spread of COVID-19,' for an uptick in poisonings." --s

Ben Gittleson, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will nominate Chad Wolf to be the permanent Secretary of Homeland Security. Wolf has been acting secretary since November and his tenure has been controversial, most recently in his role carrying out Trump's orders to use federal agents to respond to violent protests in Portland, Oregon.... Two weeks ago, a government watchdog agency found that Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were named to their current roles illegally, in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, in part because they had not faced Senate confirmation. In response to a letter from DHS which called the ruling 'baseless and baffling,' the Government Accountability Office reaffirmed its decision that the two top DHS officials were serving illegally. Democrats had demanded they resign, and on a call with reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer blasted the decision to nominate Wolf." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Washington Post story is here.

Ridin' the Trump Gravy Train. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Hope Hicks, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump's, landed high-paying gigs, including a Wall Street speaking engagement, between White House stints, according to her latest financial disclosure report.... When she [first] departed the administration, she listed a bank account valued up to $15,000 as her sole asset, the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington notes. Her latest disclosure lists a bank account that is valued at up to $1 million.... Shortly after leaving the White House, Hicks created her own limited liability company called Cavender Consultants.... While in use, the LLC was used as a way for Hicks to collect fees for what she described on her form as communications consulting at Glover Park Group, a public relations firm that includes her father, Paul Hicks, as managing director.... [Hope] Hicks is not listed as a lobbyist.... Hicks also lists a speaking engagement she had at Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.... She moderated a discussion with former Trump economic advisor and Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn." --s

... Heather Schwedel of Slate confirms the theory Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice expressed about the reason Kellyanne & George Conway are quitting their high-profile day jobs (also linked here a couple of days ago). Schwedel offers more details on Conway daughter Claudia's social media musings.

Asha Rangappa & Ryan Goodman of Just Security: "After three years of insisting that unvetted information should never form the basis for an investigation into an active presidential candidate, Republican members of the Senate would never attempt to do such a thing themselves, right? Wrong. That is exactly what some are attempting to do in the home stretch of the 2020 election.... But Ukrainegate 2.0, like the original, has a dual purpose. The goal isn't just to smear [Joe] Biden, but also to shift blame for 2016 election interference to Ukraine. An architect of that false narrative about Ukraine is Paul Manafort, and the probe has accordingly served the former Trump campaign chairman's interests along numerous fronts in Ukraine politics and at home.... What's not received sufficient attention is how [Sen. Ron] Johnson's efforts have worked in tandem with Manafort's.... Undermining Manafort's prosecution offers a basis for President Trump to tie up the last loose end from the charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and finally give the pardon he had dangled to Manafort over a year and a half ago." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The flaw in this suggestion? That Ron Johnson is smart enough to be part of a conspiracy. We'll have to assume some little bird has duped him into conducting this "investigation."

Here's a story I missed: Melanie Zanona of Politico (August 21): "The House Ethics Committee formally admonished Rep. Matt Gaetz for a threatening tweet about ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer -- the lightest form of punishment that the panel can take. While the 10-member panel determined that the Florida Republican's 'actions did not reflect creditably upon the House of Representatives,' the committee also concluded in its report that he 'did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws' and declined to issue more severe sanctions against the Florida Republican.... The case stems from an incident on February 2019, when on the eve of Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, Gaetz vowed to release embarrassing information about allegations of Cohen's infidelity. The tweet sparked immediate backlash on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing Gaetz of witness tampering. 'Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat,' Gaetz wrote. 'I wonder if she'll remain faithful to you in prison. She's about to learn a lot.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Julie Bosman of the New York Times: In Kenosha, Wisconsin, "three people were shot early Wednesday, two fatally, law enforcement officials said, during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake.... A third night of protests over the shooting of Mr. Blake stretched into the early morning hours of Wednesday, after demonstrators clashed with law enforcement officials near the county courthouse downtown.... [After police, using tear gas & rubber bullets, forced the crowd to disperse, some walked] to a gas station several blocks away. There, a group of men with guns stood outside, promising to protect the property and verbally sparring with the arriving protesters. As the night stretched on, the gas station became a tense gathering spot.... After midnight, shots were fired outside the gas station. Three people were struck... Sheriff [David] Beth said that the investigation was focused on the group of men with guns outside the gas station, and that investigators were scouring video taken just before the shooting. 'I've had people saying, "Why don't you deputize citizens?"' he said. 'This is why you don't deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha.'" Whatever the Supremes' intended purpose, a consequence of their ruling was to cheapen human life. An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's call these Second Amendment Murders. If the confederate Supremes had not allowed and effectively encouraged open-carry laws in their 2008 Heller v. D.C. decision, these senseless deaths probably would not have happened because those gun-toting bozos would not have been "protecting" that gas station.* ~~~

