The Commentariat -- May 23, 2021

Afternoon Update:

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.'...'"

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.

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."

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 Washingtons 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."

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Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Saturday extended special protections to Haitians living temporarily in the United States after being displaced by a devastating 2010 earthquake, reversing efforts by the previous administration to force them to leave the country. The decision, announced by the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, makes good on President Biden's campaign promise to restore a program that shields thousands of Haitian migrants from the threat of deportation under the restrictive policies put in place under ... Donald J. Trump. Mr. Mayorkas said the new 18-month designation, known as temporary protected status, would apply to Haitians already living in the United States as of Friday." The BuzzFeed News story is here.

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is being widely lambasted for comparing the continuing coronavirus restrictions in the U.S. Capitol to what Jewish people suffered during the Holocaust.... Some of the most pointed pushback came from the minority of voices in Greene's own party. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) ... decried Greene's comparison as 'evil lunacy.'... The American Jewish Congress called on Greene to immediately retract her comments and apologize. 'You can never compare health-related restrictions with yellow stars, gas chambers & other Nazi atrocities,' the group stated. 'Such comparisons demean the Holocaust & contaminate American political speech.'... [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi has defended her decision to keep a mask mandate on the House floor by citing the relatively large number of Republican lawmakers who either have refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or who do not want to disclose that they had been vaccinated. A CNN survey last week found that 100 percent of House Democrats have received their vaccines, but only 95 out of 212 House Republicans said they had." MB: That is, everyone has to wear masks in the House -- because of Republicans, not Pelosi.

~~~ Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) doubled down on her controversial comments comparing Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to the Nazis because of her mask rules for the House, telling a local Arizona reporter that she had said nothing wrong, and 'any rational Jewish person['] should also oppose 'what's happening with overbearing mask mandates.'"

Bad News All Around for Trumpists:

Joshua Zitser of Yahoo! News: "US authorities have confiscated roughly $90,000 from a man who sold footage of a protester being fatally shot during the January 6 storming of the Capitol, according to court filings seen by Reuters. John Earle Sullivan, a 26-year-old from Utah, recorded videos capturing the chaos of the Capitol riot, Reuters said. He claims to have been there as a 'documentarian' but now faces a total of eight criminal counts relating to his involvement in the insurrection, Insider previously reported. One of the videos he recorded, which included the shooting of Ashli Babbitt by a police officer, was sold to several unnamed news outlets for a total of $90,000, according to a seizure warrant seen by the news agency. Sullivan licensed parts of the video footage to the Washington Post and NBC, The New Yorker reported in February."

The following story should shatter some Trump-loving QAnon enthusiasts: ~~~

~~~ Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "Police intelligence documents show that Washington's Trump Hotel raised its rates 'as a security tactic', in the hope of deterring Trump-supporting QAnon supporters from staying there in early March, on a day which some believed would see Trump restored to office. The information, which police gleaned from a Business Insider version of a story published in Forbes on 6 February, was confirmed in an 8 February intelligence briefing stolen by ransomware hackers from Washington's Metropolitan police department (MPD). The hackers from the Babuk group subsequently published those documents online, and transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets redistributed them to news outlets.... As Forbes reported in February, Trump International hotel in Washington raised its rates to 180% of the normal seasonal charge for 3 and 4 March this year. That was a date upon which some adherents to the QAnon conspiracy movement believed would see Trump once again sworn in as president...." MB: Seems Trump doesn't love you back, kids.

Oh Lordy, let this be the last time we even think of accessing Santorum.com. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "CNN has terminated its contract with senior political commentator Rick Santorum after racist, inaccurate remarks he made about Native Americans.... Santorum, a former Republican senator and two-time failed GOP presidential candidate, sparked outrage last month after claiming there was 'nothing' in America before white colonizers arrived and that Native people haven't contributed much to American culture, anyway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post story is here.

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Senior Donald Trump advisor Jason Miller has been ordered to pay Gizmodo Media Group $41,868.23 following a failed defamation lawsuit. Miller had sued Gizmodo over a 2018 story by Splinter News, which is owned by the company, over a 2018 story titled, 'Court Docs Allege Ex-Trump Staffer Drugged Woman He Got Pregnant With 'Abortion Pill.'... Splinter quoted directly from the legal filing." MB: Don't worry, Jason, your billionaire boss will gladly pay your legal fees. Ha ha.

Climate Change Is a Hoax. Claire Fahy of the New York Times: "An iceberg nearly half the size of Puerto Rico that broke off the edge of Antarctica last week is now the world's largest, researchers said. The iceberg, known as A76, following a naming convention established by the National Ice Center, naturally split from Antarctica's Ronne Ice Shelf into the Weddell Sea through a process known as calving, the center said. It measures about 1,668 square miles (4,320 square kilometers), making it larger than A23a, an iceberg that formed in 1986 and had a total area of more than 1,500 square miles (4,000 square kilometers) in January."

Damien Cave, et al., of the New York Times: "All over the world, countries are confronting population stagnation and a fertility bust, a dizzying reversal unmatched in recorded history.... The demographic forces -- pushing toward more deaths than births -- seem to be expanding and accelerating. Though some countries continue to see their populations grow, especially in Africa, fertility rates are falling nearly everywhere else.... A planet with fewer people could ease pressure on resources, slow the destructive impact of climate change and reduce household burdens for women. But the census announcements this month from China and the United States, which showed the slowest rates of population growth in decades for both countries, also point to hard-to-fathom adjustments."

