The Commentariat -- October 26, 2020
Late Morning Update:
Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "... Donald Trump argued on Monday morning that it ought to be against the law for the news media to cover the pandemic ahead of the elections as the COVID-19 death toll in the U.S. surpasses 225,000. 'We have made tremendous progress with the China Virus, but the Fake News refuses to talk about it this close to the Election,' he tweeted. 'COVID, COVID, COVID is being used by them, in total coordination, in order to change our great early election numbers. Should be an election law violation!'... 'All you hear is COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID, COVID,' he complained [at a North Carolina rally]. 'That's all they put on, because they want to scare the hell out of everyone.' Meanwhile, the White House has admitted that it's given up on trying to contain the virus." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Telling the news media what they can & can't report of course is what dictators do. I'm not sure even some of the world's worst dictators are cracking down on reports of an international pandemic.
The New Yorker publishes an excerpt of President Barack Obama's memoir, this on the fight to pass an affordable healthcare bill into law. Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Tom McCarthy of the Guardian describes the excerpt: "The former president also speaks to the political divides that spawned Donald Trump and to the stakes of the election next week in which Obama's vice-president, Joe Biden, hopes to eject Trump from the White House."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "With the coronavirus spreading out of control in many parts of the United States and daily case counts setting records, health experts say it is only a matter of time before hospitals start to reach the breaking point. In some places, it is already happening. There are more than 41,000 Covid-19 patients hospitalized in the United States, a 40 percent rise in the past month. And unlike during the earlier months of the pandemic, more of those patients are being cared for not in metropolitan regions but in more sparsely populated parts of the country, where the medical infrastructure is less robust."
Democrats Ask Pence to Show a Little Common Decency. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Top Senate Democrats are urging Vice President Mike Pence to abandon plans to preside over Monday's vote to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court after several of his aides tested positive for the coronavirus. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and members of his leadership team sent a letter to Pence saying that in the wake of the recent coronavirus cases, presiding over the vote 'is not a risk worth taking.' 'Not only would your presence in the Senate Chamber tomorrow be a clear violation of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, it would also be a violation of common decency and courtesy. Your presence alone could be very dangerous to many people ... who must be physically present inside the U.S. Capitol for it to function,' the senators wrote to Pence.... Pence won't be needed to break a tie during the vote." ~~~
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The White House plans to host a swearing-in ceremony for Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett on Monday night following her expected confirmation, despite concerns that a gathering for her nomination in September was a super-spreader event for the coronavirus."
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "The president of Fox News and several of the network's top anchors have been advised to quarantine after being exposed to someone on a private flight who later tested positive for the coronavirus, two people with direct knowledge of the situation said on Sunday. The infected person was on a charter flight to New York from Nashville with a group of network executives, personalities and other staff members who attended the presidential debate on Thursday, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal network matters.... Those who were exposed include Jay Wallace, the president of Fox News Media; Bret Baier, the chief political anchor; Martha MacCallum, the anchor of Fox's 7 p.m. show, 'The Story'; and Dana Perino and Juan Williams, two hosts of 'The Five.'" This report is an item in Sunday's NYT Covid-19 updates.
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Presidential Race, Etc.
Norah O'Donnell of CBS News: "When we spoke with Joe Biden this past week in Wilmington, Delaware, the former vice president was ahead in the polls, but confronting a withering final assault from President Trump. As the presidential campaign enters its final full week, we also had questions for his running mate, California Senator Kamala Harris. In our conversation, Joe Biden discussed how much he'd be influenced by progressives within his own party, whether his proposed tax increases would hurt the economy, and how he views the current state of the race." Video & transcript of the interview included.
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "... Joe Biden has endured a long and bruising campaign, with repeated attacks on his policies, his family, his mental faculties -- and, often, sustained doubts even from those inside his own party.... But the circumstances of this campaign -- a pandemic and an economic collapse costing millions of jobs and making even the still-employed feel vulnerable -- have pushed the race in the direction of Biden's strong suits and against his deficits, shining a bright light on his empathy and sober experience and casting his flaws into the shadows. He has emerged with more Americans viewing him favorably now than at this time last year, the opposite of the usual trajectory of a campaign and far different from the circumstances that faced Hillary Clinton in 2016. He holds a national lead approaching double digits and narrower but stable leads in many battleground states. He enters the final stretch with far more money to spend than Trump as he reaches for the pinnacle of a political career, one that has eluded him twice before."
