July 22, 2022

Marie: My computer is acting up. If I don't post anything, I'm fine. It's my computer that's sick.

Afternoon Update:

That Didn't Take Long. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Stephen K. Bannon, the right-wing podcaster and longtime confidante of ... Donald Trump, was convicted Friday of contempt of Congress for his refusal to provide documents or testimony to a House committee probing the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. The trial, which lasted a week and only featured two witnesses, tested a rarely-used criminal statute meant to ensure that people comply with congressional subpoenas. Earlier this month as he prepared for trial, Bannon had vowed to go 'medieval' on his enemies. But most of his legal arguments were rejected by the trial judge, and Bannon ended up calling no witnesses.... The jury deliberated for just two and a half hours before announcing its verdict.... U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols scheduled sentencing for Oct. 21. Each of the two misdemeanor charges is punishable by at least 30 days and up to one year in jail."

I meant to post this earlier, for those of you who prefer to see the humor in the news:

If you missed the January 6 committee, you can see it here, on the committee's Website.

Annie Palmer of CNBC: "Amazon is acquiring One Medical for $18 a share, an all-cash deal that values the primary health-care provider at roughly $3.9 billion, the companies said Thursday.... One Medical, which went public in 2020, operates a network of boutique primary-care practices, and also offers a range of telemedicine services."

The New York Times' live updates for Covid-19 developments Friday are here. They include news about President Biden's progress.

Ayse Wieting & Suzan Fraser of the AP: "Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements Friday with Turkey and the United Nations clearing the way for exporting millions of tons of desperately needed Ukrainian grain -- as well as Russian grain and fertilizer -- ending a wartime standoff that had threatened food security around the globe. The deal will enable Ukraine -- one of the world's key breadbaskets -- to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to Russia's invasion. U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called it 'a beacon of hope' for millions of hungry people who have faced huge increases in food costs."

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** Amy Gardner & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Eleven minutes after he returned to the White House from his speech on the Ellipse urging supporters to march on the U.S. Capitol..., Donald Trump learned that the Jan. 6, 2021, protest had turned violent, according to new details presented Thursday by the House committee investigating the attack that day. But instead of harnessing the power of the Oval Office by ordering military or police intervention or exhorting the rioters to go home, Trump continued to fan the flames of discord -- and remained focused on trying to overturn the 2020 election, even as his aides implored him to stop the violence. He demanded a list of senators' phone numbers to cajole them not to certify the forthcoming electoral college count. He resisted aides' entreaties that he make a public statement condemning the insurrection. And at 2:24 p.m., the same moment members of his national security staff were learning how close rioters had come to Vice President Mike Pence, Trump tweeted that his second-in-command was a 'coward.'"

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "For 13 minutes on Jan. 6, 2021, as smoke clouded the air and Vice President Mike Pence hid from rioters in his office adjacent to the Senate chamber, his Secret Service detail scrambled -- in increasingly frantic radio messages -- to clear a path for Pence to flee the Capitol. On Thursday, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack revealed harrowing video and audio that showed just how perilously close Pence and his protective detail came to danger, detailing how the protesters whom ... Donald Trump had riled up turned their anger on the man he blamed for failing to overturn the results of the 2020 election.... A White House security official who was monitoring the [radio] traffic told the committee that agents were 'starting to fear for their own lives.... There were calls to say goodbye to family members, so on and so forth,' the security official said in audiotaped testimony. 'For whatever the reason was on the ground, the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.'... The witness said he could tell the danger that Pence and Secret Service agents were in because some agents were yelling and screaming, and some sent 'very personal' messages to have colleagues tell their families goodbye for them."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times has five takeaways from the hearing. "The committee documented how, over 187 minutes, Mr. Trump remained in a small dining room off the Oval Office, watching the violence on television and rebuffing pleas by aides, congressional Republicans and family members to call off the mob even as he continued to call senators in the hopes of convincing them to stop the certification of his Electoral College defeat.... The president, after learning of the Capitol breach, resisted putting out a tweet saying 'Stay peaceful.' 'He told Mark Meadows that the rioters were doing what they should be doing and the rioters understood they were doing what President Trump wanted them to do," [Rep. Adam] Kinzinger said.... Mr. Trump never reached out to the heads of any law enforcement or national security department or agency in the government to seek help in responding to quell the violence.... A day after the assault, Mr. Trump taped an address, but he still could not bring himself to say that the election was over." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Over the past several days listening to the teevee, I have heard more than one legal expert explain that while most Americans do not have a legal duty to try to stop a crime in progress we may witness, the POTUS does. The presidential oath of office, which is prescribed in the Constitution, includes the clause, "... and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The presidential (and vice-presidential) oath is unique in that regard.

As bone-chilling as synched video & audio of the efforts to save Mike Pence & his party was, there was one moment during the hearing that raised a laugh: ~~~

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "The House January 6 committee on Thursday played Capitol security footage which showed the Missouri Republican senator Josh Hawley, who famously raised a fist to protesters outside, running for his safety once those protesters breached the building.... [During the hearing, Rep. Elaine Luria (D-Va.) flashed a photo of Hawley raising his fist in support of the soon-to-be-rioters and said,] 'As you can see in this photo, he raised his fist in solidarity with protesters already amassing at the security gates.'... 'Later that day, Senator Hawley fled after those protesters he helped to rile up stormed the Capitol. See for yourself.' The committee then played video of Hawley trotting across a corridor and hurrying down a staircase next to an escalator.... In the room, the clips were greeted with laughter.... Luria said: ''We spoke with a Capitol police officer who was out there at the time. She told us that Senator Josh Hawley's gesture riled up the crowd and it bothered her greatly because he was doing it in a safe space, protected by the officers and the barriers.' The senator has also used the [raised-fist] image for fundraising purposes.... Online...., one user scored the footage of Hawley running to a soundtracks including Stayin' Alive by the BeeGees, Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen and the Benny Hill theme.... The Lincoln Project, a group of anti-Trump conservatives, said: 'Hawley's legacy will forever be fleeing from the same mob he helped incite.'" Includes Twitter clips.

