January 12, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Joe Biden Gets Under the Turtle's Skin. Trish Turner, et al., of ABC News: "As President Joe Biden prepared to head to Capitol Hill on Thursday to rally Senate Democrats on election reform, a visibly angry Republican Leader Mitch McConnell fired back Wednesday, saying he didn't recognize the man who delivered the fiery speech in Georgia on voting rights one day earlier. McConnell characterized Biden's speech -- in which the president called for the Senate to change its rules by 'whichever way they need to be changed' in order to pass Democrats' voting bills -- as 'profoundly, profoundly un-presidential,' deeming the remarks a 'rant' that 'was incoherent, incorrect and beneath his office.'" MB: That's odd; the teevee pundits I heard seemed to like the speech. If Mitch doesn't care to be likened to Jeff Davis & Bull Connor, he might start by supporting the voting rights bills. Instead, he's leading the filibusters against them.

** Kevin Gets an Invitation. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Wednesday formally requested an interview with Representative Kevin McCarthy, the minority leader, who was in close contact with ... Donald J. Trump during and after the violence.... Mr. McCarthy, a California Republican, [is] the highest-ranking lawmaker the panel has pursued in its inquiry.... 'You have acknowledged speaking directly with the former president while the violence was underway on Jan. 6,' Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and chairman of the committee, wrote [to McCarthy].... 'It appears that you had one or more conversations with the president during this period [shortly after Jan. 6], including a conversation on or about Jan. 11,' Mr. Thompson wrote. 'It appears that you may also have discussed with President Trump the potential he would face a censure resolution, impeachment, or removal under the 25th Amendment. It also appears that you may have identified other possible options, including President Trump's immediate resignation from office.'" You can read the letter here (you may have to download it). The AP's story is here.

David Shortell, et al., of CNN: "An ex-girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is seen as a key witness in the investigation into alleged sex trafficking by the Florida Republican, entered an Orlando federal courthouse with her lawyer on Wednesday, where she was expected to testify before a grand jury, according to a CNN reporter on the scene.... The woman, a former Capitol Hill staffer, has been linked to Gaetz as far back as the summer of 2017." ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "The appearance of his ex-girlfriend before a federal grand jury is a potentially ominous sign for the congressman.... The ex-girlfriend was among several women on a trip Gaetz allegedly took to the Bahamas in 2018 that has been of interest to criminal investigators. The 17-year-old at issue in the investigation was also on that trip, though she was an adult at that time, people familiar with the matter have said. Prosecutors have seemed to be lining up possible witnesses who could testify against Gaetz."

Larry Neumeister & Tom Hays of the AP: "A judge has -- for now -- refused to dismiss a lawsuit against Britain's Prince Andrew by an American woman who says he sexually abused her when she was 17. Stressing Wednesday that he wasn't ruling on the truth of the allegations, U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected an argument by Andrew's lawyers that Virginia Giuffre's lawsuit should be thrown out at an early stage because of an old legal settlement she had with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier she claims set up sexual encounters with the prince. Kaplan said the $500,000 settlement between Epstein and Giuffre didn't involve the prince and didn't bar a suit against him now." The New York Times story is here.

Georgia Senate Race. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "As the coronavirus was sweeping across the United States last summer and the country was still without a vaccine, Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker promoted a 'mist' that he claimed would 'kill any covid on your body.' Walker, who is vying to unseat freshman Sen. Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.) and has been endorsed by ... Donald Trump, did not name the supposed product, which he claimed during an August 2020 podcast appearance was 'EPA-, FDA-approved.'... There is no known mist or spray that can prevent covid-19."

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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden endorsed changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights legislation during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, warning of a grave threat to American democracy if lawmakers did not act to 'protect the heart and soul' of the country. Mr. Biden ... said he supported 'getting rid of' [the filibuster] in the case of voting rights legislation. Such a change in Senate procedures has only the slimmest of chances of winning the support of all 50 senators who caucus with the Democrats, which is needed to overcome universal Republican opposition. Mr. Biden, a former senator and an institutionalist who had long been leery of whittling away at the filibuster, said such Senate traditions had been 'abused.' 'Sadly, the United States Senate, designed to be the world's greatest deliberative body, has been rendered a shell of its former self,' Mr. Biden said." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Vice President Harris & President Biden speak in Atlanta:

Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat a threat that has intensified dramatically in recent years, a top national security official said Tuesday. Matthew G. Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, announced the unit in his opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists -- those accused of planning or committing crimes in the name of domestic political goals -- had more than doubled since the spring of 2020.... Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) opened the hearing with a video showing footage and news coverage from the [January 6, 2021] riot.... 'They are normalizing the use of violence to achieve political goals,' Durbin said. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) countered with a video showing footage of riots the previous summer at racial justice protests around the country. 'These anti-police riots rocked our nation for seven full months, just like the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol rocked the nation,' Grassley said." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "A U.S. government review panel has approved the release of five men who have been held for years without charge at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, according to a flurry of decisions released by the Pentagon on Tuesday, but they are unlikely to be freed soon as the Biden administration works to find nations to take them. The disclosure came on the 20th anniversary of the establishment of the wartime prison, and President Barack Obama's last special envoy on the task, Lee Wolosky, used the occasion to urge the White House to shut down the operation."

