;)
The Commentariat -- July 15, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Sarah Kolinovsky, et al., of ABC News: "As the first round of monthly child tax credits hit Americans' bank accounts Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took a victory lap..., speaking about the 'historic day' for American families and emphasizing the sea change the payments could represent for millions of American children living in poverty. 'Today, for families all over our country, for children all over our country, help is here,' Harris said, before introducing the president. 'This has never happened before. And America, yes, it is a big deal.' Biden and Harris marked the rollout of checks and direct deposits from the child tax credit with a White House event featuring Americans set to benefit."
Just. Plain. Selfish. Joan Biskupic of CNN: "Justice Stephen Breyer has not decided when he will retire and is especially gratified with his new role as the senior liberal on the bench, he told CNN in an exclusive interview -- his first public comments amid the incessant speculation of a Supreme Court vacancy. Far from Washington and the pressures of the recently completed session and chatter over his possible retirement, Breyer, a 27-year veteran of the high court, said Wednesday that two factors will be overriding in his decision. 'Primarily, of course, health,' said Breyer, who will turn 83 in August. 'Second, the court.'"
McCarthy Works to Ensure Trump Remains a Clear & Present Danger. Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy is expected to meet with ... Donald Trump on Thursday, as the California Republican is considering which members of his conference to appoint to a special committee tasked with investigating the deadly January 6 riot at the US Capitol."
** The Washington Post publishes Part 2 of excerpts from Carol Leonnig & Philip Rucker's book I Alone Can Fix It. This part covers some of the events of January 6.
Luke Harding, et al., of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin personally authorised a secret spy agency operation to support a 'mentally unstable' Donald Trump in the 2016 US presidential election during a closed session of Russia's national security council, according to what are assessed to be leaked Kremlin documents. The key meeting took place on 22 January 2016, the papers suggest, with the Russian president, his spy chiefs and senior ministers all present. They agreed a Trump White House would help secure Moscow's strategic objectives, among them 'social turmoil' in the US and a weakening of the American president's negotiating position. Russia's three spy agencies were ordered to find practical ways to support Trump, in a decree appearing to bear Putin's signature.... Western intelligence agencies are understood to have been aware of the documents for some months.... There is a brief psychological assessment of Trump, who is described as an 'impulsive, mentally unstable and unbalanced individual who suffers from an inferiority complex'. There is also apparent confirmation that the Kremlin possesses kompromat, or potentially compromising material, on the future president, collected -- the document says -- from Trump's earlier 'non-official visits to Russian Federation territory'." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.
Jared Kushner, Boy Hero. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Journalist Michael Wolff's new book, Landslide, describes [Jared] Kushner's role over the four years in office as staffing up the White House with his own loyalists who could circumvent Trump's demands. 'The four-year history of the Trump White House was, in one sense, the unlikely story of the rise and strange effectiveness of Jared Kushner,' wrote Wolff. 'Much of the West Wing and campaign staffs were made up of people whom Jared had picked. Their common characteristic was that, while they were tolerant of Trump, they could be counted on to slow-walk his worst excesses; some..., acting for Kushner, even often sought to put a brake on them. Kushner, both for temperamental and strategic reasons, would not, in almost any circumstance, directly confront his father-in-law.'" MB: Now, I wonder who could have been the source for this tale tale.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.
Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "What began as 'vaccine hesitancy' has morphed into outright vaccine hostility, as conservatives increasingly attack the White House's coronavirus message, mischaracterize its vaccination campaign and, more and more, vow to skip the shots altogether. The notion that the vaccine drive is pointless or harmful -- or perhaps even a government plot -- is increasingly an article of faith among supporters of ... Donald Trump, on a par with assertions that the last election was stolen and the assault on the U.S. Capitol was overblown."
"I Know It Cost $28MM, but I'm Busy That Day." Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Blue Origin announced Thursday that 18-year-old Oliver Daemen of the Netherlands will be joining founder Jeff Bezos on the company's first crewed spaceflight after the winner of a $28 million auction postponed. Blue Origin said the auction winner, who has asked to remain anonymous, would fly 'on a future mission due to scheduling conflicts.' A company spokesman said Daemen, an incoming physics and innovation management student at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, had participated in the auction and 'secured a seat on the second flight. We moved him up when this seat on the first flight became available.' The company would not say how much Daemen bid. His father is Joes Daemen, the founder and chief executive of Somerset Capital Partners, which invests in real estate, private equity and financial markets."
