May 7, 2022

The New York Times' live updates of developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian officials have warned citizens to prepare for heavier Russian attacks in the lead-up to Victory Day on Monday, when the Kremlin will commemorate the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany with military parades in hundreds of Russian cities. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine implored citizens on Friday to heed air-raid sirens and local curfews.... Earlier in the day, Mr. Zelensky said that negotiations for peace between Ukraine and Russia could not resume until Russian forces returned to the positions they had held before Moscow's invasion.... President Zelensky met with the foreign ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and discussed how to increase pressure on Russia. He also addressed Iceland's Parliament virtually." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here: "The Pentagon is buying laser-guided rockets and drones for Ukraine's military, a U.S. defense official said Friday, while the United States will also send an additional $150 million worth of weapons and equipment suited for the open terrain of Donbas. President Biden the same day urged lawmakers to approve additional funding that would 'strengthen Ukraine on the battlefield and at the negotiating table.' The president will sign the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act -- which speeds up the process of sending aid to Ukraine -- on Monday, the anniversary of Nazi Germany's defeat, and a day of portentous significance in Russia." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here.

Liz Sly, et al., of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined his conditions Friday for entering peace talks with Russia, demanding a restoration of preinvasion borders, the return of more than 5 million refugees, membership in the European Union and accountability from Russian military leaders before Kyiv would consider laying down its arms. Zelensky's slate of requirements, which he listed during an online forum organized by Chatham House, are in direct conflict with the military objectives Russian leaders have articulated as they bear down on the Donbas region and southern Ukraine -- inflicting additional casualties Friday in apparent violation of a cease-fire."

Gaia Pianigiani of the New York Times: "After weeks of investigation, Italian authorities announced late Friday evening that they had impounded a nearly $700 million superyacht, saying that its owner had 'significant economic and business links' to 'prominent elements of the Russian government.' According to U.S. officials, the prominent element is none other than ... Vladimir V. Putin. In recent days, the Scheherazade, as the enormous luxury ship is named, showed signs of readying to set sail, apparently aiming to leave before the Italian government could seize it. But late Friday, Italian police boarded the yacht -- which is 459 feet long, with two helicopter decks, a gym and a swimming pool convertible into a dance floor -- and told the crew that the ship was not going anywhere." MB: Yeah, but it's pretty tacky, IMO:

** Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: “... Alito will forever be known as the supreme court justice who destroyed a woman's right to control her own body and who set the US on a regressive course pointing back to the 17th century.... [Alito's] draft draws heavily from two treatises written by an English jurist, Sir Matthew Hale, describing abortion as a 'great crime'.... No matter that Hale was writing in 1673. Or that ... his distinguished career included securing the executions of two women as witches and writing the definitive text for a marital rape exemption that said that husbands cannot be culpable of raping their wives because 'by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife hath given up herself'....

~~~ "Alito leans on Hale and other voices from the distant past to underline his main contention: that 'the Constitution makes no reference to abortion' and as a result there can be no constitutional right. He glides over the fact that the constitution ... makes no reference to airplanes, car license plates or Snapchat, though that hasn't prevented the nine justices applying constitutional laws to those fields. Alito's other central argument in scuppering Roe is that constitutional rights have to be 'deeply rooted in the Nation's history and traditions'. Yet, interestingly, that standard makes no appearance in the US constitution either." Read on. ~~~

~~~ Ken Armstrong of ProPublica: "When U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ... detailed his justifications for overturning Roe v. Wade, he ... chose to [favorably] quote from Sir Matthew Hale, a 17th-century English jurist whose writings and reasonings have caused enduring damage to women for hundreds of years. The so-called marital rape exemption -- the legal notion that a married woman cannot be raped by her husband — traces to Hale. So does a long-used instruction to jurors to be skeptical of reports of rape. So, in a way, do the infamous Salem witch trials, in which women (and some men) were hanged.... Alito's opinion resurrects Hale, a judge who was considered misogynistic even by his era's notably low standards.... Alito ... invokes 'eminent common-law authorities,' including Hale, to show how abortion was viewed historically not as a right, but as a criminal act." ~~~

~~~ Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "Justice Samuel Alito approvingly referenced a man who supported the death penalty for witches in the leaked draft of his efforts to overturn Roe vs. Wade.... 'Samuel Alito reaches back to legal writings in 17th century England to show that the right to abortion services is not deeply rooted in our history. He cites Sir Edward Coke, writing in 1644, that abortion is a crime,' [Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC] explained. 'In 1644, in England, they were still having witch trials ending in the execution of the convicted witches. And Sir Edward Coke helped English law define witches when he re-wrote English law in 1604 to make it even more cruel in witchcraft trials.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Missing from Alito's footnotes (as far as I know!): Henry VIII & the Marquis de Sade.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Justice Clarence Thomas said Friday that the judiciary is threatened if people are unwilling to 'live with outcomes we don't agree with' and that recent events at the Supreme Court might be 'one symptom of that.' Thomas, speaking to judges and lawyers at the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference, did not speak directly about the leak of a draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, a colossal breach of the court's procedures. But he referred a couple of times to the 'unfortunate events' of the past week, and in a question-and-answer session led by a former clerk, he said he worried about declining respect for institutions and the rule of law." MB: Thomas seems completely oblivious to his central role in the Court's decline.

Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the demise of Roe will exacerbate America's antagonisms, creating more furious legal rifts between states than we've seen in modern times.... We will have two wildly different abortion regimes in this country. About half the states are expected to mostly prohibit abortion; according to the Guttmacher Institute, in 11 states there won't even be exemptions for rape and incest. A bill moving through the Louisiana Legislature would allow prosecutors to charge those having abortions with homicide. Blue states, meanwhile, are casting themselves as abortion sanctuaries. The right won't be content to watch liberal states try to undermine abortion bans.... The death of Roe will intensify our national animus, turning red states and blue into mutually hostile legal territories." ~~~

