;)
The Commentariat -- July 23, 2021
Late Morning Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
Alabama. Praise the Lord, Kay Saw the Light. Alabama. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey issued an impassioned plea for residents of her state to get vaccinated against Covid-19, arguing it was 'time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks' for the disease's continued spread. 'I want folks to get vaccinated. That's the cure. That prevents everything,' Ivey, a Republican, told reporters in Birmingham, Ala., on Thursday.... Ivey went on to describe the shots as 'safe' and 'effective,' saying: 'The data proves that it works. [It] doesn't cost you anything. It saves lives.'... Alabama remains the state with perhaps the lowest vaccination rate in the country...."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Todd Frankel of the Washington Post: "At least a dozen profitable major U.S. companies ... paid little or no U.S. income tax in 2020 -- or, in some cases, over several years -- and today are active in industry groups that object to helping fund with taxes the same public projects they want to profit from, according to interviews and data compiled by The Washington Post.... These companies -- construction and engineering firms, along with manufacturers -- support a deal to fix America's crumbling bridges and antiquated water pipes that will give them a surge in new business. They also belong to industry groups that argue against raising corporate taxes to fund new infrastructure projects, claiming it will hurt their ability to compete against foreign firms -- three years after U.S. corporate tax bills were slashed to the lowest level in more than half a century. 'I think it's completely outrageous," said Steven Rosenthal ... [of] the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center." ~~~
~~~ Speaking of Outrageous: ~~~
~~~ Texas. Eva Moravec of the Washington Post: "Support is growing among Texas Republicans for a push to audit the results of the 2020 election in a state that ... Donald Trump won handily. But the proposal, introduced in the House earlier this month, would only re-examine votes in Texas's largest counties, most of which went for President Biden. The legislation, House Bill 241, calls for an independent third party appointed by the state's top GOP officials to conduct a forensic audit of results in counties with more than 415,000 people. Of the 13 counties that meet that criteria, 10 voted for Biden last year."
The New York Times' Olympic games updates Friday are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Katie Rogers & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A quiet divide between President Biden and the leaders of the voting rights movement burst into the open on Thursday, as 150 organizations urged him to use his political mettle to push for two expansive federal voting rights bills that would combat a Republican wave of balloting restrictions. In the letter, signed by civil rights groups including the Leadership Conference and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, activists argued that with the 'ideal of bipartisan cooperation on voting rights' nowhere to be found in a sharply divided Senate, Mr. Biden must 'support the passage of these bills by whatever means necessary.'... Republicans have passed roughly 30 laws in states across the country this year that are likely to make voting harder, especially in Black and Latino communities, which lean Democratic. Several of the laws give state legislators more power over how elections are run and make it easier to challenge the results. In a fiery speech in Philadelphia last week, Mr. Biden warned that the G.O.P. effort was the 'most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.' But ... Mr. Biden ... has faced calls to push Democratic senators to eliminate the filibuster, which would allow the two major voting bills proposed by th party to pass with a simple majority." ~~~
~~~ Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: President "Biden's answer [in yesterday's town hall about why the Senate should preserve the filibuster] was weak and unrealistic.... The arguments in favor of eliminating the filibuster are almost absurdly overwhelming, but they haven't managed to change many minds in the Senate.... You get change not by convincing politicians to do the right thing for its own sake, but by altering the political landscape in such a way that the path you want them to take winds up being the only logical choice for them.... The reality is that the only way Democrats will get filibuster reform -- and thereby get action on the rest of their agenda -- is to elect enough Democrats to the Senate so that they don't need Manchin and Sinema's votes on the question.... That's what would produce change. And Biden? He'd go right along with it, no matter what he says now." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, what Waldman suggests -- democracy from the bottom up -- is nearly as pie-in-the-sky as Biden's filibuster dreams. There's a circular problem here: if the Senate doesn't pass voting rights legislation, then many Democratic-leaning Americans will be deprived of the right to vote, and, obviously, if Democrats can't vote, Republicans will win elections & will continue to put tighter & tighter squeezes on Democratic voters. AND Republicans will choose the judges & justices who are inclined to go along with the plan. When you insist on minority rule, even when you're in the majority, there's an awfully good chance you'll get minority rule. Nice work, Joe!
Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions against Cuba's defense minister and a special forces unit of the Interior Ministry it said was directly involved in human rights abuses during a government crackdown on widespread protests on the island this month. President Biden said in a statement that the measures were 'just the beginning' of efforts to sanction 'individuals responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people.' The measures were unveiled as Biden faces increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans to take decisive action in support of protesters on the island." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) Politico's story is here.
Becky Sullivan, et al., of NPR: "CIA Director William Burns says he has redoubled the agency's efforts to uncover the cause of Havana syndrome -- the mysterious set of ailments that has afflicted more than 200 U.S. officials and family members around the world. That includes the assignment of a senior officer who once led the hunt for Osama bin Laden to lead the investigation and tripling the size of a medical team involved in the probe, Burns told NPR on Thursday in his first sit-down interview since being confirmed as the agency's chief in March." A transcript of the full interview, conducted by NPR's Mary Louise Kelly, is here.
Jennifer Steinhauer & John Ismay of the New York Times: "Long before the Biden administration pledged to evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters and others at risk of Taliban reprisals, military veterans were laboring to get their trusted partners to the United States. These private efforts -- often spurred by desperate WhatsApp and Facebook messages from former colleagues in Afghanistan -- have taken on renewed urgency as U.S. and NATO forces complete their withdrawal from the country, and Taliban fighters take over large swaths of land. Passage for thousands of Afghans was promised under two special visa programs, but the documentation and security requirements have bedeviled many applicants. The House voted on Thursday to speed up the process and increase the number of visas available, but the bill faces an uncertain future in the Senate, where there is bipartisan support for the visa program but issues over funding."
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday began putting in place a plan to reduce violent crime in the nation's largest cities, detailing the work of five federal strike forces aimed at disrupting illegal gun traffickers who flood urban streets with illicit firearms. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland traveled to Chicago, where one of the strike forces will be located, to highlight the plan and underscore the Biden administration's efforts to curb the spread of illegal firearms.... [Garland] also appealed to lawmakers, who have not yet confirmed President Biden's nominee to lead the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], David Chipman. 'A.T.F. is on the front lines of our efforts to battle gun violence," Mr. Garland said. "We are very hopeful that the Senate will soon act.'"
GOP: The Party of White Supremacists & Tax Cheats. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "The Treasury Department believes that there is a 'tax gap,' taxes owed but not paid, of more than $500 billion every year; some estimates put the number much higher. And the Biden administration proposes giving the I.R.S. enough resources to reduce this gap as a way to help pay for investment in America's future. But if the administration goes this route, it will apparently do so with little if any Republican support.... I'm not surprised to learn that a significant number of senators are sympathetic to the interests of wealthy tax cheats.... I am, however, surprised that they are willing to be so open about their sympathies.... Maybe one way to understand the opposition to strengthening the I.R.S. is that it represents an unholy alliance between white supremacists and tax cheats. Is this country amazing, or what?"
Melanie Zanona & Manu Raju of CNN: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is weighing new ways to help beef up the bipartisan credibility of an investigation into the deadly Capitol riots -- an issue that has taken on renewed importance after the GOP walked out on the January 6 select committee.With extra seats on the panel, Pelosi is now seriously considering naming GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois to the committee, multiple sources tell CNN.... And the speaker is also looking to potentially hire a Republican as an outside adviser or staffer for the committee, sources tell CNN. Former Rep. Denver Riggleman, a Virginia Republican and former intelligence officer who has been an outspoken critic of ... Donald Trump, was seen heading into the speaker's office for a meeting Thursday afternoon."
Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "J. Thomas Manger, who spent 21 years as a police chief in the wealthy Washington suburbs of Montgomery and Fairfax counties, was named Thursday to take over the U.S. Capitol Police as it tries to regain its footing in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.... Manger was selected by three members of the Capitol Police Board -- the sergeant-at-arms of the House and the Senate, and the architect of the Capitol -- as well as top congressional leaders, who oversee the police department. He succeeds Chief Steven A. Sund, who resigned days after the insurrection amid heavy criticism of the department's lack of preparation, and interim chief Yogananda D. Pittman, who was head of Capitol Police intelligence before Jan. 6."
