;)
The Commentariat -- July 14, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden heads to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to rally Senate Democrats around two bills totaling more than $4 trillion that advance critical elements of his economic agenda, including new investments in aging infrastructure and programs to fight climate change and improve health care. Biden's salesmanship opens a new political chapter in what will probably be a winding, tough debate on Capitol Hill in Congress, particularly because Democrats are divided over whether they should take the early deals they have reached, including with Republicans, or try to leverage their narrow majorities in Washington to seek more federal spending."
David Lynch of the Washington Post: "On Friday, President Biden called on regulators to crack down on consolidation in the shipping and rail industries, as part of a broad executive order promoting competition throughout the U.S. economy. Freight may seem a prosaic topic for presidential attention. But the smooth movement of goods has perhaps never been more essential, amid the explosion of e-commerce that accompanied the pandemic. Transport bottlenecks in June helped fuel the highest inflation in 13 years, rattling Americans with sticker shock on goods such as used cars, airfare and bacon.... The White House officials who drafted Biden's order say high freight costs, resulting from a lack of competition, are an economywide drag." ~~~
~~~ Marie: OR, customers could try my bitch-a-lot method. Sunday, I was about to make an online purchase of an item that cost about $275. But when I got to the last page in the check-out process, I learned that the shipping charges were $290. So I didn't make the purchase, but I called the company Monday and told them I thought they had miscalculated the shipping charges. I got a song-and-dance. I was polite, but I said I wasn't going to make the purchase as their shipping charges were 6 or 7 times higher than what another company had just charged me for shipping an item of similar size and weight from the same state. Half an hour later the song-and-dance lady called me back & said the company had reduced the shipping charge from $290 to $45. Okay then.
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Wednesday he's open to the $3.5 trillion spending agreement reached by Democrats on the Senate Budget Committee, which would be entirely paid for with yet to be specified tax measures, but he's holding back on fully endorsing the deal until further review. Manchin's cautious optimism about the agreement means that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer's (D-N.Y.) two-track strategy for moving President Biden's infrastructure agenda is still moving in the right direction."
Natalie Fertig of Politico: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer released sweeping draft legislation Wednesday to legalize weed, officially kickstarting a difficult debate in his chamber that also makes a major splash for one of his campaign promises. The measure floated by the New York Democrat -- along with Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) -- proposes removing federal penalties on cannabis, expunging nonviolent federal cannabis-related criminal records and letting states decide if or how to legalize the drug."
Steven Erlanger & Somini Sengupta of the New York Times: "In what may be a seminal moment in the global effort to fight climate change, Europe on Wednesday challenged the rest of the world by laying out an ambitious blueprint to pivot away from fossil fuels over the next nine years, a plan that has the potential to set off global trade disputes. The most radical, and possibly contentious, proposal would impose tariffs on certain imports from countries with less stringent climate-protection rules. The proposals also include eliminating the sales of new gas- and diesel-powered cars in just 14 years, and raising the price of using fossil fuels."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: Some normal people react to the so-called Tennessee health department's decision to halt all vaccination out reach -- for all diseases -- in their effort to "own the libs" by "killing the kids."
Charles Pierce of Esquire: "If there is a less excusable human being walking upright than Ken Starr, head huntsman of the Great Penis Chase of 1998, then I'm hard pressed to think of who it is. Since his salacious moment in the national spotlight, Starr has presided over a disastrous sexual-misconduct scandal and alleged cover-up at Baylor University in Texas. He took a job as part of the former president's defense team during Impeachment I, an indication that he was less offended by extramarital foolery than he used to be. And now comes a book by Julie K. Brown of the Miami Herald, the journalist who blew open the story of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking empire and the sweetheart plea deal that helped enable it, in which Starr is featured as a legal engine behind said plea bargain. (Guardian story on Brown's revelations linked below.) Firewalled. MB: I am informed this is my last freebie-of-the-month.
~~~~~~~~~~
Only in America. Marie: Every day, the news gets crazier.
