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Editor's Choice: Scroll below for our monthly blend of mainstream and alternative August 2020 news and views.Note: Excerpts are from the authors' words except for subheads and occasional "Editor's notes" such as this.
Aug. 15
Top Headlines
- Washington Post, Trump’s assault on the U.S. Postal Service gives Democrats a new campaign message
- Washington Post, Opinion: The media must keep up red-alert coverage of Trump’s attacks on Postal Service, Margaret Sullivan
Virus Updates, Responses
2020 U.S. Election Updates
- Washington Post, Live updates: Obama accuses Trump administration of trying to suppress mail-in votes
- Washington Post, Trump says he’s blocking Postal Service funding because Democrats want to expand mail-in voting
- Washington Post, As he attacks mail-in votes, Trump and the first lady requested absentee ballots in Florida
Washington Post, The Democratic National Convention convenes Monday — mostly virtually. Here’s what you need to know- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via OpEdNews, Opinion: The DNC Platform Still Matters But Joe Biden Must Actually Go to Wisconsin Often During the Campaign, Robert Weiner and Ben Lasky
- Washington Post, Discontent with McCarthy rises as GOP considers post-Trump world
Inside DC
Washington Post, Top DHS officials aren’t legally eligible for their roles, GAO finds
World News
- Washington Post, U.N. rejects extension of arms embargo against Iran
Top Stories
Washington Post, Trump’s assault on the U.S. Postal Service gives Democrats a new campaign message, Rachael Bade, Erica Werner and Seung Min Kim, Aug. 15, 2020 (print ed.).
Add to listDemocrats say that President Trump’s assault on the U.S. Postal Service has handed them a new political message in the 2020 election, with a chance to make inroads with constituencies who have long favored Republicans.
High-profile Democrats from former president Barack Obama to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sounded the alarm Friday about the president’s moves to denigrate government-run mail services, decrying it as an assault on democracy and the needs of citizens who rely on its daily deliveries.Those most affected by reports of slowdowns in delivery services include veterans, senior citizens and rural residents who have long voted Republican, arming Democratic challengers and incumbents with a salient campaign issue. Democrats are already blanketing the airwaves, latching on to the opportunity to highlight support for an institution that has a 91 percent approval rating, according to an April survey by the Pew Research Center.
Washington Post, Opinion: The media must keep up red-alert coverage of Trump’s attacks on Postal Service, Margaret Sullivan, right, Aug. 15, 2020. It’s a hard story to cover effectively, but journalists have to find a way because democracy depends on it this fall, a media columnist writes.Washington Post, Analysis: Trump’s words on mail voting could complicate GOP efforts to curtail it, Jacqueline Alemany, Aug. 15, 2020 (print ed.). The president's admission on why he's holding up Postal Service funding could also come to haunt Republicans if they seek to challenge results not in Trump's favor.Virus Updates, Responses
New York Times, Live updates: Firm Overseeing Federal Virus Data Refuses Senators’ Questions, Staff reports, Aug. 15, 2020 (print ed.). The company cited a nondisclosure agreement. In other news: As tax revenues plummet, states face an estimated $555 billion budget gap over the next two years; An estimated 90 percent of California’s six million schoolchildren will start the school year online, Gov. Gavin Newsom said. The private health care technology vendor that is helping to manage the Trump administration’s new coronavirus database has refused to answer questions from top Senate Democrats about its $10.2 million contract, saying it signed a nondisclosure agreement with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
In a letter obtained by The New York Times, dated Aug. 3, a lawyer for the Pittsburgh-based TeleTracking Technologies cited the nondisclosure agreement in refusing to provide information about its process for collecting and sharing data; its proposal to the government; communications with White House staff or other officials; and any other information related to the award.
A spokeswoman for Department of Health and Human Services said members of Congress should direct their inquiries to the government, not the company. But Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Health Committee, sent a letter to the agency in June seeking similar information and has not received a reply, her office said.
The arrangement was unusual, Jessica Tillipman, an assistant dean at George Washington University Law School who teaches about government contracts and anti-corruption, said in an interview.
