October 30, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump is seeking to prevent Jan. 6 investigators from accessing daily presidential diaries, drafts of election-related speeches, logs of his phone calls, handwritten notes and files of top aides, the National Archives revealed in a Saturday morning court filing. According to the National Archives, the former president has sought to block about 750 pages out of nearly 1,600 identified by officials as relevant to the Jan. 6 investigation. Among them are hundreds of pages from 'multiple binders of the former press secretary [Kayleigh McEnany] which is made up almost entirely of talking points and statements related to the 2020 election,' according to the court filing. The filing details are the clearest indication yet of what Trump is trying to withhold from congressional investigators.... The National Archives indicated that many files were drawn from the systems of key Trump aides including former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, adviser Stephen Miller and deputy counsel Patrick Philbin.... The National Archives submitted its filing in response to Trump's lawsuit seeking an emergency court order to block [Archivist David] Ferriero from transmitting them to Congress.... But the archives rejected Trump's legal arguments, emphasizing that the Jan. 6 committee's requests were tailored specifically to its investigation, and that President Joe Biden had already made the 'manifestly reasonable' decision to reject Trump's claims of privilege."
Josh Marshall of TPM views the Washington Post story (Josh Dawsey, et al.) linked below as "one of the biggest revelations I've seen to date.... Here we're getting the details, the documentary evidence. [Attorney John] Eastman didn't recoil when the President's rally escalated to violence. He clearly saw the inside coup plot and the insurrectionists on the street as part of the same effort. This isn't surprising to most of us.... Eastman recognized the insurrection as the paramilitary wing of the coup plot he was part of and as the Capitol was under siege used it as a cudgel to force Pence's hand.... There was the notorious phone call between Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump in which McCarthy demanded Trump call off his insurrectionists. Trump notoriously responded, 'Well, Kevin, I guess these people are more upset about the election than you are.'... Trump's message was the same as Eastman's. You brought it on yourself and they're my guys.... They both recognized the insurrectionists as their foot soldiers and expressed as much in real time to the members of Congress under siege." ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump's comment to McCarthy, and Trump's tweet attacking Pence, it's pretty clear the Trump team saw utility in the mob. And they apparently tried to exploit it to the bitter end." ~~~
~~~ Tim Murphy of Mother Jones: "Since [John Eastman's] memo [on how to turn over the election results] was published, Eastman and his current employer, the Claremont Institute, have sought to downplay its significance.... But Eastman was not participating in some after-hours law-school bull session; he was advising a corrupt and desperate man who would do almost anything to hold onto power. The radical scenario outlined in the memo, and the equally-radical scenario Eastman says he ultimately recommended -- in which Pence would decline to certify the results, buying time for Republican legislators in key states to purportedly investigate alleged fraud, and submit new slates of electors -- would have only indulged Trump's delusions about his own chances. And Eastman pursued all of this, because he was likewise deluded about what had happened in November. As part of a legal analysis he prepared for state legislators making the case that they could reject their states' election results, the Post reported, 'Eastman's seven-page paper featured theories about voter fraud published by the right-wing blog the Gateway Pundit and an anonymous Twitter user named 'DuckDiver19.' DuckDiver19. It's a long way from Federalist no. 68." ~~~
~~~ Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "John Eastman, a conservative lawyer working ... Donald Trump's legal team, said in a radio interview in early January that then-Vice President Mike Pence had the power to throw the 2020 presidential election to the House of Representatives, saying it depended on whether Pence had 'courage and the spine.' Those comments are more direct than how Eastman has recently described his conversation with Pence, when he has said he told the vice president it was an 'open question' whether he could throw out seven states' Electoral College votes and that it'd be a 'foolish' option to pursue. Eastman made the comments, unearthed by CNN's KFile, on the radio show of former Trump White House senior adviser Stephen Bannon on January 2...."
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian writes a recap of what we know about Trump's attempted coup.
