;)
August 6, 2022
Afternoon Update:
The Senate is meeting today, beginning at noon ET, to advance its big ole spending bill. ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Emma & Marianne Levine of Politico: "Democrats have survived the vetting of the Medicare portions of their prescription drug reform plan, but lost ground on a separate pillar that penalizes drug companies for raising prices on individuals with private health insurance, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Saturday.... The Senate's nonpartisan rules referee, who decides which provisions are eligible for sidestepping a GOP filibuster under the chamber's strict rules, signed off on Medicare-related drug price negotiation.... The Senate's rules arbiter [also] signed off on that the bill's energy provisions, including electric vehicle tax credits and a bonus tax credit to encourage clean energy developers to pay the prevailing wage." ~~~
~~~ Marie: You might ask, "Okay, then, the Senate can just pass the parts that didn't pass muster under regular order." But no, that requires meeting the 60-vote filibuster threshold, and Republicans want you to have to pay high prices for drugs. If that's not true, let Republicans prove it by finding at least ten GOP senators who will vote for (or sponsor) a comparable stand-alone bill. ~~~
~~ Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats were poised to begin debate Saturday on a sprawling bill that aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit, a critical step in a grueling legislative journey to deliver on President Biden's long-stalled economic agenda. The new push to consider the measure, which Republicans unanimously oppose, came seven months after internecine bickering scuttled Democrats' last efforts to adopt a package that many in the party regard as essential for retaining the House and Senate in this year's midterm elections. 'Put simply, this legislation will save lives, create jobs, reduce costs and reduce inflation,' Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said during a news conference Friday."
You can't make up this stuff: ~~~
"Drop Box for Babies." Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: "The Safe Haven Baby Box at a firehouse in Carmel, Ind., looked like a library book drop. It had been available for three years for anyone who wanted to surrender a baby anonymously. No one had ever used it, though, until early April. When its alarm went off, Victor Andres, a firefighter, opened the box and found, to his disbelief, a newborn boy wrapped in towels.... Later that month, Mr. Andres pulled another newborn, a girl, from the box. In May, a third baby appeared. By summer, three more infants were left at baby box locations throughout the state. The baby boxes are part of the safe haven movement, which has long been closely tied to anti-abortion activism.... All 50 states have safe haven laws meant to protect surrendering mothers from criminal charges.... But what began as a way to prevent the most extreme cases of child abuse has become a broader phenomenon, supported especially among the religious right, which heavily promotes adoption as an alternative to abortion.... ~~~
~~~ "During oral arguments in the case Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that safe haven laws offered an alternative to abortion by allowing women to avoid 'the burdens of parenting.' In the court's decision, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. cited safe haven laws as a 'modern development' that, in the majority's view, obviated the need for abortion rights."~~~
~~~ Contributor Forrest M. is baffled: "... Republicans are fine with having drop boxes for newborn unwanted babies, but drop boxes for votes is dangerous."
Florida. Selene San Felice of Axios publishes some apt reactions to King/Gov. Ron DeSantis' suspending elected Hillsborough County (Tampa) state attorney Andrew Warren. ~~~
~~~"Orban 2.0." digby: "This is how a true autocrat operates. He doesn't tweet insults (although his spokesperson does) he just acts and lets everyone else scream.... No abortion ban or LGBT cases to which DeSantis objects have been brought before the DA. The 15 week ban is still being decided in the courts. He removed him for what he said, not what he did. This is an ugly turn but it's how DeSantis operates. Unlike Trump he knows how to work the lever of government." digby republishes an article from Boltsmag that goes into not only what DeSantis did but how he failed to follow the law he used to justify suspending Warren.
Texas. Jolie McCullough & Jaden Edison of the Texas Tribune: "Gov. Greg Abbott has appointed an indicted Austin police officer accused of using excessive force during 2020 protests to Texas' regulatory law enforcement agency. Justin Berry was among 19 Austin police officers indicted earlier this year in the protests spurred by the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. Berry is charged with two counts of aggravated assault by a public servant. He also ran as a Republican for Texas House District 19 but lost in the primary runoff election this year. Abbott had endorsed Berry in the race, saying his 'strong conservative values and experience stopping violent crime are exactly what we need in the Texas House.' Now, at the governor's hand, Berry will serve on the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, which sets minimum licensing and training standards for police."
