;)
The Commentariat -- April 23, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Marie: I do apologize for forgetting earlier to wish you all a Happy First Bleach Day! As Meredith McGraw & Sam Stein of Politico remind us, "One year ago today..., Donald Trump took to the White House briefing room and encouraged his top health officials to study the injection of bleach into the human body as a means of fighting Covid." I'm celebrating with a white rum cocktail and a slice of iced white cake with one powerful laser light-beam candle.
Lena Sun & Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "Breaking: A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee recommended Friday that inoculations with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine resume. The vaccine would carry a warning about a rare risk of blood clots in recipients. The director of the CDC has the final call on whether vaccinations should restart." Emphasis original. ~~~
~~~ Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "The nationwide pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine should be lifted, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine advisory committee recommended Friday. The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted 10-4 with one abstention, that the vaccine's benefits outweigh the risks, and that it will save lives. The panel did not specifically ask for a warning label, but recommended the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) add a label intended to make providers aware of the risk of a rare complication involving blood clots in women under the age of 50."
Stupidest Senator Has Another Horribly Stupid Idea. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) cast dark suspicions on the 'big push' to vaccinate American adults against the deadly coronavirus. The Wisconsin Republican, who's one of the Senate's most notorious sources of disinformation, told radio host and vaccine skeptic Vicki McKenna that the inoculations aren't necessary, reported Forbes. '[There's] no reason to be pushing vaccines on people,' Johnson said, adding that doses should be 'limited' only to those most vulnerable. 'If you have a vaccine, quite honestly, what do you care if your neighbor has one or not?... I'm getting highly suspicious [of the] big push to make sure everybody gets the vaccine.'..."
Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Federal authorities are looking into whether a 2018 trip to the Bahamas involving Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz and several young women was part of an orchestrated effort to illegally influence Gaetz in the area of medical marijuana, people briefed on the matter told CNN. Prosecutors with the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section are examining whether Gaetz took gifts, including travel and paid escorts, in exchange for political favors, the sources said.... Gaetz has a long history of advocating for medical marijuana and has introduced several pieces of legislation seeking to loosen laws regulating the drug.... A number of his close associates have ties to the industry, including Jason Pirozzolo, a Florida doctor who founded a medical marijuana advocacy group and has in past news coverage in Florida been described as a "marijuana investor." According to reports, Pirozzolo accompanied Gaetz on the 2018 trip to the Bahamas that investigators are scrutinizing."
Denise Lu of the New York Times: "The U.S. death rate in 2020 was the highest above normal ever recorded in the country -- even surpassing the calamity of the 1918 flu pandemic.... Since the 1918 pandemic, the country's death rate has fallen steadily. But last year, the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted that trend, in spite of a century of improvements in medicine and public health."
A Florida Man Will Summer in Rural New Jersey. Leia Idliby of Mediaite: "Donald Trump is reportedly planning to move his post-presidency operation from Mar-a-Lago to New Jersey, according to Business Insider.... Trump and his aides are planning to temporarily relocate to Bedminster, New Jersey, where he owns a golf club...."
The New York Times has live updates of President Biden's virtual climate summit, Day 2, here. The Washington Post's live updates are here.
Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "An Iowa woman who tried to kill two children in 2019 by hitting them with her car because she thought they were of Middle Eastern, African or Mexican descent has pleaded guilty to attempted murder and hate crime charges, the authorities said. The woman, Nicole Poole Franklin, 43, made the admission to two counts of hate crime charges on Wednesday, according to federal prosecutors. She faces life imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000 for each of the charges, the Justice Department said in a statement on Thursday." These were two separate incidents. MB: I suppose it's appropriate that this horrible woman attempted to murder two (possibly) ethnic-minority children by Jeep Cherokee, a vehicle whose name has been criticized by some Native Americans, including the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
Zahra Ullah of CNN: "Jailed Kremlin critic Alexey Navalny said on Friday that he is ending his weekslong hunger strike. The announcement comes days after the Russian opposition leader was transferred to a prison hospital due to his deteriorating health." Breaking at 9:45 am ET.
