The Commentariat -- October 5, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Marcy Gordon of the AP: "A former Facebook data scientist told Congress on Tuesday that the social network giant's products harm children and fuel polarization in the U.S. while its executives refuse to make changes because they elevate profits over safety. Frances Haugen testified to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. She is accusing the company of being aware of apparent harm to some teens from Instagram and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation. Haugen has come forward with a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook, buttressed with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company's civic integrity unit. She also has filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that Facebook's own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but the company hides what it knows." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging the testimony here. The Washington Post's liveblog of the hearing is here.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is reviewing its decision not to charge FBI agents who failed to properly investigate sex abuse allegations leveled against Larry Nassar, the disgraced former USA gymnastics doctor who sexually abused his patients, including world-famous gymnasts. Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco made the announcement at a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Lawmakers on the panel have sharply criticized the Justice Department for not pursuing false statements charges against a supervisory FBI agent and his boss for what the agency’s inspector general concluded were lies to internal investigators to cover up their failures."
Julian Barnes & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Top American counterintelligence officials warned every C.I.A. station and base around the world last week about troubling numbers of informants recruited from other countries to spy for the United States being captured or killed, people familiar with the matter said. The message, in an unusual top secret cable, said that the C.I.A.'s counterintelligence mission center had looked at dozens of cases in the last several years involving foreign informants who had been killed, arrested or most likely compromised. Although brief, the cable laid out the specific number of agents executed by rival intelligence agencies -- a closely held detail that counterintelligence officials typically do not share in such cables."
Peter Stone of the Guardian: "Donald Trump is facing increasing legal scrutiny in the crucial battleground state of Georgia over his attempt to sway the 2020 election there, and that heat is now overlapping with investigations in Congress looking at the former president's efforts to subvert American democracy. A criminal investigation into Trump's 2 January call prodding Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to 'just find' him 11,780 votes to block Joe Biden's win in the state is making headway. The Georgia district attorney running the inquiry is now also sharing information with the House committee investigating the 6 January attack on the Capitol in Washington DC. Meanwhile, a justice department taskforce investigating threats to election officials nationwide has launched inquiries in Georgia, where election officers and workers received death threats or warnings of violence, including some after Trump singled out one official publicly for not backing his baseless fraud claims." ~~~
~~~ Worse News for Donald: he is no long one of the Fab Forbes 400. ~~~
~~~ Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Donald Trump is worth an estimated $2.5 billion, leaving him $400 million short of the cutoff to make this year's Forbes 400 list of America's richest people. The real estate mogul is just as wealthy as he was a year ago, when he stood at No. 339 on the ranking, but he is down $600 million since the start of the pandemic. Technology stocks, cryptocurrencies and other assets have thrived in the Covid era. But big-city properties -- which make up the bulk of Trump's fortune -- have languished, knocking the former president out of the nation's most exclusive club. If Trump is looking for someone to blame, he can start with himself. Five years ago, he had a golden opportunity to diversify his fortune. Fresh off the 2016 election, federal ethics officials were pushing Trump to divest his real estate assets. That would have allowed him to reinvest the proceeds into broad-based index funds and assume office free of conflicts of interest."
It's the Media's Fault! Donna Cassata of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Mike Pence said media reporting on the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection is meant to 'demean' supporters of ... Donald Trump, some of whom stormed the Capitol that day shouting, 'Hang Mike Pence!' In an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News on Monday night, Pence sought to explain media coverage of the Jan. 6 riot in which he was hurriedly evacuated from the Senate chamber and taken to a secure location amid threats to his life. 'I know the media wants to distract from the Biden administration's failed agenda by focusing on one day in January,' Pence told Hannity. 'They want to use that one day to try and demean the character and intentions of 74 million Americans who believed we could be strong again and prosperous again and supported our administration in 2016 and 2020.'" MB: In case you never noticed, mike pence is really weird. If a bunch of violent lunatics tried to murder me in the course of overturning a (quasi-)democratic election, I know for sure I would not blame the media for making a bit deal of it.
