The Commentariat -- August 18, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service will halt its controversial cost-cutting initiatives until after the election -- canceling service reductions, reinstating overtime hours and ceasing the removal of mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced in a statement Tuesday. The declaration comes as lawmakers prepared to question DeJoy and USPS board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan in a Friday hearing in the Senate and at a Monday hearing in the House on those policy changes, which have caused mail slowdowns and threatened to jeopardize ballot collection during the November election."

** "This Is What Collusion Looks Like." Mark Mazzetti & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A sprawling report released Tuesday by a Republican-controlled Senate panel that spent three years investigating Russia's 2016 election interference laid out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian government officials and other Russians, including some with ties to the country's intelligence services. The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 American election to help Mr. Trump become president, and some members of Mr. Trump's circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.... The report showed extensive evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin -- including a longstanding associate of the onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identifies as a 'Russian intelligence officer.'... [In an appendix,] Democrats also laid out a potentially explosive detail: that investigators had uncovered information possibly tying Mr. Kilimnik to Russia's major election interference operations conducted by the intelligence service known as the G.R.U." ~~~

~~~ Karoun Demirjian & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "President Trump's 2016 campaign chairman posed a 'grave counterintelligence threat' due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow's government and intelligence services. In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump's then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer 'on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,' including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern."

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

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday complained that former first lady Michelle Obama's speech a night earlier at the Democratic National Convention was 'extremely divisive,' hitting back after she said he's 'in over his head.' 'She was over her head, and frankly she should've made the speech live, which she didn't do,' Trump said during a White House event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. 'She taped it. It was taped a long time ago because she had the wrong deaths. She didn't even mention the vice presidential candidate in the speech. She gets these fawning reviews. If you gave a real review it wouldn't be so fawning,' Trump added. 'I thought it was a very divisive speech. Extremely divisive.'" Mrs. McC: Trump forgot to call Mrs. Obama "nasty." ~~~

~~~ Here are the New York Times' election updates Tuesday. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: A10:16 am ET: "Trump on Tuesday raised the prospect of having to redo the presidential election if states widely embrace universal mail-in balloting, a voting method he has relentlessly attacked in recent weeks, often making claims that are not backed up by any evidence. 'Universal is going to be a disaster, the likes of which our country has never seen,' Trump said at a White House event. 'It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome. They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that, and I don’t want that.'"

Mrs. McCrabbie: For your own peace of mind, don't watch the whole video (it's only part of the interview) of Anderson's Cooper's interview of Trump's friend and coronavirus cure guru, the My Pillow guy, who is now pushing an oleander oils elixir in which he has a financial interest. But the crosstalk was wild, and gives you a better grasp of Trumpworld, the fake POTUS* and his fake coronavirus briefings: "

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Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Here's the video that PD Pepe refers to in today's Comments. I thought it was the best part of the whole show, certainly so in introducing Joe Biden to the American people:

The New York Times' live analysis of the Democratic National Convention Monday is here. "The event, which is nominally being held in Milwaukee, will be streamed and televised from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time. It will feature Michelle Obama, the former first lady, in a leading role, and will offer remarks from an ideologically wide range of speakers who want to turn the page on the Trump era...." ~~~

~~~ Steve Peoples of the AP: "Michelle Obama delivered a passionate broadside against ... Donald Trump during Monday's opening night of the Democratic National Convention, assailing the Republican president as unfit for the job and warning that the nation's mounting crises would only get worse if he's reelected.... Joe Biden introduced the breadth of his political coalition to a nation in crisis Monday night at the convention, giving voice to victims of the coronavirus pandemic, the related economic downturn and police violence and featuring both progressive Democrats and Republicans united against Trump's reelection. The ideological range of Biden's many messengers was demonstrated by former presidential contenders from opposing parties: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist who championed a multi-trillion-dollar universal health care plan, and Ohio's former Republican Gov. John Kasich, an anti-abortion conservative who spent decades fighting to cut government spending.

Here's the part of Michelle Obama's remarks that got the most attention:

     ~~~ Video of Obama's full remarks is here. CNN has the transcript, as prepared, here.

Here's a portion of Bernie Sanders' speech. Video of his full remarks is here:

My dad was a healthy 65-year old. His only preexisting condition was trusting Donald Trump. And for that he paid with his life. -- Kristin Urquiza of Arizona ~~~

