The Commentariat -- February 24, 2021

Late Morning Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine appears safe and effective, particularly against severe disease, though questions remain about how well it works in older people, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The vaccine is 66 percent effective against overall Covid-19 illness but less effective against B.1.351, the strain first found in South Africa. The agency laid out data in briefing documents posted ahead of a Feb. 25 meeting of an independent advisory panel of vaccine experts that will discuss whether the vaccine should be authorized for people 18 and older."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Neera Tanden saw both of her Senate committee votes postponed Wednesday morning, the latest sign that her nomination to become director of the White House budget office is on the brink of collapse. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget committees sent out notices Wednesday saying that their slated votes on Tanden's nomination to become director of the Office of Management and Budget would be delayed."

Georgia Senate Race 2022. Reis Thebault & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former Georgia senator David Perdue will not run for Senate in 2022, he said Tuesday, backing out of the race a week after he filed the paperwork to explore a bid. Perdue made his decision days after he traveled to Florida to meet with ... Donald Trump and grew concerned [Trump] was not focused on helping Republicans win in 2022.... The two men get along well, but Perdue was reportedly disturbed by Trump's lack of focus on helping Republicans in 2022 and by his desire to exact revenge on party members he deemed insufficiently loyal, a person with knowledge of Perdue's thinking said. Perdue feared Trump would create a difficult climate, the person said." A CNN report is here.

"Alien Reptiles." Steve Cavendish, et al., of the New York Times lay out what is known about the Nashville Christmas bomber's motivations. "The F.B.I. and other federal and local law enforcement agencies investigating the bombing have not made any findings public, although officials said they expect a report by early March. Whatever else might have been on [Anthony] Warner's mind in the period leading up to his death, he had been fixated for years on the notion that alien reptiles who inhabited underground tunnels controlled the earth, a fantasy spread by a notorious British serial conspiracy theorist."

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Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Biden spoke by video conference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada on Tuesday, trying in his first virtual meeting with a foreign leader to restore a sense of normalcy to a core relationship brusquely upended by ... Donald J. Trump. Mr. Trump often cast America's northern neighbor, close ally and key trading partner as an economic predator and insulted Mr. Trudeau as 'two-faced,' 'weak' and 'dishonest.' Tuesday's tone could hardly have been more different. 'The United States has no closer friend than Canada,' Mr. Biden told Mr. Trudeau just before their meeting. 'We're all best served when the United States and Canada work together and lead together.' 'U.S. leadership has been sorely missed over the past years,' Mr. Trudeau responded.... In their statements [following their meeting], Mr. Biden and Mr. Trudeau said they would cooperate not only on climate change but also on the coronavirus, as well as on restoring their respective economies and combating racial discrimination. Mr. Biden also said that closer cooperation would allow the United States and Canada to more effectively compete with China.... But the relationship between the United States and Canada is not trouble free [because of disagreements over the Keystone XL pipeline & dairy tariffs]."

Joe Makes the Tough Calls, Too. Hans Nichols of Axios: "President Biden plans to call Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Wednesday, ahead of the public release of a potentially damning intelligence report about the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a source briefed on the call told Axios.... The report, an unclassified document produced by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence for expected release on Thursday, implies Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was involved in Khashoggi's murder and dismemberment at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.... Biden is moving to recalibrate the Saudi relationship after the Trump administration made Riyadh's preferences in the Persian Gulf a priority for U.S. foreign policy."

John Hudson & Anne Gearan of the Washington Post: "The Senate confirmed President Biden's nominee for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Tuesday, elevating an African American woman and career diplomat to one of the most high-profile jobs in diplomacy. The upper chamber took an initial step, voting 78 to 20 to elevate Linda Thomas-Greenfield to ambassador status, with Democrats and moderate Republicans praising her decades of experience serving under presidents of both parties. A second vote to make her 'representative of the United States of America to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations' was 78 to 21."

Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "The Senate voted 92 to 7 Tuesday to approve President Biden's nomination of Tom Vilsack as agriculture secretary. Vilsack's path to confirmation was expected to be smooth after the Senate Agriculture Committee voted unanimously this month to advance his nomination, and many Republicans voted in favor Tuesday, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.). Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) broke with Democrats to vote against his nomination.... Asked about his no vote on the Vilsack confirmation, Sanders told The Washington Post, 'Well, I like Tom, and I've known him for years. But I think we need somebody a little bit more vigorous in terms of protecting family farms and taking on corporate agriculture.' Vilsack had faced intense criticism from civil rights activists saying he did not go far enough to eradicate racial discrimination at the agency or to support farmers of color during his first stint in the role. Corey Lea, a Black rancher in Murfreesboro, Tenn., and head of the Cowtown Foundation advocacy group, sent an open letter to Biden objecting to Vilsack's appointment. But he said Vilsack's confirmation represented an opportunity to make amends for the missteps in his first time in the job."

Darryl Fears of the Washington Post: "The Senate confirmation hearing for Deb Haaland, nominated to become the first Native American interior secretary, morphed Tuesday into a proxy fight over the future of fossil fuels as lawmakers from oil- and gas-producing states grilled her regarding the Biden administration's embrace of green energy. Nearly all the Republican members of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee questioned Haaland about her past statements regarding the need to stop drilling on federal lands managed by the Interior Department. President Biden, who says the country needs to transition away from burning fossil fuels to mitigate climate change, has paused new drilling leases on public lands and waters -- a sharp departure from the Trump administration, which worked to expand drilling.... Through it all, Haaland ... remained calm, stressed that she wanted to work with supporters and opponents alike, and kept her answers short. Haaland, 60, sought to defuse aggressive questions from Republicans by reminding them that she was named the most bipartisan freshman congresswoman during her first term in the House as a Democrat from New Mexico, a seat to which she was reelected in November."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell will support Merrick Garland's nomination for attorney general, five years after blocking the judge's path to the Supreme Court.... McConnell has described his decision to block Garland as the 'most consequential thing I've ever done.'" ~~~

~~~ Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "One nominee, Judge Merrick Garland, is sailing toward confirmation as the next attorney general. Another, Neera Tanden, is on the defensive as the nominee to become director of the Office of Management and Budget. What they share at this moment is the capacity of Republicans for compartmentalization and deliberate memory loss.... What was unspoken [during Garland's Senate hearing] but circulating through the hearing room throughout the day was the fact that this was the same committee, and many of the same committee Republicans, who denied Garland so much as a hearing when he was nominated by Presidnt Barack Obama in early 2016 to fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the death of conservative justice Antonin Scalia.... If giving offense on Twitter were the standard, Republicans should have abandoned Trump long ago. Instead, they looked the other way, pretending they never so much as read those tweets. Some Republicans say confirmation of [Neera] Tanden would not help in the healing process the country needs, ignoring the principal cause of the need for national restoration: a president twice impeached, and twice acquitted with overwhelming support from his party." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It has taken Both-Sider Dan a lo-o-ong time to come around, but at long last he has found an issue where GOP hypocrisy slightly outweighs his disdain for Democrats.

Mike DeBonis & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Top officials responsible for security at the Capitol on Jan. 6 as it was overrun by a mob backing ... Donald Trump blamed wide-ranging intelligence failures for the deadly attack at a Senate hearing Tuesday, pointing to lapses that included a missed email warning of violence and a larger inability to recognize the threat posed by domestic right-wing extremism. Three now-resigned officials -- Capitol Police chief Steven A. Sund, House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul D. Irving and Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael C. Stenger -- each sought to minimize their responsibility for the events on that violent and chaotic day, which resulted in five deaths from injuries at the riot and temporarily delayed the congressional certification of President Biden's victory. But they each, to varying degrees, detailed how they were caught off-guard by the scale and ferocity of the pro-Trump crowd, which escalated from a relatively peaceful protest to a violent mob in a span of hours while security officials scrambled -- and ultimately failed -- to respond.... 'We properly planned for a mass demonstration with possible violence. What we got was a military-style, coordinated assault on my officers and a violent takeover of the Capitol Building,' [Sund said]." The New York Times' story is here. ~~~

