The Ledes

Thursday, October 10, 2024

CNBC: “The pace of price increases over the past year was higher than forecast in September while jobless claims posted an unexpected jump following Hurricane Helene and the Boeing strike, the Labor Department reported Thursday. The consumer price index, a broad gauge measuring the costs of goods and services across the U.S. economy, increased a seasonally adjusted 0.2% for the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 2.4%. Both readings were 0.1 percentage point above the Dow Jones consensus. The annual inflation rate was 0.1 percentage point lower than August and is the lowest since February 2021.”

The New York Times' live updates of Hurrucane Milton consequences Thursday are here: “Milton was still producing damaging hurricane-force winds and heavy rainfall to parts of East and Central Florida, forecasters said early Thursday, even as the powerful storm roared away from the Atlantic coast and left deaths and widespread damage across the state. Cities along Florida’s east coast are now facing flash flooding, damaging winds and storm surges. Some had already been battered by powerful tornadoes spun out by the storm before it made landfall on the Gulf Coast on Wednesday as a Category 3 hurricane. In [St. Lucie] county [Fort Pierce], several people in a retirement community were killed by a tornado, the police said.... More than three million customers were without power in Florida as of early Thursday.” ~~~

     ~~~ Here are the Weater Channel's live updates.

CNN: “The 2024 Nobel Prize in literature has been awarded to Han Kang, a South Korean author, for her 'intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life.' Han, 53, began her career with a group of poems in a South Korean magazine, before making her prose debut in 1995 with a short story collection. She later began writing longer prose works, most notably 'The Vegetarian,' one of her first books to be translated into English. The novel, which won the Man Booker International Prize in 2016, charts a young woman’s attempt to live a more 'plant-like' existence after suffering macabre nightmares about human cruelty. Han is the first South Korean author to win the literature prize, and just the 18th woman out of the 117 prizes awarded since 1901.” The New York Times story is here.

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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Washington Post: “Hours before Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, a spate of unusually strong and long-lived tornadoes touched down across the state, flipping tractor-trailers and ripping off roofs. The twisters surprised anxious residents, even as the storm’s eye still loomed. Authorities said there had been 'multiple' deaths after the intense and destructive tornadoes.” MB: I'm still on Florida's emergency-call list, and I received several calls from Lee County, urging me to shelter in place.

The Washington Post's live updates of Hurricane Milton developments are here: “Hurricane Milton, which has strengthened to a 'catastrophic' Category 5 storm, is closing in on Florida’s west coast and is expected to make landfall Wednesday night or early Thursday, the National Hurricane Center said. The hurricane, which could bring maximum sustained winds of nearly 160 mph with bigger gusts, poses a dire threat to the densely populated zone that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers. As well as 'damaging hurricane-force winds,' coastal communities face a 'life-threatening' storm surge, the center said.” ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates are here: “Milton carved a path of destruction after crashing ashore Wednesday evening on Florida’s Gulf Coast, making landfall near Sarasota as the second powerful hurricane to pound the region in less than two weeks. The storm battered the state for much of the day, with heavy winds, pelting rain and a spate of tornadoes.... By around midnight, the storm had destroyed more than 100 homes, killed several people in a retirement community and ripped the roof off Tropicana Field, the home of the Tampa Bay Rays.”

Washington Post: “The Nobel Prize in chemistry was awarded to David Baker at the University of Washington and Demis Hassabis and John M. Jumper of Google DeepMind.... The prize was awarded to scientists who cracked the code of proteins. Hassabis and Jumper used artificial intelligence to predict the structure of proteins, one of the toughest problems in biology. Baker created computational tools to design novel proteins with shapes and functions that can be used in drugs, vaccines and sensors.”

Sorry, forgot this yesterday: ~~~

Reuters: “U.S. scientist John Hopfield and British-Canadian Geoffrey Hinton won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for discoveries and inventions in machine learning that paved the way for the artificial intelligence boom. Heralded for its revolutionary potential in areas ranging from cutting-edge scientific discovery to more efficient admin, the emerging technology on which the duo worked has also raised fears humankind may soon be outsmarted and outcompeted by its own creation.”

Help!

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Tuesday
Dec292020

The Commentariat -- December 30, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

James Gallagher & Nick Triggle of BBC News: "The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the UK, with the first doses due to be given on Monday. There will be 530,000 doses available from next week, and vaccination centres will now start inviting patients to come and get the jab. Priority groups for immunisation have already been identified, starting with care home residents, the over-80s, and health and care workers."

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced Wednesday that he would object next week when Congress convenes to certify the electoral college vote, a move that all but ensures at least a short delay in cementing President-elect Joe Biden's victory." Politico's story is here. MB: When little Josh heard Missouri was called the "show-me state," he thought it meant, "Show me! Show me!" What an ass.

Old McConnell Has a Trick, E I E I O. Phil Mattingly of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell introduced legislation Tuesday to combine two additional demands from ... Donald Trump to an expansion of direct stimulus payments as part of the Covid-19 relief package, raising Democratic concern the pathway for expanded stimulus payments would soon be short-circuited. The Kentucky Republican, shortly before adjourning the Senate on Tuesday afternoon, introduced a bill that would combine increased direct payments with a repeal of the online liability protections known as Section 230 and the establishment of a commission to study voter fraud. The latter two issues have been significant drivers of Trump's ire in the wake of his general election loss -- the latter of which with zero evidence presented to this point. While the move doesn't guarantee McConnell will bring the bill up for a vote, it provides a substantive option should time -- and the political winds -- press the chamber in that direction. It's also one that would be all but certain to fail to garner the votes for passage. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York called the bill a 'cynical gambit' and said it would serve as 'a blatant attempt' to ensure the $2,000 direct payments were not signed into law."

Reuters: "... Donald Trump's pardon of four American men convicted of killing Iraqi civilians while working as contractors in 2007 violated U.S. obligations under international law, U.N. human rights experts said on Wednesday.... The Geneva Conventions oblige states to hold war criminals accountable for their crimes, even when they act as private security contractors, the U.N. experts said. 'These pardons violate U.S. obligations under international law and more broadly undermine humanitarian law and human rights at a global level.'"

Joseph Guzman of the Hill: "President Trump reportedly plans to hold his annual black-tie New Year's Eve gala at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., despite the raging coronavirus pandemic that has left more than 330,000 Americans dead.... While there's no official word on how many guests will be in attendance this year, a member of Mar-a-Lago told [CNN] at least 500 reservations have been confirmed so far for the event where attendees reportedly paid about $1,000 per ticket in 2019." MB: Trump doesn't care if the event is a Covid superspreader as long as the checks clear before the guests die.

Shayna Jacobs & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has retained forensic accounting specialists to aid its criminal investigation of President Trump and his business operations, as prosecutors ramp up their scrutiny of his company's real estate transactions, according to people familiar with the matter. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. opened the investigation in 2018 to examine alleged hush-money payments made to two women who, during Trump's first presidential campaign, claimed to have had affairs with him years earlier. The probe has since expanded, and now includes the Trump Organization's activities more broadly.... Vance's office has suggested in court filings that bank, tax and insurance fraud are areas of exploration."

