The Commentariat -- July 26, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Rick Rojas of the New York Times: John "Lewis, who died on July 17, crossed the [Edmund Pettus Bridge] one last time on Sunday, his coffin carried by horses as part of a valedictory pilgrimage retracing the arc of his life. The trek started on Saturday in Troy, county seat of Pike County where he grew up on a cotton farm, and continues this week onto Washington, where he served in Congress, and Atlanta, which became his home." ~~~

~~~ Sydney Trent of the Washington Post: "For the last two decades, the 17-term congressman from Georgia..., led an annual march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge to kindle hope in the ongoing struggle for racial justice. On the 50th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in 2015, he made the trip with the nation's first black president, Barack Obama. Now, as Lewis was carried across the span Sunday before lying in state at the U.S. Capitol, a revived effort to rename the Edmund Pettus Bridge in honor of the civil rights giant is gaining traction.... There are two petitions now, on Change.org and the [John Lewis Bridge Project's] website, that have picked up steam since Lewis' death. As of Saturday, about 715,000 people had signed them, including 'Selma' director Ava DuVernay, Kerry Washington, Paul McCartney, Dan Rather and Pettus' great-great-granddaughter, Caroline Randall Williams, who is black.... Pettus was a U.S. senator for Alabama from 1897 to 1907, a Confederate Army officer and, after the Civil War, a grand dragon in the Ku Klux Klan."

Marianne Levine & Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "Even before Senate Republicans roll out a proposal on the next coronavirus relief package, top Trump administration officials are already pushing a backup plan in case negotiations stall. During media appearances Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin suggested Congress could take an issue-by-issue approach to coronavirus relief, an idea House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has already rejected."

Axios: "FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver said on ABC's 'This Week' that while President Trump's reelection bid is 'clearly in trouble' due to his dismal coronavirus approval ratings and polling in swing states, he does not believe the president's 'fate is sealed.'... 'We found historically that when there are lots of major news events and economic disruptions, an election becomes harder to predict,' Silver said.... 'A turnaround in the COVID situation by the fall could make the election more competitive.'"

Hate-Statement Masks & Cheeseballs. Rachel Hutton of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Just before noon Saturday, police officers in Marshall, Minn., were called to the town's Walmart on a report that two shoppers were wearing masks emblazoned with swastikas. Another shopper, Raphaela Mueller, the vicar of a southwest Minnesota parish, filmed the swastika-wearing man and woman as they were confronted by others in the store. Then she posted the video on Facebook, where it went viral. 'If you vote for Biden, you're going to be living in Nazi Germany,' the woman with the swastika mask told Mueller, as her companion bagged up toilet paper and an enormous canister of cheeseballs. The two were apparently using the masks to protest Minnesota's mask mandate, which took effect Saturday.... Per the store's request, law enforcement served trespass notices to the 59-year-old man and 64-year-old woman, warning them that if they will face arrest should they return. The two departed without incident and charges were not pursued."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump's Suicide Cult. Tom Nichols in USA Today: "America has now passed the milestone of 4 million COVID cases, and we're still arguing with doctors and epidemiologists about masks and school closures. I expected some of this, because I literally wrote the book over three years ago on why so many Americans think they're smarter than experts. What I did not expect is that this resolute and childish opposition to expertise would be hijacked by the president of the United States and an entire American political party, and then turned into a suicide cult." --s

David Corn of Mother Jones: "This month, Stephen Miller, the extremist anti-immigrant Trump adviser who has promoted white nationalist ideas, lost [Ruth Glosser, who was Miller's maternal grandmother] to the coronavirus pandemic, and his uncle [David Glosser] tells Mother Jones that the Trump administration is partly to blame for this death.... In response to a request seeking comment from Miller, a White House spokesperson sent Mother Jones this statement: 'This is categorically false, and a disgusting use of so-called journalism when the family deserves privacy to mourn the loss of a loved one. His grandmother did not pass away from COVID. She was diagnosed with COVID in March and passed away in July so that timeline does not add up at all.'... Ruth Glosser's death certificate — which her son shared with Mother Jones -- lists her cause of death as 'respiratory arrest' resulting from 'COVID-19.'" --s

Eoin Higgins of Common Dreams: "As Senate Republicans headed home for the weekend without extending unemployment insurance benefits or approving other economic relief programs that could help millions of Americans weather the ongoing financial catastrophe of the coronavirus pandemic, progressives and congressional Democrats warned that disaster is on the horizon.... House Democrats took to Twitter to decry their Senate GOP colleagues for abdicating their responsibility to the American people, noting that Republicans found time to vote for a mammoth $740 billion Pentagon budget but failed to approve anything to meet the needs of struggling workers and families." ~~~

