The Commentariat -- August 6, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Biden on Friday gave a sober message on a strong July jobs report, saying the nation needs to get more people vaccinated to keep the economy growing strongly. 'My message today is not one of celebration. It's one to remind us we got a lot of hard work left to be done both to beat the delta variant and to continue our advance of economic recovery,' Biden said in remarks from the White House. 'This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, so we have to get more people vaccinated.'" ~~~
~~~ President Biden, in bid to be impeached, irresponsibly wears tan suit to deliver "sober message":
South Dakota to Hold Second Annual Mass Infection Event, Again Plans to Spread Covid Around the U.S. Erin Shumaker of ABC News: "South Dakota's Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, which begins Friday and runs through Aug. 15, is expected to draw upwards of 700,000 attendees. Last year's rally, which took place during the height of the United States' summer surge, had more than 400,000 estimated attendees, many of whom didn't wear masks as they patronized bars, restaurants and concerts.... Republican Gov. Kristi Noem supports the rally, a major economic driver in the state. 'There's a risk associated with everything that we do in life,' Noem wrote on Twitter Wednesday." MB: Yup. There's a risk with jumping out of a plane without of a chute, too. So, hey, why not?
Laurie McGinley & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Federal health officials are racing to ensure that millions of Americans with weakened immune systems can get additional shots of coronavirus vaccines to protect them against the highly contagious delta variant. The actions could mean the extra shots would be authorized in days or weeks, according to federal officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the plan has not been announced.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service will pay $120 million over the next five years to a major logistics contractor that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy previously helped lead and with which his family maintains financial ties, according to DeJoy's financial disclosure statements. The new contract will deepen the Postal Service's relationship with XPO Logistics, where DeJoy served as supply chain chief executive from 2014 to 2015 after the company purchased New Breed Logistics, the trucking firm he owned for more than 30 years. Since he became postmaster general, DeJoy, DeJoy-controlled companies and his family foundation have divested between $65.4 million and $155.3 million worth of XPO shares.... But DeJoy's family businesses continue to lease four North Carolina office buildings to XPO.... The previously unreported agreement will see XPO take over operations at two crucial sorting and distribution facilities in Atlanta and Washington, D.C."
Mike Lindell absolutely, positively proves Donald Trump won the 2020 election CNN report Drew Griffin confronts MyPillow Guy about his ridiculous claims of 2020 election fraud. It's embarrassing just to watch that Guy:
Leslie Josephs of CNBC: "United Airlines will require its 67,000 U.S. employees to get vaccinated against Covid by no later than Oct. 25 or risk termination, a first for major U.S. carriers that will likely ramp up pressure on rivals. Airlines including United have so far resisted vaccine mandates for all workers, instead offering incentives like extra pay or time off to get inoculated. Delta Air Lines in May started requiring newly hired employees to show proof of vaccination. United followed suit in June."
Neil Irwin of the New York Times: "America is getting back to work. That's the simplest, clearest analysis of the labor market that emerges from nearly every line of the July employment numbers released Friday morning. It is a welcome sign that, as of the middle of last month, the economy is healing rapidly -- and that the previous couple of months reflected healthier results than previously estimated. There are caveats worth mentioning: The surveys on which this data are based were taken before people were worrying very much about the Delta variant of the coronavirus; the share of Americans participating in the work force hasn't really budged; and we still haven't achieved the kind of one-million-plus monthly job gains that seemed plausible back in the spring." Related stories linked under today's Ledes.
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... the Democrats-only part of the public investment [infrastructure] program probably will include some genuine sources of new revenue, if only to satisfy moderates still unduly worried about debt. But when it comes to finding these 'pay-fors,' the G.O.P.'s refusal to raise taxes or even try to collect taxes owed under current law may have done Democrats a favor. Why? Because Democrats can now pay for a lot of what they want with extremely popular policies. Polls consistently show strong support for raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. I haven't seen polling on the idea of getting wealthy tax cheats to pay what they owe, but I think we can safely assume that this would be even more popular. So Republicans have offered Democrats a golden opportunity to show themselves both fiscally responsible and on the side of hard-working Americans as opposed to cheating elites." Thanks to PD Pepe for the link.
