February 2, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Oh Dear. Zucker Rhymes with.... Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Jeff Zucker resigned on Wednesday as the president of CNN and the chairman of WarnerMedia's news and sports division, writing in a memo that he had failed to disclose to the company a romantic relationship with another senior executive at CNN. Mr. Zucker, 56, is among the most powerful leaders in the American media and television industries. The abrupt end of his nine-year tenure immediately throws into flux the direction of CNN and its parent company, WarnerMedia, which is expected to be acquired later this year by Discovery Inc. in one of the nation's largest media mergers. In a memo to colleagues that was obtained by The New York Times, Mr. Zucker wrote that his relationship came up during a network investigation into the conduct of Chris Cuomo.... [Mr. Zucker had a relationship with] Allison Gollust..., one of the highest-ranking leaders of the network.... Ms. Gollust said in a statement on Wednesday that she was remaining in her role at CNN." ~~~

     ~~ CNN's report, by Brian Stelter & Oliver Darcy, is here. MB: I don't think Zucker really had to resign. Gollust would have been required to reveal the relationship, too. She didn't, and she's staying. Neither was married & they had worked together for years prior to beginning their relationship, so the so there's no fake "scandal." It all seems perfectly natural to me. Seems to me Zucker is using his failure to report the affair when it began as an excuse to "explore other opportunities."

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who served on the National Security Council and emerged as a star witness against ... Donald Trump during the 2019 Ukraine impeachment, is suing Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and former Trump White House staffers, alleging they conspired against him. Vindman, in a new lawsuit filed in DC District Court, said Trump's family, his lawyers, right-wing media and others in the White House tried to intimidate and retaliate against him because he was willing to testify against the President, calling out Trump's entreaties of Ukraine for his personal political gain. He bluntly called the efforts to intimidate him obstruction. And the lawsuit, articulating over 73 pages Vindman's saga in Trump's first impeachment, aims to capture the plight whistleblowers face after standing up to a powerful political machine."

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Republican senators are unmoved by Tucker Carlson's relentless warpath against support for Ukraine -- even as it widens an existing rift in their party. The Fox News prime time host and others on the far-right have excused and even rationalized Russia's aggression toward Ukraine and downplayed its relevance to U.S. national security. And while GOP senators are shrugging off his name-and-shame campaign, Carlson's views are permeating the GOP base in a way that could undermine Republicans' efforts to emphasize cross-party unity as they seek to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine."

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden is dispatching additional U.S. military personnel to Eastern Europe at the recommendation of the Pentagon, and about 3,000 service members are expected to deploy in the coming days, U.S. officials said Wednesday. The deployments of U.S. troops from Germany and Fort Bragg, N.C., are temporary moves intended to reassure NATO allies, according to two U.S. officials in Washington who spoke on the condition of anonymity ahead of a formal Pentagon announcement. The moves reflect concerns that Russia is preparing to invade Ukraine, and other service members could also be ordered to go and remain on a heightened alert status, the officials said." An AP report is here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Biden will unveil a plan on Wednesday to reduce the death rate from cancer by at least 50 percent over the next 25 years -- an ambitious new goal, senior administration officials say, for the cancer 'moonshot' program he initiated and presided over five years ago as vice president. Mr. Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, will also announce a campaign to urge Americans to undergo screenings that were missed during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the officials...."

Groundhog Day News. As previously reported in today's Comments, Amanda Watts of CNN also reports, "Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow Wednesday, meaning that if you believe in a groundhog's ability to predict the weather -- we're in for six more weeks of winter."

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Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Vladimir Putin hit back publicly against the West on Tuesday, accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow's security concerns.The Russian leader, speaking in Moscow during in a news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the Kremlin was studying U.S. and NATO replies to recent Kremlin proposals seeking to check NATO military activity in the region...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Yesterday, the New York Times was liveblogging developments. The front-page headline on the liveblog was kinda perfect: "Putin accuses U.S. of stoking war in Ukraine as Russia masses troops." It's so Trumpian. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has pledged to no longer invoke statements made by a prisoner [-- Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi man ... accused of plotting Al Qaeda's suicide bombing of the U.S. Navy destroyer Cole --] during his years in C.I.A. custody in his death-penalty proceedings, repudiating an earlier effort to use evidence obtained from torture in a case at Guantánamo Bay.... A 37-page filing submitted Monday night at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the law governing military commission trials at Guantánamo Bay 'prohibits the admission of statements obtained through torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment at all phases of a military commission.' The filing, however, did not entirely foreclose the possibility that a future U.S. government might choose to ... use evidence obtained through torture. Instead, the Justice Department asked the appeals court to step aside and let military judges at Guantánamo Bay decide the question as it comes up."

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, will serve as a guide for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee during the Senate confirmation process, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Mr. Jones, who left the Senate in 2021 and was on a short list to serve as Mr. Biden's attorney general, will be a so-called Senate sherpa for Mr. Biden's nominee." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "A series of new remarks by Donald J. Trump about the aftermath of the 2020 election and new disclosures about his actions in trying to forestall its result -- including discussing the use of the national security apparatus to seize voting machines -- have stripped away any pretense that the events of Jan. 6, 2021, were anything but the culmination of the former president's single-minded pursuit of retaining power.... Historians say the episodes have newly underscored the fragility of the nation's democratic systems.... In the year since [Mr. Trump] left office, he has systematically tried to remove those who were obstacles to him in 2020 and its aftermath: seeking to drive out of office the Republicans who voted to impeach him..., recruiting challengers to Republican officials who certified the 2020 vote, and backing new candidates to serve as election administrators and legislators in key states."

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "The House Jan. 6 committee is scrutinizing ... Donald J. Trump's involvement in proposals to seize voting machines after the 2020 election, including efforts to create a legal basis for directing national security agencies to take such an extreme action, according to three people with knowledge of the committee's activities.... The panel for weeks has been studying the actions of Michael T. Flynn, a former national security adviser to Mr. Trump who investigators say was involved in discussions about seizing voting machines, declaring a national emergency and invoking certain national security emergency powers, including during a meeting in the Oval Office on Dec. 18. Mr. Flynn also gave an interview to the right-wing media site Newsmax a day earlier in which he talked about the purported precedent for deploying military troops and declaring martial law to 'rerun' the election." The report goes into some detail about related hairbrained schemes presented by individuals who got into the White House by more-or-less putting a foot between the front door & the jamb. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's unclear from this report & a Times report linked yesterday just what the Trumpies planned to do with the purloined voting machines. According to one scenario, Trump would oversee an "audit" of the machines & vote totals, "justified" by the baseless conspiracy theory "that Chinese officials, international shell companies and the financier George Soros had conspired to hack into Dominion's machines in ... a 'globalist/socialist' plot to steal the election."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: In a new "statement Tuesday, [Donald] Trump took renewed aim at the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it was filled with 'political hacks, liars, and traitors.' Trump said a better focus for the committee would be 'why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'" The Post reporters call this "a more nuanced take" on Trump's recent statement in which he said pence should have overturned the election. MB: I call it attempt to wriggle out of a written confession. (Also linked yesterday.)

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Rep. Pete Aguilar, a member of the House Jan. 6 select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, on Wednesday said ... Donald Trump 'absolutely' was tampering with the panel's witnesses by discussing potential pardons for defendants charged in relation to the attack. 'I think the question is more for my colleagues on the other side of the aisle. Where are they? Do they support this? When is enough enough?' Aguilar (D-Calif.) said in an interview on CNN.... Trump has repeatedly suggested in recent days that he may pardon the Capitol rioters or other people associated with the insurrection if he wins a second term as president."

