April 19, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Dino Grandoni & Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "The White House on Tuesday announced it has restored key protections to a landmark environmental law governing the construction of pipelines, highways and other projects that ... Donald Trump had swept away as part of an effort to cut red tape. The new rule will require federal agencies to scrutinize the climate impacts of major infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law that required the government to assess the environmental consequences of federal actions, such as approving the construction of oil and gas pipelines." MB: Trump was not trying "cut red tape." He was purposely undermining the federal government's mandate to protect the environment from his voracious corporate friends. Another "journalistic" effort to make the malign Trump appear benign.

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "John Eastman, a far-right lawyer for ... Donald Trump who wanted to block his electoral loss in 2020, is still withholding about 3,200 documents from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to a new court filing this week.... Federal Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California, may continue to weigh whether Eastman can keep those pages secret."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are two of the most prominent [self-described] 'constitutional conservatives' in the Senate.... It is interesting, then, that Lee and Cruz were among the Republican senators most involved in Donald Trump's attempt to subvert the Constitution and install himself in office against the will of the voters. As The Washington Post reported last month, Cruz worked 'directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power.'... Lee supported and encouraged the president's effort to overturn the election, with both ideas and political assistance.... Which gets to the truth of what that 'constitutional conservatism' really seems to be: not a principled attempt -- however flawed in conception -- to live up to the values of the founding, but a thin mask for the will to power."

Michael Grynbaum & Jim Windolf of the New York Times: "Joseph F. Kahn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning China correspondent who rose to lead the international desk of The New York Times, and then as managing editor helped steer the newspaper into the digital era, has been selected to be The Times's next executive editor, the top newsroom job. Mr. Kahn, 57, currently the No. 2-ranking editor at The Times, will take on one of the most powerful positions in American media and the global news business. He is to succeed Dean Baquet, whose eight-year tenure is expected to conclude in June. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the publisher of The Times, A.G. Sulzberger."

AND in Other Media News.... Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "Libs of TikTok [-- a Twitter account --] reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage. Videos shared from the account quickly find their way to the most influential names in right-wing media. The account has emerged as a powerful force on the Internet, shaping right-wing media, impacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and influencing millions by posting viral videos aimed at inciting outrage among the right.... Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures, politicians and right-wing influencers.... The content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community." Republicans wallow in this homophobic, anti-trans crap. And it isn't just Tucker Carlson & Joe Rogan who traffic in this: Glenn Greenwald calls himself the account's "Godfather."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

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The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian troops 'have begun the battle for Donbas,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said as Moscow launched its long-planned offensive in eastern Ukraine. The assault is also coalescing around the neighboring Kharkiv region. The Pentagon warned that Russia appears to be learning from its failure to take Kyiv, attempting to improve its command and control as well as logistics. The devastated Black Sea port city of Mariupol is still being contested by Russia and Ukraine, according to the Pentagon, after a Kremlin-imposed deadline to surrender expired. The United States assesses that Ukraine's stubborn resistance has tied up roughly a dozen Russian units.... President Biden is due to host a call Tuesday with U.S. allies to discuss the ongoing war. His administration said it has stepped up equipment deliveries to Ukraine, which are taking place at 'unprecedented speed.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here.

Luke Harding of the Guardian & Agency: "Russia has begun its long-expected large-scale military action to seize the east of Ukraine, the country's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy said.... The president's comments follow a dramatic escalation of attacks by Russia ahead of the long-anticipated operation. Vladimir Putin has declared his intention to seize Donbas, the industrial heartland in the east of the country already partly controlled by pro-Russian separatists. Zelenskiy made clear that the Ukrainian army would battle any attempted advance by Moscow.... French president Emmanuel Macron earlier said talks with Putin had stalled after mass killings were discovered in Ukraine."

This Is Awkward. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen will boycott several meetings of the powerful Group of 20 nations this week to protest Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with a conference in Washington emerging as a key test for world leaders who have condemned the war. Yellen will attend the opening session of the G-20 finance ministers' meeting Wednesday to show support for Ukraine's finance minister, who has flown in from Kyiv for the conference.... But Yellen will skip other sessions over Russia's presence.... This week's meetings -- the first gathering of the G-20 since the war began -- are emerging as a gauge of how the world's leading international bodies will respond to Russian aggression."

Jeanne Whalen of the Washington Post: "Patriarch Kirill "leads his flock from a soaring, gilded cathedral built to celebrate Russia's victory over Napoleon, where week after week the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church is working to ensure that the faithful are all in on their country's invasion of Ukraine.... His sermons echo, and in some cases even supply, the rhetoric that ... Vladimir Putin has used to justify the assault on cities and civilians.... Kirill has caused deep schisms in the global Orthodox Church, with priests in Ukraine, elsewhere in Europe and the United States condemning his support. Even dozens of lower-ranking clergy in Russia have broken with the 75-year-old patriarch, adding their signatures to an open letter decrying the invasion.... In an open appeal last week, more than 320 [Orthodox priests in Ukraine] accused the patriarch of preaching 'heresy' and asked global church leaders to bring him before a tribunal to decide whether he should be deposed."

