The Commentariat -- August 19, 2021

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Afternoon Update:

Dana Hedgpeth, et al., of the Washington Post: "A man who claimed to have a bomb with him in a pickup truck near the Library of Congress surrendered to authorities Thursday afternoon, ending an hours-long standoff in the heart of the nation's capitol. U.S. Capitol Police said in a Twitter message that they were checking a suspicious vehicle near the Library of Congress. The Cannon, Jefferson and Madison office buildings have been evacuated. Police said there is a possible explosive device in the pickup truck, though no explosives have been found at this point.... Two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation identified the man as Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina." Roseberry, who was live-streaming on Facebook from his truck, said there were other vehicles in the area that were set to explode, too. He was demanding to speak to President Biden & talked about a revolution. MB: According to MSNBC, Roseberry demanded that Biden resign. Nicole Wallace of MSNBC pointed out that Roseberry's threats & actions were consistent with the nature of Homeland Security's recent warnings of domestic terrorism threats. ~~~

~~~ Emily Cochrane & Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The United States Capitol Police were negotiating with a man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress on Thursday, prompting evacuations from government buildings in the area. The man drove a black pickup onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress at about 9:15 Thursday morning.... The man, whom officials identified as a North Carolina resident, was making anti-government statements, according to a law enforcement official." Update: "... A spokesman for Facebook confirmed that the company had taken down the man's profile from the site and Instagram, and removed a post with a video broadcast from the truck. The company said it would also remove any posts supporting or praising the man." A CNN report is here.

New York Times: "The United States Capitol Police were negotiating with a man who claimed to have a bomb in a pickup truck outside the Library of Congress on Thursday, prompting evacuations from government buildings in the area. The man drove a black pickup onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress at about 9:15 Thursday morning.... The man, whom officials identified as a North Carolina resident, was making anti-government statements, according to a law enforcement official." A CNN report is here.

Here's the full transcript of George Stephanopoulos' interview of President Biden, at least part of which aired on ABC evening news Wednesday night.

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday refiled a bolstered version of its antitrust case against Facebook. In the complaint, the agency argues that Facebook holds monopoly power in personal social networking, with no other competitor coming close.... The refiling is the FTC's attempt to course correct after it suffered a stunning setback earlier this summer, when a federal judge threw out its suit against the tech giant, along with a similar case from state attorneys general. The Facebook case is the most high-profile challenge that the agency has brought against a tech company in decades, and it's widely being watched as a bellwether of the growing movement in Washington to curb concentration in the tech industry."

This. Could. Not. Be. More. Idiotic. Dan Goldberg of Politico: "Republican governors in some of the states hardest hit by the pandemic are pushing expensive Covid cocktails over cheap masks. The governors in Florida, Missouri and Texas are promising millions of dollars in antibody treatments for infected people even as they oppose vaccine and mask mandates, saying they can potentially keep people with mild Covid symptoms out of hospitals that are being swamped by new cases. But the treatments and cost of providing them are thousands of dollars more than preventive vaccines, and tricky to administer because they work best early in the course of an infection. The push to medicate rankles public health officials and some within the Biden administration, who say the governors' stance misleadingly implies Covid-19 can be treated easily, like the common cold. They note treatments like Regeneron's antibody cocktail -- which was administered to ... Donald Trump during his bout with the disease -- are essential but part of a limited arsenal to keep patients from being hospitalized or dying, not a game-changer that could help end the pandemic."

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "When Lauren Boebert, the pistol-packing Republican firebrand, was running for Congress last year, she traced her income to Shooters Grill, a restaurant she and her husband own in Rifle, Colo. She suggested her husband did some consulting, listing 'Boebert Consulting -- spouse' on her candidate form, but identified his income source as 'N/A.' Only now, with Boebert not just in Congress but on the House Natural Resources Committee, has she revealed that her husband made $478,000 last year working as a consultant for an energy firm. He made $460,000 the year before, she disclosed in a filing Tuesday with the House of Representatives. Her husband, Jayson Boebert, earned that income as a consultant for Terra Energy Productions, according to the filing.... Federal law requires members of Congress, as well as candidates, to file financial disclosure statements that include the income and assets of spouses and dependent children... Kedric Payne..., a former deputy chief counsel in the Office of Congressional Ethics..., said the matter should be reviewed by the Office of Congressional Ethics.... An intentional failure 'could be criminal,' he said, with the potential to result in 'large fines and possible imprisonment.'"

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The New York Times' live updates of developments in Afghanistan Thursday are here: "As the Taliban celebrated the anniversary of the nation's independence from Britain more than a century ago, they reaffirmed an 'Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan' on Thursday, even as tens of thousands sought flee the country.... The mammoth evacuation effort gathered pace, with Afghan refugees and international repatriates landing in Europe, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.... The road to the airport has been particularly dangerous, with Taliban patrolling checkpoints.... The Pentagon, which has deployed 5,000 U.S. troops to secure the airport, said that it had asked the Taliban to allow safe passage for American citizens, but that it did not have the ability to go out and fetch people from Kabul or other cities.... A Spanish military plane landed before dawn at Torrejon air base outside Madrid, one of three aircraft that the Spanish defense ministry has sent to evacuate citizens and Afghans who worked with the Spanish government, along with their families." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of Afghanistan developments Thursday are here: "Waheedullah Hashimi, a high-ranking Taliban commander, told Reuters that [Afghanistan] would probably be governed by a council under sharia law. The movement's supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, is likely to remain in charge, above the head of the council, whose role he likened to a president. 'There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,' Hashimi said. 'We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it.' The Taliban has a particularly strict interpretation of sharia law. It has said that women's rights will be respected under the framework of the religious code and Hashimi told Reuters issues like what women can wear will be determined by a council of Islamic scholars."

Sarah Kolinovsky of ABC News: "In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, and the president's first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, President Joe Biden stood firm in his defense of the United States' withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes the chaos was unavoidable." ~~~

