January 8, 2022
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Saturday are here.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The House select committee investigating the Capitol attack is examining whether Donald Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy on 6 January that connected the White House's scheme to stop Joe Biden's certification with the insurrection, say two senior sources familiar with the matter. The committee's new focus on the potential for a conspiracy marks an aggressive escalation in its inquiry as it confronts evidence that suggests the former president potentially engaged in criminal conduct egregious enough to warrant a referral to the justice department. House investigators are interested in whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy after communications turned over by Trump;s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others suggested the White House coordinated efforts to stop Biden's certification, the sources said." MB: This is different from bringing a possible obstruction or dereliction of duty charge for failure to try to stop the mob violence.
South Dakota Senate Race. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the second-ranking Senate Republican, announced on Saturday that he would seek re-election, after an aggressive lobbying campaign by colleagues prompted him to put aside concerns about the future of his party and pursue a fourth term.... The South Dakotan, who turned 61 on Friday, had recently told associates that he was considering retirement, complaining about the strain of congressional service and privately expressing concern about ... Donald J. Trump's continuing grip on the Republican Party. But by seeking re-election in a heavily conservative state, Mr. Thune is well positioned to win again and potentially succeed Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, as the chamber's top Republican." A CNN story is here.
Marie: Following well-established Republican tradition, Mike Pompeo lies about everything. According to experts consulted by the Kansas City Star Mike's most recent whopped was his claim that he lost 90 pounds in six months simply by improving his diet & working out at home for half-an-hour five or six days a week. The experts' "Their response? Absolutely not, almost certainly not, and hahaha."
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Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden flew to Colorado on Friday to console residents suffering from swift wildfires that destroyed nearly 1,000 homes, while pointing to the devastation as evidence of the urgent need to address natural disasters rooted in the global climate crisis.... Mr. Biden and the first lady, Jill Biden, met with firefighters and families.... This week, Mr. Biden approved a disaster declaration in Boulder County, freeing up federal funds for temporary housing, home repairs and loans.... The blaze in Colorado was a reminder of how many millions of Americans in the West are now on the front lines of devastation from a warming climate prone to long droughts and extreme wind conditions."
Nick Niedzwiadek & Sarah Ferris of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday invited President Joe Biden to deliver his first State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on March 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday afternoon aboard Air Force One that [President] Biden has accepted [Speaker] Pelosi's invitation." Sure sounds like Pelosi's people & Biden's people got together & agreed on a date for the SOTU before Pelosi issued her "invitation." Sounds like a left-wing conspiracy to me.
Claudia Grisales of NPR: "Rep. Bennie Thompson, chair of the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, says members expect this month to ask former Vice President Mike Pence to voluntarily appear.... Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, shared the timing plans for the Pence ask in an interview with NPR.... He described Pence's appearance as critical, especially as the former vice president ultimately issued a letter before the Jan. 6 proceedings that said he would not step out of his ceremonial role."
Marie: RAS raised an excellent point in yesterday's Comments. Why weren't Republicans at least at Thursday's ceremonies honoring the police officers who saved their lives? Where was Mitt Romney? Where was Mike Pence, for Pete's sake? Our last image of the veep might have been of his broken, limp body dangling from the gallows in front of the Capitol if not for D.C. and Capitol police. Republicans' ingratitude is stunning.
~~~ Update: When I suggested that Mitch McConnell might have arranged to have the funeral of former Sen. Johnny Isakson (d. 12/19/21) take place on January 6 so a majority of senators could scoot down to Georgia for the rites as an excuse to miss the Capitol insurrection commemoration, Patrick countered: "Maybe Addison M. McConnell was involved, but I think that by now these R's are like flocks of starlings, or schools of mullet, they all move as one without a command discernible by humans. (They may hear the commands; they are not humans?)"
