December 12, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Monday refused to block a California law banning flavored tobacco, clearing the way for the ban to take effect next week. As is the court's practice when it rules on emergency applications, its brief order gave no reasons. There were no noted dissents. R.J. Reynolds, the maker of Newport menthol cigarettes, had asked the justices to intervene before next Wednesday, when the law is set to go into effect. The company, joined by several smaller ones, argued that a federal law, the Tobacco Control Act of 2009, allows states to regulate tobacco products but prohibits banning them."

Matina Stevis-Gridneff & Monika Pronczuk of the New York Times: "As the Belgian authorities broadened their investigation into allegations that European Parliament lawmakers and others may have taken bribes from Qatar, the assembly's president warned on Monday that illegal lobbying posed a major threat to the institution. 'European democracy is under attack,' the president, Roberta Metsola, said in an emotional speech to fellow lawmakers.' Days after raiding residences and official offices and seizing evidence that included hundreds of thousands of euros in cash, the Belgian police on Monday launched new searches at European Parliament offices."

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Evan Halper & Pranshu Verma of the Washington Post: "The Department of Energy plans to announce Tuesday that scientists have been able for the first time to produce a fusion reaction that creates a net energy gain -- a major milestone in the decades-long, multibillion dollar quest to develop a technology that provides unlimited, cheap, clean power. The aim of fusion research is to replicate the nuclear reaction through which energy is created on the sun. It is a 'holy grail' of carbon-free power that scientists have been chasing since the 1950s. It is still at least a decade -- maybe decades -- away from commercial use, but the latest development is likely to be touted by the Biden administration as an affirmation of a massive investment by the government over the years."

"Splashdown!" Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Fifty years to the day after astronauts last walked on the moon, Nasa&'s uncrewed Orion capsule splashed down in the Pacific on Sunday at the end of a mission that should clear the way for a possible lunar landing of astronauts by 2025. The US space agency rejoiced in a near-perfect re-entry of the capsule which splashed down to the west of Mexico's Baja California near Guadalupe Island. Though it carried no astronauts, the spacecraft did contain three test dummies wired with vibration sensors and radiation monitors to divine how humans would have fared."

Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Newly-appointed special counsel Jack Smith is moving fast on a pair of criminal probes around Donald Trump that in recent months have focused on the former president's state of mind after the 2020 election, including what he knew about plans to impede the transfer of power, people familiar with the matter tell CNN. Though he remains in Europe recovering from a biking accident, Smith has made a series of high-profile moves since he was put in charge last month, including asking a federal judge to hold Trump in contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena ordering him to turn over records marked classified. Since Thanksgiving, Smith has brought a number of close Trump associates before a grand jury in Washington, including two former White House lawyers, three of Trump's closest aides, and his former speechwriter Stephen Miller. He has also issued a flurry of subpoenas, including to election officials in battleground states where Trump tried to overturn his loss in 2020."

Welcome to the 2022 Republican Terrorist Party

... if Steve Bannon and I had organized [the January 6 attack on the Capitol], we would have won. Not to mention, it would've been armed. -- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), to the New York Young Republicans Club, Saturday

We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena. In the media. In the courtroom. At the ballot box. And in the streets. This is the only language the left understands. The language of pure and unadulterated power. -- NYYRC President Gavin Wax, Saturday

