The Commentariat -- October 8, 2021
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Zeke Miller & Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Friday issued the first-ever presidential proclamation of Indigenous Peoples' Day, lending the most significant boost yet to efforts to refocus the federal holiday celebrating Christopher Columbus toward an appreciation of Native peoples. The day will be observed Oct. 11, along with Columbus Day, which i established by Congress. While Native Americans have campaigned for years for local and national days in recognition of the country's indigenous peoples, Biden's announcement appeared to catch many by surprise."
Mr. Biden Regrets He's Unable to Cover Your Ass. Tom Hamburger, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden rejected ... Donald Trump's request to block documents from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the White House said on Friday, likely setting up a legal and political battle. Trump has claimed executive privilege in seeking to evade the committee's demands for details about Trump and his aides' activities during the Jan. 6 attack. But in the letter to the National Archives and Records Administration, the White House said Biden 'determined that an assertion of executive privilege is not in the best interests of the United States.' Trump responded with a letter of his own Friday that formally claimed executive privilege over about 50 documents requested by the select committee. At a White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden decision reflected the gravity of the attack.... Biden's decision on Friday came after former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon told the House committee that he cannot comply with the panel's sweeping request for documents and testimony. But the committee said two other Trump advisers -- former chief of staff Mark Meadows and national security aide Kash Patel -- are 'engaging with the committee.'..." The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to legal experts who have appeared on CNN & MSNBC, all Trump's claims to executive privilege, real and imagined, ended on January 20 at noon. Bannon, who hasn't even had an administration job since 2017 is, of course, full of it. And frankly, my dear, I think the DOJ is compelled to bring conspiracy charges against Trump and that self-aggrandizing twerp Jeffrey Clark, at the very least. ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot threatened on Friday to pursue criminal charges against Stephen K. Bannon, the former chief strategist to ... Donald J. Trump, for refusing to comply with its subpoena, announcing it would consider initiating criminal contempt of Congress proceedings. In a statement after Mr. Bannon informed the panel that he would not cooperate in the inquiry, the panel's leaders [-- Reps. Bennie Thompson & Liz Cheney --] said they would 'swiftly consider' the contempt referral, raising the prospect of what could be a prolonged legal battle over what could be crucial evidence in the investigation." MB: Time to clear out the perhaps-mythical cell in the Capitol crypt and fit it with a cot & a bucket.
Rachel Reads the News. Marie: Rachel Maddow did a great job Thursday of reading from the Democratic Senators' report on Trump's January 6 coup attempt. The full show is here, and it begins with the reading. However, I'm not sure you'll be able to access the link, since it may be specific to my IP address. If you can't access it with that link and you get MSNBC through your ISP, link on the show's general page (here), then click on "Full Episodes," and follow the instructions from there. If neither of those works for you, there may be some pirated copies of the show on YouTube. Rachel's reading is worth going to a little trouble to watch, as she gives a very good sense of the report's findings & what they say about the coup-plot participants.
Even When Trump Uses Corrupt Practices to Prop up His Businesses, He Fails. Jonathan O'Connell & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's luxury Washington hotel lost more than $70 million while he was in office despite reaping millions in payments from foreign governments, according to federal documents released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Friday. The committee, chaired by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), released hundreds of pages of financial documents on the property Friday that it received from the General Services Administration, the agency that leased the federally owned property to Trump's company beginning in 2013. Maloney and Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) allege the documents show that Trump received an estimated $3.7 million from foreign governments and received preferential treatment from Deutsche Bank when the bank allowed Trump to defer payments for six years on the principal of the property's $170 million loan. The findings 'raise new and troubling questions about former President Trump's lease with GSA and the agency's ability to manage the former President's conflicts of interest during his term in office when he was effectively on both sides of the contract, as landlord and tenant,' the two Democrats said in a news release." The AP's story is here. MB: Worst U.S. President*, Failed Businessman, Horrible Human Being. ~~~
~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump hid losses of more than $70m at his eponymous Washington DC hotel while he was in the White House, House Democrats said on Friday.... According to the House committee [on oversight]: 'On his federally mandated financial disclosures, President Trump reported that the Trump Hotel earned him over $150m in revenue during his time in office. However, the records obtained by the committee show that the Trump Hotel actually incurred net losses of over $70m, leading the former president's holding company to inject at least $24m to aid the struggling hotel. By filing these misleading public disclosures, President Trump grossly exaggerated the financial health of the Trump Hotel. He also appears to have concealed potential conflicts of interest stemming not just from his ownership of this failing business but also from his roles as the hotel's lender and the guarantor of its third-party loans.' The committee said that in 2018 Trump received preferential treatment from Deutsche Bank, which allowed him to delay payments on a $170m loan."
