The Commentariat -- May 4, 2021

Afternoon Update:

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

Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The White House on Tuesday told states that coronavirus vaccine supply they choose not to order will become available to other states -- the most significant shift in domestic vaccine distribution since President Biden took office, and part of an effort to account for flagging demand in parts of the country. Each state's share of the total U.S. adult population will still determine weekly allocations. But instead of allowing unordered doses to carry over week to week, the White House will steer untapped vaccine into a federal bank available to states where demand continues to outstrip supply. Those states will be able to order up to 50 percent above their weekly allocation."

Nancy Is a Mean Girl. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) mocked House Republicans for reportedly looking for a 'non-threatening female' to replace No. 3 House Republican Liz Cheney (Wyo.). Pelosi's office released a mock 'help wanted' ad as talks of ousting Cheney from leadership increase amid GOP frustrations with her anti-Trump stance. 'Word is out that House GOP Leaders are looking to push Rep. Liz Cheney from her post as House Republican Conference Chair -- their most senior woman in GOP leadership -- for a litany of very Republican reasons: she won't lie, she isn't humble enough, she's like a girlfriend rooting for the wrong team, and more,' the ad reads, referring to previous media reports about male Republican criticism of Cheney."

Cristina Cabrera of TPM: CNN anchor Don Lemon raked former GOP senator-turned-CNN contributor Rick Santorum (R-PA) over the coals on Monday night after Santorum refused to apologize for his racist comments downplaying European settlers' genocide of Native Americans. 'I mean, Rick Santorum, really? Did he actually think it was a good idea for him to come on television and to try to whitewash the whitewash that he whitewashed?' Lemon said during his program shortly after fellow CNN anchor Chris Cuomo's interview with the contributor. '... It was horrible and insulting, and I apologize to the viewers who were insulted by this,' Lemon continued. 'I was sitting in my office, furious, because he's done it so many times. So many times.'"

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Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday took its first significant step under President Biden to curb climate change, moving to sharply reduce a class of chemicals that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. In proposing a new regulation, Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said the agency aimed to reduce the production and importation of hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years. It's a goal shared by environmental groups and the business community, which jointly championed bipartisan legislation passed by Congress in December to tackle the pollutant." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Stratford of Politico: "The Biden administration has tapped Richard Cordray, the former director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to serve as the top official overseeing the federal government's $1.6 trillion portfolio of student loans and array of financial aid programs. The selection of Cordray, who previously was attorney general of Ohio and ran unsuccessfully to be governor, is a major victory for progressives who have been calling on the Biden administration to take more aggressive action on student loans and for-profit colleges."

Michael Shear & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden on Monday reversed himself and said he would allow as many as 62,500 refugees to enter the United States during the next six months, eliminating the sharp limits that ... Donald J. Trump imposed on those seeking refuge from war, violence or natural disasters. The action comes about two weeks after Mr. Biden announced that he was leaving Mr. Trump's limit of 15,000 refugees in place, which drew widespread condemnation from Democrats and refugee advocates who accused the president of reneging on a campaign promise to welcome those in need. Mr. Biden quickly backtracked, promising only hours later that he intended to increase refugee admissions. With Monday's announcement, the president formally bowed to the pressure." The AP's story is here.

Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "The Biden administration will reunite four migrant families separated during the Trump administration this week, while its reunification task force estimates that over 1,000 families remain separated, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday.... But the immigrant advocacy organization Al Otro Lado, or AOL, said the Biden administration is taking credit for reunifications it did very little to facilitate. '... The only reason these mothers will be standing at the port of entry is because Al Otro Lado negotiated their travel visas with the Mexican government, paid for their airline tickets and arranged for reunification,' said Carol Anne Donohoe ... of Al Otro Lado.... The parents will be given humanitarian parole to come back to the U.S., said Michelle Brané, executive director of Biden's reunification task force." (Also linked yesterday.)

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, is quietly considering trying to use a fast-track budget maneuver to legalize millions of undocumented immigrants should bipartisan talks on providing a pathway to citizenship fall apart. Mr. Schumer has privately told members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in recent weeks that he is 'actively exploring' whether it would be possible to attach a broad revision of immigration laws to President Biden's infrastructure plan and pass it through a process known as budget reconciliation, according to two people briefed on his comments. The move would allow the measures to pass the evenly divided Senate with a simple majority of 51 votes, shielding them from a filibuster and the 60-vote threshold for moving past one, which would otherwise require at least 10 Republican votes."

Trouble in Trumpland

Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Rep. Liz Cheney on Monday escalated her feud with ... Donald Trump and his supporters in Congress, issuing a less-than-subtle swipe at the former president's latest attempt to claim the 2020 election was stolen from him. On Monday morning, Trump issued a statement from his Save America PAC proclaiming that the presidential election 'will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!' -- an attempt to appropriate the label given to the false claim by Trump and his Republican allies that last November's election was in fact won by the former president. Less than an hour later, Cheney (R-Wyo.), who faces renewed pressure from Trump-aligned forces within the Republican caucus to remove her from House leadership over her direct rebukes of the former president's falsehoods, swiped back on Twitter. ~~~