Yahoo! News: During the hearing Thursday, two witnesses corroborated Cassidy Hutchinson's earlier testimony regarding a heated exchange in an SUV between Donald Trump & Secret Service personnel on January 6 after the Secret Service people told Trump they would not take him to the Capitol.

New York Times reporters liveblogged news about/from the House January 6 select committee hearing Thursday night.

Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "What was the most shocking and disgraceful moment in the White House that day? The committee highlighted the tweet Trump posted at 2:24 p.m., when he knew the mob had already breached the Capitol's defenses. Instead of trying to calm his followers, he incited them -- and put a target on his own vice president's back. 'Mike Pence didn't have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify,' Trump tweeted."

Mark Mazzetti & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As the House committee investigating Jan. 6 uses its prime-time hearing on Thursday to document ... Donald J. Trump's lack of forceful response to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, it will again raise one of the enduring mysteries of that day: Why did it take so long to deploy the National Guard? The hearing is unlikely to answer that question, but it could shed light on what Mr. Trump and his top aides did or did not do to send troops to assist police officers who were overrun by an angry mob determined to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The mobilization and deployment of National Guard troops from an armory just two miles away from the Capitol was hung up by confusion, communications breakdowns and concern over the wisdom of dispatching armed soldiers to quell the riot. It took more than four hours from the time the Capitol Police chief made the call for backup to when the D.C. National Guard troops arrived, a gap that remains the subject of dueling narratives and finger-pointing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Not only have we learned more about what Trump was doing during the insurrection -- trying to get the insurrectionists to kill the Vice President and chatting with Rudy & members of Congress -- but now we also know what Mrs. Trump was doing! ~~~

~~~ Melanie: I Was Taking Pictures of a Rug! Kate Bennett of CNN: "Former first lady Melania Trump said in a new interview with Fox that she was 'unaware' of the ongoing riot on January 6, 2021, because she was too busy photographing a rug in the White House. 'On January 6, 2021, I was fulfilling one of my duties as First Lady of the United States of America, and accordingly, I was unaware of what was simultaneously transpiring at the US Capitol Building,' she said.... Trump's response comes several weeks after Stephanie Grisham, her former chief of staff, revealed a text message exchange in which the former first lady responded to a tweet Grisham had drafted calling for the violence on Capitol Hill to stop as it was happening. The then-first lady responded with the word, 'no,' declining to send a statement condemning the insurrection.... [As for her 'duty'] to archive the contents of the White House..., the White House curator and the White House Historical Association are predominantly responsible for keeping a record of the contents of the official White House collection.... Trump waited until five days after the riot to tweet a condemnation of the violence." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Griffith called Melanie's excuse "bullshit." Melanie claimed during the Fox interview that, had she known about the violence, she would have condemned it. Griffith could be more charitable & acknowledge that the White House a lot of rugs, and it could take days to rearrange the furniture & such to take all those pictures.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. During Hearing, Fox "News" Outraged by President Trump Biden. Andrew Lawrence of the Guardian: "On Thursday night as the Congressional hearings into the January 6 Capitol riot drew to a close, Tucker Carlson directed his outrage at a president he felt had lied and was not being held accountable for falsehoods that shook popular faith in the American democratic system. But he wasn't talking about Donald Trump inciting rioters to storm the Capitol. He was talking about Joe Biden getting Covid. Whilemillions of people last night tuned into America's other TV news channels and heard testimony about what Trump did, or rather did not do, during the hours when the rioters stormed the Capitol, Fox News viewers saw the network's primetime stars Carlson and Sean Hannity chide the 'twice jabbed, double-boosted' president for contracting the virus they say he alleged couldn't be caught with a vaccine."

Missing Texts Likely to Be Subject of Criminal Investigation. Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security directed the Secret Service to halt its internal search for purged texts sent by agents around the time of Jan. 6 so that it does not 'interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation,' according to a letter reviewed by The New York Times.... The mention of a potential criminal investigation into the deleted texts of Secret Service personnel sought by Congress and the inspector general suggested the growing seriousness of the scrutiny into the agency's handling of records from around the time of the attack on the Capitol. The inspector general's office cannot alone bring criminal charges but is required to refer the case to the Justice Department if it discovers criminality through an investigation.... The officials [whose text messages are missing] identified by the inspector general included 'mostly people operationally involved with Jan. 6,' including [James] Murray, the agency's director, and members of ... Donald J. Trump's protection detail, such as Robert Engel, Mr. Trump's lead agent, according to an administration official familiar with the investigation. Anthony M. Ornato, a deputy White House chief of staff under Mr. Trump who had previously been in charge of Mr. Trump's protective detail, was not one of the 24 officials.... House committee officials said that some members of the Secret Service have hired private lawyers. A person familiar with the statement said that Mr. Ornato was one of those who did." CNN's report which broke the news of the potential criminal inquiry, is here.

Ryan Reilly & Daniel Barnes of NBC News: "Closing arguments in Steve Bannon's contempt of Congress trial are set for Friday after the former Donald Trump adviser declined to put up a defense argument or present evidence to the jury. Federal prosecutors rested their case against Bannon on Wednesday, and Bannon's team indicated Thursday that they would not call any witnesses or present a defense case. Much of the day Wednesday was spent on discussions away from the jury, including talk about a defense motion for acquittal and discussion of the final instructions that will be delivered to the jury before they begin deliberations." MB: What Bannon had warned would be "the misdemeanor from hell" in which he would use the trial to pulverize his perceived enemies turned out to be a big nothing. Nothing at all.

Ryan Reilly of NBC: News: "A Tennessee man and self-described 'loudmouth,' who filmed himself screaming 'WE IN THIS B----' as he stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had a difficult time explaining his actions this week to a jury. Matthew Bledsoe, of Memphis, was convicted Thursday on a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding as well as four misdemeanors, including entering or remaining in a restricted building and disorderly and disruptive conduct. Bledsoe, the seventh Jan. 6 defendant to face a jury trial, took the stand as a witness on Wednesday.... [Despite a good deal of evidence to the contrary, Bledsoe claimed on the stand] that he was unaware that Congress was certifying Joe Biden's 2020 election win when he stormed the Capitol."

Sean Keenan & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A Georgia judge on Thursday criticized the Atlanta prosecutor leading an investigation into election interference by Donald J. Trump and his allies, calling her decision to host a fund-raiser for a political rival of one of the targets of her inquiry a 'what-are-you-thinking moment.' But the judge, Robert C. I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, did not rule on a motion to disqualify the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, and he also denied a motion to quash subpoenas sent to 11 bogus electors who filed paperwork falsely claiming that Mr. Trump won the 2020 election.... 'The optics are horrific,' [the judge] said, adding that it created at least an appearance problem."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday passed legislation to codify access to contraception nationwide, moving over almost unanimous Republican opposition to protect a right that is regarded as newly under threat after the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. The measure is almost certain to fail in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans are also likely to be opposed.... The measure passed 228 to 195, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in support. It would protect the right to purchase and use contraception without government restriction. The legislation drew only slightly more Republican support than two bills that the House passed last week, which aimed to ensure access to abortion in the post-Roe era; almost all Republicans were united in opposition." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Are Republicans now asserting that life begins with a twinkle of a man's eye? Why the hell would they be opposed to contraception? (Yeah, I scanned the whole article, and the excuses Republicans gave were ridiculous.)