9/11 Familes Play Hardball. Courtney Kube of NBC News: "Nearly 1,800 Americans directly affected by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks are opposing President Joe Biden's participation in any memorial events this year unless he upholds his pledge to declassify U.S. government evidence that they believe may show a link between Saudi Arabian leaders and the attacks. The victims' family members, first responders and survivors will release a statement Friday calling on Biden to skip 20th-anniversary events in New York and Shanksville, Pennsylvania, and at the Pentagon unless he releases the documents, which they believe implicate Saudi officials in supporting the acts of terrorism. The group says that as a candidate Biden pledged to be more transparent and release as much information as possible but that his administration has since then ignored their letters and requests.... 'Through multiple administrations, the Department of Justice and the FBI have actively sought to keep this information secret and prevent the American people from learning the full truth about the 9/11 attacks,' the participants wrote." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Unless DOJ has this info sitting ready to go, I don't see how they could get it out in a month. But the department should figure out a way.
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Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday announced a multistep strategy aimed at rapidly shifting Americans from gasoline-powered cars and trucks toward electric vehicles -- a central part of his plan to reduce the pollution that is heating the planet. Mr. Biden is first restoring and slightly strengthening auto mileage standards to the levels that existed under President Barack Obama but were weakened during the Trump administration. The new rules, which would apply to vehicles in the model year 2023, would cut about one-third of the carbon dioxide produced annually by the United States and prevent the burning of about 200 billion gallons of gasoline over the lifetime of the cars, according to a White House fact sheet.... Mr. Biden's actions amount to an attempt to overhaul a major American industry in order to better compete with China, which makes about 70 percent of the world's electric vehicle batteries." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Video of President Biden's remarks is here. ~~~
~~~ Josh Lederman of NBC News: "President Joe Biden took the wheel of a plug-in Jeep Wrangler to tout electric vehicles on Thursday after signing an executive order setting a national goal for zero-emissions vehicles to make up half of new cars and trucks sold by 2030. Aiming to show buy-in from the auto industry, Biden was joined at the White House by Ford and GM executives, along with leaders from the United Auto Workers. In addition to setting the 50 percent-by-2030 goal, the executive order will also kick off the process to replace ... Donald Trump's more relaxed tailpipe and emissions standards with stricter ones, officials said." (This is an update of story linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Uh, Here's a Downside to Electric Vehicles. Faiz Siddiqui of the Washington Post: "Automakers including General Motors, Audi and Hyundai have recalled electric vehicles over fire risks in recent years and have warned of the associated dangers. Chevrolet last year advised owners not to charge their vehicles overnight or keep their fully charged vehicles in garages. It recalled more than 60,000 of its Bolt electric vehicles over concerns about the cars spontaneously combusting while parked with full batteries or charging, after reports of five fires without prior impact damage. The company issued another recall last month covering the same vehicles after two reports of battery fires in repaired vehicles."
Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden signed legislation Thursday to award the Congressional Gold Medal to police who defended the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, taking the opportunity to mount his starkest pushback yet against an emerging narrative that the attack was a patriotic protest. 'It wasn't dissent. It wasn't debate. It wasn't democracy,' Biden said during a somber ceremony in the Rose Garden. 'It was insurrection. It was riot and mayhem. It was radical and chaotic, and it was unconstitutional. Maybe most important, it was fundamentally un-American.... The tragedy of that day deserves the truth above all else,' the president said. 'We cannot allow history to be rewritten. We cannot allow the heroism of these officers to be forgotten. We have to understand what happened -- the honest and unvarnished truth. We have to face it. That's what great nations do.'" ~~~
Alan Rappeport & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Republicans and Democrats rushed on Thursday to line up a Senate vote to pass the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill, working to clear away the final obstacles despite a finding by Congress's official scorekeeper that the bill would add more than $250 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade.... It followed an estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on the cost of the legislation, which was one of the last major hurdles to passing it. The office calculated that nearly half of the new spending -- $256 billion -- would be financed by adding to the nation's debt from 2021 to 2031, contradicting the claims of Republican and Democratic proponents that the measure would fully pay for itself." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Yeah But. Wa-a-ay down the page (Paragraph 17!) the reporters mention the reason for the deficit spending: "... Republicans ruled out raising taxes and beefing up I.R.S. enforcement of tax cheats and Democrats balked at increasing fees for drivers." ~~~
~~~ Kevin Freking & Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "The package had appeared on track for eventual Senate passage, a rare accord between Republicans and Democrats joining on a shared priority that also is essential to President Joe Biden's agenda. But senators hit new problems late Thursday as they worked late into the night on amendments. A procedural vote was set for Saturday."
McConnell Threatens to Cripple Federal Government. Alan Fram of the AP: "Republicans will oppose raising the federal debt limit if Democrats pursue their $3.5 trillion, 10-year plan to strengthen social and environment programs, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday. The Kentucky Republican's threat was the most explicit he has been about his desire to force Democrats to either take the politically unpopular step of unilaterally renewing the government's borrowing authority or pare back President Joe Biden's domestic policy agenda. His remarks suggest that another high-stakes budget showdown between the two parties, with the government's financial soundness in the balance, may be on tap."
Betsy Swan & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "A key House committee has postponed multiple scheduled witness interviews about Donald Trump's final days in office, handing them off to the select panel investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. 'As the Oversight Committee continues its crucial oversight work, we look forward to the Select Committee fully exposing the former president's unconstitutional attacks on our democracy and attempts to stay in power after the American people voted him out of office,' House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement to Politico Thursday.... The shift in the investigation did not appear to affect the upper chamber; a Senate Judiciary Committee spokesperson said Thursday that the panel is beginning to interview witnesses this week in its own inquiry. The chair of that panel, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), told Politico that his committee planned to interview two Trump-era DOJ Justice Department officials soon."
Laurence Tribe, Barbara McQuade & Joyce Vance in a Washington Post op-ed: "As evidence of Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election mounts, the time has come for the Justice Department to begin, if it hasn't already, a criminal investigation of the former president's dangerous course of conduct.... If [Merrick] Garland's Justice Department is going to restore respect for the rule of law, no one, not even a former president, can be above it. And the fear of appearing partisan cannot be allowed to supersede that fundamental precept..... None of [the] facts alone proves a crime beyond a reasonable doubt, but together they clearly merit opening a criminal investigation, which would allow prosecutors to obtain phone and text records, emails, memos and witness testimony to determine whether Trump should be charged." The authors list a number of federal crimes that may have occurred. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Evan Perez of CNN noted on-air Thursday that DOJ has turned over to Congress documents that appear to be evidence of criminal activity on the part of Trump & some of his allies. Since DOJ would normally keep confidential evidence of crimes, it appears the Department is not conducting or contemplating a criminal investigation. Another pundit (whose name I don't know) contributing to the discussion pointed out that Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election were of a piece with Republicans' continuing effort to suppress Democratic votes. Therefore if the DOJ does not pursue charges against Trump, Garland's stated interest in promoting voting rights seems mighty hollow. ~~~
~~~ Why, Here's Merrick Now. Merrick Garland in a Washington Post op-ed: "[The] invaluable framework [provided by the Voting Rights Act of 1965] was upended in 2013, when the Supreme Court's decision in Shelby County v. Holder effectively eliminated the act's preclearance protections. Without that authority, the Justice Department has been unable to stop discriminatory practices before they occur. Instead, the Justice Department has been left with costly, time-consuming tools that have many of the shortcomings that plagued federal law prior to 1965. Notwithstanding these setbacks, the Justice Department is using all its current legal authorities to combat a new wave of restrictive voting laws.... It is time for Congress to act again to protect that fundamental right."
