The Conversation -- December 23, 2023

Festivus explained, here and, (sort of) here: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

From CNN's liveblog, also linked earlier today: "US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, according to the White House. Biden and Netanyahu discussed 'objectives and phasing' of the Israel-Hamas war during their call, according to a White House readout.... 'I did not ask for a ceasefire,' Biden said while leaving the White House Saturday afternoon. 'I had a long talk with Netanyahu today, and it's a private conversation.'"

From a Times of Israel liveblog: "Israel was about to 'preemptively' strike Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas's October 7 massacres, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talked out of the plan at the last minute by US President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed officials familiar with the details. The report says that 'Israel had intelligence -- which the US deemed unreliable -- that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack.'"

Anton Troianovski, et al., of New York Times: "Buoyed by Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive and flagging Western support, [Vladimir] Putin says that Russia's war goals have not changed. Addressing his generals on Tuesday, he boasted that Ukraine was so beleaguered that Russia's invading troops were doing 'what we want.... We won't give up what's ours,' he pledged, adding dismissively, 'If they want to negotiate, let them negotiate.' But in a recent push of back-channel diplomacy, Mr. Putin has been sending a different message: He is ready to make a deal. Mr. Putin has been signaling through intermediaries since at least September that he is open to a cease-fire that freezes the fighting along the current lines, far short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine...."

He Has No Shame. Michael Bender of New York Times: "For decades, American elected officials facing criminal charges or grave violations of the public trust would yield their positions of power, if only reluctantly, citing a duty to save the country from embarrassment and ease the strain on its institutions. Then came Donald J. Trump. The former president isn't just forging ahead despite four indictments and 91 felony charges, but actively orchestrating a head-on collision between the nation's political and legal systems.... The heated legal debate over whether Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection [-- as the Colorado supreme court determined --] obscured the extraordinary reality that he is running for president at all -- returning with fresh vengeance and a familiar playbook built around the notions that he can never lose, will never be convicted and will never really go away. That blueprint remains intact largely because his approach continues to yield political returns." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: To me, Trump's "successes" say more about the cowardice of Republican officeholders and the moral depravity of broad swaths of the American people than they do about Donald Trump, who is nothing more than a vicious nincompoop.

Steven Mazie & Stephen Vladeck, in a New York Times op-ed, urge the Supremes not to be as ham-handed as the Supreme Court majority was in Bush v. Gore. Marie: No doubt the writers know their advice is offered in vain.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The [Roman Catholic] church can't succeed in a time warp, moving at the pace of a snail on Ambien. Even Saudi Arabia is modernizing faster. It is simply immoral to treat women and gay people as unworthy of an equal role in their church. After all, isn't the whole point of the church to teach us what is right? And it's not right to treat people as partial humans." ~~~

