The Commentariat -- July 6, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Lauren Lumpkin & Nick Anderson of the Washington Post: "Journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Ta-Nehisi Coates are joining Howard University's faculty, school officials announced Tuesday in a major recruiting victory for the private institution in the nation's capital. It was a simultaneous setback for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to lose Hannah-Jones after a long and remarkably contentious effort to recruit her. The surprising development came less than a week after trustees for UNC-Chapel Hill voted to award tenure to Hannah-Jones. Initially, the public university hired her as a professor without the job-protection status. But its board of trustees approved tenure for her on Wednesday, after faculty members and students at Chapel Hill protested that she had been mistreated." A Huffington Post story is here.

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Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "At this point..., we have enough data in hand to declare that the economy is booming. In fact, it's booming so strongly that Republicans have pivoted from claiming (falsely) that we're experiencing the worst job performance in decades to lauding the employment numbers and giving credit to ... Trump's 2017 tax cut.... The Republican determination to attribute everything good that happens to tax cuts is almost beyond parody.... We are having another morning in America, and [President] Biden deserves more credit for his good morning than [Ronald] Reagan ever did for his."

Kevin Sullivan & Mary Jordan of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, the Carters will be married 75 years, the longest in presidential history. Jimmy, 96, and Rosalynn, 93, will mark the occasion in the town where they met nearly a century ago.... Three days later, family, friends and Carter administration officials will travel to Plains for an anniversary party in the local high school auditorium.... Jimmy is also the longest-living president in history."

News from the GQP:

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: Paul "Gosar, a five-term Republican and dentist from Prescott, Ariz., emerged this year as a vociferous backer of the 'Stop the Steal' movement that falsely claimed that ... Donald J. Trump won the 2020 election and spearheaded the rally in Washington on Jan. 6 that led to the deadly Capitol riot. But Mr. Gosar's ties to racists like [Nick] Fuentes and America First, as well as similar far-right fringe organizations and activists, have been less scrutinized. A review of public comments and social media posts suggests that in Mr. Gosar, they have found an ally and advocate in Congress. His unapologetic association with them is perhaps the most vivid example of the Republican Party's growing acceptance of extremism, which has become apparent as more lawmakers espouse and amplify conspiracy theories and far-right ideologies that figure prominently in the belief systems of fringe groups.... Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida appeared at an event last year where security was handled by the Proud Boys, a far-right militia with more than a dozen members who have been charged in the Capitol riot. Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado has come under scrutiny for her ties to members of the Three Percenters, a radical militia group. And before she was elected to Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia endorsed executing Democratic lawmakers, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This story is a big deal in that it's at least a temporary abandonment of both-siderism, the Times' go-to stance on national politics.

David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement reports on a very strange speech about God & Jesus & all, which Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert (QR) made to celebrate Independence Day. ~~~

~~~ Here Badash reports on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (QR-Georgia) Independence Day speech. One thing we find out is that apparently only white, straight, right-wing Christians pay taxes in the USA. MB: Does that mean I can stop paying taxes? And there's this: ~~~

~~~ Q "News" (I Guess). David Gilbert of Vice: "Two major QAnon influencers were given official press credentials to the latest Trump rally held in Sarasota, Florida over the weekend, signaling a new level of acceptance of the QAnon conspiracy theory by the former president and his team."

Rachel Lerman & Gerrit De Vynck of the Washington Post: "A hacking group that experts said was behind the sprawling ransomware attack that hit hours before the beginning of the July Fourth holiday weekend is demanding $70 million to unlock the thousands of businesses affected by the hack. REvil, the same Russian-language group that was behind the attack on meat processor JBS, posted the demand on a dark-Web site associated with the group. The group wants the funds in bitcoin, a popular cryptocurrency, and said if it receives the money it will publish a 'decryptor key,' or a computer code that will unlock the victims' files." The NBC News story is here.

Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post (July 1): "A.E. Dick Howard was a confident young college professor, only 34, when he got the assignment of a lifetime: Oversee the writing of a new constitution for Virginia. Hope was hard to come by that year -- 1968 -- with cities in upheaval over the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. But Howard's task amounted to a stroke against the darkest forces of society. The document he helped create repudiated a Virginia constitution adopted in 1902 with the stated purpose of disenfranchising Black people, which it did with bureaucratic efficiency for decades. The new constitution went into effect on July 1, 1971, finally bringing the modern era to the state where American slavery originated. And so Thursday mark[ed] 50 years since African Americans had their basic rights recognized and safeguarded in Virginia."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Michael LaForgia, et al., of the New York Times: "Florida's high-rise building regulations have long been among the strictest in the nation. But after parts of Champlain Towers South tumbled down on June 24, killing at least 24 people and leaving 121 unaccounted for, evidence has mounted that those rules have been enforced unevenly by local governments, and sometimes not at all. Miami-Dade County officials said last week that they were prioritizing reviews of 24 multistory buildings that either had failed major structural or electrical inspections required after 40 years or had not submitted the reports in the first place. But the county's own records show that 17 of those cases had been open for a year or more. Two cases were against properties owned by the county itself. The oldest case had sat unresolved since 2008." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Jason Stanford, co-author of Forget the Alamo, in a Washington Post op-ed: "As The Post noted in its review of our book, we 'challenge the traditional view' of the Alamo saga, one popularized by Disney and John Wayne and cemented by politicians in the Texas school curriculum.... More than 20 states have introduced or passed legislation that attempts to prescribe how racial matters can be taught. In Texas last month, Abbott signed into law an act establishing a committee called the 1836 Project (get it?) to 'promote patriotic education.'... If Texans were tough enough to fight at the Alamo, they should be tough enough to talk about why." The WashPo's review of the book, by H.W. Brands. MB: The Party of Racists really is belligerent in its fear of even talking about racism.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Elsa is tracking northward through the Gulf of Mexico and will bring heavy rain, strong winds gusts, storm surge and isolated tornadoes to Florida through Wednesday. Elsa will then spread some of its impacts up the Southeast and mid-Atlantic coasts into late week." ~~~

~~~ Weather Channel Update: "Elsa has regained hurricane strength and will scrape Florida's west coast, including parts of the Tampa-St. Petersburg metro, through early Wednesday with storm surge, high winds, flooding rain and isolated tornadoes."

The New York Times is liveblogging developments today in the Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse.

The Commentariat -- July 5, 2021

~~~ Kevin Ambrose of the Washington Post: "The weather [in Washington, D.C.] this Fourth of July was perfect for a picnic followed by an amazing D.C. fireworks show. Mild temperatures and cool breezes provided comfortable conditions. Unlike in recent years, which featured high humidity with threats of showers and storms, the weather this year cooperated nicely. And smoke from the fireworks exited to the northeast rather quickly and never obscured the show."

Late Morning Updates:

Michael LaForgia, et al., of the New York Times: "Florida's high-rise building regulations have long been among the strictest in the nation. But after parts of Champlain Towers South tumbled down on June 24, killing at least 24 people and leaving 121 unaccounted for, evidence has mounted that those rules have been enforced unevenly by local governments, and sometimes not at all. Miami-Dade County officials said last week that they were prioritizing reviews of 24 multistory buildings that either had failed major structural or electrical inspections required after 40 years or had not submitted the reports in the first place. But the county's own records show that 17 of those cases had been open for a year or more. Two cases were against properties owned by the county itself. The oldest case had sat unresolved since 2008."

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Zach Montague of the New York Times: "On the day that President Biden had long anticipated as a milestone in the fight against the coronavirus, the White House hosted a celebration to both commemorate the July 4 holiday and herald the administration's progress toward overcoming the pandemic. In bringing together some 1,000 people for the largest planned event of Mr. Biden's presidency, the White House has been forced to walk a fine line, striving to signal progress toward restoring normalcy while still acknowledging the dangers of a pandemic that continues to claim hundreds of lives a day.... 'Two hundred and forty five years ago, we declared our independence from a distant king,' he said during the event. 'Today, we're closer than ever to declaring our independence from a deadly virus. That's not to say the battle against Covid-19 is over. We've got a lot more work to do.'" (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.)

News about Former Presidents
     (Well, President & President*)

** Jimmy & Rosalynn Smith Carter reflect on 75 years of marriage. (Also linked yesterday.) An AP story is here.

Daniel Shaviro in Just Security on the Trump Organization-Allen Weisseberg indictments: "This is no mere fringe benefits case. It is a straight-out fraud case, claiming that the defendants kept double books: phony ones to show the tax authorities, and accurate ones to be hidden from view.... It is not just a state and local income tax fraud case. It is also -- via New York State fraud, conspiracy, and grand larceny statutes -- a federal income tax fraud case. The indictment's first three and longest counts detail a 'scheme to defraud' the federal Internal Revenue Service, including through a 'conspiracy' with multiple 'overt acts,' and the commission of 'grand larceny.'... If the Manhattan DA can prove the facts asserted, this is not a trivial case, or one that ordinarily would not be brought, or one that bespeaks political bias, or is just about pressuring a witness whom the DA wants to 'turn.'" Emphasis original.

