The Commentariat -- February 17, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The Washington Post's front-page tally of the number of Americans vaccinated against Covid-19 stands at 40 million this morning.

Heather Long of the Washington Post: "Millions of jobs that have been shortchanged or wiped out entirely by the coronavirus pandemic are unlikely to come back, economists warn, setting up a massive need for career changes and retraining in the United States. The coronavirus pandemic has triggered permanent shifts in how and where people work. Businesses are planning for a future where more people are working from home, traveling less for business, or replacing workers with robots. All of these modifications mean many workers will not be able to do the same job they did before the pandemic, even after much of the U.S. population gets vaccinated against the deadly virus. Microsoft founder-turned-philanthropist Bill Gates raised eyebrows in November when he predicted that half of business travel and 30 percent of 'days in the office' would go away forever. That forecast no longer seems far-fetched."

The Pentagon Worked Around Misogynist-in-Chief. Eric Schmitt & Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "Last fall, the Pentagon's most senior leaders agreed that two top generals should be promoted to elite, four-star commands. For then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper and Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the tricky part was that both of the accomplished officers were women.... The two Pentagon leaders feared that any candidates other than white men for jobs mostly held by white men might run into turmoil once their nominations got to the White House. Mr. Esper and General Milley worried that if they even raised their names..., the Trump White House would replace them with their own candidates before leaving office. So the Pentagon officials ... held back their recommendations until after the November elections.... In the next few weeks, Mr. Esper's successor, Lloyd J. Austin III, and General Milley are expected to send the delayed recommendations to the White House, where officials are expected to endorse the nominations and formally submit them to the Senate for approval."

Kate Shepherd of the Washington Post: "As millions of people across Texas struggled to stay warm Tuesday amid massive cold-weather power outages, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) directed his ire at ... frozen wind turbines. 'This shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America,' Abbott said to host Sean Hannity on Tuesday. 'Our wind and our solar got shut down, and they were collectively more than 10 percent of our power grid, and that thrust Texas into a situation where it was lacking power on a statewide basis. ... It just shows that fossil fuel is necessary.' The governor's arguments were contradicted by his own energy department, which outlined how most of Texas's energy losses came from failures to winterize the power-generating systems, including fossil fuel pipelines, The Washington Post's Will Englund reported [linked below]. But Abbott's debunked claims were echoed by other conservatives this week who have repeatedly blamed clean energy sources for the outages crippling the southern U.S." ~~~

~~~ Antonia Farzan of the Washington Post: "Residents [of Coloradio City, Texas,] turned to a community Facebook group to ask whether the small town planned to open warming shelters, while others wondered if firefighters could do their job without water. But when Colorado City's mayor chimed in, it was to deliver a less-than-comforting message: The local government had no responsibility to help out its citizens, and only the tough would survive. 'No one owes you [or] your family anything,' Tim Boyd wrote on Tuesday in a now-deleted Facebook post, according to KTXS and KTAB/KRBC. 'I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!'... 'Only the strong will survive and the weak will [perish],' he wrote.... Boyd's tirade, which also demanded that 'lazy' residents find their own ways of procuring water and electricity, immediately drew backlash. Later on Tuesday, Boyd announced his resignation and admitted that he could have 'used better wording.'" MB: Chances Boyd is NOT a Trumpublican: zero.

Ben Makuch of Vice: "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed it once employed an American neo-Nazi terror leader now based in Russia after he posted what he said were letters of appreciation DHS and the Pentagon sent him thanking him for his service. Earlier this month, Rinaldo Nazzaro, 47, founder and leader of the Base, one of the most violent American domestic terror groups in years, posted three undated letters from U.S. agencies lauding him for his service. One was from DHS -- an agency tasked with thwarting terrorism in the U.S. -- and two were on Marine Corps letterhead. All spoke glowingly of Nazzaro. Since late 2019, nine members of the Base, the group he founded, have been arrested in the U.S. for alleged crimes as wide-ranging as an assassination plot, ghost-gun making, plans for train derailments, and a mass shooting. The Canadian government has designated it as a terrorist group.... 'I can confirm that Rinaldo Nazzaro worked at DHS from 2004 to 2006,' said a DHS spokesperson."

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Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden arrived in Milwaukee on Tuesday for his first major trip since taking office, kicking off a new phase of his presidency that attempts to move past the impeachment of his predecessor and toward a more aggressive selling of his coronavirus relief plan. Speaking at a CNN town hall, Biden pledged that any American who wants a vaccine will have access to one by the end of July. He said he wanted many elementary and middle schools to be open five days a week by the end of April. And he said that 'by next Christmas, I think we'll be in a very different circumstance.' Still, the timeline in many ways remains unclear, with Biden hedging on some commitments and openly stating uncertainty about some goals." ~~~

