The Conversation -- December 24, 2023

~~~ Marie: For some reason, YouTube won't let me share this jolly Christmas carol, but click on the photo and you can watch it on YouTube. Is this video too woke to send to the kiddies at the grade school where Ron DeSantimonious' children are enrolled? Thanks to RAS for the lead.

Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco decried Republican claims that the Justice Department has been politicized against ... Donald Trump, saying those accusations have contributed to an 'unprecedented rise' in threats against law enforcement and other officials. In an interview with ABC News that aired Sunday, Monaco, who oversees all Jan. 6-related cases, said that those accusations 'bear no resemblance to the Justice Department that I know. The Justice Department that I know is filled with dedicated men and women, investigators, lawyers, prosecutors, analysts, professional staff,' she said, adding that employees 'get up every day without regard to who's in the White House or who's in Congress...,'...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump asked an appeals court in Washington on Saturday night to toss a federal indictment accusing him of plotting to overturn the 2020 election, arguing that he was immune to the charges because they arose from actions he had taken while he was in the White House.... In a 55-page brief to a three-judge panel of the court, D. John Sauer, a lawyer who has been handling appeals for Mr. Trump, argued that under the Constitution, judges cannot hold the president accountable for any acts undertaken while in office.... In his brief to the appeals court, Mr. Sauer argued that executive immunity must exist, given the fact that no president or former president had ever been charged with a crime before Mr. Trump." MB: Right. Like arguing that a murderer can't be charged because no one at his place of business had ever been charged with murder before. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here.

He Has No Shame. Michael Bender of the New York Times: "For decades, American elected officials facing criminal charges or grave violations of the public trust would yield their positions of power, if only reluctantly, citing a duty to save the country from embarrassment and ease the strain on its institutions. Then came Donald J. Trump. The former president isn't just forging ahead despite four indictments and 91 felony charges, but actively orchestrating a head-on collision between the nation's political and legal systems.... The heated legal debate over whether Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection [-- as the Colorado supreme court determined --] obscured the extraordinary reality that he is running for president at all -- returning with fresh vengeance and a familiar playbook built around the notions that he can never lose, will never be convicted and will never really go away. That blueprint remains intact largely because his approach continues to yield political returns." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To me, Trump's "successes" say more about the cowardice of Republican officeholders and the moral depravity of broad swaths of the American people than they do about Donald Trump, who is nothing more than a vicious nincompoop.

Abbie VanSickle & Steve Eder of the New York Times: "In the 32 years since Justice [Clarence] Thomas came through the fire of his confirmation hearings and onto the Supreme Court, he has assembled an army of influential acolytes unlike any other -- a network of like-minded former clerks who have not only rallied to his defense but carried his idiosyncratic brand of conservative legal thinking out into the nation's law schools, top law firms, the judiciary and the highest reaches of government."

Steven Mazie & Stephen Vladeck, in a New York Times op-ed, urge the Supremes not to be as ham-handed as the Supreme Court majority was in Bush v. Gore. Marie: No doubt the writers know their advice is offered in vain. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "Local and federal law enforcement officials say they are investigating a surge in threats that justices on Colorado's Supreme Court are facing after their decision this week to bar Donald Trump from running in the state's presidential primary.... Since Tuesday's decision by the court, social media and forum posts on several platforms have shown users expressing violent, racist, homophobic and sometimes threatening language targeting the Democrat-appointed judges who ruled in favor of removing Trump from the ballot. The comments have ranged from peaceful protest to calls for executions. In a statement after Tuesday's ruling, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the decision 'completely flawed' and attacked the 'all-Democrat appointed Colorado Supreme Court,' claiming it was participating in election interference." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Where are the wingers threatening the Maine judge and secretary of state who kept Chris Christie off the primary ballot for far less egregious conduct -- conduct not specifically prohibited in the U.S. Constitution? According to Leela Stockley of the Bangor Daily News, the secretary decided earlier in December that Christie had not submitted enough signatures to qualify. And the judge ruled, that the Christie camp did not "separate petition forms by town, as instructed by the Secretary, or, in the alternative, give himself sufficient time to bring those multi-town signature sheets to the relevant municipalities before the November 20 deadline." Wow! He didn't separate the petition forms by town? Miscreant! According to the report, Christie submitted only 844 acceptable signatures; 2,000 are required.

Out of curiosity, I took a look at how you qualify for the Maine primary ballot, and among the requirements is "Petitions must be printed double-sided on 8.5 x 14 inch (legal size) paper." IOW, if you submit petitions printed on letter-sized paper (you know, the kind almost everyone uses) or petitions printed on only one side of the page, you may be disqualified. There are two deadlines for filing: the first for filing with counties is November 20; the second for filing with the secretary of state is December 1. Presumably, if a candidate misses the deadlines by even a few hours, he's out. Caught in a snowstorm? Car breaks down? Too bad. These are just a few of the requirements to get on a state ballot, and obviously, the rules are going to vary state-by-state. It would be easy to slip up; it would not be surprising if some candidates were disqualified because of those bureaucratic slip-ups. Yet some people think a state justice should be executed for ruling that the leader of a violent, premeditated coup against the United States is not qualified to be president*.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The [Roman Catholic] church can't succeed in a time warp, moving at the pace of a snail on Ambien. Even Saudi Arabia is modernizing faster. It is simply immoral to treat women and gay people as unworthy of an equal role in their church. After all, isn't the whole point of the church to teach us what is right? And it's not right to treat people as partial humans." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ News Flash to Observant Christians: The New Testament does not address Jesus' sexual orientation; therefore, there's every reason to believe he was supposed to be gay. He never married -- as Jewish teenaged boys were usually required to do -- and he spent the years of his ministry living and traveling with men. There is at least one hint in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas that Jesus had a sexual liaison with a woman. However, there is also a hint to the contrary in the Gospel of Mark (14:51-52): "Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." Some scholars have asserted this suggested that Jesus and his male followers engaged in group sexual rituals. Dowd is right that the Gospels identify numerous strong women. They are generally portrayed as wiser than the male Gospel characters.

