;)
The Commentariat -- August 6, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here.
Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Thursday that he has tested positive for coronavirus. The announcement came shortly before DeWine, a Republican, was scheduled to meet with ... Donald Trump in Cleveland. DeWine was tested as part of the 'standard protocol' to greet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport, the governor's office said in a statement. He is returning to Columbus, where he and his wife Fran will both be tested. DeWine tweeted Thursday that he's not experiencing symptoms at this time."
Good-ish News. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Weekly jobless claims hit their lowest level of the pandemic area, totaling 1.186 million last week, well below Wall Street expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.42 million. The level for the week ended Aug. 1 represented a drop of 249,000 from the previous period. Amid worries that the employment picture was faltering after two record-breaking months of job creation, the claims number indicates some momentum. Continuing claims, or those who have collected benefits for two straight weeks, dropped by 844,000 to 16.1 million."
Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. addressed a now-deleted Instagram post depicting his pants unzipped and his arm around a woman, apologizing but saying the photo was 'just in good fun.' 'I've apologized to everybody,' Falwell said in an interview with WLNI 105.9FM, a Lynchburg, Va.-area radio station. 'And I've promised my kids I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out.'" BUT WAIT! Jerry has an excuse! "He told the radio station the woman in the photo, seemingly taken on a yacht, was his 'wife's assistant' and that he regretted involving her. 'She's pregnant, so she couldn't get her pants up,' he told the radio station. 'And I had on pair of jeans that I hadn't worn in a long time so I couldn't get mine zipped either. And so I just put my belly out like hers.'" Mrs. McC: So Jerry was really showing empathy for the woman -- walking a mile in her pants, as Jesus might say. Nothing whatsoever untoward going on!
Mississippi. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Last week, schools in Corinth, Miss., welcomed back hundreds of students.... By early this week, the count [of positive Covid-19 tests] rose to six students and one staff member infected. Now, 116 students have been sent home to quarantine, a spokeswoman for the school district confirmed.... The district's superintendent said he has no plans to change course." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's how these mandatory back-to-school orders are going to work. (1) Kids go to school. (2) Kids get sick. (3) Kids get quarantined. So roughly the same number of kids will be at home under the mandatory system (because they're sick and/or quarantined) as under an opt-in-or-out hybrid system, where some kids go to school & others school-at-home. The difference is that under the mandatory plan, many more of the kids at home will be sick than will those in the hybrid system. But mandatory schooling a great plan!
And the Winners Are .... Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "The nation’s leading health insurers are experiencing an embarrassment of profits. Some of the largest companies, including Anthem, Humana and UnitedHealth Group, are reporting second-quarter earnings that are double what they were a year ago. And while insurance profits are capped under the Affordable Care Act, with the requirement that consumers should benefit from such excesses in the form of rebates, no one should expect an immediate windfall.... The Health and Human Services Department advised companies to consider speeding up rebates, and on Tuesday suggested that they reduce premiums...." Abelson goes on to describe some of the potential political consequences of the insurance companies' windfalls.
Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "The police have identified a suspect and prosecutors decided to charge him with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a man in June that took place during protests in Seattle seeking racial justice, the authorities said on Wednesday. The authorities said they were able to identify the gunman as Marcel Levon Long, 18, after collecting 'extremely high quality' surveillance video footage and statements from several eye witnesses. Mr. Long, whose last-known address was in Renton, Wash., about 20 minutes south of Seattle, remained at large as of Wednesday evening. The killing was among several shootings in and around a six-block area that protesters controlled for several weeks. The area was alternately called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). It was cleared out by the police on July 1."
Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "In the fall of 1945..., New Yorker writer John Hersey ... [and] his editor ... William Shawn ... suspected that the U.S. government's wartime propaganda machine had covered up the human suffering of the atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this month. Pictures from Japan showed destroyed buildings and decimated neighborhoods, but little was known about the human toll, especially from radiation. The U.S. government controlled access to the bomb sites. The War Department quietly asked American news outlets to limit information about nuclear aspects of the attacks. When reports of widespread suffering from radiation began to emerge from international journalists and Japanese officials, the American government downplayed it all as propaganda. One general even told Congress that dying from radiation was, in fact, 'a very pleasant way to die.'... [Hersey] traveled to Hiroshima and spent two weeks reporting the misery from the point of view of six survivors. His 30,000-word account, told in a harrowing narrative using the tools of a novelist, took up an entire issue of the New Yorker in August 1946, stirring outrage throughout the world.... Hersey's story, later published as a book, has been celebrated as a journalistic and historical masterpiece. A panel of journalists and critics ranked it first on a list of the top 100 works of journalism in the 20th century.... Many historians and foreign policy experts say its impact was profound enough to help prevent future use of nuclear weapons." ~~~
~~~ Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Thurlow, then just 13, reported for her first full day of duty in Japan's increasingly desperate war effort. Together with 30 other girls, she had been recruited to assist with code breaking at a military office in Hiroshima.... At 8:15 a.m., a blast detonated over the city.... She was then thrown into the air, losing consciousness. When she came to, it was dark and silent, and she was pinned under parts of the wooden building. 'I'm going to die here,' she thought to herself.... Ms. Thurlow survived, but the attack would shape the rest of a life spent fighting for the abolition of nuclear weapons -- work for which she jointly accepted a Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.... In advance of the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the two bombs, Ms. Thurlow wrote to 197 heads of state asking them to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was formally adopted at the United Nations three years ago. The world's nine nuclear-armed countries have refused to sign the treaty on the grounds the weapons are necessary for deterrence."