Steven Johnson of the New York Times: "... during the century since the end of the Great Influenza outbreak, the average human life span has doubled. There are few measures of human progress more astonishing than this.... When the history textbooks do touch on the subject of improving health, they often nod to three critical breakthroughs, all of them presented as triumphs of the scientific method: vaccines, germ theory and antibiotics. But the real story is far more complicated. Those breakthroughs might have been initiated by scientists, but it took the work of activists and public intellectuals and legal reformers to bring their benefits to everyday people."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Lenny Bernstein & Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "For the first time in 11 months, the daily average of new coronavirus infections in the United States has fallen below 30,000 amid continuing signs that most communities across the nation are emerging from the worst of the pandemic.... The pandemic map remains speckled with hot spots, including parts of the Deep South, the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest. At the local level, progress against the contagion has not been uniform as some communities struggle with inequities in vaccine distribution and in the health impacts of the virus."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "Vaccinations in many American prisons, jails and detention centers are lagging far behind the United States as a whole, prompting public health officials to worry that these settings will remain fertile ground for frequent, fast-spreading coronavirus outbreaks for a long time to come. Nationally, more than 60 percent of people ages 18 or older have received at least one dose of vaccine so far. But only about 40 percent of federal prison inmates, and half of those in the largest state prison systems, have done so. And in immigration detention centers, the figure is just 20 percent.... Many inmates say they mistrust both the vaccine and the prison authorities who try to persuade them to get inoculated. Beyond that, some prison vaccination efforts have been hampered by mistakes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

New York Times Editors: "No reasonable officer could make the case that [George] Floyd's killing was justified. Yet thanks to a half-century-old judge-made doctrine, they don't have to. The doctrine, known as qualified immunity, has developed over the years into an impenetrable barrier to relief for many victims of police brutality -- or, as in the case of Mr. Floyd, for victims' families.... In a series of rulings starting in the late 1960s, the Supreme Court decided that an officer is immune from liability unless it can be shown that he or she broke 'clearly established' law in the process. The burden is on the plaintiff to make this showing, and the bar is absurdly high.... In practice, qualified immunity has become what Justice Sonia Sotomayor has called an 'absolute shield' that 'tells officers that they can shoot first and think later, and it tells the public that palpably unreasonable conduct will go unpunished.'... Ending qualified immunity has become ... a bipartisan effort.... The Supreme Court started this mess, and it could just as easily end it."

Louisiana. Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Two years after Ronald Greene, a 49-year-old Black man, died after a confrontation with white police officers in May 2019, the Louisiana police department released footage of the incident.... Footage released by the police on Friday was similar to the video released by the Associated Press this past week, which showed inconsistencies with the police's claim that Greene had died from a car crash.... Two investigations, an internal inquiry from Louisiana police and a federal civil rights investigation, began at the end of last summer -- over a year after Greene's death. Greene's family has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the officers involved. Citing these investigations, police refused to release footage until Friday. Col Lamar Davis, the state police superintendent..., said he intends to fire one of the state troopers involved, according to the Advocate. A second trooper died in a car crash last year, shortly after he was informed of his imminent termination. A third officer received a 50-hour suspension."

Minnesota. Paulina Villegas of the Washington Post: "A federal court judge on Friday sentenced a former St. Paul, Minn., police officer to six years in prison after a jury found him guilty of a civil rights violation for beating an unarmed Black man who was mistaken for a suspect nearly five years ago. A federal jury in 2019 convicted former St. Paul officer Brett Palkowitsch of using excessive force against an unarmed civilian after he brutally kicked and severely injured Frank Amal Baker and let a police dog maul him.

News Ledes

New York Times:"Twenty-one people, including two of China's top marathon athletes, died after freezing rain and high winds struck a 62-mile mountain race in northwestern China, local officials said on Sunday. Liang Jing, 31, an ultramarathon champion, and Huang Guanjun, the winner of the men's marathon for hearing-impaired runners at China's 2019 National Paralympic Games, were among those found dead, according to state news media. The deaths prompted outrage in China, with online commentators questioning the preparedness of the local government that organized the race...."

Washington Post: "Fifteen people have died in a volcano eruption in Congo late Saturday that turned the sky above a fearsome red and sent thousands fleeing from a city that was devastated by lava flows in 1977 and 2002. Government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said on Sunday night that two people had burned to death in the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo, nine died in a traffic accident while attempting to flee and four prisoners who had tried to escape their cells were also killed. He said property damage was reported in 17 villages surrounding the volcano, including Goma's suburbs."

The Commentariat -- May 22, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Oh Lordy, let this be the last time we even think of accessing Santorum.com. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "CNN has terminated its contract with senior political commentator Rick Santorum after racist, inaccurate remarks he made about Native Americans.... Santorum, a former Republican senator and two-time failed GOP presidential candidate, sparked outrage last month after claiming there was 'nothing' in America before white colonizers arrived and that Native people haven't contributed much to American culture, anyway."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "Vaccinations in many American prisons, jails and detention centers are lagging far behind the United States as a whole, prompting public health officials to worry that these settings will remain fertile ground for frequent, fast-spreading coronavirus outbreaks for a long time to come. Nationally, more than 60 percent of people ages 18 or older have received at least one dose of vaccine so far. But only about 40 percent of federal prison inmates, and half of those in the largest state prison systems, have done so. And in immigration detention centers, the figure is just 20 percent.... Many inmates say they mistrust both the vaccine and the prison authorities who try to persuade them to get inoculated. Beyond that, some prison vaccination efforts have been hampered by mistakes."