     ~~~ * "On April 20, 2009 the Wisconsin Attorney General's office released a memorandum to all law enforcement agencies stating that mere open carry of a firearm was not disorderly conduct, and instructed both law enforcement and the district attorneys to cease this practice [of arresting people for disorderly conduct if they were merely openly carrying guns]."

~~~ Julie Bosman & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Jacob Blake is conscious after being shot by a police officer this week, partially paralyzed from a bullet that severed his spinal cord and unaware of the protests that have spread across the country in his name, his family and lawyers said on Tuesday. Standing in front of a heavily fortified courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., where demonstrations and destruction have rocked the city of 100,000, Mr. Blake's parents and siblings denounced the police and pleaded for justice. It was a 'senseless attempted murder,' said Mr. Blake's father, Jacob Blake Sr., as he broke down and wept. 'They shot my son seven times, like he didn't matter.' He said he had no confidence that the shooting of a Black man by a white officer would be fairly investigated.... The [Kenosha Police Department] is now facing intense public scrutiny.... Kenosha was under a curfew again on Tuesday night." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Several of Jacob's relatives made moving remarks at the press conference, but his sister Letetra Wideman's comments particularly struck me, perhaps because -- as much as a white person can "get it" -- I share her feelings: ~~~

~~~ Mark Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anger-fueled protests radiated across the nation Tuesday as the family of a 29-year-old Black man shot in the back by police in [Kenosha, Wisconsin,] demanded swift action to bring officers to justice. In a highly emotional appearance two days after the shooting, Jacob Blake Jr.'s parents and siblings called for healing and peace following consecutive nights of violence. Julia Jackson, Blake's mother, asked for Americans to show 'how humans are supposed to treat each other.' But the family also pinned responsibility for Blake's grievous injuries on what they called a racist law enforcement system that brutalizes Black people, and expressed dismay that his shooter had not yet been fired or charged."

Falwell Flipflops. Again. Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell, Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as president of Liberty University, after agreeing to step down Monday in the wake of scandals involving personal conduct, and then reversing course." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, after a chaotic 48 hours in which a sex scandal emerged and Mr. Falwell resigned, changed his mind and then changed it back again, he was officially out as president and chancellor of Liberty University.... Mr. Falwell's departure was the culmination of a remarkable sequence of events beginning Sunday night, when Mr. Falwell issued a statement claiming that his wife, Becki, had a sexual relationship with a man who later tried to extort the couple in exchange for silence. The statement appeared to anticipate an interview with Reuters that appeared the next day, in which the man, Giancarlo Granda, claimed he met Ms. Falwell regularly for sexual liaisons, with Mr. Falwell looking on. In the interview, Mr. Granda denied the claim of extortion.... On Monday afternoon, [Mr. Falwell] told the board and reporters that he was resigning but then abruptly reversed course, before eventually sending a resignation letter late in the evening. The board's executive committee met on Tuesday morning and voted to accept Mr. Falwell's resignation immediately. The full board then convened an emergency conference call and unanimously confirmed Mr. Falwell's departure. He will receive severance as dictated by his employment agreement, according to the board's statement, which did not specify the amount. He also resigned from his seat on the board."

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News in ProPublica: "Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson [R] resigned Tuesday following the publication of an Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation showing he sent hundreds of text messages to a younger state employee that Clarkson acknowledged had made her uncomfortable. Records obtained by the newsrooms found Clarkson sent at least 558 text messages between March 5 and March 31 to a woman whose job required she sometimes interact with the attorney general. In at least 18 messages he invited the woman to come to his home. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said in an email Tuesday that he had accepted Clarkson's resignation.... While Clarkson's resignation came within hours of the story's publication, it came more than two months after the news organizations began asking questions and requesting records about his text messages." Mrs. McC: I guess they don't get news about #MeToo way up in Alaska.

Way Beyond

Russia, Germany. Michael Nienaber & Joseph Nasr of Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.... 'In light of the prominent role played by Mr. Navalny in the political opposition in Russia, the authorities there are now urgently called upon to investigate this crime to the last detail - and do so in full transparency,' Merkel said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas." Mrs. McC: Gee, no word from Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: Weather Channel: "Hurricane Laura has rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico as it heads for landfall on the upper Texas or southwest Louisiana coasts as a major hurricane by early Thursday morning. A potentially catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds will batter the region and a threat of flooding rain and strong winds will extend well inland.... The hurricane is now a strong Category 2 and is expected to continue strengthening. Laura could briefly become a Category 4 hurricane later today." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New York Times live updates: "Hurricane Laura, now a major Category 4 storm, hurtled toward the coasts of Louisiana and Texas on Wednesday morning, prompting state leaders to make dire warnings about life-threatening conditions as the storm gained further strength."

