;)
April 20, 2022
Morning Update:
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.
Ben Quinn of the Guardian: "A court has formally approved the extradition of Julian Assange to the US on espionage charges, in what will ultimately be a decision for the UK home secretary, Priti Patel. The Wikileaks co-founder, who has the right of appeal, appeared by videolink during the Westminster magistrates court hearing, which one of his barristers described as a 'brief but significant moment in the case'.... The supreme court last month refused Assange's appeal against his extradition. He had sought to challenge a judgment by the high court in December that ruled he could be extradited after assurances from the US authorities with regard to his prison conditions there."
A Democrat Responds to the Fake, GQP Pedophile Charge. Curtis Wong of the Huffington Post: "A Democratic Michigan state senator delivered an impassioned response after a Republican colleague accused her of supporting pedophilia, reiterating a common right-wing talking point. State Sen. Lana Theis, a Republican, made the troubling claims against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow in a fundraising email sent to her constituents on Monday. In the email, Theis branded her Democratic colleague a 'social media troll' and a 'snowflake' who was 'outraged' at not being able to 'groom and sexualize kindergarteners.' McMorrow
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The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukraine's allies are scrambling to deliver more advanced weapons, long sought by President Volodymyr Zelensky, to bolster the nation's defense against an escalating Russian campaign to capture the east. Russia's new offensive -- and the ability of Ukraine's trench-based forces in the Donbas region to fend it off -- is expected to rely on long-range missiles, howitzers and armed drones. President Biden said after a call with allies on Tuesday that the United States would send more artillery designed for such attacks. He is expected to announce more military aid soon. Underscoring the urgency of his country's needs, Mr. Zelensky said in a nightly address that had Ukraine received in the first week of the war what allies were sending now, the conflict might already be over. 'Any delay in helping Ukraine gives the occupiers an opportunity to kill more Ukrainians,' he said.... Russia is also ratcheting up pressure on Mariupol, where a group of holdout Ukrainian fighters are issuing increasingly dire pleas for help from the Azovstal steel plant where civilians are also sheltering.... The European Union is preparing the details of an embargo on Russian oil imports after banning Russian coal earlier this month, the president of the European Commission confirmed." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "The Kremlin has issued a new ultimatum for Ukrainian fighters holed up in the southern city of Mariupol: Surrender by 2 p.m. local time Wednesday or face a bitter end. Kyiv's forces, holding out in a steel plant, let a Tuesday deadline pass, and their commander told The Washington Post they would not lay down their weapons.... Meanwhile, Ukraine is receiving fighter aircraft from other nations to help fight off the Russian invasion, according to the Pentagon. President Biden is set to announce around $800 million in additional military aid for Ukraine in the coming days, an official familiar with the decision said. A U.S. military aid package last week included 11 Soviet-designed Mi-17 attack helicopters. As Russia relaunches its campaign to take eastern Ukraine, it is pounding the region with artillery and airstrikes. Western strategists said Ukrainians appeared to be launching local 'spoiling attacks' in hope of disrupting the Kremlin's broader assault." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's full report of developments is here.
Steve Erlanger, et al., of the New York Times: 'Now, as the Kremlin switches gears and begins a concerted effort to capture eastern Ukraine, Washington and its allies are pivoting as well, scrambling to supply Ukraine with bigger and more advanced weapons to defend itself in a grinding war. The West is focused on sending longer-range weapons like howitzers, antiaircraft systems, anti-ship missiles, armed drones, armored trucks, personnel carriers and even tanks -- the type of arms that President Biden said were tailored to stop 'the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine.'... After a video call with allies on Tuesday, Mr. Biden told reporters that the United States would send more artillery to Ukraine. He is expected to announce a new military aid package for Ukraine in the coming days, according to a person briefed on his plans. The aid amount will be on par with the $800 million package of weapons and artillery that was announced last week, the person said." CNN's story is here.
Julian Borger of the Guardian: "Russia has deployed up to 20,000 mercenaries from Syria, Libya and elsewhere in its new offensive in Ukraine's Donbas region, sent into battle with no heavy equipment or armoured vehicles, according to a European official.... [They were] recruited by the Russian mercenary company, the Wagner Group.... Syrian ex-soldiers have been offered monthly salaries of between $600 and $3,000, depending on rank and experience, to fight in Ukraine. Wagner is reported to have moved most of its soldiers who had been fighting in Libya to Ukraine, and last month Ukrainian military intelligence claim that Russia had made a deal with the Moscow-backed Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar to send Libyan fighters.