We're facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That's not hyperbole. Since the Civil War -- the Confederates back then never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on January the 6th. I'm not saying this to alarm you. I'm saying this because you should be alarmed. -- President Joe Biden, in Philadelphia, Pa., Tuesday ~~~
~~~ Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Tuesday delivered his most forceful condemnation yet of the wave of voting restrictions proposed in Republican-led states nationwide -- efforts the president argued are the biggest threat to American democracy since the Civil War. Biden's speech was an attempt to inject new life into flagging efforts to pass federal legislation addressing the issue. But while he intensified his explanation of the stakes, his speech did not include a call for the Senate to change the filibuster, which is seen by advocates as the best, and perhaps only, way to usher in the kinds of changes Biden is seeking. At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, in a room filled with images of Benjamin Franklin and quotes from Daniel Webster and Theodore Roosevelt, Biden compared the new laws to voter suppression by the Ku Klux Klan and to the Jim Crow-era laws that disenfranchised nearly all voters who were not White and male." The Guardian's report is here. ~~~
Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden will nominate Jeff Flake, the former Republican senator from Arizona, to serve as ambassador to Turkey, the White House announced on Tuesday, placing a prominent, moderate Republican in line to assume a high-profile diplomatic role. Mr. Flake, who became one the most vocal Republican critics of Donald J. Trump during Mr. Trump's presidency, had been largely absent from the national stage after stepping away from politics in 2019. In 2017, he announced he would not seek re-election the following year, citing the changing face of the G.O.P., which he said had grown too accepting of Mr. Trump's 'reckless, outrageous and undignified' behavior. Since then, Mr. Flake has rotated between academic fellowships at Harvard, Arizona State University and Brigham Young University. Mr. Flake was also one of a number of former Republican members of Congress who endorsed Mr. Biden for president in 2020."
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "Ousted Social Security commissioner Andrew Saul, the Trump appointee who declared Friday he would defy his firing by President Biden, on Monday found his access to agency computers cut off, even as his acting replacement moved to undo his policies. [Saul was trying to work from his home in Katonah, N.Y., where he's been working since March 2020 because of the pandemic.]... Saul said he had no public announcement -- yet -- on his strategy to remain in office as the 'duly confirmed Social Security commissioner.'... Saul [is] a wealthy former women's apparel executive and prominent Republican donor who had served on the board of a conservative think tank that has called for cuts to Social Security benefits. 'Stay tuned.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Tuesday warned citizens of Cuba and Haiti against trying to flee to the United States amid unrest in those nations, saying they would be repatriated or referred to other countries for resettlement. Mayorkas, whose family fled the communist takeover of Cuba six decades ago, said during a news conference that the Biden administration supports the people of both countries.... But Mayorkas said migrants should not make the dangerous journey by sea, warning, 'People will die.'... Mayorkas [made his remarks] at the U.S. Coast Guard headquarters in Washington, standing beside Adm. Linda Fagan, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard."
Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats on Tuesday reached an early agreement to pursue a sweeping $3.5 trillion reconciliation package that aims to expand Medicare benefits, boost federal safety net programs and combat climate change. The wide array of planned health, education and social programs if adopted would represent a historic burst of federal spending, as party lawmakers led by President Biden seek to seize on their slim but powerful majorities in Washington to expand the footprint of government and catalyze major changes in the economy. Democrats plan to fashion their bill in a way that it can clear the Senate without Republican support. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and top lawmakers on the chamber's foremost budget committee announced the plans at a late evening press conference. He said 'every major program' Biden had endorsed would be 'funded in a robust way,' a commitment that comes after the president this spring proposed significant jobs and families spending packages that included investments in healthcare and education." The AP's story is here.
Road Trip: Wholesome American Family Tours Citadel of Democracy. Alexander Mallin of ABC News: "Five members of the same Texas family were arrested Tuesday and charged for their alleged participation in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to newly-unsealed charging documents. Kristi Munn, Tom Munn, Dawn Munn, Josh Munn and Kayli Munn -- described by prosecutors as a nuclear family from Borger, Texas -- are now each facing four federal charges over their alleged illegal entry and alleged disorderly conduct in the Capitol, according to a criminal complaint filed Tuesday afternoon.... After the riot, investigators found posts from the family where they discussed joining in the insurrection. 'The only damage to the capital building was several windows and sets of doors,' Tom Munn wrote on Facebook. 'Nothing inside the capital was damaged. I can tell you, patriots NEVER made it to the chamber. There was no violence in the capital building, the crowd was NOT out of control ... they were ANGRY!!!'"