Aamer Madhani of the AP: "The United States on Tuesday announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months ago. White House national security council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement that the new aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development will flow through independent humanitarian organizations and will be used to provide shelter, health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation and hygiene services." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "The select panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is homing in on Donald Trump Jr. The committee issued subpoenas for two close advisers, Andrew Surabian and Arthur Schwartz, to ... Donald Trump's eldest son on Tuesday, an indication that they're inching ever closer to the Trump family. The panel also issued a subpoena for Ross Worthington, who helped draft the president's Jan. 6 speech to a rally crowd at the Ellipse...."

Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee examining the Jan. 6 attack disclosed on Tuesday that it had interviewed the man at the center of a right-wing conspiracy theory about who provoked the violence, noting that he had denied reports he urged protesters into the Capitol at the behest of federal law enforcement agencies. The committee said its investigators spoke in November with the man, Ray Epps, who was seen on video urging people to march into the Capitol. Some Republican members of Congress and other supporters of ... Donald J. Trump have promoted a theory that Mr. Epps was working for the F.B.I. and encouraging the attack at its direction. As evidence, they have cited the fact that Mr. Epps was at one point listed on the bureau's wanted list but was then removed from it without being arrested or charged with any wrongdoing. In a statement, the House committee said Mr. Epps told the panel he is not an F.B.I. informant and was not working at the direction of law enforcement agencies when he encouraged protesters to enter the building." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Some promoters of the false flag theory, according to the NYT report, "Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky; Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida; Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and, on Tuesday, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas have all pushed various forms of those claims." Okay then. ~~~

~~~ Cruz's Motovation: Sucking up to TuKKKer. Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) asked a high-ranking FBI official a series of questions meant to advance conspiracy theory that the January 6, 2021, insurrection had been fomented by FBI agents and informants -- a public display that comes just a week after Cruz appeared with Fox News host Tucker Carlson and reversed himself on all his prior claims that the insurrectionists who assaulted police were 'terrorists.'... There is no credible evidence that [Ray] Epps was some kind of point man in leading the entire attack. But his name has been spread prolifically by Darren Beattie, Carlson's main partner in spreading the false flag conspiracy theory...." Read Kleefeld's full article to get a sense of how ridiculous Ted's excellent conspiracy theory is.

Throw This Woman Out of Congress. Now. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday floated resorting to using the 'Second Amendment' to deal with Democrats who are imposing what she described as a 'tyrannical' government. While speaking with right-wing media personality Sebastian Gorka, Greene slammed Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for her policies regarding both vaccines and gun rights. Greene then pivoted to talking about how Americans are guaranteed the right to bear arms to resist such supposed tyranny. 'Ultimately the truth is it's our Second Amendment rights, our right to bear arms, that protects Americans and give us the ability to defend ourselves from a tyrannical government,' she said. 'And I hate to use this language but Democrats, they're exactly -- they're doing exactly what our Founders talked about when they gave us the precious rights that we have.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To be clear, Greene, who represents Georgia, is urging people to take up arms against a Black Democratic candidate for Georgia governor. Abrams' "tyrannical" proposals are centered on voting rights. Greene does not urge people to run out & shoot Abrams -- who, after all, has not been elected yet -- but that's a nuance that certainly could be lost on the riffraff who would listen to Greene & Gorka. She is way over the line of acceptable speech for a member of Congress.

A Crack in the Big Lie Wall Widens. Manu Raju of CNN: "Senior Republicans are closing ranks behind Sen. Mike Rounds after he endured a scathing attack from ... Donald Trump for acknowledging the reality that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election. 'I think Sen. Rounds told the truth about what happened in the 2020 election,' Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell told CNN on Tuesday. 'And I agree with him.'... The latest blowup came over the weekend after Rounds said that any voting 'irregularities' in 2020 wouldn't have changed the outcome of the race. 'The election was fair, as fair as we have seen. We simply did not win the election, as Republicans, for the presidency,' Rounds told ABC News. That fact-based comment prompted a broadside from the former President, who called Rounds a 'jerk' and 'ineffective' and vowed 'never' to endorse Rounds for reelection, though he's not facing voters again until 2026. 'Is he crazy or just stupid?' Trump said in a statement." ~~~

~~~ Domenico Montanaro, et al., of NPR: For six years, NPR had sought an interview with Donald Trump. "Trump and his team have repeatedly declined interviews with NPR until Tuesday, when he called in from his home in Florida. It was scheduled for 15 minutes, but lasted just over 9. After being pressed about his repeated lies about the 2020 presidential election, Trump abruptly ended the interview.... In the interview with NPR, [Trump] partially blamed Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for [Sen. Mike] Rounds and other senators feeling as though they can speak out and say -- correctly -- that Trump lost the election. 'Because Mitch McConnell is a loser,' Trump said.... Trump repeated a number of false claims about voting systems in the U.S. in the interview...." A transcript of the interview is here.

Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: "Anthony S. Fauci accused Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday of raising campaign funds off false attacks on him that have encouraged threats on Fauci' life." Free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ "What a Moron!" Claire Rafford of Politico: "Anthony Fauci on Tuesday called Sen. Roger Marshall a 'moron' at the end of a contentious question-and-answer exchange focused on whether the financial disclosure information of the White House's top public medical adviser is available to the public. Marshall (R-Kan.) ... not[ed] the doctor's salary, $434,000.... 'As the highest-paid employee in the entire federal government, would you be willing to submit to Congress and the public a financial disclosure that includes your past and current investments?' Marshall asked. 'After all, your colleague [... Rochelle] Walensky and every member of Congress submits a financial disclosure that includes their investments.' Fauci ... stat[ed] that his investments and financial information were already 'public knowledge' and had been for more than 30 years. 'All you have to do is ask for it,' Fauci said. 'You're so misinformed, it's extraordinary.'... 'What a moron,' Fauci could be heard saying quietly as Tuesday's hearing moved on. 'Jesus Christ.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Fauci is the highest-paid federal employee, it's because (a) as a medical professional, he has always held high-grade (GS) positions, and (b) he's held those jobs since 1968, for Pete's sake, and gets annual salary increases like all federal employees. Shocking as it is that someone would call a U.S. senator a moron, if you scan Marshall's Wikipage, you'll find the description is apt: a horrible human being posing as a pillar of the community.

Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that the Federal Trade Commission's antitrust case against Facebook could proceed, a reversal of fortune for the agency after its first challenge against the social network was thrown out last year. In a colorful order, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that an amended complaint the agency filed in August offered 'more robust and detailed' evidence to suggest Facebook has an alleged monopoly. In the filing, the FTC argued that Facebook is in a class of its own and should not be compared to other social apps such as TikTok. 'Second time lucky?' Boasberg wrote in the opening of the complaint, noting that the commission's first suit 'stumbled out of the starting blocks.'"

