October 12, 2021

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "Jonathan and Diana Toebbe seemed like an ordinary suburban couple, but the F.B.I. said they were would-be spies -- and sloppy ones.... For now, the big questions surrounding the couple -- what country they are accused of trying to sell the nuclear secrets to, and what motivated them to take the risk -- remain unanswered." MB: I'm guessing Australia because (1) the country is an ally that cooperated with the FBI, (2) Australia needed some U.S. nuclear submarines to protect itself Chinese threats, and (3) Diana said she wanted to move to Australia. ~~~

~~~ When can you get $10,000 for half a peanut butter sandwich? When it
     (a) has an image of the Virgin Mary embedded in the Wonder Bread;
     (b) is signed by Donald Trump;
     (c) has an SD card containing nuclear sub secrets embedded in the peanut butter.

Kevin Freking of the AP: "Members of the House are scrambling back to Washington on Tuesday to approve a short-term lift of the nation's debt limit and ensure the federal government can continue fully paying its bills into December. The $480 billion increase in the country's borrowing ceiling cleared the Senate last week on a party-line vote. The House is expected to approve it swiftly so President Joe Biden can sign it into law this week."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: On his Sunday show, Fox "News" host Chris Wallace asked again and again "for a straight answer [from House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) on whether or not Joe Biden was legitimately elected president,] and, over and over, Scalise offered the same evasive one.... [Scalise is] intentionally trying not to say that Biden won fairly because that position is anathema to the loudest part of his party's base. And to avoid saying that, he's seizing not upon unproven claims of fraud but a similarly inflated assertion that states made it too easy to vote. He doesn't allege that this led to more fraud or anything along those lines, though others have; he]s simply claiming that because states made it easier to vote, that was the equivalent of an illegitimate Biden win or an election being stolen.... [That is,] elections in which Democrats vote more heavily should necessarily be treated as suspect. It's toxic and dangerous ... to suggest that the election was tainted by legally cast votes for the candidate you hoped would lose."

Marie: I'm not sure anyone is surprised by the likes of Steve Scalise & Chuck Snake-in-the-Grassley. Steve brought his KKK outfit to Washington, D.C. & still keeps it in his closet, even though two people of color saved his life a few years back. He and Chuck -- who, like Trump, thinks it's super-polite to compliment people who aren't white Christians by throwing stereotypes at them (Chuck: hard-working Koreans; Donald: good businessman Jews) -- both have been ardent supporters of Trump all along. The lot of them are contemptible foes of democratic principles. And they always have been.

Republicans Miles Taylor & Christie Todd Whitman, in a New York Times op-ed, urge Republicans to vote for "centrist" Democrats: "... for now, the best hope for the rational remnants of the G.O.P. is for us to form an alliance with Democrats to defend American institutions, defeat far-right candidates, and elect honorable representatives next year -- including a strong contingent of moderate Democrats.... Concerned conservatives must join forces with Democrats on the most essential near-term imperative: blocking Republican leaders from regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.... As long as [GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy] embraces Mr. Trump's lies, he cannot be trusted to lead the chamber, especially in the run-up to the next presidential election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Conservative Max Boot of the Washington Post: "I'm a single-issue voter. My issue is the fate of democracy in the United States. Simply put, I have no faith that we will remain a democracy if Republicans win power. Thus, although I'm not a Democrat, I will continue to vote exclusively for Democrats -- as I have done in every election since 2016 -- until the GOP ceases to pose an existential threat to our freedom." ~~~

~~~ ** Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "It is increasingly evident that the nightmare prospect of American politics -- unified Republican control of the federal government in the hands of a reelected, empowered Donald Trump in 2025 -- is also the likely outcome.... Every new tranche of information released about Trump's behavior following the 2020 election -- most recently an interim report from the Senate Judiciary Committee -- reveals a serious and concerted attempt to overthrow America's legitimate incoming government.... It is clear that this same lawless, reckless man has a perfectly realistic path back to power. The GOP is a garbage scow of the corrupt, the seditious and their enablers, yet the short- and medium-term political currents are in its favor.... Democrats need to significantly outperform Republicans in national matchups to obtain even mediocre results in presidential and Senate races." But they don't seem to be paying attention.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The conservative Claremont Institute, which employs the lawyer who provided a road map for ... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election, decided to issue a statement Monday defending Eastman.... The defense is among the most carefully worded straw-man arguments in modern political history. Essentially, the statement isn't disputing that Eastman provided a ready-made procedure for Trump and Pence to get the election overturned --; he clearly and unambiguously did so -- it's that he didn't explicitly say Pence should overturn it himself. This, though, is a distinction without much of a difference."

