The Commentariat -- February 8, 2021

Afternoon Update:

New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's lawyers on Monday denounced the impeachment case against him as partisan 'political theater,' arguing on the eve of the Senate's trial that he bore no responsibility for the deadly assault on the Capitol and that trying a former president at all was unconstitutional. In a 78-page brief submitted to the Senate, the lawyers asserted that Mr. Trump's speech just before the attack 'did not direct anyone to commit unlawful actions,' and that he deserved no blame for the conduct of a 'small group of criminals' who rioted at the Capitol on Jan 6. after he had urged them to 'fight like hell' against his election loss. They also insisted that the Senate 'lacks jurisdiction' to try him at all because he was now a private citizen, calling such an effort 'patently ridiculous.'" The item is part of the Times' impeachment live blog Monday. Politico's story is here and also includes a link to the brief by Trump's lawyers.

Karen Heller of the Washington Post profiles Bruce Castor, one of Trump's top impeachment attorneys and "a magnet for controversy."

Paulina Firozi & Dave Wiegel of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ron Wright (R-Tex.), who had received cancer treatment for years, died Sunday after being hospitalized with covid-19. He was 67.... Wright had announced on Jan. 21 that he tested positive for the coronavirus 'after coming in contact with an individual with the virus last week.' He is the first sitting member of Congress to die after battling covid-19." CNN's story is here.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), a fixture of the Senate who chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he will retire when his term ends in 2022. Shelby, 86, was first elected to the House in 1978 as a Democrat and won election to the Senate in 1986. He switched parties to become a Republican in 1994. Shelby has been a master of steering projects to his home state and also adept at cutting deals with Democrats. He becomes the fourth Senate Republican to announce his retirement in 2022, and the race to replace him will become another test for the direction of the GOP in the post-Trump era." The New York Times' story is here. The Week has an item here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Never thought I'd get to use this graphic again: ~~~

Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "When the House impeachment managers prosecute ... Donald J. Trump this week for inciting the Capitol attack, they plan to mount a fast-paced and cinematic case aimed at rekindling the outrage lawmakers experienced themselves on Jan. 6, in arguments delivered from the scene of the invasion. Armed with lessons from the first impeachment trial of Mr. Trump, when even Democratic senators complained the arguments were repetitive and sometimes sanctimonious, the prosecutors managing his second are prepared to complete the proceeding in as little as a week, forgo distracting fights over witnesses and rely more heavily on video, according to a half-dozen people working on the case."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "One of Washington's leading conservative constitutional lawyers publicly broke on Sunday with the main Republican argument against convicting ... Donald J. Trump in his impeachment trial, asserting that an ex-president can indeed be tried for high crimes and misdemeanors. In an opinion piece posted on The Wall Street Journal's website, the lawyer, Charles J. Cooper, who is closely allied with top Republicans in Congress, dismissed as illogical the claim that it is unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial for a former president. The piece came two days before the Senate was set to start the proceeding.... Since the [January 6] rampage, Republicans have made little effort to excuse Mr. Trump's conduct, but have coalesced behind the legal argument about constitutionality as their rationale for why he should not be tried, much less convicted. Their theory is that because the Constitution's penalty for an impeachment conviction is removal from office, it was never intended to apply to a former president, who is no longer in office. Many legal scholars disagree, and the Senate has previously held an impeachment trial of a former official -- though never a former president."

Trump Made Me Do It. Rosalind Helderman, et al., of the Washington Post: "The nine House impeachment managers leading Trump's prosecution made clear in an 80-page brief filed last week that they will argue that his role in inspiring the crowd to action began long before the 70-minute speech he gave that day. They assert that the violence was virtually inevitable after Trump spent months falsely claiming that the election had been stolen from him.... Evidence to bolster the Democratic case has already emerged in federal criminal cases filed against more than 185 people so far in the aftermath of the insurrection.... Court documents show that more than two dozen people charged in the attack specifically cited Trump and his calls to gather that day in describing ... why they decided to take action by coming to Washington." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One argument I suppose the managers will find ill-advised is nonetheless true: Trump, with his trademark bullying & outright threats, made pawns of the very triers-of-fact, the Republican senators themselves. Even those who clearly despised him, like Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio & Ted Cruz, quickly learned to fawn over him to preserve their own sorry political careers. They do so not out of admiration by of fear. As for me, I'd tell Josh Hawley, et al., to their faces that Trump has made chumps of them (not that they weren't silly, self-serving blowhards before Trump showed up).

