;)
The Commentariat -- April 6, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Day 7 of Derek Chauvin's murder trial are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.
Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "The United States and Iran agreed through intermediaries on Tuesday to establish two working groups to try to ge both countries back into compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. In a meeting of the current members of the deal in Vienna, all parties agreed to establish one working group to focus on how to get the United States back to the deal by lifting harsh economic sanctions imposed or reimposed after ... Donald J. Trump pulled out of the accord in May 2018. The other working group will focus on how to get Iran back into compliance with the accord's limitations on nuclear enrichment and stockpiles of enriched uranium."
Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "President Joe Biden plans to announce Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks. With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden will announce that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, according to an administration official, instead of Biden's original deadline of May 1. Biden announced last week that 90% of adults will be eligible to get a coronavirus vaccine by April 19, as well as have a vaccination site within five miles of where they live. Biden said the number of pharmacies participating in the federal pharmacy vaccination program was increasing from the current 17,000 locations to 40,000."
Meet the Insurrectionists. Robert Pape in a Washington Post op-ed: "... by far the most interesting characteristic common to the insurrectionists' backgrounds has to do with changes in their local demographics: Counties with the most significant declines in the non-Hispanic White population are the most likely to produce insurrectionists who now face charges.... Put another way, the people alleged by authorities to have taken the law into their hands on Jan. 6 typically hail from places where non-White populations are growing fastest.... Great Replacement theory has achieved iconic status with white nationalists and holds that minorities are progressively replacing White populations due to mass immigration policies and low birthrates. Extensive social media exposure is the second-biggest driver of this view, our surveys found." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times writes a news report based on Pape's findings: "'If you look back in history, there has always been a series of far-right extremist movements responding to new waves of immigration to the United States or to movements for civil rights by minority groups,' Mr. Pape said. 'You see a common pattern in the Capitol insurrectionists. They are mainly middle-class to upper-middle-class whites who are worried that, as social changes occur around them, they will see a decline in their status in the future.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration and top Democrats in Congress began detailing plans for significant changes to how the United States and other countries tax multinational corporations as they look for ways to raise revenues and finance President Biden's $2 trillion infrastructure proposal. On Monday, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen threw her support behind an international effort to create a global minimum tax that would apply to multinational corporations, regardless of where they locate their headquarters. Such a global tax, she said, could help prevent a 'race to the bottom' in which countries cut their tax rates in order to entice companies to move headquarters and profits across borders.... At the same time, Democrats in Congress released their own proposal to add teeth to the de facto minimum tax that the United States already imposes on income earned abroad -- one that would apply to American multinational companies regardless of what the rest of the world does. The proposal could raise as much as $1 trillion over the next 15 years from large companies by requiring that they pay higher taxes on profits they earn overseas, according to analyses of similar plans."
Kelsey Snell of NPR: "A new decision from the U.S. Senate's nonpartisan parliamentarian means Democrats could advance more of President Biden's agenda without the support of Republicans. The official's interpretation of Senate budget rules would allow the use of the reconciliation process more than once in a fiscal year, and it is viewed by Democrats as a possible strategy for moving top policy priorities with a simple majority, since getting the needed 10 Republican votes in a 50-50 Senate has proved difficult. Details are still unclear as to how Democratic leaders might use the additional chance to pass budget-related policies.... The ruling appears to mean a majority party could revise budgets more than once in a fiscal year -- each time giving them access to reconciliation instructions. The decision comes as Democrats take up Biden's more than $2 trillion infrastructure proposal, which he unveiled last week." A Vox explanation is here.
The Most Powerful Joe in D.C. May Not Be Biden. Burgess Everett of Politico: "Joe Manchin wants his party's leaders and President Joe Biden to make significant changes to their sweeping new tax-and-spend legislation -- and he's got other Democratic senators with him.... It's just the latest power move from Manchin, who has become Democrats' squeakiest wheel in the early days of Biden's presidency.... Manchin said he would be comfortable raising the corporate tax rate from 21 percent to 25 percent but said the United States has 'to be competitive and we're not going to throw caution to the wind.'... Manchin is no outlier. A few hours later at the Capitol, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) said Monday that he needs to have more input into the White House's plan than he's received so far...." MB: With 50 Senate votes (+ Harris), every Democratic senator can play the prima donna.
Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post: The Matt Gaetz story that most sticks in my head "is the report that the Florida Republican used to wander around and show his colleagues nude photos of people he had slept with.... I keep hearing the uncomfortable laughter of Billy Bush. I keep coming back to the fact that it takes two to make a locker room.... This wasn't something Matt Gaetz did a single time, but repeatedly. Because if it happened more than once -- if it happened twice, even -- that is because the first time went better than it should have." Petri appeals to Matt's Congressional colleagues to call out such egregious behavior. MB: Does she mean the same guys who support (alleged) serial sex abuser (and liar, grifter and traitor) Donald Trump? Get real, Alex.