Jeanne Whalen & Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "The sinking of the Russian warship Moskva is causing tension back home, where some families are reporting sailors dead or missing despite a Defense Ministry claim that the whole crew had been evacuated.... Russia confirmed that the ship sank but said only that it had been damaged by 'heavy storms' and a fire that caused ammunition on board to detonate. On April 14, the Russian Defense Ministry said all crew members were evacuated. The authorities have not confirmed any dead or wounded.... Social media groups ... are filling up with photos and pleas from parents looking for their missing sons." MB: BTW, I have been wondering why we have seen no photos of the sinking ship. So there's this, which the Guardian published Monday: ~~~

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "As millions of Americans race to finish filing their tax returns on Monday, the Biden administration made another plea for Congress to give the Internal Revenue Service more money. The call for funding to modernize the agency and beef up its enforcement staff comes as I.R.S. and Treasury Department officials have complained that they are facing an extraordinarily challenging tax season because of staff shortages and the complexity associated with distributing pandemic relief money. The Biden administration's proposals to provide the I.R.S. with $80 billion over a decade have thus far fallen flat in Congress.... It was not clear if that proposal would make it into any legislation that Democrats could pass. Republicans have staunchly opposed providing the I.R.S. with more funding." MB: Because Republicans don't want their big tax cheats friends to get caught. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Richard Cowan of Reuters: "... Donald Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and that will be a centerpiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Trump's second impeachment.... Raskin said the hearings will lay out for the public the steps the former president and his associates took to try to stay in power despite a clear-cut defeat. Had the rioters succeeded in preventing the certification, Raskin said, Trump 'was prepared to seize the presidency' and likely declare martial law." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Ankita Rao from the same interview: Jamie Raskin, a "progressive congressman from Maryland believes that no other crisis, even the existential threat of the changing climate, can be solved without first protecting the fabric of American democracy[.]... He said America can't fix the planet without fixing its government.... 'We've got to save the democracy in order to save the climate and save our species,' he said in an interview with the Guardian in collaboration with Reuters and Climate One public radio, as part of the Covering Climate Now media collaboration. Later Raskin added: 'We're never going to be able to successfully deal with climate change if we're spending all our time fighting the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and Ku Klux Klan, and the Aryan nations and all of Steve Bannon's alt-right nonsense.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kathryn Joyce of Salon: Republicans are trying "to normalize the [January 6, 2021,] riot at the Capitol, and to cast its perpetrators as overwhelmingly 'ordinary people' who got caught up in the momentum of something beyond their control. But last week came decisive evidence that this simply isn't true: At least a third of those arrested in conjunction with Jan. 6 belong to a far-right network that is not just deeply interconnected but resilient and adaptable. Last Thursday, Michael Jensen, a senior researcher at the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START center), released preliminary findings on the ideological motivations and connections of about 30 percent of all Jan. 6 defendants. While his research is ongoing, Jensen has already found that at least 244 of the 816 people arrested to date were either members of 'extremist' organizations or self-identified with them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

