;)
The Commentariat -- February 18, 2021
Afternoon Update:
You can watch NASA's Mars Rover landing live on NASA's page here. The New York Times has live updates here. MB: The Times also has what is supposed to be live video, but it took about 7 minutes to load. Update: "Touchdown confirmed."
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will need preapproval from a senior manager before trying to deport anyone who is not a recent border crosser, a national security threat or a criminal offender with an aggravated felony conviction, according to interim enforcement memo issued by the Biden administration Thursday. The narrower priorities are expected to result in a drop in immigration arrests and deportations. Biden officials said the new guidelines -- which will be in effect for the next 90 days -- will allow the agency to make better use of its resources while prioritizing public safety threats."
Ted's Excellent Adventure. Shane Goldmacher & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "As Texas was battered by an icy storm and widespread power losses that left millions of residents freezing and fearing for their safety, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas left the state on Wednesday and traveled to Mexico for a previously planned family vacation, according to a person with direct knowledge of the trip.... 'With school canceled for the week, our girls asked to take a trip with friends. Wanting to be a good dad, I flew down with them last night and am flying back this afternoon,' Mr. Cruz said, adding that ... his family had lost heat and power. Mr. Cruz insisted that he and his staff had been 'in constant communication' with state and local leaders during his brief Cancún trip.... In a radio interview on Monday, [Cruz] said..., '... Keep your family safe and just stay home and hug your kids.'..." As if Houston police didn't have enough to do in an outage crisis, Cruz requested that the police provide him "assistance upon arrival" at the Houston airport. Related story linked at the bottom of this entry. ~~~
~~~ Update: It seems Senator Ted & his staff were not exactly truthful. The "person with direct knowledge" described the Cancún excursion as a "previously planned family vacation." It turns out "previously planned" means "after the power went out" and "yesterday": Rebecca Shabad of NBC News reports that Cruz said Wednesday, "We had no heat and no power and yesterday my daughters asked if they could take a trip with some friends and Heidi and I agreed." As for Ted's "immediate return to Texas," Shabad reports, "A source with knowledge of the situation told NBC News that Cruz booked his return ticket at 6 a.m. Thursday but that he was initially booked to return home on Saturday." ~~~
~~~ Update Update. Although Cruz tried to blame the vacation trip on his pre-teen daughters, it turns out it was Ted's wife Heidi Cruz who demanded the vacation.
Not long ago, I suggested the feds should investigate Roger Stone's ties to the Proud Boys & Oath Keepers, with the idea that he may have served as a go-between for Trump & these groups. It turns out the feds were, in some respect, wa-a-ay ahead of me: ~~~
~~~ Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Federal prosecutors investigated some of the Proud Boys, including their leader Enrique Tarrio, and their ties to longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, in a previously undisclosed criminal probe in 2019 into whether the men intended to threaten a federal judge. The threat investigation did not lead to charges. But its existence, now revealed by CNN, sheds new light on how federal prosecutors had already looked into the far-right organization's ties to someone in ... Donald Trump's orbit before the siege of the US Capitol in January. Stone was accompanied on January 6 in DC by members of the paramilitary extremist group the Oath Keepers and Stone has long had close ties to prominent members of the fraternity-like pro-Trump group the Proud Boys. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are central to some of the most aggressive parts of the FBI and DC US Attorney's Office's Capitol siege investigation.... In February 2019, less than a month after Stone had been indicted for lying to Congress, he posted on Instagram a photo of the judge presiding over his case, Amy Berman Jackson. The photo showed crosshairs behind her head. Stone -- testifying at a court hearing in 2019 to explain the post -- said at the time that a person working with him on his social media accounts had chosen it. Then, at another hearing the same year, Stone named names. Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys, had been helping him with his social media, Stone said under oath, as had [other Proud Boys]...."