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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.: "The omicron coronavirus variant will infect 'just about everybody' regardless of vaccination status, top U.S. infectious-disease expert Anthony S. Fauci said Tuesday. But those who have been vaccinated will 'very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well,' and avoid hospitalization and death, said Fauci, speaking at a virtual 'fireside chat' with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Fauci also said in a Senate hearing the same day that the unvaccinated are 20 times likelier to die, 17 times likelier to be hospitalized and 10 times likelier to be infected than the vaccinated." ~~~

~~~ On the Same Page. Cecelia Smith-Schoenwalder of U.S. News: "The acting head of the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday said that most people will get COVID-19 as the U.S. hits record levels of hospitalizations and infections. 'I think it's hard to process what's actually happening right now, which is most people are going to get [COVID-19],' FDA acting Commissioner Janet Woodcock told a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee hearing."

Laura Meckler & Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "The White House is promising to provide 10 million free coronavirus tests each month for schools, aiming to help keep classes in person at a time when testing across the country is uneven and, in some cases, virtually nonexistent. President Biden has pushed schools to open and stay open for in-person learning...." The AP's report is here.

Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "Federal agencies must start testing unvaccinated employees at least weekly for the coronavirus by Feb. 15, the Biden administration said in new guidance issued Tuesday. The testing, which mainly affects those exempted from President Biden's vaccination mandate for federal workers, would be required during any week in which those employees 'work onsite or interact in person with members of the public as part of their job duties,' the guidance says. Agencies are also free to require more frequent testing for certain occupations or work settings, the administration says." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Eh bien, là, les non-vaccinés, j’ai très envie de les emmerder. (Trans., roughly: The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. -- Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with Le Parisien, Jan. 4

Yeah, moi aussi. -- Marie

Australia. Yan Zhuang of the New York Times: "Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked men's tennis player, acknowledged on Wednesday that a travel document he presented to Australian border officials last week contained false information, as the country's authorities continued to investigate whether he should be deported. Mr. Djokovic also said that he had participated in an interview and a photo shoot last month in his native Serbia even after testing positive for the coronavirus, in an apparent breach of the country's rules for infected people.... The tennis star's comments came in a statement he released on social media that he said was intended to 'clarify misinformation.'... But Mr. Djokovic's statement did not fully resolve a range of questions that have swirled over his quest to remain in Australia and seek a record 21st Grand Slam title.: A Politico story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

California. Marie: I guess I'd better stop disparaging the LAPD. Wow! ~~~

Florida Congressional Race. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Democrat Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick won Tuesday's election to fill Florida's vacant 20th Congressional District, returning her party to the 222-seat majority it held after the 2020 elections. Cherfilus-McCormick, a 42-year old health-care company CEO, easily defeated Republican nominee Jason Mariner in a seat drawn to be safe for Democrats. She will replace the late Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D), whom she had challenged in the 2018 and 2020 primaries." (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.)

North Carolina. Michael Wines of the New York Times: "A North Carolina state court on Tuesday rejected claims by voting rights advocates that Republican gerrymanders of the state's political maps were unconstitutional. The unanimous ruling, by a panel of two Republican judges and one Democrat, set up a final battle over the maps in the seven-member state Supreme Court, where Democratic justices hold a slim edge. Voting rights groups said they would file an appeal immediately. One, Common Cause North Carolina, said the plaintiffs had presented 'overwhelming evidence' that the maps were stacked to favor Republicans."

Way Beyond

New York Times: "... NATO officials opened talks with a Russian delegation on Wednesday in an effort to hold off an invasion [of Ukraine] and calm tensions between Moscow and the West. The meeting at NATO's Brussels headquarters is the second stop in a diplomatic roadshow focused on the Kremlin, after talks in Geneva on Monday between Russian and American officials. Looming over the high-level diplomacy is whether the Russian president, Vladimir V. Putin, will invade Ukraine as he seeks to pressure the West to roll back NATO's presence in Eastern Europe, or de-escalate." This is a liveblog.

News Lede

New York Times: "The fire that broke out in a Philadelphia rowhouse last Wednesday, leaving 12 dead including nine children, was most likely caused when a 5-year-old boy ignited a Christmas tree with a lighter, city officials said on Tuesday.... The 5-year-old, one of only two people in the apartment who survived, told the police last week that he had been playing with the lighter, forming the earliest theory about the fire's cause."

January 11, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Matt Zapotosky & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department is forming a new domestic terrorism unit to help combat a threat that has intensified dramatically in recent years, a top national security official said Tuesday. Matthew G. Olsen, the head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, announced the unit in his opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, noting that the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremists -- those accused of planning or committing crimes in the name of domestic political goals -- had more than doubled since the spring of 2020.... Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) opened the hearing with a video showing footage and news coverage from the [January 6, 2021] riot.... 'They are normalizing the use of violence to achieve political goals,' Durbin said. Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) countered with a video showing footage of riots the previous summer at racial justice protests around the country. 'These anti-police riots rocked our nation for seven full months, just like the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol rocked the nation,' Grassley said." The AP's story is here.

In a Senate hearing Tuesday, Anthony Fauci was prepared for Rand Paul:

Eh bien, là, les non-vaccinés, j'ai très envie de les emmerder. (Trans., roughly: The unvaccinated, I really want to piss them off. -- Emmanuel Macron, in an interview with Le Parisien, Jan. 4

Yeah, moi aussi. -- Marie

Aamer Madhani of the AP: "The United States on Tuesday announced $308 million in additional humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan, offering new aid to the country as it edges toward a humanitarian crisis since the Taliban takeover nearly five months ago. White House national security council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement that the new aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development will flow through independent humanitarian organizations and will be used to provide shelter, health care, winterization assistance, emergency food aid, water, sanitation and hygiene services."

California. Marie: I guess I'd better stop disparaging the LAPD. Wow! ~~~

Florida Congressional Race. Dave Weigel of the Washington Post: "Voters in South Florida will elect a new member of Congress on Tuesday, with health-care company CEO Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick heavily favored to replace Rep. Alcee L. Hastings, a fellow Democrat who died last year. After early voting concluded on Sunday, registered Democrats had cast more than 38,000 of about 50,000 total early ballots. The 20th Congressional District, which connects majority-Black parts of Palm Beach and Broward counties, went for President Biden by a 3-to-1 margin in 2020, and both major parties saw the November Democratic primary -- which Cherfilus-McCormick won by just five votes, after a recount -- as the decisive battle for the seat."

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Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden will endorse changing Senate rules to pass new voting rights protections during a speech in Atlanta on Tuesday, the most significant step he will have taken to pressure lawmakers to act on an issue he has called the biggest test of America's democracy since the Civil War.... Mr. Biden will say he supports a filibuster 'carve-out' in the case of voting rights, [an] official said." ~~~

~~~ Nick Corasaniti & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris [will] deliver major speeches on voting rights on Tuesday in Atlanta.... But several leading voting rights and civil rights groups are pointedly skipping the speech, protesting what they denounced as months of frustrating inaction by the White House -- which they said showed that Mr. Biden did not view Republican attacks on voting rights with sufficient urgency.... [The groups] groups have lost patience with the White House for refraining to single out Senator Joe Manchin III or Senator Kyrsten Sinema for their opposition to changing the filibuster rules." ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "While the passion fueling [the voting rights groups'] argument is understandable, their actual argument is not. They've got the wrong target, and the wrong tack.... Biden is neither an empowered king nor an autocrat.... Biden and Harris are going to Georgia to do the one thing they absolutely can do: use the bully pulpit to drum up public support and pressure those standing in the way of progress.... Advocates should focus on convincing [Sens. Joe] Manchin and [Kyrsten] Sinema that adherence to a Senate rule in the face of glaring voter suppression and potential voter subversion is a threat to democracy. More importantly, though, where are the Republicans?"

