The Commentariat -- September 14, 2021
It's recall election day in California.
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
** Milley, Pelosi Agreed Trump Was Crazy. Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN: "Two days after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol..., Donald Trump's top military adviser, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, single-handedly took top-secret action to limit Trump from potentially ordering a dangerous military strike or launching nuclear weapons, according to 'Peril,' a new book by legendary journalist Bob Woodward and veteran Washington Post reporter Robert Costa. Woodward and Costa write that Milley, deeply shaken by the assault, 'was certain that Trump had gone into a serious mental decline in the aftermath of the election, with Trump now all but manic, screaming at officials and constructing his own alternate reality about endless election conspiracies.' Milley worried that Trump could 'go rogue,' the authors write.... In response, Milley took extraordinary action, and called a secret meeting in his Pentagon office on January 8 to review the process for military action, including launching nuclear weapons.... Milley's fear that Trump could do something unpredictable came from experience. Right after Trump lost the election, Milley discovered the President [secretly] had signed a military order to withdraw all troops from Afghanistan by January 15, 2021, before he left the White House." Read on. Whodathunk that Dan Quayle would save the day? ~~~
~~~ Update. The Washington Post's story, by Isaac Stanley-Becker, is here: "Twice in the final months of the Trump administration, the country's top military officer was so fearful that the president's actions might spark a war with China that he moved urgently to avert armed conflict. In a pair of secret phone calls, Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, assured his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li Zuocheng of the People's Liberation Army, that the United States would not strike, according to a new book by Washington Post associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times story, by Michael Schmidt, is here: "... the book details how Mr. Trump's presidency essentially collapsed in his final months in office, particularly after his election loss and the start of his campaign to deny the results. Top aides -- including General Milley, Defense Secretary Mark Esper and Attorney General William P. Barr -- became convinced that they needed to take drastic measures to stop him from trampling on American democracy or setting off an international conflict, and General Milley thought that Mr. Trump had declined mentally in the aftermath of the election, according to the book."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here.
Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate Democrats are proposing new legislation to overhaul voting laws after months of discussions to get all 50 of their members behind a single bill, allowing their caucus to speak with one voice on the issue even though it stands virtually no chance of becoming law.... The new proposal will almost certainly fall well short of the 60 votes needed to break a GOP-led filibuster. Plus Democrats lack the votes to change the rules and weaken the filibuster as many in their party want them to do, meaning the plan is expected to stall when the Senate casts a procedural vote on the matter next week. The proposal, which will be introduced by Senate Rules Chair Amy Klobuchar, also has the endorsement of Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who had been the lone member of his caucus to oppose his party's more sweeping overhaul -- known as the For the People Act -- which passed the House earlier this year." The Washington Post's story is here.
Zachary Cohen of CNN: "A few months before rioters stormed the US Capitol, the Department of Homeland Security restricted the flow of open-source intelligence reports about 'election-related threats' to law enforcement, citing First Amendment concerns, according to documents reviewed by CNN. The revelations not only add to a growing concerns about intelligence gathering, but they also raise questions about a key staffer on the committee investigating the insurrection and his previous role in determining how threat information that came from public sources, was shared with law enforcement prior to the Capitol attack. Joseph Maher, who changed the protocols around disseminating open-source information as head of DHS' intelligence arm, is now on the staff of the House Select Committee on January 6."
Heather Long & Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "U.S. poverty fell overall in 2020, a surprising decline that is largely a result of the swift and large federal aid that Congress enacted at the start of the pandemic to try to prevent widespread financial hardship as the nation experienced the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The U.S. Census reported that the official poverty rate rose slightly in 2020 to 11.4 percent, up from a record low 10.5 percent in 2019, but that figure mostly reflects cash payments to Americans. After accounting for all the government aid payments, the so-called supplemental poverty measure declined to 9.1 percent in 2020 from 11.8 percent in 2019. The decline in the poverty rate means that millions of Americans were lifted out of severe financial hardship last year, the U.S. Census said. Poverty is defined as having an income of less than $26,200 a year for a family of four."
