The Commentariat -- July 22, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Did You Have Trouble with Internet Access Today? It Wasn't You. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Another massive Internet outage along the East Coast struck significant online platforms Thursday, causing many high-traffic websites like Amazon Airbnb, FedEx and Delta Air Lines to go dark. According to the tracking website Downdetector, sites such as UPS, USAA, Home Depot, HBO Max and Costco were among those affected by the outage. Other sites like British Airways, Go Daddy, Fidelity, Vanguard and AT&T were among those loading slowly. The cause of the outage, the latest in a series of major global Internet outages this summer, is not immediately clear."

Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: President "Biden's answer [in yesterday's town hall about why the Senate should preserve the filibuster] was weak and unrealistic.... The arguments in favor of eliminating the filibuster are almost absurdly overwhelming, but they haven't managed to change many minds in the Senate.... You get change not by convincing politicians to do the right thing for its own sake, but by altering the political landscape in such a way that the path you want them to take winds up being the only logical choice for them.... The reality is that the only way Democrats will get filibuster reform -- and thereby get action on the rest of their agenda -- is to elect enough Democrats to the Senate so that they don't need Manchin and Sinema's votes on the question.... That's what would produce change. And Biden? He'd go right along with it, no matter what he says now." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Unfortunately, what Waldman suggests -- democracy from the bottom up -- is nearly as pie-in-the-sky as Biden's filibuster dreams. There's a circular problem here: if the Senate doesn't pass voting rights legislation, then many Democratic-leaning Americans will be deprived of the right to vote, and, obviously, if Democrats can't vote, Republicans will win elections & will continue to put tighter & tighter squeezes on Democratic voters. AND Republicans will choose the judges & justices who are inclined to go along with the plan. When you insist on minority rule, even when you're in the majority, there's an awfully good chance you'll get minority rule. Nice work, Joe!

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration will announce new sanctions Thursday against a number of Cuban officials deemed directly involved in human rights abuses during a government crackdown on widespread protests earlier this month, a senior administration official said. Imposed under the Global Magnitsky Act, the sanctions will initially affect what officials said were a small number of individuals from Cuba's Interior Ministry and military forces. The measures come as President Biden faces increasing pressure from Congress, activist groups and Cuban Americans to take decisive action in support of the protesters."

Richard Pildes, in a New York Times op-ed, argues that the two-year Congressional term is a major reason Congress doesn't get anything done. MB: Frankly, I find his thesis about as useful as "We must keep the filibuster so everything will be great." In both arguments, there is no acknowledgment of Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy & their ilk.

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "A reporter at The Washington Post filed a lawsuit Thursday against the newspaper, its former top editor, and other senior leaders, alleging she was subject to unlawful discrimination after publicly saying that she had been the victim of sexual assault. The reporter, Felicia Sonmez, had previously said that she had been prohibited from covering stories about sexual misconduct because she had been outspoken about being a sexual assault survivor herself. As a national politics reporter, the ban had kept her from writing stories about how the #MeToo movement had upended politics, such as the allegations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation process. The ban was eventually lifted earlier this year, the lawsuit said, after Sonmez criticized the newspaper both privately and in public over the policy. It was instituted during the tenure of former Executive Editor Marty Baron, who retired from the paper in February." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Assuming Sonmez's allegations are true, the Post's position is nonsensical. It's likely every one of the paper's Black reporters has been subjected to racial discrimination. Has the paper refused to allow Black staff to write about racism? Men in positions of power, who wouldn't dream of, say, preventing Jewish men from writing about anti-Semitic behavior, have put women in a special place because our delicate (hysterical) sensibilities don't allow us to think rationally about matters that affect us personally.

So Let Us Now Revisit the "Investigation" of Bart O'Kavanaugh. Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "Nearly three years after Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh's tumultuous confirmation to the Supreme Court, the F.B.I. has disclosed more details about its efforts to review the justice's background, leading a group of Senate Democrats to question the thoroughness of the vetting and conclude that it was shaped largely by the Trump White House. In a letter dated June 30 to two Democratic senators, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Chris Coons of Delaware, an F.B.I. assistant director, Jill C. Tyson, said that the most 'relevant' of the 4,500 tips the agency received during an investigation into Mr. Kavanaugh's past were referred to White House lawyers in the Trump administration, whose handling of them remains unclear. The letter left uncertain whether the F.B.I. itself followed up on the most compelling leads.... Ms. Tyson's letter was a response to a 2019 letter from Mr. Whitehouse and Mr. Coons to the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray.... Ms. Tyson's letter, Mr. Whitehouse said [in an interview], suggested that the F.B.I. ran a 'fake tip line that never got properly reviewed, that was presumably not even conducted in good faith.' Mr. Whitehouse and six of his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee replied to the F.B.I.'s letter on Wednesday with demands for additional details...." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe if Feliciz Sonmez had been on the beat, the public would have got some better answers timely.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Chinese officials said on Thursday that they were shocked and offended by a World Health Organization proposal to further investigate whether the coronavirus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, exposing a widening rift over the inquiry into the origins of the pandemic. Senior Chinese health and science officials pushed back vigorously against the idea of opening the Wuhan Institute of Virology to renewed investigation after the W.H.O. director-general, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, laid out plans to examine laboratories in the central city of Wuhan, where the first cases of Covid-19 appeared in late 2019."

Alabamy Is Still Alabamy. CBS/AP: "Tarrant City Council member Tommy Bryant, [who is white, was] captured on video using a racial slur toward Black people during a council meeting said he won't apologize, and might run for mayor. Others are calling for his resignation.... During a public session, Bryant used the slur to refer to a Black female council member, Veronica Freeman. Before the outburst, neighbors asked Bryant about controversial social media posts allegedly made by his wife about race, CBS affiliate WIAT-TV reports. After being questioned, Bryant stood up and can be heard saying: 'The n-word. The n-word. Let's get to the n-word. Hey. Do we have a house n***** in here? Do we? Hey. Would she please stand up?' Bryant said. Some in the audience gasped at his use of the slur, which was broadcast on Facebook Live, and Freeman left crying, but Bryant was unapologetic." Bryant claimed he was just repeating what Mayor Wayman Newman, who is Black, said in a private meeting. Newman denied Bryant's claim.

California. Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "A Southern California couple are facing manslaughter charges in connection with a deadly wildfire last September that prosecutors say was sparked by a smoke bomb during a gender reveal. The El Dorado Fire, which began at a park in Yucaipa, Calif., killed a firefighter and injured two other firefighters while burning more than 22,000 acres across San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. A grand jury indicted the couple, Refugio Manuel Jimenez Jr. and Angela Renee Jimenez, on one count each of involuntary manslaughter, San Bernardino County's district attorney, Jason Anderson, said at a news conference on Tuesday. They also face three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four felony counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures and 22 misdemeanor counts. About half of wildfires in the Western United States are caused by people -- from downed power lines, discarded cigarettes, untended campfires -- while the other half are started by lightning."

Pennsylvania. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania's acting secretary of state has decertified a county's voting system for future elections after it was subjected to a review by a private company in an effort promoted by a group of state senators supporting ... Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election. Acting secretary of state Veronica W. Degraffenreid said in a statement Wednesday that Wake TSI's examination of the Fulton County ballots earlier this year violated the state's election code.... According to a statement from Degraffenreid's office, Fulton County officials allowed Wake TSI, of West Chester, Pa., 'to access certain key components of its certified system, including the county's election database, results files, and Windows systems logs. The county officials also allowed the company to use a system imaging tool to take complete hard drive images of these computers and other digital equipment.' The statement called Wake TSI 'a company with no knowledge or expertise in election technology.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's hoping the local elections officials who allowed those wingnuts to paw over the voting equipment get "decertified," too.