Andrew Desiderio & Lara Seligman of Politico: "The U.S. government's investigation into the mysterious illnesses impacting American personnel overseas and at home is turning up new evidence that the symptoms are the result of directed-energy attacks, according to five lawmakers and officials briefed on the matter. Behind closed doors, lawmakers are also growing increasingly confident that Russia or another hostile foreign government is behind the suspected attacks, based on regular briefings from administration officials -- although there is still no smoking gun linking the incidents to Moscow. The National Security Council has recently been convening more frequent high-level meetings on the topic, according to a current and a former official with direct knowledge -- a sign that the government's review is accelerating." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If compelling evidence emerges, the perps should be marched off to the Hague. This is torture.
When the Ordinary Privileges of Wealth Are Not Enough. Alanna Richer of the AP: "Two wealthy parents were convicted Friday of buying their kids' way into school as athletic recruits in the first case to go to trial in the college admissions cheating scandal that embroiled prestigious universities across the country. Gamal Abdelaziz, a former casino executive, and John Wilson, a former Staples Inc. executive, were found guilty after about 10 hours of deliberations in the case that exposed a scheme to get undeserving applicants into college by falsely portraying them as star athletes."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here.
Afghanistan. Samya Kullab & Tameem Akhgar of the AP: "An Islamic State suicide bomber struck at a mosque packed with Shiite Muslim worshippers in northern Afghanistan on Friday, killing at least 46 people and wounding dozens in the latest security challenge to the Taliban as they transition from insurgency to governance. In its claim of responsibility, the region's IS affiliate identified the bomber as a Uygher Muslim, saying the attack targeted both Shiites and the Taliban for their purported willingness to expel Uyghers to meet demands from China. The statement was carried by the IS-linked Aamaq news agency. The blast tore through a crowded mosque in the city of Kunduz during Friday noon prayers...."
~~~~~~~~~~~
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Biden is expected to announce on Friday that he will use his executive authority to restore sweeping environmental protections to three major national monuments that had been stripped away by ... Donald J. Trump, according to two people familiar with the matter. Mr. Biden will reinstate and slightly expand the original 1.3 million acre boundaries of Bears Ears National Monument, and restore the original 1.8 million acre boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante, two rugged and pristine expanses in Utah that are defined by red rock canyons, rich wildlife and archaeological treasures. He will also restore protections covering the Atlantic Ocean's first marine monument, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts, an expanse of sea canyons and underwater mountains off the New England coast. Mr. Trump had href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/04/us/trump-bears-ears.html">sharply reduced the size of all three national monuments at the urging of ranchers, the fishing industry and many Republican leaders, opening them to mining, drilling and development." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If I were Biden, I would commandeer an aircraft carrier, hang a huge "Mission Accomplished" banner across it, call up the Marine Band & race out upon the bounding New England coastal waters to make the announcement. It's a PR stunt that works so well for presidents.
Julian Borger & Helen Davidson of the Guardian: "The US has been secretly maintaining a small contingent of military trainers in Taiwan for at least a year, according to a new report [by the Wall Street Journal], the latest sign of the rising stakes in US-China rivalry.... [Prior to their deployment during the Trump administration,] US troops have not been permanently based on the island since 1979, whe Washington established diplomatic relations with the People's Republic of China.... China's foreign ministry issued a statement urging the US to stop military aid to Taiwan."
