The Commentariat -- October 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Res ipsa loquitur:

So Trump drops a big (approx 40x60 feet) expensive political sign in my largely Hispanic neighborhood in Houston TX about a week ago which upset me .... I wake up this morning and this is what the sign looks like now hahahahah 😆😆😆 pic.twitter.com/4mBBg83RpN

— Rogelio Garcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) October 14, 2020

Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Wearing costumes and carrying signs, thousands of people gathered for the Women's March in downtown Washington and cities across the country Saturday to protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and to build momentum to vote President Trump out of the White House."

Helaine Olen of the Washington Post outlines Trump's long con, & comes up with what she thinks is the explanation for the popularity of "outlandish conspiracies such as QAnon.... As crazy as it is, it's less embarrassing than admitting you are just another patsy in Trump's lifelong con." Mrs. McC: Maybe she's right: delusion begets more delusion. IOW, Trump is bad for everybody's mental health, not just normally-sensible people's.

Christina Maxouris & Jason Hanna of CNN: "Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new Covid-19 infections Friday, and the country reported its highest one-day total since July, as experts say a dangerous fall surge of coronavirus infections is well underway."

Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump berated Sen. Ben Sasse (R) after audio leaked this week of the Nebraska lawmaker leveling harsh criticism against the president in a town hall with constituents. ['Blah-blah.'...] Given Nebraska's solid red tint, Sasse is not expected to be punished at the ballot box this year over his criticism."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

"What the Hell Is Wrong with This Guy?' Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tore into President Trump on Friday over his response to a foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), accusing him of stoking tensions across the country. Biden said the plot by a militia group to kidnap Whitmer, which the FBI foiled earlier this month, is 'the sort of behavior you might expect from ISIS [that] should shock the conscience of every American.... But all President Trump does is fan the flames of hatred and division of this country,' he said at a rally in Southfield, Mich. Biden, at another campaign event later that day in Detroit, also noted that Trump continued attacking Whitmer on the day the plot was revealed, with the president taking shots at the governor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she did a 'terrible job' and 'locked down her state for everyone.... What the hell is wrong with this guy?' Biden asked."

Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Television ratings matter to President Trump. So these numbers may sting. In a victory that few in the TV and political arenas predicted, Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s town hall-style forum on ABC on Thursday night drew a larger audience than President Trump's competing event on NBC, according to Nielsen. Mr. Biden's town-hall meeting, which aired on a single network, was seen by an average of 15.1 million viewers, compared with 13.5 million for Mr. Trump even though the president monopolized three networks -- NBC, MSNBC and CNBC -- simultaneously.... The numbers were a bracing outcome for the president, whose aides had been promising a decisive ratings win over his Democratic rival. 'We're going to have a much bigger audience than Joe for next Thursday,' Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign, told Fox News last week." ~~~

~~~ Trump Whines about Town Hall. Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "... Donald Trump cranked up the sarcasm on Friday as he swiped at NBC's Savannah Guthrie during the prior night's town hall special in Miami. 'Another evening in paradise, I call it,' Trump said at an unrelated event in Fort Myers, Fla.... 'I had someone [NBC host Savannah Guthrie] going totally crazy last night.' Guthrie piqued Trump on multiple occasions during the town hall event, including pressing him on the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory ... which Trump refused to disavow even though it has been deemed a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI.... Guthrie also challenged Trump on retweeting a separate bizarre theory that Osama bin Laden is still alive and that Joe Biden secretly had members of SEAL Team Six killed after the president said it was intended as food for thought. 'That was an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet,' Trump said. [']I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves[.]' 'You're the president. You're not like, someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever,' Guthrie shot back.... Trump also lashed out at George Stephanopoulos, who moderated a dueling town hall with Joe Biden... for not pressing the Democratic nominee about allegations against his son Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When you live in Crazyland, you just can't understand why fake stories made up by the Kremlin or right-wing Norwegian wackos (his Nobel Peace Prize nomination) don't get more respect. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday slammed President Trump for refusing to denounce QAnon.... 'The president's unwillingness to denounce an absurd and dangerous conspiracy theory last night continues an alarming pattern: politicians and parties refuse to forcefully and convincingly repudiate groups like antifa, white supremacists and conspiracy peddlers,' Romney said in a statement tweeted Friday afternoon. 'Similarly troubling is their silence regarding anti-vaxxers, militias and anarchists,' he added. 'Rather than expel the rabid fringes and the extremes, they have coddled or adopted them, eagerly trading their principles for the hope of electoral victories.'"

Say What? Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday vowed to shield America's senior citizens from the coronavirus and directed them to stay home amid the pandemic, addressing a crowd of elderly supporters at an indoor event where mask-wearing was sporadic and not mandated. 'Stay. If you feel good, if you feel safe -- because it's going to be gone -- stay where you are,' Trump said in his speech in Fort Myers, Fla. 'Don't leave. Don't say, "Oh gee, I have to get out. The president said, let's get out." Stay where you are.'... The more cautious remarks from the president contradicted the tone Trump has struck at campaign rallies and other official events, where he regularly downplays the threat of the pandemic and urges Americans to restart their daily lives with little regard for the highly contagious disease."

** The New York Times is featuring an extraordinary Sunday Review making "The Case Against Donald Trump." The Editors' cover essay begins, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Mr. Trump's ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds." The linked page has links to "a series of essays focused on the Trump administration's rampant corruption, celebrations of violence, gross negligence with the public's health and incompetent statecraft. A selection of iconic images highlights the president's record on issues like climate, immigration, women's rights and race." It appears there will be more to the section than the articles & essays linked here Friday. Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is a unique journalistic response to any president's tenure. What a shame Trump can't read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jake Tapper of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that ... Donald Trump 'is the most flawed person' he's ever known. 'The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else...,' the retired Marine general has told friends.... The reporting comes from a new CNN special scheduled to air Sunday night, 'The Insiders: A Warning from Former Trump Officials,' in which former senior administration officials -- including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Health and Human Services scientist Rick Bright and former Department of Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick -- explain why they think the President is unfit for office. Kelly's sentiments about the President's transactional nature and dishonesty have been shared by other former members of the Trump administration who also appear in the special." Mrs. McC: That's saying something, because Kelly himself is pretty "flawed."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out Donald Trump has far closer ties to QAnon that I surmised. Knows nothing about it? Hell, he's funding it, & QAnon nuts share attorneys with Trump's family: ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory. While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Backfire! Trump Has a Rudy Problem. Eric Tucker of the AP: "A New York tabloid's puzzling account about how it acquired emails purportedly from Joe Biden's son has raised some red flags. One of the biggest involves the source of the emails: Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.... The FBI [is] investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have surfaced as U.S. officials have been warning that Russia, which backed Trump's 2016 campaign through hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign, is interfering again this year. The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk he poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "The health department's top lawyer is warning in an internal memo that ... Donald Trump's plan to give seniors $200 discount cards to buy prescription drugs could violate election law, according to three officials with knowledge of those legal concerns. The lawyer's objection, coupled with his advice to seek approval from the Department of Justice, is a significant blow to Trump's hope to promote the hastily devised plan before Election Day. Robert Charrow, a political appointee who serves as the Health and Human Services department's general counsel, warned in the memo that the plan's timing and design could invite legal challenges.... 'This plan is quickly becoming radioactive,' said one official briefed on the proposal.... Congressional Democrats this week requested that a watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, begin an immediate review of the drug-discount card plan."

This Country Is Teeming with Armed Nuts. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "With the approaching election ratcheting up tensions in recent months, armed groups that assembled via a few clicks on the keyboard have become both more visible and more widespread. Some especially violent groups were rooted in longstanding anti-government extremism, like the 14 men charged with various crimes in Michigan this month.... Starting in April, demonstrations against coronavirus lockdowns prompted makeshift vigilante groups to move offline and into the real world. That trickle become a torrent amid the nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- with some armed groups claiming to protect the protesters while others sought to check them." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Georgia Senate Race. "Otherizing" a Woman of Color. Matthew Choi of Politico: "Republican Sen. David Perdue mocked Sen. Kamala Harris on Friday, derisively mispronouncing the Democratic vice presidential candidate's name during a campaign rally in Georgia. 'Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever,' Perdue (R-Ga.) said at a rally in Macon, just before ... Donald Trump was set to take the stage. Mispronouncing Harris' first name has become a common attack within the Trump camp. The president routinely does so in a mocking way during his political rallies, even though he has correctly said it in less rowdy settings. Perdue and Harris (D-Calif.) have served together in the Senate since 2017. Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of color nominated to a major political party ticket." ~~~

     ~~~ Mary Kornfield of the Washington Post: "'This kind of vile, race-baiting trash talk is what President Trump has unleashed from sitting Republican members in the Senate,' ... Jon Ossoff[, who is the Democratic nominee for Perdue's seat,] said in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC.... 'Sen. David Perdue has served in the Senate alongside vice-presidential nominee and Senator Kamala Harris since 2017. He knows her name and he knows how to say it, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Helen Kalla wrote in a statement. 'His disgusting performance today is nothing more than a desperate dog whistle from a losing politician who was already caught running anti-Semitic ads against Jon Ossoff,' Kalla wrote, alluding to a previous Perdue ad that depicted Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff with a longer and thinner nose, which the Jewish candidate alleged played on anti-Semitic tropes."

Iowa Senate Race. Joni Doesn't Know Beans about Beans. Donna Provencher of the American Independent: "In her third and last debate with the Democratic challenger for her Senate seat, Theresa Greenfield, on Thursday night, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) bungled a softball question on the break-even price of soybeans, a major Iowa crop. Moderator Ron Steele first asked Greenfield about the break-even price of corn, which she correctly answered as approximately $3.68 a bushel. He then turned to Ernst, a self-styled agricultural expert who grew up on a farm raising soybeans, and asked her about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst changed the subject to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, but Steele [asked her again].... Ernst hesitated, then told him he had asked about the break-even price for corn.... Ignoring the question, Ernst told him the break-even price of corn was 'about $5.50.' When pressed by Steele, she continued talking about corn, criticizing Greenfield's answer to the question. She never did answer the question about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which authorizes most farming and conservation programs.... It was an odd gaffe for a senator who has frequently leveraged the fact that she grew up on a farm raising soybeans."

Massachusetts Senate Primary Race. AP: "U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III's campaign improperly spent $1.5 million earmarked for the general election during the Massachusetts congressman's failed bid to capture the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat, he said Friday. Kennedy said in a statement to The Boston Globe that he did not know about the improper spending before the Sept. 1 primary election, and has since reimbursed the campaign with ... $1.5 million of his own money. He and his campaign self-reported the violation to the Federal Election Commission last week, he said."

Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Lots of people believe the president owes $400 million, especially after Trump seemed to agree with that figure on national television Thursday night. In reality, however, he owes more than $1 billion. The loans are spread out over more than a dozen different assets -- ;hotels, buildings, mansions and golf courses. Most are listed on the financial disclosure report Trump files annually with the federal government. Two, which add up to an estimated $447 million, are not. It is important to note, as Trump did Thursday night, that he also has significant assets. Forbes values them at $3.66 billion, enough to make his net worth an estimated $2.5 billion. He is not broke, despite what many critics claim."

This Was Friday at Noonish ET. Thomas Fuller & Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has rejected California's request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California's fires, escalated a long-running feud between the Trump administration and California on the issues of climate change and forest management.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2019. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.' Mr. Trump's threat at the time alarmed both Republicans and Democrats in the state. And wildfire experts say Mr. Trump's analysis is problematic because most of California's forests are on land owned by the federal government and their maintenance largely falls under the responsibility of his administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Gee, This Story Has Been Updated. New Lede: "President Trump reversed himself on Friday, approving a package of wildfire disaster relief for California hours after officials from his administration had explained why the state should not receive the aid. The abrupt turnaround came after the president spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican and the House minority leader, with the White House saying the men 'presented a convincing case' for the state receiving the aid. The disaster relief aid covers six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month." An AP story is here. Mrs. McC: Apparently somebody convinced the Meanest Man Alive that less than three weeks before an election is not the best time to deny a standard federal disaster relief package.

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Facing the prospect that President Trump could lose his re-election bid, his cabinet is scrambling to enact regulatory changes affecting millions of Americans in a blitz so rushed it may leave some changes vulnerable to court challenges. The effort is evident in a broad range of federal agencies and encompasses proposals like easing limits on how many hours some truckers can spend behind the wheel, giving the government more freedom to collect biometric data and setting federal standards for when workers can be classified as independent contractors rather than employees. In the bid to lock in new rules before Jan. 20, Mr. Trump's team is limiting or sidestepping requirements for public comment on some of the changes and swatting aside critics who say the administration has failed to carry out sufficiently rigorous analysis. Some cases, like a new rule to allow railroads to move highly flammable liquefied natural gas on freight trains, have led to warnings of public safety threats."

Well, Of Course It Will. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review President Trump's attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants when calculating how congressional seats are apportioned among the states. The unprecedented proposal could have the effect of shifting both political power and billions of dollars in federal funds away from urban states with large immigrant populations and toward rural and more Republican interests. A three-judge panel in New York said Trump's July 21 memorandum on the matter was 'an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to' him by Congress. It blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information about the number of undocumented immigrants -- it is unclear how those numbers would be generated -- in their reports to the president after this year's census is completed."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rebuked the Justice Department and the White House Counsel's Office on Friday for dismissing without explanation President Trump's 'emphatic and unambiguous' tweets ordering the declassification of all documents in the government's probe of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. 'I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,' the president tweeted Oct. 6. 'Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!' Trump's blanket statement came the day after he returned to the White House from three days of treatment for the novel coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.... The tweet has since created a headache for government lawyers in pending open-records lawsuits filed by news organizations seeking fuller disclosure of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report and investigative materials. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer maintained in a court filing Tuesday that the White House Counsel's Office informed the Justice Department that notwithstanding the president's statement, 'there is no order requiring wholesale declassification or disclosure of documents at issue.' At Friday's hearing, however, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court in D.C. expressed bafflement at the claim that President Trump's words were not to be believed." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge demanded on Friday that the White House counsel's office confirm directly with ... Donald Trump whether he stands by a series public statements he made declaring that he'd declassified all information related to the probe of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.... 'I think the American public has a right to rely upon what the president says about what his intent is,' said [Judge Reggie] Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush. 'It seems to me that when a president makes an unambiguous statement of what his intent is, I can't rely upon White House counsel saying, "Well, that was not his intent." Maybe White House counsel talked to the president. Maybe they didn't, but I can't tell.' The 25-minute telephone hearing include the kinds of exchanges between judges and government lawyers that would have been considered stunning under any other president, but have become commonplace under Trump. Walton said, in essence, that he did not trust that the White House counsel's office was accurately relaying the president's view."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "For the first time since late July, the tally of newly reported coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 64,000 on Thursday and Friday. In 44 states and the District of Columbia, caseloads are higher than they were one month ago, and many of the new infections are being reported in rural areas with limited hospital capacity. More than 8,000,000 cases have been reported nationwide since February, and at least 216,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19...."

"A Self-Inflicted Defeat." Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "There won't be a coronavirus vaccine ready before Election Day, despite ... Donald Trump's repeated promises and vaccine makers' breakneck speed. The president's last best hope for meeting that deadline fizzled Friday as Pfizer announced that it would not seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before the third week of November. The company is the only frontrunner in the vaccine race that has said it could have proof its vaccine works by Nov. 3. For Trump, the failure to meet that deadline is a self-inflicted defeat. The Election Day target was always an artificial one, created by a president who for months has touted it on the campaign trail and press briefing stage. When his administration's top scientists disputed the timeline, Trump accused them of slowing down progress for political reasons."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nick Perry of the AP: "New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a second term in office Saturday in an election landslide of historic proportions. With most votes counted, Ardern's liberal Labour Party was winning 49% of the vote compared to 27% for its main challenger, the conservative National Party. Labour was on target to win an outright majority of the seats in Parliament, something that hasn't happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Typically, parties must form alliances to govern, but this time Ardern and Labour can go it alone. In a victory speech in front of hundreds of cheering supporters in Auckland, Ardern said her party had gotten more support from New Zealanders that at any time in at least 50 years.... Her popularity soared earlier this year after she led a successful effort to stamp out the coronavirus. There is currently no community spread of the virus in the nation of 5 million and people are no longer required to wear masks or social distance."

News Ledes

NPR: "Bernard Cohen, who as a young lawyer successfully argued the Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia's ban on interracial marriages, has died at age 86.... Cohen was an attorney in Alexandria, Va., just a few years out of law school when the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was a volunteer, asked if he would take on the case of Richard and Mildred Loving."

New York Times: "Rhonda Fleming, the red-haired actress and sex symbol in Hollywood westerns, film noir and adventure movies of the 1940s and '50s, died on Wednesday at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 97."

The Commentariat -- October 16, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** The New York Times is featuring an extraordinary Sunday Review making "The Case Against Donald Trump." The Editors' cover essay begins, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Mr. Trump's ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds." The linked page has links to "a series of essays focused on the Trump administration's rampant corruption, celebrations of violence, gross negligence with the public's health and incompetent statecraft. A selection of iconic images highlights the president's record on issues like climate, immigration, women's rights and race." Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is a unique journalistic response to any president's tenure. What a shame Trump can't read.

Thomas Fuller & Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has rejected California's request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California's fires, escalated a long-running feud between the Trump administration and California on the issues of climate change and forest management.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2019. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.' Mr. Trump's threat at the time alarmed both Republicans and Democrats in the state. And wildfire experts say Mr. Trump's analysis is problematic because most of California's forests are on land owned by the federal government and their maintenance largely falls under the responsibility of his administration."

Biden Town Hall Tops Trump Town Hall in Early Numbers Tallies. Will Thorne of Variety: "Presidential candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump appeared in directly competing town halls on Thursday night, after the President dropped out of the second debate. Trump's hourlong appearance on NBC, which drew criticism across the industry and even an angry letter from top talent and showrunners who work with NBCU, appears to be trailing Biden's 90-minute session with ABC in the ratings, at least according to early numbers. Biden drew 12.7 million total viewers on the Disney-owned network, while Trump drew 10.4 million in the same 9-10 p.m. time slot on NBC. Across the entire runtime, the Biden town hall averaged 12.3 million viewers.... Those numbers are of course subject to significant adjustment given that the Trump town hall aired simultaneously on NBC, its broadcast affiliates, and cable channels CNBC and MSNBC.... This story will be updated with more accurate figures, including the cable numbers, once they become available later in the day."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out Donald Trump has far closer ties to QAnon that I surmised. Knows nothing about it? Hell, he's funding it, & QAnon nuts share attorneys with Trump's family: ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory. While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall."

This Country Is Teeming with Armed Nuts. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "With the approaching election ratcheting up tensions in recent months, armed groups that assembled via a few clicks on the keyboard have become both more visible and more widespread. Some especially violent groups were rooted in longstanding anti-government extremism, like the 14 men charged with various crimes in Michigan this month.... Starting in April, demonstrations against coronavirus lockdowns prompted makeshift vigilante groups to move offline and into the real world. That trickle become a torrent amid the nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- with some armed groups claiming to protect the protesters while others sought to check them." Read on.

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Presidential Race, Etc.

The New York Times is live-updating the Biden & Trump "town halls" here. Big surprise: Trump is lying, whining & being "contentious." Mrs. McC: I've been half-listening to Biden, and I'm reminded again that I forgot real presidents know a lot. ~~~

