;)
The Commentariat -- May 4, 2021
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here.
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The White House on Tuesday told states that coronavirus vaccine supply they choose not to order will become available to other states -- the most significant shift in domestic vaccine distribution since President Biden took office, and part of an effort to account for flagging demand in parts of the country. Each state's share of the total U.S. adult population will still determine weekly allocations. But instead of allowing unordered doses to carry over week to week, the White House will steer untapped vaccine into a federal bank available to states where demand continues to outstrip supply. Those states will be able to order up to 50 percent above their weekly allocation."
Nancy Is a Mean Girl. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mocked House Republicans for reportedly looking for a 'non-threatening female' to replace No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney (Wyo.). Pelosi's office released a mock 'help wanted' ad as talks of ousting Cheney from leadership increase amid GOP frustrations with her anti-Trump stance. 'Word is out that House GOP Leaders are looking to push Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as House Republican Conference Chair -- their most senior woman in GOP leadership -- for a litany of very Republican reasons: she won't lie, she isn't humble enough, she's like a girlfriend rooting for the wrong team, and more,' the ad reads, referring to previous media reports about male Republican criticism of Cheney."
Cristina Cabrera of TPM: CNN anchor Don Lemon raked former GOP senator-turned-CNN contributor Rick Santorum (R-PA) over the coals on Monday night after Santorum refused to apologize for his racist comments downplaying European settlers' genocide of Native Americans. 'I mean, Rick Santorum, really? Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and to try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?' Lemon said during his program shortly after fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo's interview with the contributor. '... It was horrible and insulting, and I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by this,' Lemon continued. 'I was sitting in my office, furious, because he's done it so many times. So many times.'"
~~~~~~~~~~~
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Stratford of Politico: "The Biden administration has tapped Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to serve as the top official overseeing the federal government's $1.6 trillion portfolio of student loans and array of financial aid programs. The selection of Cordray, who previously was attorney general of Ohio and ran unsuccessfully to be governor, is a major victory for progressives who have been calling on the Biden administration to take more aggressive action on student loans and for-profit colleges."
Michael Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden on Monday reversed himself and said he would allow as many as 62,500 refugees to enter the United States during the next six months, eliminating the sharp limits that ... Donald J. Trump imposed on those seeking refuge from war, violence or natural disasters. The action comes about two weeks after Mr. Biden announced that he was leaving Mr. Trump's limit of 15,000 refugees in place, which drew widespread condemnation from Democrats and refugee advocates who accused the president of reneging on a campaign promise to welcome those in need. Mr. Biden quickly backtracked, promising only hours later that he intended to increase refugee admissions. With Monday's announcement, the president formally bowed to the pressure." The AP's story is here.
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." (Also linked yesterday.)
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, is quietly considering trying to use a fast-track budget maneuver to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants should bipartisan talks on providing a pathway to citizenship fall apart. Mr. Schumer has privately told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in recent weeks that he is 'actively exploring' whether it would be possible to attach a broad revision of immigration laws to President Biden's infrastructure plan and pass it through a process known as budget reconciliation, according to two people briefed on his comments. The move would allow the measures to pass the evenly divided Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, shielding them from a filibuster and the 60-vote threshold for moving past one, which would otherwise require at least 10 Republican votes."