~~~~~~~~~~
Yes, We Can, Biden-Style. Lisa Friedman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday moved to put four years of official climate denial behind the United States, declaring that America would cut its global warming emissions at least in half by the end of the decade. Addressing 40 world leaders at the start of a two-day summit about the U.S. return to the Paris climate agreement, Mr. Biden sought to galvanize other countries to take more aggressive steps. He cast the challenge of avoiding catastrophic warming as an economic opportunity for America and the world, a striking contrast to his predecessor who had abandoned the agreement. 'This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative,' Mr. Biden said. 'A moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities.'" ~~~
~~~ Both the New York Times, here, and the Washington Post, here, have liveblogged President Biden's global climate summit. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Celine Castronuovo of the Hill: "Climate activists gathered in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to dump wheelbarrows full of cow poop near the White House in protest of President Biden's climate plan, which they say is 'bullshit' and does not go far enough to protect the environment. Videos posted on Twitter from the Earth Day demonstration featured a group of at least a dozen demonstrators pushing pink wheelbarrows downtown toward the White House, where Biden is hosting a two-day virtual climate summit with dozens of world leaders. The demonstrators then dumped the manure onto the street, along with signs and banners reading, 'Stop the bullshit,' and 'Declare climate emergency now!'" Article includes some tweeted videos. ~~~
~~~ Marie: These "activists" seem more like show-off troublemakers than real environmentalists. That cow manure is valuable mulch (just ask Forrest M.!), but it won't be used to grow sweet peas on a D.C. street.
Biden to Congress: Tax the Rich. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "The next phase of President Biden's $4 trillion push to overhaul the American economy will seek to raise taxes on millionaire investors to fund education and other spending plans, but it will not take steps to expand health coverage or reduce prescription drug prices, according to people familiar with the proposal.... The president is set to outline his so-called American Family Plan, which includes measures aimed at helping Americans gain skills throughout life and have more flexibility in the work force, before his first address to a joint session of Congress next week." ~~~
~~~ Dan Primack of Axios: "Stocks fell Thursday following media reports that President Biden wants to nearly double the capital gains tax paid by wealthy Americans.... Biden reportedly is considering a proposal of a 39.6% top rate on long-term capital gains, up from the current 20% rate. He also is expected to maintain an ACA-related investment tax, bringing the total federal rate to as high as 43.4%.... The S&P closed down 0.92%[.] The Dow fell 321 points or 0.94%[.]"
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "The Senate on Thursday passed legislation aimed at combating a rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the coronavirus pandemic in a 94-1 vote, with GOP Sen. Josh Hawley (Mo.) the only 'no' vote. The bill now goes to the House, where Democrats are expected to soon take up their version of the legislation.... A California State University, San Bernardino study that looked at 16 cities found a 149 percent increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans in 2020." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times' story is here. MB: Maybe the headline should be, "Hawley only Senator to favor discriminating against Asians."
Abrams Owns Sen. Foghorn Leghorn. Laura Bassett of MSNBC: "Sen. John Kennedy, a Republican from Louisiana, went viral on Wednesday for embarrassing himself during a Tuesday hearing with Stacey Abrams about Georgia's new voter suppression law. What the senator had hoped would be a triumphant 'gotcha' grilling backfired.... Kennedy attempted to stump Abrams by asking her to list the specific provisions of the bill she finds racist and objectionable. Abrams, a Yale-educated attorney and one of the nation's foremost voting rights experts, proceeded to list from memory and in detail the many, many provisions that are designed to make it harder for Black people to vote. She didn't once glance down at any notes.... The remarkable confrontation ... epitomized a dynamic all too familiar for women and especially women of color. Kennedy didn't anticipate that Abrams ... would show up to a Senate hearing on the issue overprepared, quite possibly because that level of preparation has never been required of him. In fact, Kennedy has been known to downplay his background as an Oxford-educated lawyer. His Southern drawl seems designed to help him appear more folksy and relatable to his constituents. A former classmate of his from New Orleans described Kennedy's 'Southern-cornpone accent' and country-bumpkin persona as an 'affectation,' pure 'political theater' and 'about as authentic as a cow in a camel costume.'" ~~~
~~~ Matt Egan of CNN: "Progressive activists are calling on Ford, Target, Google, Bank of America and other major companies that have pledged to support voting rights to cut ties with the US Chamber of Commerce.... At issue is the Chamber of Commerce's fierce opposition to the Democrats' sweeping voting bill known as the For the People Act, which advocates say would counter efforts by Georgia and other states to impose new voting restrictions. The Chamber of Commerce has slammed the legislation, which last month was approved by the US House of Representatives..., in part because of new curbs on political advocacy by companies and associations. Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog group, sent letters Wednesday to 25 companies that have a relationship with the Chamber of Commerce even though they signed last week's statement in the New York Times vowing to oppose discriminatory voting legislation. The campaign from activists underscores the enormous pressure companies are under to follow up their verbal support for voting rights with concrete action."
Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "For the second time in history, the House passed legislation Thursday to make the District of Columbia the nation's 51st state, bolstering momentum for a once-illusory goal that has become a pivotal tenet of the Democratic Party's voting rights platform. Democrats unanimously approved Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's Washington, D.C. Admission Act , describing it as a bid to restore equal citizenship to the residents of the nation's capital and rectify a historic injustice.... The bill, symbolically titled H.R. 51, now heads to the Senate, where proponents hope to break new ground -- including a first-ever hearing in that chamber. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer pledged Tuesday that 'we will try to work a path to get [statehood] done,' and the White House asked Congress in a policy statement to pass the legislation as swiftly as possible." A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Mary Jalonick of the AP: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is renewing her push for a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, floating a new proposal to Republicans that would evenly split the panel's membership between the two parties. Pelosi first proposed a commission in February that would have had four Republicans and seven Democrats to 'conduct an investigation of the relevant facts and circumstances relating to the domestic terrorist attack on the Capitol.' Republicans rejected it as inadequate.... It's unclear if the two sides will ever agree. Some Republicans allied with Trump have downplayed the severity of the insurrection.... The Republicans said the investigation should focus not just on what led to the Jan. 6 insurrection but also on violence in the summer of 2020 during protests over police brutality -- a touchstone among GOP voters and an idea that Democrats say is a distraction from the real causes of the violent attack. On Tuesday, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said he'd had no discussions with Pelosi."
Tracy Jan & Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration put up bureaucratic obstacles that stalled approximately $20 billion in hurricane relief for Puerto Rico and then obstructed an investigation into the holdup, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post. Congress requested the investigation into the delays to recovery aid for Puerto Rico after Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 left residents of the U.S. territory without power and clean water for months. But, the report said, former Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson and another former HUD official declined to be interviewed by investigators during the course of the examination that began in 2019. Access to HUD information was delayed or denied on several occasions.... Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis, appointed by Trump as top HUD watchdog, found unprecedented procedural hurdles set by the White House budget office -- in addition to an extended partial federal government shutdown that also produced delays." (Also linked yesterday.)
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a recent trend of leniency for minors convicted of serious crimes and said judges need not specifically find 'permanent incorrigibility' before sentencing juvenile murderers to life in prison without the possibility of parole.... Donald Trump's three Supreme Court nominees were key to the 6-to-3 ruling, which was written by one of them, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.... The court upheld the life-without-parole sentence a Mississippi court imposed on a 15-year-old who stabbed his grandfather to death in a dispute over the boy's girlfriend." MB: That's odd, because Bart I-Like-Beer O'Kavanaugh sure granted himself leniency for his "youthful indiscretions," which allegedly included sexual abuse & attempted rape. Update: I see where Rachel Maddow agrees with me on this a hunnert percent. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here.
David Brooks of the New York Times: "Those of us who had hoped America would calm down when we no longer had Donald Trump spewing poison from the Oval Office have been sadly disabused. There are increasing signs that the Trumpian base is radicalizing.... Since the election, large swathes of the Trumpian right have decided America is facing a crisis like never before and they are the small army of warriors fighting with Alamo-level desperation to ensure the survival of the country as they conceive it.... With this view, the Jan. 6 insurrection was not a shocking descent into lawlessness but practice for the war ahead.... With their deep pessimism, the hyperpopulist wing of the G.O.P. seems to be crashing through the floor of philosophic liberalism into an abyss of authoritarian impulsiveness. Many of these folks are no longer even operating in the political realm.... Apocalyptic pessimism has a tendency to deteriorate into nihilism, and people eventually turn to the strong man to salve the darkness and chaos inside themselves." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It is worth remembering that Our Mr. Brooks was an acolyte of William F. Buckley, a right-wing "philosopher" who had no problem saying the quiet part out loud, justifying suppression of Black voters, for instance, as a necessity to sustain "civilized standards."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Tucker Carlson is worse than you thought:
Perhaps this is the story that @TuckerCarlson was trying to get ahead of. In his college yearbook, he listed himself as a member of the "Dan White Society."
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) April 21, 2021
Dan White was the man who murdered Harvey Milk. pic.twitter.com/TYklyfC8tS
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Tucker's homophobia is well-documented, but openly celebrating the man who cold-bloodedly assassinated the most prominent GLBTQ public official in America ... certainly draws a line under that. And there's no reason to think anything about his worldview has fundamentally changed."
Paul Farhi & Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post: "A nonpartisan political organization is facing blowback from its employees after hiring journalist Mark Halperin, whose career as a prominent TV pundit hit a wall after he faced multiple allegations of sexual harassment. Junior staffers at No Labels objected this week when the organization hired Halperin.... The internal dissension grew so heated that two employees who complained were granted paid leave -- to consider whether they want to stay, the organization said -- and a third is considering resigning over it.... Halperin's career as a political analyst collapsed at the start of the MeToo era in 2017 after at least a dozen women, including former colleagues, came forward with allegations against him ranging from unwanted touching to sexual assault." A Raw Story summary report is here.