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "You can draw a straight line from the 'war on terror' to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, from the state of exception that gave us mass surveillance, indefinite detention, extraordinary rendition and 'enhanced interrogation' to the insurrectionist conviction that the only way to save America is to subvert it.... It is with all of this in mind that I found it galling to watch George W. Bush speak on Saturday.... In Shanksville, Pa..., Bush voiced his dismay at the stark polarization and rigid partisanship of modern American politics.... Bush spoke as if he were just an observer.... But ... Bush was an active participant in the politics he now bemoans.... Bush was noteworthy for the partisanship of his White House and the ruthlessness of his political tactics, for using the politics of fear to pound his opponents into submission.... His critique of the Trump movement is not wrong, but it is fatally undermined by his own conduct in office."
How Amy ... Might Know She's a Political Hack. Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Justice Amy Coney Barrett's recent remarks in Louisville, alongside Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), the architect of the frantic rush to put her on the Supreme Court in 2020 even as people were voting in the presidential election, set off gales of laughter, much eye-rolling and a new appreciation for the necessity of term limits for justices.... Are we really to believe that the conservative justices who held up the former president's anti-Muslim travel ban, who knocked down an extension of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, who undercut unions' ability to organize, who repeatedly tried to overturn the Affordable Care Act and who adhered to a disingenuous if not tortured reading of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act just coincidentally stumbled onto positions supported by the right-wing promoters of their nominations and confirmations?... When the highest court is now a forum for raw exercise of political power, a president's picks should not be empowered to serve for decades."
Germany. Loveday Morris of the Washington Post: "After a decade and a half, the era of German Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming to an end. Having chosen not to run in national elections this month, she will become the country's first premier to leave power of her own volition. If negotiations to form a new government drag on after the Sept. 26 vote, she could overtake Helmut Kohl as modern Germany's longest-serving leader.... Her admirers have hailed her as everything from the leader of the free world to a contemporary Joan of Arc -- grand portrayals she has always spurned.... President Barack Obama, among her most enduring advocates, described her as an outstanding global political leader. But she leaves a complicated legacy. Some applaud her humble, consensus-driven political style. Others see a lack of bold leadership, particularly in the face of a more aggressive Russia and rising Chinese power. In 2015, she opened the door to more than 1 million refugees, mostly from war-battered Syria. But Merkel's watch has also seen a surge in nationalist sentiment that has propelled the far right into parliament. While dubbed the 'climate chancellor' for her environmental promises, she leaves office with Germany the world's biggest producer of air-choking brown coal."
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Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden continued his nationwide tour Monday of areas devastated by extreme weather, making his first visit to the West Coast since taking office to highlight one of the worst fire seasons in the nation's history and renew his push for significant investments to combat climate change. Amid a summer of unrelenting climate catastrophes exacerbated by a warming planet, the president has sharply escalated his rhetoric, once again warning that the country faces a 'code red' moment.... The president's trip began a week filled with climate events, part of a broader push to tout the environmental initiatives that are part of the infrastructure bills his administration is pushing. Democrats are hoping to commit billions of dollars to combat climate change, modernize the country"s infrastructure and make it more resilient."
Tyler Pager & Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "President Biden, arrived in [California] with a message for California voters that keeping the incumbent in office was the most effective way to ensure a quick-as-possible end to the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the advent of coronavirus vaccines and an easing of requirements in some states and cities, the pandemic has again become priority one for [Gov. Gavin] Newsom (D) and Biden, a pair of politically vulnerable Democrats whose vaccine and mask rules have helped to revive their approval ratings. The visit, ostensibly a political favor for Newsom, served both politicians' purposes for the eve-of-election stage it gave them to again implore the nation to get vaccinated and wear masks."
John Hudson & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken clashed with Republican lawmakers Monday over the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in his first hearing before Congress since the Taliban's takeover of the country. Republicans excoriated the administration for ending the U.S. military evacuation before every American left the country, the sluggish pace of visa processing for Afghan allies, and other tactical decisions, such as the abandonment of its largest military base at Bagram air base.... Republicans stopped short of advocating for a new surge of U.S. troops into the country -- an unpopular proposal that Blinken said would have been the only real alternative to withdrawing all personnel.... Blinken spent much of his testimony defending the administration's decision-making, saying Washington could not have anticipated that the Western-backed government would fall in 11 days. 'Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained.'" A Guardian story is here. ~~~
We inherited a deadline. We did not inherit a plan. -- Antony Blinken, in prepared remarks to a House Committee, Monday ~~~
~~~ Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced more than five hours of questions from members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He faces more questions from the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday. Here are some key takeaways from Monday's hearing in the House."