Congratulations to the U.S. Senate. The gentleladies & gentlemen of the Greatest Deliberative Body on Earth have managed, at the very last minute, to avert a worldwide financial catastrophe of the Senate's own making -- for a period of up to six weeks, before which they will create another world financial crisis. Next up: the House. ~~~
~~~ Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The Senate passed legislation on Thursday to raise the debt ceiling through early December, after a small cluster of Republicans temporarily put aside their objections and allowed action to stave off the threat of a first-ever federal default. The action came the day after Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, partly backed down from his blockade on raising the debt limit, offering a temporary reprieve as political pressure mounted to avoid being blamed for a fiscal calamity. But the fragile deal to move ahead was in doubt until the very end, with some Republicans reluctant to drop their objections. Mr. McConnell and his top deputies labored into the evening on Thursday to persuade enough members to clear the way for a vote. Ultimately, 11 Republicans joined every Democrat in voting to take up the bill, clearing the 60-vote threshold needed to break the G.O.P. filibuster. The final vote was 50 to 48, with Democrats unanimously in support and Republicans united in opposition. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, said the House would return on Tuesday to take up the bill." This is an update of a story also linked yesterday afternoon. ~~~
~~~ Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "The Senate approved a short-term debt ceiling fix on Thursday night, bringing Congress a huge step closer to staving off an economic debacle until December. The two-month patch overcame a Senate GOP filibuster, 61-38, then passed with all Democratic votes. The action followed a furious bout of GOP whipping to ensure at least 10 Senate Republicans would allow the bill to advance, giving Democrats the ability to clear the measure with a simple majority threshold." This is an update of a story also linked yesterday.
Former President* Bankrupto Furious Mitch Didn't Tank Your 401K. Felicia Sonmez & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Thursday's debt-limit deal has prompted a new round of attacks on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell by ... Donald Trump and his supporters.... Looks like Mitch McConnell is folding to the Democrats, again,' Trump said in a statement.... 'He's got all of the cards with the debt ceiling, it's time to play the hand. Don't let them destroy our Country!'" MB: I'm not sure Trump is intelligent enough to know that in the nick of time, Mitch finally decided not to "destroy our country." In any event, it doesn't matter to Trump, because he doesn't care if he "destroys our country" if it vanquished a perceived enemy. ~~~
~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Republicans are in disarray after the GOP's Senate leader came to an agreement to raise the debt ceiling to prevent the federal government from defaulting on its debt.... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) blasted [Mitch] McConnell on the floor of the Senate." Trump's fair-weather friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was upset with McConnell, too.
Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued three new subpoenas Thursday, continuing its focus on those organizing rallies the day former President Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol. The subpoenas went to Nathan Martin and Ali Abdul Akbar, also known as Ali Alexander, and an affiliated corporation titled Stop the Steal LLC. Both men's names and contact information are listed on a permit application for the 'One Nation Under God' event, which sought to rally on 'the election fraud in the swing states.'"
Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has instructed his former aides not to comply with subpoenas from the special congressional committee investigating the Capitol riot, raising the prospect of the panel issuing criminal referrals for some of his closest advisers as early as Friday.... Mr. Trump's lawyer asked that witnesses not provide testimony or documents related to their 'official' duties, and instead to invoke any immunities they might have 'to the fullest extent permitted by law.' The House committee has ordered four former Trump administration officials -- Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff; Dan Scavino Jr., a deputy chief of staff; Stephen K. Bannon, an adviser; and Kash Patel, a Pentagon chief of staff -- to sit for depositions and furnish documents and other materials relevant to its investigation. They all faced a Thursday deadline to respond. Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the select committee, has threatened criminal referrals for witnesses who do not comply with the subpoenas, and said the panel expected witnesses 'to cooperate fully with our probe.'" Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Thursday's edition of CNN's 'The Lead,' Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) warned ... Donald Trump's allies that they cannot be pardoned anymore if they are prosecuted for contempt of Congress or obstruction."
