Many of television's talking heads seem not to understand what "incredible" or "unbelievable" means. Fortunately, at least one prominent journalist does, as seen in a tweet from a few days ago:

 

 A Fox host said Marsha Blackburn's unhinged rant against the Build Back Better agenda was "unbelievable" - which was literally true, since her rhetoric could not be believed. https://t.co/I3DVXe21fK

— Steve Benen (@stevebenen) October 4, 2021

In a chat with Maria Bartiromo, the congresswoman from Tennessee ranted (as seen at :34 of the video below)

[T]he American people have figured out that what they're trying to do is institutionalize socialism. They're trying to do a takeover of the country in one vote. They want government control of your kids.... They want government control of health care. They want to demoralize the military, close the churches, destroy your faith in the American system. And then here they're going to come with the socialist program to run your life from cradle to grave, daylight to dark.

Benen notes

As the GOP senator's rant concluded, the Fox host added, "Unbelievable." And at a certain level, that response made sense — because if we're being literal, Blackburn's over-the-top criticisms were, in fact, unbelievable....

.... equally obvious is the fact that she couldn't possibly substantiate her harangue with proof. But it's also a reminder that the nation could be in the midst of a meaningful and substantive conversation right now about an ambitious legislative vision. As best as I can tell, Democratic proponents of the Build Back Better plan would love to engage in such a debate. They're practically begging for the discourse to evaluate their plans on the merits.

The soft infrastructure bill, as explained by CBS News online, contains the following elements: two free years of community college for all; child care assistance and universal pre-kindergarten for any family which applies; expanding Medicare to include coverage of dental, hearing, and vision services; extending the child tax credit through 2025; provision to reduce drug prices, including authorizing Medicare to negotiate prices of prescriptions; twelve weeks of paid family and medical leave; various measures to curb climate change.

Senator Manchin and other seeking to abridge the legislation, or Senator Blackburn and others aiming to kill it, should be asked which provision(s) of the bill they are opposed to. Instead, there are the endless questions and comments about process, about Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, about why Democrats are in disarray or why they can't take the tepid- uh, er, bipartisan-  infrastructure bill, call it a day, and unite the country.

Coverage has been abysmal. It would be at least a little more honest if broadcast personalities were directly to ask "why not leave it at the bipartisan bill, take a victory lap, and not bother with real change?"

 

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Don't Trust; Verify

It's as if Stephanie Grisham, while press secretary to President Donald J. Trump for eight months, had held a single news conference. Or as if Trump had not made 30,573 false or misleading claims during his presidency.

And yet we read that, addressing Trump's sudden and mysterious trip to Walter Reed Army Hospital in November, 2019, Stephanie Grisham in her recently released book "I'll Take Your Questions Now"

does not use the term colonoscopy but heavily implies that's what the trip was for. She says Trump's hospital visit, which stirred weeks-long speculation about his health was a "very common procedure," during which "a patient is put under." She also writes that former President George W. Bush had a similar procedure while in office; Bush had multiple colonoscopies during his time in office. Grisham writes Trump did not want then-Vice President Mike Pence to be in power while he was sedated, which was part of the reason he kept his visit private. He also "did not want to be the butt of a joke" on late-night television, writes Grisham.

The episode is just one of several behind-the-scenes revelations by Grisham, who was one of Trump's longest-serving senior staffers and witness to several headline-making moments of the Trump administration.

Revelations.  Similarly, the New York Daily News, a newspaper with a liberal editorial bent, believes

 Former White House Press Secretary Grisham has revealed why the media wasn’t made aware that former President Trump was making an under the radar trip to Walter Reed Medical Center in 2019: he didn’t need anyone else up his derrière that day.

Has revealed.. The willingness of the media, reflected in the video below of CNN's Jake Tapper, Chris Cuomo, and Kate Bennett, to take Grisham's explanation at face value contrasts sharply with the CNN report of November 17, 2019, which began

President Donald Trump’s visit to Walter Reed on Saturday did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Medical staff at Walter Reed did not get a staff-wide notice about a presidential visit to the medical center in Bethesda, Maryland, ahead of Trump’s arrival, according to that source.

