;)
The Commentariat -- Sept. 22, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Our Great International Embarrassment. Scott Neuman of NPR: "In a speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump once again sought to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and called on Beijing to be punished for its handling of the disease, which has killed nearly 1 million people worldwide -- a fifth of them in the United States. Trump, speaking in a video address from the White House to a sparsely occupied hall of mask-wearing delegates at U.N. headquarters in New York, referred to the disease as the 'China virus' and implied that Beijing and the World Health Organization had worked in tandem to cover up the danger of the pandemic.... Despite his own efforts to downplay the pandemic in its early days and criticism over his administration's slow response to combat it, the president defended the U.S. action on Tuesday, calling it 'the most aggressive mobilization since the Second World War.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm disappointed Trump didn't take the time to blame Spain for the "1917" "Spanish Flu," which "probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick." The influenza was first detected in Kansas in 1918. (How could anyone born in 1946 not know at least approximately the dates of WWII? Our childhoods were filled with it, from soldiers' tales to movies to "war games" we played.)
The Most Dangerous, Diabolical Lie of All. Helen Sullivan of the Guardian: "As the United States' coronavirus death toll edged closer to 200,000..., Donald Trump claimed falsely at a rally in Ohio that the country's fatality rate was 'among the lowest in the world' and that the virus has 'virtually' no effect on young people. Speaking in the town of Swanton, Trump said: 'It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems that's what it really affects, that's it,' he claimed. 'You know in some states, thousands of people -- nobody young.... Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools.'... In August, the World Health Organization warned that young people were becoming the primary drivers of the spread of coronavirus in many countries." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How innocent we were just three-and-a-half years ago when we could guffaw over Trump's ridiculous lies about the size of his inaugural crowd or the busloads of Massachusetts residents who sneaked into New Hampshire to vote for Hillary. Those lies of course did present a certain danger -- a danger that some Americans would lose touch with reality or would believe the presidential election was "rigged." And they did. But nobody died.
** Is It Nearly Time to Ditch Marbury v. Madison? Ryan Cooper of the Week presents a radical -- but not far-out -- idea: that "judicial review" is not Constitutional. Read it. I don't quite know what else could keep an out-of-control president* or Congress in line (though I have some ideas), but maybe it isn't Johnnie & the Dwarfs, after all. Food for thought.
Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled on Tuesday that he is open to confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year. 'My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of "fairness" which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent. The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party's nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own,' Romney said." This is a breaking news story. Mrs. McC: Not sure Romney got his history right, but I guess that doesn't really matter. If he's wrong about that, he'll come up with another thin rationale.
Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump is addressing the U.N. Before I could get to the teevee to turn him off, he was bragging about the great job the U.S. has done combatting the coronavirus. Since his audience consists of people, many of whom represent countries that have done way better than the U.S. in fighting the virus, I guess he thinks non-Americans are stupid.
** Ursula Perano of Axios: "Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has raised over $16 million to help felons pay outstanding fines and fees to regain their voting rights in Florida.... Bloomberg's fundraising, in addition to $5 million from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, has now paid off monetary obligations for 32,000 felons in Florida just before Election Day. Voters who were already registered to vote, Black or Latino, and had fines and fees of less than $1500 were eligible for the payback initiative."
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Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in state in the United States Capitol's Statuary Hall on Friday, an unusual honor for a Supreme Court Justice that has not been bestowed since the death of William Howard Taft, who served as chief justice from 1921 to 1930, after having served as president, and one that has never before been granted to a woman. Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the rare distinction on Monday after describing Justice Ginsburg's death last week as 'an incalculable loss for our democracy and for all who sacrifice and strive to build a better future for our children.' The formal ceremony at the Capitol will be open to invited guests only because of the pandemic, Ms. Pelosi's office said. Also out of the ordinary, Justice Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court for two days, on Wednesday and Thursday, and her coffin will be placed under the portico at the top of the building's front steps, a setup meant to allow for social distancing.... A private interment service will be held next week at Arlington National Cemetery, where Justice Ginsburg's husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, was buried in 2010." A Politico story is here.
