February 7, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Welcome Back, Jim Crow! Supreme Court Confederates Back Alabama Confederates. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday put on hold a lower court's order that Alabama must create a second congressional district favorable to Black voters, over the objections of Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court's three liberals. The court's most consistently conservative justices put on hold a decision of a special panel of three federal judges that threw out Alabama's new congressional map Jan. 24. That map had continued to draw only one of the state's seven congressional districts to have a majority of Black voters. Dissenting Justice Elena Kagan called the court's order 'a disservice to Black Alabamians who under [Supreme Court] precedent have had their electoral power diminished -- in violation of a law this Court once knew to buttress all of American democracy.'"
Rachel Pannett, et al., of the Washington Post: "French President Emmanuel Macron called for a de-escalation of tensions over Ukraine on Monday, meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow as part of an attempt by Western nations to stave off a Russian invasion of its neighbor. The French leader, speaking alongside Putin at the opening of their talks, said dialogue with Russia was necessary because it 'makes it possible to build real security and stability' in Europe. 'I believe that our continent is today in an eminently critical situation, which requires us all to be extremely responsible,' he said." MB: IOW, no great diplomatic breakthrough.
Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who has imposed some of the nation's most stringent pandemic-related mandates, will no longer require students and school employees to wear masks, signaling a deliberate shift toward treating the coronavirus as a part of daily life. 'This is not a declaration of victory as much as an acknowledgment that we can responsibly live with this thing,' Mr. Murphy, the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, said Monday in announcing the elimination of the mandate." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.
Jennifer Hassan & Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Police are clamping down on self-described 'Freedom Convoy' anti-vaccine-mandate demonstrations in Canada's capital, making multiple arrests, issuing hundreds of tickets, and seizing vehicles and fuel as Ottawa's mayor declared a state of emergency. The emergency declaration was designed to give officers more 'flexibility' to respond to the hundreds and sometimes thousands of truckers and their supporters who are gathered in the streets to denounce coronavirus measures, Mayor Jim Watson said Sunday. And, he said, the declaration reflects the 'serious danger and threat to the safety and security of residents.' Fireworks were shot off, drivers blared their horns and streets remained blocked for the second weekend in a row, and Watson admitted Sunday that authorities were 'outnumbered' and 'losing this battle' against groups who were 'calling the shots.'" ~~~
~~~ Paulina Villegas & Reis Thebault of the Washington Post: "After being denied several million dollars raised on GoFundMe, organizers of a trucker-led protest disrupting life in Canada's capital have found a new platform: a Christian crowdfunding site where they raised more than $3.5 million in two days to demonstrate against the country's vaccine mandate. The new fundraiser hosted by GiveSendGo, which describes itself as the '#1 free Christian crowdfunding site,' reported Sunday that the 'Freedom Convoy' campaign had raised several million dollars two days after GoFundMe announced that it was freezing more than $8 million in donations to the cause, a move that led Republican officials in the United States to announce investigations."
Alex Thompson of Politico: "President Joe Biden's top science adviser, Eric Lander, bullied and demeaned his subordinates and violated the White House's workplace policy, an internal White House investigation recently concluded, according to interviews and an audio recording obtained by Politico. The two-month investigation found 'credible evidence' that Lander -- a Cabinet member and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy who the White House touts as a key player in the pandemic response -- was 'bullying' toward his then-general counsel, Rachel Wallace, according to a recorded January briefing on the investigation's findings.... There was also 'credible evidence' that Lander had spoken 'harshly and disrespectfully to colleagues in front of other colleagues,' [deputy personnel manager Christian] Peele said, according to the recording. 'The investigation found credible evidence of instances of multiple women having complained to other staff about negative interactions with Dr. Lander, where he spoke to them in a demeaning or abrasive way in front of other staff,' Peele said in the recording.... Soon after his top aides became aware of the extent of Politico's investigation, Lander sent an email late Friday to all OSTP staff apologizing for his behavior."
