The Commentariat -- October 28, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, was the anonymous author of The New York Times Op-Ed article in 2018 whose description of President Trump as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' roiled Washington and set off a hunt for his identity, Mr. Taylor confirmed Wednesday. Mr. Taylor was also the anonymous author of 'A Warning,' a book he wrote the following year that described the president as an 'undisciplined' and 'amoral' leader whose abuse of power threatened the foundations of American democracy. He acknowledged that he was the author of both the book and the opinion article in an interview and in a three-page statement he intended to post online. Mr. Taylor resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in June 2019, and went public with his criticism of Mr. Trump this past summer. He released a video just before the start of the Republican National Convention declaring that the president was unfit for office and endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee."
Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes said members of his militia will be at polling locations on Election Day to 'protect' Trump voters during an appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' program.... Rhodes ... [said] Oath Keepers would follow directives from ... Donald Trump to take members of the 'deep state' into custody and 'do what we have to do,' that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act before the election, that Oath Keepers will 'be in range' of Washington D.C., to stop a 'Benghazi-style' attack on the White House on election night, and that a war will have to be fought against Democrats on the West Coast who are 'bought' by the Chinese government.... Rhodes telegraphed how he will interpret election results, saying that he would consider a win by ... Joe Biden illegitimate and evidence the election had been stolen, presaging how he and his militia might react to that outcome."
Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "People in the securities and investment industry will finish the 2020 election cycle contributing over $74 million to back Joe Biden's candidacy for president, a much larger sum than what ... Donald Trump raised from Wall Street, according to new data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics."
Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump is ending his reelection bid in a frenzied cross-country push for votes in states he won -- some handily -- four years ago. But he is not pretending to be happy about it. 'It wasn't even going to be like we had an election,' Trump said on a rain-drenched tarmac in Lansing, Michigan, on Tuesday, lamenting that the coronavirus had imperiled his political prospects and, in his telling, forced him to return to the cold grind and meteorological mishaps of the campaign trail. 'I probably wouldn't be standing out here in the freezing rain with you,' he told a crowd of hearty souls who had been standing for hours in persistent drizzle to hear him speak. 'I'd be home in the White House, doing whatever the hell I was doing. I wouldn't be out here.'... He hasn't shied away from telling his supporters he would never find himself in their states unless he needed their votes. 'We win Wisconsin, we win the whole ballgame,' he said last week on yet another frigid airport tarmac, this time in Janesville. 'What the hell do you think I'm doing here on a freezing night with 45-degree winds? Do you think I'm doing this for my health?' he continued as the temperature dropped and some of the crowd began trickling out." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I can tell, while Biden's closing argument is a promise to unite the country (and good luck with that), Trump's closing argument is, "I don't give a damn about any of you." ~~~
~~~ Trump Leaves Trumpbots Out in the Cold. Geoff Bennett, et al., of NBC News: "Thousands of ... Donald Trump supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night, with some walking around three miles to waiting buses and others being taken away in ambulances. Many of those at the rally at the Eppley Airfield faced hours in long lines to get in and clogged parking lots and busy crowds to get out, hours after his Air Force One departed around 9 p.m. Crowds cleared about 12:30 a.m.... At least 30 people including the elderly, an electric wheelchair user and a family with small children were among those requiring medical attention after hours of waiting in the cold at the rally at the Eppley Airfield. 'Supporters of the president were brought in, but buses weren't able to get back to transport people out. It's freezing and snowy in Omaha tonight,' Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt tweeted." Mrs. McC: What did they expect? Once they had showed up for a Trumpian superspreader photo-op, Donald didn't need them anymore, so of course he iced them.
** Speaking of "Over-confident Idiots." Michael Warren, et al., of CNN: "... Jared Kushner boasted in mid-April about how the President had cut out the doctors and scientists advising him on the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, comments that came as more than 40,000 Americans already had died from the virus, which was ravaging New York City. In a taped interview on April 18, Kushner told legendary journalist Bob Woodward that Trump was 'getting the country back from the doctors' in what he called a 'negotiated settlement.'... 'Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors.'... The statement reflected a political strategy. Instead of following the health experts' advice, Trump and Kushner were focused on what would help the President on Election Day. By their calculations, Trump would be the 'open-up president.'... Kushner was also dismissive of party politics, calling the Republican Party, 'a collection of a bunch of tribes' and describing the GOP platform as 'a document meant to, like, piss people off, basically.' Kushner went on to tell Woodward that Trump did a 'full hostile takeover' of the Republican Party when he became its presidential nominee. He also told Woodward, 'The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots' and that Trump had replaced them with 'more thoughtful people who kind of know their place.'"