2020 U.S. Election Updates
Washington Post, Live updates: Obama accuses Trump administration of trying to suppress mail-in votes, Staff reports, Aug. 15, 2020 (print ed.). Biden and Harris sign official documents to appear on state ballots as Democratic ticket; Amid eroding support from female voters, Trump tweets support for women’s suffrage statue.
Former president Barack Obama accused the Trump administration of trying to suppress votes by sabotaging the U.S. Postal Service, the latest in an escalating battle over the integrity of the upcoming election.“Everyone depends on the USPS. Seniors for their Social Security, veterans for their prescriptions, small businesses trying to keep their doors open,” Obama wrote Friday on Twitter. “They can’t be collateral damage for an administration more concerned with suppressing the vote than suppressing a virus.”
Obama linked to a podcast interview he did with his former campaign manager David Plouffe, in which he criticized President Trump’s management of the pandemic and praised former vice president Joe Biden for his selection of Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) as a running mate.
Washington Post, Discontent with McCarthy rises as GOP considers post-Trump world, Rachael Bade, Aug. 15, 2020 (print ed.). Discontent with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is on the rise in the House, as Republicans increasingly fearful of a loss by President Trump on Election Day gear up for an intraparty war over the future of the GOP.A cluster of GOP lawmakers is starting to privately question whether the California Republican, left, is putting loyalty to the president over the good of the conference. And a small group of members is discussing whether someone should challenge him for minority leader if Trump is defeated Nov. 3.The matter bubbled to the surface this week with the primary election of Marjorie Taylor Greene, a fringe House candidate in Georgia who espouses the QAnon conspiracy theory and has made numerous racist comments. Multiple Republicans implored McCarthy to help defeat her by supporting her primary opponent. But McCarthy refused, phoning the candidate in an apparent peace accord before the primary, while Trump embraced her on Twitter this week as a “future Republican Star.”
However, the frustration with McCarthy had already been brewing for weeks as Trump’s polling has sagged behind presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden. According to interviews with more than 10 House Republicans — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to be frank — some GOP lawmakers are worried that McCarthy has tied the conference too much to Trump, refusing to stand up to the president or act as a buffer to distinguish the conference from him.
Others are also furious that he did not shield them from a recent Trump campaign demand that House members donate to the president’s reelection effort.
“There’s no doubt that McCarthy is a Trump loyalist, through and through,” said Doug Heye, a former House GOP leadership staffer who has known McCarthy personally for decades. “I think the challenge for everyone in the Republican conference is, at some point there will be a post-Trump world — whether that’s coming in three months or later. What direction does the party go?”
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel via OpEdNews, Opinion: The DNC Platform Still Matters But Joe Biden Must Actually Go to Wisconsin Often During the Campaign, Robert Weiner and Ben Lasky, Aug. 14, 2020. While some events will still take place in Milwaukee during the Democratic National Convention next week, it's sad that the city will not be the site of Joe Biden's acceptance speech. He could have spoken to a room of a hundred people spaced out in a ballroom.
It is important that Biden return to Wisconsin many times before the election to show the importance that he places on the state.
However, the convention still matters. In Congress, one of the enormous and regularly missed media opportunities is all the committees' annual reports that lay out their agendas. Stories on those would be scoops on the bills to come.
That's what the Democratic Platform does, except sooner.
The upcoming convention won't have the pomp and circumstance that it has in the past. Major speeches will take place in the speaker's home or city (Wilmington, Del.). But Biden's campaign has worked with many of his former competitors in the primaries for months to put together the platform.
Right after the opening ceremonies on Monday, the body will hear and vote the Platform Committee report. It's one of the least visible but most important parts of the convention. If ...
New York Times, Election Integrity
Stop fretting about Trump and do something about it. Right now!
-- Dana Milbank, Washington Post
Mission Statement
Andrew Kreig
JIP Editor
The Justice Integrity Project (JIP) researches official misconduct
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Broadcast and lecture audiences can count on the Project's director to deliver blunt, entertaining and cutting-edge commentary about public affairs, with practical tips for the millions of Americans caught up in unfair litigation or regulation.