~~~ Beth Reinhard & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Around 7 p.m. on Jan. 5..., an FBI bulletin warning that extremists were calling for violent attacks on Congress landed in an email inbox used by the D.C. police department. That same evening, a member of the Capitol Police received the same memo. But the alert was not flagged for top officials at either agency, according to congressional testimony Tuesday -- deepening questions about the breakdowns that contributed to massive security failures on Jan. 6. Both acting D.C. police chief Robert J. Contee III and former Capitol Police chief Steven Sund said the intelligence community at large failed to detect key information about the intentions of the attackers and adequately communicate what was known in the run-up to the Capitol riot.... But Tuesday's joint hearing by two Senate committees also spotlighted the stark warnings that were issued before Congress met in a joint session to formalize Joe Biden's victory. One came in the form of the Capitol Police's own intelligence report three days before the attack, as The Washington Post first reported. In a 12-page memo, the agency's intelligence unit warned that 'Congress itself' could be targeted by angry Trump supporters.... Promoting all of this chaos and violence: 'President Trump himself,' the memo noted...." ~~~

~~~ Stupidest Senator Remains in Denial. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "After claiming that he had a battery of questions for the officials testifying about security lapses on that day, [Sen. Ron] Johnson instead spent his time delineating baseless claims about how the day unfolded written by a lone observer that had been published on a far-right website. The gist of the assessment is that since most of those present in D.C. that day were run-of-the-mill Trump supporters, those who stormed the Capitol must almost necessarily have been something else.... Johnson's goal was the same goal he had last week when he offered that the events of that day didn't amount to an 'armed insurrection,' a claim that hinges largely on what you think counts as armament worthy of the adjective.... Johnson's effort is by no means the only one underway." Bump cites House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.), Fox "News"' Tucker Carlson, the American Conservative Union's Matt Schlapp. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I watched about 30 seconds of Johnson's spiel: he characterized the Trump crowd as "families with children," a bunch of "positive and festive" ordinary Americans out for a picnic on the Mall. Those who attacked the Capitol, on the other hand, were Antifa "provocateurs." Until about a month ago, Ron Johnson was chairman of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee. Imagine the type of hearing he would have held -- if at all -- on the January 6 insurrection. Now say thank you, again, to Stacey Abrams. ~~~

As our hearing concludes, I want to make one thing clear: 'provocateurs' did not storm the Capitol. They were not 'fake Trump protestors.' The mood on January 6th was not 'festive.' That is disinformation. -- Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who co-led the hearing, in a tweet Tuesday afternoon

Yep, that was just what Mike Pence & Karen Pence were thinking... "What a festive crowd!"..... pic.twitter.com/OzOVqs4ttl

— 🇺🇸PatsLadi99 #TeamJustice 🇺🇸😷🏈🌏🗽⛵🍀✌ (@PatsLadi99) February 23, 2021

Aaron Navarro of CBS News: "Liz Cheney, the third ranking House Republican, on Tuesday called on the Republican party to 'make clear we aren't the party of white supremacy.' Cheney's remarks came during an event hosted by the Reagan Institute. 'It's very important for us to ignore the temptation to look away,' Cheney said. '.... You certainly saw anti-Semitism. You saw the symbols of Holocaust denial... you saw a Confederate flag being carried through the rotunda,' she said, referencing the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. 'We, as Republicans in particular, have a duty and an obligation to stand against that, to stand against insurrection.'... 'The president [Trump] and many around him pushed this idea that the election had been stolen. And that is a dangerous claim. It wasn't true,' she said.... She added that the commission [to examine the causes of the January 6 insurrection] should look into media organizations that pushed or continue to push the narrative of a fraudulent election, saying they are contributing to a very dangerous set of circumstances.'"

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A retired New York police officer who once was part of the security detail at City Hall was charged on Tuesday with assaulting a police officer with a metal flagpole during the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6. The former officer, Thomas Webster, served in a New York Police Department unit that provided security for the mayor, Gracie Mansion and City Hall.... He retired from the force in 2011. Mr. Webster, 54, a former Marine, surrendered to the F.B.I. on Monday and was charged with six counts relating to the attack on an officer from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and his participation in the violent attempt to stop Congress from certifying the presidential election results. A federal prosecutor said there were videos of Mr. Webster attacking the Washington officer, first with a metal flagpole that earlier had flown a Marine Corps flag, and then with his bare hands. According to court documents, after the officer wrestled the flagpole away from Mr. Webster, the former Marine tackled the officer, pinned him to the ground, straddled him and attempted to rip off his face shield and gas mask -- an attack that left the officer unable to breathe. 'These videos shock the conscience,' the prosecutor, Benjamin A. Gianforti, said. He said Mr. Webster had shown an utter lack of compassion and had pursued the officer he attacked 'like a junkyard dog.'" An NBC News New York story is here.

A Queens Man Was Arrested for Alleged Role in Capitol Insurrection. David Brand of the Queens Daily Eagle: "A Republican district leader from Queens was arrested Tuesday and charged with various offenses for storming the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. FBI agents arrested Philip Grillo, a former candidate in the special election for Queens Council District 24, at his girlfriend's home in Glen Oaks after identifying him by a Knights of Columbus jacket he was wearing inside the Capitol, federal prosecutors said. Grillo is charged with obstructing an official proceeding, trespassing and other offenses for his alleged role in the Capitol insurrection. A federal magistrate judge ordered Grillo released on $100,000 bond Tuesday afternoon. Grillo, 46, goes by 'The Republican Messiah' on Facebook and lives in Glen Oaks. He is a district leader in Assembly District 24, which he identifies as 'President Trumps Hometown District' on his Facebook page." MB: If only that "Queens Man" were Trump.

Rob Crilly of the (right-wing) Washington Examiner: "... Donald Trump told friends he would not appear at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Florida if Mike Pence, his always-loyal vice president, was also on the bill, according to people familiar with his conversations.... [Trump] remains furious with Pence for refusing to try to block the certification of Biden's Electoral College victory.... A spokesman for Trump said no such demand was ever made.... Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union and a primary organizer of CPAC, said Pence had declined an invitation." MB: Gee, maybe pence remains furious with Trump for trying to kill him.

Asawin Suebsaeng & Lachlan Cartwright of the Daily Beast: "... investigators with the D.A.'s office have been expanding their criminal probe into Trump's business empire, asking questions and grilling witnesses -- as recently as in the past few days -- not only about Trump but particularly about his eldest son, Don Jr., and Allen Weisselberg, one of the former president's most trusted officers...."

Rudy Tried to Outrun Process-Servers. Zoe Richards of TPM: "Rudy Giuliani spent a week desperately dodging being served a $1.3 billion defamation lawsuit filed by Dominion Voting Systems after publicly suggesting he welcomed the legal challenge, the New York Daily News reported Monday evening.... 'After not responding to requests to waive service, Mr. Giuliani evaded in-person service of process for nearly a week,' said Tom Clare, an attorney for Dominion. 'It took numerous attempts, at both his home and office, before we were able to successfully serve Mr. Giuliani on February 10.'... While Giuliani has publicly threatened to counter sue ... and has even appeared to welcome the trial, a more private look into his efforts to dodge being served the suit paints a more desperate image of the attorney seeking to avoid litigation." MB: The story recounts some of Rudy's dodges, which are of a slapstick nature. Giuliani is the most risible character in Trump's stable of misfits, con-men & mobsters.

