The Commentariat -- April 7, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Georgia. Ha! Kate Brumback of the AP: "A district attorney in Atlanta said Wednesday that she will not pursue charges against a Georgia state lawmaker who was arrested during a protest of the state's sweeping new election law. 'After reviewing all of the evidence, I have decided to close this matter,' Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis said in an emailed statement. 'It will not be presented to a grand jury for consideration of indictment, and it is now closed.' Rep. Park Cannon, a Democrat from Atlanta, was arrested March 25 after she knocked on the door to Republican Gov. Brian Kemp'’s office while he was on live television speaking about the voting bill he had just signed into law. Police charged her with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly. She was released from jail later that evening."

Kentucky. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Kentucky on Wednesday became the only state in the country with a Republican-controlled legislature to expand voting rights after a bitter presidential election that tested the country's democratic institutions and elevated ballot access as an animating issue for both parties. In a signing ceremony on Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat, hailed the bill as a bipartisan effort that cut against the push in other Republican legislatures to put up barriers to voting.... The reasons that Kentucky Republicans have diverged on voting rights range from the political to the logistical. For one, they had an easier sell: With sweeping new rules allowing the election to be held safely during the coronavirus pandemic, Republicans in Kentucky had one of their best cycles in years, with both Senator Mitch McConnell and Mr. Trump easily winning in the state. And expanding voting access in Kentucky was a low bar to clear; the state had some of the tightest voting laws in the country before 2020, with not a single day of early voting, and strict limits on absentee balloting."

Battle of the Sickening Scions? Ivana Saric of Axios: "Andrew Giuliani, a former Trump White House staffer and the son of Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani, told the Washington Examiner he plans to run for governor of New York in 2022.... Despite a flood of sexual misconduct allegations and a federal investigation into his handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still expected to run for reelection next year."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "John Boehner, the Republican former House speaker, issues a stinging denunciation in his new book of Donald J. Trump, saying that the former president 'incited that bloody insurrection' by his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Republican Party has been taken over by 'whack jobs.' The criticism from Mr. Boehner in his book, 'On the House: A Washington Memoir,' represents an extraordinary public rebuke by a former speaker of the House toward a former president from his own party and shows how much the Republican Party has shifted since Mr. Boehner left Congress in 2015.... Nodding to the divisions between the parties in Congress now, he writes, 'Whatever they end up doing, or not doing, none of it will compare to one of the lowest points of American democracy that we lived through in January 2021.' Mr. Trump, he goes on, 'incited that bloody insurrection for nothing more than selfish reasons, perpetuated by the bullshit he'd been shoveling since he lost a fair election the previous November.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unlike many "memoirs" that are ghostwritten, Boehner's book appears to be written "in his own words."

Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "Tiger Woods was speeding when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle in February, reaching speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on winding road near Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h. and was sent airborne, eventually stopping in some brush.... He added that there were no signs of impairment or intoxication, and that Woods was wearing his seatbelt. The captain of the Lomita Sheriff's Station, James Powers, said that data was obtained from the vehicle's event data recorder.... The data showed that Woods had hit the accelerator throughout the crash, and that the pressure applied to the pedal was 99 percent. Powers said he believed that Woods inadvertently hit the accelerator while trying to brake.... Woods was not cited, Villanueva said, because under California law that typically requires either an independent witness or a law enforcement officer to witness the excessive speed. He said that Woods did not receive any special treatment.... Woods crashed his car on a windy and tricky stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that is known for car crashes near Rancho Palos Verdes...." An AP story is here.

AP: "A lawyer for imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who has complained of serious back and leg pain in custody, says doctors have found him to be suffering from two spinal hernias. Vadim Kobzev told the Interfax news agency on Wednesday that Navalny also has a spinal protrusion and is beginning to lose sensation in his hands. Navalny went on a hunger strike last week to protest what he called poor medical care in a Russian prison. On Tuesday, the leader of the Navalny-backed Alliance of Doctors union was detained by police after trying to get into the prison to talk to doctors."

