The Commentariat -- February 15, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Shawn Boburg & John Swaine of the Washington Post: "Like many Trump supporters, conservative donor Fred Eshelman awoke the day after the presidential election with the suspicion that something wasn't right. His candidate's apparent lead in key battleground states had evaporated overnight. The next day, the North Carolina financier [pledged $2 million to True the Vote -- a fake right-wing 'election integrity' organization -- to fight what he believed was rampant voter fraud].... Now, he wants his money back. The story behind the Eshelman donation ... provides new insights into the frenetic days after the election, when baseless claims led donors to give hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse President Biden's victory. Trump's campaign and the Republican Party collected $255 million in two months, saying the money would support legal challenges to an election marred by fraud.... Eshelman has alleged in two lawsuits -- one in federal court has been withdrawn and the other is ongoing in a Texas state court -- that True the Vote did not spend his $2 million gift and a subsequent $500,000 donation as it said it would. Eshelman also alleges that True the Vote directed much of his money to people or businesses connected to the group's president, Catherine Engelbrecht." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie. Yo, Fred, there's a reason the AP didn't call states like Pennsylvania, Nevada & Georgia for days. If you had listened to MSNBC or CNN, instead of to Trump & Hannity, you could have saved yourself TWO MILLION DOLLARS. When I was a child, my mother made me read a NYT Mag story titled, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" The question here is, "If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?"

"Because of Mitch's Filibuster™." James Sattler of USA Today: "I... the lessons of both [Trump] impeachments were the same: The Republican Party cannot be trusted with our democracy.... Under Trump, Republicans lost the White House, the House and the Senate in one term -- something that hasn't happened since Herbert Hoover was president. But Trump also is the first modern president to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he came in -- something that also hasn't happened since Hoover. And there was the pandemic that left more than 400,000 Americans dead on Trump's watch, with 40% of those deaths being avoidable, according to the recent findings of a Lancet Commission.... Democrats now have less than two years to do everything they can to make sure America never faces another president who would turn a deadly mob on his own running mate and our government.... 'In the 87 years between the end of Reconstruction and 1964, the only bills that were stopped by filibusters were civil rights bills,' writes Adam Jentleson.... When Kentucky's Mitch McConnell become Senate minority leader in 2007, he began using the filibuster at a rate unprecedented in American history. What the filibuster actually does is make sure policies that are popular with average Democrats and Republicans -- universal background checks for gun buyers, raising the minimum wage, citizenship for DREAMers brought to this country illegally as kids -- have no chance of becoming law.... Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have assured McConnell they'll be the wind beneath his Filibuster.... These two senators must be convinced [to change their minds]."

Pennsylvania. GOP Plans to Gerrymander State Courts. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state's election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as 'futile' and 'a dangerous game.'... Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way. G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state's election results to aid ... Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges. The proposal would replace the current system of statewide elections for judges with judicial districts drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature. Those districts could empower rural, predominantly conservative areas and particularly rewire the State Supreme Court, which has a 5-to-2 Democratic lean. Democrats are now mobilizing to fight the effort, calling it a thinly veiled attempt at creating a new level of gerrymandering...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Remember those Presidents Day morphing videos that often appeared on Reality Chex? Now they can never happen again because any one that includes Joe Biden would have to include the SOB who sat in the Oval afore him. And there's no way Obama morphs into Whozit & Whozit morphs into Biden. Both would be insults. So that enjoyable morphing video is something else Whozit stole. ~~~

     ~~~ Robbed of the usual commemoration here of Presidents Day, I Googled the news for Presidents Day. All of the stories listed were about sales -- the best deals of teevees and refrigerators, etc. That's where we are.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "On a mission to rebuild institutional norms and help heal a hurting nation, Joe and Jill Biden are trying something novel after four years of the Trumps: a little tenderness. Since Inauguration Day last month, the first couple have been conspicuous in their frequent public displays of affection, from a fleeting kiss before boarding Marine One to a cozy morning stroll among oversized candy hearts on the White House North Lawn." ~~~

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden's allies say that with the distraction of the impeachment trial of his predecessor now over, he will quickly press for passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan before moving on to an even bigger agenda in Congress that includes infrastructure, immigration, criminal justice reform, climate change and health care. Mr. Biden has so far succeeded in pushing his agenda forward even amid the swirl of the impeachment, trial and acquittal of ... Donald J. Trump. House committees are already debating parts of the coronavirus relief legislation he calls the American Rescue Plan. Several of the president's cabinet members have been confirmed despite the Trump drama. And Mr. Biden's team is pressing lawmakers for quick action when senators return from a weeklong recess."

