;)
The Commentariat -- December 14, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Water Carrier Drops Bucket. Allie Malloy, et al., of CNN:"Attorney General William Barr resigned on Monday, ending a tenure in which the... Donald Trump loyalist carried the administration's 'law and order' message but ultimately dealt the most credible blow to Trump's unfounded claims that the 2020 election was littered with fraud. 'Just had a very nice meeting with Attorney General Bill Barr at the White House. Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job! As per letter, Bill will be leaving just before Christmas to spend the holidays with his family,' Trump tweeted.... 'Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, an outstanding person, will become Acting Attorney General. Highly respected Richard Donoghue will be taking over the duties of Deputy Attorney General. Thank you to all!' Update: A Washington Post report is here. ~~~
~~~ Jake Tapper of CNN: Trump released Barr's resignation letter minutes after the Electoral College put Joe Biden over the top.
From the New York Times' live election updates Monday: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. was affirmed as the president-elect on Monday as members of the Electoral College pushed him past the 270 threshold to win the White House, all but ending a disruptive chapter in American history in which President Trump sought to use legal challenges and political pressure to overturn the results of a free and fair election." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live election updates are here: "Joe Biden has amassed the electoral votes to secure his White House win. California and its 55 electoral votes put the president-elect over the top, despite President Trump's efforts to subvert the Nov. 3 election results. ~~~
~~~ "Following the [Electoral College votes], which will continue throughout the day, Biden plans to address the nation and say, 'The flame of democracy was lit in this nation a long time ago. And we now know that nothing -- not even a pandemic -- or an abuse of power -- can extinguish that flame,' according to excerpts of his speech. Trump has planned no public events but continues to tweet grievances about the election, which he claimed Sunday is 'under protest.'... Already, six of the states in which Trump contested his defeat -- Nevada, Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan -- have cast their electoral votes for Biden." Related AP stories are here (Biden's speech) and here (battleground state votes).
Josh Holder & others at the New York Times are updating the results of the Electoral College vote as the states submit their results. CNN's tracker is here. MB: When I first checked this morning, Biden had only seven votes & Trump had 38. Now (at 4:20 pm ET) Biden is ahead. How is that possible? There's only a one-in-a-bazillion statistical chance that could happen, absent rampant cheating. Trump wuz robbed! ~~~
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump's allies are preparing to send an 'alternate' slate of electors to Congress, senior White House adviser Stephen Miller said Monday, signaling Trump will drag out his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election even after the Electoral College certifies Joe Biden as the winner. Miller, appearing on Fox News as a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, brushed off the idea that the Electoral College vote marked any kind of end to the process. 'The only date in the Constitution is Jan. 20. So we have more than enough time to right the wrong of this fraudulent election result and certify Donald Trump as the winner of the election,' Miller said on 'Fox & Friends.'... Nothing in the Constitution or state electoral processes allows for such an 'alternate' slate of electors. Miller also raised the idea of state legislatures stepping in to overturn the results or of Congress interceding."
Harper Neidig of the Hill: "Wisconsin's Supreme Court on Monday rejected a legal challenge from President Trump's campaign seeking to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the key battleground state. A majority decision from the state's high court said that the Trump campaign had failed to show that more than 220,000 votes were illegally cast and should be invalidated." MB: The court has a conservative majority. The one conservative justice who rejected Trump's claim, Brian Hagedorn, wrote the majority opinion.
Jake Tapper of CNN: "Rep. Paul Mitchell, Republican of Michigan, told CNN that his disgust and disappointment with ... Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the election have led him to request that the Clerk of the House change his party affiliation to 'independent,' and to notify GOP leaders in a letter that he is withdrawing his 'engagement and association with the Republican Party at both the national and state level.' Mitchell, who is retiring at the end of this session of Congress, says he fears that the House GOP leadership's participation in the outgoing President's conspiracy theories and attempts to disenfranchise millions of American voters to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory could cause 'long-term harm to our democracy.' It is 'unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote,' Mitchell wrote in his letter, which was sent Monday."
AP: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Kansas that sought to revive a law requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. A federal appeals court had declared the law unconstitutional. Kansas had been the only state to require people to show a physical document such as a birth certificate or passport when applying to register to vote. The issue is distinct from state laws that call for people to produce driver licenses or other photo IDs to cast a vote in person. The law was championed by former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who led ... Donald Trump's now-defunct voter fraud commission. Kobach was a leading source for Trump's unsubstantiated claim that millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally may have voted in the 2016 election. Roughly 30,000 people were prevented from registering to vote during the three years the law was in effect, and the state's own expert estimated that almost all of those were U.S. citizens who were eligible to vote." A Washington Post story is here.