Dino Grandoni & Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "The White House on Tuesday announced it has restored key protections to a landmark environmental law governing the construction of pipelines, highways and other projects that ... Donald Trump had swept away as part of an effort to cut red tape. The new rule will require federal agencies to scrutinize the climate impacts of major infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law that required the government to assess the environmental consequences of federal actions, such as approving the construction of oil and gas pipelines." MB: Trump was not trying "cut red tape." He was purposely undermining the federal government's mandate to protect the environment from his voracious corporate friends. Another "journalistic" effort to make the malign Trump appear benign. (Also linked yesterday.)
Stacy Cowley of the New York Times: "In its latest attempt to fix widespread breakdowns in the federal student loan payment system, the Education Department said on Tuesday that it would use one-time waivers and adjustments to retroactively credit millions of borrowers with additional payments toward loan forgiveness. The credits will help borrowers seeking to have their loans eliminated under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and through the use of income-driven repayment plans. The public service program eliminates the debts of government and nonprofit workers after 10 years of qualifying loan payments, and those who enroll in income-driven plans are entitled to have their remaining debt wiped out after 20 to 25 years. The changes will immediately eliminate the debts of at least 40,000 borrowers through the public service program, and will give 3.6 million borrowers pursuing income-driven repayment at least three years of additional credits, the department said." NPR's story is here.
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... as the House committee investigating last year's riot uncovers new evidence about the lengths to which Mr. Trump was willing to go to cling to power, some lawmakers on the panel have quietly begun discussions about rewriting the Insurrection Act, the 1807 law that gives presidents wide authority to deploy the military within the United States to respond to a rebellion. The discussions are preliminary.... Proponents envision a doomsday scenario in which a rogue future president might try to use the military to stoke -- rather than put down -- an insurrection, or to abuse protesters.... While Mr. Trump never invoked the law, he threatened to do so in 2020 to have the military crack down on crowds protesting the police killing of George Floyd. Stephen Miller, one of his top advisers, also proposed putting it into effect to turn back migrants at the southwestern border, an idea that was rejected by the defense secretary at the time, Mark T. Esper. And as Mr. Trump grasped for ways to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, some hard-right advisers encouraged him to declare martial law and deploy U.S. troops to seize voting machines. In the run-up to the Jan. 6 attack, members of right-wing militia groups also encouraged Mr. Trump to invoke the law....
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "John Eastman, a far-right lawyer for ... Donald Trump who wanted to block his electoral loss in 2020, is still withholding about 3,200 documents from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 insurrection, according to a new court filing this week.... Federal Judge David Carter in Santa Ana, California, may continue to weigh whether Eastman can keep those pages secret." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah are two of the most prominent [self-described] 'constitutional conservatives' in the Senate.... It is interesting, then, that Lee and Cruz were among the Republican senators most involved in Donald Trump's attempt to subvert the Constitution and install himself in office against the will of the voters. As The Washington Post reported last month, Cruz worked 'directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power.'... Lee supported and encouraged the president's effort to overturn the election, with both ideas and political assistance.... Which gets to the truth of what that 'constitutional conservatism' really seems to be: not a principled attempt -- however flawed in conception -- to live up to the values of the founding, but a thin mask for the will to power." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Reed Galen in the Salt Lake Tribune: "Mike Lee's attempts to find 'legal' remedies on Trump's behalf demonstrate either an active desire to overturn the 2020 election or a shocking lack of judgement. I suspect both. Either taken individually would be disqualifying to an individual in a powerful position of public trust.... Lee is up for reelection this November. As Utahns being to think about their choices, they should take to heart that when given every chance to choose fealty: to faith, to country, to Utah and to the Constitution, he's put himself, his ambition, and his grasping for power first.... His efforts helped create a crisis not seen in this country since the Civil War. Like so many members of Congress who supported the Confederacy, Lee should no longer serve in high office." Galen is a co-founder of the Lincoln Project; he lives in Utah. Firewalled.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Top leaders in the Oath Keepers militia group indicted on seditious conspiracy charges over the Capitol attack had contacts with the Proud Boys and a figure in the Stop the Steal movement and may also have been in touch with the Republican congressman Ronny Jackson, newly released text messages show. The texts -- which indicate the apparent ease with which Oath Keepers messaged Proud Boys -- could strengthen a theory being explored by the House January 6 committee and the US justice department: that the Capitol attack included a coordinated assault. Oath Keepers text messages released in a court filing on Monday night showed members of the group were in direct communication with the Proud Boys leader Enqrique Tarrio in the days before the Capitol attack.... That close relationship is certain to be of interest to the House committee as it zeroes in on whether the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys coordinated an attack on the Capitol...."
