;)
The Commentariat -- April 5, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Day 6 of Derek Chauvin's murder trial are here. The Washington Post's live trial updates are here.CNN's live updates are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "The Navajo Nation, which once had one of the worst coronavirus case rates in the United States, recently reached an extraordinary milestone: zero cases and zero deaths in a 24-hour period. The nation, which has over 300,000 enrolled members, is averaging about 11 new cases a day, far below its peak of 250 in late November, according to the latest data from the Navajo Department of Health. And it has vaccinated more of its population than any state, with more than half of its 170,000 residents living on tribal lands fully vaccinated." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "More than four million people in the United States received a coronavirus vaccine on Saturday -- the nation's highest one-day total since the shots began rolling out in December -- amid a rising caseload and increase in hospitalizations. An average of 3.1 million shots were administered each day over the past seven days, and nearly 1 in 4 adults are now fully vaccinated, said Andy Slavitt, the White House’s senior adviser for covid-19 response, speaking at a news briefing."
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday called for speeding up the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine in poorer nations, arguing the U.S. and global economies are threatened by the impact of covid-19 on the developing world. While the United States and other rich countries are hoping for a return to normalcy as soon as this fall, many parts of the developing world are not on pace to have widespread vaccination of their populations until 2023 or 2024.... Yellen called on richer countries to step up both economic and public health assistance to poorer nations reeling from covid. She noted as many as 150 million people across the world risk falling into extreme poverty as a result of the crisis." MB: Maybe it's just coincidental, but I can't help notice that the first female Treasury Secretary also seems to be first at tying U.S. economic policy to humanitarian needs around the globe. Somehow, Steve Munchkin never thought of that.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday vacated an appeals court ruling that ... Donald J. Trump had violated the First Amendment by blocking people from his Twitter account after they posted critical comments. A unanimous three-judge panel of the appeals court ruled in 2019 that Mr. Trump's account was a public forum from which he was powerless to exclude people based on their viewpoints. The Supreme Court's move was expected, as Mr. Trump is no longer president and Twitter has permanently suspended his account. More surprising was a 12-page concurring opinion from Justice Clarence Thomas musing on what he called the dangerous power a few private companies have over free speech.... His opinion reflected widespread frustration, particularly among conservatives, about letting private companies decide what the public may read and see." An AP story is here.
James Oliphant & Chris Kahn of Reuters: "Since the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol..., Donald Trump and his Republican allies have pushed false and misleading accounts to downplay the event that left five dead and scores of others wounded. His supporters appear to have listened.... About half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists 'trying to make Trump look bad,' a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found. Six in 10 Republicans also believe the false claim put out by Trump that November's presidential election 'was stolen' from him due to widespread voter fraud, and the same proportion of Republicans think he should run again in 2024, the March 30-31 poll showed."
Drew Harwell & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The identity of Q, the supposed top-secret government operative and prophet of the extremist ideology QAnon, has for years been a fiercely debated mystery. But a possible slip-up in a new documentary suggests the answer was always the most obvious one: Ron Watkins, the longtime administrator of the message board 8kun, the conspiratorial movement's online home.... Watkins has long denied his involvement, saying he was merely a neutral backroom operator of the site and never a participant." This is the supposed slip-up: at the end of the documentary, Watkins said in an interview, "It was basically three years of intelligence training, teaching normies how to do intelligence work. It was basically what I was doing anonymously before, but never as Q." ~~~
~~~ Marie: And here I thought there wasn't any big news today. What a disappointment to find out Q is just some incel jerk & not the greatest prophet of all time. But it turns out most QAnon supporters are way ahead of me: according to Harwell & Timberg, "... the movement in many ways has outgrown Q, by having elevated a widespread corps of QAnon promoters, merchandisers and social media influencers who offer their audiences a flurry of absurd baseless claims and far-right talking points.... Nearly all of the most popular QAnon discussion boards and Telegram channels ignored the Watkins interview, instead focusing on the movement’s latest topics of interest, mostly involving false claims about coronavirus vaccines, President Biden and the Suez Canal."