~~~ Annie Karni of the New York Times: "In his first official trip away from Washington since taking office, President Biden on Tuesday offered reassurance to Americans about the availability of the coronavirus vaccines and optimism that his $1.9 trillion relief bill was the kind of ambitious plan that could restore the American economy.... The town hall's question-and-answer format gave the president an opportunity to practice what has been his signature brand of personal politics for decades.... Continuing his practice throughout impeachment, Mr. Biden appeared eager to avoid mention of his most recent predecessor. At one point, he referred to Mr. Trump as 'the former guy.'... At one point, however, he could not resist a veiled dig, telling [moderator Anderson] Cooper that all but one living former president had reached out to him by phone, making it clear that it was only Mr. Trump who had not." ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said Tuesday that every American who wants a coronavirus vaccine will have access to one by the end of July as he fielded questions at his first televised town hall since taking office. The CNN event in Milwaukee focused heavily on the pandemic and a $1.9 trillion relief bill the president is pushing Congress to pass.... 'For four years, all that's been in the news is Trump. The next four years, I want to make sure all that's in the news is the American people. I'm tired of talking about Trump,' Biden said." This is the top of a live-blog that includes remarks by Biden & other developments Tuesday. ~~~

~~~ CNN has a liveblog of President Joe Biden 's Tuesday night townhall meeting. Includes videos.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Weeks into his presidency, Mr. Biden's identity as a creature of the Senate and a deft navigator of its clubby idiosyncrasies has become a defining feature of his governing approach. He has leveraged his relationships with Republicans like [Sen. Susan] Collins [R-Maine] to create space and pressure for bipartisan compromises, even if none have yet materialized. And he has taken a hands-on approach to rallying Democratic lawmakers around his agenda, in the process ensuring that his party has a singular message and unified front against the many obstacles standing in his way. To be sure, Mr. Biden is encountering a deeply polarized Senate that at times bears little resemblance to the one in which he served more than a decade ago.... Still, the president is personally working Capitol Hill in a way that his recent predecessors could not, leveraging decades-old relationships and experience in Congress that they did not have."

Tracy Jan of the Washington Post: "The Department of Housing and Urban Development has for years neglected to enforce its own environmental regulations, resulting in lead poisoning of children in at least one public housing development and potentially jeopardizing residents' health in thousands of other federally subsidized apartments near contaminated sites, according to an inspector general report obtained by The Washington Post. The agency's watchdog reviewed HUD's efforts to identify and mitigate health risks to residents of public housing near toxic waste dumps after the East Chicago, Ind., apartment complex, where tenants had been living with lead contamination for more than four decades, was deemed uninhabitable in 2016. The West Calumet Housing Complex was declared a Superfund site in 2009 and demolished in 2019, its 1,100 mostly Black and Hispanic residents relocated."

Michael Tarn of the AP: "Executioners who put 13 inmates to death in the last months of the Trump administration likened the process of dying by lethal injection to falling asleep and called gurneys 'beds' and final breaths 'snores.' But those tranquil accounts are at odds with reports by The Associated Press and other media witnesses of how prisoners' stomachs rolled, shook and shuddered as the pentobarbital took effect inside the U.S. penitentiary death chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana. The AP witnessed every execution. The sworn accounts by executioners, which government filings cited as evidence the lethal injections were going smoothly, raise questions about whether officials misled courts to ensure the executions scheduled from July to mid-January were done before death penalty opponent Joe Biden became president. Secrecy surrounded all aspects of the executions. Courts relied on those carrying them out to volunteer information about glitches. None of the executioners mentioned any."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Senate will hold its first public inquiry next week into the security failures that led to the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol by a mob of ... Donald J. Trump's supporters seeking to disrupt certification of President Biden's election victory. Senator Gary Peters, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, along with Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, the top Republican on the committee, announced on Tuesday that the hearing is set for Feb. 23 at 10 a.m.... The senators said they had invited four witnesses to testify: Robert J. Contee, the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department; Michael C. Stenger, the former sergeant-at-arms and doorkeeper of the Senate; Paul D. Irving, the former House sergeant-at-arms; and Steven Sund, the former Capitol Police chief."

NAACP Sues Trump, Citing KKK Law. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The N.A.A.C.P. on Tuesday morning filed a federal lawsuit against ... Donald J. Trump and his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, claiming that they violated a 19th century statute when they tried to prevent the certification of the election on Jan. 6. The civil rights organization brought the suit on behalf of Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi. Other Democrats in Congress -- including Representatives Hank Johnson of Georgia and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey -- are expected to join as plaintiffs in the coming weeks, according to the N.A.A.C.P. The lawsuit contends that Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani violated the Ku Klux Klan Act, an 1871 statute that includes protections against violent conspiracies that interfered with Congress's constitutional duties; the suit also names the Proud Boys, the far-right nationalist group, and the Oath Keepers militia group. The legal action accuses Mr. Trump, Mr. Giuliani and the two groups of conspiring to incite a violent riot at the Capitol, with the goal of preventing Congress from certifying the election." ~~~

~~~ Trump Dumps Rudy. Jim Acosta & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "... Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is 'not currently representing President Trump in any legal matters,' senior Trump adviser Jason Miller told CNN on Tuesday.... Miller said in a tweet that Giuliani remained an 'ally and a friend' and is not representing Trump only because there are no pending cases in which he's involved. Trump had signaled frustration with Giuliani last month.... He told his staff to stop paying Giuliani's legal fees, a person familiar with the matter previously told CNN, though aides were not clear if Trump was serious about his instructions." ~~~

~~~ Trump Dumps on Mitch. Caroline Kelly & Brian Rokus of CNN: "... Donald Trump went after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday.... 'Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again,' Trump said in the statement. 'He will never do what needs to be done, or what is right for our Country....'" The New York Times story, by

     ~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "One person close to the former president said his initial version of the statement was more incendiary than what was released publicly. A second person said the statement was issued instead of a news conference that Mr. Trump had initially planned to give on Tuesday, out of fear he would go off track and say even harsher things extemporaneously. In the statement, Mr. Trump resorted to insults about Mr. McConnell's acumen and political abilities, and faulted him for Republicans' loss of their Senate majority.... The statement was the longest one Mr. Trump has issued since leaving office on Jan. 20." ~~~

~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "... Donald Trump might have easily avoided conviction at his second impeachment trial -- but he could find it a lot tougher to beat the several serious criminal and civil probes that he now faces. And at least one of those investigations carries the potential for Trump to be sent to jail if convicted. That would be an unprecedented event in American history.... Trump ... has claimed that the probes are politically motivated witch hunts by Democratic prosecutors. But judges in two of those investigations have repeatedly ruled against Trump's lawyers in disputes related to evidence."

Maggie Haberman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump's hastily assembled [impeachment 2.0] legal team -- a mash-up of political hands, a personal-injury lawyer, a former prosecutor and a longtime defense lawyer, most of whom did not particularly like or trust one another -- clashed, stumbled and regrouped throughout the impeachment proceeding under the watchful and sometimes wrathful eye of its client."

Asawin Suebsaeng, et al., of the Daily Beast: "MAGA diehard and pillow magnate Mike Lindell [the MyPillow guy --] is the next target of a Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit over his wild claims about nonexistent election-fraud conspiracy, with the lead attorney representing Dominion telling The Daily Beast he expects to file the suit 'imminently.'" MB: But not to worry; Mike will lose no sleep over this on accounta laying his head so comfortably on MyPillow.

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "Speaking on the Skullduggery podcast, veteran '60 Minutes producer' Ira Rosen told the show's hosts that during his time at the White House, Steve Bannon concluded that then-President Trump was suffering from 'early stage dementia' and later launched a behind the scenes campaign to have him removed by invoking the 25th Amendment."

"Conservatism" Today. Ryan Reilly & Paul Blumenthal of the Huffington Post: “Leo Brent Bozell IV, the son of conservative activist L. Brent Bozell III, was captured on video inside the Senate chamber during the attack on the U.S. Capitol and has been charged with three federal offenses, according to a federal criminal complaint unsealed on Tuesday.... L. Brent Bozell III, a major conservative political figure who founded a number of organizations aimed at countering 'liberal media bias,' including the Media Research Center and NewsBusters. He is himself the son of L. Brent Bozell Jr., who worked as a speechwriter for Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wis.) and as the ghostwriter for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater's book 'The Conscience of a Conservative.' Bozell Jr. was a key player in the creation of the mid-20th-century conservative movement, alongside National Review founder William F. Buckley, that ultimately took over the Republican Party. He later abandoned the United States, conservatism and democracy for Francisco Franco's ... dictatorship in Spain." MB: I wonder if Bill Buckley, with his patrician affectations, would be happy about the way his "movement" turned out: a bloody, mob rebellion against an American presidential election result. ~~~

     ~~~ Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Brent Bozell III condemned [the insurrection] on live TV as 'very, very disturbing' and 'absolutely wrong' as it was happening on January 6th.... [BUT] In an appearance on Fox Business' The Evening Edit, the Media Research Center president sympathized with the protestors and joined in the chorus pushing ... Donald Trump's 'big lie' about election fraud.... 'I hope there is a thorough investigation,' Bozell added, moments later, before baselessly implying Antifa or left-wing activists played a role in the violence at the Capitol."

Michael Miller of the New York Times: The Pizzagate gunman has been out of jail since last March, but the insane conspiracy theory that drove him from North Carolina to the Comet Ping Pong pizza parlor in Northwest D.C. helped fuel the January 6 siege of the Capitol. "Above all, [the siege] would reveal how baseless claims had spread under a president who often promoted them, growing from [Edgar Maddison] Welch's trip to Washington shortly after the 2016 election to the hundreds who stormed the Capitol to keep Trump in office, some proudly wearing T-shirts with the QAnon motto: 'Where we go one, we go all.'... On Oct. 28, 2017, someone calling himself 'Q' and claiming to be a high-ranking intelligence officer began posting on 4chan. The messages expanded on Pizzagate by claiming satanic pedophiles controlled not only Comet but the world, drinking children's blood to stay young. Q promised that Trump and other government insiders would bring them to justice."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Doctors across the country have been seeing a striking increase in the number of young people with the condition ... called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children or MIS-C..., [which] strikes some young people, usually several weeks after infection by the coronavirus.... Even more worrisome, they say, is that more patients are now very sick than during the first wave of cases, which alarmed doctors and parents around the world last spring.... So far, there's no evidence that recent coronavirus variants are responsible, and experts say it is too early to speculate about any impact of variants on the syndrome. The condition remains rare."

Daniel Payne of Politico: "The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it would extend the foreclosure moratorium and mortgage forbearance through the end of June. The actions would block home foreclosures and offer delayed mortgage payments until July, as well as offer six months of additional mortgage forbearance for those who enroll on or before June 30. The actions are an extension of an order that was originally enacted under the Trump administration in March of last year. President Joe Biden -- as one of 17 orders he signed on his first day in office -- initially extended the eviction and foreclosure moratoriums through the end of March. The eviction moratorium remains in effect through March but was not included in the actions announced Tuesday. The departments of Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs and Agriculture will work together to enact the actions, according to the announcement from the White House. Resources for homeowners will be consolidated on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's website."

Emily Cochrane & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "House Democrats are finalizing the details of President Biden's $1.9 trillion economic relief package, and barreling toward a vote on the final legislation at the end of next week. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the majority leader, told House Democrats during a conference call on Tuesday that he hoped to have the legislation reach the House floor by next Friday, according to two people familiar with the remarks." ~~~

