The Commentariat -- August 2, 2021
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "Former presiden Barack Obama will join the sexagenarian club with an outdoor birthday bash on Martha's Vineyard this weekend as the delta variant spreads among the nation's unvaccinated, leading to the renewal of coronavirus safety protocols. The Obamas are asking that guests be vaccinated and get coronavirus tests, news reports say. The birthday party comes shortly after Massachusetts tweaked its face-covering guidelines for indoor settings per federal recommendations and after a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study showed that three-quarters of people infected during a coronavirus outbreak in Provincetown, Mass., charged by the delta variant were fully vaccinated." An Independent story, republished in Yahoo! News, is here. ~~~
~~~ Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden will not be attending former President Obama's 60th birthday party on Martha's Vineyard, a White House official confirmed."
Elinor Aspegren & Steven Vargas of USA Today: "Florida on Sunday \broke its record for coronavirus hospitalizations a day after the state recorded the most daily COVID-19 cases since the start of the pandemic in early 2020. More than 10,200 people in Florida are hospitalized with confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data reported to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. The previous record of 10,170 hospitalizations was from July 23, 2020, more than a half-year before vaccinations started becoming widespread, according to the Florida Hospital Association. Florida leads the nation in per capita hospitalizations for COVID-19." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This sort of makes sense. At a time of year when people in more northerly climes are going outside for their recreational activities, Floridians tend to stay inside more during the hottest, most humid months of the year.
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "When legal gurus and former prosecutors discuss a potential criminal investigation and indictment of ... Donald Trump concerning efforts to stage an insurrection, the biggest hurdle they cite is 'intent.'... Former House Intelligence Committee counsel Dan Goldman tells me, 'Trump's statements to [then-acting AG Jeffrey] Rosen, [his deputy Richard] Donoghue -- and likely others -- demonstrate that he knew he did not have true concerns about the legitimacy of the election but he simply wanted to corruptly overturn it without any factual basis.' Goldman explains, 'By asking DOJ to lie so he and the Republican congressmen can use the lie to reverse the outcome of the election, Trump plainly intended to corruptly overturn the election....'... Through his admission in his conversation with the Justice Department attorneys 'that he's very familiar with what is on the Internet, Trump helps prosecutors show that he knew of [the insurrections'] plans when he incited the crowd to 'fight' and go to the Capitol on January 6....'... As constitutional scholar Laurence H. Tribe tells me, 'Everything he said and did after that Dec. 27 conversation [with Rosen], including strong-arming [Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger and pressuring [Vice President Mike] Pence, appears in a different and more damning light.'"
Rick Hasen says that Jane Mayer's New Yorker article on "The Big Money Behind the Big Lie" is a must-read. Marie: I can't access it, but Hasen has the link.
Nobody's ever seen a number like this! -- Donald Trump, on the GDP, at a rally in October 2020 ~~~
~~~ John Wright of the Raw Story: "Across Trump's four years in office, the nation recorded its lowest overall rate of GDP growth -- at 1.6 percent -- since President Herbert Hoover's administration during the Great Depression, according to a new report from Bloomberg.... Noting that the comparison may seem unfair due to the COVID-19 pandemic, [Bloomberg writer Justin] Fox tried adjusting the GDP numbers backward and forward by one quarter. He also averaged them with another key indicator -- gross domestic income -- and corrected them for population growth, but things didn't get much better for Trump, who remained at or near the bottom of the pack."
Haiti. Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "A judge and two court clerks who collected evidence for the investigation into the killing of President Jovenel Moïse said in interviews and in formal complaints to the prosecutors' office that unknown callers and visitors had pressured them to modify witnesses' sworn statements. If they failed to comply, they were told, they could 'expect a bullet in your head.' Their requests for help from the authorities were ignored, said the clerks, Marcelin Valentin and Waky Philostène; and the justice of the peace, Carl Henry Destin, leaving their lives at risk. The threats also further jeopardized an investigation that experts claim had been marred from the start by irregularities -- and which many Haitians fear will not reveal the truth about the killing, despite vows by the country's current leaders to enact swift justice."