~~~~~~~~~~

Massachusetts. Nick Robertson of the Hill: "A federal judge in Massachusetts shut down an attempt to block the state's assault weapons ban Friday, arguing that the law does not break with recent Supreme Court precedent that has severely shaken gun control legislation. District Judge Dennis Saylor said the state ban keeps with 'historical tradition' of gun control regulation, after the high court ruled last year in the landmark New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen decision that all gun control legislation must keep with that tradition."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel is waging a military campaign in Gaza at a pace and level of devastation that likely exceeds any recent conflict, according to a Washington Post analysis. A U.N. official criticized Israeli instructions for Palestinians to evacuate parts of central Gaza, saying that Israel 'orders people to move into areas where there are ongoing airstrikes.'... The Israel Defense Forces has expanded ground operations in the southern and northern parts of the Gaza Strip, spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Saturday, describing the war as 'a long and difficult operation that will continue for some more time.' on a phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, President Biden emphasized the need to protect civilians and free hostages still held by Hamas, The White House said. Netanyahu thanked Biden after the U.S. abstained from voting on a U.N. resolution that demanded pauses in fighting, aid deliveries and the release of hostages." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Sunday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

From CNN's liveblog yesterday: "US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, according to the White House. Biden and Netanyahu discussed 'objectives and phasing' of the Israel-Hamas war during their call according to a White House readout.... 'I did not ask for a ceasefire,' Biden said while leaving the White House Saturday afternoon. 'I had a long talk with Netanyahu today, and it's a private conversation.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

From a Times of Israel liveblog: "Israel was about to 'preemptively' strike Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas's October 7 massacres, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talked out of the plan at the last minute by US President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed officials familiar with the details. The report says that 'Israel had intelligence -- which the US deemed unreliable -- that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Ukraine, et al.

Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "The Ukrainian police have arrested a senior Defense Ministry official on suspicions that he embezzled nearly $40 million as part of a fraudulent purchase of artillery shells for Ukraine's military. The Ukrainian authorities have been working to clean up the ministry since reports of graft and financial mismanagement led to the removal in September of the minister at the time. Ukraine's security service announced the arrest of the senior official, whose name was not released, on Friday. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has also made tackling corruption one of his key wartime goals, not only to reassure Ukraine's Western allies that their billions of dollars in aid are not being siphoned off, but also to ensure an efficient allocation of resources as the country's military runs short on weapons and ammunition in its fight to fend off Russia's forces."

Anton Troianovski, et al., of the New York Times: "Buoyed by Ukraine's failed counteroffensive and flagging Western support, [Vladimir] Putin says that Russia's war goals have not changed. Addressing his generals on Tuesday, he boasted that Ukraine was so beleaguered that Russia's invading troops were doing 'what we want.... We won't give up what's ours,' he pledged, adding dismissively, 'If they want to negotiate, let them negotiate.' But in a recent push of back-channel diplomacy, Mr. Putin has been sending a different message: He is ready to make a deal. Mr. Putin has been signaling through intermediaries since at least September that he is open to a cease-fire that freezes the fighting along the current lines, far short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine...." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Conversation -- December 23, 2023

Festivus explained, here and, (sort of) here: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

From CNN's liveblog, also linked earlier today: "US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, according to the White House. Biden and Netanyahu discussed 'objectives and phasing' of the Israel-Hamas war during their call, according to a White House readout.... 'I did not ask for a ceasefire,' Biden said while leaving the White House Saturday afternoon. 'I had a long talk with Netanyahu today, and it's a private conversation.'"