Quinn Scanlan of ABC News: "With his impeachment trial set to begin this week, a narrow majority of Americans say they support the Senate convicting ... Donald Trump and barring him from holding federal office again, according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll released Sunday.... [Fifty-six percent] of Americans say Trump should be convicted and barred from holding office again, and 43% say he should not be."

One Way Trump Plans to Profit off QAnon. Suzanne Kelleher of Forbes: "For some QAnon conspiracy theorists, [on] March 4, 2021..., Donald Trump will be sworn in as the 19th president of the United States.... At the Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, the least expensive room option is the deluxe king.... At this time of year, it normally runs anywhere from $476 to $596 per night.... On March 3 and 4, the same room is selling for $1,331 per night. That's 180% above the base rate and more than double what you'd pay any other night in February or March, according to the hotel's website. The March 4 rate hike appears to be exclusive to the Trump International.... The day after the pro-Trump mob rioted at the U.S. Capitol, the managing director of Trump International Hotel tweeted, 'So proud of our @TrumpDC In Room Dining Team for record breaking numbers this week.'"

Alayna Treene of Axios: "Kevin McCarthy tried to get Liz Cheney to apologize for how she handled her vote to impeach former President Trump before last week's highly anticipated House GOP conference meeting -- a request she refused, two people with direct knowledge told Axios.... Cheney rolled the dice, refusing her leader's ask and counting on her supporters to keep her as conference chair, the party's No. 3 post in the House. Newly empowered, she's now embracing her role as the Republicans' Trump critic-in-chief." ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming waded deeper into Republicans' identity crisis on Sunday, warning her party on the eve of a Senate impeachment trial not to 'look past' ... Donald J. Trump's role in stoking a violent attack on the Capitol and a culture of conspiracy roosting among their ranks. In her first television interview since fending off an attempt by Mr. Trump's allies to oust her from House leadership over her vote to impeach him, Ms. Cheney said Republican voters had been 'lied to' by a president eager to steal an election with baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. She cautioned that the party risked being locked out of power if it did not show a majority of Americans that it could be trusted to lead truthfully.... She added that Mr. Trump 'does not have a role as a leader of our party going forward.'" ~~~

~~~ David of Crooks & Liars: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on Sunday said that she expects 'many, many criminal investigations' into ... Donald Trump's role in inciting a violent insurrection on January 6. During an interview on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace asked Cheney ... if she would also vote to convict the former president of insurrection if she were a U.S. senator. 'I would listen to the evidence,' Cheney said. 'The Senate trial is [a] snapshot. There's a massive criminal investigation underway.... People will want to know exactly what the president was doing,' she continued. 'They will want to know, for example, if the tweet he sent out calling Vice President Pence a coward while the attack was underway, whether that tweet, for example, was a premeditated effort to provoke violence. There are a lot of questions that have to be answered and there will be many, many criminal investigations looking at every aspect of this and everyone who was involved.'"

Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "Marjorie Taylor Greene ... [is] the latest descendant in a lineage of Republican women who embrace a boffo radicalism, who delight in making trouble and in causing offense.... These women are playing simultaneously into male Republican stereotypes of power -- loving their guns, defending their country from the migrant hordes -- and stereotypes of femininity, to reassure the Republican faithful that they're still real women.... You can also ask whether unconscious gender bias plays a role in the coverage of Greene. Television loves a brassy hot mess.... Hillary Clinton's supporters were fond of the adage, the future is female.'... But we should brace ourselves. That future may be quite different from the one we were expecting. The future often is." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ PD Pepe wrote, "Is our culture still grappling with what women should BE as women? We have always accepted the male disparity, why be surprised at the female's?... I think we need to come to terms with our humanity not in sexual identities but as human beings and like one of the above females in Senior's list once said, 'You can't put lipstick on a pig' but you sure as hell can try." MB: I'm with Pepe. In general, right-wingers, male and female, despise feminism as a social reality. Because Democrats largely preceded them, thus forcing the issue, confederates are slowly coming to terms with the idea that women must have a seat at the table (though not at the head of it -- Palin & Harris are sidekicks, helpmates, as women "should be"). That means, of course, that a woman must be most feminine, in the traditional sense, yet forceful: a narrow, hazardous track to run. In the old days, that would have meant a PTA-type "lady" politician; in today's fake-populist GOP, it means a crude, gun-totin' mama. In the GOP, there's still room for both types of female politicians, but not for tough & effective female leaders like Clinton & Pelosi. ~~~