The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system. -- Rep. Liz Cheney, in a tweet, Monday ~~~

~~~ "The Wyoming Republican kicked up a new round of Republican agita last week when she said support for Trump-backed challenges to the 2020 Electoral College results should be disqualifying for any Republican seeking the party's 2024 presidential nomination. Some top Republicans -- including Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy -- are reportedly waning in their support for Cheney amid the continued internal hostilities between her and the party's pro-Trump wing. Trump's missive comes as Arizona's Republican-commissioned audit of the election results in Maricopa County -- which includes the Phoenix metro area -- is ongoing. The former president has latched onto the effort.... Cindy McCain, the widow of Sen. John McCain, on Sunday derided the audit as a 'ludicrous' attempt to undermine [Joe] Biden's victory. McCain was one of Trump's fiercest GOP critics and became a top GOP surrogate during Biden's campaign." ~~~

Jamie Gangel & Michael Warren of CNN: "Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the No. 3 House Republican, said on Monday her party cannot accept the 'poison' of the idea that the 2020 election was stolen and should not 'whitewash' the January 6 Capitol riot -- and Donald Trump's role in fomenting it. 'We can't embrace the notion the election is stolen. It's a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy,' Cheney said, speaking behind closed doors at a conference in Sea Island, Georgia. 'We can't whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump's big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.' Cheney made her comments, confirmed to CNN by two people in the room, during an off-the-record interview with former House Speaker Paul Ryan before a crowd of donors and scholars at the annual retreat for the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank." ~~~

Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: “Hours later, Trump released another statement, this time attacking Cheney by calling her a 'big-shot warmonger' and claiming that people in Wyoming 'never liked her much.'"

Alayna Treene of Axios: "House Republicans are moving closer to ousting Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) from leadership, and are already considering replacements -- including Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), Ann Wagner (R-Mo.) and Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.), congressional aides tell Axios.... Most members recognize Cheney can't be succeeded by a white man, given their top two leaders -- House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) -- fill that demographic.... None of these women voted to impeach Trump.... Stefanik and Walorski objected to the Jan. 6 Electoral College certification of the presidential election." Wagner is not part of the Sedition Caucus. ~~~

~~~ Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Top allies of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) are vowing to oust Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the harshest critics of former President Trump in either party, from her leadership post by the end of the month. They argue that the No. 3 Republican has repeatedly contradicted McCarthy and his team, undermining the party's message and its efforts to take back the House majority in next year's midterm elections. 'There is no way that Liz will be conference chair by month's end,' one key McCarthy ally told The Hill on Monday. 'When there is a vote, it won't be a long conference; it will be fast. Everyone knows the outcome.'"

Rachel Lerman & Heather Kelly of the Washington Post: "It has been four months since ... Donald Trump was last allowed to post on Facebook, after CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was banned 'indefinitely.' Now the Facebook Oversight Board, an outside group funded and created by Facebook to review the social media giant's thorniest policy choices, has made a decision on the case. It is expected to announce on Wednesday whether Facebook can uphold its suspension of Trump or if it has to allow him back on the site.: MB: How can they not permanently oust Trump? As recently as this Monday morning, Trump doubled down on the Big Lie, trying to turn it inside out? BTW, Donald, you are permanently banned from commenting on Reality Chex, unless you decide to use us as a confessional platform & own up to your many crimes against humanity.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "always-shifting efforts to prove that he didn't lose the 2020 election, eternally encumbered by the fact that he did, have settled for the time being on an anomalous recount in Windham[, New Hampshire]'s 2020 state representative race. 'You're watching New Hampshire,' he told customers at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., during an apparently spontaneous speech there last week. 'They found a lot of votes up in New Hampshire just now. You saw that.' This, he said, was further evidence that the 2020 election was 'rigged.'" When it appeared that a Democratic candidate for the state legislature had lost by just 24 votes, she asked for a recount in November; the recount, however, revealed that she had lost by more than 400 votes. The town of 14,000 has not figured out what happened in the original count, and the state is investigating. Even if Windham's vote count for president had similarly undercounted Trump votes, New Hampshire still would have given Biden its Electoral College votes. ~~~

~~~ Aha! A Case of Intentional Voter Fraud. Rebekah Riess & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "A Pennsylvania man has been sentenced to five years of probation after pleading guilty to casting a vote in the name of his deceased mother in an effort to reelect then-President Donald Trump, according to court records and Delaware County District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer's office. Bruce Bartman, 70, received the sentence Friday after entering a guilty plea to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. Bartman will also lose his right to vote for four years, pursuant to Pennsylvania statute.... Voter records show that Bartman used Pennsylvania's online voter-registration portal to register both his late mother, Elizabeth Bartman, and his deceased mother-in-law, Elizabeth Weihman, who died in 2019 -- illegally registering both as Republican voters, the district attorney's office said.... Stollsteimer, a Democrat, said..., 'Rather than earning national attention for efforts to restrict accessibility to voting, address the breakdown in the online voter registration systems that this defendant exploited to vote for a deceased relative.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Five years' probation? Bartman is lucky he's a white Pennsylvania man and not a black Texas woman. Crystal Mason got five years hard time for trying (and failing) to vote in 2016 because she didn't know she was ineligible to vote. Maybe the courts looked at her provisional ballot & discovered she had voted for Hillary.

The Liars' Party. Conservative Michael Gerson of the Washington Post: "For the activist base of the Republican Party, affirming that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential contest has become a qualification for membership in good standing. For the party's elected leaders, accepting the clear result of a fair election is to be a rogue Republican like the indomitable Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) -- a target for Trump's anger, public censure and primary threats.... The GOP is increasingly defined not by its shared beliefs, but by its shared delusions. To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar. And because this defining falsehood is so obviously and laughably false, we can safely assume that most Republican leaders who embrace it fall into the second category. Knowingly repeating a lie -- an act of immorality -- is now the evidence of Republican fidelity." ~~~

