Attention to the Unseen

Politico reports: The health department is moving quickly on a highly unusual advertising campaign to “defeat despair” about the coronavirus, a $300 million-plus effort that was shaped by a political appointee close to President Donald Trump and executed in part by close allies of the official, using taxpayer funds. The ad blitz, described in some budget documents as the “Covid-19 immediate surge public advertising and awareness campaign,” is expected to lean heavily on video interviews between administration officials and celebrities,…

Read More Read More

  NBC Boston reports: Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker launched into a passionate defense of mail-in voting Thursday that included fiery criticism of President Donald Trump’s recent refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses this fall to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. “A huge part of this nation’s allure, to the extent it exists, is the peaceful transmission of power based on the vote of people in this country,” Baker said. “Mail-in balloting has been with…

Read More Read More

Politico reports: Following his defeat in the 2016 Iowa caucus, Donald Trump accused Ted Cruz of cheating and said the results should be nullified. After winning the presidency that fall, Trump insisted, without evidence, that there was “serious voter fraud” in three states he lost to Hillary Clinton. Now, running behind Joe Biden in the polls, the president complains the outcome will be “rigged.” After more than four years of nonstop voter fraud claims, insinuations that he might not accept…

Read More Read More

The New York Times reports: Senior Pentagon leaders have a lot to worry about — Afghanistan, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Iran, China, Somalia, the Korean Peninsula. But chief among those concerns is whether their commander in chief might order American troops into any chaos around the coming elections. President Trump gave officials no solace on Wednesday when he again refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power no matter who wins the election. On Thursday he doubled down by saying…

Read More Read More

Timothy L. O’Brien writes: [A]mid all the hand-wringing over what he may or may not do, don’t let Trump snatch away your own agency and attention. David Axelrod, as canny and experienced a political observer as there is, reminded everyone not to get overly distracted by Trump’s performance art. “You do wonder if the POTUS would sooner have us talking about his outrageous comments on the election than the 202,000 dead of COVID-19 or the 870,000 additional Americans who filed…

Read More Read More

The New York Times reports: Myanmar is a poor country struggling with open ethnic warfare and a coronavirus outbreak that could overload its broken hospitals. That hasn’t stopped its politicians from commiserating with a country they think has lost its way. “I feel sorry for Americans,” said U Myint Oo, a member of parliament in Myanmar. “But we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.” The same sentiment prevails in Canada, one of the most developed…

Read More Read More

CNN reports: A former senior military adviser to President Donald Trump has endorsed Joe Biden for president. Retired Gen. Paul Selva, former vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is one of nearly 500 national security experts and former officials who signed a letter in support of Biden over Trump in an open letter to America. Selva was re-nominated to the Joint Chiefs by Trump in 2017 after being first appointed by President Barack Obama in 2015. As vice…

Read More Read More

The Guardian reports: China has built nearly 400 internment camps in Xinjiang region, with construction on dozens continuing over the last two years, even as Chinese authorities said their “re-education” system was winding down, an Australian thinktank has found. The network of camps in China’s far west, used to detain Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities, include 14 that are still under construction, according to the latest satellite imaging obtained by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. In total ASPI…

Read More Read More

Barton Gellman writes: There is a cohort of close observers of our presidential elections, scholars and lawyers and political strategists, who find themselves in the uneasy position of intelligence analysts in the months before 9/11. As November 3 approaches, their screens are blinking red, alight with warnings that the political system does not know how to absorb. They see the obvious signs that we all see, but they also know subtle things that most of us do not. Something dangerous…

Read More Read More