The Commentariat -- July 21, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marianna Sotomayor & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) picks to serve on the Jan. 6 select committee, saying the outspoken Republicans may jeopardize 'the integrity of the investigation.' McCarthy announced Monday that he would recommend Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), noting that the two Republicans and three others represent an array of viewpoints and opinions. Both Jordan and Banks voted against certifying the election of President Biden.... Pelosi, who as speaker has final say on who can serve on a committee that is set to hold its first hearing Tuesday, said that she was 'prepared to appoint Representatives Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong and Troy E. Nehls.'... In response, McCarthy issued his own statement Wednesday afternoon in which he slammed Pelosi for 'an egregious abuse of power' he believes 'will irreparably damage this institution" ~~~

     ~~~ SO THEN. Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has decided not to participate in the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, yanking all of his GOP picks in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) decision to reject two top Republicans.”

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Economist Mark Zandi [of Moody's] is set to release a new report arguing that the country needs passage of the full package of Democratic proposals, to ensure that the recovery reaches its full potential.... Zandi's report concludes that concerns about inflation are 'likely misplaced' and 'overdone.'... The report concludes that both infrastructure and jobs bills being debated in Congress are essential.... [Zandi makes] a striking endorsement of a major argument for the package: that we have spent decades underinvesting in public programs of all kinds. Expenditures on both 'hard' and 'human' infrastructure will rectify this.... This Zandi report probably won't move most Senate Republicans, since many will see these benefits as arguments against supporting the package. And their warnings of inflation are not good-faith macroeconomic arguments; they're intended to trigger vague fears of Big Government and suggest liberal governance is running the country off the rails."

Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic was largely responsible for shaving a year and a half from the life expectancy of Americans in 2020, the steepest drop in the United States since World War II, according to federal statistics released on Wednesday. An American child born today, if they hypothetically lived their entire life under the conditions of 2020, would be expected to live 77.3 years, down from 78.8 in 2019. It's the lowest life expectancy since 2003, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the agency that released the figures and a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The difficult year also deepened racial and ethnic disparities in life expectancy, with Black and Hispanic Americans losing nearly two more years than white Americans. Life expectancy for Hispanic Americans dropped to 78.8 from 81.8, while the numbers for Black Americans dropped to 71.8 from 74.7. Non-Hispanic white Americans saw their life expectancy drop to 77.6 from 78.8." The AP's report is here. MB: And Donald Trump is responsible for some significant part of our lowered life expectancy. What a legacy!

~~~~~~~~~~

President Biden held a Cabinet meeting yesterday, and the Secretaries were not clambering all over each other in attempts to make increasingly absurd claims about Biden's being in best world leader in human history AND handsomer & stronger than Superman. ~~~

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "As the U.S. Marine Band played 'We Are the Champions' on the South Lawn of the White House, real-life Super Bowl champion Tom Brady stood near President Biden on Tuesday, both of them wearing sunglasses and grins.... 'As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop,' quipped Biden, who at 78 is the oldest U.S. president, referring to Brady, who at 43 is the oldest quarterback to lead a Super Bowl-winning team.... Brady noted that the Buccaneers had an up-and-down season and that 'not a lot of people think we could have won.' After pausing for effect, he added, 'In fact, I think about 40 percent of the people still don't think we won' -- a joking reference to the multitudes who wrongly believe Biden's victory was illegitimate.... It was in many ways the most traditional of presidential rituals.... Except that under ... Donald Trump, such events were anything but traditional. Many championship athletes, upset by Trump's politics, declined to come, often prompting Trump to insult or disinvite them." A Sports Illustrated story, which concentrates on Brady's making fun of Trump, is here.

