;)
May 10, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden, on the defense for months over rising inflation, sought to convince Americans on Tuesday that he understood the pain they were feeling from rising prices and that his administration was taking steps to address higher costs for fuel, food and other goods. Mr. Biden delivered his remarks a day before another economic report [-- The Consumer Price Index --] was expected to show uncomfortably high prices.... Republicans have spent months blaming Mr. Biden for rising prices, viewing it as a winning issue ahead of the midterm elections.... On Tuesday, Mr. Biden tried to flip the argument, castigating Republicans for complaining about rising prices while offering 'extreme' policy ideas that he said would help the wealthiest Americans and big corporations rather than working families.... Mr. Biden targeted what he called 'the ultra-MAGA agenda.'..." ~~~
Matt O'Brien, et al., of the AP: "Elon Musk said he will reverse Twitter's permanent ban of ... Donald Trump should the Tesla CEO conclude his deal to acquire the social media company for $44 billion. Musk, speaking virtually at a Future of the Car summit hosted by the Financial Times, said Twitter's Trump ban was a 'morally bad decision' and 'foolish in the extreme.' He said permanent bans of Twitter accounts should be rare and reserved for accounts that are scams or automated bots." MB: Apparently the Professor Pangloss of Tech believes a 75-year-old man who has told multiple whoppers daily since he learned to talk can reform and use a Twitter account to impart truth & knowledge to the masses.
Valerie Hopkins & Misha Friedman of the New York Times: Maria V. Alyokhina, the leader of the dissident punk band Pussy Riot who has been jailed in Russia many times on trumped-up charges, escaped Russia "disguised ... as a food courier to evade the Moscow police who had been staking out the friend's apartment where she was staying. She left her cellphone behind as a decoy and to avoid being tracked. A friend drove her to the border with Belarus, and it took her a week to cross into Lithuania."
According to Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post, "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) called the police on Saturday over a chalk drawing on a public sidewalk by her home that politely asked the Maine Republican to protect abortion rights by codifying Roe v. Wade. Police in Bangor, Maine, responded Saturday night to investigate the water-soluble message that asked Collins to support the Women's Health Protection Act, which effectively keeps abortion rights legal at the federal level in the event that the Supreme Court overturns the 1973 ruling guaranteeing abortion access.... Bangor police spokesman Wade Betters confirmed to HuffPost that a complaint was made about the chalk message, saying it was not threatening and no crime was committed. He said the city's public works department washed off the chalk." Related story linked below. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm not completely convinced there is evidence that Collins is the "concerned citizen" who called the cops on the chalk artist, but it is highly likely. ~~~
~~~ Wait, Wait! Update: Pema Levy of Mother Jones: "A copy of the police report shared with Mother Jones confirms the complainant was Collins."
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The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Emmanuel Macron of France dashed Ukraine's hopes of joining the European Union soon during his address to the European Parliament on Monday. The membership process would likely take decades, Mr. Macron said, though he reiterated Europe's commitment to sending aid. A top E.U. leader flew to Budapest on Monday to try to sway Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary as talks over a proposed embargo on Russian oil stalled over Hungarian resistance. The visit did not yield a breakthrough. Russian forces have failed to establish air superiority over Ukraine and 'have blown through' many of their precision-guided munitions, a senior U.S. Defense Department official said on Monday. The Ukrainian military's fierce counteroffensive in the east has forced Russian forces to redeploy to the area around Kharkiv, Ukraines second-largest city. And in the south, Russia launched missile strikes into Odesa, the Black Sea port city, sending the president of the European Council and the prime minister of Ukraine into a bomb shelter." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: "The Pulitzer Prize Board honored the journalists of Ukraine on Monday with a special citation 'for their courage, endurance, and commitment to truthful reporting' during Russia's invasion and 'propaganda war.'"
