;)
The Conversation -- February 20, 2024
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear a challenge to new admissions criteria at an elite public high school in Virginia that eliminated standardized tests, clearing the way for the use of a policy intended to diversify the school's student body. As is its custom, the court gave no reasons for turning down the case. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. issued a dissent, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, that was harshly critical of an appeals court's ruling in the case upholding the new criteria and rejecting the challengers' argument that they unlawfully disadvantaged Asian Americans." A CBS News story is here. MB: Sorry, boys, you should know your place of business is otherwise occupied this term trying to clean up on Aisle Trump.
Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "For more than two decades, [Yulia] Navalnaya has shunned any open political role for herself, saying that her purpose in life was to support her husband [Aleksei Navalny] and to protect their two children. That changed on Monday. Ms. Navalnaya faces a distinct challenge in trying to rally a disheartened opposition movement from abroad, with hundreds of thousands of its adherents driven into exile by an increasingly repressive Kremlin that has responded to any criticism of its invasion of Ukraine two years ago with harsh jail sentences. Her husband's political movement and his foundation, which exposed corruption in high places, were declared extremist organizations in 2021 and barred from operating in Russia. While not dismissing the difficulties, friends and associates believe that Ms. Navalnaya, 47, has a shot at succeeding through what they call her combination of intelligence, poise, steely determination, resilience, pragmatism and star power."
Serhii Korolchuk, et al., of the Washington Post: "A man found riddled with bullets and run over by a car last week in Spain is Russian defector Maksym Kuzminov, who flew a military helicopter to Ukraine in a dramatic operation, according to Ukrainian officials. The body was found at the entrance to a residential complex in Villajoyosa, in Alicante, and witnesses told local media that gunmen shot him several times, then ran him over and escaped in a car. Spanish police ... now believe [this is] ... potentially the latest example of Russian special services carrying out an assassination on European soil. The spokesman for Ukraine's intelligence service, Andriy Yusov, confirmed to The Washington Post on Tuesday that the body was that of Kuzminov.... According to [a Russian television documentary aired last month]..., Russia's military intelligence, known as GRU, had already received an order to eliminate him."
Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Russia's Federal Security Service announced Tuesday the arrest of a 33-year-old [Los Angeles] woman on treason charges, accusing her of taking part in pro-Ukraine protests outside Russia and of sending aid to Kyiv. The woman, a dual American-Russian citizen, was not identified in a statement issued by the Federal Security Service, or FSB, which said she 'was involved in providing financial assistance to a foreign state in activities directed against the security of our country.'... The FSB statement said the woman repeatedly took part in public protest actions outside Russia 'in support of the Kyiv regime.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Alexei Navalny, Russian President Vladimir Putin's most formidable opponent, vowed on Monday to carry on her husband's crusade against the Russian regime, striving to build 'a free, peaceful, happy Russia, a beautiful Russia of the future, which my husband dreamed of so much.' Navalnaya, 47, made her announcement in a video statement on YouTube, in which she accused Russian authorities of fatally poisoning Navalny in the Arctic prison where he died suddenly on Friday at age 47. 'Putin did not only murder the person, Alexei Navalny,' she said, clad in black and her voice occasionally trembling during the dramatic video address. 'He wanted, along with him, to kill our hope, our freedom, our future.' Navalnaya also accused the Russian authorities of refusing to hand over Navalny's body to his 69-year-old mother so they could cover up the cause of death." ~~~
~~~ Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "Navalny's death was simultaneously shocking and unsurprising. He joins a long, tragic history of Kremlin opponents swallowed up by the gulag, but his message was so potent and his skills as a messenger so incomparable that it was easy to imagine he could share in Mandela's story of eventual liberation and political victory. That was not to be.... Russia, for now, is undeniably Putin's country. Entering the third year of his full-blown war in Ukraine, the Russian president has withstood international sanctions, geopolitical isolation from the West and a prominent mercenary's brazen insurrection. The edifice of his power remains intact, while those who threaten it face even harsher consequences than in an earlier phase of his rule." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, Back in the U.S.S.A., Putin's Puppet Speaks. Anjali Huynh of the New York Times: "Days after the death of the Russian opposition leader Aleksei A. Navalny was first reported, Donald J. Trump broke his silence in a social media post on Monday that barely mentioned Mr. Navalny and that did not condemn President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Instead, he used Mr. Navalny's death to suggest that his own legal battles amounted to political persecution. It was a note he hit first on Sunday, when he shared screenshots of an opinion essay that compared his relationship with President Biden to the one between Mr. Navalny and Mr. Putin. 'The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country,' the former president wrote on Truth Social on Monday, using an alternative spelling of Mr. Navalny's given name. He pointed to what he called 'CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians, Prosecutors, and Judges leading us down a path to destruction.'" ~~~
