The Commentariat -- April 8, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "President Joe Biden announced a series of executive actions on Thursday to reduce gun violence and urged Congress to pass broader gun-control legislation.... 'This is an epidemic, for God's sake, and it has to stop,' Biden said in a Rose Garden speech. The White House's moves include directing the Department of Justice to craft a rule addressing the spread of untraceable 'ghost guns' and publish an example of 'red flag' legislation for states to follow." ~~~

Patricia Mazzei & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A former local official in Florida who faces an array of federal charges, including a sex trafficking count, is expected to plead guilty in the coming weeks, a prosecutor and a defense lawyer said on Thursday in an indication that the defendant could cooperate as a key witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, who is under investigation. A plea by the former elected official, Joel Greenberg, could significantly strengthen the Justice Department's hand as it investigates Mr. Gaetz and others.... The prosecutor, Roger Handberg, made the disclosure about Mr. Greenberg's case at a six-minute status hearing at the federal courthouse in Orlando, as did Mr. Greenber's lawyer, Fritz Scheller. Mr. Greenberg had been scheduled to go on trial in June, but both sides set a May 15 deadline for a plea deal. If they do not reach an agreement, the case would go to trial, they agreed.... 'I'm sure Matt Gaetz is not feeling very comfortable today,' Mr. Scheller told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing." CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hmm. If Greenberg wasn't prepared to flip on Gaetz, I doubt Greenberg's lawyer would have tagged Gaetz. So another bad day for Congressman Elvis. BTW, much has been made of the fact that Bill Barr approved the Gaetz investigation. But it's my opinion -- not shared by anyone whose opinion I've read -- that Barr didn't have much of a choice, once Gaetz's name came up in connection with evidence previously gathered against Greenberg. So I would not give Barr any props for applying "equal justice under the law" to a Trump supporter. Rather, he was stuck with evidence inadvertently obtained against Gaetz.

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, acting on a grand jury subpoena, took possession of financial records Thursday morning from the apartment of Jennifer Weisselberg, the former daughter-in-law of a top Trump Organization officer. Jennifer Weisselberg was married to Barry Weisselberg -- the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg -- from 2004 to 2018. She has previously said that she had seven boxes of financial records from both her ex-husband and his father, some of which were obtained through divorce litigation. On Thursday, she loaded three boxes and a laptop computer onto a valet cart and wheeled them from her building to a black Jeep with dark-tinted windows that was waiting outside."

The New York Times' live updates of Day 9 of Derek Chauvin's murder trial are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

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

Sara Murray & Jason Morris of CNN: "A top Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud -- which were presented before state lawmakers -- created momentum for a package of voting rights restrictions that recently became state law. 'This is really the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump,' Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN's 'New Day.' 'I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony.'"

David Corn of Mother Jones: "So now we have to hear John Boehner whine about what happened to the Republican Party?... What he did not say ... is that he shares the blame for the rise of extremism in the Republican Party.... Boehner became speaker in 2011 because of the tea party.... Boehner never tried to to tamp down conservative anger and paranoia. He did not tell the birthers to knock it off. He egged on the Obama hatred, allowing the Benghazi-istas to run free and wild. He whipped up extremism on the right to achieve power and then discovered he couldn't ride that tiger. In 2015, he left the House for calmer days as a merlot-sipping (gulping?) lobbyist.... The beast Boehner fed ... became the base for Trump and Trumpism." Thanks to unwashed for the link.

Shannon Liao of the Washington Post: :In a viral video with over 300,000 views since it was posted to Twitter April 6, professional esports player Lee 'Fearless' Eui-seok spoke out against hateful, anti-Asian acts he has experienced since coming to the United States. His comments have attracted attention across the esports industry and provided another example of the harassment and violence Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have faced throughout the country, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic. Lee, a professional esports player and a member of the Overwatch League's Dallas Fuel team, was asked by a fan during a live stream what it's been like for him since moving to Texas this year. 'Being Asian here is terrifying, seriously,' he said in comments translated from Korean. 'People keep trying to pick fights with us. Every time they see me, it's like Americans will come up to us and there's even people who cough on us.... It's my first time ever experiencing racism. And it's always -- it's pretty severe. And ... lots of them just try to scare us.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Today's so-called news is chockful of politicians embarrassing themselves in sleazy sex stories: Matt Gaetz cavorting in the Bahamas with "female escorts" paid for by a weed enthusiast' Andrew Cuomo groping an unwilling aide in his office; an erstwhile Alabama U.S. Senate candidate lying about, then admitting, an extramarital affair. So is it relatively sweet that a husband and wife schemed to stay together by faking her death after she cheated the federal government out of hundreds of thousands of dollars?

Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Large companies like Apple and Bristol Myers Squibb have long employed complicated maneuvers to reduce or eliminate their tax bills by shifting income on paper between countries.... President Biden sees ending that practice as central to his $2 trillion infrastructure package, pushing changes to the tax code that his administration says will ensure American companies are contributing tax dollars to help invest in the country's roads, bridges, water pipes and in other parts of his economic agenda. On Wednesday, the Treasury Department released the details of Mr. Biden's tax plan, which aims to raise as much as $2.5 trillion over 15 years to help finance the infrastructure proposal. That includes bumping the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 21 percent, imposing a strict new minimum tax on global profits and cracking down on companies that try to move profits offshore."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Biden is expected to unveil a series of executive actions addressing gun violence on Thursday, weeks after back-to-back mass shootings left 18 people dead and pushed the issue of gun legislation to the forefront for an administration tackling multiple crises. Mr. Biden is also expected to announce his intent to nominate David Chipman, a gun control advocate, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, officials said. The bureau has not had a permanent director since 2015. The moves come as Mr. Biden has been under pressure to address gun violence, but has made clear that pushing legislation through a blockade of Republican opposition is not currently feasible. Officials reiterated on Wednesday that the proposals the president planned to unveil with Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, were only a start and that the president would continue to call on Congress to take action." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "David Chipman, President Joe Biden's planned nominee for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, has a long history at the agency and sports credentials in gun control advocacy sure to excite firearm safety groups. If confirmed, Chipman will lead the agency that enforces gun laws at a critical point in Biden's early tenure, as the President looks to take fresh action on the issue in the wake of two deadly shootings last month.... Chipman, if confirmed, would return to the agency where he worked for 25 years as a special agent.... He currently serves as a senior policy adviser at the organization led by former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who became a gun control advocate after being shot in 2011."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia ... on Wednesday reaffirmed his vow to protect the filibuster in the evenly divided Senate and suggested reluctance to his party repeatedly using a fast-track budget process to advance legislation without Republican votes. Mr. Manchin has long been one of the most stalwart defenders of the 60-vote threshold needed to end debate in the upper chamber, even as it threatens to derail key elements of President Biden's agenda. Despite previously toying with possible reforms to the procedural hurdle, he has repeatedly swatted away queries about what could drive him to vote to outright abolish the filibuster, even as Democrats have gamed out various scenarios in which he might relent. In an opinion piece published in The Washington Post, Mr. Manchin vowed that there was 'no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,' and he urged party leaders to compromise on legislation instead of trying to work around Republican opposition." The Hill has a story here.