Peter Baker & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "When President Biden signed a modern-day Lend-Lease Act on Monday, 81 years after the original version helped lead the way into World War II, he effectively thrust the United States even deeper into another war in Europe that has increasingly become an epic struggle with Russia despite his efforts to define its limits. Recent days have underscored just how engaged the United States has become in the conflict in Ukraine. In addition to the new lending program, which will waive time-consuming requirements to speed arms to Ukraine, Mr. Biden has proposed $33 billion more in military and humanitarian aid, a package that congressional Democrats plan to increase by another $7 billion. He sent the first lady for a secret visit to the war zone. And he provided intelligence helping Ukraine to kill a dozen generals and
Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "... as ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia spoke in Moscow's Red Square on Monday, he ... made no call for new sacrifice or mobilization, no threat of a nuclear strike, no stark pronouncement about an existential war with the West. Instead Mr. Putin, speaking on Russia's most important secular holiday, delivered a message for the broader Russian public: that they could keep on living their lives. The military would keep fighting to rid Ukraine, in his false telling, of 'torturers, death squads and Nazis,' but Mr. Putin did not make any new attempt to prepare his people for a wider conflict. The calibrated tone showed that while some Western officials had predicted Mr. Putin would use the May 9 holiday to double down on the war, he remains cautious about demanding too much from regular Russians."
Roger Cohen of the New York Times writes a summary of Sunday's developments in Ukraine. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Protesters doused Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, in bright red paint -- resembling blood -- as he was arriving at an event to honor Soviet soldiers who fought in World War II. Footage posted by Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti showed the ambassador's face dripping with the liquid as he arrived to lay flowers at the Soviet Military Cemetery on a day of widespread celebrations of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The video was shared without audio. Videos shared to Twitter, however, showed huge crowds, with some people angrily shouting 'Fascists!' at a group of Russian officials, whose faces were stained in red. Others at the scene held flowers an Ukrainian flags." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
** Claire Miller & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "Taking pills to end a pregnancy accounts for a growing share of abortions in the United States, both legal and not. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade as expected, medication abortion will play a larger role, especially among women who lose access to abortion clinics.... It's a regimen of pills that women can take at home, a method increasingly used around the world. The protocol approved for use in the United States includes two medications. The first one, mifepristone, blocks a hormone called progesterone that is necessary for a pregnancy to continue. The second, misoprostol, brings on uterine contractions.... The Food and Drug Administration has approved medication abortion for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. World Health Organization guidelines say it can be used up to 12 weeks at home, and after 12 weeks in a medical office." It is safe & effective. "If Roe is overturned, about half of states are expected to ban abortion altogether, and medication abortion is expected to become a legal battleground." Read on if you or some you're close to might have a need for abortion medication. (Also linked yesterday.)
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Alito's opinion, after mocking the Roe decision for its 'discussion of abortion in antiquity,' then provides a discussion of abortion in medieval times: 'Henry de Bracton's 13th-century treatise explained that if a person has "struck a pregnant woman, or has given her poison, whereby he has caused an abortion, if the foetus be already formed and animated ... he commits homicide."'... Bracton [also has] a lot to say about monsters, duels, bastardy, concubines, sturgeon 'and other royal fish,' the 'pillory and the ducking-stool,' and 'a judgment with infamy.'... In Bracton's account, 'Women differ from men in many respects, for their position is inferior to that of men.'... And he explains that 'those born of unlawful intercourse, as out of adultery and the like, are not reckoned among children.' Those children 'born of prohibited intercourse ... are fit for nothing.' You won't find those passages in Alito's draft opinion... But this medieval court is just getting started." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Milbank is given to using hyperbole to make his points, but if you reflect on Milbank's Bracton citations, you may find yourself musing, "Hmm, I'll bet that's what Insufferable Sam thinks, too."
