January 12, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Joe Biden Gets Under the Turtle's Skin. Trish Turner, et al., of ABC News: "As President Joe Biden prepared to head to Capitol Hill on Thursday to rally Senate Democrats on election reform, a visibly angry Republican Leader Mitch McConnell fired back Wednesday, saying he didn't recognize the man who delivered the fiery speech in Georgia on voting rights one day earlier. McConnell characterized Biden's speech -- in which the president called for the Senate to change its rules by 'whichever way they need to be changed' in order to pass Democrats' voting bills -- as 'profoundly, profoundly un-presidential,' deeming the remarks a 'rant' that 'was incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office.'" MB: That's odd; the teevee pundits I heard seemed to like the speech. If Mitch doesn't care to be likened to Jeff Davis & Bull Connor, he might start by supporting the voting rights bills. Instead, he's leading the filibusters against them.
** Kevin Gets an Invitation. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Wednesday formally requested an interview with Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, who was in close contact with ... Donald J. Trump during and after the violence.... Mr. McCarthy, a California Republican, [is] the highest-ranking lawmaker the panel has pursued in its inquiry.... 'You have acknowledged speaking directly with the former president while the violence was underway on Jan. 6,' Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee, wrote [to McCarthy].... 'It appears that you had one or more conversations with the president during this period [shortly after Jan. 6], including a conversation on or about Jan. 11,' Mr. Thompson wrote. 'It appears that you may also have discussed with President Trump the potential he would face a censure resolution, impeachment, or removal under the 25th Amendment. It also appears that you may have identified other possible options, including President Trump's immediate resignation from office.'" You can read the letter here (you may have to download it). The AP's story is here.
David Shortell, et al., of CNN: "An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is seen as a key witness in the investigation into alleged sex trafficking by the Florida Republican, entered an Orlando federal courthouse with her lawyer on Wednesday, where she was expected to testify before a grand jury, according to a CNN reporter on the scene.... The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017." ~~~
~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The appearance of his ex-girlfriend before a federal grand jury is a potentially ominous sign for the congressman.... The ex-girlfriend was among several women on a trip Gaetz allegedly took to the Bahamas in 2018 that has been of interest to criminal investigators. The 17-year-old at issue in the investigation was also on that trip, though she was an adult at that time, people familiar with the matter have said. Prosecutors have seemed to be lining up possible witnesses who could testify against Gaetz."
Larry Neumeister & Tom Hays of the AP: "A judge has -- for now -- refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Britain's Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17. Stressing Wednesday that he wasn't ruling on the truth of the allegations, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew's lawyers that Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince. Kaplan said the $500,000 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre didn't involve the prince and didn't bar a suit against him now." The New York Times story is here.
Georgia Senate Race. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "As the coronavirus was sweeping across the United States last summer and the country was still without a vaccine, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker promoted a 'mist' that he claimed would 'kill any covid on your body.' Walker, who is vying to unseat freshman Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) and has been endorsed by ... Donald Trump, did not name the supposed product, which he claimed during an August 2020 podcast appearance was 'EPA-, FDA-approved.'... There is no known mist or spray that can prevent covid-19."