~~~ Goldberg writes, "The point is not that abortion bans are comparable to slavery in a moral sense...." Actually, they are comparable. As Margaret Atwood writes in a Guardian op-ed (extracted from her book of essays, Burning Questions) "Enforced childbirth is slavery."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A son of a Brooklyn judge who dressed as a cave man and helped lead the charge against police lines and barricades in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot was sentenced to eight months in prison Friday after pleading guilty to felony civil disorder. Aaron Mostofsky, 35, an aspiring architect, admitted to being one of the first 12 people to enter the Capitol's broken Senate-wing doors and windows shortly after 2:13 p.m., while wearing a raccoon fur pelt and stealing a police shield and bulletproof vest." The AP's report is here.

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "A California judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit that Donald Trump filed against Twitter, the latest blow to the former president's high-profile battles with major tech companies over their decisions to suspend his accounts in the fallout of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. The lawsuit, which Trump initially filed last year in Florida along with suits targeting Google and Facebook, was viewed as part of a broader strategy to appeal to conservatives who have long argued that social media companies unfairly censor their viewpoints.... In the ruling, U.S. District Judge James Donato rejected Trump's argument that Twitter was operating as a 'state actor' when it suspended his account in January 2021, calling it not plausible. Trump had claimed that Twitter was constrained by the First Amendment's restrictions on government limitations of free speech because it had acted in cooperation with government officials." Legal experts said Trump didn't have a case, but Trump used the lawsuit as a fundraiser. A CNBC report is here.

Let me tell you 'bout a man.
What man?
A man with a van.

Trump Mobster Caught on Tape. Shawn Boburg of the Washington Post: "On Oct. 17, 2020, influential GOP donor Steven F. Hotze ... [called] the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Texas, Ryan Patrick, a Trump appointee, who recorded the conversation." Patrick is the son of radical right Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, to whom Hotze had given nearly $100K in campaign donations. In the phone conversation, Hotze asked for help in apprehending a repairman driving a white van, someone Hotze had a private investigator following. The PI was prepared to ram the van, Hotze said, because it was supposedly shuttling phony ballots around. "Two days after the call, the private investigator Hotze had named ran a white van driven by an air-conditioning repairman off the road in Houston and held the driver at gunpoint during a futile search for forged ballots, county prosecutors allege. Police have said the man was innocent. His truck contained repair parts." The Houston DA is using the taped conversation as evidence in a criminal case against Hotze. During a deposition taken in a civil suit brought by the repairman, Hotze claimed he had no knowledge of the surveillance & never spoke to law enforcement about the matter.

Regrets, He Has a Few. Speaking of big-donor losers, Dan Zak of the Washington Post reports that Gordon Sondland, the hotelier who bought the E.U. ambassadorship from Donald Trump and then figured, unfortunately, in Trump Impeachment No. 1, has written a memoir. He thinks he did the right thing getting Trump together with Volodymyr Zelensky. His mistake, he says? Accepting "help" from Rudy Giuliani. MB: The only person who ever came out ahead enlisting Rudy's help is Borat.

Starbucks Sucks, Ctd. Kate Rogers of CNBC: "The regional director of the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo, N.Y., issued a complaint Friday accusing Starbucks of 29 unfair labor practice charges that included over 200 violations of the National Labor Relations Act. The complaint stems from claims made by Starbucks Workers United against the company in Buffalo, where the union organizing effort began in August. In the complaint, viewed by CNBC, the NLRB accuses Starbucks of interfering with, restraining and coercing employees seeking to unionize in various ways. The regional office of the independent federal agency said the coffee giant threatened and intimidated workers by closing down stores in the area, reduced workers' compensation, enforced policies against union supporters in a discriminatory way, engaged in surveillance and fired workers, among other alleged violations."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Congressional Race. Kate Brumback of the AP: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger accepted a judge's findings Friday and said U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is qualified to run for reelection despite claims by a group of voters that she had engaged in insurrection. Georgia Administrative Law Judge Charles Beaudrot issued a decision hours earlier that Green was eligible to run, finding the voters hadn't produced sufficient evidence to back their claims. After Raffensperger adopted the judge's decision, the group that filed the complaint on behalf of the voters vowed to appeal."

Indiana. He's a Murderer (Allegedly!), But He's Our Murderer. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "An Indiana man who is accused of killing his cancer-stricken wife as she was seeking a divorce won his GOP primary this week from jail and will be on the ballot in November -- if he has not been convicted. Andrew Wilhoite was charged in March with killing his wife, Elizabeth 'Nikki Wilhoite, 41. She had completed her last chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer and was seeking a divorce after she found out her husband had been having an affair, according to the Lebanon Reporter. When the Lebanon, Ind., couple got into a domestic dispute in late March, Andrew Wilhoite 'allegedly struck her in the head' with a concrete, gallon-sized flower pot, placed her in his car and dumped her body in a nearby creek, according to the Indiana State Police.... [Andrew] Wilhoite, who initially lied about her whereabouts but later admitted to killing her, won his Republican primary on Tuesday for one of the three open seats on the Clinton Township Board."