Nikki Carvejal, et al., of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to institute 'commonsense gun law reforms,' including widespread firearm sales background checks and a ban on assault weapons -- highlighting an 'epidemic of gun violence' in the US on the third anniversary of the deadly Parkland school shooting." The President's full statement is here.

Hope Yen of the AP: "... bipartisan support appear[s] to be growing for an independent Sept. 11-style commission to make sure that such a horrific assault [as took place January 6] could never happen again.... More investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré to lead an immediate review of the Capitol's security process. Lawmakers from both parties signaled on Sunday that even more inquiries were likely.... [Sen. Bill] Cassidy [R.-La.] said ... that as Americans hear all the facts, 'more folks will move to where I was.' He was censured by his state's party after [voting 'guilty'].... An independent 9/11 style commission, which probably would require legislation to create, would elevate the investigation a step higher, offering a definitive government-backed accounting of events." A New York Times story is here.

Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "Vandals targeted the home of one of ... Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers, spray-painting the word 'TRAITOR' in red on his driveway in suburban Philadelphia, police said. The vandalism occurred around 8 p.m. on Friday at attorney Michael van der Veen's residence in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, according to police.... [a township detective] said the graffiti was the only vandalism officers found on the van der Veen's property." MB: In a photo accompanying the story, the spray paint appears to be on the sidewalk leading up to the driveway and not on the driveway itself. That is, the spray-painted area is most likely in the public right-of-way and not on the van der Veens' private property. So I wouldn't call it vandalism. I'd call it "sidewalk art." Just sayin'.

Marie: RAS made a comment in yesterday's thread that made so much sense & in a way was so obvious, I'm ashamed I didn't think of it. If 43 (or fewer) Republicans truly thought the whole impeachment trial was unconstitutional, they could have sat it out back home, dedicating themselves to constituent services. If they were askeert of said constituents, they could have claimed they were in quarantine or something. That would have reduced the number of senators needed to reach two-thirds, and Trump could have been convicted. But no. They wanted to acquit the traitor. So they did. (I'm not sure what a "present" vote would do. If a bunch of senators voted "present," a two-thirds vote might still have required 67.) Anyhow, fuck the chicken traitors. And that means you, too, Mitch.

Marie: BTW, I predict this is the end of Donald Trump's political career. He's a bloated old racist, misogynist guy who might make some forays into the lands of Oath Keepers & Proud Boys, but otherwise he's done for. Adios, MoFo. ~~~

~~~ It Isn't Only Trump Who's in Trouble. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "Led with extraordinary grace by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a diverse and able group of prosecutors laid out an indelible record not only of what happened on Jan. 6 and why, but also Trump's irresponsibility throughout his term of office: his courting of the violent far right; his celebration of violence; his habit of privileging himself and his own interests over everything and everyone else, including his unrequitedly loyal vice president.... By tying themselves to Trump with their votes, most House and Senate Republicans made themselves complicit in his behavior. And Trump will prove to be even more of an albatross than Hoover, who, after all, had a moral core.... You can tell how worried Republicans are that they are now the Trump Party by the contortions of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who aided Trump almost to the end.... His words told the world who won the argument.... The fact that only seven Senate Republicans bolted should end the absurd talk that there is a burden on President Biden to achieve a bipartisan nirvana in Washington." Looks as if Republicans know that. ~~~

~~~ Cowards Lie Low. Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CBS' Margaret Brennan ended Sunday's Face the Nation with a note to viewers about Republicans.... 'We did offer invitations to over two dozen Senate Republicans to join us today. No one accepted.' And if that wasn't clear enough, Brennan later tweeted that these invitations were to senators 'following their votes to acquit former President Trump.'"