Natasha Korecki of Politico: "As the Supreme Court debate raged in Washington, Joe Biden went to Wisconsin Monday and gave it nary a mention. Instead, the former vice president focused on Covid-19 and the economy. He highlighted the 200,000 deaths and counting on Trump's watch. 'I worry we risk becoming numb to the toll it's taken on us and our country and communities like this,' Biden said in a speech in Manitowoc, Wis., a small city in the Green Bay media market.... Biden criticized Trump for downplaying the virus, which the president admitted he did to Bob Woodward, before later arguing that he didn't want the country to panic. Actually, it was Trump who panicked, Biden charged: 'The virus was too big for him.' Biden's remarks came as the Badger State is seeing a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases, up 130 percent in the last two weeks, according to a New York Times database."
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump plans to announce his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, he said in an interview on 'Fox & Friends' Monday morning. 'I think it'll be on Friday or Saturday,' Trump said when asked when he would announce his decision, adding that he wanted to 'pay respect' to Ginsburg ... by waiting until after her funeral services. Trump also said that he had narrowed his list down to five potential nominees. Trump has already committed to choosing a woman to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Trump Suggests Ginburg's Granddaughter Is a Liar. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Asked about Ginsburg's dying wish, in which she reportedly said she doesn't want to be replaced until a new presidential is installed, Trump said, 'I don't know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second, okay, you know. It came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that that came out of the wind.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: According to Nina Totenberg of NPR, who is a long-time friend of Justice Ginsburg, "Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: 'My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'" (Also linked here Saturday.) So either Totenberg made up that story out of whole cloth about her friend of decades, or Ginsburg's own granddaughter did -- according to Trump. Trump is withholding his nomination to "pay respect" to Ginsburg? Right. He's just teasing his next show. ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Asked later why he believed the words attributed to Ginsburg might not have actually come from the justice, Trump told reporters her stated position 'was just too convenient.' 'It sounds to me like it would be somebody else. I don't believe -- it could be, it could be, and it might not be, too,' he said without elaborating." ~~~
~~~ Update. Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "This baseless claim appears to be a Trump original. Questions about the legitimacy of Justice Ginsburg's 'dying wish' were not circulating online in any significant way before his Fox News appearance. But after the appearance, social media has filled with false claims echoing Mr. Trump's conspiracy theory, and taking it even further into the land of nonsense.... In an appearance on MSNBC on Monday, Ms. Totenberg confirmed her account of Justice Ginsburg's statement, and said that others in the room at the time witnessed her making it, including her doctor. 'I checked,' Ms. Totenberg added, 'because I'm a reporter.' Mr. Schiff ... responded on Twitter, saying 'Mr. President, this is low. Even for you.'" ~~~
~~~ Update Update. Here's audio of Clara Spera, Justice Ginsberg's granddaughter, who holds a law degree, telling BBC News that her grandmother dictated the statement: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." Spera says she typed it into her computer.
Now we're counting on the federal court system to make it so that we can actually have an evening where we know who wins. Not where the votes are going to be counted a week later or two weeks later. -- Donald Trump, at a rally in North Carolina Saturday, articulating the quid pro quo he expects from judges he has appointed ~~~
~~~ ** Nina Golgowski of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump said he is 'counting on the federal court system' to ensure that the winner of the November presidential election is called just hours after the polls close, despite current rules across the country allowing ballots to be counted several days to weeks after the election.... Trump also shared his plans to nominate a new Supreme Court associate justice 'next week' to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat following her death on Friday." Mrs. McC: Trump boasts often of all the judges he has appointed, and now he's calling in a big chit. What Trump is saying here is that he expects judges -- in exchange for his giving them lifetime appointments -- to shut down legal vote counts in states where he has more votes than Biden shortly after the polls close.