Okay, here a Fox "News" headline: "Kevin McCarthy pledges subpoenas for 51 intel agents in wake of Hunter Biden 'Twitter Files' revelations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Akhilleus was wondering in yesterday's thread how it was that My Kevin was so intent on passing out dozens of subpoenaes when he and his friends were unwilling to answer the subpoenas of the committee investigating an attack on our Capitol, a/k/a My Kevin's workplace.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post shares some ideas for reforming the Supreme Court. The reforms have popular support. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brittany Shammas, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Libyan man accused of making a bomb that killed hundreds of people aboard an American passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, almost 34 years ago is in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday. A spokesman for the Justice Department said Abu Agila Masud is expected to make his first court appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.... The former Libyan intelligence operative is accused of making the explosive device that destroyed a Pan Am jet on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board the Boeing 747 and 11 others on the ground. The Justice Department charged Masud in 2020 with helping make the bomb. In announcing the charges on the 32nd anniversary of the attack, then-Attorney General William P. Barr said that the operation was ordered by the leadership of Libyan intelligence and that Moammar Gaddafi, Libya's leader from 1969 to 2011, had personally thanked Masud for his work. It was unclear how authorities took Masud into custody." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Musk Goes Full Winger Loon. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "'My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci,' [Elon] Musk said on Twitter [on Sunday]. He later shared a meme edited to show Fauci telling Biden, 'Just one more lockdown, my king.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: On top of the anti-vax thang, Musk also seems to be making fun of nonbinary people. So he's not just loony; he's mean. BTW, I have always disliked the way "they" and "them" have traditionally been misapplied to a single person. So I also dislike "they" & "them" when these pronouns are intentionally applied to a single person. Nonetheless, I do see the pressing need for a nonbinary set of English-language pronouns. So it occurs to me that "thou, thee, thy & thine" would work well. These are already real words that are singular. Okay, second-person singular, but we can adapt: "When I saw Morgan at the grocery store, thou was buying potatoes. I pointed out to thee that the fingerlings were on sale as I recall fingerlings were thy favorites and thine only choice to serve with roast beef."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. The Great Wall of Ducey ... Is (a) Hilarious (b) an Eyesore (c) Illegal (d) All of the Above. Melissa del Bosque of the Guardian: "A makeshift new barrier built with shipping containers is being illegally erected along part of the US-Mexico border by Arizona's Republican governor -- before he has to hand over the keys of his office to his Democratic successor in January. Doug Ducey is driving a project that is placing double-stacked old shipping containers through several miles of national forest, attempting to fill gaps in Donald Trump's intermittent border fencing. The rusting hulks, topped with razor wire and with bits of metal jammed into gaps, stretch for more than three miles through Coronado national forest land, south of Tucson, and the governor has announced plans to extend that up to 10 miles, at a cost of $95m.... The US Bureau of Reclamation and the Cocopah tribal nation said that Ducey was violating federal law by placing the containers on federal and tribal land there."

California. Soumya Karlamangla & Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Karen Bass was sworn in as the first female mayor of Los Angeles on Sunday and vowed to build consensus among elected leaders as Angelenos contend with racial tensions, surging homelessness and a new rise in coronavirus cases. Vice President Kamala Harris swore in Ms. Bass in a ceremony that celebrated her historic win but also underscored the obstacles she will face. Ms. Bass said that her first act as mayor on Monday would be to declare a state of emergency on homelessness." CNN's story is here.

Way Beyond

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "President Biden underlined the United States' ongoing support for Ukraine during a weekend call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, as well as efforts to strengthen Kyiv's air defenses against tactical strikes by Russia on civilian infrastructure. Biden vowed during the call to hold Russia accountable for war crimes and atrocities, and impose 'costs on Russia for its aggression,' according to an official White House readout. He welcomed Zelensky's stated openness to a 'just peace.'... Western military experts say Russia is firing larger batches of missiles against Ukraine, which risks depleting Kyiv's stockpiles of interceptor missiles.... Moscow is unlikely to make significant advances in the next few months, Britain's Ministry of Defense said in its Monday update."

December 11, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post shares some ideas for reforming the Supreme Court. The reforms have popular support.

Okay, here a Fox "News" headline: "Kevin McCarthy pledges subpoenas for 51 intel agents in wake of Hunter Biden 'Twitter Files' revelations."

Brittany Shammas, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Libyan man accused of making a bomb that killed hundreds of people aboard an American passenger plane over Lockerbie, Scotland, almost 34 years ago is in U.S. custody, officials said Sunday. A spokesman for the Justice Department said Abu Agila Masud is expected to make his first court appearance in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.... The former Libyan intelligence operative is accused of making the explosive device that destroyed a Pan Am jet on Dec. 21, 1988, killing all 259 people on board the Boeing 747 and 11 others on the ground. The Justice Department charged Masud in 2020 with helping make the bomb. In announcing the charges on the 32nd anniversary of the attack, then-Attorney General William P. Barr said that the operation was ordered by the leadership of Libyan intelligence and that Moammar Gaddafi, Libya's leader from 1969 to 2011, had personally thanked Masud for his work. It was unclear how authorities took Masud into custody." The AP's report is here.

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Hunter Biden Dick Pix Edition, Etc.