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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden endorsed changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights legislation during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, warning of a grave threat to American democracy if lawmakers did not act to 'protect the heart and soul' of the country. Mr. Biden ... said he supported 'getting rid of' [the filibuster] in the case of voting rights legislation. Such a change in Senate procedures has only the slimmest of chances of winning the support of all 50 senators who caucus with the Democrats, which is needed to overcome universal Republican opposition. Mr. Biden, a former senator and an institutionalist who had long been leery of whittling away at the filibuster, said such Senate traditions had been 'abused.' 'Sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world's greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self,' Mr. Biden said." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Vice President Harris & President Biden speak in Atlanta:
Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat a threat that has intensified dramatically in recent years, a top national security official said Tuesday. Matthew G. Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, announced the unit in his opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists -- those accused of planning or committing crimes in the name of domestic political goals -- had more than doubled since the spring of 2020.... Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) opened the hearing with a video showing footage and news coverage from the [January 6, 2021] riot.... 'They are normalizing the use of violence to achieve political goals,' Durbin said. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) countered with a video showing footage of riots the previous summer at racial justice protests around the country. 'These anti-police riots rocked our nation for seven full months, just like the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol rocked the nation,' Grassley said." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "A U.S. government review panel has approved the release of five men who have been held for years without charge at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a flurry of decisions released by the Pentagon on Tuesday, but they are unlikely to be freed soon as the Biden administration works to find nations to take them. The disclosure came on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the wartime prison, and President Barack Obama's last special envoy on the task, Lee Wolosky, used the occasion to urge the White House to shut down the operation."
Aamer Madhani of the AP: "The United States on Tuesday announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months ago. White House national security council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement that the new aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development will flow through independent humanitarian organizations and will be used to provide shelter, health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation and hygiene services." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is homing in on Donald Trump Jr. The committee issued subpoenas for two close advisers, Andrew Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, to ... Donald Trump's eldest son on Tuesday, an indication that they're inching ever closer to the Trump family. The panel also issued a subpoena for Ross Worthington, who helped draft the president's Jan. 6 speech to a rally crowd at the Ellipse...."
Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee examining the Jan. 6 attack disclosed on Tuesday that it had interviewed the man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory about who provoked the violence, noting that he had denied reports he urged protesters into the Capitol at the behest of federal law enforcement agencies. The committee said its investigators spoke in November with the man, Ray Epps, who was seen on video urging people to march into the Capitol. Some Republican members of Congress and other supporters of ... Donald J. Trump have promoted a theory that Mr. Epps was working for the F.B.I. and encouraging the attack at its direction. As evidence, they have cited the fact that Mr. Epps was at one point listed on the bureau's wanted list but was then removed from it without being arrested or charged with any wrongdoing. In a statement, the House committee said Mr. Epps told the panel he is not an F.B.I. informant and was not working at the direction of law enforcement agencies when he encouraged protesters to enter the building." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Some promoters of the false flag theory, according to the NYT report, "Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky; Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and, on Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have all pushed various forms of those claims." Okay then. ~~~
~~~ Cruz's Motovation: Sucking up to TuKKKer. Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked a high-ranking FBI official a series of questions meant to advance conspiracy theory that the January 6, 2021, insurrection had been fomented by FBI agents and informants -- a public display that comes just a week after Cruz appeared with Fox News host Tucker Carlson and reversed himself on all his prior claims that the insurrectionists who assaulted police were 'terrorists.'... There is no credible evidence that [Ray] Epps was some kind of point man in leading the entire attack. But his name has been spread prolifically by Darren Beattie, Carlson's main partner in spreading the false flag conspiracy theory...." Read Kleefeld's full article to get a sense of how ridiculous Ted's excellent conspiracy theory is.
Throw This Woman Out of Congress. Now. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday floated resorting to using the 'Second Amendment' to deal with Democrats who are imposing what she described as a 'tyrannical' government. While speaking with right-wing media personality Sebastian Gorka, Greene slammed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for her policies regarding both vaccines and gun rights. Greene then pivoted to talking about how Americans are guaranteed the right to bear arms to resist such supposed tyranny. 'Ultimately the truth is it's our Second Amendment rights, our right to bear arms, that protects Americans and give us the ability to defend ourselves from a tyrannical government,' she said. 'And I hate to use this language but Democrats, they're exactly -- they're doing exactly what our Founders talked about when they gave us the precious rights that we have.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: To be clear, Greene, who represents Georgia, is urging people to take up arms against a Black Democratic candidate for Georgia governor. Abrams' "tyrannical" proposals are centered on voting rights. Greene does not urge people to run out & shoot Abrams -- who, after all, has not been elected yet -- but that's a nuance that certainly could be lost on the riffraff who would listen to Greene & Gorka. She is way over the line of acceptable speech for a member of Congress.