Major Garrett, et al., of CBS News: "Federal investigators are looking into a Bahamas trip Matt Gaetz allegedly took in late 2018 or early 2019 as part of an inquiry into whether the Florida representative violated sex trafficking laws, multiple sources told CBS News. Gaetz was on that trip with a marijuana entrepreneur and hand surgeon named Jason Pirozzolo, who allegedly paid for the travel expenses, accommodations, and female escorts, the sources said. Investigators are trying to determine if the escorts were illegally trafficked across state or international lines for the purpose of sex with the congressman.... Investigators also want to know if Gaetz was accepting paid escorts in exchange for political access or legislative favors, the sources said. In a July 2018 podcast, Pirozzolo told Ganjapreneur.com that Gaetz was working to introduce federal legislation that would boost medical research of cannabis.... Gaetz introduced the Medical Cannabis Research Act in April 2018 and again in January 2019, though it never came to a vote." ~~~

~~~ Gail Collins of the New York Times wishes for a better sex scandal than slimy Matt Gaetz's contribution to our national oeuvre. "If Americans love a sex scandal, they prefer it to involve somebody who's reasonably important.... As it stands, Gaetz is a spectacularly unproductive Florida Republican who never managed, during his first two terms in the House, to get a single bill that he sponsored signed into law. (We are still crossing our fingers for that post-office-naming he co-sponsored.) Meanwhile, by Forbes's count, he has appeared on Fox News at least 179 times since taking office." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My problem with the Gaetz scandal is that it involves at least one actual victim: a teenaged girl. The same was true of Anthony Weiner's offences. Or Gary Condit's, whose lover was a young adult but was also a murder victim, and there's nothing remotely funny about that. Way back in the late 1970s John Jenrette did a little better when he had sex on the Capitol steps; alas, the real scandal was that he took bribes (oh, and shoplifted a necktie) and, to make matters even less spicy, the lady on the steps was his Playboy-"model" wife. Today's Congressmen simply are not very good at cooking up sex scandals that give us the freedom to laugh our heads off. Collins kindly provides us with a brief history of better American sex scandals.

And the Grift Goes On. Tim Miller of the Bulwark shares a fundraising text message he received from the National Republican Congressional Committee that is a knock off those deceptive fundraising emails the Trump campaign sent out. Thanks to RAS for the link. Marie: The post is kind of a fun read, especially because Miller -- a Republican who looks like a Democrat -- is a good writer. But for me, the bottom line is this: it's not easy being a Republican. Those who are plugged in to social media must get "offers" like this 20 times a day. And they may get plenty through the mail, too, especially if they ever "accepted" such an "offer." You can see why so many Republicans "don't trust the government" when the very government men who promise to "get the government out of my Medicare" are constantly scamming them. ~~~

     ~~~ Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The political arm of House Republicans is deploying a prechecked box to enroll donors into repeating monthly donations -- and using ominous language to warn them of the consequences if they opt out: 'If you UNCHECK this box, we will have to tell Trump you're a DEFECTOR.' The language appears to be an effort by the National Republican Congressional Committee to increase its volume of recurring donations, which are highly lucrative, while invoking ... Donald J. Trump's popularity with the conservative base. Those donors who do not proactively uncheck the box will have their credit cards billed or bank accounts deducted for donations every month.... The Democratic platform, ActBlue, also allows some groups to precheck recurring donation boxes, including the political arm of House Democrats, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. The D.C.C.C. noted that it has a pop-up window telling donors who made a recurring donation that they did so immediately after the contribution is processed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If the recurring donation is revealed "after the contribution is processed," that's a hassle. You would have to figure out how to contact ActBlue & order them to undo your unintended repeat donations. So not a lot better than the GOP grift. I have made numerous contributions to Democrats thru ActBlue, and they have not caught me up -- yet -- in this scam. I can't recall if I had to uncheck a box or if I just didn't check the recurring donation box.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Twitter will not allow the National Archives to make ... Donald Trump's past tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account available on the social media platform..., in the latest display of Silicon Valley's power over communications channels used by the U.S. government. The statement came as the National Archives and Records Administration has been working to create an official online archive of Trump's tweets as president, including those that prompted Twitter to permanently suspend him earlier this year as a threat to public safety. NARA already maintains archives for the institutional and personal accounts of many other former Trump administration officials, in which the old tweets live on the Twitter platform and users can retweet, like and otherwise interact with them.... NARA spokesperson James Pritchett said that while the National Archives 'is still exploring the best way' to make the @realDonaldTrump archival content public, the agency would defer to Twitter on whether that archive should be available on the social media site and would still post the preserved tweets to the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library website.”

Trump Crime Family Hires Criminal Defense Attorney. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that ... Donald Trump's family business has retained Ronald Fischetti, a high-powered criminal defense lawyer, as New York prosecutors continue to investigate Trump's finances."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, issues a stinging denunciation in his new book of Donald J. Trump, saying that the former president 'incited that bloody insurrection' by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Republican Party has been taken over by 'whack jobs.' The criticism from Mr. Boehner in his book, 'On the House: A Washington Memoir,' represents an extraordinary public rebuke by a former speaker of the House toward a former president from his own party and shows how much the Republican Party has shifted since Mr. Boehner left Congress in 2015.... Nodding to the divisions between the parties in Congress now, he writes, 'Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021.' Mr. Trump, he goes on, 'incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he'd been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unlike many "memoirs" that are ghostwritten, Boehner's book appears to be written "in his own words."

White House Mystery Solved. Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Dave Chappelle appears to have cleared up the curious case of the 'dirty notes' that were found in the White House by Donald Trump's incoming aides. Celebrities left mocking messages for the new Trump administration during one of the last White House parties thrown by the Obamas, the comedian said on the new episode of supermodel Naomi Campbell's 'No Filter' YouTube series, released Tuesday. 'Remember when the Trump administration moved in, they said the Obama staff left dirty notes for us in all the drawers and all the cabinets?' Chappelle recalled. 'I saw this happening. I'm not going to say who did it,' he continued. 'But it was celebrities, writing all this crazy shit and putting them all over there. I saw them doing it, so when I saw it on the news I laughed real hard.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "A highly infectious variant of the coronavirus that was first identified in Britain has now become the most common source of new infections in the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday -- a worrisome development that comes as officials and scientists warn of a possible fourth virus surge. Federal health officials said in January that the B.1.1.7 variant, which began surging in Britain in December and has since slammed Europe, could become the dominant source of coronavirus infections in the United States, leading to a wrenching increase in cases and deaths." A UPI story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Connor Sheets & Kyle Whitmire of AL.com: "After initially denying reports of an affair, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill [R] on Wednesday afternoon told AL.com that he had 'an inappropriate relationship' with a 44-year-old woman and will not make an anticipated run for the U.S. Senate.... In an interview with AL.com on Wednesday morning, Merrill denied having had an affair and accused [the woman,] Cesaire McPherson, of 'stalking' and 'harassing' him.... McPherson provided Al.com with a recording of an October 2020 conversation between her and Merrill.... In the 17-minute recording, Merrill and McPherson discuss various sexual acts they performed during dozens of romantic encounters that McPherson says took place between November 2017 and November 2020. During the conversation, Merrill ... told her they had met for the last time and that he was seeking help from the Lord to stay away from her. After being played a portion of the recording Wednesday, Merrill, who is married with two children, told AL.com 'there's no excuse' for his extramarital relationship." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I really don't know why people so often give God & Jesus the responsibility to end "inappropriate relationships."

California. Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Tiger Woods was speeding when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle in February, reaching speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on winding road near Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h. and was sent airborne, eventually stopping in some brush.... He added that there were no signs of impairment or intoxication, and that Woods was wearing his seatbelt. The captain of the Lomita Sheriff's Station, James Powers, said that data was obtained from the vehicle's event data recorder.... The data showed that Woods had hit the accelerator throughout the crash, and that the pressure applied to the pedal was 99 percent. Powers said he believed that Woods inadvertently hit the accelerator while trying to brake.... Woods was not cited, Villanueva said, because under California law that typically requires either an independent witness or a law enforcement officer to witness the excessive speed. He said that Woods did not receive any special treatment.... Woods crashed his car on a windy and tricky stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that is known for car crashes near Rancho Palos Verdes...." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Georgia. Ha! Kate Brumback of the AP: "A district attorney in Atlanta said Wednesday that she will not pursue charges against a Georgia state lawmaker who was arrested during a protest of the state's sweeping new election law. 'After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter,' Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an emailed statement. 'It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed.' Rep. Park Cannon, a Democrat from Atlanta, was arrested March 25 after she knocked on the door to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp's office while he was on live television speaking about the voting bill he had just signed into law. Police charged her with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly. She was released from jail later that evening." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kentucky. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Kentucky on Wednesday became the only state in the country with a Republican-controlled legislature to expand voting rights after a bitter presidential election that tested the country's democratic institutions and elevated ballot access as an animating issue for both parties. In a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, hailed the bill as a bipartisan effort that cut against the push in other Republican legislatures to put up barriers to voting.... The reasons that Kentucky Republicans have diverged on voting rights range from the political to the logistical. For one, they had an easier sell: With sweeping new rules allowing the election to be held safely during the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans in Kentucky had one of their best cycles in years, with both Senator Mitch McConnell and Mr. Trump easily winning in the state. And expanding voting access in Kentucky was a low bar to clear; the state had some of the tightest voting laws in the country before 2020, with not a single day of early voting, and strict limits on absentee balloting." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Minnesota. Amy Forliti, et al., of the AP: "Officer Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd's neck area -- and was bearing down with most of his weight -- the entire 9 1/2 minutes the Black man lay facedown with his hands cuffed behind his back, a use-of-force expert testified at Chauvin's murder trial. Jody Stiger, a Los Angeles Police Department sergeant serving as a prosecution witness, said Wednesday ... that the force used against Floyd was excessive." The Washington Post's story is here.