Ellis Kim & Rebecca Kaplan of CBS News: "Greg Jacob, who served as then-Vice President Pence's chief counsel, is the latest member of the former vice president's team to speak with the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.... Jacob spoke to the committee behind closed doors for about eight and a half hours, including lunch and other breaks.... According to The Washington Post, Jacob was with Short and Pence in the Capitol on January 6 as pro-Trump rioters overtook the building and they were forced to evacuate to a safe location within the Capitol complex.... Jacob reportedly clashed with Trump attorney John Eastman over the legal authority of the vice president to overturn the election during Congress' counting of the electoral votes."

Jonathan Karl, et al., of ABC News: "Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany turned over text messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the investigation.... McEnany, who was at work in the White House and around ... Donald Trump before and during the Capitol attack, was subpoenaed by the panel for records and testimony in November, and turned over text messages to committee investigators." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Everything Will Be Okay; Susan Collins Is Concerned. Lisa Mascaro & Farnoush Amiri of the AP: "Donald Trump's relentless, false claims about the 2020 presidential election have sparked fresh urgency in Congress -- and in both parties -- for changing the Electoral Count Act to ensure no one can undo a future presidential election. Lawmakers are working furiously to update the 135-year-old law that was put in place in the aftermath of the Civil War and came perilously close to unraveling on Jan. 6, 2021.... Trump continues to insist the vice president 'could have overturned the election' -- a deeply troubling development as the former president considers another White House run. 'President Trump's comments underscored the need for us to revise the Electoral Count Act, because they demonstrated the confusion in the law and the fact that it is ambiguous,' Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, told reporters at the Capitol.... A bipartisan group led by Collins, the rare and frequent Republican Trump critic, has been meeting behind closed doors and hopes to present a draft as soon as this week.... Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday he's open to the effort, as he also rejected the idea Trump floated at a weekend rally of pardoning people who have been criminally charged in the deadly riot at the Capitol."

Chris Cameron & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Senator Ben Ray Luján, Democrat of New Mexico, suffered a stroke last week and is expected to make a full recovery, his chief of staff said on Tuesday.... Mr. Luján's office did not say how long he might be out, but with Senate Democrats' fragile 50-50 majority, a prolonged absence from a member who caucuses with Democrats is likely to imperil, or at least delay, Democratic legislation or presidential appointments that come to the Senate floor without Republican support. Several Democrats said on Tuesday that they were relieved that Mr. Luján would recover, but declined to comment on the political implications of Mr. Luján's stroke...." Politico's story is here.

Sinema's "Gusher of Fossil Fuel Donations." Peter Stone of the Guardian: "With a crucial vote pending over filibuster rules that would have made strong voting rights legislation feasible, Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema flew into Houston, Texas, for a fundraiser that drew dozens of fossil fuel chieftains.... Sinema ... informed a mostly Republican crowd that they could 'rest assured' she would not back any changes with filibuster rules.... The Arizona senator also addressed some energy industry issues according to the executive, who added that overall he was 'tremendously impressed'.... The Houston gusher of fossil fuel donations for Sinema from many stalwart Republican donors underscores how pivotal she has become...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "America's gross national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, an ominous fiscal milestone that underscores the fragile nature of the country's long-term economic health as it grapples with soaring prices and the prospect of higher interest rates. The breach of that threshold, which was revealed in new Treasury Department figures, arrived years earlier than previously projected as a result of trillions in federal spending that the United States has deployed to combat the pandemic. That $5 trillion, which funded expanded jobless benefits, financial support for small businesses and stimulus payments, was financed with borrowed money."

Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "The surveillance company NSO Group offered to give representatives of an American mobile-security firm [Mobileum] 'bags of cash' in exchange for access to global cellular networks, according to a whistleblower who has described the encounter in confidential disclosures to the Justice Department that have been reviewed by The Washington Post.... In a statement, NSO said that it had 'never done any business with' Mobileum, and that it 'does not do business using cash as a form of payment' and is not 'aware of any DOJ investigation.'... [According to whistleblower & former Mobileum VP Gary Miller, in a 2017 conference call, NSO] officials made clear ... that they wanted access to SS7 so NSO's clients could conduct surveillance of cellphone users to investigate crimes.... When one of Mobileum's representatives pointed out that security companies do not ordinarily offer services to surveillance companies and asked how such an arrangement would work, NSO co-founder Omri Lavie allegedly said, 'We drop bags of cash at your office.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: NSO's denial is a non-denial. If representatives of two companies meet & don't strike a deal, then it's fair to say they have "not done business with each other." There's no reason to think the remark about "dropping bags of cash" was intended to be taken literally; rather, it was likely a metaphor for some other means of illicit payoff, so stating the company doesn't "use cash as a form of payment" is meaningless. As for being "unaware of a DOJ investigation," the DOJ doesn't usually give a heads-up to a target early on.

This Doesn't Look Good. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "Chinese drone maker DJI, a leading supplier of drones to U.S. law enforcement, obscured its Chinese government funding while claiming that Beijing had not invested in the firm, according to a Washington Post review of company reports and articles posted on the sites of state-owned and -controlled investors, as well as analysis by IPVM, a video surveillance research group.... Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes DJI's equipment for use on U.S. communications networks, labeled reports of the links as 'deeply concerning' in an interview. The FCC proposed changes last year that could severely limit access to U.S. markets for companies deemed a national security risk. Scrutiny of DJI comes as the company is already facing action by U.S. regulators over its ties to Beijing's security apparatus." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their 'Full Self-Driving' software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt. Recall documents posted Tuesday by U.S. safety regulators say that Tesla will disable the feature with an over-the-internet software update. The 'rolling stop' feature allows vehicles to go through intersections with all-way stop signs at up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) per hour. The recall shows that Tesla programmed its vehicles to violate the law in most states, where police will ticket drivers for disregarding stop signs." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perfectly understandable. Teslas are manufactured in California. Making a rolling stop is so common in California, it's called a "California stop." Seriously, breaking safety laws is apparently what Tesla engineers do for fun. From the AP report: "Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association, said he's not surprised that Tesla programmed vehicles to violate state laws. 'They keep pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with, and they've really been pushing a lot,' he said."

Alisha Ebrahimji, et al., of CNN: "A growing number of historically Black colleges and universities have had to lock down or postpone classes due to bomb threats on the first day of Black History Month. At least 14 HBCUs reported bomb threats Tuesday. At least one of them, Howard University, also received a bomb threat Monday."

Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Whoopi Goldberg has been suspended from ABC's talk show 'The View' for two weeks after claiming on the show that the Holocaust was 'not about race' but rather 'about man's inhumanity to man' -- comments that sparked widespread outrage from viewers and members of the Jewish community.... 'Racism was central to Nazi ideology,' the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum tweeted Monday. 'Jews were not defined by religion, but by race. Nazi racist beliefs fueled genocide and mass murder.'... Late Monday, Goldberg apologized.... There is some debate over how to best define Judaism and Jewishness today. The Anne Frank House has previously written: 'Jews are not a race, and categorizing people according to race is wrong and dangerous. Even so, some people still believe in the concept. If it is the basis for their hatred of Jews, it is undoubtedly racist.'" A Hollywood Reporter story is here.

Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Nearly two years after dropping its longtime name and logo under pressure, the Washington Football Team announced it would rebrand as the Commanders, in a nod to the region's links to the armed forces. The name [was] announced on NBC's 'Today' show on Wednesday.... The team for years faced calls from fans, sponsors and Native American groups to drop the previous franchise name, which had long been considered a racial slur of Native Americans.... But in July 2020, following the murder of George Floyd by the police, and a national debate that followed over the treatment of nonwhite people, [team owner Daniel] Snyder relented and discarded the name 'Redskins,' which had stood for 87 years." The Washington Post is liveblogging this earth-shaking news.

