The Commentariat -- May 27, 2021

Late Morning Update:

Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "President Biden will propose a $6 trillion budget on Friday that would take the United States to its highest sustained levels of federal spending since World War II, while running deficits above $1.3 trillion throughout the next decade. Documents obtained by The New York Times show that Mr. Biden's first budget request as president calls for the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. The growth is driven by Mr. Biden's two-part agenda to upgrade the nation's infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Republicans unveiled a $928 billion infrastructure counteroffer Thursday, in an effort to reach a bipartisan agreement with the White House. The proposal comes as talks are set to go past the Biden administration's unofficial deadline of Memorial Day. But the latest GOP offer only includes $257 billion in new spending, a far cry from the White House number of $1.7 trillion." The Washington Post's story is here.

Manchin Is Mad at Mitch. Jordan Williams of the Hill: "Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Thursday blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for playing politics over a bill establishing a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Manchin issued a strongly-worded statement ... and accused McConnell of blocking the commission to help the GOP avoid the topic ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, when the Senate majority will be in play. 'There is no excuse for any Republican to vote against the commission since Democrats have agreed to everything they asked for,' Manchin said.... Manchin told reporters Thursday, however, that he would not nix the filibuster to pass the bill to form the commission."

Oh, This Should Change Everything. Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Former House Speaker Paul Ryan is set to criticize ... Donald Trump and his hold on the Republican Party during a speech Thursday night, according to excerpts obtained by CNN. Ryan, a critic of the former President in the past, is expected to say at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, that Republicans must move away from the 'populist appeal of one personality' because 'then we're not going anywhere.'"

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "China on Thursday criticized the Biden administration for its renewed push to investigate the origins of the coronavirus, saying that the United States 'does not care about facts or truth, nor is it interested in serious scientific origin tracing.'The comments by Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian follow President Biden's announcement Wednesday ordering the U.S. intelligence community to 'redouble their efforts' to determine how the pandemic started, including probing whether the pathogen emerged from a lab accident in the Chinese city of Wuhan."

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Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Karine Jean-Pierre on Wednesday sought to downplay the historic nature of her leading the White House's daily press briefing, saying the Biden administration has embarked on a broad effort to ensure representation.... With Wednesday's appearance, Jean-Pierre -- the principal deputy press secretary -- became just the second Black woman to ever take the podium and the first since Judy Smith did so in 1991 under former president George H.W. Bush. She's also the first openly gay spokeswoman to field questions in the briefing room.... 'I appreciate the historic nature,' she said when prompted by a reporter. 'I really do, but I believe that being behind this podium, being in this room, being in this building is not about one person. It's about what we do on behalf of the American people.'" MB: Hard to imagine Sarah Sanders being this gracious if someone complimented her on, say, telling more lies in one briefing than any other White House press secretary in history. (This would have been the day she surpassed Sean Crowd-Size Spicer's record.)

Kat Stafford, et al., of the AP: "In interviews with The Associated Press, current and former enlistees and officers in nearly every branch of the armed services described a deep-rooted culture of racism and discrimination that stubbornly festers, despite repeated efforts to eradicate it. The AP found that the military's judicial system has no explicit category for hate crimes, making it difficult to quantify crimes motivated by prejudice. The Defense Department also has no way to track the number of troops ousted for extremist views, despite its repeated pledges to root them out. More than 20 people linked to the Jan. 6 siege of the U.S. Capitol were found to have military ties."

Trumpified & McConnellized. Mary Jalonick & Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "Senate Republicans are ready to deploy the filibuster to block a commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection, shattering hopes for a bipartisan probe of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and reviving pressure on Democrats to do away with the procedural tactic that critics say has lost its purpose. The vote expected Thursday would be the first successful use of a filibuster this year to halt Senate legislative action. Most Republicans oppose the bill.... Trump has made it clear he opposes the formation of any panel to investigate the mob siege. With the former president wielding influence, Democrats are warning that if Republicans are willing to use the filibuster to stop an arguably popular measure, it shows the limits of trying to broker compromises, particularly on bills related to election reforms or other aspects of the Democrats' agenda."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "It has long been obvious that Mitch McConnell puts party before country, but this week he actually admitted it. The Senate minority leader told Republican colleagues that they should oppose the creation of a Jan. 6 commission, no matter how it is structured, because it 'could hurt the party's midterm election message,' as Politico's Burgess Everett reported. And so, as early as Thursday, McConnell will use the filibuster to thwart a bipartisan effort to prevent further attacks on the U.S. government by domestic terrorists -- because he thinks it's good politics for Republicans.... In addition to denouncing the Jan. 6 commission bill..., McConnell undercut Tim Scott (S.C.), the lone Black Republican in the Senate and McConnell's designee to negotiate policing legislation.... This week, McConnell disrupted progress on a broadly bipartisan bill designed to improve American technological competitiveness against China.... Why? Because unrelenting obstruction is McConnell's only way to placate the GOP base in the face of Trump's attacks.... Maybe [Sen. Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.] will be disturbed by this, too."

Felicia Sonmez & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The mother and partner of the late Capitol Police officer Brian D. Sicknick [-- Gladys Sicknick and Sandra Garza --] are requesting meetings with all Republican senators to urge them to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob." MB: I heard on the teevee that 15 Republican senators had agreed to meet with Sicknick & Garza. The article cites excerpts from Gladys Sicknick's statement; those GOP senators will have a hard time countering her arguments. Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Post reporters write, "Several Republican lawmakers have also in recent days sought to play down the seriousness of the Jan. 6 attack, comparing the violent mob to 'tourists,' railing against law enforcement for seeking to arrest them and questioning how anyone could be sure the rioters were supporters of ... Donald Trump." But the two stories that follow, among many others, make ridiculous the claim that imposters were, or might have been, were pretending to be Trump supporters. These long-time prominent Republicans/Trump backers would have had to been posing as Republicans & planning this supposed false-flag operation for years, an event they did not even foresee until a short time before it happened. ~~~

~~~ James Musgrave of the Palm Beach Post: "Using Facebook photos and video captured during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, the FBI this week accused a one-time Palm Beach County commission candidate and former GOP heavyweight of joining the deadly rampage. Jody Tagaris, 67, who lives near Jupiter, is charged with four federal misdemeanors, accusing her of illegally entering a restricted building and being disruptive and disorderly once inside. She faces a maximum year-long prison sentence on two of the charges and six months on the two others.... In court papers, FBI agents say Tagaris' undoing began when they were alerted that she had posted a photo of herself on Facebook, sitting in a broken window of the Capitol. The caption on the photo was: 'The Capital. ... back at hotel safe! Got tear gassed but okay!' While the woman was masked, she was wearing a MAGA hat, an American flag scarf, blue jeans, and what agents described as a 'unique U.S. Olympics American flag jacket.'" ~~~

~~~ Peter Montgomery of Right Wing Watch: "Doug Mastriano, a Pennsylvania state senator and promoter of ... Donald Trump's false stolen-election claims, is facing a fresh wave of criticism after evidence emerged challenging Mastriano's claims about his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Mastriano, who describes his entry into politics as a religious mission and has portrayed resistance to pandemic-related mask mandates as a Christian duty, is positioning himself to run for governor. Mastriano used his state senate campaign funds to charter buses to bring Trump supporters to the Capitol on Jan. 6. Mastriano has since condemned the violence at the Capitol, while claiming that 'at no point' had he crossed police lines, entered the Capitol, or walked on the Capitol steps. On Saturday, the Sedition Hunters, described by the HuffPost as an 'online community that has worked to identify riot participants,' flagged footage of Mastriano on the Capitol grounds, video that has since been reviewed by other journalists. The video and images 'contradict [Mastriano's] claims that he never breached police lines and left the area before violence broke out," HuffPost's Josephine Harvey reported Tuesday.'"