Ali Zaslav, et al., of CNN: "Members of the US Senate passed a bipartisan bill Monday that would expand security protection to the immediate family members of Supreme Court justices, following recent protests at some justices' homes. The Supreme Court Police Parity Act was approved by unanimous consent, meaning no senators objected to its quick passage. The legislation must also be passed by the House before going to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature." MB: How nice that all the Senators want to protect Ginni Thomas. I'm all for it, too. Now let's see them pass the Women's Health Protection Act by unanimous consent. Oh, protecting women? Ordinary women? Not gonna happen.
The Washington Post's Editors are aghast that protesters would picket the homes of Supreme Court justices over a little thing like rescinding women's rights to control their own bodies. MB: I could not disagree more. If these control freaks are going to alter and contract the life trajectories of half of Americans, those lives are changed forever, 24-7, not just when women are at work. So if Sadist Sam or Bart O'Beer has to notice protesters when he gets into his car or takes out the trash, tough. This inbred notion that women should behave in proper, "ladylike" fashion and address these little setbacks more politely just infuriates me.
Bill Chappell of NPR: "Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she won't enforce her state's 1931 abortion law -- and she's hoping the Michigan Supreme Court finds it unconstitutional, even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down its Roe v. Wade decision.... Michigan's 1931 law defined abortion as a felony. It came under attack by its own government last month, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sued to vacate the ban. The push quickly gained new urgency after a draft opinion leaked that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights. If the Supreme Court overturns its abortion ruling, Michigan's law would again take effect, making it illegal to perform abortions in many circumstances, including in cases of rape and incest. The law also forbids using drugs to induce an abortion." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: The powers-that-be at the Bangor Daily News should invite the headline writer to get a new job: "Pro-abortion chalk message appears on Susan Collins" Bangor sidewalk." The message was, "Susie, please, Mainers want WHPA --> vote yes, clean up your mess." Sorry, that's not pro-abortion. It's pro-woman. There's a helluva a difference. As for whatever nitwit called the cops about what Collins melodramatically called "defacement of public property in front of our home," puh-leze. Would you call the police on little girls who "defaced" your sidewalk with a chalked hopscotch court?
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Twenty Internet providers, including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, have agreed to provide high-speed service at a steep discount to low-income consumers, the White House announced Monday, significantly expanding broadband access for millions of Americans. The plan, a feature of the $1 trillion infrastructure package passed by Congress last year, would cost qualifying households no more than $30 per month. The discounts plus existing federal Internet subsidies mean the government will cover the full cost of connectivity if consumers sign on with one of the 20 participating companies. The White House estimates the program will cover 48 million households, or 40 percent of the country. More than 11.5 million households have already signed up to claim government subsidies.... 'High-speed Internet is not a luxury any longer. It's a necessity,' President Biden said in remarks announcing the program at the White House Rose Garden."
Oh, Great! Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: QAnon adherents, "guns holstered on their hips, have been camping out near Sasabe, Ariz., as a self-appointed border force with the stated aim of protecting the thousands of migrant children who have been arriving from the evils of sex trafficking -- a favorite QAnon theme. They are the latest in what over the years has developed into a cottage industry of dozens of armed civilians who have packed camouflage gear, tents and binoculars and deployed along the southern border. [Jason] Frank, a QAnon influencer whose Facebook page in recent months has shown him pictured with such conservative celebrities as Donald J. Trump Jr., Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, has fashioned his team into a new style of border enforcers, motivated not so much by halting immigration as by guarding the country from other perceived threats -- in this case, an unfounded conspiracy theory that migrant children are being funneled into pedophilia rings.... Minors crossing the southern border as part of sex-trafficking schemes is unusual, according to groups that monitor and combat trafficking." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's clear to me that many of these conspiracy theorists are just lamebrains with too much time on their hands. You would think their friends at Hobby Lobby could get them into scrapbooking or stenciling or whatever.
