;)
The Commentariat -- May 18, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Biden traveled Tuesday to Dearborn, Michigan, to visit Ford's electric vehicle plant as his administration continues to push for alternative forms of energy and transportation. 'The future of the auto industry is electric. There's no turning back,' Mr. Biden said in remarks from the auto plant, known as the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center." ~~~
~~~ My name is Joe Biden, and I'm a car guy." ~~~
Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "The sheriff's deputies who shot a 42-year-old Black man [-- Andrew Brown, Jr.,] to death as he drove his vehicle last month in Elizabeth City, N.C., were justified in their actions because they had reason to believe they were in danger, Pasquotank County District Attorney R. Andrew Womble said during a news conference Tuesday morning." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah, well, maybe. I watched some of Womble's presentation, and it was pretty convincing -- until you got to wondering why he showed mostly stills from the body cam videos & only a short portion of video (which I did not see). Womble's interpretation of what occurred disputes the small portion of the videos Brown's family & attorneys were able to see. Eventually, we'll get more answers.
Dr. Sema Sgaier, in a New York Times op-ed, breaks down the four reasons people give for not getting Covid-19 vaccines, and a rough estimate of the share of such people, state-by-state. MB: Interesting. Those in the South & fly-over country are the dimwittiest, according to the graphs. There are plenty of dummies in my state. If you want smarter neighbors, move to Vermont. ~~~
~~~ Speaking of the none-too-bright: ~~~
~~~ Cristina Marcos & Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday said he will not support bipartisan legislation for the 9/11-style commission to probe the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. 'Given the political misdirections that have marred this process, given the now duplicative and potentially counterproductive nature of this effort, and given the Speaker's shortsighted scope that does not examine interrelated forms of political violence in America, I cannot support this legislation,' McCarthy said in a statement released Tuesday morning. This statement comes after the top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee reached an agreement last week on legislation to create the commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack that resulted in the deaths of several people, including a Capitol Police officer." ~~~
~~~ Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday slammed Republicans after the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he would not support legislation to create a 9/11-style commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Addressing reporters on Tuesday morning, Pelosi lamented the 'cowardice' of those Republicans like McCarthy who oppose bipartisan legislation to form the independent panel."
Liar, Liar. Daniel Dale of CNN: "Texas Rep. Dan Crenshaw [R-Texas] tried Sunday to downplay his December decision to sign on to a legal brief in support of the Texas lawsuit that sought to get the Supreme Court to overturn the 2020 presidential election.... Crenshaw [told Chuck Todd,] 'That amicus brief was a simple question of the Supreme Court, in saying, "Can you please speak to this question of whether, of whether process changes in the election -- last minute, not approved by the legislature -- can be deemed constitutional?" It was a question, and they didn't want to answer that question.'... In reality, the brief expressed a firm opinion -- that the four Biden-won states had taken 'unconstitutional actions' -- and asked the Supreme Court for a specific response: to allow Texas' lawsuit to proceed and to grant Texas' request for a preliminary injunction forbidding the four states from certifying Biden's victories until the lawsuit was resolved. The brief also invoked baseless claims of election fraud, saying that 'the election of 2020 has been riddled with an unprecedented number of serious allegations of fraud and irregularities.'"
He Probably Needs the Money. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Since leaving the White House in January..., [Donald Trump] has taken $65,600 in presidential pension payments, a spokesperson for the General Services Administration told Insider. Trump unquietly donated his $400,000 annual salary during his four-year term, as he had promised to do as a candidate in 2016, and it's not clear what he has done with the pension he's been receiving since January. The U.S. Constitution requires presidents to be paid a salary in office but does not require them to receive pension payments."
Florida U.S. Senate Race. Marc Caputo of Politico: "Florida Rep. Val Demings is planning to run for the U.S. Senate, rather than governor, providing Democrats with a big-name candidate to take on Republican Sen. Marco Rubio next year.... Demings, 64, was first elected to the House in 2016 from Orlando and held the distinction of being the city's first Black woman police chief. She rose to national prominence as the only non-lawyer on the first House impeachment committee to charge President Donald Trump with wrongdoing. As a Black woman and law enforcement officer, her background made her uniquely situated to be a national Democratic spokesperson for policing and race issues -- it helped catapult her to President Joe Biden's shortlist as a possible running mate in 2020."