~~~ Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Housing and human rights advocates on Saturday slammed the Republican-controlled Senate for skipping town and allowing a federal moratorium on evictions to expire, putting millions of households across the country at risk for losing their homes in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Despite objections from Democrats, the upper chamber adjourned Thursday evening without lawmakers taking action to extend the eviction moratorium -- which expired Friday -- or the $600-per-week addition to unemployment benefits that Congress enacted earlier this year in response to the current public health and economic crises. The eviction moratorium put in place by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in March protected more than 12 million people who live in homes with federally backed mortgages from being forced onto the streets. Other local and state moratoria have also recently expired." Mrs. McC: No doubt Republican senatos have noticed that more of their backers are landlords than tenants. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Nicky Robertson of CNN: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that he hopes in the next two to three weeks the Senate will be able to get the next coronavirus relief bill to the House.... McConnell said he will begin talking to Democrats as soon as next week on the bill." Mrs. McC: Knock yourself out, Mitch. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Mitch, one reason it is taking so long for him to get a bill to the House is that he also has to negotiate with the President*, who is a very busy man. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump reportedly golfed on Saturday while on vacation at his Bedminster resort in New Jersey. Deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere reportedly told Reuters correspondent Steve Holland that Trump was golfing with retired quarterback Brett Favre.... Trump's latest round of golf occurred as coronavirus continues to devastate America, with total fatalities approaching 150,000." ~~~

     (~~~ AND This. I Can See Texas from My Golf Cart. Jordan Muller of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday said his administration is 'closely monitoring' a pair of major storms in Texas and Hawaii as the first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season made landfall along the pandemic-stricken Texas coast. 'We continue to coordinate closely with both states,' the president tweeted from his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, urging residents to listen to emergency management officials to protect families and property.")

Florida. Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' (R) "health department has sidelined scientists, halting briefings last month with disease specialists and telling the experts there was not sufficient personnel from the state to continue participating.... As the virus spread out of control in Florida, decision-making became increasingly shaped by politics and divorced from scientific evidence, according to interviews with 64 current and former state and administration officials, health administrators, epidemiologists, political operatives and hospital executives. The crisis in Florida, these observers say, has revealed the shortcomings of a response built on shifting metrics, influenced by a small group of advisers and tethered at every stage to the Trump administration, which has no unified plan for addressing the national health emergency but has pushed for states to reopen.... The response -- which DeSantis boasted weeks ago was among the best in the nation -- has quickly sunk Florida into a deadly morass." ~~~

~~~ Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A longtime staffer for Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) died from the coronavirus on Friday, the congressman announced, becoming the first known congressional aide to die from the illness. Buchanan said in a statement that he was 'devastated' by the death of Gary Tibbetts, a field representative who had been a member of the congressman's staff since 2011." (Also linked yesterday.)

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Insider Trading on a Grand Scale. David Gelles & Jesse Drucker of the New York Times: "The race is on to develop a coronavirus vaccine, and some companies and investors are betting that the winners stand to earn vast profits from selling hundreds of millions -- or even billions -- of doses to a desperate public. Across the pharmaceutical and medical industries, senior executives and board members are capitalizing on that dynamic. They are making millions of dollars after announcing positive developments, including support from the government, in their efforts to fight Covid-19. After such announcements, insiders from at least 11 companies -- most of them smaller firms whose fortunes often hinge on the success or failure of a single drug -- have sold shares worth well over $1 billion since March, according to figures compiled for The New York Times by Equilar, a data provider.... [Some] senior officials appear to be pouncing on opportunities to cash out while their stock prices are sky high. And some companies have awarded stock options to executives shortly before market-moving announcements about their vaccine progress."

Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "After facing intense scrutiny for planning to air a baseless conspiracy theory that infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci helped to create the coronavirus, conservative TV broadcaster Sinclair Broadcast Group announced Saturday that it will delay the segment to edit the context of the claims.... [A person interviewed in the film, Judy] Mikovits, claimed that Fauci 'manufactured' the coronavirus and shipped it to Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated.... The show was released online earlier this week before it was to be aired on local news channels.... As of Saturday afternoon, the show was pulled from Sinclair websites." Mrs. McC: Yes, better to air this crap closer to the election. ~~~

~~~ David Bauder of the AP: "Meanwhile, Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, talked in detail in a new podcast about the 'serious threats' and hate mail directed his way.... [Fauci] talked about [recent death threats] in some detail on 'The Axe Files' podcast with former Obama aide David Axelrod this past week. Fauci said he's seen ... a far greater level of anger than he heard in the 1980s when he was working to combat HIV. Fauci says he is receiving 'not only hate mail, but actual serious threats against me.' 'I mean against my family, my daughters, my wife,' he said." --s

Trump's Stormtroopers Cause Mayhem Across the U.S.

Mike Baker & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Weeks of violent clashes between federal agents and protesters in Portland, Ore., galvanized thousands of people to march through the streets of American cities on Saturday, injecting new life into protests that had largely waned in recent weeks. One of the most intense protests was in Seattle, where a day of intense clashes left a trail of broken windows, slashed tires and burning trailers. At least 45 protesters had been arrested as of early evening, and both protesters and police officers suffered injuries.... In Austin, Texas, the police said one man was shot and killed just before 10 p.m. during a protest in the city's downtown. In a live video from the scene, protesters are seen marching through an intersection when a car blares its horn.... The man who was killed may have approached a vehicle with a rifle before he was shot and killed, Officer Katrina Ratcliff said. Ms. Ratcliff said the person who shot and killed the man had fired from inside the vehicle. That person was detained and is cooperating with officers, she said.... In Los Angeles, protesters clashed with officers in front of the federal courthouse downtown. Videos showed people smashing windows and lobbing water bottles at officers after protesters said the police fired projectiles at them. The federal courthouse in Portland has been the scene of nightly, chaotic demonstrations for weeks, which looked likely to continue again on Saturday, as thousands participated in marches around the city...."

Kentucky. Chris Kenning, et al., of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Two opposing, heavily armed militia groups came within a few dozen yards of each ... other in downtown Louisville on Saturday in a tense standoff that ended without violence, but marked an escalation after two months of ongoing protests over the police shooting of a Black woman. More than 300 members of the Atlanta-based Black militia NFAC, or 'Not F**king Around Coalition' came to Louisville demanding justice for 26-year-old Breonna Taylor, an ER technician who was fatally shot by officers in March. Wearing all black and carrying assault rifles, members marched in military-style formation from Baxter Park in the Russell neighborhood to Metro Hall where they stopped around 2:45 p.m. at police barricades. Right across was a smaller group of 50 far-right 'Three Percenter' militia members, who were also heavily armed.... Police kept the sides apart and tensions eventually dissipated. Both militias had said they wanted to avoid violence."

