The Commentariat -- March 2, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Reid Epstein & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg plans to endorse former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in the Democratic presidential race, according to a person informed of the decision, as the Democratic Party's moderate wing quickly began coalescing around Mr. Biden in an effort to stop Senator Bernie Sanders from winning the Democratic nomination. Mr. Buttigieg's endorsement ... is set to come at a Biden campaign event Monday night...." ~~~

~~~ Nick Corasaniti & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, who entered the Democratic presidential race with an appeal to moderate voters and offered herself as a candidate who could win in Midwestern swing states, has decided to quit the race and endorse ... Joseph R. Biden Jr., her campaign confirmed on Monday. Ms. Klobuchar will appear with Mr. Biden at his rally in Dallas Monday night." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Unless Warren can pull off a miracle, Trump just won four more years. If I were a bit younger, I'd buy a flat in Antibes & spend the last of my days staring out the window at the deep blue sea.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a third major case on the Affordable Care Act ... granting petitions from Democratic state officials and the House of Representatives in a case with the potential to wipe out the entire law. The court did not say when it would hear the case, but, under its ordinary practices, arguments would be held in the fall and a decision would land in the spring or summer of 2021. Democrats, who consider health care a winning issue and worry about possible changes in the composition of the Supreme Court, had urged the justices to act quickly even though lower courts had not issued definitive rulings. They wanted to keep the fate of the Affordable Care Act, sometimes called Obamacare, in the public eye during the presidential campaign and to ensure that the appeal was decided while justices who had rejected earlier challenges remain the court." The NBC News report is here.

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Shortly after health officials in Washington state confirmed the second U.S. death from the novel coronavirus in as many days, President Trump retweeted an animated video Sunday night in which he again bragged about his accomplishments, laughed at his political opponents and critics, and smiled as Mount Rushmore was reshaped to feature only his face.... The video, which had been viewed more than 1 million times as of early Monday, was retweeted late Sunday amid reports that the Trump administration has scrambled to gain control of an American response to the global crisis, a response that has been 'defined by bureaucratic infighting, confusion and misinformation,' The Washington Post reported."

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "An official at the Interior Department embarked on a campaign that has inserted misleading language about climate change -- including debunked claims that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is beneficial -- into the agency's scientific reports, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times. The misleading language appears in at least nine reports, including environmental studies and impact statements on major watersheds in the American West that could be used to justify allocating increasingly scarce water to farmers at the expense of wildlife conservation and fisheries. The effort was led by Indur M. Goklany, a longtime Interior Department employee who, in 2017 near the start of the Trump administration, was promoted to the office of the deputy secretary with responsibility for reviewing the agency's climate policies.... The wording, known internally as the 'Goks uncertainty language' based on Mr. Goklany's nickname, inaccurately claims that there is a lack of consensus among scientists that the earth is warming."

~~~~~~~~~~

Meg Cunningham of ABC News: "Fifteen [presidential primary] contests will be held across the nation on Tuesday. Polls close at various times beginning at 7 p.m. eastern and extending until 11 p.m., though it is unlikely a winner will be projected in every state before the close of the night.... Fourteen states and American Samoa will head to the polls to weigh in on the presidential election on Tuesday.... This is the first year that delegate-rich California will vote on Super Tuesday. Coupled with Texas, the two are by far the most delegate-heavy states." Mrs. McC: I heard on the teevee that 34% of Democratic delegates will be chosen in the super-Tuesday primaries.

