May 23, 2022
Afternoon Update:
The Trump & Rudy Show Gets Ready for Prime Time. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is expected to stage six public hearings in June on how Donald Trump and some allies broke the law as they sought to overturn the 2020 election results, according to sources familiar with the inquiry.... According to a draft schedule reviewed by the Guardian, the select committee intends to hold six hearings, with the first and last in prime time, where its lawyers will run through how Trump's schemes took shape before the election and culminated with the Capitol attack."
Fear of Cream Pie. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a Daily Beast review of court transcripts in a lawsuit a protester has brought against Donald Trump, his former attorney Michael Cohen explained in detail a conversation he overheard between the former president and his head of security that contradicts what Trump previously testified under oath.... Cohen was a last-minute witness in a lawsuit brought against Trump where he is accused of siccing his security team on protesters outside of Trump Tower before he became president. In a previous deposition, Trump has denied involvement. However, as the new report states, Cohen gave testimony that he was in the room when the protesters were discussed and, under questioning, stated Trump asked security head Keith Schiller, 'Did you see that there's a demonstration going on? Get rid of them,' to which Schiller reportedly replied, 'Okay, boss.'... As a side note, the Beast report also reveals Cohen also testified Trump lived in fear of being 'pied' after it happened to Microsoft founder Bill Gates.... 'For some reason that upset Mr. Trump terribly. We were all instructed that if somebody was to ever throw anything at him, that if that person didn't end up in the hospital, we'd all be fired[.]' You can read more here -- subscription required." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The list of Trump's phobias is getting longer. He's afraid of germs. He's afraid of blood. He's afraid of women's bodily fluids, especially breast milk & menstrual flows.He's afraid of slopes & stairs. He's afraid of "dangerous fruit." He's afraid of cream pies.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Pfizer and BioNTech saidon Monday that preliminary findings of a clinical trial of children younger than five showed three doses of their coronavirus vaccine produced a strong enough immune response to meet the criteria for regulatory authorization.... A spokeswoman for Pfizer said comprehensive results from the trial will be disclosed next month."
Nick Cumming-Bruce & Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "A diplomat in Russia's mission to the United Nations in Geneva quit his post on Monday, expressing shame over Russia's invasion of Ukraine and describing it as a crime against both countries. Boris Bondarev, a counselor in the Russian mission since 2019 who described himself as a 20-year veteran of Russia's Foreign Ministry, announced his resignation in an email sent to diplomats in Geneva on Monday. His resignation is the most high-profile gesture of protest so far made by a Russian diplomat over the war in Ukraine. 'For 20 years of my diplomatic career I have seen different turns of our foreign policy but never have I been so ashamed of my country as on Feb. 24 of this year,' Mr. Bondarev said, referring to the date that President Vladimir V. Putin sent Russian forces into Ukraine.... Mr. Bondarev went on to deliver a stinging critique of Russia's foreign service and its chief diplomat, Sergey V. Lavrov.” MB: Let's hope Bondarev doesn't have to go back to Russia. The AP's story is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden has enlisted a dozen Asia-Pacific nations to join a new loosely defined economic bloc meant to counter China's dominance and reassert American influence in the region five years after his predecessor withdrew the United States from a sweeping trade accord that it had negotiated itself. The alliance will bring the United States together with such regional powerhouses as Japan, South Korea and India to establish new rules of commerce in the fastest-growing part of the world and offer an alternative to Beijing's leadership. But wary of liberal opposition at home, Mr. Biden's new partnership will avoid the market access provisions of traditional trade deals, raising questions about how meaningful it will be.... 'We're going to help all of our country' economies grow faster and fairer.' The president sat alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India and Prime Fumio Kishida of Japan for the rollout of the [Indo-Pacific Economic Framework], while other leaders joined the event by videoconference."
Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden indicated on Monday that he would use military force to defend Taiwan if it were ever attacked by China, dispensing with the 'strategic ambiguity' traditionally favored by American presidents and repeating even more unequivocally statements that his staff tried to walk back in the past. At a news conference with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan during a visit to Tokyo, Mr. Biden suggested that he would be willing to go further on behalf of Taiwan than he has in helping Ukraine, where he has provided tens of billions of dollars in arms as well as intelligence assistance to help defeat Russian invaders but refused to send American troops.... The White House quickly tried to deny that the president meant what he seemed to be saying. 'As the president said, our policy has not changed.' the White House said in a statement hurriedly sent to reporters.... Taiwan ... has never been granted the same U.S. security guarantees as Japan, South Korea or America's NATO allies, and so the comment was seen as significant." An AP story is here.
It's Always Something. Russell Goldman of the New York Times: "President Biden raised the alarm on Sunday about monkeypox, a viral infection fast spreading around the world, and warned that the disease, which can be spread as easily as through handling a contaminated object, is something 'that everybody should be concerned about.' Monkeypox, rarely seen outside Africa, has been found in recent weeks in Europe and the United States. As of Saturday, 92 cases and 28 suspected cases had been identified in 12 countries outside of those African nations where it is endemic, according to the World Health Organization. There has been one confirmed case in the United States -- a man in Boston was diagnosed last week -- but public health officials believe case numbers will soon increase." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Here's a Washington Post article by Ashley Parker & others that essentially says that in ten years Joe Biden has failed to get Congress to enact any gun control legislation. (At 10 pm Sunday, this brilliant bit of analysis is prominently placed on the WashPo Website.) Way down in Para. 12, we finally read about Republicans: "Now as president, Biden has yet to receive from the Democratic-controlled Congress any major piece of legislation aimed at preventing mass shootings. Most Republicans remain opposed to any proposed changes, arguing that new restrictions would have little impact on the frequency of mass shootings and would impinge on Americans' constitutional right to bear arms." What complete bull. Parker & Co. make it sound as if it's Biden's fault Republicans oppose gun control. And "the Democratic-controlled Congress" has a Senate with fewer than 50 "real" Democrats, where a 60-vote majority is required to pass legislation.
Michael Conroy of the AP: "A military plane carrying enough specialty infant formula for more than half a million baby bottles arrived Sunday in Indianapolis, the first of several flights expected from Europe aimed at relieving a shortage that has sent parents scrambling to find enough to feed their children. President Joe Biden authorized the use of Air Force planes for the effort, dubbed 'Operation Fly Formula,' because no commercial flights were available. The formula weighed 78,000 pounds (35,380 kilograms), White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One as Biden flew from South Korea to Japan.... The flights are intended to provide 'some incremental relief in the coming days' as the government works on a more lasting response to the shortage, Brian Deese, director of the White House National Economic Council, said Sunday." (Also linked yesterday.)
The League of Extraordinary Grifters. Kate Kelly & David Kirkpatrick of the New York Times: "Shortly before the 2020 election, Trump administration officials unveiled a U.S. government-sponsored program called the Abraham Fund that they said would raise $3 billion for projects around the Middle East.... With no accounts, employees, income or projects, the fund vanished when Mr. Trump left office. Yet after [Jared] Kushner and [Steven] Mnuchin crisscrossed the Middle East in the final months of the administration on trips that included trying to raise money for the project, each quickly launched a private fund that in some ways picked up where the Abraham Fund had ended.... Within three months, Mr. Mnuchin's new firm had circulated detailed investment plans and received $500 million commitments from the Emiratis, Kuwaitis and Qataris, according to previously unreported documents prepared by the main Saudi sovereign wealth fund, which itself soon committed $1 billion. Mr. Kushner's new firm reached an agreement for a $2 billion investment from the Saudis six months after he left government.... An examination of the two men's travels toward the end of the Trump presidency raises other questions about whether they sought to exploit official relationships with foreign leaders for private business interests."
