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The Conversation -- January 13, 2024
Matthew Impelli of Newsweek, republished by Yahoo! News: "More than 1,500 books have been temporarily removed from [the Escambia County, Florida, Public School District] this week, including two written by former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly.... While speaking with Newsweek on Friday, O'Reilly said the temporary removal of his books is 'absurd [and] preposterous.'... 'This is insane,' O'Reilly said, adding that he is seeking further action by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to address this situation.... A district spokesperson clarified that the books included on the list obtained by the Florida Freedom to Read Project 'have not been banned or removed from the school district; rather, they have simply been pulled for further review to ensure compliance with the new legislation.'" Thanks to Forrest M. for the lead. He notes that other reporting indicates O'Reilly supported the school library book bans when they were being legislated.
Eric Cheung, et al., of CNN: "Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party pulled off a historic third consecutive presidential victory on Saturday as voters shrugged off warnings by China that their re-election would increase the risk of conflict. Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's current vice president, declared victory on Saturday evening while his two opposition rivals both conceded defeat."
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Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Two U.S. officials said on Friday night that American forces had carried out another round of strikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, bombing a radar facility there. It was the second round of strikes against Houthis in two days, following a coordinated, American-led air and naval assault a day earlier on nearly 30 Houthi targets in Yemen. The new strikes came hours after a White House spokesman [John Kirby] denied that strikes were intended to ignite a wider regional war, which Houthi leaders and their allies vowed to respond to." This is part of a liveblog. An ABC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Steven Erlanger, et al., of the New York Times: "From the outbreak of the Israeli-Hamas war nearly 100 days ago, President Biden and his aides have struggled to keep the war contained, fearful that a regional escalation could quickly draw in American forces.... There is no longer a question of whether there will be a regional conflict. It has already begun. The biggest questions now are the conflict's intensity and whether it can be contained.... After issuing a series of warnings, officials said, Mr. Biden felt his hand was forced after a barrage of missile and drone attacks on Tuesday were directed at an American cargo ship and the Navy vessels around it.... Over the course of 12 weeks, attacks on Israeli, American and Western interests have come from Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, prompting modest, carefully targeted responses from American and Israeli forces. The United States also issued warnings to Iran, which the Americans say is acting as a loose coordinator. What was notable about the retaliatory strike in Yemen was its breadth: Employing fighter jets and sea-launched missiles, U.S. and British forces, backed up by a small number of other allies, hit a wide number of Houthi missile and drone sites."
Zach Montague of the New York Times: "President Biden said on Friday that he maintained confidence in Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, but faulted him for not notifying the White House for days this month about his hospitalization after complications from prostate cancer surgery. Mr. Biden made the succinct remarks, his first in-person comments on a matter that has raised grave questions about national security and the chain of command, in response to reporters' shouted questions as he toured small businesses in Pennsylvania.... Asked whether it was a lapse in judgment for Mr. Austin not to have notified him sooner, Mr. Biden responded, 'Yes.'... The communications breakdown ... has ... raised questions about the Defense Department's competence and Mr. Austin's credibility." The AP's report is here.
Zoe Richards of NBC News: "President Joe Biden announced Friday that federal student debt will be wiped out for certain borrowers who took out relatively small loans and have been in repayment for the past decade. Borrowers who received less than $12,000 in federal loans and have been paying off their balances for at least 10 years 'will get their remaining student debt cancelled immediately' in February, Biden said in a statement. He said that the move comes 'nearly six months ahead of schedule' and that it applies to borrowers enrolled in the new income-driven repayment plan known as SAVE, which administration officials touted in recent months as a way to help lower their monthly payments." ~~~
~~~ President Biden's statement is here, via the White House.
Andrew Keshner of Market Watch: "Millionaires who were behind on their taxes have already paid a half-billion dollars to get current with the IRS as the agency ratchets up high-level tax compliance. On Friday, the IRS unveiled new numbers on the amount of back taxes paid by millionaire households ever since a 2022 upgrade brought tougher IRS enforcement on businesses and superwealthy tax delinquents and dodgers. IRS officials said they've pulled in a further $360 million from millionaire households with at least $250,000 in tax debts. That follows an October IRS announcement that $160 million in delinquent taxes had been raked back from wealthy households. That's $520 million altogether -- and a strong initial return on investment for a multibillion-dollar funding influx, according to IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel....