Max Greenwood of the Hill: "President Trump called for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp's (R) resignation on Wednesday, hammering him for refusing to back up the president's claim that he carried Georgia in the November presidential election -- despite his loss by 12,000 votes, a result that has survived multiple recounts and court challenges. '@BrianKempGA should resign from office,' Trump tweeted. 'He is an obstructionist who refuses to admit that we won Georgia, BIG! Also won the other Swing States.'"

Rep. Jim Jordan (Rabid-Ohio) asked what one supposes was a rhetorical question when complaining in a tweet about stay-at-home orders necessitated by the pandemic. "What would the Founders say?" asked Jim. Bad news for Jimbo; smarter people than he follow him on Twitter. Amee Vanderpool wrote, "George Washington established quarantine guidelines, travel bans and isolated those infected with smallpox during the Revolutionary War-the colonists even passed a law in 1731 that made reporting the illness mandatory." And Ethan Bearman tweeted, "The Founders passed An Act Related to Quarantine during the 3rd Congress in 1796, signed by PRESIDENT GEORGE WASHINGTON. It directed the feds to help states enforce quarantines." MB: My sentiments are with the Rude Pundit: "It would have taken you less than a fucking minute to google this shit and discovered that George Washington ordered quarantines during the small pox epidemic in the 1770s-80s." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link to this HuffPost story.

Tal Axelrod & Naomi Jagoda of the Hill: "Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that stimulus payments from the most recent coronavirus relief package could begin landing in Americans' bank accounts as early as Tuesday night [i.e., yesterday]. Mnuchin said in a tweet that the Treasury Department had delivered a payment file to the Federal Reserve in association with the package and that 'payments may begin to arrive in some accounts by direct deposit as early as tonight and will continue into next week.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update: In today's Comments, Bobby Lee says a friend in Georgia already already has received the $600. Bobby Lee, a cynic, thinks that on accounta the upcoming senatorial election, checks went out to Georgia first. Nah!

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Christina Maxouris of CNN: "The US set two more devastating Covid-19 records as it counted down the hours to the end of what has been a calamitous year for the nation. On Tuesday, it recorded more than 3,700 new deaths linked to the virus, a chilling new high. The US also reported the most Covid-19 hospitalizations, with more than 124,600 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project."

Alexandra Jaffe of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration Tuesday for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines and predicted that 'things will get worse before they get better' when it comes to the pandemic. 'We need to be honest -- the next few weeks and months are going to be very tough, very tough for our nation. Maybe the toughest during this entire pandemic,' Biden said during remarks in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ What's to Criticize? Joe Murphy & Corky Siemaszko of NBC News: "The Trump administration's Covid-19 vaccine distribution program needs a major shot in the arm because at the current rate, it would take almost 10 years to inoculate enough Americans to get the pandemic under control, a jarring new NBC News analysis showed Tuesday. The goal of Operation Warp Speed, a private-public partnership led by Vice President Mike Pence to produce and deliver safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines to the public, is to ensure that 80 percent of the country's 330.7 million people get the shots by late June.... So far, only about 2 million people -- most of them front-line health care workers and some nursing home residents -- have gotten their first shots of the 11.5 million doses that were delivered in the last two weeks, a review by NBC News of data from federal and state agencies showed."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "President-elect Joe Biden is expanding his White House Covid-19 Response team, tapping three senior officials to coordinate vaccine, testing and supply chain strategy.... The officials are set to play a major role in Biden's response to the worsening pandemic, which the president-elect has made his top priority ahead of taking office.... Biden has selected Bechara Choucair, a Kaiser Permanente executive, to be the nation's Covid-19 vaccine coordinator.... The president-elect chose Carole Johnson, the commissioner of New Jersey's human services department and a former senior health adviser in the Obama-Biden White House, as the nation's new Covid-19 testing coordinator.... Additionally, Biden picked Tim Manning, who served as deputy administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for all eight years of the Obama-Biden administration, to be the nation's new Covid-19 supply coordinator."

Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received a coronavirus vaccination on Tuesday in Washington, joining President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President Mike Pence and other leaders who have been inoculated. Harris took the shot at United Medical Center in Southeast D.C., an area of the nation's capital that is home to a large proportion of the city's African American residents. People of color have disproportionately been affected by the toll of Covid-19, and public health officials have sought to combat vaccine hesitancy in these groups.... Harris received a dose of the vaccine manufactured by Moderna, as did her husband, Doug Emhoff, who received his shot out of public view."

Mike DeBonis & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blocked consideration of a House bill that would deliver $2,000 stimulus payments to most Americans -- spurning a request by President Trump even as more Senate Republicans voiced support for the dramatically larger checks. McConnell's move was just the beginning of a saga that is likely to engulf the Senate for the rest of the week. Democrats are pushing for an up-or-down vote on the House bill, while more Republicans acknowledge a need for larger stimulus checks. Tension within the Republican party spilled into public view on Tuesday, with Trump leveling pointed attacks at GOP leaders for failing to act, accusing them of being 'pathetic' and suggesting they had a 'death wish.'... 'WE NEED NEW & ENERGETIC REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP,' he wrote. New proponents of the $2,000 checks include Georgia's two embattled Republican senators -- David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler...." The AP's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Colorado officials on Tuesday reported the first known case in the United States of a person infected with the mutation-laden coronavirus variant that has been circulating rapidly across much of the United Kingdom and has led to a lockdown of much of southern England. The case involves a male in his 20s who is currently in isolation in Elbert County and has no travel history, according to a tweet from the office of Gov. Jared Polis." (Also linked yesterday.)

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Dozens of research papers published over the past few months have found that people whose bodies were teeming with the coronavirus more often became seriously ill and were more likely to die, compared with those who carried much less virus and were more likely to emerge relatively unscathed.... The results suggest that knowing the so-called viral load -- the amount of virus in the body -- could help doctors...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Sam Karlin of the New Orleans Times-Picayune: "Congressman-elect Luke Letlow [R] died Tuesday evening from complications with COVID-19, shaking the Louisiana political world weeks after his election to represent Louisiana's 5th District in Congress as the state's youngest U.S. representative. Letlow, 41, died at Ochsner-LSU Health Shreveport from 'complications from COVID-19,' his spokesman, Andrew Bautsch, said in a statement."

Sarah Polus of the Hill: "A Massachusetts GOP leader who has COVID-19 says he most likely contacted it at a White House Hanukkah party on Dec. 9, local station WJAR reported last week. Tom Mountain, the vice chairman of the Massachusetts Republican State Committee, was hospitalized and almost put on a ventilator just a few days after attending the event, one of the 25 holiday parties thrown at the White House this month, according to The Washington Post.... Photos of Mountain from the gathering show him and many others around him without masks on. While masks were required while in line, many partygoers removed them upon entry, according to the Post." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Like every Republican, Mountain doesn't see something -- even an international crisis -- as real unless it touches him personally: "Mountain is now urging others to heed the advice of health experts of social distancing. 'I didn't listen to the warnings of my own family, and now I’m paying the price,' Mountain told The Boston Globe.

California. Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, et al., of Yahoo! News: "The crisis at Los Angeles County hospitals hit new levels as patients continued to stream in during the holiday weekend, and the medical system is bracing for a new wave of coronavirus spread arising from Christmas travel and gatherings. L.A. County's cumulative COVID-19 death toll is expected to climb past 10,000 this week. Hospitals are so inundated that they've resorted to placing patients in conference rooms and gift shops. But even so, many facilities are running out of space. Virtually all hospitals in L.A. County are being forced to divert ambulances with certain types of patients elsewhere during most hours. On Sunday, 94% of L.A. County hospitals that take in patients stemming from 911 calls were diverting some ambulances away."

Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Toluse Olorunnipa & Jabin Botsford of the Washington Post review Trump's year that was.

Whiney-Prez* Knocks Congressional Republicans. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday sharply criticized Republican leaders for allowing a vote to override his veto of a must-pass defense policy bill, calling them'weak' and 'tired' and accusing them of a 'disgraceful act of cowardice.' The House on Monday evening voted 322-87 to override Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), teeing up what may be the first and only veto override of Trump's presidency. 'Weak and tired Republican "leadership" will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass,' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, apparently referring to GOP Senate leadership." (Also linked yesterday.)

AP: "... Donald Trump' campaign asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday to take its failed lawsuit challenging election results in swing state Wisconsin. Trump lost the state to Democrat Joe Biden by about 21,000 votes. The president's campaign filed a lawsuit with the state Supreme Court seeking to disqualify more than 221,000 ballots in Dane and Milwaukee counties, the state's two most heavily Democratic counties. Trump wanted to disqualify absentee ballots cast early and in-person, saying there wasn't a proper written request made for the ballots; absentee ballots cast by people who claimed 'indefinitely confined' status; absentee ballots collected by poll workers at Madison parks; and absentee ballots where clerks filled in missing information on ballot envelopes. The state Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit, ruling 4-3 that Trump's challenge to voters who were indefinitely confined was without merit and that the other claims came too late."

Oh, Dear, Will Pence Foil the Gohmert Plot? Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Lawyers for Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and Arizona's 11 Republican electors revealed Tuesday that Vice President Mike Pence declined to sign onto their plan to upend Congress' certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory. It's the first indication that Pence is resisting some of the most extreme calls to reverse the presidential election results, thus relying on his role as the presiding officer on Jan. 6, when Congress meets to finalize Biden's win.... Pence still has not publicly weighed in on his plans for presiding over the Jan. 6 session, when Congress will count electoral votes expected to certify Biden's victory. He also has not publicly commented on Trump's repeated calls to reverse the results of the democratic process and install himself for a second term." ~~~

~~~ Rosalind Helderman & Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: “President Trump and his allies are growing increasingly desperate as Congress prepares to formally receive the votes that will confirm his election loss next week, filing lawsuits against nonexistent entities and even Trump's own vice president as they try to come up with new ways to overturn the vote.... Trevor Potter, a Republican election law expert ... said the remedy [Rep. Louis] Gohmert [R-Texas] is seeking 'would stand the Constitution on its head. It would effectively deliver to the vice president the right to determine who won the presidential election. If the vice president has authority to pick his favorite electors, then you wouldn't need a Congress or a Constitution.'"

Georgia. WSB-TV Atlanta News: "... the Georgia Bureau of Investigation has finished the signature audit in Cobb County over the November election. Earlier in the month, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said his office had investigated credible allegations that Cobb County improperly performed signature matches during the June primary, so he ordered a signature audit for the November election in that county.... Raffensperger ... said there were only two mismatched signatures among the more than 15,000 votes in the audit.... The inaccuracy came from a wife who signed her name to ballots for both her and her husband, the Secretary of State said.... The audit found no fraudulent absentee ballots with a 99% confidence threshold, Raffensperger's office said in a news release Tuesday."

Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "A senior U.S. District judge called Donald Trump a 'criminal' during a phone call with the Associated Press as he discussed the 45th president's recent pardons of political allies who were convicted in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt, a Bill Clinton appointee who had been the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa before assuming senior status in 2012, said..., 'It's not surprising that a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals.'" The AP story is here." (Also linked yesterday.)

Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "Former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn is going all in on the QAnon conspiracy theory, promoting an online store to sell QAnon hats and T-shirts, the proceeds of which will benefit his partnership with a prominent QAnon booster. Flynn's drawn-out legal battle with Special Counsel Robert Mueller turned him into a hero for QAnon believers. Many QAnon supporters, who rely on mysterious online clues to construct a worldview where the Democratic Party and other institutions are controlled by a cabal of pedophile-cannibals, claim that Flynn is 'Q', the anonymous figure behind the conspiracy theory. They also took a previously obscure Flynn quote about the American military's 'digital soldiers' as their banner, adopting the phrase to refer to QAnon believers themselves."MB: Other than that & a few other itty-bitty lapses (secretly representing Turkey, dining with Putin, for instance), Flynn was a perfectly well-qualified National Security Advisor, and President Obama should not have fired him.

Peter Grant of the Wall Street Journal: "Kushner Cos., the family business of White House senior aide Jared Kushner, filed papers to raise at least $100 million by selling bonds in Israel. The deal would be Kushner Cos.' first capital raise on the Israeli bond market, as well as the largest unsecured capital raise by the family-controlled business that owns billions of dollars worth of apartments, office buildings and other commercial property in the U.S. Kushner Cos. filed the papers this month with the Israel Securities Authority and would sell the bonds on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. The company has raised other forms of capital in Israel in the past from both banks and equity partners.... The move by Kushner Cos. is likely to rekindle the criticism of the potential conflicts of interest between Mr. Kushner's role in the White House and his family's business.... Mr. Trump this month pardoned Mr. Kushner's father, Charles Kushner, who was sentenced in 2005 to two years in prison after pleading guilty to tax evasion and witness tampering." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The story is ostensibly firewalled, but I was able to call it up twice. ~~~

