The Commentariat -- June 7, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mark Sherman of the AP: "A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking 'green cards' to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status. The outcome in a case involving a couple from El Salvador who have been in the U.S. since the 1990s turned on whether people who entered the country illegally and were given humanitarian protections were ever 'admitted' into the United States under immigration law."

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "US investigators have recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, according to people briefed on the matter. The Justice Department on Monday is expected to announce details of the operation led by the FBI with the cooperation of the Colonial Pipeline operator, the people briefed on the matter said. The ransom recovery is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware." MB: I would not normally be thrilled when a pipeline company gets $5MM, but I'm damned glad the FBI thwarted the hackers.

Pam Belluck & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first new medication for Alzheimer's disease in nearly two decades, a contentious decision, made despite opposition from the agency's independent advisory committee and some Alzheimer's experts who said there was not enough evidence that the drug can help patients. The drug, aducanumab, which will go by the brand name Aduhelm, is a monthly intravenous infusion intended to slow cognitive decline in people with mild memory and thinking problems. It is the first approved treatment to attack the disease process of Alzheimer's instead of just addressing dementia symptoms. Recognizing that clinical trials of the drug had provided incomplete evidence to demonstrate effectiveness, the F.D.A. granted approval on the condition that the manufacturer, Biogen, conduct a new clinical trial." A CBS News report is here.

Telling It Like It Is. Chandelis Duster of CNN: "New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday compared fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and said he is trying to thwart President Joe Biden's agenda after the West Virginia lawmaker stood by his decision to vote against a sweeping voting rights bill and opposition to gutting the filibuster. 'Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell during Obama's presidency said he would do everything in his power to stop (then-President Barack Obama)," Bowman told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'He's also repeated that now during the Biden presidency by saying he would do everything in his power to stop President Biden, and now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.' Bowman continued, 'Manchin is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they've been since the beginning of Biden's presidency.'"

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a federal law that requires only men to register for the military draft. As is the court's custom, it gave no reasons for turning down the case. But three justices issued a statement saying that Congress should be allowed more time to consider what they acknowledged was a significant legal issue. 'It remains to be seen, of course, whether Congress will end gender-based registration under the Military Selective Service Act,' Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the statement, which was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Brett M. Kavanaugh. 'But at least for now, the court's longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defense and military affairs cautions against granting review while Congress actively weighs the issue.'" The denial of certiorari & Justices' statement are here, via the Supreme Court. The NBC News story is here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Experts are concerned that states across the South, where vaccination rates are lagging, could face a surge in coronavirus cases over the summer." ~~~

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

"My Lips Were Near His Ass So I Kissed It." -- McCarthy. Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney accused ... Donald Trump of having committed the worst violation of a president's oath of office by inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- and taking a jab at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his subsequent visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 'I was stunned. I could not imagine any justification for doing that,' Cheney said of McCarthy's visit to Trump during an episode of David Axelrod's 'The Axe Files' podcast, which was taped Saturday afternoon as part of a University of Chicago alumni weekend event. 'And I asked him why he had done it, and he said, well, he had just been in the neighborhood, essentially.'"

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Idiots at Home. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen secured a landmark international tax agreement over the weekend, one that has eluded the United States for nearly a decade. But with a narrowly divided Congress and resistance from Republicans and business groups mounting, closing the deal at home may be an even bigger challenge.... Ms. Yellen now faces the task of convincing lawmakers that large tax and spending increases will not hinder the economic recovery." MB: Should be about as easy as convincing Ted Cruz to vote for a Harris/Ocasio-Cortez ticket in 2024.

Steve M. on why Joe Manchin opposes filibuster reform AND the For the People (voting rights) Act: "I think he just likes being seen as The Last Bipartisan Man -- it serves him well electorally, and it makes him feel heroic when he looks in the mirror every morning.... Mostly this is narcissism -- he cares primarily about preserving his own career." MB: I kind of like RAS's suggestion, offered in yesterday's Comments: "Manchin's problem with the For the People Act is that if it gets enacted most of Joe's friends might not be in DC anymore." ~~~

~~~ SO THEN, Joe goes on Fox "News," but he picked the wrong show: ~~~

~~~ David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday challenged Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is refusing to support filibuster reform to pass a voting rights bill and other progressive initiatives.... [Wallace said,] '... the question I have is whether or not you're doing it exactly the wrong way?... If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn't that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate because old Joe Manchin is out there and who knows what he's going to do? By taking it off the table, haven't you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?'... '"Sen. McConnell, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, says that he's 100% focused on blocking the Biden agenda. Question: Aren't you being naive about this continuing talk about bipartisan cooperation?'"

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Alabama GOP Rep. Mo Brooks was served with a lawsuit filed by California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell seeking to hold him partially accountable for the January 6 insurrection, according to a tweet from Brooks and an attorney for Swalwell. 'Well, Swalwell FINALLY did his job, served complaint (on my WIFE). HORRIBLE Swalwell's team committed a CRIME by unlawfully sneaking INTO MY HOUSE & accosting my wife!' Brooks wrote on Twitter. Swalwell's legal team had had difficulty serving Brooks and hired a private investigator to give him the papers, according to court filings."