Notes on the Former Guy
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "A war of words broke out Tuesday among former senior Justice Department officials over Pennsylvania politics and the aftermath of the 2020 election, fueled by ... Donald Trump's release of a letter by a former appointee who is seeking Trump's backing as he considers a run for governor.... In a June 9 letter to Trump..., [William] McSwain[, a former U.S. attorney for Philadelphia] said his office 'received various allegations of voter fraud and election irregularities.' The letter seemed to blame [former AG William] Barr for not allowing McSwain to fully pursue and publicize them.... 'Attorney General Barr ... instructed me not to make any public statements or put out any press releases regarding possible election irregularities. I was also given a directive to pass along serious allegations to the State Attorney General for investigation -- the same State Attorney General who had already declared that you could not win.'" Barr denied the allegation & said McSwain was just trying to curry Trump's favor. ~~~
~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Former Attorney General William Barr pushed back Tuesday against suggestions from ... Donald Trump and a former federal prosecutor in Pennsylvania that federal authorities were ordered not to aggressively investigate claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election. Trump declared in a statement sent to reporters Monday evening that the former U.S. attorney in Philadelphia, William McSwain, was blocked from pursuing assertions of election tampering.... In an interview with Politico, Barr -- who became a favored punching bag for Trump after the 2020 election -- denied ever telling McSwain or others not to pursue fraud allegations related to the vote. 'It's written to make it seem like I gave him a directive,' Barr said. 'I never told him not to investigate anything.'"
David Fahrenthold & Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "Trump Organization executive Allen Weisselberg resigned from his positions at dozens of the company's subsidiaries in late June -- several days before he was indicted on charges of tax fraud and grand larceny -- according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. 'Effective immediately, I, Allen Weisselberg, resign from each and every office and position that I hold' in the subsidiaries, Weisselberg wrote in the letter, dated June 25. What followed was a two-page list.... The list obtained by The Post was largely redacted, so that only a few company names were visible. But, from looking at other corporate records in the United States and Scotland, The Post has identified at least 54 Trump entities where Weisselberg has recently resigned from his positions.... The shifts in leadership that have followed his resignation -- detailed in other corporate filings -- show that the Trump Organization appears to be increasingly reliant on Trump';s adult sons to manage a company...." MB: Yeah, I'll bet that goes well.
The Washington Post publishes what it calls Part 1 of excerpts from Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig's new book, I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year. (Also linked yesterday.)
Devan Cole of CNN: "... Donald Trump told a number of his advisers in 2020 that whoever leaked information about his stay in the White House bunker in May of that year had committed treason and should be executed for sharing details about the episode with members of the press, according to excerpts of a new book, obtained by CNN, from Wall Street Journal reporter Michael Bender." (Also linked yesterday.)
Nicholas Lemann reviews Michael Wolff's book Landslide for the New York Times. The review is worth reading. Here's a sample graf: "Trump, in these pages, is self-obsessed, delusional and administratively incompetent. He has no interest in or understanding of the workings of government. He doesn't read or listen to briefings. He spends vast amounts of time watching conservative television networks and chatting on the phone with cronies. The pandemic puts him at a special disadvantage; many of the people around him are either sick or afraid to come to work because that would entail complying with a regime of Covid noncompliance that Trump demands. If anybody tells him something he doesn't want to hear, he marginalizes or fires that person and finds somebody else to listen to, who may or may not hold an official position. If Fox News becomes less than completely loyal, he'll switch to Newsmax or One America News Network. He lives in a self-curated information environment that bears only a glancing relationship to reality."
