;)
The Commentariat -- October 12, 2020
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A deeply divided Senate Judiciary Committee will kick off four days of contentious confirmation hearings on Monday for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, President Trump's nominee for the Supreme Court, drawing battle lines that could reverberate through the election.... Monday's hearing will begin at 9 a.m., and is expected to take most of the day as each member of the Judiciary Committee gets 10 minutes to deliver an opening statement. Judge Barrett will be the last to speak, and is expected to give a short, mostly biographical statement before taking questions later in the week." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm certain not to watch, but I'll link stories related to the proceedings. Also, how surprising that Trump didn't postpone the hearings so everyone could celebrate Indigenous Heritage Day. Why, he might even have invited Sen. Pocahontas to the White House for the corona cocktail hour to show that he had heh-heh buried the hatchet. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates of the hearing Monday are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. CNN's live updates are here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So here's the only part of the hearing I watched. Judge Amy looks very mean:
~~~ Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "More than a dozen protesters calling on senators to reject the confirmation of ... Judge Amy Coney Barrett were arrested Monday moments before the first day of Senate Judiciary Committee hearings began.... The public was not allowed to watch the hearings in person because of the coronavirus pandemic. Demonstrators instead took their dissent to the entrances of Senate office buildings and the marble steps of the Supreme Court. About 8:45 a.m., anti-Barrett protesters were handcuffed and removed from the doorway of the Dirksen Senate Office Building, where a sit-in was underway. They carried signs and wore cloth face masks bearing the likeness of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.... Across the street, conservative women cheered as they held up signs that said 'confirm Amy' and 'women for Amy.' The group, dotted with maskless students and women holding their children, chanted 'law and order' from behind a police line as officers lifted protesters to their feet, one at a time. For hours, competing chants of 'let the people decide' and 'fill that seat' filled the cold, wet air outside government buildings. Tense debates broke out among members of the two groups as others resorted to shouting."
Presidential Race, Etc.
Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "When President Trump ... welcomed hundreds of people on Saturday to what resembled a campaign rally on the White House grounds, the guests filed onto the South Lawn past a military band in resplendent red, its horns blasting the tune 'America' from 'West Side Story.' The use of the United States Marine Band for a de facto political rally, where guests donned 'Make America Great Again' hats and 'Blexit' T-shirts -- backing a movement that urges Black Americans to exit the Democratic Party -- marked another instance of the president pushing the boundaries of U.S. law and the military tradition of political neutrality.... Federal regulations bar the use of government resources for, and the coercion of federal employees into, political activities aimed at a candidate's reelection -- and taxpayer-funded military bands cannot be used for campaign events. Members of the U.S. military are prohibited from wearing military uniforms at political campaign events.... 'The United States Marine Band provided musical support for the Peaceful Protest for Law and Order event, an official event on the South Lawn of the White House,' Capt. Joseph Butterfield, a spokesman for the Marine Corps, said in a statement." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Pushing the boundaries"? How about "stepping way over the line"? ~~~
~~~ Rachel Scott & Will Steakin of ABC News: "Some guests for Saturday's White House event on the South Lawn, which [was] President Donald Trump's first since testing positive for the coronavirus, had their travel and lodging paid for by controversial conservative activist Candace Owens' group BLEXIT, according to emails obtained by ABC News." --s
Kaitlin Collins of CNN: "The Trump campaign released [a] new ad last week after the President was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center following treatment for Covid-19. The 30-second ad, which is airing in Michigan, touts Trump's personal experience with the virus and uses a quote from [Dr. Anthony] Fauci in an attempt to make it appear as if he is praising Trump's response.... Fauci did not consent to being featured in .. [the] advertisement.... Instead, the nation's leading infectious disease expert told CNN his words were taken out of context. 'In my nearly five decades of public service, I have never publicly endorsed any political candidate. The comments attributed to me without my permission in the GOP campaign ad were taken out of context from a broad statement I made months ago about the efforts of federal public health officials,' Fauci said in a statement provided exclusively to CNN when asked if he agreed to be featured in the ad." ~~~
~~~ Kelly O'Donnell of NBC News: "In the ad, a clip of Fauci plays in which the infectious disease expert says he 'can't imagine that anybody could be doing more.' That comment, however, came from a March interview Fauci conducted with Fox News in which the expert is speaking about the whole of government response, not specifically Trump's efforts.... Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh told NBC News that they will continue to run the ad despite Fauci's objections." Mrs. McC: I suppose at some time between 2009 & 2016, Joe Biden said, "The President did a great job." Expect that to end up in a Trump campaign ad touting Trump. ~~~
~~~ Fadel Allassan of Axios: "The White House refused to allow Anthony Fauci or any of the medical experts on the coronavirus task force to appear on ABC's 'This Week,' host Jon Karl said Sunday.... President Trump has previously faced criticism for silencing Fauci, and White House officials have refused to answer basic questions about President Trump's COVID test results, as it scrambles to respond to an outbreak within its own ranks."
