The Commentariat -- June 8, 2021

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Dozens of staff members at a Houston-area hospital protested on Monday night against a policy that requires employees to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The hospital, Houston Methodist, had told employees that they had to be vaccinated by Monday. Last month, 117 employees filed a lawsuit against the hospital over the vaccine policy.... Those who did not meet the hospital's vaccination deadline on Monday will be placed on a two-week unpaid suspension. If they do not meet the requirements by June 21, Houston Methodist said it would 'initiate the employee termination process.'... On Monday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas signed a law prohibiting businesses or government entities in the state from requiring vaccine passports, or digital proof of vaccination, joining states such as Florida and Arkansas. It's unclear how or if the new law will affect employer mandates like Houston Methodist's." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.

Not My Fault, Man. Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "Colonial Pipeline Co. chief executive Joseph Blount took a defensive stance Tuesday during a Senate hearing amid questioning about his company's handling of a devastating ransomware attack that shut off fuel access to much of the Eastern Seaboard last month. In his first remarks to Congress since the breach, he cast his company as a victim of forces beyond its control.... Hackers were able to gain access to the company's network through an account that was not protected with multi-factor authentication, a basic tenet of corporate cybersecurity. Rather, the account was protected by a single password.... Though companies like Colonial play key roles within the nation's economic infrastructure, they are largely left on their own with respect to cybersecurity....

Yan Zhuang, et al., of the New York Times: "For years, organized crime figures around the globe relied on [cellphones with encryption capabilities & purchased on the black market] to orchestrate international drug shipments, coordinate the trafficking of arms and explosives, and discuss contract killings, law enforcement officials said. Users trusted the devices' security so much that they often laid out their plans not in code, but in plain language, mentioning specific smuggling vessels and drop-off points. Unbeknown to them, however, the entire network was actually a sophisticated sting run by the F.B.I., in coordination with the Australian police. On Tuesday, global law enforcement officials revealed the unprecedented scope of the three-year operation, saying they had intercepted over 20 million messages in 45 languages, and arrested at least 800 people, most of them in the past two days, in more than a dozen countries." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The photo that accompanies the article claims it depicts the arrest of a suspect in Australia. But the suspect sure looks like that fat man on his bed in New Jersey whom Trump blamed for hacking Hillary's emails.

Paul Butler in a Washington Post op-ed: "... the Justice Department is still fighting transparency and accountability in a way that must delight the former attorney general, who led the department into the abyss during the Trump administration. The Justice Department is now defending two of the most controversial acts of the previous administration -- using arguments cribbed from Donald Trump himself.... The ... question may be to what lengths the Justice Department will go to defend the Trump administration's abuse of power -- with its primary concern being preserving that power for the Biden administration and beyond.... There is a fine line between protecting the confidentiality of important records and shielding corrupt officials. [AG Merrick] Garland is walking on the wrong side of that line.... Garland should uphold the values of the Justice Department by exposing the misdeeds of the previous administration and ensuring accountability."

The full public report of two Senate committees' January 6 insurrection investigation is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Technical Difficulties. Marie: At 6:30 am ET, looks as if there may be a big Internet failure around New York City as I am unable to get a connection to sites in that area, including the New York Times. Update: The Times is partially up now, but it doesn't recognize me, & the sign-in page has a "Page Not Found" error message on it. Update 2: CNN reports that "Countless websites and apps around the world went down Tuesday after Fastly, a major content delivery network, reported a widespread failure. Fastly supports news sites and apps like CNN, the Guardian, the New York Times and many others. It also provides content delivery for Twitch, Pinterest, HBO Max, Hulu, Reddit, Spotify and other services. Other major internet platforms and sites including Amazon, Target, and the UK government website -- Gov.uk -- were affected."

** Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Capitol Police had specific intelligence that supporters of ... Donald Trump planned to mount an armed invasion of the Capitol at least two weeks before the Jan. 6 riot, according to new findings in a bipartisan Senate investigation, but a series of omissions and miscommunications kept that information from reaching front-line officers targeted by the violence. A joint report, from the Senate Rules and Administration and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees, outlines the most detailed public timeline to date of the communications and intelligence failures that led the Capitol Police and partner agencies to prepare for the 'Stop the Steal' protest as though it were a routine Trump rally, instead of the organized assault that was planned in the open online. Released Tuesday, the report shows how an intelligence arm of the Capitol Police disseminated security assessments labeling the threat of violence 'remote' to 'improbable,' even as authorities collected evidence showing that pro-Trump activists intended to bring weapons to the demonstration and 'storm the Capitol.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: “The first congressional report on the Capitol riot is the most comprehensive and detailed account of the dozens of intelligence failures, miscommunications and security lapses that led to what the bipartisan team of senators that assembled it concluded was an 'unprecedented attack' on American democracy and the most significant assault on the Capitol in more than 200 years.... 'If they don't show up, we enter the Capitol as the Third Continental Congress and certify the Trump Electors,' one [online] post said. 'Bring guns. It's now or never,' said another.... 'The failures are obvious,' said Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota and the chairwoman of the Rules and Administration Committee. 'To me, it was all summed up by one of the officers who was heard on the radio that day asking a tragically simple question: "Does anybody have a plan? Sadly, no one did.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Nicholas Wu of Politico: "... now-acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman told congressional investigators that data on the social media posts was sent only to 'command staff' and never reached the department's highest level.... leading up to and during the attack. The report faults Pittman, among other officials, for the 'discrepancy' between her division's reports on Trump supporters' public, online threats of violence and a more widely-circulated security assessment issued in late December.... The Senate report cited Donald Trump's speech on Jan. 6 to a massive crowd of supporters that then marched to the Capitol, in an apparent attempt at balance, but did not conduct any thorough analysis of the former president's involvement." An NBC News report is here.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "During her first foreign trip as vice president, Kamala Harris said the United States would bolster investigations into corruption and human trafficking in Guatemala, while also delivering a clear, blunt message to undocumented migrants hoping to reach the United States: 'Do not come.'... Ms. Harris announced new steps in the effort on Monday. The Biden administration will deploy homeland security officers to Guatemala's northern and southern borders to train local officials -- a tactic similar to one used by previous administrations to deter migration. The State and Justice Departments will also establish a task force to investigate corruption cases that have links to Guatemala and the United States, while also training Guatemalan prosecutors.... Rachel Schmidtke, the Latin America advocate for Refugees International..., said in a statement Monday that the organization was concerned Ms. Harris's remarks discouraging migrants from trying to cross to the border undermined their right to seek asylum in the United States."