~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden has said repeatedly that he wants to create a path to citizenship for all of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States. But even as he prepares to push hard for the broadest possible overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, he and his aides have started to signal openness to more targeted approaches that could win citizenship for smaller, discrete groups of undocumented immigrants. At a CNN town hall on Tuesday, he said such efforts would be acceptable 'in the meantime.'" In a private phone call with activists on Wednesday, top immigration aides to Mr. Biden said they supported what they called a 'multiple trains' strategy, which could target citizenship for 'Dreamers'...; farm workers who have toiled for years in American fields; and others." ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden's allies on Capitol Hill plan to formally introduce his immigration overhaul in the House on Thursday morning, making good on his campaign promise to seek to modernize the nation's immigration system and provide a path to citizenship for millions of undocumented Americans. Senator Bob Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, and Representative Linda T. Sánchez, Democrat of California, are expected to hold a news conference to unveil the legislation, which is based on a proposal Mr. Biden href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/20/fact-sheet-president-biden-sends-immigration-bill-to-congress-as-part-of-his-commitment-to-modernize-our-immigration-system/">announced on his first day in office. Mr. Menendez's office said in a news release that the lawmakers would be joined by 10 of their colleagues for the announcement. White House officials provided details of the measure, which will be called the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, in a briefing with reporters Wednesday evening." An AP story is here.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "President Biden is butting heads with key Democrats after he rejected Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer's call to cancel up to $50,000 in debt held by federal student loan borrowers. 'I will not make that happen,' Biden told a borrower inquiring about the proposal at a town hall hosted by CNN in Milwaukee Tuesday. He later said: 'I'm prepared to write off a $10,000 debt, but not 50 because I don't think I have the authority to do it.' Schumer (D-N.Y.) disagrees. On Wednesday, he put out a joint statement with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) reiterating their belief that the Biden administration could use the same legal authority to cancel debt that ... Donald Trump's administration used last year to temporarily waive interest on federal student loans during the pandemic." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yesterday, NPR's "Fresh Air" indirectly addressed the issue: "Author Heather McGhee draws on a wealth of economic data to make the case that discriminatory laws and practices that target African Americans also negatively impact society at large." McGhee, who once headed Demos said, "At Demos, we once did a report showing where every member of Congress went to college and what it cost then and what it costs now just to remind the decision-makers, most of them white, that there's something drastic that changed. And it's not that young people became less industrious or less willing to sacrifice. It's that government walked away from the deal. And it really was around the same time that the college-going population became more diverse and that this conservative, anti-government ethos kicked in in our politics. And that has a lot to do - the social science is now very clear - with these racialized ideas of who is the public and what they deserve. And so you started to see this privatization of public colleges. So now the majority of states rely on tuition dollars for the majority of the costs of college. And we shifted at the federal level from grants to loans." Audio & the transcript of McGhee's interview with Dave Davies is here.
Dan Diamond & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "President Biden has selected Chiquita Brooks-LaSure to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, filling a major role in his health-care leadership team, according to four people.... Brooks-LaSure served in the Obama administration as a senior CMS official who helped implement the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansion and insurance-market reforms. She also worked on Capitol Hill as a Democratic staff member for the House Ways and Means Committee, building ties with then-Rep. Xavier Becerra, Biden's choice to lead the Health and Human Services department and who sat on the committee at the time." A Politico story is here.
The Pentagon Worked Around Misogynist-in-Chief. Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Last fall, the Pentagon's most senior leaders agreed that two top generals should be promoted to elite, four-star commands. For then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the tricky part was that both of the accomplished officers were women.... The two Pentagon leaders feared that any candidates other than white men for jobs mostly held by white men might run into turmoil once their nominations got to the White House. Mr. Esper and General Milley worried that if they even raised their names..., the Trump White House would replace them with their own candidates before leaving office. So the Pentagon officials ... held back their recommendations until after the November elections.... In the next few weeks, Mr. Esper's successor, Lloyd J. Austin III, and General Milley are expected to send the delayed recommendations to the White House, where officials are expected to endorse the nominations and formally submit them to the Senate for approval." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ben Makuch of Vice: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed it once employed an American neo-Nazi terror leader now based in Russia after he posted what he said were letters of appreciation DHS and the Pentagon sent him thanking him for his service. Earlier this month, Rinaldo Nazzaro, 47, founder and leader of the Base, one of the most violent American domestic terror groups in years, posted three undated letters from U.S. agencies lauding him for his service. One was from DHS -- an agency tasked with thwarting terrorism in the U.S. -- and two were on Marine Corps letterhead. All spoke glowingly of Nazzaro. Since late 2019, nine members of the Base, the group he founded, have been arrested in the U.S. for alleged crimes as wide-ranging as an assassination plot, ghost-gun making, plans for train derailments, and a mass shooting. The Canadian government has designated it as a terrorist group.... 'I can confirm that Rinaldo Nazzaro worked at DHS from 2004 to 2006,' said a DHS spokesperson." (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: News outlets are publishing scads of stories about the "Republican party in turmoil!" I find myself uninterested. I might link to a few of them that put forth any newsy developments, but the 19th "Trump & McConnell feuding" doesn't cut it for me. You won't have trouble finding such stories on your own.