Way Beyond

Northern Ireland. AP: "Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein was widely expected to become the largest group in the Northern Ireland Assembly for the first time, with vote-counting in this week's election resuming Saturday. If Sinn Finn emerges victorious, it will be entitled to the post of first minister in Belfast for the first time since Northern Ireland was founded as a Protestant-majority state in 1921. A Sinn Fein win in the election would be a milestone for a party long linked to the Irish Republican Army, a paramilitary group that used bombs, bullets and other forms of violence to try to take Northern Ireland out of U.K. rule during decades of unrest. It would also bring Sinn Fein's ultimate goal of a united Ireland a step closer." ~~~

~~~ U.K. Elliot Smith of CNBC: "The U.K.'s ruling Conservative Party has lost a slew of seats in local elections across England, dealing a potential blow to embattled Prime Minister Boris Johnson.... The Conservatives have suffered losses across England in the results declared so far, after voting was held Thursday.... Vote counting is now underway in Scotland, where results are expected to be more unfavorable to the Conservatives, along with Wales and Northern Ireland, with results expected Friday evening or Saturday morning." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates of elections results are here.

News Ledes

Washington Post: "In perhaps the most shocking result in the 148-year history of the Kentucky Derby, an 80-1 shot who wasn't even included in the race until Friday sneaked up the rail at the last furlong to win. Rich Strike, who got a place in the 20-horse field only when Ethereal Road scratched a day earlier, and whose trainer, jockey and owner all were Derby first-timers, capitalized on a ferocious stretch duel between favorites Epicenter and Zandon, catching them from behind...."

Washington Post: "An explosion at a historical five-star hotel in Old Havana on Friday morning killed at least 26 people and destroyed much of the building, Cuban officials said. The cause of the explosion was unclear, officials said, but preliminary investigation pointed to a gas leak. Dozens more were injured in the blast that rocked the Hotel Saratoga, across from the Cuban Capitol, around 11 a.m. Friday. On Saturday, officials released the names and ages of the dead; they included a pregnant woman and four children aged 10 to 17."

May 6, 2022

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. told a crowd of judges and lawyers Thursday that the leak of a Supreme Court draft opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade is 'absolutely appalling,' but will not affect the final outcome of the court's historic deliberations on the abortion issue. 'Aleak of this sort -- let's assume that's what it is -- is absolutely appalling, and if the people behind it, or person behind it, thinks that it's going to have an effect on our decision process, that's absolutely foolish,' Roberts told the 11th Circuit Judicial Conference meeting here. 'We will go about doing our work as we would in any event, regardless of the leak,' he said." CNN's report is here. MB: Apparently not "absolutely appalling": the content of the opinion itself, which takes away a Constitutional right from millions of American women and their families.

Watch How She Votes, Not What She Says. Felicia Sonmez & Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of two prominent Republican senators who support abortion rights, said Thursday that she does not support a Democratic measure that would create statutory right to the procedure, arguing that the legislation does not provide sufficient protection to antiabortion health providers. The statement from Collins comes as the Senate is preparing to vote next week on the legislation, known as the Women's Health Protection Act, and as the Supreme Court appears poised to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling, which established a woman's right to an abortion.... The measure appears headed for failure with or without Collins's support, since 60 senators would need to vote 'yes' to overcome a filibuster.... Public polling shows a majority of Americans support the right to abortion in most instances." MB: Could we please stop describing Collins as a "a senator who who supports abortion rights"? No, she doesn't. Thanks, Maine!

** Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: Women were largely missing from the Roe v. Wade opinion; it was was all about doctors' rights vs. the state's rights: "The decision vindicates the right of the physician to administer medical treatment according to his professional judgment up to the points where important state interests provide compelling justifications for intervention," Justice Harry Blackmun wrote. Greenhouse explains, "The court had yet to build a jurisprudence of sex equality; that came later, in the series of cases that the young Ruth Bader Ginsburg would argue during the remainder of the 1970s." But Alito has no excuse: "Granted that the young Samuel Alito, as a recent Princeton graduate, joined an organization of conservatives who sought to limit the inclusion of women at his alma mater. Granted that he has made clear his desire to overturn Roe since even before his days on the court. It is still astonishing that in 2022 he would use his power to erase the right to abortion without in any way meaningfully acknowledging the impact both on women and on the constitutional understanding of sex equality as it has evolved in the past half-century."

John Burn-Murdoch in the Financial Times: "If the US Supreme Court goes ahead with the repeal of Roe vs Wade later this year, the fallout will be far-reaching. Abortion would almost certainly become illegal or heavily restricted in 22 states and would be under severe threat in at least four others. As such, 27mn women of childbearing age would have their reproductive rights rolled back by 50 years. By this summer, most of them may find themselves living under broadly the same abortion rules as those in Sierra Leone, Congo-Brazzaville and just 22 other countries worldwide.... The negative socio-economic impacts of unwanted births are well-established.... Women's health is also at stake.... Maternal mortality must rank as one of the US's most shameful statistics.... As is almost invariably the case, when something bad happens in the US, it happens disproportionately to black people and those on low incomes.... The US may claim to be a developed nation, but when it comes to women's health, this could not be further from the truth." ~~~

     ~~~ Via Scott Lemieux in LG&$, who writes, "One of the many lies in the Alito draft opinion is the common Republican canard that proposed Republican bans will make America's policies look more like Europe. Unless this means 'Ireland 25 years ago,' this is a ridiculous claim. The US is about to become an extreme outlier among western liberal democracies."

     ~~~ Marie: Thanks to a friend for the image. Obviously, it's supposed to be a joke. But I suspect the Sam would find nothing wrong with the "logic."

Pam Belluck & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the legal and culture wars over abortion ... would increasingly shift to a new front: the use of abortion pills. Medication abortion -- a two-drug combination that can be taken at home or in any location and is authorized for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy -- has become more and more prevalent and now accounts for more than half of recent abortions in the United States. If the federal guarantee of abortion rights disappears, medication abortion would likely become an even more sought-after method for terminating a pregnancy -- and the focus of battles between states that ban abortion and those that continue to allow it.... Medication abortion is less expensive and less invasive than surgical abortions.... Many conservative states have already begun passing laws to restrict medication abortion, including banning it earlier than 10 weeks' gestation and requiring patients to visit providers in person despite F.D.A. rules." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Louisiana. Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "The State Legislature in Louisiana advanced a proposal this week that would classify abortion as homicide, going further than anti-abortion measures in other states by making it possible for prosecutors to bring criminal cases against women who end a pregnancy. The measure was approved, 7 to 2, by a committee in the State House of Representatives, energized by a leaked draft of an opinion indicating that a majority of Supreme Court justices would vote in favor of overturning the constitutional right to abortion.... The bill defines personhood as beginning from the moment of fertilization." MB: The people who voted this bill out of committee hate of girls and young women. They hate the careless young women who blithely have sex without protection; they hate the prudent women whose birth control failed; they hate the girls who were victims of rape. In a moral universe, the bill's sponsors are on a par with the rapists. And Sam & the Dancing Alitos.

Marie: Many observers of Sam's opinion have concentrated on other right-to-privacy decisions that the confederate Supremes might overturn: Griswold, Loving, Lawrence, Obergefell, etc. But wait! There's more: ~~~