~~~ It's Working! Stephen Collinson of CNN: "With its cultish devotion to Donald Trump, the majority of the Republican Party is choosing a wannabe-autocrat over the political system that made the United States the world's most powerful nation and its dominant democracy. The ex-President is showing that he doesn't have to be in the Oval Office to damage faith in US elections and to trash truth, as his movement based on lies and personal homage takes an increasingly firm grip of the Republican Party. The widespread mistrust he continues to foster in the fairness of the US political system among millions of voters poses grave risks to democracy itself."

Mass Media Correction. David Bauder of the AP: "The Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News all issued similar corrections to stories regarding Rudolph Giuliani ... and his dealings in Ukraine. The corrections, to stories that ran last Thursday or Friday, take back reports that the former New York City mayor had been warned by the FBI that he was the subject of a Russian operation to influence the American election. NBC's online correction on Saturday was the most extensive, and it required both the headline and top of a story that ran a day earlier to be rewritten. The network said it had been told about an FBI briefing of Giuliani by 'a source familiar with the matter,' but later learned from a second source that the briefing had been prepared but not delivered.... Giuliani, on Twitter, said that the Times and Post 'must revealed their sources who lied and targeted an American citizen.'" ~~~

~~~ Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Incorrect information from government sources apparently led three separate news organizations to publish the same erroneous claim about Rudolph W. Giuliani last week that all three later corrected.... It appears that competitive pressures and a lack of a response from Giuliani and his representatives on deadline helped push the stories in the wrong direction.... Giuliani ... did not respond -- apparently because his phone and other electronic devices had been confiscated during the FBI raid.... 'We weren't rigorous enough,' conceded Times editor Dean Baquet in an interview Monday.... CNN also picked up on the inaccurate Post story, repeating its inaccurate claim during a segment Friday.... Giuliani -- who on Monday told Fox News in an interview that federal investigators were trying to 'frame' him -- tweeted Saturday: 'Where did the original false information come from?@MSNBC, @CNN, @nytimes, I couldn't quite hear your apology?'"

Tom Hamburger of the Washington Post: "A U.S. bankruptcy administrator asked a federal judge Monday to dismiss the National Rifle Association's efforts to declare bankruptcy or appoint a trustee or examiner to oversee the gun rights organization -- a setback for the group at the close of a federal court hearing to consider its petition. The recommendation bolstered the arguments of New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), whose office has fought the NRA's attempts to relocate from New York to Texas, and came after senior NRA executives acknowledged in court testimony that they received lavish perks."

David Gelles, et al., of the New York Times: "Bill and Melinda Gates, two of the richest people in the world, who reshaped philanthropy and public health with the fortune Mr. Gates made as a co-founder of Microsoft, said on Monday that they were divorcing. For decades, Mr. and Ms. Gates have been powerful forces on the world stage, their vast charitable contributions affording them access to the highest levels of government, business and the nonprofit sector. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with an endowment of some $50 billion, has had immense influence in fields like global health and early-childhood education, and has made great strides in reducing deaths caused by malaria and other infectious diseases.... The foundation said in a statement that Mr. and Ms. Gates would remain co-chairs and trustees and that no changes were expected at the organization.... The Gateses have been married for 27 years and have three children, ages 18 to 25."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

** Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable -- at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever. Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers. How much smaller is uncertain and depends in part on how much of the nation, and the world, becomes vaccinated and how the coronavirus evolves." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Republicans, the science-averse, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists & the general collection of the loony brigade have decided to ruin daily life for those of us who behave responsibly. I despise those selfish, ignorant bastards. In fairness to these horrible people, many of them try, often successfully, to diminish our quality of life in other respects: they scoff at environmental science; they oppose fair wages for fair work; they treat people who don't belong to their tribe of idiots as second-class citizens; etc. ~~~

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration is expected by next week to grant expanded emergency use authorization to allow children as young as 12 to receive the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and German firm BioNTech, according to three federal officials familiar with the situation.... Shortly after the FDA decision, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee is expected to meet to recommend how the vaccine should be used." The AP's story is here.

Emily Rauhala & Erin Cunningham of the Washington Post: "Moderna will supply up to 500 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to a campaign backed by the World Health Organization starting late this year, giving a much-needed boost to a global initiative that has suffered from inequity, funding shortfalls and a severe supply crunch. The agreement, announced Monday soon after the WHO approved the company's messenger RNA vaccine for emergency use, comes amid growing calls for both vaccine-makers and wealthy nations to do more to address the vaccination gap between rich countries and the rest of the world." MB: Late this year? We're in the first week of May, for Pete's sake.

Joshua Eaton & Rachana Pradhan of NBC News: "Two national pharmacy chains that the federal government entrusted to inoculate people against Covid-19 account for the lion's share of wasted vaccine doses, according to government data obtained by Kaiser Health News. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recorded 182,874 wasted doses as of late March, three months into the country's effort to vaccinate the masses against the coronavirus. CVS was responsible for nearly half, and Walgreens was responsible for 21 percent, or nearly 128,500 wasted shots combined. CDC data suggest that the companies have wasted more doses than states, U.S. territories and federal agencies combined.... CVS said 'nearly all' of its reported vaccine waste occurred during" the Trump administration's poorly-planned rollout. "Overall, waste has been minuscule...."