Fadel Allassan of Axios: "The New Hampshire Union Leader, the conservative-leaning Manchester-based newspaper, endorsed Joe Biden for president on Sunday.... It's the first time the paper has endorsed a Democrat for president in over 100 years, after it broke from more than a century of backing Republicans to endorse libertarian Gary Johnson over President Trump in 2016.... 'President Trump is not always 100 percent wrong, but he is 100 percent wrong for America,' the editorial reads." The Union-Leader editors' endorsement is here. It's lukewarm, but it's something.
Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "Joe Biden has outraised President Trump on the strength of some of the wealthiest and most educated ZIP codes in the United States, running up the fund-raising score in cities and suburbs so resoundingly that he collected more money than Mr. Trump on all but two days in the last two months, according to a New York Times analysis of $1.8 billion donated by 7.6 million people since April. The data reveals, for the first time, not only when Mr. Biden decisively overtook Mr. Trump in the money race -- it happened the day Senator Kamala Harris joined the ticket -- but also what corners of the country, geographically and demographically, powered his remarkable surge. The findings paint a portrait of two candidates who are, in many ways, financing their campaigns from two different Americas.... Under Mr. Trump, Republicans have hemorrhaged support from white voters with college degrees.... The fund-raising data suggests that erosion is not only harming the party's electoral prospects but also its economic bottom line."
Russian Election Interference-- Not Sure Whom This Helps. Andrew Osborn of Reuters: "Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Sunday that he saw nothing criminal in Hunter Biden's past business ties with Ukraine or Russia, marking out his disagreement with one of Donald Trump's attack lines in the U.S. presidential election. Putin was responding to comments made by Trump during televised debates with Democratic challenger Joe Biden ahead of the Nov. 3 election. Trump, who is trailing in opinion polls, has used the debates to make accusations that Biden and his son Hunter engaged in unethical practices in Ukraine. No evidence has been verified to support the allegations, and Joe Biden has called them false and discredited. Putin, who has praised Trump in the past for saying he wanted better ties with Moscow, has said Russia will work with any U.S. leader, while noting what he called Joe Biden's 'sharp anti-Russian rhetoric'.... In what may be seen by some analysts as an attempt to try to curry favour with the Biden camp, he took the time to knock down what he made clear he regarded as false allegations from Trump about the Bidens."
Lesley Stahl interviews Donald Trump & mike pence. Of the interview with Trump, she says, "We had prepared to talk about the many issues and questions facing the president, but in what has become an all-too-public dust-up, the conversation was cut short. It began politely, but ended regrettably, contentiously." Includes video & transcript of the interviews. Here's the part where Angry Baby whines & walks out:
~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: "... Donald Trump continued his dishonesty blitz in an interview with Lesley Stahl of '60 Minutes.' An edited version of the interview aired on CBS Sunday night. Trump released the full 38-minute interview on Facebook on Thursday, pre-empting the network because he said he was unhappy with Stahl's questioning. Despite Stahl's persistent efforts to challenge him, Trump made false or misleading claims about several topics on which he has been frequently deceptive in recent months -- most notably the coronavirus pandemic. We counted at least 16 false or misleading claims in the extended footage Trump posted, 10 of them pandemic-related." The article has a full list, including those that Trump made in the portions of the video "60 Minutes" cut.
Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The presidential campaign was roiled this weekend by a fresh outbreak of the novel coronavirus at the White House that infected at least five aides or advisers to Vice President Pence, a spread that President Trump's top staffer acknowledged Sunday he had tried to avoid disclosing to the public.... The new White House outbreak spotlighted the administration's failure to contain the pandemic as hospitalizations surge across much of the United States and daily new cases hit all-time highs. The outbreak around Pence, who chairs the White House's coronavirus task force, undermines the argument Trump has been making to voters that the country is 'rounding the turn,' as the president put it at a rally Sunday in New Hampshire. Further complicating Trump's campaign-trail pitch was an extraordinary admission Sunday from White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows that the administration had effectively given up on trying to slow the virus's spread. 'We're not going to control the pandemic,' Meadows said on CNN's 'State of the Union.' '"We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics and other mitigations.'... The vice president continued Sunday with his heavy travel schedule, flying to North Carolina for an evening rally in Kinston. He told aides that he was determined to keep up his appearances through the week despite his potential exposure, irrespective of guidelines, officials said." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although the CDC recommends 14 days of quarantine, the White House is arguing that pence can continue his schedule because he is an "essential worker." That does not mean that leading superspreaders is "essential." ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "... for voters, the new wave of infections at the White House just over a week before Election Day was a visceral reminder of the president's dismissive and erratic handling of the virus, even in one of the most secure spaces in the country.... Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... said Sunday that the statement by [Trump's Chief-of-Staff Mark Meadows was 'an acknowledgment of what President Trump's strategy has clearly been from the beginning of this crisis: to wave the white flag of defeat and hope that by ignoring it, the virus would simply go away. It hasn't, and it won't.'... As the leader of the White House virus task force, Mr. Pence has parroted the president's rosy outlook.... Over the past several months, Mr. Pence stood by as the White House sidelined Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the task force coordinator, and instead embraced Dr. Scott W. Atlas, a radiologist and senior fellow at Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution, who has advocated a largely hands-off approach by the federal government to stopping the pandemic.... [After five of Pence's aides tested positive, at least some with symptoms,] his spokesman would not say whether Mr. Pence was receiving some of the drugs Mr. Trump was given.... The decision to continue Mr. Pence's schedule risked making the outbreak in his ranks a bigger story than if he pulled back from the campaign trail." ~~~
~~~ Anita Kumar & Nancy Cook of Politico: "... Donald Trump is heading into the final nine days of the 2020 election with a new nationwide explosion in coronavirus cases and a second outbreak in the top ranks of his own White House -- all while he tries to sell an alternate reality to voters. Trump claims the U.S. is turning the corner on the pandemic, blames the media for being too focused on the coronavirus and blasts the Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, for trying to lock up the country.... Most polls show Trump lagging behind Biden in part because some Americans have lost confidence in the president's handling of the coronavirus, the most important issue to many voters."
The Washington Post's live election updates Sunday are here. They're free to nonsubscribers.
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Ben Smith of the New York Times writes a column that begins with the failed attempt of Trump allies -- including a White House lawyer -- to plant a damaging story about Joe & Hunter Biden in the Wall Street Journal in time for Trump to hype it at the last presidential debate. Smith goes on to assert that establishment media "gatekeepers" are back in control after years of allowing right-wing media -- and Trump himself -- to drive the news. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe. Since I scan -- but don't study -- a huge amount of media political reporting every day, I can tell you that my impression (and that's all it is -- an impression) is that major media outlets are just not that interested in slamming Joe Biden, but they have no qualms about pointing to the rich trove of bad -- and outright dangerous -- Trump behavior. I would guess this is not because Trump hurt their feelings by calling them fake news & not because Biden is the perfect candidate, but because they -- like all sensible Americans -- are terrified by what a second Trump term could do to destroy our fragile form of government. Anyway, if you have a NYT subscription, Smith's column is worth a read.
Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "In the final stretch of the 2020 campaign, right-leaning news sites with millions of readers have published dozens of false or misleading headlines and articles that effectively back unsubstantiated claims by President Trump and his allies that mail-in ballots threaten the integrity of the election. The Washington Examiner, Breitbart News, The Gateway Pundit and The Washington Times are among the sites that have posted articles with headlines giving weight to the conspiracy theory that voter fraud is rampant and could swing the election to the left, a theory that has been repeatedly debunked by data." Hsu provides examples of false stories, only some of which were corrected after the fake news had gone viral.
Neither Rhyme Nor Reason. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "At least nine times since April, the Supreme Court has issued rulings in election disputes. Or perhaps 'rulings' is too generous a word for those unsigned orders, which addressed matters as consequential as absentee voting during the pandemic in Alabama, South Carolina and Texas, and the potential disenfranchisement of hundreds of thousands of people with felony convictions in Florida. Most of the orders, issued on what scholars call the court's 'shadow docket,' did not bother to supply even a whisper of reasoning.... If the court is going to treat emergency applications with something like equal care, it might consider explaining what it is doing. Explaining, Judge Frank H. Easterbrook wrote in 2000, is what distinguishes judges from politicians. 'The political branches of government claim legitimacy by election, judges by reason,' he wrote. 'Any step that withdraws an element of the judicial process from public view makes the ensuing decision look more like fiat, which requires compelling justification.'"
