;)
The Commentariat -- May 3, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Mass Media Correction. David Bauder of the AP: "The Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News all issued similar corrections to stories regarding Rudolph Giuliani ... and his dealings in Ukraine. The corrections, to stories that ran last Thursday or Friday, take back reports that the former New York City mayor had been warned by the FBI that he was the subject of a Russian operation to influence the American election. NBC's online correction on Saturday was the most extensive, and it required both the headline and top of a story that ran a day earlier to be rewritten. The network said it had been told about an FBI briefing of Giuliani by 'a source familiar with the matter,' but later learned from a second source that the briefing had been prepared but not delivered.... Giuliani, on Twitter, said that the Times and Post 'must revealed their sources who lied and targeted an American citizen.'"
** Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable -- at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever. Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers. How much smaller is uncertain and depends in part on how much of the nation, and the world, becomes vaccinated and how the coronavirus evolves." ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, Republicans, the science-averse, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists & the general collection of the loony brigade have decided to ruin daily life for those of us who behave responsibly. I despise those selfish, ignorant bastards. In fairness to these horrible people, many of them try, often successfully, to diminish our quality of life in other respects: they scoff at environmental science; they oppose fair wages for fair work; they treat people who don't belong to their tribe of idiots as second-class citizens; etc. ~~~
Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday took its first significant step under President Biden to curb climate change, moving to sharply reduce a class of chemicals that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. In proposing a new regulation, Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said the agency aimed to reduce the production and importation of hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years. It's a goal shared by environmental groups and the business community, which jointly championed bipartisan legislation passed by Congress in December to tackle the pollutant."
Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "The Biden administration will reunite four migrant families separated during the Trump administration this week, while its reunification task force estimates that over 1,000 families remain separated, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday.... But the immigrant advocacy organization Al Otro Lado, or AOL, said the Biden administration is taking credit for reunifications it did very little to facilitate. '... The only reason these mothers will be standing at the port of entry is because Al Otro Lado negotiated their travel visas with the Mexican government, paid for their airline tickets and arranged for reunification,' said Carol Anne Donohoe ... of Al Otro Lado.... The parents will be given humanitarian parole to come back to the U.S., said Michelle Brané, executive director of Biden's reunification task force."
Florida GOP Cuts off Nose to Spite Its Ugly Face. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation -- and there have been many, including two of the state's current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott -- owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting. Now, some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with DeSantis’s support, passed a far-reaching bill Thursday night that puts new restrictions on the use of mail ballots. Not only are GOP lawmakers reversing statutes that their own predecessors put in place, but they are also curtailing a practice that millions of state Republicans use, despite ... Donald Trump's relentless and baseless claims that it invites fraud.... The potential fallout in the key swing state illustrates how the Republican Party is hurting itself in its rush to echo Trump's false allegations, they said." ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The truth here is plain to see: Florida Republicans are trying to make it harder for the opposition's voters to participate, to the point where party operatives even floated the idea of exempting their own voters [-- seniors & military personnel --] from provisions that would accomplish this.... No matter how you cut this, the real aim is to make it harder to vote, and hope for the best." And, though Republicans are claiming they're passing these anti-voter laws to "restore confidence in elections, their real purpose "is to continue undermining confidence in our electoral system, often as justification for more voter suppression, not to restore it ... [even to the point that] Republicans who dared to vouch for the integrity of the 2020 outcome are facing censure and condemnation...."
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Marcy Gordon of the AP: "President Joe Biden's massive proposed spending on infrastructure, families and education will not fuel inflation because the plans would be phased in gradually over 10 years, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday.... 'It's spread out quite evenly over eight to 10 years. So the boost to demand is moderate,' she said. 'I don't believe that inflation will be an issue, but if it becomes an issue, we have tools to address it.' New economic reports have portrayed a surging recovery from the recession unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. Americans' incomes soared in March by the most on record, boosted by $1,400 federal stimulus checks, and the economy expanded at a vigorous annual rate of 6.4% in the first three months of the year, leading to concern over inflationary pressures."
Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "We should be cleareyed about both the enormous strengths of the United States ... and its central weakness: For half a century, compared with other countries, we have underinvested in our people. In 1970, the United States was a world leader in high school and college attendance, enjoyed high life expectancy and had a solid middle class. This was achieved in part because of [Franklin] Roosevelt.... Beginning in the 1970s, America took a wrong turn. We slowed new investments in health and education and embraced a harsh narrative that people just need to lift themselves up by their bootstraps.... Some Americans worry about the cost of Biden's program.... Yet this is not an expense but an investment: Our ability to compete with China will depend less on our military budget, our spy satellites or our intellectual property protections than on our high school and college graduation rates. A country cannot succeed when so many of its people are failing."
The Secret Life of the Senate. Bill Scher in the Washington Monthly: "During the course of Joe Biden's first 100 days as president, the Senate was repeatedly described as 'broken.' Also, during the course of Joe Biden's first 100 days as president, the Senate passed 13 bills and filibustered zero. 10 of the 13 bills have been signed into law by President Biden, and the remaining three should soon follow suit.... The biggest of the 13 bills, by about $2 trillion, is the American Rescue Plan which passed through budget reconciliation on a party-line vote and could not be filibustered.... Whatever there is to say about Mitch McConnell's soulless approach to politics, we cannot say that today he has organized his party to filibuster everything he can. In fact, McConnell has voted 'Yea' on most of the 13 successful bills, including legislation to authorize $35 billion for water infrastructure, strengthen the Justice Department's ability to prosecute hate crimes, extend a suspension of automatic Medicare cuts, extend the pandemic small business relief loan program and waive the law that would have prevented Lloyd Austin from becoming Defense Secretary.... If Republicans were determined to make Biden's life miserable, they wouldn't cooperate at all."
Matthew Lee & Eric Tucker of the AP: "The United States and Iran are in active talks over the release of prisoners, a person familiar with the discussions said Sunday as Washington denied a report by Iranian state-run television that deals had been struck.... 'We're working very hard to get them released,' [President Biden's chief-of-staff Ron] Klain said. 'We raise this with Iran and our interlocutors all the time, but so far there's no agreement.' Tehran holds four known Americans now in prison: Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi. Iran long has been accused of holding those with Western ties prisoners to be later used as bargaining chips in negotiations. Despite the American denials, there have been signs that a deal on prisoners may be in the works...."
Ashley Parker & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Nearly six months after Trump lost to Biden, rejection of the 2020 election results ... has increasingly become an unofficial litmus test for acceptance in the Republican Party. In January, 147 GOP lawmakers -- eight senators and 139 House members -- voted in support of objections to the election results, and since then, Republicans from Congress to statehouses to local party organizations have fervently embraced the falsehood.... The issue also could reverberate through the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election, with Trump already slamming Republicans who did not resist the election results."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. The Little Station that Could. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Too many Sunday news shows repeatedly book the likes of Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson without reminding viewers how these members of Congress tried to undo the results of the election -- and encouraged the Trumpian lies about election fraud that led to the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.... A rare exception is CNN's 'State of the Union,' which hasn't booked a single member of the so-called Sedition Caucus since January.... Harrisburg[, Pennsylvania]'s WITF [-- an all-news public radio station --] ... want you to remember. Months before the election, the station&'s reporters and editors were already deeply alarmed by what they saw unfolding.... In late January, the station ... posted an explanatory story stating that they would be regularly reminding their audience that some state legislators signed a letter urging Congress to vote against certifying the Pennsylvania election results, and that some members of Congress had voted against certifying the state's election results for President Biden...." Stories about members of the "Sedition Caucus" are accompanied by a sidebar about the lawmakers' efforts to undermine the presidential election.
Anoa Changa of NewsOne: "Five white farmers last week USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in his official capacity, alleging reverse discrimination for his treatment of Black farmers, in particular. The lawsuit claimed the effort to address equity for farmers of color denied the white farmers equal protection under the law.... The lawsuit cites general non-discrimination language from the USDA, never explaining how providing support to groups traditionally overlooked is discrimination. They requested the court block the distribution of the aid program until such time when the issue of race is no longer considered in the distribution of funds. An agriculture policy blog highlighted a similar lawsuit filed in Texas backed by the newly launched America First Legal. The two lawsuits point to possible coordination of conservative interests attacking the equity-based provision. Acting in his professional capacity as Texas Agriculture Secretary and a farmer, Sid Miller sued."
