March 27, 2022

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Biden ended three days of diplomacy in Europe on Saturday that brought him within miles of the war in Ukraine, using a speech in Poland to rally American allies for what he said would be a long fight and escalating his personal denunciation of Vladimir V. Putin, saying the Russian leader 'cannot remain in power.' Mr. Biden described the war in sweeping terms, as 'a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between a rules-based order and one governed by brute force.' He portrayed it as part of a long struggle against authoritarianism, linking it to past uprisings against Soviet domination in Eastern Europe." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Sunday are here: "The White House is walking back President Biden's fiery, ad-libbed comments calling Vladimir Putin a 'dictator' who 'cannot remain in power' -- insisting the United States is not looking for regime change in Russia. 'We do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia - or anywhere else, for that matter,' Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday from Jerusalem, stressing that Biden's point was that the Russian president 'cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.' Biden's Warsaw speech, capping his European tour, came as two powerful rockets struck around 250 miles away -- across the border in Lviv, a western city considered relatively safe in the month-long war, amid conflicting reports that Moscow is shifting the locus of war from capturing Ukraine's capital to prioritizing securing the east.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated demands for Western countries to supply planes and tanks to Ukraine, and he criticized the West for its hesitation." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

What If??? Marie: I am struck again and again by how differently Putin's war of atrocities would have unfolded if a few tens of thousands of Americans had voted differently in a few U.S. states in 2020. Ukraine would never have got American backing -- even if the Congress voted for it, Trump would have held it up, as he did aid to Ukraine in 2019 -- and, obviously, Trump would have never cast Putin's war as a battle between autocracy & democracy, since Trump himself comes down on the side of autocracy. European NATO members probably would have given Ukraine some help, but NATO itself would be decidedly weaker, and if Macron had emerged as its de facto leader, there would have been no major push for crippling sanctions against Russia. In short, if Trump were in power, instead of Biden, the course of European history might have worked out differently, and the change would have come quickly. A few weeks ago, Ken W. & I briefly mentioned the "great man" theory of history. One thing is certain: the individuals who head the major global powers, no matter how they got to the top, make a difference in regional and even global outcomes. Few realize it, but the world is indebted to those few tens of thousands of people who voted for Joe Biden.

Chris Megerian, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Saturday that Vladimir Putin 'cannot remain in power,' dramatically escalating the rhetoric against the Russian leader after his brutal invasion of Ukraine. Even as Biden's words rocketed around the world, the White House attempted to clarify soon after Biden finished speaking in Poland that he was not calling for a new government in Russia. A White House official asserted that Biden was 'not discussing Putin's power in Russia or regime change.' The official, who was not authorized to comment by name and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Biden's point was that 'Putin cannot be allowed to exercise power over his neighbors or the region.' The White House declined to comment on whether Biden's statement about Putin was part of his prepared remarks. 'For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power,' Biden said at the very end of a speech in Poland's capital that served as the capstone on a four-day trip to Europe." You can watch President Biden's full remarks here on YouTube.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden called ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia 'a butcher' on Saturday, in response to a question after meeting with Ukrainian refugees in Warsaw, including several from Mariupol, the city that has been flattened by days of shelling from Russian forces.... His comment came as he visited a stadium in Warsaw where the Polish authorities are assisting the waves of people who are fleeing Ukraine. He shook hands and exchanged comments with people as they crowded around him. At one point, he picked up a little girl with a pink jacket and brown pigtails and took a selfie with her. Each one of the children, Mr. Biden said, asked for him to pray 'for my dad, or my grandfather, and my brother,' who remain in Ukraine."

Cara Anna of the AP: "Russian rockets struck the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Saturday while President Joe Biden visited neighboring Poland, a reminder that Moscow is willing to strike anywhere in Ukraine despite its claim to be focusing its offensive on the country's east. The back-to-back airstrikes shook the city that has become a haven for an estimated 200,000 people who have had to flee their hometowns. Lviv had been largely spared since the invasion began, although missiles struck an aircraft repair facility near the main airport a week ago."

Poland Chooses Soverignty Over Nationalism, For Now. Tyler Pager, et al., of the Washington Post: President "Biden's two-day visit to Poland ... underscores the rapidly changing nature of the U.S.-Poland relationship, which has transformed into a close partnership in the face of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Arriving at Poland's Presidential Palace for a meeting with [President Andrzej] Duda on Saturday afternoon, Biden embraced the Polish leader and the two men beamed at the cameras as they shook hands and Biden placed his other hand on Duda's shoulder. At the start of an expanded bilateral meeting, Duda said that the relationship between the United States and Poland is 'flourishing' and that the bond was 'strengthened immensely' by Biden's visit. In his remarks, Biden emphasized United States' enduring commitment to defending NATO member states, seeking to reassure the Polish people, who Duda said feel a 'great sense of threat' because of Russia's aggression.... In recent weeks, Polish leaders have pivoted from attacking some of the core institutions of liberal democracy to touting their role as defenders of European unity and values.... The fortified bond between Poland and the United States could be temporary, however." (Also linked yesterday.)&

William Booth, et al., of the Washington Post: "The war in Ukraine is proving extraordinarily lethal for Russian generals..., who are being aggressively targeted by Ukrainian forces and killed at a rate not seen since World War II. Ukrainian officials say their forces have killed seven generals on the battlefield, felled by snipers, close combat and bombings.... NATO officials estimated earlier this week that as many as 15,000 Russian troops have been killed in four weeks of war, a very high number. Russia has offered a far lower figure, reporting Friday that only 1,351 of its fighters had died. The Russian government has not confirmed the deaths of its generals.... By design, the Russian army is top heavy with senior officers, which makes them numerous, though not expendable.... Some experts suggest the Russian military has struggled to keep its communications secure and that Ukraine intelligence units have found their targets through Russian carelessness, with Russian forces reduced to using unencrypted devices.... One Western official suggested that Russian generals were also needed to push 'frightened' Russian troops, including raw conscripts, forward.... Russian soldiers attacked and injured their commanding officer after their brigade suffered heavy losses in the fighting outside the capital, Kyiv, according to a Western official and a Ukrainian journalist"

Power to the People. Daniel Boffey & Shaun Walker of the Guardian: "A mayor in a Ukrainian town occupied by Russian forces has been released from captivity and the soldiers have agreed to leave after a mass protest by residents. Slavutych, a northern town close to the Chernobyl nuclear site, was taken by Russian forces but stun grenades and overhead fire failed to disperse unarmed protesters on its main square on Saturday. The crowd demanded the release of mayor Yuri Fomichev, who had been taken prisoner by the Russian troops. An agreement was made that the Russians would leave the town if those with arms handed them over to the mayor with a dispensation for those with hunting rifles. Fomichev told those protesting that the Russians had agreed to withdraw 'if there are no [Ukrainian] military in the city'. The deal struck, the mayor said, was that the Russians would make a search for Ukrainian soldiers and arms and then depart. One Russian checkpoint outside the city would remain. The incident highlights the struggle that Russian forces have faced even where they have had military victories." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Most of the protesters in the photo that accompanies the article appear to be seniors; there are a few younger women among them.