Trump Was Always Corrupt. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump allegedly attempted to stop a congressional probe of the Spygate case involving the New England Patriots by offering a bribe to then-Sen. Arlen Specter, the late senator's son claimed Wednesday. An ESPN report detailed how Trump, nearly a decade before he became president, allegedly acted on behalf of Patriots owner Robert Kraft when he met with Specter in 2008 to offer him 'a lot of money in Palm Beach' if the then-Republican senator from Pennsylvania dropped his investigation into the team ... illegally filming an opponent's hand signals.... Shanin Specter, the senator's son, said to ESPN that Trump intervened in the probe, while Charles Robbins, the senator's longtime communications aide, told The Washington Post that he surmised Trump to be the person who offered Arlen Specter the bribe." Shanin Specter said his father told him about the bribe within days of its being offered.

Clifford Krauss & Peter Eavis of the New York Times: "Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas. The success of the campaign, led by a tiny hedge fund against the nation's largest oil company, could force the energy industry to confront climate change and embolden Wall Street investment firms that are prioritizing the issue. Analysts could not recall another time that Exxon management had lost a vote against company-picked directors."

Ruth Graham & Liam Stack of the New York Times: "The past several weeks have seen an outbreak of anti-Semitic threats and violence across the United States, stoking fear among Jews in small towns and major cities. During the two weeks of clashes in Israel and Gaza this month, the Anti-Defamation League collected 222 reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and violence in the United States, compared with 127 over the previous two weeks.... Until the latest surge, anti-Semitic violence in recent years was largely considered a right-wing phenomenon, driven by a white supremacist movement emboldened by rhetoric from ... Donald J. Trump, who often trafficked in stereotypes. Many of the most recent incidents, by contrast, have come from perpetrators expressing support for the Palestinian cause and criticism of Israel's right-wing government." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Particularly in stressful times, millions of white people lose any ability to distinguish between, say, (a) Bibi Netanyahu & his government, and (b) all Jews. Logic does not factor into this well-known racist equation, yet these same white people are capable of rationally realizing one can distinguish "all white men" from mass murderers.

Grade School Teacher Moonlights as Racist Writer. Christopher Mathias of the Huffington Post: "... 'Sinclair Jenkins,' [a white nationalist writer]..., is really a pseudonym for Benjamin Welton, a 33-year-old Boston University history PhD candidate who, until this week, taught English, social studies and computer science at Star Academy, an elementary school in Massachusetts. When HuffPost contacted the school for comment, Welton was put on leave, and was fired shortly before this article was published. For years, he has also worked as a freelance writer for major media outlets, including The Atlantic and Vice, for whom he published articles about esoteric spy and detective novels. He also wrote pieces for the The Daily Caller and The Weekly Standard, which let him make his racist sympathies clear in print. He was meanwhile using multiple pen names to secretly author fascist screeds online, in some cases advocating violence to establish a whites-only ethnostate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Funny, but Star Academy's Website never mentions it's a school for white kids to realize they're so much better than children of other races. The main page is more about their "customized curriculum[, which] combines proven traditional American methods with the world's best innovative approaches to teaching." In fairness, white nationalism is traditional in the U.S.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "Senior managers at the Associated Press admitted fault on Wednesday in the firing last week of a 22-year-old junior staffer, Emily Wilder, who was being targeted by right-wing commentators over her political activism in college. Wilder was fired last Wednesday for violating the news organization's social media policy. Company managers felt that her tweets showed a bias toward the Palestinian people in their conflict with the Israeli government and Israeli settlers -- though Wilder says her editors never told her which of her tweets were problematic. Since then, the AP -- a huge international news organization whose internal dramas rarely go public -- has been dealing with dissent from employees who feel it abandoned Wilder in the face of an online mob.... In a town hall with employees on Wednesday..., managing editor Brian Carovillano called them 'mistakes of process, and not of outcome.' He said it was still 'the right decision' to fire Wilder." MB: That is, we were right all along, but our PR team failed to cover up the fact that we don't give a damn about our employees. The Hill has a story here.

Donald Baker of the Washington Post: "John W. Warner, the five-term U.S. senator from Virginia who helped plan the nation's 1976 bicentennial celebrations, played a central role in military affairs and gained respect on both sides of the political aisle for his diligence, consensus-building and independence, died May 24 at his home in Alexandria, Va. He was 94.... He also brought a touch of glamour to the political world through his six-year marriage to film star Elizabeth Taylor." Gillian Brockell of the WashPo has an article on the Warner-Taylor marriage. MB: I recall seeing a group photo of Senate wives, a quaint tradition back when all U.S. senators were men. Taylor, well, stood out among the less-glamorous women.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Immunity to the coronavirus lasts at least a year, possibly a lifetime, improving over time especially after vaccination, according to two new studies. The findings may help put to rest lingering fears that protection against the virus will be short-lived. Together, the studies suggest that most people who have recovered from Covid-19 and who were later immunized will not need boosters. Vaccinated people who were never infected most likely will need the shots, however, as will a minority who were infected but did not produce a robust immune response."

Annie Linskey, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Wednesday he had asked U.S. intelligence agencies to 'redouble their efforts' to determine the origin of the coronavirus, an abrupt departure from the previous White House position of relying on the World Health Organization to uncover how the contagion started. The new message reflects a notable shift in some prominent scientists' assessments that the virus all but certainly jumped from an animal species to humans. The theory that has more recently gained traction is that the pandemic -- which has killed more than 3.4 million people worldwide -- may have accidentally escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China, though that is far from conclusive. Biden ordered intelligence officials to deliver a report within 90 days 'that could bring us closer to a definitive conclusion.'" The AP's story is here. President Biden's statement is here.

Hannah Sampson of the Washington Post: "While several [cruise] lines have announced plans to return to service after a 15-month halt due to the pandemic, those have all been missing approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Wednesday, Miami-based Celebrity Cruises said it had everything it needed: plans to cruise with paying passengers and the go-ahead from the public health agency. The CDC confirmed the approval.... Celebrity Edge will leave Fort Lauderdale on June 26 for the Caribbean at reduced capacity. All crew will be vaccinated, and most passengers will have to be."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Tierney Sneed of TPM: "Recently added language to the state's budget package, which could be passed by the legislature as soon as this week, deprives Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of any role in elections-related litigation. The bill rests that authority solely with the state's attorney general, who currently is a Republican, Mark Brnovich. But there's a catch. The measure sunsets in Jan. 2023 -- presumably because, come the 2022 election, the attorney general could be a Democrat. Or, perhaps, the secretary of state could be a Republican.... 'The fact that the legislature has singled out me and my office for these unjustifiable restrictions -- restrictions which would expire at the end of my term -- make it clear what this is really about: partisan politics,' she said. She also connected the bill to the sketchy Senate-ordered audit underway to recount Maricopa's 2.1 million ballots and how the legislature had worked 'all year' to 'undermine our elections. It appears their next step is an attempt to undermine Arizona's Chief Election Officer,' she said.<"

New York. Racist Woman Sues Company that Fired Her for Being Famously Racist. Jonah Bromwich & Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Amy Cooper, a white woman who last year became an international symbol of the routine racism that Black people face in their daily lives, is suing her former employer for firing her, arguing that she is a victim of racial discrimination. Ms. Cooper makes the claim in a lawsuit filed this week against the investment firm Franklin Templeton, which terminated her employment a year ago after she was captured on a widely shared video in a tense encounter with a Black bird-watcher. The lawsuit is the latest fallout from the May 2020 episode in Central Park, which touched off intense discussions about the history of white people making false, and sometimes life-threatening, accusations against Black people to the police." A Law & Crime story is here.