The New York Times' live updates of Day 8 of the murder trial of Derek Chauvin are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "President Joe Biden announced on Tuesday that he is moving up his deadline for states to make all American adults eligible for a coronavirus vaccine by almost two weeks, but said Americans must remain on a 'war footing' to beat the virus. With all states having opened eligibility to the public or at least having announced when they plan to do so, Biden announced that every adult in the country will be eligible to be vaccinated by April 19, instead of his original deadline of May 1. Speaking at the White House after visiting a vaccination center in Alexandria, Virginia, Biden said that 150 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine have been administered within his first 75 days in office, in line with a stated goal of 200 million shots by his 100th day in office." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Number One Observatory Circle is finally ready for its newest resident. After months spent living in temporary quarters at Blair House, Vice President Kamala Harris moved into her 33-room official residence on Tuesday evening following the completion of renovations, an administration official said."

At Tuesday's White House Press Briefing

Peter Doocy of Fox "News": Is the White House concerned that Major League Baseball is moving their All-Star Game to Colorado, where voting regulations are very similar to Georgia?

Jen Psaki, Press Secretary: ... Colorado allows you to register on election day. Colorado has voting by mail, where they send to a 100% of people in the state who are eligible applications to vote by mail. Ninety-four percent of people in Colorado voted by mail in the 2020 election. They also allow for a range of materials to provide for the limited number of people who vote on election day. I think it's important to remember the context here of the Georgia legislation is built on a lie. There was no widespread fraud in the 2020 election.... What there was, however, was record-setting turnout, especially by voters of color.... What we're seeing here for politicians who didn't like the outcome, they're not changing their policies to win more votes, they're changing the rules to exclude more voters. And we certainly see the circumstances as different.

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 get 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "U.S. and Iranian officials said Tuesday an initial day of talks in Vienna on returning to the 2015 nuclear deal were 'constructive,' but the Biden administration cautioned that no immediate breakthroughs were anticipated on one of the new president's top foreign policy goals."

Shut Up & Give Me All Your Money. So my warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics. It's not what you're designed for. And don't be intimidated by the left into taking up causes that put you right in the middle of one of America's greatest political debates. I'm not talking about political contributions.... I support that. -- Mitch McConnell, at a news conference Tuesday

Give that man points for being unambiguously corrupt. -- Marie Burns

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "In the final weeks of Mr. Trump's term, [Rep. Matt] Gaetz [R-Fla.] ... privately asked the White House for blanket pre-emptive pardons for himself and unidentified congressional allies for any crimes they may have committed, according to two people.... Around that time, Mr. Gaetz was also publicly calling for broad pardons from Mr. Trump to thwart what he termed the 'bloodlust' of their political opponents. But Justice Department investigators had begun questioning Mr. Gaetz's associates about his conduct.... Mr. Gaetz did not tell White House aides that he was under investigation for potential sex trafficking violations when he made the request. But top White House lawyers and officials viewed the request for a pre-emptive pardon as a nonstarter.... In recent days, some Trump associates have speculated that Mr. Gaetz's request for a group pardon was an attempt to camouflage his own potential criminal exposure." ~~~

~~~ Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: "When Florida legislators passed a bill aimed at preventing people from sharing sexually explicit photos of their ex-partners online, then-state Rep. Matt Gaetz cast one of just two House votes against it. Six years later, with the now-congressman accused of ... sharing photographs of nude women with fellow lawmakers, the sponsor of the Florida legislation says Gaetz opposed it because he believed recipients of such images could use them however they wanted. Tom Goodson, a Republican who retired from the Florida state House in 2018, told the Orlando Sentinel on Monday that Gaetz was the leading opponent of the nonconsensual pornography bill he spent years trying to pass. He described a meeting in which Gaetz said that if a person gives an intimate photo to a romantic partner, the image becomes the property of the recipient." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There are many ethical & legal questions surrounding Gaetz's, uh, world view. Here's one: if a nude picture of a person surfaces, who took the picture? Obviously, the photo could be a selfie, it could have been taken by some third party, OR it could have been taken by the person who is in possession of the photo. So, Matt, if I take a photo of you, with or without your knowledge -- say, one where you're snorting coke & jerking off simultaneously -- does that photo belong to me to do with what I want? ~~~