Mrs. McCrabbie: Many news outlets have published stories examining the backgrounds & decisions of the judges on Trump's shortlist. I've avoided them, because there's little use learning too much about the views of judges who won't be nominated. But Khaleda Rahman of Newsweek has a story worth highlighting: "Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite to be ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee..., is affiliated with a type of Christian religious group that served as inspiration for Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Barrett, a devout Catholic, and her husband both belong to the People of Praise group, current and former members have said, according to The New York Times. Their fathers have served as leaders in the group. The charismatic Christian parachurch organization, which was founded in South Bend, Indiana in 1971, teaches that men have authority over their wives. Members swear a lifelong oath of loyalty to one another and are expected to donate at least 5 per cent of their earnings to the group. Members of People of Praise are assigned to personal advisers of the same sex -- called a 'head' for men and 'handmaid' for women, until the rise in popularity of Atwood's novel and the television series based on it forced a change in the latter."
Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to secure enough support on Monday to fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg without waiting for voters to decide whether to grant him a second term in what would be the fastest contested confirmation in modern history. As Mr. Trump promised to announce his choice for the seat by Friday or 'probably Saturday,' after memorial services for Justice Ginsburg, several key Senate Republicans threw their support behind a campaign-season dash to replace the liberal jurist by the election on Nov. 3 with a conservative who would shift the court's ideological center to the right for years to come. 'We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election,' Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a close Trump ally, said Monday night on Fox News. 'We're going to move forward in the committee; we're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.'"
Lili Loofbourow of Slate: "... this nation's decline accelerates when the conventional wisdom becomes that believing what the Senate Majority Leader says is self-evidently foolish. The chestnut that politicians always lie is overstated -- a society depends on some degree of mutual trust. One party has embraced nihilism, pilloried trust, and turned good faith into a sucker's failing in a sucker's game." ~~~
Grassley Joins the Liars Parade. Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa] said Monday that he will not oppose holding hearings or taking a vote on ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee if the proceedings move forward. 'Over the years, and as recently as July, I've consistently said that taking up and evaluating a nominee in 2020 would be a decision for the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Senate majority leader,' he said in a statement provided to the Des Moines Register. 'Both have confirmed their intentions to move forward, so that's what will happen. Once the hearings are underway, it's my responsibility to evaluate the nominee on the merits, just as I always have.' The statement sidesteps Grassley's past position. In 2016, he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and became the face of Republican efforts to block Democratic President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Grassley has since reiterated that stance, saying in a July 2018 taping of Iowa Press that he would not support confirming a Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year. 'It was very legitimate that you can't have one rule for Democrat presidents and another rule for Republican presidents,' he said at the time." ~~~
~~~ Stewart Thompson of the New York Times makes the case against vetting a Supreme Court nominee today, based on statements Republican senators made in 2016. With footnotes. Mrs. McC: Gosh, I'm convinced.
Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is putting ObamaCare at risk, as a more conservative Supreme Court could strike down the law in a case to be heard shortly after Election Day. The high court will hear arguments on Nov. 10 in a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican-led states, and backed by President Trump, seeking to strike down the law. Before Ginsburg's death, the court's four liberals plus Chief Justice John Roberts, who has twice upheld the law already, were expected to provide the five votes to keep the law.... Democrats are now hammering Republicans to point out that the Trump-backed lawsuit would overturn popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions and throw roughly 20 million people off their health insurance, even amid the coronavirus pandemic." Sullivan sort of explains how the various ruling scenarios would play out. ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... you should be aware that the stakes in this year's election go beyond abstract things like, say, the survival of American democracy. They're also personal. If Donald Trump is re-elected, you will lose the protection you've had since the Affordable Care Act went into effect almost seven years ago.... In fact, it's now possible that coverage of pre-existing conditions will be stripped away even if Trump loses to Joe Biden, unless Democrats also take the Senate and are prepared to play serious hardball. But health care was always on the line. Now, Trump denies this; like almost every other politician in his party, he keeps insisting that he has a plan to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. But he and they are lying. And no, that's not too strong a term."