~~~ Nick Robertson of the Hill: "Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) went after former President Trump on Monday for his response to the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, calling Trump's comments 'beneath the dignity of a human being.' ... 'You wonder, what does Putin have on Donald Trump that he always has to be beholden to him, his buddy in vileness?' Pelosi said in an MSNBC 'Inside with Jen Psaki' interview on Monday." ~~~
~~~ Nick Robertson of the Hill: "If Trump is elected, there'll be celebrations in the Kremlin,' [Trump's national security advisor John] Bolton said in an MSNBC 'Inside with Jen Psaki' interview Sunday. 'There's no doubt about it because Putin thinks that he is an easy mark.'" ~~~
~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Trump's bizarre deference to Putin is not new – his genuflecting was a frequent theme of his presidency. But it is even more striking now, given the Russian leader's status as an accused war criminal who launched an unprovoked invasion of a democratic neighbor. After propping up Ukraine for two years with billions of dollars in aid and ammunition, a US decision to walk away and leave it to Putin would represent a stunning change of course.... The refusal of pro-Donald Trump Republicans in Congress to extend a military lifeline for Ukraine, and the former president's return to attacking NATO allies in ways that align with Putin's goals, show that Trump is already reshaping geopolitical realities months before his possible White House return." ~~~
~~~ Putin's Puppet's Puppets. Nicholas Riccardi of the AP: "The GOP has been softening its stance on Russia ever since Trump won the 2016 election following Russian hacking of his Democratic opponents.... Now the GOP's ambivalence on Russia has stalled additional aid to Ukraine at a pivotal time in the war.... [Mike] Johnson, the House speaker, issued a statement calling Putin a 'vicious dictator' and pledging that he 'will be met with united opposition,' but he did not offer any way forward for passing the aid to Ukraine.... Sergey Radchenko, a professor at Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies, noted that Russia for decades has hoped the U.S would lose interest in protecting Europe: 'This was Stalin's dream, that the U.S. would just retreat to the Western hemisphere.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Riccardi makes up some excuses as to why the GOP chooses to let Putin have his way, as if these politicians had some philosophical reason not to confront Russian aggression and authoritarianism. Ha! While I will warrant that these sniveling cowards -- like Putin -- much prefer power grabs over democratic values, the underlying "philosophy" that guides their approach to Russia is "Oh, please, don't let Trump primary me!" They would sell the world to Russia for the price of their crappy little fake "public service" jobs. ~~~
~~~ While Ukrainians Die. Here's that grinning prick Mike Johnson, vacationing in Florida (prophetically next to the "Exit" sign) with his puppet master:
Posting this while Ukrainians are running out of ammo, freezing, and taking heavy losses is really…. Something. Enjoy it today. History will remember it tomorrow. @SpeakerJohnson https://t.co/1mVOQHVxki
— Jim Hendren (@JimHendren1) February 20, 2024
... looks like a couple of banana munching primates showing off their newly discovered opposable thumbs. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments (and he has more to say about these two Corinthians therein)
Mad Dog Jim Comer should hire contributor RAS to his investigative staff. Comer has spent more than a year trying to link Joe Biden to Hunter Biden's various international business schemes. One after another of Comer's claims of sensational evidence has collapsed. But today, RAS finally found a real Biden family scandal, one involving attempted murder, a knife fight & a suspect presidential pardon by historians' favorite president: ~~~
~~~ CBS/AFP: "Abraham Lincoln pardoned President Biden's great-great-grandfather after a late-night Civil War-era brawl, documents reportedly show.... The court-martial records in the U.S. National Archives ... detail the trial of Moses J. Robinette after a fight with fellow Union Army civilian employee John J. Alexander on March 21, 1864. Robinette was charged with attempted murder after the tussle in the Army of the Potomac's winter camp in Virginia, when Alexander overheard him saying something about him to a cook, and rushed at him. The two men scuffled, and Robinette drew his pocketknife, leaving Alexander with several cuts before others intervened.... The 42-year-old, who had been hired by the Army as a veterinary surgeon, insisted that Alexander 'possibly might have injured me seriously had I not resorted to the means I did.' But military judges convicted him and sentenced him to two years' hard labor. Three Army officers petitioned Lincoln to overturn his conviction, claiming the sentence was unduly harsh and that Robinette had been defending himself against someone 'much his superior in strength and size.' Lincoln agreed, and signed the pardon on Sept. 1 that same year." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
; ~~~ The Washington Post story, by historian David Gerleman, is here and includes more details. (Also linked yesterday.)