Cat Zakrzewski & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden said he plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter, who has long opposed Big Tech companies as a lawyer, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division. It's the latest sign of the administration's willingness to crack down on the power and influence of Silicon Valley titans. Kanter is known as an adversary of giant tech corporations including Google and Apple. He has represented large companies like Microsoft, as well as smaller tech companies like Google critic Yelp. He is a partner at the Kanter Law Group, which describes itself as 'an antitrust advocacy boutique.':

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is pushing for rule changes that would put a 50-year delay on when courts can consider releasing material from federal grand juries, according to documents and interviews, and would separately allow gag orders to be applied more broadly to witnesses. While the recommendations were made during the Trump administration, President Biden's Justice Department is still seeking the changes, even as critics oppose what they say would be a significant expansion of secrecy around federal courts and investigations." The rule would guarantee that even grand jury transcripts important to the public interest -- like those related to the Mueller investigation -- in a dark vault for 50 years.

Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Biden administration disclosed previously classified details on Tuesday about the breadth of state-sponsored cyberattacks on American oil and gas pipelines over the past decade, as part of a warning to pipeline owners to increase the security of their systems to stave off future attacks. From 2011 to 2013, Chinese-backed hackers targeted, and in many cases breached, nearly two dozen companies that own such pipelines, the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security revealed in an alert on Tuesday. For the first time, the agencies said they judged that the 'intrusions were likely intended to gain strategic access' to the industrial control networks that run the pipelines 'for future operations rather than for intellectual property theft.' In other words, the hackers were preparing to take control of the pipelines, rather than just stealing the technology that allowed them to function."

Anthony Fauci Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Rand Paul. Rich Mendez of CNBC: "White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul traded barbs in a heated exchange at a Senate hearing Tuesday.... Paul grilled Fauci about an NIH funded study that he says qualifies as gain of function research, the process of altering a pathogen to make it more transmissible in order to better predict emerging diseases. Fauci denied in previous Senate testimony that the NIH has directly funded the research at a lab in Wuhan, China'.... Paul, R-Ky., asked Fauci if he would like to retract that statement from the May 11 testimony, 'Fauci, as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.'... 'I have not lied before Congress. I have never lied. Certainly not before Congress. Case closed,' Fauci said.... 'Sen. Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I would like to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about,' Fauci said.... 'You are implying that what we did resulted in the deaths of individuals,' Fauci responded as he pointed his finger at Paul. 'I totally resent that, and if anyone is lying here, senator, it is you.'" A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ P.D. Pepe provides a somewhat longer outtake here.

Washington Post Editors: "Having successfully blocked creation of an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of ... Donald Trump, Republicans are now intent sabotaging any kind of serious investigation. That became clear with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) selection of members to serve on the select committee formed to investigate the insurrection.... Mr. McCarthy's choices seem solely designed to make a circus of the proceedings. Ringleader, of course, would be [Jim] Jordan [Ohio], a persistent if not terribly skillful disrupter and provocateur.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) must not allow [McCarthy's] cynical gambit to spoil this opportunity to get to the bottom of the terrible events of Jan. 6.... No sooner were the names revealed than [Jim] Banks [Indiana], who would serve as ranking minority member, issued a blistering statement that blasted Democrats, attacked the purpose of the committee and suggested Republicans might use it to attack President Biden.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A Tampa man pleaded guilty Tuesday to joining a 'stack formation' of Oath Keepers members and associates who allegedly breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, becoming the latest to cooperate with prosecutors and the first among the formation to specify that he intended to hinder Congress that day using intimidation and coercion. Caleb Berry, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of obstructing an official proceeding. In a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to request lowering an estimated prison term of 51 to 63 months under federal guidelines for Berry, who has no criminal record and is one of the youngest defendants charged in the Capitol riots, in exchange for his substantial assistance. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta of Washington accepted the plea after Berry acknowledged that he coordinated plans and discussed the need to bring firearms for Jan. 6 in the nation's capital with Oath Keepers members."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "One of the most insightful quotes from the new book ... by The Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig came from their interview with ... Donald Trump in March. 'Personally,' Trump said of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 'what I wanted is what they wanted.'... After the Capitol was cleared, with detritus from the violence still littering the building and the grounds, with law enforcement officers still receiving medical treatment, the majority of Republicans serving in the House voted in favor of what Trump wanted, too.... What [Kevin] McCarthy's nominations [to the commission assigned to examine the insurrection] reinforce ... is how much the institutional Republican Party overlaps with the conspiratorial one." MB: They're really a party not just conspiracy theorists but of insurrectionists & autocrats. The majority of House Republicans voted to overturn a presidential election. Meanwhile, Republicans in state legislatures are working to provide mechanisms to overthrow future elections that don't go their way.

