October 18, 2021
Late Afternoon Update:
Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is suing to block the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol from receiving records it has requested regarding his role and the role of his aides in the events of that day. The lawsuit argues that the records request is overly broad and has no legislative purpose."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court on Monday for an emergency halt to the Texas law that has practically stopped access to abortion in the nation's second-largest state. The action means the court will again have to confront the controversial law, which generally outlaws the procedure after six weeks of pregnancy. In a divisive 5 to 4 decision last month, the court allowed the law to go into effect, although dissenters said it violated the nearly 50-year-old precedent in Roe v. Wade that guaranteed a right to abortion before fetal viability. DOJ raises new arguments in its filing, and says the court must intervene to prevent an end run around its authority and the Constitution."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In two unsigned decisions without noted dissents, the Supreme Court on Monday ruled in favor of police officers accused of using excessive force. The rulings were a signal that the court continues to support the doctrine of qualified immunity, which can shield police misconduct from lawsuits seeking damages. The doctrine has been the subject of criticism across the ideological spectrum, and it became a flash point in the nationwide protests last year over police brutality, with activists and lawmakers calling for its reconsideration. The doctrine requires plaintiffs to overcome a daunting hurdle. They must not only show that the official accused of misconduct violated a constitutional right, but also that the right had been 'clearly established' in a previous ruling."
~~~~~~~~~~
** Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Colin L. Powell, who in four decades of public life served as the nation's top soldier, diplomat and national security adviser, and whose speech at the United Nations in 2003 helped pave the way for the United States to go to war in Iraq, died on Monday. He was 84. He died of complications from Covid-19, his family said in a statement. He was fully vaccinated and was treated at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, his family said." The AP report is here.
Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: "Climate change is warming the air, allowing it to hold more moisture, which causes more frequent and intense rainfall. And no state in the contiguous United States is more exposed to flood damage than West Virginia, according to data released last week.... [Sen. Joe] Manchin has rejected any plan to move the country away from fossil fuels because he said it would harm West Virginia, a top producer of coal and gas. Mr. Manchin's own finances are tied to coal: he founded a family coal brokerage that paid him half a million dollars in dividends last year. But when it comes to climate, there's also an economic toll from inaction. The new data shows [show!] that Mr. Manchin's constituents stand to suffer disproportionately as climate change intensifies. Unlike those in other flood-exposed states, most residents in mountainous West Virginia have little room to relocate from the waterways that increasingly threaten their safety.... The measure that Mr. Manchin opposes, a clean electricity program, may be the last chance for Congress to reduce planet-warming emissions before the effects of climate change become catastrophic." ~~~
~~~ Marie: West Virginia is one of the top five "taker" states; that is, it's one of the states that get far more in federal assistance than they give back in tax revenues. This will be even more true if the Build Back Better plan is enacted. All Joe has to do is forget about his personal interests (fat chance!), tell his constituents he's voting for the bill because it helps them so much (true!), and vote for it. It's that easy, Joe. ~~~
~~~ Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "The transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg delivered a blunt warning on Sunday to Joe Manchin and other Senate Democrats who are forcing Joe Biden to scale back his climate crisis agenda: your resistance is going to cost lives.... 'The longer you take to do something about it, the more it's going to cost in livelihoods as well as lives,' he said. 'The administration and the president are committed to bold climate action, exactly what legislative form that takes is what's being negotiated right now. But the bottom line is we have to act on climate for the good of our children and for the good of our economy. This is kind of like a planetary maintenance issue.'... Buttigieg's criticism was more veiled than that of the progressive Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who lambasted Manchin last week in an opinion piece in the Charleston Gazette-Mail. 'Poll after poll shows overwhelming support for this legislation. Yet ... in a 50-50 Senate we need every Democratic senator to vote "yes." We now have only 48. Two Democratic senators remain in opposition, including Manchin.' he wrote."
Lucien Bruggeman & Matthew Mosk of ABC News: "Former British spy Christopher Steele is stepping out of the shadows to 'set the record straight' about his bombshell dossier for the first time since his name splashed across headlines in early 2017, defending his work, his name, and the decision to include some of its most controversial elements.... In his first major interview, Steele described how and why he wrote the 17 reports that made up the so-called 'Steele dossier,' which accused ... Donald Trump's campaign of conspiring with the Russians to tilt the result of the 2016 election.... In many ways, [the dossier] proved prescient. The Mueller probe found that Russia had been making efforts to meddle in the 2016 campaign, and that Trump campaign members and surrogates had promoted and retweeted Russian-produced political content alleging voter fraud and criminal activity on the part of Hillary Clinton. Investigators determined there had been "numerous links -- i.e. contacts -- between Trump campaign officials and individuals having ties to the Russian government." And, proof emerged that the Trump Organization had been discussing a real estate deal in Moscow during the campaign. All were findings that had been signaled, at least broadly, in Steele's work."
Christopher Mele of the New York Times: "Former President Bill Clinton was released from a California hospital on Sunday after being admitted on Tuesday for treatment of a urological infection that developed into sepsis, officials said." The AP's story is here.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
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.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "Police officers and others responsible for public safety should view vaccination against Covid-19 as a key part of their role, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease doctor, said during an interview on Fox News Sunday.... Police unions in cities across the country are urging members to resist Covid vaccine requirements for their jobs."