Extremists Will Always Be with Us. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "What initially seemed to F.B.I. agents like distant, disparate crimes [in 1984] turned out to be the opening salvos in a war against the federal government by members of a violent extremist group called the Order, who sought to establish a whites-only homeland out West. Their crime spree played out in 1984. Fast forward to 2021. Federal agents and prosecutors who dismantled the Order see troubling echoes of its threat to democracy in the Capitol riot and the growing extremist activity across the country.... Those who tracked the group say the legacy of the Order can be seen in the prominent role that far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers played in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
Majority of Cops Don't Know They're on Safety Officers. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they're responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say.... Police officers were more likely to die of covid-19 last year than of all other causes combined, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.... One solution is for departments to make vaccination compulsory.... But department leaders and union officials said in interviews that such requirements could backfire or lead to lengthy litigation." ~~~
~~~ It Ain't Just Cops. Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "With a crowd a fraction of its usual size -- and those present all socially distancing and wearing masks -- [President Biden's] speech [to Congress last week] underscored how life on Capitol Hill has been slow to return to normal and how difficult it is to persuade holdouts to get immunized. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) estimated a day after the address that about 75 percent of House members have been vaccinated, a figure unchanged since March. Until more members get vaccinated, Pelosi said, the House won't return to pre-pandemic operations. Unlike for some U.S. adults, access to vaccines hasn't been a problem for members of Congress, who've been able to get shots at their workplace since December."
Darlene Superville of the AP: "The U.S. top trade negotiator [Katherine Tai] will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed worldwide, two White House officials said Sunday.... The U.S. has been criticized for focusing first on vaccinating Americans, particularly as its vaccine supply begins to outpace demand and doses approved for use elsewhere in the world but not in the U.S. sit idle."
Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: After Miami's pricey private grade school Centner Academy "threatened teachers' employment if they got a coronavirus vaccine before the end of the school year ... last week ..., [the school] became a national beacon for anti-vaccination activists practically overnight.... hundreds of queries from all over the world' came in for teaching positions, according to the administration. More came from people who wanted to enroll their children at the school, where tuition runs up to $30,000 a year.... The wealthy and well-connected [co-founder Leila] Centner brought her anti-vaccination and anti-masking views into the school's day-to-day life, turning what had been a tightknit community into one bitterly split between those who support her views on vaccinations and those who do not."~~~
~~~ Marie: I must admit that I automatically dislike someone described as a "wealthy and well-connected avid social-media user." For me, that translates to something like "shallow, avaricious, self-promoter." The fact that this nitwit also is promoting anti-science theories while threatening the lives & livelihoods of schoolteachers just makes her worse than your average shallow, avaricious, self-promoter, IMO. As Centner doesn't live far from Mar-a-Lardo, may I suggest that Melanie give her a call. I think there are grounds for a beautiful friendship.
Iowa. AP: "Iowa is turning down nearly three quarters of the vaccine doses available to the state from the federal government because demand for the shots remains weak. The Iowa Department of Public Health and Safety said the state asked the federal government to withhold 71% of the 105,300 vaccine doses that were available for the week of May 10. This is the second week in a row that the state has asked the federal government to hold back part of its allocation of vaccine doses." MB: Another winger "victory" over science & the physical health of the nation.
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Shannon Najmabadi of the Texas Tribune: "Lubbock voters on Saturday backed a 'sanctuary city for the unborn' ordinance that tries to outlaw abortions in the city's limits, likely prompting a lawsuit over what opponents say is an unconstitutional ban on the procedure. The unofficial vote, 62% for and 38% against the measure, comes less than a year after Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in Lubbock and months after the City Council rejected the ordinance on legal grounds and warned it could tee up a costly court fight."
News Lede
AP: "Three people were killed and more than two dozen others were hospitalized Sunday after a boat capsized and broke apart in rough water just off the San Diego coast during a suspected human smuggling operation, authorities said. Lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10 a.m. following reports of an overturned vessel in the waves near the rugged peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.... Seven people were pulled from the waves, including three who drowned, said [San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Rick] Romero. One person was rescued from a cliff and 22 others managed to make it to shore on their own, he said. 'Once we arrived on scene, the boat had basically been broken apart,' Romero said. 'Conditions were pretty rough: 5 to 6 feet of surf, windy, cold.' A total of 27 people were transported to hospitals with 'a wide variety of injuries' including hypothermia, Romero said."
