The Commentariat -- October 3, 2021
The Pandora Papers. Greg Miller, et al., of the Washington Post: "A massive trove of private financial records shared with The Washington Post exposes vast reaches of the secretive offshore system used to hide billions of dollars from tax authorities, creditors, criminal investigators and -- in 14 cases involving current country leaders -- citizens around the world.... The new material encompasses records from 14 separate financial-services entities.... The revelations include more than $100 million spent by King Abdullah II of Jordan on luxury homes in Malibu, Calif., and other locations; millions of dollars in property and cash secretly owned by the leaders of the Czech Republic, Kenya, Ecuador and other countries; and a waterfront home in Monaco acquired by a Russian woman who gained considerable wealth after she reportedly had a child with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Other disclosures hit closer to home.... South Dakota now rivals notoriously opaque jurisdictions in Europe and the Caribbean in financial secrecy..., some of [the funds sheltered in the state] tied to people and companies accused of human rights abuses and other wrongdoing." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's main story is here. Both the WashPo and Guardian currently have related stories linked on their front pages. The Post is live-updating reactions to some of the revelations.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.
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Kicking the Can Down a Short, Dead-End Road? Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: "The Senate voted Saturday to extend transportation funding programs for a month, a step that grants a reprieve to 3,700 Department of Transportation employees who were furloughed when the money expired on Thursday. The House approved the measure late Friday. President Biden signed the measure into law on Saturday. The fund, designed to provide long-term stability for road and transit projects, expired Thursday night as Democrats clashed over whether to advance a $1 trillion infrastructure bill amid debate that included the future of trillions more in social spending." The Hill's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Saturday set a new deadline of Oct. 31 for the House to pass the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill. In a 'Dear Colleague' letter released on Saturday. Pelosi said that 'more time was needed' to pass the infrastructure bill along with the larger, $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package after scrambling over the past two days to get enough votes."
Biden Fingers Manchinema for Sinking His Agenda. Molly Nagle of ABC News: "Speaking with reporters ... [Saturday morning, President] Biden [said,] 'We can bring the moderates and progressives together very easy if we had two more votes. Two. Two people.... I'm going to try and sell what I think the American people will buy,' Biden told reporters.... 'There's nothing in any of these pieces of legislation that's radical....'"
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: Kyrsten Sinema is a hot pink mess (or words to that effect). (Also linked yesterday.)
Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "The first Women's March of the Biden administration headed straight for the steps of the Supreme Court on Saturday, part of nationwide protests that drew thousands to Washington to demand continued access to abortion in a year when conservative lawmakers and judges have put it in jeopardy. Demonstrators filled the streets surrounding the court, shouting 'My body, my choice' and cheering loudly to the beat of drums. Before heading out on the march, they rallied in a square near the White House...." MB: Best sign I saw was at the Austin, Texas rally: "Texas, where a virus has reproductive rights and a woman doesn't". Unfortunately, the signmaker is right. (Also linked yesterday.)
María Paúl of the Washington Post: "Police this week released more footage from a dispute between 22-year-old Gabby Petito and her now-missing fiance, Brian Laundrie, putting domestic violence in the spotlight and bringing criticism to the officers who handled the couple's fight. With police being the primary responders to intimate-partner violence incidents, experts have questioned whether they are able to handle these situations correctly -- especially with the complexity of domestic violence. For some, the new video shows that community-led measures are necessary. Others said police need better training." MB: I've linked this story because of what it says about law enforcement's reactions to domestic violence. I can tell you from personal experience (albeit a long time ago) that many male cops don't care about physical assaults on women, even when the injuries are glaring & the woman is calm and coherent.
Forgotten Friends. Miriam Jordan & Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "... roughly 53,000 Afghans have been living at [military] bases [in the U.S.] since the chaotic evacuation from Kabul this summer that marked the end of 20 years of war. While many Americans have turned their attention away from the largest evacuation of war refugees since Vietnam, the operation is very much a work in progress here, overseen by a host of federal agencies and thousands of U.S. troops. While an initial group of about 2,600 people -- largely former military translators and others who helped allied forces during the war -- moved quickly into American communities, a vast majority remain stranded on these sprawling military way stations, uncertain of when they will be able to start the new American lives they were expecting. An additional 14,000 people are still on bases abroad, waiting for transfer to the United States.... U.S. officials say the delays are a result of a measles outbreak, medical checks and a vaccination campaign, as well as the need to complete immigration processing.... Most bases in the United States are at or near capacity, and Afghan evacuees waiting on bases in the Middle East, Spain and Germany can be flown in only once space opens up."
Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "The committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection and ... Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election will issue 'criminal referrals' to witnesses who refuse to obey subpoena deadlines, Chair Bennie Thompson said Friday.... The panel is also considering offering limited immunity to some witnesses who might be reluctant to share incriminating information with the committee." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times profile John Eastman, the lawyer who laid out the framework for a Trump coup: "John Eastman's path from little-known academic to one of the most influential voices in Donald J. Trump's ear in the final days of his presidency began in mid-2019 on Mr. Trump's favorite platform: television. Mr. Trump, who had never met Mr. Eastman, saw him on the Fox News talk show of the far-right commentator Mark Levin railing against the Russia investigation.... Then, after the November election, Mr. Eastman wrote the memo for which he is now best known, laying out steps that Vice President Mike Pence could take to keep Mr. Trump in power.... Mr. Eastman's rise within Mr. Trump's inner circle in the chaotic final weeks of his administration ... underscores the degree to which Mr. Trump not only relied on, but encouraged, a crew of players from the fringes of politics." ~~~
~~~ New York Times Editors: "However horrifying the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol appeared in the moment, we know now that it was far worse. The country was hours away from a full-blown constitutional crisis -- not primarily because of the violence and mayhem inflicted by hundreds of ... Donald Trump's supporters but because of the actions of Mr. Trump himself. In the days before the mob descended on the Capitol, a corollary attack -- this one bloodless and legalistic -- was playing out down the street in the White House, where Mr. Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and a lawyer named John Eastman huddled in the Oval Office, scheming to subvert the will of the American people by using legal sleight-of-hand.... [The scheme] involved Mr. Pence rejecting dozens of already certified electoral votes representing tens of millions of legally cast ballots, thus allowing Congress to install Mr. Trump in a second term.... Democrats should push through [election & voting] reforms now, and eliminate the filibuster if that's the only way to do so. If they hesitate, they should recall that a majority of the Republican caucus in the House -- 139 members -- along with eight senators, continued to object to the certification of electoral votes even after the mob stormed the Capitol."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Mike Isaac of the New York Times: A "whistle-blower, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, planned to accuse [Facebook] of relaxing its security safeguards for the 2020 election too soon after Election Day, which then led it to be used in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to [an] internal memo obtained by The New York Times. The whistle-blower planned to discuss the allegations on '60 Minutes' on Sunday, the memo said, and was also set to say that Facebook had contributed to political polarization in the United States.... Facebook has been in an uproar for weeks because of the whistle-blower, who has shared thousands of pages of company documents with lawmakers and The Wall Street Journal." The article republishes in full Facebook's pushback memo, written by company veep Nick Clegg, former Deputy Prime Minister of the U.K. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Over the weekend, I have watched parts of a PBS bio of William Randolph Hearst, the ultra-wealthy (for a while) publisher of a chain of "yellow journalism"-style newspapers. Although there was much about Hearst that was different from Mark Zuckerberg, what they have in common is their great wealth, their power over what Americans read and their arrogant irresponsibility when it comes to accounting for the effects of their substandard publications. I see Hearst & Zuckerberg as equally-dangerous and overly-influential in misdirecting American public opinion.
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court embarks Monday on what could be an extraordinarily controversial term, with its justices on the defensive, its actions and structure under a political microscope and abortion -- the most divisive issue of them all -- taking center stage. Before the term ends next summer, the justices will have weighed in on three major public policy disputes -- guns, religious rights and possibly race, if the court takes up a request to once again review affirmative action in university admissions."
Ian Millhiser of Vox on the Nihilism of Neil Gorsuch: Gorsuch "is broadly anti-government, skeptical of democracy and the institutions that make it possible, and eager to centralize power within the judiciary. That worldview and his certitude of its rightness are married with a willingness, even eagerness, to impose draconian consequences on the nation if he catches someone violating his often-quite-unusual ideas about what the rules should be.... [While claiming to interpret the Constitution textually,] Gorsuch's commitment to textualism can be little more than hot air. He is a selective textualist, who frequently evangelizes in favor of this method of interpretation but often abandons it in cases that reach a conservative result.... As Gorsuch votes to limit the franchise and make it easier for Republican lawmakers to skew the results of elections, he has also launched a direct attack on the free press -- an institution that is essential to any democracy.... His jurisprudence shows utter disregard for the norms of ... [the Court] ... to come up with a system of law that can manage a pluralistic society. It's a revolutionary project, breathtaking in its audacity and nihilistic at its core."