Martin Weil of the Washington Post: "An arrest has been made after a vehicle was reportedly driven toward a crowd of pedestrians on the Washington Monument grounds on Saturday evening, the U.S. Park Police said. The vehicle struck a security barrier about 7:30 p.m. on the southeast side of the grounds and no pedestrians were injured, the park police said. Thousands were expected to gather on the grounds for the July 4 fireworks. The park police said Jack Joseph Dessin, 38, of New Jersey, was arrested on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon (automobile) and destruction of government property."

Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "In comments still rippling through [ESPN], the reporter Rachel Nichols, who is white, said Maria Taylor, who is Black, earned the job to host 2020 N.B.A. finals coverage because ESPN was 'feeling pressure' on diversity." Draper discusses the whole hoo-hah. MB: Since I don't follow ESPN, I have no idea whether or not Taylor got her job because she's a woman, but -- sports coverage being what it is -- there's a good chance that she did. In any event, even if Taylor is right about "diversity pressure" (and here again, I have no idea), this is not something a prudent person says out loud, even when she's pissed off, which apparently she was. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "President Biden had hoped to turn the Fourth of July into a celebration not just of the nation's independence, but of reaching his administration's ambitious goal to have 70 percent of adults at least partly inoculated against the coronavirus before the holiday. He didn't quite make it. As of Friday, only about 67 percent of Americans 18 and older had gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, according to a New York Times tracker. Almost 60 percent of all adults were fully vaccinated, and the highly contagious Delta variant was creating hot spots, particularly in states with low vaccination rates, like Missouri." (Also linked yesterday.)

Arkansas, Utah & West Virginia. GOP Governors Try to Close the Trump Covid Gap. Amy Wang & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "GOP governors implored their residents on Sunday to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as polling shows that vaccine hesitancy has been driven by Republicans and as the virus's new, more contagious delta variant has caused recent upticks in covid-19 cases in areas with low vaccination rates. Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Sunday expressed concern about possible 'trouble; ahead for Arkansans if the state did not accelerate its vaccination rate.... Gov. Jim Justice of West Virginia ... said, '... When it really boils right down to it, they're in a lottery to themselves.... We have a lottery that says if you're vaccinated we're going to give you stuff. Well, you've got another lottery for them, and it's a death lottery.'... Gov. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) ... called the vaccination gap among Republicans 'troubling' and said 'hopefully reason will rule.'... [Donald Trump's] endorsement of vaccination has been inconsistent, and he has continued to promote questionable covid treatments and to denigrate many health officials...."

Washington, D.C. Rachel Chason of the Washington Post: "Just six months ago, the covid-19 unit at Sibley Memorial Hospital was full and doctors at the Northwest D.C. hospital were grappling with a winter surge in pandemic patients. Today, the 25-bed ward is empty, said Michael Lee, the hospitalist medical director. There have been virtually no covid-19 patients for four weeks. It's a trend that doctors say they are seeing across the D.C. region as vaccinations have led to increased immunity, sending hospitalizations and deaths plunging.... In D.C. as of Friday, no coronavirus-related deaths had been reported since June 19 and just 10 intensive care unit beds were occupied by covid-19 patients, according to The Washington Post's tracker. Both Maryland and Virginia have seen similar declines in hospitalizations and deaths -- with Maryland on Friday reporting that there were fewer than 100 people hospitalized, the lowest recorded level since the pandemic began."

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania. Hate-Mongers on Parade in the Cradle of Democracy. NBC 10 Philadelphia: "A group of white supremacists marched in front of Philadelphia City Hall Saturday night, drawing jeers from onlookers, as well as small scuffles. Approximately 200 members of the group Patriot Front wore white face coverings, khakis, blue shirts and tan hats and waved flags with their group insignias. They were seen approaching from Market Street before walking in front of City Hall around 10:45 p.m. Some could be seen holding shields as watchers-on shouted at them, demanding they leave Philadelphia." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas Could Have an Even Worse Governor. Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "Texas GOP Chairman Allen West announced Sunday he is running for governor, challenging fellow Republican Greg Abbott.... Since his election as Texas GOP chair in July of last year when he soundly beat then-incumbent James Dickey, West has criticized Abbott's coronavirus response and sought to push the governor's legislative agenda further to the right. Abbott has mostly ignored West's attacks. But the governor has increasingly catered to his right flank in recent months...."