~~~ New York Times reporters' split-screen snark report is here. As Lisa Lerer notes (@8:28 pm ET): "The split screen is so jarring here. Trump is fighting with the moderator over mask wearing. And Biden is calmly talking about how he'll guarantee down payments for first-time homebuyers and help young Black entrepreneurs." ~~~

~~~ Here are the Washington Post's live updates of the dueling candidate teevee shows. These updates are free to non-subscribers. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Choi & Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico select "key moments" from both broadcasts. Helpful if you didn't watch. ~~~

~~~ Trump Used the Town Hall to Elevate QAnon. Really. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: During the NBC town hall, Savannah Guthrie asked Donald Trump if he would "disavow QAnon in its entirety." For the audience, she described QAnon as "this theory that Democrats are a satanic pedophile ring and that you are the savior of that." Trump insisted he knew nothing about QAnon, but said, "I do know they are very much against pedophilia. They fight it very hard...." Bump: When Trump "fails to say, 'of course QAnon is ridiculous,' he's not only giving the group a stamp of approval, he's actively reinforcing the idea that he's aware of the purported conspiracy. By saying they're 'fighting very hard' against pedophilia, adherents -- attuned to picking out signals that reinforce their position! -- are not going to have to look hard to find a positive message. This is dangerous. QAnon adherents have been implicated in murders and kidnappings and threats.... Guthrie tried to move on. Trump, angry, insisted they not.... The president of the United States, asked if there is a satanic pedophile cult with roots in the U.S. government, says he 'has no idea.' Further, that a journalist for a major news network can't honestly claim not to know whether this idea is legitimate." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Rupar of Vox: "The contrast between the dueling NBC/ABC town halls featuring ... Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden was nicely captured by the difference between what each of them was saying at 8:13 pm Eastern time. On NBC, Trump was getting angry as host Savannah Guthrie grilled him on his reluctance to disavow white supremacist groups and dangerous conspiracy theories. He finally did so after repeated questioning. But asked specifically to categorically condemn QAnon ... Trump refused.... At the very moment Trump was making that display, Biden on ABC was talking about the importance of wearing masks and following public health measures endorsed by experts to slow the spread of the coronavirus. 'When a president doesn't wear a mask, or makes fun of folks like me when I was wearing a mask for a long time, then people say it mustn't be that important,' Biden said. 'If you listen to the head of the CDC, he stood up and he said, "You know, while we're waiting for a vaccine" -- he held up a mask -- "you wear this mask, you'll save more lives between now and the end of the year than if we had a vaccine."'... Minutes earlier, Trump defended his ongoing reluctance to wear masks in public ... with a lie about how 'just the other day they came out with a statement that 85 percent of the people that wear masks catch [coronavirus].'" ~~~

~~~ Scott Bixby & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "On one channel, Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. On the other, a rerun of Celebrity Deathmatch. Or, at least, that's how it felt.... Biden seemed to genuinely care if the person he was addressing felt heard.... Over on NBC, President Trump was busy doing a kinder, gentler impression of his usual self. Still, it included some of the same excesses.... The Trump campaign appeared flummoxed at how to spin what they had been hoping would be a humiliating defeat for Biden in the race for ratings.... 'He didn't spend the whole time yelling, he didn't piss himself ... so this was as best as we could have hoped for,' said one Trump campaign adviser. 'After the last debate, that is an improvement.'" ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "NBC faced sharp criticism this week for scheduling a Thursday night town hall with President Trump, with even network employees chiding their employer for giving him an hour of airtime -- 'a free hour of television,' he said, sounding pleased, at a rally earlier that day. Even worse, critics said, it was matched up against ABC's town hall with Democratic candidate Joe Biden.... But, despite fears that the event would amount to a free promotion for Trump's campaign, it ended up being one of the toughest grillings he has faced as president, with questions about white supremacy, covid-19 deaths and his taxes.... The event ... included a lot of direct pressing by the moderator, 'Today' co-host Savannah Guthrie, who repeatedly challenged the president's evasions."

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "When NBC News drew fire for scheduling Thursday night's town hall with President Trump directly opposite an ABC News town hall with Joe Biden, the excuse was parity.... I'd describe that gambit with an entirely different word: specious. It may sound plausible, but it is wrong. In fact, NBC News is doing what so much of mainstream media has done time and again: allowed Trump to steal the spotlight and command attention on his terms. 'I am dismayed -- more like disgusted -- by NBC's decision to air Trump's "I won't play by the rules so let me make my own rules" town hall opposite Biden's,' wrote a former NBC News executive, Cheryl Gould. She wasn't alone. MSNBC marquee host Rachel Maddow obliquely signaled her unhappiness with the decision.... More than a hundred actors and producers from NBC's entertainment division are protesting the move in a letter to top executives, as well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times story by John Koblin & Michael Grynbaum.

Molly Nagle of ABC News: "The Biden campaign has announced that someone who flew with former Vice President Joe Biden to Ohio on Monday and Florida on Tuesday has tested positive for COVID-19. The positive result was discovered through contact tracing that the campaign undertook following the positive diagnosis of Sen. Kamala Harris' communications director and a non-staff flight crew member.... However, the campaign says that Biden and the member who tested positive did not have any passing or close contact during the flight and he is not required to isolate." Mrs. McC: You may recall that when people in closer contact with Trump tested positive, Trump told them to keep it quiet. ~~~

~~~ Chelsea Janes & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris canceled her travel through this coming weekend after two people who were around her tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday night.... Harris ... tested negative for the virus Wednesday and will be tested again Thursday, the campaign said. Harris has not been in close contact recently with either communications director Liz Allen or the other person who tested positive, a flight crew member who is not a campaign staff member, aides said. Former vice president Joe Biden..., also has not been in contact with those affected, according to a statement from campaign manager Jen O'Malley Dillon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The next lede is so rare, it seems surreal: ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, castigated President Trump in a telephone town hall with constituents on Wednesday, accusing the president of bungling the response to the coronavirus pandemic, cozying up to dictators and white supremacists, and offending voters so broadly that he might cause a "Republican blood bath' in the Senate." And off we go: "In a dire, nine-minute indictment of Mr. Trump's foreign policy and what Mr. Sasse called his 'deficient' values, the senator said the president had mistreated women and alienated important allies around the globe, been a profligate spender, ignored human rights and treated the pandemic like a 'P.R. crisis.' He predicted that a loss by Mr. Trump on Election Day, less than three weeks away, 'looks likely,' and said that Republicans would face steep repercussions for having backed him so staunchly over four tumultuous years." Read on, if you have a subscription. ~~~

     ~~~ The (right-wing) Washington Examiner's story, by David Drucker, is worth reading, too. It includes audio, which is labeled "RINO Ben Sasse," where RINO = Republican In Name Only.

** Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence, according to four former officials familiar with the matter. The warnings were based on multiple sources, including intercepted communications, that showed Giuliani was interacting with people tied to Russian intelligence during a December 2019 trip to Ukraine, where he was gathering information that he thought would expose corrupt acts by former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter.... The information that Giuliani sought in Ukraine is similar to what is contained in emails and other correspondence published this week by the New York Post.... The [intel] warnings ... led national security adviser Robert O'Brien to caution Trump in a private conversation that any information Giuliani brought back from Ukraine should be considered contaminated by Russia.... But O'Brien emerged from the meeting uncertain whether he had gotten through to the president.... Earlier in 2019, U.S. intelligence also had warned in written materials sent to the White House that Giuliani, in his drive for information about the Bidens, was communicating with Russian assets." Mrs. McC: O'Brien was uncertain he'd gotten through to Trump? Ha Ha. ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Klar of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday slammed Facebook and Twitter over their decisions to limit the spread of a New York Post story that included allegations about Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden. Trump accused the companies of seeking to help his opponent's campaign by enforcing policies that limit users' ability to share the story.... 'Now, Big Tech -- you see what's going on with Big Tech? -- is censoring these stories to try and get Biden out of this impossible jam. He's in a big jam,' Trump said at a rally in North Carolina. 'He and his family are crooked and they were caught, they got caught,' Trump added." Mrs. McC: Yeah, O'Brien, you really got thru to Trump. ~~~

Glenn Greenwald, early photo.     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And Glenn Greenwald also is in high dudgeon over Facebook's & Twitter's decisions, too. (To be fair, Greenwald existss in a state of high dudgeon. His first full sentence, uttered at the age of 18 months, was, "Waaah, it's not fair!" It's pretty much the only thing he's said since.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mike Isaac & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "President Trump called Facebook and Twitter 'terrible' and 'a monster' and said he would go after them. Senators Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn said they would subpoena the chief executives of the companies for their actions. And on Fox News, prominent conservative hosts blasted the social media platforms as 'monopolies' and accused them of 'censorship' and election interference.... Late Thursday, under pressure, Twitter said it was changing the policy that it had used to block the New York Post article and would now allow similar content to be shared, along with a label to provide context about the source of the information." ~~~

~~~ Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice: "It has been clear for a long time that Rudy was being used by Russian intelligence officers and assets.... But what we did not know, though it was a logical suspicion to have, that the US Intelligence Community had signals intelligence (SIGINT) from communications intercepts of Russian assets that clearly indicated this unfortunate reality. We also did not know that they had done their jobs and pushed their assessment up the chain to the Assistant to the President for National Security (AP-NSA) O'Brien, that O'Brien had briefed the President, and that the President blew him off! We also did not know that ... O'Brien then briefed the President to warn him off of Giuliani and the disinformation and agitprop Rudy was pushing as the centerpiece of the President's defense in his impeachment trial in the Senate! This was, of course part of the plan to turn both chambers of the US Congress into an information laundry for the Russian disinformation and agitprop Rudy was being used to promote, which was then repeated during the hearings Senators Johnson and Grassley held this past August and September." Silverman republishes quite a bit of the WashPo story. And has more analysis. ~~~

~~~ Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Federal investigators are examining whether the emails allegedly describing activities by Joe Biden and his son Hunter and [Mrs. McC: purportedly] found on a laptop at a Delaware repair shop are linked to a foreign intelligence operation, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. The FBI seized the laptop and a hard drive through a grand jury subpoena." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The New York Post has another story out about Hunter Biden today. Didn't read it, not gonna, not linking it. ~~~

~~~ Alex Kaplan of Media Matters: "A user on TheDonald.win, a far-right message board, was hinting at and promoting a series of dubious articles from the New York Post about Hunter Biden days before they were published. The user also claimed to know the people involved with the articles.... In the days leading up to October 14 (a Wednesday), an account on TheDonald.win called 'Freedom_USA_88' had repeatedly posted threads that claimed that a 'massive' story about Biden was coming out that day. As noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), '88' is 'a white supremacist numerical code for "Heil Hitler." The account's username also has exactly 14 characters, a reference to the white nationalist "14 Words" slogan that is often combined with '88,' as noted by the ADL.... The user claimed that they [he] had been 'authorized to drop a hint about Wednesday's story' and 'know the parties involved.'" Mrs. McC: That's actually believable, not only because he was right but also because he's a Nazi aficionado; IOW, just Rudy's type. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Summer Concepcion of TPM: Rudy's daughter "issued a scathing rebuke on Thursday against the President's re-election efforts and urged voters in next month's presidential election to throw their support behind ... Joe Biden instead. In an essay published in Vanity Fair on Thursday, Caroline Giuliani ... argued that 'none of us can afford to be silent right now' when 'the stakes are too high.'... Giuliani wrote that felt that it was important to speak her mind 'in Trump's era of chest-thumping partisan tribalism.'" ~~~

~~~ Phillip Halpern in a San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed: "After 36 years, I'm fleeing what was the U.S. Department of Justice -- where I proudly served 19 different attorneys general and six different presidents.... [William] Barr has never actually investigated, charged or tried a case. He's a well-trained bureaucrat but has no actual experience as a prosecutor.... Over the last year, Barr's resentment toward rule-of-law prosecutors became increasingly difficult to ignore, as did his slavish obedience to Donald Trump's will in his selective meddling with the criminal justice system in the Paul Manafort, Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases.... This career bureaucrat seems determined to turn our democracy into an autocracy.... More recently, Barr directed federal officers to use tear gas in Lafayette Park to quell what were, at that time, peaceful protesters. Barr's assertion the square was not cleared due to the president's desire for a Bible-carrying photo op is laughable.... Barr's longest-running politicization of the Justice Department is the Durham investigation -- a quixotic pursuit designed to attack the president's political rivals."

Trip Gabriel, et al., of the New York Times: "With polls showing the president behind Mr. Biden nationally and in key states, Mr. Trump has descended into rants about perceived enemies, both inside and outside his administration, triggering in his staunchest supporters such fears for the outcome -- possibly a 'stolen' election, maybe a coup by the far left -- that he is emboldening them to disrupt the voting process, according to national security experts and law enforcement officials.... None of [the right-wing violence] has stopped Mr. Trump from fear-mongering about leftist violence. 'Biden will disarm law abiding Americans,' the president told supporters in suburban Virginia last month. 'At the same time, they'll have riots down your street and that's just fine.'... It was notable, national security experts said, that none of the nation's top officials from the Justice Department or the F.B.I. spoke at the news conference to announce the arrests in the Whitmer case."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you ever wonder what happened to the ugly misfit rowdy boys who dropped out of your high school class, it seems they got uglier & rowdier, are packing rifles & are dressed up in camo.

One Degree of Separation Is Not Far Enough to Spare You the Curse of Trump. David Bauder of the AP: "C-SPAN suspended its political editor Steve Scully indefinitely Thursday after he admitted to lying about his Twitter feed being hacked when he was confronted about a questionable exchange with former Trump aide Anthony Scaramucci. The news came on the day of what was supposed to be a career highlight for the 30-year C-SPAN veteran. Scully was to moderate the second debate between ... Donald Trump and ... Joe Biden, which was canceled after Trump would not agree to a virtual format because of his COVID-19 diagnosis. A week ago, after Trump had criticized him as a 'never Trumper,' Scully tweeted "@Scaramucci should I respond to Trump.' Scaramucci, a former Trump communications director and now a critic of the president, advised Scully to ignore him. Scully said that when he saw his tweet had created a controversy, 'I falsely claimed that my Twitter account had been hacked.' He had been frustrated by Trump's comments and several weeks of criticism on social media and conservative news outlets about his role as moderator, including attacks directed at his family, he said."

Florida. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida will seek to push former felons from voter rolls if they have outstanding court debts, a surprise, late-hour move that comes after more than 2 million people already have voted in the presidential battleground. The announcement, which was distributed to local election officials but not the wider public, drew immediate pushback from county election supervisors and suspicion from Democrats who say it could be used to challenge the eventual election results.... Unwritten in the email ... was the assumption that local officials should start acting on any information they receive. The email also instructed supervisors to act on information from other sources, including court clerks, that raises eligibility questions." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the link. Mrs. McC: Numerous media outlets have reported that Florida's records of court debts are scattered, outdated & disorganized. IOW, election officials who follow this order are sure to obtain records that falsely indicate a former felon/voter has an outstanding court debt. It's not clear from the story whether the voter will be notified of a decision to nullify his vote or have an opportunity to challenge the decision.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases.... 'We are headed in the wrong direction, and that's reflected not only in the number of new cases but also in test positivity and the number of hospitalizations,' said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. 'Together, I think these three indicators give a very clear picture that we are seeing increased transmission in communities across the country.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who was recently battling a coronavirus infection, said on Thursday that he was 'wrong' not to wear a mask at an even honoring Judge Amy Coney Barrett and in his debate preparation sessions with President Trump, and that people should take the threat of the virus seriously. In an interview with The New York Times and in a written statement, Mr. Christie said that he had believed he was in a 'safe zone' at the White House while he was there. He urged people to follow best practices, like mask wearing and social distancing, but argued there's a middle ground between extensive, large-scale shutdowns and reopening cities and states without taking proper precautions."