Ned Foley of Election Law Blog: "As much as I'm concerned about the risk that on January 6, 2025 there will a successful subversion of the popular vote caused by an abuse of the procedures set forth in the Electoral Count Act, I'm concerned about other ways that the Electoral College system might be gamed so that partisan manipulation of the process prevents the winner of the 2024 presidential election being the candidate preferred by a majority of the nation's voters.... The Constitution's system for presidential elections remains ... profoundly undemocratic and susceptible to manipulation.... It won't necessarily take a coup to defeat the will of the majority; all it may take is using the existing procedures enshrined in the Constitution for over two hundred years."
Steve M. "Richard Hasen ... thinks a 2024 steal of the election could come about not as the result of a riot, but from the courts accepting the notion that (Republican-controlled) legislatures can simply reject vote counts.... Hasen believes the courts could well hand one or more GOP-run legislatures the right to overturn election results.... Challenges to this Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling failed in the federal courts, and other pro-Trump challenges also failed, but four Republican judges on the U.S. Supreme Court expressed support for the notion that legislatures have absolute power to decide how elections are conducted... [But] As I've said before, [most Republicans] want to steal elections the old-fashioned way: by making sure that many Democrats can't vote. That way the results never show a Democrat winning, and the election looks fair. They're working on that in Georgia...." Steve liberally cites an article by Hasen in Slate. It's firewalled, and it's here.
"It's Going to Be Huge." Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "The former data chief for Donald Trump's 2016 campaign has announced a protest next month at the nation's Capitol -- to rail on behalf of so-called 'political prisoners' charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection. 'We're going back to the Capitol, right where it started. And it's going to be huge,' Matt Braynard told former White House strategist Steve Bannon as he announced the rally on Bannon's podcast last week. The protest, 'Justice for J6,' has been set for Sept. 18 at the Capitol. It's being orchestrated by the group Look Ahead America, headed by Braynard.... Braynard told Bannon the crowd [January 6] was 'largely peaceful' -- and simply 'egged on in many cases by the Capitol Police.'"
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A four-year probe by the Justice Department Inspector General could not determine who in the FBI spoke to reporters about sensitive subjects during the 2016 election, or find evidence that Rudolph W. Giuliani had inside information about an investigation into Hillary Clinton that upended the race in its final days. The report issued Thursday by Inspector General Michael Horowitz said there were 'substantial media contacts' with numerous FBI employees, but the evidence could not determine 'whether these media contacts resulted in the disclosure of nonpublic information.' Horowitz faulted what he called 'a cultural attitude at the FBI that was far too permissive of unauthorized media contacts in 2016.'... A 2018 inspector general report about the Clinton case was highly critical of [then-FBI Director James] Comey and his former boss, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. But Horowitz's office spent three more years working on the leak-hunting portion of the investigation, and came up largely empty." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
FTC Calls BS on Facebook. Cristiano Lima of the Washington Post: "The Federal Trade Commission has dismissed as 'inaccurate' Facebook's claim that it cut off a group of researchers' access to data to comply with a privacy agreement with the agency.... On Tuesday, the social media giant disabled the accounts of researchers at the New York University Ad Observatory, which tracks digital advertisements on the platform, saying in a blog post it did so to comply with a privacy order it struck with the FTC.... The decision and Facebook's justification drew backlash from lawmakers who accused the company of erroneously citing privacy concerns to escape scrutiny from independent researchers. The agency rejected Facebook's assertion in a letter sent to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, penned by Acting Director for the Bureau of Consumer Protection Samuel Levine. 'Had you honored your commitment to contact us in advance, we would have pointed out that the consent decree does not bar Facebook from creating exceptions for good-faith research in the public interest,' he wrote." Levine's letter to Zuckerberg is here.