The Insurrection Thrilled Donald Trump. In a story on why January 6 committee investigators want to talk to Ivanka Trump, Farnoush Amiri of the AP reports, on January 6, "... as staffers watched in shock at what was unfolding down Pennsylvania Avenue on television screens positioned throughout the West Wing, [Donald] Trump's attention was so rapt that he hit rewind and watched certain moments again, according to Stephanie Grisham, a former White House press secretary. 'Look at all of the people fighting for me,' Trump said, according to Grisham.... At one point, the president was confused why staffers weren't as excited as he was watching the unrest unfold." ~~~
~~~ Axios: "Former President Trump incited the Capitol riot on Jan. 6 'to intimidate' former Vice President Mike Pence into overturning the 2020 election, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Monday." MB: This jibes with details in the AP report above.
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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden will meet with Olaf Scholz, the new chancellor of Germany, at the White House on Monday, a visit designed to publicly shore up a key link in the Western alliance amid concerns that Germany has not been a forceful enough partner in calming tensions between Russia and Ukraine.... In a call with reporters on Sunday, administration officials said that Mr. Biden would be looking to discuss a package of 'swift and severe' sanctions against Russia if its president, Vladimir V. Putin, decides to invade Ukraine.... Mr. Biden and Mr. Scholz are also likely to discuss the contentious $11 billion Nord Stream 2 pipeline, a natural gas conduit being built between Germany and Russia."
Aamer Madhani of the AP: "White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Sunday that Russia could invade Ukraine 'any day,' launching a conflict that would come at an 'enormous human cost.' The senior adviser to President Joe Biden offered another stark warning the day after U.S. officials confirmed that Russia has assembled at least 70% of the military firepower it likely intends to have in place by mid-month to give President Vladimir Putin the option of launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine."
La Paix à Notre Époque? Roger Cohen & Andrew Kramer of the New York Times: "The standoff with Russia over Ukraine enters a critical phase this week. The United States has snapped NATO to attention and moved forces east. Moscow has readied still more forces on the Ukraine border. But beneath those tensions, diplomatic avenues are being feverishly explored and the outlines of potential solutions, still amorphous, may be taking form.... President Emmanuel Macron of France ... will visit his Russian counterpart, Vladimir V. Putin, in Moscow before traveling to Kyiv. With the Biden administration staking out a hard line, Germany lying low and Mr. Putin seemingly determined to force a solution to Russia's security grievances, it is Mr. Macron who has positioned himself at the center of the diplomacy in Europe.... For Mr. Macron the chance to lead the effort to create a new European security architecture has placed him front and center on perhaps the biggest stage of his presidency, just two months before elections." ~~~
~~~ Lauri Kayali of Politico: "French President Emmanuel Macron is optimistic he can secure a de-escalation over Ukraine when he travels to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday, but hinted that Western countries could have to make concessions to the Kremlin.... In an interview with the weekly Journal du Dimanche before his departure, Macron not only downplayed fears that Putin's real strategic ambition was to occupy Ukraine but also extended an olive branch to Russia by saying he understood Moscow's need to defend its security interests." MB: As I wrote, "Peace for Our Time."
Nick Miroff & Arelis Hernández of the Washington Post: "President Biden halted the [Trump administration's 'remain in Mexico' program] when he took office, but in September a U.S. District Court ordered his administration to reinstate the program, formally known as the Migrant Protection Protocols. After months of negotiations with Mexico, the Biden administration relaunched MPP in early December, starting in El Paso. Immigration advocates were furious, blaming Biden for not pushing back harder. But two months after its restart, the new version of MPP bears little resemblance to ... Donald Trump's. The Biden administration has re-implemented the program with a narrow scope and none of the zeal demonstrated by Trump officials.... So far the Department of Homeland Security has sent back about 410 MPP enrollees, according to the latest U.N. figures, equivalent to about seven asylum seekers per day borderwide, compared with 300 to 400 returned daily in summer 2019."
