The Commentariat -- September 28, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of a Senate hearing interrogating Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin & Gen. Kenneth McKenzie are here: "Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, defended his actions in the tumultuous last months of the Trump administration, insisting that calls to his Chinese counterpart and a meeting in which he told generals to alert him if the president tried to launch a nuclear weapon were all part of his job duties as the country's most senior military officer."

Lara Seligman of Politico: "Top generals told lawmakers under oath on Tuesday that they advised President Joe Biden early this year to keep several thousand troops in Afghanistan -- directly contradicting the president's comments in August that no one warned him not to withdraw troops from the country.... Gen. Kenneth 'Frank' McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told the Senate Armed Services in a hearing Tuesday that he recommended maintaining a small force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan earlier this year. He also noted that in the fall of 2020, during the Trump administration, he advised that the U.S. maintain a force almost double the size, of 4,500 troops, in Afghanistan.... McKenzie's remarks directly contradict Biden's comments in an Aug. 19 interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, in which he said that 'no one' that he 'can recall' advised him to keep a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan." Gen. Mark Milley said he agreed with McKenzie's testimony.

"I Can't Pay the Rent" -- Yellin. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Tuesday warned lawmakers of 'catastrophic' consequences if Congress failed to soon raise or suspend the statutory debt limit, saying inaction could lead to a self-inflicted economic recession and a financial crisis. At a Senate Banking Committee hearing where she testified alongside the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, Ms. Yellen laid out in explicit terms what she expects to happen if Congress does not deal with the debt limit before Oct. 18, which Treasury now believes is when the United States will actually face default."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Stephanie Grisham, the former Trump White House press secretary perhaps best known for never holding a televised briefing with reporters, plans to release a tell-all book next week that accuses President Donald J. Trump of abusing his staff, placating dictators like Vladimir Putin of Russia, and making sexual comments about a young White House aide. In her book, titled 'I'll Take Your Questions Now,' Ms. Grisham recalls her time working for a president she said constantly berated her and made outlandish requests, including a demand that she appear before the press corps and re-enact a certain call with the Ukrainian president that led to Mr. Trump's (first) impeachment, an assignment she managed to avoid. 'I knew that sooner or later the president would want me to tell the public something that was not true or that would make me sound like a lunatic,' Ms. Grisham writes, offering a reason for why she never held a briefing." Rogers lists some highlights. The Washington Post's review is linked below.

Biggest Loser Loses Again. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has lost an effort to enforce a nondisclosure agreement against Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House aide and a star on 'The Apprentice' who wrote a tell-all book about serving in his administration. The decision in the case, which Mr. Trump's campaign filed in August 2018 with the American Arbitration Association in New York, comes as the former president is enmeshed in a number of investigations and legal cases related to his private company.... The decision, dated on Friday and handed down on Monday, calls for her to collect legal fees from the Trump campaign.... The arbitrator, Andrew Brown, said that the definition of the type of comment protected by the nondisclosure agreement was so vague that it had been rendered meaningless. What was more, he wrote, the statements Ms. Manigault Newman had made hardly included privileged information."

Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A North Carolina-based hospital system announced Monday that roughly 175 unvaccinated employees were fired for failing to comply with the organization's mandatory coronavirus vaccination policy, the latest in a series of health-care dismissals over coronavirus immunization.... [A spokesperson] told The Washington Post that more than 99 percent of the system's roughly 35,000 employees have followed the mandatory vaccination program." MB: Mandates work.