Confederate Justices Do Whatever They Want. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court handed Texas and Louisiana a temporary victory on Thursday, allowing a federal judge to block immigration enforcement guidelines issued by the Biden administration that he said allowed the release of undocumented immigrants with criminal records. In a brief order, the court gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications, but it said it would take up an appeal of the case and hear arguments this year. Four justices dissented: Justice Amy Coney Barrett and the three liberal members. That included Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who recorded her first vote since she was sworn in last month." A Texas Tribune report is here. MB: The courts are supposed to show deference to the other branches except when it appears the executive or Congress is violating the Constitution or the law. (In fairness, the district judge did rule that the Biden plan violates federal law.) That concept is so over.

Nick Ehli & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Liberal Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said Thursday that it would be a 'dangerous thing' for the court and for democracy if the justices stray too far from public sentiment and lose the confidence of Americans. Kagan, who dissented when the court last month overturned Roe v. Wade's guarantee of a constitutional right to abortion, said the court's legitimacy is threatened when long-standing precedent is discarded and the court's actions are seen as motivated by personnel changes among the justices."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House announced in a statement.... 'This morning, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms. He has begun taking Paxlovid. Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement." A Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ President Biden reassures Americans that he is doing all right despite having Covid:

     ~~~ Dr. Jill Biden told the press Thursday morning that she had tested negative for the virus. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. Included are updates on the President's health. (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Minnesota. Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "A former Minneapolis police officer who held George Floyd';s legs as he begged for breath beneath Derek Chauvin's knee was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Thursday for violating the Black man's federal civil rights. Thomas K. Lane was the first of three former officers at the scene with Chauvin to be sentenced for his role in Floyd's fatal May 2020 arrest."

Mississippi. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "The Mississippi Board of Education voted [Thursday] to remove a policy that barred individuals with enhanced concealed carry permits from carrying guns in the state's elementary and secondary public schools, revising a 1990 policy that previously prohibited anyone other than 'duly authorized law enforcement officials' from doing so. The board made the change as part of an ongoing review of its policies to bring them into compliance with state law.... Though the prohibitions are gone, a temporary policy still requires 'each local school district (to) have a policy concerning weapons on school premises.' Districts will be able to make policies allowing teachers and administrators with permits to carry guns on campus."

Mississippi. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "A police chief in Mississippi was fired Wednesday after a leaked recording showed that the official had bragged about killing 13 people in the line of duty and used the n-word repeatedly, including to describe one Black person the White man says he shot at least 119 times. The racist, homophobic and expletive-laden remarks that Sam Dobbins, the chief in the small town of Lexington, made during an April conversation with an officer caused an uproar this week in the Mississippi Delta community. The roughly 16-minute conversation, which was first reported by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting, was recorded by Robert Lee Hooker, a Black man who resigned as an officer from the Lexington Police Department last week due to what he described as a toxic work environment."

New York. Nicholas Fandos & Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Representative Lee Zeldin, the Republican candidate for governor of New York, was attacked on Thursday at a campaign event outside Rochester by a man with a pointed weapon who dragged him to the ground before being subdued by several other men, according to officials and videos of the attack. Mr. Zeldin was not injured, a campaign representative said. The videos show Mr. Zeldin, standing on the bed of a truck, addressing supporters gathered outside a V.F.W. hall in Fairport, N.Y., when a man approaches him slowly from the right, grabs him by the arm and brandishes a weapon. Mr. Zeldin responds by grabbing the man's wrist and is then joined by several men in containing the attacker.... Mr. Zeldin said the man had been taken into custody, but local law enforcement agencies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Information about the man's identity and potential motivation was not immediately forthcoming Thursday night." A CNBC report is here.

Texas. Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "A federal grand jury indicted two men on Wednesday in connection with a human smuggling operation that left 50 adults and three children dead in and around an abandoned tractor-trailer on the outskirts of San Antonio last month, officials said.... Homero Zamorano Jr., 46, of Pasadena, Texas, and Christian Martinez, 28, of Palestine, Texas, were indicted on counts of conspiracy to transport and transportation of migrants illegally resulting in death, and o conspiracy to transport and transportation of migrants illegally resulting in serious injury, said the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Texas, in San Antonio.... Attorney General Merrick Garland will decide whether to pursue the death penalty before the trial."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "Turkey announced that a deal involving Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations will be signed Friday to resume Ukraine's stalled grain exports. An estimated 22 million tons of grain are waiting to be shipped, unable to be moved since Russia's invasion in February. However, neither Ukraine nor Russia has confirmed that a deal is ready to be signed.... Russia's military campaign in Ukraine is likely to 'run out of steam' in the coming weeks, amid materiel and personnel shortages, the chief of Britain's intelligence service said Thursday."

The Plot Lengthens

Largely because we learned bit-by-bit the elements of Donald Trump's plot to overturn the 2020 election, and also because of the ragtag band of wacky, unscrupulous characters who helped him carry out his plot, many of us thought Trump's attempts to retain power were the last-minute, haphazard endeavors of a desperate lunatic who could not "face" the loss he had suffered. But as the House's January 6 select committee hearings have brought into focus, Trump had developed a multi-faceted approach to overturning the election. So we can forget Rudy Giuliani's press conference in the Four Seasons Total Landscaping parking lot and all the other laughably inept post-election shenanigans. As it turns out, Donald Trump had planned at least some of his nefarious scheme for six months.

As early as May 2020, Trump kicked in one part of his plot to overturn the election if he lost in November. He began repeatedly badmouthing mail-in ballots. This was much to the consternation of Republican operatives who knew that many older Republicans voted by mail, that voting by mail was generally fair and safe, and that Trump's opposition to vote-by-mail would depress Republican vote totals. Some Republicans attempted to explain this to Trump and urged him to embrace vote-by-mail. But he remained adamantly opposed to mail-in ballots and declared them an important element in an election-year "fraud" and "hoax." No one understood why. At first he was claiming that "foreign countries" were flooding the system with counterfeit ballots, which would result in a "rigged" (or "RIGGED") election. By early September, Trump was repeatedly claiming that Democrats were mailing out 80 million unsolicited ballots.

Recently, we learned from an audio recording which Dan Friedman of Mother Jones obtained that on October 31, 2020 -- a few days before the election -- Steve Bannon told a group that Trump would declare victory late on voting-day night, whether or not the AP & television networks had called the election. Bannon explained that Trump knew that early counts in close, key states would show Trump ahead of Joe Biden -- precisely because masses of Democrats had voted by mail, and that their ballots would take days to tally. Friedman notes that other reporting backs up Bannon's claim about Trump's strategy. ~~~