~~~ Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats will renew their focus this week on passing President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, as they face a mid-March deadline when enhanced unemployment benefits expire, if Congress don't act in time. With ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial out of the way in the Senate, Democrats are preparing to push the legislation through a few final procedural hoops before an expected floor vote next week in the House. From there, the legislation would go to the Senate. Biden is participating in a CNN town hall Tuesday night to discuss the coronavirus, the economy and other issues. He is likely to use the opportunity to promote his relief plan...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci said in an interview with 'Axios on HBO' that he worried about contracting the coronavirus during the Trump administration because of its lax approach to the virus. Fauci, who is 80 years old and has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for over three decades, said that his age category was always in the back of his mind particularly when he visited the White House under then-President Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

AP: "A rare winter storm that dumped a foot of snow on Seattle couldn't keep a 90-year-old woman from her first appointment for the coronavirus vaccine. Fran Goldman walked six miles round trip to get her shot, The Seattle Times reports." A photo of Goldman accompanies the story. She looks far younger than 90. Good for her. AND nobody would give her a ride back home???

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Birdwatching-While-Black Case Dismissed. Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "The criminal case against Amy Cooper, a white woman who called the police on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park and falsely reported that he had threatened her, was dismissed on Tuesday after Ms. Cooper completed a therapeutic program that included instruction about racial biases. At a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court, a senior prosecutor asked a judge to dismiss the single misdemeanor charge against Ms. Cooper -- falsely reporting an incident -- and the judge agreed. Ms. Cooper had faced up to a year in jail if convicted." A WPVI (Philadelphia) story is here.

Texas, etc. Erin Douglas of the Texas Tribune: "Failures across Texas' natural gas operations and supply chains due to extreme temperatures are the most significant cause of the power crisis that has left millions of Texans without heat and electricity during the winter storm sweeping the U.S. From frozen natural gas wells to frozen wind turbines, all sources of power generation have faced difficulties during the winter storm. But Texans largely rely on natural gas for power and heat generation, especially during peak usage, experts said. Officials for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which manages most of Texas' grid, said that the primarily cause of the outages on Tuesday appeared to be the state's natural gas providers. Many are not designed to withstand such low temperatures on equipment or during production. By some estimates, nearly half of the state's natural gas production has screeched to a halt due to the extremely low temperatures, while freezing components at natural gas-fired power plants have forced some operators to shut down." ~~~

~~~ Marie: According to Chris Hayes of MSNBC, the Fox "News" folks are gleefully telling viewers that the crisis in Texas is proof that "liberal" wind energy projects are colossal failures. ~~~

~~~ Will Englund of the Washington Post: "What has sent Texas reeling is not an engineering problem, nor is it the frozen wind turbines blamed by prominent Republicans. It is a financial structure for power generation that offers no incentives to power plant operators to prepare for winter. In the name of deregulation and free markets, critics say, Texas has created an electric grid that puts an emphasis on cheap prices over reliable service. It's a 'Wild West market design based only on short-run prices,' said Matt Breidert, a portfolio manager at a firm called TortoiseEcofin. And yet the temporary train wreck of that market Monday and Tuesday has seen the wholesale price of electricity in Houston go from $22 a megawatt-hour to about $9,000. Meanwhile, 4 million Texas households have been without power.... The widespread failure in Texas and, to a lesser extent, Oklahoma and Louisiana in the face of a winter cold snap shines a light on what some see as the derelict state of America's power infrastructure, a mirror reflection of the chaos that struck California last summer." ~~~

~~~ Justin Rohrlich of the Daily Beast: "Contrary to some media reports, experts say frozen wind turbines are only a 'tiny' piece of what's gone wrong, which includes foul-ups in everything from natural gas and nuclear energy in addition to structural issues affecting the uniquely independent system Texas uses to deliver energy to its population.... There are various issues at play right now, including a shortage of natural gas and the loss of generating capacity of one of Texas' four nuclear power plants after its water intakes froze.... Texas is the only state in the union with its own independent electric grid. By not crossing state lines, Texas' grid -- which is overseen by the state and run by a consortium of private operators called the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) -- remains as free as possible from federal regulations." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's also a problem of stupid. When my mother renovated a house north of Houston -- where freezing temps do occur every winter -- she made the HVAC guy weather-proof the new system, and she told him how to do it. He thought she was nuts. "That might be the way y'all do it up north," he told her dismissively, "but that's not the way we do it here." "And that's why people here have their water pipes burst every year, & their heating systems fail," my mother said. Of course, as unwashed mentioned yesterday, "the way we do it here" does increase profits for plumbers & HVAC companies. So maybe as much greedy as stupid. ~~~