U.K. Karla Adam & William Booth of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson put British army troops 'on standby' to work as truck drivers to haul fuel to gas stations where supplies have been emptied by panic buying and labor shortfalls -- not to mention Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic. Supply chain disruptions and attendant shortages of goods are hitting countries around the globe, including the United States. But Britain appears on the forefront of the chaos -- where recovery from the pandemic is colliding with steep labor shortages, driven by the end of free movement of workers from Eastern Europe who were handling the low-wage jobs Britons take a pass on -- in nursing homes, slaughter houses and on the highways." MB: Hey, Queen Elizabeth drives a truck; call her up.

~~~~~~~~~~

Miriam Jordan & Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration plans to publish a proposed rule on Tuesday in hopes of preserving Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, a program that has protected hundreds of thousands of undocumented young adults from deportation and allowed them to legally work in the United States. The proposal is especially important given a recent decision by the Senate parliamentarian to not allow immigration provisions to be included in a sprawling budget bill, which Democrats had hoped would put DACA recipients on a path to citizenship. The new rule, to be published in The Federal Register, would go into effect after the administration considers public input during a 60-day comment period. It would protect some 700,000 undocumented people brought to the United States as children from being deported or losing their work permits, even if Congress does not pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Robert Burns & Lolita Baldor of the AP: "In their first public testimony since the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, top Pentagon leaders will face sharp questions in Congress about the chaotic pullout and the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country.... Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are slated to testify Tuesday in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee and then on Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee. Gen. Frank McKenzie, who as head of Central Command oversaw the withdrawal, will testify as well." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating Tuesday's hearings here.

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Two top Fed officials are leaving their posts amid scrutiny over their stocktrading activities during the covid crisis, behavior which spurred an unusual review by the Federal Reserve of trading rules for its officials. Boston Federal Reserve Bank President Eric Rosengren and Dallas Fed President Robert Kaplan both announced their retirements on Monday. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and other outlets reported on the financial disclosures of the regional bank presidents, showing that both actively traded in stocks and other investments while in their roles setting monetary policy and assisting the central bank through the covid crisis.... Rosengren and Kaplan's behaviors don't help the Fed's public perception, which is why Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said last week that the central bank's existing guidelines around financial activity 'is now clearly seen as not adequate to the task of really sustaining the public's trust in us.'"

Jeff Schogol of Task & Purpose: “Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, the Marine officer ... [who criticized] military leadership over Afghanistan, is currently in the brig, his father told Task & Purpose.... After this story was first published, the Marine Corps issued a statement confirming that Scheller has been sent to the brig. 'Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller Jr. is currently in pre-trial confinement in the Regional Brig for Marine Corps Installations East aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune pending an Article 32 preliminary hearing,' said Capt. Sam Stephenson, a spokesman for Training and Education Command.... Scheller published his first video on the same day that a suicide bomber attacked Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey gate, killing 11 Marines, one sailor, and one Army special operator.... The next day, Scheller posted on Facebook announcing that he had been relieved as battalion commander ... at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.... On Aug. 29, he made a YouTube video from inside what he described as 'an abandoned school bus in Eastern North Carolina,' in which he vowed to resign his commission and proclaimed, 'Follow me and we will bring the whole f---king system down.' Following that video, the Marine Corps announced in a statement that it had taken steps to 'ensure the safety and well-being of Lt. Col. Scheller and his family....'" Scheller has posted two more videos since, both extremely critical of military command. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The father's protestation that "all our son did was ask questions" is disingenuous. It seems to me a hospital would be a better place for Stuart than the brig.

Uh, Yikes!? Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California signaled to Democrats on Monday that she would push ahead with a vote this week on a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, pushing to salvage President Biden's agenda in Congress even as the party remained divided over a broader social safety net measure. Progressive lawmakers have long warned that they will not vote for the infrastructure legislation, which the Senate passed last month, until a far more expansive $3.5 trillion domestic policy and tax package also clears the chamber. But in private remarks to her caucus on Monday evening, Ms. Pelosi effectively decoupled the two bills, saying that Democrats needed more time to resolve their differences over the multitrillion-dollar social policy plan. The move amounted to a gamble that liberals who had balked at allowing the infrastructure bill to move on its own would support it in a planned vote on Thursday. It also left unclear the date of the more costly social safety net package, which Democrats are pushing through using the fast-track reconciliation process to shield it from a Republican filibuster." Politico's story is here.

