The Commentariat -- September 11, 2021
The New York Times is live-updating 9/11 memorial events 7 remembrances. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Guardian's liveblog is here.
My deepest sympathy to those affected directly and indirectly by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. As horrible as they were, the attacks seem less significant now that some 25 percent of Americans, including their elected leaders, have commenced upon a second civil war in which they wantonly, knowingly and with malice kill some 1,500 of their fellow Americans every day and in which some continue to plot to take over the government by force so that they may preserve their own "freedoms" at the expense of the rest of us. -- Marie
Paul Krugman: "... that golden moment of unity [many claim enveloped the U.S. right after 9/11] never existed; it’s a myth, one that we need to stop perpetuating if we want to understand the dire current state of American democracy. The truth is that key parts of the American body politic saw 9/11, right from the beginning, not as a moment to seek national unity but as an opportunity to seize domestic political advantage. And this cynicism in the face of the horror tells us that even at a time when America truly was under external attack, the biggest dangers we faced were already internal. The Republican Party wasn’t yet full-on authoritarian, but it was willing to do whatever it took to get what it wanted, and disdainful of the legitimacy of its opposition. That is, we were well along on the road to the Jan. 6 putsch — and toward a G.O.P. that has, in effect, endorsed that putsch and seems all too likely to try one again." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
2020 -- The Most Hate Crimes Since 2001. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The state of Ohio said it has sent an updated tally of hate crimes to the FBI that would dramatically increase the nationwide total for 2020 to 8,305, the most since 2001 and third-highest since the federal government began tracking such data nearly three decades ago. The FBI issued its annual hate crimes report Aug. 30 and said it had tallied 7,759 incidents. But Ohio reported just 34 bias crimes, less than 10 percent of the previous year, which state officials now attribute to a technical glitch. The state’s new figures show that 580 hate crimes were reported last year, according to Bret Crow, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, representing a 41 percent increase over 2019."
** As We Were Leaving.... Matthieu Aikins, et al., of the New York Times: “It was the last known missile fired by the United States in its 20-year war in Afghanistan, and the military called it a 'righteous strike' — a drone attack ... on Aug. 29 against a vehicle that American officials thought contained an ISIS bomb and posed an imminent threat to troops at Kabul’s airport. But a New York Times investigation of video evidence, along with interviews with more than a dozen of the driver’s co-workers and family members in Kabul, raises doubts about the U.S. version of events.... Times reporting has identified the driver as Zemari Ahmadi, a longtime worker for a U.S. aid group. The evidence suggests that his travels that day actually involved transporting colleagues to and from work. And an analysis of video feeds showed that what the military may have seen was Mr. Ahmadi and a colleague loading canisters of water into his trunk to bring home to his family. While the U.S. military said the drone strike might have killed three civilians, Times reporting shows that it killed 10, including seven children, in a dense residential block.” ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post has a more cautious report on the same subject.
Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security flagged 44 Afghan evacuees as potential national security risks during the past two weeks as the government screened tens of thousands for resettlement in the United States, according to DHS vetting records reviewed by The Washington Post. Of the more than 60,000 evacuees who have arrived on U.S. soil since Aug. 17, the lists show 13 Afghans remain in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody awaiting additional screening and review procedures, including interviews with FBI and counterterrorism teams. Another 15 evacuees who were considered security concerns have been turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), sent back to transit sites in Europe or the Middle East, or in some cases approved for release after additional review. There are 16 Afghans on the DHS lists who have not been cleared to travel and remain overseas at the transit sites U.S. officials call 'lily pads.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Uh, Wow! Betsy Swan of Politico: “Just two days before armed rioters stormed and ransacked the Capitol, about 300 law enforcement officials got on a conference call to talk about the possibility that Donald Trump’s supporters would turn violent on Jan. 6. They specifically discussed the possibility that the day’s gatherings would turn into a mass-casualty event, and they made plans on how to communicate with each other if that happened.... The extent of the FBI’s awareness that the rally by Trump backers could turn violent raises fresh questions about why national security and law enforcement officials didn’t do more to protect the Capitol on that volatile day. A few days after the riot, a top FBI official told reporters that the Bureau 'did not have intelligence suggesting the pro-Trump rally would be anything more than a lawful demonstration,' according to The Washington Post. But the call summary shows that hundreds of officials at fusion centers around the country in fact saw the threat coming....” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kevin Williamson of the (right-wing) National Review, in a New York Times op-ed: "What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6 ... was half of a coup attempt — the less important half. The more important part of the coup attempt — like legal wrangling in states and the attempts to sabotage the House commission’s investigation of Jan. 6 — is still going strong. These are ... parts of a unitary phenomenon that, in just about any other country, would be characterized as a failed coup d’état.... The attempted coup’s foot soldiers have dug themselves in at state legislatures.... [Their] obviously political object is to legitimize the 2020 coup attempt in order to soften the ground for the next one — and there will be a next one. In the broad strategy, the frenzied mobs were meant to inspire terror — and obedience among Republicans — while Rudy Giuliani and his co-conspirators tried to get the election nullified on some risible legal pretext or another.... When it comes to a coup, you’re either in or you’re out. The Republican Party is leaning pretty strongly toward in."
Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: “A Soviet-born businessman who assisted Rudolph W. Giuliani in his Ukrainian political efforts on behalf of ... Donald Trump pleaded guilty Friday to violating campaign finance laws, as others charged in the case prepare to stand trial. Igor Fruman, 56, who was arrested with co-defendant Lev Parnas at Dulles International Airport in 2019, entered a guilty plea to one count of soliciting foreign campaign contributions and is expected to be sentenced Jan. 21 by U.S. District Court Judge J. Paul Oetken. Prosecutors previously said there were two wire transfers from a Russian national totaling $1 million — in September and October 2018 — given with the expectation that the money would be donated to politicians in states where Fruman and his business associates believed they could get retail marijuana licenses. In federal court in Manhattan, Fruman admitted to knowing he could not make donations to candidates in U.S. elections on behalf of a foreign national.... Fruman’s attorney, Todd Blanche, said in a statement after the court appearance that his client 'is not cooperating with the government....'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sarah Nir &
Capitalism Is Scary. Elizabeth Dwoskin & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Facebook executives have been meeting with senior Biden administration officials in recent weeks as the social media giant tries to assuage concerns about its controversial cryptocurrency project, but the effort is running into some of the same fears from regulators that have plagued it for more than two years. Despite rebranding and overhauling the project — which aims to establish a global network for instantaneous payments — Facebook and its partners still face scrutiny from some Treasury Department officials who feel the plans could undermine the stability of the financial system, according to two people briefed on the deliberations.... Government officials are concerned that the proposed new network — an independent association backed by Facebook that is now known as Diem — could proliferate and then threaten the broader economy if its value crashed.... Though Diem is formally independent, its association with Facebook compounds the risk because Facebook has the ability to scale its products to billions of people all over the world." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I think pretty much everything Facebook does is alarming, and messing with currency would top that list. Governments around the world are bad enough; allowing a private company to run the world -- which seems to be Facebook's aim -- is intolerable.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Apoorva Mandavilli & Just a day after President Biden issued broad mandates aimed at encouraging American workers to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, federal health officials released new data showing that unvaccinated Americans are 11 times as likely as vaccinated people to die of Covid-19. Three large studies, published on Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also highlighted the effectiveness of the shots at preventing infection and hospitalizations with the virus. The research underscored a deep conviction among scientists that vaccine hesitancy and refusal have prolonged the pandemic." An Axios item is here.
Anabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "Republican leaders are blasting President Biden’s sweeping new coronavirus vaccine mandates for businesses and federal workers, decrying them as unconstitutional infringements on personal liberties and promising to sue. Biden took not-so-thinly-veiled swipes at Republican politicians in his address on Thursday outlining his plan to mandate immunization for federal employees and contractors, as well as health-care workers in facilities that treat patients on Medicare or Medicaid. Biden aims to require businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate vaccinations or test their employees weekly." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Max Boot of the Washington Post: “If there was any doubt about the necessity of President Biden’s expanded vaccine mandate for millions of Americans, it was dispelled by the hyperbolic Republican reaction to his Thursday announcement. 'Republicans explode with fury,' noted Fox 'News' Channel. Republican governors threatened to file suit to stop what Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) called 'this blatantly unlawful overreach.' Fox News accused Biden of being 'an authoritarian' and declaring 'war on millions of Americans.' Breitbart claims he went 'full totalitarian' and the Federalist called it a 'fascist move.' Blinded by partisanship and populism, Republicans have lost all perspective.... The Republican reaction to [Biden's] sensible mandate shows that much of the right is beyond the reach of reason. It is now time to use federal power to protect the most basic of civil rights — the right to life.” Boot does quite a good job of running through Republicans' hypocrisy & inanity on vaccines. ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: “On Friday, facing accusations from Republicans of an abuse of power and threats of lawsuits, [President] Biden had a simple retort. 'Have at it,' he said. The right of government to impose vaccines has been established since at least 1904, when the Supreme Court issued a 7-to-2 ruling that Cambridge, Mass., could require all adults to be vaccinated against smallpox. But more recent cases — including the first Supreme Court ruling on the Affordable Care Act — call into question whether Mr. Biden or any president could simply order all Americans to get shots. That is not what Mr. Biden is doing. By requiring that companies maintain safe workplaces through vaccination, legal experts said Friday that the president was relying on the federal government’s well-established constitutional power to regulate commerce and the 51-year-old law establishing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Politico's story is here.
Reid Epstein & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "After President Biden resisted comprehensive vaccine mandates for months, his forceful steps on Thursday to pressure the 80 million unvaccinated Americans to get their shots put him squarely on the side of what had been a fairly quiet but increasingly frustrated majority: vaccinated Americans who see the unvaccinated as selfishly endangering others and holding the country back.... Now, by taking direct aim at the unvaccinated and Republican officials who encourage or condone vaccine refusal, Mr. Biden is returning to a central posture of his campaign, casting himself as a sober voice on behalf of science and reason standing up to an angry and conspiratorial minority."
Florida. Lori Rozsa & Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "An appeals court on Friday sided with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, reinstating for now his ban on mask mandates in the state’s public schools while a lawsuit over the issue moves through the courts. The decision by the First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee reversed a decision by Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper that had temporarily allowed school districts to enforce their mask rules as the court looks at the substance of a lawsuit filed by parents. Also Friday, the [federal] Education Department said its Office for Civil Rights is investigating whether Florida was violating the rights of students with disabilities who are at heightened risk of severe illness from the coronavirus by preventing school districts from requiring masks. The department has opened similar probes in Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Utah." CNN's story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
Louisiana. Sophie Kasakove &
Harvard University has announced that it 'does not intend' to make any future investments in fossil fuels, and is winding down its legacy investments because, the university’s president, Lawrence S. Bacow, said in an email to the Harvard community, 'climate change is the most consequential threat facing humanity.' The announcement, sent out on Thursday, is a major victory for the climate change movement, given Harvard’s $42 billion endowment and prestigious reputation, and a striking change in tone for the school, which has resisted putting its full weight behind such a declaration during years of lobbying by student, faculty and alumni activists. Since last year, the activism has succeeded in getting four pro-divestment candidates elected to Harvard’s Board of Overseers.... Divestment battles are based on the idea that university endowments, being tax-free, have an obligation to pay attention to the public good, and that huge endowments like Harvard’s may be instruments for change.”
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Reader Comments (13)
A BUNCH OF BABIES:
Let's say little Timmy refuses to take a medicine for his terrible cough–-throws a fit–-spits it out, stamps his feet and retreats to his room. Mother, at her wits end, ends up putting the medicine in something sweet and mushy so little Timmy will get what he needs to cure his cough. Unfortunately we can't accomplish this with the grownups who refuse to get vaccinated, acting like little children who rail against being "made" to do something to help themselves and in this case others.
Last night, tossing and turning, and thinking about this matter, I thought of the best way to degrade someone–-not by severe criticism ( obviously this hasn't budged GOPee-ers) but making fun of them–-a humiliating put down ( think "Springtime for Hitler") The Lincoln Project has done this on occasion and would love to see them do something like "The Triplets", an act in the musical "Bandwagon." Here's the video of that marvelous act–-put all those Republican naysayers in rompers, stamping their widdle feets and railing against Biden's overreach-- would be a gas!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjW_yvrC0cE
And good news re: Harvard's stance on divestment. On this day of remembering the worst it helps to find those glimmers of something we once called hope.
And from yesterday: Elizabeth: thanks for telling us about your brother's part in the documentary–-it was moving and deeply sad.