     ~~~ News Flash to Observant Christians: The New Testament does not address Jesus' sexual orientation; therefore, there's every reason to believe he was supposed to be gay. He never married -- as Jewish teenaged boys were usually required to do -- and he spent the years of his ministry living and traveling with men. There is at least one hint in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas that Jesus had a sexual liaison with a woman. However, there is also a hint to the contrary in the Gospel of Mark (14:51-52): "Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." Some scholars have asserted this suggested that Jesus and his male followers engaged in group sexual rituals. Dowd is right that the Gospels identify numerous strong women. They are generally portrayed as wiser than the male Gospel characters.

~~~~~~~~~~

** Supremes Give Donald a Huuuge Christmas Gift. Adam Liptak of New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The case will move forward in an appeals court and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Secret Santas. Devan Cole of CNN: "The court did not explain its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.... An expedited review of the issue is already underway at the DC Circuit, which has scheduled oral arguments for January 9. The election subversion trial is currently set to begin in March." (Also linked yesterday.)

Donnie DeNile. Kierra Frazier of Politico: "In a wide-ranging interview on Friday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, [Donald] Trump said he would peacefully transfer power to the next president if reelected, despite insisting in the same interview that he peacefully turned over power to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.... 'Of course,' Trump responded to Hewitt when asked if he would hand over power peacefully if reelected. 'And I did that this time. And I'll tell you what. The election was rigged, and we have plenty of evidence of it. But I did it anyway.'"

Michael Gold of New York Times: Donald Trump's "focus on bloodlines and genetics ... has received renewed attention and scrutiny in his third bid for president.... Much as news articles, biographers and books about his presidency have documented Mr. Trump's long interest in Adolf Hitler, they have also shown that Mr. Trump has frequently turned to the language of genetics as he discusses the superiority of himself and others. Mr. Trump was talking publicly about his belief that genetics determined a person's success in life as early as 1988, when he told Oprah Winfrey that a person had 'to have the right genes' in order to achieve great fortune.... [In 2010,] he would tell CNN that he was a 'gene believer,' explaining that 'when you connect two racehorses, you usually end up with a fast horse' and likening his 'gene pool' to that of successful thoroughbreds.... The former president has not just promoted his own 'good genes,' but has repeatedly lauded those of British business leaders, Christian evangelical leaders, a top campaign adviser and the American industrialist Henry Ford."

Darren Samuelsohn of the Messenger: "Donald Trump's co-defendant and ex-Justice Department loyalist Jeffrey Clark lost on Thursday in his bid to have his part of the Georgia 2020 election racketeering case immediately put on hold until a federal appeals court decides where he can fight the charges. A three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which included a pair of Trump appointees, ruled that Clark 'cannot show any chance of success on the merits' and so 'there can be no basis for granting a stay.'"

Adam Entous of New York Times: "In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi. 'I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,' he wrote in the typo-filled message. 'It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary.'... [House] Republicans have portrayed it as evidence that he was privately acknowledging that he split his [substantial Burisma] income with his father.... But a close examination of the circumstances ... shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted [by Republicans].... The 2019 message was a reference to a story from Hunter's youth.... [Hunter's] roommate [at Georgetown U.] at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother 'a million times' that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, 'You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for "room and board."'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hunter may have thought it wasn't "fair" to have to share his income with his parents to help pay his expenses, but a lot of young people do that, whether or not it's described as "room and board." I saved at least half of all of the income I earned as a teenager to help pay for my college tuition & dorm fees. I never considered that any sort of burden; my parents paid what they could and I paid what I could. And I was the beneficiary of every cent. Joe Biden, often described as "the poorest Senator" (because that's what Senate financial disclosures showed) likely did as my parents did: paid the portion of the children's college expenses he could afford. Of course, Hunter's friends were, on the whole, richer than my friends, so I can see why he might have compared his circumstances to those of his wealthy friends. ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of New York Times: "As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.... But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light." Broadwater examines several examples of those mountains-to-molehills conversions. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Rein & Eric Yoder of Washington Post: "Federal employees will receive pay raises averaging 5.2 percent -- more in some high-salary areas -- under an order President Biden signed Thursday that delivers the biggest increase to U.S. government workers since the Carter administration. The salary hike for the federal civilian workforce of close to 2.2 million people is the heftiest since a 9.1 percent average raise in 1980. It's 0.6 percentage points higher than last year's increase, which itself was the highest in two decades, and will take effect in the first full pay period of 2024, starting Jan. 14 for most federal employees. The military is set to receive a comparable increase in January in the $886 billion defense bill that Congress approved this month."

Ellie Silverman & Toluse Olorunnipa of Washington Post: "D.C. residents may be able to clear their records of certain marijuana offenses after President Biden announced Friday that he will pardon those convicted of simple use and possession on certain federal lands and the nation's capital.... The announcement follows Biden's proclamation last year pardoning thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law as part of a broader effort to rectify what he has said are unjustified disparities in drug sentencing. No one was released from prison after that 2022 announcement because, White House officials said at the time, there is no one currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of cannabis.... ... Biden urged governors across the nation to follow his lead with regard to state offenses." An NPR story is here.

Abdi Dahir & Eric Schmitt of New York Times: "A senior leader of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, who was accused of planning multiple attacks that killed 148 Kenyans in a university town and three Americans on a military base, was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last Sunday, according to Somali and American officials. Maalim Ayman was killed on Dec. 17 by a U.S. Special Operations drone strike in a joint operation with the Somali national army, the officials said. He is believed to be responsible for the assault on Jan. 5, 2020 on a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed two U.S. contractor pilots and a U.S. soldier. A third U.S. contractor and two other U.S. service members were injured. Six U.S. aircraft were destroyed in the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)

Dan Lamothe & Shane Harris of Washington Post: "Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking classified U.S. intelligence documents on a gaming platform, alarmed fellow members of his unit, who worried that the young computer technician might, in the words of one, 'shoot up the place' after he was warned to stop looking at classified information that had nothing to do with his job, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.... Teixeira's concerned co-workers ... said that as early as the summer of 2021 he exhibited the warning signs they had been trained to look out for in a potential active shooter. The fuller report shows that Guard members who worked with Teixeira him saw him as a security risk, but not for the reasons that ultimately led to his arrest and indictment this year on charges of illegally removing and disseminating classified information.... Authorities determined that Teixeira owned more than a dozen registered firearms. For all the concerns about Teixeira's suspicious behavior and potential for violence, no one in the unit reported him to the appropriate security officials, the investigation found. Instead, investigators documented a pattern of buck-passing and downplaying of worries that Teixeira ... was really a danger." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of the faults of a top-down, "conservative" organization is that "rocking the boat" is punished more than rewarded. Like cops with their thin blue line, potential whistleblowers are discouraged from coming forward. So even when a serious problem is obvious, and people may grumble among themselves about it, few will take the initiative to file a report that goes up the line.

Eduardo Medina of New York Times: "Under pressure from critics who say Substack is profiting from newsletters that promote hate speech and racism, the company's founders said Thursday that they would not ban Nazi symbols and extremist rhetoric from the platform.... The response came weeks after The Atlantic found that at least 16 Substack newsletters had 'overt Nazi symbols' in their logos or graphics, and that white supremacists had been allowed to publish on, and profit from, the platform. Hundreds of newsletter writers signed a letter opposing Substack's position and threatening to leave. About 100 others signed a letter supporting the company's stance.... Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of revenue from writers who charge for newsletter subscriptions, has faced similar criticism in the past, particularly after it allowed transphobic and anti-vaccine language from some writers."

~~~~~~~~~~

Wisconsin. Julie Bosman of New York Times: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court said on Friday that the state's heavily gerrymandered legislative maps that favor Republicans were unconstitutional and ordered new maps before the 2024 election. The ruling has the potential to produce a seismic political shift in a crucial presidential swing state. Justice Jill J. Karofsky, writing for the majority, said that Wisconsin's current maps violate a requirement in the State Constitution 'that Wisconsin's state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory.'... The decision was widely expected from a court that flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority this year after the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. The winner of that election, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a former Milwaukee County judge, was openly critical of the current legislative maps, calling them 'rigged' and 'unfair' during her campaign." The AP story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 136 United Nations workers have been killed in Gaza in 75 days, Secretary General António Guterres said on Friday, calling it unprecedented in U.N. history. 'I pay tribute to them & the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza,' he wrote in a social media post." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here. CNN's live updates are here: "Israel has indicated it is widening its military operation, ordering residents in the central part of Gaza to seek safety in shelters. The White House said Israel has assured the US of its plans to pivot to a lower-intensity operation as its objectives shift."

Farnaz Fassihi & Michael Levenson of New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution that would allow more aid to reach desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, ending nearly a week of intense diplomatic wrangling intended to prevent the United States from blocking the measure. But the resolution stopped short of past attempts to impose a cease-fire. The vote was 13 to 0, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The resolution was adopted after diplomats repeatedly delayed the vote this week and reworked the measure in heated negotiations aimed at winning support from the United States, which previously vetoed two resolutions that called for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas." (A versiono f this story, published as part of the NYT liveblog on Israel/Hamas, was linked yesterday.)

Joanna Slater, et al., of Washington Post: "The Israeli government on Friday confirmed the death of a 73-year-old Israeli American, Gadi Haggai. Haggai was killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, and his body was taken by fighters into Gaza, where it is still being held, a spokesperson for his home kibbutz of Nir Oz said in a statement. His wife, Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, is 'still held hostage' by Hamas, the statement said. She is also an Israeli American.... On Friday, [President] Biden offered his condolences to the Haggai family in a White House statement."