The Pandemic, Ctd., Brought to You by Republicans

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.

Benjamin Mueller & Eleanor Lutz of the New York Times: "Two years into the pandemic, the coronavirus is killing Americans at far higher rates than people in other wealthy nations.... Deaths have now surpassed the worst days of the autumn surge of the Delta variant, and are more than two-thirds as high as the record tolls of last winter, when vaccines were largely unavailable.... Despite having one of the world's most powerful arsenals of vaccines, the country has failed to vaccinate as many people as other large, wealthy nations. Crucially, vaccination rates in older people also lag behind certain European nations. The United States has fallen even further behind in administering booster shots, leaving large numbers of vulnerable people with fading protection as Omicron sweeps across the country." ~~~

~~~ Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A new study of pandemic preparedness across 177 countries and territories appears to have found a key element ... [to] success: trust.... Better outcomes appear to have gone hand in hand with high levels of trust in government and other citizens. Perception of government corruption was correlated with worse outcomes.... Multiple polls have shown that the United States has relatively low levels of trust in government compared with other high-income countries and high levels of political polarization."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states' National Guard troops. The rejection -- sent to the governors of Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming, who have all sought to allow their guard troops to refuse the vaccine without consequences -- sets the stage for a potential legal battle.... Federal officials have long said that governors have no legal standing to allow Guard members to refuse to comply with the military's vaccine mandate. State officials and some legal experts, however, believe that unless National Guard members are federally deployed, they are under the jurisdiction of the governor of their state and therefore not subject to federal mandates." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Republican candidates for governor and the state Senate in Michigan are drawing scrutiny for suggesting that poll workers unplug voting machines if they suspect fraud and that people should 'show up armed' to protect GOP election observers' access to ballot counting. The comments by Ryan D. Kelley, a gubernatorial candidate, and Mike Detmer, a state Senate candidate, were made at an event over the weekend in Livingston County, Mich., and captured on video that has since circulated widely on social media.... Detmer ... was asked what could be done to 'protect' Republican election observers at the venue in Detroit where absentee ballots were counted after the 2020 presidential election. 'The ideal thing is to do this peacefully,' Detmer said. '... But the American people, at some point in time, if we can't change the tide, which I believe we can, we need to be prepared to lock and load... You asked what can we do. Show up armed.'... [In a text exchange with the Detroit News Monday, Detmer wrote,] 'That's what the 2nd Amendment is for.... Worst case ... lock and load.'... Their comments also came swiftly to the attention of Michigan's top election official, Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, both Democrats. Benson on Monday referred both men's comments to Nessel's office." The Detroit News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What these mainstream Republicans are saying is that Black people (i.e., Detroit residents & officials) cheat and/or their votes are inherently invalid, so good (white) Republicans may have to resort to deadly violence & election tampering to get a fair(-complexioned) election outcome. Oh, did I mention, Donald Trump endorsed Detmer.

Ohio. Reid Wilson of the Hill: "Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose (R) has referred just 27 potential instances of illegal votes cast in the 2020 presidential election to state and local prosecutors for investigation, an indication of what he called a secure election two years ago.... More than 5.9 million registered voters cast ballots in the 2020 elections in Ohio, setting the rate of potential fraud -- assuming all of the 27 cases are in fact fraud -- at just 0.0005 percent. 'Our state is proof positive you don't have to choose between secure or convenient elections -- we have both,' LaRose said. 'In Ohio, easy to vote and hard to cheat aren't mutually exclusive....'... LaRose has been among the Republicans who defended the integrity of the 2020 elections even in the face of former President Trump's repeated efforts to distract from his own loss with a series of disproven conspiracy theories and outright lies."

Texas. Mike Hixenbaugh of NBC News: "... books ... have been vanishing from the shelves of Katy Independent School District [Houston area] libraries the past few months ... -- all coming-of-age stories that prominently feature LGBTQ characters and passages about sex. Some titles were removed after parents formally complained, but others were quietly banned by the district without official reviews.... Hundreds of titles have been pulled from libraries across the state for review, sometimes over the objections of school librarians, several of whom told NBC News they face increasingly hostile work environments and mounting pressure to pre-emptively pull books that might draw complaints." Among the books parents have asked to be removed are biographies of Michelle Obama & Olympian Wilma Rudolph because they referred to racism. One parent suggested books about racism be replaced by copies of the Christian Bible. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most public libraries carry newspapers & news magazines & provide access to archived editions. Soon enough, it will dawn on "concerned citizens" that MSM outlets like the New Yawk Times are chock-full of stories that cause "discomfort." I predict demands to ban MSM newspapers & magazines will be next.

Virginia. Yacob Reyes of Axios: "A Virginia state Senate panel voted 9-6 along party lines Tuesday to block former Trump EPA head Andrew Wheeler from joining Gov. Glenn Youngkin's Cabinet as secretary of natural resources.... The majority-Democratic Privileges and Elections Committee voted to remove Wheeler's name from a resolution to approve Youngkin's cabinet picks. But Republicans could still approve Wheeler's nomination with the support of at least one Democrat in the full Senate.... At least one Democrat, state Sen. Joe Morrissey, told Courthouse News he would be open to voting in favor of Wheeler."

Virginia, et al. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post cites excerpts from a textbook "Virginia: History, Government, Geography" by Francis Butler Simkins which Milbank sees as a good candidate for "Glenn Youngkin's No-Guilt History of Virginia for Fragile White People." The views presented in the book are something to behold: "A feeling of strong affection existed between masters and slaves in a majority of Virginia homes.... Most [Negroes] were treated with kindness.... The tasks of each [house slave] were light.... Those Negroes who went to Liberia .. were homesick. Many longed to get back to the plantations.... Life among the Negroes of Virginia in slavery times was generally happy." If you have a WashPo subscription, read the whole column. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Having grown up in the South, I vaguely remember hearing or reading similar accounts of lucky-ducky slaves. Since this is not what I would have heard at home, I must have heard or read it in school.

February 1, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Vladimir Putin hit back publicly against the West on Tuesday, accusing the United States and NATO of using Ukraine to hem in Russia and ignoring Moscow's security concerns. The Russian leader, speaking in Moscow during in a news conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said the Kremlin was studying U.S. and NATO replies to recent Kremlin proposals seeking to check NATO military activity in the region...." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments. The front-page headline on the liveblog is kinda perfect: "Putin accuses U.S. of stoking war in Ukraine as Russia masses troops." It's so Trumpian.

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator from Alabama, will serve as a guide for President Biden's Supreme Court nominee during the Senate confirmation process, two senior administration officials said on Tuesday. Mr. Jones, who left the Senate in 2021 and was on a short list to serve as Mr. Biden's attorney general, will be a so-called Senate sherpa for Mr. Biden's nominee."

Jonathan Karl, et al., of ABC News: "Former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany turned over text messages to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to a source familiar with the investigation.... McEnany, who was at work in the White House and around ... Donald Trump before and during the Capitol attack, was subpoenaed by the panel for records and testimony in November, and turned over text messages to committee investigators."

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: In a new “statement Tuesday, [Donald] Trump took renewed aim at the House select committee examining the Jan. 6 insurrection, saying it was filled with 'political hacks, liars, and traitors.' Trump said a better focus for the committee would be 'why Mike Pence did not send back the votes for recertification or approval, in that it has now been shown that he clearly had the right to do so!'" The Post reporters call this "a more nuanced take" on Trump's recent statement in which he said pence should have overturned the election. MB: I call it attempt to wriggle out of a written confession.

Sinema's "Gusher of Fossil Fuel Donations." Peter Stone of the Guardian: "With a crucial vote pending over filibuster rules that would have made strong voting rights legislation feasible, Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema flew into Houston, Texas, for a fundraiser that drew dozens of fossil fuel chieftains.... Sinema ... informed a mostly Republican crowd that they could 'rest assured' she would not back any changes with filibuster rules.... The Arizona senator also addressed some energy industry issues according to the executive, who added that overall he was 'tremendously impressed'.... The Houston gusher of fossil fuel donations for Sinema from many stalwart Republican donors underscores how pivotal she has become...."

This Doesn't Look Good. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "Chinese drone maker DJI, a leading supplier of drones to U.S. law enforcement, obscured its Chinese government funding while claiming that Beijing had not invested in the firm, according to a Washington Post review of company reports and articles posted on the sites of state-owned and -controlled investors, as well as analysis by IPVM, a video surveillance research group.... Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, which authorizes DJI's equipment for use on U.S. communications networks, labeled reports of the links as 'deeply concerning' in an interview. The FCC proposed changes last year that could severely limit access to U.S. markets for companies deemed a national security risk. Scrutiny of DJI comes as the company is already facing action by U.S. regulators over its ties to Beijing's security apparatus."

Jennifer Steinhauer of the New York Times: "Lloyd J. Austin III, the defense secretary, has written a letter to seven Republican governors, rejecting their requests for exemptions from coronavirus vaccination mandates for their states' National Guard troops. The rejection -- sent to the governors of Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska and Wyoming, who have all sought to allow their guard troops to refuse the vaccine without consequences -- sets the stage for a potential legal battle.... Federal officials have long said that governors have no legal standing to allow Guard members to refuse to comply with the military's vaccine mandate. State officials and some legal experts, however, believe that unless National Guard members are federally deployed, they are under the jurisdiction of the governor of their state and therefore not subject to federal mandates."

Tom Krisher of the AP: "Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their 'Full Self-Driving' software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt. Recall documents posted Tuesday by U.S. safety regulators say that Tesla will disable the feature with an over-the-internet software update. The 'rolling stop' feature allows vehicles to go through intersections with all-way stop signs at up to 5.6 miles (9 kilometers) per hour. The recall shows that Tesla programmed its vehicles to violate the law in most states, where police will ticket drivers for disregarding stop signs." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Perfectly understandable. Teslas are manufactured in California. Making a rolling stop is so common in California, it's called a "California stop." Seriously, breaking safety laws is apparently what Tesla engineers do for fun. From the AP report: "Jonathan Adkins, executive director of the governors safety association, said he's not surprised that Tesla programmed vehicles to violate state laws. 'They keep pushing the bounds of safety to see what they can get away with, and they've really been pushing a lot,' he said."

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The New York Times is running a liveblog on the Russia/Ukraine crisis. ~~~