From a Times of Israel liveblog: "Israel was about to 'preemptively' strike Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas's October 7 massacres, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talked out of the plan at the last minute by US President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed officials familiar with the details. The report says that 'Israel had intelligence -- which the US deemed unreliable -- that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack.'"

Anton Troianovski, et al., of New York Times: "Buoyed by Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive and flagging Western support, [Vladimir] Putin says that Russia's war goals have not changed. Addressing his generals on Tuesday, he boasted that Ukraine was so beleaguered that Russia's invading troops were doing 'what we want.... We won't give up what's ours,' he pledged, adding dismissively, 'If they want to negotiate, let them negotiate.' But in a recent push of back-channel diplomacy, Mr. Putin has been sending a different message: He is ready to make a deal. Mr. Putin has been signaling through intermediaries since at least September that he is open to a cease-fire that freezes the fighting along the current lines, far short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine...."

He Has No Shame. Michael Bender of New York Times: "For decades, American elected officials facing criminal charges or grave violations of the public trust would yield their positions of power, if only reluctantly, citing a duty to save the country from embarrassment and ease the strain on its institutions. Then came Donald J. Trump. The former president isn't just forging ahead despite four indictments and 91 felony charges, but actively orchestrating a head-on collision between the nation's political and legal systems.... The heated legal debate over whether Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection [-- as the Colorado supreme court determined --] obscured the extraordinary reality that he is running for president at all -- returning with fresh vengeance and a familiar playbook built around the notions that he can never lose, will never be convicted and will never really go away. That blueprint remains intact largely because his approach continues to yield political returns." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To me, Trump's "successes" say more about the cowardice of Republican officeholders and the moral depravity of broad swaths of the American people than they do about Donald Trump, who is nothing more than a vicious nincompoop.

Steven Mazie & Stephen Vladeck, in a New York Times op-ed, urge the Supremes not to be as ham-handed as the Supreme Court majority was in Bush v. Gore. Marie: No doubt the writers know their advice is offered in vain.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The [Roman Catholic] church can't succeed in a time warp, moving at the pace of a snail on Ambien. Even Saudi Arabia is modernizing faster. It is simply immoral to treat women and gay people as unworthy of an equal role in their church. After all, isn't the whole point of the church to teach us what is right? And it's not right to treat people as partial humans." ~~~