Typically, Walter Reed’s medical staff would get a general notice about a “VIP” visit to the medical center ahead of a presidential visit, notifying them of certain closures at the facility. That did not happen this time, indicating the visit was a non-routine visit and scheduled last minute.

The source said it was possible a small group of doctors involved in Trump’s medical exams were notified before Trump arrived at Walter Reed, but said all medical staff at Walter Reed would typically be aware if the President was arriving for a routine medical exam.

His two previous physical exams in office were announced ahead of time by the White House and noted on his daily public schedule, but a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN Saturday that the President’s unannounced trip to the medical center was not even on the President’s internal schedule as of Saturday morning.

The President’s motorcade drove to the medical center unannounced, with reporters under direction not to report his movement until they arrived Saturday at Walter Reed. Trump typically takes the Marine One helicopter to Walter Reed, but on Saturday’s clear-skied day, the President opted for the motorcade.

A separate source familiar with the situation described Trump’s visit as “abnormal,” but added that Trump, 73, appeared to be in good health late Friday.

Grisham now says that the President didn't come clean at the time because he didn't want to be "the butt of a joke" for late-night comedians and refused anesthesia so he wouldn't have to turn his office temporarily over to Vice President Pence.

Admittedly, if anyone were so foolish, self-centered, and dishonest, that would be Donald Trump. Nonetheless, the procedure (whatever it was) took place on a Saturday, which suggests it was not routine. Moreover, recall

The source said it was possible a small group of doctors involved in Trump’s medical exams were notified before Trump arrived at Walter Reed, but said all medical staff at Walter Reed would typically be aware if the President was arriving for a routine medical exam.

His two previous physical exams in office were announced ahead of time by the White House and noted on his daily public schedule, but a source with knowledge of the matter told CNN Saturday that the President’s unannounced trip to the medical center was not even on the President’s internal schedule as of Saturday morning.

That shouldn't sound routine to reputable news organizations. Nevertheless, they have treated Grisham's claims as "revelations," taking as face value a claim made by a press secretary to Donald J. Trump.

If you assume, "you make an ass out of you and me" applies here.  Instead of assuming that- of all people- a former press secretary to the greatest liar in American history is telling the truth, the media should make an actual attempt at verifying Grisham's story.  As a bonus, we might gain an insight into whether her other claims are credible.

Stephanie Grisham admits lying about John Kelly, calling it one of her "biggest regrets."

Also says she "probably wasn't" honest during her Fox News interviews. pic.twitter.com/Es1h3a1eod

— Alli Hedges Maser (@AllisonLHedges) October 5, 2021

 

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Preventive Action

The National School Boards Association

which represents school board members around the country, asked President Joe Biden for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism.

The association asked for the federal government to investigate cases where threats or violence could be handled as violations of federal laws protecting civil rights. It also asked for the Justice Department, FBI, Homeland Security and Secret Service to help monitor threat levels and assess risks to students, educators, board members and school buildings.

The group’s letter documented more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and other states. It cited the September arrest of an Illinois man for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly striking a school official at a meeting. In Michigan, a meeting was disrupted when a man performed a Nazi salute to protest masking.

“We are coming after you,” a letter mailed to an Ohio school board member said, according to the group. “You are forcing them to wear mask — for no reason in this world other than control. And for that you will pay dearly.” It called the member “a filthy traitor.”

The perfect response would have been "That's ridiculous. I bathe everyday." Alas, either because the school board member didn't think quickly enough or feared for his or her safety, there appears to have been no such reply. These folks rarely exhibit any sense of humor. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland in a memorandum

said there has been “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.”

To address the rising problem, Garland said the FBI would work with U.S. attorneys and federal, state, local, territorial and tribal authorities in each district to develop strategies against the threats.

“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” he said.

Any doubt that Garland's instinct is appropriate should be dispelled by comments on Twitter made not only by private citizens, but also public figures intent upon inflaming passions.  One guy tweeted "We warned you that the Domestic War on Terror was meant to go after all Middle Americans. Merrick Garland just made it official today." Ex-con Bernard Kerik chimed in "This is nothing more than a federal abuse of power intended to intimidate and threaten parents from confronting radical left-wing school boards." And Representative Ken Buck of Colorado, demonstrating a splendid ignorance of constitutional law, tweeted "AG Garland is using the DOJ to intimidate and silence parents who are exercising their First Amendment rights. This is an egregious and unprecedented abuse of power."