Michael Grynbaum & Jim Windolf of the New York Times: "Joseph F. Kahn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning China correspondent who rose to lead the international desk of The New York Times, and then as managing editor helped steer the newspaper into the digital era, has been selected to be The Times's next executive editor, the top newsroom job. Mr. Kahn, 57, currently the No. 2-ranking editor at The Times, will take on one of the most powerful positions in American media and the global news business. He is to succeed Dean Baquet, whose eight-year tenure is expected to conclude in June. The announcement was made on Tuesday by the publisher of The Times, A.G. Sulzberger." (Also linked yesterday.)
AND in Other Media News.... Taylor Lorenz of the Washington Post: "Libs of TikTok [-- a Twitter account --] reposts a steady stream of TikTok videos and social media posts, primarily from LGBTQ+ people, often including incendiary framing designed to generate outrage. Videos shared from the account quickly find their way to the most influential names in right-wing media. The account has emerged as a powerful force on the Internet, shaping right-wing media, impacting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and influencing millions by posting viral videos aimed at inciting outrage among the right.... Its content is amplified by high-profile media figures, politicians and right-wing influencers.... The content it surfaces shows a direct correlation with the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community." Republicans wallow in this homophobic, anti-trans crap. And it isn't just Tucker Carlson & Joe Rogan who traffic in this: Glenn Greenwald calls himself the account's "Godfather." (Also linked yesterday.)
World's Richest Man Seeks Loan. Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "Elon Musk is racing to secure funding for his $43 billion bid to buy Twitter. Morgan Stanley, the investment bank working with Mr. Musk on the potential deal, has been calling banks and other potential investors to shore up financing for the offer, four people with knowledge of the situation said. Mr. Musk is first focused on raising debt and has not yet begun to seek equity financing for his bid, one of the people said. Mr. Musk is evaluating various packages of debt, including more senior debt known as preferred debt and a loan against his shares of Tesla, the electric carmaker that he runs, two of the people said. Apollo Global Management, the private equity firm, is among the parties considering offering debt financing in a bid for Twitter. The equity he needs is likely to be sizable."
Sheryl Stolberg & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it intends to appeal a Florida judge's ruling that struck down a federal mask requirement on airplanes, trains, buses and other public transportation -- but only if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides that extending the measure is necessary. The announcement from the Department of Justice came after a day of back and forth inside the White House, as administration officials faced a legal and political quandary: whether to let the judge's ruling stand or to fight it, knowing that an appeal could result in a higher court, perhaps the Supreme Court, ruling against the administration and setting a lasting precedent that could undercut the C.D.C.'s authority." An NBC News report is here. ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "Another day, another activist Trump judge legislating from the bench.... Federal law gives the CDC power 'to make and enforce such regulations as in [its] judgment are necessary to prevent the introduction, transmission, or spread of communicable diseases.'... The agency 'may provide for such inspection, fumigation, disinfection, sanitation ... and other measures as in [its] judgment may be necessary.' A mask requirement falls comfortably within the language of a rule necessary to prevent the spread of communicable disease.... When a statute is ambiguous and an agency's interpretation is reasonable, judges are supposed to defer to the agency. Here, though she had just spent more than a dozen pages parsing the meaning of 'sanitation,' [Judge Kathryn Kimball] Mizelle declared the law 'not ambiguous' and the CDC's interpretation 'not reasonable.'"