A Golden Girls Moment/the White Man's Bond: Thank You for Being a Friend. Mitch, I don't want to hurt your reputation, but we really are friends. And that is not an epiphany we're having here at the moment. We've always -- you've always done exactly what you've said. You're a man of ... your word, and you're a man of honor. Thank you for being my friend. -- Joe Biden, National Prayer Breakfast last Thursday ~~~
~~~ Biden's declaration drove Charles Blow of the New York Times up the wall. "It seems that Biden suffers from the same blind spot as other white liberal leaders throughout history: looking past the oppressive impulses of other white men to see kinship and commonality.... These bonds across bigotry ... smack of a privilege of which only white men can boast, because the threat is almost always aimed away for them and at others." MB: I stand with Charles.
Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "One Navy SEAL candidate died and another was hospitalized after completing several days of excruciating training known as 'Hell Week' in Coronado, Calif., Navy officials said on Saturday. Both candidates, who were assigned to the Naval Special Warfare Basic Training Command, were transported for medical treatment 'several hours' after their basic underwater demolition SEAL class 'successfully completed Hell Week,' the Naval Special Warfare Command said in a statement.... The cause of Seaman [Kyle] Mullen's death was unknown and an investigation was underway, according to the earlier statement."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Two senators working on an overhaul of the little-known law that ... Donald J. Trump and his allies tried to use to overturn the 2020 election pledged on Sunday that their legislation would pass the Senate, saying that recent revelations about the plot made their work even more important. In a joint interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, said their efforts to rewrite the Electoral Count Act of 1887 were gaining broader support in the Senate, with as many as 20 senators taking part in the discussions. 'Absolutely, it will pass,' Mr. Manchin said of an overhaul of the law, which dictates how Congress formalizes elections. He said efforts by Mr. Trump and his allies to exploit 'ambiguity' in the law were 'what caused the insurrection' -- the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol." A CNN report is here.
Reid Epstein & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The number of competitive congressional districts is on track to dive near -- and possibly below -- the lowest level in at least three decades, as Republicans and Democrats draw new political maps designed to ensure that the vast majority of House races are over before the general election starts. With two-thirds of the new boundaries set, mapmakers are on pace to draw fewer than 40 seats -- out of 435 -- that are considered competitive based on the 2020 presidential election results, according to a New York Times analysis of election data. Ten years ago that number was 73.... The sharp decline of competition for House seats is the latest worrying sign of dysfunction in the American political system, which is already struggling with a scourge of misinformation and rising distrust in elections. Lack of competition in general elections can widen the ideological gulf between the parties, leading to hardened stalemates on legislation and voters' alienation from the political process."
In his NYT conversation with Gail Collins, Bret Stephens said this: "Trying to rescue the Republican Party from the moral pit into which it has thrown itself is like trying to revive a corpse by blowing tobacco smoke up its bottom." So Gail said, "Ew." Upon which Bret explained, "Apparently it was a thing in the 18th century. Think of it as the hydroxychloroquine of its day." MB: Still, that's way closer to "legitimate political discourse" than is storming the Capitol & hanging the veep & sundry Congressional leaders, the better to install a fat pretender to the presidency*.
Stephen Collinson of CNN: "The Republican Party is ever closer to the destination to which it has long been headed under ... Donald Trump -- the legitimization of violence as a form of political expression. The Republican National Committee's censure of GOP Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for probing the "legitimate political discourse" of the January 6 insurrection enshrined that principle in the party's policy dogma. The move on Friday underscored the untethered extremism of large sections of one of America's great political parties and the still malignant, dominant influence of the ex-President, who is ready for action with a $122 million war chest. The RNC's declaration coincided with the release of new video by the Department of Justice showing the horrific truth of the insurrection -- a Trump mob, high on his election lies, beating up police officers and vowing to drag lawmakers through the streets."
Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "Holding court at a political rally in Texas last week..., Donald Trump implied that he -- a wealthy White man who was elected to an office almost exclusively held by White men -- was a victim of racism. His claim referenced what he said were three 'radical vicious, racist prosecutors' -- ... and all of them Black -- who are investigating his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection and examining his business organization's finances. But his comments made him the latest in a line of conservatives claiming, loudly and frequently, that White men are victims of racism.... Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), for example..., complained that President Biden's decision to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court was 'offensive' and excludes most Americans. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) said that limiting the pool to Black women is 'affirmative racial discrimination.'... Of the 115 Supreme Court justices appointed since it was created in 1789, all but seven have been White men. None has been a Black woman." ~~~
~~~ Bobby Calvan of the AP: "'These prosecutors are vicious, horrible people. They're racists and they're very sick, they're mentally sick,' Trump said, before warning his [mostly white] audience: 'In reality, they're not after me. They're after you.'... His diatribe left the clear impression that Trump, who rode the politics of white grievance into the White House, thinks he can't possibly be treated fairly by Black officials. The comments carry the echoes of racist messages that have proliferated in recent years -- that Black people and other minorities are taking power, and that they will exact revenge on white people.... That's among the fears stoking the white supremacy movement, the so-called 'white replacement theory' that people of color will supplant whites in the country's power dynamics and social structure."
Myah Ward of Politico: "... Donald Trump received bad legal advice from advisers who 'were basically snake oil salesmen,' leading him to false conclusions about the power Mike Pence had to overturn the 2020 election results, the former chief of staff to the vice president, Marc Short, said Sunday.... Short said he wasn't sure if Trump's beliefs could be fully attributed to bad advisers or if the president was seeking the bad advice to produce the result he wanted.... Short said he believed President Joe Biden was duly elected, but made sure to include that he feels there are 'significant concerns' about the electoral process during the pandemic." MB: A Florida snake will need a good snake oil.
Thief-in-Chief. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump improperly removed multiple boxes from the White House that were retrieved by the National Archives and Records Administration last month from his Mar-a-Lago residence because they contained documents and other items that should have been turned over to the agency, according to three people familiar with the visit.... The Presidential Records Act, which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president's official duties.... [This] is just the latest example of what records personnel described as chronic difficulties in preserving records in the Trump era -- the most challenging since Richard Nixon sought to block disclosure of official records, including White House tapes." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Where "improperly removed" is a euphemism for "stole" & "raises new concerns" substitutes for "flagrantly broke the law," you know WashPo lawyers were so closely involved in the writing of this report that the lawyers should have shared the byline.
Jessica Lipscomb of the Washington Post: "One day after Joe Rogan apologized for previously using the n-word on his podcast, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek told employees that, despite mounting controversies, pulling 'The Joe Rogan Experience' from the streaming platform would be a mistake. 'I do not believe that silencing Joe is the answer,' Ek wrote Sunday in an internal memo shared with The Washington Post. 'We should have clear lines around content and take action when they are crossed, but canceling voices is a slippery slope.'" The AP's report is here. MB: That must be some ironclad contract Rogan's lawyers negotiated with Spotify.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.
Jess McHugh of the Washington Post: "As the coronavirus pandemic creeps into its third year, and the death toll in the United States reaches 900,000, the 1918 influenza pandemic can offer some insight into how this chapter of history might draw to a close. But an 'ending,' when it comes to viruses such as these, is a misleading word. Eventually, experts say, the novel coronavirus is likely to transition from a deadly and disruptive pathogen to a milder, more seasonal nuisance. In the meantime, though, the country's experience a century ago suggests that we could be in for a lot more pain -- especially if we let our guard down."
New Jersey. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a Democrat who has imposed some of the nation's most stringent pandemic-related mandates, will no longer require students and school employees to wear masks, signaling a deliberate shift toward treating the coronavirus as a part of daily life. Mr. Murphy, the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, said on Sunday that he would officially announce the elimination of the mandate on Monday afternoon. The new policy will take effect the second week of March, two years after New York and New Jersey became early epicenters of [the] virus...."
Trump Forces Invade Canada. Rob Gillies of the AP: "The mayor of Canada's capital [Ottawa] declared a state of emergency Sunday and a former U.S. ambassador to Canada said groups in the U.S. must stop interfering in the domestic affairs of America's neighbor as protesters opposed to COVID-19 restrictions continued to paralyze Ottawa's downtown.... Thousands of protesters descended in Ottawa again on the weekend, joining a hundred who remained since last weekend.... The 'freedom truck convoy' has attracted support from many U.S. Republicans including ... Donald Trump, who called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a 'far left lunatic' who has 'destroyed Canada with insane Covid mandates.'" A Washington Post story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump's army, defeated after a long battle with U.S. Capitol police & other forces, have moved on to the Canadian capital. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, a native of Canada, who once called the rag-tag army "domestic terrorists," said Sunday they were "foreign terrorists now." Sen. Cruz will appear on Tucker Carlson's show Monday to disavow his own remarks.