Twitterthumbs Trump Asks for Immediate Relief from Twitter Ban. Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has asked a court to mandate that Twitter restore his social media account. In a filing late Friday, Trump asked a federal district judge for a preliminary injunction enabling his return to Twitter while his lawsuit against the social media giant continues.... [The filing] argued that Twitter was 'censoring' Trump by indefinitely banning him from the platform.... In July, Trump sued Twitter, Facebook and Google, as well as their chief executives, alleging that they unlawfully silenced conservative viewpoints on their platforms and violated his First Amendment rights by suspending his accounts. Legal experts and business associations predicted the lawsuits had little chance of succeeding in court, given that the First Amendment to the Constitution protects against censorship by the government, not by private companies."
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "The woman who has accused Corey Lewandowski of making unwanted sexual advances last weekend has sent a statement to police outlining her allegations against the former Trump adviser. Trashelle Odom, an Idaho-based Trump donor, alleged that while seated next to Lewandowski at a Las Vegas charity dinner, Lewandowski described his genitalia, boasted about his sexual performance and touched her repeatedly, Politico reported on Wednesday. Odom also alleged that Lewandowski intimidated her by claiming that he wielded enormous power over the former president's orbit and that he had committed violent acts earlier in his life." (Also linked yesterday.)
Lloyd Green, in the Guardian, reviews Stephanie Griffith's tell-all (which doesn't necessarily mean truth-telling) memoir of her unhappy years working four different jobs in the Trump White House. "Grisham's book is salacious and score-settling -- but not entertaining.... The spotlight on Melania is unsparing."
Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A Canadian man who narrated two infamous propaganda videos that the Islamic State used to recruit Westerners and to encourage terrorism attacks was secretly whisked to the United States to face federal prosecution in Virginia. The man, Mohammed Khalifa, 38, a Canadian who traveled to Syria in 2013 and later joined the Islamic State, was charged with material terrorism support that resulted in death, according to a criminal complaint made public on Saturday. He was captured in early 2019 by a Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is backed by the United States. The militia handed over Mr. Khalifa to F.B.I. agents this week, and he was flown to the United States. Mr. Khalifa, who was born in Saudi Arabia, appears to be the first foreign fighter to be prosecuted in the United States during the Biden administration." MB: There's no indicating in Goldman's report that Canada is objecting to U.S. prosecution of Khalifa.
Programming Note. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The evangelical leader Pat Robertson said on Friday that he was stepping down as host of the 'The 700 Club' after more than 50 years at the helm of a program that channeled Christian conservatism into millions of American homes and turned him into a household name.... Mr. Robertson said on the show ... that his son Gordon Robertson would take over as host. [Pat] Robertson, 91, made the announcement at the end of the broadcast on Friday, the 60th anniversary of the Christian Broadcasting Network, which Mr. Robertson started in a small station in Portsmouth, Va., in 1961."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
AP: "Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor denied an emergency appeal from a group of teachers to block New York City's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for public school teachers and other staff from going into effect. Sotomayor ruled on Friday, after the teachers filed for the injunction with her on Thursday to keep the mandate from going into effect. Under the mandate, the roughly 148,000 school employees had until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least their first vaccine shot. Those who didn't face suspension without pay when schools open on Monday." (Also linked yesterday.)
Karl de Vries & Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Justice Brett Kavanaugh has tested positive for Covid-19, the Supreme Court said Friday, the first publicly known case of coronavirus among the high court's justices. Kavanaugh, who is fully vaccinated, tested positive on Thursday night, the court said in a statement. The justice's immediate family tested negative and he has no symptoms. Kavanaugh underwent a routine Covid test Thursday ahead of fellow Justice Amy Coney Barrett's investiture ceremony Friday, which he will no longer be attending out of precaution, the court said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "A template letter [made to sound like a concerned parent expressing impassioned opposition to school mask mandates] circulated by Independent Women's Forum offers a glimpse into a well-resourced campaign [by the Koch fortune & other GOP megadonors] against public health regulations." MB: Oh, don't tell me this anti-mask campaign isn't about politics; I strongly suspect the idea is to make kids sick so President Biden looks bad for not taking control over Covid-19. If that isn't these rich freeedumb-lovers' central motive, I'm sure that find undermining a Democratic President a felicitous side-effect -- even if kids get sick & die. (Also linked yesterday.)