~~~ Gabby Orr, et al., of Politico: As Matt Gaetz's "political career skids toward disaster amid allegations that he had sex with a minor and paid for sex with women of legal age, neither Trump nor anyone in the ex-president's orbit is rushing to Gaetz's defense. A group that often instinctively decries any such charge as part of some nefarious, coordinated witch hunt from deep-state operators has, instead, said virtually nothing at all.... Operatives inside Trump World say the silence is owed to a variety of factors. Among them is the fact that Gaetz has aways been regarded as a grenade whose pin had already been pulled.... Some of Gaetz's own aides would regularly send embarrassing videos of their boss to other GOP operatives, according to two people familiar with the videos." ~~~

~~~ AND Finally. Keep Your Shirts on, Ladies. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: Matt Gaetz will be the keynote speaker "at a conservative women's group's conference at ... Donald Trump's Miami golf course. Women for America First, a nonprofit organization of Trump loyalists, orchestrated and publicized a rally on Jan. 6 before the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, and also led bus tours nationwide spreading unfounded claims of election fraud. 'We know firsthand what it is like to be treated unfairly by the main stream media,' Amy Kremer, the group's chairwoman, said in a statement to The Washington Post that defended Gaetz as 'innocent until proven guilty.'"

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. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ 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.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

"Selfie-Sabotage." What Pape Doesn't Mention: These White Men Are Dumb as Dirt. Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: Numerous insurrectionists "helped document the prosecution's case [against them].... The government is ... reviewing records from 1,600 electronic devices and more than 210,000 tips, 'of which a substantial portion include video, photo and social media,' the Justice Department said. Many of the tips came from independent and amateur investigators combing through gigabytes of material from social media. On one Facebook page, a man posted a selfie with the caption, 'I just wanted to incriminate myself a little lol.'"

Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "Representative Alcee Hastings, a former federal judge who, despite being impeached and removed from the bench, was elected to Congress, where he championed civil rights and rose to become dean of the Florida delegation, died on Tuesday. He was 84."

"Not with a Wow, But a Whisper." Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "For about half an hour Tuesday, a former president of the United States appeared on television to offer his unfiltered assessment of the state of American politics, of foreign policy and of the various controversies flitting around the political world. You probably missed it, because it was Donald Trump offering the same pudding of rhetoric we've heard so often to an anchor on the far-right network Newsmax.... There's still an audience for this, of course.... His Google search interest was lower than at any point since June 2015, as was the amount of time he was seen on cable."

Former Trumpy Wedding Planner Cops to Hatch Act Violation. Matthew Haag of the New York Times: A video that aired on the final night of last year's Republican convention featured a two-minute clip of four New York City public housing tenants praising ... Donald J. Trump's record.... But within hours of the broadcast, three of the tenants said they were tricked into appearing in the video, did not support Mr. Trump and accused a top federal housing official, Lynne Patton, of orchestrating the production and misleading them.... A federal agency on Tuesday found that Ms. Patton had violated ... the Hatch Act that bars most federal employees from using their government position to engage in political activities. Ms. Patton admitted to the violation, the agency said, and agreed ... to pay a $1,000 fine and not to serve in the federal government for at least four years. She left her job at the Department of Housing and Urban Development at the end of Mr. Trump's term in January." The AP's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Patton is perhaps best known for her extensive preparation for her job at HUD by serving as Eric & Lara Trump's wedding planner. In her own defense, Patton lied about the tenants she victimized and blamed lawyers & federal employees for giving her bad legal advice. Given that, she should be good to get a job planning Junior & Mizz Loudmouth's nuptials.