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "The vice president the of Philadelphia chapter of the Proud Boys had his home in Newark, Delaware, raided by then FBI this Friday, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Aaron Whallon Wolkind, 37, had his computer, phone, and other electronics seized by federal agents who were looking for evidence related to the alleged planning of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Although Wolkind was handcuffed during the raid, he was not arrested or charged."

Luz Lazo & Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: "Southwest Airlines faced a fourth day of disruptions Monday -- after canceling hundreds of flights over the weekend -- a sign of airlines' struggles to capitalize on a growing appetite for travel amid a pandemic that has scrambled the industry and left some carriers stretched thin.... The airline on Monday canceled 363 flights -- about 10 percent of scheduled departures -- while more than 1,300 were delayed, according to flight-tracking site FlightAware.... Southwest reiterated Monday that inclement weather and air traffic control disruptions in Florida on Friday triggered the problems. Federal regulators said that air traffic control staffing shortages caused delays out of Florida but that airlines generally are experiencing operational issues because of their own staffing and aircraft issues.... Southwest on Monday countered reports about employee protests [against the company's vaccine mandate], saying that 'the weekend challenges were not a result of Employee demonstrations, as some have reported.' The Southwest Airlines Pilots Association also rejected speculation of pilot protests as 'false claims.'"

Marie's Sports Report. Ken Belton & Katherine Rosman of the New York Times: "When the vaunted N.F.L. coach Jon Gruden was confronted with a racist email he had sent in 2011 to insult the head of the players' union, he said he went too far but didn't have 'a blade of racism' in him. But league officials as part of a separate workplace misconduct investigation that did not directly involve him have found that Gruden, now the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders, casually and frequently unleashed misogynistic and homophobic language over several years to denigrate people around the game and to mock some of the league's momentous changes. He denounced the emergence of women as referees, the drafting of a gay player and the tolerance of players protesting during the playing of the national anthem, according to emails reviewed by The New York Times." ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update/New Lede: "Jon Gruden stepped down Monday as the coach of the Las Vegas Raiders football team hours after The New York Times detailed emails in which he had made homophobic and misogynistic remarks, following an earlier report of racist statements about a union leader. His resignation was a striking departure from the football league for a coach who had won a Super Bowl, been a marquee analyst on ESPN and returned to the N.F.L. in 2018 to lead the resurgent Raiders, which he had coached years before.... Mark Davis, the owner of the Raiders, said in a statement that he had accepted the resignation. Rich Bisaccia, the Raiders' special teams coordinator, was elevated to interim head coach, the team said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: AND there you have the difference between a flawed man and an utter jackass. Gruden quickly resigned in shame from what I assume was a high-paying & prestigious job. And then there's Donald Trump & 98% of Republican "leaders."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Texas. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday issued an executive order banning all state entities, including private employers, from enforcing vaccine mandates, the latest escalation in the Republican's resistance to public health measures during the Covid-19 pandemic.... Abbott also called on the Texas state Legislature to pass a law with the same effect.... The executive order is just the latest action from Abbott meant to hamper the adoption of public health measures that experts say are necessary to curb the pandemic. The Texas governor, who contracted Covid-19 in August, has previously banned government vaccine mandates, vaccine passport requirements and school districts from requiring masks."

U.K. Helen Collis of Politico: "Delaying a lockdown in the U.K. and failing to prioritize social care caused thousands of avoidable deaths, according to a parliamentary report on lessons learned to date from the coronavirus pandemic. The joint investigation published Tuesday by the House of Commons' science and health committees is lawmakers' first stab at digging into why the U.K., which was initially praised for its pandemic preparedness planning, saw cases skyrocket and deaths far outnumber many comparable countries. To date, deaths associated with the coronavirus in the U.K. stand at more than 150,000, placing the country in the Top 10 worldwide for total fatalities, according to World Health Organization data." MB: I wonder why our Congress doesn't do a study like this for the U.S.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "The elections office in Georgia's heavily Democratic Fulton County said on Monday that two workers had been fired for shredding voter registration forms, most likely adding fuel to a Republican-led investigation of the office that critics call politically motivated. The workers, at the Fulton County Board of Elections, were dismissed on Friday after other employees saw them destroying registration forms awaiting processing before local elections in November, the county elections director, Richard Barron, said. Both the county district attorney and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, the state's chief elections official, were asked to conduct inquiries into the matter, the chairman of the Fulton County Commission, Robb Pitts, said in a statement. But it was Mr. Raffensperger who first revealed the allegations of shredded registration forms, issuing a blistering news release demanding that the Justice Department investigate 'incompetence and malfeasance' in the agency."