Marie: Most of the news today seems to be about what Mitch McConnell did & what Lindsey Graham thinks, and, frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "In recent weeks, U.S. coronavirus case data -- long a closely-watched barometer of the pandemic's severity -- has sent some encouraging signals: The rate of newly recorded infections is plummeting from coast to coast and the worst surge yet is finally relenting. But scientists are split on why, exactly, it is happening.... And every explanation is appended with two significant caveats: The country is still in a bad place, continuing to notch more than 90,000 new cases every day, and recent progress could still be imperiled, either by new fast-spreading virus variants or by relaxed social distancing measures." Among the explanations: better social distancing, seasonality, vaccinations, & well, less testing.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Marie Fazio of the New York Times: "The Los Angeles Police Department has opened an internal investigation after an inappropriate image of George Floyd, the man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last year, was reported to have been circulated in the department, officials said. The image was styled in an unspecified Valentine-like format with the words 'You take my breath away,' according to an internal memo posted on Twitter and what Chief Michel Moore told The Los Angeles Times on Saturday." MB: The LAPD used to be notoriously racist. Apparently that hasn't changed much.

Florida Residents Turn on Publix. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "After a member of Publix's founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January's deadly Capitol riots..., [Floridians are] joining ... a boycott of the Florida-based grocery chain that operates more than 1,200 stores across seven south-eastern states.... Publix is an institution in Florida, the company growing from Depression-era roots in the 1930s to a regional behemoth with 225,000 workers today, and its founding Jenkins family now worth $8.8bn, according to Forbes. It prides itself on a family-friendly image, luring customers with prominent buy-one-get-one deals and a range of popular sandwich subs, and boasts of being the largest employee-owned company in the US. Yet the company and its founders have donated often and generously to partisan, conservative causes, including more than $2m alone by Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the late company founder George Jenkins, to the Republican National Committee and Trump's failed re-election campaign.... Earlier this year, Publix donated donated $100,000 to a political action committee looking to secure [Gov. Ron] DeSantis's [R-Trump] re-election in 2022. Soon after, the governor awarded Publix a lucrative and exclusive contract to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in numerous stores."

Ohio. Indiana. Sarah Bahr of the New York Times: "The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has edited and apologized for an employment listing that said it was seeking a director who would work not only to attract a more diverse audience but to maintain its 'traditional, core, white art audience.'... Malina Simone Jeffers and Alan Bacon, the guest curators for the museum's upcoming 'DRIP: Indy's #BlackLivesMatter Street Mural' exhibition, scheduled to open in April, said in a statement on Saturday night that they had decided they could not remain as guest curators.... Kelli Morgan, who was recruited in 2018 to diversify the museum's galleries, resigned in July, calling the museum's culture 'toxic' and 'discriminatory' in a letter she sent to [museum director Charles] Venable, as well as to board members, artists and the local news media.... Venable, who has led the museum since 2012, has been criticized for catering to a popular audience with programming like an artist-designed miniature golf course at the expense of investing in traditional art experiences. He also instituted an $18 admission charge at the formerly free institution in 2015." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More than half of Cleveland's population is Black or Hispanic. I'll bet before Director Chuck there raised the price of admission from $00 to $18, a large percentage of visitors were not of the "traditional, core, white" persuasion. The museum's board has planned for Venable to stay on as president after it chooses a new director; this would be a good time to rethink Venable's continued employment. Not to worry, Chuck; you'd probably be great as director of the Trump Presidential* "Library" for White People. First curated exhibition: photos of the graffiti, broken exhibits, feces & blood, etc., Trump "patriots" left in the Capitol building.

Washington State. A Republican Prosecutor Quits. Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "When Arian Noma ran for prosecutor in a rural Washington county in 2018, he was a newcomer who vowed to stop the over-prosecution of crimes and seek bail only when necessary.... The 44-year-old Republican wanted to create a reentry support group for people released from incarceration and had other grand ideas, too, which he said would ultimately save taxpayers money.... But halfway through his four-year term, Noma resigned.... The final straw, Noma continued, was a series of 'racially motivated attacks.' Speaking publicly for the first time since his resignation, Noma -- whose ancestry includes Black, Native American and Filipino heritage -- told The Daily Beast that he believes the online harassment campaign had help from law enforcement and county colleagues, including people within his own office. He says the online smear campaign ... ramped up after he supported Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.... Voters, even those who didn't elect Noma, told The Daily Beast the county's conservatives turned on him after his Black Lives Matter support and positions on armed militias possibly violating state laws."