Gabby Orr & Michael Warren of CNN: "... Donald Trump dashed the hopes of Republicans on Saturday who spent the weeks leading up to his public reemergence encouraging him to keep his focus on policy and Democratic shortcomings, rather than re-litigating his 2020 election loss once again.... Trump's Saturday speech was ... a major test of his ability to be an instrumental surrogate for Republicans as the party approaches a grueling midterm cycle. While insisting that he remains eager to help the GOP retake control of the House and Senate next fall, Trump has recently ignored the advice of aides and allies to tailor his message to the future." MB: Republicans' imagining Trump will work for anyone other than himself is like a six-time bride supposing this marriage will be a happy one. ~~~

~~~ E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump took his campaign against American democracy to North Carolina on Saturday and offered a rambling, grievance-laden harangue that ought to catalyze Republican leaders to repudiate a man whose lies, bigotry and irrationality are turning their party into a moral sinkhole. Fat chance, I know. But Republicans should watch Trump's 90-minute diatribe in its entirety. They might realize that tying their fate to a washed-up demagogue and the extremists he cultivates ... could ... be a colossal political mistake. Most Washington Republicans say they want to 'move on' from Trump.... Sorry, guys, but you won't be able to 'move on' to the responsible governing you purport to believe in until you confront the anti-democratic virus in your party and the vile man spreading the contagion."

Lewandowski Out on a Limb. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Corey Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager in 2016 and a loyal sidekick since, told Fox News Sunday Trump 'lost the election'. Indeed he did, by more than 7m ballots in the popular vote and by 306-232 in the electoral college, a result Trump called a landslide when it was in his favour against Hillary Clinton in 2016.... Lewandowski said he had 'spoke to the president dozens, if not more than 100 times since he has left the White House and I have never had that conversation about him being reinstated'. But, he added: 'I know of no provision under the constitution that allows it to occur, nor do I know of any provision under the constitution that allows an individual who lost an election to come back in if a recount is dubbed inaccurate.'" MB: When Lewandowski is the "voice of reason," it means two things: (1) those who are "less reasonable" are flat-out nuts; and (2) he is thinking of his future political career. If (2) is correct, that's bad news for me, because Corey lives in my state.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times, republished in Yahoo! News: "Fox News declined to broadcast an ad Sunday about the violence that law-enforcement members faced as they tried to stop the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the creators of the political commercial. 'We couldn't have fathomed in our wildest imaginations that even a Fox News would reject an ad that simply condemns the insurrection, and condemns people who support the insurrection,' said Ben Meiselas, one of the co-founders of MeidasTouch, the liberal Political Action Committee that created the 60-second ad. 'What Fox has really become is a fascist echo chamber gatekeeper for their base.'&" Here's the ad Fox refused to run (I this I've embedded it before):

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the 'last mile' of the coronavirus immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening President Biden's goal of getting shots to at least 70 percent of adults by July 4. The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4 million in April, according to The Washington Post's seven-day analysis, even though all adults and children over age 12 are now eligible.... The slowdown is national -- with every state down at least two-thirds from its peak -- and particularly felt across the South and Midwest.... Thirteen mostly East and West Coast states have already vaccinated 70 percent of adult residents, and another 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, are over 60 percent and will likely reach Biden's goal.... Health officials have already reached the 'low-hanging fruit -- those people who absolutely want to get vaccinated without you telling them anything,' Anthony S. Fauci ... said on a White House-organized call with community leaders on Friday. 'You're left with a group that you may need ... trusted messengers who go out there and explain to them why it's critical for themselves, for their family.'"

Quint Forgey of Politico: "The White House's James S. Brady Press Briefing Room is slated to return to full seating capacity this week, the White House Correspondents' Association announced on Sunday. The WHCA will also reintroduce its pre-pandemic seating chart for the briefing room, featuring a front row of reporters from outlets including NBC, Fox News, CBS News, the Associated Press, ABC News, Reuters and CNN. In addition, press capacity limitations on the White House grounds, including on the North Lawn and in indoor press workspaces, will return to 100 percent, according to the WHCA."

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

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Republicans Express Contempt for Democracy. Rachel Janfaza & Deanna Hackney of CNN: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was booed and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was censured at the Georgia GOP convention Saturday, demonstrating ... Donald Trump's hold over members of the Georgia Republican Party. The reaction from members of the Georgia GOP comes months after both Kemp and Raffensperger refused to help the former President overturn the election results after his loss to President Joe Biden. Trump has endorsed one of Raffensperger's primary opponents, GOP Rep. Jody Hice, who has embraced the ex-President's falsehoods about the election."

Oregon. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: A video surfaced last week on Oregon Public Broadcasting showing State Rep. Mike Nearman (R) teaching a primer on how to break into the state capitol a week before they did just that while legislators were considering Covid-19 legislation. Then, on December 21, 2020, "he walked out of a special session and opened the door for maskless demonstrators who rushed inside and clashed with police. Dozens eventually entered the building that day, some attacking officers and damaging property.... Nearman, 57, is charged with misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass.... The GOP legislator's role in the December security breach led to the loss of his committee assignments and to restrictions on his access to the Capitol building. After Nearman's filmed explanation of 'Operation Hall Pass' drew attention this week, Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D) renewed her calls for Nearman to resign."

Way Beyond

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled. The ceremony on a hill at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, where thousands of British and allied soldiers swarmed ashore on the morning of 6 June 1944, heard a video message from the Prince of Wales, the patron of the Normandy Trust, who said he regretted that Covid had made it impossible for him to be present in France.... Today, 77 years on, the surviving veterans of D-day were defeated in their efforts to return to France, not by war or even growing old unlike their fallen comrades, but by coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel. Haven't We Heard Something Like This Before? Sam Sokol & Haaretz: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried what he described as election fraud on an unprecedented scale on Sunday, dubbing the establishment of a government with a slim Knesset majority as an attack on Israeli democracy itself.... Speaking before Likud lawmakers at a party faction meeting in the Knesset on Sunday, Netanyahu said ... that Israelis were 'witnessing the biggest election fraud in the history of the country, in my opinion in the history of democracy.'" MB: Okay. then. ~~~

