;)
The Commentariat -- April 10, 2021
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.
Douglas Martin of the New York Times: "Ramsey Clark, who championed civil rights and liberties as attorney general in the Johnson administration, then devoted much of the rest of his life to defending unpopular causes and infamous people, including Saddam Hussein and others accused of war crimes, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93.
Shayna Jacobs, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump's company paid a skating rink manager more than $200,000 in annual salary, $40,000 yearly bonuses and provided free company-owned apartments for his family, according to testimony of the employee, Barry Weisselberg, and his financial documents. Such payments and perks, as well as other financial support provided to Weisselberg and his family, have drawn new scrutiny from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D) as a potentially key component of his ongoing criminal investigation into the former president's business activity and finances. Barry Weisselberg is the son of Trump's longtime confidant and chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, whose cooperation prosecutors are maneuvering to secure, a person familiar with the investigation said, as they evaluate whether there is sufficient evidence to charge Trump, or members of his family or inner circle."
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Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Friday asked Congress to authorize a massive $1.5 trillion federal spending plan later this year, seeking to invest heavily in a number of government agencies to boost education, expand affordable housing, bolster public health and confront climate change. The request marks Biden's first discretionary spending proposal, a precursor to the full annual budget he aims to release later in the spring that will address programs including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The president's early blueprint calls for a nearly 16 percent increase in funding across nondefense domestic agencies, reflecting the White House's guiding belief that a bigger, better-resourced government in Washington can help address the country's most pressing political and economic challenges." An AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ Patricia Cohen of the New York Times: "Not since Lyndon Baines Johnson's momentous civil rights and anti-poverty legislation has an American president so pointedly put racial and economic equity at the center of his agenda.... Yet as ambitious as [Joe Biden's] efforts are, academic experts and some policymakers say still more will be needed to repair one of the most stubborn and invidious inequalities: the gap in wealth between Black and white Americans. Wealth -- one's total assets --is the most meaningful measure of financial strength. Yet for every dollar a typical white household has, a Black one has 12 cents, a divide that has grown over the last half-century. Latinos have 21 cents for every dollar in white wealth." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Cohen's number may be skewed by the super-wealthy -- Jeff Bezos, Bill & Melinda Gates, etc. -- almost all of whom are White. One would not consider these families to fit into the "typical white household" box. Nonetheless, if you correct for super-rich White people, I assume there will still be a startling difference between the wealth of "typical" White & minority American families.
Michael Shear & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday ordered a 180-day study of adding seats to the Supreme Court, making good on a campaign-year promise to establish a bipartisan commission to examine the potentially explosive subjects of expanding the court or setting term limits for justices, White House officials said. The president acted under pressure from activists pushing for more seats to alter the ideological balance of the court...." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) The AP's story is here.
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "Roberta S. Jacobson, the former ambassador to Mexico whom President Biden chose as his 'border czar' on the National Security Council, will step down at the end of the month, she said on Friday, even as the administration struggles to confront a surge of migrants at the nation's southwestern border. Ms. Jacobson, who had been described as one of the Biden administration's key players in dealing with the governments in the Northern Triangle area of Central America, praised what she called Mr. Biden's efforts to repair and recast the nation's immigration system after four years under ... Donald J. Trump.... Ms. Jacobson said that her appointment as a special assistant to the president and as the border coordinator in the White House was always intended to last for only about 100 days -- a period that will expire at the end of April, when she intends to leave government."; UPI's story is here.
Jeremy Herb & Annie Grayer of CNN: "The House Ethics Committee said Friday it was opening an investigation into the allegations surrounding embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican facing a federal investigation into whether he violated sex trafficking laws. The top Democrat and Republican on the Ethics Committee said they were examining Gaetz for a host of potential offenses, including both potential illegal activity and violations of House rules. 'The Committee is aware of public allegations that Representative Matt Gaetz may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct,' Ethics Chairman Ted Deutch of Florida and ranking Republican member Jackie Walorski of Indiana said in a joint statement Friday." ~~~
~~~ Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "Federal agents have, in recent months, been examining [Matt] Gaetz's connections to several other influential Florida political figures. They include Florida state senator Jason Brodeur; Halsey Beshears, the state's former top business regulator; Chris Dorworth, a lobbyist who had served in the state House of Representatives; and Jason Pirozzolo, a hand surgeon and Gaetz campaign donor who served on the board of the Orlando Airport Authority, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.... Gaetz, who has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, has retained two prominent New York attorneys while facing a Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations involving underage girls.... a spokesperson for Gaetz said attorneys Marc Mukasey and Isabelle Kirshner will lead his legal team.... During a high-profile appearance Friday night at ... Donald Trump's Doral golf club in Miami, he vowed, 'I have not yet begun to fight.'"
Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "Trump appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services last year privately touted their efforts to block or alter scientists' reports on the coronavirus to more closely align with ... Donald Trump's more optimistic messages about the outbreak, according to newly released documents from congressional investigators.... Even as career government scientists worked to combat the virus, a cadre of Trump appointees was attempting to blunt the scientists' messages, edit their findings and equip the president with an alternate set of talking points." ~~~
~~~ Among those cited in Diamond's report is Michael Caputo, then HHS's public affairs director. ~~~
~~~ I Forgot??? Scott Stedman & Matt Bernardini of Forensic News: "Michael Caputo, a former senior aide to Donald Trump, who spent decades working in Russia and former Soviet states, failed to disclose a lavish painting gifted to him by a Ukrainian lobbying group in 2020. The review of Caputo's lobbying comes after a recent report from the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) on foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. election which revealed that Russian intelligence assets 'helped produce' a documentary created by Caputo and aired on One America News Network (OANN) in January 2020. The documentary ... spread numerous unfounded theories about the uprising in Ukraine in 2014 that ousted the pro-Russian President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, as well as Hunter and Joe Biden's dealings in Ukraine.... The failure to report his gift to the Justice Department ... coupled with the fact that he was paid just $1 for his lobbying efforts, has raised numerous questions about the true purpose of Caputo's work given his concurrent work with Russian spies ... Konstantin Kilimnik and Andriy Derkach" on the so-called documentary.
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Karen Weise & Michael Corkery of the New York Times: "Amazon appeared to beat back the most significant labor drive in its history on Friday, when an initial tally showed that workers at its giant warehouse in Alabama had voted decisively against forming a union. Workers cast at least 1,608 votes against a union, giving Amazon enough to defeat the effort, as ballots in favor of a union trailed at 696, according to a preliminary count. Hundreds of votes remained to be tallied, but are not enough to bridge Amazon's margin of victory. Once the count is complete, the results will still need to be certified by federal officials." MB: First, I'm gonna vote for Donald Trump; second, I'm gonna vote for Jeff Bezos; third, I'm gonna whine about Blacks & Latinos keeping me from getting ahead. (Also linked yesterday.)
It's Not Easy Being White -- Tucker the Toad
Nikki Ramirez of Media Matters: "For decades, white nationalists have invoked the specter of nonwhite immigration, multiculturalism, and declining birthrates to argue for the existence of a vast conspiracy aimed at eliminating white populations as a dominant demographic. On Fox News, Tucker Carlson is distributing the language, grievances, goals, and inherent call to action of the conspiracy theory to massive audiences. On the April 8 broadcast of Fox News Primetime, Carlson offered perhaps his most explicit justification yet for the core belief of the 'great replacement' conspiracy theory: that a wave of 'Third World' invaders is coming to replace you and reshape your environment, and that you, the audience, should do something about it. The Fox News host claimed that 'what's true' is that 'the Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World,' and no one should 'sit back and take that.'"
Max Boot of the Washington Post: "On Thursday night, [Tucker] Carlson moved even closer to white supremacist ideology by explicitly endorsing the Great Replacement theory, which holds that shadowy elites are orchestrating a plot to replace native-born White people with immigrants of color. The New Zealand shooter's manifesto was literally headlined 'The Great Replacement,' and the neo-Nazis who marched in Charlottesville chanted 'Jews will not replace us.'" Boot name-checks a number of "senior directors and managers of Fox who are immigrants -- and even more who are the children or grandchildren of immigrants," including of course Rupert Murdoch. "The irony, of course, is that, by their very success in America, so many senior Fox leaders disprove Carlson's bigoted assumption that immigration is a source of weakness for this country."
You Will Not Replace Us. Brian Stelter of CNN: "The Anti-Defamation League is calling for Fox News to fire Tucker Carlson. 'Given his long record of race-baiting, we believe it is time for Carlson to go,' ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt says. There is zero indication that Fox will take such a step -- or even reprimand Carlson. But the ADL's call, delivered in a letter to Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott, underscores the extreme and unsettling nature of Carlson's anti-immigration commentary.... No one is being 'replaced.' Existing voters are not being exchanged for the 'more obedient' migrants Carlson imagines. But Carlson has raised this notion repeatedly on his own 8 p.m. program. In Friday's letter to Fox, Greenblatt said 'at ADL, we believe in dialogue and giving people a chance to redeem themselves, but Carlson's full-on embrace of the white supremacist replacement theory on yesterday's show and his repeated allusions to racist themes in past segments are a bridge too far.' The letter pointed out that 'replacement theory' is what 'undergirds the modern white supremacist movement in America.'"
