[guest post by Dana]

President Biden’s lawyers confirmed that classified documents from his time as vice president were discovered in a private office just days before the 2022 midterms (Nov. 2, to be precise):

Attorney General Merrick Garland has asked the *US attorney in Chicago to investigate the matter, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN, and congressional Republicans are also taking notice.

Biden’s lawyers say they found the government materials in November while closing out a Washington, DC-based office – the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement – that Biden used as part of his relationship with the University of Pennsylvania, where he was an honorary professor from 2017 to 2019.

Fewer than a dozen classified documents were found at Biden’s office, another source told CNN. It is unclear what the documents pertain to or why they were taken to Biden’s private office. Federal officeholders are required by law to relinquish official documents and classified records when their government service ends.

President Biden’s special counsel released a statement that made it clear that, upon discovery of the documents, established protocols were followed:

“The White House is cooperating with the National Archives and the Department of Justice regarding the discovery of what appear to be Obama-Biden Administration records, including a small number of documents with classified markings,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to President Biden, said in a statement. “The documents were discovered when the President’s personal attorneys were packing files housed in a locked closet to prepare to vacate office space at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C. The President periodically used this space from mid-2017 until the start of the 2020 campaign. On the day of this discovery, November 2, 2022, the White House Counsel’s Office notified the National Archives. The Archives took possession of the materials the following morning.”

“The discovery of these documents was made by the President’s attorneys…The documents were not the subject of any previous request or inquiry by the Archives. Since that discovery, the President’s personal attorneys have cooperated with the Archives and the Department of Justice in a process to ensure that any Obama-Biden Administration records are appropriately in the possession of the Archives.”

As you can imagine, Trump supporters and Biden detractors are up in arms about the revelation and what they see as hypocrisy. Donald Trump demanded to know when the FBI would be raiding President Biden’s home(s).

Experts point to a distinction between Trump and Biden’s classified documents situation:

Bradley Moss, a security clearances expert, told “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday that so far, and if no more problematic evidence emerges, the current president team’s conduct was different because of “the cooperation and the absence of obstruction in which they have engaged compared to what Donald Trump did.”

“So far, it’s completely apples to oranges here,” said Moss, who is the deputy executive director of the James Madison Project.

As of this morning, President Biden has not responded to questions about the classified documents:

As the press is herded out of the room, a reporter asks Biden: " Any response to the discovery of classified documents at your office?"

Biden does not answer. pic.twitter.com/baf4mFwSPP

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 10, 2023

(*U.S. Attorney John Lausch is a Trump nominee.)

UPDATE: Today President Biden addressed the question of whether he knew about the classified documents and whether the public should have been notified earlier:

“When my lawyers were clearing out my office at the University of Pennsylvania, they set up an office for me. Secure office in the Capitol. When I ran, the four years after being vice president, was a professor at Penn. They found some documents in a box. You know locked cabinet? Or at least a closet…And as soon as they did, I realized there were several classified documents in that box. And they did what they should have done. They immediately called the archives, immediately called the archives, turned them over to the archives.

And I was briefed about this discovery and surprised to learn that there are any government records that were taken there to that office. But I don’t know what’s in the documents. I’ve my lawyers have not suggested I ask what documents they were. I’ve turned over the boxes. They’ve turned over the boxes to the archives. And we’re cooperating fully, cooperating fully with the review, and which I hope will be finished soon. And there’ll be more detail at that time.

It appears that President Biden knew about the classified documents right after they were discovered. Given that this was 5 days before the midterm elections, I believe that the White House should have been up front with the American people about the discovery. I have no idea if it would’ve moved the voting needle one way or the other, but the optics are bad. It looks like a strategic decision was made to keep quiet about the documents because of the impending election. Considering that Democrats were already bracing for a red wave, they didn’t want to risk an even worse outcome. In other words, politics as usual.