The Justice Opines. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Tuesday that proposals to expand the Supreme Court to dilute the power of its conservative majority risk making justices appear more political and could hurt the court's influence with the public. Breyer, one of the court's three liberals, defended the court's independence by pointing to its decision to resist ... Donald Trump's attempts to draw the court into lawsuits that sought to overturn Trump's defeat in November. In remarks prepared for a speech at Harvard Law School, Breyer wrote that the court's authority depends on 'a trust that the court is guided by legal principle, not politics.'... Breyer, 82..., is under considerable pressure to retire now, while ... Joe Biden is in the White House and Democrats hold a narrow control of the Senate."

When Is a Luxury Lot a Necessity? Jake Bleiberg of the AP: "After school shootings that left dozens dead in recent years, National Rifle Association leader Wayne LaPierre said the resulting outrage put him in such danger that he sought shelter aboard a borrowed 108-foot (32.92-meter) yacht. During a deposition, the head of the powerful gun-rights group's acknowledged sailing in the Bahamas with his family as a 'security retreat' in the summers following a 2012 school shooting in Connecticut and a 2018 massacre in Florida.... The testimony emerged in a federal bankruptcy trial over whether the NRA should be allowed to incorporate in Texas instead of New York, where a state lawsuit is trying to put it out of business.... [State] allegations include that LaPierre repeatedly sailed in the Bahamas on the yacht of Hollywood producer Stanton McKenzie, whose company has done business with the NRA, but did not mention the trips on financial disclosures.... In the deposition, LaPierre said he did not pay to use McKenzie's yacht, which came with a cook, a motor boat and a pair of Sea-Doo personal watercraft." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of Wayne's purchases -- on the NRA's dime -- was a pair of swim trunks, price: $290. Now we understand why the purchase was perfectly reasonable: Wayne needed $290 trunks for his own personal safety.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. "Nearly 80 percent of school staff and child care workers in the United States have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The announcement comes as the Biden administration has made an ambitious push to reopen schools and return to in-person instruction by the president's 100th day in office. That goal has been tempered by dangerous virus variants, protests from teachers' unions, and the fears and frustrations of students and parents." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here: "Amnesty International warned in its annual report Wednesday that the coronavirus pandemic has had a severe impact on the human rights of millions of people around the globe. The virus has exposed and entrenched widespread inequalities, collapsed health and welfare systems, worsened the conditions of already marginalized groups and facilitated crackdowns on dissent, according to the London-based organization."

Erin Banco & Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Senior officials in the Trump and Biden administrations knew of oversight and quality assurance problems at Emergent BioSolutions' Baltimore plant months before the company accidentally contaminated 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine [in February 2021], according to two people.... Officials with the Trump administration's vaccine program, Operation Warp Speed, and the Department of Health and Human Services were sent a report in June 2020 on Emergent's inner workings. Written by a government official, the document concluded that the company's plan for manufacturing urgently needed Covid-19 vaccines was inadequate. Emergent's problems hiring and retaining skilled workers meant that it could not guarantee success in producing the shots, said the two people, who read the report and described it to Politico. The report was shared with senior Trump officials, including Gen. Gustave Perna, Operation Warp Speed's chief operating officer, who still serves in that role for the Biden administration; Moncef Slaoui, then Warp Speed's vaccine lead; and Robert Kadlec, HHS assistant secretary for preparedness and response under Trump. Officials from the Trump administration later gave the report, along with other key Operation Warp Speed documents, to the Biden team during the transition."

Sheryl Stolberg & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Around the country, businesses, schools and politicians are considering 'vaccine passports' -- digital proof of vaccination against the coronavirus -- as a path to reviving the economy and getting Americans back to work and play. Businesses especially fear that too many customers will stay away unless they can be assured that the other patrons have been inoculated.... Legal experts say [these passports are likely lawful]..., though in a society so divided, politicians are already girding for a fight.... The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has told employers that they can mandate coronavirus vaccination because public health comes first.... The White House is clearly skittish. 'The government is not now nor will we be supporting a system that requires Americans to carry a credential,' Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said on Tuesday.... ~~~