Michigan. Eric Lutz & Erin McCormick of the Guardian: "Residents of a majority-Black city in Michigan have been advised by the state not to use tap water for drinking, bathing, or cooking 'out of an abundance of caution' owing to lead contamination. For at least three years, residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, have been suffering from lead-contaminated water with what experts describe as insufficient intervention from state and local officials. This month, the state promised to expand free water distribution in the city and reaffirmed its commitment to comply with federal lead regulations. Activists, who say Benton Harbor's poor water quality is a sign of environmental injustice and have been calling on the state to take action for years, say these are steps in the right direction, but more remains to be done."

Way Beyond

Australia. Punctuation Matters! Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "A missing apostrophe in a Facebook post could cost a real estate agent in Australia tens of thousands of dollars after a court ruled a defamation case against him could proceed. In the post last year, Anthony Zadravic, the agent, appears to accuse Stuart Gan, his former employer at a real estate agency, of not paying retirement funds to all the agency's workers.... The post ... read, 'Oh Stuart Gan!! Selling multi million $ homes in Pearl Beach but can't pay his employees superannuation,' referring to Australia's retirement system.... Less than 12 hours after the post was published on Oct. 22, Mr. Zadravic ... deleted it. But it was too late. Mr. Gan ... filed a defamation claim against Mr. Zadravic. On Thursday, a judge in New South Wales ruled that the lack of an apostrophe on the word 'employees' could be read to suggest a 'systematic pattern of conduct' by Mr. Gan's agency rather than an accusation involving one employee. So she allowed the case to proceed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More consequential punctuation: That extra comma in the poorly-worded Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed the Supremes to decide that the Amendment applied to gun rights for individual citizens, not just "a well regulated militia."

U.K. AP: "British police have announced they will not take any action against Prince Andrew after a review prompted by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser who claims that he sexually assaulted her." A Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

October 11, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Republicans Miles Taylor & Christie Todd Whitman, in a New York Times op-ed, urge Republicans to vote for "centrist" Democrats: "... for now, the best hope for the rational remnants of the G.O.P. is for us to form an alliance with Democrats to defend American institutions, defeat far-right candidates, and elect honorable representatives next year -- including a strong contingent of moderate Democrats.... Concerned conservatives must join forces with Democrats on the most essential near-term imperative: blocking Republican leaders from regaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives.... As long as [GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy] embraces Mr. Trump's lies, he cannot be trusted to lead the chamber, especially in the run-up to the next presidential election."

Facebook Is for English-speakers! Thanks to Ken W. for the lead. ~~~

Australia. Punctuation Matters! Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "A missing apostrophe in a Facebook post could cost a real estate agent in Australia tens of thousands of dollars after a court ruled a defamation case against him could proceed. In the post last year, Anthony Zadravic, the agent, appears to accuse Stuart Gan, his former employer at a real estate agency, of not paying retirement funds to all the agency's workers.... The post ... read, 'Oh Stuart Gan!! Selling multi million $ homes in Pearl Beach but can't pay his employees superannuation,' referring to Australia's retirement system.... Less than 12 hours after the post was published on Oct. 22, Mr. Zadravic ... deleted it. But it was too late. Mr. Gan ... filed a defamation claim against Mr. Zadravic. On Thursday, a judge in New South Wales ruled that the lack of an apostrophe on the word 'employees' could be read to suggest a 'systematic pattern of conduct' by Mr. Gan's agency rather than an accusation involving one employee. So she allowed the case to proceed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More consequential punctuation: That extra comma in the poorly-worded Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which allowed the Supremes to decide that the Amendment applied to gun rights for individual citizens, not just "a well regulated militia."

