The Commentariat -- May 26, 2021

Tim Arango & Andrés Martínez of the New York Times: “In Minneapolis on Tuesday, as people gathered to mark the anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd, there was space for ... the trauma and the grief; some celebration, over a murder conviction of a police officer; and a measure of hope, too, that in death Mr. Floyd, a Black man, had nudged America toward more racial equality.... Even as all eyes were on Minneapolis — where the governor issued a proclamation for a moment of silence lasting nine minutes and 29 seconds, the amount of time a white officer’s knee remained on Mr. Floyd’s neck — people gathered in remembrance all across the country, to honor not just the life of Mr. Floyd, but to reflect on what has changed, and what has not, in America.... All this was happening as members of the Floyd family met privately with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.... The president said he was hopeful that a police reform bill that has stalled in the Senate would reach his desk soon, saying, 'we face an inflection point.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times have more on the Floyd family's meeting with President Biden & Vice President Harris. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times liveblogged how the country is marking the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Republicans chose a special way of observing the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. They tried to vote down a highly qualified Black woman who had been nominated to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division.... All but one [Senate Republican] (Susan Collins of Maine) voted not even to allow [Kristen] Clarke a confirmation vote — and, when that failed, voted by an identical tally against confirming Clarke.... [Also,] Republican senators rose in near lockstep to oppose the confirmation of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the first Black woman tapped to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Only five of the 50 Republican senators supported this health-policy veteran.... President Biden had set a deadline of Tuesday for Congress to enact legislation to counter police brutality. But while the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act almost three months ago, Republican objections have bottled up negotiations in the Senate.... Racism isn’t just a factor in Republican politics. It is the factor."

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning to meet next month in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting between the two adversaries and one that comes at a time of deteriorating relations. The day-long summit is scheduled for June 16, according to an official familiar with the meeting, and will cover a wide range of topics including nuclear proliferation, Russian interference in U.S. elections, climate change and covid-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Under new Biden administration rules curtailing immigration enforcement, ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month, the lowest level on record. The agency’s 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months. ICE under President Biden is an agency on probation. The new administration has rejected calls from some Democrats to eliminate the agency entirely, but Biden has placed ICE deportation officers on a leash so tight that some say their work is being functionally abolished.... The Biden administration is preparing to release its first Department of Homeland Security budget request this week, and immigrant advocates want deep cuts to ICE. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans last week to shutter two ICE detention centers, but in an interview he said he ... wants to reorient ICE [toward national security & public safety], not shrink it...."

