;)
The Commentariat -- September 13, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The Federal Election Commission has dismissed Republican accusations that Twitter violated election laws in October by blocking people from posting links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son Hunter Biden, in a decision that is likely to set a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns. The F.E.C. determined that Twitter's actions regarding the Hunter Biden article had been undertaken for a valid commercial reason, not a political purpose, and were thus allowable, according to a document outlining the decision obtained by The New York Times. The commission's ruling, which was made last month behind closed doors and is set to become public soon, provides further flexibility to social media giants like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat to control what is shared on their platforms regarding federal elections."
Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "U.S. Capitol Police arrested a California man on weapons charges after finding multiple illegal knives in a pickup adorned with white supremacist iconography near the Democratic National Committee's Capitol Hill headquarters. Capitol Police said Monday that 44-year-old Donald Craighead was charged with possession of prohibited weapons after a patrolling Special Operations Division officer noticed that the Dodge Dakota did not have a visible license plate and pulled the driver over around midnight. Police said that the officer then spotted a bayonet and machete, both of which are types of knives that are illegal in Washington, D.C., inside the truck. Capitol Police also said that Craighead espoused white supremacist rhetoric while he was pulled over. Photos of his car released by police showed Nazi swastikas on the truck's side mirror; a pentagram on the steering wheel; what appears to be the word 'confederate' across the dashboard and other symbols. A pair of horns were also affixed to the truck's front grill." ~~~
~~~ Marie: "... Craighead espoused white supremacist rhetoric while he was pulled over." In D.C., there's a good chance the officer who pulled over this dude was Black. So use your imagination of that "white supremacist rhetoric."
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "Not every justice would have the sheer gall to make a speech about the importance of the court staying above politics while appearing at a celebration for Mitch McConnell. But that's what [Amy] Barrett did.... But with McConnell by her side, Barrett insisted that she and the other justices are unsullied by politics.... And she showed how the Supreme Court can pursue a radical ideological agenda, one aimed at creating a conservative legal and political revolution in America, while simultaneously protesting that they would never consider something as unseemly as politics.... The truth, however, is that everything the Supreme Court does is political, and that's particularly true of its conservative majority." Emphasis original. See related story linked below. MB: Akhilleus has renamed our Junior Justice Amy Phony Barrett (see today's Comments), and that seems apt to me.
Brian Beutler of Crooked takes on pro-Covid Republican "leaders" and Jon Chait of New York Mag. Beutler argues that the Republicans were pro-Covid both to help Trump and to hurt President Biden and he explains why. Thanks to citizen625 for the link. MB: I do think this is a case where Republicans like DeSantis & Noem have been remarkably consistent throughout. Like Trump, they're for freeedumb and Biden's Covid vaccine mandates -- just like the mandates they already have in their states for other diseases -- are gross violations of constitutional liberties. Trump tended to treat the virus as a hoax and Biden takes it seriously. And perhaps the main thing that is guiding GOP consistency is their base's antipathy to vaccines. (They even booed Trump at his own rally when he mildly suggested they should get the vaccine.)
Florida. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Two Florida middle-schoolers are being held at a juvenile detention center after being accused of planning a mass school shooting inspired by Columbine. The 14-year-old and 13-year-old boys, whom The Washington Post is not naming because they are minors, are eighth-graders at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lee County, about two hours away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting and have been ordered to be held at a juvenile detention center for three weeks, according to the county sheriff's office. Police investigations suggest the boys had looked for guns on the black market, studied ways to build pipe bombs and researched the 1999 school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said."
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Aamer Madhani & Alexandra Jaffe of the AP: "President Joe Biden will promote his administration's use of the Defense Production Act to aid in wildfire preparedness during a western swing in which he'll survey wildfire damage in Idaho and California. The administration activated the wartime provision in early August to boost the supply of fire hoses for the U.S. Forest Service, by helping to ease supply chain issues affecting the agency's primary firehose supplier. It marks the second use of the wartime law, after the president used it to boost vaccine supplies, and the administration had not previously announced it publicly."
