Monday
Jan062025
The Conversation -- January 6, 2025
The New York Times is liveblogging Congress's certification of the Electoral College vote. The headline of the current (at 12:30 pm ET) pinned item is kinda perfect: “Security is high for an event expected to underscore a peaceful transition.” ~~~
~~~ Update: Here's part of the latest summary, by Annie Karni: “A joint session of Congress on Monday certified ... Donald J. Trump’s victory in the 2024 election, peacefully performing a basic ritual of democracy that was brutally disrupted four years ago by a violent pro-Trump mob inflamed by his lie about a stolen election.... Unlike Mr. Trump back then, Vice President Kamala Harris did not dispute her loss in November, and unlike Republicans in the aftermath of the 2020 balloting, Democrats made no objections during the counting of the Electoral College votes. Instead, Ms. Harris stoically presided over the certification of her own loss without interruption. The presentation of the results unfolded quickly without drama, as House and Senate lawmakers who had been designated in advance read out the number of electoral votes from each state in alphabetical order, and who won them. One by one, the lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats, rose to declare each state’s electoral votes 'regular in form and authentic,' and nobody rose to challenge any. The only sign of partisanship in the House chamber was in the applause: Only Republicans applauded after the counting of each state that Mr. Trump won, and rose at the end for a standing ovation when it was announced that he had secured a majority, while only Democrats clapped for the states that Ms. Harris won and rose to applaud when her total electoral votes were announced.” MB: So this means that if Trump keels over, it will be President JayDee.
Here are some other, brief entries (I've abbrebiated some of them):
Karni: “Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic minority leader, is giving a floor speech now recounting the events of Jan. 6, 2021.... He warned ... Donald J. Trump against pardoning the criminals who assaulted police officers that day. He said pardoning them 'would be a dangerous endorsement of political violence. It is wrong, it is reckless, and would be an insult to the memory of those who died in connection to that day.'”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs: “In a video posted on social media this morning, [Vice President] Harris said her job 'is a sacred obligation — one I will uphold guided by love of country, loyalty to our Constitution and my unwavering faith in the American people.'”
Noah Weiland: “Senator Andy Kim, a New Jersey Democrat, published a series of photos on X that he took at the Capitol Monday showing the quiet around the building as lawmakers prepared to certify ... Donald J. Trump’s victory. Next to each of the photos Kim posted was the scene in that location on January 6, 2021: shattered glass on doors, overturned furniture and the mob that stormed through the hallways.... Kim served in the House on that day in 2021, and was photographed in the Capitol Rotunda retrieving trash left behind by rioters. Relatively unknown at the time, the photos helped launch him onto the national political stage.”
Karni: “The House chamber is fairly empty as Vice President Kamala Harris and the senators file in for a joint session. It seems like the weather kept many House members from being here today.”
Karoun Demirjian: “The lawmakers reading out the electoral votes are the top Republican and Democrat from the Senate Rules Committee and the Committee on House Administration. They are Representatives Bryan Steil, Republican of Wisconsin, and Joe Morelle, Democrat of New York, and Senators Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, and Deb Fischer, Republican of Nebraska.”
Chris Cameron: “... Vice President Harris announces that 'Kamala D. Harris of the state of California has received 226 votes,' to raucous applause from Democrats in the audience.”
Catie Edmondson: “All told that took about 36 minutes, a reminder of what is supposed to be the pro forma nature of these sessions.”
Maya Miller: “Former Vice President Mike Pence, who received death threats four years ago when he presided over the certification of the 2020 election, praised the 'return of order and civility' to that process. In a post on social media, he called Vice President Kamala Harris 'particularly admirable' for presiding over the certification of an election she lost.”
Contemptible Rudy. Stefanos Chen of the New York Times: “A federal judge on Monday held Rudolph W. Giuliani in contempt of court for failing to cooperate in the handover of $11 million of his personal assets to Georgia poll workers he falsely accused of helping to steal the 2020 presidential election. Mr. Giuliani ... has so far failed to turn over the bulk of his personal assets as a down payment on the $148 million judgment the poll workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, won in a defamation lawsuit. The judge, Lewis J. Liman of U.S. District Court in Manhattan, has yet to detail what specific sanctions Mr. Giuliani faces."
