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December 20, 2021
Marie: Squarespace is messed up again. The company now offer absolutely no technical assistance at all no matter how much they screw up. Realty Chex was down for a while, then the edit function was down, now the edit function is iffy. So I don't know what to expect. But if there's crap on the site and/or if it's down for days, it's not because I'm sick or dead.
Afternoon Update:
Tara Golshan & Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post: "Publicly, [Joe Manchin's] biggest gripes [about the Build Back Better bill] are about the cost of the bill. But privately, Manchin has told his colleagues that he essentially doesn't trust low-income people to spend government money wisely. In recent months, Manchin has told several of his fellow Democrats that he thought parents would waste monthly child tax credit payments on drugs instead of providing for their children, according to two sources familiar with the senator's comments.... Manchin has also told colleagues he believes that Americans would fraudulently use the proposed paid sick leave policy, specifically saying people would feign being sick and go on hunting trips.... Continuing the child tax credit for another year is a core part of the Build Back Better legislation that Democrats had hoped to pass by the end of the year. The policy has already cut child poverty by nearly 30%. Manchin's private comments shocked several senators, who saw it as an unfair assault on his own constituents and those struggling to raise children in poverty." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is the perfect argument. No matter that there is statistical proof that the child tax credit has been a boon to American children, Joe can always point to cases of parents squandering the benefits on drugs or other things that are of no benefit to their children. Once you decide that most poor people are poor because they're irresponsible and not because of market forces or other factors largely beyond their control, end of discussion. I was wondering if Manchin drove his Maserati from his 65-foot yacht to the Fox studio.
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times:"Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, vowed on Monday to press forward with votes on a revised version of President Biden's $2.2 trillion marquee climate, tax and spending plan.... Votes on the plan would come in early 2022, Mr. Schumer pointedly noted in a letter to his colleagues, 'so that everymember of this body has the opportunity to make their position known on the Senate floor, not just on television.... We simply cannot give up.'"
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Stymied by Republicans on voting rights legislation, Senator Chuck Schumer on Monday gave the clearest sign yet that he would try to force a fundamental change in Senate rules if needed to enact federal laws to offset voting restrictions being imposed by Republican-led legislatures around the country. In a letter to colleagues, Mr. Schumer, the New York Democrat and majority leader, said that the Senate would take up stalled voting rights legislation as early as the first week of January and that if Republicans continued to filibuster, the Senate would 'consider changes to any rules which prevent us from debating and reaching final conclusion on important legislation.' But it is not clear how far Democrats will be willing or able to go in working around the 60-vote requirement for most legislation and finding a way to pass voting rights legislation with a simple majority."
~~~ Wyoming Will Be Their New Home. Debbie Cenziper & Will Fitzgibbon of the Washington Post: "In recent years, families from India to Italy to Venezuela have abandoned international financial centers for law firms in Wyoming's ski resorts and mining towns, helping to turn the state into one of the world's top tax havens. A dozen international clients who created Wyoming trusts were identified in the Pandora Papers, a trove of more than 11.9 million records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and shared with The Washington Post.... The documents offer a rare look at Wyoming's discreet financial sector and the people who rely on its services.... In Wyoming, with the support of state lawmakers, the industry charged ahead, promoting a suite of financial arrangements to potential customers around the world. At the heart of those arrangements are trusts, legal agreements that allow people to stash away money and other assets so they are protected from creditors and incur few or no tax obligations for themselves or their heirs."
Your Tax Dollars Are Rusting. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to an investigation by the Atlantic's John B. Washington, hundreds of millions of dollars worth of steel purchased by Donald Trump's administration to build his ill-fated border on the U.S.-Mexico border now sits rusting away in the desert with no concrete plans on what to do with it.... After Trump lost his re-election bid in 2020, the incoming administration of President Joe Biden pulled the plug on the controversial relic of the Trump era, with workers pulled off the job and materials left behind."
Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump filed a lawsuit on Monday against the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, seeking to halt her long-running civil investigation into his business practices and to bar her from participating in a separate criminal investigation. The suit, filed in federal court in Albany by Mr. Trump and his family real estate business, argues that Ms. James's involvement in both inquiries has been politically motivated. It lists statements she has made that Mr. Trump's lawyers argue are evidence of her bias against him." A CNBC story is here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.
Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "A booster shot of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine significantly raises the level of antibodies that can thwart the Omicron variant, the company announced on Monday.... Most coronavirus vaccines seem unable to stave off infection from the highly contagious variant. Moderna's results show that the currently authorized booster dose of 50 micrograms -- half the dose given for primary immunization -- increased the level of antibodies by roughly 37-fold, the company said. A full dose of 100 micrograms was even more powerful, raising antibody levels about 83-fold compared with pre-boost levels, Moderna said. Both doses produced side effects comparable to those seen after the two-dose primary series. But the dose of 100 micrograms showed slightly more frequent adverse reactions relative to the authorized 50-microgram dose."
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** Emily Cochrane & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, said on Sunday that he could not support President Biden's signature $2.2 trillion social safety net, climate and tax bill, dooming his party's drive to pass its marquee domestic policy legislation as written.... In a statement released shortly after [his Fox 'News" announcement], he was scathing toward his own party, declaring that 'my Democratic colleagues in Washington are determined to dramatically reshape our society in a way that leaves our country even more vulnerable to the threats we face.'... Mr. Manchin's comments on Sunday provoked an unusually blistering broadside from Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, who accused Mr. Manchin in a lengthy statement of reneging on his promises.... 'If his comments on Fox and written statement indicate an end to that effort,' she said, 'they represent a sudden and inexplicable reversal in his position, and a breach of his commitments to the president and the senator's colleagues in the House and Senate.'... Ms. Psaki said Mr. Manchin ... had submitted his own offer for a bill in person at the White House last week, a meeting the officials had not previously divulged." An NPR story is here. Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ ** Here's Psaki's full statement, via the White House. Definitely worth reading. ~~~
~~~ Pamela Brown of CNN says that President Biden signed off on Psaki's statement before she made it. ~~~
~~~ The Arrogance of Being Joe Manchin. Ryan Lizza & Rachel Bade of Politico: "Less than 30 minutes before he killed the Democratic Party's most important piece of legislation, an aide was dispatched by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to give the White House and congressional leadership a heads up.... At the White House, there was panic and disbelief. He sent an aide to tell the president of the United States that he was about to go on Fox News and put a bullet in BBB? Top White House officials scrambled to call the senator and talk him out of what he was about to do. 'We tried to head him off,' a senior White House official told Playbook, but Manchin 'refused to take a call from White House staff.'" Emphasis removed. ~~~
~~~ Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "Coming from a White House that prides itself on collegiality, pragmatism and a we-can-work-it-out attitude, [Jen Psaki's] statement was a remarkable rebuke of one of their own. It was similar in tone and substance to the fury directed at [Joe] Manchin by House liberals, who worried aloud for months that Manchin couldn't be trusted. On Sunday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, accused Manchin of betraying the party: 'He routinely touts that he is a man of his word, but he can no longer say that.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: So the best thing to do is kidnap Manchin, hide him in an undisclosed location, get a look-alike to vote for the bill, and when Manchin claims this all has happened, say he's insane. More seriously, what a rotten, cruel, lying, duplicitous, attention-manic SOB. ~~~
~~~ Matt Egan of CNN: "Senator Joe Manchin's opposition to the Build Back Better Act prompted Goldman Sachs to swiftly dim its US economic outlook. The Wall Street firm told clients Sunday it no longer assumes President Joe Biden's signature legislation will get through the narrowly divided Congress, citing the West Virginia Democrat's announcement that he's a 'no' on the $1.75 trillion bill. 'A failure to pass BBB has negative growth implications,' Goldman Sachs economists, led by Jan Hatzius, said in the research report. Citing the 'apparent demise' of Build Back Better, Goldman Sachs now expects GDP to grow at an annualized pace of 2% in the first quarter, down from 3% previously."
** Edward-Isaac Dovere & Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate Republicans are poised to deny President Joe Biden an appointment to the Supreme Court if they take the majority in the 2022 midterm elections.... Biden has so far avoided the kind of pressure [on Stephen Breyer] that Barack Obama tried to exert on Ruth Bader Ginsburg in 2013, when the President hosted the aging justice at the White House for lunch to nudge her toward the exit. But in the West Wing and among civil rights leaders, the frustration is about more than just a Supreme Court seat: every day that Breyer remains on the bench is a day that Biden isn't able to fulfill his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court.... Meanwhile, Senate Republicans aren't shy about laying out how they'd handle a nomination from Biden if they take the majority: They wouldn't. 'You know what the rule is on that,' said Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. 'You go back to 1886 and ever since then, when the Senate's been of one party and the president's been of another party, you didn't confirm.' There is no such rule."
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Johnny Isakson, a Georgia Republican who succeeded Newt Gingrich in the House of Representatives, and in 15 years in the Senate was a moderate conservative, often championing bipartisan cooperation, until his resignation for health reasons in 2019, died on Sunday at his home in Atlanta. He was 76."
