Sunday
Oct182020
The Commentariat -- October 19, 2020
Afternoon Update:
Michael Schmidt & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Monday announced indictments of six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with major hacks worldwide, including of the Winter Olympics and elections in France as well as an attack in 2017 aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that spread rapidly and was blamed for billions of dollars in damage. Prosecutors said the suspects were from the same Russian unit that conducted one of the Kremlin's major operations to interfere in the 2016 American election: the theft of Democratic emails.... The case was another effort by Trump administration officials to punish Russia for its meddling in other countries' affairs, even as President Trump has adopted a more accommodating stance toward Moscow. The charges did not address 2020 election interference; American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia is trying to influence the vote in November."
Dana Rubenstein & David Goodman of the New York Times: "... nearly three weeks into [New York City's] in-person school year, early data from the city's first effort at targeted testing has shown ... a surprisingly small number of positive cases [of Covid-19]. Out of 16,348 staff members and students tested randomly by the school system in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 16,298. There were only 28 positives: 20 staff members and eight students. And when officials put mobile testing units at schools near Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that have had new outbreaks, only four positive cases turned up -- out of more than 3,300 tests conducted since the last week of September.... The absence of early outbreaks, if it holds, suggests that the city's efforts for its 1.1 million public school students could serve as an influential model for school districts across the nation."
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump derided Anthony Fauci as a 'disaster' and claimed that Americans have tired of the novel coronavirus during a call with campaign staff on Monday. 'People are tired of COVID. Yup, there's going to be spikes, there's going to be no spikes, there's going to be vaccines. With or without vaccines, people are tired of COVID,' Trump said, according to audio of the call obtained by The Hill. 'I have the biggest rallies I have ever had and we have COVID. People are saying whatever, just leave us alone. They're tired of it.' Trump then accused Fauci ... of providing inconsistent advice about the coronavirus pandemic and claimed baselessly that if he had followed all of Fauci's advice the United States would have '700,000 to 800,000 deaths right now.'" Blah-blah. ~~~
~~~ Michael Sherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post:"'People are tired of listening to Fauci and these idiots,' Trump said, baselessly suggesting that Fauci's advice on how best to respond to the outbreak was so bad it would have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more people.... Trump also argued that the American people were no longer interested in taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, even as the number of confirmed cases has been rising in a majority of states.... The call, which some reporters were invited to listen in on, appeared to have been motivated by recent news stories about internal concerns about the president's reelection chances and division within the president's team.... 'I go to a rally I have 25,000 people,' Trump said, greatly exaggerating the size of his crowds while making a comparison with Democrat Joe Biden. 'He goes to a rally, he has four people.'... Trump, phoning in from Las Vegas, sounded angry and defiant on the call and made a range of startling accusations and comments, including that Biden should be 'in jail.' 'He's a criminal,' Trump said, without offering evidence what crime he had committed.... Trump made a number of dubious or false statements...." Blah-blah.
Dr. John Barry, in a New York Times op-ed, takes a balanced look at how herd immunity would work -- or not.
Charles Kaiser, in the Guardian, reviews David Rothkopf's book Traitor, which is about Donald Trump. "'Trump is despicable,' he writes. 'But beyond his defective or perhaps even non-existent character, there are the near-term and lasting consequences of his actions. We must understand these to reverse them, and we must understand how easily Russia achieved its objectives in order to prevent such catastrophes in the future.'... Rothkopf provides an important roadmap through the massive evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret services -- including 272 contacts between 'Trump team members and Russian-linked individuals...'... Rothkopf is appropriately harsh about the shortcomings of Robert Mueller, including his failure as special counsel to secure an in-person interview with the president and his refusal to indict the president for any of the crimes his report describes, including as many as 10 counts of obstruction of justice."
