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The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Jul142021

The Commentariat -- July 15, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Kolinovsky, et al., of ABC News: "As the first round of monthly child tax credits hit Americans' bank accounts Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took a victory lap..., speaking about the 'historic day' for American families and emphasizing the sea change the payments could represent for millions of American children living in poverty. 'Today, for families all over our country, for children all over our country, help is here,' Harris said, before introducing the president. 'This has never happened before. And America, yes, it is a big deal.' Biden and Harris marked the rollout of checks and direct deposits from the child tax credit with a White House event featuring Americans set to benefit."

Just. Plain. Selfish. Joan Biskupic of CNN: "Justice Stephen Breyer has not decided when he will retire and is especially gratified with his new role as the senior liberal on the bench, he told CNN in an exclusive interview -- his first public comments amid the incessant speculation of a Supreme Court vacancy. Far from Washington and the pressures of the recently completed session and chatter over his possible retirement, Breyer, a 27-year veteran of the high court, said Wednesday that two factors will be overriding in his decision. 'Primarily, of course, health,' said Breyer, who will turn 83 in August. 'Second, the court.'"

McCarthy Works to Ensure Trump Remains a Clear & Present Danger. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with ... Donald Trump on Thursday, as the California Republican is considering which members of his conference to appoint to a special committee tasked with investigating the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol."

** The Washington Post publishes Part 2 of excerpts from Carol Leonnig & Philip Rucker's book I Alone Can Fix It. This part covers some of the events of January 6.

Luke Harding, et al., of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a 'mentally unstable' Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia's national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow's strategic objectives, among them 'social turmoil' in the US and a weakening of the American president's negotiating position. Russia's three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin's signature.... Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months.... There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an 'impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex'. There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected -- the document says -- from Trump's earlier 'non-official visits to Russian Federation territory'." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.

Jared Kushner, Boy Hero. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Journalist Michael Wolff's new book, Landslide, describes [Jared] Kushner's role over the four years in office as staffing up the White House with his own loyalists who could circumvent Trump's demands. 'The four-year history of the Trump White House was, in one sense, the unlikely story of the rise and strange effectiveness of Jared Kushner,' wrote Wolff. 'Much of the West Wing and campaign staffs were made up of people whom Jared had picked. Their common characteristic was that, while they were tolerant of Trump, they could be counted on to slow-walk his worst excesses; some..., acting for Kushner, even often sought to put a brake on them. Kushner, both for temperamental and strategic reasons, would not, in almost any circumstance, directly confront his father-in-law.'" MB: Now, I wonder who could have been the source for this tale tale.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "What began as 'vaccine hesitancy' has morphed into outright vaccine hostility, as conservatives increasingly attack the White House's coronavirus message, mischaracterize its vaccination campaign and, more and more, vow to skip the shots altogether. The notion that the vaccine drive is pointless or harmful -- or perhaps even a government plot -- is increasingly an article of faith among supporters of ... Donald Trump, on a par with assertions that the last election was stolen and the assault on the U.S. Capitol was overblown."

"I Know It Cost $28MM, but I'm Busy That Day." Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Blue Origin announced Thursday that 18-year-old Oliver Daemen of the Netherlands will be joining founder Jeff Bezos on the company's first crewed spaceflight after the winner of a $28 million auction postponed. Blue Origin said the auction winner, who has asked to remain anonymous, would fly 'on a future mission due to scheduling conflicts.' A company spokesman said Daemen, an incoming physics and innovation management student at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, had participated in the auction and 'secured a seat on the second flight. We moved him up when this seat on the first flight became available.' The company would not say how much Daemen bid. His father is Joes Daemen, the founder and chief executive of Somerset Capital Partners, which invests in real estate, private equity and financial markets."

~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden and congressional Democrats vowed on Wednesday to push through a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint to vastly expand social and environmental programs by extending the reach of education and health care, taxing the rich and tackling the warming of the planet. The legislation is far from passage, but top Democrats have agreed on working to include several far-reaching details. They include universal prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds, two years of free community college, clean energy requirements for utilities and lower prescription drug prices. Medicare benefits would be expanded, and green cards would be extended to some undocumented immigrants. At a closed-door luncheon in the Capitol, Mr. Biden rallied Democrats and the independents aligned with them to embrace the plan, which would require every single one of their votes to move forward over united Republican opposition. But several moderate lawmakers who are crucial to the plan's success had yet to say whether they would accept the proposal. Mr. Biden's message was 'be unified, strong, big and courageous,' Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said." ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday he's open to the $3.5 trillion spending agreement reached by Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, which would be entirely paid for with yet to be specified tax measures, but he's holding back on fully endorsing the deal until further review. Manchin's cautious optimism about the agreement means that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) two-track strategy for moving President Biden's infrastructure agenda is still moving in the right direction." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Democrats have agreed to include a tax on imports from nations that lack aggressive climate change policies as part of a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget plan stocked with other provisions aimed at ratcheting down fossil fuel pollution in the United States. The move to tax imports was made public Wednesday, the same day that the European Union outlined its own proposal for a similar carbon border tax, a novel tool that is designed to protect domestic manufacturing while simultaneously pressuring other countries to reduce the emissions that are warming the planet.... Top Democrats called the timing coincidental but said both the United States and Europe must work together to put pressure on China and other heavy polluting countries to reduce emissions." ~~~

~~~ Steven Erlanger & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "In what may be a seminal moment in the global effort to fight climate change, Europe on Wednesday challenged the rest of the world by laying out an ambitious blueprint to pivot away from fossil fuels over the next nine years, a plan that has the potential to set off global trade disputes. The most radical, and possibly contentious, proposal would impose tariffs on certain imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection rules. The proposals also include eliminating the sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, and raising the price of using fossil fuels." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Karen DeYoung & David Lynch of the Washington Post: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit President Biden at the White House Thursday for discussions on a host of outstanding economic and foreign policy issues, with little likelihood that any of them will be settled. Instead, what is characterized as a 'working' trip will be an opportunity to reaffirm close bilateral ties and to underline what a senior German official called 'the continuity and importance of the relationship' as Merkel prepares to step down following September elections after 16 years in office."

The Check Is in the Mail. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Thursday is launching the biggest anti-poverty program undertaken by the federal government in more than a half-century, delivering monthly payments to the overwhelming majority of American parents for the first time. The Department of Treasury said it has sent checks to households representing approximately 60 million children under a provision in the stimulus package passed by Democrats in March. The payments can be withdrawn Thursday but appeared in many bank accounts as early as Wednesday. The benefit, expected to cost roughly $120 billion per year, provides $300 per child under age 6, as well as $250 per child 6 or older. The administration previously said that roughly 88 percent of all U.S. children nationwide would receive the aid. The program is a major political and economic test for President Biden and his administration."

Sarah Kolinovsky & Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "The Biden administration will begin evacuation flights in late July for Afghans who have aided the U.S. military and diplomatic missions, according to a senior administration official. President Joe Biden earlier this month said all U.S. combat forces will be out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31 and defended his decision to leave the country in the face of Taliban gains in the area.... The evacuation effort, dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, will relocate Afghans who have applied for a U.S. Special Immigrant Visa and their families to a safe third country, but it is still unclear how many of these translators, guides and other contractors will be moved and to exactly where."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Biden's decision to withdraw completely from Afghanistan is overwhelmingly popular. It's also strongly bipartisan in a way very few things are these days.... While speaking to Deutsche Welle in Germany, [former President George W. Bush] had some rather unvarnished thoughts on the pullout from Afghanistan, a war he launched after 9/11. Bush flatly agreed that it [was] 'a mistake' and warned of looming tragedies and atrocities.... The fact that he's sought to make this argument, however self-serving and academic at this point, reinforces how this might not be such a consensus issue moving forward -- and how it almost certainly won't be a simple one." MB: Another extraordinary aspect to Bush's remarks: he made them outside the U.S.

Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is increasing its efforts to disrupt ransomware campaigns and punish the criminals who launch them. Among the new initiatives is a new State Department program that's being announced today offering rewards of up to $10 million for information that helps halt or punish hackers that lock up computers at vital U.S. industries and hold them for ransom. It's an offshoot of a program called Rewards for Justice aimed at combating international terrorism -- another sign the administration is increasingly treating ransomware as a top national security threat."

David Lynch of the Washington Post: "On Friday, President Biden called on regulators to crack down on consolidation in the shipping and rail industries, as part of a broad executive order promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy. Freight may seem a prosaic topic for presidential attention. But the smooth movement of goods has perhaps never been more essential, amid the explosion of e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic. Transport bottlenecks in June helped fuel the highest inflation in 13 years, rattling Americans with sticker shock on goods such as used cars, airfare and bacon.... The White House officials who drafted Biden's order say high freight costs, resulting from a lack of competition, are an economywide drag." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: OR, customers could try my bitch-a-lot method. Sunday, I was about to make an online purchase of an item that cost about $275. But when I got to the last page in the check-out process, I learned that the shipping charges were $290. So I didn't make the purchase, but I called the company Monday and told them I thought they had miscalculated the shipping charges. I got a song-and-dance. I was polite, but I said I wasn't going to make the purchase as their shipping charges were 6 or 7 times higher than what another company had just charged me for shipping an item of similar size and weight from the same state. Half an hour later the song-and-dance lady called me back & said the company had reduced the shipping charge from $290 to $45. Okay then.

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is expected to announce on Thursday that it will move forward with a plan to fully restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska, one of the world's largest intact temperate rain forests. The protections had been stripped away by ... Donald J. Trump. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose agency includes the United States Forest Service, is expected to announce the news, according to a person briefed on the matter who asked to speak anonymously because it had not yet been made public."

Natalie Fertig of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released sweeping draft legislation Wednesday to legalize weed, officially kickstarting a difficult debate in his chamber that also makes a major splash for one of his campaign promises. The measure floated by the New York Democrat -- along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) -- proposes removing federal penalties on cannabis, expunging nonviolent federal cannabis-related criminal records and letting states decide if or how to legalize the drug." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee is launching an investigation into Arizona's GOP-commissioned review of the 2020 presidential election and the private contractor leading the effort, whose chief executive has echoed ... Donald Trump's false claims. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the committee, and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter Wednesday to Douglas Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, seeking correspondences, documents and other information about his Florida-based company's review of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. 'The committee is seeking to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in Arizona protects the right to vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence in America's elections, and reverse the result of a free and fair election for partisan gain,' Maloney and Raskin ... wrote to Logan." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow reported that Maloney & Raskin had to send their letter to a UPS mailbox store because Cyber Ninjas apparently doesn't have a real street address. Well, of course not, Rachel. They're cyber ninjas. I checked the Googles, and Cyber Ninjas does have a URL, and their Website has a facility to send them a message online. No return receipt, I guess.

Juliet Macur & Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's inspector general released a long-awaited report on Wednesday that sharply criticized the F.B.I.'s handling of the sexual abuse case involving Lawrence G. Nassar, the former doctor for the U.S.A. Gymnastics national team and Michigan State sports, which led to Mr. Nassar's continued abuse of girls and women. Mr. Nassar, who is serving what amounts to life in prison, has been accused of abusing hundreds of female patients -- including the Olympic champion Simone Biles and a majority of the last two United States women's Olympic gymnastics teams -- under the guise of medical treatment.... The inspector general's report said senior F.B.I. officials in the Indianapolis field office failed to respond to the allegations 'with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required' and the investigation did not proceed until after a September 2016 report by The Indianapolis Star detailed Mr. Nassar's abuse." Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein, is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "An Idaho man photographed hanging from the Senate balcony and sitting in the presiding officer's chair in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony obstruction of Congress, admitting to joining a group who came to Washington armed with firearms, knives and body armor to support ... Donald Trump. Josiah B. Colt, 34, became the latest defendant to agree to cooperate in the breach investigation, seeking to pare down a possible recommended five-year prison sentence. Though Colt is not accused of being part of a larger militia-like group, he admitted in plea papers to joining at least two men from Nevada and Tennessee who arranged travel, raised funds, bought paramilitary gear and recorded themselves before breaking in to the building and rushing to the Senate just evacuated by lawmakers."

Notes on the Former Guy*:

Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "In the waning weeks of Donald Trump's term, the country's top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler's during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters. As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in 'I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.' Milley described 'a stomach-churning' feeling as he listened to Trump's untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany's parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.... [Milley] saw himself as one of the last empowered defenders of democracy during some of the darkest days in the country's recent history." ~~~

     ~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Shortly before the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, told aides the US was facing a 'Reichstag moment' because Donald Trump was preaching 'the gospel of the Führer', according to an eagerly awaited book [by Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig ]about Trump's last year in office." ~~~

     ~~~ Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that ... Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN. The book, from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussed a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised. 'It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse,' Leonnig and Rucker write." ~~~