~~~ Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "The head of Israel's internal security service said that 'extremely violent and inciting discourse' targeting the lawmakers who are seeking to end Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure as prime minister could take a potentially lethal form -- a grim echo of the warnings ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said Saturday that the spike in vitriol targeting Netanyahu's opponents online and in public demonstrations 'may be interpreted by certain groups or individuals as one that allows for violent and illegal activities that may even, God forbid, become lethal.'" MB: How lovely to see that our former President*'s supporters set an example for democracies around the world.

Nigeria. BBC News: "The leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram,Abubakar Shekau, has killed himself, rival Islamist militants said in an audio recording. In audio obtained by news agencies, the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said Shekau died detonating explosives on himself after a battle between the two groups. Shekau was reported dead last month and has been reported killed before. Neither Boko Haram nor the Nigerian government have confirmed his death."

News Lede

New York Times: "David Dushman, who as a soldier for the Soviet Union drove his tank through the electric fence surrounding the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, and is believed to have been the last surviving liberator of the camp, died in Munich on Saturday. He was 98."

The Commentariat -- June 6, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled. The ceremony on a hill at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, where thousands of British and allied soldiers swarmed ashore on the morning of 6 June 1944, heard a video message from the Prince of Wales, the patron of the Normandy Trust, who said he regretted that Covid had made it impossible for him to be present in France.... Today, 77 years on, the surviving veterans of D-day were defeated in their efforts to return to France, not by war or even growing old unlike their fallen comrades, but by coronavirus.

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

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President Joe Biden, in a Washington Post op-ed, lays out his agenda for his trip to Europe this week: "On Wednesday, I depart for Europe on the first foreign travel of my presidency.... In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realizing America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.... And, as America’s economic recovery helps to propel the global economy, we will be stronger and more capable when we are flanked by nations that share our values and our vision for the future — by other democracies.... Those shared democratic values are the foundation of the most successful alliance in world history." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “Finance ministers for the G-7 advanced economies announced an accord that could reshape the tax obligations of multinational corporations around the world. The deal reached at the G-7 meeting in London Saturday by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. is a major breakthrough for the Biden administration’s efforts to enact a floor on the taxes paid by corporations worldwide.... 'The G-7 Finance Ministers have made a significant, unprecedented commitment today that provides tremendous momentum toward achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15 percent,' [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen, who led negotiations on behalf of the U.S., said in a statement.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “About 31 million Americans now have health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act, the White House announced Saturday, setting a record since the law, colloquially known as 'Obamacare,' was enacted in 2010 under President Barack Obama. According to a report from the Health and Human Services Department, about 11.3 million Americans were enrolled in health-care plans through the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplaces as of February, with 14.8 million people newly enrolled in Medicaid through the law’s expansion of eligibility as of December. The report also counted an additional 3.9 million Medicaid-enrolled adults who would have been eligible even before the Affordable Care Act but credited 'enhanced outreach, streamlined applications, and increased federal funding' from the law for the numbers.The report also said 1 million people were enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s Basic Health Program option, which covers people whose incomes are just slightly too high to qualify them for Medicaid, as well as for some immigrants.” ~~~

     ~~~ Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Aamer Madhani of the AP: “President Joe Biden turned to his old boss, former President Barack Obama, on Saturday to help him encourage Americans to sign up for 'Obamacare' health care coverage during an expanded special enrollment period in the pandemic. Biden used his weekly address for a brief Zoom chat with Obama to draw attention to the six-month expanded enrollment period that closes Aug. 15.” See President Biden's conversation with Barack from Chicago in the right-hand column.

Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Biden administration said on Saturday that no one at the White House had been aware that the Justice Department was seeking to seize the email data of four New York Times reporters and had obtained a gag order in March barring a handful of newspaper executives who knew about the fight from discussing it. The disavowal came one day after a court lifted the gag order, which permitted a Times lawyer to disclose the department’s effort to obtain email logs from Google, which operates the Times’s email system. It had begun in the last days of the Trump administration and continued until Wednesday, when the Biden Justice Department asked a judge to quash the matter without having obtained the data about who had been in contact with the reporters." ~~~

~~~ Eric Tucker of the AP: “The Justice Department said Saturday that it no longer will secretly obtain reporters’ records during leak investigations, a policy shift that abandons a practice decried by news organizations and press freedom groups. The reversal follows a pledge last month by President Joe Biden, who said it was 'simply, simply wrong' to seize journalists’ records and that he would not permit the Justice Department to continue the practice. Though Biden’s comments in an interview were not immediately accompanied by any change in policy, a pair of statements from the White House and Justice Department on Saturday signaled an official turnabout from an investigative tactic that has persisted for years.... White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday that ... 'the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction to the Department.'... Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said that 'in a change to its longstanding practice,' the department 'will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs....' In ruling out 'compulsory legal process' for reporters in leak investigations, the department also appeared to say that it would not force journalists to reveal in court the identity of their sources.”

Noise. Quinn Scanlan & Mark Osborne of ABC News: "... Donald Trump returned to the stage on Saturday night, delivering a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party State Convention, and claiming America is backsliding under President Joe Biden.... Trump referred to 'bad things' happening in the 2020 election, while saying the GOP would have a 'tremendous 2022' in the midterm elections. Trump teased -- slightly -- a 2024 run as well.... Trump's supporters gathered early in the day outside the Greenville Convention Center, some carrying 'Trump 2020' flags while others were already displaying 'Trump 2024: I'll Be Back' banners. Many wore 'Trump won' hats, being sold outside the arena. About 1,200 attendees were expected in the room...." MB: "I'll be back"? Really? That's Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature line, and Trump has been calling Schwarzenegger a loser for several years. ~~~

     ~~~ Meredith McGraw of Politico: “Never before in U.S. history has a former president returned to the campaign trail to claim that his election loss was fraudulent. But in his informal reemergence on the political scene before the GOP faithful at the North Carolina GOP convention in Greenville, Donald Trump did just that, insisting — falsely — that the 2020 race was stolen and corrupt. 'The evidence is too voluminous to even mention,' Trump said at one point. Tellingly, he never mentioned it, choosing instead to insist that dead people had voted, that Facebook had encouraged get out the vote drives in liberal enclaves, and that 'Indians' were paid to vote (ostensibly referring to Native Americans) — none of it supported by fact.... He was met with a standing ovation when he demanded China pay $10 trillion in 'reparations' for its role in the coronavirus pandemic and again when he called for the banning of critical race theory in schools, the culture wars issue du jour for the GOP.... At times, it gave off the vibe of an entertainer in the twilight of his career, playing the hits for a Vegas crowd.”

** Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In Donald J. Trump’s final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, according to newly uncovered emails provided to Congress, portions of which were reviewed by The New York Times. In five emails sent during the last week of December and early January, Mr. Meadows asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, then the acting attorney general, to examine debunked claims of election fraud in New Mexico and an array of baseless conspiracies that held that Mr. Trump had been the actual victor. That included a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. None of the emails show Mr. Rosen agreeing to open the investigations suggested by Mr. Meadows, and former officials and people close to him said that he did not do so.... But the communications between Mr. Meadows and Mr. Rosen ... show the increasingly urgent efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies during his last days in office to find some way to undermine, or even nullify, the election results while he still had control of the government." (Also linked yesterday.) Mother Jones has a summary story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over there. It's the Venezuelans! No, it's the Chinese! No, it's the Italians! I'm surprised we haven't heard that those UFOs Navy pilots have been seeing zapped voting machines & turned real Trump votes to fake Biden votes.

Texas Trumpist AG Says Trump Would Have Lost Texas without Voter Suppression. Jason Lemon of Newsweek: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said ... Donald Trump would have lost in Texas in the 2020 election if his office had not successfully blocked counties from mailing out applications for mail-in ballots to all registered voters. Harris County, home to the city of Houston, wanted to mail out applications for mail-in ballots to its approximately 2.4 million registered voters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the conservative Texas Supreme Court blocked the county from doing so after it faced litigation from Paxton's office. 'If we'd lost Harris County — Trump won by 620,000 votes in Texas. Harris County mail-in ballots that they wanted to send out were 2.5 million, those were all illegal and we were able to stop every one of them,' Paxton told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon during the latter's War Room podcast on Friday.... Notably, the Texas attorney general conflated mail-in ballots with applications for mail-in ballots in his remarks to Bannon. Harris County did not attempt to mail actual ballots to registered voters—just applications to request them if the individual voter wanted one." MB: Still, Paxton has a point. ~~~

~~~ Marie: And that's precisely why Joe Manchin opposes the For the People Act. Oh, and the Senate filibuster: ~~~

     ~~~ Sen. Joe Manchin (DINO-W.Va.), in a Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail op-ed: "Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why?... The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen. With that in mind, some Democrats have again proposed eliminating the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass the For the People Act with only Democratic support." MB: IOW, if everybody gets to vote, Republicans know they will lose, and that's a bad thing.