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Hedged in by Sinema's Hedge-Fund Donors. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Friday that Democrats had 'no choice' but to drop a key tax provision from their major spending bill in order to gain Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's support. Sinema, a centrist Democrat from Arizona, had withheld her support of the Inflation Reduction Act, the sweeping bill that includes much of the Biden administration's tax, climate and health care agenda.... 'Senator Sinema said she would not vote for the bill, not even move to proceed unless we took it out,' [Schumer] said. 'So we had no choice.'... The so-called carried interest loophole [is] a feature of the tax code that both Democrats and Republicans -- including ... Donald Trump -- have tried to close. Carried interest refers to compensation that hedge fund managers and private equity executives receive from their firms' investment gains. After three years, that money is taxed at a long-term capital gains rate of 20%, instead of a short-term capital gains rate, which tops out at 37%.... While the carried interest provision was nixed, Schumer said Democrats added in an excise tax on stock buybacks that will bring in $74 billion. He said that multiple legislators are 'excited' about that update."
CBS News: "Former Attorney General Bill Barr called the newest federal grand jury subpoenas probing the Jan. 6, 202, Capitol riot 'a significant event,' one that suggests that government prosecutors are probing high-ranking Trump administration officials and allies, and even ... Donald Trump. 'This suggests to me that they're taking a hard look at the group at the top, including the president and the people immediately around him who were involved in this,' Barr told CBS News' Catherine Herridge in an interview Friday.... While Barr thinks that Trump might be able to block some testimony with an executive privilege argument, he said, 'I don't think it would block all the testimony.' He ticked off a list of ways in which a privilege argument 'is inapplicable here.'" Barr noted that President Biden has waived executive privilege; that privilege does apply when a crime is involved; and that Trump was acting as a candidate, not as president*, in the subject discussions.
Marie: If you want to know what the Republican party "stands for" today, as of 5:00 am ET, I had posted only three stories: one about a prominent GOP-aligned man who repeatedly lied about & defamed the innocent victims of the mass murder of little children and now is trying to cheat them out of damages by pretending to be bankrupt, one about a state legislature and governor depriving women of bodily autonomy, and a third about another mass shooting, also with a semi-automatic rifle. So there you go: lying and cheating, extinguishing women's freedom, and extinguishing children's lives. Your modern Republican party.
Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee announced Friday that Milwaukee will be the host for the 2024 GOP convention, tapping a swing state that helped decide the outcome of the past two presidential elections. RNC Chairwoman Ronna [Romney] McDaniel said the vote was unanimous for a 'world-class city,' while expressing her eagerness to work with local leaders for the multiday event at which the party crowns its presidential and vice-presidential nominees." MB: Also, they probably hope Milwaukee won't be as hot as some other possible choices. Because they support global warming only up to the point where it makes them sweat.
Kim Bellware, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Texas jury has determined Infowars host Alex Jones must pay the parents of a Sandy Hook school shooting victim $45.2 million in punitive damages. The Friday decision comes a day after the same jury awarded the plaintiffs $4.1 million in compensatory damages, culminating the final phase of a defamation case first brought in 2018 over Jones's repeated false claims that the deadliest elementary school shooting in U.S. history was a hoax." (Also linked yesterday evening.) An NPR report is here.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "One by one, the relatives and friends of the 17 people killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., took the stand in court this week and divulged to a jury the depths of their despair since losing loved ones to gunfire four years ago on Valentine's Day. Over four days of profoundly emotional testimony, they shared painful and intimate details that laid bare how their internal lives remain shattered and how massacres like Parkland leave families with years of unresolved sorrow. The heart-rending testimony concluded on Thursday after the jury deciding the fate of the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, toured the school building where the mass shooting took place. Prosecutors left the viewing of the crime scene, an exceedingly rare and visceral occurrence in a criminal trial, for the last day of their nearly three-week presentation and rested their case.... As victim after victim spoke, many people in the courtroom gallery wept. So did several defense lawyers." A Guardian story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: When I was in grade school, a boy in another classroom accidentally killed his brother with a gun; when I was in high school, a boy I didn't know even to nod to in the hall killed himself. I still remember those kids and shudder, even though I had little to no direct contact with them. It is hard, therefore, to imagine the pain these families suffer because Republicans thought it was a good idea for a troubled young man to have access to a semi-automatic rifle.
