;)
The Commentariat -- August 8, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Thomas Gibbons-Neff, et al., of the New York Times: "Taliban fighters captured another northern provincial capital on Sunday afternoon, local officials said, marking the third city to fall to the insurgent group in a single day. The fighters had been contained at the gates of Taliqan, the capital of Takhar Province, since June. But as the Kunduz city center fell to the Taliban on Sunday, the insurgents moved into Taliqan, just a few miles away, pushing back government forces there in a bout of vicious fighting. By sunset, the Taliban had seized the police headquarters and the provincial governor's office, said an Afghan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the developing situation." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is running live updates of developments in Afghanistan, because the developments are so bad.
Ted Anthony of the AP: "The Tokyo Olympics, christened with '2020' but held in mid-2021 after being interrupted for a year by the coronavirus, glided to their conclusion in a COVID-emptied stadium Sunday night as an often surreal mixed bag for Japan and for the world." ~~~
~~~ Aamer Madhani of the AP: "President Joe Biden praised U.S. Olympians for navigating the difficulties of a coronavirus-tarnished games with 'moral courage' that made Americans' 'hearts swell' with pride. Biden, along with first lady Jill Biden, spoke with Team USA in a Zoom call Saturday evening from their home near Wilmington, Delaware. The couple extended an invitation to the athletes to visit the White House in the fall to celebrate their accomplishments."
Shayna Greene of Politico: "Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said Sunday that an ongoing congressional investigation of ... Donald Trump's last days in office has found him to have been deeply involved with the Justice Department in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election.... Durbin said that [former acting AG Jeffrey] Rosen appeared voluntarily and was 'very open' during his seven hours of testimony. 'It really is important that we ask these questions, because what was going on in the Department of Justice was frightening, from a constitutional point of view,' Durbin said.... Asked if what he was describing was an attempted coup, Durbin told CNN host Dana Bash, 'Well, it was --they were going through the ordinary process.... It isn't as if the president was removing the attorney general and making pronouncements, which would happen in a coup, I suppose, by classic definition,' Durbin added. 'But it was leading up to that, that kind of process.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Marianne Levine & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate advanced the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Saturday afternoon, breaking a filibuster to end debate on the deal crafted by a group of 10 senators alongside President Joe Biden. The vote, which was 67-27, easily cleared the 60 votes needed to move forward. It marked another significant step toward clinching a bipartisan agreement between Biden and Congress. Two Republicans who had previously voted against the bipartisan package -- Sens. John Cornyn of Texas and Deb Fischer of Nebraska -- voted to advance the legislation. The timing of the final vote remains unclear.... Disagreements over amendments persisted into the weekend session. And Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) said Saturday he is 'not inclined to expedite this process whatsoever.' He added that he's not holding up amendments but 'there's a normal process, there's no purpose, in my view, to allow an acceleration of that.' Senators, meanwhile, are pitching more than a dozen amendments for roll call votes...." ~~~
~~~ Tiptoeing Away from Der Furor. Luke Broadwater & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: The bill "is one of the most significant steps to date by elected Republicans to defy Mr. Trump, not only by the moderates who have routinely broken with him, but by a wider group that may signal his waning influence on Capitol Hill.... Trump tried mightily to kill the ... bill, hurling the kind of insult-laden statements and threats of primary challenges that for years sent a chill down Republican spines.... The vast majority of Republicans are opposed to the legislation. House Republicans are as tightly bound to Mr. Trump as ever...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is front-page NYT analysis, but I am going with the Wisdom of Ornstein, a theory of Mitch that brooks no measure of baby steps toward decency in governance.
Jordan Williams of the Hill: "The Senate has confirmed President Biden's pick for Navy secretary, Carlos Del Toro, making him the second Hispanic secretary in the Navy's history and filling the final service secretary position. Del Toro was confirmed by voice vote on Saturday evening, shortly before senators wrapped up their work for the day. A Cuban-born Naval Academy graduate, Del Toro has commanded the USS Bulkeley destroyer and deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm."
** Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Jeffrey A. Rosen, who was acting attorney general during the Trump administration, has told the Justice Department watchdog and congressional investigators that one of his deputies tried to help ... Donald J. Trump subvert the results of the 2020 election, according to a person familiar with the interviews. Mr. Rosen had a two-hour meeting on Friday with the Justice Department's office of the inspector general and provided closed-door testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Saturday.... Mr. Rosen told investigators from the inspector general's office about five encounters with [acting deputy AG. Jeffrey] Clark, including one in late December during which his deputy admitted to meeting with Mr. Trump and pledged that he would not do so again, according to a person familiar with the interview. Mr. Rosen also described subsequent exchanges with Mr. Clark, who continued to press colleagues to make statements about the election that they found to be untrue.... He also discovered that Mr. Clark had been engaging in unauthorized conversations with Mr. Trump about ways to have the Justice Department publicly cast doubt on President Biden's victory...." ~~~
~~~ Jordan Williams of the Hill: Jeffrey "Rosen was interviewed by staff members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, lawmakers on the panel confirmed. The committee is probing efforts by Trump allies to interfere in the 2020 election results.... Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the committee, told reporter..., 'I was struck by how close the country came to total catastrophe,' Blumenthal said, adding there were some 'highly significant leads' that the panel should pursue."
Luke Barr of ABC News (August 6): "The Department of Homeland Security said Friday they have observed 'an increasing but modest level of activity online' by people who are calling for violence in response to baseless claims of 2020 election fraud and related to the conspiracy theory that ... Donald Trump will be reinstated. 'Some conspiracy theories associated with reinstating former President Trump have included calls for violence if desired outcomes are not realized,' according to a DHS Office of Intelligence and Analysis bulletin obtained by ABC News.... 'Over the last few days what has occurred is there's been much more public visibility, meaning the discussions and these theories have migrated away from being contained within the conspiracy and extremist online communities, to where they're being the topic of discussion on web forums, or more public web forums, and even within the sort of media ecosystem,' a senior DHS official explained."
They Were Shocked, Shocked to Find There Was Rioting Going on There. Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "After an investigation concluded that two Seattle police officers stood by the U.S. Capitol as rioters invaded the building on Jan. 6, the two lost their jobs Friday. The officers, Alexander Everett and Caitlin Everett, were two of six officers from the department under investigation after attending the pro-Trump rally that proceeded to the deadly storming of the Capitol building. The married couple joins a growing number of off-duty police officers facing repercussions for attending the riot.... The Everetts, previously unnamed by the department..., told investigators that they had not seen any signs of disturbance and didn't realize that they were standing in a restricted area by the Capitol until they later read a news article about the riot. But [Seattle's Office of Police Accountability B]oard said those claims were 'simply not credible' given signs on gates staffed by uniformed officers."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Our Roving Correspondent Reports from Abroad. Benjamin Novak & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "In a week in which he broadcast nightly from Budapest, the American talk show host Tucker Carlson posed for pictures with and interviewed Hungary's authoritarian leader, Viktor Orban, and took a helicopter to inspect a Hungarian border fence designed to keep out migrants. The visit by Mr. Carlson, the top-rated host on the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fox News, bolsters Mr. Orban's mission to establish Budapest as an ideological center for what he sees as an international conservative movement.... [Carlson's] friendly interview with Mr. Orban has prompted a raft of think pieces in the English-speaking media that, while mostly critical of Mr. Carlson, have given the Hungarian leader a new round of international coverage.... Mr. Carlson's visit comes at as the populist Mr. Orban has become increasingly isolated and is in a precarious position, at home and abroad, over his government's backsliding on democracy and his administration's poor handling of the coronavirus pandemic." MB: Gee, TuKKKer, it almost seems as if you're a tool.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here: "The authorities in Austin, Texas, warned the public on Saturday that the city's Covid-19 situation had grown desperate, as a surge in cases driven by the Delta variant swamped hospitals while city officials were prevented from issuing mask mandates or vaccinations by order of the state's governor, Greg Abbott."