It's 2020 All Over Again. Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "A group of ... Donald J. Trump's allies and associates spent months trying to overturn the 2020 election based on his lie that he was the true winner. Now, some of the same confidants who tried and failed to invalidate the results based on a set of bogus legal theories are pushing an even wilder sequel: that by 'decertifying' the 2020 vote in key states, the outcome can still be reversed. In statehouses and courtrooms across the country, as well as on right-wing news outlets, allies of Mr. Trump -- including the lawyer John Eastman -- are pressing for states to pass resolutions rescinding Electoral College votes for President Biden and to bring lawsuits that seek to prove baseless claims of large-scale voter fraud. Some of those allies are casting their work as a precursor to reinstating the former president." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: For most of these clowns, 2020 was the highlight of their lives: they became quasi-famous (or, in my view, infamous), they got on Fox "News," they met the president*, they held in fun conspiracy confabs, and so forth. They just can't say goodbye to all that. ~~~

~~~ Peter Stone of the Guardian: "An influential conservative group that includes two Trump allies who helped push lies about voter fraud in 2020 is spearheading 'election integrity' summits in battleground states, advocating for expanded poll watching, 'clean' voter rolls and other measures watchdogs say could curb voting rights to help Republican candidates. The Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI) 'election integrity network' is run by the veteran GOP lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who helped to spread misinformation about supposed election fraud in 2020. Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's last White House chief of staff, is a senior partner of the CPI and reportedly had a lead role in at least one of its summits."

Blake Hounshell of the New York Times: "As a young congressional aide, David Price witnessed the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from the Senate gallery.... Now 81 and in the twilight of his career, Price is retiring from Congress after more than 30 years representing his North Carolina district.... He is one of the longest-serving lawmakers in Washington and an especially keen observer of how the place has changed.... Over his time in office, Price has grown alarmed at how Congress has become nastier and more partisan -- a trend he traces to former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Republican of Georgia, whose 'more aggressive and more militant approach' to politics, as Price put it, fundamentally transformed the institution.... 'And I don't, for a moment, think that the polarization is symmetrical. It's asymmetrical.'"

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. -- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, 2007 ~~~

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal from a death row inmate in Texas who said his jury had been tainted by racial bias. The inmate, Kristopher Love, a Black man, had objected to the seating of a juror who had said he believed 'nonwhite races' to be the 'more violent races.' The court's three liberal members dissented, saying the Supreme Court should have instructed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court for criminal matters, to reconsider Mr. Love's challenge." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bid by New York and three other states to overturn a $10,000 cap on federal tax deductions for state and local taxes that Congress imposed as part of the Trump administration's sweeping tax overhaul in 2017. The court's decision not to consider the matter, one of dozens of cases the justices said they would not hear, left intact a lower court's ruling. That ruling rejected the states' argument that, as Democratic bastions, they had been targeted by Republican lawmakers and that the deduction cap was an unconstitutional infringement on their sovereignty. In affirming that ruling in October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that it was within Congress's broad authority over tax policy to impose the so-called SALT cap." MB: What a lovely tax day gift from the Supremes to those of us who own homes in high-property-tax states.

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite writes a post titled, "We Regret to Inform You That Tucker Carlson's New Special Does In Fact Promote 'Testicle Tanning'". MB: I leave it to you to decide whether or not to read on. It does occur to me, however, that every story about something TuKKKer said or did should begin, "We regret to inform you that ..." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. I regret to inform you that Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, on the same topic, is worth reading. He makes some serious observations AND pretends "junk science" is not a double entendre.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the Pentagon may take disciplinary action against a lieutenant colonel in the Air Force Reserve who refused to be vaccinated against the coronavirus on religious grounds. The court's brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is common when the justices act on emergency applications. The court's three most conservative members -- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -- noted dissents but did not explain their thinking." MB: They didn't "explain their thinking" because it's hard to write down. It was a choreographic moment that goes like this: their knees jerked in unison.

Michael Larison & Justin George of the Washington Post: "Federal officials stopped enforcement of a federal mask mandate Monday in transportation settings after a federal judge struck down the requirement, raising public health concerns and prompting several airlines to announce that face coverings are optional on domestic flights. U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle of the Middle District of Florida said the mandate exceeds the statutory authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Federal officials last week had extended the mask mandate for commercial flights and in other settings, including on buses, ferries and subways, until at least May 3.... The Justice Department will 'make any determinations about litigation,' [White House Press Secretary Jen] Psaki said." Mizelle is a Trump appointed who clerked for Clarence Thomas. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here: Mizelle "had been rated 'not qualified' by the American Bar Association for 'the short time she has actually practiced law and her lack of meaningful trial experience.'" MB: If you read some of her tortured rationale for ending the mandate, you may find yourself agreeing Mizelle is "not qualified."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia Congressional Race. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "A federal judge cleared the way on Monday for a group of Georgia voters to move forward with legal efforts seeking to disqualify Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene from running for re-election to Congress, citing her role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The disqualification effort is based on a constitutional provision adopted after the Civil War that barred members of the Confederacy from holding office. It mirrors several other cases involving Republican members of Congress, whose roles leading up to and during the deadly riot have drawn intense criticism. The judge, Amy Totenberg, who was appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia by President Barack Obama, denied Ms. Greene's request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order in the high-profile legal feud.... The decision by Judge Totenberg stood in stark contrast with a recent ruling in a similar case involving Representative Madison Cawthorn in North Carolina. In blocking that disqualification effort, U.S. District Judge Richard E. Myers II, an appointee of Mr. Trump, ruled that the 14th Amendment of the Constitution narrowly applied to members of the Confederacy after the Civil War." CNN's report is here.

April 18, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "As millions of Americans race to finish filing their tax returns on Monday, the Biden administration made another plea for Congress to give the Internal Revenue Service more money. The call for funding to modernize the agency and beef up its enforcement staff comes as I.R.S. and Treasury Department officials have complained that they are facing an extraordinarily challenging tax season because of staff shortages and the complexity associated with distributing pandemic relief money. The Biden administration's proposals to provide the I.R.S. with $80 billion over a decade have thus far fallen flat in Congress.... It was not clear if that proposal would make it into any legislation that Democrats could pass. Republicans have staunchly opposed providing the I.R.S. with more funding." MB: Because Republicans don't want their big tax cheats friends to get caught.

Richard Cowan of Reuters: "... Donald Trump attempted a coup on Jan. 6, 2021, and that will be a centerpiece of committee hearings in Congress next month, said Democrat Jamie Raskin, a committee member who led the prosecution of Trump's second impeachment.... Raskin said the hearings will lay out for the public the steps the former president and his associates took to try to stay in power despite a clear-cut defeat. Had the rioters succeeded in preventing the certification, Raskin said, Trump 'was prepared to seize the presidency' and likely declare martial law." ~~~