Mike Allen of Axios: "... Donald Trump, in a book out Tuesday by Michael Wolff, says he is 'very disappointed' in votes by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, his own hard-won nominee, and that he 'hasn't had the courage you need to be a great justice.'... 'There were so many others I could have appointed, and everyone wanted me to,' Trump told Wolff in an interview.... 'Where would he be without me? I saved his life. He wouldn't even be in a law firm. Who would have had him? Nobody. Totally disgraced. Only I saved him.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
** Trump's "Lost Cause." Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “We are not the only democracy to have had a corrupt, would-be authoritarian in high office. But we have had a hard time holding that person minimally accountable.... This isn't the first time the United States has struggled to hold insurrectionists accountable.... Jefferson Davis..., Robert E. Lee ... [and] Alexander Stephens, the Confederate vice president..., [all died free men.]... Other, less prominent Confederates were also able to escape any real punishment.... Typical were those who moved smoothly from open rebellion to opposition to Reconstruction to serving as propagandists for what would become the 'Lost Cause.'... Leniency for defeated Confederates ... also contributed to a climate of impunity that fueled violence against Blacks and their allies.... The United States has never struggled to punish those radicals who stood against hierarchy and domination.... The two Red Scares of the 20th century are evidence enough of this fact." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: The determining factor isn't so much the punishment as who does the punishing. If almost all Republicans had condemned Trump for inciting the insurrection -- and for his many other corrupt acts -- then it's likely Trump & Trumpism would be kaput. But most Republicans, after an extremely brief January 6 shiver, went back to defending Trump & kowtowing to him. That left only Democrats, some social media folks & a few corporations to "punish" Trump. Hardly a line-up that could convince the MAGA crowd. The same dynamic would have held after the Civil War. Had Northerners incarcerated Davis, Lee, Stephens & others, they would have become martyrs of the "Lost Cause." It would have taken Southerners to declaim against the leaders of the seditious war, and that never happened. The Great Unwashed, alas, will almost always default to, "He's a jerk, but he's out jerk." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's the Insurectionist-in-Chief talking about the January 6 "lovefest" over this past weekend. Worth watching the part with Trump's, uh, voiceover, which I've set near the top of the video: ~~~
Bill Barr Cleared Up Some Loose Ends Before He Left the Building. Devlin Barrett & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Newly unsealed court documents show the Trump Justice Department sought a court order for the communications records of three Washington Post reporters [-- Ellen Nakashima, Greg Miller and Adam Entous --] in the final days of William P. Barr's tenure as attorney general in 2020, as prosecutors sought to identify sources for three articles written in 2017. The papers also reveal the service provider that was the recipient of the secret court order: Proofpoint Corporation, a firm that supplies data security services. Using Proofpoint as a means of trying to get the reporters' email records suggests prosecutors were thinking creatively about where they might be able to find reporters' data, beyond just standard email providers like Google or Microsoft.... In addition, the documents indicate the extent to which federal investigators strongly suspected the disclosures of classified information were coming from Congress."
Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "A former Chicago bank executive was convicted on Tuesday of financial crimes related to his facilitation of millions of dollars in high-risk loans to Paul Manafort, all in an effort to obtain a coveted position in the Trump administration. A jury in New York unanimously found the banker, Stephen M. Calk, 54, guilty of one count each of financial institution bribery and conspiracy to commit financial institution bribery. The charges stemmed from Mr. Calk's use of his position as chairman and chief executive of the Federal Savings Bank to push the bank to give $16 million in loans in 2016 to Mr. Manafort, who served as chairman of Donald J. Trump's presidential campaign during a key stretch."