~~~ "Open & Transparent," Trump-style. Joseph Krauss of the AP: "The United States sold the ambassador's residence in Israel for more than $67 million in July, according to an official Israeli record of the sale that shines new light on a transaction that has been shrouded in secrecy. The State Department confirmed the sale in September but refused to identify the buyer or disclose the sale price of the sprawling beachfront compound in the upscale Tel Aviv suburb of Herzliya. On Tuesday, it said the sale had been 'open and transparent.' The Israeli business newspaper Globes has identified the buyer as the U.S. casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, a strong supporter of both ... Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.... It appears to be the most expensive single residence ever sold in Israel. Congressional aides told The Associated Press in September that lawmakers in the House and Senate were looking into whether the sale of the residence complied with regulations. The sale helped to cement Trump's controversial decision to relocate the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to contested Jerusalem in 2018 and to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. By selling the residence, it would make it harder for future presidents to reverse the decision to move the embassy. President-elect Joe Biden has criticized the decision to move the embassy to Jerusalem but says he will not reverse it." ~~~

~~~ Speaking of Sheldon Adelson. AP: "Jonathan Pollard, who spent 30 years in U.S. prison for spying for Israel, arrived in Israel early Wednesday with his wife, triumphantly kissing the ground as he exited the aircraft in the culmination of a decades-long affair.... 'We are ecstatic to be home at last after 35 years,' Pollard said as he was greeted at Israel's international airport by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader jubilantly presented Pollard and his wife Esther with Israeli ID cards, granting them citizenship.... Pollard arrived on a private plane provided by American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson.... Pollard's arrival was first reported by Israel Hayom, a newspaper owned by Adelson.... Pollard, a civilian intelligence analyst for the U.S. Navy, sold military secrets to Israel while working at the Pentagon in the 1980s. He was arrested in 1985 after trying unsuccessfully to gain asylum at the Israeli Embassy in Washington and pleaded guilty. The espionage affair during the Reagan years embarrassed Israel and tarnished its relations with the United States for years."

Georgia Senate Race. Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge in Georgia on Monday ordered two counties to reverse a decision removing more than 4,000 voters from the rolls ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff elections that will decide control of the U.S. Senate. The judge, Leslie Abrams Gardner -- the sister of former gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, a prominent ally of President-elect Joe Biden who has led voter registration efforts across the state -- concluded that the counties appeared to have improperly relied on unverified change-of-address data to invalidate registrations in the two counties." ~~~

~~~ David Corn of Mother Jones: Kelly Loeffler is just about the swampiest swamp creature in Washington, D.C.: As a U.S. senator, "Loeffler was overseeing regulators at the same time they were engaged in activity affecting a company she was intimately tied to as a current shareholder, former executive, and spouse of its CEO. That's very swampy."

Beyond the Beltway

Kentucky. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The Louisville police officer who fired the shot that killed Breonna Taylor, a Black emergency room technician whose death set off a wave of protests on American streets, was told on Tuesday that the department was moving to oust him from the force, as was a second officer who obtained a judge's approval for the poorly planned nighttime raid on her home. The move is the most significant acknowledgment by the department that its officers had committed serious violations when they burst through Ms. Taylor's door late one night in March, encountered gunfire, and then fired a volley of shots at her and her boyfriend. The terminations mark an effort by the city's interim police chief, Yvette Gentry, to achieve the reckoning she promised when she came out of retirement to lead the troubled department into the beginning of the new year. Lawyers for Detective Myles Cosgrove, one of the officers who shot Ms. Taylor, and Detective Joshua Jaynes, who prepared the search warrant for the raid, said each had received notices of termination. Both have been on administrative reassignment as the investigations have been underway." The Louisville Courier Journal story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Malachy Browne, et al., of the New York Times: "None of the police officers who raided Breonna Taylor's home wore body cameras, impeding the public from a full understanding of what happened. The Times's visual investigation team built a 3-D model of the scene and pieced together critical sequences of events to show how poor planning and shoddy police work led to a fatal outcome." This is a video report, and it is as disturbing as you might expect.

Ohio. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Two Cleveland police officers will avoid federal criminal charges for their role in the killing of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Black boy who had been carrying a pellet gun when he was shot in 2014, the Justice Department announced on Tuesday, citing a lack of evidence in the high-profile case. The announcement drew to a close a five-year federal investigation into the actions of then-Officer Timothy Loehmann and his partner, Officer Frank Garmback, one that has been criticized by Tamir's family and government watchdogs as deeply flawed and politically influenced.... In 2019, two career prosecutors in the Justice Department's civil rights division were denied permission to use a grand jury to issue subpoenas for documents or witness testimony.... Justice Department officials said in a lengthy statement on Tuesday that they could not establish that the officers involved in Tamir's killing willfully violated his civil rights or that they knowingly made false statements with the intent of obstructing a federal investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "were denied permission to use a grand jury": The use of the passive voice here is maddening. "Were denied"? By whom? A career mid-level DOJ lawyer? A political appointee? Bill Barr?

Tennessee. Natalie Allison of the Tennessean: "Sixteen months before Anthony Quinn Warner's RV exploded in downtown Nashville on Christmas morning, officers visited his home in Antioch after his girlfriend reported that he was making bombs in the vehicle, according to documents obtained by The Tennessean.... In the aftermath [of the Nashville bombing], The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said Warner was 'not on our radar' prior to the bombing. But a Metro Nashville Police Department report from August 2019 shows that local and federal authorities were aware of alleged threats he had made.... On Aug. 21, 2019, the girlfriend told Nashville police that Warner 'was building bombs in the RV trailer at his residence,' the MNPD report states.... Officers saw his RV behind the house, but the vehicle was fenced off and police were unable to see inside of it, the [police] report said.... Nashville police then forwarded the information to the FBI." A New York Times story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Dharna Noor of Gizmodo: "This past autumn, people all across the U.S. southwest were finding an astounding number of dead birds littered along roads, on golf courses, and in their own driveways. Some estimated that hundreds of thousands of the creatures perished.... Lab results on bird necropsies from the U.S. Geological Survey's National Wildlife Health Center ... suggest that starvation was a cause of the mass die-off seen in August and September. 80% of the carcasses the researchers analyzed showed signs of starvation.... The findings are a warning sign of difficult times ahead for birds. As the climate crisis worsens, studies show the American West and South will see far more frequent and severe dry spells. Seemingly random spurts of cold weather will also become more common.... A 2019 report found that North America has already lost 30% of its birds since 1970[.]" --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

** China. Communist Capitalism is Awesome, Slave State Edition. Alison Killing & Megha Rajagopalan of Buzzfeed News: "China has built more than 100 new facilities in Xinjiang where it can not only lock people up, but also force them to work in dedicated factory buildings right on site, BuzzFeed News can reveal based on government records, interviews, and hundreds of satellite images. In August, BuzzFeed News uncovered hundreds of compounds in Xinjiang bearing the hallmarks of prisons or detention camps, many built during the last three years in a rapid escalation of China's campaign against Muslim minorities including Uighurs, Kazakhs, and others.... Collectively, the factory facilities identified by BuzzFeed News cover more than 21 million square feet -- nearly four times the size of the Mall of America.... Xinjiang's industry is booming, and the region has one of the fastest GDP growth rates in China. Xinjiang exports a range of products, from clothing to machinery, and the US is one of the region's fastest-growing markets." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I see where Ivanka Trump is thinking of running for public office. The Chinese system sounds like one she would heartily endorse (or enforce, if it were in her power).

News Lede

CBS News: "Dawn Wells, best known for portraying the girl-next-door castaway Mary Ann Summers on the iconic 1960s CBS sitcom 'Gilligan's Island,' died Wednesday of complications related to COVID-19. She was 82."