~~~ Ankita Rao from the same interview: Jamie Raskin, a “progressive congressman from Maryland believes that no other crisis, even the existential threat of the changing climate, can be solved without first protecting the fabric of American democracy[.]... He said America can't fix the planet without fixing its government.... 'We've got to save the democracy in order to save the climate and save our species,' he said in an interview with the Guardian in collaboration with Reuters and Climate One public radio, as part of the Covering Climate Now media collaboration. Later Raskin added: 'We’re never going to be able to successfully deal with climate change if we're spending all our time fighting the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers and Ku Klux Klan, and the Aryan nations and all of Steve Bannon's alt-right nonsense.'"

Kathryn Joyce of Salon: Republicans are trying "to normalize the [January 6, 2021,] riot at the Capitol, and to cast its perpetrators as overwhelmingly 'ordinary people' who got caught up in the momentum of something beyond their control. But last week came decisive evidence that this simply isn't true: At least a third of those arrested in conjunction with Jan. 6 belong to a far-right network that is not just deeply interconnected but resilient and adaptable. Last Thursday, Michael Jensen, a senior researcher at the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START center), released preliminary findings on the ideological motivations and connections of about 30 percent of all Jan. 6 defendants. While his research is ongoing, Jensen has already found that at least 244 of the 816 people arrested to date were either members of 'extremist' organizations or self-identified with them."

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. -- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, 2007 ~~~

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday turned away an appeal from a death row inmate in Texas who said his jury had been tainted by racial bias. The inmate, Kristopher Love, a Black man, had objected to the seating of a juror who had said he believed 'nonwhite races' to be the 'more violent races.' The court's three liberal members dissented, saying the Supreme Court should have instructed the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, the state's highest court for criminal matters, to reconsider Mr. Love's challenge."

Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite writes a post titled, "We Regret to Inform You That Tucker Carlson’s New Special Does In Fact Promote "Testicle Tanning'". MB: I leave it to you to decide whether or not to read on. It does occur to me, however, that every story about something TuKKKer said or did should begin, "We regret to inform you that ..."

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Marie: Late finish today. I posted links up till 9:20 am ET.

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here: "Unconfirmed reports are filtering in that five missiles struck Lviv early this morning. Lviv mayor, Andriy Sadovy, said in an update over his official Telegram account this morning.... Ukraine has vowed that its forces will 'fight to the end' in the besieged port city of Mariupol, after a Russian ultimatum for the remaining Ukrainian troops there to surrender expired. Russian troops said they will close the city for entry and exit on Monday and issue 'movement passes' to those who remain, according to an adviser to the mayor. Residents of the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine have been urged to evacuate immediately.... Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called for more weapons, describing 'every delay' as 'permission for Russia to take the lives of Ukrainians'.... Zelenskiy also claimed in the address that the regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in Ukraine's south were being transferred to 'the ruble zone' and subordinated to Russian administration.... The United Nations refugee agency said 4,869,019 Ukrainians had left the country since Russia invaded in February...." Emphasis removed. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: BTW, I have found the Guardian's updates to be more up-to-the-minute than either the New York Times' or the Washington Post's.

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "The brutality of Moscow's war on Ukraine takes two distinct forms, familiar to those who have seen Russia's military in action elsewhere. There is the programmatic violence meted out by Russian bombs and missiles against civilians as well as military targets, meant to demoralize as much as defeat. These attacks recall the aerial destruction in 1999 and 2000 of the Chechen capital of Grozny and, in 2016, of the Syrian rebel stronghold of Aleppo. And then there is the cruelty of individual soldiers and units, the horrors of Bucha appearing to have descended directly from the slaughter a generation ago in [the Ukraine] village [of] Novye Aldi.... In Russia..., such acts are rarely investigated or even acknowledged, let alone punished. That leaves it unclear how much the low-level brutality stems from the intent of those in charge or whether commanders failed to control their troops. Combined with the apparent strategy of bombing civilian targets, many observers conclude that the Russian government -- and, perhaps, a part of Russian society -- in reality condones violence against civilians."

Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "A video released by Russia's Ministry of Defense purporting to show dozens of uniformed crew members from the missile cruiser Moskva standing in formation, apparently days after the ship sank, did not answer lingering questions about the fate of the vessel and its more than 500 personnel. The questions reached the point Saturday where even Vladimir Solovyev, a popular prime-time talk-show host whose pronouncements often reflect the Kremlin line, began asking what went wrong.... The segment was unusual not least because Mr. Solovyev broached the idea that Ukraine had managed to sink the Moskva, one of the biggest naval losses anywhere in the world since World War II.... Other television talking heads in Russia have started referring to the fighting in Ukraine as a 'war' -- although they have tended to use the term when suggesting that the whole of NATO, including the United States, is ganging up on Russia.Some analysts think all the talk of NATO attacking Russia is meant to lay the groundwork for a possible general mobilization of the male population -- martial law is a necessary prior step, and a declaration of martial law requires going to war or being under threat."

Josh Halliday of the Guardian: "A second British soldier fighting with the Ukrainian army has been paraded on Russian television after being captured in the besieged city of Mariupol. Shaun Pinner said he had been fighting alongside Ukrainian marines when Vladimir Putin's forces invaded nearly eight weeks ago. The 48-year-old former British soldier appeared tired and bruised in a short propaganda video aired by Russian media on Saturday night.... He was fighting alongside his friend Aiden Aslin, 28, from Nottinghamshire, who is thought to have surrendered to the Russian military last week after his battalion ran out of ammunition."

Odd News. Alex Horton of the Washington Post: Russians fired tiny lethal darts -- called fléchettes -- into Bucha neighborhoods. They are seldom used in modern warfare. "Some human rights groups have decried the use of fléchettes because they are indiscriminate weapons that can strike civilians even if they are aimed at military formations. They are not banned by international conventions, but 'they should never be used in built-up civilian areas,' Amnesty International has said." MB: The fléchettes, which are pictured within the story, look like something you'd read about in an Agatha Christie novel.

Josh Boak of the AP: "The Biden administration is taking a key step toward ensuring that federal dollars will support U.S. manufacturing -- issuing requirements for how projects funded by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package source their construction material. The guidance being issued Monday requires that the material purchased -- whether it's for a bridge, a highway, a water pipe or broadband internet -- be produced in the U.S., according to administration officials. However, the rules also set up a process to waive those requirements in case there are not enough domestic producers or the material costs too much, with the goal of issuing fewer waivers over time as U.S. manufacturing capacity increases."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. James Downie of the Washington Post: “On Friday, CNN released more than 100 text messages from [Sen. Mike] Lee [R-Utah] and Rep. Chip Roy (R-Tex.), sent between the 2020 election and Jan. 6, 2021, to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows.... Both Lee and Roy encouraged Trump and his aides to overturn the results. As Trump and associates ... beclowned themselves with conspiracy theories, Lee and Roy became more critical of the election subversion efforts. But both men still advocated for conservative lawyer John Eastman's plan to have Republican-controlled state legislatures submit alternate slates of electoral college delegates and then have Vice President Mike Pence refuse to certify Joe Biden's win.... Since [January 6, 2021]..., Lee has downplayed his earlier efforts.... So a Republican senator -- a self-proclaimed 'constitutional conservative,' no less -- misled the country about his participation in a plot to overturn a presidential election. And yet not one of the five major Sunday talk shows mentioned one word about Lee.... In a functioning democracy, it is the media's job to call out those who scheme to subvert that democracy."

As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? -- Boss Tweed, 1870s

There's an expression that the vote counters are more important than the candidate, and you could use that expression here. -- Donald Trump, April 2022

Boss Trump. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Working from a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one he used in the Oval Office, [Donald] Trump has transformed Mar-a-Lago's old bridal suite into a shadow G.O.P. headquarters, amassing more than $120 million -- a war chest more than double that of the Republican National Committee itself.... Mr. Trump has ... aggressively pursuing an agenda of vengeance against Republicans who have wronged him, endorsing more than 140 candidates nationwide and turning the 2022 primaries into a stress test of his continued sway. Inspiring fear, hoarding cash, doling out favors and seeking to crush rivals, Mr. Trump is behaving not merely as a power broker but as something closer to the head of a 19th-century political machine.... An entire political economy now surrounds Mr. Trump, with Trump properties reaping huge fees: Federal candidates and committees alone have paid nearly $1.3 million to hold events at Mar-a-Lago, records show.... Yet ... Mr. Trump can be downright stingy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's what I don't get. Every normal person hates dictators. We hate dictators for a number of reasons, one of which, obviously, is that we want our personal freedom: life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet Trumpies cry louder than anyone for freeeedom on the one hand, while voluntarily ceding it to a nasty old fart on the other. I understand the concept, "He's a dictator, but he's our dictator." But that doesn't work here, at least for political toadies. Trump is, as Goldmacher writes, stingy. And even if the toadies cross Trump accidentally, he will cut them to pieces, perhaps ruin their pathetic careers. They must give all to get close to nothing. Of if they do get some small measure of power over their little fiefdoms, Trump may snatch it away. So, aside from all the other things we know about members of the Trump mob, WTF is the matter with them? ~~~

