"Ultimately, the problem with Dobbs is neither its naivete nor its
ridiculous moments. It is fundamentally insincere. Perhaps this is not
surprising from a panel of justices who dissembled
over the abortion issue during their confirmation hearings. Yet nowhere
in the hand-wringing over a divided America is there the slightest
mention of the court’s own role in stoking division. Dissenters on the
court have been egging on the antiabortion movement from Day One of Roe v. Wade.
From 1973 onward, for nearly half a century, there has always been a
vocal minority ready to say, in effect: This matter is not really
decided. Keep trying. [snip]
"If
only there were more conservatives on the court and fewer radicals of
the right. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. took a forlorn stab at
genuine conservatism by pleading
with the majority to honor the judicial principle of deciding
controversies on the narrowest available grounds. Nothing doing. Having given every mook in the United States the right to a hidden handgun on Thursday, on Friday the radicals took a sweeping scythe to abortion rights.
America has had about as much of this healing as we can stand." -- David Von Drehle, in the Washington Post, on the radical Republican Supreme Court pouring gasoline on our culture war fires.
On the overturning of Roe, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops -- an ultra- reactionary collection of desiccated pedophile protectors -- had the insincere, morally bankrupt gall to welcome the occasion saying, "It is a time for healing wounds and repairing social divisions; it is a
time for reasoned reflection and civil dialogue, and for coming together
to build a society and economy that supports marriages and families,
and where every woman has the support and resources she needs to bring
her child into this world in love.”
Yeah, no. You threw the gasoline on the fire. It wasn't over for you in 1973, and it's not over for us today.
"... A fury is building in Middle America that has nothing to do with Russia
or impeachment or “Access Hollywood.” It’s rising among people who
managed to look past all of that to find something they liked about the
president. And now he’s repaying them with a stubby middle finger in
their faces. [snip]
"... [T]hey see
what the president thinks of them and their concerns. Here, you dupes
and dopes, Trump says — here’s a video from a woman who believes in
demon dream sex. Or here’s one from a washed-up game-show host who says covid-19 is an election ploy. Or how about this idea: Drink some bleach.
"They’re
worried and suffering, and their president might as well be saying: I
don’t care if you live or die. And it’s coming through loud and clear.
The political center is slow to anger. It’s also slow to forget." -- David Von Drehle, in today's Washington Post. His op/ ed is a good read, with righteous anger about the situation we find ourselves in, with the subtext "this is what you voted for."
... Irony failed and exaggeration proved impossible when the president of
the United States retweeted the medical opinions of former game-show
host Chuck Woolery as ammunition in his weird war against National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci. [snip]
The president’s impulsive, unserious response to covid-19 has bollixed
the nation’s business. Scoffing at masks and flouting social distancing,
Trump undermined our best hopes for opening a parachute over the
plummeting U.S. economy. Three of our leading economic engines —
California, Texas and Florida — are struggling with the consequences of
too many people emulating Trump’s reckless example.
And he’s
botching his own business in the process. The law firms, financial
planners and trade associations that might have booked meetings at
struggling Trump Doral won’t be looking to Woolery for medical advice.
They’ll be more interested in the views of David De La Zerda, director
of the intensive care unit at Miami’s Jackson Medical Center, who told
an NPR interviewer that the surge in cases filling his beds is both younger and sicker than his covid-19 cases in the spring.
Before the pandemic, Trump complained — without evidence — that serving as president was costing him “a fortune.”
Now it is almost certainly true. By underestimating the problem and by
failing to rally the country to a unified, medically sound response, he
wrecked the economy and shot himself in the foot. Sadly, that’s no joke. -- David von Drehle, today in the Washington Post, on the self- parodying, self- sabotaging "unhinged" COVID Donnie.
One month ago, I asked
epidemiologist Tara Smith if she was worried about states loosening
their stay-at-home orders, despite most not meeting the government’s
criteria for doing so.
“I am really fearful that by June 1 or June 15, after
we’ve seen a couple weeks to a month of [state reopenings], that our
cases are going to be climbing,” said Smith, a professor at the Kent
State University College of Public Health.