⭐MEANWHILE, the New York Times also is liveblogging developments in Canadian politics: “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada announced on Monday that he would step down as Liberal Party leader and prime minister, a decision that means Canada will have a new leader once his party picks a new head through a nationwide election.... His resignation sets off a succession battle to replace him after roughly a decade at the helm of both the party and the country. The upheaval comes as the country is grappling with how best to deal with ... Donald J. Trump’s pledge to impose crippling tariffs on all imports from Canada on his first day in office. Canada and the United States are each other’s biggest trading partners.”
Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: “The U.S. military sent 11 Yemeni prisoners at Guantánamo Bay to Oman to restart their lives, the Pentagon said on Monday, leaving just 15 men in the prison in a bold push at end of the Biden administration that has left the prison population smaller than at any time in its more than 20-year history. None of the released men had been charged with crimes during their two decades of detention. Now, all but six of the remaining prisoners have been charged with or convicted of war crimes.”
Ben Protess of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump has signaled that he plans to mount a full-scale legal offensive to stave off his criminal sentencing in New York, seeking a last-minute reprieve before becoming the first president who is a convicted felon. With the sentencing scheduled for Friday, just 10 days before the presidential inauguration, Mr. Trump’s lawyers have implored the judge overseeing his case to postpone the proceeding, according to a court filing unsealed on Monday.... If the judge does not pause the sentencing by 2 p.m. on Monday, the filing said, Mr. Trump will 'seek an emergency appellate review.'... Mr. Trump’s lawyers plan to file a civil action against Justice [Juan] Merchan and seek to freeze the sentencing....”
Mark Landler of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain on Monday fired back at Elon Musk after days of inflammatory social media posts by Mr. Musk, the billionaire owner of X, indirectly accusing him and others of 'spreading lies and misinformation' about victims of child sex abuse gangs.... Mr. Starmer also defended himself against accusations by Mr. Musk that he did not act quickly enough against gangs that abused and exploited young girls, when he was head of public prosecutions.... Mr. Musk has repeatedly asserted, without evidence, that Mr. Starmer had covered up the abuses.... The online accusations 'crossed a line,' Mr. Starmer said, adding, 'Once we lose the anchor that truth matters, in the robust debate that we must have, then we are on a very slippery slope.'” Related CNBC story linked below.
This is sickening: ~~~
~~~ Andrew Sorkin, et al., of the New York Times: “Jeff Bezos surprised many when he spoke of his hopes for ... Donald Trump’s return to power at the DealBook Summit last month. The duo’s reset took a new twist with Amazon’s announcement that it would release a documentary on Melania Trump shot by an outcast filmmaker, and more tumult at The Washington Post. But Bezos, like other business leaders, has been moving closer to the president-elect, and the decisions are inevitably being analyzed in that context. Amazon called it a 'behind the scenes' look at Trump — but she will have a big say. The documentary will be released this year on its Prime Video service and in theaters; filming began after the election. Melania is an executive producer, suggesting that she will be able to shape the narrative. The documentary was directed by Brett Ratner, who was accused of sexual misconduct.” ~~~
~~~ Oliver Darcy: "Layoffs are expected to rock The Washington Post this week, according to people familiar with the matter. The layoffs are slated to hit the ... newspaper's business division, I’m told. One person familiar with the matter said that the cuts will be deep, impacting many dozens of employees.... The beleaguered newspaper ... has suffered a talent exodus over the last several weeks. As I reported earlier, star reporter Josh Dawsey will exit The Post for a job at The Wall Street Journal. His departure comes on the heels of other top staffers fleeing, including Matea Gold, Ashley Parker, Michael Scherer, Charles Lane, Tyler Pager, and Amanda Katz. A spokesperson for The Post didn’t have an immediate comment. But The Post has been in poor financial shape in recent years, a fact that management has not hidden from employees. Those financial problems were exacerbated when [owner Jeff] Bezos blocked The Post’s planned endorsement of Kamala Harris ahead of the November election, a move that led to more than 250,000 readers canceling their subscriptions."
Colorado. Adeel Hassan of the New York Times: “A prosecutor in the Denver District Attorney’s Office, who was fired two years ago, has been ordered disbarred after framing a male colleague for sexual harassment, a Colorado judicial office ruled. The former prosecutor, Yujin Choi, faked receiving text messages, altered her cellphone records and, during the investigation, destroyed her laptop and phone, according to a 26-page ruling by Colorado Supreme Court’s Office of the Presiding Disciplinary Judge released on Dec. 31.”