Charlie Savage of the New York Times weighs in on the latest Ted Cruz debacle: "... on Thursday..., the Fox News host Tucker Carlson accused Senator Ted Cruz of purposefully lying because he had continued to call the events of Jan. 6 a terrorist attack, including at a Senate hearing this week. Mr. Cruz, Republican of Texas, apologized.... Mr. Carlson, who has insinuated that Jan. 6 may have been a plot to justify a 'purge' of Trump-supporting 'patriots,' rejected Mr. Cruz's explanation, citing his consistent use of that term over the past year to describe the Capitol attack.... Mr. Carlson declared that 'by no definition' was Jan. 6 'a terror attack.' But Congress has enacted a statute that defines domestic terrorism as criminal offenses that are dangerous to human life, lack a foreign nexus and appear to be seeking 'to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.'... Mr. Carlson asked Mr. Cruz, 'How many people have been charged with terrorism on Jan. 6?' The answer is zero.... Congress ... has not created any stand-alone federal crime called ['terrorism.'] As a result, it is not possible for prosecutors to charge any of the Jan. 6 rioters 'with terrorism' regardless of whether they committed terrorist acts." ~~~
~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN: In his interview by Tucker Carlson, Ted" Cruz claimed, 'The way I phrased things yesterday -- it was sloppy and it was frankly dumb.' Carlson immediately interjected to say, 'I don't buy that,' noting that Cruz is known to be a precise speaker.... In fact, he had described the Capitol riot as a terrorist attack or broadly described rioters as terrorists over and over for months -- at least 17 previous times in official written statements, in tweets, in remarks at Senate hearings and in interviews." ~~~
~~~ AND Chris Hayes is so mean to Cancun Ted: ~~~
The Insurrection in Song. Thanks to Forrest M. for this link:
Fox "News" has published an opinion piece about Tucker Carlson & January 6 controversies subtitled, "The yelling is getting louder and wilder and still more disconnected from reality." Oh, wait. No. The piece is by Tukkker.
Steve Erlanger of the New York Times: "NATO foreign ministers met virtually on Friday to prepare their responses to Russia's ongoing military buildup near Ukraine amid general skepticism about Moscow's willingness to de-escalate and negotiate in earnest. After the meeting, the NATO secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, warned that 'the risk of conflict is real' involving a further Russian invasion of Ukraine. But he asserted that the 30-member alliance was united in its desire for peaceful diplomacy. If diplomacy fails, he said, the alliance is prepared to continue supporting the integrity and independence of Ukraine both 'politically and practically' while creating 'significant consequences' that 'carry a heavy price for Russia.'... The meeting was a chance to confirm allied agreement about how to respond to varying Russian actions, and, importantly, an opportunity for Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken to consult with allies and brief them about the U.S. position before U.S.-Russia bilateral talks next week in Geneva." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I get that isolating Russia as much as possible & imposing harsh economic sanctions are about all its adversaries can do here, short of some more bellicose tack. But looming over these "solutions" -- in my mind -- is what happened when other Western powers, including the U.S., tried to bring Germany to its knees after World War I. It is possible that the Russian people will blame Putin for forcing them into bread lines; on the other hand, they're apt to show some national pride & resent the countries that sanctioned theirs -- just as 20th-century Germans did. As for a better solution on dealing with Russian aggression, I don't have one. Update: Whyte O. suggested yesterday that given our history of gumming up nearly every attempt to "spread democracy around the world," perhaps we should let Russia & Ukraine work out their differences themselves.
Sad News. Dartunorro Clark of NBC News: "Cyber Ninjas, the company that led a partisan review of 2020 ballots in Arizona, is closing down following a scathing report by election officials and the threat of $50,000 a day in fines. 'Cyber Ninjas is shutting down. All employees have been let go,' Rod Thomson, the company's representative, said in a text message Thursday evening. The Florida-based company, founded in 2013, has less than a dozen employees, according to its LinkedIn page.... Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah said he would impose a $50,000 fine against Cyber Ninjas every day until it hands over documents related to the so-called audit after the Arizona Republic newspaper filed a public records request, The Associated Press reported Thursday." MB: Seems to me that even if Cyber Ninjas closes down, principals of the defunct company will have to provide the court-ordered docs or pay the daily fines. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Lani Guinier, a legal scholar whose work on voting rights and affirmative action led President Bill Clinton to nominate her in 1993 to be an assistant attorney general, only to withdraw her name two months later in the face of a Republican campaign against her, died on Friday at an assisted living facility in Cambridge, Mass. She was 71."