Sam Levine & Alvin Chang of the Guardian: "The United States Postal Service (USPS) saw a severe decline in the rate of on-time delivery of first-class mail after Louis DeJoy took over as postmaster general, according to new data obtained by the Guardian that provides some of the most detailed insight yet into widespread mail delays this summer." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides are 'probably directing' a Russian foreign influence operation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against former vice president Joe Biden, which involves a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker connected to President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, a top-secret CIA assessment concluded, according to two sources who reviewed it. On Aug. 31, the CIA published an assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the November election in an internal, highly classified report called the CIA Worldwide Intelligence Review, the sources said.... 'We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November,' the first line of the document says, according to the sources."
Nevada. Michelle Price of the AP: "A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from ... Donald Trump's reelection campaign challenging Nevada's new vote-by-mail law, saying the campaign failed to show how it could be harmed by the law. The campaign, which has filed lawsuits in several states over voting rules, had asked the judge to block a new Nevada law that calls for mail-in ballots to automatically be sent to all active Nevada voters, a change prompted by efforts to contain the coronavirus." Mrs. McC: Mahan is a Bush II appointee.
Ohio. Trumpbots Boo GOP Leaders for Saving Lives. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Attendees at one of President Trump's rallies in Ohio on Monday booed Gov. Mike DeWine (R), catching the president by surprise. Trump introduced DeWine at the top of his remarks in Dayton.... The boos for DeWine came after CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond reported that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R) appealed to the crowd before Trump arrived to wear face coverings to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. He was roundly booed, Diamond wrote on Twitter. DeWine, who was endorsed by Trump and won election in 2018, likely earned the hostile reception because he has taken stiff measures to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. DeWine has generally earned high marks for his handling of the pandemic, but some of his actions have been at odds with Trump."
Wisconsin. Scott Bauer & Todd Richmond of the AP: "A federal judge ruled Monday that absentee ballots in battleground Wisconsin can be counted up to six days after the Nov. 3 presidential election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. The highly anticipated ruling, unless overturned, means that the outcome of the presidential race in Wisconsin might not be known for days after polls close. Under current law, the deadline for returning an absentee ballot to have it counted is 8 p.m. on Election Day."
Benjamin Weiser & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been locked in a yearlong legal battle with President Trump over obtaining his tax returns, suggested for the first time in a court filing on Monday that it had grounds to investigate him and his businesses for tax fraud. The filing by the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., offered rare insight into the office's investigation of the president and his business dealings, which began more than two years ago. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, has never revealed the scope of his office's criminal inquiry, citing grand jury secrecy.... In a carefully worded new filing ... [Mr. Vance] did not directly accuse Mr. Trump or any of his businesses or associates of wrongdoing.... Prosecutors listed news reports and public testimony that alleged misconduct by Mr. Trump and his businesses. The reports, prosecutors wrote, would justify a grand jury inquiry into a range of possible crimes, including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records."
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The team led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, failed to do everything it could to determine what happened in the 2016 election, shying away from steps like subpoenaing President Trump and scrutinizing his finances out of fear that he would fire them, one of Mr. Mueller's top lieutenants [-- Andrew Weissmann --] argued in a new book that serves as the first insider account of the inquiry.... Mr. Weissmann sharply criticized the president as 'lawless' but also accused Mr. Mueller's deputy, Aaron M. Zebley, of being overly cautious, according to an account in The Atlantic of the book, 'Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.'"
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr on Monday escalated the Trump administration's attacks on Democratic-led cities by threatening to withhold federal funding from New York, Seattle and Portland, Ore., over their responses to protests against police brutality, portraying them as inadequate as President Trump seeks to make the unrest a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. The cities 'permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities,' the Justice Department said in a statement announcing its response to a directive by the president this month to find ways to cut funding from such cities. 'We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,' Mr. Barr said in a statement.... Democrats threatened legal action should the administration move to curtail their federal funding. New York, Seattle and Portland called any move by the Trump administration to defund their cities unconstitutional and noted that Congress, not the president, controls federal funding."