Marcia Dunn of the AP: "SpaceX launched four astronauts into orbit Friday using a recycled rocket and capsule, the third crew flight in less than a year for Elon Musk's rapidly expanding company. The astronauts from the U.S., Japan and France should reach the International Space Station early Saturday morning, following a 23-hour ride in the same Dragon capsule used by SpaceX's debut crew last May. They'll spend six months at the orbiting lab. It was the first time SpaceX reused a capsule and rocket to launch astronauts for NASA, after years of proving the capability on station supply runs. The rocket was used last November on the company's second astronaut flight." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging the flight of SpaceX's "Crew Dragon."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.
Matthew Perrone & Carla Johnson of the AP: "COVID-19 hospitalizations among older Americans have plunged more than 70% since the start of the year, and deaths among them appear to have tumbled as well, dramatic evidence the vaccination campaign is working. Now the trick is to get more of the nation's younger people to roll up their sleeves. The drop-off in severe cases among Americans 65 and older is especially encouraging because senior citizens have accounted for about 8 out of 10 deaths from the virus since it hit the U.S., where the toll stands at about 570,000[.] COVID-19 deaths among people of all ages in the U.S. have plummeted to about 700 per day on average, compared with a peak of over 3,400 in mid-January."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brazil. A Tragedy of Authoritarianism. Ernesto Londoño & Flávia Milhorance of the New York Times: "Rail-thin teenagers hold placards at traffic stops with the word for hunger -- fome -- in large print. Children, many of whom have been out of school for over a year, beg for food outside supermarkets and restaurants. Entire families huddle in flimsy encampments on sidewalks, asking for baby formula, crackers, anything. A year into the pandemic, millions of Brazilians are going hungry. The scenes, which have proliferated in the last months on Brazil's streets, are stark evidence that President Jair Bolsonaro's bet that he could protect the country's economy by resisting public health policies intended to curb the virus has failed." MB: This is a tragedy in the classical sense: Brazilians elected this guy.
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona. Jane Timm of NBC News: "A bill that would stop some voters from getting a ballot automatically mailed to them each election failed unexpectedly in Arizona's state Senate Thursday after a single Republican joined Democrats in voting against the legislation. GOP state Sen. Kelly Townsend explained her surprise 'no' vote on the state Senate floor amid a tense episode that saw the senator get into a heated confrontation with the bill's sponsor and the pair attempt to silence each other with parliamentary rules. 'I am for this bill, but I am not voting for it until after the audit,' she said, referring to an audit orchestrated by Senate Republicans of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County reportedly set to get underway this week. President Joe Biden narrowly won the state. Townsend added that other election-related bills had not been advanced. 'We have no business fast tracking everything and going home.'... The legislation, which passed the House earlier this week, had come under fire from Democrats, voting rights groups and business leaders in the state." MB: Sounds as if the bill will pass.
California. Derrick Taylor & Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Felony charges were announced Wednesday against a Bay Area police officer who fatally shot a man more than two years ago, officials said. The same officer was placed on administrative leave last month after he shot a man who later died. The officer, Andrew Hall, of the Danville Police Department in California, was charged with felony voluntary manslaughter and felony assault with a semiautomatic firearm in the shooting death of Laudemer Arboleda in 2018, the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office said in a news release. Officer Hall is a deputy with the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office and was assigned to the Police Department in Danville, whose police services have been provided through the sheriff's office...."
Minnesota. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Two days after the streets of Minneapolis were filled with people celebrating the conviction of a police officer for the murder of George Floyd, the city returned to a period of mourning on Thursday for another Black man killed by a police officer. Packed into a church for the funeral of Daunte Wright were politicians, faith leaders and relatives of other people killed by the police, including the boyfriend of Breonna Taylor and the families of Philando Castile and Oscar Grant. Many had come from across the country to pay respects to Mr. Wright, the 20-year-old man who was fatally shot by an officer in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center last week during a traffic stop.... On Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy for Mr. Wright to a grieving family and city." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sorry, but I think Sharpton is a charlatan, a "religious" ambulance-chaser of sorts, who preys on families in pain to raise his own profile. And I'm not sure why he calls himself "The Rev" inasmuch as I don't know that he ever was ordained a minister of any church or pastored a church. Perhaps I'm being unfair or am just totally wrong, so feel free to argue with me.
New York City Mayoral Race. Dana Rubinstein & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: New York City's "gay community" was not impressed with mayor candidate Andrew Yang's interview with members of the Stonewall Democratic Club. "'He kept calling us "Your community," like we were aliens,' [one member] said.... To some Stonewall attendees, Mr. Yang's appearance only fueled concerns about whether he can discuss the problems at hand with sufficient depth and seriousness. More broadly, the reaction speaks to how polarizing Mr. Yang's personality can be -- eliciting sincere enthusiasm and disdain in seemingly equal measure." Politico's story is here.
