June 19, 2022
Gillian Brockell, et al., of the Washington Post: "On June 19, 1865, Union Army Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger stepped onto a balcony in Galveston, Tex. -- two months after the Civil War had ended -- and announced that more than 250,000 enslaved people in Texas were free. President Abraham Lincoln had freed them two and a half years earlier in his Emancipation Proclamation, but since Texas never fell to Union troops in battle, they'd remained in bondage. The newly emancipated responded with cries of joy and prayers of gratitude -- a celebration that became known as Juneteenth. Black Texans marked the day each year with parades and picnics, music and fine clothes.... During the summer of 2020, amid the racial-justice protests following the murder of George Floyd, millions of White Americans became aware of Juneteenth for the first time. Some companies announced they would give employees the day off on Juneteenth, and momentum grew to make it a national holiday. Last summer, the U.S. did just that, as President Biden signed a bipartisan bill into law on June 17."
Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As new questions swirled this past week about ... Donald J. Trump's potential criminal exposure for seeking to overturn the 2020 election, Mr. Trump issued a rambling 12-page statement. It contained his usual mix of outlandish claims, hyperbole and outright falsehoods, but also something that Trump allies and legal experts said was notable and different: the beginnings of a legal defense.... What happened at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Mr. Trump wrote, stemmed from an effort by Americans 'to hold their elected officials accountable for the obvious signs of criminal activity throughout the election.'... Successfully prosecuting .. potential charges ... could depend on establishing Mr. Trump's intent -- an issue that his statement ... appeared to address.... The question of intent ... can be muddy when the crime under investigation involves an action in which the defendant's state of mind can be hard to establish.... Given the challenge of showing what Mr. Trump actually knew, there is one other way prosecutors could show he had a corrupt intent: proving what is often called 'willful blindness.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's another "defense" Trump is trying out. After Thursday's select committee hearing, Trump wrote on his Liars Social account: "Such LIES & MISREPRESENTATION by the Unselects, and absolutely nobody allowed to challenge what is being said. As an example, I never asked V.P. Pence to 'overturn' the election (although Thomas Jefferson 'took' the Georgia votes), but that he send the votes back to the Legislatures so that they could determine if the irregularities and Fraud were as widespread and signficant as they seemed." So he did not seek to overturn the election; he merely wanted pence to send the slates of electors back to the states. What makes this new claim middling problematic, is what Trump wrote six months ago:
If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election? Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!
~~~ This does point to one of the difficulties prosecutors would have in trying to establish Trump's intent: he's a moving target; he makes contradictory assertions about the same subject. ~~~
~~~ Peter Stone of the Guardian: "The searing testimony and growing evidence about Donald Trump's central role in a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn Joe Biden's election in 2020 presented at the House January 6 committee's first three hearings, has increased the odds that Trump will face criminal charges, say former DoJ prosecutors and officials.... Trump could also potentially face fraud charges over his role in an apparently extraordinary fundraising scam -- described by House panel members as the 'big rip-off' -- that netted some $250m for an 'election defense fund' that did not exist but funneled huge sums to Trump's Save America political action committee and Trump properties."
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times compares Donald Trump's January 6, 2:24 pm tweet further inciting the insurrectionists to "hang Mike Pence" to Henry II's rhetorical question -- "Who will rid me of this meddlesome priest?" -- prompting his knights to murder Archbishop Thomas Becket. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times is firmly in the Mike-Pence-Is-No-Hero camp: "Far from resolute against the president's scheme to overturn the election, Pence was originally inclined to help. He even contacted one of his predecessors, Dan Quayle, for advice on what to do.... Here's how [Bob Woodward & Robert Costa] describe the conversation: 'Over and over, Pence asked if there was anything he could do. "Mike, you have no flexibility on this. None. Zero. Forget it. Put it away," Quayle told him. Pence pressed again. "You don't know the position I';m in," he said. "I do know the position you're in," Quayle responded. "I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That's all you do. You have no power."'... It sounds like a man who did the right thing only after he couldn't find a legal rationale to do the wrong one." (Also linked yesterday.)
