The Commentariat -- October 4, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Kevin Freking & Josh Boak of the AP: "President Joe Biden accused Republican lawmakers on Monday of blocking efforts to increase the government's borrowing authority, saying they're playing 'Russian roulette with the U.S. economy' by committing to filibuster the measure ahead of an Oct. 18 deadline. Biden called on the Senate to suspend the nation's debt limit by a simple majority, which would allow more borrowing and stave off the risk of a default. But Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said Democrats will need to use a special 'reconciliation' process to secure a suspension from the evenly split Senate with Vice President Kamala Harris serving as the tiebreaker. The president in White House remarks said that McConnell's demand needlessly poses a threat to the international credit of the federal government, potentially hurting financial markets and the broader economy." ~~~
~~~ Jeff Stein & Tony Romm of the Washington Post do a crack-up job of irrationally both-sidering the looming debt ceiling crisis, but they do manage this: "Speaking at the White House, [President] Biden threw responsibility for a potential U.S. default -- which would be an unprecedented event in American history -- on Republicans who have refused to lend their votes to help Democrats avert the debt ceiling cliff.... Biden's alarming comments came amid an intensifying standoff as Republicans continue to refuse to help Democrats avert the debt ceiling cliff." ~~~
A Cornhusker Scam. Lachlan Markay of Axios: "The top Republican on the House Appropriations Committee's agriculture panel raised money for a legal defense fund with claims he's facing federal prosecution that a spokesperson later disavowed.... On a fundraising page for a new legal expense fund -- which was later taken off-line -- Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) wrote: '[President] Biden's FBI is using its unlimited power to prosecute me on a bogus charge.'... The investigation in question, the spokesperson said, had to do with illegal campaign contributions by a Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire to a number of congressional Republicans." Despite the fact that Forenberry made his appeal in the present tense for an implied ongoing prosecution, the prosecution was apparently only against the donor, was brought in the past, and Fortenberry was not charged. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It seems weird to try to raise money by associating yourself with a crime you didn't commit & aren't being accused of committing.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
Michigan. Susan Demas of Michigan Advance: "Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday vetoed three Republican election bills introduced ... as part of a nationwide right-wing effort to restrict voting and change election rules. She also vetoed a fourth measure she said lacked the proper funding. Whitmer vetoed the bills at the 66th annual NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner in Detroit.... Whitmer said in the veto letter obtained by the Michigan Advance that they were an 'attempt to suppress the vote or perpetuate the "Big Lie": the calculated disinformation campaign to discredit the 2020 election....'"
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David Lynch of the Washington Post: "President Biden's top trade negotiator is scheduled to assail China on Monday for failing to buy large quantities of American products under an agreement signed last year and for using subsidies and coercion to harm American workers, according to three senior administration officials. In a speech to a Washington think tank, Katherine Tai, the U.S. trade representative, will lay out a road map for re-engaging with Beijing after a months-long internal policy review, said the officials...."
Another U.S. Navy Kickback Scheme Likely. Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post: "Federal agents are investigating a new U.S. Navy corruption case that has strong echoes of the Fat Leonard scandal, with a defense contractor facing accusations that he delivered cash bribes and bilked the Navy out of at least $50 million to service its ships in foreign ports, according to recently unsealed court records. The Justice Department is trying to extradite the contractor -- Frank Rafaraci, chief executive of Multinational Logistics Services, or MLS -- from Malta, the Mediterranean island where he was arrested last week after an international manhunt. Rafaraci, 68, is a dual U.S.-Italian citizen who splits his time between the United Arab Emirates and Sicily. Since 2010, the Navy and federal agencies have awarded MLS about $1.3 billion in contracts to resupply and refuel U.S. warships in the Middle East, Asia and other regions."
Wish Fulfillment. Marie: On Saturday, I wished that "protesters [would] locate the 'high-end resort & spa' [where Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was meeting with campaign contributors] and show Kyrsten's donors what they think of her little outings." They came close enough: ~~~
~~~ They Followed Miss Loopty-Loo into the Loo. Julie Luchetta of the Arizona Republic: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was confronted by proponents of the democratic Build Back Better bill who followed her as she entered a public restroom on Sunday morning. A video posted on the Twitter account of Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, an immigration reform advocacy group, shows activists following Sinema on her way out of a classroom at Arizona State University. After she declines to speak to them, they follow her into a bathroom. 'We knocked on doors for you to get you elected,' a woman filming the encounter who identifies herself as Blanca is heard saying after the senator enters a stall. 'And just how we got you elected, we can get you out of office if you don't support what you promised us.'... 'She is the one blocking a path to citizenship, deportation protection, paid family care, climate justice, lower drug costs and so many other things we need,' [an] email [from LUCHA to the Az. Republic] said in reference to the Democrats' efforts to pass the 10-year $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act. The legislation includes funding for free community college, Medicare expansion, extended child tax credit, paid family leave and efforts to combat climate change." Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sinema's refusal to speak to any constituents who don't pay for access, BTW, contrasts with Joe Manchin's willingness to engage with West Virginia protesters who kayaked out to his luxury houseboat moored in the D.C. area, even if it's rather galling to refuse to approve aid to needy West Virginians from the stern of a luxurious vessel.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A transformed Supreme Court returns to the bench on Monday to start a momentous term in which it will consider eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, vastly expanding gun rights and further chipping away at the wall separating church and state." Related Washington Post story also linked yesterday. As Justice Sotomayor said last week, "There is going to be a lot of disappointment."