** Terrorist-in-Chief. Greg Miller & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The CIA's most endangered employee for much of the past year was ... an analyst who faced a torrent of threats after filing a whistleblower report that led to the impeachment of President Trump. The analyst spent months living in no-frills hotels under surveillance by CIA security, current and former U.S. officials said. He was driven to work by armed officers in an unmarked sedan. On the few occasions he was allowed to reenter his home to retrieve belongings, a security team had to sweep the apartment first.... The measures were imposed by the CIA's Security Protective Service, which monitored thousands of threats across social media and Internet chat rooms. Over time, a pattern emerged: Violent messages surged each time the analyst was targeted in tweets or public remarks by the president.... Over the past year, public servants across the country have faced similar ordeals. The targets encompass nearly every category of government service: mayors, governors and members of Congress, as well as officials Trump has turned against within his own administration. The dynamic appears to be without precedent: government agencies taking extraordinary measures to protect their people from strains of seething hostility stoked by a sitting president. In recent weeks, the danger has become more alarming and visible."
Brakkton Booker of NPR: "A Michigan judge has blocked a ban on openly carrying firearms at Michigan polling places on Election Day. Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray granted a preliminary injunction to pro-gun groups who filed motions to block the directive issued by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Oct. 16. Benson sought to prohibit firearms at polling places, clerk's offices and other locations where absentee ballots will be tallied. Her order also barred individuals openly carrying guns from coming within 100 feet of buildings serving as polling centers. However, Murray said in his opinion Tuesday that Benson's directive didn't follow the formal process laid out in state law about how new orders are enacted.... Following the judge's order, Benson swiftly vowed to appeal."
Self-Described "Smart Businessman." Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump early Wednesday defended his business practices as a real estate developer after The New York Times reported that he failed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, most of it related to a Chicago property, that was forgiven by lenders. 'As a developer long ago, and continuing to this day, the politicians ran Chicago into the ground. I was able to make an appropriately great deal with the numerous lenders on a large and very beautiful tower. Doesn't that make me a smart guy rather than a bad guy?' Trump tweeted.... Trump did not mention the Times report specifically, nor did he deny any of its details, as he often does with media coverage that he views as unfavorable or critical."
Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "David Correia, a business associate of impeachment figure Lev Parnas who did business with Rudy Giuliani in the company Fraud Guarantee, plans to plead guilty on Thursday morning on unspecified charges. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on what counts of his indictment Correia plans to plead guilty to or whether he intends to cooperate in the prosecution of Parnas, his co-defendants, or potentially others who have not been named. Correia, however, has been charged with the two key conspiracies that prosecutors hope to prove at trial next year: illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. elections and duping people to invest in Fraud Guarantee, a company that reportedly paid $500,000 to Giuliani." Mrs. McC: Includes photo of Correia with Trump, but the image of Trump looks so familiar I wonder if the picture is Photoshopped. Anyhow, Rudy must be glad to see himself back in the news associated with criminal fraudsters instead of with scenes of his "tucking in his shirt."
Roger Sollenberger of Salon: "Weeks after Michigan prosectors hit the pair of right-wing provocateurs with charges in an alleged voter-intimidation robocall scheme, Jacob Wohl, 22, and Jack Burkman, 58, have been indicted by an Ohio grand jury on separate felony counts. Local prosecutors charged Wohl and Burkman each with eight counts of felony telecommunications fraud and seven counts of felony bribery for allegedly sowing false fears about voting by mail in targeted minority communities in Ohio, plus multiple other states. Warrants were issued for the pair's arrest, who face up to 18 years and six months in prison if convicted." --s
Nina Schtick of UnHerd: "It is no exaggeration to say that soon almost everything we see or hear online will be synthetic -- that is, generated or manipulated by AI.... Some experts estimate that within 5-7 years, 90% of all video content online will be synthetic. Before long, anyone with a smartphone will be able to make Hollywood level AI-generated content... [T]his technology has a dark side. It will, inevitably, be misused, and for that most obvious of male-driven reasons. It was reported last week that the messaging app Telegram is hosting a 'deepfake pornography bot,' which allows users to generate images of naked women. According to the report, there are already over 100,000 such images being circulated in public Telegram channels.... The women who appear to feature in this cache of publicly-shared fake porn are mostly private individuals rather than celebrities. More disturbingly, the images also include deepfake nudes of underage girls." --s