Florida. Amanda Macias of CNBC: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order Monday that immediately suspends all outstanding local Covid-19 emergency orders and related public health restrictions. 'The fact is, we are no longer in a state of emergency,' DeSantis said during a news conference.... Private businesses can still require masks and enforce social distancing and other protective measures. DeSantis signed a bill Monday that codifies the executive order into law, effective July 1.... The measure, which effectively ends all local pandemic-related restrictions, also bans vaccine passports."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida GOP Cuts off Nose to Spite Its Ugly Face. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation -- and there have been many, including two of the state's current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott -- owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting. Now, some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with DeSantis's support, passed a far-reaching bill Thursday night that puts new restrictions on the use of mail ballots. Not only are GOP lawmakers reversing statutes that their own predecessors put in place, but they are also curtailing a practice that millions of state Republicans use, despite ... Donald Trump's relentless and baseless claims that it invites fraud.... The potential fallout in the key swing state illustrates how the Republican Party is hurting itself in its rush to echo Trump&'s false allegations, they said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The truth here is plain to see: Florida Republicans are trying to make it harder for the opposition's voters to participate, to the point where party operatives even floated the idea of exempting their own voters [-- seniors & military personnel --] from provisions that would accomplish this.... No matter how you cut this, the real aim is to make it harder to vote, and hope for the best." And, though Republicans are claiming they're passing these anti-voter laws to "restore confidence in elections, their real purpose "is to continue undermining confidence in our electoral system, often as justification for more voter suppression, not to restore it ... [even to the point that] Republicans who dared to vouch for the integrity of the 2020 outcome are facing censure and condemnation...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Israel. Josef Federman of the AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced a midnight deadline on Tuesday to put together a new coalition government -- or be looking at the possibility of leading his Likud party into the opposition for the first time in 12 years. Netanyahu has struggled to secure a parliamentary majority since March 23 -- when elections ended in deadlock for the fourth consecutive time in the past two years. Despite repeated meetings with many of his rivals and unprecedented outreach to the leader of a small Islamist Arab party, Netanyahu has not been able to close a deal during a four-week window. That window was to expire at midnight, at which point the matter returns to President Reuven Rivlin in the absence of an agreement." MB: Not clear yet whether or not Bibi turned into a pumpkin.

The Commentariat -- May 3, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mass Media Correction. David Bauder of the AP: "The Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News all issued similar corrections to stories regarding Rudolph Giuliani ... and his dealings in Ukraine. The corrections, to stories that ran last Thursday or Friday, take back reports that the former New York City mayor had been warned by the FBI that he was the subject of a Russian operation to influence the American election. NBC's online correction on Saturday was the most extensive, and it required both the headline and top of a story that ran a day earlier to be rewritten. The network said it had been told about an FBI briefing of Giuliani by 'a source familiar with the matter,' but later learned from a second source that the briefing had been prepared but not delivered.... Giuliani, on Twitter, said that the Times and Post 'must revealed their sources who lied and targeted an American citizen.'"

** Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... more than half of adults in the United States have been inoculated with at least one dose of a vaccine. But daily vaccination rates are slipping, and there is widespread consensus among scientists and public health experts that the herd immunity threshold is not attainable -- at least not in the foreseeable future, and perhaps not ever. Instead, they are coming to the conclusion that rather than making a long-promised exit, the virus will most likely become a manageable threat that will continue to circulate in the United States for years to come, still causing hospitalizations and deaths but in much smaller numbers. How much smaller is uncertain and depends in part on how much of the nation, and the world, becomes vaccinated and how the coronavirus evolves." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Republicans, the science-averse, anti-vaxxers, conspiracy theorists & the general collection of the loony brigade have decided to ruin daily life for those of us who behave responsibly. I despise those selfish, ignorant bastards. In fairness to these horrible people, many of them try, often successfully, to diminish our quality of life in other respects: they scoff at environmental science; they oppose fair wages for fair work; they treat people who don't belong to their tribe of idiots as second-class citizens; etc. ~~~

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday took its first significant step under President Biden to curb climate change, moving to sharply reduce a class of chemicals that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. In proposing a new regulation, Michael S. Regan, the E.P.A. administrator, said the agency aimed to reduce the production and importation of hydrofluorocarbons, which are used in refrigeration and air-conditioning, in the United States by 85 percent over the next 15 years. It's a goal shared by environmental groups and the business community, which jointly championed bipartisan legislation passed by Congress in December to tackle the pollutant."

Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "The Biden administration will reunite four migrant families separated during the Trump administration this week, while its reunification task force estimates that over 1,000 families remain separated, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said Sunday.... But the immigrant advocacy organization Al Otro Lado, or AOL, said the Biden administration is taking credit for reunifications it did very little to facilitate. '... The only reason these mothers will be standing at the port of entry is because Al Otro Lado negotiated their travel visas with the Mexican government, paid for their airline tickets and arranged for reunification,' said Carol Anne Donohoe ... of Al Otro Lado.... The parents will be given humanitarian parole to come back to the U.S., said Michelle Brané, executive director of Biden's reunification task force."

Florida GOP Cuts off Nose to Spite Its Ugly Face. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation -- and there have been many, including two of the state's current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott -- owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting. Now, some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with DeSantis’s support, passed a far-reaching bill Thursday night that puts new restrictions on the use of mail ballots. Not only are GOP lawmakers reversing statutes that their own predecessors put in place, but they are also curtailing a practice that millions of state Republicans use, despite ... Donald Trump's relentless and baseless claims that it invites fraud.... The potential fallout in the key swing state illustrates how the Republican Party is hurting itself in its rush to echo Trump's false allegations, they said." ~~~

     ~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The truth here is plain to see: Florida Republicans are trying to make it harder for the opposition's voters to participate, to the point where party operatives even floated the idea of exempting their own voters [-- seniors & military personnel --] from provisions that would accomplish this.... No matter how you cut this, the real aim is to make it harder to vote, and hope for the best." And, though Republicans are claiming they're passing these anti-voter laws to "restore confidence in elections, their real purpose "is to continue undermining confidence in our electoral system, often as justification for more voter suppression, not to restore it ... [even to the point that] Republicans who dared to vouch for the integrity of the 2020 outcome are facing censure and condemnation...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marcy Gordon of the AP: "President Joe Biden's massive proposed spending on infrastructure, families and education will not fuel inflation because the plans would be phased in gradually over 10 years, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday.... 'It's spread out quite evenly over eight to 10 years. So the boost to demand is moderate,' she said. 'I don't believe that inflation will be an issue, but if it becomes an issue, we have tools to address it.' New economic reports have portrayed a surging recovery from the recession unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic. Americans' incomes soared in March by the most on record, boosted by $1,400 federal stimulus checks, and the economy expanded at a vigorous annual rate of 6.4% in the first three months of the year, leading to concern over inflationary pressures."