Hailey Fuchs of the New York Times: "An independent government agency will investigate whether Education Secretary Betsy DeVos breached a law forbidding federal employees from engaging in political activities on the job after her department distributed a clip of Ms. DeVos criticizing the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., through government channels. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which has jurisdiction to investigate violations of the law, known as the Hatch Act, will conduct the inquiry, according to the investigative watchdog blog that filed the complaint. The revelation is the latest in a string of Trump administration officials to face accusations of breaching the government ethics law. But the power to levy penalties on officials like Ms. DeVos falls to President Trump, and he has shown little inclination to mete out punishment or follow the office's recommendations."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly introduced -- and then on Monday quietly withdrew -- guidance on its website acknowledging that the coronavirus is transmitted mainly through the air. The rapid reversal is another in a string of confusing missteps from the agency regarding official guidance that it posts on its website. The latest debacle concerns the spread of the virus by aerosols, tiny particles containing the virus that can stay aloft for long periods and travel farther than six feet. Aerosol experts noticed on Sunday that the agency had updated its description of how the virus spreads to say that the pathogen is spread primarily by air.... The document was posted to the C.D.C.'s website 'prematurely' and is still being revised, according to a federal official familiar with the matter." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: CDC guidance on the coronavirus is like what Mark Twain said about New England weather: "If you don't like it now, wait a few minutes." ~~~
~~~ Ben Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "Evidence that the virus floats in the air has mounted for months, with an increasingly loud chorus of aerosol biologists pointing to superspreading events in choirs, buses, bars and other poorly ventilated spaces. They cheered when the CDC seemed to join them in agreeing the coronavirus can be airborne.... Many experts outside the agency say the pathogen can waft over considerably longer distances to be inhaled into our respiratory systems, especially if we are indoors and air flow conditions are stagnant.... What's clear ... is that while the virus ... spreads rapidly in indoor events that bring lots of people together. Perhaps most telling of all is the infamous March choir practice in Skagit Valley, Wash., where 52 out of 61 attendees are suspected to have been infected by a single sick individual over roughly 2 ½ hours of practice. The participants didn't interact much socially, except to sing -- making this a difficult-to-dispute case of airborne transmission over large distances in a space where the air was not changing often enough to clear out the virus, and where someone was propelling the virus over extra long distances due to the exertion of singing."
The Saboteur Within. Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The managing editor of the prominent conservative website RedState has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a 'mask nazi,' and intimating that government officials responsible for the pandemic response should be executed. But that writer, who goes by the pseudonym 'streiff,' isn't just another political blogger. The Daily Beast has discovered that he actually works in the public affairs shop of the very agency that Fauci leads. William B. Crews is, by day, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But for years he has been writing for RedState under the streiff pseudonym. And in that capacity he has been contributing to the very same disinformation campaign that his superiors at the NIAID say is a major challenge to widespread efforts to control a pandemic that has claimed roughly 200,000 U.S. lives.... After The Daily Beast brought those and other quotes from Crews to NIAID's attention, the agency said in an emailed statement that Crews would 'retire' from his position." A New York Times story is here.
** Aaron Gregg & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country's supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used for making things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.... The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to'prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.' But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congress's original intent. The payments were made even though U.S. health officials believe there are still major funding gaps in responding to the pandemic. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. There remains a severe shortage of N95 masks at numerous U.S. hospitals."
The Amateurs. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "A former member of the White House coronavirus task force explained why he blew the whistle on what he saw as deadly incompetence within the group. Max Kennedy, Jr. -- the 26-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy -- told The New Yorker that he initially agreed to join the task force that was being put together by White House adviser Jared Kushner because of the serious nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.... Kennedy recalled being shocked because a skeleton crew of unpaid task force volunteers were forced to use their personal laptops and email accounts to track down medical supplies. [Mrs. McC: This of course is also a big fat violation of the federal records act.]... Volunteers were also urged to pay close attention to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and to ship medical supplies to her favored hospitals, Kennedy said.... Kennedy said that the task force 'was like a family office meets organized crime, melded with "Lord of the Flies." It was a government of chaos.... If you see something that might be illegal, and cause thousands of civilian lives to be lost, a person has to speak out,' he insisted." Mrs. McC: If you can read Jane Mayer's New Yorker story instead of Edward's summary, that's probably the route to go.