Caroline Vakil of the Hill: "A conservative Florida radio host [-- Dick Farrel --] who was vocally critical of the COVID-19 vaccine urged his friends to get the shot after he contracted the virus himself, WPTV reported.... At least one of his COVID-19-related posts was flagged by Facebook for spreading false information, and in another post, he called ... Anthony Fauci 'a power tripping lying freak.' However..., Amy Leigh Hair, a friend of Farrel's, wrote on Facebook that he had succumbed to COVID-19 and had urged her to get the shot after he got sick." MB: And, presumably, before he died of Covid-19, which he did. I'm sorry Farrel got sick and died, and I'm sorry anyone thought it was a good idea to give this guy a mic.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Aaron Williams, et al., of the Washington Post: "As the Dixie Fire continues to ravage hundreds of thousands of acres in Northern California, a federal judge has now ordered Pacific Gas & Electric to explain the utility company's role in starting what has become the largest wildfire burning in the United States. The cause of the blaze remains under investigation, but U.S. District Judge William Alsup asked PG&E in an order issued late Friday to give information regarding the tree that fell on the utility company's power line at the origin of the Dixie Fire. PG&E has said its equipment may have been responsible for starting both the Dixie Fire and the much smaller Fly Fire, which later merged with the Dixie Fire. Alsup -- who oversees PG&E's criminal probation for felony convictions stemming from the deadly 2010 San Bruno gas pipeline explosion -- also required that PG&E give details about the equipment and vegetation in the area where the fires started."
New York. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "On 12 August, 2019 Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, held a glitzy bill ceremony in his executive mansion in Albany to mark the signing into law of new legislation designed to beef up sexual harassment protections for women in the workplace.... The next day, 13 August, the governor was [sexually harassing] a state police officer who he had handpicked to be part of his security detail even though she lacked the requisite experience.... Since the New York attorney general, Letitia James, released her 168-page report on Tuesday with its central finding that Cuomo violated federal and state sexual harassment laws..., much of Cuomo's self-defense falls squarely into the standard playbook of powerful men accused of sexual misconduct when their back is against the wall. He has responded to the accounts of his 11 accusers with a potpourri of outright denial, appeals to failing memory, suggestions that the women had 'misunderstood' his actions, and darker insinuations that they and the investigators were motivated by political or other animosity towards him."
Texas. Acacia Coronado & Paul Weber of the AP: "Texas Democrats still refused to return to the state Capitol on Saturday as Gov. Greg Abbott began a third attempt at passing new election laws, prolonging a monthslong standoff that ramped up in July when dozens of Democratic state lawmakers left the state and hunkered down in Washington, D.C. 'A quorum is not present,' said Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan, who then adjourned the chamber until Monday.... But there were also signs the stalemate may be thawing. Two of the Democrats who decamped last month returned to Austin Saturday, and one of them said enough of his colleagues may also begin trickling back to secure a quorum next week. And, notably, Republicans did not invoke a procedural move that would give Phelan the authority to sign arrest warrants for missing lawmakers, as they did when the Democrats left town." ~~~
~~~ James Barragán of the Texas Tribune: "Twenty-two Texas House Democrats sued some of the state's top Republican leaders in federal court in Austin late Friday, alleging that GOP officials' efforts to bring them home for a special legislative session infringed on their constitutional rights to free speech and to petition the government for redress of grievances. The lawsuit was filed on the final day of the first special session called by Gov. Greg Abbott -- and on the eve of a second specially called legislative session -- and names as defendants Abbott, House Speaker Dade Phelan and State Rep. James White."
Way Beyond
The New York Times' live updates of the Olympics games Saturday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here.
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Reader Comments (12)
ENOUGH
It’s quite true we live
In a kind of rural twilight
most of the time giving
our love to the hard dirt
the water and the weeds
and the difficult woods.
Concerning Necessity––Hayden Carruth
You bring me flowers, fresh picked
Early in the morning––lilies, zinnias, gladiolas
And big, plump, blue hydrangeas with sprigs of
False Indigo; enough for multiple arrangements.