Oklahoma. Nolan Clay & Chris Casteel of the Oklahoman: "Attorney General Mike Hunter announced his resignation on Wednesday, less than a week after filing for divorce from his wife, Cheryl. The Oklahoman submitted questions to Hunter on Tuesday night about an extramarital affair that the newspaper confirmed through people familiar with the situation. The sources said the affair was with a state employee, who did not work in the attorney general's office." In a statement Mike Hunter called his affair a "distraction." MB: Apparently so.

Texas. Peter Aldhous, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days. The state's tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected -- an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters -- we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages. This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials' neglect in preventing the power grid's collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state's failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed. Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable...."

Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Assembly Speaker Robin Vos [R] is hiring retired police officers to investigate aspects of the November election, joining with Republicans from around the country who have questioned President Joe Biden's victory. Vos, of Rochester, said he recognizes Biden narrowly won Wisconsin and is not trying to change the results with his taxpayer-funded investigation. He said he hopes the investigators can get to the bottom of issues Republicans have raised unsuccessfully in court, such as how the state's largest cities used more than $6 million in grants from a private group to run their elections.... In addition to the grant spending, he said they may look into claims of double voting and review how clerks fixed absentee ballot credentials."

News Ledes

CNBC: "The U.S. jobs market edged closer to its pre-pandemic self last week as initial jobless claims totaled just 406,000 for the week ended May 22, the Labor Department reported Thursday. While that level is still well above the pre-Covid norm, it is the closest to the previous trend since the crisis began in March 2020 and a decline from the previous week's 444,000."

AP: "An employee who gunned down eight people at a California rail yard and then killed himself as law enforcement rushed in had talked about killing people at work more than a decade ago, his ex-wife said. 'I never believed him, and it never happened. Until now,' a tearful Cecilia Nelms told The Associated Press on Wednesday following the 6:30 a.m. attack at a light rail facility for the Valley Transportation Authority. 'When our deputies went through the door, initially he was still firing rounds. When our deputy saw him, he took his life,' Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told reporters. The sheriff's office is next door to the rail yard, which serves the county of more than 1 million people in the heart of the Silicon Valley. The attacker was identified as 57-year-old Samuel Cassidy, according to two law enforcement officials. Investigators offered no immediate word on a possible motive but his ex-wife said he used to come home from work resentful and angry over what he perceived as unfair assignments.... President Joe Biden ordered flags to be flown at half-staff and urged Congress to act on legislation to curb gun violence.... Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the site and then spoke emotionally about the country's latest mass killing." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN Update: "The gunman who opened fire on coworkers at a light rail yard in Northern California on Wednesday -- killing nine people before killing himself -- bypassed certain people and so appeared to select those he shot, a witness said. 'He ... was targeting certain people. He walked by other people,' Kirk Bertolet, a worker at the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) in San Jose, told CNN affiliate KGO Wednesday night. 'He let other people live as he gunned down other people.' The gunman, armed with two semiautomatic handguns, shot coworkers in two buildings around the time of a morning shift change...."

The Commentariat -- May 26, 2021

Tim Arango & Andrés Martínez of the New York Times: “In Minneapolis on Tuesday, as people gathered to mark the anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd, there was space for ... the trauma and the grief; some celebration, over a murder conviction of a police officer; and a measure of hope, too, that in death Mr. Floyd, a Black man, had nudged America toward more racial equality.... Even as all eyes were on Minneapolis — where the governor issued a proclamation for a moment of silence lasting nine minutes and 29 seconds, the amount of time a white officer’s knee remained on Mr. Floyd’s neck — people gathered in remembrance all across the country, to honor not just the life of Mr. Floyd, but to reflect on what has changed, and what has not, in America.... All this was happening as members of the Floyd family met privately with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House.... The president said he was hopeful that a police reform bill that has stalled in the Senate would reach his desk soon, saying, 'we face an inflection point.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Shear & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times have more on the Floyd family's meeting with President Biden & Vice President Harris. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times liveblogged how the country is marking the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Republicans chose a special way of observing the anniversary of George Floyd’s murder. They tried to vote down a highly qualified Black woman who had been nominated to run the Justice Department’s civil rights division.... All but one [Senate Republican] (Susan Collins of Maine) voted not even to allow [Kristen] Clarke a confirmation vote — and, when that failed, voted by an identical tally against confirming Clarke.... [Also,] Republican senators rose in near lockstep to oppose the confirmation of Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the first Black woman tapped to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Only five of the 50 Republican senators supported this health-policy veteran.... President Biden had set a deadline of Tuesday for Congress to enact legislation to counter police brutality. But while the House passed the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act almost three months ago, Republican objections have bottled up negotiations in the Senate.... Racism isn’t just a factor in Republican politics. It is the factor."

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning to meet next month in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting between the two adversaries and one that comes at a time of deteriorating relations. The day-long summit is scheduled for June 16, according to an official familiar with the meeting, and will cover a wide range of topics including nuclear proliferation, Russian interference in U.S. elections, climate change and covid-19." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Under new Biden administration rules curtailing immigration enforcement, ICE carried out fewer than 3,000 deportations last month, the lowest level on record. The agency’s 6,000 officers currently average one arrest every two months. ICE under President Biden is an agency on probation. The new administration has rejected calls from some Democrats to eliminate the agency entirely, but Biden has placed ICE deportation officers on a leash so tight that some say their work is being functionally abolished.... The Biden administration is preparing to release its first Department of Homeland Security budget request this week, and immigrant advocates want deep cuts to ICE. DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans last week to shutter two ICE detention centers, but in an interview he said he ... wants to reorient ICE [toward national security & public safety], not shrink it...."