     ~~~ News Flash to Observant Christians: The New Testament does not address Jesus' sexual orientation; therefore, there's every reason to believe he was supposed to be gay. He never married -- as Jewish teenaged boys were usually required to do -- and he spent the years of his ministry living and traveling with men. There is at least one hint in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas that Jesus had a sexual liaison with a woman. However, there is also a hint to the contrary in the Gospel of Mark (14:51-52): "Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." Some scholars have asserted this suggested that Jesus and his male followers engaged in group sexual rituals. Dowd is right that the Gospels identify numerous strong women. They are generally portrayed as wiser than the male Gospel characters.

~~~~~~~~~~

** Supremes Give Donald a Huuuge Christmas Gift. Adam Liptak of New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The case will move forward in an appeals court and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Secret Santas. Devan Cole of CNN: "The court did not explain its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.... An expedited review of the issue is already underway at the DC Circuit, which has scheduled oral arguments for January 9. The election subversion trial is currently set to begin in March." (Also linked yesterday.)

Donnie DeNile. Kierra Frazier of Politico: "In a wide-ranging interview on Friday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, [Donald] Trump said he would peacefully transfer power to the next president if reelected, despite insisting in the same interview that he peacefully turned over power to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.... 'Of course,' Trump responded to Hewitt when asked if he would hand over power peacefully if reelected. 'And I did that this time. And I'll tell you what. The election was rigged, and we have plenty of evidence of it. But I did it anyway.'"

Michael Gold of New York Times: Donald Trump's "focus on bloodlines and genetics ... has received renewed attention and scrutiny in his third bid for president.... Much as news articles, biographers and books about his presidency have documented Mr. Trump's long interest in Adolf Hitler, they have also shown that Mr. Trump has frequently turned to the language of genetics as he discusses the superiority of himself and others. Mr. Trump was talking publicly about his belief that genetics determined a person's success in life as early as 1988, when he told Oprah Winfrey that a person had 'to have the right genes' in order to achieve great fortune.... [In 2010,] he would tell CNN that he was a 'gene believer,' explaining that 'when you connect two racehorses, you usually end up with a fast horse' and likening his 'gene pool' to that of successful thoroughbreds.... The former president has not just promoted his own 'good genes,' but has repeatedly lauded those of British business leaders, Christian evangelical leaders, a top campaign adviser and the American industrialist Henry Ford."

Darren Samuelsohn of the Messenger: "Donald Trump's co-defendant and ex-Justice Department loyalist Jeffrey Clark lost on Thursday in his bid to have his part of the Georgia 2020 election racketeering case immediately put on hold until a federal appeals court decides where he can fight the charges. A three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which included a pair of Trump appointees, ruled that Clark 'cannot show any chance of success on the merits' and so 'there can be no basis for granting a stay.'"

Adam Entous of New York Times: "In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi. 'I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,' he wrote in the typo-filled message. 'It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary.'... [House] Republicans have portrayed it as evidence that he was privately acknowledging that he split his [substantial Burisma] income with his father.... But a close examination of the circumstances ... shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted [by Republicans].... The 2019 message was a reference to a story from Hunter's youth.... [Hunter's] roommate [at Georgetown U.] at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother 'a million times' that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, 'You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for "room and board."'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hunter may have thought it wasn't "fair" to have to share his income with his parents to help pay his expenses, but a lot of young people do that, whether or not it's described as "room and board." I saved at least half of all of the income I earned as a teenager to help pay for my college tuition & dorm fees. I never considered that any sort of burden; my parents paid what they could and I paid what I could. And I was the beneficiary of every cent. Joe Biden, often described as "the poorest Senator" (because that's what Senate financial disclosures showed) likely did as my parents did: paid the portion of the children's college expenses he could afford. Of course, Hunter's friends were, on the whole, richer than my friends, so I can see why he might have compared his circumstances to those of his wealthy friends. ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of New York Times: "As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.... But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light." Broadwater examines several examples of those mountains-to-molehills conversions. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Rein & Eric Yoder of Washington Post: "Federal employees will receive pay raises averaging 5.2 percent -- more in some high-salary areas -- under an order President Biden signed Thursday that delivers the biggest increase to U.S. government workers since the Carter administration. The salary hike for the federal civilian workforce of close to 2.2 million people is the heftiest since a 9.1 percent average raise in 1980. It's 0.6 percentage points higher than last year's increase, which itself was the highest in two decades, and will take effect in the first full pay period of 2024, starting Jan. 14 for most federal employees. The military is set to receive a comparable increase in January in the $886 billion defense bill that Congress approved this month."

Ellie Silverman & Toluse Olorunnipa of Washington Post: "D.C. residents may be able to clear their records of certain marijuana offenses after President Biden announced Friday that he will pardon those convicted of simple use and possession on certain federal lands and the nation's capital.... The announcement follows Biden's proclamation last year pardoning thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law as part of a broader effort to rectify what he has said are unjustified disparities in drug sentencing. No one was released from prison after that 2022 announcement because, White House officials said at the time, there is no one currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of cannabis.... ... Biden urged governors across the nation to follow his lead with regard to state offenses." An NPR story is here.

Abdi Dahir & Eric Schmitt of New York Times: "A senior leader of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, who was accused of planning multiple attacks that killed 148 Kenyans in a university town and three Americans on a military base, was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last Sunday, according to Somali and American officials. Maalim Ayman was killed on Dec. 17 by a U.S. Special Operations drone strike in a joint operation with the Somali national army, the officials said. He is believed to be responsible for the assault on Jan. 5, 2020 on a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed two U.S. contractor pilots and a U.S. soldier. A third U.S. contractor and two other U.S. service members were injured. Six U.S. aircraft were destroyed in the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Lamothe & Shane Harris of Washington Post: "Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking classified U.S. intelligence documents on a gaming platform, alarmed fellow members of his unit, who worried that the young computer technician might, in the words of one, 'shoot up the place' after he was warned to stop looking at classified information that had nothing to do with his job, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.... Teixeira's concerned co-workers ... said that as early as the summer of 2021 he exhibited the warning signs they had been trained to look out for in a potential active shooter. The fuller report shows that Guard members who worked with Teixeira him saw him as a security risk, but not for the reasons that ultimately led to his arrest and indictment this year on charges of illegally removing and disseminating classified information.... Authorities determined that Teixeira owned more than a dozen registered firearms. For all the concerns about Teixeira's suspicious behavior and potential for violence, no one in the unit reported him to the appropriate security officials, the investigation found. Instead, investigators documented a pattern of buck-passing and downplaying of worries that Teixeira ... was really a danger." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of the faults of a top-down, "conservative" organization is that "rocking the boat" is punished more than rewarded. Like cops with their thin blue line, potential whistleblowers are discouraged from coming forward. So even when a serious problem is obvious, and people may grumble among themselves about it, few will take the initiative to file a report that goes up the line.

Eduardo Medina of New York Times: "Under pressure from critics who say Substack is profiting from newsletters that promote hate speech and racism, the company's founders said Thursday that they would not ban Nazi symbols and extremist rhetoric from the platform.... The response came weeks after The Atlantic found that at least 16 Substack newsletters had 'overt Nazi symbols' in their logos or graphics, and that white supremacists had been allowed to publish on, and profit from, the platform. Hundreds of newsletter writers signed a letter opposing Substack's position and threatening to leave. About 100 others signed a letter supporting the company's stance.... Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of revenue from writers who charge for newsletter subscriptions, has faced similar criticism in the past, particularly after it allowed transphobic and anti-vaccine language from some writers."

