;)
The Commentariat -- April 11, 2021
"Clear the Capitol!" Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "From a secure room in the Capitol on Jan. 6, as rioters pummeled police and vandalized the building, Vice President Mike Pence tried to assert control. In an urgent phone call to the acting defense secretary, he issued a startling demand. 'Clear the Capitol,' Pence said. Elsewhere in the building, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were making a similarly dire appeal to military leaders, asking the Army to deploy the National Guard.... 'We must establish order,' said Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a call with Pentagon leaders. But order would not be restored for hours.... The timeline ... contained in a previously undisclosed document prepared by the Pentagon ... adds another layer of understanding about the state of fear and panic while the insurrection played out, and lays bare the inaction by ... Donald Trump and how that void contributed to a slowed response by the military and law enforcement.... With Trump not engaged, it fell to Pentagon officials, a handful of senior White House aides, the leaders of Congress and the vice president holed up in a secure bunker to manage the chaos."
Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A Texas man who boasted that he was at the United States Capitol when a pro-Trump mob stormed the building in January has been charged with plotting to blow up an Amazon data center in Virginia, the Justice Department said on Friday. The man, Seth Aaron Pendley, 28, of Wichita Falls, was arrested on Thursday after he took what he believed were explosive devices from a bomb supplier but were in fact inert objects provided by an undercover F.B.I. agent in Fort Worth, prosecutors said.... Federal officials said they had begun investigating the plot after a concerned citizen contacted the F.B.I. on Jan. 8 about alarming statements posted on MyMilitia.com, a forum dedicated to organizing militia groups."
Onward, Christian Soldiers! Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "A data breach from Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo has revealed that millions of dollars have been raised on the site for far-right causes and groups, many of whom are banned from raising funds on other platforms. It also identifies previously anonymous high-dollar donors to far-right actors, some of whom enjoy positions of wealth, power or public responsibility. Some of the biggest beneficiaries have been members of groups such as the Proud Boys, designated as a terrorist group in Canada, many of whose fundraising efforts were directly related to the 6 January attack on the United States Capitol."
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "... Donald Trump ripped into Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell before a Republican National Committee donor retreat Saturday evening, deriding him as a 'dumb son of a bitch.' Trump veered off his prepared [remarks] during a roughly 50-minute speech before several hundred well-heeled GOP donors at his Mar-a-Lago resort in South Florida, saying that he was 'disappointed' in former Vice President Mike Pence, calling last year's presidential election a 'fraud' and mocking Dr. Anthony Fauci.... Trump also went after McConnell's wife, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, for resigning her cabinet post after the Jan. 6 insurrection.... Much of Trump's Saturday night speech was aimed at relitigating the election results, on which the former president has remained fixated." ~~~
~~~ Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "'A tremendous complication' was how Fred Zeidman, a veteran Republican fund-raiser in Texas, described Mr. Trump's lingering presence on the political scene.... 'He's already proven that he wants to have a major say or keep control of the party, and he's already shown every sign that he's going to primary everybody that has not been supportive of him,' Mr. Zeidman said. 'He complicates everything so much.'... 'It is very important the Republican Party puts Donald Trump as far into the past as possible,' said William Oberndorf, an investor in California who has given millions to G.O.P. candidates but said he would now only give to Republican lawmakers who voted to impeach Mr. Trump."
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."
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.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "Emergent BioSolutions, the troubled manufacturer at the heart of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine production problems, gave its chief executive officer a 51 percent increase in total compensation in 2020, to $5.6 million, according to a public filing Friday. The annual proxy disclosure by the publicly traded company said CEO Robert Kramer received $893,000 in salary, a $1.2 million bonus, $2.1 million in stock awards, and $1.4 million in stock options." MB: If there's a company that makes some useless product that will have no impact on people's lives, I will be happy to accept $5MM to screw up production. My contact info is at the bottom of the right-hand column. Write me, MyPillow Guy!
Marie: BTW, I had to take a Covid test yesterday of the up-your-nose-with-a-rubber-hose variety, and it wasn't nearly as bad as the tales I've heard. The technician used a flat, stiff paper "stick" about 3/16" wide & maybe 6" long. I closed my eyes the better to miss her probing the crevices of my brain, and it took only 5 seconds. I'd say the probe stung a little, but it was by no means intolerable, especially because of the brevity of the test. So, really, nothing to worry about.
Beyond the Beltway
A Florida Woman. Dan Scanlan of the Florida Times-Union, republished in Yahoo! News: A "woman seen in a viral video giving the finger to another shopper then coughing in her face at a Jacksonville mall has been sentenced to 29 days in jail for assault." Although the perp -- Debra Jo Michele Hunter of toney Fernandina Beach -- had negotiated a plea deal with the prosecutor that avoided jail time, Duval County Judge James Ruth sentenced the woman to jail. Ruth said, "... I have yet to see any expression, or a significant expression on her regret about the impact it had on the victim in this case."
