;)
April 7, 2023
Afternoon Update:
Jasmine Wright of CNN: &"Vice President Kamala Harris will travel to Nashville on Friday to advocate for gun control and meet with the a pair of state lawmakers who were expelled from the General Assembly after they protested in favor of gun control on the state House floor. Harris is set to meet with advocates and lawmakers including two former Tennessee Democratic Reps. Justin Jones and Rep. Justin Pearson, both Black men, who were expelled for protesting for gun control. Harris' trip is meant to convey the administration's seriousness about gun reform and democracy at large, and Harris will renew the Biden administration's call for a ban on assault-style weapons while there, a White House official said." ~~~
~~~ Dean Obeidallah in a Substack post: "... the Tennessee GOP succeeded where Trump and his followers failed. They successfully overturned an election in order preserve white supremacy. We can expect going forward from the GOP a combination of legal and violent efforts to preserve white right supremacy. This is both our nation's history and -- tragically -- its future."
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "Justice Clarence Thomas said on Friday that he had followed the advice of 'colleagues and others in the judiciary' when he did not disclose lavish gifts and travel from a wealthy conservative donor. In a statement released by the Supreme Court, the justice said that he had followed guidance from others at the court and that he believed he was not required to report the trips. 'Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable,' Justice Thomas said. 'I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure, and have always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines.'... The vacations are at odds with the justice's public portrayal of himself as a man of the people. 'I prefer the R.V. parks. I prefer the Walmart parking lots to the beaches and things like that. There's something normal to me about it,' Justice Thomas said in a documentary about his life. 'I come from regular stock, and I prefer that -- I prefer being around that.'" The Huffington Post report is here.
~~~ Shorter Clarence: If Nino & Ruth hadn't told me to hide my free half-a-million-dollar vacation, I'd have reported it. Especially since I would have preferred to be hanging out with Ginni and the poors in a camper parked at the Walmart. MB: Totally credible. ~~~
~~~ OR, as Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post put it, "Please keep in mind, my fellow Americans, that each moment I spent on the yacht was torment! That is why I did not disclose it. It was not my idea of a vacation. Every second I spent on those magnificent islands, in those bucolic retreats, eating meals cooked by private chefs, I was seething internally, wishing I were in a Walmart parking lot."
Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has told aides to hire Laura Loomer, a far-right and anti-Muslim activist with a history of expressing bigoted views, for a campaign role, according to four people familiar with the plans. Mr. Trump met with Ms. Loomer recently.... On Tuesday, after Mr. Trump's arraignment in Manhattan, Ms. Loomer attended the former president's speech at Mar-a-Lago.... Ms. Loomer has not yet been hired, the people familiar with the discussions said.... She once described Islam as a 'cancer' and tweeted under the hashtag '#proudislamophobe,' and she has celebrated the deaths of migrants crossing the Mediterranean." MB: Hey, there are good people on both sides.
North Dakota. Conover Kennard of Crooks & Liars: "In a stunning act of hypocrisy, the North Dakota Senate approved legislation to increase the amount of money that lawmakers and other state employees receive in meal reimbursements just after they voted against hungry kids getting free lunch at school. Late last month, North Dakota State Sen. Mike Wobbema said that hungry children are not their problem. 'I can understand kids going hungry, but is that really the problem of the school district?' he asked. 'Is that the problem of the state of North Dakota? It's really the problem of parents being negligent with their kids if their kids are choosing to eat in the first place.'" MB: Yeah, Mike, I can understand lawmakers get hungry, but is that really the problem of North Dakota taxpayers? Maybe ask your spouse to slip a baloney sandwich into a brown bag and STFU.
Mexico. Maria Abi-Habib & Galia Palafox of the New York Times: Gustavo Ángel Suárez Castillo, an American citizen, was traveling with friends in his pickup truck with Texas plates when "four vehicles filled with armed men began chasing and firing at them. The pickup truck crashed and as the passengers tumbled out, the armed men threw some to the ground, shooting one in the back, survivors told The New York Times. One recounted how he watched his brother slowly stop breathing while the assailants blocked medics from arriving. When it ended, five of the men, including Mr. Suárez, were dead and the other two severely injured. The attackers? Uniformed Mexican soldiers.... The episode ... underscores what human rights advocates and analysts say is a dangerous flaw in Mexico's governing system: one of the country's most powerful institutions operates with little oversight."