New York Gubernatorial Race. Creepy Scions Named Andrew Run for Governor. Quint Forgey of Politico: "Andrew Giuliani, the son of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and a former Trump White House official, announced on Tuesday that he would run for New York governor next year. 'I'm a politician out of the womb. It's in my DNA,' Andrew Giuliani, a Republican, told The New York Post in an interview, hyping a potential general election faceoff against incumbent Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo."
~~~~~~~~~~
Biden Inches Toward Getting Real. Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Monday called for a cease-fire to end a week of fierce fighting between Israel and Hamas militants, urging both sides to 'protect innocent civilians' in a statement that amounted to a subtle rebuke of the Israeli government, a close ally of the United States. Biden 'reiterated his firm support for Israel's right to defend itself against indiscriminate rocket attacks' during a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the White House said. But in adding that Biden 'expressed support for a cease-fire,' the administration went further than previous accounts of U.S. interactions with Israeli officials in describing the closed-door diplomacy and suggesting a private push. Even as pressure mounted from fellow Democrats and others urging a cease-fire, Biden administration officials had stopped short of joining their calls until Biden spoke to Netanyahu and then issued a carefully worded statement afterward.... Secretary of State Antony Blinken drew short of calling for a cease-fire or a statement at the U.N. Security Council on Monday." ~~~
~~~ Ellen Knickmeyer, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, but stopped short of demanding an immediate stop to the eight days of Israeli airstrikes and Hamas rocket barrages that have killed more than 200 people, most of them Palestinian."
Nicholas Fandos & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "... a growing number of Democrats in Washington say they are no longer willing to give [Israel] a pass for its harsh treatment of the Palestinians and the spasms of violence that have defined the conflict for years. Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told Democrats on the panel on Monday that he would ask the Biden administration to delay a $735 million tranche of precision-guided weapons to Israel.... Mr. Meeks, a fixture at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, the most powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, convened an emergency meeting of Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats on Monday night to discuss delaying the arms package.... A day earlier, 28 Democratic senators -- more than half of the party's caucus -- put out a letter publicly calling for a cease-fire. The effort was led by Senator Jon Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia and, at 34, the face of a younger generation of American Jews in Congress."
Marie: In all fairness, and I'm serious here, we can't blame Jared Kushner for not resolving a 3,000-year-old ethnic conflict. But the guy is so dense it takes your breath away. I gasped when I read this: ~~~
We are witnessing the last vestiges of what has been known as the Arab-Israeli conflict... The Abraham Accords exposed the conflict as nothing more than a real-estate dispute between Israelis and Palestinians that need not hold up Israel's relations with the broader Arab world. -- Jared Kushner, boasting in a Wall Street Journal op-ed, March 14, ~~~
~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the explosion of fighting in Israel and Palestine in recent days makes clear something that never should have been in doubt: justice for the Palestinians is a precondition for peace. And one reason there has been so little justice for the Palestinians is because of the foreign policy of the United States.... The United States has underwritten both Palestinian subjugation and the growing power of Jewish ethnonationalism. It's not enough for Joe Biden to be a little bit better than Trump or to try to restart a spectral 'peace process.' If Israel can no longer afford to ignore the demands of the Palestinians, neither can we." More on the conflict linked under "Way Beyond the Beltway" below.
Normality Returns. Jason Hoffman, et al., of CNN: "The White House released the 2020 tax returns for both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, restoring a presidential tradition that had been ignored under ... Donald Trump. The White House also released the first and second families' financial public financial disclosure reports. The Bidens filed their federal tax return jointly, reported a federal adjusted gross income of $607,336 and owed $157,414 in federal income tax, according to a summary of their taxes released by the White House. According to the first family's 1040 form, they paid $162,063 and received a refund of $4,649. Their 2020 effective federal income tax rate is 25.9%. The Bidens saw a significant drop in income in 2020 as then-candidate Joe Biden was on the campaign trail and not earning an income through speaking engagements or his post with the University of Pennsylvania.... According to the federal tax return for Harris and second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, the couple reported $1,695,225 in adjusted gross income and owed $621,893 in tax." ~~~
~~~ The Bidens' tax return is here.The Emhoff-Harris return is here.
