The Commentariat -- October 1, 2021

** Jonathan Weisman & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "President Biden's trillion-dollar bipartisan infrastructure plan suffered a significant setback late Thursday night when House Democratic leaders, short of support amid a liberal revolt, put off a planned vote on a crucial plank of their domestic agenda. Democratic leaders and supporters of the bill insisted the postponement was only a temporary setback. The infrastructure vote was rescheduled for Friday, giving them more time to reach agreement on an expansive climate change and social safety net bill that would bring liberals along.... Given the distance between the party's left flank and a few centrists on that larger bill, it was not clear when or even whether either would have the votes -- and whether Mr. Biden's economic agenda could be revived." The AP's story is here.

** Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Congress on Thursday approved a measure to fund the government into early December, staving off a shutdown that was set to occur after midnight. The votes in the House and Senate followed weeks of hand wringing between the two parties, after Democrats initially sought to move the measure along with another proposal to raise the country's debt ceiling. Senate Republicans blocked that effort, leaving the country's ability to borrow unresolved just 18 days before the next major fiscal deadline. The funding stopgap sustains federal agencies' existing spending until December 3, at which point Congress must adopt another short-term fix, called a continuing resolution, or pass a dozen appropriations bills that fund federal agencies through the 2022 fiscal year. The new measure also includes billions of dollars to assist in responding to two recent, deadly hurricanes that battered the Gulf Coast and Easter Seaboard, as well as other money to aid in resettling refugees arriving from Afghanistan. ~~~

~~~ [**] "Still unresolved is the fight over the debt ceiling, the statutory limit on U.S. borrowing. The cap allows the government to rack up debt to pay its bills. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has told Congress that her agency will run out of flexibility to avoid missing payments after October 18, at which point Washington would face the unprecedented threat of default unless Congress acts. House Democrats on Wednesday adopted a measure to raise the debt ceiling, but Senate ... Republicans have refused to raise the debt ceiling...." The AP's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

The new lede to Romm's report: "Congress on Thursday approved a measure to fund the government into early December, and President Biden signed the bill hours later, staving off a shutdown that was set to occur after midnight." ~~~

~~~ A Narrow Defeat of Trump's Xenophobic Lemmings. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The evenly divided Senate narrowly turned back a Republican amendment Thursday that sought to curtail assistance to Afghan refugees who were rapidly evacuated to the United States and that would have made it more difficult for them to obtain Real IDs. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) sought to attach the amendment to legislation to fund the government into early December, which is expected to pass later Thursday with bipartisan support. Cotton's amendment received 50 votes, one short of the number needed to succeed. The tally broke along partisan lines.... Cotton's amendment sought to cut off housing, food and medical aid, among other assistance, as of March 31, 2023, for Afghans who were granted parole to quickly enter the United States. Cotton also sought to delete language from the spending legislation that would allow recent Afghan refugees to get driver's licenses or identification cards without some documentation typically required.... Donald Trump [urged Republicans to vote against the underlying bill because] the provisions affecting Afghan refugees amounted to 'a major immigration rewrite' that would provide 'free welfare and government-issued IDs.'"

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is pressing ahead with her plan to stage a Thursday vote on the Senate-passed infrastructure bill, brushing aside threats from liberals vowing to sink the proposal and expressing confidence it will pass. 'We're on a path to win the vote,' Pelosi said. 'I don't want to even consider any options other than that.' Pelosi has promised moderate members of her caucus a Thursday vote on the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package, which passed the Senate with broad bipartisan support last month. (Also linked yesterday.)

Burgess Everett of Politico: "Joe Manchin proposed a deal to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer this summer to limit the total cost of Democrats' sweeping spending bill to $1.5 trillion, according to a copy of the agreement obtained by Politico. Manchin also suggested beginning debate no earlier than Oct. 1.... The one-page understanding is dated July 28, right before the Senate passed a bipartisan infrastructure bill that Manchin helped write and ahead of Senate passage of a budget setting up a spending bill as large as $3.5 trillion.... Both Manchin and Schumer signed the document. Schumer wrote a note saying that he 'will try to dissuade Joe on many of these.'... In a chaotic press conference on Capitol Hill after this story published, Manchin said the document cleared the way for August's action on his bipartisan infrastructure bill and the Senate budget."