~~~ Rachel Pannett of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken will speak with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday in a bid to defuse tensions over the Ukraine crisis, just hours after U.S. and Russian diplomats squared off at the United Nations in one of the most confrontational international meetings in years.... Leaders from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Turkey and Canada are currently in Ukraine or planning to visit in the coming days. 'We continue to engage in nonstop diplomacy and to de-escalate tensions and attempt like the devil to improve security for our allies and partners and for all of Europe, for that matter,' President Biden told reporters Monday." ~~~

~~~ John Hudson & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "The Russian government has delivered a written response to a U.S. proposal aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis, said a U.S. official.... The delivery of the response comes as the Biden administration continues a delicate dance that seeks to keep Russia at the diplomatic table without conceding to any of its core demands.... The official declined to provide details about the proposal, delivered ahead of a phone call between Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday." A CBS News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Rick Gladstone & Maria Varenikova of the New York Times: "The United States and Russia bitterly attacked each other over the Ukraine crisis in a diplomatic brawl Monday at the U.N. Security Council, in a session replete with acidic exchanges that could have been lifted from the Cold War era. The Americans, backed by their Western allies, accused Russia of endangering peace and destabilizing global security by massing more than 100,000 troops on Ukraine's borders, while Kremlin diplomats dismissed what they called baseless and hysterical U.S. fear-mongering aimed at weakening Russia and provoking armed conflict." ~~~

     ~~~ Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia angrily denounced the United States Monday for 'whipping up hysteria' over Ukraine, saying it had brought 'pure Nazis' to power on Russia's border and wanted to make 'heroes out of those peoples who fought on the side of Hitler.' In a blistering attack at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the United States itself was 'provoking escalation' of the situation by falsely charging Moscow with preparing to invade Ukraine.... With the support of only China, the Russians forced a vote at the beginning of the U.S.-called meeting on whether to hold the session behind closed doors.... But the majority of the 15-member council voted to proceed with the public session...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Scrap Your Plans for a Belarus Vacay. Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "The US State Department on Monday ordered family members of employees at the US Embassy in Belarus to depart the country and warned American citizens against travel there due to an 'unusual and concerning Russian military buildup' along Belarus' border with Ukraine." Here's the State Department's advisory.

David Sanger, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States and its European allies appear on the cusp of restoring the deal that limited Iran's nuclear program, Biden administration officials said on Monday, but cautioned that it is now up to the new government in Tehran to decide whether, after months of negotiations, it is willing to dismantle much of its nuclear production equipment in return for sanctions relief. Speaking to reporters in Washington, a senior State Department official signaled that negotiations had reached a point where political leaders needed to decide whether they would agree to key elements of an accord that would essentially return to the 2015 deal that ... Donald J. Trump discarded four years ago, over the objections of many of his key advisers." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The history of 21st-century America is of Democratic presidents coming into office with the tremendous burden of undoing the messes created by their Republican predecessors.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Venezuelans taken into custody along the U.S. southern border will be sent to Colombia under a new attempt by the Biden administration to contend with spiking numbers of migrants arriving from nations around the world. Venezuelans have crossed into the United States in recent months in record numbers, typically after flying to a Mexican border city and walking across to surrender to American authorities. U.S. Customs and Border Protection stopped 24,819 Venezuelans in December, up from 206 a year earlier. The Department of Homeland Security said Monday that it will begin returning Venezuelans to Colombia if they had previously resettled in that country, expelling them from the United States under the pandemic-era health authority known as Title 42. The emergency provision allows authorities to bypass immigration proceedings without affording asylum seekers a chance to seek protection under U.S. law."

** Trump Planned the Coup. Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "... new accounts show that [Donald] Trump was more directly involved than previously known in exploring proposals to use his national security agencies to seize voting machines as he grasped unsuccessfully for evidence of fraud that would help him reverse his defeat in the 2020 election, according to people familiar with the episodes.... Six weeks after Election Day..., directed his lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, to ... ask the Department of Homeland Security if it could legally take control of voting machines in key swing states, three people familiar with the matter said. Mr. Giuliani did so, calling the department's acting deputy secretary [Kenneth Cuccinelli], who said he lacked the authority to audit or impound the machines. Mr. Trump pressed Mr. Giuliani to make that inquiry after rejecting a separate effort by his outside advisers to have the Pentagon take control of the machines. And the outreach to the Department of Homeland Security came not long after Mr. Trump, in an Oval Office meeting with Attorney General William P. Barr, raised the possibility of whether the Justice Department could seize the machines, a previously undisclosed suggestion that Mr. Barr immediately shot down...." ~~~

~~~ "Even Mr. Giuliani, who had spent weeks peddling some of the most outrageous claims about election fraud, felt that the idea of bringing in the military was beyond the pale. After Mr. Flynn and Ms. Powell left the Oval Office, according to a person familiar with the matter, Mr. Giuliani predicted that the plans they were proposing were going to get Mr. Trump impeached." MB: Now how often will you read a story where Rudy Giuliani & Ken Cuccinelli are the voices of reason? Such an occasion apparently requires as a predicate an idea dreamed up or promoted by Michael Flynn.