Ken Vogel & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Administration officials have quietly begun evaluating clemency requests and have signaled to activists that President Biden could begin issuing pardons or commutations by the midpoint of his term. The effort, which is being overseen by the White House Counsel's Office and the Justice Department, is an implicit rebuke of ... Donald J. Trump's approach to clemency, which mostly bypassed the Justice Department and relied on an ad hoc network of friends and allies, resulting in a wave of late pardons and commutations to people with wealth or connections. Mr. Biden's team, by contrast, has signaled in discussions with outside groups that it is establishing a more deliberate, systemic process geared toward identifying entire classes of people who deserve mercy. The approach could allow the president to make good on his campaign promise to weave issues of racial equity and justice throughout his government."
Florida Man Pleads Guilty. Lori Rozsa & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A Florida politician considered key to the investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz formally pleaded guilty Monday to sex trafficking of a minor and a host of other crimes, agreeing to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify in court in hopes of leniency for himself. Appearing in court Monday, Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., repeatedly said, 'I do' in response to questions from the judge, affirming what he had already admitted in a written plea agreement made public last week. His plea and deal to cooperate is a potentially ominous sign for Gaetz, as it signals prosecutors have lined up a critical witness as they continue to investigate the congressman." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Dareh Gregorian & Natalie Obregon of NBC News: "Wearing a jail jumpsuit and a blue surgical mask and in shackles, Greenberg admitted his guilt to six of the 33 charges initially filed against him -- identity theft, stalking, wire fraud, conspiracy to bribe a public official and sex trafficking of a minor." MB: Oh, please, Florida, that's how we want to see two other Florida men -- Matt & Donald -- in days to come. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michael Balsamo & Mike Schneider of the AP: "Outside the courthouse, a plane flew over during the hearing pulling a banner that read: 'TICK TOCK MATT GAETZ.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Because Everything They Did Was Corrupt. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Justice Department under President Trump secretly obtained a grand-jury subpoena last year in an attempt to identify the person behind a Twitter account dedicated to mocking Representative Devin Nunes of California, according to a newly unsealed court document. But Twitter fought the subpoena, as well as an associated gag order barring the company from talking about it publicly. Twitter executives raised skepticism about whether the Justice Department might be abusing federal criminal law-enforcement power to retaliate against a critic of Mr. Nunes, a Republican who is a close ally of Mr. Trump, in violation of the First Amendment. Ultimately, according to a person familiar with the matter, the Justice Department withdrew the subpoena this spring, after President Biden took office." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Although this particular subpoena was not about Devin Nunes' Cow, Nunes himself did try to use the court system to unmask the cow. Seems like animal cruelty to me; PETA, take note.
Jeanne Whalen, et al., of the Washington Post: "A sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies, according to research published Monday by the network analysis company Graphika. The report, provided in advance to The Washington Post, details a network that Graphika says amplifies the views of Guo, a Chinese real estate developer whose association with former Trump White House adviser Stephen K. Bannon became a focus of news coverage last year after Bannon was arrested aboard Guo's yacht on federal fraud charges."
Chuck Does Some Journalism. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd took on guest Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), "noting that Trump continues to make baseless claims that the election was stolen -- a view that many GOP leaders have declined to challenge or openly embraced. 'Why should anybody believe a word you say if the Republican Party itself doesn't have credibility?' Todd asked. The fiery exchange, which went viral on Twitter with one clip racking up more than 1 million views, offers vivid evidence of the challenge Republicans face in shifting the conversation from Trump's election lies months after his loss and the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by his followers." Includes clip. (Also linked yesterday.)