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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
** The Worst Country in the World (Well, Almost). David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "Nearly every country has struggled to contain the coronavirus and made mistakes along the way.... Yet ... one country stands alone, as the only affluent nation to have suffered a severe, sustained outbreak for more than four months: the United States.... When it comes to the virus, the United States has come to resemble not the wealthy and powerful countries to which it is often compared but instead to far poorer countries, like Brazil, Peru and South Africa, or those with large migrant populations, like Bahrain and Oman.... The New York Times set out to reconstruct the unique failure of the United States, through numerous interviews with scientists and public health experts around the world.... Together, the national skepticism toward collective action and the Trump administration's scattered response to the virus have contributed to several specific failures and missed opportunities, Times reporting shows: a lack of effective travel restrictions; repeated breakdowns in testing; fusing advice about masks; a misunderstanding of the relationship between the virus and the economy; and inconsistent messages from public officials."
David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump defended his call to reopen schools this fall by claiming children are 'virtually immune' from COVID-19 and that the coronavirus will 'go away' soon. 'This thing's going away -- It will go away like things go away,' Trump said during a wide-ranging interview on 'Fox & Friends' a day after authorities reported more than 1,000 Americans died of the virus. Children can catch -- and pass on -- the coronavirus, doctors have said. The National Education Association has cited that in arguing that reopening schools this fall may maintain spikes in the spread of the virus.... 'This is the magical thinking that has misled us down the road to 155,000 deaths,' said Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Heather Kelly of the Washington Post: "Breaking: Twitter said it will require President Trump's campaign account to remove a post containing coronavirus misinformation, banning the account from tweeting until it does so. Team Trump's tweet of a video clip from a Fox News interview -- in which President Trump said that children are 'almost immune' from covid-19 -- violates the site's rules against misinformation, the company said. Twitter hid the post and said the account will not be able to tweet again until it deletes it, although it can appeal the decision. Twitter spokeswoman Liz Kelley said the tweet 'is in violation of the Twitter Rules on COVID-19 misinformation. The account owner will be required to remove the Tweet before they can Tweet again.' Facebook on Wednesday said it removed President Trump's post of a video clip from a Fox News interview in which he said that children are 'almost immune' from covid-19, marking the company's increasingly tough stance on political speech amid heightened pressure.... This is the first time Facebook has taken down a post from the president for violating the company's policies on covid misinformation." The New York Times' story is here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: This is remarkable. Social media companies are taking down remarks by the POTUS* because they must: what he says is not only untrue, it poses a danger to Americans. For obvious reasons, these for-profit corporations try to keep out of politics. But they can't. They have imposed minimal ethical standards that Donald Trump cannot meet. That's who we have for a president*: a dangerous liar with a code of ethics lower than Mark Zuckerberg's. Corporations are people, my friend.
Uncle Donald Tells Another Fractured Fairy Tale. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday praised Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's handling of the pandemic -- even as the virus tears through the state at an alarming rate. 'Arizona's record in reducing the spread of the virus while maintaining hospital capacity and allowing society to continue functioning and functioning very nicely, very successfully, is an example that shows how our path forward can work in other states,' Trump said at a White House briefing, calling Arizona 'a state that is a model for applying a science-based approach to the decreasing cases and hospitalizations without implementing a punishing lockdown.'... Cases have decreased 24 percent in the last two weeks, according to the Covid Exit Strategy, but the numbers are still high. The state has the fifth-highest number of current hospitalizations in the country, the fifth-highes number of new cases in the last week, and the fifth-highest rate of tests that come back positive. Arizona has a test positivity rate of about 18 percent -- far higher than the 5 percent that the CDC says indicates sufficient testing and control of the virus. It's an improvement, however, on the nearly 25 percent test positivity rate the state was reporting two weeks ago."