U.K., Where Folks Do Speak Various Versions of English. AP: "British police have announced they will not take any action against Prince Andrew after a review prompted by a Jeffrey Epstein accuser who claims that he sexually assaulted her." A Washington Post story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

~~~ NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim October 11, 2021, as Indigenous Peoples Day. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. -- Proclamation, October 8, 2021 ~~

~~~ Melina Delkic of the New York Times: "President Biden has proclaimed Monday, Oct. 11, as Indigenous Peoples' Day, becoming the first U.S. president to formally recognize the day.... Over the past several years, states including Alaska and New Mexico have adopted the holiday, choosing to forgo Columbus Day celebrations and heeding calls from Indigenous groups and other residents not to celebrate Christopher Columbus, the Italian navigator the holiday is named for, who they say brought genocide and colonization to communities that had been in the United States for thousands of years. Many around the country, however, still celebrate Columbus Day or Italian Heritage Day as a point of pride in Italian culture. Not all states have accepted Indigenous Peoples' Day, and some members of Indigenous communities say recognizing the day does not go far enough. It is not yet a federal holiday, though there is a bill in Congress that proposes to make it one. Here's more background."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "A nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy and his wife have been charged with trying to share some of the United States' most closely held secrets on submarine technology with another country, according to court documents unsealed on Sunday. The engineer, Jonathan Toebbe, was accused of trying to sell information on the nuclear propulsion system of Virginia-class attack submarines -- the technology at the heart of a recent deal that the United States and Britain struck with Australia.... Some experts thought the unsolicited offer could have been aimed at a friendly country, not an adversary. There is no allegation from the F.B.I. or the Justice Department that the foreign country obtained any classified information. But Mr. Toebbe had high-level clearances in nuclear engineering, and his service record showed that as a member of the Navy Reserve, he worked for 15 months from the office of the chief of naval operations, the top officer in the Navy." NPR's story is here.

~~~ AND Other Traitors. Meredith McGraw of Politico: "Nine months ago, Republicans were questioning Donald Trump's place as the lead fixture of their party. Saturday night provided the clearest evidence yet that they want him right there. Not one year removed from surviving a second impeachment, the former president rallied before thousands of his most loyal supporters across the Iowa State Fairgrounds on a balmy Midwestern evening. He regaled them with his stories from the White House, his falsehoods and complaints about the 2020 election results, and his criticisms of the Biden administration on everything from immigration to the withdrawal from Afghanistan.... But the notable elements were not what was said by Trump, but who was there with him. Appearing alongside the former president was a who's who of influential Republicans in the Hawkeye state, including Sen. Chuck Grassley and Gov. Kim Reynolds, Iowa Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson, former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker and Iowa GOP Chair Jeff Kaufmann. Trump has held rallies since leaving the White House. But never have elected Republicans of such tenure and stature appeared with him." A related AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ BUT. The Secret Views of Senators. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Several Republican senators, who requested anonymity to discuss Trump frankly, said they don't want to see Trump return as the party's standard bearer. 'I think we're better off when he's not part of any story,' said a Republican senator, who said his view is widely shared in the GOP conference. 'He's a clinical narcissist. He threw away the election in the debate with Biden and he threw away the Senate out of spite,' the lawmaker added, referring to Trump's first against Biden, which many Republican senators viewed as a disaster, and his influence on Republican voter turnout in the Georgia special election. One thing is crystal clear: Most GOP senators think Trump announcing a bid before the midterms would hurt them." MB: Because humoring Trump has been such an excellent strategy (January 6). ~~~

~~~ Another Top Republican Normalizes Overturning Elections. Hope Yen of the AP: "The House's second-ranking Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise, repeatedly refused to say on Sunday that the 2020 election wasn't stolen, standing by Donald Trump's lie that Democrat Joe Biden won the White House because of mass voter fraud. More than 11 months after Americans picked their president and almost nine months since Biden was inaugurated, Scalise was unwilling during a national television interview to acknowledge the legitimacy of the vote, instead sticking to his belief that the election results should not have been certified by Congress."

Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Foreign affairs and national security expert Fiona Hill warned that the U.S. is in a 'dangerous moment' and has already reached a constitutional crisis as political actors try to undermine elections and call for violence.... Hill, a former National Security Council official who served as a key witness in the 2019 Trump impeachment hearings as a Trump administration official, pointed to serious threats as former President Trump is 'clearly prepping for his return to the presidency,' which he says is still rightfully his.... January 6, she said, was a 'dress rehearsal' for an attempt at overtaking the government that could happen in 2022 or 2024."

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: A new book reports that ... Donald Trump asked his top intelligence official to investigate an absurd conspiracy theory that Chinese thermostats changed votes in the 2020 election. In an excerpt from the soon-to-be-released Betrayal by ABC New's Jonathan Karl, which was shared on Sunday's edition of This Week, the former president was said to be 'intrigued' by the theory -- which was presented to him by Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who Trump wanted to install as acting attorney general." MB: You people might think I'm wasting energy, but I just turned up my thermostat in hopes of getting Biden a few more votes.