Spencer Ackerman & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "The FBI is investigating the purloined laptop materials from Joe Biden's son as part of a possible foreign disinformation operation, a congressional source told The Daily Beast -- an investigation at odds with a statement from President Trump's director of national intelligence. John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, told Fox Business on Monday that the dissemination of materials from Hunter Biden's alleged laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.... But that assessment gets out in front of the FBI, which took custody of the laptop and an external hard drive as early as in December, according to the New York Post. The bureau, according to the congressional source, is looking into the provenance of the material. And among the questions they're seeking to answer is whether the laptop dump is part of what the intelligence community's counterintelligence chief has already described as a Russian disinformation effort targeting the 2020 election."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Too Phony for Fox. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on a tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden's unclaimed laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop, but that the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted.... Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch. The tabloid has been exhaustively covering the contents of the laptop.... Some of Fox News' top news anchors and reporters have distanced themselves from the story. During an on-air report that largely focused on how social media platforms handled this story, Bret Baier said, 'Let's say, just not sugarcoat it. The whole thing is sketchy.'"
Suspended Animation. Laura Wagner of Vice: "The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin. Sources tell VICE it's because he exposed himself during a Zoom call last week between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio. Toobin said in a statement to Motherboard: 'I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.... I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video,' he added.... Toobin's Conde Nast email has been disabled and he has not tweeted since October 13. He did, however, appear on CNN, where he is the network’s chief legal analyst, on Saturday. 'Jeff Toobin has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted,' CNN said in a statement." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Toobin is a good reporter & analyst, but he is, well, a dickhead, so his "inappropriate behavior" is, after all, appropriate. See, Jeff, on Zoom you can tell when the video is off because there's a slash across the video symbol. Also, there's a little screen -- usually at the top of the page -- that shows just your name on a black screen & not a video of your dick. So good work. And, really, why would anybody flash his colleagues?
~~~~~~~~~~
Presidential Race, Etc.
The Washington Post's live updates of election developments Sunday are here. The page is free to non-subscribers: "... Joe Biden is campaigning Sunday in North Carolina, where he held an afternoon event encouraging supporters to vote early and a virtual meeting with African American faith leaders.
A Campaign Dedicated to Distracting the Candidate. Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Among some of Mr. Trump's lieutenants, there is an attitude of grit mixed with resignation: a sense that the best they can do for the final stretch is to keep the president occupied, happy and off Twitter as much as possible, rather than producing a major shift in strategy. Often, their biggest obstacle is Mr. Trump himself. Instead of delivering a focused closing message aimed at changing people's perceptions about his handling of the coronavirus, or making a case for why he can revive the economy better than Mr. Biden can, Mr. Trump is spending the remaining days on a familiar mix of personal grievances, attacks on his opponents and obfuscations."
Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In the week since he restarted in-person campaigning, Mr. Trump has continued to prove he is his own biggest impediment by drawing more attention to himself each day than to Mr. Biden. The president is blurting out snippets of his inner monologue by musing about how embarrassing it would be to lose to Mr. Biden -- and how he'd never return to whatever state he happens to be in if its voters don't help re-elect him. He's highlighting his difficulties with key constituencies, like women and older voters, by wondering out loud why they've forsaken him, rather than offering a message to bring more of them back into his camp. And perhaps most damaging, to him and other Republicans on the ballot, he is further alienating these voters and others by continuing to minimize the pandemic and attacking women in positions of power. A new low point came on Saturday, when Mr. Trump held a rally in Muskegon, Mich., where he demanded that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reopen the state and then said 'lock them all up' after his supporters chanted 'lock her up!' It was a stunningly reckless comment from a president whose own F.B.I. this month arrested 14 men who it said had been plotting to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, and were captured on video with an array of weapons allegedly planning the crime." ~~~