Arkansas. Brianna Kwasnik & Rachel Herzog of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette: "Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Monday afternoon he vetoed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth. Hutchinson, a Republican, said he believed House Bill 1570 interfered with the relationship between doctors and patients. The GOP-sponsored legislation prohibits health care providers from administering gender transition treatments, which can include surgery and hormone therapy, to people under 18. Had Hutchinson signed the bill, Arkansas would have been the first state to enact such a measure.... The governor referred to the bill as a 'product of the cultural war in America' and said the measure is 'overbroad, extreme and does not grandfather young people currently on hormone treatment.'" MB: Every once in awhile, Hutchinson does something right.
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: From slow news to no news, the Monday after Easter is a dud. Enjoy it.
Jason DeParle of the New York Times: "With more than one in 10 households reporting that they lack enough to eat, the Biden administration is accelerating a vast campaign of hunger relief that will temporarily increase assistance by tens of billions of dollars and set the stage for what officials envision as lasting expansions of aid.... The push reflects an extraordinary shift in the politics of poverty -- driven, paradoxically, both by the spread of hardship to more working-class and white families and the growing recognition of poverty's disproportionate toll on minorities. With hunger especially pronounced among Black and Latino households, vital to the Democrats' coalition, the administration is framing its efforts not just as a response to pandemic needs but as part of a campaign for racial justice."
Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "U.S. military guards have moved Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and other former C.I.A. prisoners to the main part of the prison compound at Guantánamo Bay from a failing secret facility, in a consolidation of detention operations that could cut costs and reduce the troop presence at the base in Cuba, the military said on Sunday.... As of Sunday, the military said, all 40 so-called war on terror detainees -- the 11 men who have been charged with war crimes, as well as others who are held as indefinite detainees -- were housed in a compound ringed with razor wire and containing two prison buildings, called Camps 5 and 6. The plan to consolidate the prisoners was devised during the Trump administration, when their former compound, Camp 7, was failing. Raw sewage sloshed through the tiers, the power sometimes went out and some cell doors would not close at the site."
An Easter Message from the Pope. Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "Pope Francis delivered his annual 'Urbi et Orbi' ('To the City and to the World') Easter message to a small group of the faithful inside St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday.... The pope delivered the message after presiding over Easter Mass in the presence of about 200 worshipers. Francis spoke of the economic and social hardships that many people, and especially the poor, are experiencing because of the pandemic.... He also addressed the continuing armed conflicts, unrest and increased military spending in Myanmar, Syria, Yemen, Nigeria and other regions and nations. As he has in the past, the leader of the world's 1.3 billion Catholics called on the international community 'in a spirit of global responsibility' to ensure that everyone has access to vaccines, which he called 'an essential tool' in the fight against the pandemic. Delivery delays had to be overcome to 'facilitate their distribution, especially in the poorest countries,' Francis said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Marie: I purposely have not linked reports on What Donald Trump Said Today, but here's one to sum it all up in one fell foul swoop: ~~~
~~~ An Easter Message from the Dope. David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump marked Easter weekend by attacking his political enemies, repeating false claims about the election, and calling for a boycott of Major League Baseball and other corporations that oppose Georgia's new election law. 'Happy Easter to ALL, including the Radical Left CRAZIES who rigged our Presidential Election, and want to destroy our Country!' Trump said in a written statement early Sunday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Peter Jamison of the Washington Post: "... the family and friends of Thomas 'Tommy' Bloom Raskin, son of Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), came together Saturday morning to remember the young man, who died by suicide. The memorial service was tailored to prevent communicable disease: Eulogists stood by turns on a stage in a parking lot outside RFK Stadium, dwarfed by a pair of screens that alternately displayed the speakers and family photos. Guests sat in parked cars that they had been asked not to leave...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Weiyi Cai, et al., of the New York Times: "Over the last year, in an unrelenting series of episodes with clear racial animus, people of Asian descent have been pushed, beaten, kicked, spit on and called slurs. Homes and businesses have been vandalized. The violence has known no boundaries, spanning generations, income brackets and regions. The New York Times attempted to capture a sense of the rising tide of anti-Asian bias nationwide. Using media reports from across the country, The Times found more than 110 episodes since March 2020 in which there was clear evidence of race-based hate.... [In] assaults in which the assailants expressed explicit racial hostility..., nearly half included a reference to the coronavirus...." MB: Another Trump effect, IMO. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
