;)
The Commentariat -- May 5, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Fadel Allassan of Axios: Donald "Trump and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise are openly supporting Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) to replace Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) as House Republican conference chair.... 'Liz Cheney is a warmongering fool who has no business in Republican Party Leadership,' Trump said in a statement. 'Elise Stefanik is a far superior choice, and she has my COMPLETE and TOTAL Endorsement for GOP Conference Chair. Elise is a tough and smart communicator!'... The public endorsements of Stefanik mark a new escalation in Republicans' internal feud over Cheney...."
Olivia Beavers & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "Liz Cheney is not fighting to hold onto her job as House GOP conference chair, even as top Republican leaders openly campaign to replace her in the No. 3 spot.... Cheney has been telling people that if holding onto her leadership role requires having to lie or stay quiet, she doesn't believe that's a price worth paying.... Behind the scenes, Cheney has not been making calls or engaging in the type of campaigning that's ordinarily necessary in politics to build a coalition of support ahead of a vote.... Now it appears all but certain that Cheney will be booted from leadership, raising serious questions about her political future. Cheney, who passed on a Senate bid last year..., just posted a record-breaking fundraising quarter. But she's also facing a tough primary race next year in Wyoming, with pro-Trump challengers already lining up to take her out."
Doha Madani & Tim Fitzsimons of NBC News: "Former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin filed a motion for a new trial Tuesday after he was convicted last month of murdering George Floyd. Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, is alleging pretrial publicity affected Chauvin's right to a fair trial. The motion alleges the court abused its discretion by denying the requests for a change in venue and a new trial. Because the court failed to sequester the jurors or 'admonish them to avoid all media,' Nelson's filing said, they were subjected not only to prejudicial publicity but also to 'jury intimidation or potential fear of retribution.'"
Lauren Thomas of CNBC: "Peloton announced Wednesday voluntary recalls of both its treadmill machines over safety concerns. The announcement marked a major reversal of Peloton's initial reaction and comes after weeks of discussions with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. In a statement, Peloton apologized for not acting more quickly to resolve the issue after reports of one death and dozens of injuries."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.
Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The Labor Department is rescinding a rule that made it harder for gig and contract workers to argue they were entitled to minimum wage and overtime protections, part of a push to undo Trump-era decisions that favored businesses and employers. The withdrawal of the 'Independent Contractor' rule, which limited the ability of workers to argue that they were misclassified as contractors when they should have been employees, will be published in the Federal Register today, and become effective on Thursday. Companies have increased the use of contractors in recent decades in part to lower labor costs. Employees are entitled to a range of benefits not afforded to contractors, including a minimum wage and overtime pay."
Axios: "Facebook's independent Oversight Board ruled to uphold the platform's suspension of former President Trump's account but told the social media giant to rethink the ban's 'indefinite' nature. The board found Trump's posts had 'severely violated' Facebook rules but questioned the 'indeterminate and standardless penalty of indefinite suspension' and 'insisted' the company find a 'proportionate response' within six months." MB: Bottom line: Facebook will put us through this again. And again. That guy will forever be a threat to democracy, even after he's dead. Update: The New York Times report is here.
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Natasha Bertrand & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The Biden administration will release its highly anticipated national strategy for fighting domestic terrorists in the coming weeks, the White House announced Tuesday, signaling a major break from ... Donald Trump's administration in addressing more directly the threats posed by White supremacists and right-wing militia groups. The expected release of the strategy comes after the White House said Tuesday that it has completed a sweeping assessment of the threat posed by domestic violent extremism, an issue that took on new urgency after the January 6 assault on the Capitol...."
Kevin Sieff of the Washington Post: "... the Biden administration ... [has initiated] a massive relocation of parents deported by one U.S. president and returned by another. In total, more than 1,000 families are expected to be reunited.... Last week, the Department of Homeland Security agreed to process the first few returning parents at the border."