~~~ BUT a Boost from DOJ. Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "A top career official in President Joe Biden's Justice Department blocked efforts by Senate investigators to probe the handling of voter fraud complaints in the aftermath of the 2020 election, according to transcripts released Thursday. As Senate Judiciary Committee aides investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election questioned top Trump-era Justice Department officials, a DOJ attorney present for the interviews intervened repeatedly to say such questions were outside the scope of the panel's inquiry. The official, DOJ attorney Bradley Weinsheimer -- a career official who has worked under attorneys general of both parties -- cited guidance he issued in July.... But his assertions drew repeated, and sometimes pointed, challenges from Judiciary Committee aides in both parties.... The Justice Department declined to comment, but [AG Merrick] Garland confirmed in an interview Monday that the DOJ is in regular contact with the White House on executive privilege issues related to investigations of former President Trump." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "A Senate report on ... Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election offers new details about an Oval Office confrontation between Trump and the Justice Department, revealing the extent to which government lawyers threatened to resign en masse if the president removed his attorney general. The interim report by the Senate Judiciary Committee was issued Thursday. While Republicans on the panel offered their counter-findings, arguing that Trump did not subvert the justice system to remain in power, the majority report by the Democrats offers the most detailed account to date of the struggle inside the administration's final, desperate days." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) CNN's report on the report is here. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post outlines "some key takeaways [front the Democrats' report].... Perhaps the report's biggest disclosure involves something we already knew a bit about: [DOJ attorney Jeffrey] Clark's willingness to be a pawn in Trump's effort to overturn the election.... [Acting AG Jeffrey] Rosen recounted that, at one point, Trump lamented his refusal to assist in not just questioning the election results but -- in Trump's own words -- 'overturning the election.' According to Rosen, Trump opened the [Jan. 3] meeting by saying, 'One thing we know is you, Rosen, aren't going to do anything to overturn the election.' A transcript of his testimony shows Rosen twice described Trump using that phrase.... This report doesn't land in a vacuum. In fact, next to several other recent disclosures, it demonstrates a clear and multifaceted effort to use any tool available to overturn the election." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Since previous news report revealed at least the outlines of most of the report's finding, perhaps the most shocking part is that Republican Senators dared to write a counter-report with subheadings like, "THE AVAILABLE EVIDENCE SHOWS THAT PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT USE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO OVERTURN THE ELECTION" and "PRESIDENT TRUMP DID NOT EXERT IMPROPER INFLUENCE ON THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT...." Right. ~~~
~~~ GOP: A Failed Illegal Plot Is Legal & Proper. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Sen. Charles "Grassley's [R-Iowa] report highlights the facts that Trump not only didn't ultimately fire Rosen and replace him with the loyalist Clark, as had been threatened, but that he also opted against releasing the letter Clark had drafted about supposed evidence of fraud in Georgia.... As with Ukraine, it wasn't because Trump had some attack of conscience; it's because the plot fell apart.... Trump was talked out of [carrying out the coup] not for moral reasons, but for practical, personal ones[.]... This plot was apparently very much set in motion.... Per Rosen's testimony..., [on] Jan. 3, '[Clark] told me ... that the President had decided to offer him [Rosen] the position [of attorney general], and he had decided to take it. So that I would be replaced that Sunday, and the Department would chart a different path.... So ... I told him, "Well, here's the thing, Jeff Clark, my subordinates don't get to fire me. So ... I'm going to contact the President and tell him I need to talk with him."'"
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "... As a pro-Trump mob grew in size and anger [on January 6], a man in a MAGA hat briefly spoke outside the building with the Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs. Minutes later, the man, Ryan Samsel, walked to the front of the crowd, turned his hat backward and started to shove aggressively at barricade. As others joined him, the barricade fell, knocking down a police officer and arguably setting off the ensuing riot. While the encounter between Mr. Biggs and Mr. Samsel was caught on video and is often thought of as a tipping point in the Capitol attack, little has been known about what the two men said to each other. For months, however..., the government has known Mr. Samsel's account of the exchange: He has told investigators that Mr. Biggs encouraged him to push at the barricades and that when he hesitated, the Proud Boys leader flashed a gun, questioned his manhood and repeated his demand to move upfront and challenge the police.... It is not clear whether the F.B.I. views Mr. Samsel as credible.... Mr. Biggs's lawyer, denied that his client was armed on Jan. 6 or that he sought to encourage Mr. Samsel to confront the police...."
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post wonders: "How dumb can a nation get and still survive? Idiotically, we seem determined to find out."
Sara Fischer of Axios: "Google and YouTube on Thursday announced a new policy that prohibits climate deniers from being able to monetize their content on its platforms via ads or creator payments.... It's one of the most aggressive measures any major tech platform has taken to combat climate change misinformation."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Eli Rosenberg & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "President Biden touted the effectiveness of workplace vaccine mandates and urged companies to begin instituting them on their own during a visit to the Chicago area Thursday as his administration rushed to create a federal rule that will require companies with more than 100 employees to institute vaccination or testing protocols among their staffs. Biden initially shied away from calling for coronavirus vaccine mandates but has fully embraced them with the coronavirus reignited in the country in recent months, hampering the economic rebound and his efforts to move past the pandemic. Since Biden began his for push for more workplace vaccine mandates, evidence that they effectively boost vaccination rates has piled up.... He called the vaccine requirements 'tough medicine' that he came around to only after seeing how many people refused to get vaccinated, amid rising caseloads across the country from the delta variant. Biden met with the chief executive of United Airlines, the first airline to institute a vaccine mandate for employees, and visited the worksite run by a construction company, Clayco, that recently announced a vaccine or testing requirement for its workers."