Manu Raju of CNN: "Rusty Bowers, a Republican and Arizona state House speaker, will testify at a Tuesday hearing focusing on ... Donald Trump's pressure on state officials to overturn Joe Biden's victory in 2020, a source familiar with the matter told CNN earlier Saturday. Bowers will join Georgia's election officials -- Brad Raffensperger and Gabe Sterling -- who will be part of a panel before the January 6 committee detailing Trump's campaign to force states to overturn their certified election results. Bowers, who supported Trump's reelection bid in 2020, refused to bow to intimidation and attempts to get him to back efforts in the legislature to decertify Biden's victory in Arizona. He previously described how Trump and ... Rudy Giuliani called him after the 2020 election to convince him to somehow involve the legislature in the state's certification process before sending its presidential electors to Congress."
Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden fell off his bike on Saturday while trying to dismount in front of a small crowd of reporters and onlookers. The president said his foot had gotten caught in a toe clip, which caused him to tip over after coming to a stop. He quickly collected himself and stood up, saying 'I'm good' before answering a handful of questions from reporters." A Guardian report is here.
Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "Gun companies have spent the last two decades scrutinizing their market and refocusing their message away from hunting toward selling handguns for personal safety, as well as military-style weapons attractive to mostly young men. The sales pitch -- rooted in self-defense, machismo and an overarching sense of fear -- has been remarkably successful.... The number of guns is outpacing the population. Women, spurred by appeals that play on fears of crime and being caught unprepared, are the fastest-growing segment of buyers.... Working together, gun makers, advocates and elected officials have convinced a large swath of Americans that they should have a firearm, and eased the legal path for them to do so.... The recurrence of mass shootings has provided reliable opportunities for the industry and its allies." (Also linked yesterday.)
Tripp Mickle & Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Apple employees at a Baltimore-area store have voted to unionize, making it the first of the company's 270-plus stores in the United States to join a trend in labor organizing sweeping through retailers, restaurants and tech companies. The result, announced on Saturday by the National Labor Relations Board, provides a foothold for a budding movement among Apple retail employees.... Employees of more than two dozen Apple stores have expressed interest in unionizing in recent months, union leaders say." An AP report is here.
Julian Kim of NPR: "Mark Shields, the longtime PBS News commentator known for his weekly political analysis, has died Saturday morning at the age of 85, PBS NewsHour confirmed." (Also linked yesterday.) Shields' New York Times obituary, by Clyde Haberman, is here.
Mike Stobbe of the AP: "The U.S. on Saturday opened COVID-19 vaccines to infants, toddlers and preschoolers. The shots will become available next week, expanding the nation's vaccination campaign to children as young as 6 months. Advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the vaccines for the littlest children, and the final signoff came hours later from Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency's director.... While the Food and Drug Administration approves vaccines, it's the CDC that decides who should get them."
Beyond the Beltway
Louisiana. Greg Hilburn of the Lafayette Daily Advertiser: "A federal judge will draw a new Louisiana congressional map with a second Black district after the Legislature failed to draw new boundaries of its own in a Special Session that ended Saturday without the passage of any bill. Louisiana Middle District U.S. Judge Shelly Dick will now draw her own map for the state from the bench. Dick, who ruled June 6 that the congressional map passed by lawmakers in February violated the Voting Rights Act because it kept just one majority Black district, had given the Legislature a deadline of June 20 to pass new boundaries or she would take over. Republican House Speaker Clay Schexnayder of Gonzales and Republican Senate President Page Cortez had unsuccessfully argued the Legislature needed more time to create a new map, a motion Dick denied in court Thursday."