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump called Thursday for even more stimulus spending than the $1.8 trillion proposed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in his talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, injecting yet more chaos into the unruly negotiations as the election nears. 'I would take more. I would go higher,' Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network, repeating his directive from earlier in the week to 'Go big or go home!!!['] Trump said he's communicated his views to Mnuchin. 'I've told him. So far he hasn't come home with the bacon,' the president said." Mrs. McC: Trump's advocacy for a bigger stimulus package deal is B.S. Obviously, he wouldn't have to twist Mnuchin's arm to get him to up the administration's offer. Usually, the devil is in the details, but I'd say here the devil is in the Oval. And, for pete's sake, you don't complain that a Jewish person hasn't brought home the bacon. Idiot. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin cited progress Thursday in their ongoing coronavirus-relief negotiations less than three weeks before the November elections, though the Democratic leader raised concerns about whether any big spending package could pass Congress given fierce resistance in the GOP-controlled Senate."

~~~ MEANWHILE. Dan Primack of Axios: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he would not put a potential $1.8 trillion+ deal struck by Democrats and the Trump administration on the Senate floor. 'My members think half a trillion dollars, highly targeted is the best way to go,' he said." Mrs. McC: I expect McConnell knows or fears that a majority would vote for such a bill as in extremis Republican senators peel off & vote with Democrats to pass the bill. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a New York Times story by Emily Cochrane & Alan Rappeport that relates the GOP divide on a stimulus package: Trump's "comments directly contradicted Republicans' efforts to foist blame onto Ms. Pelosi and Democrats as the impasse has dragged on for months."

Trump-o-nomics. Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "After an ambitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and poverty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new studies have found. The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic's start as a result of an $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act. Using a different definition of poverty, researchers from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame found that poverty has grown by six million people in the past three months, with circumstances worsening most for Black people and children.... The recent rise in poverty has occurred despite an improving job market, an indication that the economy has been rebounding too slowly to offset the lost benefits." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Descended into rants"? I wonder if the POTUS* realizes that the paper of record, the realm of the Gray Lady, is happy to publish news stories -- not opinion pieces -- that more-or-less describe him as a raving lunatic. It is a remarkable evolution.

"Just Doing His Job." Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "What, in the Trump era, does the face of complicity look like?... It's just a man in rimless glasses and a dark suit. I'm talking about Rod J. Rosenstein. Years from now, I think we should remember the men and women like him, and the role they played in this administration's vilest deeds.... On a conference call with the Justice Department in the spring of 2018, five U.S. attorneys from our border states -- three of them Trump appointees -- expressed their alarm about the 'zero tolerance' policy of prosecuting all undocumented immigrants, even if it meant separating them from their sons and daughters[, including] some ... so young that they were still breastfeeding, so young that they were preverbail.... Rosenstein's complicity in this machine was ugly, but it was by no means unique. Top officials at the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services all played a role. They were all sowing chaos, inflicting cruelty and causing unfathomable trauma at the behest of a small, vicious cadre up top.... Separating families was the objective of the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy, not a byproduct."

Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "A District judge has ruled that a Trump appointee overstepped his authority when he fired the board of an agency that helps dissidents and journalists in repressive countries and sought to replace it with his own slate of directors, including himself. Shortly after taking over as chief executive of the federal agency that supervises the Voice of America, Radio Free Europe and other government-funded media operations in June, Michael Pack began a sweeping overhaul of the six organizations, firing five of their directors; two others resigned in anticipation of his cuts. But the board of the Open Technology Fund, which Pack dismissed along with its director, rejected his order, arguing that he didn't have the authority to replace them, and at one point, it blocked Pack's chosen slate of directors and his new chief executive designee from taking over its offices in the District. The District's attorney general, which oversees nonprofits in the city, sued on the agency's behalf. And on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Shana Frost Matini agreed that Pack was not authorized by the fund's bylaws to replace its leadership...."

Sheldon Whitehouse Lays Down the Gauntlet. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Republicans are confident a vote confirming Amy Coney Barrett to the the Supreme Court is only days away, but Democrats are looking farther ahead and warning that this swift process on the eve of an election won't be quickly forgotten.... 'The rule of "because we can," which is the rule that is being applied today, is one that leads away from a lot of the traditions and commitments and values that the Senate has long embodied, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., said. 'Don't think that when you have established the rule of "because we can" that should the shoe be on the other foot that you will have any credibility to come to us and say, yeah, I know you can do that but you shouldn't because of X, Y, Z,' he said. 'Your credibility to make that argument in the future will die in this room and on that Senate floor if you continue to proceed in this way.'"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Japan. Justin McCurry of the Guardian: "Japan's government has reportedly decided to release more than 1m tonnes of contaminated water from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, setting it on a collision course with local fishermen who say the move will destroy their industry. Media reports said work to release the water, which is being stored in more than 1,000 tanks, would begin in 2022 at the earliest and would take decades to complete." --s

The Commentariat -- October 15, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Lauren Leatherby of the New York Times: "The number of new coronavirus cases in the United States is surging once again after growth slowed in late summer. While the geography of the pandemic is now shifting to the Midwest and to more rural areas, cases are trending upward in most states, many of which are setting weekly records for new cases.... 'We are headed in the wrong direction, and that's reflected not only in the number of new cases but also in test positivity and the number of hospitalizations,' said Caitlin Rivers, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University. 'Together, I think these three indicators give a very clear picture that we are seeing increased transmission in communities across the country.'"

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump called Thursday for even more stimulus spending than the $1.8 trillion proposed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in his talks with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, injecting yet more chaos into the unruly negotiations as the election nears. 'I would take more. I would go higher,' Trump said in an interview on Fox Business Network, repeating his directive from earlier in the week to 'Go big or go home!!!['] Trump said he’s communicated his views to Mnuchin. 'I've told him. So far he hasn't come home with the bacon,' the president said." Mrs. McC: Trump's advocacy for a bigger stimulus package deal is B.S. Obviously, he wouldn't have to twist Mnuchin's arm to get him to up the administration's offer. Usually, the devil is in the details, but I'd say here the devil is in the Oval. And you don't complain that a Jewish person hasn't brought home the bacon. Idiot. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Dan Primack of Axios: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday that he would not put a potential $1.8 trillion+ deal struck by Democrats and the Trump administration on the Senate floor. 'My members think half a trillion dollars, highly targeted is the best way to go,' he said." Mrs. McC: I expect McConnell knows or fears that a majority would vote for such a bill as in extremis Republican senators peel off & vote with Democrats to pass the bill.

Trump-o-nomics. Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "After an ambitious expansion of the safety net in the spring saved millions of people from poverty, the aid is now largely exhausted and poverty has returned to levels higher than before the coronavirus crisis, two new studies have found. The number of poor people has grown by eight million since May, according to researchers at Columbia University, after falling by four million at the pandemic's start as a result of an $2 trillion emergency package known as the Cares Act. Using a different definition of poverty, researchers from the University of Chicago and Notre Dame found that poverty has grown by six million people in the past three months, with circumstances worsening most for Black people and children.... The recent rise in poverty has occurred despite an improving job market, an indiction that the economy has been rebounding too slowly to offset the lost benefits."

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Descended into rants"? I wonder if the POTUS* realizes that the paper of record, the realm of the Gray Lady, is happy to publish news stories -- not opinion pieces -- that more-or-less describe him as a raving lunatic. It is a remarkable evolution.

Chelsea Janes & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Democratic vice-presidential nominee Kamala D. Harris canceled her travel through this coming weekend after two people who were around her tested positive for the coronavirus Wednesday night.... Harris ... tested negative for the virus Wednesday and will be tested again Thursday, the campaign said. Harris has not been in close contact recently with either communications director Liz Allen or the other person who tested positive, a flight crew member who is not a campaign staff member, aides said. Former vice president Joe Biden..., also has not been in contact with those affected, according to a statement from campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon."

Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "When NBC News drew fire for scheduling Thursday night's town hall with President Trump directly opposite an ABC News town hall with Joe Biden, the excuse was parity.... I'd describe that gambit with an entirely different word: specious. It may sound plausible, but it is wrong. In fact, NBC News is doing what so much of mainstream media has done time and again: allowed Trump to steal the spotlight and command attention on his terms. 'I am dismayed -- more like disgusted -- by NBC's decision to air Trump's "I won't play by the rules so let me make my own rules" town hall opposite Biden's,' wrote a former NBC News executive, Cheryl Gould. She wasn't alone. MSNBC marquee host Rachel Maddow obliquely signaled her unhappiness with the decision.... More than a hundred actors and producers from NBC's entertainment division are protesting the move in a letter to top executives, as well."

Trip Gabriel, et al., of the New York Times: "With polls showing the president behind Mr. Biden nationally and in key states, Mr. Trump has descended into rants about perceived enemies, both inside and outside his administration, triggering in his staunchest supporters such fears for the outcome -- possibly a 'stolen' election, maybe a coup by the far left -- that he is emboldening them to disrupt the voting process, according to national security experts and law enforcement officials.... None of [the right-wing violence] has stopped Mr. Trump from fear-mongering about leftist violence. 'Biden will disarm law abiding Americans,' the president told supporters in suburban Virginia last month. 'At the same time, they'll have riots down your street and that's just fine.'... It was notable, national security experts said, that none of the nation's top officials from the Justice Department or the F.B.I. spoke at the news conference to announce the arrests in the Whitmer case." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you ever wonder what happened to the ugly misfit rowdy boys who dropped out of your high school class, it seems they got uglier & rowdier, are packing rifles & are dressed up in camo.

Mrs. McCrabbie: The New York Post has another story out about Hunter Biden today. Didn't read it, not gonna, not linking it. ~~~