John Cox of the Washington Post: "About a week ago, a company in Utah ... debuted what it described as a fun new product: a kit that encases Glock handguns in red, yellow and blue Lego blocks, refashioning lethal weapons to look exactly like children's toys. What Culper Precision calls the "BLOCK19" can be purchased for $549 to $765. "There is a satisfaction that can ONLY be found in the shooting sports and this is just one small way to break the rhetoric from Anti-Gun folks and draw attention to the fact that the shooting sports are SUPER FUN! the [Culper] site proclaimed.... What's not fun, and went unaddressed on the sales page, is the reality that thousands of children unintentionally shoot themselves or others each year because they find a gun and pull its trigger.... [The Lego gun is] legal in at least most of the country, said David Pucino, a lawyer at the Giffords Law Center. Although federal law prohibits toys from being manufactured to look like guns, no such law prohibits guns from being made to look like toys." ~~~
This "Lego Glock" is an actual thing you can buy, build and shoot: "...honestly what childhood toy is more welcoming than a big ole pile of blocks:” https://t.co/wBXl5GP6an
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 8, 2021
Unintentional shootings among children have risen by 30% in the past year. pic.twitter.com/ZmQXiefOE7
Ken Starr's Moral Outrage Is Extremely Client-Dependent. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "strong>Ken Starr, the lawyer who hounded Bill Clinton over his affair with Monica Lewinsky, waged a 'scorched-earth' legal campaign to persuade federal prosecutors to drop a sex-trafficking case against the billionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein relating to the abuse of multiple underaged girls, according to a new book. In Perversion of Justice the Miami Herald reporter Julie K Brown writes about Starr's role in securing the secret 2008 sweetheart deal that granted Epstein effective immunity from federal prosecution. The author, who is credited with blowing open the cover-up, calls Starr a 'fixer' who 'used his political connections in the White House to get the Justice Department to review Epstein's case'.... Though Starr's role in securing the Epstein deal was public knowledge, Brown's book reveals the lengths that the lawyer was prepared to go to in order to protect from federal justice an accused sexual predator and pedophile. The extent of his involvement is all the more striking given the equally passionate lengths that Starr went to in 1998 to pursue Clinton for perjury and obstruction of justice, given the much less serious sexual activity that sparked that investigation."
Maeve Sheehy of Politico: "A federal court on Tuesday threw ou the defamation lawsuit filed by Roy Moore, Alabama's former chief justice, against comedian Sacha Baron Cohen. Moore, who served twice in his role on the Alabama Supreme Court and was twice removed from the position, sued Baron Cohen after Moore was interviewed under the pretense that he would receive an award for his support of Israel. Baron Cohen pretended to be an Israeli anti-terrorism expert and claimed he had technology that would show whether Moore was a pedophile -- a reference to sexual misconduct allegations against Moore -- for the series 'Who Is America?' Moore alleged that Baron Cohen defamed him. He and his wife, Kayla Moore, also alleged intentional infliction of emotional distress and fraud. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed the case on Tuesday after agreeing with the defendants that because Moore had signed a waiver before the interview, and because of First Amendment protection, Moore's claims were barred. Judge John P. Cronan, an appointee of ... Donald Trump, dismissed the claims by both Moore and his wife."
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "An Iranian American journalist living in Brooklyn who has been a sharp critic of the Iranian government was the target of an international kidnapping plot orchestrated by an intelligence network in Iran, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. In an indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan, four Iranians were charged with conspiring to kidnap the journalist and author, Masih Alinejad. Ms. Alinejad was not identified by prosecutors, but confirmed in an interview that she was the intended target of the plot. Last year, Ms. Alinejad wrote in a newspaper article that Iranian government officials had unleashed a social media campaign calling for her abduction. The four defendants all live in Iran and remain at large, the prosecutors said, identifying one of them, Alireza Shavaroghi Farahani, 50, as an Iranian intelligence official and the three others as 'Iranian intelligence assets.' A fifth defendant, accused of supporting the plot but not participating in the kidnapping conspiracy, was arrested in California." ~~~
~~~ A CBS News story is here. The DOJ's statement is here.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Conservative network Newsmax is rushing to distance itself from one of its own hosts after he said this week that vaccines go 'against nature' because diseases are 'supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people.'... Newsmax issued a statement on Tuesday supporting efforts to get Americans vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, while pointedly disagreeing with host Rob Schmitt's claims that vaccinations unnaturally interfere with viruses' designs on killing people." See also Patrick's comment in yesterday's thread.