Robyn Dixon & Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "The speed of Russia's transformation to Soviet-style 'self-purification' has been astonishing. When Russia invaded Ukraine last month, state TV went to wall-to-wall propaganda blaming Ukrainian 'neo-Nazis' and 'nationalists.' Now, shadowy pro-Putin figures are daubing the words 'traitor to the motherland' on the doors of peace activists and others.... Websites with names have sprung up encouraging Russians to denounce 'traitors,' 'enemies,' 'cowards' and 'fugitives' who oppose the war.... Cars carrying imperial flags and bearing the letter Z, a symbol of support for the war, have appeared in Russian cities and towns.... There is a thread of messianic rhetoric from top Russian officials, pro-Kremlin journalists, religious figures and academics, laying out the mission to revive Russian greatness. They revile Western liberalism and applaud conservative, authoritarian orthodoxy."

Roger Cohen of the New York Times reviews Vladimir Putin's career: "Speaking in what he called 'the language of Goethe, Schiller and Kant,' picked up during his time as a K.G.B. officer in Dresden, President Vladimir V. Putin addressed the German Parliament on Sept. 25, 2001. 'Russia is a friendly European nation,' he declared. 'Stable peace on the continent is a paramount goal for our nation.' The Russian leader, elected the previous year at the age of 47 after a meteoric rise from obscurity, went on to describe 'democratic rights and freedoms' as the 'key goal of Russia's domestic policy.' Members of the Bundestag gave a standing ovation, moved by the reconciliation Mr. Putin seemed to embody in a city, Berlin, that long symbolized division between the West and the totalitarian Soviet world.... An immense distance seems to separate the man who won over the Bundestag in 2001 with a conciliatory speech and the ranting leader berating the 'national traitors' seduced by the West who 'can't do without foie gras, oysters or the so-called gender freedoms,' as he put it in his scum-and-traitors speech this month.... Was [Putin] transformed over time into the revanchist warmonger of today, whether because of perceived Western provocation, gathering grievance, or the giddying intoxication of prolonged and -- since Covid-19 -- increasingly isolated rule?... 'You must understand, he is from the K.G.B., lying is his profession, it is not a sin,' said Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador in Moscow from 2017 to 2020. 'He is like a mirror, adapting to what he sees, in the way he was trained.'" MB: Quite a fascinating analysis, IMO.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The White House will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of its 2023 budget Monday, proposing a tax on the richest 700 Americans for the first time, according to five people with knowledge of the matter and an administration document obtained by The Washington Post. The 'Billionaire Minimum Income Tax' plan under President Biden would establish a 20 percent minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100 million, the document says. The majority of new revenue raised by the tax would come from billionaires.... The plan comes amid signs that the administration's negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over stalled White House economic proposal may be reviving. But all previous efforts to tax billionaires have failed amid major political head winds, and it is unclear if Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) will go along with the plan." CNN's report is here.

** Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "A snarling pack of white male Republicans ripping apart a poised, brainy Black woman at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, using sordid innuendos and baseless claims about race and porn to smear her, as her pained family sits behind her. It has been 31 years since I watched this scene, disgusted, when Anita Hill was questioned during confirmation hearings for Justice Clarence Thomas. Now Ketanji Brown Jackson has been cast into the same medieval torture chamber on Capitol Hill, with Democrats once more struggling to shield their witness from being mauled. This time, the male Torquemadas were joined by a female inquisitor, Marsha Blackburn. The Tennessee Republican is all magnolia Southern charm -- until she spits venom.... [Clarence] Thomas should never have been on the court. Now that we know his wife was plotting the overthrow of the government, he should get off or be thrown off. You can't administer justice when your spouse is running around strategizing for a coup."

Ray Hartmann in the Raw Story: "Sen. Josh Hawley was residing in a glass house when he metaphorically hurled rocks at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- falsely suggesting that she was soft on sex-related crimes during her U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing.... On multiple instances in his fleeting two-year stint as Missouri attorney general -- before he was elected to the U.S. Senate -- Hawley was either disinterested or inept in prosecuting sex crimes. Some of that history was laid out today in a National Memo report [Saturday]." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Reflecting on the outrageous grilling Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson received at the hands of Republican senators..., Intelligencer columnist Jacob Silverman suggested that the GOP rhetoric showed the party appears to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of QAnon.... 'Earlier this month, Missouri senator Josh Hawley presented a long Twitter thread charging that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson "has a pattern of letting child porn offenders off the hook" -- a blaring Klaxon for QAnon adherents obsessed with child endangerment,' he wrote. "He later repeated his criticisms on the first day of Jackson's confirmation hearing.... Hawley's remarks were later echoed by South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, who ... told Jackson, "Every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited."'... Touching on reports that Ginni Thomas was texting absurd conspiracy theories to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Jan 6th insurrection, the columnist explained, 'Thomas's willingness to embrace even the most wild-eyed, Big Lie-fueled theories only affirms what we already know about some of her political peers, including those who served in the Trump White House. Some ... Trumpists, including perhaps Trump himself, actually accepted the proliferating lies[.]..." The New York column is firewalled.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: Republican senators' attacks on Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, accusing her of being "soft on" child pornographers are "so spurious and dishonest that National Review denounced it as 'meritless to the point of demagoguery.' Of course, 'demagoguery' is the point. It's no accident that Republicans have landed on this particular accusation. The belief that Democrats are pedophiles -- and that at its top levels the Democratic Party is an elaborate pedophilia ring -- looms large in the QAnon conspiracy theory, which is something like orthodoxy for a substantial portion of the Republican base.... The Republican attacks on Jackson are a QAnon dogwhistle, and QAnon followers have heard the message."

Let's Not Forget Racism, a Feature of the Hearings. Steve Phillips in the Guardian (March 25): "... the Republican committee members have opted to throw racist red meat to their rabid white supporters who are gripped by fear of people of color. [Ted] Cruz led the charge with his attacks on critical race theory, asking [Judge] Jackson whether she agrees 'that babies are racist' and trying to paint the judge as a dangerous person who would force white children to learn about racism.... Hour after hour, question after question, Judge Jackson -- secure in the knowledge that she is simply the latest talented Black woman and not the first -- is calmly, confidently and politely taking a wrecking ball to the myth that America is a meritocracy. And the implications of that scare the Republicans to death."

Danny Hakim, et al., of the New York Times: "A hard-line conservative activist, [Ginni] Thomas had long been viewed with suspicion by the Republican establishment. Yet her influence had risen during the Trump administration, especially after [Mark] Meadows, who like Ms. Thomas has roots in the Tea Party movement, became chief of staff. Now, an examination of her texts, woven together with recent revelations of the depth of her efforts to overturn the election, shows how firmly she was embedded in the conspiratorial fringe of right-wing politics, even as that fringe was drawing ever closer to the center of Republican power.... As his wife agitated for Mr. Trump and his aides to turn aside the election results, Justice Thomas was Mr. Trump's staunchest ally on the Supreme Court and has remained so."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: Ginni Thomas' text messages to Mark Meadows "once again show how ... Donald Trump's conspiracies, lies and obsessions infected the Republican Party (and in many quarters still do), from its rank-and-file base to some of its most establishment figures. The more that is known..., the clearer it is just how extensive the efforts to overturn the election were and how high up they went.... Now it's known just how much Ginni Thomas pushed senior officials in the government to embrace allegations that were unproven at the time and ultimately disproved, claims that embodied some of the most outlandish of the ideas that were circulating then.... For anyone who thought that Trump's claims of a stolen election were a game to salve a bruised presidential ego and that those around him went along to humor him, the Thomas texts speak to the real threats that existed at the time." (Also linked yesterday.)