Alaska. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Nearly two years after the virus began circulating in the United States, some of the scenes here on the country's northern frontier echo the darkest early days of the pandemic: testing supplies are depleted, patients are being treated in hallways and doctors are rationing oxygen [and deciding who lives and who dies].... Through much of the pandemic, Alaska's natural isolation had shielded the state.... But with some pockets of the state wary of taking vaccines and Gov. Mike Dunleavy resisting restrictions to curtail the virus, the state's isolation has become a growing liability as the Delta variant sweeps through.... When the Anchorage Assembly considered a mask mandate last week, some of the doctors who came to speak [in favor of the mandate] were jeered at." ~~~
~~~ Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Lisa Murkowski gave an impassioned speech Friday on how Alaska's growing coronavirus infection rate has strained the state in unforeseen ways, and she decried protesters comparing mask mandates to actions by the Nazis.... 'We are leading the nation right now in our covid rates,' Murkowski said.... 'If Alaska were a country, it would be the nation with the world's highest per-capita case rate,' Murkowski said.... 'We have had some just horrible, horrible confrontations in our public meetings in Anchorage,' Murkowski said. 'The top of the fold in the Anchorage paper is about an assembly meeting where individuals wore yellow Stars of David to protest the mask ordinance that the Anchorage Assembly was taking up, comparing a mask mandate to the Holocaust. It's shocking.'"
Way Beyond the Beltway
Philippines. Dynastic Ambitions. Jim Gomez & Joeal Calupitan of the AP: "Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday announced he was retiring from politics and dropping plans to run for vice president in next year's elections when his term ends, paving the way for his politician daughter to make a possible bid for the top post. Speaking before reporters, Duterte said many Filipinos have expressed their opposition to his vice-presidential bid in surveys and public forums." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (3)
Yeah, the future of the country does depend very much on how the Supremes decide to slice the bacon in this upcoming term.
Whose side will they be on?
If it really is all about democracy for the carefully selected few, not the many, we'll soon know .
The Millhiser piece on Gorsuch doesn't quite say it all. Calling these bozos Constitutional textualists of convenience doesn't go far enough, because they are in a more profound sense very much the Originalists they claim to be. They want a society very much like the one in which the original Founders were embedded.
A very limited democracy that was one only for the wealthy white men and no one else.
Since so much has changed since then, these true Originalists are so out of step with contemporary society you can hear the social fabric tear every time they make one of their retrograde decisions.
Sometimes the law of the land just doesn't fit a land that has outgrown it, and these Originalists on the Court with their cloudy vision of a perfect eighteenth century judicial Eden, when the nation was just a toddler first getting to its feet, are proving they make very poor tailors for the still growing twenty-first.
Ken: Liked your last paragraph–-very poor tailors indeed.
Marie: I, too. watched the documentary on Hearst––as I type his name, lobbing off the 'st' you get 'hear' and minus 's' gets you 'heart'; he certainly heard what the public wanted but his heart was always beating for more, more, more and it finally did him in.
My mother once told me Marion Davies was one of her favorite film stars but never, of course, would mention that she was Hearst's mistress and long time companion. The fact that Randolph managed to keep both his wife and children in one mansion and Marion in another (in which he spent most of his time) evidently was not particularly frowned upon? And yes, power writ large and that "arrogant irresponsibility" tying someone like Zuckerberg to this same game. I have always thought Mark a smart aleck punk whose vision long ago has gone awry and is now dangerous and damaging.
By the way––loved the fact that the poor young boys that were responsible for selling Hearst papers ( they were called Newsies) and getting scant pay for it finally went on strike.
Good news from the covid treatments department.
Molnupiravir, a rna antiviral, is effective for prophylaxis, treatment and prevention of covid. It is uniformly effective against all types of the virus, including mu (which the vaccine is not as effective against).
It is the antiviral from Merck, which has applied for EUA. Supposedly it will be out within a month.
It costs $700 for 10 pills - a 5 day course at $70/pill.
I saw the announcement previously, but didn't get its name.
Now the knuckle draggers can avoid vaccination and not die - so sad.