Wednesday night, Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) threw some shade on Joe Machin &, especially, Kyrsten Sinema: ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Porter's "essential point is this: Public servants should feel a basic obligation to level with the voters who granted them the privilege of being their representatives. While more may be happening in private talks than we know, all signs are that Sinema's caginess is edging toward a level of deceptiveness that borders on betrayal of public duty.... Stressing that it's impossible to negotiate until centrists say what they want, Porter added: 'I was not elected to read the mind of Kyrsten Sinema. Thank goodness, because I have no idea what she's thinking.'... As the Times reports, Sinema and Manchin still won't 'enumerate the contours of a bill they could support.'"

The Brave Women of the House. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Representative Cori Bush, a Democrat from Missouri..., on Thursday ... told a House panel that she is also a rape survivor who had an abortion after she was attacked on a church trip when she was 17.... 'In the summer of 1994,' she declared, 'I was raped, I became pregnant and I chose to have an abortion.' With the right to abortion under threat after a major Supreme Court setback, Ms. Bush was one of three Democratic congresswomen who sat at a witness table to share their personal experiences with terminating a pregnancy. The hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform reflected a sharp cultural divide, with Republicans accusing Democrats of 'glorifying and normalizing' abortion, and Democrats making their point -- that abortion is a decision best left to women and their doctors -- in matter-of-fact terms. Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington, got an abortion when she was a young mother caring for a very sick child and struggling to recover from postpartum depression so severe that she considered suicide. Her doctor told her that carrying a second child to term would be extremely risky for both her and the baby.... Representative Barbara Lee, Democrat of California, was the first Black cheerleader in her high school ... when she got pregnant before abortion was legal in the United States. Her mother sent her to a friend in Texas, who took her for a 'back alley' abortion at a clinic in Mexico. 'A lot of girls and women in my generation didn't make it -- they died from unsafe abortions,' she said."

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "The Senate on Thursday confirmed Tracy Stone-Manning to be the director of the Bureau of Land Management in a party-line vote, amid intense opposition from Republicans over her involvement three decades ago with environmental activists who sabotaged an Idaho timber sale. She was confirmed by a 50-to-45 vote.... The vote ends a period of more than four years when the land management agency responsible for 245 million acres in the West had no confirmed director.... During the Trump administration, the agency pushed to increase oil and gas drilling on public lands, a major source of greenhouse gas emissions in the country." Read on for the supposed controversy surrounding an incident in which Stone-Manning was involved in 1989. Senate Republicans accused her of "collaborating with eco-terrorists," but it appears the opposite is true.

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "The Senate confirmed Rohit Chopra on Thursday to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in a 50-to-48 party-line vote that overcame objections from Republicans who said he would wield the bureau's sweeping powers to pursue an anti-business agenda. Mr. Chopra, 39, served most recently as a commissioner on the Federal Trade Commission, which he often criticized for what he viewed as a reluctance to crack down on violators. Facebook and Google were particular targets of his ire; citing 'the endless scandals involving large technology firms,' he called for much larger financial penalties and stiffer constraints. As President Biden's choice for director, Mr. Chopra will be returning to an agency he helped build.... To advance Mr. Chopra's nomination to the final vote, Vice President Kamala Harris broke a tie on a procedural vote."

