The Commentariat -- September 29, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Alex Horton & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The senior military leaders who oversaw last month's withdrawal from Afghanistan returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday, a day after all three acknowledged the war's chaotic and deadly conclusion was a 'strategic failure' that came after President Biden rejected their recommendations to retain troops there." A New York Times story is here.

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Business groups and some Senate Republicans — working at cross-purposes with Republican leaders in the House -- have mounted an all-out drive to secure G.O.P. votes for a bipartisan infrastructure bill ahead of a final vote on Thursday. Although the measure is the product of a compromise among moderates in both parties, House Republican leaders are leaning on their members to reject the $1 trillion infrastructure bill by disparaging its contents and arguing that it will only pave the way for Democrats to push through their far larger climate change and social policy bill.... How the conflicting pressure campaigns play out could determine the fate of the infrastructure bill. On Tuesday, liberal Democrats accused Ms. Pelosi of a betrayal for abandoning her promise that the House would not take up the infrastructure bill until after the Senate secured passage of the larger measure. While Democratic leaders are working hard to secure as many of those liberal votes as possible, they know defections will have to be made up by House Republicans."

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Infrastructure Week Never Goes Well. Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "Negotiations between the White House and top Democratic lawmakers intensified Tuesday as President Biden scrambled to save roughly $4 trillion in economic initiatives from an embarrassing setback at the hands of his own party. For Biden, the day of diplomacy sought to blunt a fast-worsening congressional stalemate: An upcoming House vote on a $1 trillion plan to improve the nation's infrastructure remains imperiled as Democrats clash over the size and scope of a second spending package.... To try to break the logjam, Biden huddled with ... [Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.)] in a series of meetings at the White House on Tuesday. But their negotiations did not immediately appear to produce an agreement over the final size of the spending package, frustrating liberals who have pledged in the absence of a deal to scuttle a vote on the infrastructure package expected in the House later on Thursday." ~~~

~~~ So Not Business as Usual. Fadel Allassan of Axios: "President Biden has canceled a trip to Chicago on Wednesday and will stay in Washington to continue negotiations on key pieces of his legislative agenda, a White House official confirmed Tuesday.... It's a sign of how crucial the coming days of talks will be if Biden is to advance his $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package and his flagship infrastructure bill...." ~~~

~~~ We're Against It & We Won't Say What We're For. Marianne Levine & Burgess Everett of Politico: “Democrats wanted clarity Tuesday from Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema after back-to-back meetings with President Joe Biden. They didn't get it. During a private meeting with the president, Sinema made clear she's still not on board with the party's $3.5 trillion social spending plan and is hesitant to engage on some specifics until the bipartisan infrastructure package passes the House, according to a person who spoke with her.... After returning from his White House meeting, Manchin said that he did not give Biden a top-line number and made 'no commitments from my standpoint.'" ~~~

~~~ Sahil Kapur, et al., of NBC News: "House progressives are digging in on their resistance to passing the infrastructure bill this week, repeating their threat to block the measure despite Speaker Nancy Pelosi's call to pass it quickly and tackle the social safety net package later. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the progressive caucus, whic boasts 95 House members, told NBC News that 'nothing has changed' and more than half her caucus is prepared to vote down the infrastructure bill if it comes up before the larger tax-and-spending bill has passed the Senate.... 'We have to understand we're in the situation of mutually assured destruction here...,' [Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., told NBC News.]... But among Democrats in both chambers, there is growing frustration with centrist Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., for rejecting the $3.5 trillion level without specifying what they would support. Some on the left blame them for holding up both bills."

"I Can't Pay the Rent" -- Yellin. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Tuesday warned lawmakers of 'catastrophic' consequences if Congress failed to soon raise or suspend the statutory debt limit, saying inaction could lead to a self-inflicted economic recession and a financial crisis. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing where she testified alongside the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, Ms. Yellen laid out in explicit terms what she expects to happen if Congress does not deal with the debt limit before Oct. 18, which Treasury now believes is when the United States will actually face default." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Pentagon leaders publicly acknowledged on Tuesday that they advised President Biden not to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan ahead of a chaotic evacuation in which 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bombing and 10 Afghan civilians were killed in an American drone strike. During an expansive Senate hearing on the war in Afghanistan, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also defended his actions in the tumultuous last months of the Trump administration, insisting that calls to his Chinese counterpart and a meeting in which he told generals to alert him if the president tried to launch a nuclear weapon were part of his duties as the country’s top military officer. Some six hours of public testimony from senior Pentagon leaders were at times acrimonious and at times verging on political theater. Republican senators who had in the past defended President Donald J. Trump's desire to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan demanded resignations from military leaders who carried out a Democratic president’s orders to withdraw." ~~~

~~~ Lara Seligman of Politico: "Top generals told lawmakers under oath on Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan -- directly contradicting the president's comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.... Gen. Kenneth 'Frank' McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services in a hearing Tuesday that he recommended maintaining a small force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan earlier this year. He also noted that in the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, he advised that the U.S. maintain a force almost double the size, of 4,500 troops, in Afghanistan.... McKenzie's remarks directly contradict Biden's comments in an Aug. 19 interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos, in which he said that 'no one' that he 'can recall' advised him to keep a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.” Gen. Mark Milley said he agreed with McKenzie's testimony. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “Republicans on the Senate Armed Services Committee didn’t just give a dressing down to the nation's top soldier about the Afghanistan pullout; they assassinated his character and impugned his patriotism, accusing him of aiding the enemy and of placing his own vanity before the lives of the men and women serving under him. And this is the man ... Donald Trump nominated to be chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.... Had the senators listened, they would have learned from the generals that they uniformly opposed staying in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31 because it would have resulted in 'significant' U.S. casualties, that Trump's withdrawal agreement with the Taliban was violated by the Taliban from the start and left Afghan security forces demoralized, and that [President] Biden faced the very real risk of the situation escalating into another war if he didn’t withdraw. But that was difficult to hear much beyond the Republicans' heckling[.]"

