The Conversation -- November 24, 2023
** Sherrilyn Ifill, in a Washington Post op-ed, explains the Fourteenth Amendment to dummies, and that includes judges and Supreme Court "justices": "... post-Reconstruction courts have rarely upheld or applied in full the ambitious demands of the 14th Amendment. Instead, its guarantees have been watered down to accommodate the political forces of the day, or repurposed to serve powerful interests (such as the dubious determination that corporations are 'persons' entitled to its protections), or treated like an a la carte menu, in which some items -- such as the guarantee of privileges and immunities and all of Section 2 (which would reduce state representation as punishment for voter suppression) -- are essentially ignored." MB: Contributor Ken W. says Ifill's essay is well-worth a read. I concur.
Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Twenty-five hostages held in Gaza, including 12 Thai nationals and 13 other women and children, were released on Friday, the Egyptian government said, the first people to be freed under a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that took effect hours earlier.... The cease-fire that took effect Friday morning has already enabled the delivery of aid supplies to Gaza, where roughly two-thirds of its 2.2 million people have been displaced by the war. By the afternoon, dozens of trucks carrying humanitarian aid had entered Gaza from Egypt, a spokesman for the border crossing ... said by phone. Israel said that eight aid trucks contained fuel and cooking gas, a small but significant amount for a territory that has all but run out of fuel." This is part of a liveblog. ~~~
~~~ UPDATE from the CNN liveblog, also linked below: "An initial group of 24 hostages has been released as a truce between Israel and Hamas -- the first in weeks of fighting -- appears to be holding. The released hostages released include 13 Israelis, 10 Thai citizens and 1 Filipino citizen, according to Qatar's foreign ministry. The hostages are now in Israel, where they have undergone and initial medical assessment.... An Israeli official said a total of 39 Palestinian prisoners will be freed in return on Friday."
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Who Could Have Seen This Coming? Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson's decision to publicly release thousands of hours of Capitol security footage from Jan. 6, 2021, has fueled a renewed effort by Republican lawmakers and far-right activists to rewrite the history of the attack that day and exonerate the pro-Trump rioters who took part.... Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the hard-right Georgia Republican, was among the first lawmakers to post false information about the newly released videos.... [She said an insurrectionist holding a vape pen was holding a law enforcement badge and was 'disguised as a Trump supporter.'] Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, recirculated the same clip and false allegation that the man pictured had flashed a badge, adding that he looked forward to questioning Christopher S. Wray, the F.B.I. director, about the matter.... Still others, such as Donald Trump Jr., have shared video of rioters walking through the Capitol hallways doing nothing violent, suggesting that those who entered the building were entirely peaceful."
Presidential Races 2016 -- 2024
Two Corinthians Are Back in the News. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "In the heat of the Republican primary of 2016, Donald Trump called evangelical supporters of his rival Ted Cruz 'so-called Christians' and 'real pieces of shit', a new book says.... The new book, The Kingdom, the Power, and the Glory: American Evangelicals in an Age of Extremism, by Tim Alberta, an influential reporter and staff writer for the Atlantic, will be published on 5 December.... Early in the book, Alberta describes fallout from an event at Liberty University, the evangelical college in Virginia, shortly before the Iowa vote in January 2016.... Trump was asked to name his favourite Bible verse. Attempting to follow the advice of Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council..., [Trump] introduced it as 'Two Corinthians', rather than 'Second Corinthians'.... 'The laughter and ridicule were embarrassing enough for Trump,' Alberta writes. 'But the news of Perkins endorsing Ted Cruz, just a few days later, sent him into a spiral. He began to speculate that there was a conspiracy among powerful evangelicals to deny him the GOP nomination.... Alberta adds that 'in private over the coming years', Trump 'would use even more colourful language to describe the evangelical community'."
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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "A cessation of violence in the Gaza Strip went into effect Friday, according to social media reports from within Gaza.... Fifty hostages and 150 Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released during the pause, as part of a deal to release hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israel. Qatar, which has acted as a mediator, said Thursday that Hamas is set to release an initial group of 13 hostages.... Hamas is expected to release civilian women and children hostages, and Israel to release women and minors detained in Israeli prisons." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates are here.
The Netherlands. More Bad News for Democracy. Claire Moses of the New York Times: "The Netherlands, long regarded as one of Europe's most socially liberal countries, woke up to a drastically changed political landscape on Thursday after a far-right party swept national elections in a result that has reverberated throughout Europe. Geert Wilders's Party for Freedom, which advocates banning the Quran, closing Islamic schools and entirely halting the acceptance of asylum seekers, won 37 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, making it by far the biggest party, in a clear rebuke of the country's political establishment. The results, tabulated overnight after Wednesday's voting, give Mr. Wilders enough support to try to form a governing coalition. Centrist and center-right parties long wary of the firebrand have left the door ajar to a possible partnership, giving Mr. Wilders a chance to become the Netherlands' first far-right prime minister." The AP's story is here.