Nicole Asbury of the Washington Post: "A Watkins Elementary School staff member told third-graders in library class to reenact scenes from the Holocaust, directing them to dig their classmates' mass graves and simulate shooting the victims, according to an email from the school's principal. The instructor was placed on leave Friday.... The instructor allegedly made antisemitic comments during the reenactment. The parent said that when the children asked why the Germans did this, the staff member said it was 'because the Jews ruined Christmas.'"
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Stephanie Nolen of the New York Times: "A growing body of preliminary research suggests the Covid vaccines used in most of the world offer almost no defense against becoming infected by the highly contagious Omicron variant. All vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection against serious illness from Omicron, which is the most crucial goal. But only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster, appear to have initial success at stopping infections, and these vaccines are unavailable in most of the world. The other shots -- including those from AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia -- do little to nothing to stop the spread of Omicron, early research shows. And because most countries have built their inoculation programs around these vaccines, the gap could have a profound impact on the course of the pandemic."
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Two prominent Democratic senators, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, announced separately on Sunday that they had tested positive with a breakthrough case of the coronavirus. Both senators disclosed their cases on Sunday, and said they were experiencing mild symptoms after being vaccinated and receiving a booster shot. Ms. Warren said she received the positive result Sunday, while Mr. Booker said his test result came back after he began experiencing symptoms Saturday. The cases come barely a day after the Senate left Washington for the year, after senators labored through hours of votes on nominations that ended in the predawn hours Saturday." A CNN story reports that Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) says he also tested positive for a breakthrough case of Covid-19.
One Man Who Wasn't Afraid of the Big Bad Oaf. Deirdre McPhillips & Devan Cole of CNN: "The outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday that he faced political pressure from ... Donald Trump and other Republicans to endorse unproven Covid-19 remedies such as hydroxychloroquine and to fire Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of NIH's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Francis Collins, whose last day as NIH director is Sunday, told CBS News that he got a 'talking to' by Trump, but that he held his ground and would have resigned if Trump made him endorse remedies for Covid-19 that were not based in science."
Hunter Walker of the Uprising: "On Dec. 12, Reuters published a story detailing how 'a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West' visited the home of a Georgia election worker in the final days of Donald Trump's presidency to warn that there would be dire consequences if she did not admit to bogus voter fraud allegations. Among many other wild details, the story claimed the publicist, Trevian Kutti, told the election worker she was going to put 'a man named "Harrison Ford" on speakerphone' because he had 'authoritative powers to get you protection.'... 'There are federal people that are involved here,' Kutti added.... However, there are multiple indications that Kutti did not actually use the name of the famous actor and instead referred to Harrison Floyd, who was a staffer on Trump's presidential campaign. Floyd ... was the executive director of 'Black Voices For Trump.'... Cooperation between Kutti and Floyd could ... tie West's circle to Trump's election team."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Chile. Pascale Bonnefoy & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "Chileans on Sunday elected Gabriel Boric as their next president, entrusting the young leftist lawmaker with helping to shape the future of a nation that has been roiled by protests and is now drafting a new Constitution. At 35, Mr. Boric will be the nation's youngest leader and by far its most liberal since President Salvador Allende, who died by suicide during the 1973 military coup that ushered in a brutal 17-year dictatorship."
China. Chris Buckley of the New York Times: "Peng Shuai, the Chinese tennis star whose account of sexual coercion by a former Communist Party leader ignited weeks of tensions and galvanized calls for boycotts of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, has reversed her assertion that she had been sexually assaulted by the official. Ms. Peng made the comments in an interview that was published on Sunday by a Singaporean newspaper. But the retraction appeared unlikely to extinguish concerns about her well-being and suspicions that she had been the target of well-honed pressure techniques and a propaganda campaign by Chinese officials."
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Reader Comments (14)
When the list of politicians guilty of "corruptly obstructing" is made, Manchin's name will be very close to the top.
Treasonous bastard--
Ah, Joe, say it ain't so! Some of us doubted you were a manipulating . "rotten, cruel, lying, duplicitous, attention-manic SOB," but you've proved us wrong––and you went to FOX NEWS to announce your dissent? Biden better go the way of the Red Queen and lop off his head ––-a rolling stone that will gather no moss. Better yet–-badger him until he cries "Uncle" –-then kick him out of the party by ignoring and rejecting anything he presents. Fat chance that.