~~~~~~~~~~
Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden and congressional Democrats vowed on Wednesday to push through a $3.5 trillion budget blueprint to vastly expand social and environmental programs by extending the reach of education and health care, taxing the rich and tackling the warming of the planet. The legislation is far from passage, but top Democrats have agreed on working to include several far-reaching details. They include universal prekindergarten for all 3- and 4-year-olds, two years of free community college, clean energy requirements for utilities and lower prescription drug prices. Medicare benefits would be expanded, and green cards would be extended to some undocumented immigrants. At a closed-door luncheon in the Capitol, Mr. Biden rallied Democrats and the independents aligned with them to embrace the plan, which would require every single one of their votes to move forward over united Republican opposition. But several moderate lawmakers who are crucial to the plan's success had yet to say whether they would accept the proposal. Mr. Biden's message was 'be unified, strong, big and courageous,' Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said." ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Democrats have agreed to include a tax on imports from nations that lack aggressive climate change policies as part of a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget plan stocked with other provisions aimed at ratcheting down fossil fuel pollution in the United States. The move to tax imports was made public Wednesday, the same day that the European Union outlined its own proposal for a similar carbon border tax, a novel tool that is designed to protect domestic manufacturing while simultaneously pressuring other countries to reduce the emissions that are warming the planet.... Top Democrats called the timing coincidental but said both the United States and Europe must work together to put pressure on China and other heavy polluting countries to reduce emissions." ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Karen DeYoung & David Lynch of the Washington Post: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel will visit President Biden at the White House Thursday for discussions on a host of outstanding economic and foreign policy issues, with little likelihood that any of them will be settled. Instead, what is characterized as a 'working' trip will be an opportunity to reaffirm close bilateral ties and to underline what a senior German official called 'the continuity and importance of the relationship' as Merkel prepares to step down following September elections after 16 years in office."
The Check Is in the Mail. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Thursday is launching the biggest anti-poverty program undertaken by the federal government in more than a half-century, delivering monthly payments to the overwhelming majority of American parents for the first time. The Department of Treasury said it has sent checks to households representing approximately 60 million children under a provision in the stimulus package passed by Democrats in March. The payments can be withdrawn Thursday but appeared in many bank accounts as early as Wednesday. The benefit, expected to cost roughly $120 billion per year, provides $300 per child under age 6, as well as $250 per child 6 or older. The administration previously said that roughly 88 percent of all U.S. children nationwide would receive the aid. The program is a major political and economic test for President Biden and his administration."
Sarah Kolinovsky & Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "The Biden administration will begin evacuation flights in late July for Afghans who have aided the U.S. military and diplomatic missions, according to a senior administration official. President Joe Biden earlier this month said all U.S. combat forces will be out of Afghanistan by Aug. 31 and defended his decision to leave the country in the face of Taliban gains in the area.... The evacuation effort, dubbed Operation Allies Refuge, will relocate Afghans who have applied for a U.S. Special Immigrant Visa and their families to a safe third country, but it is still unclear how many of these translators, guides and other contractors will be moved and to exactly where."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "President Biden's decision to withdraw completely from Afghanistan is overwhelmingly popular. It's also strongly bipartisan in a way very few things are these days.... While speaking to Deutsche Welle in Germany, [former President George W. Bush] had some rather unvarnished thoughts on the pullout from Afghanistan, a war he launched after 9/11. Bush flatly agreed that it [was] 'a mistake' and warned of looming tragedies and atrocities.... The fact that he's sought to make this argument, however self-serving and academic at this point, reinforces how this might not be such a consensus issue moving forward -- and how it almost certainly won't be a simple one." MB: Another extraordinary aspect to Bush's remarks: he made them outside the U.S.
Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is increasing its efforts to disrupt ransomware campaigns and punish the criminals who launch them. Among the new initiatives is a new State Department program that's being announced today offering rewards of up to $10 million for information that helps halt or punish hackers that lock up computers at vital U.S. industries and hold them for ransom. It's an offshoot of a program called Rewards for Justice aimed at combating international terrorism -- another sign the administration is increasingly treating ransomware as a top national security threat."
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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.