Texas. Teresa Velasco of KNES TV: "According to a new report by the San Antonio Express-News, a surveillance video shows police never tried to open the doors at Robb Elementary leading to the classrooms where the shooter went inside. The report cites law enforcement close to the investigation as their source. That source reportedly told the Express-News that police may have assumed the doors were locked and the shooter could not have locked the doors from the inside. Pete Arredondo, the district police chief in charge of law enforcement's response at Robb, has said previously that he went through a ring of keys provided by a janitor in order to try and gain entry.... Meanwhile, dozens of requests have been made for surveillance footage and other records pertaining to the shooting, and Uvalde has hired legal assistance to try and keep those records private." The Express-News report, which is firewalled, is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The New York Times' David Goodman, appearing on MSNBC a few weeks ago, said it wasn't clear the classroom doors were locked as many of them appeared to be defective. An NYT report, written at about the same time, said that the teacher was fumbling with her keys, trying to find the right one to lock the door, when the gunman burst into the classroom. He could have ordered her to lock the door, or he could have locked it himself, but a crazed gunman who would murder little children does not seem like the type of person who would take such a precaution. ~~~
~~~ David Goodman of the New York Times: "A city police officer armed with an AR-15-style rifle hesitated when he had a brief chance to shoot the gunman approaching a school in Uvalde, Texas, because he did not want to hit children, according to a senior sheriff's deputy who spoke to the officer. The fateful decision, which has not been previously reported, represented the second missed opportunity for officers arriving at Robb Elementary School to prevent a massacre by intervening while the gunman was still outside the school." (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: If you had wanted to spend your weekend meeting up with a real collection of dumbclucks, bigots & violent loons, your best bet might have been Houston, Texas: ~~~
~~~ Texas. Sewell Chan & Eric Neugeboren of the Texas Tribune: "Meeting at their first in-person convention since 2018, Texas Republicans on Saturday acted on a raft of resolutions and proposed platform changes to move their party even further to the right. They approved measures declaring that President Joe Biden 'was not legitimately elected' and rebuking Sen. John Cornyn for taking part in bipartisan gun talks. They also voted on a platform that declares homosexuality 'an abnormal lifestyle choice' and calls for Texas schoolchildren 'to learn about the humanity of the preborn child.' The actions capped a convention that highlighted how adamantly opposed the party's most active and vocal members are to compromising with Democrats or moderating on social positions, even as the state has grown more diverse and Republicans' margins in statewide elections have shrunk slightly in recent years." ~~~
~~~ Caleb Howe of Mediaite: "Rep. Dan Crenshaw and his staff were violently confronted at the Republican Party of Texas convention a short time ago, when far-right social media activist Alex Stein and others whom witnesses described as Proud Boys began shouting 'eyepatch McCain' at him -- an attempted insult coined by Fox News Channel's Tucker Carlson. A witness to the incident tells Mediaite that in addition to Stein and others being escorted out of the building, 'some arrests' were made at the scene.... 'They got physical with multiple people, including hitting them with cameras,' a witness at the scene said. 'His campaign manager was assaulted by being pushed aggressively into a pillar.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Crenshaw is a right-winger through and through, so I don't know what heresy he might have committed that has TuKKKer belittling him. But he wears that eyepatch out of courtesy to those who might not want to see the disfigurement caused by the loss of his eye during his third deployment to Afghanistan. People who bully & mock wounded veterans for their injuries are disgusting beyond words.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al., The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "No one knows how long the war in Ukraine will last, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said, though he cautioned that the world should be prepared for a war that stretch on for years. Stoltenberg's forecast, in an interview published Saturday in Germany's Bild newspaper, comes as the United States and its allies are preparing for a drawn-out conflict.... Russian forces now control most of Severodonetsk, a bitterly-contested town crucial to Russian hopes of advancing in eastern Luhansk region, governor Serhiy Haidai said Sunday morning.... U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is expected to meet with his E.U. counterparts this week to discuss putting pressure on Russian oligarchs." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates Sunday are here. A Guardian summary of developments is here.
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Reader Comments (17)
Methinks the Texas Republicans meeting in Houston were
projecting again.
Stating that homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice, actually
they meant that being a Republican is an abnormal lifestyle choice.
Just my opinion. And they must have all been scientists and
geneticists to declare that.
Wonder if the suicide rate among the LGBTQ community in Texas
is higher than the national average with schmucks like that railing
against them.
Joke of the day: How can you tell Trump was behind the insurrection?
Because it failed.
@Forrest Morris: You're right on all counts. According to this report, suicide rates among LGBTQ young people in the South, including Texas, are higher than in the rest of the country. Also, "The Trevor Project saw crisis contacts (calls, texts, and chats) from LGBTQ youth in Texas increase by more than 150% between Jan. 1 and Aug. 30, 2021 when compared with the same period last year." This was right after Greg Abbott signed into law a bill "prohibiting transgender youth from competing on school sports teams that align with their gender identity."