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas issued broad new directives to immigration officers Thursday saying that the fact that someone is an undocumented immigrant 'should not alone be the basis' of a decision to detain and deport them from the United States. The Biden administration will continue to prioritize the arrest and deportation of immigrants who pose a threat to national security and public safety and those who recently crossed a border illegally into the United States, Mayorkas said in an interview. Mayorkas said Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers should not attempt to arrest and deport farmworkers, the elderly and others who were vulnerable to deportation under the Trump administration, which allowed agents to arrest anyone in the United States illegally. He also said agents should avoid detaining immigrants who land on their radar because they spoke out against 'unscrupulous' landlords or employers, or at public demonstrations. The new rules take effect Nov. 29." ~~~

~~~ Wait, Greg Abbott Has a Better Idea. Arelis Hernández, et al., of the Washington Post: "Deriding the Biden administration's border policy as a fruitless 'catch and release' strategy as illegal crossings soared, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott vowed this summer to 'start arresting everybody.' The federal government is in charge of immigration enforcement. But the state, said Abbott (R), could lock migrants up for trespassing. Now, the crackdown has overwhelmed the criminal justice system at Texas's southern border. Critics see a move to please the governor's conservative base that has created a whole new crisis without solving the first one. Hundreds of migrants have been detained in repurposed state prisons without formal charges, many in limbo for so long that they legally must be released. Prosecutors are backlogged with unprecedented caseloads as more arrests roll in each day. Alarmed defense attorneys accuse the state of creating a 'separate and unequal' legal system for undocumented immigrants deprived of due process." MB: Brilliant, Greggers.

** Jordan Libowitz & Lauren White of CREW: "Newly obtained recordings show US Park Police overwhelmed on January 6, hours before rioters attacked the Capitol, with insufficient resources and action taken to control the fray across the city. Seven hours of radio recordings from Park Police, obtained and reviewed by CREW, reveal a law enforcement agency inundated with risks before then-President Trump even gave his fateful speech, with thousands of unattended vehicles and bags, mobs of protestors at the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument and armed individuals.... USPP was unprepared for the threat of a riot, lacking manpower, plans and supplies, including radio batteries." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So how come, while this was going on at the center of the federal complex, no security personnel were calling out the troops to prevent What Happened Next? If you read the USPP communications CREW reports, you'll see they make even more suspect the DHS National Ops report that came out just before 1:40 pm ET January 6 stating that there "are no major incidents of illegal activity at this time." These people had access to seven hours of frantic police reports of "illegal activities" on the Mall. Pardon my conspiracy theorizing, but either Trump's DHS was alarmingly inept OR it looked the other way as part of a widespread scheme to aid Trump's plot to disrupt the Electoral College count & install his own Electors.

Sam Speaks: You People Are So Mean. Robert Barnes & Mike Berardino of the Washington Post: "Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. on Thursday defended the Supreme Court's actions in letting a controversial and restrictive Texas abortion law go into effect, and said criticism of the court's recent decisions in emergency cases was an attempt to intimidate the justices. In a speech at the University of Notre Dame, the veteran conservative justice lambasted the use of the term 'shadow docket' to describe the emergency applications that come before the court, a process in place for years but which has increased in frequency." Politico's story is here.

Sonia Speaks: You People Have the Power. Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "Days before the start of a tumultuous term, and after the Supreme Court justices divided bitterly over a Texas law that bars most abortions after six weeks, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned an audience of law students about the frustration of having to write dissents. 'There is going to be a lot of disappointment in the law, a huge amount,' she said Wednesday at an event hosted by the American Bar Association. 'Look at me, look at my dissents.' Earlier this month, Sotomayor penned a scathing opinion when the court's majority allowed the Texas law to go into effect, calling the action 'stunning.' 'You know, I can't change Texas' law,' Sotomayor said Wednesday, 'but you can and everyone else who may or may not like it can go out there and be lobbying forces in changing laws that you don't like.'"

Durham Revives "Lock Her Up." Evan Perez & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Special Counsel John Durham has issued a new set of subpoenas, including to a law firm with close ties to Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign, an indication that Durham could be trying to build a broader criminal case, according to people briefed on the matter. So far, Durham's two-year probe into the FBI's Russia investigation hasn't brought about the cases Republicans hoped it would." ~~~

~~~ Durham Spins a Yarn. Charlie Savage & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "John H. Durham ... indicted a cybersecurity lawyer this month on a single count of lying to the F.B.I. But Mr. Durham used a 27-page indictment to lay out a far more expansive tale, one in which four computer scientists who were not charged in the case 'exploited' their access to internet data to develop an explosive theory about cyberconnections in 2016 between Donald J. Trump&'s company and a Kremlin-linked bank -- a theory, he insinuated, they did not really believe.... Defense lawyers for the scientists say it is Mr. Durham's indictment that is misleading. Their clients, they say, believed their hypothesis was a plausible explanation for the odd data they had uncovered -- and still do.... The data remains [remain!] a mystery."