Neil Irwin of the New York Times: “The relationship between American businesses and their employees is undergoing a profound shift: For the first time in a generation, workers are gaining the upper hand.... The erosion of employer power began during the low-unemployment years leading up to the pandemic and, given demographic trends, could persist for years. March had a record number of open positions, according to federal data that goes back to 2000, and workers were voluntarily leaving their jobs at a rate that matches its historical high. The 'reservation wage,' as economists call the minimum compensation workers would require, was 19 percent higher for those without a college degree in March than in November 2019, a jump of nearly $10,000 a year....” MB: “Reservation wage”? That seems like a rather unfortunate term. On the other hand, I suppose they could have gone with “plantation wage.”

Ray Jenkins of the Washington Post: “John Patterson, an intractable segregationist Democrat of the 1950s and 1960s who served as Alabama’s attorney general and then governor and belatedly said he came to regret the stances that helped him rise to power in a tumultuous era, died June 4 at his home in Goldville, Ala. He was 99.... Exactly 50 years after his election as governor, he announced he would vote for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who became the nation’s first Black president. 'Having a record of supporting segregation,' Mr. Patterson said in an interview for this obituary, 'is a terrible burden to bear.'” MB: If you like to read obituaries, you'll enjoy this one.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Fractured History. Matt Viser & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump and his Republican allies have spent the past few weeks trying to rewrite or distort the history of the pandemic, attempting with renewed vigor to villainize Anthony S. Fauci while lionizing the former president for what they portray as heroic foresight and underappreciated efforts to combat the deadly virus.... 'They’re using Dr. Fauci as a way to direct attention from what actually was a massive government failure from the White House and individuals Donald Trump put in place to handle some of this pandemic,' [Amesh] Adalja [of Johns Hopkins] said.”

The Commentariat -- June 5, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In Donald J. Trump's final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, according to newly uncovered emails provided to Congress, portions of which were reviewed by The New York Times. In five emails sent during the last week of December and early January, Mr. Meadows asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, then the acting attorney general, to examine debunked claims of election fraud in New Mexico and an array of baseless conspiracies that held that Mr. Trump had been the actual victor. That included a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. None of the emails show Mr. Rosen agreeing to open the investigations suggested by Mr. Meadows, and former officials and people close to him said that he did not do so.... But the communications between Mr. Meadows and Mr. Rosen ... show the increasingly urgent efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies during his last days in office to find some way to undermine, or even nullify, the election results while he still had control of the government." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over there. It's the Venezuelans! No, it's the Chinese! No, it's the Italians! I'm surprised we haven't heard that those UFOs Navy pilots have been seeing zapped voting machines & turned real Trump votes to fake Biden votes.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Finance ministers for the G-7 advanced economies announced an accord that could reshape the tax obligations of multinational corporations around the world. The deal reached at the G-7 meeting in London Saturday by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. is a major breakthrough for the Biden administration' efforts to enact a floor on the taxes paid by corporations worldwide.... 'The G-7 Finance Ministers have made a significant, unprecedented commitment today that provides tremendous momentum toward achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15 percent,' [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen, who led negotiations on behalf of the U.S., said in a statement."

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

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Jeanna Smialek & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "With fresh data showing that American employers added jobs at a decent but unexceptional pace in May, President Biden on Friday emphasized that his administration would not try to extend enhanced unemployment benefits that Republicans have criticized as a key factor in fueling a labor shortage. The extent to which the extra $300 in weekly jobless benefits may be keeping workers sidelined is unclear. Some economists say insufficient child care and health concerns may be the main drivers behind Americans not seeking jobs.... The pace of hiring has been somewhat disappointing in recent months, and business complaints about worker shortages abound." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Can't imagine why, but a lot of people don't want to work in low-paying, dead-end jobs. They are pursuing other possibilities. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Job creation disappointed again in May, with nonfarm payrolls up what normally would be considered a solid 559,000 but still short of lofty expectations, the Labor Department reported Friday. Payrolls were expected to increase by 671,000, according to economists surveyed by Dow Jones." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday rejected a new counteroffer from Senate Republicans on funding for infrastructure reform, saying the party's latest proposal -- which included an additional $50 billion in spending -- marked a welcome move, but one that still falls far short of what President Biden is seeking. With billions of dollars still separating the two sides, the exchange capped off a week of tense negotiations that increasingly has left Democratic and GOP lawmakers unsure if they're going to be able to broker a bipartisan deal to improve the nation's roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections." Politico's story is here.