The unruly individuals are trying to intimidate not only council members based on their views but also members of the public with a contrasting point of view. The latter are under threat of violence at the meeting if they speak up. Further, as members of the community, they are not strangers to others at the meeting and would fear retaliation if they comment in opposition to the loud voices at the meeting.

The situation could be partially remedied if only there were a modern teleconferencing platform.  Zoom! A great many of the would-be rioters at the meeting develop beer muscles as they are surrounded by people of like mind. At a meeting conducted remotely, they'd still be able to express their views. However, the threat of physical violence would be removed and, if participants express a threat of violence or excess profanity, they can be muted.

Nonetheless, school boards are entitled, as they should be, to hold their meetings conventionally, in-person.  Moreover, given the hope of civil war of many a right-winger, the fears of the National School Boards Association is legitimate, and Attorney General Garland has acted none too soon.

 

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A Bad Person Does A Very Good Thing

Al Capone reportedly opened a soup kitchen. Ted Bundy worked a suicide hotline, and Saddam Hussein implemented compulsory public education.  Adolph Hitler pushed an end to smoking (for the wrong reason, but still).

Bad people do good things. It's usually not often and it doesn't outweigh the bad they do, but every human is a complex being. And so it was that in a House Oversight Committee hearing assessing the impact of Texas' forced birth bill, Representative Cori Bush of Missouri

recounted how shortly after graduating high school, she attended a church trip to Jackson, Mississippi, in the summer of 1994. She was 17 at the time.

While on the trip, she met a 20-year-old man, a "friend of a friend." The two flirted and he asked to visit her room. She invited him in, believing that they would talk and laugh.

"But the next thing I knew, he was on top of me, messing with my clothes, and not saying anything at all. 'What is happening?' I thought. I didn't know what to do. I was frozen in shock, just laying there as his weight pressed down upon me. When he was done, he got up, he pulled up his pants, and without a word -- he left. That was it. I was confused, I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. I asked myself, was it something that I had done?" Bush recalled.

A few months after the trip and then a year older, Bush tried to contact the man after noticing she missed her period, but she never heard from him.

"I was 18. I was broke, and I felt so alone. I blamed myself for what had happened to me," Bush said.

Bush later found out she was nine weeks pregnant and that's when "panic set in," she said.

"How could I make this pregnancy work? How could I, at 18 years old and barely scraping by, support a child on my own? And I would have been on my own," she said, also explaining how she feared being kicked out by her parents or disappointing them....

Bush said "choosing to have an abortion was the hardest decision I had ever made, but at 18 years old, I knew it was the right decision for me," adding that it "was freeing knowing I had options."

Representative Pramila Jayapal, chairperson of the Progressive Caucus, and Representative Barbara Lee of California (the sole vote against the AUMF in 2001), also described their personal experiences obtaining an abortion. 

The exceptional courage displayed by these women did not go unnoticed but received far less attention than warranted.  Once people came to realize that homosexuality was not uncommon, that your friend, your friend's neighbor, or even a close family member is gay, a face was put to the abstract. The groundwork had been laid for acceptance of same-sex marriage.

And so, Cori Bush et al. have performed an important public service which needs to be replicated by other public figures, especially in the entertainment industry.

Cori Bush is no Adolph Hitler, Ted Bundy of Al Capone.  However, accountability for criminal behavior, unless "state violence," is nothing she even considers. She makes no effort to hide her hostility toward police and equates incarceration and policing with slavery, policing and criminalization with "yet another system of bondage." Trivialization of slavery is truly a remarkable thing to behold.

Bush is privileged to have access to media, and a fairly safe congressional seat, to make an important public statement. Undoubtedly, there are other public figures who have a platform and whose career would survive, even continue to thrive, were they to speak out similarly. They have not done so, which makes the remarks of Bush, Lee, and Jayapal only one, but an important, step on the way to reproductive rights.

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Pliable Principles

One of the great unexplored mysteries of American politics is the political ideology of Kamala Harris. In an early primary debate in the last election cycle

Harris told Biden that in the 1970s there was a “failure of states to integrate public schools in America,” so “that’s where the federal government must step in.”

