Saturday
Oct172020
The Commentariat -- October 18, 2020
Presidential Race, Etc.
From Saturday's New York Times election updates: Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s campaign is urgently warning against complacency in the final stretch of the race despite national and some state polling showing a wide Democratic lead over President Trump. In a memo that was to be sent to supporters on Saturday, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden's campaign manager, stressed that polls can be faulty or imprecise -- as they were in 2016 -- and warned of only narrow advantages in a number of key states. It is a message that appears designed to keep Democratic supporters focused and engaged in the last days of the race despite national attention on Mr. Trump's challenges, and to motivate Biden backers to turn out and continue donating." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, at a Michigan rally, dangerous white supremacist, conspiracy-theorist leader Donald Trump "joined in a crowd chant of 'lock her up,' referencing ... Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer," whom some of Trump's followers plotted to kidnap & "try" & dispose of. "'This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government official' lives in danger,' Ms. Whitmer, responded on Twitter while the rally was still in progress."
Res ipsa loquitur:
So Trump drops a big (approx 40x60 feet) expensive political sign in my largely Hispanic neighborhood in Houston TX about a week ago which upset me .... I wake up this morning and this is what the sign looks like now hahahahah ššš pic.twitter.com/4mBBg83RpN
— Rogelio Garcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) October 14, 2020
Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Wearing costumes and carrying signs, thousands of people gathered for the Women’s March in downtown Washington and cities across the country Saturday to protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and to build momentum to vote President Trump out of the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Anita Snow of the AP: "Thousands of mostly young women in masks rallied Saturday in the nation's capital and other U.S. cities, exhorting voters to oppose ... Donald Trump and his fellow Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 elections. The latest of rallies that began with a massive women's march the day after Trump's January 2017 inauguration was playing out during the coronavirus pandemic, and demonstrators were asked to wear face coverings and practice social distancing." Mrs. McC: But are they "suburban women?" ~~~
~~~ Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "Women of the 'burbs -- like those enclaves they inhabit -- are not who Trump thinks they are. He needs them in his bid for reelection. But by clinging to the notion that suburban women are White housewives who need to be saved from scary threats such as (gasp!) low-income neighbors and protesters for social justice, his wooing isn't working. Across America, the suburbs are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and dynamic. They're not the little boxes and fenced yards of Levittown, but a mix of homeowners and renters, apartments and condos, cottages and McMansions.... Houston[, Texas,] and its suburbs are so diverse, the man running for the 22nd Congressional District there -- former Foreign Service officer Sri Preston Kulkarni -- has campaign literature in 21 different languages.... 'Donald Trump is right to think that suburban women will be voting for safety, but he's wrong to think that means they'll be voting for him,' said Shannon Watts, a suburban woman and mother of five who has become a force in American politics with her group, Moms Demand Action."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jason Campbell & Pam Vogel of Media Matters: "In the final weeks before Election Day, CBS is validating a likely foreign intelligence operation against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In its own reporting, CBS has pointed to the suspicious smear campaign as similar to mainstream media's obsession with the nefarious leaking of Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 -- yet its reporter still fell for the same trap years later and elevated the pseudo-scandal anyway. During an impromptu press gaggle on October 16, CBS reporter Bo Erickson asked Biden for a response to unverified claims from a series of suspicious articles from the New York Post related to his son Hunter and business dealings in Ukraine. Biden reacted by calling the story a 'smear campaign' and said he had no further response.... MSNBC's Joy Reid praised Biden for refusing to engage with a 'Russian hatchet-job' pushed by [Rudy] Giuliani. Meanwhile, some of Erickson's colleagues at CBS have joined right-wing media figures like Laura Ingraham and Steve Cortes in defending the reporter's question."
Patrick Marley & Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Thousands of Donald Trump's fans, many without masks, prepared to welcome the president on an airport tarmac Saturday evening as Wisconsin continued to struggle with a soaring number of COVID-19 cases. 'This entire pandemic is a hoax,' Brandon Rice of Eau Claire said as he waited in line at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport. 'I think it was done to make him look bad. It's fake news.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks for your expert opinion, Brandon. ~~~
~~~ Updated Lede: "... Donald Trump packed thousands together for a re-election rally Saturday, arguing that his own recovery proved the response to COVID-19 was working and claiming the pandemic was 'rounding the corner' in a state setting records daily for new cases. The president didn't mention that Wisconsin is grappling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, with nearly 4,000 new cases reported just on Friday and a surge of infections that has pushed state officials to open a field hospital to give relief to hospitals in the northeastern part of the state." Mrs. McC: Excuse me? You guys already forgot this entire pandemic is a hoax?
Helaine Olen of the Washington Post outlines Trump's long con, & comes up with what she thinks is the explanation for the popularity of "outlandish conspiracies such as QAnon.... As crazy as it is, it's less embarrassing than admitting you are just another patsy in Trump's lifelong con." Mrs. McC: Maybe she's right: delusion begets more delusion. IOW, Trump is bad for everybody's mental health, not just normally-sensible people's. (Also linked yesterday.)