More Bicycles, Better Health. Veronica Penney of the New York Times: "Adding bike lanes to urban streets can increase the number of cyclists across an entire city, not just on the streets with new bike lanes, according to a new study. The finding adds to a growing body of research indicating that investments in cycling infrastructure can encourage more people to commute by bike, which helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve health.... The research, published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that in cities where bike infrastructure was added, cycling had increased up to 48 percent more than in cities that did not add bike lanes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Capitalism Is Still Awesome, Ctd. and Jeff Bezos Is Still a Ruthless Prick. Karen Weise of the New York Times: "Amazon illegally retaliated against two of its most prominent internal critics when it fired them last year, the National Labor Relations Board has determined. The employees, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, had publicly pushed the company to reduce its impact on climate change and address concerns about its warehouse workers. The agency told Ms. Cunningham and Ms. Costa that it would accuse Amazon of unfair labor practices if the company did not settle the case, according to correspondence that Ms. Cunningham shared with The New York Times.... The two women were among dozens of Amazon workers who in the last year told the labor board about company retaliations, but in most other cases the workers had complained about pandemic safety."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "Ask not for whom the world's tiniest violin plays -- it plays for Fox News. Three months ago the network's hosts enjoyed unprecedented political power and privileged access to ... Donald Trump, the subject of their propaganda. Now its employees are reduced to whining about President Joe Biden not calling on their correspondent during Thursday's press conference, as their lies on behalf of his predecessor's effort to steal the election draw a $1.6 billion lawsuit. Fox's pity party launched roughly two minutes after the press conference concluded and remained a regular facet of the network's coverage of the event into Friday morning. Eleven different programs have combined to mention how Biden did not call on Fox White House correspondent Peter Doocy at least 24 times as of 10 a.m. ET, according to a Media Matters review." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "Vaccinations against Covid-19 may be accelerating in the United States, but the Biden administration's intervention at a troubled plant that ruined millions of vaccine doses, along with the continuing threat of dangerous variants of the coronavirus, suggest that the road to defeating the virus is likely to take many unpredictable twists and turns. Saturday marked the first time the country reported more than four million Covid-19 doses in a single day, bringing the average to higher than three million people for the first time, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On the same day, the fallout continued over a debacle at a Baltimore contract plant that ruined 15 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Biden administration put Johnson & Johnson in charge of the facility and moved to stop the facility from making another vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca...." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Little White Card -- and More. Concepción de León of the New York Times: "Here's everything you need to know about your vaccine record, why it's important and how to keep it safe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "Work crews were pumping millions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into an ecologically sensitive Florida bay on Sunday, as they tried to prevent the 'imminent' collapse of a storage reservoir at an old phosphate mine. Officials in Manatee county extended an evacuation zone overnight and warned that up to 340m gallons could engulf the area in 'a 20ft wall of water' if they could not repair the breach at the Piney Point reservoir in the Tampa Bay area, north of Bradenton. Aerial images aired on local television showed water pouring from leaks in the walls of the retention pond. [Gov.] Ron DeSantis ... declared a state of emergency.... He toured the scene by helicopter and said at a press conference engineers were still attempting to plug breaches in the reservoir wall with rocks and other materials, and that other mitigation efforts included the controlled release of 35m gallons daily at Port Manatee.... In a statement, the [activist group Mana-Sota 88 said]: 'The current crisis can be traced back to the absurd 2006 decision to allow dredged material from Port Manatee to be placed into one of the gyp stacks at Piney Point, something the stack was never designed for and should have never been allowed.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: My recollection was that dodgy phosphate mines were a Jeb Bush legacy. Sure enough, guess who was governor of Florida in 2006 -- why, JEB!
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Reader Comments (9)
Waaaaahhhh!!
Now that the big bad bully has had his fat ass kicked by a bigger, stronger, good kid, who chased him off the playground he used to rule with a very small orange fist, the little bullies who slavishly followed him, kicking other kids in the shins and taking their lunch money, gleefully repeating the big bully’s lies and nasty gossip, have lost their place in the schoolyard pecking order. No one is forking over their money anymore, they’re treated like the mewling, sycophantic parasites they’ve always been by this new kid. And, and...and...IT’S NOT FAIR! Waaaahhhh! This new kid won’t even acknowledge their presence! Waaahhh! “Where did our big bully go?? Come back so we can feel important again! Pleeeeze!”