As to "abnormal lifestyle choice," well, yes, Republican. I hadn't thought of it that way, but as Republicans in the last decades have gotten crazier & crazier, being a Republican has become abnormal. Especially, apparently, being a Texas Republican. And I'm not quite joking. I suppose it's natural to give initial credence to some conspiracy theories that jibe with your own views or that otherwise seem plausible. (I'm still not convinced by the one-bullet theory in JFK's assassination, though I don't stay up nights thinking & studying on it, so I'd have to put myself down as "Don't Know.") But before you adhere to a conspiracy theory like "Joe Biden stole the election," you have to find some facts that support it -- and "seven Republican white guys voted illegally for Donald Trump in 2020" just doesn't support the theory, does it? So you have to be "abnormal" to believe that crap.
@Forrest Morris: Yes, because it failed and he still scammed money off it.
A few days ago I mentioned how much I admired Katy Tur––here is a NYT's piece that gives us an in depth look into her family ties that is as shocking as it is fascinating:
When on the trail with Trump Katy "felt a deep familiarity. "It was like I already knew him." She then reveals how her father was "every bit as complicated a parent as Trump was a candidate: narcissistic, grandiose, vain, lurching noisily from success to failure." The brutality of Katy's father is one for the books and luckily for Katy she has the guts to reveal its ramifications.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/books/review/rough-draft-katy-tur.html
And on this day in June we have the celebration of enslaved people in Texas in 1865 finally being set free and America's Dad Day––-I'm trying to tie these two together but can't quite do it except maybe the Founding Fathers failed in making that correction in their connections.
@Marie
To take off on something my older son said a few weeks back:
The value of conspiracy theories (i.e., outright fantasies) is that they provide people with "reason" to accept their preferred unreason.
And of course the nuttier the unreason, the nuttier the the theory..
Family Ties that fly in the face of another notable on this Sunday morning (which if I may mention the weather which here in CT. is as crazy as everything else that is going on. Two days ago, hot as hell; yesterday and today cold and windy.)
Ginni Thomas' parents, the Lamps, were, according to Kurt Anderson. who lived across the street, the roots of the modern, crazy Republican Party. His own parents were Goldwater Republicans, but even they thought the Lamps were nuts. Ginni's family helped her get a job with a local Republican candidate after she graduated from Greighton U. in Omaha and then attended law school there. But after she failed the bar exam, she fell in with a a cultish self-help group whose members were encouraged to strip naked and mock one another's body fat. Now, I don't know about you, but that little gem has stuck with me ever since Jane Mayer reported it some time ago. Ginni eventually left that "fun fest" but the melody lingers on in some of the antics she has orchestrated in today's displays. The fact that she married a guy whose part-time pleasure was watching "weird" ( for lack of a better description) porn films might have been the clue that cemented that relationship–-just a tad?
For lawyers involved before the S.C. it can be deeply disturbing to know that Ginni Thomas is "an additional opponent. One of these lawyers, David Dinielli, visiting lecturer at Yale Law School, involved in a gay rights case before the court, said he was acutely aware that Ginni Thomas and other members of the Council for National Policy loathed the Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks right wing hate groups. "She's one step away from holding up a sign in front of her husband saying 'This person is a pedophile'"
"The justices sit literally above where the lawyers are. For these people to do the job they were tasked with, they have to maintain that level. But this degrades it, mocks it, and threatens it... since the Court doesn't have an army, it relies on how it behaves to command respect. Once the veneer cracks, it;s hard to get it back." Dinielli
@PD Pepe: I don't see where the Founding Fathers had much to do with either Juneteenth (a 19th-century development) or Father's Day (a 20th-century idea), other than their being responsible for slavery in the first place and many of them being, well, fathers themselves.