–Dana

Judge Amy Berman Jackson, during Roger Stone’s sentencing hearing, made some eye-opening comments that I want to highlight. Some of it had to do with the Justice Department’s extraordinary reversal, and her desire to put the lawyers on the hot seat as a result. From the account in the New York Times:

“As I understand it, you are representing the United States of America,” she told John Crabb Jr., an assistant United States attorney, with a trace of sarcasm. “I fear you know less about the case, saw less of the testimony and exhibits than just about every other person in this courtroom.”

“Is there anything you would like to say about why you are the one standing here?” she asked.

Cold as ice. The story says “Mr. Crabb defended the prosecution as a ‘righteous’ effort to hold Mr. Stone to account for ‘serious’ crimes.” Extra Toady Points to Mr. Crabb for using the same word to describe the prosecution (“righteous”) that Bill Barr had used in his interview with ABC News.

Judge Jackson also said that Stone was prosecuted for “covering for” Trump:

In biting tones, Judge Jackson dismissed any notion that the case lacked merit.

She said that Mr. Stone hindered a congressional inquiry of national importance because the truth would have embarrassed the president and his 2016 campaign. The documentary evidence alone, she said, proved that Mr. Stone deceived the House Intelligence Committee about his efforts to obtain information from WikiLeaks about Democratic emails that had been stolen by Russian operatives who sought to influence the 2016 presidential election.

“He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president,” the judge said. In government inquiries, she added, “the truth still exists. The truth still matters.” Otherwise, she said, “everyone loses.”

This does not mean that she is saying Trump conspired with the Russian government in a manner that is prosecutable, but it does mean that the Trump campaign (specifically Steve Bannon and Rick Gates) had contacts with Wikileaks, through Stone and his confederates. And Stone wanted to cover that up, at least on behalf of Donald Trump’s political well being, if not because he thought a crime had been committed.

Judge Jackson also made it clear that the original recommendation was entirely consistent with DoJ policy. And the prosecutor agreed:

Crabb: There was nothing in bad faith with the initial prosecution team’s recommendation.

ABJ: It’s not about bad faith. It was fully consistent with current DOJ policy, wasn’t that true?

Crabb: Yes

— Andrew Prokop (@awprokop) February 20, 2020

I don’t have time this morning to do a detailed post about how the Justice Department backed off of its revised memo on the Roger Stone sentencing in favor of positions taken in the initial memo that so upset Bill Barr and Donald Trump. Maybe this weekend if I feel motivated and there’s interest. Suffice it to quote from the linked Hill article:

On Thursday … Justice Department prosecutor John Crabb, a recent addition to Stone’s case, defended the original memorandum and a key argument for imposing a stiffer sentence.

“It was done in good faith,” Crabb told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, an Obama appointee, before she handed down Stone’s sentence.

. . . .

Crabb also supported a key portion of the original sentencing recommendation that was based in part on Stone’s conduct toward Randy Credico, a comedian and radio host who testified at the trial.

. . . .

[O]n Thursday, Crabb told Jackson that the Justice Department stood behind its initial judgment that the threat against Credico should increase the severity of Stone’s sentence.

“Our position is this enhancement applies,” Crabb said. “And we ask the court to apply it.”

That enhancement was the key enhancement that increased the original recommendation by several years. Following two livetweet feeds of the proceedings, I was stunned to see this concession. It seems that the Justice Department is trying to regain the credibility it has blown through this fiasco. Not so fast, fellas. That’s going to take a lot of time, a new Attorney General, a new President, and even more time still.

Anyone who says the lower sentence “vindicates” Trump or Barr either didn’t read the original memo, has their thinking clouded by partisan views, or both. I predicted 30 months purely based on the original memo, and that was low. The original memo made it clear that there were countervailing factors. It was not difficult to read between the lines and Judge Jackson made it clear that she had not discounted the original memo — which, she noted, had never actually been withdrawn by the government.

All in all, a tawdry episode that will continue to repeat itself as long as Donald Trump is the president. He can’t leave fast enough.