Indiana. Mitch Smith & Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "Indiana lawmakers passed and the governor signed a near-total ban on abortion on Friday, overcoming division among Republicans and protests from Democrats to become the first state to draw up and approve sweeping new limits on the procedure since Roe v. Wade was struck down in June.... It came despite some Indiana Republicans opposing the measure for going too far, and others voting no because of its exceptions.... The Indiana bill -- which bans abortion from conception except in some cases of rape, incest, fatal fetal abnormality or when the pregnant woman faces risk of death or certain severe health risks -- was signed into law within minutes of its final passage late Friday night by Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican who had encouraged legislators to consider new abortion limits during a special session that he called." An AP story is here.
North Carolina. Fighting Fire-Power with Fire-Power. Johnny Casey of the Asheville Citizen Times: " In response to the Texas school shooting that left 19 children dead May 24, the local school system [in Madison County, N.C.,] and Sheriff's Office are rolling out some beefed up security measures in 2022-23, including putting AR-15 rifles in every school.... According to [County Sheriff Buddy] Harwood, the county's school resource officers have been training with instructors from Asheville-Buncombe Technical Community College." The school system has initiated other measures to enhance safety. MB: The answer to too many high-powered weapons is more high-powered weapons.
Pennsylvania Senate Race. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a Democratic Senate nominee, will hold his first public rally next week since suffering a near-deadly stroke four days before the May 17 primary election, his campaign announced Friday. The rally is planned for Erie, Pa., one of the state's swing counties, on Aug. 12. Fetterman has only recently resumed attending in-person fundraising events and has made a few brief public appearances -- but nothing on the scale of what is planned next week.... Fetterman faces celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz in the November election. Oz has remained active on the campaign trail since prevailing in the Republican primary, although he has faced criticism for reportedly taking trips to Ireland and Palm Beach, Fla. Despite his absence from the campaign trail, a recent poll showed Fetterman with the advantage." ~~~
~~~ Gideon Taaffe of Media Matters: "Fox News is in attack mode after its own polling showed Republican nominee Mehmet Oz trailing Democratic nominee Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the Pennsylvania Senate race.... The network has long had a cozy relationship with Oz. At the start of the coronavirus pandemic, Oz became one of Fox News' most prominent voices by downplaying the severity of the virus and promoting unproven therapeutics.... Fox News personalities have repeatedly pushed narratives portraying Fetterman as an elitist and a far-left radical and have given favorable coverage to Oz while attacking Fetterman[.]"
Tennessee. Memphis D.A. Race. Sam Levine of the Guardian: "Amy Weirich, the Memphis prosecutor who stirred national outrage for bringing criminal charges against a Black woman [-- Pamela Moses --] for trying to register to vote, has lost her re-election bid. Weirich, a Republican who has been the district attorney general in Shelby county since 2011, lost to Democrat Steve Mulroy, a law professor at the University of Memphis and a former county commissioner. Weirich's defeat marks a major victory for criminal justice reform advocates, who had pressured her office over its use of cash bail, diversity and decisions to try juveniles as adults." Read on.
Washington State Congressional Race. Michael Bender of the New York Times: "Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach ... Donald J. Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, will advance to the November general election to seek a fifth term after finishing in the top two in a crowded primary, according to The Associated Press. He will face Doug White, a Democratic businessman, who narrowly trailed him as of Friday night. Under Washington election laws, the top two candidates in the primary, regardless of party, advance to the general election.... [A] super PAC's most-watched TV spot attacked Mr. Newhouse's Trump-endorsed challenger, Loren Culp, over an unpaid corporate tax bill and accused him of 'padding his own pockets' with campaign donations."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia and Ukraine are accusing each other of shelling the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest, located in southeast Ukraine. It was seized by Russian forces in March and its closeness to front line fighting is triggering international fears of a nuclear crisis. The U.N. nuclear watchdog has appealed for access to the plant and called the situation 'extremely grave and dangerous.' The deal to lift a Russian blockade on millions of tons of Ukrainian grain appears to be working.... Vladimir Putin met with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in the Russian resort city of Sochi on Friday, their second meeting in 2½ weeks. In a joint statement, the leaders said they had agreed to increase the volume of trade between their countries, and reaffirmed the Ukraine grain deal. Turkey, a NATO member, also agreed to switch part of its payments for Russian gas to rubles." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. They include a summary report.
China/Taiwan. Vivian Wang of the New York Times: "China continued on Saturday to project its ire at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan, with its third straight day of military drills that have encroached ever closer to the island and raised concerns about potential conflict. The Taiwanese defense ministry said on Saturday that several batches of Chinese military aircraft and warships had been detected around the Taiwan Strait, with some crossing the informal median line that divides the island from the Chinese mainland. They appeared to be engaged in an exercise simulating an attack on the main island of Taiwan, the ministry said." The Guardian is live-updating developments.