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Ben Leonard of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Friday delivered a thinly veiled swipe at ... Donald Trump for giving Kim Jong Un 'all that he's looking for' in the previous administration's dealings with North Korea. Speaking at a White House press conference alongside South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Biden said any meeting with the reclusive North Korean leader would come with preconditions, including setting parameters for further discussions on North Korea's nuclear arsenal and deescalation. 'What I would not do is ... do what had been done in the recent past,' Biden said. 'I would not give him all that he's looking for, international recognition as legitimate and ... give them what allowed him to move in a direction of appearing to be more ... serious about what he wasn't at all serious about.'... Biden also announced Friday that he was appointing Sung Kim to be a special envoy to North Korea.... In the press conference, Biden also pledged some 550,000 South Korean soldiers who are in 'close contact' with American military members would get Covid-19 vaccinations."

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "A retired Army officer became one of the most decorated soldiers in U.S. military history on Friday, receiving the Medal of Honor from President Biden at the White House more than 70 years after leading soldiers through a fierce attack during the Korean War. Col. Ralph Puckett Jr., 94, stood in a dress uniform as Biden draped the medal around his neck. He had entered the ceremony in a wheelchair, and a walker was nearby, but set both aside to receive the nation's highest award for valor in combat. Biden, awarding his first Medal of Honor as president, recounted how Puckett braved enemy fire repeatedly as his soldiers took control of Hill 205, frozen high ground about 60 miles from the Chinese border.... South Korean President Moon Jae-in was among the dignitaries attending, becoming what is believed to be the first head of state to attend a Medal of Honor ceremony." White House video of the ceremony is here.

He Did It His Way. David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "One outcome of the [Israeli] war is that the United States is back as a mediator in the 'peace process' business. [President] Biden put it simply in a statement on Thursday announcing the cease-fire: 'I believe the Palestinians and Israelis equally deserve to live safely and securely and to enjoy equal measures of freedom, prosperity and democracy.' He characterized his approach as 'quiet and relentless diplomacy.'... [Biden] seemed this week to have learned something from his sometimes overeager predecessors, operating mostly in private and resisting demands for bluster."

Biden Posts "Help Wanted" Signs. Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... a $1.5 trillion preliminary budget the White House released in April ... directs billions of dollars into hiring to help curb climate change, restore enforcement of environmental and workplace laws, and expand safety net programs in housing, education, public health and veterans' health. President Biden vowed during his campaign to restore faith in a federal bureaucracy his predecessor villainized as an unaccountable 'deep state' -- and with debate stirring in Congress on $6 trillion in spending proposed by the White House, that shift now involves persuading Americans to embrace a bigger government.... Even in just a single term, Trump succeeded in his goal of cleaving and disrupting the federal government. Some programs that are crucial to Biden's agenda are so short-staffed that his administration can't yet fully implement his policies, among them enforcement of fair-housing and workplace safety laws. A number of decisions by the Trump administration, including the relocation of key economic research and land management offices, are proving hard to reverse."

Jim Acosta of CNN: "A top aide to Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida says he spoke with both the Capitol Police and the FBI on the morning of January 6 after overhearing a man in tactical gear talk about storming the FBI building just hours before the deadly insurrection. Alex Ferro, chief of staff to the Florida GOP congressman, says he heard the comments as he and Gimenez were standing inside the lobby of the Hyatt Regency near Capitol Hill."

David Fahrenthold & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump charged the Secret Service more than $40,000 this spring for rooms that Trump's own protective detail used while guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to federal spending records.... While he was president, Trump's properties charged the U.S. government more than $2.5 million, often so that Secret Service agents could use rooms near him.... Trump's decision to charge the Secret Service rent appears unusual -- both for a sitting president and now for a former one.... The closest parallel to Trump was ... Joe Biden. While he was protected as vice president, Biden charged the Secret Service $2,200 per month to use a cottage on his property in Delaware. In total, Biden received $171,600 between 2011 and 2017. Biden has not charged the Secret Service rent since becoming president in January, a White House spokesman said. Historians said they were surprised Trump was still charging the Secret Service, considering that ex-presidents are entitled to an array of other taxpayer-funded benefits, including paid staff and a $219,000-per-year pension." (Also linked yesterday.)

Barbara McQuade in a USA Today op-ed: "New York Attorney General Letitia James's investigation into the Trump Organization ... is no longer 'purely civil' but is also being conducted in 'a criminal capacity,' and she is now working along with Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.... Tuesday's news ... is a game changer for Trump and his business.... First, launching a criminal investigation indicates that James has found factual predication of criminal intent.... Second, announcing that the investigation is criminal in nature suggests that James's office believes they have evidence sufficient to meet that higher standard [of proof required in criminal cases]. And finally..., a criminal case ... can result not only in fines and restitution for the corporate entity, but also prison sentences for individuals involved in wrongdoing.... These business frauds are the ones that should concern Trump the most. That's because they are what prosecutors refer to as 'paper' cases, meaning they are built not on eyewitness testimony but on documents."

