Wednesday
Dec182024
The Conversation -- December 18, 2024
Marie: I'll do a little more later this morning.
How Not to Treat a Neighbor & Close Ally. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his government were in serious trouble well before Donald J. Trump was re-elected in November.... Opinion polls show that, in national elections that must take place by the fall under Canadian electoral rules, Mr. Trudeau is unlikely to win a fourth term as prime minister. Mr. Trump has tapped into this brewing trouble, even before taking office. He has threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian goods, sending the country into panic mode. He has trolled Mr. Trudeau as the 'governor' of the 'Great state of Canada,' putting his disdain on public display and triggering debates about how or whether Mr. Trudeau should respond. And on Monday, Mr. Trump offered gleeful, acerbic commentary on the bombshell resignation of a top Canadian minister he had long disliked, showing that he is happy to mine this fraught moment in Canadian politics." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sure, we can attribute a lot of Trump's disgusting behavior to little quirks like racism, misogyny and xenophobia, but a lot of it comes down to this: he's just uncouth. He doesn't know how to behave in polite company; he has never been polite company. He's a lout and a philistine, and at some level he knows it; at some level he's ashamed of it. And he deals with that secret shame with a continual bullying, bad-ass performance. He's pathetic. ~~~
~~~ Oh, Trump seems to be trolling the Bahamas, too: ~~~
~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump selected Herschel Walker on Tuesday to be the U.S. ambassador to the small Caribbean nation of the Bahamas, turning to a longtime ally and former football star who generated national headlines in his failed run for a Senate seat in Georgia in 2022.... Mr. Walker rose to the national political stage in 2022 after he was handpicked by Mr. Trump to challenge Senator Raphael Warnock for his Senate seat in Georgia. A political neophyte buoyed by his football stardom, Mr. Walker ran a campaign shadowed by incendiary statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career. Mr. Warnock ultimately defeated Mr. Walker even as Republicans won every other statewide race.... Mr. Walker has no previous diplomatic experience, and no obvious ties to the Bahamas, an island nation of about 400,000 people just off the coast of Florida.... The announcement also caps a run of potential appointments for Republicans who lost recent Senate races in Georgia. Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was unseated by Mr. Warnock, was picked to run the Small Business Administration. And former Senator David Perdue, who lost his seat to Senator Jon Ossoff, was selected to be ambassador to China."
Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Some of Trump’s 1930s-ish plans [to Make America the Great Depression Again] have received a fair amount of media coverage, such as his anti-vaccine nominees for senior health jobs and his thirst for new trade wars. But less attention has been afforded to his threats to the U.S. banking system, which Trump seems intent on making more vulnerable to crises. Consider the troubling idea to abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.... [established in 1933] in response to a series of painful, 'It’s a Wonderful Life'-style bank runs.... Right now seems like a peculiar time for any pre-FDIC-era nostalgia. After all, last year was the biggest year for bank failures in modern history, thanks to a crisis that took down Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic. Runs on these regional banks threatened contagion across the rest of the financial system — at least until federal regulators (including the FDIC) stepped in to stem the panic and protect depositors."
Capitulation. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "When Disney reached a settlement last week with ... Donald J. Trump in his defamation case against ABC News, it led to accusations that the company had caved to him.... Disney executives had anticipated the blowback. But they also determined that they had a flawed case.... At a minimum, the $205 billion company would be litigating against a vindictive sitting president and risking harm to its brand.... The concerns about the case among Disney executives, and the eventual decision to settle, involved multiple considerations, according to three people inside the company.... The settlement was recommended by Horacio Gutierrez, Disney’s general counsel, and approved by Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Here's another lawsuit Disney just settled. (This story seems to have received much less attention. Hmmm, could that be because the press is so much more interested in writing about, um, the press? ~~~
~~~ Judd Legum of Popular Information: "This week, Disney agreed to settle [a] class action lawsuit for $233 million, the largest settlement for wage theft in California history. The settlement includes over $100 million in back wages that Disney, with the help of the City of Anaheim, attempted to steal from Disneyland workers. The remainder of the settlement includes interest on the back pay, penalties, and legal fees." In 2018, an Occidental College study found that workers at Disneyland in California earned less than a living wage and their income in real dollars was dropping. Meanwhile, Legum writes, "Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger was paid $65.6 million in 2018, as much as 'the total pay of 9,284 Disneyland workers.'"