Dan Lamothe & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: The CIA orchestrated "-- alongside elite U.S. troops and Afghan counterterrorism forces -- ... the dangerous extraction of Americans, Afghans and foreign nationals facing threats of reprisal from the Taliban.... A spokeswoman for the agency, Tammy Thorp, declined to detail the operation, saying only that CIA personnel, in concert with other U.S. agencies, supported the broader evacuation effort 'in various ways.' Five current and former U.S. officials familiar with the missions said the CIA used a compound known as Eagle Base, located just a few miles from Hamid Karzai International Airport, to carry out rescues.... The rescues traveling through Eagle Base involved multiple helicopter flights to Kabul's airport." A compelling story: it's easy to place yourself in the position of Shaqaiq Birashk, a USAID worker and one of those rescued in this operation.
Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The Federal Election Commission has dismissed Republican accusations that Twitter violated election laws in October by blocking people from posting links to an unsubstantiated New York Post article about Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son Hunter Biden, in a decision that is likely to set a precedent for future cases involving social media sites and federal campaigns. The F.E.C. determined that Twitter's actions regarding the Hunter Biden article had been undertaken for a valid commercial reason, not a political purpose, and were thus allowable, according to a document outlining the decision obtained by The New York Times. The commission's ruling, which was made last month behind closed doors and is set to become public soon, provides further flexibility to social media giants like Twitter, Facebook and Snapchat to control what is shared on their platforms regarding federal elections." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Paul Waldman & Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Many of the spending items in the reconciliation bill Democrats are negotiating could be described as transformative. If we had universal pre-K, free community college, paid family leave and enhanced Medicare benefits, millions of lives would be changed for the better. But there's nothing radical about the tax changes Democrats are proposing to pay for these items. Yet Republicans -- and even a few Democrats -- are acting as though the bill represents some kind of terrifying tax apocalypse. It's nonsense.... Many changes Democrats want to make are simply reversing provisions of the Republicans' 2017 tax cut (and in some cases only partially). Paying taxes something like five years ago can't be that radical a change.... Democrats appear to fear the [GOP] talking point that [estate] taxes would devastate the owners and operators of farms passed down from one generation to the next. But, according to a senior Senate Democratic aide, the current negotiations had already carved out an exemption for family-owned farms that would only tax gains valued from $25 million and up.
Marie's Fashion Report. She Really Does Care, Do U? Judy Kurtz of the Hill: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) is letting her dress do the talking, appearing in a gown with the message 'tax the rich' at the Met Gala. The House member was eyed on the red carpet for the star-studded event in New York City on Monday. The statement-making get-up was created by Brother Vellies, according to Vogue.... The theme of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute Benefit this year is American-made fashion."
Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "Fencing around the U.S. Capitol will be reinstalled 'a day or two' before a rally on Saturday, when demonstrators plan to demand 'justice' for those arrested in the Jan. 6 riot. U.S. Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger confirmed the security measure to reporters Monday after briefing congressional leaders on the 'Justice for J6' rally, for which local law enforcement has increased staffing.... Organizers of Saturday's demonstration ... describe those arrested as 'political prisoners' -- an assertion that has exploded beyond the far right and been embraced in mainstream conservatism.... D.C. police will be 'fully activated' Friday and Saturday, meaning all officers must work those days.... Capitol Police have requested support from neighboring police departments in Arlington and Montgomery counties Saturday...."
Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "U.S. Capitol Police arrested a California man on weapons charges after finding multiple illegal knives in a pickup adorned with white supremacist iconography near the Democratic National Committee's Capitol Hill headquarters. Capitol Police said Monday that 44-year-old Donald Craighead was charged with possession of prohibited weapons after a patrolling Special Operations Division officer noticed that the Dodge Dakota did not have a visible license plate and pulled the driver over around midnight. Police said that the officer then spotted a bayonet and machete, both of which are types of knives that are illegal in Washington, D.C., inside the truck. Capitol Police also said that Craighead espoused white supremacist rhetoric while he was pulled over. Photos of his car released by police showed Nazi swastikas on the truck's side mirror; a pentagram on the steering wheel; what appears to be the word 'confederate' across the dashboard and other symbols. A pair of horns were also affixed to the truck's front grill." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: "... Craighead espoused white supremacist rhetoric while he was pulled over." In D.C., there's a good chance the officer who pulled over this dude was Black. So use your imagination of that "white supremacist rhetoric."
Another Intersection between Trump & Q. David Gilbert of Vice: "A Nevada businessman who once cleared out his company's warehouse to host a Trump rally in violation of state lockdown laws, has become the new host for the country's biggest QAnon conference. At the end of August, the 'For God & Country Patriot Double Down' was left without a home, when Caesars in Las Vegas pulled the plug.... The new venue is the Ahern Hotel and Convention Center, a premises close to the Las Vegas Strip owned by Don Ahern, a multi-millionaire businessman who is the finance chairman of the Nevada Republican Party and one of the biggest supporters of ... Donald Trump."
Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "Not every justice would have the sheer gall to make a speech about the importance of the court staying above politics while appearing at a celebration for Mitch McConnell. But that's what [Amy] Barrett did.... But with McConnell by her side, Barrett insisted that she and the other justices are unsullied by politics.... And she showed how the Supreme Court can pursue a radical ideological agenda, one aimed at creating a conservative legal and political revolution in America, while simultaneously protesting that they would never consider something as unseemly as politics.... The truth, however, is that everything the Supreme Court does is political, and that's particularly true of its conservative majority." Emphasis original. See related story linked yesterday. MB: Akhilleus has renamed our Junior Justice Amy Phony Barrett (see yesterday's Comments), and that seems apt to me. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Amy Phony Barrett, as played by Claude Rains:
~~~ Dahlia Lithwick, on the teevee, likened Barrett's protestations about political bias as she stood next to Mitch McConnell to Captain Renault's declaring "I'm shocked! Shocked to find that gambling is going on in here," as an employee of Rick's Cafe hands Renault his winnings.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
News to Confuse. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "None of the data on coronavirus vaccines so far provides credible evidence in support of boosters for the general population, according to a review published on Monday by an international group of scientists, including some at the Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization. The 18 authors include Dr. Philip Krause and Dr. Marion Gruber, F.D.A. scientists who announced last month that they will be leaving the agency, at least in part because they disagreed with the Biden administration's push for boosters before federal scientists could review the evidence and make recommendations. The Biden administration has proposed administering vaccine boosters eight months after the initial shots. But many scientists have opposed the plan, saying the vaccines continue to be powerfully protective against severe illness and hospitalization."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: A big Republican "talking point is that [President Biden's] move [to require large companies to make sure employees are vaccinated or tested weekly] is needlessly divisive.... The thing is, though, that this isn't a vaccine mandate at all, strictly speaking. And it's also a move that, in the absence of [GOP] pushback, wouldn't seem to be all that divisive.... You could just as easily call it a testing mandate with a vaccination opt-out." A number of polls have showed that 75 percent or more of Americans favor a testing mandate.
Brian Beutler of Crooked takes on pro-Covid Republican "leaders" and Jon Chait of New York Mag. Beutler argues that the Republicans were pro-Covid both to help Trump and to hurt President Biden and he explains why. Thanks to citizen625 for the link. MB: I do think this is a case where Republicans like DeSantis & Noem have been remarkably consistent throughout. Like Trump, they're for freeedumb and Biden's Covid vaccine mandates -- just like the mandates they already have in their states for other diseases -- are gross violations of constitutional liberties. Trump tended to treat the virus as a hoax and Biden takes it seriously. And perhaps the main thing that is guiding GOP consistency is their base's antipathy to vaccines. (They even booed Trump at his own rally when he mildly suggested they should get the vaccine.) (Also linked yesterday.)