Heather Long & Andrew Van Dam of the Washington Post: "Millions of Americans have returned to work this year as health risks have subsided, but a full jobs rebound is a long way off, and the recovery so far has largely left behind Black Americans and workers without college degrees. The job losses for these groups are still worse than anything college-educated Americans ever experienced during the pandemic. The highly uneven recovery has been driven by long-standing problems in access to the Internet and child care, along with recent economic head winds: Hiring slowed sharply in August, supply chain issues have worsened, inflation remains high and consumer sentiment plunged in August and remains near its pandemic-era low."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: “Moderna said on Thursday that it planned to build a vaccine manufacturing facility in Africa, news that was welcomed for the long-term but that does not address the continent's immediate need for Covid-19 vaccines. The company said that a new 'state of the art' facility would eventually produce up to 500 million doses a year of Moderna's mRNA vaccine, which has shown an efficacy rate of more than 90 percent in preventing Covid-19. The plant will, in time, also produce other Moderna vaccines, the company said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Pfizer and BioNTech asked federa regulators on Thursday to authorize emergency use of their coronavirus vaccine for children ages 5 to 11, a move that could help protect more than 28 million people in the United States. The companies say they are submitting data supporting the change to the Food and Drug Administration. The agency has promised to move quickly on the request and has tentatively scheduled a meeting on Oct. 26 to consider it. A ruling is expected between Halloween and Thanksgiving." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. Lori Rozsa & Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "The tug of war between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and the Biden administration over mask mandates in schools escalated Thursday when the state Board of Education voted unanimously to penalize school districts that continue to require masks, a move the U.S. Department of Education warned could be illegal. The board found that eight districts were not in compliance with a new state law on parental rights and that they violated a recent state health department rule that says students exposed to the coronavirus cannot be ordered to quarantine if they are asymptomatic. School board members in the eight districts will have their salaries withheld."
Beyond the Beltway
** Florida. Jesse Wegman in a New York Times op-ed: "... more than 700,000 people in Florida ... are barred from voting because they can't afford the financial obligations stemming from a prior felony conviction.... Even as other states began reversing their own bans in recent years, Florida remained a holdout -- until 2018, when Floridians overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment restoring voting rights to nearly everyone with a criminal record, upon the completion of their sentence.... But within a year, Florida's Republican-led Legislature gutted the reform by passing a law defining a criminal sentence as complete only after the person sentenced has paid all legal financial obligations connected to it.... This isn't just Kafkaesque. It may well be the deciding factor in Florida elections: Donald Trump carried the state by roughly 370,000 votes in 2020, or about half the number of Floridians who are denied the right to vote because they can&'t afford to pay their fines and fees." Read on. It gets worse.
New York. Cuomo Hoped to Foist off Hochul on Biden. They Call her "Governor Hochul" Now. Josh Dawsey & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "Top aides to then-New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo sought a job in the Biden administration for then-Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul so they could remove her from the gubernatorial ticket ahead of his planned bid for a fourth term in 2022, according to multiple people.... Cuomo's office told Hochul early this year that they wanted her to leave the ticket so the governor could pick someone with a deeper political pull with minority communities ahead of what he expected to be a difficult campaign.... Hochul was considering ... [possible top jobs in the Biden administration] earlier this year, but the conversations with the White House tapered off this spring amid growing allegations about Cuomo's conduct and mounting scrutiny of his administration's reporting of nursing home deaths related to covid-19, the people said."
Oklahoma Gubernatorial Election. Brittany Shammas of the Washington Post: "Oklahoma's top public education official on Thursday switched her party affiliation to Democratic and announced a bid for governor, blasting Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.Joy Hofmeister, a lifelong member of the GOP first elected as state superintendent in 2014, stressed that her values have not changed and that her decision was not an easy one. But she said she was bothered by what she called Stitt's 'toothless health response.' She has previously broken with him over mask policies in schools."