Senate Democrats Agree on Voting Rights Bill That Can't Pass. Leigh Ann Caldwell & Teaganne Finn of NBC News: "Senate Democrats are close to an agreement on updated voting rights legislation that can get the support of all 50 Democratic-voting senators, three Democratic aides familiar with negotiations said.... The member-level discussions are complete, a source said, but staff members are going through the text to fix technical issues.... The legislation would require the votes of 60 senators, including 10 Republicans, and it's unlikely that Democrats will get enough Republican supporters." Joe Manchin claims he's been working with "quite a few" GOP senators to develop a bill that will pass. Marie: Uh-huh. There's a work-around, Joe; it's a fun game called "Drop the Filibuster" for voting rights.
Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senior House Democrats are coalescing around a draft proposal that could raise as much as $2.9 trillion to pay for most of President Biden's sweeping expansion of the social safety net by increasing taxes on the wealthiest corporations and individuals. The preliminary proposal, which circulated on and off Capitol Hill on Sunday, would raise the corporate tax rate to 26.5 percent for the richest businesses and impose an additional surtax on individuals who make more than $5 million. The plan could be a critical step for advancing the $3.5 trillion package, which is expected to include federally funded paid family leave, address climate change and expand public education." Politico's story is here.
[The Supreme Court] is not comprised of a bunch of partisan hacks. -- Justice Amy Barrett, at a Mitch McConnell event ~~~
~~~ Piper Blackburn of the AP: "Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett expressed concerns Sunday that the public may increasingly see the court as a partisan institution. Justices must be 'hyper vigilant to make sure they're not letting personal biases creep into their decisions, since judges are people, too,' Barrett said at a lecture hosted by the University of Louisville's McConnell Center. Introduced by Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who founded the center and played a key role in pushing through her confirmation in the last days of the Trump administration, Barrett spoke at length about her desire for others to see the Supreme Court as nonpartisan." MB: Sorry, Amy, our masks don't cover our eyes and ears. We know what you're doing (Texas abortion law).
On 9/11, Rudy Forgets "A Noun, a Verb & 9/11." Sam Raskin of the New York Post: "Ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani at a 9/11 commemoration on Saturday called a top US general an 'idiot' and 'a-hole,' imitated Queen Elizabeth and distanced himself from Prince Andrew, video shows. During an appearance at an annual Sept. 11 dinner held at Cipriani, Giuliani wondered of Gen. Mark Milley, 'How's that guy a general?' while imagining physically assaulting the decorated joint Chiefs of Staff chairman because of his advice to close Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Back in 2007, when Joe Biden & Rudy were running for president, Biden delivered one of the more memorable lines from a presidential debate when he said, "There's only three things he mentions in a sentence: a noun, a verb and 9/11." Now look who's President & who's nuttier than a pecan pie.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid updates for Monday are here.
David Cohen of Politico: “Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Sunday defended the administration's new Covid vaccine requirements, calling them 'an appropriate legal measure' that fit in with traditional safety requirements in schools and workplaces. 'We have to put this in context. There are requirements that we put in workplaces and in schools every day to make sure that workplaces and schools are safe,' Murthy said on ABC's 'This Week.'... Murthy also said he believed the administration's new policy would withstand legal challenges.... Speaking on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Murthy also challenged the notion that Biden's new policies reflect a flip-flop from the idea that vaccination should not be mandated. The surgeon general said it was merely a case of responding to a situation that had been changed by the emergence of the Delta variant." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. The Party of Extreme Hypocrisy. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Resistance to vaccine mandates was once a fringe position in both parties, more the realm of misinformed celebrities than mainstream political thought. But the fury over Mr. Biden's mandates shows how a once-extreme stance has moved to the center of the Republican Party. The governors' opposition reflects the anger and fear about the vaccine among constituents now central to their base, while ignoring longstanding policy and legal precedent in favor of similar vaccination requirements.... Republican outrage is really boiling over [President Biden's] plan to require all private-sector businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccines or weekly testing for their work forces.... But each of [the] states [these GOP governors lead] -- indeed every state in the country -- already mandates certain vaccinations for children, and sometimes for adults, including health care workers and patients in certain facilities."