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court late Friday night lifted California's restrictions on religious gatherings in private homes, saying they could not be enforced to bar prayer meetings, Bible study classes and the like. The court's brief, unsigned order followed earlier ones striking down limits on attendance at houses of worship meant to combat the coronavirus. The vote was 5 to 4, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. joining the court's three liberal members in dissent."
Julie Bosman & Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Nowhere in America is the coronavirus pandemic more out of control than in Michigan.... Hospitals are overwhelmed with patients. Officials are reporting more than 7,000 new infections each day, a sevenfold increase from late February. And Michigan is home to nine of the 10 metro areas with the country’s highest recent case rates. During previous surges in Michigan, a resolute Gov. Gretchen Whitmer shut down businesses and schools as she saw fit -- over the din of both praise and protests. But this time, Ms. Whitmer ... [said,] 'Policy change alone won't change the tide,' Ms. Whitmer said on Friday, as she asked -- but did not order -- that the public take a two-week break from indoor dining, in-person high school and youth sports. 'We need everyone to step up and to take personal responsibility here.' It is a rare moment in the pandemic: a high-profile Democratic governor bucking the pleas of doctors and epidemiologists in her state and instead asking for voluntary actions from the public to control the virus's spread."
Sean Burch of the Wrap: "YouTube has deleted a video in which Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and a handful of medical experts questioned the effectiveness of having children wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19." MB: One of the "medical experts" was Scott Atlas. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Minnesota. Tim Arango, et al., of the New York Times: "In a trial where many key figures have spent hours on the stand, the prosecution whipped through one of their most anticipated witnesses, the doctor who performed George Floyd's official autopsy, in a mere 50 minutes on Friday. The reasons for their haste became clear as the witness, Dr. Andrew Baker, the Hennepin County medical examiner, refrained from placing the sole blame for Mr. Floyd';s death on the police as he testified in the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer charged with murder. In his testimony, Dr. Baker said police restraint was the main cause of Mr. Floyd's death, but he also cited drug use and heart disease as contributing factors, saying that Mr. Floyd died 'in the context of' the actions taken by three police officers as they pinned Mr. Floyd to the street for more than nine minutes." The AP's report is here.
Virginia. D.W.B. Emma Ockerman of Vice News: "Caron Nazario was driving his newly-purchased Chevy Tahoe home when two police officers pulled him over in Windsor, Virginia, whipped out their guns, and started barking orders. With their weapons raised, the officers demanded that Nazario, a Black and Latino man, get out of the SUV. Nazario ... placed his cellphone on his dashboard to film the December 5 encounter. He repeatedly asked to know what was going on. At one point, he even admitted to being afraid to leave the vehicle. 'Yeah, you should be,' one of the officers responded. Nazario, a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, was coming home from work and in full uniform at the time.... By the end of the incident, the cops would threaten Nazario, pepper-spray him in the face, and knee-strike him in the legs, according to body camera footage, Nazario's cellphone video, and legal filings." Nazario was pulled over supposedly because his new vehicle did not have a permanent plate. However, the car had visible temporary plates taped to the windows.
Way Beyond
Russia. Washington Post Editors: "Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime is slowly but very intentionally murdering his leading political opponent, Alexei Navalny.... The Kremlin has done this before. In 2009, Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, who had uncovered a massive fraud perpetrated by a group of senior government officials, died in prison following gross mistreatment like that Mr. Navalny is enduring.... The United States and other Western governments have taken some steps to support Mr. Navalny.... But if his life is to be saved, much stronger action is needed. [William Browder, who has sought justice for Mr. Magnitsky,] argues that the right targets are the 35 oligarchs whom Mr. Navalny himself has identified as the holders and protectors of Mr. Putin's massive private fortune. Start freezing assets and applying visa bans to those tycoons and their families, he advises, and keep going until Mr. Navalny is released."