The Commentariat -- August 25, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

Hahn Apologizes. Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: At a White House briefing Sunday, with a maskless Donald Trump breathing down his neck, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn claimed that 35 percent of coronavirus patient "were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease.... But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn't accurate, scientists said Monday.... [Experts were horrified by what was a false claim.] On Monday night, Hahn in a tweet acknowledged he had misspoken during the news briefing about the findings of the convalescent plasma study. 'I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,' Hahn wrote. 'What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.'... Essentially, the Trump administration figures had compared one group of patients who got a certain kind of plasma with a group who got a different concentration at a different point in the disease, thus showing the relative difference between those groups. It was not a measure of what happens when some patients get plasma and some don't -- the kind of research necessary to send a signal of whether a treatment is truly helping." The AP's story is here. Related story linked below.

Ben Gittleson, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will nominate Chad Wolf to be the permanent Secretary of Homeland Security. Wolf has been acting secretary since November and his tenure has been controversial, most recently in his role carrying out Trump's orders to use federal agents to respond to violent protests in Portland, Oregon.... Two weeks ago, a government watchdog agency found that Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were named to their current roles illegally, in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, in part because they had not faced Senate confirmation. In response to a letter from DHS which called the ruling 'baseless and baffling,' the Government Accountability Office reaffirmed its decision that the two top DHS officials were serving illegally. Democrats had demanded they resign, and on a call with reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer blasted the decision to nominate Wolf."

Falwell Flipflops. Again. Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell, Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as president of Liberty University, after agreeing to step down Monday in the wake of scandals involving personal conduct, and then reversing course."

Here's a story I missed: Melanie Zanona of Politico (August 21): "The House Ethics Committee formally admonished Rep. Matt Gaetz for a threatening tweet about ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer -- the lightest form of punishment that the panel can take. While the 10-member panel determined that the Florida Republican's 'actions did not reflect creditably upon the House of Representatives,' the committee also concluded in its report that he 'did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws' and declined to issue more severe sanctions against the Florida Republican.... The case stems from an incident on February 2019, when on the eve of Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, Gaetz vowed to release embarrassing information about allegations of Cohen's infidelity. The tweet sparked immediate backlash on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing Gaetz of witness tampering. 'Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat,' Gaetz wrote. 'I wonder if she'll remain faithful to you in prison. She's about to learn a lot.'"

Michael Nienaber & Joseph Nasr of Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.... 'In light of the prominent role played by Mr. Navalny in the political opposition in Russia, the authorities there are now urgently called upon to investigate this crime to the last detail - and do so in full transparency,' Merkel said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas." Mrs. McC: Gee, no word from Donald Trump.

"Diplomats Aghast." Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "Diplomats who are barred by law from mixing work and politics say they're appalled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, breaking with long-standing traditions aimed at isolating American's foreign policy from partisan battles at home. It would be problematic enough, current and former U.S. diplomats said, if Pompeo were simply showing up at the convention to speak. But Pompeo's decision to use a stop in Jerusalem during an official overseas trip as the site for his recorded speech to fellow Republicans raises even more troubling questions about the message it sends to other countries and whether U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, they said.... Pompeo's speech in service of ... Donald Trump's re-election appears to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of three legal memos issued by the State Department's legal adviser. One of the legal memos, intended to guide political appointees, says explicitly in bold letters that 'Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention.'" Mrs. McC: But will Mike speak from the Temple Mount?

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: The mean people on Twitter are suggesting that Donnie Junior was coked up when he gave his convention speech. Brigham cites many opinionators. I like that "scientific analysis," where a Tweeter tested the color of Junior's eyes against a color chart & finds that the "whitest" spot in the whites of his eyes was actually a deep rosy pink.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race. Etc.