Maryland. Ovetta Wiggins & Erin Cox of the Washington Post: "Maryland enacted historic police accountability measures Saturday, becoming the first state to repeal its powerful Law Enforcement Officers' Bill of Rights and setting new rules for when police may use force and how they are investigated and disciplined. The Democrat-dominated legislature dealt Republican Gov. Larry Hogan a sharp rebuke, overriding his vetoes of measures that raise the bar for officers to use force; give civilians a role in police discipline for the first time; restrict no-knock warrants; mandate body cameras; and open some allegations of police wrongdoing for public review. Each bill had been hailed by criminal justice advocates as having the potential to make policing in the state fairer and more transparent." The New York Times' story is here.
Washington State. Shoot First, Cover Up Later. Mike Baker & Evan Hill of the New York Times: "When a U.S. Marshals task force killed a self-described antifa activist in Washington State in September, the Trump administration applauded the removal of a 'violent agitator' who was suspected of murder. Last week, local investigators concluded a monthslong homicide inquiry with the announcement that the activist, Michael Reinoehl, had most likely fired at authorities first, effectively justifying the shooting. But a review of investigation documents obtained by The New York Times suggests that investigators for the Thurston County Sheriff's Office discounted key pieces of contradicting evidence that indicate Mr. Reinoehl may never have fired or pointed a gun.... The handgun ... recovered from Mr. Reinoehl had a full magazine, according to multiple photos compiled by Thurston County authorities showing Mr. Reinoehl's handgun. The gun was found in his pocket.... One of the witnesses that Thurston County investigators relied on to reach their conclusion that Mr. Reinoehl had fired his gun was an 8-year-old boy. His father, Garrett Louis..., has consistently said he believed that officers opened fire first without shouting any warnings. Of the two other witnesses who investigators cited to support the conclusion that Mr. Reinoehl fired his gun, one did not see it happen and the other was not sure."
Way Beyond
Russia. Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia is steadily massing its largest military presence in years near the Ukrainian border -- on land and at sea -- as the Kremlin tests Western support for Kyiv and its battles against pro-Moscow separatists less than three months into the Biden administration.... Moving forces from as far away as Siberia -- more than 2,000 miles distance -- to near Ukraine and onto the Crimean Peninsula has injected new levels of alarm in a region that has been a flash point between the West and Moscow since 2014.... [But] Russia's sudden military surge [this year] appears to be more about sending messages than launching a fresh offensive, analysts said."
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This Sunday Sermon was delivered to the locals last Thursday. It apparently made it all the way to the LA Times and Doyle McManus in only 24 hours.
"Predictably, we're already hearing from Republicans about those tax-and-spend Democrats. First, their loud complaints about the Biden Covid relief bill that put money in people’s pockets and has us on the path to the herd immunity that only a Covid-vaccinated nation can provide. Now suddenly cost-conscious Republicans would like to cut a decades-overdue public works bill by two-thirds.
But in fact and in practice, Republicans have proved they would rather borrow money than assure sufficient revenue to pay for government services. Reagan cut taxes and ballooned the deficit. With a compliant Congress, G. W. Bush and Trump did the same. Then, with Obama or Biden in the White House, Republicans naturally reverse course and rail about the deficit they themselves created.
Standard Republican hypocrisy? Certainly. But their fiscal hypocrisy is of a particularly malevolent kind, for there are trillions of dollars available for Covid relief, infrastructure and debt reduction, all without raising taxes, if only Republican allow the Internal Revenue Service to collect them.
Two simple actions would harvest a bumper crop of cash.
First, fund the IRS adequately. One dollar invested in tax enforcement has been shown to yield six dollars in return; and with its enforcement workforce already cut by twenty percent by Republicans, tax analysts estimate the IRS will fail to collect more than seven trillion dollars in income taxes due over the next ten years (washingtonpost.com).
Want more trillions without raising taxes? Require third party verification of income from every source, not just from wages or investments. As it is, nearly half the income from businesses, rents, and royalties remains unreported—and hence untaxed (nytimes.com).
Instead of empty rhetoric about our poor grandchildren’s debt, will those fiscally responsible Republicans support efforts to collect taxes already owed?*
It’s something to think about on April 15."
The McManus version:
http://www.bradfordera.com/opinion/how-to-catch-cheaters-who-don-t-shoulder-share-of-tax-burden/article_975bb9ab-74d0-5d7c-94f2-f253720a359a.html
* The most likely answer was not included in the sermon.
@Ken: Reading your sermon, a little voice in the back of my head is repeating that refrain you hear Rs spouting when it comes to gun laws, "Don't make new laws, just enforce the ones we have." And yet, by reducing funding and personnel at the IRS, the Rs have crippled the agency. Over the years, there has also been a focus of the limited workforce was on low-income enforcement, rather than big fish audits.
A year or two after I moved to NY state, a state tax investigator came and spent an afternoon going through the books on my workshop business. She found that I had mis-categorized some expenses, netting the state something like $35 in additional revenue, maybe a total of $50 with penalties. Through the afternoon, she was wondering how her visit was a good use of her time.