Amy Gardner & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill told negotiators for President Trump on Wednesday that preserving funding for the U.S. Postal Service and removing new rules that have slowed delivery times are essential ingredients of a new coronavirus relief bill in a year when millions of Americans plan to vote by mail. 'Elections are sacred,' Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), told reporters after a meeting with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy. 'To do cutbacks when ballots, all ballots, have to be counted -- we can't say, "Oh, we'll get 94 percent of them." It's insufficient.' Schumer said he and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told DeJoy, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, that their demands regarding the Postal Service are necessary to striking a deal on broader relief bill that may also include new unemployment benefits and a payroll tax cut. 'It was a heated discussion,' Schumer said...." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), speaking on CNN today, said there were six chairs in the negotiating room: chairs for Pelosi, Schumer, Mnuchin, Meadows -- and Mitch McConnell & Kevin McCarthy. The chairs for McConnell & McCarthy remained empty. Durbin wondered (rhetorically) what-all McConnell & McCarthy had to do that was more important than getting relief to millions of coronavirus victims.
Shia Kapos of Politico: "Days after delivering a presentation on office safety in dealing with Covid-19, Illinois Congressman Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee, announced he has tested positive for the virus. In a letter posted on his website, Davis said he tested positive Wednesday morning. He submitted to the test after one of his twice-daily temperature checks 'clocked in at 99 degrees Fahrenheit, which is higher than normal for me,' he wrote."
Matthew Perrone, et al., of the AP: "U.S. testing for the coronavirus is dropping even as infections remain high and the death toll rises by more than 1,000 a day, a worrisome trend that officials attribute largely to Americans getting discouraged over having to wait hours to get a test and days or weeks to learn the results. An Associated Press analysis found that the number of tests per day slid 3.6% over the past two weeks to 750,000, with the count falling in 22 states. That includes places like Alabama, Mississippi, Missouri and Iowa where the percentage of positive tests is high and continuing to climb, an indicator that the virus is still spreading uncontrolled."
Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Federal health authorities issued a formal warning on Wednesday about the dangers of drinking hand sanitizer and alerted poison control centers across the nation to be on the lookout for cases of methanol toxicity after four people died and nearly a dozen became ill. From May 1 to June 30, 15 people in Arizona and New Mexico were treated for poisoning after they swallowed alcohol-based hand sanitizer, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.... It was not immediately clear if any of the people who were poisoned drank the hand sanitizer for its disinfectant properties. The C.D.C. said some adults had consumed it for its alcohol content." Mrs. McC: IOW, they were alcoholics & not necessarily Trumpbots.
Georgia. Molly Hensley-Clancy & Caroline O'Donovan of BuzzFeed News: "Behind a viral photo of a crowded hallway at a high school in Georgia, a potentially dire situation is brewing. Students, teachers, and parents fear the Paulding County school's rushed reopening plans may be spiraling out of control just two days after students -- who said they were told they could face expulsion for remaining home -- returned to class despite reports of positive coronavirus cases among students and staff. North Paulding High School, about an hour outside Atlanta, reopened Monday despite an outbreak among members of its high school football team, many of whom, a Facebook video shows, worked out together in a crowded indoor gym last week as part of a weightlifting fundraiser.... And multiple teachers at North Paulding say there are positive tests among school staff, including a staff member who came into contact with most teachers at the school while exhibiting symptoms last week. Teachers and staff said the school won't confirm coronavirus infections among district employees, citing privacy reasons." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you are a parent thinking of sending your child to school soon, you might want to click on this story, which includes the photo of mostly-maskless students crowding a hallway at what appears to be a high school. Update: The CBS News story linked next IDs the school as North Paulding High. ~~~
~~~ CBS News/AP: "Two suburban Atlanta school districts that began in-person classes Monday with mask-optional policies face more questions about COVID-19 safety protocols after on-campus pictures showed students packed shoulder-to-shoulder. The day after school resumed, one school announced a second grader tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing the child's teacher and classmates to be sent home to quarantine for two weeks, CBS affiliate WGCL-TV reports. In Cherokee County, dozens of seniors gathered at two of the district's six high schools to take traditional first-day-of-school senior photos, with students squeezing together in black outfits. No one in pictures at Sequoyah High School in Hickory Flat or Etowah High School in Woodstock wore a mask.... Georgia hit a new weekly high for COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, having averaged 51 confirmed deaths from the respiratory illness over the last seven days." ~~~
~~~ Illinois. Justine Coleman of the Hill: "Chicago Public Schools (CPS), the third-largest school district in the country, will retreat from its previous proposal for limited in-person classes and instead conduct online classes starting in September. Online instruction will continue through at least the first quarter of the school year, which ends Nov. 6, CPS CEO Janice Jackson said during a press conference Wednesday. Jackson said the decision was made after getting feedback from teachers and parents, including in a series of virtual town halls last week, where parents expressed concern." A Chicago Tribune story is here. ~~~
~~~ North Carolina. Ella Torres of ABC News: "Fourth graders at a school in North Carolina have been asked to quarantine for 14 days after a student there tested positive for COVID-19. The school, a Thales Academy in Wake Forest, said it was notified on Monday that the student became infected after having contact with an infected family member.... Thales Academy, a network of private non-sectarian community schools with eight locations in North Carolina, made the news last week after Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos visited a classroom and applauded the school for reopening. Pence and DeVos visited a campus in Apex, not Wake Forest." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Within the next month or so, there will be stories like those above for every state that doesn't ban face-to-face teaching. Check your local newspaper.