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Monday
Dec282020

The Commentariat -- December 29, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Alexandra Jaffe of the AP: "President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration Tuesday for the pace of distributing COVID-19 vaccines and predicted that 'things will get worse before they get better' when it comes to the pandemic. 'We need to be honest -- the next few weeks and months are going to be very tough, very tough for our nation. Maybe the toughest during this entire pandemic,' Biden said during remarks in Wilmington, Delaware on Tuesday."

Mike DeBonis & Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday blocked consideration of a House bill that would deliver $2,000 stimulus payments to most Americans -- spurning a request by President Trump even as more Senate Republicans voiced support for the dramatically larger checks. McConnell's move was just the beginning of a saga that is likely to engulf the Senate for the rest of the week. Democrats are pushing for an up-or-down vote on the House bill, while more Republicans acknowledge a need for larger stimulus checks. Tension within the Republican party spilled into public view on Tuesday, with Trump leveling pointed attacks at GOP leaders for failing to act, accusing them of being 'pathetic' and suggesting they had a 'death wish.'... 'WE NEED NEW & ENERGETIC REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP,' he wrote. New proponents of the $2,000 checks include Georgia's two embattled Republican senators -- David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler...." The AP's story is here. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, the Third Branch Weighs in. Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "A senior U.S. District judge called Donald Trump a 'criminal' during a phone call with the Associated Press as he discussed the 45th president's recent pardons of political allies who were convicted in former Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation. Senior U.S. District Judge Robert W. Pratt, a Bill Clinton appointee who had been the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa before assuming senior status in 2012, said..., 'It's not surprising that a criminal like Trump pardons other criminals.'" The AP story is here."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Colorado officials on Tuesday reported the first known case in the United States of a person infected with the mutation-laden coronavirus variant that has been circulating rapidly across much of the United Kingdom and has led to a lockdown of much of southern England. The case involves a male in his 20s who is currently in isolation ... and has no travel history, according to a tweet from the office of Gov. Jared Polis."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Dozens of research papers published over the past few months have found that people whose bodies were teeming with the coronavirus more often became seriously ill and were more likely to die, compared with those who carried much less virus and were more likely to emerge relatively unscathed.... The results suggest that knowing the so-called viral load -- the amount of virus in the body -- could help doctors...."

Whiney-Prez* Knocks Congressional Republicans. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday sharply criticized Republican leaders for allowing a vote to override his veto of a must-pass defense policy bill, calling them'weak' and 'tired' and accusing them of a 'disgraceful act of cowardice.' The House on Monday evening voted 322-87 to override Trump's veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), teeing up what may be the first and only veto override of Trump's presidency. 'Weak and tired Republican "leadership" will allow the bad Defense Bill to pass,' Trump tweeted Tuesday morning, apparently referring to GOP Senate leadership."

~~~~~~~~~~

Amy Wang & Jenna Johnson of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden on Monday accused President Trump and his political appointees of obstructing the transition of power to his incoming administration, particularly on national security issues, an escalation in tone after reports of isolated difficulties in the transition process last week. In remarks from Wilmington, Del., Biden specifically called out the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department as agencies where his transition team had encountered 'roadblocks' from political leadership. Biden's remarks came shortly after he attended a briefing with nearly two dozen of his national security advisers. '... It's nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility,' Biden said.... He warned that such delays could allow enemies of the United States to take advantage of vulnerabilities, citing a massive cybersecurity breach that compromised several U.S. agencies earlier this month.... Biden was careful to distinguish between political appointees in the agencies and the career professionals who he said had cooperated fully.... Biden opened his remarks by addressing the Christmas Day explosion in Nashville...." MB: Trump, BTW, is too busy golfing to remark on the Nashville explosion. The Guardian's story is here. The New York Times' story is here. More on this linked under "Last Days...."~~~

     ~~~ MB: The audio is low on all the videos of Biden's remarks, so this is the best I could do.

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House mustered enough votes Monday to reject President Trump's veto of a $741 billion defense authorization bill, setting up the first congressional override of his presidency just days before he exits office.... The bill now heads to the Senate, which must also pass the measure with a two-thirds majority in order for it to become law. That vote could happen as soon as Wednesday." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) CNBC's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Then, Along Comes Bernie. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Sen. Bernie Sanders will filibuster an override of ... Donald Trump's defense bill veto unless the Senate holds a vote on providing $2,000 direct payments to Americans. 'McConnell and the Senate want to expedite the override vote [on the defense bill] and I understand that. But I'm not going to allow that to happen unless there is a vote, no matter how long that takes, on the $2,000 direct payment,' Sanders said in an interview on Monday night.... Under Senate rules, Sanders has the ability to keep the chamber in during the holiday week and likely mess with the campaign schedules of Sens. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.)." ~~~

     ~~~ David Dayen in the American Prospect: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), with the backing of the Senate Democratic caucus, is prepared to make life miserable for Senate Republicans if they do not put a clean vote on the floor to increase one-time emergency payments to most Americans approved in the recent COVID relief package from $600 to $2,000. Sanders has the procedural means at his disposal to keep the Senate in session all the way to New Year's Day, inconveniencing Senators of both parties, particularly the incumbent Republicans from Georgia, who are in their final full week of campaigning for runoff elections...." Dayen explains how the maneuver would work. More on the Covid bill linked under "Last Days..." & "The Trumpidemic" below.

The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser

Michael Shear & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "For five days, starting before Christmas, Mr. Trump virtually held the nation hostage, delaying the extension of unemployment benefits for millions of out-of-work Americans, holding up the delivery of $600 checks, and dangling the possibility of a total government shutdown even as officials raced to distribute a coronavirus vaccine.... As an exercise in raw presidential power, it was a flop. As a political tactic, it backfired. And as a coda to his final weeks in office..., [it] merely underscored his tumultuous tenure in the Oval Office.... The veto threat was the latest attention-getting maneuver by a president who appears unwilling to accept the reality that Washington is moving on without him." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Part of the report reveals how Lindsey Graham & Kevin McCarthy had to engage in hours of "handholding ... to assuage the president's concerns." Aw, too bad. Lindsey & Kevin didn't make the Trumpenstein monster, but they were eager & able lab assistants. ~~~

~~~ We Shall Coddle Him on Palm Beach, We Shall Grovel on the Golf Course, We Shall Flatter in the Beast.... Mike DeBonis & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post write a story on how intrepid Lindsey rushed to Palm Beach to help negotiate Trump's "complete surrender."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "As of Monday, three days after authorities identified the [Nashville] bomber as a 63-year-old Nashville-area resident, Trump still had not commented personally on the event. He spent the day at Trump International Golf Club.... Trump's silence has offered another example of a president who, since his election defeat last month, has been consumed by his own political troubles and detached from the duties of his office as he wages a baseless assault on the integrity of the U.S. election system. But it is also consistent with a commander in chief who has, over nearly four years, quickly sounded alarms about violence he has connected to Muslim groups, foreigners or left-wing social movements in the United States --; but been slower to denounce attacks from right-wing actors or others who do not serve his political agenda." More on the bombing linked under "Beyond the Beltway."