Tucker Is So Orwellian. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Tucker Carlson is only the latest -- and most famous -- American conservative to find inspiration in the autocratic government of Hungary under Viktor Orban.... To critics, Orban's Hungary is corrupt, repressive and authoritarian, a place where democracy is little more than window-dressing and the state exists to plunder the public on behalf of a tiny ruling elite. To Carlson, it's a model for the United States, a showcase for anti-immigrant policies and reactionary cultural politics.... We've seen this before. Many times, in fact.... I am inclined to follow the lead of Jeet Heer, a columnist at The Nation, who sees this enthusiasm as a form of 'transferred nationalism,' a term borrowed from George Orwell's famous 1945 essay 'Notes on Nationalism.'" ~~~
~~~ ** Zack Beauchamp of Vox: "This week, America's most watched cable news host is broadcasting from an authoritarian state -- not to criticize its leadership but to praise it. Fox's Tucker Carlson is currently in Budapest, airing his show from Hungary's capital city. In his Monday monologue, Carlson told his listeners that they should pay attention to Hungary 'if you care about Western civilization, and democracy, and family -- and the ferocious assault on all three of those things by leaders of our global institutions.' He tweeted out a friendly photo with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and is confirmed to speak at a government-supported conference in Budapest on Saturday.... Fox's marquee host is aligning himself with a ruler who has spent the past 11 years systematically dismantling Hungary's free political system.... Right-wing observers, typically social conservatives and nationalists, see Orbán's willingness to use state power against the LGBT community, academics, the press, and immigrants as an example of how conservatives can fight back against left-wing cultural power.... Carlson's visit to Budapest, a follow-up to previous pro-Orbán coverage, shows that this authoritarian envy is no longer confined to a fringe." (Also linked yesterday.)
Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Richard Trumka, the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O., the nation's pre-eminent labor federation, for the last 12 years and an influential voice in Democratic politics, died on Thursday. He was 72. The federation confirmed the death. The cause was a heart attack, according to an A.F.L.-C.I.O. official, who did not say where Mr. Trumka died. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, announced the death on the Senate floor. 'The working people of America have lost a fierce warrior at a time when we needed him most,' Mr. Schumer said in an emotional tribute." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Annie Linskey & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is considering using federal regulatory powers and the threat of withholding federal funds from institutions to push more Americans to get vaccinated -- a huge potential shift in the fight against the virus and a far more muscular approach to getting shots into arms, according to four people familiar with the deliberations. The effort could apply to institutions as varied as long-term-care facilities, cruise ships and universities, potentially impacting millions of Americans, according to the people.... The conversations are in the early phases and no firm decisions have been made...."
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "After White House legal advisers found he could not extend a national eviction moratorium, President Biden told Chief of Staff Ron Klain to seek the advice of Harvard law professor emeritus Laurence Tribe about whether an alternative legal basis could be devised for protecting struggling renters across the country, according to a person familiar with the matter. The private phone call between Klain and Tribe -- held Sunday amid a national outcry over the expiring moratorium -- set in motion a rapid reversal of the administration's legal position that it could not extend the eviction ban. Tribe suggested to Klain and White House Counsel Dana Remus that the administration could impose a new and different moratorium, rather than try to extend the existing ban in potential defiance of a warning from Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, the person said.... After the administration announced last week that it could not find a legal justification for extending the ban, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) recommended to the White House that Biden seek out Tribe's counsel, according to one person familiar with the matter." (Also linked yesterday.)
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "The powerful protection offered by Moderna's Covid vaccine does not wane in the first six months after the second dose, according to a statement released by the company on Thursday morning in advance of its earnings call. But in slides prepared for the call, the company said it anticipated that boosters would be necessary this fall to contend with the Delta variant, which became common in the United States after the results were collected." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Robert Towey of CNBC: "White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that a more severe Covid variant could emerge as the U.S. daily new case average is now approaching 100,000 per day, exceeding the level of transmission last summer before vaccines were available. Fauci, in an interview with McClatchy, said the U.S. could be 'in trouble' if a new variant overtakes delta, which already has a viral load 1,000 times higher than the original Covid strain." (Also linked yesterday.)