Anton Troianovski & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The United States and Russia emerged from seven hours of urgent negotiations on Monday staking out seemingly irreconcilable positions on the future of the NATO alliance and the deployment of troops and weapons in Eastern Europe, keeping tensions high amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine. Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei A. Ryabkov, Russia's lead negotiator, insisted after the meeting that it was 'absolutely mandatory' that Ukraine 'never, never, ever' become a NATO member. His American counterpart, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, reiterated that the United States could never make such a pledge because 'we will not allow anyone to slam closed NATO's open door policy,' and she said that the United States and its allies would not stand by if Russia sought to change international borders 'by force.'" More on Russia's threat to Ukraine linked under "Way Beyond the Beltway."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "Richard Clarida, the Federal Reserve's vice chair, announced Monday that he will resign, following more revelations of his stock trading at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Clarida, whose term as the Fed's second-in-command was to expire at the end of this month, sent a letter to President Biden on Monday saying he would resign on Jan. 14. He's the third Fed official in recent months to resign over questionable trades during the pandemic, as the Fed began its tremendous intervention to support the financial system. These trades are now under review by an inspector general, as the officials were in a position to possibly benefit from insider knowledge of economic conditions. Scrutiny over Clarida's disclosures began in October after initial reports from Bloomberg News showed that he bought shares in February 2020 of an investment fund that held stocks, just before the Fed announced it was prepared to help the economy as the pandemic began to take hold...."

Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "... the miners' union and the West Virginia A.F.L.-C.I.O. came out last month with statements pleading for passage of President Biden's Build Back Better Act -- just hours after [Sen. Joe] Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, said he was a 'no.'... With the miners now officially on the opposite side of the mine owners, it signaled the escalation of a behind-the-scenes struggle centered in Mr. Manchin's home state to sway the balking senator, whose skepticism about his party's marquee domestic policy measure has emerged as a potentially fatal impediment to its enactment.... The decision of the labor groups to come out forcefully in support of Build Back Better could be significant.... But Mr. Manchin has also long been allied with the coal industry. His own family has profited from waste coal from abandoned mines, which the Manchins sell to a polluting power plant in his home state. And Mr. Manchin has received more campaign donations from the oil, coal and gas industries than any other senator in the current election cycle." ~~~

     ~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post elaborates on the miners' & mine owners' positions regarding the provisions of BBB. "...now that this fundamental conflict between mine workers and owners has been exposed, it should be harder for Manchin to sink BBB in the end, even under another pretext, without being perceived as operating in owners' interests."

Melanie Zanona & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has vowed to remove three Democratic lawmakers from key committee assignments if Republicans win back the chamber in the upcoming midterm elections. Citing a 'new standard' that Democrats had created last year by removing GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Paul Gosar of Arizona from their committees for inflammatory rhetoric and posts, McCarthy

Michael Schmidt & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Since the [House's January 6] committee was formed last summer, [Mike] Pence's lawyer and the panel have been talking informally about whether he would be willing to speak to investigators, people briefed on the discussions said. But as Mr. Pence began sorting through a complex calculation about his cooperation, he indicated to the committee that he was undecided, they said.... In recent weeks, Mr. Pence is said by people familiar with his thinking to have grown increasingly disillusioned with the idea of voluntary cooperation. He has told aides that the committee has taken a sharp partisan turn by openly considering the potential for criminal referrals to the Justice Department about Mr. Trump and others. Such referrals, in Mr. Pence's view, appear designed to hurt Republican chances of winning control of Congress in November."

Amber Phillips of the Washington Post reviews what the House committee might do to force Reps. Jim Jordan, Scott Perry or any other members of the House to testify or sit for interviews & supply documents. Phillips paints a bleak picture. MB: But why not just skip all the legal hoohah and strip these Trumpistas of their committee assignments & privileges they may enjoy, dump them in windowless basement offices, cut their staffs and haul them before the Ethics Committee for failure to cooperate? IOW, punish them in ways that are readily available rather than trying to slog through the courts. Oh, and don't allow Jim Jordan to enter the House floor or a committee room without wearing a suit jacket. Let's get creative, people.