John Schwartz of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court handed a victory to fossil fuel companies on Monday in a major climate change case, but gave the industry far less than it had asked for. The decision in the case did not deal with the merits of the lawsuit, which Baltimore filed to try to compel fossil fuel companies to help pay the costs of dealing with climate change. Instead, the justices focused on narrow issues concerning the rules for appealing lower-court decisions that send cases to state courts. By a 7-1 decision, the Supreme Court on Monday sent the case back to the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reconsider the industry's demand that it review a lower-court decision to have the case proceed in state courts. The issue of whether to hear these cases in federal or state court has been a major point of contention in about 20 similar cases filed around the country.... The lone dissenter, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, said that the fossil fuel companies had used what amounts to procedural sleight of hand to avoid the normal limits on review for a decision on appeal."
Alice Ollstein of Politico: "The Supreme Court on Monday said it will review Mississippi's ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, taking up a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade just a few months after its newest conservative justice joined the bench. The Mississippi ban, which has been blocked by lower courts since it was enacted in 2018, will be one of the first reproductive rights cases argued before the Supreme Court since Justice Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed in October, giving conservatives a 6-3 majority that is widely expected to curtail abortion access." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: So I put up a nice story in the PSA section (right column) about how the federal government was accepting applications to reduce your Internet bill. Now this: ~~~
~~~ Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post: "The government has a new program [called the Emergency Broadband Benefit] to help Americans pay their Internet bills. Unfortunately, companies like Verizon are twisting it into an opportunity for an upsell.... Verizon elicited the most ire from readers. It requires customers to call a phone line to register for the EBB, rather than just signing up online. And when you do, Verizon tells some customers the EBB can't be used on 'old' data plans, so they'll have to switch. That might be allowed by the letter of the law but certainly isn't the spirit of the program." So you might save money in the short term (Marie: and you might get faster service), but when the EBB program expires, your bill will be higher. (Also linked yesterday.)
News for Racist Parler Users. Kevin Randall of the Washington Post: "When social media network Parler came back to life on Apple's App Store Monday, it was designed to be a less offensive version than what users are able to see elsewhere. Posts that are labeled 'hate' by Parler's new artificial intelligence moderation system won't be visible on iPhones or iPads. There's a different standard for people who look at Parler on other smartphones or on the Web: They will be able to see posts marked as 'hate,' which includes racial slurs, by clicking through to see them. Parler has resisted placing limits on what appears on its social network, and its leaders have equated blocking hate speech to totalitarian censorship, according to Amy Peikoff, chief policy officer. But Peikoff, who leads Parler's content moderation, says she recognizes the importance of the Apple relationship to Parler's future and seeks to find common ground between them." (Also linked yesterday.)
Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post: In his last full day in office, President Jimmy Carter granted a full pardon to folk singer Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul & Mary. Yarrow had admitted to and was convicted for molesting a 14-year-old girl. The pardon "escaped scrutiny when it happened. It was granted just hours before the American hostages in Iran were freed, which captured headlines for weeks. The Washington Post didn't write about the pardon until Feb. 7, 1981. Even then, it was buried in the back of the Metro section.... Then, 40 years after Carter's pardon, another woman stepped forward with an accusation of her own. In a lawsuit filed in New York on Feb. 24, 2021, she alleged that Yarrow lured her to a Manhattan hotel when she was a minor in 1969 and raped her." MB: I was following the news closely at this particular time, and I never read about this. Just shocking!
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration announced Monday that roughly 39 million American families will begin receiving direct cash payments in July under a child benefit created by Democrats' coronavirus relief bill. The Internal Revenue Service on July 15 will start delivering a monthly payment of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child 6 or older for those who qualify. The monthly benefits will be deposited directly in most families' bank accounts on the 15th of every month -- or the closest day to that date, if the 15th falls on a holiday or weekend -- for the rest of the year, without any action required. For instance, an eligible family with two children ages 5 and 13 will receive $550 from the IRS directly to their bank accounts on or close to the 15th of every month from July to December." A USA Today story is here. President Biden spoke about the child tax credit at the top of his speech; video below. ~~~
~~~ Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Monday that the U.S. will share an additional 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines with the world in the coming six weeks as domestic demand for shots drops and global disparities in distribution have grown more evident. The doses will come from existing production of Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine stocks, marking the first time that U.S.-controlled doses of vaccines authorized for use in the country will be shared overseas. It will boost the global vaccine sharing commitment from the U.S. to 80 million. 'We know America will never be fully safe until the pandemic that's raging globally is under control,' Biden said at the White House. The announcement comes on top of the Biden's administration's prior commitment to share about 60 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is not yet authorized for use in the U.S., by the end of June. The AstraZeneca doses will be available to ship once they clear a safety review by the Food and Drug Administration." ~~~
Monday afternoon, the front page of the New York Times had an IP-address-specific indicator of the Covid risk in your county. Mine is "very high." The blurb links to a page that provides particulars. Great! I don't know if this works for everyone or how long the feature will remain on the front page, but it worked for me.