~~~ Molly Nagle of ABC News: "In an ... interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is committed to getting every American out of Afghanistan -- even if it means potentially extending the mission beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal.... Biden told ABC News that in addition to the 10,000 to 15,000 Americans who need to be evacuated, there are between 50,000 and 65,000 Afghans and their families the U.S. also wants to get out." ~~~

~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "As President Biden last month defended his decision to end the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, he delivered a promise as old as the war itself to the Afghans who had risked their lives to assist American troops. 'Our message to those women and men is clear: There is a home for you in the United States, if you so choose,' the president said. 'We will stand with you, just as you stood with us.' But his decision not to begin a mass evacuation of Afghan interpreters, guides and their relatives earlier this year has left thousands of people in limbo, stranded in a country now controlled by the Taliban after 20 years of war. Even before Mr. Biden announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops, his administration rejected frantic calls from lawmakers and activists to evacuate Afghans, who now find themselves in jeopardy.... Mr. Biden instead took steps to streamline a visa system plagued with backlogs, even though it was never intended for the mass transfer of people in a short amount of time. And in the United States, some officials were expressing concerns about potential political blowback over an influx of refugees." ~~~

~~~ ** Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration moved slowly for months to address the plight of vulnerable Afghans who had worked for the United States even as a deadline for U.S. military withdrawal loomed, refugee advocates said -- a lull some blamed on White House concern that the influx would invite partisan political backlash amid a rush of migrants at the southern border. Afghans who served as interpreters, fixers and other staff for the U.S. military and diplomats over the nearly 20-year U.S. military mission were among thousands evacuated in recent days, following the stunning collapse of the U.S.-backed government. Getting thousands more out of the country is a top priority now ahead of an Aug. 31 deadline to exit, the nation's top military officials said Wednesday. 'We have a moral obligation to help those who helped us, and I feel the urgency deeply,' Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said at the Pentagon.... But the administration showed little public urgency to expedite visas for Afghans in the months before and immediately after Biden's announcement in April that the United States would pull U.S. forces out." Read on.

digby points out that the U.S. & allies have nearly $10 billion in chips to play against the Taliban inasmuch as the West, particularly the U.S., is holding Taliban assets in that amount.

THIS. Intel Agencies Did Not Tell Biden Collapse Was Imminent. Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Intelligence reports presented to President Biden in the final days before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan this past week failed to predict the imminence of the Afghan government's collapse, even after their earlier warnings had grown increasingly grim, senior intelligence and defense officials said on Wednesday. The intelligence agencies had been stepping up their warnings about the deteriorating conditions in Afghanistan throughout the summer. Their reports grew more specific in July, noting how the Taliban had taken control of roads leading to Kabul and how the group had learned lessons from its takeover of the country in the 1990s. But senior administration officials acknowledged that as the pace of White House meetings on Afghanistan grew more frenzied in August and in the days leading up to the Taliban takeover this weekend, the intelligence agencies did not say the collapse was imminent. 'As the president indicated, this unfolded more quickly than we anticipated, including in the intelligence community,' Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement to The New York Times." ~~~