~~~ Here's what struck Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Four years ago, then-First Lady Michelle Obama offered one of the most stirring speeches of the Democratic Convention. On Monday, she offered an attempted indictment not just of President Trump, but of the movement he has led.... One of [the convention's messages] was reinforced a couple times Monday night: Biden won't go hard left.... The night was full of testimonials from average people and, even more than that, average people touched by crucial election-year issues like police violence and the coronavirus." ~~~

~~~ The AP's "takeaways" report, by Bill Barrow & Nicholas Riccardi, is here. Mrs. McC: I guess my favorite sentence in the report is the last one: "Trump, meanwhile, confirmed two guests he has invited to participate at his convention next week: a white St. Louis couple who gained national headlines when they emerged from their house wielding weapons to confront protesters who were in their neighborhood." So Democrats had all these nice people, most bringing uplifting messages, and Trump's first-announced guests are a couple of old, white, wealthy, overprivileged, gun-wielding hatemongers bent on scaring the stuff out of passersby. It's them vs. us, and them is pointing guns at us.

Bill Barrow of the AP: "Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez said Monday that this year's handful of presidential caucuses should be the last the party ever holds. 'I think by 2024 we ought to have everyone being a primary state,' Perez told The Associated Press in an interview on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention. The chairman didn't specifically name Iowa, which for decades has led off the nominating calendar, but his position could represent a seismic shift in the party's traditions, and it underscores the pressure on the caucus structure that has intensified since Iowa's count dragged out for days to open the 2020 nominating fight eventually won by Joe Biden."

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg plans to spend $60 million to strengthen the Democratic House majority in November, roughly matching the money he invested in flipping control of the House in 2018, according to a Bloomberg adviser familiar with the plans." The Hill has a summary report here.

Trump's Pathetic Counterprogramming. Kevin Liptak of CNN: the New York Times: "... Donald Trump's darkly portentous campaign message came into stark focus Monday as he launched his most intensive campaign swing since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, warning of 'fascist' Democrats with a 'Trojan horse' candidate during stops in the Upper Midwest. The dire warnings -- reliant on false information and racist tropes -- foreshadowed a bitter fall campaign as Trump seeks to reverse a slide in the polls. And they presaged a drawn out post-election battle as Trump preempted a potential loss with warnings of fraud. 'The only way we're going to lose this election is if this election is rigged,' he said during a stop in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the second of several battleground events he is using this week to counterprogram the Democrats' all-digital convention."

Zachary Cohen & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Sunday night retweeted Russian propaganda about former Vice President Joe Biden that the US intelligence community recently announced was part of Moscow's ongoing effort to 'denigrate' the Democrat ahead of November's election. Late Sunday, Trump amplified a tweet that contained audiotapes of a 2016 conversation between Biden and then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko -- material that was released earlier this year by Andriy Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker named by the US intelligence community in its August 7 statement about Russia's disinformation campaign against Biden. US authorities labeled Derkach's efforts as disinformation because they are intentionally designed to spread false or misleading information about Biden. By retweeting material that the US government has already labeled as propaganda..., Trump demonstrated once again that he is willing to capitalize on foreign election meddling for his own political gain. There is no proof of wrongdoing on the tapes of Biden and Poroshenko. But Trump and his allies, as well as Kremlin-controlled media outlets, have used the tapes to foment conspiracies about Biden's dealings with Ukraine.... [Twitter suspended] the account Trump retweeted ... 'for violations of the Twitter Rules on platform manipulation and spam.'"

** Miles Taylor, a Trump political appointee as DHS chief-of-staff, in a Washington Post op-ed: "After serving for more than two years in the Department of Homeland Security's leadership during the Trump administration, I can attest that the country is less secure as a direct result of the president's actions.... The president has tried to turn DHS, the nation's largest law enforcement agency, into a tool used for his political benefit.... Trump's indiscipline was also a constant source of frustration.... The decision-making process was itself broken: Trump would abruptly endorse policy proposals with little or no consideration, by him or his advisers, of possible knock-on effects.... Top DHS officials were regularly diverted from dealing with genuine security threats by the chore of responding to these inappropriate and often absurd executive requests, at all hours of the day and night.... Meanwhile, Trump showed vanishingly little interest in subjects of vital national security interest, including cybersecurity, domestic terrorism and malicious foreign interference in U.S. affairs.... Four more years of this are unthinkable."~~~

     ~~~ Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN have a story here. ~~~

~~~ Alex Thompson of Politico: "'Anonymous' is trolling ... Donald Trump one more time. The self-described 'senior Trump administration official,' who anonymously trashed the president's leadership in a 2018 op-ed and a 2019 best-selling book, is calling for voters to throw the president out of office this November in a new preface for the paperback '2020 election edition' of the book, 'A Warning.'... 'Anonymous' said last year that [s/he would reveal [her/his] identity to Trump before the election, but the person stays nameless in the latest edition, only saying they plan to unveil herself in 'due course.'... Trump called the original op-ed an act of treason and asked for the Justice Department to investigate. In 2019, the DOJ asked the book's publisher and the author's agents for identifying details." Mrs. McC: (1) Speaking freely is not "treason," Donnie (see First Amendment), and (2) Thanks, Billy Barr, for doing the bully's bidding again. She's probably Kellyanne Conway.

Trumpies Sink All Ships. Elliott Njus of the Oregonian: "A boat on the Willamette River took on water and sank Sunday afternoon after being swamped by waves as a 'Trump Boat Parade' passed. Video posted to Twitter showed the boat taking on water as its occupants called for help while more than 20 boats and personal watercraft flying ... Donald Trump flags headed south on the Willamette River near downtown Portland.... A spokesman for the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office, said river patrol deputies responded to the incident but that the people on the boat had already been picked up by other boaters in the area by the time the deputies arrived. Video appeared to show at least one of the boats that stopped to help was a parade participant." Includes video. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. See also his commentary below. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps the first rule of the sea is that you take care to respect other vessels. That means, among other things, that you slow down for passing craft. This is especially (and obviously) true when a motorboat passes by a sailboat or when a large craft passes a smaller one. You can see from the video that the craft the captains of Trumpism swamped was not the only one they endangered. They whizzed past a small sailboat tacking in the other direction, and as they did so, many of them also ignored the rule that you pass approaching crafts port-to-port. Why, the Trump supporters just kept on tearing up the river as if they had no responsibilities to others at all.

Paul Krugman: Donald Trump's attack on the Postal Services is 'part of a broader attack on the institutions that bind us together as a nation.... A key part of the post office's ethos has long been that it has a 'universal service obligation,' 'binding the nation together' and 'facilitating citizen inclusion.'... Most Americans -- presumably including most of the 91 percent of the public with a favorable view of the Postal Service -- believe that there are some things that should be universally available, even if providing those things isn't profitable, because they're important components of full citizenship. Unfortunately, Trump and those around him don't share that belief, perhaps because they don't really buy into this notion of 'full citizenship' in the first place."

Digby in Salon: "One of the more tedious tasks in writing about politics is that every single election year it's necessary to discuss the latest cheating schemes cooked up by the Republican Party to suppress the votes of minorities, challenge the legality of perfectly legal votes and otherwise make all elections they do not win look suspect in the eyes of American voters. Needless to say, this year is worse than usual because Donald Trump makes everything worse than usual.... At some point, this country is going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Republican Party is fundamentally hostile to democracy and do something about it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Top Senate Democrats have set their sights on the little-known board that oversees the U.S. Postal Service, urging it to undo the postmaster general's controversial policies out of concern they have "endangered" Americans. The call for action came Monday from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.) and five other Democratic senators. They urged the Postal Service's Board of Governors to rein in Postmaster General Louis DeJoy by canceling his recent policies -- including a crackdown on overtime -- that postal workers say have caused mail delivery and processing slowdowns. The senators raised the prospect that the watchdog body could remove DeJoy from his post outright if he chooses not to cooperate.

Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi finalized plans Monday to provide billions of dollars in funding to the flailing Postal Service as Democrats seek to prop up the agency ahead of the November election, even while senior Republicans decry the move as partisan and unnecessary. The House will vote Saturday on legislation that will deliver $25 billion to address funding shortfalls and block organizational changes at the Postal Service that Democrats say are politically motivated and threaten to jeopardize the presidential election by inhibiting mail-in voting.... Pelosi said the bill, which will be released by the House Oversight Committee in the coming days, paints a 'clear choice' for Republicans, many of whom have remained silent during Trump's continued broadsides against the Postal Service and mail-in ballots." See also Jordain Carney's report below re: the Senate Republicans' proposed coronavirus relief bill.