** Reid Epstein & Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Pete Buttigieg, the former small-city Indiana mayor and first openly gay major presidential candidate, has decided to quit the Democratic race, a person briefed on Mr. Buttigieg's plans said on Sunday, following a crushing loss in the South Carolina primary where his poor performance with black Democrats signaled an inability to build a broad coalition of voters. The decision comes just 48 hours before the biggest voting day of the primary, Super Tuesday, when 15 states and territories will allot a third of the delegates over all. The results were widely expected to show him far behind Mr. Biden and Mr. Sanders. Mr. Buttigieg canceled plans for a Sunday night rally in Dallas and a Monday morning fund-raiser in Austin, Tex., to return to South Bend, Ind., to make a speech." An updated AP story is here; a Guardian story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ New NYT Lede: "Pete Buttigieg, the former small-city Indiana mayor and first openly gay major presidential candidate, said Sunday night he was dropping out of the Democratic race, following a crushing loss in the South Carolina primary where his poor performance with black Democrats signaled an inability to build a broad coalition of voters."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: Bernie "Sanders heads toward Super Tuesday's contests in an enviable position. But given growing resistance to his candidacy among establishment Democrats, he needs a strong performance Tuesday to put a lock on becoming the delegate leader heading to the national convention in Milwaukee in July."

Jeff Zeleny of CNN: "Former President Barack Obama ... call[ed] former Vice President Joe Biden and offer[ed] his congratulations.... But the words of praise for Biden's commanding finish in the contest did not change the fact that Obama still plans to stay on the sidelines and not insert himself into the primary fight as it intensifies. A person close to Obama told CNN that the former president's view has not changed: He has no immediate plans to offer an endorsement of Biden -- or anyone -- as the nominating contest heads into Super Tuesday."

Alexandra Jaffe & Kathleen Ronayne of the AP: "... after [Joe] Biden's commanding win in South Carolina, which was powered by support from African Americans, [Mike] Bloomberg is facing mounting pressure to justify his presence in the race. Some Democrats fear that Bloomberg will take votes on Super Tuesday that would otherwise go to Biden, making it harder for the party to unite behind a single moderate alternative to Bernie Sanders, who some in the party establishment think is too liberal to beat ... Donald Trump.... Even if Bloomberg has a poor showing on Tuesday, he's likely to press on. His campaign hasn't set clear expectations for victory on Tuesday, but adviser Tim O'Brien said there's no scenario in which he exits the race due to the results."

Torey Van Oot of the Minneapolis Star Tribune: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar returned to Minnesota on Sunday hoping to pivot to Super Tuesday after a distant sixth-place finish in the South Carolina primary. But while hundreds of supporters gathered for her homecoming in a St. Louis Park High School gymnasium, dozens of protesters streamed in, chanting for her to exit the race over her handling of the case against Myon Burrell, a black teenager convicted in a 2002 child slaying when Klobuchar was Hennepin County attorney. As protesters took over the stage shouting 'Myon!' Klobuchar supporters shouted 'Amy!' back. Klobuchar was not in the gymnasium as the protest unfolded, disrupting the start of a program of campaign speeches."