The Conversation -- December 22, 2023

** Supremes Give Donald a Huuuge Christmas Gift. Adam Liptak of New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The case will move forward in an appeals court and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country." ~~~

     ~~~ Secret Santas. Devan Cole of CNN: "The court did not explain its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.... An expedited review of the issue is already underway at the DC Circuit, which has scheduled oral arguments for January 9. The election subversion trial is currently set to begin in March."

From the New York Times Israel/Hamas liveblog, also linked below: "The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution calling for a major increase in aid to desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, ending nearly a week of intense diplomatic wrangling for the U.S. to not block the measure. The vote was 13-0 in favor of the resolution, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The final version of the measure did not call for a cease-fire and was unlikely to affect the fighting in Gaza.... Friday's resolution, put forward by the United Arab Emirates, the only Arab country currently on the 15-member council, calls on the warring parties in Gaza to allow the use of 'all available routes' into Gaza for aid deliveries.... The draft also dropped a call for the 'urgent suspension of hostilities' from an earlier version, instead calling for 'urgent steps' to allow unhindered humanitarian access and the creation of 'conditions for a sustainable cessation of hostilities.'"

Adam Entous of New York Times: "In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi. 'I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,' he wrote in the typo-filled message. 'It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary.'... [House] Republicans have portrayed it as evidence that he was privately acknowledging that he split his [substantial Burisma] income with his father.... But a close examination of the circumstances ... shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted [by Republicans].... The 2019 message was a reference to a story from Hunter's youth.... [Hunter's] roommate [at Georgetown U.] at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother 'a million times' that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, 'You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for "room and board."'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hunter may have thought it wasn't "fair" to have to share his income with his parents to help pay his expenses, but a lot of young people do that. I saved at least half of all of the income I earned as a teenager to help pay for my college tuition & dorm fees. I never considered that any sort of burden; my parents paid what they could and I paid what I could. And I was the beneficiary of every cent. Joe Biden, often described as "the poorest Senator" (because that's what Senate financial disclosures showed) likely did as my parents did: paid the portion of the children's college expenses he could afford. Of course, Hunter's friends were, on the whole, richer than my friends, so I can see why he might have compared his circumstances to those of his wealthy friends. ~~~

     ~~~ Luke Broadwater of New York Times: "As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.... But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light." Broadwater examines several examples of those mountains-to-molehills conversions.

Abdi Dahir & Eric Schmitt of New York Times: "A senior leader of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, who was accused of planning multiple attacks that killed 148 Kenyans in a university town and three Americans on a military base, was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last Sunday, according to Somali and American officials. Maalim Ayman was killed on Dec. 17 by a U.S. Special Operations drone strike in a joint operation with the Somali national army, the officials said. He is believed to be responsible for the assault on Jan. 5, 2020 on a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed two U.S. contractor pilots and a U.S. soldier. A third U.S. contractor and two other U.S. service members were injured. Six U.S. aircraft were destroyed in the attack."

~~~~~~~~~~

Marie: As he has promised to do, Donald Trump keeps repeating his claim that immigrants "from Africa, Asia and South America" are "poisoning the blood of our nation." Lest we assume that because he skipped mentioning Central America, he's fine with immigrants from that region, of course he began his first campaign for president* asserting that immigrants from Mexico were "bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists." So we are left to surmise that in the xenophobic little mind of Donald Trump, the only immigrants who are not "poisoning the blood of our nation" are those from Europe. The truth of course is that Europeans are the largest group of immigrants to these shores, and that the ancestors of most immigrants from Central and South America and well as some from Asia got here way before Europeans did. It is Donald Trump -- a third-generation European-American -- his immigrant wives, his children and most of the rest of us who have poisoned the blood of this nation. He's such a stupid, embarrassing blowhard.

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Special counsel Jack Smith again urged the Supreme Court to weigh former President Trump's efforts to toss his election interference prosecution as a lower court considers Trump's argument he is immune from prosecution as a former executive. The swift reply comes after Trump on Wednesday argued acceptance of the case by the high court would be an end-run around the appeals process, with the next lower court hearing set for early next month." (Also linked yesterday.)

Adam Liptak of New York Times: "'I'm not happy with the Supreme Court,' ... Donald J. Trump said on Jan. 6, 2021. 'They love to rule against me.'... Mr. Trump spoke ruefully about his three appointees: Justices Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, suggesting that they had betrayed him.... Mr. Trump said his nominees had abandoned him, blaming his [Court] losses on the justices' eagerness to participate in Washington social life and to assert their independence from the charge that 'they're my puppets.'... Mr. Trump has criticized Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on similar grounds.... A fundamentally conservative court ... has not been particularly receptive to his arguments.... The Trump administration had the worst Supreme Court record of any since at least the Roosevelt administration.... Now another series of Trump cases are at the court or on its threshold...."

Darren Samuelsohn & Steve Reilly of the Messenger: "Special Counsel Jack Smith's office continued feuding with Donald Trump's lawyers on Thursday over how fast to get moving on preparations for convening a jury in the South Florida federal felony case on charges the former president mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House. In a four-page brief, Smith counselor Jay Bratt argued his team continues to work toward a potential May 20, 2024, trial in Fort Pierce, Fla. That includes preparations and distribution of a jury questionnaire that the special counsel wants U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to sign off on with a Feb. 2 deadline for both parties to jointly submit a proposal, along with their areas of disagreement."

** Caught on Tape. Attention: Jack Smith. Craig Mauger of the Detroit News: "Then-President Donald Trump personally pressured two Republican members of the Wayne County [Detroit] Board of Canvassers not to sign the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to recordings reviewed by The Detroit News and revealed publicly for the first time. On a Nov. 17, 2020, phone call, which also involved Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, Trump told Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, the two GOP Wayne County canvassers, they'd look 'terrible' if they signed the documents after they first voted in opposition and then later in the same meeting voted to approve certification of the county's election results, according to the recordings. 'We've got to fight for our country,' said Trump on the recordings, made by a person who was present for the call with Palmer and Hartmann. 'We can't let these people take our country away from us.'

"McDaniel ... said at another point in the call, 'If you can go home tonight, do not sign it. ... We will get you attorneys.' To which Trump added: 'We'll take care of that.'... Trump said Republicans had been 'cheated on this election' and 'everybody knows Detroit is crooked as hell,' according to the recordings.... The recordings further demonstrated the direct involvement of Trump, as an incumbent president, with Republican officials in Michigan in a bid to undermine Biden's win and how some details of his efforts had remained secret as he launched a campaign to win back the White House in 2024."

     ~~~ Marie: If you wondered why Trump concentrated on flipping the vote totals in just one state -- Georgia ("find me 11,781 votes") -- he wasn't.

All My Trials, Lord. Kara Scannell of CNN: "... Donald Trump is asking a federal appeals court to delay his defamation trial set for next month in a lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll so he can consider other legal moves, including potentially taking the case to the US Supreme Court. A federal appeals court rejected Trump's use of presidential immunity as a defense to the defamation charges stemming from statements he made while president, saying he had waived his right to assert it by making the claim too late into the litigation. The court sent the case back to the trial judge to move ahead to trial, which is set for January 16. In a motion Thursday, Trump's attorneys asked the appeals court to stay the trial to allow them time to consider their appellate options...."

Eileen Sullivan & Alan Feuer of New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, a day after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million in damages he owes to two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies that they had tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump. Mr. Giuliani owes millions of dollars in legal fees as well as unpaid state and federal income taxes, according to the filing." A Reuters story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Actor John Schneider called for the executions of Joe Biden and the president's son Hunter in a now-deleted social media post that drew ridicule and questions about whether he should be criminally charged. Schneider, perhaps best known for his role as Bo Duke on the TV series Dukes of Hazzard as well as his recent runner-up finish on The Masked Singer, fired off the post on X at 2am local time on Thursday. 'Mr President, I believe you are guilty of treason and should be publicly hung,' Schneider wrote to Biden. 'Your son too. Your response is..?...'... Citing anonymous sources close to the matter, Deadline reported later Thursday that the Secret Service ... had opened a preliminary investigation into Schneider." MB: That's "hanged," not "hung," John, you ignorant slug.

Presidential Race 2024

Meredith McGraw & Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Top officials with Donald Trump's presidential campaign and the Colorado Republican Party spoke on Thursday to discuss plans of action after the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to throw the former president off of the Republican primary ballot.... The Colorado GOP will appeal the Colorado court's decision -- holding that Trump was invalidated from appearing on the ballot because he'd incited an insurrection on Jan. 6 -- to the Supreme Court. Depending on how the U.S. Supreme Court ruled, he said, the party would ask the Republican National Committee for a waiver to hold a caucus instead of a primary election."

You may be surprised to learn that there are causes other than inciting insurrection that can keep a presidential* hopeful off the ballot. ~~~