Meant to embed this yesterday: Chris Wallace challenges Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts' far-out stance on Covid-19 vaccine mandates. It did not go well for Pete:
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Ricketts treats it as a natural fact of life that people lack confidence in federal officials overseeing national vaccination efforts, then uses that as justification for opposing vaccine mandates. But Ricketts himself essentially endorses the idea that people have good reason to lack confidence in the feds on vaccines.... The critical point here is that Republicans such as Ricketts are themselves actively undermining people's trust in vaccines, while piously citing that mistrust as the basis for opposing mandates.... Republicans have played this game for months. Though a good number have urged vaccines, in some cases they simultaneously try to tacitly discourage confidence about them out of the other side of their mouths." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~
~~~ Florida. Comes Now Ron DeSantis. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday opened up another front in his ongoing battle against Covid-19 related mandates, threatening to fine cities and counties thousands of dollars if they impose vaccine requirements on their employees. The latest move from the governor comes after his weekslong fight with Florida schools over student mask mandates and after President Joe Biden last week said he will impose vaccine mandates on federal employees and health care providers that rely on federal funding, as well as employers with 100 or more workers.... DeSantis' Monday press conference functioned more as a campaign rally, with the audience cheering on the Republican governor as he lashed out at Biden for his 'arrogance' and being 'dismissive' of those who do not share his position on vaccine mandates.... DeSantis was standing side-by-side by people opposed to the vaccine, including one Gainesville worker who falsely said that the vaccine alters genes. DeSantis said nothing about the misinformation, which was swiftly criticized by critics and experts. (MB: Notice here how Fineout makes Aaron Blake's point: he describes Biden's order as imposing "vaccine mandates" & never mentions testing.)
Colorado. A Covid Victim Who Deserved His Untimely Death. Sam Tabachnik of the Denver Post: "Conservative firebrand Bob Enyart, the pastor of the Denver Bible Church and indelible talk show host, has died from COVID-19, his radio co-host announced Monday on Facebook.... Enyart and his wife refused to get the vaccine due to abortion concerns, he said on his website. In October, Enyart successfully sued the state over mask mandates and capacity limits in churches, a rare legal victory against broad public health mandates instituted during the pandemic. Pushing the limits never bothered Enyart.... On his old TV show, Bob Enyart Live, the host would 'gleefully read obituaries of AIDS sufferers while cranking "Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen,' Westword reported." MB: That's not my idea of "pushing the limits" nor is it "conservative." It's despicably inhuman.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Larry Has Seen the Future, and It Is Gavin. Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "Republicans in Tuesday's California gubernatorial recall election are already laying the groundwork to argue the election was stolen -- even before a single ballot is reported or a victor declared, an increasingly common tactic in conservative circles. Republican Larry Elder appealed on Monday to his supporters to use an online form to report fraud, which claimed it had 'detected fraud' in the 'results' of the California recall election 'resulting in Governor Gavin Newsom being reinstated as governor.'"
Florida. Andrew Jeong of the Washington Post: "Two Florida middle-schoolers are being held at a juvenile detention center after being accused of planning a mass school shooting inspired by Columbine. The 14-year-old and 13-year-old boys, whom The Washington Post is not naming because they are minors, are eighth-graders at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lee County, about two hours away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting and have been ordered to be held at a juvenile detention center for three weeks, according to the county sheriff's office. Police investigations suggest the boys had looked for guns on the black market, studied ways to build pipe bombs and researched the 1999 school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kansas. GOP Legislator Kicked a Student in the Nuts. John Hanna of the AP: "A Kansas legislator accused of kicking a high school student in the testicles pleaded guilty Monday to three lesser misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and was placed on a year's probation under a deal with the local prosecutor. Republican Rep. Mark Samsel also agreed not to use social media for personal purposes or have any contact with the high school student who said he was kicked and another another student who complained of an interaction with Samsel. The lawmaker also agreed to write letters of apology to both students.... The lawmaker said in a Facebook post last month that 'extreme' stress caused him to have 'an isolated episode of mania with psychotic features' in a classroom. He disclosed that he was undergoing mental health treatment and surrendered his state substitute teacher's license."
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