The Fiction Review: President Trump in a briefing yesterday claimed that most of the US is “corona free” while renewing his claim that the discredited drug hydroxychloroquine  is a cure for the disease caused by the coronavirus.
  His claims clash with all evidence to the contrary both about the spread of the disease and the drug that has been medically eliminated as a possible cure. Trump’s own government says 21 states are in the “red zone” for spread of the coronavirus, 28 in “yellow,” and only one, Vermont, is described as “green.”
  Trump had shared an online video featuring a doctor named Stella Immanuel, who claims that  hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug, works on the coronavirus. She also said “You don’t need masks” to prevent spread of the coronavirus.
  Immanuel is a pediatrician and a religious minister who has previously claimed that that scientists are working up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious and the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.
  She might be on to something there.
  Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, all took down the video because it violated their policies on sharing misinformation about the virus.
  Trump also whined that his administration’s health officials, Dr. Deborah Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci are more popular than he is. “He’s got this high approval rating,” Trump said. “Why don’t I have a high approval rating — and the administration — with respect to the virus?”
  It might have something to do with the numbers. The US is doing worst in the world. Brazil is not even a close second with 2.5 million cases and 88,000 deaths.
  As of this morning, the US has had 4,352,304 cases of the coronavirus and 149,260 deaths.
Barr the Door: In an appearance before a House committee yesterday, Attorney Gen. William Barr defended the federal response to protests in city streets his own intervention in the criminal cases of the President’s friends. “The president’s friends don’t deserve special breaks, but they also don’t deserve to be treated more harshly than other people,” he said. “And sometimes that’s a difficult decision to make, especially when you know you’re going to be castigated for it.”
  About the federal response in Portland, Oregon “What unfolds nightly around the courthouse cannot reasonably be called protests,” Barr said. “It is by any objective measure an assault on the government of the United States.”
 Barr has clearly become an instrument of the President rather than an independent agent of the law. In five hours of questioning, Barr battled and stonewalled. Democratic questioners barely laid a glove on him.
  “You have aided and abetted the worst failings of the president,” Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said at the start of the hearing. Barr gave no reaction.
Laundry Day: President Trump’s campaign is violating federal election law by funneling close to $250 million to date through private companies in order to hide the ultimate recipients of the money, including his son Eric’s wife and Don Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a watchdog group charged in a complaint filed yesterday.
 “The money is being laundered through corporations run by top Trump campaign officials,” said Brendan Fischer, a lawyer with the Campaign Legal Center. “That has the effect of keeping the public in the dark as to a big chunk of Trump campaign spending.”
  The group’s complaint with the Federal Election Commission asks for an investigation to put an end to the practice and to punish the campaign with fines.
  Federal campaign finance gives Americans the right to know where candidates and political organizations get their money, and how they spend it. “What precisely is being hidden is unknown. We don’t know for sure,” Fischer said.
The Bulletin Board: Joe Biden says he will announce his vice president choice next week. He has promised it will be a woman and he’s under pressure to make it a black woman. — Reducing outlets for public debate, the Turkish legislature yesterday passed a law giving the government sweeping power over social media content. The social media companies would be required to block or remove content deemed offensive. — Another five members of the Miami Marlins baseball team have tested positive for the coronavirus, bringing the total to 17. — The American Federation of Teachers has approved “safety strikes” if schools reopen without proper coronavirus safety precautions.
Shark Week: A New York woman has been identified as the first known fatal shark attack victim in the state of Maine.
 Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, of New York City, died Monday after a great white shark bit her 20 yards off the western shore of Bailey Island.  After she was bitten, two kayakers hauled her to shore, but she died before medical help arrived.
  Holowach’s daughter was a swimming with her, but made it safely to shore.
  A friend described Holowach as a “whiz” of the fashion industry who had recently retired. Holowach had a hand in the Kipling brand.
  The shark was identified as a great white from a broken-off tooth. Holowach and her husband have been long-term summer residents of Bailey Island. She was wearing a wetsuit at the time of the attack, leading to speculation that the shark may have mistaken her for a seal, a source of food for sharks.

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