The New York Times is liveblogging the Olympics. Here are the entries for Thursday: "Just a day before the opening ceremony of the delayed Tokyo Olympics, organizers of the Games dismissed Kentaro Kobayashi, the creative director of the ceremony, after video footage emerged of him making fun of the Holocaust in a comedic act in the 1990s. At a press briefing on Thursday, Japan's Olympics minister, Seiko Hashimoto, sounding beleaguered after a run of scandals that have plagued the Games and the creative staff of the opening ceremony in particular, said she had learned about the routine on Wednesday. In the skit, Kobayashi joked about 'massacring Jews' while miming the act of cutting up human figures made of paper. The organizing committee, she said, decided to dismiss him 'immediately.'"

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: When "Princess Latifa bint Mohammed al-Maktoum, the 32-year-old daughter of Dubai's fearsome ruler ... -- Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the United Arab Emirates' prime minister, vice president and minister of defense — [failed to escape her father's realm despite making elaborate plans to do so, people wondered how] ... the princess [had] been found. An investigation by The Washington Post and an international consortium of news organizations may offer critical new insight: Latifa's number and those of her friends appear on a list that includes phones targeted for surveillance with Pegasus, the hacking tool from the Israeli spyware giant NSO Group, amid the sprint to track her down.... In the year after Latifa's chase, operatives appear to have entered numbers onto the list for another Dubai princess."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marianna Sotomayor & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) picks to serve on the Jan. 6 select committee, saying the outspoken Republicans may jeopardize 'the integrity of the investigation.' McCarthy announced Monday that he would recommend Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), noting that the two Republicans and three others represent an array of viewpoints and opinions. Both Jordan and Banks voted against certifying the election of President Biden.... Pelosi, who as speaker has final say on who can serve on a committee that is set to hold its first hearing Tuesday, said that she was 'prepared to appoint Representatives Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong and Troy E. Nehls.'... In response, McCarthy issued his own statement Wednesday afternoon in which he slammed Pelosi for 'an egregious abuse of power' he believes 'will irreparably damage this institution.&" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Speaker Pelosi's statement. ~~~

     ~~~ SO THEN. Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has decided not to participate in the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, yanking all of his GOP picks in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) decision to reject two top Republicans." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Representative Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday pulled five Republicans from a select committee investigating the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol after Speaker Nancy Pelosi took the unusual step of barring two of ... Donald J. Trump's closest allies in Congress from the panel, citing concerns that they would disrupt its work. A visibly agitated Mr. McCarthy called a rushed news conference to condemn Ms. Pelosi's decision and accused her of excessive partisanship. He pledged to carry out a Republican-only investigation into the events of Jan. 6 -- and focus on whether Ms. Pelosi could have done more to protect the Capitol from violent supporters of Mr. Trump." ~~~

~~~ Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) explains to Kevin why Speaker Pelosi had to dump Jordan & Banks: ~~~

~~~ Marie: I was going to mention that Chris Cillizza is among the most useless, superficial pundits on the teevee, but I'll let Yastreblyansky, writing on Steve M.'s No More Mister Nice Blog, do it for me. Also see Tom Hilton's post, same site, same topic.

All They Do Is Obstruct. Tony Romm, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans on Wednesday threatened to vote against an increase to the debt ceiling unless Congress first agrees to new spending cuts or other measures, raising the potential for a major political showdown that could carry vast implications for both the global economy as well as President Biden's agenda. The new ultimatum marked a reversal for Republicans, who agreed to address the debt ceiling -- the statutory amount the government can borrow to pay its bills -- multiple times to advance policies under ... Donald Trump that helped add $7 trillion to the federal debt during his term."

That Went Well: Republicans Filibuster "Bipartisan" Infrastructure Bill. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Republicans blocked the Senate on Wednesday from taking up an emerging bipartisan infrastructure plan, raising doubts about the fate of a major piece of President Biden's agenda even as negotiators continued to seek a compromise. The failed vote underscored the intense mistrust between the two parties, which has complicated the effort to complete a deal. Both Republicans and Democrats in the group seeking a deal say they are still making progress toward agreement on a package with nearly $600 billion in new funds for roads, bridges, rail, transit and other infrastructure, which could be the first major infusion of federal public works spending since the 2009 stimulus law." The report goes on to describe some of the inter-party bickering. ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Economist Mark Zandi [of Moody's] is set to release a new report arguing that the country needs passage of the full package of Democratic proposals, to ensure that the recovery reaches its full potential.... Zandi's report concludes that concerns about inflation are 'likely misplaced' and 'overdone.'... The report concludes that both infrastructure and jobs bills being debated in Congress are essential.... [Zandi makes] a striking endorsement of a major argument for the package: that we have spent decades underinvesting in public programs of all kinds. Expenditures on both 'hard' and 'human' infrastructure will rectify this.... This Zandi report probably won't move most Senate Republicans, since many will see these benefits as arguments against supporting the package. And their warnings of inflation are not good-faith macroeconomic arguments; they're intended to trigger vague fears of Big Government and suggest liberal governance is running the country off the rails." (Also linked yesterday.)

Biden Gets Everything Ass-backwards Here. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday night defended the filibuster, a procedural tactic that stands to hold up much of his agenda in the Senate, even as he reiterated that he viewed it as a relic of Jim Crow. 'There's no reason to protect it other than you're going to throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done,' he said at a CNN Town Hall in Cincinnati.... Mr. Biden said there was too much at stake to risk that level of 'chaos' that a fight over the filibuster would ignite, including voting rights legislation he still wants to see passed. He also said waging a war against the filibuster would play into the hands of Republicans seeking to hold up his agenda. 'Wouldn't my friends on the other side love to have a debate about the filibuster instead of passing the Recovery Act?' he said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sorry, Joe, nothing is getting done because of the filibuster. If you've presented you best argument here, then you've demonstrated there is no argument for preserving the filibuster.

Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden will nominate Comcast executive David Cohen to serve as ambassador to Canada and Victoria Kennedy, the widow of former senator Edward M. 'Ted' Kennedy (D-Mass.), to serve as ambassador to Austria, the White House announced Wednesday. Biden will also nominate Jamie Harpootlian, the wife of Dick Harpootlian, a longtime Biden donor and friend, to serve as ambassador to Slovenia.... The president has continued the tradition of rewarding longtime friends and donors with foreign postings, even as the White House has vowed to nominate a more diverse group of people and have a higher percentage of career Foreign Service officers serve as ambassadors than in previous administrations."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a long-awaited directive Wednesday seeking to limit political influence on law enforcement matters by strictly limiting contacts between Justice Department personnel and the White House. The memo follows through on campaign pledges by then-candidate Joe Biden to reestablish the department's independence after a series of episodes where ... Donald Trump publicly and privately complained about prosecutors' decisions, urging them to lay off his friends and target his political enemies. Garland did not mention those instances in his five-page memo, but did speak of the importance of preserving the Justice Department's public reputation."

Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: Tom "Barrack allegedly used his close relationship with Trump to push UAE-sought actions on both the campaign and during the first two years of the administration. The Fortune op-ed was the product of direct input from Emirati officials, the indictment alleges.... What is clear from the indictment is that Barrack and the other indictees claim credit for virtually every interchange between Trump and the UAE, whose government quickly became a Trump favorite.... Most prominent among the policy impacts of Barrack's alleged lobbying are events preceding and following the decision of Saudi Arabia and the UAE to break relations with Qatar ... in 2017." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: DeYoung describes Barrack's alleged crime as "failing to register as a foreign agent." However, Rachel Maddow said Wednesday night that the characterization is a mistake, that Barrack instead was charged under a more serious law against acting as a foreign agent, the same law that got Maria Butina jailed, then deported. As Maddow said, Evan Perez, et al., makes the same mistake in the linked story that follows. The DOJ's public statement seems to back up Maddow. If so, the WashPo & CNN should correct their reporting. ~~~

~~~ Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn investigating Tom Barrack, a prominent ally to ... Donald Trump, for allegedly violating foreign lobbying laws had enough evidence to bring charges last year, but held off doing so until the arrival of the new presidential administration, according to people briefed on the matter. Prosecutors wanted to move forward on the case and believed they could obtain an indictment, one source familiar with the matter said. The source said the investigation was mostly done well before the time period when prosecutors are discouraged from advancing politically sensitive matters ahead of an election. But two sources tell CNN the US attorney in Brooklyn at the time, Richard Donoghue, expressed misgivings about the case. It's unclear if he delayed the case outright or if prosecutors chose not to move forward at the time knowing the US attorney would not support it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The upside of the delay, whatever its cause, is that Trump did not pardon Barrack on his last full day in office, as he did Elliott Broidy, who also had dodgy ties to the UAE among his other shady foreign entanglements. ~~~

~~~ According to Chris Hayes of MSNBC, the FBI opened its investigation of Barrack a week or ten days after the Intercept published this report by Alex Emmons & Matthew Cole. Journalism matters.

Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "After nearly two years of wrangling, the country's three major drug distributors and a pharmaceutical giant have reached a $26 billion deal with states that would release some of the biggest companies in the industry from all legal liability in the opioid epidemic, a decades-long public health crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. The agreement, announced Wednesday afternoon by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, lays the framework for billions of dollars to begin flowing into communities across the country for addiction treatment, prevention services and other steep expenses from the epidemic.... The four companies that would be bound by the settlement -- Johnson & Johnson and the drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson -- are widely seen as having some of the deepest pockets among the corporate opioid defendants...."

He Who Casts the First Stone.... Marie: Yesterday, we linked to a story about this guy's resigning his swell job. Now, there's this headline: "Catholic Monsignor Who Wanted to Deny Biden Communion Resigns After Cellphone Links Him to Gay Dating App" ~~~

~~~ There's another lesson in this story: ~~~

~~~ Smartphones Are Outsmarting Us. Joseph Cox of Vice: "After years of warning from researchers, journalists, and even governments, someone used highly sensitive location data from a smartphone app to track and publicly harass a specific person. In this case, Catholic Substack publication The Pillar said it used location data ultimately tied to Grindr to trace the movements of a priest, and then outed him publicly as potentially gay without his consent. The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the outing led to his resignation. The news starkly demonstrates not only the inherent power of location data, but how the chance to wield that power has trickled down from corporations and intelligence agencies to essentially any sort of disgruntled, unscrupulous, or dangerous individual. A growing market of data brokers that collect and sell data from countless apps has made it so that anyone with a bit of cash and effort can figure out which phone in a so-called anonymized dataset belongs to a target, and abuse that information."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic was largely responsible for shaving a year and a half from the life expectancy of Americans in 2020, the steepest drop in the United States since World War II, according to federal statistics released on Wednesday. An American child born today, if they hypothetically lived their entire life under the conditions of 2020, would be expected to live 77.3 years, down from 78.8 in 2019. It's the lowest life expectancy since 2003, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the agency that released the figures and a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The difficult year also deepened racial and ethnic disparities in life expectancy, with Black and Hispanic Americans losing nearly two more years than white Americans. Life expectancy for Hispanic Americans dropped to 78.8 from 81.8, while the numbers for Black Americans dropped to 71.8 from 74.7. Non-Hispanic white Americans saw their life expectancy drop to 77.6 from 78.8." The AP's report is here. MB: And Donald Trump is responsible for some significant part of our lowered life expectancy.(Also linked yesterday.)

Here's a nice headline from NBC News: &"As GOP supporters die of Covid, the party remains split in its vaccination message."

Missouri, etc. Jeremy Kohler of ProPublica: "Around Independence Day, [Missouri] State Rep. Bill Kidd, from the Kansas City suburbs, revealed that he has been infected by the coronavirus. 'And no, we didn't get the vaccine,' he wrote in a post that has since been deleted. 'We're Republicans 😆' State Rep. Brian Seitz, a Republican from Taney County, home to the tourist destination of Branson, commented on the post by falsely claiming that the virus had been developed by ... Anthony Fauci and ... Bill Gates. They 'knew what was coming,' Seitz wrote. 'The jury is still out on the "vaccine" (who knows what's in that),' he wrote. As the number of coronavirus infections rises around the country, lawmakers like Kidd and Seitz have adopted responses that trouble many health officials." Kohler cites many examples that should solidify your suspicion that our "representatives" are idiots.

Michigan. Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "Officials at a Catholic school in Michigan are [arguing in court that]... forcing students to wear masks ... is a violation of religious freedom.... Attorneys for Resurrection School in Lansing and two parents will tell the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit that Catholic doctrine holds that every person is made in God's image. 'Unfortunately, a mask shields our humanity,' the school argued in its lawsuit. 'And because God created us in His image, we are masking that image.'... In December, Judge Paul Maloney [MB: could be Roman Catholic!] of the Western District of Michigan denied the school's motion for a preliminary injunction that would have banned enforcement of the state's mask ordinance for kindergarten through fifth-grade students at religious schools... because he found the rule was neutrally applied and did not target religious schools.'" Thanks to PD Pepe for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm confused. First, I checked and it appears the school is a standard diocesan Roman Catholic school & not run by some lesser-known sect. In all of my experience, I have never been aware of even one such school run as a nudist camp. Yet the school's officials would certainly claim that our entire bodies -- not just our faces -- are made in God's image. So it's pretty clear -- according to the logic of this lawsuit -- that we should go naked whenever possible (maybe not on a cold day in Michigan). Also, I wonder how the theologians at this school deal with One Corinthians (as opposed to Two Corinthians) 11, where Paul advised the Jesus followers of Corinth that it's disgraceful for women to pray with their heads uncovered. OR, as RAS more simply asks, "Aren't pants also covering up God's creation?"

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "The Guardian has identified an Alaska assistant attorney general as a supporter of the Mormon-derived extremist group the Deseret nationalists who has posted a series of racist, antisemitic and homophobic messages on social media.... Online, [Matthias] Cicotte, under the moniker J Reuben Clark and the Twitter handle @JReubenCIark, has expressed extreme positions on race, criminal justice and religion.... After the department was presented with the information last week, Alaska's deputy attorney general, Cori Mills, wrote in a statement shared with the Guardian: 'The department of law takes the allegations raised here seriously, and we uphold the dignity and respect of all individuals and ask that all of our employees do the same.'"

California. Ivan Penn of the New York Times: "Pacific Gas & Electric, aiming to show its determination to overcome a history of safety problems, announced Wednesday that it planned to put 10,000 miles of its power lines underground to prevent the kind of wildfires that led the utility to bankruptcy court. The project, which would involve about 10 percent of the lines currently above ground, could cost tens of billions of dollars to carry out. The announcement prompted questions from longtime critics of the utility about how much of the cost would be borne by ratepayers rather than shareholders. The company, California's largest electricity provider, said the work would aim first at areas most vulnerable to wildfires and expand throughout its service territory, which includes 5.5 million electric customers in Northern and Central California."

Missouri. Summer Ballentine of the AP: "A Missouri legislative committee on Monday held a hearing on how educators teach K-12 students about race and racism without hearing from any Black Missourians.... Aside from an official from Missouri';s education department, the only people who testified Monday were critics of critical race theory.... Heather Fleming, a former Missouri teacher who now offers diversity and inclusion training, said she wanted to testify Monday but was not allowed."

Ohio. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "An Ohio man who was part of an online community of 'incels,' or misogynists who blame women for denying them what they believe is their right to sexual intercourse, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with plotting to shoot students in sororities, federal prosecutors said. The man, Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, Ohio, was charged with one count of attempting to commit a hate crime, which, because it involved an attempt to kill, is punishable by up to life in prison, and one count of illegally possessing a machine gun, which is punishable by up to 10 years, according to the Justice Department." The Raw Story's report is here.