Well, here we are. It’s June 12, and Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising in Arizona, the Carolinas, Utah, Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, and perhaps Florida.
Those states are also seeing higher numbers of positive Covid-19 tests,
as well as increases in the percentage of tests that come back
positive. This indicates that the higher case counts aren’t simply due
to more widespread testing finding milder cases.
Call it a reopening backfire. But really: No expert thought that reopening this quickly was going to work in the first place. [snip]
Many states opened up in early May, hoping the economy would recover while a winning battle against Covid-19 continued apace.
Unfortunately, it’s now clear that in the areas where the
virus has come roaring back, few gains against it were made in the last
month.
"We managed to disrupt our economy [and] skyrocket
unemployment, and we didn’t control the damn virus,” said Jeff Shaman,
an infectious disease modeler at Columbia University. (our emphasis)
Bunker Boy walked away from the battle with his impeccable lack of courage, judgement and accountability, and most states were hard pressed to resist the pressure. So, here we are with the virus still not contained.
David Von Drehle revisits one of Bunker Boy's biggest promises during the 2016 campaign, that he would "bring back" the coal industry. How's that working out for Mr. Fix-It?
Peabody (formerly Peabody Energy) is by far the largest coal producer in the United States, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. With mines throughout the country, the company suffered under the anti-coal policies of the Obama administration and entered bankruptcy
in 2016.* Trump was speaking Peabody’s language when he pledged to end
“the war on coal.” Under the new administration, the reorganized company
roared out of bankruptcy and back into the Fortune 500.
Initially, things looked good. By June 2018, Peabody’s stock was selling for nearly $47 per share. But now that Trump has had more time to work his magic, Peabody is hemorrhaging, and its share price has plunged to less than $3.50.
Arch
Coal is the next largest outfit, with 13 percent of the U.S. market in
2018. Its share price has fared better than Peabody’s, despite losing
more than 60 percent of its value during Trump’s time in office.
The No. 3 and No. 4 producers in the EIA rankings, Cloud Peak Energy and Murray Energy, are both in bankruptcy. Fifth on the list is Alliance Resource Partners (ARP), headquartered in Tulsa, where Trump plans to hold his first covid-era rally
on June 19 [now 20th]. ARP chief executive Joe Craft is a product of impoverished
Eastern Kentucky who bootstrapped his way into the billionaire class. He
donated $1 million for the Trump inauguration festivities, and his wife, Kelly Craft, is now U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Craft’s company has not fared well, either.
Not that any of that matters to the "economically anxious" voters in Coal Country, who continue to support him. It's much more important that they hate the same people Bunker Boy does than that they're the continuing victims of his lies. [*Ed.-- see comments by Mart.]
As long as
there was violence associated with the protests, there was a segment
for “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” By last weekend, however, the clashes and
violence had diminished.
A change of gears, accordingly, was in store for “Tucker Carlson Tonight.” On Monday, he denounced the growing cultural
influence of the Black Lives Matter movement: “America went insane over
the weekend. ... This was without precedent in the modern era, a small
group of highly aggressive, emotionally charged activists took over our
culture. They forced the entire country to obey their will. It all
happened so fast and with such ferocity that virtually no one resisted
it.”
As
the host decried this new and “insane” America, he himself sounded more
and more unhinged. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah had taken part in a D.C. protest
and declared that we need to find "a way to end violence and brutality
and to make sure that people understand that black lives matter.”
Carlson couldn’t handle it: “Mitt just wants to make sure that Americans
understand, get through their thick heads that black lives matter, as
if Americans didn’t know that.”
That's when Mothertucker went for the "they're coming for you" racist bullhorn and the sponsors started bailing.
Former Marine Paul Whelan was sentenced to 16 years of hard labor in
a Russian prison for espionage Monday, the conclusion to a case that
has added tension to already strained relations between the United
States and Russia.
Whelan,
50, said throughout the trial that he was framed. His lawyer, Vladimir
Zherebenkov, said his client was unwittingly handed a flash drive
containing “state secrets” while visiting Russia for a wedding in late
2018. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Whelan was caught
“red-handed.”