Tennessee. Yihyun Jeong & Holly Meyer of The Tennessean: "Former Nashville Council Member Tony Tenpenny has died due to complications from COVID-19, Vice Mayor Jim Shulman confirmed Sunday. Tenpenny was hospitalized for more than a month at one of the St. Thomas hospitals and was placed on a ventilator earlier in September. He died overnight, Shulman said on Sunday afternoon.... In the months before his death, Tony Tenpenny shared social media posts calling into question the veracity of the ongoing global pandemic and the government's response." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The wealthiest 1% of the world's population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (17)
A little extra info in re: Buzzfeed's et al extensive reporting on FinCEN and the Barr family fingers in all the right places. February 2019.
"Mary Daly, Barr's oldest daughter and the director of Opioid Enforcement and Prevention Efforts in the deputy attorney general's office, is leaving for a position at the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the Treasury Department's financial crimes unit, a Justice official said."
https://cnn.it/32PUqI2
From The Hill: “ Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts said Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a ‘jurist of historic stature’ in a statement announcing her death Friday evening.“ True, but I haven’t seen a peep from him about the current rush make his court a further laughingstock institution. “Call balls and strikes” my ass. More like the standard R mantra, Heads I win, tails you lose.
@NiskyGuy: It would be "inappropriate" for Roberts to comment directly on the process of appointing a new member of Team Supreme. He could say something more oblique that readers could interpret to mean something or other about the corruption & mayhem surrounding the Trump-Senate conspiracy to pack the Court with wingnuts. He has in the past, for instance (and usually when he gives his annual report to Congress, I think), said, "Yo, the federal courts have way too many vacancies, which is causing a big ole caseload backlog" (possibly not an exactly quote). But "Ruth wouldn't want a self-described handmaid to join us" would be so wrong.
The Mayer piece re: Max Kennedy's experience in the moribund task force is not surprising ––just another notch in the botch on the belt of destruction. Jared––such a poser–-such a vacant human being. Unpaid, untrained people hired to do their dirty work on a mission that was monumental to the country's survival. Max had trouble sleeping? We wish more had a conscience like Max.
From yesterday: @Ak: So taken with the history of your love of art–-that book taken out over and over from the library until finally one Christmas it was yours. You, sir, are a man of many colors and your coat of the same must weigh you down at times––is there anything you don't know? I especially liked this:"
"We are in a battle for civilization against the forces of savagery. Art--civilization--is about creation. Trump and his sycophants are all about destruction."
On a personal note: I, too, as a young twig, just getting those green buds, took to drawing––for hours–– lying on my stomach I made story boards. But by seven I knew the field I wanted to enter–-drama–- but until I got onto the stage I continued to draw. I think these kinds of passions might very well ride in our genes––my son in Germany became an architect and his three daughters are, even at their young age, artists. The oldest girl just got accepted in the School of Media Arts in Cologne.
So here's to art and the humanities––a saving grace in the time of sorrow.
P.S. Are we still looking for Sheriff Crocker?
Freud cones to mind this morning, his language about "polymorphous perversity" seems so applicable to current affairs if I do a little violence to his intent and take the concept beyond the bounds of infantile sexual gratification.
Freud posited that youngsters, wholly unaware of social norms, will take their sex where they can get it. It all starts with the deep pleasure of suckling, Freud said, and the urge to duplicate that pleasure elsewhere will naturally take a young, unsocialized child in many physical durections Freud's adult Victorian world found unacceptable: bisexuality and incest among them.
Freud did not find such behavior horrifying, only natural. A stage children go through and grow out of.
But when infantilism is not a stage passed through but carried into adulthood, social norms on every side ignored or rejected, what do we get?