For your viewing pleasure:
~~~ David Smith of the Guardian: "The fall of a leader with authoritarian instincts is usually symbolised by toppled statues and looted palaces. For Donald Trump, perhaps inevitably, it was the demolition of a failed casino. On Wednesday the former Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, was reduced to rubble in 20 seconds by 3,000 sticks of dynamite. It had fallen into such disrepair that chunks of the building had been tumbling to ground.... By the time it finally closed its doors in 2014, Trump Plaza was the worst-performing casino in Atlantic City.... A year later, Trump announced his world-changing run for US president, often citing Atlantic City as proof of his business acumen."
Alberto Luperon of Law & Crime: ">A self-described fascist who attended the University of California, Los Angeles was one of the people who sat in the vice president's chair in the Senate chamber during the U.S. Capitol siege, according to an affidavit from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Defendant Christian Secor, 22, of Costa Mesa, was arrested Tuesday morning, FBI Public Affairs Specialist Laura Eimiller told Law&Crime on the phone. In documents, authorities say tipsters stepped forward to identify Secor as the suspect wearing what the FBI described as a black jacket, black gloves, tan pants, a Make America Great Again ha featuring several stickers, and a T-shirt featuring 'an adulterated American flag' with the letters 'IMER' visible. He carried around a blue flag featuring the phrase 'America First.' Secor allegedly bragged about getting away with his actions at the U.S. Capitol.... Officials claimed Secor was among a group of rioters trying to push through a doorway blocked by 'no less than three police officers.' The group succeeded in opening the double doors, which let in dozens of others."
Marie: Richard Fausset & Campbell Robertson of the New York Times write an article headlined, "How a Hardcore Liberal Lawyer Joined the Pro-Trump Mob." The headline is false advertising; the story doesn't offer any "how-to"; the best it manages is to pinpoint the timing of McCall Calhoun's aversion to a local gun-control movement, which he opposed. I'm sure we all are aware of liberal causes with which we disagree or at least are not enthusiastic, and that hasn't turned us into "pro-Trump mobsters," who -- like Calhoun -- turn 180 degrees from supporting liberal & anti-racist causes to spewing violent threats against minorities and liberals, then joining the siege on the Capitol. I think people like Calhoun, who is 58, have developed a mental disease that makes them suddenly susceptible to conspiracy theories they would have scoffed at before they became ill. Whatever this disease is, it creates a profound personality change. The vast majority, IMO, of the Capitol rebels were lifetime nitwits -- white supremacists, neo-Nazis, rabid anti-abortionists, whatever. But a few, like Calhoun & the guy with the horns, are likely genuinely mentally ill.