Stupid Crazy People Have Another Stupid Crazy Plan. Justin Rohrlich of the Daily Beast: "A group of Republicans including Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Kelli Ward of Arizona is suing Vice President Mike Pence in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Electoral College is scheduled to certify the win on Jan. 6, a procedural task overseen by the sitting vice president.... In the lawsuit, details of which reporter John Kruzel of The Hill posted on Twitter, Gohmert, Ward, and 10 other plaintiffs such as Students for Trump COO Tyler Bowyer, Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Greg Safsten, and Maricopa County Republicans Second Vice Chair Nancy Cottle, are asking federal Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee, to declare Pence legally authorized to pick pro-Trump electors on Jan. 6." Here's Kruzel's story in the Hill. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and ... Donald Trump's defeated electors from Arizona may force Vice President Mike Pence to publicly pick a side in Trump's bid to overturn his 2020 election loss.... Though the lawsuit itself is unlikely to gain legal traction, it does put Pence in the position of having to either contest the suit -- putting him on the opposite side of Trump and his GOP defenders -- or support it and lay bare the intention to subvert the will over the voters in the 2020 election. Pence has engaged with GOP lawmakers seeking to reverse the election results but has avoided publicly taking a side in the matter, and he has given no indication how he intends to handle his role presiding over the Jan. 6 session of Congress set to certify Biden's victory. Though Biden was the certified winner in states like Arizona, Pennsylvania, Michigan and others, the Republicans who would have been Trump's electors met anyway and purported to cast their votes for Trump's reelection. They're counting on Pence and congressional Republicans to treat those informal votes as equal to the slates certified in those states where Trump was defeated." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), appearing on MSNBC, said the suit was nonsense & predicted it would be thrown out of court like the other 80-some nonsense election-results suits. ~~~

~~~ Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Republican-leaning pollster Rasmussen invoked a quote attributed to Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in a Twitter thread Sunday suggesting Vice President Pence could attempt to overturn the results of the presidential election. 'Those who cast the votes decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything. -- Stalin,' the pollster tweeted, before going on to outline a scenario in which Pence refuses to certify the results in swing states." Constitutional scholars say the veep is authorized only to open envelopes & report votes, not to strike the totals he doesn't like.

>The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "The House on Monday voted to beef up stimulus checks set to go out to American households in the coming weeks from $600 to $2,000. The chamber acted swiftly after President Trump demanded the larger payments in the last week.... Forty four Republicans joined the vast majority of Democrats on Monday in passing the bill on a 275-134 vote. The measure's fate is much less certain in the Senate, which is controlled by Republicans. Approving stimulus checks of $2,000 would add several hundred billion dollars to the price of an aid bill that congressional Republicans had sought to keep under $1 trillion." An NBC News story is here.

William Feuer of CNBC: "President-elect Joe Biden plans to invoke the Defense Production Act after he takes office next month to boost production of coronavirus vaccines, a member of his Covid-19 advisory team said Monday. 'You will see him invoking the Defense Production Act,' Dr. Celine Gounder, a member of Biden's Covid-19 advisory board, said ... on CNBC's 'Squawk Box.' 'The idea there is to make sure the personal protective equipment, the test capacity and the raw materials for the vaccines are produced in adequate supply.' The wartime production law, which allows the president to compel companies to prioritize manufacturing for national security, could help the U.S. secure components and specialized products that manufacturers need to produce the Covid vaccines.... The New York Times reported last week that Pfizer ... began asking the Trump administration in September to help the pharmaceutical giant obtain some supplies needed for production but was disappointed by a lack of response.... The Times ... reported that as part of [a] deal, [struck last week], the U.S. government agreed to invoke the Defense Production Act to 'help Pfizer get better access to around nine specialized products it needs to make the vaccine.'"

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

Americans Celebrate the Birth of the Baby Jesus by Condemning Themselves & Others to Death. Brittany Shammas & Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "Despite weeks of increases in coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, U.S. air travel hit a pandemic record this weekend as Americans crisscrossed the country for the holidays -- a sign, some public health experts warn, that yet another surge could be on the horizon. The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that it had screened 1,284,599 passengers Sunday. Travel is down 55 to 65 percent compared with before the coronavirus pandemic, but Sunday marked the highest number of travelers since mid-March and the sixth time in 10 days the daily volume exceeded 1 million."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted an attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, accusing Fauci of lying about the efficacy of masks & distorting information about herd immunity. "As usual, the real answer is a little more nuanced than Rubio seems capable of understanding or he's the one who's outright lying to Americans about the facts to score political points. As for the 'elites' Rubio [accuses of tricking the American people], is one of the 'elites' who has already received the vaccine." Burris includes tweeted criticisms of Rubio. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Tennessee. Rick Rojas, et al., of the New York Times: "Anthony Warner had a solitary job as an information technology specialist.... He was 63. He was not married. His neighbors barely knew him. He sent an email to one of his clients three weeks ago to say he was retiring. He started shedding possessions: He told his ex-girlfriend that he had cancer and gave her his car. Records show that he signed away his home on the day before Thanksgiving. But he made sure to hold on to ... his R.V., a Thor Motor Coach Chateau that he kept in his back yard. He parked the vehicle around 1:22 a.m. Christmas morning on Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville, in the heart of a district of honky-tonks, restaurants and boot shops that would often be packed but was quiet in the small hours of a holiday morning. The R.V. had been rigged with explosives and a speaker set to play a warning and a song: 'Downtown' by Petula Clark, a hit released in 1964 celebrating the bright lights and bustle of a vibrant city.... Just before dawn, the R.V. exploded, its concussion reverberating for blocks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede:

New York Times: "Pierre Cardin, the visionary designer and licensing pioneer who invented the business of fashion as it is conducted today, has died in France. He was 98.... He clothed the famous -- artists, political luminaries, tastemakers and members of the haute bourgeoisie -- but he was also a merchant to the masses with an international brand...."

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Sunday
Dec272020

The Commentariat -- December 28, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) tweeted an attack on Dr. Anthony Fauci, accusing Fauci of lying about the efficacy of masks & distorting information about herd immunity. "As usual, the real answer is a little more nuanced than Rubio seems capable of understanding or he's the one who's outright lying to Americans about the facts to score political points. As for the 'elites' Rubio [accuses of tricking the American people], is one of the 'elites' who has already received the vaccine." Burris includes tweeted criticisms of Rubio.

Clare Foran, et al., of CNN: "The House of Representatives will vote on Monday on a measure to increase stimulus checks for Americans under a certain income level to $2,000 after President Trump signed a sweeping coronavirus relief bill into law Sunday evening."

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House is primed to vote Monday evening to reject President Trump's veto of a $741 billion defense authorization bill, setting up the first congressional override of his presidency just days before he exits office. Trump made good on repeated threats to veto the legislation last week, when he sent the bill back to Congress with a laundry list of objections. Among the president's complaints were that it ordered the Pentagon to change the names of military installations commemorating Confederate generals; restricted his ability to pull U.S. troops out of Germany, South Korea and Afghanistan; and did not repeal an unrelated law giving certain liability protections to technology companies. His veto led some of his stalwart supporters, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), to announce that they would not cross the president's veto, even though they had voted for the defense bill. But despite those gestures of solidarity, the president has never had the numbers to sustain a veto, according to congressional officials." The AP has a related story here.

Stupid Crazy People Have Another Stupid Crazy Plan. Justin Rohrlich of the Daily Beast: "A group of Republicans including Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Kelli Ward of Arizona is suing Vice President Mike Pence in a desperate, last-ditch attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. The Electoral College is scheduled to certify the win on Jan. 6, a procedural task overseen by the sitting vice president.... In the lawsuit, details of which reporter John Kruzel of The Hill posted on Twitter, Gohmert, Ward, and 10 other plaintiffs such as Students for Trump COO Tyler Bowyer, Arizona Republican Party Executive Director Greg Safsten and Maricopa County Republicans Second Vice Chair Nancy Cottle, are asking federal Judge Jeremy Kernodle, a Trump appointee, to declare Pence legally authorized to pick pro-Trump electors on Jan. 6." Here's Kruzel's story in the Hill.

Tennessee. Rick Rojas, et al., of the New York Times: "Anthony Warner had a solitary job as an information technology specialist.... He was 63. He was not married. His neighbors barely knew him. He sent an email to one of his clients three weeks ago to say he was retiring. He started shedding possessions: He told his ex-girlfriend that he had cancer and gave her his car. Records show that he signed away his home on the day before Thanksgiving. But he made sure to hold on to ... his R.V., a Thor Motor Coach Chateau that he kept in his back yard. He parked the vehicle around 1:22 a.m. Christmas morning on Second Avenue North in downtown Nashville, in the heart of a district of honky-tonks, restaurants and boot shops that would often be packed but was quiet in the small hours of a holiday morning. The R.V. had been rigged with explosives and a speaker set to play a warning and a song: 'Downtown' by Petula Clark, a hit released in 1964 celebrating the bright lights and bustle of a vibrant city.... Just before dawn, the R.V. exploded, its concussion reverberating for blocks."