[guest post by Dana]

This is really unbelievable. Well, it would be if it was any other president…

Just days before the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that left nearly 3,000 dead, there was to have been a a meeting to discuss peace at Camp David with leaders of the Taliban, who recently justified al Qaeda’s attack on 9/11. We are now learning that the meeting has been cancelled because Taliban members admitted to killing 12 innocent people, including one US soldier in a car bomb attack on Thursday:

Of course it’s incredible that a sitting U.S. president would invite leaders of the Taliban, a solidly untrustworthy organization that has allied themselves to al-Qaeda, to the private country retreat of U.S. presidents to talk peace and give them political legitimacy in doing so.

After Trump informed America about the meeting and subsequent cancellation, his loyal supporters provided cover for him for having invited Taliban leaders to Camp David in the first place. Most spectacularly, Rep. Liz Cheney manipulatively defended the President, not by what she said, but by what she didn’t say:

Camp David is where America’s leaders met to plan our response after al Qaeda, supported by the Taliban, killed 3000 Americans on 9/11.

No member of the Taliban should set foot there. Ever.

The Taliban still harbors al Qaeda.
The President is right to end the talks.

— Liz Cheney (@Liz_Cheney) September 8, 2019

While everything she said in the tweet is true, she is simultaneously asking all of us to believe that Trump had nothing to do with signing off on hosting Taliban leaders at Camp David days before the anniversary of 9/11. Cheney knows better, and we know better. She is willing to sacrifice credibility to protect the President and some bad decision making. A decision that is being defended by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:

If you’re going to negotiate peace, you often have to deal with some pretty bad actors.

[…]

I know the history, too, at Camp David. Indeed, President Trump reflected on that — we all considered when debating how to try and get to the right ultimate outcome. Well, there have often been discussions about war at Camp David. There have been discussions about peace there as well. There have been some been pretty bad actors travel through that place throughout recorded history. It’s an important place. It’s a place where we thought we could convince all the leaders of Afghanistan — President Ghani and his team, as well as the Taliban — we could convince them to begin to head in a direction that would create better conditions on the ground in Afghanistan not only for the Afghans, but better security for the American people as well.”

Here is some background on the peace agreement document that was finalized, at least “in principle”:

That deal, criticized by Afghan officials for lacking measures that would ensure stability, would include a timeline of about 16 months for a gradual withdrawal of the remaining 14,000 American troops, with about 5,000 of them leaving in 135 days after its signing. In return, the Taliban would provide counterterrorism assurances to ease American fears of repeat of attacks on home soil — such as the attacks by Al Qaeda on Sept. 11, 2001, that precipitated the war in Afghanistan.

Afghan officials said the American side had taken the liberty of negotiating on their behalf the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners in Afghan prisons. Mr. Ghani’s government found that unacceptable, and said it would agree to it only if the Taliban reciprocated with an extensive cease-fire — something the insurgents are reluctant to do at this stage of the talks, with violence their main leverage.

The final rounds of negotiations — and even Mr. Trump’s invitation for a summit meeting at Camp David — had occurred during a period of intensifying violence, including the killing of American soldiers…

The White House is discussing new dates for a possible meeting. Dates and locations were not mentioned.

While @BarackObama is slashing the military, he is also negotiating with our sworn enemy the Taliban–who facilitated 9/11.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2012

(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)

–Dana

[Headlines by DRJ]

I want to share this comment by Paul Montagu:

[T]he story of Francisco Erwin Galicia–the American citizen who was held by CBP/ICE for 26 days and was not released until after the media got wind–just gets worse.

First, border chief Brian Hastings lied to Congress when he said that Galicia never claimed to be a US citizen. There is literally a DHS document where some minion wrote down that “you falsely represented yourself to be a citizen of the United States.”

Second, I’m pretty sure that CBP/ICE violated the 8th Amendment (the one about “…nor cruel and unusual punishment inflicted”) when, during his confinement without a shred of due process, Mr. Galicia lost 26 pounds, was denied a shower during his confinement, and “had to sleep under a foil blanket in a packed holding area.”

