;)
The Commentariat -- February 16, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Marie: Reality Chex was down for more than an hour this morning. The problem was with Squarespace. Obviously, it's back up, but I had trouble posting a comment, so be sure to save your comment before you click on "Create Comment."
Trump & Rudy Sued for Violating anti-KKK Law. Jessica Schneider of CNN: "... Donald Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani are being accused of conspiring with the far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to incite the January 6 insurrection in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court by the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. The suit cites a post-Civil War law designed to combat violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan. The lawsuit, filed by Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson in his personal capacity, is the first civil action filed against the former President related to the attack at the US Capitol...." ~~~
~~~ Trump Dumps Rudy. Marie: According to CNN, Donald Trump has fired Rudy Giuliani. Trump's office sent out what was described as a "curt" notification that Rudy was out. I'll get up a link to a print report when one becomes available.
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats will renew their focus this week on passing President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, as they face a mid-March deadline when enhanced unemployment benefits expire, if Congress don't act in time. With ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial out of the way in the Senate, Democrats are preparing to push the legislation through a few final procedural hoops before an expected floor vote next week in the House. From there, the legislation would go to the Senate. Biden is participating in a CNN town hall Tuesday night to discuss the coronavirus, the economy and other issues. He is likely to use the opportunity to promote his relief plan...."
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci said in an interview with 'Axios on HBO' that he worried about contracting the coronavirus during the Trump administration because of its lax approach to the virus. Fauci, who is 80 years old and has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for over three decades, said that his age category was always in the back of his mind particularly when he visited the White House under ... Trump."
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Aamer Madhani & Rob Gillies of the AP: "A new-old ritual is taking shape in the Biden White House, one that starts with bulky briefing packages, war-gaming the 'what-ifs,' and Oval Office discussions about how to talk to this or that particular U.S. ally or adversary. Twelve times since he took office, President Joe Biden has dialed up a world leader after reinstituting what was a long-held White House standard mothballed by Donald Trump: vigorous preparation. Gone are unnecessary digressions and over-the-top cajoling or haranguing of fellow heads of state. The changes to telephone diplomacy have been about both style and substance as Biden has sought to send the message to foreign leaders -- many embittered by Trump's habit of berating his counterparts and conflating personal interests with U.S. national security -- that Biden is determined to reset the U.S. relationship with the world."
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress will move to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, including facts 'relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Monday. In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House, Ms. Pelosi also promised to move forward in coming weeks with emergency funding legislation 'for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol' after consulting with retired Gen. Russel L. Honoré, whom she had asked to examine security on Capitol Hill."
"Because of Mitch's Filibuster™." James Sattler of USA Today: "... 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]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "To [lead House manager Jamie] Raskin [D-Md.] and the eight other managers, [Mitch] McConnell's speech was at once a vindication and an insult, showing that they'd proved their case, and that it didn't matter. McConnell voted to acquit on a manufactured technicality, arguing that a former president is 'constitutionally not eligible for conviction.' His bad faith is awe-inspiring; it was he who refused to move forward with a trial while Trump was still in office. With his split-the-baby solution to Trump's manifest guilt, McConnell seemed to be trying to stay on the right side of his caucus while calming corporate donors who've cut off politicians who supported the insurrectionists. But -- and here's the important part -- McConnell signaled openness to Trump's prosecution in other forums.... McConnell has at least stripped away some of the taboo about prosecuting a former president." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I would add this. Convicting Trump of incitement to riot is a tough row to hoe. First, the standard for criminal conviction is higher than the Senate's, because the Senate can decide for itself what constitutes "incitement." Second, a criminal trial requires a lot more leg-work than does a Senate trial. Hundreds of witnesses would have to be interviewed & deposed, and many of those would have to testify at trial, so they would have to be prepped, too. Some -- like, say, Kevin McCarthy -- would fight subpoenas. Two-faced Mitch of course knows this & no doubt is counting on it. I do think there's a good chance Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis can make a winnable case against Trump, but even there, as a first offender, a convicted criminal Trump might get off with community service (with any luck, at an Atlanta recycling center bagging cat litter). ~~~
~~~ Daniel Goldman, in a Washington Post op-ed, raises another problem with any trial of Donald Trump: :Trump's propensity for witness tampering, intimidation and retaliation is well known and began long before the 2020 election. During his first impeachment inquiry, he threatened the whistleblower on Ukraine and attacked Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, among others.... In addition, the Mueller report documented Trump's effort to intimidate former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen after he decided to cooperate with authorities. The violence on Jan. 6 places Trump's threats in a different light. His'Stop the Steal' campaign has created a loosely coordinated group of domestic terrorist organizations ready to inflict harm at his command. He may have lost the ability to issue a mean tweet, but his threats now come with violent supporters appended to them.... Witnesses [with direct knowledge of Trump's part in the Jan. 6 insurrection] were apparently unwilling or afraid to cooperate undermined the entire proceeding."