~~~ Krista Torralva & Holly Hacker of the Dallas Morning News: "Texas' power grid operators can't predict when outages might end, Electric Reliability Council of Texas officials said Tuesday.... ERCOT, the agency that oversees the state's power grid, is trying to avoid a total blackout by instructing utility companies ... to cut power to customers.... Throughout the day, ERCOT and Gov. Greg Abbott announced power was being restored to hundreds of thousands of customers, but the gains aren't always maintained." ~~~

~~~ Julia Manchester & Maggie Miller of the Hill: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is coming under intense scrutiny over his handling of mass power outages in the state caused by harsh winter weather conditions, as he prepares to run for reelection next year on the heels of two major disasters.... The emergency comes as Abbott prepares to run for his third term as governor.... The governor is taking a series of steps to address the crisis, including deploying the state's National Guard in an effort to help relocate vulnerable people, including elderly individuals, to warm shelters. And he focused the blame on the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) on Tuesday, calling for state lawmakers to launch an investigation into the council.... 'The state has had a couple of times to review this, and decided each time it didn't want to pay for each utility to have the capacity to serve,' [Robert Cullick, a former Austin Energy executive,] noted." ~~~/p>

~~~ James Dobbins & Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "While the rolling blackouts in Texas have left some 4 million residents without power in brutally cold weather, experts and community groups say that many marginalized communities were the first to be hit with power outages, and if history serves as a guide, could be among the last to be reconnected. This is particularly perilous, they say, given that low-income households can lack the financial resources to flee to safety or to rebound after the disruption. Experts worry, in particular, that rising energy prices amid surging demand will leave many families in the lurch.... In Texas' deregulated electricity market, prices can fluctuate with demand, leading to a potential jump in electric bills for poorer households that already spend a disproportionate amount of income on utilities." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I had no idea racists were so talented. We all know politicians hire somebody to gerrymander minorities into a finite number of districts, but I had no idea a power company would go to the trouble to figure out what minorities lived so they could shut down their services first & turn them back on last.

The Big Picture. Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "The crisis [in Texas] sounded an alarm for power systems throughout the country. Electric grids can be engineered to handle a wide range of severe conditions -- as long as grid operators can reliably predict the dangers ahead. But as climate change accelerates, many electric grids will face extreme weather events that go far beyond the historical conditions those systems were designed for, putting them at risk of catastrophic failure.... It is clear that global warming poses a barrage of additional threats to power systems nationwide, including fiercer heat waves and water shortages.... And, experts said, unless grid planners start planning for increasingly wild and unpredictable climate conditions, grid failures will happen again and again."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Rush Limbaugh, the relentlessly provocative voice of conservative America who dominated talk radio for more than three decades with shooting-gallery attacks on liberals, Democrats, feminists, environmentalists and other moving targets, died on Wednesday. He was 70."

AP: "A winter storm that left millions without power in record-breaking cold weather claimed more lives, including three people found dead after a tornado hit a seaside town in North Carolina and four family members who perished in a Houston-area house fire while using a fireplace to stay warm. The storm that overwhelmed power grids and immobilized the Southern Plains on Tuesday carried heavy snow and freezing rain into New England and the Deep South and left behind painfully low temperatures. Wind-chill warnings extended from Canada into Mexico. In all, at least 20 deaths were reported. Other causes included car crashes and carbon monoxide poisoning. The weather also threatened to affect the nation's COVID-19 vaccination effort. President Joe Biden's administration said delays in vaccine shipments and deliveries were likely." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Woe is me! Today is the day I'm scheduled to get my first shot. We'll see if the supply is there when I am.

The Commentariat -- February 16, 2021

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Marie: Reality Chex was down for more than an hour this morning. The problem was with Squarespace. Obviously, it's back up, but I had trouble posting a comment, so be sure to save your comment before you click on "Create Comment."

Trump & Rudy Sued for Violating anti-KKK Law. Jessica Schneider of CNN: "... Donald Trump and attorney Rudy Giuliani are being accused of conspiring with the far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to incite the January 6 insurrection in a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court by the Democratic chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee. The suit cites a post-Civil War law designed to combat violence and intimidation by the Ku Klux Klan. The lawsuit, filed by Mississippi Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson in his personal capacity, is the first civil action filed against the former President related to the attack at the US Capitol...." ~~~

~~~ Trump Dumps Rudy. Marie: According to CNN, Donald Trump has fired Rudy Giuliani. Trump's office sent out what was described as a "curt" notification that Rudy was out. I'll get up a link to a print report when one becomes available.

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats will renew their focus this week on passing President Biden's $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill, as they face a mid-March deadline when enhanced unemployment benefits expire, if Congress don't act in time. With ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial out of the way in the Senate, Democrats are preparing to push the legislation through a few final procedural hoops before an expected floor vote next week in the House. From there, the legislation would go to the Senate. Biden is participating in a CNN town hall Tuesday night to discuss the coronavirus, the economy and other issues. He is likely to use the opportunity to promote his relief plan...."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci said in an interview with 'Axios on HBO' that he worried about contracting the coronavirus during the Trump administration because of its lax approach to the virus. Fauci, who is 80 years old and has served as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for over three decades, said that his age category was always in the back of his mind particularly when he visited the White House under ... Trump."

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Aamer Madhani & Rob Gillies of the AP: "A new-old ritual is taking shape in the Biden White House, one that starts with bulky briefing packages, war-gaming the 'what-ifs,' and Oval Office discussions about how to talk to this or that particular U.S. ally or adversary. Twelve times since he took office, President Joe Biden has dialed up a world leader after reinstituting what was a long-held White House standard mothballed by Donald Trump: vigorous preparation. Gone are unnecessary digressions and over-the-top cajoling or haranguing of fellow heads of state. The changes to telephone diplomacy have been about both style and substance as Biden has sought to send the message to foreign leaders -- many embittered by Trump's habit of berating his counterparts and conflating personal interests with U.S. national security -- that Biden is determined to reset the U.S. relationship with the world."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congress will move to establish an independent commission to investigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, including facts 'relating to the interference with the peaceful transfer of power,' Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Monday. In a letter to her Democratic colleagues in the House, Ms. Pelosi also promised to move forward in coming weeks with emergency funding legislation 'for the safety of members and the security of the Capitol' after consulting with retired Gen. Russel L. Honoré, whom she had asked to examine security on Capitol Hill."

"Because of Mitch's Filibuster™." James Sattler of USA Today: "... the lessons of both [Trump] impeachments were the same: The Republican Party cannot be trusted with our democracy.... Under Trump, Republicans lost the White House, the House and the Senate in one term -- something that hasn't happened since Herbert Hoover was president. But Trump also is the first modern president to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he came in -- something that also hasn't happened since Hoover. And there was the pandemic that left more than 400,000 Americans dead on Trump's watch, with 40% of those deaths being avoidable, according to the recent findings of a Lancet Commission.... Democrats now have less than two years to do everything they can to make sure America never faces another president who would turn a deadly mob on his own running mate and our government.... 'In the 87 years between the end of Reconstruction and 1964, the only bills that were stopped by filibusters were civil rights bills,' writes Adam Jentleson.... When Kentucky's Mitch McConnell become Senate minority leader in 2007, he began using the filibuster at a rate unprecedented in American history. What the filibuster actually does is make sure policies that are popular with average Democrats and Republicans -- universal background checks for gun buyers, raising the minimum wage, citizenship for DREAMers brought to this country illegally as kids -- have no chance of becoming law.... Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have assured McConnell they'll be the wind beneath his Filibuster™.... These two senators must be convinced [to change their minds]." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "To [lead House manager Jamie] Raskin [D-Md.] and the eight other managers, [Mitch] McConnell's speech was at once a vindication and an insult, showing that they'd proved their case, and that it didn't matter. McConnell voted to acquit on a manufactured technicality, arguing that a former president is 'constitutionally not eligible for conviction.' His bad faith is awe-inspiring; it was he who refused to move forward with a trial while Trump was still in office. With his split-the-baby solution to Trump's manifest guilt, McConnell seemed to be trying to stay on the right side of his caucus while calming corporate donors who've cut off politicians who supported the insurrectionists. But -- and here's the important part -- McConnell signaled openness to Trump's prosecution in other forums.... McConnell has at least stripped away some of the taboo about prosecuting a former president." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I would add this. Convicting Trump of incitement to riot is a tough row to hoe. First, the standard for criminal conviction is higher than the Senate's, because the Senate can decide for itself what constitutes "incitement." Second, a criminal trial requires a lot more leg-work than does a Senate trial. Hundreds of witnesses would have to be interviewed & deposed, and many of those would have to testify at trial, so they would have to be prepped, too. Some -- like, say, Kevin McCarthy -- would fight subpoenas. Two-faced Mitch of course knows this & no doubt is counting on it. I do think there's a good chance Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis can make a winnable case against Trump, but even there, as a first offender, a convicted criminal Trump might get off with community service (with any luck, at an Atlanta recycling center bagging cat litter). ~~~