~~~ Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday accused ... Donald Trump of inciting 'domestic terrorism' against public officials working on containing the coronavirus, pointing to comments he made just days after law enforcement foiled a plot to kidnap her. Whitmer has been a frequent target for Trump during the pandemic -- he's previously criticized her state's coronavirus-related restrictions as too strict and called on people to 'Liberate Michigan.' The day after Trump encouraged his supporters at a rally in the state who were chanting 'lock her up' as an attack on Whitmer, the Democrat governor responded with a plea to lower the political volume." ~~~
~~~ Dean Obeidallah in a CNN opinion piece: "Joe Biden's exasperated comment summed up what so many of us feel. 'What the hell's the matter with this guy?' said Biden Friday of Donald Trump's continuing attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, even after the recent announcement of an alleged right-wing terrorist plot to kidnap and possibly kill her. 'It's despicable,' said Biden.... The charges [against the 14 rightwingers] paint a jaw-dropping plan that included tactical training at a home adorned with a Confederate flag, surveillance of Whitmer's house -- a mother of two daughters and three step-sons -- and plans to use explosive devices. And the defendants' words about Whitmer, per the authorities, should make your hair stand on end. Examples: 'Have one person go to her house. Knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her ... at this point. F**k it.' Another stated, 'Snatch and grab, man. Grab the f**kin' Governor. Just grab the bitch. Because at that point, we do that, dude -- it's over.'... [At his Moskegon rally,] Trump ... downplayed the terror plot against Whitmer, saying, 'I guess they say she was threatened.' 'I guess' she was threatened?! The defendants were charged by federal and state officials. Trump went on to slam Whitmer -- who said he'd encouraged domestic terrorists -- for blaming him for the plot, leading to his followers again chanting, 'Lock her up.'" ~~~
(~~~ Reality Interlude. Lois Beckett of the Guardian interviews gun-control activist Josh Horowitz: "Horowitz spoke to the Guardian about how mainstream the idea of insurrection has become in American politics, and why lawmakers have failed to challenge it for decades." Horowitz: "There's a belief among some American gun owners that the second amendment is highly individualized and was placed in the constitution as an individual right to fight government tyranny.... When the NRA says, 'Vote Freedom First', it's not 'Vote self-defense first'. They mean you get to decide when the government becomes tyrannical.... There is a big racial element to this. White men, especially, are feeling that the political reins of power are pulling away from them, and their grip on power is falling away. Guns are a way to exercise power.... Power over policy. Power over people.... The biggest problem is Republican elected officials, and the Republican who consistently use the insurrectionary idea and cheer on this type of behavior." ~~~)
~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Lara Trump, a senior adviser to ... Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, on Sunday defended her father-in-law&'s suggestion that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer should be imprisoned alongside his other political rivals. In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Lara Trump insisted the president was merely 'having fun at a Trump rally' when he criticized Whitmer, a Democrat, at a campaign event this weekend.... At the president's rally Saturday in Muskegon, Mich., after he demanded that Whitmer loosen her state's coronavirus-related restrictions, attendees erupted into chants of 'lock her up.' The president did not attempt to dissuade the crowd, instead saying: 'Lock them all up.'" Mrs. McC: Of course Trump was just "having fun." Because Trump, who lacks a sense of humor, thinks threatening women is hilarious. ~~~
~~~ Speaking of Hilarious. Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Trump's team is telling him ahead of Thursday's final debate: Stop interrupting Joe Biden. And try to be more likable.... Trump will tell more jokes and try, if he can stay on message, to strike a softer tone. At the same time, aides expect Trump to keep going after Biden's son Hunter." Mrs. McC: LOL, I'm sure.
David Mikkelson of Snopes: "On Oct. 17, 2020, Eric Trump ... tweeted a picture of a palatial-looking home valued at approximately $1.6M, asserting that it was the current residence of ... Joe Biden and questioning how Biden could have legitimately purchased such a property on his former salary of $174,000 per year[.]... Eric Trump was wrong on all counts: the pictured home was not currently owned by Joe Biden, it was not his current residence, and the property was -- at one time -- not outrageously outside Biden's price range. The pictured estate was a 5-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot former DuPont mansion..., which was formerly owned by Biden. Way back in 1974, Biden (then a freshman U.S. Senator and a recent widower) was able to purchase the property for a mere $185,000 because the abandoned home was badly run-down and in need of major repairs. After fixing up the home and living in it for two decades, Biden sold it in 1996 for $1.2 million...."