~~~~~~~~~~

Wisconsin. Julie Bosman of New York Times: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court said on Friday that the state's heavily gerrymandered legislative maps that favor Republicans were unconstitutional and ordered new maps before the 2024 election. The ruling has the potential to produce a seismic political shift in a crucial presidential swing state. Justice Jill J. Karofsky, writing for the majority, said that Wisconsin's current maps violate a requirement in the State Constitution 'that Wisconsin's state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory.'... The decision was widely expected from a court that flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority this year after the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. The winner of that election, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a former Milwaukee County judge, was openly critical of the current legislative maps, calling them 'rigged' and 'unfair' during her campaign." The AP story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 136 United Nations workers have been killed in Gaza in 75 days, Secretary General António Guterres said on Friday, calling it unprecedented in U.N. history. 'I pay tribute to them & the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza,' he wrote in a social media post." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here. CNN's live updates are here: "Israel has indicated it is widening its military operation, ordering residents in the central part of Gaza to seek safety in shelters. The White House said Israel has assured the US of its plans to pivot to a lower-intensity operation as its objectives shift."

Farnaz Fassihi & Michael Levenson of New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution that would allow more aid to reach desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, ending nearly a week of intense diplomatic wrangling intended to prevent the United States from blocking the measure. But the resolution stopped short of past attempts to impose a cease-fire. The vote was 13 to 0, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The resolution was adopted after diplomats repeatedly delayed the vote this week and reworked the measure in heated negotiations aimed at winning support from the United States, which previously vetoed two resolutions that called for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas." (A versiono f this story, published as part of the NYT liveblog on Israel/Hamas, was linked yesterday.)

Joanna Slater, et al., of Washington Post: "The Israeli government on Friday confirmed the death of a 73-year-old Israeli American, Gadi Haggai. Haggai was killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, and his body was taken by fighters into Gaza, where it is still being held, a spokesperson for his home kibbutz of Nir Oz said in a statement. His wife, Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, is 'still held hostage' by Hamas, the statement said. She is also an Israeli American.... On Friday, [President] Biden offered his condolences to the Haggai family in a White House statement."

The Conversation -- December 22, 2023

** Supremes Give Donald a Huuuge Christmas Gift. Adam Liptak of New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The case will move forward in an appeals court and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country." ~~~

     ~~~ Secret Santas. Devan Cole of CNN: "The court did not explain its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.... An expedited review of the issue is already underway at the DC Circuit, which has scheduled oral arguments for January 9. The election subversion trial is currently set to begin in March."

From the New York Times Israel/Hamas liveblog, also linked below: "The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution calling for a major increase in aid to desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, ending nearly a week of intense diplomatic wrangling for the U.S. to not block the measure. The vote was 13-0 in favor of the resolution, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The final version of the measure did not call for a cease-fire and was unlikely to affect the fighting in Gaza.... Friday's resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, the only Arab country currently on the 15-member council, calls on the warring parties in Gaza to allow the use of 'all available routes' into Gaza for aid deliveries.... The draft also dropped a call for the 'urgent suspension of hostilities' from an earlier version, instead calling for 'urgent steps' to allow unhindered humanitarian access and the creation of 'conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.'"

Adam Entous of New York Times: "In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi. 'I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,' he wrote in the typo-filled message. 'It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary.'... [House] Republicans have portrayed it as evidence that he was privately acknowledging that he split his [substantial Burisma] income with his father.... But a close examination of the circumstances ... shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted [by Republicans].... The 2019 message was a reference to a story from Hunter's youth.... [Hunter's] roommate [at Georgetown U.] at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother 'a million times' that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, 'You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for "room and board."'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hunter may have thought it wasn't "fair" to have to share his income with his parents to help pay his expenses, but a lot of young people do that. I saved at least half of all of the income I earned as a teenager to help pay for my college tuition & dorm fees. I never considered that any sort of burden; my parents paid what they could and I paid what I could. And I was the beneficiary of every cent. Joe Biden, often described as "the poorest Senator" (because that's what Senate financial disclosures showed) likely did as my parents did: paid the portion of the children's college expenses he could afford. Of course, Hunter's friends were, on the whole, richer than my friends, so I can see why he might have compared his circumstances to those of his wealthy friends. ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of New York Times: "As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.... But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light." Broadwater examines several examples of those mountains-to-molehills conversions.