     ~~~ Great answers from Akhilleus & Ken W. at the top of today's thread. And there's this: ~~~

~~~ ** Michael Kruse in Politico Magazine interviews historian & expert on autocracies Ruth Ben-Ghiat. "Ben-Ghiat:... 'He's changed the party to an authoritarian party culture.... So not only do you go after external enemies, but you go after internal enemies. You're not allowed to have any dissent.... The GOP was already going away from a democratic political culture, but he accelerated it and normalized extremism and normalized lawlessness. And so the GOP over these years has truly, in my estimation, become an authoritarian far-right party. And the other big story is that his agenda and his methods are being continued at the state level.... These states are really laboratories of autocracy now, like Florida, Texas.... One of the big talking points and strategy of right-wing authoritarianism, is to label democratic systems as tyrannical.'" Read on.

CBS News/AP: "Far-right website Infowars and two other companies owned by radio host Alex Jones have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in light of several defamation lawsuits. The filings were made in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures put a hold on pending civil litigation while letting a business keep running as it prepares a turnaround plan.... Infowars says in the filing that it has assets of $0 to $50,000 and liabilities of $1,000,001 to $10 million.... A judge found Jones liable for damages, and a trial on how much he should pay the families is set for August." MB: Pardon my skepticism, but I suspect Alex there has been busy squirreling away his money in offshore accounts, then filing for bankruptcy protection so he wouldn't have to pay off Sandy Hook parents.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.

Beyond the Beltway

France. Kim Willsher of the Guardian: "The European Union's anti-fraud body has accused Marine Le Pen and several of her party members -- including her father &-- of embezzling about €620,000 [about $807,500] while serving as members of the European parliament. France's investigative website Mediapart published a section of the new 116-report alleging that the MEPs misused EU funds for national party purposes. The claims come a week before the second round of the presidential election, on 24 April, in which Le Pen will go head to head with Emmanuel Macron."

April 17, 2022

Afternoon Update:

As long as I count the votes, what are you going to do about it? -- Boss Tweed, 1870s

There's an expression that the vote counters are more important than the candidate, and you could use that expression here. -- Donald Trump, April 2022

Boss Trump. Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Working from a large wooden desk reminiscent of the one he used in the Oval Office, [Donald] Trump has transformed Mar-a-Lago's old bridal suite into a shadow G.O.P. headquarters, amassing more than $120 million -- a war chest more than double that of the Republican National Committee itself.... Mr. Trump has ... aggressively pursuing an agenda of vengeance against Republicans who have wronged him, endorsing more than 140 candidates nationwide and turning the 2022 primaries into a stress test of his continued sway. Inspiring fear, hoarding cash, doling out favors and seeking to crush rivals, Mr. Trump is behaving not merely as a power broker but as something closer to the head of a 19th-century political machine.... An entire political economy now surrounds Mr. Trump, with Trump properties reaping huge fees: Federal candidates and committees alone have paid nearly $1.3 million to hold events at Mar-a-Lago, records show.... Yet ... Mr. Trump can be downright stingy."

~~~~~~~~~~

An Easter Story. Joanna Moorhead of the Guardian: "... when cutting-edge carbon-14 tests found that the Shroud of Turin was a forgery, it seemed like the final chapter for a relic that had been revered for centuries as the cloth in which Christ's body had been wrapped when he supposedly rose from the dead at the first Easter almost 2,000 years ago. But one man -- David Rolfe ... -- wasn't prepared to give up on it. He was convinced the carbon dating, carried out in 1988 under the direction of the British Museum and Oxford University, had been flawed. And now he claims he has the evidence to prove it. This week sees the release of a new film, Who Can He Be?, in which Rolfe argues that, far from the shroud being a definite dud, new discoveries in the past few years have again opened the question of its authenticity. So convinced is Rolfe that he's issuing a challenge worth $1m to the British Museum. 'If ... they believe the shroud is a medieval forgery, I call on them to repeat the exercise, and create something similar today,' he says." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: My husband was a reasonable, educated man, not given to superstition. He was not a practicing Christian. But he was born in & grew up in Torino, and he would not be convinced that the Shroud was a 14th-century fabrication. Our childhood beliefs die hard.