Ellen Nakashima & Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security is moving to regulate cybersecurity in the pipeline industry for the first time in an effort to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast’s fuel supply this month — an incident that highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to online attacks. The Transportation Security Administration, a DHS unit, will issue a security directive this week requiring pipeline companies to report cyber incidents to federal authorities, senior DHS officials said. It will follow up in coming weeks with a more robust set of mandatory rules for how pipeline companies must safeguard their systems against cyberattacks and the steps they should take if they are hacked, the officials said. The agency has offered only voluntary guidelines in the past." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peggy McGlone of the Washington Post: “Having ousted four Trump-appointed members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, President Biden announced Tuesday that he will replace them with four people who bring 'a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints.' Architect Peter Cook, Howard University professor of architecture Hazel Ruth Edwards, Andrew Mellon Foundation program officer Justin Garrett Moore and architect Billie Tsien will join the seven-member commission, an independent agency responsible for guiding the design of the capital city, including renovations of historic homes and the look and scale of government buildings, museums and memorials.... On Monday, the Biden administration sent letters to ... [Trump-appointed members] asking that they resign by 6 p.m. that day or face termination. None of the four resigned.” Trump's appointments made the board all-white and all-male. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you're interested in the way D.C. looks, or in urban planning in general, this story is for you.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders on Tuesday broke nearly a week of silence about comments by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the treatment of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust, condemning her language but stopping short of punishing her. The slow response by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, to Ms. Greene’s string of anti-Semitic statements reflected the reluctance of top Republicans to take on the first-term congresswoman, who had previously endorsed violent and racist conspiracy theories and whose combative style has made her a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump and his far-right supporters." ~~~

~~~ Make That "Leaders." Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House Republican leaders have condemned incendiary remarks from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene five days after she first publicly compared Capitol Hill mask rules to the Holocaust, amid a wave of criticism from Republican and conservative critics as well as Jewish groups aimed at the Georgia congresswoman and the party leaders' silence. 'Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,' House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement five days after Greene's original comments and after she made similar comparisons Tuesday. 'Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.' The No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, also responded [in a written statement] to Greene's comments for the first time on Tuesday.... Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the newly elected No. 3 House Republican, also responded to the controversy in a tweet that didn't include Greene's name.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against Greene on Tuesday morning when asked about her latest comments on the Holocaust. 'Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment,' McConnell ... said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A tweet, Elise? Here it is: "'Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain,' Stefanik wrote Tuesday morning, following McCarthy and Scalise's remarks." Wow! I'll bet Margie feels terrible now. ~~~

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, in tweeted early Tuesday morning, linking to a news story on a Tennessee supermarket chain’s decision to include a special logo on the name badges of vaccinated employees  ~~~

     ~~~ AND She's Still at It. Mike DeBonis & John Wagner of the Washington Post: “Top congressional leaders condemned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday after the Georgia Republican compared a supermarket’s face-mask policy to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.... [In his statement, House GOP 'Leader' Kevin McCarthy said,] 'At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.'... Following the widespread condemnations Tuesday, Greene posted tweets explaining, but not apologizing for, her remarks. Echoing McCarthy, she accused the media and others of seeking to hide 'the disgusting anti-semitism within the Democrat Party.... Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply,' she wrote.... No elected Democrats recently have made any similar comparison, and prominent party leaders have condemned a spate of antisemitic attacks.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Violence between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East is often accompanied by spikes in anti-Semitic activity in the United States, but what’s happened over the last week or so has been different.... What’s new, and more reminiscent of the sort of anti-Semitic aggression common in Europe, is flagrant public assaults on Jews — sometimes in broad daylight — motivated by anti-Zionism.... These apparent hate crimes are, first and foremost, a catastrophe for Jewish people in the United States, who’ve just endured four years of spiking anti-Semitism that started around the time Republicans nominated Donald Trump in 2016.... But this violence also threatens to undermine progress that’s been made in getting American politicians to take Palestinian rights more seriously. Right-wing Zionists and anti-Semitic anti-Zionists have something fundamental in common: Both conflate the Jewish people with the Israeli state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Steve M., with a little help from Jonathan Chait, explains why -- in the eyes of the "bonkers" right wing, the spate of attacks on Jewish communities is all Democrats' fault. MB: Turns out there is a "logic" to at least some conspiracy theories, but it's a "logic" turned upside-down or inside-out.

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the development. The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters — not just the Trump case ­— during the duration of its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said.... The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation ... has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's story is here.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to ... Donald Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, citing examples of other cases being dismissed following a presidential reprieve, granted Bannon’s application — saying in a seven-page ruling that Trump’s pardon was valid and that 'dismissal of the Indictment is the proper course.' Bannon was charged with fraud last year alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with 'We Build the Wall' while representing to the organization’s backers that all of the money was being used for construction.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ BUT Judge Rules Bannon Is Guilty. Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: “... [U.S. District Judge Analisa] Torres extensively cited case law suggesting [Steve] Bannon’s acceptance of the pardon acknowledged the truth behind allegations that he conspired to defraud donors of the non-profit We Build the Wall and pocketing the loot through money laundering.... '... from the country’s earliest days, courts, including the Supreme Court, have acknowledged that even if there is no formal admission of guilt, the issuance of a pardon may “carr[y] an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it,”' [citing Burdick v. United States].... Quoting another 19th century ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court, Torres wrote: 'Pardon implies guilt.'”

Cat Zakrzewski &  Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: “D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Tuesday brought an antitrust complaint against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant wields monopoly power that has resulted in higher prices for consumers. Racine’s office accused the company of fixing prices through contract provisions with third-party sellers who peddle their products on its platform. The attorney general said that Amazon prevents sellers from offering their products at lower prices or on better terms on any other online platforms, including their own websites, and that that prohibition results in 'artificially high' prices across e-commerce sales.”

Katie Robertson of the New York Times: “The Associated Press has started a review of its social media policy after more than 150 staff members publicly condemned the firing of a young journalist for violating that policy.... The news agency faced a backlash after Emily Wilder, a 22-year-old news associate who had joined the company in Arizona, was dismissed on May 19, three weeks after she was hired. Ms. Wilder, who graduated from Stanford University in 2020 and had worked at The Arizona Republic, said in a statement on Friday that she had been the subject of a campaign by Stanford College Republicans, whose social media posts drew attention to her pro-Palestine activism at the university. She added that her editors had reassured her she would not be fired for her past advocacy work. 'Less than 48 hours later, The A.P. fired me,' she said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Emily Wilder's firing "points to two emerging facts of life in contemporary mainstream media — one, that editors at large news organizations quake when right-wing actors target their colleagues; and two, publishers’ concerns over ethical appearances and perceptions are reaching irrationality."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: “The United States’ top health official called Tuesday for a swift follow-up investigation into the coronavirus’s origins amid renewed questions about whether the virus jumped from an animal host into humans in a naturally occurring event or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told an annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization that international experts should be given 'the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.' Becerra’s remarks, which were prerecorded, signaled that the Biden administration would continue to press the WHO to expand its investigation to determine the virus’s origins.... At a White House briefing Tuesday, Anthony S. Fauci ... said he believes it’s most likely the virus originated from a 'natural occurrence.' But he said a deeper probe is warranted.” The story is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, one of Rand Paul's many crazy conspiracy theories is at least worth investigating. So not completely crazy. Congrats, Randy! ~~~

~~~ Kylie Atwood of CNN: "President Joe Biden's team shut down a closely-held State Department effort launched late in the Trump administration to prove the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab over concerns about the quality of its work.... The existence of the State Department inquiry and its termination this spring by the Biden administration ... comes to light amid renewed interest in whether the virus could have leaked out of a Wuhan lab with links to the Chinese military.... Those involved in the previously undisclosed inquiry, which was launched last fall by allies of then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, say it was an honest effort to probe what many initially dismissed: that China's biological weapons program could have had a greater role in the pandemic's origin in Wuhan, according to two additional sources. But the inquiry quickly became mired in internal discord amid concerns that it was part of a broader politicized effort by the Trump administration to blame China and cherry-pick facts to prove a theory." ~~~

~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "The source of the coronavirus ... remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence. How and why did this happen? For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon. That made it easier for many scientists to dismiss the lab scenario as tin-hat nonsense. But a lack of transparency by China and renewed attention to the activities of the Wuhan lab have led some scientists to say they were too quick to discount a possible link at first." Kessler traces the timeline of the Wuhan Lab theory.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds, and that it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in June for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. If approved, its vaccine would become the second Covid-19 vaccine available to U.S. adolescents. Federal regulators authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month for 12- to 15-year-olds." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The Times' full story on the Moderna vaccine is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) 