~~~ Alex Kaplan of Media Matters: "A user on TheDonald.win, a far-right message board, was hinting at and promoting a series of dubious articles from the New York Post about Hunter Biden days before they were published. The user also claimed to know the people involved with the articles.... In the days leading up to October 14 (a Wednesday), an account on TheDonald.win called 'Freedom_USA_88' had repeatedly posted threads that claimed that a 'massive' story about Biden was coming out that day. As noted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), '88' is 'a white supremacist numerical code for "Heil Hitler."' The account's username also has exactly 14 characters, a reference to the white nationalist '14 Words' slogan that is often combined with '88,' as noted by the ADL.... The user claimed that they [he] had been 'authorized to drop a hint about Wednesday's story' and 'know the parties involved.'" Mrs. McC: That's actually believable, not only because he was right but also because he's a Nazi aficionado; IOW, just Rudy's type.

~~~~~~~~~~

Stacking the Court

The New York Times' live updates of Amy Coney Barrett's Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday are here. They include live video of the proceedings, but you can shut down the audio. The Washington Post's live video for Wednesday are here. Live video also included, but you have to activate it. (Also linked yesterday.)

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tries to explain to dumb-as-a-rock Chuck Todd the right-wing dark money conspiracy that is funding the push for right-wing judges & justices. There's a related story linked under "Presidential Race":

The Court Proposes, Trump Disposes. Mrs. McCrabbie: Despite her pretense that she won't be a "pawn" for Trump, it is beginning to appear that Judge Amy, like many a Republican witness, is testifying for an audience of one. Here's an excerpt from the Washington Post's live coverage of Wednesday's hearing: "Barrett stated unequivocally Wednesday morning that 'no one is above the law' -- but she warned that the Supreme Court has no real recourse to make sure people, including the president, obeyed its orders.... Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) had asked Barrett whether a president could refuse to comply with a court order. Barrett's bleak assessment, in a word, was yes. 'The Supreme Court can't control what the president obeys,' she said flatly. When Leahy then asked whether the president could pardon himself for a crime, Barrett was circumspect. 'So far as I know, that question has never been litigated,' she said. 'That question may or may not arise, but it's one that calls for legal analysis about what the scope of the pardon power is.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Derek Hawkins, et al., of the Washington Post: "Judge Amy Coney Barrett faced the final day of questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.... In her testimony, the conservative jurist declined to share her legal views on abortion rights, voting rights and the Affordable Care Act, seeking to separate her academic writings from how she might rule if confirmed. She also declined to say whether she thought it was wrong to separate migrant children from their parents to deter immigration to the United States. 'That's a matter of hot political debate in which I can't express a view or be drawn into as a judge,' Barrett said in response to a question from Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.)." ~~~

~~~ Mark Sherman of the AP: "Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett invoked Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday in refusing to discuss her view of gay rights and the Constitution. 'Justice Ginsburg with her characteristic pithiness used this to describe how a nominee should comport herself at a hearing. No hints, no previews, no forecasts. That had been the practice of nominees before her. But everybody calls it the Ginsburg rule because she stated it so concisely,' Barrett said.... It's become a standard response by Republican high court nominees to recite Ginsburg's words from her own confirmation hearing. Ginsburg ... did utter those words 27 years ago, saying 'A judge sworn to decide impartially can offer no forecasts, no hints for that would show not only disregard for the specifics of the particular case, it would display disdain for the entire judicial process.' But she also said much more on a range of hotly debated issues, including abortion, that went well beyond the rule that bears her name. Here's Ginsburg on abortion in 1993, shortly before the Senate voted 96-3 to confirm her: 'The decision whether or not to bear a child is central to a woman's life, to her well-being and dignity. It is a decision she must make for herself. When Government controls that decision for her, she is being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: For one thing, you can bet Ginsburg would not have stonewalled a question about whether or not voter intimidation was legal.

Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Public calendars from the University of Notre Dame's law school show at least seven additional talks not listed on Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Senate paperwork, including one with the law school's anti-abortion group, according to a CNN KFile review.... Barrett is required to disclose to the Senate Judiciary Committee all public talks she has given in her professional career...."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: “Sen. Lindsey Graham on Wednesday clarified that he was being sarcastic when he referred to the 'good old days of segregation' and blasted his opponent for seeking to capitalize on the comments. During a recess in the confirmation hearing for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, Graham (R-S.C.) insisted to reporters that his comments were made in jest and accused Jaime Harrison of launching a disingenuous attack. 'It was with deep sarcasm that I suggested that some legislative body would want to yearn for the good old days of segregationism,' the senator said. 'The point that I'm trying to make, there's nobody in America in the legislative arena wanting to take us back to that dark period in American history and for my opponent to suggest that says far more about him than me.'" Here's the clip from Wednesday morning's hearing. Given the context, I think he was being sarcastic. You decide: (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "A coalition of more than 60 state prosecutors and attorneys general from across the country declared Wednesday that they would not enforce laws that criminalize abortion, even if the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision that legalized it nationwide. The declaration comes amid the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a conservative who many believe would vote to reverse Roe v. Wade if elevated to the high court.... The prosecutors' statement invokes the power of prosecutorial discretion, which some prosecutors have used to reduce or eliminate prosecution of marijuana charges and other misdemeanors to reduce the disproportionate harm they can cause to nonviolent offenders. 'It is imperative,' the prosecutors declared in their statement, 'that we use our discretion to decline to prosecute personal healthcare choices criminalized under such laws.' Citing the 47 years of legal precedent established by Roe, the prosecutors said that 'women have a right to make decisions about their own medical care including, but not limited to, seeking an abortion.'"

Hannah Jones of (Minneapolis/St. Paul) City Pages: In a Facebook post, former "Prairie Home Companion" host Garrison Keillor wrote, "'It seems clear that Judge Barrett will sit on the Supreme Court and this will mean the reversal of Roe v. Wade and some deep dents in the Affordable Care Act... I don't think Roe v. Wade is worth fighting for anymore.' Keillor thinks guaranteeing the right to a safe abortion has 'torn the country asunder,' and wondered, 'to what good?... We can accept a system of states' rights, whereby abortion is legal in some states, illegal in others, same as you have a death penalty in some states, not in others,' Keillor wrote.... Let South Dakota be South Dakota and if they wish to criminalize LBGTQ, then they can deal with the consequences. Let's give the cultural war a rest and focus on the economy and tax policy and environment.' The post ... has since been removed.... Keillor posted again to 'clarify' his thoughts later that morning." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth remembering that Keillor is not the wry & pleasant folksy guy he played on the radio. Minnesota Public Radio fired him specifically because of "inappropriate behavior" toward a woman, which Keillor claimed was "nothing more than having placed his hand on a woman's back to console her." But MPR reporters write that Keillor allegedly made many other uninvited sexual advances over the years.

Presidential Race, Etc.

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: Joe "Biden announced on Twitter that his campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised $383 million in September, a massive sum that leaves him flush with cash in the final weeks before the election. The amount raised in one month beat the Democrats' record-shattering haul in August of $364.5 million. The former vice president on Wednesday tweeted a video of him calling a grass-roots donor named Trimicka, a special-education teacher, to personally thank her and tell her first about the sum raised." The story, part of the Post's election blog, is free to non-subscribers.

Kyle Cheney & Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "Joe Biden's campaign is punching back at a New York Post story that alleged a direct link between the Democratic presidential nominee and his son's business dealings. Top Biden advisers who staffed him during his vice presidency, citing their own recollections as well as a review of Biden's official schedules, sharply rejected the Post's suggestion that Biden met with a representative of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings in 2015. And social media companies throttled sharing of the article on their platforms, fueling complaints from conservatives that information critical of the Bidens was being censored.... The story, which ran on the front page of the New York tabloid under the banner headline 'Biden Secret E-mails,' accused the then-vice president of meeting Vadym Pozharskyi, a top adviser to Burisma, whose board Biden's son had joined at the time. Allies of the president seized on the purported revelation.... There was no immediate indication of Russian involvement in the release of emails that the Post obtained, but its general thrust mirrors a narrative that U.S. intelligence agencies have described as part of an active Russian disinformation effort aimed at the 2020 election." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The underlying New York Post story is BIG NEWS in right-wing world, but I'm not linking it. This is a Rudy Giuliani/Steve Bannon production. Josh Kovensky of TPM explains the ways the story is so bogus, starting with maybe the funniest part: the supposed "source": "The story claims that a Delaware computer repair shop owner received a laptop full of Hunter Biden's emails last year for data extraction and repair. After the client never paid or came to pick up the laptop, the anonymous store owner supposedly said, the Apple computer repair man went to both the FBI and Rudy Giuliani with the information." Very believable. ~~~

     ~~~ So Then. Jordan Howell & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: A gaggle of reporters interviewed the supposed computer repair shop owner. Other than that the guy couldn't get his story straight, said he has a medical condition that prevented him from seeing who dropped off the laptop, & ended the interview with, "Ah shit" he seems really credible! ~~~