The Commentariat -- July 21, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marianna Sotomayor & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected two of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) picks to serve on the Jan. 6 select committee, saying the outspoken Republicans may jeopardize 'the integrity of the investigation.' McCarthy announced Monday that he would recommend Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks (R-Ind.), noting that the two Republicans and three others represent an array of viewpoints and opinions. Both Jordan and Banks voted against certifying the election of President Biden.... Pelosi, who as speaker has final say on who can serve on a committee that is set to hold its first hearing Tuesday, said that she was 'prepared to appoint Representatives Rodney Davis, Kelly Armstrong and Troy E. Nehls.'... In response, McCarthy issued his own statement Wednesday afternoon in which he slammed Pelosi for 'an egregious abuse of power' he believes 'will irreparably damage this institution" ~~~

     ~~~ SO THEN. Scott Wong & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has decided not to participate in the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot on the Capitol, yanking all of his GOP picks in protest of Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) decision to reject two top Republicans.”

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Economist Mark Zandi [of Moody's] is set to release a new report arguing that the country needs passage of the full package of Democratic proposals, to ensure that the recovery reaches its full potential.... Zandi's report concludes that concerns about inflation are 'likely misplaced' and 'overdone.'... The report concludes that both infrastructure and jobs bills being debated in Congress are essential.... [Zandi makes] a striking endorsement of a major argument for the package: that we have spent decades underinvesting in public programs of all kinds. Expenditures on both 'hard' and 'human' infrastructure will rectify this.... This Zandi report probably won't move most Senate Republicans, since many will see these benefits as arguments against supporting the package. And their warnings of inflation are not good-faith macroeconomic arguments; they're intended to trigger vague fears of Big Government and suggest liberal governance is running the country off the rails."

Daniel Victor of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic was largely responsible for shaving a year and a half from the life expectancy of Americans in 2020, the steepest drop in the United States since World War II, according to federal statistics released on Wednesday. An American child born today, if they hypothetically lived their entire life under the conditions of 2020, would be expected to live 77.3 years, down from 78.8 in 2019. It's the lowest life expectancy since 2003, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the agency that released the figures and a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The difficult year also deepened racial and ethnic disparities in life expectancy, with Black and Hispanic Americans losing nearly two more years than white Americans. Life expectancy for Hispanic Americans dropped to 78.8 from 81.8, while the numbers for Black Americans dropped to 71.8 from 74.7. Non-Hispanic white Americans saw their life expectancy drop to 77.6 from 78.8." The AP's report is here. MB: And Donald Trump is responsible for some significant part of our lowered life expectancy. What a legacy!

~~~~~~~~~~

President Biden held a Cabinet meeting yesterday, and the Secretaries were not clambering all over each other in attempts to make increasingly absurd claims about Biden's being in best world leader in human history AND handsomer & stronger than Superman. ~~~

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "As the U.S. Marine Band played 'We Are the Champions' on the South Lawn of the White House, real-life Super Bowl champion Tom Brady stood near President Biden on Tuesday, both of them wearing sunglasses and grins.... 'As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with being the oldest guy to make it to the mountaintop,' quipped Biden, who at 78 is the oldest U.S. president, referring to Brady, who at 43 is the oldest quarterback to lead a Super Bowl-winning team.... Brady noted that the Buccaneers had an up-and-down season and that 'not a lot of people think we could have won.' After pausing for effect, he added, 'In fact, I think about 40 percent of the people still don't think we won' -- a joking reference to the multitudes who wrongly believe Biden's victory was illegitimate.... It was in many ways the most traditional of presidential rituals.... Except that under ... Donald Trump, such events were anything but traditional. Many championship athletes, upset by Trump's politics, declined to come, often prompting Trump to insult or disinvite them." A Sports Illustrated story, which concentrates on Brady's making fun of Trump, is here.

Cat Zakrzewski & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden said he plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter, who has long opposed Big Tech companies as a lawyer, to lead the Justice Department's antitrust division. It's the latest sign of the administration's willingness to crack down on the power and influence of Silicon Valley titans. Kanter is known as an adversary of giant tech corporations including Google and Apple. He has represented large companies like Microsoft, as well as smaller tech companies like Google critic Yelp. He is a partner at the Kanter Law Group, which describes itself as 'an antitrust advocacy boutique.':

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is pushing for rule changes that would put a 50-year delay on when courts can consider releasing material from federal grand juries, according to documents and interviews, and would separately allow gag orders to be applied more broadly to witnesses. While the recommendations were made during the Trump administration, President Biden's Justice Department is still seeking the changes, even as critics oppose what they say would be a significant expansion of secrecy around federal courts and investigations." The rule would guarantee that even grand jury transcripts important to the public interest -- like those related to the Mueller investigation -- in a dark vault for 50 years.

Nicole Perlroth & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Biden administration disclosed previously classified details on Tuesday about the breadth of state-sponsored cyberattacks on American oil and gas pipelines over the past decade, as part of a warning to pipeline owners to increase the security of their systems to stave off future attacks. From 2011 to 2013, Chinese-backed hackers targeted, and in many cases breached, nearly two dozen companies that own such pipelines, the F.B.I. and the Department of Homeland Security revealed in an alert on Tuesday. For the first time, the agencies said they judged that the 'intrusions were likely intended to gain strategic access' to the industrial control networks that run the pipelines 'for future operations rather than for intellectual property theft.' In other words, the hackers were preparing to take control of the pipelines, rather than just stealing the technology that allowed them to function."

Anthony Fauci Is Tired of Trying to Reason with Rand Paul. Rich Mendez of CNBC: "White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci and Sen. Rand Paul traded barbs in a heated exchange at a Senate hearing Tuesday.... Paul grilled Fauci about an NIH funded study that he says qualifies as gain of function research, the process of altering a pathogen to make it more transmissible in order to better predict emerging diseases. Fauci denied in previous Senate testimony that the NIH has directly funded the research at a lab in Wuhan, China'.... Paul, R-Ky., asked Fauci if he would like to retract that statement from the May 11 testimony, 'Fauci, as you are aware it is a crime to lie to Congress.'... 'I have not lied before Congress. I have never lied. Certainly not before Congress. Case closed,' Fauci said.... 'Sen. Paul, you do not know what you are talking about, quite frankly, and I would like to say that officially. You do not know what you are talking about,' Fauci said.... 'You are implying that what we did resulted in the deaths of individuals,' Fauci responded as he pointed his finger at Paul. 'I totally resent that, and if anyone is lying here, senator, it is you.'" A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ P.D. Pepe provides a somewhat longer outtake here.

Washington Post Editors: "Having successfully blocked creation of an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by supporters of ... Donald Trump, Republicans are now intent sabotaging any kind of serious investigation. That became clear with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) selection of members to serve on the select committee formed to investigate the insurrection.... Mr. McCarthy's choices seem solely designed to make a circus of the proceedings. Ringleader, of course, would be [Jim] Jordan [Ohio], a persistent if not terribly skillful disrupter and provocateur.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) must not allow [McCarthy's] cynical gambit to spoil this opportunity to get to the bottom of the terrible events of Jan. 6.... No sooner were the names revealed than [Jim] Banks [Indiana], who would serve as ranking minority member, issued a blistering statement that blasted Democrats, attacked the purpose of the committee and suggested Republicans might use it to attack President Biden.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A Tampa man pleaded guilty Tuesday to joining a 'stack formation' of Oath Keepers members and associates who allegedly breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, becoming the latest to cooperate with prosecutors and the first among the formation to specify that he intended to hinder Congress that day using intimidation and coercion. Caleb Berry, 20, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of obstructing an official proceeding. In a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to request lowering an estimated prison term of 51 to 63 months under federal guidelines for Berry, who has no criminal record and is one of the youngest defendants charged in the Capitol riots, in exchange for his substantial assistance. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta of Washington accepted the plea after Berry acknowledged that he coordinated plans and discussed the need to bring firearms for Jan. 6 in the nation's capital with Oath Keepers members."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "One of the most insightful quotes from the new book ... by The Washington Post's Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig came from their interview with ... Donald Trump in March. 'Personally,' Trump said of the rioters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 'what I wanted is what they wanted.'... After the Capitol was cleared, with detritus from the violence still littering the building and the grounds, with law enforcement officers still receiving medical treatment, the majority of Republicans serving in the House voted in favor of what Trump wanted, too.... What [Kevin] McCarthy's nominations [to the commission assigned to examine the insurrection] reinforce ... is how much the institutional Republican Party overlaps with the conspiratorial one." MB: They're really a party not just conspiracy theorists but of insurrectionists & autocrats. The majority of House Republicans voted to overturn a presidential election. Meanwhile, Republicans in state legislatures are working to provide mechanisms to overthrow future elections that don't go their way.

** Because They're All Criminals. Sharon LaFraniere & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a close friend of ... Donald J. Trump and one of his top 2016 campaign fund-raisers, was arrested in California on Tuesday morning on federal charges of failing to register as a foreign lobbyist, obstruction of justice and lying to investigators. A seven-count indictment accused Mr. Barrack, 74, of using his access to Mr. Trump to advance the foreign policy goals of the United Arab Emirates and then lying about his activities during a June 2019 interview with federal agents. Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Barrack used his position as an outside adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign to publicly promote the U.A.E.'s agenda.... After Mr. Trump was elected, the indictment said, Mr. Barrack continued to try to influence the administration policies in favor of the U.A.E. At one point, he told senior U.A.E. officials to give him a 'wish list' of foreign policy moves they wanted Washington to take..., prosecutors said. Matthew Grimes, a former top executive at Mr. Barrack's company, and Rashid al-Malik Alshahhi, an Emirati businessman who is close to the U.A.E. rulers, were also charged with acting as agents of the U.A.E. without registering with the Justice Department, as required. Department officials said that the three men conspired to abuse Mr. Barrack's access to Mr. Trump...." The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ The DOJ public statement is here. It includes a link to the indictment.

The Washington Post's live updates of Jeff Bezos' inner-space flight are here. The New York Times' live updates are here. The capsule & booster both landed safely. ~~~