Abdi Dahir & Eric Schmitt of New York Times: "A senior leader of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, who was accused of planning multiple attacks that killed 148 Kenyans in a university town and three Americans on a military base, was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last Sunday, according to Somali and American officials. Maalim Ayman was killed on Dec. 17 by a U.S. Special Operations drone strike in a joint operation with the Somali national army, the officials said. He is believed to be responsible for the assault on Jan. 5, 2020 on a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed two U.S. contractor pilots and a U.S. soldier. A third U.S. contractor and two other U.S. service members were injured. Six U.S. aircraft were destroyed in the attack."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: As he has promised to do, Donald Trump keeps repeating his claim that immigrants "from Africa, Asia and South America" are "poisoning the blood of our nation." Lest we assume that because he skipped mentioning Central America, he's fine with immigrants from that region, of course he began his first campaign for president* asserting that immigrants from Mexico were "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists." So we are left to surmise that in the xenophobic little mind of Donald Trump, the only immigrants who are not "poisoning the blood of our nation" are those from Europe. The truth of course is that Europeans are the largest group of immigrants to these shores, and that the ancestors of most immigrants from Central and South America and well as some from Asia got here way before Europeans did. It is Donald Trump -- a third-generation European-American -- his immigrant wives, his children and most of the rest of us who have poisoned the blood of this nation. He's such a stupid, embarrassing blowhard.

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Special counsel Jack Smith again urged the Supreme Court to weigh former President Trump's efforts to toss his election interference prosecution as a lower court considers Trump's argument he is immune from prosecution as a former executive. The swift reply comes after Trump on Wednesday argued acceptance of the case by the high court would be an end-run around the appeals process, with the next lower court hearing set for early next month." (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Liptak of New York Times: "'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court,' ... Donald J. Trump said on Jan. 6, 2021. 'They love to rule against me.'... Mr. Trump spoke ruefully about his three appointees: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, suggesting that they had betrayed him.... Mr. Trump said his nominees had abandoned him, blaming his [Court] losses on the justices' eagerness to participate in Washington social life and to assert their independence from the charge that 'they're my puppets.'... Mr. Trump has criticized Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on similar grounds.... A fundamentally conservative court ... has not been particularly receptive to his arguments.... The Trump administration had the worst Supreme Court record of any since at least the Roosevelt administration.... Now another series of Trump cases are at the court or on its threshold...."

Darren Samuelsohn & Steve Reilly of the Messenger: "Special Counsel Jack Smith's office continued feuding with Donald Trump's lawyers on Thursday over how fast to get moving on preparations for convening a jury in the South Florida federal felony case on charges the former president mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House. In a four-page brief, Smith counselor Jay Bratt argued his team continues to work toward a potential May 20, 2024, trial in Fort Pierce, Fla. That includes preparations and distribution of a jury questionnaire that the special counsel wants U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to sign off on with a Feb. 2 deadline for both parties to jointly submit a proposal, along with their areas of disagreement."

** Caught on Tape. Attention: Jack Smith. Craig Mauger of the Detroit News: "Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County [Detroit] Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time. On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they'd look 'terrible' if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county's election results, according to the recordings. 'We've got to fight for our country,' said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. 'We can't let these people take our country away from us.'

"McDaniel ... said at another point in the call, 'If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys.' To which Trump added: 'We'll take care of that.'... Trump said Republicans had been 'cheated on this election' and 'everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell,' according to the recordings.... The recordings further demonstrated the direct involvement of Trump, as an incumbent president, with Republican officials in Michigan in a bid to undermine Biden's win and how some details of his efforts had remained secret as he launched a campaign to win back the White House in 2024."

     ~~~ Marie: If you wondered why Trump concentrated on flipping the vote totals in just one state -- Georgia ("find me 11,781 votes") -- he wasn't.

All My Trials, Lord. Kara Scannell of CNN: "... Donald Trump is asking a federal appeals court to delay his defamation trial set for next month in a lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll so he can consider other legal moves, including potentially taking the case to the US Supreme Court. A federal appeals court rejected Trump's use of presidential immunity as a defense to the defamation charges stemming from statements he made while president, saying he had waived his right to assert it by making the claim too late into the litigation. The court sent the case back to the trial judge to move ahead to trial, which is set for January 16. In a motion Thursday, Trump's attorneys asked the appeals court to stay the trial to allow them time to consider their appellate options...."