~~~~~~~~~~
Tennessee Trilogy: From the State that Brought Us the Ku Klux Klan & the Scopes Monkey Trial, Here's Part III:
Emily Cochrane & Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: "The Tennessee House voted on Thursday to expel two Democrats one week after they interrupted debate by leading protesters in a call for stricter gun laws in the wake of a shooting that left six dead at a Christian school.The extraordinary punitive action against the Democrats -- Representatives Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson -- for an act of protest marks just the third time since the Civil War era that the Tennessee House has expelled a lawmaker from its ranks and threatens to further inflame the partisan rancor within a bitterly divided state. An effort to expel a third Democrat, Representative Gloria Johnson, who had stood by the two men in the front of the chamber and joined in the chants during the protest, fell short by one vote. The expulsions of two of the state's youngest Black representatives, carried out before lawmakers were scheduled to leave for the Easter weekend, were a stunning culmination to a week that saw the conclusion of the funerals for the six killed in the shooting, hundreds of students and teachers walk out of school to protest at the General Assembly and a vitriolic debate about democracy in the state."
As it Happened: ~~~
We called for you all to ban assault weapons, and you respond with an assault on democracy. -- Tennessee Rep. Justin Jones, shortly before Republicans expelled him from the state House ~~~
~~~ ** Dakin Andone, et al., of CNN: "The Tennessee House of Representatives has voted to expel Justin Jones a week after he joined two other Democrats in a protest on the House floor as demonstrators at the Capitol called for gun reform following a mass shooting at a Nashville school. The vote was 72-25. Expulsion from the Tennessee House requires a two-thirds majority. Two other lawmakers, Justin Pearson and Gloria Johnson, also face possible votes on their removal from office Thursday." ~~~
~~~ Update: "A vote to expel Democratic Rep. Gloria Johnson from Tennessee's Republican-controlled House of Representatives has failed, a week after she and two other Democrats led a gun reform protest on the House floor.... The vote over rules violations for Johnson was 65-30.... Johnson, who is White, was asked why there was a difference in the outcome for her and Jones, who is Black-Filipino. 'I will answer your question. It might have to do with the color of our skin,' she said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ AP Update. "In an extraordinary act of political retaliation, Tennessee Republicans on Thursday expelled two Democratic lawmakers from the state Legislature for their role in a protest that called for more gun control in the aftermath of a deadly school shooting in Nashville. The banishment of Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson was a move the chamber has used only a handful times since the Civil War. Most state legislatures possess the power to expel members, but it is generally reserved as a punishment for lawmakers accused of serious misconduct, not used as a weapon against political opponents. The GOP supermajority in the House declined by a single vote to expel a third Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson.... Thousands of people flocked to the Capitol on Thursday to support the Democrats, cheering and chanting outside the House chamber so loudly that the noise drowned out the proceedings." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ As Nicolle Wallace of MSMBC said moments after the first vote, "This is what the slide to autocracy looks like." Marie: I'd like to think those pink porcine GOP bullies will pay at the polls for unilaterally expelling a young Black representative whose "crime" was protesting for the rights of children to be safe from terrorists with assault weapons. Oh, and thanks, you fat fucks, for making a star of Justin Jones, someone I never would have heard of if you-all hadn't merrily skipped down the fascist brick road.
Marie: Tennesseans have forever lost the right to complain about "East Coast liberals" mocking them as hillbillies and rubes. Tennessee lives in disgrace. As for the Republican party, we should stop thinking of it as a political party. Rather, it is the most powerful insurgency in the country, a vast, well-organized hate group bent on reversing the hard-won freedoms of the last 150 years of slow -- but until-now certain -- progress in that proverbial arc of justice. Republicans plan to and are engaged in taking over the country not through political means but through corrupt methods and direct force.
President Joe Biden, in a statement: "... On Monday, 7,000 Tennesseans, many of them students, marched to their state capitol to call on their lawmakers to take action and keep them safe. Instead, state Republican lawmakers called votes today to expel three Democratic legislators who stood in solidarity with students and families and helped lift their voices. Today's expulsion of lawmakers who engaged in peaceful protest is shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent...."
Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "A wave of [Congressional] Democrats has now rallied behind the [Democratic Tennessee] lawmakers, as many have denounced the move as 'racist' and 'fascist,' as well as undemocratic.... Nashville Mayor John Cooper said that Nashville and Memphis were 'disenfranchised' after [Justin] Pearson and [Justin] Jones were expelled Thursday. He said in a tweet that the Nashville city council will meet Monday to fill the vacancy, saying he believes that they will vote to send Jones, who represents Nashville, right back to the House."
Joyce Vance, posted on Substack: "Several months after his election [to the Georgia legislature] in June 1965, a civil rights organization that [Julian] Bond belonged to issued an anti-war statement about Vietnam, which he subsequently endorsed in statements to the press. White members of the Georgia House challenged Bond's right to be seated.... [Bond] filed a lawsuit, and a three-judge panel in the federal district court in Georgia ruled against him 2-1. Bond filed an appeal ... to the United States Supreme Court. While the appeal was pending, he was re-elected to the Georgia House in a special election, and, again, the House refused to seat him. He was elected again in the regular election in 1966, and the Supreme Court decided his case shortly afterwards. The unanimous Supreme Court decision in Bond's favor ... [held] that although a state may impose a requirement that legislators take an oath of allegiance, it cannot limit their capacity to express views on local or national policy. '[D]ebate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open,' the Court wrote.... Members of the Tennessee legislature do not lose their First Amendment rights by virtue of their election, and especially not when they are seeking to represent the constituents who elected them. A challenge to those members' First Amendment rights cannot be dressed up as a violation of decorum rules.... And when two Black representatives are expelled while a white one narrowly avoids expulsion, no amount of dissembling can erase the obvious conclusion."
Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "The Biden administration proposed a rule change on Thursday that would allow schools to block some transgender athletes from competing on sports teams that match their gender identities. But the proposal would also prevent schools from enacting across-the-board bans. Under the Department of Education proposal, 'categorically' barring transgender athletes in that way would be a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding. But it would give universities and K-12 schools the discretion to limit the participation of transgender students, if they conclude that including transgender athletes could undermine competitive fairness or potentially lead to sports-related injuries, a key part of the debate about transgender athletes in women's sports." CNN's report is here.
The Buck Stops Elsewhere. Zeke Miller & Nomaan Merchant of the AP: "President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday laid the blame on his predecessor..., Donald Trump, for the deadly and chaotic 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan that brought about some of the darkest moments of Biden's presidency. The White House publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the so-called 'hotwash' of U.S. policies around the ending of the nation's longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions and asserting that Biden was 'severely constrained' by Trump's decisions. It does acknowledge that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but blames the delays on the Afghan government and military, and on U.S. military and intelligence community assessments. The brief document was drafted by the National Security Council, rather than by an independent entity, with input from Biden himself."
Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "A nearly two-year investigation into allegations of misconduct by the Department of Homeland Security's chief watchdog expanded this week to include his role in missing Secret Service text messages from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. On Monday, investigators demanded records related to the deleted texts from the Office of Inspector General Joseph V. Cuffari, an appointee of ... Donald Trump whose office shut down an inquiry into the Secret Service messages last year amid the House's probe of the insurrection. The records request, which was revealed in a federal lawsuit this week filed by Cuffari and his staff against the panel of inspectors leading the probe, suggests new urgency in a high-profile investigation that began in May 2021 and has since evolved into a wide-ranging inquiry into dozens of allegations of misconduct, including partisan decision-making, investigative failures and retaliation against whistleblowers.
"The probe has paralyzed the inspector general's office, alienated Cuffari from the watchdog community and led to calls for President Biden to fire him. The president has signaled that he intends to stay out of the process until the panel from the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency (CIGIE) completes its work."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "House Republicans issued a subpoena on Thursday to a former Manhattan prosecutor who investigated ... Donald J. Trump, moving quickly after Mr. Trump's arraignment this week to dissect the active criminal case against him and scrutinize the office pursuing it. Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio and the Judiciary Committee chairman, sent the order to compel a deposition from Mark F. Pomerantz, a former New York County special assistant district attorney, on April 20. The move was an escalation of the G.O.P.'s bid to use its power in Congress to try to protect Mr. Trump.... Mr. Pomerantz had led the investigation into Mr. Trump's finances before resigning in protest in February after Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, appeared reluctant to move forward with a case against Mr. Trump.... Republicans argue that Mr. Pomerantz's public criticism of Mr. Bragg and the fact that he wrote a memoir that disclosed details and deliberations about the investigation strengthen their case for why he should testify. Mr. Pomerantz ... previously told the Judiciary Committee he would not be providing documents or testimony to the panel, citing instructions from the district attorney's office."
Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has teased to television audiences over the past month that four different people have appeared before committee investigators to provide information regarding his inquiry into whether President Biden and members of his family were involved in an influence-peddling scheme.... After [committee Democrats inquired of] Comer's staff about the reported new witnesses, they were assured that Comer's statements 'in fact referred only to two individuals' and 'no new witness information ... had actually been provided,' according to a letter sent by the committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (Md.), to Comer on Thursday.... House rules require that committee records are to be made available to every member of the committee -- majority and minority." Comer claims the (two) witnesses are whistleblowers and therefore merit secret interviews; Raskin wrote they 'are not whistleblowers.... Your repeated statements about "four people" suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee's investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats."
David Corn of Mother Jones: "Though vengeful wrath has always been standard operating procedure for Trump, he has raised the danger level of such conduct by pulling other Republicans and conservatives into his crusade of revenge.... In the immediate aftermath of the arraignment, Trump ... gave a green light to the right to mount an extreme counter-attack.... In recent days, his defenders have issued calls for reprisals, urging an all-out political war that weaponizes law enforcement agencies.... Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, disclosed that on the day of Trump's arraignment he took calls from Republican county attorneys in Kentucky and Tennessee who eagerly asked 'if there are ways they can go after the Bidens.' Comer did not disavow their brazen proposals to abuse their powers for political purposes.... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the QAnonish pal of white nationalists, issued a tweet that vowed retribution: 'Our side chants "lock her up" and their side is going to get a mug shot based on a witch hunt. It's time to change that. Gloves are off.'... Multiple conservatives called for Bragg's arrest."
There was a crooked justice who walked a crooked mile,
He took a crooked fortune, then cracked a crooked smile;
He met a crooked gal and took her for his spouse,
And the two lived together in a fancy crooked house.
The highest court in the land shouldn't have the lowest ethical standards. -- Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) ~~~
~~~ Zach Montague of the New York Times: "Democratic lawmakers reiterated calls on Thursday to tighten ethics rules for the Supreme Court after a report revealed that Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted luxury gifts from a major conservative donor without disclosing them.... The disclosure early Thursday renewed scrutiny of Justice Thomas, who has long faced questions over conflicts of interest in part because of the political activities of his wife, Virginia Thomas. No formal code of conduct on the Supreme Court specifically bars the justice from taking the trips mentioned in ProPublica's reporting. But under the Ethics in Government Act of 1978, justices, like federal judges, must file a financial disclosure each year that lists gifts of more than $415 in avoidance of even an 'appearance of impropriety.' The cost of one of the trips with Mr. Crow may have exceeded $500,000, according to ProPublica.... Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York, called for [Thomas's] impeachment. 'This is beyond party or partisanship,' she added on Twitter. 'This degree of corruption is shocking - almost cartoonish.'" A Guardian story is here. ProPublica's follow-up story on its blockbuster report on Thomas is here.
L.A. Times 2004 Report Caused Thomas to Hide His Bounty. David Savage of the Los Angeles Times: "It was 2004 when the Los Angeles Times disclosed that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas had accepted expensive gifts and private plane trips paid for by Harlan Crow, a wealthy Texas real estate investor and a prominent Republican donor.... Thomas refused to comment on the article, but it had an impact: Thomas appears to have continued accepting free trips from his wealthy friend. But he stopped disclosing them.... In his recent annual disclosure statements, Thomas has checked a box indicating he had no gifts to report." Firewalled. The Washington Post's story (also firewalled, of course) is here.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that a transgender girl may compete on the girls' cross country and track teams at her middle school in West Virginia while her appeal moved forward, signaling that a majority of the justices are not ready to enter another battleground in the culture wars. The Supreme Court's brief order, which let stand an appeals court's temporary injunction, gave no reasons, which is not unusual when the justices rule on emergency applications filed on what critics call the court's shadow docket. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, issued a dissenting opinion indicating that states are entitled to enact laws 'restricting participation in women's or girls' sports based on genes or physiological or anatomical characteristics.'" An AP report is here.