Charles Blow of the New York Times on Texas' anti-abortion law & a Congressional bill codifying Roe v. Wade: "If men were the ones who got pregnant, this would never have happened. Men wouldn't stand for it. Women shouldn't either."
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's story on King Abdullah II of Jordan is here. The New York Times' story is here. The Post's story on Putin's lucky lady friend is here. A related Guardian story is here. The Guardian has a story on how former PM Tony Blair & his wife Cherie evaded £312,000 in U.K. taxes. The Post is live-updating reactions to some of the revelations. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian currently has links to a number of related stories on its front page.
Michael Flynn for Hire -- By Any Dodgy Schemers. Jeff Stein of Spy Talk: "Disgraced former Donald Trump National Security Adviser and Army general Michael Flynn was paid a previously unreported $200,000 for work on a controversial plan to bring nuclear power to the Middle East involving Russian and other foreign business interests, according to a report this weekend by the respected Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad. The payment to Flynn was uncovered during an audit by one of the project's major players, the Dutch transport company Mammoet, which envisioned shipping major parts of the nuclear plants to Saudi Arabia and other destinations in the Middle East, the paper reported. The wildly ambitious scheme imagined a consortium of U.S., Russian, Canadian and French partners building nuclear power plants in a half dozen Arab states and managing them independent of local regimes. The project never jelled for numerous reasons, just one of them being the involvement of Flynn, whose willingness to take an exorbitant speaking fee from the Russians and under-the-table lobbying fees from the Turks made him toxic."
Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. Cat Zakrzewski & Cristiano Lima of the Washington Post: "Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen has been revealed as the source behind tens of thousands of pages of leaked internal company research which she says show that the company has been negligent in eliminating violence, misinformation and other harmful content from its services, and that it has misled investors about these efforts. For Facebook, the document leak -- and the public reveal of the source -- represents perhaps the most significant crisis in the company's history, further deteriorating relationships between the company and Washington politicians. The company is the target of a historic federal antitrust case and is fielding document requests as members of Congress investigate its role in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol." A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ The "60 Minutes" video & transcript of the interview with Frances Haugen is here.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.
Michigan. Andrea Salcedo of the Washington Post: "Federal authorities have ... charged [nurse Bethann] Kierczak with stealing authentic coronavirus vaccination cards from the [Michigan] VA hospital -- along with vaccine lot numbers required to make the cards appear legitimate -- and later reselling those cards for $150 to $200, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday in the U.S. Eastern District Court in Michigan. For over four months, the complaint states, Kierczak, 37, sold the cards across metro Detroit, primarily communicating with buyers via Facebook Messenger.... Kierczak ... had access to immunization records since she was responsible for administering the doses."
Virginia. Jenna Portnoy of the Washington Post: "Several hundred hospital workers in Virginia have been suspended or lost their jobs because they refused to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, as required by most major health-care systems.... Across the country, health-care systems that have instituted mandates have seen some workers leave or be terminated over their refusal to get the shot, exacerbating a shortage in skilled nursing and bedside care. Health-care systems in rural areas of Virginia, where there is generally more vaccine resistance, are being hit harder by an employee exodus over mandates than urban and suburban hospitals, which generally have larger staffs and are better able to withstand some unvaccinated employees leaving.... Inova in Northern Virginia lost 89 workers for noncompliance with the system's requirement, which is less than half of 1 percent of its workforce, while Valley Health, based in the northern Shenandoah Valley, fired a little over 1 percent of its workers for not getting a vaccine.... The ... CEO of Inova, which operates the state's largest hospital, Inova Fairfax, said the Northern Virginia system's Sept. 1 vaccine mandate helped with recruitment."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Neil Vigdor & Melina Delkic of the New York Times: "A pipeline failure off the coast of Orange County, Calif., on Saturday caused at least 126,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Pacific Ocean, creating a 13-square-mile slick that continued to grow on Sunday, officials said. Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places as cleanup crews raced to try to contain the spill, which created a slick that extended from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach. It was not immediately clear what caused the leak, which officials said occurred three miles off the coast of Newport Beach and involved a failure in a 17.5-mile pipeline connected to an offshore oil platform called Elly that is operated by Beta Offshore." ~~~
~~~ Amy Taxin & Christopher Weber of the AP: "Crews on the water and on shore worked feverishly Sunday to limit environmental damage from one of the largest oil spills in recent California history, caused by a suspected leak in an underwater pipeline that fouled the sands of famed Huntington Beach and could keep the beaches there closed for weeks or longer. Booms were deployed on the ocean surface to try to contain the oil while divers sought to determine where and why the leak occurred. On land, there was a race to find animals harmed by the oil and to keep the spill from harming any more sensitive marshland."