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Matthew Lee of the AP: "The Biden administration on Monday expanded its efforts to evacuate at-risk Afghan citizens from Afghanistan as Taliban violence increases ahead there of the U.S. military pullout at the end of the month. The State Department said it is widening the scope of Afghans eligible for refugee status in United States to include current and former employees of U.S.-based news organizations, U.S.-based aid and development agencies and other relief groups that receive U.S. funding. Current and former employees of the U.S. government and the NATO military operation who don't meet the criteria for a dedicated program for such workers are also covered. The State Department said the move will mean that 'many thousands' of Afghans and their immediate families will now have the opportunity to be permanently resettled in the U.S. as refugees."
Myah Ward of Politico (July 30): "The Biden administration on Friday resumed fast-track deportation flights to Central America following another spike in families crossing the border into the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. The administration announced plans to resume the expedited removals on Monday, responding to building pressure on the White House to increase enforcement at the Southern border as the Covid Delta variant spreads in Texas and across the U.S. 'Families apprehended by Customs and Border Protection were removed via U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Air Operations to their home countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras,' a statement from the Department of Homeland Security said. 'The expedited removal process is a lawful means to securely manage our border, and it is a step toward our broader aim to realize safe and orderly immigration processing.'"
Carol Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's battle against climate science -- his appointees undermined federal studies, fired scientists and drove many experts to quit or retire continues to reverberate six months into the Biden administration. From the Agriculture Department to the Pentagon to the National Park Service, hundreds of jobs in climate and environmental science across the federal government remain vacant. Scientists and climate policy experts who quit have not returned. Recruitment is suffering, according to federal employees, as government science jobs are no longer viewed as insulated from politics. And money from Congress to replenish the ranks could be years away. The result is that President Biden's ambitious plans to confront climate change are hampered by a brain drain."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats and Republicans unveiled on Sunday a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country's roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections, setting in motion a long-awaited debate in the chamber to enact one of President Biden's economic policy priorities. The package arrives after weeks of haggling among a bipartisan bloc of lawmakers, who muscled through late-night fights and near-collapses to transform their initial blueprint into a roughly 2,700-page piece of legislation. The fate of their labors now rests in the Senate, where proponents of infrastructure reform have little margin for error as they race to adopt the sort of bill that has eluded them for years. Virtually no part of the U.S. economy is untouched by the plan chiefly put together by Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.). Roughly half of its $1 trillion overall price tag constitutes new federal spending, with the rest coming from existing, planned investments in the country's roads, highways and bridges, according to details released in recent days by lawmakers and the White House, which supports the proposal." The AP's report is here.
Julia Cherner & Davone Morales of ABC News: "Rep. Adam Kinzinger [R] said Sunday he supports issuing subpoenas to anyone who has information about the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and what action ... Donald Trump took -- even members of his own party, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. 'I would support subpoenas to anybody that can shed light on that, if that's the leader that's the leader,' Kinzinger told ABC 'This Week' co-anchor Jonathan Karl. 'Anybody with parts of that information, with inside knowledge, can probably expect to be talking to the committee.' 'I would expect to see a significant number of subpoenas for a lot of people, Kinzinger added."
Moron Thinks Battering Elderly Grandma with Oversized Wooden Hammer Is Funny. Dominick Mastrangelo of the Hill: :House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) joked over the weekend that it would be hard for him not to hit Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calf.) with a gavel if the GOP wins control of the lower chamber in next year's midterm elections. At a dinner on Saturday evening, members of Tennessee's Republican congressional delegation gave McCarthy an oversized gavel with the words 'Fire Pelosi' on it." ~~~
~~~ Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Several Democrats are calling on House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to apologize or resign after he said it would 'be hard not to hit' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) with the gavel if he becomes speaker.... Democrats immediately denounced McCarthy's remarks as misogynistic,' 'disgraceful' and 'no laughing matter,' especially given that Pelosi was a target of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Several Democrats demanded that McCarthy apologize, while others -- including Reps. Eric Swalwell and Ted Lieu of California -- said McCarthy should resign, linking such rhetoric to the political violence that was on display Jan. 6." ~~~
~~~ McCarthy Promotes Violence Against Women. Dean Obeidallah in a CNN opinion piece: "Nothing like joking about wanting to hit a woman to get some GOP donors laughing. After all, this is the same GOP that mostly still loves Trump -- a man who himself has been accused of abuse of women (he calls his accusers 'liars') and who has defended other men accused of abusive behavior. McCarthy joking about hitting a woman is even more despicable given that he did not vote in March with his 29 fellow House Republicans to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act designed to protect women from domestic violence. McCarthy's message seems to be that it's OK to vote against laws to protect women from violence and then joke about hitting them.... In Tennessee, where McCarthy spoke Saturday night, shockingly nearly 40% of women 'experience intimate partner physical violence, intimate partner rape and/or intimate partner stalking in their lifetimes.'"