Tennessee. Brett Kelman of the Tennessean: "The Tennessee state government on Monday fired its top vaccination official, becoming the latest of about two dozen states to lose years of institutional knowledge about vaccines in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. The termination comes as the virus shows new signs of spread in Tennessee, and the more-transmissible delta variant surfaces in greater numbers. Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the medical director for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization programs at the Tennessee Department of Health, said she was fired on Monday afternoon and provided a copy of her termination letter. It provides no explanation for her termination. Fiscus said she was a scapegoat who was terminated to appease state lawmakers angry about the department's efforts to vaccinate teenagers against coronavirus. The agency has been dialing back efforts to vaccinate teenagers since June. 'It was my job to provide evidence-based education and vaccine access so that Tennesseans could protect themselves against COVID-19,' Fiscus said in a written statement. '"I have now been terminated for doing exactly that.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Oliver Laughland of the Guardian: "The Tennessee department of health will reportedly halt all vaccine outreach to teenagers amid a conservative backlash against Covid-19 vaccines for adolescents. The department's new guidance, announced in reports and emails reported by the Tennessean, will apply to vaccinations for all diseases -- not just Covid-19. If the department issues any information about vaccination, staff will reportedly be required to strip the agency logo from documents." The Tennessean's story is firewalled. ~~~
~~~ **
Beyond the Beltway
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "In the United States in the year 2021, you, as an American citizen, do not necessarily have the right to vote. You do not necessarily have the right to teach or to learn about matters of race, gender or anything else state lawmakers consider 'divisive concepts.'But you do have one absolute, sacrosanct, inviolate, God-given, self-evident and inalienable right: the right to refuse a coronavirus vaccine -- and to infect as many people as you can. With the blessing of the Roberts court, legislatures in Republican-run states are rushing to impose new voting restrictions, particularly on non-White voters.... At the same time, 10 states have enacted, and 26 states are weighing, restrictions on classroom discussions of racism and sexism.... Red states are simultaneously extending civil rights to a previously unprotected class: the anti-vaxxers. A count by the Husch Blackwell law firm lists at least 17 Republican-run states that have enacted laws or orders protecting the rights of those who refuse coronavirus vaccines...."
California. Don Thompson of the AP: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom can't put his Democratic Party affiliation on the ballot voters see when they decide whether to remove him, a judge ruled Monday. Newsom's campaign missed a deadline to submit his affiliation to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber for the Sept. 14 recall election. Newsom's campaign said it was inadvertent and asked Weber, who was appointed by Newsom, to allow the affiliation to appear. She said the issue needed to go to a judge, so Newsom filed a lawsuit.... Sacramento County Superior Court Judge James Arguelles ... determined that the law 'unambiguously precludes party information from appearing on a recall ballot where the elected officer fails timely to make the designation.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "The death toll from a catastrophic condominium collapse in Florida last month, once feared to be well more than 100 people, is expected to land between 95 and 99 people, with the search-and-recovery operation at the disaster site nearing its end.... In the 20 days crews have searched for victims..., they have found the remains of 95 people. Eighty-five of them have been identified. The other 10 victims will be considered unaccounted for until the medical examiner's office in Miami-Dade County can identify them through various forensic techniques.... In addition to the 10 unidentified people who are known to have been in the building, the list of those potentially still missing includes four more names, for a total of 14, said Alfredo Ramirez III, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department. Those four were identified by friends or family members as possibly in the building when it collapsed, and they have not been found alive elsewhere." The AP's report is here.
Florida. Amanda Maile & Mina Kaji of ABC News: "Norwegian Cruise Lines is suing Florida after the state banned vaccine passports, saying it cannot safely resume sailings without ensuring its passengers and crew are vaccinated against COVID-19. In a complaint filed Tuesday, the company called the move a 'last resort.'... Florida's law threatens to fine companies $5,000 each time they ask a customer to provide proof that they've been vaccinated."
Texas. Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Texas lawmakers traveled down starkly divergent political paths on Tuesday, as Republicans in Austin signaled their intention to push forward with an overhaul of the state's election system while Democrats who had fled the state a day earlier began lobbying lawmakers in Congress to pass comprehensive federal voting rights legislation. While Democrats celebrated their success in temporarily delaying the Republican bill, they confronted a much bigger long-term challenge: There is little the party can do to stop Republicans from ultimately passing a wide array of voting restrictions, with Gov. Greg Abbott vowing to call 'special session after special session after special session' until an election bill is passed. But Democrats, as long as they remain away from Texas, appear likely to be able to hold off the G.O.P. effort for now.... Without a quorum in the House, any bill passed by the Senate cannot advance, effectively killing any bill for this session...." ~~~
~~~ That Sound You Hear Is Sabres Rattling. Patrick Svitek & Cassandra Pollock of the Texas Tribune: "A showdown in the Texas House was locked into place Tuesday after the chamber voted overwhelmingly to send law enforcement after Democrats who left [for Washington, D.C.] a day earlier.... The impact of the House move is unclear since Texas law enforcement lacks jurisdiction in the nation's capital."