Mad Dog Comer Will Not Let Go of Imaginary Bone. Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: Rep. Jim "Comer (R- Ky.) has suggested that two Ukraine-related documents referenced in special counsel Robert K. Hur's report concerning Joe Biden's handling of classified documents might have ended up informing or been part of emails found on the laptop that the president's son Hunter left at a computer repair shop in Delaware.... Notwithstanding Comer's hyperbolic statements on television, it would be incorrect to suggest that the Ukraine documents in the Hur report indicate Hunter Biden had access to classified information or distributed classified information to 'our enemies' in exchange for cash. These documents simply are on the same subject -- Ukraine. But as we have shown, the Hur report says they are not especially secret or important. As Emily Litella would say: 'Never mind.'" MB: Comer's new claim, of course, comes after the FBI charged his supposed star witness last week with lying to investigators about having information that would compromise President Biden. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
"A Vote for Trump Is a Vote for Putin." Bill Kristol in the Bulwark: "Those who seek to save the country from a Trump second term can and should hammer home Trump's fondness for Putin..... A broad coalition of political forces in the United States, ranging from Mike Pence on the right to Bernie Sanders on the left, is anti-Putin. Against them stand Donald Trump and some of his acolytes, who are pro-Putin. The likely nominee of one of our two major political parties is pro-Vladimir Putin. This is an astonishing fact. It is an appalling fact. It has to be a central fact of the 2024 campaign."
Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "Since the start of January, the United States has counted six mass killings, its rate of firearm-wrought bloodshed outpacing every other wealthy nation by far. The candidates vying for the GOP nomination ... make no mention of safeguarding access to the weapons used in attack after attack after attack.... Trump... call[ed] himself 'the best friend gun owners have ever had in the White House.... 'During my four years, nothing happened,' Trump told a gathering of NRA members this month in Pennsylvania. 'And there was great pressure on me having to do with guns. We did nothing.'... [Recently Nikki] Haley said the national media had rushed in to 'define' the massacre [at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, S.C., that occurred when Haley was governor]. 'They wanted to make it about guns,' she said. 'They wanted to make it about racism ...' It was about guns, the [Rev. Eric Manning] thought. It was about racism." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I do wish gun-control advocates who give lip service to the Second Amendment would cut it out. Until the winger Supremes decided D.C. v. Heller in 2008, only radical NRA-types believed the Second Amendment guaranteed a right of individuals to own firearms. Heller was a radical rereading of the Amendment, and sensible justices should strike it down. I blame Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas, & Alito and their accomplices for the murders-by-gun of thousands of Americans.
The Clock Is Ticking, Clarence. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The late-night talkshow host John Oliver has offered to pay Clarence Thomas $1m annually -- as well as give him a $2m tour bus -- if the Republican judge resigns from the US supreme court. Oliver made the proposal on Sunday's episode of his HBO show Last Week Tonight, saying the supreme court justice had 30 days to accept or it would expire.... 'Lot on your plate right now, from stripping away women&'s rights to hearing January 6 cases ... and you deserve a break, you know, away from the meanness of Washington. So you can be surrounded by the regular folks whose lives you made demonstrably worse for decades.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Marie: They're talking about it on TV news, so I guess this is news: ~~~
~~~ George Anthony Kitara Ravache Devolder Santos Sues Because Somebody Else Used Fake Names. Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: "George Santos sued late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel on Saturday, accusing Kimmel of hiding his identity while soliciting videos from the disgraced ex-congressman over the celebrity video-sharing service Cameo, which Kimmel then used to mock Santos on air. Kimmel announced in December that he pranked Santos by sending him fictitious requests on Cameo, which allows users to request brief greeting videos from celebrities and popular figures. Kimmel, allegedly using accounts not under his real name, asked Santos to speak on several bizarre topics, including congratulating a blind woman for passing a driving test.... Santos obliged, not knowing Kimmel was the recipient, and Kimmel aired the videos on his late-night talk show in December in a segment called 'Will Santos Say It?'... Cameo's community guidelines state that users may not sign up using false identities."