Mariana Alfaro & Maria Paul of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) said Saturday that he will resign from Congress after he was convicted Thursday on three felony counts for lying to federal investigators about illegal campaign contributions from a foreign billionaire. In a letter to his House colleagues, Fortenberry said his last day in Congress will be March 31.... The congressman -- who has maintained his innocence since being charged in October -- said he planned to appeal the verdict. His defense team had argued that authorities had used deceptive investigative tactics to indict the congressman.... Felons are eligible to run for and serve in Congress." The AP's story is here.

The Devil Went Down to Georgia. Maya King of the New York Times: Donald Trump headlined a rally Saturday night in Commerce, Georgia, to bolster the sputtering campaign of former Sen. David Purdue, who is running against the sitting Republican governor Brian Kemp who infuriated Trump by refusing to illegally throw the state's presidential election to Trump. "All seven of Mr. Trump's endorsed candidates [for Georgia offices] spoke at the rally. Nearly every speaker echoed Mr. Trump's false election claims, placing the blame on Dominion voting machines and Democratic lawmakers for Republicans' 2020 losses in Georgia. Mr. Perdue took things further, however, placing the blame for his Senate campaign loss and Mr. Trump's defeat on Mr. Kemp."

When All the President's Men Plotted to Assassinate an American Journalist. Mark Feldstein in the Washington Post: Before the Watergate break-in, White House special counsel Charles Colson, top White House operative, E. Howard Hunt & his sidekick G. Gordon Liddy conspired to assassinate syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, who was long a thorn in Richard Nixon's side. Nixon had earlier tried to get Anderson with a number of dirty tricks, but the stunts backfired or fizzled. "In the aftermath [of Watergate], a Senate committee investigated and confirmed the plot to poison Anderson. Liddy and Hunt eventually acknowledged their participation in the conspiracy. Colson never did.... Nixon['s] ... role in the Anderson plot has never been definitively established. Hunt believed that Colson didn't have the 'balls' to order the assassination on his own and had acted at Nixon's behest. Colson denied that. But it is hard to imagine Nixon's closest advisers plotting to execute America's leading investigative reporter without the tacit -- if not explicit -- authorization of the president." (Also linked yesterday.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Sophie Kasakove of the New York Times: "Jurors in Colorado on Friday ordered the city and county of Denver to pay $14 million in damages to 12 plaintiffs after finding that police officers used excessive force against them during demonstrations over the killing of George Floyd in 2020. The civil case in the U.S. District Court of Colorado was the first in the nation in which a lawsuit accusing the police of misconduct during the 2020 protests went to trial, according to the plaintiffs' lawyers.... The jury of eight Coloradans concluded that the city and county failed to properly train its police and that as a result,officers violated the plaintiffs' constitutional rights under the First and Fourth Amendments."

March 26, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Poland Chooses Soverignty Over Nationalism, For Now. Tyler Pager, et al., of the Washington Post: President "Biden's two-day visit to Poland ... underscores the rapidly changing nature of the U.S.-Poland relationship, which has transformed into a close partnership in the face of Russia's invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Arriving at Poland's Presidential Palace for a meeting with [President Andrzej] Duda on Saturday afternoon, Biden embraced the Polish leader and the two men beamed at the cameras as they shook hands and Biden placed his other hand on Duda's shoulder. At the start of an expanded bilateral meeting, Duda said that the relationship between the United States and Poland is 'flourishing' and that the bond was 'strengthened immensely' by Biden's visit. In his remarks, Biden emphasized United States' enduring commitment to defending NATO member states, seeking to reassure the Polish people, who Duda said feel a 'great sense of threat' because of Russia's aggression.... In recent weeks, Polish leaders have pivoted from attacking some of the core institutions of liberal democracy to touting their role as defenders of European unity and values.... The fortified bond between Poland and the United States could be temporary, however."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: Ginni Thomas' text messages to Mark Meadows "once again show how ... Donald Trump's conspiracies, lies and obsessions infected the Republican Party (and in many quarters still do), from its rank-and-file base to some of its most establishment figures. The more that is known..., the clearer it is just how extensive the efforts to overturn the election were and how high up they went.... Now it's known just how much Ginni Thomas pushed senior officials in the government to embrace allegations that were unproven at the time and ultimately disproved, claims that embodied some of the most outlandish of the ideas that were circulating then.... For anyone who thought that Trump's claims of a stolen election were a game to salve a bruised presidential ego and that those around him went along to humor him, the Thomas texts speak to the real threats that existed at the time."

Addy Bink of Nexta Media Wire, published by KLTA: "Just a day after [Sen. Ted] Cruz questioned [Judge Ketanji Brown] Jackson on [a children's book titled] 'Antiracist Baby' while showing pages of the book on posters, the title sits atop Amazon's list of best sellers in children's books on prejudice and racism." This gave "The Daily Show" a marketing idea. Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead: ~~~

     ~~~ AND, as Akhilleus points out in today's Comments, being a huckster for books he dislikes is not Cancun Ted's only recent winger nitwittery.

Ray Hartmann in the Raw Story: "Sen. Josh Hawley was residing in a glass house when he metaphorically hurled rocks at Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- falsely suggesting that she was soft on sex-related crimes during her U.S. Supreme Court nomination hearing.... On multiple instances in his fleeting two-year stint as Missouri attorney general -- before he was elected to the U.S. Senate -- Hawley was either disinterested or inept in prosecuting sex crimes. Some of that history was laid out today in a National Memo report [Saturday]."

When All the President's Men Plotted to Assassinate an American Journalist. Mark Feldstein in the Washington Post: Before the Watergate break-in, White House special counsel Charles Colson, top White House operative, E. Howard Hunt & his sidekick G. Gordon Liddy conspired to assassinate syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, who was long a thorn in Richard Nixon's side. Nixon had earlier tried to get Anderson with a number of dirty tricks, but the stunts backfired or fizzled. "In the aftermath [of Watergate], a Senate committee investigated and confirmed the plot to poison Anderson. Liddy and Hunt eventually acknowledged their participation in the conspiracy. Colson never did.... Nixon['s] ... role in the Anderson plot has never been definitively established. Hunt believed that Colson didn't have the 'balls' to order the assassination on his own and had acted at Nixon's behest. Colson denied that. But it is hard to imagine Nixon's closest advisers plotting to execute America's leading investigative reporter without the tacit -- if not explicit -- authorization of the president."

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "President Biden wraps up a three-day trip to Europe on Saturday, having met with NATO leaders over the military and economic responses to ... Vladimir V. Putin's aggression in Ukraine, as Russian military officials signaled that the war could be entering a new phase focused on securing control of separatist regions in the east of the country.... White House officials said President Biden would participate in a meeting on Saturday morning between Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Ukraine's foreign minister and Ukraine's defense minister.... Mr. Biden is scheduled to meet with President Andrzej Duda of Poland, a key NATO ally, on Saturday and is expected to visit in Warsaw with some of the more than two million refugees who have arrived in the country after fleeing the fighting in Ukraine.... A statement by a senior Russian general on Friday seemed to suggest that Russia was giving up, at least for now, on its unstated goal of taking all of Ukraine, and that taking the capital, Kyiv, and other major cities was not currently a primary military objective. Analysts cautioned that the statement could be intended as misdirection.... But it is clear that fierce Ukrainian resistance has exacted a heavy toll on Russian troops and pushed back attempts to capture a number of major cities." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: President "Biden, on the last day of a European trip intended to bolster the NATO alliance, will also deliver a speech at Warsaw's Royal Castle focused on defending democratic principles, meet with his Polish counterpart and the mayor of Warsaw, and visit a soccer stadium sheltering Ukrainian refugees." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's liveblog for Satuday is here.

