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The Commentariat -- June 22, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has blocked a federal judge's ruling overturning California's longtime ban on assault weapons, in which he likened an AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife. On Monday, in a one-page order, a three-judge panel issued a stay of the June 4 order from U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez of the Southern District of California, in which the judge ruled that sections of the state ban in place since 1989 regarding military-style rifles are unconstitutional."
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New York City's mayoral (and other city) primary elections are today. Katie Glueck the New York Times: "No Democratic [mayoral] candidate is expected to reach the threshold needed to win outright under the city's new ranked-choice voting system, and it may be weeks before a Democratic primary victor -- who would become an overwhelming favorite to win the general election in November -- is officially declared. New Yorkers on Tuesday will also render judgments on other vital positions in primary races that will test the power of the left in the nation's largest city. The city comptroller's race, the Manhattan district attorney's race and a slew of City Council primaries, among other contests, will offer imperfect but important windows into Democratic attitudes and engagement levels as the nation emerges from the pandemic in the post-Trump era.... If no single candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote on the first tally, the eventual nominee will be determined by rounds of ranked-choice voting, through which New Yorkers could rank up to five candidates in order of preference." An ABC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "On the cusp of an election that will determine the future of post-Covid New York, it feels as if we're staggering toward catastrophe. Both of the male front-runners are, for different reasons, unsuited to the office. New York cannot afford a leader who doesn't know how to do the job [Andrew Yang]. It can't afford a mayor who has, as The Times reported, repeatedly pushed 'the boundaries of campaign-finance and ethics laws,' and could spend four years mired in scandal, using race to deflect every criticism [Eric Adams]. Among the leading candidates, our only hope lies with the women, [Kathryn ]Garcia and Maya Wiley."
Bye-Bye, Miss American Pie. Marie: It is not possible to name with certainty the day democracy died. You could go back to some time in Richard Nixon's tenure, or to some moment Ronald Reagan was a has-been actor reading the morning newspaper, or to January 20, 2009, when Mitch & Newt & the gang vowed to make Barack Obama a one-term president, or to January 6, 2021, when Donald Trump tried to start an insurrection. If one of those moments or some other moment is where you plant your flag, I won't argue with you. But the day I pick is the day Scalia died. When Mitch McConnell & Chuck Grassley decided not to allow President Obama any Supreme Court appointment, they put down an anti-democratic marker that Democrats scarcely even tried to knock down, one that stands firm today. AND that marker stands not just because of Republican audacity but because of Democratic weakness.
Democrats Plan to Cave Again Today. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A push by Democrats to enact the most expansive voting rights legislation in generations is set to collapse in the Senate on Tuesday, when Republicans are expected to use a filibuster to block a measure that President Biden and his allies in Congress have called a vital step to protect democracy. Despite solid Republican opposition, Democrats plan to bring the voting rights fight to a head on the Senate floor, by calling a test vote to try to advance the broad federal elections overhaul, known as the For the People Act. As Republican-led states rush to enact restrictive new voting laws, Democrats have presented the legislation as the party's best chance to undo them, expand ballot access from coast to coast and limit the effect of special interests on the political process.... In the hours before the vote, Democrats conceded they were facing defeat -- at least for now.... With the path forward so murky, top Democrats began framing Tuesday's vote as a moral victory, and potentially a crucial step in building consensus around eventually blowing up the filibuster." ~~~
The Senate Democratic Caucus has to have a hard conversation with each other and ask, 'Are we going to allow an obscure legislative procedure that's really just an accident of history to prevent us from accomplishing what we ran on and enacting the kind of changes that are needed to secure the American people's right to vote?" -- Leah Greenberg of the Indivisible Project ~~~
~~~ The Futility of Umbrage & High Dudgeon. Mike DeBonis & Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "Liberal activists and Democratic lawmakers are angling to use a planned Senate vote Tuesday on broad legislation to overhaul election access, campaign finance and government ethics -- which is expected to fail because of solid Republican opposition -- as an inflection point in a major last-ditch push to change Senate rules and pass voting rights legislation before the end of the summer.... In a fiery floor speech Monday that served, in part, as a veiled appeal to members of his own caucus, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) hammered the point that Republicans were threatening to block even a discussion of voting rights." MB: Oh, a "fiery floor speech"? Whoopty-doo. Oh, a "moral victory"? Yippee! ~~~
He lied over and over and over again ... poisoning our democracy, lighting a fire between Republican state legislatures who immediately launched the most sweeping voter suppression effort in at least 80 years. Just a note, how despicable a man is Donald Trump? -- Chuck Schumer, in "fiery floor speech" ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, that dope Kyrsten Sinema (DINO-Az.) writes a Washington Post op-ed pledging allegiance to the filibuster. ~~~