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The port city of Mariupol was on the cusp of falling on Sunday, a significant advance for Russian forces in their bid to capture Ukraine's southeastern coast.... Russia said on Saturday that its forces had surrounded a remaining group of Ukrainian fighters who were holed up in a Mariupol steel plant.... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine appeared to acknowledge the impending takeover, saying that Ukrainian troops controlled only a small part of Mariupol and faced much larger Russian numbers.... 'Russia is deliberately trying to destroy everyone who is there,' Mr. Zelensky said in his overnight address.... The United Nations warned on Saturday that closures of ports on the Black Sea, which normally export grain feeding 400 million people, could trigger a global food catastrophe yielding starvation, mass migration and political instability. Germany's energy minister has called on citizens to cut back their energy consumption, by drawing curtains and lowering their home temperatures, as part of a national effort to reduce dependence on Russian fossil fuels." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "... officials in the capital Kyiv and the western city of Lviv reported explosions Saturday. Moscow has withdrawn its forces from those regions to focus on eastern Ukraine, but airstrikes have continued. Russian forces were continuing to gather around the eastern city of Izyum, farther inland from Mariupol, where significant gains have not materialized from small attacks, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War, which said it was unclear whether the forces there were simply yet to be bolstered or if they were 'setting conditions for a larger-scale, better-coordinated offensive' soon.... Another Russian general, Maj. Gen. Vladimir Frolov of the 8th Army, died in battle in Ukraine, the governor of St. Petersburg said.... Washington Post journalists who spent seven days on the ground in Bucha documented how for nearly a month in March, the Ukrainian city's streets became a theater of Russian sadism amid mounting frustration over the Kremlin's battlefield losses." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian has a summary report here.

Karen DeYoung & Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "Nearly two months into Vladimir Putin's brutal assault on Ukraine, the Biden administration and its European allies have begun planning for a far different world, in which they no longer try to coexist and cooperate with Russia, but actively seek to isolate and weaken it as a matter of long-term strategy. At NATO and the European Union, and at the State Department, the Pentagon and allied ministries, blueprints are being drawn up to enshrine new policies across virtually every aspect of the West's posture toward Moscow, from defense and finance to trade and international diplomacy. Outrage is most immediately directed at Putin himself, who President Biden said last month 'can't remain in power.' While 'we don't say regime change,' said a senior E.U. diplomat, 'it is difficult to imagine a stable scenario with Putin acting the way he is.'"

David Stern, et al., of the Washington Post: "Deadly attacks rocked numerous cities and leveled buildings across Ukraine on Saturday, serving as ominous signals of how close destruction remains even in areas where Russian forces have recently pulled out. Russia moved ever closer to controlling the already-devastated port city of Mariupol as its invasion of Ukraine continued into its eighth week. In Russian-occupied Kherson, satellite imagery that showed the digging of hundreds of fresh grave plots held haunting symbolism of the fate of civilians there." MB: We seem to be moving from war crimes to genocide to annihilation.

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "[Investigative] journalist Jane Mayer [of the New Yorker] has a bombshell new report on a dark money group that [built] a 'slime machine' attacking President Joe Biden's nominees. Mayer broke down how Republicans attacked Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as 'pro-pedophile' with QAnon adjacent attacks. She wrote 'the fierce campaign against her was concerning, in part because it was spearheaded by a new conservative dark-money group that was created in 2020: the American Accountability Foundation.... Rather than attack a single candidate or nominee, the A.A.F. aims to thwart the entire Biden slate. The obstructionism, like the Republican blockade of Biden's legislative agenda in Congress, is the end in itself. The group hosts a Web site, bidennoms.com, that displays the photographs of Administration nominees it has targeted, as though they were hunting trophies,' Mayer [wrote].... The organization is led by [Ted Jones,] a former top staffer to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). [Mayer wrote,] 'When I asked Jones for an interview, through the A.A.F.'s online portal, he replied, 'Ms. Meyers ... Go pound sand.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Technically, Tom, you ignorant slimeball, I don't believe women can "pound sand." Mayer's story, which is firewalled, is here. Tom Sullivan, in Hullabaloo, publishes some more bits from Mayer's report, including how "that Vanderbilt- and Oxford-educated, faux-hayseed Sen. [John] Kennedy (R-La.)" availed himself of A.A.F.'s services to slime Saule Omarova, President Biden's nominee for Comptroller of the Currency. Omarova withdrew from consideration after Kennedy repeatedly accused her of being a Russian communist.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama Gubernatorial Race. Kyle Whitmire of AL.com: "Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James has attacked an LGBTQ-friendly charter school for hosting a drag show, calling it 'vile' and 'evil.' Only when he was a student at Baylor School, he was part of a drag show, too," as a photo from his high school yearbook shows. James himself was not in drag in the photo, but he stood with some of his teammates who were. In general, Whitmire isn't much of a fan of James. He writes, "Until now, James has struggled against a public perception that he's not that bright. In a failed 2010 campaign for governor, he ran strange commercials in which he meandered from room to room in a house saying kinda racist things about how immigrants should speak English in between unusually long pauses. It was the pauses that turned the ads into a target for viral online parodies.... If you wrote a fictionalized version of Alabama politics, James is the sort of character a lazy writer might come up with."