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: Rush Limbaugh "was among the first [political commentators] to popularize -- and normalize, for many Republican politicians and voters -- the style of politics that would become synonymous with the Trump name. There was no person or subject that was off-limits for Mr. Limbaugh's ire. Black people, gay men and lesbians, feminists, people with AIDS, the 12-year-old daughter of a president, an advocate for victims of domestic violence.... He spun conspiracy theories about the supposed involvement of [President Bill] Clinton and his wife, Hillary, in the death of the former deputy White House counsel Vince Foster, and spread lies about former President Barack Obama's birthplace.... Few media stars were as crucial in making disinformation, false rumors and fringe ideas the right's new reality. And toward the end of the Trump presidency, Mr. Limbaugh's willingness to indulge the paranoia among Mr. Trump's most ardent supporters was especially powerful in misleading people to believe that bad news about their president ... was simply made up by his enemies or the result of a nefarious plot. (In the case of the virus, Mr. Limbaugh called it nothing more than a 'common cold.') In turn, Mr. Limbaugh rarely apologized for his comments and often attacked those who called him out, arguing that they were taking him too seriously or twisting his words out of context. Often, Mr. Limbaugh denied he had said what his critics claimed." Limbaugh's obit is linked under Wednesday's News Ledes. ~~~
~~~ Marie: As some of you know, I don't like to speak ill of the dead immediately after their deaths, in deference to their grieving families. But Erin Ryan of the Daily Beast gives me an excuse to make Limbaugh an exception: "Conventional etiquette dictates that we do not speak ill of the dead. But Rush Limbaugh isn't just any dead guy. He's a dead guy who made himself a multimillionaire many times over by targeting immigrants, women who use birth control, the preteen daughters of politicians, the Obamas, rape survivors, environmentalists, gay people, Asians, Latinos, Black people, and feminists.... He spoke ill of people who died of AIDS, of people who died by suicide, of people who were dying of Parkinson's disease, and unarmed Black children who were murdered under racist pretenses." That's my excuse, anyway, for linking Jeremy Peters' article, and I'm sticking with it.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments in Covid-19 Thursday are here: "The two coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna appear to be highly effective against the more transmissible variant of the virus first detected in Britain, according to new reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, in a potential boost to vaccination efforts around the globe. The vaccines, however, showed a decreased ability to neutralize the strain now dominant in South Africa, worrying some researchers and prompting Pfizer and BioNTech to announce they were taking necessary steps to develop a booster shot or updated vaccine."
The Washington Post's front-page tally of the number of Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 stands at 41.4 million this morning.
Marilynn Marchione of the AP: "Life expectancy in the United States dropped a staggering one year during the first half of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic caused its first wave of deaths, health officials are reporting. Minorities suffered the biggest impact, with Black Americans losing nearly three years and Hispanics, nearly two years, according to preliminary estimates Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 'This is a huge decline,' said Robert Anderson, who oversees the numbers for the CDC. 'You have to go back to World War II, the 1940s, to find a decline like this.' Other health experts say it shows the profound impact of COVID-19, not just on deaths directly due to infection but also from heart disease, cancer and other conditions."
David Lim of Politico: "The White House announced Wednesday a multipronged effort to bolster the United States' ability to test for Covid-19 in schools and homeless shelters, increase domestic manufacturing of testing supplies such as pipette tips, and boost genomic sequencing efforts needed to understand the spread of virus variants. Biden testing coordinator Carole Johnson described the $1.6 billion for testing as a 'pilot' that will serve as a bridge until Congress passes its massive $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill."
Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Millions of jobs that have been shortchanged or wiped out entirely by the coronavirus pandemic are unlikely to come back, economists warn, setting up a massive need for career changes and retraining in the United States. The coronavirus pandemic has triggered permanent shifts in how and where people work. Businesses are planning for a future where more people are working from home, traveling less for business, or replacing workers with robots. All of these modifications mean many workers will not be able to do the same job they did before the pandemic, even after much of the U.S. population gets vaccinated against the deadly virus. Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates raised eyebrows in November when he predicted that half of business travel and 30 percent of 'days in the office' would go away forever. That forecast no longer seems far-fetched." (Also linked yesterday.)
Florida. Vaccinations for Rich, White Voters Only. Konstantin Toropin of CNN: "Florida's Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has threatened to move a pop-up vaccination clinic that his state has set up in an affluent community in Manatee County after he was confronted with allegations of political favoritism and preference for the wealthy at a news conference Wednesday.... 'If Manatee County doesn't like us doing this, then we are totally fine with putting this in counties that want it,' DeSantis said.... Manatee County announced on Tuesday that Florida's Division of Emergency Management would host a 'pop-up' vaccination spot at Lakewood Ranch this week for 3,000 Manatee County residents, according to a statement from the county. The vaccines, however, would be limited to people living in only two zip codes -- 34202 and 34211. Manatee County Commissioner Misty Servia, a Republican, criticized the selection of these two areas at a Board of County Commissioners work session on Tuesday. 'You're taking the Whitest demographic, the richest demographic in Manatee County and putting them ahead of everyone else," Servia said. 'The optics are bad ... very bad -- I'm really disappointed,' she added. Commissioner Reggie Bellamy, a Democrat, also [complained about the discrimination]." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This, of course, is DeSantis using his position (1) to mete out lifesaving vaccinations to curry favor with those most likely to vote for him, without regard to the health needs of the entire community, and (2) to intimidate politicians who don't go along with the program. Despicable.