Beyond the Beltway
Marie: When you're musing on what's wrong with "the system," bear in mind that all of the (alleged) miscreants identified below are officials in our law & justice system: governors, legislators, a judge, a cop.
Arizona. A "Sham" and a "Con." Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Monday denounced an ongoing audit of the 2020 election vote as a 'sham' and a 'con,' calling on the GOP-led state Senate to end the controversial recount that has been championed by ... Donald Trump. In a fiery public meeting and subsequent letter to state Senate President Karen Fann, the board members said the audit has been inept, promoted falsehoods and defamed the public servants who ran the fall election. Calling the process a 'spectacle that is harming all of us,' the five members of the board -- including four Republicans -- asked the state Senate to recognize that it is essential to call off the audit, which officials have said is only about one-quarter complete.... In a calculated show of unity, they were joined by Maricopa's other elected officials: the sheriff, a Democrat; and the Republican county recorder, who leads the elections office.... Jointly, the county officials agreed that they would refuse to attend a meeting that had been called Tuesday by Fann to discuss what she had termed 'serious issues' with the vote that Cyber Ninjas claims to have identified." An AP story is here.
Iowa. Erin Murphy of the Sioux City Journal: "Mike Marshall, executive director of the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board [which monitors lobbying of Iowa's executive branch], said Monday that he has requested more information from Washington, D.C.-based Heritage Action after a leaked video showed the group's director claiming the organization helped Iowa lawmakers draft legislation that ... significantly shortened the state's early voting period and constrained other early voting programs. The legislation, Senate File 413, was approved by Republican majorities in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate, and passed into law by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds.... In a letter to Heritage Action, Marshall requested any information regarding any contact the group made with Reynolds' office.... Because the board is not responsible for overseeing the Iowa Legislature, any inquiries there would fall to the Legislature's ethics committees, which are chaired by majority Republicans."
New Jersey. Paulina Villegas of the Washington Post: "When police arrived at a fellow officer's home on a domestic disturbance call, they found a surprising scene: explosives, poison, an unsecured gun safe -- and all the chemicals and instruments needed to produce methamphetamine, according to the prosecutor's office in New Jersey's Monmouth County. Long Branch Police Officer Christopher Walls was running a meth lab in the home he shared with his wife and child, in the very community he served, prosecutors said.... Meth labs are considered extremely hazardous, as the chemicals used to produce the drug are highly explosive and toxic and can pose serious health risks to those exposed to them."
New York. Adam Brewster of CBS News: "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is set to earn $5.1 million from his memoir about leading New York through the COVID-19 pandemic, according to information provided by his office on Monday. Cuomo received $3,120,000 in gross income from the book in 2020 and is set to be paid an additional $2 million over the next two years.... New York Attorney General Letitia James issued a report that found the Cuomo administration may have 'undercounted' nursing home deaths 'by as much as 50%' and multiple women have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment, which he has repeatedly denied.... In April, the New York state comptroller ... [asking James] to look into whether state resources were used to help with Cuomo's book...." The New York Times' story is here.