Pre-Capitulation. Nicole Sperling of the New York Times: "Pixar, a division of Walt Disney Studios, removed a transgender story line from its animated series 'Win or Lose,' which is set to start streaming in February, Disney said on Tuesday. The series follows a middle school coed softball team in the week leading up to the championship game, and each episode is told from the perspective of a different character. The character will remain in the show, Disney said, but a few lines of dialogue focused on her gender, a plot point that appeared near the end of the eight-episode series, have been edited out.... The decision to remove the story arc was made over the summer," Disney said. ~~~
~~~ The Hollywood Reporter story, which broke the news, is here. Reporter Pamela McClintock, BTW, writes that Trump won "a sweeping victory," which he did not. (MB: Not sure if this link [to a Politico Magazine piece] will work because the publication is billing the link as some kind of special log-in. There's a WashPo op-ed here with a similar message.) ~~~
~~~ Here's the New York Times story on Trump's suing the Des Moines Register, its parent company Gannett, and its pollster Ann Selzer. (Also linked yesterday.) I cited a Fox story in yesterday's Conversation.
Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media.... I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them … -- Elon Musk, in a post on his failing social media platform, after the NYT article linked next was published ~~~
~~~ Kirsten Grind, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices — and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX’s chief executive — have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts said. The Defense Department’s Office of Inspector General opened a review into the matter this year, and the Air Force and the Pentagon’s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security separately initiated reviews last month. The Air Force also recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have also expressed concerns that he could share sensitive data with others, according to defense officials....
For years, SpaceX workers responsible for upholding disclosure rules grudgingly allowed Mr. Musk to disregard many of the reporting procedures, as they did not want to lose their jobs.... Some SpaceX workers have become concerned about Mr. Musk’s ability to handle sensitive information, especially as he posts openly on X.... It is unclear why Mr. Musk did not report some of this information to the government, especially since he sometimes posts on X about matters that he does not relay to the Defense Department.... As a matter of constitutional law, Mr. Trump could grant a security clearance to anyone after his inauguration, even if others in the government object." Thanks to laura h. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: "Aye, there's the rub." Until Donald turns on Elon, Elon will do what he wants and Trump will facilitate his flouting the law & passing secrets to foreigners when he's high or whatever. And just as Trump did in 2018 when he ordered John Kelly to grant a top-secret security clearance to young Jared when numerous officials "expressed concern" about it, he will grant clearance to old Elon. "The very rich are different from you and me." Oh, and here's one of a number of reasons, all rooted in jealousy, that Donald will turn on Oligarch No. 1: ~~~
~~~ Jeremy Merrill, et al., of the Washington Post: Elon Musk, "who is the world’s richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has the most followed account on X and an audience that eclipses other top political accounts, including those of President Joe Biden, "Vice President Kamala] Harris and Trump himself, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Musk’s posts have received a total of 133 billion views since July.... That’s 15 times Trump’s audience in the same period and more than 16 times the combined reach of all accounts belonging to members of the incoming Congress."
Donald's Little Elves Hop on the Retribution Sleigh. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Tuesday said their one-time colleague, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, should face a criminal investigation for her role on the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A 128-page report from the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight said Ms. Cheney should be investigated for witness tampering. It accuses her of colluding with Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide who became the committee’s star witness as it examined Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The report — released as Mr. Trump, now the president-elect, has been promising retribution against his political enemies, including Ms. Cheney — accused Ms. Cheney of using the select committee as a tool to attack Mr. Trump. It was spearheaded by Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, the chairman of the oversight subcommittee. Ms. Cheney defended her work on the select committee in a detailed statement, and called the Republicans’ report 'a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.'” ~~~
~~~ Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "The findings issued Tuesday show the Republican Party working to reinforce Trump’s desire to punish his perceived enemies including Cheney and members of the Jan. 6 committee that the president-elect has said should be in jail."