Supremes Tee Up Arizona Jim Crow Laws. Ian Millhiser of Vox: "Next Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear two cases that could shred much of what remains of the right to be free from racial discrimination at the polls. The defendants' arguments in two consolidated cases, Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee and Arizona Republican Party v. Democratic National Committee, are some of the most aggressive attacks on the right to vote to reach the Supreme Court in the post-Jim Crow era. These two DNC cases concern two Arizona laws that make it more difficult to vote. The first requires voting officials to discard in their entirety ballots cast in the wrong precinct, rather than just not counting votes for local candidates who the voter should not have been able to vote for. The second prohibits many forms of 'ballot collection,' where a voter gives their absentee ballot to someone else and that person delivers that ballot to the election office." Thanks to RAS for the link.

New York. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: A homemade explosive device two brothers were rigging to announce the gender of a Catskill couple's womb-bound baby "unexpectedly malfunctioned, killing the expectant father and seriously injuring his 27-year-old brother, New York State Police said in a statement Monday.... Gender-reveal parties, which have roots in a 2008 parenting blog, have turned dangerous in recent years, as excited couples have opted for increasingly elaborate stunts to share whether they are having a boy or a girl. A novelty cannon killed a Michigan man at a gender-reveal party earlier this month. A soon-to-be grandmother died in Iowa after shrapnel from a homemade explosive device struck her chest in 2019. The parties have also sparked wildfires and caused a plane crash in recent years." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wish one of these expectant couples would invite me to their gender-reveal party so I could RSVP: "I don't give a flying fuck about the sex of your expected child. I just hope you don't accidentally kill any of your guests, one of whom won't be me. P.S. Bear in mind that if you do kill someone, your child may spend her first years in an orphanage while you serve time for manslaughter, you self-absorbed nitwits."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Isaac Stanley-Becker & Christopher Rowland of the Washington Post: "Drug companies told lawmakers Tuesday they project a major increase in vaccine deliveries that will result in 140 million more doses over the next five weeks, saying they have solved manufacturing challenges and are in a position to overcome scarcity that has hampered the nation's fight against the coronavirus.... But achieving a surge on that scale remains daunting. Pfizer and Moderna ... will need to increase their combined deliveries to date of 80 million doses to reach their promised target of 220 million shots by March 31. That's a goal of 28 million doses each week on average, far greater than their performance so far. The Biden administration told governors Tuesday that doses allotted to states would grow from 13.5 million to 14.5 million per week, and it also directed 2.1 million doses to pharmacies...."

California. Los Angeles Times, republished by KTLA: "A coronavirus variant that emerged in mid-2020 and surged to become the dominant strain in California not only spreads more readily than its predecessors, but also evades antibodies generated by COVID-19 vaccines or prior infection and it's associated with severe illness and death, researchers said. In a study that helps explain the state's dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths -- and portends further trouble ahead -- scientists at UC San Francisco said the cluster of mutations that characterizes the homegrown strain should mark it as a 'variant of concern' on par with those from the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil."

Beyond the Beltway

Maryland. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "With no way of paying tuition, Calvin E. Tyler Jr. dropped out of college in his hometown, Baltimore, in 1963 before becoming a truck driver for UPS. He was quickly promoted into management and ultimately worked his way into the company's executive suite, serving as its senior vice president for U.S. operations as well as a director. Nearly 60 years after he was forced to abandon his schooling, Mr. Tyler and his wife, Tina Tyler, have pledged $20 million to endow scholarships for financially needy students at the college he left, now known as Morgan State University. In making the announcement this week, officials said they believed the gift was the largest a former student has ever made to a historically Black university."

Michigan. Female Officials Receive Trump-Incited Threats. Todd Spangler of the Detroit Free Press: "U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin and Michigan Court of Claims Judge Cynthia Stephens were the targets of threatening communications related to the run-up to the Nov. 3, 2020, election and its aftermath by two men -- one from Michigan and one from Georgia, state Attorney General Dana Nessel said Tuesday.... Nessel said [Daniel] Thompson, who identified himself as a Republican, said he was angry about the results of the November election, that he had joined a militia group and that there would be violence if the results of the election were not changed. The voicemail was left the day before a mob of ... Donald Trump's supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol.... [Nessel] said Thompson was also charged with making a threatening call to Slotkin.... Nessel's office also said Clinton Stewart, 43, of Douglas, Georgia, has been charged with one count of malicious use of a telecommunications service for allegedly leaving a threatening voicemail message for Stephens on Sept. 18 in which he referenced 'activist judges' issuing rulings to help Biden win the Nov. 3 general election through the expanded use of mail-in ballots."

Minnesota. Tim Arango & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "A new federal grand jury has been empaneled in Minneapolis and the Justice Department has called new witnesses as part of its investigation of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who will go on trial in state court next month on a murder charge for the death of George Floyd, according to two people.... The fresh slate of witnesses subpoenaed to give testimony about Mr. Chauvin is an early sign that the federal investigation into the death of Mr. Floyd, which began last year and then languished, is being reinvigorated under the administration of President Biden. Mr. Chauvin, who is white, was seen in harrowing video footage kneeling for more than nine minutes on the neck of Mr. Floyd, a Black man, as he begged for his life. The video set off protests across the United States, some of which led to violence in cities including Minneapolis, Seattle, Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C."

New York. Sarah Nir of the New York Times: "The police officers who placed a mesh hood on a Black man last year and pressed his head down until he lost consciousness will not be charged in his death, officials said Tuesday, after a grand jury convened to investigate the case declined to bring an indictment. The killing of the man, Daniel Prude, in Rochester, N.Y., touched off intense protests in that city and others during a national reckoning around racism and brutality in policing. Mr. Prude's death was one of many instances in which Black men died in police custody in recent years. Public records showed that the Rochester Police Department sought to conceal the circumstances -- captured in graphic police body camera footage -- of Mr. Prude's death. The case led to the dismissal of the city's police chief." MB: Odd how prosecutors can indict a ham sandwich but not white cops who cause the death of a black man.

Texas. Erin Douglas & Mitchell Ferman of the Texas Tribune: "Five board members of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas -- the entity that manages and operates the electricity grid that covers much of Texas -- will resign on Wednesday, according to a notice to the Public Utility Commission. A sixth has withdrawn his application to the board. All six live outside of Texas.... ERCOT board members had come under fire last week when it was reported that some did not reside in the state. ERCOT officials, during a press conference last week, said it had temporarily removed personal information about the directors from its website because they were experiencing harassment.... Gov. Greg Abbott had called on ERCOT board members to resign in the aftermath of the crisis and said in a statement Tuesday that he welcomes their resignations, promising to investigate the grid operator.... The board directors wrote that before they resign, they will launch [a] review of the power crisis."

Way Beyond

Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "The Israeli government has pledged to send thousands of spare coronavirus vaccines to foreign allies, reigniting a debate about Israel's responsibilities to people closer to home: Palestinians living under Israeli occupation.... Israel has pledged at least twice as many doses to faraway countries as it has so far promised to the nearly five million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.... The vaccines allocated on Tuesday were given without conditions, but they tacitly reward recent gestures from the receiving countries that implicitly accept Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians consider their capital." MB: I remember when I was a knee-jerk supporter of Israel. Not. Any. More.

