The Commentariat -- June 23, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Tyler Pager & Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "Vice President Harris will travel to the U.S.-Mexico border on Friday, amid mounting criticism that neither she nor President Biden has traveled to the place where the country's immigration problems are most acute. Harris will travel with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to El Paso.... Harris's trip will come just two days before ... Donald Trump will join Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) at the border." Politico's story is here.
F-Bombs for Sale in the "Marketplace of Ideas." Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that a Pennsylvania school district had violated the First Amendment by punishing a student for a vulgar social-media message sent away from school grounds. Justice Stephen G. Breyer, writing for an eight-member majority, said part of what schools must teach students is the value of free speech. 'America's public schools are the nurseries of democracy,' he wrote. 'Our representative democracy only works if we protect the "marketplace of ideas."'... The case concerned Brandi Levy, a Pennsylvania high school student who had expressed her dismay over not making the varsity cheerleading squad by sending a colorful Snapchat message to about 250 people.... It included an image of Ms. Levy and a friend with their middle fingers raised, along with a string of words expressing the same sentiment. Using a swear word four times, Ms. Levy objected to 'school,' 'softball,' 'cheer' and 'everything.'" Justice Clarence Thomas dissented. Vox's report, by Ian Millhiser, is here. MB: Wonder if Ms. Levy with write "Fuck school" again, because that's pretty much what the Supremes said. ~~~
~~~ Breyer's opinion, via the Court, is here.
Confederate Supremes Rule Against a Union. Again. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Courtruled on Wednesday that a California regulation allowing union organizers to recruit agricultural workers at their workplaces violated the constitutional rights of their employers. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal members in dissent. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said that 'the access regulation grants labor organizations a right to invade the growers' property.' That meant, he wrote, that it was a taking of private property without just compensation." Roberts' opinion, via the Court, is here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.
Ariana Cha, et al., of the Washington Post: "The rapid spread of the delta variant of the coronavirus is poised to divide the United States again, with highly vaccinated areas continuing toward post-pandemic freedom and poorly vaccinated regions threatened by greater caseloads and hospitalizations, health officials warned this week. The highly transmissible strain is taxing hospitals in a rural, lightly vaccinated part of Missouri and caseloads and hospitalizations are on the rise in states such as Arkansas, Nevada and Utah, where fewer than 50 percent of the eligible population has received at least one dose of vaccine, according to data compiled by The Washington Post. One influential model, produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, predicts a modest overall surge in cases, hospitalizations and deaths this fall."
Florida. DeSantis Goes Full Fascist. Ana Cebalos of the Tampa Bay Times: “In his continued push against the 'indoctrination' of students, Gov. Ron DeSantis [Rrrr] on Tuesday signed legislation that will require public universities and colleges to survey students, faculty and staff about their beliefs and viewpoints to support 'intellectual diversity.' The survey will discern 'the extent to which competing ideas and perspectives are presented' in public universities and colleges, and seeks to find whether students, faculty and staff 'feel free to express beliefs and viewpoints on campus and in the classroom,' according to the bill. The measure, which goes into effect July 1, does not specify what will be done with the survey results. But DeSantis and Sen. Ray Rodrigues, the sponsor of the bill, suggested on Tuesday that budget cuts could be looming if universities and colleges are found to be 'indoctrinating' students.... DeSantis ... said the intent of the measure is to prevent public universities and colleges from becoming 'hotbeds for stale ideology.'" Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, I'm not the only person who's appalled. Travis Gettys of the Raw Story rounds up some responses to Ron's New Rule, including one that describes DeSantis as going "full fascist." Being a confederate means going apoplectic when someone uses his First Amendment freedoms to criticize you, using the levers of government to shut down those First Amendment freedoms AND invoking your own First Amendment rights when you slander or libel others.
Michigan. GOP State Senator Calls Foul on Trump & Team. Jonathan Oosting of Bridge Michigan: "A months-long Republican investigation into Michigan's 2020 election uncovered no evidence of widespread fraud and concluded Wednesday with a recommendation the attorney general investigate those who made false claims for 'personal gain.' The 35-page report prepared by Sen. Ed McBroom, R-Vulcan, dives deep to debunk conspiracy theories perpetuated by former President Donald Trump and some of his supporters in the wake of the Michigan election, which Democratic President Joe Biden won by 154,188 votes.... The report, which was released Wednesday, concludes there is no proof of dead voters or 'fractional voting,' no evidence of a fraudulent 'ballot dump' in Detroit and no proof any Michigan precincts had more than 100 percent voter turnout." The Detroit Free Press story is here.