     ~~~ Katie Glueck, et al., of the New York Times: "Hours after the Post published its article, Facebook said on Wednesday that it had decided to limit the distribution of the story on its platform so it could fact-check the claims. Twitter said it was blocking the article because it included people's personal phone numbers and email addresses, which violated their privacy rules, and because the article violated their policy on hacked materials. Facebook's and Twitter's actions immediately provoked strong reactions from Republicans that the social media platforms were censoring them, an outcry that grew louder later on Wednesday when the Trump campaign said the personal account of the White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany, had been locked because she had posted the New York Post story." ~~~

~~~ In case you were thinking Rudy & the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Conspiracy Fabricators could not get more clownish ~~~

~~~ Justin Baragona & Sam Stein of the Daily Beast: "... Rudy Giuliani was caught mocking Asians and even pantomiming a bow in video footage his team accidentally posted to his YouTube page on Wednesday. The remarks came well after Giuliani had finished interviewing former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer for his podcast.... For several minutes on the extended YouTube version [of the podcast], the screen was black and silent. Then Spicer appeared briefly only to quickly sign out, leaving Giuliani at his desk speaking with individuals off-screen.... After a few moments of small talk with an assistant who appears to be Jayne Zirkle, an animated Giuliani started affecting a stereotypical Chinese accent.... After asking others in the room what they wanted for dinner, Giuliani continued to say Zirkle's name in the mocking accent. He then started pantomiming a bow while repeating her name...." Includes video. ~~~

     ~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "In recent weeks, Donald Trump was made aware of an alleged secret trove of material about Hunter Biden's foreign dealings and private life, and was keen on getting it out into the public domain as soon as possible, according to two sources familiar with the matter.... The ongoing efforts by Giuliani, Trump, and other prominent Republicans to push unverified dirt on the Biden family not only illustrates the degree to which nefariously obtained documents and rumor and disinformation have become a form of modern campaign currency; but also, just how comfortable the president and his team are peddling it."

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden often crosses himself and looks toward the sky when saying something he jokingly might need to apologize for, regularly referring to the nuns who taught him during 12 years in Catholic school. Now, several recent TV ads from Biden's campaign show him standing with Pope Francis or huddled with a Jesuit priest. He's reading from a pulpit, bowing his head in prayer, or standing solemnly in front of a church's stained-glass window. And a radio spot includes a parishioner from Biden's home church talking about how the Democratic presidential nominee is a regular at Sunday Mass.... In the final stretch of a campaign in which Catholic voters are seen by both parties as a decisive bloc in several battleground states, Biden's campaign has increasingly highlighted his direct connection to the faith -- and his potential to make history as the country's second Catholic president, 60 years after John F. Kennedy became the first. The strategy comes as President Trump and his allies have sought to portray Democrats as anti-Catholic...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Trump is using his recovery from covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, to reinforce the message that the pandemic is receding and Americans should return to work -- resisting entreaties to change his tone and behavior three weeks ahead of the presidential election. Despite the outbreak at the White House that also infected the first lady, their son and nearly a dozen top aides, Trump and his allies continue to downplay the virus, arguing that the country is 'turning the corner' and holding campaign events with thousands of supporters even as cases are increasing rapidly, especially in the Midwest. Several advisers hoped Trump's experience would move him to speak more empathetically about a virus that has killed at least 215,000 Americans and infected nearly 8 million. Instead, Trump has seemed further emboldened, flouting public health guidelines to convince voters that life is returning to normal, according to current and former administration officials."

"Thank You, Honey." Zeke Miller, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Wednesday sought to shore up support from constituencies that not so long ago he thought he had in the bag: big business and voters in the red state of Iowa. In a morning address to business leaders, he expressed puzzlement that they would even consider supporting his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, arguing that his own leadership was a better bet for a strong economy. Later, the president held his third campaign rally in three nights, this time in Iowa, a state he won handily in 2016 but where Biden is making a late push.... At moments during his economic address on Wednesday his voice was raspy. His trip to Iowa comes as the state this week surpassed 100,000 coronavirus cases and has seen a recent surge in hospitalizations.... A public health emergency declared by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in March remains in place and requires that organizers of mass gatherings 'must ensure at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) of physical distance between each group or individual attending alone.' Trump acknowledged Reynolds' presence at the rally. 'Thank you, honey,' he said." ~~~

We’re doing our part to warn Iowans that @realdonaldtrump is in town tomorrow. This billboard is directly outside the Des Moines Airport where he will hold his hangar rally. #Superspreader #SuperspreaderTrump #covidiots pic.twitter.com/KtN9SebH4T

— Rural America 2020 (@RuralUSA2020) October 13, 2020

Origin: Daily Beast.Michael Grynbaum & Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "NBC said on Wednesday that it would broadcast a televised town hall with Mr. Trump from Miami on Thursday at 8 p.m. Eastern -- the exact time that Mr. Biden will appear on ABC for his own town-hall-style event in Philadelphia. Mr. Biden's town hall has been on the books since last week, after Mr. Trump, who had recently contracted the coronavirus, rejected plans to convert the second formal presidential debate into a virtual matchup; the debate was eventually canceled. Mr. Trump's campaign then sought its own telecast to rival Mr. Biden's, leading to a lengthy negotiation with NBC officials who wanted independent proof that the president would not pose a safety risk to other participants.... On Wednesday, NBC said the town hall would occur 'in accordance with the guidelines set forth by health officials' and proffered a statement from Clifford Lane, a clinical director at the National Institutes of Health. In the statement, Dr. Lane said he and Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... had reviewed medical data about Mr. Trump's condition, including a P.C.R. test that the N.I.H. 'collected and analyzed' on Tuesday.... Dr. Lane concluded 'with a high degree of confidence' that the president is 'not shedding infectious virus,' NBC said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So Thursday night, I'm tuning the teevee to ABC, whether I listen on not, just in case the gremlins come through my tubes & wires & make note of what channel I'm watching. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Staffers at NBC, CNBC and MSNBC were said to be angry this week after learning that ... Donald Trump was offered the opportunity to hold a solo town hall event.... Others on Twitter also lashed out at NBC for 'rewarding' Trump ... [for refusing to cooperate with the presidential debate committee's rules]." And Edward-Isaac Dovere can't figured out why the White House is willing to share so much information w/NBC about the president's health so as to make this Thursday town hall happen, but releasing when the last time pre-diagnosis that he had tested negative would violate his privacy[.]" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a related story by Maxwell Tani, et al., of the Daily Beast. Mrs. McC: To make matter worse, Trump will probably get better ratings than Biden because NBC is airing its Trump extravanganza across its platform: NBC broadcast network, "MSNBC, CNBC, and Telemundo, and their digital platforms such as NBC News NOW and the new streaming service Peacock."

Meet Your Trump Activists. Robert O'Harrow of the Washington Post: "... the Council for National Policy [is] a little-known group that has served for decades as a hub for a nationwide network of conservative activists and the donors who support them. Members include Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, and Leonard Leo, an outside adviser to President Trump who has helped raise hundreds of millions of dollars from undisclosed donors to support conservative causes and the nominations of conservative federal judges. Videos provided to The Post -- covering dozens of hours of CNP meetings over three days in February and three in August -- offer an inside view of participants' obsessions and fears.... The videos ... show influential activists discussing election tactics, amplifying conspiracy theories and describing much of America in dark and apocalyptic terms.... At the February meetings, attendees ... said the right will begin 'ballot harvesting,' a controversial technique that involves the collection and delivery of sealed absentee ballots from churches and other institutions. At the time of the meeting, Trump, his campaign officials and other Republicans were blasting the practice as an abuse by Democrats. 'GET RID OF BALLOT HARVESTING, IT IS RAMPANT WITH FRAUD,' Trump tweeted this spring."