Steve Beynon of Military.com: Ted Cruz's complaint about the "woke" U.S. military -- as compared to masculine Russian army -- "were met with scorn from many in the military and veteran community. Some bashed him for seeming to attack a female soldier even as the Defense Department faces a pervasive sexual assault crisis and tries to make the military more welcoming to women.... Cruz and other Republicans have made recent efforts to turn military issues into a cultural fight. Last month, he wrote a letter to the Pentagon slamming the military for 'being mobilized against the speech of American citizens or in the service of left wing political causes.'"

Margie Takes the GOP's Whiney "Culture" to a New Low. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, during an interview on a conservative podcast this week, compared House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to continue to require members of the House to wear masks on the chamber floor to steps the Nazis took to control the Jewish population during the Holocaust. Greene, in a conversation with the Christian Broadcasting Network's David Brody..., attacked Pelosi and accused her of being a hypocrite for asking GOP members to prove they have all been vaccinated before allowing members to be in the House chamber without a mask. 'You know, we can look back at a time in history where people were told to wear a gold star, and they were definitely treated like second class citizens, so much so that they were put in trains and taken to gas chambers in Nazi Germany,' Greene said. 'And this is exactly the type of abuse that Nancy Pelosi is talking about.' Jewish groups were quick to condemn Greene's remarks."

Paula Reid, et al., of CNN: "Federal authorities investigating alleged sex trafficking by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz have secured the cooperation of the congressman's ex-girlfriend, according to people familiar with the matter. The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, is seen as a critical witness, as she has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017, a period of time that has emerged as a key window of scrutiny for investigators. She can also help investigators understand the relevance of hundreds of transactions they have obtained records of, including those involving alleged payments for sex, the sources said."

Knocking Up a 14-Year-Old Is Totally "Romeo & Juliet." Michael Cummo of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle: "U.S. House candidate Anthony Bouchard [R] had a relationship with and impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, he told the Star-Tribune late Thursday, hours after he disclosed the relationship in a Facebook Live video to his supporters. Bouchard, who did not specify the girl's age in the video, said he went public with the information to get ahead of the story after learning that people were investigating it in opposition to his candidacy. A Wyoming state senator since 2017, Bouchard has risen in prominence since announcing he would challenge Rep. Liz Cheney following her vote to impeach ... Donald Trump. 'So, bottom line, it's a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,' he said in the Facebook Live video. 'You've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story.'" MB: The star-crossed lovers married in Florida and divorced three years later. The young woman committed suicide at age 20. No Romeo in sight. Have at it, Will Shakespeare. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ John Amato of Crooks & Liars: "This repugnant man [Bouchard] has the audacity to claim that his history is being used in dirty politics and the media swamp to undermine his candidacy.... Statutory rape is apparently now part of the GOP platform."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Folkenflik of NPR: "The New York-based hedge fund Alden Global Capital -- known for slashing its newspapers' budgets to extract escalated profits -- won shareholder approval Friday for its $633 million bid to acquire the Tribune Publishing newspaper chain. The purchase represents the culmination of Alden's years-long drive to take over the company and its storied titles -- including the Chicago Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, New York Daily News and major metro papers from Hartford, Conn., to Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Alden's reputation as a 'vulture' fund had set off a frantic effort by union members in Tribune Publishing newsrooms." ~~~

~~~ If You're So Rich, Why Don't You Own a Newspaper? Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "It didn't have to turn out this way. Local investors -- especially in a prosperous town like Chicago -- could have stepped forward to block a hedge fund from gaining control of several of the nation's top daily newspapers.... this outcome[, said Ann Marie Lipinski, curator of Harvard's Nieman Foundation and a former top editor of the Chicago Tribune] 'represents a failure of civic leadership' in many communities, but particularly Chicago.... 'We're slowly replacing a functional press with PR spam, hedge fund dudebros, trolling substack opinion columnists, foreign and domestic disinformation, brand-slathered teen influencers, and hugely consolidated dumpster fires like Sinclair Broadcasting,' tweeted the tech journalist Karl Bode...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What Sullivan doesn't say is that local moguls prefer sports vanity projects. They don't invest in journalists; they prefer to bask in their glory in plush, hermetically-sealed box seats at football & baseball games. (These "prestige" boxes, BTW, are usually partially paid for with local tax dollars.) Another reason I despise professional sports.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "Deaths from Covid-19 and Covid-related causes are likely to be two to three times the number that countries have recorded in their official data, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Some six to eight million people may have now died from Covid-19 or its effects since the start of the pandemic, compared with 3.4 million deaths recorded in countries' official reporting, Dr. Samira Asma, assistant director of the W.H.O.'s data division, told reporters." (Also linked yesterday.)

Another Reason to Get Vaccinated: It's Way Cheaper to Stay Healthy. Sarah Kliff of the New York Times: "Americans with other serious illnesses regularly face exorbitant and confusing bills after treatment, but things were supposed to be different for coronavirus patients. Many large health plans wrote special rules, waiving co-payments and deductibles for coronavirus hospitalizations. When doctors and hospitals accepted bailout funds, Congress barred them from 'balance-billing' patients -- the practice of seeking additional payment beyond what the insurer has paid. Interviews with more than a dozen patients suggest those efforts have fallen short. Some with private insurance are bearing the costs of their coronavirus treatments, and the bills can stretch into the tens of thousands of dollars."

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "Billions of dollars in Covid aid cushioned financial losses caused by the pandemic at some of the nation's largest hospital chains. But those bailouts also helped sustain the big chains' spending sprees as they expanded even more by scooping up weakened competitors and doctors' practices. More consolidation by several major hospital systems enhanced their market prowess in many regions of the United States, even as rural hospitals and underserved communities were overwhelmed with Covid patients and struggled to stay afloat. The buying spree is likely to prompt further debate and scrutiny of the Provider Relief Fund, a package of $178 billion in congressional aid that drew sharp criticism early on for allocating so much to the wealthiest hospital systems, and that had no limits on mergers and acquisitions. The Biden administration is now weighing which hospitals and health providers will get the remaining $25 billion."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A Georgia state judge on Friday ordered Fulton County to allow a group of local voters to inspect all 147,000 mail-in ballots cast in the 2020 election in response to a lawsuit alleging that officials accepted thousands of counterfeit ballots.... Superior Court Judge Brian Amero ruled on Friday that the nine plaintiffs and their experts could examine copies of the ballots but never touch the originals, which will remain in the possession of Fulton election officials.... The decision marks the latest instance of a local government being forced to undergo a third-party inspection of its election practices amid baseless accusations promoted by ... Donald Trump that fraud flipped the 2020 contest for President Biden."

New York. Michael Balsamo of the AP: "The two Bureau of Prisons workers tasked with guarding Jeffrey Epstein the night he killed himself in a New York jail have admitted they falsified records, but they will skirt any time behind bars under a deal with federal prosecutors, authorities said Friday.... [They] would instead be subjected to supervised release, would be required to complete 100 hours of community service and would be required to fully cooperate with an ongoing probe by the Justice Department's inspector general, it says."

Ore-Ida Potatoheads, Ctd. I'd Rather Be in Idaho. Kirk Johnson of the New York Times: "A majority of residents in five eastern [Oregon] counties said in nonbinding votes that they would like to leave Oregon and join with their more like-minded conservative neighbors further east in Idaho.... Voters in two other counties, Union and Jefferson, voted last fall to address the question of a border change, a process that will begin with public meetings in the counties, with one set for June.... The odds against success are long. Oregon's Legislature, which is dominated by Democrats, who also control every statewide office, would have to go along with it, as would Idaho's Republican-dominated Legislature -- not to mention the U.S. Congress." ~~~