Ben Kennedy & Andrea Torres of WPLG Miami: Florida "Gov. Ron DeSantis fired back at President Joe Biden on Wednesday. The Republican governor and the Democratic president disagree on the need for face mask mandates amid a surge in COVID cases. Florida faced more than 50,000 coronavirus infections in just three days. 'If you're not going to help, get out of the way,' Biden said during a news conference Tuesday.... 'If you are coming after the rights in Florida, I am standing in your way,' DeSantis said in response during a news conference Wednesday.... He also added a message about immigration to Biden: 'Why don't you do your job? Why don't you get this border secure? And until you do this, I don't want to hear a blip about COVID from you.[']" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "Governor Who?" Shannon Crawford of ABC News: "... during an afternoon event [Thursday] on curbing auto emissions, reporters asked [President] Biden about [Gov.] DeSantis' recent comments slamming him and his response to the pandemic. "Governor who?" Biden responded." Earlier, at Thursday's briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, in answer to a question about DeSantis's remarks, said, "... from Day One, we've approached this not as a political issue but a public health issue," Psaki began. "We remain in touch with officials in Florida, just like we're in touch with officials from around the country about how we can provide assistance from the federal level to help address this public health crisis.... It is a fact ... that 25% of hospitalizations in the country are in Florida. It is also a fact that the governor has taken steps that are counter to public health recommendations.... Frankly our view is that this is too serious, deadly serious to be doing partisan name-calling."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona. Christina Carrega & Devan Cole of CNN: "The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is launching an investigation into policing practices in the city of Phoenix, Arizona, with a focus on how the city treats residents experiencing homelessness, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Thursday.... The Justice Department's probe will look into unlawful seizes or disposes of the belongings of individuals experiencing homelessness.... Investigators will also determine whether Phoenix police officers engaged in a pattern of deadly force, retaliatory activity against people for conduct protected by the US Constitution's First Amendment as well as discriminatory policing. The department's focus on officers' conduct toward people experiencing homelessness represents the first time the department has specifically focused on the constitutional rights of this community.... Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego [D] said Thursday that she welcomes the government's investigation...."
Michigan. Househunting While Black. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: Roy "Thorne and his son[, who are Black,] were touring a home with real estate agent Eric Brown, who's also Black, in Wyoming, Mich., when police suddenly surrounded the house with guns drawn. The officers were responding to a neighbor's 911 call about a break-in. They ordered the three out of the house, handcuffed them and put them in separate vehicles.... [While] Still handcuffed [in the police car], [Brown] showed them his credentials and said he had a confirmed appointment to show the home. He explained how he had used an app on his phone to access a lockbox with the house key. That's when officers realized the mistake and freed Thorne, Brown and his son. Thorne estimated they were in handcuffs for about 20 minutes. Several officers apologized, and Thorne said he thinks one was genuinely sorry. He said he saw that officer talking with the White couple who called 911. The officer returned to say he had chewed them out, apologized again and left, Thorne said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: HGTV should feature the episode on its show "Househunters," a show which I've read is regularly faked anyway, so a re-enactment would be de rigueur. BTW, I started watching HGTV in the early 90s, and its shows were at the forefront of equal opportunity programming. It regularly featured minority and LGBTQ hosts & guests. At the time, that was refreshing, encouraging & unusual.