~~~ Grace Kazarian & Hunter Woodall of CBS News: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's latest attempt to get on the Maine Republican presidential primary ballot failed Thursday after his campaign tried to recover from a surprising setback in the Super Tuesday state. Earlier this month, the Maine Secretary of State's office said that Christie's campaign fell short of the necessary number of certified signatures needed from Maine voters to qualify for the state's Republican presidential primary. His campaign appealed the decision, but a Maine Superior Court judge sided on Thursday with the secretary of state's handling of the situation." MB: Now we'll see if the ruling requires Chrisco supporters to make death threats against the judge & secretary of state and publish their home addresses.

Vaughn Hillyard & Dan Gallo of NBC News: "No Labels, the organization attempting to assemble a third-party presidential unity ticket, is openly floating the prospect of a'coalition government' forming after the 2024 election if no candidate reaches the 270 Electoral College votes necessary to win the White House. Officials with the group are mapping out an unlikely and largely unprecedented scenario where they could be in a position to cut deals on policy, Cabinet posts or even the vice presidency if their still-unformed ticket manages to win electoral votes and blocks a major-party nominee from winning the presidency outright.... Former Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Davis, a co-founder of No Labels ... suggest[ed] the No Labels ticket could 'cut a deal' with one of the major parties' tickets.... Davis also said that the group is looking at another potential, if far-fetched, outcome: A contingent election in which the president is selected by the U.S. House." MB: Or, they could pick a president out of a hat full of strips of paper with the names of people qualified to be president. Or there could be, like, a lottery. Or whatever.

Emma Barnett & Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A New Hampshire man has been indicted after threatening text messages were allegedly sent to three presidential candidates, including Republicans Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie. Tyler Anderson of Dover, New Hampshire, was charged with three counts of transmitting interstate threats stemming from text messages sent to three presidential campaigns, the Justice Department said in a news release.... The text messages, dating back to November, included a threat to 'impale' and 'disembowel' one candidate, prosecutors said. The candidate was not named in court documents."

Dana Priest of the Washington Post: "Jamal Khashoggi's widow, [Hanan Elatr,] who went into hiding after The Washington Post columnist was murdered in 2018 by a Saudi assassination squad, has been granted political asylum in the United States.... The decision this month validates Elatr's assertions that her life would be in danger were she to return to her native Egypt or the United Arab Emirates, where she lived for 26 years until Jamal Khashoggi was killed."

** Heidi Przybyla of Politico: "... a tight circle of conservative legal activists have built a highly effective thought chamber around the court's conservative flank over the past decade. A Politico review of tax filings, financial statements and other public documents found that [right-wing judicial activist Leonard] Leo and his network of nonprofit groups are either directly or indirectly connected to a majority of amicus briefs filed on behalf of conservative parties in seven of the highest-profile rulings the court has issued over the past two years.... The picture that emerges is of an exceedingly small universe of mostly Christian conservative activists developing and disseminating theories to change the nation's legal and cultural landscape. It also casts new light on Leo's outsized role in the conservative legal movement, where he simultaneously advised Trump on Supreme Court nominations, paid for media campaigns promoting the nominees and sought to influence court decision-making on a range of cases."