Stephen Collinson of CNN: Donald Trump's "huge war chest, nearly all amassed within six months of leaving office, was built on his ravenous calls for cash from supporters bought into his delusional lie that the 2020 election was stolen. It is the latest sign, along with trips to win his favor by GOP candidates and his party's incessant efforts to wipe the history of his crimes against the Constitution, that Trump's threat to basic political freedoms is far from over.... He has made acceptance of his massive election confidence trick the entry point for many Republican candidates seeking his valuable endorsement in the midterm elections next year. The House Republican Party has become a vassal for his extremism, including with its absurd, whitewashing claim that Speaker Nancy Pelosi, rather than Trump, was responsible for the worst attack on the US Capitol in 200 years.... If anything, the peril [Trump] poses to democracy has grown in the last six months, as much of the Republican Party itself has turned against cherished bedrock political values."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.
Oklahoma. Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "On Friday, John Bennett, the chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party, posted on the group's Facebook page and made a striking comparison: Private companies requiring employees to get the vaccine, he said, are just as bad as the Nazis forcing Jews to sew the yellow Star of David onto their clothes. 'Those who don't KNOW history, are DOOMED to repeat it,' read the caption, below an image of the Star of David patch with 'Unvaccinated' written across the top.... The post triggered swift condemnations from top state Republicans and Jewish organizations in Oklahoma. But on Sunday, Bennett doubled down on his comments in a nearly seven-minute video he shared to the party's Facebook page.... [Bennett, formerly a state legislator,] has a history of making hateful comments, specifically about Muslims, according to the Oklahoman."
Tennessee. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A Tennessee legislator who went from unmasked gatherings with fellow legislators to being placed on ventilator days later has emerged with a message for constituents after a harrowing eight-month experience with long-haul covid-19: Take the coronavirus seriously....State Rep. David Byrd (R)..., 63, described an ordeal that included 55 days on a ventilator in which covid-19 ravaged his memory, his muscles and his organs -- it led to him having a liver transplant in June; his condition was so grave that his family at least once began planning for his funeral. Stressing that covid-19 is real and 'very dangerous,' Byrd encouraged people to get vaccinated.... Before Byrd became ill around Thanksgiving, his attitude about the novel coronavirus, which can cause the disease covid-19, included a June 2020 vote for a resolution that accused the 'mainstream media' of sensationalizing pandemic coverage." This story is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Once again, a Republican has to be directly affected by a well-publicized condition before he notices it's real. Had Bryd had a mild case, he would be pooh-poohing the virus. He's just another Anecdotal Man, a lunkhead who can't see beyond the nose on his face.
Australia. Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "Rupert Murdoch's Sky News Australia has been banned from posting new videos and live-streaming on YouTube for a week after violating the platform's policies by sharing clips that allegedly spread misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. The ban comes amid growing concern among some Australian political and media commentators about the way in which the once-niche pay TV station, which some have called the 'Fox News of Australia,' has expanded its reach on social media by adopting methods that have helped make the Murdoch-controlled Fox News successful in the United States. These include featuring some right-wing personalities that discourage viewers from taking the coronavirus threat seriously."