Even if not a citizen, our federal government shall not inflict cruel and unusual punishment on human beings, but this is all the worse because he is a citizen and he literally had a wallet-sized birth certificate, Social Security card and Texas ID card on his person. US citizenship should be the gold standard, the golden ticket, meaning that citizenship should mean something. We are supposed to be treated humanely, it’s our birthright, no matter the alleged transgression, but not so this administration.

Galicia discussed his treatment on MSNBC — US citizen released by ICE: ‘We went through something inhumane’:

“From my experience, we went through something inhumane, all of us who were in that detention center,” Francisco Erwin Galicia said in an interview with MSNBC’s “All In with Chris Hayes” on Friday.

“There, we couldn’t bathe or brush our teeth. Nothing. You didn’t have anything. The only thing that they would give us from time to time, to clean ourselves were wipes,” he added.

Paul’s links include a Dallas Morning News’ article where this story was first reported. The Hill has also reported on it:

Galicia was detained while traveling to a soccer scouting event with his younger brother, Marlon, who is not a citizen and the “illegal alien” Hastings referred to.

When the two brothers reached a CBP checkpoint in Falfurrias, Texas, Marlon only had a school ID card, while Francisco Galicia had his Texas ID, which can only be obtained with a Social Security number.

Francisco Galicia was later transferred to an ICE facility on the belief that his documents were fraudulent, while his brother signed a voluntary deportation form and has been staying in Reynosa, Mexico.

This story is concerning. I don’t know if it is relevant but it is common for people in Texas with ties to Mexico to cross the border, especially in the Summer and on holidays. I can’t tell if Galicia was confused at being detained, or this was about protecting his brother, or if someone is lying.

— DRJ

It is Christmas Eve. Today’s Bach piece is his Christmas Oratorio:

Today’s Gospel reading is Luke 2:1-14, (15-20). I usually use the New International Version for Gospel readings, but I’ll be relying on the King James Version for this passage, for reasons I will explain:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)

To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

When I sang in the Sage Chapel Choir (an institution that has unfortunately since been disbanded) at Cornell University, the choir was led by the late Donald Patterson. He would read this passage at the Christmas Eve service, and in his gravelly bass voice he would put a particular aggrieved sort of emphasis on the word “taxed.” As if it was an outrage that all the world should be taxed. I’ll never forget his voice reading those words, and so I cannot sanction the New International Version’s interpretation of the passage as “Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.” Where’s the fun in that??

Similarly, Professor Patterson’s voice would shake with drama on the words “sore afraid” in this line: “And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.” I will not be replacing that language with “and they were terrified.” Sorry not sorry.

The text of today’s piece is available here. It contains (among many passages) these words:

Es begab sich aber zu der Zeit,
dass ein Gebot von dem Kaiser Augusto ausging,
dass alle Welt geschätzet würde.

Which translates as:

And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

My italics. I raise a glass to you, Professor Patterson!

I’m going to give you a couple of bonus pieces of music this evening. The first goes with Luke’s words quoting the angel of the Lord: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” Here is Handel’s aria “For unto us a child is born” from Messiah:

And as a final bonus, here’s Jay Semko singing his quirky version of his song “It’s Christmas Eve”:

Happy listening! Soli Deo gloria.

[Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.]

Painful to watch. I have been prone to coughing fits like this myself, though never in front of thousands of people. I imagine it’s tough to get through a talk this way. But, as commonplace as a coughing fit like this can be, she has to be dreading that it might hit during a debate. Given the state of our electorate, there’s no doubt that one coughing fit lasting even a third as long as this during a debate would do her in.

Meanwhile, for the fraction who care more about substance, here is Ben Shapiro noting all the new evidence showing Hillary’s criminal intent. A sample:

1. Hillary Used TONS Of Different Devices. According to the FBI, Hillary used at least 13 mobile devices “associated with her two known phone numbers.” That blows up her original lie that she set up a private server so that she could use one email address and one device.