Tim Scott Is a Republican. Of Course He Lied. Felicia Sonmez & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Two of the country's largest groups representing police officers said Tuesday that 'defunding the police' was not proposed in the policing reform negotiations that fell apart in Congress last week, in an apparent pushback against the lead Republican negotiator's claim. The International Association of Chiefs of Police and the Fraternal Order of Police said in a joint statement Tuesday that ... 'Despite some media reports, at no point did any legislative draft propose "defunding the police."'... After the talks fell apart without a deal, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.), the lead Republican negotiator, blamed Democrats, claiming that their push to 'defund' law enforcement made it impossible to agree on legislation. President Biden, Democratic congressional leaders, and [Rep. Karen] Bass [D-Calif.] and [Sen. Cory] Booker [D-N.J.] have rejected the idea of slashing police departments' budgets."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "More than four years after leaving office, Barack Obama broke ground on Tuesday on his presidential center on the South Side of Chicago, a legacy project that has been bogged down by a lengthy discord over its use of a public park and its potential impact on a historically neglected part of the city. In an hourlong ceremony that was scaled down because of the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Obama and Michelle Obama ... scooped up dirt with commemorative shovels at the 19-acre site in Jackson Park, near the shores of Lake Michigan. Joining the Obamas for the groundbreaking, which was streamed online, were Gov. J.B. Pritzker of Illinois and Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago.... Mr. Obama ... said that the presidential center would become a catalyst for job growth and economic development in the place where he came of age as a politician, husband and father. The project, he said, would also turn Chicago's South Side into a destination.... In a departure from similar projects recognizing former presidents, the center won't actually be a presidential library. It won't house Mr. Obama's presidential papers, which will be digitized -- a decision that has been a sore point for some presidential observers. Mr. Obama envisioned that the center would host concerts, cultural events, lectures, trainings and summits." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Ha! And you thought the first presidential* "library" without books would be Trump's. I can think of a few books that you will find in the Obama center: go to the gift shop & there are sure to be copies of books that President & Mrs. Obama wrote.

Say What? Betsy Swan & Lara Seligman of Politico: "On Jan. 6, more than 30 minutes after the first attackers breached barricades erected to protect the Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security sent an incongruous update to the Pentagon. 'There are no major incidents of illegal activity at this time,' read an internal Army email sent to senior leaders at 1:40 p.m. that day, referring to an update the service had just received from DHS's National Operations Center (NOC).... 'These emails raise serious questions about the response to the threat of January 6th,' said Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government watchdog group that obtained the email through a public records request and shared it with Politico.... The Pentagon did receive more accurate information about the threat on Jan. 6 via frequent communications throughout the day with other agencies, as well as lawmakers, the White House, the DC mayor and the local law enforcement." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you consider the claims made by whistleblower Brian Murphy, a former top staffer in the DHS's Office of Intelligence & Analysis, it's not too hard to suspect that DHS purposely chose not to inform the Pentagon about the attack on the Capitol.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Federal judges for months have questioned whether no-prison plea deals offered by the government to low-level Jan. 6 defendants are too lenient to deter future attackers from terrorizing members of Congress. Now judges can decide for themselves, after prosecutors for the first time are requesting jail time at a sentencing hearing scheduled Wednesday morning for a nonviolent misdemeanor offender in the U.S. Capitol breach. Derek Jancart, an Air Force veteran from Ohio who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, is the first of three misdemeanor defendants facing sentencing this week in cases prosecutors hope will yield home confinement or time behind bars.... And Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan warned Dawn Bancroft of suburban Philadelphia to prepare to explain her actions at sentencing after she pleaded guilty to misdemeanor trespassing at the Capitol and sent a video on Facebook of herself saying: 'We broke into the Capitol.... We got inside, we did our part,' and adding, 'We were looking for Nancy to shoot her in the friggin' brain, but we didn't find her.'"

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Stephanie Grisham, the former Trump White House press secretary perhaps best known for >never holding a televised briefing with reporters, plans to release a tell-all book next week that accuses ... Donald J. Trump of abusing his staff, placating dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia, and making sexual comments about a young White House aide. In her book, titled 'I'll Take Your Questions Now,' Ms. Grisham recalls her time working for a president she said constantly berated her and made outlandish requests, including a demand that she appear before the press corps and re-enact a certain call with the Ukrainian president that led to Mr. Trump's (first) impeachment, an assignment she managed to avoid. 'I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic,' Ms. Grisham writes, offering a reason for why she never held a briefing." Rogers lists some highlights. The Washington Post's review was linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ digby republishes much of the dish reported by the WashPo's reviewer. It's all funny, in a horrifying sort of way.

Biggest Loser Loses Again. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has lost an effort to enforce a nondisclosure agreement against Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide and a star on 'The Apprentice' who wrote a tell-all book about serving in his administration. The decision in the case, which Mr. Trump's campaign filed in August 2018 with the American Arbitration Association in New York, comes as the former president is enmeshed in a number of investigations and legal cases related to his private company.... The decision, dated on Friday and handed down on Monday, calls for her to collect legal fees from the Trump campaign.... The arbitrator, Andrew Brown, said that the definition of the type of comment protected by the nondisclosure agreement was so vague that it had been rendered meaningless. What was more, he wrote, the statements Ms. Manigault Newman had made hardly included privileged information." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Catrin Einhorn of the New York Times: "The ivory-billed woodpecker, which birders have been seeking in the bayous of Arkansas, is gone forever, according to federal officials. So is the Bachman's warbler, a yellow-breasted songbird that once migrated between the Southeastern United States and Cuba. The song of the Kauai O'o, a Hawaiian forest bird, exists only on recordings. And there is no longer any hope for several types of freshwater mussels that once filtered streams and rivers from Georgia to Illinois. In all, 22 animals and one plant should be declared extinct and removed from the endangered species list, federal wildlife officials planned to announce on Wednesday. The announcement ... comes amid a worsening global biodiversity crisis that threatens a million species with extinction, many within decades." ~~~

     ~~~ Matthew Brown of the AP: "The factors behind the disappearances vary -- too much development, water pollution, logging, competition from invasive species, birds killed for feathers and animals captured by private collectors. In each case, humans were the ultimate cause.... All 23 were thought to have at least a slim chance of survival when added to the endangered species list beginning in the 1960s. Only 11 species previously have been removed due to extinction in the almost half-century since the Endangered Species Act was signed into law."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "The side effects Americans experienced from a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine are similar to those from a second dose, according to a study released Tuesday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... Data from nearly 12,600 people who received a third dose of a coronavirus vaccine by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna showed that side effects -- which were described as mostly mild to moderate, and occurring the day after vaccination -- were prevalent at similar rates to those from a second vaccine dose during the regular course."