"There's an uncertain future for a portion of the money tied to [the IRS's] tougher stance, though. The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 authorized $80 billion to the IRS over a decade. More than half the money was earmarked to revive flagging enforcement of corporations, partnerships and rich households.... But in a deal to lift the debt ceiling, the White House agreed with House Republican negotiators to redirect $20 billion elsewhere." MB: Because Republicans do not want their wealthy benefactors to have to pay even the relatively low taxes they are required to pay (relative to former tax rates, that is). So this is an IRS boast that could prove to be self-defeating.
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed steep new fees on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, escalating a crackdown on the fossil fuel industry's planet-warming pollution. The proposed rule represents one of the biggest sticks in a White House climate strategy that has so far dangled carrots. President Biden's signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act, offers generous financial rewards for businesses that reduce their emissions, but it provides few punishments for companies that fail to do so."
Catie Edmondson & Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he stood by the spending deal he negotiated with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, spurning demands from ultraconservatives who have pressured him to jettison the agreement. The announcement, after days of public silence about what he would do, all but guaranteed that Mr. Johnson will have to work with Democrats in the coming days to pass a short-term bill to keep the government funded past a pair of deadlines on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, going back on his promise to never bring up another temporary spending measure." Related NYT & Politico stories linked below. (Also linked yesterday.)
Mikey Finds Some New Friends. Scott Wong of NBC News: "A handful of moderate Democrats say they would be willing to save the new Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, if hard-line conservatives move to oust him from power as they did his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. 'Yes, we would back him,' said one senior moderate House Democrat who has been speaking with colleagues in his party.... Since Johnson announced the bipartisan spending deal last weekend, some bomb-throwers in his party have threatened a motion to vacate -- a tool that any one lawmaker can use to force a vote to depose a speaker. It's an option 'on the table,' Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus...."
Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to ... Donald Trump on Friday demanding the return of the $7.8 million that his businesses received from foreign governments and officials when he was president, along with a full accounting of profits accrued during his presidency. Raskin's request comes after Trump defended the profits he earned from foreign governments while in office during a town hall on Fox News this week.... 'If I have a hotel and somebody comes in from China -- that's a small amount of money. But I was doing services for them,' Trump said. House Democrats have argued that the payments violated the Constitution's foreign emoluments clause, a provision that bars federal officials, including the president, from accepting money or gifts from foreign governments without permission from Congress." MB: Gosh, why hasn't the chair of the committee, Jim Comer (R-Ky.), jointed Raskin's demand?
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Hunter Biden argued Friday that the subpoenas House Republicans have issued to him are invalid, his latest attempt to counter the contempt of Congress case that Republicans are pursuing against him as part of their impeachment inquiry into his father. In a letter to Congress, Mr. Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, argued that the subpoenas do not carry legal weight because they were authorized before the House had voted to open an impeachment investigation into President Biden.... 'If you issue a new proper subpoena, now that there is a duly authorized impeachment inquiry, Mr. Biden will comply for a hearing or deposition,' Mr. Lowell wrote." ~~~
~~~ Emily Brooks & Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "Hunter Biden reversed course Friday and said he would agree to give closed-door testimony to Congress if the House Oversight and Judiciary committees issue new subpoenas." ~~~
~~~ Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: Republican chairmen of two House committees "later said that they would work with [Hunter] Biden to schedule a date for a private deposition as part of an ongoing impeachment probe of his father, President Joe Biden. But until Hunter Biden confirms that date, they will move ahead with a plan to have the full House of Representatives vote late next week on a resolution holding him in contempt of Congress for defying prior subpoenas demanding his closed-door testimony."
Trump & the Trump Mob. v. Justice
"The Grand Finale." Michael Kruse of Politico Magazine: "For literally more than 50 years, according to thousands of pages of court records and hundreds of interviews with lawyers and legal experts, people who have worked for [Donald] Trump, against Trump or both, and many of the myriad litigants who've been caught in the crossfire, Trump has taught himself how to use and abuse the legal system for his own advantage and aims.... 'He has attacked the judicial system, our system of justice and the rule of law his entire life,' said J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal appellate judge.... 'And this to him,' Luttig told me, 'is the grand finale.'... That Trump would win the White House on a populist platform while preying on poor people -- it's a paradox that confounds his critics.... People don't trust the system. They trust Trump. And that's because Trump's told them to -- for 50 years." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: None of knows what will happen in the next year or so vis-à-vis Trump, but we have to hope that even in the short run, but more importantly in the long run, the "system" -- and that includes you and me -- will stamp out Trump. Kruse suggests that Trump's efforts to bend & break the American judicial system have been smart. IMO, that's like saying that a mobster who tortures & kills his opponents is smart. I continue to think that Trump is an essentially stupid brute.