Matthew Mosk, et al., of ABC News: "A group of Democratic state attorneys general are now in the final stages of preparing legal action against the Trump administration for recent cost-cutting changes made to the United States Postal Service, a lawsuit that one official said could demand a halt to any cutbacks that could impede mail-in voting. As many as 10 state attorneys general are now involved, two state officials involved in the effort told ABC News.... States will assert that the federal government is trying to impede their constitutional right to oversee their own elections. And they will argue that the Trump administration is interfering with every American's individual right to participate in the election. The lawsuit will also argue that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy failed to follow administrative procedures when he made cuts to overtime and decommissioned equipment -- steps the states will ask the courts to halt, the attorney said."

This is Louis DeLuxe.Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats' request for him to testify next week about his controversial Postal Service changes that have raised hackles around the nation, according to two people familiar with the matter. On Sunday, Democrats moved up a request for DeJoy to testify to Monday, Aug. 24, calling it an 'urgent' matter.'... [House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn] Maloney [D-NY] also has requested the testimony of Mike Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service's Board of Governors. Duncan also agreed to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter. Duncan is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.... The House is also expected to vote as early as this Saturday on a proposal to block DeJoy's plans to overhaul the Postal Service." Mentioned on MSNBC: The Oversight Committee has also asked the USPS for production of documents. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ This is one of the letter carriers who works for Louis. And for us. Not sure where this is. But wouldn't it be awful if that mailman got a few hours of overtime pay for delivering the mail across flooded streets? The video was posted in July 2018:

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Big Whup. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Out-of-work Americans may see only a three-week boost to their unemployment benefits, as state and federal officials scramble to stretch out a limited pot of money and implement President Trump's recent policy order.... The dollars will come from a federal disaster relief fund managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which will initially dispatch an amount to the states meant to cover three weeks' worth of payments, the Trump administration said.... FEMA said in its guidance that it anticipated it could take an 'average' of three weeks from when Trump first signed his directive -- perhaps putting some of those first payments around Aug. 29."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Republicans are preparing to unveil a smaller coronavirus relief package as soon as Tuesday that is expected to include billions in new funds for the Postal Service. In addition to $10 billion in post office funding, the Republican proposal is expected to include liability protections, a $300-per-week federal unemployment benefit, another round of Paycheck Protection Program funding, and additional money for coronavirus testing and schools, according to aides. The bill is a pared-down version of the roughly $1 trillion package offered by Senate Republicans late last month, known as the HEALS Act, and comes as House Democrats are drafting their own stand-alone Postal Service bill."

North Carolina. Surprise! College Students Are Bad at Social Distancing. Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, one of the largest schools in the country to bring students to campus for in-person teaching, said Monday that it will pivot to all-remote instruction for undergraduates after testing showed a pattern of rapid spread of the novel coronavirus. The shift signaled enormous challenges ahead for those in higher education who are pushing for professors and students to be able to meet on campus. Officials announced the abrupt change just a week after classes began at the 30,000-student state flagship university. They said 177 cases of the dangerous pathogen had been confirmed among students, out of hundreds tested."

Brad Plumer & Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Overturning five decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States, the Trump administration on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development. The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of this vast, remote Alaska habitat. The Interior Department said it had completed its required reviews and would start preparing to auction off leases to companies interested in drilling inside the refuge's coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop enough oil to fill billions of barrels but is prized by environmentalists for its pristine landscapes and wildlife. While the agency has not yet set a date for the first auction, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on Monday, 'I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Fox of the AP: "A nonpartisan congressional watchdog's finding that the two top officials at the Department of Homeland Security are legally ineligible to hold their posts is 'erroneous' and should be withdrawn, a Trump administration official ... acting DHS general counsel Chad Mizelle ... said Monday.... GAO said in the finding released Friday that the appointment of acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf and acting Deputy Ken Cuccinelli violate a federal law that regulates the appointment of senior government officials. It is an important issue because there are pending lawsuits challenging DHS actions related to immigration and law enforcement that argue in part that Trump administration policies are invalid because the top officials are not legally eligible to hold those positions."

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "A former C.I.A. officer was charged with giving classified information to the Chinese government, the Justice Department announced on Monday, the latest in a string of former intelligence officers accused of spying for Beijing. The suspect, Alexander Yuk Ching Ma, worked as a C.I.A. officer in the 1980s and then as a contract translator for the F.B.I. in the 2000s. He was arrested on Friday. According to a criminal complaint, Mr. Ma, 67, and an unnamed older relative, now 87 and suffering from debilitating cognitive disease, first provided information to Chinese intelligence officials in March 2001 about C.I.A. personnel, foreign informants, classified operations, cryptography and other methods of concealing communications, secrets for which they were paid $50,000. The accusations against Mr. Ma are the most recent in a series against former intelligence officers." An NBC News story is here.

Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from removing nondiscrimination protections for transgender people in health care, issuing a temporary setback to a major policy priority for social conservatives. The new rules, which were set to take effect on Tuesday, would have reversed Obama-era Affordable Care Act regulations that said discrimination protections 'on the basis of sex' should apply to transgender people. Civil rights advocates had decried the new interpretation, saying it could be used to deny care to transgender patients. The Department of Health and Human Services finalized the regulations in June, three days before the Supreme Court ruled that federal nondiscrimination protections 'because of sex' include gay and transgender employees. The Supreme Court justices held that such discrimination 'has always been prohibited by Title VII's plain terms,' and that 'that should be the end of the analysis.'" A Politico story is here.

The Commentariat -- August 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats' request for him to testify next week about his controversial Postal Service changes that have raised hackles around the nation, according to two people familiar with the matter. On Sunday, Democrats moved up a request for DeJoy to testify to Monday, Aug. 24, calling it an 'urgent' matter.'... [House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn] Maloney [D-NY] also has requested the testimony of Mike Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service's Board of Governors. Duncan also agreed to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter. Duncan is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.... The House is also expected to vote as early as this Saturday on a proposal to block DeJoy's plans to overhaul the Postal Service." Mentioned on MSNBC: The Oversight Committee has also asked the USPS for production of documents.

Brad Plumer & Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Overturning five decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States, the Trump administration on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development. The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of this vast, remote Alaska habitat. The Interior Department said it had completed its required reviews and would start preparing to auction off leases to companies interested in drilling inside the refuge's coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop enough oil to fill billions of barrels but is prized by environmentalists for its pristine landscapes and wildlife. While the agency has not yet set a date for the first auction, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on Monday, 'I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year.'"