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is expected to announce on Thursday that it will move forward with a plan to fully restore environmental protections to Tongass National Forest in Alaska, one of the world's largest intact temperate rain forests. The protections had been stripped away by ... Donald J. Trump. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose agency includes the United States Forest Service, is expected to announce the news, according to a person briefed on the matter who asked to speak anonymously because it had not yet been made public."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight and Reform Committee is launching an investigation into Arizona's GOP-commissioned review of the 2020 presidential election and the private contractor leading the effort, whose chief executive has echoed ... Donald Trump's false claims. Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the committee, and Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) sent a letter Wednesday to Douglas Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, seeking correspondences, documents and other information about his Florida-based company's review of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County. 'The committee is seeking to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in Arizona protects the right to vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence in America's elections, and reverse the result of a free and fair election for partisan gain,' Maloney and Raskin ... wrote to Logan." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow reported that Maloney & Raskin had to send their letter to a UPS mailbox store because Cyber Ninjas apparently doesn't have a real street address. Well, of course not, Rachel. They're cyber ninjas. I checked the Googles, and Cyber Ninjas does have a URL, and their Website has a facility to send them a message online. No return receipt, I guess.
Juliet Macur & Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "The Justice Department's inspector general released a long-awaited report on Wednesday that sharply criticized the F.B.I.'s handling of the sexual abuse case involving Lawrence G. Nassar, the former doctor for the U.S.A. Gymnastics national team and Michigan State sports, which led to Mr. Nassar's continued abuse of girls and women. Mr. Nassar, who is serving what amounts to life in prison, has been accused of abusing hundreds of female patients -- including the Olympic champion Simone Biles and a majority of the last two United States women's Olympic gymnastics teams -- under the guise of medical treatment.... The inspector general's report said senior F.B.I. officials in the Indianapolis field office failed to respond to the allegations 'with the utmost seriousness and urgency that they deserved and required' and the investigation did not proceed until after a September 2016 report by The Indianapolis Star detailed Mr. Nassar's abuse." Politico's report, by Josh Gerstein, is here.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "An Idaho man photographed hanging from the Senate balcony and sitting in the presiding officer's chair in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony obstruction of Congress, admitting to joining a group who came to Washington armed with firearms, knives and body armor to support ... Donald Trump. Josiah B. Colt, 34, became the latest defendant to agree to cooperate in the breach investigation, seeking to pare down a possible recommended five-year prison sentence. Though Colt is not accused of being part of a larger militia-like group, he admitted in plea papers to joining at least two men from Nevada and Tennessee who arranged travel, raised funds, bought paramilitary gear and recorded themselves before breaking in to the building and rushing to the Senate just evacuated by lawmakers."
Notes on the Former Guy*:
Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "In the waning weeks of Donald Trump's term, the country's top military leader repeatedly worried about what the president might do to maintain power after losing reelection, comparing his rhetoric to Adolf Hitler's during the rise of Nazi Germany and asking confidants whether a coup was forthcoming, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters. As Trump ceaselessly pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential election, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, grew more and more nervous, telling aides he feared that the president and his acolytes might attempt to use the military to stay in office, Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker report in 'I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year.' Milley described 'a stomach-churning' feeling as he listened to Trump's untrue complaints of election fraud, drawing a comparison to the 1933 attack on Germany's parliament building that Hitler used as a pretext to establish a Nazi dictatorship.... [Milley] saw himself as one of the last empowered defenders of democracy during some of the darkest days in the country's recent history." ~~~
~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Shortly before the deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Gen Mark Milley, told aides the US was facing a 'Reichstag moment' because Donald Trump was preaching 'the gospel of the Führer', according to an eagerly awaited book [by Philip Rucker & Carol Leonnig ]about Trump's last year in office." ~~~
~~~ Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "The top US military officer, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley, was so shaken that ... Donald Trump and his allies might attempt a coup or take other dangerous or illegal measures after the November election that Milley and other top officials informally planned for different ways to stop Trump, according to excerpts of an upcoming book obtained by CNN. The book, from Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, describes how Milley and the other Joint Chiefs discussed a plan to resign, one-by-one, rather than carry out orders from Trump that they considered to be illegal, dangerous or ill-advised. 'It was a kind of Saturday Night Massacre in reverse,' Leonnig and Rucker write." ~~~
~~~ Lexi Lonas of the Hill: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) told Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) that he was responsible for the Capitol riot while the scene was evolving on Jan. 6, according to a new book. In 'I Alone Can Fix It: Donald J. Trump's Catastrophic Final Year,' Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker write about a phone call between Cheney and Gen. Mark Milley<, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which the Wyoming Republican describes a confrontation she had with Jordan during the riot, CNN reported. 'That f---ing guy Jim Jordan. That son of a b----.... While these maniacs are going through the place, I'm standing in the aisle and he said, "We need to get the ladies away from the aisle. Let me help you." I smacked his hand away and told him, "Get away from me. You f---ing did this,"' Cheney reportedly told the general."