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Jeremy Duda of the Arizona Mirror: "Wake Technology Services, Inc., the company that has been in charge of recounting ballots as part of Senate President Karen Fann’s election audit, has left the audit team. Audit spokesman Randy Pullen told the Arizona Republic that Wake TSI’s contract ended on May 14, when the Senate’s contract with Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is taking place, was originally scheduled to end. Pullen said Wake chose not to renew its contract.... Wake TSI stood out as the only company [working on the 'audit'] that appeared to have any experience with election work.... [But] Wake’s work in Pennsylvania raised questions as well. Fulton County ... allowed Wake to audit its election at the request of a state senator who’s been a prominent advocate of election conspiracy theories and bogus claims that the election was rigged against ... Donald Trump.... Wake was actually hired by Defending the Republic, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization run by attorney Sidney Powell, a former Trump campaign lawyer who has spread myriad baseless conspiracy theories and filed unsuccessful lawsuits in several states, including Arizona, seeking to overturn legitimate election results." ~~~

~~~ Mark Phillips of ABC News 15 Arizona: “On Tuesday morning, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee[, dominated by Republicans,] stripped Secretary of State Katie Hobbs [D] of her ability to defend election lawsuits. It gave the power exclusively to the Attorney General [R]. Later in the day, the state's Senate Appropriations Committee[, dominated by Republicans,] passed the same changes. Now these proposed changes are part of the full budget proposal that will be voted on later this week. 'We are meddling with the constitution,' State Representative Randy Friese, (D) Tucson, said. Friese and other Democrats see the move as a response to Secretary of State Hobbs' use of outside counsel to defend Arizona voters from lawsuits filed by the State Republican Party and others challenging Arizona’s election results.”

Nevada. Proud Boy Cast Decidiing Vote in Nevada GOP Censure Resolution. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The leaders of the Nevada Republican Party are facing an internal revolt after an avowed Proud Boys member said he was invited with friends to attend a state party meeting last month and cast the deciding votes in the censure of a state official who concluded that the 2020 election in the state was not tainted by fraud. In the past week, the Nevada Senate GOP caucus and the chairmen of the two largest Republican county organizations have called for an audit of an April state party vote to uncover who cast ballots as seated party members and proxies for a resolution against Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R)."

Texas Legislature Goes Wild-West Insane. Neil MacFarquhar & Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: “... within days, Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign a wide-ranging law that will ... [allow] virtually anyone over the age of 21 to carry a handgun, no permit required. The landmark bill would make Texas — which has three of the nation’s 10 biggest cities — the largest among 20 other states to adopt a 'constitutional carry' law that basically eliminates most restrictions on the ability to carry handguns.... Critics, including some senior law enforcement officers, call the new legislation a dangerous retreat from gun control amid a recent surge in gun violence, particularly in a state with a long and painfully recent history of mass shootings.”

Way Beyond

Belarus Hostage Video. Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: “A video purporting to show dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich confessing to organizing 'mass riots' has met with skepticism from scholars, family members and human rights groups who say that there is little doubt that he was coerced.... The detained journalist’s demeanor in the video alarmed his father, Dzmitry, who told Reuters that his son’s nose appeared to have been broken, 'because the shape of it is changed,' and that his remarks were out of character.... In the video, Protasevich’s face appears to be marked with abrasions and bruises, suggesting that authorities subjected him to 'torture or other ill-treatment' before recording the supposed confession, Amnesty International spokesman Alexander Artemyev told The Washington Post.”

The Commentariat -- May 25, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people.... The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters -- not just the Trump case -- during the duration of its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said.... The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s investigation ... has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime -- if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company."

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to ... Donald Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, citing examples of other cases being dismissed following a presidential reprieve, granted Bannon's application -- saying in a seven-page ruling that Trump's pardon was valid and that 'dismissal of the Indictment is the proper course.' Bannon was charged with fraud last year alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with 'We Build the Wall' while representing to the organization's backers that all of the money was being used for construction."

The New York Times is liveblogging how the country is marking the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning to meet next month in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting between the two adversaries and one that comes at a time of deteriorating relations. The day-long summit is scheduled for June 16, according to an official familiar with the meeting, and will cover a wide range of topics including nuclear proliferation, Russian interference in U.S. elections, climate change and covid-19."

Ellen Nakashima & Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security is moving to regulate cybersecurity in the pipeline industry for the first time in an effort to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast's fuel supply this month -- an incident that highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to online attacks. The Transportation Security Administration, a DHS unit, will issue a security directive this week requiring pipeline companies to report cyber incidents to federal authorities, senior DHS officials said. It will follow up in coming weeks with a more robust set of mandatory rules for how pipeline companies must safeguard their systems against cyberattacks and the steps they should take if they are hacked, the officials said. The agency has offered only voluntary guidelines in the past."

Make That "Leaders." Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House Republican leaders have condemned incendiary remarks from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene five days after she first publicly compared Capitol Hill mask rules to the Holocaust, amid a wave of criticism from Republican and conservative critics as well as Jewish groups aimed at the Georgia congresswoman and the party leaders' silence. 'Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,' House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement five days after Greene's original comments and after she made similar comparisons Tuesday. 'Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.' The No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, also responded [in a written statement] to Greene's comments for the first time on Tuesday.... Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the newly elected No. 3 House Republican, also responded to the controversy in a tweet that didn't include Greene's name.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against Greene on Tuesday morning when asked about her latest comments on the Holocaust. 'Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment,' McConnell ... said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A tweet, Elise? Here it is: "'Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain,' Stefanik wrote Tuesday morning, following McCarthy and Scalise's remarks." Wow! I'll bet Margie feels terrible now. ~~~

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, in tweeted early Tuesday morning, linking to a news story on a Tennessee supermarket chain's decision to include a special logo on the name badges of vaccinated employees ~~~

     ~~~ AND She's Still at It. Mike DeBonis & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Top congressional leaders condemned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday after the Georgia Republican compared a supermarket's face-mask policy to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.... [In his statement, House GOP 'Leader' Kevin McCarthy said,] 'At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.'... Following the widespread condemnations Tuesday, Greene posted tweets explaining, but not apologizing for, her remarks. Echoing McCarthy, she accused the media and others of seeking to hide 'the disgusting anti-semitism within the Democrat Party.... Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply,' she wrote.... No elected Democrats recently have made any similar comparison, and prominent party leaders have condemned a spate of antisemitic attacks."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Violence between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East is often accompanied by spikes in anti-Semitic activity in the United States, but what's happened over the last week or so has been different.... What's new, and more reminiscent of the sort of anti-Semitic aggression common in Europe, is flagrant public assaults on Jews -- sometimes in broad daylight -- motivated by anti-Zionism.... These apparent hate crimes are, first and foremost, a catastrophe for Jewish people in the United States, who've just endured four years of spiking anti-Semitism that started around the time Republicans nominated Donald Trump in 2016.... But this violence also threatens to undermine progress that's been made in getting American politicians to take Palestinian rights more seriously. Right-wing Zionists and anti-Semitic anti-Zionists have something fundamental in common: Both conflate the Jewish people with the Israeli state."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds, and that it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in June for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. If approved, its vaccine would become the second Covid-19 vaccine available to U.S. adolescents. Federal regulators authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month for 12- to 15-year-olds." ~~~

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