Stephanie Grisham is not through skewering the Trumps. In a Washington Post op-ed she writes, Donald and Melania Trump knew that my relationship with my boyfriend, a White House staffer, "turned abusive -- and they didn't seem to care." After I told each of them separately about the abuse, "the president and first lady seemed totally unfazed about whether there was an abuser -- another abuser -- in their workplace. There was no follow-up from either of them to see if I needed help or protection. There was no investigation ordered.... Knowing what he knows, [Donald] Trump has endorsed my ex's bid for Congress."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.
New York. David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "The Federal Bureau of Investigation Tuesday morning raided the offices of the right wing, controversial, pro-Trump NYC Sergeants Benevolent Association. FBI agents may have also raided the home of the group's leader, Ed Mullins, according to multiple reports. 'The union is headed by Mullins, a brash leader known for his over-the-top social media attacks on NYPD leadership and Mayor de Blasio,' The New York Daily News reports, confirming the raid with the FBI.... It is not known why the FBI conducted the raid but last week Gothamist reported on 'a WNYC/Gothamist investigation of online records that appears to tie several New York law enforcement officers and public officials -- including at least two active members of the NYPD -- to a far-right, anti-government militia.'"
France. Aurelien Breeden of the New York Times: "Clergy members in the Roman Catholic Church in France sexually abused more than 200,000 minors over the past seven decades, according to an estimate published on Tuesday by an independent commission that concluded the problem was far more pervasive and systematic than previously known. The long-awaited 2,500-page report by the Independent Commission on Sexual Abuse in the Church laid out in detail how the church hierarchy had repeatedly silenced the victims and failed to report or discipline the clergy members involved."
~~~~~~~~~~
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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Juan Perez of Politico: "Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday ordered federal law enforcement authorities to huddle with local leaders in the coming weeks to address what the nation's top prosecutor called a recent 'disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence' against educators and school board members. The Justice Department will also unveil a series of additional measures in the coming days to 'address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel,' Garland wrote in a memorandum to federal prosecutors and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The department said they're expected to include a training program and a new federal task force stacked with representatives from the department's criminal, civil rights and national security divisions."
Lenny Bernstein & Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "National Institutes of Health Director Francis S. Collins, who headed the government's effort to map the entire human genetic code and two decades later became one of the most recognizable leaders in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, will leave his post by the end of this year, NIH will announce Tuesday. After more than 12 years directing the nation's premier biomedical research center, Collins, a 71-year-old physician-geneticist, will return to his lab at the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of NIH. He is the longest-tenured director of the Bethesda, Md.,-based NIH...." Politico's story is here.
Oops! We Might Be Crooks. Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve on Monday released a rare public statement revealing an independent review by the Office of Inspector General for the Federal Reserve Board, over whether trading activity by top Fed officials 'was in compliance with both the relevant ethics rules and the law.' Leaders had previously announced the Fed's own internal ethics review of financial trading rules for top officials, and Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell said there would be changes to existing guidance. But the latest statement reflected a more concerted focus on the legality of the trades themselves.... Earlier on Monday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called for an investigation of whether the financial trading activities of top Federal Reserve officials violated insider-trading rules, heightening scrutiny over ethics issues at the central bank." At least three Board members made large trades at the same time they of course helped control the Fed's pending actions. MB: And couldn't we have Fed leaders who aren't so rich they more-or-less routinely trade stocks & bonds worth as much as $5MM?
Manu Raju & Clare Foran of CNN: "Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Monday pushed back on several politically sensitive positions his party leaders are taking at a crucial time for President Joe Biden's domestic agenda. The West Virginia Democrat, who holds a pivotal vote in the 50-50 Senate, indicated to CNN that he disagrees with the strategy top Democrats are pursuing in the standoff with Republicans over raising the national debt limit. Manchin said that Democrats 'shouldn't rule out anything,' including a budget process [-- reconciliation --] that Democratic leaders have made clear they will not employ. Speaking to reporters, Manchin also would not commit to the new timeline set by party leaders to find a deal on the social safety net expansion by October 31. And he resisted calls from progressives and other top Democrats to raise his $1.5 trillion price tag for the package, which many in his party view as too low to achieve key policy objectives."