Shannon Bond of NPR: "Democratic senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would hold Facebook, YouTube and other social media companies responsible for the proliferation of falsehoods about vaccines, fake cures and other harmful health-related claims on their sites. Co-sponsored by Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, the Health Misinformation Act targets a provision in Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects platforms from being held liable for what their users post in most cases. The bill would strip the companies of that legal shield if their algorithms promote health misinformation during a public health crisis."
Richard Pildes, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that the two-year Congressional term is a major reason Congress doesn't get anything done. MB: Frankly, I find his thesis about as useful as "We must keep the filibuster so everything will be great." In both arguments, there is no acknowledgment of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy & their ilk. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Calling Roe v. Wade 'egregiously wrong,' Mississippi's attorney general urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to do away with the constitutional right to abortion and to sustain a state law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The court will hear arguments in the case in the fall, giving its newly expanded conservative majority a chance to confront what may be the most divisive issue in American law: whether the Constitution protects the right to end pregnancies. Lower courts blocked the Mississippi statute, calling it a cynical and calculated assault on abortion rights squarely at odds with Supreme Court precedents. The justices agreed to hear the case in May, just months after Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who has said she personally opposes abortion, joined the court." CNN's report is here.
Oliver Darcy of CNN: "A reporter at The Washington Post filed a lawsuit Thursday against the newspaper, its former top editor, and other senior leaders, alleging she was subject to unlawful discrimination after publicly saying that she had been the victim of sexual assault. The reporter, Felicia Sonmez, had previously said that she had been prohibited from covering stories about sexual misconduct because she had been outspoken about being a sexual assault survivor herself. As a national politics reporter, the ban had kept her from writing stories about how the #MeToo movement had upended politics, such as the allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process. The ban was eventually lifted earlier this year, the lawsuit said, after Sonmez criticized the newspaper both privately and in public over the policy. It was instituted during the tenure of former Executive Editor Marty Baron, who retired from the paper in February." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Assuming Sonmez's allegations are true, the Post's position is nonsensical. It's likely every one of the paper's Black reporters has been subjected to racial discrimination. Has the paper refused to allow Black staff to write about racism? Men in positions of power, who wouldn't dream of, say, preventing Jewish men from writing about anti-Semitic behavior, have put women in a special place because our delicate (hysterical) sensibilities don't allow us to think rationally about matters that affect us personally.
So Let Us Now Revisit the "Investigation" of Bart O'Kavanaugh. Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "Nearly three years after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh's tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the F.B.I. has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice's background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House. In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an F.B.I assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most 'relevant' of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Mr. Kavanaugh's past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear. The letter left uncertain whether the F.B.I. itself followed up on the most compelling leads.... Ms. Tyson's letter was a response to a 2019 letter from Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Coons to the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray.... Ms. Tyson's letter, Mr. Whitehouse said [in an interview], suggested that the F.B.I. ran a 'fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith.' Mr. Whitehouse and six of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee replied to the F.B.I.'s letter on Wednesday with demands for additional details...." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe if Feliciz Sonmez had been on the beat, the public would have got some better answers timely. ~~~
We apologize for the extended delay in responding. -- Jill Tyson, FBI Assistant Director, letter to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse & Christopher Coons
Extended delay -- ya think? An extended delay in responding to a senatorial inquiry is two months, not almost two years. -- Ruth Marcus ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The more significant part [of Tyson's letter] comes at the end of the letter: 'The Security Division section handling the [background investigation] and supplemental background investigation provided all relevant tips to the Office of White House Counsel.'... What did then-White House Counsel Donald McGahn do with the 'relevant tips?'... not a damn thing.... The vaunted tip line was, in fact, a funnel to nowhere.... The FBI's investigation into sexual assault allegations against Kavanaugh wasn't designed ... to satisfy enough disquieted senators -- Republicans Jeff Flake of Arizona, Susan Collins of Maine -- to get Kavanaugh across the finish line." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Marcus doesn't say so, but McGahn was the guy charged with shepherding Kavanaugh through the confirmation process. It's as if the only party who was privy to evidence in a murder case was the defendant's lawyer.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States sat for its third public meeting. Formed in April by executive order, the 36-member commission exists to hear arguments for and against Supreme Court reform and to analyze and appraise the merits of specific proposals.... Its members come from the upper echelon of the legal elite -- exactly the people most comfortable with the institutional status quo on the Supreme Court.... It may not offer needed reforms, but in its three meetings so far it has already served as a valuable platform for scholars with a cleareyed view of the court.... In his written testimony, for example, Nikolas Bowie, an assistant professor of law at Harvard, takes aim at the idea of the Supreme Court as a defender of the rights of vulnerable minorities. That, he says, is a comforting myth.... 'As a matter of historical practice,; Bowie writes, 'the Court has wielded an antidemocratic influence on American law, one that has undermined federal attempts to eliminate hierarchies of race, wealth, and status.'"
