(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: More on the Lying Liars Network [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-03-04 Politico: The Trump world-Fox News war gets nasty Relations have been rocky before. But the punches being thrown now are particularly aggressive. “Fox News illegitimately called it for the opposition, and not Donald J. Trump,” the Trump adviser-turned-talk show host [Steve Bannon] told the crowd in National Harbor, Maryland, an audience full of diehard MAGA supporters. Ten minutes in, Bannon went after the network again, rousing the audience to their feet as he called out Fox for not having Trump on since he announced his campaign in November. He called out Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. founder who sits atop the media empire. “Murdoch, you’ve deemed Trump’s not going to be president,” Bannon continued as the crowd roared with applause. “But we deem that you’re not going to have a network, because we’re going to fight you every step of the way.” x Woman at CPAC: “I came here because I love Donald Trump & Steve Bannon. Young people don’t know any of the policies so they vote personality. We can’t win the personality war. We just want you not to be stupid.” Bannon: “Ma’am, if you don’t want to be stupid, stop watching Fox!” pic.twitter.com/zCP4OHDqoq — Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) March 2, 2023 Dana Milbank/WaPo: There ain’t no cure for long covidiocy The pandemic has faded, but one of the least understood effects of the virus still eludes treatment: There is no known cure for long covidiocy. House Republicans presented with a textbook case of the ailment this week. The newly formed select subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic met for the first time for what its chairman, Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), said would be some “Monday-morning quarterbacking.” It instead became a Tuesday afternoon of false starts and illegal blocks. … One of the witnesses, Marty Makary, a Johns Hopkins surgeon and Fox News regular, used the committee meeting to present a new variant of covidiocy. He declared with absolute certainty that the virus came from a Wuhan lab. “It’s a no-brainer that it came from a lab,” he declared. What’s more, “at this point it’s impossible to acquire any more information, and if you did it would only be in the affirmative.” He even suggested that two of the nation’s top virologists knew this but “changed their tunes” because they were bribed with grant money by Anthony Fauci. By the way, a—well—more nuanced view can be found here: Derek Thompson/Atlantic: Why Are We Still Arguing About Masks? All this time later, their utility is in doubt. The frustrating truth is that we’ll probably never know for sure how the pandemic started. China’s refusal to grant access to global investigators is sketchy, but we don’t know what they’re trying to protect or conceal. In the absence of certainty, we should proceed as if both theories are true. That means much more federal scrutiny of gain-of-function research in U.S.-backed labs. That also means reconciling ourselves to the probability that COVID will not be the last pandemic of the century—or, perhaps, the decade. After more than 1 million American pandemic deaths, “taking the pandemic seriously” seems to mean civilians posting condemnations of other people’s behavior online rather than the federal government laying out a clear and comprehensive anti-pandemic strategy to ensure, for example, the accelerated manufacture of vaccines and other antivirus therapeutics. And speaking of civilians continually screaming at one another, let’s talk about masks. … But most important, the researchers identify a mismatch between what Cochrane set out to discover and what the studies in its meta-analysis actually examined. Cochrane looked at randomized control trials, where, in many cases, researchers split a population in two, gave one half a bunch of masks and information about proper masking, then came back a few months later to see if the intervention group was any healthier. For the most part, Abaluck and Jimenez said, these studies don’t really ask the question Do masks work? Instead, they ask: When you hand out masks and information to an intervention group without much enforcement, does it make them healthier? That’s a subtle but important difference, because the frustrating truth is that, without encouragement and social norms, people tend not to wear face coverings properly. x AT CPAC, Steve Bannon ties together Ken Griffin, Mitch McConnell and Rupert Murdoch before digging in on Murdoch and Fox. "Show us what the Murdochs, a bunch of foreigners have given us. ... Nothing." — Allan Smith (@akarl_smith) March 3, 2023 Axios: Trump's 5-part plan to attack DeSantis So Trump is planning to amp up the attacks and name-calling in the coming weeks. Why it matters: Trump believes DeSantis is the only candidate who could last with him in a long, bitter campaign for the 2024 GOP nomination. Trump hopes to scare DeSantis out of running, or at least damage him if he follows through on signs he will enter the race, top sources tell us. Between the lines: Trump plans to target "Ron DeSanctimonious," as he delights in branding the governor, in five areas. David Rothkopf/Daily Beast: Here’s How the U.S. Is Preparing to Handle Multiple Foreign Policy Crises At Once Russia’s escalation of the war in Ukraine war, increased tensions with China, and an always volatile Middle East have kept the Biden administration in constant motion. While supporting Ukraine in its existential battle with Russia remains a dominant concern for the Biden administration’s national security team, there is a keen awareness that the year ahead could bring other potentially major crises for which they must be preparing now. This is not to minimize their concern about the potential for escalation in the war in Ukraine, or for developments that will demand new forms of support. But based on conversations with multiple senior U.S. officials, it is virtually certain that the spring will bring more intense fighting. Demands for expanded U.S. support will continue. Sooner or later, the West may have to provide aircraft and longer-range missiles. That said, eager not to trigger a massive Russian expansion of the war or the dangerous embrace of WMDs, the administration recognizes there are red lines that are especially important to Russia, notably the provision of missiles that can penetrate deep into Russia. For that reason, while continuous supply of weapons seems likely, weapons with a range of over 250 miles does not. x "We Build the Wall, the nonprofit prosecutors say Steve Bannon worked with to dupe donors who gave money to build a wall on the U.S. southern border, is effectively out of business and can’t afford to defend itself in a New York fraud case" @MikeSisak https://t.co/uQho7NbLzA — Michael Tackett (@tackettdc) March 3, 2023 Joseph Zeballos-Roig/Semafor: The debt ceiling fight settles in for a long stalemate Don’t expect high-level discussions over debt ceiling legislation to break out any time soon. Reauthorizing the US’s ability to borrow is at the top of Congress’s agenda this year. But at the moment Biden is showing no inclination to back down from his demand that Republicans pass a “clean” debt ceiling hike without conditions. Democrats are in no mood to reward the GOP for rediscovering an appetite for austerity as soon as Republicans lose the White House. Rather than negotiate, he has challenged the GOP to first show they can assemble a budget capable of netting 218 votes in the House, an enormous task for McCarthy. And the speaker, for his part, has said he’s a hard no on a clean hike. Congress typically doesn’t check an item off its to-do list without the pressure of a deadline and it’s still not clear when the X-date for default lands on the calendar. Like many college students, lawmakers have a tendency to procrastinate — and only scramble to turn in their assignments at the very last minute. “There's just not much to talk about until the X-date is close enough to budge people from their current postures and Republicans demonstrate what they can produce the votes for,” Liam Donovan, a former Republican aide, told Semafor. “Until then, Biden and Democrats are content to wait.” x LOL a Fox host is not happy with the House GOP hearings so far pic.twitter.com/b2cLTMUSYT — Acyn (@Acyn) March 4, 2023 AJC covers the failure of a bad idea: Behind the scenes of the ‘Buckhead City’ defeat The Buckhead cityhood push was doomed long before it reached Thursday’s vote. Several GOP insiders tell us the breakaway push was never close to capturing the level of support it needed to pass the state Senate, even before the memo from Gov. Brian Kemp’s office questioning the legality of the measure cemented its fate. The standoff set up one of the toughest decisions yet for Lt. Gov. Burt Jones’ short tenure in office. For background, see also: Bloomberg: How Buckhead’s Secession From Atlanta Would Destabilize the Entire State The Hill: Could a wealthy Atlanta neighborhood secede from the city? Controversial issue advanced by GOP lawmakers And for your palate cleanser, an interview with Lauren Windsor: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/4/2156045/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-More-on-the-Lying-Liars-Network Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/