Texas. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Abortion rights advocates and providers filed a federal lawsuit in Texas on Tuesday seeking to block a new state law empowering individuals to sue anyone assisting a woman with getting an abortion, including those who provide financial help or drive a pregnant patient to a clinic. A dozen states have passed laws banning abortion after about six weeks of pregnancy. But the Texas law, set to take effect in September, goes further by incentivizing private citizens to help enforce the ban -- awarding them at least $10,000 if their court challenges are successful. Even religious leaders who counsel a pregnant woman considering an abortion could be liable, according to the lawsuit filed in Austin by the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and the ACLU on behalf of several other groups." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Who Took Down REvil? David Sanger of the New York Times: "Just days after President Biden demanded that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia shut down ransomware groups attacking American targets, the most aggressive of the groups suddenly went off-line early Tuesday. The mystery is who made it happen. The group, called REvil, short for 'Ransomware evil,' has been identified by U.S. intelligence agencies as responsible for the attack on one of America's largest beef producers, JBS. Two weeks after Mr. Biden and Mr. Putin met in Geneva last month, REvil took credit for a hack that affected thousands of businesses around the world over the July 4 holiday.That latest attack led to Mr. Biden's ultimatum in a phone call on Friday to the Russian president. Later, Mr. Biden said that 'we expect them to act,' and when asked by a reporter later if he would take down the group's servers if Mr. Putin did not, the president simply said, 'Yes.' He may have done exactly that. But that is only one possible explanation for what happened around 1 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, when the group&'s sites on the dark web suddenly disappeared."
Canada. Leyland Cecco of the Guardian: "A First Nations community in western Canada has announced the discovery of at least 160 unmarked graves close to a former residential school -- the latest in a series of grim announcements from across the country in recent weeks. Members of the Penelakut Tribe in south-western British Columbia said in a statement late on Monday that the graves had been discovered near the site of the Kuper Island industrial school on Penelakut Island, nearly 90km north of the provincial capital Victoria."
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Reader Comments (11)
Yup.
Crazy covers it, but hard to distinguish cause from effect in this, our national descent into lunacy.
I've long blamed religion, lunacy's nursery school, which at its base implies that the world we live in is somehow not the real one; and because it is not the world that counts in the long run it can be conveniently ignored.
Is that the reason that over time the Bedlam Party has entirely lost interest in, meeting or treating any real social, economic or environmental challenge this shadowy world we temporarily inhabits presents? To the point that it didn't even present a platform to its voters in the last national election, substituting instead reliance on a Dear Leader to the Rescue for any planning or work?
I don't know, but the parallels between the Bedlam Party and religion seem real. Certainly its slavish, unthinking adherence to the unsupported and downright incredible pronouncements of its leader is recognizably akin to the behavior of a congregation mindlessly shouting "Amen."
And how about Faux and the various iterations of Q as the apostles who spread the Word?
Maybe should have saved this rant for a Sunday Sermon...
You may think they're crazy, but "just stupid" explains an awful lot:
https://www.rawstory.com/doug-jensen-iowa/
The story says that a judge ( who by definition is a skeptical decision maker ) has been persuaded to ROR one of the capital sturmers, because that idiot ( the sturmer, not the judge ) thought he was storming the White House ( tempo home of the guy who invited the storming ) and didn't realize he was invading the capitol to "Stop The Steal".
You think you know how stupid many of your fellow citizens are, and then you learn that you really don't know stupid, and see new lows every day. Every - effing - day.
My first draft seems to have gone to Jupiter; anyway, not to here.
So ... we learn again that "really, really stupid" has great explanatory power in American politics.
https://www.rawstory.com/doug-jensen-iowa/
This capitol sturmer persuaded a judge that he did not know he was storming the capitol January 6, he thought he was visiting the White House, whose tempo occupant had invited all those folks to the lawn.
Can you imagine having to spend a few years as a cellmate of someone this stupid? It would really be cruel and unusual punishment. You'd have to apply for suicide watch after the first day!