Reversal of Rhetoric. Kyle Cheney & Betsy Swan of Politico: "In the months after the 2020 election, Donald Trump leaned on his campaign to launch ad blitzes and legal challenges to the results, insisting to his supporters that the election was 'a long way from over.' He even told state and federal courts he was suing in his capacity as a political candidate. Now, in a bid to derail criminal charges, he's saying the opposite. At least six times in the past two weeks, Trump has declared that the election was 'long over' by the time he began pushing state officials and then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn his defeat. It's a new piece of rhetoric that's meant to bolster Trump's assertion of 'presidential immunity' from his criminal charges for interfering with the transfer of power. He wasn't a candidate anymore, Trump's new theory goes, so he must have been doing his job as president to ensure elections are fair." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Earlier this week, we were pointing out that Trump's legal arguments are components of a shell game in which he reveals one that suits the circumstance, whether or not that argument contradicts one that he's used before and is hidden under one of the other nutshells, ripe to be pulled out again if a different circumstance fits the old argument. Here's yet another instance of the same ole game.
Ha Ha. Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "A judge in New York has ordered Donald Trump to fork over nearly $400,000 in legal fees underpinning a now-dismissed lawsuit he brought against the newspaper and a trio of its reporters when they published a bombshell series of reports on his history of tax schemes and 'riches' reaped from his father. The order was first reported by Times reporter Susanne Craig, one of the report's authors. Per the order, fees are also due to reporters David Barstow and Russ Buettner. The claim from Trump was dismissed by a New York Supreme Court judge last May, who found that reporters were 'entitled to engage in legal and ordinary news-gathering activities without fear or tort liability -- as their actions are at the very core of protected first amendment activity.'... In fact, the in-depth, deeply-sourced report won a Pulitzer Prize and exposed a massive empire 'riddled with tax dodges,' award judges said at the time." (Also linked yesterday.)
Diane Falzone of Mediaite: “Roger Stone has contested Mediaite's reporting this week regarding comments he made on tape floating the assassination of two members of Congress [Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) & Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)].... He wrote that Mediaite 'has produced NO audio of me threatening 2 Dem Congressmen. Where is it? Post it !' Mediaite is now publishing an excerpt of the audio, which was recorded ... weeks before the 2020 election. It has been lightly edited in order to protect our source, who requested anonymity out of fear of repercussions from Stone, whom they believe to be dangerous." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "A member of the Proud Boys extremist group who threatened police officers with an ax handle and breached the U.S. Capitol during the attack on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison, federal prosecutors said. Judge Timothy J. Kelly of U.S. District Court in Washington sentenced the man, William Chrestman, 51, of Olathe, Kan., to 55 months in prison. Mr. Chrestman pleaded guilty in October to felony charges of obstruction of an official proceeding and threatening a federal officer. The judge also ordered Mr. Chrestman to pay $2,000 in restitution, and his prison sentence will be followed by three years of supervised release, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a statement on Friday."
Presidential Race 2024
Iowa. The Blizzard of '24. Natalie Allison, et al., of Politico: "Republican presidential candidates braced for a once-in-a-decade blizzard on Friday, a bitter forecast that derailed their campaign plans three days before the Iowa caucus -- and threatened to drive down turnout on Monday.... The National Weather Service office in Des Moines issued a Blizzard Warning for much of the state through early Saturday morning, warning that falling snow and strong winds could lead to whiteout conditions, making driving and air travel hazardous or even next-to-impossible, especially in rural areas.... Temperatures are expected to plunge for the rest of the weekend, including caucus night, with life-threatening wind chills as low as minus-45 across the state. The severe weather followed snow-related event cancellations earlier this week by Haley and Trump, and has prevented the final surge of campaign operatives, national reporters and candidates' surrogates from being able to arrive in the state."
DeSantis Tells Part of the Truth about Fox. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Florida Gov. Ron "DeSantis seems to have turned on many of the news outlets that once promoted his candidacy, for being unfair in their coverage. 'He's got basically a Praetorian Guard of the conservative media -- Fox News, the websites, all this stuff,' Mr. DeSantis told reporters outside his campaign headquarters in Urbandale, Iowa. 'They just don't hold him accountable because they're worried about losing viewers....' While the former [MB: ???] governor's own criticisms of Mr. Trump are relatively muted, he has urged conservative news media to be more critical.... Mr. DeSantis, who once constantly criticized the mainstream news media, has shifted gears and gives interviews to mainstream outlets like CNN and even left-leaning networks like MSNBC."