Marie: Mark Meadows should go to jail, and not just for committing voter fraud: ~~~
~~~ Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Mark Meadows "had taken the job as chief of staff on the principle that his most important task would be 'to tell the most powerful man in the world when you believed he was wrong,' he wrote in his memoir.... But instead..., Meadows went to extraordinary lengths to push Trump's false assertions -- particularly during a crucial three-week period starting with his trip to Atlanta and culminating in the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. A review of Meadows's actions in that period ... -- based on interviews, depositions, text messages, emails, congressional documents, recently published memoirs by key players and other material -- shows how Meadows played a pivotal role in advancing Trump's efforts to overturn the election. In doing so, Meadows 'repeatedly violated' legal guidance against trying to influence the Justice Department, according to a majority staff report of the Senate Judiciary Committee." (Also linked yesterday.)
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Top leaders in the Oath Keepers, the far-right extremist group, have been turning over phones and digital files and sitting for interviews with the FBI -- and detailing how they worked to benefit Donald Trump's campaign and communicated with others in the former President's orbit, according to court records and multiple sources familiar with the federal investigation." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The senior strategist for Senator John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign said on Sunday night that he had lied to discredit a New York Times article that reported on Mr. McCain's close relationship with a female lobbyist, a claim that the candidate and the campaign attacked at considerable length at the time. The statement from Steve Schmidt, which he published in a late-night Substack post, was a remarkable turnabout for a former senior aide who once praised Mr. McCain as 'the greatest man I've ever known.' More than 14 years after The Times's article appeared and four years after the Republican senator's death, Mr. Schmidt let loose a furious personal assault on the credibility of Mr. McCain and his family.... Mr. McCain continued to deny until his death that he had a romantic relationship with [lobbyist Vicki] Iseman. Mr. Schmidt, however, said Mr. McCain had privately acknowledged an affair to him after The Times published its article." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Much ado.... I read Schmidt's Substack post earlier Monday, and IMO, it is a fine example of incoherent, drunk-rage writing. It's hardly a surprise that a presidential candidate lied about an affair or that a self-important campaign staffer still resents that some aspect of the affair has inconvenienced him.
Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "The Pulitzer Prizes were awarded on Monday to an array of news organizations for investigations that uncovered the tragic toll of the United States' air war in the Middle East, exposed the dangers of a Tampa lead smelter and pieced together the full picture of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The New York Times won the most Pulitzer Prizes this year of any outlet, including in the international reporting, national reporting and criticism categories. A Times reporter, Andrea Elliott, also won the award for nonfiction book. The Washington Post won the public service category, considered the most prestigious of the prizes, for 'The Attack,' a sprawling chronological examination of what led to the siege on the Capitol building and what transpired during the riot and its aftermath." ~~~
~~~ Here's the full list of Pulitzer Prize winners, via the New York Times.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Sunday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus -- the worst sort of Mother's Day surprise for the state's first mom governor. Aides said that Ms. Hochul was asymptomatic, and that the virus had been detected as part of the governor's testing routine in Albany." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Nevada. Swimming with the Fishes. An Upside to Climate Change. Marlene Lenthang of NBC News: "New human remains were found at Lake Mead in Nevada over the weekend, days after a decomposed body was found in a metal barrel at the lake's shrinking shoreline.... [The body in the barrel] was [the remains of a person] believed to have been killed between the mid-1970s and the early 1980s based on clothing and footwear the victim was found with, Las Vegas police said in a statement at the time. 'We believe this is a homicide as a result of a gunshot wound,' Lt. Ray Spencer said." So see? Missing persons cases, murder mysteries are a big step closer to solving.
Way Beyond
Philippines. Regine Cabato of the Washington Post: "With more than 85 percent of the vote counted, the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos took a commanding lead Monday in elections, with more than twice the votes of his nearest competitor." (This is an update of a story linked earlier yesterday.)
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A comment relating to yesterday's note about the right's war on abortion and the observation that it was in sync with "their war on the Enlightenment era concept of rights."