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "US investigators have recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, according to people briefed on the matter. The Justice Department on Monday is expected to announce details of the operation led by the FBI with the cooperation of the Colonial Pipeline operator, the people briefed on the matter said. The ransom recovery is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware." MB: I would not normally be thrilled when a pipeline company gets $5MM, but I'm damned glad the FBI thwarted the hackers. (Also linked yesterday.) the New York Times story is here.

Wake Up, Merrick Garland! Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's Civil Division under President Biden is continuing the Trump-era push to represent the former president in a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, according to a Monday night appellate court filing. The lawsuit brought by Carroll -- who accused Donald Trump two years ago of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s -- has been stalled in litigation over whether the Justice Department had standing to represent him on the grounds that his denials in response to her claim were made while performing his presidential duties." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The brief filed on Monday night with a federal appeals court is an illustration of how administrations of sharply different political outlooks often flock to the same legal positions in court, even if it means seeming to excuse or immunize alleged bad conduct by their predecessors. In the filing with the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department insisted that it was not endorsing Trump's conduct toward the writer, E. Jean Carroll, even as it argued that a law governing suits against federal officials justified the government's move to take over the former president's defense in the case."

Pam Belluck & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first new medication for Alzheimer's disease in nearly two decades, a contentious decision, made despite opposition from the agency's independent advisory committee and some Alzheimer's experts who said there was not enough evidence that the drug can help patients. The drug, aducanumab, which will go by the brand name Aduhelm, is a monthly intravenous infusion intended to slow cognitive decline in people with mild memory and thinking problems. It is the first approved treatment to attack the disease process of Alzheimer's instead of just addressing dementia symptoms. Recognizing that clinical trials of the drug had provided incomplete evidence to demonstrate effectiveness, the F.D.A. granted approval on the condition that the manufacturer, Biogen, conduct a new clinical trial." A CBS News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jesse Eisinger, et al., of ProPublica: "ProPublica has obtained a vast cache of IRS information showing how billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffett pay little in income tax compared to their massive wealth -- sometimes, even nothing.... Taken together, [the trove of files] demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest can -- perfectly legally -- pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year.... According to Forbes, [the] 25 [richest] people saw their worth rise a collective $401 billion from 2014 to 2018. They paid a total of $13.6 billion in federal income taxes in those five years, the IRS data shows. That's a staggering sum, but it amounts to a true tax rate of only 3.4%. It's a completely different picture for middle-class Americans, for example, wage earners in their early 40s who have amassed a typical amount of wealth for people their age. From 2014 to 2018, such households saw their net worth expand by about $65,000 after taxes on average, mostly due to the rise in value of their homes. But ... their tax bills were almost as much, nearly $62,000, over that five-year period."

** Christopher Flavelle of the New York Times: "A growing body of research shows that FEMA, the government agency responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters, often helps white disaster victims more than people of color, even when the amount of damage is the same. Not only do individual white Americans often receive more aid from FEMA; so do the communities in which they live, according to several recent studies based on federal data. Leaders at FEMA are wrestling with the complicated question of why these disparities exist -- and what to do about them. The problem seems to stem from complex systemic factors, like a real estate market that often places higher values on properties in communities with many white residents, or the difficulty of navigating the federal bureaucracy, which tends to favor people and communities that have more resources from the beginning. The impact from this disparity is long-lasting.... The racial disparities in FEMA's disaster assistance present a test for President Biden...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is one more example -- albeit a glaring one -- of systemic racism for wingers to deny. In fact, everyone -- and especially Joe Manchin -- needs to quite pretending that the leading proponents of systemic racism are Republican politicians, and not just the batshit crazy ones. ~~~

~~~ Telling It Like It Is. Chandelis Duster of CNN: "New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday compared fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and said he is trying to thwart President Joe Biden's agenda after the West Virginia lawmaker stood by his decision to vote against a sweeping voting rights bill and opposition to gutting the filibuster. 'Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell during Obama's presidency said he would do everything in his power to stop (then-President Barack Obama)," Bowman told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'He's also repeated that now during the Biden presidency by saying he would do everything in his power to stop President Biden, and now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.' Bowman continued, 'Manchin is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they've been since the beginning of Biden's presidency.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Tim O'Donnell of the Week: Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) wrote in a tweet, "Manchin's op-ed might as well be titled, 'Why I'll vote to preserve Jim Crow.'&" ~~~

~~~ Eugene Robinson of the New York Times: Joe Manchin's "party and his nation will pay a terrible price for his hallucinations about the nature of today's Republican Party. And even this sacrifice might not guarantee that Manchin can hold on to support back home.... Manchin is asking Democrats to respond to ruthlessness with delusion."