~~~ Texas. The River to Hell Runs Through It. So Greggers Opens the Floodgates. David Goodman of the New York Times: "With the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to reverse decades-old precedents like the Roe v. Wade decision on abortion, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said on Thursday that he would seek to overturn a 1982 court decision that obligated public schools to educate all children, including undocumented immigrants. Mr. Abbott's comments opened a new front in his campaign to use his powers as governor to harden Texas against unauthorized migration. And they demonstrated just how expansively some conservatives are thinking when it comes to the kinds of changes to American life that the court's emboldened conservative majority may be willing to allow."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian soldiers went on the offensive against Russian forces in northeast Ukraine on Friday, seeking to drive them back from outside two key cities, as the grueling battle for control over territory in the east increasingly turns into a brutal war of attrition, with neither side able to score a major breakthrough in the fighting.... In the ruined city of Mariupol, where fighting continued to rage, an evacuation convoy was dispatched again on Friday to the Azovstal steel plant, where about 200 civilians are still believed to be trapped underground, along with the last Ukrainian soldiers defending the city.... The top U.N. rights official told a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Thursday that scores of cases had been documented in which Russian forces targeted civilian Ukrainian men. Jill Biden, the first lady, was en route late Thursday to Eastern Europe, where she will visit with refugees displaced by the war and tour the Slovakian border with Ukraine, according to her office." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "Heavy fighting continues at the besieged Azovstal Iron and Steel Works in Mariupol, where Russian forces are intensifying their attack. The United Nations Secretary General António Guterres confirmed nearly 500 civilians had been evacuated from the plant and its surroundings in recent days as a U.N. aid convoy is due to arrive in the shattered port city Friday. In his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian shelling of the steel plant was not stopping.... Ukraine is 'putting up a very stiff resistance,' though Russian forces are making incremental progress in Donbas, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Thursday."

Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States provided intelligence that helped Ukrainian forces locate and strike the flagship of Russia's Black Sea fleet last month, another sign that the administration is easing its self-imposed limitations on how far it will go in helping Ukraine fight Russia, U.S. officials said. The targeting help, which contributed to the eventual sinking of the flagship, the Moskva, is part of a continuing classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine. That intelligence also includes sharing anticipated Russian troop movements, gleaned from a recent American assessment of Moscow's battle plan for the fighting in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the officials said." The NBC News story is here.

Andrew Roth of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin has apologised to the Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett, for his foreign minister's claims that Adolf Hitler had Jewish blood, Israel has said. Bennett said he had accepted the apology from Putin, a rare concession from the Kremlin leader and a strong rebuke of his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Putin may have feared that Israel could change its neutral stance on Russia's invasion and join in sanctions and provisions of lethal aid to Ukraine. Lavrov claimed this week in an interview that Hitler 'had Jewish blood' and that 'the most rabid antisemites tend to be Jews'. The incendiary remarks sparked outrage in Israel."