Przybyla goes on to show how actual scholars have torn apart some of the so-call scholarship in the Court's decisions, particularly in Sam Alito's Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade, supposedly historical medieval precedents Alito cribbed off an amicus brief by friend-of-Leonard Princeton professor Robert George, who is not an historian and didn't know WTF he was writing about. Przybyla also notes that more liberal members of the Court rely on amicus briefs, too, and that Justice Jackson received criticism for some misleading information she copied from one of them. MB: You know what? Sam Alito and his Supreme cohort don't care how faulty their arguments are; they only care that they're beating down the ladies, the gays, the infidels, and the Black and Brown people.

A Scrooge for Our Times. Nathaniel Meyersohn of CNN: "Wayfair's CEO has an end-of-year message for employees of the online furniture company: Don't shy away from doing more work and blending your work with your life. 'Winning requires hard work. I believe that most of us, being ambitious individuals, find fulfillment in the joy of seeing our efforts materialize into tangible results,' CEO Niraj Shah said in a note to employees earlier this month celebrating the company's recent success.... 'Working long hours, being responsive, blending work and life, is not anything to shy away from. There is not a lot of history of laziness being rewarded with success.'"

The Woman Who Changed D-Day Dies at 100. Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk [Maureen Flavin] in Ireland's County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast.... She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain's Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland's northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.... About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day. The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker -- 21-year-old Maureen Flavin [later Maureen Flavin Sweeney] -- became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.... [Sweeney] died Dec. 17 at 100...." Read to the end. (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Rhode Island. Katherine Gregg of the Providence (R.I.) Journal: "The selection of former Trump National Security Adviser − and renowned conspiracy theorist − Mike Flynn as an inductee into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame has led to at least a half dozen resignations from the board that oversees the Hall of Fame. And it has led former Congressman Jim Langevin, who was also selected last week for induction into the honorary Hall of Fame, to serve notice: 'If retired General Michael Flynn were to be included in this class I would not accept the nomination.' In her letter of resignation from the board, former Rep. Denise Aiken wrote: "I find that I am unable to be associated with an organization that would choose to honor a criminal who failed to keep this oath to the Constitution of the United States.'" Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: Don't they have a Hall of Infamy where they could stick General Mike in with notorious Providence mob bosses & such? (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Kim Bellware, et al., of the Washington Post: "Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) tried to compel a Seattle hospital to hand over information about gender-affirming treatment Texas youths may have received across state lines, according to court filings, signaling an escalation of his office's attempts to crack down on Texans' ability to access such health care. The Seattle Children's Hospital requested a Texas judge nullify, or at least rein in, Paxton's demands, arguing that his office lacks the jurisdiction over the Washington state hospital.... The hospital said Paxton's queries -- made under the guise of an investigation by the AG's consumer protection division -- were 'sham requests.'" A KXAN (Austin, Texas) story is here. Thanks to RAS for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told reporters late Thursday that American diplomats and their Arab counterparts had produced a draft U.N. Security Council resolution regarding the flow of aid to Gaza, which Washington could support.... The U.N. vote is expected to happen Friday. Over a quarter of the Gaza population faces 'catastrophic hunger and starvation,' according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.... There are no fully functional hospitals now in northern Gaza, where only four hospitals are still functioning. Those can provide only 'very limited care,' and none can operate on severely wounded patients because of shortages of supplies and workers, World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Friday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

New York Times: "During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians, according to an analysis of visual evidence by The New York Times. The video investigation focuses on the use of 2,000-pound bombs in an area of southern Gaza where Israel had ordered civilians to move for safety. While bombs of that size are used by several Western militaries, munitions experts say they are almost never dropped by U.S. forces in densely populated areas anymore.... U.S. officials have said that Israel should do more to reduce civilian casualties while fighting Hamas.... Still, since October, the United States has also sent more than 5,000 MK-84 munitions -- a type of 2,000-pound bomb." ~~~

     ~~~ Tamara Qiblawi, et al., of CNN: "In the first month of its war in Gaza, Israel dropped hundreds of massive bombs, many of them capable of killing or wounding people more than 1,000 feet away, analysis by CNN and artificial intelligence company Synthetaic suggests.... Weapons and warfare experts blame the extensive use of heavy munitions such as the 2,000-pound bomb for the soaring death toll. The population of Gaza is packed together much more tightly than almost anywhere else on earth, so the use of such heavy munitions has a profound effect."

     ~~~ Marie: Some time back, contributor Patrick, citing a news story, wrote, "I would really like to see a 'less intense air strike.'" I would say dropping less-than-2000-pound bombs on civilians in a supposed safe zone might be "less intense."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "More than 20,000 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip in the war between Israel and Hamas, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Hamas militants led an attack on Israel on Oct. 7 that killed more than 1,200 people, according to Israeli officials. Israel's response -- an all-out bombardment of Gaza and a ground invasion -- has killed almost 1 in 100 people in the Strip." The article goes on to discuss how unreliable the figure may be.