~~~ [MEANWHILE] "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Friday signed an executive order barring businesses from requiring patrons or customers to show vaccine documentation, under penalty of losing state contracts. Mississippi's Republican governor, Tate Reeves, said on Sunday that he too opposed the idea." ~~~

~~~ AND in Texas. AP: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott [R] used his executive power Tuesday to ban state government and some private entities from requiring COVID-19 'vaccine passports' to access services, in the latest move from a Republican governor pitting public health campaigns against personal freedom and private choices. According to Abbott's order, state agencies and political subdivisions, and public and private organizations that receive public funding in Texas cannot require people to prove that they have been inoculated against the coronavirus." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. MB: Ken was wondering if Abbott & DeSantis, et al., could be charged with murder. Well, premeditated murder for sure, I'd say.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Meredith Deliso of ABC News: "The Arkansas state legislature voted Tuesday to override a veto by Gov. Asa Hutchinson on a bill that would ban gender-affirming treatments for transgender youths in the state. The House voted 71-24, and the Senate 25-8, to override the governor's veto a day after it was announced." MB: I sure hope the law is challenged & turns out to be unconstitutional. This is just cruel.

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "An officer who trained Derek Chauvin on techniques he could use to subdue suspects testified Tuesday that the neck restraint he used on George Floyd was not authorized because Floyd was already handcuffed and under control. Lt. Johnny Mercil, who oversees the Minneapolis department's training on use of force and other defensive tactics, said that at the time of Floyd's death on May 25, officers were prmitted to restrain suspects by applying pressure to the side of a person's neck to gain compliance, but only if they were actively resisting and if other techniques had not worked."

New York. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The lobby staff members who >closed the door to a Manhattan apartment building last week without taking immediate action after a Filipino-American woman was brutally attacked on the street outside have been fired, the building's owners told residents in an email on Tuesday. Rick Mason, the executive director of management at the Brodsky Organization, which owns the luxury apartment building in Midtown, told residents of all the organization's buildings in an email that two staff members who were inside the building lobby at the time had not followed 'required emergency and safety protocols.'" A Law & Crime story is here.

Comments

[Linda from Denver]

While I would have been happy to have seen the All Star Game moved to D.C., I'm gratified that the event's move to Denver gives another news boost to Colorado's amazing, inclusive voting system. It really works well. I wish it for all. Fortunately some local confederate attacks won't go anywhere as we're a lovely Blue Trifecta, finally!

[Akhilleus]

Consistency?

So the Evil Treasonous Turtle sez corporations better stay out of politics. “Leave that to professional grifters, like me!”

Whatever happened to “Corporations are people”? The idea that corporations should be treated like average citizens with the same rights, including freedom of speech, not limited to forking over piles of cash to support stuff like treason. I guess that only works when they’re on the side of the traitors, no matter what.

And this business about leaving politics to those “built for it”? Sounds like ETT is advocating for professional pols, like him. Remember when confederates were all for term limits? The idea that politicians should be like Cincinnatus, put down their plows, go serve the country them head back to the farm? Oh yeah, those “ideals” were trumpeted by R’s 30 years ago, many of whom are still in Congress, professional grifters now. Fuck that back to the plow shit.

McConnell, like so many of the traitors these days, is just saying the quiet part out loud. “We win, no matter what. We decide who can vote and who can say something about it.”

But CEOs are realizing that there’s more money to be had by not looking like racist pigs. And money is where it’s at. They were fine with racism and bigotry when it didn’t hurt them, besides keeping uppity blacks and icky gays in their place, but things are changing.