Todd Frankel & Jay Greene of the Washington Post: "Federal safety regulators filed a lawsuit against Amazon on Wednesday that accuses the retail giant of refusing to recognize regulators' authority to force the company to recall defective and unsafe products, setting up a fight over how much responsibility Amazon should take for the products it sells on its website. The action by the Consumer Product Safety Commission comes after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations between regulators and Amazon as the agency tried to persuade the company to follow the CPSC's rules for getting dangerous products off the market, according to a senior agency official.... The official said Amazon officials refused to acknowledge that the CPSC has the authority to compel the company to remove unsafe products."
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Here are six candidates for Pierce's list of inexcusable human beings: Alito, Roberts, Thomas, Gorsuch, Kavenaugh & Barrett. ~~~
Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "The Voting Rights Act decision that concluded the Supreme Court term this month offered two mutually exclusive visions of what the right to vote means today. Justice Samuel Alito's opinion for the six-justice majority insisted that the law should pay little mind to the occasional 'inconvenience' of casting a ballot. Justice Elena Kagan's dissenting opinion, joined by two other justices, accused the majority of taking the 'grand and obvious' right to an 'equal opportunityto vote' and reducing it to nothing more than 'equality-lite.' The competing visions in the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee decision reflected profoundly different understandings of what law needs to do to keep the basic mechanics of democracy functioning.... In the three dissenters' view, a voting regulation with a racially disparate impact is invalid if the plaintiff can show that the state's interest can be met by a less discriminatory policy. This was [a] 'radical' interpretation of Section 2 that ... alarmed Justice Alito." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Alito's view of "inconvenience" makes perfect sense to confederates. There's a moral imperative here. All people -- they believe -- should be as "civilized" as they are. So it isn't so much voting rights that should be equal; it's "inconvenience." If you have got yourself in a situation where it's less convenient for you to vote than it is for Sam Alito (say it's a hardship to get a required identity card), then that's your own damned fault. People who enjoy the right to vote enjoy it because they have arranged their lives in such a way that state laws don't make it especially inconvenient for them to cast their ballots. Everybody should live as these lucky duckies do, where the "inconveniences" to voting are relatively equal. Those who don't live this righteous life must learn to live with the hurdles legislatures have put in front of them.
Joe Coscarelli, et al., of the New York Times: "More than 13 years after being deemed mentally unfit to choose her own legal representation, Britney Spears can hire a high-powered Hollywood lawyer, [Mathew Rosengart,] a Los Angeles judge ruled on Wednesday, signaling a new phase in the battle to end the conservatorship that controls the singer's life. The decision by Judge Brenda Penny came at the first hearing since Ms. Spears, 39, called the conservatorship that she has lived under since 2008 abusive and said that she wanted it to end without her having to undergo additional psychiatric evaluations."
Danish Company Imposes Some Sanity on U.S. Gun Modifier. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "At first glance, the gun resembled a toy, one whose building blocks were the ubiquitous red, yellow, blue and green Legos. But beneath the surface of its colorful shell was something lethal: a Glock 19 pistol that had been customized by a Utah-based company that specializes in modifications to firearms. The Lego Group, the Danish brand known for being fiercely protective of its intellectual property and likeness, recently demanded that the company, Culper Precision of Provo, Utah, stop selling the casing.... 'We have contacted the company and they have agreed to remove the product from their website and not make or sell anything like this in the future,' Lego said in an email statement on Wednesday."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Apoorva Mandavilli & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "The [Delta] variant, the most contagious version yet of the coronavirus, accounts for more than half of new infections in the United States,federal health officials reported this month. The spread of the variant has prompted a vigorous new vaccination push from the Biden administration, and federal officials are planning to send medical teams to communities facing outbreaks that now seem inevitable.... Broadly speaking, the West and Northeast have relatively high rates of vaccination, while the South has the least. The vaccinated and unvaccinated 'two Americas' -- as Dr. Anthony S. Fauci ... has called them -- also are divided along political lines. Counties that voted for Mr. Biden average higher vaccination levels than those that voted for Donald Trump. Conservatives tend to decline vaccination far more often than Democrats."