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.
Santas Get the Sack. Daniel Politi of Slate: "The Department of Health and Human Services had planned to devote $250 million for an advertising campaign, part of which involved Santa Claus performers promoting COVID-19 vaccination, reports the Wall Street Journal. In exchange, they would get access to the vaccine before the general public. And not just Mr. Claus, performers playing Mrs. Claus and elves would also benefit from the scheme. Michael Caputo, an HHS assistant secretary who took a 60-day medical leave last month, was the one who thought up the plan. It has since been scrapped and the HHS spokesman denies that HHS Secretary Alex Azar had any idea that it was in the works. Rick Erwin, the head of the Fraternal Order of Real Bearded Santas, isn't happy with the news that had given Santa performers hope the holiday season wouldn't be completely lost due to the pandemic. Caputo had told Erwin the vaccine would likely be approved by mid-November and front-line workers would get it before Thanksgiving. 'If you and your colleagues are not essential workers, I don't know what is,' Caputo said in a call. Erwin recorded phone calls he had with Caputo and shared them with the Journal." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Since the vaccine is not likely to be given to children any time soon, the only purpose of using a child-friendly figure like Santa would be, I guess, to imply Santa Loves Trump. Hell, maybe they would have had Trump play Santa. He would only have had to change his make-up from the brownface he's favored lately (if you saw him at the last debate, you know what I mean) to something with a rosier glow. On the other hand, Anonymous has a reasonable theory explaining the purpose of the Santa's-Bag-Is-Full-of-Hypodermic-Needles project: "Maybe it was actually an attempt to neutralize Melania's recorded 'fuck Christmas' comment." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Speaking of child-centric holiday celebrations ... an AP item about Sunday evening's White House Halloween party for kids reports, "Guests older than 2 were required to wear face coverings and practice social distancing. The same went for all White House personnel working the event, while any staff giving out candy also wore gloves." But the story, at least @ 7 am ET, does not mention that the hosts, two ghouls named Don Dracula & Mean Monster Melanie, were not wearing masks. Fortunately, in the online version, there are photos.
Ruby Mellen of the Washington Post: "Italy became the latest European country to announce new restrictions to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus on Sunday as countries across the continent continue to report surging infections. France on Sunday announced more than 50,000 new infections, a new record for the fourth day running. Germany, widely lauded for its initial handling of the virus, reported a surge of its own. The number of coronavirus cases in Poland has doubled in less than three weeks. And Spain has also imposed new restrictions. The World Health Organization reported new daily case records worldwide three days in a row last week, with new infections reaching more than 465,000 on Saturday. Almost half of those cases were in the organization's Europe region. The United States set a new record Friday with more than 82,000 confirmed new infections."
** Julian Borger of the Guardian: "The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study. In a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey.... By contrast the Democratic party has changed little in its attachment to democratic norms, and in that regard has remained similar to centre-right and centre-left parties in western Europe. Their principal difference is the approach to the economy." --s
Trump's Gifts to Putin Diminish the U.S. & Strengthen Russia. Philip Rucker & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "Under President Trump, the United States has abandoned international climate and nuclear arms agreements. It has announced its withdrawal from the World Health Organization, questioned the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and antagonized stalwart allies like Germany. America's past presidents have long promoted democracy, human rights and the rule of law abroad, yet Trump instead has waged an assault on those values at home, where he has weakened institutions, shredded norms and declared without evidence that the upcoming election will be 'rigged.' America's moral authority also has been undercut by the devastatingly high death toll and wrenching economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with the racial reckoning that has convulsed the country. These highlights from Trump's nearly four years in office read like Vladimir Putin's wish list. Few countries have benefited more geopolitically from Trump's time in office than Russia."