Trouble in Trumpland
Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday escalated her feud with ... Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, issuing a less-than-subtle swipe at the former president's latest attempt to claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. On Monday morning, Trump issued a statement from his Save America PAC proclaiming that the presidential election 'will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!' -- an attempt to appropriate the label given to the false claim by Trump and his Republican allies that last November's election was in fact won by the former president. Less than an hour later, Cheney (R-Wyo.), who faces renewed pressure from Trump-aligned forces within the Republican caucus to remove her from House leadership over her direct rebukes of the former president's falsehoods, swiped back on Twitter. ~~~
The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system. -- Rep. Liz Cheney, in a tweet, Monday ~~~
~~~ "The Wyoming Republican kicked up a new round of Republican agita last week when she said support for Trump-backed challenges to the 2020 Electoral College results should be disqualifying for any Republican seeking the party's 2024 presidential nomination. Some top Republicans -- including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy -- are reportedly waning in their support for Cheney amid the continued internal hostilities between her and the party's pro-Trump wing. Trump's missive comes as Arizona's Republican-commissioned audit of the election results in Maricopa County -- which includes the Phoenix metro area -- is ongoing. The former president has latched onto the effort.... Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, on Sunday derided the audit as a 'ludicrous' attempt to undermine [Joe] Biden's victory. McCain was one of Trump's fiercest GOP critics and became a top GOP surrogate during Biden's campaign." ~~~
Jamie Gangel & Michael Warren of CNN: "Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Monday her party cannot accept the 'poison' of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen and should not 'whitewash' the January 6 Capitol riot -- and Donald Trump's role in fomenting it. 'We can't embrace the notion the election is stolen. It's a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,' Cheney said, speaking behind closed doors at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia. 'We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.' Cheney made her comments, confirmed to CNN by two people in the room, during an off-the-record interview with former House Speaker Paul Ryan before a crowd of donors and scholars at the annual retreat for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank." ~~~
Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: “Hours later, Trump released another statement, this time attacking Cheney by calling her a 'big-shot warmonger' and claiming that people in Wyoming 'never liked her much.'"
Alayna Treene of Axios: "House Republicans are moving closer to ousting Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership, and are already considering replacements -- including Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), congressional aides tell Axios.... Most members recognize Cheney can't be succeeded by a white man, given their top two leaders -- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) -- fill that demographic.... None of these women voted to impeach Trump.... Stefanik and Walorski objected to the Jan. 6 Electoral College certification of the presidential election." Wagner is not part of the Sedition Caucus. ~~~
~~~ Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Top allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are vowing to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the harshest critics of former President Trump in either party, from her leadership post by the end of the month. They argue that the No. 3 Republican has repeatedly contradicted McCarthy and his team, undermining the party's message and its efforts to take back the House majority in next year's midterm elections. 'There is no way that Liz will be conference chair by month's end,' one key McCarthy ally told The Hill on Monday. 'When there is a vote, it won't be a long conference; it will be fast. Everyone knows the outcome.'"
Rachel Lerman & Heather Kelly of the Washington Post: "It has been four months since ... Donald Trump was last allowed to post on Facebook, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was banned 'indefinitely.' Now the Facebook Oversight Board, an outside group funded and created by Facebook to review the social media giant's thorniest policy choices, has made a decision on the case. It is expected to announce on Wednesday whether Facebook can uphold its suspension of Trump or if it has to allow him back on the site.: MB: How can they not permanently oust Trump? As recently as this Monday morning, Trump doubled down on the Big Lie, trying to turn it inside out? BTW, Donald, you are permanently banned from commenting on Reality Chex, unless you decide to use us as a confessional platform & own up to your many crimes against humanity.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "always-shifting efforts to prove that he didn't lose the 2020 election, eternally encumbered by the fact that he did, have settled for the time being on an anomalous recount in Windham[, New Hampshire]'s 2020 state representative race. 'You're watching New Hampshire,' he told customers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., during an apparently spontaneous speech there last week. 'They found a lot of votes up in New Hampshire just now. You saw that.' This, he said, was further evidence that the 2020 election was 'rigged.'" When it appeared that a Democratic candidate for the state legislature had lost by just 24 votes, she asked for a recount in November; the recount, however, revealed that she had lost by more than 400 votes. The town of 14,000 has not figured out what happened in the original count, and the state is investigating. Even if Windham's vote count for president had similarly undercounted Trump votes, New Hampshire still would have given Biden its Electoral College votes. ~~~
~~~ Aha! A Case of Intentional Voter Fraud. Rebekah Riess & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to casting a vote in the name of his deceased mother in an effort to reelect then-President Donald Trump, according to court records and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer's office. Bruce Bartman, 70, received the sentence Friday after entering a guilty plea to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. Bartman will also lose his right to vote for four years, pursuant to Pennsylvania statute.... Voter records show that Bartman used Pennsylvania's online voter-registration portal to register both his late mother, Elizabeth Bartman, and his deceased mother-in-law, Elizabeth Weihman, who died in 2019 -- illegally registering both as Republican voters, the district attorney's office said.... Stollsteimer, a Democrat, said..., 'Rather than earning national attention for efforts to restrict accessibility to voting, address the breakdown in the online voter registration systems that this defendant exploited to vote for a deceased relative.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Five years' probation? Bartman is lucky he's a white Pennsylvania man and not a black Texas woman. Crystal Mason got five years hard time for trying (and failing) to vote in 2016 because she didn't know she was ineligible to vote. Maybe the courts looked at her provisional ballot & discovered she had voted for Hillary.