U.K. Tina Brown, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, who died Friday morning. MB: Rather fun, reading avid snobs applauding the monarchy. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Cause of Death: Black Woman. Kaity Assaf of Salon: "On Friday, "Fox and Friends" host Brian Kilmeade wasted no time in placing the blame of 99-year-old Prince Philip's death on none other than Meghan Markle. Kilmeade seemed to indicate that Markle and her husband's interview with Oprah Winfrey while Philip was ill, affected his recovery process which ultimately led to his death. Kilmeade said on Friday's show: 'There are reports that [Philip] was enraged after the interview and the fallout from the interview with Oprah Winfrey, so here he is trying to recover and he's hit with that.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead.~~~
~~~ Marie: What's really great about white people is that we don't have to play "Six Degrees of Separation" to find the connection between minorities & whatever ill may befall us. Nope, it only takes one degree. I lost my job ... because a Mexican took it. Prince Philip died ... because a black woman upset him.
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Reader Comments (17)
TuKKKer KKKarlson is whipping up the morons again. This time he’s putting on his “You will Be Replaced by Darkies” fright wig.
“The Democratic Party is trying to replace the current electorate, the voters now casting ballots, with new people, more obedient voters from the Third World...”
Let’s look at what he’s claiming here. First, he assumes that the “current electorate” (and for the idiots in his fan base, ie, all of them, he TuKKKer-splains that this means “voters now casting ballots”) is comprised solely of white people.
Um, not just wrong, but stoopidly wrong.
These white people, the only people currently casting ballots, will be replaced, according to TuKKKer, by the evil white-hating machinations of the Democratic Party. (He also seems to be assuming that all white people will vote for the traitors.)
Replaced? As in taking the place of people killed, subdued, imprisoned, or somehow spirited away? Maybe to some shithole country? Wow. Mass deportation and murder. Aren’t those mostly right-wing things? And Democrats will get away with this...how? Details to follow, I guess.
Then, these replacement voters will, KKKarlson assures his all-Aryan, master race fans, by “more obedient voters”.
Really? More obedient than MAGA robots who say they’ll vote for a traitor no matter what he says or does? More obedient than those who have their bank accounts emptied by this asshole and still do whatever he says? More obedient than the deranged sheep who ran off to storm the Capitol to hang the Vice President after being ordered to attack! by that same traitor?
More obedient than that?
Wow. These replacement voters must be brainless automatons. Sounds a lot like Trump voters.
Finally, he seems to claim that these “obedient voters” from the Third World will all alight from the thousands of luxury aircraft sent by Joe Biden to ferry them hither and will immediately storm the voting booths. Sorry, TuKKKer, they have to become citizens first.
THEN they have to try to clamber through all the hoops and climb over all the barricades erected by the white supremacists in states controlled by the Party of Traitors.
So, wow. That’s a big shit pie of stoopid claims in such a short sentence. Even for TuKKKer.
Royal Lord High Mucky Muck Queen’s Consort Guy who has been around for 100 years and in and out of hospitals for the last 20 of those years for a Buckingham Palace load of serious health issues killed by evil black bitch! Oh noes! According to Fox, quoting disgraced liar Piers Morgan, Prince Philip could easily have lived another 100 years if it wasn’t for that uppity Meghan Markle talking smack about the royals. To the Tower with her! Off with her head!
Fox trots out their post hoc fallacies yet again. Seriously, what would they do without racist hate? They might have to report...FACTS! Christ! Not facts! Where’s the fun in that?
When I was young, I noticed that the adults in my family -- on both sides -- never died of "natural causes." No, according to those left behind, there was always an external "cause" of their deaths. It might have been a doctor who made a misdiagnosis; it might have been a surgical nurse who "left a sponge in." It might have been a tree: according to my mother, a 99-year-old cousin died because he was climbing a cherry tree and a branch he alighted on broke. Not his fault.
If only they had thought of blaming minorities as the reason every time, they would not have had to exercise themselves coming up with so many reasons death was not the "fault" of the deceased.
@Ak: your diatribe on the Tucker Fucker makes me, once again, want to wipe that smug grin right off that pretty face and use one of those bow ties he used to sport and squeeze ––somewhere.
Division!!! Fox and their friendly fiends have such a good time representing this country's great divide. I wonder if they know that America's political parties and the party system, are, in fact, accidents of history. The Founders were suspicious of what they then called "factions"–-as parties were then called, fearing that powerful blocs would put their own regional or commercial interests above the common good and endanger the fragile union of the new nation.
According to Jelani Cobb who wrote a piece about how parties die, tells us the Federalists collapsed because they failed to expand their demographic appeal; the Whigs because of internal incoherence over what they stood for in the nation's moat crucial debate.