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones searches the provenance of the Hunter Biden dick pix, and you will be shocked, shocked to find out that Steve Bannon & his friend the Chinese mogul Guo Wengui are behind the distribution of the photos & videos, which they paired with invented allegations that Hunter engaged in child sex abuse & that both Hunter & Joe Biden had paid blackmail. (There's a Rudy Giuliani cameo, too.) Friedman tells us a little more about Guo, who publicly criticizes Chinese communism, but has been accused of being an agent of the Chinese government. In his meeting with Guo backers on October 31, 2020, "Bannon acknowledged passing the material to Guo's backers and then praised their lies, which he laughingly described as 'editorial creativity over the pictures.'" ~~~

~~~ Recently, Elon Musk provided Matt Taibbi with internal communications between Twitter & outsiders, including the Biden 2020 presidential campaign. When Taibbi revealed that -- at the Biden campaign's request -- Twitter had taken down pictures & a video that a follower of Guo had posted, Musk himself was shocked, shocked: "If this isn't a violation of the Constitution's First Amendment, what is?'" he asked. As Friedman notes, there's no First Amendment violation here, something Musk later claimed he knew all along. Then, there's this: "Even now, under Musk, Twitter says that 'sharing explicit sexual images or videos of someone online without their consent is a severe violation' of its rules. Twitter also continues to bar 'coordinated harmful activity,' which it defines as 'individuals associated with a group, movement, or campaign ... engaged in some form of coordination' that will 'cause harm to others.'... The effort by Guo and his backers to propagate explicit images and lies to hurt the Bidens was very much the kind of disinformation campaign that social media companies have good reason, even a responsibility, to combat."

Scott Lemieux in LG&$ republishes a portion of a New York article by Eric Levitz on Elon Musk's vaunted "Twitter Files": "The Twitter Files provide limited evidence that the social-media platform's former management sometimes enforced its terms of service in inconsistent and politically biased ways. The project offers overwhelming evidence that Twitter's current management is using the platform to promote tendentious, partisan narratives and conservative misinformation. In that sense, [Matt] Taibbi and [right-wing journalist Bari] Weiss have performed revelatory journalism." And as Lemieux writes, "What the TWITTER FILES do not contain is any reason for anybody to care about the dumbest pseudo-scandal ever"; i.e., the Hunter Biden laptop hoohah. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: There's a tragedy here: Musk & Taibbi are never going to figure out that at best, they are naifs, and more realistically, they are ignorant hacks. This is a personal tragedy for Musk & Taibbi, but people who used Twitter are collateral damage. Musk doesn't get this, either. One of the worst traits of the biggest jerks is that they'll never know they're the biggest jerks.

Matt Viser & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "An array of groups is preparing to defend [Hunter Biden] against an expected GOP onslaught, but they lack a unifying strategy.... For the White House, the overriding message is that Hunter Biden is clearly a private citizen and an inappropriate target for Congress to investigate, and that Republicans are more concerned with pursuing conspiracies than solving the country's problems."

Apparently there's a "Twitter Files, Part II," and Bari Weiss wrote it. Blake Montgomery of the Gizmodo reviews Weiss's report, which claims Twitter picked on right-wing users more than left-wing users. According to Montgomery, Weiss provides evidence of some wingers Twitter moderated but fails to show any evidence that Twitter was more rigorous with the right than with the left. IOW, just stupid stuff. ~~~

~~~ Shirin Ghaffary of Vox is equally unimpressed with Weiss's analysis, noting that her accusations lack context: "We don't have a full explanation, for example, of why Twitter limited the reach of these accounts -- i.e., whether they were violating the platform's rules on hate speech, health misinformation, or violent content. Without this information, we don't know whether these rules were applied fairly or not." A former Twitter employee noted that Weiss complained about one account Twitter had limited, but the employee noted that "The account has been blamed for harassment of children's hospitals, including bomb threats."

Abigail Hauslohner of the Washington Post: "Four American veterans of the Afghanistan War drove 7,600 miles across the U.S. "in five weeks with the hope that, if they could rally the support of local veterans groups and other constituents, [Republican] senators still uncommitted might also embrace their sense of urgency [to resettle Afghan refugees brought here after the war].... Their journey was fueled by notions of military honor, loyalty and obligation. Out on the road, though, they found no guarantees that such convictions still resonate in a postwar America. Often, they encountered -- both from the public and lawmakers' staff -- an uncomfortable reality in which the moral code that united so many amid the withdrawal had given way to an indifference toward those at risk of abandonment all over again."