More Republicans Double Down on the Party's Relentless Attack on Democracy. Reid Epstein & Lisa Lerer of the New York Times: "Across the country, a rising class of Republican challengers has embraced the fiction that the 2020 election was illegitimate, marred by fraud and inconsistencies. Aggressively pushing Mr. Trump's baseless claims that he was robbed of re-election, these candidates represent the next generation of aspiring G.O.P. leaders, who would bring to Congress the real possibility that the party's assault on the legitimacy of elections, a bedrock principle of American democracy, could continue through the 2024 contests. Dozens of Republican candidates have sown doubts about the election as they seek to join the ranks of the 147 Republicans in Congress who voted against certifying President Biden's victory. There are degrees of denial.... [But] they are united by a near-universal reluctance to state outright that Mr. Biden is the legitimately elected leader of the country.... To build a campaign in the modern G.O.P., most candidates must embrace -- or at least not openly deny -- conspiracy theories and election lies, and they must commit to a mission of imposing greater voting restrictions and making it easier to challenge or even overturn an election's results." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Democrats must not ignore their opponents' insanity. They must use the Big Lie these Republicans embrace as evidence the candidates are unfit to hold any public office because they oppose the most fundamental principle of democracy.

"My Lips Were Near His Ass So I Kissed It." -- McCarthy. Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney accused ... Donald Trump of having committed the worst violation of a president's oath of office by inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- and taking a jab at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his subsequent visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 'I was stunned. I could not imagine any justification for doing that,' Cheney said of McCarthy's visit to Trump during an episode of David Axelrod's 'The Axe Files' podcast, which was taped Saturday afternoon as part of a University of Chicago alumni weekend event. 'And I asked him why he had done it, and he said, well, he had just been in the neighborhood, essentially.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Chance & Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Never-before-heard audio, obtained exclusively by CNN, shows how ... Donald Trump's longtime adviser Rudy Giuliani relentlessly pressured and coaxed the Ukrainian government in 2019 to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Joe Biden. The audio is of a July 2019 phone call between Giuliani, US diplomat Kurt Volker, and Andriy Yermak, a senior adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The call was a precursor to Trump's infamous call with Zelensky, and both conversations later became a central part of Trump's first impeachment, where he was accused of soliciting Ukrainian help for his campaign. During the roughly 40-minute call, Giuliani repeatedly told Yermak that Zelensky should publicly announce investigations into possible corruption by Biden in Ukraine, and into claims that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 election to hurt Trump. (These separate claims are both untrue.)"

You might be washed up if ... you're a super-Trumpy politician & you can't get a gig on any super-Trumpy, sleazy cable "news" network. ~~~

     ~~~ Joseph Choi of the Hill: "A spokesman for Newsmax said on Monday that the company had no plans to take up a job request from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).... Shortly after Axios reported that the three-term congressmen would leave his House seat to pursue a career in television, reports emerged that Gaetz was being investigated by the Department of Justice over an alleged relationship with a 17-year-old girl, charges he has denied.... [Gaetz had been] setting his sights on prominent conservative news channels such as Fox News, One America News Network (OANN) and Newsmax.... In April, Fox News confirmed that it had no plans to hire Gaetz.... The founder and CEO of OANN, Robert Herring, later told the Daily Beast that he was 'not really hiring anybody for talk shows,' as Gaetz reportedly desired. Herring said that he advised Gaetz to remain in Congress."

Mark Sherman of the AP: "A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking 'green cards' to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status. The outcome in a case involving a couple from El Salvador who have been in the U.S. since the 1990s turned on whether people who entered the country illegally and were given humanitarian protections were ever 'admitted' into the United States under immigration law." (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a federal law that requires only men to register for the military draft. As is the court's custom, it gave no reasons for turning down the case. But three justices issued a statement saying that Congress should be allowed more time to consider what they acknowledged was a significant legal issue. 'It remains to be seen, of course, whether Congress will end gender-based registration under the Military Selective Service Act,' Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the statement, which was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Brett M. Kavanaugh. 'But at least for now, the court's longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defense and military affairs cautions against granting review while Congress actively weighs the issue.'" The denial of certiorari & Justices' statement are here, via the Supreme Court. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

A Very Stupid Federal Judge. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: In his "ruling striking down an assault-weapons ban in California..., U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez ... likened the guns to Swiss army knives.... 'The evidence described so far proves that the "harm" of an assault rifle being used in a mass shooting is an infinitesimally rare event,' Benitez wrote. 'More people have died from the Covid-19 vaccine than mass shootings in California.'... This is, to put it diplomatically, completely baseless." Blake speculates that Benitez got his disinformation from sources like, um, medical expert Tucker Carlson. Emphasis added. MB: As grotesquely Trumpy as Benitez is, he's a Dubya appointee.

