December 30, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Sarah Nir, et al., of the New York Times: "A jury on Thursday ruled that an opioid manufacturer and distributor contributed to a public nuisance by inundating New York with pills that killed thousands of people. Teva Pharmaceuticals USA Inc. and a handful of its subsidiary companies were found liable in a sprawling, six-month trial that sought to reckon with the role that the pharmaceutical industry played in the opioid epidemic in two hard-hit New York counties and across the state. New York State was also determined to be partially responsible. The trial began in June and was argued jointly by New York State and Suffolk and Nassau counties. The case began with more than two dozen defendants, and was the first of its kind to target the entirety of the opioid supply chain: the pharmaceutical companies that manufactured pain pills, the distributors of the drugs and the pharmacy chains that filled the prescriptions."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Aina Kahn of the New York Times: "On Wednesday evening, BBC viewers heard from the American lawyer Alan M. Dershowitz about the guilty verdict in the case of Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted that day of helping the billionaire Jeffrey Epstein recruit, groom and sexually abuse underage girls. What they were not appraised of was that Mr. Dershowitz had helped defend Mr. Epstein and has himself been accused of abuse by one of Mr. Epstein's accusers -- an accusation he denies. The British broadcaster, which introduced Mr. Dershowitz as a 'constitutional lawyer,' said later in a statement released on Twitter that the interview did not meet its editorial standards: 'Mr. Dershowitz was not a suitable person to interview as an impartial analyst, and we did not make the relevant background clear to our audience,' the statement said. 'We will look into how this happened.'" The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In the most egregious part of the interview, "... Dershowitz said that Ms. Maxwell's trial undermined the credibility of [Virginia] Giuffre, and her case against Prince Andrew." Giuffre has accused Dershowitz of being one of Epstein's friends to whom she was offered as a sex partner, & she and Dershowitz have brought lawsuits -- still ongoing -- against each other. No mention of that! If the BBC team was too damned dumb to know of Dershowitz's huge conflict of interest, he had an ethical obligation to raise it himself. (I acknowledge that it's kind of wrong to even use "Dershowitz" & "ethical" in the same sentence.) You often hear people on U.S. TV do just that; as in, "I should reveal I worked on So-and-So's first presidential campaign."

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration is expected by early next week to authorize booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for 12-to-15-year-olds, according to two people familiar with the FDA's plan.... The FDA decision would then be reviewed by vaccine advisers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and that agency's top official [-- Director Rochelle Walensky --] this week vowed to move quickly on recommending the booster shots if the advisers concurred with FDA."

Ted Cruz Confuses Western Australia (WA) with Washington State (WA). John Wright of the Raw Story: "Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz apparently confused 'Western Australia' with 'Washington State' in an attempted attack on Democrats over COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday night. [After an Australian official explained the government's ban on dancing on New Year's Eve, Cruz tweeted,] 'Blue-state Dems are power-drunk authoritarian kill-joys.'" There's a big world outside U.S. borders, Ted. Cancun, for instance.

~~~~~~~~~~

David Sanger & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "President Biden will talk to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday about the grinding crisis at the Ukrainian border, White House officials said, the second time in a little over three weeks that the two leaders will speak directly about what Washington sees as Moscow's effort to redraw the map of Europe. Mr. Putin requested the call, the officials said. His desire to speak directly with Mr. Biden again set off speculation in Washington and Europe about whether Mr. Putin was trying to de-escalate a situation largely of his own creation, or whether he was seeking a response to a series of demands about Russian security concerns that, if left unfulfilled, may provide him with a pretext to initiate the military action he has threatened in Ukrainian territory."

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Pentagon is building a second courtroom for war crimes trials at Guantánamo Bay that will exclude the public from the chamber, the latest move toward secrecy in the nearly 20-year-old detention operation. The new courtroom will permit two military judges to hold proceedings simultaneously starting in 2023. On those occasions, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and the four other men who are accused of plotting the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would have hearings in the existing chamber, which has a gallery for the public. Smaller cases would be held in the new $4 million chamber. Members of the public seeking to watch those proceedings at Guantánamo would be shown a delayed video broadcast in a separate building."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for ... Donald Trump told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that a Washington Post interview with the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol shows the committee is trying to establish a criminal complaint against Trump, something the lawyers say is beyond the committee's authority. The lawyers filed a supplemental brief alerting the justices to a Dec. 23 Post article featuring an interview with Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), the committee's chairman. In the article, Thompson said the committee is looking intently into Trump's actions on Jan. 6 as it considers whether to recommend that the Justice Department open a criminal investigation into the former president.... Trump lawyer Jesse R. Binnall ... said the committee is acting as 'an inquisitorial tribunal seeking evidence of criminal activity,' which he said is 'outside of any of Congress's legislative powers.'" An Axios item is here.