     ~~~ Zachary Cohen & Paul Reid of CNN: "... Donald Trump's advisers drafted two versions of an executive order to seize voting machines -- one directing the Department of Defense to do so and another the Department of Homeland Security -- as part of a broader effort to undermine the 2020 election results, multiple sources tell CNN. The idea of using the federal government to access voting machines in states that Trump lost was the brainchild of retired Col. Phil Waldron and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, the sources said.... It's unclear who drafted the executive orders, and neither was issued." ~~~

~~~ Then Trump Tore up Records of the Coup. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "When the National Archives and Records Administration handed over a trove of documents to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, some of the Trump White House records had been ripped up and then taped back together, according to three people familiar with the records.... Donald Trump was known inside the White House for his unusual and potentially unlawful habit of tearing presidential records into shreds and tossing them on the floor -- creating a headache for records management analysts who meticulously used Scotch tape to piece together fragments of paper that were sometimes as small as confetti, as Politico reported in 2018..., despite the Presidential Records Act -- which requires the preservation of memos, letters, notes, emails, faxes and other written communications related to a president's official duties.... The National Archives on Monday took the unusual step of confirming the habit, saying in a statement that records turned over from the Trump White House 'included paper records that had been torn up by former President Trump.'" A CNN story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Finally, as we know, Trump claimed executive privilege to try to keep the records from being turned over to the January 6 committee. Trump's suit was unsuccessful, of course, no thanks to Clarence Thomas. ~~~

~~~ My Wife Made Me Do It. Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Ginni Thomas's name stood out among the signatories of a December letter from conservative leaders, which blasted the work of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection as 'overtly partisan political persecution.' One month later, her husband, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, took part in a case crucial to the same committee's work: ... Donald Trump's request to block the committee from getting White House records that were ordered released by President Biden and two lower courts. Thomas was the only justice to say he would grant Trump's request. That vote has reignited fury among Clarence Thomas's critics, who say it illustrates a gaping hole in the court's rules: Justices essentially decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Thomas has rarely made such a choice in his three decades on the court.... Thomas has never bowed out of a case due to alleged conflicts with his wife's activism, according to [Gabe] Roth [of Fix the Court]."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Marc Short, who served as chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, testified privately last week before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, the latest turn in weeks of negotiations between the panel's investigators and Mr. Pence's team. Mr. Short appeared in response to a subpoena from the committee, according to three people with knowledge of the developments, making him the most senior person around Mr. Pence who is known to have cooperated in the inquiry.... Mr. Short was with Mr. Pence on Jan. 6 as a mob of Mr. Trump's supporters attacked the Capitol, and has firsthand knowledge of the effort by Mr. Trump and his allies to try to persuade the former vice president to throw out legitimate electoral votes for Joseph R. Biden Jr. in favor of fake slates of pro-Trump electors." CNN's story, by Jamie Gangel & others, is here. CNN apparently broke the story.

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The House of Representatives' top lawyer accused John Eastman, a key legal adviser to ... Donald Trump, of dragging out his response to a House subpoena and frustrating a House panel's efforts to investigate Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. During a hearing before a federal judge overseeing a lawsuit Eastman brought to prevent his former employer, Chapman University, from turning over more than 94,000 pages of emails to the House panel, House General Counsel Douglas Letter said Eastman was seeking to 'defeat' the subpoena by reviewing the earliest subpoenaed records first rather than those from around the time of the Electoral College showdown in Congress on Jan. 6, 2021.... The House has asked Eastman to prioritize emails from between Jan. 4 and Jan 7, 2021.... [But] 'The subpoena did not specify a prioritization order,' [Judge David] Carter said."

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "The Georgia prosecutor looking into ... Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results is asking the FBI for protection after Trump called for protests of the 'racist prosecutors' investigating him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to the FBI's Atlanta field office on Sunday requesting that the bureau conduct a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center, as well as provide protective resources, including 'intelligence and federal agents' as her office ramps up its own investigation of the former president."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Tim Miller in the Bulwark: "... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Concerned) was asked on ABC's This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024. She demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer, but whom she -- of course -- did not name. She was rewarded a few hours later with the former president attacking her for not having given his coup attempt a full-throated endorsement.... If someone as politically safe as Collins won&'t stick her neck out, what hope is there that a meaningful group of others will find the mettle not just to privately hope for an alternative but to wage a vigorous, scorched-earth campaign on behalf of the alternative?" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) MB: Hey, Susan, let's ask Liz Cheney, who has been studying Trump's behavior, what she thinks about a Trump resurrection. ~~~

~~~ Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., on Monday warned that ... Donald Trump's suggestion at a weekend rally that he might pardon those who have been convicted of crimes related to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol shows he would 'do it all again.' 'Trump uses language he knows caused the Jan 6 violence; suggests he'd pardon the Jan 6 defendants, some of whom have been charged with seditious conspiracy; threatens prosecutors; and admits he was attempting to overturn the election,' Cheney tweeted. 'He'd do it all again if given the chance.'"

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Calling Donald Trump's promise to pardon Capitol rioters at a Texas rally 'worse than Watergate,' conservative Matt Lewis warned that the former president is dangerously close to opening the door to a wave of violence if his supporters believe he will have their back should they be arrested. In his column for the Daily Beast, the Republican Lewis lamented the grip that the former president has on party members who, unlike Republicans under Richard Nixon, have not turned their back on him.... You can read more here -- subscription required."

Afterthoughts. Marie: One thing we learned from Trump's admission that he wanted mike pence to "overturn the election" is that Trump did know he lost. To "overturn an election" means to upend the true results, not to correct miscounts. On CNN, Jeff Toobin pointed out that Trump's vow to pardon January 6 insurrectionists if he were re-elected was two-fold; it wasn't only to encourage new coups but also to influence the behavior of those charged in the January 6 attempt. Just as Trump sent out signals to his 2016 co-conspirators that he would pardon them if they didn't cooperate with Robert Mueller's investigation -- and then did pardon them -- he was signaling this weekend that he would pardon those who refused to cooperate with January 6 participants.

Whitney Wild, et al., of CNN: "Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris drove within several yards of a pipe bomb lying next to a bench outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021, and remained inside the DNC for nearly two hours before the bomb was discovered, according to multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the situation. Details about Harris' proximity to the pipe bomb and the extended period she remained inside the DNC have not been previously reported. The revelations further expose a security lapse on January 6 as law enforcement tried to respond to multiple major events, protect highly visible politicians, and fend off tens of thousands of riotous protesters that had flooded into Washington and attacked the US Capitol." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

How Will I Get a Pardon Now? Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a real-estate investor and close friend of ... Donald J. Trump, asked a federal judge to dismiss the foreign lobbying and obstruction of justice charges against him on Monday, contending that the Justice Department delayed prosecuting him until after Mr. Trump left office. The argument, laid out in a court filing, marks Mr. Barrack's first substantive response to an indictment unsealed last July in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, which accused him of using his access to Mr. Trump to advance the foreign policy aims of the United Arab Emirates and then misleading federal agents about his activities.... In his final days in office, Mr. Trump issued executive pardons and commutations to dozens of people, including supporters and former aides facing federal indictments and serving sentences for convicted crimes."

Congressional Races. Michael Scherer & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Major Republican organizations focused on winning back control of the House and the Senate ended last year with significantly more money than their Democratic counterparts, a reversal of past fortunes that suggests shifting momentum ahead of the midterm elections. The new fundraising totals, revealed Monday in filings to the Federal Election Commission, showed both parties holding record amounts for the off-year of the congressional cycle. But the growth in the Republican cash hoard compared with the 2020 and 2018 cycles outstripped Democratic gains, as GOP donors, particularly those who give seven- and eight-figure checks, leaned into the effort to take back control of the House and the Senate this fall." ~~~