The Liars' Party. Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "For the activist base of the Republican Party, affirming that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential contest has become a qualification for membership in good standing. For the party's elected leaders, accepting the clear result of a fair election is to be a rogue Republican like the indomitable Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) -- a target for Trump's anger, public censure and primary threats.... The GOP is increasingly defined not by its shared beliefs, but by its shared delusions. To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar. And because this defining falsehood is so obviously and laughably false, we can safely assume that most Republican leaders who embrace it fall into the second category. Knowingly repeating a lie -- an act of immorality -- is now the evidence of Republican fidelity." ~~~
~~~ It's Working! Stephen Collinson of CNN: "With its cultish devotion to Donald Trump, the majority of the Republican Party is choosing a wannabe-autocrat over the political system that made the United States the world's most powerful nation and its dominant democracy. The ex-President is showing that he doesn't have to be in the Oval Office to damage faith in US elections and to trash truth, as his movement based on lies and personal homage takes an increasingly firm grip of the Republican Party. The widespread mistrust he continues to foster in the fairness of the US political system among millions of voters poses grave risks to democracy itself."
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.'" ~~~
~~~ Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Incorrect information from government sources apparently led three separate news organizations to publish the same erroneous claim about Rudolph W. Giuliani last week that all three later corrected.... It appears that competitive pressures and a lack of a response from Giuliani and his representatives on deadline helped push the stories in the wrong direction.... Giuliani ... did not respond -- apparently because his phone and other electronic devices had been confiscated during the FBI raid.... 'We weren't rigorous enough,' conceded Times editor Dean Baquet in an interview Monday.... CNN also picked up on the inaccurate Post story, repeating its inaccurate claim during a segment Friday.... Giuliani -- who on Monday told Fox News in an interview that federal investigators were trying to 'frame' him -- tweeted Saturday: 'Where did the original false information come from?@MSNBC, @CNN, @nytimes, I couldn't quite hear your apology?'"
Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "A U.S. bankruptcy administrator asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss the National Rifle Association's efforts to declare bankruptcy or appoint a trustee or examiner to oversee the gun rights organization -- a setback for the group at the close of a federal court hearing to consider its petition. The recommendation bolstered the arguments of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), whose office has fought the NRA's attempts to relocate from New York to Texas, and came after senior NRA executives acknowledged in court testimony that they received lavish perks."
David Gelles, et al., of the New York Times: "Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the richest people in the world, who reshaped philanthropy and public health with the fortune Mr. Gates made as a co-founder of Microsoft, said on Monday that they were divorcing. For decades, Mr. and Ms. Gates have been powerful forces on the world stage, their vast charitable contributions affording them access to the highest levels of government, business and the nonprofit sector. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of some $50 billion, has had immense influence in fields like global health and early-childhood education, and has made great strides in reducing deaths caused by malaria and other infectious diseases.... The foundation said in a statement that Mr. and Ms. Gates would remain co-chairs and trustees and that no changes were expected at the organization.... The Gateses have been married for 27 years and have three children, ages 18 to 25."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
** 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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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. ~~~
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration is expected by next week to grant expanded emergency use authorization to allow children as young as 12 to receive the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and German firm BioNTech, according to three federal officials familiar with the situation.... Shortly after the FDA decision, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee is expected to meet to recommend how the vaccine should be used." The AP's story is here.
Emily Rauhala & Erin Cunningham of the Washington Post: "Moderna will supply up to 500 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to a campaign backed by the World Health Organization starting late this year, giving a much-needed boost to a global initiative that has suffered from inequity, funding shortfalls and a severe supply crunch. The agreement, announced Monday soon after the WHO approved the company's messenger RNA vaccine for emergency use, comes amid growing calls for both vaccine-makers and wealthy nations to do more to address the vaccination gap between rich countries and the rest of the world." MB: Late this year? We're in the first week of May, for Pete's sake.
