;)
The Commentariat -- May 28, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The bipartisan push to launch an independent and nonpartisan investigation of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol suffered a fatal blow Friday, after nearly all Senate Republicans banded together in opposition. The 54 to 35 outcome, which fell six votes shy of the 60 needed to circumvent a procedural filibuster, followed hours of overnight chaos as lawmakers haggled over unrelated legislation. The vote stood as a blunt rejection by Republicans of an emotional last-minute appeal from the family of a Capitol Police officer who died after responding to the insurrection, and an eleventh-hour bid by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) to save the measure by introducing changes intended to address her party's principal objections.... Six [Republicans] -- Sens. Bill Cassidy (La.), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Rob Portman (Ohio), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Collins -- joined all voting Democrats to back the commission. All except Portman voted earlier this year to convict Trump on impeachmen charges for inciting an insurrection." Politico's story is here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
** Dan Keating & Leslie Shapiro of the Washington Post: "The country's declining covid-19 case rates present an unrealistically optimistic perspective for half of the nation -- the half that is still not vaccinated. As more people receive vaccines, covid-19 cases are occurring mostly in the increasingly narrow slice of the unprotected population. So The Washington Post adjusted its case, death and hospitalization rates to account for that -- and found that in some places, the virus continues to rage among those who haven't received a shot.... Adjustments for vaccinations show the rate among susceptible, unvaccinated people is 69 percent higher than the standard figures being publicized. With that adjustment, the national death rate is roughly the same as it was two months ago and is barely inching down. The adjusted hospitalization rate is as high as it was three months ago. The case rate is still declining after the adjustment. Unvaccinated people are getting the wrong message, experts said. 'They think it's safe to take off the mask. It's not,' said Lynn Goldman ... [of] George Washington University. 'It looks like fewer numbers, looks like it's getting better, but it’s not necessarily better for those who aren't vaccinated.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: The story is subscriber-firewalled, and it shouldn't be. Not that I think lazy people & anti-vaxxers will actually read the Washington Post, but now you can't even send a link to the story to your cousin the slacker with a toljaso note. So the nuts & ne'er-do-wells are still making each other sick, encouraging mutations to more virulent strains of the virus, running exhausted healthcare personnel ragged, driving up costs of health insurance (including Medicare & Medicaid, which we all pay for), and I don't know what-all else.
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Despite President Biden's pledge to aggressively cut the pollution from fossil fuels that is driving climate change, his administration has quietly taken actions this month that will guarantee the drilling and burning of oil and gas for decades to come. The clash between Mr. Biden's pledges and some of his recent decisions illustrates the political, technical and legal difficulties of disentangling the country from the oil, gas and coal that have underpinned its economy for more than a century. On Wednesday, the Biden administration defended in federal court the Willow project, a huge oil drilling operation proposed on Alaska's North Slope that was approved by the Trump administration and is being fought by environmentalists. Weeks earlier, it backed ... Donald J. Trump's decision to grant oil and gas leases on federal land in Wyoming. Also this month, it declined to act when it had an opportunity to stop crude oil from continuing to flow through the bit>~~~~~~~~~~
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday toured a community college [in Cleveland, Ohio,] and made an optimistic case for pumping trillions of dollars into the economy, arguing that it was beginning to stabilize, while imploring Republicans to drop their opposition to raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Bringing his economic arguments on the road, to a longtime swing state that he lost by eight points in 2020, Biden pointed four months into his presidency to a range of metrics to make the case that 'the Biden economic plan is working.' He also urged Congress to make 'generational investments' in education, research and infrastructure.... Midway through his speech, Biden mocked Republicans who voted against his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill but nonetheless have touted elements of it that are popular in their districts. 'I'm not going to embarrass any one of them, but I have here a list,' he said, holding up a notecard that listed at least 13 members and which aspects of the legislation they have promoted. 'I mean, some people have no shame.'" ~~~
~~~ Video of President Biden's full speech is here. It begins at about 4:25 minutes in.
Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Biden will propose a $6 trillion budget on Friday that would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion throughout the next decade. Documents obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Biden's first budget request as president calls for the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. The growth is driven by Mr. Biden's two-part agenda to upgrade the nation's infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending." MB: Tankersley is a deficit hawk; hence, the emphasis on the deficit. (Also linked yesterday.)"