... when Joe Biden was vice president, we had an opportunity to save Kayla Mueller. It breaks my heart to reflect on it, but the military came into the Oval Office, presented a plan. They said they knew where Kayla was. Baghdadi had held her for 18 months, abused her mercilessly before they killed her. But when Joe Biden was vice president, they hesitated for a month. And when armed forces finally went in, it was clear she'd been moved two days earlier. -- Vice President Pence, in remarks during his debate with Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), October 7
There is no evidence that the military presented the plan to the 'Oval Office' and no action was taken by Obama for a month. Moreover, Pence ignored the most detailed report on the rescue mission, which states that Obama approved the plan as soon as it was presented to him in the Situation Room.... Whatever delays took place appear to have happened before Obama learned of the proposed rescue. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post
South Carolina Senate Race. James Arkin of Politico: "South Carolina Democrat Jaime Harrison raised a staggering $57 million in the third quarter of this year, shattering the previous record for a Senate candidate as he seeks to unseat GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham. The haul only increases Harrison's massive financial advantage over Graham, who is seeking a fourth term in the Senate and facing the most competitive reelection race of his career."
California. Look Who's Stealing the Election. Alicia Robinson & Brooke Staggs of the Orange County Register: "The California Secretary of State has received reports in recent days about possible unauthorized ballot drop boxes in Fresno, Los Angeles and Orange counties.... Reports place such boxes at local political party offices, candidate headquarters and churches.... Reports came out Saturday night about a metal box in front of Freedom's Way Baptist Church in Castaic that had a sign matching the one on the Orange County box. The church posted on social media that the box was 'approved and brought by the GOP.' The post said church officials don't have a key to the box and that GOP officials picks up the ballots.... On its website, the Fresno County Republican Party also shared a list of 'secure' ballot collection locations. None are official county drop box sites, with the local GOP instead listing its own headquarters, multiple gun shops and other local businesses." --s A Washington Post story is here.
Nate White, a British writer, explains in the London Daily News what the Brits don't like about Donald Trump. Here's a sample: "He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.... Rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws -- he would make a Trump." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Mrs. McC: Today we are all Brits.
Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post finds a way Trump is like Abraham Lincoln, after all: they probably both transmitted deadly diseases to their "body men." This is a terrific story; I recommend it to anyone who has a WashPo subscription.
David Sanger & William Broad of the New York Times: "President Trump's long rants and seemingly erratic behavior last week -- which some doctors believe might have been fueled by his use of dexamethasone, a steroid, to treat Covid-19-- renewed a long-simmering debate among national security experts about whether it is time to retire one of the early inventions of the Cold War: the unchecked authority of the president to launch nuclear weapons. Mr. Trump has publicly threatened the use of those weapons only once in his presidency, during his first collision with North Korea in 2017. But it was his decision not to invoke the 25th Amendment and turn control over to Vice President Mike Pence last week that has prompted concern inside and outside the government. Among those who have long argued for the need to rethink presidents' 'sole authority' powers are former Defense Secretary William J. Perry, considered the dean of American nuclear strategists, who has cited the fragility of a nuclear-weapons control chain and the fear that it can be subject to errors of judgment or failure to ask the right questions under the pressure of a warning of an incoming attack.... The 'sole authority' tradition is unusual among the world's nine nuclear powers; even Russia requires two out of three designated officials to sign off on a nuclear launch."