Oregon. Piper McDaniel of the Oregonian: "Thousands of Portlanders amassed late Friday downtown and witnessed another tense face-off with federal officers, who used tear gas and shot impact munitions toward protesters.... At least 4,000 people poured Friday night into the city's core. It was the largest crowd since early weeks of the protests that started 58 days ago.... By 10:30 p.m., a line of veterans stood in front of the federal courthouse, preparing for the looming confrontation. A row of women tied to the Wall of Moms group also staged near the courthouse." As unwashed points out in today's Comments, both sides were using leaf blowers! to throw the gas back on the other side. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, Trump has sent troops (or whoever they are) in with the purpose of making the situation worse, not better. He wants the news to lead with his dystopian shows of force against Americans. "There's nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe," Trump said this week. That's true; that's his main job. And he is wantonly doing the opposite. ~~~

~~~ Here's a terrific WashPo story by Marissa Lang on Portland's "leaf-blower dads" that unwashed has pointed out in today's Comments. "The loud, pressurized air machines typically used to clear grass, leaves and other lawn debris are surprisingly effective tools at clearing caustic chemicals from the air. They're so effective that on Friday night, federal agents frustrated at being caught in up in a redirected cloud of tear gas, showed up to the demonstration with their own handheld blowers. The leaf-blower wars were on. 'I'm totally impressed with all the courage we're seeing from just normal people who have taken it on themselves to come out here and stand up for our right to protest,' said Eddie, a 35-year-old Portlander who declined to give his last name out of fear of retaliation from federal officers." Mrs. McC: Wish they'd use their leaf-blowers on whatever that is on Trump's head.

Gillian Brassil of the New York Times: "The W.N.B.A. season started with 26 seconds of silence and an empty court. 'We are dedicating this season to Breonna Taylor,' Layshia Clarendon, a New York Liberty guard and member of the new W.N.B.A. Social Justice Council, said at the game's start. 'We will be a voice for the voiceless.' The 2020 season, which is being played in a 22-week 'bubble' tournament at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., is expected to be charged with social justice initiatives alongside a full championship schedule. Symbols and logos declaring 'Black Lives Matter' and 'Say Her Name' were prominent on the court, and players wore jerseys that bore the name of Ms. Taylor."

Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "For Trump, this has been a week of retreat. Rather than bending others to his will, the president has been the one backing down from long-held positions in the face of resistance from fellow Republicans or popular opposition, scrambling to reinvigorate his reelection campaign while the coronavirus continues to ravage the nation. Weakened politically by his response to the pandemic, Trump changed course after polls showed his positions did not align with public attitudes or -- as was the case with the payroll tax cut -- his Republican allies on Capitol Hill declined to advance his interests.... White House officials rejected the characterization of the president's sudden advocacy for mask usage and cancellation of the convention festivities in Jacksonville, Fla., as a retreat.... Trump's safety rationale [for cancelling the convention] was inconsistent, however, with his stance last month in regard to staging a large campaign rally in Tulsa. He was adamant about holding the event, despite repeated warnings from local health officials that convening thousands of people in an indoor arena could further spread the virus. In the days that followed the rally, the rate of coronavirus cases in the Tulsa area increased."

** Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "The Trump administration is detaining immigrant children as young as 1 in hotels, sometimes for weeks, before deporting them to their home countries under policies that have effectively shut down the nation's asylum system during the coronavirus pandemic, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A private contractor for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is taking children to three Hampton Inn & Suites hotels in Arizona and at the Texas-Mexico border, where they are typically detained for several days, the records show. The hotels have been used nearly 200 times, while more than 10,000 beds for children sit empty at government shelters." ~~~

~~~ Edward Moreno of the Hill: "A federal judge denied a request from the Trump administration to delay its deadline to release migrants from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers. U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ruled in late June that children in ICE detention centers must be released 'with all deliberate speed,' due to coronavirus infections within facilities. The judge have the federal government a deadline of July 17 to comply. She later extended the deadline to July 27 after a motion from the Trump administration. The administration sought another extension, which Gee denied Saturday."