New York. Buh-Bye. Michael Gold, et al., of the New York Times: "The State Assembly's impeachment investigation into Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is 'nearing completion' and the body will soon consider 'potential articles of impeachment' against him, the chair of the committee overseeing the inquiry said in a statement on Thursday. Charles D. Lavine, who leads the Assembly's Judiciary Committee, said that lawyers conducting the inquiry have directed Mr. Cuomo and his legal team to submit any evidence in the governor's defense by next Friday. The lawyers had previously issued a subpoena for relevant documents. The move was the latest and most vivid indication yet that the Assembly, which is controlled by Democrats, was moving quickly to impeach Mr. Cuomo, a third-term Democrat...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Luis Ferré-Sadurní & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times on how Andrew "Cuomo & his team retaliated against his accusers.... The fear of retaliation also had a chilling effect: Many of the women who have now accused Mr. Cuomo said it was one of the underlying reasons that they did not immediately report their sexual harassment.... In the governor's decade-long tenure, he has navigated Albany's byzantine ways and steered the state's bureaucracy using brute political force and heavy-handed tactics of bullying and intimidation.... Mr. Cuomo's special counsel, Judith Mogul, who handled complaints from some of the governor's accusers, resigned this week. On Wednesday, he lost support from key labor leaders and one of his staunchest allies, Jay Jacobs, the chairman of the state's Democratic Party. Others had abandoned him earlier this year, as additional women accused the governor of sexual misconduct, and his tone and strategy shifted from apologetic to increasingly defiant." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As you read the story, it may sound familiar to some of you old enough to remember the Lewinsky affair. These are exactly the tactics Bill & Hillary Clinton & some of their top aides used to discredit Monica Lewinsky. Cuomo served as Bill Clinton's HUD secretary. ~~~
~~~ Lachlan Markay of Axios: "The Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue has removed a donation page that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's campaign committee used to solicit contributions, the company confirmed to Axios.... ActBlue is the lifeblood of grassroots Democratic fundraising."
Texas. Nick Corasaniti & David Montgomery of the New York Times: "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Thursday called a new special session of the Legislature that is set to begin on Saturday, renewing Republican efforts to overhaul the state's elections and putting pressure on Democratic lawmakers who left the state for Washington last month to block the legislation. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, stuck to his pledge 'to call special session after special session,' releasing a 17-item agenda for the Republican-controlled Legislature with a new voting bill at the top. The list also included a host of other conservative goals, like restricting abortion access, limiting the ways that students are taught about racism and tightening border security. His announcement sent national attention swinging back to a hotel in downtown Washington, where several dozen Democrats from the Texas House of Representatives are grappling with a familiar question: Stay or go back?"
Way Beyond
Earth. Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "Last month was the world's worst July for wildfires since at least 2003 when satellite records began, scientists have said, as swaths of North America, Siberia, Africa and southern Europe continue to burn. Driven by extreme heat and prolonged drought, the ignition of forests and grasslands released 343 megatonnes of carbon, about a fifth higher than the previous global peak for July, which was set in 2014. 'This stands out by a clear margin,' said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist in the EU's Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, which estimates the carbon releases."
Japan. The New York Times' live updates of the Olympic games Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live Olympics updates for Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ BBC News: "Two Belarusian coaches have lost their Olympic accreditations after allegedly attempting to force an athlete to leave the Games in Tokyo. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) confirmed that Artur Shimak and Yury Maisevich had left the Olympic Village. An investigation is under way. The case of Krystina Timanovskaya caught global attention after she refused her team's orders to fly home. She is now in Poland, where she has been granted a humanitarian visa."
News Ledes
CNBC: "Hiring rose in July at its fastest pace in nearly a year despite fears over Covid-19's delta variant and as companies struggled with a tight labor supply, the Labor Department reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 943,000 for the month while the unemployment rate dropped to 5.4%, according to the department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The payroll increase was the best since August 2020." The New York Times story is here.
Guardian & Agencies: "The fast-moving Dixie fire tore through the northern California mountain town of Greenville on Wednesday evening, leaving much of the downtown in ashes.... The community, which was partially destroyed by an 1881 fire, dates to California's Gold Rush era and has some buildings more than a century old."
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