Bobby Allyn of NPR: "Twitter CEO Elon Musk said the platform's recent labeling of NPR as 'state-affiliated media' might not have been accurate during a series of email exchanges.... Regardless, as of late Thursday, the designation remained.... It was a turnaround from a tweet he sent hours earlier that the state-affiliated label for NPR 'seems accurate.'... In one email exchange, Musk appeared to be unclear about the difference between public media and state-controlled media when he decided to affix a state-affiliated media label on NPR's account.... Musk's comments to NPR over the past two days only further clouded what was already a confusing situation.... Despite professing an interest in fairness, Musk appears to have run afoul of Twitter's own guidelines in giving NPR a label that can harm its credibility.... Besides potentially besmirching the reputation of NPR, the label influences the reach of the network's tweets. Under Twitter's rules, and according to the former executive, accounts that have been given the state-affiliated mark are not recommended or amplified on the platform...."
Presidential Race 2024. Biden Is All President-y While Trump Is Fingerprinted. Michael Scherer & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden's daily intelligence briefing Tuesday coincided with protests outside a Manhattan courthouse over his predecessor. By the time Donald Trump appeared before a judge to face 34 felony counts, Biden was meeting with top science and technology advisers to talk about artificial intelligence in the State Dining Room.... The likely Democratic candidate for president in 2024 was doing his day job, while the leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination was getting fingerprinted. The split screen has been implied, without explicit acknowledgment, in nearly everything that Biden does these days. 'How great is it to come to a political rally where we talk about solutions and the future,' Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) said at an event with Biden on Monday in Fridley, Minn.... Democratic election strategists, while muted in their public responses, have been privately overjoyed with the contrast."
Beyond the Beltway
Michael Wines of the New York Times: "For more than a decade, states around the country have steadily chipped away at one of the biggest roadblocks to voting in the United States -- laws on the books that bar former felons from casting a ballot. But there are now signs that trend could be reversing. Last month, Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, a Republican..., revealed that he had rescinded a policy of automatically restoring voting rights to residents who have completed felony sentences. In a February hearing, North Carolina's Supreme Court, which has a 5-2 Republican majority, appeared deeply skeptical that a lower court had constitutional authority when it restored voting rights last year to people who had completed their sentences. A ruling is expected soon.And then there's Florida -- whose Republican-dominated Legislature effectively nullified a citizen ballot initiative granting voting rights to a huge number of former felons in 2020."
Florida. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday promised a new round of action against Disney in his ongoing dispute with the entertainment giant, including looking at the taxes on Disney's hotels and imposing tolls on roads that serve its theme parks. The DeSantis administration is also examining if a recent agreement approved between a Central Florida board that had been controlled by Disney and the company runs afoul of the state's growth laws, according to senior administration officials. One of those laws explicitly states that development agreements must be modified or revoked to comply with laws even if the law is passed after the agreement was executed.... Disney 'tried to pull a fast one on the way out the door,' DeSantis said ... [Thursday in] Michigan. 'That story's not over yet. Buckle up. There's more coming down the pike.'..."
Michigan. Another Republican Crook. Mona Zhang of Politico: "Rick Johnson, a former Republican Michigan House speaker turned cannabis regulator, received more than $110,000 in bribes in exchange for supporting companies seeking medical marijuana licenses, alleges a federal charging document filed in federal district court Thursday. Johnson was charged alongside three defendants: John Dalaly, a business owner charged with paying bribes; and Brian Pierce and Vincent Brown, lobbyists charged with conspiracy to commit bribery. All four defendants signed plea deals admitting guilt to the charges.... Johnson served as a state representative from 1999 to 2004, including three years as House speaker. After leaving office, he ran a lobbying firm in Lansing, before serving as the chair of the Michigan marijuana licensing board from 2017 to 2019, according to court documents. Johnson was 'at the heart of this corrupt scheme,' [U.S. Attorney Mark] Totten said, outlining cash payments and other perks like private chartered flights through Dalaly's companies."
New York. Karen Zraick of the New York Times: "Nearly seven years to the day that four men were lured to a bar in Chester, N.Y., and killed 'gangland style,' a retired police officer turned drug dealer was found guilty in their murders. Nicholas Tartaglione, the former officer, was convicted on all counts in federal court in White Plains, N.Y., and faces life in prison.... After his arrest, Mr. Tartaglione shared a cell for a time with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier jailed on sex trafficking charges. Mr. Tartaglione alerted guards to a suicide attempt by Mr. Epstein in 2019, his lawyer said at the time." The article describes the crimes, which read like something out of a gruesome TV show or film.