"I think pretty much everything Facebook does is alarming". One of my favorites is FB keeps track of when you erase something you've written, yet haven't yet posted and decide to delete. They (and I'm sure the Googles) analyze why you change your mind. Now, if they could do that in service of building "a more perfect union" they might have a leg to stand on.
Apparently Republicans don't really care if thousands more die. It
will make Biden look bad with the mid term elections coming up.
That's obviously all they care about, power and more power and to
hell with the rest of us.
If millions more get vaccinated, the economy might improve and
thousands more may not die and the hospital ICUs might not be
overloaded. That would make Biden a hero and we certainly
can't have that, so let's rail against everything he tries to do to
improve things.
What a bunch of a__holes!
Don't have time to research it this AM, but my sense is that contrasting the import and effects of the run of executive orders issued by President Biden to those scrawled by his predecessor would serve as an accurate litmus test of what the two presidencies are all about.
Orders designed to help and heal people and the planet.
And, on the former hand, orders designed to hurt people and destroy the planet.
Marie said yesterday that Republicanism is is a pathology, not a philosophy...
If more proof were needed that such is the case (it's probably not), contrasting the executive orders of Biden and the Pretender would provide it.
Maybe Milbank could write the column.
PD,
The Triplets bit in “The Bandwagon” is one the best moments in what might be considered the best American musical. Comparison of the colicky babies to contemporary confederates is even more apt when one recalls that the dilemma posed by having their freeedoms taken away by the circumstance of them being together prompts a very, er, severe response. Here’s the line about how they all get sick when one of them gets sick:
“If one of us gets the measles
Then another one gets the measles
Then all of gets the measles and mumps and croup”
Yup. Even little babies recognize the problem of contagious diseases. And then here’s their solution, a particularly Republican solution, by the way:
“How I wish I had a gun, a little gun
It would be fun to shoot the other two and only be one”
The only difference now is that a “little gun” won’t do. No, the most important part of the Constitution, for them, demands that they all have AK’s. Lots of ‘em.
From the mouths of babes…
Call for rewrite!
CNN posted some of the most iconic images from that day 20 years ago when we were attacked even though the Decider was warned it was coming. His response? Go fishing.
But the image that is just as chilling and anger inducing is the one of him sitting in a classroom in Florida, being told “America is under attack”. His response? Let’s read “The Pet Goat”, with a look of absolute panic on his face.
However, never ones to miss an opportunity to rewrite history in their favor, Bush’s deer in the headlights, I just shit my pants look is now being reinterpreted as the face of heroism. I kid you not.
Andy Card, who delivered the message (Dubya had already been told of the first plane hitting one of the towers, the location of a previous terrorist attack) now sez that the Decider wanted to project a calm demeanor and not “scare the children”. He then claims that Bush got up a couple minutes later and left. Except it wasn’t a couple of minutes. It was seven long minutes while he sat there looking scared and stoopid. Check out the video. Is that a face that projects calmness?
In Hitchcock’s film “Rear Window”, the murderer is slipped a note saying “I know what you did”. When asked what his reaction was, the ever wonderful Thelma Ritter pipes up “Well it wasn’t the sort of a look that would get you a quick loan at the bank”.
Exactly the look on The Decider’s face. All of us with kids (and most who don’t have them) know about a dozen ways to extract yourself quickly without “scaring the kids”. Sitting there for seven minutes while shit is blowing up is not on the list.
The other images from that day that we never got to see were Bush turning tail and flying as fast as he could in the opposite direction from the terror attacks, and Tough Guy Cheney running to his hidey-hole.
The ass ends of heroes, I guess.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, as I remember, nobody (except, I hope, the Secret Service) seemed to know where Bush was for a while. Of course, Andy Card didn't wrap himself in glory that day, either. He could have whispered to Bush what had happened, as he did, then immediately & calmly told the rapt "Pet Goat" audience, "Sorry, kids, President Bush has some other important presidential duties to take care of right now. Your teacher, Mrs. McGillicuddy, will finish reading you the story. Thanks, kids. The President will say goodbye to you now." (Whispers to Dubya): "Say goodbye, Mr. President."
I wouldn't be surprised if some advisor had urged Card to do just that and he forgot. When the boss is a bit of a nincompoop, it's up to his chief of staff to help him out & cover his ass. Card did nothing but scare Bush silly.