Astead Herndon of the New York Times: "Presidential candidates and prominent social justice activists descended on Alabama on Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of the brutal attack on civil rights marchers here in 1965, one of the most violent episodes in the struggle for black participation in democracy. A who's who of political figures, including five Democratic presidential candidates, were marking the occasion, nearly 55 years after the day that became known as 'Bloody Sunday.'... During an early afternoon service on Sunday, people gathered at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church, the starting point for the 1965 march.... [Joe] Biden and former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, addressed the congregation.... While Mr. Bloomberg spoke, a number of people stood and turned their backs.... Stacey Abrams, the Georgia Democrat and voting rights activist who has often been mentioned as a potential vice-presidential candidate, delivered a keynote speech.... Later, Mr. Bloomberg, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Ind., joined the march on the bridge." ~~~

~~~ "Speak Up. Speak Out. Get in the Way." Devan Cole of CNN: "Civil rights icon and US Democratic Rep. John Lewis of Georgia made a surprise appearance at this year's 'Bloody Sunday' commemorative march in Selma, Alabama, where he delivered an impassioned plea to voters to use the ballot box as 'a nonviolent instrument or tool to redeem the soul of America.' Lewis, who had his skull broken by white police officers during the 1965 march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in December. At the time, Lewis said he would undergo treatment for the cancer...." Includes video.

Mike Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "... there were troubling new signs that [the coronavirus] was spreading undetected in some American communities for weeks while the government resisted calls for more widespread testing. With testing now ramping up, the Seattle suburb of Kirkland has become an epicenter of both illness and fear, much of it focused on a nursing facility where six coronavirus cases have been confirmed and many more residents and employees have complained of illness. Health authorities in King County, Wash., announced on Sunday evening that one of the six, a resident of the nursing home, had died of the virus at the EvergreenHealth hospital in Kirkland, and that three more were in critical condition. The death was the second on U.S. soil from the virus; the first also occurred at that hospital."

Elizabeth Cohen of CNN: "As new cases of coronavirus arise daily in the United States..., the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has failed to release crucial information physicians say could help save the lives of Americans diagnosed with the novel coronavirus. Several US patients have recovered from coronavirus, but so far, the CDC has shared detailed clinical information about only one of those patients.... That means doctors who now unexpectedly find themselves treating new coronavirus patients aren't able to benefit from the findings of doctors who preceded them.... Not sharing such information ... 'is inexplicable and inappropriate,' ... said Dr. Irwin Redlener, director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University."

Jonathan Swan & Caitlin Owens of Axios: "A top federal scientist sounded the alarm about what he feared was contamination in an Atlanta lab where the government made test kits for the coronavirus, according to sources familiar with the situation in Atlanta.... The Trump administration has ordered an independent investigation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lab, and manufacturing of the virus test kits has been moved, the sources said.... At the time the administration is under scrutiny for its early preparations for the virus, the potential problems at the lab became a top internal priority for some officials. But the Trump administration did not talk publicly about the Food and Drug Administration's specific concerns about the Atlanta lab."

The New York Times is liveblogging market developments. "Stocks rose in global markets on Monday as investors bet that the world's governments and central banks would step in to help a global economy slammed by the coronavirus outbreak. In Europe, stock markets started the day with gains, but those began to fade as trading continued. Most Asian indexes finished the trading session higher. Futures markets indicated that investors expect Wall Street to open slightly higher later on Monday."

News Flash! Gail Collins Hopes Millions Will Die & Make Trump Look Bad. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "NBC's Chuck Todd in an interview broadcast Sunday pressed Vice President Pence on his condemnation of 'irresponsible rhetoric' from Democrats on the coronavirus, asking him to cite specific examples. Todd played a series of clips from conservative commentators, including talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who accused Democrats of having 'weaponized' the virus, and Donald Trump Jr., who said his father's opponents were trying to 'take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning.' 'None of this seems to match the facts. What facts are there that Democrats are doing this?... ' Todd said. 'Well, I will tell you, there's been a lot of irresponsible rhetoric among Democrats and commentators on the left,' Pence ... said. 'Name some names, sir. Because it just feels like gaslighting...," Todd responded. Pence eventually cited a New York Times column by Gail Collins, whom he did not name, with the headline 'Let's Call It Trumpvirus,' demurring when Todd asked if that applies 'to all people.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mediaite has video here (begins at about 45 sec. in). Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If pence had actually read Collins' column, he would find that nowhere in the column does she suggest that the coronavirus needs a new name. Rather, the column cites example after example -- all culled from the news/those nasty little things called facts -- of how Trump & the gang are downplaying the seriousness of the epidemic and mismanaging mitigation. Or are just plain clueless. But still. In her heart, I'll bet Gail -- whom Trump once criticized for having "The Face of a Dog!" -- wants to kill off a sizable chunk of the population so Donald Trump won't enjoy so much winning.

An Obvious Reason for Universal Health Coverage. Claire Miller, et al., of the New York Times: "Stay home from work if you get sick. See a doctor. Use a separate bathroom from the people you live with. Prepare for schools to close, and to work from home. These are measures the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended to slow a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. Yet these are much easier to do for certain people -- in particular, high-earning professionals. Service industry workers, like those in restaurants, retail, child care and the gig economy, are much less likely to have paid sick days, the ability to work remotely or employer-provided health insurance. The disparity could make the new coronavirus, which causes a respiratory illness known as Covid-19, harder to contain in the United States than in other rich countries that have universal benefits like health care and sick leave, experts say. A large segment of workers are not able to stay home, and many of them work in jobs that include high contact with other people. It could also mean that low-income workers are hit harder by the virus." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you know someone who resents having to help pay for health insurance for "lazy poor people" -- and you do -- you might want to explain to him why it's in his self-interest to do so.

The Method to His Madness. George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "In 2016, CBS '60 Minutes' correspondent Lesley Stahl asked Trump off camera why he persisted in going after journalists. In one of those sporadic moments in which he reveals the raw truth, Trump replied, according to Stahl, 'I do it to discredit you all and demean you all, so when you write negative stories about me, no one will believe you.' That's just what Trump ... has been doing for some time, with judges.... Now, even more ominously, Trump has turned his fire on the Supreme Court. In tweets and in a bizarre news conference in India, he demanded that two justices -- Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor -- refrain from ruling on all things Trump.... The demand was a sham. The right way to seek recusal is with a motion, filed by lawyers, in court, laying out precise legal arguments.... Any such motion would be meritless. Trump's charge against Sotomayor was based on an opinion that he clearly hadn't read and didn't understand.... It is a dangerous thing for the country to have a man whose office charges him with faithfully executing the law instead so brazenly seek to undermine respect for it." ~~~

