COMMENTS FIRST, ABOUT THE PAST WEEK

1/10/2021

Trump Family in Bunker During Putsch

While I sat gaping at the spectacle on the tube, some of the valued regulars on this site were already inserting their comments on the disturbance, but after an earlier post. I have a great idea: like having ice cream and pie before dinner, how about readers giving their thoughts (reasonably compact, when possible)? Dissent, disagreements, welcome. Here are the first four comments:. GV

Andy Tansey
1/8/2021 09:01:04 am
Having had the privilege of being acquainted with some of the Bush kin, I tend to agree about HW. I believe there was a sense of duty to the country that went along with the privilege of material comfort that the family has.

Now having had the benefit of a few more days of history since George's perceptive piece about Thornburgh, I admit to a sense of visceral relief when Pence and McConnell came around on Wednesday. Something like, "See, even they are resisting the Sociopath in Chief . . . ." I can't help that my visceral reactions were not in line with more thoughtful reactions. We cannot allow Republicans' more sensible reactions over the past couple of days to dilute their record of abdication of responsibility to such ideals as truth, democracy and the constitution for more than the past four years.

Our country faces enormous challenges as the Internet has empowered and deceived ignorant white trash - I'm sorry - into believing they matter more than others, based on misinformation. I remember that my 4th grade history book was essentially a compilation of chapter-length biographies of important Americans, including Robert E. Lee. I think curricula need to include strong education from K-12 about discernment of truth over the internet. Scary.
REPLY
bruce
1/8/2021 09:10:44 am
andy,

i think pence and mcconnell are officially listed in the better late than never category.
REPLY
Andy Tansey
1/8/2021 09:41:01 am
Nope, Bruce. That's what I'm afraid of. "Too little, too late."
Alan Rubin link

1/8/2021 09:56:19 am
Their actions are too late to merit much praise. It was nice to see them publicly chastise Trump, but for me it does not make up for their four years of support.

Cabinet members DeVos and Chao may have resigned in protest, but avoiding a vote on invoking the 25th amendment might have played a part in their decision.

PTO'N

1/10/2021 11:45:47 am

While I believe that the vast majority of the rioters were not blessed with critical thinking skills, the fact that a retired Air Force Academy grad and combat veteran (Retired Lt. Col. Larry Rendall Brock, Jr.) was photographed "...decked out in a combat helmet and other tactical gear and gripping a ream of zip-tie handcuffs on the floor of the Senate chamber..." indicates that this subversive action had broader support beyond that of the ignorant masses. That is scary.

Roy edelsack

1/10/2021 02:19:55 pm

In the end it was the dancing that got me. The entire Trump clan (including the execrable Kimberly Guilfoyle) jiggling backstage in anticipation of what they were about to unleash on the country.

In the end it was the dancing.

ED MARTIN

1/10/2021 04:28:06 pm

This morning as I read the Times about the quandry facing Congress over another impeachment, and a trial disturbing the first days of the Biden administration, interfering with confirming Cabinet members and other appointees, desparately needed to operate the government honestly, I think it may not be the correct course. Not because he doesnt deserved it, Constitutional scholars agree he does.

But our larger purpose as a nation is to move forward. I think President Biden needs to have as much support as soon as possible and a trial will be a theater event, at best.

I dont envy him having to urge tabling that effort. But history has already declared its verdict on trump, around the world. Another condemnation is not necessary. What should proceed is the legal actions, State and Federal, conducted in the American tradition of justice, while the ship of state sails forward.

George Vecsey

1/10/2021 05:33:44 pm

See what I mean? Nobody needs me when people can write this well.
Any dissenters? Questioners? GV

Alan Rubin link

1/10/2021 06:30:22 pm

Ed-it is refreshing to see that Muhlenberg students graduate with excellent political skills. It seems that the house is considering doing exactly what you have suggested.

It is imperative that President-elect Biden first gets his agenda in place. I'm not sure that he even is in favor of impeachment. Also, unless there is a miracle, the Senate will never pass it.

Biden talks about healing the country and I believe he will make a serious effort toward that end. As most savvy politicians and pundits have indicated, our country is almost evenly divided politically and no one seems inclined to budge in their thinking and perceptions.

Biden should begin a grassroots approach throughout the country in the areas that did not support him. The emphasis should not be on criticizing republicans, but on what his administration can do for them. This would include jobs, education, infrastructure, health care and all matters that would have a positive effect on their lives.

Four years may not be enough time to complete this monumental task, but it should pave the way for the next administration. The young people of our country have dramatically shown that they are ready to help.