Among the more striking dynamics of Fatty's foul-up GOPee-ers is the the extent to which it is afflicted by both of these failings.
And we are witnessing a Democratic Party, confronted with yesterday's debris plus a changing color demographic, choosing to not only adapt but forge headlong into new and exciting changes. And meanwhile, back at the ranch of elephants and sycophants, the durability of Trumpism appears not to have diminished.
Still so much dung to spread around. And so many lives lost because of it.
@PD Pepe: Right, all around. I don't think TucKKKer is aware of the irony of a smug white guy who grew up wealthy in La Jolla & who now probably makes several million $$$ a year, whining that it's so unfa-a-a-ir that immigrant minorities will "replace" him.
Tucker, unfortunately, you are irreplaceable. But it would be so nice if you weren't.
"Rather fun, reading avid snobs applauding the monarchy." So, I read the article. The rich aren't like you and me. That's for sure. This quote, "Though his eye was rumored to rove, his devotion to the queen cannot be questioned." How much does this pertain to him in this context and how much is the projection of the author?
In the comments, JC had this to say: There is nothing respectable or admirable about inherited wealth and power--of any kind.
I respect people that work hard and make something of themselves, not that get private school and endless help from mommy and daddy."
The author seems like the female equivalent of Piers Morgan....
PD,
Your survey of party history made me think of Mel Brooks' 2000 year old man comedy routine.
Assuming the 2000 year old man shared Brooks' politics, I can see him shifting party affiliation over the decades as circumstances changed, from early American revolutionary to Jefferson Democratic-Republican, to Whig, to Republican in the 1860's. to Progressive twined with a thread of Socialist in the latter 1800's and early 1900's, then to FDR Democrat in the 1930's through the 1950's, a centuries long migration followed by an interregnum of homeless uncertainty as neoliberalism's virus infected both parties for far too long.
But now as Biden attempts to resurrect the glory days of FDR. that very old man is pleased to be back in the Democratic Party fold.
Parties may change their spots. The constant is a generous heart.
Matt G.'s, new lawyer is Marc Mukasey, adopted son of Michael Mukasey: Both were justice advisors to "drip, drip hair color down cheeks" guy's presidential campaign. I'd forgotten Rudy was angling for all that presidential power. I recall my distain for Michael and perhaps it was because of this:
"By November 1, 2007, five senators – Christopher Dodd of Connecticut, Joseph Biden of Delaware, John Kerry of Massachusetts, Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and Bernie Sanders of Vermont – in addition to Leahy had announced their intention to vote against Mukasey's confirmation[for A.G.] due to concerns about his stance on torture."
@citizen625: Yes, there's a sort of stiletto ruthlessness to a woman who would in effect say to a grieving widow, "Oh, dear, it is too, too sad that for all your supposed power, you couldn't even keep your own husband on a leash."
I see the Alabama Amazon union vote as another example of the old "plantation mentality": "The Boss is the Boss and what he says goes".
At breakfast this morning I noted to my wife that Fox was carrying the idea that Prince P died due to Meghan Markle's behavior. But I phrased it as "Fox says Markle killed PP." She immediately asked "Voodoo?"
How did Fox miss that? Clearly it wasn't just the Oprah, there must have been voodoo! And ... Oprah is another Black woman! What's two times voodoo? Duovoodoo?
When food prices rise, it's the fault of the state that a hundred years or so ago was called "little Russia."
https://www.thestand.org/2021/04/house-passes-overtime-pay-for-farm-workers/?
I take that as good news on multiple fronts.
No, to court packing?
The Federalist Society thinks so.
https://www.vox.com/2021/4/10/22375792/supreme-court-biden-commission-reform-court-packing-federalist-society
@Patrick: I prefer Voodoodoo. Somehow it fits Faux better.
Suggestions for additions to the Foxified playlist:
“That Old Black Magic”
“Black Magic Woman”
And Cole Porter’s “You Do Something to Me”, especially the line “Do that voodoo that you do so well”.
And of course, there’s always Green Day’s “American Idiot”.
The horror. The horror.
https://twitter.com/InvestNowUSA/status/1380547664748634117?s=20
When I was a kid, a bunch of us would gather at one of a number of local ponds to play hockey. Two pairs of boots would serve as the posts for each goal, and prior to the initial face off, the bunch of us would scrounge around in the surrounding woods for branches we could use to Zamboni the ice in front of the goals. I had no idea, at the time, that one could make hundreds of thousands of dollars doing that. Silly me. I went to college instead.