New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "A woman who has accused Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of groping her in the Executive Mansion gave a fuller account in a published report on Wednesday, detailing how she believed the governor had groomed her for months with a series of tight hugs and sexually suggestive comments. She said in an interview with The Times Union of Albany that Mr. Cuomo asked invasive questions about her personal life, recalling that at one point last year, the governor told her, 'Oh, if you were single, the things that I would do to you.'... [Then,] in late November, she said the governor summoned her to his ... office at the Executive Mansion. The woman told The Times Union that Mr. Cuomo closed the door and reached under her blouse.... The governor grasped one of her breasts over her bra.... In a text exchange with The New York Times on Wednesday, the woman confirmed the details that she told the Times Union, as well as the fact that she had spoken to investigators deputized by [New York AG Letitia] James." Both this story & the Times Union story are subscriber-firewalled. Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Battle of the Sleazy Scions? Ivana Saric of Axios: "Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump White House staffer and the son of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Examiner he plans to run for governor of New York in 2022.... Despite a flood of sexual misconduct allegations and a federal investigation into his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still expected to run for reelection next year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

West Virginia, Mountain Mama. Andrea Sacedo of the Washington Post: "Last May, Rodney Wheeler dialed 911 with a frantic plea for help: His wife had just plunged hundreds of feet over a steep cliff in a West Virginia national park. Authorities quickly launched a massive search for Julie Wheeler, 44. For days, hundreds of volunteers, police, and professional rescuers trekked along the base of the New River where her husband said she had fallen.... But ... three days after she supposedly fell off a cliff, authorities found her hiding inside a closet in the couple's Beaver, W.Va., home. In fact, the couple had tried to elaborately fake her death to help her avoid federal sentencing in a health-care fraud scheme.... On Monday, a federal judge sentenced Rodney Wheeler, 48, to two months in prison and six months of home confinement for his role in the plot.... In 2016, a Veterans Affairs office hired [Julie's] company to help a veteran diagnosed with spina bifida. But investigators later found that Wheeler inflated her work hours to get nearly $470,000 in inappropriate fees...." Julie previously was sentence to 54 months in prison for the healthcare & fake death frauds. "A judge also ordered her to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm thinking a fake drowning would have worked better, since a body could float be carried away. I suppose the problem is that West Virginia is landlocked. Still, the couple could have taken a trip to, say, the Chesapeake Bay to go sailing. Apparently this couple is not too bright.

Way Beyond

Russia. AP: "A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has complained of serious back and leg pain in custody, says doctors have found him to be suffering from two spinal hernias. Vadim Kobzev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that Navalny also has a spinal protrusion and is beginning to lose sensation in his hands. Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care in a Russian prison. On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Washington Post story is here.

News Ledes

CNBC: "First-time claims for unemployment insurance rose more than expected last week despite other signs of healing in the jobs market, the Labor Department reported Thursday. First-time claims for the week ended April 3 totaled 744,000, well above the expectation for 694,000 from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. The total represented an increase of 16,000 from the previous week's upwardly revised 728,000. The four-week moving average edged higher to 723,750."

Two People Who Should Not Have Had Guns:

AP: "A man opened fire Thursday at a [Bryan,] Texas cabinet-making company where he worked, killing one person and wounding five others before shooting and wounding a state trooper prior to his arrest, authorities said. Bryan Police Chief Eric Buske told reporters he believes the suspect, whose name wasn't immediately released, is an employee at the Kent Moore Cabinets location where the shooting happened."

CNN: &"Five people were killed -- including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two young grandchildren -- in a shooting at a home near the South Carolina city of Rock Hill on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. A sixth person also was injured in the shooting, and authorities eventually found a suspect in the suspect's home nearby, York County sheriff's officials said early Thursday without elaborating. Investigators believe the suspect was the only assailant, and are trying to figure out why anyone would have gunned down Dr. Robert Lesslie and some members of his family, sheriff's spokesman Trent Faris said. The slain grandchildren were ages 5 and 9, the York County Coroner's Office said." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Former NFL player Phillip Adams fatally shot five people, including a prominent doctor, his wife and their two grandchildren before killing himself early Thursday. York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson told a news conference that investigators had not yet determined a motive for Wednesday's mass shooting."

The Commentariat -- April 7, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Georgia. Ha! Kate Brumback of the AP: "A district attorney in Atlanta said Wednesday that she will not pursue charges against a Georgia state lawmaker who was arrested during a protest of the state's sweeping new election law. 'After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter,' Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an emailed statement. 'It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed.' Rep. Park Cannon, a Democrat from Atlanta, was arrested March 25 after she knocked on the door to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp'’s office while he was on live television speaking about the voting bill he had just signed into law. Police charged her with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly. She was released from jail later that evening."

Kentucky. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Kentucky on Wednesday became the only state in the country with a Republican-controlled legislature to expand voting rights after a bitter presidential election that tested the country's democratic institutions and elevated ballot access as an animating issue for both parties. In a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, hailed the bill as a bipartisan effort that cut against the push in other Republican legislatures to put up barriers to voting.... The reasons that Kentucky Republicans have diverged on voting rights range from the political to the logistical. For one, they had an easier sell: With sweeping new rules allowing the election to be held safely during the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans in Kentucky had one of their best cycles in years, with both Senator Mitch McConnell and Mr. Trump easily winning in the state. And expanding voting access in Kentucky was a low bar to clear; the state had some of the tightest voting laws in the country before 2020, with not a single day of early voting, and strict limits on absentee balloting."

Battle of the Sickening Scions? Ivana Saric of Axios: "Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump White House staffer and the son of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Examiner he plans to run for governor of New York in 2022.... Despite a flood of sexual misconduct allegations and a federal investigation into his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still expected to run for reelection next year."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, issues a stinging denunciation in his new book of Donald J. Trump, saying that the former president 'incited that bloody insurrection' by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Republican Party has been taken over by 'whack jobs.' The criticism from Mr. Boehner in his book, 'On the House: A Washington Memoir,' represents an extraordinary public rebuke by a former speaker of the House toward a former president from his own party and shows how much the Republican Party has shifted since Mr. Boehner left Congress in 2015.... Nodding to the divisions between the parties in Congress now, he writes, 'Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021.' Mr. Trump, he goes on, 'incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he'd been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unlike many "memoirs" that are ghostwritten, Boehner's book appears to be written "in his own words."

Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Tiger Woods was speeding when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle in February, reaching speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on winding road near Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h. and was sent airborne, eventually stopping in some brush.... He added that there were no signs of impairment or intoxication, and that Woods was wearing his seatbelt. The captain of the Lomita Sheriff's Station, James Powers, said that data was obtained from the vehicle's event data recorder.... The data showed that Woods had hit the accelerator throughout the crash, and that the pressure applied to the pedal was 99 percent. Powers said he believed that Woods inadvertently hit the accelerator while trying to brake.... Woods was not cited, Villanueva said, because under California law that typically requires either an independent witness or a law enforcement officer to witness the excessive speed. He said that Woods did not receive any special treatment.... Woods crashed his car on a windy and tricky stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that is known for car crashes near Rancho Palos Verdes...." An AP story is here.

AP: "A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has complained of serious back and leg pain in custody, says doctors have found him to be suffering from two spinal hernias. Vadim Kobzev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that Navalny also has a spinal protrusion and is beginning to lose sensation in his hands. Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care in a Russian prison. On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors."

The New York Times' live updates of Day 8 of the murder trial of Derek Chauvin are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks, but said Americans must remain on a 'war footing' to beat the virus. With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden announced that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, instead of his original deadline of May 1. Speaking at the White House after visiting a vaccination center in Alexandria, Virginia, Biden said that 150 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered within his first 75 days in office, in line with a stated goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Number One Observatory Circle is finally ready for its newest resident. After months spent living in temporary quarters at Blair House, Vice President Kamala Harris moved into her 33-room official residence on Tuesday evening following the completion of renovations, an administration official said."

At Tuesday's White House Press Briefing

Peter Doocy of Fox "News": Is the White House concerned that Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?

Jen Psaki, Press Secretary: ... Colorado allows you to register on election day. Colorado has voting by mail, where they send to a 100% of people in the state who are eligible applications to vote by mail. Ninety-four percent of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election. They also allow for a range of materials to provide for the limited number of people who vote on election day. I think it's important to remember the context here of the Georgia legislation is built on a lie. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.... What there was, however, was record-setting turnout, especially by voters of color.... What we're seeing here for politicians who didn't like the outcome, they're not changing their policies to win more votes, they're changing the rules to exclude more voters. And we certainly see the circumstances as different.

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "The United States and Iran agreed through intermediaries on Tuesday to establish two working groups to try to get both countries back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In a meeting of the current members of the deal in Vienna, all parties agreed to establish one working group to focus on how to get the United States back to the deal by lifting harsh economic sanctions imposed or reimposed after ... Donald J. Trump pulled out of the accord in May 2018. The other working group will focus on how to get Iran back into compliance with the accord's limitations on nuclear enrichment and stockpiles of enriched uranium." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. and Iranian officials said Tuesday an initial day of talks in Vienna on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal were 'constructive,' but the Biden administration cautioned that no immediate breakthroughs were anticipated on one of the new president's top foreign policy goals."

Shut Up & Give Me All Your Money. So my warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It's not what you're designed for. And don't be intimidated by the left into taking up causes that put you right in the middle of one of America's greatest political debates. I'm not talking about political contributions.... I support that. -- Mitch McConnell, at a news conference Tuesday

Give that man points for being unambiguously corrupt. -- Marie Burns

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "In the final weeks of Mr. Trump's term, [Rep. Matt] Gaetz [R-Fla.] ... privately asked the White House for blanket pre-emptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed, according to two people.... Around that time, Mr. Gaetz was also publicly calling for broad pardons from Mr. Trump to thwart what he termed the 'bloodlust' of their political opponents. But Justice Department investigators had begun questioning Mr. Gaetz's associates about his conduct.... Mr. Gaetz did not tell White House aides that he was under investigation for potential sex trafficking violations when he made the request. But top White House lawyers and officials viewed the request for a pre-emptive pardon as a nonstarter.... In recent days, some Trump associates have speculated that Mr. Gaetz's request for a group pardon was an attempt to camouflage his own potential criminal exposure." ~~~