Lori Aratani & Ian Duncan of the Washington Post: "... an epic travel meltdown [is] in its third week that has forced the cancellation of more than 27,000 flights since the first signs of trouble on Christmas Eve, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware. What began as a pandemic-related challenge quickly snowballed into a multitiered test -- coupling the uncertainties of omicron with the more familiar headache of winter weather.... The disruption for airlines and travelers is on track to become the most severe since more than 56,000 flights were canceled in a single week at the outset of the pandemic, when people didn't want to fly.... [Also,] About one-third of flights nationwide that have taken off in the past two weeks have been late, with the average delay topping 50 minutes on some days...."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Members of the Supreme Court's conservative majority seemed skeptical on Friday that the Biden administration has the legal power to mandate that the nation's large employers require workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus or to undergo frequent testing. A federal workplace safety law, they indicated during a two-hour argument, did not provide legal authority for the sweeping emergency measure. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Neil M. Gorsuch said the states and Congress, rather than a federal agency, were better situated to address the pandemic. Justice Amy Coney Barrett said the challenged regulation appeared to reach too broadly in covering all large employers. Justices Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh suggested that the governing statute had not authorized the agency to impose the mandate clearly enough...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) NPR's report, by Nina Totenberg, is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Liptak slyly notes that the Supremes have imposed strict Covid protocols for their workplace. But, you know, if a liberal does it, it must be wrong. ~~~
~~~ Oh, Guess What? Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Ohio's solicitor general,Ben Flowers, participated in Supreme Court oral arguments [against] the Biden administration's vaccine mandates remotely on Friday after testing positive for Covid. He had been vaccinated and boosted against the disease [MB: which almost certainly is why he reportedly had mild symptoms].... The Supreme Court had required participants to take a PCR test Thursday, which detected the virus in Flowers, Irwin said, 'so for that reason, he is arguing remotely.' Louisiana Solicitor General Liz Murrill also made remote arguments before the court against the mandates on Friday 'in accordance with Covid protocols,' according to a statement her office gave to Reuters, but the statement did not elaborate further." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
So who decides? Should it be the agency full of expert policymakers and completely politically accountable through the President?... This is ... a politically accountable policy. It also has the virtue of expertise.... So, on the one hand, the agency with their political leadership can decide. Or, on the other hand, courts can decide. Courts are not politically accountable.... Courts have no epidemiological expertise. Why in the world would courts decide this question? -- Justice Elena Kagan, oral arguments, Friday
** Yo, Elena, Here's the Reason. Dahlia Lithwick & Mark Stern of Slate: "A majority of the justices on the Supreme Court ... see [Covid-19] as an opportunity. This unprecedented pandemic ... has forced the executive branch to act swiftly and creatively at each stage of the crisis. Facing an often-deadlocked Congress, President Joe Biden has drawn on old statutes to establish new regulations to stop the coronavirus from spreading and killing more people. Yet in so doing, he has given the Supreme Court's Republican-appointed justices a chance to hobble his whole agenda. And during oral arguments over Biden's vaccine mandates on Friday, these justices made it painfully clear that they will also seize this moment to grind down the federal government's ability to perform even its most basic functions as well.... The nihilism, hypocrisy, and armchair epidemiology on display [during oral arguments] at times bled into rank anti-vax-ism.... That's because these justices emerged from a conservative legal movement that has grown obsessed with obliterating 'the administrative state' -- the hundreds of federal agencies that actually implement laws passed by Congress." Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Ian Millhiser of Vox: "... the oral argument in the first case, NFIB, suggests that the Court's 6-3 conservative majority is inclined to hand down a very broad decision -- one that won't simply hobble many of the Biden administration's efforts to quell a pandemic that has killed nearly 830,000 Americans, but that could also fundamentally rework the balance of power between elected federal officials and an unelected judiciary." MB: It would be ironic that an authoritarian president* put together a Court that would hobble the presidency; it would be, I say, because these same justices who are so upset that a Democratic President is saving American lives will find carveouts & excuses for all manner of overreach by a right-wing president.
~~~ Marie: AND they don't care if they kill you for going to work. The whole bunch of confederate lunkheads sound a lot like brother Neil Gorsuch: if your working conditions will kill you, you have a duty to die.
Florida. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the state's top emergency management official confirmed Thursday that 800,000 to 1 million Covid test kits in the state's stockpile recently expired without being used.... The issue of the expiring tests was first raised by Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democratic candidate for governor. In a Dec. 30 statement, she said: 'It's come to my attention that Governor DeSantis' Department of Health has a significant number of COVID-19 tests stockpiled that are set to expire imminently.'... State officials had already requested a three-month extension on the tests' use from federal officials when they were last set to expire in September, only for the tests to again sit unused.... Christina Pushaw, a DeSantis spokesperson, told NBC News that ... demand plummeted in the state during the fall months.... Yet last week, Floridians reportedly waited up to three hours to get a Covid test as cases and potential exposures spiked.... Speaking with Fox News on Thursday, DeSantis said that 'not every single person needs to be going out always getting tested,' particularly young, healthy people who aren't at high-risk with the disease."
Walter Einenkel of the Daily Kos: "Cirsten Weldon was a right-wing social media darling of sorts, at least in the QAnon wing of the field. Her MAGA posts, anti-vaxx rhetoric, and willingness to embrace wild and fantastic conspiracy theories gained her tens of thousands of followers. Weldon was a firm 'COVID-is-a-hoax' believer who made videos where she yelled at people waiting in line for vaccines that 'The vaccines kill, don't get it!' She also believed Dr. Anthony Fauci should be executed. According to reports, Weldon passed away Thursday from COVID-19 in a hospital in Camarillo, California."
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A Georgia judge on Friday sentenced both Travis McMichael, the man who fatally shot Ahmaud Arbery, and his father to life in prison without the possibility of parole, but issued a lesser sentence of life with the possibility of parole to the other white man convicted of murdering Mr. Arbery, a 25-year-old Black man whom they had chased through their neighborhood. The three men -- Travis McMichael, 35; his father, Gregory McMichael, 66; and their neighbor, William Bryan, 52 -- were convicted of murder and other counts in state court in November, resulting in mandatory life sentences.... The lead prosecutor, Linda Dunikoski, asked the judge to deny the possibility of parole to the McMichaels, arguing that they had displayed a reckless history of 'vigilantism' before the killing. She noted that the elder Mr. McMichael had referred to Mr. Arbery as an 'asshole' as his body lay in the street and authorities responded. 'There's been no remorse and certainly no empathy from either man,' she said. She said that Mr. Bryan should be eligible for parole in part because he had cooperated with investigators."
New York. The Arrogance of Power. As many liberal New Yorkers anticipated, newly-installed NYC Mayor Eric Adams is already looking like a very bad mayor. But very Trumpy!
Wisconsin. Adam Brewster of CBS News: "Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson is expected to run for reelection and kick off his campaign next week, according to two sources familiar with his decision. For months, the incumbent Republican declined to say whether he would seek a third term in the U.S. Senate."
Way Beyond
Italy(/Spain). Foiled by the Googles. Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "Ever since he broke out of Rome's Rebibbia prison 20 years ago where he was facing murder charges, Gioacchino Gammino had managed to evade capture. He fled to Spain, changed his name and cut off ties with his family, creating a new life for himself, at one point working as a chef in an Italian restaurant. But last month, Italian investigators finally tracked down Mr. Gammino, 61, in a town northwest of Madrid, thanks in part to ... Google Maps.... Investigators had used the Google tools to look up a fruit and vegetable store -- 'El Huerto de Manu' -- that they believed could have ties to the fugitive, and happened upon an image of a man standing in front of the store.The man in the image had the same size and build as Mr. Gammino...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Though I had a little trouble following some of the leaps ( sometimes sentence to sentence, even phrase to phrase) in Rebecca Solnit's associative account of George Orwell's life and writing, I would recommend "Orwell and Roses," which I just finished.
I would recommend it because the few troubles I had reading it were likely my own. I know I don't read as well as I once did and that the walls of my thinking ruts are higher and more difficult to clamber easily over from one idea to the next, and since Solnit's approach is imitative of Orwell's own in some of his more discursive essays, I had a lot of clambering to do.
But it was worth the effort. I learned a few things about Orwell, remembered some I had known, and tho' Solnit deliberately doesn't dwell on the obvious parallels between Orwell's political concerns and our present, what we are living through serves as unavoidable backdrop to all she had to say about Orwell and Roses and everything in between.
Turns out, in this short book there was a lot of in betweening, to me a journey of fits and starts that was overall much more delightful than annoying.
And even without the mention of He Who Shall Not be Named (until the last page or so), the "a-ha's" of coincidence between Orwell's warnings and our alarming present came thick and fast, providing their own unsettling satisfactions.
Solnit didn't even have to pay him. I like to think of the Pretender as a volunteer.
Hard to swallow the fact that previous guy had no thought of making vaccine mandates operative. But easy to see that more humans would still be on this side of the grass if he had. The repugs are so conflicted about the role of government. They reap what they sow, alas.
For reasons different from Douthat avoidance, I often skip Dowd too, but didn’t this AM and thought it a worthwhile piece.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/08/opinion/cheney-jan-6.html
As one commenter put it, "It takes a lot to get Maureen Dowd to skip the usual silly fluff and write a serious and insightful column. Maybe American democracy truly is imperiled.”
(I’d say, not just maybe…)
And yes, Darth Vader’s appearance at his daughter’s side was weird in so many ways.
Many marriages, I presume, have conflicting ideologies but when one of those partners is in government it many times causes much conflict. Take the case of Ginny Thomas, wife of that Supreme we are all so fond of: she is a prominent Tea Party activist who ran a government -affairs firm, Liberty Consulting and described her work as a "fight for our country's life." In 2013 she and and a number of prominent conservatives, who believed that they were losing a messaging war against progressives, started meeting to develop talking points. This group, which included congressional staff and reporters at right-wing leaning publications, was called Groundswell. They attacked Obama for all sorts of things like "putting politics before public safety," and the phrase became the theme of articles published by the Washington Times Red state.com. Mrs. Thomas, is one busy bee of late––according to Evan Osnos who did an extensive piece on right-wing radio jocks. She encourages these "spreaders of misinformation" (nice word for lies) toward more intense activism. "We are the leaders we've been waiting for," she says.
So I'm asking––if you are a supreme court judge whose wife is promoting right-wing disinformation, shouldn't that be cause for dismissal for said judge? Let's say, in this case, Ginny is ginning up progressives––even heads a group like Groundswell to promote fair elections–-how would that sit with those whose leanings are otherwise?
I would love to be seeing front page headlines asking "How many will die from this conservative Supreme Court's decisions?"
We know their shadow docket abortion ban has affected many in the lone star state. Though they don't congregate in diners so we won't be hearing much from them. The Supremes have already issued the let them pray together ( and God can sort them out) orders that have surely resulted in the deaths of many.
With all the gun decisions and undercutting Obama Care Medicaid expansion the right-wing Supremes fit right in with the rest of the death cult run by the GOP.
I wonder if they had to actually look at the death toll they are leaving behind as their legacy if they would do anything differently or if they are so far gone that could not care less. Unfortunately I think I know the answer for most of them and Roberts may protest more than the rest, but in the end he holds the same philosophies as the others.
@CW, RE: Meddling. On one hand I was not thinking of spreading democracy but rather paranoid reactions to conflicts in which the only skin we have in the game is fear of the other, especially if non-christian or anti-clerical. Trying to export our version of democracy is neither here nor there, but meddling at the behest of capital is beyond evil.
On the other hand, highly recommended: Harsh Times by Mario Vargas Llosa. Not his best literary effort, but a scathing look into the Eisenhower administration's interventions, led by Allen Dulles and the CIA, in Central America, at the behest of United Fruit, under the guise of ridding the region of the godless communists. {He weaves in the role of Trujillo, featured before in his novel The Feast of the Goat). This, and Cuba and the Philippines, and Chile, and Iran and Kosovo, and Venezuela and Afghanistan and on and on is the kind of meddling I think of most often, and which should make us all hang our heads.
One might say that Ted was Cruzified on Fox by Tucker Carlson.
OK spellcheck, I think it might go through now.