Beyond the Beltway
Alaska Senate Race. Alison Main of CNN: "Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Sunday they would endorse one another in upcoming elections during a rare bipartisan interview on CNN. "I'm endorsing my dear friend Lisa Murkowski. Alaska could only be so lucky to have her continue to serve them," Manchin told CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," reiterating his previous endorsement of his Republican colleague in her upcoming Alaska Senate race.... Murkowski is in a potentially tough fight, facing a primary challenge this year from Republican Kelly Tshibaka, a former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner who has been endorsed by ... Donald Trump.... Murkowski also said she would endorse Manchin if he chose to run for re-election in 2024."
Colorado. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The Douglas County, Colo., school board voted 4 to 3 in a special meeting Friday night to fire [district superintendent] Corey Wise without cause, dismissing the superintendent with two years left in his contract. Wise, voted in by the board last April, supported policies on in-school masking and equity that were overturned in the months since by four conservatives who campaigned against critical race theory and other diversity initiatives and were elected to the board.... The vote followed allegations from the board's liberal minority that the conservative members made an ultimatum in secret to Wise for him to resign or be fired through a vote -- actions that would violate Colorado's open-meeting laws. The allegations sparked outrage in the community and resulted in one of the Denver area's largest school systems to close Thursday as 1,000 teachers, district staffers and parents protested the board in support of Wise."
Minnesota. Jay Senter, et al., of the New York Times: "Chanting the name of Amir Locke, a large crowd of protesters marched in frigid weather in downtown Minneapolis on Saturday to voice exasperation and anger over the conduct of law enforcement officers, nearly two years after the murder of George Floyd. Mr. Locke, 22, was fatally shot in an early morning raid at an apartment complex on Wednesday when a SWAT team for the Minneapolis Police Department carried out a search warrant involving a homicide for the police in nearby St. Paul. Mr. Locke was not named as a suspect in the warrant, according to authorities."
Virginia, Where the Governor Is a Bully. Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin's campaign lashed out at a high school student as well as Democrat Ralph Northam on Twitter this weekend, tweeting out the teen's name and photo after the boy shared a news story about part of the Executive Mansion where enslaved workers once lived. On Saturday afternoon, Ethan Lynne, 17, retweeted a report from the Richmond public radio station VPM suggesting that Youngkin (R) might be scrapping efforts pursued under two previous governors, Northam and Democrat Terry McAuliffe, to highlight the history of enslaved people at the mansion. The report contained an error, which Lynne noted on Twitter hours later, when VPM issued a correction. But by then, 'Team Youngkin' -- the official Twitter account for Youngkin's campaign -- had attacked Lynne, posting a photo of the teen with Northam taken at a Democratic fundraiser in October.... Team Youngkin removed the tweet late Sunday morning but offered no apology.... Youngkin ran for office as a sunny, basketball-loving dad-next-door figure...." A Youngkin campaign spokesman identified Lynne, who says he has volunteered for various Democratic candidates since he was 10 years old, as a "Democrat Party official." A Politico story is here.~~~
~~~ Marie: Assuming the revised VPM report was accurate, looks like Youngkin views the efforts to educate the public about slaves working at the mansion as verboten critical race theory stuff that might cause "discomfort" to nice white Virginians.
News Ledes
CNN's live updates of Olympics results & events are here. The New York Times' live updates are here.
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Reader Comments (13)
Religion was invented by people who employee Moscow Mitch. The religion makes the 'little people' seem a slight bit more empowered as pro-actively charitable bearers of forgiveness when, in fact, the little people are just dolts. Mitch needs to be squished under JoeB's shoe like the bug that he is.