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "In a move widely seen as retaliation, Gov. Ron DeSantis asked Florida lawmakers on Tuesday to consider the 'termination' of self-governing privileges that Disney World has held in the Orlando area for 55 years. He acted after Disney, the state's largest private employer, paused political donations in Florida and condemned a new state education law that opponents call 'Don't Say Gay.' The Florida Legislature had already been scheduled to convene this week for a special session on congressional redistricting. On Tuesday, Mr. DeSantis, a Republican, issued a proclamation allowing the Republican-controlled body to also take up bills that would eliminate special tax districts that were created before 1968. Florida has hundreds of such districts, but almost all were set up after that date -- with one of the exceptions covering Disney World." ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post discovers there is "math" and there is "Florida math." Typical Florida math problems: "Problem 1: In an election, the Republican candidate gets 232 electoral votes and the Democratic candidate gets 306. Who won? Answer: It was rigged. Problem 2: Florida had 153 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people over the past year while California had only 58 per 100,000. How much higher is Florida's death rate? Answer: I'm going to do my own research.' Then Milbank reviews a precalculus book DeSantis' education department has banned. He was horrified to discover that "At a time when Floridians by law 'don't say gay,' much less 'trans,' this banned book brazenly teaches about the 'Transitive Property of Equality.'"
Tennessee. Oh Dear. Allan Smith of NBC News: "The Tennessee Republican Party voted Tuesday to remove former State Department spokesperson Morgan Ortagus and two other people from the August primary ballot in the state's 5th Congressional District. The vote marked the culmination of months of effort by both GOP legislators and activists to boot Ortagus because she had only recently moved to the state. She was endorsed by ... Donald Trump.... In recent years, the party has scuttled a number of candidates for failing to meet the [party's qualification bylaws]." MB: I can see why Trump endorsed her: she's a looker, and her "look" is very Melanie Trumpy.
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Relativity:
$600/month to fight in Ukraine makes the Social Security pittance look pretty good.
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist has written an extraordinary piece for The Atlantic–––"Why the Past 10 years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid." It is extremely long but worth your while. He begins with the Biblical story of Babel:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/05/social-media-democracy-trust-babel/629369/
"An autocracy can deploy propaganda or use fear to motivate the behaviors it desires, but a democracy depends on widely internalized acceptance of the legitimacy of rules, norms and institutions."
"The digital revolution has shattered that mirror [reflecting society] and now the public inhabits those broken pieces of glass. So the public isn't one thing; it's highly fragmented and basically mutually hostile. It's mostly people yelling at each other and living in bubbles of one sort or another."
The toboggan ride to the right…
And it’s not a fun one either. It’s more Ethan Frome-ish.
The invidious and baleful bullshit theories spewed out from the right ensures that the entire nation is dragged, by a small but growing and extremely vocal minority, into the fetid swamp of hatred, lies, and unmediated hysteria which they call home.
This, of course, is aided immensely by a cowering press which twists itself into euphemistic pretzels that make the Celtic knots decorating the Book of Kells look like straight lines. Thus, as Marie points out, Trump’s perfidious attempt to gut environmental laws to aid his wealthy developer pals is described as nothing more threatening than red tape cutting. By that logic, clear cutting forests could be described as a little trimming around the edges to improve the view.
But on the right, there is no simple disagreement over political and social issues, there’s their side and then there’s Satan. Nothing in between. And if you’re not with them, you deserve whatever scurrilous attacks their lizard brains can concoct.
So this morning, I’m listening to a report on NPR about a bill in Georgia designed to ensure that insurance companies provide coverage for mental health issues the same way they do for physical health problems. Pretty non controversial, right?
Wrong, oh Qanon breath! Anything can and will be twisted into cannon fodder for extreme right wing benefit (and that’s pretty much all of them, these days).
At a recent rally for the Fat Fascist, a fringey candidate for state insurance commissioner, one Patrick Witt, screamed that Democrats will be handing all health decisions over to the World Health Organization and will be decriminalizing pedophilia! Yeah! Get ‘em! Hang em’!!
All lies, of course. But it whips up the yokels and further diminishes the possibility of reasonable public discourse, which is part of their goal. This asshole, by the way, is no hay chewing Georgia farm boy. He went to Yale and Harvard Law. But he’s endorsed by Trump. While at Yale, he was accused of sexual assault, a huge plus for Trump, no doubt. He also served on Trump’s Army of Treason, trying to steal the election.
