January 18, 2022

Afternoon Update:

** Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The House Committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed Rudy Giuliani Tuesday, along with three other campaign attorneys linked with efforts to overturn the 2020 election results: Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell, and Boris Epshteyn." This is a breaking story. CNN's breaking story is here: "'The four individuals we've subpoenaed today advanced unsupported theories about election fraud, pushed efforts to overturn the election results, or were in direct contact with the former President about attempts to stop the counting of electoral votes,' Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, who chairs the committee, said in a statement Tuesday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Committee's press release is here. The page includes links to the letters the Committee wrote to Giuliani & the other individuals subpoenaed Tuesday. MB: I'm hoping the parking lot in front of Four Seasons Total Landscaping will be available on a hot day in July to serve as the venue for Giuliani's public testimony before the committee.

Florida. Anthony Izaguirre of the AP: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has submitted a proposal to reshape the state's congressional map and carve up districts held by Black Democrats, as the Republican takes the unusual step of inserting himself into the redistricting process. The proposed congressional map, submitted Sunday on the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, signaled the governor's priorities as the state moves to redraw political maps in the coming months. Governors typically do not submit map proposals but can veto district plans after they pass in the statehouse. DeSantis, who is running for reelection and is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate, has largely shaped the legislative agenda in the Republican-controlled statehouse this year.... 'From what I can tell, the governor rolled out his own maps, unrequested, on Martin Luther King Day that will probably end up leaving less African-American representation in Congress,' Democratic state Rep. Evan Jenne told reporters." MB: A guest on MSNBC said DeSantis invoked Dr. King in his bid for a redistricting map that would cut the number of Black representatives. ~~~

~~~ DeSantis Wants Brown Shirts to Control Elections. Lori Rozsa & Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "A plan by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would establish a special police force to oversee state elections -- the first of its kind in the nation -- and while his fellow Republicans have reacted tepidly, voting rights advocates fear that it will become law and be used to intimidate voters. The proposed Office of Election Crimes and Security would be part of the Department of State, which answers to the governor. DeSantis is asking the GOP-controlled legislature to allocate nearly $6 million to hire 52 people to 'investigate, detect, apprehend, and arrest anyone for an alleged violation' of election laws. They would be stationed at unspecified 'field offices throughout the state' and act on tips from 'government officials or any other person.'... Unlike many past elections, the 2020 general election in Florida had few problems. The governor touted it as 'the gold standard.'"

John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected a request to block a federal mask mandate for air travel. The emergency application was filed by a father on behalf of himself and his 4-year-old autistic son, both of whom claim to be medically incapable of wearing masks for extended periods. Their request was filed to Justice Neil Gorsuch, who handles emergency applications arising in several Western states, and he referred the matter to the full court. The justices denied the request without comment or noted dissent." MB: Which goes to show that the conservoSupremes are reasonable people frequent flyers.

Jake Tapper of CNN: "Around three dozen former Trump administration officials, disillusioned with their former boss and concerned about his impact on the GOP and the nation, held a conference call last Monday to discuss efforts to fend off his efforts to, in their view, erode the democratic process, several participants told CNN. The only items the group seemed to agree upon in its first meeting, however, were that they're not sure what their way forward should be, and that they are way behind the efforts of ... Donald Trump and his allies to set the stage for 2022, 2024, and beyond. The highest-ranking participant was former White House chief of staff and retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, who told CNN that because of a prior commitment he was only able to 'monitor' about 10 minutes of the call, which lasted about an hour."

Arkansas. Lawsuit: Detainees Treated for Covid-19 with Horse Dewormer. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "Detainees at an Arkansas jail who had Covid-19 were unknowingly treated by the detention center's doctor with ivermectin, a drug that health officials have continually said is dangerous and should not be used to treat or prevent a coronavirus infection, according to a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of four detainees. The four men ... say in the lawsuit that after testing positive for the coronavirus in August, they were taken to the 'quarantine block' of the Washington County Detention Center and given a 'cocktail of drugs' twice a day by Dr. Robert Karas, who runs Karas Correctional Health, the jail's health provider. The complaint, filed this month in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas, says that the men took the drugs -- which Dr. Karas told them consisted of vitamins, antibiotics and steroids -- unaware that they were actually ingesting ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug commonly used for livestock that the Food and Drug Administration has warned should not be taken for Covid-19."

Louisiana Senate Race. Dude! John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Gary Chambers, a Democrat running for the U.S. Senate from Louisiana, unveiled a new ad Tuesday in which he is shown smoking marijuana."