Way Beyond

Vatican/Italy. Frances D'Emilio of the AP: "Pope Francis 'reacted well' to planned intestinal surgery Sunday evening at a Rome hospital, the Vatican said, without giving much detail about the pontiff's condition. In a statement late Sunday, a Holy See spokesman, Matteo Bruni, said the 84-year-old Francis had general anesthesia during the surgery necessitated by a narrowing of the large intestine. The written statement, which came shortly before midnight, was notable for its scarcity of medical detail."

News Ledes

A Big Holiday Weekend in the NRA-USA. CNN: "At least 150 people were killed by gun violence in more than 400 shootings across the country during the Fourth of July weekend as major cities nationwide confront a surge in violent crime, according to data compiled by the Gun Violence Archive. The data, which includes the number of shooting incidents and gun violence victims nationally over a 72-hour period from Friday through Sunday, is still evolving and will be updated."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, are here.

AP: "Rescuers were given the all-clear to resume work looking for victims at a collapsed South Florida condo building after demolition crews set off a string of explosives that brought down the last of the building in a plume of dust." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, are here: "The remaining part of a collapsed building in South Florida was demolished in a burst of explosives that took the unstable structure down in seconds, after officials worried that it might not withstand the powerful winds of an approaching tropical storm and that rescue workers could be endangered. The demolition, which took place at 10:30 p.m. on Sunday, came after officials warned residents to stay inside in case dust and other particles polluted the air, and as anguished families continued to await news in the search for 121 people missing since the building in Surfside collapsed more than a week ago. Rescue efforts had halted for much of the weekend amid growing worries about the unstable structure." ~~~

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Elsa is soaking Jamaica and Cuba and is expected to track toward Florida, where impacts from heavy rain, gusty winds and storm surge are likely early this week."

Independence Day 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

** Jimmy & Rosalynn Smith Carter reflect on

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "On the day that President Biden had long anticipated as a milestone in the fight against the coronavirus, the White House was set to host a celebration to both commemorate the July 4 holiday and herald the administration's progress toward overcoming the pandemic. In bringing together some 1,000 people for the largest planned event of Mr. Biden's presidency, the White House has been forced to walk a fine line, striving to signal progress toward restoring normalcy while still acknowledging the dangers of a pandemic that continues to claim hundreds of lives a day."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "President Biden had hoped to turn the Fourth of July into a celebration not just of the nation's independence, but of reaching his administration's ambitious goal to have 70 percent of adults at least partly inoculated against the coronavirus before the holiday. He didn't quite make it. As of Friday, only about 67 percent of Americans 18 and older had gotten at least one dose of a vaccine, according to a New York Times tracker. Almost 60 percent of all adults were fully vaccinated, and the highly contagious Delta variant was creating hot spots, particularly in states with low vaccination rates, like Missouri."

Hate-Mongers on Parade in the Cradle of Democracy. NBC 10 Philadelphia: "A group of white supremacists marched in front of Philadelphia City Hall Saturday night, drawing jeers from onlookers, as well as small scuffles. Approximately 200 members of the group Patriot Front wore white face coverings, khakis, blue shirts and tan hats and waved flags with their group insignias. They were seen approaching from Market Street before walking in front of City Hall around 10:45 p.m. Some could be seen holding shields as watchers-on shouted at them, demanding they leave Philadelphia."

Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "In comments still rippling through [ESPN], the reporter Rachel Nichols, who is white, said Maria Taylor, who is Black, earned the job to host 2020 N.B.A. finals coverage because ESPN was 'feeling pressure' on diversity." Draper discusses the whole hoo-hah. MB: Since I don't follow ESPN, I have no idea whether or not Taylor got her job because she's a woman, but -- sports coverage being what it is -- there's a good chance she did. In any event, even if Taylor is right about "diversity pressure" (and here again, I have no idea), this is not something a person says out loud, even when she's pissed off, which apparently she was.

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Josh Boak of the AP: "President Joe Biden stayed mum on policy during a Saturday trip to Michigan, focusing instead on cherries -- and cherry pie and cherry ice cream -- and voters who were mask-free as coronavirus restrictions have eased. It had all the hallmarks of a campaign stop that he couldn't make last year. Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer greeted Biden when he arrived midday in Traverse City, which is hosting the National Cherry Festival, an event that attracted Presidents Herbert Hoover and Gerald Ford in the past. They skipped the festival, however, in favor of a cherry farm in nearby Antrim County, where Biden pitched his immigration plans when chatting with two couples from Guatemala who were picking fruit. He then greeted a long line of enthusiastic supporters stretched out behind a rope."