But here’s the thing (one of the many). The report goes on to admit that because of lying douchebags like this Witt person, parts of this mental health bill had to be changed to try to keep the droolers quiet. It never works. Appeasement only emboldens these liars and crooks, and we all get pulled, whether we want to or not, into the muck with the dim, the demented, and the unscrupulous opportunistic schemers.
Good ideas get cut into pieces to appease the morons.
Look at Texas. Screams about CRT have caused frightened school textbook companies to remove anything the haters don’t like. And because it’s such a huge market, and because these companies aren’t going to publish two or three different versions, some factual, the others, well, not, everyone gets the texts okayed by the screamers.
This is not going to end any time soon. The traitors have learned that the press will never hold them accountable, and that their efforts at vote suppression and gerrymandering will soon give them almost complete control.
So, about that toboggan ride… is that a tree up ahead? Hmmm.. looks like a big one.
Edsall wanders around in his typical wordy way attempting to identify the current face of American conservatism.
HTTPS://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2022/04/20/OPINION/TRUMP-TRUMPISM-REPUBLICAN-PARTY.HTML
I tried to help him out.
Call it what you will--MAGA, Trump, Republican--the current Conservative Party exists only because it has fallen all over itself for decades to offer a warm welcome to all our worst impulses.
Greed. Selfishness. Ignorance. Intolerance. Nastiness. Racism. Misogyny. Authoritarianism. Corruption in plain sight. All are OK, even counted as virtues in conservative circles.
Because American Conservatives have long since shed all intellectual and moral standards, they are now immune to intellectual or moral criticism. Vaccine resistance is stupid? What's stupid? Who are you to say? It's the way I feel.
And the whole business of freedom for me but not for you? It's my speech, my guns, not yours. What contradiction? What hypocrisy? It is all about Me, untrammeled, unembarrassed and unashamed.
(Guess you could call that the essence of Trumpism.)
When the nation has Republican Senators allied with the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, the nation has a deep problem--far deeper than the Deep State...which to the degree that it does exist does so to govern all those worst impulses Conservatism has embraced.
And one thing today's conservatives can't stand-- any more than can spoiled little children-- is being told what to do or how to behave.
Mallory McMorrow–––her speech–––shakes the timbers and should bring down the house!
...what AK said. I was listening to NPR while walking and the GA guy was demented. I also heard PD's Atlantic guy briefly this morning on Morning Schmoe, and it was so negative I couldn't stay focused-- None of us are dreaming that things are horrible and waking to find out it ain't so: it IS so. I also heard the Michigan legislator last night, and I felt like there ARE areas of hope, in the young people who still have brains that aren't soft or malignant, but my god, I don't see myself as having enough hope to NOT move to a blue state as soon as November brings an R governor with no veto pen. Our lege has lost its mind, they are doing all the things the MI and AZ and WI and GA purple states are doing, and the Dems in general seem powerless to stop any of it. A friend is visiting Canada in a couple of weeks-- she says they will research moving there, but it's hard to do that-- but then says she is sure they will retire and go to NJ or Philly or NY, eventually. They are way younger than we are, but they are just as discouraged.
The DeSantis/Disney debacle shows that it isn't just Trump that has no loyalty and is all about what have you done for me this very minute. That is now the entire Republican Party's guiding force. Decades of Disney shovelling tons of money into the hands of Republican politicians means nothing because Disney briefly disagreed with one of their hateful bills. One would think that an intelligent corporate America would rally around Disney an threaten to cut off the cash flow to Republicans unless they behave. That won't happen because the CEOs aren't really that smart and they will all think that they are special so it will never happen to them. They think that they can finance the evil in the Republican Party without any negative consequences, but now they're about to find out how much power they helped the Republicans accumulate.
If Dana Milbank's article wasn't tongue and cheek when referring to a banned Florida Precalc. book “At a time when Floridians by law 'don’t say gay,' much less 'trans,' this banned book brazenly teaches about the 'Transitive Property of Equality'” Florida will have a truly dumbed down population. They will not be able to take AP science or math exams. Can you imagine teaching AP Biology without scientific method much less evolution? In fact you can't teach a valid Bio class without evolution, the anathema
of the Bible Belt. Remember dinosaurs walked with man, just like the crazy children's book I plan on completing. Forget History or Shakespeare.....