** Official Secret Murders. Tim Arango & Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: "Police killings in America have been undercounted by more than half over the past four decades, according to a new study that raises pointed questions about racial bias among medical examiners and highlights the lack of reliable national record keeping on what has become a major public health and civil rights issue. The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington and published on Thursday in The Lancet, a major British medical journal, amounts to one of the most comprehensive looks at the scope of police violence in America, and the disproportionate impact on Black people.... About 55 percent of fatal encounters with the police between 1980 and 2018 were listed as another cause of death. The findings reflect both the contentious role of medical examiners and coroners in obscuring the real extent of police violence, and the lack of centralized national data on an issue that has caused enormous upheaval. Private nonprofits and journalists have filled the gap by mining news reports and social media.... Black Americans were 3.5 times as likely to be killed by the police as white Americans were."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Covid-19 memorial on the National Mall. Time-lapse photo by firewalled National Geographic. Click on photo to see larger image.

Paul Duggan & Alex Horton of the Hill: "A group of lawsuit plaintiffs, including four Air Force officers and a Secret Service agent, have asked a federal court to block the Biden administration's coronavirus vaccination mandates, declaring, 'Americans have remained idle for far too long as our nation's elected officials continue to satisfy their voracious appetites for power.' The lawsuit, filed Sept. 23 in U.S. District Court in Washington, seeks an injunction that would halt vaccination requirements announced recently for millions of workers in federal executive-branch agencies, including contractors, as well as U.S. troops. Although people with legitimate religious or medical objections are exempt from the immunization policies, officials said, the 10 plaintiffs allege that the mandates, enacted by President Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, violate the First Amendment's guarantee of religious freedom and are prohibited by federal laws." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, it's pretty much a "voracious appetite for power" that drove Joe Biden to try to save the lives of people who probably voted against him and will again.

Lauren Weber of Kaiser Health News, published by NBC News: "Rural Americans are dying of Covid at more than twice the rate of their urban counterparts -- a divide that health experts say is likely to widen as access to medical care shrinks for a population that tends to be older, sicker, heavier, poorer and less vaccinated. While the initial surge of Covid-19 deaths skipped over much of rural America, where roughly 15 percent of Americans live, nonmetropolitan mortality rates quickly started to outpace those of metropolitan areas as the virus spread nationwide before vaccinations became available, according to data from the Rural Policy Research Institute."

Mandates Work. Shawn Hubler of the New York Times: "Until now, the biggest unknown about mandating Covid-19 vaccines in workplaces has been whether such requirements would lead to compliance or to significant departures by workers unwilling to get shots -- at a time when many places were already facing staffing shortages. So far, a number of early mandates show few indications of large-scale resistance.... Unlike other incentives -- 'prizes, perks, doughnuts, beer, we've seen just about everything offered to get people vaccinated' -- mandates are among the few levers that historically have been effective in increasing compliance, said Dr. [John] Swartzberg [of the University of California, Berkeley] who has tracked national efforts to increase rates of inoculation.... A number of the earliest mandates have been in places where vaccination rates were already relatively high, suggesting that their efficacy in other corners of the country remains somewhat untested."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

New York. George Joseph & Micah Loewinger of the Gothamist: "New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio's office said it will scrutinize NYPD ranks following a WNYC/Gothamist investigation of online records that appears to tie several New York law enforcement officers and public officials -- including at least two active members of the NYPD -- to a far-right, anti-government militia. The mayor's investigation comes after an anonymous hacker released what it claims are emails and membership data from the Oath Keepers, an extremist militia group that had a notable presence at the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.... The NYPD officers whose names matched information listed in the hacked records could not be confirmed as active members and so WNYC/Gothamist has chosen not to name them."

South Dakota. Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem (R) announced Thursday that she would stop working with former Trump adviser Corey Lewandowski after allegations surfaced that he had sexually harassed a donor at a dinner they both attended in Las Vegas. The actions follow a decision by ... Donald Trump, conveyed through a spokesman, to cut ties with Lewandowski, his 2016 campaign manager and the current head of a Trump-affiliated fundraising effort, after a donor accused Lewandowski of repeatedly groping her and making unwanted sexual comments at an event last weekend that Noem also attended. Charles Herbster, a Republican candidate for governor in Nebraska, also announced Thursday that he was asking Lewandowski to step back from his role as a senior adviser to the campaign." Politico's story is here. ~~~

    ~~~ Marie: Apparently it is not a good idea to get drunk & sexually harass a donor in front of witnesses, including his erstwhile girlfriend Noem (see yesterday's Commentariat for context). While there is nothing remotely humorous about alcoholism and sexual harassment, it does please me to see that horse's ass Lewindowski get his comeuppance.