~~~ Daniel Goldman, in a Washington Post op-ed, raises another problem with any trial of Donald Trump: :Trump's propensity for witness tampering, intimidation and retaliation is well known and began long before the 2020 election. During his first impeachment inquiry, he threatened the whistleblower on Ukraine and attacked Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, among others.... In addition, the Mueller report documented Trump's effort to intimidate former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen after he decided to cooperate with authorities. The violence on Jan. 6 places Trump's threats in a different light. His'Stop the Steal' campaign has created a loosely coordinated group of domestic terrorist organizations ready to inflict harm at his command. He may have lost the ability to issue a mean tweet, but his threats now come with violent supporters appended to them.... Witnesses [with direct knowledge of Trump's part in the Jan. 6 insurrection] were apparently unwilling or afraid to cooperate undermined the entire proceeding."

Ron Johnson Trying Hard to Keep "Stupidest Senator" Status. Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) in a new interview said he didn't think the Jan. 6 Capitol riot seemed like 'an armed insurrection' and praised former President Trump's Senate impeachment trial attorneys following his acquittal.... 'The group of people that supported Trump, the hundreds of thousands of people who attended those Trump rallies, those are the people that love this country,' Johnson [said on a Milwaukee radio show]... 'They never would have done what happened on Jan. 6. That is a group of people that love freedom; that's a group of people we need to unify and keep on our side.'... He accused House impeachment managers of editing the videos they presented as evidence in the Senate impeachment trial.... Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, has argued the defense 'eviscerated' the Democratic prosecutors and 'blew their case out of the water.' After voting to acquit Trump, Johnson clashed with Mitt Romney on the Senate floor over his vote to convict." ~~~

~~~ In fairness to Ron, his stupidity makes him a fine example of the Trump/GOP base. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "A petition is being circulated among Utah Republicans on social media to censure Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) for his vote to convict former President Trump in last week's Senate impeachment trial.... The petition, made with Google Forms, does not say who is promoting the censure or how many people have signed the document.... [Petitioners] They argue that Romney's willingness to move forward with this year's trial and his subsequent conviction vote 'intentionally violate the 1st, 4th, 5th and 14th Amendment Rights' of Trump, noting the senator 'appears to be an agent for the Establishment Deep State.'" ~~~