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DO NOT MAIL YOUR BALLOT. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "For millions of voters who considered using the U.S. Postal Service to cast their ballot for the Nov. 3 election, it's time to find a backup plan, election administration and postal experts say. With the presidential election a week away, mail service continues to lag -- especially in certain swing states that could decide control of the White House. Nationally, 85.6 percent of all first-class mail was delivered on time the week of Oct. 16; that's the 14th consecutive week the on-time rate sat below 90 percent for mail that should reach its destination within three days.... Joe Biden's campaign internally switched its language to voters this week, encouraging them to submit ballots in person or at a secure drop box, according to campaign officials, rather than through the mail. 'If you haven't requested a mail ballot yet, it's too late,' said David Becker, executive director at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research. 'I don't care about the legal deadline; it's just too late in terms of getting it processed, getting it mailed to you and you being able to fill it out and return it.... At this point, if you haven't requested a mail ballot yet, plan to vote in person and vote early, if possible.' Voters who requested but have yet to receive a mail ballot should vote in person, Becker said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ NBC News has important info for each state where you can still act to plan your vote. --s ~~~
Given Supreme Court rulings on mail ballots and Trump's effort to undermine the Postal Service, I strongly suggest that you now vote in person - try early voting or find a drop box. Protect your health but don't let anyone deprive you of your most precious right. Have a plan. -- Eric Holder, in a tweet, Tuesday ~~~
~~~ Caroline O'Donavan of BuzzFeed News: "... everyone from former US attorney general Eric Holder to John Legend is urging people not to vote by mail after [Tuesday].... The rules for voting by mail are different in every state, which makes blanket advice difficult.... 'There are states where the postmark is what matters,' said John Fortier, director of governmental studies at the Bipartisan Policy Center" ~~~
~~~ Colby Bermel of Politico: "A federal judge on Tuesday night ordered the U.S. Postal Service to reverse limitations on mai collection imposed by Trump-backed Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, giving the agency until Wednesday morning to inform workers of the court's changes as more mail-in ballots continue to flood in. In a highly detailed order, Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District Court for the District of Columbia granted an emergency motion by plaintiffs against ... Donald Trump to enforce and monitor compliance with Sullivan's previous injunction tied to USPS services. No later than 9 a.m. Wednesday, the judge said, agency workers must be told that a USPS leader's July guidelines limiting late and extra trips to collect mail are rescinded. 'USPS personnel are instructed to perform late and extra trips to the maximum extent necessary to increase on-time mail deliveries, particularly for Election Mail,' Sullivan wrote." ~~~
~~~ Eric Larson of Bloomberg News in Al Jazeera: "Delivery delays during an election can't be unlawful, because the Constitution doesn't guarantee states any particular level of service when it comes to mail-in ballots, the U.S. Postal Service told a federal judge [Tuesday]. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and ... Donald Trump are seeking dismissal of a lawsuit brought by New York and other states that claim disruptive changes at the USPS over the summer are violating the Elections Clause of the Constitution by putting election mail at risk.... A judge handling another USPS case ruled in September that it was 'easy to conclude' that DeJoy's changes were intended to disrupt and challenge the legitimacy of the coming election, and that voter disenfranchisement was 'at the heart' of the policies."
Michael McDonald of the University of Florida is keeping track of early voting -- both mail-in and in-person -- state-by-state and, where available, by party affiliation. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Presidential Race, Etc.
The New York Times' live election updates Tuesday are here.: "With a week left until Election Day, the flood of people moved to cast their ballots early has grown so strong that the early vote has already exceeded half of the number of votes that were counted during the entire 2016 presidential election, according to data compiled by the United States Elections Project. The coronavirus pandemic, the fear of postal delays and the passions inspired by the presidential candidates ... have all contributed to the record early vote. As of Tuesday afternoon more than 69.5 million Americans had already mailed in their ballots or voted early in person, according to the data compiled by the project. That is 50.4 percent of the total number of votes that were counted during the entire 2016 election."