Ron Johnson Trying Hard to Keep "Stupidest Senator" Status. Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in a new interview said he didn't think the Jan. 6 Capitol riot seemed like 'an armed insurrection' and praised former President Trump's Senate impeachment trial attorneys following his acquittal.... 'The group of people that supported Trump, the hundreds of thousands of people who attended those Trump rallies, those are the people that love this country,' Johnson [said on a Milwaukee radio show]... 'They never would have done what happened on Jan. 6. That is a group of people that love freedom; that's a group of people we need to unify and keep on our side.'... He accused House impeachment managers of editing the videos they presented as evidence in the Senate impeachment trial.... Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, has argued the defense 'eviscerated' the Democratic prosecutors and 'blew their case out of the water.' After voting to acquit Trump, Johnson clashed with Mitt Romney on the Senate floor over his vote to convict." ~~~
~~~ In fairness to Ron, his stupidity makes him a fine example of the Trump/GOP base. ~~~
~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "A petition is being circulated among Utah Republicans on social media to censure Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his vote to convict former President Trump in last week's Senate impeachment trial.... The petition, made with Google Forms, does not say who is promoting the censure or how many people have signed the document.... [Petitioners] They argue that Romney's willingness to move forward with this year's trial and his subsequent conviction vote 'intentionally violate the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendment Rights' of Trump, noting the senator 'appears to be an agent for the Establishment Deep State.'" ~~~
~~~ Dan Merica & Devan Cole of CNN: "The North Carolina Republican Party central committee voted Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict ... Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial -- a move that made him the latest GOP senator to be reprimanded by his state party for siding with Democrats in the trial.... n a statement released after the vote, the committee members said the unanimous vote was aimed at punishing Burr for his 'vote to convict former President Trump in the impeachment trial which he declared to be unconstitutional.'" ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "As the Republican Party censures, condemns and seeks to purge leaders who aren't in lock step with Donald J. Trump, Adam Kinzinger, the six-term Illinois congressman, stands as enemy No. 1 -- unwelcome not just in his party but also in his own family, some of whom recently disowned him. Two days after Mr. Kinzinger called for removing Mr. Trump from office following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, 11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter, saying he was in cahoots with 'the devil's army' for making a public break with the president.... Mr. Kinzinger has drawn praise from Democrats, but he is not anyone's idea of a progressive. His campaign website trumpets his longstanding opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and he is an opponent of abortion rights and increased taxes. He first won his seat in Congress with Sarah Palin's endorsement." Mediaite has a summary item here.