Marty Appel

1/10/2021 09:34:45 pm

It's all a fitting culmination.

he is leaving the presidency in shambles, as he did with trump university, trump atlantic city casinos (3), trump airlines, trump steak, USFL football (Generals), trump ice water, trump milton bradley game, trump magazine, gotrump.com travel service, trump mortgage (trumpnet), trump tower tampa, trump menswear (at Macy's, made in China), and trump mattresses (through Serta). his row of trump branded apartment buildings along Manhattan's west side all removed his name. In the end his real estate business was largely the licensing of his name to buildings, not their development, He was notorious for not paying his laborers a fair wage and often stiffing them on pay. Add to that cheating on three wives, and divorcing two of them so far. And essentially being driven out of New York by fear for his safety (he had about 15 percent support among the electorate and suffered the humiliation of having Black Lives Matter painted in front of his tower). He could not throw out a first pitch at a baseball game, had few teams attend White House championship celebrations (curated by Andrew Giuliani), could not attend Kennedy Center honors, would not permit portraits of the Obamas to be hung in the White House, would not attend funerals for John McCain or John Lewis, presented pardons to war crimes criminals and people who lied to the FBI, did not accomplish a single thing on infrastructure or on making health insurance available across state lines, did not build a wall (nor have Mexico pay for it), and turned over Covid-19 planning to the states (imagine if FDR did that after Pearl Harbor). So this is a start.

People actually voted for him and supported him because "it's time we put a businessman in charge."

He told Bob Woodward he withheld the truth of the pandemic (now with nearly 400,000 dead) because he didn't want to cause panic, but had no problem saying that caravans of rapists and murderers were on their way from Mexico.

Be gone already!

PS Operation Warp Speed, and what little he may have had to do with it, was remarkable the speed of its arrival, and if it was a decent man as president, I would lay credit at his door. Just to show I am not immune from success where due. Of course the rollout has been largely a farce.

George Vecsey

1/11/2021 11:24:11 am

GV notes:
Marty Appel,master book=writer and book-promoter, once was asked by Trump's accomplices to publicize a book. After the book hit the best-seller list, the creeps said they were cutting his pay by 60% because they didn't think he did a good job, Classic. Exactly what that gang of thieves did with other working people foolish enough to sign on with the Head Thief., Marty told them to keep it all Makes a good story, whenever our little band of scribblers gets together, Marty, thanks for this starter list of jobs botched by this "successfuly businessman." But of course, he was good for the stock market,or so they thought, so money people, big and small, backed him. I doubt many of them have even a pang of guilt, even now. It's all about their profits. GV

Jim Henneman

1/11/2021 01:41:51 pm

As for events of 1/6/21, I tend to be all over the place.

As I sat and watched that horrendous event unfold on the TV screen in front of me the one overriding thought was ...."he finally did it....it took four years but like anybody with a common thread of sense knew he would....he finally went over the edge."

My feelings about this man have been intense since even before he entered the fray five years ago. He's an egomaniac who has climbed over the bodies of those he ruined to reach some kind of status that only he believes. That the Republican Party, which railed for eight years about Obama and his administration, could not come up with a better candidate than this guy was their great shame. And now it faces the same task again -- and one wonders if the party itself might need to be remade.

I actually believe Pence comes out of this looking pretty good. He was a loyal soldier/puppet as long as he needed to be, but when push came to shove he didn't cave, so he gets some props for that.

On the other hand, I continue to be amazed by Ted Cruz. By all accounts he is a smart man, so it's always been hard for me to believe he chose to stand by this lunatic who had so berated him when they shared the debate stage. I cannot imagine him ever considering a run for the office again, and in fact think he'll be hard pressed to ever be elected again, given the fallout from 1/6/21.

Here's my bottom line: The eternal optimist in me, which has had a hard time being expressive these last four years, is saying that this situation is so bad, so dire, so dangerous -- that it might be just what this country needs for a re-assessment. We are more divided today than anytime in the 85 years I've been around, and it sickens and saddens me -- but I honestly think that my initial thought of "he's finally done it" might be just what we need to get our act together. I can say with a degree of certainty that it won't happen in my lifetime, but maybe, just maybe, this act of defiance was the wake up call we so desperately need!

As I said, George, I'm all over the pace on this one. I think the Capitol Police on duty were heroes given an impossible task, but there was obviously a severe security breakdown in the intelligence department, which I guess should come as no surprise.

Keep on blathering....

Jim Henneman

Comments are closed.

QUOTES

Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

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