Thelma Ritter was so good. She made you think she wrote her own wisecracks.
The Republicans told us all last year exactly how they would handle the pandemic with a Democrat in the White House. The kings of projection whined about how the democrats were tanking the economy to hurt the former guy and his election chances. In reality democrats were just trying to protect people. Now on the other side the GOP are actively trying to hurt the country to help their political chances. I can guarantee that if the GOP ever became pro gun control the first thing they would do would be to go door to door confiscating everyone's guns. That is also why they are so scared of minorities. If the shoe ever got on the other foot the conservatives would be hunting down the former oppressors. In almost every situation they tell us what They would do if the roles were ever reversed. Last year their projection told us that they would try to prolong the pandemic to hurt their enemies and tank the economy to help their political outcomes. And that is exactly what they have done.
M.B. says " When the boss is a bit of a nincompoop, it's up to his chief of staff to help him out & cover his ass?" Except when that very C.of S. is also a bit of a nincompoop. I have listened to Andy Card for years and he's always putting a velvet throw around his Bush Boss and the rest of the crew. I keep waiting for just a teensy weensy critique on the Bush brigade but I ain't heard nothin yet. Loyal to a fault, one might say.
@AK: Don't you just love films that speak that thing called "truthiness" –-sometimes with just a gesture and a few remarks.
Here's to "My Pet Goat" and all those children who were smart enough to realize something bad had happened.
Like many of you, I suspect, I'm avoiding as much 9/11 media stuff as I can today. Earlier this week Michael Moore https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/bin-laden-won?r=r3xj3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email&utm_source=copy
"In The End, Bin Laden Won
He couldn’t have done it without us" pretty much sums up my thinking over the past 20 years. He connects many dots from the Patriot act to abortion and climate disaster.
Like MB and others, I mourn those freedoms that we've lost to the "freedumb" folks. Among other things, today I'm mourning the loss of freedom to enjoy summer and fall to the ravages of climate disaster. The smoke from the California fires that has gone on most of the summer and shows no signs of letting up makes even walking my grand daughter home from school a health hazard. When will enough of us learn to connect the dots and act?
More invented history…
So I think i mentioned recently that the gym I work out in has an over abundance of lying bullshit (aka Faux) on their TV screens. In fact, there are no other real news channels shown. Only Faux. I asked if they could change the channel to something else (I’d even prefer douchebag cooking show assholes to Faux) but was told that no one wanted any factual news.
Anyway, yesterday I noticed that the back wall of the gym now has a giant American flag with the names of the thirteen service members killed in Kabul last week emblazoned on smaller flags. The reason?
Joe Biden murdered them.
This is the thinking in red states.
But here are the totals of human beings killed by Bush’s War of Choice in Afghanistan, from the Cost of War Project, via the AP:
American service members killed in Afghanistan through April: 2,448.
U.S. contractors: 3,846.
Afghan national military and police: 66,000.
Other allied service members, including from other NATO member states: 1,144.
Afghan civilians: 47,245.
Taliban and other opposition fighters: 51,191.
Aid workers: 444.
Journalists: 72.
And that’s just Afghanistan. Killed and wounded numbers in Iraq, a country that had NOTHING to do with 9/11 are even higher. No flags on the wall for any of them.
And the number of extreme terrorists committed to killing Americans has grown exponentially. Thank you, Dubya.
But as far as Right Wing World is concerned, the millions killed, wounded, displaced, and weaponized against the US are a pittance compared to the thirteen casualties they blame Biden for.
Oh, and yesterday, I heard some slimy piece of shit being interviewed by Neil Cavuto on Faux Business, declaring that 9/11 was all Biden’s fault (and other evil Democrats). Some bullshit about how they supposedly knew all about the attack and did nothing, then tried to blame Bush for everything.
Instead of demanding proof of such an outrageous claim, Cavuto shook his head.
This is what passes for journalism in Traitor World.
More revisionist history.
More on that later.
@Ak: for a more complete catalogue of how our media have failed us, and not just in the current era:
https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/10/remember-their-crimes-forget-ours/
@Akhilleus: You should print out those stats and discreetly tape it up next to the flag the next time you go to the gym. I doubt if the page will stay posted long, of course.