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "By midmorning [Monday], hundreds of protesters, led by Native American women and joined by celebrities such as Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener, had marched into a construction site operated by Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the pipeline, and strapped themselves to bulldozers and other heavy machinery ... to try to stop a border-crossing oil pipeline running from Canada across the wetlands and forests of northern Minnesota.... Protesters hope to intensify pressure on the Biden administration to suspend the pipeline permit before the project is completed.... So far, the activism has done little to impede the $4 billion project, which is a replacement of a decades-old pipeline, although portions of it travel a new route."

Brady Dennis & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "Economies worldwide nearly ground to a halt over the 15 months of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a startling drop in global greenhouse gas emissions. But the ... [economic downturn] barely made a dent in the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday had reached the highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago. The new figures serve as a sober reminder that even as President Biden and other world leaders make unprecedented promises about curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, turning the tide of climate change will take even more massive efforts over a much longer period of time.... 'Fossil fuel burning is really at the heart of this. If we don't tackle fossil fuel burning, the problem is not going to go away,' Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at Scripps, said in an interview...."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Experts are concerned that states across the South, where vaccination rates are lagging, could face a surge in coronavirus cases over the summer." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed material related to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's book about leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. As part of a broader probe into Covid-19 deaths in New York nursing homes, officials in the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of New York requested contracts and preparations used to pitch the book ... to publishers, the people told the Journal, adding that the subpoenas signaled interest in nursing home issues in the memoir. The Journal reported Monday that the subpoenas were sent last month to people -- including state officials -- who were involved in editing early drafts of Cuomo's book."

The Commentariat -- June 7, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Mark Sherman of the AP: "A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking 'green cards' to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status. The outcome in a case involving a couple from El Salvador who have been in the U.S. since the 1990s turned on whether people who entered the country illegally and were given humanitarian protections were ever 'admitted' into the United States under immigration law."

Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "US investigators have recovered millions of dollars in cryptocurrency paid in ransom to hackers whose attack prompted the shutdown of the key East Coast pipeline last month, according to people briefed on the matter. The Justice Department on Monday is expected to announce details of the operation led by the FBI with the cooperation of the Colonial Pipeline operator, the people briefed on the matter said. The ransom recovery is a rare outcome for a company that has fallen victim to a debilitating cyberattack in the booming criminal business of ransomware." MB: I would not normally be thrilled when a pipeline company gets $5MM, but I'm damned glad the FBI thwarted the hackers.

Pam Belluck & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved the first new medication for Alzheimer's disease in nearly two decades, a contentious decision, made despite opposition from the agency's independent advisory committee and some Alzheimer's experts who said there was not enough evidence that the drug can help patients. The drug, aducanumab, which will go by the brand name Aduhelm, is a monthly intravenous infusion intended to slow cognitive decline in people with mild memory and thinking problems. It is the first approved treatment to attack the disease process of Alzheimer's instead of just addressing dementia symptoms. Recognizing that clinical trials of the drug had provided incomplete evidence to demonstrate effectiveness, the F.D.A. granted approval on the condition that the manufacturer, Biogen, conduct a new clinical trial." A CBS News report is here.

Telling It Like It Is. Chandelis Duster of CNN: "New York Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Monday compared fellow Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and said he is trying to thwart President Joe Biden's agenda after the West Virginia lawmaker stood by his decision to vote against a sweeping voting rights bill and opposition to gutting the filibuster. 'Joe Manchin has become the new Mitch McConnell. Mitch McConnell during Obama's presidency said he would do everything in his power to stop (then-President Barack Obama)," Bowman told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'He's also repeated that now during the Biden presidency by saying he would do everything in his power to stop President Biden, and now Joe Manchin is doing everything in his power to stop democracy and to stop our work for the people, the work that the people sent us here to do.' Bowman continued, 'Manchin is not pushing us closer to bipartisanship. He is doing the work of the Republican Party by being an obstructionist, just like they've been since the beginning of Biden's presidency.'"

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a challenge to a federal law that requires only men to register for the military draft. As is the court's custom, it gave no reasons for turning down the case. But three justices issued a statement saying that Congress should be allowed more time to consider what they acknowledged was a significant legal issue. 'It remains to be seen, of course, whether Congress will end gender-based registration under the Military Selective Service Act,' Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the statement, which was joined by Justices Stephen G. Breyer and Brett M. Kavanaugh. 'But at least for now, the court's longstanding deference to Congress on matters of national defense and military affairs cautions against granting review while Congress actively weighs the issue.'" The denial of certiorari & Justices' statement are here, via the Supreme Court. The NBC News story is here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Experts are concerned that states across the South, where vaccination rates are lagging, could face a surge in coronavirus cases over the summer." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.