~~~ (Oh, I suppose you wanted to see a video of Bezos slipping the surly bonds and all, but I prefer this one, to which Akhilleus quite brilliantly alluded in today's thread): ~~~

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, where the help says pay us what we're worth. -- Jeff Bezos, press conference today. MB: Okay, not necessarily true. ~~~

Update. Because What He Actually Said Was Worse. I also want to thank every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer because you guys paid for all of this. -- Jeff Bezos, during a news conference after his flight ~~~

~~~ Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Mr. Bezos' comment prompted swift critical reactions, including from a member of the House of Representatives who serves on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee. 'Space travel isn't a tax-free holiday for the wealthy,' said Representative Earl Blumenauer, Democrat of Oregon. 'We pay taxes on plane tickets. Billionaires flying into space -- producing no scientific value -- should do the same, and then some!'... 'While Jeff Bezos is all over the news for paying to go to space, let's not forget the reality he has created here on Earth; Representative Nydia Velazquez, Democrat of New York, said on Twitter. She added the hashtag #WealthTaxNow on Tuesday morning and included a link to an article about how much Amazon's employees had been paid." A similar AP story is here.

     ~~~ Marie: I was surprised at how irritated ordinary Americans were at Bezos, even out here in the boondocks. My dentist -- who I reasonably figured could be one of those ADA members happy to contribute to white nationalist Paul Gosar -- was incensed that Bezos was so much richer than the rest of us. The guy who is building me a house -- who voted in 2016 for President* Corruption -- was angry that Bezos didn't pay taxes. ~~~

     ~~~ The starry-eyed "journalists" who reported this morning on CNN & MSNBC were over the moon (celestial references intentional) about how Bezos' flight would contribute to the future of space flight, blah-blah. But that's sort of ridiculous: any "contributions" Bezos makes are propriety; that is, he owns them, and can sell them (to, say, the government, for, say, an inflated price) -- or not. Moreover, Bezos is rich enough to dabble in inner space flight in part because he doesn't pay his workers decent wages or treat them like human beings & in part because he -- and his company -- have avoided paying taxes. Fans of Bezos' "achievement" today seem to be arguing that it's okay if U.S. multi-millionaires & billionaires don't contribute their fair share to the government because one or two of them might possibly someday make some significant contribution to society. Not my idea of a potentially good return on investment.

Michelle Boorstein, et al., of the Washington Post: "The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access to cellphone data that appeared to show he was a regular user of Grindr, the queer dating app, and frequented gay bars.... Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill has since last fall been the general secretary of the USCCB, a position that coordinates all administrative work and planning for the conference, which is the country's network for Catholic bishops.... The National Catholic Reporter was the first to report Tuesday morning that Burrill had resigned, citing a memo from Archbishop José Gomez, the USCCB president, to other bishops." MB: You know, Msgr. Burrill likely would not have gotten into this predicament if the Roman Catholic Church allowed priests to have the same kind of normal interpersonal relations the rest of us enjoy.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The coronavirus vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is much less effective against the Delta and Lambda variants than against the original virus, according to a new study posted online on Tuesday. Although troubling, the findings result from experiments conducted with blood samples in a laboratory, and may not reflect the vaccine's performance in the real world. But the conclusions add to evidence that the 13 million people inoculated with the J.&J. vaccine may need to receive a second dose -- ideally of one of the mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, the authors said."

Some Republican Leaders Decide Killing off Their Voters Is Not the Best Plan. Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "A growing number of top Republicans are urging GOP supporters to get vaccinated as the delta coronavirus variant surges across the United States, marking a notable shift away from the anti-vaccine conspiracy theorizing that has gripped much of the party in opposition to the Biden administration's efforts to combat the virus. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was part of the rising chorus on Tuesday, stressing the need for unvaccinated Americans to receive coronavirus shots and warning that the country could reverse its progress in moving on from the pandemic.... Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican in House leadership [and a vaccination 'resister']..., received his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine over the weekend and urged others to follow suit.... Other members of the GOP continue to sound notes of skepticism and spread misinformation about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Jonathan Weisman & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "As the coronavirus surges in their states and districts, fanned by a more contagious variant exploiting paltry vaccination rates, many congressional Republicans have declined to push back against vaccine skeptics in their party who are sowing mistrust about the shots' safety and effectiveness. Amid a widening partisan divide over coronavirus vaccination, most Republicans have either stoked or ignored the flood of misinformation reaching their constituents and instead focused their message about the vaccine on disparaging President Biden, characterizing his drive to inoculate Americans as politically motivated and heavy-handed. On Tuesday, Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana ... blamed the hesitance on Mr. Biden and his criticism of Donald J. Trump's vaccine drive last year Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, said skeptics would not get their shots until 'this administration acknowledges the efforts of the last one.' And Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas ... [said,] 'Every time Jen Psaki opens her mouth or Dr. Fauci opens his mouth..., 10,000 more people say I'm never going to take the vaccine.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: By this "logic."... Donald Trump says, "Be careful out there; if you step in front of a bus, it will run over you." So -- because I don't want to take Trump's advice -- I step in front of a bus. Sensible.

Michael Grynbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Amid mixed messages on the channel, the hosts Sean Hannity and Steve Doocy [have] encourage[d] viewers to get Covid-19 shots as the Delta variant spreads." Doocy said Tuesday, "It will save your life." Hannity said Monday, "Please take Covid seriously -- I can't say it enough.... I believe in the science of vaccination." "In prime time, viewers heard a more skeptical message.... Fox News has faced heavy criticism in recent days over its vaccine coverage, including a denunciation on the Senate floor and accusations of hypocrisy after a memo revealed that its own employees would be allowed to go maskless in the office if vaccinated."

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

Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "One of the few items [my mother] thought was important enough to keep was a little yellow booklet.... On the front cover, above my name, it says, 'International Certificates of Vaccination as Approved by the World Health Organization.' Inside are page after page of records of the immunizations and boosters I received -- for typhus, typhoid, polio, flu, cholera, smallpox.... Rather than resent an impingement on their liberties, my parents' generation thought of these requirements as freedom itself. Freedom from the terror that had cast a shadow on my mother's own childhood, when poliomyelitis -- also known as infantile paralysis -- killed thousands of young people every year and left many more disabled for life.... There are those on the right today who would call this a 'vaccine passport.' Demanding that people show evidence of their covid-19 vaccination status has become a front in the raging culture wars." See also Patrick's commentary in yesterday's thread. Patrick got out ahead of Tumulty on this.

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked an Arkansas law banning nearly all abortions, calling it an 'imminent threat' to the constitutional rights of women seeking abortions in the state. Judge Kristine Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas issued a preliminary injunction, preventing the law from being enforced until she can issue a final ruling. Baker, responding to the challenge brought by advocates of abortion rights, wrote that bans on abortions before a fetus is considered viable are 'categorically unconstitutional.' The ban was set to go into effect on July 28 after being signed into law by Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) in March. The ban, which is one of the strictest anti-abortion laws in the country, would prevent any abortions except in situations that would save the life of the mother, and does not include exceptions for rape or incest."

Way Beyond

Haiti. Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "Haiti's national police announced on Tuesday they had arrested three police officers in connection with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, suggesting there may have been an infiltration of their force ahead of the killing.... One of the biggest questions swirling in Haiti is how attackers were able to so easily breach the president's security detail. Impatience has been growing at the pace of the investigation, with many Haitians asking why so many key aspects of the crime remain a mystery.The arrests came as Haiti held a ceremony on Tuesday to pay homage to Mr. Moïse, a polarizing figure who was ensnared by accusations of corruption and increasingly autocratic actions during his presidency, but whose death has shaken many Haitians."

The Commentariat -- July 20, 2021

Late Morning Update:

The Washington Post's live updates of Jeff Bezos' inner-space flight are here. The New York Times' live updates are here. The capsule & booster both landed safely. ~~~

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth, where the help says pay us what we're worth. -- Jeff Bezos, press conference today (MB: Okay, not necessarily true.)

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