Joshua Eaton & Rachana Pradhan of NBC News: "Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against Covid-19 account for the lion's share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by Kaiser Health News. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country's effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens was responsible for 21 percent, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. CDC data suggest that the companies have wasted more doses than states, U.S. territories and federal agencies combined.... CVS said 'nearly all' of its reported vaccine waste occurred during" the Trump administration's poorly-planned rollout. "Overall, waste has been minuscule...."
Florida. Amanda Macias of CNBC: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Monday that immediately suspends all outstanding local Covid-19 emergency orders and related public health restrictions. 'The fact is, we are no longer in a state of emergency,' DeSantis said during a news conference.... Private businesses can still require masks and enforce social distancing and other protective measures. DeSantis signed a bill Monday that codifies the executive order into law, effective July 1.... The measure, which effectively ends all local pandemic-related restrictions, also bans vaccine passports."
Beyond the Beltway
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." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ 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...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Israel. Josef Federman of the AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a midnight deadline on Tuesday to put together a new coalition government -- or be looking at the possibility of leading his Likud party into the opposition for the first time in 12 years. Netanyahu has struggled to secure a parliamentary majority since March 23 -- when elections ended in deadlock for the fourth consecutive time in the past two years. Despite repeated meetings with many of his rivals and unprecedented outreach to the leader of a small Islamist Arab party, Netanyahu has not been able to close a deal during a four-week window. That window was to expire at midnight, at which point the matter returns to President Reuven Rivlin in the absence of an agreement." MB: Not clear yet whether or not Bibi turned into a pumpkin.
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Reader Comments (22)
So another damn carpetbagger is moving to Florida. Florida Politics Sunburn section posts a tweet from Naples, Florida, from Newt and Callistra Gingrich and the news they are moving to the swamp state.
@Bobby Lee: Ah, to be in Florida & know the joy of Newt, sitting in a chaise longue at poolside, wearing Hawaiian-print trunks, over which his great belly hangs, waxing ineloquent in that charming nasal twang of his about how he was right about everything. Bobby Lee, you have all the luck.
We had hoped that once Mr. Big Stuff bit the dust we could settle into a state of normalcy or at least begin putting our house back in order. But we now are faced with what Michael Gerson so aptly defines as:
"The GOP is increasingly defined not by its shared beliefs, but by its shared delusions. To be a loyal Republican one must be either a sucker or a liar."
Add to this Marie's "loony brigade," re: the anti-vaxers: they are "selfish, ignorant bastards, horrible people who diminish our quality of life."
And Liz Cheney, of all people, stands out for her stance on scruples and the truth.
On the other side of the world Richard Engle reports from Afghanistan and shows us videos of bright young girls who, because of the American intervention, have been able to go to school (with boys) and they tell us in English that they want to become scientists, doctors, musicians. When the Taliban had control, women, if they had to go out, were made to cover themselves completely and if not they were arrested and many times killed. The fear now is once we withdraw what will happen to these women and girls. Hillary Clinton is involved with this issue–-don't know what her solutions are if any.
And we learn today that a marriage of long standing has come to an end. Bill's mother wrote a long letter to Melinda before the marriage took place. I saved it because I liked much of what she said and I was touched that she sent this to her future daughter-in-law–-an unusual thing to do. Reading it again–-today–-I have a few mixed feelings but, like many such endings, a sense of sadness coupled with–- it was the right, the best, thing to do.
Dear Melinda:
In just a few hours you will be married and you and I will share the same name!
Although Bill and I have been married 42 years, we continue to learn what it means to be married.
To love and to cherish
Celebrate his good points and remember you don't have to love everything about him. If you see some things about him that you simply have to improve upon (things his mother [what about father?] did not get just right) recognize reforming a husband is a long-term project and it doesn't always work out. Sometimes it is better to reform one's own expectations.
For better or for worse
Don't expect calm waters. Pray for courage. Keep your sense of humor. No man and woman ever had a perfectly harmonious marriage. A good marriage takes effort, resilience and suppression of personal ego, but the fundamental requirement is living with the fixed vision that your relationship is permanent and forever.
For richer or for poorer
There have been but few couples for whom this phrase has had such special meaning. Every day will test the need for a sense of humility about your circumstances. Your lifetime together will, in the end, be a verdict on your recognition of the extraordinary obligations which accompany extraordinary resources.