Canada. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Before two passengers flew from the United States to Toronto last month, they submitted required copies of their vaccination cards and negative coronavirus test results to a portal reviewed by Canadian authorities. But it wasn't until they arrived in Canada the week of July 18 that officials discovered the documents the pair presented were fraudulent.... Now, each passenger must pay fines totaling nearly $16,000 (about $20,000 Canadian) for submitting 'false documentation' and failing to comply with quarantine and testing requirements.... Both travelers were Canadian citizens, the country's health agency told Newsweek in an email."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Carol Pogash of the New York Times (July 29): "A California court this week ruled that Works Progress Administration frescoes depicting the life of George Washington cannot be removed from a local high school without an environmental review, thwarting the San Francisco Board of Education's plans to cover up the hotly debated artwork. Painted in the 1930s by Victor Arnautoff, a onetime assistant to Diego Rivera, the 'Life of Washington' murals dominate the entryway to the school and have been the subject of debate for years. Critics, including parents and students, have said that high school students should not be forced to see the racism in the murals' portrayal of enslaved African Americans and Native Americans. They wanted the frescoes painted over. Mural supporters, who included art historians, said that destroying them would be equivalent to book burning." ~~~
~~~ Marie: To me, there's an easy solution. Since the work is a fresco, it can't be removed easily from the school & put someplace else. But art is art, and it's a reflection of cultural history, whether good, bad or indifferent. So if this work of art is sufficiently offensive to those who have no choice but to view it regularly, cover it up and allow viewings once or several times a year during non-school hours. Is that so difficult? BTW, this weekend, the WashPo ran a story on the enduring popularity of Bob Ross, the PBS "artist" who died in 1995. I find his "teaching" offensive because it's such awful stuff and completely misleads viewers about what art is and about how to paint landscapes. My local station still carries his shows. If PBS, to whom I very occasionally make generous contributons, ever asks me about Bob -- and the network has not -- I'll tell them what I think. In the meantime, the solution to my "problem" is to not watch the shows.
Way Beyond
Germany. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "A 100-year-old man who allegedly served as a guard at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II will stand trial in October for alleged complicity in the murder of over 3,500 people during the conflict, German media reported Sunday. German prosecutors in February charged the man. who hasn't been identified by authorities due to the country's privacy laws, for being an accessory to murder. He is accused of working at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located roughly 20 miles north of Berlin, from 1942 to 1945, according to the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper. (The camp held 11,000 Jewish prisoners in 1945.)"
Japan. The New York Times' live Olympics games updates Sunday are here. ~~~
~~~ Guardian & Agencies: "The Belarusian sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has called on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to intercede after claiming her criticisms of the national team's coaches have led to her being dropped from the team and taken, against her wishes, to Tokyo airport. Tsimanouskaya, who was due to compete in the women's 200m on Monday, told Reuters she did not plan to return to her country, adding that she had sought the protection of Japanese police at Haneda airport on Sunday so that she would not have to board the flight. 'I will not return to Belarus,' the 24-year-old athlete told Reuters in a message over Telegram.... She also asked the IOC to step in, saying she was in danger of being bundled out of Japan." ~~~
~~~ Update. Graham Dunbar of the AP: "A Belarusian Olympic sprinter plans to seek asylum in Poland after alleging that officials tried to force her home, where she feared for her safety, an activist group said Monday. Athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is applying for a visa at the Polish embassy in Tokyo, according to Vadim Krivosheyev, of the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation. He told The Associated Press that the group has bought her a plane ticket to Warsaw for Aug. 4.... Many critics of Belarus' government have fled to Poland. Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Przydacz said on Twitter that Tsimanouskaya has been offered a 'humanitarian visa and is free to pursue her sporting career in Poland if she so chooses.'"
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Meet Darren Walker, a gay black man who grew up poor in a single parent home, who never knew his father and only saw him through a screen door once ( and when he tells us this, he's visibly affected) becomes President of the Ford Foundation. Walker was featured on 60 minutes last night. I loved this story and was gratified to learn how he doles out the money.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/darren-walker-ford-foundation-60-minutes-2021-04-04/
The never ending sagas of deranged human beings is as disheartening as it is infuriating. We are awash in cognitive dissonance run amuck! There is a sickness in this country and it ain't the virus. I think the analogy of cockroaches being hidden until light reveals them is accurate: We are finally shining that light on what has always been there and wham!, it's revelatory. The era of social media has also been a large factor in that light––and not for the better in many cases.
Good things ARE happening –-enough to change the trajectory of all those nasty critters who continue to invade?