Just remember that every single Supreme court justice graduated from Harvard or Yale law school.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/harvard-and-its-peers-should-be-embarrassed-about-how-few-students-they-educate/2021/04/08/3c0be99c-97cb-11eb-b28d-bfa7bb5cb2a5_story.html.
Watch the Ivy league. The word "diversity" means as much to the Ivys as "black" head coaches means to the NFL. They deserve their tax-exempt status as much as Southern Baptist churches.
OUR DAY IN GOD:
Last week I wrote about a Netflix series "Shitsel"–-about the lives of those within the "Haredi" (or ultra orthodox Jewish community) in Israel that I found compelling, interesting and fun to watch. A few days ago I found a NYT's article on Yeshivas–-the schools for Orthodox males who study the life of religious scholarship ( reading of the Torah) at the expense of basic reading, writing, math and science. In a 2019 report by NYC's dept. of Ed. found only two of the 28 Yeshivas met the requirements.
If you click on the link be sure and listen to the mother of an eight year old boy who is furious that her son is not getting an education and that the city is doing nothing about it. Also listen to a man whose Yeshiva education prepared him for NOTHING!
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opinion/yeshiva-schools-education.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
MEANWHILE.......
"The April's in her eyes: it is love's Spring,
and these the showers to bring it on."
Antony and Cleopatra
@citizen
Thanks for the link.
This one seems a followup to this NYTimes piece from the other day:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/opinion/stanford-admissions-campus.html?
Son Gus sent it my way:
Interesting proposal, this cloning thing..
My comment to him then:
"Among many other factors at work, it's a numbers issue. In the fifty plus years since your mother and I matriculated, the US population has doubled, which means even though the undergraduate population at Stanford has increased since then (it was in the neighborhood of 5400 in the mid- 1960's, about 6200 in 1970, 7000 today) it has not come close to keeping pace with the overall population growth. To do so, today undergraduate population on the Farm would have to exceed 11,000--and it doesn't.
I’d guess that is also true at other elites."
Today's thought:
So...these institutions become ever more exclusive just by sitting still and doing nothing, the equivalent of the many American fortunes that once established have continued to grow on their own, further distancing themselves from the hoi polloi.
Wickipedia: The 50 counties in the US with lowest median
household income:
Kentucky has 12
The next 32 are in Ga. Al. Ms. and Tx.
Six are scattered across the country.
One would think Mitch McConnell would be helping to pass
Biden's legislature to help some of those Kentucky voters
who keep voting him in. There's something wrong with that
scenario. Is it lack of education? Are they collecting enough
welfare to get by on and just don't care? Are they selling drugs?
Or taking drugs? Who knows.
Forrest: I will NEVER understand undereducated, opportunityless people voting for rich, overeducated, overhyped people for positions in government. Surely they don't REALLY think people like Dumptripe and McTurtle care about them or their issues, do they? If so, there is simply nothing we can do about chosen stupidity. Really, for all I care, they can all follow their eager conmen over a cliff.
Two or three insane shootings this week-- it seems like it is only a matter of time before one of us finds ourselves in proximity to one, in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yeah, I really am interested in dialogue with tattooed , angry white militiamen. Or wannabes. Not.
And I simply refuse to listen to or read another word about Dumptripe. Sorry, Marie, that you have to report on him.
@Ken Winkes: I was impressed with your thesis that the percentage of Americans who get into prestigious schools has shrunk over the decades. First of all, it's something I didn't know. But more important, it may explain a lot. Now, let's compound your thesis with the realization that at some -- or probably most of the -- elite schools, the percentage of admissions of women and people of color has increased. That means that the percentage of white guys who get into Harvard and Yale, etc., & into their post-graduate professional schools, is wa-a-a-y down.
One might say, "Oh, then they're really la creme de la creme." Well, no. They're really the ones whose parents went to extraordinary efforts to ensure their boys' admissions. (Harvard to Charles Kushner: thanks for $2.5 million! Harvard to Jared Kushner: Welcome to Freshman Week!)
However, my bet is that many of these parents -- especially the ones who "made it on their own" -- resent all they had to do to help their wastrel sons. And, being the pushy parents they are (by definition), the old guys never let the young scions forget it.
By and by, these A-list boys join the Young Republicans or whatever and gradually become Old Republican men even as they work their ways up the various ladders of success -- with a little more help from Dad -- while Dad keeps rubbing it in: "In my day, Son..., blah blah."
So here's my theory: Republican elites are Republicans because of the childhood trauma they suffered from the high expectations their parents demanded and from their failure ever to meet those expectations. Republicanism, for this group of men, is a neurosis. It's a mild form of mental illness, one they can cover up or sublimate with phony "conservative philosophies" and "public service," etc. But any way you slice it, Republicanism is sick, at least for this bunch of "upstanding citizens."
Republican Math
@Marie
Have more thoughts about the elites and your own thoughts about them but will hold off for now, except to say that if you are offering the Republican Supremes as examples, you sure nailed it.