Ashley Reese of Jezebel: "... a group of activists pursuing Senator Kyrsten Sinema around the Arizona State University campus over the weekend and -- controversially, somehow -- briefly following Sinema into a public restroom to note that their family members were deported -- is bound to prompt some pearl-clutching.... [BUT] It's no wonder her constituents -- who don't understand what the fuck she's doing any better than the rest of us -- are piping mad.... They told Sinema, to her face -- and through a door -- that she was failing them and why. There was no violence, no rude language, nothing. Just a few constituents following their representative into a large bathroom to air their grievances [after she refused to speak with them while they were all in a corridor].... [Sinema herself put out a statement saying,] 'It is unacceptable for activist organizations to instruct their members to ... [film] students in a restroom.'... Maybe it's easier to act like a public bathroom is a sacred place than criticize the fact that Sinema decided to hide from her voters like a coward." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm with Reese. If Sinema refuses to talk to constituents and reporters about her political positions, there's nothing wrong with their confronting her where they can -- even in the can. It isn't the activists' fault Sinema won't do parts of her job -- like constituent outreach. It's her fault she made them follow her into the loo. Untoward? Oh, please. ~~~
~~~ Oh, and here's some right-wing opinionator blaming George Soros for the "harassment" of the hapless Kyrsten. ~~~
~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times tries to figure out what's wrong with Kyrsten Sinema. Marie: Goldberg seems to capture Sinema finally in the last word of her column: "narcissist." But I'd say Sinema's real problem is a midlife crisis, which has confused her. She is 45 years old, and she no doubt thrived for years playing the part of an attractive but ditzy blonde. That persona doesn't work for a woman in her mid-40s, much less one with a highly responsible job. So she's messed up trying to be a star at the same time she's trying out a Garbo vant-to-be-alone routine. It isn't working. She should follow Hillary Clinton's model and get down to being a good senator instead of a whack-job.
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. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ 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.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court returned ... on Monday after a pandemic-induced absence of more than 18 months, starting a new term that will include major cases on abortion and gun rights.... But the courtroom had changed since the court last heard arguments in person in March 2020. The seat at the far left was empty, a consequence of a positive Covid-19 test received by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh on Thursday. He participated remotely from his home, a court spokeswoman said. His questions were piped into the courtroom. The seat on the far right was occupied by ... Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was making her first appearance at an in-person argument.... Justice Sonia Sotomayor was the only member of the court who wore a mask.... Justice Clarence Thomas, who very seldom voiced inquiries from the bench before the pandemic, asked the first questions of both of the main lawyers in the case. The lawyers wore masks except when they were presenting arguments. The lectern at which they made their presentations had been moved back from the bench by several feet. The public was barred from the courtroom, but the court is providing live audio on its website." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As a pundit on CNN pointed out yesterday, it's no wonder Thomas is finally inserting himself into the conversation. With at least five or six radical confederates on the court, it's Clarence's court now.
Tom Hamburger & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of former officials and legal heavyweights, including two former federal judges, asked the California bar association Monday to investigate the conduct of John Eastman, the adviser to ... Donald Trump who mapped out a legal strategy to overturn the 2020 election results. The complaint, also signed by two former justices of the California Supreme Court, cites Eastman's work in election challenges rejected by the Supreme Court and his speech at a Jan. 6 rally in Washington before a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. But the 24-page memo centers on Eastman's alleged role in pressing Vice President Mike Pence not to count electoral votes on Jan. 6 and certify President Biden as the winner. 'The available evidence supports a strong case that the State Bar should investigate whether, in the course of representing Mr. Trump, Mr. Eastman violated his ethical obligations as an attorney by filing frivolous claims, making false statements and engaging in deceptive conduct,' the letter said. 'There is also a strong basis to investigate whether Mr. Eastman assisted in unlawful actions by his client, Mr. Trump,' to overturn the results of a legitimate election." The Raw Story has a summary report here.
Zoe Tillman of BuzzFeed News: "A judge on Monday ordered Capitol rioter Matthew Mazzocco to spend 45 days in prison, rejecting not only the defense's argument for probation but also the prosecution's recommendation that he be sentenced to home confinement instead of time behind bars. The sentencing before US District Judge Tanya Chutkan marked the first time that any judge presiding over the hundreds of Jan. 6 prosecutions in Washington, DC, handed down a sentence that was harsher than what the government asked for. Chutkan noted that Mazzocco had already been allowed to go home and be with his family in the months since his arrest in mid-January and said his punishment had to be more severe. 'There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home,' Chutkan said."