Isabelle Khurshudyan & Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "A team of Russian state security agents poisoned prominent opposition activist Alexei Navalny in August [link fixed], the investigative website Bellingcat claimed in a report Monday, citing telecom and travel data that it says links Moscow with the attempt on Navalny's life and reveals how he has been under constant surveillance for three years. Bellingcat said the 'voluminous' data implicates eight members of a clandestine group of Russia’s FSB, a successor to the Soviet-era KGB responsible for domestic intelligence. The unit specializes in working with chemical weapons, Bellingcat said."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "The first shot was given in the American mass vaccination campaign on Monday morning, opening a new chapter in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more people in the United States than in any other country. Shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday, the first vaccination took place in Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. The pandemic has scarred New York State profoundly, leaving more than 35,000 people dead and severely weakening the economy. 'I believe this is the weapon that will end the war, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference Monday morning, shortly before the shot was given to Sandra Lindsay, an intensive-care nurse. State officials said the shot was the first to be given outside of a vaccine trial in the United States." MB: Wow! A Black female ICU nurse in a Jewish hospital. Perfect. Plus, I hope this makes the head of a Queens man explode:
~~~~~~~~~~
It's Electoral College Day AND, appropriately enough, there's a total eclipse of the sun. You can view it if you happen to be in Southern Chile or Argentina and have the proper eyeware (don't do a Donald). Or you can tune in to the NASA TV channel beginning at 9:40 am ET. ~~~
The New York Times on what to expect as the Electoral College votes. ~~~
~~~ Lisa Lerer & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "For decades, Electoral College voters have served as the rubber-stamping bureaucrats of American democracy, operating well below the political radar as they provided pro forma certification of a new president. Despite its procedural nature, the role has long been considered an honor, bestowed as a way to recognize political stature or civic service. This year..., as small-town electors face harassment and more prominent figures adapt to increased security measures, a duty long considered a privilege has also become a headache. Even as the electors prepared to vote on Monday, Mr. Trump on Sunday railed on Twitter against the 'MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY' and suggested that swing states could not certify 'without committing a severely punishable crime' -- further raising concerns about electors' personal security."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
Jack Healy, et al., of the New York Times: "Trucks and cargo planes packed with the first of nearly three million doses of coronavirus vaccine fanned out across the country on Sunday as hospitals rushed to set up injection sites and their anxious workers tracked each shipment.... The distribution of the first federally approved vaccine marked the start of the most ambitious vaccination campaign in American history, a critical, complicated feat that one top federal official compared to the Allied landings at Normandy during World War II.... On Sunday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration commissioner disagreed with President Trump's claims that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine could have been released a week ago. The commissioner, Dr. Stephen Hahn, said the F.D.A.'s decision on Friday to authorize the vaccine for emergency use was made as quickly as possible while still ensuring that it was safe and effective.
Some Are More Equal Than Others. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "White House staff members who work in close quarters with President Trump have been told they are scheduled to receive injections of the coronavirus vaccine soon, at a time when the first doses of the vaccine are being distributed only to high-risk health care workers.... The hope is to eventually distribute the vaccine to everyone who works in the White House, but will begin with some of the most senior people who work around the president, one of the people said.... While many Trump officials said they were eager to receive the vaccine and would take it if it were offered, others said they were concerned it would send the wrong message by making it look like Trump staff members were hopping the line in order to protect a president who already had the virus and has bragged that he is now 'immune.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. "President Trump said on Sunday night that he would delay a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days.... 'People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary,' Mr. Trump tweeted, hours after a National Security Council spokesman had defended the plan. 'I have asked that this adjustment be made. I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time. Thank you!'" MB: So, um, Trump can be embarrassed?? If so, that's a first.
Remember way last week when we said the Biden team should send in teams wearing hazmat suits to fumigate the White House? According to the Daily Mail (not the most accurate journalistic enterprise), that's exactly what they're doing: ~~~
~~~ Caroline Graham of the Daily Mail: "A team in hazmat suits will spray the entire residence with disinfectant after Trump leaves and remove carpets, curtains and furniture. A member of the transition team added: "Mr Trump's administration has been riddled with the coronavirus. The Bidens are taking no chances. The entire property will be deep-cleaned down to replacing doorknobs and taking down soft furnishings. The virus can linger on hard surfaces so the entire residence and executive offices will be wiped clean with disinfectant to exorcise any trace of Team Trump.""