~~~ Because Bundy for Governor! Audrey Dutton of the Idaho Capital Sun: "He's banned from the Idaho Capitol building, but that didn't stop Ammon Bundy from taking the first step toward running for Idaho governor. Bundy, who lives in Emmett, filed paperwork Friday to appoint a treasurer to a campaign for governor. The anti-government activist appeared to have appointed himself as treasurer, but according to a Secretary of State Office tweet, a treasurer must be a registered Idaho voter. According to the office, Bundy will either need to become a registered voter and refile the paperwork or name a new treasurer and refile.... During the past year, police arrested Bundy multiple times in Boise, with most of those arrests occurring at the Idaho Capitol. He was handcuffed and wheeled out of the Capitol on an office chair after refusing to leave in August. He was banned from the building for a year, but returned, which led to arrests for trespassing. Bundy returned again last month and was arrested twice in one day."

Way Beyond

Israel. Shira Rubin, et al., of the Washington Post: "As a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas militants held into Friday evening, attention shifted from the 11-day conflict to the dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip, potential political fallout for Israel's embattled prime minister and renewed tensions in Jerusalem.... As bulldozers pushed sand into shell and missile craters, some Gazans returned to their devastated neighborhoods for the first time since the start of the confrontation. They assessed the destruction while celebrating what many characterized as a victory of endurance over a more powerful foe.... Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said 'riots' broke out Friday afternoon, following prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, involving hundreds of Palestinians who 'threw rocks and petrol bombs at police officers.' He said they were then dispersed by Israeli police and that 16 of the demonstrators were arrested."

U.K. Doha Madani of NBC News: "Princes William and Harry pressed for higher standards in the news media following a BBC investigation that found the journalist Martin Bashir used "'deceitful behavior' to secure a landmark interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. William, Duke of Cambridge, said, '... what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived.'... Harry, Duke of Sussex, went a step further and explicitly blamed the media for his mother's death. Many have attributed the paparazzi following her for contributing to the car crash that killed her in Paris." Related stories linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Way, Way Beyond

Harry Reid writes a New York Times op-ed about UFOs. He says he doesn't know much, but unless you're one of the select few with the proper security clearance, Harry knows more than you do.

The Commentariat -- May 21, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Knocking Up a 14-Year-Old is Totally "Romeo & Juliet." Michael Cummo of the Wyoming Tribune Eagle: "U.S. House candidate Anthony Bouchard [R] had a relationship with and impregnated a 14-year-old girl when he was 18, he told the Star-Tribune late Thursday, hours after he disclosed the relationship in a Facebook Live video to his supporters. Bouchard, who did not specify the girl's age in the video, said he went public with the information to get ahead of the story after learning that people were investigating it in opposition to his candidacy. A Wyoming state senator since 2017, Bouchard has risen in prominence since announcing he would challenge Rep. Liz Cheney.... 'So, bottom line, it's a story when I was young, two teenagers, girl gets pregnant,' he said in the Facebook Live video. 'You've heard those stories before. She was a little younger than me, so it's like the Romeo and Juliet story.'" MB: The star-crossed lovers married in Florida and divorced three years later. The young woman committed suicide at age 20. No Romeo in sight. Have at it, Will Shakespeare.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "Deaths from Covid-19 and Covid-related causes are likely to be two to three times the number that countries have recorded in their official data, the World Health Organization said on Friday. Some six to eight million people may have now died from Covid-19 or its effects since the start of the pandemic, compared with 3.4 million deaths recorded in countries' official reporting, Dr. Samira Asma, assistant director of the W.H.O.'s data division, told reporters."