Mike Isaac & Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Facebook and its family of apps ... were inaccessible for hours on Monday, taking out a vital communications platform used by billions and showcasing just how dependent the world has become on a company that is under intense scrutiny. Facebook's apps -- which include Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger and Oculus -- began displaying error messages around 11:40 a.m. Eastern time, users reported. Within minutes, Facebook had disappeared from the internet. The outage lasted over five hours, before some apps slowly flickered back to life, though the company cautioned the services would take time to stabilize.... More than 3.5 billion people around the world use Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp.... Facebook is also used to sign in to many other apps and services, leading to unexpected domino effects such as people not being able to log into shopping websites or sign into their smart TVs, thermostats and other internet-connected devices.... Facebook said late Monday, the culprit was changes to its underlying internet infrastructure that coordinates the traffic between its data centers.... Facebook eventually restored service after a team got access to its server computers at a data center in Santa Clara, Calif." ~~~
~~~ Elizabeth Dwoskin & Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "After four years of almost continuous scandal, Facebook is approaching its latest controversy over political polarization and the toxic effects of social media in a more aggressive and defiant way than it has previously, say current and former employees, including executives who helped shape the company's earlier responses. Gone is the familiar script in which chief executive Mark Zuckerberg issues a formal apology -- sometimes in long blogs on his personal Facebook page or over live-streamed video for a Congressional hearing -- then takes responsibility and promises change. In its place, the company has deployed a slate of executives to mount a public defense while quibbling with the details of allegations from Frances Haugen, the former project manager who left Facebook with tens of thousands of documents." ~~~
~~~ Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "After whistleblower Frances Haugen unleashed a torrent of unflattering revelations about Facebook in the Wall Street Journal and on CBS's '60 Minutes,' the social media giant pledged to 'tackle the spread of misinformation and harmful content.' But as long as the social network makes money off such garbage, such a promise comes across as a sick joke rather than reassurance.... Haugen's leaks make clear just how vast the gap is between the friendly facade and the ugly reality.... After reading the [Wall Street] Journal's series of articles and watching the '60 Minutes' interview, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that 'misinformation and harmful content' are a feature of the platform, not a bug.... In pursuit of profit, Facebook has cost the rest of us too much." ~~~
~~~ Twilight of the God? Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "One possible way to read 'The Facebook Files,' The Wall Street Journal's excellent series of reports based on leaked internal Facebook research, is as a story about an unstoppable juggernaut bulldozing society on its way to the bank. The series has exposed damning evidence that Facebook has a two-tier justice system, that it knew Instagram was worsening body-image issues among girls and that it had a bigger vaccine misinformation problem than it let on, among other issues. And it would be easy enough to come away thinking that Facebook is terrifyingly powerful, and can be brought to heel only with aggressive government intervention. But there's another way to read the series.... Which is: Facebook is in trouble.... What I'm talking about is a kind of slow, steady decline that anyone who has ever seen a dying company up close can recognize.... Facebook's problems ... come in two primary flavors: problems caused by having too many users, and problems caused by having too few of the kinds of users it wants -- culture-creating, trendsetting, advertiser-coveted young Americans.The Facebook Files contains evidence of both types."
AP: "Tesla Inc. must pay nearly $137 million to a Black former worker who said he suffered racial abuse at the electric carmaker's San Francisco Bay Area factory. The jury in San Francisco agreed that Owen Diaz was subjected to racial harassment and a hostile work environment. Diaz alleged in a lawsuit that he was harassed and faced 'daily racist epithets,' including the 'N-word,' while working at Tesla's Fremont plant in 2015 and 2016 before quitting. Diaz was a contracted elevator operator. Diaz alleged that employees drew swastikas and left racist graffiti and drawings around the plant. He contended that supervisors failed to stop the abuse. 'Tesla's progressive image was a façade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees,' the lawsuit said."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York. Eliza Shapiro of the New York Times: "New York [City]'s requirement that virtually everyone who works in the city's public schools be vaccinated against the coronavirus compelled thousands of Department of Education employees to get at least one dose of a vaccine in the past week, leading to extremely high vaccination rates among educators, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. About 95 percent of all full-time school employees have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the mayor said, including 99 percent of principals, 96 percent of teachers and 94 percent of non-education staff. Roughly 43,000 doses total have been administered since the mandate was announced in late August, including more than 18,000 shots that were given to staff members since Sept. 24. New York's mandate, which took effect when the school day started on Monday, is the mayor's first attempt at requiring vaccination without a test-out option for any city workers. It could lay the groundwork for a much broader requirement for the city's vast work force." Mandates work.
