The Commentariat -- September 24, 2021
Edgar Sandoval, et al., of the New York Times: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement has deported about 2,000 migrants in recent days on chartered flights to Haiti as the Biden administration tries to deter more people from rushing to the border. But the authorities have also permitted thousands more to travel to cities across America, where they may live for months or years as they await immigration hearings...." According to the WashPo story by Hudson& others linked below, each of those 2,000 refugees the U.S. dumped in Port au Prince were left to fend for themselves with nothing more than "a one-time $100 cash award, hygiene kits and the availability of on-site medical treatment if needed." ~~~
~~~ John Hudson, et al., of the Washington Post: "The U.S. special envoy for Haiti has quit his job in a blistering resignation letter.... 'Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,' Daniel Foote said in the letter addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday. 'I will not be associated with the United States inhumane, counterproductive decision to deport thousands of Haitian refugees and illegal immigrants to Haiti, a country where American officials are confined to secure compounds because of the dangers posed by armed gangs in control of daily life,' he said. Foote was named special envoy in July just weeks after the assassination of Haiti's president plunged the country into political turmoil. In another reaction to the Haitian immigration crisis, the administration announced Thursday it was suspending all horse patrols in the migrant camp at Del Rio, Tex.... [The State Department has taken] issue with Foote's version of events." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The AP's story is here. Foote's resignation letter is here, via Yamiche Alcindor of PBS. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Moustafa Bayoumi in the Guardian: "At the same time that it condemns the actions of its own law enforcement agency, the Biden administration has refused media access to the camp at Del Rio, invoked a Trump-era order (the rarely used public health law known as Title 42) to expel asylum seekers without review, and forcibly deported hundreds of Haitians in Texas -- many of whom left the country more than a decade ago, after its 2010 earthquake -- back to a country that is not only reeling from a massive earthquake last August but also from a political earthquake, the assassination of its president, last July.... It's one thing for the Biden administration to condemn abuses conducted by its own government that recall the worst parts of our national history. But it's quite another to do so while maintaining the policies that enable those abuses. That's not just cynical. It's despicable."
Our Man in Vienna -- Recalled. John Hudson & Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The CIA has removed its top officer in Vienna following criticism of his management, including what some considered an insufficient response to a growing number of mysterious health incidents at the U.S. Embassy there, according to current and former U.S. officials. The sidelining of the station chief in one of the largest and most prestigious CIA posts is expected to send a message that top agency leaders must take seriously any reports of 'Havana Syndrome,' the phenomenon named after the Cuban capital where U.S. diplomats and intelligence officers had first reported unusual and varied symptoms ... that started in 2016."
Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House budget office will tell federal agencies on Thursday to begin preparations for the first shutdown of the U.S. government since the pandemic began, as lawmakers on Capitol Hill struggle to reach a funding agreement. Administration officials stress the request is in line with traditional procedures seven days ahead of a shutdown and not a commentary on the likelihood of a congressional deal." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday morning announced that the Senate, House and White House have reached a deal on a 'framework' to pay for the massive human infrastructure spending package they hope to pass this fall under budget reconciliation.... [An] aide explained it's an understanding between Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) about what revenue-raising proposals are on the table for the upcoming negotiations.... The menu of revenue-raisers ;will be used as the template for negotiations with moderates such Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) on the reconciliation package and how to pay for it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alexander Bolton, et al., of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has signaled to colleagues in both chambers that she will not put the $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation package on the House floor for a vote until it's clear that it can also pass the 50-50 Senate.... Without a [Senate] deal in sight, there's no way the House will be ready to vote on the reconciliation package in time to move it next week along with the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package that passed the Senate on Aug. 10. That puts Pelosi in a tough spot, since she pledged last month to centrist House Democrats led by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) that the House would vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill by Sept. 27." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The House on Thursday approved its version of the annual defense authorization bill, giving a hefty bipartisan endorsement to open an independent investigation of U.S. failures in Afghanistan, require women to register for the draft and overhaul how the military prosecutes sex assault. The 316-to-113 vote in favor of the $768 billion measure -- $740 billion of which authorizes spending for the Pentagon, military operations and personnel and $28 billion of which goes to the Energy Department -- represents a rare moment of unity in a Congress otherwise riven with partisan rancor over questions of budgeting. It also reflects Republicans' and Democrats' shared frustration with decisions that led to U.S. troops' chaotic exit from Afghanistan last month."
Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved $1 billion in new funding for Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, after a debate that exposed bitter divisions among Democrats over U.S. policy toward one of its closest allies. The vote was 420 to 9 to help Israel replace missile interceptors used during heavy fighting in a devastating rocket and missile war with the Palestinians in May, reflecting the widespread bipartisan support in Congress for Jerusalem that has persisted for decades. But the lopsided vote came only after days of acrimony between progressives who have accused Israel of human rights abuses and other lawmakers, including party leaders, who said they were appalled and astonished by their colleagues' refusal to fund a defense system to protect Israeli civilians."
Robert Kagan in the Washington Post: "The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves.... Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for president in 2024.... Trump and his Republican allies are actively preparing to ensure his victory by whatever means necessary.... Meanwhile, the amateurish 'stop the steal' efforts of 2020 have given way to an organized nationwide campaign to ensure that Trump and his supporters will have the control over state and local election officials that they lacked in 2020.... As has so often been the case in other countries where fascist leaders arise, their would-be opponents are paralyzed in confusion and amazement at this charismatic authoritarian. They have followed the standard model of appeasement, which always begins with underestimation." Kagan is a neoconservative.
Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is issuing subpoenas to four current and former top aides to ... Donald Trump, including his most recent chief of staff Mark Meadows. The committee issued its first subpoenas on Thursday to Meadows; former Pentagon official and longtime House Intelligence Committee aide Kash Patel; former top White House adviser Steve Bannon; and longtime Trump social media chief Dan Scavino.... The letters [accompanying the subpoenas] cite a mix of news reports and documents obtained by the committee to suggest that the aides have information relevant to their investigation. For example, in the letter to Steve Bannon ... the committee cited passages from 'Peril,' the new book by Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, as a basis for seeking his testimony." The story links to each of the committee's letters to the Four Horse's Asses pf the Apocalypse. The New York Times story is here.
Tom Hamburger & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "The White House is leaning toward releasing information to Congress about what Donald Trump and his aides were doing during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol despite the former president's objections.... Trump has said he will cite 'executive privilege' to block information requests from the House select committee investigating the events of that day.... But President Biden's White House plans to err on the side of disclosure given the gravity of the events of Jan. 6, according to two people familiar with discussions.... '... there's no such thing as a former president's executive privilege,' said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a committee member who teaches constitutional law.... What Trump was doing while the attack was occurring and who he was speaking with are among the big, unanswered questions concerning the assault on the Capitol." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ digby has republished a chunk of the WashPo story. A CNN report is here.
Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "White House officials prioritized ... Donald Trump's attempt to challenge the election over the pandemic response last winter, according to emails obtained by the House select subcommittee probing the government's coronavirus response and shared with The Washington Post. Steven Hatfill, a virologist who advised White House trade director Peter Navarro and said he was intimately involved in the pandemic response, repeatedly described in the emails how 'election stuff' took precedence over coronavirus, even as the outbreak surged to more than 250,000 new coronavirus cases per day in January.... Hatfill further detailed his role in the White House's election challenges, including traveling to Arizona in the wake of that state's close election, passing along a 'Plan B for Trump Legal Fight' and sharing debunked rumors of Joe Biden's supposed family ties with a voting machine company.... The Democrat-led [subcommittee] on Thursday issued a subpoena to Hatfill.... ~~~
~~~ "In his emails, Hatfill repeatedly took aim at Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious-disease expert, and then-FDA Commissioner Steven Hahn, whom he blamed for opposing the widespread use of anti-malarial drugs.... Hatfill, a virologist and former Army biodefense researcher, first attracted national interest after then-Attorney General John Ashcroft named him as a 'person of interest' in the 2001 anthrax attacks. Hatfill was subsequently cleared of any wrongdoing and won a $5.85 million settlement from the Justice Department in 2008."