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Marshall Cohen, et al., of CNN: "While most of the nation was largely fixated over the past week on ... Donald Trump's coronavirus diagnosis, the President and his allies in right-wing media have been engrossed with something else entirely. Trump, with the help of outlets like Fox News, has been pushing a dishonest narrative in touting intelligence documents that his administration declassified last month on the eve of the first presidential debate. They claimed the information was a supposed smoking gun proving that Hillary Clinton and the Obama administration sought to frame Trump with a Russian collusion scandal. But when examined closely the documents indicate no such thing. In fact, by the Trump administration's own admission, they are based on unverified Russian intelligence that could be totally bogus. Which is to say that the President and Fox News personalities such as Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson are hyping and disseminating information that originates from a foreign adversary to bludgeon top Democratic officials."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.
Connor O'Brien of Politico: "Regeneron chief executive Leonard Schleifer on Sunday said ... Donald Trump's treatment with the company's experimental antibody cocktail is 'a case of one,'" but stressed ongoing clinical trials still need to show its efficacy. 'The president's case is a case of one, and that's what we call a case report, and it is evidence of what's happening, but it's kind of the weakest evidence that you can get,' Schleifer said in an interview on CBS' 'Face the Nation.'... 'The real evidence has to come about how good a drug is and what it will do on average has to come from these large clinical trials, these randomized clinical trials, which are the gold standard. And those are ongoing,' Schleifer said. 'We've got some preliminary evidence that we've talked with the FDA, and we're going for an emergency use authorization, because we think it's appropriate at this time.' Trump ... was treated with the experimental antibody drug and touted it as a 'cure.'"
Colorado. Bryan Pietsch & Christina Morales of the New York Times: "A private security guard hired by a Denver television news station was being held by the authorities in connection with a fatal shooting that happened on Saturday after opposing rallies between far-right and far-left activists. The guard, Matthew Dolloff, 30, was being investigated for first-degree murder, the Denver Police Department said on Twitter on Sunday. He was being held in the Denver County Jail, according to court records.... The security guard was contracted through the company Pinkerton, Mark A. Cornetta, president and general manager of 9News, said on Saturday.... Mr. Dolloff has never held the required license with Denver to work as a security guard, said Eric Escudero, a spokesman for the city and county licensing department. 'If he was operating as a security guard, he was in violation of the law, he said." The victim was identified as Lee Keltner; he owned a business in Brighton, Colorado.
Oregon. So-Called Liberals Are Idiots, Too. Shane Kavanaugh of the Oregonian: "A group of protesters toppled statues of former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and shattered the entrance to the Oregon Historical Society in Portland's South Park Blocks late Sunday before moving into other areas of downtown, smashing storefronts and engaging in other acts of destruction. Police declared the event a riot and ordered people rampaging through the city's streets to disperse but did not directly intervene until nearly an hour after the first statue fell. The crowd scattered when police cruisers flooded the area, and officers in tactical gear appeared to make several arrests. Protest organizers had promoted the event on social media as an 'Indigenous Peoples Day of Rage.'"
Pennsylvania. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Normally, state troopers accompany Pennsylvania's second lady whenever she leaves the house. But on Sunday, when Gisele Barreto Fetterman realized it was her last chance to get golden kiwis on sale at her neighborhood grocery store, she decided to run out for a few minutes on her own. While she waited in line, she said, a woman recognized her as the wife of Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) and began yelling insults at her, including racist slurs. 'She said, "There's that n-word that Fetterman married. You don't belong here. No one wants you here. You don't belong here,"' Fetterman, who was born in Brazil, said in an interview with The Washington Post. Upset and shaken, Fetterman managed to film the woman accosting her again outside her car. She posted a video of the abuse to Twitter Sunday night, along with a description of what happened." Fetterman also snapped a picture of the attacker's license plate.
** Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "One-fifth of the world's countries are at risk of their ecosystems collapsing because of the destruction of wildlife and their habitats, according to an analysis by the insurance firm Swiss Re..., one of the world's biggest reinsurers and a linchpin of the global insurance industry.... Natural 'services' such as food, clean water and air, and flood protection have already been damaged by human activity. More than half of global GDP -- $42tn (£32tn) -- depends on high-functioning biodiversity, according to the report, but the risk of tipping points is growing.... Among the G20 leading economies, South Africa and Australia were seen as being most at risk, with China 7th, the US 9th and the UK 16th." --s
News Lede
New York Times: "Two American economists, Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson, were awarded the Nobel in economic science on Monday for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats -- innovations that have had huge practical applications when it comes to allocating scarce resources. The pair, close collaborators who are both affiliated with Stanford University, have pioneered new auction formats that governments have since used to auction off radio frequency."
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Reader Comments (24)
There they go again...
Reminiscent of the tone deaf, culturally ignorant smugness of the Reagan campaign’s use, back in the 80’s, of Bruce Springsteen’s song “Born in the USA” (a song about the hardships of working class Americans, always doing the dirty work and getting the shit end of the stick, rather than a whitey-white paean to American/Republican greatness), Fatty’s current campaign to steal another election uses the song “America” from “West Side Story” to try to demonstrate his ‘mericaness. Or something. Are these people really this stupid? (Don’t bother; rhetorical question.)
“America” (one of my all-time favorite musical numbers), compares life for white people in America with recently arrived Hispanic residents from Puerto Rico, acknowledging that even though life might be better on the mainland, “Nobody knows in America, Puerto Rico’s in America”. Especially the racist-in-chief.
Moreover, the overarching theme of “West Side Story” is the need for racial equity and tolerance, concepts as far removed from Fatty and his minions as truth and justice for all.
Furthermore, in their original premise for the play, the creative team of Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerry Robbins, the white American gang, the Jets, were mostly second generation Polish kids, so—like everyone else in this country except indigenous peoples—immigrants, just like the Puerto Rican members of the rival gang, the Sharks. I suppose, technically, even indigenous peoples were immigrants as well, but having been on this continent for 15,000 or 20,000 years or so, they get a pass.
And to make the use of this song by ignorant, racist bigots, even funnier, the creators of “West Side Story” were all gay.
One other bit of historical trivia makes the co-opting of this song by bigoted bastards even more ironic. “West Side Story” opened on Broadway in the early fall of 1957, a week or so after the forced desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, and, because of its theme of racial tolerance and inclusion, became inextricably linked at the time with the upheaval of racial integration, an early version of Black Lives Matter, one of the Trumpbots’ favorite hate targets.
So thanks, Fatty, you idiot. Maybe at your next rally one of your sharp campaign apparatchiks will suggest you use NWA’s “Fuck Tha Police”.
Oh yeah, Donnie. You hip.
Covid Man is yelping about a “cure” for the novel coronavirus.
Sorry, Donnie. Not so fast.
As made clear in the story on Regeneron (linked above), no one has any real idea what exactly worked in this case. A guest on NPR’s Science Friday (love that show) pointed out that because no one at Walter Reed wanted fat boy to kick on their watch, they pumped him full of all kinds of shit, hoping something would work. Apparently, something did (is it mean of me to say “Damn!”?), but no one knows what. Plus, Regeneron is made with a combination of stem cells and antibodies from recovered covid patients. It ain’t easy to whip up. And it’s expensive, so it ain’t gonna be showing up next to the ibuprofen at CVS any time soon.