North Carolina. Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "Neighbors on Thursday described a chaotic scene of North Carolina deputies trying to serve a warrant, a car pulling away and shots fired -- leaving one man dead. The shooting took place Wednesday morning in a working-class neighborhood of Elizabeth City in the northeastern corner of the state. The Pasquotank County Sheriff's Office said Thursday in a video statement that its special operations and tactical team was attempting to serve an arrest warrant on Andrew Brown Jr. when the shooting occurred.... Chief Deputy Daniel Fogg said the arrest warrant was for felony drug charges and Brown had a history of resisting arrest. CNN could not immediately verify any previous resisting arrest charges against Brown.... Neighbors told CNN that deputies opened fire on the vehicle that Brown was driving, though it was unclear if the deputies started to fire before or after the car was in motion."
Ohio. John Futty of the Columbus Dispatch: "An Ohio criminal-justice professor who studies the fatal use of force by law-enforcement officers didn't hesitate to render an opinion after watching body-camera video of a Columbus police officer fatally shooting a 16-year-old girl Tuesday afternoon on the city's Southeast Side. 'My first impression is that the officer was legally justified in using deadly force,' said Philip Stinson, a Bowling Green State University professor.... '... from looking at the video, it appears to me that a reasonable police officer would have had a reasonable apprehension of an imminent threat of serious bodily injury or death being imposed against an officer or someone else. That's the legal standard.'"
South Dakota Woke. Emily Wax-Thibodeaux of the Washington Post: "In the tiny South Dakotan town called Faith, the high school Rodeo Club planned to hold its annual fundraising event next Monday night at the Legion Hall, complete with a pancake supper, bidding on pies and a 'Slave/Branding Auction.' For decades, Rodeo Club members offered a few days of their labor to a rancher in exchange for a donation -- and although there have long been calls for clubs across the state to stop labeling this slavery, the name in Faith has stuck. But this year, as a poster circulated on Facebook, Legion Hall host Glenda McGinnis said she received dozens of calls from people around the country wanting to know 'how such a racist and hurtful name could be used in 2021.'... McGinnis said the Rodeo Club's adviser called her Wednesday afternoon to cancel the event." MB: If you get a chance, read the story; they don't get out much in South Dakota.
Way Beyond
Israel. Joseph Krauss of the AP: "Israeli police say 44 people were arrested and 20 officers were wounded in a night of chaos in Jerusalem, where security forces separately clashed with Palestinians angry about Ramadan restrictions and Jewish extremists who held an anti-Arab march nearby. Tensions have spiked in recent days in Jerusalem, which has long been a flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and is home to holy sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Residents braced for possible further unrest ahead of Muslim Friday prayers as police stepped up security and the U.S. Embassy appealed for calm. Palestinians have clashed with Israeli police on a nightly basis since the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The tensions began when police placed barricades outside the Old City's Damascus Gate, where Muslims traditionally gather to enjoy the evening after the daytime fast." ~~~
~~~ Joseph Krauss of the AP: "Hours after Israeli soldiers shot and killed Osama Mansour [on April 6] at a temporary checkpoint in the occupied West Bank, the military announced that it had thwarted a car-ramming attack -- but the facts didn't seem to add up. By all accounts, Mansour had initially stopped his car when ordered to do so. His wife ... was sitting in the passenger seat. And after the soldiers sprayed the vehicle with gunfire killing him and wounding her, they declined to arrest her as an accomplice. Witnesses say the soldiers killed Mansour for no apparent reason, part of what rights groups say is a pattern of fatal shootings of Palestinians by Israeli forces under questionable circumstances."
Russia. Andrew Kramer & Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "Russia's Defense Ministry ordered a partial pullback of troops from the border with Ukraine on Thursday, signaling a possible de-escalation in a military standoff that had raised alarm that a new war in Europe could be looming. The order came a day after President Vladimir V. Putin, in an annual state of the nation address, rattled off a list of grievances against Western nations, including threats of new sanctions." A BBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Vladimir Isachenov of the AP: "Russian troops began pulling back to their permanent bases Friday after a massive buildup that caused Ukrainian and Western concerns.... The concentration of Russian troops amid increasing violations of a cease-fire in the conflict in eastern Ukraine raised concerns in the West, which urged the Kremlin to pull its forces back.... Moscow has rejected Ukrainian and Western concerns about the troop buildup, arguing that it's free to deploy its forces anywhere on Russian territory. But the Kremlin also sternly warned Ukrainian authorities against trying to use force to retake control of the rebel east, saying it could intervene to protect civilians there. More than 14,000 people have been killed in seven years of fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russia-backed separatists in Donbas."
Share Article
Reader Comments (19)
Did Putin just pull a trumpian Bluster and Back Away?