David Fahrenthold & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump charged the Secret Service more than $40,000 this spring for rooms that Trump's own protective detail used while guarding him at his Mar-a-Lago Club, according to federal spending records.... While he was president, Trump's properties charged the U.S. government more than $2.5 million, often so that Secret Service agents could use rooms near him.... Trump's decision to charge the Secret Service rent appears unusual -- both for a sitting president and now for a former one.... The closest parallel to Trump was ... Joe Biden. While he was protected as vice president, Biden charged the Secret Service $2,200 per month to use a cottage on his property in Delaware. In total, Biden received $171,600 between 2011 and 2017. Biden has not charged the Secret Service rent since becoming president in January, a White House spokesman said. Historians said they were surprised Trump was still charging the Secret Service, considering that ex-presidents are entitled to an array of other taxpayer-funded benefits, including paid staff and a $219,000-per-year pension."

Doha Madani of NBC News: "Princes William and Harry pressed for higher standards in the news media following a BBC investigation that found the journalist Martin Bashir used "'deceitful behavior' to secure a landmark interview with Diana, Princess of Wales. William, Duke of Cambridge, said, '... what saddens me most, is that if the BBC had properly investigated the complaints and concerns first raised in 1995, my mother would have known that she had been deceived.'... Harry, Duke of Sussex, went a step further and explicitly blamed the media for his mother's death. Many have attributed the paparazzi following her for contributing to the car crash that killed her in Paris.&" Related stories linked below.

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Barbara Sprunt of NPR: "Following overwhelming support from both chambers of Congress, President Biden signed legislation Thursday that addresses hate crimes throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, with particular emphasis on the increase in violence against Asian Americans. At an event in the East Room of the White House, Biden thanked lawmakers for coming together to pass the legislation. He said standing against hatred and racism, which he called 'the ugly poison that has long haunted and plagued our nation,' is what brings Americans together."

Blinken Disavows Crazy, Insulting Trump Development Plan. Summer Concepcion of TPM: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday assured that the Biden administration has no desire to buy Greenland -- a reported desire of former President Trump's that never came to fruition and set off a diplomatic fallout. While visiting Greenland on Thursday, Blinken told a reporter during a news conference that it was 'correct' that the U.S. does not seek to purchase the autonomous Danish territory, according to Reuters.... Trump, who was scheduled to visit Denmark, abruptly cancelled his trip after its prime minister wouldn't fork over Greenland." Update: The New York Times story is here. MB: Rats. Now if I want to move to Nuuk (capital & largest city, pop. 18,000) without investing in a new passport, I'm out of luck. Okay, until five minutes ago, I never heard of Nuuk.

Marie: For a party whose "leaders" and followers are so obsessed with freeedumb and so virulently "Christian," Republicans are surprisingly averse to the notion that "The truth shall set you free." (said Jesus, according to evangelical's favorite Gospel of [John 8:32]).

Nancy Can Count. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "By the thinnest of margins, a divided House voted on Thursday to approve $1.9 billion in emergency spending to cover costs related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and increase security to prevent a repeat, with progressive Democrats joining Republicans in opposition. The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House by a vote of 213 to 212, leaving its future uncertain in the evenly split Senate, where most legislation needs 60 votes to overcome a filibuster and advance to a vote. Every Republican voted against the security spending plan -- a move that top Democrats cited as further evidence that the party is trying to rewrite the history of the mob violence that unfolded on Jan. 6 by downplaying or outright denying crucial facts and opposing efforts to investigate it."

Dana Milbank: Mitch McConnell came to Donald Trump's rescue -- again. "And McConnell did it with a baldfaced lie.... McConnell announced on Wednesday morning, before the House vote, that he would 'oppose the House Democrats' slanted and unbalanced proposal.' For good measure, he accused Democrats of 'partisan bad faith.'... The bipartisan commission bill was negotiated by Rep. John Katko (N.Y.), the top Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, with House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy's blessing.... Katko argued on the House floor Wednesday ... that the bill was 'nearly identical' to one Republicans introduced.... 'Thanks for not throwing me under the bus, Kevin,' Katko said at a Republican caucus meeting Tuesday, tire treads still imprinted on his face." (Also linked yesterday.)