Digby in Salon: "One of the more tedious tasks in writing about politics is that every single election year it's necessary to discuss the latest cheating schemes cooked up by the Republican Party to suppress the votes of minorities, challenge the legality of perfectly legal votes and otherwise make all elections they do not win look suspect in the eyes of American voters. Needless to say, this year is worse than usual because Donald Trump makes everything worse than usual.... At some point, this country is going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Republican Party is fundamentally hostile to democracy and do something about it."

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Presidential Race, Etc.

An Unconventional Convention. Astead Herndon & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... the stretch of downtown Milwaukee where Democrats were supposed to hold their nominating convention this week was quiet and sparsely populated -- another reminder of a summer lost.... And the Democratic Party, shamed for not adequately investing in Wisconsin during the 2016 election, was to showcase its commitment to an all-important Electoral College state [here].... Some realities have not changed: The convention, which begins Monday and ends with a speech from [Joe] Biden on Thursday evening, marks the beginning of the formal general election between Mr. Biden and President Trump. Mr. Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, will have her largest audience yet, in a speech on Wednesday evening. A who's who of Democratic Party politics will also deliver addresses to the nation -- including former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary and Bill Clinton. Aside from the five major speeches from Mr. Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, Ms. Harris and the Obamas, the average length for remarks will be just two minutes, convention organizers said.... Mr. Sanders and Ms. Obama are the headline speakers for the opening night." ~~~

~~~ Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Faced with a complex problem, Democrats decided to go big, aiming for a solution that has more in common with Netflix, Facebook Live and the cheering fan screens courtside in Orlando's NBA bubble than the C-Span-style cattle call typical of past national party gatherings. Over four nights starting Monday, a behind-the-scenes crew of about 400 with operation centers in New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Wilmington, Del., plans to broadcast to the nation hundreds of live video feeds from living rooms, national monuments and stages around the country.... That includes dozens of speakers who have been mailed video-production kits, with basic equipment such as microphones, lighting and advanced routers, so they can produce and transmit their own shots. Other homebound delegates will be dialed in to quick feeds of the live speeches, so their real-time reactions can be broadcast ... as if they were in the same room as the speakers.... For a typically antiquated and long-winded event, the remade unconventional convention could set a new standard for national political gatherings, which have evolved since the 1960s from their roots as actual smoke-filled rooms...." ~~~

~~~ Terri Rupar & Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "The [DNC's] public events start at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Speakers on the first day include some big Democratic names, notably Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and one prominent never-Trump Republican, former Ohio governor John Kasich. Democrats' plan on this first night seems to be to convey just how big their tent is for any voter who does not like President Trump: from the far left to the center of the Democratic establishment to Republicans.... Monday night will also feature governors whose star has risen in the party while fighting the coronavirus, such as Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer and New York's Andrew M. Cuomo." Mrs. McC: I've read elsewhere that the broadcast networks will carry only one hour; in the past that's been the 10-11 pm ET hour. I assume that CNN & MSNBC will carry the 9 pm hour, too. The Post says it will have live coverage beginning at 8 pm ET, so maybe that will include a video feed.

Jeffrey Gettleman & Suhasini Raj of the New York Times: "Although [Kamala] Harris has been more understated about her Indian heritage than her experience as a Black woman, her path to U.S. vice-presidential pick has also been guided by the values of her Indian-born mother, her Indian grandfather and her wider Indian family who have provided a lifelong support network that endures even from 8,000 miles away. Her grandfather [P.V. Gopalan], wearing Coke-bottle glasses and often a necktie during strolls, may have looked like many other upper-crust Indian gentlemen. But he defied the conservative stereotypes of his era, embodying a progressive outlook on public service and unswerving support for women, especially in terms of their education, that was years ahead of his time. He instilled great confidence in Ms. Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who came to America in the late 1950s young and alone and made a career as a breast cancer researcher before dying of cancer in 2009." Mrs. McC: The sepia-toned photo of Harris' maternal family is ridiculous; Harris is 55 years old, not 155.

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she is 'very clear-eyed' about the kinds of attacks ... Donald Trump will lodge against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in 'lies' and 'deceptions.' The interview -- Harris' second publicly release since being announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week -- comes on the heels of Trump fanning false conspiracy theories about whether Harris is eligible to run as vice president." (Also linked yesterday.)

Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "Bernie Sanders praised Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's pick for his running mate on Sunday, as the Democratic party attempted to project an image of unity ahead of this week's national convention, where Biden is set to be officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator who clashed with both Biden and Harris earlier this year when the three were vying for their party's presidential nomination, lauded Harris as 'an asset'. 'I believe that Kamala, as somebody who has known her for a number of years, is incredibly smart, tough, and I would not want to be Vice-President [Mike] Pence in a debate with her,' Sanders said in an appearance on ABC's This Week."

Robert McCartney of the Washington Post: "There's a plausible way that independent voting experts worry President Trump could try to steal the election: by blocking the counting of mail-in ballots. Democrats are much more supportive of voting by mail than Republicans, according to recent polls. That's partly because Trump has falsely smeared mail-in voting as subject to widespread fraud.... So, on election night, initial returns based on in-person voting could show Trump winning, even though large numbers of mailed ballots remain uncounted. At that point, the experts warn, Trump could declare himself the victor, saying the mailed ballots should be ignored.... In states where Republicans control the voting process, he might get away with it." Mrs. McC: Good to see that a major American newspaper is now putting on its front page the concerns of a former Republican-appointed FEC Chairman -- Trevor Potter -- that Trump could try to flat-out steal the election.

Yes, You Should Be Horrified. Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump among registered voters has significantly narrowed since June, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, even as the former vice president maintains an advantage over the President on several top issues and his choice of California Sen. Kamala Harris as a running mate earns largely positive reviews.... Overall, 50% of registered voters back the Biden-Harris ticket, while 46% say they support Trump and Pence, right at the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points." ~~~

~~~ You Should Still Be Very, Very Worried. Mark Murray of NBC News: According to "the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll..., Biden leads Trump nationally by 9 points among registered voters, 50 percent to 41 percent, and the former vice president holds double-digit advantages over Trump on the coronavirus, immigration, health care, race relations and uniting the country.... Still, Trump maintains his lead over Biden on the economy -- which the poll finds is voters' top issue heading into the election -- and the president's overall numbers have improved from last month...." ~~~

~~~ Don't Stop Worrying. Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows "Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), leading Trump and Vice President Pence by 53 percent to 41 percent among registered voters."