MEANWHILE, in Budapest. Vanessa Gera & Balazs Kaufmann of the AP: "Former U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Thursday that he is hopeful the new conservative majority on the Supreme Court created during his and ... Donald Trump's administration will soon overturn abortion rights in the United States. Pence spoke at a forum devoted to demographics and family values in Budapest, Hungary, where conservative leaders from central Europe expressed their anxieties about falling birthrates in the Western world and discussed ways to reverse the trend. 'We see a crisis that brings us here today, a crisis that strikes at the very heart of civilization itself. The erosion of the nuclear family marked by declining marriage rates, rising divorce, widespread abortion and plummeting birth rates,' Pence said." MB: "Conservative leaders"? How about "autocratic crackpots"? ~~~
~~~ digby: "They used to make pilgrimages to Iowa and New Hampshire. Now they go to Budapest[.]... But nobody can doubt [pence's] credentials when it comes to forced childbirth."
Shelley Ross, in a New York Times op-ed: "'Now that I think of it … I am ashamed,' read the subject line of a 2005 email [now-CNN host Chris] Cuomo wrote me, one hour after he sexually harassed me at a going-away party for an ABC colleague. At the time, I was the executive producer of an ABC entertainment special, but I was Mr. Cuomo's executive producer at 'Primetime Live' just before that. I was at the party with my husband.... When Mr. Cuomo entered the Upper West Side bar, he walked toward me and greeted me with a strong bear hug while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock. 'I can do this now that you're no longer my boss,' he said to me with a kind of cocky arrogance. 'No you can't,' I said, pushing him off me at the chest while stepping back, revealing my husband, who had seen the entire episode at close range. We quickly left.... Was he ashamed of what he did, or was he embarrassed because my husband saw it? (He apologized first in his email to my 'very good and noble husband' and then to me for 'even putting you in such a position.')" ~~~
~~~ Patrick Healy of the New York Times opinion page: "Times Opinion has published many pieces in the #MeToo era about workplace conduct and harassment; Ross's essay is a pointed argument about how we should think about hard questions of accountability that lack easy answers."
Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A federal arrest warrant has been issued for 23-year-old Brian Laundrie in connection with the case of his fiancee, Gabby Petito, who went missing during the couple's cross-country trip and was later found dead. A federal grand jury in Wyoming indicted Laundrie on Wednesday after determining he used 'one or more unauthorized devices' including a debit card and PIN numbers for two bank accounts, to fraudulently obtain more than $1,000, according to the court filing released Thursday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Denver branch. Federal investigators are still searching for Laundrie...." A Guardian story is here.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Friday are here.
** Apoorva Mandavilli & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday overruled a recommendation by an agency advisory panel that had refused to endorse booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for frontline workers. It was a highly unusual move for the director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, but aligned C.D.C. policy with the Food and Drug Administration's endorsements over her own agency's advisers.... The White House could begin promoting and rolling out a plan for booster shots as soon as Friday. That would be in keeping with the administration's previously announced plan to offer the additional doses this week.... The C.D.C. director's endorsement of the advisory committee's recommendations is typically just a formality." It made no sense to me to recommend boosters for at-risk people like nursing-home residents, but not for their caregivers. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The reporters write, "Dr. Walensky's decision revealed the continuing divisions and confusion among federal regulators and outside advisers...." That's another misuse of the word "confusion." The sentence suggests the doctors & scientists are addle-brained nincompoops who don't know what they're doing. (Of course if they're Trump holdovers, that might be the case.) More than likely they are professionals who understand the data & their implications, but have different interpretations of what practical responses those data imply. These people are not "confused." Anyway, I think Walensky's decision is sensible and should reduce "confusion" among the public. It made no sense to me to recommend boosters for at-risk people like nursing-home residents, but not for their caregivers.