Nebraska Senate Race. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump berated Sen. >Ben Sasse (R) after audio leaked this week of the Nebraska lawmaker leveling harsh criticism against the president in a town hall with constituents. ['Blah-blah.'...] Given Nebraska’s solid red tint, Sasse is not expected to be punished at the ballot box this year over his criticism." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
Christina Maxouris & Jason Hanna of CNN: "Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new Covid-19 infections Friday, and the country reported its highest one-day total since July, as experts say a dangerous fall surge of coronavirus infections is well underway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brittany Shamas & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Within weeks of the [Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota], the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest.... In many ways, Sturgis is an object lesson in the patchwork U.S. response to a virus that has proved remarkably adept at exploiting such gaps to become resurgent."
Elizabeth Ireland of the Times of San Diego (Oct. 16): Former Rep. "Duncan Hunter's attorney announced Friday the ex-congressman will serve his federal prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institute La Tuna in Anthony, Texas.... The California Republican will report to the federal prison's adjacent minimum-security satellite camp on Jan. 4, 2021. Hunter, 43, who pleaded guilty last year to a federal conspiracy charge for misusing campaign funds, was sentenced in March to 11 months in federal prison." Mrs. McC: The facade of the main prison looks like a beautiful Spanish mission-style resort, so here's hoping the satellite camp isn't so nice.
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Reader Comments (16)
Probably the last Sunday Sermon before Nov. 3. I've reached the paper's LTTE limit for the month.
Dear Editor,
Iāve been puzzled before and Iām sure I will be again.
I gave up on Relativity Theory and the New York Times Sunday crossword long ago.
But this Stable Genius business is even harder for me to understand.
The self-proclaimed Stable Genius has told us he knows more about economics than economists or anyone else, but heās nonetheless run the nationās economy just like his failed businesses. As president, he inherited a vast treasury, not from his billionaire father but from the American people, spent it all, and borrowed more. He is, he has said proudly, the King of Debt.
I just donāt get it.
He says he knows more than trained scientists (apnews.com), so he removes their work from government publications and websites. He knows more than meteorologists, so much more that heās corrected their work with his own pen, moving a hurricane from Florida to Alabama. He knows far more about Covid-19 than do doctors or epidemiologists, and now that heās contracted the virus himself, he knows even more (if that were possible) than he did before.
He knows heās cured. He knows heās immune. He knows itās no worse than the flu. Yet his administration will have a vaccine available before the election to protect us from the virus we shouldnāt be worried about.* And heās simultaneously pursuing a policy of herd immunity to the same virus, a policy that experts estimate will result in millions of American deaths (politico.com). Those predictions must be wrong, too.
The head-scratchers come in waves.
But harder to understand than the Stable Geniusā pronouncements or how Relativity warps time, slowing its passage as we move faster, are those who want four more years of Trumpās arrant nonsense.
Maybe Einstein could explain it. The last four years seem like a century.
*My thanks to Akhilleus for this one.
I'd say, Ken, that it's the paper's loss. You would think they would love to have your Sunday Sermonsā-once a week is too much for them? A pity, that.
AMY ON AMY:
Yesterday Ken and Marie had a discussion re: Barrett's textualism/originalism as I did earlier in the week. We all find this reading of the constitution to be problematic. Amy Davidson Sorkin from the New Yorker takes up this subject in which she claims that
Barrett's "silence" is an expression of extremism.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/10/26/amy-coney-barretts-silence-is-an-expression-of-extremism
The SNL skit above is just what we need on this Sunday before we face another week of "Oh, my god, he said WHAT?" and other juicy nuggets to get our motor running.
@PD Pepe: It seems to me that originalists, like all self-described "conservatives," are selfish twits, who don't want to share their "rights" & privileges with others. So they came up with this theory that the Constitution must be "interpreted" in the narrowest of ways -- ways that allow for no expansion of civil or human rights. They are essentially saying that the Constitution cannot even be interpreted; that it is an open-and-shut document that speaks for itself. It's the "I got nuthin'" theory of judicial review. Very medieval.
So Amy & Nino aren't/weren't really upset with the arguments Roberts made to allow the Affordable Care Act to survive; what really upset them was that "those people" could get health insurance nearly equal to theirs. Amy & Nino think they "earned" or "deserve" more privileges -- and perhaps that's true. But their efforts to follow a prescribed path that got them a better deal than others don't justify letting ordinary people die by the side of the road or lose their homes because a family member contracted an expensive illness.
Originalism is a means to and excuse for cruelty, for inflicting suffering on others. Amy is no doubt in church this morning, thanking God for making her such a good girl.
I have to sort-of disagree with PD on the skit of SNL's open-- I tuned in to it a couple minutes late, so I missed part of it, but the minute Jim Carey portrayed Joe Biden as Mr. Rogers (whom I loved--hello, Pittsburgh--)I turned it off. He is playing into the hands of the right, portraying him solely as a creature of the past, and possibly senile. I have always had a horrified view of Jim Carey anyhow, with his rubber face-- I have never been amused by him. So, I admit, maybe it is my lack of a sense of humor where he is concerned, and if Biden wins, he can play him any way he wants, but now I think it is damaging. And like the campaign, we can't relax now. He is not senile, and the right, with their hatred of education and learning and policy, are using a calmness and air of knowledge (imagine that after what we are living through) as a negative thing. I am terrified that the rally junkies will translate their screeches into action at the polls and Fatman will steal this election also.