You're Grounded! Ramishah Maruf of CNN: "Southwest [airlines] ... canceled more than 2,000 flights Friday through Sunday. The world's largest low-cost carrier canceled three of every 10 departures it had scheduled on Sunday and the disruption continued into Monday, a federal holiday, with 337 flights -- or about one in 10 — canceled so far, according to the aviation tracking website FlightAware. The company blamed the cancellations on air traffic control problems and limited staffing in Florida as well as bad weather. It told CNN late Sunday that getting operations back to normal was 'more difficult and prolonged' because of schedule and staffing reductions made during the pandemic.... In a statement, the Federal Aviation Administration said there have bee no air traffic related cancellations since Friday. The agency said that airlines are experiencing delays because of aircraft and crews being out of place."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "The federal government is expected to take a significant step this week toward offering booster doses to a much wider range of Americans as advisers to the Food and Drug Administration meet on Thursday and Friday to discuss recipients of the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna coronavirus vaccines. So far, regulators have authorized booster shots only for certain adults who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's Covid-19 live updates for Monday are here.

Matthew Perrone of the AP: "Drugmaker Merck asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its pill against COVID-19 in what would add an entirely new and easy-to-use weapon to the world's arsenal against the pandemic. If cleared by the Food and Drug Administration -- a decision that could come in a matter of weeks -- it would be the first pill shown to treat COVID-19. All other FDA-backed treatments against the disease require an IV or injection."

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Within days of regulators clearing the nation's first coronavirus vaccine for younger children, federal officials say they will begin pushing out as many as 20 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech pediatric vaccine to immunize school-age kids across the United States in a bid to control the coronavirus pandemic. The kickoff of the long-awaited children's vaccination campaign is expected as soon as early November. And this time around, the government has purchased enough doses to give two shots to all 28 million eligible children ages 5 to 11." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "Hundreds of thousands of U.S. service members remain unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated against the coronavirus as the Pentagon's first compliance deadlines near, with lopsided rates across the individual services and a spike in deaths among military reservists illustrating how political division over the shots has seeped into a nonpartisan force with unambiguous orders. Overall, the military's vaccination rate has climbed since August, when Defense Department leaders, acting on a directive from President Biden, informed the nation's 2.1 million troops that immunization would become mandatory, exemptions would be rare and those who refuse would be punished. Yet troops' response has been scattershot, according to data assessed by The Washington Post. For instance, 90 percent of the active-duty Navy is fully vaccinated, whereas just 72 percent of the Marine Corps is, the data show, even though both services share a Nov. 28 deadline." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This evident insubordination seems to confound contributor Bobby Lee, who wrote in yesterday's thread, "... I don't remember anyone asking me if I had any objections to getting a shot for anything. In basic training they just lined us up and ran us through the line. Later on in service it was an order to report for a booster." Yeah, I would think so.

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Jan Ransom, et al., of the New York Times: "... the sheer lawlessness inside ... Rikers, New York city's main jail complex ... is difficult to fathom. Detainees in some buildings have seized near total control over entire units, deciding who can enter and leave them, records and interviews show. In other buildings, they have wandered in and out of staff break rooms and similarly restricted areas, with some flouting rules against smoking tobacco and marijuana.... Several have stolen keys and used them to free others in custody, who went on to commit slashings and other acts of violence. The chaos was not limited to incarcerated people. Correction officers have participated in beatings or failed to intervene in hangings and other urgent situations.... City officials have accused jail officers of abusing generous sick leave policies -- hundreds have been out of work -- while the officers' labor union has said guards are not going to work because conditions in the jails are unsafe and inhumane.... The troubles on Rikers Island trace also to physical grounds that have been neglected for decades, leading to doors that do not lock properly, cells that are too deteriorated to contain detainees and aging objects like radiators that can be ripped apart and turned into weapons."

Wisconsin. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "For the past decade [Wisconsin] has been an incubator for the kind of tribal politics and deep divisions that characterize civic life in Washington and much of the rest of the nation. While Wisconsin has been closely divided for a long time -- four of the last six presidential elections were decided by less than a percentage point -- the widening gulf between the two parties exposed in 2011 foreshadowed the extent to which American politics would come to focus more on the extremes rather than the middle of the political spectrum. This has made Wisconsin not a purple state, as many people suggest, but two states in one -- the first comprising a few heavily populated blue enclaves and the second a red sea of rural, small-town and suburban geography that surrounds those blue pockets." MB: Yo, Dan, the state of Joe McCarthy & Bob LaFollette has not been a "purple" state in my lifetime or before.