New York. Luis Ferré-Sadurní of the New York Times: "A progressive challenger running her first campaign beat Buffalo's four-term Democratic mayor in a primary upset on Tuesday that could upend the political landscape in New York's second-biggest city and signal the strength of the party's left wing. The challenger, India B. Walton, is a nurse and community activist who ran with the support of the Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party. When The Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning, Ms. Walton was leading Byron Brown, a longtime member of the Democratic establishment, by 7 percentage points, or about 1,500 votes, with all of the in-person ballots counted. Should Ms. Walton, 38, triumph in the general election November -- a likely result in heavily Democratic Buffalo -- she would be the first socialist mayor of a major American city since 1960, when Frank P. Zeidler stepped down as Milwaukee's mayor. She would also be the first female mayor in Buffalo's history." A CBS News story is here.
All His Children: Synopsis of Today's Trumpy Soaper. STUF, Pops! Kate Bennett & Gabby Orr of CNN: "With each passing day away from Washington..., Donald Trump's grievances continue unabated. And those complaints appear to be driving away two of the people who were closest to him during his White House tenure: his daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law, Jared Kushner.... The gap between Trump and his daughter and son-in-law grows wider by the week, according to 12 [sources].... The former President has also started to question the role that Kushner -- one of the few people who were able to stay close to Trump throughout his two presidential campaigns and White House tenure -- has played in his presidential legacy. Ivanka Trump has also struggled to undo the entanglements caused by the years at her father's side in the White House, as she seeks a less complicated life for her family, according to two acquaintances. They described her as having to walk a fine line between embracing her father and distancing herself from his election lies."
Mike Allen of Axios: "'Nightmare Scenario,' a book out next week on President Trump's handling of COVID, reports that he said he hoped it would take out his former national security adviser, John Bolton, who had just written an explosive tell-all about his time in the White House."
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Hey, Akhilleus, here's Senator Testudines popping his head up to speak on the curia floor: "The best form of government is a Republic," says he, "if I can keep it the way I want it."
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans banded together Tuesday to block a sweeping Democratic bill that would revamp the architecture of American democracy, dealing a grave blow to efforts to federally override dozens of GOP-passed state voting laws. The test vote, which would have cleared the way to start debate on voting legislation, failed 50-50 on straight party lines -- 10 votes short of the supermajority needed to advance legislation in the Senate.... While many Democrats and liberal activists insist the fight is not over -- pledging to launch a final, furious push over the coming weeks to change the Senate's rules to pass the bill -- they face long odds as key lawmakers have insisted they are not willing to eliminate the chamber's supermajority rule to override Republican opposition." Politico's story is here.
Lisa Rein & Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "President Biden's choice to be the federal government's chief personnel officer secured Senate confirmation by a single vote Tuesday after Republicans tried to sink her nomination for her past embrace of the theory of systemic racism known as critical race theory. After the evenly divided chamber tied along party lines, Vice President Harris cast a tiebreaking vote to confirm Kiran Ahuja, the first of Biden's nominees for which the vice president had to break an impasse. The relatively obscure Office of Personnel Management, which Ahuja will now lead, is likely to remain at the center of a political war over Biden's whole-of-government approach to promoting racial equity. Ahuja's nomination would normally have received a quick confirmation vote common for candidates for relatively low-profile posts. But Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) objected to an up-or-down vote this past spring, forcing Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) to go through procedural hurdles in the Senate." ~~~
~~~ And a Little Nitwit Shall Lead Them. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "It was a good day for the insurrectionists. Senate Republicans voted in lockstep on Tuesday to block the landmark voting rights bill, in effect embracing the disenfranchisement of non-White voters under the 'big lie' justification that widespread voter fraud denied Donald Trump reelection. Even as they did so, Senate Republicans also embraced the latest Fox-News-generated conspiracy theory: that a shadowy network of America haters -- suspiciously similar to antifa, BLM and the deep state -- had taken over the Biden administration with a nefarious ideology known as critical race theory, or 'critical theory.'" Milbank goes on to cite Sen. Josh Hawley's (RWinger-Mo.) remarkable claims about how President Biden & Democrats intend to undermine the Greatest Country on Earth. "Hawley offered zero evidence for his claims, beyond Biden reinstating racial sensitivity training and his nomination of an Indian American woman, Kiran Ahuja, to run the Office of Personnel Management.... But Republicans rallied behind Hawley's demagoguery anyway."