~~~ George Packer of the Atlantic has a long piece on how Trump "is winning his war on American institutions." In one graf, Packer sums up how Trump did it: elite assumptions were wrong. "The [political class] were too sophisticated to see Trump's special political talents -- his instinct for every adversary's weakness, his fanatical devotion to himself, his knack for imposing his will, his sheer staying power. They also failed to appreciate the advanced decay of the Republican Party, which by 2016 was far gone in a nihilistic pursuit of power at all costs. They didn't grasp the readiness of large numbers of Americans to accept, even relish, Trump's contempt for democratic norms and basic decency. It took the arrival of such a leader to reveal how many things that had always seemed engraved in monumental stone turned out to depend on those flimsy norms, and how much the norms depended on public opinion. Their vanishing exposed the real power of the presidency. Legal precedent could be deleted with a keystroke; law enforcement's independence from the White House was optional; the separation of powers turned out to be a gentleman's agreement; transparent lies were more potent than solid facts."

Susannah George & Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Afghan government objected Sunday to parts of the historic peace deal[*] between the United States and the Taliban, showing the difficulties that lie ahead for the country as the 18-year conflict enters a new phase. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, speaking at a news conference less than 24 hours after the agreement was signed, questioned several elements of the deal, including the timeline for a controversial prisoner exchange and the conditions surrounding the start of talks between the Taliban and his government. The U.S.-Taliban deal, the result of talks from which the Afghan government was excluded, charts a path for the full withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the country it invaded after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It stipulates that talks between the Taliban and Ghani's government must begin by March 10 -- at which point the sides must have completed a prisoner exchange." ~~~