Way Beyond

Czech Republic. Rick Noack & Ladka Bauerova of the Washington Post: "Czech President Milos Zeman was rushed to the intensive care unit of a military hospital on Sunday, hours after the party of his political ally, billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, was defeated in the country's general election.The unexpected development complicates efforts to form a new government. Zeman and Babis, who appears to have been weakened by revelations in the Pandora Papers leaks, were expected to meet on Sunday morning in what some opposition members interpreted as a sign that the president might seek to keep the prime minister in power despite the election result.... Zeman has been reported to suffer from diabetes and neuropathy."

News Lede

New York Times: "David Card, Joshua D. Angrist and Guido W. Imbens have made a career of studying unintended experiments -- Mr. Card in labor economics and Mr. Angrist and Mr. Imbens in analyzing cause and effect. On Monday, their work earned them the 2021 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. All three winners are based in the United States. Mr. Card, who was born in Canada, works at the University of California, Berkeley. Mr. Angrist, born in the United States, is at M.I.T. and Mr. Imbens, born in the Netherlands, is at Stanford University. 'Uncovering causal relationships is a major challenge,' said Peter Fredriksson, chairman of the prize committee. 'Sometimes, nature, or policy changes, provide situations that resemble randomized experiments. This year's laureates have shown that such natural experiments help answer important questions for society.'" The AP's report is here.

October 10, 2021

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "... as the national [Democratic] party starts to create a new calendar for the 2024 presidential nomination that could remove Iowa from its privileged [first-in-the-nation] position for the first time since 1972, when candidates started flocking to the state for an early jump on the race to the White House. The caucuses' reputation has been damaged by high barriers to participation, a dearth of racial diversity, the rightward drift in the state's electorate and a leftward drift in the Democratic participants. The state party's inability to count the results in 2020 only deepened dismay in the party.... '... Iowa is not representative of America,' [former DNC Chair Tom] Perez said Friday in an interview. 'We need a primary process that is reflective of today's demographics in the Democratic Party.'"

Shah Baloch & Julian Borger of the Guardian: "A senior US official visiting Islamabad has made clear to Pakistan that the Biden administration has downgraded the bilateral relationship. On the eve of her arrival, the deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, used a public event in Mumbai to lay out in blunt terms the new parameters of US-Pakistan relations, stressing there would be no equivalence with Washington's deepening ties to India. The Islamabad trip was for 'a very specific and narrow purpose', Sherman said, to talk about Afghanistan and the Taliban. 'We don't see ourselves building a broad relationship with Pakistan, and we have no interest in returning to the days of hyphenated India-Pakistan,' she added."

Manchinema & Republicans Don't Care about Children. Claire Miller of the New York Times: "In the developed world, the United States is an outlier in its low levels of financial support for young children's care -- something Democrats, with their safety net spending bill, are trying to change.... The U.S. spends ... about $200 a year for most families [with children under age two], in the form of a once-a-year tax credit for parents who pay for care.... Denmark, for example, spends $23,140 annually per child on care for children 2 and under." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In yesterday's Comments thread, Forrest M. noted that crooked, richy-rich Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) had advice for how the peons should weather tough times: "Most families in this country survive by not being wasteful, but by clipping coupons, by buying necessities when they are on sale, by cutting their own grass and by reusing aluminum foil." Akhilleus translated: "What Ricky means is that the vast majority of Americans should expect no help from him and his rich confederate pals. They're too busy helping themselves."

Daniel Hemel in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Pandora Papers ... shine a light on South Dakota's role as an offshore financial center. For the most part, the revelations relate to the Mount Rushmore State's status as a magnet for foreign wealth, including money derived from international drug smuggling and exploitative labor practices. But it's not just foreigners who are moving assets to the 'little tax haven on the prairie': High-net-worth Americans also are shifting billions to South Dakota and a handful of other domestic havens, shortchanging federal and home-state tax collectors in the process. The rise of domestic tax havens marks a troubling new chapter in the history of American federalism.... The biggest loser in all this is the U.S. Treasury. Carefully designed, a South Dakota dynasty trust can operate as a perpetual estate-tax-avoidance machine." Congress could and should close the loopholes that allow South Dakota and other states to shield tax evaders.