The Lamborghini Factory Protection Program. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "A Texas man this week became the second person in less than two weeks to be accused by federal prosecutors of using Covid-19 relief money to buy a Lamborghini. The man, Lee Price III, 29, of Houston, received more than $1.6 million under the federal Paycheck Protection Program after he submitted five applications in May and June with fraudulent information to numerous banks claiming to employ dozens of people, prosecutors in Houston said on Tuesday.... Mr. Price was arrested Tuesday and charged with wire fraud, bank fraud, making false statements to financial institutions and engaging in prohibited monetary transactions, the prosecutors said." Mrs. McC: Somebody check the Treasury Department parking lot & find out what kind of vehicle Steve Mnuchin is driving to work these days. (Also linked yesterday.)
Defense Secretary, Others Walk Back Another Trump Lie. Lolita Baldor & Deb Riechmann of the AP: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday that most people think the deadly explosion Tuesday in Lebanon that killed at least 100 people was an accident, contradicting ... Donald Trump, who said American generals told him it was likely caused by a bomb. Esper said the U.S. was still gathering information about the explosion, but said most believe 'it was an accident, as reported.' On Tuesday, Trump said, 'It looks like a terrible attack.... I met with some of our great generals and they just seem to feel that it was. This was not a -- some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of a event. ... They seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind, yes.' From the outset, U.S. officials have said that they did not know the cause of the initial fire and explosions that set off the larger blast. But they say they do believe the reports out of Lebanon claiming a large stockpile of ammonium nitrate left over from a seizure is what exploded. Officials on Wednesday couldn't identify any 'generals' who delivered any such Beirut message to the president. And while none would comment publicly, some noted that defense and intelligence officials didn't have enough information about the explosion to make any statement about the cause on Tuesday evening.... Esper said the U.S. was preparing to provide humanitarian aid and medical or other supplies to the Lebanese people. The U.S. Embassy in Beirut said at least one American citizen was killed and several more were injured in the explosion." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ This is an update of the report linked above. Lolita Baldor & Deb Riechmann of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday continued to suggest that the massive explosion that killed at least 135 people in Lebanon might have been a deliberate attack, even as officials in Lebanon and his own defense chief said it's believed to have be an accident. 'Whatever happened, it's terrible, but they don't really know what it is,' Trump insisted.... 'We're looking into it very strongly right now.... But whether it was a bomb intentionally set off -- it ended up being a bomb,' he said.'... While [no U.S. officials] would comment publicly, some noted that defense and intelligence officials didn't have enough information about the explosion to make any statement about the cause on Tuesday evening." ~~~
~~~ Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claim [Tuesday] that the massive explosion in Beirut was a bomb attack has revived fears of the president's potential to foment international crises.... The White House gave no guidance on Wednesday as to whether Trump had received a top secret intelligence briefing, had seen something on Twitter -- or just made up the claim and imagined a conversation with US generals. On Wednesday the president said the question was still unanswered. On Wednesday, the president said ... 'I can tell you whatever happened, it's terrible. But they don't really know what it is. Nobody knows yet.... How can you say accident? Somebody ... left some terrible explosive-type devices and things around perhaps. Perhaps it was that. Perhaps it was an attack. I don't think anybody can say right now. I've heard it both ways.'... It has become the norm for US officials to quietly correct the thicket of mistakes and lies embedded in Trump's daily discourse, but applied to a fragile and volatile corner of the world, the stakes are higher."