Jonathan Martin & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. reached for political history on Tuesday as he swept into a red-state town with deep Democratic resonance and made a direct pitch to voters who flocked to President Trump in 2016, urging them to give him a chance to 'heal' the country after a year of crippling crises. One week from Election Day, Mr. Biden chose to expend precious political time and capital on Georgia, a state that hasn't voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1992.... Delivering a speech intended to be part of his closing argument to voters in the homestretch, Mr. Biden traveled to the onetime retreat of Franklin D. Roosevelt, making a let-us-come-together appeal that evoked the sort of common purpose that sustained the country during the Great Depression and World War II and that Mr. Biden said was needed to overcome the coronavirus. With language that at times sounded more like that of a president-elect than a candidate, Mr. Biden attempted to portray himself as a man of destiny. 'God and history have called us to this moment and to this mission,' he said, citing Ecclesiastes. 'The Bible tells us there's a time to break down, and a time to build up. A time to heal. This is that time.'" ~~~
~~~ Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Joe Biden visited Georgia on Tuesday for the first time since clinching the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, and he promised to deliver 'hope and healing' to the nation's soul as the race for the White House nears the finish line. Biden delivered a message calling for bipartisanship at a time of turmoil, wrapping himself in the legacy of former President Franklin Roosevelt on a grassy mountaintop not far from where the New Deal Democrat once had his private retreat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: In a campaign speech in Orlando, Florida, President "Obama seemed to be making a concerted effort to troll the troller-in-chief president. He attacked Trump in very personal ways, his comments often dripping with incredulity.... 'What's his closing argument? That people are too focused on covid. He said this at one of his rallies: "Covid, covid, covid," he's complaining,' Obama said.... 'He's jealous of covid's media coverage.'... 'I mean, listen, our president of the United States retweeted a post that claimed that the Navy SEALs didn't actually kill bin Laden. Think about that. And we act like, "Well, okay." It's not okay. I mean, we've gotten so numb to what is bizarre behavior.' Obama also turned to Trump's jobs record, which he compared unfavorably with his own.... The message seemed to be consumed by one particularly attentive cable news viewer. 'Now @FoxNews is playing Obama's no crowd, fake speech for Biden, a man he could barely endorse because he couldn't believe he won,' Trump said, before responding to another of Obama's attacks on his taxes." ~~~
~~~ Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "... nothing Mr. Obama has said during the Trump era compares with his gleeful slag-heaping of scorn upon Mr. Trump in the closing days of the 2020 campaign, part of a two-week burst of activity that will culminate in a joint rally with Mr. Biden being planned for this coming weekend, according to Democratic officials.... He has been eager to reverse roles with his loyal helpmate, these allies and associates say, and willing to throw punches that would undermine the former vice president's image as a national healer if Mr. Biden took the swing himself.... Mr. Obama is clearly relishing the chance to strike back at Mr. Trump, who has not only baited him for years but has also tried to eradicate his legacy, policy by policy." Mrs. McC: Former Republican President George W. Bush did not campaign for Donald Trump.
Tom Hamburger & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Twenty former U.S. attorneys -- all of them Republicans -- on Tuesday publicly called President Trump 'a threat to the rule of law in our country,' and urged that he be replaced in November with his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden. 'The President has clearly conveyed that he expects his Justice Department appointees and prosecutors to serve his personal and political interests,' said the former prosecutors in an open letter. They accused Trump of taking 'action against those who have stood up for the interests of justice.'" U.S. attorneys are political appointees. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Wall Street Hopes for a Blue Wave. Ben White of Politico: "... Donald Trump loves to say that if Joe Biden wins the White House, stocks will crash, retirement accounts will vanish and an economic depression 'the likes of which you've never seen' will engulf the nation. But much of Wall Street is already betting on a Biden win.... Traders in recent weeks have been piling into bets that a 'blue wave' election, in which Democrats also seize the Senate, will produce an economy-juicing blast of fresh fiscal stimulus of $3 trillion or more that carries the U.S. past the coronavirus crisis and into a more normal environment for markets. Far from panicking at the prospect of a Biden win, Wall Street CEOs, traders and investment managers now mostly say they would be fine with a change in the White House that reduces the Trump noise, lowers the threat of further trade wars and ensures a continuation of the government spending they've seen in recent years." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mrs. McCrabbie: I watched a few seconds of Melanie speaking somewhere Tuesday. She said Donald was keeping America safe from the coronavirus while Democrats were wasting time impeaching Donald. Somehow it sounds even more bizarre in a Slovenian accent. MEANWHILE, husband Donald was running around states he's losing yelling "Covid! Covid! Covid! Fake news pays more attention to a fucking virus than my Nobel Peace Prize!" Donald held three super-spreader events yesterday. ~~~
~~~ AND Trump Is Appealing to "Housewives." Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: "In an appeal to female voters one week before Election Day, President Trump promised to get 'husbands back to work' as part of economic recovery efforts directed toward states rebounding from the coronavirus pandemic. 'Your husbands, they want to get back to work,' Trump said during a campaign rally in Lansing, Mich., on Tuesday. 'We're getting your husbands back to work. And everybody wants it.'" Mrs. McC: As to what Trump thinks of working women, see the stories linked below on his attacks on Lesley Stahl & Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
David Coldewey of Tech Crunch: "President Trump's campaign website was briefly and partially hacked Tuesday afternoon as unknown adversaries took over the 'About' page and replaced it with what appeared to be a scam to collect cryptocurrency. There is no indication, despite the hackers' claims, that 'full access to trump and relatives' was achieved or 'most internal and secret conversations strictly classified information' were exposed.... 'the world has had enough of the fake-news spreaded daily by president donald j trump,' the new site read. 'it is time to allow the world to know truth.'" A New York Times story is here.