Senate Races. Money, Money, Money, Money! Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Democratic Senate candidates' "dominance in third-quarter fundraising is virtually unprecedented. It was led by South Carolina's Jaime Harrison ($57 million), Maine's Sara Gideon ($39.4 million) and Arizona's Mark Kelly ($38.7 million).... But even setting aside those record hauls, every Democratic Senate candidate running in the 15 races considered competitive outraised his or her Republican opponent. Combined, they raised more than $370 million, compared with about $150 million for the GOP candidates: an average of $25 million for the Democratic candidates and $10 million for the Republicans." ~~~
~~~ Georgia Senate Race. Greg Bluestein & Maya Prabhu of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue inadvertently sparked a movement that benefited his rival’s campaign when he mocked the pronunciation of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris' name. Perdue delighted the crowd Friday at ... Donald Trump's rally in Macon when he butchered the California senator's name multiple times, saying: 'Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever.' But the repeated mispronunciation, which his campaign claimed was not purposeful, competed for media attention with Trump's remarks in Georgia and led to searing criticism on the airwaves and the campaign trail. By Sunday evening, Democrat Jon Ossoff said he raised more than $1.8 million from at least 42,000 donors from Perdue's viral moment. And the #MyNameIs hashtag trended on Saturday as social media users shared the meaning of their names — along with criticism of Perdue."
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.
Extraordinary. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Twitter on Sunday removed a tweet from one of ... Donald Trump's top Covid-19 advisers, [Dr. Scott Atlas,] which falsely claimed that masks don't work to prevent the spread of coronavirus.... Later Sunday, the coordinator of the Trump administration's testing response, Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted: "#Masks work? YES!... Last month, an NBC News reporter overheard Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telling a colleague in a phone call that Atlas is arming Trump with misleading data. 'Everything he says is false,' Redfield said during a phone call made in public on a commercial airline.... Trump has leaned on Atlas in recent months, preferring his advice over that of other advisers, like Dr. Anthony Fauci.... Trump ... attended a crowded church service in Nevada on Sunday. He and his aides didn't wear masks at the ceremony, which was held indoors with over 200 people in attendance, many of whom also forwent face coverings."
Americans Die; Atlas Shrugs. Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "As summer faded into autumn and the novel coronavirus continued to ravage the nation unabated, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose commentary on Fox News led President Trump to recruit him to the White House, consolidated his power over the government's pandemic response.... Discord on the coronavirus task force has worsened since the arrival in late summer of Atlas, whom colleagues said they regard as ill-informed, manipulative and at times dishonest.... The result has been a U.S. response increasingly plagued by distrust, infighting and lethargy, just as experts predict coronavirus cases could surge this winter and deaths could reach 400,000 by year's end." Mrs. McC: I'll bet most Trumpbots would swear they would never vote for a mass-murderer. Well, they did & they will again. And mike pence is as much to blame as Trump is.
Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is 'absolutely not' surprised ... Donald Trump contracted Covid-19 after seeing him surrounded by people not wearing face masks and flouting best public health practices. Fauci ... said during an interview on CBS' '60 Minutes' that aired Sunday, 'I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded -- no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask.... When I saw that on TV, I said, "Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that, that's got to be a problem,'" he continued. 'And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event.'"
Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-Calif.) said Sunday that an economic stimulus deal must be struck within 48 hours in order for Congress to pass legislation before Election Day, but she noted that significant differences still divide her and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.... Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke for 75 minutes on Saturday and agreed to speak again on Monday.... The White House and Pelosi appeared to be at odds more over the substance of the package and not the dollar amount.... 'Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve anything because she wants to bail out poorly run Democrat states,' Trump said in [an] interview. 'And we don't want to do that.' Pelosi has called for more money for states and cities, but Republican local leaders are among those who have asked for more aid, not just Democrats."