** David Enrich, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York prosecutors who are seeking President Trump's tax records have also subpoenaed his longtime lender, a sign that their criminal investigation into Mr. Trump's business practices is more wide-ranging than previously known. The Manhattan district attorney's office issued the subpoena last year to Deutsche Bank, which has been Mr. Trump's primary lender since the late 1990s, seeking financial records that he and his company provided to the bank, according to four people familiar with the inquiry.... The subpoena to Deutsche Bank sought documents on various topics related to Mr. Trump and his company, including any materials that might point to possible fraud, according to two people briefed on the subpoena's contents.... Deutsche Bank complied with the subpoena. Over a period of months last year, it provided [Manhattan DA Cyrus] Vance [Jr.]'s office with detailed records, including financial statements and other materials that Mr. Trump had provided to the bank as he sought loans, according to two of the people familiar with the inquiry." Emphasis added. The Guardian has a summary report here. Mrs. McC: Worth noting: There's nothing Bill Barr can do to curb the Manhattan DA's investigation.
Sorry, Lindsey. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates told lawmakers Wednesday that neither President Barack Obama nor Vice President Joe Biden attempted to influence the FBI's investigation of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn during a January 2017 Oval Office meeting with top national security officials. 'During the meeting, the president, the vice president, the national security adviser did not attempt to any way to direct or influence any investigation,' Yates said during sworn testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The testimony counters repeated insinuations by ... Donald Trump and his top allies that Obama and Biden took a leading role in steering an investigation into the incoming national security adviser, a charge Trump has used to claim he was the victim of an unspecified crime he has dubbed 'Obamagate.' Trump has provided no evidence to support the claim, and Yates said under oath that Obama's only interest in Flynn was to ensure that it was safe to share sensitive national security information with the incoming administration.... 'General Flynn had essentially neutered the U.S. government's message of deterrence,' Yates said." Read on. Yates knocked down one fake GOP talking point after another. Mrs. McC: I guess they'll have to conclude that "the woman" is lying. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post report, by Devlin Barrett, is here. "Trump attacked Yates before the hearing began, tweeting that she 'has zero credibility' and declaring her 'part of the greatest political crime of the Century, and ObamaBiden knew EVERYTHING!'... Seeking to use Yates to discredit the FBI's investigations around the 2016 Trump campaign, Republicans instead got a spirited defense of that work as ethical and necessary, even though she was critical of some of the FBI's moves at the time." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Nearly 5 million covid-19 cases in the United States. One-hundred fifty-seven thousand dead. Thirty-two million out of work. Tens of millions facing eviction, foreclosure and hunger. What do we do now? Simple: We talk about Hillary Clinton's emails!... As the Trump administration drifts and millions lose their unemployment benefits, the Senate Judiciary Committee staged yet another hearing Wednesday about the Steele dossier, Carter Page, George Papadopoulos, Peter Strzok, Andrew McCabe, Bruce Ohr, Fusion GPS and other golden oldies [like Anthony Weiner's laptop & Bill Clinton's meeting with Loretta Lynch]."
CIA Ignores Stupidest Senator. Andrew Desiderio & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The Central Intelligence Agency has ignored requests to brief senators as part of a Republican-led investigation that targets presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter, according to sources familiar with the matter and an email described to Politico. The spy agency's resistance comes amid intelligence officials' deep skepticism of the probe, which is being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and focuses on Hunter Biden's role on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Democrats argue the investigation is based on Russian disinformation aimed at tipping the outcome of the election toward ... Donald Trump -- a charge Johnson rejects. Some intelligence officials similarly fear the Biden probe will only boost the Russian intervention. And while the motivations of the CIA are not certain, Johnson is considered 'toxic' by some members of the intelligence community, according to people with direct knowledge of the dynamic. The agency's reluctance to engage with the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Johnson chairs, underscores the intelligence community's doubts about the probe."
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Wednesday criticized former President Barack Obama's eulogy of the late Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.).... 'I thought it was a terrible speech. It was an angry speech. It showed this anger there that people don't see,' Trump said on 'Fox & Friends' when asked if he agreed the eulogy 'seemed like a campaign speech.' 'He lost control. He's been really hit very hard by both sides for that speech. That speech was ridiculous,' Trump said. Trump said he felt the eulogy was 'totally inappropriate' and spoke at length about how he has undone much of Obama's agenda." Mrs. McC: That's funny, because the family and friends of John Lewis who attended his funeral service gave President Obama a standing O for the very remarks Trump is criticizing. Video of President Obama's eulogy is here. You can decide for yourself whether or not you agree with Donald Trump -- or maybe suspect he is projecting his own angey behavior & constant inappropriate remarks about everything.