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Idaho/Washington. "Their Crisis Is Our Problem." Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Washington State is reeling under its own surge of coronavirus cases. But in neighboring Idaho, 20 miles down Interstate 90 from Spokane, unchecked virus transmission has already pushed hospitals beyond their breaking point.... At a time when Washington State hospitals are delaying procedures and struggling with their own high caseloads, some leaders in the state see Idaho's outsourcing of Covid patients as a troubling example of how the failure to aggressively confront the virus in one state can deepen a crisis in another.... Idaho now has more than 600 patients hospitalized with Covid-19, about 20 percent higher than a previous peak in December. Only 40 percent of the state's residents are fully vaccinated, one of the lowest rates in the nation, compared with 61 percent in Washington State, one of the highest."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Michael Blood & Eugene Garcia of the AP: "In a blitz of TV ads and a last-minute rally, California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged voters Sunday to turn back a looming recall vote that could remove him from office, while leading Republican Larry Elder broadly criticized the media for what he described as double standards that insulated Newsom from criticism and scrutiny throughout the contest. The sunny, late-summer weekend was a swirl of political activity, as candidates held rallies, continued bus tours and cluttered the TV airwaves with advertising offering their closing arguments in advance of the election that concludes Tuesday." ~~~
~~~ Fake Voter Fraud All Over Again. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "Soon after the [California governor's] recall race was announced in early July, the embers of 2020 election denialism ignited into new false claims on right-wing news sites and social media channels. This vote, too, would supposedly be 'stolen,' with malfeasance ranging from deceptively designed ballots to nefariousness by corrupt postal workers. As a wave of recent polling indicated that [Gov. Gavin] Newsom was likely to brush off his Republican challengers, the baseless allegations accelerated. Larry Elder, a leading Republican candidate, said he was 'concerned' about election fraud. The Fox News commentators Tomi Lahren and Tucker Carlson suggested that wrongdoing was the only way Mr. Newsom could win. And ... Donald J. Trump predicted that it would be 'a rigged election.' This swift embrace of false allegations of cheating in the California recall reflects a growing instinct on the right to argue that any lost election, or any ongoing race that might result in defeat, must be marred by fraud."
Way Beyond
Eric Schmitt & Madeleine Ngo of the New York Times: "An initial group of Afghan pilots who flew themselves and their family members to safety in Uzbekistan aboard Afghan Air Force aircraft were transferred to a U.S. military base in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, according to the office of Representative August Pfluger, which has been in contact with one of the pilots and his wife. Two other groups of Afghan pilots and their relatives are expected to fly out in the next day or so under an arrangement the United States negotiated with Uzbekistan to move more than 450 Afghans. The Afghan pilots, whom the Taliban consider among the most reviled members of the Afghan military for their role in conducting airstrikes against Taliban fighters, have been caught in a delicate diplomatic tug of war since fleeing their country as the government in Kabul was collapsing last month. Taliban leaders have been pressuring the Uzbek government to turn over the pilots.... The United States, for its part, has been leaning on the Uzbeks to let the Afghans leave and fulfill its pledge to secure safe passage to pivotal members of the Afghan military who fought alongside the United States."
North Korea. Min Joo Kim of the Washington Post: "North Korea said it successfully test-fired a new long-range cruise missile over the weekend, stoking tensions in a first public testing activity in months amid a prolonged deadlock in nuclear talks with Washington.... The test launches took place ahead of a Tokyo trip for President Biden's nuclear envoy, Sung Kim, who is scheduled to meet with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts this week." An AP story is here.
News Lede
AP: "Tropical Storm Nicholas was moving up the Gulf Coast on Monday, threatening to bring heavy rain and floods to coastal areas of Texas, Mexico and storm-battered Louisiana. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Nicholas was strengthening, churning up top winds of 60 mph (95 kph) in a 1 a.m. CDT update. It was traveling north-northwest at 15 mph (24 kph) on a forecast track to pass near the South Texas coast later Monday, then move onshore along the coast of south or central Texas by Monday evening. A hurricane watch was issued from Port Aransas to Freeport, Texas. Much of the state's coastline was under a tropical storm warning as the system was expected to bring heavy rain that could cause flash floods and urban flooding."