~~~ Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: "When Florida legislators passed a bill aimed at preventing people from sharing sexually explicit photos of their ex-partners online, then-state Rep. Matt Gaetz cast one of just two House votes against it. Six years later, with the now-congressman accused of ... sharing photographs of nude women with fellow lawmakers, the sponsor of the Florida legislation says Gaetz opposed it because he believed recipients of such images could use them however they wanted. Tom Goodson, a Republican who retired from the Florida state House in 2018, told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that Gaetz was the leading opponent of the nonconsensual pornography bill he spent years trying to pass. He described a meeting in which Gaetz said that if a person gives an intimate photo to a romantic partner, the image becomes the property of the recipient." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are many ethical & legal questions surrounding Gaetz's, uh, world view. Here's one: if a nude picture of a person surfaces, who took the picture? Obviously, the photo could be a selfie, it could have been taken by some third party, OR it could have been taken by the person who is in possession of the photo. So, Matt, if I take a photo of you, with or without your knowledge -- say, one where you're snorting coke & jerking off simultaneously -- does that photo belong to me to do with what I want? ~~~

~~~ Gabby Orr, et al., of Politico: As Matt Gaetz's "political career skids toward disaster amid allegations that he had sex with a minor and paid for sex with women of legal age, neither Trump nor anyone in the ex-president's orbit is rushing to Gaetz's defense. A group that often instinctively decries any such charge as part of some nefarious, coordinated witch hunt from deep-state operators has, instead, said virtually nothing at all.... Operatives inside Trump World say the silence is owed to a variety of factors. Among them is the fact that Gaetz has aways been regarded as a grenade whose pin had already been pulled.... Some of Gaetz's own aides would regularly send embarrassing videos of their boss to other GOP operatives, according to two people familiar with the videos." ~~~

