The Commentariat -- April 19, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Closing arguments have begun in Derek Chauvin's murder trial. The New York Times' liveblog for today is here. The Washington Post's liveblog is here. CNN's liveblog is here.

Annie Grayer & Kristin Wilson of CNN: "Republican Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio announced Monday on Twitter that he is leaving Congress next month to become the president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, giving the GOP at least temporarily one fewer vote in the narrowly divided House of Representatives."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "The American Civil Liberties Union asked the Supreme Court on Monday to open a window on the government's secretive system for approving national security surveillance on U.S. soil. Transparency advocates petitioned the high court to review whether the public has a right to access the decisions of a largely secret federal surveillance court, whose growing reach and brushes with political controversy have drawn increasing attention -- and contrasting opinions about public access within the court itself. The filing comes after the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA) and an associated review panel issued rulings in September and October saying they lacked authority even to consider a public claim under the First Amendment to their secret decisions and lawmaking." An AP story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

So far, another Slow Gnus Monday. Thank you, Joe Biden.

Ishan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Of the many fronts the Biden administration is diverging from its predecessor, the most striking -- and likely most consequential -- is on climate. For four years under ... Donald Trump, the federal government of the United States cut itself adrift from the broad international consensus. It turned its back on the Paris climate accords, undermined coordination on climate efforts at major summits, boosted the fossil fuel industry and championed narrow national interests in the face of what the U.S.'s own intelligence community sees as a looming global catastrophe. President Biden immediately shifted course. He restored American participation in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, while recognizing that the world's biggest economies are already lagging behind in the face of an escalating climate emergency. He issued executive orders mobilizing agencies across the federal government to focus on tackling climate change and has proposed a multitrillion dollar infrastructure and jobs plan that would accelerate the country';s transition to a greener economy." ~~~

~~~ Jason Samenow of the Washington Post: "White House officials have removed Betsy Weatherhead, an experienced atmospheric scientist tapped by a Trump appointee to oversee the U.S. government's definitive report on the effects of climate change, from her position. According to two officials, she has been reassigned to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Interior Department's scientific arm.... Officials at the White House Office of Science Technology Policy, which oversees the research program, made the decision to reassign Weatherhead.... Jane Lubchenco, who headed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration during President Barack Obama's first term, leads climate matters at the OSTP.... According to people with knowledge of the situation, there was friction between Weatherhead and some of the officials among the 13 agencies participating in the research program on the direction of the report. It came as a surprise when Weatherhead was selected to lead the assessment in November because she is considered a mainstream climate scientist and does not question the seriousness of climate change like other scientists who were installed by the Trump administration to work on the issue." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Do you think "Weatherhead" really is Betsy's last name? And if it is, isn't it morally wrong, or at least bad karma, to remove her as head of a group assigned to assess, well, the weather? BTW, I do know the difference between "weather" and "climate," but maybe the name "Elisabetta Climatico" was taken.

Republicans Cheat at Everything. Paul Farhi of the Washington Post: "Four party-affiliated organizations, including the Republican National Committee, collectively spent more than $1 million during the past election cycle mass-purchasing books written by GOP candidates, elected officials and personalities, according to Federal Election Commission expenditure reports. The purchases helped turn several volumes into bestsellers. While there's no prohibition on such second-party purchases, a new complaint alleges that another Texas Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz, crossed the line into illegal activity when he used campaign money to boost sales of his newest book. A government watchdog organization, the Campaign Legal Center..., said Cruz's campaign committee effectively converted campaign contributions to Cruz's personal enrichment, an illegal practice."

Gary Fineout of Politico: "Matt Gaetz's political trail was not just preceded but heavily influenced by his father, a Republican multi-millionaire businessman who had a reputation for rhetorical flourishes and drag-out political fights. Don Gaetz all but paved his son's way into Florida's political world, and some suggest that his father's stature and influence is even helping his son as he faces a probe into potential sex trafficking." MB: I didn't feel like reading about Matt's hereditary issues, but maybe you will.