Evan Perez & Sharif Paget of CNN: "The United States government has seized dozens of US website domains connected to Iran, linked to what the US says are disinformation efforts, a US national security official told CNN. Some users are not able to access sites like Presstv.com, which is an Iranian state run English language news outlet.... Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency on Tuesday reported the US has blocked the websites of several news agencies including Iranian state-run Press TV."
Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Four Saudis who participated in the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi received paramilitary training in the United States the previous year under a contract approved by the State Department, according to documents and people familiar with the arrangement. The instruction occurred as the secret unit responsible for Mr. Khashoggi's killing was beginning an extensive campaign of kidnapping, detention and torture of Saudi citizens ordered by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler.... The training was provided by the Arkansas-based security company Tier 1 Group, which is owned by the private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management.... There is no evidence that the American officials who approved the training or Tier 1 Group executives knew that the Saudis were involved in the crackdown inside Saudi Arabia. But the [facts show] ... how intensely intertwined the United States has become with an autocratic nation even as its agents carried out horrific human rights abuses.... The State Department initially granted a license for the paramilitary training of the Saudi Royal Guard to Tier 1 Group starting in 2014, during the Obama administration. The training continued during at least the first year of ... Donald J. Trump's term."
Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has blocked a federal judge's ruling overturning California’s longtime ban on assault weapons, in which he likened an AR-15 to a Swiss Army knife. On Monday, in a one-page order, a three-judge panel issued a stay of the June 4 order from U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez of the Southern District of California, in which the judge ruled that sections of the state ban in place since 1989 regarding military-style rifles are unconstitutional." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The White House publicly acknowledged on Tuesday that President Biden did not expect to meet his goal of having 70 percent of adults at least partly vaccinated by July 4 and instead would reach that milestone only with people older than 26.... It If the rate of adult vaccinations continues on the current seven-day average, the country will come in just shy of his target, with about 67 percent of adults having at least one shot by July 4, according to a New York Times analysis.... Data released by the administration this week shows that young adults are most reluctant to get vaccinated."
Jordan Libowitz of CREW: "Nearly 900 Secret Service employees tested positive for COVID-19 between March 1, 2020 and March 9, 2021, according to government records obtained by CREW. The vast majority served in protection jobs.... Throughout the pandemic, then-President and Vice President Trump and Pence held large-scale rallies against public health guidelines, and Trump and his family made repeated protected trips to Trump-branded properties.... While there have been reports of Trump's Secret Service with coronavirus cases, the number is far greater than had previously been known."
Texas. Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "More than 150 health-care workers who did not comply with a Houston-based hospital system's vaccine mandate have been fired or resigned, more than a week after a federal judge upheld the policy. Houston Methodist -- one of the first health systems to require the coronavirus shots -- terminated or accepted the resignations of 153 workers Tuesday, spokeswoman Gale Smith said. Smith declined to specify how many were in each category.... Earlier this month, a federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by one of those employees, Jennifer Bridges, a former nurse who alleged the policy was unlawful and forced staffers to be 'guinea pigs' for vaccines that had not gone through the full Food and Drug Administration approval process."
Beyond the Beltway
New York City Mayoral Race. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "Eric Adams, who ran for mayor of New York City on a message intensely focused on issues of public safety, emerged on Tuesday with a substantial lead in the Democratic primary, but fell well short of outright victory in a race that will now usher in a new period of uncertainty. With 82 percent of the results in, Mr. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, was the first choice of 31.6 percent of those who voted in person on Tuesday or during the early voting period.... Maya Wiley, a former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, was in second with 22.3 percent; Kathryn Garcia, a former sanitation commissioner, was in third with 19.7 percent.... The winner of the Democratic nomination will face Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, who handily defeated Fernando Mateo, a restaurateur, in the Republican primary. The Associated Press declared Mr. Sliwa the winner on Tuesday." The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ New York City Council Primaries. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "When New York City's mayor leaves office at the end of the year, more than half the members of the City Council will follow him out the door, leaving a city still finding its footing after the pandemic in the untested hands of a freshly elected mayor and a legislative body packed with newcomers. It was largely unclear which newcomers those would be when the polls closed on Tuesday: The outcome of many races in Tuesday's primary was still unknown, though a number of incumbents seeking re-election coasted to an easy victory, with others poised to follow suit.... But the Council is guaranteed to have an impending overhaul after November's general election, with all 51 seats on the ballot, and a new officeholder guaranteed in 32 of them."