But I do appreciate Juneteenth, perhaps because racists and Republicans have made me feel more and more Black as those Republicans/racists have relegated me to the same low status they always have accorded Black people. They have cheated me out of a Supreme Court justice who might better reflect my views. They have chosen for me a president* who didn't even pretend he was "my" president*, too. They have used the filibuster to make sure their minority views get more purchase than my majority views. They have loudly and incessantly disparaged the people who represent me. They have assumed that my own vote is corrupt or tainted. They have tried to overturn the results of an election that went my way. They are constricting the right to vote of people who are apt to be on "my side" of issues. They are constricting the rights of women. They are making it easier for crazy people (especially white young men) to shoot me dead for my having the temerity to venture down the street or into the grocery store.
When I was a child, I had to ride in the back of the bus. After some decades of being able to sit wherever I wanted, I believe I'm being pushed back there now. The personal sense of dignity that comes with freedom & equality is something to celebrate, but it is not something we necessarily get to keep.
Rest assured that Creampuff Casper Milquetoast Merrick Garland is paying very close attention to media reports these days. Oh, not to the litany of treasonous activities performed by the Fat Fascist and his cadre of co-conspirators, kooks, codswallop peddlers and constitution defiers. CCMMG is honing in on all the reports pointing out how difficult it might be to indict and convict Dictator Donald.
Woof. That was close. Guess I don’t have to do anything after all!
Nothing will come of the work of this committee, at least as far as the Orange Monster is concerned. As we’ve seen with the hard work of the committee, investigations take time. Close observers of the Justice Department say nothing is happening. Maybe there’s something going on under deep cover, but you can bet your bippy (old Laugh-In reference) that had any of the conspirators received a summons from the DoJ, they’d be screaming bloody murder.
This means that if Garland waits until the committee issues its report (sometime in the fall), he won’t begin anything until…oh, wait. Fall? That means Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then New Year’s Day. Hmmm…I guess we’ll wait until 2023. But then it will take two years at least, for the investigation, but then there’s the 2024 election. Nah. Never mind. Fuggedaboutit.
But here’s the thing. Yes, it might be tough, perhaps near impossible to convict Trump, but not trying at all sends a horrible message to all the little Trumps out there: you can get away with anything if you can connive or steal your way into the White House.
And isn’t that a good lesson to teach these future traitors?
@MARIE: I don't see where the Founding Fathers had much to do with either Juneteenth (a 19th-century development) or Father's Day (a 20th-centur1y idea), other than their being responsible for slavery in the first place and many of them being, well, fathers themselves.
EXACTLY!
AK: Now, now, dear chap, heed what the Dowager Countess says in her customary hauteur, "Don't be defeatist, it's so middle class." But on another occasion, that hauteur invisible for once, tells Carson––"We've seen some troubles, you and I. Nothing worse than this." I'll buy that one for sure.
Re Katy Tur, her father is also now known as Zoey Tur
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoey_Tur
Have to wonder how much of his brutality came from him battling within themself. Not to excuse anything, but it might help to explain n
And this one goes out to Akhilleus, who coujld use a lift today:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEek098QcrU
Patrick: and I sang along!!!!!!
Hahaha. Thanks, Patrick. But I would point out to Mr. Boyton, were he still above ground, that his basis for NOT being downhearted was that such a condition was possible while Britannia ruled the waves. Given the devastation wrought by German U-boats in both world wars, it’s debatable that Britain was the big boy on the ocean main (although they did sink the Bismarck). Nevertheless, by the end of WWII the US Navy was the undisputed champeen of them there waves.
In any event, the political maelstrom in which we find ourselves can use a little levity, even of the English music hall variety with its jacks and tommies and John Bulls. I especially enjoyed the rolled R in “downhearrrrrted”. Mr. Boynton must have had classical training.
Two inflation landmarks:
Years ago I purchased a new Jetta diesel that cost more than our first house (no foundation; a real fixer-upper that occupied much of my time and attention for the next twenty summers....)
Today a friend told me his last tank of gas cost more than his first car...
@Ken W: Yeah, my first house cost $29,900.00. My last car
cost $36,000.00.
But it ain't inflation. It's old age.
Go to Italy and buy a litre of petrol. Or anything for that matter.
Funny, Forrest, I feel more deflated these days than inflated...my brain especially. Meant to type "benchmarks" and wrote "landmarks" instead. Can't blame Otto for that one.
BTW that first house cost 12,500 dollars, which at the time was more than we could afford.....