Atten-Shun! Mike Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "J.R.O.T.C. programs, taught by military veterans at some 3,500 high schools across the country, are supposed to be elective, and the Pentagon has said that requiring students to take them goes against its guidelines. But The New York Times found that thousands of public school students were being funneled into the classes without ever having chosen them, either as an explicit requirement or by being automatically enrolled.... Dozens of schools have made the program mandatory or steered more than 75 percent of students in a single grade into the classes.... A vast majority of the schools with those high enrollment numbers were attended by a large proportion of nonwhite students and those from low-income households, The Times found.... Parents in some cities say their children are being forced to put on military uniforms, obey a chain of command and recite patriotic declarations in classes they never wanted to take." ~~~

~~~Mike Baker & Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A majority of public school textbooks receive extensive professional and government vetting, undergoing revision, rejection and public debate. But the Junior Reserve Officers' Training Corps, in courses taught at thousands of high schools around the country, uses textbooks that have bypassed those standard public reviews.... A New York Times review of thousands of pages of the program's textbooks found that some of the books also included outdated gender messages, a conservative shading of political issues and accounts of historical events that falsify or downplay the failings of the U.S. government."

Christina Jewitt of the New York Times: "Juul Labs has agreed to pay $1.7 billion to settle more than 5,000 lawsuits by school districts, local governments and individuals who claimed that its e-cigarettes were more addictive than advertised, according to people with knowledge of the deal. The amount for the deal, which involves a consolidation of cases centered in Northern California, is more than three times the sum reported for other Juul settlements in other state and local cases thus far."

Beyond the Beltway

California. Shawn Hubler & Soumya Karlamangla of the New York Times: "Come Monday evening, Kevin de León will be the lone Los Angeles politician still in his job among the four leaders who discussed local politics in racist terms on a recording that has roiled the nation's second most populous city since October, when it surfaced online.... When he unexpectedly attempted to return to the council dais after an absence of weeks, demonstrators shouted and screamed, three colleagues walked out in protest, and the council recessed until Mr. de León left the chambers.... On Friday evening, as a food and toy giveaway wrapped up in his district, Mr. de León, wearing a Santa hat, got into a skirmish with a well-known local activist who has called for months for the councilman's resignation.... The upheaval underscored the ongoing challenges as Karen Bass prepares to be sworn in on Sunday as the first female mayor of Los Angeles and five new City Council members get ready to begin work next week. They will confront a city exhausted by mounting homelessness, crime, costs of living and ethnic divisions."

Way Beyond

Germany. If There Is One! Erika Solomon & Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times on Prince Heinrich XIII of Reuss, the right-wing terrorist whom his co-conspirators planned to make head of a new German Reich after they toppled the current government (which they think is fake) & assassinated the chancellor. ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Olterman of the Guardian has more on the extremist plot.

Ukraine, et al. Patrick picks the Quote of the Week:

You can't trust anyone. You can only trust me. -- Vladimir (Epimenides) Putin

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Ukrainian and Moscow-backed officials both reported deadly strikes in the occupied city of Melitopol on Saturday evening, saying that a recreational center was struck and that there were deaths and injuries.... Russian forces have used a significantly higher number of Iranian-made drones to attack critical infrastructure targets in southern Ukraine in recent days than in previous weeks, the Institute for the Study of War think tank said. The Ukrainian air force on Saturday reported that Russia had conducted 15 attacks with Shahed-136 and 131 drones in the southern Kherson, Mykolaiv and Odessa regions. Ukrainian forces shot down 10 of the drones, according to [President] Zelensky.... Germany on Saturday said it has provided $21 million worth of generators to Ukraine, some of which will go to Odessa to help keep power on as Russian-backed troops target Ukraine's electricity infrastructure.... ~~~

"The brother of Paul Whelan, the Marine turned corporate security executive who is serving a 16-year sentence in a Russian prison over espionage charges, hit back at ... Donald Trump for suggesting that the deal made to free Griner was 'stupid' and 'unpatriotic.' David Whelan told Fox News that Trump's remarks were 'disappointing' for a former president. 'I think that what President Biden did was to take care of an American who was in peril and bring home the American that he could bring home,' he said."

News Lede

New York Times: "When George Johnson, an Englishman known as Johnny, died on Wednesday night in a care home in the Bristol area of southwest England, he was remembered as the last surviving airman of the Dambuster raid [on Germany's industrial heartland]. He was 101."

December 10, 2022

Michael Sisak & Michael Balsamo of the AP: “The AP has spent months investigating [Thomas Ray Hinkle, a high-ranking federal Bureau of Prisons official].... Together, [records] show that while the Bureau of Prisons has vowed to change its toxic culture in the wake of Dublin and other scandals -- a promise recently reiterated by the agency's new director, Colette Peters -- it has continued to elevate a man involved in one of the darkest, most abusive periods in its history.... Hinkle's rise is a stark example of what Bureau of Prisons employees call the agency's 'mess up, move up' policy -- its tendency to promote and transfer troubled workers instead of firing them.... The Bureau of Prisons responded to detailed questions about Hinkle with a statement from Peters defending him and the agency's decisions to promote him."