~~~~~~~~~~

President-elect Joe Biden & Dr. Jill Biden spent Sunday being normal people, going about their lives preparing to move to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue & doing ordinary things. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE ~~~

Kate Bennett, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump has signed the massive $2.3 trillion dollar coronavirus relief and government funding bill into law Sunday night, according to multiple sources, averting a government shutdown that was set to begin on Tuesday, and extending billions of dollars in coronavirus aid to millions. Aides had prepared for the President to sign the bill as early as Christmas Eve, when it arrived at Mar-a-Lago for his signature. But the plan was scrapped at the last minute, two sources with knowledge of the circumstances told CNN.... In anticipation of the [planned December 24] signing, the smaller of Mar-a-Lago's two ballrooms was prepped for a 7 p.m. ceremony, complete with a desk and chair for Trump to sit, and his customary pens at the ready, according to the source. However, as the hour approached, aides were informed the President would not be signing the relief bill that evening. One source told CNN that Trump had 'changed his mind.' The country, Congress and many of Trump's closest aides and advisers had remained in the dark as to what he intended to do." ~~~

~~~ Self-described "Dealmaker" Drops Big Bluff without Getting Demanded Concessions. Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "... on Sunday evening after days of being lobbied by allies, Trump decided to sign the bill and not leave office amid a maelstrom of expired benefits and a government shutdown. He said he will insist on reductions in spending in parts of the bill, though Congress does not have to go along. 'I will sign the omnibus and Covid package with a strong message that makes clear to Congress that wasteful items need to be removed. I will send back to Congress a redlined version, item by item, accompanied by the formal rescission request to Congress insisting that those funds be removed from the bill,' Trump said on Sunday night. The president also said the Senate would soon begin work on ending legal protections for tech companies, examining voter fraud and boosting the check size for direct payments. The current Congress ends in six days." ~~~

While it's a huge relief that the bill is being signed, Donald Trump's tantrum has created unnecessary hardship and stress for millions of families. -- Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon ~~~

~~~ Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "The enactment ... came after two critical unemployment programs lapsed, guaranteeing a delay in benefits for millions of unemployed Americans.... The delay also jeopardized the time frame for distributing the $600 direct payments to most American adults, which Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, had initially promised could be distributed as early as this week.... Even as he acquiesced to bipartisan pleas to sign the legislation, the president issued a series of demands for congressional action, though lawmakers showed little immediate eagerness to embrace them with just six days left in the session." ~~~

~~~ Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump unexpectedly capitulated Sunday night and signed the stimulus bill into law, releasing $900 billion in emergency relief funds into the economy and averting a Tuesday government shutdown.... Trump signed the bill while vacationing in Florida and on a weekend when he had allowed unemployment benefits for 14 million Americans to expire.... White House officials didn't explain why the president decided to suddenly back down and sign into law a bill he had held up for nearly a week and had referred to as a 'disgrace' just days earlier." MB: The real disgrace is Trump, who is crueler than Scrooge & more self-centered that Scarlett O'Hara. This is an update of a story linked Sunday evening.


Jill Lawrence of USA Today: "It should never be shrugged off when a president flies to his luxury Florida golf club to hit the links after single-handedly upending months of painful negotiations for COVID-19 relief. Marie Antoinette had nothing on Trump.... It should never be shrugged off when a commander in chief offers pardons and clemency to convicted war criminals and white-collar criminals, cronies and allies and crooks with friends in high places.... It should never be shrugged off when the leader of a great nation abandons his people in a pandemic, leaving them to disease and death and turning his brilliant, wealthy country into a global role model for failure.... It should never be shrugged off when an entire political party betrays an entire country. Republicans elected and then kept in office a president they knew from the start was incapable of handling an emergency, protecting the general welfare of his fellow citizens, using his vast powers judiciously and nobly, or simply meeting a bare minimum standard of ethical behavior." ~~~

~~~ Fintan O'Toole of The Irish Times: "It is not just that Trump really was not interested in governing. It is that he was deeply interested in misgovernment. He left important leadership positions in government departments unfilled on a permanent basis, or filled them with scandalously unqualified cronies.... [T]here was a duller but often more meaningful agenda: taking a blowtorch to regulation, especially, but by no means exclusively, in relation to the environment. This right-wing anarchism extended, of course, to global governance.... [T]he replacement of political institutions by personal rule was precisely the point.... In this nexus, the madder the better. Power is proven, not when the sycophants have to obey reasonable commands, but when they have to follow and justify the craziest orders.... Trump's wild swings of position were all about this delight in the command performance of utter obedience.... This is his legacy: he has successfully led a vast number of voters along the path from hatred of government to contempt for rational deliberation to the inevitable endpoint: disdain for the electoral process itself." Read the whole post. --s

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "CNN's Jake Tapper said he won't interview certain pro-Donald Trump people because they've established themselves as liars for the president with 'no value' being aired on TV. Tapper joined Brian Stelter for 2020's final episode of Reliable Sources, which was a look-back on Trump's war with the media throughout his presidency.... Stelter noted that he used to speak with Trump boosters like Kellyanne Conway on the network, but he felt like those conversations grew less valuable and substantial with every interview.... 'Well, there are some people that are so mendacious, I just wouldn't put them on air,' Tapper [said]. 'Kayleigh McEnany, I never booked her. Jason Miller from the Trump campaign, I would never book him. These are just people who tell lies the way that most people breathe. There was no value in that.'"