A Story Told by Cranks and Misfits. -- Joe Scarborough of MSNBC

Jonathan Lemire & Zeke Miller of the AP: "... Donald Trump aggressively asserted control over the Republican National Convention on Monday, overshadowing the prime-time speakers, as he made clear he wants voters to focus on him.... Republicans are not known as the party of diversity. But on Monday, the party showcased two of its stars, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and the state's former governor, Nikki Haley, to try to tell a different story. Both argued that the president and his party had done a lot to help minorities across the nation.... Trump complained last week that Democrats 'held the darkest and angriest and gloomiest convention in American history.' But on opening night of their convention, Republicans are doing their share, spreading fear of a Biden victory on Nov. 3.... Trump made an appearance at the White House with everyday Americans, without recommended social distancing and with no one wearing a mask.... Rep. Jim Jordan, one of Trump's most bombastic backers, testified to Trump's 'intensity and his willingness to fight. But what I also appreciate is something most Americans never see -- how much he truly cares about people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie Clearly, no one at the RNC saw the irony of having the party's most vicious attack dog, Jim Jordan, praising Trump's caring & empathetic character. ~~~

~~~ Beware the Invading Hordes! Jonathan Martin, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump and his political allies mounted a fierce and misleading defense of his political record on the first night of the Republican convention on Monday, while unleashing a barrage of attacks on Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the Democratic Party that were unrelenting in their bleakness. Hours after Republican delegates formally nominated Mr. Trump for a second term, the president and his party made plain that they intended to engage in sweeping revisionism about Mr. Trump's management of the coronavirus pandemic, his record on race relations and much else. And they laid out a dystopian picture of what the United States would look like under a Biden administration, warning of a 'vengeful mob' that would lay waste to suburban communities and turn quiet neighborhoods into war zones. At times, the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality.... [Donald Junior] delivered that framed the election as a choice between 'church, work and school' and 'rioting, looting and vandalism.'... 'Rioters must not be allowed to destroy our cities,' [Junior's girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle] said, before abruptly changing her tone and smiling broadly. 'The best is to come,' she said, her voice rising to a shout.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This might be a good time to remind you that Guilfoyle knows cities. After all, she was the wife of liberal California Gov. Gavin Newsom when he was San Francisco's mayor, though she was working in New York City for Anderson Cooper for some of that time. And, as I learned today, Guilfoyle also had a professional relationship with Kamala Harris, which Harris suggests Guilfoyle has completely misrepresented.

New York Times reporters' snark analysis of the Republican National Convention Monday night is here. It includes live video, but you can mute it. This seems like the most painless way to "watch" the convention without having to listen to it. The Times is also doing some "formal" fact-checking on the page.

Politico's live analysis is here. Seems to be a slow-loader. It's not bad. For instance, Charlie Mahtesian: "Next up is St. Louis couple who stood outside their home pointing guns at protesters during a Black Lives Matter demonstration.... The McCloskeys seem like litigious neighbors from hell."

Here's a fairly good summary of Dark Night 1 of the Trump Show:

The New York Times' live updates of Monday's Trump Show are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Republicans have already held a live roll call in Charlotte, N.C., but MSNBC played it on mute (Trump just complained that CNN didn't cover the roll call at all; who knows if that's true); the audio was the House hearing on the USPS. Mrs. McC: Fortunately, I had already read a preview of the roll call, thanks to historian Kevin Kruse (linked yesterday), so I didn't miss a thing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Robin Givhan of the Washington Post watched: "The roll call on opening day of the Republican National Convention was sleepy. Low energy. And sad.... It was technically stultifying. It was also devoid of Black people and sorely lacking in people of color.... In essence, it was White men in a room simplifying complex issues and repeatedly pledging their fealty to guns, fetuses and the importance of kneeling to pray and standing for the national anthem.... Arizona's ... delegation chairman extolled the 'miles and miles and miles of big beautiful wall.' Montana made note of there being almost five guns in every home.... It was Trumpian politics as television. And it was dismal.... [By contrast, the Democrats' roll call] was a homey and expansive view of America -- from the majesty of the Black Hills to the calamari of Rhode Island.... In the midst of the roll call..., the man himself strolled into the ballroom.... Trump talked on and on. He'd leave a topic only to circle back to it. He'd begin to wrap up with a declaration of thanks and then he'd think of something else he wanted to say."

** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Republicans chose not to produce a platform for their convention, no statement of values or declaration of principle. Instead, the party has approved a resolution to 'enthusiastically support' President Trump's 'America-first agenda,' whatever that may be. And while the White House has produced a bullet-point outline of its second-term agenda, this week's convention itself has little content planned other than cultural grievance and worshipful praise for the president. As one veteran congressional aide told Politico, the only thing Republicans believe now is 'Owning the libs and pissing off the media.'... Rather than bring a new program to bear on the party, he has made the equivalent of a trade: total support for his personal and political concerns in exchange for almost total pursuit of conservative ideological interests."

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was a fire hose of false or misleading claim[s], mostly drawn from President Trump's arsenal of falsehoods. Here are 19 claims that caught our attention."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lloyd Grove & Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "When two of the major broadcast networks -- CBS and ABC -- broke into their regular programming Monday to carry live portions of ... Donald Trump's largely false musings after his official nomination, departing from their announced policy of giving only a hour of daily airtime to each party's political convention, the Biden-Harris campaign was not amused. Indeed, operatives for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were fuming Monday about a perceived lack of fairness in which the nation's major television outlets permitted Trump -- in an ominous echo of the 2016 campaign in which the former reality-TV star received an estimated $2 billion of free airtime -- to manipulate the media to his advantage.... CBS ... broadcast around 20 minutes of Trump's 53-minute venomous and lie-filled stream-of-consciousness[;...] ABC ... aired around 7 minutes of the president's rant.... While CBS offered a soupcon of fact-checking by CBS Evening News anchor Norah O'Donnell and chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett before signing off, ABC did zero fact-checking.... [A Biden campaign operative said] that the demand for parity in airtime is not the same as saying that more airtime for Trump will necessarily advantage him over Biden." ~~~