** Because They're All Criminals. Sharon LaFraniere & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of ... Donald J. Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was arrested in California on Tuesday morning on federal charges of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. A seven-count indictment accused Mr. Barrack, 74, of using his access to Mr. Trump to advance the foreign policy goals of the United Arab Emirates and then lying about his activities during a June 2019 interview with federal agents. Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Barrack used his position as an outside adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign to publicly promote the U.A.E.'s agenda.... After Mr. Trump was elected, the indictment said, Mr. Barrack continued to try to influence the administration policies in favor of the U.A.E. At one point, he told senior U.A.E. officials to give him a 'wish list' of foreign policy moves they wanted Washington to take..., prosecutors said. Matthew Grimes, a former top executive at Mr. Barrack's company, and Rashid al-Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati businessman who is close to the U.A.E. rulers, were also charged with acting as agents of the U.A.E. without registering with the Justice Department, as required. Department officials said that the three men conspired to abuse Mr. Barrack's access to Mr. Trump...." The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ The DOJ public statement is here. It includes a link to the indictment.

The Washington Post's live updates of Jeff Bezos' inner-space flight are here. The New York Times' live updates are here. The capsule & booster both landed safely. ~~~

~~~ (Oh, I suppose you wanted to see a video of Bezos slipping the surly bonds and all, but I prefer this one, to which Akhilleus quite brilliantly alluded in today's thread): ~~~

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, where the help says pay us what we're worth. -- Jeff Bezos, press conference today. MB: Okay, not necessarily true. ~~~

Update. Because What He Actually Said Was Worse. I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this. -- Jeff Bezos, during a news conference after his flight ~~~

~~~ Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Mr. Bezos' comment prompted swift critical reactions, including from a member of the House of Representatives who serves on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. 'Space travel isn't a tax-free holiday for the wealthy,' said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon. 'We pay taxes on plane tickets. Billionaires flying into space -- producing no scientific value -- should do the same, and then some!'... 'While Jeff Bezos is all over the news for paying to go to space, let's not forget the reality he has created here on Earth; Representative Nydia Velazquez, Democrat of New York, said on Twitter. She added the hashtag #WealthTaxNow on Tuesday morning and included a link to an article about how much Amazon's employees had been paid." A similar AP story is here.

     ~~~ Marie: I was surprised at how irritated ordinary Americans were at Bezos, even out here in the boondocks. My dentist -- who I reasonably figured could be one of those ADA members happy to contribute to white nationalist Paul Gosar -- was incensed that Bezos was so much richer than the rest of us. The guy who is building me a house -- who voted in 2016 for President* Corruption -- was angry that Bezos didn't pay taxes. ~~~

     ~~~ The starry-eyed "journalists" who reported this morning on CNN & MSNBC were over the moon (celestial references intentional) about how Bezos' flight would contribute to the future of space flight, blah-blah. But that's sort of ridiculous: any "contributions" Bezos makes are propriety; that is, he owns them, and can sell them (to, say, the government, for, say, an inflated price) -- or not. Moreover, Bezos is rich enough to dabble in inner space flight in part because he doesn't pay his workers decent wages or treat them like human beings & in part because he -- and his company -- have avoided paying taxes. Fans of Bezos' "achievement" today seem to be arguing that it's okay if U.S. multi-millionaires & billionaires don't contribute their fair share to the government because one or two of them might possibly someday make some significant contribution to society. Not my idea of a potentially good return on investment.