The Commentariat -- February 23, 2021

Daniel Strauss of the Guardian: "In a somber address to the nation as the US surpassed half a million coronavirus deaths on Monday, Joe Biden urged the country to unify in its battle against the virus.... Biden used the speech to urge Americans to overcome partisanship and follow public health guidelines as his administration races to distribute vaccines and end the pandemic.... Biden focused on the loss Americans have felt because of the pandemic and the larger theme of coming together.... Biden's speech was bookended by solemn rituals to honor the 500,000 deaths. Ahead of his address, the National Cathedral rang its bells 500 times; afterwards, the president joined the first lady Jill Biden, Vice-president Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff outside the White House, where they observed a moment of silence surrounded by 500 candles." A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

Michael Balsamo, et al., of the AP: "Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's attorney general nominee, vowed Monday to prioritize combating extremist violence and said his first focus would be on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as he sought to assure lawmakers that the Justice Department would remain politically independent on his watch.... 'The attorney general represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,' Garland said. 'I do not plan to be interfered with by anyone.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Wherein Judge Garland Explains Sedition to a Seditionist. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... [Sen. Josh] Hawley [R-Kan.Mo.] didn't want to talk about the violence against police generated by his own attempt to overturn the election. He insisted that [Judge Merrick] Garland talk about 'assaults on federal property in places other than Washington' -- specifically, during racial-justice protests -- and whether those qualify as 'domestic terrorism.' Garland was not distracted by the seditionist's sleight of hand. He explained that using violence 'to disrupt democratic processes' (as occurred in the Capitol) is domestic terrorism, while attacking a courthouse at night (as occurred in Portland) is not. 'Both are criminal, but one is a core attack on our democratic institutions.'... For four years..., Donald Trump railed about 'law and order' while breaking the former and undermining the latter. In Garland, we see a restoration of actual law and order."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Neera Tanden, president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, seemed unlikely to be confirmed as budget director in the Biden administration after Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, two moderate Republican senators, said they would not vote in her favour." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ IOKIYAR White Guy. Laura Barron-Lopez & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "Women's rights activists and allied Democrats are growing increasingly vocal about what they call the unfair targeting of women and people of color nominated by Joe Biden to top posts in his administration.... Inside the White House, it did not go unnoticed that many of the lawmakers objecting to Tanden's social media missives -- including [Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.] -- voted to confirm Richard Grenell, the acid-tongued Trump booster, to the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany. Democrats on and off the Hill likewise argued that [Neera] Tanden, who is of South Asian descent, was one of several nominees of color being treated differently than Trump-era nominees who lobbed personal attacks or expressed bigoted views.... Her supporters now say that her social media presence is being used as a cover by her opponents, noting that she has apologized, deleted and taken ownership for her tweets. And Democrats argue that after the Trump years, there is little justification for having someone's online behavior serve as a disqualifier." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post Editors: "Republicans spent four years playing down and forgiving ... Donald Trump's disgusting tweets. Not a single Republican voted against confirming Richard Grenell, Mr. Trump's ambassador to Germany, despite his history of Twitter trolling -- including nasty comments about the appearances of female journalists and world leaders -- which was far worse than Ms. Tanden's tweets. Mr. Manchin voted to confirm Mr. Grenell, too.... Is it unacceptable for the OMB director to be strongly partisan? Republicans didn't think so when they jammed through Mick Mulvaney, a co-founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, to be Mr. Trump's first OMB chair...."

Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The U.S. is preparing to respond to Russia's poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and is expected to coordinate a sanctions rollout with European allies in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The response would mark a break with the previous administration, which prepared a sanctions package following Navalny's poisoning but never implemented it, the people said. It would also constitute the new administration's first major step in holding Russia accountable for human rights abuses, which [President] Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have listed as a key pillar of their foreign policy agenda."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected ... Donald Trump's last-chance effort to keep his private financial records from the Manhattan district attorney, ending a long and drawn-out legal battle. After a four-month delay, the court denied Trump's motion in a one-sentence order with no recorded dissents. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has won every stage of the legal fight -- including the first round at the Supreme Court -- but has yet to receive the records he says are necessary for a grand jury investigation into whether the president's companies violated state law." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As Ken writes, "Whoopie!" Update: The New York Times' story is here. Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ "What's Next?" William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Terabytes of data. Dozens of prosecutors, investigators and forensic accountants sifting through millions of pages of financial documents. An outside consulting firm drilling down on the arcana of commercial real estate and tax strategies. That is the monumental task that lies ahead in the Manhattan district attorney's criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump and his family business after a United States Supreme Court order on Monday cleared the way for prosecutors to obtain eight years worth of Mr. Trump's tax returns and other financial records.... The crucial next phase in the Manhattan inquiry will begin in earnest this week when investigators for the district attorney's office collect the records from the law firm that represents Mr. Trump's accountants, Mazars USA...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "In addition to the tax returns, Mr. Trump's accountants, Mazars USA, must also produce business records on which those returns are based and communications with the Trump Organization. Such material could provide important context and background to decisions that Mr. Trump or his accountants made when preparing to file taxes." ~~~

     ~~~ digby reproduces much of Jonathan Chait's (New York) post on how angry Trump is that a grand jury will get to see tax returns that every other presidential candidate in recent history has voluntarily revealed publicly. Chait: "Trump's position on the tax returns rests on a series of assertions, ranging from his false claim that Robert Mueller found 'No Collusion' to his insistence that he actually won the 2020 election to his extremely ironic complaint that prosecutors targeting their political opponents is 'fascism, not justice.'... The most conspicuous absence from Trump's statement is any explanation as to why he has fought so hard to conceal this information, which all his predecessors willingly disclosed." Here's a funny part of Trump's everybody's-picking-on-me rant: "This is something which has never happened to a president before." Chait points to the obvious: no other president has refused to release the info. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. reproduces Trump's rant, via Jim Acosta of CNN. Steve sees in the rant another call to violence: "He says prosecutors want to 'take [him] out' -- and then writes, 'except that the people of our Country won't stand for it.'... After January 6, we know ... they'd do it by means of political violence.... The risk of a violent mass disruption of a Trump trial is great. And in his statement today, I think Trump is trying to summon just such a response." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Steve also points out something I've been meaning to mention: "When Trump says, 'the people of our Country,' he always means the people of his country: Trump voters, whom he regards as the only legitimate Americans." This is made obvious, I think, by the way Trump often pronounces "our" when he says "our country." When I say "our country," it usually comes out "are country," with the emphasis on "country"; I slide over "our." When Trump says "our country," he emphasizes "our," which he extends to two syllables: "ow!-er" and makes the modifier "our" as important as -- or more important than -- the noun "country."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... a bipartisan group of senators is pressing ahead with a series of investigative hearings to scrutinize the security breakdowns that failed to prevent the deadly pro-Trump rampage. The inquiry begins on Tuesday with a joint hearing of two Senate committees to question the officials who were in charge of securing the Capitol during the attack, when Capitol Police officers and members of the District of Columbia's police force called in as reinforcements were overrun as the vice president and members of the House and the Senate were gathered inside."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans who sought to disqualify mailed ballots in the 2020 presidential election that arrived after Election Day. The court's brief order gave no reasons for turning down the case, which as a practical matter marked the end of Supreme Court litigation over the election. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented, saying the court should have used it to provide guidance in future elections. The dissenting justices acknowledged that the number of ballots at issue in the case was too small to affect President Biden's victory in the state. But the legal question the case presented -- about the power of state courts to revise election laws -- was, they said, a significant one that should be resolved without the pressure of an impending election."

     ~~~ Rick Hasen comments here. ~~~

     ~~~ Clarence's "Argument from Ignorance." Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was not happy that his colleagues ... chose to pass up the opportunity to weigh in on a slew of cases stemming from last year's presidential elections, penning a highly critical dissent. Attorneys, on the other hand, pointed out that the stalwart conservative appeared to adopt the 'argument from ignorance' fallacy with regards to voter irregularities, suggesting that a lack of proof is not enough to show fraud did not occur.... In a footnote..., Thomas ... postulates that a proposition may be true simply because it hasn't been definitively proven to be false.... Thomas then went on to espouse what he views as the dangers inherently presented by widespread absentee voting, citing several examples of attempted fraud -- none of which took place over the latest election cycle -- and a 2012 New York Times article to conclude that 'the risk of fraud is "vastly more prevalent" for mail-in voting ballots.'"

Who Would Have Thought an "Oath Keeper" Would Lie in a Sworn Court Document? Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Jessica Watkins, a leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection, changed her story Monday about meeting with Secret Service agents in describing her actions on January 6. In a court filing over the weekend, Watkins said she was given a VIP pass to the Trump rally, had met with Secret Service agents and was providing security for legislators and others, including in their march to the Capitol. But on Monday, Watkins took back some of those assertions, saying she had merely spoken with Secret Service members as she passed through security at the rally." MB: Apparently Oath Keepers don't take oath-keeping too seriously. Ever.

Ken Klippenstein & Eric Lichtblau of the Intercept: "Within hours of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting -- including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions.... The Justice Department has publicly said that its task force includes senior public corruption officials. That involvement 'indicates a focus on public officials, i.e. Capitol Police and members of Congress,' the retired FBI official said. In recent years, the FBI has had to tread lightly in seeking any records of members of Congress due to protections under the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which shields the legislative work of Congress from executive branch interference.... On January 11, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., released a statement warning against the Justice Department getting involved in the investigation of the attack, at least regarding members of Congress, asserting that the Senate should oversee the matter."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: At civil rights icon John Lewis's funeral last year, President "Obama asked Democrats to kill the filibuster and pass a voting rights bill because it was the right thing to do. But there's a stronger argument: that if Democrats don't do this, they'll be at the mercy of a Trumpified Republican Party that has radicalized against democracy itself. Democrats have already written the kind of voting rights bill Obama spoke about. It's the For the People Act, designated as H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate. If passed and signed into law, it would establish automatic, same-day and online voter registration, protect eligible voters from overly broad purges that remove them from the rolls, restore the Voting Rights Act with a new formula for federal preclearance..., re-enfranchise the formerly incarcerated, strengthen mail-in voting systems, institute nationwide early voting and increase criminal penalties for voter intimidation."

Kevin Collier of NBC News: "Voting-machine maker Dominion Voting Systems has sued Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and a staunch ally of ... Donald Trump, for $1.3 billion over his monthslong campaign of making false claims about the 2020 election. Lindell, the founder of a pillow company and one of Trump's most visible defenders after he lost the election, has spent months sharing a baseless conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden only won because of a sprawling conspiracy that includes the Venezuelan government and hacked voting machines."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~

It really does seem like @chucktodd @jonkarl and @margbrennan oughta maybe call a meeting and talk about how not to let lies that nearly destroyed the country air unchecked on their shows. https://t.co/fKCmhzs6DQ

— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) February 22, 2021

Alan Feuer & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker, best known as El Chapo, was arrested Monday and charged with helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire and plotting to break him out of prison after he was captured in 2014. Ms. Coronel, a former beauty queen, had been under investigation for at least two years by U.S. federal authorities for being an accomplice to her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who was convicted in 2019 at a trial in Brooklyn of masterminding a huge drug conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Court documents filed in Ms. Coronel's case said she relayed messages for Mr. Guzmán that helped him make drug shipments from 2012 to 2014 and evade capture by the legions of American and Mexican authorities who had been pursuing him for years. Evidence emerged at Mr. Guzmán's trial that Ms. Coronel was also a chief conspirator in a sophisticated plot to break him out of the Altiplano prison in Mexico by digging a nearly mile-long tunnel into the shower of his cell."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. See also President Biden's remarks, linked (+ embedded video) at the top of the page.)

Washington Post Editors: "The president has challenged ... critics [of the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package by asking rhetorically]: 'What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out?...'... The first trim should be to Mr. Biden's proposed $1,400 direct payments, the current House version of which would cost $422 billion. The 'checks' would phase out between $75,000 and $100,000 of individual income, and $150,000 and $200,000 for couples -- meaning all but the top-earning 10 percent of U.S. households would get at least some cash. That's a lot of money to shower on the non-poor.... Second, it is increasingly clear that the pandemic reduced states and local governments' revenue far less than initially feared, especially considering federal aid they have already received." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know enough about the editors' second proposal to agree or disagree, but I strongly agree with their first suggestion. First, researchers have found that the great majority of recipients of the first stimulus checks in May 2020 saved, rather than spent, the checks. I'm all for families building up their savings, but not at my expense. I resent being forced to take money out of my pocket to give to the savings accounts of couples who earn more than I do (I won't receive a stimulus check & have not in the last two rounds). The entire reason Biden & Congress are proposing the $1,400 for middle-class & upper-middle-class families is to make the measure more popular with a demographic group their courting (and with the White House aides who wrote the bill & Congressional aides who will help push it through, many of whom will see checks cut for them).

Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters: "Dr. Anthony Fauci ... said political divisiveness contributed significantly to the 'stunning' U.S. COVID-19 death toll, which on Monday surpassed 500,000 lives lost.... 'Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,' Fauci said, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the UK struggled with the virus. 'However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the most percentage of deaths and be the hardest-hit country in the world,' said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to President Joe Biden. 'That I believe should not have happened.'... The nation's failure cannot all be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, Fauci said. 'But the lack of involvement at the very top of the leadership in trying to do everything that was science-based was clearly detrimental to the effort.'... He called ... disregard [of Task Force-recommended phasing-in standards] by several governors and mayors "incomprehensible to me (when) you could see right in front of your eyes what was happening.'"

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Guardian & Agencies: "Police officers in Aurora, Colorado, did not have a legal basis to stop, frisk and use a chokehold on Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died after being restrained by officers and paramedics in the Denver suburb in August 2019, an independent investigation has found. According to a report published on Monday, 'body worn camera audio, limited video and ... interviews with the officers tell two contrasting stories. The officers' statements on the scene and in subsequent recorded interviews suggest a violent and relentless struggle.' The report added: 'The limited video, and the audio from the body worn cameras, reveal Mr McClain surrounded by officers, all larger than he, crying out in pain, apologizing, explaining himself and pleading with the officers.' McClain, a keen musician and athlete, was stopped on 24 August 2019, while walking home from a convenience store. He was not suspected of any crime."

Texas. Alana Rocha of the Texas Tribune: "At the height of last week's winter storm that left millions of Texans without access to heat and clean water, Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, were out of state on a 'previously planned' business trip to Utah, a spokesman confirmed.... 'AG Paxton did lose power, but did not leave Texas until after power had returned to most of the state, including his own home,' [a spokesperson] said in a statement." MB: But that isn't true. Power was out in wide swaths of the state last Thursday, and Ken had meetings in Utah on Wednesday & Friday. His staff did not reveal his whereabouts on Monday of precise when he left Texas & came back. ~~~

     ~~~ Paul LeBlanc, et al., of CNN: "As Texas attorney general, Paxton is responsible for overseeing key aspects of the state's response to the devastating winter storm." MB: That includes, for instance, consumer protection, at a time Texas were hit with multi-thousand-dollar bills for a few hours of power.

Virginia. Laura Vozzella & Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Two bills to abolish the death penalty in Virginia won final approval in the state General Assembly on Monday and were headed to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign them. Virginia -- historically one of the nation's most prolific death penalty states -- would then become the first in the South to abandon the ultimate punishment. The state Senate approved by a vote of 22 to 16 a House bill that bans executions and establishes a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A judge would have discretion to suspend part of that sentence -- a sticking point for some Republicans, who pushed unsuccessfully to make life without parole a mandatory minimum. An identical Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), passed the House by a 57-to-43 vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats. Del. Michael P. Mullin (D-Newport News), a prosecutor for the city of Hampton, carried the House version." (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

CNN: Golfer Tiger Woods was severely injured in a single-vehicle crash in Los Angeles County at about 7 am PT today. This page is a liveblog of developments.

New York Times: "Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a poet, publisher and political iconoclast who inspired and nurtured generations of San Francisco artists and writers from City Lights, his famed bookstore, died on Monday at his home in San Francisco. He was 101.... The spiritual godfather of the Beat movement, Mr. Ferlinghetti made his home base in the modest independent book haven now formally known as City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. A self-described 'literary meeting place' founded in 1953 and located on the border of the city's sometimes swank, sometimes seedy North Beach neighborhood, City Lights, on Columbus Avenue, soon became as much a part of the San Francisco scene as the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman's Wharf. (The city's board of supervisors designated it a historic landmark in 2001.)"

The Commentariat -- February 22, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Michael Balsamo, et al., of the AP: "Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's attorney general nominee, vowed Monday to prioritize combating extremist violence and said his first focus would be on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as he sought to assure lawmakers that the Justice Department would remain politically independent on his watch.... 'The attorney general represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,' Garland said. 'I do not plan to be interfered with by anyone.'"

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Neera Tanden, president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, seemed unlikely to be confirmed as budget director in the Biden administration after Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, two moderate Republican senators, said they would not vote in her favour."

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected ... Donald Trump's last-chance effort to keep his private financial records from the Manhattan district attorney, ending a long and drawn-out legal battle. After a four-month delay, the court denied Trump's motion in a one-sentence order with no recorded dissents. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has won every stage of the legal fight -- including the first round at the Supreme Court -- but has yet to receive the records he says are necessary for a grand jury investigation into whether the president's companies violated state law." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As Ken writes, "Whoopie!" Update: The New York Times' story is here. Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ "What's Next?" William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Terabytes of data. Dozens of prosecutors, investigators and forensic accountants sifting through millions of pages of financial documents. An outside consulting firm drilling down on the arcana of commercial real estate and tax strategies. That is the monumental task that lies ahead in the Manhattan district attorney's criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump and his family business after a United States Supreme Court order on Monday cleared the way for prosecutors to obtain eight years worth of Mr. Trump's tax returns and other financial records.... The crucial next phase in the Manhattan inquiry will begin in earnest this week when investigators for the district attorney's office collect the records from the law firm that represents Mr. Trump's accountants, Mazars USA...."

Virginia. Laura Vozzella & Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Two bills to abolish the death penalty in Virginia won final approval in the state General Assembly on Monday and were headed to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign them. Virginia -- historically one of the nation's most prolific death penalty states -- would then become the first in the South to abandon the ultimate punishment. The state Senate approved by a vote of 22 to 16 a House bill that bans executions and establishes a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A judge would have discretion to suspend part of that sentence -- a sticking point for some Republicans, who pushed unsuccessfully to make life without parole a mandatory minimum. An identical Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), passed the House by a 57-to-43 vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats. Del. Michael P. Mullin (D-Newport News), a prosecutor for the city of Hampton, carried the House version."