Washington Post Editors: A new (Democratic) Senate Judiciary Committee report "details how [Donald] Trump tried persistently to enlist the Justice Department in his scheme to overturn the 2020 election results.... Senate Republicans played down these revelations.... But ... Mr. Trump ... was not exercising reasonable skepticism [as GOP senators claimed]; he was trying to hold on to power against the wishes of the American people, based on widely debunked mistruths about the 2020 vote. Anyone seeking to play down that fact today is complicit in his plot to undermine U.S. democracy.... Congress must reinforce elements of the nation's democratic infrastructure vulnerable to exploitation by bad actors such as Mr. Trump. It should revamp the ancient Electoral Count Act to limit partisan interference in presidential vote tallying, and it should impose federal election standards that insulate state election officials from political pressure. Republicans who still respect the Constitution should be willing to join in this effort."

Kyle Cheney & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "As congressional investigators accelerate their probe of Donald Trump's 2020 election challenges that culminated on Jan. 6, one thing is clear: All roads run through a handful of their GOP colleagues.... The House select committee ... has so far avoided directly roping in fellow lawmakers, even as it homes in on Trump's inner circle. Yet each of its investigative steps so far has further underscored the roles that Trump's staunchest House GOP allies played in his bid to throw out the election results. Those Republicans connected the former president to willing partners in the Justice Department who might fuel inflated claims of fraud. They huddled with Trump to deliver counsel. And they spoke with Trump by phone on Jan. 6 as he watched his own 'Stop the Steal' rally morph into a violent riot that overtook the Capitol."

Jim Acosta & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Former Trump aide Dan Scavino has been served a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, bringing an end to the panel's struggle to physically locate him. A process server brought the subpoena to ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Friday, the source said. While Scavino was home in New York at the time, he asked a staff member to accept the subpoena on his behalf." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pelosi & the Pope. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis on Saturday met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in a private audience at the Vatican, amid ongoing criticism of Pelosi by conservative Catholics in the United States over her support for abortion rights. Pelosi, who is Catholic, described the meeting as 'a spiritual, personal and official honor' and praised the pope for his attention to climate change and for his work lifting up the underprivileged. 'His Holiness's leadership is a source of joy and hope for Catholics and for all people, challenging each of us to be good stewards of God's creation, to act on climate, to embrace the refugee, the immigrant and the poor, and to recognize the dignity and divinity in everyone,' Pelosi said in a statement.... Pelosi's meeting with the pope comes a few months after Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone of San Francisco said in May that prominent Catholics who support abortion rights should be denied Holy Communion. The archbishop also ... has since launched a '"Rose and Rosary for Nancy' campaign to push for Pelosi to change her stance on abortion.&"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Ordinarily staid and silent Supreme Court justices have become whirling dervishes of late, spinning madly to rebut the idea that Americans are beginning to regard the court as a dangerous cabal of partisan hacks.... Many of us have thought that for a long time.... The Least Dangerous Branch, as the court was once known, has become the Most Dangerous Branch.... And please, Justice Breyer, skedaddle. You're playing a dangerous game. You need to get out of there because it looks as if the midterms are going to be bad, and if the Democrats lose the Senate majority, there's no guarantee that Mitch McConnell will let any Biden nominee onto the court, even with two years left on the president's term." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Schudel of the Washington Post: "Raymond T. Odierno, a four-star Army general who was a key architect of the 'surge' in U.S. forces during the Iraq War that was credited with reducing violence and increasing stability in the country and who later became the Army's chief of staff, or highest-ranking general, died Oct. 8 at age 67."

The Week in Review:

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Fed Misunderestimated Delta Variant. Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The weak September jobs report offered the latest sign of the coronavirus pandemic's hold on major sectors of the economy, conflicting with the type of recovery the Federal Reserve forecast back when the nation was entering its recent surge in cases. A growing number of economists and experts acknowledge that the nation's top economic policymakers underestimated the delta variant's threat to job growth, inflation, global supply chains and people's own comfort levels going into the fall. In recent months, the delta variant of the coronavirus tore through communities with low vaccination rates, spurred sweeping new workplace rules from the Biden administration and rattled consumer sentiment."