Marie's diatribe against Bob Ross made me laugh; several summers ago I was "hired" to go up to a friend's house to sing and read to her birds while her family was away. (They loved that!) I was enjoying that when I switched on the small teevee in the room to episodes of Bob Ross, whom I somehow had never watched, because she had told me the birds, all various cockatoos, LOVED Bob Ross! I watched several episodes and was somewhat awed to see how his calm voice and techniques could result in "art!" It was sort of "paint-by-numbers" art, but I could see how his brush techniques and color sense could assure a nonartist (although at one time I was an avowed art major--) like me that I was fully capable of expressing myself in some way that might be satisfying. End of the story: I have not been there in several summers, and I never took up painting, so I can't say that I have been a Bob Ross convert, but I can see how he built his empire and I have noticed that there are merch items like puzzles in stores now, honoring his "legacy," I guess. For those of us who long to be REAL artists, maybe it is enough to be able to paint recognizable mountain ranges from memory...
@Jeanne: And your story made me really laugh, too. Now that you mention it, Bob's voice did sound like what a person who thought he was being empathetic might sound like if he were trying to talk a desperate person off a ledge. On the other hand, if I were the desperate person and Bob Ross came along, I'd jump.
What incenses me is that Bob did lull the unschooled into thinking those god-awful smears masquerading as snow-capped mountain peaks & conifers were representational art. I actually think paint-by-numbers is much closer to art than Bob's crap, although the paint-by-numbers artist is the person who comes up with the blueprint, not the person who painstakingly paints the right colors into the places the artist has directed him.
Marie: ...and we don't know, having not seen a tell-all story or read one, whether Bob was on tranquilizers, or was getting back at his art teachers for being unable to impart what makes "real art" and what doesn't... I will try to remember that droning voice next time I am on a ledge! My daughter, who IS much more artistically oriented, says she liked Bob for the fact that he "taught" her to see that trees could be made by daubing away, so they looked distant and blobby. It would be interesting to know how many real, successful artists began by "Blobbing with Bob..." At any rate, cockatoos love him! They aren't big with donations, though...
The Party of Cowards and Thugs
Every couple of days it seems—indeed, sometimes several times in a single day—stories emerge that trace the nasty contours of contemptible depravity practiced and approved by confederates. It could be their affinity for treason, for outlandish conspiracies, for eye watering racism, sexism, or just plain garden variety scumbaggery. But every now and again some bit of truly appalling business blackens even further the daily blotter of right-wing turpitude.
Such is the revelation that the so-called leader of House Republicans, and well known spineless and obsequious liar, Kevin McCarthy, thinks it’s funny to talk about hitting a woman in the head with a hammer. Almost worse, other R’s think this is funny too.
Political differences are one thing. But making a joke about violently attacking someone whose only apparent sin is that they won’t go along with your lies and accept your treasonous behavior as perfectly normal is beyond the pale. Speaking for (some) men, who all have mothers, sisters, wives, girlfriends, female co-workers and acquaintances, there are some acts visited thereupon that are, in any possible universe, unacceptable. Physical violence is a big one.
Unfortunately, Republicans never got the memo. Disagreeing with a woman does not give you the right to beat, abuse, slap, strike, or hit them with hammers or mallets. Or any other fucking thing. Or joke about such acts. Again, unfortunately, many other men never got this memo either, else there would be no need for a law addressing violence toward women (a law many Republicans see as stupid, probably infringing upon the rights of wife beaters).
But here’s the point. The vast majority of men, all decent men, if asked whether they thought it was okay to joke about striking a woman with a blunt object, would never say “Oh boy, not only is it okay, it’s pretty funny!”
Republicans, however, including, especially, party leaders, think this is a roar. “Hit Nancy Pelosi in the head with a hammer???Hahaha!! What fun!”
Despicable is too nice a word.
Not only traitors and liars, but cowards and thugs.
Here's the link to the Jane Mayer piece.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/08/09/the-big-money-behind-the-big-lie
Just heard that Linsey Graham tested positive for Covid even though he was vaccinated.
And AK: Your comments above––four stars, my friend, four fucking stars!!!!