Michelle Boorstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access to cellphone data that appeared to show he was a regular user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and frequented gay bars.... Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill has since last fall been the general secretary of the USCCB, a position that coordinates all administrative work and planning for the conference, which is the country's network for Catholic bishops.... The National Catholic Reporter was the first to report Tuesday morning that Burrill had resigned, citing a memo from Archbishop José Gomez, the USCCB president, to other bishops." MB: You know, Msgr. Burrill likely would not have gotten into this predicament if the Roman Catholic Church allowed priests to have the same kind of normal interpersonal relations the rest of us enjoy.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, according to a new study posted online on Tuesday. Although troubling, the findings result from experiments conducted with blood samples in a laboratory, and may not reflect the vaccine's performance in the real world. But the conclusions add to evidence that the 13 million people inoculated with the J.&J. vaccine may need to receive a second dose -- ideally of one of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the authors said."

Some Republican Leaders Decide Killing off Their Voters Is Not the Best Plan. Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "A growing number of top Republicans are urging GOP supporters to get vaccinated as the delta coronavirus variant surges across the United States, marking a notable shift away from the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorizing that has gripped much of the party in opposition to the Biden administration's efforts to combat the virus. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was part of the rising chorus on Tuesday, stressing the need for unvaccinated Americans to receive coronavirus shots and warning that the country could reverse its progress in moving on from the pandemic.... Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican in House leadership [and a vaccination 'resister']..., received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine over the weekend and urged others to follow suit.... Other members of the GOP continue to sound notes of skepticism and spread misinformation about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Jonathan Weisman & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "As the coronavirus surges in their states and districts, fanned by a more contagious variant exploiting paltry vaccination rates, many congressional Republicans have declined to push back against vaccine skeptics in their party who are sowing mistrust about the shots' safety and effectiveness. Amid a widening partisan divide over coronavirus vaccination, most Republicans have either stoked or ignored the flood of misinformation reaching their constituents and instead focused their message about the vaccine on disparaging President Biden, characterizing his drive to inoculate Americans as politically motivated and heavy-handed. On Tuesday, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana ... blamed the hesitance on Mr. Biden and his criticism of Donald J. Trump's vaccine drive last year Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, said skeptics would not get their shots until 'this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last one.' And Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas ... [said,] 'Every time Jen Psaki opens her mouth or Dr. Fauci opens his mouth..., 10,000 more people say I'm never going to take the vaccine.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: By this "logic."... Donald Trump says, "Be careful out there; if you step in front of a bus, it will run over you." So -- because I don't want to take Trump's advice -- I step in front of a bus. Sensible.

Michael Grynbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Amid mixed messages on the channel, the hosts Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy [have] encourage[d] viewers to get Covid-19 shots as the Delta variant spreads." Doocy said Tuesday, "It will save your life." Hannity said Monday, "Please take Covid seriously -- I can't say it enough.... I believe in the science of vaccination." "In prime time, viewers heard a more skeptical message.... Fox News has faced heavy criticism in recent days over its vaccine coverage, including a denunciation on the Senate floor and accusations of hypocrisy after a memo revealed that its own employees would be allowed to go maskless in the office if vaccinated."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "One of the few items [my mother] thought was important enough to keep was a little yellow booklet.... On the front cover, above my name, it says, 'International Certificates of Vaccination as Approved by the World Health Organization.' Inside are page after page of records of the immunizations and boosters I received -- for typhus, typhoid, polio, flu, cholera, smallpox.... Rather than resent an impingement on their liberties, my parents' generation thought of these requirements as freedom itself. Freedom from the terror that had cast a shadow on my mother's own childhood, when poliomyelitis -- also known as infantile paralysis -- killed thousands of young people every year and left many more disabled for life.... There are those on the right today who would call this a 'vaccine passport.' Demanding that people show evidence of their covid-19 vaccination status has become a front in the raging culture wars." See also Patrick's commentary in yesterday's thread. Patrick got out ahead of Tumulty on this.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked an Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions, calling it an 'imminent threat' to the constitutional rights of women seeking abortions in the state. Judge Kristine Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the law from being enforced until she can issue a final ruling. Baker, responding to the challenge brought by advocates of abortion rights, wrote that bans on abortions before a fetus is considered viable are 'categorically unconstitutional.' The ban was set to go into effect on July 28 after being signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) in March. The ban, which is one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, would prevent any abortions except in situations that would save the life of the mother, and does not include exceptions for rape or incest."