Emily Cochrane & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Sunday that she would call the House back from its annual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation to block changes at the Postal Service that voting advocates warn could disenfranchise Americans casting ballots by mail during the pandemic. The announcement came after the White House chief of staff on Sunday signaled openness to providing emergency funding to help the agency handle a surge in mail-in ballots, and as Democratic state attorneys general said that they were exploring legal action against cutbacks and changes at the Postal Service.... Senator Chuck Schumer ... demanded on Sunday that Senator Mitch McConnell bring senators back to Capitol Hill to take up the House measure...." An AP story is here.

Jacob Bogage & Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.... On Thursday and Friday, [the USPS] began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.... The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide.... White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN’s 'State of the Union' on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals. Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November...." (Also linked yesterday.) Mediaite has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: My, my. It does sound as if there's panic in the White House following the public uproar over Trump/DeJoy's cavalier moves to "kneecap" the postal service. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN's 'State of the Union' that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a 'political narrative' and 'not based on fact.' NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS's letter sorting machines across the U.S." Read on for Meadows' exchange with Jake Tapper. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Bohn & Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. [Mark] Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned reallocation. Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for 'reduction' in dozens of cities this year. The USPS's own document calls the move a 'reduction' of equipment. A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, 'Why are these machines being removed?'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Zeeshan Aleem of Vox tries to figure out WTF Mark Meadows was claiming: After citing news reports about downed sorting machines and recounting the exchange between Meadows & Jake Tapper of CNN, Aleem asks, "If Meadows is claiming that a new machine removal initiative doesn't exist when in fact it does, then his promise that new ones won't be taken offline is, at best, questionable. How can the White House reverse a policy it claims doesn't exist?" Mrs. McC: Oh, and if you want to know how a former member of the Freedumb Caucus "reasons," there's this: ";When CNN's Tapper pointed out to Meadows on Sunday that there's 'no evidence of widespread voter fraud,' Meadows retorted: 'There's no evidence that there&rsquos not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake.'" IOW, if you can't prove a negative, then the positive is true, or "Absence of evidence is evidence of absence." Yeesh! This is sometimes called an argumentum ad ignorantiam or argumentum ex silentio. But whatever you want to call it, it's a logical fallacy, and one that should be inherently obvious even to someone who hasn't taken Logic 101. Unless he's a Republican, I guess.

~~~ New York. Matthew Rink of the Erie Daily Times-Morning News: "The U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks unplugged two of its six delivery bar code sorters from its East 38th Street processing facility in Erie. The machines read addresses, apply bar codes where there are none and sort mail -- 36,000 pieces per hour with 99 percent accuracy -- by the locations to where they will be delivered. The loss of the equipment in Erie is part of a larger purge of hundreds of sorting machines at Postal Service processing facilities across the country.... During the June 2 primary, 29,559 ballots -- half of all votes cast in Erie County — were by mail. Democrats outvoted Republicans nearly 3-to-1 in mail-in voting, while more Republicans cast their ballot at their polling places on Election Day." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Generally speaking, reports from smaller newspapers are not as well-written as those from big-city papers like the NYT & WashPo. Rink's story is one of the best I've read covering the background of the USPS's problems. A pleasant surprise.

Adm. William McRaven, in a Washington Post op-ed, compares Trump to General Bethlehem in the 1997 Kevin Costner film "The Postman." "... Costner plays a drifter trying to restore order to the United States by providing one essential service, mail delivery. In the story, hate crimes, racially motivated attacks and a plague have caused the breakdown of society as we know it.... But Costner's character is opposed by the evil General Bethlehem, who is fighting to suppress the postal carriers so he can establish a totalitarian government. Fortunately, our hero ... fights on against Bethlehem and saves the country.... The movie was panned by critics [largely because the plot seemed so unrealistic. But now!]... President Trump is actively working to undermine every major institution in this country. He has planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of many Americans that our institutions aren't functioning properly."

North Carolina. Fernando Alfonso of CNN: "Given the crisis facing the United States Postal Service before a presidential election, the last thing John Herter expected to receive in the mail Saturday was an absentee ballot request form with ... Donald Trump's face on it.... Herter ... is among a group of voters in North Carolina to receive the mailer over the past few days after Trump said that he opposed crucial USPS funding because he doesn't want to see it used for mail-in voting this November.... The mailer was sent out by the North Carolina Republican Party, press secretary Tim Wigginton told CNN." N.C. voter Chandler Carranza is so confused. ~~~

Got my mail in absentee ballot request form from @realDonaldTrump that will allow me to mail in my vote if I need to... but I can’t remember if this is a good thing or bad thing. Mail in is bad but absentee is good??? 🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/fbdgiq4hwc

— Chandler Carranza (@ChandlerC226) August 13, 2020

Puerto Rico. AP: "Puerto Rican Gov. Wanda Vázquez on Sunday acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the U.S. territory's governor last year amid political turmoil. With more than 66% of electoral colleges reporting, Pierluisi received more than 58% of the vote compared with nearly 42% for Vázquez.... Meanwhile, Carlos Delgado, mayor of the northwest town of Isabela for 20 years, was poised to win by a landslide the nomination of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party. Conceding defeat was Puerto Rico Sen. Eduardo Bhatia and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, known for her public spats with ... Donald Trump."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live coronavirus updates Monday are here. The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here: "Amid alarm over the inadequacy of coronavirus testing across the nation, Los Angeles schools on Monday will begin a sweeping program to test hundreds of thousands of students and teachers, as the nation's second-largest school district goes back to school -- online. The program, which will be rolled out over the next few months by the Los Angeles Unified School District, will test nearly 700,000 students and 75,000 employees as the district awaits permission from public health authorities to resume in-person instruction, said Austin Beutner, the district's superintendent."

Dave Lawler of Axios: "Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus has killed Americans at six times the average rate in other rich countries. And we're recording about eight times more infections.... The virus burned through the rich world like wildfire in the spring, but this new data confirms that the U.S. is one of very few wealthy countries that have failed to suppress it since then."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.... The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It's embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product. Lindell told Axios that in the meeting, Trump 'basically said: ...'The FDA should be approving it."' ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems like a good idea: "The oleander, or Nerium oleander, is considered by many to be the most poisonous plant in the world. All parts of the beautiful oleander contain poison -- several types of poison. Two of the most potent are oleandrin and neriine, known for their powerful effect on the heart. An oleander's poison is so strong, in fact, that it can poison a person who simply eats the honey made by bees that have digested oleander nectar.... A single ingested oleander leaf can kill a child. Ingestion of oleander results in diarrhea, vomiting, intense stomach pain, drowsiness, dizziness, an irregular heartbeat, and often, death."

Jill Colvin of AP: "Trump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases. But he has long been a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and has campaigned for kids to return to the classroom and for the return of college sports, just like Trump.... Atlas, the sole doctor to share the stage at Trump's pandemic briefings this past week..., has called it a 'good thing' for younger, healthy people to be exposed to the virus.... In an April op-ed in The Hill newspaper, Atlas bemoaned that lockdowns may have prevented the development of 'natural herd immunity.'" --s ~~~

     ~~~ ** Mrs. McCrabbie: Although it's impossible to know with any certainty, scientists estimate that nearly 3 million Americans would have to die for the country to have developed herd immunity. So thanks to Dr. Atlas for his brilliant suggestions. Shutting out Fauci & bringing in Atlas is like rejecting a neurosurgeon & asking your dentist to perform brain surgery.

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would consider pardoning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who faced criminal charges after leaking classified documents about vast government surveillance. 'There are many, many people -- it seems to be a split decision -- many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to take a very good look at it.' The remarks signal a shift for the president, who repeatedly denigrated Mr. Snowden as a 'traitor' and a 'spy who should be executed' in the years before his election. The disclosures by Mr. Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia in 2013, set off a broad debate about surveillance and privacy." Mrs. McC: This is weird for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump goes batshit when someone in his own administration leaks something fairly inconsequential. (Also linked yesterday.)

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has been using major hotel chains to detain children and families taken into custody at the border, creating a largely unregulated shadow system of detention and swift expulsions without the safeguards that are intended to protect the most vulnerable migrants. Government data obtained by The New York Times, along with court documents, show that hotel detentions overseen by a private security company have ballooned in recent months under an aggressive border closure policy related to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100,000 migrants, including children and families, have been summarily expelled from the country under the measure. But rather than deterring additional migration, the policy appears to have caused border crossings to surge.... The increase in hotel detentions is likely to intensify scrutiny of the policy, which legal advocacy groups have already challenged in court, saying it places children in an opaque system with few protections and violates U.S. asylum laws by returning them to life-threatening situations in their home countries."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Belarus. Ivan Nechepurenko< & Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: “Minutes after President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus vowed to stand firm against protesters he reviled as 'rats,' 'trash' and 'bandits,' antigovernment demonstrators staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday to oppose a fraud-tainted presidential election a week earlier. Tens of thousands of protesters -- some estimates put their number at well over 200,000 -- turned out in the center of Minsk, the capital, dwarfing a rally of Mr. Lukashenko's supporters earlier in the day. It appeared to be the largest protest in the history of Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Mr. Lukashenko has led since 1994.... The protest had a festive air, in stark contrast to the tense moods of far smaller rallies last week that were violently suppressed by security forces, leaving at least two people dead, many injured and more than 6,000 under arrest." A Guardian story is here. ~~~