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "After historic turns as House impeachment managers for the Senate trial of ... Donald J. Trump, both [Delegate Stacey] Plaskett [D-V.I.] and [Rep. Joe] Neguse [D-Colo.] emerged from the proceedings with national platforms and as high-profile faces of a Democratic coalition that is younger and more diverse than its leaders.... Both lawmakers said they hope to turn their newfound prominence into gains for their constituents as President Biden barrels forward with an ambitious agenda for economic stimulus and other overhauls. And in interviews after the trial's conclusion, both said they were conscious of their roles as among the few Black lawmakers who took part in an impeachment of a former president whose race-baiting and anti-immigration stances helped create deep divisions in the country."
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "... at least 30 police or other law enforcement officers ... attended the demonstration on Jan. 6. Many are now facing internal investigations and three have thus far been arrested on federal charges related to breaching the Capitol. Their presence has brought to a boil questions that have been simmering for years: How many law enforcement officers nationwide subscribe to extreme or anti-government beliefs, and how, precisely, can agencies weed them out? Leaders in law enforcement say that public servants must be held to a higher standard than private individuals when it comes to accepting the results of an election and performing their duties. Police chiefs from the largest North American cities, meeting in an online conference this past week, agreed to work together to try and block members of far-right organizations or others with radical views from entering their ranks.... Concerns about extremism in police ranks have long existed, but after Sept. 11 chasing jihadists took priority over chasing domestic threats, senior police officials and law enforcement experts said."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ 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 AND A HALF 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?"
Georgia Senate Race. David Perdue Wants His Old Job Back. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "David Perdue, the one-term U.S. senator from Georgia who lost a runoff election last month against Senator Jon Ossoff, filed paperwork on Monday night indicating that he plans a comeback effort -- this time against Georgia's other new senator, Raphael Warnock."
Kareem Fahim & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Simmering hostility between Turkey's government and the Biden administration burst into the open Monday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of supporting Kurdish militants and his Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador. The latest outburst came a day after Ankara said that 13 Turkish hostages being held in northern Iraq by the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, had been found executed by their captors. The State Department issued a statement condemning the killings but suggesting the PKK's involvement had yet to be confirmed. Erdogan dismissed the statement as 'ridiculous' and criticized ongoing U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria who are affiliated with the Iraq-based PKK. 'You are behind them,' he said."
Mustafa Salim of the Washington Post: "A civilian contractor was killed and a U.S. service member was injured Monday night when coalition forces in Irbil were stuck by 'indirect fire,' U.S. officials said. The rocket fire landed near a military base that hosts coalition forces in the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region. Five civilian contractors were injured, tweeted coalition spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto. A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe an evolving assessment, said the attack appeared to involve 14 rockets that targeted a U.S. facility in the vicinity of the Irbil airport."
A Medal Delayed -- 56 Years. Dave Philipps of the New York Times: On "June 18, 1965, and according to after-action reports, 26-year-old Captain [Paris] Davis was suddenly the last American standing with a ragtag company of 90 South Vietnamese volunteers, pinned down by hundreds of enemy troops. Certain that he was as good as dead, he began fighting without fear of consequence, pulling his M-16 trigger with his pinkie [-- a grenade had just torn off his trigger finger --], sprinting repeatedly into open ground to rescue teammates, and refusing to leave the fight, even after being shot several times. He made it out alive, and was immediately nominated for the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor. But the Army somehow lost the nomination. His frustrated commander resubmitted it, and inexplicably the nomination disappeared again. His teammates ... eventually came to believe the Army's inaction had nothing to do with what the captain had done in 1965, and everything to do with who he was: One of the first Black officers in the Special Forces.... In January. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller personally ordered an expedited review of the lost nomination, to be completed by March. The resulting report will then go up the chain to the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of Defense and finally President Biden. If they all sign off, Mr. Davis, now 81, may finally be recognized."
Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "Parler, the social network that drew millions of Trump supporters before disappearing from the internet, is back online a month after Amazon and other tech giants cut off the company for hosting calls for violence around the time of the Capitol riot. Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.