"A Slow-motion Insurrection." Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "In battleground states and beyond, Republicans are taking hold of the once-overlooked machinery of elections. While the effort is incomplete and uneven, outside experts on democracy and Democrats are sounding alarms, warning that the United States is witnessing a 'slow-motion insurrection' with a better chance of success than Trump's failed power grab last year.... 'The [Republican] party itself has become an anti-democratic force,' [said political scientist Steven Levitsky.]" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Though it gets little or no mention in the many articles reporters write about the ways state Republicans are giving themselves easy access to control of elections outcomes, Congressional Republicans are just as committed to stealing elections. Almost none of them support any kind of voting rights bill because they want GOP state legislatures to be able to throw out Democrat victories and make it harder for likely Democratic voters to vote. (in the Senate, Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote for one provision of the John Lewis Voting Rights Act; she has opposed other voting rights measures.)

Tom Hays & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "The British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell was convicted Wednesday of luring teenage girls to be sexually abused by the American millionaire Jeffrey Epstein. The verdict capped a monthlong trial featuring sordid accounts of the sexual exploitation of girls as young as 14, told by four women who described being abused as teens in the 1990s and early 2000s at Epstein's palatial homes in Florida, New York and New Mexico." (Also linked yesterday evening.) ~~~

     ~~~ Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "The jury found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts, including conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking of an individual under 18. She was found not guilty of enticement of one individual under 17.... Maxwell faces up to 65 years in prison. No sentencing date has been set."

Michael Sainato of the Guardian: "Workers say Amazon's "excessively rapid work pace", surveillance and disciplinary systems have created a dangerous environment[.]... Reports of high injury rates and high turnover rates at Amazon warehouses around the US as a result of immense productivity pressures and quota rates on workers have been documented by numerous media outlets and organizations over the past several years and confirmed by OSHA logs. Amazon shareholders have recently called for an independent safety audit of the company." MB: A little more than ten years ago I linked to a story researched & written by reporter Spencer Soper of Allentown, Pennsylvania's Morning Call that detailed the horrible working conditions at an Amazon warehouse in Allentown. That should have been enough to shame Amazon into making their warehouses worker-friendly, but a number of other stories written over the years about other Amazon warehouses, make it clear that Amazon kept up its bad practices everywhere.

Emily Yahr of the Washington Post on what happened when Ted Koppel went to "Mayberry": "... while Mayberry was not real, the city of Mount Airy, N.C., claims to be the prototype on which it was based, and still draws thousands of tourists every year looking to relive their beloved show.... [In] one of the most striking TV segments of the year..., Koppel was visibly taken aback by the fierce nostalgia for a time and place that literally never existed -- and how it connects to the misinformation that has infiltrated America's politics.... 'The Andy Griffith Show' ... a viewing experience that Koppel compared to 'chomping down on a marshmallow, was an antidote to everything going on in the world at the time, which never showed up on the sunny series: Tens of thousands of American troops killed in Vietnam War. Race riots throughout the country. Assassinations." The scene on the tour bus is the clincher. MB: Those dimwits on the bus would be all surprised if they knew that in 2008, Andy Griffith & Ron Howard (and Henry Winkler) cut a 3-minute ad endorsing Barack Obama. ~~~

Marie: As an indicator of how frivolous our society is, all day Wednesday, the New York Times featured football fan John Madden's obituary above that of former Senate Leader Harry Reid. By late in the day, Reid's obituary had been relegated to a spot near the bottom of the page and there were two new feature stories about Madden. BTW, former Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said on MSNBC that at a budget committee hearing he once attended, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked with some incredulity at Republican callousness, "What kind of Christian religion would condone cutting food stamps?" Franken answered, "Southern Baptist." Harry Reid was the only senator who laughed.

