March 3, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Howard Altman of Military Times: "Ukraine armed forces have been striking that long line of Russian troops heading to Kyiv while the Russians have used thermobaric weapons against Ukrainian cities, the head of Ukraine’s defense intelligence agency tells Military Times.... Speaking to reporters Wednesday afternoon on the condition of anonymity, a senior defense official said the Pentagon has indications Ukraine forces are targeting the convoy...."
Rick Noack of the Washington Post: “Russian President Vladimir Putin called French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday, in what appeared to have been a markedly more tense exchange than previous conversations between the two leaders. The 90-minute call failed to deliver a diplomatic breakthrough, and a senior French official said it left Macron convinced that 'the worst is yet to come' and that Putin aims to take control of all of Ukraine. 'Your country will pay dearly because it will end up as an isolated country, weakened and under sanctions for a very long time,' Macron told Putin, according to a French official, who added that Macron 'called on Vladimir Putin to not lie to himself.'”
Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: “Some key countries in East Asia are joining with the West to take what is for them the exceptional step of imposing significant financial sanctions, officials and analysts say, brought together by outrage at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and concern over China’s growing aggression in the region. 'We want to demonstrate what happens when a country invades another country,' said one Japanese official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity....”
John Wagner of the Washington Post: “President Biden said Wednesday night that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) is carrying out 'a cynical and dangerous campaign' by directing state officials to investigate families for child abuse if they allow their children to medically transition genders. 'This is government overreach at its worst,' Biden said in a statement. 'Like so many anti-transgender attacks proliferating in states across the country, the Governor’s actions callously threaten to harm children and their families just to score political points. These actions are terrifying many families in Texas and beyond. And they must stop.' Biden said his administration is taking several steps to protect transgender children in Texas. Among them was an invitation Wednesday by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra for families to contact the department’s civil rights office if they were “targeted by a child welfare investigation because of this discriminatory gubernatorial order.”
Michael Schmidt & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "A career National Security Council staff member under ... Donald J. Trump, who was pushed out of her position after she refused to go along with an effort to use the powers of the federal government to silence one of Mr. Trump’s chief critics, has been rehired for the post by President Biden, two people briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. The staff member, Ellen Knight, had told a federal judge in 2020 that senior White House lawyers had pressured her to falsely claim that a book by Mr. Trump’s former national security adviser, John R. Bolton, contained classified information to keep its contents from becoming public."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday night, we got the first formal indication of [the House January 6 committee's] primary target: establishing that ... Donald Trump committed two federal crimes in his efforts to retain power despite losing the 2020 presidential election.... [In this post,] we’ll walk through the case presented by the committee in the document produced on Wednesday. We’ll also contextualize it with other recent legal activity that hints at more significant culpability for Trump allies and maintains a risk of civil repercussions for the former president."
Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) had a terse reaction on Thursday to GOP Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) heckling President Biden during his State of the Union address on Tuesday: 'I think they should just shut up.'... '"Let me just say this. I agree with what Sen. Lindsey Graham said: "Shut up."'"
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Sen. Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico returned to work in the Senate on Thursday morning, barely a month after suffering a major stroke that left him hospitalized for weeks and sent a chill through fellow Democrats clinging to a 50-50 majority. Luján, 49, walked in and out of a Senate Commerce Committee meeting without assistance, where he was greeted with a bipartisan standing ovation."
Uh, Barr Didn't Exactly Resign. Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: “Former U.S. Attorney General William Barr said ... Donald Trump became furious after Barr told him there was no evidence that the 2020 election was fraudulent. 'I told him that all this stuff was bulls[hit]... about election fraud. And, you know, it was wrong to be shoveling it out the way his team was, Barr said in an interview with NBC News's Lester Holt.... Barr told Holt his last day almost came on Dec. 1, after ... the Associated Press published an interview [in which Barr said,] ... 'To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.'... Barr said Trump called him into a meeting that day in his private dining room.... Barr said he told Trump the Department of Justice had investigated and found no evidence to support the various conspiracy theories that Trump and his legal team were pushing. 'He was asking about different theories, and I had the answers. I was able to tell him, "This was wrong because of this."'... Trump listened, but 'he was obviously getting very angry about this.' Barr said he told Trump, 'I understand you're upset with me. And I'm perfectly happy to tender my resignation.' Barr said Trump then slapped his desk and said, 'Accepted. Accepted,' Barr recalled. 'And then - boom. He slapped it again. 'Accepted. Go home. Don't go back to your office. Go home. You're done.'”