Mississippi. Keisha Rowe of the Clarion Ledger: "The surge of COVID-19 cases in Mississippi has left no intensive care unit beds available across the state and prompted the need for restrictions, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Friday.... The Mississippi Department of Health is also anticipating many more hospitalizations as the increase in cases continues." --s
Brazil. Tom Phillips of the Guardian: "Jair Bolsonaro is facing a furious backlash over what critics are calling his 'homicidally negligent' failure to prepare a coherent coronavirus vaccination programme as Brazil's death toll again soars. More than 181,000 Brazilians have died from the disease the president calls 'a little flu', with Latin America's biggest economy now careering into a painful second wave.... Despite having the world;s sixth largest population, Brazil has yet to sign a contract with Pfizer and has eschewed the experimental Chinese vaccine CoronaVac for what many suspect are political motives.... Experts fear that strategy could cause thousands of unnecessary deaths by delaying vaccination.... Daniel Dourado, a public health expert and lawyer, agreed Bolsonaro's 'disastrous' reaction warranted immediate impeachment: 'It's one outrage after the next. Dilma Rousseff was removed for so much less.' But, remarkably, the public mood had yet to turn significantly against Bolsonaro[.]" --s
More Real News
David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Trump administration acknowledged on Sunday that hackers acting on behalf of a foreign government -- almost certainly a Russian intelligence agency, according to federal and private experts -- broke into a range of key government networks, including in the Treasury and Commerce Departments, and had free access to their email systems. Officials said a hunt was on to determine if other parts of the government had been affected by what looked to be one of the most sophisticated, and perhaps among the largest, attacks on federal systems in the past five years. Several said a series of national security-related agencies were also targeted, though it was not clear whether the systems contained highly classified material. The Trump administration said little in public about the hack, which suggested that while the government was worried about Russian intervention in the 2020 election, key agencies working for the administration -- and unrelated to the election -- were actually the subject of a sophisticated attack that they were unaware of until recent weeks." ~~~
~~~ Christopher Bing of Reuters: "Hackers believed to be working for Russia have been monitoring internal email traffic at the U.S. Treasury and Commerce departments, according to people familiar with the matter, adding they feared the hacks uncovered so far may be the tip of the iceberg. The hack is so serious it led to a National Security Council meeting at the White House on Saturday, said one of the people familiar with the matter." ~~~
~~~ Shelby Grossman & Khadja Ramali of Lawfare: "We are increasingly seeing state actors outsourcing their disinformation operations to [digital marketing firms]. Outsourcing an influence campaign to a private company has benefits for national governments. The primary advantage is that it gives the government a level of plausible deniability. If the operation is uncovered, government actors can claim that it was simply a rogue social media marketing agency, and that they had nothing to do with the activities. Similarly, if one firm gets banned from social platforms, governments can switch to working with a new one.... [M]any of these digital marketing firms are headed by individuals with one foot in the media marketing world and one in the government.... Understanding these practices and the intent behind them is necessary to identify and address them." --s
Martin Shulov of the Guardian: "The Trump administration is facing mounting calls to abandon threats to sanction Houthi rebels in northern Yemen to avoid an imminent danger of extreme famine in the country, where almost two-thirds of the population are in need of food aid. US state department officials are considering designating the Houthis as a terrorist group before the 20 January inauguration of Joe Biden, a move that would complicate the delivery of essential aid in large parts of the country, senior UN officials and NGOs have said." --s
Seung Min Kim & Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "President-elect Joe Biden's decision to fill his White House and Cabinet with longtime colleagues has led to frustration from liberals, civil rights leaders and younger activists, who worry he's relegating racial minorities to lower-status jobs while leaning on Obama-era appointees for key positions. Biden's Cabinet process has also discomforted some allies on the Hill, who say senators from his own party have not been sufficiently consulted about picks, even though Biden will need influential Senate Democrats to help steer nominees through the confirmation gauntlet. Senior Democratic senators have gotten little or no advance warning about the president-elect's selections, according to a half-dozen senior congressional officials and others familiar with the process." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Lauren Lumpkin of the Washington Post: "The incoming second gentleman has landed a new job at the Georgetown University Law Center, school officials announced. Doug Emhoff, husband to Vice President-elect Kamala D. Harris, announced last month he would leave his Los Angeles law firm by Inauguration Day.... Emhoff is probably the first vice-presidential spouse to work at Georgetown Law, said Tanya Weinberg, a spokeswoman for the school. His appointment -- along with incoming first lady Jill Biden's decision to return to teaching -- represents a modernization of the roles typically played by first and second spouses. Emhoff will serve as a distinguished visitor from practice when he joins the faculty in January, school officials said in a statement. He'll bring with him nearly three decades of expertise in intellectual property, entertainment and media law."
Real Election Results. Harry Enten of CNN: "One of the most notable early results on Election Night came from Florida's heavily Hispanic Miami-Dade county. President Donald Trump lost it to President-elect Joe Biden by just 7 points, after losing it by 29 points in 2016. A big question was whether Trump's improvement in Miami-Dade would be replicated in other majority Hispanic areas on the electoral map. The answer from coast to coast is a definitive yes. Trump did considerably better than he did in 2016 across an array of Hispanic areas." --s
The Last Days of the Mad Kaiser
Joe Who? John Bowden of the Hill: "President Trump refused to rule out the possibility of skipping his successor's inauguration in January during an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News. 'So would you show up at the inauguration?' [Brian] Kilmeade asked. 'I don't want to talk about that,' Trump responded. 'I want to talk about this. We've done a great job. I got more votes than any president in the history of our country. In the history of our country, right? Not even close -- 75 million far more than Obama, far more than anybody. And they say we lost an election. We didn't lose. If I got 10 million fewer votes, they say I couldn't have lost,' Trump added, repeating baseless claims revolving around election fraud and the 2020 race."