"Arbitrary and Capricious." Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as 'arbitrary and capricious' the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net. In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent with more than 6 million new enrollees.' A CNN story is here.
Trump Blocks Refugees Who Helped the U.S., Even Those at Risk. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Trump administration had reserved 4,000 slots for Iraqi refugees who had helped American troops, contractors or news media or who are members of a persecuted minority group in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. It ultimately admitted only 161 Iraqis -- or 4 percent -- to the United States, the lowest percentage of the four categories of refugees the administration authorized for resettlement last year. While the coronavirus pandemic caused refugee flights to be canceled for months, immigration lawyers also cited the lasting effects of President Trump's initial refugee bans and expanded vetting of those fleeing persecution. Of the 5,000 slots reserved for victims of religious persecution, 4,859 were filled -- a reflection, perhaps, of the administration's political priorities."
Beyond the Beltway
Virginia. Ian Shapira of the Washington Post (Oct. 17): "More than a half century after the Virginia Military Institute integrated its ranks, Black cadets still endure relentless racism at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. The atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity makes VMI -- whose cadets fought and died for the slaveholding South during the Civil War and whose leaders still celebrate that history -- especially difficult for non-White students to attend, according to more than a dozen current and former students of color.... Now the school is under pressure from some alumni and students to remove or relocate its Confederate statues -- including one of [Confederate Gen. Stonewall] Jackson -- and reconsider its long-held reverence for the Confederacy. Until a few years ago, freshmen were required to salute the Jackson statue, which sits in front of the student barracks." Mrs. McC: This is a horrifying story from start to finish. If you have a WashPo subscription, I recommend you read it -- and weep. retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, the school's superintendent, a thoroughly confederate guy who has to be older than I am, should be fired at once.
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Reader Comments (18)
Martin of the NYTimes is too hard on the Pretender. He's missing the madness' and the Madman's) method.
With his mass rallies, the Pretender is just carrying out his not-quite-vocalized policy of promoting herd immunity--on his own herd.
Promise nearly made, promise almost kept.
“Promise nearly made, promise almost kept”.
Very nice, Ken. A good approximation of the weirdness, the not quite-ness of the queasy, penumbral Trumpian subjective universe.
Half assed is good enough.
Reminds me of a Wallace Steven’s poem, “The Motive for Metaphor” in which he speaks of
~~~ (Mrs. McC: Text removed because of copyright infringement. You can read the poem here. Akhilleus cited the last three stanzas.) ~~~
Trump is constitutionally incapable of accommodating the fatal, dominant X, the real world and it’s very concrete problems. He trucks in half thoughts, dazed fantasies, and fuzzy obscurities, “I don’t know anything about Qanon, but I like them.”
Of course he’s direct about his hatreds and his grievances. They are mapped by well trod synaptic pathways. He’s just not very clear about how to get much done in the objective world. The wall? Nah. Making America great? Next time. Healthcare? Any day now. Better, cheaper, blah, blah, blah.
“Almost“ is good enough for Fatty. He doesn’t have to explain, A B C, why you should love him. It’s obvious to him. Isn’t it to you? Covfefe, anyone?
A short story.
I don’t Facebook. Oh, I guess I do.
A few years ago another member of our college reunion committee urged me to join our class’ Facebook page. I did, and while I have ignored the mounting “friend” requests from people I don’t know, I have occasionally looked at the Class page.
There today I found something interesting: A note from someone else I don’t know (who did not attend my university) who wanted me to know he did not like my “socialist” letters to the local paper. He even invited me to move to Venezuela.
I responded, telling him I was sorry he didn’t like what I wrote and suggested he write his own letters explaining what he would do to make American lives better.