The firing of that superintendent in Colorado by right-wingers against both education and public safety is emblematic of the way wingers have found that taking over school boards is an excellent way to force their ideological demands on millions who would never go along with them otherwise. Polls show that the current right-wing vogue for stripping public school teachers of their ability to teach facts that don’t sit well with the traitors and to force books they fear from school libraries is not supported by the vast majority of parents (and students).
As usual, despite what the fearful cowards on the right proclaim, their pogroms against education, diversity, and public health have nothing to do with students and everything to do with the ideological demands of a very vocal, abusive, and increasingly violent minority.
When POT supporters show up at school board meetings promising to “bring the guns” if their demands are not met, the goal is twofold. First, to get their way no matter what, and no worries if they represent only a small minority, but also to silence any and all opposition by screaming the loudest and threatening violence. For years now, the right has had no interest in honest debate or exchange of ideas, with differences hashed out through a reliance on facts, truth, and respect for varying points of view (remember Gingrich’s litany of insults and vituperative terms circulated on the right for use in silencing any opposition?). Debate is for losers. They demand obedience. They lose at the ballot box? To hell with tempering their positions and making their ideas more palatable to a majority of voters. That’s called democracy. They hate democracy. Their solution? Attack! Bring the guns! Bring bombs! Storm the Capitol! Hang their perceived enemies and kill anyone in the way.
Their leaders now call this legal, protected speech, legitimate political discourse.
Education? Public health? The democratic process? Not if they can help it.
Bring the guns!
It’s baked in…
The other day I listened to a podcast, one of several excellent offerings produced by WNYC, “The United States of Anxiety”, which featured an interview with former Reagan acolyte Mona Charen. Her status as a Never Trumper allows for a certain ability to see that the current position of the GOP, especially their support for violent, far right vigilantes, is inimical (not to say poisonous) to the founding principles of the country. And while it’s certainly momentarily refreshing to hear someone—anyone—on the right admit that that side is not only wrong, but dangerously so, you keep expecting the injection of both-siderism into the discussion, and presto! Yup. There it is. Both sides engage in violence!
So, okay, that’s expected. Despite her pious proclamations about the importance of founding principles and impression of the need for a sense of fairness (because naturally, the coarsening of public discourse is just as much the fault of liberals, which is like saying if someone shoots your dog, tries to burn your house down, demands that your kids be taught that there’s no such thing as systemic racism, and you complain? Well, it’s just as much your fault for the ensuing toxic mess) she does, at one point, offer a hypothetical demonstrating how endemic is the right-wing thinking about liberals and progressives.
In an attempt to show how much she loves and supports the Constitution and the flag and the founders, et al, and how she is able to criticize her own side (something she pats herself on the back for several times), she recounts a situation in San Francisco in which some blah, blah, blah winger types were incensed because of some program that allowed drag queens to read a story. This is, of course, bad. Because silencing positions you don’t agree with is…well, bad. Okay, sure. It’s bad (waiting, waiting, waiting…) BECAUSE (and here it comes) if you stop drag queens from reading a story, the left, when they’re in charge, will take all your guns and outlaw religion!
What. The. Fuck!
So the right will stop a half dozen drag queens from reading something, but (and this isn’t even close to “both sides”) the left will disarm you completely and put you in jail for practicing your religion.
It’s baked in. That sense that, while the right might have its faults, the left is full of dangerous loonies.
When even a Mona Charen, who, I believe, truly sees herself as thoughtful and respectful of the opposite side thinks like this, you can only imagine the nightmare reactions of the millions of unhinged Trumpies to the blandest forms of accommodation for the most reasonable and least threatening positions (let’s all make it through the pandemic alive).
It’s baked in. And it can’t be taken out.
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/anxiety/episodes/conservative-view-vigilante-right
Dear Joe,
Okay, time to stop testing the medical marijuana. Mitch is not your friend. If you were bleeding on the ground, he’d walk around rather than over you, so as not to get blood on his $1,000 pair of shoes.
Jesus!
With friends like Mitch, who needs enemies? (Almost typed enemas).
@Akhilleus: Not much has changed. While we might have been a country "conceived in liberty" (from European religious oppression), we are also citizens of a country formed in violence (American Revolution). Those who led the violence never once reckoned that any but they -- propertied white men -- would run the show & make all the political & economic decisions for everyone else: poorer white men, non-whites & all women.