Beyond the Beltway
Alabama ... Is Still Alabama. Emmanuel Felton of the Washington Post: Alabama's "Confederate Memorial Park is ... home to a small museum and two well-manicured cemeteries with neat rows of headstones -- that look a lot like those in Arlington National Cemetery -- for hundreds of Confederate veterans.... On a recent morning, there was just one visitor on the property and he didn't enter the museum.... For the most part the museum focuses on the story of Confederate soldiers on the battlefield, mostly highlighting the bravery they displayed and the principles they were fighting for.... While other museums struggle to keep their doors open..., in 2020 alone, the park received $670,000 in taxpayer dollars. That's about $22 per visitor and more than five times the $4 admission price for adults.... Earlier this year, a pair of state senators, a Black Democrat and a White Republican, co-sponsored a bill that would have maintained funding for the Confederate Park, while providing the same amount to Black historical sites. The bill failed...."
California. Brian Melley, et al., of the AP: "The U.S. Coast Guard received the first report of a possible oil spill off the Southern California coast more than 12 hours before a company reported the major leak in its pipeline and a cleanup effort was launched, records show. Oil spill reports reviewed Monday by The Associated Press raise questions about the Coast Guard's response to one of the state's largest recent oil spills as well as how quickly Amplify Energy, the company operating three offshore platforms and the pipeline, recognized it had a problem and notified authorities. Two early calls about the spill came into the National Response Center, which is staffed by the Coast Guard and notifies other agencies of disasters for quick response. The first was from an anchored ship that noticed a sheen on the water and the second, six hours later, from a federal agency that said a possible oil slick was spotted on satellite imagery, according to reports by the California Office of Emergency Services."
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....'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York. Jesse McKinley & Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "Lovely Warren, the embattled Democratic mayor of Rochester, N.Y., agreed to resign on Monday as part of a plea deal on several state criminal charges, capping a swift and staggering fall for a politician once considered a rising star in the state Democratic Party. The plea deal, in Monroe County court, resolves two separate state cases against Ms. Warren: one arising from campaign finance violations and another that included gun and child-endangerment charges that Ms. Warren and her estranged husband faced. Ms. Warren's resignation is effective Dec. 1, just a month before she would have left office, having lost a June primary for a third term to Malik Evans, a city councilman."
News Lede
New York Times: "Three scientists received the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for work that is essential to understanding how the Earth's climate is changing, pinpointing the effect of human behavior on those changes and ultimately predicting the impact of global warming. The winners were Syukuro Manabe of Princeton University, Klaus Hasselmann of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, Germany, and Giorgio Parisi of the Sapienza University of Rome. Others have received Nobel Prizes for their work on climate change, most notably. former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, but the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said this is the first time the Physics prize has been awarded specifically to a climate scientist."
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Reader Comments (12)
My take on Sinema, sent to the Times last night:
Many define themselves oppositionally (the computer tells me I made that one up) because it's so much easier than figuring out who you are. what you stand for and then taking responsibility for what you believe.
I'm not sure who I am, they think, but I know I'm not my father--or mother--or him or her: An ego defined entirely by others, with little but a timid, quivering blob of id in the middle.
In a larger sense that's the whole Republican Party, seemingly happy to be defined almost totally by what it's against.
And regardless of party labels, that alone would make Senator Sinema very much one of them, a true Republican, wouldn't it?
Ken,
Methinks you’re being a wee bit hasty here. The Republican Party IS for some things:
Mass murder, unchecked gun violence.
Election rigging and voter suppression.
Religious control over personal choices in one’s life.
Racism and bigotry.
Ensuring the continued pampering of the already obscenely pampered.
The Big Lie, and a reg’lar tsunami of lies in varying sizes.
Authoritarianism.
Treason.
Now one could restate those pros in their con regalia, but they work so hard at these things it’s hard to say they’re just agin sumpthin’.
But you’re right about Sinema. I got through the first few sentences of your comment and thought “Gee, sounds just like a Republican!”