Trump did just what Bannon had predicted. In the wee hours of the morning following the election, he stepped to a White House podium and announced he had won. He carried his declaration a step further: he called for all vote-counting to stop. "We don't want them to find any ballots at 4 o'clock in the morning," Trump said. On Thursday of that week, he tweeted, "STOP THE COUNT!" The AP & networks would call the national race for Biden two days later, on Saturday.

So now we understand Trump's opposition to mail-in-ballots. It had nothing to do with voting integrity, of course. It was part of his plot to "win" even if he lost. And he set it in motion way back in the spring of 2020.  

July 21, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Biden tested positive for the coronavirus on Thursday and is experiencing mild symptoms, the White House announced in a statement.... 'This morning, President Biden tested positive for COVID-19. He is fully vaccinated and twice boosted and experiencing very mild symptoms. He has begun taking Paxlovid. Consistent with CDC guidelines, he will isolate at the White House and will continue to carry out all of his duties fully during that time,' White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement." A Washington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Dr. Jill Biden told the press Thursday morning that she had tested negative for the virus. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here. Included are updates on the President's health.

Mark Mazzetti & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "As the House committee investigating Jan. 6 uses its prime-time hearing on Thursday to document ... Donald J. Trump's lack of forceful response to the attack on the Capitol by his supporters, it will again raise one of the enduring mysteries of that day: Why did it take so long to deploy the National Guard? The hearing is unlikely to answer that question, but it could shed light on what Mr. Trump and his top aides did or did not do to send troops to assist police officers who were overrun by an angry mob determined to halt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. The mobilization and deployment of National Guard troops from an armory just two miles away from the Capitol was hung up by confusion, communications breakdowns and concern over the wisdom of dispatching armed soldiers to quell the riot. It took more than four hours from the time the Capitol Police chief made the call for backup to when the D.C. National Guard troops arrived, a gap that remains the subject of dueling narratives and finger-pointing."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday passed legislation to codify access to contraception nationwide, moving over almost unanimous Republican opposition to protect a right that is regarded as newly under threat after the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade. The measure is almost certain to fail in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans are also likely to be opposed.... The measure passed 228 to 195, with eight Republicans joining Democrats in support. It would protect the right to purchase and use contraception without government restriction. The legislation drew only slightly more Republican support than two bills that the House passed last week, which aimed to ensure access to abortion in the post-Roe era; almost all Republicans were united in opposition." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Are Republicans now asserting that life begins with a twinkle of a man's eye? Why the hell would they be opposed to contraception? (Yeah, I scanned the whole article, and the excuses Republicans gave were ridiculous.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Tal Axelrod & Luke Barr of ABC News: "During a press conference [Wednesday], a visibly animated [Merrick] Garland twice said that 'no person' was above the law when pressed specifically about [Donald] Trump.... 'We have to hold accountable every person who is criminally responsible for trying to overturn a legitimate election, and we must do it in a way filled with integrity and professionalism, Garland [said]." MB: This is a pretty subpar article, but it's all I could find. The video that accompanies the article is a little more helpful.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "A bipartisan group of senators proposed new legislation on Wednesday to modernize the 135-year-old Electoral Count Act, working to overhaul a law that ... Donald J. Trump tried to abuse on Jan. 6, 2021, to interfere with Congress's certification of his election defeat. The legislation aims to guarantee a peaceful transition from one president to the next, after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol exposed how the current law could be manipulated to disrupt the process. One measure would make it more difficult for lawmakers to challenge a state's electoral votes when Congress meets to count them. It would also clarify that the vice president has no discretion over the results, and it would set out the steps to begin a presidential transition. A second bill would increase penalties for threats and intimidation of election officials, seek to improve the Postal Service's handling of mail-in ballots and renew for five years an independent federal agency that helps states administer and secure federal elections." Lead negotiators were Susan Collins & Joe Manchin. An NBC News report is here.

Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post summarizes the findings, so far, that the House January 6 committee has presented to the public. "At each moment [in the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021,] when Trump could have soothed an agitated nation, he escalated tensions instead, the committee has illustrated through its presentation of 18 live witnesses, scores of videotaped depositions and vast documentary evidence. At each moment when longtime loyal advisers offered their view that his election loss was real, he refused to listen and found newcomers and outsiders willing to tell him otherwise. On at least 15 different occasions, the president barreled over those who told him to accept his loss and instead took actions that sought to circumvent the democratic process and set the nation on the path to violence, according to the committee's evidence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: Thursday night's hearing of the January 6 select committee "will focus heavily on Trump's inaction in the White House during [the 187-minute period when he did nothing to stop the insurrection, committee] aides said on a background call with reporters.... One day after the last rioter had left the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021..., Donald Trump's advisers urged him to give an address to the nation to condemn the violence, demand accountability for those who had stormed the halls of Congress and declare the 2020 election to be decided. He struggled to do it. Over the course of an hour of trying to tape the message, Trump resisted holding the rioters to account, trying to call them patriots, and refused to say the election was over, according to individuals familiar with the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.... Not only did Trump do nothing despite repeated entreaties by senior aides to help end the violence, but he sat back and enjoyed watching it. He reluctantly condemned it -- in a three-minute speech the evening of Jan. 7 -- only after the efforts to overturn the 2020 election had failed and after aides told him that members of his own Cabinet were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him from office." ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "In an interview previewing the hearing, which is scheduled for 8 p.m. on July 21, [Rep. Elaine] Luria [(D-Va.), who will co-lead the hearing with Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.),] said the panel planned to document in great detail how Mr. Trump did nothing for more than three hours while his supporters stormed the Capitol, raising ethical, moral and legal questions around the former president.... The committee plans to demonstrate that Mr. Trump had the power to call off the mob but refused to do so until after 4 p.m. that day -- and then only after hundreds of officers had responded to the Capitol to support the overrun Capitol Police force, and had begun to turn the tide against the mob, making it clear that the siege would fail, according to committee aides.... Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, plans to preside over the hearing remotely, after having tested positive for Covid-19 this week." A Guardian story is here.

** Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "A senior Secret Service official said agency employees received two emails -- at least one prior to Jan. 6, 2021 -- reminding -- them to preserve records on their cellphones, including text messages, -- before their devices were essentially 'restored to factory settings' and texts were lost as part of a planned reset and replacement program across the agency. The senior official said employees received a third email on Feb. 4, 2021, instructing them to preserve all communications specific to Jan. 6. At that point, several Congressional committees had asked for Secret Service communications from the day of the insurrection on the Capitol.... [The first two] emails included reminders that federal employees have the responsibility to preserve their records and included instructions on how to do so, the senior Secret Service official said.... The Secret Service official said that by the time the Inspector General asked for the records more than a month after the attack on the Capitol, that information was already lost." ~~~