Fear of Trump. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... [Rep.] Greg Pence [R-Ind.] [has] arguably the closest personal connection to someone directly targeted by the mob [i.e., his brother mike whom the insurrectionists planned to hang].... As they were marauding through the Capitol, [Donald] Trump ... took to Twitter not to call off the dogs, but to attack [mike] Pence. Alas, [Greg Pence is] hardly the only Republican to apparently set aside Trump's attacks on his family while aligning with Trump.... Trump has also gone after [Mitch] McConnell's wife, former transportation secretary Elaine Chao, mocking her and attacking her over her supposed family ties to China. (Chao was born in Taiwan.) McConnell has in the past labeled similar attacks as racist.... Trump at one point promoted a tweet attacking the appearance of [Ted] Cruz's wife. Trump also suggestively floated a baseless supermarket tabloid conspiracy theory that Cruz's father might have been involved in killing John F. Kennedy." ~~~

~~~ Kremlin Cruz. David Moye of the Huffington Post: "Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) ... suggested [in a tweet] that the Russian army was better prepared than America's 'woke emasculated military.' The smarmy Texas senator made the comments while retweeting a video that contrasted a Russian recruiting video of men working out with a U.S. recruiting video from a female soldier who credited her desire to serve her country to her two moms.... Many Twitter users felt Cruz was the wrong person to be talking about emasculation, considering the way he supported ... Donald Trump even after Trump attacked the looks of Cruz's wife, Heidi Cruz, and falsely suggested the senator's father helped assassinate John F. Kennedy." Moye republishes some great tweety responses. Brian Williams of NBC News noted that while Ted had never served in the military, he had been to Princeton, Harvard and Cancun. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. The Washington Post story is here. Ted's tweet was even more offensive than the HuffPost let on. According to the WashPo story, Ted tweeted that "the contrast with Russia's campaign ... made American soldiers 'into pansies.'" MB: Maybe that Lorena Bobbitt gal, the QAnon rep from Colorado, can "fix" Ted, one way or another.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "U.S. authorities have arrested three more alleged associates of two right-wing groups in the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol, including one who allegedly shouted, 'Let's take the f---ing Capitol!' an hour before the assault while marching with a large group of Proud Boys around the building. Charging papers identified Daniel Lyons Scott, 28, of Bradenton, Fla., as the Proud Boys member nicknamed 'Milkshake,' who ... allegedly yelling about taking the Capitol.... Also arrested Thursday was James Breheny, 61, an alleged Bergen County, N.J., coordinator for the Oath Keepers.... Separately, Arizona resident Micajah Joel Jackson, 25, was arrested Tuesday after turning himself in to the FBI in Phoenix on charges of trespassing and disorderly conduct at the Capitol."

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "... Donald Trump sought to oust FBI Director Christopher Wray last spring and replace him with counterintelligence head William Evanina, according to three former Trump officials.... Under the plan, the former officials said, Kash Patel -- a former aide to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) and a fierce critic of the Russia probe -- would have become the bureau's deputy director. Previously unreported details of the proposal reveal just how seriously the former president took his grievances against the intelligence and law enforcement establishment. It shows Trump at his mercurial peak, ordering up the removal of his own appointee in a fit of rage, only to back down when then-Attorney General William Barr threatened to resign if he followed through with the maneuver. (Aspects of this story were first reported by Business Insider.)"

Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: Liz Cheney "has accused a former president of her party of employing the threat of violence as a tool of intimidation. And election officials around the country -- Republican and Democratic -- can attest to the results: Death threats. Racist harassment. Armed protesters at their homes.... If Trump has a political philosophy, one of its main tenets is toxic masculinity -- the use of menace and swagger to cover his mental and moral impotence." Gerson explains how Trump, et al., are using the threat of violence as an election strategy.

Jeremy Herb & Jessica Schneider of CNN: "The Trump administration secretly sought and obtained the 2017 phone and email records of a CNN correspondent.... The Justice Department informed CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, in a May 13 letter, that prosecutors had obtained her phone and email records covering two months, between June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017. The letter listed phone numbers for Starr's Pentagon extension, the CNN Pentagon booth phone number and her home and cell phones, as well as Starr's work and personal email accounts.... The seizure of Starr's records is the third disclosure in as many weeks where the Trump administration used its Justice Department to secretly obtain communications of journalists or to expose the identity of critics of ... Donald Trump's allies.... Three Washington Post reporters who covered the FBI's Russia investigation were told earlier this month that last year the Justice Department had obtained their phone records from 2017. In 2018, the Justice Department disclosed it had also obtained 2017 phone and email communications from a reporter for Buzzfeed, Politico and the New York Times who had written stories about Russia."

Annals of Journalism, or Something

Josh Dawsey & Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "CNN anchor Chris Cuomo advised his brother, New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, and senior members of the governor's staff on how to respond to sexual harassment allegations made earlier this year by women who had worked with the governor, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Cuomo, one of the network's top stars, joined a series of conference calls that included the Democratic governor, his top aide, his communications team, lawyers and a number of outside advisers.... The cable news anchor encouraged his brother to take a defiant position and not to resign from the governor's office, the people [familiar] said.... The behind-the-scenes strategy offered by Chris Cuomo, who anchors CNN's 9 p.m. nightly newscast, cuts against the widely accepted norm in journalism that those reporting the news should not be involved in politics.... In a statement, CNN acknowledged that Chris Cuomo took part in the strategy sessions, saying his involvement was a mistake.... The network said Cuomo will not be disciplined." The Hill has a summary report here.

Mark Landler of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [25 years after then-BBC reporter Martin Bashir interviewed Princess Diana of Britain,] an inquiry concluded that Mr. Bashir deceived Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, to obtain the interview. And it faulted the British Broadcasting Corporation's management for covering up Mr. Bashir's conduct, which included creating fake bank statements to undermine a rival news organization.... The conclusions, though not unexpected, are a black eye for the BBC at a time when it has been under pressure from the Conservative government of Prime Minister Boris Johnson for its news coverage. The government has threatened to overhaul the compulsory license fee that finances most of the BBC's operations.... A previous internal BBC investigation -- led by Tony Hall, who later became the broadcaster's director general -- did not even consult Mr. Spencer before pronouncing Mr. Bashir an 'honest and honorable man.'... The BBC, which commissioned the independent inquiry in November, issued a contrite response, admitting that 'the process for securing the interview fell far short of what audiences have a right to expect.'" A CBS News story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here.

The Covid Caucus. Paige Cunningham of the Washington Post: "Fewer than half of House Republican members have agreed to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to a CNN survey. Around 45 percent have been vaccinated, compared with at least 92 percent of Senate Republicans and all Senate and House Democrats.... Yet it's Republican members who are also rebelling against masks.... A dozen refused to put on masks in the House chamber this week, my colleague Felicia Sonmez reports."

Having trouble gettng a Covid vaccine in your area? Why not take a vacci-cation -- to Mongolia! ~~~