~~~ "Wrong, Misleading and Outright Lies." Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Television's ability to handle a Trump-centric Republican National Convention faced an early test on Monday, when the president delivered a kickoff speech in Charlotte, N.C., that was filled with false claims about the integrity of mail-in voting and the policy positions of his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr.... President Trump's well-documented penchant for falsehoods presents a unique challenge, according to network executives.... As the president spoke in Charlotte on Monday shortly after delegates formally renominated him, a hodgepodge of journalistic strategies emerged. CNN took the most drastic approach, cutting away from Mr. Trump in the middle of his remarks.... Anchor John King told viewers, 'but a lot of what you just heard from the president of the United States is wrong, misleading and outright lies. Wrong, misleading and outright lies.'... MSNBC carried the entirety of Mr. Trump's speech live, opting for real-time analysis in on-screen graphics.... After Mr. Trump finished..., News anchor Chuck Todd ticked through a lengthy fact-check, noting that the speech was 'filled with so many made-up problems about mail-in voting that if we were to air just the truthful parts, we probably could only air maybe a sentence, if that much.'... Fox News carried the president's speech live, but did not offer a correction to Mr. Trump's false claims."

~~~ Dan Merica of CNN: "... Donald Trump's former lawyer Michael Cohen will appear in a series of ads for the Democratic group American Bridge in the coming days, telling voters that Trump 'can't be trusted' and that they 'shouldn't believe a word he utters' during the Republican National Convention this week.... The ads ... They will begin running digitally on Monday night and on television starting Wednesday, as the convention enters its final two days."

Jim Acosta & Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "Former chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele is joining the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans working to prevent ... Donald Trump's re-election. 'Today is the day where things should matter and you need to take stock of what matters to you -- and the kind of leader you want to lead in these moments. And for me, it ain't him,' Steele, a political analyst for MSNBC said making the announcement to host Nicole Wallace on Monday afternoon."

Natasha Korecki of Politico: "A group of onetime Republican presidential appointees who served as senior ethics or Justice Department aides are endorsing Joe Biden for president, warning that Donald Trump has 'weaponized' the executive branch and is putting in peril the legitimacy of the U.S. Justice Department. 'I think a lot of us are extremely alarmed, frankly, at the threat of autocracy,' Donald B. Ayer, former deputy attorney general during the George H.W. Bush administration, said in an interview with Politico. 'He's going to be unleashed if he gets a second term. I don't know what's going to stop him.'"

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration who endorsed Joe Biden last week, has started a group of current and former administration officials and other Republican leaders who want to see ... Donald Trump defeated in November. Taylor and Elizabeth Neumann, another former senior DHS official who served in the administration, have started the Republican Political Alliance for Integrity and Reform (REPAIR), which will include people who work or have worked for Trump but want to elect Biden and reform the Republican Party."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told Congress on Monday that the Postal Service could be trusted to carry out the largest vote-by-mail program in American history without political bias, even as President Trump repeated baseless accusations that mail-in voting would be used by his rivals to rig the November election against him ... [and] claimed without evidence that Democrats were 'using Covid to steal the election.' Under tough questioning by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Mr. DeJoy, a major donor to Mr. Trump and other Republicans, mounted an outraged defense of the modifications he has made at the Postal Service that have thrust the agency into a political firestorm, denying that they were motivated by partisanship. He refused to commit to reversing the changes, which he characterized as vital cost-cutting measures for a cash-strapped agency badly in need of an overhaul, and scolded Congress for failing for years to attend to the post office's financial woes."

Yo, Louie, you don't want to go before Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) if you don't know nuthin':

Nor rain, nor snow, that sleet nor hail will make our delivery. -- Louis DeJoy, trying to recite the USPS unofficial motto

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. -- Actual motto ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of the DeJoy hearing are here. "In one tense exchange, Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) asked DeJoy 'what the heck are you doing,' complaining that the postmaster general had ended a 'once-proud tradition' of the Postal Service. Lynch asked, 'Will you put the machines back?' DeJoy said he would not." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the rant that contributor Jeanne mentioned in yesterday's Comments, which preceded his question of DeJoy:

Molly Redden of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's selection for a key Postal Service position, Robert M. Duncan, once ... steer[ed] the Republican Party while it undertook some of its most brazen voter suppression schemes. Duncan is now the chair of the Postal Service board of governors, but he previously served as general counsel and then chair of the Republican National Committee from 2002 to 2009, a time when the committee and its state counterparts oversaw an unprecedented escalation of voter disenfranchisement efforts in swing states. From 2004 to 2006, when Duncan was the committee's general counsel, party officials challenged the eligibility of at least 77,000 voters, a 2007 report by the nonpartisan group Project Vote found. As it happens, one of the party's favored tactics relied on the U.S. mail. In 2004, Republicans in Ohio, Florida and Pennsylvania sent thousands of nonforwardable letters and postcards to select voters -- particularly minority voters -- and used the mail returned as undeliverable to come up with voter registration challenge lists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of conavirus developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lying on a Life-and-Death Matter. Katie Thomas & Sheri Fink of the New York Times: "At a news conference on Sunday announcing the emergency approval of blood plasma for hospitalized Covid-19 patients, President Trump and two of his top health officials cited the same statistic: that the treatment had reduced deaths by 35 percent.... Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said 35 out of 100 Covid-19 patients' would have been saved because of the administration of plasma.' But scientists were taken aback by the way the administration framed this data, which appeared to have been calculated based on a small subgroup of hospitalized Covid-19 patients in a Mayo Clinic study.... For the first time ever, I feel like official people in communications and people at the F.D.A. grossly misrepresented data about a therapy,' said Dr. Walid Gellad..., [of] the University of Pittsburgh.... Dr. Robert Califf, who was F.D.A. commissioner under President Barack Obama, said on Twitter on Sunday that Dr. Hahn should correct his statement..., [as did] Dr. Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in La Jolla, Calif.... Although there have been some positive signs that [plasma] can reduce deaths in Covid-19 patients, no randomized trials have shown that it works."