John Bowden of the Hill: "Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. adults surveyed in a new poll said that they believed Supreme Court justices should face term limits and leave the court after a certain amount of time on the bench. The Reuters-Ipsos survey conducted between April 15 and April 16 found that just 22 percent of respondents supported lifetime appointments for Supreme Court justices, while 63 percent supported term limits. The remainder of respondents had no opinion or were unsure. While having new faces join the court was important for many Americans, doing it without a vacancy on the court at its current size was not nearly as popular. Just 38 percent said they supported court packing, or expanding the size of the Supreme Court and adding more justices to the bench, while 42 percent opposed such an idea. The remaining 20 percent of respondents were unsure."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "All adults in every U.S. state, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico are now eligible for a Covid-19 vaccine, meeting the April 19 deadline that President Biden set two weeks ago. The United States is administering an average of 3.2 million doses a day, up from roughly 2.5 million a month before. More than 131 million people, or half of all American adults, had received at least one shot as of Sunday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and about 84.3 million people have been fully vaccinated." MB: Thank you, Joe Biden. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "A decision about whether to resume administering the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine should come this Friday, when an expert panel that is advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is scheduled to meet, according to Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert."

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: eBay listings of fake vaccination cards "listings are a 'perfect example' of burgeoning scams involving coronavirus vaccination cards that could undermine people's safety, as well as the success of the nation's largest mass vaccination effort, said North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. Individuals might use them to misrepresent their vaccination status at school, work or in various living and travel situations, potentially exposing others to risk. Stein, who led a recent effort with 47 colleagues demanding that eBay and other e-commerce platforms crack down on the scams, pointed to the FBI's warning that anyone who makes or buys a fake vaccine card is breaking the law, and said he would consider prosecution, too.... For months, officials have been a step behind the scammers, who have openly discussed strategies to fake the cards on social media, sold them on sites such as eBay and pulled blank photos off state websites. Federal officials' decision to use paper cards that can be easily photocopied or even printed off a template, rather than a digital tracking system, worsened those risks."

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Cloaked and seated on her bench, Colorado district judge Natalie T. Chase asked two Black court employees last May to explain the Black Lives Matter movement after overhearing them talk about protests in Denver over the death of George Floyd. After hearing their explanation, Chase, who is White, said she thought the police involved in Floyd's death sound be investigated. But then she maintained that, in fact, 'all lives matter.' The incident was one of numerous claims of racist or unprofessional behavior raised against Chase, including another occasion where she used the n-word multiple times while talking to a Black colleague, court officials said. On Friday, Chase agreed to resign after the Colorado Supreme Court censured her based on a report finding that she had 'undermined confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary by expressing [her] views about criminal justice, police brutality, race and racial bias, specifically while wearing [her] robe in court staff work areas and from the bench.'... Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) appointed Chase...."

Minnesota. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: "Tim Walz, the governor of Minnesota, on Sunday responded to reports that the state's police officers had assaulted journalists covering the unrest in a Minneapolis suburb, saying, 'Apologies are not enough; it just cannot happen.' Protests have erupted in Brooklyn Center, Minn., in the wake of the death of Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man who was killed by a veteran police officer during a traffic stop. Law enforcement officers have fired tear gas or pepper spray into crowds and have made dozens of arrests. 'I think we all need to recognize the assault on media across the world and even in our country over the last few years is chilling,' Mr. Walz said in an interview with a local CBS station. 'We cannot function as a democracy if they're not there.'" ~~~

~~~ Samantha Hendrickson of the Minnesota Daily: "A new bill proposed in the Minnesota Legislature would make anyone convicted of a crime at a protest ineligible for student loans and many other forms of state financial aid. The bill, authored by Sen. David Osmek (R- Mound), states that 'A person convicted of a criminal offense related to the person's illegal conduct at a protest, demonstration, rally, civil unrest, or march is ineligible for any type of state loan, grant, or assistance, including but not limited to college student loans and grants ...' Other forms of state financial aid, including food stamps, rent assistance and unemployment benefits, are also in the bill."