Hiding a Super-Yacht Is Hard to Do. Annabelle Timsit & Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The $300 million superyacht owned by Russian oligarch Suleyman Kerimov was seized Thursday by Fijian authorities on behalf of the United States as part of the ongoing efforts to sanction and punish Russia's elite in response to the invasion of Ukraine. The Justice Department announced that Fiji executed a seizure warrant on the Amadea, a 348-foot-long luxury vessel that authorities say was 'subject to forfeiture based on probable cause of violations of U.S. law.' Kerimov, one of Russia's wealthiest individuals, who built his fortune in gold mining and is a political ally of ... Vladimir Putin's, has been identified by the U.S. Treasury Department as an official of the government of the Russian Federation and a member of the Russian Federation Council."

~~~ Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Thursday selected Karine Jean-Pierre, the principal deputy press secretary, to replace Jen Psaki as the top White House spokeswoman, making her the first Black woman to hold one of the most high-profile jobs in American politics. Ms. Jean-Pierre, who worked on Mr. Biden's campaign and has had a long career in Democratic communications, will become the president's second White House press secretary.... Ms. Psaki's last day as press secretary will be May 13. She is expected to take an on-air role with MSNBC.... After noting that her successor will be the first Black woman and openly gay person to serve as press secretary, Ms. Psaki said that Ms. Jean-Pierre 'will give a voice to so many.'" CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, I think Jean-Pierre will be able to handle the White House press corps: ~~~

Hot Head, Cold Feet. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani, who helped lead ... Donald J. Trump's effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election..., on Thursday abruptly pulled out of a scheduled Friday interview with the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol after the panel refused to let him record the session. Mr. Giuliani has been negotiating with the panel about testifying for months, and had finally reached an agreement to speak about matters other than his conversations with Mr. Trump or any other topic he believes is covered by attorney-client privilege, said his lawyer, Robert J. Costello. Mr. Giuliani's sudden withdrawal threatens what could have been a major breakthrough for the investigation.... Tim Mulvey, a spokesman for the committee, said the panel would consider enforcement actions against Mr. Giuliani if he does not change course and comply with the committee's subpoena."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Prominent Republicans -- including ... Donald J. Trump -- have for months promoted a conspiracy theory that an Arizona man named Ray Epps was a federal informant who helped to instigate the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The claims, made in congressional hearing rooms, on Fox News and at Mr. Trump's political rallies, have largely been based on a video taken just before violence erupted at the Capitol, showing Mr. Epps at the barricades outside the building whispering into the ear of a man named Ryan Samsel. Within moments of the brief exchange, Mr. Samsel, a Pennsylvania barber, can be seen moving forward and confronting the police in what amounted to the tipping point of the riot.... Many Republicans have ... pushed the notion that because Mr. Epps has not been arrested, he must have been working for the government. But for more than a year..., federal authorities have had information -- from both [Mr. Epps] and Mr. Samsel -- suggesting that he was not a government agent and did not encourage the younger man to engage with the police that day." There's more. Read on.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "An Iowa man who brought his teenage son to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, admitted he was among a group that assaulted D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who suffered a heart attack and traumatic brain injury defending Congress from the pro-Trump mob. Kyle Young, 38, pleaded guilty Thursday in D.C. federal court to one count of assaulting a police officer, which carries a sentence of up to eight years in prison; prosecutors say the guidelines call for at least five."

Dumb President* News. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump in 2020 asked Mark T. Esper, his defense secretary, about the possibility of launching missiles into Mexico to 'destroy the drug labs' and wipe out the cartels, maintaining that the United States' involvement in a strike against its southern neighbor could be kept secret, Mr. Esper recounts in his upcoming memoir. Those remarkable discussions were among several moments that Mr. Esper described in the book, 'A Sacred Oath,' as leaving him all but speechless.... Mr. Esper, the last Senate-confirmed defense secretary under Mr. Trump, also had concerns about speculation that the president might misuse the military around Election Day by, for instance, having soldiers seize ballot boxes. He warned subordinates to be on alert for unusual calls from the White House in the lead-up to the election.... Pressed on his view of Mr. Trump, Mr. Esper --who strained throughout the book to be fair to the man who fired him while also calling out his increasingly erratic behavior after his first impeachment trial ended in February 2020 -- said carefully but bluntly, 'He is an unprincipled person who, given his self-interest, should not be in the position of public service.'... ~~~