Jeff Mason of Reuters: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) does not harbor 'deep state' elements, the agency's head [Dr. Stephen Hahn] told Reuters on Monday, rejecting criticism from ... Donald Trump that staff there were trying to delay a coronavirus vaccine.... 'I have not seen anything that I would consider to be 'deep state' at the FDA,' Hahn told Reuters in an interview.... Hahn said the FDA's recent authorization of a coronavirus treatment using blood plasma from recovered patients was not made because of political pressure and emphasized that on his watch any decision on a vaccine would be based on science.... Hahn acknowledged that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases expert, and Dr. Francis Collins of the National Institutes of Health had expressed concern that the data did not justify the authorization." Mrs. McC: What Hahn evidently did not acknowledge was that he got on the teevee & "grossly misrepresented" those data.

Julie Steenhuysen & Carl O'Donnell of Reuters: Anthony Fauci, "the top U.S. infectious diseases expert is warning that distributing a COVID-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines.... [Donald] Trump stoked concerns of politicizing the regulatory approval process with an announcement on Sunday of an emergency use authorization for plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients to treat current patients before its benefits have been assessed in randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials."

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "A Florida judge Monday granted a temporary injunction against the state's order requiring school districts to reopen schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic, saying in a harshly worded decision that safety concerns had been ignored. Circuit Court Judge Charles Dodson, in a 16-page decision, granted the request in a lawsuit filed by the Florida Education Association to block the order issued by state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran on July 6 compelling schools to reopen five days a week for families who did not want their children to do all virtual learning. Districts were threatened with loss of state funding if they did not comply. Dodson said, however, that parts of the order were unconstitutional and that state officials 'have essentially ignored the requirement of school safety by requiring the statewide opening of brick-and-mortar schools to receive already allocated funding.' He also said the state had wrongly removed the right of local districts to decide for themselves on safe reopening plans." The Tampa Bay Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Nick Schwellenbach & David Szakonyi of the Project on Government Oversight (POGO): "Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov owns four coal mining operations sprinkled across Appalachia that received loans intended to help small businesses keep workers on payroll during the pandemic. They received a total of $21 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, according to a statement Akhmetov's company provided to the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).... [T]he oligarch's United Coal Company and its subsidiaries had estimated sales of $1.5 billion last year.... Akhmetov ... reportedly owns two of the planet's most expensive homes and ... had a cameo in Special Counsel Robert Mueller's report last year.... The total value of the loans also exceeds the amount of civil penalties United Coal has racked up [$13.4 million for 14,030] for federal worker health and safety violations.... Unlike past Small Business Administration programs, it does not matter if PPP loan recipients are owned by a wealthy foreign national." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Crime Family Trump & Friends

David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The New York attorney general is investigating President Trump's private business for allegedly misleading lenders by inflating the value of its assets, the attorney general's office said Monday in a legal filing. In the filing, signed by a deputy to Attorney General Letitia James, the attorney general's office said it is investigating Trump's use of 'Statements of Financial Condition' -- documents Trump sent to lenders, summarizing his assets and debts. The filing asks a New York state judge to compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators -- including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president's son Eric. The attorney general's office said it began investigating after Trump's former lawyer and 'fixer,' Michael Cohen, told Congress in February 2019 that Trump had used these statements to inflate his net worth to lenders. The filing said that Eric Trump had been scheduled to be interviewed in the investigation in late July, but abruptly canceled that interview. The filing says that Eric Trump is now refusing to be interviewed...." A New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jerry Likes to Watch. Aram Roston of Reuters: "In a claim likely to intensify the controversy surrounding one of the most influential figures in the American Christian conservative movement, a business partner of Jerry Falwell Jr has come forward to say he had a years-long sexual relationship involving Falwell's wife and the evangelical leader. Giancarlo Granda says he was 20 when he met Jerry and Becki Falwell while working as a pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel in March 2012. Starting that month and continuing into 2018, Granda told Reuters that the relationship involved him having sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.... Becki Falwell, 53, is a political figure in her own right. She served on the advisory board of the group Women for Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Update. Susan Svrluga, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell Jr. has agreed to resign as president of Liberty University on Monday, according to a school official.... Opposition to his presidency had been growing but came to a dramatic head after two new reports about a young man Falwell and his wife befriended at a Florida pool, went into business with and who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple.... Falwell had been placed on paid leave Aug. 7 after he posted a provocative picture of himself and his wife's assistant on social media." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Great. Now Jerry & Bambi Becki have plenty of free time to go around the country campaigning for Trump. Hope Jerry will be giving the invocation at one of the episodes of this week's Trump Show. ~~~