As these games are played, an exchange with a Russian asset held in the U.S. is expected. May we suggest Bunker Boy for Whelan?
We close by recommending a visit to Infidel 753's link round- up to posts from around the internet. Every week, he assembles an impressive array of links on various topics. (While you're there, check out his list of essential books -- good companions for these times.)
BONUS: Time for one more acknowledgement of Bunker Boy's birthday yesterday (h/t Mock Paper Scissors) --
We are
launched on a great experiment. Can this union of states, this republic
of shopkeepers, this democratic experiment, this mecca of individual
initiative, meet this crisis as one people when our leader is out to
lunch?
I’d
say the early returns are encouraging. New York has faced a wave of
disease and death with courage and aplomb. Cities and hospitals across
the country have readied themselves to meet the wave if and when it
comes. Scientists have swarmed to their laboratories. Congress has taken
difficult votes. Companies have torn up their yearly forecasts and
reinvented their workflows. Entertainers have separated from their
audiences; athletes have stepped away from their fans — and even
surrendered their dreams as their Olympic year passes by. And millions
of Americans have tried to understand what we’re up against and do what
we can with fortitude and goodwill.
But
that’s just the beginning. The coming days, weeks and months will
demand more from us. In balancing the need for health and the need for
livelihood, people are going to make mistakes. We can minimize those
mistakes only by testing widely and responding rapidly to outbreaks of
virus and death. This is where Trump’s abdication is most egregious,
because the federal government ought to coordinate this crucial project.
Instead, states and private industry will have to improvise.
We've been essentially on our own since the shitwaffle took office; it's just taken a bungling response to a catastrophic pandemic and the attendant historic economic damage for it to hit home for some.
"I am not a private owner. That's the competition in this country. The
free enterprise and to be able to make sure that what you offer the
public meets the needs of the public,"Goodman, an independent, told
CNN's Anderson Cooper.
"Right now, we're in a crisis health-wise, and so for a restaurant to be
open or a small boutique to be open, they better figure it out. That's
their job. That's not the mayor's job."
Fortunately, Goodman doesn't have the power to open the casinos or any other closed businesses, and is being shut out of discussions about how and when to re- open. (Btw, she's the wife of Oscar Goodman, former mayor and defense attorney for a who's who of Mafia bosses.)
President
Trump strode to the lectern in the White House briefing room Thursday
and, for just over an hour, attacked his rivals, dismissing Democratic
presidential candidate Joe Biden as a “sleepy guy in a basement of a house” and lambasting the media as “fake news” and “lamestream.”
He
showered praise on himself and his team, repeatedly touting the “great
job” they were doing as he spoke of the “tremendous progress” being made
toward a vaccine and how “phenomenally” the nation was faring in terms
of mortality.
What he did not do was offer any sympathy for the 2,081 Americans who were reported dead from the coronavirus on that day alone — among the now more than 54,000 Americans who have perished since the pandemic began.
The damn narcissistic sociopath. That, of course, was the same "briefing" where Dr. Trump mused about injecting disinfectant as a possible treatment for coronavirus (Ed. note to any wayward Trumper who might be reading this: Don't do it!)
As the damn narcissistic sociopath continues to say he was being "sarcastic" in musing about injecting disinfectants, as well as his risible (now deleted) rage tweets about journalists getting "Noble (sic) Prizes," Ken Jennings has this:
I would like to announce that when I gave wrong answers on Jeopardy, I was being sarcastic.
Democrats no longer need an “upset or two” to win control of the
Senate later this year. In fact, while the fight for Senate control in
November is a toss-up, I’d probably put a pinkie on the scale for
Democrats right now.
It’s not that Democrats have really widened
the playing field, though they have. Those “extra” races on the board,
in places like Montana and Georgia, aren’t the greatest of opportunities
for them.
It’s simply that the Democrats’ initial top prospects
have succeeded in proving their fundraising mettle and have taken
advantage of Donald Trump’s GOP.
Others tend to agree. It's better to be running as a Democrat than as a Republican. But it's best to work harder, donate more and, above all, vote like your life depended on it.