Jonathan Swan & Alayna Treene of Axios: "If President Trump wins re-election, he'll move to immediately fire FBI Director Christopher Wray and also expects to replace CIA Director Gina Haspel and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, two people who've discussed these officials' fates with the president tell Axios.... The list of planned replacements is much longer, but these are Trump's priorities, starting with Wray.... A win, no matter the margin, will embolden Trump to ax anyone he sees as constraining him from enacting desired policies or going after perceived enemies. Trump last week signed an executive order that set off alarm bells as a means to politicize the civil service. An administration official said the order 'is a really big deal' that would make it easier for presidents to get rid of career government officials."
** "This Land is Their Land...". Emily Holden, et al. of the Guardian: "Under Donald Trump, the government has auctioned off millions of acres of public lands to the fossil fuel industry, the Guardian can reveal, in the most comprehensive accounting to date of how much public land the administration has handed over to oil and gas drillers over the past four years.... Trump has stacked the administration with former fossil-fuel lobbyists and conservative activists.... The Trump administration has leased 5.4m acres -- an area the size of New Jersey -- to oil and gas companies.... Drilling from the leases could result in the equivalent of 4.1bn metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.... The interior department has also leased 4.9m acres in the Gulf of Mexico to drillers.... Should Trump win another term, leasing may grow. A total of 50m acres are being made available to drillers in proposed plans for public lands." --s
Ben Parker, et al. of McSweeney's have a "Catalogue of Trump's Worst Cruelties, Corruptions and Crimes" throughout his time in office. --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Thank goodness the writers left room for more. Because there will be.
Marianne Lavelle of Inside Climate News: "[C]limate scientists are bracing for the potential disruption of NOAA's climate work with the appointment of two prominent climate science deniers and a former campaign official for President Donald Trump to top agency positions this fall. One of the new hires, David Legates, a University of Delaware geography and climatology professor who works closely with anti-climate action advocacy groups like the Heartland Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute, has been especially critical of the agency that he will now help run.... Legates maintains there is no scientific consensus on the environmental hazard of carbon dioxide emissions.... The hiring of Legates and others, only weeks before the election, comes just as NOAA is set to collaborate with more than a dozen other federal agencies on the next Congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment, due out in 2023." --s
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Democrats are holding an hours-long talk-a-thon to protest Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination. Democrats are vowing to hold the floor into Monday morning, as the Senate pulls an all-nighter ahead of a final vote to confirm Barrett to the Supreme Court.... Democrats are powerless to prevent Barrett's confirmation since every Republican senator except GOP Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) -- who doesn't believe a vote should take place before the election -- is expected to vote to confirm her on Monday. But Democrats are using the floor speeches, which they are highlighting on social media, to try to build awareness and rail against the decision by Republicans to move just days before the election to fill the vacancy created by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg."
Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A divisive drive to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court before Election Day wound on Sunday toward its expected end, as Senate Republicans overcame Democratic protests to limit debate and set up a final confirmation vote for Monday. Two Republicans, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, joined united Democrats in an attempt to filibuster President Trump's nominee to protest a decision they say should be left to the winner of the presidential election. But Republicans had the simple majority they needed to blow past them, setting up the vote to confirm Judge Barrett just eight days before the election and a month to the day after she was chosen. The tally was 51 to 48. Republicans were expected to win back Ms. Murkowski's vote on Monday, though not that of Ms. Collins." ~~~
~~~ Valerie Volcovici & Jessica Resnick-Ault of Reuters: "The addition of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, moving it further rightward, could have significant consequences for U.S. climate change policy and complicate the government's ability to regulate pollution, according to legal experts.... That ideological leaning could make the court even more favorable toward oil and gas interests and could come into play in environmental cases as the justices resolve disputes involving climate policy and Trump administration rollbacks of environmental regulations, experts said." --s ~~~
~~~ E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "The truly scandalous lack of institutional patriotism on the right has finally led many of the most sober liberals and moderates to ponder what they opposed even a month ago: The only genuinely practical and proper remedy to conservative court-packing is to undo its impact by enlarging the court.... I's not court enlargement that's radical. Balancing a stacked court is a necessary response to the right's radicalism and (apologies, Thomas Jefferson) to its long train of abuses. And conservatives are as hypocritical about court enlargement as they are about [Merrick] Garland and [Amy] Barrett: In 2016, Republicans expanded the state supreme courts of Georgia and Arizona to enhance their party's philosophical sway."
Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) intends to run for another term as House speaker, she said Sunday morning on CNN. Pelosi's commitment underscores Democrats' confidence that they will be able to retain their majority in the House after Election Day. She also called President Trump's debate-stage prediction that Republicans would retake the House majority 'delusional.'"
Frank Bajak of the AP: "Academics, journalists and First Amendment lawyers are rallying behind New York University researchers in a showdown with Facebook over its demand that they halt the collection of data showing who is being micro-targeted by political ads on the world's dominant social media platform. The researchers say the disputed tool is vital to understanding how Facebook has been used as a conduit for disinformation and manipulation. In an Oct. 16 letter to the researchers, a Facebook executive demanded they disable a special plug-in for Chrome and Firefox browsers that they have distributed to thousands of volunteers across the U.S. -- and delete the data obtained.... The tool is a key source of data on election interference and manipulation because it lets researchers see how some Facebook advertisers use data gathered by the company to profile citizens 'and send them misinformation about candidates and policies that are designed to influence or even suppress their vote,' Damon McCoy, an NYU professor involved in the project, said in a statement." --s
Rosanna Xia of the Los Angeles Times: "From 1947 to 1982, the nation's largest manufacturer of DDT [Montrose] ... was based in Los Angeles. An epic Superfund battle later exposed the company's disposal of toxic waster through sewage pipes that poured into the ocean -- but all the DDT that was barged out to sea drew comparatively little attention. Shipping logs show that every month in the years after World War II, thousands of barrels of acid sludge laced with this synthetic chemical were boated out to a site near Catalina and dumped into the deep ocean.... Mark Gold ... who is now Gov. Gavin Newsom's deputy secretary for coast and ocean policy, said he had heard stories of illegal dumping.... But there was no firsthand evidence in the 1990s, he said, nor a sense of whether it was five barrels, 10 or 20.... [Researchers have now found a graveyard of leaking barrels].... 'Nobody in their worst nightmares,' he said, 'ever thought there would be half a million barrels of DDT waste dumped into the ocean off of L.A. County's coast.'" --s Firewalled.
Elizabeth Dias & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis on Sunday namedWilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington, [D.C.,] a cardinal, elevating the first African-American to the Catholic church's highest governing body, a groundbreaking act in a year when demands for racial justice have consumed the country. The rise of Archbishop Gregory, who is also the first American named to the College of Cardinals since 2016, comes as debates over how to address the legacy of slavery and racism have extended to the Catholic church, which for centuries excluded African Americans from positions of power."
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Reader Comments (21)
I offer this Dionne column as proof that I don't detest all Catholics all the time.
The Pretender and previous Republican presidents have made it easy for me to choose at whom to aim my ire.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-high-cost-of-confirming-amy-coney-barrett/2020/10/24/8d5a236a-156f-11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html
Fatty as Santa Claus? That’s a good one. He’s certainly portly enough. But Santa has better hair. And I doubt Trump could even fake a reasonably believable merry laugh. His face would crack if he deviated from his characteristic smirk n snarl.
And say, didn’t this creep once make fun of a kid for believing in Santa? That would make for a sticky ontological problem: Fatty as Santa trying to convince kids that he didn’t actually exist.
But isn’t that a microcosm of this entire illegitimate and treasonous administration? One problem after the next, big, small, constitutional...and those are the self imposed problems over and above the normal problems facing any president. This asshole has no solutions, only problems on top of problems. And rather than just maintaining the problem status quo, he makes all problems worse.
So, stockings full of radioactive coal for all Americans. From Santa Fatty.
The half-pence is an “essential worker”? Since when? Nodding bobble head dolls are essential? Maybe as a presidential suppository he might be essential. But that might make campaign appearances a tad dodgy. What would a campaign speech made from up the Trumpy butthole sound like?
Yeah...guess I’ll jettison This line of inquiry.
A SHARP knife to a gun fight?