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Reader Comments (14)
Had a birthday. Slowing down.
Call it a Monday Sermon:
"Republicans marked President Biden’s first one hundred days with more silly outrage.
Biden was going to ban eating meat, they thundered (washingtonpost.com). No hamburgers allowed on the Fourth of July. What will the nation do?
Vice-President Harris wasn’t immune to the barrage of nonsense. "The New York Post", working hand in glove with Fox, Rupert Murdoch’s other fake news outlet, reported that immigrant children were welcomed with copies of Harris’ children’s book “Heroes are Everywhere.” That story was fabricated, too (huffpost.com).
Across the nation, Republicans still perpetuate the Big Lie. The presidential election was stolen, and something has to be done. Hence, hundreds of Republican-proposed laws restricting voting access for the people whose voices they would rather not hear. They have no problem with the elections they won, of course.
Tax season has prompted more destructive Republican distraction. In the Republican lexicon, taxes are always bad. Words like ‘confiscatory” and “redistribution” litter Republican speech, as if taxes are the only mechanism that moves wealth from one place or person to another.
Here again Republicans employ fake outrage to disguise the obvious fact that every transaction, whether we attach dollars to it or not, redistributes wealth. Purchasing anything, from a Tesla to a tube of toothpaste transfers money from one hand to another’s.
In the last fifty years, that redistribution has been in only one direction. Upward. According to “Politico,” the top one percent now controls 26 percent of the nation’s wealth, the top 10 percent about 70 percent, levels of inequity not seen since the 1920’s.
That’s the grim truth Republicans don’t want us to notice. They want us distracted and angry instead.
As Republican President Dwight Eisenhower once said " It (anger) cannot…think clearly."
Today’s Republicans like it that way. For them, clear thought is Enemy Number One."
WHAT'S IN A WORD:
A few days ago I posted a link to what I considered a brilliant essay on the etymology and historic usage of the word "Nigger." Today the NYT has a story about a debate at the N.J. Law School after a white student repeated this word from a legal case. All hell broke out!
The lawyer representing the woman in question said the school would be abdicating its responsibilities to train lawyers if it encouraged lawyers to avoid epithets in all contexts.
A Black professor at Rutgers Law said he opposes even voluntary limits on speech–-"Using euphemisms like the "N-word" to avoid the racial slur obfuscates its repugnant history–––something extremely antiseptic about that term."
I have given you the position I take on this but read the piece to glean the other position. Obviously––it's a most important issue.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/03/nyregion/Rutgers-law-school-n-word.html?action=click&module=In%20Other%20News&pgtype=Homepage
and Ken: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Happy Birthday, Ken. We had a graduation. Onward and upward! Upward is too often now associated with some pinnacle versus general elevation. Now we associate upward as a nickel counting and to borrow a phrase a shallow, avaricious, self-promotion. (Thanks Marie.) The diminution of time to review, to correct, and to reward. 30 second tv commercial length attention-span; quarterly profits; first 100 days; ignoring history. We have become positively infantile in our world view as American culture has evolved past WWII and the Great Society. I, me, mine! Man, what I wouldn't give to hear George Harrison talk about his version about now. My weekend showed time moves along; the pace of change is clearly out of my control. Yet, our work is never done. Cheers!
And once more back to you, Ken–- a piggy back on your post.
In a WSJ column last week one of our favorite fabulists about to explode, Cruz warmed that CEO's opposing Republican threats to voting rights will be excluded from his party's Pay-to-Play legislative operation.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-walter-shaub-republicans_n_608f1ca7e4b0c15313f54bc2
@PD Pepe: Yeah, and here we were thinking Ted wasn't an honest man. Yet now it turns out he's perfectly willing to say the quiet part out loud: of course I take money for favors, but I'm not going to allow companies that favor voting rights to play with me. I'll bet those companies are feeling all said, especially since Ted is now in the minority.