Based in Washington, DC, Andrew Kreig is an accomplished fighter for the public interest. Learn from his decades of reporting, analysis and advocacy:
• Shocking tales of recent corruption, deception and cover-up by both parties in communities ranging from small towns to world capitals; and
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Recent shows:
Deep State Political Analysis
McDuff Channel Podcast,
" John OLoughlin, host of the podcast McDuff: JFK's Man To Smash the CIA, interviews JIP Editor Andrew Kreig on Oct. 21, 2019., as the third show in a series about the latter's book on Presidential Puppetry: Obama, Romney and Their Masters, which documents hidden influencers on U.S. presidents during recent decades (80:26 min. video).McDuff Channel Podcast,
, interview by John OLoughlin at Lafayette Park / White House, Washington, DC (7 min. livestream video.). Two DC-based attorney / researchers discuss power structures in the nation's capital after attending the annual Red Mass at the historic Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle on Sunday.This year's celebrants included, as usual in recent years, Chief Justice John Roberts, as well as several other justices, prominent members of the U.S. foreign service and regional bar, as well as presidential cabinet members, including Attorney General William Barr and recently confirmed Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia.
The McDuff Channel, available here and entitled in full "McDuff: Kennedy's Man To Smash the CIA," presents cutting-edge commentaries on current events inspired by the late president's battles against Deep State intelligence networks. Later segments:
- McDuff: , Streamed live on Nov 26, 2019.
- McDuff: , Nov. 29, 2019.
Salem Radio Network, JIP Director Andrew Kreig interviewed on 2020 Democratic candidates, Jane Silk, left, co-host of the Silk-Antrim Show on the Main Street Radio Network, Aug. 22, 
2019.
WMRD 1420 AM / WLIS 1150 AM (Middletown and Old Saybrook, Connecticut), JIP Director Andrew Kreig interviewed on the Phil Mikan Show, Aug. 21, 2019 (56 min.). Phil Mikan, right, a longtime broadcaster, interviews the Justice Integrity Project's editor on his latest reporting about the late pedophile and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein's death and other complex national news developments.
Midnight Writer News Podcast, 'Presidential Puppetry' with Andrew Kreig, Host S.T. Patrick, Dec. 19, 2018 (Episode 105). Andrew Kreig, the 
director of the Justice Integrity Project and the author of Presidential Puppetry, joins S.T. Patrick to discuss presidential politics of the last 40 years. What should we have known about George H.W. Bush, Bill & Hillary Clinton, George W. Bush, John Kerry, John Edwards, and John McCain?
Kreig takes a non-partisan approach to dissecting the pros, cons, misdeeds, and motivations of American presidential and vice-presidential candidates, dating back decades. In the interview, Kreig covers the Bush dynasty, why Reagan chose Bush in 1980, 
Bush and the October Surprise, the Willie Horton ad, The Election of 1992, Ross Perot's deficiencies, what Fletcher Prouty still teaches us, the legitimacy of Bob Dole's 1996 nomination, the value of Jack Kemp, Bush v Gore, The Two Johns: Kerry & Edwards, the real John McCain, and much more.
Kreig also discusses current events with us, including the Corsi/Stone vs Mueller situation and the unbelievable resolution of the Jeffery Epstein trial in Palm Beach. Andrew Kreig can be read and followed at the Justice Integrity Project.
Wiki Politiki, The Latest REAL News on the 9/11 Attacks and Finding Truth in a Sea of Lies, Steve Bhaerman, Dec. 18, 2018. An Interview with Andrew Kreig, Author, Attorney, Broadcaster and Founder of the Justice Integrity Project. Did you know that In a letter dated November 7, 2018, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York notified the Lawyers Committee for 9/11 Inquiry that he would comply with the provisions of 18 U.S.C. § 3332 requiring him to present to a special grand jury the Lawyers' Committee's reports filed earlier this year of unprosecuted federal crimes at the World Trade Center?
You didn't? That's because mainstream media makes it its business to insure that anything that points to the nefarious doings of the real deep state is "none of its business.” The misinformation, disinformation and missing information that pollute corporate news have created the perfect field for "real" fake news to flourish.
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