~~~~~~~~~~

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats plan to press ahead this week with an effort to push new voting rights protections through Congress, in an all but doomed attempt to enact a key piece of President Biden's agenda that has been undercut by members of his own party. The Senate on Tuesday will begin to debate legislation that combines two separate bills already passed by the House -- the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act -- and folds them into an unrelated measure. The move would allow the Senate to bring the bill directly to the floor, avoiding an initial filibuster. But that strategy would still allow Republicans to block it from coming to a final vote, and Democrats lack the unanimous support needed in their party to change Senate rules to muscle through the legislation themselves. Still, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, said late last week that Democrats would forge ahead anyway, forcing Republicans to publicly declare their opposition to the bill." ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: This year, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday "came one day before the Senate returns to debate what is expected to be a doomed effort to pass the legislation. Despite the near certain defeat, voting rights activists, Democratic officials and relatives of Dr. King said they were not giving up.... Speakers at a news conference after the march [across the new Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C.,] sharply criticized members of the Senate and President Biden for their failure to enact voting reforms as they focused on other Democratic priorities -- and as voters' rights have eroded under Supreme Court rulings and laws passed by Republican state legislatures that make it harder for people of color to vote.... [Some speakers] had sharp words for two centrist Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.... 'History will not remember them kindly,' [Martin Luther King III] said, recounting his father's criticism of the 'white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice." An AP story is here.

What [Sen. Kyrsten Sinema] said is, 'I support voting rights, but not as much as I support the ability of someone to take those rights away.' The filibuster is a meaningless Senate rule. It's a remnant of slavery used to block civil rights for generations.... Senator Sinema says if the voting rights bill doesn't get bipartisan support, it shouldn't pass. Well, the 14th Amendment, which granted citizenship to slaves in 1868, that didn't have bipartisan support. Should formally enslaved people have been denied citizenship, Senator Sinema? The 15th Amendment that gave formerly enslaved people the right to vote in 1870, that didn't have bipartisan support. Should former slaves have been denied the right to vote, Senator Sinema? I'm just applying her logic here and showing that it's not logical at all. -- Martin Luther King III, in Phoenix, Jan. 15

Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is in Ukraine to show solidarity with the Eastern European country as it faces ongoing tension with Russia. The seven U.S. senators plan to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials on Monday, they announced. The visit comes amid a showdown between Russia and the West over Ukraine's territory and the threat of further Russian incursion." The seven senators are Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) More on the Russia/Ukraine crisis linked under Way Beyond the Beltway.

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Halfway through his pained dissent from the Supreme Court's decision blocking the Biden administration's workplace Covid vaccine rule, Justice Stephen Breyer made a glancing reference to a now-obscure case from 1981, American Textile Manufacturers Institute v. Donovan. It was one of the court's first efforts to interpret the 1970 law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.... But what jumped off the page to me was the contrast between how the court behaved in 1981 and what happened last Thursday in National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, when six justices yielded to politics to disable an agency from carrying out its statutory mission to protect the health and safety of the American work force. That is where we are now. That's how far the court has fallen." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Marie: Yesterday I complained about newly-minted GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-Va.) lifting a portion of Dr. Martin Luther King's famous remark -- "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" -- to justify meddling in the state's education curricula. Well, Mehdi Hasan, on MSNBC, played clips of multiple Republicans using the last clause of that sentence to justify ignoring racism. Unbeknownst to me, it's a GOP go-to cop-out. And the way these Republicans twist Dr. King's words to the point of inverting his meaning is diabolical.

Trump Stokes Racism on MLK Weekend. The left is now rationing lifesaving therapeutics based on race, discriminating against and denigrating ... white people to determine who lives and who dies. If you're white you don't get the vaccine or if you're white you don't get therapeutics. ... In New York state, if you're white, you have to go to the back of the line to get medical health. -- Donald Trump, at his Arizona rally

No, white people are not being excluded from vaccines, of which there is a plentiful supply. And there is no evidence they being sent to the "back of the line" for COVID-19 care as a matter of public health policy. Trump distorted a New York policy that allows for race to be one consideration when dispensing oral antiviral treatments, which are in limited supply. The policy attempts to steer those treatments to people at the most risk of severe disease from the coronavirus. -- AP Fact-Check