~~~ Marie: Okay, Kash & Pam, this is an action item for you. Make sure Liz is on your "Naughty" list, then ram a big lump of coal down her throat.
Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan deal to punt a government shutdown deadline into March, but House Republican infighting could still endanger any agreement and push federal agencies to the brink of shuttering this weekend.... The measure includes $110.4 billion for disaster relief and approves a pair of local priorities, clearing the way for the District of Columbia to take over land so it can negotiate with the NFL’s Washington Commanders for a possible stadium and committing the federal government to pay the full cost to rebuild Baltimore’s collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.... Congressional Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana), originally sought to restrict the bill to a simple funding extension.... But the non-spending priorities ... threatened to turn a routine spending short-term bill into a dreaded end-of-year 'Christmas tree,' decorated with lawmakers’ pet projects, and to imperil Johnson’s speakership."
Farnoush Amiri of the AP: "House Democrats on Tuesday picked 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the party next year atop an influential congressional committee, pushing aside growing calls for generational change in leadership ahead of a second term for Donald Trump. In a closed-door meeting, the majority of the caucus voted for Connolly to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee over 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned on calls to pass the torch to younger leaders. Connolly has seniority on the committee, having served on it for 16 years. The vote was 131-84.... Connolly had unsuccessfully run for the Oversight role twice before. He was facing concerns from colleagues over his recent cancer diagnosis." ~~~
~~~ Paul Campos of LG&$: "Somebody posted on one of them newfangled social media sites you can access from your 'smartphone' that this feels like the dinosaurs staring dumbly up at that meteor streaking across the Atlantic, and wondering what it all means. Over the past seven years AOC has gone from a potential flash in the pan to the most impressive Democratic politician of her generation. Speaking of which, Joe Biden had been in the Senate for nearly 17 years already on the day Ocasio Cortez was born." ~~~
~~~ As Steve M. posted yesterday, this was Nancy Pelosi's doing. MB: Pelosi is 84 years old, and she couldn't be there for the votes in committee & in the entire caucus because she was in Luxembourg recovering from him-replacement surgery (typically, a procedure for old people), which she needed because she fell down some stairs (often happens to old people). So according to an uncredited report Campos linked, she had Steny Hoyer (Md.) -- aged 85 -- stand up and make the case for seniority -- and Connelly.
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Like other senators leaving the chamber next month, Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, on Tuesday marked the end of his three terms with an emotional, highly personal floor speech. But he refused to call it a farewell. 'It is not — I promise you — the last time you will hear from me,' Mr. Brown assured his applauding colleagues as he concluded remarks that caused him to choke up several times. In an interview, Mr. Brown, 72, a progressive labor champion in the Senate since 2007, would not say what form his future political activism might take.... But he also would not rule out running for office back in Ohio or trying to return to the Senate in two years, when a special election is scheduled to be held to fill the unexpired term of JD Vance...." Video of Sen. Brown's speech is here.
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Tuesday released a long-awaited analysis of the dangers that liquefied natural gas exports pose to the environment and the economy, raising a potential hurdle to a central part of ... Donald Trump’s energy agenda. The Energy Department study could undermine Trump’s plans to immediately issue permits for billions of dollars’ worth of facilities that export liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Environmentalists plan to cite the analysis in future lawsuits over the Trump administration’s approvals of these projects, which some have called 'climate bombs' because of their enormous environmental footprints.... Trump has promised to end the pause [which President Biden imposed on LNG exports] on his 'very first day back' in the White House, saying it has stifled investments and jobs in the domestic gas industry. The Trump administration is expected to rebut the study and replace it with more industry-friendly findings." ~~~
~~~ Marie: That's right. If you don't like a scientific analysis, just make up stuff and merrily go about your corrupt business.
Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve is poised to lower interest rates Wednesday by an additional quarter percentage point while probably signaling a slower pace of cuts next year as the fight against inflation stalled this fall.... Wednesday’s announcement is set to come at 2 p.m. Eastern time, at the end of the Fed’s two-day policy meeting. Then, at 2:30 p.m., Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell will appear at what will be a closely watched news conference...."
Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "Luigi Mangione on Tuesday was accused of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive, a charge that branded him a terrorist.... A grand jury formally indicted [him].... 'This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,' said Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, at a news conference on Tuesday.... Prosecutors said that Mr. Mangione’s actions were meant to further terrorism and therefore merited a charge of first-degree murder. While some states define first-degree murder as a premeditated killing, New York requires an additional aggravating circumstance, one of which is terrorism.... Prosecutors also charged Mr. Mangione, 26, with second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and another count of second-degree murder. He also faces weapons charges."
News from Guantanamo. Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Pentagon said on Wednesday that it had repatriated two Malaysian men from its prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who admitted to committing war crimes for an affiliate of Al Qaeda that carried out a deadly bombing in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002. The rare transfer, a day after the Pentagon released another prisoner to the custody of Kenya, reduced the detainee population to 27 men. The freed prisoners, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, 47, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, 49, have been held by the United States since 2003.... Before they left, the men gave sworn testimony that prosecutors hope will be useful in the eventual trial of Encep Nurjaman, the Indonesian prisoner known as Hambali. Mr. Hambali is accused of being the mastermind of the Bali bombing and other terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003...."
Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Jim Leach, a soft-spoken, cerebral Iowa Republican who spent three decades in Congress tirelessly lofting the banner for the moderate political center — so much so that he endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and switched parties in 2022 — died on Dec. 11 in Iowa City. he was 82."
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Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday met with military officers in territory Israel recently took control of in Syria, and vowed that Israeli troops would remain in the country for the foreseeable future. In a statement issued from Mount Hermon, about six miles from the border of the Israeli-held Golan Heights, Mr. Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain on the mountain 'until another arrangement is found that guarantees Israel’s security.' The prime minister’s trip was likely to be viewed as provocative by Syria’s new leadership, which has criticized Israel’s expanded military presence across the de facto border since rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Today, Mount Hermon may be the site of a ski resort, but it figured into a number of Old Testament stories, & it is the source of the Jordan River. It is considered a sacred mountain, and you can bet its significance was not lost on Bibi. (Some Christians place the supernatural Transfiguration there, too, so that should ensure that King Donald will support Israel's continued occupation of the area.)
Ukraine/Russia, et al. Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "The Russian authorities said on Wednesday that they had detained a suspect in the killing of a senior military officer, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, a major development in the most prominent political assassination case in the country since the start of the war in Ukraine. The suspect, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan whose name was not released, was detained in a village outside Moscow, a spokeswoman for Russia’s prosecutor’s office said. The spokeswoman said the detainee had confessed that Ukrainian intelligence agencies recruited him to kill General Kirillov, 54, who was in charge of the Russian military’s nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces. An official with Ukraine’s security service, known as the S.B.U., said on Tuesday that Ukraine had been responsible for the killing, which took place in central Moscow on Tuesday." ~~~
~~~ Aric Toler & Eve Sampson of the New York Times: "A video that an official with Ukraine’s security service shared with The New York Times and other news outlets, recorded from the interior of a car, appears to show the moment that an explosion killed General Kirillov and an aide as they walked out onto a snowy Moscow street." MB: As far as I can tell (though the fault could be with my computer), the Times story includes only stills from the video. The Guardian has posted a few seconds of the video here.
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
Does sound like an administration of losers, doesn't it? A jobs program for people who couldn't get employment anywhere else.
Or maybe the Pretender sees it as simply reaching out a helping hand to the politicly disabled, demonstrating a beneficence he otherwise hides so well.
Not just pro-dictator, but pro-monster…
TuKKKer KKKarlson is back at being a reprehensible scumbag as he wonders why he should hate Assad.
Bashar al-Assad in 25 years of brutal rule imprisoned, tortured, and murdered tens of thousands (maybe hundreds of thousands), left 12 million Syrians displaced, crashed the economy, gassed his own people, crushed all dissent, then scarpered off to Daddy Vlad when things got tough.
But none of that is reason enough for TuKKKums to feel any antipathy toward this monster.
“He protected the Christians”, sez TuKKK. Oh, well then, as long as he didn’t torture and murder Christians, it’s all jake.
This is beyond despicable. But that’s why he supports Trump.
Still out on bail
Media Bias
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