News Ledes

CNBC: “A gauge the Federal Reserve uses for inflation rose slightly in November and edged closer to the central bank's goal. The core personal consumption expenditures price index, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, increased 0.1% for the month, and was up 3.2% from a year ago, the Commerce Department reported Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting respective increases of 0.1% and 3.3%." ~~~

~~~ New York Times: "A closely watched measure of inflation cooled notably in November, good news for the Federal Reserve as officials move toward the next phase in their fight against rapid price increases and a positive for the White House as voters see relief from rising costs. The Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation measure, which the Fed cites when it says it aims for 2 percent inflation on average over time, climbed 2.6 percent in the year through November. That was down from 2.9 percent the previous month, and was less than what economists had forecast. Compared with the previous month, prices overall even fell slightly for the first time in years."

The Conversation -- December 21, 2023

Now Is the Winter of Our Discontent.

The Woman Who Changed D-Day Dies at 100. Brian Murphy of the Washington Post: "Before dawn on June 3, 1944, a postal clerk [Maureen Flavin] in Ireland's County Mayo checked her weather gauges. A storm was coming fast.... She double-checked the observations. They then were passed along until finally they reached Britain's Met Office, which since 1939 had used the Blacksod post office as one of its weather stations. Blacksod carried particular importance. Its position on Ireland's northwestern coast was often an early warning of Atlantic weather systems headed for Britain.... About 7,000 ships and landing craft, 11,000 aircraft and more than 130,000 Allied troops were amassed for Operation Overlord, the invasion into Nazi-occupied France. The only missing puzzle piece was the weather forecast for the English Channel to decide if June 5 would be D-Day. The storm observations from County Mayo were the first indications of trouble ahead. The invasion was postponed until June 6. And the postal worker -- 21-year-old Maureen Flavin [later Maureen Flavin Sweeney] -- became part of World War II lore as a linchpin in the weather team whose work persuaded commanders to hold off for 24 hours the air-and-sea assault that helped change the course the war.... [Sweeney] died Dec. 17 at 100...." Read to the end.

Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Special counsel Jack Smith again urged the Supreme Court to weigh former President Trump's efforts to toss his election interference prosecution as a lower court considers Trump's argument he is immune from prosecution as a former executive. The swift reply comes after Trump on Wednesday argued acceptance of the case by the high court would be an end-run around the appeals process, with the next lower court hearing set for early next month."

Eileen Sullivan & Alan Feuer of New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy on Thursday, a day after a federal judge ordered him to start paying the $148 million in damages he owes to two former Georgia election workers for spreading lies that they had tried to steal the 2020 election from Donald J. Trump. Mr. Giuliani owes millions of dollars in legal fees as well as unpaid state and federal income taxes, according to the filing." A Reuters story is here.

Katherine Gregg of the Providence (R.I.) Journal: "The selection of former Trump National Security Adviser − and renowned conspiracy theorist − Mike Flynn as an inductee into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame has led to at least a half dozen resignations from the board that oversees the Hall of Fame. And it has led former Congressman Jim Langevin, who was also selected last week for induction into the honorary Hall of Fame, to serve notice: 'If retired General Michael Flynn were to be included in this class I would not accept the nomination.' In her letter of resignation from the board, former Rep. Denise Aiken wrote: "I find that I am unable to be associated with an organization that would choose to honor a criminal who failed to keep this oath to the Constitution of the United States.'" Thanks to RAS for the lead. MB: Don't they have a Hall of Infamy where they could stick General Mike in with notorious Providence mob bosses & such?

~~~~~~~~~~

Alan Feuer of New York Times: "It now seems clear that the courts -- especially the Supreme Court -- could dramatically shape the contours of the election.... A number of the issues the court is now confronting could drastically affect the timing of the proceedings against [Donald] Trump, the scope of the charges he should face or his status as a candidate, with potentially profound effects on his chances of winning the election. And the justices could easily become ensnared in several of the questions simultaneously.... All of this arrives at a particularly vulnerable moment for the court. In the wake of its decisions on contentious issues like abortion rights and affirmative action, critics have assailed it for being guided by an overt political ideology. At the same time, some of the justices have come under withering personal scrutiny for their finances and links to wealthy backers."

Adam Liptak of New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to put off a decision on a crucial question in his federal prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election: whether he has 'absolute immunity' for actions he took as president. The question, Mr. Trump's brief said, should be 'resolved in a cautious, deliberative manner -- not at breakneck speed.' He urged the justices not to 'rush to decide the issues with reckless abandon.' The request appeared to be part of Mr. Trump's general strategy of trying to delay the trial in the case, which is scheduled to start on March 4." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Chaos Is of the Essence of the Scheme. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "Donald Trump's request to the Supreme Court on Wednesday was perhaps his most brazen delay tactic yet.... The nation's highest court is poised to consider next year whether Trump can be prosecuted for crimes committed after the 2020 election and whether the actions he took in office can bar him from being on the ballot again in 2024. It's just the kind of chaos where Trump thrives -- and finds a way to turn the tables to his advantage."

"Disqualification for Thee But Not for Me." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Trump on Tuesday night derided the [Colorado supreme court] ruling as 'eliminating the rights of Colorado voters to vote for the candidate of their choice.' But not only did Trump try to overturn the will of voters after the 2020 election, he has on myriad occasions pushed the idea that candidates should be disqualified irrespective of the voters' will.... He built a base in the early 2010s with the ugly and false 'birther' campaign, whose entire premise was that Barack Obama wasn't eligible to be president.... During the 2016 GOP primary campaign, he repeatedly pushed the idea that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) might -- and even should -- be disqualified, both because he was born in Canada and because he purportedly cheated in the Iowa caucuses, which Cruz won. And Trump explicitly called for two others to be prohibited from running, including Hillary Clinton -- a lot[.]"(Also linked yesterday.)