~~~ Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "With mass protests calling for his ouster and workers at major factories, enterprises and state television on strike, embattled Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko issued a plea for help over the weekend, saying he urgently needed to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That request was granted with phone calls between the two leaders on Saturday and Sunday. Lukashenko then claimed that Moscow is willing to dispatch 'full assistance' at 'first request' -- a veiled threat directed at an opposition movement that has accused Lukashenko of rigging last week's election results to say he garnered more than 80 percent of the votes. But Russia's promise of intervention appears to be limited to an external military threat, and after months of Lukashenko turning down closer ties with Russia, Putin's backing isn't a certainty.... Cracks in the typically close relations between Belarus and Russia started late last year, after Lukashenko resisted the Kremlin's push for the two countries to form a unified state -- something they agreed to in 1999." The Guardian's story is here.

New Zealand. Emanuel Stoakes of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday postponed New Zealand's general election, scheduled for Sept. 19, for four weeks as authorities grapple with a new wave of coronavirus cases that has set back the country's pandemic recovery. The decision follows confirmation last Tuesday that several members of a family in Auckland had tested positive for the virus, ending the Ardern government's record of more than 100 days without a known case of community transmission. Ardern's move followed calls from leaders of other parties, including Winston Peters, deputy leader of her ruling coalition, to postpone the vote.... Judith Collins, leader of the main opposition National party and Ardern's rival for the top job, welcomed the move...."

Thailand. Shibani Mahtani of the Washington Post: "Student-led protests gained momentum in Thailand on Sunday, as thousands gathered in Bangkok in the biggest anti-government political rally in years to demand the prime minister's resignation and changes to the constitution. The protests, which have been going on almost daily for the past month, are for some demonstrators also now morphing into a repudiation of a long-untouchable institution -- the monarchy, and its constitutional role in politics in Thailand. On Sunday, thousands rallied at Bangkok's Democracy Monument..., periodically bursting into chants of 'Prayuth, get out!', a reference to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who, after taking power in a 2014 coup, won disputed elections last year." Mrs. McC: No news of what's happening in Thighland.

Larry Elliott of the Guardian: "Developing nation debt has more than doubled in the past decade and left more than 50 countries facing a repayment crisis, according to a campaign group. Data from the Jubilee Debt Campaign shows that even without taking full account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a sharp jump in the number of poor countries in debt distress since 2018. Debt relief was provided for poor countries at the end of the 1990s and in the mid-2000s, but the JDC said external debt payments as a share of government revenue had more than doubled from 6.7% to 14.3% since 2010 and were at their highest level since 2001." --s

The Commentariat -- August 16, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she is 'very clear-eyed' about the kinds of attacks ... Donald Trump will lodge against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in 'lies' and 'deceptions.' The interview -- Harris' second publicly release since being announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week -- comes on the heels of Trump fanning false conspiracy theories about whether Harris is eligible to run as vice president."

Jacob Bogage & Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.... On Thursday and Friday, [the USPS] began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.... The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide.... White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals. Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: My, my. It does sound as if there's panic in the White House following the public uproar over Trump/DeJoy's cavalier moves to "kneecap" the postal service. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN's 'State of the Union' that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a 'political narrative' and 'not based on fact.' NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS's letter sorting machines across the U.S." Read on for Meadows' exchange with Jake Tapper. ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Bohn & Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. [Mark] Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned reallocation. Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for 'reduction' in dozens of cities this year. The USPS's own document calls the move a 'reduction' of equipment. A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, 'Why are these machines being removed?'"