New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Admitting a degree of fault for the first time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that his administration's lack of transparency about the scope of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes in New York was a mistake. By failing to answer questions from state lawmakers, the public and the news media, Mr. Cuomo acknowledged, the state created a void that was 'filled with skepticism, and cynicism, and conspiracy theories which furthered the confusion.' But he stopped short of a full apology for his handling of information about the death toll in the state's nursing homes, an issue that has engulfed his administration in recent weeks. Speaking in the State Capitol, Mr. Cuomo made his first remarks since a top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, privately told some state lawmakers last week that the state had withheld data from the Legislature because it feared that the Trump administration would use the information to begin a federal civil rights investigation." An NPR story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
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...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "Millions of people in the United States were without power early Tuesday after a deadly winter storm bulldozed its way across the southern and central parts of the country, in places where such perilously frigid conditions tend to arrive just once in a generation. The massive storm was expected to bring snow, sleet and freezing rain to the Northeast, while the central part of the country braced for several more days of record low temperatures and continued power failures. More than four million customers across the country were without electricity early Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates live power data from utilities across the country. Most of the outages were in Texas, where power was interrupted Sunday and Monday because of storm damage or in rotating outages ordered by regulators." This is a live-blog. ~~~
~~~ The Weather Channel's main story is here. MB: It's still dark (at 6 am ET) where I live, but I can hear the ice storm outside.
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Reader Comments (8)
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/15/opinion/child-tax-credit.html?
In this one I encountered my long-standing difficulty with too many negatives, like in the following from today's Krugman:
"The usual argument against anti-poverty programs is that any form of aid that is tied to income reduces incentives for self-improvement, because households that manage to earn more money end up losing some of that aid. For example, Medicaid is available only to families with low enough income, so taking a job that pushes one’s income above that threshold leads to a loss of health benefits."
Here “against” and “anti” so close together are too much for me. I need a tally sheet to keep track and even then can’t always manage it.
Are the arguments to which Krugman refers against all anti-poverty programs or against only such programs tied to income?
Is his implication that because all anti-poverty programs must be tied to income, each necessarily has the same counter-productive incentive, so that the argument against one is an argument against all?
If so, seems instead to be an argument for UBI, so that each of us begins the economic race we’re fated to run at a reasonable starting place.
If that's what he meant, wish he'd said so more directly.
Now have the urge to go off on the bogus moral underpinnings of work, but I’m to lazy this morning to make the effort.
@Ken Winkes: If you think of "anti-poverty programs" as a thing (or rather things) this is not a double negative. I guess they're not called just plain ole "poverty programs," because of the GOP's penchant for "pro-poverty programs."
Got it, Marie. Not a standard double-negative.
But going further, it would seem that the "standard argument" against poverty (or anti-poverty) programs with their built-in economic disincentives is a damned if you do and damned if you don't proposition.
The claim: They don't work because they can't.
Of course, that's demonstrably not true, but while the argument has a nice intuitive feel to it and while it is not a double negative, it is a double whammy.
Glad RC is back up.
So, Christopher C. Miller stands back and stands by as His president*'s white supremacist insurrection fails to do pull off the steal of our election and then yells at a staffer to find him a black guy to hide behind. That least these people always stay on brand.
"N.A.A.C.P. Sues Trump and Giuliani Over Election Fight and Jan. 6 Riot
The civil rights group brought the suit on behalf of Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, with other Democrats in Congress expected to join as plaintiffs."
The real challenge for the millions of people without power, who are experiencing freezing temperatures without heat, will come later after it warms back up. All those pipes and toilets that froze and cracked are going to start leaking and flowing, like water does, downhill. The resulting damage will be horrendous and expensive.
Bad for the residents and insurance companies, but good for the plumbers, contractors and building-supply enterprises.
The Daily Show plays Jeopardy with Tucker Carlson. For once he gets the questions right.
Thanks RAS. I could only make it half way through Carlson's video before switching off this poster boy for the word "supercilious". And I bet he's got chronic halitosis, too.