Max Hauptman of the Washington Post: "An Alabama military base is taking increased actions to combat the ongoing prevalence of coronavirus infections, authorizing leaders to ask for proof of vaccination of service members not wearing a mask while on duty. It is the first military base in the continental United States to allow leaders to check the vaccination status of those in uniform. The new guidance at Fort Rucker comes as the new delta variant of the virus continues to drive infection rates and now accounts for a majority of cases in the United States. The base is among facilities, including Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, Fort Sill in Oklahoma and Fort Jackson in South Carolina, where less than half of the surrounding populations have been vaccinated." MB: Let's see if the Congressional Anti-Vax Caucus goes nuts over this.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "'Don't Fauci My Florida,' read drink koozies and T-shirts that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's campaign team >rolled out just as his state sees some of the highest coronavirus hospitalizations, new infections and deaths per capita in the country.... New coronavirus infection numbers plummeted in Florida after vaccinations became widely available, but they have ticked up in recent weeks. The state is reporting daily cases close to four times the national average.... [DeSantis' merchandise] the latest example of Republicans running on their opposition to virus-fueled shutdowns and mask mandates.... A key part of [DeSantis'] pitch [for 2022 (gubernatorial) & 2024 (presidential*)]: He resisted public health experts' calls for stricter measures against the spread of the coronavirus, spurring criticism on the left and praise from the right for keeping his state's schools and economy comparatively open." ~~~
~~~ In reporting this story on-air, CNN posted a chyron citing a June 7 tweet by DeSantis: "... FLORIDA CHOSE FREEDOM OVER FAUCISM." (All CAPS original.) MB: To put it as delicately as possible, DeSantis is one sick fuck.
Josh Katz & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "As Covid raged, so did the country's other epidemic. Drug overdose deaths rose nearly 30 percent in 2020 to a record 93,000, according to preliminary statistics released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It's the largest single-year increase recorded. The deaths rose in every state but two, South Dakota and New Hampshire, with pronounced increases in the South and West. Several grim records were set: the most drug overdose deaths in a year; the most deaths from opioid overdoses; the most overdose deaths from stimulants like methamphetamine; the most deaths from the deadly class of synthetic opioids known as fentanyls."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Prosecutorial "Discretion," Confederate-Style. Brittany Shamas, et al.,; of the Washington Post: "Scores of people crowded a major Miami-area highway Tuesday, chanting in support of rare protests that erupted days earlier in Cuba against the country's communist government. The rally caused an hours-long closure on part of the Palmetto Expressway in Miami-Dade County. It was the sort of scene envisioned by a divisive Florida law that Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) pushed amid last year's wave of racial justice demonstrations. The legislation calls for protesters to be cited if they block traffic. But no citations were given Tuesday, according to state and local law enforcement. Critics took issue with the lack of citations, saying the law is unclear or unevenly applied. DeSantis, who invoked the possibility of protesters shutting down a highway as he signed the bill into law, has been vocal in his support of rallies against the Cuban government. Asked about the Palmetto Expressway protests during a Tuesday roundtable with reporters, he said the recent demonstrations were 'fundamentally different' than last summer's protests that had inspired the law.... Florida Rep. Anna Eskamani, a Democrat who opposed the law, said it was '100 percent applicable' to the protest in the Miami area. She criticized the 'hypocrisy' and said the lack of enforcement showed that the law was aimed specifically at Black Lives Matter demonstrations" ~~~
~~~ Marie: C'mon, Anna. This law -- like many other confederate-backed laws -- was never meant to be applied against groups of people likely disposed to vote Republican. It's like the jelly-bean-counting test. On paper, it applies to everyone, but it's only imposed upon Black people and/or left-leaning groups.
Michigan. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "The executive director of the Michigan Republican Party, who said the 2020 presidential election wasn't stolen and blamed Donald Trump for the GOP loss, has resigned. Jason Roe, a veteran strategist who was brought on in February, stepped down from the post but declined to expand on why he resigned less than six months later, the Detroit Free Press reported." The Detroit Free Press story is here.
Way Beyond
Brazil. Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil faced possible emergency surgery for an intestinal obstruction after doctors on Wednesday ordered that he be flown to a hospital in São Paulo for evaluation, the government said. The obstruction is related to a stabbing injury Mr. Bolsonaro suffered in 2018 as he campaigned for president. He had complained in recent days about a persistent bout of hiccups, which had lasted more than 10 days, but it was unclear whether that was related."