During an MSNBC interview after the debate, she again called out Biden’s opposition to federal involvement, saying “we have certain values that are national standards, and we’re not going to let states compromise that.”

On Wednesday, again asked her position by reporters, Harris said busing should be “considered” by school districts. But she would not go so far as to say she would support mandating it.

“Busing is a tool among many that should be considered,” Harris said at a picnic in West Des Moines. Pressed for a firmer yes or no as to whether she would support mandatory busing, Harris did not offer one Wednesday.

In that debate, Joe Biden had explained "I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That put Harris at the same place on busing as Biden, whom had days earlier condemned for standing in the way of progress for black Americans.

As Attorney General of California, Harris and the governor's office embarked on a strategy of avoiding implementation of a 2009 order from the US Supreme Court to reduce overcrowding in the state's prisons. By 2013, Harris' office had "launched into a campaign of all-out obstruction, refusing to answer why they could not simply release low-risk, nonviolent inmates to conform to the Supreme Court’s request. “

In the summer of 2020, the Black Lives Matter movement in vogue, Vice President Harris contributed to a fund ostensibly to bail out protestors, though most of the funds were allocated to secure the release of other alleged offenders (not that a former prosecutor could have seen that coming).

When the Vice President was told by a student at a forum at George Mason University that Israel commits "ethnic genocide." the V.P. encouraged the young woman to express "her truth." However

“Throughout her career, the Vice President has been unwavering in her commitment to Israel and to Israel’s security,” Harris’s spokeswoman, Symone Sanders, said Friday in a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “While visiting George Mason University to discuss voting rights, a student voiced a personal opinion during a political science class. The Vice President strongly disagrees with the student’s characterization of Israel.”

Harris had reached out to Jewish organizations after sustaining criticism from Republicans and some Jewish communal figures for not correcting the student during a visit to a political science class. Harris was on the campus Tuesday to attend a voting rights rally.

Harris herself did not retract her apparent support for the preposterous notion that the Israeli government commits genocide. (Along the way, the murderous soldiers overlooked the Arabs in the Knesset, a rookie mistake.) Still, the Vice President is on the record- sort of- as believing Israel commits genocide and that it doesn't. 

Generously considered, Harris' ideological perspectives are flexible, susceptible to change as circumstances dictate.  Generous, but naive. More likely, Kamala Harris believes in little else but herself.

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Lifting One And All

When Andrew Yang campaigned for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, his primary focus was advocating a universal basic income. Whatever the cost and benefit of that approach, there is a better way, one which will get benefits to a very wide swatch of the populace and reduce bureaucracy. Contain and reduce reliance on means-testing as eligibility for participation in government programs.

Online for MSNBC, Hayes Brown argues

For those unfamiliar with the phrase, “means testing” is the art of limiting the possible. Say you want to establish a government program to provide free lunches for students, which is proven to be especially beneficial for kids from low-income families. The easiest way to make it happen is to do just that: provide free lunches for all students at public schools through federal funding. Or you could provide lunches only to some students who are most in need. And to determine which students requires adding steps to the process.

That could look like requiring parents to fill out paperwork documenting their annual incomes and the numbers of children they have in school. It could involve having school districts apply a formula for the number of kids per household for every tax bracket to decide whether each student qualifies. Then you have to keep track of every kid in the system and account for every reduced-price or free lunch that is given out. Most likely, you’ll need all of those steps and more — just to make sure some kid whose parents make a bit too much money or who qualifies but never filled out the form doesn’t get access to the school-provided lunch.

It's not only the school lunch program. A year ago, Matt Bruenig found

When we look at the participation rates of means-tested programs in the US, we typically find that around one in five eligible people are not receiving the benefits they are owed.

The overall participation rate of the food stamp program is 85 percent and is only 75 percent for the working poor who likely have a harder time proving their eligibility to the welfare office. The participation rate of Medicaid is 94 percent for children, 80 percent for parents, and around 75 percent for childless adults. The participation rate of the Earned Income Tax Credit (and also presumably the Child Tax Credit) is 78 percent. The low participation in the EITC cuts the poverty-reducing effect of the program by around 33 percent, according to the Census Bureau, meaning that mainstream estimates of the EITC’s impact (e.g. those produced by CBPP) overstate the effectiveness of the program by at least 50 percent.