~~~ Covering Up the Cover-up. Carol Leonnig & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "A watchdog agency learned in February that the Secret Service had purged nearly all cellphone texts from around the time of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, but chose not to alert Congress, according to three people briefed on the internal discussions. That watchdog agency, the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General, also prepared in October 2021 to issue a public alert that the Secret Service and other department divisions were stonewalling it on requests for records and texts surrounding the attack on the Capitol, but did not do so.... The previously unreported revelation about the inspector general's months-long delay in flagging the now-vanished Secret Service texts came from two whistleblowers who have worked with Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari.... 'It's a dereliction of duty to keep the public and Congress in the dark for months,' said POGO [-- Project on Government Oversight --] senior investigator Nick Schwellenbach. 'Digital forensics experts could have been working to recover these lost texts a long time ago.'"

David Siders of Politico: "The conventional wisdom about the Jan. 6 committee hearings was that no single revelation was going to change Republican minds about Donald Trump. What happened instead, a slow drip of negative coverage, may be just as damaging to the former president. Six weeks into the committee's public hearing schedule, an emerging consensus is forming in Republican Party circles -- including in Trump's orbit -- that a significant portion of the rank-and-file may be tiring of the non-stop series of revelations about Trump.... The cumulative effect of the hearings, according to interviews with more than 20 Republican strategists, party officials and pollsters in recent days, has been to at least marginally weaken his support." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Oh Yeah? This guy is still a fan: ~~~