~~~ "In October 2019, after members of the national security team assembled in the Situation Room to watch a feed of the raid that killed the Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, [Stephen] Miller proposed securing Mr. al-Baghdadi's head, dipping it in pig's blood and parading it around to warn other terrorists, Mr. Esper writes. That would be a 'war crime,' Mr. Esper shot back. Mr. Miller flatly denied the episode and called Mr. Esper 'a moron.'" CNN has a summary story here. ~~~

~~~ Dumb Presidential* Advisor News. CBS News: "Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper says he personally killed a 'ridiculous' plan from White House adviser Stephen Miller to deploy 250,000 troops to the southern border as a migrant caravan approached. Esper, who writes about the moment in his upcoming book, 'A Sacred Oath,' says he initially thought Miller was joking when he asked for the troops while waiting in the Oval Office.... 'And then I turn around and I look at him and these -- and these deadpan eyes. Clearly, he is not joking.'" With video.

Beyond the Beltway

South Carolina. "Dumb Crook News.” Johnny Diaz of the New York Times: "On Feb. 25, 2021, a man got in a taxi in Hartsville, S.C., and asked to be driven to a bank. The cab pulled up to the drive-through window, where the passenger handed the driver an envelope to pass to the teller through the pneumatic tube system, prosecutors said. The teller inside read the note, which demanded 'all money from all drawers' and threatened 'to kill and/or blow up the bank,' the authorities said in a statement. Frightened, the teller activated an alarm. When the police arrived, they found the passenger, Angel Luis Masdeu, in the taxi's back seat and arrested him." Tuesday, Judge Sherri A. Lydon, of the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina sentenced the Dumb Crook to six years in federal prison. In fairness to the Dumb Crook, it's not easy to rob a bank when the lobby is closed because of the pandemic.

News Lede

CNBC: "The U.S. economy added slightly more jobs than expected in April amid an increasingly tight labor market and despite surging inflation and fears of a growth slowdown, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. Nonfarm payrolls grew by 428,000 for the month, a bit above the Dow Jones estimate of 400,000. The unemployment rate was 3.6%, slightly higher than the estimate for 3.5%. The April total was identical to the downwardly revised count for March. There also was some better news on the inflation front: Average hourly earnings continued to grow, but at a 0.3% level for the month that was a bit below the 0.4% estimate. On a year-over-year basis, earnings were up 5.5%, about the same as in March but still below the pace of inflation."

May 5, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Pam Belluck & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, the legal and culture wars over abortion ... would increasingly shift to a new front: the use of abortion pills. Medication abortion -- a two-drug combination that can be taken at home or in any location and is authorized for use in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy -- has become more and more prevalent and now accounts for more than half of recent abortions in the United States. If the federal guarantee of abortion rights disappears, medication abortion would likely become an even more sought-after method for terminating a pregnancy -- and the focus of battles between states that ban abortion and those that continue to allow it.... Medication abortion is less expensive and less invasive than surgical abortions.... Many conservative states have already begun passing laws to restrict medication abortion, including banning it earlier than 10 weeks'gestation and requiring patients to visit providers in person despite F.D.A. rules." An AP story is here.

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Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "The Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a half percentage point and announced a plan to shrink its massive bond holdings, decisive measures aimed at tamping down the fastest inflation in four decades. Wednesday's move marked the Fed's largest interest rate increase since 2000, and Chair Jerome H. Powell signaled at a news conference following the meeting additional half percentage point increases will be 'on the table' at the Fed's upcoming meetings." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNBC report is here.

Libby Cathey of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday said that the federal government will pay down the national debt this quarter for the first time in six years. His remarks on economic growth came ahead of the Federal Reserve announcing a hike in interest rates Wednesday afternoon in an attempt to manage soaring inflation.... 'For all the talk the Republicans make about deficits, it didn't happen a single quarter under my predecessor, not once,' Biden said. 'The bottom line is the deficit went up every year under my predecessor, before the pandemic and during the pandemic, [and] it's gone down both years since I have been here. Period. There are the facts.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Alito Goes into Hiding. TuAnh Dam of Axios: "Justice Samuel Alito canceled an appearance at a judicial conference due to begin on Thursday..., Reuters reports.... Alito was scheduled to appear at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' judicial conference, Reuters reports. He is the justice assigned to hear emergency appeals from the 5th Circuit, which includes the New Orleans-based federal appeals court and district courts in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas...." The Reuters report is firewalled. OR, as Ken W. surmised, Suddenly Silent Sam is just exercising his Constitutional right to privacy.

Lies & the Lying Liars on the Supreme Court. Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "'It is important precedent of the Supreme Court that has been reaffirmed many times,' [Brett] Kavanaugh said [of Roe v. Wade] in response to one of a slew of questions on abortion during his confirmation hearings. Furthermore, Kavanaugh underscored that the core tenets of the landmark 1973 decision were upheld nearly two decades later.... Kavanaugh called Roe ... 'settled as a precedent.'... Less than four years later, Kavanaugh is among the list of justices who, according to a draft majority opinion and an accompanying report published by Politico this week, is poised to overturn Roe.... A growing number of senators -- particularly Democrats, for the moment at least -- are questioning the utility of the confirmation process and whether justices who enjoy lifetime appointments can somehow be held accountable for their sworn testimony if it proves misleading.... [Some] Democratic senators, however, say it was clear how nominees, particularly those picked by Trump, would rule on abortion, no matter what they pledged publicly. Their beef is largely with the senators who professed to believe otherwise and now say they are shocked."

The New York Times live-updated reactions Wednesday to Sam Alito's leaked draft opinion. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alito, shocked -- shocked -- to discover so little in the law books of the eighteen-sixties guaranteeing a right to abortion, has missed the point; anything in the law books of [that period] guaranteed women anything -- because -- usually they still weren't persons. Nor for that matter were fetuses. -- Historian Jill Lepore in the New Yorker (via P.D. Pepe)

Suddenly, They Want to Focus on the Real Issues. Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: Despite standing on the cusp of realizing a victory they sought for nearly 50 years, "few Republicans have openly celebrated.... There are signs that Republicans, despite their years of activism, are not fully prepared for the thorny political ramifications of a post-Roe political atmosphere.... Several Republican senators dodged questions about possible implications of Roe being overturned...."

Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "For nearly half a century, Republicans have railed against 'unelected judges' making rulings that they claim disenfranchise voters from deciding for themselves what laws should govern hot-button issues. But since the release this week of a draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn the long-standing constitutional right to abortion, Democrats have been the ones embracing that complaint, flipping the script as the party vents its frustration with elements of the U.S. system that have empowered a minority of the country's voters to elect lawmakers who have successfully reshaped the high court.... The Democratic anger is anchored in structural advantages Republicans have recently enjoyed that grant them power disproportionate to their public support." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The real difference between Republican and Democratic "unelected judges," which Scherer doesn't bother to mention, is that in the last half of the 20th century, "unelected judges" tended to expand civil rights, while the Republicans' favored "unelected judges" tend to constrict or eliminate them. And every indication is those GOP-appointed judges are going to keep on keeping on.

** Melissa Murray & Leah Litman in a Washington Post op-ed: "The truly shocking thing about the draft Supreme Court opinion overruling Roe v. Wade is ... that the opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. adopted such an aggressively maximalist position, not only giving states extraordinary leeway to prohibit abortion but also implicitly inviting a flurry of challenges to other precedents, including cases protecting contraception and LGBTQ civil rights. Perhaps the most stunning feature of the opinion is that its indignant tone and aggressive reasoning make clear how empowered this conservative majority believes itself to be.... The draft goes out of its way to ensure that there are no limits whatsoever on states' ability to restrict abortions.... Alito also chose to rely on the most outlandish arguments to justify overruling Roe.... The caustic tone and aggressive reasoning suggest this conservative majority ... has no sense of institutional propriety that might lead it to act with more humility and caution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, well, the notion that Sam Alito, for one, ever has suffered even a mild pang of humility is preposterous. ~~~