** Alexander Nazaryan of Yahoo! News: "... a new study published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that finds that natural immunity offers far weaker protection than does a vaccine. The new study finds that people who had natural immunity from having recently fought off COVID-19 and who were not vaccinated were 5.49 times more likely to experience another COVID-19 infection than were vaccinated people who had not previously been infected. 'The data demonstrate that vaccination can provide a higher, more robust, and more consistent level of immunity to protect people from hospitalization for COVID-19 than infection alone for at least 6 months,' a CDC press release said." MB: I for one am shocked, shocked to learn that Doctor-Senator Rand Paul is among those who got this ass-backwards.
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The New York Times is live-updating developments at the G-20 summit in Rome. The Washington Post's live updates are here.
Bad News for Tim Apple. Jim Tankersley & Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "President Biden and other world leaders endorsed a landmark global agreement on Saturday that seeks to block large corporations from shifting profits and jobs across borders to avoid taxes, a showcase win for a president who has found raising corporate tax rates an easier sell with other countries than with his own party in Congress. The announcement in the opening session of the Group of 20 summit marked the world's most aggressive attempt yet to stop opportunistic companies like Apple and Bristol Myers Squibb from sheltering profits in so-called tax havens, where tax rates are low and corporations often maintain little physical presence beyond an official headquarters. It is a deal years in the making, which was pushed over the line by the sustained efforts of Mr. Biden's Treasury Department, even as the president's plans to raise taxes in the United States for new social policy and climate change programs have fallen short of his promises. The revenue expected from the international pact is now critical to Mr. Biden's domestic agenda...."
Katie Rogers & Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "After a six-week diplomatic uproar over a scuttled submarine deal and accusations of American duplicity, President Biden made a one-on-one effort Friday to mend fences with President Emmanuel Macron of France by admitting that, yes, the matter could have been handled better.... By delivering an in-person mea culpa to the leader of one of America's oldest allies, Mr. Biden signaled that he was ready to move on from an embarrassing spat that grew from a secretive American agreement with Britain and Australia to supply Australia with nuclear-powered attack subs, effectively canceling out a lucrative and strategically important French contract.... But his trip began with a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican, a diplomatic meeting that the president, who was grinning broadly as he emerged from his presidential limousine, seemed to enjoy." ~~~
~~~ Maegan Vazquez of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Friday admitted that his administration was 'clumsy' in its handling of the deal that deprived France of billions in defense contracts. The comment came during of a closely watched meeting with his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, in Rome, meant to repair fractured ties after a rift over an agreement to provide Australia with submarines[.] 'I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal was not going through, honest to God,' Biden said on Friday, sitting alongside Macron in the French Embassy to the Holy See." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Pope Francis told him he should continue to receive Communion as the world's two most prominent Roman Catholics ran overtime in highly personal discussions on climate change, poverty and the coronavirus pandemic that also touched on the loss of president's adult son and jokes about aging well.... Video released by the Vatican showed several warm, relaxed moments between Francis and Biden as they repeatedly shook hands and smiled. Francis often sports a dour look, especially in official photos, but he seemed in good spirits Friday. The private meeting lasted about 75 minutes, according to the Vatican, more than double the normal length of an audience with the pontiff[.]" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Representative Adam Kinzinger, who emerged this year as one of the pre-eminent Republican critics of ... Donald J. Trump, announced Friday that he would not seek re-election in 2022. Mr. Kinzinger's electoral fate was largely sealed late Thursday when Illinois Democrats, in an 11th-hour vote shortly before midnight, adopted a new congressional map that eliminated the Republican-majority district Mr. Kinzinger represented for the last decade.... He announced his departure from Congress in a five-minute video in which he reiterated his opposition to Mr. Trump's influence on the Republican Party and reflected on his first congressional victory during the 2010 Tea Party wave." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "As Vice President Mike Pence hid from a marauding mob during the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol, an attorney for ... Donald Trump emailed a top Pence aide to say that Pence had caused the violence by refusing to block certification of Trump's election loss. The attorney, John C. Eastman, also continued to press for Pence to act even after Trump's supporters had trampled through the Capitol -- an attack the Pence aide, Greg Jacob, had described as a 'siege' in their email exchange. 