~~~ Dan Merica & Devan Cole of CNN: "The North Carolina Republican Party central committee voted Monday to censure Sen. Richard Burr for his vote to convict ... Donald Trump during his second impeachment trial -- a move that made him the latest GOP senator to be reprimanded by his state party for siding with Democrats in the trial.... n a statement released after the vote, the committee members said the unanimous vote was aimed at punishing Burr for his 'vote to convict former President Trump in the impeachment trial which he declared to be unconstitutional.'" ~~~

~~~ Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "As the Republican Party censures, condemns and seeks to purge leaders who aren't in lock step with Donald J. Trump, Adam Kinzinger, the six-term Illinois congressman, stands as enemy No. 1 -- unwelcome not just in his party but also in his own family, some of whom recently disowned him. Two days after Mr. Kinzinger called for removing Mr. Trump from office following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, 11 members of his family sent him a handwritten two-page letter, saying he was in cahoots with 'the devil's army' for making a public break with the president.... Mr. Kinzinger has drawn praise from Democrats, but he is not anyone's idea of a progressive. His campaign website trumpets his longstanding opposition to the Affordable Care Act, and he is an opponent of abortion rights and increased taxes. He first won his seat in Congress with Sarah Palin's endorsement." Mediaite has a summary item here.

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "After historic turns as House impeachment managers for the Senate trial of ... Donald J. Trump, both [Delegate Stacey] Plaskett [D-V.I.] and [Rep. Joe] Neguse [D-Colo.] emerged from the proceedings with national platforms and as high-profile faces of a Democratic coalition that is younger and more diverse than its leaders.... Both lawmakers said they hope to turn their newfound prominence into gains for their constituents as President Biden barrels forward with an ambitious agenda for economic stimulus and other overhauls. And in interviews after the trial's conclusion, both said they were conscious of their roles as among the few Black lawmakers who took part in an impeachment of a former president whose race-baiting and anti-immigration stances helped create deep divisions in the country."

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "... at least 30 police or other law enforcement officers ... attended the demonstration on Jan. 6. Many are now facing internal investigations and three have thus far been arrested on federal charges related to breaching the Capitol. Their presence has brought to a boil questions that have been simmering for years: How many law enforcement officers nationwide subscribe to extreme or anti-government beliefs, and how, precisely, can agencies weed them out? Leaders in law enforcement say that public servants must be held to a higher standard than private individuals when it comes to accepting the results of an election and performing their duties. Police chiefs from the largest North American cities, meeting in an online conference this past week, agreed to work together to try and block members of far-right organizations or others with radical views from entering their ranks.... Concerns about extremism in police ranks have long existed, but after Sept. 11 chasing jihadists took priority over chasing domestic threats, senior police officials and law enforcement experts said."

Shawn Boburg & John Swaine of the Washington Post: "Like many Trump supporters, conservative donor Fred Eshelman awoke the day after the presidential election with the suspicion that something wasn't right. His candidate's apparent lead in key battleground states had evaporated overnight. The next day, the North Carolina financier [pledged $2 million to True the Vote -- a fake right-wing 'election integrity' organization -- to fight what he believed was rampant voter fraud].... Now, he wants his money back. The story behind the Eshelman donation ... provides new insights into the frenetic days after the election, when baseless claims led donors to give hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse President Biden's victory. Trump's campaign and the Republican Party collected $255 million in two months, saying the money would support legal challenges to an election marred by fraud.... Eshelman has alleged in two lawsuits -- one in federal court has been withdrawn and the other is ongoing in a Texas state court -- that True the Vote did not spend his $2 million gift and a subsequent $500,000 donation as it said it would. Eshelman also alleges that True the Vote directed much of his money to people or businesses connected to the group's president, Catherine Engelbrecht." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie. Yo, Fred, there's a reason the AP didn't call states like Pennsylvania, Nevada & Georgia for days. If you had listened to MSNBC or CNN, instead of to Trump & Hannity, you could have saved yourself TWO MILLION AND A HALF DOLLARS. When I was a child, my mother made me read a NYT Mag story titled, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" The question here is, "If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?"

Georgia Senate Race. David Perdue Wants His Old Job Back. Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "David Perdue, the one-term U.S. senator from Georgia who lost a runoff election last month against Senator Jon Ossoff, filed paperwork on Monday night indicating that he plans a comeback effort -- this time against Georgia's other new senator, Raphael Warnock."

Kareem Fahim & Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post: "Simmering hostility between Turkey's government and the Biden administration burst into the open Monday when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused the United States of supporting Kurdish militants and his Foreign Ministry summoned the American ambassador. The latest outburst came a day after Ankara said that 13 Turkish hostages being held in northern Iraq by the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, had been found executed by their captors. The State Department issued a statement condemning the killings but suggesting the PKK's involvement had yet to be confirmed. Erdogan dismissed the statement as 'ridiculous' and criticized ongoing U.S. support for Kurdish fighters in Syria who are affiliated with the Iraq-based PKK. 'You are behind them,' he said."

Mustafa Salim of the Washington Post: "A civilian contractor was killed and a U.S. service member was injured Monday night when coalition forces in Irbil were stuck by 'indirect fire,' U.S. officials said. The rocket fire landed near a military base that hosts coalition forces in the capital of Iraq's semiautonomous Kurdish region. Five civilian contractors were injured, tweeted coalition spokesman Col. Wayne Marotto. A U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe an evolving assessment, said the attack appeared to involve 14 rockets that targeted a U.S. facility in the vicinity of the Irbil airport."

A Medal Delayed -- 56 Years. Dave Philipps of the New York Times: On "June 18, 1965, and according to after-action reports, 26-year-old Captain [Paris] Davis was suddenly the last American standing with a ragtag company of 90 South Vietnamese volunteers, pinned down by hundreds of enemy troops. Certain that he was as good as dead, he began fighting without fear of consequence, pulling his M-16 trigger with his pinkie [-- a grenade had just torn off his trigger finger --], sprinting repeatedly into open ground to rescue teammates, and refusing to leave the fight, even after being shot several times. He made it out alive, and was immediately nominated for the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor. But the Army somehow lost the nomination. His frustrated commander resubmitted it, and inexplicably the nomination disappeared again. His teammates ... eventually came to believe the Army's inaction had nothing to do with what the captain had done in 1965, and everything to do with who he was: One of the first Black officers in the Special Forces.... In January. Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher C. Miller personally ordered an expedited review of the lost nomination, to be completed by March. The resulting report will then go up the chain to the Secretary of the Army, the Secretary of Defense and finally President Biden. If they all sign off, Mr. Davis, now 81, may finally be recognized."

Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "Parler, the social network that drew millions of Trump supporters before disappearing from the internet, is back online a month after Amazon and other tech giants cut off the company for hosting calls for violence around the time of the Capitol riot. Getting iced out by the tech giants turned Parler into a cause célèbre for conservatives who complained they were being censored, as well as a test case for the openness of the internet."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

New York. Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "Admitting a degree of fault for the first time, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Monday that his administration's lack of transparency about the scope of coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes in New York was a mistake. By failing to answer questions from state lawmakers, the public and the news media, Mr. Cuomo acknowledged, the state created a void that was 'filled with skepticism, and cynicism, and conspiracy theories which furthered the confusion.' But he stopped short of a full apology for his handling of information about the death toll in the state's nursing homes, an issue that has engulfed his administration in recent weeks. Speaking in the State Capitol, Mr. Cuomo made his first remarks since a top aide to the governor, Melissa DeRosa, privately told some state lawmakers last week that the state had withheld data from the Legislature because it feared that the Trump administration would use the information to begin a federal civil rights investigation." An NPR story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Pennsylvania. GOP Plans to Gerrymander State Courts. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state's election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as 'futile' and 'a dangerous game.'... Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way. G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state's election results to aid ... Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges. The proposal would replace the current system of statewide elections for judges with judicial districts drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature. Those districts could empower rural, predominantly conservative areas and particularly rewire the State Supreme Court, which has a 5-to-2 Democratic lean. Democrats are now mobilizing to fight the effort, calling it a thinly veiled attempt at creating a new level of gerrymandering...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "Millions of people in the United States were without power early Tuesday after a deadly winter storm bulldozed its way across the southern and central parts of the country, in places where such perilously frigid conditions tend to arrive just once in a generation. The massive storm was expected to bring snow, sleet and freezing rain to the Northeast, while the central part of the country braced for several more days of record low temperatures and continued power failures. More than four million customers across the country were without electricity early Tuesday, according to PowerOutage.us, which aggregates live power data from utilities across the country. Most of the outages were in Texas, where power was interrupted Sunday and Monday because of storm damage or in rotating outages ordered by regulators." This is a live-blog. ~~~