~~~ Marie: Always nice to see someone get the better of Ross Douthat. Douthat was on CNN Wednesday discussing the potentials of the Supremes' overturning Roe v. Wade. Douthat posited that it was ridiculous to think that overturning Roe would or could lead to overturning other rulings based on the right to privacy. Jeff Toobin started to push back on Douthat's supposition, but Douthat scoffed with what he imagined was a "gotcha" proof: "C'mon," said he, "can we at least agree that Clarence Thomas is not going to vote to overturn the right of interracial couples to marry?" (slight paraphrase) Toobin had a ready response: "It isn't that Thomas opposes interracial marriage; it's that he thinks there is no Constitutional right to interracial marriage. He believes that, like abortion, marriage law is a matter for the states to decide." (slight paraphrase)

** Jay Willis of Balls & Strikes: "The digital ink had not yet dried on Monday's bombshell story that the Supreme Court has the votes to overrule Roe v. Wade when America's most online lawyers began weighing in on The Real Crisis: the shocking, shameful leak from within the hallowed chambers of the nation's highest and fanciest court.... This elevation of process over substance is as wrong as it is self-serving. The Court is not losing public trust or facing an existential crisis because of a leak. The Court is leaking because it is losing public trust and facing an existential crisis.... A nakedly partisan Supreme Court deserves to be treated like any other nakedly partisan branch of government.... The Court's legitimacy should ... hinge on whether the justices are acting legitimately. If a half-dozen extremists are just going to take a blowtorch to anything and everything they don't like, no one in their orbit should be obligated to abide by their sacred norms any longer." Via Scott Lemieux in LG&$. MB: Even if you think you might totally disagree with Willis, his snarky irreverence is a joy to read. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There is a piece in Slate, the author(s) of which I don't know, about how the Supreme Court's supposed leak investigation is a farce. The Slate post is firewalled, by Scott Lemieux has reprinted a good part of it in in LG&$.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian soldiers on Thursday for the first time breached Ukrainian defenses around the Azovstal steel plant, as Moscow's forces mounted a final push to seize full control of the port city of Mariupol.... Only the fighters in the plant stand in the way of Moscow declaring control over Mariupol, which has become a symbol of both Ukrainian resistance and Russian destruction. A Ukrainian commander, Lt. Col. Denys Prokopenko, said 'heavy, bloody battles' were being fought in the plant's subterranean labyrinth of bunkers and fallout shelters, where officials estimated that about 200 civilians were still hiding with the last soldiers defending the city.... Ukrainian forces reclaimed several strategically important villages around the eastern city of Kharkiv and pushed Russian forces back some two dozen miles from the city...." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "European diplomats are set to meet again Thursday as they negotiate a proposal to phase out Russian oil imports, a stern punishment for the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.... The oil proposal could be finalized by the end of the week but must be approved by all E.U. member states, and two countries -- Hungary and Slovakia -- have reservations. Overnight, Russian forces struck the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine, injuring at least 25 civilians and destroying nine homes, a school and other civilian buildings, according to the regional military chief. A railroad facility and a bridge in the riverside city of Dnipro were hit on Wednesday, continuing the Kremlin's targeting of infrastructure that is critical to Ukraine's efforts to resupply its forces."

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States has provided intelligence about Russian units that has allowed Ukrainians to target and kill many of the Russian generals who have died in action in the Ukraine war, according to senior American officials. Ukrainian officials said they have killed approximately 12 generals on the front lines, a number that has astonished military analysts. The targeting help is part of a classified effort by the Biden administration to provide real-time battlefield intelligence to Ukraine.... The United States has focused on providing the location and other details about the Russian military's mobile headquarters, which relocate frequently.... U.S. intelligence support to the Ukrainians has had a decisive effect on the battlefield, confirming targets identified by the Ukrainian military and pointing it to new targets. The flow of actionable intelligence on the movement of Russian troops that America has given Ukraine has few precedents."