Once the idea of truly standing up to the brigands, traitors, misanthropes, and hypocritical hooligans that constitute the core confederate den of thieves has percolated through the Democratic ranks, you might see some usually staid and sober souls like E. J. Dionne espousing adding seats to the Supreme Court and filling them with responsible but reliable liberals in order to balance out the Trump rubber stamps. I say let’s add four New Democratic senate seats as well: Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Time to act. If we don’t, we may not get another chance to rescue the Republic and save democracy itself from the totalitarian right.
But let’s also not forget the howitzer and the flamethrower while heading off to the coming gun fight. Cook these bastards. Tired of this Mr. Nice Guy shit. They count on Democrats to play by the rules and act fairly while they cheat, steal, and set the rule book on fire.
If E. J. Dionne has come ‘round to this idea, then let’s not waste time. Time to make the minority party sing some minor key dirges, and pay for their crimes against humanity, decency, and the United States of America.
Also, while we’re at it, let’s add “Permanent Latrine Orderly” to the duties of the soon to be Senate minority leader.
Trump keeps yelling 'election Freud's and now his best bud Rudy is yelling 'erection fraud.' It's that Republican thing that what you saw isn't what happened, even if it's on tape.
@Forrest Morris: I'll admit I would have lost a bet where the question was, "Before Election Day, will you see the President*'s lawyer masturbating on camera?"
I would have done better answering this question: "Would you believe a salacious story about an opponent that was shopped around by a lawyer who was caught on camera masturbating?"
When I was in college, we girls passed around a likely-apocryphal story of a professor who tried to embarrass a student who was knitting in class by telling her, during a lecture, that knitting was a form of masturbation. The young woman replied, "Professor, when I knit, I knit. When I masturbate, I masturbate."
Well, there are stories about Rudy masturbating & stories about Rudy masturbating. Of course they all invoke the EEEWW! factor.
I hate spell check. Election Freud???? WTF.
A must watch -- John Oliver on Asylum:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtdU5RPDZqI
THE BULLY BABY BOY:
In his mind "tough questions" mean "gotcha questions" from that fake lady from 60 minutes and it's soooooo unfair! His team can parse this interview all sorts of ways but "truth be told"–- always said by someone who rarely tells it–– is that this thin skinned, dumpster Don cannot defend himself and when presented with facts simply ups and leaves like the "Be Best" bully on the block who runs and hides when faced with the fact that he has stolen another kid's best baseball mitt and intends to destroy it.
A pretty pathetic performance and as he gets up to leave Lesley has the grace to say, "Be careful" of the wiring that he had to step around, but maybe she meant otherwise.
safari's piece from Inside Climate News: So the U. of Delaware houses a professor –-who I presume teaches some element of science–- but is an anti-climate advocate? And Fatty wants to install him in a position along with all the other quacks that are running our agencies?
The Good Housecleaning that will have to take place once Biden becomes president will be unprecedented, she says hopefully.
Forrest,
Your spellcheck has been texting my auto correct, the sneaky little bastards. Editing on the phone is a challenge. But in a weird way, maybe your spellcheck is on to something, given the psychoses controlling the Orange Menace’s subconscious salaciousness and all too conscious stupidity. Alas, I’m not sure the Election Freud could help make sense of things. We would need Election Satan to properly parse the Trump criminality. But should Election Freud (Jesus, that almost came out as Erection Freud!) order a frontal, backal, sideal, and all-aroundal lobotomy for Fatty, I think it certainly couldn’t hurt.
I have to shut down any thoughts of republicans (my hands had written "tribulations" before I could stop them)or the election, and go back to tea. Much more soothing for my jagged nerves.
A strong of cuppa is my preferred brew now, to the point where I wanted that rather than pain killers when I fractured my tibial plateau.
But when I was a child, I was given "cambric" tea: 1/4 strong tea, 3/4 warm milk.
What made me a black tea addict though was afternoon tea at my great aunt's house. When I was in school I had to wait for my mother to come to her house to pick me up after school. She had a REAL tea, with the silver service, the samovar and the tiny sandwiches with no crusts. She knew I was too young for straight tea (Hu Kwa, of course); so she piled the bottom of my cup with sugar, maraschino cherries and sliced orange then added weak tea. Yum. Another addict created.
I listen to the black black news of nearly a quarter of a million deaths which mean nothing to the republican tribulators and can cope.