Wake Up, Wake Up, It's Not the 1990s Any More. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... some Democrats seem to have formed their perceptions about both economics and politics during the Clinton years and haven't updated their views since.... Specifically, some Democrats still seem to believe that they can succeed economically and politically by being Republicans lite. It's doubtful whether that was ever true. But it's definitely not true now.... The voting behavior of white working-class voters seems more driven by racial resentment than ever.... It doesn't matter how much ['moderate' Democrats] force [President] Biden to scale back his ambitions; it doesn't matter how many pious statements they make about fiscal responsibility. Republicans will still portray them as socialists who want to defund the police, and the voters they're trying to pander to will believe it. So my plea to Democratic 'moderates' is, please wake up. We're not in 1999 anymore, and your political fortunes depend on helping Joe Biden govern effectively."

"The Party of Default." Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Monday blocked a spending bill needed to avert a government shutdown this week and a federal debt default next month, moving the nation closer to the brink of fiscal crisis as they refused to allow Democrats to lift the limit on federal borrowing. With a Thursday deadline looming to fund the government -- and the country moving closer to a catastrophic debt-limit breach -- the stalemate in the Senate reflected a bid by Republicans to undercut President Biden and top Democrats at a critical moment, as they labor to keep the government running and enact an ambitious domestic agenda. Republicans who had voted to raise the debt cap by trillions when their party controlled Washington argued on Monday that Democrats must shoulder the entire political burden for doing so now...." NPR's story is here.

Sinema Monetizes the Big-Ticket Bill at an "Undisclosed Location." Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the inscrutable Democrat who may hold the key to passing her party's ambitious social policy and climate bill, is scheduled to have a fund-raiser on Tuesday afternoon with five business lobbying groups, many of which fiercely oppose the bill. Under Ms. Sinema's political logo, the influential National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors and the grocers' PAC, along with lobbyists for roofers and electrical contractors and a small business group..., have invited association members to an undisclosed location on Tuesday afternoon for 45 minutes to write checks for between $1,000 and $5,800, payable to Sinema for Arizona."

William Vaillancourt of Rolling Stone: "A Department of Homeland Security whistleblower leveled a series of bombshell accusations Sunday in his first television interview, accusing his Trump administration superiors of pressing for manipulated intelligence on three critical subjects: Russian support for Donald Trump, the Mexican border, and the white supremacist threat inside the United States. Brian Murphy, the former principal deputy undersecretary in DHS's Office of Intelligence and Analysis, filed a whistleblower complaint last year -- as well as a handful of internal complaints and reports -- that all painted a frightening picture of how things were running in the department tasked with keeping Americans safe. 'From the outset, there were three things that I was told that we would look to manipulate intelligence on and bend the truth about,' Murphy told George Stephanopoulos on ABC's This Week. 'And I told them upfront that I wasn't going to do it.'... Murphy said he felt 'intense pressure to try to take intelligence and fit a political narrative' -- accusing administration officials of demanding information be manipulated to burnish Trump's image and help his messaging[.]" (Also linked yesterday.)

Isaac Arnsdorf of ProPublica: "... Donald Trump empowered associates from his private club to pursue a plan for the Department of Veterans Affairs to monetize patient data, according to documents newly released by congressional investigators. As ProPublica first reported in 2018, a trio based at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort weighed in on policy and personnel decisions for the federal government's second-largest agency, despite lacking any experience in the U.S. government or military. While previous reporting showed the trio had a hand in budgeting and contracting, their interest in turning patient data into a revenue stream was not previously known.... 'Patient data is, in my opinion, the most valuable assets [sic] the VA has,' a consultant said in a June 2017 email released Monday by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. 'It can be leveraged into hundreds of millions in revenue' by selling access to major companies, he said.... The documents do not show what became of the plan or whether the VA ever sold access to patient data."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Sometimes, and much to our detriment, we find real events are simply too outlandish to take seriously. Many professional Republicans, for example, initially dismissed the movement to 'Stop the Steal' as a ridiculous stunt.... Now, 10 months after the election, 'Stop the Steal' is something like party orthodoxy, ideological fuel for a national effort to seize control of election administration and to purge those officials who secured the vote over Donald Trump's demand to subvert it.... The upshot is that we are on our way to another election crisis.... Despite the danger at hand, there doesn't appear to be much urgency among congressional Democrats -- or the remaining pro-democracy Republicans -- to do anything.... We should secure our elections against whatever threat might materialize because if there is anything our history tells us, it's that everything looks settled until one day it isn't."

Damon Linker of the Week, while taking Ross Douthat to task, makes the point that Donald Trump is capable of inspiring chaos after the 2024 election because "the one political talent Trump does possess ... is the demagogic manipulation of public opinion...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Knowing what we know now, what surprises me the most is that Trump did so little to present a cogent argument to convince his puppydog pence to throw the election. It seems likely that just bringing in a couple of "legal scholars" & a buddy from the DOJ to tell pence he had the authority to toss state slates of electors would have persuaded mike to roll over & let Trump stroke his belly. And if that had happened, what about the Supremes? I don't know how they all would have voted in an inevitable Democratic challenge to the Trumpence shenanigans, but I would guess that Thomas, Alito & the Trump dwarfs -- Gorsuch, O'Kavanaugh & Barrett -- all would have taken Trump's calls. And Al Gore tells me that a 5-4 Supreme Court ruling can decide the presidency.