     ~~~ Jordan Green of the Raw Story: "After invoking the Fifth Amendment and executive privilege more than 100 times to refuse to answer questions from the January 6^th Committee on Tuesday, former White House aide Garrett Ziegler opened a livestream to vent his frustrations to his followers in a nearly 30-minute rant laden with white nationalist grievance on Telegram. Ziegler complained that he has less resources to fight the committee than his older cohorts, including his boss former Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, who is suing the committee, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who is being prosecuted for contempt.... '[The committee members are] Bolsheviks so they probably do hate the Fifth Amendment, and most white people in general,' he said. 'This is a Bolshevist, anti-white campaign.... They see me as a young Christian who they can basically try to scare.'... I'm the least racist person that many of you have ever met, by the way. I have no bigotry. I just try to see the world for where it is.' Then, his rant veered into misogyny when he lamented that no one else in his generation was defying the January 6^th committee, because 'the other people in the White House are total hos and thots.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: CNN's story is here.

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "The prosecution rested its case on Wednesday in the trial of Stephen K. Bannon, a former top adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, as government lawyers sought to show that Mr. Bannon had repeatedly ignored warnings that he risked facing criminal charges in flouting a subpoena.... The trial on Wednesday largely centered on the testimony of Kristin Amerling, the deputy staff director and chief counsel to the Jan. 6 committee, who offered a detailed accounting of the committee's attempts to compel Mr. Bannon to testify last year.... During questioning, Ms. Amerling told the court that Mr. Bannon would not acquiesce to the committee's requests for emails and other documents even after receiving a letter threatening legal action. Mr. Bannon never asked that the deadline for the subpoena be extended, nor did the committee consider his claim of executive privilege to be valid, Ms. Amerling added.... Prosecutors also called Stephen Hart, an F.B.I. special agent, as a second witness. Mr. Hart, who had met with Mr. Bannon's former lawyer about the subpoena last year, presented social media posts in which Mr. Bannon appeared to celebrate his decision to flout the subpoena." An AP report is here.

Kate Brumback of the AP: "A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that's investigating whether ... Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta, according to documents filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A Georgia judge ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to testify in Atlanta next month in an ongoing criminal investigation into election interference by ... Donald J. Trump and his advisers and allies, according to court filings released on Wednesday.... After Mr. Giuliani failed to show for a hearing last week in Manhattan, where the matter was to have been adjudicated, Judge Robert C. I. McBurney of the Superior Court of Fulton County ordered him to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta on Aug. 9.... Mr. Giuliani appears to be of interest for a number of reasons, including his participation in a scheme to create slates of pro-Trump presidential electors.... Mr. Giuliani also appeared in person before two Georgia state legislative committees in December 2020, where he spent hours peddling false conspiracy theories about secret suitcases of Democratic ballots and corrupted voting machines."

Didn't We Just Find Out Arizona Is the Worst State to Live In? Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Rusty Bowers, the Arizona house speaker who testified to the January 6 committee about how he resisted Donald Trump's attempt to overturn his defeat by Joe Biden in the sun belt state, has been formally censured by his own Republican party. Kelli Ward, chair of the Arizona Republican party, said on Tuesday its 'executive committee formally censured Rusty Bowers tonight -- he is no longer a Republican in good standing and we call on Republicans to replace him at the ballot box in the August primary'."

We Did It for Trump. Ben Collins, et al., of NBC News: "Researchers at Harvard University who conducted the largest study yet of what motivated Jan. 6 rioters say the data is clear: The most common responses focused on ... Donald Trump and his lies about the election.... The researchers ... wrote that the documents make clear that Jan. 6 committee member Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., 'was mostly correct in her assessment' that 'Trump summoned the mob, assembled the mob and lit the flame of this attack.'... 'Far and away, we find that the two most commonly-cited reasons for breaching the US Capitol were a desire to support Trump on January 6th in DC and concerns about election integrity,' the report reads."