David Rothkopf in USA Today: "The 2020 election presents us with an existential choice. If we reelect this wannabe authoritarian, this puppet of foreign autocrats, he and they will be not just validated but empowered. Whatever Trump's motivation, we have seen him remake our judiciary and undermine our system of justice. He has degraded America on the global stage and profoundly weakened us. All that is the price of his betrayals to date. Should he be given four more years to carry them forward, our democracy might never recover. We must see him for the traitor he is and see that because of the high office he held and his complete absence of character or care for the country, he may well be the worst of all those who have betrayed America in the past." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Campos in LG&$: "... if the Dems take the trifecta there's a short window available to treat the Republican party, and all its works, and all its pomps, with the extreme prejudice it has so fully earned. They're doing everything they can to flat out steal this election, and if they fail, they must NOT be allowed to be in a position to do it again. That means fundamental reforms of both the electoral and judicial systems. Those reforms will of course be met by squeals of outrage from Republicans themselves, but they will also be resisted by the many many Even the Liberal types, who will claim that the fact that a[n] authoritarian party, trending strongly fascistic and theocratic, didn't manage to actually steal the election after all means that ... wait for it . . . The System Works. No it doesn't. No system that elected Donald Trump and his congressional enablers, and kept them in office for four years, 'works.' Liberal democracy may survive for the moment, but it very well may not the next time. And there will be a next time, more than soon enough."
The first thing Justice Barrett did was to participate in a campaign event at the White House for the president, eight days before an election that he has explicitly said he expects will turn on her vote. -- Chris Hayes of MSNBC in a tweet (thanks to RAS for the link)
I wonder if the reason Clarence Thomas, instead of John Roberts, swore in Barrett was that Roberts -- unlike Thomas & Barrett -- knew better than to show up wearing a MAGA cap. -- Mrs. McCrabbie
Florida. Matt Dixon of Politico: "Three counties in Florida's conservative Panhandle are limiting early voting hours ahead of Hurricane Zeta, which is expected to hit the region Wednesday. Escambia, Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties are easy wins for ... Donald Trump. Escambia County, the site of a Trump rally just last week, supported the president with 60 percent of the vote in 2016. Trump won 74 percent of the vote in Santa Rosa County and 71 percent in Okaloosa County."
Texas. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "The Texas Supreme Court on Tuesday issued a ruling backing Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's (R) order to limit the state's counties to one mail-in ballot drop box each, a policy that will largely impact larger, urban and more Democratic counties. The court wrote in a 17-page ruling that a decision from a lower court 'erred' in blocking the order and that the policy would 'not disenfranchise anyone.'" Mrs. McC: "... all members of the Texas Supreme Court are Republicans."
Wisconsin. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "Election officials in Wisconsin are redoubling efforts to convince voters to return their mail ballots as soon as possible after the Supreme Court ruled Monday night that ballots received after Election Day cannot be counted, no matter when they were mailed. As of Tuesday, voters in the key battleground state had returned more than 1.45 million of the 1.79 million absentee ballots they had requested so far requested -- a return rate of more than 80 percent. But that means that nearly 327,000 absentee ballots had not yet been returned. And voters continue to request ballots -- under state law, they have until 5 p.m. Thursday to seek one, a deadline state officials have warned is probably too late for voters to receive and return a ballot by mail before the deadline." ~~~
~~~ From the New York Times' live election updates Tuesday, linked above: "The Wisconsin Democratic Party and its supporters had been on a mail-voting education crusade since the coronavirus pandemic hit in March, advising people how to request, fill out and return absentee ballots. Now, in the wake of a Supreme Court decision Monday disqualifying absentee ballots that are received by election officials after Election Day, the party has changed course, alerting voters not to put ballots in the mail but to return them to their election clerk's office or use drop boxes. The party is in search of missing absentee ballots. Of about 1,706,771 Wisconsin voters who requested absentee ballots, 1,344,535 have returned them. That means 366,236 ballots are still out there." ~~~
~~~ ** Mark Stern of Slate: "On Monday night, Justice Brett Kavanaugh released a radical and brazenly partisan opinion that dashed any hopes he, as the Supreme Court's new median justice, might slow-walk the court's impending conservative revolution, while also threatening the integrity of next week's election. In an 18-page lecture, the justice cast doubt on the legitimacy of many mail ballots and endorsed the most sinister component of Bush v. Gore. America's new median justice is not a friend to democracy, and we may pay the price for Barrett's confirmation in just eight days.... Kavanaugh's opinion ... is frankly terrifying.... Kavanaugh ... [argued that] ... 'absentee ballots flow[ing] in after election day [could] potentially flip the results of an election.'... [But] there is no result to 'flip' because there is no result to overturn until all valid ballots are counted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: See also my comment yesterday regarding the confederate Supremes' "philosophy of jurisprudence" & Akhilleus' commentary in yesterday's thread. Here's the kicker that unites our two comments, via Stern: "George W. Bush's 2000 election legal team -- which included Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Roberts -- argued during that contested election that ballots arriving late and without postmarks, which were thought to benefit Bush, must be counted in Florida."
