July 26, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Maggie Haberman & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Previously undisclosed emails provide an inside look at the increasingly desperate and often slapdash efforts by advisers to ... Donald J. Trump to reverse his election defeat in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack, including acknowledgments that a key element of their plan was of dubious legality and lived up to its billing as 'fake.' The dozens of emails among people connected to the Trump campaign, outside advisers and close associates of Mr. Trump show a particular focus on assembling lists of people who would claim -- with no basis -- to be Electoral College electors on his behalf in battleground states that he had lost. In emails reviewed by The New York Times and authenticated by people who had worked with the Trump campaign at the time, one lawyer involved in the detailed discussions repeatedly used the word 'fake' to refer to the so-called electors, who were intended to provide Vice President Mike Pence and Mr. Trump's allies in Congress a rationale for derailing the congressional process of certifying the outcome. And lawyers working on the proposal made clear they knew that the pro-Trump electors they were putting forward might not hold up to legal scrutiny." The article includes many incriminating details of the email exchanges.
Yada Yada Yada. Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump returned to Washington for the first time since leaving office Tuesday, vigorously repeating his false election claims that sparked the Jan. 6 insurrection at the nearby Capitol. 'It was a catastrophe that election. A disgrace to our country,' he said, insisting despite all evidence that he had won in 2020. 'We may just have to do it again,' he said, repeating as he does in all recent appearances the ever-clearer hints that he will run again in 2024. He recent frequent applause and cheers from his audience, a meeting organized by a group of former White House officials and Cabinet members who have been crafting an agenda for a possible second Trump term."
Olafimihan Oshin of the Hill: "Marc Short, a top aide to former Vice President Mike Pence, slammed Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for telling a crowd ... at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit ... over the weekend that Pence could never be president.... 'Well, I don't know if Mike Pence will run for president in 2024, but I don't think Matt Gaetz will have an impact on that,' Short told [CNN's Erin] Burnett. 'In fact, I'd be surprised if he was still voting, it's more likely he'll be in prison for child sex trafficking by 2024.... And I'm actually surprised that Florida law enforcement still allows him to speak to teenage conferences like that, so I'm not too worried about Matt Gaetz,' he added, referring to the event being attended by young conservative students."
Joan Biskupic of CNN: "Chief Justice John Roberts privately lobbied fellow conservatives to save the constitutional right to abortion down to the bitter end, but May's unprecedented leak of a draft opinion reversing Roe v. Wade made the effort all but impossible, multiple sources familiar with negotiations told CNN. It appears unlikely that Roberts' best prospect -- Justice Brett Kavanaugh -- was ever close to switching his earlier vote, despite Roberts' attempts that continued through the final weeks of the session. New details obtained by CNN provide insight into the high-stakes internal abortion-rights drama that intensified in late April when justices first learned the draft opinion would soon be published.... [Roberts' plan was to] would vote to uphold Mississippi's ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy. But the chief justice believed the court should put off a full reconsideration of the constitutional right to abortion for earlier stages of pregnancy." ~~~
~~~ Paul Campos, in LG&$: "Alito himself leaked the draft, to lock in Kavanaugh." Campos explains his rationale in a deeply satisfying, if speculative essay.
~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden on Monday denounced ... Donald J. Trump's refusal to decisively intervene to stop the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, declaring that his predecessor 'lacked the courage to act' and betrayed the police officers he claimed to support. Mr. Biden, who has largely avoided discussing the former president or the Jan. 6 investigation by a House select committee, weighed in during a statement to an organization representing Black law enforcement leaders." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Biden went off on Trump, but he missed the point. Trump did not "lack the courage to act"; he purposely incited and encouraged the insurrection. It wasn't until it became evident that his insurrection would fail that he came out & gave his I-love-you-go-home statement, and only then at the insistence of his staff, Fox "News"' & family. As Baker writes, "... testimony [presented at last Thursday's January 6 House committee hearing] showed, Mr. Trump spent the afternoon watching the violence unfold on Fox News and resisting aides who kept imploring him to take = action. A call from a Pentagon official to coordinate a response = initially went unanswered because 'the president didn't want anything = done,' according to a White House lawyer whose account was presented during the hearing. The tweets and video he ultimately did issue did not condemn the attack and in some cases seemed to add fuel to the fire." ~~~
~~~ AND, as Lindsay Beyerstein in Commentary AlterNet, republished in the Raw Story, concluded, "The committee's many streams of evidence gelled into a clear closing argument for this phase of the investigation: Trump refused to quell the mob because the mob was doing exactly what he wanted them to do. The mob was his instrument to overturn the election. ~~~
~~~ Marie: On the other hand, I'll admit that accusing Trump of cowardice might trick him into confessing: "I'm no coward, you sick sleepy loser. I wanted those goons to hang mike pence & stop the certification." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I've heard a number of pundits on the teevee ask, "Why now?" Here's a clue: ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "President Joe Biden slammed ... Donald Trump on Monday for lacking 'the courage to act' as police defending the U.S. Capitol suffered through 'medieval hell' on Jan. 6, 2021 -- a rare and direct attack pre-empting Trump's plan to deliver a law-and-order-themed speech Tuesday in the nation's capital." ~~~
~~~ NEW. President Biden's full remarks to the Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives are here.