Haiti. Anatoly Kurmanaev, et al., of the New York Times: "Several of the central figures under investigation by the Haitian authorities in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse gathered in the months before the killing to discuss rebuilding the troubled nation once the president was out of power, according to the Haitian police, Colombian intelligence officers and participants in the discussions. The meetings, conducted in Florida and the Dominican Republic over the last year, appear to connect a seemingly disparate collection of suspects in the investigation, linking a 63-year-old doctor and pastor, a security equipment salesman, and a mortgage and insurance broker in Florida. All have been identified by the Haitian authorities as prominent players in a sprawling plot to kill the president with the help of more than 20 former Colombian commandos. But the ties between them have been murky, at best, and until recently it was not clear how, or even if, they knew one another." ~~~
~~~ Widlore Merancourt & Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "The head of security [Dimitri Hérard] at the presidential palace [in Port-au-Prince] has been taken into custody as part of an investigation into the mysterious assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.... Much public anger has been directed against Hérard, as Haitians wonder how a team of alleged assassins appeared to easily infiltrate Moïse's residence but were later swiftly taken into custody.... Haitian police on Wednesday evening announced the arrest of two new suspects, including a former top police officer, as their investigation continues. Four high-ranking members of the president's security detail are also being held in isolation as authorities continue to track down other fugitives, police chief Léon Charles told reporters during a news conference."
News Lede:
Washington Post: "Devastating floods swept across a swath of Western Europe on Thursday, engulfing whole villages in raging muddy brown waters, overturning cars and killing at least 67 people and leaving more than 1,300 unaccounted for after a summer deluge at levels not seen in some areas for a century. At least 58 people died in Germany, by far the worst-hit country, where whole villages were cut off from rescuers and helicopters were deployed to pluck the stranded off rooftops. Some houses were simply washed away as a tributary of the Rhine burst its banks."
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Reader Comments (13)
I'll also rewrite the DeSantis chyron:
"FLORIDA CHOSE DEATH OVER FAUCISM."
And profiting off the death of your constituents by selling T-shirts
with an anti-vacine logo is immoral. But it seems like anything
goes in this post trump era. Never though I'd live to see BS like
what's going on now.
Have mentioned that long ago time when as a high school sophomore I was privileged to experience a special two week mini-course on the evils of communism, culminating in a a required essay on why I and my classmates would be "better dead than red."
The long association of "red" with communist China and the Soviet Union has more than once brought a smile when I hear or read of "red" states shouting the "socialist" alarm, but that mild irony pales beside this much greater one:
The leadership of entire state governments (South Dakota, Missouri, Tennessee, Florida, etc.) wish their supporters be both red AND dead.
It is also a question of ethics or morals (do not really know the difference) to address Marie's take on The Six Immoral Judges deciding whether something is "wrong" or simply "inconvenient." I guess Gorsuch has forgotten how "inconveniently" he felt the freezing truck driver was behaving in the quest to actually save his life, and Thomas found it convenient to lie about sexual harrassment to Anita Hill... So the word "convenient" can be substituted for almost any immoral action taken by the Red Warriors. Offhand, I don't recall particular cases where Alito felt opposition was inconvenient, but everyone knows how convenient it is for Roberts to assess certain groups as beyond needing help with voting, and to assert that money is speech. It all comes down to cruelty, and I'm sure the Handmaiden would stick with the others, as nothing is perhaps more cruel than the present form of the lowlife Christians claiming the high ground. Ugh. Despicable people all.
re: Britney Spears:
I'm all for personal freedom, but what I have found to be weird is that nobody seems to be paying attention to the fact that it's also very difficult to establish a Conservatorship in California. There has to be black and white evidence that the person suffers from an identified medical or psychiatric illness and lacks judgment to the point of being a risk to self/others. Her behavior in the past points strongly to mania. Many people with manic illness have no awareness that their behavior is a problem for themselves or others; and many never gain any insight into their illness. Statistics are that the individual who is seriously ill with mania takes about 10 years to acknowledge they are ill and have to be hospitalized about 4 times before they acknowledge they might benefit from proper medication.
So far, I haven't heard anything from Britney about what problem IN HER resulted in such a restrictive legal procedure. And, since this conservatorship was established as a result of her psychiatric illness, why is she trying so hard not to be evaluated by an accredited psychiatrist? It would be remiss for the court not to have one done.
