;)
The Commentariat -- July 24, 2021
Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Biden made a gleeful return to the campaign trail on Friday evening, joining former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia, who is seeking to regain his old job in November, for his first campaign event since his inauguration. In a park in Arlington County, a short drive from Washington, Mr. Biden appeared to be back in his electoral element, shedding his necktie, whipping up the crowd and repeatedly casting Mr. McAuliffe as a crucial ally in his fight for a sprawling agenda to remake American capitalism.... Trading his more serene presidential demeanor for a fiery campaign one, Mr. Biden sought to tie the coming elections to his own political project. Instead of his typical practice in White House speeches of leaning into the microphone and whispering to emphasize his points, the president leaned in and shouted." ~~~
Celine Castronuovo of the Hill: "President Biden has authorized up to $100 million in additional aid for Afghan refugees and those impacted by ongoing violence between the Taliban and Afghan forces as the U.S. nears completion of its goal to remove all its troops from the country. Biden announced the foreign aid in a memo from the White House Friday, citing a need for '>meeting unexpected urgent refugee and migration needs, victims of conflict, and other persons at risk as a result of the situation in Afghanistan, including applicants for Special Immigrant Visas.'"
Anne Gearan & Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "President Biden is expected to name Caroline Kennedy as the United States ambassador to Australia, according to people familiar with the selection.... Kennedy served as U.S. ambassador to Japan from 2013 to 2017 and is the daughter of President John F. Kennedy.... Kennedy's previous experience in Asia is likely to prove valuable as Australia finds itself facing an increasingly assertive China. Biden's choice of Kennedy was first reported Friday by CNN. The Washington Post confirmed it with officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity...."
Marie: Lawrence O'Donnell & Norm Ornstein, two political veterans who really know what they're talking about, asserted Friday night that Joe Biden is more-or-less faking it on his Adoration of the Filibuster until after the Senate deals with the infrastructure bills and that he'll amend his remarks when it comes to voting rights. I sure hope they're right, but I'm not counting my chickens.
When we last heard from Assistant FBI Director Jill Tyson, she was making excuses for Chris Wray's failure to address the fake "investigation" into Bart O'Kavanaugh's history of raunchy behavior. Now, there's this: ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A senior FBI official violated agency policies in her handling of a romantic relationship with a subordinate, according to findings of the Justice Department's inspector general, and the bureau's disciplinary office is now weighing what, if anything, to do about the findings, according to current and former law enforcement officials familiar with the matter. Jill C. Tyson, who has a close working relationship with FBI Director Christopher A. Wray..., was criticized in a report issued Thursday by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The inspector general did not name Tyson, but concluded that 'the Assistant Director was engaged in a romantic relationship with a subordinate and failed to timely report the relationship, in violation of FBI policy.'... The inspector general investigation 'also found that the Assistant Director allowed the relationship to negatively affect an appropriate and professional superior-subordinate relationship and to disrupt the workplace by interfering with the ability of other FBI employees to complete their work, and that the Assistant Director participated in a hiring or organizational decision involving the subordinate, all in violation of FBI policy.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently "inappropriate sexual relationships" are not, generally speaking, of great concern to Tyson.
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tanaya Macheel & Hannah Maio of CNBC: "U.S. equities rose Friday with the the major averages hitting new records as they overcame concerns about economic growth from earlier in the week. The Dow closed above 35,000 for the first time ever, bringing its gain for 2021 to more than 14%. The blue chip average rose 238.20 points, or 0.68%, to 35,061.55, gaining for a fourth straight day. It made the 1,000-point trek rather quickly, having closed above 34,000 for the first time ever back in mid-April. The S&P 500 gained 1.01% to 4,411.79 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.04% to 14,836.99, both new closing highs for the benchmarks." A Washington Post story is here.
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a longtime Trump fund-raiser and friend, has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors to be released on $250 million bond while awaiting trial on charges that he illegally lobbied the U.S. government on behalf of leaders in the United Arab Emirates. The agreement, announced on Friday, requires Mr. Barrack -- a wealthy investor who served as chairman of Mr. Trump's inaugural committee -- to wear a GPS location monitoring bracelet at all times, according to a Justice Department spokesman. The deal restricts his movements to Southern California, where he lives and works, and New York, where he has been charged. It also prohibits Mr. Barrack, who was arrested and detained in Los Angeles on Tuesday, from transferring money from his domestic accounts overseas. Prosecutors, citing his wealth and access to private jets, claimed he was a flight risk and pushed for the high bond." Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here.
~~~ Via the Raw Story.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Surprise, Surprise. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Last month, Tucker Carlson told his Fox News audience that the National Security Agency had been monitoring his communications 'in an attempt to take this show off the air.'... Now, The Record has reported, 'The NSA has found no evidence to support Tucker Carlson's accusations that the agency had been spying on him in an effort to knock his show off the air,' according to two sources the outlet spoke with. What the NSA did find was that Carlson had been mentioned by third parties in their communications, and that his name was revealed through 'unmasking,' whereby qualified government officials may request the divulgence of the identities of U.S. citizens who are mentioned in intelligence reports."
Marie: Oh, just read Katharine Seelye's NYT obituary of one-time journalist Laura Foreman. I hope Foreman's executors discover her unpublished autobiography among her papers.
Emily Heil of the Washington Post: "Once high-flying celebrity chef Mario Batali, his business partner Joseph Bastianich and their former restaurant company will pay $600,000 to more than 20 former employees, after a New York attorney general investigation found that management at three of their famed restaurants had suffered sexual harassment and discrimination."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
** Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Biden administration health officials increasingly think that vulnerable populations will need booster shots even as research continues into how long the coronavirus vaccines remain effective. Senior officials now say they expect that people who are 65 and older or who have compromised immune systems will most likely need a third shot from Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, two vaccines based on the same technology that have been used to inoculate the vast majority of Americans thus far. That is a sharp shift from just a few weeks ago, when the administration said it thought there was not enough evidence to back boosters yet. On Thursday, a key official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [-- Dr. Amanda Cohn --] said the agency is exploring options to give patients with compromised immune systems third doses even before regulators broaden the emergency use authorization for coronavirus vaccines, a step that could come soon for the Pfizer vaccine."
Emmanuel Morgan of the New York Times: N.F.L. "Commissioner Roger Goodell on Thursday sent a memo to all 32 teams outlining Covid-19 guidelines for the 2021 season that detail drastic penalties for teams with unvaccinated personnel, including the forfeiture of games. Any forfeits could result in players' not being paid -- if their infections are known to have caused an outbreak. The N.F.L. ... will postpone contests only under government or medical orders. If an unvaccinated player or staff member is shown to have caused an outbreak that forces a schedule change, the team experiencing the outbreak will be held financially responsible for the other club's expenses, the memo said. If the game cannot be rescheduled, the team experiencing the outbreak will forfeit. For playoff-seeding purposes, that team will be credited with a loss, while the other will be credited with a win. If an outbreak occurs among vaccinated individuals in a 'breakthrough' infection, the N.F.L. will try to minimize the competitive and fiscal disruption for both teams. The terms of the memo were agreed upon with the N.F.L. Players Association, said Dawn Aponte, the league's chief football administrative officer." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As some pundit -- I think he was a former pro football player -- said on the teevee Friday, it's pretty ridiculous that big, tough pro players, who put their lives on the line every time they walk onto the field by risking injury, including permanent brain injury, are bent out about getting a couple of life-saving shots. ~~~
~~~ Courtney Cronin of ESPN: "After refusing to receive a vaccine for COVID-19, Rick Dennison is out as a Minnesota Vikings assistant coach, sources told ESPN on Friday.... Another coach in the league, New England Patriots co-offensive line coach Cole Popovich, also won't be with his team in 2021 in a decision related to the COVID-19 vaccine and NFL guidelines, league sources confirmed to ESPN. The vaccine is required for all Tier 1 staff, including coaches, front-office executives, equipment managers and scouts."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Dan Diamond & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "Seven months after the first coronavirus shots were rolled out, vaccinated Americans -- including government, business and health leaders -- are growing frustrated that tens of millions of people are still refusing to get them, endangering themselves and their communities and fueling the virus's spread.... Despite the growing anger, including from some GOP officials, a number of prominent Republicans and conservative media voices continue to shower vaccines with skepticism, and social media disinformation continues largely unabated. 'The Biden administration wants to knock down your door KGB-style to force people to get vaccinated!' Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-Mo.) tweeted this month, distorting a new campaign to share information about the shots."
~~~ 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...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "A month ago, the number of Covid-19 patients admitted at two University of Florida hospitals in Jacksonville was down to 14. Now more than 140 people are hospitalized with the coronavirus ... -- and the highest number of Covid-19 patients this system has seen during the pandemic.... A national uptick in coronavirus cases has led ... to a steep rise in hospitalizations in some spots around the country where people have been slower to get vaccinated.... Nationally, hospitalizations remain relatively low, nowhere near earlier peaks of the pandemic. But in some regions with lagging vaccination rates and rising virus cases -- such as northeastern Florida, southwestern Missouri and southern Nevada -- the highly contagious Delta variant has flooded intensive care units and Covid-19 wards that, not long ago, had seen their patient counts shrink.... Florida, Missouri and Texas account for about 34 percent of all new cases nationwide."
Tennessee. Timothy Bella & Paulina Villegas of the Washington Post: "The state of Tennessee announced Friday that it will resume nearly all forms of coronavirus vaccine outreach for children and teenagers after advocacy was halted this month because of pressure from Republican legislators upset by the state health department's efforts to vaccinate minors. Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said at a news conference that the state will jump-start efforts to promote vaccination for adolescents as early as next week, including by offering the shots at events on school property.... Piercey also announced that health officials will provide vaccinations to minors without their parents' permission in what she described as 'fringed and nuanced' circumstances. Her statement Friday contradicted an announcement this week by state Republicans who claimed that Piercey privately agreed 'to stop vaccinating children for covid-19 without parental consent...,' according to the Tennessean newspaper." The Hill's story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Audra Burch & Sophie Kasakove of the New York Times: "As the search for bodies at the collapse site [of a Surfside high-rise condominium building] was officially declared over on Friday, Estelle Hedaya is the last believed -- and still unaccounted for -- casualty.... The search for the final remains -- believed to be Ms. Hedaya's -- would be done off-site, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava of Miami-Dade County, which includes Surfside, said in a statement this week."
** Tennessee. Good News/Idiotic News. Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "After years of protests, the bust of Nathan Bedford Forrest, the slave trader, Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader, was removed from the State Capitol in Nashville on Friday and sent to the Tennessee State Museum, state officials said. The operation also included the removal of the busts of Adm. David Farragut, the first leader of the U.S. Navy, who served in the Union Army during the Civil War, and another Tennessean, Adm. Albert Gleaves, a commander in World War I and naval historian. The move came after the Tennessee State Building Commission, including Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, voted 5-2 on Thursday in favor of relocating all three busts. The removal of the two admirals was intended to avoid singling out the Confederate general.... Before the Civil War, Forrest owned, bought and sold slaves in Memphis. As a general, he led a notoriously gruesome massacre of surrendered Black and white Union troops at Fort Pillow in 1864. And after the South was defeated, he became the original grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan." MB: "You dock me one Confederate traitor; I'll dock you two American war heroes. And we're even."
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 former president 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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Haiti. Catherine Porter of the New York Times: "Heckled by protesters and surrounded by phalanxes of heavily armed guards, foreign diplomats and Haitian politicians attended the funeral of Haiti's assassinated president on Friday, a tense event that laid bare a fractured nation's problems instead of providing an opportunity for healing. Less than a half-hour into the funeral, foreign dignitaries including an American delegation led by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, departed over safety concerns set off by gunshots fired outside the event. White House officials said that the delegation members were safe and that they had flown back to the United States, cutting the trip short." The Guardian's story is here.
Japan. The New York Times' Olympic games updates Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.
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Reader Comments (7)
Yesterday while driving around doing errands, I couldn't help thinking once again how our highway system with its lights and rules represent the most cogent example of democracy. Everybody gots to obey them rules or else and the rules are there for everyone's safety.
Last night Chris Hayes took us back 35? yrs. ago when the seat belt mandate was implemented. He zeroed in on a small town in the midwest where an early morning crowd in a diner was yapping about the audacity of the government telling them what to do IN THEIR OWN CARS! for heaven's sake.
There is something in the pia mater of many Americans when it comes to government rules and regulations and as many reasons we come up with for this defiance, it's still has the scent of infantilism.
Hong Cong's people's protests against Beijing is an example of a fight against a government who wants to OWN and CONTROL its peoples; the anti=vaxers in this country obviously think the same and yet they have no idea what it feels like to actually be thrown in jail because you happened to criticize that government. There is no more daily paper in Hong Cong––voices have been silenced. Something Fatty would have approved and perhaps implemented here if he had been able.
Crystal ball gazing is a mug's game, but Levitz present a few one the one hand, on the other hand, but nonetheless provocative thoughts and numbers that I found intriguing:
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/will-the-great-wealth-transfer-spark-a-millennial-civil-war.html
Will the connection between money and politics weaken with the Millennial generation?
Time that this Boomer likely doesn't have will tell.
Kong––no C–-cuz she no see too well. Anyway–-here's an in depth coverage of the children's book that is causing such up-chucks.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/hong-kong-police-arrest-authors-of-a-childrens-book-in-latest-free-speech-crackdown?utm_medium=event&utm_source=playlist__link
Pardon the morning fingers...
...."presents a few on...
https://hackwhackers.blogspot.com/2021/07/hark-serfs-doth-revolt.html?m=1
A one handed president
https://mobile.twitter.com/MeidasTouch/status/1418742283835305989
Re: Biden, the filibuster, O’Donnell, and Ornstein.
All three of these guys are cogent and knowledgeable about the workings of the Congress, and Biden certainly has a freight train full of experience in the senate, but it’s been well over a decade since he’s been an active member of that body. The senate, especially under the cudgel of the evil, treasonous turtle, and, under the influence of a dim, dumb, doofus beset by ideologically perverted crooks and imbeciles on the right, has mutated, since then, like a deadly viral variant, into a cancerous, disfiguring, deadly mole on the face of democracy.
It’s unlikely that Robert Caro’s Master of the Senate, LBJ, would be able to corral, or convince the current crop of racist and authoritarian traitors that their personal peccadilloes and perverted tendencies matter less than what’s best for the country (lookin’ at you Cancun Cruz).
My hope is that Biden has enough chutzpah and ass-kicking legislative mojo to bitch slap these traitors and rescue democracy.
Fingers, toes, and all other twistable body parts, crossed.