~~~ Brittany Gibson of Politico: "Former President George W. Bush contributed to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski's (R-Alaska) reelection campaigns at the end of 2021, according to campaign finance reports filed Monday, backing up two of the most prominent Republicans who supported impeaching Donald Trump a year ago. Bush donated a maximum individual contribution of $5,800 to Cheney last October.... The 43rd president also threw in $2,900 -- the maximum allowable primary donation -- for Murkowski's reelection efforts.... Trump has endorsed Republican challengers seeking to unseat Cheney, Murkowski and others as retribution after they voted to remove him from office and said he incited the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot." ~~~

~~~ Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's campaign raised over $1.5 million toward the end of 2021 as she opposed key elements of her own party's agenda, according to new Federal Election Commission records.... Sinema's donors in the fourth quarter included wealthy investors who had supported ... Donald Trump.... Sinema also picked up donations from major corporations and business groups including from The Carlyle Group, Gilead Sciences, Microsoft, Cigna and the American Petroleum Institute.... [Sen. Joe] Manchin has also received a wave of support from wealthy financiers and corporations.... Like Sinema, Manchin is not up for reelection until 2024."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Georgetown University's law school placed a newly hired administrator on leave on Monday after he said on Twitter that President Biden would nominate not 'the objectively best pick' but a 'lesser Black woman' to be the next Supreme Court justice. The decision came one day before the scholar, Ilya Shapiro, a prominent libertarian, had been scheduled to assume his role as a senior lecturer and the executive director of the Georgetown Center for the Constitution, which is part of the law school. Mr. Shapiro, a constitutional law expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, drew a sharp rebuke from students, faculty members and alumni with his comments about the search process for the next justice. The posts have since been deleted."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: "Coronavirus vaccines for children younger than 5 could be available far sooner than expected -- perhaps by the end of February -- under a plan that would lead to the potential authorization of a two-shot regimen in the coming weeks, people briefed on the situation said Monday. Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, the manufacturers of the vaccine, are expected to submit to the Food and Drug Administration as early as Tuesday a request for emergency-use authorization for the vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old, which would make it the first vaccine available for that age group. Older children already can receive the shot. The FDA urged the companies to submit the application so that regulators could begin reviewing the two-shot data...."

Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "One new analysis [of the efficacy of the Paycheck Protection Program, an $800 billion pandemic relief effort,] found that only about a quarter of the money spent by the program paid wages that would have otherwise been lost, partly because the government steadily loosened the rules for how businesses could use the money as the pandemic dragged on. And because many businesses remained healthy enough to survive without the program, another analysis found, the looser rules meant the Paycheck Protection Program ended up subsidizing business owners more than their workers.... David Autor, [an MIT economics professor who led a 10-member team who studied the program, said,] "... it turns out [they money] didn't primarily go to workers who would have lost jobs. It went to business owners and their shareholders and their creditors.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Plus ça change.... This report goes to show a couple of things: (1) Congress either doesn't know how to write laws that have the intended effect, or here again it intended to mislead the public by applying a name that implied one thing to help ordinary Americans while doing something different; and (2) on a grand scale, even small, struggling entrepreneurs have the same propensity as large, grasping corporations to bilk the government. It's fine for Neil Young & Joni Mitchell & all to boycott Spotify because its owners are morally corrupt & irresponsible -- I'm all for it. But if we tried to boycott every business whose owners are morally corrupt & irresponsible, we'd have go out in the woods & become completely self-sufficient, because there isn't much we could buy.

Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC: "Podcaster Joe Rogan has apologized to Spotify, while also addressing the controversy around his podcast." MB: He didn't apologize to the dopes he duped by presenting Covid disinformation. But then some of them are dead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "A slew of bills has advanced [through the GOP-led Florida legislature] attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling 'discomfort' over the state's racist past. And last Wednesday, an anti-masker physician, hand picked by the governor [-- Ron DeSantis (R) --] and apathetic about the value of Covid-19 vaccines, was backed unanimously by a Republican senate panel as the next surgeon-general following a walk-out by Democratic politicians frustrated by Joseph Ladapo's evasiveness. To hear DeSantis tell it, the 'freedom state' of Florida is merely following the will of a populist citizenry.... Yet ... more of the state's 21 million people, which elected him in 2018 by barely 32,000 votes, appears displeased at the creeping authoritarianism.... Brandon Wolf [of Equality Florida] ... [says,] '... the thing that connects [these bills] is the concerted attempt by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies to push themselves to the right of Donald Trump and set DeSantis up to run for president in 2024. 'In Florida you are free, but only free to do and say as you are told.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Miami Herald Editorial Board: After neo-Nazi demonstrators held a rally on an Orlando overpass where they unfurled a Nazi flag, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) held a press conference Monday. But instead of condemning the demonstrators, DeSantis "attacked Democrats..., dragg[ing] in issues like immigration and inflation and crime. Accus[ing] unnamed people -- Democrats, of course -- of trying to 'smear' him.... His remarks came after his press secretary, Christina Pushaw, sent a now-deleted tweet Sunday night questioning whether the Orlando demonstrations were orchestrated by Democratic staffers. Her comment drew widespread condemnation. She followed with a tweet admitting she didn't know who had staged the protest and said hate speech is wrong."

Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Monday rejected plea agreements with the Justice Department for two of the three white men facing hate crime charges in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery after his family expressed fierce opposition to the deal.... The decision by Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of U.S. District Court to reject identical plea deals hammered out between the Justice Department and the two men, Travis McMichael, 36, and his father, Gregory McMichael, 66, means that the McMichaels could now see their federal case go before a jury as early as next week."

New York. Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "The last of five criminal investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct against former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ended on Monday with the Oswego County district attorney joining his peers in concluding that there were insufficient legal grounds to bring criminal charges."

Way Beyond

U.K. Esther Webber & Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico: "An update from the official inquiry into claims of lockdown-busting parties in Boris Johnson's administration has found 'a serious failure' to observe the standards expected in government. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, was asked to look into a series of allegations that social gatherings were held in No. 10 Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 rules. In her 12-page update -- truncated while the Metropolitan Police separately investigates some of the allegations -- Gray found there was 'too little thought given to what was happening across the country' when considering whether some of the events should have gone ahead. Johnson told his restive Conservative MPs Monday he was 'sorry' -- and vowed to learn lessons." Johnson refused to resign and instead "announced the creation of an 'office of the prime minister' and promised other improvements to the way No. 10 and the Cabinet Office are run." MB: IOW, add a layer of bureaucracy. That should help. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rowena Mason of the Guardian has more on Boris's Very Bad Hair Day. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

I'm sorry for the parties during Covid.
I'm sorry that I couldn't find my mask.
But more than anything else,
I'm sorry for myself,
'Cause you're taking me to task.

     ~~~ Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "A long-awaited report on parties in Downing Street during the pandemic dealt Prime Minister Boris Johnson a stinging blow on Monday, condemning him for failed leadership and painting a damning picture of 'excessive' workplace drinking in the inner sanctum of the British government.... He was battered in Parliament, facing a new round of questions about his personal participation in social gatherings that appear to have violated lockdown rules meant to stop the spread of Covid-19. Even in heavily redacted form, the report by Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, deepened the crisis that has engulfed Mr. Johnson for weeks...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A gunman fatally shot a police officer and a campus safety officer at Bridgewater College in Virginia on Tuesday afternoon after they responded to reports of a suspicious person near a campus building, the authorities said. The assailant, identified by the Virginia State Police as Alexander Wyatt Campbell, 27, shot the two officers around 1:20 p.m. after college employees called the police after he startled them, Corinne Geller, a police spokeswoman, said in a news briefing on Tuesday night. The officers died on campus. Mr. Campbell ran off and waded through a river, where he ended up on a small island, Ms. Geller said. He was captured at 1:55 p.m. after a 'massive search operation' involving local, state and federal law enforcement officials, the college said...."

New York Times: Tom Brady "announced his retirement on Instagram on Tuesday." The Times thinks this is such a big story that they're live-blogging developments.

January 31, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia angrily denounced the United States Monday for 'whipping up hysteria' over Ukraine, saying it had brought 'pure Nazis' to power on Russia's border and wanted to make 'heroes out of those peoples who fought on the side of Hitler.' In a blistering attack at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the United States itself was 'provoking escalation' of the situation by falsely charging Moscow with preparing to invade Ukraine.... With the support of only China, the Russians forced a vote at the beginning of the U.S.-called meeting on whether to hold the session behind closed doors.... But the majority of the 15-member council voted to proceed with the public session...."

Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "The Georgia prosecutor looking into ... Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results is asking the FBI for protection after Trump called for protests of the 'racist prosecutors' investigating him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to the FBI's Atlanta field office on Sunday requesting that the bureau conduct a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center, as well as provide protective resources, including 'intelligence and federal agents' as her office ramps up its own investigation of the former president."

Whitney Wild, et al., of CNN: "Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris drove within several yards of a pipe bomb lying next to a bench outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021, and remained inside the DNC for nearly two hours before the bomb was discovered, according to multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the situation. Details about Harris' proximity to the pipe bomb and the extended period she remained inside the DNC have not been previously reported. The revelations further expose a security lapse on January 6 as law enforcement tried to respond to multiple major events, protect highly visible politicians, and fend off tens of thousands of riotous protesters that had flooded into Washington and attacked the US Capitol."

Tim Miller in the Bulwark: "... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Concerned) was asked on ABC's This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024. She demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer, but whom she -- of course -- did not name. She was rewarded a few hours later with the former president attacking her for not having given his coup attempt a full-throated endorsement.... If someone as politically safe as Collins won't stick her neck out, what hope is there that a meaningful group of others will find the mettle not just to privately hope for an alternative but to wage a vigorous, scorched-earth campaign on behalf of the alternative?"

Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC: "Podcaster Joe Rogan has apologized to Spotify, while also addressing the controversy around his podcast." MB: He didn't apologize to the dopes he duped by presenting Covid disinformation. But then some of them are dead.

Florida. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "A slew of bills has advanced [through the GOP-led Florida legislature] attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling 'discomfort' over the state's racist past. Ron DeSantis (R) --] and apathetic about the value of Covid-19 vaccines, was backed unanimously by a Republican senate panel as the next surgeon-general following a walk-out by Democratic politicians frustrated by Joseph Ladapo's evasiveness. To hear DeSantis tell it, the 'freedom state' of Florida is merely following the will of a populist citizenry.... Yet ... more of the state's 21 million people, which elected him in 2018 by barely 32,000 votes, appears displeased at the creeping authoritarianism.... Brandon Wolf [of Equality Florida] ... [says,] '... the thing that connects [these bills] is the concerted attempt by Governor Ron DeSantis and his allies to push themselves to the right of Donald Trump and set DeSantis up to run for president in 2024. 'In Florida you are free, but only free to do and say as you are told.'"

U.K. Esther Webber & Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico: "An update from the official inquiry into claims of lockdown-busting parties in Boris Johnson's administration has found 'a serious failure' to observe the standards expected in government. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, was asked to look into a series of allegations that social gatherings were held in No. 10 Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 rules. In her 12-page update -- truncated while the Metropolitan Police separately investigates some of the allegations -- Gray found there was 'too little thought given to what was happening across the country' when considering whether some of the events should have gone ahead. Johnson told his restive Conservative MPs Monday he was 'sorry' -- and vowed to learn lessons." Johnson refused to resign and instead "announced the creation of an 'office of the prime minister' and promised other improvements to the way No. 10 and the Cabinet Office are run." MB: IOW, add a layer of bureaucracy. That should help. ~~~

     ~~~ Rowena Mason of the Guardian has more on Boris's Very Bad Hair Day. ~~~

I'm sorry for the parties during Covid.
I'm sorry that I couldn't find my mask.
But more than anything else,
I'm sorry for myself,
'Cause you're taking me to task.