The patriarch cannot transform himself into Putin's altar boy. -- Pope Francis to Patriarch Kirill ~~~

~~~ When the Pope Scolded the Patriarch. On Zoom. Timothy Bella & Sammy Westfall of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis warned the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church not to be 'Putin's altar boy' and justify the Russian president's invasion of Ukraine. In a Tuesday interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, Francis said he spoke with Patriarch Kirill, a key supporter of Vladimir Putin and his war, for 40 minutes over Zoom. During the March 16 conversation, Francis said, Kirill was listing off all the justifications for the war from a sheet of paper he was holding. 'I listened and then told him: I don't understand anything about this,' Francis said. 'Brother, we are not state clerics, we cannot use the language of politics but that of Jesus. We are pastors of the same holy people of God. Because of this, we must seek avenues of peace, to put an end to the firing of weapons.'" A CNN report is here.

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump Jr., interviewed with the Jan. 6 committee on Tuesday, according to two people familiar with the matter.... Trump Jr. is also the latest select panel witness believed to have been in the Oval Office the morning of Jan. 6 with [Donald] Trump, his top aides and family members. Shortly after they arrived, per a private White House schedule obtained by the committee, Trump called [Mike] Pence to make a final effort to pressure him to overturn the election. Trump Jr.'s interview, confirmed on condition of anonymity and conducted without a subpoena lasted several hours...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Former lead impeachment counsel Daniel Goldman pointed out on MSNBC that likely the reason members of the Trump Crime Family -- Junior, Ivanka, Jared & Kimberly Guilfoyle -- agreed to be interviewed is that voluntary witnesses -- as opposed to those who appear under subpoena -- cannot be compelled to answer questions, and they don't have to plead the Fifth to refuse to answer.

Clare Foran & Melanie Zanona of CNN: "House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy discussed the 25th Amendment on a call with GOP leadership days after the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and said the process 'takes too long,' according to an audio recording obtained by two New York Times reporters and shared with CNN. McCarthy also said during the call that he wanted to reach out to then-President-elect Joe Biden as he expressed hope for a 'smooth transition,' and said he thought impeachment would further divide the nation. The call took place on January 8, 2021, and the audio was obtained for the new book "This Will Not Pass..." by Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns.... The fact McCarthy was pressing one of his aides for details about how the 25th Amendment process would work shows there was a serious conversation at the highest levels of GOP leadership about the idea -- not just idle chatter -- even if it was ultimately deemed not a viable option." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Not with a Bang, but a Whimper. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Even as the beleaguered police were still trying to disperse a violent mob at the Capitol last January, Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, undertook a desperate, last-ditch effort to keep ... Donald J. Trump in the White House, according to court papers released on Wednesday. In a suite at the Phoenix Park Hotel..., Mr. Rhodes called an unnamed intermediary and, the papers said, repeatedly implored the person to ask Mr. Trump to mobilize his group to forcibly stop the transition of presidential power. But the person refused to speak with Mr. Trump, the papers said. And once the call was over, Mr. Rhodes, turning to a group of his associates, declared, 'I just want to fight.' Witnessing this scene, which unfolded in the twilight hours of Jan. 6, 2021, was William Todd Wilson, a midlevel Oath Keepers leader from North Carolina. On Wednesday, Mr. Wilson, 44, pleaded guilty in federal court in Washington to charges of seditious conspiracy and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their investigation of the Oath Keepers' role in the Capitol attack."

TurboScam Settlement Announced. Christine Chung of the New York Times: "For years, the maker of the TurboTax software claimed that people could file their tax returns online for free. Millions of customers signed up, only to pay hidden fees later in the process. That was the finding of a multistate investigation led by Attorney General Letitia James of New York. Ms. James announced on Wednesday that Intuit, the company creating the software, would pay back $141 million to more than four million Americans who were unfairly charged for tax services that were falsely advertised as free. Refunds will be sent automatically to affected taxpayers. The company 'cheated millions of low-income Americans out of free tax filing services they were entitled to,' Ms. James said, adding that the settlement, signed by the attorneys general of all 50 states and the District of Columbia, was a clear reminder to companies that 'deceptive marketing ploys' are illegal.

The Lost City of Atlantis Jamestown. Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "The 400-year-old colonial site [Jamestown, Va.,] is losing its battle with climate change, experts say, and Wednesday the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed it on a list of the country's most endangered historical places.... Katherine Malone-France, chief preservation officer for the trust, said, 'You've got resources there underwater, that are staying underwater.'... Jamestown, in 1607, became the place of the first permanent English settlement in what would become the United States. The earth here holds the bones of hundreds of the early colonists and the artifacts that are clues to their lives. It is also the place where, in 1619, the first enslaved Africans arrived, and where generations of Native Americans had already lived for centuries." (Also linked yesterday.)

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "By Wednesday, [Trevor] Noah's chiding remarks at [the White House Correspondents' Dinner, or] what he called 'the nation's most distinguished superspreader event, were beginning to appear prophetic as a growing number of attendees, including a string of journalists and Antony J. Blinken, the secretary of state, said they had tested positive for the virus."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Clara Hendrickson & Arpan Lobo of the Detroit Free Press: "In an upset win Tuesday, Democrat Carol Glanville defeated Republican Robert 'RJ' Regan in a special election for a Michigan House seat that had only ever been held by a Republican. Results remain unofficial, but with all precincts in the district reporting, Glanville led Regan by more than 1,500 votes as of 10:30 p.m. She topped 51% of the total votes cast; Regan garnered 40% and 7.9% went to write-ins.... Regan made national headlines in March for suggesting rape victims 'lie back and enjoy it,' after he promoted conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and shared antisemitic rhetoric. He was favored to win in the heavily Republican district." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. Crazy Guy Wins House Primary. Azi Paybarah & Kellen Browning of the New York Times: "When J.R. Majewski emerged as the surprise winner of a Republican House primary election on Tuesday in northern Ohio, Democrats supporting the longtime incumbent congresswoman in the district, Marcy Kaptur, celebrated. That was because Mr. Majewski had beaten out two lower-key Republicans for the nomination, both of whom Democrats worried could have posed serious problems for Ms. Kaptur in the conservative-leaning Ninth Congressional District.... During his campaign, [Majewski] ran one ad showing him carrying an assault-style rifle in which he says, 'I'm willing to do whatever it takes to return this country back to its former glory.' ... He also posted a 'Let's Go Brandon' music video on his website in which he raps a verse, warning, 'Just try to put a mask on me, you'll see red, white and blue.'... In addition to advancing the lie that the 2020 election was stolen ... and floating doubts that the Capitol riot was driven by Trump supporters, he has expressed sympathy for believers of the QAnon conspiracy theory movement. He said last year that one of their false claims about a prominent Democrat being a pedophile was 'plausible.'"

Minnesota. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Wednesday accepted a plea deal that will sentence former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin to between 20 and 25 years in prison for violating the rights of George Floyd.... Chauvin is already serving a 22½-year sentence for Floyd's murder and last month asked a state appeals court to overturn his conviction."