~~~ Update Update. Maggie Severns, et al., of Politico: "Jerry Falwell Jr. says he is not resigning as president and chancellor of Liberty University, contradicting news reports announcing his departure from the Evangelical school. 'I have not resigned,' Falwell told Politico on a phone call on Monday evening. Asked how the news reports of him resigning had gotten out, he replied, 'I don't know.'... Falwell [is] one of ... Donald Trump's most prominent evangelical supporters...." ~~~

     ~~~ Update Update Update. This story has yet a New Lede: Jerry Falwell Jr. said he planned to resign Monday as president and chancellor of Liberty University only to backpedal on that decision several hours later after it had become public, according to a statement from the Christian university. Falwell 'agreed to resign as its President and from its Board of Directors but following media reports about the resignation, withdrew it,' the university said in a statement late Monday evening. The university's board of trustees was scheduled to meet on Tuesday."

~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$ righteously provides the Christian response: "Let he who has not made [a] fortune running a billion dollar non-profit boiler room cum 'Christian University' that obsessively monitors the romantic inclinations of its marks students, while recording three-ways between his wife, his wife's hot young Latin lover, and himself, cast the first stone." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Paul. Now I'm so ashamed of snickering. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An afternoon that had begun with peaceful marches in protest of a police shooting gave way to fires, destruction and looting in Kenosha[,Wisconsin,] as a strip of businesses in a central residential neighborhood was consumed in flames early Tuesday.... Lost in the blaze, neighbors said, was a mattress store, a storefront church, a Mexican restaurant and a cellphone store. Less than a mile away, a probation and parole office was also on fire. A line of National Guard members, called to Kenosha amid rising tension over Sunday of Jacob Blake, a Black resident who was shot by a white police officer, prevented anyone from getting close as firefighters worked to douse the flames." Here's the Washington Post's story. An AP report is here.~~~

~~~ Claire Proctor of the Chicago Sun-Times: Jacob Blake's "father said there are now 'eight holes' in his son's body, and he's paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors don't yet know if the injury is permanent." ~~~