You bring me round, ripe, red tomatoes,
Fragrant basil, chives, along with a huge bowl of Swiss chard
Later in the day.
You laid the seeds, sweetheart, that give us this bounty––
Over drinks at four we sow a different kind of nurture,
Digging at different things, pruning our politics as
We scale the highs and lows while the evening wanes.
Then in darkness we hold fast
Plowing back into the earth.
It is enough–––––
To smell the scents, to wash the dirt
Off the greens––
To be so grateful.
@PD Pepe; Thanks for those words of encouragement for mankind.
(is womankind a word?).
Here's another one:
Author John Hershey writing in the New Yorker Magazine in 1946
about Hiroshima"s devastation and rebirth:
"Over everything-up through the wreckage of the city, in gutters,
along river banks, tangles among tiles and tin roofing, climbing on
charred tree trunks-was a blanket of fresh, vivid, lush, optimistic
green; the verdancy rose even from the foundations of ruined houses.
Weeds already hid the ashes, and wild flowers were in bloom among
thc city's bones. The bomb had not only left the underground
organs of the plants intact; it had stimulated them,"
And when I look out the window at the color in our side garden
(a whole city lot) I always wonder what it will look like after our
civilization is kaput and the weeds and vines take over. Will
my roses survive? Probably not because deer and rabbits love
roses, thorns and all.
Thanks to PD and Forrest for some positive thoughts on this Sunday morning, reminding us 1. that we do have an impact on the natural world (good and bad), and 2. that nature will win out in the end. It will give climate change deniers what for (already happening), and can survive nukes.
Forrest's mention of the Hersey book recalled for me something I read recently about how nature might react to a different kind of devastation. "The World Without Us", by Alan Weisman, is a book length thought experiment that considers what might happen should humans disappear overnight, leaving the world to its own devices (I'm guessing at least a few hundred species might give a celebratory whoop to the demise of certain congressional science hating, anti-truth asshats).
The short of it is, nature reclaims much of what was built by humans. The New York subway system would cave in after an extremely short amount of time, standard homes would collapse as rainwater weakened roofs and rusted nails, massive reforestation would take place within 500 years or so. The things that would last? Bits of aluminum from kitchen appliances, stainless steel flatware and pans, Mt. Rushmore (at least barring any earthquakes caused by the sub-structures already weakened by fracking), and...radioactivity from waste products. Oh, and plastic. That shit will never disappear. That guy from "The Graduate" was right.
No word on how long Marred a Lardo would last. I'm guessing it would be submerged by rising sea levels and taken over by manatees, far more congenial habitués than currently darken its doors.
But since it appears we may be around for at least a little while, we can enjoy the Swiss chard and blue hydrangea blossoms (for the first time since moving into this house, I've succeeded in promoting more than a few of those prized gifts from the hydrangea in the front yard. Yay for me. Well, okay, yay for the fertilizer).
Authoritarian TucKKKer
Shhhh....listen. Can you hear it? Wingers screeching about KKKarlson's visit to Hungary to support a democracy hating, racist authoritarian? No? Of course you don't. They're not saying a word. But plenty of them still yap about another visit to a foreign land by an American celebrity and another infamous photo-op.
Back in 1972, Jane Fonda, in her anti-war activist zeal, made a not-so well thought out visit to North Vietnam where she was photographed talking to NVA soldiers while sitting on an anti-aircraft gun (used to shoot down American pilots). She still gets ripped for this. But she recognized her error. Not that being against the war was bad, but how she went about it. She acknowledges that she might have been played by the North's political propagandists, although she also admits that the buck stopped with her and she has never tried to avoid any responsibility. She could never be a Republican. Tsk, tsk. Avoiding responsibility is a prime requirement for getting into the club.
And here's TuKKKer, giving succor and support to an enemy of democracy. As Marie suggests, Orban very likely is using KKKarlson, but TuKKK has neither the self-awareness nor the sense of responsibility that Fonda had.