~~~ AND THIS. Julian Borger, et al., of the Guardian: "Both the Trump and Biden administrations were warned by US intelligence that the Afghan army's resistance to the Taliban could collapse 'within days' after an over-hasty withdrawal, according to a former CIA counter-terrorism chief.... On Wednesday, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley told reporters: 'There was nothing that I or anyone else saw that indicated a collapse of this army or this government in 11 days.' Speaking to the nation on Monday, Biden said: 'The truth is: This did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.' Douglas London, the CIA's former counter-terrorism chief for south and south-west Asia, said the president was being 'misleading at best.... The CIA anticipated it as a possible scenario,' London said. London left his post in 2019 but served as a volunteer adviser to the Biden campaign. In a detailed account on the Just Security website on Wednesday, he described intelligence briefings to the Trump and Biden teams which gave different estimates of how long Ghani and the Afghan forces could endure a Taliban offensive, depending on the speed and depth of the US retreat." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Both can be true; that is, imminent collapse was one of several possibilities presented. IMO, the government's biggest failure was not rushing the paperwork to clear U.S. assets & their families for emigration in the months before the collapse. While it might have been a mistake to actually put these people on planes, it would have shown reasonable foresight to hand them the documentation they needed to beat a hasty exit. And, for Pete's sake, why not keep Bagram Airfield open for U.S. & allied flights?

Yuliya Talmazan & Mushtaq Yusufzai of NBC News: "Images of the Taliban cracking down on a protest and bloodied women and children beaten by fighters are contradicting the more moderate image the militant group has been trying to project as it tries to consolidate power in Afghanistan. Less than 24 hours after the Taliban spokesperson delivered security guarantees during a press conference in Kabul, the militants on Wednesday tried to stop locals from installing Afghanistan's national black, red and green flag in the eastern city of Jalalabad, according to local resident Anwar Khan. A former police official told Reuters four people had been killed in the protest and 13 injured. Afghanistan's Pajhwok news agency shared video of what it said was the incident, showing crowds running as gunfire was heard. NBC News was not able to verify the footage." MB: The idea that Taliban leadership has control over its far-flung soldiers is rather fanciful. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Henry Austin of NBC News: "Ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has been 'welcomed' into the United Arab Emirates on 'humanitarian grounds,' the country's foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday. Ghani fled Afghanistan as the Taliban approached Kabul, the capital, on Sunday, less than 24 hours after he tried to rally his people in a televised address in which he pledged not to give up the 'achievements' of the 20 years since the U.S. toppled the Taliban." (Also linked yesterday.)

Just Kidding! Patrick Tucker of Defense One: "... Donald Trump's top national security officials never intended to pull all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, according to new statements by Chris Miller, Trump's last acting defense secretary. Miller said the president's public promise to finish withdrawing U.S. forces by May 1, as negotiated with the Taliban, was actually a 'play' that masked the Trump administration's true intentions: to convince Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to quit or accept a bitter power-sharing agreement with the Taliban, and to keep some U.S. troops in Afghanistan for counterrorism missions.... The new [Trump-engineered Afghan] government would then permit U.S. forces to remain in country to support the Afghan military and fight terrorist elements. That plan never happened, in part because Trump lost his reelection bid.... And at least one other former senior Trump administration official questioned Miller's retelling. But in revealing it, Miller challenged recent assertions that Trump is to blame for setting up this week's chaotic scenes unfolding across Kabul."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it is banning a common pesticide, widely used since 1965 on fruits and vegetables, from use on food crops because it has been linked to neurological damage in children. The Environmental Protection Agency said this week it would publish a regulation to block the use of chlorpyrifos on food. One of the most widely used pesticides, chlorpyrifos is commonly applied to corn, soybeans, apples, broccoli, asparagus and other produce. The new rule, which will take effect in six months, follows an order in April by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that directed the E.P.A. to halt the agricultural use of the chemical unless it could demonstrate its safety.... The Obama administration began the process of revoking all uses of the pesticide in 2015 but, in 2020, the Trump administration ignored the recommendations of E.P.A. scientists and kept chlorpyrifos on the market. That set off a wave of legal challenges. Those challenges concluded with the court order in April...."