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... a senior aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky said officials were 'very disappointed' in the outcome of the series of summits Wednesday among NATO and European Union leaders in Brussels that brought Biden to Europe. 'We expected more bravery. We expected some bold decisions,' Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, told the Washington-based Atlantic Council via live video Friday.... By issuing a general statement of ongoing military support, while continuing to deny Ukraine's requests to send it Soviet-era jet fighters, impose a no-fly zone against Russian aircraft over Ukraine, and speed the flow of more heavy weaponry, Yermak said, NATO 'is just trying to ensure that it is not provoking Russia to a military conflict' with the West, calling the alliance's inaction 'appeasement.'... Yermak's remarks served as a reminder that Ukraine remains outmanned, outgunned and facing more destruction each day."

Chris Megerian & Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Joe Biden visited U.S. troops stationed near Poland's border with Ukraine on Friday and was getting a first hand look at the growing humanitarian response to the millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing to Poland to escape Russia's assault on their homeland. Biden's first stop was with members of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, visiting a barber shop and dining facility set up for the troops, where he invited himself to sit down and share some pizza. The Americans are serving alongside Polish troops.... With the troops, he shared an anecdote about visiting his late son, Beau Biden, while he was deployed in Baghdad and going by his mother's maiden name so as not to draw attention to himself." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "Russia has begun to mobilize ilitary reinforcements to send into Ukraine as its combat losses continue to grow, the Pentagon said Friday, citing its latest intelligence assessments. 'We now have indications that they are drawing on forces from Georgia,' said a senior U.S. defense official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.... 'Russian troops that are based in Georgia. We don't have an exact number.' Thousands of Russian troops are stationed at military outposts from Georgia to Syria to Tajikistan, many of them assigned to motorized rifle brigades that experts consider combat-capable and ready to deploy immediately. Those forces have become the centerpiece of what the Pentagon believes is the Kremlin's plan to keep its ground offensive going, as Russian commanders in Ukraine sustain heavy casualties."

Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Russian mercenaries with combat experience in Syria and Libya are gearing up to assume an increasingly active role in a phase of the war in Ukraine that Moscow now says is its top priority: fighting in the country's east. The number of mercenaries deployed to Ukraine from the Wagner Group, a private military force with ties to ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, is expected to more than triple to at least 1,000 fighters from about 300 a month ago, just before the invasion, a United States official said on Friday. The official added that the mercenaries would focus on defeating Ukrainian forces in the country's Donbas region, where Russia-backed separatists have been fighting a war since 2014, and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine." ~~~

~~~ Robert Burns of the AP: "Russian forces in Ukraine seem to have shifted their focus from a ground offensive aimed at Kyiv, the capital, to instead prioritizing what Moscow calls liberation of the contested Donbas region in the country's industrial east, officials said Friday, suggesting a new phase of the war. It appears too early to know where this will lead. Has ... Vladimir Putin scaled back his ambitions in search of a way out of the war? The dug-in defensive positions taken recently by some Russian forces near Kyiv indicate a recognition of the surprisingly stout Ukrainian resistance. On the other hand, Russian forces might be aiming to continue the war with a narrower focus, not necessarily as an endgame but as a way of regrouping from early failures and using the Donbas as a new starting point, one U.S. analyst said."

Anton Troianovski & Javier C. Hernández of the New York Times: "In a speech on Friday from the nondescript, beige-walled office in which he has been conducting much of his public business this month, [Vladimir] Putin made no mention of Ukraine. Instead, he expanded upon a personal obsession: 'cancel culture.'... 'The names of Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff are being removed from playbills. Russian writers and their books are being banned,' Mr. Putin said. 'The last time such a mass campaign to destroy objectionable literature was carried out was by the Nazis in Germany almost 90 years ago.'... That the Russian president delivered a disquisition on Western public discourse on Friday may seem odd at a time when Russia is fighting what some analysts believe to be its bloodiest war since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. But it underscores how Mr. Putin tries to channel cultural grievances and common stereotypes for political gain -- while using language that also allows him to speak directly to possible allies in the West." A Guardian story is here.

Rachel Treisman of NPR: "Russian soldiers are kidnapping Ukrainian journalists in contested territories and holding them hostage, according to international groups and survivor accounts. The Paris-based global nonprofit Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said on Friday that Russians have kidnapped, detained and tortured dozens of journalists, while the U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights told the BBC that it has verified at least 36 cases of civilian detentions in Ukraine."

Nebi Qena & Andrea Rosa of the AP: "About 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week that blasted open a Mariupol theater, Ukrainian authorities said Friday in what would make it the war's deadliest known attack on civilians yet. In a vain attempt to protect the hundreds of people taking cover inside the theater, 'CHILDREN' in Russian had been printed in huge white letters on the ground in two places outside the grand, columned building to make it visible from the air. For days, the government in the besieged and ruined city of Mariupol was unable to give a casualty count for the March 16 attack. In announcing the death toll on its Telegram channel Friday, it cited eyewitnesses. But it was not immediately clear whether emergency workers had finished excavating the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater or how witnesses arrived at the figure." (Also linked yesterday.)

Reuters, via the Guardian: "US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) is planning to close a troubled detention center [for immigrants] in Alabama and will significantly scale back the number of beds contracted at three other facilities, citing concerns about conditions, according to an internal government document seen by Reuters.... Immigration advocates have for years raised complaints about a lack of adequate medical care and other problems at several Ice facilities and urged the administration of Joe Biden to close down the centers. Ice is currently detaining nearly 22,000 immigrants at facilities across the country."

Morning Has Broken, Manchin Has Spoken. Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III said on Friday that he would vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for the Supreme Court, signaling that Democrats are uniting behind her after a bruising set of hearings that showed deep opposition by Republicans. The backing of Mr. Manchin, a centrist Democrat from West Virginia and a crucial swing vote, appeared to all but ensure Judge Jackson's confirmation. Mr. Manchin's support was critical, since all 50 Senate Democrats may be needed to approve her nomination, given that few if any Republicans appear ready to support her in a vote that Democrats hope to hold early next month."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "The pretense is gone -- the pretense that Supreme Court confirmation hearings are about determining nominees' fitness for office, gleaning a sense of their legal acumen and approach to judging, and gathering the information necessary to exercise a solemn senatorial power. No longer. Advise and consent has yielded to smear and degrade. The goal is not to illuminate but to tarnish: If a nominee can't be stopped, at least the other side can inflict some damage on her and the opposition party.... Never has a confirmation hearing been less about law and more about partisan point-scoring and presidential campaign-launching."

A Warning to Peasants with Pitchforks from the Order of the Coif. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post writes an amusing column on Republican muck-a-mucks with elite pedigrees & degrees who are warning us peasants about "a bunch of elite lawyers," "coastal elites," and "managerial elites." MB: I particularly liked Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.), a/k/a Sen. Foghorn Leghorn, "has been heard denouncing the 'goat's-milk-latte-drinkin', avocado-toast-eating insider's elite,' and "whose bio says he has a 'degree with first class honors from Oxford University (Magdalen College).' This man of the people -- Phi Beta Kappa at Vanderbilt, executive editor of the law review at the University of Virginia and a member of something called the Order of the Coif...."

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: The House January 6 committee's "Republican vice chairwoman, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has led the charge in holding Mr. Trump to account for his efforts to overturn the election, but has wanted to avoid any aggressive effort that, in her view, could unfairly target Justice Thomas, the senior member of the Supreme Court. So although a debate has broken out inside the committee about summoning [Ginni] Thomas to testify, the panel at this point has no plans to do so, leaving some Democrats frustrated. That could change, however: On Friday, despite the potential for political backlash, Ms. Cheney indicated she has no objection to the panel asking Ms. Thomas for a voluntary interview.... ~~~

"Justice Thomas could in the coming months consider a long list of important legal issues surrounding Jan. 6.... A main strategist in the effort to try to overturn the election, the lawyer John Eastman, was a former clerk of Justice Thomas's.... Federal judge, Carl J. Nichols, who is hearing cases related to the Capitol riot, is also a former clerk of Justice Thomas's.... Judge Nichols is the only federal jurist in Washington so far to have thrown out the key obstruction of Congress charge that the Justice Department has used against hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants...." A CNN story is here.

Justice Thomas' conduct on the Supreme Court looks increasingly corrupt. Judges are obligated to recuse themselves when their participation in a case would create even the appearance of a conflict of interest. A person with an ounce of common sense could see that bar is met here. -- Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Democratic lawmakers and many legal ethicists said they were shocked by revelations that Virginia Thomas, known as Ginni, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, at a time when ... Donald Trump was saying he would challenge the results at the Supreme Court.... Legal ethicists, even some who in the past have been sympathetic to the notion that justices' spouses are entitled to their own political activities, said the revelations presented a serious problem for the Supreme Court.... In January, [Clarence Thomas] was the only justice to note his dissent when the court turned down Trump's request to block the National Archives from sending White House documents requested by the House committee as part of its investigation." An NBC News story is here. A Guardian report is here. ~~~

Any justice, judge or magistrate judge of the United States shall disqualify himself in any proceeding in which his impartiality might reasonably be questioned.... He shall also disqualify himself ... [where] he knows that ... his spouse ... has a financial interest in the subject matter in controversy or in a party to the proceeding, or any other interest that could be substantially affected by the outcome of the proceeding.... -- 28 U.S. Code § 455~~~

     ~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The messages from [Ginni] Thomas to Mark Meadows ... sent during and just after the fraught weeks between the 2020 presidential election and the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, demonstrated that she was an active participant in shaping the legal effort to overturn the election.... Ms. Thomas's activities should have prompted Justice Thomas to disqualify himself from cases related to them, said Stephen Gillers, a law professor at New York University.... Justice Thomas, [Sen. Ron] Wyden said, 'needs to recuse himself from any case related to the Jan. 6 investigation, and should Donald Trump run again, any case related to the 2024 election.'... [Besides the National Archives documents case, Justice Thomas] also participated in the court's consideration of whether to hear a related appeal, one in which Mr. Meadows filed a friend-of-the-court brief saying that 'the outcome of this case will bear directly' on his own efforts to shield records from the House committee investigating the attacks beyond those he had provided. The Supreme Court last month refused to hear the case, without noted dissent. There was no indication that Justice Thomas had recused himself. In December 2020, around the time of the text messages, Justice Thomas participated in a ruling on an audacious lawsuit by Texas asking the court to throw out the election results in four battleground states. The court rejected the request, with Justices Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. issuing a brief statement suggesting the majority had acted too soon in shutting the case down. In February 2021, Justice Thomas addressed election fraud in a dissent from the Supreme Court's decision to turn away a challenge to Pennsylvania's voting procedures." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Clarence's failure to recuse was not only unethical; it also broke federal law. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux, in LG&$: "Of course, the larger problem here is that Ginni's actions pale in comparison to what her husband already did: (citing a tweet by Ian Millhiser of Vox): 'If you think the Ginni Thomas texts are bad, wait until you learn about how Clarence Thomas successfully conspired with four other high-ranking government officials to overturn the result of the 2000 election.'"

AP: "Justice Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital Friday after a stay of nearly a week, the Supreme Court said. Thomas, 73, had entered the hospital last Friday evening after experiencing 'flu-like symptoms.' He was treated for an infection with intravenous antibiotics, the court said Sunday in announcing his hospitalization. He had been expected to be released from the hospital Monday or Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Proof Is in the Pudding. Philip Bump of the Washington Post on how the complaint in Trump's big case against Hillary Clinton, the DNC, et al., accidentally disproved his case that Clinton & her allies were behind the Russia probe: the source of documents the complaint cites was a group of pro-Trump Russian hackers. "In other words, as Trump and his lawyers were trying to prove that Clinton was the driving force behind the investigation into Russian interference, they were relying on documents released as part of that interference effort.... Even in October 2020, it was clear that the probe wasn't a function of Clinton's campaign. There was lots of information about what actually launched the investigation, none of which was downstream from Clinton.... The feds had evidence of Russia trying to intervene in the election (through the hacking), evidence of various people linked to Russia working for Trump (through public and private information) and a by-then obvious soft spot from Trump for Putin, in particular."

So Many Lawsuits. Kara Scannell of CNN: "... Donald Trump and his two adult sons have agreed to sit for depositions in May and June as part of a class-action lawsuit alleging they collaborated with a fraudulent marketing company. The former President agreed to be deposed on June 16 while Eric Trump will sit for questioning on May 12 and Donald Trump Jr. on May 10, according to a letter filed with the court. The letter said a date for Ivanka Trump's deposition had not been proposed. The lawsuit, which was filed in 2018, alleges that in exchange for 'secret' payments, Trump and three of his adult children used his reality TV show 'The Celebrity Apprentice' and other promotional events as vehicles to boost ACN Opportunity, a telecommunications marketing company linked to a nonprofit that used Trump's brand to appeal to teens. The Trumps are accused of pocketing millions in payments between 2005 and 2015 to promote what they described as promising business opportunities...."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is planning to give Americans age 50 or older the option of a second booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine without recommending outright that they get one, according to several people familiar with the plan. Major uncertainties have complicated the decision, including how long the protection from a second booster would last, how to explain the plan to the public and even whether the overall goal is to shield Americans from severe disease or from less serious infections as well, since they could lead to long Covid."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday restored the Navy's ability to consider the vaccination status of 35 of its service members in decisions about where they should be assigned or deployed. The court's brief, unsigned order gave no reasons, which is typical when the justices act on emergency applications. The court's three most conservative members -- Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -- dissented. In a concurring opinion, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh said courts should not second-guess military officials." The AP's report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

The Party That Hates Teenagers. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "Nationwide, GOP lawmakers have filed nearly two hundred state bills this year that seek to erode protections for transgender and gay youth or to restrict discussion of LGBTQ topics in public schools. The explosion of legislation is in part the culmination of efforts by a trio of conservative organizations, which are helping state legislators write and promote the bills. One of the most active -- the Alliance Defending Freedom -- has a decades-long history of fighting LGBTQ rights, including in battles to preserve state laws criminalizing consensual sex between gay adults, court records show. Today, at least 166 measures to restrict LGBTQ rights are still pending in state legislatures across the nation -- nearly quadruple the number of similar bills introduced just three years ago, according to data from Freedom for All Americans, an LGBTQ advocacy group." MB: From the Wingers' Approved Dictionary: "sex: a brief and occasional meeting between a married adult man and his adult wife poised in the missionary position for the purpose of procreation. Synonym: a woman's burden." (Also linked yesterday.) See also link under Utah below.

Maryland. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A Maryland judge ruled on Friday that Democrats in the state had drawn an 'extreme gerrymander' and threw out the state's new congressional map, the first time this redistricting cycle that a Democratic-controlled legislature's map has been rejected in court. The ruling by Senior Judge Lynne A. Battaglia of the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County found that the map drawn by Democrats had 'constitutional failings' and ignored requirements of focusing on 'compactness' and keeping similar communities together.... Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican whose veto of the map was overridden by the Democratic-controlled legislature, praised the decision and called on the General Assembly to pass a map drawn by an independent commission he created.... The office of Brian Frosh, the attorney general of Maryland and a Democrat, said that it was reviewing the decision and that it had not yet decided whether to appeal it."

Utah. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "The Utah State Legislature voted on Friday to override the governor's veto and enacted a bill that would bar young transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports, making the state the 12th in the country to enact such legislation. The new law, which is known as H.B. 11, will most likely be challenged in court, legislators said." CNN's report is here.

March 25, 2022

Late Morning Update

Chris Megerian & Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Joe Biden \ visited U.S. troops stationed near Poland's border with Ukraine on Friday and was getting a first hand look at the growing humanitarian response to the millions of Ukrainians who are fleeing to Poland to escape Russia's assault on their homeland. Biden's first stop was with members of the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division, visiting a barber shop and dining facility set up for the troops, where he invited himself to sit down and share some pizza. The Americans are serving alongside Polish troops.... With the troops, he shared an anecdote about visiting his late son, Beau Biden, while he was deployed in Baghdad and going by his mother's maiden name so as not to draw attention to himself." ~~~

Nebi Qena & Andrea Rosa of the AP: "About 300 people were killed in the Russian airstrike last week that blasted open a Mariupol theater, Ukrainian authorities said Friday in what would make it the war's deadliest known attack on civilians yet. In a vain attempt to protect the hundreds of people taking cover inside the theater, 'CHILDREN' in Russian had been printed in huge white letters on the ground in two places outside the grand, columned building to make it visible from the air. For days, the government in the besieged and ruined city of Mariupol was unable to give a casualty count for the March 16 attack. In announcing the death toll on its Telegram channel Friday, it cited eyewitnesses. But it was not immediately clear whether emergency workers had finished excavating the ruins of the Mariupol Drama Theater or how witnesses arrived at the figure."

AP: "Justice Clarence Thomas was discharged from the hospital Friday after a stay of nearly a week, the Supreme Court said. Thomas, 73, had entered the hospital last Friday evening after experiencing 'flu-like symptoms.' He was treated for an infection with intravenous antibiotics, the court said Sunday in announcing his hospitalization. He had been expected to be released from the hospital Monday or Tuesday."

The Party That Hates Teenagers. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "Nationwide, GOP lawmakers have filed nearly two hundred state bills this year that seek to erode protections for transgender and gay youth or to restrict discussion of LGBTQ topics in public schools. The explosion of legislation is in part the culmination of efforts by a trio of conservative organizations, which are helping state legislators write and promote the bills. One of the most active -- the Alliance Defending Freedom -- has a decades-long history of fighting LGBTQ rights, including in battles to preserve state laws criminalizing consensual sex between gay adults, court records show. Today, at least 166 measures to restrict LGBTQ rights are still pending in state legislatures across the nation -- nearly quadruple the number of similar bills introduced just three years ago, according to data from Freedom for All Americans, an LGBTQ advocacy group." MB: From the Wingers' Approved Dictionary: "sex: a brief and occasional meeting between a married adult man and his adult wife poised in the missionary position for the purpose of procreation. Synonym: a woman's burden."