"My Lips Were Near His Ass So I Kissed It." -- McCarthy. Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Wyoming Republican Rep. Liz Cheney accused ... Donald Trump of having committed the worst violation of a president's oath of office by inciting the January 6 Capitol insurrection -- and taking a jab at House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy over his subsequent visit to Trump at Mar-a-Lago. 'I was stunned. I could not imagine any justification for doing that,' Cheney said of McCarthy's visit to Trump during an episode of David Axelrod's 'The Axe Files' podcast, which was taped Saturday afternoon as part of a University of Chicago alumni weekend event. 'And I asked him why he had done it, and he said, well, he had just been in the neighborhood, essentially.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Idiots at Home. Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen secured a landmark international tax agreement over the weekend, one that has eluded the United States for nearly a decade. But with a narrowly divided Congress and resistance from Republicans and business groups mounting, closing the deal at home may be an even bigger challenge.... Ms. Yellen now faces the task of convincing lawmakers that large tax and spending increases will not hinder the economic recovery." MB: Should be about as easy as convincing Ted Cruz to vote for a Harris/Ocasio-Cortez ticket in 2024.

Steve M. on why Joe Manchin opposes filibuster reform AND the For the People (voting rights) Act: "I think he just likes being seen as The Last Bipartisan Man -- it serves him well electorally, and it makes him feel heroic when he looks in the mirror every morning.... Mostly this is narcissism -- he cares primarily about preserving his own career." MB: I kind of like RAS's suggestion, offered in yesterday's Comments: "Manchin's problem with the For the People Act is that if it gets enacted most of Joe's friends might not be in DC anymore." ~~~

~~~ SO THEN, Joe goes on Fox "News," but he picked the wrong show: ~~~

~~~ David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday challenged Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), who is refusing to support filibuster reform to pass a voting rights bill and other progressive initiatives.... [Wallace said,] '... the question I have is whether or not you're doing it exactly the wrong way?... If you were to keep the idea that maybe you would vote to kill the filibuster, wouldn't that give Republicans an incentive to actually negotiate because old Joe Manchin is out there and who knows what he's going to do? By taking it off the table, haven't you empowered Republicans to be obstructionists?'... '"Sen. McConnell, the head of the Republicans in the Senate, says that he's 100% focused on blocking the Biden agenda. Question: Aren't you being naive about this continuing talk about bipartisan cooperation?'"

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Alabama GOP Rep. Mo Brooks was served with a lawsuit filed by California Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell seeking to hold him partially accountable for the January 6 insurrection, according to a tweet from Brooks and an attorney for Swalwell. 'Well, Swalwell FINALLY did his job, served complaint (on my WIFE). HORRIBLE Swalwell's team committed a CRIME by unlawfully sneaking INTO MY HOUSE & accosting my wife!' Brooks wrote on Twitter. Swalwell's legal team had had difficulty serving Brooks and hired a private investigator to give him the papers, according to court filings."