'The "siege" is because YOU and your boss did not do what was necessary to allow this to be aired in a public way so that the American people can see for themselves what happened,' Eastman wrote to Jacob, referring to Trump's claims of voter fraud.... Jacob, Pence's chief counsel, included Eastman's emailed remarks in a draft opinion article about Trump's outside legal team that he wrote later in January but ultimately chose not to publish. The Washington Post obtained a copy of the draft. [The draft shows] that Eastman's efforts to persuade Pence to block Trump's defeat were more extensive than has been reported previously...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Eastman recently told the National Review, "... in an interview that ... having Pence reject electoral votes -- was not 'viable' and would have been 'crazy' to pursue.... '[A]nybody who thinks that that's a viable strategy is crazy,'" Eastman said. Days later, he was caught on tape boasting to a young reporter that there was "no question" the memo's legal reasoning was "solid." It's obvious these guys were serious about overturning the 2020 presidential election results, and Eastman, at least, was mad as hops at pence for refusing to play his part in the attempted coup. ~~~
~~~ Here's the text (via the WashPo) of the draft op-ed Greg Jacob wrote in January 2021. It begins: "In the days and hours leading up to the counting of the electoral votes in Congress, a cadre of outside lawyers to the President spun a web of lies and disinformation, to him and to the public, for the purpose of pressuring the Vice President to betray his oath to uphold our laws and the Constitution of the United States.... Now that the moment of immediate crisis has passed, the legal profession should dispassionately examine whether the attorneys involved should be disciplined for using their credentials to sell a stream of snake oil to the most powerful office in the world, wrapped in the guise of a lawyer's advice."
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Sixty-six former lawmakers, including two dozen Republicans, have signed on to a legal brief urging a federal judge to reject ... Donald Trump's effort to block Jan. 6 investigators from accessing his White House's records. The brief, which is slated to hit the docket in the D.C. federal District Court on Friday, contends that no possible argument about executive privilege could overcome Congress' need for documents to probe the violent attack on the Capitol -- one fueled by Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Shocking News! -- Trump Evades Securities Law. Matthew Goldstein, et al., of the New York Times: This month, Donald Trump "agreed to merge his social media venture with what's known as a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC. The result is that Mr. Trump -- largely shut out of the mainstream financial industry because of his history of bankruptcies and loan defaults -- secured nearly $300 million in funding for his new business. To get his deal done, Mr. Trump ventured into an unregulated and sometimes shadowy corner of Wall Street, working with an unlikely cast of characters: [two] former 'Apprentice' contestants, a small Chinese investment firm and a little-known Miami banker named Patrick Orlando. Mr. Orlando had been discussing a deal with Mr. Trump since at least March.... In doing so, Mr. Orlando's SPAC may have skirted securities laws and stock exchange rules, lawyers said.... SPACs aren't supposed to have a merger planned at the time of their I.P.O. Lawyers and industry officials said that talks between Mr. Orlando and Mr. Trump or their associates consequently could draw scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission. Another issue is that [Mr. Orlando's SPAC, called] Digital World [Acquisition]..., repeatedly stated [in its securities filings] that the company and its executives had not engaged in any 'substantive discussions, directly or indirectly,' with a target company -- even though Mr. Orlando had been in discussions with Mr. Trump."
Annals "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. David Cavucci of the Daily Dot: "[Thursday], Fox News host Tucker Carlson unveiled a dramatic trailer for his new special, one which will reveal the 'true story' behind the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. In it, he drops real truths like: Americans are being held in Guantanamo Bay for their participation in the riot (not true); that a new 'war on terror' has been launched against right-wingers (not true); and that it was a false flag attack (ehhh.... probably not true). The trailer was resoundingly panned. But there is one truth from the trailer that needs to get out there. Fox News is not involved in this documentary." Fox complained to the Daily Dot that its story did not make clear that the channel did not participate in Tucker's production or airing. It's a pay-per-view Fox Nation production. MB: A shame that the poor people can't afford to learn these truths. Although I suppose for TuKKKer fans, these truths are self-evident. Self-evident to me: the hypocrisy of Fox "News"' insistence upon distancing itself from a lie-laced TuKKKer production at the same time it allows TuKKKer to tell o rimply the same lies in its top prime-time timeslot.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Noah Weiland & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Friday authorized Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in children 5 to 11, a move eagerly anticipated by millions of families looking to protect some of the only remaining Americans left out of the vaccination campaign. About 28 million children in the group will be eligible to receive one-third of the adult dose, with two injections three weeks apart. If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off, as is expected, they could start getting shots as early as Wednesday." An ABC News report is here.