Ellen Nakashima & Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security is moving to regulate cybersecurity in the pipeline industry for the first time in an effort to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast’s fuel supply this month — an incident that highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to online attacks. The Transportation Security Administration, a DHS unit, will issue a security directive this week requiring pipeline companies to report cyber incidents to federal authorities, senior DHS officials said. It will follow up in coming weeks with a more robust set of mandatory rules for how pipeline companies must safeguard their systems against cyberattacks and the steps they should take if they are hacked, the officials said. The agency has offered only voluntary guidelines in the past." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peggy McGlone of the Washington Post: “Having ousted four Trump-appointed members of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, President Biden announced Tuesday that he will replace them with four people who bring 'a diversity of background and experience, as well as a range of aesthetic viewpoints.' Architect Peter Cook, Howard University professor of architecture Hazel Ruth Edwards, Andrew Mellon Foundation program officer Justin Garrett Moore and architect Billie Tsien will join the seven-member commission, an independent agency responsible for guiding the design of the capital city, including renovations of historic homes and the look and scale of government buildings, museums and memorials.... On Monday, the Biden administration sent letters to ... [Trump-appointed members] asking that they resign by 6 p.m. that day or face termination. None of the four resigned.” Trump's appointments made the board all-white and all-male. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you're interested in the way D.C. looks, or in urban planning in general, this story is for you.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "House Republican leaders on Tuesday broke nearly a week of silence about comments by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia comparing mask and vaccine mandates to the treatment of Jews by Nazis during the Holocaust, condemning her language but stopping short of punishing her. The slow response by Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the minority leader, to Ms. Greene’s string of anti-Semitic statements reflected the reluctance of top Republicans to take on the first-term congresswoman, who had previously endorsed violent and racist conspiracy theories and whose combative style has made her a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump and his far-right supporters." ~~~

~~~ Make That "Leaders." Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House Republican leaders have condemned incendiary remarks from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene five days after she first publicly compared Capitol Hill mask rules to the Holocaust, amid a wave of criticism from Republican and conservative critics as well as Jewish groups aimed at the Georgia congresswoman and the party leaders' silence. 'Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,' House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement five days after Greene's original comments and after she made similar comparisons Tuesday. 'Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.' The No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, also responded [in a written statement] to Greene's comments for the first time on Tuesday.... Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the newly elected No. 3 House Republican, also responded to the controversy in a tweet that didn't include Greene's name.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against Greene on Tuesday morning when asked about her latest comments on the Holocaust. 'Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment,' McConnell ... said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A tweet, Elise? Here it is: "'Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain,' Stefanik wrote Tuesday morning, following McCarthy and Scalise's remarks." Wow! I'll bet Margie feels terrible now. ~~~

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi’s forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, in tweeted early Tuesday morning, linking to a news story on a Tennessee supermarket chain’s decision to include a special logo on the name badges of vaccinated employees  ~~~

     ~~~ AND She's Still at It. Mike DeBonis & John Wagner of the Washington Post: “Top congressional leaders condemned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday after the Georgia Republican compared a supermarket’s face-mask policy to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.... [In his statement, House GOP 'Leader' Kevin McCarthy said,] 'At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.'... Following the widespread condemnations Tuesday, Greene posted tweets explaining, but not apologizing for, her remarks. Echoing McCarthy, she accused the media and others of seeking to hide 'the disgusting anti-semitism within the Democrat Party.... Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply,' she wrote.... No elected Democrats recently have made any similar comparison, and prominent party leaders have condemned a spate of antisemitic attacks.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Violence between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East is often accompanied by spikes in anti-Semitic activity in the United States, but what’s happened over the last week or so has been different.... What’s new, and more reminiscent of the sort of anti-Semitic aggression common in Europe, is flagrant public assaults on Jews — sometimes in broad daylight — motivated by anti-Zionism.... These apparent hate crimes are, first and foremost, a catastrophe for Jewish people in the United States, who’ve just endured four years of spiking anti-Semitism that started around the time Republicans nominated Donald Trump in 2016.... But this violence also threatens to undermine progress that’s been made in getting American politicians to take Palestinian rights more seriously. Right-wing Zionists and anti-Semitic anti-Zionists have something fundamental in common: Both conflate the Jewish people with the Israeli state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, Steve M., with a little help from Jonathan Chait, explains why -- in the eyes of the "bonkers" right wing, the spate of attacks on Jewish communities is all Democrats' fault. MB: Turns out there is a "logic" to at least some conspiracy theories, but it's a "logic" turned upside-down or inside-out.

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people familiar with the development. The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters — not just the Trump case ­— during the duration of its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said.... The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.’s investigation ... has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime — if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's story is here.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to ... Donald Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, citing examples of other cases being dismissed following a presidential reprieve, granted Bannon’s application — saying in a seven-page ruling that Trump’s pardon was valid and that 'dismissal of the Indictment is the proper course.' Bannon was charged with fraud last year alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with 'We Build the Wall' while representing to the organization’s backers that all of the money was being used for construction.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ BUT Judge Rules Bannon Is Guilty. Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: “... [U.S. District Judge Analisa] Torres extensively cited case law suggesting [Steve] Bannon’s acceptance of the pardon acknowledged the truth behind allegations that he conspired to defraud donors of the non-profit We Build the Wall and pocketing the loot through money laundering.... '... from the country’s earliest days, courts, including the Supreme Court, have acknowledged that even if there is no formal admission of guilt, the issuance of a pardon may “carr[y] an imputation of guilt; acceptance a confession of it,”' [citing Burdick v. United States].... Quoting another 19th century ruling from the New Jersey Supreme Court, Torres wrote: 'Pardon implies guilt.'”

Cat Zakrzewski &  Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: “D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine on Tuesday brought an antitrust complaint against Amazon, alleging that the e-commerce giant wields monopoly power that has resulted in higher prices for consumers. Racine’s office accused the company of fixing prices through contract provisions with third-party sellers who peddle their products on its platform. The attorney general said that Amazon prevents sellers from offering their products at lower prices or on better terms on any other online platforms, including their own websites, and that that prohibition results in 'artificially high' prices across e-commerce sales.”

Katie Robertson of the New York Times: “The Associated Press has started a review of its social media policy after more than 150 staff members publicly condemned the firing of a young journalist for violating that policy.... The news agency faced a backlash after Emily Wilder, a 22-year-old news associate who had joined the company in Arizona, was dismissed on May 19, three weeks after she was hired. Ms. Wilder, who graduated from Stanford University in 2020 and had worked at The Arizona Republic, said in a statement on Friday that she had been the subject of a campaign by Stanford College Republicans, whose social media posts drew attention to her pro-Palestine activism at the university. She added that her editors had reassured her she would not be fired for her past advocacy work. 'Less than 48 hours later, The A.P. fired me,' she said.” ~~~

     ~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: Emily Wilder's firing "points to two emerging facts of life in contemporary mainstream media — one, that editors at large news organizations quake when right-wing actors target their colleagues; and two, publishers’ concerns over ethical appearances and perceptions are reaching irrationality."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: “The United States’ top health official called Tuesday for a swift follow-up investigation into the coronavirus’s origins amid renewed questions about whether the virus jumped from an animal host into humans in a naturally occurring event or escaped from a lab in Wuhan, China. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra told an annual ministerial meeting of the World Health Organization that international experts should be given 'the independence to fully assess the source of the virus and the early days of the outbreak.' Becerra’s remarks, which were prerecorded, signaled that the Biden administration would continue to press the WHO to expand its investigation to determine the virus’s origins.... At a White House briefing Tuesday, Anthony S. Fauci ... said he believes it’s most likely the virus originated from a 'natural occurrence.' But he said a deeper probe is warranted.” The story is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, one of Rand Paul's many crazy conspiracy theories is at least worth investigating. So not completely crazy. Congrats, Randy! ~~~