"How Trump's 2020 Election Lies Have Gripped State Legislatures." Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times: A New York Times “analysis exposes how deeply rooted lies and misinformation about ... Donald J. Trump's defeat have become in state legislatures, which play an integral role in U.S. democracy. In some, the false view that the election was stolen -- either by fraud or as a result of pandemic-related changes to the process -- is now widely accepted as fact among Republican lawmakers, turning statehouses into hotbeds of conspiratorial thinking and specious legal theories.... Election and democracy experts say they see the rise of anti-democratic impulses in statehouses as a clear, new threat to the health of American democracy. State legislatures hold a unique position in the country's democratic apparatus, wielding a constitutionally mandated power to set the 'times, places and manner of holding elections.' Cheered on by Mr. Trump as he eyes another run for the White House in 2024, many state legislators have shown they see that power as license to exert greater control over the outcome of elections." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Lonely Life of the Vanquished Autocrat. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump is not having a good weekend, if the postings on his TRUTH Social account are any indication of his mood. In multiple posts, some directly from his account and some shared (or 'ReTruthed' ...) from others, Trump conveyed his vexation with a wide range of targets including Twitter, the Wall Street Journal, and his former endorsee Alabama Senate candidate Mo Brooks. Oh, and Trump also shared what seemed to be a call for civil war. TRUTH Social got off to a bumpy start earlier this year..., and Trump himself went months without posting. [He] seemed to be making up for lost time this weekend, dropping rants on a variety of topics and echoing the daily Festivus-style airing of grievances tone of his former Twitter account. One post that drew particular notice was shared from an account called 'MAGA King Thanos' that added the caption 'Civil war' to a screenshot of a Lara Logan post from the President of El Salvador saying that the 'most powerful country in the world' was 'falling so fast' and '[s]omething so big and powerful can't be destroyed so quickly, unless the enemy comes from within.'"
Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and 'even vilified' by top clergy in the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The findings of nearly 300 pages include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years." A CBS News report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post devotes a column to explaining to dummies why "racism is bad for White people, too."
Way Beyond the Beltway
The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia's war and its fallout ... are expected to loom over the World Economic Forum in Davos on Monday.... Both Russian government officials and all Russian nationals, who normally have a prominent presence at the annual summit, have been barred from attending.... Ukraine has deployed a delegation of considerable influence to the forum as it seeks to make the case that foreign governments must continue sending military and humanitarian aid to put a stop to Russian aggression. President Volodymyr Zelensky, who on Sunday called the forum 'the world's most influential economic platform,' will help open the gathering with a virtual address.... More than 350 cultural and historic sites across Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged by Russian forces since the invasion, Ukrain's culture minister said on Sunday. President Biden is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India on Monday to discuss Ukraine. They are attending a summit in Japan." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' summary of Sunday's developments is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: "The battle for Severodonetsk is becoming a focal point in the war as Russia seeks to capture one of the last major cities in a key eastern province still under Ukrainian control after its seizure of southeastern port city Mariupol. The head of the Luhansk region said Russian troops are bombarding Severodonetsk constantly, using 'scorched earth' tactics. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that fighting in eastern Ukraine is becoming increasingly bloody, with up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers killed each day.... [At Davos,] Ukrainian artists have turned a venue in the Swiss resort town that usually showcases Russian business leaders - formerly known as 'Russia House' -- into an exhibition of possible Russian war crimes.... President Biden, in Japan for economic and security talks with regional leaders, in a joint statement with Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio called Russia's invasion of Ukraine the 'greatest immediate challenge' to the established world order." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here
Lorenzo Tondo of the Guardian: "Ukraine has said it will not agree to ceasefire deal that would involve handing over territory to Russia, as Moscow intensified its attack in the eastern Donbas region on Sunday. 'The war must end with the complete restoration of Ukraine's territorial integrity and sovereignty,' said Ukraine's presidential chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, in a Twitter post. The Polish president,Andrzej Duda, offered Warsaw's backing, telling politicians in Kyiv that the international community had to demand Russia's complete withdrawal and that sacrificing any of Ukraine's territory would be a 'huge blow' to the west." The Washington Post's story is here.
Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "A court in Kyiv has sentenced a Russian soldier to life in prison for the killing of a Ukrainian civilian, in the first verdict in a trial related to war crimes carried out by the Russian army during its invasion of Ukraine. Vadim Shishimarin, a 21-year-old sergeant, was found guilty of killing 62-year-old Oleksandr Shelipov in Sumy region during the first days of the invasion. The verdict was delivered on Monday lunchtime by judge Serhii Ahafonov at a packed courtroom, with dozens of Ukrainian and foreign television cameras crammed into the small room. The judge said although Shishimarin cooperated with the investigation and expressed remorse, the court could not accept his claim he had not meant to kill Shelipov when he fired at him."
Israel. Steve Hendrix & Shira Rubin of the Washington Post: "After decades of demolition, rebuilding and a more than 20-year legal battle, Israel's highest court this month gave the military permission to permanently evict more than 1,000 Palestinians [from the West Bank] and repurpose the land for an army firing range.... The demolitions have sparked expressions of concern from Washington ahead of a planned June visit to Israel by President Biden, coming at a time of mounting instability in Israel's coalition government and the recent approval of more than 4,200 new housing units in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.... The European Union urged Israel to halt the demolitions. A United Nations human rights panel warned that the 'forcible transfer' of residents would amount to 'a serious breach of international and humanitarian and human rights laws.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Ledes
New York Times: "At least seven people were killed and more than a hundred were plucked out of the sea on Monday after a passenger ferry caught fire in the Philippines, the latest maritime tragedy to hit the archipelago."
New York Times: “Heavy pre-monsoon rains in India and Bangladesh have washed away train stations, towns and villages, leaving millions of people homeless as extreme weather events, including heat waves, intense rainfall and floods, become more common in South Asia. More than 60 people have been killed in days of flooding, landslides and thunderstorms that have left many people without food and drinking water and have isolated them by cutting off the internet, according to officials. The devastation in India's northeast, one of the worst affected regions, has submerged railway tracks, bridges and roads. In the remote state of Assam, 31 of its 33 districts have been affected by floods, impacting the lives of more than 700,000 people, officials said on Saturday. At least 18 people have already died in the state because of floods and landslides, according to news reports. At least 33 people were killed in the neighboring state of Bihar by lightning strikes and heavy rain in its 16 districts...."
Share Article
Reader Comments (7)
Those Republican state legislators who supposedly believe the Big Election Lie really don't.
One either believes the votes have been properly tabulated--or they don't.
If one does, perhaps suggesting or insisting on additional safeguards might, that is might, be in order.
But putting plans in place to exclude neutral election officials or to set aside the expressed will of the people in the next election can mean but one thing.
Only those who accepted the 2016 results but didn't like them would pursue such measures.
Thus spake I.
Are the legislators true believers or just going along to get along? I would like to think the latter, but in fact I do think the former...I think they are all hopeless and the sooner we realize that, there will be fewer attempts at "both sides working together." We see how Biden has been castigated for everything from baby formula shortages to monkeypox... I can't imagine why anyone thinks otherwise. And the never quoted (by me) WaPo thinks Biden was/is supposed to do something about guns and nutzoid/mean/mistaken/incel shooters? That is simply silly talk, as the ability to do anything about that rests with a broken congress. I don't even know how Biden gets up in the morning. Dealing with crazy people all day would be so wearing.
Kushner is a chip off the ole blockhead by marriage. (Although his father was incarcerated, so maybe birthright, also?) The fact that Hunter Biden, not elected, has been the bete noir of the right for more than six years, even though it isn't against the law to make money in international association, and the Dumpster family does it illegally ALL the time, leads me to be absolutely certain that anyone associated with the Dumps is a crook. So yeah, they are all criminals looking to turn everyone's attention from their own criminality. I am including all the shyster lawyers looking for notoriety by helping out the criminals, like Durham, Eastman and the nutballs we saw before Jan 6 all day every day. That Jenna whatever is now associated with Doug Mastriano, the UGLY bald religion-spreader-freak lunatic who wants to be our governor...
I despair, I really do. But thanks for being here, RCers...
Jeanne,
As far as Kushner goes (and it can’t be far enough for me), he is and always has been, much like Fatty, a spoiled rich kid who’d be lucky to be flipping burgers at White Castle if it wasn’t for daddy and his money.