Gabby Orr & Michael Warren of CNN: "... Donald Trump dashed the hopes of Republicans on Saturday who spent the weeks leading up to his public reemergence encouraging him to keep his focus on policy and Democratic shortcomings, rather than re-litigating his 2020 election loss once again.... Trump's Saturday speech was ... a major test of his ability to be an instrumental surrogate for Republicans as the party approaches a grueling midterm cycle. While insisting that he remains eager to help the GOP retake control of the House and Senate next fall, Trump has recently ignored the advice of aides and allies to tailor his message to the future." MB: Republicans' imagining Trump will work for anyone other than himself is like a six-time bride supposing this marriage will be a happy one. ~~~

~~~ E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump took his campaign against American democracy to North Carolina on Saturday and offered a rambling, grievance-laden harangue that ought to catalyze Republican leaders to repudiate a man whose lies, bigotry and irrationality are turning their party into a moral sinkhole. Fat chance, I know. But Republicans should watch Trump's 90-minute diatribe in its entirety. They might realize that tying their fate to a washed-up demagogue and the extremists he cultivates ... could ... be a colossal political mistake. Most Washington Republicans say they want to 'move on' from Trump.... Sorry, guys, but you won't be able to 'move on' to the responsible governing you purport to believe in until you confront the anti-democratic virus in your party and the vile man spreading the contagion."

Lewandowski Out on a Limb. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Corey Lewandowski, Trump's first campaign manager in 2016 and a loyal sidekick since, told Fox News Sunday Trump 'lost the election'. Indeed he did, by more than 7m ballots in the popular vote and by 306-232 in the electoral college, a result Trump called a landslide when it was in his favour against Hillary Clinton in 2016.... Lewandowski said he had 'spoke to the president dozens, if not more than 100 times since he has left the White House and I have never had that conversation about him being reinstated'. But, he added: 'I know of no provision under the constitution that allows it to occur, nor do I know of any provision under the constitution that allows an individual who lost an election to come back in if a recount is dubbed inaccurate.'" MB: When Lewandowski is the "voice of reason," it means two things: (1) those who are "less reasonable" are flat-out nuts; and (2) he is thinking of his future political career. If (2) is correct, that's bad news for me, because Corey lives in my state.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Seema Mehta of the Los Angeles Times, republished in Yahoo! News: "Fox News declined to broadcast an ad Sunday about the violence that law-enforcement members faced as they tried to stop the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, according to the creators of the political commercial. 'We couldn't have fathomed in our wildest imaginations that even a Fox News would reject an ad that simply condemns the insurrection, and condemns people who support the insurrection,' said Ben Meiselas, one of the co-founders of MeidasTouch, the liberal Political Action Committee that created the 60-second ad. 'What Fox has really become is a fascist echo chamber gatekeeper for their base.'&" Here's the ad Fox refused to run (I this I've embedded it before):

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the 'last mile' of the coronavirus immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening President Biden's goal of getting shots to at least 70 percent of adults by July 4. The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4 million in April, according to The Washington Post's seven-day analysis, even though all adults and children over age 12 are now eligible.... The slowdown is national -- with every state down at least two-thirds from its peak -- and particularly felt across the South and Midwest.... Thirteen mostly East and West Coast states have already vaccinated 70 percent of adult residents, and another 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, are over 60 percent and will likely reach Biden's goal.... Health officials have already reached the 'low-hanging fruit -- those people who absolutely want to get vaccinated without you telling them anything,' Anthony S. Fauci ... said on a White House-organized call with community leaders on Friday. 'You're left with a group that you may need ... trusted messengers who go out there and explain to them why it's critical for themselves, for their family.'"

Quint Forgey of Politico: "The White House's James S. Brady Press Briefing Room is slated to return to full seating capacity this week, the White House Correspondents' Association announced on Sunday. The WHCA will also reintroduce its pre-pandemic seating chart for the briefing room, featuring a front row of reporters from outlets including NBC, Fox News, CBS News, the Associated Press, ABC News, Reuters and CNN. In addition, press capacity limitations on the White House grounds, including on the North Lawn and in indoor press workspaces, will return to 100 percent, according to the WHCA."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Republicans Express Contempt for Democracy. Rachel Janfaza & Deanna Hackney of CNN: "Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp was booed and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was censured at the Georgia GOP convention Saturday, demonstrating ... Donald Trump's hold over members of the Georgia Republican Party. The reaction from members of the Georgia GOP comes months after both Kemp and Raffensperger refused to help the former President overturn the election results after his loss to President Joe Biden. Trump has endorsed one of Raffensperger's primary opponents, GOP Rep. Jody Hice, who has embraced the ex-President's falsehoods about the election."

Oregon. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: A video surfaced last week on Oregon Public Broadcasting showing State Rep. Mike Nearman (R) teaching a primer on how to break into the state capitol a week before they did just that while legislators were considering Covid-19 legislation. Then, on December 21, 2020, "he walked out of a special session and opened the door for maskless demonstrators who rushed inside and clashed with police. Dozens eventually entered the building that day, some attacking officers and damaging property.... Nearman, 57, is charged with misdemeanor counts of first-degree official misconduct and second-degree criminal trespass.... The GOP legislator's role in the December security breach led to the loss of his committee assignments and to restrictions on his access to the Capitol building. After Nearman's filmed explanation of 'Operation Hall Pass' drew attention this week, Oregon House Speaker Tina Kotek (D) renewed her calls for Nearman to resign."

Way Beyond

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled. The ceremony on a hill at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, where thousands of British and allied soldiers swarmed ashore on the morning of 6 June 1944, heard a video message from the Prince of Wales, the patron of the Normandy Trust, who said he regretted that Covid had made it impossible for him to be present in France.... Today, 77 years on, the surviving veterans of D-day were defeated in their efforts to return to France, not by war or even growing old unlike their fallen comrades, but by coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel. Haven't We Heard Something Like This Before? Sam Sokol & Haaretz: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decried what he described as election fraud on an unprecedented scale on Sunday, dubbing the establishment of a government with a slim Knesset majority as an attack on Israeli democracy itself.... Speaking before Likud lawmakers at a party faction meeting in the Knesset on Sunday, Netanyahu said ... that Israelis were 'witnessing the biggest election fraud in the history of the country, in my opinion in the history of democracy.'" MB: Okay. then. ~~~

~~~ Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "The head of Israel's internal security service said that 'extremely violent and inciting discourse' targeting the lawmakers who are seeking to end Benjamin Netanyahu's 12-year tenure as prime minister could take a potentially lethal form -- a grim echo of the warnings ahead of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman said Saturday that the spike in vitriol targeting Netanyahu's opponents online and in public demonstrations 'may be interpreted by certain groups or individuals as one that allows for violent and illegal activities that may even, God forbid, become lethal.'" MB: How lovely to see that our former President*'s supporters set an example for democracies around the world.

Nigeria. BBC News: "The leader of the Nigerian militant group Boko Haram,Abubakar Shekau, has killed himself, rival Islamist militants said in an audio recording. In audio obtained by news agencies, the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) said Shekau died detonating explosives on himself after a battle between the two groups. Shekau was reported dead last month and has been reported killed before. Neither Boko Haram nor the Nigerian government have confirmed his death."

News Lede

New York Times: "David Dushman, who as a soldier for the Soviet Union drove his tank through the electric fence surrounding the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945, and is believed to have been the last surviving liberator of the camp, died in Munich on Saturday. He was 98."