     ~~~ * Mrs. McCrabbie: "Historical peace deal" is likely more Trumpy than reality. ~~~

~~~ David Sanger of the New York Times takes a sober look at Trump's Afghan "peace deal": "President Trump has left no doubt that his first priority in Afghanistan is a peace treaty that would enable him to claim that he is fulfilling his vow to withdraw American troops. But a parade of his former national security aides say he is far less interested in an actual Afghan peace. And that creates an enormous risk for Mr. Trump and for Afghanistan: that, like President Richard M. Nixon's peace deal with North Vietnam in January 1973, the accord signed Saturday will speed an American exit and do little to stabilize an allied government.... The accord signed on Saturday -- with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo overseeing the moment but not actually signing it himself -- will initially bring down American troop levels to about 8,600 from about 12,000 now. That is almost exactly where they were three years ago, at the end of Mr. Obama';s term." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Cooch Cancelled. Stef Kight of Axios: "A federal district judge in D.C. ruled on Sunday that Ken Cuccinelli's placement as the acting top official at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.... Policies that were put in place under Cuccinelli are now void, including a directive that gave asylum-seekers less time to consult with legal counsel before their initial 'credible fear' interview with a USCIS officer." Emphasis added. Update: An AP story is here.

Josh Gerstein of Politico pulls out "highlights" of a deposition of Roger Stone for Florida civil cases unrelated to the federal criminal case in which a jury convicted Stone: "Roger Stone looked like a man on edge, under extreme stress and struggling to contain pent-up fury. The GOP provocateur was just days away from finding out his fate from a criminal case that drew nationwide attention.... In five-and-a-half hours of video recorded over two days, Stone's hands shake, he bares his teeth, his lips twitch and he repeatedly loses his temper in the face of goading from conservative lawyer Larry Klayman, who has several libel suits pending against Stone and his associates." Mrs. McC: Bearing in mind that this barely-hinged lunatic is a sort of "presidential advisor." Thanks to safari for the link. ~~~

About That Latte. Jamie Doward of the Observer (Guardian): "High street coffee shop giant Starbucks has been caught up in a child labour row after an investigation revealed that children under 13 were working on farms in Guatemala that supply the chain with its beans. Channel 4's Dispatches filmed the children working 40-hour weeks in gruelling conditions, picking coffee for a daily wage little more than the price of a latte. The beans are also supplied to Nespresso, owned by Nestlé. Last week, actor George Clooney, the advertising face of Nespresso, praised the investigation and said he was saddened by its findings. The Dispatches team said some of the children, who worked around eight hours a day, six days a week, looked as young as eight. They, were paid depending on the weight of beans they picked, with sacks weighing up to 45kg. Typically, a child would earn less than £5 a day, although sometimes it could be as low as 31p an hour.... Starbucks also said it had a 'tolerance for child labour anywhere in our supply chain'. It told Dispatches: 'We've launched a full investigation into the claims brought by Channel 4, carried out in partnership with a leading third-party auditor.' Starbucks has since said that its investigation confirmed 'we have not purchased coffee from the farms in question during the most recent harvest season'."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Israel. Aron Heller of the AP: "Israelis were voting Monday in the country's unprecedented third election in less than a year to decide whether longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stays in power despite his upcoming criminal trial on corruption charges. Netanyahu, the longest serving leader in Israeli history, has been the caretaker prime minister for more than a year as a divided Israel has weathered two inconclusive elections and a prolonged political paralysis. With opinion polls forecasting another deadlock, Netanyahu is seeking a late surge in support to score a parliamentary majority along with other nationalist parties that will deliver him a fourth consecutive term in office, and fifth overall." Mrs. McC: It would be hard to believe Israel couldn't come up with better candidates for PM if our own presidential choices weren't Butthead, Biden & Bernie.

Turkey, Etc. Liz Sly of the Washington Post: "Turkey shot down two warplanes and inflicted heavy losses on ground forces in northwestern Syria on Sunday as the two countries edged closer to an all-out war. The operation came in retaliation for an airstrike blamed on the Syrian government that killed 36 Turkish soldiers on Thursday, Turkey's Defense Ministry said. It followed weeks of Turkish threats to attack Syrian forces if they continued to advance toward the Turkish border, risking a new wave of refugees. Armed Turkish drones struck military airports and loyalist bases deep in Syrian government-held territory as Turkish troops and allied rebels pushed forward to drive Syrian troops out of towns and villages they had recaptured from opposition forces in recent weeks." An AP story is here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "James Lipton, who plumbed the dramatic arts through perceptive, mostly admiring interviews with celebrity actors as host of the Bravo television series 'Inside the Actors Studio,' died on Monday at his home in Manhattan. He was 93."

CNBC: "Jack Welch, a railroad conductor's son who became chairman and CEO of General Electric and led it for two decades, growing its market value from $12 billion to $410 billion, has died. He was 84." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post: "The hallmarks of Mr. Welch's tenure during the 1980s and 1990s have become part of the playbook for chief executives everywhere: unflinching layoffs, ambitious expansion around the world, lucrative stock options for high-performing executives and a relentless drive to reward shareholders with stellar earnings quarter after quarter. His methods were divisive. Nicknamed 'Neutron Jack' for his massive firings of GE employees, he was hailed in 1999 as 'manager of the century' by Fortune magazine."

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here. Guardian live updates are here. ~~~