~~~ Kylie Atwood of CNN: "President Joe Biden's team shut down a closely-held State Department effort launched late in the Trump administration to prove the coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab over concerns about the quality of its work.... The existence of the State Department inquiry and its termination this spring by the Biden administration ... comes to light amid renewed interest in whether the virus could have leaked out of a Wuhan lab with links to the Chinese military.... Those involved in the previously undisclosed inquiry, which was launched last fall by allies of then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, say it was an honest effort to probe what many initially dismissed: that China's biological weapons program could have had a greater role in the pandemic's origin in Wuhan, according to two additional sources. But the inquiry quickly became mired in internal discord amid concerns that it was part of a broader politicized effort by the Trump administration to blame China and cherry-pick facts to prove a theory." ~~~

~~~ Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "The source of the coronavirus ... remains a mystery. But in recent months the idea that it emerged from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) — once dismissed as a ridiculous conspiracy theory — has gained new credence. How and why did this happen? For one, efforts to discover a natural source of the virus have failed. Second, early efforts to spotlight a lab leak often got mixed up with speculation that the virus was deliberately created as a bioweapon. That made it easier for many scientists to dismiss the lab scenario as tin-hat nonsense. But a lack of transparency by China and renewed attention to the activities of the Wuhan lab have led some scientists to say they were too quick to discount a possible link at first." Kessler traces the timeline of the Wuhan Lab theory.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds, and that it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in June for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. If approved, its vaccine would become the second Covid-19 vaccine available to U.S. adolescents. Federal regulators authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month for 12- to 15-year-olds." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The Times' full story on the Moderna vaccine is here. ~~~

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

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Jeremy Duda of the Arizona Mirror: "Wake Technology Services, Inc., the company that has been in charge of recounting ballots as part of Senate President Karen Fann’s election audit, has left the audit team. Audit spokesman Randy Pullen told the Arizona Republic that Wake TSI’s contract ended on May 14, when the Senate’s contract with Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is taking place, was originally scheduled to end. Pullen said Wake chose not to renew its contract.... Wake TSI stood out as the only company [working on the 'audit'] that appeared to have any experience with election work.... [But] Wake’s work in Pennsylvania raised questions as well. Fulton County ... allowed Wake to audit its election at the request of a state senator who’s been a prominent advocate of election conspiracy theories and bogus claims that the election was rigged against ... Donald Trump.... Wake was actually hired by Defending the Republic, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization run by attorney Sidney Powell, a former Trump campaign lawyer who has spread myriad baseless conspiracy theories and filed unsuccessful lawsuits in several states, including Arizona, seeking to overturn legitimate election results." ~~~

~~~ Mark Phillips of ABC News 15 Arizona: “On Tuesday morning, the Arizona House Appropriations Committee[, dominated by Republicans,] stripped Secretary of State Katie Hobbs [D] of her ability to defend election lawsuits. It gave the power exclusively to the Attorney General [R]. Later in the day, the state's Senate Appropriations Committee[, dominated by Republicans,] passed the same changes. Now these proposed changes are part of the full budget proposal that will be voted on later this week. 'We are meddling with the constitution,' State Representative Randy Friese, (D) Tucson, said. Friese and other Democrats see the move as a response to Secretary of State Hobbs' use of outside counsel to defend Arizona voters from lawsuits filed by the State Republican Party and others challenging Arizona’s election results.”

Nevada. Proud Boy Cast Decidiing Vote in Nevada GOP Censure Resolution. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The leaders of the Nevada Republican Party are facing an internal revolt after an avowed Proud Boys member said he was invited with friends to attend a state party meeting last month and cast the deciding votes in the censure of a state official who concluded that the 2020 election in the state was not tainted by fraud. In the past week, the Nevada Senate GOP caucus and the chairmen of the two largest Republican county organizations have called for an audit of an April state party vote to uncover who cast ballots as seated party members and proxies for a resolution against Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske (R)."

Texas Legislature Goes Wild-West Insane. Neil MacFarquhar & Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: “... within days, Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign a wide-ranging law that will ... [allow] virtually anyone over the age of 21 to carry a handgun, no permit required. The landmark bill would make Texas — which has three of the nation’s 10 biggest cities — the largest among 20 other states to adopt a 'constitutional carry' law that basically eliminates most restrictions on the ability to carry handguns.... Critics, including some senior law enforcement officers, call the new legislation a dangerous retreat from gun control amid a recent surge in gun violence, particularly in a state with a long and painfully recent history of mass shootings.”

Way Beyond

Belarus Hostage Video. Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: “A video purporting to show dissident Belarusian journalist Roman Protasevich confessing to organizing 'mass riots' has met with skepticism from scholars, family members and human rights groups who say that there is little doubt that he was coerced.... The detained journalist’s demeanor in the video alarmed his father, Dzmitry, who told Reuters that his son’s nose appeared to have been broken, 'because the shape of it is changed,' and that his remarks were out of character.... In the video, Protasevich’s face appears to be marked with abrasions and bruises, suggesting that authorities subjected him to 'torture or other ill-treatment' before recording the supposed confession, Amnesty International spokesman Alexander Artemyev told The Washington Post.”

The Commentariat -- May 25, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Shayna Jacobs & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "Manhattan's district attorney has convened the grand jury that is expected to decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump, other executives at his company or the business itself should prosecutors present the panel with criminal charges, according to two people.... The panel was convened recently and will sit three days a week for six months. It is likely to hear several matters -- not just the Trump case -- during the duration of its term, which is longer than a traditional New York state grand-jury assignment, these people said.... The move indicates that District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr.'s investigation ... has reached an advanced stage after more than two years. It suggests, too, that Vance believes he has found evidence of a crime -- if not by Trump then by someone potentially close to him or by his company."

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Monday formally dismissed the fraud case against Stephen K. Bannon, the conservative provocateur and ex-adviser to ... Donald Trump, ending months of litigation over how the court system should handle his pardon while related criminal cases remain unresolved. U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres, citing examples of other cases being dismissed following a presidential reprieve, granted Bannon's application -- saying in a seven-page ruling that Trump's pardon was valid and that 'dismissal of the Indictment is the proper course.' Bannon was charged with fraud last year alongside three others in what prosecutors described as a massive fundraising scam targeting the donors of a private campaign to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Bannon was accused of pocketing more than $1 million from his involvement with 'We Build the Wall' while representing to the organization's backers that all of the money was being used for construction."

The New York Times is liveblogging how the country is marking the first anniversary of George Floyd's murder.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning to meet next month in Geneva, the first face-to-face meeting between the two adversaries and one that comes at a time of deteriorating relations. The day-long summit is scheduled for June 16, according to an official familiar with the meeting, and will cover a wide range of topics including nuclear proliferation, Russian interference in U.S. elections, climate change and covid-19."

Ellen Nakashima & Lori Aratani of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security is moving to regulate cybersecurity in the pipeline industry for the first time in an effort to prevent a repeat of a major computer attack that crippled nearly half the East Coast's fuel supply this month -- an incident that highlighted the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to online attacks. The Transportation Security Administration, a DHS unit, will issue a security directive this week requiring pipeline companies to report cyber incidents to federal authorities, senior DHS officials said. It will follow up in coming weeks with a more robust set of mandatory rules for how pipeline companies must safeguard their systems against cyberattacks and the steps they should take if they are hacked, the officials said. The agency has offered only voluntary guidelines in the past."