~~~ AND Finally. Keep Your Shirts on, Ladies. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: Matt Gaetz will be the keynote speaker "at a conservative women's group's conference at ... Donald Trump's Miami golf course. Women for America First, a nonprofit organization of Trump loyalists, orchestrated and publicized a rally on Jan. 6 before the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and also led bus tours nationwide spreading unfounded claims of election fraud. 'We know firsthand what it is like to be treated unfairly by the main stream media,' Amy Kremer, the group's chairwoman, said in a statement to The Washington Post that defended Gaetz as 'innocent until proven guilty.'"

Meet the Insurrectionists. Robert Pape in a Washington Post op-ed: "... by far the most interesting characteristic common to the insurrectionists' backgrounds has to do with changes in their local demographics: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists who now face charges.... Put another way, the people alleged by authorities to have taken the law into their hands on Jan. 6 typically hail from places where non-White populations are growing fastest.... Great Replacement theory has achieved iconic status with white nationalists and holds that minorities are progressively replacing White populations due to mass immigration policies and low birthrates. Extensive social media exposure is the second-biggest driver of this view, our surveys found." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times writes a news report based on Pape's findings: "'If you look back in history, there has always been a series of far-right extremist movements responding to new waves of immigration to the United States or to movements for civil rights by minority groups,' Mr. Pape said. 'You see a common pattern in the Capitol insurrectionists. They are mainly middle-class to upper-middle-class whites who are worried that, as social changes occur around them, they will see a decline in their status in the future.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

"Selfie-Sabotage." What Pape Doesn't Mention: These White Men Are Dumb as Dirt. Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: Numerous insurrectionists "helped document the prosecution's case [against them].... The government is ... reviewing records from 1,600 electronic devices and more than 210,000 tips, 'of which a substantial portion include video, photo and social media,' the Justice Department said. Many of the tips came from independent and amateur investigators combing through gigabytes of material from social media. On one Facebook page, a man posted a selfie with the caption, 'I just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol.'"

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Representative Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge who, despite being impeached and removed from the bench, was elected to Congress, where he championed civil rights and rose to become dean of the Florida delegation, died on Tuesday. He was 84."

"Not with a Wow, But a Whisper." Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "For about half an hour Tuesday, a former president of the United States appeared on television to offer his unfiltered assessment of the state of American politics, of foreign policy and of the various controversies flitting around the political world. You probably missed it, because it was Donald Trump offering the same pudding of rhetoric we've heard so often to an anchor on the far-right network Newsmax.... There's still an audience for this, of course.... His Google search interest was lower than at any point since June 2015, as was the amount of time he was seen on cable."

Former Trumpy Wedding Planner Cops to Hatch Act Violation. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: A video that aired on the final night of last year's Republican convention featured a two-minute clip of four New York City public housing tenants praising ... Donald J. Trump's record.... But within hours of the broadcast, three of the tenants said they were tricked into appearing in the video, did not support Mr. Trump and accused a top federal housing official, Lynne Patton, of orchestrating the production and misleading them.... A federal agency on Tuesday found that Ms. Patton had violated ... the Hatch Act that bars most federal employees from using their government position to engage in political activities. Ms. Patton admitted to the violation, the agency said, and agreed ... to pay a $1,000 fine and not to serve in the federal government for at least four years. She left her job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the end of Mr. Trump's term in January." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Patton is perhaps best known for her extensive preparation for her job at HUD by serving as Eric & Lara Trump's wedding planner. In her own defense, Patton lied about the tenants she victimized and blamed lawyers & federal employees for giving her bad legal advice. Given that, she should be good to get a job planning Junior & Mizz Loudmouth's nuptials.

The Justice Opines. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Tuesday that proposals to expand the Supreme Court to dilute the power of its conservative majority risk making justices appear more political and could hurt the court's influence with the public. Breyer, one of the court's three liberals, defended the court's independence by pointing to its decision to resist ... Donald Trump's attempts to draw the court into lawsuits that sought to overturn Trump's defeat in November. In remarks prepared for a speech at Harvard Law School, Breyer wrote that the court's authority depends on 'a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics.'... Breyer, 82..., is under considerable pressure to retire now, while ... Joe Biden is in the White House and Democrats hold a narrow control of the Senate."