~~~~~~~~~~

New York Times Liveblog: "The United States and Russia prepared for confrontation Monday at the United Nations Security Council over the Ukraine crisis, with the Americans vowing to make the Russians justify their massing of troops on Ukraine's borders and Kremlin diplomats dismissing the meeting as farcical theatrics." The Guardian's liveblog of the Russian threat to Ukraine is here.

Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "Public education is facing a crisis unlike anything in decades, and it reaches into almost everything that educators do: from teaching math, to counseling anxious children, to managing the building. Political battles are now a central feature of education, leaving school boards, educators and students in the crosshairs of culture warriors. Schools are on the defensive about their pandemic decision-making, their curriculums, their policies regarding race and racial equity and even the contents of their libraries. Republicans -- who see education as a winning political issue -- are pressing their case for more 'parental control,' or the right to second-guess educators' choices. Meanwhile, an energized school choice movement has capitalized on the pandemic to promote alternatives to traditional public schools.... Remote learning, the toll of illness and death, and disruptions to a dependable routine have left students academically behind -- particularly students of color and those from poor families.... Many students and teachers say they are emotionally drained, and experts predict schools will be struggling with the fallout for years to come." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This really is a crisis. And Republicans are doing their part to make it even worse. Just as they are happy to sacrifice the lives of Americans for their own political benefit -- think Covid disinformation & gun proliferation -- so they are happy to sacrifice the well-being of educators, students & parents for their small political advantage.