@NiskyGuy: It almost appears there is a push-and-pull between Vlad & his subordinates -- another oft-repeated trumpian phenomenon. But given what we've been told about Putin's control of, well, everyone, that seems hard to credit. I wonder if Putin figured out he has too much on his plate right now to escalate aggression against Ukraine. It's not as if he can just put out a tweet about one topic, then move on and thumb out 280 Cyrillic letters about something entirely different. I mean, what world leader could do something like that?
The ass kicking given to John Kennedy (Traitor) by Stacey Abrams deserves a look, not only because it demonstrates how incredibly well prepared and knowledgeable she is, especially compared to Sen. Jubilation T. Cornpone, but for her unflappable demeanor in the face of his constant interruptions and attempts to trip her up.
Once it was clear that his smarmy gotcha play was blowing up in his face he continually cut her off and tried to put words in her mouth, at one point trying to shut her down with his “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get all that...”. No, asshole, you don’t. You thought, well, here’s this woman, and a black woman at that. I’m gonna take her to school. It didn’t work out that way, did it, douchebag?
I get that do-nothing blowhards like Cornpone never feel like they have to know much beyond their confederate/traitorous talking points as long as they spout the lines their bigoted pals and racist supporters love to hear, but hoping for serious, honest discussions of matters vital to the state of the nation is a complete waste of time with these self important charlatans.
@Akhilleus: I read or heard somewhere that Kennedy, who used to be a Democrat, did not sound nearly so much like a cornpone until he aspired to run for higher office. His first statewide job was as an appointee, so he didn't really have to affect a fake folksy accent. But then he decided to run for state treasurer, which is an elected position, so evidently Oxford man decided he had to "relate" to the rubes. Here he is in 2007: the oldest clip I could find and when he'd already been state treasurer (elected) for seven years. He doesn't sound nearly so cornpone, even though he is speaking in a public forum out in the boonies of Rapides, La.
Marie, in regards to Sharpton, two words: Tawana Brawley.
The DC manure dumpers must have been "tea party" people.
My old granny back in the day on the farm in Texas used to make a manure tea mixture to feed her vegetable garden.
Our veggies were very tasty as I recall.
The Abrams/Kennedy exchange reminded me of one of the many short stories ( with illustrations) I wrote for my grandchildren. Just last week my German granddaughter, Jule, celebrated her 14th birthday, the youngest in a family of three girls. I sent her a story that I had once written for one of her sisters some years ago about three sisters who embark on a perilous journey to their Uncle's kingdom because the school in their Kingdom had been demolished due to a fire. Jule responded by citing this passage, saying she loved this the best which gave me much pleasure and satisfaction:
"As the year progressed the girls learned geography, literature, spelling, vocabulary, Roman history, essay writing, and Latin. Then one morning Professor Willibrands introduced the subject of mathematics.
“Today, class, we will be reviewing your sums.”
“Excuse me sir,” said March, “did you say, suns?”
The Professor glared down at March. “Are you by any chance trying to be funny?”
“Oh, no sir!”
“ Do I smell the scent of ignorance regarding the word, SUMS?”
“I’m afraid so, sir, if it has something to do with numbers, we never had that in our school.”
“Why ever NOT??”
“ Girls weren’t supposed to bother themselves with money or numbers or anything like that. We were trained to become wives and mothers; the boys had a class in mathematics, but not the girls.”
“RUBBISH!” shouted Willibrands. Such nonsense! The women of this world are the backbone of society and should be educated just like the males who by the way don’t always come up to snuff. So––from this day hence, we will commence with lots of sums.”
Small inroads for young minds I hoped–-when that happens it feels like a celebration.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And today we have such a motley crew to chew up and spit upon: the Fucker Tucker's membership in the Dan White Society––-(I can still hear Feinstein telling us what happened) ––the bow tie is gone but the heart of this guy is bleeding profusely soiling his fine white shirts and dripping on Fox's floor. Do we see an end time any time soon with this loon?
Josh Hawley's "no" vote––– of course––it's what he does and who he is.
And then there's Kavanaugh–-that Irish Catholic, beer drinking, fun loving, dick swinging piece of swill–- the hypocrisy in this case is astounding! Sotomayor cleaned his clock on this one.
As far as Sharpton goes–- the transformation he's made physically––I remember his yesterday's N.Y. period's bulk and bluster–– his prominence now in the Black community seems sincere but what you see ain't necessarily what you get, as the old song says.
It's Friday, folks, another week without Doofus except he's become the Right's right hand –-the one that puts the swing on the club that gets the ball where he wants it to go–––sometimes.
Stacy Abrams is how political leadership is supposed to look; Kennedy's blow-up toy doll statesman version of leadership didn't look so good. Talk about hot air!
ONE MORE BIT:
The next morning at exactly nine o’clock sharp the girls were seated in their classroom with about thirteen other children. These children were from all walks of life differing from the girl’s school at home where just the children from royal lineages were schooled. Uncle Orwell believed strongly in equality for all, no matter what the social status. He felt the same way about animals, especially pigs.