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has informed Russia that the United States will not rejoin a treaty that allowed the nations to conduct surveillance of each other, even though President Biden harshly criticized his predecessor during last year's campaign for pulling out of the agreement, State Department officials said Thursday.... But as president, Mr. Biden ordered a new review of the treaty, and officials said they have concluded that the Russians continue to violate the pact and that there is no chance of salvaging it.... The nearly 30-year-old accord, known as the Open Skies Treaty, was put in place to ensure that Russia and the United States could monitor military movements by using sophisticated sensors in aircraft that would fly over certain territory of the other's country.... Donald J. Trump told Russia last May of his intention to withdraw from the treaty, citing numerous violations by the Russians.... At one point, the Russians angered the United States by running a surveillance flight over Florida, near Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago retreat...."
David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Hackers linked to Russia's main intelligence agency surreptitiously seized an email system used by the State Department's international aid agency to burrow into the computer networks of human rights groups and other organizations of the sort that have been critical of President Vladimir V. Putin, Microsoft Corporation disclosed on Thursday. Discovery of the breach comes only three weeks before President Biden is scheduled to meet Mr. Putin in Geneva, and at a moment of increased tension between the two nations -- in part because of a series of increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks emanating from Russia.... [Hackers implanted emails] with code that would give the hackers unlimited access to the computer systems of the recipients, from 'stealing data to infecting other computers on a network,' Tom Burt, a Microsoft vice president, wrote on Thursday night." Burt's public remarks are here. The Raw Story has a brief report here.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "A bill aimed at combating China's competitiveness is getting pushed well into Friday after a series of last-minute objections injected fresh chaos into the debate. The Senate pushed the next steps in the bill until at least mid-morning Friday, after adjourning around 3 a.m. until 9 a.m. The late-night session came after Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), backed by a group of fellow conservative senators, threw the bill back into limbo as he refused to let it move forward over frustration that he didn't get some of his amendments in the package." MB: Johnson's maneuvers on this bill held up movement of other legislation, including the cloture vote on a January 6 bipartisan commission.
Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Republicans unveiled a $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer Thursday, in an effort to reach a bipartisan agreement with the White House. The proposal comes as talks are set to go past the Biden administration's unofficial deadline of Memorial Day. But the latest GOP offer only includes $257 billion in new spending, a far cry from the White House number of $1.7 trillion." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) signaled frustration with her Republican colleagues, who appear poised to block legislation forming a commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack as soon as Thursday night. Murkowski, speaking to a group of reporters, pushed back on concerns, voiced by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and other Republicans, that the commission could hurt the party heading into the 2022 election, when she is up for reelection. 'To be making a decision for the short-term political gain at the expense of understanding and acknowledging what was in front of us on January 6, I think we need to look at that critically,' Murkowski said." ~~~
~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico: "During Thursday's Senate Republican lunch, Sen. Susan Collins made one last plea to her colleagues to advance a proposed independent commission to probe the Capitol riot, with changes she fought for.... Collins kept trying to whip up 10 votes to break a filibuster on Thursday and said in an interview that she wouldn't 'give up.' But [Mitch] McConnell didn't let her go un-rebutted at the conference's closed-door meeting.... And the GOP leader is set to win the day, much to the consternation of a handful of his members who fear the party is making a mistake in voting down the House-passed commission bill sometime Friday. After an increasingly hard public and private push from McConnell, Senate Republicans are ready to make the independent investigation into the Capitol attack their first filibuster of the Biden administration." ~~~
~~~ Jamie Gangel & Michael Warren of CNN: "In the last 24 hours, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has ramped up the pressure on his GOP Senate colleagues to oppose a bill creating a January 6 commission, according to two Republicans familiar with his effort. One of those Republicans told CNN that McConnell has even made the unusual move of asking wavering senators to support filibustering the bill as 'a personal favor' to him. 'No one can understand why Mitch is going to this extreme of asking for a "personal favor" to kill the commission,"' said the Republican." ~~~
~~~ Manchin Is Mad at Mitch. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for playing politics over a bill establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Manchin issued a strongly-worded statement ... and accused McConnell of blocking the commission to help the GOP avoid the topic ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when the Senate majority will be in play. 'There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against the commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for,' Manchin said.... Manchin told reporters Thursday, however, that he would not nix the filibuster to pass the bill to form the commission." (Also linked yesterday.)