David Li & Whitney Lee of NBC News: "A heavily armed California man was arrested in Iowa after he told law enforcement officers that he would 'do whatever it takes' to kill government leaders on his 'hit list,' including President Joe Biden and his chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, authorities said in court papers Wednesday. The man, Kuachua Brillion Xiong, 25, has been held in the Pottawattamie County Jail in Council Bluffs since Thursday, according to sheriff's records. Xiong was pulled over Dec. 21 in Cass County and found to have an AR-15 rifle, ammunition, loaded magazines, body armor and medical kits, Secret Service Agent Justin Larson wrote in a criminal complaint."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "With a caseload nearly twice that of the worst single days of last winter, the United States shattered its record for new daily coronavirus cases, a milestone that may still fall short of describing the true toll of the Delta and Omicron variants because testing has slowed over the holidays.... Record caseloads are being reported in a long list of U.S. cities where vaccination rates are relatively high, including New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, Atlanta and Detroit. Experts say there are two reasons for the high numbers in urban areas: population density and more testing." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Thursday are here: "Coronavirus cases are soaring across the United States as the more transmissible omicron variant spreads, but hospitalizations remain 'comparatively low,' Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday."

Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "A Johnson & Johnson booster shot provided strong protection against the Omicron variant, greatly reducing the risk of hospitalization, according to a clinical trial in South Africa. The study, which compared more than 69,000 boosted health care workers with a corresponding group of unvaccinated South Africans, found that two shots of the vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization from Omicron by about 85 percent. In comparison, another study in South Africa found that two shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduced the risk of hospitalization by about 70 percent."

Florida. Where's Ron? AP: "The mayor of one of Florida's largest counties on Tuesday blasted Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, saying he has been missing in action during the latest wave of COVID-19.... [Jerry Demings,] the mayor of Orange County, home to Orlando, said local governments had been forced to figure out on their own, without help from the state, how to respond to the omicron variant that has rapidly overtaken the delta variant as the dominant strain of the coronavirus in Florida.... 'Our residents, all Florida residents, should be outraged and they should ask the question, "Where is our state? Where is our governor? Where is Ron DeSantis now?" When is the last time you saw the governor do a press briefing on COVID-19?' said Demings, a Democrat." MB: As far as I can tell (and I'm having a horrible time loading the page so I could be wrong), the story doesn't mention that Mayor Demings' wife Val is running for governor against DeSantis. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to a guest on MSNBC yesterday, Ron really is missing. He hasn't been seen in public in days, and a video his office recently put of his dining (unmasked, of course) at a popular restaurant was made 12 days earlier. Maybe Cancun Ted knows where Ron is.

Oklahoma. Grow Up, Guv. Andrew Jeong & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "A federal court Tuesday denied a lawsuit filed by Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) that challenged the Pentagon's military-wide coronavirus vaccination mandate by asking that the requirement be suspended for his state's National Guard members. Judge Stephen P. Friot sided with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has said the mandate is needed to maintain a healthy force that is ready to act quickly. Friot also disagreed with Stitt's assertion that the Pentagon was overstepping its constitutional authority, noting that Guard members are already required to receive nine immunizations. 'Adding a tenth ... vaccine to the list of nine that all service members are already required to take would hardly amount to "an enormous and transformative expansion [of the] regulatory authority" the Secretary of Defense already possesses,' he wrote in his ruling."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A decade after Michigan Republicans gave themselves seemingly impregnable majorities in the state Legislature by drawing districts that heavily favored their party, a newly created independent commission approved maps late Tuesday that create districts so competitive that Democrats have a fighting chance of recapturing the State Senate for the first time since 1984. The work of the new commission, which includes Democrats, Republicans and independents and was established through a citizen ballot initiative, stands in sharp contrast to the type of hyperpartisan extreme gerrymandering that has swept much of the country, exacerbating political polarization -- and it may highlight a potential path to undoing such gerrymandering. With lawmakers excluded from the mapmaking process, Michigan's new districts will much more closely reflect the overall partisan makeup of the hotly contested battleground state."

News Ledes

Colorado. New York Times: "Fast-moving wildfires fanned by powerful winds swept across parts of suburban Boulder County, Colo., on Thursday, prompting the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and burning at least 500 homes, a shopping complex and a hotel, the authorities said. The Boulder County Office of Emergency Management announced evacuation orders for Superior and Louisville, urging residents to leave quickly, as the sky turned orange, ash swirled in the wind, and buildings were engulfed in flames. Residents in parts of Broomfield and Westminster, Colo., were also ordered to evacuate. Gov. Jared Polis declared a state of emergency in response to the grass fires, allowing the state to tap emergency funds and to deploy state resources, including the Colorado National Guard. He said wind gusts of up to 110 miles per hour had pushed the fires with astonishing speed across suburban subdivisions where residents are not as accustomed to the kind of wildfires that have frequently menaced mountain towns and forests across the West." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story is here.