Missouri. John Hanna & Jim Salter of the AP: "Former U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, a conservative Missouri Republican whose comment that women's bodies have a way of avoiding pregnancies in cases of 'legitimate rape' sunk his bid for the U.S. Senate and became a cautionary tale for other GOP candidates, has died. He was 74." MB: I'm sorry that he died. I hope the last thing he saw on the TV were the protests against the Texas anti-abortion bill.
Way Beyond
Afghanistan. Sudarsan Raghavan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A bombing outside Kabul's main mosque left at least two Afghan civilians dead and others wounded on Sunday, the Taliban said, the latest in a series of blasts apparently intended to undermine the militants' ability to bring security to the capital and other cities. The explosion at Eid Gah Mosque was the first major attack in Kabul since the Islamic State targeted the international airport in late August as thousands attempted to escape the country. As of Sunday night, there had been no official claim of responsibility."
Brazil. Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Brazil's biggest cities Saturday, calling for the country's president, Jair Bolsonaro, to be impeached. In Rio de Janeiro, the country's second-largest city, huge crowds paraded through the downtown area in a sign of growing discontent with the president -- a right-wing firebrand whom critics accuse of destroying Brazil's economy, environment and world standing."
News Lede
New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly on Monday to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian 'for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.' Their work sheds light on how to reduce chronic and acute pain associated with a range of diseases, trauma and their treatments."
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Reader Comments (9)
Let me get this straight: A Michigan nurse has found sufficient demand to sell counterfeit vaccination certificates for $150+. People are willing to spend money for fake certificates, rather than getting free vaccines that can literally save their lives? I don’t understand.
NiskyGuy,
It's the Constitutionally guaranteed freedom to be stupid.
Stubborn and stupid. Not a great but far too common combination.
That Michigan VA nurse must have been working for the trump
re-election committee. Sounds like a scam those nitwits would
come up with.
Also, every dose on your vaccination record card has a dose #
which can be traced back to who received it and when.
My husband's brother-in-law in trumpland ohio died last week.
The family says he tested positive, but he would have died anyway
because of other conditions affecting his health. What an outlook.
Not attending the service. They ain't been vaccinated and we're too
young to die from something totally avoidable.
Ken: Stubborn and stupid. That one. There is also ignorant and proud; two peas of a pod as demonstrated by the sad denouement in Forrest's family.
As an aside, we went out to an establishment yesterday. As I looked down, I realized that the guy at the next table over was wearing American flag boots next to his tablemate wearing the neo-fascist American flag as a t-shirt. No amount of my Boy Scouting background approves of despoiling the flag as a pair of boots...or any other garment. It is remarkable what real conservatives do and think. I have hope for the future as long as people are doing fine reporting like about what a traitorous sellout Flynn is; do you think GE, Goldman Sachs, United Techologies, or any other white shoe firm will touch him now? Progress is slow, but it does occur.
Re Nebraska scammer Fortenberry :
Would like to know what percentage of the money raised from the chumps has gone to defend the Pretender from real and imagined lawsuits filed against him. A big number, I'd guess.
In other words, the Scammer in Chief long ago laid out and flagged the path this nitwit followed.
Yeah, Forrest, you don't want your premature headstone to read, "Here lies Forrest Morris. Died of Covid because of attending a mask-free funeral for someone who died of Covid. Not as smart as we thought he was." Anyhow, I'm sorry for your loss.
McTurtle: “… since your party wishes to govern alone, it must handle the debt limit alone as well."
Absolutely false premise.
Democrats are trying to pass legislation that will benefit all Americans. The legislation is good for the constituents of the Rs. But the Rs refuse to acknowledge any idea that comes from Democrats, and they only support legislation that benefits R donors at the expense of Democrats, and even at the expense of a lot of R voters.
A hell of a drug
"Of all the brain-worms that prey upon the conservative mind, none are quite so powerful as the “no tax” pathology.
many wealthy Texan GOP donors are going to continue to procure abortions for themselves, their spouses and their kids. They’re likely horrified by the state’s new forced childbirth law. It’s not that they don’t believe in abortion rights.
Rather, it’s that a $1 discount on their tax bill is worth more to them than the suffering of every person who endures a forced birth, and every child produced by those births. No-tax brain worms are a hell of a drug.
Libertarianism is notionally grounded in the idea of self-determination and personal responsibility, but in practice, powerful libertarians routinely trade off (others’) freedom for (their own) tax savings."
A few days ago we discovered a beautiful, dead, red fox in the back yard–-not mauled, only some clumps of hair near its body. We think it was killed by a coyote. I mourned. Yesterday found a beautiful red headed woodpecker on our back landing–-probably hit the widow by mistake. I mourned. Today I read of more anti-vaxers dying of Covid including Forest's husband's brother in -law, who I take it was one of them. I do NOT morn these deaths–--they are self inflicted––-you could almost say they are on a suicidal mission much like the GOP –-both edging their bets for victory in a fake tomorrow, both so sure they are RIGHT.