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
The joke that begins at 9:20 min. in is especially good:
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. U.S. Corporations Back Lying Liars. Brian Slodysko of the AP: "State legislators across the country who have pushed for new voting restrictions, and also seized on ... Donald Trump's baseless claims of election fraud, have reaped more than $50 million in corporate donations in recent years, according to a new report by Public Citizen, a Washington-based government watchdog group. Telecom giant AT&T was the most prolific, donating over $800,000 since 2015 to authors of proposed restrictions, cosponsors of such measures, or those who voted in favor of the bills, the report found. Other top donors during the same period include Comcast, Philip Morris USA, UnitedHealth Group, Walmart, Verizon, General Motors and Pfizer.... More than 120 companies detailed in the report previously said they would rethink their donations to members of Congress who, acting on the same falsehoods as the state lawmakers, objected to the certification of President Joe Biden's win following the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ So Then Mitch Says ... Richard Cowan of the Reuters: "U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell lashed out at corporate America on Monday, warning CEOs to stay out of the debate over a new voting law in Georgia that has been criticized as restricting votes among minorities and the poor. In a sign of a growing rift in the decades-old alliance between the conservative party and U.S. corporations, McConnell said: 'My advice to the corporate CEOs of America is to stay out of politics. Don't pick sides in these big fights.' McConnell warned companies there could be risks for turning on the party, but he did not elaborate. 'Corporations will invite serious consequences if they become a vehicle for far-left mobs to hijack our country from outside the constitutional order,' McConnell told a news conference in his home state of Kentucky." The Washington Post story is here. ~~~
~~~ Dear Awesome CEOs, Please do as Mitch demands and stay out of Republican politics. Step 1: Quit contributing to Republican political campaigns. Step 2: Contribute to Democratic political campaigns. Your new friend, Marie ~~~
~~~ Republicans' Unique View of the First Amendment. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is second to none in protecting First Amendment rights of corporations -- at least when the subject is money. McConnell, a longtime opponent of limits on campaign donations as a form of speech, has often defended unlimited dark money in lofty terms.... McConnell has even filed multiple amicus curiae briefs in campaign cases insisting the rights of free speech and association implicit in corporate campaign donations are 'fundamental' and 'of central importance.' But when it comes to actual speech from corporations -- specifically, speech denouncing Republicans' voter suppression efforts -- McConnell becomes irate." So money for Mitch is "free speech"; verbal support for voters is taboo.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today: "Major League Baseball is scheduled to announce Tuesday that this year's All-Star Game will be moved to Coors Field in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies, a person with direct knowledge of the decision told USA TODAY Sports.... Government officials in Colorado and Denver immediately began lobbying MLB for the All-Star Game once Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the league was moving the game out of Atlanta because of the voting laws passed in Georgia in March that potentially can restrict voting access for people of color."
Yeah, We Can Afford to Pay Fair Wages, But That Would Be Wrong. Julia Rock & Andrew Perez of Newsweek: "Big restaurant chains are telling investors that a national minimum wage hike wouldn't be a big deal == even as their corporate lobbying groups in Washington fight plans for a $15 minimum wage. 'We share your view that a national discussion on wage issues for working Americans is needed -- but the Raise the Wage Act is the wrong bill at the wrong time for our nation's restaurants,' the National Restaurant Association wrote in a letter to congressional leaders in February.... The following day, a top executive at Denny's, one of the association's members, told investors that gradual increases in the minimum wage haven't been a problem for the company at all. In fact, California's law raising the minimum wage to $15 by 2023 has actually been good for the diner chain's business, according to Denny's chief financial officer, Robert Verostek."
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: And here I thought there wasn't any big news Monday. 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."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
Elizabeth Dias & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "... across white evangelical America, reasons not to get vaccinated have spread as quickly as the virus that public health officials are hoping to overcome through herd immunity. The opposition is rooted in a mix of religious faith and a longstanding wariness of mainstream science, and it is fueled by broader cultural distrust of institutions and gravitation to online conspiracy theories. The sheer size of the community poses a major problem for the country's ability to recover from a pandemic that has resulted in the deaths of half a million Americans.... There are about 41 million white evangelical adults in the U.S. About 45 percent said in late February that they would not get vaccinated against Covid-19, making them among the least likely demographic groups to do so, according to the Pew Research Center."
Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Let us root, root, root cheek to cheek,
I don't care if I die in a week. ~~~
~~~ Texas. Benjamin Hoffman of the New York Times: "... the Texas Rangers hosted the Toronto Blue Jays in front of the largest crowd at a sporting event in the United States in more than a year.... The state's lifting of capacity restrictions made the enormous crowd possible.... Rangers fans ... were shoulder-to-shoulder in the team's fairly intimate retractable-roofed stadium. M.L.B. requires all fans over age 2 to wear masks at games this season, but a large percentage of the fans in Arlington went maskless. That will undoubtedly raise fears of the event resulting in a spike in coronavirus cases.... Before Monday's game started, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, publicly announced that he had sent a letter to the Rangers to decline throwing out a ceremonial first pitch. Abbott, who had previously agreed to participate at the event, said the decision was made as a reaction to M.L.B. adopting what he called a 'false narrative' in moving the All-Star Game away from Atlanta in response to Georgia's new elections rules. He said that ... he will not participate in any M.L.B. events and that his state will not seek to host any of the league's special events in the future."
Beyond the Beltway
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. (Also linked yesterday.)
Georgia. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The laws that disenfranchised Black Americans in the South and established Jim Crow did not actually say they were disenfranchising Black Americans and creating a one-party racist state.... There was no statute that said, 'Black people cannot vote.' Instead, Southern lawmakers spun a web of restrictions and regulations meant to catch most Blacks (as well as many whites) and keep them out of the electorate.... The ... argument of conservatives and Republicans asks us to ignore context and extend good faith to lawmakers who overhauled their state's election laws because their party lost an election."
Minnesota. Holly Bailey & Mark Berman of the Washington Post: "Derek Chauvin 'absolutely' violated Minneapolis Police Department policies and his sworn oath to serve and protect when he knelt on George Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes, the city's police chief testified Monday. During one of the most anticipated moments in the trial, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo unequivocally told the court that Chauvin had failed to follow policies on de-escalation, use of force and offering medical aid to those in need when he ignored Floyd's cries for help while the man lay pinned beneath his knee. The use of force should have ended as soon as Floyd stopped resisting, the chief said.... The day began with testimony from Bradford Langenfeld, an emergency medicine physician who spent at least a half-hour trying to revive Floyd when he was taken to Hennepin County Medical Center. It was Langenfeld who later pronounced Floyd dead. Langenfeld ... testified that Floyd arrived at the hospital in cardiac arrest and upon further examination was showing 'pulseless electrical activity.'... The doctor testified that he was told by paramedics that they had tried to revive the man for about 30 minutes before he was brought to the hospital, but heard of no other lifesaving efforts at the scene, including by police."
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Reader Comments (17)
Republicans are threatening "consequences" for corporations for their opposition to voter suppression laws. Will these consequences extend to refusing campaign donations?
PBS 's Ken Burns' and Lynn Novick's documentary on Hemingway began last night and will end on Weds. It's a fascinating romp but I wondered why in this day and time Faulkner wouldn't be one to unveil. It looks like Hilton Als wondered the same thing:
"There’s ugliness in Hemingway, and not the kind of ugliness meant in the documentary’s opening statement about writing. Like Stein, Hemingway was not above the impulse to reduce people to types; nor did he entirely resist the pointed, class-informed racism of his time. It’s hard to get through the condescending, lousy, “sho nuff” chat in Stein’s novella “Melanctha,” and the deeply rotten race elements in Hemingway’s novel “To Have and Have Not.” Those things are as much a part of America as the myth of idealized masculinity. But why a film about Hemingway now, and not, say, Faulkner? Is Faulkner not a more vibrant figure, who prefigured in his Snopes stories and novels the age of Trump and Derek Chauvin’s trial, and the Gordian knot of race that continues to choke large portions of our country? In this context, Burns and Novick’s “Hemingway” feels a little anachronistic, and “smells of the museums,” as Stein once said of Hemingway."
@PD Pepe:
I do not like that pompous jerk,
I do not like his shoddy work.
I would not like him here or there,
I would not like him anywhere.
I really hope he goes away.
I do not like that Hemingway.
Although there are a number of nearly-equal candidates, I would choose Hemingway as the most overrated American fiction writer of the 20th century. His status as a "great writer," I think, is a direct result of his having been a "man's writer" at a time when almost all the critics were men, many of them men who could only imagine having sex with glamourous strangers, running with the bulls in Spain or fishing for marlins (or whatever) off Cuba & Key West.
Hemingway's claim to fame was writing spare sentences -- excising every word he consider superfluous. But that was already an anti-Victorian trend when Hemingway "invented" it. Scott Fitzgerald could do it. Before him, Kate Chopin's "The Awakening," for instance, which was published in 1899, was a masterpiece of applying direct spoken language to the written page. I expect the liberating style also was an outgrowth of the popularity of dime novels, which usually used simple language because their readers were not all that literate.
I won't be watching the Hemingway series so as to spare my TV from possible damage by flying slippers or other handy items.