~~~~~~~~~~
Florida. Beth Mole of Ars Technica: "Florida health officials on Sunday announced an investigation into a cluster of measles cases at an elementary school in the Fort Lauderdale area with a low vaccination rate, a scenario health experts fear will become more and more common amid slipping vaccination rates nationwide.... At Manatee Bay Elementary School, the number of children at risk could be over 100 students. According to a Broward County vaccine study reported by the local CBS outlet, only 89.31 percent of students at Manatee Bay Elementary School were fully immunized in the 2023/2024 school year, which is significantly lower than the target vaccination coverage of 95 percent." ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "The cynical anti-vaxxism DeSantis adopted as he ratcheted up his de facto presidential campaign will have horrible effects on his state long after his political career died an ignominious death[.]"
Wisconsin. Anjali Huynh of the New York Times: "Gov. Tony Evers of Wisconsin signed into law on Monday new legislative maps that could drastically alter the state's balance of power, giving Democrats a chance to win control of the state's legislature for the first time in more than a decade.... Despite the state being a battleground in national races, Republicans, aided by heavily gerrymandered maps, have controlled both of the state's legislative chambers since 2011. They now hold about two-thirds of the seats in both the Senate and the Assembly. But Democrats look likely to pick up seats under the new maps, which will be used during the November election. The maps outline an almost even split between Democratic- and Republican-leaning districts: 45 are Democratic-leaning, 46 are Republican-leaning, and eight are likely to be a tossup.... While Democrats have long sought to overturn the previous maps, their hopes were renewed when the state's Supreme Court flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority in August after Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal former Milwaukee County judge, was sworn in. Justice Protasiewicz won the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history in April, during which she was openly critical of the Republican-drawn maps and argued that they were 'rigged.' Progressive groups filed a lawsuit challenging those maps one day after she was sworn in. In December, the court ruled 4-to-3 that the legislative maps favoring Republicans were unconstitutional....
"Democrats in the state have also sued to challenge the state's congressional maps and, shortly after the court called for new statewide maps, they asked it to take up the matter." The NBC News report is here. MB: Notice how Democrats aim for democracy and fairness while Republicans aim (often successfully) for undemocratically-engineered power. Politicians, like the rest of us, are flawed people, but some are more flawed than others.
~~~~~~~~~~
Haiti. David Adams & Andre Paultre of the New York Times: "A Haitian judge has indicted 51 people for their roles in the 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, including his wife, Martine Moïse, who is accused of being an accomplice, despite being seriously wounded in the attack. A 122-page copy of the indictment by Judge Walther Voltaire that was provided to The New York Times does not accuse her of planning the killing nor does it offer any direct evidence of her involvement. Instead, it says that she and other accomplices gave statements that were contradicted by other witnesses, suggesting that they were complicit in the killing. The indictment also cites one of the main defendants in the case in custody in Haiti, who claimed that Mrs. Moïse was plotting with others to take over the presidency.... The official charge against Mrs. Moïse is conspiracy to murder."
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The International Court of Justice on Monday began six days of public hearings into Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, in proceedings that could intensify international pressure on Israel over its military campaign in Gaza. In his remarks, Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations, choked back tears as he called on the court to rule that Israel's presence in occupied Palestinian territories is illegal, a finding that he said would contribute to 'paving the way to just and lasting peace.'... The Gaza Health Ministry accused Israel of turning Nasser Hospital into a 'military barracks,' and endangering lives amid a days-long raid that Israel has described as a 'precise and targeted' effort aimed at finding hostages and taking out militants.... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday responded to what he called international pressure 'to force upon us a Palestinian state,' which he said would endanger the existence of Israel." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Tuesday are here.
U.K./U.S. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Since 2019, Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, has been held in a high security prison in southeast London while his lawyers fight a U.S. extradition order. Now, that particular battle may be nearing its end. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Mr. Assange's case returns to a British court for a two-day hearing that will determine whether he has exhausted his right to appeal within the U.K. and whether he could be one step closer to being sent to the United States. In America, Assange, 52, faces charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 that could amount to a sentence of up to 175 years in prison, his lawyers say, although lawyers for the United States government had previously said that he was more likely to be sentenced to between four and six years."
Share Article