When Trump Targets Women Doing Their Jobs, It Works. Meaghan Ellis in Alternet: "The CBS News network has reportedly hired full-time security for '60 Minutes' correspondent Lesley Stah[l] following a death threat one of her family members received after her exclusive interview with ... Donald Trump. The network's decision came shortly after an unidentified suspect called Stahl and threatened her and her family saying 'something about neo-Nazis,' according to TMZ. The mysterious call came just hours before Trump leaked his own copy of the interview via Facebook." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As you recall, after Trump began attacking Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for doing her job of trying to protect residents of her state from Covid-19, a gang of terrorist white supremacists developed an active plan to kidnap & possibly murder her. Not even slightly chastened by what he had wrought, Trump is continuing to attack Whitmer, as recently as yesterday (Tuesday). ~~~
~~~ In Fact, Trump Said the Planned Attack on Whitmer Was Necessarily a Problem. Maegan Vazquez & Nikki Carvajal of CNN: "... Donald Trump repeatedly attacked Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, during his rally in Lansing, Michigan, on Tuesday, at one point taking credit for the FBI thwarting a plot to kidnap her and then immediately downplaying the actual threat that had been posed to Whitmer. 'Your governor, I don't thinks she likes me too much,' Trump joked, prompting a loud reaction from the crowd. 'Hey, hey, hey hey,' he told the audience, 'I'm the one, it was our people that helped her out with her problem. I mean, we'll have to see if it's a problem. Right? People are entitled to say maybe it was a problem, maybe it wasn't,' he added. 'It was our people -- my people, our people that helped her out. And then she blamed me for it....' Trump has repeatedly attacked Whitmer before and after the news of the plot. Whitmer wrote in the Atlantic on Tuesday that every time he does so, threats surge. 'Every time the president ramps up this violent rhetoric, every time he fires up Twitter to launch another broadside against me, my family and I see a surge of vicious attacks sent our way," she wrote. "This is no coincidence, and the President knows it....'"
** David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Since his first month in office, Trump has used his power to direct millions from U.S. taxpayers -- and from his political supporters -- into his own businesses. The Washington Post has sought to compile examples of this spending through open records requests and a lawsuit. In all, he has received at least $8.1 million from these two sources since he took office, those documents and publicly available records show. The president brought taxpayer money to his businesses simply by bringing himself. He's visited his hotels and clubs more than 280 times now.... And in doing so, he has turned those properties into magnets for GOP events.... In the case of the government, Trump's visits turned it into a captive customer, newly revealed documents show. What the government needed from Trump's properties, it had to buy from Trump's company.... Since 2017, Trump's company has charged taxpayers for hotel rooms, ballrooms, cottages, rental houses, golf carts, votive candles, floating candles, candelabras, furniture moving, resort fees, decorative palm trees, strip steak, chocolate cake, breakfast buffets, $88 bottles of wine and $1,000 worth of liquor for White House aides. And water.... Much spending remains hidden, because some federal agencies -- including the State Department, and the White House itself -- have declined to release records." ~~~
~~~ David Enrich, et al., of the New York Times: In 2008, the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago "became another disappointment in a portfolio filled with them. Construction lagged. Condos proved hard to sell. Retail space sat vacant. Yet for Mr. Trump and his company, the Chicago experience also turned out to be something else: the latest example of his ability to strong-arm major financial institutions and exploit the tax code to cushion th blow of his repeated business failures. The president's federal income tax records, obtained by The New York Times, show for the first time that, since 2010, his lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that he failed to repay. The vast majority was related to the Chicago project.... When the project encountered problems, he tried to walk away from his huge debts.... Rather than warring with a notoriously litigious headline-seeking client, lenders cut Mr. Trump slack.... Ultimately, Mr. Trump's lenders forgave much of what he owed.... [That] normally would have generated a big tax bill, since the Internal Revenue Service treats canceled debts as income. Yet as has often happened in his long career, Mr. Trump appears to have paid almost no federal income tax on that money, in part because of large losses in his other businesses...."