The Commentariat -- June 6, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "On Sunday, the names of 22,442 soldiers under British command who died on D-day and the subsequent Battle of Normandy were engraved in stone as a permanent reminder of their sacrifice as a new British Normandy memorial was unveiled. The ceremony on a hill at Ver-sur-Mer overlooking Gold Beach, where thousands of British and allied soldiers swarmed ashore on the morning of 6 June 1944, heard a video message from the Prince of Wales, the patron of the Normandy Trust, who said he regretted that Covid had made it impossible for him to be present in France.... Today, 77 years on, the surviving veterans of D-day were defeated in their efforts to return to France, not by war or even growing old unlike their fallen comrades, but by coronavirus.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

~~~~~~~~~~

President Joe Biden, in a Washington Post op-ed, lays out his agenda for his trip to Europe this week: "On Wednesday, I depart for Europe on the first foreign travel of my presidency.... In this moment of global uncertainty, as the world still grapples with a once-in-a-century pandemic, this trip is about realizing America’s renewed commitment to our allies and partners, and demonstrating the capacity of democracies to both meet the challenges and deter the threats of this new age.... And, as America’s economic recovery helps to propel the global economy, we will be stronger and more capable when we are flanked by nations that share our values and our vision for the future — by other democracies.... Those shared democratic values are the foundation of the most successful alliance in world history." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “Finance ministers for the G-7 advanced economies announced an accord that could reshape the tax obligations of multinational corporations around the world. The deal reached at the G-7 meeting in London Saturday by Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the U.S. is a major breakthrough for the Biden administration’s efforts to enact a floor on the taxes paid by corporations worldwide.... 'The G-7 Finance Ministers have made a significant, unprecedented commitment today that provides tremendous momentum toward achieving a robust global minimum tax at a rate of at least 15 percent,' [Treasury Secretary Janet] Yellen, who led negotiations on behalf of the U.S., said in a statement.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: “About 31 million Americans now have health-care coverage through the Affordable Care Act, the White House announced Saturday, setting a record since the law, colloquially known as 'Obamacare,' was enacted in 2010 under President Barack Obama. According to a report from the Health and Human Services Department, about 11.3 million Americans were enrolled in health-care plans through the Affordable Care Act’s federal marketplaces as of February, with 14.8 million people newly enrolled in Medicaid through the law’s expansion of eligibility as of December. The report also counted an additional 3.9 million Medicaid-enrolled adults who would have been eligible even before the Affordable Care Act but credited 'enhanced outreach, streamlined applications, and increased federal funding' from the law for the numbers.The report also said 1 million people were enrolled in the Affordable Care Act’s Basic Health Program option, which covers people whose incomes are just slightly too high to qualify them for Medicaid, as well as for some immigrants.” ~~~

     ~~~ Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Aamer Madhani of the AP: “President Joe Biden turned to his old boss, former President Barack Obama, on Saturday to help him encourage Americans to sign up for 'Obamacare' health care coverage during an expanded special enrollment period in the pandemic. Biden used his weekly address for a brief Zoom chat with Obama to draw attention to the six-month expanded enrollment period that closes Aug. 15.” See President Biden's conversation with Barack from Chicago in the right-hand column.

Charlie Savage & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Biden administration said on Saturday that no one at the White House had been aware that the Justice Department was seeking to seize the email data of four New York Times reporters and had obtained a gag order in March barring a handful of newspaper executives who knew about the fight from discussing it. The disavowal came one day after a court lifted the gag order, which permitted a Times lawyer to disclose the department’s effort to obtain email logs from Google, which operates the Times’s email system. It had begun in the last days of the Trump administration and continued until Wednesday, when the Biden Justice Department asked a judge to quash the matter without having obtained the data about who had been in contact with the reporters." ~~~

~~~ Eric Tucker of the AP: “The Justice Department said Saturday that it no longer will secretly obtain reporters’ records during leak investigations, a policy shift that abandons a practice decried by news organizations and press freedom groups. The reversal follows a pledge last month by President Joe Biden, who said it was 'simply, simply wrong' to seize journalists’ records and that he would not permit the Justice Department to continue the practice. Though Biden’s comments in an interview were not immediately accompanied by any change in policy, a pair of statements from the White House and Justice Department on Saturday signaled an official turnabout from an investigative tactic that has persisted for years.... White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Saturday that ... 'the issuing of subpoenas for the records of reporters in leak investigations is not consistent with the President’s policy direction to the Department.'... Justice Department spokesman Anthony Coley said that 'in a change to its longstanding practice,' the department 'will not seek compulsory legal process in leak investigations to obtain source information from members of the news media doing their jobs....' In ruling out 'compulsory legal process' for reporters in leak investigations, the department also appeared to say that it would not force journalists to reveal in court the identity of their sources.”

Noise. Quinn Scanlan & Mark Osborne of ABC News: "... Donald Trump returned to the stage on Saturday night, delivering a speech at the North Carolina Republican Party State Convention, and claiming America is backsliding under President Joe Biden.... Trump referred to 'bad things' happening in the 2020 election, while saying the GOP would have a 'tremendous 2022' in the midterm elections. Trump teased -- slightly -- a 2024 run as well.... Trump's supporters gathered early in the day outside the Greenville Convention Center, some carrying 'Trump 2020' flags while others were already displaying 'Trump 2024: I'll Be Back' banners. Many wore 'Trump won' hats, being sold outside the arena. About 1,200 attendees were expected in the room...." MB: "I'll be back"? Really? That's Arnold Schwarzenegger's signature line, and Trump has been calling Schwarzenegger a loser for several years. ~~~

     ~~~ Meredith McGraw of Politico: “Never before in U.S. history has a former president returned to the campaign trail to claim that his election loss was fraudulent. But in his informal reemergence on the political scene before the GOP faithful at the North Carolina GOP convention in Greenville, Donald Trump did just that, insisting — falsely — that the 2020 race was stolen and corrupt. 'The evidence is too voluminous to even mention,' Trump said at one point. Tellingly, he never mentioned it, choosing instead to insist that dead people had voted, that Facebook had encouraged get out the vote drives in liberal enclaves, and that 'Indians' were paid to vote (ostensibly referring to Native Americans) — none of it supported by fact.... He was met with a standing ovation when he demanded China pay $10 trillion in 'reparations' for its role in the coronavirus pandemic and again when he called for the banning of critical race theory in schools, the culture wars issue du jour for the GOP.... At times, it gave off the vibe of an entertainer in the twilight of his career, playing the hits for a Vegas crowd.”