Jim Clyburn Is Sick & Tired of These Damned Scams. Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "A House panel is demanding documents from a pair of online businesses as part of an inquiry into whether they pushed what it calls ineffective and dangerous coronavirus treatments, according to letters made public Friday.According to a letter signed by Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, the telemedicine provider SpeakWithAnMD.com has collected millions of dollars in fees from prescribing such treatments as the animal parasite drug ivermectin and the malaria medication hydroxychloroquine for the coronavirus, even though neither is authorized for that use by the Food and Drug Administration. Clyburn said many of the consultations were arranged through referrals from America's Frontline Doctors (AFLD), a separate business that is also a subject of the congressional investigation."
Todd Gregory of the New York Times: "Ten Republican-led states filed a lawsuit on Friday in federal court in Missouri accusing the Biden administration of a broad range of overreaches in mandating that employees of federal contractors be vaccinated against the coronavirus by Dec. 8. The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, was led by Missouri's attorney general, Eric Schmitt, and the attorney general of Nebraska, Doug Peterson. The other eight states are Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota an Wyoming."
Maine. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday refused to block Maine's requirement that health care workers be vaccinated against the coronavirus notwithstanding their religious objections. As is the court's custom in rulings on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. But the three most conservative members of the court -- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -- issued a lengthy dissent, saying the majority had gone badly astray." CNN's report is here. MB: (I think) you can open the Court's decision, concurrence & dissent in your browser from here. ~~~
~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "... while this order, which is also accompanied by a one-paragraph concurring opinion by Justice Amy Coney Barrett and a longer dissent by Justice Neil Gorsuch, is quite brief, it is significant because it suggests that there may be some limit to the conservative majority's solicitude for religious conservatives."
New York. Abusive AND Ignorant. Aaron Katersky & Mark Osborne of ABC News: "Four New York City firefighters have been suspended after driving their truck to a state senator's office while on duty, asking for the politician's home address and telling him the city would have 'blood on its hands' over the city's vaccine mandate. The group, from Ladder 113 in Brooklyn, went to the office of state Sen. Zellnor Myrie in the company's fire district in uniform and asked to speak to him, although as a state official he had no involvement in the city mandate from Mayor Bill de Blasio." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Myles Miller of NBC 4 (New York) News: "Six FDNY members of Ladder 113 have been suspended for allegedly driving their [in-service ladder] truck to a state senator's New York City office and threatening his staff over the vaccine mandate for city workers.... The group of firefighters also allegedly told the staff that if a fire was reported at [State Sen. Zellnor] Myrie's home they would not respond."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. The Prospects for Free Speech under a President* DeSantis. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "Three University of Florida professors have been barred from assisting plaintiffs in a lawsuit to overturn the state's new law restricting voting rights, lawyers said in a federal court filing on Friday. The ban is an extraordinary limit on speech that raises questions of academic freedom and First Amendment rights. University officials told the three that because the school was a state institution, participating in a lawsuit against the state 'is adverse to U.F.'s interests' and could not be permitted. In their filing, the lawyers sought to question Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, on whether he was involved in the decision. Mr. DeSantis has resisted questioning, arguing that all of his communications about the law are protected from disclosure...." MB: Ron De Mini-Trump is smarter than Real Donald Trump. There's every reason to suspect he would be a worse president*.
