“Democrat” in quotes, get it?

State and local leaders in Oregon, as well as members of Congress, have called for Trump to remove Department of Homeland Security secret police forces from Portland, Oregon, after videos showed unidentified federal personnel rounding up people and whisking them away in black minivans.

“Not only do I believe he is breaking the law, but he is also endangering the lives of Portlanders,” the city’s mayor, Ted Wheeler, tweeted, having previously called the federal presence “political theater” in an election year.

Get the “secret police” too? Not in quotes. Go Reuters.

And what about that mayor? Lives of Portlanders not endangered as matters stand? City up for grabs, and he talks like this. And he is a Democrat, hasn’t just been called one. It’s a matter of public knowledge, though in some quarters that’s not a recommendation.

Chapter and verse, folks.   About the New York fiasco.

More than three weeks after the New York primaries, election officials have not yet counted an untold number of mail-in absentee ballots, leaving numerous closely watched races unresolved, including two key Democratic congressional contests.

The absentee ballot count — greatly inflated this year after the state expanded the vote-by-mail option because of the coronavirus pandemic — has been painstakingly slow, and hard to track, with no running account of the vote totals available.

In some cases, the tiny number of ballots counted has bordered on the absurd: In the 12th Congressional District, where Representative Carolyn B. Maloney is fighting for her political life against her challenger, Suraj Patel, only 800 of some 65,000 absentee ballots had been tabulated as of Wednesday, according to Mr. Patel, though thousands had been disqualified.

From Byron York via email:

People are right to be worried. When someone tells you that voting by mail is nothing to worry about, be skeptical.

Do I worry? Do I give a bag of beans? You can bet your life I do.  From the incomparable Ink Spots.