Make That "Leaders." Ryan Nobles of CNN: "House Republican leaders have condemned incendiary remarks from GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene five days after she first publicly compared Capitol Hill mask rules to the Holocaust, amid a wave of criticism from Republican and conservative critics as well as Jewish groups aimed at the Georgia congresswoman and the party leaders' silence. 'Marjorie is wrong, and her intentional decision to compare the horrors of the Holocaust with wearing masks is appalling,' House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said in a statement five days after Greene's original comments and after she made similar comparisons Tuesday. 'Let me be clear: the House Republican Conference condemns this language.' The No. 2 House Republican, Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, also responded [in a written statement] to Greene's comments for the first time on Tuesday.... Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, the newly elected No. 3 House Republican, also responded to the controversy in a tweet that didn't include Greene's name.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke out against Greene on Tuesday morning when asked about her latest comments on the Holocaust. 'Once again an outrageous and reprehensible comment,' McConnell ... said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: A tweet, Elise? Here it is: "'Equating mask wearing and vaccines to the Holocaust belittles the most significant human atrocities ever committed. We must all work together to educate our fellow Americans on the unthinkable horrors of the Holocaust. #NeverAgain,' Stefanik wrote Tuesday morning, following McCarthy and Scalise's remarks." Wow! I'll bet Margie feels terrible now. ~~~

Vaccinated employees get a vaccination logo just like the Nazi's forced Jewish people to wear a gold star. -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, in tweeted early Tuesday morning, linking to a news story on a Tennessee supermarket chain's decision to include a special logo on the name badges of vaccinated employees ~~~

     ~~~ AND She's Still at It. Mike DeBonis & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Top congressional leaders condemned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Tuesday after the Georgia Republican compared a supermarket's face-mask policy to the Nazi practice of labeling Jews with Star of David badges.... [In his statement, House GOP 'Leader' Kevin McCarthy said,] 'At a time when the Jewish people face increased violence and threats, anti-Semitism is on the rise in the Democrat Party and is completely ignored by Speaker Nancy Pelosi.'... Following the widespread condemnations Tuesday, Greene posted tweets explaining, but not apologizing for, her remarks. Echoing McCarthy, she accused the media and others of seeking to hide 'the disgusting anti-semitism within the Democrat Party.... Their attempts to shame, ostracize, and brand Americans who choose not to get vaccinated or wear a mask are reminiscent of the great tyrants of history who did the same to those who would not comply,' she wrote.... No elected Democrats recently have made any similar comparison, and prominent party leaders have condemned a spate of antisemitic attacks."

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Violence between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East is often accompanied by spikes in anti-Semitic activity in the United States, but what's happened over the last week or so has been different.... What's new, and more reminiscent of the sort of anti-Semitic aggression common in Europe, is flagrant public assaults on Jews -- sometimes in broad daylight -- motivated by anti-Zionism.... These apparent hate crimes are, first and foremost, a catastrophe for Jewish people in the United States, who've just endured four years of spiking anti-Semitism that started around the time Republicans nominated Donald Trump in 2016.... But this violence also threatens to undermine progress that's been made in getting American politicians to take Palestinian rights more seriously. Right-wing Zionists and anti-Semitic anti-Zionists have something fundamental in common: Both conflate the Jewish people with the Israeli state."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds, and that it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in June for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents. If approved, its vaccine would become the second Covid-19 vaccine available to U.S. adolescents. Federal regulators authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this month for 12- to 15-year-olds." ~~~