Florida. Ron's Big Cover-up. Ian Hodgson of the Tampa Bay Times: "For 105 days this summer, while COVID-19 deaths soared across the state, Floridians had no idea how many of their neighbors were dying.... The number of people dying in each Florida county went missing from June 4 through Sept. 17.... In June, Gov. Ron DeSantis' office declared that the pandemic had receded to the point where daily reports were no longer necessary. The state also took down its COVID data website, known as an online dashboard.... On June 4..., state officials stopped releasing daily pandemic data, switched to weekly reports and started withholding data once available to the public. Instead of including county deaths in its weekly reports, the state directed the public to find that information via the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the CDC relied on Florida's online portal of COVID data -- which the state also took down in June. The CDC's tally of deaths for Florida went blank."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Matthew Brown of the AP: "Investigators believe a 1,200-foot (366-meter) cargo ship dragging anchor in rough seas caught an underwater oil pipeline and pulled it across the seafloor, months before a leak from the line fouled the Southern California coastline with crude.... Investigators believe [the] anchor [of the Panama-registered MSC DANIT] dragged for an unknown distance before striking the 16-inch (40-centimeter) steel pipe, Coast Guard Lt. j.g. SondraKay Kneen said Sunday.... Still undetermined is whether the impact caused the October leak, or if the line was hit by something else at a later date or failed due to a preexisting problem, Kneen said."
Way Beyond
Haiti. Maria Abi-Habib of the New York Times: "... few Haitians, rich or poor, are safe from the gangs of kidnappers that stalk their country with near impunity. But the abduction this weekend of 17 people associated with an American missionary group as they visited an orphanage shocked officials for its brazenness. On Sunday, the hostages, five of them children, remained in captivity, their whereabouts and identities unknown to the public. Adding to the mystery was a wall of silence from officials in Haiti and the United States about what, if anything, was being done to secure their release." ~~~
~~~ Danica Coto & Evens Sanon: "A notorious Haitian gang known for brazen kidnappings and killings was accused by police Sunday of abducting 17 missionaries from a U.S.-based organization. Five children were believed to be among those kidnapped, including a 2-year-old. The 400 Mawozo gang kidnapped the group in Ganthier, a community that lies east of the capital of Port-au-Prince, Haitian police inspector Frantz Champagne told The Associated Press. The gang was blamed for kidnapping five priests and two nuns earlier this year in Haiti."
Share Article
Reader Comments (8)
It's always been intriguing to me that though as far as I knew and know the Steele report/dossier was never successfully refuted, all the claims to the contrary of the Pretender and his henchmen aside, it nonetheless had so little (no?) impact on the American electorate.
From the get-go I took that as a very bad sign.
But then it had long ago learned to ignore anything it didn't like.
Something I've been meaning to post from Carter Malkasian's "The American War in Afghanistan: A History" –--information that I have not read about anywhere else. When he's talking about the American's shaky commitment to the principle underlying its insistence on equal dignity for Afghan women, organized pedophilia, an established way of life, just as prominent as the Afghans doing whatever they wanted with women, this practice was also a tradition; the Americans tolerated and even enabled it––and I may add, evidently covered it up.
"Afghan military officers, warlords, and other power brokers proclaimed their status by keeping 'tea boys' or other adolescent male servants as sex slaves. US troops referred to the practice as "man-love Thursday" because Afghan pederasts would force boys to dress up or dance on Thursday evenings before the start of the Afghan weekend. Although American soldiers were sickened by the abuse, their commanders instructed them to look the other way because they didn't want to alienate allies in the fight against the Taliban."
There's a lot to say about this besides it being morally abhorrent and the fact that the Taliban sent out to punish mujahideen commanders who were accused of rape or pederasty, did it not occur to American policymakers that taking the opposite approach might be unpopular and indeed alienating?
@Ken: Steele sticks by his pee pee tape, and evidently Fatty feels it, too, cuz he be talking about it during his last interview–-something the interviewer didn't even bring up.
Have always wondered if Colin Powell, who truly had so much to be proud of, thought every day of how he had been used as a tool by the Bush administration when he gave his inaccurate, even buffoonish report to the UN on those weapons of mass destruction that weren't.
Now I wonder if such were his dying thought. For the sake of a man I have always thought to be essentially decent, I hope not.
Now my thoughts wander toward the Bush II administration's other black stooge, who was also willing to cozen the public about those imaginary WMD's.
But Connie Rice, also willing/eager to head the infamous Hoover Institution, somehow doesn't summon the same shred of sympathy.
Reading the WaPo Daily 202 I see that Vermont has joined other states in utilizing ARPA funds to support child care services. Interesting article segues into Manchins opposition.
https://news.yahoo.com/u-supreme-court-rules-police-135738330.html
For me, the heart of the matter:
"A 2020 Reuters investigation revealed how qualified immunity, with the Supreme Court's continual refinements, has made it easier for police officers to kill or injure civilians with impunity."
Once again, good job, SCOTUS.
Selling the Build Back Better agenda:
"Here is a list of paid-for programs that every single R senator, along with Selfish Sinema and Selfish Manchin, doesn't want you to have. They don't think you are worth it."
Then list everything that's getting axed from the agenda.
"Dog robber" is an old army name for the flunky that stole, procured, and did the dirties for senior officers. Powell could not find evidence of the My Lie massacre protecting one General. He gave the whole world lies that were suspect protecting W. Powell was the world champion "dog robber"
I've seen journalists citing polls that West Virginians support Biden's agenda, even Republicans want the programs in the Build Back Better bill. So this is all Joe looking out for Joe.
It's also freaking annoying and depressing that no one cares that not one Republican, even the "good" ones, can be bothered to support saving the planet...or children, or workers, or students, or parents, or...
Mitt, Susan and Lisa are standing along the rest of the traitor party yelling for the rest of us to burn, drown, freeze, and starve. Did their grandkids forget to send them a birthday card or something (probably just got lost in the DeJoy Post) to make them so determined to destroy the future for us all, including their own?
I wish they would all just wave their rebel flag and get the hell out of the way so the rest of us can try to make life on this planet livable.