Hey guys, don't give KS any ideas!!!
50-50 is better than 49-50, says any bookie.
She might flounce off to the other side, but it is still operationally useful for her to have a (D) next to her name.
Remember back when The Affordable Care Act, or "Obamacare"
first came into play? What was the phrase Republicans came up
with? It was "death panels."
Well now, that phrase has returned to bite them in the ass. I.C.U.s
are filled to overflowing, and hospitals in some states have to decide
who dies in the waiting room or emergency.
Why aren't democrats bringing this up every chance they get.
The richest country in the world with the worst health care, or nearly
the worst.
Forrest,
And the cherry on the top of the death panel irony sundae is Palin's Alaska, where the Covid surge has rationed care in Alaska's hospitals...
I see Sinema, R's, and concentration of power; there's this: https://www.newstatesman.com/internet-social-media/2021/10/the-great-facebook-outage-of-2021-why-whatsapp-and-instagram-were-down-for-six-hours-yesterday. My take: the best-ish and brightest there at Facebook blew a fuse (or popped a circuit breaker) and when they went down into the root cellar to fix it, they then locked themselves out of the front door so they had to go round to the neighbor's to get the spare key. Be careful how much power you give self-anointed leaders.
Sinema - just go read her back story. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrsten_Sinema. Valedictorian at 16 and BYU grad at 18, MSW at 23, JD at 32, pHD at 36 according to my calculator. She wants to be a self-anointed leader. The problem with her is she's so bright academically that it has obscured her near sight in a halo of self-rectitude - see LDS, Mormon upbringing. Think Jeff Flake, only smarter.
Brookings has a good, timely, topical exposition of what is involved in the reconciliation process, in general and in reference to current activity.
https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/02/05/what-is-reconciliation-in-congress/
Near the end is a discussion of "the Byrd Rule", which probably will be the means for Rs to bedevil the President once the D's decide to move a reconciliation bill to the senate. You will be hearing a lot about "Byrd droppings" in the next few weeks. Worth the read.
And I was wondering whether she could actually pee in that stall, when outside it, were angry women yelling at her. Under normal circumstances this kind of thing, I would think, would rarely take place. In many films bad stuff goes on in male bathrooms but rarely do we see that taking place in the other gender's––although I could be wrong about that.
I'm inclined to go with Marie on this one: Watching a few clips from some years ago when she was running for senator she presented as a liberal in her messaging and looked like a fair, young, serious candidate. Something grabbed her along the way–-money?–––and propelled her headlong into this "I vant to be alone" film star persona. If she needs attention she certainly has succeeded but I'm hoping her days of pink hair and pertinacity will soon come to an end. More stall confrontations might just do it.
And speaking of women rallying round––this time out on the streets in almost every state huge crowds marched in favor of abortion rights holding signs that shouted out their protest. Meanwhile the Supremes begin their season –––did they hear the cries outside?
And mentioning the Catholic consortium on this court did they happen to read the latest sexual abuse cases brought to light in France by priests and other church officials?
Let us pray–- say, but let us prey–– on little children who will carry this stigma for the rest of their lives!!!!
Here's the link to the French abuse scandal investigation:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/world/europe/france-catholic-church-abuse.html
Replying to Ken and Akhilleus:
It's worth remembering that the Ds agree with the Rs about almost everything. See the Nader piece linked below for a refresher on that subject. As for Manchinema, with the aid of almost all mainstream comment and reporting, they serve the function of carrying off the blame for obstructing any change that might empower the poor/worker class or threaten the rule of wealth. The many, many D senators who fully agree that nothing fundamental should change are most grateful to Manchin and Sinema. Their services will be well rewarded.
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/10/ralph-nader-while-americans-sleep-our-corporate-overlords-make-progress-impossible.html
From Jimmy Kimmel last night:
"Trump is apparently upset that the Taliban is allowed to have a
Twitter account, but he is not. The fact that you've been determined
to be more dangerous than the Taliban is kinda all you need to know."
Yesterday someone on tv pointed out that this year is the first time that Sinema has been in the majority coalition. So this is the first time her party's actually had a chance to pass their agenda. And apparently she has not voted with her party more than 75% of the time she has been in politics. It would have been nice if the Democrats in Arizona could have warned us all that Sinema doesn't know how to play well with others.