He’s the kind of kid who believes the rich should be able to do anything without consequences. He was an average—at best—student whose daddy weaseled him into Harvard, where, according to classmates, he rode around in sports cars and held himself above the rest.
Then, by dint of marriage, with zero experience (oh, except for the most infamous clusterfuck of a botched real estate deal in NYC history—except for the clusterfuck loser deals made by Trump himself) he finds himself flying off to meet with sheiks and PM’s, sitting at the head of the table with other Trumpy crooks and incompetents.
In the film version of Jerzy Kosinski’s novel “Being There”, a black woman, a former maid to a now deceased billionaire, watches on TV as the billionaire’s former gardener, a simpleton who couldn’t even make a sandwich, is feted as a genius by the media and the president.
Surprised, but then not very, she shakes her head and says “It sure is a white man’s world”.
I’d add to that sentiment, given the fact of the simpletons who formerly (and could again) ran the country, “…and a rich man’s as well.”
Last night I watched the first installment of Ken Burns’ documentary on World War II. A 40’s newsreel is shown, answering the question of why the fascists had to be stopped.
It’s because, the announcer intoned, “we cannot allow the passions of the few to control the many”.
Sound familiar?
We have a new axis to fight: The Party of Traitors, their courts, their media, and their anti-Democratic, racist supporters.
Like their forbears, they seek power and control through weapons, propaganda, lies, and violence.
As at the beginning of that previous war, it’s uncertain who will win. The few, or the many.
The Sinking Boat
One of the great pleasures of reading is to go back and reread something you haven’t set eyes upon in years (decades, in this case). One advantage is the possibility of discovering if perhaps one of the principals (reader or writer) had, in the intervening period, gotten any smarter, or more observant. Since it’s less likely that such a possible advancement could have been achieved by the author, he being slightly dead, I suppose I must admit to not having been the stable genius I had always assumed I was, lo those many years ago.
In this case, however, the newly inspired revelations depress rather than excite.
The piece is Stephen Crane’s riveting “The Open Boat”. Based on an actual experience of his being shipwrecked off the coast of Florida. The story depicts the varying hopes and fears of the four survivors at sea in a lifeboat with little to aid them but a couple of oars and their own courage. They help each other through a day and a night in the open sea until they spot land. As they reach the beach, men and women appear on shore to help pull them in, bringing blankets, clothing, and coffee to the survivors. One of their number, who worked hardest to bring them to safety, washes up dead.
As I finished the story, I thought of it in terms of where we are now in this country. It’s unlikely that such cooperation would occur today. In fact, confederates in the lifeboat would be actively trying to swamp it. I had an image of a scene from an old Three Stooges short in which Curly, trying to let the water out a boat the three are floating in, mistakenly drills holes in the bottom. Today, however, the right wing stooges would drill holes to purposely sink the boat. No mistake. If they can’t win, no one else will either.
On the Florida shore, beachcombers under the command of DeSantis, would be told the boat trying to come in was full of immigrants hoping to replace white people. No aid would be given. In fact, they might be shot at.
At the end of Crane’s story, the survivors listen to the roaring waves and feel they can translate the sounds.
Today, when we hear wingers scream “freeedom” and other confederate epithets, we have no problem translating their real meanings.
We’re in a boat at sea, and half on board are trying to sink it.
I think my next reread will be some Ogden Nash doggerel.
Just to thank AK for his consistently impeccable writing.
I'm reading Jamie Raskin's Unthinkable. Not light material but instructive as to several constitutional issues and of course January 6. And the loss of his beloved Tommy.
The other side's dogged insistence on the zero sum of it all is so tiresome. All for one, one for all - ? Never, not ever.
And lately I can't help but smirk at the replacement theory. Historical context? Never, not ever. We brought African Americans to these shores as economic drivers extraordinaire. Remember??
NJC,
And the millions already here were replaced by white Europeans. If there were native Americans sounding the alarm about an actual replacement (as opposed to the theoretical kind), it stopped nothing. Replacement morphed with grim alacrity into genocide.