We get a very perverse Republican Party that eagerly embraces cruelty and destruction, that deliberately smashes the norms that hold societies and even the planet together.
Rationality? Gone. Fact? Destroyed. Primative mpulse predominant.
And the inevitable consequence of such behavior?
No health care for millions of Americans, a nation sick in body as well as in head and soul. An environment laid waste. Democracy trampled on. Racial and religious divisions deepened, making strife between and among them more likely and certainly making it impossible for the nation to act in concert to face any challenge.
Such apparently is the Republican vision. I think it horrifying, but they must somehow find it satisfying, even fulfilling.
If sex and power are linked, it makes some sense. Republicans never grew up. They still get their kicks where they can. Social and democratic norms don't matter to them, and consequences not at all.
I think I know why the word "perverse" came to mind.
Unwashed,
Thanks for the memories (“Art for Art’s Sake”). Hadn’t heard that in years. My bands never covered 10cc or many other art rock entries. We tended to play mostly stuff in dive bars and clubs where people went to drink and dance. We’d get shouts from guys standing at the bar to play stuff like “LA Woman”, and the most ubiquitous request (“Play ‘Freebird’!” to which I’d always say “Yeah, great stuff, but you can’t dance to it”. But that doesn’t mean we didn’t like that material. But if everyone’s on their feet dancing, we’d throw out the set list, especially if the next one was a slow one, and replace it with a rave up to keep it going. Always liked 10cc’s experimental stuff though.
Speaking of “Art for art’s sake, money for god’s sake”, Cennino points out that some people get into art because of inspiration, some to make money (there were knuckleheads in the Middle Ages too, apparently), but it was wise to not forget the inspiration part if that’s the case. 10cc didn’t.
@Ken: the teat that these buggers suck on may very well have a sexual component but underneath that warm reserve is that thing called FEAR which of course morphs into money and power. It seems to me that they aren't as concerned about the people they represent as they are about the corporate big shots who give them the big bucks to do their bidding. And you're right–-"perverse"––does fit perfectly. Good old Freud––it's such fun to dig him up every once in awhile.
Yesterday, I wondered why we hadn’t heard anything from Mr. Morals about the Trump-McConnell putsch.
Now we know. Ol’ Mittens has been riding up and down in his garage elevator working the casuistry machine trying to come up with a high and mighty excuse for voting with traitors and fascists, an excuse that would get him off the hook from looking like an obsequious worm.
It didn’t work.
We can bid farewell to a woman’s right to choose now. Back alley abortions will be back soon. Abortion providers can look forward to felony prison sentences, including execution in many Trump states. Misogynistic religious nut jobs will now control women’s reproduction choices in this country (talk about the Middle Ages!). Also, healthcare. The millions who have received healthcare for the first time in their lives can bid farewell to it now. The ACA will be crushed. Trump’s top pick for this latest stolen seat on the court is on record saying that god comes before the constitution, and that’s her only reason for being a judge.
I could go on, but...Jesus.
Thanks for all the help, Mittens. You fucking rat.
My daughter and I just discussed: DeVos and Hatch Act, to be not acted upon since the authority is vested in the presidency...all because a black man was elected, he made fun of Dump one night in the spring, and then a woman, always subject to authority, had the nerve to run, and she wasn't nice to authoritarian Dump, and never left her scummy husband...so now there will be a religious nutcase on the highest court of the land. Happy autumn!
@PD Pepe: Still search for Sheriff Crocker. If the library were open for business, I could just go over there & start looking thru Vonnegut novels. But it ain't, so I cain't.
PD,
Hacked that one out very early this AM, then went back to bed before I'd wrestled the idea to the ground.
Thanks for the additional thoughts. Might use some of them if I'm drawn back to Freudland by the Pretender and his supporters' infantilism, which puts me in mind of another science fiction story, which I might have menttioned here before about a very selfish boy with superpowers who comes to an appropriately bad end. Thank Theodore Sturgeon for that one.