A Crack in the Big Lie Wall Widens. Manu Raju of CNN: "Senior Republicans are closing ranks behind Sen. Mike Rounds after he endured a scathing attack from ... Donald Trump for acknowledging the reality that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. 'I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Tuesday. 'And I agree with him.'... The latest blowup came over the weekend after Rounds said that any voting 'irregularities' in 2020 wouldn't have changed the outcome of the race. 'The election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency,' Rounds told ABC News. That fact-based comment prompted a broadside from the former President, who called Rounds a 'jerk' and 'ineffective' and vowed 'never' to endorse Rounds for reelection, though he's not facing voters again until 2026. 'Is he crazy or just stupid?' Trump said in a statement." ~~~
~~~ Domenico Montanaro, et al., of NPR: For six years, NPR had sought an interview with Donald Trump. "Trump and his team have repeatedly declined interviews with NPR until Tuesday, when he called in from his home in Florida. It was scheduled for 15 minutes, but lasted just over 9. After being pressed about his repeated lies about the 2020 presidential election, Trump abruptly ended the interview.... In the interview with NPR, [Trump] partially blamed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for [Sen. Mike] Rounds and other senators feeling as though they can speak out and say -- correctly -- that Trump lost the election. 'Because Mitch McConnell is a loser,' Trump said.... Trump repeated a number of false claims about voting systems in the U.S. in the interview...." A transcript of the interview is here.
Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday of raising campaign funds off false attacks on him that have encouraged threats on Fauci' life." Free to nonsubscribers. ~~~
~~~ "What a Moron!" Claire Rafford of Politico: "Anthony Fauci on Tuesday called Sen. Roger Marshall a 'moron' at the end of a contentious question-and-answer exchange focused on whether the financial disclosure information of the White House's top public medical adviser is available to the public. Marshall (R-Kan.) ... not[ed] the doctor's salary, $434,000.... 'As the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government, would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?' Marshall asked. 'After all, your colleague [... Rochelle] Walensky and every member of Congress submits a financial disclosure that includes their investments.' Fauci ... stat[ed] that his investments and financial information were already 'public knowledge' and had been for more than 30 years. 'All you have to do is ask for it,' Fauci said. 'You're so misinformed, it's extraordinary.'... 'What a moron,' Fauci could be heard saying quietly as Tuesday's hearing moved on. 'Jesus Christ.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: If Fauci is the highest-paid federal employee, it's because (a) as a medical professional, he has always held high-grade (GS) positions, and (b) he's held those jobs since 1968, for Pete's sake, and gets annual salary increases like all federal employees. Shocking as it is that someone would call a U.S. senator a moron, if you scan Marshall's Wikipage, you'll find the description is apt: a horrible human being posing as a pillar of the community.
Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Facebook could proceed, a reversal of fortune for the agency after its first challenge against the social network was thrown out last year. In a colorful order, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that an amended complaint the agency filed in August offered 'more robust and detailed' evidence to suggest Facebook has an alleged monopoly. In the filing, the FTC argued that Facebook is in a class of its own and should not be compared to other social apps such as TikTok. 'Second time lucky?' Boasberg wrote in the opening of the complaint, noting that the commission's first suit 'stumbled out of the starting blocks.'"
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.: "The omicron coronavirus variant will infect 'just about everybody' regardless of vaccination status, top U.S. infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci said Tuesday. But those who have been vaccinated will 'very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well,' and avoid hospitalization and death, said Fauci, speaking at a virtual 'fireside chat' with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Fauci also said in a Senate hearing the same day that the unvaccinated are 20 times likelier to die, 17 times likelier to be hospitalized and 10 times likelier to be infected than the vaccinated." ~~~
~~~ On the Same Page. Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder of U.S. News: "The acting head of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said that most people will get COVID-19 as the U.S. hits record levels of hospitalizations and infections. 'I think it's hard to process what's actually happening right now, which is most people are going to get [COVID-19],' FDA acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock told a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing."