North Carolina. Judge (Allegedly) Tries to Mow Down BLM Protesters. Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "A North Carolina court of appeals judge was summoned by a criminal court Friday after being accused of nearly hitting Black Lives Matter protesters at a demonstration in downtown Fayetteville on May 7. Judge John M. Tyson of Cumberland County has been summoned to appear in a courtroom in his own county next month where he will need to answer to a charge of assault with a deadly weapon, the Fayetteville Observer reported.... The summons came after local activist Myah Warren, 23, told a Cumberland County magistrate judge Friday that Tyson was the one who drove the vehicle that nearly hit her and other Fayetteville Activist Movement rally goers who were protesting fatal police shootings, according to the newspaper. Warren told The Washington Post on Monday that she believes Tyson was intentionally trying to harm protesters based on his track record as a judge. 'He's a well-known racist,' she said.... The city released a 12-minute video of the incident Friday...."
Way Beyond
Israel. The New York Times' live updates of developments in Israel's armed conflict Tuesday are here. ~~~
~~~ Fares Akram & Joseph Krauss of the AP: "Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes on what it said were militant targets in Gaza, leveling a six-story building, and militants fired dozens of rockets into Israel on Tuesday. Palestinians across the region observed a general strike as the war, now in its second week, showed no signs of abating. The strikes toppled a building that housed libraries and educational centers belonging to the Islamic University, leaving behind a massive mound of rebar and concrete slabs.... Israel warned the building's residents ahead of time, sending them fleeing into the predawn darkness, and there were no reports of casualties." ~~~
~~~ Loveday Morris, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 60 Israeli fighter jets bombarded targets in Gaza in the early hours of Tuesday morning, as Israel showed little sign of easing up its campaign despite growing international pressure and President Biden's call for a cease-fire. Hamas also fired volleys of rockets into southern Israel overnight, but their attacks have slowed in recent days as the Israeli military has pummeled their underground tunnel networks and launch sites. The Israeli military said 62 fighter jets had dropped 110 'guided armaments' on 65 targets, including Hamas commanders, rocket launchpads and the militant group's tunnel network. Neither side reported casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday night said that he would 'continue to take whatever action necessary to restore quiet.'..." At the top of today's comments, Bobby Lee explains Bibi's rationale in terms we can all understand.
News Lede
New York Times: "Charles Grodin, the versatile actor familiar from 'Same Time, Next Year' on Broadway, popular movies like 'The Heartbreak Kid,' 'Midnight Run' and 'Beethoven' and numerous television appearances, died on Tuesday at his home in Wilton, Conn. He was 86."
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Reader Comments (12)
Bibi's "whatever action necessary to restore order" sounds a lot like "The beatings will continue until morale improves" to this old man.
In March, 2010, while Biden, then vice president, was visiting Israel, Bibi's government announced that it was building sixteen hundred new housing units for Jews in Ramar Shlomo, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Biden said that the move "undermines the trust we need right now." Hillary called Bibi --chewed him out good and proper. But----while Obama and his team viewed the move as a political insult–-another blow to a potential two-state solution, AIPAC went into defensive mode, sending an e-mail to its members saying that the Administration's criticisms were "a matter of serious concern." Soon afterward, a letter circulated in the House calling on the Obama Administration to "reinforce" the relationship. Three hundred and twenty-seven House members signed it. A couple of months later when the U.S. tried to extend a partial moratorium on construction in settlements in the West Bank, AIPAC fought against the extension.
Obama eventually yielded.
This forever conflict continues and I sometimes visualize our country being squeezed like one of those squishy balls by a small state that was founded for all the right reasons but then proceeded to invade another's space and civil rights for all the wrong reasons.
Oh my, another famous privileged male accosting young females... I never heard about Peter (of Peter, Paul and Mary) either. One by one, our "heroes" are being booted from their pedestals and it simply amazes me that the media has been so reluctant to publish such reports. I guess that is changing during this time of instant communication, but do I really want to know this? Maybe I was happier with my former love for their music... How should I feel about them all now? Can we parse it out? Only listen to songs sung by the other two? Did they know about this? XX, Paul and Mary? Damn it...
...and being pardoned by Jimmy Carter??? Aaaarrgghhh.
On the other hand, we have Bibi: always doing and saying the wrong things. Send that guy a nice homegrown selection of nice new weapons. Bibi isn't the only one doing and saying the wrong things.
NO MORE SEX:
Since we, once again, are into discussions about abortion and possible curtailing of birth control in some instances, I propose a moratorium on all sexual activity until the Handmaiden Group of proselyters come to their senses. We are not breed mares nor are we willing to bend to beastly measures of others manhandling our bodies.