~~~~~~~~~~
Putin's War Crime
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war are here: “A miles-long convoy of Russian military supply trucks and attack vehicles that has come within 20 miles of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, 'has made little discernible progress in over three days,' according to an intelligence assessment released by Britain’s defense ministry on Thursday.” ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Russian troops have seized a key government building in the Black Sea port of Kherson, a Ukrainian official said Thursday, as Moscow tightened its grip on Ukraine’s southern coastline, slashing access to key shipping hubs.... The mayor of Mariupol, another strategic port, said hours of shelling has blocked water, power and food supplies." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here: “Talks between Ukraine and Russia will kick off in a couple of hours, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in an online post. Earlier, Belarusian state news agency Belta quoted chief Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky as saying the second round of talks would start in Belarus at 1200 GMT. A Russian negotiator has previously said that a ceasefire was on the agenda, but Ukraine has said Moscow’s demands are unacceptable and Russia must stop bombing Ukrainian cities before any progress can be expected.... Kherson’s mayor, Ihor Kolykhaiev, said in a Facebook post early on Thursday that Russian troops were in control of the city hall and that residents should obey a curfew imposed by what he called the 'armed visitors'.”
Peter Granitz of NPR: "The United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday approved a nonbinding resolution condemning Russia for invading Ukraine and demanding that it withdraw its military forces. The vote came after a series of speeches during which the majority of countries called on Russia to end the violence in Ukraine.... The resolution passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 141-5 with 35 abstentions. The five countries that voted against it were Russia, Belarus, Syria, North Korea and Eritrea." ~~~
~~~ Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., speaks to the General Assembly ahead of the vote to condemn Russia: ~~~
Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: "In all, about 20 countries — most members of NATO and the European Union, but not all — are funneling arms into Ukraine to fight off Russian invaders and arm an insurgency, if the war comes to that. At the same time, NATO is moving military equipment and as many as 22,000 more troops into member states bordering Russia and Belarus, to reassure them and enhance deterrence.... Western weaponry has been entering Ukraine in relatively large but undisclosed amounts for the last several days.... Russian troops are trying to surround cities and cut off the bulk of the Ukrainian army east of the Dnieper River, which would make resupply [through Poland] much more difficult.... However proud Brussels [i.e., the E.U.] is of its effort, it is a strategy that risks encouraging a wider war and possible retaliation from Mr. Putin.... World wars have started over smaller conflicts...."
Júlia Ledur, et al., of the Washington Post: "Nearly 1 million refugees have left Ukraine, according to data from UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency. The exodus is set to become Europe’s worst humanitarian crisis in a century, already on par with the number of refugees who were displaced from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015. If fighting continues, as many as 4 million — roughly 10 percent of the Ukrainian population — could be displaced in the coming weeks, Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees, said Monday."
Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department announced on Wednesday the creation of a task force to go after billionaire oligarchs who have aided President Vladimir V. Putin in his invasion of Ukraine, part of an effort by the United States to seize and freeze the assets of those who have violated sanctions." MB: I'm sorry the DOJ is so slow on its feet. If they had moved a bit faster, the U.S. might have its own super-yacht. ~~~
~~~ Philip Oltermann of the Guardian: “France’s finance minister has announced the country has seized a yacht linked to Rosneft boss, Igor Sechin, in the Mediterranean port of La Ciotat, as German local authorities denied reports they had also seized the $600m superyacht belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov.... The [French] finance ministry said the yacht was owned by an entity of which Sechin had been identified as the main shareholder. 'No yachts have been confiscated,' a spokesperson for Hamburg’s economic authority told the Guardian. 'A handover [of the yacht to its owner] is also currently not planned. No yacht is going to leave the port that is not allowed to do so.'” ~~~
~~~ Earlier. Giacomo Tognini of Forbes: "Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov was sanctioned by the European Union on Monday. Two days later, Forbes has learned from three sources in the yacht industry that one of his prized possessions — the 512-foot yacht Dilbar, valued at nearly $600 million — has been seized by German authorities in the northern city of Hamburg. The ship has been in the Hamburg shipyards of German shipbuilding firm Blohm+Voss since late October for a refitting job. At 15,917 tons, it's the world's largest motor yacht by gross tonnage, and is typically manned by a crew of 96 people. Dilbar boasts the largest swimming pool ever installed on a yacht as well as two helicopter pads, a sauna, a beauty salon, and a gym. Its plush interiors have more than 1,000 sofa cushions and it can host up to 24 people in 12 suites."