2. Her Aides Destroyed Her Old Blackberrys…Or Lost Them. The FBI report states that Hillary’s aides were tasked with discarding of Hillary’s SIM cards when she’d switch devices – but “[Huma] Abedin and [Monica] Hanley indicated the whereabouts of Clinton’s devices would frequently become unknown once she transitioned to a new device.” According to another aide, he destroyed Hillary’s cellphones by hitting them with a hammer.

3. Hillary Told The FBI She Had No Idea How Classified Intelligence Worked. Yes, that’s right – the Most Qualified Candidate In World History™ admitted to the FBI that she had no idea how classification worked. The FBI explained, “Clinton could not give an example of how classification of a document was determined…[she] did not recall receiving any emails she thought should not be on an unclassified system.” She even said that a classified email regarding a drone strike in Pakistan didn’t present a problem: “Clinton stated deliberation over a future drone strike did not give her cause for concern regarding classification.”

4. Hillary Hid 17,448 Work Related Emails From The State Department. The FBI reported that they’d “recovered from additional data sources and reviewed approximately 17,448 unique work-related and personal e-mails from Clinton’s tenure.” Hillary has claimed that she turned over all work-related emails and was fully transparent.

Nah, forget substance. A new online poll taken over 21 days shows Trump doing well. Release the hounds.

[guest post by Dana]

This weekend’s episode of Saturday Night Live had a fake PSA directed at white people: your days of privilege and dominance are numbered.

On a side note, it’s ironic that in almost 40 years of SNL, there have been no Latino cast members (if you don’t count Chilean comedian, Horatio Sanz, and Venezuelan, Fred Armisen).

–Dana

Coincidentally, that will keep patterico.com dark through the election.

I do believe it’s a coincidence, by the way.

Some people are telling me it’s not. They remind me that my problems started a couple of days after I posted proof that Obama’s career was “launched” in Bill Ayers’s living room. They tell me that the problems got worse after I told the people who were trying to scrub that evidence: “you’re going to have to crash my site and come get my laptop. Because it turns out that I saved a screenshot.” They point out that, less than 48 hours later, my site did “crash” — because my domain disappeared.

Maybe I’m being naive, but I don’t think so. I believe I’m facing massive incompetence, thievery, or very possibly a deliberate combination of the two.

It feels like evil intent — but not for political reasons. It feels like cyberextortion — people going after the almighty dollar. Commenters have pointed out corporate ties between 1&1, which can’t seem to process my timely renewal, and Sedo/Domcollect, which stood to profit from 1&1’s failure. Usually, corporate incompetence does not earn the corporation money — but 1&1 and its related companies have found a way to make money off of their own slipshod procedures.

I’m not going to say you’re wearing a tinfoil hat if you see a political conspiracy. I’m just going to disagree with you.

The latest e-mail from 1&1 is in the extended entry:

(more…)

[Guest post by DRJ]

Look what top law firms do to attract young lawyers:

“In Perkins Coie’s Chicago office, members of the firm’s “happiness committee” recently left candied apples on everyone’s desks. Last month, the happiness committee surprised lawyers, paralegals and assistants in the Washington office with milkshakes from a local Potbelly Sandwich Works, a favorite lunch spot.

“That’s the whole beauty of it all — it’s random acts of kindness,” said Lori Anger, client relations manager of Perkins Coie, which is based in Seattle. “We have pretty strict hours, so it’s a nice way to surprise people.”
***
The benefits go beyond the laptops and BlackBerrys, late-night rides home, Friday beer-and-pretzel fests and sports tickets that are standard fare at many large and midsize law firms. Many of the new perks recognize a lifestyle change that law firms are just coming to grips with.
***
On offer now are concierge services, in which a lawyer can have the equivalent of a personal valet pick up theater and sports tickets, the dry cleaning, take a car to the repair shop or even choose a Halloween costume.