Ah, but how about that Second Amendment and how it brought Scalia's blatant hypocrisy to light.
Originalist decisions on guns alone should tell us all we need to know about Originalism and Originalists' bullshit:
This one says it well.
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/iowa-view/2018/02/22/conservatives-originalists-gun-control-second-amendment/356436002/
I call it Originalism of convenience.
I have long thought that "originalism" is a conservative tool (despite Amy's disclaimer in testimony, that it is bipartisan), and that it's primary purpose is to allow conservatives to deny the power of the three clauses that together allow the feds to run a country (rather than just preside over 50 political subunits). Those are the "necessary and proper" clause, which says the feds can do what needs to be done to accomplish the purposes of governance under the constitution; the "commerce" clause which says feds can regulate business among states and with furriners; and the "supremacy" clause, which says feds rule when states' laws conflict.
If you review many of the cases where "originalism" is a primary concern, many of them involve conservatives seeking to take these ennabling tools away from the feds, or just to dull them. They just do not buy the idea that we hired the government to do the job we want done, as opposed to the job that some established biggies want done. We should change the term "conservative" to "regressive" to reflect this dynamic.
@Jeanne: I well understand your "turn-off" and consequent fear with the portrayal of Biden by Careyā-satire can be brutalā-but the Biden/Carey persona comes off without the kind of derision that is heaped on the Trump impersonation. And I think no matter how Biden is portrayed it won't matter a wit to those whom Fatty has persuaded is a "sleepy Joe" and "over the hill"āā(at least Carey's Biden is sharp and energetic) just as it doesn't concern those who look to Trump as their "savior" ā-their big Daddy who loves them.
I remember how I'd cringe a bit when Obama was satirized.
The Mr. Roger's persona in essence is trueā-Biden for many is like the empathetic, decent human being whose messages are very similar to Mr. Rogersā-warm sweater thrown in for comfort. I hope your fears prove incorrect but I think you have good reason to worry.
@Ken Winkes: Quite right. In fact, interpreting the Second Amendment as one might decide the founders meant doesn't make a whit of sense, since "arms" today are nothing like "arms" then. As I recall, Scalia's argument was specious in its essence, but even if he had accurately described the founders' intentions (which of course differed among them, so ascribing their meaning is something of a fool's errand), they were describing the rights of well-regulated militias to keep & bear, uh, muskets (although it takes an expert less time to load & fire a musket than I thought -- 15-20 seconds).
I wonder how many of these MAGAs now lining up to attend a maskless rally for Trump are doing it as a "last hurrah" before the election/eviction?
Looking at the mostly unmasked crowd waiting in Ocala the other day had me wishing for an overprinted photo; "I'm just dieing to die for Donald Trump"
Here's what Scalia said in a speech he gave to some group of lawyers at a convention:
"God has been very good to us. That we won the revolution was extraordinary. The Battle of Midway was extraordinary. I think one of the reasons God has been good to us is that we have done him honor. Unlike the other countries of the world that do not even invoke his name we do him honor. In presidential addresses, in Thanksgiving proclamations and in many other ways."
I am at a loss of words to describe my distain at THESE words.
And Jeffrey Toobin once wrote "that after nearly three decades on the S.C. Scalia devoted his professional life to making the U.S. less fair, less tolerant and with less admirable democracy."
So, Scalia thought that God was warmed up by flattery?
How Florentine.
@PD: Yes but. SNL and Carey present Biden as not having any ideas or plans. He has 51 tabs regarding policy on his site. When reporters pester him to clearly state his position on expanding the SC I wish he would tell them to come back when they have gotten the other guy to lay out his vision for the next four years and produce his āincredibleā health care plan.
NiskyGuy: We all know Trump has no vision for the next four years. He'll go on reacting from one wild hair to the next, and that "greatest health plan ever" will always be two weeks away.....right after that infrastructure act.
I don't think that Rupert Murdoch gets the credit or attention he deserves for all of his colluding with Russia. The amount of help Murdoch's media empire has given to Russia during the Trump reign is truly astounding. Yet he skates by while (un)stable geniuses like Giuliani give him cover.
RAS,
Exactly!
Oligarchs stick together, "nor border, breed or birth" notwithstanding.
@Patrick: An interesting & important point. I don't know, BTW, what the majority sense was among the founders. After all, they were writing a Constitution to correct the Articles of Confederation that just didn't work because the Articles put states over country. Was the idea to sorta mitigate that fault or was it to create one nation? The 10th Amendment, after all, is an amendment, not part of the body of the Constitution, & one demanded by rubes -- especially Southern rubes, I think -- back home, not technically the "founders."