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is sounding increasingly urgent alarms about high-profile ransomware attacks that have caused widespread gas shortages, shut meat processing plants and paralyzed hospitals, as officials step up efforts to counter cyberthreats. Christopher A. Wray, the F.B.I. director, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday that the ransomware threat was comparable to the challenge of global terrorism in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001 attack." ~~~

~~~ Brian Fung & Geneva Sands of CNN: "Ransomware attackers gained access to Colonial Pipeline's computer networks in April using a compromised password, according to the company and a cybersecurity firm it hired -- leading to the deliberate shutdown of one of America's most important fuel distribution companies and the panic gas buying that ensued for days. The password had been linked to a disused virtual private networking account used for remote access, FireEye confirmed to CNN, and the account was not guarded by an extra layer of security known as multi-factor authentication."

Dino Grandoni & Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration announced plans on Friday to reverse policies implemented under ... Donald Trump that weakened the Endangered Species Act, a half-century-old law credited with the recovery of the bald eagle, humpback whale, grizzly bear and dozens of other species. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service under President Biden are moving to undo much of the Trump administration's work that altered the ways habitats of plants and animals on the verge of extinction are kept from total collapse. The decision to bolster the federal government's power to protect vanishing plants and animals comes as the world finds itself in the midst of what United Nations scientists say is a worldwide decline in biodiversity that threatens to erode food systems and other key parts of the global economy."

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "... Democrats are about to embark on a strategy to try to demonstrate to those reluctant colleagues -- and to the public at large -- that the filibuster is being abused by Senate Republicans.... The Senate had its first filibuster of the year last week when Republicans blocked a bipartisan House-passed measure to create an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.... At the same time, Republicans tied up a bipartisan measure intended to improve American competitiveness with China, even after they had had substantial input into the legislation.... That move made clear to many Democrats that Republicans will not cooperate even on bills they helped write.... [Majority Leader Chuck] Schumer said he intended to bring the filibuster showdown to a head beginning next week, by forcing votes on a series of measures that Republicans oppose, including one that was blocked by a Republican filibuster in 2014 that seeks to ensure that women and men receive the same pay for equal work.... The idea is to show Democrats refusing to change the filibuster rules that Republicans ... are going to stand in the way of legislation that has widespread support, and that the only way to win their adoption is by overturning the rules." ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... there's no point in antagonizing [Joe Manchin], because Manchin isn't susceptible to pressure from the left: In West Virginia, where Donald Trump beat Biden by 39 points and where Manchin easily dispatched a progressive primary challenger in 2018, complaints from the left do him no harm.... Manchin is working to find 10 Republicans to support key voting-rights protections, overcoming this filibuster without abolishing the filibuster generally.... After the For the People Act fails [because Republicans filibuster it], the Senate should bring up its popular and unobjectionable provisions, one at a time.... If [Republicans filibuster each of these popular provisions], they will have proved themselves beyond all doubt to be acting in bad faith. And Manchin — who on Thursday night told CNN's Manu Raju that he wants to 'find a path forward' on voting rights and declined to rule out abolishing the filibuster -- should be first in line to rescind their powers of limitless sabotage."

Charlie Savage & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel, answered detailed questions from Congress behind closed doors on Friday about ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to impede the Russia investigation. But Mr. McGahn provided few new revelations, according to people familiar with his testimony.... The interview by the House Judiciary Committee, attended by only a half dozen or so lawmakers on a summer Friday when Congress was on recess, was an anticlimactic conclusion to a saga that once dominated Capitol Hill.... Mr. McGahn will have up to a week to review a transcript for accuracy before it is made public. But the people said that he hewed closely to the account he had already given the special counsel, often telling committee lawyers that his recollections of events from four years ago were no longer sharp."

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "A senior finance executive at Donald J. Trump's family business has testified before a state grand jury in Manhattan as prosecutors ramp up their investigation of Mr. Trump and his company, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The executive, Jeffrey McConney, has long served as the Trump Organization's controller, making him one of a handful of high-ranking executives to oversee the company's finances. The testimony comes as the prosecutors have trained their focus on one of Mr. McConney's colleagues, Allen H. Weisselberg, the Trump Organization's long-serving chief financial officer. The prosecutors, who are working for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., have examined the extent to which Mr. Trump handed out valuable benefits to Mr. Weisselberg's family and whether taxes were paid on those perks, The New York Times has reported.... The decision to subpoena Mr. McConney, who has worked at the company for nearly 35 years, suggests that the examination of Mr. Weisselberg's conduct has reached a new phase, with the grand jury hearing evidence about him." ABC News' story is here.

Mike Isaac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook said on Friday that Donald J. Trump's suspension from the service would last at least two years, keeping the former president off mainstream social media for the 2022 midterm elections, as the company also said it would end a policy of treating posts from politicians differently from those of other users. The social network said Mr. Trump would be eligible for reinstatement in January 2023, before the next presidential election. It will then look to experts to decide 'whether the risk to public safety has receded,' Facebook said. The company barred Mr. Trump from the service after he made comments on social media that rallied his supporters, who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, but it had not given a firm timeline about when or if the suspension would end." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If someone had told you ten years ago that a former U.S. president would be disqualified from using a site populated by the proud owners of cute kittens & parents of adorable children who take fun family vacations, you would have been mighty skeptical. Well, here we are.