When Is a Luxury Lot a Necessity? Jake Bleiberg of the AP: "After school shootings that left dozens dead in recent years, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre said the resulting outrage put him in such danger that he sought shelter aboard a borrowed 108-foot (32.92-meter) yacht. During a deposition, the head of the powerful gun-rights group's acknowledged sailing in the Bahamas with his family as a 'security retreat' in the summers following a 2012 school shooting in Connecticut and a 2018 massacre in Florida.... The testimony emerged in a federal bankruptcy trial over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where a state lawsuit is trying to put it out of business.... [State] allegations include that LaPierre repeatedly sailed in the Bahamas on the yacht of Hollywood producer Stanton McKenzie, whose company has done business with the NRA, but did not mention the trips on financial disclosures.... In the deposition, LaPierre said he did not pay to use McKenzie's yacht, which came with a cook, a motor boat and a pair of Sea-Doo personal watercraft." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of Wayne's purchases -- on the NRA's dime -- was a pair of swim trunks, price: $290. Now we understand why the purchase was perfectly reasonable: Wayne needed $290 trunks for his own personal safety.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. "Nearly 80 percent of school staff and child care workers in the United States have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The announcement comes as the Biden administration has made an ambitious push to reopen schools and return to in-person instruction by the president's 100th day in office. That goal has been tempered by dangerous virus variants, protests from teachers' unions, and the fears and frustrations of students and parents." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "Amnesty International warned in its annual report Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has had a severe impact on the human rights of millions of people around the globe. The virus has exposed and entrenched widespread inequalities, collapsed health and welfare systems, worsened the conditions of already marginalized groups and facilitated crackdowns on dissent, according to the London-based organization."

Erin Banco & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Senior officials in the Trump and Biden administrations knew of oversight and quality assurance problems at Emergent BioSolutions' Baltimore plant months before the company accidentally contaminated 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine [in February 2021], according to two people.... Officials with the Trump administration's vaccine program, Operation Warp Speed, and the Department of Health and Human Services were sent a report in June 2020 on Emergent's inner workings. Written by a government official, the document concluded that the company's plan for manufacturing urgently needed Covid-19 vaccines was inadequate. Emergent's problems hiring and retaining skilled workers meant that it could not guarantee success in producing the shots, said the two people, who read the report and described it to Politico. The report was shared with senior Trump officials, including Gen. Gustave Perna, Operation Warp Speed's chief operating officer, who still serves in that role for the Biden administration; Moncef Slaoui, then Warp Speed's vaccine lead; and Robert Kadlec, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response under Trump. Officials from the Trump administration later gave the report, along with other key Operation Warp Speed documents, to the Biden team during the transition."

Sheryl Stolberg & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Around the country, businesses, schools and politicians are considering 'vaccine passports' -- digital proof of vaccination against the coronavirus -- as a path to reviving the economy and getting Americans back to work and play. Businesses especially fear that too many customers will stay away unless they can be assured that the other patrons have been inoculated.... Legal experts say [these passports are likely lawful]..., though in a society so divided, politicians are already girding for a fight.... The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has told employers that they can mandate coronavirus vaccination because public health comes first.... The White House is clearly skittish. 'The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential,' Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday.... ~~~

~~~ [MEANWHILE] "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Friday signed an executive order barring businesses from requiring patrons or customers to show vaccine documentation, under penalty of losing state contracts. Mississippi's Republican governor, Tate Reeves, said on Sunday that he too opposed the idea." ~~~

~~~ AND in Texas. AP: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott [R] used his executive power Tuesday to ban state government and some private entities from requiring COVID-19 'vaccine passports' to access services, in the latest move from a Republican governor pitting public health campaigns against personal freedom and private choices. According to Abbott's order, state agencies and political subdivisions, and public and private organizations that receive public funding in Texas cannot require people to prove that they have been inoculated against the coronavirus." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. MB: Ken was wondering if Abbott & DeSantis, et al., could be charged with murder. Well, premeditated murder for sure, I'd say.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Meredith Deliso of ABC News: "The Arkansas state legislature voted Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson on a bill that would ban gender-affirming treatments for transgender youths in the state. The House voted 71-24, and the Senate 25-8, to override the governor's veto a day after it was announced." MB: I sure hope the law is challenged & turns out to be unconstitutional. This is just cruel.

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "An officer who trained Derek Chauvin on techniques he could use to subdue suspects testified Tuesday that the neck restraint he used on George Floyd was not authorized because Floyd was already handcuffed and under control. Lt. Johnny Mercil, who oversees the Minneapolis department's training on use of force and other defensive tactics, said that at the time of Floyd's death on May 25, officers were prmitted to restrain suspects by applying pressure to the side of a person's neck to gain compliance, but only if they were actively resisting and if other techniques had not worked."

New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The lobby staff members who >closed the door to a Manhattan apartment building last week without taking immediate action after a Filipino-American woman was brutally attacked on the street outside have been fired, the building's owners told residents in an email on Tuesday. Rick Mason, the executive director of management at the Brodsky Organization, which owns the luxury apartment building in Midtown, told residents of all the organization's buildings in an email that two staff members who were inside the building lobby at the time had not followed 'required emergency and safety protocols.'" A Law & Crime story is here.

The Commentariat -- April 6, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Day 7 of Derek Chauvin's murder trial are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "The United States and Iran agreed through intermediaries on Tuesday to establish two working groups to try to ge both countries back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In a meeting of the current members of the deal in Vienna, all parties agreed to establish one working group to focus on how to get the United States back to the deal by lifting harsh economic sanctions imposed or reimposed after ... Donald J. Trump pulled out of the accord in May 2018. The other working group will focus on how to get Iran back into compliance with the accord's limitations on nuclear enrichment and stockpiles of enriched uranium."

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks. With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden will announce that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, according to an administration official, instead of Biden's original deadline of May 1. Biden announced last week that 90% of adults will be eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, as well as have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live. Biden said the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy vaccination program was increasing from the current 17,000 locations to 40,000."