Good luck with that!!!
Assholes R Us
The arc of the moral universe can be drawn as a line going straight through many thick heads these days, among them Fatty’s clean up boy, Rudy (You’re hair is running!) Giuliani and Matt (Hey, little girl) Gaetz. That arc may soon be transecting a certain fat ass as well. But for now, let’s see how Mr. Bad Hair Dye is holding up.
Well, yikes! A lengthy diatribe sent by Giuliani and his lawyers to the judge overseeing certain aspects of his many criminal acts was just released. It virtually reeks of self importance and banged up fee-fees. The letter claims that hizzoner, ‘Merica’s Mayor, who singlehandedly saved the nation after 9/11, is being treated like the head of a drug cartel! Harumph!
Rudy, Rudy. You’re not being treated like the head of a drug cartel. That’s Trump. You’re merely his shoeshine and dry cleaning pickup boy. No offense, but I’m detecting some delusions of grandeur here.
One of my favorite bits in the letter is where he reminds the judge that Bill (dis)Barr sed he wuz a good boy and did nothing wrong. I don’t think pats on the head from the consigliere of America’s most notorious and crooked crime family counts for much in a real court of law, but I could be wrong.
One writer opined that this screed amounted to a huge DON’T YOU KNOW WHO I AM? screech fest. Quite. Which reminded me that a book I mentioned the other day, “Assholes: A Theory”, points out that this exact quote is THE quintessential asshole question.
Maybe Rudy can suggest a good orange jumpsuit tailor for Matt Gaetz, another in the line of Trumpbot-soon-to-be-convicts.
All the best people.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.559603/gov.uscourts.nysd.559603.14.0.pdf
Peter ...sheesh! Yarrow. There will never be parity between men and women. Men seemingly target minors and employees; women have boy toys. If you have life without shame, all things are possible within a shameless community. Too many of both groups of exploiters get off on power at the nexus of innocence and youth and using it sexually.
Speaking of power: the centralization of control of the electrical grid is what gives hackers outsized power. "Upgrading the electrical system won't be easy." Damn right. When electrical utilities throw up every kind of resistance to decentralized building integrated photovoltaics and insist on utility interfaces for installations, the power of central control remains. $100 billion dollars for transmission grid so those in control stay in control. Not so long ago Florida was a leader in solar electric, that lead is withering in the political resistance to shared control. Republicans and Democrats as one dysfunctional whole. Sheesh!
Love that George Washington "photo". He looks like a kindly old gent, not the hagiographied, "indispensable man" of most portraits. As for those shoulders, we have no way of really knowing what the actual Washington looked like.
If you check out some of the portraits you'll find that he looks enormous (the Charles Wilson Peale Battle of Princeton picture comes to mind). It was an old trick of many portrait artists to portray the head slightly smaller so as to make the body look much larger. The standard artist's anatomy books used to say that the body should be about 7 1/2 heads high. This one looks more like 9 1/2 heads. And some of the Gilbert Stuart portraits make him look like his neck was a foot long. Even though he was pretty tall for his day (6'2"), some portraits make him look like a giant.
I've often looked at older portraits and photos of famous people and wondered how they'd look in modern styles (Nietzsche without the walrus mustache or Emily Dickinson with her hair down). This is a pretty good one. The old boy looks positively avuncular with that little Mona Lisa smile. Maybe he just got a new set of choppers.
The Generals that signed a letter accusing President Biden of being a communist got played by a Bart Simpson level prankster. One of the signatories was a Rear Adm. Jack Meehoff. Only the best and brightest follow the Dumpster.
@RAS: Yeah, I saw a story in
Viceabout it. (Oops, I guess it was the Task & Purpose article you link which I read earlier, not Vice.) As the author suggested, anyone who is unsure about Adm. Meehoff's bona fides need only say "Jack Meehoff" aloud.Well, Jack Meehoff's signature puts that "letter" right where it belongs: on a dung heap somewhere in Outer Mongolia.
Katie Porter takes pharma CEO to woodshed