~~~ Alexandra Stevenson of the New York Times: "Mongolia, a country of grassy hills, vast deserts and endless skies, has a population not much bigger than Chicago's.... But during a pandemic, being a small nation sandwiched between two vaccine makers with global ambitions can have advantages. At a time when most countries are scrambling for coronavirus vaccines, Mongolia now has enough to fully vaccinate its entire adult population, in large part thanks to deals with both China and Russia. Officials are so confident about the nation's vaccine riches that they are promising citizens a 'Covid-free summer.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times explores the cult-like dictates of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said Thursday that the voting machines Republicans turned over to private companies as part of their audit of the 2020 election are no longer safe for use in future elections. In a letter sent to Maricopa County officials and shared with NBC News, Hobbs, a Democrat, cited security concerns about losing the chain of custody over the equipment when it was handed over to the auditors and urged the county to get new machines. If it does not, her office would consider decertifying the equipment involved in the audit, she wrote. That would remove the machines from service." A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "The Trump-backed 'audit' of the 2020 election in Arizona is sinking deeper into madness, as Arizona GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward this week threatened her own party's officials with arrest. The Daily Beast reports that the audit has been driving divisions within the state GOP even deeper, and Ward is now pushing for the arrest of Republican election officials in Maricopa County if they refuse to comply with the auditors' demands. 'There have to be consequences,' Ward earlier this week. 'There could be arrests of people who are refusing to comply.'"

The idea that history is a project that's decided in the political arena is a recipe for disaster. -- Raul Ramos, University of Houston historian ~~~

~~~ Texas, etc. Simon Romero of the New York Times: "... a flurry of [Republican-]proposed measures that could soon become law would ... try to reframe Texas history lessons and play down references to slavery and anti-Mexican discrimination that are part of the state's founding.The proposals in Texas, a state that influences school curriculums around the country through its huge textbook market, amount to some of the most aggressive efforts to control the teaching of American history. And they come as nearly a dozen other Republican-led states seek to ban or limit how the role of slavery and pervasive effects of racism can be taught, [including Louisiana, New Hampshire and Tennessee]. Idaho was the first state to sign into law a measure that would withhold funding from schools that teach such lessons." ~~~

~~~ These legislators' proposals are akin to -- but worse than -- this: ~~~

~~~ North Carolina. Katie Robertson of the New York Times (May 19): "Nikole Hannah-Jones, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for The New York Times Magazine, was denied a tenured position at the University of North Carolina after the university's board of trustees took the highly unusual step of failing to approve the journalism department's recommendation.... The Republican-controlled North Carolina Legislature appoints the university system's Board of Governors, which has significant control over the university's board of trustees." MB: UNC is a state-run university (the first one in the country). My husband taught at UNC for decades, and departments always decided/voted on who earned tenure. I'm not saying that granting tenure was not political -- at every university, it's as political as can be (tho usually not on a left-right continuum) -- but at UNC, the trustees kept their noses out of the decisions. It appears from the report that Hannah-Jones will hold a distinguished chair funded by the Knight Foundation, and the department was "allowed" to grant her the chair.

South Carolina. "Are We There Yet?" as a Life-saving Defensive Measure. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: An armed hijacker from Fort Jackson commandeered a school bus, driver & 18 children. "Then, the kids -- the kindergartners especially -- started peppering him with questions, [the driver] said." The hijacker, apparently tired to the barrage of questions, ordered the driver to stop the bus & ordered everybody off. The "suspected" hijacker, "Jovan Collazo, was quickly apprehended and charged with kidnapping, armed robbery, carjacking and other offenses, authorities said."

Way Beyond

The New York Times' live updates of developments is the Israel armed conflict Friday are here: "The sirens across southern Israel were silent on Friday, and the thunder of bombs bursting in Gaza City was replaced by sounds of celebratory gunfire as a fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas went into force, bringing an end to more than 10 days of fighting that claimed more than 200 lives."

** Steve Hendrix, et al., of the Washington Post: "Israel's security cabinet voted Thursday night to approve a cease-fire in its 11-day aerial battle with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The cabinet, made up of top security officials and ministers, voted unanimously 'to accept the Egyptian initiative for a bilateral cease-fire without any conditions, which will take effect later,' according to a statement. Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has also agreed with the Egyptian proposal. Taher al-Nounou, a media advisor to the head of the Hamas political bureau, said, 'We were informed by our brothers in Egypt that an agreement had been reached for a mutual and simultaneous ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, starting at 2 am on Friday, May 21, 2021. And that the Palestinian resistance will abide by this agreement as long as the occupation is committed.'" The AP's story is here.