Florida. Abigail Weinberg of Mother Jones: "Florida has a new addition to the long, absurd list of topics it considers too 'woke' to tolerate: math textbooks. When vetting math books for K -- 12 classes, the state education commissioner rejected 41 percent of submissions because of 'references to Critical Race Theory (CRT), inclusions of Common Core, and the unsolicited addition of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) in mathematics,' the state announced yesterday in a press release titled, 'Florida Rejects Publishers' Attempts to Indoctrinate Students.' The press release does not provide any examples of the offending material, but it does say that 54 of 132 submitted textbooks were rejected, including 71 percent of materials proposed for grades K-5." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie's PS: Apparently the dictionary is another book that is too "woke" for people in Florida's Department of Education to consult, causing them to put out a press release that confuses "tenants" with "tenets."

Kansas. Andrew Bahl of the Topeka Capital-Journal: "Gov. Laura Kelly [D] vetoed Friday a so-called 'parents' bill of rights,' designed to increase the ability for parents to inspect and review curriculum used in classrooms. The measure has been fiercely opposed by educators as overly burdensome, though the proposal that hit Kelly's desk, Senate Bill 58, was less restrictive than other options that were considered in the Legislature. Still, Kelly previously called the bill a 'teacher demoralization act' and said in her veto message that it was 'about politics, not parents.' She added the bill would cause division when Democrats and Republicans should be working to ensure the state's schools are fully funded.... Kansas' bill would have required school districts develop policies allowing parents to be informed of what is being taught in their child's classroom and letting them examine lesson plans, examinations, textbooks and other course materials.... Parents could also object to activities or materials that violate 'their firmly held beliefs, values or principles' and withdraw their student from participating in those areas."

Oklahoma. A Man with No Shame. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "Scott Pruitt, who led the Environmental Protection Agency until resigning amid a series of ethics scandals in 2018, is launching a Senate bid in Oklahoma. Pruitt, 53, is running to fill the unexpired term of Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who announced in February that he will step down next year. Inhofe handily won reelection in 2020, meaning that whoever wins the November special election for his seat will serve until 2027."

Texas. Rotten Tomatoes. Alicia Wallace & Vanessa Yurkevich of CNN: "A weeklong protest by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott against President Biden's recent immigration policy reached a resolution on Friday, but the gridlock it created has resulted in hundreds of millions of lost dollars and delays in shipments of everything from avocados to automobile parts that will have a longer-term impact.... Abbott's [protest], which Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller [R] criticized as 'political theater,' ultimately created a logjam of trucks between the US and its largest goods trading partner. Vegetable producers say their produce is spoiling in idling trucks and they are losing hundreds of millions of dollars.... What used to be a routine border crossing turned into a 30-hour wait for some trucks. Meanwhile, the fruits and vegetables in those trucks spoiled, leaving some produce department shelves sparse or empty in advance of the holiday weekend, [Dante L. Galeazzi, CEO ... of the Texas International Produce Association,] said.... Losses to fruit and vegetable producers are estimated to be more than $240 million, said Lance Jungmeyer, president of the Fresh Produce Association of the Americas. Consumers will also pay a price as producers look to recoup some of their losses and supplies run low." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How about dumping those rotten tomatoes at the Texas state capitol and tossing a few at Greg Abbott.

News Ledes

Unsafe Anywhere. Another Saturday Night in Second-Amendment USA. Washington Post: "A shooting early Sunday at a house party in Pittsburgh left two people dead and at least eight injured, city officials said, the latest in a string of high-profile incidents of gun violence that have unfolded across the country in recent days. Police said they responded just after 12:30 a.m. to a property in Pittsburgh's East Allegheny neighborhood, where about 200 people had been attending a party at a house that had been rented via Airbnb. More than 90 rounds were fired inside the house, prompting some partygoers to jump out of windows, Pittsburgh Police Chief Scott E. Schubert said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon." ~~~

~~~ AP: "Authorities in South Carolina say they are investigating shooting at a nightclub in Hampton County early Sunday that left at least nine people injured. It was the second mass shooting in the state over the Easter holiday weekend, and the third in the nation. The South Carolina shootings and one in Pittsburgh that left two minors dead early Sunday at least 31 people injured."

A New York Times report (which is oddly mistitled) provides a moment-by-moment, account of the shooting in the subway train.