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A Democratic super PAC filed a lawsuit against the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, seeking to force officials to take action against Donald J. Trump for all but running for president in 2024 without having declared himself a candidate. The suit comes more than four months after the group, American Bridge, lodged a complaint with the F.E.C. against Mr. Trump. The complaint argues that he has been behaving like a 2024 presidential candidate while avoiding the oversight of the commission by not filing a statement of candidacy. For a year, Mr. Trump has held rallies across the country that are ostensibly for Republicans running in local, statewide and congressional races, but during which he talks about himself. He has also given several interviews in which he has sounded like a candidate. When Mr. Trump will make a formal announcement remains uncertain, but he has accelerated his campaign planning in hopes of blunting damaging revelations from investigations into his attempts to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election." A CNN story is here.

Today's committee memo pulls back the curtain on this shameful conduct and shows clearly how the Trump administration secretly tried to manipulate the census for political gain while lying to the public and Congress about their goals. -- Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Oversight Committee chair ~~~

~~~ Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A new stash of documents obtained by Congress has confirmed that the Trump administration pushed to add a citizenship question to the census to help Republicans win elections..., a House committee report concluded on Wednesday. The report from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the culmination of a yearslong investigation, detailed new findings based on drafts of internal memos and secret email communications between political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, and counterparts in the Justice Department. The documents provided the most definitive evidence yet that the Trump administration aimed to exclude noncitizens from the count to influence congressional apportionment that would benefit the Republican Party, the report concluded, and that senior officials used a false pretext to build a legal case for asking all residents of the United States whether they were American citizens.... The committee was expected on Wednesday to mark up a bill to enhance the institutional independence of the Census Bureau in order to prevent political interference in the agency." NPR's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Coral Davenport, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Wednesday that he would expand existing federal programs to help Americans cope with the extreme heat wrought by climate change, even as he faces intensifying pressure to take aggressive action to cut the fossil fuel emissions that are dangerously warming the planet. The measures fell short of the types of executive action an increasing number of Democrats have called on Mr. Biden to take in the wake of last week's decision by Sen. Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, to walk away from clean energy legislation.... Mr. Manchin's move followed a June decision by the Supreme Court to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate climate-warming pollution from power plants.... Speaking at a shuttered coal plant in Somerset, Mass., that is being converted into a facility to make wind power components, Mr. Biden insisted that even after the two cornerstones of his climate agenda had crashed and burned, he would use executive authority to rein in heat-trapping fossil fuels." A Politico report is here.

Louis Caved. Somewhat. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service pledged Wednesday to electrify at least 40 percent of its new delivery fleet, an increase that climate activists hailed as a major step toward reducing the government's environmental footprint. The Postal Service had been set to purchase as many as 165,000 vehicles from Oshkosh Defense, of which 10 percent would be electric under the original procurement plan. Now it will acquire 50,000 trucks from Oshkosh, half of which will be EVs, plus another 34,500 commercially available vehicles, 40 percent of which will be electric. The combined 84,500 trucks -- which begin making deliveries in late 2023 -- will go a long way toward meeting President Biden's goal for the entire government fleet to be EV-powered by 2035. The Postal Service's more than 217,000 vehicles make up the largest share of federal civilian vehicles.... Sixteen states plus four of the U.S.'s top environmental groups sued to stop the [original 10%-electric] contract in April." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You just have to drag Republicans kicking & screaming to do every partly the right thing.

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "A Labor Department employee uncovered almost a half-billion dollars in federal government waste. All he got was a plaque. The former Occupational Safety and Health Administration staffer alerted officials nearly three years ago to unpaid fines owed the agency from companies with workplace safety violations. The Treasury Department, which did not collect the money because of a computer software error, soon found millions were owed to OSHA. Now, it's clear the glitch created a much larger problem than anyone -- including the anonymous whistleblower -- realized. As a result of his complaint to the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), a new audit has found that the government didn't collect almost $473 million owed to 28 federal offices, including the House, through June 27. Problems apparently began in October 2017, when Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal Service installed 'a commercial off-the-shelf' computer program for government-wide debt collection, according to July 7 report from the Bureau.... As of June 27, the report said, only 10 percent of the $96.9 million owed to OSHA was collected. The problem for the other agencies is much worse. They have collected just $3.2 million, less than 1 percent of the $376 million due."

A Ray of Hope. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "... when the House called its vote this week on the Respect for Marriage Act, which would codify federal protections for same-sex couples that were put in place in a 2015 ruling, 47 Republicans voted 'yes.' That raised the possibility that there could be a narrow bipartisan path for the legislation to move ahead in the Senate and make its way to President Biden's desk to be signed into law. Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, who has positioned himself as an obstacle to most of the Democrats' agenda, declined to reveal a stance on the bill. And on Wednesday, four Republican senators -- Susan Collins of Maine, Rob Portman of Ohio, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina -- said they supported it." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Funny thing is, I would have said a few years ago that a law was not as sure a thing as a Constitutional right because a new Congress can always overturn a law where as a right is a right is a right. But now it turns out, the confederate Supreme Court is just as, if not more, fickle than Congress. So I sure hope this law passes -- not that Clarence Thomas & the gang couldn't declare it unconstitutional on some flimsy, fake "rationale."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska addressed Congress on Wednesday, making a rare personal appeal as the wife of a foreign leader for the United States to provide Ukraine with air defense systems, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine enters its sixth month. In a brief but emotional speech, Zelenska spoke about the increasingly dire security, economic and humanitarian conditions in Ukraine. 'I want to address you not as first lady, but as a daughter and as a mother,' Zelenska said in Ukrainian, as a woman interpreted her speech in English, their voices breaking at times.... She closed her speech with an appeal for more weapons, saying the war in Ukraine is not over and that the answer lies in Washington.... Zelenska received a standing ovation from members of Congress from both sides of the aisle when she took the stage of the main auditorium at the Capitol Visitor Center shortly after 11:10 a.m., as well as when she concluded her remarks about 10 minutes later."

Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration is reorganizing the federal health department to create an independent division that would lead the nation's pandemic response, amid frustrations with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The move elevates a roughly 1,000-person team -- known as the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, or ASPR -- into a separate division, charged with coordinating the nation's response t health emergencies...." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court panel immediately allowed a Georgia law that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy to go into effect on Wednesday, ending a yearslong battle over one of the country's most restrictive laws. The law, signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2019, prohibits most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is typically when doctors can begin to detect a fetus's cardiac activity. Exceptions to the law are allowed if a woman faces serious harm or death in pregnancy, or in cases of rape or incest, so long as a police report has been filed. Georgia law previously allowed abortions until at least 20 weeks of pregnancy."

Pennsylvania Senate Race. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, the Democratic nominee for Senate who suffered a stroke in May, said he has 'nothing to hide' about his health and called the lingering effects of his illness minor and infrequent, as he vowed to be back on the campaign trail 'very soon.'"

Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: "Facing widespread public pressure, the school superintendent in Uvalde, Texas, has recommended firing the school district police chief, Pete Arredondo, for his role in the delayed response to a mass shooting that allowed a gunman to remain in two classrooms full of surviving students for more than an hour. A school board meeting set for Saturday will include a closed session with the district's lawyer to discuss 'possible action regarding termination for good cause' of Chief Arredondo based on a recommendation from the superintendent, Hal Harrell, according to a board agenda made public on Monday."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Russian state company Gazprom resumed gas flows to Germany on Thursday. The move eases European fears that a planned maintenance shutdown on the Nord Stream 1 pipeline would become permanent. But wider concerns about the energy crisis remain high, and the European Union has asked countries to ration gas before winter. CIA Director William J. Burns said there is no intelligence suggesting ... Vladimir Putin is ill. After widespread speculation that the Russian leader is sick, possibly with cancer, Burns quipped that Putin remains 'entirely too healthy.'... Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov indicated that Moscow's ambitions go beyond Ukraine's east, which has been ravaged by fighting. He told a state media outlet that it makes no sense to revive peace talks at this stage and said Russia would expand its territorial goals if Western weapons keep arriving in Ukraine."

Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "Daria Kasatkina, Russia's highest-ranked female tennis player, came out as gay and criticized the war in Ukraine in an unusually candid interview.... Kasatkina, 25, touched on two of the most sensitive topics in Russia -- Ukraine and LGBTQ rights -- in a wide-ranging conversation with Russia blogger Vitya Kravchenko that was recorded in Barcelona and released Monday on YouTube. Kasatkina -- the No. 12 in the world -- said she wanted 'the war to end' and described the conflict as 'a full-blown nightmare.' She said there 'hadn't been a single day since February 24,' when Russia invaded Ukraine, that she hadn't read or thought about the war. She expressed empathy for Ukrainian players affected by the war." Both criticizing the war and being openly gay are illegal in Russia.

Italy. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "The national unity government of Prime Minister Mario Draghi, who restored Italy's influence and credibility, fell apart on Wednesday, leaving the country careening toward a new season of political chaos at a critical moment when the European Union is struggling to hold together a united front against Russia and revive its economies. After key parts of Mr. Draghi's coalition excoriated him on the Senate floor and abandoned him in a confidence vote on Wednesday evening, the prime minister was expected to discuss his resignation Thursday for a second, and almost certainly final, time in a week with the country's president, Sergio Mattarella." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Angela Giuffrida of the Guardian: "Mario Draghi has confirmed his resignation as Italy's prime minister after an attempt to salvage his broad coalition failed when three key parties snubbed a confidence vote, paving the way for snap elections that could take place as early as late September.... Draghi formally handed his resignation to President Sergio Mattarella on Thursday morning and it was accepted. However, the populist Five Star Movement (M5S), Matteo Salvini's far-right League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia did not participate in a confidence vote in the senate on Thursday night that essentially called for parties to approve a spirit of cooperation.

U.K. The New PM Will Not Be a White Guy. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's Conservative Party narrowed the field for its next leader on Wednesday, advancing two candidates to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson after a scandal-scarred tenure that ended with his government in disarray and the country adrift at a time of deepening economic crisis. Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, and Liz Truss, the current foreign secretary, emerged as the two finalists after five rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers whittled the original field of 11 candidates. The two will now compete to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a vote of the party's rank-and-file membership, with the results announced in early September." An AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Lede

Washington Post: "Extreme temperatures haunted two continents on Wednesday, with more than 100 million people in the United States facing excessive heat conditions and a heat wave that had scorched Western Europe taking aim at Central Europe.... In the United States, temperature records were obliterated in the Great Plains, where thermometers recorded 115 degrees in Texas and Oklahoma. More than 60 million Americans will probably experience triple-digit heat over the next week. Heat advisories and excessive heat warnings were issued affecting more than 105 million people in 28 states across the central United States and the Northeast, where the combination of hot weather and high humidity will lead to conditions ripe for heat-related illness or heatstroke."