Tweeto. Darlene Superville of the AP: "... Donald Trump offered a new rationale Sunday for threatening to veto the annual defense policy bill that covers the military's budget for equipment and pay raises for service members: China. He did not outline his concerns. Republican and Democratic lawmakers say the wide-ranging defense policy bill, which the Senate sent to the president on Friday, would be tough on China and must become law as soon as possible. Both the House and Senate passed the measure by margins large enough to override a potential veto from the president, who has a history of failing to carry out actions he has threatened. 'The biggest winner of our new defense bill is China! I will veto!' Trump said in a new tweet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** John Harwood of CNN: "... notwithstanding lies as promiscuous as the ones he tells about election fraud -- Trump will leave office in January with a historically bad record on the economy. That sounds discordant since many Americans believe the economic fable that Trump has repeated relentlessly throughout his term. But placing his bottom-line results alongside those of his predecessors paints a deeply unflattering portrait. Alone among the 13 presidents since World War Two, Trump will exit the White House with fewer Americans employed than when he started. He will have overseen punier growth in economic output than any of the previous 12 presidents. His throwback 'America First' agenda has failed to restore the old economic engine that powered an earlier era's prosperity. On Trump's watch, industrial production has fallen. The Federal Reserve says the manufacturing sector fell into recession in 2019 even before the coronavirus pandemic hit. Last week was the 38th in a row in which at least 700,000 Americans filed first-time claims for unemployment benefits. Holiday-season lines at food banks dramatize the scale of human suffering. More abstract measures, such as the US trade deficit and ratio of government debt to the size of the economy, have also worsened during Trump's term." Read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Even very successful businesspeople who have built mega-corporations from scratch usually don't know much about macroeconomics and therefore, how to use the government to improve the economy. Trump, who was a failed businessman (and not even that great a grifter, at least in some cases), knows even less about economics. And since he is incapable of learning on the job, the U.S. economy went from bad to worse, thanks largely to his missteps & erratic, impulsive stunts & threats.
It's the Dopamine! James Kimmel in Politico Magazine: "... brain imaging studies show that harboring a grievance (a perceived wrong or injustice, real or imagined) activates the same neural reward circuitry as narcotics. This isn't a metaphor; it's brain biology. Scientists have found that in substance addiction, environmental cues ... cause sharp surges of dopamine in crucial reward and habit regions of the brain.... Recent studies show that similarly, cues such as experiencing or being reminded of a perceived wrong or injustice -- a grievance -- activate these same reward and habit regions of the brain, triggering cravings in anticipation of experiencing pleasure and relief through retaliation.... The hallmark of addiction is compulsive behavior despite harmful consequences. Trump's unrelenting efforts to retaliate against those he believes have treated him unjustly (including, now, American voters) appear to be compulsive and uncontrollable.... Reports suggest he has been doing this for much of his life. He seems powerless to stop. H also seems to derive a great deal of pleasure from it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump seemed to recognize early on that he was prone to addiction. It's the reason he doesn't drink. Kimmel says we should have compassion for Trump because he's sick. Sorry, I guess I need to go to WhinersAnon, because I don't feel sorry for Trump. At all.