Jesse Paul of the Colorado Sun reports that the Colorado GOP is threatening to withdraw from the state's presidential primary if Donald Trump isn't on the ballot, and Colorado delegates would caucus instead to select their presidential nominee. (MB: Sorry, the page doesn't allow copying, so I've paraphrased the gist of the report.) An NBC News story is here.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "In the 24 hours since the Colorado Supreme Court kicked ... Donald Trump off the state's Republican primary ballot, social media outlets have been flooded with threats against the justices who ruled in the case, according to a report obtained by NBC News. Advance Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that conducts public interest research, identified 'significant violent rhetoric' against the justices and Democrats, often in direct response to Trump's posts about the ruling on his platform Truth Social. They found that some social media users posted justices' email addresses, phone numbers and office building addresses.... Posts -- whose images and links were included in the report -- noted a variety of methods that could be used to kill those perceived as Trump's enemies: hollow-point bullets, rifles, rope, bombs.... The threats fit into a predictable and familiar pattern, seen time and time again after legal developments against Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, Trump followers are trying to prove that there is a revolution, that Trump is its leader, and that the revolutionary forces favor violence as the means to crown him the country's imperial leader. ~~~

~~~ AND. Jennifer Bendery of the Huffington Post: "Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said Wednesday she is 'extremely concerned' about fanatical supporters of Donald Trump becoming violent in response to the state Supreme Court ruling that Trump is ineligible to appear on Colorado's 2024 presidential primary ballot. 'I've been concerned about violence and threats of violence since Donald Trump incited the insurrection,' Griswold, who has been Colorado's Democratic secretary of state since 2019, said in an interview. 'I've received hundreds if not thousands of threats at this point.' She's faced an astounding uptick in threats amid the lawsuit over Trump's eligibility to appear on the state ballot, even though she has nothing to do with it.... 'It just underlines that Donald Trump is a major threat to American democracy, elections and stability. He uses threats and intimidation against his political opponents. When he doesn't win elections, he tries to steal them. He is a dangerous leader for this country,' Griswold said." See more on this under "Presidential Race 2024" below.

But What Is an Insurrection? The Washington Post Editors are really rather upset that the Colorado supreme court ruled that Donald Trump engaged in an insurrection. "In the absence of clarity, a body of unelected officials should be reluctant to prevent the country's citizens from choosing an elected official to lead them. The Supreme Court, hopefully, understands that." MB: I'd like to remind the cautious editors that the trial court held a week-long trial, with witnesses & exhibits, arguments from both sides & all, to determine whether or not the Trumpster engaged in insurrection, and the judge found that he did. The state supremes agreed with that. If judges can't define "insurrection," then who?

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Banning Trump from the ballot -- in all states, not just Colorado -- is clearly what is called for by the Constitution.... No one is going to accuse the six Federalist Society justices on the Supreme Court of being bound by the clear letter of the Constitution. As the public has started to realize in the wake of the Dobbs decision and the slow drip of billionaire sugar daddy scandals, the main things the conservative justices care about are pushing their right-wing ideology, helping out the Republican Party and complaining about people who find their corruption unseemly." Marcotte goes on to list a number of ways the reactionary Supremes would benefit from dumping Trump. "Even the justices Trump appointed must know he wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire. Just get rid of him, Supreme Court justices. You know, deep down in your hearts, it will be a lot nicer for you when he's gone."

Gillian Brockell of the Washington Post looks at the few cases in which the insurrection ban was invoked.

Alan Feuer of New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday ordered Rudolph W. Giuliani to immediately pay the $148 million he owes to two former Georgia election workers for falsely accusing them of manipulating ballots after the 2020 election, citing concerns that he might 'conceal his assets' if he were allowed to wait. The decision by the judge, Beryl A. Howell, was the latest legal defeat for Mr. Giuliani, who is facing an array of woes for his efforts three years ago to keep ... Donald J. Trump in office after his election defeat. But even though Judge Howell ordered speedy payment, there is no indication that Mr. Giuliani, whose long-running financial problems have only been intensifying, has anywhere near the amount he owes. On Monday, a few days after a jury in Washington imposed the damages on Mr. Giuliani, the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, asked Judge Howell to waive the standard 30-day waiting period and force him to pay them as soon as possible.... In a 13-page order, Judge Howell agreed with virtually everything Ms. Freeman and Ms. Moss said about Mr. Giuliani...."

Bumbling into Arrest & Conviction. Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Nearly three years ago, a young professional in the nation's capital ... saw that the FBI was looking for help identifying the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol. So she opened up the Bumble dating app, changed her political beliefs to conservative and got to swiping. The woman reached out to several Donald Trump supporters who the app showed were in the Washington area, hoping to elicit confessions from those who had flooded into the city.... On Wednesday, one of the Bumble users she turned in to the FBI pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers with chemical spray and a metal whip. Andrew Taake, 35, of Texas, pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers with a deadly and dangerous weapon, admitting that he used both bear spray and a metal whip to attack officers, at a hearing before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols in Washington."

Presidential Race 2024

Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Wednesday condemned ... Donald Trump's harsh remarks about immigrants, his most public denunciation of his predecessor's increasingly vitriolic characterization of those seeking to enter the United States. Speaking in Milwaukee, Biden castigated Trump as 'the guy who thinks we're polluting the blood of America these days.... I don't believe, as the president -- former president -- said again yesterday, that immigrants are polluting, polluting our blood,' Biden said while touting his economic policies at the Wisconsin Black Chamber of Commerce. 'The economy and our nation are stronger when we're tapping into the full, full range of talents in this nation.'... [Trump's remark] 'echoes the same phrases used in Nazi Germany,' Biden said. 'Folks..., we can't fail to treat the threat that he poses.'...

"Asked whether Trump had engaged in insurrection, Biden told reporters, 'It's self-evident -- you saw it all. Now, whether the 14th Amendment applies, I'll let the court make that decision. But he certainly supported an insurrection. There's no question about it. None. Zero.'" This AP story covers President Biden's visit to Milwaukee & his comments about the Trump-led insurrection.

Heil Hitler. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "... far from being shamed [for using Nazi code language to describe immigrants]..., sources tell Rolling Stone that Trump plans to go out of his way to ramp up use of the rhetoric, specifically to get a rise out of the media and the left. '"He wants the media to choke on his words," one of these sources says,' reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Tim Dickinson. '"The [former] president said he's going to keep doing it, he's going to keep saying they're poisoning the blood of the nation and destroying and killing the country ... He says it's a "great line."'"

As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one. -- Godwin's Law ~~~

~~~ Mike Godwin, coiner of Godwin's Law, in a Washington Post op-ed: "Years after I'd let Godwin's Law run free, I learned that an actual political philosopher, Leo Strauss, had made a somewhat similar remark a few years before I was born about debates trending toward Hitler. Strauss (whom I confess I still haven't read) chose to classify Hitler comparisons as a special instance of a particular logical fallacy: reductio ad Hitlerum.... But when people draw parallels between Donald Trump's 2024 candidacy and Hitler's progression from fringe figure to Great Dictator, we aren't joking. Those of us who hope to preserve our democratic institutions need to underscore the resemblance before we enter the twilight of American democracy. And that's why Godwin's Law isn't violated -- or confirmed -- by the Biden reelection campaign's criticism of Trump's increasingly unsubtle messaging."

The Incredible Shrinking GOP Candidates. Jonathan Weisman of New York Times: "The blockbuster ruling by Colorado's Supreme Court would seem to give Donald Trump's challengers an avenue of attack, but far behind in the polls, they are skirting the issue.... Mr. Trump still seems to be the one setting the parameters for legitimate debate in the G.O.P., even if he doesn't participate in the party's actual debates." ~~~

Nikki Haley: "We don't need to have judges making these decisions."