News Ledes

New York Times: “A line of fans queuing up to honor actor Cicely Tyson "began forming in the dark on Monday, hours before anyone would be allowed inside the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.... Ms. Tyson, who died on Jan. 28 at 96, lay at rest in the sanctuary of the church.... Fans from New York and far beyond, all inspired by her seven-decade acting career, waited their turn to say their last goodbye to the revered actress. She was a pioneering actress who won three Emmys, a Tony and an honorary Oscar, but her fame went beyond her awards. She challenged Hollywood on how it cast Black actors, and became a paragon for civil rights. But in East Harlem, where Ms. Tyson was born and raised to immigrant parents from Nevis, she was even more than that. She co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969 after a tumultuous year in the civil rights movement and after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, and continued to support the arts, albeit quietly. She had been a member of the Abyssinian Baptist Church for more than three decades...."

New York Times: "A sprawling winter storm pummeled a large swath of the United States on Monday, delivering heavy snowfall and icy conditions as temperatures plunged well below freezing. The coast-to-coast storm has knocked out power for several million people across the country. Ice-slicked roads have led to highway pileups and sent eighteen-wheelers careening off the pavement. The National Weather Service said early Monday that at least 150 million Americans were under ice or winter weather advisories.... The storm, which brought record low temperatures in Minnesota and dumped 11 inches of snow in Seattle, is now barraging parts of the country that are far less familiar with the worst of winter.... The temperatures in the middle of the country are expected to approach record lows.... In Texas, Austin was locked down for the worst winter storm in a generation." This is a live-blog. ~~~

     ~~~ The Weather Channel's main report on the winter storm is here. You can always check your local forecast by plugging in your ZIP Code on the Weather Channel's main page, then clicking on the bar beneath the town & temp that pops up for the report you want.

Comments

[PD Pepe]

NIHILISM WON:

Here is a piece from Masha Gessen that is the best run-down and analysis of the impeachment hearing I've come across. She posits that the hearing was an artifact of Trump's presidency, that it was "a battle of meaning against noise, against nothing–means–anything–and anything–and everything–is-the same nihilism–––––and nihilism won."
https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-defense-was-an-insult-to-the-impeachment-proceedings-and-an-assault-on-reason

And it would be great, some say, if we could erase all this as a blip on the landscape of political theatre––say, It's all behind us now, let's get on with the show. The truth is, it's just begun and the unraveling will take, maybe, years.

P.S. boy, oh, boy do I miss the morphing of those presidents but M.B. is right–the inclusion of Fatty's face would be enough to upchuck your breakfast of champions or leave coffee spittle on your screen.

and a shout out to RAS––good thinking!!!

[Ken Winkes]

Looks like there are many pieces to the Noma story (it is possible he's an occasional jerk), but considering the county's location (over tne mountains on the red side of the state) racism probably did play a part in it.

What puzzles me, as it often does in such cases is why anyone with dark skin would declare him or herself a Republican--anywhere in this country--since about 1972....

We frequently don't know enough to get a good or sometimes any sense at all of the whole story. This morning's e-edition of our local paper has a case in point.

It seems a young woman from my home town about twenty miles away was shot to death Saturday near a lake about 12 miles from here in a dispute over the theft of a political sign. The story says the disputants did not know one another.

That's it.

Having left that town more than fifty years ago, I hope I can be forgiven for being more interested in the identity of the sign than of the dead woman.

[Jay]

Does anyone know if President Biden can revoke the decision to provide Secret Service protection to Trump's spawn. As I see it, it is just one more scam to funnel federal dollars to Trump properties. If Qsay and Uday visit Mar-a-Lago or play golf at Bedminster or pay a visit to the Trump hotel in DC or Trump Tower in NYC, the Secret Service guardians will need rooms at a Trump property.

[Ken Winkes]

Apologies, Marie, for posting this one from Lindsay.

https://www.businessinsider.com/lindsey-graham-suggests-kamala-harris-impeachment-2021-2

But when does a false equivalency become a gag line?