Denitsa Tsekova of Yahoo! News: "President Joe Biden is planning to raise revenue to fund his infrastructure plans through numerous tax hikes that would mostly hit the top 0.7% of Americans, a new analysis found. 'The vast, vast majority of the population will not see any tax increases,' Steve Wamhoff ... [of] the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and co-author of the report, told Yahoo Money. 'This plan would really just ask the people who've been very, very successful and have done very well throughout recessions and pandemics... ask those lucky few to pay more.'" MB: If you're one of the lucky duckies whose taxes will be raised, congratulations on having more money than you need! Nevertheless, the proposed rise in your taxes is upsetting 100 percent of your GOP Senate friends. ~~~
~~~ Zachary Evans of Yahoo! News (May 3): "No Republican senator will back President Biden's infrastructure plan as written, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said at a press conference on Monday.... McConnell's reference to a '$4.1 trillion grab bag' would include Biden's roughly $2 trillion infrastructure package as well as his $1.8 trillion 'American Families Plan,' which invests heavily in education and childcare." MB: So that means Democratic Senators can pass a bill under reconciliation, meaning it will be whatever Joe Manchin says is okay.
Kadia Goba of Axios: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Tuesday he's 'lost confidence' in Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) during a moment of candor caught on a hot mic, a tape reviewed by Axios shows.... 'I think she's got real problems,' McCarthy told Steve Doocy off-air ahead of a live 'Fox and Friends' interview. 'I've had it with ... I've had it with her. You know, I've lost confidence. ... Well, someone just has to bring a motion, but I assume that will probably take place.' The comments, made amid seeming cross-talk with Doocy, outlined how the House conference chair could be removed by a vote from the chamber's Republican members." ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ From the Ashes of the Trumpster Fire
Tom Friedman of the New York Times: "... instead of Trump's Big Lie fading away, just the opposite is happening -- first slowly and now quickly. Under Trump's command and control from Mar-a-Largo, and with the complicity of most of his party's leaders, that Big Lie -- that the greatest election in our history, when more Republicans and Democrats voted than ever before, in the midst of a pandemic, must have been rigged because Trump lost -- has metastasized. It's being embraced by a solid majority of elected Republicans and ordinary party members -- local, state and national.... There is simply nothing more dangerous for a two-party democracy than to have one party declare that no election where it loses is legitimate, and, therefore, if it loses it will just lie about the results and change the rules."
Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "A soldier in the Wisconsin National Guard was charged Monday in connection with the Capitol riot Jan. 6, becoming the fourth service member linked to the violent attempt to thwart the certification of Joe Biden's election as president. Abram Markofski and an associate were arrested Monday in Wisconsin and each charged with four counts related to the Capitol breach, including violent entry or disorderly conduct and entering restricted spaces, according to the Justice Department.... At least 41 military veterans have been federally charged in the riot, according to court documents and service records...."
** Judge Says Bill Barr Lied, Spun & Deceived. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Washington accused the Justice Department under Attorney General William P. Barr of misleading her and Congress about advice he had received from top department officials on whether ... Donald J. Trump should have been charged with obstructing the Russia investigation and ordered that a related memo be released. Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the United States District Court in Washington said in a ruling late Monday that the Justice Department's obfuscation appeared to be part of a pattern in which top officials like Mr. Barr were untruthful to Congress and the public about the investigation.... 'The fact that he [Trump] would not be prosecuted was a given,' Judge Jackson wrote.... She also singled out Mr. Barr for how he had spun the investigation's findings in a letter summarizing the 448-page report before it was released, which allowed Mr. Trump to claim he had been exonerated.... Judge Jackson said that the government had until May 17 to decide whether it planned to appeal her ruling, a decision that will be made by a Justice Department run by Biden appointees." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here. Worth reading. Rachel Maddow covered the ruling in her opening segment Tuesday (embedded below). Maddow pointed out that seems mighty unlikely that the DOJ, "under new management," will appeal Jackson's decision. Marie: Barr's principal lie was that DOJ officials had advised him that Robert Mueller's team did not substantiate evidence that Trump had obstructed justice, so the DOJ could not prosecute. It occurs to me that there's no principle of stare decisis that runs from administration to administration, so there's no reason that Merrick Garland's DOJ couldn't reach a different -- and accurate -- conclusion that Trump committed prosecutable offenses. I doubt it, but maybe we yet shall see Donald in the dock. ~~~
Annals of Journalism, Ctd.
Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "'Washington Week,' a calm redoubt in the shouty battleground of political television, is most closely associated with its longtime moderator Gwen Ifill, the pioneering journalist who broke barriers as a Black woman in the Washington press corps. Before her death in 2016, Ms. Ifill also became a mentor to [Yamiche] Alcindor, the White House correspondent at 'PBS NewsHour.' Starting with the episode on Friday, Ms. Alcindor, 34, will take Ms. Ifill's old chair at the helm of 'Washington Week.' She succeeds Robert Costa, a reporter for The Washington Post who took over in 2017 and left the show this year."
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.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) See also story of Tennessee legislator linked below.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Zeke Miller & Jonathan Lemire of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a new vaccination goal to deliver at least one shot to 70% of adult Americans by July Fourth as he tackles the vexing problem of winning over the 'doubters' and those unmotivated to get inoculated. Demand for vaccines has dropped off markedly nationwide, with some states leaving more than half their available doses unordered. Aiming to make it easier to get shots, Biden called for states to make vaccines available on a walk-in basis and he will direct many pharmacies to do likewise." The Washington Post's story is 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Michael Balsamo of the AP: "Former New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver has been released from a federal prison on furlough while he awaits potential placement to home confinement, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. Silver, 77, began serving his more than six-year sentence at a prison in Otisville, New York, in August, after years of fending off going behind bars in a corruption case. He has been released to his home while awaiting a final decision on whether he can serve the rest of his sentence there in home confinement, the person said.... Silver, a Manhattan Democrat, was once one of the three most powerful state officials in New York. He was the Assembly's leader for more than two decades before his abrupt ouster in 2015 after the corruption allegations emerged."
Tennessee. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "The Three-Fifths Compromise, an agreement reached during the negotiations in 1787 to create the United States Constitution, found that, for the purposes of representation and taxation, only three-fifths of a state's enslaved people would be counted toward its total population. It is regarded as one of the most racist deals among the states during the country's founding. Yet in a speech in the Tennessee General Assembly on Tuesday, one representative ... Justin Lafferty, a Republican from Knoxville..., defended the compromise, arguing that it was 'a bitter, bitter pill' that was necessary to curtail the power of slaveholding states and that helped clear the way to ending slavery -- remarks that were rebuked by critics, including Black colleagues, as insulting and demeaning." ~~~
~~~ Marie: One would think that by now public figures would know that white-splaining the beauty of American history to people of color is never wise. Apparently not. Last week, a Louisiana state representative said teachers should be teaching "the good, the bad and the ugly" of slavery. The rep's surname is "Garafolo." I'm going to assume he's white.
Texas. Alexa Ura of the Texas Tribune: "With less than a month left in the legislative session ... HP, Microsoft, Unilever, Patagonia and two dozen other companies are urging state lawmakers not to pass new restrictions on voting. In the biggest pushback so far by business against the GOP's legislative bid to ratchet up the state's already restrictive voting rules, national companies joined in a statement voicing their opposition Tuesday with local businesses and several local chambers of commerce representing LGBTQ, Hispanic and Black members of the business community.... The statement does not address specific legislation, but comes as Texas Republicans press forward with bills in the name of 'election integrity' despite little to no evidence of widespread fraud and warnings from voting rights advocates and lawyers that many of them would be disproportionately harmful to voters of color."
Way Beyond
Afghanistan. No Surprise. Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "U.S. intelligence agencies are warning that any gains in women's rights in Afghanistan made in the last two decades will be at risk after U.S. troops withdraw later this year. An unclassified report released Tuesday by the Director of National Intelligence says the Taliban remain 'broadly consistent in its restrictive approach to women's rights and would roll back much of the past two decades' progress if the group regained national power.'"
Israel. The Great Pumpkin. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel failed to form a new government by the midnight Tuesday deadline, putting his political future in jeopardy as he stands trial on corruption charges and prolonging a political deadlock that has only worsened after four elections in two years. Israel's president, Reuven Rivlin, may now give a rival, eclectic camp of anti-Netanyahu parties a chance to form a government, which could oust Mr. Netanyahu from power after 12 consecutive years in office."
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Reader Comments (11)
We gots the guy who gave us the Willies and Barr none, he is going down that road of recrimination full stop. Bastard!
And another––the "Green Eggs and Ham" Ham has been pilloried good and proper in this video done expertly by the Daily Show:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/ted-cruz-daily-show-life-and-times_n_60927209e4b05af50dc9bf9e
Unwashed (from yesterday): Thanks for letting me start my day with Albert and Stevie Ray.