Louisiana. Apporva Mandavilli & Emily Anthes of the New York Times: “A Louisiana patient who had been hospitalized with severe bird flu has died, the first such fatality in the United States, state health officials reported on Monday. The patient was older than 65 and had underlying medical conditions, the officials said. The individual became infected with the bird flu virus, H5N1, after exposure to a backyard flock and wild birds. There is no sign that the virus is spreading from person to person anywhere in the country, and Louisiana officials have not identified any other cases in the state. Pasteurized dairy products remain safe to consume.”
Minnesota. Ernesto Londoño and Shaila Dewan of the New York Times: “The Minneapolis City Council unanimously voted on Monday to overhaul its police department to address a pattern of systemic abuses, as part of an agreement with the Department of Justice. Lawyers from the Department of Justice and the city, where George Floyd was killed in 2020 by a police officer, have raced in recent weeks to finalize terms of the deal, known as a consent decree, before ... Donald J. Trump takes office. The previous Trump administration opposed the use of consent decrees, and the fate of nearly a dozen other federal investigations into American police departments is uncertain.”
Marie: I got a very late start this morning, so if you zoomed in early and you're back, you might want to scan today's links again.
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A Day That Lives in Infamy
⭐President Joe Biden, in a Washington Post op-ed: “On this Jan. 6..., the vice president of the United States, faithful to her duty under our Constitution, will preside over the certification of her opponent’s victory in the November election. It is a ceremony that for more than two centuries has made America a beacon to the world.... For much of our history, this proceeding was treated as pro forma, a routine act. But after what we all witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021, we know we can never again take it for granted.... An unrelenting effort has been underway to rewrite — even erase — the history of that day.... As president-elect that day, I spoke to the country and called for peace, and for the certification to resume.
“Four years later, leaving office, I am determined to do everything I can to respect the peaceful transfer of power and restore the traditions we have long respected in America. The election will be certified peacefully. I have invited the incoming president to the White House on the morning of Jan. 20, and I will be present for his inauguration that afternoon.... We should commit to remembering Jan. 6, 2021, every year. To remember it as a day when our democracy was put to the test and prevailed. To remember that democracy — even in America — is never guaranteed.”
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: “President Joe Biden, who has attempted to oversee a smooth transition by withholding criticism of ... Donald Trump, has grown more animated about their differences ahead of the anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. 'I think it should not be rewritten. I don’t think it should be forgotten,' he told reporters at the White House on Sunday afternoon. He expanded upon the remarks at an evening event and in a new opinion piece published Sunday night by The Washington Post. '... if you notice, I’ve reached out to make sure the smooth transition, we’ve got to get back to basic, normal transfer of power. I don’t think we should pretend it didn’t happen,' he said.... Speaking about Trump specifically, Biden added: '“I think what he did was a genuine threat to democracy, and I’m hopeful that we’re beyond it.'”
Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Donald Trump is about to get the Jan. 6 that he denied Joe Biden.... If all goes as expected, by late Monday afternoon, Trump’s victory will be certified in a ceremony overseen by his vanquished rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, who will preside over the proceedings in her capacity as the president of the Senate. Harris has been clear she will administer a straightforward transfer of power. In doing so, she’ll follow in the footsteps of all vice presidents before her — including Mike Pence, who resisted Trump’s pressure to refuse to count electors from states Trump lost in 2020. House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries drew Republican applause when he acknowledged Trump’s win Friday during a speech on the House floor. 'It’s OK,' Jeffries said in a moment of gallows humor directed at his GOP colleagues. 'There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle.'” ~~~
~~~ Annie Karni of the New York Times: “Still, there are reminders everywhere of the violence that shocked the world on this day four years ago. The Capitol is on heavy lockdown, with tall black metal fencing around the building. Heightened federal, state and local security resources are on hand as lawmakers prepare to convene, starting at 1 p.m., for the constitutionally mandated task of counting and certifying the Electoral College votes. For the first time, the day has been designated by the Homeland Security Department as a 'national special security event.'”
The Washington Post is live-updating developments in the certification of the Electoral College vote.