As for being consistent in one’s beliefs, well, Republicans never did care for anything but power and money, or anybody but themselves, so I guess there’s a certain amount of consistency there.

[Ken Winkes]

Tough morning. Had to give up on a few of my opinions after reading this.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/breaking-claims-georgias-election-law-true/story?id=76897349

Seems everything I had heard about the new Georgia voting law wasn't true. Not that it welcomes voters with open arms....

....and not as bad as I thought isn't at all the same as good.

[Ken Winkes]

As stupid as I believe Abbott and DeSantis to be, I am glad I don't have to sort out this Covid vaccination passport thing.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/06/us/politics/vaccine-passports-coronavirus.html?

Suspect we'll be well on to the next pandemic long before the courts do..

[citizen625]

Jen Psaki, Press Secretary. The previous spokeschild/spokeschildren - not so much Press Secretary material. I'd like to hear her go head to head with the anti-voting rights Texans and Georgians.

[Marie Burns]

@Linda in Denver: Thanks for weighing in. I also heard someone say on the teevee that they had looked for pictures of long lines of Coloradoans waiting to vote, but they couldn't find any pictures -- because there aren't any long voting lines in Colorado.

[PD Pepe]

Thomas Patterson, a political scientist at Harvard, argued in his book, "Is the Republican Party Destroying itself?", that over time
the Party has set a series of "traps" for itself that have eroded its "ability to govern and acquire new sources of support." He reminds us that the modern R.P. was built upon the Southern beachhead that Goldwater established more than half a century ago. We all know the old story about Johnson losing the southern democrats because of his Civil rights bills, about Nixon picking up the pieces by stoking the white man's grievances so that by the 1980's the G.OP. had become throughly dependent on the white South. Now––as before–- the South remains the nation's most racially polarized region and also the most religious–-two factors that figure in the Party's political culture and in its current problems. The South, Patterson writes, is a key reason why the GOP's future is at risk.

Here's the deal: In addition to the GOP's steady drift from conservative to reactionary, crazy nuts politics, we have its dependance on older whites, right wing media, support for tax cuts for fat cats, and–––its increasing distain for democratic institutions and norms. But what we are seeing is that thing called CHANGE and it looks like time is running out for their base. Mitch tries like hell to stitch back the loose threads and looks pathetic trying.

"It [the GOP party] cannot reinvent itself without risking their support and, in a convincing enough way for a quick turnaround. Republicans have traded the party's future for yesterday's America." TP

Got a kick out of this sentence:
"After months spent living in temporary quarters at Blair House, Vice President Kamala Harris moved into her 33-room official residence on Tuesday evening following the completion of renovations, an administration official said."

Such hardship! I bet my buffalo nickel that millions would give their back molars to live in Blair House for even a fortnight and remember the experience as one of the highlights of their life.

[PD Pepe]

When I was a young girl I saw the film, "Fiesta" with Esther Williams ( with whom I was smitten because I wanted to swim just like Esther) and Ricardo Montalban. It was all about bull fighting and I remember being quite taken with the whole process but don't recall if I felt the horror of the killing of the bull. But last night on the Ken Burn's continuation of "Hemingway" they featured a lengthy bull fight––a Spanish tradition we were told. I watched the killing of the bull––not the sport that is lauded as even-steven–-if a matador is in trouble, other matadors rally round–-as was the case in this film––the bull doesn't stand a chance. And I watched the crowd transfixed, rooting, of course, for the matador. It's a blood sport. Hemingway spent a good part of his life shooting and fishing wild life––for sport–-and I wondered how he would take to the desperate need in this country for gun control but he used one of those guns to do himself in ––in the end, so...

[Akhilleus]

Citizen,

I second your comment about Jen Psaki. It’s not that she’s the greatest PS ever (although she’s off to a good start), but that she IS a press secretary. A professional who takes her job seriously, but not to the point where she can’t have a little fun with the whiny baby mewlings from those on the right who have gotten too used to unearned approbation and respect far beyond what their sycophantic incompetence and fascistic hyper-partisanship deserve.