Imagine if we could say, "Rick who"? Fecal does as fecal is. It gets on our shoe and is an annoyance. For a no body, defeated, former senator, he played the media game perfectly.
Time to wave a 2-3 week goodbye.
Will be off the net until later in May.
Will trust you will keep yourselves and the country in fettle fine enough until I am able to check back in.
And isn't it Rose in MI who has a birthday looming? Have a happy one-with friends.
Thomas Edsall's essay heading"Why Trump Still has Millions of Americans in his Grip" spells out the many reasons for which most of us here understand but this essay goes further in discussing how automation –-A.I. technology, if continued at this fast pace–-will likely create social upheaval. Worth a read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/05/opinion/trump-automation-artificial-intelligence.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Whoops! almost forgot to wish you, Ken, a safe journey wherever you're going––you will be missed!
Facebook ostensibly has a policy of disallowing violent rhetoric, although its application of this policy has been likened to trying to repair a nuclear reactor failure with duct tape and bailing wire.
Trump has demonstrated time and again that he cannot and will not refrain from dangerous, self serving violent rhetoric, or from direct incitement to violent action, going back to his first campaign during which he told an audience of whipped up droolers that he would like to punch out a person in the crowd who expressed disdain for his fascistic speech. At other times he promised to pay the legal bills of any who would physicslly assault hecklers. He, at a crucial moment in the campaign, opined that his opponent, Hillary Clinton, needed to be murdered, and he infamously set loose the dogs of hatred to storm the Capitol to violently aid in his illegal efforts to maintain his grasp on power.
He will not change. He has neither the wish nor the capacity for change. So when I read that the issue of his ban must be revisited, it strikes me as another win for confederate threats and harassment.
In this case, as a sitting judge might say upon considering a just sentence, the defendant has shown not a scintilla of remorse, and if allowed to “go free”, will surely repeat his prior bad acts. A lifetime sentence is more than warranted.
Ken,
Travel well, stay safe, and avoid the idiots whenever possible.
Stay safe and have fun, Ken.
PD: AI is everywhere including facial recognition, and from CEN.ACS.org 3.29.21: "IBM's RoboRXN for Chemistry combines AI algorithms, commercially available robotics, and cloud computing". There are food sensory analysis companies who will try to sell you an AI package to eliminate human test subjects in food trials. There is algorithmic hiring in HR for employees. As they say garbage in, garbage out. Youthful tech-savvy people may be conversant with AI, but they don't necessarily ask the right questions. For example, in your self driving car does the AI software protect the driver/owner of the car preferentially to the child crossing the street ahead of it? The child, after all, didn't buy the car. My Republican friends all assure me that is not the case. I'm reminded of the Utah folks who were downwind of the Nevada nuclear tests. Trust me. AI is little different. Any industrial process software can be hacked. Ask the Iranian nuclear centrifuge operators.
@Akhilleus: The argument against allowing Trump on social media should extend further, IMO, than whatever they deem to be violations of their "violent rhetoric" prohibition.
Two days ago, Trump said in a statement, "The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!" There is nothing inherently violent in that statement. It's an opinion about how to label the 2020 presidential election. There's no call for violence, no call for protests, no nothing, other than an ironic inversion of meaning, one of Trump's favorite rhetorical tricks.
But perpetuating the REAL Big Lie -- as Trump did Monday -- is in itself an incitement to violence and other forms of civil unrest -- lawful & unlawful -- because it keeps up the pressure on the millions of Trump's dimwitted followers, including those of the most rabid variety, to DO SOMETHING.
Unless Trump can consistently tell the truth for a year -- something that will never happen -- no media outlet, social or otherwise, should give him a platform. He has proved to be too dangerous.
"Accused war criminal [Eddie Gallagher] pardoned by Trump admits killing unarmed combatant: 'Nobody at that time had a problem with it'"
"The grain of truth in the whole thing is that that ISIS fighter was killed by us, and that nobody at that time had a problem with it," he said. "We killed that guy. Our intention was to kill him. Everybody was on board."
Andrea Mitchell is in Ukraine and had an interview with a FMR. Advisor to Zelensky who says Giuliani wanted a smear campaign against Biden plus gave inside dirt on what went down. We'll hear more about this tonight, I imagine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yea7J435-n0