This aligns with views Alexander Dugin, Putin's so called brain, has put forward in interviews and his book, "The Foundations of Geopolitical Politics." In 2017, Leslie Stahl did a 60 Minutes interview with Dugin that never ran in which he explains his theories. However, you can see the interview here https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aleksandr-dugin-russia-ukraine-vladimir-putin-60-minutes-2022-04-12/
I call attention to Dugin because of the influence he has on Putin and because his thinking so closely parallels what we hear from the American right. He has called for a rejection of Enlightenment era values and, quoting from the CBS article, "..has set Eurasianism in direct opposition to liberalism and the whole "Atlantic" world he believes is led by the United States." Putin often includes various of Dugin's ideas in his speeches.
Paraphrase of a comment in Florida Politics this morning regarding the pearl clutching on demonstrators: The people urging civility would have already burned the homes of every justice if this were about abolishing guns instead of abortion.
Found Putin's Victory Day speech intriguing. By their audiences ye shall know them.
I'd guess a deliberately propagandized presence of WWII must still live in Russia, even today seventy years after the war ended, altho’ at least two generations have been born since then. That war must be ever-present, or the Nazis Putin keeps calling on to scare people would have long since lost their power to do so.
In contrast, here in the Good Ole USA,, I have personal knowledge that the most young Americans confuse WWII with WWI, even the Civil War, if they think of it at all. Here propagandizing Vietnam still works a little with some, but even that war’s political impact is fast fading.
No matter, tho’. We have mask and vaccine requirements, the specter of gun regulations, brown people, some already in our cities and others crossing our borders in the dark of night, and the evils of abortion to keep the Right energized or skeered.
Oh, which buttons to push on the way to autocracy?
Russia and the American Right may be heading in the same direction, but somehow the paths we have chosen to take seem comparatively childish and even trivial.
Yesterday I read on Instagram, Acadia National Park's page, that, according to the CDC, masks will be still required in all national park buildings. You should have seen the hundreds of confederate remarks condemning the park for deciding that. What snowflakes, what spoiled babies these people are... This morning, I read that New England and Puerto Rico, formerly highly vaxxed and with fewer hospitalizations, are experiencing significant upticks in the newest variant of the virus. I think we will stay away, even though we had thoughts of driving to Maine. People who are hysterical about masks, go get your disease-- I no longer care. (I know this is not RCers, thank goodness...)
It's a good idea to keep our eyes open on these primary votes cuz they will be the bells that ring and not only on Sundays. What I know about Nebraska, for instance, you could put in a pea whistle so I was interested what NYT's Ted Genoways, whose ancestors arrived in Nebraska in 1858, the same time my German and Irish ancestors arrived in Wisconsin, had to say since he titled his column––
"How Trump Helped Transform Nebraska Into a Toxic Politcal Wasteland."
Genoways gives us informative political history but starts out zeroing in on Charles Herbster who is running in the Repblican primary for Governor. So far eight women have come forward to allege that the "hipster" done do a whole lot of groping on their persons. Back in the day, Ted says, this bloke would have been dismissed outright but today, hey! it's the way of it! Fatty gives his blessing and that could seal the deal.
However––- Genaways' main thesis is how Nebraska (and what's true here can be connected to other states) has become so radical. He ends with this:
"Regardless of how the final ballot turns out in Nebraska, the real victor will be Donald Trump."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/09/opinion/trump-nebraska-politics.html
Meanwhile we gots Putin's Nazi War, Alito's abortion screed whose contents have outraged millions, and information about how absolutely crazy nuts Fatty preformed as president by people who kept it a secret for fear of getting fired and for fear of someone else taking their place who would not keep Trump in check but now reveal it all in books. Even that bombastic Steve Schmitt has come out with the truth.
And years and years ago Lady Gregory wrote to Yeats and said:
"It is the old battle between those who use a toothbrush and those who don't."
Bobby Lee,
Well said. You got that right. But I’ll give them this. The single mindedness on the right has allowed them to accomplish the weaponizing of the Supreme Court enabling these traitors to achieve their long standing goal of killing Roe.