Andy Greenberg of Wired: "[I]t appears the [Russia's] GRU [military intelligence agency] has been hitting US networks again, in a series of previously unreported intrusions that targeted organizations ranging from government agencies to critical infrastructure. From December 2018 until at least May of this year, the GRU hacker group known as APT28 or Fancy Bear carried out a broad hacking campaign against US targets, according to an FBI notification sent to victims of the breaches in May and obtained by WIRED.... The FBI declined to comment on how many victims the APT28 campaign may have targeted, or how many of those attempts were successful.... A new GRU hacking campaign targeting US organizations in 2020 also raises the specter of another round of election meddling, given the GRU's notorious campaign of electoral interference in 2016." --s ~~~

~~~ BBC: "The US and UK have accused Russia of testing a weapon-like projectile in space that could be used to target satellites in orbit. The US State Department described the recent use of 'what would appear to be actual in-orbit anti-satellite weaponry' as concerning. Russia's defence ministry earlier said it was using new technology to perform checks on Russian space equipment.... [I]t is the first time the UK has made accusations about Russian test-firing in space. They come just days after an inquiry said the UK government 'badly underestimated' the threat posed by Russia.... This Russian test of what the Americans say is an anti-satellite weapon is part of a pattern of recent Russian space activity. In February, the US military said that two Russian satellites manoeuvred close to an American one, and in April Moscow test-fired a ground-based satellite interceptor." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: And yet. And yet. Donnie still regularly phones up Vlad to exchange pleasantries.

Samantha Vinograd of CNN: "While US news feeds are dominated by unspeakable tragedies and trivial Trump pursuits, a series of events unfolding in Iran warrants close attention. Over the last few weeks, as the world has grappled with the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple explosions and fires have occurred at Iranian nuclear military and& industrial facilities.... Some analysts suspect the United States and its ally Israel, which have reportedly carried out cyberattacks against Iran before, may have played a role in these recent explosions.... Almost four years into his term, President Donald Trump has expressly failed to mitigate the threats from Iran. Instead, he's exacerbated them." --s

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "A Christian nonprofit organization that fights world hunger asked Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) to resign from its board after he confronted a female colleague and then reportedly used a sexist expletive after Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) was out of earshot. Bread for the World announced Yoho's resignation in a statement on Saturday, saying that his 'recent actions and words as reported in the media are not reflective of the ethical standards expected of members of our Board of Directors.'" CNN's story is here. Mrs. McC: Funny how Congressional Republicans can criticize Liz Cheney (R-Female) for promoting mask-wearing but can't criticize Ted Yoho (R-MachoMan) for calling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-Female) a "fucking bitch," then lying about it while profanely invoking God in a House floor speech.

Presidential Race

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute ... has demanded that President Trump and the Republican National Committee (RNC) quit raising campaign money by using Ronald Reagan's name and likeness.... What came to the foundation's attention -- and compelled officials there to complain -- was a fundraising email that went out July 19 with 'Donald J. Trump' identified as the sender and a subject line that read: 'Ronald Reagan and Yours Truly.'The solicitation offered, for a donation of $45 or more, a 'limited edition' commemorative set featuring two gold-colored coins, one each with an image of Reagan and Trump. The coins were mounted with a 1987 photograph of Reagan and Trump shaking hands in a White House receiving line -- the type of fleeting contact that presidents have with thousands of people a year.... As of Saturday afternoon, it appeared that the coin sets were still available on the joint fundraising committee website." The Hill's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Tumulty also reprises this story, which I had not heard before: "This isn't the first time the 45th president has traded on the name or likeness of the 40th ... for his own purposes. In July 2019, he shared as 'Cute!' a fake quote by Reagan that was making its way around social media. According to the apocryphal story, Reagan upon meeting Trump supposedly said: 'For the life of me, and I'll never know how to explain it, when I met that young man, I felt like I was the one shaking hands with the president.' Trump continued to spread the made-up quote, even though Joanne Drake, the chief administrative officer of the Reagan Foundation, had already told the fact-checking website PolitiFact that Reagan 'did not ever say that about Donald Trump.'" I don't know why Trump cares; he has already declared himself a better president than Reagan.

Stephen Nellis of Reuters: "Microsoft Corp and the NBA said on Friday they have joined forces to put 'virtual' fans in the stands of each game using Microsoft's Teams app and giant screens. The two will equip each game court with 17-foot-tall (5.2 m) LED screens that wrap three sides of the arena. The virtual stands will be filled with fans who use the Teams app to log in and sit alongside each other using a new feature of the app called 'Together mode' meant to simulate a group of people sitting in a room." In yesterday's Comments, Bobby Lee suggested this could work for Trump. Say, it could work for Biden, too.