Meet the Insurrectionists. Robert Pape in a Washington Post op-ed: "... by far the most interesting characteristic common to the insurrectionists' backgrounds has to do with changes in their local demographics: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists who now face charges.... Put another way, the people alleged by authorities to have taken the law into their hands on Jan. 6 typically hail from places where non-White populations are growing fastest.... Great Replacement theory has achieved iconic status with white nationalists and holds that minorities are progressively replacing White populations due to mass immigration policies and low birthrates. Extensive social media exposure is the second-biggest driver of this view, our surveys found." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times writes a news report based on Pape's findings: "'If you look back in history, there has always been a series of far-right extremist movements responding to new waves of immigration to the United States or to movements for civil rights by minority groups,' Mr. Pape said. 'You see a common pattern in the Capitol insurrectionists. They are mainly middle-class to upper-middle-class whites who are worried that, as social changes occur around them, they will see a decline in their status in the future.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration and top Democrats in Congress began detailing plans for significant changes to how the United States and other countries tax multinational corporations as they look for ways to raise revenues and finance President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen threw her support behind an international effort to create a global minimum tax that would apply to multinational corporations, regardless of where they locate their headquarters. Such a global tax, she said, could help prevent a 'race to the bottom' in which countries cut their tax rates in order to entice companies to move headquarters and profits across borders.... At the same time, Democrats in Congress released their own proposal to add teeth to the de facto minimum tax that the United States already imposes on income earned abroad -- one that would apply to American multinational companies regardless of what the rest of the world does. The proposal could raise as much as $1 trillion over the next 15 years from large companies by requiring that they pay higher taxes on profits they earn overseas, according to analyses of similar plans."

Kelsey Snell of NPR: "A new decision from the U.S. Senate's nonpartisan parliamentarian means Democrats could advance more of President Biden's agenda without the support of Republicans. The official's interpretation of Senate budget rules would allow the use of the reconciliation process more than once in a fiscal year, and it is viewed by Democrats as a possible strategy for moving top policy priorities with a simple majority, since getting the needed 10 Republican votes in a 50-50 Senate has proved difficult. Details are still unclear as to how Democratic leaders might use the additional chance to pass budget-related policies.... The ruling appears to mean a majority party could revise budgets more than once in a fiscal year -- each time giving them access to reconciliation instructions. The decision comes as Democrats take up Biden's more than $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, which he unveiled last week." A Vox explanation is here.

The Most Powerful Joe in D.C. May Not Be Biden. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Joe Manchin wants his party's leaders and President Joe Biden to make significant changes to their sweeping new tax-and-spend legislation -- and he's got other Democratic senators with him.... It's just the latest power move from Manchin, who has become Democrats' squeakiest wheel in the early days of Biden's presidency.... Manchin said he would be comfortable raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent but said the United States has 'to be competitive and we're not going to throw caution to the wind.'... Manchin is no outlier. A few hours later at the Capitol, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Monday that he needs to have more input into the White House's plan than he's received so far...." MB: With 50 Senate votes (+ Harris), every Democratic senator can play the prima donna.

Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post: The Matt Gaetz story that most sticks in my head "is the report that the Florida Republican used to wander around and show his colleagues nude photos of people he had slept with.... I keep hearing the uncomfortable laughter of Billy Bush. I keep coming back to the fact that it takes two to make a locker room.... This wasn't something Matt Gaetz did a single time, but repeatedly. Because if it happened more than once -- if it happened twice, even -- that is because the first time went better than it should have." Petri appeals to Matt's Congressional colleagues to call out such egregious behavior. MB: Does she mean the same guys who support (alleged) serial sex abuser (and liar, grifter and traitor) Donald Trump? Get real, Alex.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday vacated an appeals court ruling that ... Donald J. Trump had violated the First Amendment by blocking people from his Twitter account after they posted critical comments. A unanimous three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in 2019 that Mr. Trump's account was a public forum from which he was powerless to exclude people based on their viewpoints. The Supreme Court's move was expected, as Mr. Trump is no longer president and Twitter has permanently suspended his account. More surprising was a 12-page concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas musing on what he called the dangerous power a few private companies have over free speech.... His opinion reflected widespread frustration, particularly among conservatives, about letting private companies decide what the public may read and see." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The joke that begins at 9:20 min. in is especially good:

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. U.S. Corporations Back Lying Liars. Brian Slodysko of the AP: "State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on ... Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group. Telecom giant AT&T was the most prolific, donating over $800,000 since 2015 to authors of proposed restrictions, cosponsors of such measures, or those who voted in favor of the bills, the report found. Other top donors during the same period include Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon, General Motors and Pfizer.... More than 120 companies detailed in the report previously said they would rethink their donations to members of Congress who, acting on the same falsehoods as the state lawmakers, objected to the certification of President Joe Biden's win following the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

~~~ So Then Mitch Says ... Richard Cowan of the Reuters: "U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at corporate America on Monday, warning CEOs to stay out of the debate over a new voting law in Georgia that has been criticized as restricting votes among minorities and the poor. In a sign of a growing rift in the decades-old alliance between the conservative party and U.S. corporations, McConnell said: 'My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don't pick sides in these big fights.' McConnell warned companies there could be risks for turning on the party, but he did not elaborate. 'Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,' McConnell told a news conference in his home state of Kentucky." The Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Dear Awesome CEOs, Please do as Mitch demands and stay out of Republican politics. Step 1: Quit contributing to Republican political campaigns. Step 2: Contribute to Democratic political campaigns. Your new friend, Marie ~~~

~~~ Republicans' Unique View of the First Amendment. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is second to none in protecting First Amendment rights of corporations -- at least when the subject is money. McConnell, a longtime opponent of limits on campaign donations as a form of speech, has often defended unlimited dark money in lofty terms.... McConnell has even filed multiple amicus curiae briefs in campaign cases insisting the rights of free speech and association implicit in corporate campaign donations are 'fundamental' and 'of central importance.' But when it comes to actual speech from corporations -- specifically, speech denouncing Republicans' voter suppression efforts -- McConnell becomes irate." So money for Mitch is "free speech"; verbal support for voters is taboo.

Bob Nightengale of USA Today: "Major League Baseball is scheduled to announce Tuesday that this year's All-Star Game will be moved to Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies, a person with direct knowledge of the decision told USA TODAY Sports.... Government officials in Colorado and Denver immediately began lobbying MLB for the All-Star Game once Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the league was moving the game out of Atlanta because of the voting laws passed in Georgia in March that potentially can restrict voting access for people of color."

Yeah, We Can Afford to Pay Fair Wages, But That Would Be Wrong. Julia Rock & Andrew Perez of Newsweek: "Big restaurant chains are telling investors that a national minimum wage hike wouldn't be a big deal == even as their corporate lobbying groups in Washington fight plans for a $15 minimum wage. 'We share your view that a national discussion on wage issues for working Americans is needed -- but the Raise the Wage Act is the wrong bill at the wrong time for our nation's restaurants,' the National Restaurant Association wrote in a letter to congressional leaders in February.... The following day, a top executive at Denny's, one of the association's members, told investors that gradual increases in the minimum wage haven't been a problem for the company at all. In fact, California's law raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2023 has actually been good for the diner chain's business, according to Denny's chief financial officer, Robert Verostek."