But that won’t stop Fatty from beating his chest and bragging about how he “beat covid” and has a cure ready to be shipped out in days, just in time for the election.
Relapse! C’mon, relapse!
As the Amy Coney Barrett farce moves into the phase where a hyper partisan Trump pick (all by itself, that should be the ultimate disqualifier), inches closer to a lifetime of legal decisions controlling life in a highly diverse secular nation based primarily on religious beliefs, it bears reminding that her official coming out party, as it were, was ground zero for the spreading of a deadly virus.
Omen?
I was wondering when the miscreants were going to start putting out fake ballot boxes. Now we know.
@Akhilleus: The worst task in any Republican campaign must be to have to choose a popular song as the candidate's "theme song." The fact is that most popular music promotes the antithesis of Republicanism. Popular music is -- and is meant to be -- revolutionary, outside the box. My suggestion to the next guy who has to pick a theme song: look through the country & Western racks; there might be something there. P.S. Flip on by the Woody Guthrie & Johnny Cash sections. I would have been right pleased if Trump had chosen the one genuine country/folk song that anyone wrote about the Trump family: Woody Guthrie's "Old Man Trump." Trump for some reason has not chosen this particular song, so I'd suggest the Biden campaign acquire permission to play it, as Donald himself was an active participant in Old Man Trump's cruel racist rental policies.
Maybe Thomas Frank needs to write a new book titled "What's the Matter With Pennsylvania" after seeing this NYT's piece yesterday: ( https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/11/us/politics/trump-white-base-pennsylvania.html )
"Olyphant was once “solid blue,” Mr. Mitchko said. “But it’s definitely cracked now.” Across the street, his neighbor, who said he had recently switched to become a Republican, was packing his truck for a cornhole tournament and bringing along his four-by-eight-foot Trump sign."
“Trump — I don’t know how he did it,” Mr. Yudichak said. “He was able to connect and sincerely make people believe here in Luzerne County that he valued them.”
Valued them? Say what?
Just two excerpts, but there's more! Last week a 'friend' from Scranton called. I thought I could ask her the question, "Exactly why do you like Trump?" without blowing up. Her answers seemed spewed directly from the mouth of Sean Hannity (she watches FOX all the time because she cares about politics).
I was so pissed, I hung up on her.
P.S. Anyone know what a cornhole tournament is?
Thanks in advance for your agreeing to post written material about the "hearings" for Amy Barrett. I won't be watching either-- listening to turncoat trumplicker Lindsey's opener on the electric radio machine over the roar of the shower water was enough for me-- I don't see why any of us should listen to their made-up crap about freedumbs. I wish the Dems would simply refuse to show up.
Marie,
A capital idea.
"Old Man Trump" is the perfect theme song for his racist, grasping, clutching, wheezing, racist pig of a son.
Other good choices would be CCR's "Fortunate Son" (ain't that the truth?), or Green Day's "American Idiot" written about the last confederate idiot in the White House.
But my choice would be Dylan's "The Time's They Are A-Changin'"
Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don't stand in the doorway
Don't block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin'
Will soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin'
I'll bet my Captain Midnight decoder ring that Fatty would think these lyrics are all about how his swamp is changin' the times, and it has, but in all the wrong ways, comme d'habitude.
I suppose the best thing would be for some enterprising soul to hack into the Fatty campaign song list and insert Country Joe and the Fish's "Fish Cheer", which all fans of the "Woodstock" movie and album remember vividly.
Well, it hasn't been long since the Amy Coney Barrett farce has kicked off its victory celebration (Hoooray! back alley abortions are back! Christian extremists control your bodies, ladies!) and I have a question.
Has she perjured herself yet? I mean, this is a staple of confederate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Injustices. "Blah, blah, blah, yeah, yeah, I promise not to bring preconceived ideas to my decisions on the court, blah, blah...I promise to blah, blah, blah..."
All lies.
MAG,
Sooo....cornhole, eh?