[Democrats] cheat on the elections. They don't need votes. They cheat on the elections. I mean, you look at 43,000 votes were found last night. They cheat on elections. When you cheat on elections you don't have to destroy the country. They are destroying our country. Our country will not survive this. Our country will not survive. -- Donald Trump, this past weekend ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "... the rhetoric of democracy's opponents isn't irrelevant. When a former American president -- who may yet run again and who continues to lead a major political party -- tells a national audience that the United States 'will not survive' because of election crimes that exist only in his mind, I'm not inclined to look away." MB: The point is ... "Our country will not survive" because Donald Trump intends to kill it.

Jada Yuan & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: In her new book, staffer Stephanie Grisham dishes on Donald & Melania Trump. They are not amused. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian reports on the Post's review.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A U.S. judge said Monday he will grant the unconditional release of John W. Hinckley Jr. effective in June 2022, 41 years after he shot President Ronald Reagan and three others outside a D.C. hotel. The court acted after the Justice Department agreed last week to end court and medical supervision of Hinckley, who was freed from a government psychiatric hospital to live with his mother in Williamsburg, Va., in 2016." (Also linked yesterday.) An NPR story is here.

Sonia Rao of the Washington Post: "In the landmark conclusion to the most high-profile trial to arise from the music industry in the #MeToo era, a jury found R. Kelly guilty on all nine federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges. The verdict was announced Monday in the Brooklyn courthouse for the Eastern District of New York. The disgraced R&B singer, 54, faces 10 years, the mandatory minimum, to life in prison for the charges related to nearly 30 years' worth of allegations that he physically and sexually abused women and minors. The verdict followed five weeks of often-harrowing testimony from 50 witnesses and arrived swiftly on the second day of jury deliberations. Kelly was found guilty on one count of racketeering, a charge that is often levied in organized crime cases, and eight of violating the Mann Act, which is aimed at curbing sex trafficking. He still faces additional federal charges of sexual assault and abuse in Illinois." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ A #MeToo Moment for Black Women. Deepti Hajela of the AP: "For years, decades even, allegations swirled that R&B superstar R. Kelly was abusing young women and girls, with seeming impunity. They were mostly young Black women. And Black girls. And that, say accusers and others who have called for him to face accountability, is part of what took the wheels of the criminal justice system so long to turn, finally leading to his conviction Monday in his sex trafficking trial. That it did at all, they say, is also due to the efforts of Black women, unwilling to be forgotten. Speaking out against sexual assault and violence is fraught for anyone who attempts it. Those who work in the field say the hurdles facing Black women and girls are raised even higher by a society that hypersexualizes them from a young age, stereotyping them as promiscuous and judging their physiques, and in a country with a history of racism and sexism that has long denied their autonomy over their own bodies."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Thousands of health care workers in New York got inoculated against Covid-19 ahead of Monday's deadline, helping the state avoid a worst-case scenario of staffing shortages at hospitals and nursing homes.... New York has 600,000 health care workers. Statewide, the vaccination rate for hospital employees rose by Monday night to 92 percent of workers having received at least one dose, according to preliminary data from the governor's office. The rate for nursing homes also jumped to 92 percent on Monday, from 84 percent five days earlier." MB: Gosh, it looks as if vaccine mandates work. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here: "Pfizer and BioNTech on Tuesday said they had submitted initial data to the Food and Drug Administration from their vaccine trial on children between 5 and 11 years old. The drugmakers said their trial had yielded 'positive topline results,' which included 2,268 participants from that age group. The companies said that their coronavirus vaccine had so far 'demonstrated a favorable safety profile' among young participants and 'elicited robust neutralizing antibody responses using a two-dose regimen.'"

Kate Sullivan & Jamie Gumbrecht of CNN: "President Joe Biden received his Covid-19 vaccine booster shot on Monday afternoon at the White House just days after booster doses were approved by federal health officials. 'We know that to beat this pandemic and to save lives ... we need to get folks vaccinated,' Biden said during remarks ahead of his shot. 'So, please, please do the right thing. Please get these shots. It can save your life and it can save the lives of those around you.' The President received his first two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine ahead of his inauguration in January. The 78-year-old President qualified for a booster dose since he received his second Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine more than six months ago and is in an eligible age group. The President had said Monday afternoon that Jill Biden would also be getting a shot soon but that the first lady ... was teaching. Her press secretary Michael LaRosa told CNN later Monday that she had received her booster at the White House." ~~~

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he received the COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, calling his choice to get the third dose 'an easy decision[.]' The 79-year-old senator announced that he got the booster dose while on the Senate floor, hours after President Biden received his third shot."

Brazil. Rick Gladstone of the New York Times: "Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's proudly unvaccinated president, is contending with more fallout from his visit to New York last week to speak at the United Nations: A fourth member of his entourage has tested positive for Covid-19, and his wife, Michelle, opted to get vaccinated before they returned home."

Beyond the Beltway (& Inside, Too)

Sanjana Karanth of the Huffington Post: "... nine states and Washington, D.C., now mandate that every voter be mailed a ballot ahead of an election by default. Last year was the first time that California, Vermont and the nation's capital began the practice.... Several states ― mostly in the South ― still require voters to provide an 'excuse' for mailing in their ballots, forcing more people to vote in person at polling places." These states have permanently instituted automatic vote-by-mail: "California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Vermont & Washington. New Jersey & Washington, D.C. have temporarily instituted automatic vote-by-mail. ~~~