Texas. Sabrina Tavernise & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "At least six clinics in Texas returned to performing abortions the day after a federal judge halted enforcement of the nation's most restrictive abortion measure, but a majority had not, a reflection of the power of the law the judge froze. The novel law, which banned most abortions in the state after cardiac activity is detected, about six weeks into pregnancy, continued to exert control over many clinics. Planned Parenthood, whose Texas affiliates operate seven centers that offer abortion services, said on Thursday that despite the ruling it was not carrying out abortions banned under the measure.... After weighing the risks, most of the state's abortion clinics -- there are about 24 across Texas -- decided not to resume abortions on women whose pregnancies exceeded six weeks because of another of the law's unique features: Clinics can be sued retroactively for up to four years for any abortions they provide while the measure is blocked." Emphasis added.
News Ledes
New York Times: Gary "Maynard, a criminology professor who specializes in deviancy, now sits in a Sacramento jail awaiting a hearing' on allegedly purposely setting a forest fire in the Sierra Nevadas.
CNBC: "The U.S. economy created jobs at a much slower than expected pace in September, a pessimistic sign about the state of the economy though the total was held back substantially by a sharp drop in government employment. Nonfarm payrolls rose by just 194,000 in the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate of 500,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate fell to 4.8%, better than the expectation for 5.1% and the lowest since February 2020." MB: Not sure this means jobs growth is bad or the "experts" are bad guesstimators.
Celebrate This, Duterte & Putin. AP: "Journalists Maria Ressa of the Philippines and Dmitry Muratov of Russia won the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their fight for freedom of expression in countries where media outlets have faced persistent attacks. The Norwegian Nobel Committee stressed that an independent press is vital in promoting peace. 'Free, independent and fact-based journalism serves to protect against abuse of power, lies and war propaganda,' said Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, explaining why the prize was awarded to two journalists." The New York Times liveblog that reports the awards is here.
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Reader Comments (13)
Marie,
Thanks for the “Citizen Kane” GIF. It offers coincidental relevance to contemporary mishigas (Mitchigas?).
The clip depicts Kane clapping determinedly, then furiously, as the curtain comes down on his second wife’s operatic debut, a dreadful performance he forced her into. Unable to take any more such abuse she attempts suicide, something many of us have likely contemplated during four plus years of Trumpian abuse.
The most prescient part of the film comes earlier as Kane’s run for governor is dashed by a revelation of marital infidelity. How quaint, adulterous behavior blocking the road to political triumph. Only in the movies, I guess.
Kane, who owns a powerful and influential chain of newspapers across the country (the character was loosely based in William Randolph Hearst, whose name made a recent appearance in this space), and as the election results roll in, the managing editor makes a decision about which of two pre-written headlines the paper would run: “Kane Wins!” or “Fraud at the Polls”. He goes the Big Lie route, natch, in order to appease the Boss.
Unlike Kane, Fatty does not die with a quizzical final word. Too bad. Although I’m guessing his last word might be “Me”. It’s really the only word that matters to him and his vicious supporters.
@Akhilleus: Not fair for you to right off the bat pick the "best word" for Trump's last word, without giving the rest of us a chance. I do think the last word could be "Trump."
On the Nobel Peace Prize, I wish at least one U.S. reporter had received an honorable mention for standing up to Trump -- maybe April Ryan or Yamiche Alcindor, both of whom trump has disparaged -- largely because they are women of color.
I was most pleased to learn that Biden has restored protection for those three national monuments. Some years ago the New Yorker had an extensive story about this–-how people in those areas were rallying round to stop Fatty from doing what he always did to the environment––something he did to almost everything he touched–-no Midas gold, but like a King who destroys in order to keep himself in power.
I have been speculating as to why there hasn't been more coverage on the shooting that took place at a Texas school this week. Have we come to the point where these shootings are par for the course? No biggie–--let's move on? If the Dems want to do something about gun control, I would think they best not put thi shooting and others on the back burner.
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post wonders: "How dumb can a nation get and still survive? Idiotically, we seem determined to find out."
BEST QUOTE OF THE DAY!!!!!!
Re: Chuck Grassley’s “report” on Republican senators’ “investigation” into Trump’s responsibility in the attempted overthrow of the government.
A Republican “investigation” into the legal, moral, and ethical wrongdoing of Donald Trump? Hang on…
Hahahahahahahahaha….
A knee slapper like you read about. Im guessing the gist of the “investigation” involved a double-headed coin. “Heads, he’s innocent of everything!” Okay. “Investigation” complete.