~~~ AND, according to Charles Darwin, the right is right. Women are not so much the fairer sex as the weaker one and intellectually inferior, Michael Sims writes in a New York Times op-ed. MB: Sims seems surprised that Darwin admired Harriet Martineau, "a prolific journalist and pioneer sociologist," who was a friend, and perhaps more, to Charles' brother Erasmus. It's not surprising at all. Most bigots of every category can justify their prejudices by rationalizing that women, people of color, of exotic religions or exotic places may have "exceptional" members even though "those people," on the whole, just don't measure up. From your standard, "traditional" bigotry to the strange, ridiculous turns of QAnon, bigotry will always find a path, albeit not necessarily direct routes to their destinations. ~~~

~~~ Steve Sack, editorial cartoonist for the Minneapolis Star Tribune, applies Occam's Razor to QAnon. Thanks to RAS for the link:

PEN America responds to the New York Times' firing/forced resignation of reporter Don McNeil. Marie: PEN America is occasionally too lefist for me, but I do wholly agree with them here. I think the real problem McNeil encountered was that he didn't know his audience. An adult should be able to figure out that 16-year-olds aren't very good at appreciating the nuances of context. It appears that many NYT staff aren't either, or else they were misinformed about the context when they protested his retention at the paper. As McNeil has said, he "made an error in judgment," and Times management probably should have stood by him. I have long thought that the prohibition of the use of the word "nigger" in any context gives the word too much importance. In fact, I like the way Blacks use it among themselves; still, there is absolutely no circumstance under which I would join in & use it in a conversation among mostly-Black people where the word was being tossed around in a playful way. Food for thought, whether you agree or not.

Tim Weiner of the New York Times: "George P. Shultz, who presided with a steady hand over the beginning of the end of the Cold War as President Ronald Reagan's often embattled secretary of state, died on Saturday at his home in Stanford, Calif. He was 100. His death was announced by the Hoover Institution, where he was a distinguished fellow. He was also professor emeritus at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Mr. Shultz, who had served Republican presidents since Dwight D. Eisenhower, moved to California after leaving Washington in January 1989. He continued writing and speaking on issues ranging from nuclear weapons to climate change into his late 90s, expressing concern about America's direction."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Amy Wang & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "In his first network television interview since taking office, President Biden acknowledged it will be 'very difficult' for the United States to reach herd immunity at the current rate coronavirus vaccines are being administered in the country and that his administration would utilize all 32 National Football League stadiums as mass vaccination centers to help in the effort. 'It is a national emergency,' Biden said on 'CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell,' referring to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and its effect on schoolchildren and the workforce. Biden indicated that the Trump administration's handling of the pandemic was 'even more dire than we thought.' Since taking office, Biden has used the Defense Production Act to direct companies to ramp up manufacturing of vaccines and protective equipment. On Thursday, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told Biden all 32 stadiums would be made available as mass vaccination sites.... In portions of the wide-ranging interview, which aired Friday and Sunday before the Super Bowl, Biden discussed the pandemic, foreign policy and why he believed former president Donald Trump should not have continued access to intelligence briefings."

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Senior Democrats on Monday will unveil legislation to provide $3,000 per child to tens of millions of American families, aiming to make a major dent in child poverty as part of President Biden's $1.9 trillion economic relief package. The 22-page bill to dramatically expand direct cash benefits to American families was obtained by The Washington Post ahead of its release. Under the proposal, the Internal Revenue Service would provide $3,600 over the course of the year per child under the age of 6, as well as $3,000 per child of ages 6 to 17. The size of the benefit would diminish for Americans earning more than $75,000 per year, as well as for couples jointly earning more than $150,000 per year. The payments would be sent monthly beginning in July, a delay intended to give the IRS time to prepare for the massive new initiative. The bill ... comes days after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) surprised policymakers with a proposal to send even more in direct cash per child to American families, lending bipartisan support to the major push for child benefits."

Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus variant that shut down much of the United Kingdom is spreading rapidly across the United States, outcompeting other strains and doubling its prevalence among confirmed infections every week and a half, according to new research made public Sunday. The report, posted on the preprint server MedRxiv and not yet peer-reviewed or published in a journal, comes from a collaboration of many scientists and provides the first hard data to support a forecast issued last month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that showed the variant becoming dominant in the United States by late March." A New York Times story is here. Mother Jones has a story here.

William Booth & Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "South Africa will suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca after researchers found it provided 'minimal protection' against mild to moderate coronavirus infections caused by the new variant first detected in that country. Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said Sunday that the rollout will be paused while scientists assess the data and determine a way forward. Officials had been eager to begin vaccinating health-care workers with the shots after 1 million doses arrived last week."

Way Beyond the Beltway

An Israeli Man Walks Out of His Own Trial. Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told judges in a Jerusalem court on Monday that he is innocent of corruption charges before abruptly standing, saying 'thank you very much' and leaving with his motorcade. Netanyahu quit the courtroom some 20 minutes after the start of Monday morning's hearing, which continued on without him. The sessions kick-started the second phase of a precedent-setting legal procedure, which, for the first time, involves the indictment of an Israeli prime minister while still in office and campaigning for elections in the coming weeks -- the fourth in two years." MB: You can see here why Bibi & Donald got on so well. This is just what Trump would have done if forced to testify at his impeachment trial.

Comments

[PD Pepe]

I'm off to get my shot–-just a shot away, as they say––but before I go a quick message to Marie:

Darwin, I'm pretty sure, did not know that when that spunky human sperm sped into that golden female egg and became one and then started to cell divide, that for a period of time all humans are females ( recall that I learned this when asking the question why men have breasts.) One could say–-and why not–-that the female is dominant right from the beginning. We could also tell Darwin that female babies are on the average stronger at birth–-fewer deaths–-than males.
And thanks for your comments.

[Ken Winkes]

More on the roles woman have played in our history. Last month "The New Yorker" profiled three who managed in a far different time, more than 150 years ago, to thread their personal and political needles.

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/01/25/the-pre-civil-war-fight-against-white-supremacy

Now, these were real Republican women.

On the Shultz front, am already tired of the expected encomiuns rolling in. From my POV, he's better seen as a quintessential American thug, typical of his time, who rode the mid 20th Century wave of economic dominance to personal and political heights, but was always tied down to a set of very earthy assumptions about American exceptionalism that justified any criminality (Iran Contra) that he thought necessary to advance his personal, professional or political ends.

His career does present an interesting contrast, though, to the present. There was always a veneer of respectability over Shultz' machinations. Today, Republican crooks don't bother with the veneer. It's all out in the open.

I guess if you believe government is an enterprise no more elevated than mud wrestling, what's there to hide?

[citizen625]

Thanks Ken for the aside about George Shultz. He and his kind are why Central American countries have been feeding disfunction and illegal immigration for decades. Do you think he would wait his turn in the Covid vaccination line?

[RAS]

"Inciting a mob to invade the Capitol is not free speech
Yes, what President Trump did was incitement"