~~~ California. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "All California voters will now receive a ballot mailed to them whether they request it or not, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Monday, in a move long sought by state Democrats who have argued that it will make it easier for residents to take part in future elections.... The legislation permanently extends vote-by-mail provisions enacted in California during the coronavirus pandemic. Those provisions were in place during the 2020 election as well as during this month's unsuccessful campaign to recall Newsom.... California voters can still opt to go to the polls in person if they prefer."

Oregon. Ally Mutnick of Politico: "The Oregon state House reached a grudging compromise on a new congressional map that would create four Democratic districts, a safe Republican seat and one potential battleground, bringing an end to a bitter partisan standoff. State House Speaker Tina Kotek, a Democrat, gaveled the legislature into session on Monday morning, hours before a redistricting deadline, after a nearly week-long delay caused by a Covid scare and a Republican boycott. The agreement: Republican state representatives returned, and in return Democrats did not muscle through a map that would have given them solid control of five of the state's six districts."

South Dakota. Stephen Groves of the AP: "Just days after a South Dakota agency moved to deny her daughter's application to become a certified real estate appraiser, Gov. Kristi Noem summoned to her office the state employee who ran the agency, the woman's direct supervisor and the state labor secretary. Noem's daughter attended too. Kassidy Peters, then 26, ultimately obtained the certification in November 2020, four months after the meeting at her mother's office. A week after that, the labor secretary called the agency head, Sherry Bren, to demand her retirement, according to an age discrimination complaint Bren filed against the department. Bren, 70, ultimately left her job this past March after the state paid her $200,000 to withdraw the complaint.... Government ethics experts ... said Noem's decision to include her daughter in the meeting created a conflict of interest regardless of what was discussed. While Peters was applying for the certification, Noem should have recused herself from discussions on the agency, especially any that would apply to her daughter's application, said Richard Painter, a professor at the University of Minnesota Law School who was the chief ethics lawyer for former President George W. Bush. 'It's clearly a conflict of interest and an abuse of power for the benefit of a family member,' he said."