~~~~~~~~~~

Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "After meeting with NATO allies and announcing a deal to help secure more liquefied natural gas for the European Union to reduce its dependency on Russian fossil fuels, President Biden is traveling to the Polish border with Ukraine on Friday to highlight the growing humanitarian catastrophe caused by the war and to underscore the moment of peril for Europe as it confronts Russian aggression."

Emily Rauhala, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States and the European Commission announced Friday a joint task force to reduce Europe's reliance on Russian fossil fuels, as the West looks to further punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. As part of the partnership, the United States will seek to increase liquefied natural gas exports to Europe by at least 15 billion cubic meters this year with the aim of providing larger shipments in the future. President Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the new agreement Friday in a joint appearance, stressing that the initiative will both reduce Europe's dependence on Russian energy while keeping the countries on track to meet their climate goals."

Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The United States and its European allies reinforced their tough stand against Russia on Thursday, sharply warning Moscow against using chemical weapons in Ukraine and announcing new sanctions on Russians. The White House also announced the United States will accept 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine. The statement on chemical weapons issued by the Group of Seven nations reflects growing concern among the world's democracies that ... Vladimir Putin, facing setbacks on the battlefield and abroad, would resort to more extreme actions. The Biden administration, along with the G-7 and the European Union, also unveiled Thursday a new set of sanctions targeting more than 400 individuals and entities, including the Duma, or legislature, and its members; additional members of the Russian power elite; and state-owned defense companies.... The Biden administration announced Thursday that the United States will provide more than $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for those affected by Russia's war with Ukraine, as well as more than $11 billion over the next five years to mitigate food security threats stemming from the crisis.... ~~~

"Speaking to reporters at a news conference before departing NATO for additional meetings at the E.U., President Biden said he supported removing Russia from the Group of 20, an assembly of the world's largest economies.... Putin is expected to attend a G-20 summit hosted by Indonesia in October, and Biden said the ultimate decision to exclude Russia would be up to the entire group. But, he added, if any nations object, one option would be 'basically Ukraine being able to attend the G-20 meeting to observe' -- an idea he said he broached with NATO leaders on Thursday."

Nebi Qena & Cara Anna of the AP: "Ukraine accused Moscow on Thursday of forcibly taking hundreds of thousands of civilians from shattered Ukrainian cities to Russia, where some may be used as 'hostages' to pressure Kyiv to give up. Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine's ombudsperson, said 402,000 people, including 84,000 children, had been taken to Russia. The Kremlin gave nearly identical numbers for those who have been relocated, but said they wanted to go to Russia. Ukraine's rebel-controlled eastern regions are predominantly Russian-speaking, and many people there have supported close ties to Moscow."

The Kastus Kalinouski Battalion. Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "... hundreds of Belarusian dissidents ... have joined the Kastus Kalinouski battalion, a volunteer unit that is helping to defend Ukraine as part of the official army. Unlike the thousands of foreign fighters who have poured into Ukraine to fight against Russia..., thousands of Belarusians ... [had already] fled to Ukraine to avoid prison for their activism at home.... 'We have a common enemy, Putin and [Belarusian President Aleksandr] Lukashenko,' said Sergey Bespalov, a former journalist from the Belarusian capital, Minsk, who went into exile in Ukraine and then joined the battalion. 'These are the two people who unleashed this war.' Mr. Bespalov, speaking in a phone interview, said the fate of Ukraine and Belarus were intermingled."