We end with our recommendation that you check out Infidel 753's link round-up (as well as his blog in general) for his usual excellent array of links to posts covering the waterfront, as we of a certain age might say. We found the piece on the commerce- over- casualties mayor of Las Vegas.
As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op- eds.
David Von Drehle goes over the history of "Don" Trump's mob associations:
Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas titled their classic group portrait of Harry S. Truman’s foreign policy team, “The Wise Men.” A book about Donald Trump’s associations might be called “The Wise Guys.” [snip]
If it seems harsh to compare [Paul] Manafort to a mobster, take it up with President Trump, who got the ball rolling with a tweet before the trial began. “Looking back at history, who was treated worse, [Al] Capone, legendary mob boss . . . or Paul Manafort?” Trump mused.
And the president ought to know: He has spent plenty of time in mobbed-up milieus. As many journalists have documented — the late Wayne Barrett and decorated investigator David Cay Johnston most deeply — Trump’s trail was blazed through one business after another notorious for corruption by organized crime.
Construction, gambling, boxing promotion, luxury real estate: Trump's mob associations lace through all his businesses, and as Von Drehle notes, is he acting like he's clean?
Dana Milbank looks at the attempt by the likes of Rep. Devin Nunes and his fellow co- conspirators to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and the shrinking cast of those who might serve as impeachment managers:
The House Republicans are ideally positioned to sit in judgment of Rosenstein because of their own unimpeachable conduct. So above reproach are they that one of their first votes after swearing in was an attempt to kill the House ethics office. [snip]
Rep. Blake Farenthold (R-Tex.), an obvious candidate, resigned over his use of public funds to settle a sexual-harassment lawsuit.
Rep. Pat Meehan (R-Pa.), another ideal choice, resigned after word got out of a sexual-harassment settlement with a staffer the married congressman called his “soul mate.”
Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) also can’t be of use. He resigned over allegations that he urged his mistress to seek an abortion.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) likewise won’t be available. He quit when a former aide alleged that he offered her $5 million to have his child as a surrogate.
The Boston Globe has been contacting newspaper editorial boards and proposing a "coordinated response" to President Trump's escalating "enemy of the people" rhetoric.
"We propose to publish an editorial on August 16 on the dangers of the administration's assault on the press and ask others to commit to publishing their own editorials on the same date," The Globe said in its pitch to fellow papers.
The effort began just a few days ago.
As of Saturday, "we have more than 100 publications signed up, and I expect that number to grow in the coming days," Marjorie Pritchard, the Globe's deputy editorial page editor, told CNN.
The American Society of News Editors, the New England Newspaper and Press Association and other groups have helped her spread the word.
"The response has been overwhelming," Pritchard said. "We have some big newspapers, but the majority are from smaller markets, all enthusiastic about standing up to Trump's assault on journalism."
One day is ... "nice." Maybe they should consider actions that are not just one- shot wonders to make them feel bold and "relevant," like clearly pointing out in daily reporting what's not normal, what's an outright lie, what's a racist/ sexist/ etc. statement, and so on. That'll really make you bold and relevant, not just feel that way for a day. (Meanwhile, some in the media remain deliberately obtuse -- et tu, CNN?!)
Infidel 753 discusses "Britain's Trump" (and it's not who you might think) and a resurgent sickness in Europe:
For some time now the Labour party has had what is euphemistically described as a "problem" with anti-Semitism, in the form of recurring eruptions of anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery which then have to be frantically denied, repudiated, or minimized by the leadership -- oddly reminiscent of the "problem" of eruptions of racism in the Republican party here. [Labour leader Jeremy] Corbyn insists he isn't anti-Semitic, but his attendance at a ceremony honoring members of gangs dedicated to murdering Israeli civilians (and sometimes non-Israeli Jews as well), and some of his other rhetoric, speak for themselves. The similarity with Trump's frequent verbal "dog whistles" is disturbing.
Many progressives, including us, have significant issues with some of the policies of the right- wing government of Bibi Netanyahu and his Likudniks. What must never happen is for that to bleed into sick anti- Israel/ anti- Semitic bigotry. Ever.