DOJ Appears to Initiate Criminal Probe of Trump and/or the Trumpettes. Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "The former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence appeared last week before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. Marc Short was caught by an ABC News camera departing D.C. District Court on Friday alongside his attorney, Emmet Flood. Short appeared under subpoena, sources said. Short would be the highest-ranking Trump White House official known to have appeared before the grand jury." MB: Since there's no reason to think the grand jury is investigating pence or his staff for criminal behavior, it is reasonable to assume that the subjects of the questioning were Trump & Co. IOW, this is a BFD. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Mr. Short's appearance was the latest indication that the Justice Department's criminal investigation into the events surrounding and leading up to the events of Jan. 6 is intensifying amid growing questions about the urgency the department has placed on examining Mr. Trump's potential criminal liability.... Mr. Short's grand jury appearance marks the first time it has become publicly known that a figure with firsthand knowledge of what took place inside the White House in the tumultuous days leading up to Jan. 6 has cooperated with federal prosecutors.... Mr. Short ... previously gave a[n] interview to the House select committee in which he described Mr. Trump's campaign to pressure Mr. Pence into disrupting the normal tally of Electoral College votes on Jan. 6.... Mr. Short also informed Mr. Pence's lead Secret Service agent on Jan. 5, 2021, that Mr. Trump was about to turn publicly on Mr. Pence, potentially creating a security risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The NYT story has been updated. New Lede: "Two top aides to former Vice President Mike Pence testified last week to a federal grand jury in Washington investigating the events surrounding the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the highest-ranking officials of the Trump administration so far known to have cooperated with the Justice Department's widening inquiry into the events leading up to the assault. The appearances before the grand jury of the men -- Marc Short, who was Mr. Pence's chief of staff, and Greg Jacob, who was his counsel -- were the latest indication that the Justice Department's criminal investigation into the events surrounding and preceding the riot is intensifying after weeks of growing questions about the urgency the department has put on examining ... Donald J. Trump's potential criminal liability."
Devlin Barrett & Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Grand jury subpoenas issued last month to two Arizona state lawmakers show the breadth of the criminal investigation by the U.S. attorney's office in Washington into efforts by supporters of Donald Trump to use 'false electors' to try to undo Joe Biden's 2020 election victory.... The subpoenas [-- released under a public-records request --] issued to Karen Fann, president of the Arizona Senate, and Sen. Kelly Townsend also seek communications 'relating to any effort, plan, or attempt to serve as an Elector' in favor of the then-president and then-vice president.... The documents released Monday cast a wide net for any communications that Fann and Townsend may have had with any member of the executive or legislative branch of the federal government...."
Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump didn't want to disavow the rioters who had stormed the U.S. Capitol in his name on Jan. 6, 2021, and he removed lines from prepared remarks the following day calling for their prosecution, according to new evidence released by a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) posted a video Monday on Twitter showing previously unpublicized testimony from several people close to Trump, centered on a speech he was supposed to give Jan. 7, 2021.... During the hearing on Thursday, former deputy White House press secretary Sarah Matthews testified that Trump 'did not want to include any sort of mention of peace' in a tweet that aides urged him to send as the Capitol riot was unfolding." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
It took more than 24 hours for President Trump to address the nation again after his Rose Garden video on January 6th in which he affectionately told his followers to go home in peace.