~~~~~~~~~~

Today is the anniversary of George Washington's birth. He was a slaveholder all of his adult life, but he still was a better president than used-prez* Fatso.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Attorney general nominee Merrick Garland plans to tell the Senate on Monday that if confirmed to become the nation's top law enforcement official, he will strive to lead an agency committed to battling discrimination in American life and extremist attacks on democracy. In written remarks prepared for delivery at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Garland, 68, highlighted the history of the Justice Department, noting that the agency was formed in the aftermath of the Civil War, and that many of the issues it confronted then remain pressing concerns today." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

All the President*'s Lawsuits. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "The state of Michigan and the city of Detroit have asked a federal judge to sanction attorneys who filed lawsuits that falsely alleged the November vote was fraudulent, the first of several similar efforts expected around the country.An Atlanta-area prosecutor has launched a criminal investigation into whether pressure that ... Donald Trump and his allies put on state officials amounted to an illegal scheme to overturn the results of the presidential election. And defamation lawsuits have been filed against Trump's allies -- the start of what could be a flood of civil litigation related to false claims that the election was rigged and to the subsequent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan.& 6. Although Trump was acquitted by the Senate on a charge that his rhetoric incited the deadly Capitol siege, public officials and private companies are pursuing a multi-front legal effort to hold him and his allies accountable in other ways. The actions target the former president and numerous others -- including elected officials, media pundits and lawyers -- who indulged and echoed his falsehoods that President Biden did not win the election."

** "The Lost Hours." Mark Mazzetti & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "At 1:09 p.m. on Jan. 6, minutes after protesters had burst through the barricades around the U.S. Capitol and began using the steel debris to assault the officers standing guard, the chief of the Capitol Police made a desperate call for backup. It took nearly two hours for officials to approve the deployment of the National Guard. New details about what transpired over those 115 minutes on that dark, violent day -- revealed in interviews and documents -- tell a story of how chaotic decision-making among political and military leaders burned precious time as the rioting at the Capitol spiraled out of control.... This period is likely to be a focus of a congressional hearing on Tuesday, when lawmakers will publicly question Steven A. Sund, the Capitol Police chief at the time, and other current and former officials for the first time...."

Jennifer Valentino-DeVries, et al., of the New York Times: "As federal prosecutors unveil charges in the assault on the Capitol last month, they have repeatedly highlighted two militant groups -- the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys -- as being the most organized, accusing them of planning their strategy ahead of time and in some cases helping escalate a rally into an attack. The two organizations stand in contrast to a majority of the mob. Of the more than 230 people charged so far, only 31 are known to have ties to a militant extremist group. And at least 26 of those are affiliated with the Oath Keepers or the Proud Boys.... Conspiracy charges, among the most serious levied so far, indicate that members of these groups may have worked together and planned their activities, potentially in ways that made them more dangerous than other rioters." MB: And isn't it odd?: both groups have known ties to Roger Stone who has known ties to Donald Trump.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection claims she was given a VIP pass to the pro-Trump rally on January 6, had met with Secret Service agents and was providing security for legislators and others, including in their march to the Capitol, according to a new court filing. Attorneys for Ohio Oath Keeper Jessica Watkins detail how the efforts among paramilitants who are now accused of conspiracy on January 6 were closer to the apparatus around ... Donald Trump and his rally than was previously known.... The US Secret Service, in response to Watkins' claims in the Saturday filing, denied that private citizens were working with the Secret Service to provide security on January 6." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "By taking part in the riots at the U.S. Capitol, Pennsylvania officer Joseph W. Fischer did not just break the laws he was tasked with enforcing, the FBI says -- he was also allegedly at 'the front of the pack pushing against the police.'... Fischer, a patrolman with the North Cornwall Township [east of Harrisburg] Police Department, is charged with obstructing law enforcement during 'civil disorder,' accused of aiding the insurrection that resulted in the deaths of one police officer and four others and left many others wounded. More than a dozen off-duty members of law enforcement are suspected of participating in the Jan. 6 riots.... But the allegations against Fischer stand out for how directly they pit him against members of his own profession."

A Mysterious Reversal of Fortunes. Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "A mining magnate who had been accused for years of corruption in deals he struck with leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, [Dan] Gertler had been slapped with stiff sanctions by the Trump administration in 2017, effectively cutting off his access to the international banking system and freezing money held in U.S. banks. He had unsuccessfully tried since then to get the sanctions rolled back by hiring high-powered lobbyists and lawyers, including Alan Dershowitz ... and the former F.B.I. director Louis Freeh. But with time running out on the Trump administration and the incoming Biden administration unlikely to give his pleas much of a hearing, Mr. Gertler put one last offer on the table.... In mid-January..., Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin granted Mr. Gertler much of what he wanted.... The decision stunned and angered American diplomats ... and government officials and human rights activists in the Democratic Republic of Congo.... The outcome was also distinguished by the secrecy of the process, which ... appeared to have been handled largely at the level of Mr. Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The decision became public only after Mr. Trump had left office."

Shawna Mizelle, et al., of CNN: "Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had amassed $4.7 million in her fundraising efforts to help Texans hard hit by last week's winter storm as of Sunday evening, her press secretary Ivet Contreras confirmed to CNN. The New York Democrat launched her fundraiser Thursday.... While in Texas [over the weekend], the progressive lawmaker and other Democrats visited food distribution centers, water delivery sites and toured the damage left behind from an unprecedented storm." MB: What's Ted Cruz doing? Unpacking? Licking his wounds? -- it's unlikely the dog will do it.

Bill Whitaker of CBS' "60 Minutes" interviews federal judge Esther Salas. "Half the time someone is unhappy with a judge's ruling. The normal recourse is an appeal. But in the caustic atmosphere of today's politics, there's a real chance the disgruntled party will threaten the judge. In the last five years, threats of federal judges have jumped 400% to more than 4,000 last year -- many of them death threats, sometimes ending in violence. Now, judges are breaking with tradition and publicly calling on lawmakers to provide more protection. One of the strongest voices is federal judge Esther Salas. This past July, she was at home in New Jersey, in the basement with her son Daniel, cleaning up after his 20th birthday party, when a man disguised as a FedEx driver pulled up outside." This is a transcript of the interview and includes video.