Kim Chandler of the AP: "Civil rights icon and longtime Georgia congressman John Lewis was remembered Saturday -- in the rural Alabama county where his story began -- as a humble man who sprang from his family's farm with a vision that 'good trouble' could change the world. The morning service in the city of Troy in rural Pike County was held at Troy University, where Lewis would often playfully remind the chancellor that he was denied admission in 1957 because he was Black, and where decades later he was awarded an honorary doctorate." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "The memorial service [in Troy, Alabama], which drew a crowd to the campus of Troy University, was the start of a series of tributes that mirrored Mr. Lewis's path through life. It began on Saturday with a final journey to his home state of Alabama, and on Sunday, his body will be carried across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., where he helped lead the demonstrators beaten down by the authorities as they marched on March 7, 1965. He will lie in state at the U.S. Capitol on Monday and Tuesday, and on Wednesday, he will be brought to the Georgia Capitol in Atlanta. On Thursday, his funeral will be held in Ebenezer Baptist Church, a sanctuary in Atlanta with deep ties to the civil rights movement, as it had been the home of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Israel. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "For three nights this week thousands of young Israelis, provoked by what they see as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's flubbed response to the coronavirus scourge, shook off a long political slumber, blocked the streets outside his official residence and demanded that he quit.... Their anger signaled that his storied political survival skills are confronting a new risk.... While the fury reflects a multitude of grievances, they have converged around one man: a prime minister who is a defendant in a corruption trial is now blamed for a colossal failure in dealing with the health and economic crises caused by the virus pandemic, and is resorting to what critics call undemocratic measures to retain power."

Russia. Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "... protests in Khabarovsk, a city 4,000 miles east of Moscow, drew tens of thousands of people for a three-mile march through central streets for the third straight week on Saturday. Residents were rallying in support of a popular governor arrested and spirited to Moscow this month -- but their remarkable outpouring of anger, which has little precedent in post-Soviet Russia, has emerged as stark testimony to the discontent that President Vladimir V. Putin faces across the country.... Protesters chanting 'Freedom!' and 'Putin resign!' while passing drivers honked, applauded and offered high-fives...."

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Hanna continued to lash South Texas and northeastern Mexico on Sunday with high winds and torrential downpours. Flash flood warnings were issued across the Rio Grande Valley as the storm continued to push inland. A flash flood emergency was declared in Mission, Texas, where as much as 10 inches of rain had fallen. Officials with the city of Mission asked people to stay away because motorists were becoming stranded in the flooding and that was taking time away from first responders. A flash flood emergency also was declared for frontage roads and city streets around U.S. Highway 83 in Hidalgo County. Chris Birchfield, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Brownsville, Texas, said even though Hanna's winds had weakened, the heavy rainfall was still a real threat."

AP: "Hawaii prepared for Hurricane Douglas on Sunday, with predictions of high winds, rain and storm surge. 'It's definitely going to be a triple threat,' said National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Vanessa Almanza, adding that rainfall could be anywhere from 5in-15in. Douglas weakened on Saturday to a category 1 hurricane as it approached Hawaii, but officials warned people should not be lulled into complacency. The NWS said Douglas should remain a hurricane as it moved through the islands on Sunday."

New York Times: "Olivia de Havilland, an actress who gained movie immortality in 'Gone With the Wind,' then built an illustrious film career, punctuated by a successful fight to loosen the studios' grip on contract actors, died on Sunday at her home in Paris. She was 104 and one of the last surviving stars of Hollywood's fabled Golden Age."

Comments

[unwashed]

More on the Windy Warriors from the WaPo. I imagine them wearing bandoliers of batteries for rapid "refueling".

[Jeanne]

Re the YOHO-- The Senate Republicans died in January, which is why we NEVER hear anything from them with regard to anything that happens, either to the administration, with the administration or for the administration. They have all gone to their rewards, and thus cannot speak. The only man standing after this remarkable disaster is Mitt Romney, the man of a thousand lives. Everyone else perished long ago. And they smell to high heaven.