Way Beyond

Haiti. Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "Haiti's national police announced on Tuesday they had arrested three police officers in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, suggesting there may have been an infiltration of their force ahead of the killing.... One of the biggest questions swirling in Haiti is how attackers were able to so easily breach the president's security detail. Impatience has been growing at the pace of the investigation, with many Haitians asking why so many key aspects of the crime remain a mystery.The arrests came as Haiti held a ceremony on Tuesday to pay homage to Mr. Moïse, a polarizing figure who was ensnared by accusations of corruption and increasingly autocratic actions during his presidency, but whose death has shaken many Haitians."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

Missouri whitesplains race…

Critical race theory, the latest scary boogeyman for petrified racists, was the subject of a hearing by a Missouri legislative committee. In case you’re thinking that the hearing might have been an attempt to dig into what exactly CRT is and how it might affect the way the subject of racism in American history is taught, remember, this is a confederate run state. The hearing was held as a platform to attack CRT.

And not a single black person, parent, teacher, or scholar, was invited to testify. Whites only. Sorry, let me amend that. Whites only who hate CRT even though they have no idea what it’s about.

Got it? No blacks need apply when we talk about their history.

This is classic Republican racist bullshit. It’s like holding hearings on an important medical crisis and inviting only obsequious quacks and ignorant demagogues, with no actual medical experts invited to talk. Oh, wait. They did that too, didn’t they?

So now we have whitesplaining of racism to the very people who deal with it every day, but who aren’t allowed to join in the conversation.

What’s next? Hearings on sexual assaults on women run by men who sexually assault women?

https://www.kansascity.com/news/state/missouri/article252888318.html

[Akhilleus]

Outer space, or just out of touch?

I can just imagine how perplexed The ridiculously wealthy Space Cadet Bezos (who pays no taxes and treats his workers like shit) is that the great unwashed (who do pay taxes) are not beside themselves with unbridled admiration for his vanity project.

Reminds me of a scene from Downton Abbey in which the family Dowager is told by the only member of that family who holds a real job that he intends to do extra work on the weekends. Her reply?

“What…what is a weekend?”

[Akhilleus]

For those not much enamored of the sports world, you may have missed a howling zinger (two, actually) directed at Loser Fatty. During a White House visit to celebrate the Tampa Bay Buc’s Super Bowl win, the team’s quarterback, Tom Brady, nodded to President Biden that even though they both pulled off brilliant recent wins in their respective domains, “40% still don’t believe we won”. Take that, Fatty.

Then this: BRADY: "We had a game in Chicago where I forgot what down it was. I lost track of one down in 21 years of playing and they started calling me Sleepy Tom. Why would they do that to me?"

As Jonathan Chait points out, this might have been the more “vicious” zinger:

“While this sounds more gentle than this first joke, it is in fact much more deeply vicious. In Trump’s mind, Biden is a pathetic loser, and he is the winner. Like Tom Brady.”

This is all made more delicious because of Fatty’s years’ long effort to tie himself to a proven winner like Brady. But Brady sidestepped Trump’s invitation to the White House after his previous Super Bowl win in 2017, denying the First Loser a chance to pal around with a real Winner, triggering raging anger from the Fat Fascist.

Chait points out the psychology at play here, which makes Brady’s joking alongside the hated Sleepy Joe such a poke in the eye to a hopeless narcissist like little donnie:

“… one needs to understand [Trump’s] peculiar psychology. Here, in rough order, is Trump’s hierarchy of needs:

1. To be treated as a winner

2. To pal around with celebrities

3. To not be laughed at

4. To gain the specific approval of Tom Brady”

So, cheers, Joe and Tom. And Fatty? Piss off, loser.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/tom-brady-joins-president-biden-at-white-house-to-mock-trump.html

[PD Pepe]

"What is a weekend" indeed! However––this space cadet has given $100 million each to CNN's Van Jones and Chef Jose Andres to do with it as they please. Will that ease the distain many have for Bezos' Big ride in the sky because down here on earth the guy doesn't apply as an upstanding citizen tax wise and otherwise? He's all about the "vision thing"––small steps for mankind––books, at first and then–––expand, people, expand!! It's an Amazon creation.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/20/media/van-jones-bezos-100-million/index.html

Meanwhile the little people continue to prove their insanity: Looking at you Republican dimwits who spout the stuff of buffoonery day after day after day. And if Nancy lets motor mouth, no shirt Jimmy Jordan on that hearing board I am going to spit nails!