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

~~~~~~~~~~

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden announced Monday that he was doubling the amount of money the U.S. government will spend helping communities get set for extreme weather events, proclaiming the need for full readiness as he visited government workers and told them to prepare for another season of natural disasters. In announcing $1 billion in spending, Biden also emphasized his administration's attempts to steer the country toward confronting the looming effects of climate change, which scientists say will make severe weather events more frequent and less predictable. He announced a new NASA-led effort to collect more sophisticated climate data." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday.)

Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, a year after George Floyd was killed at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, his family members will fly to Washington, D.C., for a private audience with President Biden, their first in-person meeting with the president since they buried Floyd. While White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden is 'eager to listen to their perspectives and hear what they have to say,' an unfulfilled promise looms over the meeting as progress on police reform has stagnated, including legislation bearing Floyd's name that Biden had hoped would be law on the anniversary of his death.... During his first joint address to Congress, [Biden] urged lawmakers to pass police reform by May 25.... A sweeping voting-rights measure faces an even tougher climb in Congress than the police overhaul...."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "... government officials are moving to make a pandemic experiment permanent by allowing more employees than ever to work from home -- a sweeping cultural change that would have been unthinkable a year ago. The shift across the government, whose details are still being finalized, comes after the risk-averse federal bureaucracy had fallen behind private companies when it came to embracing telework -- a posture driven by a perception that employees would slack off unless they were tethered to their office cubicles. That position hardened during the Trump administration, which dialed back work-from-home programs that had slowly expanded during the Obama era. But the coronavirus crisis -- and a new president eager to rebuild the trust of federal workers who had been attacked by ... Donald Trump as 'the swamp' -- has convinced the country's largest employer that in many departments, employees can serve the public just as well from home, officials said."

Uh, Bon Chance, Tony. Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will head to the Middle East on Monday to press the Israelis, Palestinians and regional players to build on and strengthen last week's Gaza cease-fire, start an immediate flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip and lay the groundwork for an eventual resumption in long-stalled peace talks. President Joe Biden announced that he was dispatching Blinken to the region for what will be his administration's highest-level, in-person talks on the crisis that erupted earlier this month. The State Department said Blinken will visit Israel, the West Bank, Jordan and Egypt on a trip that comes as the administration has faced broad criticism for its initial response to the deadly violence." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Good news! Tony will get some "help": ~~~

     ~~~ Betsy Swan & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is making plans to travel to Israel later this week, three people with knowledge of the plans said. Pompeo's potential trip could come the same week that Secretary of State Antony Blinken is also traveling there.... A [person close to Pompeo said] ... Pompeo, a former CIA director, would travel as a private citizen to celebrate the retirement of Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel's intelligence agency, Mossad. Pompeo may also meet privately with nongovernmental officials, according to the person, who added that Pompeo alerted Blinken of his plans."

Shawn Boburg of the Washington Post: "An obscure security unit tasked with protecting the Commerce Department's officials and facilities has evolved into something more akin to a counterintelligence operation that collected information on hundreds of people inside and outside the department, a Washington Post examination found. The Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) covertly searched employees' offices at night, ran broad keyword searches of their emails trying to surface signs of foreign influence and scoured Americans' social media for critical comments about the census, according to documents and interviews with five former investigators. In one instance, the unit opened a case on a 68-year-old retiree in Florida who tweeted that the census, which is run by the Commerce Department, would be manipulated 'to benefit the Trump Party!' records show.... Incoming Commerce leaders from the Biden administration ordered ITMS to pause all criminal investigations on March 10, and on May 13 ordered the suspension of all activities after preliminary results of an ongoing review, according to a statement issued by department spokeswoman Brittany Caplin."

Liz Cheney Is No Champion of Democracy: Big Lie, No; Voter Suppression, Yes. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "... when pressed on Sunday about whether Trump's falsehoods [about the 2020 election] were the cause of Republican moves to pass restrictive new voting laws in dozens of states, [Rep. Liz] Cheney [R-Wyo.] disputed the suggestion..... Cheney's exchange [with Jonathan Swan of Axios], which went viral on Twitter with more than 800,000 views, suggests the limits of her increasingly lonesome stance in the Republican Party.... Republicans in at least 43 states have moved to limit in-person, mail and Election Day voting ... -- moves that could make it more difficult for tens of millions of Americans to cast ballots. GOP lawmakers have justified the bills, The Washington Post reported, by noting that many conservatives no longer trust voting systems thanks to Trump's false claims that the election was 'stolen.'"

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said on Monday that he would support a House-passed bill to create a commission to probe the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Romney's comments make him the first GOP senator to say he would vote for the bill, which needs the support of 10 Republicans to pass the Senate. Asked how he would vote if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to start debate on the House bill, a move that requires 60 votes to defeat a filibuster, Romney told reporters, 'I would support the bill.'"

Carol Robinson of AL.com: “A north Alabama man facing multiple charges in connection with the January riots at the U.S. Capitol must remain in jail until trial a federal judge ruled, citing in part new revelations that he drove to the home of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, and he seemed 'unbalanced' in a call to the senator's office. Lonnie Coffman, a 70-year-old Falkville resident up until his arrest, was arrested by federal authorities just hours after the riot at the U.S. Capitol. Since then, he has been indicted on 17 charges following the seizure of nearly a dozen Molotov cocktail explosive devices from his pickup truck, as well as a number of guns, ammo and concerning handwritten notes." MB: Creepy story. This is just the kind of person Cruz's own demagoguery riles up.

Garland DOJ Sticks Up for Lying Bill Barr. Harper Neidig of the Hill: "The Department of Justice is appealing a judge's decision ordering the release of a 2019 legal memo prepared for then-Attorney General William Barr in the wake of the Mueller investigation. In a pair of court filings submitted late Monday, the DOJ under Attorney General Merrick Garland said it would fight against the full release of the memo, but would agree to make parts of it public. The internal legal memo prepared by the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel is said to provide justifications for Barr's stance that the former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation did not support obstruction of justice charges against former President Trump. Earlier this month, District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson ordered that the document be made public and accused Barr and Justice Department lawyers of making misrepresentations about why it should be kept secret." Neal Katyal said on MSNBC it would take about a year for an appeals court to render a decision. Katyal opined that the appeal was not justified. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department late Monday night released part of a key internal document used in 2019 to justify not charging ... Donald Trump with obstruction.... The central document at issue is a March 2019 memo written by two senior Justice Department officials [Steven Engel & Edward O'Callaghan (MB: both Trump political appointees)] arguing that aside from important constitutional reasons not to accuse the president of a crime, but that the evidence gathered by Mueller did not rise to the level of a prosecutable case, even if Trump were not the president.... Earlier this month..., [Judge Amy Berman Jackson] concluded that, rather than Barr following OLC advice, his decision and the OLC memo 'were being written by the very same people at the very same time,' working 'hand in hand to craft the advice' that the office supposedly delivered to Barr." The memo, in redacted form, via the courts, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The move to appeal the judge's ruling rather than meet a Monday deadline for release of the legal opinion puts the Biden administration in the curious position of seeking to maintain secrecy surrounding some of the most pivotal legal decisions of the Trump era.... A department spokesperson declined to comment on whether Attorney General Merrick Garland, who promised at his confirmation hearing to read the Freedom of Information Act 'generously,' had signed off on the decision. However, the move appeared to reflect an institutional decision to take some action to protect the department's internal deliberations on highly sensitive matters."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's former White House counsel, Donald F. McGahn II, has agreed to testify behind closed doors before the House Judiciary Committee sometime next week about Mr. Trump's efforts to obstruct the Russia investigation, according to two people familiar with the matter. Lawyers for House Democrats, the Justice Department and Mr. McGahn had tentatively struck a deal to provide the testimony earlier in May. But the scheduling was delayed for weeks while they waited to see what Mr. Trump, who was not a party to the agreement, would do. Mr. McGahn's agreement to testify -- with President Biden's permission -- was contingent upon there being no active legal challenge to his participation in the matter...."

Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "A federal judge unsealed nearly half a dozen files on Monday itemizing the 'principal lies' Donald Trump's since-pardoned former campaign chair Paul Manafort allegedly told special counsel Robert Mueller's team.... According to a government memo dated Dec. 7, 2018, the first of these lies involved Manafort's associate Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the Senate Intelligence Committee would later describe as a Russian intelligence operative. Both the Mueller report and the bipartisan Senate committee found that Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates 'periodically' gave Kilimnik the Trump campaign's internal polling data, even though Gates told the special prosecutor that he suspected that Kilimnik was a Russian 'spy.'... According to the Mueller report, Kilimnik had been pursuing a Ukrainian so-called 'peace plan' at least four times before and after the 2016 presidential election, and Manafort misled prosecutors about these plans.... Manafort's misdirection went beyond Kilimnik, prosecutors said. According to the unsealed memo, Manafort claimed after signing his plea agreement that he had 'no direct or indirect communication with anyone' in the Trump administration -- 'on any subject matter.' 'The evidence demonstrates that Manafort lied about his contacts,' the memo stated."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's former ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, is suing former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and the U.S. government for $1.8 million to compensate for legal fees incurred during the 2019 House impeachment probe. The suit, filed Monday in federal court in the District of Columbia, alleges that Pompeo reneged on his promise that the State Department would cover the fees after Sondland delivered bombshell testimony accusing Trump and his aides of pressuring the government of Ukraine to investigate then presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter in exchange for military aid. Sondland, a Portland hotel magnate appointed by Trump to serve as ambassador, became a key witness of the impeachment probe because of his firsthand knowledge of conversations with Trump, his attorney Rudy Giuliani and senior Ukrainian officials -- as well as his punchy answers, affable demeanor and colorful language." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. Update: Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The suit accuses Pompeo of corruption: Pompeo's promise, Sondland argues, "was self-serving, made entirely for personal reasons for his own political survival in the hopes that Ambassador Sondland would not implicate him or others by his testimony": that is, the "deal" was that if Sondland testified the way Pompeo wanted him to, he would get his attorneys' fees paid as a sort of "bonus." What Pompeo wanted, of course, would require Sondland to perjure himself, which in fact he did, before he drastically modified his testimony upon learning of evidence against his fake version of events. Sondland's decision to dump the fake Trump narrative & tell a tale approximating the truth cost him the promised bonus. The offer of attorneys' fees, then, whether or not the State Department ever would pay them under any circumstances, constituted a bribe to testify falsely. This suit may be a loser, but with any luck, it will provide us with some laughs. So far, the funniest bit is that Sondland thought that -- after casting his lot with a den of corrupt politicians -- there was honor among corrupt politicians.

Tara Palmeri of Politico: "The FBI and Capitol Hill police are investigating a suspicious package containing white powder that was delivered to the home of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Monday, according to a senior adviser to the senator. A large envelope arrived at the senator's home in Kentucky and is currently being examined for harmful substances, Sergio Gor said. The sender is unknown.... Fox News reported later Monday that the outside of the envelope had a picture of a bandaged Paul with a gun pointed at his head and this quote: 'I'll finish what your neighbor started you motherf------'"

Jonny Hallam & Sharif Paget of CNN: "An American journalist working in Myanmar was detained by local authorities Monday, his family and his news organization told CNN. Danny Fenster, 37, was stopped at the Yangon airport as he tried to board a flight out of the country, his brother Bryan Fenster said. Fenster, a US citizen originally from Detroit, Michigan, works for the news site Frontier Myanmar in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon. 'Frontier's managing editor, Danny Fenster, was detained at Yangon International Airport this morning shortly before he was due to board a flight to Kuala Lumpur,' the news organization said in a statement.... The news organization also said it understands Fenster has been transferred to Insein Prison near Yangon. Insein is one of the country's most notorious prisons, known for its deplorable conditions."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

** David Leonardt of the New York Times: "It is common to hear about two different demographic groups that are hesitant to receive a Covid-19 vaccination: Republican voters and racial minorities.... For Republicans, the attitude is connected to a general skepticism of government and science. For Black and Hispanic Americans, it appears to stem from the country's legacy of providing substandard medical treatment, and sometimes doing outright harm, to minorities. These ideas all have some truth to them. But they also can obscure the fact that many unvaccinated Republicans and minorities have something in common: They are working class. And there is a huge class gap in vaccination behavior.... The class divide is bigger than the racial divide."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Monday that aims to punish social media companies for their moderation decisions, a move that Silicon Valley immediately criticized and likely sets the stage for potential legal challenges. The legislation would bar Internet companies from suspending political candidates in the run-up to elections. It also would also make it easier for the Florida state attorney general and individuals to bring lawsuits when they think the tech companies have acted unfairly. Legal experts and tech industry trade groups immediately raised concerns about the constitutionality of the law and warned that it gives the government too much power over online speech. DeSantis, a potential 2024 Republican presidential contender, pushed for the legislation's passage amid conservatives' complaints that tech companies censor them -- charges that the companies vehemently deny. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube's decisions to suspend ... Donald Trump's account in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot have only heightened the stakes." The Hill has a story here.

Louisiana. Jim Mustian of the AP: "In perhaps the strongest evidence yet of an attempted cover-up in the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene, the ranking Louisiana State Police officer at the scene falsely told internal investigators that the Black man was still a threat to flee after he was shackled, and he denied the existence of his own body camera video for nearly two years until it emerged just last month. New state police documents obtained by The Associated Press show numerous inconsistencies between Lt. John Clary's statements to detectives and the body camera footage he denied having. They add to growing signs of obfuscation in Greene's death, which the white troopers initially blamed on a car crash at the end of a high-speed chase and is now the subject of a federal civil rights investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Although I don't have enough raw evidence to justify my suspicions, it's beginning to look as if the state police officers deliberately executed Greene to prevent his recounting the torture to which they subjected him. At least some of these officers belong in jail for life. One way to cover up an atrocity is to murder the victim. Also, how did the AP get hold of bodycam footage Clary had withheld? Seems to me your average murdering scumbag would destroy evidence against him. Does the footage automatically record at a remote location?

Michigan. David Eggert of the AP: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's administration on Monday rescinded a rule that limits restaurant tables to no more than six people, a day after she apologized for violating the COVID-19 regulation while gathering with friends at an East Lansing bar. The Democratic governor has said tables at the Landshark Bar & Grill were pushed together as more people arrived in her party of roughly a dozen fully vaccinated people." MB: Still, "governor" is a pretty good gig: break your own rule, then rescind it. (Also linked yesterday.)

Oklahoma. Yuliya Parshina-Kottas, et al., of the New York Times: "In May 1921, the Tulsa, Okla., neighborhood of Greenwood was a fully realized antidote to the racial oppression of the time. Built in the early part of the century in a northern pocket of the city, it was a thriving community of commerce and family life to its roughly 10,000 residents. Greenwood was so promising, so vibrant that it became home to what was known as America's Black Wall Street. But what took years to build was erased in less than 24 hours by racial violence -- sending the dead into mass graves.... Hundreds of Greenwood residents were brutally killed, their homes and businesses wiped out. They were casualties of a furious and heavily armed white mob of looters and arsonists." The main features of this article are graphics that show what the mob destroyed, at least in physical terms. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Stories about Greenwood have particular meaning to me as in the 1980s, I worked in a building overlooking the neighborhood. The head of the outfit where I worked was a prominent Tulsan, and deeply enmeshed in the city's political life, so much so that he was named chairman of the Tulsa Urban Renewal Authority. One day at the office, he was recounting his work on the authority and complaining about having to grant monetary awards to black businesses: "You might as well have opened the window here & thrown money down on the niggers." That guy is long dead, but I'm sure his attitude is not.

Way Beyond

Belarus. Michael Birnbaum & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Belarus on Monday was facing international isolation, with European leaders discussing measures to deal a crushing blow to the economy and the White House calling for an investigation, a day after Belarusian authorities forced down a civilian jet and pulled off a dissident journalist. Outrage mounted about the brazen move by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who on Sunday sent a MiG-29 fighter jet to snatch a Ryanair plane out of the sky as it was flying from Athens to Vilnius and arrest one of its passengers, Roman Protasevich, the founder of an opposition media outlet. Protasevich faces at least 12 years in prison. The power play set a fearsome precedent for journalists and political opponents, who must now worry about flying through the airspace of repressive regimes, even if they are moving from one free capital to another." CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Sheena McKenzie & Anna Chernova of CNN: "Dissident journalist Roman Protasevich has appeared in a new video after his arrest by Belarusian authorities on Sunday, following the government's extraordinary diversion of his Ryanair flight to capital city Minsk. The video -- the first since Protasevich's arrest -- comes amid mounting fears for his safety and widespread fury over the diversion of a European commercial flight. 'The attitude of the [Interior Ministry] employees towards me has been as correct as possible and in compliance with the law,' Protasevich says in the video, which was posted Monday evening to a pro-government social media channel.... His supporters believe the video was made under duress." MB: No kidding. Rachel Maddow noted, & as the video that accompanies the story linked here shows, this is a hostage video. Protasevich's face is marked with bruises. ~~~

~~~ Caroline Kelly of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Monday lambasted Belarus' sudden grounding of a commercial flight and subsequent arrest of onboard dissident journalist Roman Pratasevich as 'a direct affront to international norms.... The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms both the diversion of the plane and the subsequent removal and arrest of Mr. Pratasevich,' Biden said in a statement following the release of a new video with an appearance by Pratasevich that his supporters believe was coerced. 'This outrageous incident and the video Mr. Pratasevich appears to have made under duress are shameful assaults on both political dissent and the freedom of the press.'"

Iran. Michael Crowley & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "Iran agreed on Monday to a one-month extension of an agreement with international inspectors that would allow them to continue monitoring the country's nuclear program, avoiding a major setback in the continuing negotiations with Tehran.... The extension prevents a new crisis that could derail talks among world powers, including the United States, aimed at bringing Washington back to the 2015 nuclear deal that ... Donald J. Trump withdrew from three years ago. Restoring the deal, including a commitment from Iran to resume all its obligations under the agreement, is a top priority for President Biden."