Pravda for Pence. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "When Vice President Mike Pence traveled to an event in Florida on Wednesday, he was not accompanied on his plane by a member of the White House press corps, as is typically the case. Instead, seated on Air Force Two in a space normally reserved for a White House reporter was the vice president for communications at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank that has helped the Trump administration fill jobs throughout the government and influenced policy decisions. The foundation official, Robert B. Bluey, is also the executive editor of The Daily Signal, a news site run by the foundation to offer conservative commentary and analysis.... Mr. Bluey, a communications professional, is not listed as a reporter, and he does not cover the White House." But, it turns out, the absence of a "real" reporter on the trip is not all pence's fault: "The White House Correspondents' Association put out a call for reporters earlier in the week seeking a volunteer to cover Mr. Pence's day trip to Florida as part of the pool. When the organization was unable to fill the slot, Mr. Pence's office chose the print pooler instead...."
Pranshu Verma & Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The State Department's acting watchdog has resigned from his post less than three months after replacing the previous inspector general, whom President Trump fired in May, the department said on Wednesday. The departure of Stephen J. Akard came as Congress continued to investigate the firing of his predecessor, Steve A. Linick, who was pursuing inquiries into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Three congressional committees issued subpoenas this week to top aides of Mr. Pompeo. Mr. Linick had opened investigations into Mr. Pompeo's potential misuse of department resources and his effort to push arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The department gave no explanation for the departure of Mr. Akard, an ally of Vice President Mike Pence. A department spokeswoman said ... the deputy inspector general, Diana R. Shaw, would take over as acting inspector general.... Mr. Akard was also the agency's ambassador-level head of the Office of Foreign Missions, an arrangement that was a clear conflict of interest and widely criticized by Democratic lawmakers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ According to the Times, the Washington Post & CNN broke the story. The Post's report is here. CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Rachel Maddow, who interviewed former Ambassador Lewis Lukens last night, suggested Akard's abrupt resignation was tied to the so-far secret IG review of bad behavior by Trump's Ambassador to the U.K. Woody Johnson.
Anna Gronewold of Politico: "Gov. Andrew Cuomo officially assumed leadership of the National Governors Association on Wednesday during a meeting held virtually because of the pandemic. Alongside some chuckles and technical glitches that characterize the new normal of video gatherings, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland passed the mantle of leadership to Cuomo, who had been vice chair. The position has gained greater significance and visibility this year as governors shoulder primary responsibility for the pandemic response and recovery efforts.... The incoming vice chair is Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas. Cuomo's term will last a year."
Elections 2020
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The investigation ordered by Attorney General William Barr into how the CIA and the FBI looked into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia's 2016 election interference operation may be nearing a conclusion, people familiar with it say. One indication is that the prosecutor in charge, Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, has asked to interview former CIA Director John Brennan, according to a person familiar with the request. Brennan has agreed to be interviewed, and the details are being worked out, the person said. Attorney General William Barr told Congress last month that he would not wait until after the election to present Durham's findings if they are finalized. Barr has made clear he believes Obama administration officials acted wrongfully when they opened a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign's dealings with Russians, but the Justice Department's inspector general found that the investigation was justified and untainted by political bias." ~~~
~~~ Ryan Goodman & Andrew Weissmann in a New York Times op-ed: "Today, Wednesday, marks 90 days before the presidential election, a date in the calendar that is supposed to be of special note to the Justice Department. That's because of two department guidelines, one a written policy that no action be influenced in any way by politics. Another, unwritten norm urges officials to defer publicly charging or taking any other overt investigative steps or disclosures that could affect a coming election. Attorney General William Barr appears poised to trample on both. At least two developing investigations could be fodder for pre-election political machinations. The first is an apparently sprawling investigation by John Durham, the U.S. attorney in Connecticut, that began as an examination of the origins of the F.B.I. investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. The other, led by John Bash, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, is about the so-called unmasking of Trump associates by Obama administration officials. Mr. Barr personally unleashed both investigations and handpicked the attorneys to run them." Read on. The writers suggest ways DOJ employees can at least partially thwart Barr's anticipated election-meddling.
Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump raised more money than Joe Biden in July, after falling behind his Democratic rival for two straight months. Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee reported that they raised $165 million last month -- an amount they said eclipsed any single month in all of 2016.... Biden's campaign and the Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, reported $140 million in July. The overwhelming majority of donations -- 97 percent -- were at the grassroots level, with the average contribution coming in at $34.77, the campaign said." Mrs. McC: Guess I'd have to pull some cash out of the mattress.
Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Joe Biden will not travel to Milwaukee to accept the Democratic presidential nomination due to coronavirus concerns, convention organizers confirmed Wednesday. Biden will deliver his speech accepting the nomination later in August in his home state of Delaware, organizers said, adding that all other speakers who had been planning to travel to Milwaukee will no longer do so.... 'The mayor [of Milwaukee] has put in place a 225-person limit on people assembling in any one place,' Biden said. 'I think it's the right thing to do. I've wanted to set an example as to how we should respond individually to this crisis.' The move marks the latest disruption in plans for what is typically a political festival but is now being conducted almost entirely virtually. It comes after President Trump, who had attempted to hold the Republican National Convention in Charlotte and then Jacksonville, began exploring the option of delivering his speech from the South Lawn at the White House.... Under federal law, government employees and property are generally barred from being used for political purposes, with notable exceptions. The Hatch Act, which prevents federal officials from certain forms of political activity at work, exempts both the president and the vice president from any restrictions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed back against Trump's proposal in an interview with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell on Wednesday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "Local and national leaders pushed back Wednesday against President Trump's desire to deliver his convention acceptance speech from the White House, warning that the event could bring protests and novel coronavirus spread to the nation's capital while violating historic norms that separate political activity from the seat of presidential power. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) predicted that a political convention gathering at the White House 'won't happen,' for legal and ethical reasons, while D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said she did not plan to offer 'any exemptions' for the event from a recent health order that restricts the movement of nonessential visitors to the city from 27 states with elevated rates of the virus.... Sen. John Cornyn [R] of Texas called it 'problematic,' Sen. John Thune ([R-]S.D.) questioned the legality of political events at the White House and Sen. Ron Johnson ([R-]Wis.) suggested that other plans should be made.... The pushback came as Trump indicated publicly for the first time that he preferred speaking from the White House.... When asked about Republican concerns over the legality of using the White House for a political event, Trump was dismissive. 'It is legal,' he said during a Wednesday evening news conference."
In a New York Times video op-ed, historian Allan Lichtman explains his presidential prediction model & predicts the winner of the 2020 presidential race. "In 1980, he developed a presidential prediction model that retrospectively accounted for 120 years of U.S. election history. Over the past four decades, his system has accurately called presidential victors, from Ronald Reagan in '84 to, well, Mr. Trump in 2016." (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Second-Term Agenda Remains Nonexistent. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "Appearing on Fox News [Wednesday] morning, Donald Trump was asked, 'Mr. President, what is your second term agenda? What are your top priorities?' It was the fourth time is six weeks the president was asked this question -- the most obvious and basic of any president seeking re-election -- and he still struggled to answer it. 'I want to take where we left, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, we were better than any other country, we were better than we were ever -- we -- we never had anything like it in this country.... What I want to do is take it from that point and then build it even better.'... At this point, we could note that Trump claims about the economy during his first three years are demonstrably ridiculous.... What's far more amazing is Trump's inability to think of anything he wants to do if he's rewarded with a second term." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's the front page to Joe Biden's policy proposals. But then Joe plans to be a real president as opposed to a corrupt slob who does nothing but play golf, whine & tweet insults.
John Avlon of CNN: "It's easy to dismiss the bizarre presidential campaign of [rapper Kanye West] -- who has bipolar disorder.... His behavior [has] compelled his wife, Kim Kardashian West, to call for compassion and respect for her family's privacy[.] The situation seems closer to a regrettable public breakdown than a presidential run. But there are a handful of Trump-orbiting GOP operatives pushing West's helter-skelter, supposedly independent campaign for president. According to CNN, one such operative with ties to the Trump campaign, Lane Ruhland, has filed paperwork to get West on the ballot in Wisconsin.... West and his team are working to get on the ballot in several states, including Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri.... He could be a spoiler for ... Donald Trump's reelection by siphoning off key portions of the Black vote in select states like Wisconsin and Ohio, with filing deadlines this week." ~~~
~~~ Dan Merica & Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Republican operatives, some with ties to ... Donald Trump, are actively helping Kanye West get on presidential general election ballots in states ranging from Vermont to Arkansas to Wisconsin.... Until Tuesday, West's attempts to get his name on the ballot have only focused on states that are either dominated by Republicans or Democrats in presidential elections. But West's expected addition to the ballot in Wisconsin means the rapper will likely be a choice for voters in a battleground state that is key to both Trump and Biden's path to winning in November. 'I like Kanye very much,' Trump said at the White House on Wednesday evening. 'I have nothing to do with him being on the ballot. I'm not involved.'" Mrs. McC: Who's directing this effort? Roger Stone? Maybe that's the "real reason" Trump commuted Roger's sentence.