— Rep. Elaine Luria (@RepElaineLuria) July 25, 2022
There were more things he was unwilling to say. pic.twitter.com/cJBIX5ROxs
~~~ Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: Appearing on MSNBC, former top federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann highlighted a line that was left in Trump's January 7 speech: "I immediately deployed the National Guard and federal law enforcement to secure the building and expel the intruders." Burris writes, "The statement is a lie. Trump never deployed the National Guard or law enforcement." Weissmann views the false assertion as a piece of a cover-up, intended to falsely portray Trump as having opposed the coup. Weissmann suggests DOJ subpoena Jared Kushner & Stephen Miller as to how such a false statement got into the prepared speech. (MB: According to Kushner's committee testimony, he & Miller worked together, beginning on the evening of January 6, to put together the elements of the speech.)
Marie: A few days ago we learned that Melanie Trump was busy taking pictures of a rug during the insurrection. So, while we're singing a song of sixpence, let's find out where Jared was: ~~~
~~~ Jared: I Was Taking a Shower. Washington Post live hearing updates (July 21): "Kushner told the House panel investigating the riot that he was in the shower when he heard his phone ring and saw it was the minority leader [Kevin McCarthy]. 'He told me it was getting really ugly over at the Capitol and said, "Please, you know, anything you can do to help, I would appreciate it,"' Kushner recalled. 'I got the sense that they were scared,' he added." (MB: According to Jonathan Karl, Kushner did not get back from Saudi Arabia until about 4 pm ET: "His plane landed at Joint Base Andrews at about four p.m., but he went straight home, later telling people the Secret Service had told him it would be dangerous to go to the White House. He made no public statement about the riot.") ~~~
The king was in the dining room, cheering on his coup,
The queen was in the parlor, snapping photos of the rugs,
The prince was in the shower, hiding from the troops,
When along came McCarthy and cried about the thugs.
As the Worms Turn. Alex Henderson of AlterNet, in the Raw Story: "... on Sunday, July 24, Fox News' Bret Baier\>spoke candidly about the hearing that had been held during prime-time viewing hours [but not aired on Fox] on Thursday, July 21 -- and acknowledged that the evidence presented made ... Donald Trump 'look horrific.'... Baier, discussing the 187-minute period the committee examined on July 21, told his colleagues, 'Laying out all these 187 minutes makes him look horrific, it really does.... To hear it and see it in that chronological order can be very powerful.'" Baier noted that "all of these people who have been testifying" had been Trump supporters.
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Jared Kushner..., Donald J. Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer while he was serving in the West Wing, he wrote in an upcoming memoir set to be published next month.... The cancer in Mr. Kushner's thyroid was detected in October 2019, as he was involved in discussions over a trade deal with China. Mr. Kushner wrote that the cancer was caught 'early' but required removing a 'substantial part of my thyroid' and that he was warned that there could be lingering damage to his voice. His illness was one of the few pieces of information that did not leak out of one of the leakiest White Houses in modern memory." The Hill has a summary report here.
Richard Fausset, et al., of the New York Times: "In an embarrassing blow to the prosecutor investigating election interference by ... Donald J. Trump, an Atlanta judge has disqualified District Attorney Fani T. Willis of Fulton County from developing a criminal case against one Trump ally, citing a conflict of interest. Ms. Willis had recently notified State Senator Burt Jones, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia, that he could face indictment. But on Monday, Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court barred her from pursuing a case against Mr. Jones because she had headlined a June fund-raiser for his Democratic rival in the race. Mr. Jones was one of 16 pro-Trump 'alternate electors' in Georgia.... The ruling on Monday does not affect any other portion of the sprawling investigation that Ms. Willis's office is conducting with a special-purpose grand jury. Ms. Willis's office, the judge wrote, will still be able to ask witnesses about Mr. Jones's role 'in the various efforts the state Republican Party undertook to call into question the legitimacy of the results of the election.' However, he wrote, the decision 'as to whether any charges should be brought, and what they should be, will be left to a different prosecutor's office.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: McBurney's ruling seems reasonable to me. Willis made a serious error in judgment, which undermined the impartiality of the proceedings, but McBurney did not let Jones off the hook.
Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "A forgotten co-defendant of the Central Park Five, who, like them, was charged with the rape of a jogger in a case that shook New York City and the nation, is expected to have a related conviction overturned Monday. The case against the Five -- teenagers of color who were innocent of the 1989 sexual assault on a white woman but who were convicted on the basis of false confessions that the police elicited -- continues to shape attitudes surrounding racism in the criminal justice system, the media and society writ large. But the story of the sixth man -- Steven Lopez -- had previously been all but ignored. Mr. Lopez, who was arrested when he was 15, struck a deal with prosecutors just before his trial two years later to avoid the more serious rape charge, instead pleading guilty to robbery of a male jogger.... [Unlike the Exonerated Five,] Mr. Lopez, now 48, has not received any settlement money or media attention, and his story is far less well-known.... [Shortly after the teens' arrests & false confessions, Donald Trump] placed full-page ads in the city's newspapers calling for them to face the death penalty." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump is never wrong. In June 2019 -- five year after the city settled $41 million on the men for violation of their civil rights -- Trump refused to apologize for the ads or for remarks he made at the time. He said, "You have people on both sides of that.... They admitted their guilt. If you look at Linda Fairstein [-- once the top city sex crimes prosecutor --] and if you look at some of the prosecutors, they think that the city never should have settled that case -- so we'll leave it at that." (NYT link)
Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "The far-right conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones spread lies for years about the Sandy Hook school shooting, saying it was staged by the government and that the families of the victims were complicit in the hoax. Juries will now decide in three separate trials how much Mr. Jones must pay for the suffering he caused. The first trial begins on Tuesday in Austin, where Mr. Jones and his Infowars website are based. Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, 6, who died at Sandy Hook, will testify to the torment they suffered after Mr. Jones implied on his show in 2017 that Mr. Heslin's televised recollection of cradling Jesse's body shortly after the shooting was false. The family has since endured years of accusations and threats. Lenny Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, the parents of Noah Pozner, the youngest Sandy Hook victim, are scheduled to testify at a second trial in September in Austin. That same month, the families of eight other Sandy Hook victims will testify at the third trial, in Connecticut. The trials come after the families of the 10 victims won defamation lawsuits against Mr. Jones last year, when judges ruled him liable by default for repeatedly failing to provide court-ordered documents and testimony. Those rulings set the stage for the upcoming trials, in which juries will award monetary damages...."
** Everytown Research: "In an average year, gun violence in America kills 40,000 people, wounds twice as many, and has an economic consequence to our nation of $557 billion.... This $557 billion problem represents the lifetime costs associated with gun violence, including three types of costs: immediate costs starting at the scene of a shooting, such as police investigations and medical treatment; subsequent costs, such as treatment, long-term physical and mental health care, earnings lost to disability or death, and criminal justice costs; and cost estimates of quality of life lost over a victim's life span for pain and suffering of victims and their families.... The large variation in rates of gun deaths and injuries in the 50 states and Washington, DC, translates into substantial differences in the economic burden from this violence.... The average annual cost for overall gun violence in the United States is $1,698 for every resident in the country. However, in states with stronger gun laws, the economic toll of gun violence is less than half this amount.... This report doesn't try to put a price on human lives." Emphasis original. Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is something I have wondered about from time to time. I think I would have stuck to direct costs and would not have figured in quality-of-life costs, which is the bulk of the estimate ($489.1BB) in the report. But the remainder is plenty, and it is wasted money, money that could have gone into your pocket or into some level of government's pockets to attain something of value: a safer bridge, a better high school, a new public library. I don't know why Democrats running for office don't mention the cost of gun violence every day on the campaign trail. ~~~
~~~ Shawn Boburg & Jon Swaine of the Washington Post: "Daniel Defense, the maker of the gun used in the Uvalde shooting..., employed aggressive marketing tactics to sell AR-style rifles.... An examination of Daniel Defense's marketing, based on court filings, interviews, internal documents and other records, shows how the gunmaker over the past decade devised publicity stunts, paid for favorable coverage in newsstand magazines and employed other aggressive tactics to entice Americans to buy its AR-style semiautomatic rifles." The company bought an ad to run during Super Bowl 2014, for instance, knowing the NFL had a policy against running gun ads. So they developed Plan A -- to have people complain to liberal media if the ad ran -- and Plan B -- to have an NRA official complain about censorship if it didn't. The NFL rejected the ad. "The online commentator's video fiercely criticizing the NFL went viral, and the story about the banned Super Bowl ad reached tens of millions of people after it was featured on Fox News's signature programs...." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "The Disney-backed streaming service Hulu is refusing to run political ads on central themes of Democratic midterm campaigns, including abortion and guns, prompting fury from the party's candidates and leaders. The streaming service popular among younger voters, which has a policy against running content deemed controversial, is like other digital providers in not being bound by the Communications Act of 1934, a law that requires broadcast television networks to provide politicians equal access to the airwaves.... The blocked ads do not use violent or jarring imagery." MB: What the story doesn't address, and it should, is whether or not Hulu is allowing Republicans to run ads about, say, the horrors of inflation. All political ads are by nature controversial, even ones that show nothing but amber waves of grain over a patriotic soundtrack, so in theory Hulu could not run any political ads.
You Can't Make Up This Stuff. Zachary Schermele of NBC News: "A Republican lawmaker attended his gay son's wedding just three days after joining the majority of his GOP colleagues in voting against a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex marriage. The gay son of Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., confirmed to NBC News on Monday that he 'married the love of [his] life' on Friday and that his 'father was there.'... Thompson's press secretary, Maddison Stone, also confirmed the congressman was in attendance." MB: I'm glad Thompson got to go to the kids' wedding. Now, why can't the Congressman make sure all Americans have the same rights his son and his husband enjoy now?
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Jesus Jiménez & Steve Cavendish of the New York Times: "A 37-year-old woman was taken into custody on Monday after she fired several rounds inside Dallas Love Field Airport in Texas and was shot and injured by a police officer, the authorities said. No other injuries were reported, the police said, but the shooting sent travelers scrambling for cover and delayed several flights. The woman was dropped off at the airport just before 11 a.m. and appeared to change her clothes in a restroom before emerging and opening fire inside the airport, Chief Eddie Garcia of the Dallas Police Department said at a news conference on Monday afternoon. A Dallas police officer inside the airport shot her, striking her 'in the lower extremities,' and she was arrested and taken to a hospital, Chief Garcia said. Her condition was not immediately clear on Monday afternoon. It was unclear whom or what the woman was aiming at when she fired. Chief Garcia said that the officer fired several rounds at her after she began shooting. In a later update, the Police Department identified the woman as Portia Odufuwa...."
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Four disabled people are asking a federal judge to ensure they can vote this fall after the Wisconsin Supreme Court limited how absentee ballots can be cast. In a 4-3 ruling this month, the state's high court ruled voters could not give their completed absentee ballots to someone else to turn in for them. That policy will make it impossible or extremely difficult for some voters to cast ballots, according to the lawsuit filed Friday in a federal court in Madison. The lawsuit asks the federal court to allow disabled voters to give their ballots to others to return for them, arguing that the new regimen in Wisconsin violates the U.S. Constitution, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Americans With Disabilities Act.... The state Supreme Court ruling from this month also banned the use of absentee ballot drop boxes. The lawsuit does not seek to overturn that part of the decision."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Russia targeted the region of Odessa with missiles early Tuesday, Ukrainian authorities said == mere days after a strike on the Black Sea port threw into question a deal between Moscow and Kyiv to allow stockpiles of grain destined for exportation out of the region. Ukrainian officials also reported attacks on Kharkiv in the north, and Mykolaiv in the south.... Russian authorities defended Saturday's strike on the southern port, saying it only hit 'military infrastructure.' But the British Defense Ministry said Tuesday 'there is no indication that such targets were at the location the missiles hit.'... Russia's state energy company will halve the natural gas sent to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The Monday announcement from Gazprom deepened European countries' state of uncertainty as they scramble to build up energy supplies for winter. Brittney Griner is set to testify this week in her Moscow trial on drug charges."
Susie Blann of the AP: "Russia's top diplomat said Moscow's overarching goal in Ukraine is to free its people from its 'unacceptable regime,' expressing the Kremlin's war aims in some of the bluntest terms yet as its forces pummel the country with artillery barrages and airstrikes.The remark from Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov comes amid Ukraine's efforts to resume grain exports from its Black Sea ports.... 'We are determined to help the people of eastern Ukraine to liberate themselves from the burden of this absolutely unacceptable regime,' he said [at an Arab League summit in Cairo Sunday]. Apparently suggesting that Moscow's war aims extend beyond Ukraine's industrial Donbas region in the east, Lavrov said: 'We will certainly help the Ukrainian people to get rid of the regime, which is absolutely anti-people and anti-historical.'... Lavrov's remarks contrasted with the Kremlin's line early in the war, when it repeatedly emphasized that Russia wasn't seeking to overthrow President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's government, even as Moscow's troops closed in on Kyiv." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Canada/Vatican. Chico Harlan & Amanda Coletta of the Washington Post: "Pope Francis on Monday began a long-sought act of reconciliation in Canada, decrying the country's 'catastrophic' residential school system for Indigenous children and asking forgiveness for the 'evil committed by so many Christians.... I am deeply sorry -- sorry for the ways in which, regrettably, many Christians supported the colonizing mentality of the powers that oppressed the Indigenous peoples,' Francis said in his native Spanish. He addressed his comments to several thousand residential school survivors in a grass field encircled by a small grandstand on the first full day of a trip aimed at penitence for one of Canada's greatest tragedies: a school system that forcibly removed Indigenous children from their parents and tried to assimilate them into Euro-Christian society -- often brutally. Students were forbidden from speaking their native languages or practicing traditional customs; many were physically or sexually abused." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Italy. Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "When voters elect a new government on Sept. 25 -- a consequence of last week's dramatic collapse of the coalition led by technocratic Prime Minister Mario Draghi -- they may confirm [neo-fascist Georgia] Meloni as the country's first female prime minister.... Meloni counts some of Mussolini's descendants as her direct allies and still uses the same emblem once adopted by the inheritors of his politics.... Meloni and her party are now polling ahead of all other rivals in Italian politics."
News Lede
New York Times: "Paul Sorvino, the tough-guy actor -- and operatic tenor and figurative sculptor -- known for his roles as calm and often courteously quiet but dangerous men in films like 'Goodfellas' and television shows like 'Law & Order,' died on Monday. He was 83."
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Reader Comments (19)
“Refusing to act” is a misleading and inaccurate description of what happened in that White House dining room while Trump’s army of treasonous thugs attacked the Capitol to overturn the election. There was plenty of action. Sitting on his fat ass glued to Fox’s TV coverage of the violence is not doing nothing. Trump was doing what he always does in times of crisis, making sure it’s all about him, reveling in murderous violence in his name.
He made phone calls. Oh, not to the Pentagon or the National Guard or to any other law enforcement entities to try to stem the violence. He called a bunch of R traitors, begging for help to make sure his coup was successful. He called Rudy Giuliani and talked to Tommy Tuberville. Just imagine the most violent day in the history of the District since the Civil War and your first instinct is to call Runny Hair Dye Man and Mr. Potatohead.
When the rioters needed a push to further spur their hunt to murder the VP for not obeying the Dear Leader, Trump sent out a tweet blasting pence for lacking courage, instantly ratcheting up the level of violence.
This is not inaction. The distinction is important because to say that Trump lacked the courage to act depicts him as a passive bystander. The truth is exactly the opposite. He acted, but purely in his own self interest, as he always does.
@Akhilleus: "Just imagine the most violent day in the history of the District since the Civil War and your first instinct is to call Runny Hair Dye Man and Mr. Potatohead." If I ever have to go into battle, I want you at my side, Akhilleus. You make me LOL, even at one of the most dangerous moments in American history. So when the battle is over, you can report, "And Marie died laughing."
Marie: And aren't we lucky to have our own Mark Twain in our domain!
Last night Rachel addressed the increased support of the Republican Party for this Christian Nationalism crap and is as alarmed as many of us are about the brazen use of its message:
"We don't want people who are atheists. We don't want people who are Jewish. We don't want people who are, you know, nonbelievers..."
Andrew Torba, political consultant for Doug Mastriano, the GOP candidate for governor of Pennsylvania.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rachel-maddow-marjorie-taylor-greene-anti-semitic-racist-christian-nationalism_n_62df62d2e4b06e213fc29dfc
It is this wave of foment that frightens me most–-and the fact that the Supreme Court houses those who sing in this minor key is even more troubling. We are going backwards to a time that Trump coined as great––-it wasn't but it had the advantage of many being ignorant of the inequalities. Today, unless you actually have your head stuck in the sand, you hear/read what's coming down–--or up in the case of missiles
being launched in Ukraine.
In order to get to sleep at night I need to be wrapped snugly and try to feel safe–––and sound. Sometimes that works.
Whoa…Godfather of the Trump Crime Family to make speechy noises about law and order?
Anyone else on the agenda?
How ‘bout Matt Gaetz on Respect for Women
Steve Bannon on importance of the subpoena In congressional investigations
Stephen Miller on humane immigration policies
Jared Kushner on what to do in times of crisis (go skiing, take a shower, sing “La-la-la-la-la I can’t hear you!”)
Alex Jones on truth in media
TuKKKer KKKarlson on the dangers of white supremacy
Sidney Powell on care and feeding of pet Krakens
Lindsey Graham on the need for courageous senators
Mitch McConnell on how not to be an evil rat bastard
Ginni Thomas on responsible citizenship
And Melanie on tips for photographing your orientals
Marie,
That old saw about “Laugh? I thought I’d die” is never far from my thoughts when contemplating the astounding absurdity of the Trumpen Times. But so weird. Like several stock characters from a commedia dell’arte farce, Arlecchino, the buffoon, Il Dottore, the pompous old doofus, Pantalone, scheming and greedy. But then he’s also the evil blackguard from other more serious fictions.
Unfortunately for us, there’s nothing fictitious about him, but sometimes the best way to stave off the tears is to laugh at him. As well as his commedia amici, Hair Dye Man and Mr. Potatohead.
AK: were they Melanie's "Orientals" or those belonging to us, the taxpayers of the USA? What a made-up reason for being "unaware" of the riot happening on January 6, courtesy of the orange monster she is married to...
We in PA are fully aware that possibly the world's ugliest human being is running for governor. When I say ugly, looking at his face is cruel punishment for us, and his future policies are even uglier. I don't know how anyone can elect people who are so primitive, mean and nasty and are liars to boot. He is in our "lege." And how is it that Matt Gaetz is still living and giving ignorant speeches to young people? As one person put it, this is an elected lawmaker who fancies himself a god. How is this our country?
This morning I heard a partial story on NPR of a woman with a dead fetus inside her who was denied medical care until she almost died, due to scared medicos. This was in MAY. My husband asked, who denied her? His guess is hospital administrators. Just think how it is now-- with the stories we don't hear. Hating the supreme court* is the only rational response. Any of us (not me) who are of childbearing age are one hospital ethics committee away from death.
Just heard an impassioned commentator (Kurt something, an ex-R) take the idiots in the Dem party to task for complaining about Biden in any way. I agree. Embolding the cult is a fool's errand.
@Akhilleus: Wow! Quite a syllabus. I think I'll go. If I make a substantial donation, I bet I can get a certificate of course completion from Trump University to frame & hang. It will be good for showing off to the MAGA brigades when they knock down my door in search of liberals/traitors.
I find it interesting that Rep. Glenn Thompson (R) voted against
a House bill that would codify federal protections for same-sex
marriage, then attends his son's same-sex wedding.
There's a word for that but I just can't think of it. Can someone help?
PD,
I’m not sure I’d say that the fans of white Christian nationalism are, or want to be, ignorant of inequalities. Inequality is the point.
Sociologists Phil Gorski and Sam Perry, who have written extensively about the coalescing of white supremacy, religion, gun culture, racism, and hatred of voting rights, talk about the holy trinity of this movement as being freedom, order, and violence. Freedom is only for them, of course, white Christian males, that is. Order is what is needed to keep everyone else in line, and violence, access to obscene stockpiles of guns, is how that order is enforced, either through physical violence or the threat of it, which is why they consider gun rights to be the alpha right. In their way of thinking, they secure all the other rights that belong to them, and them alone, through violence.
But practically none of this has any connection to actual Christianity, at least as I understood it growing up. The other day, Margaret Atwood’s novel of a world run by such people was referenced here in RC World. Atwood has pointed out that the rulers of Gilead, her dystopian—very Republican seeming—country, are only interested in the trappings of religion as an adjunct and a stepping stone to power. This is exactly the way religion is used, as a sort of shibboleth, by lunatics like MTG, JD Vance, that Mastriano asshole, and Trump himself (using violence to clear a path through non-believers in his white wonderfulness so that he could have his picture taken in front of a church while holding a Bible—upside down!—is a perfect conjunction of freedom, for him, order (for the mongrel protesters), and violence called up from the Pentagon, to enforce that order.)
Inequality is the goal. They are supreme. You are in the way. Move or they will shoot you.
I heard someone in the grocery store the other day yapping about how government needs more Jesus so all our (meaning “their”) problems could be dealt with properly, in the White House, Congress, and the courts.
My thought was, yes, we have three branches of government. Religion isn’t one of them.
But for many (most?) of these people, it is. But not actual turn the other cheek, feed the hungry, clothe the homeless Christianity. Their use of religion is no different than the way jihadists wave the Koran around, but only care about the part that says “Kill your enemies”.
This is exactly what they did on January 6th, and, if Trump is elected again, what will surely follow, in spades.
Forrest,
Hmmm…that’s a toughie.
Let’s see…honesty? Truthfulness? Decent? Sincere?
I give.
The media I see seems to be misreporting the efforts of D's (D Governors Assn, D Cong Campaign Committee, etc.) with respect to advertising for RWNJ R candidates. They accurately report that the D's are seeking to ensure that R candidates are the ones least acceptable to general election voters, by baiting R primary voters into selecting the most awful candidates. Case in point is in W. MI, where D's would rather run against a weaker candidate than incumbent Meijer (a scion of a very popular local grocery chain family).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x5XVRDC50Do
The problem with the news party line on this effort is that the writers portray the D ads as SUPPORTING those R candidates, as if the D's are running a false flag operation. Nope. They are just describing those R candidates' stated positions, and expect that those positions will be attractive to the R primary voters, who will not only vote for those positions but will also take perverse pleasure in voting AGAINST the Ds' obvious disdain for them.
Reverse psychology works on weak or untrained minds. The D ads about R's are using reverse psychology.
But the media, many papers, many writers, have adopted the line that the D's are SUPPORTING the worst R's. It is true that they are acting to maximize the prospect of primary selection of the unfittest -- but doing so by SAYING THAT THEY ARE UNFIT. "Owning the libs" is too tempting for RWNJs to resist.
BTW, in MD, the D's used similar ads WRT the R goober candidate, who won his primary, and who our current (R-term limited) goober says has a zero chance of winning the general because he is so toxic. The R candidate for AG is such a Nazi that the D's didn't even bother to mention him. No lawyer worth the powder to blow his/her nose would run for AG in MD, so you pretty much get R carnival acts.
Jeanne: And to think this "world's ugliest human being" is running against the best of the best A.G's––-Shapiro is Jewish to boot which makes Mastriano's scathing message vile and frankly breathtaking. You ask how is it that your fellow PA's voted for this guy to be in the Lege in the first place. That's my fear–--our fellow Americans done take a right turn in the wrong direction and that path is only going to lead to destruction and more deaths as your other story indicates re: the woman with the dead fetus.
Your mention of Kurt warning the Dems not to keep criticizing Biden for this or that is something I hear from Andrea Mitchell from time to time and it drives me nuts. Yesterday she and a guest were talking about the low approval ratings for Biden–-never mentioning the fact of the recent criticism of Trump by the Wall Street Journal and New York Post. There's a fine line between citing accurate news and being careful not to rock the fragile Democratic boat if indeed you are FOR that kind of Democracy.
I heard on the radio that Slovenia is being over-run by wild fires.
That's Melania's old homeland. Firefighters are having problems
since there are hundreds of century-old WW1 bombs exploding
sending shrapnel flying.
I think she should put down that camera and go over there and help
people of her old homeland.
Oh, I forgot, she's probably still wearing that "I really don't care, do
you?" jacket
AK: I finally thought of that word for Rep. Glenn Thompson, but
I don't swear. He's a cynical asshole.
AK: Your "I’m not sure I’d say that the fans of white Christian nationalism are, or want to be, ignorant of inequalities. Inequality is the point." I agree. I think you misunderstood me: I meant back in the day because of the lack of the kind of social media we have now many Americans were ignorant of inequalities throughout the country. I, for instance, grew up in a bubble unaware of the Jim Crow era.
PD,
Ahhh…I get it now. Shouldn’t be making pre-tea analyses. Thanks for the clarification.
@Patrick: Thanks for explaining those Democratic ads. I'm not in area where TV ads are running, so I had heard only one of them, which was used as an example of Democrats' ads for far-right candidates. I don't remember who the ad characterized, but it was, as you laid you, simply outlining the guy's policies and or affiliations, not supporting him.
I do see the ads presenting one problem, at least for second-tier offices: they boost name recognition, which may be all a candidate for, say, secretary of state needs. And if the candidate wins the primary because of name recognition, he could go on to win the general in Republican-leaning states because some less-than-rabid Republican-leaning voters vaguely recall they voted for that guy before, so he must be okay. I'm not sure Democratic "strategists" have road-tested this technique beyond Claire McCaskill's win over Todd Akin a decade ago. I'm not sure this is a one-size-fits-all thing.
I think the media is giving the Democrats more credit than they deserve for Republicans voting for awful people. A lot of these candidates won by large margins and most likely would be winning regardless of what the Democrats did. It allows the media to continue pretending that Republican voters aren't as awful as the candidates that they choose to represent them.
Here is a scary article about our current and future problems with our power grid. Power plants have been closing with not enough new ones to take up the slack. And we will only need more power down the road as we transition to electrics.