[PD Pepe]

"One could be forgiven for thinking that rhetorical dynamism long ago vanished from the hallways and chambers of the United States Congress. It has been a hundred and sixty-four years, for example, since Charles Sumner, the anti-slavery Republican from Massachusetts, rose in the humid air of the Old Senate Chamber to unleash a five-hour, fully memorized onslaught against the idea of Kansas joining the Union as a slave state. Along the way, Sumner paused to lash two of his Senate colleagues, calling Stephen Douglas, of Illinois, a “noisome, squat, and nameless animal,” and accusing Andrew Butler, of South Carolina, of taking up with a “polluted” mistress—“I mean the harlot, Slavery.” You can still hear such acidic flourishes in other legislatures around the globe, but the language of the U.S. Congress is rarely so vivid. Generally, it is as flavorless as day-old gum." David Remnick

But AOC, having spit out that day old gum many moons ago, took to that same chamber and delivered a speech that, too, will go down in history and it will be a her-story , no "his" in it at all.

One of my sons and his wife, parents of one son and a daughter sat their kids down and as a family watched AOC's speech. My other grandchildren, all girls, living in Germany know all about "rhetorical dynamism" along with political over-reach––they have been schooled well in that department in their history classes and from parents who are superior role models.

When I search my memory for instances where a male's big boots tried to squash me to a pulp I come up almost empty handed although growing up during the fifties I might have been hoodwinked by the culture. However––the "almost" incident took place when my first teaching job was to co-teach a small class of "disturbed children" with a male instructor who was, because of his title, my superior. One of the students happened to be a boy I had, for a whole year, been in-home instructing because he was unable to manage himself in school. This boy and others in the class (all boys) hated this male teacher and refused to cooperate with him ( he was, by the way, an awful teacher–-lazy, incompetent , and surly) but, probably due to my good relationship with the boy I had been teaching, and I like to think because of my skills dealing with these kinds of kids, they listened to me, followed my instructions and over all managed pretty well. This drove said teacher nuts–-he finally blew up at me one day–-accusing me of usurping his turf–-even going as far as suggesting I had somehow beguiled the boys.

How did I respond? I cried.

Many years later when this man became principle and I was teaching English in the mainstream I managed a power play against him––but that's another story; suffice to say I look back at those tears and cringe. Looks like young women today ain't gonna do much of that anymore!

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: Thanks for sharing your story. A lot of us young women back in the day thought men were more worldly-wise than we and "must be right" about all manner of things. Ted Yoho and most Republican men still think so, and they are deeply offended that women -- especially young women, especially young women of color -- fail to recognize the men's "natural superiority." Of course they will tell us to our faces we're "disgusting" and "crazy" and call us "fucking bitches" in front of reporters. They see nothing wrong with that. We don't know our places and we should pay for that.

Remember the TV series "Father Knows Best" in which the title was not at all ironical? Father really did know best. It was one of my favorite shows!

If by some miracle Ocasio-Cortez had been in Congress in 1956 and made the same speech, it would not have been one man who made the remarks and silent Republican MoCs who tacitly endorsed them. Rather, a chorus of men would have risen against AOC to declare that every tenet of her speech was foolish gibberish. So times have changed. And the Ted Yohos of this world are furious about that.

[Akhilleus]

I see that the Nazi mask white couple in Minnesota were allowed to leave the store without incident and were not charged. What are the chances that, were this a black couple wearing BLM masks and shouting that anyone who votes for Trump will be voting for a fascist state, they would be allowed to leave peacefully and wouldn’t be charged with anything?

Maybe Nate Silver could come up with some numbers. My back of the envelope calculations say not good. At least not in Trump’s Amerika.

[Gloria]

Eighty years ago my grandfather shot people wearing that insignia. My father built planes to drop bombs on people wearing that insignia. My mother sewed parachutes for men dropping in battlefields to kill people wearing that insignia. These people make me sick. Whether they’re shopping in Walmart, marching with torches, or chanting Blood and Soil, Jews will not replace us. They sure tell us who they are. And I’m sure taking note.