Marie: Yesterday, Trump did a flyover in Marine 1 to salute his Proud Boy fans, who took a brief break from protesting the election results, stabbing people & burning Black Lives Matter banners in D.C. to cheer on Trump. (Related stories linked yesterday & below.) Akhilleus, in today's Comments, dubs this taxpayer-funded maneuver the "Fat Fuck Flyover." Works for me. For some of us of a certain age, it's impossible not to speculate that Saturday's flyover may be a precursor to Trump's plans for a Grand Finale on January 20:
Washington, D.C. Peter Hermann, et al., of the Washington Post: "Nearly three dozen people were arrested during a night of unrest in downtown Washington that began Saturday with rallies supporting President Trump and descended into chaos and violence as a group with ties to white nationalism roamed the streets looking to fight. One of those arrested was 29-year-old Phillip Johnson of the District, who was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon in connection with at least one of four stabbings that occurred." ~~~
~~~ Jack Jenkins of Religion News: "People reportedly affiliated with the hate group Proud Boys tore down Black Lives Matter signs belonging to churches in Washington Saturday night (Dec 12), setting at least one aflame. The damage to the signs came as the city endured a wave of violence after supporters of ... Donald Trump flocked to the nation's capital to protest President-elect Joe Biden's election victory. In a pair of widely-shared Twitter videos, a group of people identified by conservative outlet Daily Caller as Proud Boys can be seen tearing down a Black Lives Matter sign -- which bears the logo of Asbury United Methodist church -- and then setting it on fire. The group of mostly white men, many adorned in the black-and-yellow colors often worn by Proud Boys, then begin to cheer and chant expletive-ridden anthems.... Another Washington church, Luther Place Memorial, claimed in a series of Instagram posts that their Black Lives Matter sign was stolen and replaced three times since Friday, when Trump supporters first began to arrive in the city." ~~~
~~~ Update. Allison Klein of the Washington Post: "A Black Lives Matter banner and sign were torn from two historic Black churches in downtown D.C. and destroyed during pro-Trump protests Saturday night. D.C. police said they are investigating the events as potential hate crimes." ~~~
~~~ Washington State. Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "Police in Washington state have arrested an armed right-wing protester on charges of first-degree assault Saturday in Olympia, the state capital, on suspicion of shooting a left-wing protester during demonstrations fueled by baseless claims that President Trump had been wrongly denied reelection. Authorities identified the alleged shooter as a 25-year-old man from Shoreline, a city north of Seattle, but did not release a name. He remains in custody."
David Siders of Politico: "The down-ballot parroting of Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud began right after the election. But in the weeks since, it has evolved into a self-sustaining phenomenon of its own. Republican candidates for House, legislative and gubernatorial races in more than half a dozen states are still refusing to concede. Echoing the president, these candidates are an early sign of what Republicans say will be a sustained, post-Trump effort to tighten voting restrictions and to reverse measures implemented in many states to make voting easier. They also may mark the beginning of a Trump-inspired trend of candidates who never fold -- they just fade away after weeks and months of unsubstantiated allegations of fraud." MB: This is something I missed completely; even candidates who lost by as much as 70 percent! are claiming fraud & "irregularities." As many have observed, the only "real votes" are votes for Republicans. (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: Some conser-vo-tive pundits are beginning to suspect something may be amiss: ~~~
~~~ (1) Karl Rove, speaking on Fox "News" Sunday: Trump "is on the edge of looking like a sore loser."
~~~ (2) David French: "The frenzy and the fury of the post-election period has laid bare the sheer idolatry and fanaticism of Christian Trumpism. A significant segment of the Christian public has fallen for conspiracy theories, has mixed nationalism with the Christian gospel, has substituted a bizarre mysticism for reason and evidence, and rages in fear and anger against their political opponents -- all in the name of preserving Donald Trump's power."
Georgia. So Much Losing. AP: "... Donald Trump has lost his latest legal challenge seeking to overturn Georgia's election results, with the state Supreme Court's rejection late Saturday of a case from Trump's campaign and Georgia Republican Party Chairman David Shafer. The suit - similar to other Trump team legal challenges, which made baseless allegations of widespread fraud in Georgia's presidential election - was initially filed Dec. 4, then rejected by the Fulton County Superior Court because the paperwork was improperly completed and it lacked the appropriate filing fees. The case was subsequently appealed directly to the state Supreme Court, asking justices to consider the case before Monday's meeting of the Electoral College. In a brief order, justices wrote that 'petitioners have not shown that this is one of those extremely rare cases that would invoke our original jurisdiction.'"
The O'Briens' Excellent European Vacation. Glen Johnson of Axios: "National security adviser Robert O'Brien is taking his wife on a holiday tour of the romantic Mediterranean and European capitals, including seeking a private tour of the Louvre despite it being closed because of coronavirus restrictions, people familiar with the trip tell Axios.... The White House announced the Paris stop shortly after an inquiry from Axios, but the entirety of the trip -- which also includes stops in Tel Aviv, Rome and London -- is causing consternation among O'Brien's hosts and questions about the need for his wife to tag along. The White House announced today that O'Brien would be traveling to Paris on Monday to lead a U.S. delegation to the 60th anniversary of the signing of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Convention. The release did not detail that O'Brien's wife, Lo-Mari, would be joining him."
Ramsey Touchberry & Naveed Jamali of Newsweek: "An investigation from the independent government watchdog that oversees the Department of Veterans Affairs concluded Thursday that a Republican member of Congress was involved in an orchestrated campaign by V.A. Secretary Robert Wilkie to disparage the reputation of a female veteran who alleged she was sexually assaulted at a V.A. facility. The 68-page report...stated that three witnesses said ... that Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) gave him information about the female veteran that could erode her credibility. Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, served in the same unit as the female veteran, Andrea Goldstein.... [Furthermore] V.A. Inspector General Michael Missal characterized the handling of Goldstein's allegations by Wilkie, an appointee of President Donald Trump, and other senior agency officials as 'troubling.'" --s
Georgia Senate Race. Sarah Polus of the Hill: "Sen. Kelly Loeffler's (R-Ga.) campaign on Sunday condemned the white supremacist with whom she took a photo and said the senator didn't know who he was at the time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ... reported.... The photo in question, which was taken at a campaign event Friday, depicts the senator smiling next to Chester Doles, a reported former leader of the Klu Klux Klan who was sentenced to prison for the 1993 beating of a black man, according to The Baltimore Sun. The AJC reported that Doles also has ties to the Hammerskins, also known as Hammerskin Nation, defined as the 'best organized, most widely dispersed and most dangerous Skinhead group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Progressive Jewish advocacy group Behind the Arc ... shared the image to Twitter and condemned Loeffler. 'This is who @KLoeffler is proudly appealing to,' the group wrote alongside the photo."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "The editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal [Paul Gigot] accused strategists for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. of instigating a coordinated response to an op-ed article published Friday evening that called on Jill Biden, Mr. Biden's wife, to refrain from referring to herself as 'Dr. Biden' because she is not a medical doctor, but rather holds a doctorate in education.... 'My guess is that the Biden team concluded it was a chance to use the big gun of identity politics to send a message to critics as it prepares to take power. There's nothing like playing the race or gender card to stifle criticism.'" MB: If confederates had a whining contests, like kindergarters, they would all get prizes. Maybe we should ask the brain-study guy James Kimmel if wingeritis is an early sign of grievance addiction .~~~
AND What About This, Paul? Zachary Petrizzo of Mediaite: “Wall Street Journal higher education reporter Melissa Korn ripped into her own publication's opinion side on Saturday, following the WSJ running an op-ed critical of soon-to-be First Lady Dr. Jill Biden using 'Dr.' ahead of her name. 'I cannot bring myself to include a link, because why give it more air? But that op-ed belittling Jill Biden, urging her to drop the Dr., mocking her research on community college, likening her degree to an honorary doctorate, is disgusting,' Korn stated via Twitter." MB: Wow! Biden isn't even president yet; still, he can make reporters cower, diss their own rag & do his bidding. Trump couldn't seem to do that when he was president*.
Beyond the Beltway
David Waldstein & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Following years of protests from fans and Native American groups, the Cleveland Indians have decided to change their team name, moving away from a moniker that has long been criticized as racist, three people familiar with the decision said Sunday. The move follows a decision by the Washington Football Team of the N.F.L. in July to stop using a name long considered a racial slur, and is part of a larger national conversation about race that magnified this year amid protests of systemic racism and police violence. Cleveland could announce its plans as soon as this week, according to the three people.... Cleveland spent much of the year before the 2019 season phasing out the logos and imagery of the cartoon mascot Chief Wahoo. One option that the team is considering, two of the people said, is moving forward without a replacement name -- similar to how the Washington Football Team proceeded -- then coming up with a new name in consultation with the public."
Way Beyond
China. Sky News (Australia): "A major leak containing a register with the details of nearly two million CCP [Chinese Communist Party] members has occurred -- exposing members who are now working all over the world, while also lifting the lid on how the party operates under Xi Jinping, says Sharri Markson[, a Sky News host]. Ms Markson said the leak is a register with the details of Communist Party members, including their names, party position, birthday, national ID number and ethnicity. 'It is believed to be the first leak of its kind in the world,' the Sky News host said.... Ms Markson said the leak demonstrates party branches are embedded in some of the world's biggest companies and even inside government agencies.... Ms Markson said the leak is a significant security breach likely to embarrass Xi Jinping.... Ms Markson said the data was extracted from a Shanghai server by Chinese dissidents, whistleblowers, in April 2016, who have been using it for counter-intelligence purposes." --s
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Reader Comments (18)
The Orange Menace is still spending taxpayers’ money like a lottery winner in a casino. To cheer on violent white supremacists, he hops into Marine One for a Fat Fuck Flyover. The DoD estimates one of these Me-Me-Me junkets at more than $24,000.
All to celebrate dangerous, weapon-wielding, bigoted thugs,
That’s more money than many Americans make in a good year.
Sorry, Fatty, I want my money back. I don’t want you using my money to make yourself look good by bowing before ignorant racists.
So Fatty has delayed the White House staff line cutting planned to get his dweebs vaccinated before anyone else. I guess it’s because he’s already “cured” and is now “immune”. He doesn’t really give a shit about anyone else. You can bet if he didn’t believe his bullshit about being immune he’d be first in line, like that time he shoved his way to the front for a picture at the NATO summit. The Fat Fascist always comes first.
Last night 60 minutes was riveting: a segment on "Excited Delirium" , a made up condition in order to excuse police from "putting down" mostly blacks; Saudi fugitives escaping justice in the U.S.; and a California Hospital system that has become a behemoth that has negative consequences.