@PD Pepe: Just heard that annoying Prevagin (sp.??) ad on MSNBC -- the one where some guy says how much Prevagin has improved his memory. Unfortunately, Prevagin -- for all its fine memory-enhancing qualities -- does not help one remember the difference between adjectives & adverbs. The Prevagin-pumped guy says that -- unlike him -- a lot of older people "can't remember things as good as they used to."
Iris Dement wrote this song ("Living in the Wasteland of the Free") twenty-five years ago, this performance is fifteen years ago (good audio, amateur handheld video). I had not heard this song before today, but it seems to me to be permanently topical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhgb9hYjX3g
How little they change
PD: thanks for the reminder about the "N" word articles. I went and read them. It was a good reminder about what constitues a cuss word and when it's use may or may not be acceptable. The follow on article about the student actions at Rutgers and elsewhere show how far you can take the prohibition against saying a word. Piss, shit, fuck, motherfucker, cunt, cocksuck, and tits. I happen to feel that the thought police who chased George Carlin have new clothes and are chasing people quoting other people. Imagine if you couldn't talk about the Holecaust because it was deemed a bad word? The impact of saying a term is necessary to bring it forward into discourse sometimes. E.g. a guy who comes to coffee every so often says the "N" word because he is an ungracious pig from Oklahoma who uses coffee to find a legitamizing audience to launder his social reputation. When I brought up and said N and these ideas, the group understood immediately how shitty that sounded coming out of my mouth. One word, from an unexpected source, immediately got their attention. Look at the Turks and their response to the use of the word genocide with their treatment of Armenians.
In going through my book shelf yesterday I had a book by Eric Hoffer called True Believer dealing with fanaticism that I'd purchased years ago. Words are what we use to gain allies so our journey is less solitary and cause more robust. I realized from my coffee group that our children would be aghast if they were seated beside us and heard us carry on as if nothing had been said when hateful speech was uttered. Think about Moscow Mitch and his team as well-dressed, undrooling fanatics.
The idiots Marie was talking about here in WA State.
Republic is a literal a hot bed of Republicans, in at least two senses of that word.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2021/apr/30/fallout-continues-from-republic-super-spreader-eve/
Would like to think they've learned something, but seriously doubt it.
@Ken Winkes: The super-spreaders are, without question, deplorable. But even the worst of them -- I think it was that bike rally in one of the Dakotas -- killed & sickened a finite number of people, albeit one death or one severe illness caused by irresponsible behavior is unacceptable.
But the refusal to get vaccinated is causing a never-ending threat. You will never be safe from your own neighbors. Their "freeedumb" trumps your right to reasonable safety & the "pursuit of happiness." Your neighbors can kill you & completely escape the consequences. There will be no investigation, there will be no charges, there will be no trial, there will be no conviction. There will be no restitution for your family. You will have to wear a mask when you leave the house, you will have to get extra booster shots for the new strains they incubate, you will have to curb what once were normal activities. They can do whatever they want.
I do not believe this is the sort of freedom the founders envisioned, and if it was, shame on them. We all have a social & moral obligation -- based in religious traditions -- to "love our neighbors as ourselves." This is articulated in Matthew 22 (and elsewhere, of course, in other faiths):
“A Pharisee asks Jesus, 'Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?' Jesus replied: '“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind." This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself." All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.'”
A lot of these Trumpy Republicans, anti-vaxxers & conspiracy theorists pretend they're super-religious Christians. When they explicitly reject out-of-hand a full half the fundamental law articulated by their supposed lord & savior, they reject their own faith. If I were a priest or pastor (ha! that would be the day), I'd excommunicate every one of them who couldn't prove s/he had a medical condition that precluded getting a vaccination against Covid (and percentage-wise, this is very few people).
John Oliver's usual excellent treatment -- this time about vaccine hesitancy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPHgRp70H8o
@NJC: Even as you were writing, I embedded Oliver's video. I have Patrick to thank for that because it popped up next to the Iris Dement video.
IF, the biggest word in the English language, the rest of the world gets it's shit together on C-19 will we see U.S. international travelers being required to quarantine when they go overseas? On the flip side of the coin, will foreign travelers shun the U.S. as a destination due to our disease ravaged population?