Pennsylvania. Marie Albiges & Tom Lisi for Spotlight PA: "Since the passage of Act 77, the 2019 law that made sweeping changes to voting in Pennsylvania, at least 21 election directors and deputy directors from more than a dozen of the state's 67 counties have left or will soon leave their posts.... 'Mail-in voting has become like a second election that we have to run, that we never had to run before,' Lycoming County Elections Director Forrest Lehman said. 'It has almost doubled the workload, and you know, nobody's salaries have doubled at the same time.'... Despite these challenges, Election Day went smoothly.... Still, the people tasked with running elections are drained from dealing with regular verbal attacks from angry voters, confused or suspicious of the process this year.... There is no formal training for the high-stakes, complex work of elections administration.... Most directors assume the role after learning from their predecessor, making the departure of so many at once a major loss of institutional knowledge." --s ~~~

~~~ Marc Levy of NBC News Philadelphia: "Republicans who control the [Pennsylvania] state Legislature could use the first weeks of 2021 to fast-track a constitutional amendment that would remake the Democratic-majority state Supreme Court after Republicans and President Donald Trump accused the court of acting illegally or, baselessly, conspiring to steal the election..., stoking fears of an expensive public campaign fueled by dark money for control of the battleground state's highest court. As early as May 18's primary election, Pennsylvania voters could be asked to overhaul how they elect state Supreme Court justices and appellate court judges.... Such a change almost assuredly would cut short the high court's 5-2 Democratic majority that might otherwise last well beyond 2030.... It is a Republican power grab that smacks of payback, some opponents say, and a takeover of one independent branch of government by another." --s

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New Yorker dedicates most of the magazine's issue this week to a long article by Lawrence Wright titled, "The Plague Year." To give you an idea of the length of the essay, the audio of the story runs for more than 3-1/2 hours. It will not, of course, take that long to read unless, like Donald Trump, you must read with your lips moving & your finger pointing to each word of the text.

Lauren Wolfe & Andrea Kannapell of the New York Times: "... a significant number of Americans traveled, and uncounted gatherings took place [over the Christmas holiday], as they will over the New Year holiday. And that, according to ... Anthony S. Fauci, could mean new spikes in cases, on top of the existing surge. 'We very well might see a post-seasonal -- in the sense of Christmas, New Year's -- surge,' Dr. Fauci said on CNN's 'State of the Union.'... U.S. case numbers are about as high as they have ever been. Total infections surpassed 19 million on Saturday, meaning that at least 1 in 17 people have contracted the virus over the course of the pandemic. And the virus has killed more than 332,000 people -- one in every thousand in the country."

** Peter Maass of The Intercept: "As COVID-19 tore through the United States in the spring, a senior official in the Trump administration quietly reinforced a set of guidelines that prevented journalists from getting inside all but a handful of hospitals at the front line of the pandemic.... The onerous guidelines were issued on May 5 by Roger Severino, who worked at the conservative Heritage Foundation before Donald Trump appointed him to direct the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, or HHS. The guidelines made it extremely difficult for hospitals to give photographers the opportunity to collect visual evidence of the pandemic's severity. By tightening the circulation of disturbing images, the guidelines fulfilled, intentionally or not, a key Trump administration goal: keeping public attention away from the death toll, which has surpassed 300,000 souls.... Severino's guidance, little known outside the health care industry, may help solve one of the mysteries of the pandemic: Why have Americans seen relatively little imagery of people suffering from Covid-19?" --

Kerry Picket of the (right-wing) Washington Examiner: "Now in his waning days as a House member, [Rep. Steve] King [R-IowaCrazy] says he plans to leave Washington. But without any resentment. King's first step is the publication of his book, Walking Through the Fire, the departing lawmaker told the Washington Examiner." ~~~

~~~ No Resentment, Steve? Amber Mohmand of The Des Moines Register: "U.S. Rep. Steve King filed an ethics complaint against House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday, objecting to the manner in which he was stripped of all of his House committee assignments last year.... The nine-term congressman from Kiron was removed from the House Judiciary and Agriculture committees shortly after an interview with the New York Times in Jan. 2019, in which he told a reporter, 'White nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization -- how did that language become offensive?'" --s

Beyond the Beltway

Nashville. Christina Maxouris, et al., of CNN: "Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake named Anthony Quinn Warner, 63, of Antioch, Tennessee, as a key person in the investigation into the explosion of a recreational vehicle in Nashville early Christmas morning. 'That is a person of interest -- still there could be several more,' Drake said. Authorities believe Warner's remains were found at the blast site, according to several law enforcement officials with direct knowledge of the investigation, who spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Giulia Nieto del Rio of the New York Times: "Federal agents said on Saturday that they did not yet know who carried out the Christmas Day explosion that ripped through the city's downtown, mangling storefronts, injuring three people and leaving the city mystified as to the motive. Investigators were tracking down more than 500 leads, working to piece together what happened before an R.V. -- apparently rigged with explosives and parked on a street in the tourist district -- detonated in the early hours of Christmas. The blast devastated the neighborhood, which regularly draws thousands of people each night, and officials said the city was lucky no one was killed. Douglas Korneski, the F.B.I. special agent in charge of the Memphis office, said at a news conference that more than 250 F.B.I. employees were working the case, but that they still had many unanswered questions.... Mr. Korneski and other officials indicated at the news conference that it was still unclear how many people were involved in the crime." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated several times. Newest Lede: (as of 8 pm ET Saturday) "DNA tests conducted on human remains found in the wreckage of the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville match a 63-year-old man who had been identified as a person of interest in the investigation, law enforcement officials said on Sunday. Officials said that the man, identified as Anthony Quinn Warner, died in the explosion."

Way Beyond

** Russia. Ivan Sascha Sheehan of Yahoo!: "In November, Russia gained a slice of somebody else's country.... Fighting between Azerbaijan and Armenia over Nagorno-Karabakh preceded the annexation.... Two months later came a peace deal, with Russia the winner: It mediated a ceasefire that placed the Kremlin's ostensibly peacekeeping boots on the ground. America watched idly as this happened. As Armenia's traditional protector, Russia held the only leverage to convince Armenia to sign this ceasefire.... In return for securing for its ally a marginally smaller humiliation, Moscow gained a present and a presence. In reality -- unless America is prepared to engage fully in the peace process -- Nagorno-Karabakh is now Russia's indefinitely. The Kremlin ostensibly controls the territory for five years, with an automatic rollover for an additional five should none of the three parties to the ceasefire object six months before the end of the mandate." --s

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