** Lauran Neergaard & Mike Stobbe of the AP: "The U.S. vaccination drive against COVID-19 stood on the verge of a major new phase as government advisers Thursday recommended booster doses of Pfizer's vaccine for millions of older or otherwise vulnerable Americans -- despite doubts the extra shots will do much to slow the pandemic. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said boosters should be offered to people 65 and older, nursing home residents and those ages 50 to 64 who have risky underlying health problems. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot. Deciding who else might get one was far tougher. While there is little evidence that younger people are in danger of waning immunity, the panel offered the option of a booster for those 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems and want one. But the advisers refused to go further and open boosters to otherwise healthy front-line health care workers who aren't at risk of severe illness but want to avoid even a mild infection.... The CDC advisers expressed concern over the millions more Americans who received Moderna or Johnson & Johnson shots early in the vaccine rollout. The government still hasn't considered boosters for those brands and has no data on whether it's safe or effective to mix-and-match and give those people a Pfizer shot." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli & Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "An influential scientific panel on Thursday opened a new front in the campaign against the coronavirus, recommending booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for a wide range of Americans, including tens of millions of older people. But the experts declined to endorse additional doses for health care workers, teachers and others who might have higher exposure on the job. The decisions were made by the C.D.C. panel, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, in a series of votes, during which scientists agonized over their choices. The recommendations revealed deep divisions among federal regulators and outside advisers about how to contain the virus nearly two years into the pandemic. Just a day earlier, the Food and Drug Administration authorized booster shots for certain frontline workers. But the C.D.C.'s advisers disagreed that the doses were needed by so many healthy people."
Beyond the Beltway
** Arizona. Fraudit Finds Biden Won. Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post: "A Republican-commissioned review of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast last year in Arizona confirmed the accuracy of the official results and President Biden's win in Maricopa County, according to a draft report prepared by private contractors who conducted the recount. The draft was obtained by The Washington Post late Thursday night in advance of a planned public release of a final version on Friday. The ultimate findings will cap a costly and drawn-out recount launched by the GOP-led Arizona Senate that had been championed by ... Donald Trump and kept alive false claims that fraud tainted the election in the state's most populous county. The process was pilloried by election experts who warned that the methods used by the firm hired to run the review were sloppy and biased. After nearly six months and almost $6 million -- most of it given by groups that cast doubt on the election results -- the draft report shows that the review concluded that 45,469 more ballots were cast for Biden in Maricopa County than for Trump, widening Biden's margin by 360 more votes than certified results." Emphasis added. A CBS News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is so not the result I expected. But it may help explain Trump's demand of Texas officials -- story linked below.
Pennsylvania. Marc Levy of the AP: "Pennsylvania's attorney general sued Thursday to block a Republican-approved subpoena to state election officials in what Republicans call a 'forensic investigation' of last year's presidential election, spurred on by ... Donald Trump's baseless claims that he was cheated out of victory. The lawsuit from state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, is the second thus far targeting a subpoena approved last week by the Republican-controlled Senate Intergovernmental Operations Committee.... Shapiro's office broadly asked the court to block the subpoena because, it said, it serves no legitimate legislative purpose and stems from Trump's efforts to undermine trust in the results of the 2020 presidential election.... The 76-page lawsuit ... [argues that] granting the subpoena's request for voter information -- including names, dates of birth, driver's license numbers and partial Social Security numbers &-- would violate a person's constitutional privacy protections, particularly because the subpoena isn't based on proof of wrongdoing. It also would expose voters to the risk of publicly disclosing their personal information, thus violating the constitutional right to vote, it said."
Texas. Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "The Texas secretary of state&'s office announced late Thursday it will audit the results of the 2020 election in the state's four largest counties, hours after ... Donald Trump called on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to conduct one. The office released a statement Thursday night that asserted the secretary of state has the authority under Texas law 'to conduct a full and comprehensive forensic audit of any election' and that it had 'already begun the process in Texas' two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties -- Dallas, Harris, Tarrant, and Collin -- for the 2020 election.' 'We anticipate the Legislature will provide funds for this purpose,' the statement concluded. The statement was attributed to Sam Taylor, a spokesman for the office. The position of Texas secretary of state, who is appointed by the governor, is currently vacant. The move in Texas comes as the results of a GOP-backed audit in Arizona are set to be released Friday.... GOP lawmakers in Texas have been pushing legislation that would require an audit of the 2020 results in Texas's largest counties, most of which went for [President] Biden." The AP story is here.~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump won Texas' electoral vote, and officials found only a few isolated instances of suspected voter fraud. But the audit is not a wasteful exercise in has-been ass-kissing! The point here is that Democratic voters are corrupt & their votes are illegitimate. So even when a Republican wins a state handily, if you live in a precinct that votes majority-Democratic, those votes are fake: either the precinct workers are stuffing ballot boxes or jiggering vote totals or the guy standing next to you in the voter line was there for the third time AND had voted by mail in the name of his great-grandmother.