We have had four years of antagonistic pot shots and outright lies from fallacious flibbertigibbets and malicious maunderers, when they deigned to speak at all. It’s not too much to say, even after a couple of months, how refreshing it is to have serious, competent, honest adults at work for the betterment of all, not just for the few, the white supremacists, and the traitors.

[Akhilleus]

One other stray thought about the ETT’s finger wagging admonition to America’s CEOs to sit down and shut up (but to keep the money coming, if you know what’s good for you).

You don’t get to be CEO of a major corporation worth tens or hundreds of millions by being retiring wallflower. These people have big egos and, with the exception of $290 Swim trunk boy, the Pillow Guy, and other Kool-Aid mainliners, they might take umbrage at a weasel like McConnell, who, they may believe, has never worked a day in his life, never built or invented anything, and doesn’t even have to work to get re-elected, giving them orders.

Some of them might decide to tell him to take a big fat suck pill and to shove his orders up his turtley ass.

[unwashed]

If I was still flying like I used to this would be a happy day. Gate 35X at Washington National is no longer.

I've gone through it hundreds of times and can attest that it was as bad as the article describes. I hated it. The only thing not mentioned is the Gate Nazi that was at the top of the stairs telling people, in bad English, that they couldn't go down to the lower waiting room unless your plane/destination was called. Mine always was.

The only good thing about it was that the AA Admirals Club was just down the hall.

[NiskyGuy]

I interpret LaPierre's "security retreat" as an admission that a "good guy with a gun" won't keep you safe.

Or maybe he's just saying that he's not a good guy (which we already knew).

[RAS]

Another thing about Mitch's threats to the CEOs is that with the Right's perpetual grievance machine it is hard to have any sustained boycott on any of these companies. Most of the wingers are so self that denying themselves a product that they usually buy is too much effort to continue for any amount of time. On the other hand the people actually having something taken away, such as voting rights, have more motivation to make an effort to continue avoiding those who helped with the theft. Goya or Chick-fil-a may get a temporary boost from the wingers, but at the cost of potential life long customers.

[Jeanne]

Well, Arkansas went the way it was said it would yesterday...Asa looks like he cares about trans kids while he knows they have the votes to override. Which they promptly did. Never forget: cruelty IS the reason, not a side effect. Pigs all. (Not to be mean to pigs...) And I too marvel at the sheer nerve of the head satanic GQP person, chinless gravel-breathed Moscow Mitch-- he thinks we don't know how terrible he truly is. He says stupid stuff for the fun of it and thinks we don't get it. We get it, all right. I have transferred almost all of my hatred for the OrangaTan to Mitch-baby. He is still in a position to be almost as powerful as he was. Sparing some hatred for Manchin and Mean Girl Sinema, she of the little knee dip and the short skirt. Greene Meanie Marge is not worth hating-- she is just like the crowds of trumpies at the rallies: stupid and ignorant and mean and forgettable. Like your average middle school bully. With a gun.

[Marie Burns]

@NiskyGuy: As Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, asked, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good friend with a yacht?"

[RAS]

The Trump Fundraising Scams Continue with the NRCC
"Last week the New York Times dropped a bombshell report detailing the extent to which the Trump campaign had scammed its own supporters into providing them a nine-figure, interest-free loan. The crux of the grift was the Trump campaign’s deceptive email practices which, among other things, chose to make recurring donations the default setting for supporters who were lured in by the campaign’s hyperbolic and conspiratorial fundraising pitches.
Altogether the Trump campaign had to refund $122 million in online donations from their own supporters who had been duped.
The NRCC was admirably undeterred by this revelation.
they threaten to tell Trump that the reader is a “DEFECTOR” if they uncheck the box for recurring donations."

[Ken Winkes]

More perspective on the Kentucky voting rights bill.

(Or, don't get too excited.)

From the Times article:

""Indeed, even with its newly expanded voting access, Kentucky’s voting rules remain comparatively stricter than those of Georgia…"