~~~ Manhattan D.A. Primary. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Alvin Bragg was leading in the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney as returns came in Tuesday night, maintaining a steady margin of about four percentage points over Tali Farhadian Weinstein in a race likely to determine who heads the most prominent local prosecutor's office in the country. The winner of the primary will be heavily favored to win the general election in November and would lead an office that prosecutes tens of thousands of cases a year and is running a high-profile inquiry into ... Donald J. Trump and his family business."
~~~ New York City's latest primary election results, via the New York Times, are here. Politico has NYC mayoral primary results here.
Texas. Nick Corasaniti & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas on Tuesday called a special session of the Texas Legislature that will begin on July 8, a move that revives Republicans' effort to enact what are expected to be some of the most far-reaching voting restrictions in the country. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, had pledged to call for a special session after Democratic lawmakers staged an eleventh-hour walkout last month that temporarily foiled the Republican effort to overhaul the state's election systems and delayed other G.O.P. legislative priorities. Now the new session restarts the clock."
Way Beyond
Hong Kong/China. Austin Ramzy & Tiffany May of the New York Times: "Apple Daily, a defiantly pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong, said on Wednesday that it would cease operations, as the authorities ramped up pressure on the publication in a campaign that has raised concerns over the state of media freedoms in the city. The newspaper said it would stop publishing in print and online by Thursday, after the police last week froze its accounts and arrested top editors and executives. The closure will silence one of the biggest and most aggressive media outlets in the city, highlighting the vast reach of the security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing last year. Apple Daily has been a thorn in the side of the Communist Party of China for decades, and Beijing has long targeted its founder, Jimmy Lai, for his criticism of Chinese and Hong Kong authorities."
Russia. Isaac Schultz of Gizmodo: "Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the year's longest day. It's hot Siberia Earth summer, and it certainly won't be the last.... The 118-degree-Fahrenheit temperature was measured on the ground in Verkhojansk, in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia, by the European Space Agency's Copernicus Sentinel satellites."
News Lede
New York Times: "John David McAfee, the founder of the antivirus software maker bearing his name, died in a prison in Spain on Wednesday, after a Spanish court said he could be extradited to the United States on tax-evasion charges.... He was 75.... The justice department for the Catalan region of Spain said that, pending an investigation, it was treating his death as a probable suicide."
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Reader Comments (14)
A typical bland, blah response to the GOP obstruction of the voting rights act. What needs to be emphasized and hammered over and over is this was a procedural vote to debate the measure. The GOP doesn't even want to talk about it.
Bobby Lee,
Maybe they haven't talked about it explicitly; maybe they don't even know it's what they're doing; but the exercise of procedural power is exactly the Republican point. In the Senate it is what they do.
The last thing they want to do is debate anything. That's getting too close to substance, too close to the real nuts and bolts of government, in this case whether or not the right to vote is a federal issue or not.
McConnell has said it's not. He's all in on the long tradition of using state's rights as code for Jim Crow. Who wants to debate that in a public forum?
Republicans have learned that not debating, not bringing anything to a vote are perfect ways to show the world how tough you are without ever getting in the ring or onto the field.
And when they do enter the ring in November, they want to let only their fans into the arena.
Procedure, changing the rules, and a few sound bites: The Republican Way.
@Ken Winkes wrote: McConnell is "all in on the long tradition of using state's rights as code for Jim Crow." That's a really good point. Mitch has been going on about how states should control their own elections (despite the fact that the Constitution gives Congress the ultimate power to regulate federal elections [Article 1, Sec. 4], but oh well). As you point out, Mitch's stance is just another way of saying "Jim Crow, Jim Crow, now and forevah, Jim Crow!"
Ken, you nailed it. The malicious, lying members of the retrumplican "party"/cult know what utter creeps they are, and so, they have decided that doing nothing and letting their lesser members call all the shots determines their ability to get re-elected, so they can continue nonworking like banshees. ("Hard-working" my a**). On the one hand, they are correct: shining the light of day on their lying, vicious ways is not in their favor so why do it, and on the other, same... Nonvoters will be in the majority for the next elections, and I don't think turnout will turn it around. It is impossible to have bipartisanship when that ship has sailed and likely sunk, and the two people who think they are noble for spouting drivel about it show no signs of joining the group. Statesmen they aren't. POS they are, those two and the creeps they think they can persuade.
Mitch and the traitors give thumbs down to democracy. If they were senators in Ancient Rome they’d feed it to the lions in the coliseum. I can picture Emperor Testudo in his soiled toga with laurel leaves around the small head poking out momentarily from his protective shell to snicker at the crowd bemoaning democracy’s demise.