Opinion by Len Niehoff Law professor Len Niehoff laid out the incitement criteria in the
Detroit Free Press:
The speech must be directed toward producing action.
It must be likely to result in such action.
The action must be unlawful
And the action advocated for must be imminent.

[RAS]

Do you think that we could entice Trump to show up for his insurrection trial if we promised him an award at the end? One that is shiny and gold and even more exclusive than the crumby Nobel prize.

[Akhilleus]

The Littlest Constitooshunal Skolar is Wrong? Unpossible!

So, traitors in the Senate, following the lead of self-styled Constitooshun Expurt, Li'l Randy, voted that they can't vote to impeach the head traitor.

"Wrong, oh secession breath", says conservative (actual) Constitutional scholar Charles Cooper. Li'l Randy, who is not even a real doctor (self-accredited), is about as far from an expert on matters Constitutional as one can get and still remain inside the Kuiper belt.

Here's Cooper's argument. Yes, the Constitution allows for the impeachment of Fatty and other crooks, scoundrels, and traitors:

"The president, vice president and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors."

So, okay. We get that. But this is where the littlest anal cyst stops. Like nearly all elected confederates, he is a cherry picker par excellence. Cherries they don't like get the heave-ho.

Cooper makes his case by reminding the morons, er, Republican senators, that the Constitution ALSO makes allowance to prohibit Fatty-like crooks and traitors from ever holding elected office again.

"Given that the Constitution permits the Senate to impose the penalty of permanent disqualification only on former officeholders, it defies logic to suggest that the Senate is prohibited from trying and convicting former officeholders..."

And because the littlest asswipe defies logic on a daily basis, this isn't a surprise. But for traitors who actually went to law school and didn't fall asleep, this argument should not be past all understanding. It's basic stuff.

But not if you're a traitor, I guess. And a cowardly, weaselly one to boot.

Will this revelation make a difference? Soitanly not. The Party of Traitors is wed to treason. And illogic. And hatred. And stupidity. And racism. And....

Anyhoo, look for Li'l Randy to attack Cooper as un-American and not a goosestepping Trumpbot, therefore, automatically wrong. No one gets away with calling Aqua Buddha a self-serving fraud. Harrumph!

[Akhilleus]

Oops, just noticed that Marie had already linked Cooper's argument. Don't know how I missed that one. Must have blown right by it.

Never mind. Nonetheless, Li'l Randy is still an unconscionable douchebag.

[RAS]

The more stories I read about their conduct the more I believe that getting rid of ICE and starting over is the right choice.
ICE Threatened to Expose Asylum-Seekers to Covid-19 if They Did Not Accept Deportation
Amid a rush of deportations, four detainees at two different ICE detention centers said that guards threatened to put them in Covid-19 wards.

[Patrick]

I just realized one of the reasons why the constant lies of GOP spox are so debilitating. You get tired from having to check out things you thought you already knew.

This afternoon I heard on C-SPAN Sean (Puffy[shirt]) Spicer say that the problem with the Pennsylvania vote was that judges changed the absentee vote rules to accommodate the circumstsances of COVID, and that was wrong, because legislatures shopuld pass laws, not judges.

I could have sworn the PA leg changed the absentee rules before COVID, but had to take the time to confirm it.

From NBC in 2020 (after the election):

" ... The legislature changed the law in October 2019, 13 months before the election, but the plaintiffs waited until after the Pennsylvania primary and 28 days after the general election to file their lawsuit. The state supreme court said they showed "a complete failure to act with due diligence." "

So what the leg did was properly legislate changes to election rules, and what the state supreme court did was throw out a BS lawsuit after the GOP didn't win PA 2020. And what Puffy did was disremember and recount alternate facts -- which meant that I had to expend some ergs, thereby contributing to the entropic heat death of the universe, to re-check something I already thought I knew.

Meanwhile, the C-SPAN host did not correct Puffy, who probably now puts that in his "validation" column to confirm his alternate facts.

See, tiring, isn't it? And tiresome.

[unwashed]

hahahahahahahaha.hahahahahahahahahahahaha

Stormy Daniels says that sex with DiJiT was the "worst 90 seconds of her life."

So much for Studly von Clownstick and his magic mushroom.