Judge Laughs Trump, DOJ Out of Court. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday rejected the Justice Department's bid to make the U.S. government the defendant in a defamation lawsuit brought by a woman who says President Trump raped her decades ago, paving the way for the case to again proceed. In a 59-page ruling, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote that Trump did not qualify as a government 'employee' under federal law, nor was he acting 'within the scope of his employment' when he denied during interviews in 2019 that he had raped journalist E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store during the 1990s.... If the judge had done what the Justice Department asked, government lawyers could then have invoked the notion of 'sovereign immunity' -- which prohibits lawsuits against the government -- to end the case." The New York Times' story is here. A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
David Folkenflik of NPR: "A regulatory 'firewall' intended to protect Voice of America and its affiliated newsrooms from political interference in their journalism was swept aside late Monday night by the chief executive of the federal agency which oversees the government's international broadcasters. Michael Pack, a Trump appointee who assumed leadership of the U.S. Agency for Global Media in June..., argued they had interfered with his mandate 'to support the foreign policy of the United States.' The move set off a firestorm. 'I am stunned,' former Voice of America director Amanda Bennett told NPR early Tuesday morning. 'It removes the one thing that makes Voice of America distinct from broadcasters of repressive regimes.'" Mrs. McC: Sorry, Amanda, the Trump administration is a "repressive regime." Pack's move is a signal (and not the first he has sent) to make that crystal-clear. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "The United States has recorded a record of more than 500,000 new cases over the past week, as states and cities resort to stricter new measures to contain the virus that is again raging across the country, especially the American heartland.... The United States reported more than 74,300 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, pushing the country's daily average over the past week above 71,000, the most in any seven-day stretch of the pandemic. Across the country, the outlook continues to worsen. More than 20 states are reporting case numbers at or near record levels." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The White House's science policy office on Tuesday ranked 'ending the Covid-19 pandemic' atop the list of ... Donald Trump's top first-term accomplishments, even as the country registers record amounts of infections and hospitals fill up again. The list, included in a press release from the Office of Science and Technology Policy credits the administration for taking 'decisive actions to engage scientists and health professionals in academia, industry, and government to understand, treat, and defeat the disease.' It's the latest inaccurate claim from the administration on the severity of the pandemic, which Trump has downplayed throughout his reelection campaign, and as Vice President Mike Pence's office is dealing with an outbreak. Trump, who insists the country is 'rounding the turn' on the coronavirus, continues to hold packed campaign rallies and attacks the news media for focusing on surging infections." Mrs. McC: Also on the "science" office's list of top Trump accomplishments: developing a bleach elixir for the virus & proving that windmills cause cancer.
Christopher Flavelle & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has recently removed the chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the nation's premier scientific agency, installed new political staff who have questioned accepted facts about climate change and imposed stricter controls on communications at the agency. The moves threaten to stifle a major source of objective United States government information about climate change that underpins federal rules on greenhouse gas emissions and offer an indication of the direction the agency will take if President Trump wins re-election. An early sign of the shift came last month, when Erik Noble, a former White House policy adviser who had just been appointed NOAA's chief of staff, removed Craig McLean, the agency's acting chief scientist. Mr. McLean had sent some of the new political appointees a message that asked them to acknowledge the agency's scientific integrity policy, which prohibits manipulating research or presenting ideologically driven findings.... Replacing Mr. McLean, who remains at the agency, was Ryan Maue, a former researcher for the libertarian Cato Institute who has criticized climate scientists for what he has called unnecessarily dire predictions."
Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "Vaccine experts peppered officials at the Food and Drug Administration with a range of questions on Thursday about its guidelines for approving a coronavirus vaccine, pushing the agency on whether it should wait longer to collect more safety data and whether an emergency approval could jeopardize the outcome of the broader clinical trials.... The agency has said that it will ask the panel for its opinion before approving any coronavirus vaccine for emergency use. The agency typically, but not always, follows the advice of its outside experts.... Several of the experts said that they believed the agency should ask the companies to wait for more safety data. They said the agency's current guidelines, which require two months of safety data after a volunteer has received the last dose of a vaccine, were not good enough. Collecting longer-term data would allow them to evaluate potential risks, such as whether immunity to the virus wanes after a few months, or whether rare side effects emerge."
Patrick Wintour & Tobi Thomas of the Guardian: "China appears to have comprehensively lost the international battle for hearts and minds over its handling of coronavirus with most people believing it was responsible for the start of the outbreak and was not transparent about the problem at the outset. The findings come from the YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project, a survey of 26,000 people in 25 countries, designed with the Guardian.... Overall, the poll suggests there is a receptive global audience for the next US president, if he chooses, to construct an international alliance to challenge China's growing political dominance, and to question the moral values of its leadership. There is no sense in the findings, however, that the US would be able to exploit its handling of the crisis to take on that leadership role." --s
AFP: "US senators have sought to declare that China is committing genocide against Uighurs and other Turkic-speaking Muslims, a step that could increase pressure on Beijing over the plight of an estimated one million-plus people being held in detention camps. The text states that China's campaign 'against Uighurs, ethnic Kazakhs, Kyrgyz and members of other Muslim minority groups in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region constitutes genocide'. The resolution was introduced on Tuesday by senators across the political spectrum, although it is unlikely to move immediately as the Senate is out of session until after next week's election." --s
Guardian: "Joe Biden has voiced support for Belarus's opposition in its general strike against President Alexander Lukashenko, saying the embattled leader's reign was illegitimate. Biden ... promised if he wins to 'significantly expand' sanctions alongside European allies against 'Lukashenko's henchmen'." --s
Mark Morales, et al., of CNN: "Protesters took to the streets and bands of looters broke into businesses for a second night after officers in Philadelphia shot and killed a Black man who was holding a knife in an encounter that city officials say raises questions. One group marched peacefully for much of the night, chanting Walter Wallace Jr.'s name and saying, 'Whose streets? Our streets.' But the protest turned violent near a police precinct when the large crowd encountered a handful of officers. Several people in the crowd threw rocks, light bulbs, or bricks at the police. One officer was injured, according to a CNN crew at the scene. There was looting by other groups of people in another part of the city, according to a police tweet and video from a CNN affiliate's helicopter." ~~~
~~~ Robert Klemko, et al., of the Washington Post: "On the second night of mass demonstrations over the fatal police shooting of a 27-year-old Black man, about 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of West Philadelphia on Tuesday demanding justice for Walter Wallace Jr. Following a smaller protest that turned destructive on Monday, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) authorized the National Guard to deploy troops Tuesday to help police protect property and quell unrest in the state's largest city. Monday's demonstrations and looting left shops damaged and at least 30 officers injured, including one hospitalized with a broken leg after being struck by a truck. On Tuesday, police and protesters clashed again, but officers, aided by National Guardsmen, took a more aggressive tack, filling the streets with lines of riot cops who stopped marchers and made several arrests earlier in the evening."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Adam Morton of the Guardian: "Australian scientists have discovered a detached reef more than 500 metres high -- taller than the Empire State Building -- at the northern end of the Great Barrier Reef. The 'blade-like' vertical reef about 130km off Cape York, Australia's north-eastern tip, was found during a 3D seabed mapping exercise conducted from a ship owned by the Californian non-profit Schmidt Ocean Institute.... [Tom Bridge from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University and the expedition's principal investigator said] 'What it highlights is how little we know about a lot of the ocean, even the Great Barrier Reef.' The marine park is 344,000 square kilometres -- bigger than many European countries – and only about 6 or 7% of that is typical shallow-water reefs. 'We know more about the surface of the moon than we know about what lies in the depths beyond our coastlines.'" --s
News Ledes
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Zeta has made landfall as a strong Category 2 near Cocodrie, Louisiana on Terrebonne Bay. Zeta is bringing life-threatening storm surge, damaging winds and heavy rainfall to southern Louisiana. Damaging wind gusts will persist far inland across portions of the South, and widespread rainfall will also affect a wide area of the East through late week as Zeta interacts with another weather system."
New York Times: "... on their eighth consecutive trip to the postseason, the Los Angeles Dodgers finally became champions, again. They beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 3-1, in Game 6 of the World Series on Tuesday at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, as [Mookie] Betts hit a double and a home run and scored twice to help the storied franchise end 32 years of disappointment.
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