Oh, This Should Change Everything. Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to criticize ... Donald Trump and his hold on the Republican Party during a speech Thursday night, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. Ryan, a critic of the former President in the past, is expected to say at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that Republicans must move away from the 'populist appeal of one personality' because 'then we're not going anywhere.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The former speaker tempered his criticism by avoiding any mention of Mr. Trump by name -- except to say that the former president's brand of populism, when 'tethered to conservative principles,' had led to economic growth, and to credit him with bringing new voters to the party." MB: Jim Acosta of CNN said that Ryan is on Fox "News"' board, so if he wanted to do something about Trumpist extremism, he has a better place to start than California.
Andrew Solender of Forbes: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday continued to make comparisons between her modern day opponents and Nazi Germany just days after her own party leaders condemned her for similar remarks. At a rally in Georgia with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Greene said the Nazis were the National Socialist Party 'just like the Democrats are now a national socialist party.'... Greene also spent much of the rally tearing into the 'squad,' a group of progressive women of color serving in the House, dubbing them the 'Jihad Squad' and accusing them of supporting Palestinian militant group Hamas. Greene said members of Congress 'should be expelled if they're supporting terrorism,' despite her own sympathetic remarks about the Trump supporters who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6."
** William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn have been investigating whether several Ukrainian officials helped orchestrate a wide-ranging plan to meddle in the 2020 presidential campaign, including using Rudolph W. Giuliani to spread their misleading claims about President Biden and tilt the election in Donald J. Trump's favor, according to people with knowledge of the matter.... Mr. Giuliani is not a subject of the Brooklyn investigation, the people said.... At least one of the current and former officials Mr. Giuliani met [in a December 2019 trip to Europe], a Ukrainian member of parliament named Andriy Derkach, is now a focus of the Brooklyn investigation, the people said. The trip was the culmination of a yearlong effort by Mr. Giuliani, with support from Mr. Trump, to undermine Mr. Biden's presidential campaign."
** Your Neighbors Are Insane. Giovanni Russonello of the New York Times: "... it's increasingly clear that the Republican base remains in thrall to the web of untruths spun by Donald J. Trump -- and perhaps even more outlandish lies, beyond those of the former president's making. A federal judge [-- Amy Berman Jackson --] warned in an opinion yesterday that Mr. Trump's insistence on the 'big lie' -- that the November election was stolen from him -- still posed a serious threat.... QAnon, an outlandish and ever-evolving conspiracy theory spread by some of Mr. Trump's most ardent followers, has significant traction with a segment of the public -- particularly Republicans and Americans who consume news from far-right sources. Those are the findings of a poll released today by the Public Religion Research Institute and the Interfaith Youth Core, which found that 15 percent of Americans say they think that the levers of power are controlled by a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles, a core belief of QAnon supporters. The same share said it was true that 'American patriots may have to resort to violence' to depose the pedophiles and restore the country's rightful order." Roughly one in four Republicans believe QAnon's outlandish theories and another 55 percent of Republicans don't entirely reject the theories. ~~~
~~~ Marie: One reason so many Americans believe loony conspiracy theories is that "leaders" & authority figures like one Army Col. Douglas Macgregor feed impressionable young people crap like this: ~~~
The idea is that they [Biden administration officials] have to bring in as many non-Europeans as possible in order to outnumber the numbers of Americans of European ancestry who live in the United States. That's what it's all about. And I don't think there's any point in questioning it. That is the policy.... It is a deliberate policy to enact demographic change. -- Col. Douglas Macgregor (Ret.), April 2021 ~~~
~~~ Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "A Trump appointee serving on West Point's advisory board has repeatedly spread a conspiracy that the Biden administration is bringing in non-White immigrants as part of a 'grand plan' to have them outnumber White Americans of European ancestry in the United States. In another interview, he also attacked women serving in the military in combat roles. The comments were made in April and May by retired Army Col. Douglas Macgregor, who was appointed to West Point's Board of Visitors in the waning months of the Trump administration.... Macgregor also served as a senior official in Trump's Department of Defense, where he was tasked with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan after being appointed in November 2020. Macgregor was previously nominated to be the Trump administration's ambassador to Germany, but his nomination failed to receive a hearing following a CNN KFile report on controversial comments on minorities, Islam, and Germany's remembrance of the Holocaust." ~~~
~~~ Here's a decidedly more heart-warming story about West Point: ~~~
Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "... starting in 1907, a detachment of Buffalo Soldiers [-- who were Black --] was posted at segregated West Point to instruct the cadets in the fine points of horsemanship -- and to do menial work across the campus. The training had previously been done by a White cavalry outfit, which suffered from poor morale, indiscipline and low reenlistment rates. The arrival of the Black soldiers solved the problem 'pretty much over night,' Army reports showed. Buffalo Soldier morale, discipline and reenlistment rates were all high, according to historian Brian G. Shellum. The Buffalo Soldiers served at West Point until 1947; the next year, the Army was racially desegregated, Shellum has said." The article is mostly about the sculptor Eddie Dixon who is creating an equestrian statue to honor the Buffalo Soldiers. The statue will be placed at West Point. ~~~
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Biden';s call for a 90-day sprint to understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic came after intelligence officials told the White House they had a raft of still-unexamined evidence that required additional computer analysis that might shed light on the mystery, according to senior administration officials.... Officials ... are hoping to apply an extraordinary amount of computer power to the question of whether the virus accidentally leaked from a Chinese laboratory suggests that the government may not have exhausted its databases of Chinese communications, the movement of lab workers and the pattern of the outbreak of the disease around the city of Wuhan.... Mr. Biden committed on Thursday to making the results of the review public, but added a caveat: 'unless there's something I'm unaware of.'"