Way Beyond

Ireland. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Seeking to salve an old wound at a time of sorrow for Britain's royal family, the political leader of the Irish republican movement apologized on Sunday for the 1979 assassination of Louis Mountbatten, an uncle of Prince Philip. Mary Lou McDonald, the leader of Sinn Fein, which was once the political wing of the underground Irish Republican Army, told a London radio station, 'Of course, I am sorry that happened; of course, that is heartbreaking.' Ms. McDonald offered the landmark apology a day after Queen Elizabeth II buried her husband, Philip, in a ceremony at Windsor Castle that paid tribute to his military career. His uncle Lord Mountbatten, a celebrated commander during World War II who later served as the last viceroy of India, overseeing its partition and transition to independence, was killed after a bomb exploded on his fishing boat off the coast of Ireland."

Russia. BBC: "The US has warned Russia there will be 'consequences' if the opposition activist Alexei Navalny dies in jail. The UK, France, Germany and the European Union have also expressed their concern over his treatment. Navalny's doctors say he 'will die within the next few days' if not given urgen medical attention for acute back pain and leg numbness. Russia's ambassador to the UK has said that Navalny is attention seeking and /will not be allowed to die in prison'." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Daria Litvinova of the AP: "The Russian state penitentiary service said Monday a decision has been made to transfer imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is in the third week of a hunger strike, to a hospital. The announcement comes two days after Navalny's physician said his health was deteriorating rapidly and the 44-year-old Kremlin critic could be on the verge of death. The state prison service, FSIN, said in a statement that Navalny would be transferred to a hospital for convicts located in another penal colony in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of Moscow. According to the statement, Navalny's condition is deemed 'satisfactory' and he has agreed to take vitamin therapy." ~~~

~~~ Michael Schwirtz of the New York Times: "A day after the government of the Czech Republic blamed operatives from Russia's military intelligence agency for a series of mysterious explosions at an ammunition depot in 2014 and expelled 18 Russian diplomats, the Russian government announced on Sunday that 20 Czech diplomats would be ejected in response. The expulsions signal further escalation of tensions between the Kremlin and western governments, reaching an intensity not seen since the Cold War."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "The former law enforcement officer suspected of gunning down three people Sunday in Austin has been captured after a 20-hour manhunt, according to the Travis County District Attorney's Office. Authorities tracked down Stephen Nicholas Broderick, 41, an ex-detective at the Travis County Sheriff's Office, early Monday after getting two 911 calls about a man walking along a road in the Austin suburb of Manor. He had a pistol in his waistband but was taken into custody without any further violence, the Associated Press reported.

AP: "NASA's experimental Mars helicopter rose from the dusty red surface into the thin air Monday, achieving the first powered, controlled flight on another planet. The triumph was hailed as a Wright Brothers moment. The mini 4-pound (1.8-kilogram) copter named Ingenuity, in fact, carried a bit of wing fabric from the 1903 Wright Flyer, which made similar history at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. 'We can now say that human beings have flown a rotorcraft on another planet,' project manager MiMi Aung announced to her team. Flight controllers in California confirmed Ingenuity's brief hop after receiving data via the Perseverance rover, which stood watch more than 200 feet (65 meters) away. Ingenuity hitched a ride to Mars on Perseverance, clinging to the rover's belly upon their arrival in an ancient river delta in February." A New York Times story is here. And here's video, mostly of NASA scientists cheering!

Comments

[Akhilleus]

Pillow Guy promises an anti-social media site that’s all about freedom of speech. Except the kind he doesn’t like. So Donald (traitor) Trump can hop on and incite riots leading to the overthrow of the country, but if someone responds and says something like “Jesus Christ, will this fucking guy ever shut up?”, they’ll be banned for life.

Never mind. Too easy.

Aunt Pittypat (aka sack-less Lindsey Graham) sez he’s not down with Biden putting a halt to the forever war in Afghanistan.