Mike Pence to Be Replaced by Dead Man. Meredith McGraw of Politico: “Ray Kallatsa is a die-hard Trumper who [attended Trump's Tucson rally and] 'definitely' wants to see ... Donald Trump run for office again in 2024. [As to who should be Trump's running mate,] 'JFK Jr.,' he said, referencing the son of the 35th president who died in a plane crash in 1999.... 'I don't want to sound too much like a conspiracy theorist, but he's coming back,' he explained. 'He's supposed to reveal himself on the 17th if he's truly alive. I think we'll see him.'... [Kallatsa] was not alone among the crowd in believing that JFK Jr. is not only still alive but is also a secret Trump supporter embedded far in the 'deep state.'" ~~~

~~~ Wackadoo, Wackadoo, Wackadoo. David Gilbert of Vice: "Having spent the last two-and-a-half months holed up in Dallas awaiting the reappearance of John F. Kennedy and his son, a group of two dozen or so QAnon followers, led by an antisemitic guru called Michael Protzman, made the 1,000 mile trip to hear Trump speaking at his first major rally of 2022.... In an audio chat with his followers on Sunday, Protzman claimed that Kari Lake, the former TV anchor who is now running for Arizona governor, had just finished speaking but was brought back up on stage by Trump, in order to show people that Trump was in fact JFK in disguise. The basis for Protzman's unhinged claim? Trump appeared to be shorter than he should have been." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm confused. Protzman made his claim on Sunday, after the rally, during which the star of the show did not zip himself out of his Trump suit to reveal he was JFK. Anyhow, I guess it's safe to tell you now that I'm Marilyn Monroe.

Michael Kaplan of CBS News: "Prosecutors granted immunity to an ex-girlfriend of Representative Matt Gaetz before she testified last week in front of a federal grand jury hearing evidence in the investigation of the congressman, according to a source familiar with the matter. Gaetz has been under investigation to determine if he violated sex trafficking laws and obstructed justice in that probe.... [a source] said she has information related to the investigation of both the sex trafficking and obstruction allegations."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

China. Eva Dou & Pei Lin Wu of the Washington Post: "China has announced that tickets to the Winter Olympics will no longer be sold to the general public, as the country's capital recorded its first case of the highly transmissible omicron variant of the coronavirus. Last fall, Beijing had already limited tickets to the Games to domestic spectators. On Monday, Beijing's Winter Olympics Organizing Committee said this would be further restricted: Only certain approved groups will be allowed to watch the Olympics in person, after undergoing strict measures to prevent transmission of the virus."

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The nation's most restrictive abortion law remains in effect in Texas after a federal appeals court on Monday rejected a request from abortion providers to immediately return their legal challenge to a trial court judge who had previously blocked the measure. In a 2-to-1 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit temporarily transferred the case to the Texas Supreme Court, a step requested by state officials that could leave the dispute in limbo for months." The Texas Tribune's report is here.

Texas. Staying Alive in America. Ruth Graham, et al., of the New York Times: The three hostages held for hours by a gunman in the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas, discreetly moved closer to an exit door before they made their dramatic escape. "In an interview, Rabbi [Charlie] Cytron-Walker said he had taken part in at least four separate [security] trainings in recent years, from the Colleyville Police Department, the F.B.I., the Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit group that provides security resources to Jewish institutions nationally.... 'This kind of instruction is necessary for all of us as a society,' [Rabbi Cytron-Walker] said. 'Whether it's synagogues or grocery stores or mosques or shopping malls, it can happen.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Nelson Oliveira of CBS News reports on the account of Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker on how he and two other hostages escaped the gunman in the Colleyville, Texas, synagogue. Includes video.

     ~~~ Caitlin Yilek of CBS News reports on the account of Jeffrey Cohen, another of the hostages in the synagogue attack. Includes video.

Way Beyond

Russia/Ukraine. Michael Schwirtz & David Sanger of the New York Times: "The week before intensive diplomatic meetings began over the buildup of Russian troops on the Ukrainian border..., Russia began emptying out its embassy in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital. On Jan. 5, 18 people -- mostly the children and wives of Russian diplomats -- boarded buses and embarked on a 15-hour drive home to Moscow, according to a senior Ukrainian security official. About 30 more followed in the next few days, from Kyiv and a consulate in Lviv, in western Ukraine. Diplomats at two other Russian consulates have been told to prepare to leave Ukraine, the security official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.... How to interpret the evacuation has become part of the mystery of divining the next play by President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Thinning out the Russian Embassy may be part propaganda, part preparation for a looming conflict or part feint, Ukrainian and U.S. officials say. It could be all three."

News Lede

The New York Times has published an obituary for "Charles E. McGee, one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, the first all-Black unit of the World War II Army Air Forces, who as a fighter pilot flew a remarkable total of 409 combat missions in that conflict and in the Korean and Vietnam Wars...."