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "China on Thursday criticized the Biden administration for its renewed push to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, saying that the United States 'does not care about facts or truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing.' The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian follow President Biden's announcement Wednesday ordering the U.S. intelligence community to 'redouble their efforts' to determine how the pandemic started, including probing whether the pathogen emerged from a lab accident in the Chinese city of Wuhan." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tennessee. Anti-Vaxxer Tries to Kill Vaccination Providers. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "... Virginia Christine Lewis Brown protest[ed] the [coronavirus] vaccine by driving her Chrysler Pacifica 'at a high rate of speed' through a vaccine tent in a mall parking lot [in Maryville, Tenn.], police said. 'No vaccine!' she yelled Monday as she plowed through the tent, according to witness accounts to sheriff's deputies. Brown, 36, was arrested for driving through a vaccination tent and 'placing the lives of seven workers in danger,' the Blount County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday. She's been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment. Tennessee attorneys claim each count carries penalties that include a possible prison sentence of 1 to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000."
Beyond the Beltway
Idaho. Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Idaho Lt. Gov. Janice McGeachin issued an executive order on Thursday banning mask mandates while Gov. Brad Little was unaware and out of town.... McGeachin tweeted Thursday that she had barred state entities and officials from requiring mask wearing."
Washington State. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "Three police officers in Tacoma, Wash., were charged on Thursday in the killing of a Black man who had pleaded 'I can't breathe,' after they punched him, squeezed his neck, pressed on his back and placed a spit hood over his head, prosecutors said. Two of the officers, Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, were charged with second-degree murder, and the third, Timothy Rankine, was charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Manuel Ellis on March 3, 2020, Washington State&'s attorney general said. The attorney general's office said it was the second time that homicide charges had been filed in the state against law enforcement officers since the passage of Initiative 940 in 2018. The voter-approved initiative redefined when deadly force is justified, making it clear that there should be an increased role for juries in determining whether such force constitutes a crime."
Way Beyond
Belarus/Russia. Mary Ilyushina & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "As the West has moved to isolate and punish Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko for intercepting a civilian jetliner flying over Belarus, in what European leaders have said was an operation to arrest an opposition journalist on board, the strongman is traveling to Russia Friday for a meeting with his counterpart Vladimir Putin.... Lukashenko [is] ... increasingly dependent on his closest ally's support to maintain his grip on power."
News Lede
New York Times: "Indications that [Samuel] Cassidy [-- the San Jose man who murdered 9 fellow employees --] held anger toward his workplace had been discovered by federal officials years earlier, after Customs and Border Protection stopped him as he returned from a trip to the Philippines in 2016. When officers searched his bags, they found books about terrorism, manifestoes and a notebook detailing how he detested the transportation authority, known as the V.T.A., according to an official who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the contents of an internal message sent around the agency after the shooting." The story includes numerous other details of the incident. A USA Today story covers the 2016 incident in more detail.
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Reader Comments (12)
Lyin’ Ryan is back! Yippee. And he gives Fatty credit for “bringing new people to the party”. Yeah. Like members of the Josef Mengele fan club, QAmorons who believe Democrats eat baby parts, and violent, goose stepping goons who stormed the capitol looking for enemies to hang.
Those kinds of new people? Happy days.
New people to the GOP?
Sure 'nuff. And Akhilleus identifies them.
But the numbers (and Ryan purports to be a numbers guy) suggest a net loss.