Welcome to America! Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "Scores of Afghan evacuees in the Washington region have been languishing inside cramped hotel rooms, where parents sleep on the floor while their bored children share one bed. Months after their arrivals, overwhelmed resettlement groups have been unable to find many of the evacuees affordable permanent homes. So while those organizations attend to other newly arrived families, the evacuees are left to their own devices for weeks at a time inside rooms shared by as many as five people, community activists say. During the day, the families have little to do, because the adults have yet to receive Social Security numbers or federal work authorization documents. The children, lacking a permanent address, are unable to enroll in school. The problem is particularly acute in Maryland -- and may soon grow worse, resettlement groups say, as federal officials plan to send more evacuees to the area." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Confesses! Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC noted that Donald Trump issued a statement Sunday evening opposing efforts in Congress to update the Electoral College Act. In the statement, Trump wrote, "... Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they are now trying to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the election." Mohyeldin remarked, "I see that as a flat-out admission of guilt for what he was trying to do on January the 6th." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Right-wing wag Bill Kristol tweeted, "Talk about saying the quiet part loud. Trump here admits or rather boasts that what he wanted Mike Pence to do was to 'overturn the election.." Law expert Joyce Vance agrees. She tweeted, "This is what prosecutors call guilty knowledge. And also, intent." AND Olivia Troye, a former pence staffer, has some practical advice for 2022 candidates: "Trump boasting in his latest statement: the goal was to overturn the election -- after touting at his rally that he'll pardon Jan 6 insurrectionists. Every Republican candidate & official should go on record with their answer: Do you support sedition & pardoning domestic terrorists?" Tweets via Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post. ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. is pessimistic: "Maybe Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and other Republican presidential wannabes ... will refrain from backing the rioters, but [Ted] Cruz and [Ron] DeSantis will certainly portray them as pitiable freedom fighters locked in an American gulag. And there'll be no downside for them. There's no evidence in America of a bloc of voters who are Republican-curious for 2024 but who regard support for the January 6 crowd as a dealbreaker.... It's one more issue that Republican extremists can milk for maximum base motivation because swing voters can't be bothered to focus on it." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday night sent his strongest signal to date that he will fight his legal problems outside of a court of law. He encouraged people to engage in massive demonstrations in jurisdictions pursuing criminal investigations against him over Jan. 6 and tax-related issues. Then, minutes later, he said that if he's reinstalled as president, he would consider pardoning some of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters. Both Trump comments were ... carefully tailored. (Trump seemed to be reading them off a teleprompter....) The combination of the two comments, though, can't help but conjure a repeat ... of the kind of lawlessness we saw just over a year ago.... He's suggesting that those who rise up in support of him will earn his protection, even while urging them to rise up again (in peaceful protest, of course!)." ~~~

~~~ Erik Loomis in LG&$: "Worth noting that last night, our ex-president not only promised to pardon his fascist coup supporters, but also basically promised a race war by calling the Black prosecutors investigating his many crimes to be 'racists.'"

Jennifer Medina, et al., of the New York Times: "Nearly two dozen Republicans who have publicly questioned or disputed the results of the 2020 election are running for secretary of state across the country, in some cases after being directly encouraged by allies of ... Donald J. Trump.... All told, some 21 candidates who dispute Mr. Biden's victory are running for secretary of state in 18 states, according to States United Action, a nonpartisan group tracking races for secretary of state throughout the country.... Their candidacies are alarming watchdog groups, Democrats and some fellow Republicans, who worry that these Trump supporters, if elected to posts that exist largely to safeguard and administer the democratic process, would weaponize those offices to undermine it -- whether by subverting an election outright or by sowing doubts about any local, state or federal elections their party loses. For decades, secretaries of state worked in relative anonymity.... Several ..., who have formed a coalition calling itself the America First slate, are running in states won by Mr. Biden in 2020.... The coalition's members are coordinating talking points and sharing staff members and fund-raising efforts -- an unusual degree of cooperation for down-ballot candidates from different states." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It isn't just secretaries of state. See the story on the Spalding County, Georgia, board of elections, linked under "Georgia" below.

Elizabeth Harris & Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an 'unprecedented' 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.... Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn't just their frequency that has changed..., it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out. Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races." ~~~

~~~ Backfire! Banned in Bumpkinville, a 30-Year-Old Novel Is Now a Bestseller. David Cohen of Politico: "Just days after the banning of 'Maus' by a Tennessee school district made national news, two editions of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust have reached the top 20 on Amazon.com and are in limited supply. 'Maus' was No. 12 on Amazon as of early Friday evening, and was not available for delivery until mid-February. 'The Complete Maus,' which includes a second volume, was No. 9 and out of stock." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Ben Sisario of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Spotify responded on Sunday to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the streaming service's star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus.... [Also t]his month, a group of more than 200 professors and public health officials called on Spotify to crack down on Covid-19 misinformation on its platform, and pointed to a recent episode of Rogan's podcast.... [CEO Daniel] Ek said that Spotify would add a 'content advisory' notice to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about the coronavirus, directing listeners to a 'Covid-19 hub' with facts and information.... Ek made no specific mention of Rogan.... Ek also wrote that for the first time, the service is publishing its platform rules, which address dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content. Among them are rules barring 'content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health.'..." The Verge's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Ek's letter. You Spotify users can decided whether or not you think it's good enough.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Justin Glawe of the Guardian: A Republican takeover of the Spalding County board of elections "is part of Republican efforts to dominate elections mechanisms nationwide. [In Spalding County, as position on the board] was only vacant because of a new law, specific only to Spalding county, recently introduced by the area's two Republican state lawmakers. In the end, the judges chose a Republican, someone who had never served in a government position related to elections, to be the fifth and deciding vote for the Spalding county board of elections and registration. Almost immediately, that Republican, James Newland, cast that deciding vote to cancel Sunday voting -- a historically heavy turnout day for Black, largely Democratic voters."

Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Prosecutors have reached a plea deal with [Travis & Gregory McMichaels.] two of the three white men, facing federal hate-crimes charges for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, the Black man who was chased through a Georgia neighborhood and fatally shot, court documents show.But Mr. Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, denounced the pleas.... Ms. Cooper-Jones said she would try to persuade a judge to reject the plea agreements in a hearing Monday morning."

Michigan. Calling All Donors. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: :Oakland University -- where the campus extends into two cities, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, each about 30 miles from Detroit -- said it mistakenly told 5,500 incoming students [via email] that they had won [four-year] scholarships [worth $48,000].... But then, more than two hours later, came another email with a subject line that read, 'CORRECTION.... Because you are not a recipient of the Platinum Presidential Scholar Award, this message was unfortunately sent to you in error.'... [Several weeks later,] Central Michigan University told 58 high school seniors ... that they had won [scholarships] which would cover their tuition and room and board, and award them $5,000 to study abroad. But days later, the students were told that the email was a mistake and that they had not won the prestigious scholarship. The university then told those students that it would still pay their full tuition for four years, but that they would not receive other perks of the scholarship." No word that Oakland is going to do anything to mitigate its mistake. MB: Which sucks. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Say, there's this billionaire lady who lives in Michigan & cares so much about education that Donald Trump made her Secretary of Education. This would be a nice time for her to cough up $264 million to make it up to those disappointed students. The University could rename the Presidential Scholar Award to something like the De Vos Scholar Award. Alas, that would remind the recipients they didn't quite measure up.

New York. Grace Ashford & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "New York Democrats on Sunday proposed a starkly partisan redesign of the state's congressional map that would be one of the most consequential in the nation, offering the party's candidates an advantage in 22 of the state's 26 House districts in this fall's midterm election. Party leaders in Albany insisted that the redrawn districts were not politically motivated, but the map immediately exposed Democrats to charges that they were engaging in the same kind of gerrymandering that many in the party have denounced as anti-democratic and accused Republicans of carrying out elsewhere." Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Wikipedia: "The term gerrymandering is named after American politician Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as Governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander."

Way Beyond

Edith Lederer of the AP: "The United Nations has received 'credible allegations' that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government, its security forces and those who worked with international troops have been killed since the Taliban took over the country Aug. 15, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says. In a report obtained Sunday by The Associated Press, Guterres said that 'more than two-thirds' of the victims were alleged to result from extrajudicial killings by the Taliban or its affiliates, despite the Taliban's announcement of 'general amnesties' for those affiliated with the former government and U.S.-led coalition forces. The U.N. political mission in Afghanistan also received 'credible allegations of extrajudicial killings of at least 50 individuals suspected of affiliation with ISIL-KP,' the Islamic State extremist group operating in Afghanistan, Guterres said in the report to U.N. Security Council."

Yemen. Jon Gambrell & Isabel Debre of the AP: "The United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels early Monday as the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, was visiting the country, authorities said, the third such attack in as many weeks."