Steven Goff of the Washington Post: “Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich said Wednesday that he will sell Premier League soccer club Chelsea, the latest fallout in the sports world from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.... Abramovich, 55, was under growing scrutiny because of his reported ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. On Sunday, as Russia’s attacks in Ukraine intensified, Abramovich handed “stewardship and care” of Chelsea to the club’s charitable foundation. Within 72 hours, though, he decided to sell a club that he had purchased in 2003 for about $185 million and is now worth an estimated $3.2 billion.... In his statement, Abramovich said he has established a foundation in which net proceeds from the sale of the team will benefit victims of the 'war in Ukraine.'” MB: Why doesn't the U.K. just seize the club?
Florida (Yes, Florida.) David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: “Governor Ron DeSantis ... is refusing to divest the Sunshine state of $300 million in Russian-owned companies – investments it controls – while attacking President Joe Biden on Ukraine and Russia, as The New York Daily News reports. On Monday DeSantis declared, 'when Trump was president' Russia 'didn’t take anything.'... DeSantis also has not criticized Trump for calling Putin a 'genius.' The Daily News notes DeSantis 'appears to be isolated among governors from both parties and across the political spectrum in refusing to take any concrete actions against Russia.'...” ~~~
~~~ AND DeSantis Thinks It's Macho to Knock France. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: “Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida and a serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, has said France would not put up a fight if Russia invaded, as it did in Ukraine. 'A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of adversity,' DeSantis told reporters at a press event at South Florida University in Tampa on Wednesday. 'I mean can you imagine if he [Vladimir Putin] went into France? Would they do anything to put up a fight? Probably not.'... DeSantis also said Republicans under Trump 'funded a lot of weapons for Ukraine … that has helped them put up a fight'. He did not mention that Trump’s first impeachment trial was for seeking dirt on his political rivals by withholding military aid – to Ukraine.”
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "... fierce Ukrainian resistance continued to deny the Kremlin the easy victory it had anticipated, even as Russian forces advanced in the south while edging closer to a capital buffeted by fear. They were also intensifying the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, potentially altering the war’s dynamics by increasing the human toll. The Russian military was bearing down on several Ukrainian cities, including Kherson, a port near the Black Sea, whose capture would mark the first major city to come under full control of President Vladimir V. Putin’s forces since the invasion began last Thursday. Russia claims it is fully in control of the city, but Ukrainian officials said the municipal government was still in place. Neither claim could be independently verified." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
OPEC Takes Advantage of a Crisis. Stanley Reed of the New York Times: “With the price of a barrel of oil soaring, the group of oil producers known as OPEC Plus declined to take steps to cool the market at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. In a statement that had surreal qualities given the surging prices in recent weeks, the group, which includes Russia, said current fundamentals and the outlook for the future pointed 'to a well-balanced market.'” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Edward Wong & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "A Western intelligence report said senior Chinese officials told senior Russian officials in early February not to invade Ukraine before the end of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, according to senior Biden administration officials and a European official.The report indicates that senior Chinese officials had some level of direct knowledge about Russia’s war plans or intentions before the invasion started last week.... China held the closing ceremony of the Olympics on Feb. 20. The next day, Mr. Putin ordered more Russian troops to enter an insurgent-controlled area of eastern Ukraine.... For months, some American officials tried to recruit China to help avert the war." MB: An interesting article on the Russia-China dynamic.
Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: Russia's brutal war on Ukraine has "reverberated around the globe, steering history in a new direction and switching up 75 years of relations among some of the world’s most powerful and wealthy countries.... The war in Ukraine has almost instantly restructured global power dynamics, in part because of Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling and in part because the world has become so much more interconnected in recent years — in trade, technology, media and politics." MB: At the same time, Fisher acknowledges that the "new world order" may have a brief shelf-life. What he doesn't say is important, too. Fisher never specifically mentions that a war executed specifically to obliterate the emerging democracy in a sovereign nation sends shudders through every other liberal democratic (or quasi-liberal democratic) society. And he never suggests that at least part of the reaction to Putin's war of aggression is a sudden realization that liberal democracy really is in peril.
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is asking Congress to approve $32.5 billion to bolster Ukraine against Russian aggression and shore up the United States in the battle against the coronavirus. The official request arrives as Democrats and Republicans continue to tussle over a broader aid package that many lawmakers hope to append to a still-forming deal to fund the government.... To aid Ukraine, the Biden administration is calling on lawmakers to approve $10 billion.... For the pandemic, meanwhile, the Biden administration is requesting about $22.5 billion from Congress to replenish key public health programs as a safeguard against future variants of the coronavirus...." Related story linked below, under "The Pandemic, Ctd."
** William Saletan of the Bulwark contrasts President Biden's vision of the U.S., as laid out in his SOTU speech, with Donald Trump's views, expressed in his CPAC speech and other recent remarks. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans like [Gov. Kim] Reynolds [Iowa] want to align the GOP with Ukraine while burying the GOP’s record of apologizing for Trump’s embrace of Putin throughout the Ukraine scandal.... Llong before Reynolds was tapped [to give the GOP response to the SOTU address], she offered [an] absurd whitewashing of Trump’s appalling corruption, which was only one of an extensive series of official acts that aligned with Putin’s interests against those of Ukraine, the West and democracy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, told lawmakers on Wednesday that the central bank is poised to lift interest rates at its meeting this month as it tries to cool down high inflation — saying that while Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is ramping up economic uncertainty, it isn’t yet shaking the Fed off its course. Mr. Powell, testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, said the economic path ahead remained unsettled as Russia invaded Ukraine and the world reacted."
About Trump's "Big, Beautiful Wall." Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Mexican smuggling gangs have sawed through new segments of border wall 3,272 times over the past three years, according to unpublished U.S. Customs and Border Protection maintenance records obtained by The Washington Post under the Freedom of Information Act. The government spent $2.6 million to repair the breaches during the 2019 to 2021 fiscal years, the CBP records show. While the agency has acknowledged that smugglers are able to hack through the new barriers built by the Trump administration, the maintenance records show damage has been more widespread than previously known, pointing to the structure’s limitations as an impediment to illegal crossings."
** Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: “Lawyers for the House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol said in a court filing Wednesday that ... Donald Trump and key allies engaged in two potential crimes during their effort to overturn the election: conspiring to defraud the United States and obstructing an official congressional proceeding — the counting of electoral votes. The alleged criminal acts were raised by the committee in a California federal court filing challenging conservative lawyer John Eastman’s refusal to turn over thousands of emails the panel has requested related to his role in trying to persuade Vice President Mike Pence to reject electors from states won by Joe Biden. Eastman has cited attorney-client privilege as a shield against turning over the documents.... The committee argued in that filing that Eastman’s claim of privilege was potentially voided by the 'crime/fraud exception' to the confidentiality usually accorded attorneys and their clients, which holds that communications need not be kept confidential if an attorney is found to be assisting their client in the commission of a crime. They asked the judge deciding whether to release Eastman’s emails to privately review evidence the committee has so far gathered....” Politico's story is here. Rick Hasen has excerpted a large block of the WashPo story. ~~~
~~~ Juan Cole of Informed Comment: "The filing argues that many of Eastman’s emails to which it seeks access are to persons other than Trump and wouldn’t be affected by privilege, even if Eastman had been Trump’s lawyer, which they dispute. They say there is no evidence that he represented the former president. Their relationship appears rather to have been that of two politicians.... In addition, they say, they can’t find any evidence that Eastman worked as a lawyer for Trump in the sense of like, you know, preparing for a court case or some other actual attorney stuff.... To break Eastman’s claim to privilege, they are alleging that he and Trump were plotting a crime together, to wit, the overthrow of the elected US government. The Committee reviews some of the evidence it has gathered for this criminal conspiracy[.]... The committee [also] is saying that [on January] Trump was using Twitter to egg on the insurrectionists, of whose rioting he was already aware.
Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: The January 6 committee is "redoubling [its] focus on how [its] own GOP colleagues may have helped Donald Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Recent court filings, subpoenas and conversations with members of the Jan. 6 select committee show they’re homing in on interactions that Republican members had with Trump and his allies in the weeks preceding the riot. One critical pressure point is the committee’s search for communications between members of Congress and John Eastman.... Investigators are pressing Eastman to prioritize turning over emails to or about members of Congress and their staffs, including 14 GOP lawmakers specifically identified by the committee.... Also on the committee’s radar: Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani’s contacts with members of Congress, Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro’s claims about recruiting members of Congress to delay the election certification, and attempts by lawmakers to reach Trump on Jan. 6 to ask the rioters to stand down." ~~~
~~~ No-Show. Ryan Nobles, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's onetime trade adviser Peter Navarro did not appear for his scheduled deposition on Wednesday with the House select committee investigating January 6, Navarro tells CNN.... In a statement provided to CNN, Navarro claims he did not show up for his deposition because of executive privilege issues.... Navarro predicts that his case is headed to the Supreme Court by saying, 'that unconstitutional dog won't hunt at the Supreme Court, where this case is headed -- and I welcome an expedited review.'"
** Quinn Owen, et al., of ABC News: "Joshua James, 34, of Arab, Alabama, pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges on Wednesday as part of deal with prosecutors contingent on his cooperation with the U.S. government in their ongoing prosecution of defendants who were involved in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The plea deal is the first of its kind for a Jan. 6 defendant.... The plea agreement directly implicates Oath Keeper founder and militia leader Stewart Rhodes, among others, in a conspiratorial plot to stop the transfer of power ahead of President Joe Biden's inauguration.... James acknowledged he and others collected firearms at hotels on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., and were ready to use them to prevent Biden from becoming president. James admitted that he was instructed along with other Oath Keepers to 'be prepared, if called upon, to report to the White House grounds to secure the perimeter and use lethal force if necessary against anyone who tried to remove President Trump from the White House, including the National Guard or other government actors']..." They had a lot of firearms. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Barbara McQuade, appearing on MSNBC Wednesday night, said that the plea was significant in that (1) it's the first conviction for sedition, and (2) James has a lot of info to share about the Oath Keepers' operations in the insurrection. McQuade also noted that James was one of the Oath Keepers who had been in Roger Stone's "security detail" during the lead-up to the insurrection.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “... prosecutors on Wednesday opened the first criminal trial stemming from the [January 6] Capitol attack, saying that [Guy Wesley] Reffitt was at the forefront of the pro-Trump crowd that stormed into the building as lawmakers were certifying the results of the 2020 election.... Prosecutors said ... Reffitt not only helped lead a mob up a staircase of the building, but also recorded himself narrating his role in the advance. 'We’re taking the Capitol before the day is over, ripping them out by their hair,' Mr. Reffitt said on camera.... 'I just want to see Nancy Pelosi’s head hitting every step on the way out.'” Prosecutors played video of Reffitt's threat in their opening remarks. MB: He's a great dad, too: “children plan to say their father threatened them after he returned to Texas in order to keep them from turning him into the authorities.” Worth clicking on the page just to see the photo of that fat pink porker dressed in what he called “full battle rattle,” body armor & gear he wore to the insurrection.
Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin on March 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday, a timetable that could put President Biden’s first pick for the nation’s most influential court on track to be confirmed by mid-April. The announcement came as Jackson, currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, began her gauntlet of one-on-one meetings with key senators. She sat down Wednesday morning with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and was scheduled to meet later in the day with Judiciary Committee chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and the panel’s top Republican, Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: “Last week, on the very day President Biden announced his nomination of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) issued a statement expressing his earnest concern that 'Judge Jackson was the favored choice of far-left dark-money groups.'... Even for McConnell, a five-time Olympic gold medalist in hypocrisy, this was special. There is perhaps no human being more responsible for the tsunami of unlimited, unregulated 'dark' money that has corrupted and consumed American politics than Addison Mitchell McConnell III. Nobody worked harder to thwart campaign finance limits and to block the disclosure of contributors’ names. One Nation, the dark-money group McConnell effectively controls..., raised more than $172 million in 2020.... It’s difficult to overstate the extent to which the Supreme Court’s 2010 ruling in Citizens United and subsequent decisions have distorted and corrupted politics. So it’s only fitting that the distortion reaches into the high court, too.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bonus: Accompanying fab photo of Mitch smiling -- or something -- while standing alongside Judge Jackson.
Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: “Lawmakers in at least 17 state capitols and Congress are pushing legislation that would require schools to post all instructional materials online. Their goal, at least in part, is to enable parents who distrust their children’s schools to carefully examine teaching materials — enabling protests or, in some cases, giving people fodder to opt their children out. That includes materials on race and racial equity but also any other topic that might spark disagreement.... Transparency legislation also is pending in Congress, with House Republicans, led by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), promising to pass it as part of a 'parents bill of rights' if they take control after the November midterm elections.”
Tik Root of the Washington Post: “For the first time, the international community has agreed on a framework to curb the world’s growing plastic problem. A resolution adopted Wednesday by the United Nations lays out an ambitious plan for developing a legally binding treaty to 'end plastic pollution.'... It calls for the creation of an intergovernmental negotiating committee to hash out details of a treaty by the end of 2024.... The committee’s mandate includes all phases of the plastic life cycle — from design and production to waste management. It comes at a time when the world produces billions of pounds of plastic waste annually — about 353 million tons in 2019....”
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: “The White House unveiled a new pandemic road map on Wednesday that calls for better surveillance of new variants and dispensing antiviral pills 'on the spot' when someone tests positive, but rules out school and business closings. The plan was released hours after President Biden announced a pandemic reset in his State of the Union address, asserting that the wide availability of vaccines and therapeutics had made the threats more manageable, while taking pains to avoid last summer’s premature victory lap. The 96-page road map is part of a broader White House strategy to move the country from crisis footing and convince Americans that their lives can return to normal amid the president’s tanking approval ratings and Democratic anxiety that nosediving cases and school reopenings have not buoyed a dyspeptic public.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Marie: I did not intend to link the next story, as we already have abundant evidence that Ron DeSantis is a horrible human being. But the story of DeSantis's refusal to divest Florida of Russian assets inspired me: ~~~
~~~ Florida. Tori Powell of CBS News: "Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday asked a group of students attending a press conference to remove their face masks. The governor ... said their mask-wearing is 'COVID theater.' 'You do not have to wear those masks,' the governor said to students standing behind him at the University of South Florida, according to The Associated Press. 'I mean, please take them off. Honestly, it's not doing anything. We've got to stop with this COVID theater. So if you want to wear it fine, but this is ridiculous.'... Some of the students took off their face masks for the event, while others continued to wear them."
Beyond the Beltway
Alabama. Richard Goldstein of the New York Times: Authorine Lucy Foster, who in 1956 became the first Black person to attend the University of Alabama, has died at the age of 92.... [She] lasted only three days of classes at Tuscaloosa. When mobs threatened her life and pelted her with rocks, eggs and rotten produce, the university suspended her, ostensibly for her own safety. Several weeks later, it expelled her.... The University of Alabama did not drop its ban on Autherine Lucy Foster until 1988. She enrolled soon afterward as a graduate student and attended commencement ceremonies in May 1992, when she received a master’s degree in education.... In 2019, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the university. And less than three weeks before she died, the university named the building of its college of education in her honor. It had earlier been named for David Bibb Graves, a former Alabama governor and Ku Klux Klan leader."
Illinois. Andy Rose of CNN: "Michael J. Madigan, the former speaker of the Illinois House of Representatives, was indicted by a grand jury Wednesday on 22 federal charges related to racketeering, bribery and attempted extortion, prosecutors said. The indictment accuses Madigan, 79, of using his political power to obtain bribes and steer business toward his private Chicago law firm, Madigan & Getzendanner, according to the Department of Justice. Many of the allegations in the indictment relate to claims that Madigan illegally influenced the Commonwealth Edison Company (ComEd), northern Illinois' primary electric utility, and it supported him in return. Madigan served as the leader of the Illinois House of Representatives for 38 years, the longest tenure for a state speaker in modern US history. He was also the chair of the Illinois Democratic Party before resigning last year." MB: A nice reminder that Chicago Democrats are still as corrupt as Republicans everywhere.