~~~ Washington Post live updates: "Washington state announced four more coronavirus deaths on Monday, bringing the total death toll in the United States to six, officials said, as the virus continues to spread despite travel restrictions aimed at curtailing it. As the global death toll passed 3,000, South Korea on Monday confirmed 599 new cases, far higher than the daily tally reported in China. With 4,335 confirmed infections and at least 22 deaths, South Korea has the second-largest national caseload. However, it has tested more than 100,000 people, far more than most nations. In the United States, tests have taken place at a far slower pace. A genetic analysis suggested that the coronavirus, which causes a highly infectious respiratory disease called covid-19, has been spreading undetected for about six weeks in Washington state. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday took steps to sharply expand testing. Italy has more than 1,600 confirmed cases, while Iran surpassed 1,500, with 66 deaths. Travelers from both countries appear to have spread the virus to other nations in the Middle East and Europe."

Comments

[citizen625]

Imagine you're 'rump: you gotta have somebody to blame if it goes sideways with the Coronavirus. Pence. There is plenty of time to replace him before the election. If Pence can't handle Chuck Todd, who would the big money want as VP in place of Pence to take over if 'rump wins again? Who could replace Pence in a pinch?

What does 'rump stand to gain by appointing Pence in addition to distance from Coronavirus?

The disrupter and chief/shell game artist extraordinaire little donny small hands will stay true to form. He will land on his feet before anyone around him.

[safari]

While the video is most definitely cringe-worthy, Roger Stone gave a filmed deposition days before he got sentenced and the whole unedited video is online. He's looks insane (like, on drugs or coming off them) and it blows away the fabricated veneer of some 'haughty' shitbagger. Really makes you wonder what ol' Agent Orange is really like when the cameras aren't around and he's conniving with psychopaths like this guy, his "longtime friend". And if you watch, remember that this lowlife is a central part of the cabal leading the United States of America right now. How far we've fallen.

https://www.freedomwatchusa.org/roger-stone-video-deposition

[safari]

The videos in the link above are quite lengthy, for the highlights Politico put together this reel of the greatest hits:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pptzks0x6wI

[Victoria]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/01/the-worst-case-scenario-for-coronavirus-dr-jonathan-quick-q-and-a-laura-spinney

Basic projections about the coronavirus going pandemic. It has specific information currently being distorted by the bag of fools in charge.

[Rockygirl]

The American Physical Society, a huge, highly respected scientific professional association, has just cancelled its March 2020 meeting in Denver because of concerns over the Covfefe-19 virus. Big hit to the Denver economy. Expect more of these cancellations to come.

[Akhilleus]

Rockygirl,

Okay, two things. First, these frauds in the American Physical-something Social clatch, or whatever they are, are only canceling their get together to try to embarrass our Glorious Leader. He knows all about physics stuff, much more than these guys. He invented physical stuff. The idea! (Another reason for MAGA morons to hate science).

Second, Covfefe-19. Hahahahahaha...my new favorite term of art in Trumpology.