January 17, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan group of U.S. senators is in Ukraine to show solidarity with the Eastern European country as it faces ongoing tension with Russia. The seven U.S. senators plan to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top officials on Monday, they announced. The visit comes amid a showdown between Russia and the West over Ukraine's territory and the threat of further Russian incursion." The seven senators are Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "Halfway through his pained dissent from the Supreme Court's decision blocking the Biden administration's workplace Covid vaccine rule, Justice Stephen Breyer made a glancing reference to a now-obscure case from 1981, American Textile Manufacturers Institute v. Donovan. It was one of the court's first efforts to interpret the 1970 law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.... But what jumped off the page to me was the contrast between how the court behaved in 1981 and what happened last Thursday in National Federation of Independent Business v. Department of Labor, when six justices yielded to politics to disable an agency from carrying out its statutory mission to protect the health and safety of the American work force. That is where we are now. That's how far the court has fallen." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Congrats to USA Today for knowing how to celebrate the life of a champion of the poor & disadvantaged. Many news outlets are carrying reports of what facilities and open & closed on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, but only USA Today has a headline on the "Best MLK Day sales to shop."

Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden packed carrots and apples into food boxes for the hungry and chatted with volunteers Sunday at a food bank as part of a day of service for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The couple traveled about a half-hour from their Wilmington, Delaware, residence to Philabundance, a hunger relief organization in Philadelphia which serves about 140,000 people a week in the Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey region. Before heading to the warehouse floor where conveyor belts carried cardboard boxes full of donated food, Biden said the child tax credit needed to be renewed. The traditional day of service is on the holiday, Monday, but there was a bad winter storm heading for the area and events were being rescheduled around the region."

Hannah Farrow of Politico: "Sen. Mitt Romney said Sunday that he 'never got a call from the White House' to negotiate bringing Republicans and Democrats together to create bipartisan voting reform." Marie: Romney goes on to spout the usual hoohah, but the fact that there was no indication the White House tried to engage so-called "moderate" Republicans has surprised me for months. True, such outreach probably would have been fruitless, but Biden at least could have garnered some "bipartisan" photo-ops from the invitations. And it's more convincing to claim "Republicans won't help" when you've asked for a hand. The White House's failure to try to engage some Republicans was a big mistake.

Waiting for Garland. In Vain. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "... so far the [Justice D]epartment does not appear to be directly investigating the person whose desperate bid to stay in office motivated the [Jan. 6 attack] -- ... Donald Trump -- either for potentially inciting a riot or for what some observers see as a related pressure campaign to overturn the results of the election. The House select committee on Jan. 6 is investigating both matters..., and has aggressively pursued information about Trump and those closest to him. But FBI agents have not, for example, sought to interview or gather materials from some of Trump's most loyal lieutenants about their strategy sessions at the Willard hotel on how to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to participants in those meetings.... The department has not reached out to the Georgia secretary of state's office about Trump urging its leader to 'find' enough votes to reverse his defeat.... The Trump campaign has not received requests for documents or interviews from the FBI or Justice Department related to Jan. 6 or the effort to overturn the election results, and federal prosecutors have not sought to interview those with knowledge of Trump's consideration of a plan to install an attorney general more amenable to his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.... The Justice Department inspector general is investigating the aborted plan and could ultimately ask prosecutors to consider whether crimes were committed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "So far"? If DOJ has done zip a year after the fact, the department obviously plans to do nothing, ever. There seems to be a longstanding, high-level DOJ pact that recognizes an "Article I Pass," where presidents don't get charged with anything. The only time that agreement might have broken was in the case of Richard Nixon, who abused the DOJ itself when he essentially forced AG Elliot Richardson to resign. That could explain Gerald Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon. ~~~

     ~~~ Or Maybe Not. Marcy Wheeler: "... apparently none of the four WaPo journalists [bylined above] are familiar enough with the investigation to know where to look to test their questions about whether DOJ is investigating Trump. But I guess it's a good thing that WaPo relied on the expertise of their embedded Mar-A-Lago journalist (!!!) for these issues. Nevertheless, WaPo does break news in the thirtieth paragraph of the story. It reveals that Rob Jenkins, a lawyer representing a bunch of militia defendants, keeps getting asked about Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani's ties to militia members.... For some reason, the WaPo decided to bury the fact that prosecutors are pursuing this angle (even while claiming -- Rudy’s phones notwithstanding -- that prosecutors are not investigating what went down at the Willard), in paragraph 30." Thanks to unwashed for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Still, Roger & Rudy are a couple of stock comic characters, & neither had an official job even in an administration packed with of lowlifes & halfwits. Roger was on his way to prison when Trump FedExed him a get-out-of-jail-free card, and Rudy's law licenses in New York & D.C. were suspended. It's reasonable to think the DOJ could indict these two losers for some insurrection-related crimes even as it let the Mob Boss skate.

Courtney Kube & Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News: "Christopher Miller, who was acting secretary of defense during the Jan. 6 riot, met Friday with members of the House committee investigating the origins of the attack on the Capitol, a source familiar with the panel's activities told NBC News.... The former Pentagon chief has provided conflicting testimony to Congress in the past, at one time saying that ... Donald Trump had 'encouraged the protesters' with his remarks on Jan. 6 and then later saying he believed an 'organized conspiracy' played a role in the Capitol attack." MB: That's not necessary conflicting: Trump seems to have headed up the "organized conspiracy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Here's an Amusing Thought. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Should ... Donald Trump run for the White House again, an obscure Reconstruction-era law could keep him off the ballot in six southern states..., because of his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The third section of the 14th Amendment prohibits people who swore to defend the Constitution, but who subsequently took part in an insurrection against the United States, from holding state or federal office. Other language in that post-Civil War amendment, though, makes many experts believe that only Congress can enforce the ban, which means Senate Republicans could block any such action.... The six states affected by the 1868 law -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida -- together have 88 electoral votes, or 33% of the total needed to win the presidency. Trump won all of them in 2020 except for Georgia, which he lost by 12,000 votes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This won't happen, but it's a nice pipedream.