60 minutes Dec 13
Since it's Monday and we have a whole week ahead lets keep in mind the words of another Donald, who wasn't as crazy as Fatty and fancied himself as some kind of philosopher. Is he still alive? I wonder.
"We know there are known knowns: there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns: that is to say we know there are things we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns the ones we don't know we don't know."
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Defense Department
briefing, Fe. 12, 2002
@PD: Actually, you don't even have to be black. A couple years ago a house in the neighborhood was rented over the weekend to a group of 18 to 20 year olds. At one point, they were climbing out the upstairs windows onto the roof and running and screaming, chasing each other around. Being the concerned citizens we are, my husband called the police.
Two squad cars pulled up to our house. Four officers jumped out and sauntered up to our front porch with hands on guns. The leader was female with an attitude from hell.
First words out of her mouth: what's the problem here?
We explained why we had called 911. Next words out of her mouth: are those kids doing drugs?
At this point we were somewhat irritated and my husband says something like why don't you go find out, that's what we pay you for.
Next words out of her mouth as she walks closer, still with hand on gun: listen here, don't sass me or you're in big trouble.
I opened the front door, grabbed my husband and pulled him into the house and locked the door.
Our local police department has since been disbanded. We rely on the county sheriff's department.
I haven't called 911 since that encounter.
I was extremely surprised to read a piece by Kara Swisher in the NYT this morning about the unveiling of a new autonomous vehicle today. It's being made by a company named Zoox. I hadn't heard until now that they had been purchased by Amazon this past summer.
I had direct hands-on involvement, from early 2018 until early 2020, with the development and assembly of several iterations of the drive modules at one of their suppliers. We on the team joked that it looked like a rolling toaster. I called it the Pushmi-pullyu vehicle because it contains two identical drive modules, one at each end. This provides redundancy in case one unit fails, but also enables equal performance going "forward" and "backward". I use quotes because there is no specific front or back of the car (it doesn't need to turn around). Even the lights switch function. When going "forward" they function as headlights and turn signals. When going "backward" they switch to become taillights and turn signals. It holds four passengers, two at each end facing each other like a stagecoach.
I saw completed vehicles for the first time during a visit to their facility in CA in June 2019. They looked pretty cool even though they were clad in zebra camo. They're small on the outside but the interior was roomy. The odd thing was seeing them being driven, without a driver, by one of the engineers standing outside it holding a remote device similar to a drone controller.
For more info, check out their website here.
So if I get a Zoox, how well will my toast come out? Can I tell it I want the bread (or bagel or whatever) lightly toasted, for instance? Does it do only giant slices of bread? What about crumbs?
I'm not an especially good driver (not that bad, either). I still think I want a vehicle I can drive myself. But maybe in five years, I'll change my mind. But I am concerned about the quality of the toast. And whether I have to empty the crumb catcher every day.
@Bea, you won't be able to buy one. They are intended to be owned and operated as a fleet of robo-taxis in densely populated cities. They'll be called using an app on your phone. The vehicles will return to a central facility for charging, cleaning, maintenance, and repairs. If there is a problem with a drive module, it can be swapped out for a good one in a very short time to get the car back on the road. The faulty unit would then be repaired and put into inventory as a spare, rather than tying up a vehicle for days.
I don't know about any settings or crumbs. But I imagine that in these days of the coronavirus they may be considering installation of UVC lights to disinfect the interiors between passengers. I trust that they'll include sensors to detect for occupants before turning on the UVC source. Otherwise, they will become toast.
Marie,
Crumb catchers. Are those the investigators going after the Trump Crime Family?
I am no Luddite, far from it. But full reliance on robo-anythings comes with huge potential downsides. This morning I got up early to check my kid’s remote learning assignments for the day (I’m Professor Daddy since schools have been closed). His homework and teacher videos are all on Google Classroom.
This morning, Google was down. Dead. Kaput. She a-no work-a no more. So I checked some non-Google sites. Google, YouTube, Gmail, and a raft of other Google tools and apps were experiencing a worldwide outage. Europe was in the middle of the workday. Now, there are plenty of other options, but as more and more people and companies rely on Google for things like email and cloud storage, an outage of even a few hours could be really bad. I was thinking of people waiting to board planes who might be trying to pull up an e-ticket from their gmail account. Sorry pal, no ticky, no take off. If you needed access to files stored on Google Docs (plenty of companies do remote collaboration this way), you were out of luck.
As we become more reliant on technology most people don’t understand and couldn’t fix even if they did, life becomes potentially much dicier.
Now just imagine an outage across a wide spectrum of the internet. I remember reading a long think piece in the journal “Foreign Affairs” about 20 years ago, or more, about the need for us to protect against cyber terrorism. And for the last four years we’ve had a complete idiot in charge who loved cyber terrorism, as long as it helped him. So he removed protections and actively sought to undermine a more robust system of cyber defense. And now we find that his Russian pals have been reading emails from government departments.