~~~~~~~~~~

Kenneth Chang of the New York Times: "On Tuesday..., Jeff Bezos, the richest human being in the universe..., will strap into a capsule built by his rocket company, Blue Origin, and blast off ... to more than 62 miles above West Texas.... Blue Origin is aiming for the rocket to take off at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, July 20. The company will begin coverage of the launch at 7:30 a.m. on its YouTube channel. The date coincides with the 52nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing." ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "As Jeff Bezos blasts into space on Tuesday, his voyage has some people asking whether the billionaire's time, or at least money, might be better spent here on earth..., given the long-running complaints about working conditions at Amazon, and broader concerns about income inequality and the amount of taxes the wealthiest Americans pay -- or don't pay -- to the government.... The critics are 'largely right', Bezos said."

** Olivia Beavers & Heather Caygle of Politico: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has chosen his five GOP appointees for the Democrat-led select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.... McCarthy's choices for the panel, all talked about as likely, are led by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chair of the Republican Study Committee, as the ranking member.... The other members include Illinois Rep. Rodney Davis, a moderate who serves as the top Republican on the House Administration Committee; Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee; Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), a lawyer by trade who served on the House Judiciary Committee during the first Trump impeachment; and freshman Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), a former sheriff who supported Capitol Police in turning back rioters who tried to break into the House floor during the siege.... Three out of McCarthy's five expected selections for the Republican side of the select panel voted in favor of challenges to certification of Biden's victory." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Nancy Pelosi can overrule these picks. Let's hope she exercises her prerogative. I wouldn't trust Jim Jordan to serve on a committee honoring apple pie; he would probably start declaiming the crust for being too dark-complexioned: "You can't even tell it's white flour!" Anyhow, Kevin picked all white guys. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: "'I've never talked to Donald Trump about this,' McCarthy said. McCarthy's choices will need to be approved by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) before they can sit on the 13-member panel, according to the legislation passed by the House to establish the committee. A Pelosi aide said Monday night that the speaker had just received the names. 'Stay tuned,' said the aide, who was not authorized to publicly discuss the topic."

GOP Senators Oppose Catching Rich Tax Cheats; Could Sink Infrastructure Bill. Jim Tankersley & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congressional negotiators and the Biden administration tried on Monday to salvage a nearly $600 billion bipartisan agreement to invest in roads, water pipes and other physical infrastructure, after Republicans rejected a key component to pay for the plan and resisted Democratic plans for an initial procedural vote on Wednesday. Senators and administration officials are still working to hammer out the details of the deal, including how to ensure that a plan to finance it will secure 60 votes for Senate passage. White House officials expressed confidence on Monday that the agreement could be finalized. But its fate was uncertain.... A top negotiator said over the weekend that the group jettisoned a key plan included in the deal that would have raised revenue by giving the I.R.S. more power to catch tax cheats." MB: You can be sure those GOP senators would be thrilled if Democrats agreed to transfer the funding from social safety network programs.

Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is planning to temporarily house about 2,500 Afghans fleeing unrest in their home country at Fort Lee, Va., with expansion to other military bases possible in the future, U.S. officials said Monday. The Army post, about 25 miles south of Richmond, will serve as a way-station for Afghans who have passed the State Department's screening for special immigrant visas, said John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.... About 4,000 other applicants have received a lower level of approval for visas from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, [State Department spokesman Ned] Price said. The administration plans to take those individuals to safety in other countries, where they will be provided with accommodations that 'can last a number of months.'"

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Monday proposed restoring habitat protections across more than 3 million acres of Pacific Northwest forests that are home to the dwindling population of northern spotted owls -- a bird that has been a symbol of the fight between environmentalists and loggers for decades. The proposed rule change would reverse a decision made in the waning days of the Trump administration that stripped critical habitat protections from swaths of federal lands across 45 counties in Washington, Oregon and California -- more than a third of the bird's total protected habitat and much of it in prime timberland in Oregon's coastal ranges. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in its new Federal Register notice that its own decision from January to exclude more than 3 million acres from protections had 'defects and shortcomings.'"

Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Monday repatriated a detainee from Guantánamo Bay to Morocco, the first transfer of an inmate from the high-security prison since the Trump administration mostly halted the resettlements when he took office in 2017. The transfer of detainee Abdul Latif Nasir, who was held without charge or trial for nearly two decades, leaves 39 inmates at the military facility located on the eastern tip of Cuba, and provides the first concrete illustration of how the administration may attempt to finally shutter the prison.... At its peak, the prison held some 700 detainees, and became a global symbol of U.S. excesses in its response to extremist threats. President Barack Obama vowed to close the prison but, facing congressional opposition, was unable to do so. His administration transferred more than 170 prisoners to their home nation or third countries.... Nasir ... was one of five men whose transfers had been readied at the end of the Obama administration but did not go through." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Monday formally accused the Chinese government of breaching Microsoft email systems used by many of the world's largest companies, governments and military contractors, as the United States joined a broad group of allies, including all NATO members, to condemn Beijing for cyberattacks around the world. The United States accused China for the first time of paying criminal groups to conduct large-scale hackings, including ransomware attacks to extort companies for millions of dollars, according to a statement from the White House. Microsoft had pointed to hackers linked to the Chinese Ministry of State Security for exploiting holes in the company's email systems in March...." Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "... China has reorganized its hacking operations in the [past decade]. While it once conducted relatively unsophisticated hacks of foreign companies, think tanks and government agencies, China is now perpetrating stealthy, decentralized digital assaults of American companies and interests around the world. Hacks that were conducted via sloppily worded spearphishing emails by units of the People's Liberation Army are now carried out by an elite satellite network of contractors at front companies and universities that work at the direction of China's Ministry of State Security, according to U.S. officials and the indictment."