~~~ Dan Merica of CNN: "Former President Barack Obama on Monday invoked the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol to advocate for a sweeping voting rights bill set to be considered by the Senate, arguing the uprising proved Americans cannot 'take our democracy for granted.'... During a grassroots conference call for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, the former President also argued that America's 'own history' makes clear the importance for fighting for democracy and warned that 'we are going to have to be vigilant in fighting back attempts by the few to silence the many.... In the aftermath of an insurrection, with our democracy on the line..., many ... Republican senators [are] going along with the notion that somehow there were irregulates and problems with legitimately in our most recent election. They are suddenly afraid to even talk about these issues and figures out solutions on the floor of the Senate. They don't even want to talk about voting. And that is not acceptable.'" ~~~
~~~ Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: "Democrats plan to introduce legislation in the House and Senate on Tuesday to combat new laws in Republican-run states that could lead to the subversion of fair elections by partisan officials. The new bills come in response to measures passed by Republican-majority state legislatures and signed into law by Republican governors that make it easier for partisan legislatures to purge state election boards and local election supervisors and replace them without cause with partisan officials. These state laws follow ... Donald Trump's pressure campaign against state and local election officials to overturn his 2020 reelection loss based on false claims of widespread voter fraud." MB: And this bill is going to clear a GOP filibuster because ... what? Hey, look at me! I can flail my arms & sputter, too! Yeesh!
~~~ Marie: Rachel Maddow devoted her opening segment to that lady who pretended she owned & lived in a Virginia mansion (WashPo link) & managed to get Mark Meadows to send her fantastical "Italygate" conspiracy theory to the acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen to investigate. Maddow's point was that Republicans' stated objections to voting rights all rested on a "plinth" of far-fetched, fake "concerns." ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: "... the argument Republicans most often make against proposals such as [Joe] Manchin's is not that early voting and voter notifications are bad ideas, but that setting election rules is the states' job, not the federal government's. They are wrong, according to the plain text of the Constitution, which expressly gives Congress power over federal elections. But the consequence of congressional inaction is to enable Republican state leaders to continue stacking election rules against Democrats, limiting access to the ballot box and manipulating voting maps to obtain illegitimate partisan advantage.... Mr. Manchin's [voting] reforms deserve a full hearing and an up-or-down vote. If his proposal does not get its due, Democrats should consider reforming the filibuster. There is no shortage of ideas about how to adjust the procedural maneuver without abolishing it, such as demanding that minority senators show up to sustain their filibusters; requiring three-fifths of present and voting senators to end a filibuster, rather than three-fifths of all senators; or reducing the number of votes needed to overcome filibusters." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's obvious from the arcane rules that be that the Senate recognized that at least one thing was too important to be held hostage by the filibuster: keeping the government running. But that, when you think about it, has a self-serving, process purpose. It applies to the duties described in the body of the Constitution, not to rights granted in the Amendments. And aren't human & civil rights -- that is, the rights the government grants to its citizens -- just as important as the Congress's duties? We the people, from whom all blessings flow, think so.
~~~ Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "The media seems [seem!] to have missed it, but last week [Joe Manchin] got Republicans to admit to the 'big lie.'... Manchin's [proposed] compromise [voting rights bill] completely undercuts Republicans' case for blocking reform. It does this by including new requirements to safeguard election security, which is -- or was -- the top priority of Republicans concerned by 'questions' the 2020 election supposedly raised.... Manchin also conspicuously omitted Democratic initiatives that Republicans claim (without evidence) lead to voter fraud.... Republicans ... rejected the framework. Immediately, forcefully, unambiguously.... [Mitch] McConnell comically accused Manchin's framework of supercharging 'cancel culture,' that all-purpose GOP boogeyman. Even more tellingly, McConnell and other colleagues such as Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) suggested that a tentative endorsement by a prominent Black voting rights activist had magically transformed Manchin's proposal into the 'Stacey Abrams substitute, not the Joe Manchin substitute.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: We mustn't let voters ever forget that by labeling a compromise bill "the Stacey Abrams substitute," Roy Blunt, who is part of the GOP Senate leadership, turned immediately to misogyny & racism as a means of curbing voting rights for all Americans.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Three months into his new job, judge-turned-attorney general Merrick Garland, who inherited a demoralized and politicized Justice Department, is facing criticism from some Democrats that he is not doing enough to quickly expunge Trump-era policies and practices.... How he charts his way through the current controversies and still-unresolved politically sensitive cases is likely to determine how much of a long-term impact the Trump presidency has on the Justice Department.... Twenty-two House Democrats, led by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold E. Nadler (N.Y.), recently wrote that Garland's department made a 'profoundly misguided' decision 'with deeply problematic implications' when it continued to defend Trump in a defamation lawsuit, and they urged the attorney general to reconsider."
Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The FBI director and other senior officials have consistently downplayed the intelligence value of social media posts by Trump supporters prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, suggesting the bureau had no 'actionable' warning that the Capitol would be targeted by a mob. But according to a document entered into court records last week, an FBI agent acknowledged in a February investigative report that angry Trump supporters were talking openly in the days before the riot about bringing guns to the Capitol to start a 'revolution.'... The FBI document doesn't say whether the FBI's review of social media posts was conducted before or after Jan. 6." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The report Dilanian cites was written by a female agent. I suspect women are overrepresented in the minions at the FBI who collect & report on written sources. And I also suspect that the male higher-ups are inclined to ignore those women's reports. So if mid-level managers received intelligence about the January 6 insurrection before the 6th, they very well could have dismissed the intelligence as "women's work." I could be wrong, but I'm not kidding.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday that the N.C.A.A. cannot bar relatively modest payments to student-athletes in the name of amateurism. The decision, based on antitrust law, came as the business model of college sports is under increasing pressure. Last year, a federal appeals court ruled that the N.C.A.A. was not free to limit benefits tied to education for Division I football and basketball players. The decision allowed payments for things like musical instruments, scientific equipment, postgraduate scholarships, tutoring, study abroad, academic awards and internships. It did not permit the outright payment of salaries. The court rejected the N.C.A.A.'s argument that compensating athletes would alienate sports fans who prize students' amateur status." The AP's report is here. The ruling, written by Neil Gorsuch, is here.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. judge on Monday dismissed most claims filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of D.C., Black Lives Matter and others who in lawsuits accused the Trump administration of authorizing an unprovoked attack on demonstrators in Lafayette Square last year. The plaintiffs asserted the government used unnecessary force to enable a photo op of Trump holding a Bible outside of the historical St. John's Church. But U.S. District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich of Washington called allegations that federal officials conspired to make way for the photo too speculative. The judge's decision came in a 51-page opinion after the Justice Department requested she toss four overlapping lawsuits naming dozens of federal individual and agency defendants, as well as D.C. and Arlington police, in the June 2020 incident. Friedrich also ruled that federal defendants such as then-attorney general William P. Barr and then-acting Park Police chief Gregory T. Monahan are immune from civil suits and could not be sued for damages, and that Black Lives Matter as a group could not show it was directly injured by actions against individual demonstrators. The judge did allow litigation to go forward challenging federal restrictions on protests and other First Amendment activity at Lafayette Square across from the White House, and against local D.C. and Arlington County police agencies who supported the operation." MB: Friedrich is a Trump appointee. ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, in New York City ~~~
~~~ Flipping the Squid. Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "... Donald Trump's onetime bodyguard, who now serves as a key manager with the Trump family business, is reportedly being investigated by Manhattan prosecutors. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump Organization executive Matthew Calamari is being scrutinized by the New York City District Attorney's Office as part of their wide-ranging probe into whether the company and/or executives there committed fraud. Here, the apparent focus is on whether the Trump Organization and top brass skirted tax laws by providing employees with fringe benefits that were never accounted for in tax filings." The prosecutors' effort is an attempt to flip Calamari. ~~~
~~~ Probably Because This. Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post: "... officials involved in the ... investigation [of Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg] have grown frustrated about what they view as a lack of cooperation from Weisselberg and believe he continues to regularly speak with Trump, according to a person familiar with the inquiry.... 'Just to say "He's the money man' actually underestimates his role. He was more than that even. He was the whole enchilada,' said Tristan Snell, who headed the New York attorney general's investigation of Trump University, which led in 2016 to a $25 million settlement of fraud allegations. 'Allen Weisselberg really ran the whole company.'" ~~~
~~~ John Santucci & Aaron Katarsky of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's company sued New York City Monday for allegedly wrongfully terminating contracts the Trump Organization had to operate city facilities.... Mayor [Bill] de Blasio announced in January he was moving to terminate the contracts with the former president's company following the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'The President incited a rebellion against the United States that killed five people and threatened to derail the constitutional transfer of power,' de Blasio said at the time. 'The City of New York will not be associated with those unforgivable acts in any shape, way or form, and we are immediately taking steps to terminate all Trump Organization contracts.'"