Texas. Steve M. highlights a (firewalled) Houston Chronicle story about how the State of Texas' General Land Office (headed by Trumpy Commissioner George P. Bush) will distribute almost no Hurricane Harvey federal relief funds to Houston, where about half of the hurricane's devastation occurred. And "almost no" is an improvement over "no" funds to Houston, which was the Office's original plan. Georgie, BTW, falsely blamed the federal government for the iniquitous distribution plan. Steve wishes Houston & other liberal-leaning cities could secede from the red states in which they're stuck.

Way Beyond

France. Rick Noack of the Washington Post: "Former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was found guilty of having illegally financed his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign and sentenced to one year in prison that can be served at home with electronic monitoring, marking another defeat in court for the 66-year-old. Sarkozy was already convicted and sentenced to prison in a separate trial earlier this year. He appealed that earlier verdict, delaying it from taking effect, and his lawyer said Thursday that he would also appeal the second conviction. Given that short prison sentences in France can typically be waived, it remains unclear whether Sarkozy would have to spend any time incarcerated, even if both appeals were to be rejected."

News Lede

A Zeal of Zebras Roams the Maryland Burbs. New York Times: "A month after they escaped from a farm in Maryland, five zebras have evaded capture and are continuing to ramble across the wilds of suburban Prince George's County, eking out a living on territory far from the grasslands of East Africa. There has been no shortage of sightings."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

THE PROTESTING PIGGIES:

Joe Man--chiny chin chin and K. Sin---a lot's power plays will, I sincerely hope, see their houses destroyed by enough blowback by their constituents. At least the first named Piggy talks to reporters but the little lady piggy hides behind her smirky snark as she fills her coffers with green backs from backers who have her in their pocket. The stink in this playpen is enough to choke a fox.

Once again the character of Barley in "The Russia House" seems apt. when he says:

"One must think like a hero to behave like a decent human being."

We saw this on display yesterday when three congress women testified at the hearing on Abortion telling their stories about their own abortions. This takes courage.

RBG was a staunch advocate of access to abortion but an open critic of the reasoning behind Roe. She thought the rational should have centered on preventing sex discrimination rather than on preserving a right to privacy.

"My idea of how choice should have developed was not a privacy notion, not a doctor's right notion, but a woman's right to control her own destiny, to be able to make choices without a Big Brother state telling her what what she can and cannot do."

And as you read her statement what may pop up in your mind is the anti-vaxxer's rational, as diverse as it is, it has the same message. We see the difference; so many do not.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: The essential difference between Covid-19 vaccines & abortions re: maintenance of personal freedom is this. The community has an interest in making sure you are not carrying a communicable disease, when a safe antidote for it is available. We do have certain societal "rules" that may vary from community to community on this: for instance, people who have an active common cold seldom completely isolate themselves, tho as we found out last year, isolation does indeed cut down on the number people who get/ infectious diseases.

There is a community interest in abortion too -- at least legally. That's what the Supremes' Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling says. But that interest, according to Casey, doesn't start until "viability." And, generally speaking, there's no societal interest in keeping a woman pregnant as there is a community interest in keeping you vaccinated against communicable diseases.

[Patrick]

Hey, we're making progress.

Some USAF officers, Secret Service, and Foreign Service are suing the USG saying that vax mandates violate their constitutional rights.

Among other things, they write in complaint:

“Americans have remained idle for far too long as our nation’s elected officials continue to satisfy their voracious appetites for power.”

How is this progress? Well, over the past few years your tinfoil chapeauxed co-citizens have railed against the pushy depredations of UNELECTED bureaucrats; now they also can't take it from ELECTED officials. Maybe they still recognize sheriffs as tribunes of the people, but ... I don't. So there.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/vaccine-mandate-lawsuit-military/2021/09/30/b774fe36-2216-11ec-8200-5e3fd4c49f5e_story.html

ALL of these people in the past have been required to get vaccinations and take certain prophylactics (e.g. chloroquine against malaria if you are sent where it is endemic) at some point in their USG careers. Because ALL of these people must be worldwide-available unless medically exempted (which means that they have some condition which requires active management which cannot be handled in, say, Botswana. But they can probably work in London, where the medical system can provide.)

They are fortunate that their individual performance records, which bear on promotability, are not allowed to include reference to these kinds of grievances/lawsuits. These people are not very bright and really should not hold commissions. Really.