She's still sick.
I was reading about cults the other day and came across something the historian and psychiatrist, Robert Lifton suggested:
People with certain kinds of personal history are more likely to experience a longing for being controlled by a higher figure such a god or many of these cult leaders, especially those with " an early sense of confusion and dislocation, or, at the opposite extreme, "an early experience of unusually intense family milieu control." But, he stresses, that the capacity for totalist submission lurks in all of us and is probably rooted in childhood, the prolonged period of dependance during which we have no choice but to attribute to our parents–-"an exaggerated omnipotence." ( one of the reasons I tried to give my kids, early on, choices–-basic things like "Do you want a full glass of milk or a half?" and so forth,) This might help explain why so many cult leaders ( and religious figures) choose to style themselves as the fathers or mothers of the cult families.
Some scholars, the piece mentioned, theorize that levels of religiosity and cultic affiliation tend to rise in proportion to the perceived uncertainty of an environment:
"The less control we feel we have over our circumstances, the more likely we are to entrust our fates to a higher power."
This country stands at a crossroad: the divisions are extremely wide and Ken's "both red and dead" says it best. And apropos of "giving choices" looks like many of these folks feel perfectly fine and dandy infecting others while choosing to NOT get vaccinated. With their middle fingers raised high they defy the only thing that could save them from themselves.
In the 2nd installment of the "I Alone ..." excerpts in the WaPo, it says that the 1982 tune "Gloria" by Laura Branigan played on the speakers when DiJiT took the stage January 6.
Here it is (the song):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNEb2k_EmMg
I sort of tuned out the pop music of the 70s and 80s, and was not familiar with this "Gloria" (Shadows of Night - much better. Just ask Van Morrison.). But today I heard reference to "listening to the voices in your head" in the 1982 lyrics, and of course it made sense as a DiJiT moldy oldie.
Sometimes you think these guys do have a sense of humor, but, then, no ... just stupid, yet again.
I forgot to mention ... at the top of that WaPo story
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/15/jan-6-i-alone-can-fix-it-book-excerpt/
is a photo of a capitol sturmer wiping her face on the American flag. It looks like she is blowing her nose on Old Glory.
Patriots all. Winter Soldiers, even.
A WaPo piece today -- "Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens" -- poses a conundrum.
Can anyone answer this man's question? Anyone?
…Paul Mango, who as deputy chief of staff at HHS helped manage Operation Warp Speed, said the current president is missing an obvious tactic: enlisting the former president. "I don’t know why Biden doesn’t invite Trump to the White House and hold hands and say, ‘This is an American effort, we got vaccinated, let’s all get vaccinated’ ”
The White House declined to comment.
Mr. Mango's been sniffing the NO2 gas down in the lab again. Haha.
I wouldn't invite trump to my outhouse, if I had one.
And should Biden also invite Tucker Carlson. He could sway
millions if he were a mind to. (Probably not).
One consolation, those leaders are killing off their own constituents. If it's red and dead, then the more dead red means less red alive. At what point will the red turn purple then blue? How many innocents will die to get there?
With various states going their own way, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota, Florida, ect, it seems we are watching the beginning of the Balkanizing of the United States into 'The Americas." Certainly the GOP is encouraging the divisiveness.
@Bobby Lee
In a sense or six, 'twas always so.
But for the few times when national crises (World Wars, the Depression, the 9/11 attack) drew our variousness together, the United States has never been united.
Racial and ethnic divisions have always fueled our politics. Slavery. Urban, rural. Our shifting geography as the nation expanded. And always--the money that moved along with that expansion and development.
If I had to locate a common denominator, it would be that shifting pile of money, never but for a few decades distributed in any way that approached equitable.
Since Nixon, most of the big money has backed Republicans, and they have used that money and its influence to further divide and conquer until they have backed themselves into a cognitive corner, where nothing they say makes any sense. If it does, they are driven out of the party.
That their nonsense can be discerned geographically is not so startling when you consider that the sources of our divisiveness have always the names of various regions and states attached.
The Bible Belt, for just one instance--the Left Coast is a contemporary example--did not get its name by accident.
The divisions, as I say, have always been there. They've just migrated.
One hundred years ago the genuine American populism, not the Pretender's tawdry and racist imitation, arose and flourished in states now deeply red.