Guardian: "Joe Biden said on Saturday he had directed US intelligence agencies to investigate a sophisticated ransomware attack that hit hundreds of American businesses as the Fourth of July holiday weekend began and aroused suspicions of Russian gang involvement. Huntress, a security company, said on Friday it believed the Russia-linked REvil ransomware gang was to blame. Last month, the FBI blamed the same group for paralyzing the meat packer JBS. Active since April 2019, REvil develops network-paralyzing software and leases it to so-called affiliates who infect targets and earn the lion's share of ransoms."

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Nearly six months after the U.S. Capitol riot, the Justice Department has begun arresting a new category of alleged criminals -- those who attacked reporters or damaged their equipment as journalists documented the violence perpetrated by supporters of ... Donald Trump. The first such charge came last week, when 43-year-old Shane Jason Woods of Illinois was charged with engaging in violence on the Capitol grounds Jan. 6, as well as assaulting a law enforcement officer. Authorities say Woods was caught on video knocking down a cameraman.... On Thursday, FBI agents arrested a Covington, Va., man for allegedly destroying journalists' equipment. Joshua Dillon Haynes was charged with smashing their gear outside the Capitol and bragging about it in a text to a friend. Haynes was the fifth person arrested in connection with attacks on the media in a little more than a week."

"Consciousness of Guilt." Jacques Billeaud of the AP: "An Associated Press review of court records has found that at least 49 defendants are accused of trying to erase incriminating photos, videos and texts from phones or social media accounts documenting their conduct as a pro-Donald Trump mob stormed Congress and briefly interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's election victory. Experts say the efforts to scrub the social media accounts reveal a desperate willingness to manipulate evidence once these people realized they were in hot water. And, they say, it can serve as powerful proof of people's consciousness of guilt and can make it harder to negotiate plea deals and seek leniency at sentencing."

Ignorance of the Law Is His Defense. Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump lashed out at Manhattan prosecutors Saturday night for indicting his organization and its chief financial officer for tax fraud, calling it 'prosecutorial misconduct' in his most extensive comments on the charges since they were unsealed Thursday. As Trump criticized the investigation, he appeared to acknowledge the tax schemes while questioning whether the alleged violations were in fact crimes.... 'You didn't pay tax on the car or a company apartment. You used an apartment because you need an apartment because you have to travel too far where your house is. You didn't pay tax. Or education for your grandchildren. I don't even know. Do you have to? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?'... he said at a rally in Sarasota, Fla."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times:"In his new book, 'First Friends,' Gary Ginsberg chronicles the unelected yet undeniably powerful people who shape presidencies."

Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: "Phylicia Rashad, the dean of Howard University's College of Fine Arts, issued an apology Friday after receiving backlash and calls to resign from Howard alumni and other prominent voices over her tweet in support of former co-star Bill Cosby. 'This week, I tweeted a statement that caused so much hurt in so many people -- both broadly and inside the Howard community,' Rashad wrote. 'I offer my most sincere apology.' Cosby, convicted of drugging and assaulting a woman, was released from prison Wednesday after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court vacated his sexual assault conviction. After that ruling, Rashad ... wrote in a now-deleted tweet: 'FINALLY!!!! A terrible wrong is being righted- a miscarriage of justice is corrected!' Rashad received immediate criticism as many pointed to her responsibility as a college dean to hold perpetrators of sexual violence accountable." MB: Sorry, Phylicia, this is not a bell you can unring. There may or may not have been a technical miscarriage of justice, but Cosby would be in jail still if he had told the truth about drugging & raping multiple women. No one is dumb enough to believe that all these women lied about their experiences.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

... And Inequality for All. Fenit Nirappil, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden has pointed to July 4 as the day when Americans can mark independence from the coronavirus. But the United States has not fully snuffed out the threat from the virus -- particularly in places where vaccination rates are low -- as the delta variant threatens to undo the nation's progress against it. More than 2,000 counties representing over half of the American population have not met Biden's goal of 70 percent of adults receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine by Independence Day, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Those counties are seeing steeper increases in new cases and double the rate of tests coming back positive compared with counties who have met the president's goal. Most ominously, the highly transmissible delta variant is on the rise and represents a quarter of confirmed cases, posing a greater risk to pockets of unvaccinated communities than earlier strains of the virus."