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: Vladimir "Putin's invasion of Ukraine has led some Russians who long worked for the government to cut ties with it, a sign of how the Kremlin is struggling to keep society fully unified behind the war. Thousands have been arrested protesting the invasion of Ukraine, tens of thousands have fled the country, and on Wednesday, Mr. Putin's climate envoy, Anatoly Chubais, became the first senior government official reported to have quit since the invasion began on Feb. 24. There have been at least four high-profile resignations at Russia's state television channels, a crucial pillar of Mr. Putin's dominance over the country's domestic politics.... All of Russia's national television networks are controlled by the Kremlin.... And most state television journalists have, for now, stayed in their jobs...."

Business More-or-Less as Usual. Liz Alderman of the New York Times: One of Europe's largest retail chains, "Leroy Merlin[, a home improvements store,] shut its six stores in Ukraine after the war started, and paid employees the equivalent of three months' salary. It has even helped workers and their families cross the border to Poland and Romania for safety. But in Russia, the company operates 112 stores, and has given no public signs that it plans to leave.... After Ukrainian employees ... posted messages on social media, Leroy Merlin shut down the Ukrainian unit's internal Gmail accounts... On Monday, a Russian rocket destroyed Leroy Merlin's store in Kyiv.... The Adeo Group [-- Leroy Merlin's French parent company --] is among a number of companies making a decision to stay [in Russia]." The French company that controls Adeo -- Association Familiale Mulliez, run by the multi-billionaire Mulliez family -- has more than 400 stores in Russia, including a supermarket company & sporting goods chain. "On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron said during a news conference that French companies should be 'free to decide for themselves' whether to stay in Russia.... Wednesday during a video address to the French Senate, [Volodymyr Zelensky called] on Leroy Merlin, Auchan and the French carmaker Renault to halt business and to 'stop being responsible for Russia's war machine.'... Hours later, Renault announced that it would immediately suspend the activities of its Moscow factory and review its Russia business."

Mystery Crew Members Quit Mystery Yacht. Gaia Pianigiani of the New York Times: "Russian crew members on a mysterious $700-million luxury yacht that U.S. officials say could be owned by ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia abruptly left their jobs and the Tuscan coastal town where it is undergoing repairs a couple of weeks ago amid scrutiny of the vessel, local union leaders and workers say. The crew members had been fixtures in the small port of Marina di Carrara since the fall of 2020, when the 459-foot-long yacht, Scheherazade, arrived at a dry dock less than four months after being built. No owner has been publicly identified. 'They were replaced by a British crew,' said Paolo Gozzani, the local leader of Italy's General Confederation of Labor trade union, on Wednesday.... This week, the research team of Aleksei A. Navalny, the Russian opposition leader, published a video in which it argued, based on a 2020 crew manifest, that a dozen of the Russian crew members of the Scheherazade either worked for or had a connection with Russia's Federal Protective Service."

Katie Benner & Kate Conger of the New York Times: "The Justice Department unsealed charges on Thursday accusing four Russian officials of carrying out a series of cyberattacks targeting critical infrastructure in the United States, including a nuclear power plant in Kansas, and evidently compromising a petrochemical facility in Saudi Arabia. The announcement covered hackings from 2012 to 2018, but served as yet another warning from the Biden administration of Russia's ability to conduct such operations.... The four officials, including three members of Russia's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., are accused of breaching hundreds of energy companies around the world, showing the 'dark art of the possible,' a Justice Department official said at a briefing with reporters." Politico's report is here.

John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The fourth and final day of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson concluded Thursday after the Senate Judiciary Committee heard from an array of outside witnesses, including representatives of the American Bar Association, who said President Biden's nominee would bring 'impeccable' credentials to the job." This is the Post's liveblog of Thursday's hearing.

Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "Democrats are on track to confirm President Joe Biden's pick, with a vote expected by [the] time senators leave for a scheduled spring recess April 8.... Much the way senators opposed to the first Black nominee to the court, Thurgood Marshall, a half-century ago portrayed the storied civil rights lawyer as soft on crime in his work defending Black people, Republicans have spotlighted Jackson's sentencings in criminal cases, they show too much 'empathy' for defendants. A witness for the Republican side, Attorney General Steven T. Marshall of Alabama, said he believes Jackson shows more deference to criminals appearing in her courtroom than she does victims. He said her views of law enforcement reforms are 'outside the mainstream.'" MB: And Marshall is such a consequential witness with such excellent creds. ~~~

~~ Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Day four of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson's confirmation hearing veered into conspiracy territory on Thursday when one of the GOP's witnesses, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, repeatedly refused to say that Joe Biden is the lawfully elected president. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, pressed Marshall on his ties to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Marshall runs the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a nonprofit under the Republican Attorneys General Association that helped organize the protests in support of ... Donald Trump that fed into the insurrection.... After some tense back-and-forth, Whitehouse then asked, 'Is Joseph R. Biden of Delaware the duly elected and lawfully serving president of the United States of America?' 'He is the president of this country,' replied Marshall." Whitehouse continued to press, & Marshall repeatedly refused to state that Biden was the"duly-elected & lawfully-serving president." ~~~

~~~ Marie: It's hardly a surprise that Republicans chose a witness who "veered into conspiracy territory" because ~~~

~~~ It's the Party of Q. David Kirkpatrick & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "The online world of adherents to the QAnon conspiracy theory sprang into action almost as soon as Senator Josh Hawley tweeted his alarm: that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the Biden administration's Supreme Court nominee, had handed down sentences below the minimum recommended in federal guidelines for possessing images of child sexual abuse.... By Wednesday..., claims that she was lenient toward people charged with possessing the illegal imagery had emerged as a recurring theme in her questioning by Republicans. 'Every judge who does what you are doing is making it easier for the children to be exploited,' said Senator Lindsey Graham.... In 2017 a believer [in 'Pizzagate'] armed with an assault rifle stormed in and fired his weapon. Judge Jackson, as a district court judge, sentenced him to four years in prison.... Slogans about protecting the children became catchphrases that QAnon adherents used to identify one another, and their bizarre fantasy ... appeared to spread widely among Trump supporters.... Polls suggest that QAnon supporters have continued to make up a significant portion of the Republican base...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I guess I should count myself naive, but it still astounds me that several U.S. senators have eagerly defamed a sitting federal Appeals Court judge and Supreme Court nominee for the purpose of appealing to believers in Pizzagate & other bizarro conspiracy theories. The question of a senator, "Have you no sense of decency, Sir?" need no longer be asked. We know the answer. Update: See also Akhilleus' commentary in two entries in today's thread. It's spot on. In the hearings, Rethuglicans didn't bring out one fact that sullied Jackson's excellent reputation & judicial record, yet they won't vote to confirm her. Because.

IOKIYAR. Linda Qiu of the New York Times: "Several Republican senators repeatedly and misleadingly suggested during this week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings that Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson had given uncommonly lenient sentences to felons convicted of child sex abuse crimes. But all of the Republican critics had previously voted to confirm judges [whom Donald Trump nominated] who had given out prison terms below prosecutor recommendations, the very bar they accused Judge Jackson of failing to clear." MB: Yeah but, in fairness to Hawley, Graham, Cruz & Cottonhead, none of those Trump appointees was a Black woman.