Meet Your Trump Voter. Amanda Burke & Larry Parnass of the Berkshire Eagle: "In the hour before he admits he burned a political message he deplored, Lonnie Durfee stopped at a convenience store in his town.... He told another shopper he planned to set fire to hay bales across from Holiday Brook Farm that had been painted with an endorsement of the Biden-Harris presidential ticket, according to a Dalton police report. Minutes before that encounter Friday evening, he said the same thing to people inside Paddy's, a Dalton bar.... Not long after, Durfee pulled out of the Cumberland Farms on Main Street with containers of gasoline and headed for the small mountain of hay bales, and the message they displayed, though one container fell out of the back of his yellow GMC pickup onto the road, and was left behind." Read on. Thanks very much to unwashed for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) Mrs. McC: There's a country & Western song in here somewheres, along the lines of the last verse of this'un here:

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "In the pantheon of Republican pseudo-scandals, 'unmasking' has always been one of the dumbest.... Sadly for Republicans, the investigation turned up nothing.... The investigation basically exonerated the Obama team and probably would have hurt Donald Trump's reelection, so [AG Bill] Barr decided to keep it under wraps. This is how the Justice Department works these days: it's a PR shop for Donald Trump, not an independent agency serving the best interests of the American public." --s ~~~

~~~ Yeah But. Dartunorro Clark of NBC News (on Yahoo!): "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that he is 'not happy' with Attorney General William Barr after the Justice Department's investigation of the Obama administration found no wrongdoing and quietly concluded with no criminal charges. Trump made the comments to Newsmax TV. He also declined to say whether he would keep Barr on as attorney general for a potential second term. 'Can't comment on that. It's too early. I'm not happy, with all of the evidence I had, I can tell you that. I am not happy,' Trump said in the interview. Trump ... has used the Justice Department as a cudgel to go after perceived political enemies. Recently, news emerged that the Justice Department had concluded an investigation commissioned by Barr into the Obama-era 'unmasking' of people named in national security documents related to the Russia investigation -- a practice that Trump and conservatives pundits claimed was a political conspiracy. However, the Justice Department found no evidence of wrongdoing and declined to release its report publicly or to file any charges." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, unless the AG verifies a crazy Trump conspiracy theory, his head is on the chopping block. Trump not only expects the DOJ to run down rabbit holes, he expects them to pull out big fat rabbits.

** Katelyn Polantz, et al. of CNN: "For more than three years, federal prosecutors investigated whether money flowing through an Egyptian state-owned bank could have backed millions of dollars Donald Trump donated to his own campaign days before he won the 2016 election.... The investigation, which both predated and outlasted special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, examined whether there was an illegal foreign campaign contribution.... The investigation was kept so secret that at one point investigators locked down an entire floor of a federal courthouse in Washington, DC, so Mueller's team could fight for the Egyptian bank's records in closed-door court proceedings following a grand jury subpoena. The probe, which closed this summer with no charges filed, has never before been described publicly.... In the closing weeks of the 2016 campaign, Trump and [Dictator Al-]Sisi met in New York during the United Nations General Assembly. The Republican presidential candidate hit it off with the dictator.... Sisi became the first foreign leader to call and congratulate Trump after he won the election.... CNN sent Mueller detailed questions about the Egypt investigation for this story. [s: Like a chickenshit] He declined to comment." --s

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Jeff Cox of CNBC: "American workers continued to hit the unemployment line in large numbers last week, with 898,000 new claims filed for jobless benefits. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 830,000." At 8:35 am ET, this was a breaking news story.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Now I think we know one big reason Trump lied from the git-go to ordinary Americans about the dangers the coronavirus was about to pose: giving insider Covid-19 information to his big donor buddies was a boon to them (and therefore to him). If this sounds like a crazy conspiracy theory borrowed from crooked Sen. Richard Burr, read on ~~~

~~~ Kate Kelly & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "On the afternoon of Feb. 24, President Trump declared on Twitter that the coronavirus was 'very much under control' in the United States, one of numerous rosy statements that he and his advisers made at the time about the worsening epidemic.... But hours earlier, senior members of the president's economic team, privately addressing board members of the conservative Hoover Institution, were less confident. Tomas J. Philipson, a senior economic adviser to the president, told the group he could not yet estimate the effects of the virus on the American economy. The next day, board members -- many of them Republican donors -- got [a similar] taste of government uncertainty from Larry Kudlow, the director of the National Economic Council. Hours after he had boasted on CNBC that the virus was contained in the United States ..., Mr. Kudlow delivered a more ambiguous private message [to the board].... A hedge fund consultant who attended the three-day gathering of Hoover's board..., wrote, 'What struck me ... was that nearly every official he heard from raised the virus 'as a point of concern, totally unprovoked.'... The president's aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent." Emphasis added. Investors & money managers immediately acted on the tips to adjust their portfolios.

** Trump's Plan to Kill Millions of Americans. Epidemiologists & infectious disease experts Marc Lipsitch, Gregg Gonsalves, Carlos del Rio. & Rochelle Walensky in a Washington Post op-ed: "President Trump has long seemed fascinated with the idea that herd immunity could provide an easy end to the coronavirus pandemic, even before his own diagnosis with covid-19 and his blithe declaration after he checked himself out of the hospital that no one should be afraid of getting it. 'With time, it goes away,' he told an ABC News town hall last month. 'And you'll develop -- you'll develop herd -- like a herd mentality. It's going to be -- it's going to be herd-developed, and that's going to happen. That will all happen.'... But now, the official policy of the Trump administration will be to try to speed up the arrival of herd immunity to the novel coronavirus by letting the virus infect people faster. Without a vaccine, though, this strategy risks the deaths of millions of Americans." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I must admit I am baffled by anyone who thinks killing millions of Americans will make him more popular or improve the economy or whatever it is Trump thinks killing off a sizable portion of the popular will do for him.

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Barron Trump, the teenage son of ... Donald Trump, contracted coronavirus along with his father and mother earlier this month, first lady Melania Trump revealed on Wednesday.... The first lady noted that Barron, 14, exhibited no symptoms...." Mrs. McC Warning: Do not read this story while enjoying a beverage; spit-takes are inevitable & you could ruin your keyboard.

Wherein Nancy Pelosi tells Wolf Blitzer he doesn't know what he's talking about (Washington Post link). ~~~

~~~ Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that a new economic relief bill is unlikely before the election, suggesting that Democrats are unwilling to give President Trump a victory. 'I'd say at this point getting something done before the election and executing on that would be difficult, just given where we are,' Mnuchin said during an event hosted by the Milken Institute's Global Conference."

The Execution of a Suspect. Evan Hill, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump praised the killing of Michael Reinoehl, suspected of fatally shooting a far-right protester, as 'retribution.' Our investigation found that officers may have shot without warning or seeing a gun.... On Sept. 3, about 120 miles north of Portland, Mr. Reinoehl was getting into his Volkswagen station wagon when a pair of unmarked sport utility vehicles roared through the quiet streets, screeching to a halt just in front of his bumper. Members of a U.S. Marshals task force jumped out and unleashed a hail of bullets that shattered windows, whizzed past bystanders and left Mr. Reinoehl dead in the street. Attorney General William P. Barr trumpeted the operation as a 'significant accomplishment' that removed a 'violent agitator.' The officers had opened fire, he said, when Mr. Reinoehl 'attempted to escape arrest' and 'produced a firearm' during the encounter. But a reconstruction of what happened that night, based on the accounts of people who witnessed the confrontation and the preliminary findings of investigators, produces a much different picture — one that raises questions about whether law enforcement officers made any serious attempt to arrest Mr. Reinoehl before killing him." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is what passes for "the rule of law" in an authoritarian regime.

Ryan Deto of the Pittsburgh City Paper: "Yesterday, the Baldwin home of Sean Troesch was raided by special agents from the United States Postal Service, who confiscated eight large garbage bags of suspected undelivered mail, according to KDKA. KDKA also reported that the post office said this latest haul didn't contain any discarded mail-in ballots.... According to screenshots of a Facebook page apparently belonging to Troesch, the mail carrier has been trafficking in conspiracy theories related to QAnon for at least the last several months." --s

A special report from the Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights "explores the breadth and depth of the network built by [Ammon] Bundy and named 'People's Rights.' What started in late March with a few dozen supporters in a rural Idaho warehouse has swiftly expanded to a membership base of over twenty thousand across the country. Relying on field reports, countless hours of video footage, interviews, archival material, and a massive trove of online data, report researchers have captured the first full picture of Ammon's army ... spurred by a fusion of Bundy's core of the far-right paramilitary supporters built up over years of armed standoffs with a mass base of new activists radicalized in protest over COVID-19 health directives." --s

Charles Blow of the New York Times buries his brother in a segregated cemetery.

Beyond the Beltway

UK. American exports. Shayan Sardarizadeh of BBC: "A wide-ranging conspiracy theory about elite Satan-worshiping paedophiles has migrated from the US, inspiring a series of regular street protests. How did QAnon find a British audience?... [O]utside the US, British followers lead the way. Our analysis of online data from the last three months puts the UK ahead of all European countries, followed by Germany and the Netherlands. Marc-Andre Argentino, a researcher at Concordia University in Montreal, has identified at least 114 [U.K] Facebook groups which spread QAnon content under the guise of campaigning against child trafficking. Membership of such groups has risen by more than 3,000 percent since July, he says.... [T]he upheaval of the pandemic created a perfect storm which helped QAnon find common ground with Covid-19 conspiracists." --s

Emma Briant of OCCRP: "A week before the parent company of Cambridge Analytica filed for bankruptcy, one of its employees opened a UK firm [Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) Group] that has since been providing similar 'behavioral modification' training to clients including the Canadian and Dutch militaries.... It's vital that scandals such as this are properly investigated to protect against unethical business practices, conflicts of interest, security issues and data rights infringements.... So far, this is not happening. Governments are failing us. Such firms continue to provide training, or engage directly, in tactics to influence the behavior of citizens. As if to underscore the negligence of U.K. authorities, the country's Information Commissioner's Office told me late last month that it had halted its investigation into data misuse, without making a public statement. It says it is no longer publishing a promised report on the content of SCL and Cambridge Analytica servers."--s