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would consider pardoning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who faced criminal charges after leaking classified documents about vast government surveillance. 'There are many, many people -- it seems to be a split decision -- many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to take a very good look at it.' The remarks signal a shift for the president, who repeatedly denigrated Mr. Snowden as a 'traitor' and a 'spy who should be executed' in the years before his election. The disclosures by Mr. Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia in 2013, set off a broad debate about surveillance and privacy." Mrs. McC: This is weird for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump goes batshit when someone in his own administration leaks something fairly inconsequential.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

** Jennifer Senior of the New York Times reads about Joe Biden in "'What It Takes,' Richard Ben Cramer's gonzo classic about the 1988 presidential primary.... His youthful energy never came from his ideas or any particularly revolutionary philosophy. Rather, it came from his hustle, his sociability, the way he locked in with people and related to them -- 'the connect,' as Cramer called it. 'You were more likely to hear from Biden what Jill said the other day about teaching ... what his mother used to say ... or a wonderfully embroidered story about a nun in Scranton ... than you were about his five-point education plan,' Cramer wrote.... What was the one bedrock of his conviction? His decency. His identification with ordinary, bone-weary, underappreciated Americans. His commitment to them, his compassion for them. The connect.... You could argue that the biggest Biden/Trump contrast, the mother of all remedies, is his capacity for compassion, identification -- the ability to make the connect, the very thing he's been peddling from the start."

Christopher Cadelago & Natasha Korecki of Politico: "In less than a week as [Joe Biden's] running mate, Kamala Harris is showing signs she can act as an accelerant to his bid -- and give the campaign a new dimension to excite voters heading into the Democratic convention this week. In the few days since Harris joined the ticket, Biden has seen surging fundraising, promising polls and the rare sight of a hometown crowd -- despite not being able to hold a rally.... When Biden spoke on a campus [in Wilmington, Delaware] earlier this summer, the parking lot was near-empty, and the only activity was a few reporters waiting to have their temperature taken. But a day after Harris was announced, the same high school parking lot was jammed with cars. Supporters with custom signs and Biden and Harris t-shirts ringed the sidewalk with iPhone cameras to catch their first glances of the tandem that will take on Donald Trump."

This is the Biden campaign's first ad featuring Kamala Harris:

From the New York Times' election updates Saturday. Michael Levenson: "President Trump on Saturday falsely accused Democrats of refusing to fund the United States Postal Service.... Speaking at a news conference [Mrs. McC: or whatever it is] at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump also continued to rail against mail-in voting, calling it 'a catastrophe.' But he did not directly say whether he supported the removal of mail-sorting machines and other changes made under the leadership of his postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. 'I don't know what he's doing,' Mr. Trump said.... Democrats have pushed for a total of $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on the COVID-19 response bill. That figure, which would include money to help with election mail, was down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. [Mrs. McC: The House passed the bill three months ago. The Republican-controlled Senate has been MIA.] ~~~

“Mr. Trump on Saturday also refused to say that Kamala Harris ... is eligible for the vice presidency, but insisted he was not stoking a racist conspiracy theory that has taken hold among some of his followers. 'I have not gotten into it in great detail,' Mr. Trump said, when asked if Ms. Harris is eligible for the vice presidency. 'If she's got a problem, you would have thought that she would have been vetted ... by Sleepy Joe.'... He also praised John C. Eastman, a conservative lawyer who wrote a widely discredited op-ed article written in Newsweek that sought to raise questions about Ms. Harris's eligibility. Mr. Trump called Mr. Eastman 'a brilliant lawyer.' Newsweek apologized on Saturday for publishing the op-ed, saying it was 'being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.'"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "President Trump represents the last primal shriek of retrograde white men afraid to lose their power. He's a dinosaur who evokes a world of beauty pageants, "suburban housewives,"' molestation, cheating on your wife when she's pregnant, paying off porn stars, preferring women to be seen and not heard, dismissing women who challenge you as nasty, angry and crazy."

Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are considering cutting short the August recess and bringing the chamber back into session to deal with the unfolding crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, according to Democratic sources. The House could return to vote with the next two weeks, the Democratic sources suggested. The chamber is currently in recess, with no votes scheduled until the week of Sept. 14.... On Friday, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a scathing statement accusing ... Donald Trump and Republicans of waging an 'all-out assault on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election.' Their statement came after Trump said he opposes a federal infusion of funds to save the flailing postal service because he doesn't support mail-in voting." Mrs. McC: I don't know what good it would do to bring the House back unless Mitch agrees to bring the Senate back, too -- and both Houses have similar bills to vote on.

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "... accounts of slowdowns and curtailed service are emerging across the country as [Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy pushes cost-cutting measures he says are intended to overhaul an agency suffering billion-dollar losses. But as President Trump rails almost daily against the service and delays clog the mail, voters and postal workers warn a crisis is building that could disenfranchise record numbers of Americans who will be casting ballots by mail in November because of the coronavirus.... At risk are not just the ballots -- and medical prescriptions and paychecks -- of residents around the country, but also the reputation of the Postal Service as the most popular and perhaps the least politicized part of the federal government.... Mr. DeJoy has said he is trying to reform an organization with a 'broken business model' facing a litany of billion-dollar losses and declines in mail volumes. But voters and postal workers said the Postal Service was more than a business."

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The breathtaking moves by the Trump administration this summer to disrupt a government service during the coronavirus pandemic -- under the argument that it will boost operational efficiencies -- represent the culmination of Trump's grievance-fueled crusade against the Postal Service that dates to the start of his presidency. Many of his complaints have centered on the post office's chronic financial problems, which have worsened during the pandemic.... Trump's fury with the Postal Service and mail-in balloting has become something of an obsession in recent weeks."

Eric Holder Weighs in. Daniel Politi of Slate: "On Saturday morning, law professor and legal analyst Barb McQuade pointed out [in a tweet] that obstructing mail is a federal offense and wondered who would prosecute Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in the Department of Justice headed by William Barr. 'The next, real, Justice Department,' [former Attorney General Eric] Holder replied [in a tweet]. Earlier, Holder posted a tweet that simply stated the law regarding the fines and imprisonment of up to six months that anyone who 'willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail' can face. Holder has been posting quite a bit on the Postal Service lately...."