Texas. Paul Weber of the AP: "Texas Republicans proposed redrawn congressional maps Monday that would shore up their slipping dominance and bolster their nearly two dozen U.S. House members, while adding new districts in booming Austin and Houston. Texas was the big winner in the 2020 Census, as torrid growth fueled by nearly 2 million new Hispanic residents made it the only state awarded two additional congressional seats, bringing its total to 38. Those demographic shifts threaten decades of Republican control in Texas, but in taking up the once-in-a-decade process of drawing new voting maps, GOP mapmakers' first draft largely appears to firewall their existing seats and advantage rather than take additional seats from Democrats."

Wyoming. Ha Ha. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump is leading an all-out war against Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming because of her perceived lack of loyalty.... But his choice to replace her, Harriet Hageman..., was part of the final Republican resistance to his ascent in 2016, backing doomed procedural measures at the party's national convention aimed at stripping him of the presidential nomination he had clinched two months earlier. Ms. Hageman worked with fellow supporters of Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in a failed effort to force a vote on the convention floor between Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz.... Calling Mr. Trump 'the weakest candidate,' Ms. Hageman attributed his rise to Democrats who she claimed had voted in Republican primaries. She condemned Mr. Trump as a bigoted candidate who would repel voters..., warning that the G.O.P. would be saddled with 'somebody who is racist and xenophobic.' Ms. Hageman's yearslong journey from Never-Trumpism to declaring him the best president of her lifetime is one of the most striking illustrations yet of the political elasticity demonstrated both by ambitious Republicans in the Trump era...."

Way Beyond

Afghanistan. Cora Engelbrecht & Sharif Hassan of the New York Times: "Tightening the Taliban's restrictions on women, the group's new chancellor for Kabul University announced on Monday that women would be indefinitely banned from the institution either as instructors or students. 'I give you my words as chancellor of Kabul University,' Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat said in a Tweet on Monday. 'As long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.' The new university policy echoes the Taliban's first time in power, in the 1990s, when women were only allowed in public if accompanied by a male relative and would be beaten for disobeying, and were kept from school entirely."

Germany. Philip Olterman of the Guardian: "The centre-left contender to fill Angela Merkel's shoes has announced his intention to forge a 'social-ecological-liberal coalition' following Sunday's knife-edge German national vote, as momentum slips from the outgoing chancellor's own designated successor. 'The voters have made themselves very clear,' Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic party (SPD) said at a press conference on Monday morning. He pointed out that his centre-left party, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democratic party (FDP) had all picked up significant numbers of new votes at the election, while the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) suffered a loss in support of almost nine percentage points."

Comments

[citizen625]

A bit of what women of color experience: https://www.thecut.com/2021/09/interview-sparkle-on-r-kellys-guilty-verdict.html#comments. The courage to do the right thing....

[P.D. Pepe]

Finally we have someone who can impersonate Fatty fully and with brio! SNL has just hired James Austin Johnson to play the part. This is key since Trump has not gone quietly into the night and will be with us one way or another for years to come, I imagine. Since I have stressed the importance of "making fun", humiliating through comedy, I'm hoping Mr. Johnson will fill the bill.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/james-austin-johnson-donald-trump-saturday-night-live_n_6152f084e4b03d83bad7ffc8

Meanwhile I'm holding my breath re: that Fiscal Cliff–-the prospect of the GOP's "NO" vote would be catastrophic ––-would they really go that far to screw the Dems?

[Ken Winkes]

PD,

I look at it this way.

Since the Democratic Party, disjointed and heterogeneous as it is, comes far closer to representing the country's disparate population and interests than does the current Party of Obstruction and Resentment, by screwing the Democrats, Republicans are in fact screwing the country.