France. It's a Star! It's a Planet! It's Chorizo. Sophia Galer of Vice: "A photo tweeted by a famous French physicist supposedly of Proxima Centauri by the James Webb Space Telescope was actually a slice of chorizo. Étienne Klein, research director at France's Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission posted the photo last week, claiming it showed the closest star to the sun.... A few days [after tweeting the photo], Klein revealed that the photo he tweeted was not the work of the world's most powerful space telescope, as he had in fact tweeted a slice of chorizo sausage. 'According to contemporary cosmology, no object belonging to Spanish charcuterie exists anywhere but on Earth,' he said after apologising for tricking so many people.... Klein told French news outlet Le Point that his intention had been to educate people about fake news online...."
Israel/Palestine. Fares Akram & Tia Goldenberg of the AP: "Israeli jets pounded militant targets in Gaza on Saturday as rockets rained on southern Israel, hours after a wave of Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave killed at least 11 people, including a senior militant and a 5-year-old girl. The fighting that began Friday with Israel's dramatic targeted killing of a senior commander of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued throughout the night, drawing the sides closer to an all-out war. But the territory's Hamas rulers appeared to stay on the sidelines of the conflict, keeping its intensity somewhat contained, for now. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller battles over the last 15 years at a staggering cost to the territory's 2 million Palestinian residents."
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Reader Comments (11)
And in WA State's races, there's also this:
https://www.columbian.com/news/2022/aug/05/kent-surges-to-within-257-votes-of-herrera-beutler/
As they (the Pretender's go-to source) say, we'll see.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/04/opinion/private-equity-lays-waste.html
This reading from the Times of the other day suggested in light of the fact that slimy Sinema insists her private equity buddies still be allowed to crawl through the carried interest loophole at the expense of everyone else.
Yesterday, on the way to the post office, I walked past a parked car
with a sticker in the back window: " F_ck Biden"
Too bad the owners weren't around. I wanted to ask them to give
me a list of trump's accomplishments (?) as compared to Biden's
short time in office.
It would have been interesting. Or I could have been shot. Who knows?
I don't understand how there can be a polio outbreak in NYC.
Doesn't every child get a polio vaccination before starting school?
Or am I living in the past.
@Forrest Morris: I live in a small town where the people are fairly liberal. (The July 4 before the pandemic, the town held a reading of Frederick Douglass' Independence Day speech, and 100 people turned out; I didn't know there were that many people in town.) Liberal or no, the people more-or-less across the street from my new summer house (same town), were flying an "Impeach Biden" flag in their front yard right near the road.
My house originally looked like a one-storey 1950s house, and it was too small for my needs. But it is also on the same lake where my winter cottage is -- so easy commute! I bought the house, and in the process of turning it into a two-storey house, I discovered the bones of the house were from the 1800s & somebody remodeled it in the 1950s. Anyhow, I turned it into a kind of quirky house which I designed and call "modern retro-Tudor." It doesn't go all that well with the federal & colonial-style (many of them not "style" but original) houses around here. I really hoped it would offend the "Impeach Biden" people.
I think it did. There's a for-sale sign at their house now!
O.K. then, Republicans are fine with having drop boxes for newborn
unwanted babies, but drop boxes for votes is dangerous.
I must be missing something here.
New born babies are put in drop boxes? How does that work exactly? Surely these so called boxes are not like the boxes we drop our votes into––-the trauma for an infant being trapped in one of those boxes could be life threatening! This is absolutely shocking!!!!!! Some people throw puppies or kittens in garbage dumps or simply drown them in lakes or streams–––here we have human beings being thrown in a box and if rescued will have absolutely no history. I can't get my mind around this–--there are no words to describe this abomination!!
Babies in drop boxes, not a new thing at all:
http://www.conigliofamily.com/Foundlings.htm
Wasn't Moses put in a drop box (so to speak)?
@unwashed: They call the drop-box laws "Moses laws." They would. It's a typical right-wing labeling gimmick (along the lines of, say, "patriot missile"). However aspirational these baby-discard boxes may be, I would venture to guess that not every baby dropped in a box is adopted by the daughter of a pharaoh.
@Marie, thanks for letting me know. I wasn't aware of that appropriation of the parable. I wonder how the story would have changed had he been tied up in a burlap bag and dropped from a bridge into a raging river. No burning bushes or ten commandments?