Trump Urged U.S. Government Agencies to Muzzle SNL, Others. Asawin Suebsaeng & Adam Rawnsley of the Daily Beast: "In March 2019..., [Donald Trump] had just watched an episode of ... [Saturday Night Live] (it wasn't even a new episode, it was a rerun), and grew immediately incensed that the show was gently mocking him. 'It's truly incredible that shows like Saturday Night Live, not funny/no talent, can spend all of their time knocking the same person (me), over & over, without so much of a mention of "the other side,"' Trump tweeted.... 'Like an advertisement without consequences. Same with Late Night Shows. Should Federal Election Commission and/or FCC look into this?' It was, on its face, a ridiculous question and threat, as SNL is obviously satire, and therefore a form of protected speech in America that pissed-off commanders-in-chief have no authority to directly subvert.... [But] according to two people familiar with the matter, Trump had asked advisers and lawyers in early 2019 about what the Federal Communications Commission, the courts systems, and ... the Department of Justice could do to probe or mitigate SNL, Jimmy Kimmel, and other late-night comedy mischief-makers."
Robert Klemko of the Washington Post: When left-wing activist outed Edward Dawson of Washington State for harassing two journalists in Washington, D.C., his boss fired him and his wife lost her job, too, possibly because of her online show of support for her violent, extremist husband. "The disclosure online of Dawson's personal information -- a phenomenon known as doxing -- is part of a growing effort by left-wing activists to punish members of far-right groups accused of violent behavior by exposing them to their employers, family and friends. The doxing of Dawson highlights the effect the tactic can have -- unemployment and personal upheaval followed by a new job that pays much less than his old one -- but also the limits of the technique: Dawson is unrepentant for his role in galvanizing a mob to harass [the journalists] and continues to espouse far-right views."
The Washington Post picked up the story of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's (D-R.I.) association with a possibly-all-white private club. We linked a local story about this Monday.
I'd Rather Sell Pot, Man. Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post: "Retail workers, drained from the pandemic and empowered by a strengthening job market, are leaving jobs like never before. Americans are ditching their jobs by the millions, and retail is leading the way with the largest increase in resignations of any sector. Some 649,000 retail workers put in their notice in April, the industry's largest one-month exodus since the Labor Department began tracking such data more than 20 years ago. Some are finding less stressful positions at insurance agencies, marijuana dispensaries, banks and local governments, where their customer service skills are rewarded with higher wages and better benefits. Others are going back to school to learn new trades, or waiting until they are able to secure reliable child care."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid updates for Monday are here.
Jeanne Whalen of the Washington Post: "The transmission of the more contagious delta variant in the United States could spur a fall surge in coronavirus infections if only 75 percent of the country's eligible population is vaccinated, former Food and Drug Administration chief Scott Gottlieb said Sunday.... He said states with low vaccination rates already are showing a concerning rise in cases with the spreading of delta, which is up to 60 percent more contagious than earlier variants.... He urged a renewed vaccination push closer to the fall, as people prepare to return to school and work, when he said they may be more open to the shots." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In regard to Covid-19, as in some other matters, you are safer if your neighbors aren't nitwits.
Beyond the Beltway
Missouri. Corbin Bolies of the Daily Beast: "Days after St. Louis gun fanatic Mark McCloskey was forced to give up the guns he waved at protestors last year..., [he] took to Twitter Saturday to brag about his new purchase -- an AR-15. 'Checking out my new AR!' he wrote. McCloskey and his wife, Patricia, pleaded guilty Thursday to numerous misdemeanors in connection with an incident last year, in which they brandished guns at protesters during the racial justice protests last year. The couple was required to pay thousands of dollars in fines and, as part of their deal, had to give up the guns they waved."
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