Bob Woodward of the Washington Post & Robert Costa of CBS News in the Washington Post: "Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News. The messages -- 29 in all -- reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and ... Donald Trump's top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.... The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump's inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president's strategy to overturn the election results -- and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas's stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to be 'the lead and the face' of Trump's legal team." CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Barbara McQuade pointed out on CNBC that Clarence Thomas was the only Supreme to oppose the January 6 committee's acquisition of White House documents related to the insurrection & attempts to overturn the election results. Did Thomas believe that his wife's emails might be included among the docs the committee would receive, McQuade wondered. McQuade says this story is more evidence that the Supreme Court needs to expand its narrow recusal standards. ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Justice Clarence Thomas' critics say his sole vote to block release of Trump White House records "illustrates a gaping hole in the court's rules: Justices essentially decide for themselves whether they have a conflict of interest, and Thomas has rarely made such a choice in his three decades on the court.... Each justice can decide whether to recuse, and there is no way to appeal a Supreme Court member's failure to do so." MB: Unlike Caesar's wife, Ginni's husband does not have to be above reproach.

Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said on Thursday that it would consider contempt of Congress charges against two more allies of ... Donald J. Trump for refusing to comply with its subpoenas. The potential charges against Peter Navarro, a former White House adviser, and Dan Scavino Jr., a former deputy chief of staff, could result in jail time and a hefty fine, and must be approved by a vote of the House. The committee said it would hold a public vote on whether to recommend the charges on Monday."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Thursday that elected bodies do not violate the First Amendment when they censure their members. The case concerned David Wilson, a former elected trustee of the Houston Community College System and an energetic critic of its work.... In 2018, Mr. Wilson's fellow board members issued a formal verbal reprimand against him in a censure resolution.... He sued, saying the punishment violated the First Amendment by retaliating against him for things he had said.... The Supreme Court reversed a unanimous decision from a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, in New Orleans, which had allowed the case to proceed, ruling that punishing an elected official for his speech can run afoul of the Constitution."

Erwin Chemerinsky & Howard Gillman in a Washington Post op-ed: "Freedom of speech does not include a right to shout down others so they cannot be heard. Two recent incidents at law schools where protesting students sought to keep invited speakers from addressing their audiences are deeply troubling. In both cases, those defending the disruptive students have said their actions came under the constitutional protection of freedom of speech. That is wrong in terms of both the law and appropriate campus policy.... College campuses should be a place where all ideas and views can be expressed. A primary goal of higher education is to empower students to critically analyze ideas across a broad spectrum of disciplines.... [Shouting down speakers] is especially problematic when the students attempting to silence other viewpoints are lawyers in training." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Chemerinsky & Gillman are arguing in support of two events sponsored by the right-wing Federalist Society. While I have no objection to the principal they pose, I had been thinking earlier in the day about the efforts of universities in recent decades to appeal to a broad spectrum of political ideologies. What got me thinking about this were the performances of the asswipes on the Judiciary Committee who excoriated Judge Jackson for imaginary bad judgment, not to mention the Supreme confederates themselves, many of whom -- like Hawley & Cruz -- have Ivy League law degrees. The idea that students should choose from a "menu" of legal philosophies may be too ivory-towerish. Young people are not great critical thinkers, and employing right-wing law professors gives the students the impression that winger "philosophies" are just as palatable as those that promote Western liberal democracy. I think these university law schools need to get back to suffering the ignominy of being "liberal coastal elites." For all their faults, liberal coast elites seem to have done a better job of educating young people.

Trump Thinks Up "an Unthinkable Plot." Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "... Donald Trump is suing ... Hillary Clinton in a sprawling case that accuses her of conspiring with dozens of other actors -- frequent targets of Trump's conspiracy theories and rage -- to topple his presidency. The new lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court in Fort Pierce, Fla., accuses Clinton, her campaign, various campaign aides, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee and others of racketeering conspiracy for allegedly joining in 'an unthinkable plot' to falsely accuse Trump of colluding with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.... The suit accused the defendants of obstruction of justice and theft of trade secrets, as well as unlawful hacking into Trump's private communications.... The sprawling, 108-page complaint reads like a greatest-hits of Trump's long-held grievances against the public figures most closely associated with the investigation of his campaign's ties to Russia in 2016. It stitches together disparate details unearthed in the ongoing investigation by special counsel John Durham, as well as long-known details about the FBI's Russia probe and special counsel Robert Mueller's subsequent investigation. The suit appears to seek more than $72 million in damages.... In another court filing in the case, Trump's attorneys asked for only $21 million." MB: Yeah, whatever. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ In yesterday's Comments, Patrick wrote, "DiJiT got himself a $200/hour attorney who can annoy every defendant named in his suit for years. He gets his red-hat donors to send in their nickels and dimes to pay for it. It's win-win for the big blob, this can drag on for his lifetime and allow him another ring in his mobile circus. So, he doesn't believe this shit (the allegations in the suit), but he believes in the utility of the courts in the long con, and the infinite supply of marks. It's easy when you have no shame." MB: I hope Patrick is wrong (and I don't think he is). My wish list is that (1) each & every defendant gets to separately depose Trump; after which (2) a Trump-appointed judge dismisses the suit with prejudice; and (3) said judge forces Trump to personally pay the legal expenses of all defendants. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's report, by Felicia Sonmez & Matt Zapotosky, is here: "The Trump lawsuit seems to draw heavily on indictments brought by Special Counsel John Durham, who had been tasked by former attorney general William P. Barr with reviewing the FBI's 2016 investigation of Trump's campaign. But it often exaggerates or misstates Durham's allegations or other facts of the case.... Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general now in private practice, said in an email: 'I hope Trump's lawyers got their money up front. I hope they have something other than Fox News stories to support their allegations so they can avoid Rule 11 sanctions. And if the case ever gets to discovery, I would expect Trump's own deposition to last days if not weeks. It would be the opportunity many have sought for the past 5 years to have him testify under oath. He's proven in the past he's not so good at that.'... Rule 11 is a federal rule requiring, among other things, that when lawyers make court filings, they certify that their factual representations will most likely be supported by the evidence."

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

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. Ed White of the AP: "A man who pleaded guilty in a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said her abduction could have been the 'ignition' for a U.S. civil war involving antigovernment groups, possibly before the 2020 election. Ty Garbin described a scheme to get the Democratic governor during his testimony Wednesday against four former allies who are charged with conspiracy. He told jurors that they wanted to attack before the election to prevent Joe Biden from winning the presidency." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

** Nebraska. Brian Melley of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska was convicted Thursday on charges that he lied to federal authorities about an illegal $30,000 contribution to his campaign from a foreign billionaire at a 2016 Los Angeles fundraiser. A federal jury in [Los Angeles] deliberated about two hours before finding the nine-term Republican guilty of one count of falsifying and concealing material facts and two counts of making false statements. Fortenberry was charged after sitting for two interviews with FBI agents who were investigating the donor, Gilbert Chagoury, a Nigerian billionaire of Lebanese descent.... Outside the courthouse, Fortenberry said the process had been unfair and he would appeal immediately. He would not say if he would suspend his campaign for reelection...." MB: Obviously Fortenberry's "poor cellphone reception" defense was a loser.

Way Beyond

U.K. Colonialist Royals Go on Tour. Karen Attiah of the Washington Post: "Two years after the global wave of protests against anti-Blackness and white supremacy, the British Royal family apparently thought it would be a swimmingly good idea to send Prince William and Catherine, the Duchess of Cambridge, on a royal promenade through Belize, Jamaica and the Bahamas.... William and Kate are definitely touring like it's 1952.... To keep it real, this supposed charm offensive feels more offensive than charming. I'd say there's never a good time for retro-colonial gallivanting, but the timing of this tour de faux pas feels especially bad.... At the same time, maybe it's good for the world to see the British monarchy for the symbolic mess that it is, an outdated relic of imperialism.