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times: "We should be cleareyed about both the enormous strengths of the United States ... and its central weakness: For half a century, compared with other countries, we have underinvested in our people. In 1970, the United States was a world leader in high school and college attendance, enjoyed high life expectancy and had a solid middle class. This was achieved in part because of [Franklin] Roosevelt.... Beginning in the 1970s, America took a wrong turn. We slowed new investments in health and education and embraced a harsh narrative that people just need to lift themselves up by their bootstraps.... Some Americans worry about the cost of Biden's program.... Yet this is not an expense but an investment: Our ability to compete with China will depend less on our military budget, our spy satellites or our intellectual property protections than on our high school and college graduation rates. A country cannot succeed when so many of its people are failing."

The Secret Life of the Senate. Bill Scher in the Washington Monthly: "During the course of Joe Biden's first 100 days as president, the Senate was repeatedly described as 'broken.' Also, during the course of Joe Biden's first 100 days as president, the Senate passed 13 bills and filibustered zero. 10 of the 13 bills have been signed into law by President Biden, and the remaining three should soon follow suit.... The biggest of the 13 bills, by about $2 trillion, is the American Rescue Plan which passed through budget reconciliation on a party-line vote and could not be filibustered.... Whatever there is to say about Mitch McConnell's soulless approach to politics, we cannot say that today he has organized his party to filibuster everything he can. In fact, McConnell has voted 'Yea' on most of the 13 successful bills, including legislation to authorize $35 billion for water infrastructure, strengthen the Justice Department's ability to prosecute hate crimes, extend a suspension of automatic Medicare cuts, extend the pandemic small business relief loan program and waive the law that would have prevented Lloyd Austin from becoming Defense Secretary.... If Republicans were determined to make Biden's life miserable, they wouldn't cooperate at all."

Matthew Lee & Eric Tucker of the AP: "The United States and Iran are in active talks over the release of prisoners, a person familiar with the discussions said Sunday as Washington denied a report by Iranian state-run television that deals had been struck.... 'We're working very hard to get them released,' [President Biden's chief-of-staff Ron] Klain said. 'We raise this with Iran and our interlocutors all the time, but so far there's no agreement.' Tehran holds four known Americans now in prison: Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi. Iran long has been accused of holding those with Western ties prisoners to be later used as bargaining chips in negotiations. Despite the American denials, there have been signs that a deal on prisoners may be in the works...."

Ashley Parker & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "Nearly six months after Trump lost to Biden, rejection of the 2020 election results ... has increasingly become an unofficial litmus test for acceptance in the Republican Party. In January, 147 GOP lawmakers -- eight senators and 139 House members -- voted in support of objections to the election results, and since then, Republicans from Congress to statehouses to local party organizations have fervently embraced the falsehood.... The issue also could reverberate through the 2022 midterms and the 2024 election, with Trump already slamming Republicans who did not resist the election results."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. The Little Station that Could. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Too many Sunday news shows repeatedly book the likes of Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz and Ron Johnson without reminding viewers how these members of Congress tried to undo the results of the election -- and encouraged the Trumpian lies about election fraud that led to the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol.... A rare exception is CNN's 'State of the Union,' which hasn't booked a single member of the so-called Sedition Caucus since January.... Harrisburg[, Pennsylvania]'s WITF [-- an all-news public radio station --] ... want you to remember. Months before the election, the station&'s reporters and editors were already deeply alarmed by what they saw unfolding.... In late January, the station ... posted an explanatory story stating that they would be regularly reminding their audience that some state legislators signed a letter urging Congress to vote against certifying the Pennsylvania election results, and that some members of Congress had voted against certifying the state's election results for President Biden...." Stories about members of the "Sedition Caucus" are accompanied by a sidebar about the lawmakers' efforts to undermine the presidential election.

Anoa Changa of NewsOne: "Five white farmers last week USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack in his official capacity, alleging reverse discrimination for his treatment of Black farmers, in particular. The lawsuit claimed the effort to address equity for farmers of color denied the white farmers equal protection under the law.... The lawsuit cites general non-discrimination language from the USDA, never explaining how providing support to groups traditionally overlooked is discrimination. They requested the court block the distribution of the aid program until such time when the issue of race is no longer considered in the distribution of funds. An agriculture policy blog highlighted a similar lawsuit filed in Texas backed by the newly launched America First Legal. The two lawsuits point to possible coordination of conservative interests attacking the equity-based provision. Acting in his professional capacity as Texas Agriculture Secretary and a farmer, Sid Miller sued."

Extremists Will Always Be with Us. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "What initially seemed to F.B.I. agents like distant, disparate crimes [in 1984] turned out to be the opening salvos in a war against the federal government by members of a violent extremist group called the Order, who sought to establish a whites-only homeland out West. Their crime spree played out in 1984. Fast forward to 2021. Federal agents and prosecutors who dismantled the Order see troubling echoes of its threat to democracy in the Capitol riot and the growing extremist activity across the country.... Those who tracked the group say the legacy of the Order can be seen in the prominent role that far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers played in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Majority of Cops Don't Know They're on Safety Officers. Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Police officers were among the first front-line workers to gain priority access to coronavirus vaccines. But their vaccination rates are lower than or about the same as those of the general public, according to data made available by some of the nation's largest law enforcement agencies. The reluctance of police to get the shots threatens not just their own health, but also the safety of people they're responsible for guarding, monitoring and patrolling, experts say.... Police officers were more likely to die of covid-19 last year than of all other causes combined, according to data compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.... One solution is for departments to make vaccination compulsory.... But department leaders and union officials said in interviews that such requirements could backfire or lead to lengthy litigation." ~~~

~~~ It Ain't Just Cops. Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "With a crowd a fraction of its usual size -- and those present all socially distancing and wearing masks -- [President Biden's] speech [to Congress last week] underscored how life on Capitol Hill has been slow to return to normal and how difficult it is to persuade holdouts to get immunized. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) estimated a day after the address that about 75 percent of House members have been vaccinated, a figure unchanged since March. Until more members get vaccinated, Pelosi said, the House won't return to pre-pandemic operations. Unlike for some U.S. adults, access to vaccines hasn't been a problem for members of Congress, who've been able to get shots at their workplace since December."

Darlene Superville of the AP: "The U.S. top trade negotiator [Katherine Tai] will begin talks with the World Trade Organization on ways to overcome intellectual property issues that are keeping critically needed COVID-19 vaccines from being more widely distributed worldwide, two White House officials said Sunday.... The U.S. has been criticized for focusing first on vaccinating Americans, particularly as its vaccine supply begins to outpace demand and doses approved for use elsewhere in the world but not in the U.S. sit idle."

Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: After Miami's pricey private grade school Centner Academy "threatened teachers' employment if they got a coronavirus vaccine before the end of the school year ... last week ..., [the school] became a national beacon for anti-vaccination activists practically overnight.... hundreds of queries from all over the world' came in for teaching positions, according to the administration. More came from people who wanted to enroll their children at the school, where tuition runs up to $30,000 a year.... The wealthy and well-connected [co-founder Leila] Centner brought her anti-vaccination and anti-masking views into the school's day-to-day life, turning what had been a tightknit community into one bitterly split between those who support her views on vaccinations and those who do not."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I must admit that I automatically dislike someone described as a "wealthy and well-connected avid social-media user." For me, that translates to something like "shallow, avaricious, self-promoter." The fact that this nitwit also is promoting anti-science theories while threatening the lives & livelihoods of schoolteachers just makes her worse than your average shallow, avaricious, self-promoter, IMO. As Centner doesn't live far from Mar-a-Lardo, may I suggest that Melanie give her a call. I think there are grounds for a beautiful friendship.

Iowa. AP: "Iowa is turning down nearly three quarters of the vaccine doses available to the state from the federal government because demand for the shots remains weak. The Iowa Department of Public Health and Safety said the state asked the federal government to withhold 71% of the 105,300 vaccine doses that were available for the week of May 10. This is the second week in a row that the state has asked the federal government to hold back part of its allocation of vaccine doses." MB: Another winger "victory" over science & the physical health of the nation.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Shannon Najmabadi of the Texas Tribune: "Lubbock voters on Saturday backed a 'sanctuary city for the unborn' ordinance that tries to outlaw abortions in the city's limits, likely prompting a lawsuit over what opponents say is an unconstitutional ban on the procedure. The unofficial vote, 62% for and 38% against the measure, comes less than a year after Planned Parenthood opened a clinic in Lubbock and months after the City Council rejected the ordinance on legal grounds and warned it could tee up a costly court fight."