Today is the day American patriots start taking down names and kicking ass. Now, our ancestors sacrificed their blood, their sweat, their tears, their fortunes and sometimes their lives ... Are you willing to do the same? My answer is yes. Louder! Are you willing to do what it takes to fight for America? -- Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.), January 6, 2021, rallying insurrectionists ~~~

~~~ Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Mo "Brooks has faced intense scrutiny over his fiery rhetoric that morning to a crowd that soon stormed the U.S. Capitol in a violent attack. But less public attention has been paid to Brooks's key role in the lead-up to Jan. 6. A review of his speeches, tweets and media appearances as well as affidavits and other court filings reveals his central part in mobilizing the effort to overturn Joe Biden's victory by repeatedly claiming that the election was stolen and then becoming the first member of Congress to declare he would challenge the electoral college results.... Brooks's extraordinary efforts to subvert the election were the culmination of a political transformation mirroring the GOP's larger embrace of Trump.... Now he's running for the U.S. Senate with Trump's endorsement and is still campaigning on those falsehoods."

Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump's hours of silence while a violent mob ransacked the Capitol -- egged on by his own words and tweets -- could be plausibly construed as agreement with rioters' actions, a federal judge suggested Monday. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta made the analysis as he pressed Trump's lawyers about their efforts to dismiss a series of lawsuits against the former president seeking to hold him financially liable for inciting the Jan. 6 insurrection. 'What do I do about the fact the president didn't denounce the conduct immediately?' Mehta wondered.... 'Isn't that ... enough to at least plausibly infer that the president agreed with the conduct of the people that were inside the Capitol that day?'... Trump's attorney, Jesse Binnall..., [responded,] 'The president cannot be subject to judicial action for any sort of damages for failing to do something.'... The exchange was potentially the most significant in an explosive -- and lengthy -- hearing on three lawsuits filed against Trump for his actions leading up to and on Jan. 6."

Do Georgia Prisons Still have Chain Gangs? Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump's attorneys have met in person with Georgia prosecutors who are considering possible criminal charges against the former president for calling the state';s top election official and demanding he 'find' more votes, Rachel Maddow reported on her program Monday.... Trump's efforts concerning the Georgia vote may have violated a number of laws, including state statutes against conspiracy to commit election fraud, criminal solicitation to commit election fraud and 'intentional interference' with the performance of election duties, which are all subject to fines and imprisonment."

Stephanie Saul & Anemona Hartocollis of the New York Times: "A lawsuit filed in federal court on Monday accused 16 of the nation's leading private universities and colleges of conspiring to reduce the financial aid they award to admitted students through a price-fixing cartel. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Chicago on behalf of five former undergraduates who attended some of the universities named in the suit, takes aim at a decades-old antitrust exemption granted to these universities for financial aid decisions and claims that the colleges have overcharged an estimated 170,000 students who were eligible for financial aid over nearly two decades. The universities accused of wrongdoing are Brown, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Chicago, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Georgetown, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northwestern, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania, Rice, Vanderbilt and Yale."

** The Slaveholders Who Shaped the U.S. Julie Weil, et al., of the Washington Post: "From the founding of the United States until long after the Civil War, hundreds of the elected leaders writing the nation's laws were current or former slaveowners. More than 1,700 people who served in the U.S. Congress in the 18th, 19th and even 20th centuries owned human beings at some point in their lives, according to a Washington Post investigation of censuses and other historical records.... Of the first 18 U.S. presidents, 12 were enslavers, including eight during their presidencies.... The country is still grappling with the legacy of their embrace of slavery. The link between race and political power in early America echoes in complicated ways, from the racial inequities that persist to this day to the polarizing fights over voting rights and the way history is taught in schools.... This database helps reveal the glaring holes in many of the stories that Americans tell about the country's history." Includes database.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Marie: Remember way last month when Anthony Fauci (and others) were calling for Fox "News" to fire the excreable Jesse Watters after he urged an audience to "ambush" Fauci & "go in for the kill shot"? (In context, Watters' language was supposed to refer to an ambush interview, but especially because Fauci & his family have received many death threats, no normal person would make such incendiary remarks.) Well, Fox made a powerful response Monday: ~~~

~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Jesse Watters has been named the permanent host of the 7 PM hour on Fox News." MB: Watters, who probably has been an obnoxious prick since he was a toddler, got his big media break when he became a regular on Bill O'Reilly's Fox "News" show where he specialized in -- ambush interviews.

Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "The warmth of the world's oceans hit a record. Again. A new analysis, published Tuesday in the journal Advances in Atmospheric Sciences, showed that oceans contained the most heat energy in 2021 since measurements began six decades ago -- accelerating at a rate only possible because of human-emitted greenhouse gases. Since the late 1980s, Earth's oceans warmed at a rate eight times faster than the preceding decades."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Fenit Nirappil, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States is poised to surpass its record for covid-19 hospitalizations as soon as Tuesday, with no end in sight to skyrocketing case loads, falling staff levels and the struggles of a medical system trying to provide care amid an unprecedented surge of the coronavirus. Monday's total of 141,385 people in U.S. hospitals with covid-19 fell just short of the record of 142,273 set on Jan. 14, 2021, during the previous peak of the pandemic in this country." The article is free to nonsubscribers.