Real Estate News. Bernard Condon of the AP: "Bargain hunters are swooping in to take advantage of prices in Trump buildings that have dropped to levels not seen in over a decade, a crash brokers attribute to a combination of the former president's polarizing image and the coronavirus pandemic. It's a stunning reversal for a brand that once lured the rich and famous willing to pay a premium to live in a building with Trump's gilded name on it. An Associated Press review ... found prices for some [Trump] condos and hotel rooms available for purchase have dropped by one-third or more. That's a plunge that outpaces drops in many similar buildings, leaving units for sale in Trump buildings to be had for hundreds of thousands to up to a million dollars less than they would have gone for years ago."

Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Less than two weeks from a first face-to-face with President Biden in Geneva, Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday criticized the U.S. prosecution of rioters who took part in the January attack on the Capitol, calling it an example of American 'double standards.'... 'These are not looters or thieves, these people came with political requests,' Putin said of the pro-Trump mobs that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6." MB: Uh, considering Putin has Russians with "political requests" poisoned or shot, his comment is a bit of a "double standard" itself, isn't it?

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is jealous of the press coverage that Jen Psaki is receiving. McEnany listed her grievances after reports that photographer Annie Leibovitz was at the White House to photograph Psaki. 'Instead of the glowing profiles, there were hit pieces repeatedly, time and time again,' McEnany said on 'Outnumbered,' [a Fox 'News" show]. 'It's just so sad that you have a fawning press corps like this, a fawning media sycophantically covering members of the Biden administration,' McEnany said."

DOJ, FBI Unfamiliar with First Amendment

Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In the last weeks of the Trump administration and continuing under President Biden, the Justice Department fought a secret legal battle to obtain the email logs of four New York Times reporters in a hunt for their sources, a top lawyer for the newspaper said Friday night. While the Trump administration never informed The Times about the effort, the Biden administration continued waging the fight this year, telling a handful of top Times executives about it but imposing a gag order to shield it from public view, said the lawyer, David McCraw, who called the move unprecedented. The gag order prevented the executives from disclosing the government's efforts to seize the records even to the executive editor, Dean Baquet, and other newsroom leaders. Mr. McCraw said Friday that a federal court had lifted the order, which had been in effect since March 3, freeing him to reveal what had happened.... Mr. Baquet condemned both the Trump and Biden administrations for their actions, portraying the effort as an assault on the First Amendment." ~~~

~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The FBI earlier this year tried to obtain records associated with people who accessed an article on USA Today's website about the killing of two FBI agents as they tried to search a Florida apartment -- sparking a legal fight and once again fueling concerns that federal law enforcement is not following its own guidelines when seeking news outlets' data.... FBI agents sent the company a subpoena asking for records, including IP addresses and mobile identification information, of those who accessed a Feb. 2 article about the shooting during a 35-minute window that same day.... In a statement, USA Today publisher Maribel Perez Wadsworth said the organization would fight the demand for the materials.... Wadsworth ... said the news organization was particularly surprised to have received the subpoena because of Biden's comments [supporting journalists' rights]. 'The subpoena is also contrary to the Justice Department's own guidelines concerning the narrow circumstances in which subpoenas can be issued to the news media,' she said." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The subpoena seems pretty alarming to me. I'm sure most of us have read or skimmed hundreds or even thousands of articles where the subject involved violent criminal conduct -- without our having any intention whatsoever of engaging in or supporting such activity. Yet the FBI seems to be viewing us readers as suspects in something.

Chris Mooney of the Washington Post: "Long before the era of fossil fuels, humans may have triggered a massive but mysterious 'carbon bomb' lurking beneath the Earth's surface, a new scientific study suggests.... The researchers, from France's Laboratory of Climate and Environmental Sciences and several other institutions across the globe, suggest that beginning well before the industrial era, the mass conversion of carbon-rich peatlands for agriculture could have added over 250 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. That's the equivalent of more than seven years of current emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for energy.... In its normal state, peat slowly pulls carbon out of the atmosphere -- unless you disturb it. If a peatland is drained -- as has occurred for many centuries to promote agriculture, especially the planting of crops -- the ancient plant matter begins to decompose, and the carbon it contains joins with oxygen from the atmosphere. It is then emitted as carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse warming gas."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Natasha Korecki & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "For over a year, Anthony Fauci has been a bogeyman for conservatives, who have questioned his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and accused him of quietly undermining ... Donald Trump. But those attacks took on a whole new level of vitriol this week, to the point that one social media analysis described it as highly misleading and at least one platform pulled down some posts, citing false content. It all stemmed from a tranche of Fauci's emails that were published as part of a Freedom of Information Act request filed by various news outlets. Within hours of publication, the hashtag #FauciLeaks was trending on Twitter, accusing the nation's top infectious disease doctor of lying under oath about the origins of Covid. It became a trending topic on Facebook too, where detractors added an inaccurate and more nefarious framing that the emails were secretly 'leaked.'... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... quickly released Facebook ads demanding to 'fire Fauci' and requesting a campaign donation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The whole idea here is to undermine not just Fauci, but science in general. I think the main reason for confederates' fear of science is that they can handle neither change nor nuance. Scientists give their best answers based on what is known at a given time; as new information comes in, scientists change their analyses. For dumbkopfs, it's much easier to steadfastly accept as a hard fact "the coronavirus is a hoax," even as their friends & family are dying from Covid-19. ~~~

     ~~~ BBC News: "The White House has defended the president's top coronavirus adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, amid scrutiny of his recently released work emails. Dr Fauci has been the face of the nation's Covid-19 response, drawing both praise and criticism. 'I'm very confident in Dr Fauci,' President Joe Biden said on Friday." ~~~