Iowa Senate Race. Grassley Forever! Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the oldest Republican senator at age 88 and a major player in securing confirmation of dozens of conservative federal judges, announced Friday that he will seek another six-year term." Politico's story is here.
Way Beyond
Hong Kong/China. Vivian Wang & Joy Dong of the New York Times: “Welcome to elections in Hong Kong now: not so much exercises in democracy as the vigorous performance of it.... Hong Kong's elections have never been fully free, with rules that favored Beijing's allies even before this spring's overhaul. Even so, the opposition had long managed to win at least some influence on government policy, and polls had consistently shown that they had the majority of the public;s support.... [Last summer the Chinese Communist party made] election changes that allowed only government-approved 'patriots; to hold office. In addition, the general public will now be allowed to choose just 20 of 90 legislators. Most of the rest will be chosen by the electors picked last Sunday -- all but one aligned with the authorities." MB: Now, that is a Trump-style election. He and his friends must be taking notes.
News Lede
New York Times: "The death this month of Michael K. Williams, the Brooklyn actor most famous for his memorable portrayal of a gay stickup man in 'The Wire,' was caused by an accidental drug overdose involving fentanyl, New York City's medical examiner said on Friday. Mr. Williams, 54, was found dead in his apartment in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn on Sept. 6. The medical examiner said the official cause of death was 'acute intoxication by the combined effects of fentanyl, p-fluorofentanyl, heroin and cocaine.'"
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Reader Comments (13)
Wonder how this "news" will play and who will play it...
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/09/23/arizona-audit-draft-report-confirms-biden-beat-trump-2020/5835521001/
Maybe for the Pretender what all these claims of election fraud come down to is the narcissism.
While certainly considerations, for him it's not so much worry about losing the opportunity for more graft, nor concern about losing the many legal protections offered by the office of president, but a fundamental and abiding inability to believe that any honest person, anyone at all, could not believe in and support His Perfect Wonderfulness.
As for others? The political operatives and the ones bankrolling the fraudits?
They just don't like democracy when elections don't go their way.
Little mikey pence goes to visit totalitarian tyrant wannabes in Hungary where he presents himself as the savior of “civilization itself”.
Whoa. I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch to suggest that actual, functioning democracies, not totalitarian oligarchies, monarchies, satrapies, theocracies, Trump style kleptocracies, or anarcho-syndicalist communes, represent one of the greatest achievements of civilization, the high water mark of civilized governing bodies, and yet, when called upon to defend the very essence of democracy, the half-pence leaned mightily toward its destruction, halted only after he conferred with a guy who can’t spell.
The lesson, mikey, is don’t count your potatos before they’re hatched. Or mashed, or fried…
Or something.
Whatever. Just toddle along now, Mr. White Rabbit. It’s getting late, so hippity hop, toodle-oo, go the fuck home to momma and leave us alone. There’s a good boy.
The list of imbeciles, haters, racist pigs, misogynists, religious nut bags, serial liars, pocket-liners, and garden variety non-entities gifted us by the GQP is notable primarily for its distinct dearth of basic smarts and common decency. And now yet another from that litany of lunatic lagomorphs thinks he’s presidential material.
Geeez…
IRON DOME OR DOOM?
I usually don't read Bret Stephens but today I did, interested in how his column would boost support for Israel's reliance on the U.S. for its Iron Dome and how he would put his heavy boots on the necks of the progressives in Congress who disagree. There were few NYT's picks but one reader was lost in trying to follow the logic in this piece. Stephens says: “It’s also self-defeating, since Israel could build or acquire most of the weapons it needs without American strings attached.”