“We compete in terms of having a life,” Ms. Anger said. “We don’t compete by dangling a lot of material perks.” Unusual in the industry, Perkins Coie offers pet insurance.”

Starting salaries for associates can be $160,000 in top markets, with bonuses of $45,000 to $85,000, but billable hour requirements have also continued to increase. In addition, firms offer benefits like on-site child care or paid emergency nannies, sabbaticals, and more:

“For example, Sullivan & Cromwell, another old-line firm, with more than 600 lawyers, guarantees the first $100,000 of mortgages of associates who have been with the firm for at least six months.

DLA Piper, the nation’s largest law firm, reimburses employees $2,000 when they buy a hybrid car. Fulbright & Jaworski offers on-site tailoring and reimbursements to employees who buy a Subaru, Nissan or General Motors vehicle. “In our business, people are our main asset so our benefits are designed to keep people happy and healthy,” a spokesman for DLA Piper, Jason Costa, said.

Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson, a 600-lawyer firm based in New York, offers employees a service akin to a personal issues coach and psychotherapist through a deal with Corporate Counseling Associates of Manhattan. The consulting firm has a battery of staff psychologists and social workers to provide advice on issues including stress, anxiety, depression and divorce.”

Depending on where the firm is located, additional perks include catered food, yoga, or recliners:

“The new perks are separate from the wining and dining that top law firms conduct each year for their summer associates, whom they hope to lure back after they finish law school.

Still, the parties and the food for lawyers are getting better. “We’re not talking a ham sandwich and a cup of coffee anymore,” said William M. O’Connor, a partner in the boutique litigation firm of Crowell & Moring, which is based in Washington. Crowell & Moring recently began giving wine parties at its New York office, with tuna tartare, baby lamb chops and vegetable trays. One associate requested that the firm “explore Spanish wines,” a spokeswoman related, so Crowell & Moring recently provided bottles of a 2001 Rondan and a 2005 Olivares Altos de la Hoya.

At Cravath, Swaine & Moore’s New York office, lawyers who work into the evenings can have dinner delivered, on a silver tray, from the Palm restaurant, a hot spot for media and financial executives.
***
It is true that many of the perks have a lifestyle flavor. O’Melveny & Myers, a large California-based law firm with offices in Asia, holds yoga classes at its Newport Beach office for lawyers and their staffs.

And Kilpatrick Stockton, a large firm with offices throughout the Southeast, has a nap room in its Raleigh, N.C., office, complete with a reclining chair, sofa and travel alarm clock. “Yes, it gets used, “ said Carol Vassey, the chief administrator in the Raleigh office, though rarely for more than 15 minutes at a time.”

Not everyone likes the new legal order:

“Forget the pet insurance and concierge services: that’s setting up people’s lives, and I find that appalling,” said Mitchell S. Roth, a principal at Much Shelist Denenberg Ament & Rubenstein, a comparatively small firm based in Chicago. “The perk we offer in our world is a culture of collegiality and training.”

Still, Mr. Roth acknowledged that Much Shelist occasionally brought in a masseuse. “It’s for morale,” he said.”

It’s a battle for talent. May the best firm win, although clients don’t seem as supportive of this as attorneys are. Maybe it has something to do with being charged $300+/hour.

— DRJ

[guest post by Dana]

Here are a few news items to chew over. Feel free to share any stories that you think will interest readers. Make sure to include links.

First news item

Exactly how is this helpful during a pandemic??

The University of Alabama made headlines this week with the shocking announcement that more than 500 students, faculty, and staff had tested positive for the coronavirus in the first five days of classes. But professors at the university say they were just as disturbed by emails from the administration telling them not to speak up about outbreaks.

In an email to the politics department, professors were explicitly instructed not to tell their students if someone in a class tests positive.

“Do not tell the rest of the class,” the email reads, with the word “not” underlined. It goes on to say that students who test positive are not considered an exposure risk if masks were worn and social distancing was practiced—meaning the students and professor may never be informed if someone in their class tests positive.