~~~~~~~~~~

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden announced Monday that he was doubling the amount of money the U.S. government will spend helping communities get set for extreme weather events, proclaiming the need for full readiness as he visited government workers and told them to prepare for another season of natural disasters. In announcing $1 billion in spending, Biden also emphasized his administration's attempts to steer the country toward confronting the looming effects of climate change, which scientists say will make severe weather events more frequent and less predictable. He announced a new NASA-led effort to collect more sophisticated climate data." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, a year after George Floyd was killed at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, his family members will fly to Washington, D.C., for a private audience with President Biden, their first in-person meeting with the president since they buried Floyd. While White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden is 'eager to listen to their perspectives and hear what they have to say,' an unfulfilled promise looms over the meeting as progress on police reform has stagnated, including legislation bearing Floyd's name that Biden had hoped would be law on the anniversary of his death.... During his first joint address to Congress, [Biden] urged lawmakers to pass police reform by May 25.... A sweeping voting-rights measure faces an even tougher climb in Congress than the police overhaul...."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home -- a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago. The shift across the government, whose details are still being finalized, comes after the risk-averse federal bureaucracy had fallen behind private companies when it came to embracing telework -- a posture driven by a perception that employees would slack off unless they were tethered to their office cubicles. That position hardened during the Trump administration, which dialed back work-from-home programs that had slowly expanded during the Obama era. But the coronavirus crisis -- and a new president eager to rebuild the trust of federal workers who had been attacked by ... Donald Trump as 'the swamp' -- has convinced the country's largest employer that in many departments, employees can serve the public just as well from home, officials said."

Uh, Bon Chance, Tony. Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East on Monday to press the Israelis, Palestinians and regional players to build on and strengthen last week's Gaza cease-fire, start an immediate flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and lay the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks. President Joe Biden announced that he was dispatching Blinken to the region for what will be his administration's highest-level, in-person talks on the crisis that erupted earlier this month. The State Department said Blinken will visit Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt on a trip that comes as the administration has faced broad criticism for its initial response to the deadly violence." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Good news! Tony will get some "help": ~~~

     ~~~ Betsy Swan & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making plans to travel to Israel later this week, three people with knowledge of the plans said. Pompeo's potential trip could come the same week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also traveling there.... A [person close to Pompeo said] ... Pompeo, a former CIA director, would travel as a private citizen to celebrate the retirement of Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad. Pompeo may also meet privately with nongovernmental officials, according to the person, who added that Pompeo alerted Blinken of his plans."

Shawn Boburg of the Washington Post: "An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department's officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees' offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans' social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators. In one instance, the unit opened a case on a 68-year-old retiree in Florida who tweeted that the census, which is run by the Commerce Department, would be manipulated 'to benefit the Trump Party!' records show.... Incoming Commerce leaders from the Biden administration ordered ITMS to pause all criminal investigations on March 10, and on May 13 ordered the suspension of all activities after preliminary results of an ongoing review, according to a statement issued by department spokeswoman Brittany Caplin."

Liz Cheney Is No Champion of Democracy: Big Lie, No; Voter Suppression, Yes. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "... when pressed on Sunday about whether Trump's falsehoods [about the 2020 election] were the cause of Republican moves to pass restrictive new voting laws in dozens of states, [Rep. Liz] Cheney [R-Wyo.] disputed the suggestion..... Cheney's exchange [with Jonathan Swan of Axios], which went viral on Twitter with more than 800,000 views, suggests the limits of her increasingly lonesome stance in the Republican Party.... Republicans in at least 43 states have moved to limit in-person, mail and Election Day voting ... -- moves that could make it more difficult for tens of millions of Americans to cast ballots. GOP lawmakers have justified the bills, The Washington Post reported, by noting that many conservatives no longer trust voting systems thanks to Trump's false claims that the election was 'stolen.'"

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Monday that he would support a House-passed bill to create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Romney's comments make him the first GOP senator to say he would vote for the bill, which needs the support of 10 Republicans to pass the Senate. Asked how he would vote if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to start debate on the House bill, a move that requires 60 votes to defeat a filibuster, Romney told reporters, 'I would support the bill.'"

Carol Robinson of AL.com: “A north Alabama man facing multiple charges in connection with the January riots at the U.S. Capitol must remain in jail until trial a federal judge ruled, citing in part new revelations that he drove to the home of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and he seemed 'unbalanced' in a call to the senator's office. Lonnie Coffman, a 70-year-old Falkville resident up until his arrest, was arrested by federal authorities just hours after the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Since then, he has been indicted on 17 charges following the seizure of nearly a dozen Molotov cocktail explosive devices from his pickup truck, as well as a number of guns, ammo and concerning handwritten notes." MB: Creepy story. This is just the kind of person Cruz's own demagoguery riles up.

Garland DOJ Sticks Up for Lying Bill Barr. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Department of Justice is appealing a judge's decision ordering the release of a 2019 legal memo prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr in the wake of the Mueller investigation. In a pair of court filings submitted late Monday, the DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland said it would fight against the full release of the memo, but would agree to make parts of it public. The internal legal memo prepared by the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel is said to provide justifications for Barr's stance that the former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not support obstruction of justice charges against former President Trump. Earlier this month, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the document be made public and accused Barr and Justice Department lawyers of making misrepresentations about why it should be kept secret." Neal Katyal said on MSNBC it would take about a year for an appeals court to render a decision. Katyal opined that the appeal was not justified. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department late Monday night released part of a key internal document used in 2019 to justify not charging ... Donald Trump with obstruction.... The central document at issue is a March 2019 memo written by two senior Justice Department officials [Steven Engel & Edward O'Callaghan (MB: both Trump political appointees)] arguing that aside from important constitutional reasons not to accuse the president of a crime, but that the evidence gathered by Mueller did not rise to the level of a prosecutable case, even if Trump were not the president.... Earlier this month..., [Judge Amy Berman Jackson] concluded that, rather than Barr following OLC advice, his decision and the OLC memo 'were being written by the very same people at the very same time,' working 'hand in hand to craft the advice' that the office supposedly delivered to Barr." The memo, in redacted form, via the courts, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The move to appeal the judge's ruling rather than meet a Monday deadline for release of the legal opinion puts the Biden administration in the curious position of seeking to maintain secrecy surrounding some of the most pivotal legal decisions of the Trump era.... A department spokesperson declined to comment on whether Attorney General Merrick Garland, who promised at his confirmation hearing to read the Freedom of Information Act 'generously,' had signed off on the decision. However, the move appeared to reflect an institutional decision to take some action to protect the department's internal deliberations on highly sensitive matters."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's former White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has agreed to testify behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee sometime next week about Mr. Trump's efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. Lawyers for House Democrats, the Justice Department and Mr. McGahn had tentatively struck a deal to provide the testimony earlier in May. But the scheduling was delayed for weeks while they waited to see what Mr. Trump, who was not a party to the agreement, would do. Mr. McGahn's agreement to testify -- with President Biden's permission -- was contingent upon there being no active legal challenge to his participation in the matter...."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "A federal judge unsealed nearly half a dozen files on Monday itemizing the 'principal lies' Donald Trump's since-pardoned former campaign chair Paul Manafort allegedly told special counsel Robert Mueller's team.... According to a government memo dated Dec. 7, 2018, the first of these lies involved Manafort's associate Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the Senate Intelligence Committee would later describe as a Russian intelligence operative. Both the Mueller report and the bipartisan Senate committee found that Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates 'periodically' gave Kilimnik the Trump campaign's internal polling data, even though Gates told the special prosecutor that he suspected that Kilimnik was a Russian 'spy.'... According to the Mueller report, Kilimnik had been pursuing a Ukrainian so-called 'peace plan' at least four times before and after the 2016 presidential election, and Manafort misled prosecutors about these plans.... Manafort's misdirection went beyond Kilimnik, prosecutors said. According to the unsealed memo, Manafort claimed after signing his plea agreement that he had 'no direct or indirect communication with anyone' in the Trump administration -- 'on any subject matter.' 'The evidence demonstrates that Manafort lied about his contacts,' the memo stated."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his promise that the State Department would cover the fees after Sondland delivered bombshell testimony accusing Trump and his aides of pressuring the government of Ukraine to investigate then presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid. Sondland, a Portland hotel magnate appointed by Trump to serve as ambassador, became a key witness of the impeachment probe because of his firsthand knowledge of conversations with Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and senior Ukrainian officials -- as well as his punchy answers, affable demeanor and colorful language." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Update: Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The suit accuses Pompeo of corruption: Pompeo's promise, Sondland argues, "was self-serving, made entirely for personal reasons for his own political survival in the hopes that Ambassador Sondland would not implicate him or others by his testimony": that is, the "deal" was that if Sondland testified the way Pompeo wanted him to, he would get his attorneys' fees paid as a sort of "bonus." What Pompeo wanted, of course, would require Sondland to perjure himself, which in fact he did, before he drastically modified his testimony upon learning of evidence against his fake version of events. Sondland's decision to dump the fake Trump narrative & tell a tale approximating the truth cost him the promised bonus. The offer of attorneys' fees, then, whether or not the State Department ever would pay them under any circumstances, constituted a bribe to testify falsely. This suit may be a loser, but with any luck, it will provide us with some laughs. So far, the funniest bit is that Sondland thought that -- after casting his lot with a den of corrupt politicians -- there was honor among corrupt politicians.

Tara Palmeri of Politico: "The FBI and Capitol Hill police are investigating a suspicious package containing white powder that was delivered to the home of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Monday, according to a senior adviser to the senator. A large envelope arrived at the senator's home in Kentucky and is currently being examined for harmful substances, Sergio Gor said. The sender is unknown.... Fox News reported later Monday that the outside of the envelope had a picture of a bandaged Paul with a gun pointed at his head and this quote: 'I'll finish what your neighbor started you motherf------'"

Jonny Hallam & Sharif Paget of CNN: "An American journalist working in Myanmar was detained by local authorities Monday, his family and his news organization told CNN. Danny Fenster, 37, was stopped at the Yangon airport as he tried to board a flight out of the country, his brother Bryan Fenster said. Fenster, a US citizen originally from Detroit, Michigan, works for the news site Frontier Myanmar in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. 'Frontier's managing editor, Danny Fenster, was detained at Yangon International Airport this morning shortly before he was due to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur,' the news organization said in a statement.... The news organization also said it understands Fenster has been transferred to Insein Prison near Yangon. Insein is one of the country's most notorious prisons, known for its deplorable conditions."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

** David Leonardt of the New York Times: "It is common to hear about two different demographic groups that are hesitant to receive a Covid-19 vaccination: Republican voters and racial minorities.... For Republicans, the attitude is connected to a general skepticism of government and science. For Black and Hispanic Americans, it appears to stem from the country's legacy of providing substandard medical treatment, and sometimes doing outright harm, to minorities. These ideas all have some truth to them. But they also can obscure the fact that many unvaccinated Republicans and minorities have something in common: They are working class. And there is a huge class gap in vaccination behavior.... The class divide is bigger than the racial divide."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that aims to punish social media companies for their moderation decisions, a move that Silicon Valley immediately criticized and likely sets the stage for potential legal challenges. The legislation would bar Internet companies from suspending political candidates in the run-up to elections. It also would also make it easier for the Florida state attorney general and individuals to bring lawsuits when they think the tech companies have acted unfairly. Legal experts and tech industry trade groups immediately raised concerns about the constitutionality of the law and warned that it gives the government too much power over online speech. DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender, pushed for the legislation's passage amid conservatives' complaints that tech companies censor them -- charges that the companies vehemently deny. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube's decisions to suspend ... Donald Trump's account in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have only heightened the stakes." The Hill has a story here.

Louisiana. Jim Mustian of the AP: "In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators that the Black man was still a threat to flee after he was shackled, and he denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month. New state police documents obtained by The Associated Press show numerous inconsistencies between Lt. John Clary's statements to detectives and the body camera footage he denied having. They add to growing signs of obfuscation in Greene's death, which the white troopers initially blamed on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase and is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Although I don't have enough raw evidence to justify my suspicions, it's beginning to look as if the state police officers deliberately executed Greene to prevent his recounting the torture to which they subjected him. At least some of these officers belong in jail for life. One way to cover up an atrocity is to murder the victim. Also, how did the AP get hold of bodycam footage Clary had withheld? Seems to me your average murdering scumbag would destroy evidence against him. Does the footage automatically record at a remote location?

Michigan. David Eggert of the AP: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration on Monday rescinded a rule that limits restaurant tables to no more than six people, a day after she apologized for violating the COVID-19 regulation while gathering with friends at an East Lansing bar. The Democratic governor has said tables at the Landshark Bar & Grill were pushed together as more people arrived in her party of roughly a dozen fully vaccinated people." MB: Still, "governor" is a pretty good gig: break your own rule, then rescind it. (Also linked yesterday.)

Oklahoma. Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, et al., of the New York Times: "In May 1921, the Tulsa, Okla., neighborhood of Greenwood was a fully realized antidote to the racial oppression of the time. Built in the early part of the century in a northern pocket of the city, it was a thriving community of commerce and family life to its roughly 10,000 residents. Greenwood was so promising, so vibrant that it became home to what was known as America's Black Wall Street. But what took years to build was erased in less than 24 hours by racial violence -- sending the dead into mass graves.... Hundreds of Greenwood residents were brutally killed, their homes and businesses wiped out. They were casualties of a furious and heavily armed white mob of looters and arsonists." The main features of this article are graphics that show what the mob destroyed, at least in physical terms. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Stories about Greenwood have particular meaning to me as in the 1980s, I worked in a building overlooking the neighborhood. The head of the outfit where I worked was a prominent Tulsan, and deeply enmeshed in the city's political life, so much so that he was named chairman of the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority. One day at the office, he was recounting his work on the authority and complaining about having to grant monetary awards to black businesses: "You might as well have opened the window here & thrown money down on the niggers." That guy is long dead, but I'm sure his attitude is not.

Way Beyond

Belarus. Michael Birnbaum & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Belarus on Monday was facing international isolation, with European leaders discussing measures to deal a crushing blow to the economy and the White House calling for an investigation, a day after Belarusian authorities forced down a civilian jet and pulled off a dissident journalist. Outrage mounted about the brazen move by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who on Sunday sent a MiG-29 fighter jet to snatch a Ryanair plane out of the sky as it was flying from Athens to Vilnius and arrest one of its passengers, Roman Protasevich, the founder of an opposition media outlet. Protasevich faces at least 12 years in prison. The power play set a fearsome precedent for journalists and political opponents, who must now worry about flying through the airspace of repressive regimes, even if they are moving from one free capital to another." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Sheena McKenzie & Anna Chernova of CNN: "Dissident journalist Roman Protasevich has appeared in a new video after his arrest by Belarusian authorities on Sunday, following the government's extraordinary diversion of his Ryanair flight to capital city Minsk. The video -- the first since Protasevich's arrest -- comes amid mounting fears for his safety and widespread fury over the diversion of a European commercial flight. 'The attitude of the [Interior Ministry] employees towards me has been as correct as possible and in compliance with the law,' Protasevich says in the video, which was posted Monday evening to a pro-government social media channel.... His supporters believe the video was made under duress." MB: No kidding. Rachel Maddow noted, & as the video that accompanies the story linked here shows, this is a hostage video. Protasevich's face is marked with bruises. ~~~

~~~ Caroline Kelly of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Monday lambasted Belarus' sudden grounding of a commercial flight and subsequent arrest of onboard dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich as 'a direct affront to international norms.... The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr. Pratasevich,' Biden said in a statement following the release of a new video with an appearance by Pratasevich that his supporters believe was coerced. 'This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press.'"

Iran. Michael Crowley & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Iran agreed on Monday to a one-month extension of an agreement with international inspectors that would allow them to continue monitoring the country's nuclear program, avoiding a major setback in the continuing negotiations with Tehran.... The extension prevents a new crisis that could derail talks among world powers, including the United States, aimed at bringing Washington back to the 2015 nuclear deal that ... Donald J. Trump withdrew from three years ago. Restoring the deal, including a commitment from Iran to resume all its obligations under the agreement, is a top priority for President Biden."

The Commentariat -- May 24, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Juliet Eilperin & Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "President Biden will announce Monday afternoon that he's doubling the amount of money the U.S. government will spend helping communities prepare for extreme weather events, while launching a new effort at NASA to collect more sophisticated climate data. While the $1 billion in funding is a fraction of what taxpayers spend each year on disasters, it underscores a broader effort to account for the damage wrought by climate change and curb it. Last week the president signed an executive order instructing federal agencies to identify and disclose the perils a warming world poses to federal programs, assets and liabilities, while also requiring federal suppliers to reveal their own climate-related risks."

Uh, Bon Chance, Tony. Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East on Monday to press the Israelis, Palestinians and regional players to build on and strengthen last week's Gaza cease-fire, start an immediate flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and lay the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks. President Joe Biden announced that he was dispatching Blinken to the region for what will be his administration's highest-level, in-person talks on the crisis that erupted earlier this month. The State Department said Blinken will visit Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt on a trip that comes as the administration has faced broad criticism for its initial response to the deadly violence."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his promise that the State Department would cover the fees after Sondland delivered bombshell testimony accusing Trump and his aides of pressuring the government of Ukraine to investigate then presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid. Sondland, a Portland hotel magnate appointed by Trump to serve as ambassador, became a key witness of the impeachment probe because of his firsthand knowledge of conversations with Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and senior Ukrainian officials -- as well as his punchy answers, affable demeanor and colorful language." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Update: Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The suit accuses Pompeo of corruption: Pompeo's promise, Sondland argues, "was self-serving, made entirely for personal reasons for his own political survival in the hopes that Ambassador Sondland would not implicate him or others by his testimony": that is, the "deal" was that if Sondland testified the way Pompeo wanted him to, he would get his attorneys' fees paid as a sort of "bonus." Pompeo, of course, would require Sondland to perjure himself, which in fact he did, before he drastically modified his testimony upon learning of evidence against his fake version of events. Sondland's decision to dump the fake Trump narrative & tell a tale approximating the truth cost him the promised bonus. The offer of attorneys' fees, then, whether or not the State Department ever would pay them under any circumstances, constituted a bribe to testify falsely. This suit may be a loser, but with any luck, it will provide us with some laughs. So far, the funniest bit is that Sondland thought that -- after casting his lot with a den of corrupt politicians -- there was honor among corrupt politicians.

Michigan. David Eggert of the AP: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration on Monday rescinded a rule that limits restaurant tables to no more than six people, a day after she apologized for violating the COVID-19 regulation while gathering with friends at an East Lansing bar. The Democratic governor has said tables at the Landshark Bar & Grill were pushed together as more people arrived in her party of roughly a dozen fully vaccinated people." MB: Still, "governor" is a pretty good gig: break your own rule, then rescind it.

Michael Birnbaum & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Belarus on Monday was facing international isolation, with European leaders discussing measures to deal a crushing blow to the economy and the White House calling for an investigation, a day after Belarusian authorities forced down a civilian jet and pulled off a dissident journalist. Outrage mounted about the brazen move by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who on Sunday sent a MiG-29 fighter jet to snatch a Ryanair plane out of the sky as it was flying from Athens to Vilnius and arrest one of its passengers, Roman Protasevich, the founder of an opposition media outlet. Protasevich faces at least 12 years in prison. The power play set a fearsome precedent for journalists and political opponents, who must now worry about flying through the airspace of repressive regimes, even if they are moving from one free capital to another." CNN's story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Devan Cole of CNN: "White House senior adviser Cedric Richmond said Sunday that President Joe Biden will 'change course' on his massive infrastructure bill if inaction on the costly proposal seems inevitable. 'He wants a deal. He wants it soon, but if there's meaningful negotiations taking place in a bipartisan manner, he's willing to let that play out. But again, he will not let inaction be the answer. And when he gets to the point where it looks like that is inevitable, you'll see him change course," Richmond told CNN's Dana Bash...." ~~~