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Reader Comments (16)
Coals to Neecastle, or hypocrisy on Faux…
Guess who Faux invited on to complain about the Taliban coming into possession of American military weapons?
Disgraced former officer Ollie North, who smuggled American military weapons to Iran then sent a check to Nicaraguan death squads.
I guess they wanted an expert.
But there’s a difference. The weapons (according to the military) and vehicles left at Bagram were disabled (most of them, apparently). The weapons ol’ Ollie handed to Islamic terrorists in Iran were brand spanking new and in perfect working order. I’ll bet he even gave them a warranty.
What’s next? Inviting on Fatty to bitch and moan about attacks on democracy? Oh, wait…
https://crooksandliars.com/2021/09/fox-ollie-north-afghanistan
Sorry, should have been Newcastle. Otto Correct is back at it. Not sure where Neecastle is but it may be the home of the Knights Who Say “Nee” (Ni), of Monty Python fame.
https://youtu.be/zIV4poUZAQo
Maybe Faux can invite them on too. They may, however, demand a shrubbery.
In news from various sources:
https://fansided.com/2021/09/07/anti-joe-biden-chant-college-football-stadiums/
https://www.wboy.com/news/west-virginia/wv-attorney-general-patrick-morrisey-issues-statement-about-president-bidens-covid-19-vaccine-mandate-plan/
https://apnews.com/article/health-coronavirus-pandemic-wv-state-wire-west-virginia-ae9260af6b18a5cb2f01da413c10357b
Heartening to see students and adults proudly displaying their A’s in Ignorance 101.
Amy Phony Barrett claims that the Supreme Court is not infested with partisan hacks. Right. And I am Emperor of the Universe (and potentate of all the quantum realms on every first Tuesday of the month—just to change things up).
She sez the media makes the confederates on the court out to be hyper partisan hacks. Sorry, Ames, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it ain’t a swan.
But this is right out of the winger hack playbook. “Pay no attention to what I just did. Listen to the lies I’m about to tell you.”
For you, Akhilleus, because of your love of the "Wire" that you once wrote about so eloquently here on R.C. I, too, was smitten and still think it one of the best series ever produced.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/12/opinion/michael-k-williams-david-simon-the-wire.html
This piece is written by David Simon–- as an homage to Michael K. Williams––- and tells us how he miscalculated Mike 's questions about the script and realized otherwise.
His questioning "about our drama and its purposes were those of someone sharing the whole of the journey."
And in todays atmosphere of bitter divide and "what's in it for me–-not so much for thee" rhetoric, Simon's piece is so welcome and so important. The idea of working for the WHOLE––for the betterment of all players whether in dramas on stage or dramas in our political and personal lives.
Anent the Washington-Idaho story above that illustrates how closely all states in or great union are related, whether they want to admit it or not:
It's even more complicated.
Washington's high vaccination rate relative to Idaho's is a bit misleading. The Washington average is pumped up by those living in the population centers on the west side of the Cascade mountain divide, the relatively sane part of the state.
The eastern part of the state, particularly as one moves closer to the eastern border, is culturally more akin to northern Idaho, where vaccination rates are much lower.
There's a reason some have said parts of Idaho and eastern Washington and Oregon ought to get together and declare independence--and a reason some would say "good riddance" if they did.
@Ken Winkes: Thanks for the clarification on Washington state's vaccination rates. That's important context, and it shows up in the NYT's vaccination map.
Isn't it a trifle insincere to talk about "partisan hacks" at a thing in the McConnell Event? I guess optics aren't Amy's thing; she's sucking up to her boss as per usual.