Multiple other emails from other departments reviewed by The Daily Beast warn teachers against telling students about a positive classmate or posting about it on social media, even in the most general terms, claiming it could constitute a HIPAA violation.

(H/T Simon Jester)

Second news item

More angry youth using unorthodox tactics to campaign for Trump:

Man and his wife leaving White House get mobbed on their way back to their hotel by livid protesters. pic.twitter.com/qnpPTfReS3

— Phillip Nieto (@nieto_phillip) August 28, 2020

Third news item

Asking the obvious:

Windows of businesses and residential buildings being smashed on University Avenue — which were not preemptively boarded up. This Papa John’s employee asks protesters, “Do you want Trump to be elected?” pic.twitter.com/IbSubGfGs6

— Dylan Brogan (@telldylan) August 26, 2020

Eh, the pizza guy should read In Defense of Looting, and see if the author can persuade him that…

…looting is a powerful tool to bring about real, lasting change in society. The rioters who smash windows and take items from stores, she says, are engaging in a powerful tactic that questions the justice of “law and order,” and the distribution of property and wealth in an unequal society.

Fourth news item

This, all day long:
(Do not skip, watch in its entirety.)

MUST SEE: Democratic state Rep. John Deberry Jr. delivers an incredibly powerful speech on race in America. pic.twitter.com/Q34HouVGYC

— MRCTV (@mrctv) August 24, 2020

Fifth news item

Promises, promises:

President Trump on Thursday pledged a Covid-19 vaccine would be available by the end of 2020, the most concrete claim he has made yet about the timetable for coronavirus vaccine development.

“We are delivering life-saving therapies, and will produce a vaccine before the end of the year, or maybe even sooner,” he said.

While Trump has repeatedly hinted at a possible vaccine approval before the end of 2020, his pledge Thursday marks his most definitive stance yet on a vaccine timetable. While it is possible that the Food and Drug Administration could issue emergency authorization for a vaccine by the end of the year, it is far from a sure bet — no drug company has completed clinical trials for a Covid-19 vaccine.

Sixth news item

Oh, no:

Finally today, Nevada researchers have confirmed the first US case of COVID-19 reinfection, involving a 25-year-old Nevada patient. The patient was first infected in April, then 48 days later tested positive after two negative tests following the first infection.

The viral genomes of the first and second isolates show differences that indicate the two infections were independent of each other.

Seventh news item

Another doctor diminishes profession’s credibility with attempt to justify a familar double-standard:

CNN guest Dr. Rob Davidson says that social distancing isn't as big of a concern at the March on Washington as it was last night at President Trump's speech because "this is a public health crisis they are marching against. Systemic racism has taken so many lives in this country" pic.twitter.com/OlrY3yMmin

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 28, 2020

Reports estimate that 50,000 demonstrators showed up at the March on Washington rally to demand racial justice. There were 1,500 guests in attendance at the White House. Covid doesn’t care one iota about why you are gathered in ridiculously large numbers during a pandemic. Either there is an increased risk of transmission when crowded together with other individuals, or there isn’t. You don’t get to have it both ways. Shame on these medical professionals. If there was ever a time we needed to be able to trust them, it’s during a pandemic.

Eighth news item

Jerks to the left of me, jerks to the right:

Watch as someone who looks a lot like Trump-loving evangelical author and radio host Eric Metaxas sucker punches an anti-Trump protester following Trump's RNC speech last night. https://t.co/bS1JYcIHI5 pic.twitter.com/AzVDeQGwUi

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) August 28, 2020

(H/T lurker)

And, just because we’re sizzling through the dog days of summer, here is a gorgeous recording of “Summertime” by Ella Fitzgerald and Louie Armstrong, followed by an excerpt of Vivaldi’s “Summer” from the Four Seasons:

More summertime:

Have a great weekend.

–Dana