They don’t let anything stand in their way. Not truth, justice, or the American Way (the America envisioned by the founders, that is); not democracy, certainly not civility, and definitely not the Constitution, which is a mere prop to be toted out when necessary to maintain the fiction that they’re still part of the American Experiment.
They’re not.
Truly, they never were, at least not for half a century or more. They’ve been marching to the drumbeat of authoritarianism since before Reagan. It was Nixon who taught them that when a (Republican) president does something, no matter what, it’s not a crime. The only crime is allowing anyone or anything to stand between them and real power.
Democrats have allowed this to happen. I’m not sure it can be fixed.
To employ a sports analogy, it’s like the JV team playing the Varsity. And not only does the Varsity, replete with dirty players, cheat, they now have the refs on their side as well.
Now class, repeat after me…
Speaking of Florida, aka DeSanTrump World, we hear that ubiquitous confederate oxymoron, “freedom”, now being trotted out to celebrate more right-wing propaganda.
Pro tip. Whenever you hear a confederate traitor use the word “freedom”, it refers to its exact opposite. Always.
DeSantis announces a “blockbuster day for FREEEEDOM!” because he personally is saving the world from “communist evil”. Yes, kids, those evil commies are everywhere. It’s a plague.
But really, how many communist countries are there in the world?
Five. That’s three more than the number of brain cells rattling around in the DeSantis dome.
Five. China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, and Laos.
So now public school curricula must, by order of Der Fuhrer, contain lessons in the evils of communism. Have I missed something, or have kids been getting taught that communism has been a great and wonderful gift to the world?
Soitanly not. And yes, I know this is a sop to the Cuban communities in southern Florida (a relatively small group with unusual power over d everyone else in that state), but it’s also a back door incursion, a trial balloon, if you will, for red state fascists to seize direct control over what gets taught in public schools. It’s also a way to spread the right wing fiction that all Democrats are soshulists, ie, communists, ie, evil.
The raw tonnage of these never ending schemes to warp public discourse and to inject huge doses of right wing paranoia and propaganda pathogens into the body politic approaches black hole territory.
The nation is overwhelmed by winger tropes, lies, misdirection, disinformation, bigotry, hatred, and distrust. This is something Democrats have never been able to figure out and have no apparent plans to counter. The traitors know this.
And they act accordingly.
This morning I heard something about how outraged traitors are demanding round the clock bodyguards and protection details for Supremes being “attacked” by liberals wanting to “hurt them”. The response to an exhibition of free speech by protesting at Rape Boy’s house is a five alarm call to arms because it doesn’t matter that Bart and his traitor pals are taking rights away from millions, his “right” to not have to suffer even the tiniest of inconveniences as a consequence, must be protected at all costs.
Because HE’S the victim.
Next up, classes on sieg heiling. Oh, it’s just a simple PE drill. It’ll be good for the kids. What’s the problem?
Ohhhh…people are complaining about that! My rights are being violated! Help! Get the guns!!
https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/politics/2022/05/09/florida-gov-ron-desantis-requires-public-schools-victims-communism-day/9707698002/
"Abortion clinic buffer zone violates First Amendment: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday [in 2014] that a Massachusetts law setting a 35-foot protest-free zone outside abortion clinics violates the First Amendment.
The court in the past has allowed for buffer zones around facilities like health clinics, but Chief Justice John Roberts noted that the Massachusetts law restricts access to sidewalks and other public space. "Such areas occupy a 'special position in terms of First Amendment protection' because of their historic role as sites for discussion and debate," Roberts wrote."
The First Amendment, and the other ones, are only for real Americans.
My afternoon update:
Biden did not use his megaphone to let people know that an estimate a variously estimated 40-60 percent of inflation reflects record corporate profits (see last Sunday's Sermon). Wonder why not.
Of course Musk would allow the Pretender back on Twitter. He's good for Twitter traffic, which is the only name of the social media game.