Matthew Yglesias: "The unapologetic nature of Trump's political renaissance is an ongoing menace.... What disturbs me is the extent to which the entire conservative movement has retconned not just the events of four years ago, but their own reactions to those events, such that these days, to be disturbed by them is considered some form of lib hysteria.... Today, I am extremely alarmed, because Trump is back in power and no longer faces meaningful intra-party criticism for his actions four years ago.... Bad actors ... probe boundaries to see what they can get away with. Trump got in hot water after 1/6, but ultimately he got away with it. He won the nomination, and he won the general election. He’s stated his intention to pardon the perpetrators, and by all accounts, he’s going to do it. If he gets away with that with minimal intra-party pushback or criticism, he’ll try more stuff. And we’ll see what happens." An unusually interesting read.
Kyle Cheney of Politico: “Federal prosecutors are weighing charging as many as 200 more people for their involvement in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol — including 60 suspected of assaulting or impeding police officers during the riot that nearly derailed the transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. The new figures, released by the Justice Department Monday, reveal for the first time how many cases prosecutors believe are pending as Trump prepares to take office and threatens to unravel the massive four-year probe. About 1,583 people have faced federal charges for their role in the attack — including more than 600 facing felony charges for assaulting or resisting police during the chaos.... It’s a signal flare to Trump, who has indicated he expects to pardon many people involved in the attack but has repeatedly mischaracterized the status of the cases.”
Washington Post Editors: “Justice Department Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz concluded last month that no undercover FBI employees were at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, nor at the rally on the Ellipse preceding the riot. He also revealed that the bureau had 26 informants in D.C. that day, but only three of them had been tasked by FBI field offices to be in the city. While they entered restricted areas at the Capitol, none were [was!] authorized to do so or to encourage others to break the law. These findings should be so unsurprising as to be unworthy of much attention. They are sadly relevant because, four years after the insurrection, key figures in the orbit of ... Donald Trump have tried to misrepresent them to suggest that they validate the preposterous claim that the FBI staged the Capitol attack.” Among those “key figures”: JayDee Vance, Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy. “Hovering over all of this is Mr. Trump’s promise to quickly pardon people convicted of Jan. 6 crimes. This would be even less justifiable after the IG report’s than it was before.” ~~~
~~~ Thomas Joscelyn & Norm Eisen in the Bulwark: "Kash Patel..., Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as FBI director..., has repeatedly insinuated or argued that the FBI used its confidential human sources or employees to instigate the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol and entrap Trump’s supporters.... The man who could lead Trump’s FBI has failed to substantiate these wild accusations, which are contradicted by other evidence and by common sense.... Patel pushing conspiracy theories about what happened on January 6th should disqualify him from leading the FBI...." The authors go into details about Patel's elaborate conspiracy theories. MB: These are not offhand tweets like those by JayDee, Elon & Vivek. Patel had to do quite a bit of fake research to come up with these wackadoodle theories. It's horrifying to recall that Patel's most significant "qualification" for becoming FBI director is his time as a federal prosecutor. It is no wonder that so many Americans have so little respect for our system of jurisprudence.
Jennifer Jacobs, et al., of CBS News: "Senate Majority Leader John Thune has privately told ... Donald Trump that he believes Pete Hegseth will have the votes to be confirmed as Secretary of Defense, according to three sources." And this is one of the many bits that have caused Matt Yglesias to be "extremely worried": "... he’s got an unqualified drunk set to run the Pentagon...."
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump’s aides are exploring tariff plans that would be applied to every country but only cover critical imports, three people familiar with the matter said — a key shift from his plans during the 2024 presidential campaign. If implemented, the emerging plans would pare back the most sweeping elements of Trump’s campaign plans but still would be likely to upend global trade and carry major consequences for the U.S. economy and consumers.... As a candidate, Trump called for 'universal' tariffs of as high as 10 or 20 percent on everything imported into the United States.... [Now,] rather than apply tariffs to all imports, the current discussions center on imposing them only on certain sectors deemed critical to national or economic security....”