Eileen Sullivan & Alan Feuer of New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, a day after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million in damages he owes to two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies that they had tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump. Mr. Giuliani owes millions of dollars in legal fees as well as unpaid state and federal income taxes, according to the filing." A Reuters story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Actor John Schneider called for the executions of Joe Biden and the president's son Hunter in a now-deleted social media post that drew ridicule and questions about whether he should be criminally charged. Schneider, perhaps best known for his role as Bo Duke on the TV series Dukes of Hazzard as well as his recent runner-up finish on The Masked Singer, fired off the post on X at 2am local time on Thursday. 'Mr President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung,' Schneider wrote to Biden. 'Your son too. Your response is..?...'... Citing anonymous sources close to the matter, Deadline reported later Thursday that the Secret Service ... had opened a preliminary investigation into Schneider." MB: That's "hanged," not "hung," John, you ignorant slug.

Presidential Race 2024

Meredith McGraw & Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Top officials with Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Colorado Republican Party spoke on Thursday to discuss plans of action after the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to throw the former president off of the Republican primary ballot.... The Colorado GOP will appeal the Colorado court's decision -- holding that Trump was invalidated from appearing on the ballot because he'd incited an insurrection on Jan. 6 -- to the Supreme Court. Depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, he said, the party would ask the Republican National Committee for a waiver to hold a caucus instead of a primary election."