Vance Charges Friend of Jared. Jonah Bromwich & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "Seven months after being pardoned by ... Donald J. Trump, a onetime editor of The New York Observer faces new charges of unlawfully spying on his former wife by secretly gaining access to her computer. The editor, Ken Kurson, a close friend of Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was charged in state criminal court in Manhattan on Wednesday with eavesdropping and computer trespass, both felonies. Prosecutors accuse Mr. Kurson of using spyware to breach his wife's computer in 2015 as the couple's marriage fell apart. Each crime is punishable by up to four years in prison. 'We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York,' the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said in a statement announcing the charges." The AP's report is here.

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday threw out the permits for a controversial oil project planned for Alaska's North Slope, faulting the way the federal government had assessed its environmental impact, including how it might harm polar bears. ConocoPhillips's Willow project had been backed by both the Trump and Bide administrations, despite a host of concerns environmentalists and others raised about how the large operation might impact wildlife and the Indigenous communities. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason -- an Obama appointee -- wrote in her ruling that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service incorrectly approved the project because it failed to adequately analyze its climate impact and other possible development plans, and didn't specify how polar bears would be protected." Politico's story is here.

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Deep into the third hour of testimony in federal bankruptcy court by Dr. Richard Sackler, a former president and co-chairman of the board of directors of Purdue Pharma," Sackler testified that he, his family & Purdue Pharmacy had no responsibility for the opioid crisis in the U.S. During testimony, Sackler "was evasive and defiant."

Marie's Sports Report. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "Jack Morris, the Detroit Tigers Hall of Fame pitcher-turned-TV analyst for Tigers games, was suspended indefinitely Wednesday by Bally Sports Detroit after using an accent often used to mock Asian people as Shohei Ohtani came to bat in [the sixth inning of] Tuesday night's game.... In the ninth inning, Morris said..., '... it's been brought to my attention, and I sincerely apologize if I offended anybody, especially anybody in the Asian community for what I said....' Reaction to Morris's remark was swift Tuesday night.... ESPN's Joon Lee tweeted, 'It's impossible for Jack Morris to play something like this off as "sorry if you were offended" when there's not any purpose in doing this accent other than to make a caricature of AAPI people.'"~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm not proud of the fact that in 1953, after watching a Saturday morning kids' movie program that included a B-movie about Pacific Theater WWII battles, we neighborhood kids ran around playing "Japs & G.I.s." But -- unlike Morris -- I'm not still living in 1953.

When Stars Collide -- on the Vineyard. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: Larry David & Alan Dershowitz got into a disagreement "on the porch of the Chilmark General Store [on Martha's Vineyard], according to a 'spy' for the New York Post. During the exchange, Dershowitz is reported to have said, 'We can still talk, Larry.' 'No,' said David. 'No. We really can't. I saw you. I saw you with your arm around [Trump's former Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo! It's disgusting!' Dershowitz told David that Pompeo was a student of his at Harvard Law School. 'I can't greet my former students?'... Dershowitz confirmed the encounter to the Post. He said he had been friends with David until he entered the Trump orbit." If only Larry were as brilliant & well-informed as Alan is! -- "'Larry is a knee-jerk radical,' Dershowitz told the Post, 'He takes his politics from Hollywood. He doesn't read a lot. He doesn't think a lot.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Some schools in the Sun Belt are defying Republican governors by finding ways to mandate masks as cases in the region surge, while Democrats including President Biden lean into vaccination requirements for public institutions. In Texas, a school system has made masks a part of its dress code for the academic year, hoping to exploit a possible loophole in a statewide ban by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), who currently has covid-19, on face coverings. And in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has ordered schools not to require masks, Miami-Dade County's school board defied the governor on Wednesday by voting to enact a mask mandate when classes resume next week. In Washington state -- in a sweeping mandate that is one of the strictest for U.S. educators -- all public, private and charter school employees will need to be vaccinated before Oct. 18 as a condition of employment, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) announced Wednesday."

Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "The Biden administration moved on multiple fronts on Wednesday to fight back against the surging Delta variant, strongly recommending booster shots for most vaccinated American adults and using federal leverage to force nursing homes to vaccinate their staffs. In remarks from the East Room of the White House, President Biden also directed his education secretary to 'use all of his authority, and legal action if appropriate,' to deter states from banning universal masking in classrooms. That move is destined to escalate a fight with some Republican governors who are blocking local school districts from requiring masks to protect against the virus.... Wednesday..., [Biden] said his administration would make employee vaccination a condition for nursing homes to receive Medicare and Medicaid funding.... The shifts in strategy reflect the administration's growing concern that the highly contagious Delta variant is erasing its hard-fought progress against the pandemic and thrusting the nation back to the more precarious point it was at earlier in the year." ~~~

~~~ Biden, Cardona Signal Mask Bans Violate Civil Rights Laws. Bianca Quilantan of Politico: "President Joe Biden is directing the Education Department to 'use all available tools' to combat Republican governors whose state policies prohibit Covid-19 mitigation strategies like masking in the classroom. Biden, in a memo sent Wednesday to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, said the Education Department must take action to ensure governors and other officials are allowing a safe return to in-person learning and 'not standing in the way of local leaders making such preparations.... Cardona, in an interview with The New York Times, signaled that he could use the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights to prevent states from banning mask wearing in schools. The department could launch civil rights investigations for school districts if their policies impede students' access to education." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mike Stobbe & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to offer COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is falling. The plan, as outlined by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other top authorities, calls for an extra dose eight months after people get their second shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. The doses could begin the week of Sept. 20. 'Our plan is to protect the American people, to stay ahead of this virus,' CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at the White House. People who received the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine will also probably need extra shots, health officials said. But they said they are waiting for more data." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Yasmeen Abutaleb & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "When Pfizer representatives met with senior U.S. government health officials on July 12, they laid out why they thought booster shots would soon be necessary in the United States.... But officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention disagreed, saying their own data showed something quite different.... Other senior health officials in the meeting were stunned. Why hadn't the CDC looped other government officials on the data? Could the agency share it -- at least with the Food and Drug Administration, which was responsible for deciding whether booster shots were necessary? But CDC officials demurred, saying they planned to publish it soon. That episode, say senior administration officials and outside experts, illustrates the growing frustration with the CDC's slow and siloed approach to sharing data, which prevented officials across the government from getting real-time information about how the delta variant was bearing down on the United States...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is another story from the Bureaucracy Sucks Department. Sometimes the suckiness is just an inconvenience, an annoyance, or a source for minor unfairness. But today, we're seeing two egregious examples -- slow-walking visas for our Afghan friends and hoarding vital health data -- where Bureacracy Kills. (Meanwhile, I learned today that the IRS, which has been happy to accept my tax payments, doesn't know who I am and insists I "verify my identity," a process which apparently takes weeks. [What's a Social Security number for anyway?] This falls along the inconvenience/annoyance spectrum and is something I just don't get.)

Alabama. Dr. Valentine Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You People. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "In Alabama, where the nation's lowest vaccination rate has helped push the state closer to a record number of hospitalizations, a physician has sent a clear message to his patients: Don't come in for medical treatment if you are unvaccinated. Jason Valentine, a physician at Diagnostic and Medical Clinic Infirmary Health in Mobile, Ala., posted a photo on Facebook this week of him pointing to a sign taped to a door informing patients of his new policy coming Oct. 1. 'Dr. Valentine will no longer see patients that are not vaccinated against covid-19,' the sign reads. Valentine wrote in the post, which has since been made private but was captured in online images, that there were 'no conspiracy theories, no excuses' stopping anyone from being vaccinated, AL.com reported." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Texas. Teach Your Children Well. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: At recent public school events in Austin, Texas, the school district's superintendent said "Some parents physically and verbally assaulted teachers because of masks. One parent ripped a teacher's mask off her face.... Others yelled at another teacher to remove her mask because they claimed it made it difficult to understand what she was saying."

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday upheld a Texas law banning the most common form of second-trimester abortion, ruling that a lower court had erred in finding that the law imposed 'an undue burden on a large fraction of women.' At issue is a Texas law that was passed in 2017 but has not yet been in effect because of legal battles. The law, known as Senate Bill 8, prohibits a dilation-and-evacuation abortion method and requires doctors to use alternative abortion methods, according to Wednesday's decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.... The lower court 'committed numerous, reversible legal and factual errors,' according to the decision on Wednesday."

News Lede

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Henri is expected to strengthen into a hurricane over the Atlantic, but its exact path and strength when it draws closer to New England are still uncertain. Residents of the Northeast U.S., especially New England and Long Island, should monitor Henri's progress closely since it might bring wind, rain and storm surge impacts to parts of the region late weekend into early next week. Hurricane and/or tropical storm watches could be required for these areas by Friday."