James Oliphant & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol..., Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.... About half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists 'trying to make Trump look bad,' a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found. Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November's presidential election 'was stolen' from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed." (Also linked yesterday.)

Drew Harwell & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The identity of Q, the supposed top-secret government operative and prophet of the extremist ideology QAnon, has for years been a fiercely debated mystery. But a possible slip-up in a new documentary suggests the answer was always the most obvious one: Ron Watkins, the longtime administrator of the message board 8kun, the conspiratorial movement's online home.... Watkins has long denied his involvement, saying he was merely a neutral backroom operator of the site and never a participant." This is the supposed slip-up: at the end of the documentary, Watkins said in an interview, "It was basically three years of intelligence training, teaching normies how to do intelligence work. It was basically what I was doing anonymously before, but never as Q." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And here I thought there wasn't any big news Monday. What a disappointment to find out Q is just some incel jerk & not the greatest prophet of all time. But it turns out most QAnon supporters are way ahead of me: according to Harwell & Timberg, "... the movement in many ways has outgrown Q, by having elevated a widespread corps of QAnon promoters, merchandisers and social media influencers who offer their audiences a flurry of absurd baseless claims and far-right talking points.... Nearly all of the most popular QAnon discussion boards and Telegram channels ignored the Watkins interview, instead focusing on the movement's latest topics of interest, mostly involving false claims about coronavirus vaccines, President Biden and the Suez Canal."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "The Navajo Nation, which once had one of the worst coronavirus case rates in the United States, recently reached an extraordinary milestone: zero cases and zero deaths in a 24-hour period. The nation, which has over 300,000 enrolled members, is averaging about 11 new cases a day, far below its peak of 250 in late November, according to the latest data from the Navajo Department of Health. And it has vaccinated more of its population than any state, with more than half of its 170,000 residents living on tribal lands fully vaccinated." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "More than four million people in the United States received a coronavirus vaccine on Saturday -- the nation's highest one-day total since the shots began rolling out in December -- amid a rising caseload and increase in hospitalizations. An average of 3.1 million shots were administered each day over the past seven days, and nearly 1 in 4 adults are now fully vaccinated, said Andy Slavitt, the White House's senior adviser for covid-19 response, speaking at a news briefing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday called for speeding up the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine in poorer nations, arguing the U.S. and global economies are threatened by the impact of covid-19 on the developing world. While the United States and other rich countries are hoping for a return to normalcy as soon as this fall, many parts of the developing world are not on pace to have widespread vaccination of their populations until 2023 or 2024.... Yellen called on richer countries to step up both economic and public health assistance to poorer nations reeling from covid. She noted as many as 150 million people across the world risk falling into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis." MB: Maybe it's just coincidental, but I can't help notice that the first female Treasury Secretary also seems to be first at tying U.S. economic policy to humanitarian needs around the globe. Somehow, Steve Munchkin never thought of that. (Also linked yesterday.)

Elizabeth Dias & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "... across white evangelical America, reasons not to get vaccinated have spread as quickly as the virus that public health officials are hoping to overcome through herd immunity. The opposition is rooted in a mix of religious faith and a longstanding wariness of mainstream science, and it is fueled by broader cultural distrust of institutions and gravitation to online conspiracy theories. The sheer size of the community poses a major problem for the country's ability to recover from a pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of half a million Americans.... There are about 41 million white evangelical adults in the U.S. About 45 percent said in late February that they would not get vaccinated against Covid-19, making them among the least likely demographic groups to do so, according to the Pew Research Center."

Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.

Let us root, root, root cheek to cheek,
I don't care if I die in a week. ~~~

~~~ Texas. Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times: "... the Texas Rangers hosted the Toronto Blue Jays in front of the largest crowd at a sporting event in the United States in more than a year.... The state's lifting of capacity restrictions made the enormous crowd possible.... Rangers fans ... were shoulder-to-shoulder in the team's fairly intimate retractable-roofed stadium. M.L.B. requires all fans over age 2 to wear masks at games this season, but a large percentage of the fans in Arlington went maskless. That will undoubtedly raise fears of the event resulting in a spike in coronavirus cases.... Before Monday's game started, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, publicly announced that he had sent a letter to the Rangers to decline throwing out a ceremonial first pitch. Abbott, who had previously agreed to participate at the event, said the decision was made as a reaction to M.L.B. adopting what he called a 'false narrative' in moving the All-Star Game away from Atlanta in response to Georgia's new elections rules. He said that ... he will not participate in any M.L.B. events and that his state will not seek to host any of the league's special events in the future."

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Brianna Kwasnik & Rachel Herzog of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette: "Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday afternoon he vetoed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Hutchinson, a Republican, said he believed House Bill 1570 interfered with the relationship between doctors and patients. The GOP-sponsored legislation prohibits health care providers from administering gender transition treatments, which can include surgery and hormone therapy, to people under 18. Had Hutchinson signed the bill, Arkansas would have been the first state to enact such a measure.... The governor referred to the bill as a 'product of the cultural war in America' and said the measure is 'overbroad, extreme and does not grandfather young people currently on hormone treatment.'" MB: Every once in awhile, Hutchinson does something right. (Also linked yesterday.)

Georgia. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The laws that disenfranchised Black Americans in the South and established Jim Crow did not actually say they were disenfranchising Black Americans and creating a one-party racist state.... There was no statute that said, 'Black people cannot vote.' Instead, Southern lawmakers spun a web of restrictions and regulations meant to catch most Blacks (as well as many whites) and keep them out of the electorate.... The ... argument of conservatives and Republicans asks us to ignore context and extend good faith to lawmakers who overhauled their state's election laws because their party lost an election."

Minnesota. Holly Bailey & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Derek Chauvin 'absolutely' violated Minneapolis Police Department policies and his sworn oath to serve and protect when he knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, the city's police chief testified Monday. During one of the most anticipated moments in the trial, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo unequivocally told the court that Chauvin had failed to follow policies on de-escalation, use of force and offering medical aid to those in need when he ignored Floyd's cries for help while the man lay pinned beneath his knee. The use of force should have ended as soon as Floyd stopped resisting, the chief said.... The day began with testimony from Bradford Langenfeld, an emergency medicine physician who spent at least a half-hour trying to revive Floyd when he was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. It was Langenfeld who later pronounced Floyd dead. Langenfeld ... testified that Floyd arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest and upon further examination was showing 'pulseless electrical activity.'... The doctor testified that he was told by paramedics that they had tried to revive the man for about 30 minutes before he was brought to the hospital, but heard of no other lifesaving efforts at the scene, including by police."