"This is classic Republican racist bullshit. It’s like holding hearings on an important medical crisis and inviting only obsequious quacks and ignorant demagogues, with no actual medical experts invited to talk. Oh, wait. They did that too, didn’t they?"

AK was referring to a Missouri legislative committee but it lends itself to the whole GOP kit and caboodle, don't it?

[Akhilleus]

Stupid is as stupid does (and sez)…

So, Senator Potato Head, the former football coach who knows fuck all about anything else, sez “None of us Trumpies are gonna get the vaccine shot ‘til Biden turns around five times, touches the ground and says ‘Trump is great, Trump is great’”

Translation: we refuse to get a life saving vaccine that could help stop the even more dangerous delta variant unless Biden acknowledges that Trump was right all along.

Stupid is one thing. Dangerously deranged is a different category altogether. But what do you expect from an ignorant potato head?

[Marie Burns]

PD Pepe writes, "... this space cadet has given $100 million each to CNN's Van Jones and Chef Jose Andres to do with it as they please. Will that ease the distain many have for Bezos' Big ride in the sky because down here on earth the guy doesn't apply as an upstanding citizen tax wise and otherwise?"

It shouldn't. That's $200MM that should have gone into the tax coffers, either to offset the taxes you and I pay or to contribute to programs the people's representatives deem essential. Not only that, as incompetent & inefficient as the great national bureaucracy may be, it has it its disposal more competent & efficient ways of distributing funds to the deserving poor than do Jones & Andres. The government, with its access to personal public records like tax filings, knows better than private citizens like Jones & Andres who-all most needs and deserves a piece of that $200MM. In fact, how my income compares to my neighbor's is none of Jones' or Andres' business, so they have to make arbitrary decisions.

I don't doubt that Jones & Andres will put Bezos' donations to good use, but it should not be up to the whims of Bezos and his ilk to decide who gets to distribute significant amounts of their "charity." And the idea that Bezos is getting "credit" for his "generosity" is damned irritating.

[citizen625]

"Piss off, loser." I am freely applying that quote on behalf of Fauci to 'Man from Kentucky who deserves another swirly' Paul. Isn't Paul an abhorant deplorable? I bet PD needed a shower after watching that video. Sheesh! Just for fun consider AOC debating Paul: a bright woman from the City versus a dullard and dolt who used his daddy just like Gaetz and Bush W used theirs. She'd mop the floor with his sorry ass.

[Forrest Morris]

Some of the commenters on articles about the inner space flight
were spot on:

Phallus I

Bezos' Boner

The Cosmic Conpensator

[Patrick]

There once was a jerk from Kentucky
On his dais he was feeling lucky
He took on the Doc
Who then cleaned his clock
And on TV told him "You suckee!"

[Akhilleus]

Forrest,

Cosmic Compensator. Good one.

[Akhilleus]

The clip of the self-certified eye poker trying to pin the blame for the virus that he and his party allowed to spread like wildfire around this country on a real doctor is a perfect example of the sort of invidious mendacity that passes on the right for debate.

The Littlest Liar spits out a fabrication and as soon as Dr. Fauci begins to dismantle his false claims, he tries to shout him down. There is no way he’s going to allow Fauci to expose him as the cheap, grandstanding, ignorant little charlatan he is. Instead, he attempts a misdirection play which Fauci handily cuts down in the open field. It’s hard for fakers like Li’l Randy to stand up to smart people armed with facts, experience, and wisdom, but he gives it the old Aqua Buddha try, by shouting and attempting to make sure the facts cannot be heard.

We see the same sort of playbook run by confederates whenever they are legless and bereft of anything approximating factual evidence. In the case of Missouri R’s, they’ve taken it a step further by not even allowing those whose views on CRT might counter theirs into the room. This was a favored trick of Fatty’s who refused to call on reporters who might challenge his endless lies. His “press secretaries” doubled down on this spiteful strategy by not even holding any press conferences where opposing (ie, truthful) viewpoints might be voiced.

Paul is a particularly nasty purveyor of this sort of dirty trick, he being personally so unctuous and such a persistent self promoter and pernicious little propagator of deviance and slimy confederate lies.

As for Patrick’s limerick…yeah, what he said.

[Marie Burns]

And Another Thing. I'm getting a little tired of hearing commentators of every stripe saying, "Donald Trump deserves credit for getting the vaccine out in record time."

No, he doesn't. Occasionally yelling at staff to order someone to "get it done now!" is not the same as organizing an apparatus to speed up a complex, multi-faceted process. No doubt tens of thousands of people were involved in figuring out the logistics of the effort and then making that effort in labs & test environments & manufacturing plants, etc., then trying -- with only minimal success -- to get those shots to waiting arms (the Biden team did a better job in managing production & distribution of the vaccines).

I don't see Trump's barking orders as a significant part of what was a monumental effort -- by others.

[Unwashed]

Interesting piece from the WaPo a month ago about the trials and tribulations Pfizer went through to ramp-up production of the vaccine at their plant in Michigan. Remember that they also did not initially receive any government funding for it's development as others did.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/06/16/pfizer-vaccine-engineers-supply/

According to my b-i-l, who works for Pfizer but not at that location, it was all-hands-on-deck per corporate directive.

[Robin]

I am so glad that Dr. Fauci called Rand Paul a liar to his face. That needs to happen much more often to our congresscritters.

[Forrest Morris]

Kevin McCarthy to Nancy Pelosi: "If you want me to play fair
then I'm just going to take my marbles and leave."

[PD Pepe]

Here is a partial piece from the Washington Post that my DC friend sent me.

Democracy Dies in Darkness:

"Mask mandates violate religious liberty by hiding faces made in God’s image, Catholic school says:

The arguments against mask mandates are plentiful. Those opposed to the public-health measure say it restricts people’s freedom, represents government intrusion and — falsely — that it distorts science.
Officials at a Catholic school in Michigan are making a less-common claim: Forcing students to wear masks, they say, is a violation of religious freedom.

In a case set to be heard Wednesday, attorneys for Resurrection School in Lansing and two parents will tell the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that Catholic doctrine holds that every person is made in God’s image.
“Unfortunately, a mask shields our humanity,” the school argued in its lawsuit. “And because God created us in His image, we are masking that image.”
A spokeswoman for Michigan’s Department of Attorney General declined to comment on the merits of the case, which was first reported in October by the Lansing State Journal. “Our arguments will be laid out before the court, which is the proper venue to comment,” the spokeswoman, Lynsey Mukomel, said in a statement.
Michigan does not mandate that students and teachers wear masks in schools, although it did so last fall when Resurrection School filed suit. But the school’s legal challenge could set precedent around mask rules and religious exercise at a time of contentious national debate about coronavirus restrictions."

And there you have it! Their God is pissed cuz them faces he made be covered and we can't have that! I'm losing it, folks, any deep feelings for my fellow man is in the pan––fried to a crisp and thrown out in the ash can. Times is hard!

[Patrick]

If you can't imagine that there is a God-given face behind that mask, you probably don't yet have the perception of object permanence and find peek-a-boo to be a surprise every single time.

God gave us lots of body parts. Maybe we should walk around naked rather than hide any?

And, ladies ... no make-up. Nuh-uh. Sacrilegious.

However, priests can still wear dresses.

(Tallulah B, to monsignor: "Love your dress, but do you know your handbag's on fire?")

[Unwashed]

@Patrick, if Scots don't wear any undergarments with their kilts, do priests with their dresses?

[RAS]

Aren't pants also covering up God's creation?