A massive internet outage is not an impossibility. I’d be interested to hear the reasons for this morning’s Google outage. Was it a bad day at the virtual office, shit happening, or a test run?
I guess we’ll see.
Please, someone, explain to me how the Trump National Security Advisor is going on a romantic getaway to Paris—with his wife—while Russians are going through his sock drawer looking for stuff they can use against us.
I suppose anytime you add the descriptor “Trump” to anything, it has an instant negating factor. It’s like those logic statements “A” and “Not A”. So adding “Trump” to “National Security” anything automatically translates as Not National Security, like “Trump Justice Department” means “Not a Justice Department”.
Still and all, running off to a conference where neither you nor Trump has anything to offer, with your wife, on the taxpayers’ dime, in the middle of a vital transition of power, and while foreign agents are making a mockery of your “security” bona fides?
Only a Trump appointee.
I guess they’re all trying to see how much silverware they can cram into their ditty bags before they’re all kicked out.
Fuckers, right to the curtain.
I'm assuming the Covid deep clean is absolutely necessary for the incoming admin., but my hunch is also that it'll be done for *other* national security reasons. Nobody would put it past the current criminal entreprise from "wire tapping" rooms for Drumpf or even foreign interests (Israel, Russia, Saudis...) given that projection is his number one tell and that he'll be very curious to know who's coming after him and his family for all the crimes and scandals they'll be leaving behind in shredded documents and wiped servers.
I semi-expect someone will find a stash of papers behind the new tennis pavillon drowned in bleach given that the strategy worked so well for Hillary. Moving day on January 20th is going to be a wild clusterf#@k.
Guess that's why I couldn't get an answer when I went to Googles and
asked for a list of trump's greatest accomplishments for the last 4
years. Or possibly they couldn't find any worthwhile ones. And
signing a bill from Congress that you haven't bothered to read doesn't
count.
The one accomplishment that comes to mind though is that we found
out who a lot of crooks, criminals, racists, grifters, idiots, etc. were
during those 4 years. All of their pictures should hang in the trump
library.
Forrest,
There'll be plenty of room for pictures in a Trump library. There won't be any books, except for the odd porn mag or two.
RIP John le Carré (David Cornwell). His work will be missed as will his finely attenuated sense of the ways in which morality and moral codes can be twisted to fit desired (even necessary) ends. I first read "A Murder of Quality" as a senior in High School. After that, it was off to the races. As the Smiley-Karla books came out, they were instantly devoured. After the Wall came down, I wondered what he would do for an encore. Silly me. The world is full of nasty and notorious scumbags, opposed by sometimes morally tainted, but decent people who try to stop them or at least unhook their baggage cars.
Le Carré was an excellent novelist, not just a genre writer, and his modulated sense of what nations and organizations and those they co-opt to achieve those ends will do to gain and maintain power puts the standard Decider-Cheney-Trump childish view of white hats and black hats into the shade where it belongs.
The ability to see ourselves clearly, without the mystifying overlay of presumptuous self regard is a talent devoutly to be wished, but one sorely lacking in this age of Trumpian narcissism and willful ignorance. This was the heart of most of John le Carré's best work.
Democrats (and all of us), as we move out of the treasonous morass we've been shoved into need to remember what's been done to us, and the country, in the name of right-wing ideological purity and delusional power sickness, and not allow ourselves to be put off our guard by the liars and crooks. As master spy George Smiley once put it, "Survival is an infinite capacity for suspicion".
@Akhilleus: Thanks for sharing your problem with the Googles & the YouTubes. I had the same problem here and only decided it wasn't "me" when the NYT front page wouldn't load either. I do a "must-do" email exchange every morning on gmail, so I was mildly concerned, but everything came back after 45 minutes or so.
Marie,
Don't want to turn your head, but your comment on the electoral votes above convinced me you might be even wittier than your esteemed predecessors.
My thanks on this gray Western Washington day.
Just read Barr's resignation letter.
Once a toad(y), always a toad(y).
And clear indication he never read the Mueller report.
Big Fatty fires Little Fatty. I’m sure Barr hopes this late “rat deserting the ship” move will make him the star of a Profiles in Courage reboot. Sorry to say, it won’t even make him a leading character in Profiles in Porridge, his moral core not being sturdy enough to qualify as runny oatmeal.
So who next? Word has it that the Orange Menace is going back to his roots for his next AG: Vinnie Boombah, graduate of the Don Corleone School of Legal Leg Breaking. Asked for a comment, Mr. Boombah shouted “Get the fuck away from me, I’ll break your face!”
Fatty applauded Vinnie’s diplomatic demeanor and promised that certain people would be sorry. More later.