Makes sense, since they have become the Pretender's Party, and as Marie says above, the Pretender is very willing to destroy the country to save himself.

And because it's all about them, neither the Republicans nor the Pretender care.

In both, what we're seeing is the apotheosis of selfishness, the antithesis of community, just as anarchy is the antithesis of governance.

[Akhilleus]

The Traitors are coming, the Traitors are coming…

Is another midnight ride necessary to wake people up to the savage attacks by the Party of Traitors on American democracy?

The “audit” in Arizona was a massive (and massively expensive) clown show cluster fuck. Confederates clearly don’t give a shit about using taxpayer money to fund their illegitimate, anti-democratic schemes, but they are dead set on continuing to assault the will of the voters by attempting to put the kibosh on fair and free elections.

The media are so egregiously mired in both siderism, and not wanting to pinch the winger snowflakes’ delicate fee-fees, that most reporting comes across as a stenography test. “What did Mitch say? Oh yeah. Print that without context and NO fact checking! They hate that.”

But luckily some in the fourth estate have had enough. This morning I listened to an On the Media podcast, produced by WNYC (outstanding, by the way), during which the assistant managing editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Dan Hirschhorn, announced that his paper will be adjusting its reporting on PofT attacks on democratic elections by refraining from describing these slippery sorties as audits.

If that word is mentioned, it will be in quotes: “audit”, or the officious and willfully misleading “forensic audit”, likewise the innocent but important sounding “investigation”.

After announcing huffily that the Pennsylvania GQP would be conducting a “forensic audit”, the party spokesperson was asked to define that term. He had no idea what it meant or what it would entail. They really don’t care, just as long as they can try to shiv the will of the voters.

To wit:

“Almost one year after the most secure election in U.S. history (so says the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency), the Pennsylvania Senate is continuing its search for evidence of widespread voter fraud that does not exist.

The Senate is labeling this undertaking a ‘full forensic investigation,’ an ‘election integrity’ review, and — perhaps most absurdly — an ‘audit.’ These terms might sound official, but in reality, they only serve to hide the dangerous nature of the Senate’s actions.”

My sense is that none of these sleazy, Trump rump smooching jamokes expects to actually kick Biden out of office and return the Orange Monster to power (at least right now). This is more like a baseball team manager running out to protest a call, one that will not be overturned. The idea is not to change that call, the idea is to influence the next call. Former Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver was a master at this trick. Run out, scream, yell, kick dirt, and generally blow his top. But the next time there was a close call, it invariably was decided in favor of the Orioles. At the very least, Weaver’s tantrums got fans to wonder about the accuracy of the umps.

But this is all part of a larger strategy. Republicans know their time is short. The upcoming rounds of astounding gerrymandering, combined with voter suppression and screams of fraud at the polls, when they don’t win, are all designed to sow distrust in democracy.

They’re out to kill America to stay in power. And no quotes are needed around the word kill. Once they take back power, their policies, as they have always done, will kill thousands. Trump by himself killed half a million.

The traitors are already here.

https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/pennsylvania-2020-election-audit-senate-20210927.html

[P.D. Pepe]

Some of you may be fans of Jonathan Franzen as I am––he had me at "Freedom" and I have followed him since. Here's a very well wrought review of his newest: "Crosswords"–-a title taken from a Robert Johnson song–-the Blues man himself.

"This is a novel with strong religious themes. In Franzen fiction families are their own form of religion, with options for salvation and purification, and just as many for apostasy. Perhaps the biggest danger in his families is to misread one's position in them."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/27/books/review-jonathan-franzen-crossroads.html?referringSource=articleShare

Ken––a resounding YES to your comments.

[P.D. Pepe]

Correction: "Crossroads"–--although cross words might fit as well.

[P.D. Pepe]

Ak's "They’re out to kill America to stay in power. And no quotes are needed around the word kill. Once they take back power, their policies, as they have always done, will kill thousands. Trump by himself killed half a million."

This statement is not hyperbole –––and what a goddamn tragedy!!!