Presidential Election 2024. Jonathan Martin & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times on how Donald Trump & Ron DeSantis already are sparring with each other. MB: Not sure how I'm going to handle this; I do not intend to spend the next two-plus years reporting every potshot these odious men take against each other.

Douglass Daniel of the AP: "Charles McGee, a Tuskegee Airman who flew 409 fighter combat missions over three wars and later helped to bring attention to the Black pilots who had battled racism at home to fight for freedom abroad, died Sunday. He was 102."

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan. So Much for Academic Freedom. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "In a profanity-laced introduction video for a history class, Prof. Barry Mehler wears an astronaut-style helmet with air filters, tells his Ferris State University students that they are 'vectors of disease' and says that their grades are predetermined, regardless of their efforts.... The bizarre 14-minute video, which has been viewed more than 360,000 times since it was posted on his YouTube page last Sunday, resulted in Professor Mehler's being placed on paid suspension while university officials investigated his eccentric introduction to the new semester, according to Sandy Gholston, a university spokesman. David Eisler, the president of the university, which is in Big Rapids, Mich., about 150 miles northwest of Detroit, said in a statement that he had been 'shocked and appalled by this video.'"

     ~~~ Here's what you might call a highlights video. If obsenity & profanity offend you, don't watch. If you just can't get enough, the full video is linked in the Times story. Marie: I suppose my student-age self might have been shocked, shocked by Mehler's rant, but I'm not a kid any more and I think it's sort of funny. I even like the fact that he's so piss-poor at recording himself, his face is sometimes half out of the frame:

Oregon. Mike Baker of the New York Times: "A slide show designed to train officers in Portland, Ore., on methods of policing protests concluded with a message that celebrated the use of violence against demonstrators.... The image was included at the end of a 110-slide training session, apparently from 2018, that detailed the types of protests that officers might encounter, along with analyses of crowd behaviors and police tactics that could be used to maintain order. The concluding slide was of a meme that mocked protesters as dirty hippies, celebrating that officers could 'christen your heads with hickory, and anoint your faces with pepper spray.' It included an image of what appeared to be a police officer in riot gear hitting a protester. The office of Mayor Ted Wheeler, who serves as police commissioner, released the document on Friday, saying it had surfaced as part of a lawsuit related to the racial justice protests that consumed the city in 2020. Mr. Wheeler said that he was 'disgusted' by the slide that mocked protesters and that an investigation had begun."

Virginia. Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "Glenn Youngkin launched his tenure as Virginia's 74th governor this weekend with three executive orders devoted to education -- a level of focus on schools that is unprecedented in recent memory and which spells the all-but-certain continuation of polarizing cultural and curricular battles in the divided state. Youngkin's first order forbids the teaching of 'inherently divisive concepts, including Critical Race Theory,' an academic framework that examines how policies and laws perpetuate systemic racism in the United States. Educators in Virginia and nationwide contend the theory is not taught at the K-12 level, but conservatives have weaponized the term as a catchall symbolizing schools' equity and diversity work. Another order promises the investigation of Loudoun County Public Schools, a wealthy Northern Virginia district that has been embroiled in high-profile controversy for more than a year over allegations related to critical race theory and transgender rights, as well as administrators' bungled handling of two sexual assaults. The Republican governor's third order asserts that parents must be allowed to decide whether their child wears a mask in school, regardless of what federal or district-level officials say." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't know if Youngkin is ignorant or just a craven hypocrite. Sunday, Jonathan Capehart of MSNBC aired a clip of Youngkin saying on Fox "News" last October, "[I]n the immortal words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we're called to judge one another based on the content of our character and not the color of our skin. And that's why there's no place for critical race theory in our school system, and why, on day one, I'm going to ban it." As former Rep. Donna Edwards pointed out on Capehart's show, Youngkin is distorting (I'd say inverting) King's point: King's most famous sentence was aspirational. What he said in his "I Have a Dream" speech was, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." King clearly was not urging Americans to stop talking about and learning about race relations. Rather, he was encouraging us to learn & change.

Way Beyond

Ukraine/Russia. Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "Microsoft has discovered destructive malware on dozens of Ukrainian government and private-sector computers, raising the risk that government agencies could find it difficult to operate in a crisis. The malware masquerades as ransomware, but rather than encrypting data, the malware -- if triggered -- wipes computers of data and renders them inoperable, Microsoft's threat intelligence team said in a blog post late Saturday. Microsoft said it does not know who was behind the malware, but the threat comes as Russia masses troops on Ukraine's border." ~~~