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: “In the matter of Donald J. Trump, the criminal justice system failed egregiously to hold the once and future president accountable.... Still, to read [New York State Supreme Court Justice Juan] Merchan’s decision last week upholding Trump’s felony conviction is to see welcome glimmers of accountability for Trump’s underlying conduct and his behavior as the prosecution proceeded. 'It was the premediated and continuous deception by the leader of the free world that is the gravamen of this offense' he wrote. 'Defendant has gone to great lengths to broadcast on social media and other forums his lack of respect for judges, juries, grand juries and the justice system as a whole. In the case at bar, despite repeated admonitions, this Court was left with no choice but to find the Defendant guilty of 10 counts of Contempt.'” Merchan also finds considerable fault with Trump's lawyers, lawyers whom Trump plans to place in top positions at the Justice Department. ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: “Despite previewing a sentence without real punishment, [Justice Juan] Merchan, to his credit, issued a blistering opinion reaffirming the foundation of our legal system.... If Americans remain aggrieved over the lack of real punishment for Trump’s New York crimes, however, our ire should not be directed solely at Merchan. The failure to enact a punishment to fit the crime is largely the fault of the voters. They knew he was a felon. They still voted him into office. They determined he would essentially never face accountability. They decided tax cuts or mass deportation or 'owning the libs' or something was more important than keeping a convict who abused his oath out of office. They, not Merchan, are the ones who flaunted their disdain for the rule of law and decided that character no longer should be a qualification for president.... It turns out that the rule of law is no match for voters determined to elect a convict, serial liar and insurrectionist leader to the presidency.”
Musk Suggests U.S. Declare War against U.K. Chloe Taylor of CNBC: “Elon Musk has questioned whether the United States should 'liberate the people of Britain from their tyrannical government' after hitting out at top U.K. lawmakers.... Musk accused the U.K. Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips of being a 'rape genocide apologist' on Friday, before publishing a series of posts calling for Prime Minister Keir Starmer to be ousted and face jail time over how child grooming gangs and other criminals who targeted children have been prosecuted. His criticisms of the U.K. government over the weekend culminated in a poll, where he posed the concept of 'liberating the people of Britain' to the platform’s users.” MB: Hey, we did it once, & by 1781, that worked out okay. So why not now?
⭐“The Tech Oligarchs Have Found Their Man." Paul Waldman on Substack: “We’ve heard this so often about the ultra-rich when they enter politics as candidates: It is their very commitment to devoting their lives to amassing ever more money that shows they can’t be bought. This is something many Trump supporters say about him, all the evidence of his relentless grasping for every last dime notwithstanding. And now, apparently, we’re even saying it about the oligarchs who use use their money to bend government to their will. This is not just about Elon Musk.... We’re also witnessing a procession of his tech industry plutocrat peers lining up to offer tributes to Donald Trump in the form of million-dollar checks — Bezos, Zuckerberg, Cook, and more surely to come....
“That’s not to say Musk does not stand apart.... He changed his avatar on X to a cartoon of Pepe the Frog, a meme associated with various kinds of far-right extremists, including neo-Nazis. He also changed the name on his account to 'Kekius Maximus,' referencing a related alt-right meme[.]... Apart from his copious conflicts of interest, he is a toxic man-baby, embodying everything repellent about contemporary internet culture — desperate for attention, marinating in hate, credulous toward every idiotic lie that passes his eyeballs — to the point where the world’s richest man is now also the world’s most influential spreader of misinformation.” Do read on. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.
David Lynch of the Washington Post: “Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel sued President Joe Biden on Monday over his decision to bar them from joining forces, alleging that he had violated their constitutional rights to due process in a corrupt bid to obtain political support for his reelection campaign. In a second legal filing, the companies sued steelmaker Cleveland-Cliffs; Lourenco Goncalves, its chief executive; and David McCall, the president of the United Steelworkers union, for interfering with Nippon Steel’s plans to buy the American company. That lawsuit, filed in the Western District of Pennsylvania, says Goncalves and McCall engaged in antitrust and racketeering violations while trying to wreck the transaction so that Cleveland Cliffs could obtain a chokehold on the domestic steel market.”
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Now that he is no longer working for the New York Times, Paul Krugman feels free to directly criticize its reports -- as he does here. (Link fixed; thanks, Elizabeth.)
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Louisiana. Katie Selig of the New York Times: “President Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday to meet with local and state officials, the families of victims and others affected by the deadly Jan. 1 terror attack in the city, according to the White House. Mr. Biden’s visit will be one of his final acts as the nation’s “consoler in chief.” He will be accompanied by the first lady, Jill Biden, the White House announcement said.... Monday is also Twelfth Night, the start of Carnival season in New Orleans.” MB: Yes, and a good day for President Biden to be as far away as reasonable from the Capitol on the anniversary of the day his vice president will certify the election of the terrorist who tried to take the presidency from him by force.