New York. Brendan Lyons of the Albany Times Union: "The FBI and the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn have launched an investigation that is examining, at least in part, the actions of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's coronavirus task force in its handling of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities during the pandemic, the Times Union has learned. The probe by the U.S. attorney's office in the Eastern District of New York is apparently in its early stages and is focusing on the work of some of the senior members of the governor's task force, according to a person with direct knowledge...." ~~~
~~~ Jesse McKinley & Luis Ferré-Sadurní of the New York Times: "The Democratic leaders of the New York State Senate are moving to strip Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of unilateral emergency powers granted during the pandemic, setting up a remarkable rebuke for the governor from members of his own party. The Senate's measures, which could be voted on as soon as next week, underscore the deepening division between Mr. Cuomo and state lawmakers since the governor admitted to intentionally withholding critical data on virus-related deaths from the Legislature.... The Senate's action also illustrates a deepening fatigue in the Democratic-controlled State Legislature over Mr. Cuomo's broad use of powers, which have enabled him to control nearly every facet of the state's response to the virus, from ordering widespread shutdowns to managing the distribution of vaccines to feuding with state health officials." ~~~
~~~ MJ Lee & Mark Morales of CNN: After describing to reporters a virtual meeting regarding New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's handling of nursing home patients, Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN, "'Gov. Cuomo called me directly on Thursday to threaten my career if I did not cover up for [Cuomo aide] Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said. He tried to pressure me to issue a statement, and it was a very traumatizing experience.' Cuomo proceeded to tell the assemblyman that 'we're in this business together and we don't cross certain lines and he said I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me,' according to Kim. DeRosa is a top aide to the governor who came under fire last week after she told state lawmakers in a private virtual meeting that the state had delayed sharing with the legislature the full scope of the Covid-related death toll of New York's nursing home residents because of concerns about a potential federal investigation by the Department of Justice." A New York Times story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Erin Douglas, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "While Texas Republicans were quick to pounce on renewable energy and to blame frozen wind turbines, the natural gas, nuclear and coal plants that provide most of the state's energy also struggled to operate during the storm. Officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the energy grid operator for most of the state, said that the state's power system was simply no match for the deep freeze. Energy and policy experts said Texas' decision not to require equipment upgrades to better withstand extreme winter temperatures, and choice to operate mostly isolated from other grids in the U.S. left power system unprepared for the winter crisis. Policy observers blamed the power system failure on the legislators and state agencies who they say did not properly heed the warnings of previous storms or account for more extreme weather events warned of by climate scientists. Instead, Texas prioritized the free market." ~~~
~~~ Adding Insult to Injury: Let Your Pipes Burst. Alex Samuels of the Texas Tribune: "After enduring multiple days of freezing temperatures and Texans dripping faucets to prevent frozen pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned residents on Wednesday that water levels are dangerously low and may be unsafe to drink. They're telling Texans to boil tap water for drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth and for making ice -- as residents have been struggling to maintain power and heat while an unprecedented winter storm whips across the state. While activities such as showering and doing laundry are safe, cities under water boil notices are asking people to conserve water if at all possible. Approximately 590 public water systems in 141 Texas counties have reported disruptions in service, affecting nearly 12 million people as of late Wednesday afternoon, according to a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesperson. 'Water pressure is very low. Please do not run water to keep pipes from bursting,' Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted Wednesday morning."