[Bobby Lee]

I was wrong and quite surprised. Florida's first C-19 cases weren't in Orlando at the mouse but right next door in Tampa Bay. One an apparent Italian import and the other seemingly home grown.

[Rockygirl]

AK - can’t take credit for Covfefe-19, read it on the interwebs somewhere. But it is perfect, innit?

[Akhilleus]

I dunno about you kids, but I'm getting nervous about the more wild-eyed Bernie Bros.

It seems that many (too many) care more about creative destruction and recasting major elements of the United States, healthcare, higher education, tax laws, and enormous swaths of the economy, than they do about extricating ourselves from the Pit of Trump.

Theirs is the passion (and sometimes blindness) of true believers. They look with scorn on the Democratic Party as a roadblock to Bernie Bliss. My very real fear is that, should Sanders not win the nomination, they will stay away from the election to demonstrate their disdain of the entire political process. Or they may show up only to cast write-in votes for their hero, thereby handing an anti-American fascist asshole four more years.

Look. All of these areas need serious overhauls. I am entirely on board with healthcare for all and help for students trying to get a college degree and economic equality, likewise a keelhauling of the tax codes to ensure that moochers like Trump (and Bloomberg and many others) pay their fair share, as should corporate welfare recipients, always with their hands out. And normally I'd be down with those who complain that we've been told we need to wait for vital changes for too long.

But we are in a fight for our lives here. We don't need another angry man in the White House right now. We don't need a left-wing Tea Party. We do need people to vote, to vote for whichever Democrat is left standing. If it's Bernie, so be it. I'll vote for the guy (shit, I'd vote for a week old ham sandwich against the Orange Monster).

I'm afraid these people will try to fuck up the convention if they don't get their way and that will give Fatty, the MSM and the entire enormous right-wing fear mongering coalition the chance to point at the Democrats and scream that they are out of control and can't even run their own convention, never mind the country.

We will have enough problems with staving off the lies and ratfucking of Trump, the R's, Fox, the Russiansm the Facebookers, and god knows who or what else. We don't need people (ostensibly) in the house trying to stage a revolution at the exact time, more than any other in our history, when we need solidarity.

I don't know if Joe Biden can beat Trump, but I'm worried that Sanders offers such a huge target for the Trumpbots, and I'm not at all comforted by these polls that say Bernie can beat him (in truth, the aforementioned ham sandwich SHOULD beat him, but I doubt Putin, Zuckerberg and the media would be behind it like they'll get behind Fatty).

Passion is a great thing, and true believers can change history. Let's hope it's not for the worse.

[Akhilleus]

Watching the Politico compilation of The Greatest Shits of Roger Stone, self described ratfucker extraordinaire and dirty tricks giant, one can only conclude (aside from the fact that this shithead is coming apart at the seams) that Stone, like Trump and all other bullies, can dish it out but is hopelessly unable to take it.

This whiny little bitch complains that he’s being insulted. Insulted!! The self confessed Sultan of Insulters whines about being insulted. Irony has applied for witness relocation. Then, rather than offer a serious defense for his actions, or, god forbid, tell the truth, he resorts to charging the attorney conducting the deposition with sexually abusing his own children.

Pay attention here, folks. We’re getting a tiny preview of what to expect should Fatty be given the boot. His firestorm level petulance will make Stone’s unhinged flailing look like an afternoon with My Little Pony.

Cheap, crooked, lying cowards. Both of them.

[Ken Winkes]

Still waiting to see.

Talked to my son and daughter in law yesterday and asked who they were gonna vote for in our primary next week.

Daughter in law is a committed Warren vote.

Son has the same take as I.

Let's see what tomorrow brings, then decide, he said. The goal of course is to defeat the Pretender, maybe at all costs, but lurking in the back of my mind is the same calculation I made four years ago when I opted for Hillary, and thanks to all the factors we've mulled over in the grim years since, we know all that fine thinking didn't work out too well.

So, sharing the same concerns about Bernie Akilleus adumbrated above...I wait and hope I see more clearly than I did in 2016.