This time I did not respond to his response in which gave no indication that he intended to lay out his program for national improvement. He apparently preferred to stick to name calling.
But I did think about it. Was it possible I was being “trolled?”
On a bike ride, I also came up with an anti-troll specific. “Trollbane,” which neatly enough, would be specificity itself.
I'm thinking that even a mild dose of specificity is guaranteed to kill trolls dead..
@Ken Winkes: Your response to your troll was perfect. Unfortunately, it probably was something he couldn't understand. The whole idea of "freedumb" is that you don't have to do anything for anybody, so laying out a plan to improve the lives of others seems nonsensical to him. But whining, name-calling & blaming others for his mistakes: all good.
Fauci's "60 minutes" interview also brought out the horrific threats he, his wife and other family members receive from perhaps the same demented, evil doers who planned to wipe out Whitmer. Not once has the man at the helm berated this but actually encouraged it. Once you wrap your mind around this fact you rail at its unbelievability.
I recall what David Blight, a history professor at Yale, wrote about our current situation: "Democracy works best when politics don't mirror the country's deepest social divisions and all sides can accept defeat with transitional governing." Unfortunately as we see Trump flags flying high at rallies we are about to experience a presidential contest, perhaps the first since 1860, when it is possible that millions on each side will not find defeat acceptable.
Then what?
"I was just kidding!"
Trump's standard cowardly response to something he said or did that has been deemed so far out of bounds that it's no longer visible to the naked eye.
And who said this? "Presidential advisor" Lara Trump? "Oh, we were just having fun with Gretchen, that humorless bitch."
As Marie points out, if you could uncover the merest hint of a shadow under a noon day sun at the equator of a sense of humor in the entire bunch of Trump ratfuckers, you'd deserve some kind of Sherlock Holmes prize. You joke about silly things or when you do something stupid. You don't joke about people being kidnapped and killed. That is not funny.
But, as always with these disgusting people, consider the source. Who the fuck is Lara Trump, besides the wife of amoral slug and whiny liar Eric Trump, and what kind of experience makes her presidential advisor material? Is she an expert in international law? Economy? History? Political gameplanning? Steaming the presidential trousers? (Oh, sorry...that's Hope Hicks' gig.)
She what? She was a story co-ordinator, sort-of producer for Inside Edition? The show that foisted Loofah Boy O'Reilly on the public? Oh, well that explains it. So her job was deciding whether to push a story about Kim Kardashian's new hairdo or to go with five minutes on Kelly Ripa's new 16 calorie a day diet. Yeah. That's the kind of experience necessary to advise a world leader. Oh, wait. What's that? She did something, something, something for the Trump-Pence Women's Empowerment Tour? Really? That was a thing? Where was the tour? Past the mansions in Palm Beach? And what sort of empowerment were they pushing, the latest in bikini waxing?
Oh, hold on. Now here's something that looks promising. She was the "liason" for Brad Parscale's "company" while housed in Trump Tower. What did she do? Get him the paper? Order lunch? Or maybe she helped this gun-toting, mentally disturbed wife beater with women's empowerment.
Now that's funny.
Interesting analysis, I thought.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/10/17/amy-coney-barrett-recuse-2020-election-cases-caperton-v-massey-coal-co/
There are striking similarities in the emerging legal situation, and also in the personality and moral defects of both the bullying, bloviating Mr. Massey and the Pretender.
One of my sons alterted me to this one, so I woud have more to worry about:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/18/technology/timpone-local-news-metric-media.html
The Originalist Scam, again...
I thought we put this Seventh Ave. three card monte bullshit to bed when the Dark Lord Nino was yanking it out every few days to bolster claims for why confederates win no matter what. Well, shit never stops stinking, so here we go again...
Several RC'ers have done a stand up job of setting this house of marked cards alight. But I was particularly incensed that Trump's latest SCOTUS rubber stamp refuses to say anything about how she might decide constitutional cases, even in the most abstract of ways.