Natasha Bertrand, et al., of CNN: "Russia refused to release Paul Whelan alongside Brittney Griner unless a former colonel from Russia's domestic spy organization currently in German custody was also released as part of any prisoner swap, US officials told CNN, even as the US offered up the names of several other Russian prisoners in US custody that they would be willing to trade. The US was unable to deliver on the request for the ex-colonel, Vadim Krasikov, because he is serving out a life sentence for murder in Germany.... US officials made quiet inquiries to the Germans about whether they might be willing to include Krasikov in the trade, a senior German government source told CNN earlier this year. But ultimately, the US was not able to secure Krasikov's release."

First, Save All the White People! Jonathan Weisman & Ken Bensinger of the New York Times: "There was a time when the release of American citizens who had been unjustly imprisoned by a foreign adversary was a moment for bipartisan relief and celebration.... Those moments felt like sepia-toned artifacts on Friday as Brittney Griner ... slipped quietly into a military base in Texas.... Within hours of Ms. Griner's release, much of the right wing was in full outrage mode.... A considerable amount of attention was ... paid to who Ms. Griner is: a Black woman, a celebrity, a married lesbian and, though it had gone largely unnoticed until now, an assertive liberal.... Tucker Carlson led his top-rated Fox News show on Thursday night with a diatribe, accusing Ms. Griner of being unpatriotic and suggesting that [Paul] Whelan had been left behind because of his politics. 'Whelan is a Trump voter, and he made the mistake of saying so on social media,' Mr. Carlson said in his monologue. 'He's paying the price now. Brittney Griner is not. She has very different politics. Brittney Griner despises the United States.... ;Brittney Griner is not white, and she's a lesbian.'"

Doktor Zoom of Wonkette tries to figure out when it's okay for a Democratic president to negotiate a prisoner swap. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: I know one thing for sure: if the American is not a white guy, preferably an ex-Marine (apparently even one who has been dishonorably discharged), it is never okay.

Valerie Hopkins, et al., of the New York Times: "After almost 10 months of war, sanctions, nuclear threats and the constant monitoring of the Russian security state, some American and European citizens continue to live and work in Russia, drawn in many cases by professional opportunities and higher salaries..., but there are also examples of Americans who made Russia their home for political reasons.... Athletes have long provided one of the biggest streams of prominent Westerners to Russia.... These athletes have stayed despite warnings from the State Department, which is advising all Americans to leave Russia immediately, weighing the risks of playing in Russia against professional and financial opportunities in a major sports market."

Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders have all but abandoned the idea of acting to raise the debt ceiling this month before Democrats lose control of the House, punting the issue to a new Congress when Republicans have vowed to fight the move, and setting up a clash next year that could bring the American economy to the brink of crisis.... Senior Republicans, particularly in the House, have repeatedly signaled that they plan to leverage any vote to avoid a default to force President Biden and congressional Democrats to accept a series of fiscal overhauls, deep cuts to federal spending and potentially reductions to Social Security and Medicare.... [BUT] In an institution where action is driven largely by legislative and political deadlines, focus instead remains on avoiding a government shutdown Dec. 16, when a stopgap spending bill lapses." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah But. This is not just kicking the can down the road; it's kicking a can of worms down the road till it ends up right at the feet of Kevin McCarthy, who will pick it up & force-feed you the worms.

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "The one constant in Senator Kyrsten Sinema's political career, from her start as a left-wing rabble rouser and Ralph Nader aide to her announcement on Friday that she was leaving the Democratic Party to become an independent, is her boundless ability to draw attention to herself.... In Arizona's Democratic circles, distaste for the senator runs deep, and her announcement immediately shifted the spotlight to the 2024 race for her Senate seat.... Democrats in Arizona signaled on Friday that they still planned to support a candidate against Ms. Sinema.... A Civiqs survey conducted shortly before Election Day found she had an approval rating of just 7 percent among the state's Democrats, 27 percent among Republicans and 29 percent among independents." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "This is who [Kyrsten Sinema has] always been. The content of Sinema's politics has changed over time, from Green Party progressivism to pro-corporate centrism. Her approach to elected office as a vehicle for the refinement of the self has not.... 'One of her deep flaws is that she doesn't realize our actions have impacts every day on people who need our help,' said Ruben Gallego, a Democratic Arizona congressman who'd been considering a primary campaign against Sinema.... [Sen. Mark Kelly's (D-Az.) win] meant Sinema could no longer hold the rest of the Democratic caucus hostage, or argue that only Democrats who defy their base are electable in her state.... Sinema wouldn't need to get that many swing voters [in the 2024 Arizona Senate race] to thwart a Democrat. But ... she doesn't have a winning coalition herself." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sinema would make a great running-mate for Donald Trump. They're peas in a pod -- a couple of rudderless narcissists who have no political philosophy and no party loyalty. ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$ republishes part of a post by New York's Jonathan Chait: "Sinema's declaration of independence from the party is a ploy to avoid the primary and keep her job. Democrats could still run a candidate against her in the general election, of course, but they would face an extremely difficult prospect of winning. So her calculation in leaving the party is that she can bluff it into sitting out the campaign altogether, endorsing her as the lesser-evil choice against the Republican nominee.... It would be more accurate to say she is playing a game of chicken.... In a three-way race, Sinema would almost certainly finish a very distant third." Lemieux responds that he would be "pretty strongly inclined to call her bluff." ~~~