And, Akhilleus, speaking of science fiction (where--not kindergarten--I learned everything I know ) check out the table of contents for the currrent "Analog."
https://www.analogsf.com/current-issue/table-of-contents/
Ken,
Ha! ...”by Lewis Padgett“, aka Henry Kuttner. Just checked out his Wikipedia page. I didn’t realize that he was only 42 when he died. When did he sleep? He wrote enough for two lifetimes. That urge to create, to write, must have been overwhelming. Once the ideas start flowing, look out. Reminds me of the “Gotta Dance” number that Gene Kelly created in “Singin’ in the Rain”. Whatever else he’s doing, he’s gotta dance. For Kuttner it must have been “Gotta Write”.
For Trump it’s “Gotta Grift, Steal, Lie, Kill”.
He’s doing it all.
Ken,
The Sturgeon story, is that “Baby Makes Three”?
We need a new word...
“Sociopath” doesn’t cut it.
The Orange Menace, referring to the Trump Virus, which has now killed 200,000 Americans, screams that “It affects virtually nobody!” I’ve long ago given up thinking that this disgusting excuse for a disgusting human being can go no lower. Here he is saying that all those people his indifference, incompetence, and narcissism have killed, are nobodies. Not worth a thing.
I’ve also given up wishing for a new ring of hell. Hell is too good for this evil monster.
Tonight Frontline will present one of their quadrennial “Choice” programs, “Choice:2020”. I watched an interview with the director, Michael Kirk, which included a couple of clips from the program. I don’t want to get too incensed about this without seeing the whole thing, but it appears as if it will be a comparison of the faults and strengths of both candidates; another entry in the both-sides sweepstakes, possibly.
Here’s the problem. There are no “both sides”. The clips played compared Trump basically ignoring the coming death toll of his virus, which has now killed 200,000 Americans because he refuses to do anything he feels might make him look bad. This horror is butted up against the episode in which Biden complimented Obama for being “well spoken and clean-looking”, a rather stupid comment for which he quickly apologized.
How do these two situations compare? In what universe are these episodes comparable? It’s like saying “Over here we have an axe murderer who chops people’s heads off”, but wait! Over HERE, there’s this guy who said something stupid!! Whoa!”
The problem is there is nothing to compare to Trump. Nothing. Had Joe Biden gotten into a car and accidentally hit a pedestrian, that wouldn’t compare to Trump’s killing hundreds of thousands ON PURPOSE!!
But the both-sides format lends the Trumpies the comfort knowing that, “Oh, they say shit about our Donald, but that Biden. What an asshole!”
There is nothing and no one to compare with the hideous hulking monster that is the Orange Menace.
But the horse race, both-sider points of departure will prevail right up to the election.
And we might have four more years of this horror.
But at least we won’t have to put up with Biden saying dumb things now and then.
Akhilleus,
No, not "Baby is Three," which as I remember was one part (the first?) of "More Than Human."
Can't recall the title, but you have me searching more than my faulty memory. If I come up with it, will let you know.
BTW, yes, Kuttner did die relatively young, but some of his vast production can be ascribed to his frequent co-author and wife, C. L. Moore, a writer who also wrote independently, though not as prolifically.
The story is told that either could sit down at the typewriter, look over what the other had written, and then without consultation, just continue the story seamlessly from the stopping point.
Don't know if I believe it, but it's a nice story about a perfect writerly marriage.
Heard last night the Dems have hinted at another impeachment, this time to interfere with Moscow Mitch's hellbent march to screw up the SCOTUS even more.
Don't know whether to take it seriously but my tired thoughts this PM (I was flat finished before the painting job was done) would have me say, go for it, arguing that since the Senate won't do its oversight job, someone has to have the balls to. A lying, murderous nitwit, who displays his ignorance and absolute dearth of character every time he tweets or open his mouth, yet is allowed to continue to pretend to be president, simply cannot be countenanced.
And it would entertain me between now and the election and beyond.
I would love to hear the Pretender whine about Shifty Shiff treating him so unfairly for another couple of months.
Might change my mind after a nap, but...