Never mind. Too stupid (why does this insignificant limp dick continue to get air time?).

Anglo-Saxon lady, Marjorie T. Greene (white supremacist, fake Congress person), demands Maxine Waters (real Congress person) be expelled from the House. Why? NOT Anglo-Saxon.

Never mind. Too racist.

More mass shootings. No end in sight.

Never mind. Too GQP.

[Forrest Morris]

Looks like the end of the forever war.
Now end:
The war on science
The war on women
The war on voter's rights
The war on truth
The war on the poor
The war on immigrants
The war on LGBTQ
The war on Dems
The war on workers
The war on sanity
Did I miss any?

[Patrick]

War on the English language?

[citizen625]

Lindsey LimpD*** gets airtime because: If the Sunday morning audience for the political shows demanded the hosts hold the politicians feet to the fire, things would change. If you watch James Baldwin disembowel Yankee white man (big teeth Buckley) during their debate at Cambridge Union, you realize we've lost the art of holding to account. Plus, it really helps that so much of the political class are sociopaths with zero shame. (comment adjusted from the other day.) An another point to add AK: isn't it amazing that Lindsey LimpD*** is a current example of Republican statesmanship? Ike versus Lindsey: how far R's have fallen.

[Jeanne]

I like the war list-- it is soooo long. We are a mess.

I managed to completely avoid the Sunday Showz yesterday, which was very nice. Missed Aunt Pittypat. Do you suppose s/he misses the best pal a boy can have since he moved back to FL?

Thanks to you, Marie...time to never again mention, much less explore, the rabid possum Mr. Gaetz.

Oh my, what a tempest in a teapot about Biden walking back his ability to fix immigration (in all its moveable parts) in one swell foop. After all, he HAS been in office for three months-- what's the holdup? The Dems need to shut up. They are doing the best they can with a ravaged agency or two.

[PD Pepe]

AK: Poor Lindsey––you have reduced the poor man to a piddly puddle with a limp dick and, horrors!, sack-less! no less. This southern piece of mint julep weasel-speak seems impervious to criticism and continues to embarrass himself over and over and....

One of the reasons MTG wants to silence Maxine is she told motor mouth Jimmy Jordan to "Shut Up"–-we can't have that kind of language during congressional hearings–– and all the people sigh profoundly.

Another "war on" should include reportage––I was thinking of how Fatty treated reporters from the get go: even put them in cages during his rallies and once egged on his audience to throw tomatoes at them. If the freedom of the press is one of the bull-works of democracy, I'd say this is high on the list. Although "truth" might include the press.

Usually I forget to scan the sidebar since there's so much else to read but this morning I noticed a piece about Colton Underwood, the cutie that was big on "The Bachelor, a program I used to watch some years back but stopped because it became repetitive, silly and at times really stupid. Turns out this poor lad is gay and had struggled with "who he is" for years. Good for him to finally embrace himself. It breaks my heart to read this:

"On 'Good Morning America,' Underwood said he was in denial for a long time, especially after he grew up in the Catholic church and 'learned in the Bible that being gay was a sin' and had similar negative connotations in the sports world. When he was cast on 'The Bachelor,' he said, 'I literally remember praying to God the morning I found out … and thanking him for making me straight.'”

And speaking of patriarchal religions, enjoyed the Sunday sermons yesterday––especially M.B.'s.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Anglo-Saxon lady’s attack (along with quite a few other hyper-hypocritical confederates) on Maxine Waters stems, no doubt in part, from the idea—the IDEA!—that some no ‘count nee-groe lady should have the temerity to speak up to her betters, ie, white people, but the proximate cause of her latest dirty diaper diatribe is a response to Waters’ visit to Brooklyn Center where she spoke to those protesting the killing of yet another unarmed black man by a white police officer.

Waters, in her speech to the crowd, pointed out that such protests were necessary if any change was going to come about, and then she stated that should no one listen (they haven’t yet, or at least not so’s anyone would notice), then it might be time to become more confrontational.