~~~ Paul Campos speculates in LG&$ on Kyrsten Sinema's (del>D-I-Az.) future: "My favorite detail in this is that she won't commit to caucusing with the Democrats, but she expects to keep all her committee assignments!... I do wonder what this means for the 2024 election: Is Arizona going to have an 'independent' on the ballot, along with Democratic and Republican candidates -- a circumstance that would surely hand the seat to the GOP?... Or maybe she's delusional enough to run as the No Labels/Forward reactionary centrist grift candidate for president two years from now, although she would probably have to wrestle Andrew Yang for that particular prize. Maybe the most likely outcome of all this is that she's just going to bail from electoral politics altogether and take an eight-figure bribe from some VC outfit to thank her for her service. Yeech." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Robert Farley in LG&$: "... Krysten Sinema has the firm grip on political reality that one would expect of a former member of the Green Party[.]... A fitting end to a pretty useless political career." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ mister mix of Balloon Juice is equally impressed with gentlelady from Arizona: :Krysten Sinema (Clown-AZ) has issued letters patent declaring that she will no longer sully herself with the grimy trappings of partisanship and is therefore a no-labels 'independent'.... Sinema's actions make a seat that was never a gimme an even harder reach for a party that already has an extremely constrained path to holding the Senate in 2024.... I could go on and on about this feckless clown, but instead I;ll give Arizona Democrats a suggestion: ask for your money back.... Democrats in Arizona should start a campaign against her now, to drive her negatives to the bottom of the god damned ocean. Her campaign as an 'independent' will end only when her corporate backers get the message that giving her money is throwing it away." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo, whose post is topped with a big piece of toast: "Like Donald Trump, the only team she plays for is her own.... Perhaps all the attention Sen. Raphael Warnock has received has starved her of attention.... The switch may shore up her flagging leverage in the Democrats' 51-seat Senate majority. Plus, give her (in her mind) the only hope for hanging onto her seat in 2024. Kari Lake isn't going away." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Washington on Friday ended a hearing without acting on a Justice Department request to find representatives of Donald J. Trump's post-presidential office in contempt of court for failing to comply fully with a subpoena demanding that he return all classified documents he had taken with him when he left office, two people familiar with the matter said. They said that the judge left it to the Justice Department and Mr. Trump's team to resolve the department's concerns about whether the former president might have more classified documents at his properties after more than a year of efforts by the federal government to retrieve them. It was unclear after the closed-door proceeding if the judge, Beryl A. Howell, had left open the possibility of ruling on the matter at a future date. Several news outlets filed a letter asking the judge to unseal the proceedings, including The New York Times.... The hearing was not open to the public because of grand jury secrecy rules." (This is an update of a story also linked yesterday afternoon.) An ABC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have heard judges tell attorneys to "get your client under control." I'm not talking about clients who were disrupting the courtroom but ones who were otherwise not complying with court orders. It seems to me that "get your client under control" would be appropriate here, albeit impossible for the attorneys to manage.