~~~ Kate Shepherd of the Washington Post: "As millions of people across Texas struggled to stay warm Tuesday amid massive cold-weather power outages, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed his ire at ... frozen wind turbines. 'This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,' Abbott said to host Sean Hannity on Tuesday. 'Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. ... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.' The governor's arguments were contradicted by his own energy department, which outlined how most of Texas's energy losses came from failures to winterize the power-generating systems, including fossil fuel pipelines, The Washington Post's Will Englund reported [linked below]. But Abbott's debunked claims were echoed by other conservatives this week who have repeatedly blamed clean energy sources for the outages crippling the southern U.S." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appeared on Sean Hannity's Fox News show to suggest that the crisis offered the country an important lesson: Democratic leadership is bad.... A decade ago, the state was warned that it should weatherize its systems. It generally didn't, though there are exceptions.... Abbott and [Rep. Dan] Crenshaw [R-Texas] were just part of the flurry of conservatives using the moment to bash renewable power, a bit of rhetorical judo leveraging the right's ongoing skepticism of wind and solar power and climate change.... Fox News ran multiple segments attacking renewable energy; the Wall Street Journal's editorial page made the same argument even as its reporting offered a more accurate presentation of the problem. Abbott's interview was jarring: The governor of a state sitting in a presumably warm, well-lit room, telling the country that millions of his states residents were sitting in cold, dark houses because of those devious Democrats -- and that they are coming for you next.... Because it's easier and less painful to blame Democrats in theory than to fix massive problems in reality."
~~~ Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Rick Perry, a former Texas governor who served as an energy secretary under ... Donald Trump, argued this week that Texans should be happy to go days without electricity if it meant thwarting the federal government.... Like many other Republicans, Perry also falsely claimed that renewable energy was the real reason for the blackouts." MB: Just one more reason Trump was the worst president* ever: a federal Energy secretary who believes the feds should not regulate energy.
~~~ Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "Residents [of Colorado City, Texas,] turned to a community Facebook group to ask whether the small town planned to open warming shelters, while others wondered if firefighters could do their job without water. But when Colorado City's mayor chimed in, it was to deliver a less-than-comforting message: The local government had no responsibility to help out its citizens, and only the tough would survive. 'No one owes you [or] your family anything,' Tim Boyd wrote on Tuesday in a now-deleted Facebook post, according to KTXS and KTAB/KRBC. 'I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!'... 'Only the strong will survive and the weak will [perish],' he wrote.... Boyd's tirade, which also demanded that 'lazy' residents find their own ways of procuring water and electricity, immediately drew backlash. Later on Tuesday, Boyd announced his resignation and admitted that he could have 'used better wording.'" MB: Chances Boyd is NOT a Trumpublican: zero. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: For Sen. Ted Cruz, who represents all of Texas and wants to represent all of us in the 50 states & sundry territories, Texas was just too damned cold. So, while Texans continued to freeze & go without water, Ted flew to Cancun, Mexico, Wednesday night.
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Reader Comments (21)
Marie,
Most of us are well aware of your policy of not speaking ill of the dead. Nonetheless, in this case, I think it’s perfectly fine to speak dead of the ill. He was a sick bastard, and now he’s dead.
These Texas power outage lies demonstrate a textbook confederate technique. First, blame someone else, preferably liberals, for a problem you created, then do absolutely nothing to fix that problem. It’s far more important to assign blame to perceived enemies, to “own the libs” as it were, than to take action to address the situation and help people in danger, danger you caused. Why? They don’t have the first clue what to do. Better to scream and yell about green energy not being “ready for prime time”.
Republicans, as we see on an almost daily basis, have little capacity for problem solving and almost zero capability to do it right even if a solution hit them in the head. But they are past masters at selling self-serving lies, pointing fingers in the wrong direction, then having no idea what to do next. This is Bush (another R-Texas loser) invading the wrong country brought down to state level.
The problems in Texas have nothing to do with green energy but everything to do with red ignorance.
Am fpr some reason on the Hillsdale College president's email list.
(If you don't know of that wacky institution, it's worth a google.)
Yesterday he circulated some kind words about the regretful passing of his "friend" Rush, who "loved his country."
I sent this.
You might want to read this from a fellow Republican.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/were-living-in-the-world-rush-limbaugh-created/2021/02/17/99e48410-7170-11eb-85fa-e0ccb3660358_story.html
Limbaugh did love his country, a white one. Unfortunately that’s not the United States, the country that made him rich.
Ken Winkes
I think Rush should lay (lie?) in state at Mar-A-Lardo so the
owner can charge admission since he's gonna need lots of
$ for those upcoming lawsuits.
What should the tickets cost? $1,000? $100? or maybe $9.95?