If that’s so, asked the reader, then why, particularly in a world where Israel has universal medical coverage and Americans still do not, American infrastructure is crumbling and one of our major parties says the president’s plan to fix it is too expensive, Haitians are risking their lives to flee to America to escape their earthquake- and hurricane-ravaged country, and innocent civilians are starving in Ethiopia, the U.S. is gifting an additional billion dollars to Israelis to pay for a weapons system that they “could build or acquire” without our help?
All reasonable questions and many American Jews would agree. The money, I read, goes directly to the U.S. manufacturers who make the Iron Dome–– it provides work for Americans–-so there's that. But is that enough to give it the green light? What's missing for me ––in Stephen's piece–- is no mention of how this effects Palestinians, also that particular statement he made that confused the reader and needs some explanation.
RE: Fatty's petulant persistence that he WAS not, IS not a loser. We can well imagine his fury at the Arizona results. And I would think the other states that are taking this up would consider doing otherwise.
AK: "Little mikey pence goes to visit totalitarian tyrant wannabes in Hungary where he presents himself as the savior of “civilization itself”.––-begins another one of your juicy renditions of 'thems' with teeny weenies and enlarged egos and I just love it!
Marie's repeated and very correct clarification of the meaning of "confusion" reminds me of another misuse of words that in my working days I grew very tired of.
Once in a meeting, being told for the third time by the same person that I was not listening, I clarified: "I heard you, and understood you, but I think you are wrong."
She did not appreciate the distinction.
I say put Grassley, Pence, Feinstein, Collins, and the lot of them in one room to drool on one another. The Japanese have a respect for the oldest citizens. We seem to want to hang on because we can't get the message that having someone else wipe our bottom is not distinguished. How many minimum wage workers does it take to keep all these Dick Cheney wannabes in front of the cameras? "It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done, it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known." - One of my favorites they've long forgotten. RIP.
It is weird that these questionable people run off to Hungary-- these are the same folks or types of folks that go wacko over "communism" and "socialism..." They don't seem to realize that authoritarianism goes hand-in-hand with the right wing across the ponds... In Pence's world, fetuses have more power than fully bloomed people, especially the host bodies/women. Pence is an idiot, and has shown that over and over the last five years, but he runs off to blab in Hungary?? I guess money-making is the order of the day. Pence has a mortgage now...
I find myself wondering how word-of-mouth/internet works in third-world countries--how did so many Haitians all decide to come here, especially some who left Haiti ten years ago...? So last month the wingers hated our leaving Afghanistan and our translators etc, but this month they hate bringing them here... Of course, the Haitians are black and from a "s***-hole country," so they are even lower on the list of approved refugees... Maybe we should outfit them all in Ralph Lauren and give them blond wigs in order to get the wingers to even think rationally? I know, they won't and I don't expect anything rational from any of them.
Is there any point in applying logic or reasonable decision-making to all the crap-shoveling going on by the enemies of the Biden administration? Oh, and huzzahs for Grassley's decision to run for another term-- his future retirement community probably told him to, as they don't want him there...except it IS Iowa, so never mind...
Potatoes. Plural takes an "e." Singular doesn't. English. Gotta luv it.
That said, Dan put the "e" on the singular and was excoriated. Justly.
The Kagan piece was scary. But, he gets at least one thing wrong, as a neocon he believes that DiJiTism is different than GOPism. Maybe in degree, but not in kind. Those folks have been building their fascist heaven since 1964 ... and some would say 1948.
@Jeanne: Grassley could always follow the dream of way too many cold weather types and move down to "The Villages" (Eternity's waiting room) here in Florida. He'd fit right in with all the MAGA cult members already there.
Patrick,
Yeah, the misspelling was part of the joke. Maybe a bit too obscure, but what can you do?
I wonder if we will find out that bus loads of Mexicans were brought to Texas to put the Republican vote over the top and that Biden actually won.
I read somewhere that one reason the Haitians were coming now was that coyotes were showing them clips of fox news personalities saying Biden was opening the borders to everyone.
Jeanne: there is some great representational art in the idea of dressing black Haitians in Lauren and blond wigs. Kind of a Chuck Close sort of vibe pops to mind.