Oregon. Marshall Cohen of CNN: "The Oregon Supreme Court on Friday declined to hear a bid to remove ... Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot based on the 14th Amendment's 'insurrectionist ban,' saying it's waiting for the US Supreme Court to rule on the issue." (Also linked yesterday.)
Alex Wagner's lead segment last night on how Donald Trump has normalized violence as a poltical tool:
David French of the New York Times: "Eight years of bitter experience have taught us that supporting Trump degrades the character of his core supporters.... The most enduring legacy of a second Trump term could well be the conviction on the part of millions of Americans that Trumpism isn't just a temporary political expediency, but the model for Republican political success and -- still worse -- the way that God wants Christian believers to practice politics.... Polling data again and again backs up the reality that the right is abandoning decency.... An increasing percentage [of Republicans] are now tempted to embrace political violence.... The Economist reported on the astonishing number of Christian Republicans who believe Donald Trump is God's chosen man to save America.... In the upside-down world of MAGA morality, vice is virtue and virtue is vice.... Trump's core supporters ... [are] often deliberately rude, transgressive or otherwise unpleasant, just to demonstrate how little they care about conventional moral norms." Thanks to laura h. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michele Goldberg of the New York Times: "Evangelical leaders who started their alliance with Trump on a transactional basis, then grew giddy with their proximity to power, have now seen MAGA devour their movement whole.... If the polls are right, Iowa's evangelicals don't care what their ostensible [religious] leaders think.... The power of Christian-right operatives ... came from their ability to move their followers, but Trump has taken that power away from them, absorbing it into himself." MB: Why is it I'm not all broken up that somebody stole the pastors' candy? Trump reached into his handy bag o' lies and promised them a temporal salvation just as tasty as Trump steaks. No waiting for the judgment day. Both the gullible & the greedy are tithing at the Temple of Trump.
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New York. Carolyn Thompson of the AP: "Federal prosecutors said Friday that they will seek the death penalty against a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo supermarket. Payton Gendron, 20, is already serving a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole after he pleaded guilty to state charges of murder and hate-motivated domestic terrorism in the 2022 attack. New York does not have capital punishment, but the Justice Department had the option of seeking the death penalty in a separate federal hate crimes case. Gendron had promised to plead guilty in that case if prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty. The decision marks the first time that President Joe Biden's Justice Department has authorized a new pursuit of the death penalty."
** Texas. Arelis Hernandez & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: “National Guard troops under Texas Gov. Greg Abbott's command are blocking U.S. Border Patrol agents from a stretch of the Rio Grande, the Biden administration said in an emergency appeal [to the U.S. Supreme Court] Friday, heightening tensions over how to handle a record migrant influx. Texas Department of Public Safety and National Guard officials began erecting fencing and razor wire around the riverfront Shelby Park Wednesday in Eagle Pass, the border crossing where thousands of migrants have arrived in recent months.... [Federal] government lawyers said in a court filing Friday that Texas cannot control Border Patrol's access to the river or dictate their duties. The state's border with Mexico along the Rio Grande is an international boundary under the jurisdiction of federal authorities.” MB: Is secession next, Greggers? Texas' use of force against a federal agency strikes me as extraordinary. But, you know, impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. Includes items on the Houthi strikes. CNN's live updates for Saturday are here.
Emily Rauhala & Steve Hendrix of the Washington Post: "Israel on Friday rejected allegations that it is committing genocide in Gaza, arguing before the International Court of Justice that the soaring death toll was an unavoidable consequence of its battle against a militant army that has embedded itself in civilian areas and seeks to repeat the Oct. 7 attacks. In a landmark hearing Thursday, South Africa outlined its claim that Israel's bombing and siege of Gaza showed its 'intent' to commit genocide against Palestinians and urged the court to order a stop to the violence. During three hours of remarks on Friday, the Israeli delegation dismissed the plausibility of genocide in Gaza and said that ordering Israel to stop military operations would leave Israeli civilians at risk. They accused South Africa of presenting a 'grossly distorted' picture by largely ignoring the role of Hamas in the fighting and of 'weaponizing' the international convention against genocide."
News Lede
Washington Post: "Tom Shales, a Pulitzer Prize-winning television critic for The Washington Post who brought incisive and barbed wit to coverage of the small screen and chronicled the medium as an increasingly powerful cultural force, for better and worse, died Jan. 13 at a hospital in Fairfax County, Va. He was 79."
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