Caroline Anders of the Washington Post: "Nearly 15 million people -- or more than one in 10 of those eligible in the United States -- have missed their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC data shows that as of June 16, nearly 11 percent of people who had sufficient time to get the second dose missed their ideal window. The number has increased from 8 percent earlier in the year, but CDC spokesperson Kate Fowlie said the rise was 'not unexpected.'" MB: Another article that is not, but should be, free to nonsubscribers, as it lists some of the reasons people erroneously think they don't need the second shot.

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

On Independence Day, Paul Krugman of the New York Times turns to a Founding Father: "... will the post-Covid economy look the same as the pre-Covid economy? Probably not -- for reasons originally laid out by none other than Alexander Hamilton in 1791. The founding father's 'Report on the subject of manufactures' is widely regarded as the first important statement of what came to be known as the 'infant industry' doctrine.... Hamilton argued that U.S. industry would be able to compete with British industry if domestic manufacturers were given the opportunity to gain experience.... So Hamilton called for, among other things, temporary tariffs to protect U.S. industry and give it time to become competitive.... The pandemic produced some extreme forms of de facto infant industry protection, forcing millions of Americans to work differently from the way they had before. And many, though not all, of these changes are likely to stick.... The obvious case, of course, is remote work.... Many others, perhaps millions, learned to do something different -- namely, not work at all.... And all of this is OK! The purpose of the economy isn't to maximize G.D.P.; it is to make our lives better." Emphasis added. MB: Now, that's Independence!

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Derek Hawkins & Kim Belware of the Washington Post: "Officials in Florida accelerated plans Saturday to knock down the unstable remains of the Champlain Towers South condominium as an encroaching tropical storm threatened to topple what is left of the building and imperil now-paused search-and-rescue work. The portion of the building left standing after the collapse over a week ago in Surfside could be demolished as early as Sunday, officials said, though they offered few details about the timeline or the demolition method. Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava (D) said at a news conference that search crews halted their work at 4 p.m. Saturday to prepare for demolition and will resume work as soon as it is safe." An AP story is here.

Way Beyond

Mexico. Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "A massive fire that broke out on the surface of the Gulf of Mexico on Friday has been extinguished, but the incident is raising questions about the risks of undersea pipelines. Videos of a swirling, orange mass of flames surrounded by ocean waves went viral after a gas leak was reported near a platform used for offshore drilling by Pemex, Mexico's state-owned oil company. The scene was made even more surreal by the presence of firefighting boats that were dwarfed by the inferno, but eventually succeeded at putting it out after about five hours. [See July 3 News Ledes.] Angel Carrizales, who heads the Mexican agency charged with regulating pipeline safety, tweeted that the incident 'did not generate any spill.' That claim drew some skepticism, given that something other than water had to be present on the ocean's surface for it to ignite.... On social media, many argued that the eerie and alarming scene of a burning ocean clearly demonstrated the inherent problems of allowing oil companies to tap into fossil fuel reserves from the ocean floor. 'Shocking new example of how dirty and dangerous offshore drilling is,' the Center for Biological Diversity wrote on Twitter, calling for a moratorium on new oil leases in the Gulf of Mexico."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Elsa is soaking Jamaica and Cuba and is expected to track toward Florida, where impacts from heavy rain, gusty winds and storm surge are likely early this week." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post: "Cuba evacuated 180,000 people amid fears Sunday that Tropical Storm Elsa could cause heavy flooding after battering several Caribbean islands, killing at least three people. The Cuban government opened shelters and moved to protect sugarcane and cocoa crops ahead of the storm, which was offshore moving along Cuba's southern coast Sunday night. Most of those evacuated went to relatives' homes, while some people sheltered at government facilities. Hundreds living in mountainous areas took refuge in natural caves prepared for emergencies."

New York Times: "Tyson Foods is recalling nearly 8.5 million pounds of frozen chicken that may have been contaminated with listeria, the Agriculture Department said. The voluntary recall was issued after Agriculture Department investigators were notified last month about two people who had been sickened with listeriosis, the department said in a statement on Saturday. An investigation found evidence linking those cases to frozen chicken from Tyson Foods, the agency said. Investigators eventually identified three cases linked to the recalled products, including one death, the department said. Symptoms of listeriosis, an infection caused by the baterium Listeria monocytogenes, include fever, convulsions, muscle aches and gastrointestinal issues, according to the Agriculture Department."