~~~ Rick Rojas of the New York Times: “Months before the man behind the New Orleans terror attack plowed a truck into a New Year’s Day crowd, he rode through the area on a bicycle, recording videos of his target using eyeglasses with a built-in camera, investigators said on Sunday. He was back again a few weeks later, they said, probably to continue his plotting. Those details emerged as investigators revealed more about the driver and the extensive planning behind the attack, which killed 14 people, injured many others and left New Orleans starting 2025 grappling with a cascade of anguish and alarm.... Investigators found that the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had made trips to Egypt and Canada in 2023. But they said on Sunday that they had yet to determine what role, if any, those travels might have played in his evolving beliefs or his planning for the New Orleans attack.Investigators found that the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, had made trips to Egypt and Canada in 2023. But they said on Sunday that they had yet to determine what role, if any, those travels might have played in his evolving beliefs or his planning for the New Orleans attack.”
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⭐ Canada. Oliver Holmes of the Guardian: “Justin Trudeau could announce his resignation as early as Monday, two leading Canadian newspapers have reported, after a snowballing leadership crisis that has caused the prime minister to lose support within his party. The Globe and Mail newspaper cited three sources as saying that Trudeau, 53, would quit as head of the ruling Liberal party after nearly a decade in office. It said one of the sources had recently spoken to the prime minister and believed he intended to step down before an emergency meeting of party members on Wednesday, 'so it doesn’t look like he was forced out by his own MPs'. The Toronto Star said it had also confirmed that Trudeau was 'expected to signal his intentions to step aside as early as Monday', citing what it said was a senior source.”
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Reader Comments (8)
Waldman nails it again:
https://paulwaldman.substack.com/p/the-tech-oligarchs-have-found-their?utm_source=post-email-
The embedded "enshittification" link in the Waldman piece is also very much worth a read.
Doctorow knows all.
I think January 6th should be a national holiday: Insurrection Day.
All the MAGAs get the day off to riot and beat up each other.
The rest of us get the day off to watch them on TV.
Employment will go up: emergency room employees, ambulance
drivers, TV cameramen, (and women), reporters, bartenders and on
and on.
I hope the Prime Minister sues Musk for defamation for his lies. The laws for that in England seem much harsher than here. And I hope it is like the second E Jean Carroll trial where they made it an amount that would actually cause him a moment's pause before doing it again.
Interesting: I flew from Boston to Richmond VA thus morning. There were sniffer dogs, a second TSA screening at the boarding gate, and a scruffy Columbo-type agent asking if people were [some name I don’t remember]. Traveling towards DC on January 6 was an interesting affair.
Merchan has already delayed the sentencing numerous times. I hope he finally just does his job and finalizes the verdict. Ten contempt of court orders and a gag order to protect the safety of court employees and family. And no actual punishment. I know that with the judge pushing sentencing until after the election this is as much as he can do now. Though it is still frustrating and outrageous.
And we just certified an insurrectionist to being our next president*. Again the Supremes came through to throw out the constitution and put this vile filth on our ballots. Just like McConnell and the Republicans did when they decided that mob justice was okay with them even if they might find themselves at the end of a noose.
*My Constitution still says insurrectionists are not eligible to run for public office.
Did Ruth Marcus mean premeditated? It reads premediated...
I can barely contain my lunch when rehearing the videos from Jan 6, 2021. The speeches made by influential GQP elected officials are amazing. Amazing lies, as it turns out. No one is going to pay for any of that, in fact, they now think it is a festival of sorts. And of course, that voice, whining about everything, is vomit-inducing. I like the MSNBC evening hosts, but I am simply tired of seeing the well-known speeches by people who should know better that are now loyal subjects of the Dictator of DC. Time to turn off the lies and watch something else.
@Jeanne: You're right. I didn't even notice. I went back to look at the original in case I had accidentally deleted a letter (as sometimes happens), but the Post column still says "premediated," which I don't think is a word. However, when you think about it, the Supremes did in fact "premediate" their decision, as they always do in conference. Still, I think she meant to write "premeditated," which is, as we know, a word.