In sickness and in health
As you know, in the last few months we have had a chance to reflect quite directly on promises to stand by one another in sickness and in health. This challenge has brought a new depth to our relationship.
Of course, the waters have not always been smooth, but I can't imagine not being married to Bill! I hope you will have this same feeling 42 years from now about your Bill Gates.
Watch Joy Reid take "Tuckums" to task!
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joy-reid-tucker-carlson-response-race-lady_n_6090f8e6e4b04620270b5d09
You wanna cancel Donald Trump, Miss Smartypants Marie? Nobody can cancel the greatest leader in the history of the world. Why, right this minute Mr. Trump is rewriting the Constitution, a piece of crap if you ask me. Except for Article II which says he can do anything he wants. Cuz he’s still president! And he still has his Sharpie, dammit.
Just last week he was telling me the story of 23,078 strong, burly manly men who lined up in tears on the road to the southern White House to honor him as he drove to the golf course. He stopped to talk to them, gracious as ever, and one man, 6’9”, 345 lbs, with only one swastika tattoo, crawled over to his highness and said, through manly tears “Sir, can you please let me kill Joe Biden for you? Then we can go back to being your servants”. Donald gave him his blessing (the thumbs up and big grin) and said that Marge already has dibs on that one, but if he wanted to, he could kill Kamala Harris. That’d be just fine.
So watch out, Miss Smartypants and all you liberal liars. Don’t cancel the Donald. Especially when he’s teeing off. FORE! Great shot, Mr. President. Greatest shot in the history of the game.
See what you’ll be missing, Realitychexerz?
Good one, Ak ;)
Art Cullen tries to explain fly-over country in the WAPO.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/03/republicans-prairie-states-are-busy-harvesting-their-gains/
My comment:
"In the long-ago pre-digital age, I wrote something for the local newspaper in which I used the phrase "govenment by gossip." (I might have told this to RC readers...) I don't know if I coined it, but I do know I didn't mean it as a compliment.
The phrase was repeated by a lobbyist friend of mine, then used by an unsuccesfull candidate for our states's governorship and given further currency by repetition on a conservative Seattle radio station...
Mr. Cullen's piece reminds me of that incident and what I was trying to say when I originally used the phrase.
"Gossip" was once used critically, used to distinguish between real news about real ideas or occurrences and tales passed on from mouth to mouth to entertain rather than to inform. People have always indulged in the practice, but social media injected it with steroids.
Now we have an entire political party, from base to leadership, that lives in a self-reflecting digital bubble, where their chosen unrealities echo and reverberate, all fueled by love of self and money.
Meanwhile, the real world which they exclude from their bubble, the world of Covid, of climate change, of environmental degradation, of resource depletion, of the mass movement of populations, goes on without them.
These three states are representative of that third or our nation trapped in the bubble of their preferred gossip and have no interest in leaving it, but the real world is still out there, every day knocking more loudly to get in.
Someday it will and when it does, the meeting will not be pretty. (It never is when the dam breaks...)
I just wonder how many will have to die before they notice."
MB: If us Floridians have "all the luck" we must have been channeling that old "Hee-Haw" song with the line "if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all".
Ken,
It’s provable verity that the right, especially the Trumpist right (which today is pretty much the only right worth talking about; Liz Cheney may be anti-Trump but that doesn’t mean she’s anti a whole lot of other horrible things), is far removed from any world in which reality, logic, science, fairness, decency, equality, truth, and basic humanity hold sway. The problem is that they are not content to simply reign in hell, as Milton once put it, they want to control everything.
This is the sulfur soaked apotheosis of the view of Ronald Reagan who proclaimed the horrors of government, all while striving mightily to control government, a thing he taught his acolytes to despise.
And here’s the further problem. In classical logic, all statements are assigned a truth value. They’re either true or false. If the statement “A” is true, then by definition, “Not A” must be false. Thus, to use your construction, “the right does not believe in realty, etc.”, being demonstrably true, the statement “The right believes in reality, etc.” has a truth value of False, otherwise known as “The hell you say...” or, on the streets where I grew up “Get the fuck outta here!”