Maybe because I'm not a believer, blinding revelations are in short supply.

[Marie Burns]

OMG, Rockygirl cracked the code!

In March 2017, when Trump tweeted out "covfefe," “'The president and a small group of people know exactly what he meant,'[then-press secretary Sean] Spicer told reporters. The spokesman's refusal to admit Trump made a mistake prompted laughter from members of the media...."

Not so funny now that we know "covfefe" was -- to this small group of people -- a secret code giving the go-ahead to launch a deathly pandemic, where "cov" stands for "Covid-19" & "fefe" for "2020".

Rockygirl wins the Bletchley Park Prize.

[Patrick]

Someone not Trump, not Pompeo and not Esper signed the "Afghan Peace Deal."

Do you think DiJiT is already talking with phone friends about "someone should prod Stockholm" to get the ball rolling for his peace prize?

Maybe they can let him borrow the one LeDucTho returned, since the "decent interval" scenario should play out about the same.

All that said, leaving Afghanistan is a good thing. As long as you don't leave like Elphinstone at Jugdulluk.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_George_Keith_Elphinstone

[Akhilleus]

So pleased that the Righty-Right Rubber Stamp Supreme Court
(© Fatty McFascist) has agreed to kill, er, I mean "hear" a case connected to the life or death of the Affordable Care Act.

Democrats might hope that the ACA, gathering new converts every month despite the scorched earth attacks on it by Fatty and Fox and the power hungry fucksticks on the right, will be a winning issue for the upcoming clusterfucked election, but they underestimate how much the Trump trolls on the court give a shit about public opinion (or law or ethics or morality--none of which receive a single fuck from Trump or his Potemkin administration, of which the RRRSSC is an essential cog).

I would point everyone to a fascinating (in a horror movie sort of way) interview Terry Gross did recently with Adam Cohen, an attorney and journalist who has just published a treasure trove of proof that the Supreme Court IS a right-wing rubber stamp (despite the occasional tiny win for actual justice). Cohen discusses the obvious problems (which are clearly not obvious to pusillanimous MSM both-siders and the Kool-Aid fascists) with the direction the court has taken, in his book "Supreme Inequality".

I urge you all to take a listen, but here's a peek:

"This [the Voting Rights Act] is as close to an all-American law as we have. And the Supreme Court comes along, strikes out the heart of it in a case called Shelby County, and on the most bizarre of legal reasons... But if you look at the reasoning the court used, it's really made up. The court said that the Voting Rights Act as it was constituted denied states their right to equal sovereignty. Well, there really isn't a right to equal sovereignty of the states. And that's not just me saying it; it's not just liberals saying it. Judge Richard Posner, who is a conservative appeals court judge appointed by Ronald Reagan, wrote after the decision, there is no doctrine of equal sovereignty, a principle of constitutional law of which I never heard for the excellent reason that there is no such principle."

In other words, they just made it up to fit the outcome confederates demanded.

And then there's this, about the abomination known as Bush v Gore:

"... it seemed very clear that all they did was act politically, and that was because of really the decisions of the five individuals on the court. They could have acted different. They could have acted better. Instead, they stopped the counting of the vote in Florida, and they did it on such made-up legal grounds. The conservatives suddenly embraced this very extreme view of equal protection that they never had before or since. And we know just what a game it was because remember - Bush v. Gore was the decision where the court said, oh, by the way, these rules apply only in this one case. This case is not precedent for anything else. And that's the clearest indication we've gotten from the court that when it comes to voting and rulings about who's going to win elections, for them it's all about power, and it's not about law.court strikes down one of the most important voting rights laws."

And Gore v Bush was years before the Trump-Nazified court we have now.

So anyone hoping for truth or justice, or the continued existence of the ACA, fuggedaboutit.

And remember, if Fatty McFascist is re-elected, he could be appointing at least one and maybe two more rubber stamps.