@Forrest Morris: A capital idea.
A requiem for Rush:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4z0Viukzct0
@Patrick: I'm only sorry that on his death-bed, Rush didn't renounce every single word he ever said & beg our forgiveness.
If only the Rush of hot air would melt the Texas ice and snow but sadly, he, of the radio waves of bumptious bull shit has "passed away" as they say, when avoiding the word DIED. Speak ill of the dead too soon? Not in this case–-Rush was a despicable human being and the fact that Fatty gave him a medal of honor says more about Fatty than it does about the recipient.
My husband tells the story about a few of his colleagues who would listen to Rush on the way to work in the morning.
"Man! you gotta listen to what Rush said this morning–-the guy is amazing!"
and these were educators teaching our children.
I find the situation in Texas beyond outrageous. This Lone Star State with its guns and it's god-damn independent spirit finds itself not in hot water but in an ice cold catastrophe of its own making–-and then lying about the reasons why. And who will help dig them out, bring water and assistance to its people? That Government they trash every chance they get.
And did I read that Ted was Cruzen down Mexico way? If true, so shocking Teddy ain't true blue. Maybe ex-mayor Tim Boyd spoke up for him.
It's the old, old story––-the makers and takers mixed in with the virulent racism that still permeates this land of opportunity; its roots are deep–- that steep climb keeps encountering that boulder.
Texas: so many who act like snowflakes in the presence of snowflakes. Actually, the tragedy is in good people trusting ANYONE from the oil and gas biz. The only reason you never hear about the Alaska pipeline is because Texas oilmen were forced to build it correctly by environmentalists. The attempts to rush the Keystone pipeline have been short-sighted, oil biz types disregarding good engineering in search of its 100,000 barrels per day throughput. Close beside the oil biz are all the former ENRON cheerleaders; dig deep enough and Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, Cornyn, and the leaders of the GOP have the stink of ENRON. These guys greatest fear is in building-integrated photovoltaics, decentralized energy, wind farms, and conservation of any kind. They are unAmerican, unTexas, and certainly not patriots.
Forrest,
The only form of that verb that one can apply to Limbaugh is “lie”. It’s what he spent his life doing.
The House is holding a hearing today on H.R. 40 – a bill that would set up a commission to examine the institution of slavery and its impact and make recommendations for reparations to Congress.
.Today's hearing will feature one of the Japanese Americans who successfully pushed for redress after their family was rounded up by the U.S. government and locked in prison camps, and will enforce an important message: That our country has provided reparations in the past, and H.R. 40 is a realistic mechanism to begin discussion on addressing the fundamental injustices of institutional slavery in the U.S.
We cannot adequately repair harms that we have not fully examined and discussed as a national priority. It's time our country accounts for hundreds of years of brutal mistreatment of Black people during chattel slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and the enduring structural racism endemic to our society.
Notice from the ACLU
@PD: I think you're a day late. I watched part of the hearing on H.R.40 yesterday. It was interesting to hear the arguments for/against.
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
So let's do the nasty stuff first. Yes, we've just narrowly missed a coup d'etat put forward by the Party of Treason (the Bad) in favor of the Orange Monster (the Ugly). Ugly will still be with us for a while. So will the Bad.
But now the Good.
Democrats have won the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. On the culture war front, the issue of gay marriage has become almost negligible except for the virulently intolerant and the dead-enders. Who cares? We have our first openly gay cabinet secretary and plenty of gay and lesbian lawmakers in various legislatures and in positions of authority around the country. Yawn. The haters have lost that one. We ain't goin' back. Nohow.
Congress itself, while not nearly mirroring the diversity of the country, is more diverse than it's ever been, so we're making progress there too. Although the bad here (which ain't EVER going to change) is that diversity on the right side of the aisle is about as limited as Ron Johnson's ability to name more than one element on the periodic table (gold, and he's done).
Weirdly, but happily, in the last election, Democrats turned two previously hard-ass red states to blue. Arizona and Georgia(!). Jesus, that's amazing. But then again, maybe not. What this shows is that attempts to disenfranchise voters, R plots to stifle Democratic votes, really worked. When Democrats got off their asses and organized to get out the vote, the confederate efforts to steal elections was short circuited. Yes, we have to keep on keepin' on, and do even better in the future, but it's a great start.