Laura Meckler & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The White House is promising to provide 10 million free coronavirus tests each month for schools, aiming to help keep classes in person at a time when testing across the country is uneven and, in some cases, virtually nonexistent. President Biden has pushed schools to open and stay open for in-person learning...." The AP's report is here.
Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "Federal agencies must start testing unvaccinated employees at least weekly for the coronavirus by Feb. 15, the Biden administration said in new guidance issued Tuesday. The testing, which mainly affects those exempted from President Biden's vaccination mandate for federal workers, would be required during any week in which those employees 'work onsite or interact in person with members of the public as part of their job duties,' the guidance says. Agencies are also free to require more frequent testing for certain occupations or work settings, the administration says." The article is free to nonsubscribers.
Eh bien, là, les non-vaccinés, j’ai très envie de les emmerder. (Trans., roughly: The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. -- Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with Le Parisien, Jan. 4
Yeah, moi aussi. -- Marie
Australia. Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: "Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked men's tennis player, acknowledged on Wednesday that a travel document he presented to Australian border officials last week contained false information, as the country's authorities continued to investigate whether he should be deported. Mr. Djokovic also said that he had participated in an interview and a photo shoot last month in his native Serbia even after testing positive for the coronavirus, in an apparent breach of the country's rules for infected people.... The tennis star's comments came in a statement he released on social media that he said was intended to 'clarify misinformation.'... But Mr. Djokovic's statement did not fully resolve a range of questions that have swirled over his quest to remain in Australia and seek a record 21st Grand Slam title.: A Politico story is here.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Marie: I guess I'd better stop disparaging the LAPD. Wow! ~~~
Florida Congressional Race. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick won Tuesday's election to fill Florida's vacant 20th Congressional District, returning her party to the 222-seat majority it held after the 2020 elections. Cherfilus-McCormick, a 42-year old health-care company CEO, easily defeated Republican nominee Jason Mariner in a seat drawn to be safe for Democrats. She will replace the late Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D), whom she had challenged in the 2018 and 2020 primaries." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.)
North Carolina. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A North Carolina state court on Tuesday rejected claims by voting rights advocates that Republican gerrymanders of the state's political maps were unconstitutional. The unanimous ruling, by a panel of two Republican judges and one Democrat, set up a final battle over the maps in the seven-member state Supreme Court, where Democratic justices hold a slim edge. Voting rights groups said they would file an appeal immediately. One, Common Cause North Carolina, said the plaintiffs had presented 'overwhelming evidence' that the maps were stacked to favor Republicans."
Way Beyond
New York Times: "... NATO officials opened talks with a Russian delegation on Wednesday in an effort to hold off an invasion [of Ukraine] and calm tensions between Moscow and the West. The meeting at NATO's Brussels headquarters is the second stop in a diplomatic roadshow focused on the Kremlin, after talks in Geneva on Monday between Russian and American officials. Looming over the high-level diplomacy is whether the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, will invade Ukraine as he seeks to pressure the West to roll back NATO's presence in Eastern Europe, or de-escalate." This is a liveblog.
News Lede
New York Times: "The fire that broke out in a Philadelphia rowhouse last Wednesday, leaving 12 dead including nine children, was most likely caused when a 5-year-old boy ignited a Christmas tree with a lighter, city officials said on Tuesday.... The 5-year-old, one of only two people in the apartment who survived, told the police last week that he had been playing with the lighter, forming the earliest theory about the fire's cause."