Marie,
Regarding Rudy the Crude, Rude, and Lewd and his (apocryphal?) chronic masturbation problem...
Reminds me of that story (apocryphal?) of Groucho Marx’s cigar quip. On his show “You Bet Your Life”, Groucho’s guest let on that she was the mother of 14 kids...
Groucho: “You have 14 children? Why do you have so many kids?”
Woman: “Because I love my husband”.
Groucho: “I love my cigar too, but I take it out of my mouth every once in a while.”
Rudy should take Trump’s ‘cigar’ out of his mouth once in a while. And that ain’t apocryphal.
@Forrest
Your computer probably meant "erection Freud" and "election fraud."
Both make sense to me.
More seriously, was thinking (and the very funny SNL skit yesterday about Pretender addiction had me nodding my head in agreement with one element of where I believe we are) how odd this week feels to me.
Regardless of the election's outcome, it's my sense that we've reached some kind of historical solstice, a time of standing still, waiting, when no news, no SCOTUS appointment, no admission of Covid surrender, no cooked up scandal or outrage, nothing, will disturb or interrupt the next eight days of breathless and quiet anticipation.
As I said to someone yesterday, I've voted. I've written my last allotted letter to the editor. My yard signs stand sentinel. Difficult as it was, I conversed with a couple of Pretender supporters (to no discerible effect, of course)>. I've done what I could.
"Finis" has been put to one era, and I and the nation await the next.
Victoria,
Your recounting of your cambric tea days made me wonder about the precambric era of tea (ba-dum-bum). But seriously, folks...
You’re probably lucky your great aunt wasn’t a fan of Catherine of Braganza, the daughter of the king of Portugal who, after her marriage to Charles II in 1662, initiated the mania for hoity-toity tea parties amongst the English elites. All very well until you read that her guests would sip their tea (cambric or not) out of tiny cups not much bigger than thimbles. Must have been strong tea! Me, I’ll stick with my blue mug decorated with a quote from Hollywood mogul Sam Goldwyn, who once proclaimed that “Coffee is not my cup of tea”.
Whatever gets you through these black days, have at it. Republicans are straining to turn the lights out on us. A cup of tea and a vote for Biden should suffice nicely to bring us out of the dark.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.pinterest.com/amp/pin/471822498434195998/
With the C-19 event that followed her nomination to the announcement of another gathering when she is confirmed, can we start to refer to A. C. Barrett as "Justice Superspreader"?
Hate the stories of who is going to be fired, because it means whoever has the job now is not terroristic or insane or stupid enough for Fatty. Also hate the stories of how our public lands are being destroyed by the selfsame energy people who are now whining about Joe in PA-- help help! Fracking is fabulous! Stop him from even speculating on its removal. This weekend there was news that the usual ice has not
formed yet in the Artic...maybe it never will.
Also hate the stories that Fatty is invading our shores in a couple of hours. I will be sheltering in place. There will be the usual frothing and screeching and wearing-of-the-red, and then, off he goes, in taxpayer-funded transport. What a pile of despicable detestables. Is that manure (Lancaster's habitual spring-fall scent--)or is it Air Force One?
@Bobby Lee: You mean Amy Covid Barrett?
Beautiful Mrs Bea, just beautiful!
She might really be a deep state plot. Maybe she can get Trump this time.
This one is worth liesurely mastication....while we wait.
BTW, early voting totals are now over 60,000.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/10/26/the-surprising-reason-were-fighting-over-the-supreme-court-and-how-to-fix-it-432448
Would it be silly to point out to the POTUS that news of questionable "crimes" by your political opponents in the week before an election is OK to report, but news of a pandemic that is killing a thousand people a day is not?
Yeah, it would. As it would be a waste to time and breath.
The one fake, the other real?
Does that make the Pretender a proponent of fake news, after all?
Artic should be Arctic...Getting stupider or more careless as this "administration" winds its weary way down the pike. Really "enjoying" the crap about Javanka. Whining about Times Square, then posting a totally insensitive anniversary greeting-- so sweet, ain't it?? So many people are NOT here to celebrate their anniversaries, and they could not care any less. You can't fix tone deafness/stupidity.