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Three men who prepared for violence in advance of the Jan. 6, 2021 riot, fought or confronted police protecting the U.S. Capitol and then celebrated by smoking inside the building were sentenced Friday to years in prison and ordered to forfeit money they had raised off their prosecution. Ronald Sandlin, 35, a tech entrepreneur from Las Vegas who brought a gun to Washington and assaulted police, received the longest sentence of the three at 63 months.... Nicholas Ochs, 36, of Honolulu, and Nicholas DeCarlo, 32, of Fort Worth, are both affiliated with the far-right Proud Boys movement. Neither expressed contrition.... Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ... sentenced them both to four years in prison." MB: It's worth reading about these reprobates, especially Sandlin.

** New York Times Editors: "'The most important case for American democracy' in the nation's history -- that's how the former appeals court judge J. Michael Luttig described Moore v. Harper, an extraordinary lawsuit that the Supreme Court considered in oral arguments Wednesday morning. Judge Luttig, a conservative and a widely respected legal thinker, is not one for overstatement.... It is essential that people understand just how dangerous this case is to the fundamental structure of American government, and that enough justices see the legal fallacies and protect our democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The irony here is that the headline is, "This Case Should Never Have Made It to the Supreme Court." And it should not have, as the editors explain: "To be clear, this is a political power grab in the guise of a legal theory. Republicans are trying to see if they can turn state legislatures -- 30 of which are controlled by Republicans -- into omnipotent, unaccountable election bosses with the help of the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court." I suppose it's because I so despise Alito, but I wanted to scream -- I could have, no one would hear me, but I didn't -- when I read the bit about that arrogant SOB complaining about state justices being political actors, thus falsely implying that he -- of all the hacks in all the world -- is not.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. David Corn of Mother Jones: "The day after Donald Trump ... called for the 'termination' of provisions of the US Constitution governing elections and essentially demanded that he be declared the 'rightful winner' of the 2020 election, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post ran a front-page story reporting Trump's call for ripping up portions of the nation's founding document. No mention of this even appeared in the Times that day. Trump's unprecedented and dangerous statement was not deemed a big deal.... The coverage [of other recent Trump debacles also] does not seem to capture fully the danger posed by a wannabe-tyrant validating forces of hatred and irrationality.... [The media] followed the same-old/same-old formula: Trump does outrageous thing X; friends and foes say Y. Rinse. Repeat.... Even against the steady stream of Trump excesses over the past seven years, a demand to burn the Constitution stood out.... Like climate change, a pandemic, or a financial crisis, Trump, a would-be, Constitution-defying autocrat, and those enabling and supporting him jeopardize the nation. He and his movement ought to be covered not as yet another subject for the politics section but as a direct danger to American democracy." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The MSM are deluding themselves if they think the dangers Trump poses will go away when he does. DeSantolini, Kari Lake and dozens of dangerous elected Republicans -- not to mention the majority of Supremes -- will still be around when Trump bites the dust, and these Republicans will keep this brand of fascism alive.

Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Keystone pipeline system was shut down Wednesday night after its operator, TC Energy, said it had detected an oil spill in northern Kansas. Federal environmental officials said the public was not at risk. An estimated 14,000 barrels of oil spilled into a creek in Washington County, Kan., south of the Nebraska border, TC Energy said in a statement on Thursday. Washington County has a population of about 5,500, according to government data. The Washington County Emergency Management Office said on Facebook on Thursday that residents in and around the county had reported waking up to the smell of gas." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Gubernatorial Election. Alexandra Berzon, et al., of the New York Times: "Kari Lake, the losing Republican candidate for governor of Arizona, filed a lawsuit Friday contesting the results of an election that was certified by the state this week. Ms. Lake's lawsuit came after she had spent weeks making a series of public statements and social media posts aimed at sowing doubt in the outcome of a contest she lost by more than 17,000 votes to her Democratic opponent, Katie Hobbs. That loss was certified in documents signed on Monday by Ms. Hobbs, who currently serves as secretary of state.... 'If the process was illegitimate, then so are the results,' Ms. Lake said on Twitter on Friday evening after announcing her lawsuit.... Ms. Hobbs called Ms. Lake's suit 'baseless' in a post of her own on Twitter, describing it as the 'latest desperate attempt to undermine our democracy and throw out the will of the voters.'"