     ~~~ The Weather Channel's main story is here. MB: It's still dark (at 6 am ET) where I live, but I can hear the ice storm outside.

The Commentariat -- February 15, 2021

Afternoon Update:

Shawn Boburg & John Swaine of the Washington Post: "Like many Trump supporters, conservative donor Fred Eshelman awoke the day after the presidential election with the suspicion that something wasn't right. His candidate's apparent lead in key battleground states had evaporated overnight. The next day, the North Carolina financier [pledged $2 million to True the Vote -- a fake right-wing 'election integrity' organization -- to fight what he believed was rampant voter fraud].... Now, he wants his money back. The story behind the Eshelman donation ... provides new insights into the frenetic days after the election, when baseless claims led donors to give hundreds of millions of dollars to reverse President Biden's victory. Trump's campaign and the Republican Party collected $255 million in two months, saying the money would support legal challenges to an election marred by fraud.... Eshelman has alleged in two lawsuits -- one in federal court has been withdrawn and the other is ongoing in a Texas state court -- that True the Vote did not spend his $2 million gift and a subsequent $500,000 donation as it said it would. Eshelman also alleges that True the Vote directed much of his money to people or businesses connected to the group's president, Catherine Engelbrecht." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie. Yo, Fred, there's a reason the AP didn't call states like Pennsylvania, Nevada & Georgia for days. If you had listened to MSNBC or CNN, instead of to Trump & Hannity, you could have saved yourself TWO MILLION DOLLARS. When I was a child, my mother made me read a NYT Mag story titled, "If you're so smart, why ain't you rich?" The question here is, "If you're so rich, why ain't you smart?"

"Because of Mitch's Filibuster™." James Sattler of USA Today: "I... the lessons of both [Trump] impeachments were the same: The Republican Party cannot be trusted with our democracy.... Under Trump, Republicans lost the White House, the House and the Senate in one term -- something that hasn't happened since Herbert Hoover was president. But Trump also is the first modern president to leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he came in -- something that also hasn't happened since Hoover. And there was the pandemic that left more than 400,000 Americans dead on Trump's watch, with 40% of those deaths being avoidable, according to the recent findings of a Lancet Commission.... Democrats now have less than two years to do everything they can to make sure America never faces another president who would turn a deadly mob on his own running mate and our government.... 'In the 87 years between the end of Reconstruction and 1964, the only bills that were stopped by filibusters were civil rights bills,' writes Adam Jentleson.... When Kentucky's Mitch McConnell become Senate minority leader in 2007, he began using the filibuster at a rate unprecedented in American history. What the filibuster actually does is make sure policies that are popular with average Democrats and Republicans -- universal background checks for gun buyers, raising the minimum wage, citizenship for DREAMers brought to this country illegally as kids -- have no chance of becoming law.... Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have assured McConnell they'll be the wind beneath his Filibuster.... These two senators must be convinced [to change their minds]."

Pennsylvania. GOP Plans to Gerrymander State Courts. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "When the Pennsylvania Supreme Court unanimously rejected a Republican attempt to overturn the state's election results in November, Justice David N. Wecht issued his own pointed rebuke, condemning the G.O.P. effort as 'futile' and 'a dangerous game.'... Now Pennsylvania Republicans have a plan to make it less likely that judges like Justice Wecht get in their way. G.O.P. legislators, dozens of whom supported overturning the state's election results to aid ... Donald J. Trump, are moving to change the entire way that judges are selected in Pennsylvania, in a gambit that could tip the scales of the judiciary to favor their party, or at least elect judges more inclined to embrace Republican election challenges. The proposal would replace the current system of statewide elections for judges with judicial districts drawn by the Republican-controlled legislature. Those districts could empower rural, predominantly conservative areas and particularly rewire the State Supreme Court, which has a 5-to-2 Democratic lean. Democrats are now mobilizing to fight the effort, calling it a thinly veiled attempt at creating a new level of gerrymandering...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Remember those Presidents Day morphing videos that often appeared on Reality Chex? Now they can never happen again because any one that includes Joe Biden would have to include the SOB who sat in the Oval afore him. And there's no way Obama morphs into Whozit & Whozit morphs into Biden. Both would be insults. So that enjoyable morphing video is something else Whozit stole. ~~~

     ~~~ Robbed of the usual commemoration here of Presidents Day, I Googled the news for Presidents Day. All of the stories listed were about sales -- the best deals of teevees and refrigerators, etc. That's where we are.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "On a mission to rebuild institutional norms and help heal a hurting nation, Joe and Jill Biden are trying something novel after four years of the Trumps: a little tenderness. Since Inauguration Day last month, the first couple have been conspicuous in their frequent public displays of affection, from a fleeting kiss before boarding Marine One to a cozy morning stroll among oversized candy hearts on the White House North Lawn." ~~~

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden's allies say that with the distraction of the impeachment trial of his predecessor now over, he will quickly press for passage of his $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief plan before moving on to an even bigger agenda in Congress that includes infrastructure, immigration, criminal justice reform, climate change and health care. Mr. Biden has so far succeeded in pushing his agenda forward even amid the swirl of the impeachment, trial and acquittal of ... Donald J. Trump. House committees are already debating parts of the coronavirus relief legislation he calls the American Rescue Plan. Several of the president's cabinet members have been confirmed despite the Trump drama. And Mr. Biden's team is pressing lawmakers for quick action when senators return from a weeklong recess."

Nikki Carvejal, et al., of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to institute 'commonsense gun law reforms,' including widespread firearm sales background checks and a ban on assault weapons -- highlighting an 'epidemic of gun violence' in the US on the third anniversary of the deadly Parkland school shooting." The President's full statement is here.

Hope Yen of the AP: "... bipartisan support appear[s] to be growing for an independent Sept. 11-style commission to make sure that such a horrific assault [as took place January 6] could never happen again.... More investigations into the riot were already planned, with Senate hearings scheduled later this month in the Senate Rules Committee. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., also has asked retired Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré to lead an immediate review of the Capitol's security process. Lawmakers from both parties signaled on Sunday that even more inquiries were likely.... [Sen. Bill] Cassidy [R.-La.] said ... that as Americans hear all the facts, 'more folks will move to where I was.' He was censured by his state's party after [voting 'guilty'].... An independent 9/11 style commission, which probably would require legislation to create, would elevate the investigation a step higher, offering a definitive government-backed accounting of events." A New York Times story is here.

Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "Vandals targeted the home of one of ... Donald Trump's impeachment lawyers, spray-painting the word 'TRAITOR' in red on his driveway in suburban Philadelphia, police said. The vandalism occurred around 8 p.m. on Friday at attorney Michael van der Veen's residence in West Whiteland Township, Pennsylvania, about 30 miles southwest of Philadelphia, according to police.... [a township detective] said the graffiti was the only vandalism officers found on the van der Veen's property." MB: In a photo accompanying the story, the spray paint appears to be on the sidewalk leading up to the driveway and not on the driveway itself. That is, the spray-painted area is most likely in the public right-of-way and not on the van der Veens' private property. So I wouldn't call it vandalism. I'd call it "sidewalk art." Just sayin'.

Marie: RAS made a comment in yesterday's thread that made so much sense & in a way was so obvious, I'm ashamed I didn't think of it. If 43 (or fewer) Republicans truly thought the whole impeachment trial was unconstitutional, they could have sat it out back home, dedicating themselves to constituent services. If they were askeert of said constituents, they could have claimed they were in quarantine or something. That would have reduced the number of senators needed to reach two-thirds, and Trump could have been convicted. But no. They wanted to acquit the traitor. So they did. (I'm not sure what a "present" vote would do. If a bunch of senators voted "present," a two-thirds vote might still have required 67.) Anyhow, fuck the chicken traitors. And that means you, too, Mitch.

Marie: BTW, I predict this is the end of Donald Trump's political career. He's a bloated old racist, misogynist guy who might make some forays into the lands of Oath Keepers & Proud Boys, but otherwise he's done for. Adios, MoFo. ~~~