~~~ Fauci Is the New Hillary. Mike Allen & Sam Baker of Axios: "President Trump plans to make Anthony Fauci a top target at upcoming rallies, using increased attention to the Wuhan lab-leak theory as a weapon against an official long viewed as more trustworthy.... Trump and conservative media have made Fauci an improbable face of the opposition, trying to give him the cartoon-villain status once accorded to former Sen. Harry Reid, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, or -- in Trump's case -- Hillary Clinton. Trump amped up his longtime Fauci rants yesterday in a statement calling for COVID reparations from China[.]"

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. If You Do Something Stupid & Crazy Enough, Trump Might Call to Thank You. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "ewly released emails sent to and from Arizona state senators reveal that ... Donald Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani reached out personally to urge GOP officials there to move forward with a partisan recount of the 2020 election, despite a lack of evidence of widespread fraud or other issues.... 'I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy Guiliani [sic] over the past weeks trying to get this done,' [Arizona Senate President Karen] Fann wrote in the Dec. 28 message. 'I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.'"

** California. Yippee! Assault Rifles for One & All! Mike Ives of the New York Times: "A federal judge in California on Friday overturned the state's three-decade-old ban on assault weapons, which he called a 'failed experiment.'... California prohibited the sale of assault weapons in 1989. The law was challenged in a suit filed in 2019 against the state's attorney general by plaintiffs including James Miller, a California resident, and the San Diego County Gun Owners, a political action committee. The judge, Roger T. Benitez of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, wrote that sections of the state's penal code that defined assault weapons and restricted their use were 'hereby declared unconstitutional and shall be enjoined.' But the judge said he had granted a 30-day stay of the ruling at the request of Attorney General Rob Bonta, a move that would allow Mr. Bonta to appeal it.... In a statement late Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom called the ruling 'a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians.' Mr. Newsom also criticized the opening lines of Judge Benitez's decision, in which he wrote that, like a Swiss Army knife, the AR-15 assault rifle 'is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.'" MB: Benitez is a Bush II appointee. An NBC News story is here.

Ohio. Meryl Kornfield & Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "The head of an American Legion post in Ohio stepped down after he cut a veteran's microphone during a speech Monday referencing how Black people organized the earliest Memorial Day commemoration on record, according to the veterans group. Jim Garrison resigned after he was asked by Legion officials, the American Legion Department of Ohio said in a statement Friday. The veterans group said Garrison and Cindy Suchan, chair of the Memorial Day parade committee and president of the Hudson American Legion Auxiliary, decided to 'censor' retired Army Lt. Col. Barnard Kemter in a 'premeditated move. Kemter shared his Memorial Day speech in advance with Suchan, who asked him to remove a part of his speech, and he didn't, according to the department. 'They knew exactly when to turn the volume down and when to turn it back up,' the statement said.... The state Legion's department adjutant told the Akron Beacon Journal that Suchan was also asked to resign by Legion officials but has not." MB: Because, you know, she didn't do anything wrong.

Texas. Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Allen West, a transplanted one-term Florida congressman and right-wing provocateur, announced his resignation on Friday as chairman of the Texas Republican Party, possibly as a precursor to running for statewide office. Mr. West, a former Army officer who was forced to retire after firing a handgun near the head of a prisoner in Iraq, said at a news conference in Whitehouse, Texas, that he was considering running for office. 'Maybe something congressional,' he suggested. He had served in the job for less than a year. In that short time, Mr. West -- a Fox News fixture who attended an event in Dallas last month at which Michael T. Flynn ... suggested the United States could witness a military coup -- has earned a reputation for taking on Democrats and Republicans with equal aplomb. His spats with the state's governor, Greg Abbott, over the handling of the coronavirus pandemic and with Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick over gun legislation have led to speculation that he will mount a Trumpian challenge to one of them in the Republican primaries next March."

Way Beyond

Jeanne Mackenzie of BBC News: "For nearly three weeks Belgium's leading virologist has been living in a safehouse with his wife and 12-year-old son, guarded by security agents. While scientists across the world have come under attack throughout the pandemic, the threat to Prof Marc Van Ranst is more serious than most. He has been targeted by a far-right soldier, Jürgen Conings, who has a vendetta for virologists and Covid lockdowns. The military shooting instructor is on the run with a rocket launcher and a machine gun, and Belgian police cannot find him.... Police say Jürgen Conings left his barracks with a selection of heavy weapons, and headed straight for the virologist's home."