This Col. Macgregor dude must not have ever read census numbers. According to the 2010 census, over 72% of Americans are of European ancestry. That means Biden is planning on trucking in over 220 million non-European people. Two questions: first, who is bringing them in? I’m guessing the same company that bussed millions of MA residents up to NH to deny poor Fatty his big win there. Second, will they all get Obama phones?
Another interesting Buffalo Soldier story is a decade older than the one cited, of troopers from the 25th Regiment who rode "The Great Bicycle Experiment, 2000 miles from Fort Missoula, Montana to St Louis, Missouri. This was in the summer of 1897.
WORD SALAD:
Here's the latest from the man who would be King if he could and he tried like the dickens to achieve that status by hook or crook––he's still at it:
Interviewer: Greetings Mr. Trump, take a seat...
T: It's Mr. President, if you don't mind.
I: But I do mind, sir, you are no longer the president, so it's mister all the way.
T: Ingrate! You people just don't give up, do you! Let's get this over with––.
I: How are you faring now that you are unburdened by a burden you carried fitfully. How do you view what has taken place since you left.
T: Look at what's going to happen, you look at gasoline, you look at what's going on with pricing. You look at what's going on there. You look at the military that building. If you look at the world, I think this could have been another Spanish Flu from 1917.
When you're looking at all of the those flames on top of the wells, do you look at some of these beautiful farms. You look at these incredible landscapes and you take a look at those wind farms out there. You look at what the way they're treating Israel now. You look at the way they're being treated right now.
If you look at Alaska, you look at Iowa, you look at North Carolina, you look at other states, big states and small states. If you look at every, every metric. You look at so many other things. When you look at what they did, it's so illegal.
And when you look at the moon it's like a big round ball but when you look at it days after it shrinks––tiny, like a sliver–-many people don't know this, they think it's always a big ball.
I: Whoopsie! well, well, will you look at the time–- it's time to say bye, bye, so thanks Mr. Trump– always a gas. When you're looking for the exit door mind the Wibmereimer who stands guard–-he sniffs evil when presented.
Is Paul Ryan auditioning to take Rick Santorum's seat at CNN?
@NJC: I don't think so because he's got that great Fox "News" gig. But you never know.
Per C-Span, the eleven who were too spineless to go on the record to vote on the 1/6 commission are: Marsha Blackburn, Roy Blunt, Mike Braun, Richard Burr, James Inhofe, Patty Murray, James Risch, Mike Rounds, Richard Shelby, Kyrsten Sinema, and Pat Toomey.
My only wish on this Memorial Day holiday is that Moscow Mitch McTurtle drops dead. I don't care if it's slow or quick, painful or painless, as long as it happens, the sooner the better.
@ unwashed - I'm surprised about Patty Murray, and she might have had a legit reason not to be there for the vote.
Krysten Sinema can go pound sand.
Unwashed,
I vote for slow and extremely painful.
You people are extremely unkind & fail to consider the needs of others: Marsha Blackburn, "couldn't cancel hairdressers appointment to get 1960s bouffant"; Roy Blunt "same as Marsha"; Mike Braun, "important family business meeting"; Richard Burr, "I'm a short-timer, so who cares?"; James Inhofe, "meeting with oil executives"; Patty Murray "do you know how hard it is to get a cheap plane ticket to the West Coast?"; James Risch, "hair transplant appointment"; Mike Rounds, "couldn't find my mask"; Richard Shelby, "pre-engagement at KKK bonfire"; Kyrsten Sinema, "I live in a swing state, for Pete's sake!"; and Pat Toomey, "I had family business" (he actually said that).
Wrote nasty note to my senator, the lovely Pat Toomey. I'm thinking that he had a graduation to attend...'tis the season, and they are back as long as they are outside...but he did not say. I also told him he was a bleeping coward, and could have stayed (PA) and gone home late today...he said he would have voted yes...ugh. I am with unwashed, firmly, and wish the Ancient Turtle every manner of slow, painful death. Lotta people he can take with him. Poor li'l Joe, so amazed that his colleagues voted NO...ugh, take him and Toomey with you, Turtle. Hand me that wine glass-- will drain it, and fling it through the tv screen...I am full of ire. Ireful. Not that I believed, like WV Joe, that people will "do the right thing." Not if they have no shared instance of believing what the right thing even is-- Anyone on the other side is suspect. I am headed to VA tomorrow, and I expect to see some aged Dump signs. Daughter and I will try to not stop and burn them. Have a nice weekend, RCers-- hope there is less rain than projected...yikes.