Suddenly the door of the classroom sprung open and in whirled Professor Willibrands, a skinny figure dressed in a proper suit, his face reddened as if in anger, his features oddly placed; his nose was more of a beak than a nose, his hair looked like coils of snakes, and his legs were so thin they resembled two long sticks. He placed himself at a high desk, raised on a platform above the class. He lifted his chin, closed his eyes, and chanted:
“We begin this year a study of all the things you will need to know in order to call yourselves somewhat educated. For the sake of the numskulls and the memoryless, who are in the usual staggering majority, I pledge to you that by the time you leave my classroom you will have learned most of what I will be teaching, if not, then unfortunately, and I say this with great sorrow, there is little hope for you.”
I based this character on a professor I had who would take his classes on hikes commenting all the way on the trees, the rocks, and when he got to the streams, he'd put his hands into the water, dig out some dirt and exclaim "Class––take notice––this is silt!" He was passionate about the environment and even back then was warning us about the demise of our planet. He was one the toughest teachers I ever had and the one I loved the most.
Marie,
In regards to Al Sharpton, my first reaction is the same as Ken E.’s: Tawana Brawley. Sharpton cynically used Brawley’s situation as a springboard to national prominence. Several people close to Sharpton at the time have disclosed that he cared little for Brawley, clearly a troubled kid in a bad situation with a violent step-father, except for how he could use her.
As the case picked up steam and national headlines, Sharpton became more and more flamboyant, making increasingly outrageous and even laughable charges, including his declaration that the Klan, the IRA, and the Mafia were all in on a coverup. When his story was questioned by a state prosecutor, Sharpton accused the guy of not only being a racist, but one of Brawley’s rapists. Sharpton was found guilty of defamation for these, and other charges, although his fine was paid by others, certainly not by him.
I don’t know Sharpton, of course, but like many of us, I’m guessing he’s a complicated guy. I think he has drawn necessary public attention to many race related issues, attention that might not have been as widespread otherwise. Nonetheless, I do believe he’s a gigantic self promoter who has some bigotry problems of his own (referring to Socrates as a “Greek homo” doesn’t get him any medals for non-discrimination in my book).
Whatever good he’s done over the years, it’s hard to get past the way he used a disturbed young girl to climb to fame. Many of us have had to overcome bad decisions or youthful indiscretions, but the Brawley case could never be described in such terms. It was a cold, calculated parade of self promotion designed to inflame the public and make him famous. There’s no question that racial attacks need to be flushed out and the haters exposed, and had this been an actual rape, despite Sharpton’s carnival barking, it would have been a good thing. But it wasn’t. And it simply hardened the opinions of many whites who might have been on the fence about Civil Rights and whether they should trust such tales of racism. A step back for everyone.
Except Al.
Just my opinion.
@AK: As for your opinion: I'd say you'd get an A ––Professor Willibrands would be pleased. My memory of the Brawley case is fuzzy but I do recall its impact surely had dire repercussions. The "Greek homo" slam doesn't give him any medals from me either.
This being Friday, as well as another week without the Orange Menace pretending to do presidenty things, as PD suggests, I thought I might share with the class some unusual findings in a recent book purchase.
This is a collection of implausibly titled books. The subject matter is often equally implausible. To wit:
The History of the Concrete Roofing Tile
And if that strikes you as not niche-y enough, it’s subtitled “Its origin and development in Germany”. Dunno about you kids, but I’m Amazoning this one for my Christmas list.
Then, for those of you planning a motorcar excursion across Britain with plenty of stops along the way, I doubt your holiday would be complete without...
Thermal Movements in the Upper Floor of a Multi-storey Car Park.
Impress your friends.
And a burning question of Victorian literati might surely be explored in...
Did Lewis Carroll Visit Llandudno?
A Welsh town, apparently, that supposedly inspired “Alice in Wonderland”. Due, no doubt, to the plethora of talking rabbits, disappearing kitty cats, and murderous queens.
How about a book on
Baboon Metaphysics?
No? You’re sure?
Next...
Organizing Deviance
Surely a favorite in the Gaetz household.
Keeping Warm With an Axe.
Thanks, but I prefer blankets. Also drastically reduces the possibility of nighttime accidents.
Then there’s
Ethics for Bureaucrats.
Banned by the Trump administration. But I love that the cover says “second edition, revised and expanded”. The first one must have sold like hot cakes.
Finally, there’s this...
Cannibalism and the Common Law
Which is bad enough til you read the subtitle:
A Victorian Yachting Tragedy.
Ya think?
I was hoping to find
The Philanthropic Works of Donald J. Trump
but it’s out of print.