Limbaugh is dead. Fox and the Pillow Guy are being sued for their lies for about $9 gazillion, and Fatty is out to pasture. Oh, he'll still mooooo and oink, (I only hope he runs again in 2022--that will screw any other R candidate looking to place the crown of hatred on his own shrunken head), but despite his ability to cow the cowards in the Party of Traitors, his influence will wane, not wax (although he probably needs a good waxing).
Finally (and I'm sure I've missed some good points, but...) not only is the nation turning more blue, but for the first time in a couple of centuries, a new blue pigment is on the market. The EPA recently approved the general production, sale, and use of a brilliant blue patented by some clever (and lucky) chemists from Oregon State University. The new shade, named YInMn (yeah, it don't exactly roll off the tongue) in honor of its primary ingredients, Yttrium, Indium, and Manganese, is now available for artists, industry, and color mavens dying to paint the town (and the country) blue. I'll be in line when it hits the art supply stores.
A good omen?
And don't forget, blue is 180 degrees opposite orange on the color spectrum. And blue is a primary color. Orange ain't.
So, to the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, we may have to add the Beautiful.
Cue Irving Berlin...
Blue skies, smilin' at me
Nothin' but blue skies
Do I see...
Sorry, I meant 2024. Getting ahead of myself. Although Three-Shirt Bannon has been making noises about how Fatty should run for the House in 2022 and make himself Speaker. Yeah. That'll happen. Does Bannon ever wake up without coming up with some scurrilous plot to fuck the country? Another asshole out in the wilderness.
Red + Yellow = Orange
Another sync in the universe
I can't figure out why supposedly smarter (??) people than used-prez Fatso keep thinking he should have another job in the government., a la Bannon. He is a moron, probably mentally ill, and a liar and con man. Well, maybe that describes both of them. I think none of them have figured out that Knownothing had everyone else doing his work, and since they were also knownothings, nothing got done except by accident or nefarious intent. I don't understand how some of the people who are "economically challenged" haven't figured out that Fatso did not help them in the least. Or maybe there are more Q people than we thought; a reporter said yesterday that the Qs were disappointed to see that Bidens used AF One; they thought Fatso was using it secretly, prior to his re-innaugural event on March 4.
This is mass hysteria and mass mental illness.
Still no sympathy for TX since it is run on an anti-government basis all the time. FEMA should not answer the phone from Abbott. (Except so many people are suffering and there could be good people in the mix, not confederate nutcases.)
Happened to come across this from a conservative talk show host I've never heard, who said it on Fox and Friends, a show I've never seen:
"Elder said that people did not realize "how bad the media was" until Rush Limbaugh...."
And I rushed to agree.
Kinda fun imitating right wing media, quoting selectively, taking words out of context.
Statement from [fake] Director of Communications for Sen. Ted Cruz. It is probably not too far off from what his office would really say.
Jeremiah Ortega @jortega8
"Blair, Blair, Blair Is it True Ted Cruz when asked about the people of Texas said “Let them eat ice cream cake” as he boarded the plane to Mexico?"
RAS,
I think the actual quote was “Let them eat yellow snow” drawled out as he ordered another mojito on the beach.
Patrick,
Nice observation. And however you get there (republicanism + cowardice, or some other pusillanimously concocted mixeration), orange is still a secondary color. Never primary.
Loved watching the detonation of the Trump mausoleum in Atlantic City. It will surprise no one that that hulking mess was once a gaudy, poorly constructed, cheap ass monstrosity, higher than any surrounding structures, no doubt the result of compensation for other much smaller things.
Nonetheless, as with all things Trump, the end result is a pile of rubble, strewn about for others to clean up, cuz that’s how he rolls. My only wish was that Fatty and his mooching family maggots were not on the top floor to personally “oversee” the implosion. To denizens of the recent Fatty Blight House, it must have seemed a hyper realistic flashback.
And don’t forget. Fatty trumpeted this Pompeii like putridity as a demonstration of his “business acumen”. Yeah, like a dog sniffing his own excrement and proclaiming his bowel movement a yuuuuge success. At least my dog only does this for a couple of seconds, not thirty years.