** Katie Benner of the New York Times: "In Donald J. Trump’s final weeks in office, Mark Meadows, his chief of staff, repeatedly pushed the Justice Department to investigate unfounded conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election, according to newly uncovered emails provided to Congress, portions of which were reviewed by The New York Times. In five emails sent during the last week of December and early January, Mr. Meadows asked Jeffrey A. Rosen, then the acting attorney general, to examine debunked claims of election fraud in New Mexico and an array of baseless conspiracies that held that Mr. Trump had been the actual victor. That included a fantastical theory that people in Italy had used military technology and satellites to remotely tamper with voting machines in the United States and switch votes for Mr. Trump to votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. None of the emails show Mr. Rosen agreeing to open the investigations suggested by Mr. Meadows, and former officials and people close to him said that he did not do so.... But the communications between Mr. Meadows and Mr. Rosen ... show the increasingly urgent efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies during his last days in office to find some way to undermine, or even nullify, the election results while he still had control of the government." (Also linked yesterday.) Mother Jones has a summary story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over there. It's the Venezuelans! No, it's the Chinese! No, it's the Italians! I'm surprised we haven't heard that those UFOs Navy pilots have been seeing zapped voting machines & turned real Trump votes to fake Biden votes.

Texas Trumpist AG Says Trump Would Have Lost Texas without Voter Suppression. Jason Lemon of Newsweek: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, said ... Donald Trump would have lost in Texas in the 2020 election if his office had not successfully blocked counties from mailing out applications for mail-in ballots to all registered voters. Harris County, home to the city of Houston, wanted to mail out applications for mail-in ballots to its approximately 2.4 million registered voters due to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the conservative Texas Supreme Court blocked the county from doing so after it faced litigation from Paxton's office. 'If we'd lost Harris County — Trump won by 620,000 votes in Texas. Harris County mail-in ballots that they wanted to send out were 2.5 million, those were all illegal and we were able to stop every one of them,' Paxton told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon during the latter's War Room podcast on Friday.... Notably, the Texas attorney general conflated mail-in ballots with applications for mail-in ballots in his remarks to Bannon. Harris County did not attempt to mail actual ballots to registered voters—just applications to request them if the individual voter wanted one." MB: Still, Paxton has a point. ~~~

~~~ Marie: And that's precisely why Joe Manchin opposes the For the People Act. Oh, and the Senate filibuster: ~~~

     ~~~ Sen. Joe Manchin (DINO-W.Va.), in a Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail op-ed: "Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why?... The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen. With that in mind, some Democrats have again proposed eliminating the Senate filibuster rule in order to pass the For the People Act with only Democratic support." MB: IOW, if everybody gets to vote, Republicans know they will lose, and that's a bad thing.

Neil Irwin of the New York Times: “The relationship between American businesses and their employees is undergoing a profound shift: For the first time in a generation, workers are gaining the upper hand.... The erosion of employer power began during the low-unemployment years leading up to the pandemic and, given demographic trends, could persist for years. March had a record number of open positions, according to federal data that goes back to 2000, and workers were voluntarily leaving their jobs at a rate that matches its historical high. The 'reservation wage,' as economists call the minimum compensation workers would require, was 19 percent higher for those without a college degree in March than in November 2019, a jump of nearly $10,000 a year....” MB: “Reservation wage”? That seems like a rather unfortunate term. On the other hand, I suppose they could have gone with “plantation wage.”

Ray Jenkins of the Washington Post: “John Patterson, an intractable segregationist Democrat of the 1950s and 1960s who served as Alabama’s attorney general and then governor and belatedly said he came to regret the stances that helped him rise to power in a tumultuous era, died June 4 at his home in Goldville, Ala. He was 99.... Exactly 50 years after his election as governor, he announced he would vote for then-Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), who became the nation’s first Black president. 'Having a record of supporting segregation,' Mr. Patterson said in an interview for this obituary, 'is a terrible burden to bear.'” MB: If you like to read obituaries, you'll enjoy this one.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Fractured History. Matt Viser & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump and his Republican allies have spent the past few weeks trying to rewrite or distort the history of the pandemic, attempting with renewed vigor to villainize Anthony S. Fauci while lionizing the former president for what they portray as heroic foresight and underappreciated efforts to combat the deadly virus.... 'They’re using Dr. Fauci as a way to direct attention from what actually was a massive government failure from the White House and individuals Donald Trump put in place to handle some of this pandemic,' [Amesh] Adalja [of Johns Hopkins] said.”