When I first moved down to TrumpLand (it was BushLand back then), I would drive by bars with signs out front advertising "Cornhole Tonight!"
Ooooh-kaaaay, Cornhole tonight? Jeez. Really? How does that work?
After a tentative question about what this was all about, I discovered that cornhole (this kind) is a game using an inclined board with holes in it, through which players attempt to toss beanbags.
Not nearly as, um, interesting as I first thought.
And please explain to me what in the holy hell is this Blexit bullshit? Are there really African-Americans manning the barricades for Trump? Isn't this a little like going to bat for the plantation overseer who stops whipping your kids long enough to give you a thumbs up and promises an extra spoonful of cold gruel for supper?
Jesus.
Ak: I think we both may have slightly dirty minds, re: cornhole.
@Ak: Not sure about this, but I sort remembered a reference to cornholes as having to do with outdoor toilets (I grew up near Pa. Dutch country) ...possibly that's where the 'board with the hole' came from!
@Forest: is that dirty?
@MAG, the word cornhole can be used as a noun and a verb.
MAG,
Don’t know about the origins of the game, but the type cornholing I first thought of (and Forrest as well, apparently) has, um, slightly more, um, energetic(?) overtones. That’s about the best I can do.
Ak, Forest, & unwashed. Like y'all, I have shaken my head in amazement at the popular use of a term that was obscene in my younger days.
All cornholing aside, the Trumpbot MAG refers to from Luzerne County, PA, mentioned in the Times piece, wonders how Trump did it. How was he able to connect so strongly with his type? Well, Mr. Cornhole-Giant-Trump-Sign, he’s a CON MAN!! That’s what he does.
How do Penn and Teller saw a lady in half? They’re not sorcerers, they’re magicians. Entertainers! But Trump is something magicians are not. He’s a malicious liar. And he viscerally hates people like this guy. He wouldn’t stop long enough to piss on Mr. Cornhole if he, his cornhole board, and his Trump sign were roasting in a bonfire.
In a very real way, Trump has cornholed Mr. Cornhole, and all his fellow Trumpers.
Here’s what this process looks like to the Trump monkeys.
https://youtu.be/spMkaJp975s
Amazing! How does he do it? Have a banana, Cornhole.
Words?
The delicious Nate White piece linked above also puzzled this American, who was sure he was misunderstanding the last line.
He was.
Had to look up "twat," since it sure meant something other than "twit" (the British meaning) to me.
And I remember my shock at hearing my father say "cornhole."
No misunderstanding there. He meant it the dirty way, and I'm guessing the game's name is a deliberate, adolescent (wink, wink) referece to that meaning.
Don't know about cornhole and outhouses, but do know dried cobs were used in them as TP substitutes, when a Sears catalog wasn't available.
Just had a friend send some video of early voting in Georgia. Those lines are impressive! Florida doesn't start until next Monday, but I hope folks turn out like Georgia.
Another name for the cornhole game is "sack toss," which isn't a lot better. But the name cornhole has to have come from its salacious meaning, because there's no actual corn involved. The vegie is beans.
The difference between Penn & Teller v. Trump is that when Penn & Teller perform, the audience (of adults anyway) is in on the joke. P&T are "amazing" the audience with their sleights of hand, but they aren't trying to fool the audience into thinking they have magical powers. They are humorists, and everybody is having fun. Trump is purposely fooling the audience & his objective is to cheat them in some way. If it's not overpaying for cheap steaks & condos or taking a "university" course of zero value, then it's promising them things he has no intention to even try to deliver & he's fleecing those who are taxpayers to line his own pockets.
According to Wiki, there's another ACA. An organization of cornholers called the American Cornhole Association. It may be a 501(c)3 non-profit that promotes cornholing. Corn can be used instead beans, especially in Iowa where it's been a traditional pastime to play at hog castration how-downs.
My error... hoedowns...
501(c)3 cornholers.
Not gonna say “Now I’ve heard everything” (Age of Trump, and all that...), but it’s close.