~~~ Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "Ukraine said Sunday that Russia was behind a cyberattack that defaced its government websites and alleged that Russia is engaged in an increasing 'hybrid war' against its neighbor. The statement from the Ministry of Digital Development came a day after Microsoft said dozens of computer systems at an unspecified number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware. That disclosure suggested the attention-grabbing defacement attack on official websites last week was a diversion." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

New York Times: "After slamming parts of the South over the weekend, a strong winter storm was pushing north on Monday, producing heavy snow over parts of the Lower Great Lakes, Central Appalachians and the Northeast. Rain was forecast for the coast of New England. As of early Monday, a winter storm warning stretched from western North Carolina up through Maine, according to the National Weather Service." The story has been updated. A Weather Channel report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to radar published by the Weather Channel, my house is outside the snow zone. Well, I've got several inches of snow on my covered porch. It's 7:15 am, but it might as well be midnight because the whiteout makes it too dark to see further, so I can't tell how much snow there is on the ground. Rain expected later.

January 16, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Courtney Kube & Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC News: "Christopher Miller, who was acting secretary of defense during the Jan. 6 riot, met Friday with members of the House committee investigating the origins of the attack on the Capitol, a source familiar with the panel's activities told NBC News.... The former Pentagon chief has provided conflicting testimony to Congress in the past, at one time saying that ... Donald Trump had 'encouraged the protesters' with his remarks on Jan. 6 and then later saying he believed an 'organized conspiracy' played a role in the Capitol attack." MB: That's not necessary conflicting: Trump seems to have headed up the "organized conspiracy."

Waiting for Garland. In Vain. Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "... so far the [Justice D]epartment does not appear to be directly investigating the person whose desperate bid to stay in office motivated the [Jan. 6 attack] -- ... Donald Trump -- either for potentially inciting a riot or for what some observers see as a related pressure campaign to overturn the results of the election. The House select committee on Jan. 6 is investigating both matters..., and has aggressively pursued information about Trump and those closest to him. But FBI agents have not, for example, sought to interview or gather materials from some of Trump's most loyal lieutenants about their strategy sessions at the Willard hotel on how to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to participants in those meetings.... The department has not reached out to the Georgia secretary of state's office about Trump urging its leader to 'find' enough votes to reverse his defeat.... The Trump campaign has not received requests for documents or interviews from the FBI or Justice Department related to Jan. 6 or the effort to overturn the election results, and federal prosecutors have not sought to interview those with knowledge of Trump's consideration of a plan to install an attorney general more amenable to his unfounded claims of massive voter fraud.... The Justice Department inspector general is investigating the aborted plan and could ultimately ask prosecutors to consider whether crimes were committed." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "So far"? If DOJ has done zip a year after the fact, the department obviously plans to do nothing, ever. There seems to be a longstanding, high-level DOJ pact that recognizes an "Article I Pass," where presidents never get charged with anything. The only time that agreement might have broken was in the case of Richard Nixon, who abused the DOJ itself when he essentially forced AG Elliot Richardson to resign. That could explain Gerald Ford's preemptive pardon of Nixon. ~~~

     ~~~ Or Maybe Not. Marcy Wheeler: "... apparently none of the four WaPo journalists [bylined above] are familiar enough with the investigation to know where to look to test their questions about whether DOJ is investigating Trump. But I guess it's a good thing that WaPo relied on the expertise of their embedded Mar-A-Lago journalist (!!!) for these issues. Nevertheless, WaPo does break news in the thirtieth paragraph of the story. It reveals that Rob Jenkins, a lawyer representing a bunch of militia defendants, keeps getting asked about Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani's ties to militia members.... For some reason, the WaPo decided to bury the fact that prosecutors are pursuing this angle (even while claiming -- Rudy’s phones notwithstanding -- that prosecutors are not investigating what went down at the Willard), in paragraph 30." Thanks to unwashed for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Still, Roger & Rudy are a couple of stock comic characters, & neither had an official job even in an administration packed with of lowlifes & halfwits. Roger was on his way to prison when Trump FedExed him a get-out-of-jail-free card, and Rudy's law licenses in New York & D.C. were suspended. It's reasonable to think the DOJ could indict these two losers for some insurrection-related crimes even as it let the Mob Boss skate.