New Mexico. Julia Jacobs & Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Lawyers for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on the set of the film where Alec Baldwin fatally shot a cinematographer last week as he rehearsed with a gun he was told had no live ammunition, issued a statement Friday defending her adherence to safety protocols and saying that she did not know how live rounds wound up on the set in New Mexico. 'Hannah has no idea where the live rounds came from,' Ms. Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers, Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence, said in the first public statement on her behalf. In their statement, they charged that the set of the film, 'Rust,' had been unsafe, and that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed, 24, had been hired to two positions on the film, 'which made it extremely difficult to focus on her job as an armorer.'" MB: "I was busy" doesn't sound like much of a defense.
New York. Surprise! Luis Ferré-Sadurní, et al., of the New York Times: "A criminal complaint charging [former Gov. Andrew] Cuomo with a misdemeanor sex crime was filed by one of [Albany County] Sheriff [Craig] Apple's investigators in Albany City Court on Thursday. The court typically takes several days to process such paperwork, Sheriff Apple said, and he planned to use that time to alert local prosecutors, and Mr. Cuomo's lawyers, about the complaint. What transpired instead caught the sheriff flat-footed, and plunged what was already an explosive investigation ... into unexpected chaos, raising questions about whether officials had mishandled the complaint and about the viability of a case that was already going to be difficult for prosecutors.... [Apple] acknowledged that his office had not coordinated with the county's district attorney before filing the criminal complaint.... It was still unclear on Friday whether the district attorney, David Soares, whose office said it had learned of the complaint from news reports on Thursday, was going to prosecute the charges against Mr. Cuomo. What did become clearer was the haphazard nature by which the misdemeanor charge was suddenly made public on Thursday, without the knowledge of the female aide, Brittany Commisso; Mr. Cuomo and his lawyer; and even the sheriff." ~~~
~~~ Bad Timing. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Letitia James, the New York attorney general who oversaw the inquiry into sexual harassment claims against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that ultimately led to his resignation, declared her candidacy for governor on Friday, setting up a history-making, high-profile matchup in the Democratic primary. She begins the campaign as Gov. Kathy Hochul's most formidable challenger, and her announcement triggers a start to what may be an extraordinarily competitive primary -- a contest set to be shaped by issues of ideology, race and region in a state still battling its way out of the pandemic."
Oklahoma. Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "The importance of media witnesses was underscored Thursday during the Oklahoma execution of John Marion Grant, a 60-year-old man convicted of the 1998 killing of a prison cafeteria worker. The Associated Press's Sean Murphy and four other media witnesses recounted what they saw -- how Grant convulsed and vomited during the execution -- during a news conference for other journalists covering the death. It was a striking detail given the state's recent history of botched executions and use of the wrong drugs -- and it was a detail conspicuously missing from the state's first official summary, which said that Grant's execution 'was carried out in accordance with Oklahoma Department of Corrections' protocols and without complication.' The department's chief, Scott Crow, attempted to reconcile that statement with Murphy's startling account during a news conference Friday afternoon, saying that 'there were no instances of unusual behavior' other than 'regurgitation,' which is 'not uncommon when someone is undergoing the process of sedation.'"
Virginia Gubernatorial Race. Cameron Joseph of Vice: "Five people dressed like the white supremacists who caused the violent 'Unite the Right' riots in Charlottesville four years ago showed up outside of Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Glenn Youngkin's event in the town on Friday. But instead of actual 'Unite the Right' supporters, it turns out that it was a half-baked stunt from the Lincoln Project, a group of Republicans who oppose President Trump and Youngkin." ~~~
~~~ Philip Klein of the (right-wing) National Review: "... Terry McAuliffe ... should ... be held responsible by the standards set by his own campaign earlier in the day. After the initial photos of the fake tiki torch brigade emerged, the McAuliffe campaign pounced. One McAuliffe spokesperson, Christina Freundlich, referenced the Charlottesville Unite the Right rally, and said, 'this is who Glenn Youngkin's supporters are.'... Another McAuliffe spokesperson, Jen Goodman, claimed the image of the fake Youngkin supporters was 'disgusting and disqualifying.'... This is who Terry McAuliffe's supporters are. It is disgusting and should be disqualifying." MB: How a Democratic candidate is supposed to control Republican supporters is beyond me.