Ken, do I detect a slight bit of West Slope hegemonous attitude? I will note, the Idaho side is where Aryan Nations types like to congregate: https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2006/feb/05/new-life-for-old-cops/. This Eastern Side is also where the former Speaker of the House of Representative Tom Foley was too secure in his sinecure to realize his ass was going to be handed to him in defeat. The thing about the "good riddance" of casting off "others" whether hayseeds, Muslims, or Bundys, or Southern former slave-owning states is they rarely stay gone. Part of the problem of miners and loggers and the like who were "creatively disrupted" by environmentalism out of jobs is that it creates a semi-permanent underclass full of discontents. I write this as I sit overlooking a city full of forward thinkers who invented Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon; yet, these same bright lights have fully loaded coal and oil trains rumble through tunnels underneath their feet. How easily brilliance and ingenuity can come crashing down when conditions warrant.
One more thing: https://www.salon.com/2012/06/18/still_running_from_rodney_king/. Inventiveness has always had recalcitrance as a companion.
On Republican vaccine bashing (with a little Chait bashing thrown in):
https://crooked.com/articles/republican-vaccine-denial-strategy/
@Citizen 625
Yeah, those oil and coal trains rumble day and night two football fields' distance from my home...For me, they are impossible to ignore.
This Craighead (sure it’s not not dickhead?) Nazi asshole pulled over in DC, spouting “white supremacist rhetoric” while being arrested…if in fact the arresting officer was black, as Marie suggests, a pretty good assumption, how much will you bet that this “good person”, to use Fatty’s description of violent racists, will get hisself a screaming confederate lawyer who tries to get him off by claiming he was the victim of racial profiling.
AK: As to racial profiling, once I wound up somewhere and was watching the old "Sanford and Son" show. The shop was robbed, and the cops are there getting information and one asks the old man (Redd Fox) "Were they colored?" The response: "Yeah, they was white".
Loved it.
@Akhilleus: The white supremacist guy's name is, at least according to the WashPo, "Donald Craighead." While his birth name well may have been "Donald Dickhead," he might have dropped the name when people kept confusing him with the president* of the same name.
PD,
I wasn’t able to access the Simon piece but I’ve read several articles on Michael K. Williams. He created perhaps the most original and memorable character in the single best thing ever to make it to the small screen, a show full of memorable characters. His character, Omar, was written as a minor character and was slated for a short run on the show, but Williams’ embodiment of the part made Omar into a fan (and writers’) favorite. He was a gangster in a show (partly)about the drug underworld, who neither used nor sold drugs. He made his name by stealing their money. He was a kind of western outlaw-loner type who operated outside of the circle of both the cops and the dealers. On top of that, he was gay. Quite an all around departure from same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
His role in “Boardwalk Empire” was equally memorable.
Bobby Lee,
Hahaha. Redd Foxx was one of a kind. His real name actually was Sanford, and his dad was Fred Sanford. Seemed like we were making great strides with race back then. But that was too much for the racists (and those who claim not to be racist but have no problem voting for them) and we’ve been stuck in neutral for quite a while. Yeah, we got our first black president, but the response was to follow him with a racist prick. Wonder what old Redd would have to say about Trump.
“Was he colored?” “Yeah. He was orange. And stupid.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/13/wallace-ricketts-covid-vaccine-scam/
My comment:
Nice description of the Republican two-step (create distrust in government, then base your anti-vaxx and voter suppression policies on that distrust), but in fact distrust of government has a history that began even before Reagan ran on the proposition that government is the problem, not the solution.
Unfortunately it has always had traction with people whose view of life is limited to themselves and what they believe to be their interest, a view that translates on all fronts into "you can't tell me what to do."
You can't tax me, you can't take my guns or regulate my backyard stills. You can't limit my right to pollute. You can't keep me from taking all the water I want out of the river....all selfish and short-sighted of course and now a view embraced wholeheartedly by one political party.
The Party of Me.
Of course, in any social order selfishness is an absurd view, absurd, self-contradictory, and as the Covid plague illustrates, self-destructive.
The Party of Me is now advocating a position that is not subtly but obviously literally killing its own.
It's as if they've pointed all those guns they love so much at their own heads and gleefully pulled the trigger.
Ah, freedom...