One "major problem with means testing," Jacobin has noted, "is political: so long as there’s an income threshold, austerity-minded politicians will always try to lower it, leaving more people out as time goes on. In other words, targeted social programs make easy targets. By contrast, Social Security and Medicare long have been called "the third rail of American politics."  They are nearly politically unassailable because virtually everyone who lives long enough receives benefits from the programs.  They assist not the poor, minorities, women, nor urban or rural, but almost everyone- a gift from us to us.

As the Build Back Better agenda is considered by Congress, progressives and other Democrats should hold onto the principle that universal programs are superior, politically, programmatically, and bureaucratically- to means testing programs

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Alternate Facts

"You're entitled to your own opinions  You're not entitled to your own facts."

 

                                                                - Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, circa 1994

The Jerusalem Post reports

During a discussion with students about National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, US Vice President Kamala Harris did not challenge a comment by a student at George Mason University in Virginia who accused Israel of “ethnic genocide” and defended her right to say it.

The student, who identified herself as part-Yemeni, part-Iranian and “not an American,” also expressed outrage at US funding of the Iron Dome.

She said America affects her life “every day” due to military funding it gives to Saudi Arabia and Israel.

“You brought up how the power of the people and demonstrations and organizing is very valuable in America,” she said. “But I see that over the summer there have been protests and demonstrations in astronomical numbers standing with Palestine. But then just a few days ago, there were funds allocated to continue backing Israel, which hurts my heart because it’s ethnic genocide and displacement of people, the same that happened in America, and I’m sure you’re aware of this.”

The student questioned why money was going to Israel and Saudi Arabia instead of to social issues in America.

“The people have spoken very often of what they do need, and I feel like there’s a lack of listening, and I just feel like I need to bring this up because it affects my life and people I really care about’s [sic] life,” she said.

In response, Harris said she was “glad” the student spoke up.

“Your voice, your perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard,” she said.

Harris said democracy is strongest when everyone participates and is weakest when anyone is left out.

“That’s not only about being physically present but that your voice is present,” she said. “Our goal should be unity, but not uniformity. Unity should never be at the expense of telling any one person, ‘For the sake of unity, oh you be quiet about that thing.’ That’s not unity. Then we see where that ends up in a healthy debate about the issue.”

Regarding the student’s reference to Middle East policy, Harris said: “We still have healthy debates in our country about what is the right path, and nobody’s voice should be suppressed on that.”

No student has reason to believe her voice, perspective, or experience about Palestinians and Israel is "suppressed" and that she must "be quiet about that thing." Unless she has been living under a rock, she knows college students from coast-to-coast have been free to criticize, even condemn, Israel.  Truth is optional, even discouraged.

Obviously, though, the major problem with Harris' remark is ".... your truth cannot be suppressed and it must be heard." Amidst other questionable remarks, this British conservative (1:20 at the link), notes "the great Oprahism of our time- 'I've got my truth, you've got yours, let's call the whole thing off."

Thankfully, Harris referred to your truth rather than the truth. Still, "your truth " here is (dangerously) false and as Vice-President of the United States of America, serving under the leader of the Free World, Harris was responsible to correct the student.

Madame Vice President, the idea that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians is not someone's truth, it is someone's lie, whether they know it or not.  And it is pernicious, destructive and should not be elided or ignored by the highest officials in the land.

Kamala Harris should concede error promptly. It is insufficient to claim that she was not agreeing with the student but merely acknowledging her right to be heard.  "Continue to speak up," she could have been told, but "Israel is either not committing genocide- or is the most incompetent government in all of human history."

The only genocide in which the population is growing considerably year after year lol

— Lisa (@Lisa69871478) September 30, 2021

 

And, no, the fact that the Vice President is married to a Jewish man is not relevant.  Whatever bearing it might have on Harris' perspective on the Middle East, at that moment she appeared to agree with the perspective expressed, one both inaccurate and completely discordant with the policy of the nation she serves.

Quoting Daniel Patrick Moynihan's aphorism has become tiresome as it is applied to trivial matters. However, this as no trivial matter and Kamala Harris would have done well to understand that opinions are important, but facts more so.

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