When Laughable Lindsay says it.

[Akhilleus]

It's important to recognize that the cowardly traitors in Congress didn't only "acquit" Fatty of inciting an insurrectionist riot, they have implicitly gone on record saying that "Yes! The election was stolen!" The essence of the riot, it's raison d'etre, was to throw out the election results and install a dictator, in effect, overthrowing the government of the United States.

That First Amendment canard is bullshit and they all know it.

We already know that Republicans (the vast majority of them) are traitors. But this vote to acquit also aligns them with the forces of lies and the destruction of democracy if honest democratic elections challenge their hold on power.

An additional affect of this vote is to normalize challenges to legitimate elections. Look for a lot more of this in the very near future. Things will progress past voter suppression well into rigging and outright theft. Real election theft through the tossing out of legitimate ballots is in our future somewhere.

The Republican Party is all in on criminal, armed authoritarianism.

The fact that the Turtle and others who previously sniffed about how bad it was that Trump's brownshirts attacked them, are now all in on such attacks in the future. Looking around, these cowards see that Trump's brainwashed lemmings in the various Treason States are punishing anyone who speaks up against their Dear Leader and his crimes. They want no part of being "punished" for such insignificant things as honor, truth, justice, their oath of office, and the Constitution. Pshaw, such trifles are for Democrats, not for brave Republicans warrior for Donald.

They are all in on Trump's election theft lies. I don't care how many of them said different previously. The proof, as they say, is in the voting. Did they stand up for truth? No. They sat down, ran and hid. They hd a chance to renounce Trump's lies. They did not. In fact, they stand behind his lies.

They are saying that the election was stolen. And that Trump had every right to send his thugs to the Capitol.

It is imperative at this juncture that the maddeningly supine press start reporting these things as they should be. That this is treason. That lies are lies, not "misrepresentations" and the other weaselly euphemisms employed to be nice to authoritarians.

Will that happen? Sure. Right after I overthrow the Emperor Ming for control of the Planet Mongo.

[NiskyGuy]

Note that the Indianapolis Art Museum is in Indiana. I checked to make sure it wasn't an Ohio version of Columbus (the capital of Ohio, an interesting city in Indiana).

The White, Non-Hispanic population of Indianapolis is 56% as of 2016, but Marie's comments are certainly valid, no matter which state the city is in.

[Marie Burns]

@Jay: That's a good question, and I didn't find a direct answer via my primary source: the Googles. My guess is that the answer is yes for everyone but his 14-year-old son. According to a WashPo report, reprinted in MSN, "Under federal law, Trump, his wife, Melania Trump, and their 14-year-old son are the only members of his immediate family entitled to Secret Service protection after they leave office. The couple will receive it for their lifetimes, and Barron is entitled to protection until he turns 16."

The same report says, "Trump issued a directive to extend post-presidency Secret Service protection to his four adult children and two of their spouses, who were not automatically entitled to receive it. Trump also directed that three key officials leaving government continue to receive the protection for six months: former treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, former chief of staff Mark Meadows and former national security adviser Robert C. O’Brien, two people familiar with the arrangement said.... The 24-hour protection will focus on Trump’s grown children, although his grandchildren will receive protection that derives from being in proximity to their parents."

Isn't that special. Since Trump "issued the directive" as he was going out the door, no doubt Biden could "issue a directive" rescinding the special Secret Service details. I doubt he will bother. According to the WashPo, the special protections extend for only six months, so Biden most likely doesn't consider the blowback a rescission would cause to be worth the price.

Other high-profile political figures get special Secret Service protection when warranted. Barack Obama got Secret Service protection earlier in his 2008 campaign than is usual because of threats, and some Congressional officials -- like Nancy Pelosi -- have it now, too.

Trump might be right that the kidz need protection (never mind they can afford to provide their own), and if anything happened to any of the "special" protectees, there would be hell to pay.

[Ken Winkes]

On Eshelman, Everett Eclectic said:

Oh, the poor idiot with too much money.

For each of the last four years I have paid significant federal income taxes, and I got four years of Trump in return.

I'd like my money back, too.