Heckuva job there, Chuck.
A sort of rant here:
At about this time a century ago, shortly after the Great War, we learned that "the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity."
Poets can't help writing their intuitive understandings: the rough beast of war and more war did run amok and came close to killing us all.
The shape moving its slow thighs now is our own psychology, manipulated and abused, so badly injured it can no longer protect us.
Blind and thrashing with rage and fright, we lunge toward our deaths. Ignoring the danger, we grab our screens, getting stoned on more rage, more fear - dismissing facts because they have no punch, no éclat, no popping primary colors, no blood.
And all because Zuck/fuck wants more money.
@Victoria: Amen to all that. But I still have my sense of humor to save me (at least most of the time).
For instance, a friend of mine is moving -- with her cat -- so I just wrote to her about (what I thought was) a funny incident that happened to my family and me long ago when we moved with our cat. With all the crap we face, there are escapes in laughter. And I did laugh (or at least chuckle) while writing of my memory of the cat incident (and managed -- until just now anyway -- not to break into my imitation of Betty Buckley singing "Memory" from, um, "Cats").
Humor is so important, Marie, thanks.
But I'm in a literary mood this morning, so here's something Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote in 1998:
"In a world that is buckling under the weight of profit-making, that is overrun by the destructive sirens of techno-science and the power-hunger of globalization -- that new brand of slavery -- beyond all that, friendship exists. Love exists."
Of course it sounds better in french.
So enjoyed the comments between Victoria and Marie and agree that humor is essential in dealing with our human endeavors and for some of us literature/poetry keeps our motor running and keeps us sane.
I had to laugh at mention of Betty Buckley who I was smitten with after seeing "Tender Mercies"–--a marvelous film–- and just lately have been listening to her rendition of "Old Friend" and sent it to an old friend whose love life is one botched beginning after another and she has an old male friend who is gay and facing same, and they "sit till two" and tell each other their sad stories :
"Love is rare, love is strange ---people change–--"
I have to go with his last word being "Trump" also; remember how he, most arrogantly and eccentrically, has in the past referred to himself in the third person...as if distancing himself from himself. Maybe he knows, despite clear mental problems, that he is a mess, always. I know that this report did put him in a bad light, but you know most of the plotlines were dreamed up by someone else, as he has zero knowledge about governing or government itself. I want to clap all of them in irons, and NOT give too much credit to those who threatened to resign etc. but did really nothing to bring the plots to the attention of people who could send out an SOS to...whom? Congress? All of this was so narrowly averted that I am still enraged, thinking how all of it is still going on, and we are all still in danger. He may be squatting in Marred-at-Lardo, but his accolytes in the states and congress are still sparking.
A visit to news.google.com - 72 stories; 15 by Fox and Murdoch rags; 8 stories by CNN. When I go and try to search "browser different rates for different news content" there's not much to see there. https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/legacy/NIELSEN-STUDY-Copy.pdf. My working premise is that Murdoch pays more because he knows enough to be 'top of the fold'. Saturation of the lie and the confirmation bias to repeat that lie are central to Rs SOP and good to keep in mind these days.
Who gives a rat's patoot what DiJiT's last word will be, and we can only hope that it is ignored.
But, we do know that it will be a lie.
Is the needle's eye widening?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/biden-declines-trump-request-withhold-white-house-records-jan-6-n1281120
Too bad 30-40% of the country will ignore the revelations the documents will contain about WH happenings on 1/6.
As will 100% of Republican leaders in Congress and out.
Maybe some new math can help us get the BBB bill across the finish line. According to their math the Trump taxes should have been described as a $5 trillion dollar package. Makes the $3.5 trillion for the American people sound unremarkable.
"The forthcoming budget reconciliation bill has been described by members of both political parties and in news reports as a $3.5 trillion spending bill. It isn’t. Such a description is inaccurate for several reasons.
First, the $3.5 trillion figure relates to the potential amount of spending increases and tax cuts, before offsetting savings are taken into account.
Second, the price tag for any bill — and a bill’s impact on deficits and debt — is the net of its cost-increasing measures, which can include both spending increases and tax cuts, and its offsetting savings — i.e., its spending reductions and tax increases.
The $3.5 trillion thus includes the cost of all of the spending increases and tax cuts without any of the offsetting prescription drug savings or tax increases."