News Lede
New York Times: "Charles Peters, the founding editor of The Washington Monthly, a small political journal that challenged liberal and conservative orthodoxies and for decades was avidly read in the White House, Congress and the city's newsrooms, died on Thursday at his home in Washington. He was 96. His death was confirmed by The Washington Monthly, which reported that Mr. Peters 'had been in declining physical health for several years, mainly from congestive heart failure.' Often called the 'godfather of neoliberalism,' the core policy doctrine of the magazine, Mr. Peters was The Monthly's editor from 1969 until his retirement in 2001. He also wrote five books on politics, government and history, and a column, 'Tilting at Windmills,' offering pithy thoughts on politics and current events, from 1977 to 2014."
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Reader Comments (14)
@D in Md: About that pizza tree: I found several recipes online for leftover Thanksgiving dinner pizza. They all sounded horrible & involved mashed potatoes & gravy toppings. But whatever. As long as it's certified organic.
A friend sent me this link (hopefully in jest) to a huge black Friday
sale. 30 to 50% off all merchandise: puzzles, cards, napkins, t-shirts,
mugs etc. Everything with trump's smiling face on it. They should
have made condoms also. MAGAts would have loved that one.
https://www.cafepress.com/+donald_trump_great_christmas_large_
puzzle_1028160008?thumbs=1
The last edible pizza I had was in Bellagio, on the shores of Lake
Como, Italy. Nothing since has come close to that 5 cheese and
provolone pizza. I gained a little weight on that trip.
Forrest,
Si, Italy is the place to be for Pizza and haircuts. Although my favorite Italian restaurant is in Munich. And, a half century ago, there was a barber shop next to the National Theater in Washington, DC, where Italian barbers cut hair using nothing but a comb and straight razor, while singing Italian opera.
That should have been '5 cheese and prosciutto', not provolone.
I got that black Friday Thanksgiving dinner ate too much hangover.
Very much worth a read.
A nation of laws? Hardly. Politics has always been the worm in the SCOTUS apple.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/11/24/us-courts-fear-14th-amendment-radical/
I've been waiting for a sanely coherent definition of Grooming.
These are the best I've seen yet.
How is it that a judge can rule under the 14th amendment that the
U.S. president isn't an officeholder?
I haven't been there, but I'll bet that somewhere in the Capitol building,
there's a door with a plaque reading 'Office of the President'.
I'm not a lawyer, but I once say one on TV.
D,
Guys with straight razors singing Italian opera? Hmmm…I dunno. Maybe if the guy is singing something from “Figaro” or “L'elisir d'amore”, I’d be okay. But anything from operas where people get stabbed (“Tosca”, “Rigoletto”, “Don Giovanni”, “Pagliacci”) or beheaded (“Turandot”), I’m outta there.
Then again, there’s Robert Benchley’s reminder that “Opera is where a guy gets stabbed and instead of bleeding, he sings.”
Sometimes for twenty minutes, or the time it takes to get a haircut.
By the way, loved the grooming quotes.
@D in MD: And the sad part is that many of these "definitions" are probably word-for-word what some of these people say. It's hard to be the Onion when it's sometimes impossible to distinguish between satire & reality.
AK,
At least it was on Pennsylvania Avenue, and not Fleet Street.
D,
Good point. The sign “Sweeney Todd: Barber” would be just a tad off putting. Kinda like “Jeffrey Dahmer: Victualer”, or “Mike Johnson: Humanist”.
@Akhilleus: That's because the operas -- and Benchley's remark -- were written before Second-Amendment automatic weapons and super-bullets ripped your guts out, causing instant death. Different times, different arias.
Marie,
Your stitching together of opera and the right-wing obsession with gun knobbery reminds me of a favorite “Doonesbury” strip from waaay back in February of 1976 (four months shy of my college graduation).
During a story arc that had Uncle Duke, the peripatetic, reactionary, often criminally inclined character (based in part on gonzo journalist Hunter Thompson), visiting the People’s Republic of China.
A cultural attaché (party apparatchik) takes Duke to a PLA opera. Duke, ready to leave before the first note, says “Let’s get it over with.” Suddenly gunfire erupts from the stage. “What the hell was that?” shouts a shaken Duke. He is told this is the overture to the opera.
“The overture is automatic weapons fire??” asks Duke.
“As it often is in life” says his guide.
Certainly far more true in today’s United States than it’s been in communist China in decades. Or in any other industrialized nation in the world.
Go figure.
Two Corinthians walk into a bar.
“Who’s that fat loudmouth with the unnaturally orange skin tones imploring drunks to kill people he doesn’t like?”
“Hell if I know. Let’s beat it. He looks loopy.”
“Here comes Paul..”
“Yo, Paulie, what’s up with that guy?”
“I dunno, but he’s claiming to be a god of some kind.”
“Well write him a letter from us. Two Corinthians say ‘Fuck off, Orange boy.’”