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

Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "Moderna, whose coronavirus vaccine appears to be the world's best defense against Covid-19, has been supplying its shots almost exclusively to wealthy nations, keeping poorer countries waiting and earning billions in profit. After developing a breakthrough vaccine with the financial and scientific support of the U.S. government, Moderna has shipped a greater share of its doses to wealthy countries than any other vaccine manufacturer, according to Airfinity, a data firm that tracks vaccine shipments.... Of the handful of middle-income countries that have reached deals to buy Moderna's shots, most have not yet received any doses, and at least three have had to pay more than the United States or European Union did...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Russia/Serbia/Croatia. Russians Bring Vaccine Tourism to Serbia. Jovana Gec & Daria Litvinova of the AP: International health authorities have not recognized Russia's Covid-19 vaccine, so ... "Serbia, which is not a member of the European Union, is a convenient choice for vaccine-seeking Russians because they can enter the allied Balkan nation without visas and because it offers a wide choice of Western-made shots. Organized tours for Russians have soared, and they can be spotted in the capital, Belgrade, at hotels, restaurants, bars and vaccination clinics.... Serbia ... offers the Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Chinese Sinopharm shots. By popular demand, Russian tourist agencies are now also offering tours to Croatia, where tourists can receive the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, without the need to return for a second dose."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "The pipeline that spilled at least 126,000 gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast may have been damaged up to a year earlier, according to preliminary results of an ongoing investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Officials have said the leak occurred three miles off the coast of Newport Beach, Calif., and involved a failure in a 17.5-mile pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform called Elly that is operated by Beta Offshore.... Investigators are 'fairly certain' that an anchor from a 'large vessel' struck the pipeline's concrete casing, and dragged the pipeline more than 100 feet from its original location...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Afghanistan. Kathy Gannon of the AP: "The Taliban on Saturday ruled out cooperation with the United States to contain extremist groups in Afghanistan, staking out an uncompromising position on a key issue ahead of the first direct talks between the former foes since America withdrew from the country in August. Senior Taliban officials and U.S. representatives are to meet Saturday and Sunday in Doha, the capital of Qatar. Officials from both sides have said issues include reining in extremist groups and the evacuation of foreign citizens and Afghans from the country. The Taliban have signaled flexibility on evacuations. However, Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen told The Associated Press there would be no cooperation with Washington on containing the increasingly active Islamic State group in Afghanistan." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Austria. Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned Saturday amid a corruption probe that had triggered moves to oust him, the latest dramatic twist in the turbulent career of a leader once touted as Europe's conservative wunderkind. In a televised address, the 35-year-old premier denied the allegations against him but recommended leadership be handed to Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg. He said he would stay on as head of his party, and take the position of leader of his conservative bloc in parliament. 'My country is more important to me than my person,' he said. 'I want to make space to prevent chaos and ensure stability.'" Politico's story is here.

China/Taiwan. Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "China's President Xi Jinping on Saturday vowed to achieve peaceful 'unification' with Taiwan, just days after a record number of Chinese military jets conducted drills close to the island, escalating tensions between the two sides.... Xi's tone took a more conciliatory approach than that of a speech he made in July, when he vowed to 'smash' any attempts at Taiwan independence.... Nearly 150 warplanes were flown into Taiwan's air defense identification zone over the past week -- prompting Taiwan's defense minister to say Wednesday that military tensions with Beijing were at their worst point in more than four decades."

Czech Republic. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "In a blow to Europe's once surging populist politicians, the prime minister of the Czech Republic, a pugnacious businessman who has compared himself to Donald Trump and railed against migrants, suffered a surprising defeat in a parliamentary election that ended on Sunday. After two days of voting, near-final results indicated that a center-right coalition of parties led by a button-down former academic had won the largest share of votes, narrowly ahead of a party led by the scandal-singed prime minister, Andrej Babis." A UPI story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ digby: "We don't hold our right wing leaders accountable for breaking the law here in America because it might make someone mad. But it's good to see that other countries still have some standards[.]"

News Ledes

New York Times: "A passenger whose erratic behavior prompted pilots to make an emergency landing at La Guardia Airport on Saturday afternoon was not charged after the authorities determined that he 'did not make a verbal threat' and was not carrying a suspicious item, a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said. The man, who was not identified by the Port Authority Police Department, was briefly detained and questioned by the authorities, including the F.B.I., and then released, the spokesman, Thomas Topousis, said on Sunday."

New York Times: "A mysterious boom jolted New Hampshire and at least one adjoining state on Sunday morning, rattling homes, spooking pets and prompting several hundred amateur sleuths to go online to try to find out what possibly could have caused all the commotion." MB: Didn't hear the mysterious boom in my neck of the woods; we did have a boom here that jolted my neighbor and me a few weeks ago, but that was caused by a tree falling in the forest -- which, of course, we heard.