@Akhilleus: The title "Did Lewis Carroll Visit Llandudno?" intrigued me. Surprising as it is that a polymath such as I would have such a gap in my education, I was unfamiliar with the controversy, so I Googled it. Before doing so, I figured that the inspiration of a Welsh town for "Alice in Wonderland" would have been the mines, what with Alice falling down the rabbit hole and all.
BUT it turns out that the family of Alice Liddell -- for whom Carroll wrote the stories -- had a vacation home in Llandudno, which is a coastal town (or the north shore, so probably fucking freezing 364 days a year). In this here newspaper article, we find an old photo that some reckon includes a picture of Carroll with the Liddell family, although the shot is taken from such a distance, it's impossible to say with any measure of certainty.
Sometimes evidence shows up, if you look hard enough. The locals called the house we owned in Fort Myers, Florida, "the Al Capone house," as Capone was said to have visited it. I didn't find any proof of that, and the local newspaper ran a story while we live there, basically writing off the Capone story as fantasy -- something I was more than willing to accept.
I did have the abstract of title for the house, and I looked through it once to see if there were any names that I thought might be connected to Capone, and there were nothing in the period Capone might have been there that suggested any connection to Capone, as far as I could tell.
However, after I had moved for part of the year to New Hampshire, but when I still owned the Florida house, my neighbor, who is a fifth-generation South Floridian (and there are very few fifth generation South Floridians) asked if he could borrow the abstract and check around. He found the name of the owner of the house from the period, and asked his 90-something-year-old great aunt (a third-generation South Floridan) about that owner. She said, "Oh, yes, I went to school with his son, and the son's father was Al Capone's lawyer." So my neighbor looked up the lawyer's name (I forget what it was), and my neighbor searched the Internet only to find a reproduction of a 1920s-era Chicago newspaper article where this same lawyer had gotten Capone's brother off a murder charge. The article included a photo of the lawyer & the brother on the courthouse steps. As Capone traveled all over Florida, including Fort Myers, it seems highly likely he did visit my house in Fort Myers. The house had a prohibition closet, a minstrel's balcony overlooking the living room, and big ole double locks on all the bedroom doors -- attributes that might have been attractive to visiting mobsters. It did not, alas, seem to have a secret vault full of money Capone had stolen, although there were some curious filled-in cutouts in the basement floors, beneath which there might by lying piles of disintegrated bills or the bones of the unknown.
What the hell! Suspicious order ignited fears that Air National Guard would use fighter jets against California protesters.
"While preparing for any potential civil unrest as a result of the coronavirus surge in March of last year, California National Guard members heard an unusual order: The air branch of the Guard was told to place an F-15C fighter jet on an alert status for a possible domestic mission, The Los Angeles Times reports."
First of many, "The City of Albuquerque has referred former president Donald Trump’s campaign to a collection agency after the campaign failed to pay approximately $200,000 following the then president’s rally in Rio Rancho in 2019.
The Trump campaign has a long history of not paying its bills. In November, Newsweek reported that Trump would leave office with over $850,000 in unpaid campaign rally bills. The city of El Paso, Texas, for instance, was forced to hire legal counsel after the Trump campaign failed to pay $470,000 in additional services provided by the local police and fire departments, as well as an additional $99,000 in late fees."
Unfortunately it says that they probably won't be able to get the baby billionaire to pay his bills.
Marie,
Veddy interesting, as the guy on Laugh-In used to say. Maybe at night the ghosts of mobsters of yore haunt the place, maybe with the ghost of Alice Liddell in tow, in which case that book needs a second edition with a rejiggered title: Did Lewis Carroll Visit Lladundo and Fort Myers?
But seriously, the wish that walls might talk is generally entirely sincere, even if one might not be happy with the resulting stories.
@Marie: You mentioned the Capone connection to your abode many moons ago and I asked you then if he actually occupied the place––you never got back to me for good reason since you weren't sure at that point.
@RAS: Some years ago I read that there were quite a few states that were grumbling that the Trumpies still hadn't paid them for the rallies that were held therein. I often wondered what the heck came of it. Just another scam from the man who has screwed us bigly. Thanks for your comments.
Small-minded me never warmed up to Mr. Sharpton.
Didn't like the way he habitually pushed himself to the forefront, taking every opportunity to get his mug on TV. Charlatan or not, it struck me as unseemly.
And tho' I understand religion is very important to a large segment of the activist Black community, I never did like that Rev thing either, having long ago come to distrust the aura of sanctimoniousness that too often accompanies the robe.
But that is just me.
Unfortunagely my reaction to him, fair or not, might have occasionally led me to think less seriously of the causes he espoused, just because he was supporting them.
Regarding the wave of anti-protester laws, someone on the radio asked if a person using a car to run over protesters outside a family planning clinic would be afforded the same protections as someone running over BLM supporters. Probably not. You can’t make laws with asterisks that large.