Florida. Matt Dixon of Politico: "Kent Stermon, a prominent Jacksonville-area Republican donor and friend of Gov. Ron DeSantis found dead in his car Thursday night, was under 'active investigation' by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.... Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters ... said that because the investigation remains active, there is 'limited information available to release at this time.' The Florida Times-Union reported, citing unidentified law enforcement sources, that authorities were examining allegations of sexual misconduct. Stermon was president of Jacksonville-area defense contractor Total Military Management." According to A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics, Stermon's death "is being treated as a suicide."

Florida. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "The pattern is unmistakable: Cases from Gov. Ron DeSantis' election crimes office keep ending up in court, and as The Miami Herald reported, they keep collapsing.... In October, a Miami judge tossed out a criminal case against a Floridian accused by DeSantis' election fraud force. A month later, prosecutors in Tampa dropped the case against another defendant. This week, a judge threw out a third case." Benen points out that the cases are likely to fail because the law requires that the voters intended to break the law. MB: But here's the thing: when an elections official tells a person it is legal for him to vote, then he votes, then the DeSantis Squad comes out & arrests him, that seems to me more like entrapment than intent. If there's any intent here, it's DeSantis's "intent to commit publicity stunt at other's expense," which probably is not a crime. But maybe it should be.

Tennessee. Jonathan Mattise of the AP: "The Tennessee Supreme Court has suspended the law license of a former Tennessee state senator who pleaded guilty last month to violating federal campaign finance laws. The court suspended former Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey's law license Thursday at the request of the Board of Professional Responsibility, pending further orders by the court. The state Supreme Court cited its own rules requiring the suspension because of Kelsey's guilty plea. The board, which oversees regulates the practice of law in Tennessee, said it will hold formal proceedings to determine the final discipline against Kelsey. Kelsey had previously pleaded not guilty to the campaign finance charges in the case related to his failed 2016 congressional campaign, calling them a 'political witch hunt' and claiming he was 'totally innocent.' He then changed his plea in front of a federal judge late last month." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Afghanistan. Pamela Constable of the Washington Post: "The Taliban regime, stepping up the pace and severity of Islamic punishments, carried out its first public execution this week since taking power 15 months ago. A convicted murderer was shot Wednesday, followed a day later by the lashing of 27 men and women in a soccer stadium on charges that included adultery, theft, drug use and running away from home. The man put to death in western Farah province was not identified, but officials said he was accused of murder five years ago and found guilty after three recent court hearings. Under the Islamic legal tenet of 'qisas,' which allows personal retribution for crimes, the father of the murder victim carried out the death sentence as a crowd watched, shooting the killer three times."

Israel. Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Benjamin Netanyahu, struggling for more than a month to form a coalition government, on Friday was granted another 10 days to do so. But his hopes rest on a contentious quest: shepherding in a new law that would allow convicted criminals who have suspended jail terms to serve in his cabinet. The latest development shows the precariousness of the task ahead for the former Israeli prime minister -- who himself faces prosecution. The proposed new law would allow Aryeh Deri -- a key Netanyahu ally recently convicted of tax fraud -- to hold three ministerial positions, including the important position of interior minister." MB: Congrats to Israeli voters, who picked a pack of pathetic pikers to run their government.

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russia is adding to its nuclear stockpiles, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday, hours after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested his country's military doctrine could be changed to allow for a preemptive first strike. [NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg] had earlier said he was worried the conflict in Ukraine could spread 'into a major war.'... Russia is 'modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal,' Austin said Friday at a ceremony at the Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, where the U.S. Strategic Command oversees the country's nuclear operations. He said the United States was on the verge of facing 'two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors,' as China was also increasing and updating its nuclear forces."