Craig Timberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "... spyware, produced by Israel's NSO Group and licensed to one of its government clients ... can collect emails, call records, social media posts, user passwords, contact lists, pictures, videos, sound recordings and browsing histories, according to security researchers and NSO marketing materials. The spyware can activate cameras or microphones to capture fresh images and recordings. It can listen to calls and voice mails. It can collect location logs of where a user has been and also determine where that user is now, along with data indicating whether the person is stationary or, if moving, in which direction. And all of this can happen without a user even touching her phone.... These kinds of 'zero-click' attacks, as they are called within the surveillance industry, can work on even the newest generations of iPhones, after years of effort in which Apple attempted to close the door against unauthorized surveillance...." ~~~

~~~ Dana Priest, et al., of the Washington Post: "NSO Group's Pegasus spyware was used to secretly target the smartphones of the two women closest to murdered Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi, according to digital forensic analysis. The Android phone of his wife, Hanan Elatr, was targeted by a Pegasus user six months before his killing, but the analysis could not determine whether the hack was successful. The iPhone of his fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, was penetrated by spyware days after the murder, the forensics showed."

Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Senate Democrats on Monday took their battle for federal voting rights legislation to Georgia -- ground zero in the ongoing wars over how America's elections are conducted -- and held a rare hearing off Capitol Hill to make the case for new nationwide ballot standards. The hearing, held by the Senate Rules and Administration Committee at Atlanta's National Center for Civil and Human Rights, came as Democrats scramble to figure out their next move after Republicans successfully blocked their marquee elections-and-ethics legislation in a Senate test vote last month.... The Democrats who attended Monday's hearing said they intend to keep shining a light on the efforts by Republican legislatures that have already resulted in more than 30 laws that restrict voting in 18 states, according to the nonpartisan Voting Rights Lab.... Republicans did not call witnesses of their own, which they were entitled to do under the committee's rules. In fact, no Republican senator traveled to Atlanta for the hearing -- leaving the stage entirely to the five Democrats who attended and the friendly witnesses they had summoned."

Tess Owen of Vice: "Turns out the American Dental Association might have teeth after all. They've finally cut their longtime pal, onetime 'Dentist of the year' Congressman Paul Gosar off financially.... The move comes less than one week after we reported that the issue of the American Dental Association's ongoing support for the Arizona Republican was dividing the ranks of the so-called 'Tooth Party.'"

Donie O'Sullivan & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Twitter on Monday evening temporarily suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after she shared misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, a company spokesperson told CNN. The Georgia Republican, who has a track record of incendiary rhetoric, will not be able to tweet for 12 hours due to Twitter's policy against people who repeatedly share misinformation. The social media platform had labeled two tweets from Greene as 'misleading' in recent days. If she continues to share misinformation about Covid-19 through her Twitter account, Greene could be suspended from the platform permanently." MB: Is a 12-hour suspension much of a disincentive to keep up the bad work?

Eric Tucker, et al., of the AP: "A police official who has run large departments in Maryland and Virginia has been selected as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 insurrection.... J. Thomas Manger, who most recently served for 15 years as chief in Montgomery County, Maryland, was picked for the position following an extensive search, according to four people...."

A Florida Man Gets 8 Months for Insurrection. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday handed down an eight-month prison term to the first person to be sentenced for a felony in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach, after attorneys argued whether the punishment would divide the country, deter future threats to lawmakers, or lead hundreds of other charged to face trial or plead guilty. Tampa crane operator Paul Allard Hodgkins, 38, pleaded guilty last month to one count of obstructing a joint session of Congress meeting to confirm the results of the 2020 president election. He was seen carrying a red-and-white 'Trump 2020' flag into the well of the abandoned Senate while others stood over the vacated vice president's chair. 'The symbolism of that act was unmistakable,' U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss said. 'He was staking a claim on the floor of the U.S. Senate not with an American flag, but declaring his loyalty to a single individual over the nation. In that act, he captured the threat to democracy that we all witnessed that day.'... U.S. prosecutors had called for 18-month prison term, citing the need to deter domestic terrorism." The CNN report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Florida Man Pleads Guilty to Vandalizing Black Church. Olafimihan Oshin of the Hill: "A leader of the far-right group the Proud Boys has pleaded guilty to vandalizing a historically black church in Washington, D.C., in December, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). In a Monday statement, authorities said Henry 'Enrique' Tarrio has pleaded guilty to one count of destruction of property and one count of attempted possession of a large-capacity ammunition feeding device.... Tarrio shared posts of himself and others burning the banner on his Parler account as well as admitting to the crime on social media comments and to multiple media outlets, the DOJ said. Tarrio, a 36-year-old Miami native, was arrested when he returned to Washington on Jan. 4. Authorities found two high-capacity firearm magazines, each with the Proud Boys insignia, in his possession at the time."

A Florida Man Is Getting Worse. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "It was only a matter of time until Donald Trump converted the debate over covid-19 vaccines into an occasion for his supporters to show their loyalty to him -- and even worse, to the 'big lie' that his 2020 loss was illegitimate. 'People are refusing to take the Vaccine because they don't trust his Administration,' the former president said in a statement Sunday, referring to President Biden. 'They don't trust the Election results, and they certainly don't trust the Fake News.'... Trump is telling his supporters that they are correct not to trust the federal government on vaccines, because this sentiment should flow naturally from their suspicion that the election was stolen from him.... What makes this worse is that other Republicans are playing a version of this game." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... [Chris] Wallace interviewed Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and asked why Louisiana had seen such low vaccination rates. Cassidy blamed a lack of trust in government -- and President Biden. 'When you have partisan comments coming out of the White House regarding next Jim Crow laws, or people like Senator [Charles] Schumer and the White House not cooperating on a bipartisan bill -- ... that just doesn't work.'... This is nonsensical for a variety of reasons.... The idea that Tucker Carlson's incessant rhetoric misleadingly targeting vaccine safety and effectiveness is less of a factor than Biden's praise for the vaccines while advocating Democratic policy positions is bizarre. More important, for more than a year, beginning when he was president, Donald Trump has explicitly fostered distrust in government experts, insisting to his base that the pandemic was not a big deal.... After leading his base to a place where they shrugged at the virus, he ended up either having to change their minds or join them. Over the weekend, he joined them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: In "'The Mechanisms of Cult Production' ... New Zealand-based researcher Xavier Márquez compares the behavior of political elites across a wide range of dictatorial regimes, from Caligula's Rome to the Kim family's North Korea, and finds striking similarities. Despite vast differences in culture and material circumstances, elites in all such regimes engage in pretty much the same behavior, especially what the paper dubs 'loyalty signaling' and 'flattery inflation.'... In the context of dictatorial regimes, signaling typically involves making absurd claims on behalf of the Leader and his agenda, often including 'nauseating displays of loyalty.' If the claims are obvious nonsense and destructive in their effects, if making those claims humiliates the person who makes them, these are features, not bugs.... And once this kind of signaling becomes the norm, those trying to prove their loyalty have to go to ever greater extremes to differentiate themselves from the pack. Hence 'flattery inflation.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: No doubt the reason we're so gobsmacked by the seemingly irrational Trump phenomenon is that there's no real precedent in U.S. history. But clearly it goes far beyond, "He's a jerk, but he's our jerk."

Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Justice Department is declining to prosecute former Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross for misrepresentations he made to Congress about the origins of the Trump administration's failed push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The decision not to prosecute Ross was revealed in [a] letter made public Monday from Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson to Democratic lawmakers. The Justice Department had declined the case in January 2020, according to a person briefed on the matter.... [Ross testified (twice) in a congressional hearing that] the administration was seeking to add the question to the decennial survey solely because of a DOJ request for the data, ostensibly to bolster Voting Rights Act enforcement. Internal records and other evidence surfaced in the litigation around the question -- as well as in a House Oversight Committee investigation -- showed that members of the Trump administration, including Ross, were plotting to add the question well before the DOJ formally submitted its request in December 2017.... The Supreme Court ultimately blocked the addition of the question and said that the Voting Rights Act enforcement rationale put forward by Ross was "contrived." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Rachel Maddow pointed out that Wilbur there was the fifth Trump Cabinet secretary that inspectors general had referred to the DOJ for possible criminal charges. He was also the fifth that Trump's DOJ declined to prosecute. Funny how that works.