Here's an Amusing Thought. S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Should ... Donald Trump run for the White House again, an obscure Reconstruction-era law could keep him off the ballot in six southern states..., because of his incitement of the Jan. 6 insurrection. The third section of the 14th Amendment prohibits people who swore to defend the Constitution, but who subsequently took part in an insurrection against the United States, from holding state or federal office. Other language in that post-Civil War amendment, though, makes many experts believe that only Congress can enforce the ban, which means Senate Republicans could block any such action.... The six states affected by the 1868 law -- North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida -- together have 88 electoral votes, or 33% of the total needed to win the presidency. Trump won all of them in 2020 except for Georgia, which he lost by 12,000 votes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This won't happen, but it's a nice pipedream.

Russia/Ukraine. Yuras Karmanau of the AP: "Ukraine said Sunday that Russia was behind a cyberattack that defaced its government websites and alleged that Russia is engaged in an increasing 'hybrid war' against its neighbor. The statement from the Ministry of Digital Development came a day after Microsoft said dozens of computer systems at an unspecified number of Ukrainian government agencies had been infected with destructive malware disguised as ransomware. That disclosure suggested the attention-grabbing defacement attack on official websites last week was a diversion."

~~~~~~~~~~

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times blames Joe Biden for, well, everything. MB: It's as if MoDo isn't aware there are three branches of government, sorta like those insurrectionists whose stupidity so surprised Rep. Jamie Raskin (see yesterday's Commentariat). The only thing I would fault Biden for is his optimism. Yet I'm not at all certain optimism is a fault. It is the voters who gave us Mitch McConnell & Ted Cruz who let the President down, not the other way around.

Robert Reich in the Guardian: "Capitalism and democracy are compatible only if democracy is in the driver's seat.... The tsunami of money now flowing from corporations into the swamp of American politics is larger than ever. And this money -- bankrolling almost all politicians and financing attacks on their opponents -- is undermining American democracy as much as did the 147 seditionist members of Congress. Maybe more. The Democratic senator Kyrsten Sinema -- whose vocal opposition to any change in the filibuster is on the verge of dooming voting rights -- received almost $2m in campaign donations in 2021 even though she is not up for re-election until 2024. Most of it came from corporate donors outside Arizona, some of which have a history of donating largely to Republicans. Has the money influenced Sinema? You decide. Besides sandbagging voting rights, she voted down the $15 minimum wage increase, opposed tax increases on corporations and the wealthy and stalled on drug price reform -- policies supported by a majority of Democratic senators as well as a majority of Arizonans." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The political money game is yet another effect of inequality, and of course there's a chicken-and-egg situation here. When corporations have higher profits, they have more money to spend on the politicians who support measures that help them gain higher profits. Meanwhile, workers have less money to give to politicians, either directly or through unions, who support legislation that improve wages & working conditions.

2020 Presidential Election, Ctd. Morgan Keith of Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "On Saturday, former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon ... claimed that [Donald Trump]'s rally [in Arizona] on Saturday would serve as a precursor to the decertification of President Joe Biden's 2020 election win. 'It's the kickoff of 2022. A huge speech in front of a massive crowd by Donald J. Trump and, of course, they're all melting down about who's on stage with him. They're all people that are going to get to the decertification of the 2020 Biden electors,' Bannon said." Thanks to Forrest M. for the link. See also his commentary below.

The Pandemic, Ctd.

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

Australia. Hooroo. John Pye of the AP: Novak Djokovic, "the No. 1-ranked player in men's tennis, had to be deported from Australia after three Federal Court judges decided unanimously Sunday to affirm the immigration minister's right to cancel Djokovic's visa. The ruling was made less than 18 hours before the first Grand Slam matches of 2022 were scheduled to begin." Here's the New York Times' liveblog on the end of the Djokovic affair.

Beyond the Beltway

Paul Rosenberg, in Salon, interviews David Pepper, the author of 'Laboratories of Autocracy: A Wake-Up Call From Behind the Lines, ' which "brings the subject down to earth, connects democratic erosion to corruption and the decline in America's quality of life, and provides a wealth of ideas about how to fight back to protect democracy."

Michigan. Corey Williams of the AP: "Mark Schlissel has been removed as president of the University of Michigan due to an alleged 'inappropriate relationship with a university employee,' the school said Saturday on its website. The removal was effective 'immediately,' the University of Michigan Board of Regents said, adding that members learned on Dec. 8, 2021, about the relationship from an anonymous complaint and that an investigation revealed that 'over the years,' Schlissel used his university email account to 'communicate with that subordinate in a manner inconsistent with the dignity and reputation of the university.'... Schlissel had a base salary of $927,000 a year."