~~~ ** "Stop Killing Unarmed Black People." Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "From the NFL to the NBA to MLB, athletes used social media to protest the shooting of Jacob Blake, an unarmed Black man, Sunday evening by police in Kenosha, Wis. Michael Thomas, the New Orleans Saints wide receiver who was the guiding force behind NFL players' powerful video message about George Floyd in June, summed up his feelings in five words: 'Stop killing unarmed Black people.' Blake, 29, was shot at least seven times in the back as he tried to get into a car in which his three children were seated. He underwent surgery and is in serious condition in the intensive care unit of a Milwaukee hospital. The officers were placed on administrative leave, but protests rocked the city, which was placed on a curfew that extended into Monday morning. LeBron James was one of several athletes who shared an old video of actor Denzel Washington asking, 'Is the sheep preaching hate when he says I'm not going to let a wolf eat me anymore?'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When will (mostly white) cops figure out that the vast majority of Americans, no matter their race, and sick and ashamed of living in a country where police officers must be told to "stop killing unarmed Black people"? ~~~

~~~ Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "Cops in Wisconsin 'must be held accountable' after shooting a Black man in the back in front of his young children, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said Monday.... 'This calls for an immediate, full and transparent investigation and the officers must be held accountable,' Biden said in a statement Monday. 'These shots pierce the soul of our nation. Jill and I pray for Jacob's recovery and for his children,' the former vice president continued. 'Equal justice has not been real for Black Americans and so many others. We are at an inflection point. We must dismantle systemic racism. It is the urgent task before us.'"

Jeremy White of Politico: "Former Rep. Duncan Hunter's [R-Calif.] wife, Margaret Hunter, was sentenced to eight months of home detention on Monday after assisting federal prosecutors in a corruption case against her husband. U.S. District Judge Thomas Whelan lauded Margaret Hunter's 'remarkable cooperation' in sparing her jail time despite what prosecutors call her involvement in the couple siphoning off hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign finance funds for personal use. Duncan Hunter pleaded guilty in December to violating campaign finance law and was sentenced earlier this year to 11 months in prison, although efforts to reduce prison crowding during the coronavirus pandemic has delayed the start of his prison term." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Duncan Hunter was one of the first two members of Congress to endorse Donald Trump. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), who endorsed Trump the same day Hunter did, got a 26-month sentence for insider trading, but as with Hunter, Collins' surrender-date has been delayed because of the coronavirus.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Jenny Gross of the New York Times: "The California Supreme Court on Monday overturned the death penalty for Scott Peterson, who was found guilty in 2004 of killing his pregnant wife, Laci, in a notorious case that became fodder for the tabloids and cable news and spawned at least one made-for-TV movie. The court upheld Mr. Peterson's conviction, but it said that the trial judge had made mistakes that hindered his right to an impartial jury during sentencing.... The court said, '... before the trial began, the trial court made a series of clear and significant errors in jury selection.' The court said prosecutors could again seek the death penalty for Mr. Peterson at a new hearing. Prospective jurors whose views on capital punishment would impair their ability to follow the law could be dismissed as unqualified, the court said. But jurors could not be dismissed simply for having expressed opposition to the death penalty."

Way Beyond the Beltway

** Russia. William Glucroft & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Alexei Navalny, the prominent Russian opposition figure and Kremlin critic, was poisoned, Berlin's Charité hospital said in a statement Monday, citing clinical results. Although the exact substance that poisoned Navalny is not yet known, it is believed to be a cholinesterase inhibitor, Charité's statement said, adding that the effect of the toxin -- blocking cholinesterase, an enzyme needed for the proper functioning of the nervous system -- was confirmed several times by independent laboratories.... Navalny remains in a medically induced coma but 'there is no acute danger to his life.' He is being given atropine, a medication used to treat certain types of nerve agent and pesticide poisonings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "A gospel-singing Brazilian congresswoman [Flordelis dos Santos de Souza] has been accused of masterminding the 'barbaric' murder of her preacher husband after at least six failed or aborted attempts to kill him with poison or in staged robberies. Anderson do Carmo was 42 when he was shot dead in June 2019 as he returned to the home he shared with the church crooner-turned-politician Flordelis dos Santos de Souza.... [A]llegations of a bizarre and lurid family plot to murder the evangelical preacher emerged on Monday as police arrested five of Flordelis' children and one granddaughter for involvement in the crime.... The 59-year-old lawmaker -- who has made records for one of Brazil's top gospel labels and was elected to congress in 2018 -- could not be arrested because she enjoys parliamentary immunity.... Do Carmo's grisly murder -- he was reportedly shot more than 30 times, predominantly in the groin and thighs -- made nationwide headlines and has continued to do so since." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Gail Sheehy, a journalist who plumbed the interior lives of public figures for clues to their behavior and examined societal trends as signposts of cultural change, died on Monday at a hospital in Southampton, N.Y. She was 83."

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Laura is intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico and is forecast to become a major hurricane prior to striking the upper Texas or southwest Louisiana coasts late Wednesday or early Thursday. Life-threatening storm surge and destructive winds will batter the coast and a threat of flooding rain and strong winds will extend well inland. Residents along the upper Texas and southwest Louisiana coasts should prepare now for a hurricane strike. Follow any evacuation orders issued by local or state officials."