Damian Carrington of the Guardian: "​​The G20 countries have provided more than $3.3tn (£2.4tn) in subsidies for fossil fuels since the Paris climate agreement was sealed in 2015, a report shows, despite many committing to tackle the crisis. This backing for coal, oil and gas is 'reckless' in the face of the escalating climate emergency, according to the report's authors, and urgent action is needed to phase out the support. The $3.3tn could have built solar plants equivalent to three times the US electricity grid, the report says. The G20 countries account for nearly three-quarters of the global carbon emissions that drive global heating.... Australia increased its fossil fuel subsidies by 48% over the period, Canada's support rose by 40% and that from the US by 37%.... The biggest subsidies came from China, Saudi Arabia, Russia and India, which together accounted for about half of all the subsidies.... In June, more than 500 organisations called on US policymakers to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies from the US tax code."

The Audacity of White Hegemony. Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "The recent discoveries of unmarked graves at government-run schools for Indigenous children in Canada -- 215 graves in British Columbia, 750 more in Saskatchewan -- surfaced like a long-forgotten nightmare. But for many Indigenous people in Canada and the United States, the nightmare was never forgotten. Instead the discoveries are a reminder of how many living Native Americans were products of an experiment in forcibly removing children from their families and culture.... In the century and a half that the U.S. government ran boarding schools for Native Americans, hundreds of thousands of children were housed and educated in a network of institutions, created to 'civilize the savage.' By the 1920s, one group estimates, nearly 83 percent of Native American school-age children were attending such schools."

Some Capitalists Really Are Awesome. Eric Nagourney of the New York Times: "Ben & Jerry's, the ice cream purveyor famous for taking stands on hot-button social issues, announced Monday that it was ending sales in the Israeli-occupied territories -- plunging itself into one of the most contentious debates on the international stage. 'We believe it is inconsistent with our values for Ben & Jerry's ice cream to be sold in the Occupied Palestinian Territory,' it said in a statement." An NPR story is here.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "In what appeared to be the first ruling upholding a coronavirus vaccine mandate by a university, a federal judge affirmed on Monday that Indiana University could require that its students be vaccinated against the virus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Eugene Scott & Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Monday balanced his earlier, blunt criticism of Facebook by blaming bad actors on the website for spreading dangerous misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, but he still called on the social media platform to be more aggressive in combating the problem. The president said he hopes that 'instead of taking it personally,' Facebook spends more energy focusing on 'the outrageous misinformation' being spread about vaccines on the popular social network. Biden put Facebook on the defense last week after accusing it of 'killing people' by allowing the spread of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines."

Charlie Savage & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Biden administration legal team has decided that thousands of federal convicts who were released to home confinement to reduce the risk of spreading Covid-19 will be required by law to return to prison a month after the official state of emergency for the pandemic ends, according to officials. The administration has come under pressure from criminal justice reform activists and some lawmakers to revoke a Trump-era memo by the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which said inmates whose sentences lasted beyond the 'pandemic emergency period' would have to go back to prison. But the Biden legal team has concluded that the memo correctly interpreted the law, which applies to about 4,000 nonviolent inmates, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity about sensitive internal deliberations. Several officials characterized the decision as an assessment of the best interpretation of the law, not a matter of policy preference."

Taylor Telford of the Washington Post: "Global stock markets swooned Monday, with the Dow slumping more than 900 points in afternoon trading, as investors grow increasingly anxious about a delta-led resurgence in here. MB: Gee, Donald, I'll bet your hotel biz is not doing too well, either. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ New Lede: "Global stock markets swooned Monday, with the Dow slumping more than 700 points, as investors grow increasingly anxious about a delta-led resurgence in coronavirus cases and its potential to derail the economic recovery. Oil prices also fell sharply."

Oliver Darcy of CNN: "Tucker Carlson has called the idea of vaccine passports the medical equivalent of 'Jim Crow' laws. And other Fox News personalities have spent months both trafficking in anti-vaccine rhetoric and assailing the concept of showing proof of vaccination status. But Fox Corporation, the right-wing talk channel's parent company, has quietly implemented the concept of a vaccine passport as workers slowly return back to the company's offices. Fox employees, including those who work at Fox News, received an email ... from the company's Human Resources department in early June that said Fox had 'developed a secure, voluntary way for employees to self-attest their vaccination status.' The system allows for employees to self-report to Fox the dates their shots were administered and which vaccines were used." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Really? Relying on the honor system to police Fox employees is worse than relying on a kid's "dog ate my homework" testimony. At least there's an outside possibility the dog did chew up the book report.

Australia. Rachel Pannett & Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Australia deported a British conservative commentator after she boasted on social media about appearing naked and maskless in hotel quarantine, in breach of the country's strict rules, authorities said Monday. Katie Hopkins, a 46-year-old media personality, was fined 1,000 Australian dollars (about $740) and escorted by police to the Sydney airport, where she boarded an afternoon flight bound for Britain after her visa was canceled by the government. Her efforts to flout Australia's strict quarantine regime struck a raw nerve in a country where some 11 million residents are in lockdown to curb outbreaks of the delta variant of the coronavirus. Tens of thousands of citizens are stranded abroad, because authorities have capped the number of international arrivals to relieve pressure on the hotel quarantine system, which requires anyone who enters the country to spend two weeks in a hotel at their own expense."

Canada. Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Canada on Monday said it would begin to ease pandemic restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border next month, allowing U.S. citizens and permanent residents in the United States who are fully vaccinated with Canadian-authorized vaccines to enter for nonessential travel without quarantining. The decision, which takes effect on Aug. 9, follows months of criticism from U.S. lawmakers across the political spectrum, business groups and some travelers over what they said was an overly cautious approach to lifting curbs that have split families, battered the tourism sector and upended life in close-knit border communities. To be eligible for entry, fully vaccinated U.S. citizens and permanent residents must present a negative covid-19 molecular test taken within 72 hours of flight departure or arrival at a land crossing. They will also be required to upload proof that they have received a full series of an authorized coronavirus vaccine atleast 14 days before departure to a Canadian government app." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon Gubernatorial Race. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof is considering a Democratic bid for Oregon governor, saying in a statement Monday that friends have been urging him to run and that his home state needs 'someone with leadership and vision.'The Times confirmed Monday that in keeping with the newspaper's policies, Kristof is taking a leave of absence as he decides whether to run for office. If he pursues a bid, the Pulitzer-winning columnist, author and former foreign correspondent would become one of the most well-known media figures in recent memory to make a run for political office."

Way Beyond

Haiti. Catherine Porter of the New York Times: "With foreign powers weighing in, Haitian officials announced a new prime minister on Monday, in an attempt to resolve a caustic leadership struggle in the wake of President Jovenel Moïse's assassination. Claude Joseph, the prime minister who took control of Haiti's government immediately after the killing, is stepping down in favor of Ariel Henry, a neurosurgeon who had been appointed to the position by the president before he was killed, the elections minister said Monday.... The political maneuvering by Haitian officials and international power brokers was met with anger by Haitian activists and democracy advocates, who said it did not consider what the people wanted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peru. Mitra Taj & Julie Turkewitz of the New York Times: "... on Monday night, nearly a month since the second round of the presidential election, officials declared Pedro Castillo, 51, the next president of Peru. In a very close vote, he defeated Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of a right-wing former president and herself a towering symbol of the Peruvian elite. Mr. Castillo's victory, however narrow the margin, is the clearest repudiation of the country's establishment in 30 years. It was also the third straight loss for Ms. Fujimori. Mr. Castillo, a socialist, will become Peru's first left-wing president in more than a generation, and its first to have lived most of his life as a 'campesino' -- or peasant -- in a poor Andean region." A BBC News story is here.

News Lede

New York Times: "The Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon, spurred by months of drought and last month's blistering heat wave, is the largest wildfire so far this year in the United States, having already burned more than 340,000 acres, or 530 square miles, of forest and grasslands. And at a time when climate change is causing wildfires to be larger and more intense, it's also one of the most extreme, so big and hot that it's affecting winds and otherwise disrupting the atmosphere.... Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the state forestry department ... [said,] 'Normally the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do.'"