Michigan Congressional Race. Julia Manchester of the Hill: "Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) successfully defended her seat in Michigan's 13th District on Tuesday, fending off a primary challenge from former Rep. Brenda Jo[n]es (D-Mich.). The Associated Press called the race for the incumbent on Wednesday morning. Tlaib won 66 percent of the votes cast, with 87 percent of precincts reporting." (Also linked yesterday.)
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "President Trump has routinely asserted his outsize view of presidential power, but his claim to unprecedented clout in recent weeks springs from an unlikely source: one of his defeats at the Supreme Court.... The source of Trump's recent bravado appears to be provocative articles by a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley whose expansive views of presidential power match Trump's. John Yoo, the professor, has proclaimed Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.'s opinion stopping the Trump administration from dismantling the Obama-era program protecting young undocumented immigrants a blessing in disguise. He contends that it allows presidents to take even unlawful actions that can require years of legal battles to undo. To say that Yoo's view of the court's 5-to-4 decision on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program is an outlier would be an understatement. 'I think he must be on some kind of drug,' said Laurence Tribe, a longtime constitutional scholar at Harvard. The court's decision 'did not even remotely provide a blueprint for the kind of lawlessness John Yoo seems to be trying to convince this president' to undertake, Tribe said." Read on, if you have the stomach for it.
Emily Pettus of the AP: "A federal judge in Mississippi has issued a sharply worded ruling that calls on the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the principle of qualified immunity, which protects law enforcement officers from being sued for some of their actions. U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit that Clarence Jamison, a Black resident of Neeses, South Carolina, filed against a white Mississippi police officer, Nick McClendon. The lawsuit said McClendon used Jamison's race as a 'motivating factor' for pulling McClendon over in traffic and searching his car. In dismissing the case, Reeves cited court precedents on qualified immunity, but he wrote that the principle has shielded officers who violate people's constitutional rights. 'The Constitution says everyone is entitled to equal protection of the law -- even at the hands of law enforcement,' Reeves wrote. 'Over the decades, however, judges have invented a legal doctrine to protect law enforcement officers from having to face any consequences for wrongdoing. The doctrine is called "qualified immunity." In real life it operates like absolute immunity.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Lebanon. Ben Hubbard of the New York Times: "Since an orphaned shipment of highly explosive chemicals arrived at the port of Beirut in 2013, Lebanese officials treated it the way they have dealt with the country's lack of electricity, poisonous tap water and overflowing garbage: by bickering and hoping the problem might solve itself. But the 2,750 tons of high-density ammonium nitrate combusted Tuesday, officials said, unleashing a shock wave on the Lebanese capital that gutted landmark buildings, killed 135 people, wounded at least 5,000 and rendered hundreds of thousands of residents homeless. The government has vowed to investigate the blast and hold those responsible to account. But as residents waded through the warlike destruction on Wednesday to salvage what they could from their homes and businesses, many saw the explosion as the culmination of years of mismanagement and neglect by the country's politicians." ~~~
~~~ Guy Davies & Ibtissem Guenfoud of ABC News: "The city's hospitals reached capacity soon after the explosion, forcing many of the wounded to travel as far as Tripoli, 50 miles north, to receive treatment. At least three hospitals were damaged by the blast. Three days of mourning have been declared.... The Lebanese Red Cross has made a series of urgent appeals for blood donations after they sent 75 ambulances and 375 paramedics to the scene. Search and rescue teams continued to look for missing people around the site on Wednesday.... After an emergency cabinet meeting, Lebanon's President Michel Aoun announced that an unspecified number of people who managed the ammonium nitrate storage at the warehouse linked to the explosion are to be put under house arrest. He also announced that four government field hospitals will be set up, and an official report into the explosion will be delivered to the cabinet within the next five days."
News Lede
New York Times: "Two days after Tropical Storm Isaias tore through the [Connecticut-New York-New Jersey] region, more than 1.4 million customers were still without power, and some could be in the dark into next week in what is emerging as the worst natural disaster to hit the area since Hurricane Sandy in 2012.... This time the storm arrived in the middle of a pandemic, bringing a new kind of misery to people who already felt as if they were just barely coping. New York City took less of a hit than the surrounding suburbs.... In Connecticut, which appeared to be more severely affected than New York or New Jersey, the main electric supplier, Eversource, said it could take several days to restore power to more than 500,000 of its 1.2 million electric customers."
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