Biden's Booming Economy, Ctd. CNBC: "Initial filings for unemployment insurance dipped last week and remained close to their lowest level in more than 50 years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Jobless claims for the week ended Dec. 25 totaled 198,000, less than the 205,000 Dow Jones forecast and a dip of 8,000 from the previous period.″

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

I'm sitting here reflecting on the Mayberry video. There's something like desperation that runs throughout. The clinging onto a past that never was and believing, by many, that Trump was their kind of leader and the election was indeed stolen. And if you happened to stop in the eatery to grab one of those "best pork sandwiches" you best forget that once upon a time people of color were not allowed to enter.

There's that circle of Christian light that hovers over the town beaming down on people who truly believe in their "grace" and holy values––something that is being taught by the family whose young son's watching of the Andy G. show four hours a day; the real world interferes.

[Forrest Morris]

The woman on the Mayberry tour bus who says "we get our news
from other venues which shall remain unnamed." Fox? Qanon?
That sort of explains why they still worship the former guy. They're
being fed BS and believe it. Do some research, dig for some facts.
No, it's much easier just to check into a disreputable site and say
feed me some lies please. Yes, I'll have another helping, please.
And voter fraud is the reason Biden is president. Let's have some
proof of that. They have no comeback, other than "I heard it on my
news site."
Three more years of this and we'll all be ready for the looney bin.
It's a beautiful, sunny day here in the Mayberry of West Michigan;
makes me want to get out there and do some weeding.

[Akhilleus]

The hagiographic status of the Andy Griffith Show is no surprise, especially to those yearning for this Shangri-La like location where white people were happy and in charge of everything. In 249 episodes of the Andy Griffith Show, running for eight seasons, from 1960 to 1968, there was a grand total of a single speaking part for a black actor. One.

There would be an occasional black extra in the background (tending their shoe shine business, no doubt, or hurrying to their job as a maid), but in the era of civil rights, riots, and roiling racial tensions, never having to see a black face with a mouth that could speak must have been a great comfort (and still is) to many.

Reagan used the same trick of playing up an America that never existed, a white picket fence nirvana where darkies steppinfetched it for the white massas, and if they did open their mouths, it was to buy a Caddy with government handouts.

Another reason so many confederates lost their minds when Barack Obama got his own speaking part.

For eight seasons.

[Ken Winkes]

The darnedest thing, P.D., I kinda like Andy Griffith's Mayberry, or maybe I'm saying that I like the idea of it.

Yes, TAGS is a fabrication, top to bottom, its characters deliberately overdrawn to the extent that I have sometimes taken the show as an effective satire on small town American life, but it's certainly a more pleasant concoction than many of the equally fantastical tv offerings presented as "realistic" true-life drama.

Could be it's my own small town background and my youth in it that wasn't wholly miserable that flavors my reaction, but while I'm very aware of all that the writers left out of their depiction of small town life, and while the sentiment is often cloying to the point of silliness, the show still brings to mind all that my grandmother and mother would have said is "wholesome entertainment," and that doesn't seem all bad.

On another subject but still speaking of the fantastical:

Anyone else come across this?

https://techxplore.com/news/2021-12-neuroprosthetic-als-patient-social-media.html

Has this been elsewhere reported? Could it possible be real?

If so, we do life in an Age of Miracles.

[RAS]

"Facebook’s Pushback: Stem the Leaks, Spin the Politics, Don’t Say Sorry"
The Wall Street Journal has a story about Mark and Facebook and their reaction to the whistleblower that exposed some of their dirty laundry earlier this year. They took a page out of their algorithim and "to muddy the waters, divide lawmakers along partisan lines and forestall a cross-party alliance that was emerging to enact tougher rules on social-media companies in general and Facebook in particular."

[Bobby Lee]

With CDC advising consumers not to go on cruises, look for Florida governor DeSantis to have another hissy fit. He's already got a king sized case of the black arse over the lines requiring vaccination. Why, how dare the feds threaten such a lucrative industry in the swamp state?