~~~ Hannah Maio of CNBC: "A group of Republican and Democratic senators unveiled a transportation package over the weekend that would increase funding for highways, roads and bridges as Congress searches for bipartisan paths to repair the nation's infrastructure. The legislation, released by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, would increase funding by 34% to a baseline of about $300 billion over five years. The previous authorization expired in 2020 and Congress passed a one-year extension which is up in September.... The bipartisan proposal is backed by committee chair Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del., [and ranking member Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.,] as well as the chair and ranking members of the transportation subcommittee, Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Kevin Cramer, R-.N.D." MB: This is just a portion of President Biden's much broader infrastructure bill.

Anita Kumar of Politico: "Conservative groups have launched a campaign of TV ads, social media messages and emails to supporters criticizing [President Biden's] proposal to hire nearly 87,000 new IRS workers over the next decade to collect money from tax cheats. They accuse the Biden administration of pushing for the IRS expansion as a way to raise taxes, increase dues paid to left-leaning unions, and increase oversight on political organizations.... Biden and fellow Democrats have held out hope that the $80 billion proposal to crack down on tax evasion by high-earners and large corporations could be an area of agreement between the two parties, even if the GOP is skeptical about the amount it could raise." MB: This latest lie designed to help the rich is being organized by "Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence and founder of the new group Coalition to Protect American Workers."

Michelle Cottle of the New York Times: "... Kevin McCarthy, the House Republican leader, is frequently derided as a weak, hollow, craven, opportunistic, transactional, nakedly ambitious political animal with no core principles.... Mr. McCarthy has long done whatever it takes to get what he wants. And what he really, really wants now is the speaker's gavel.... If Mitch McConnell, the ruthless, calculating Senate Republican leader, is a shark, Mr. McCarthy is a jellyfish, carried spinelessly along by the political currents. But these days, such inchoate non-leadership is the best that House Republicans can hope for. In fact, that's what they demand.... If anyone can manage the necessary mix of political nihilism and constant self-abasement, it will be Kevin McCarthy."

Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "Washington's Metropolitan police department recorded threats to lawmakers and public facilities in the wake of the 6 January attack on the Capitol, according to documents made public in a ransomware hack on their systems this month. The documents also show how, in the month following the Capitol attack, police stepped up surveillance efforts ... for signs of another attack by far-right groups on targets in the capital, including events surrounding the inauguration of Joe Biden as president. The revelation of the seriousness of the threats comes amid Republican opposition to forming a 9/11-style commission to investigate the January attack, which saw the Capitol roamed by looting mobs hunting for politicians and involved the deaths of five people. The police documents were stolen and published by the ransomware attack group Babuk, and some were redistributed by the transparency organization Distributed Denial of Secrets...."

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: Right-wing WashPo columnist George Will "appeared on ABC News' 'This Week,' where he told the roundtable participants that the bipartisan commission to investigate the causes of the deadly riot was controversial among Republicans for one reason. 'We have something new in American history,' Will said. 'We have a political party defined by the terror it feels for its own voters. That's the Republican Party right now.'... Every elected official is ... afraid that a vote for this would be seen as an insult to the 45th president.... I would like to see January 6th burned into the American mind as firmly as 9/11 because it was that scale of a shock to the system.'...'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Harwood of CNN: In 2012, Tom Mann & Norm Ornstein wrote a Washington Post op-ed which concluded "that the GOP had become 'ideologically extreme, scornful of compromise, unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science, dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition.... "Let's just say it: The Republicans are the problem.'... [The essay] did not gain wide acceptance then. Many journalists joined leading Republicans in dismissing them.... [But] piece demonstrates more than the foresight of its political scientist authors.... It shows the disease within the Republican Party had spread long before Trump metastasized it." MB: Of course the Constant Weader linked the op-ed here. I don't think it surprised any Reality Chex readers. The only thing about it that surprised me is that Mann & Ornstein had the guts to write it, especially in the heyday of both-sider "journalism." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zach Montellaro of Politico: "Republicans who sought to undercut or overturn President Joe Biden's election win are launching campaigns to become their states' top election officials next year, alarming local officeholders and opponents who are warning about pro-Trump, 'ends justify the means' candidates taking big roles in running the vote. The candidates include Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, a leader of the congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College results; Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, one of the top proponents of the conspiracy-tinged vote audit in Arizona's largest county; Nevada's Jim Marchant, who sued to have his 5-point congressional loss last year overturned; and Michigan's Kristina Karamo, who made dozens of appearances in conservative media to claim fraud in the election. Now, they are running for secretary of state in key battlegrounds that could decide control of Congress in 2022 -- and who wins the White House in 2024.... The campaigns set up the possibility that politicians who have taken steps to undermine faith in the American democratic system could soon be the ones running it."