Texas. Christian Aleman of KVUE (Austin, Texas): "The Travis County (Austin) Clerk's Office said that it has rejected about 50% of applications for mail-in ballots due to Senate Bill 1 (SB1), the state's sweeping voting law passed last year. The clerk's office said the applications it has been rejecting have been for the March 1 primary elections. The new law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in September, requires that applications for mail-in ballots include the applicant's Driver's License number or the last four digits of their Social Security Number.... The clerk's office said it has not received enough information regarding the new online cure process to instruct voters how to cure their applications with the Texas Secretary of State's Office. The office added that is has not received instructions from the State outlining what the office can do to help voters submit a completed application, but is expecting 'more comprehensive guidance' from the secretary of state. Travis County Clerk Dana DeBeauvoir is set to hold a news conference the morning on Jan. 18 to discuss details of the application rejections. " ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If this is what's happening in Travis County, which -- on the whole -- has more liberal, better-educated voters than the average Texas county, the situation is surely worse elsewhere in the state. That is to say, SB1 is working as intended.

Way Beyond

Israel. Bethan McKernan of the Guardian: "The former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly close to reaching a plea bargain in his corruption trial, a development that could mean an unexpectedly swift end to his turbulent political career and once again upend Israeli politics. Israeli media were dominated on Sunday by the news that Netanyahu, the chair of the Likud party and leader of the opposition since being ousted last year from a 12-year-stint in government, has reached advanced talks with the state attorney's office. In the reported agreement, Netanyahu will admit to two counts of breach of trust, resulting in a suspended prison sentence and a few months of prison time that will be converted to community service.... Under a plea deal, Netanyahu could be banned from political life for up to seven years, effectively ending his career." MB: So I guess the "community service" won't include "prime minister."

Russia. Anton Troianovski & David Sanger of the New York Times: Russian President Vladimir "Putin wants to extend Russia's sphere of influence to Eastern Europe and secure written commitments that NATO will never again enlarge. If he is frustrated in reaching that goal, some of his aides suggested on the sidelines of the negotiations last week, then he would pursue Russia's security interests with results that would be felt acutely in Europe and the United States. There were hints, never quite spelled out, that nuclear weapons could be shifted to places -- perhaps not far from the United States coastline -- that would reduce warning times after a launch to as little as five minutes, potentially igniting a confrontation with echoes of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis." ~~~

     ~~~ MB: I could certainly be wrong, but I think that despite Donald Trump's loss in 2020, Putin may anticipate a return of Trump or another autocratic leader (DeSantis?) to the U.S., one who might facilitate (or ignore) Putin's European aggression. At the same time, he may seek autocratic allies in Europe in countries like Poland & Hungary, in the same way Hitler's alliances with Mussolini & Hirohito gave him more confidence for his European aggression. ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post Editors: "With winter turning Ukraine's flat terrain into a frozen-earth fast track for Russian tanks, the window of opportunity for a diplomatic solution is rapidly closing -- if it were ever really open. The Biden administration was wise to try dialogue, if only to make it clear to the whole world how unappeasable Mr. Putin really is. On the whole, the Biden team has handled the atmospherics skillfully, refusing to yield on core principles such as Ukraine's sovereignty and NATO's freedom to enroll new members, while offering to engage with Moscow on genuine issues such as nuclear and conventional arms control.... Russia's posture toward Ukraine amounts to prohibited conduct under Article 2 of the United Nations Charter, which specifically bars the 'threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state.'... Raising the potential costs of an invasion to Russia by beefing up Ukraine's capacity to resist it is, at this late date, the best hope to deter Mr. Putin."

News Ledes

Guardian: "A man who was shot dead by FBI officers after taking four people hostage at a Texas synagogue is understood to be British.... In [a] live stream [from inside the synagogue], the hostage-taker was heard demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani neuroscientist suspected of having ties to al-Qaida, who was convicted of trying to kill US military officers while in custody in Afghanistan, a law enforcement official said. Siddiqui is in federal prison in Texas." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Authorities on Sunday identified a 44-year-old British national as the man who took four people hostage at a Texas synagogue for 10 hours before an FBI SWAT team stormed the building, ending a tense standoff that President Joe Biden called 'an act of terror.' Malik Faisal Akram was shot and killed after the last of the hostages got out at around 9 p.m. Saturday at Congregation Beth Israel near Fort Worth. In a statement, the FBI said there was no indication that anyone else was involved, but it didn't provide a possible motive."