The Big Grifter Keeps on Grifting. Josh Dawsey & Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's political PAC raised about $75 million in the first half of this year as he trumpeted the false notion that the 2020 election was stolen from him, but the group has not devoted funds to help finance the ongoing ballot review in Arizona or to push for similar endeavors in other states, according to people familiar with the finances. Instead, the Save America leadership PAC -- which has few limits on how it can spend its money -- has paid for some of the former president's travel, legal costs and staff, along with other expenses, according to the people.... The PAC has held onto much of its cash. Even as he assiduously tracks attempts by his allies to cast doubt on the integrity of last year's election, Trump has been uninterested in personally bankrolling the efforts, relying on other entities and supporters to fund the endeavors, they said." Emphasis added.
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Americans deserve to know if [Trump pal Tom] Barrack essentially sold his investors influence over the foreign policy of the United States. The market for Trump scandal may be glutted, but when it comes to the role of foreign money in the last administration, there's no shortage of mysteries.... If the allegations in the Barrack indictment are true, it means that while an adviser to the Emirates was offering the Trump campaign election help.... Throughout his presidency, Trump could scarcely have been a more accommodating ally to the Emirates and to Saudi Arabia, whose crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was a protégé of Prince Mohammed bin Zayed[, the Emirates' de facto ruler]."
Steph Bazzle of the Hill Reporter: "In an audio clip from a new book [by Carol Leonnig & Phil Rucker], Donald Trump seemed to skate right up to the edge of admitting that January's insurrection attempt, carried out by his fans who hoped to overturn the election in his favor, after he called on them to march to the Capitol Building and fight for him, was actually an attack on American democracy, before he veered away to point a blaming finger at Capitol Police.... In the interview, Leonnig asks [Trump] what he wanted, what his goal was, when he stood on a stage and told his supporters to fight for him. Trump responds, saying, 'Not to go in, although they were ushered in by police.' After a few moments of attacking Capitol Police for their role in the attack, Trump turns back to the question: 'Personally what I wanted is what they wanted.' Bear in mind that what the attackers wanted, in their own words, included the deaths of both Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi, as well as overturning the outcome of the election." Includes audio (in the embedded Recount tweet).
Did You Have Trouble with Internet Access Thursday? It Wasn't You. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Another massive Internet outage along the East Coast struck significant online platforms Thursday, causing many high-traffic websites like Amazon, Airbnb, FedEx and Delta Air Lines to go dark. According to the tracking website Downdetector, sites such as UPS, USAA, Home Depot, HBO Max and Costco were among those affected by the outage. Other sites like British Airways, Go Daddy, Fidelity, Vanguard and AT&T were among those loading slowly. The cause of the outage, the latest in a series of major global Internet outages this summer, is not immediately clear." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
** Tara Parker-Pope of the New York Times: "While being fully vaccinated protects against serious illness and hospitalization from Covid-19, no vaccine offers 100 percent protection. As long as large numbers of people remain unvaccinated and continue to spread coronavirus, vaccinated people will be exposed to the Delta variant, and a small percentage of them will develop so-called breakthrough infections. Here are answers to common questions about how you can protect yourself and lower your risk for a breakthrough infection."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Chinese officials said on Thursday that they were shocked and offended by a World Health Organization proposal to further investigate whether the coronavirus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, exposing a widening rift over the inquiry into the origins of the pandemic. Senior Chinese health and science officials pushed back vigorously against the idea of opening the Wuhan Institute of Virology to renewed investigation after the W.H.O. director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, laid out plans to examine laboratories in the central city of Wuhan, where the first cases of Covid-19 appeared in late 2019." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
MEANWHILE, in GOP AntiVaxLand, Sean Hannity who Wednesday said, "It absolutely makes sense for many Americans to get vaccinated. I believe in science, I believe in the science of vaccination," backtracked Thursday & said, "I'm not urging people to get the COVID-19 vaccine, because I'm not a doctor." AND among our fine elected representatives, Dr. Ronnie Jackson (R-Texas) (the former White House physician) tried to shame his Democratic colleagues and the media by complaining to reporters that they never asked Democrats for saying whether or not they've been vaccinated against Covid-19. But several media outlets did ask every Democratic House member, and the answer was always "yes."
Beyond the Beltway
Alabamy Is Still Alabamy. CBS/AP: "Tarrant City Council member Tommy Bryant, [who is white, was] captured on video using a racial slur toward Black people during a council meeting said he won't apologize, and might run for mayor. Others are calling for his resignation.... During a public session, Bryant used the slur to refer to a Black female council member, Veronica Freeman. Before the outburst, neighbors asked Bryant about controversial social media posts allegedly made by his wife about race, CBS affiliate WIAT-TV reports. After being questioned, Bryant stood up and can be heard saying: 'The n-word. The n-word. Let's get to the n-word. Hey. Do we have a house n***** in here? Do we? Hey. Would she please stand up?' Bryant said. Some in the audience gasped at his use of the slur, which was broadcast on Facebook Live, and Freeman left crying, but Bryant was unapologetic." Bryant claimed he was just repeating what Mayor Wayman Newman, who is Black, said in a private meeting. Newman denied Bryant's claim. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
California. Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "A Southern California couple are facing manslaughter charges in connection with a deadly wildfire last September that prosecutors say was sparked by a smoke bomb during a gender reveal. The El Dorado Fire, which began at a park in Yucaipa, Calif., killed a firefighter and injured two other firefighters while burning more than 22,000 acres across San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. A grand jury indicted the couple, Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez, on one count each of involuntary manslaughter, San Bernardino County's district attorney, Jason Anderson, said at a news conference on Tuesday. They also face three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures and 22 misdemeanor counts. About half of wildfires in the Western United States are caused by people -- from downed power lines, discarded cigarettes, untended campfires -- while the other half are started by lightning." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Georgia. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Comcast was one of several companies that raised alarm about the voting restrictions [in Georgia Republicans' sweeping voter suppression law] but then contributed more than $20,000 collectively between April and June of this year to Georgia politicians who voted for or publicly defended the legislation, according to an examination by Advance Democracy, a nonprofit research group headed by Daniel J. Jones, a former FBI analyst who led the Senate investigation into the CIA's use of torture after the 9/11 terrorist attacks."
Missouri. Jason Rosenbaum & Rachel Lippmann of NPR: "Thursday, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled that an additional 275,000 low-income individuals in the state are again eligible for publicly-funded health care. Missouri voters successfully pushed through a state constitutional amendment on the ballot last August to adopt Medicaid expansion, but the Republican-dominated legislature refused to implement it, prompting Gov. Mike Parson, also a Republican, to pull the plug on plans to bolster the health care program."
Pennsylvania. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania's acting secretary of state has decertified a county's voting system for future elections after it was subjected to a review by a private company in an effort promoted by a group of state senators supporting ... Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Acting secretary of state Veronica W. Degraffenreid said in a statement Wednesday that Wake TSI's examination of the Fulton County ballots earlier this year violated the state's election code.... According to a statement from Degraffenreid's office, Fulton County officials allowed Wake TSI, of West Chester, Pa., 'to access certain key components of its certified system, including the county's election database, results files, and Windows systems logs. The county officials also allowed the company to use a system imaging tool to take complete hard drive images of these computers and other digital equipment.' The statement called Wake TSI 'a company with no knowledge or expertise in election technology.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's hoping the local elections officials who allowed those wingnuts to paw over the voting equipment get "decertified," too.
Way Beyond
Dubai. Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: When "Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the 32-year-old daughter of Dubai's fearsome ruler ... -- Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates' prime minister, vice president and minister of defense -- [failed to escape her father's realm despite making elaborate plans to do so, people wondered how] ... the princess [had] been found. An investigation by The Washington Post and an international consortium of news organizations may offer critical new insight: Latifa's number and those of her friends appear on a list that includes phones targeted for surveillance with Pegasus, the hacking tool from the Israeli spyware giant NSO Group, amid the sprint to track her down.... In the year after Latifa's chase, operatives appear to have entered numbers onto the list for another Dubai princess." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Japan. The New York Times is liveblogging the Olympics. Here are the entries for Thursday: "Just a day before the opening ceremony of the delayed Tokyo Olympics, organizers of the Games dismissed Kentaro Kobayashi, the creative director of the ceremony, after video footage emerged of him making fun of the Holocaust in a comedic act in the 1990s. At a press briefing on Thursday, Japan's Olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, sounding beleaguered after a run of scandals that have plagued the Games and the creative staff of the opening ceremony in particular, said she had learned about the routine on Wednesday. In the skit, Kobayashi joked about 'massacring Jews' while miming the act of cutting up human figures made of paper. The organizing committee, she said, decided to dismiss him 'immediately.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "Kathy Andrade, a longtime garment union activist in New York City and a native of El Salvador who pushed the labor movement to embrace immigrants rather than view them as threatening the livelihoods of American-born workers, died on July 2 in Manhattan. She was 88."
Washington Post: "Another heat wave is set to park over the Lower 48 next week, bringing anomalous summertime heat to parts of the central and eastern United States that may have missed out on previous events. Early estimates indicate that most of the contiguous United States will see highs running 10 to 15 degrees above average. When combined with climbing humidity, it'll feel like it's well into the triple digits for millions. The pattern could also spark severe thunderstorms, perhaps packing strong winds, that could roll through the northern Great Lakes and New England during late July and August."
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Reader Comments (9)
Regarding the Pennsylvania Fulton County officials who allowed their voting machines to be corrupted, I don't want them to be decertified, or more like I don't care whether or not they are decertified.
I want them to reimburse the county for the perfectly good voting machines they intentionally compromised.
These people don't acknowledge shame any more. Hit them in the pocketbook. Impose consequences they will understand and remember.
Lest some think I cribbed parts of Krugman's sermon linked above, this appeared in the local paper this morning:
"The long-awaited bipartisan infrastructure bill is not yet ready for prime time. More details to work out, the Republicans say, but agreement is just around the corner.
A skeptic might wonder if it’s all a charade, if after four years of the Trump presidency when the succession of Infrastructure Weeks became a standing joke, Republicans really want to address the nation’s deteriorating infrastructure, or if they are simply reluctant to agree to anything that might be seen as a “win” for the Biden administration.
One thing is certain, however. Whatever Republicans really think about the nation’s infrastructure needs, they would rather not pay for them. Republican Senator Portman said a provision to provide IRS funding to support the collection of taxes already owed had been stripped from the bill, so how to pay for it will require further negotiation (cnn.com).
Another delaying tactic? Who knows?
Portman did not mention another anti-tax proposal in the bipartisan bill. In lieu of collecting taxes to pay for the nation’s needs, the bill would lease elements of public infrastructure to the money markets and corporations that have nearly nine trillion dollars in their coffers (three trillion more than the US annual budget). After upgrading the leased property, these private entities would charge the public for their use (nbcnews.com).
Does anyone wonder why the richest nation in the world cannot pay for what it needs?
Low taxes on the rich is one answer. Hundreds of billions in uncollected taxes is another (washingtonpost.com).
But even more pernicious is the creation of homegrown tax havens, where states like South Dakota have made it possible for vast fortunes to pay no federal taxes at all (theguardian.com).
It’s not hard to figure: If we were serious about the nation’s infrastructure, we’d deal with our intentionally sabotaged financial infrastructure first."
VACUUMING THE ATMOSPHERE:
"These companies are sucking carbon our of the atmosphere––and investors are piling in."
Who would have thought of this except some astrophysicist vacuuming his carpet after a Saturday night get together whose guests spilled munchies on said carpet or–– how bout–scientists with imagination!
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/23/these-companies-are-sucking-carbon-from-the-atmosphere.html
And speaking of sucking up bad stuff from the atmosphere, the information of the Brett business–––and at the time we all yapped about the way information had been squelched––good that now something may be done about it.
MB: says: "Richard Pildes, in a New York Times op-ed[essay], argues that the two-year Congressional term is a major reason Congress doesn't get anything done. Frankly, I find his thesis about as useful as "We must keep the filibuster so everything will be great." In both arguments, there is no acknowledgment of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy & their ilk. "
I agree with your points but I still think Phildes' has a good argument and certainly something to explore.
And Ken––"Does anyone wonder why the richest nation in the world cannot pay for what it needs?" A question to be asked continually, especially to those whose actions promote it.
It just occurred to me that during the Kavanaugh hearing, Christine Ford mentioned the memory of her experience by inciting the hippocampus and yesterday I was reading about how many scientists now are telling us that they think smartphones are making us dumber, atrophying our hippocampus: Their rise has inaugurated a "monstrous transformation, melting space and minds," leaving us staggering in the shallows of a reduced attention span and infantilizing dependence on tech. A subject to explore more in depth in the future.
I don't think any of the 2020-2021 outrages anger me as much as the news we suspected: that the tips and information requested for Beer Boy's hearing were funneled directly to the disgusting Don McGahn where they met instant death. 4500 tips! For gods' sake-- this is yet another reason to wish every single member of the godforsaken previous administration be consigned to hell immediately. This is causing me gastric distress. We all knew that Beer Boy was a piece of trash and now it has been confirmed. Total trash. We also knew the leads were not pursued, but who knew it was THAT many...and we assumed the FBI gave them a cursory glance. Never assume. Chris Wray needs to leave now.
"disgusting Don McGahn". Jeanne that is exactly true. To think that he may have planted the seed that he was on the receiving end of Fat Donny's surveillance list is simply not believable to me. To think that Kavanaugh picks up McGahn's calls on the first ring...sort of like Alito and Long Dong Thomas. Swamp, indeed.
Four thousand (!) and five hundred tips about the deviance and deleterious deficiencies of a perverted drunk being shoved onto the court by another deviant pervert.
If ten percent of those tips were true, or even close…that’s 450 examples of O’Kavanaugh’s astounding lack of qualifications for sitting on the Supreme (or any) Court. Four hundred and fucking fifty!
One percent! If even one percent were true, that’s 45(!). Half of one percent? Over 20 astonishingly disqualifying events. One tenth of one percent? We’re talking about over 4 actual examples of this vile pervert’s past bad acts. That’s a pattern.
But now he’a lord high mucky muck supreme courtier.
The unforgivable Party of Traitors continues to pile up the reasons they all deserve fates worse than death.
I agree with Jeanne. Chris Wray has some explaining to do, and I don't think he can dream up a satisfactory explanation for his effectively sending the criminal's lawyer all the evidence against the criminal & then failing to cop to his stunt for two fucking years. When Senate Democrats get their hands on those 4,500 tips and staff comb through them, I'll bet a criminal referral against Kavanaugh would be in order.
And if all goes according to my fever dreams, whatever would happen if a Supreme Court Justice* was indicted and convicted of a sex (or other) crime? Would any Republicans vote to impeach and convict him? The best we're likely to get is that Susan Collins, for which the scheme itself was devised, may express "concern."
It's time again to revisit BULLSHIT MOUNTAIN cuz nothin has changed except there's a lot more Do-do to clean up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQQNiPIotho