July 9, 2022
Michael Shear & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Under pressure to do more to respond to the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, President Biden on Friday issued an executive order that aimed to ensure access to abortion medication and emergency contraception while preparing for legal fights to come. But the order is vague about how the president hopes to accomplish those goals, leaving the details largely to Xavier Becerra, his secretary of health and human services, who has said the administration has 'no magic bullet' that can restore access to abortion. And Mr. Biden's order stops far short of demands from abortion rights advocates, who have criticized him for failing to move quickly to take action after the court's decision two weeks ago.... 'For God's sake, there's an election in November. Vote. Vote. Vote. Vote,' the president said [before signing the order], noting that the justices in the majority 'practically dares' women to assert their political power to put in place laws that restore abortion rights. 'Consider the challenge accepted, court. But in the meantime, I'm signing this important executive order.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Politico report is here. ~~~
~~~ Here's the language of President Biden's executive order, via the White House.
Eileen Sullivan & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Border Patrol agents on horseback used 'unnecessary' force in September against Black migrants who crossed into Del Rio, Texas, en masse, amid a humanitarian crisis that exposed the Biden administration's struggle to manage a record number of southwestern border crossings. In the absence of clear instructions from their supervisors, the agents took commands from the Texas state police and improperly 'used force or the threat of force' to drive migrants back into the Rio Grande. These findings and others came from an extensive review of the events of Sept. 19, when about 15,000 mostly Haitian migrants had gathered in squalid conditions underneath a bridge in Del Rio after crossing into the country from Mexico.... While four agents are facing disciplinary action for the events of that day, the report disclosed deeper problems within the agency.... Among those issues are the conflicting objectives between federal and local officers, a situation that is poised to get worse after Texas on Thursday ordered even more local law enforcement involvement in enforcing immigration laws."
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, the venerable Gallup organization reported that just 27 percent of Americans expressed confidence in their institutions -- the lowest level of trust since the questions were first asked half a century ago. On Wednesday, Mitch McConnell showed us why Americans feel this way.... McConnell [pulled out of talks on a bill to help U.S. manufacturers compete with China's semi-conductor industry in retribution for Democrats' planning to use ] 'reconciliation' to pass [a] prescription-drug bill by a simple majority vote.... To stop Americans from getting cheaper prescriptions, he is willing to sabotage American manufacturers (and therefore assist China).... This cynicism has destroyed Americans' faith in their government.... For three decades, as the Republicans transitioned from a limited-government party to an anti-government party, GOP leaders have seen political advantage in undermining Americans' confidence in their institutions, and in sabotaging the functions of government.... McConnell played a major part in the sabotage...."
Nicholas Wu & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone spent over eight hours meeting with the Jan. 6 select committee.... Cipollone huddled with committee investigators in a closed-door conference room of the Tip O'Neill House Office Building, emerging about half a dozen times to hold sidebar conversations with his attorney in a separate room.... Details of Cipollone's testimony remained concealed late Friday but a source familiar with the interview indicated the committee found his testimony 'very helpful.'" ~~~
~~~ Pamela Brown, et al., of CNN: "Two people familiar with former Trump White House counsel Pat Cipollone's testimony Friday told CNN that the House select committee ... did not ask him if he told then-White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson the day of the attack that they would 'get charged with every crime imaginable' if they went to the US Capitol.... It is unclear if Cipollone corroborated other parts of Hutchinson's testimony.... [A] source ... [said] that no one has refuted any of Hutchinson's testimony under oath.... When asked specifically if Cipollone confirmed testimony from Hutchinson, [Rep. Zoe] Lofgren [D-Calif.] said, 'Not contradicting is not the same as confirming.'... 'Mr. Cipollone provided a great deal of new information relevant to the select committee's investigation, which further underscores President Trump's supreme dereliction of duty,' [a] source said. 'The committee will show much of this to the American people in the days ahead.'"
What Are the Con Men Doing Now? ~~~
~~~ (1) (a) & (b) Isaac Stanley-Becker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is considering sending a letter to Stephen K. Bannon saying that he is waiving his claim of executive privilege, potentially clearing the way for his former chief strategist to testify before the House select committee investigating the pro-Trump riot at the Capitol.... The letter would reiterate that Trump invoked executive privilege in September 2021, when Bannon was first subpoenaed by the House committee. But it would say that the former president is now willing to give up that claim -- which has been disputed -- if Bannon can reach an agreement on the terms of an appearance before the panel.... Bannon was charged with contempt of Congress in November 2021 for refusing to comply with the subpoena. A trial on those charges is scheduled to begin July 18, though Bannon has sought to delay the proceedings." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ (2) Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes says he will waive his Fifth Amendment rights and testify to the Jan. 6 select committee if they permit him to testify in person. Rhodes, who is currently incarcerated while awaiting trial on seditious conspiracy charges for his role in the breach of the Capitol, says he wants the committee to arrange with the U.S. Marshals Service to permit him to appear in person at the Capitol complex rather than testify from the jail...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) For news about another busy con man, see the report on Elon Musk, linked below. ~~~
~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "U.S. prosecutors leveled new accusations Friday against the leader of the Oath Keepers [Stewart Rhodes] and alleged members who have been charged with seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, saying one co-conspirator came to Washington with explosives and detailing allegations that a co-defendant kept a 'death list' with the name of a Georgia election official. The allegations came days before the Jan. 6 House committee is set to hold its next hearing Tuesday, which is expected to explore connections between extremist groups accused of playing key roles in the violence at the Capitol and ... Donald Trump's effort to overturn the 2020 election.... In a 28-page filing, prosecutors said a law enforcement search on Jan. 19, 2021, of the home of charged co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, a retired Navy intelligence officer from Berryville, Va., recovered a document that included the words 'DEATH LIST' handwritten across the top with the name of a Georgia election official and a purported family member of the official. Both were targets of baseless accusations that they were involved in voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, prosecutors said." CNN's report is here.
** Tom Jackman, et al., of the Washington Post: "The full picture of how many among the crowd [at the January 6, 2021, insurrection] were armed before the riot occurred is unclear, but court records, trial testimony and accounts from police officers and rioters have supplied growing evidence that multiple people brought firearms to Washington for Jan. 6, 2021. Six men were arrested that day for having guns in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol, and a seventh who arrived after the riot ended was arrested the following day. Despite some instances in which alerts about people with guns turned out to be false alarms, accounts from police officers and rioters indicate that many firearms were spotted on Jan. 6 but were not seized as law enforcement focused more on defending the Capitol than on arresting gun-law violators.... ~~~
~~~ "U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman, whose pursuit by a mob inside the Capitol was the subject of a viral video, has said that but for police restraint in the use of force, the riot 'could have easily been a bloodbath,' a sentiment echoed by several officers on the witness stand in Jan. 6 criminal trials. Defendants have said as much as well. In video evidence played at his trial, Guy Reffitt of Wylie, Tex., said that as he stood near the front of the mob on the west side of the Capitol, he counted eight firearms carried by five people." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Read the whole report. And these, of course, are just the firearms authorities learned about. Surely there were many more. MB: I'm still amazed there wasn't more of an exchange of gunfire with large loss of life.
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court ruled Friday that a House committee is entitled to a wide array of records on ... Donald Trump's finances and business practices, but the court further narrowed aspects of the subpoena.... If the decision from the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals stands, Trump's former accounting firm Mazars will have to give the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee five years of records on potential inaccuracies in the financial statements of Trump or his business and a little more than two years of records related to the lease with the federal government for the former Trump International Hotel in Washington. Mazars will also have to provide records from 2017 and 2018 on transactions between the Trump Organization and any foreign, local or state government or official. Trump could ask the full bench of the D.C. Circuit to rehear the case or petition the Supreme Court to take it up again. Two years ago to the day from Friday's ruling, the justices issued an opinion rejecting Trump's sweeping claims of executive privilege but declared that lower courts did not do enough to scrutinize the House panel's purported needs for the information and whether the subpoena was tailored to those needs." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Looks to me as if Trump will be able to extend the judicial wrangling till next January, at which time Republicans are likely to take over the House & drop the case.
The Stupid Cruelty of MTG. David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has promoted several very different responses over the past few hours to the July 4 mass shooting that left seven people dead, scores injured, and a two-year-old boy orphaned. The Republican from Georgia went from promoting the right wing's latest talking points, that antidepressants are to blame for the massacre, and demanding to see the alleged shooter's medical records, to claiming it 'sounds like' a false flag operation, 'designed to persuade Republicans to go along with' gun control.... Police have offered no indication anyone except the alleged shooter planned the Independence Day massacre, and have said he spent weeks doing so. 'I mean, after all, remember we didn't see that happen at all the Pride parades in the month of June,' she lamented angrily, ignoring all the right-wing violence at Pride celebrations this year." ~~~
~~~ Marie: To suggest, obviously with no evidence whatsoever, to the many victims of this massacre that they were nothing more than convenient pawns in a liberal political campaign is the height of cruelty against innocent victims of the extremist gun policies she promotes. I hope someone will stand up in Congress & condemn her remarks.
Peter Canellos & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The former leader of a religious right organization said he recruited and coached wealthy volunteers including a prominent Dayton, Ohio, evangelical couple to wine, dine and entertain conservative Supreme Court justices while pushing conservative positions on abortion, homosexuality, gun restrictions and other issues. Rob Schenck, an evangelical minister who headed the Faith and Action group headquartered near the Supreme Court from 1995 to 2018, said he arranged over the years for about 20 couples to fly to Washington to visit with and entertain Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia.... The calculated nature of Faith and Action's efforts shows how outside actors can use social activities and expensive dinners to penetrate the court's highly sealed environment.... Faith and Action became a part of Liberty Counsel in 2018 and is now known as Faith and Liberty. Its vice president, Peggy Nienaber, was quoted earlier this week as praying with Supreme Court justices.... Schenck told [Rolling Stone] magazine that he began the prayer sessions as a way of building rapport with conservative justices."
~~~ Marie: Last month, following the Supremes' decision to overturn Roe, Rachel Maddow warned that it won't be long before anti-abortionists "bring a 'fetal personhood' case before the Supreme Court in a bid to totally shut down abortion nationwide. Such a case would aim to define a fetus as a human being, and an abortion as murder." I think Rachel is right, but I'm here to tell you there's an upside to the Extremes' likely ruling on the matter, especially for urban professional women who might find themselves in an unwelcome family way: ~~~
~~~ Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... a pregnant woman in Plano, [Texas,] Brandy Bottone, told a police officer who pulled her over in the carpool lane that in light of the Roe v. Wade rescission, her fetus counted as a passenger.... According to [a Dallas Morning News] report, the officer ... issued [Bottone] a $215 citation" for violating the HOV law that limits the use of the lane to vehicles carrying more than one person. That mean officer won't be able to ticket nice ladies like Brandy when Clarence Thomas has his way.
Jackson Richman of Mediaite: "Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh exited a Washington, D.C., steakhouse this week through the back door due to protesters, reported Politico. The outlet's Playbook newsletter reported on Friday that Kavanaugh 'was dining at Morton's downtown D.C. location' as 'protesters soon showed up out front, called the manager to tell him to kick Kavanaugh out and later tweeted that the justice was forced to exit through the rear of the restaurant.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: I'm so sorry Bart & his friends had their meal interrupted. Now let's ask how the inconvenience of steakus interruptus compares with the inconvenience of carrying, birthing & rearing the child of one's rapist. ~~~
~~~ The Constitution Does Not Guarantee the Right to Dinner. Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post: "The right to congregate and eat dinner is actually not to be found anywhere in the Constitution.... [Brett Kavanaugh] might want his old freedom back, or ask for someone to escort him through the gantlet of protesters who want him to feel bad about his choices, which after all don't affect anyone other than millions of people whose lives are going to be fundamentally changed and whom he is consigning to a status lower than that of full person with the bodily autonomy and right to direct their lives that this entails.... But there is no right, however seemingly basic, that cannot vanish away like a ghostly mist the second someone remembers that there might be a medieval text, somewhere, out there that disagrees." MB: Nice to see Alexandra feels as bad about Bart's interrupted outing as I do.
Elizabeth Dias of the New York Times: Pennsylvania's GOP gubernatorial nominee Doug "Mastriano's ascension in Pennsylvania is perhaps the most prominent example of right-wing candidates for public office who explicitly aim to promote Christian power in America. The religious right has long supported conservative causes, but this current wave seeks more: a nation that actively prioritizes their particular set of Christian beliefs and far-right views and that more openly embraces Christianity as a bedrock identity. Many dismiss the historic American principle of the separation of church and state.... Their presence reveals a fringe pushing into the mainstream."
Speaking of Con Men. Gerrit de Vynck, et al., of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk is terminating his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter, according to a filing the billionaire made with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday. Musk's lawyers sent a letter to Twitter saying he is 'terminating their merger agreement,' according to the filing. In the letter, Musk argues he has a right to drop out of the deal because Twitter hasn't given him enough information about the company's business." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A CNBC report is here. MB: Wait, wait, Elon. I thought you were buying Twitter to make sure (dangerous, untruthful) free speech prevailed for those of us who can cram all our brilliant, independent thoughts into 280 characters. ~~~
~~~ Ari Hawkins & Josh Sisco of Politico: "Elon Musk officially terminated a $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Friday, a move that would appear to dash the hopes of ... Donald Trump and his supporters that the social media platform would loosen content restrictions that have frustrated conservatives. The move spurred fresh attacks on Twitter's existing management, including from Donald Trump Jr., who said it showed that censorship is going to be alive and well.... [Twitter] vowed to take legal action and complete the merger for the original price, according to a statement from chair Bret Taylor."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Louisiana. Ava Sasani & Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "A judge in Louisiana allowed state laws banning nearly all abortions to take effect on Friday, lifting an earlier court decision that had temporarily blocked them. Abortions were immediately outlawed starting at conception, with an exception for a threat to the life of a pregnant woman, but with no exceptions for rape or incest. Under one Louisiana law, abortion providers face possible jail time of 10 or 15 years, depending on when the pregnancy was terminated."
North Carolina. War on Electricity. David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "North Carolina Republican state Rep. Ben Moss has filed legislation that takes aim at free electric vehicle charging stations, both those constructed by private businesses and those constructed by towns and cities. Rep. Moss's bill bans state and local governments from providing free electric vehicle charging stations unless they also provide gasoline, including diesel, 'through a pump to the public at no charge.' Moss also wants to require businesses that provide privately owned electric vehicle charging stations that are free to the public -- say, ones in a store or mall parking lot -- to print on every receipt how much of that person's purchase goes to pay for the free electricity.... Car and Driver's Ezra Dyer, who happens to be Rep. Moss' constituent, says his state representative has 'decided that his animating principle is Being Mad at Electricity.'"
Wisconsin. Patrick Marley, now of the Washington Post: "A divided Wisconsin Supreme Court barred the use of most ballot drop boxes on Friday and ruled voters could not give their completed absentee ballots to others to return on their behalf, a practice that some conservatives disparage as 'ballot harvesting.' It's a ruling feared by voting rights proponents, who said ahead of time such a decision would make it harder for voters -- particularly those with disabilities -- to return their absentee ballots.... The 4-3 ruling came a month before the state's Aug. 9 primaries.... For years, ballot drop boxes were used without controversy across Wisconsin. Election clerks greatly expanded their use in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic.... The decision fell along ideological lines, with the justices elected with support from Republicans in the majority and justices elected with support from Democrats in dissent.... In a dissent, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley called the majority 'dangerous to democracy.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you read the full report, I think you'll find it pretty much falls in the "both-sides" school of journalism. I didn't notice this of Marley's reporting when he worked for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, but he seems to go out of his way to promote the pretense that Republicans' opposition to drop boxes is all about their concern for election integrity. See also Patrick's commentary in yesterday's thread.
Way Beyond
U.K., et al. Fintan O'Toole in the Guardian: "It is hard to think of a figure at once so fatuous and so consequential [as Boris Johnson], so flippant and yet so profoundly influential. His reign was short -- its malign hangover will last long.... The soundtrack to Johnson's political career is the crash of breaking glass as he chucks rocks over the walls of the neighbours across the Irish Sea and the Channel.... The worst aspect of this is his reckless sabotaging of the Good Friday agreement.... He deliberately trivialised the problems of the Irish border.... He introduced legislation deliberately designed to make Northern Ireland a source of open-ended conflict with the EU.... [This] brought relations between Britain and Ireland to their lowest point for decades. And it thrilled autocrats everywhere. Johnson made the rule of law and the honouring of treaties into another of his bad jokes."
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I heard that Brett was dining on a (coat) hanger steak when he had
to abort his dinner plans and duck into the alley out back.
Sure hope everything came out O.K.
Thoughts and prayers.
Dept. of Unintended Consequences?:
Always something interesting going on, even the morning after the eight and six year old boys left for their home (one chapter short of finishing the Hardy Boys book we were reading....Guess they'll have to come back..)
In addition to wondering what will eventuate (football season is just around the calendar corner) for my alma mater, which still remains in the tattered remnants of what was once the PAC-12, I'm thinking Boris might have performed miracles with his Brexit antics by convincing Scotland to break from England and become independent and for Northern Ireland to kiss and make up with its southern sister...
These populists sure don't spread balm over sectional wounds do they?
A bit more from OToole:
."" Johnson turned one of the great historic democracies into a state in which his own cynicism, recklessness and lack of honour became official policy. In doing so, he has allowed every enemy of democracy to say that it is a hollow system whose rules and values are a sham...
It isn’t – and there are those who will continue to fight to defend and deepen it. The great question that faces Britain is whether it can rejoin that side of the fight, as an honourable, law-bound and serious presence in international affairs. It is very hard to see an answer coming from within the ranks of those who allowed Johnson to make such a mockery of their own country. The harm that Johnson has inflicted will not be undone quickly – or by those who found it intolerable only when it threatened their own immediate interests."
We could, and we should, substitute the name of Johnson for Trump and the words would fit just as snugly. I often thought how ironic that two such failed human beings would be running Britain and the U.S. at the same time. Our Mother country giving in to a con artist and its offspring doing the same. Family ties with corruption and lies.
Poor Bart. He shouldn’t have to listen to nasty lefties shouting at him. He was only doing what he was sent to do: take away rights from those he and his pals loathe.
But how about this for a more right-wing, confederate Supremes way of looking at this “problem” (ie, that Americans they don’t like still have First Amendment rights and are exercising them).
The Supremes, a few years ago sniffed that it was perfectly fine for bug-eyed screaming mobs of anti-abortionists to line the walkways to clinics in order to harass and threaten women whether they were coming in for an abortion or just a routine checkup.
Why, then, should they get the kind of kid glove treatment they deny to others?
In fact, I think that abortion rights protesters should storm the houses of Alito, Phony Barrett, Bart, Insurrection Clarence, et al, break down their doors, smear feces on the walls, rifle their personal papers, threaten them with hanging, steal their stuff, and scream at them while they and their families hide in the closet scared for their lives.
After all, a preponderance of those on the right consider such actions nothing more than a peaceful visit by kindly patriots eager to see the seats of power in Washington.
What’s the problem?
PD,
Johnson’s goal, apparently, is similar to that pursued in this country by McConnell, Trump, and their Party of Traitors: undermine democratic institutions and norms so virulently and diligently, that cynicism reigns supreme. Faith in democracy as a system of government is replaced by cynical uncertainty, a situation ripe for the picking by nationalists and capitalist fat cats. But, as we see every day, cynicism and distrust give way to desperation, which in turn sparks violence and chaos.
But what do they care? They got theirs. Fuck everyone else.
The Kavanaugh whining about people protesting his taking away their rights reminded me that one of the regular Joe stories that was photoshopped everywhere during his confirmation was the fact he was the coach for his daughter's basketball team. Every one of those girls is going to grow up in an America where they are second class citizens. Way to go coach.
Japan gets something else from America. We gave them capitalism and baseball, and now, one of our most notable characteristics: gun violence!
Hooray for us!