Here's constitutional scholar Paul Brest on that:
"It is simply anti-democratic to conceal something as fundamental as the nature of constitutional decision making--especially if concealment is motivated by the fear that the citizenry wouldn't stand for the practice if it knew the truth. If the Court can't admit what it's doing, then it shouldn't do it."
Bingo! Concealment, because the public would not put up this bullshit if these bottom of the deck dealers were truthful, is the order of the day. This quote came on the heels of the infamous Bork nomination.
Brest has also released a scholarly and very carefully detailed paper that demonstrates that Originalism or Textualism, or Jiggery-Pokery, to use Scalia's own formulation for whacko juridical theory, is pulled out only when necessary, like a flag in a football game refereed by a guy who has money on one of the teams (hint: not the one he's flagging). In other words, it's not consistently, or fairly (judiciously) applied.
Rather than replay his argument, I'll let you read it read it for yourselves. It's devastating.
As many have pointed out, ad nauseum, but, alas, necessarily, we are not able to perform the Vulcan Mind Meld with the founders to uncover the "true meaning" of the words. And a huge problem IS that use of words, and how they were understood in the mid to late 18th century.
Take the Second Amendment. Leave aside the business of winger judges like Scalia and Thomas, and very likely, Barrett, that only part of this amendment is actionable (forget that part about the weapons being for the use of a well run militia, not kidnappers and crazed Trumpbots). if we are to be consistent in our "textual" and "original" intent, then gun knobbers should only be able to purchase and own single shot muskets. Keep your powder dry, boys.
Let's shift this story to literary grounds. Just imagine you were reading the Iliad, or the Epic of Gilgamesh, and those interpreting and editing these texts did their level best to not normalize or contemporize the language, in other words, to update the texts for modern readers. The things would be mostly gibberish. Long stretches would be completely unavailable. Read a novel contemporary to the Constitution. Without editor's notes, many passages would have you scratching your head. Even simple words had different meanings. It's simply dumb on its face.
And Originalism, if applied insistently would dramatically change our political and legal landscape today.
Brown v Board of Education would have to be one of those "wrongly decided" cases that Barrett talks about when she mentions Roe. (I'm sure they think Brown was a bad decision, they just can't say that out loud anymore.) Based on the original intent of the Constitution, African-Americans aren't even whole people. And if we go with Plessy, then separate but equal should still be the order of the day.
Once again (big sigh), the fact that the founders provided a way to amend the document is the clearest indication possible that they never expected that the Constitution should not be considered a living document.
In fact, if you want to get technical (which they do--but only when it suits them), certain amendments don't apply to states. Therefore, the First Amendment, which explicitly limits (only) the power of Congress to curtail free speech, can in no way be implied to also extend to the states, being "textually" confined to the federal government.
Furthermore, how could an "originalist" possibly (if they're being true to their beliefs and consistent in their philosophical-legal approach) accommodate a single amendment in the first place? The original Constitution had none. The fact that the document allows for amendments doesn't change the problem that NOW the meaning of the ORIGINAL words has been CHANGED. Holy apostate interpretation, Batman!
Okay, we could go on like this. The inconsistency of Originalism appears in few other cases as clearly as Citizens United. So, the word "abortion" doesn't appear anywhere in the Constitution, sniffs the anti-choice crowd, smugly assuming that this is the end-all of the argument. Well guess what? There isn't the tiniest hint that corporations should be considered holders of speech rights. Casuistry at its finest! And non-originalist casuistry, at that. (For that matter, the word "god" doesn't appear anywhere in the document.)
Long story short, as others have pointed out, Originalism, Textualism, Jiggery-Pokery, or whatever the hell you want to call it, is just another canard used by wingers to trump (so to speak) any idea they deem insufficiently supportive of their world view. If they were to exhibit consistency in their beliefs, they might at the very least be considered honest in their approach. But they don't. So they're not.