~~~ Lexi Lonas of the Hill: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he was responsible for the Capitol riot while the scene was evolving on Jan. 6, according to a new book. In 'I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year,' Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker write about a phone call between Cheney and Gen. Mark Milley<, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which the Wyoming Republican describes a confrontation she had with Jordan during the riot, CNN reported. 'That f---ing guy Jim Jordan. That son of a b----.... While these maniacs are going through the place, I'm standing in the aisle and he said, "We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you." I smacked his hand away and told him, "Get away from me. You f---ing did this,"' Cheney reportedly told the general."


Todd Frankel & Jay Greene of the Washington Post: "Federal safety regulators filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Wednesday that accuses the retail giant of refusing to recognize regulators' authority to force the company to recall defective and unsafe products, setting up a fight over how much responsibility Amazon should take for the products it sells on its website. The action by the Consumer Product Safety Commission comes after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between regulators and Amazon as the agency tried to persuade the company to follow the CPSC's rules for getting dangerous products off the market, according to a senior agency official.... The official said Amazon officials refused to acknowledge that the CPSC has the authority to compel the company to remove unsafe products."

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "If there is a less excusable human being walking upright than Ken Starr, head huntsman of the Great Penis Chase of 1998, then I'm hard pressed to think of who it is. Since his salacious moment in the national spotlight, Starr has presided over a disastrous sexual-misconduct scandal and alleged cover-up at Baylor University in Texas. He took a job as part of the former president*'s defense team during Impeachment I, an indication that he was less offended by extramarital foolery than he used to be. And now comes a book by Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, the journalist who blew open the story of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking empire and the sweetheart plea deal that helped enable it, in which Starr is featured as a legal engine behind said plea bargain. (Guardian story on Brown's revelations linked below.) Firewalled. MB: I am informed this is my last freebie-of-the-month. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Here are six candidates for Pierce's list of inexcusable human beings: Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavenaugh & Barrett. ~~~

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The Voting Rights Act decision that concluded the Supreme Court term this month offered two mutually exclusive visions of what the right to vote means today. Justice Samuel Alito's opinion for the six-justice majority insisted that the law should pay little mind to the occasional 'inconvenience' of casting a ballot. Justice Elena Kagan's dissenting opinion, joined by two other justices, accused the majority of taking the 'grand and obvious' right to an 'equal opportunityto vote' and reducing it to nothing more than 'equality-lite.' The competing visions in the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee decision reflected profoundly different understandings of what law needs to do to keep the basic mechanics of democracy functioning.... In the three dissenters' view, a voting regulation with a racially disparate impact is invalid if the plaintiff can show that the state's interest can be met by a less discriminatory policy. This was [a] 'radical' interpretation of Section 2 that ... alarmed Justice Alito." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Alito's view of "inconvenience" makes perfect sense to confederates. There's a moral imperative here. All people -- they believe -- should be as "civilized" as they are. So it isn't so much voting rights that should be equal; it's "inconvenience." If you have got yourself in a situation where it's less convenient for you to vote than it is for Sam Alito (say it's a hardship to get a required identity card), then that's your own damned fault. People who enjoy the right to vote enjoy it because they have arranged their lives in such a way that state laws don't make it especially inconvenient for them to cast their ballots. Everybody should live as these lucky duckies do, where the "inconveniences" to voting are relatively equal. Those who don't live this righteous life must learn to live with the hurdles legislatures have put in front of them.

Joe Coscarelli, et al., of the New York Times: "More than 13 years after being deemed mentally unfit to choose her own legal representation, Britney Spears can hire a high-powered Hollywood lawyer, [Mathew Rosengart,] a Los Angeles judge ruled on Wednesday, signaling a new phase in the battle to end the conservatorship that controls the singer's life. The decision by Judge Brenda Penny came at the first hearing since Ms. Spears, 39, called the conservatorship that she has lived under since 2008 abusive and said that she wanted it to end without her having to undergo additional psychiatric evaluations."

Danish Company Imposes Some Sanity on U.S. Gun Modifier. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "At first glance, the gun resembled a toy, one whose building blocks were the ubiquitous red, yellow, blue and green Legos. But beneath the surface of its colorful shell was something lethal: a Glock 19 pistol that had been customized by a Utah-based company that specializes in modifications to firearms. The Lego Group, the Danish brand known for being fiercely protective of its intellectual property and likeness, recently demanded that the company, Culper Precision of Provo, Utah, stop selling the casing.... 'We have contacted the company and they have agreed to remove the product from their website and not make or sell anything like this in the future,' Lego said in an email statement on Wednesday."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Apoorva Mandavilli & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "The [Delta] variant, the most contagious version yet of the coronavirus, accounts for more than half of new infections in the United States,federal health officials reported this month. The spread of the variant has prompted a vigorous new vaccination push from the Biden administration, and federal officials are planning to send medical teams to communities facing outbreaks that now seem inevitable.... Broadly speaking, the West and Northeast have relatively high rates of vaccination, while the South has the least. The vaccinated and unvaccinated 'two Americas' -- as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... has called them -- also are divided along political lines. Counties that voted for Mr. Biden average higher vaccination levels than those that voted for Donald Trump. Conservatives tend to decline vaccination far more often than Democrats."

Max Hauptman of the Washington Post: "An Alabama military base is taking increased actions to combat the ongoing prevalence of coronavirus infections, authorizing leaders to ask for proof of vaccination of service members not wearing a mask while on duty. It is the first military base in the continental United States to allow leaders to check the vaccination status of those in uniform. The new guidance at Fort Rucker comes as the new delta variant of the virus continues to drive infection rates and now accounts for a majority of cases in the United States. The base is among facilities, including Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Jackson in South Carolina, where less than half of the surrounding populations have been vaccinated." MB: Let's see if the Congressional Anti-Vax Caucus goes nuts over this.

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

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: Some normal people react to the so-called Tennessee health department's decision to halt all vaccination out reach -- for all diseases -- in their effort to "own the libs" by "killing the kids." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "'Don't Fauci My Florida,' read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's campaign team >rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country.... New coronavirus infection numbers plummeted in Florida after vaccinations became widely available, but they have ticked up in recent weeks. The state is reporting daily cases close to four times the national average.... [DeSantis' merchandise] the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates.... A key part of [DeSantis'] pitch [for 2022 (gubernatorial) & 2024 (presidential*)]: He resisted public health experts' calls for stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus, spurring criticism on the left and praise from the right for keeping his state's schools and economy comparatively open." ~~~

     ~~~ In reporting this story on-air, CNN posted a chyron citing a June 7 tweet by DeSantis: "... FLORIDA CHOSE FREEDOM OVER FAUCISM." (All CAPS original.) MB: To put it as delicately as possible, DeSantis is one sick fuck.


Josh Katz & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "As Covid raged, so did the country's other epidemic. Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the largest single-year increase recorded. The deaths rose in every state but two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, with pronounced increases in the South and West. Several grim records were set: the most drug overdose deaths in a year; the most deaths from opioid overdoses; the most overdose deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine; the most deaths from the deadly class of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Prosecutorial "Discretion," Confederate-Style. Brittany Shamas, et al.,; of the Washington Post: "Scores of people crowded a major Miami-area highway Tuesday, chanting in support of rare protests that erupted days earlier in Cuba against the country's communist government. The rally caused an hours-long closure on part of the Palmetto Expressway in Miami-Dade County. It was the sort of scene envisioned by a divisive Florida law that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pushed amid last year's wave of racial justice demonstrations. The legislation calls for protesters to be cited if they block traffic. But no citations were given Tuesday, according to state and local law enforcement. Critics took issue with the lack of citations, saying the law is unclear or unevenly applied. DeSantis, who invoked the possibility of protesters shutting down a highway as he signed the bill into law, has been vocal in his support of rallies against the Cuban government. Asked about the Palmetto Expressway protests during a Tuesday roundtable with reporters, he said the recent demonstrations were 'fundamentally different' than last summer's protests that had inspired the law.... Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat who opposed the law, said it was '100 percent applicable' to the protest in the Miami area. She criticized the 'hypocrisy' and said the lack of enforcement showed that the law was aimed specifically at Black Lives Matter demonstrations" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: C'mon, Anna. This law -- like many other confederate-backed laws -- was never meant to be applied against groups of people likely disposed to vote Republican. It's like the jelly-bean-counting test. On paper, it applies to everyone, but it's only imposed upon Black people and/or left-leaning groups.

Michigan. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "The executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, who said the 2020 presidential election wasn't stolen and blamed Donald Trump for the GOP loss, has resigned. Jason Roe, a veteran strategist who was brought on in February, stepped down from the post but declined to expand on why he resigned less than six months later, the Detroit Free Press reported." The Detroit Free Press story is here.

Way Beyond

Brazil. Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil faced possible emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction after doctors on Wednesday ordered that he be flown to a hospital in São Paulo for evaluation, the government said. The obstruction is related to a stabbing injury Mr. Bolsonaro suffered in 2018 as he campaigned for president. He had complained in recent days about a persistent bout of hiccups, which had lasted more than 10 days, but it was unclear whether that was related."

Haiti. Anatoly Kurmanaev, et al., of the New York Times: "Several of the central figures under investigation by the Haitian authorities in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse gathered in the months before the killing to discuss rebuilding the troubled nation once the president was out of power, according to the Haitian police, Colombian intelligence officers and participants in the discussions. The meetings, conducted in Florida and the Dominican Republic over the last year, appear to connect a seemingly disparate collection of suspects in the investigation, linking a 63-year-old doctor and pastor, a security equipment salesman, and a mortgage and insurance broker in Florida. All have been identified by the Haitian authorities as prominent players in a sprawling plot to kill the president with the help of more than 20 former Colombian commandos. But the ties between them have been murky, at best, and until recently it was not clear how, or even if, they knew one another." ~~~

~~~ Widlore Merancourt & Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "The head of security [Dimitri Hérard] at the presidential palace [in Port-au-Prince] has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into the mysterious assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.... Much public anger has been directed against Hérard, as Haitians wonder how a team of alleged assassins appeared to easily infiltrate Moïse's residence but were later swiftly taken into custody.... Haitian police on Wednesday evening announced the arrest of two new suspects, including a former top police officer, as their investigation continues. Four high-ranking members of the president's security detail are also being held in isolation as authorities continue to track down other fugitives, police chief Léon Charles told reporters during a news conference."

News Lede:

Washington Post: "Devastating floods swept across a swath of Western Europe on Thursday, engulfing whole villages in raging muddy brown waters, overturning cars and killing at least 67 people and leaving more than 1,300 unaccounted for after a summer deluge at levels not seen in some areas for a century. At least 58 people died in Germany, by far the worst-hit country, where whole villages were cut off from rescuers and helicopters were deployed to pluck the stranded off rooftops. Some houses were simply washed away as a tributary of the Rhine burst its banks."

Comments Off
Tuesday
Jul132021

The Commentariat -- July 14, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to rally Senate Democrats around two bills totaling more than $4 trillion that advance critical elements of his economic agenda, including new investments in aging infrastructure and programs to fight climate change and improve health care. Biden's salesmanship opens a new political chapter in what will probably be a winding, tough debate on Capitol Hill in Congress, particularly because Democrats are divided over whether they should take the early deals they have reached, including with Republicans, or try to leverage their narrow majorities in Washington to seek more federal spending."

David Lynch of the Washington Post: "On Friday, President Biden called on regulators to crack down on consolidation in the shipping and rail industries, as part of a broad executive order promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy. Freight may seem a prosaic topic for presidential attention. But the smooth movement of goods has perhaps never been more essential, amid the explosion of e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic. Transport bottlenecks in June helped fuel the highest inflation in 13 years, rattling Americans with sticker shock on goods such as used cars, airfare and bacon.... The White House officials who drafted Biden's order say high freight costs, resulting from a lack of competition, are an economywide drag." ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: OR, customers could try my bitch-a-lot method. Sunday, I was about to make an online purchase of an item that cost about $275. But when I got to the last page in the check-out process, I learned that the shipping charges were $290. So I didn't make the purchase, but I called the company Monday and told them I thought they had miscalculated the shipping charges. I got a song-and-dance. I was polite, but I said I wasn't going to make the purchase as their shipping charges were 6 or 7 times higher than what another company had just charged me for shipping an item of similar size and weight from the same state. Half an hour later the song-and-dance lady called me back & said the company had reduced the shipping charge from $290 to $45. Okay then.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday he's open to the $3.5 trillion spending agreement reached by Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, which would be entirely paid for with yet to be specified tax measures, but he's holding back on fully endorsing the deal until further review. Manchin's cautious optimism about the agreement means that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) two-track strategy for moving President Biden's infrastructure agenda is still moving in the right direction."

Natalie Fertig of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released sweeping draft legislation Wednesday to legalize weed, officially kickstarting a difficult debate in his chamber that also makes a major splash for one of his campaign promises. The measure floated by the New York Democrat -- along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) -- proposes removing federal penalties on cannabis, expunging nonviolent federal cannabis-related criminal records and letting states decide if or how to legalize the drug."

Steven Erlanger & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "In what may be a seminal moment in the global effort to fight climate change, Europe on Wednesday challenged the rest of the world by laying out an ambitious blueprint to pivot away from fossil fuels over the next nine years, a plan that has the potential to set off global trade disputes. The most radical, and possibly contentious, proposal would impose tariffs on certain imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection rules. The proposals also include eliminating the sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, and raising the price of using fossil fuels."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: Some normal people react to the so-called Tennessee health department's decision to halt all vaccination out reach -- for all diseases -- in their effort to "own the libs" by "killing the kids."

Charles Pierce of Esquire: "If there is a less excusable human being walking upright than Ken Starr, head huntsman of the Great Penis Chase of 1998, then I'm hard pressed to think of who it is. Since his salacious moment in the national spotlight, Starr has presided over a disastrous sexual-misconduct scandal and alleged cover-up at Baylor University in Texas. He took a job as part of the former president's defense team during Impeachment I, an indication that he was less offended by extramarital foolery than he used to be. And now comes a book by Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, the journalist who blew open the story of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking empire and the sweetheart plea deal that helped enable it, in which Starr is featured as a legal engine behind said plea bargain. (Guardian story on Brown's revelations linked below.) Firewalled. MB: I am informed this is my last freebie-of-the-month.

~~~~~~~~~~

Only in America. Marie: Every day, the news gets crazier.

We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War -- the Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th. I'm not saying this to alarm you. I'm saying this because you should be alarmed. -- President Joe Biden, in Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesday ~~~

~~~ Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Tuesday delivered his most forceful condemnation yet of the wave of voting restrictions proposed in Republican-led states nationwide -- efforts the president argued are the biggest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Biden's speech was an attempt to inject new life into flagging efforts to pass federal legislation addressing the issue. But while he intensified his explanation of the stakes, his speech did not include a call for the Senate to change the filibuster, which is seen by advocates as the best, and perhaps only, way to usher in the kinds of changes Biden is seeking. At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, in a room filled with images of Benjamin Franklin and quotes from Daniel Webster and Theodore Roosevelt, Biden compared the new laws to voter suppression by the Ku Klux Klan and to the Jim Crow-era laws that disenfranchised nearly all voters who were not White and male." The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden will nominate Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona, to serve as ambassador to Turkey, the White House announced on Tuesday, placing a prominent, moderate Republican in line to assume a high-profile diplomatic role. Mr. Flake, who became one the most vocal Republican critics of Donald J. Trump during Mr. Trump's presidency, had been largely absent from the national stage after stepping away from politics in 2019. In 2017, he announced he would not seek re-election the following year, citing the changing face of the G.O.P., which he said had grown too accepting of Mr. Trump's 'reckless, outrageous and undignified' behavior. Since then, Mr. Flake has rotated between academic fellowships at Harvard, Arizona State University and Brigham Young University. Mr. Flake was also one of a number of former Republican members of Congress who endorsed Mr. Biden for president in 2020."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Ousted Social Security commissioner Andrew Saul, the Trump appointee who declared Friday he would defy his firing by President Biden, on Monday found his access to agency computers cut off, even as his acting replacement moved to undo his policies. [Saul was trying to work from his home in Katonah, N.Y., where he's been working since March 2020 because of the pandemic.]... Saul said he had no public announcement -- yet -- on his strategy to remain in office as the 'duly confirmed Social Security commissioner.'... Saul [is] a wealthy former women's apparel executive and prominent Republican donor who had served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits. 'Stay tuned.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday warned citizens of Cuba and Haiti against trying to flee to the United States amid unrest in those nations, saying they would be repatriated or referred to other countries for resettlement. Mayorkas, whose family fled the communist takeover of Cuba six decades ago, said during a news conference that the Biden administration supports the people of both countries.... But Mayorkas said migrants should not make the dangerous journey by sea, warning, 'People will die.'... Mayorkas [made his remarks] at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, standing beside Adm. Linda Fagan, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard."

Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats on Tuesday reached an early agreement to pursue a sweeping $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that aims to expand Medicare benefits, boost federal safety net programs and combat climate change. The wide array of planned health, education and social programs if adopted would represent a historic burst of federal spending, as party lawmakers led by President Biden seek to seize on their slim but powerful majorities in Washington to expand the footprint of government and catalyze major changes in the economy. Democrats plan to fashion their bill in a way that it can clear the Senate without Republican support. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and top lawmakers on the chamber's foremost budget committee announced the plans at a late evening press conference. He said 'every major program' Biden had endorsed would be 'funded in a robust way,' a commitment that comes after the president this spring proposed significant jobs and families spending packages that included investments in healthcare and education." The AP's story is here.

Road Trip: Wholesome American Family Tours Citadel of Democracy. Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "Five members of the same Texas family were arrested Tuesday and charged for their alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to newly-unsealed charging documents. Kristi Munn, Tom Munn, Dawn Munn, Josh Munn and Kayli Munn -- described by prosecutors as a nuclear family from Borger, Texas -- are now each facing four federal charges over their alleged illegal entry and alleged disorderly conduct in the Capitol, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday afternoon.... After the riot, investigators found posts from the family where they discussed joining in the insurrection. 'The only damage to the capital building was several windows and sets of doors,' Tom Munn wrote on Facebook. 'Nothing inside the capital was damaged. I can tell you, patriots NEVER made it to the chamber. There was no violence in the capital building, the crowd was NOT out of control ... they were ANGRY!!!'"

Notes on the Former Guy

Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "A war of words broke out Tuesday among former senior Justice Department officials over Pennsylvania politics and the aftermath of the 2020 election, fueled by ... Donald Trump's release of a letter by a former appointee who is seeking Trump's backing as he considers a run for governor.... In a June 9 letter to Trump..., [William] McSwain[, a former U.S. attorney for Philadelphia] said his office 'received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities.' The letter seemed to blame [former AG William] Barr for not allowing McSwain to fully pursue and publicize them.... 'Attorney General Barr ... instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities. I was also given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General for investigation -- the same State Attorney General who had already declared that you could not win.'" Barr denied the allegation & said McSwain was just trying to curry Trump's favor. ~~~

~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Attorney General William Barr pushed back Tuesday against suggestions from ... Donald Trump and a former federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania that federal authorities were ordered not to aggressively investigate claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Trump declared in a statement sent to reporters Monday evening that the former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, William McSwain, was blocked from pursuing assertions of election tampering.... In an interview with Politico, Barr -- who became a favored punching bag for Trump after the 2020 election -- denied ever telling McSwain or others not to pursue fraud allegations related to the vote. 'It's written to make it seem like I gave him a directive,' Barr said. 'I never told him not to investigate anything.'"

David Fahrenthold & Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg resigned from his positions at dozens of the company's subsidiaries in late June -- several days before he was indicted on charges of tax fraud and grand larceny -- according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. 'Effective immediately, I, Allen Weisselberg, resign from each and every office and position that I hold' in the subsidiaries, Weisselberg wrote in the letter, dated June 25. What followed was a two-page list.... The list obtained by The Post was largely redacted, so that only a few company names were visible. But, from looking at other corporate records in the United States and Scotland, The Post has identified at least 54 Trump entities where Weisselberg has recently resigned from his positions.... The shifts in leadership that have followed his resignation -- detailed in other corporate filings -- show that the Trump Organization appears to be increasingly reliant on Trump';s adult sons to manage a company...." MB: Yeah, I'll bet that goes well.

The Washington Post publishes what it calls Part 1 of excerpts from Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig's new book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year. (Also linked yesterday.)

Devan Cole of CNN: "... Donald Trump told a number of his advisers in 2020 that whoever leaked information about his stay in the White House bunker in May of that year had committed treason and should be executed for sharing details about the episode with members of the press, according to excerpts of a new book, obtained by CNN, from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nicholas Lemann reviews Michael Wolff's book Landslide for the New York Times. The review is worth reading. Here's a sample graf: "Trump, in these pages, is self-obsessed, delusional and administratively incompetent. He has no interest in or understanding of the workings of government. He doesn't read or listen to briefings. He spends vast amounts of time watching conservative television networks and chatting on the phone with cronies. The pandemic puts him at a special disadvantage; many of the people around him are either sick or afraid to come to work because that would entail complying with a regime of Covid noncompliance that Trump demands. If anybody tells him something he doesn't want to hear, he marginalizes or fires that person and finds somebody else to listen to, who may or may not hold an official position. If Fox News becomes less than completely loyal, he'll switch to Newsmax or One America News Network. He lives in a self-curated information environment that bears only a glancing relationship to reality."

Mike Allen of Axios: "... Donald Trump, in a book out Tuesday by Michael Wolff, says he is 'very disappointed' in votes by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his own hard-won nominee, and that he 'hasn't had the courage you need to be a great justice.'... 'There were so many others I could have appointed, and everyone wanted me to,' Trump told Wolff in an interview.... 'Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

** Trump's "Lost Cause." Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “We are not the only democracy to have had a corrupt, would-be authoritarian in high office. But we have had a hard time holding that person minimally accountable.... This isn't the first time the United States has struggled to hold insurrectionists accountable.... Jefferson Davis..., Robert E. Lee ... [and] Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president..., [all died free men.]... Other, less prominent Confederates were also able to escape any real punishment.... Typical were those who moved smoothly from open rebellion to opposition to Reconstruction to serving as propagandists for what would become the 'Lost Cause.'... Leniency for defeated Confederates ... also contributed to a climate of impunity that fueled violence against Blacks and their allies.... The United States has never struggled to punish those radicals who stood against hierarchy and domination.... The two Red Scares of the 20th century are evidence enough of this fact." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The determining factor isn't so much the punishment as who does the punishing. If almost all Republicans had condemned Trump for inciting the insurrection -- and for his many other corrupt acts -- then it's likely Trump & Trumpism would be kaput. But most Republicans, after an extremely brief January 6 shiver, went back to defending Trump & kowtowing to him. That left only Democrats, some social media folks & a few corporations to "punish" Trump. Hardly a line-up that could convince the MAGA crowd. The same dynamic would have held after the Civil War. Had Northerners incarcerated Davis, Lee, Stephens & others, they would have become martyrs of the "Lost Cause." It would have taken Southerners to declaim against the leaders of the seditious war, and that never happened. The Great Unwashed, alas, will almost always default to, "He's a jerk, but he's out jerk." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Here's the Insurectionist-in-Chief talking about the January 6 "lovefest" over this past weekend. Worth watching the part with Trump's, uh, voiceover, which I've set near the top of the video: ~~~

Bill Barr Cleared Up Some Loose Ends Before He Left the Building. Devlin Barrett & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Newly unsealed court documents show the Trump Justice Department sought a court order for the communications records of three Washington Post reporters [-- Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous --] in the final days of William P. Barr's tenure as attorney general in 2020, as prosecutors sought to identify sources for three articles written in 2017. The papers also reveal the service provider that was the recipient of the secret court order: Proofpoint Corporation, a firm that supplies data security services. Using Proofpoint as a means of trying to get the reporters' email records suggests prosecutors were thinking creatively about where they might be able to find reporters' data, beyond just standard email providers like Google or Microsoft.... In addition, the documents indicate the extent to which federal investigators strongly suspected the disclosures of classified information were coming from Congress."

Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "A former Chicago bank executive was convicted on Tuesday of financial crimes related to his facilitation of millions of dollars in high-risk loans to Paul Manafort, all in an effort to obtain a coveted position in the Trump administration. A jury in New York unanimously found the banker, Stephen M. Calk, 54, guilty of one count each of financial institution bribery and conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery. The charges stemmed from Mr. Calk's use of his position as chairman and chief executive of the Federal Savings Bank to push the bank to give $16 million in loans in 2016 to Mr. Manafort, who served as chairman of Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign during a key stretch."


John Cox of the Washington Post: "About a week ago, a company in Utah ... debuted what it described as a fun new product: a kit that encases Glock handguns in red, yellow and blue Lego blocks, refashioning lethal weapons to look exactly like children's toys. What Culper Precision calls the "BLOCK19" can be purchased for $549 to $765. "There is a satisfaction that can ONLY be found in the shooting sports and this is just one small way to break the rhetoric from Anti-Gun folks and draw attention to the fact that the shooting sports are SUPER FUN! the [Culper] site proclaimed.... What's not fun, and went unaddressed on the sales page, is the reality that thousands of children unintentionally shoot themselves or others each year because they find a gun and pull its trigger.... [The Lego gun is] legal in at least most of the country, said David Pucino, a lawyer at the Giffords Law Center. Although federal law prohibits toys from being manufactured to look like guns, no such law prohibits guns from being made to look like toys." ~~~

Ken Starr's Moral Outrage Is Extremely Client-Dependent. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "strong>Ken Starr, the lawyer who hounded Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky, waged a 'scorched-earth' legal campaign to persuade federal prosecutors to drop a sex-trafficking case against the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein relating to the abuse of multiple underaged girls, according to a new book. In Perversion of Justice the Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown writes about Starr's role in securing the secret 2008 sweetheart deal that granted Epstein effective immunity from federal prosecution. The author, who is credited with blowing open the cover-up, calls Starr a 'fixer' who 'used his political connections in the White House to get the Justice Department to review Epstein's case'.... Though Starr's role in securing the Epstein deal was public knowledge, Brown's book reveals the lengths that the lawyer was prepared to go to in order to protect from federal justice an accused sexual predator and pedophile. The extent of his involvement is all the more striking given the equally passionate lengths that Starr went to in 1998 to pursue Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice, given the much less serious sexual activity that sparked that investigation."

Maeve Sheehy of Politico: "A federal court on Tuesday threw ou the defamation lawsuit filed by Roy Moore, Alabama's former chief justice, against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Moore, who served twice in his role on the Alabama Supreme Court and was twice removed from the position, sued Baron Cohen after Moore was interviewed under the pretense that he would receive an award for his support of Israel. Baron Cohen pretended to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert and claimed he had technology that would show whether Moore was a pedophile -- a reference to sexual misconduct allegations against Moore -- for the series 'Who Is America?' Moore alleged that Baron Cohen defamed him. He and his wife, Kayla Moore, also alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the case on Tuesday after agreeing with the defendants that because Moore had signed a waiver before the interview, and because of First Amendment protection, Moore's claims were barred. Judge John P. Cronan, an appointee of ... Donald Trump, dismissed the claims by both Moore and his wife."

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "An Iranian American journalist living in Brooklyn who has been a sharp critic of the Iranian government was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by an intelligence network in Iran, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap the journalist and author, Masih Alinejad. Ms. Alinejad was not identified by prosecutors, but confirmed in an interview that she was the intended target of the plot. Last year, Ms. Alinejad wrote in a newspaper article that Iranian government officials had unleashed a social media campaign calling for her abduction. The four defendants all live in Iran and remain at large, the prosecutors said, identifying one of them, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, 50, as an Iranian intelligence official and the three others as 'Iranian intelligence assets.' A fifth defendant, accused of supporting the plot but not participating in the kidnapping conspiracy, was arrested in California." ~~~

     ~~~ A CBS News story is here. The DOJ's statement is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Conservative network Newsmax is rushing to distance itself from one of its own hosts after he said this week that vaccines go 'against nature' because diseases are 'supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people.'... Newsmax issued a statement on Tuesday supporting efforts to get Americans vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, while pointedly disagreeing with host Rob Schmitt's claims that vaccinations unnaturally interfere with viruses' designs on killing people." See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's thread.

Tennessee. Brett Kelman of the Tennessean: "The Tennessee state government on Monday fired its top vaccination official, becoming the latest of about two dozen states to lose years of institutional knowledge about vaccines in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The termination comes as the virus shows new signs of spread in Tennessee, and the more-transmissible delta variant surfaces in greater numbers. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, said she was fired on Monday afternoon and provided a copy of her termination letter. It provides no explanation for her termination. Fiscus said she was a scapegoat who was terminated to appease state lawmakers angry about the department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers against coronavirus. The agency has been dialing back efforts to vaccinate teenagers since June. 'It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19,' Fiscus said in a written statement. '"I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "The Tennessee department of health will reportedly halt all vaccine outreach to teenagers amid a conservative backlash against Covid-19 vaccines for adolescents. The department's new guidance, announced in reports and emails reported by the Tennessean, will apply to vaccinations for all diseases -- not just Covid-19. If the department issues any information about vaccination, staff will reportedly be required to strip the agency logo from documents." The Tennessean's story is firewalled. ~~~

~~~ ** Jill Filipovic in a CNN opinion piece: "The Donald Trump-fueled descent of the GOP into a party of reality-rejecting, science-denying conspiracy theorists is well-documented, and a growing phenomenon.... And almost nowhere is the enduring harm of the Trump years more apparent than in the American right's response to the Covid-19 vaccine. Vaccinations, long rightly heralded as miracles of modern medicine that have saved millions of lives, are suddenly ideologically divisive along party lines. The danger inherent in this conflict came to a head this week in Tennessee, where pediatrician Dr. Michelle Fiscus, one of the state's top vaccine officials, was fired after circulating information about a decades-old state policy regarding vaccinations for teens.... The party of 'pro-life' doesn't believe that children -- including teens -- have basic rights to preserve their well-being, separate from their parents' wishes or consent." Read on.

Beyond the Beltway

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote. You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider 'divisive concepts.'But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine -- and to infect as many people as you can. With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters.... At the same time, 10 states have enacted, and 26 states are weighing, restrictions on classroom discussions of racism and sexism.... Red states are simultaneously extending civil rights to a previously unprotected class: the anti-vaxxers. A count by the Husch Blackwell law firm lists at least 17 Republican-run states that have enacted laws or orders protecting the rights of those who refuse coronavirus vaccines...."

California. Don Thompson of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom can't put his Democratic Party affiliation on the ballot voters see when they decide whether to remove him, a judge ruled Monday. Newsom's campaign missed a deadline to submit his affiliation to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the Sept. 14 recall election. Newsom's campaign said it was inadvertent and asked Weber, who was appointed by Newsom, to allow the affiliation to appear. She said the issue needed to go to a judge, so Newsom filed a lawsuit.... Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles ... determined that the law 'unambiguously precludes party information from appearing on a recall ballot where the elected officer fails timely to make the designation.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "The death toll from a catastrophic condominium collapse in Florida last month, once feared to be well more than 100 people, is expected to land between 95 and 99 people, with the search-and-recovery operation at the disaster site nearing its end.... In the 20 days crews have searched for victims..., they have found the remains of 95 people. Eighty-five of them have been identified. The other 10 victims will be considered unaccounted for until the medical examiner's office in Miami-Dade County can identify them through various forensic techniques.... In addition to the 10 unidentified people who are known to have been in the building, the list of those potentially still missing includes four more names, for a total of 14, said Alfredo Ramirez III, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department. Those four were identified by friends or family members as possibly in the building when it collapsed, and they have not been found alive elsewhere." The AP's report is here.

Florida. Amanda Maile & Mina Kaji of ABC News: "Norwegian Cruise Lines is suing Florida after the state banned vaccine passports, saying it cannot safely resume sailings without ensuring its passengers and crew are vaccinated against COVID-19. In a complaint filed Tuesday, the company called the move a 'last resort.'... Florida's law threatens to fine companies $5,000 each time they ask a customer to provide proof that they've been vaccinated."

Texas. Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Texas lawmakers traveled down starkly divergent political paths on Tuesday, as Republicans in Austin signaled their intention to push forward with an overhaul of the state's election system while Democrats who had fled the state a day earlier began lobbying lawmakers in Congress to pass comprehensive federal voting rights legislation. While Democrats celebrated their success in temporarily delaying the Republican bill, they confronted a much bigger long-term challenge: There is little the party can do to stop Republicans from ultimately passing a wide array of voting restrictions, with Gov. Greg Abbott vowing to call 'special session after special session after special session' until an election bill is passed. But Democrats, as long as they remain away from Texas, appear likely to be able to hold off the G.O.P. effort for now.... Without a quorum in the House, any bill passed by the Senate cannot advance, effectively killing any bill for this session...." ~~~

~~~ That Sound You Hear Is Sabres Rattling. Patrick Svitek & Cassandra Pollock of the Texas Tribune: "A showdown in the Texas House was locked into place Tuesday after the chamber voted overwhelmingly to send law enforcement after Democrats who left [for Washington, D.C.] a day earlier.... The impact of the House move is unclear since Texas law enforcement lacks jurisdiction in the nation's capital."

Texas. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Abortion rights advocates and providers filed a federal lawsuit in Texas on Tuesday seeking to block a new state law empowering individuals to sue anyone assisting a woman with getting an abortion, including those who provide financial help or drive a pregnant patient to a clinic. A dozen states have passed laws banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. But the Texas law, set to take effect in September, goes further by incentivizing private citizens to help enforce the ban -- awarding them at least $10,000 if their court challenges are successful. Even religious leaders who counsel a pregnant woman considering an abortion could be liable, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU on behalf of several other groups." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Who Took Down REvil? David Sanger of the New York Times: "Just days after President Biden demanded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shut down ransomware groups attacking American targets, the most aggressive of the groups suddenly went off-line early Tuesday. The mystery is who made it happen. The group, called REvil, short for 'Ransomware evil,' has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as responsible for the attack on one of America's largest beef producers, JBS. Two weeks after Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin met in Geneva last month, REvil took credit for a hack that affected thousands of businesses around the world over the July 4 holiday.That latest attack led to Mr. Biden's ultimatum in a phone call on Friday to the Russian president. Later, Mr. Biden said that 'we expect them to act,' and when asked by a reporter later if he would take down the group's servers if Mr. Putin did not, the president simply said, 'Yes.' He may have done exactly that. But that is only one possible explanation for what happened around 1 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, when the group&'s sites on the dark web suddenly disappeared."

Canada. Leyland Cecco of the Guardian: "A First Nations community in western Canada has announced the discovery of at least 160 unmarked graves close to a former residential school -- the latest in a series of grim announcements from across the country in recent weeks. Members of the Penelakut Tribe in south-western British Columbia said in a statement late on Monday that the graves had been discovered near the site of the Kuper Island industrial school on Penelakut Island, nearly 90km north of the provincial capital Victoria."

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Monday
Jul122021

The Commentariat -- July 13, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

California. Don Thompson of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom can't put his Democratic Party affiliation on the ballotvoters see when they decide whether to remove him, a judge ruled Monday. Newsom's campaign missed a deadline to submit his affiliation to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the Sept. 14 recall election. Newsom's campaign said it was inadvertent and asked Weber, who was appointed by Newsom, to allow the affiliation to appear. She said the issue needed to go to a judge, so Newsom filed a lawsuit.... Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles ... determined that the law 'unambiguously precludes party information from appearing on a recall ballot where the elected officer fails timely to make the designation.'"

Devan Cole of CNN: "... Donald Trump told a number of his advisers in 2020 that whoever leaked information about his stay in the White House bunker in May of that year had committed treason and should be executed for sharing details about the episode with members of the press, according to excerpts of a new book, obtained by CNN, from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender."

Mike Allen of Axios: "... Donald Trump, in a book out Tuesday by Michael Wolff, says he is 'very disappointed' in votes by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his own hard-won nominee, and that he 'hasn't had the courage you need to be a great justice.'... 'There were so many others I could have appointed, and everyone wanted me to,' Trump told Wolff in an interview.... 'Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.'"

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Tennessee. Brett Kelman of the Tennessean: "The Tennessee state government on Monday fired its top vaccination official, becoming the latest of about two dozen states to lose years of institutional knowledge about vaccines in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The termination comes as the virus shows new signs of spread in Tennessee, and the more-transmissible delta variant surfaces in greater numbers. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, said she was fired on Monday afternoon and provided a copy of her termination letter. It provides no explanation for her termination. Fiscus said she was a scapegoat who was terminated to appease state lawmakers angry about the department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers against coronavirus. The agency has been dialing back efforts to vaccinate teenagers since June. 'It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19,' Fiscus said in a written statement. '"I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.'"

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Ousted Social Security commissioner Andrew Saul, the Trump appointee who declared Friday he would defy his firing by President Biden, on Monday found his access to agency computers cut off, even as his acting replacement moved to undo his policies. [Saul was trying to work from his home in Katonah, N.Y., where he's been working since March 2020 because of the pandemic.]... Saul said he had no public announcement -- yet -- on his strategy to remain in office as the 'duly confirmed Social Security commissioner.'... Saul [is] a wealthy former women's apparel executive and prominent Republican donor who had served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits. 'Stay tuned.'"

Texas. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Abortion rights advocates and providers filed a federal lawsuit in Texas on Tuesday seeking to block a new state law empowering individuals to sue anyone assisting a woman with getting an abortion, including those who provide financial help or drive a pregnant patient to a clinic. A dozen states have passed laws banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. But the Texas law, set to take effect in September, goes further by incentivizing private citizens to help enforce the ban -- awarding them at least $10,000 if their court challenges are successful. Even religious leaders who counsel a pregnant woman considering an abortion could be liable, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU on behalf of several other groups."

** Trump's "Lost Cause." Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "We are not the only democracy to have had a corrupt, would-be authoritarian in high office. But we have had a hard time holding that person minimally accountable.... This isn't the first time the United States has struggled to hold insurrectionists accountable.... Jefferson Davis..., Robert E. Lee ... [and] Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president..., [all died free men.]... Other, less prominent Confederates were also able to escape any real punishment.... Typical were those who moved smoothly from open rebellion to opposition to Reconstruction to serving as propagandists for what would become the 'Lost Cause.'... Leniency for defeated Confederates ... also contributed to a climate of impunity that fueled violence against Blacks and their allies.... The United States has never struggled to punish those radicals who stood against hierarchy and domination.... The two Red Scares of the 20th century are evidence enough of this fact." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The determining factor isn't so much the punishment as who does the punishing. If almost all Republicans had condemned Trump for inciting the insurrection -- and for his many other corrupt acts -- then it's likely Trump & Trumpism would be kaput. But most Republicans, after an extremely brief January 6 shiver, went back to defending Trump & kowtowing to him. That left only Democrats, some social media folks & a few corporations to "punish" Trump. Hardly a line-up that could convince the MAGA crowd. The same dynamic would have held after the Civil War. Had Northerners incarcerated Davis, Lee, Stephens & others, they would have become martyrs of the "Lost Cause." It would have taken Southerners to declaim against the leaders of the seditious war, and that never happened. The Great Unwashed, alas, will almost always default to, "He's a jerk, but he's out jerk." ~~~

~~~ Here's the Insurectionist-in-Chief talking about the January 6 "lovefest" over this past weekend. Worth watching the part with Trump's, uh, voiceover, which I've set near the top of the video:

The Washington Post publishes what it calls Part 1 of excerpts from Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig's new book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "Facing rising fears of summer violence, President Joe Biden is embarking on a political high-wire act, trying to balance his strong backing for law enforcement with the police reform movement championed by many of his supporters. His focus Monday was on crime. Biden met at the White House with urban leaders -- including Eric Adams, the heavy favorite to be the next mayor of New York City -- about increased shootings, as Democrats warily watch a surge across the nation. Though limited to what can be done at the federal level, Biden promised to support efforts on the ground to combat crime." The New York Times story is here.

Oscar Lopez & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "As the largest protest movement in decades swept Cuba, President Biden on Monday called on the Cuban government to heed the demands of thousands of citizens who took to the streets on Sunday to protest power outages, food shortages and a worrying lack of medicine. 'We stand with the Cuban people and their clarion call for freedom,' Mr. Biden said in a statement. 'The United States calls on the Cuban regime to hear their people and serve their needs at this vital moment rather than enriching themselves.'" An ABC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Washington Post Editors: "President Biden promised during his campaign that he would dispense with the pampering ... Donald Trump offered to Middle Eastern dictators.... As for the leaders of Saudi Arabia, he would 'make them in fact the pariah that they are.' There is 'very little social redeeming value in the present government in Saudi Arabia,' he said. So why, last week, did Mr. Biden roll out the red carpet for Prince Khalid bin Salman, the brother of Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman? The former ambassador to Washington was directly implicated in the 2018 murder of exiled journalist Jamal Khashoggi, yet was treated to a host of high-level meetings, including with Mr. Biden's national security adviser, secretary of state and defense secretary. That's not the reception you'd expect for a pariah.&"

David Smith of the Guardian: "Joe Biden, who has been criticised for failing to use his 'bully pulpit' to defend voting rights, is set to deliver on Tuesday an aggressive denunciation of Donald Trump's 'big lie' about a stolen election. After months of sidestepping acrimony with his predecessor in a bid to lower the political temperature, Biden will argue that Trump's false conspiracy theories led to the 6 January insurrection and a rash of voter restrictions, the White House said. 'He'll lay out the moral case for why denying the right to vote is a form of suppression and a form of silencing,' said Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, to reporters on Monday. 'And he will redouble his commitment to using every tool at his disposal to continue to fight to protect the fundamental right of Americans to vote against the onslaught of voter suppression laws, based on a dangerous and discredited conspiracy theory that culminated in an assault on our Capitol.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yo, Joe, "every tool" would include an endorsement of ditching the filibuster for voting rights bills. ~~~

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Top Democrats in the House are spearheading a new effort to convince the Senate to carve out a historic exception to the filibuster that would allow them to push through their marquee voting rights and election reform legislation over unanimous Republican opposition. The sweeping measure to expand voting rights known as S1 fell victim to a Republican filibuster last month after Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell and his leadership team unified the conference to sink the bill in a party-line vote. Now, furious at Republicans for weaponizing the filibuster against Joe Biden's legislative agenda, House majority whip James Clyburn is pushing Senate Democrats to end its use for constitutional measures, according to sources familiar with the matter. The rare and forceful effort from a member of the House leadership to pressure changes in the Senate underscores the alarm among Democrats that the filibuster may be an insurmountable obstacle as they race to overturn a wave of Republican ballot restrictions." See related stories about the Texas state legislature linked under "Beyond the Beltway" below.

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The latest effort to hold ... Donald Trump and his allies accountable for months of baseless claims about the 2020 election played out Monday in a Michigan courtroom, where a federal judge asked detailed and skeptical questions of several lawyers she is considering imposing sanctions against for filing a suit seeking to overturn the results. U.S. District Court Judge Linda V. Parker said she would rule on a request to discipline the lawyers in coming weeks. But over and over again during the more than five-hour hearing, she pointedly pressed the lawyers involved -- including Trump allies Sidney Powell and L. Lin Wood -- to explain what steps they had taken to ensure their court filings in the case filed last year had been accurate. She appeared astonished by many of their answers.... The affidavits filed to support [their] claims included obvious errors, speculation and basic misunderstandings of how elections are generally conducted in the state, Parker said." ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The Republican Party's top lawyer warned in November against continuing to push false claims that the presidential election was stolen, calling efforts by some of the former president's lawyers a 'joke' that could mislead millions of people, according to an email obtained by The Washington Post. Justin Riemer, the Republican National Committee's chief counsel, sought to discourage a Republican Party staffer from posting claims about ballot fraud on RNC accounts, the email shows, as attempts by Donald Trump and his associates to challenge results in a number of states, such as Arizona and Pennsylvania, intensified. 'What Rudy and Jenna are doing is a joke and they are getting laughed out of court,' Riemer, a longtime Republican lawyer, wrote to Liz Harrington, a former party spokeswoman, on Nov. 28, referring to Trump attorneys Rudolph W. Giuliani and Jenna Ellis. 'They are misleading millions of people who have wishful thinking that the president is going to somehow win this thing.'... Some Trump allies, including Giuliani, sought to have Riemer fired after learning of the email, according to people familiar with the matter, but he remains employed at the RNC."

Ben Protess & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A week after state prosecutors in Manhattan indicted Donald J. Trump's family business and its chief financial officer, Allen H. Weisselberg, the company began removing Mr. Weisselberg from every leadership position he held atop dozens of its subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. The move could be a potential precursor to a wider shake-up at the former president's company, the Trump Organization, as the reality of the indictment takes hold for Mr. Trump and his senior executives.... Mr. Weisselberg continues to work at the Trump Organization, and there is no indication that Mr. Trump wants to cut ties with him...."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's interview on Sunday with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News encapsulate[s] how the former president has come to publicly embrace the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on his behalf.... Trump [declared] that those involved were 'tremendous -- in many cases, tremendous people, tremendous people.' He'd just finished saying that those who overtook the building in an effort to block the finalization of his electoral defeat had 'no guns ... no nothing' (untrue; a rioter was charged with having a firearm, and the crowd had a variety of other weapons from clubs to chemical weapons) and celebrating them as being 'military people, and they're police officers, and they're construction workers.' He repeatedly praised the rioters as righteous and innocuous, as being in a 'lovefest' with the police officers at the scene who, he suggested, stood by near open doors.... From the start, Trump's politics included an often explicit embrace of violence.... The events of Jan. 6 were a natural consequence of his dishonest claims and his obvious approval of force -- and of the failure of his allies to demand any accountability." Bump also gives Bartiromo what-for. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Katherine Huggins of Mediaite: "During Donald Trump's CPAC speech on Sunday, Fox News added a disclaimer that 'voting system companies have denied the various allegations made by President Trump and his counsel regarding the 2020 election.' The chyron appeared after Trump started talking about how many votes he received.... The network currently faces a $1.6 billion defamation suit from Dominion Voting Systems (that Fox has asked to be dismissed) for their role in promoting baseless election fraud claims. Another voting systems company, Smartmatic, also filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News earlier this year." MB: So while it may have appeared that Fox was attempting to practice some journalism there, they merely were practicing some legal defense against pending lawsuits. The clue: a "normal" disclaimer would have read something like, "Claims of rampant election fraud are untrue," but the Fox "News" chyron mentioned only that the companies suing them disputed Trump's allegations.

Sabrina Embler of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, the Entomological Society of America announced it was removing 'gypsy moth' and 'gypsy ant' as recognized common names for two insects ... because their names are derogatory to the Romani people.... The move by the Entomological Society is the first time the group has removed a common name from an insect on the grounds that it is offensive to a community of people, according to representatives from the society."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: Emmanuel Macron Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Those People. "Hoping to combat a possible wave of coronavirus infections, President Emmanuel Macron of France on Monday announced new vaccination requirements, including mandatory inoculation for health care workers and proof of immunization or a recent negative test to enter restaurants and cultural venues."

Sheryl Stolberg & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Representatives of Pfizer met privately with senior U.S. scientists and regulators on Monday to press their case for swift authorization of coronavirus booster vaccines, amid growing public confusion about whether they will be needed and pushback from federal health officials who say the extra doses are not necessary now. The high-level online meeting, which lasted an hour and involved Pfizer's chief scientific officer briefing virtually every top doctor in the federal government, came on the same day Israel started administering third doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to heart transplant patients and others with compromised immune systems. Officials said after the meeting that more data -- and possibly several more months -- would be needed before regulators could determine whether booster shots were necessary."

Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration warned on Monday that Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine can lead to an increased risk of a rare neurological condition known as Guillain-Barré syndrome, another setback for a vaccine that has largely been sidelined in the United States. Although regulators have found that the chances of developing the condition are low, they appear to be three to five times higher among recipients of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine than among the general population in the United States, according to people familiar with the decision. The warning was attached to fact sheets about the vaccine for providers and patients."

Bob Herman of Axios: "More than half of unvaccinated Americans live in households that make less than $50,000 annually, according to the latest Census Bureau data.... Making it easier for the working poor to get the COVID-19 vaccine, without dinging their already-low incomes, could help boost the country's vaccination rates.... Vaccination has been politicized, but juggling work schedules and child care could be bigger factors than politics." According to a chart by the U.S. Census Household Pulse Survey, which Herman republishes, 22 percent of people living households earning less than $25K have not been vaccinated; only 3.4% of those in households of $200K & up haven't been vaccinated. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "What used to be the conservative movement in this country is becoming a death cult. The measure of its power is less in ballots cast than in how many people die needlessly in service of this twisted worldview. This reality was on view over the weekend in Dallas at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where attendees cheered when Alex Berenson, who has made himself a Fox News folk hero for spreading misinformation about covid-19 vaccines, crowed about the fact that fewer Americans were getting their shots than public health officials had hoped.... And the worst-case possibility is that covid-19 roars back -- along with the restrictions and isolations Americans thought we'd left behind.... Under many circumstances, those who choose to gamble with their lives have the right to do so. But refusing to get vaccinated isn't like skydiving or shooting heroin: It's a threat to the rest of us as well."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post, in a post on what a deceptive incompetent Gov. Kristi Noem (R-S.D.) is, presents an argument for Covid-19 vaccinations that even dimwits can understand: "It's like making driving under the influence legal and booze free, and touting how much confidence you put in the public to manage their own affairs. Except, of course, that a lot of people killed in the resulting car accidents might be dying from the personal decisions of others, just as many of those infected with the coronavirus in [Noem's] state were probably infected while the pandemic was raging despite their own efforts not to be."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Robert Jablon of the AP: "A federal judge on Monday gave final approval to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit that alleged some 6,000 women were sexually abused by a former University of California, Los Angeles gynecologist. The 2019 class-action suit involved allegations that from 1983 to 2018, Dr. James Heaps groped women, simulated intercourse with an ultrasound probe or made inappropriate comments during examinations at the UCLA student health center, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center or his on-campus office. The suit also accused UCLA of failing to take action against Heaps despite complaints and of having a 'policy of indifference' to reports of sexual misconduct.... UCLA didn't acknowledge wrongdoing in reaching the settlement last year, but the university did agree to change its procedures for preventing, identifying, investigating and dealing with sexual misconduct."

Louisiana. Debbie Elliott of NPR: "Four-term Democratic Gov. Edwin Edwards, who also served prison time for corruption, died Monday at his home in Gonzales, La. He was 93. A statement from his family said he'd been in hospice care for the past week with respiratory problems. Edwards was the last of the larger-than-life populists who once dominated Louisiana politics. He built his career on political patronage, public works, and sheer force of personality." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Texas Democrats fled the state on Monday in a last-ditch effort to prevent the passage of a restrictive new voting law by the Republican-controlled Legislature, heading to Washington to draw national attention to their cause. The group left Austin in midafternoon on a pair of chartered flights that arrived at Dulles International Airport just before sunset. Fifty-one of the 67 State House Democrats flew on the planes, leaders of the delegation said, and several others arrived separately in Washington; that's enough to prevent Texas Republicans from attaining a quorum, which is required to conduct state business.... The move could paralyze the Legislature for weeks if Democrats remain out of state until this special session ends in August." An NBC News story is here. (Both the NYT & NBC stories are updates of stories linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Matt Houston of KENS5 San Antonio: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ... said law enforcement will arrest those Democrats when they return to Texas in a procedure unanimously outlined and agreed to by House members. They would return to the capitol, effectively forced to maintain quorum. But troopers cannot arrest lawmakers who are out of state."

Way Beyond

Cuba. Tom Phillips & Ed Augustin of the Guardian: "The Cuban president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has attacked the 'shameful delinquents' he claimed were trying to 'fracture' his country's communist revolution after the Caribbean island witnessed its largest anti-government protests in nearly three decades. As Cuban officials blamed the US for Sunday;s demonstrations, Joe Biden called on the island;s leaders to hear its citizens' 'clarion call for freedom'.... In a televised address on Monday morning Díaz-Canel, who recently succeeded Raúl Castro as the Communist party's top figure, painted the protests as part of a United States-backed, social media-driven plot to stir up public discontent and overthrow the Cuban regime.... Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, a top party official who runs its ideology department, denounced the protests as part of a well-funded US-sponsored effort to create 'instability and chaos' in Cuba, which is currently experiencing its worst economic slump in decades as well as a worsening Covid crisis."

News Ledes

CNBC: "Inflation surged in June at its fastest pace in nearly 13 years amid a burst in used vehicle costs and price increases in food and energy, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. The consumer price index increased 5.4% from a year earlier, the largest jump since August 2008, just before the worst of the financial crisis. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting a 5% gain." The New York Times story is here.

New York Times: "Richard C. Lewontin, widely considered one of the most brilliant geneticists of the modern era and a prolific, elegant and often caustic writer who condemned the facile use of genetics and evolutionary biology to 'explain' human nature, died on Sunday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 92."

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