@Marie: Good to know no flying slippers or other handy items like a fat billowy pillow finds its way onto your TV. Enjoyed thoroughly your assessment of Papa H. plus your Seussian ditty depicting said author. I often wondered why Hemingway's writings left me scratching my head and saying––-huh?
Farewell to Arms–––and to the man that for some has become an American icon.
I don't recall ever completing a Hemingway work other than "Kilimanjaro," the third time I started it decades after the first try (in a "Best Short Stories" collection). And I normally will push through to the end of any book, figuring maybe the pony is at the end.
Oh, and the world's shortest: "Baby shoes." That was pretty good.
The Evil Treasonous Turtle orders corporations to “stay out of politics”. Dear ETT, if it wasn’t for corporations’ involvement in politics, the Party of Traitors would be nothing but racist Civil War re-enactors, conspiracy nuts, gun knobbers, and skeezy weirdos.
Oh, wait...
Remember reading somewhere that Henry Luce created Hemingway or if not Hemingway the writer, Hemingway, the cult figure that met me in my early reading days.
I always saw some truth in that.
The contrast PD offers between Hemingway and Faulker and who would speak better to our present, and Marie's cogent remarks about her reaction to Hemingway point to the relationship that must occur between any writer and his or her audience, if they are be judged "successful." No doubt for any number of stylistic and substantial reasons Hemingway had a closer connection to his millions of readers nearly a hundred years ago than he would have now.
That said, though "The Sun Also Rises" never added up to me, I did think "A Farewell to Arm" a great novel. "For Whom the Bell Tolls" captivating enough for its romanticized vision of the Spanish Civil War (always a favorite subject for this liberal) and I still remember the very spare "A Clean, Well-lighted Place's" existential truth so well I remember the room on the Greek island where I first read it.
I could be wrong about Hemingway, but then I'm speaking only for this audience of one.
Jeff Davis' stone chair stolen! https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/04/06/ransom-confederate-chair-selma/. I love the cheeky, radical humor of the perpetrators. I've said for years that dog poop bags should have the Confederate flag on the outside and here these folks have just elevated that idea. Another thing, just look at the picture and tell me with a straight face that stone chair is worth $500,000.
Thanks Marie for the commentary about Hemingway. I'd read Les Miserable another time way before anything by H. He was awash in his own self-importance in a repulsive sort of way, to me.
I read only The Old Man and the Sea, for high school English, and promptly forgot it. I agree that the macho-ness of Hemingway was always a turnoff for me, so I never went further in his "oevre"-- and a few years ago, a fictionalized book supposedly from the viewpoint of a wife or girlfriend cemented my disgust with him. I keep mixing that book up with the fiction one written from the viewpoint of Frank Lloyd Wright's wife or girlfriend, which toppled another idol for me. There simply isn't enough testosterone in the world adequate enough for some men, famous or not. Ugh.
Maybe that is Manchin's problem? McConnell's problem? Power. It's all about power, preferably over women. Double ugh.
I have fished The Big Two Hearted River. Nick Adams was not fishing there, he was way south of there on the Fox.
I do not think that any other writer could put you in cedar swamp and make you feel it.
I fished just like Nick but I kept my crickets in flat Prince Albert cans. I have read this story many times. His early stories were great. Read" Up In Michigan" and "The Three Day Blow"
He was a horses ass and Three Nights In A Sleeping Bag with Cooper and Bergman demonstrated that the drivel was written for the " Cosmopolitan"
I received an invitation to invest in presidential coins
honoring the achievements of that Florida man who now
resides at Marred-A-Lardo, (witless protection program??),
with his fat face and combover in all its splendor.
1/4 ounce gold is $612.54, 1/4 ounce silver is $34.39. Limit
of 20 on the gold, please.
They didn't answer my request for the price of lead, as in
"get the lead out."
If anyone is interested, I have the name of the company.
@Forrest: Are those prices for plating or paint?
@unwashed: Guaranteed to be as pure as anyone in
the Trump crime family.
Don't know if these numbers lie, but they are worth a look.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/04/06/capitol-insurrection-arrests-cpost-analysis/
They seem to indicate the majority of the insurrectionists are skeered of black and brown.
They probably still sleep with the light on.
@Forrest Morris: I have those coins pop up on my browser every now and then and I shudder to think that with a GOP win last year we'd most likely have had that Il Duce profile in our pockets before 2024.
Anyone else wake up grateful these days that we finally have an adult in the Oval Office? Vaccine for all adults? Brilliant, inspired, mature--
Whew. Dodged that other bullet, at least for now.
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/texas-governor-bans-mandated-covid-19-vaccine-passports-76905322
And DeSants, too.
Two questions:
Do businesses have a legal recourse?
Can these two twits be charged with murder?