Watch this video all the way through: You may cry like I did, remembering what we had, knowing that is exactly what we need now, but realizing those senators in today's coliseum are preventing what we once thought was that thing called balanced legislation; unleashing their lion-like fury and fear they are a dead people––-pitiful in their reluctance to even pretend that they care. They may prick up their ears when they learn that a black, (socialist) woman was just elected mayor in Buffalo, N.Y.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKzmXJAOEi8
This is the picture of a racist smiling: https://www.npr.org/2021/06/21/1007778651/journalism-race-and-the-fight-over-nikole-hannah-jones-tenure-at-unc. Walter Hussman. Just look at his reptile smile. Let's see what his rag has to say about the powerful man who just declared to run for governor. Looking at Hussman smile is sort of like looking at Moscow Mitch's smile. Both assholes chase kids off their lawns.
Thanks for all the points made. I guess I'm just an old man getting tired of seeing the "leaders" of my party get kneed in the nuts and then saying "pardon me for getting my crotch in your way". Looking back six years I'm amazed how few saw the danger coming.
This morning I caught a few minutes of President Biden's giving a eulogy for former Sen. John Warner of Virginia. Since Warner served in the Senate with Biden for decades, it is not surprising that Biden gave a eulogy. But then Warner was a Republicans senator, so you'd think the most recent Republican president* would be asked to give a eulogy, too.
Oh, wait. That would be the Former Guy. Can you imagine a eulogy by the Former Guy?: "Warner was a real loser. He didn't make money like I did. He married money. Oh, and Elizabeth Taylor. She wasn't so hot by the time he married her. Definitely not my type. Yeah, I heard John endorsed my opponents crooked Hillary & sleepy Joe, not that it matters, because who ever heard of John Warner? But I know John admired me, and he endorsed those losers only because he was jealous of me being a self-made billionaire and a teevee star, which he knew he could never be so that's why he married a washed-up, has-been movie star. So bon voyage, John, and good luck wherever you end up, which right now is dead."
This is why in all four years the Former Guy was president*, years when of course prominent U.S. political figures died, you never saw him give a eulogy.
OK, earlier today the internet ate my homework, a brilliant esssay to address Marie's Q, "When Did Democracy Die" in the Ewe Ess of Eh?
So I just got back and see it didn't go through. So, here's the bottom line:
-- 1994
-- Gingrich persuaded R's that there is no penalty for hate lying because it stimulates the endorphins among pea brain voters
-- positive feedback to that concept created tribalism stronger than ever before seen
-- et viola, as we say in concert, lying works until there are many dead people
Let us hope that the recent dead are the price, not many more to come.
The actual (lost) essay was much, much more brilliant. But now I have to cook, no time for brilliance.
Good one, Patrick.
In a few minutes, once again leaving the net behind for a few days. Glad I hung around long enough to catch your muted brilliance.
@Patrick: Brilliant! Yes, 1994 does sound good to me, too. I did mention Newt in another iteration (2008), and of course one iteration of Newt is scarcely different from any other. But the 1994 Contract on America was definitely an inflection point -- and one could reasonably argue, a turning point -- in the demise of our little American experiment. Moreover, Newt is the putrid personification of what one thinks of when one is reduced to thinking of a "typical malevolent Republican."
One trouble with your thesis is that Newt had so many failings -- like that crybaby incident on AF1 & his dumping his ailing wife whilst he was schtupping our future Ambassador to the Vatican (the only evidence I know of that Trump has a sense of humor) and lots and lots of ethics problems -- that his caucus eventually revolted against him, forcing him to resign.
The GOP 1998 caucus turn against Newt is just an example of the ritual murder of last year's Harvest King, so a new king can reign, until ...
Thes folks are pagans, after all.
And ... he wasn't shtupping Callista when his first wife was dealing with cancer in hospital, he was shtupping to-be wife #2. Callista is #3.
Whatever. He is still the avatar of slime and the cause of many of our troubles.
@Patrick: It's true that an infamous, oft-reported hospital scene occurred when Wife No. 1 was recovering from cancer surgery & Gingrich popped by to discuss with her terms of the divorce he wanted.
But when Gingrich dumped Wife No. 2 for the much younger Wife No. 3 (and during the Clinton impeachment where Gingrich repeatedly expressed shock, shock at Clinton's behavior), it was a few months after Wife No. 2 had been diagnosed with M.S.
Our former Ambassador to the Vatican should hope she doesn't get so much as a hangnail before Newt passes on, because if she does, Newt is outta there.