New York. Jan Ransom & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "For all of the alarms that have been sounded over rising violence and disorder on Rikers Island..., two [recent] cases raise an astonishing prospect: that the levels of brutality experienced by detainees over the past year might have been even worse than was previously known.... Injuries suffered by ... two detainees in August and December ... occurred at a time when Rikers Island was already under intense scrutiny for its high rates of violence, and as members of Congress were calling for the Biden administration to step in.... After the coronavirus pandemic first swept through, thousands of correction officers stopped going to work. Gang members gained control over some housing areas, and other detainees were left to fend for themselves, often going without food or basic health care. Rates of violence rose sharply. At least 16 people died after being held in the jail system last year — many in preventable ways — and on Sunday Rikers Island recorded its first death in 2022....
North Carolina. Definition of a Bent Cop. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: William “Spivey, the former police chief in Chadbourn, N.C., who has been charged with more than 70 felonies, went boating on the [Lumber R]iver ... and had left a note ... indicating he wanted to die by suicide, [his wife Eve] Waddell told [Columbus County] detectives. But the boat, which was afloat, was empty, the authorities learned, and Mr. Spivey ... was missing.... Shortly after midnight on Feb. 24, the authorities said they found Mr. Spivey, 36, hiding near an apartment complex in Loris, S.C., and charged him with obstruction of justice for staging his death.... Last spring, Mr. Spivey was charged with ... stealing or destroying evidence, embezzlement and opioid trafficking, stemming from his time as the police chief in Chadbourn, a town of 1,500 people about 120 miles south of Raleigh. [Jon] David, the district attorney [for three counties], said that Mr. Spivey repeatedly raided the department’s evidence room, stealing drugs and thousands of dollars. He also stole firearms and sold them to friends and relatives, Mr. David said.” And more! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Texas. Maria Paul & Casey Parks of the Washington Post: "A Texas judge on Wednesday partially blocked enforcement of Gov. Greg Abbott’s order to treat gender-affirming care as child abuse, court documents show. The decision by Judge Amy Clark Meachum stems from a lawsuit filed on Tuesday by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Texas and Lambda Legal, the LGBTQ legal advocacy group. The lawsuit seeks to block a statewide directive ordering the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFSP) to investigate parents who allow their children to medically transition genders for possible crimes. Meachum’s ruling grants a temporary restraining order to the plaintiffs represented in the case, but it does not prevent Texas from investigating other parents. The judge will consider that question in an additional hearing on March 11."
Texas Congressional Election. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Rep. Van Taylor (R-Tex.) on Wednesday abruptly dropped his reelection bid, acknowledging in an email to supporters that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. The announcement came one day after Taylor was forced into a runoff against former Collin County judge Keith Self (R), who took 26.5 percent of Tuesday’s primary day vote to Taylor’s 48.7 percent. News of Taylor’s affair with Tania Joya, a former Islamist militant who now works to 'reprogram' other extremists, had circulated on conservative websites in the days leading up to the primary. Joya told the Dallas Morning News that she and Taylor had an affair from October 2020 to June 2021." ~~~
~~~ Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "All [of Taylor's] challengers focused on Taylor's 2021 vote for a proposed bipartisan, independent commission to probe the events of Jan. 6.... [Self] criticized Taylor for voting to certify the 2020 election results and vowed support for a "full forensic audit" of the election in Texas. Taylor ... faced a competitive general election battle last year and stumped as 'Mr. Bipartisan.' But redistricting turned his district into a Republican stronghold, providing more fertile ground for primary opposition." MB: That is, representation in the district is going to shift from "Sort of a Right-Wing Jerk" to "Right-Wing Jerk." ~~~
The congressman having the affair with the ISIS bride was the normal candidate in that GOP primary. -- Tim Miller of the Bulwark, in a tweet (via Steve M.) ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "The GOP candidate who'll advance to the general election, Keith Self, will probably win the seat (it's an R+6 district). He says he ;will demand a full forensic audit is conducted in Texas,' even though Donald Trump won the state by five and a half points. He also complains that Taylor 'voted to strip our nation’s history from the United States Capitol' -- a reference to those Confederate monuments. So, yes, it would have been better if the guy who had the affair with the 'ISIS bride' won the primary."
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