~~~ It Isn't Only Trump Who's in Trouble. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: "Led with extraordinary grace by Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a diverse and able group of prosecutors laid out an indelible record not only of what happened on Jan. 6 and why, but also Trump's irresponsibility throughout his term of office: his courting of the violent far right; his celebration of violence; his habit of privileging himself and his own interests over everything and everyone else, including his unrequitedly loyal vice president.... By tying themselves to Trump with their votes, most House and Senate Republicans made themselves complicit in his behavior. And Trump will prove to be even more of an albatross than Hoover, who, after all, had a moral core.... You can tell how worried Republicans are that they are now the Trump Party by the contortions of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, who aided Trump almost to the end.... His words told the world who won the argument.... The fact that only seven Senate Republicans bolted should end the absurd talk that there is a burden on President Biden to achieve a bipartisan nirvana in Washington." Looks as if Republicans know that. ~~~

~~~ Cowards Lie Low. Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CBS' Margaret Brennan ended Sunday's Face the Nation with a note to viewers about Republicans.... 'We did offer invitations to over two dozen Senate Republicans to join us today. No one accepted.' And if that wasn't clear enough, Brennan later tweeted that these invitations were to senators 'following their votes to acquit former President Trump.'"

Marie: Most of the news today seems to be about what Mitch McConnell did & what Lindsey Graham thinks, and, frankly, my dears, I don't give a damn.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "In recent weeks, U.S. coronavirus case data -- long a closely-watched barometer of the pandemic's severity -- has sent some encouraging signals: The rate of newly recorded infections is plummeting from coast to coast and the worst surge yet is finally relenting. But scientists are split on why, exactly, it is happening.... And every explanation is appended with two significant caveats: The country is still in a bad place, continuing to notch more than 90,000 new cases every day, and recent progress could still be imperiled, either by new fast-spreading virus variants or by relaxed social distancing measures." Among the explanations: better social distancing, seasonality, vaccinations, & well, less testing.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Marie Fazio of the New York Times: "The Los Angeles Police Department has opened an internal investigation after an inappropriate image of George Floyd, the man killed in police custody in Minneapolis last year, was reported to have been circulated in the department, officials said. The image was styled in an unspecified Valentine-like format with the words 'You take my breath away,' according to an internal memo posted on Twitter and what Chief Michel Moore told The Los Angeles Times on Saturday." MB: The LAPD used to be notoriously racist. Apparently that hasn't changed much.

Florida Residents Turn on Publix. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "After a member of Publix's founding family donated $300,000 to the Donald Trump rally that preceded January's deadly Capitol riots..., [Floridians are] joining ... a boycott of the Florida-based grocery chain that operates more than 1,200 stores across seven south-eastern states.... Publix is an institution in Florida, the company growing from Depression-era roots in the 1930s to a regional behemoth with 225,000 workers today, and its founding Jenkins family now worth $8.8bn, according to Forbes. It prides itself on a family-friendly image, luring customers with prominent buy-one-get-one deals and a range of popular sandwich subs, and boasts of being the largest employee-owned company in the US. Yet the company and its founders have donated often and generously to partisan, conservative causes, including more than $2m alone by Publix heiress Julie Jenkins Fancelli, daughter of the late company founder George Jenkins, to the Republican National Committee and Trump's failed re-election campaign.... Earlier this year, Publix donated donated $100,000 to a political action committee looking to secure [Gov. Ron] DeSantis's [R-Trump] re-election in 2022. Soon after, the governor awarded Publix a lucrative and exclusive contract to distribute Covid-19 vaccines in numerous stores."

Ohio. Indiana. Sarah Bahr of the New York Times: "The Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields has edited and apologized for an employment listing that said it was seeking a director who would work not only to attract a more diverse audience but to maintain its 'traditional, core, white art audience.'... Malina Simone Jeffers and Alan Bacon, the guest curators for the museum's upcoming 'DRIP: Indy's #BlackLivesMatter Street Mural' exhibition, scheduled to open in April, said in a statement on Saturday night that they had decided they could not remain as guest curators.... Kelli Morgan, who was recruited in 2018 to diversify the museum's galleries, resigned in July, calling the museum's culture 'toxic' and 'discriminatory' in a letter she sent to [museum director Charles] Venable, as well as to board members, artists and the local news media.... Venable, who has led the museum since 2012, has been criticized for catering to a popular audience with programming like an artist-designed miniature golf course at the expense of investing in traditional art experiences. He also instituted an $18 admission charge at the formerly free institution in 2015." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: More than half of Cleveland's population is Black or Hispanic. I'll bet before Director Chuck there raised the price of admission from $00 to $18, a large percentage of visitors were not of the "traditional, core, white" persuasion. The museum's board has planned for Venable to stay on as president after it chooses a new director; this would be a good time to rethink Venable's continued employment. Not to worry, Chuck; you'd probably be great as director of the Trump Presidential* "Library" for White People. First curated exhibition: photos of the graffiti, broken exhibits, feces & blood, etc., Trump "patriots" left in the Capitol building.

Washington State. A Republican Prosecutor Quits. Kate Briquelet of the Daily Beast: "When Arian Noma ran for prosecutor in a rural Washington county in 2018, he was a newcomer who vowed to stop the over-prosecution of crimes and seek bail only when necessary.... The 44-year-old Republican wanted to create a reentry support group for people released from incarceration and had other grand ideas, too, which he said would ultimately save taxpayers money.... But halfway through his four-year term, Noma resigned.... The final straw, Noma continued, was a series of 'racially motivated attacks.' Speaking publicly for the first time since his resignation, Noma -- whose ancestry includes Black, Native American and Filipino heritage -- told The Daily Beast that he believes the online harassment campaign had help from law enforcement and county colleagues, including people within his own office. He says the online smear campaign ... ramped up after he supported Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.... Voters, even those who didn't elect Noma, told The Daily Beast the county's conservatives turned on him after his Black Lives Matter support and positions on armed militias possibly violating state laws."

News Ledes

New York Times: “A line of fans queuing up to honor actor Cicely Tyson "began forming in the dark on Monday, hours before anyone would be allowed inside the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem.... Ms. Tyson, who died on Jan. 28 at 96, lay at rest in the sanctuary of the church.... Fans from New York and far beyond, all inspired by her seven-decade acting career, waited their turn to say their last goodbye to the revered actress. She was a pioneering actress who won three Emmys, a Tony and an honorary Oscar, but her fame went beyond her awards. She challenged Hollywood on how it cast Black actors, and became a paragon for civil rights. But in East Harlem, where Ms. Tyson was born and raised to immigrant parents from Nevis, she was even more than that. She co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem in 1969 after a tumultuous year in the civil rights movement and after Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, and continued to support the arts, albeit quietly. She had been a member of the Abyssinian Baptist Church for more than three decades...."

New York Times: "A sprawling winter storm pummeled a large swath of the United States on Monday, delivering heavy snowfall and icy conditions as temperatures plunged well below freezing. The coast-to-coast storm has knocked out power for several million people across the country. Ice-slicked roads have led to highway pileups and sent eighteen-wheelers careening off the pavement. The National Weather Service said early Monday that at least 150 million Americans were under ice or winter weather advisories.... The storm, which brought record low temperatures in Minnesota and dumped 11 inches of snow in Seattle, is now barraging parts of the country that are far less familiar with the worst of winter.... The temperatures in the middle of the country are expected to approach record lows.... In Texas, Austin was locked down for the worst winter storm in a generation." This is a live-blog. ~~~

     ~~~ The Weather Channel's main report on the winter storm is here. You can always check your local forecast by plugging in your ZIP Code on the Weather Channel's main page, then clicking on the bar beneath the town & temp that pops up for the report you want.