And there is a very short jump then to the equally false statement “Right wingers would make excellent stewards of a world in which reality, etc. are valued”.
I didn't know about Joy Reid, she's funny. Can I unread the bit about Newt in Hawaiian print swim trunks? Or, Newt in a nice brief Speedo!
Do you think Michael Gerson is getting paid under the table to talk about "the indomitable Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.)"? Cheney (and her Dick) know that no body has ever advanced to the White House directly from Representative. They are trying to get Liz to approach half of Hillary Clinton's qualifications. Dick did the quick math: if Sarah Palin can get one heart beat from the Presidency, so can Liz. How long do you think the Cheneys will let Mitt retain the presidency if she is the VP? I bet both Cheneys have Erik Prince and Vladimir Putin on speed dial. Motive, methods, and opportunity.
Dear John Barron: Thanks so much for writing. However, if you're not careful, you could get banned on Reality Chex just like Donald Trump. P.S. Please phone me at 603/123-4567. I'd like to do a voice-check. You can practice on a sentence like, "I consult myself because I have a very good brain."
Rudy's crowing about not getting a personal FBI briefing on the Russian influence operation on our presidential elections. So, he only got the same briefing, through the media, that I and everyone else got over and over again about the Russians trying to influence the election on Trump's behalf again. Though the media did make an effort to let Giuliani know that he was either being used by Russia or was actively working for Putin's cause.
The ever-odious Glenn Greenwald has latched on to Rudy’s non-briefing to screech (as always) that this just PROVES that ALL of the non-Greenwald, non-Taibbi media are LYING TO YOU so that he and Matt T are the ONLY trustworthy news sources. Which you can access via his substack for just $5 a month ….
Marie,
Leave John Barron alone or he may get his “pal” the Donald to break out his Sharpie and redraw New Hampshire boundaries so that it’s part of Afghanistan. Instead of a Sununu for a governor you’ll have a Sunni. And not the good kind. And your mountains will be the Burkashires.
RAS,
Do Rudy didn’t get a direct, specific warning from the FBI not to break the law and now he thinks he’s in the clear? Maybe drunk drivers nabbed careening down the wrong side of a divided highway while chugging a bottle of Glenlivet can try that out in court. “Your honor! Nobody told me not to do to that. Can I go now?
These people are unbelievable.
Want to up the vaccination percentage in red states? Tell them the vaccines they are turning down will go to other countries, where Those people will get them. Greed and racism can be a powerful motivator.
The R.C. secret Po-lice are investigating one John Barron who had the gaul to call our very own M.B. a "smarty pants." Mr. Barron has, unfortunately, been whisked away for many a day on a Stanley Steamer that is headed to Abu Dhabi in search of a great wealth fund operating there. Another aggressive agitator bites the dust.
NiskyGuy,
Ooooh, great idea. “THOSE people (including icky gays and trans people) will be given YOUR vaccine. For FREE! They will live to assault your sons and daughters, and take over this big, beautiful white, right, straighty-straight Christian country, and you will be DEAD. And they will piss on your grave while singing some blackety-black antifa song while ogling same sex partners. Aieeee!
That oughta prompt theTuckkkers to get clucking.
Akhilleus and Nisky, I am sorry to note that the "Dog in The Manger" syndrome does not result in the dog doing the right thing; the dog just wants to deny any benefit to anyone else. So those curs won't take the shots because otherwise the shots would go to inferiors; they will just try to ensure that nobody gets them.
I could be wrong, but that Aesop guy was usually pretty on the mark.
Looks like Bibi might have turned into a pumpkin, or at least an acorn squash.
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/04/netanyahu-israel-government-deadline-485380
@Bobby Lee, re: your "no luck" comment. While I had seen "Hee Haw" years ago, I didn't know that Cream made an appearance to perform their cover of Albert King's "Born Under a Bad Sign." Since both Cream and AK released their song's in 1967, I'm not surprised that I missed the follow-up Hee Haw show produced 1969-71.
And then there's the subsequent incredible collaboration of AK and the prematurely-late Stevie Ray Vaughn.
As someone once pointed out, the premature death of a great talent like Stevie Ray Vaughn was most unfortunate, especially when one considers that we couldn’t get Bon Jovi within a mile of a helicopter.