Mitch's Man at the USPS. David Sirota & Matthew Cunningham-Cook of Too Much Information: In the lead-up to the current crisis, "Trump nominee Mike Duncan was appointed to the USPS's board of governors in 2018, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in December 2019 to a full seven-year term. Duncan currently chairs the board. In 2018 federal disclosure filings during his confirmation, Duncan listed himself as the current chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund -- a $100 million Senate-focused Republican super PAC whose 2020 electoral goals could hinge on vote-by-mail systems.... Duncan was listed as a director of the Senate Leadership Fund in an annual report the super PAC filed in Virginia in August 2019. CNN reported in January 2020 that the Republican effort to retain the Senate includes '[Mitch] McConnell's super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which is helmed by Mike Duncan, the former RNC chairman and a Kentuckian.'" --s

Khalida Volou & Kolbie Satterfield of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "A group of protesters staged a 'noise demonstration' Saturday morning outside of United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's home in Northwest D.C. amid allegations of limiting mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. The demonstration was organized by the direct action group Shut Down D.C.... The organization believes DeJoy is 'dismantling' the U.S. Postal Service in favor of ... Donald Trump's re-election. They said his actions contribute to voter suppression.... Protesters chanted, sang, and banged on pots and pans outside of DeJoy's District resident for about an hour Saturday morning. Some neighbors, who seemed confused at first, joined the protest which had a portion of Connecticut Ave. closed to traffic. Some protesters stuffed fake absentee ballots and letters into the Postmaster General's apartment lobby door." Mrs. McC: Interesting that neighbors joined the protest. This is one of the ritziest neighborhoods in D.C. I wonder if the neighbors who joined the protest were Barack Obama & Jeff Bezos.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Spit Take. Zach Lowe of ESPN: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization on Saturday allowing public use of a saliva-based test for the coronavirus developed at Yale University and funded by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. The test, known as SalivaDirect, is designed for widespread public screening. The cost per sample could be as low as about $4, though the cost to consumers will likely be higher than that -- perhaps around $15 or $20 in some cases, according to expert sources. Yale administered the saliva test to a group that included NBA players and staff in the lead-up to the league's return to play and compared results to the nasal swab tests the same group took. The results almost universally matched, according to published research that has not yet been peer-reviewed. The leading coronavirus saliva test, developed at a Rutgers University lab and given the same permission by the FDA in mid-April, costs individual consumers up to $150 -- though that can be reduced to $60 or $70 in some circumstances...."

Georgia. Scott Trubey & Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "President Trump's coronavirus task force warns that Georgia continues to see 'widespread and expanding community viral spread' and that the state's current policies aren't enough to curtail COVID-19. The task force 'strongly recommends' Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp's refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery. 'Current mitigation efforts are not having a sufficient impact,' the report said. Businesses, such as nightclubs, bars and gyms, currently open with some restrictions in Georgia, should be closed in the highest risk counties, the report said.... Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities."

South Dakota. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "An order signed by President Trump to boost unemployed workers' weekly benefits will not deliver any new aid to South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi L. Noem [R] appeared to become the first state leader to decline the heightened federal support. Noem, one of Trump's most vocal allies, said South Dakota did not need to accept the additional federal jobless aid because workers in the state are being rehired, and its economy is on the mend...." Mrs. McC: In case you might think Noem is just fiscally conservative and not mean, there's this: "Roughly 20,000 people in the state are currently collecting jobless benefits.... Michele Evermore ... [of] the National Employment Law Center, said...: 'If you're an unemployed person in South Dakota, it's not going to matter to you there aren't a lot of unemployed people.'..."

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Karoun Demirjian & others of the Washington Post now have a story on this: "The Republican and Democratic chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee notified federal prosecutors last year of their suspicion that several individuals, including President Trump's family members and confidants, might have presented misleading testimony in the panel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said. The list of individuals included ... Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, whose accounts of their pre-election meeting with a Russian lawyer were contradicted by the president's former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates in interviews that were part of the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, these people said.... But the intelligence committee, one person said, reserved its harshest allegations for the president's former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis and private security contractor Erik Prince, saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators -- a potential felony.... It is unclear whether the Justice Department took action on the referrals."

Gene Johnson of the AP: "... Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management, a senior administration official said Saturday -- much to the relief of environmentalists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them. Pendley, a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming, has been leading the agency for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have Pendley removed from office."

AP: A riot was declared in Oregon's biggest city as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in Portland. Officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building, news outlets reported. Protesters had thrown 'softball size' rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers, police said on Twitter. The department also said security cameras had been spray painted and other vandalism occurred. The actions came after what started as a peaceful protest.... Saturday afternoon, a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators quickly devolved as they traded paint balls and pepper spray with counter-protesters. About 30 people were participating in the Patriot Prayer rally in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center. Several were armed with automatic weapons, KOIN-TV reported."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A series of fire tornadoes -- genuine twisters made of smoke and flame -- struck Lassen County, Calif., on Saturday, churning around as the Loyalton Fire rapidly expanded to more than 20,000 acres. Extreme fire behavior and pinpoint lightning strikes accompanied the massive blaze, which was 5 percent contained Sunday morning after burning for two days. The powerful fire and potent rotation inside the wildfire even prompted the National Weather Service in Reno, Nev., to issue what is believed to be the first weather alert of its kind: a 'fire tornado warning.'" The accompanying photo (which currently also appears near the bottom of the WashPo's front page) is stunning.

New York Times: "Robert S. Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, died on Saturday night in Manhattan. He was 71. The White House, which announced his death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, did not give a cause.... Simply being a close family member did not shield him from his brother's rages when Donald Trump needed someone to blame.... In one meeting, [Jack] O'Donnell [-- a former Trump Organization executive --] recalled, Donald Trump screamed at his brother, putting the blame for [a] slot machine debacle [at Trump's Atlantic City casino] entirely on him. 'Robert calmly got up, walked out of the room, and that's the last time I ever saw him,' Mr. O'Donnell said.... The rift [took] years to heal.... The relationship between the brothers ... was illustrated by Donald Trump in his book 'The Art of the Deal.' In it, he recalled stealing his younger brother's blocks when they were children and gluing them together so that Robert couldn't reclaim them." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: I cited those two anecdotes about Donald's relationship with Robert to help you adjust your sympathies in case your good nature has caused you to feel a pang of sorrow for Donald.

New York Times: "James R. Thompson, a Republican known as Big Jim who used his enthusiasm for campaigning and his canny understanding of state politics to become the longest-serving governor of Illinois, died on Friday. He was 84."