There's another difference too. Fonda is still painted, on the right, as a traitor, but she was not against America, per se, or the idea of America. She was against a poorly planned and highly controversial war being waged by American politicians. KKKarlson is firmly against both democracy and the essence of America.
So who's the real traitor?
Fonda will forever be remembered as Hanoi Jane. Shouldn't this Fox traitor to the ideals of America be remembered as Authoritarian TuKKKer?
Attn Merrick and Joe: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/08/gentleman-joe-versus-the-maga-champion-machiavelli-would-die-laughing. This is pretty good about the lack of an effective killer instinct among the Democrats.
AK: Oh, if wishes were horses and so on––-it's like tan suits on yesterday's Potus' were spiffy and smart but suddenly "Oh my god! did you see Obama's tan suit today? SO unpresidential!" So yes, Tuck-ums dalliance with "an enemy of democracy" becomes de rigueur on planet two where only shades of pale reside in their eyes.
If I remember correctly Fonda went to Viet Nam to check out the bombing of some bridges that the U.S. was saying hadn't been bombed. She found out otherwise. And yes, she flirted with disaster but as you pointed out she recanted and continued to admit her stupid mistake and yes, APOLOGIZE–-something foreign to Fox and Fiends.
And Forest: Thanks for the Hershey–-I understand that until his column many had been kept in the dark about the bombings which is hard to believe but those were days where you got your news via papers and radio and if certain mucki- mucks didn't want something to get out it didn't get out––– like the horrific devastation and deaths.
Chris Hedges often can be over the top (or under the bottom), but this piece, at least for the first two thirds, nails the basis for our propensity to deliver gratuitous bombs in meaningless wars:
https://scheerpost.com/2021/04/19/hedges-the-unraveling-of-the-american-empire/
Speaking of: I've only recently come to realize the we A-bombed Japan solely to back down the USSR, as Japan, HST and our military well knew the war was essentially over.
Whyte: we bombed Japan so my Dad did not have to go. There was no other good reason, but that sufficed.
Re Hanoi Jane: back in the 70's (and probably after), you could find her face on many US AFB men's room urinal cakes, a specialty item. I think I mentioned long back that no such practice occurred at Army airfields. It helps to know that AF and Navy common facilities usually had individual urinals, but the Army, cheap and uncivilized, still preferred sloping troughs (like you'd find in an old stadium). No cakes were used because they'd all end up sliding to near the drain end. So it's not "Don't disdain Jane", it just that the hydraulics didn't work as well at Army fields.
TMI? Know your history, know your service. Also, AF and Navy could almost always expect running water when deployed. For the Army, if you had it you felt cossetted.
... and the moral of that story is that maybe Tukkker can get his own picture on his own specialty product.
@Patrick: My late father and father-in-law, the latter a marine in the South Pacific at the end, thought the same, but the evidence I've seen is that the war was in effect over, and HST et all thought they needed to show the USSR, which then only had conventional weapons, what could happen to them if they overreached in Asia. The Hedges piece highlights how our military sees the world. Using The Bomb to get the Commies attention makes perfect sense to that mindset.
@Whyte: your assessment is how I have understood the reasoning for the bombing. Truman knew the Japanese were "looking for Peace" and that the military use of the atomic bombs on cities was an option rather than a necessity for ending the was in August; this info did not get to Oppenheimer and after the war he came to believe he had been misled, and that this knowledge served as a constant reminder that it was henceforth his obligation to be skeptical of what he was told by government officials. And yes, Soviets were getting ready to invade Japan–-the U.S. bombs squashed that–-the idea that Russia would take any of the spoils was anathema to Washington. Someone said that Truman was a man who compensated for his insecurities with calculated displays of decisiveness.
But Patrick's Dad didn't have to enter that war and my cousin who had been captured by the Japanese and held for three years probably welcomed that kind of ending. In his book he warned of complacency in dealing with foreign enemies; I don't know for sure but he may have been all for the bombing.
The areas that the Taliban have taken make a crescent around the borders of Afghanistan. It looks to me that they are preparing to prevent people from leaving, not protecting themselves from others.