I keep hoping for a time when we don't hear or read
about that Florida man for months at a stretch, but
then there's the junior grifters who had to leave the
trough and they be even greedier psychophants than
daddy psychophant.
Forrest: I believe you've invented a word that is perfect!
Is there any more clear example of 'privatize the profits and socialize the costs' than mining wastes? Democrats should trumpet this repeatedly because this mine waste/environmental clean-up is a Republican tax increase on us citizens.
Honesty at last...
Chinese respond to Mike Fuckabee: you’d like to identify as Chinese from now on? We reject your racist insult. We have a much better idea. Since confederates such as yourself are always pretending to love truth and authenticity (hold on a sec....hahahahahahaha...) we suggest you follow that up with a much more honest declaration. We’ve even taken the time to write it out for you. Ready?
“I, Mike Fuckabee, from now one, choose to identify as a bigoted asshole. I’ve always been a bigoted asshole even though I’ve spent my entire life lying through my sharp pointy teeth about how I’m a good, decent person. I’m not. I’m one of the worst snakes in the shit pile: a bigoted asshole. Thank you very much.”
ALL THINGS JEWISH:
I have been a big fan of Cynthia Ozick for years and who better to take on Philip Roth than she: Here's her stunning review of the new biography of Roth by Blake Bailey:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/01/books/review/philip-roth-the-biography-blake-bailey.html?action=click&algo=identity&block=editors_picks_recirc&fellback=false&imp_id=487316632&impression_id=fbcdf500-953b-11eb-b64e-2323235287a8&index=0&pgtype=Article&pool=editors-picks-ls®ion=footer&req_id=681119444&surface=home-featured&variant=0_identity
"Ever since the implosion of "Portnoy's Complaint" he [Roth] was notorious ––most markedly among Jews–-for the stunning and defaming of Jews. A well-brought up suburban young woman in the 50s ought not to be depicted as brazenly owning a diaphragm. A young man from a respectable family ought not to be masturbating with an uncooked liver intended to be eaten for dinner."
And–here comes the Netflix series "Shtisel" that has become a runaway hit, one of the most unlikely hits in the history of television. This show was first distributed in Israel in 2013: it has no nudity, no violence, and no dragons. It is a characterization of a family of Hared Jews ( ultra conservative) has subtitles. It took me three episodes to get hooked but hooked I have become. If Roth could have watched it I think he'd give two thumbs up but then perhaps he'd have plenty of groans to go along with those two thumbs up.
And since it's the day after Easter, if you had ham, there are some nifty recipes in the Times for what to do with all that leftover ham. The mister and I did not have ham nor was there anything like a celebration but one of our many bunnies that frolic on our land left a Cadberry Egg on the front stoop––those bunnies–-they never forget .
"Corporations gave over $50M to voting restriction backers
State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years [2015-2020], according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group.
Among their findings:
— Companies donated at least $50 million to lawmakers who supported voting restrictions, including $22 million in the 2020 campaign cycle.
— At least 81 Fortune 100 companies have given a combined total of $7.7 million to supporters of the restrictions.
— Nearly half of all Fortune 500 companies donated a combined total of $12.8 million to supporters of the restrictions.
— About three-quarters of the companies that changed their donation policies after the U.S. Capitol attack have also given to lawmakers who supported voting rights restrictions.
— More than 60 companies have given at least $100,000 to lawmakers who supported the restrictions.
— Separately, industry groups and trade associations contributed an additional $36 million to the lawmakers, $16 million of which was given during the 2020 cycle. "
With folks like Darren Walker in charge of $$$ Ford Foundation there's a chance to do income redistribution appropriately:
https://www.cbsnews.com/video/darren-walker-ford-foundation-60-minutes-2021-04-04/
PD,
Cadbury eggs? Nice! But at Marred-a-Lardo the bunnies leave Fabergé eggs. Fake, of course.
Haha, AK-- Faberge eggs from the dollar store...! Can you imagine what dumpface would say or do about Faberge eggs? I saw some in St. Petersburg (Russia, not FL) on a trip we took in fall 2019, and I can't imagine anyone at Marred Lago even looking at them as the gorgeous items they are, pieces of art, really. Marred Lago people= pigs. Simply pigs.