Noah Weiland & Sarah Kliff of the New York Times: "Private insurers will soon have to cover the cost of eight at-home coronavirus tests per member per month, the Biden administration said Monday. People will be able to get the tests at their health plan's 'preferred' pharmacies and other retailers with no out-of-pocket costs, according to the Department of Health and Human Services. They can also buy the tests elsewhere and file claims for reimbursement, just as they often do for medical care." The AP's report is here.

Illinois. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: Chicago "Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced a deal with the Chicago Teachers Union on Monday that would return students to classrooms on Wednesday after a dispute over coronavirus safeguards canceled a week of classes in the country's third-largest school district."

Way Beyond the Beltway

E.U. Mike Ives of the New York Times: "David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, died on Tuesday in Italy, his spokesman and the parliament';s office in Washington said. He was 65."

Russia/Ukraine/U.S. Ask the Weatherman! Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The number of Russian troops at Ukraine's border has remained steady in recent weeks..., but American officials say that President Vladimir V. Putin has begun taking steps to move military helicopters into place, a possible sign that planning for an attack continues.... The hard winter freeze that typically comes to Ukraine by January has not happened in many areas of the country. As long as the ground remains muddy [making movement of troops & equipment difficult], senior administration officials said, Mr. Putin might be forced to push back a ground offensive until February at the earliest. To get a better sense of possible conditions this year, the Biden administration has enlisted meteorologists to look more closely at the likely weather in Ukraine in the coming weeks, according to a U.S. official."

January 10, 2022

New York Times: "With the threat of Russian military action in eastern Ukraine stirring concern across Europe, American and Russian officials met on Monday to try and find a diplomatic path to ease tensions and avoid the potential for bloodshed. The official delegations, led by a Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, and the American deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, sat down at the U.S. Mission in Geneva just after 9 a.m. local time, the StateDepartment said. This is a liveblog.

Lighting the U.S. the Trump Way.Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "Before Donald Trump launched his war against energy-efficient appliances, incandescent lightbulbs were on their way out. Federal rules required retailers to take them off their shelves by 2020 and sell replacements that would save customers money and energy instead. That transition didn't happen. Now the Biden administration is working to reinstate those rules and a dozen other efficiency regulations weakened under the former president -- an unglamorous but effective way to cut energy use and fight climate change. But the Energy Department faces delays, bureaucratic obstacles and a huge backlog of long-overdue standards affecting dozens of household appliances, threatening the government's ability to slash greenhouse gas emissions.... As of last month, 33 energy efficiency standards for home appliances and equipment including gas furnaces, freezers and clothes dryers are overdue for updates, the department said, after Trump officials failed to act on them for four years. As many as 30 more will come due by the end of Biden's term."

He Can Dish It Out But.... Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of ... Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance toward the panel's questions.... Mr. Jordan was deeply involved in Mr. Trump's effort to fight the election results, including participating in planning meetings in November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and a meeting at the White House in December 2020." Politico's report is here.

The Conspiracy Widens. Ivana Seric of Axios: "Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham named 'a lot of names' during their phone call about the events of Jan. 6, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told CNN.... Raskin, a member of the House select committee investigating the insurrection, invited Grisham to testify before the committee after the two had a 'candid' phone call about what was happening in the White House that day.... According to Raskin, Grisham named a 'lot of names I had not hear before' and 'identified some lines of inquiry that had never occurred to me' during the course of their phone call...." (The CNN link is to an item in a January 7 liveblog.

Joseph Choi of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday accused Republicans across the country of carrying out a 'legislative continuation' of Jan. 6, 2021, through new election laws that she said 'undermine our democracy.'"

Joseph Choi of the Hill: "House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) lambasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday for saying a vote on changing voting rights laws must be bipartisan.... 'I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote. It was a single-party vote that gave Black people the right to vote,' Clyburn told [Bret] Baier [of Fox 'News']. 'Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in,' he added."

Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Biden, Democratic leaders and their emissaries are trying to convince Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to pass a sweeping federal elections bill with a menu of filibuster alternatives. The problem is speaking with him is 'like negotiating via Etch A Sketch,' sources with direct knowledge of his recent meetings tell Axios.... 'You think you're just about there. You think you've got an agreement on most of the things and it's settling in. And then you come back the next morning and you're starting from scratch,' said the one source who made the Etch A Sketch analogy. To date, Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) haven't wavered in their opposition to lowering the 60-vote threshold for passing major legislation or creating a one-time carve-out to bypass the filibuster. That's made the conversations largely futile." MB: Or, to put the obvious more bluntly, Manchin is a slimy bastid who does not negotiate in good faith.

Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post examine how important Fox "News" was to setting Donald Trump's policy priorities. Not only were Fox "News" personalities acting as advisors to Trump -- a relationship they did not reveal to their audience -- but Trump would make some decisions based on what their guests said. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brady Dennis & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions roared back in 2021, the latest indicator that the country remains far off track from meeting President Biden's ambitious climate change targets for the end of this decade. A 17 percent surge in coal-fired electricity helped drive an overall increase of 6.2 percent in greenhouse gas emissions compared with the previous year, according to an analysis published Monday by the Rhodium Group. While emissions remained below pre-pandemic levels, it marked the first annual increase in reliance on the nation's dirtiest fossil fuel since 2014, the independent research firm said." MB: Let's ask Joe Manchin how he's going to fix that for the grandkids.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

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

Bruce Haring of Deadline: "... Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tested positive for Covid-19, her office said in a statement. Ocasio-Cortez, who is fully vaccinated and has had a booster shot, is 'experiencing symptoms and recovering at home,' her office said in a statement.... The congresswoman caused a recent stir by vacationing without a mask in Florida, which has few requirements for pandemic protections. Critics pointed out that her home state of New York has many restrictions."

Australia. Damien Cave & Matthew Futterman of the New York Times: "Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, won a legal victory on Monday in his bid to avoid deportation from Australia, as a judge ordered the government to release him from detention and restore a visa it had canceled because Djokovic has not been vaccinated for Covid-19."

Beyond the Beltway

Georgia. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "The owner of a Georgia auto-repair shop who dumped 91,500 oil-covered pennies in a former employee's driveway was not just creating a sticky mess..., the U.S. Department of Labor said. He was also retaliating against the former employee for having complained to the department that he had not received his final paycheck, the agency said in a lawsuit that accuses the shop owner of violating federal labor law. The lawsuit represents the latest turn in an employment dispute that gained nationwide attention last year after the former employee's girlfriend posted a video of the oily pennies on Instagram, attracting the sympathies of thousands of people who said they, too, had contended with difficult bosses.... 'By law, worker engagement with the U.S. Department of Labor is protected activity,' Steven Salazar, district director of the department's wage and hour division in Atlanta, said in a statement. 'Workers are entitled to receive information about their rights in the workplace and obtain the wages they earned without fear of harassment or intimidation.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York. Grace Ashford of the New York Times: New York City "Mayor Eric Adams, setting aside prior misgivings, allowed a bill that would grant more than 800,000 noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections to become law on Sunday.... The measure applies to legal residents, including those with green cards and so-called Dreamers who were brought to the country illegally as children but were allowed to remain under a federal program known as DACA." The AP's story is here.

Virginia. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Over three tumultuous years, [Gov. Ralph] Northam recovered from the scandal [of appearing in blackface in his medical school yearbook] to become what Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) [-- a former Virginia governor himself --] calls the most consequential Virginia governor of the modern era. Northam led a Democratic majority in the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty, expand access to the vote, legalize marijuana and pass a long list of other changes, large and small. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Kazakhstan. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "At least 5,800 people have been detained and more than 2,000 injured during several days of violence last week in Kazakhstan, government officials said on Sunday, after protests ignited by a fuel price hike set off a political crisis and prompted the president to seek help from a Russia-led security alliance to restore order. The protests, which started last weekend in western Kazakhstan and spread thousands of miles east, also left the country's most populous city, Almaty, in disarray. On Sunday, government officials said that the chaos had been 'gradually stabilizing,' and that thousands of people had been swept up in an 'anti-terrorist' operation.... On Sunday, the Kazakh Health Ministry said that at least 164 people had died in the violence, including 103 in Almaty. But that figure was called into question later when the message was deleted from an official Kazakh government channel on Telegram.... The Information Ministry told Orda.kz, a local news site, that the message had been posted after a technical error."

Myanmar. Richard Paddock of the New York Times: "Myanmar's ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was convicted Monday and sentenced to four years in prison for possessing walkie-talkies in her home and for violating Covid-19 protocols. Altogether, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison so far, with many more charges pending against her.... Her defenders have said the walkie-talkies belonged to her security detail, and that the charges were bogus and politically motivated."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty whose life dissolved in a calamity of suspicions over the unsolved disappearance of his first wife, the execution-style murder of a longtime confidante and the killing and dismemberment of an elderly neighbor, died early Monday as a prisoner in Stockton, Calif. He was 78."

New York Times: "After New York City's deadliest fire in decades, Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that the door to the apartment where the blaze started may have failed to close as it was supposed to." This is a liveblog.

New York Times: "Bob Saget, the standup comic and actor known as Danny Tanner on 'Full House' and the host of 'America's Funniest Home Videos,' was found dead on Sunday in Florida. He was 65. His death was confirmed by the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which said that Mr. Saget was found unresponsive in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. The cause of death was not known, but the Sheriff's Office said there were no signs of foul play or drug use."