Goodbye to All That. After decades of being at the center of Washington, D.C., society, Sally Quinn writes in the Washington Post's magazine: "I don't think Washington's social scene after Trump and covid will ever be the same. We almost lost our democracy, and many even lost their lives. If nothing else, what we've been through surely focused the mind on what is important." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Harry Enten of CNN: "... the vaccination rates by state show us that even the race to protect people from the coronavirus has fallen along familiar political lines. Take a look at the states that are leading the way for adults (18 years or older) with at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccines, as of Thursday's CDC report. Of the top 25 states in terms of percentage vaccinated, President Joe Biden won 21 of them in the 2020 election. Just four of the top 25 states for vaccination were won by ... Donald Trump last election. Trump won 21 of the bottom 25 for vaccinations. This includes 16 of the bottom 17 states.... The correlation between vaccination rates and the 2020 election outcome by state has only strengthened over time, as supplies have overtaken demand.... Aall of the top 20 [states went for Biden]." MB: That's because a lot of Republicans are like this self-certified ophthalmologist & obnoxious know-it-all from Kentucky: ~~~

~~~ Allan Smith of NBC News: "Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said Sunday that he is not getting vaccinated because he has already had Covid-19. Speaking with a conservative host on WABC radio in New York, Paul, an ophthalmologist, said he won't change his mind unless 'they show me evidence that people who have already had the infection are dying in large numbers or being hospitalized or getting very sick.'... The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people who have been infected still get vaccinated because experts are not certain how long natural immunity lasts." MB: IOW, too bad for anybody I might infect. Chuck Schumer should not allow Li'l Randy onto the Senate floor. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I can't say I learned nothing from Li'l Randy. I can almost spell "ophthalmologist" without looking it up now.

China. Natasha Bertrand, et al., of CNN: "A US intelligence report found that several researchers at China's Wuhan Institute of Virology fell ill in November 2019 and had to be hospitalized, a new detail about the severity of their symptoms that could fuel further debate about the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, according to two people briefed on the intelligence. A State Department fact sheet released by the Trump administration in January said that the researchers had gotten sick in autumn 2019 but did not go as far as to say they had been hospitalized. China reported to the World Health Organization that the first patient with Covid-like symptoms was recorded in Wuhan on December 8, 2019.... Importantly, the intelligence community still does not know what the researchers were actually sick with, said the people briefed, and continues to have low confidence in its assessments of the virus' precise origins beyond the fact that it came from China."

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota. Mohamed Ibrahim of the AP: "Members of George Floyd's family, and others who lost loved ones to police encounters, joined activists and citizens in Minneapolis on Sunday for a march that was one of several events planned nationwide to mark the one-year anniversary of Floyd's death. Hundreds of people gathered for the rally in front of the courthouse in downtown Minneapolis where the Chauvin trial concluded a month ago, many carrying signs with pictures of Floyd, Philando Castile and other Black men killed by police."

Texas. Alexa Ura, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "The number of Election Day polling places in largely Democratic parts of major Texas counties would fall dramatically under a Republican proposal to change how Texas polling sites are distributed, a Texas Tribune analysis shows. Voting options would be curtailed most in areas with higher shares of voters of color. Relocating polling sites is part of the GOP's priority voting bill -- Senate Bill 7 -- as it was passed in the Texas Senate. It would create a new formula for setting polling places in the handful of mostly Democratic counties with a population of 1 million or more. Although the provision was removed from the bill when passed in the House, it remains on the table as a conference committee of lawmakers begins hammering out a final version of the bill behind closed doors."

Way Beyond

Belarus. Anton Troianovski & Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "The strongman president of Belarus sent a fighter jet to intercept a European airliner traveling through the country's airspace on Sunday and ordered the plane to land in the capital, Minsk, where [Roman Protasevicha,] a prominent opposition journalist aboard was then seized, provoking international outrage. The stunning gambit by Aleksandr G. Lukashenko, a brutal and erratic leader who has clung to power despite huge protests against his government last year, was condemned by European officials, who compared it to hijacking. But it underscored that with the support of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, Mr. Lukashenko is prepared to go to extraordinary lengths to repress dissent." The AP's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

 ~~~ David Cohen of Politico: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday condemned Belarus for forcing down a civilian airliner over its airspace in order to arrest a dissident on the flight. Faking a bomb threat, Belarus used fighter aircraft to force down a Ryanair flight and arrest journalist Raman Pratasevich."

Samoa. Michael Miller of the Washington Post: "The first woman elected prime minister of Samoa showed up for her swearing-in ceremony on Monday to find her opponents had locked the doors to prevent her from taking office. Fiame Naomi Mata'afa and her followers pitched a tent on the statehouse lawn, where she took the oath of office instead. The bizarre scenes capped six weeks of election turmoil that escalated into a constitutional crisis over the weekend as Mata'afa's fierce rival refused to cede power. 'This is an illegal takeover of government,' Mata'afa said Sunday of the efforts to keep her from office. 'Because it's a bloodless coup, people aren't so concerned or disturbed by it.'&" MB: I'm surprised Trump didn't just lock the White House doors (and I'm only half-kidding).

U.K. Edna Mohamed of the Guardian: "The Black Lives Matter activist Sasha Johnson is in a critical condition after sustaining a gunshot wound to her head in an incident in south London, her affiliated group, Taking the Initiative party, has announced on social media. In a statement on the group's Facebook page, the party said the incident happened in the early hours of Sunday and followed 'numerous death threats'. A Met police statement said there was nothing to suggest that it had been a targeted attack."