Niraj Chokshi & Ben Dooley of the New York Times: "Boeing said on Sunday that all 128 of its 777 jetliners powered by a particular Pratt & Whitney engine model should be grounded worldwide until the Federal Aviation Administration determines the best way to inspect the engines. The aerospace giant issued its recommendation late Sunday, a day after a 777 operated by United Airlines suffered a dramatic engine failure over Colorado and hours after the head of the F.A.A. said he was requiring 'immediate or stepped-up inspections' of planes equipped with the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 family of engines, which are used only on 777s. The vast majority of Boeing 777s are equipped with engines made by GE Aviation. United, which is the only American carrier affected by the F.A.A. order, said it would temporarily ground the two dozen 777s powered by that Pratt & Whitney model that it had been flying. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading an investigation into the crash."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Daniel Arkin of NBC News: "The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus topped 500,000 on Sunday, according to an NBC News tally -- a milestone that underscores the grave threat the virus still poses nationwide even as more Americans get vaccinated. The coronavirus has claimed the lives of more than 2,462,000 people worldwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The death toll in the U.S. is the highest in the world, even though the country has less than 5 percent of the global population.... More than 28,206,600 cases have been confirmed in the U.S., according to the NBC News tally." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Chris Pollard of the Sun: "WEARING glasses makes you up to three times less likely to catch Covid, a study has found. Researchers found people with spectacles rub and touch their eyes less, which is a 'significant route of infection'. The analysis also found poor and uneducated people are more likely to get the virus - partly because they don't wear glasses as much. According to the report, published in India, people touch their faces 23 times an hour and their eyes three times an hour on average. Lead researcher Amit Kumar Saxena wrote: 'Transmission occurs by touching the face, nose, mouth and eyes.... 'Touching and rubbing of the eyes with contaminated hands may be a significant route of infection for the virus'." MB: Sorry to cite a British tabloid, but it was the only paper I found that carried a story I could access. One of the stories is a more reliable paper (-- the U.K. Independent or Telegraph --) noted that the study has not been peer-reviewed.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Shopping While Hispanic. Miami Herald in a Tampa Bay Times publication: "A Mount Sinai Medical Center anesthesiologist has been arrested and charged with a hate crime after police say she attacked a Hispanic man at a Hialeah Publix, vandalizing his car, calling him a racial slur and vowing to 'get rid of every single one of you.' She became enraged, police say, after the man asked her to maintain social distancing while in line at the supermarket. Dr. Jennifer Susan Wright, 58, a white ardent supporter of ... Donald Trump, has been charged with criminal mischief, tampering with a victim and battery with prejudice, a 'hate crime' enhancement that upgraded the charge to a felony." MB: I grew up in Hialieah; it makes me so proud to see my old home town make the news. Wright, BTW, is not from Hialeah, but from contiguous Miami Springs. Back when I went to high school, the Miami Springs kids went to Hialeah High; they were the (relatively) "rich kids," and many looked down their noses on us poor kids who lived in Hialeah. More than five decades later, it appears the demographic 'tude hasn't changed. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Native Americans settled in Florida about 14,000 years ago. Somebody should tell Dr. Wrong that the first white people known to have gone ashore in what is now Florida were in an expedition headed by a Spaniard named Juan Ponce de León. It was he who named the region "la Florida." Dr. Wrong doesn't seem to know as much as schoolchildren do as to where she's at, the kids say.

Illinois. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Illinois has become the first state to completely eliminate cash bail, a result of a push by state legislators to end a practice they say keeps poor people in jail for months awaiting trial and disproportionately affects Black and Latino defendants. The change is part of a sweeping law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, on Monday. He said the legislation would transform the state's legal system and increase accountability measures for police officers, such as requiring the use of body-worn cameras by police departments statewide."

Louisiana. Shootout at the Gun Shop. Stacey Plaisance of the AP (Feb. 20): "A person entered a gun store and shooting range in a New Orleans suburb and fatally shot two people Saturday, prompting customers and staff to open fire on the shooter, a sheriff said. The shooter also died. The shooting happened around 2:50 p.m. at the Jefferson Gun Outlet in the suburb of Metairie, according to a release from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said the shooter initially struck two people inside, and then several other people -- whether employees or store customers -- opened fire on the shooter, both inside and outside of the building."

Oregon. Dick VanderHart of Oregon Public Broadcasting: "A conservative state senator from Myrtle Creek is the new chair of the Oregon Republican Party, following an event Saturday in which Republicans overhauled their top party leadership. According to multiple Republican sources, state Sen. Dallas Heard handily won the job, beating three-term chair and Adair Village Mayor Bill Currier.... The in-person election of top party officials was held Saturday at a VFW hall in Salem. Photos sent to OPB from a person who reported attending the event showed a hall packed with people in close quarters, none of them wearing face masks. The leadership swap comes at a time the Oregon GOP has gained national attention for passing a resolution claiming the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a 'false flag' operation by leftist forces -- a conspiracy theory that has been debunked in the weeks since the incident."

Texas. Annie Gowen, et al., of the Washington Post: The deadly winter storm disaster "is one in a series that [Gov. Greg] Abbott has faced in his six years as governor: Hurricane Harvey in 2017, which resulted in the deaths of 68 people, at least six major mass shootings that left more than 70 people dead and a pandemic that has killed 42,000 in the state. In each crisis, Abbott often carefully studied the situation -- and its political ramifications -- before taking action, usually demanding future legislative changes that may never happen. He is known to deliver different messages to the various constituencies in his state, all while trying to build a national profile as a conservative leader. In the past, this approach seems to have worked.... [But] the Arctic chill of 2021 will probably loom large in next year's gubernatorial race, analysts say." ~~~

~~~ Nomaan Merchant of the AP writes a good overview of the Texas power crisis. (Also linked yesterday.)

News Ledes

Guardian: "Dutch authorities are investigating after a Boeing 747-400 cargo plane dropped engine parts shortly after takeoff from Maastricht airport. The Longtail Aviation Flight 5504 cargo plane scattered mostly small metal parts over the southern Dutch town of Meerssen on Saturday, causing damage and injuring a woman. The Bermuda-registered plane, which was headed from Maastricht to New York, was powered by Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines, a smaller version of those on a United Airlines Boeing 777 involved in an incident in Colorado on Saturday."

New York Times: "Arturo Di Modica, a Sicilian-born sculptor best known for 'Charging Bull,' 3.5 tons of bronze belligerence that he illegally deposited in Lower Manhattan one night in 1989, died on Friday at his home in Vittoria, Italy. He was 80.... 'Charging Bull,' which Mr. Di Modica had made with his own hands and his own money, quickly became one of the most famous works of art in the country.... "