You may be surprised to learn that there are causes other than inciting insurrection that can keep a presidential* hopeful off the ballot. ~~~

~~~ Grace Kazarian & Hunter Woodall of CBS News: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's latest attempt to get on the Maine Republican presidential primary ballot failed Thursday after his campaign tried to recover from a surprising setback in the Super Tuesday state. Earlier this month, the Maine Secretary of State's office said that Christie's campaign fell short of the necessary number of certified signatures needed from Maine voters to qualify for the state's Republican presidential primary. His campaign appealed the decision, but a Maine Superior Court judge sided on Thursday with the secretary of state's handling of the situation." MB: Now we'll see if the ruling requires Chrisco supporters to make death threats against the judge & secretary of state and publish their home addresses.

Vaughn Hillyard & Dan Gallo of NBC News: "No Labels, the organization attempting to assemble a third-party presidential unity ticket, is openly floating the prospect of a'coalition government' forming after the 2024 election if no candidate reaches the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House. Officials with the group are mapping out an unlikely and largely unprecedented scenario where they could be in a position to cut deals on policy, Cabinet posts or even the vice presidency if their still-unformed ticket manages to win electoral votes and blocks a major-party nominee from winning the presidency outright.... Former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, a co-founder of No Labels ... suggest[ed] the No Labels ticket could 'cut a deal' with one of the major parties' tickets.... Davis also said that the group is looking at another potential, if far-fetched, outcome: A contingent election in which the president is selected by the U.S. House." MB: Or, they could pick a president out of a hat full of strips of paper with the names of people qualified to be president. Or there could be, like, a lottery. Or whatever.

Emma Barnett & Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A New Hampshire man has been indicted after threatening text messages were allegedly sent to three presidential candidates, including Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie. Tyler Anderson of Dover, New Hampshire, was charged with three counts of transmitting interstate threats stemming from text messages sent to three presidential campaigns, the Justice Department said in a news release.... The text messages, dating back to November, included a threat to 'impale' and 'disembowel' one candidate, prosecutors said. The candidate was not named in court documents."

Dana Priest of the Washington Post: "Jamal Khashoggi's widow, [Hanan Elatr,] who went into hiding after The Washington Post columnist was murdered in 2018 by a Saudi assassination squad, has been granted political asylum in the United States.... The decision this month validates Elatr's assertions that her life would be in danger were she to return to her native Egypt or the United Arab Emirates, where she lived for 26 years until Jamal Khashoggi was killed."

** Heidi Przybyla of Politico: "... a tight circle of conservative legal activists have built a highly effective thought chamber around the court's conservative flank over the past decade. A Politico review of tax filings, financial statements and other public documents found that [right-wing judicial activist Leonard] Leo and his network of nonprofit groups are either directly or indirectly connected to a majority of amicus briefs filed on behalf of conservative parties in seven of the highest-profile rulings the court has issued over the past two years.... The picture that emerges is of an exceedingly small universe of mostly Christian conservative activists developing and disseminating theories to change the nation's legal and cultural landscape. It also casts new light on Leo's outsized role in the conservative legal movement, where he simultaneously advised Trump on Supreme Court nominations, paid for media campaigns promoting the nominees and sought to influence court decision-making on a range of cases."

Przybyla goes on to show how actual scholars have torn apart some of the so-call scholarship in the Court's decisions, particularly in Sam Alito's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, supposedly historical medieval precedents Alito cribbed off an amicus brief by friend-of-Leonard Princeton professor Robert George, who is not an historian and didn't know WTF he was writing about. Przybyla also notes that more liberal members of the Court rely on amicus briefs, too, and that Justice Jackson received criticism for some misleading information she copied from one of them. MB: You know what? Sam Alito and his Supreme cohort don't care how faulty their arguments are; they only care that they're beating down the ladies, the gays, the infidels, and the Black and Brown people.

A Scrooge for Our Times. Nathaniel Meyersohn of CNN: "Wayfair's CEO has an end-of-year message for employees of the online furniture company: Don't shy away from doing more work and blending your work with your life. 'Winning requires hard work. I believe that most of us, being ambitious individuals, find fulfillment in the joy of seeing our efforts materialize into tangible results,' CEO Niraj Shah said in a note to employees earlier this month celebrating the company's recent success.... 'Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.'"

The Woman Who Changed D-Day Dies at 100. Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk [Maureen Flavin] in Ireland's County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast.... She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain's Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland's northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.... About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day. The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker -- 21-year-old Maureen Flavin [later Maureen Flavin Sweeney] -- became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.... [Sweeney] died Dec. 17 at 100...." Read to the end. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Rhode Island. Katherine Gregg of the Providence (R.I.) Journal: "The selection of former Trump National Security Adviser − and renowned conspiracy theorist − Mike Flynn as an inductee into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame has led to at least a half dozen resignations from the board that oversees the Hall of Fame. And it has led former Congressman Jim Langevin, who was also selected last week for induction into the honorary Hall of Fame, to serve notice: 'If retired General Michael Flynn were to be included in this class I would not accept the nomination.' In her letter of resignation from the board, former Rep. Denise Aiken wrote: "I find that I am unable to be associated with an organization that would choose to honor a criminal who failed to keep this oath to the Constitution of the United States.'" Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: Don't they have a Hall of Infamy where they could stick General Mike in with notorious Providence mob bosses & such? (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Kim Bellware, et al., of the Washington Post: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) tried to compel a Seattle hospital to hand over information about gender-affirming treatment Texas youths may have received across state lines, according to court filings, signaling an escalation of his office's attempts to crack down on Texans' ability to access such health care. The Seattle Children's Hospital requested a Texas judge nullify, or at least rein in, Paxton's demands, arguing that his office lacks the jurisdiction over the Washington state hospital.... The hospital said Paxton's queries -- made under the guise of an investigation by the AG's consumer protection division -- were 'sham requests.'" A KXAN (Austin, Texas) story is here. Thanks to RAS for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters late Thursday that American diplomats and their Arab counterparts had produced a draft U.N. Security Council resolution regarding the flow of aid to Gaza, which Washington could support.... The U.N. vote is expected to happen Friday. Over a quarter of the Gaza population faces 'catastrophic hunger and starvation,' according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.... There are no fully functional hospitals now in northern Gaza, where only four hospitals are still functioning. Those can provide only 'very limited care,' and none can operate on severely wounded patients because of shortages of supplies and workers, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Friday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

New York Times: "During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians, according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times. The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore.... U.S. officials have said that Israel should do more to reduce civilian casualties while fighting Hamas.... Still, since October, the United States has also sent more than 5,000 MK-84 munitions -- a type of 2,000-pound bomb." ~~~

     ~~~ Tamara Qiblawi, et al., of CNN: "In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away, analysis by CNN and artificial intelligence company Synthetaic suggests.... Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The population of Gaza is packed together much more tightly than almost anywhere else on earth, so the use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect."

     ~~~ Marie: Some time back, contributor Patrick, citing a news story, wrote, "I would really like to see a 'less intense air strike.'" I would say dropping less-than-2000-pound bombs on civilians in a supposed safe zone might be "less intense."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "More than 20,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas militants led an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Israel's response -- an all-out bombardment of Gaza and a ground invasion -- has killed almost 1 in 100 people in the Strip." The article goes on to discuss how unreliable the figure may be.

News Ledes

CNBC: “A gauge the Federal Reserve uses for inflation rose slightly in November and edged closer to the central bank's goal. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.1% for the month, and was up 3.2% from a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting respective increases of 0.1% and 3.3%." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "A closely watched measure of inflation cooled notably in November, good news for the Federal Reserve as officials move toward the next phase in their fight against rapid price increases and a positive for the White House as voters see relief from rising costs. The Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation measure, which the Fed cites when it says it aims for 2 percent inflation on average over time, climbed 2.6 percent in the year through November. That was down from 2.9 percent the previous month, and was less than what economists had forecast. Compared with the previous month, prices overall even fell slightly for the first time in years."