Aiieeee! CONFRONTATIONAL!?!? She’s inciting violence, physical attacks, murder of our noble guys and gals in blue, who should never be criticized for killing a darkie...um, I mean, doing their job!

And there it is. What’s the problem, you might ask? Well, to understand their “concern”, you have to learn confederate thought processes and definitions.

To most of us, confrontation means a face to face meeting, a serious debate, a calling out of differences.

Not to confederates. To confederates, confrontation means violence, knives, guns, physical assault. They don’t debate, they scream and bully and give orders (see Jordan, Jim). So Waters’ use of the word “confrontation” means “race war”.

And while we’re at it, leave us not forget this Taylor Greene person was perfectly okay with Trump urging actual violent confrontations. Waters did nothing of the sort. Her concern is the plague of police brutality that snuffs out the lives of unarmed African-Americans. Trump and Greene and the Oaf Keepers were outraged because actual democracy denied Fatty another four years to fuck up the country.

But she’s also outraged because...well, black.

[unwashed]

Fairly long piece in Mother Jones on the morphing of the Tea Party into the Insurrectionists, and the grifters behind it.

[Marie Burns]

And of course the overarching reason Margie calls for Waters' ouster is that outrageous verbal attacks on prominent Black people is a tried-and-true moneymaker for Margie. Margie's last foray into the national news cycle -- still playing out hours before she launched the latest one -- had not gone well for Margie. Even Kevin McCarthy ever-so-delicately cleared his throat.

So borrowing from Trump's playbook, Marge puts herself right back in the news to gin up the White peoples' outrage and get them -- and surely to send out a batch of fundraising letters. I saw the latest this morning and decided to ignore it.

[Akhilleus]

God and an Asshole at Yale

Citizen reminded me of the Baldwin-Buckley debate, which I hadn’t seen in years. Going back to scan it again, it’s every bit as eye-popping as I remembered it.

Baldwin’s point is that, basically, black people in America aren’t even treated as second class citizens. They’re barely treated as citizens at all. Buckley’s stance is pure white supremacy, dressed up with Ivy League badinage and insufferable condescension.

Right from the top he says he’s not going to treat Baldwin as a black man. He’s going to treat him like a white man, that is, someone deserving of respect, not some shiftless darkie. It’s amazing that Baldwin didn’t run across the room and strike him in the face.

Then he goes on to lecture Baldwin that lazy blacks simply aren’t willing to do what’s necessary to be assimilated into the club of white privilege, just like other immigrant groups have. But what he leaves out is that, even though other immigrant groups had been treated badly before being accepted, they were all WHITE to begin with!!

Finally he sniffs that it’s not necessary, or important, that more blacks in the south be allowed to vote. The answer is to make sure fewer whites be allowed the franchise (I’m guessing he meant poor, uneducated whites, the kind who now vote for Buckley’s legatees). What he’s getting at here is a society run by land owning, white elites. Blacks shouldn’t worry their heads about that because their betters are in charge. They should just stop whining and get off their lazy asses.

This was over a half century ago. Republicans STILL hold to this way of thinking. Plus now, as a bonus, they have white cops killing unarmed black men.

Baldwin once made a point that, if all you have going for you, morally, is your white skin, you’re a pretty sad excuse for a human being. He’s still right about that. And they’re still doing it.

[citizen625]

I couldn't resist the Matt and Daddy Gaetz article. In sum, daddy was such a big asshole he got pegged as and then kicked out of North Dakota. Only Florida would have him. Kid Matt was enabled by asshole/bully dad to be an asshole/bully. Now asshole/bully dad is pulling out all pseudo-patriotic defenses to protect asshole/bully Matt. End.

[Jeanne]

Terrified that Chauvin is going to skate. Not because the defense was brilliant, but because the general public is so damned stupid. The jury might be representative of that. Certainly the GQP party is. And it cannot be blamed on Maxine Waters.