I don't know if this particular piece was posted here but since it has just been put to my attention I will give you the link. It is a full fledged account of Exxon's ploys with a lengthy video; how some Washington politicians were/are working for Exxon, not for US. It has been something we knew about but here it is described in full flower and it stinks to high heaven.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/exxon-mobil-video-senators_n_60ec4dcee4b09f0145f5075f
And Ken: Your "I've long blamed religion, lunacy's nursery school, which at its base implies that the world we live in is somehow not the real one; and because it is not the world that counts in the long run it can be conveniently ignored." rings true blue along with that other thing called POWER ( Exxon Mobil, for instance). Rachel has been referring to our Planet One and Planet two for some time now––the latter being "not the real one" as you pointed out. There is something so desperate in clinging to mythical ignorance, reminiscent of children clinging on to the belief that there is a Santa or that Daddy really loves them even though he beats them on a regular basis.
Patrick,
That judge should probably have taken into account that someone that stoopid (ie, Trump supporter), might not have any real understanding of what ROR means, that his promise to return to court on a specific date might be kept by watching Judge Judy on that day. As for sharing a cell with Hallucination Harry, one might find it entertaining to hear that he believed he was in the cabin of a luxury cruise liner, not in the slammer, thus staving off thoughts of suicide for, oh, I dunno, a couple of days.
@Ken Winkes: I too often have blamed religion for giving people the propensity to believe Republican politicians, but I think it's a chicken-and-egg thing.
That joke that Jesus (or God) is an imaginary friend for grown-ups reminds me that children in fact devise imaginary friends all on their own. We seem to have an innate need for a fantastic world where things go well for us, and our imaginary friends are true-blue no matter what. It appears some so-called grown-ups have found an imaginary friend in Donald Trump. (Sorry, you dimwits, he will continue to betray you.)
When you look at how someone like Joe Biden turns his religious beliefs into public service with an eye toward actually helping ordinary people, it's difficult to fault religion itself for turning people into Trumpendruids. It isn't belief systems per se that make people selfish idiots; it's how people twist those belief systems into malevolent forces.
@Patrick: The exterior of the capitol building is faced in WHITE marble. The HOUSE meets there. It's a perfectly reasonable misunderstanding for a fella just off the farm coming for the first time to tour the sites of the nation's capital. If the tour guides had been a little more helpful January 6, I'm sure Farmer Jensen would have realized his mistake.
BTW, I'm leaving up both of your posts. They're both good.
OK, Marie.
Tried to cover that chicken and egg thing with a thin coat by saying it's difficult to tease apart cause and effect.
While I would agree the religious impulse may be nearly universal, its manifestations are many, and likely follow the impulses we gain from the mysteries of our nature and nurture.
Some use their "religion" as a cover for their essential laziness and meanness or as an excuse for their envies, jealousies and resentments. Others find in their beliefs a backdrop for the kind, generous and humane actions they perform.
People do, indeed, behave differently. But because religion teaches there is an incomprehensible reality beyond the physical world we inhabit, a world that we must take on faith, it simultaneously opens our neural paths to credulity of all kinds, while it simultaneously diminishes our sense of agency and personal responsibility for the state of our communities and of the larger world.
And as you say, for some (make that millions) it engenders a state of permanent infantilism, lazy, dependent and self-centered.
You guys are rockin' today... Ken for his take on religion being the breeding ground OR the result, and Patrick-- my mouth flew open when I read yesterday about the prize-winning idiot thinking he was at the White House...It's hard to realize that there ARE people that stupid, and I think we are under NO obligation to enlighten them. I think that the judge might have taken pity on this particular moron and the people he comes in contact with. I decided a long time ago that everyone can't be saved or helped or improved, and since life is short, to stay away from those people. Better for mental health...
I'm waiting for the inevitable headlines of "Republicans refusing to go to the hospital to own the libs" and "Republicans introduce legislation to shut down all hospitals and stop all prescription drug sales in the state because they go against nature"
Carl Sagan on Johnny Carson dumping on Star Wars. This was a segment Brian Williams used to end his show the other night. Worth watching, folks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGanLUnjoPI