The Commentariat -- March 19, 2021
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here: "In a major policy revision intended to encourage more schools to welcome children back to in-person instruction, federal health officials on Friday relaxed the six-foot distancing rule for elementary school students, saying they need only remain three feet apart in classrooms as long as everyone is wearing a mask. The three-foot rule also now applies to students in middle schools and high schools, as long as community transmission is not high, officials said. When transmission is high, however, these students must be at least six feet apart, unless they are taught in cohorts, or small groups that are kept separate from others."
William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Health-care workers were the first group in the United States to be offered coronavirus vaccinations. But three months into the effort, many remain unconvinced, unreached and unprotected. The lingering obstacles to vaccinating health-care workers foreshadows the challenge the United States will face as it expands the pool of people eligible and attempts to get the vast majority of the U.S. population vaccinated. According to a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll, barely half of front-line health-care workers (52 percent) said they had received at least their first vaccine dose at the time they were surveyed. More than 1 in 3 said they were not confident vaccines were sufficiently tested for safety and effectiveness."
Mary Jalonick of the AP: "The House has dismissed a Republican attempt to remove California Rep. Eric Swalwell from the House intelligence panel over his contact more than six years ago with a suspected Chinese spy who targeted politicians in the United States. Democrats scuttled the effort from House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy, 218-200, after he forced a vote. His resolution against Swalwell cited information, first reported by Axios, that the suspected spy, Christine Fang, came into contact with Swalwell's campaign as he was first running for Congress in 2012. She also participated in fundraising for his 2014 campaign and helped place an intern in his office, the report said."
Real Election Fraud. Think GOP. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "When incumbent Democrat José Javier Rodríguez lost his Florida state senate seat to Republican challenger Ileana Garcia by just 32 votes in November, the losing party and investigators began asking questions about a suspicious third candidate. A man named Alexis 'Alex' Rodriguez -- who shared the incumbent's last name -- appeared on the ballot but never campaigned, never spoke publicly, and could not be reached by reporters after he took thousands of votes on Election Day. Now, the mysterious candidate and a former Republican state senator are facing felony charges for crimes stemming from a plot to 'confuse voters and siphon votes from the incumbent,' police said in an affidavit filed this week.... The case is a rare instance when a criminal scheme may have changed an election outcome, helping the GOP flip a state senate seat."
Steve Karnowski & Amy Forliti of the AP: "A judge said Friday he won't delay or move the trial of a former Minneapolis police officer charged in George Floyd's death over concerns that a $27 million settlement for Floyd's family could taint the jury pool, but he'll allow limited evidence from a 2019 arrest. Meanwhile, a 13th juror was seated Friday -- a woman who said she has only seen clips of the video of Floyd's arrest and needs to learn more about what happened beforehand. The jury will include 12 jurors and two alternates."
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Quint Forgey of Politico: "President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered that the American flag be flown at half-staff at the White House and on all U.S. government grounds as a 'mark of respect' for the victims of the [Atlanta] attacks. The White House also announced that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris would postpone a political event on their trip to Georgia on Friday evening -- part of their tour to promote the new $1.9 trillion Covid relief and stimulus package -- and would instead meet with Asian American leaders in Atlanta and visit the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... A Georgia sheriff's office captain was replaced on Thursday as a spokesman for the investigation into the killings at three separate Atlanta-area spas, amid criticism over his perceived callousness in addressing the public." ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Lemire & Bill Barrow of the AP: "During his visit to Atlanta on Friday, President Joe Biden will meet with former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, who has been widely credited with helping flip the former Republican stronghold blue.... The meeting will come as Republicans in the Georgia state General Assembly push several proposals to make it harder to vote in the state.... Biden's visit to Atlanta was originally meant to tout that accomplishment but it has been recast after spa shootings in the area this week left eight dead and fueled fear of a rise in violence against Asian Americans."
Patrick Reevell of ABC News: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has reacted to President Joe Biden calling him a 'killer' by challenging Biden to take part in a conversation with him broadcast live online."
Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "Even before the Biden administration's first face-to-face meeting with senior Chinese diplomats on Thursday, American officials predicted the discussions would not go well. They were right: The traditional few minutes of opening greetings and remarks dissolved into more than an hour of very public verbal jousting, confirming the expected confrontational tone between the geopolitical rivals. U.S. officials said the two days of talks would continue, but immediately accused the Chinese delegation of violating the format for the sensitive discussions that had sought to find some common ground amid the many conflict points between them. Yang Jiechi, China's top diplomat, accused the United States of taking a 'condescending' approach to the talks and said the American delegation had no right to accuse Beijing of human rights abuses or give lectures on the merits of democracy." CNN's story is here. MB: Sounds as if Yang thinks he is talking to the former guy's administration.
FBI Washington, D.C.: "The FBI's Washington Field Office has released new information and videos of suspects in the most egregious assaults on federal officers during the riots at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, and is seeking the public's help to identify them." The page contains the newly-released videos.
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "About 72,000 people will have their federal loans fully canceled after Education Secretary Miguel Cardona on Thursday scrapped a plan to give partial debt relief to students defrauded by their colleges, ending a controversial policy instituted by his predecessor Betsy DeVos. The move -- Cardona's first major higher education announcement since being confirmed -- amounts to roughly $1 billion in debt relief. But it only addresses a subset of the nearly 200,000 people who have filed claims in the last six years under a statute known as 'borrower defense to repayment.'"
Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "Xavier Becerra narrowly won confirmation Thursday to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, the agency pivotal to President Biden's urgent goal of defeating the coronavirus pandemic and expanding access to health care. Becerra, a congressman from Los Angeles for two dozen years and then California attorney general, squeaked by on a vote of 50 to 49, the closest margin for any of the Biden Cabinet members the Senate has confirmed so far. He becomes the first Latino secretary of HHS, the largest federal department in terms of spending." The Hill's story is here.
Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The Senate confirmed William J. Burns as the next director of the CIA on Thursday, placing one of the country's most experienced career diplomats in charge of the spy agency. The chamber confirmed Burns by unanimous consent, an indication of broad bipartisan support. Burns, who retired from the Foreign Service in 2014 after a three-decade career, will take over at the agency at a moment of high tension between the United States and Russia, where he once served as the U.S. ambassador."
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Democratic-led House voted on Thursday to create a path to citizenship for an estimated four million undocumented immigrants, reopening a politically charged debate over the nation's broken immigration system just as President Biden confronts a growing surge of migrants at the border. In a near party-line vote of 228 to 197, the House first moved to set up a permanent legal pathway for more than 2.5 million undocumented immigrants, including those brought to the United States as children, known as Dreamers, and others granted Temporary Protected Status for humanitarian reasons. Just nine Republicans voted yes. Hours later, lawmakers approved a second measure with more bipartisan backing that would eventually grant legal status to close to a million farmworkers and their families while updating a key agricultural visa program. This time, 30 Republicans, many representing agriculture-heavy districts, joined nearly every Democrat to vote in favor." ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, Republicans don't care about granting citizenship to the immigrants who will do the most to help the American economy & otherwise contribute to society. DREAMers, on the whole, are far-better-educated than farm workers. Thus, DREAMers are much more likely to get high-paying jobs and contribute much more to the U.S. economy. How you gonna keep 'em down on the farm? -- Make sure farm labor is all they can do.
Kevin McCarthy Thinks You're a Stupid as He Is. Annie Grayer & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy tried to rewrite history on Thursday by claiming that he was not involved in former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election in a heated exchange during a news briefing. When asked by CNN's Manu Raju why it was acceptable for him to support Trump's efforts to overturn the presidential election in Congress but to criticize Democrats for doing the same in a contested Iowa US House race, McCarthy repeatedly rejected the notion that he was trying to overturn the election at all. 'You're saying something that is not true,' [McCarthy told Raju].... Trump tried to pressure Congress to overturn the election and McCarthy raised no concerns about it. He also backed a Texas lawsuit to invalidate millions of votes, and ultimately voted in favor of overturning the election results of two states during votes that took place after the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.... McCarthy tried to make the case that he was objecting to only two states, Arizona and Pennsylvania, which he argued would ultimately not have changed the outcome of the election."
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: There's an idea floating around "that [Mitch] McConnell doesn't want a simple-majority Senate because many things Republicans want to do can't get 50 GOP votes anyway, because they&'re deeply unpopular. Meanwhile, important GOP priorities that can get 50 GOP votes, such as tax cuts, can be passed via the simple-majority reconciliation process: This is how the 2017 tax cut passed. As Benjy Sarlin put it in a Twitter thread, there aren't 'many GOP priorities that could get 50 votes.' And Sarlin added a nuance: If the filibuster were done away with, and Republicans did take the majority, there would be tremendous pressure from the conservative grass roots to pass unpopular items, something McConnell might prefer to avoid."Sargent specifies a few other reasons McConnell's threat -- that Republicans would wreak havoc on the country if the filibuster were eliminated -- are hollow. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Somebody is right here. If McConnell had wanted to eliminate the filibuster, he would have done so already. And if, in the future, he becomes majority leader, and he wants to eliminate the filibuster, he will do so; the fact that he had railed against majority rule wouldn't make a whit of difference to him.
Texas Rep Touts Lynchings at Hearing on Racism. Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Two days after an Atlanta-area shooting left eight dead, including six Asian women, members of a House judiciary subcommittee met to discuss the rise in racist rhetoric and attacks aimed at Asian Americans during the pandemic. But GOP Rep. Chip Roy (Tex.) decided to focus on ... the right of Republicans to criticize China.... The San Antonio-area congressman also seemed to celebrate lynchings..., in urging justice for wrongdoers: 'There's old sayings in Texas about "find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree."' Roy's remarks sparked an immediate and emotional outcry -- including a tearful response from Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) -- and set the tone for Thursday's tense and often divisive three-hour hearing, as members battled along partisan lines over the extent of the threats facing Asian Americans and whether Republicans, including ... Donald Trump, were partly to blame.... Many Democrats say a steady rise in attacks focused on Asian Americans during the pandemic has been due in part to divisive rhetoric from Republicans, including Trump's descriptions of the coronavirus as the 'China virus' and 'kung flu.' In a Fox News interview on the same night of the Atlanta shootings, the former president complained that the 'China virus' had tanked the U.S. economy."
Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (RAnon-Ga.) claimed she had no idea she was spreading anti-Semitic conspiracy theories because she didn't know the Rothschild banking family was Jewish. MB: Maybe Margie should take this opportunity to acknowledge that she's pretty ignorant in general, and that her entire conspiracy theory -- that the California wildfires were purposely started by a space laser (funded by bankers of, uh, unknown ethnicity) -- is stupid.
Putin's Republican Tools. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) this week released a declassified intelligence community assessment on foreign threats to our 2020 elections, and the top-line takeaway was important: Russia once again targeted our political system for the express purposes of giving Donald Trump power.... This week's ODNI report also made clear that many leading Trump administration officials deliberately misled the public about foreign threats, especially related to alleged Chinese election interference.... It's obviously not great that Donald Trump's personal lawyer [Rudy Giuliani] partnered with a Russian agent [Andriy Derkach], directed by [Vladimir] Putin.... But ... Derkach claimed he fed information to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), who was searching for anti-Biden dirt ahead of last fall's elections.... A month earlier, at a House Intelligence Committee meeting, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) pressed Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) ... on whether the Republican had received anti-Biden information from Derkach. According to a transcript from the closed-door discussion, Nunes didn't want to answer.... Maloney spoke [Wednesday] to MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace and said, '[T]he fact is that [Russian operatives] were so comfortable using people like Devin Nunes that Andriy Derkach ... sent information to Devin Nunes at the Intelligence Committee. We literally had the package receipt.'"
Ewan Palmer of Newsweek: "QAnon followers are once again pulling in all directions as they struggle to explain why Donald Trump would urge people to get COVID-19 vaccinations, which are highly-detested among Q-conspiracists.... With Trump contradicting QAnon theories that the vaccine is dangerous and the coronavirus is a hoax, many of its supporters came up with ways to cope with the latest cognitive dissonance, including suggesting it was not actually Trump speaking to Fox."
Annals of "Teen Journalism," Ctd. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "Alexi McCammond, who made her name as a politics reporter at the Washington news site Axios, had planned to start as the editor in chief of Teen Vogue next Wednesday. Now, after Teen Vogue staff members publicly condemned racist and homophobic tweets Ms. McCammond had posted a decade ago, she has resigned from the job." A Mediaite story is here. MB: I'm more open-minded about stupid teenaged tricks. While I had the advantage of an upbringing that would have rendered me highly unlikely to write racist & homophobic tweets, I get that many young people did not have my good fortune. These young people can evolve. I have no idea if McCammond -- who is Black -- is a racist & homophobe today, but if she isn't, I'd ignore her stupid teenaged "opinions."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Molly Nagle & Arielle Mitropoulos of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Thursday announced that on Friday his administration will deliver on his promise to get 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine into the arms of Americans in his first 100 days in office. 'Fifty-eight days into our administration, we will have met my goal of administering 100 million shots to our fellow Americans. That's weeks ahead of schedule,' Biden said, speaking Thursday afternoon at the White House." MB: Mighty remarkable. My thanks to every individual who made that possible, including the National Guard who took time out of their personal lives to manage distribution & shoot us in the arms.
Natalie Kitroeff, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States plans to send millions of doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to Mexico and Canada, the White House said Thursday, a notable step into vaccine diplomacy just as the Biden administration is quietly pressing Mexico to curb the stream of migrants coming to the border.... Tens of millions of doses of the vaccine have been sitting in American manufacturing sites. While their use has already been approved in dozens of countries, including Mexico and Canada, the vaccine has not yet been authorized by American regulators. [Press Secretary Jen] Psaki said the shipments to Mexico and Canada would essentially be a loan, with the United States receiving doses of AstraZeneca, or other vaccines, in the future. The announcement of the vaccine distribution came at a critical time in negotiations with Mexico. President Biden has moved quickly to dismantle some of former President Trump's signature immigration policies, halting construction of a border wall, stopping the swift expulsion of children at the border and proposing a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants in the United States."
Tony Fauci Has Had Enough of Rand Paul. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "From the early days of the coronavirus outbreak, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has positioned himself as the Senate's foremost skeptic of coronavirus expert Anthony S. Fauci. The two have tussled repeatedly. Paul brought it again Thursday, and Fauci again made clear he has little patience for Paul's nonexpert theories about the outbreak and Paul's reading of studies about it. At a Senate hearing, Paul pressed Fauci on health experts' continued recommendation of masks even for people who have contracted the virus or who have been vaccinated. Paul repeatedly suggested wearing masks in those cases was 'theater' -- pointing specifically to Fauci wearing masks even though he has been vaccinated." Fauci tried to explain to Paul why he (Paul) was misreading a study on the subject. MB: At one point, Fauci said to Paul, "I totally disagree with you, Senator." The Hill's story is here.
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Reader Comments (13)
Finally! Monday is the beginning of Infrastructure Week
here in West Michigan. For the last four years about a
ten mile section of Interstate 196 became so rough as to
be a real wheel buster. Thank you Mayor Pete!
Of course the local R's will complain that the tourists
won't like detours. So let them go to Missouri or Alabama.
Forrest: you're a lucky man! Here in south central PA, we are so accustomed to our wheels landing in holes, our cars that magically warn of line breeches close to our house have sighed and said oooo-kay-- we know you always avoid the rough spots by dipping over the line, so no more warnings...
I marvel at the sheer stupidity of Rand (Repug Dr.????) Paul, Marjorie the (really dumb) Menace, Devin (Cow and bushes) Nunes, Matt (Please notice me) Gaetz, Kevin (I'll say anything, then reverse it) McCarthy, Chip Roy and Louie (Cantelopes) Gohmert, among many. If they would just keep their mouths shut, most of us would not know their names. I never heard of Chip Roy until he decided that TX can hang whomever it pleases. Now I know who he is, a round-headed goblin with a gift for idiocy. Also, as I was writing, I realized the list of loons was getting longer and longer. Actually too many to count.
It has been said that when horrific acts of shootings occur we need to concentrate on the victims, not the shooter. But–-we need to understand the motivations of these murderers. Robert Long, a seriously sick person who harbored deep shame sexually instilled by his religious teachings–-"I kept falling out of God's grace"––-was entangled in a never ending frustration. From this NYT's piece below I gather he was involved in some kind of sex at these Spas–-something the press has not commented on. Long was killing those whom he saw as fulfilling those desires that he wanted destroyed in himself.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/us/robert-aaron-long-atlanta-spa-shooting.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage
Steve Benen's Russian expose' ––Rachel covered this last night–-makes my blood boil! We thought we knew much of what Fatty and his fiefdom done wrought but we keep learning more and more about the depth of the destruction. And wouldn't it be loverly if we could say––new president–-new administration–-competent people at agencies–-new A.G.--etc,. we can breathe again---BUT NO–-we are left with the old guard–-the racist, bigoted, Republicans and a few Q's thrown in for good measure who are determined to throw the monkey wrenches into the works of progress. Ishiguru's words ring true for me:
" In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Ishiguru said, “'I woke up recently to the realization I’d been living for some years in a bubble.'... 'I realized that my world — a civilized, stimulating place filled with ironic, liberal-minded people — was in fact much smaller than I’d ever imagined.' The raucous discontent that Brexit and the rise of Donald Trump were laying bare had forced him to acknowledge a disturbing reality. 'The unstoppable advance of liberal-humanist values I’d taken for granted since childhood,' he said, 'may have been an illusion.'”
Yeah PD, it does seem like "'The unstoppable advance of liberal-humanist values I’d taken for granted since childhood,' he said, 'may have been an illusion.'” As the a member of the last of the baby boomers, I can't help but think about the stewardship of "liberal-humanist values" by my older brother (and his fucking friends) has been dismal. Too many have a zero-sum world burned into their reptile brain and it is 'heads I win, tails you lose' forever. However, in a world with Rankin, MLK, Robert Service, Woolf, Frankl, and Another Starry Night more is always possible. That is why I like 'The Squad': few things of value are attained without agitation. The thing I learn from these spirited younger people is not to get comfortable in old age, particularly at the cost of others.
@RAS: Just finished listening to David Cross–-the link you put on yesterday––he nails it, doesn't he? Thanks for that.
@ citizen: "The thing I learn from these spirited younger people is not to get comfortable in old age, particularly at the cost of others." You betcha!!!!!
Forrest - detour them up to Holland in time for the tulips. They still do that, no?
@Patrick: Tulip Time has been cancelled for 2021.
Holland is about 150% Republican so they no doubt
distrust vaccines.
@Forrest
It's a longer drive but....
https://tulipfestival.org
Reminds me of the bumper sticker I saw on an old pickup when I first moved to the valley 35 years ago that said, "Nuke the tulips."
Didn't understand it then. Came to understand it very well later when Seattle moved here for a month.
See, here's one of the problems with stupid folk who can't read. This recent Atlanta shooter was an "active member" of his SBC church, yet didn't know or properly interpret his Matthew 5:29, "... if thine eye offend the pluck it out ..."
Instead in the NYT article today its says:
"... The police said that Mr. Long, 21, told them that he has a sexual addiction, and that the shootings were an attempt to eliminate temptation. Mr. Long has been charged with eight counts of murder in the attacks on three massage businesses."
If he knew his hardcore literal fundy stuff, he would have bought (boughten, as they say there) a kitchen knife and done a self-Bobbitt, and saved himsxelf a prison term and the added cost of a shootin arn.
Learning ... the key to a better life!
I apologize for the humor, eight dead is not funny.
@Patrick: I don't think you have to be very smart or very Bible-larn'ed to figure out that "I shall lead me not into temptation by killing every person who tempts me" is not a rational solution to avoiding sin.
I"m dead certain tha Biden stumbling on AF-1 ramp will be the headline on many a newspaper and lead subject on many a program tonight and tomorrow.
There are situations in which murders, or less homicidal attacks, occur in a rage, a violent explosion of passion. But killing several people then driving for half an hour or more to kill more women at a second location doesn’t smack of passion. It’s a classic example of planned, premeditated murder. This wasn’t just “a bad day” as the (white) cops would have us believe. There’s no Twinkie defense here. “Oh, this nice white boy had a Zagnut Bar and offed some Asian bitches by accident”, which I’m sure the confederate press will claim.
No. You walk in on your spouse and find them boinking someone and you croak them both? Okay, it’s murder, but there’s a chance you could argue crime of passion. But you kill someone then get in your car, drive somewhere else and shoot more people?
That ain’t passion. That’s murder, first degree.
Just imagine how the winger “press” would play this if a Korean or black guy had murdered a bunch of white women? They’d be demanding he get five days in the electric chair.
“It’s okay if you’re white” will never go away.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2021/03/19/ncaa-womens-basketball-unequal/. My dad prefers women's basketball; this article says what we need to know about tax-exemption against women's sports. NCAA sports is the Southern Baptists of privatize the gains and socialize the costs. Tax 'em.