Micah Lee of the Intercept: "A network of health care providers pocketed millions of dollars selling hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and online consultations, according to hacked data provided to The Intercept. The data show that vast sums of money are being extracted from people concerned about or suffering from Covid-19 but resistant to vaccinations or other recommendations of public health authorities. America's Frontline Doctors, a right-wing group founded last year to promote pro-Trump doctors during the coronavirus pandemic, is working in tandem with a small network of health care companies to sow distrust in the Covid-19 vaccine, dupe tens of thousands of people into seeking ineffective treatments for the disease, and then sell consultations and millions of dollars' worth of those medications.... America's Frontline Doctors, which debuted in the summer of 2020, has close ties to a network of right-wing efforts to undermine public health during the pandemic, including the Tea Party Patriots. AFLDS's founder, physician Simone Gold, was arrested and charged after the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6.... The extremely partisan group also misleads people about Covid-19 vaccines, which they refer to as 'experimental biological agents,' and against public health measures like vaccine mandates, masking, social distancing, and restrictions on businesses." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The story helps you see that many Covid-19 vaccine skeptics are not behaving irrationally. If the folks on your favorite TV channel keep telling you not to trust what you read & hear in the MSM, if "your" doctor tells you the vaccine is an "experimental biological agent" & urges you to swallow dewormer pills instead, if she tells you masks & social distancing are unnecessary impositions on your "freedom," if the Internet "news" sites you read and most of your friends agree with this advice, then it makes "sense" for you to reject vaccines and masks. Sure, you're a nincompoop, but you're not a crazy nincompoop.

Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "Nearly all of United Airlines' U.S.-based employees have been vaccinated, the company said Tuesday, touting the success of its policy after becoming the first U.S. carrier to require the vaccine among its workforce. United's deadline for meeting the requirement was Monday, and the carrier said Tuesday it has begun the process of terminating 593 employees who declined to be vaccinated and did not apply for a health or religious exemption. The company said less than 3 percent of its roughly 67,000 workforce applied for exemptions, while 1 percent didn't comply." MB: Mandates work.

** NEW. Alabama. Kim Chandler of the AP: "Facing a Justice Department lawsuit over Alabama's notoriously violent prisons, state lawmakers on Monday began a special session on a $1.3 billion construction plan that would use federal pandemic relief funds to pay part of the cost of building massive new lockups. Gov. Kay Ivey has touted the plan to build three new prisons and renovate others as a partial solution to the state's longstanding troubles in its prison system.... U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York sent a letter Monday to Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen asking Treasury to 'prevent the misuse of (American Rescue Plan) funding by any state, including Alabama' to build prisons. 'Directing funding meant to protect our citizens from a pandemic to fuel mass incarceration is, in direct contravention of the intended purposes of the ARP legislation,' Nadler wrote in the letter." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Why not use it to buy yourself a gubernatorial airplane, Kay? And/or trips to the spa? Because those are just as much representative of Congress's intentions for use of pandemic funds as is your prison scheme.

NEW. Connecticut. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Over the summer, an anonymous tipster reached out to the Connecticut Department of Public Health ... [to complain that] Sue McIntosh, a retired physician, was mailing fake coronavirus vaccine and mask exemption forms to those who reached out and followed her instructions, the person reported. All a requester had to do, the tipster wrote, was send McIntosh a stamped and self-addressed manila envelope 'for every person you would like an exemption for.'... The probe revealed that McIntosh sent out fraudulent coronavirus vaccine exemption forms using the same modus operandi the tipster had described. It also found that she would issue fake exemption forms to help people evade coronavirus testing, mask and other vaccine requirements. She did this without ever seeing a patient, the state's health department said.... Last week, the Connecticut Medical Examining Board suspended McIntosh's physician and surgeon license during an emergency meeting following the results of the state health department's investigation."

North Carolina. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that roughly 175 unvaccinated employees were fired for failing to comply with the organization's mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy, the latest in a series of health-care dismissals over coronavirus immunization.... [A spokesperson] told The Washington Post that more than 99 percent of the system's roughly 35,000 employees have followed the mandatory vaccination program." MB: Mandates work. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "The man who stormed into the newsroom of a community newspaper chain in Maryland's capital in 2018, killing five staff members, was sentenced on Tuesday to five consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, according to prosecutors. The man, Jarrod W. Ramos, 41, had pleaded guilty in October 2019 to 23 charges, including five counts of first-degree murder, for the shooting at the Capital Gazette newspaper offices in Annapolis on June 28, 2018, one of the deadliest attacks on American journalists. The Anne Arundel County State's Attorney's Office announced the sentence after a two-hour hearing.... The state's attorney's office said in a statement that Mr. Ramos also was sentenced to a sixth life term for the attempted first-degree murder of one person who survived the shooting. He was also sentenced to an additional 345 years on other charges, including assault and firearms counts.... In July, a jury deliberated for less than two hours before finding that Mr. Ramos was sane at the time of the attack and criminally responsible for his actions."

Virginia. Sarah Rankin of the AP: "Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin clashed Tuesday evening over vaccinations, tax policy, education and their respective records in the second and final debate in Virginia's closely watched gubernatorial election. The event quickly got off to a combative start and neither candidate let up over the course of the hour, with each accusing the other of lying to voters. Five weeks from Election Day and with early voting already underway, recent polls suggest a tight race between McAuliffe, who is seeking a second term after his first ended in 2018, and Youngkin, a former business executive and political newcomer." The Washington Post's report is here.

Way Beyond

France. Vive la Liberté. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron urged Europeans to 'come out of their naivete' on the world stage and assert their independence from the United States, sending one of the strongest signals to date that the diplomatic crisis prompted by a disrupted submarine deal could have long-lasting repercussions on transatlantic relations."

Japan. Mari Yamaguchi of the AP: "Japan's former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida won the governing party leadership election on Wednesday and is set to become the next prime minister, facing the imminent task of addressing a pandemic-hit economy and ensuring a strong alliance with Washington to counter growing regional security risks. Kishida replaces outgoing party leader Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year since taking office last September. As new leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Kishida is certain to be elected the next prime minister on Monday in parliament, where his party and coalition partner control the house. Kishida beat popular vaccinations minister Taro Kono in a runoff after finishing only one vote ahead of him in the first round where none of the four candidates, including two women, was able to win a majority."

North Korea. Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "North Korea said Wednesday that it launched a 'hypersonic' missile for the first time, in what marks the latest advance in its expanding weapons program and a milestone in a project officials had identified as a top military priority. Hypersonic missile systems are some of the latest warfare technology being developed by military powers such as China, Russia and the United States. The weapons fly faster and at lower altitudes than traditional ballistic missiles, allowing them to maneuver more flexibly. They are being developed to eventually carry nuclear warheads." An AP story is here.

U.K. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson put British army troops 'on standby' to work as truck drivers to haul fuel to gas stations where supplies have been emptied by panic buying and labor shortfalls -- not to mention Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. Supply chain disruptions and attendant shortages of goods are hitting countries around the globe, including the United States. But Britain appears on the forefront of the chaos -- where recovery from the pandemic is colliding with steep labor shortages, driven by the end of free movement of workers from Eastern Europe who were handling the low-wage jobs Britons take a pass on -- in nursing homes, slaughter houses and on the highways." MB: Hey, Queen Elizabeth drives a truck; call her up. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Lede

New York Times: "Ten days into a volcanic eruption on the Spanish island of La Palma, a pyramidlike structure formed on Wednesday just off its coast as lava started pouring into the ocean. The local authorities called on residents on Wednesday morning to keep their windows shut because a mix of toxic gases and small particles may be released when molten lava comes into contact with cold water. Scientists have also been warning that the chemical reactions between lava and water could cause powerful underwater explosions. The lava entering the water should be treated as 'a very dangerous moment,' said Ángel Víctor Torres, the regional leader of the Canary Islands, an island grouping off northwestern Africa that includes La Palma."

The Commentariat -- September 28, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of a Senate hearing interrogating Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin & Gen. Kenneth McKenzie are here: "Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended his actions in the tumultuous last months of the Trump administration, insisting that calls to his Chinese counterpart and a meeting in which he told generals to alert him if the president tried to launch a nuclear weapon were all part of his job duties as the country's most senior military officer."

Lara Seligman of Politico: "Top generals told lawmakers under oath on Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan -- directly contradicting the president's comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.... Gen. Kenneth 'Frank' McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services in a hearing Tuesday that he recommended maintaining a small force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan earlier this year. He also noted that in the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, he advised that the U.S. maintain a force almost double the size, of 4,500 troops, in Afghanistan.... McKenzie's remarks directly contradict Biden's comments in an Aug. 19 interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, in which he said that 'no one' that he 'can recall' advised him to keep a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan." Gen. Mark Milley said he agreed with McKenzie's testimony.

"I Can't Pay the Rent" -- Yellin. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Tuesday warned lawmakers of 'catastrophic' consequences if Congress failed to soon raise or suspend the statutory debt limit, saying inaction could lead to a self-inflicted economic recession and a financial crisis. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing where she testified alongside the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, Ms. Yellen laid out in explicit terms what she expects to happen if Congress does not deal with the debt limit before Oct. 18, which Treasury now believes is when the United States will actually face default."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Stephanie Grisham, the former Trump White House press secretary perhaps best known for never holding a televised briefing with reporters, plans to release a tell-all book next week that accuses President Donald J. Trump of abusing his staff, placating dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia, and making sexual comments about a young White House aide. In her book, titled 'I'll Take Your Questions Now,' Ms. Grisham recalls her time working for a president she said constantly berated her and made outlandish requests, including a demand that she appear before the press corps and re-enact a certain call with the Ukrainian president that led to Mr. Trump's (first) impeachment, an assignment she managed to avoid. 'I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic,' Ms. Grisham writes, offering a reason for why she never held a briefing." Rogers lists some highlights. The Washington Post's review is linked below.

Biggest Loser Loses Again. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has lost an effort to enforce a nondisclosure agreement against Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide and a star on 'The Apprentice' who wrote a tell-all book about serving in his administration. The decision in the case, which Mr. Trump's campaign filed in August 2018 with the American Arbitration Association in New York, comes as the former president is enmeshed in a number of investigations and legal cases related to his private company.... The decision, dated on Friday and handed down on Monday, calls for her to collect legal fees from the Trump campaign.... The arbitrator, Andrew Brown, said that the definition of the type of comment protected by the nondisclosure agreement was so vague that it had been rendered meaningless. What was more, he wrote, the statements Ms. Manigault Newman had made hardly included privileged information."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that roughly 175 unvaccinated employees were fired for failing to comply with the organization's mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy, the latest in a series of health-care dismissals over coronavirus immunization.... [A spokesperson] told The Washington Post that more than 99 percent of the system's roughly 35,000 employees have followed the mandatory vaccination program." MB: Mandates work.

U.K. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson put British army troops 'on standby' to work as truck drivers to haul fuel to gas stations where supplies have been emptied by panic buying and labor shortfalls -- not to mention Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. Supply chain disruptions and attendant shortages of goods are hitting countries around the globe, including the United States. But Britain appears on the forefront of the chaos -- where recovery from the pandemic is colliding with steep labor shortages, driven by the end of free movement of workers from Eastern Europe who were handling the low-wage jobs Britons take a pass on -- in nursing homes, slaughter houses and on the highways." MB: Hey, Queen Elizabeth drives a truck; call her up.

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Miriam Jordan & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration plans to publish a proposed rule on Tuesday in hopes of preserving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults from deportation and allowed them to legally work in the United States. The proposal is especially important given a recent decision by the Senate parliamentarian to not allow immigration provisions to be included in a sprawling budget bill, which Democrats had hoped would put DACA recipients on a path to citizenship. The new rule, to be published in The Federal Register, would go into effect after the administration considers public input during a 60-day comment period. It would protect some 700,000 undocumented people brought to the United States as children from being deported or losing their work permits, even if Congress does not pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Robert Burns & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "In their first public testimony since the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, top Pentagon leaders will face sharp questions in Congress about the chaotic pullout and the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country.... Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are slated to testify Tuesday in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee and then on Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as head of Central Command oversaw the withdrawal, will testify as well." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating Tuesday's hearings here.

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Two top Fed officials are leaving their posts amid scrutiny over their stocktrading activities during the covid crisis, behavior which spurred an unusual review by the Federal Reserve of trading rules for its officials. Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan both announced their retirements on Monday. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and other outlets reported on the financial disclosures of the regional bank presidents, showing that both actively traded in stocks and other investments while in their roles setting monetary policy and assisting the central bank through the covid crisis.... Rosengren and Kaplan's behaviors don't help the Fed's public perception, which is why Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said last week that the central bank's existing guidelines around financial activity 'is now clearly seen as not adequate to the task of really sustaining the public's trust in us.'"

Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose: “Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, the Marine officer ... [who criticized] military leadership over Afghanistan, is currently in the brig, his father told Task & Purpose.... After this story was first published, the Marine Corps issued a statement confirming that Scheller has been sent to the brig. 'Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,' said Capt. Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command.... Scheller published his first video on the same day that a suicide bomber attacked Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey gate, killing 11 Marines, one sailor, and one Army special operator.... The next day, Scheller posted on Facebook announcing that he had been relieved as battalion commander ... at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.... On Aug. 29, he made a YouTube video from inside what he described as 'an abandoned school bus in Eastern North Carolina,' in which he vowed to resign his commission and proclaimed, 'Follow me and we will bring the whole f---king system down.' Following that video, the Marine Corps announced in a statement that it had taken steps to 'ensure the safety and well-being of Lt. Col. Scheller and his family....'" Scheller has posted two more videos since, both extremely critical of military command. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The father's protestation that "all our son did was ask questions" is disingenuous. It seems to me a hospital would be a better place for Stuart than the brig.

Uh, Yikes!? Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California signaled to Democrats on Monday that she would push ahead with a vote this week on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, pushing to salvage President Biden's agenda in Congress even as the party remained divided over a broader social safety net measure. Progressive lawmakers have long warned that they will not vote for the infrastructure legislation, which the Senate passed last month, until a far more expansive $3.5 trillion domestic policy and tax package also clears the chamber. But in private remarks to her caucus on Monday evening, Ms. Pelosi effectively decoupled the two bills, saying that Democrats needed more time to resolve their differences over the multitrillion-dollar social policy plan. The move amounted to a gamble that liberals who had balked at allowing the infrastructure bill to move on its own would support it in a planned vote on Thursday. It also left unclear the date of the more costly social safety net package, which Democrats are pushing through using the fast-track reconciliation process to shield it from a Republican filibuster." Politico's story is here.

Wake Up, Wake Up, It's Not the 1990s Any More. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... some Democrats seem to have formed their perceptions about both economics and politics during the Clinton years and haven't updated their views since.... Specifically, some Democrats still seem to believe that they can succeed economically and politically by being Republicans lite. It's doubtful whether that was ever true. But it's definitely not true now.... The voting behavior of white working-class voters seems more driven by racial resentment than ever.... It doesn't matter how much ['moderate' Democrats] force [President] Biden to scale back his ambitions; it doesn't matter how many pious statements they make about fiscal responsibility. Republicans will still portray them as socialists who want to defund the police, and the voters they're trying to pander to will believe it. So my plea to Democratic 'moderates' is, please wake up. We're not in 1999 anymore, and your political fortunes depend on helping Joe Biden govern effectively."

"The Party of Default." Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown this week and a federal debt default next month, moving the nation closer to the brink of fiscal crisis as they refused to allow Democrats to lift the limit on federal borrowing. With a Thursday deadline looming to fund the government -- and the country moving closer to a catastrophic debt-limit breach -- the stalemate in the Senate reflected a bid by Republicans to undercut President Biden and top Democrats at a critical moment, as they labor to keep the government running and enact an ambitious domestic agenda. Republicans who had voted to raise the debt cap by trillions when their party controlled Washington argued on Monday that Democrats must shoulder the entire political burden for doing so now...." NPR's story is here.

Sinema Monetizes the Big-Ticket Bill at an "Undisclosed Location." Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the inscrutable Democrat who may hold the key to passing her party's ambitious social policy and climate bill, is scheduled to have a fund-raiser on Tuesday afternoon with five business lobbying groups, many of which fiercely oppose the bill. Under Ms. Sinema's political logo, the influential National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and the grocers' PAC, along with lobbyists for roofers and electrical contractors and a small business group..., have invited association members to an undisclosed location on Tuesday afternoon for 45 minutes to write checks for between $1,000 and $5,800, payable to Sinema for Arizona."

William Vaillancourt of Rolling Stone: "A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower leveled a series of bombshell accusations Sunday in his first television interview, accusing his Trump administration superiors of pressing for manipulated intelligence on three critical subjects: Russian support for Donald Trump, the Mexican border, and the white supremacist threat inside the United States. Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, filed a whistleblower complaint last year -- as well as a handful of internal complaints and reports -- that all painted a frightening picture of how things were running in the department tasked with keeping Americans safe. 'From the outset, there were three things that I was told that we would look to manipulate intelligence on and bend the truth about,' Murphy told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. 'And I told them upfront that I wasn't going to do it.'... Murphy said he felt 'intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative' -- accusing administration officials of demanding information be manipulated to burnish Trump's image and help his messaging[.]" (Also linked yesterday.)

Isaac Arnsdorf of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump empowered associates from his private club to pursue a plan for the Department of Veterans Affairs to monetize patient data, according to documents newly released by congressional investigators. As ProPublica first reported in 2018, a trio based at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort weighed in on policy and personnel decisions for the federal government's second-largest agency, despite lacking any experience in the U.S. government or military. While previous reporting showed the trio had a hand in budgeting and contracting, their interest in turning patient data into a revenue stream was not previously known.... 'Patient data is, in my opinion, the most valuable assets [sic] the VA has,' a consultant said in a June 2017 email released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. 'It can be leveraged into hundreds of millions in revenue' by selling access to major companies, he said.... The documents do not show what became of the plan or whether the VA ever sold access to patient data."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Sometimes, and much to our detriment, we find real events are simply too outlandish to take seriously. Many professional Republicans, for example, initially dismissed the movement to 'Stop the Steal' as a ridiculous stunt.... Now, 10 months after the election, 'Stop the Steal' is something like party orthodoxy, ideological fuel for a national effort to seize control of election administration and to purge those officials who secured the vote over Donald Trump's demand to subvert it.... The upshot is that we are on our way to another election crisis.... Despite the danger at hand, there doesn't appear to be much urgency among congressional Democrats -- or the remaining pro-democracy Republicans -- to do anything.... We should secure our elections against whatever threat might materialize because if there is anything our history tells us, it's that everything looks settled until one day it isn't."

Damon Linker of the Week, while taking Ross Douthat to task, makes the point that Donald Trump is capable of inspiring chaos after the 2024 election because "the one political talent Trump does possess ... is the demagogic manipulation of public opinion...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Knowing what we know now, what surprises me the most is that Trump did so little to present a cogent argument to convince his puppydog pence to throw the election. It seems likely that just bringing in a couple of "legal scholars" & a buddy from the DOJ to tell pence he had the authority to toss state slates of electors would have persuaded mike to roll over & let Trump stroke his belly. And if that had happened, what about the Supremes? I don't know how they all would have voted in an inevitable Democratic challenge to the Trumpence shenanigans, but I would guess that Thomas, Alito & the Trump dwarfs -- Gorsuch, O'Kavanaugh & Barrett -- all would have taken Trump's calls. And Al Gore tells me that a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling can decide the presidency.

[Democrats] cheat on the elections. They don't need votes. They cheat on the elections. I mean, you look at 43,000 votes were found last night. They cheat on elections. When you cheat on elections you don't have to destroy the country. They are destroying our country. Our country will not survive this. Our country will not survive. -- Donald Trump, this past weekend ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "... the rhetoric of democracy's opponents isn't irrelevant. When a former American president -- who may yet run again and who continues to lead a major political party -- tells a national audience that the United States 'will not survive' because of election crimes that exist only in his mind, I'm not inclined to look away." MB: The point is ... "Our country will not survive" because Donald Trump intends to kill it.

Jada Yuan & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: In her new book, staffer Stephanie Grisham dishes on Donald & Melania Trump. They are not amused. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian reports on the Post's review.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. judge said Monday he will grant the unconditional release of John W. Hinckley Jr. effective in June 2022, 41 years after he shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a D.C. hotel. The court acted after the Justice Department agreed last week to end court and medical supervision of Hinckley, who was freed from a government psychiatric hospital to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., in 2016." (Also linked yesterday.) An NPR story is here.

Sonia Rao of the Washington Post: "In the landmark conclusion to the most high-profile trial to arise from the music industry in the #MeToo era, a jury found R. Kelly guilty on all nine federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. The verdict was announced Monday in the Brooklyn courthouse for the Eastern District of New York. The disgraced R&B singer, 54, faces 10 years, the mandatory minimum, to life in prison for the charges related to nearly 30 years' worth of allegations that he physically and sexually abused women and minors. The verdict followed five weeks of often-harrowing testimony from 50 witnesses and arrived swiftly on the second day of jury deliberations. Kelly was found guilty on one count of racketeering, a charge that is often levied in organized crime cases, and eight of violating the Mann Act, which is aimed at curbing sex trafficking. He still faces additional federal charges of sexual assault and abuse in Illinois." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ A #MeToo Moment for Black Women. Deepti Hajela of the AP: "For years, decades even, allegations swirled that R&B superstar R. Kelly was abusing young women and girls, with seeming impunity. They were mostly young Black women. And Black girls. And that, say accusers and others who have called for him to face accountability, is part of what took the wheels of the criminal justice system so long to turn, finally leading to his conviction Monday in his sex trafficking trial. That it did at all, they say, is also due to the efforts of Black women, unwilling to be forgotten. Speaking out against sexual assault and violence is fraught for anyone who attempts it. Those who work in the field say the hurdles facing Black women and girls are raised even higher by a society that hypersexualizes them from a young age, stereotyping them as promiscuous and judging their physiques, and in a country with a history of racism and sexism that has long denied their autonomy over their own bodies."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Thousands of health care workers in New York got inoculated against Covid-19 ahead of Monday's deadline, helping the state avoid a worst-case scenario of staffing shortages at hospitals and nursing homes.... New York has 600,000 health care workers. Statewide, the vaccination rate for hospital employees rose by Monday night to 92 percent of workers having received at least one dose, according to preliminary data from the governor's office. The rate for nursing homes also jumped to 92 percent on Monday, from 84 percent five days earlier." MB: Gosh, it looks as if vaccine mandates work. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here: "Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday said they had submitted initial data to the Food and Drug Administration from their vaccine trial on children between 5 and 11 years old. The drugmakers said their trial had yielded 'positive topline results,' which included 2,268 participants from that age group. The companies said that their coronavirus vaccine had so far 'demonstrated a favorable safety profile' among young participants and 'elicited robust neutralizing antibody responses using a two-dose regimen.'"

Kate Sullivan & Jamie Gumbrecht of CNN: "President Joe Biden received his Covid-19 vaccine booster shot on Monday afternoon at the White House just days after booster doses were approved by federal health officials. 'We know that to beat this pandemic and to save lives ... we need to get folks vaccinated,' Biden said during remarks ahead of his shot. 'So, please, please do the right thing. Please get these shots. It can save your life and it can save the lives of those around you.' The President received his first two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of his inauguration in January. The 78-year-old President qualified for a booster dose since he received his second Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine more than six months ago and is in an eligible age group. The President had said Monday afternoon that Jill Biden would also be getting a shot soon but that the first lady ... was teaching. Her press secretary Michael LaRosa told CNN later Monday that she had received her booster at the White House." ~~~

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he received the COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, calling his choice to get the third dose 'an easy decision[.]' The 79-year-old senator announced that he got the booster dose while on the Senate floor, hours after President Biden received his third shot."

Brazil. Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's proudly unvaccinated president, is contending with more fallout from his visit to New York last week to speak at the United Nations: A fourth member of his entourage has tested positive for Covid-19, and his wife, Michelle, opted to get vaccinated before they returned home."

Beyond the Beltway (& Inside, Too)

Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "... nine states and Washington, D.C., now mandate that every voter be mailed a ballot ahead of an election by default. Last year was the first time that California, Vermont and the nation's capital began the practice.... Several states ― mostly in the South ― still require voters to provide an 'excuse' for mailing in their ballots, forcing more people to vote in person at polling places." These states have permanently instituted automatic vote-by-mail: "California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont & Washington. New Jersey & Washington, D.C. have temporarily instituted automatic vote-by-mail. ~~~

~~~ California. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "All California voters will now receive a ballot mailed to them whether they request it or not, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday, in a move long sought by state Democrats who have argued that it will make it easier for residents to take part in future elections.... The legislation permanently extends vote-by-mail provisions enacted in California during the coronavirus pandemic. Those provisions were in place during the 2020 election as well as during this month's unsuccessful campaign to recall Newsom.... California voters can still opt to go to the polls in person if they prefer."

Oregon. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "The Oregon state House reached a grudging compromise on a new congressional map that would create four Democratic districts, a safe Republican seat and one potential battleground, bringing an end to a bitter partisan standoff. State House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, gaveled the legislature into session on Monday morning, hours before a redistricting deadline, after a nearly week-long delay caused by a Covid scare and a Republican boycott. The agreement: Republican state representatives returned, and in return Democrats did not muscle through a map that would have given them solid control of five of the state's six districts."

South Dakota. Stephen Groves of the AP: "Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter's application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman's direct supervisor and the state labor secretary. Noem's daughter attended too. Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother's office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.... Government ethics experts ... said Noem's decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed. While Peters was applying for the certification, Noem should have recused herself from discussions on the agency, especially any that would apply to her daughter's application, said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush. 'It's clearly a conflict of interest and an abuse of power for the benefit of a family member,' he said."

Texas. Paul Weber of the AP: "Texas Republicans proposed redrawn congressional maps Monday that would shore up their slipping dominance and bolster their nearly two dozen U.S. House members, while adding new districts in booming Austin and Houston. Texas was the big winner in the 2020 Census, as torrid growth fueled by nearly 2 million new Hispanic residents made it the only state awarded two additional congressional seats, bringing its total to 38. Those demographic shifts threaten decades of Republican control in Texas, but in taking up the once-in-a-decade process of drawing new voting maps, GOP mapmakers' first draft largely appears to firewall their existing seats and advantage rather than take additional seats from Democrats."

Wyoming. Ha Ha. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is leading an all-out war against Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming because of her perceived lack of loyalty.... But his choice to replace her, Harriet Hageman..., was part of the final Republican resistance to his ascent in 2016, backing doomed procedural measures at the party's national convention aimed at stripping him of the presidential nomination he had clinched two months earlier. Ms. Hageman worked with fellow supporters of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in a failed effort to force a vote on the convention floor between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz.... Calling Mr. Trump 'the weakest candidate,' Ms. Hageman attributed his rise to Democrats who she claimed had voted in Republican primaries. She condemned Mr. Trump as a bigoted candidate who would repel voters..., warning that the G.O.P. would be saddled with 'somebody who is racist and xenophobic.' Ms. Hageman's yearslong journey from Never-Trumpism to declaring him the best president of her lifetime is one of the most striking illustrations yet of the political elasticity demonstrated both by ambitious Republicans in the Trump era...."

Way Beyond

Afghanistan. Cora Engelbrecht & Sharif Hassan of the New York Times: "Tightening the Taliban's restrictions on women, the group's new chancellor for Kabul University announced on Monday that women would be indefinitely banned from the institution either as instructors or students. 'I give you my words as chancellor of Kabul University,' Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat said in a Tweet on Monday. 'As long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.' The new university policy echoes the Taliban's first time in power, in the 1990s, when women were only allowed in public if accompanied by a male relative and would be beaten for disobeying, and were kept from school entirely."

Germany. Philip Olterman of the Guardian: "The centre-left contender to fill Angela Merkel's shoes has announced his intention to forge a 'social-ecological-liberal coalition' following Sunday's knife-edge German national vote, as momentum slips from the outgoing chancellor's own designated successor. 'The voters have made themselves very clear,' Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic party (SPD) said at a press conference on Monday morning. He pointed out that his centre-left party, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) had all picked up significant numbers of new votes at the election, while the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a loss in support of almost nine percentage points."

The Commentariat -- September 27, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. judge said Monday he will grant the unconditional release of John W. Hinckley Jr. effective in June 2022, 41 years after he shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a D.C. hotel. The court acted after the Justice Department agreed last week to end court and medical supervision of Hinckley, who was freed from a government psychiatric hospital to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., in 2016."

William Vaillancourt of Rolling Stone: "A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower leveled a series of bombshell accusations Sunday in his first television interview, accusing his Trump administration superiors of pressing for manipulated intelligence on three critical subjects: Russian support for Donald Trump, the Mexican border, and the white supremacist threat inside the United States. Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, filed a whistleblower complaint last year -- as well as a handful of internal complaints and reports -- that all painted a frightening picture of how things were running in the department tasked with keeping Americans safe. 'From the outset, there were three things that I was told that we would look to manipulate intelligence on and bend the truth about,' Murphy told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. 'And I told them upfront that I wasn't going to do it.'... Murphy said he felt 'intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative' -- accusing administration officials of demanding information be manipulated to burnish Trump's image and help his messaging[.]"

~~~~~~~~~~

Luz Lazo, et al., of the Washington Post: "Federal investigators began Sunday to probe the cause of an Amtrak passenger train derailment that killed three people and injured dozens, resulting in a scramble to get those wounded to hospitals across a rural part of the state. Eight of the train's 10 cars derailed about 4 p.m. local time Saturday near Joplin, nearly 200 miles north of Helena, Mont., Amtrak said in a statement, adding that an estimated 141 passengers and 17 crew members were aboard at the time. Liberty County Sheriff Nick Erickson estimated that as many as 30 people were injured. By Sunday, five remained hospitalized in Great Falls, 'all of them stabilized,' said Sarah Robbin, disaster and emergency services coordinator for Liberty County."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California said on Sunday night that the House would vote on a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill on Thursday, giving Democrats more time to reach a consensus on President Biden's sprawling domestic policy package. The vote will come hours before government funding -- as well as key transportation programs addressed in the infrastructure bill -- is scheduled to lapse on Oct. 1, leaving lawmakers with a narrow margin for error." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Maya Parthasarathy of Politico: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday said that Democrats will pass an infrastructure bill with $550 billion in new spending sometime this week but wouldn't specify exactly when or nail down the timing for the $3.5 trillion social spending package. The House last month voted for a Sept. 27 deadline to bring the bipartisan infrastructure plan to the floor. On Sunday, Pelosi didn't specify when this week it would be voted on." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I was in college, there were weeks around finals when I had no time to read the daily newspaper, so I would allow the papers to stack up, sometimes for nearly a month. Then, when the crunch had passed, I would read the papers, one by one. Not surprisingly, I discovered that this saved me a lot of time because I didn't have to read all the speculative stories about what could/would happen re: various coming crises. By the time I read the papers, the crises had been resolved, or not. Right now, the media are full of hand-wringing stories about the Biden presidency and how it hangs on what "Democrats in disarray" may do to sink it. My attitude about linking these stories runs sort of on the philosophy of those piled-up newspapers: we'll find out what happens when it happens (or doesn't). Based on stories I have linked, you all know pretty much how the system works, so I don't see much point in linking speculative stories that have little to add to the known facts.

Hmm. Zach Dorfman, et al., in Yahoo! News: "In 2017, as Julian Assange began his fifth year holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London, the CIA plotted to kidnap the WikiLeaks founder, spurring heated debate among Trump administration officials over the legality and practicality of such an operation. Some senior officials inside the CIA and the Trump administration even discussed killing Assange, going so far as to request 'sketches' or 'options' for how to assassinate him. Discussions over kidnapping or killing Assange occurred 'at the highest levels' of the Trump administration, said a former senior counterintelligence official. 'There seemed to be no boundaries.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was a bit skeptical about this story -- even tho one of the co-authors is Michael Isikoff, whom I like -- until I read Marcy Wheeler's take. Now I'm really skeptical:

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "When last we saw Zach Dorfman get a big scoop, he managed to present claims about Eric Swalwell appropriately cooperating with the FBI in a counterintelligence investigation so wildly out of context that the story fed false claims about Swalwell for most of a year. His big story about Mike Pompeo's vendetta against WikiLeaks -- with Sean Naylor and Michael Isikoff -- is bound to be a similar example.... In short, this is a very long story that spends thousands of words admitting that its lead overstates how seriously this line of thought was pursued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Our Climate Legacy. Sarah Kaplan of the Washington Post: "If the planet continues to warm on its current trajectory, the average 6-year-old will live through roughly three times as many climate disasters as their grandparents, [a] study finds. They will see twice as many wildfires, 1.7 times as many tropical cyclones, 3.4 times more river floods, 2.5 times more crop failures and 2.3 times as many droughts as someone born in 1960." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And of course some of the kids won't "live" through the disasters. They will die because of them. This is a legacy born of greed & laziness. Environmentalists were getting plenty of airtime in the 1970s, when the grandparents were young adults, making choices for their families. Most made the right choices for the environment only when local governments forced them to do things like recycle or gas periodically became unaffordable.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. the Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "... events in Mesa County[, Colorado, where the county clerk, Tina Peters, who is also the elections supervisor, is an adherent to right-wing conspiracy theories & a "protectee" of the MyPillow Guy,] represent an escalation in the attacks on the nation's voting system, one in which officials who were responsible for election security allegedly took actions that undermined that security in the name of protecting it. As baseless claims about election fraud are embraced by broad swaths of the Republican Party, experts fear that people who embrace those claims could be elected or appointed to offices where they oversee voting, potentially posing new security risks.... [Donald] Trump in recent months has endorsed several proponents of the 'big lie' to become secretaries of state in key battlegrounds. And experienced election administrators at the local level have been fleeing their jobs amid skyrocketing stress and threats to their personal safety." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. David Cohen of Politico: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sunday defended U.S. Border Patrol agents seen charging at migrants on horseback, saying he would hire them if they fear being fired. 'You have a job in the state of Texas,' he told host Chris Wallace on 'Fox News Sunday.' 'I will hire you to help Texas secure our border.'... Abbott said the fault for any misbehavior should be placed on [President] Biden and members of his administration because they didn't keep the Haitian migrants from crossing from Mexico into Del Rio, Texas. He also said that Texas was going to assume some of the functions of border control, even though the U.S. Constitution assigns the federal government that responsibility." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: OR, Greg, you could get those agents to start patrolling the major roads between Texas & Oklahoma to whip the young women trying to travel to Oklahoma to get abortions. ~~~

Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "As soon as the [Texas law largely banning abortions] took effect this month, Texans started traveling elsewhere, and Oklahoma, close to Dallas, has become a major destination.... Oklahoma does not require two trips to a clinic to get an abortion in most cases, so it has been a common choice.... The effects of the new law have been profound: Texans with unwanted pregnancies have been forced to make decisions quickly, and some have opted to travel long distances for abortions. As clinics in surrounding states fill up, appointments are being scheduled for later dates, making the procedures more costly. Other women are having to carry their pregnancies to term."

Way Beyond

Germany. The New York Times' live updates of developments in Germany's elections Monday are here: "As Germany's election results came into sharper focus on Monday, no party won decisive majority but the loser was clear: Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats. After 16 years in power under Ms. Merkel's leadership, they saw their share of the vote collapse by nearly nine points, garnering only 24.1 percent of the vote. It was the party's worst showing in its history, and the election signaled the end of an era for Germany and for Europe." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in Germany's elections Sunday are here: "Germans appeared to vote for change on Sunday. With a majority of voting districts reporting, the Social Democratic Party had a slim lead, hovering around 26 percent, more than a percentage point ahead of Christian Democratic Union, which had just over 24 percent of the vote. With final results not likely to come until early Monday, the race could still tip either way. But as the hours wore on and more results came in, the Social Democrats' lead looked increasingly likely to hold." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here. Politico has a liveblog of the election results here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Colin Meyn of the Hill: "Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD) won a narrow victory in Sunday's general election, topping the outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the race to replace her after she stepped down following 16 years in power.... However, the slim margin of 1.6 percentage points separating the top two parties means that both could potentially form a ruling coalition and it could take weeks or months of horse trading before a new government takes shape."

Iceland. Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "Iceland heralded a weekend election result that would have made it the first country in Europe to have more women than men in parliament. But the celebrations were brief: A late recount put it just below gender parity. Early results showed women won 33 seats in Iceland's 63-seat parliament, known as the Althing, up from 24 in the previous vote. Hours later, a surprise recount in the west of the country changed the outcome, leaving female candidates with 30 seats, according to state broadcaster RUV. That is still the highest representation for women in Europe, at nearly 48 percent, ahead of Sweden and Finland with 47 percent and 46 percent, respectively."

Switzerland. AP: "Switzerland voted by a wide margin to allow same-sex couples to marry in a referendum on Sunday, bringing the Alpine nation into line with many others in western Europe. Official results showed the measure passed with 64.1% of voters in favor and won a majority in all of Switzerland's 26 cantons, or states. Switzerland's parliament and the governing Federal Council supported the 'Marriage for All' measure. Switzerland has authorized same-sex civil partnerships since 2007." (Also linked yesterday.)

U.K. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Responding to an escalating crisis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain reversed course this weekend and offered thousands of visas to foreign truckers to combat a driver shortage that has left some supermarket shelves empty and caused long lines at gas stations. The decision, announced late Saturday, reflects the growing alarm within the government over a disruption to supplies that has prompted panic buying and, in some places, caused fuel to run out and gas stations to close."