News Ledes
Look Up! Look Up! The Aurora Borealis, Coming to the Sly Near You. Washington Post: "Bright auroras may illuminate the dark skies over the northern United States this Halloween weekend.... Much of New England, the Upper Midwest and the Northern Tier may see the dancing northern lights.... On Thursday, the sun launched a major 'X-class' solar flare, sparking a high-frequency radio blackout across parts of South America. That same pulse of energy is trailed by a coronal mass ejection (CME), or a cluster of solar plasma and material surfing an interstellar shock wave. The CME, the strongest of this solar cycle so far, could slam Earth and whip up a stunning display of the northern lights. A CME from a similar position spawned beautiful auroras on Oct. 12."
Washington Post: "A run-of-the-mill fall storm system will bring some not-so-routine flooding to lengthy stretches of the Mid-Atlantic on Friday into the weekend, with moderate to major coastal flooding forcing some streets to close and businesses to shutter while threatening homes and property. The anticipated flooding could be the worst since 2003's Hurricane Isabel walloped the Mid-Atlantic in some spots, thanks to the combination of onshore flow, astronomically high 'king tides' and the gradually accrued effects of rising seas spurred by human-induced climate change"
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Reader Comments (4)
https://abcnews.go.com/US/york-firefighters-suspended-threatening-state-senators-staff-vaccine/story?id=80865263
More culling of privileged clowns on the public payroll?
IMO suspension (preferably without pay) is not enough, but it's a start.
A President DeSantis would definitely be worse than Trump. Florida has embraced a virulent brand of Trumpism and the states mixture of the poorly educated and "wrinkle cities" are cheering him on.
It's the weekend so we don't have to think, right?
So I want to discuss the tragedy in New Mexico. I am sorry for the injury and loss of life, and the terrible situation for Alec Baldwin, but I "think" that the location and the various people involved are totally consistent with an English Country Manor Mystery: an isolated location, resentful and underpaid underlings, the location of the murder weapon known to all, doubt about how the weapon was handled and a mystery as to how the weapon was made deadly. Who put the bullets there?
On to another "thought:" I read the review of Ross Douthat's memoir of his difficult experience with Lyme, and support his lack of trust of any medical establishment, and I support his need to "see for himself" after or before seeing anyone in the medical establishment, especially in relation to any illness. I had a very serious case of acute Lyme in 2006, the time before Lyme was accepted as anything serious. I was told that I had a virus, and to take Tylenol (and to please go away - they didn't say that part out loud). I had the target lesion, I had erythema migrans from head to foot and I had an ague of Shakespearean proportions. However, in 2006, Yale was leading the academic battle to poopoo Lyme as anything at all. I searched several pages to the back of the googles before I got to the 1996 article on the clinical course and progression of Lyme, which included the target lesions and the erythema migrans and the ague and went back to the doctor and then had to fight with him, then his supervisors, then the chief of ID to get the cheap antibiotic which eliminated all of my acute Lyme symptoms.
So, yes, don't just go along with your MD; make them earn their pay, challenge their ignorance or prejudice, bring written evidence, make them help you, and above all, you take care of you. Stay with science, of course, but do not let them use ageism, other -isms, or their own misinformation with you.
And another thing: why are doctors in the US going for a not benign antidepressant as an anticovid med, when vitamin D3, a vitamin, offers similar aid in the treatment of covid? Because one is a "medication" and the other is a mere "vitamin." Doctors can be blind and stupid too.
A clear element of the kind of tortured "reasoning" displayed by the likes of Eastman (who should be considered as representative of many privileged, well-schooled Pretender sycophants) is his apparent inability to see that in the kind of autocracy he did his best to create he would be one of the first to be hauled away in chains when his attempted coup failed.
No sign from him, though, of the gratitude he ought to feel that he does not live in the kind of nation he tried to create.