In a WaPo article (not linked, TL) on Wyoming as "offshore" money center, there's this sentence:
"In this tourist-friendly Western town, home to four celebrated arches fashioned from elk antlers, lawyers and estate planners ... '
Now, to be fair, the next word was a third-person plural verb ("plan"), so technically the sentence came out grammatically correct, and not a good example of the utility of the Oxford Comma.
But I had to read it twice not to see an arch containing lawyers and estate planners entwined with elk antlers.
So, while the Post has been hiring more copy editors, they could probably use a few more.
Oops. The verb is "draw," not "plan."
Who needs copy editors, now, huh?
In other news, my two grandaughters have been in school-required quarantine since last Wednesday, after one of their friends/bus-mates tested positive. They got the news of their own tests yesterday afternoon (negative) and were released from home confinement, although their school quarantine (and home schooling) continues through Friday.
Little girls can generate the most ear-shattering screams, and theirs, of happiness, could be heard red-shifting all the way down the block as they scooted for their friends' houses.
@Patrick: Ha ha. Some people might think it was a good idea to fashion arches out of lawyers & estate planners pinned in place by sharp elk antlers.
As you write, when you parse the sentence, it becomes clear that the arches are made of elk antlers, absent lawyers & estate planners.
But most newspaper readers scan rather than parse. The full sentence is, "In this tourist-friendly Western town, home to four celebrated arches fashioned from elk antlers, lawyers and estate planners draw customers with something far more exclusive." It's very easy to scan that & "read" the predicate to "draw" as "tourist-friendly Western town" rather than as "lawyers & estate planners." A few busy lawyers may scan the article & decide against taking a ski trip to Jackson, Wyoming.
Such fun to read the Antlers/ lawyers bit from both Patrick and Marie–-kind of evens out the morning's sorry news.
And Patrick: be thankful your granddaughters aren't going to a school like Watkins whose staff member schools them in how to murder Jews. Small mercies, that.
Can't say if the recent election results from Chile and Peru constitute a trend, but wouldn't it be nice if they mean we could look forward to the day when South America will be exporting democracy and humane economic policies to its benighted northern neighbor?
Biden’s plan to help millions of Americans has been kneecapped by a treacherous quisling who places his unearned sense of personal superiority above the dire needs of hungry children. But not just a querulous quisling, Manchin proves himself a sniveling coward. Not man enough to visit the President of the United States in person to inform him of his intentions to scuttle a hugely important plan, the basics of which he had already agreed to, in order to curry favor with other traitors, he sends an underling to announce his depravity while he runs for his hidey hole, deathly afraid to even answer the phone.
No doubt Manchin will be rewarded by Republicans and unnamed donors eager to stick it to Americans they couldn’t care less about, but like all debauched traitors in history, Manchin will never be rewarded with the terms honorable, decent, honest, or manly.
May his stinking corpse repose in diseased dung, he is already food for the worms while still prancing about on his yacht, gazing lovingly into his many mirrors.
Quisling fuck.
Follow the money, follow the money. The Republican who is trying
to pass as a Democrat, Manchin, is only presently a millionaire. I
assume he's being paid big money by the anti-solar, anti-wind,
anti-everything groups.
At this rate he'll retire a billionaire like his obstructionist friend, the
former sort of president.
As I recall, he supported more of trump's policies than Biden's.
By the way––thought Jen Psaki's response was perfect! thanks, Marie. for posting that.
AK: food for the worms? Leave it to you to bury his sorry ass with brio and a dirty bombastic billet- doux ! Love it!
Sorry to hear Squarespace is having another hissy fit––there appears to be something not quite right–-could we say they need to place their squares in a different space?
Who knows what Joe the Schmo really thinks? From the reasons he puts forth for his BBB objections, possibly very little.
Reminds me of the Former Guy who thought about nothing that required putting two and two together.
Those who didn't like to call that Guy stupid from the get-go substituted language like "transactional," which was meant to describe behavior that was reactive and designed solely to keep him in the headlines,
Joe may be using that Guy as a model, keeping himself in the headlines, sounding tough, and preserving his options until the final vote.
Then he could come out in favor of a pared down bill and re-cast himself as a hero instead of a Grinch.
And he'd be back in the headlines, preening.
Then there's this:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/12/20/manchin-biden-child-tax-credit/?
I'm pretty sure Manchin is a firm believer in the Prosperity Gospel. I'm pretty sure the Cheney family's fingerprints are nowhere near the Wyoming wealth hiding legislation.
Psaki's statement is absolutely perfect. Now, if it can be backed up with some pain for the Prosperity Gospel believer that'll be perfect and appropriate.