Ron DeSantis: "We're going to be litigating this stuff for how many more years going forward? I think we've got to start focusing on the people's issues."

Chris Christie: "I don't think a court should exclude somebody from running for president without there being a trial and evidence that's accepted by a jury that they did participate in insurrection'"

Vivek Ramaswamy: "I pledge to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary ballot until Trump is also allowed to be on the ballot, and I demand that Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie, and Nikki Haley do the same immediately - or else they are tacitly endorsing this illegal maneuver which will have disastrous consequences for our country."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of New York Times: “The United States released a close ally of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela on Wednesday in exchange for 10 jailed Americans and a defense contractor known as 'Fat Leonard,' who is at the center of one of the U.S. Navy's largest corruption cases. The Maduro government will also release 20 Venezuelan political prisoners and Roberto Abdul, an opposition leader in Venezuela, U.S. officials said. The Americans who were released on Wednesday include six people deemed to be 'wrongfully detained' by the Biden administration, a designation that indicates that the U.S. government sees them as the equivalent of political hostages. They had landed in Texas by Wednesday night, an administration official said." The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ A statement from President Biden, via the White House, is here.

Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "... after decades of congressional inaction and recurring migration spikes -- [the southern U.S. border is experiencing] record numbers of illegal crossings this month..., an influx likely to exacerbate strains on New York, Chicago and other cities already swamped by newcomers seeking shelter, food and assistance. The latest surge is happening as negotiations in Washington to tighten U.S. enforcement have stalled until at least after the congressional holiday recess. Lawmakers are struggling to hash out a deal that would expand deportations, curb asylum claims and allow authorities to rapidly expel migrants during periods of mass crossings like the current one."

Ishaan Tharoor of Washington Post: "In Europe, [as in the United States], fears over migration are morphing the political landscape and boosting right-wing parties.... 'In a big election year -- in the U.S., the E.U. and the U.K. -- migration is shaping up to be a big issue,' Catherine Barnard ... [of] the University of Cambridge ... told my colleagues.... And so 'poisoning the blood' can go from sounding like a Nazi echo to a potential winning slogan."

The Plagiarist. Jennifer Schuessler of New York Times: "Harvard University, in the face of mounting questions over possible plagiarism in the scholarly work of its president, Claudine Gay, said on Wednesday that it had found two additional instances of her failing to properly credit other scholars. The news was an embarrassing development for the university, which has sought to quell tumult over Dr. Gay's leadership in recent weeks. On Wednesday, the congressional committee currently investigating Harvard sent a letter to the university demanding all its documentation and communications related to the allegations. The new issues were found in Dr. Gay's 1997 doctoral dissertation, in which Harvard said it had found two examples of 'duplicative language without appropriate attribution.'" CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Anrmona Hartocolis & Sheelagh McNeill of New York Times: "Here are five examples of Dr. Gay's work that are under scrutiny, comparing her writing with that of the scholars listed."

~~~~~~~~~~

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "As Donald Trump falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, Republicans in some states launched special units to prosecute voter fraud as part of a high-profile and controversial push to stamp out cheating some claimed was rampant. But the election integrity units established or expanded in six states after Trump's loss obtained only 47 convictions during a period in which tens of millions of votes were cast, and the units overwhelmingly targeted minorities and Democrats for prosecution, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis by The Washington Post of nearly every prosecution. The analysis found that 76 percent of defendants whose race or ethnicity could be identified were Black or Hispanic, while White people constituted 24 percent of those prosecuted by the units.... The analysis also showed that election integrity units have not uncovered the type of wide-ranging schemes claimed by Trump and some Republican allies that might tilt an election.... The cases that the units pursued often collapsed."

California. "Repugnant!" Christopher Weber of the AP: "A federal judge on Wednesday blocked a California law that would have banned carrying firearms in most public places, ruling that it violates the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and deprives people of their ability to defend themselves and their loved ones. The law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September was set to take effect Jan. 1. It would have prohibited people from carrying concealed guns in 26 places including public parks and playgrounds, churches, banks and zoos. The ban would apply whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon or not.... U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law, which he wrote was 'sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court.'"; MB: Carney is a Dubya appointee.

Virginia. Joe Heim & Gregory Schneider of Washington Post: "As dawn broke at a frigid Arlington National Cemetery on Wednesday morning, workers ... began to take down a controversial statue that had stood there for more than a century. Hours earlier, a federal judge had ruled an effort to halt the removal of the towering Confederate Memorial had no merit, and the contractors hired by the cemetery moved quickly to get the statue down and into custom-built wooden crates. Soon all that remained was the base and foundation. Work continued into the evening to remove the remaining bronze elements of the memorial, a cemetery spokesperson said in an email.... Contractors received word of the judge's ruling Tuesday night and workers arrived at 6 a.m. Wednesday, said Devon Henry, whose Team Henry Enterprises is overseeing the removal. Henry, who is Black, and his Virginia-based company have become specialists in the complex and controversial work of statue removal over the past three years." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It's great to see the statue coming down but the white supremacist sentiments that put it there in the early 1900s are alive and well.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The U.N. Security Council will reconvene Thursday after a vote on a war-related resolution was delayed three times because of opposition from the United States. World powers are trying to hone the resolution's language so that Washington won't veto it. Northern Gaza has no fully functional hospitals left, the World Health Organization said. The Gaza Health Ministry warned that hundreds of wounded people could die because of the lack of medical services there." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Thursday are here.

Marie: Yesterday I embedded a Chris Hayes segment about the devastation in Gaza. Later in the day, YouTube removed the video because it was not suitable for children. So X-rated. Like Gaza. Here's a link to the video, which you can watch on YouTube.

News Lede

New York Times: "At least 15 people were killed during a shooting rampage in the Czech Republic, on Thursday, including 14 people at Charle University in Prague and the suspect's father, the authorities said. Twenty-four other people were wounded at the university. The gunman, a 24-year-old student in world history at Charles University, also died. He first killed his father in their family home in the town of Kladno, outside of Prague, said Radek Jiroudek, a police officer with Interpol Prague, in an interview. He killed himself after the shooting spree in central Prague." CNN is live-updating developments here.