In all fairness, Republicans are carrying on a tradition established by our vaunted Founders. They are quite right to see those of us who believe "liberty for all" means, you know, "all," are radical leftists. You and I grew up, more or less, in a period where for one brief, shining moment, radical leftist ideology became normalized & encoded into law. But the traditionalists -- the "real Americans" -- never gave up. They quickly embraced the Second Amendment, took up guns -- nay, arsenals -- to defend their God-given rights (as practiced in colonial communities where those rights were limited to one sect) against us usurpers.
When Republicans today call Democratic-won elections fraudulent, they are following the Founders' line, because people who never should have been allowed to vote turned the 2020 elections. If the only voters in 2020 were "real Americans," Donald Trump would be president* today.
We will have to decide what it means to be a "full person" before we can rationally analyze American history. And that very well may require a great deal of unlearning. Maybe Lesson 1 is the "Adams Family Values" interpretation of the first Thanksgiving. At least it's fun.
My wandering response to Renkl's wandering piece, part of which echo Marie's remark just above. Democracy to the Founders was a democracy we/I would not recognize today.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/07/opinion/culture/maus-tennessee-book-bans.html
Public education is truly one of the world's great ideas, having its source in the radical ideas of freedom, equality and fraternity that animated many eighteenth century revolutions, including our own.
American conservatives have always been uncomfortable with public education, more so since those revolutionary words and ideas began to include people with dark skins.
But race is only one obvious issue at stake here.
One other is censorship, which has its own complications. While there is sometimes reason to debate the "control" schools should exert on age-appropriate material, we forget that much of that "control" occurs naturally, as an offshoot of child development. Parents and school boards don't have to impose controls on material that children of a certain age will on their own simply reject as uninteresting or unattractive. The irony, as Renkl points out, is how an effort to control what children (or adults) can read can make even the dullest story attractive.
The other--and maybe the biggest-- issue is money. Besides representing all those revolutionary ideas, each a fountainhead of liberalism, public schools control gobs of money private investors would like to get their hands on.
To a great extent, the effort to control what schools can or should teach is part of the effort to privatize public education.
Whether the local school boards know it or not, they are being used by fat cats playing with a "Maus."
Had the same reaction as did Marie to the headline on the article about "improperly" removing WH documents to Mar-a-Lago. Yes, to rational people, "improper" should have read "illegal."
But if you have an advanced case of narcissism and truly believe that the 2020 election was "stolen," and that you are therefore still president, oblivious to reality as you are, you will continue to issue proclamations on stationery that appears to come from the office of the president and will consider your residence the current WH.
So, what's the problem with keeping a few of your papers there?
Note: This began as sarcasm, but now that I've finishing the thought, I'm not so sure sarcasm covers the situation.
The Youngkin bullying is completely disgusting. Attacking a 17 year old high schooler is bad enough, but saying he hangs out with people who do blackface/ kkk photos just because he took a photo with a real Virginia governor shows what a garbage human being Glenn truly is. That is some Trump-level pettiness and thin skin.
At least we didn't have to ask the Russians to come help us get our government documents back this time. They seem like they got a lot on their plate right now and they didn't do such a good job last time with Hillary's emails.
The Prospect is on it:
https://prospect.org/justice/clyburn-pushes-management-side-labor-attorney-for-supreme-court/
https://prospect.org/justice/michelle-childs-punitive-criminal-justice-rulings-repeatedly-overturned/
Perhaps Clyburn will be disappointed....
Seems Roberts is hoping people will forget he was the architect of the Voting Rights Act' dismantling, if architects sometimes draw plans for tearing things down.
https://news.yahoo.com/mitt-romney-says-exchanged-texts-001230489.html. I've said before: don't believe a public word Mitt or his niece say. This is how the Mormons take over the presidency of the United States. We don't care enough; they don't drink; they pay 10% of their income to their church; they LOVE GUNS. These LDS have been very busy in all the flyover states for many decades. The Koch network has nuclearized the Mormons. Mitt will 'get drafted' in New Hampshire.