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Reader Comments (7)
I just finished reading the NPR transcript of the interview with the King in name only. It's Captain Quegg and the strawberries all over again. The word "loser" for this corrupt, demented man is like a cudgel his father gave him to carry for the rest of his life. To think this man held the keys to the kingdom for four years is the stuff of legion ––a big blotch on American politics. When all is said and done––and I'm pretty sure it will be done–-and a criminal charge against him will put his sorry ass in jail he will not yield because to do so makes HIM a loser and that is, for him, the kiss of death.
For P.D.
Rainy morning here with little on my mind but Biden's fine speech which I'm sure will have no effect whatsoever on the minority party deplorables in Congress.
So smiled to myself and chose to mount another quixotic attack on Douthat, who in his typically annoying way magisterially advises calm in the midst of democracy's greatest crisis in more than one hundred years.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/12/opinion/civil-war-america.html
"Another silly column, Mr. Douthat. The issue of another civil war's proximity is serious, and it would have been nice to see it treated so.
Instead we get Douthat's usual flurry of unfocused fine words that dance around the subject.
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He's right that in a larger sense America has always been at war with itself. The Constitution itself set up may of the conflicts that we are nowhere near resolving.
Here are some questions that highlight them.
Should we be a nation that really treats everyone equally?
Should our institutions cater to the rich?
Should we be a Christian nation?
Should we be a white nation?
Should we be a democracy where the majority actually rules?
Should the government act in the interests of that majority?
Should it make its decision based on fact or fantasy?
As these and similar questions and their answers become clearer to more people, the divide between the parties becomes deeper and the gulf between them wider.
And as demographic pressures mount on them, the party of white, Christian racists has found increasing refuge in autocracy and violent speech and action.
It's not just a matter of one double or triple agent in one conspiracy. It's everywhere from Fox "News" to local school board elections to members of Congress. The crazies have come out brandishing their violent words and AR-15s.
Kipling's "If" suggested maintaining calm in the midst of battle made one a "man."
More likely: It makes one a little stupid."
Ken: Once upon a time the historian John Gray posited this, among others, about America: that it was an unhappy and unsuccessful society, riddled with racial tensions, uncaring for its poor, incapable of sustaining stable families and addicted to coping with its problems by incarceration and execution. And I thought at the time Gray was "over the top" in his assessment. Sadly, I now agree. As you have pointed out––"And as demographic pressures mount on them, the party of white, Christian racists has found increasing refuge in autocracy and violent speech and action."
And I keep going back to our lives lived in that technicolored world you and I shared with Gene Kelly's "Singing in the Rain" scenarios, oblivious of the lack of umbrellas for so many whose dance was so very different from ours. And today–––when we remove the cellophane we can see that Gray was right and that history is what the RIGHT wants buried–-forgotten–-erased and kept hidden from our children so that America is once again presented in pretty colors and the rain just another reason for a song in a musical.
Just a thought/question. If a state has a photo ID requirement to vote, and charges a non driver for a state ID, does that constitute a poll tax?
@Bobby Lee: Here in Michigan, we have to show driver's license
and if one doesn't have that, they get a state issued I.D.
The driver's license cost much more than just an I.D.
Don't know if that is considered a poll tax though since it would
be hard to go through life without one or the other.
@Bobby Lee: I think the scenario you present does amount to a poll tax. I know that some states recognize that, and if a state ID is required to vote, those states will issue IDs at no charge to nondrivers who request IDs.
But states who don't want poor people to vote charge for the ID cards; for instance, I just checked on how to get an ID card in Texas: the charge is between $6 (for seniors) and $21. BTW, the procedure to get an ID in Texas is two pages long, and you have to provide a lot of documentation. There's very little chance that, say, a homeless person could acquire one. Nor is a student likely to have all that stuff. That's a poll tax, IMO.
Here's a long but VERY interesting article on Covid that I read on Popular Resistance....what do you think?
https://popularresistance.org/yes-there-really-were-only-two-covid-deaths-in-mainland-china-in-2021/\
There Really Were Only Two COVID Deaths In Mainland China In 2021
Here’s How They Did It.