News Lede

AP: "Three people were killed and more than two dozen others were hospitalized Sunday after a boat capsized and broke apart in rough water just off the San Diego coast during a suspected human smuggling operation, authorities said. Lifeguards, the U.S. Coast Guard and other agencies responded around 10 a.m. following reports of an overturned vessel in the waves near the rugged peninsula of Point Loma, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.... Seven people were pulled from the waves, including three who drowned, said [San Diego Lifeguard Services Lt. Rick] Romero. One person was rescued from a cliff and 22 others managed to make it to shore on their own, he said. 'Once we arrived on scene, the boat had basically been broken apart,' Romero said. 'Conditions were pretty rough: 5 to 6 feet of surf, windy, cold.' A total of 27 people were transported to hospitals with 'a wide variety of injuries' including hypothermia, Romero said."

The Commentariat -- May 2, 2021

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Before the president's rally near Atlanta on Thursday, he and Jill went out of their way to pay respects to the 96-year-old Jimmy Carter. This made Biden the first president to make a pilgrimage to Plains since Carter left office.... If there's a pol who knows what it feels like to be underappreciated by his own party, it's Biden. And he wasn't going to continue to let Carter, at the end of his life, be treated like a pariah in peanutville." MB: When she feels like it, MoDo knows how to tell a story.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has disclosed a set of rules secretly issued by ... Donald J. Trump in 2017 for counterterrorism 'direct action' operations -- like drone strikes and commando raids outside conventional war zones -- which the White House has suspended as it weighs whether and how to tighten the guidelines.... the visible [i.e., unredacted] portions [of the rules] show that in the Trump era, commanders in the field were given latitude to make decisions about attacks so long as they fit within broad sets of 'operating principles,' including that there should be 'near certainty' that civilians 'will not be injured or killed in the course of operations.' At the same time, however, the Trump-era rules were flexible about permitting exceptions to that and other standards, saying that 'variations' could be made 'where necessary.'... In October, Judge Edgardo Ramos of the Southern District of New York had ordered the government turn over the 11-page document in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits filed by The New York Times and by the American Civil Liberties Union." CNN's report is here.

Congressional Race. Ethan Cohen, et al., of CNN: "Republican Susan Wright will advance to a runoff in the special election for Texas' 6th Congressional District, CNN projects, in a race that has been an early window into the fight over the future of the Republican Party in the aftermath of ... Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 election and the attack on the US Capitol. GOP state Rep. Jake Ellzey and Democrat Jana Lynne Sanchez are locked in a tight race for the second spot." The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Ahead of a special election on Saturday to replace a Texas congressman who died after contracting Covid-19, former president George W Bush said the ascendancy of supporters of Donald Trump suggest Republicans 'want to be extinct'. The special election is in the sixth district, whose Republican representative, Ron Wright, died in February. Twenty-three candidates will compete: all but one of the 11 Republicans are tied to the apron strings of Trump... The one Republican not expressing fealty to Trump, former marine Michael Wood, told CNN he was 'afraid for the future of the country', given his party's adherence to Trump's lie that the election was stolen, its reluctance to condemn those who rioted at the Capitol on 6 January in support of that lie, and the prevalence of conspiracy theories such as QAnon.... In an interview released on Friday by the Dispatch, an anti-Trump conservative podcast, [Bush] was asked about recent moves by pro-Trump extremists to form a congressional caucus promoting 'Anglo-Saxon traditions'. 'To me that basically says that we want to be extinct,' he said."

Maeve Reston & Aaron Pellish of CNN: "A resolution to censure GOP Sen. Mitt Romney for his two votes to convict ... Donald Trump failed Saturday at the Utah Republican Party organizing convention, where the senator had been booed earlier in the day -- a reflection of the anger that persists among the party's core activists about Trump's impeachment and Romney's frequent criticisms of him throughout his presidency. The vote failed 711-798, according to Utah Republican Party spokeswoman Lynda Cox. The resolution to censure Romney, which was submitted by Don Guymon, a party delegate from Davis County, was rife with unproven conspiracy theories, including about President Joe Biden and his family."

The Day Rudy Set up Trump's Impeachment. Christopher Miller of BuzzFeed News: "The infamous call in which ... Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to do him a 'favor' and investigate Hunter Biden and the origins of the Russia probe took place on July 25, 2019, and eventually led to the former president's first impeachment. But the pressure campaign against the Ukrainians started just three days earlier, when Rudy Giuliani, then the president's personal lawyer, was on a call with a top Zelensky aide asking him to tell the Ukrainian leader to 'just let these investigations go forward.' The call between Giuliani and Andriy Yermak, then Zelensky's top foreign policy advisor and currently his chief of staff, happened on July 22, 2019. Details of the Giuliani-Yermak call were first reported by Time in February. But today, BuzzFeed News is publishing the transcript for the first time.... During the call, Giuliani referenced the ... investigations into ... Hunter [Biden] and the unfounded allegations that Ukraine had interfered in the 2016 US presidential election.... Over and over, [Giuliani] pressed Yermak to urge Zelensky to make a public statement on the matter."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "The conservative news network Newsmax has apologized to an employee of Dominion Voting Systems for baselessly alleging he had rigged the company's voting machines and vote counts against ... Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. In a statement Friday, Newsmax said it wanted to 'clarify' its coverage of Eric Coomer, the director of product strategy and security at Dominion, who filed a defamation lawsuit against the right-wing network in December. After the election, misinformation about Coomer's supposed role in manipulating the vote proliferated on right-wing sites, including Newsmax. Coomer said he had been forced into hiding after receiving death threats from Trump supporters, who believed Trump's false assertion that the election had been stolen from him and that Coomer had played a role. On Friday, Newsmax said there was no evidence such allegations were true.... In exchange, Coomer has dropped Newsmax from his defamation lawsuit, the Associated Press reported."

Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "As Republican lawmakers in major battleground states seek to make voting harder and more confusing through a web of new election laws, they are simultaneously making a concerted legislative push to grant more autonomy and access to partisan poll watchers -- citizens trained by a campaign or a party and authorized by local election officials to observe the electoral process. This effort has alarmed election officials and voting rights activists alike: There is a long history of poll watchers being used to intimidate voters and harass election workers, often in ways that target Democratic-leaning communities of color and stoke fears that have the overall effect of voter suppression." A related story by Zoe Richards of TPM is here.

Think Tear Gas Just Stings Your Eyes? Heather Murphy of the New York Times: "... Britta Torgrimson-Ojerio, a nurse researcher at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland..., surveyed around 2,200 adults who said they had been exposed to tear gas in Portland last summer. In a study published this week in the journal BMC Public Health, she reported that 899 of them -- more than 54 percent of the respondents who potentially menstruate -- said they had experienced abnormal menstrual cycles.... Downstream effects, like the impact on fertility, are not known, but 'this is our call to action to ask our scientific community to turn their eye to this issue,' [Dr. Torgrimson-Ojerio] said."

Beyond the Beltway

Kansas. Sarah Ritter & Jonathan Shorman of the Kansas City Star: "Kansas state Rep. Mark Samsel was arrested on charges of misdemeanor battery on Thursday after getting into a physical altercation with a student while substitute teaching in Wellsville.... Superintendent Ryan Bradbury said that Samsel will no longer be allowed to work for the district. On Wednesday, Samsel, R-Wellsville, was substitute teaching at the Wellsville school district's secondary school. Throughout the day, high school students began recording videos of the lawmaker talking about suicide, sex, masturbation, God and the Bible. In one video shared with The Star, Samsel tells students about 'a sophomore who's tried killing himself three times,' adding that it was because 'he has two parents and they're both females.'... Videos shared with The Star -- by parents of students in the class -- show Samsel focusing most of his attention on one male student.... Samsel is shown following the student around and grabbing him.... In another video, he tells students, 'Class, you have permission to kick him in the balls.' Parents told The Star that Samsel 'put hands on the student' and allegedly kneed him in the crotch." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Misdemeanor??? Really. Sounds like felony child abuse, a federal hate crime & probably a violation of half a dozen other laws. Whether or not Samsel is convicted, the state legislature should force him to resign or impeach him if he won't go. What a disgusting prick.

Minnesota. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The Minnesota attorney general is seeking a harsher prison sentence for former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin due to the 'particular cruelty' he showed in the murder of George Floyd last year, according to court documents filed Friday. Keith Ellison (D) argued in a legal briefing that Chauvin, who was convicted on murder and manslaughter charges last week, deserved a more severe sentence after the officer knelt on Floyd's neck for more than nine minutes and showed a lack of remorse for the 46-year-old Black man as he yelled out for his mother while detained." Artile topped by Chauvin's mugshot. He wears an arrogant expression in the camera-facing headshot, and IMO, "particularly cruel."

Oregon. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "A Republican state legislator from Oregon who was captured on surveillance video allowing demonstrators to enter the State Capitol in December was charged on Friday in connection with the breach of the building, which led to a conflict between officers and protesters. The lawmaker, Representative Mike Nearman, 57, was charged with official misconduct in the first degree and trespassing in the second degree, according to court documents." The Oregonian's story is here.

Way Beyond

Russia. Nicholas Garriga, et al., of the AP: "Workers and union leaders dusted off bullhorns and flags ... for slimmed down but still boisterous -- and at times violent -- May Day marches on Saturday, demanding more labor protections amid a pandemic that has turned economies and workplaces upside down. In countries that mark May 1 as International Labor Day, the annual celebration of workers' rights produced a rare sight during the pandemic: large and closely packed crowds, with marchers striding shoulder-to-shoulder with clenched fists behind banners. In Turkey and the Philippines, police prevented the May Day protests, enforcing virus lockdowns and making hundreds of arrests. In France, some marchers battled with riot police.... Russia saw just a fraction of its usual May Day activities amid a coronavirus ban on gatherings.... For a second straight year in Italy, May Day passed without the usual large marches and rock concerts."

News Lede

New York Times: "In darkness, four astronauts splashed down early Sunday morning in the Gulf of Mexico near Panama City, Fla. That marked a successful end of a mission for NASA led by a private company, Elon Musk's SpaceX, to take its astronauts to and from the International Space Station. It was the first of what the space agency calls an operational mission." A CNN story is here.