Inconsistency and dishonesty don't seem to be the soundest theoretical grounds for making decisions affecting hundreds of millions of people.
Funny that Republicans do.
@Akhilleus: I am really intrigued by your "originalist" reading of the First Amendment. Of course a lot of states have some form of the Bill of Rights built into their state constitutions, but I suspect some do not. And/or maybe it's not too hard to change some state constitutions, so that, say, freedom of speech could be eliminated.
Also, if "Congress shall pass no law...," what about the POTUS*? He ain't Congress, after all. Could Trump sign an executive order demanding that certain people to STFU, & would Amy & the Supremes bless it? Or how about an executive order against criticizing him? It might not work for Congress as I think they can't be prosecuted what what they say in chambers, but for the rest of us?
Just had to watch Michelle Obama's carpool karaoke video again. Man, is that fun. (The Adele carpool karaoke is pretty awesome too.)
Can you imagine Melanie (or Princess Ivanka) doing something like that? I'm thinking Melanie might show up dressed like Maleficent, the evil queen in "Sleeping Beauty". Horns would look natural on her. But what would she sing? Maybe "Money, That's What I Want"? Or maybe a variation on "You're So Vain", "I'm So Vain".
I did find a Demi Lovato song called "I Really Don't Care". Might be worth a shot. But dressed like an evil queen? Don't evil queens care too much?
Never mind.
How about Fatty? James Corden could play the National Anthem, but it would sound like this: "Oh say can you something, something, and um, something and bombs, la la laaaa la la hummm, and the something, something, red flare, and the la, la, of the hmmmm ...braaaave."
Corden would be deported.
Is there an opt out provision in the hippocratic oath that I didn't know about? All of Trump's doctors continually ignore every part of the oath.
In the oath, the physician pledges to prescribe only beneficial treatments, according to his abilities and judgment; to refrain from causing harm or hurt; and to live an exemplary personal and professional life.
RAS,
Judge Amy is looking into this. Her originalist analysis sez that somewhere along the line, liberal do-gooders messed with the wording. Helping people is not something that can be textually supported. Do no harm? Where did that come from? Not only that, they messed with the spelling. Those Trump "doctors" actually took the Hypocritic Oath.
I am really trying to turn off the noise, but today I heard that Dr. Fauci and his family are facing death threats on a daily basis, along with Gov. Whitmer and her family. I guess I won't feel one speck of guilt for wishing ILL to the prez's crime syndicate aka family and friends. (As if Fatass had friends-- it is to laugh and then barf--) Since when does trying to save humanity from its despicable self and idiocy get you that sort of reaction? Since Fatass. The deplorables have reached a zenith at despicables-- I plan to never have anything to do with these people again. I wish Joe would stop using "reach across the aisle" EVER, as it is impossible and liable to remain so, since the lege and cabinet contain as many despicables as the outside world.
We have friends who have departed from the lovely company of their whole family over this. One brother and his wife are against HAMILTON, the musical. No brains were turned on for this decision. Fortunately for us, on both sides, only one sister might be a nutcase, with another being close, and we don't live anywhere near them. But it doesn't bode well for any of us if Biden DOES win and he won't be able to adjust any attitudes. What that would do, of course, is afford opportunities to adjust/eliminate most of the backwards crap unleashed this four years. Maybe we can make headway on some things, but it won't be with the assistance of the Despicables.
Everything makes me queasy today.
Relevant review of recent (Republican) SCOTUS history and the damage it has done.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/19/opinion/biden-supreme-court.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage
Pack the Court?
Maybe.
"People are tired of Covid," the Pretender says, exhibiting his usual confusion, conflating his well-being with that of the nation.
@Ken, again, it's a matter of projection. Translation - "People are tired of Trump."
Damn right people are tired of the C-19 virus, and if we don't send Trump to the dumpster we're going to be still suffering from it this time next year. But will he care?
Hell no.