North Dakota. Kimberly Kindy of the Washington Post: "North Dakotans are awaiting word on whether Gov. Doug Burgum (R) will sign or veto a hefty package of bills that would restrict transgender rights, which was passed by the state Senate on Tuesday. The eight pieces of legislation would have wide-ranging effects on transgender minors and adults -- from school sports to health care to workplace rights. If Burgum signs the bills, medical professionals would be prohibited from providing gender-affirming care to minors, transgender girls and women wouldn't be allowed to join girls' sports teams from kindergarten through high school and college, and another would create a new rule for gender markers on birth certificates."
Way Beyond
France. John Leicester & Oleg Cetinic of the AP: "Protesters disrupted vehicle traffic at Paris' main airport and police fired clouds of tear gas in other French cities as people marched in a new round of strikes and nationwide demonstrations Thursday seeking to get President Emmanuel Macron to scrap pension reforms that have ignited a monthslong firestorm of public anger. Talks between trade union leaders and Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne broke up Wednesday without a breakthrough, setting the stage for protesters' return to the streets. However, the number of strikers has fallen, particularly in the transport sector, since the beginning of the movement in January. On Thursday, the Paris Metro was operating a near-normal service, in stark contrast to previous days of action, a sign that some in the movement are beginning to slow. Less than 8% of teachers are on strike, according to the Education Ministry." (Also linked yesterday.)
Israel. New York Times: "Israeli fighter jets struck parts of south Lebanon and the Gaza Strip early Friday, in response to an unusually heavy rocket barrage from Lebanon on Thursday that the Israeli military blamed on Gaza-based Palestinian militias with branches on Lebanese territory. The violence was considered the most serious along the Israel-Lebanon border since 2006, when Israel fought a war against Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militia, and raised the risk of a wider multi-front conflagration between Israel, Palestinian militias and their allies." This is part of a liveblog. A Guardian report is here.
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "U.S. efforts to gain consular access to Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal reporter detained by Russian authorities last week, remain unsuccessful, the White House said.... Russian prosecutors requested a 25-year prison sentence for Vladimir Kara-Murza, a Russian opposition politician, author and Washington Post opinions contributor, one of his attorneys told local news outlets Thursday. Kara-Murza has been imprisoned in Moscow since April 2022 on charges of treason and spreading 'false' news about Russia's military by speaking out against the war on Ukraine....
"In Beijing, French President Emmanuel Macron said the world was looking to Chinese leader Xi Jinping to 'bring Russia back to reason' and to the negotiating table with Ukraine. Macron's comments are a contrast to U.S. political rhetoric and a win for Xi, met with the two leaders in Beijing, called on China 'not to provide any military equipment, directly or indirectly, to Russia.'... Putin hosted Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a staunch Russian ally, in Moscow on Thursday, according to Russian state-owned news agency according to Reuters." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Classified war documents detailing secret American and NATO plans for building up the Ukrainian military ahead of a planned offensive against Russia were posted this week on social media channels, senior Biden administration officials said. The Pentagon is investigating who may have been behind the leak of the documents, which appeared on Twitter and on Telegram, a platform with more than half a billion users that is widely available in Russia. Military analysts said the documents appear to have been modified in certain parts from their original format, overstating American estimates of Ukrainian war dead and understating estimates of Russian troops killed.... Early on during the war, Ukrainian officials were hesitant about sharing their battle plans with the United States, for fear of leaks, American and European officials said.... An intelligence leak of this sort, posted on social media and available around the world, is bound to harm intelligence sharing between Ukraine and the United States."
News Lede
CNBC: "Nonfarm payrolls rose about in line with expectations in March as the labor market showed increased signs of slowing. The Labor Department reported Friday that payrolls grew by 236,000 for the month, compared to the Dow Jones estimate for 238,000. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 3.5%, against expectations that it would hold at 3.6%."
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INHERIT THE WIND:
Yesterday's coverage of the Tennessee travail smacked loudly of racist windbags, otherwise known as Republicans, so plainly explicit that it took your breath away. But what it also did was present to the nation two talented, young black men whose eloquent discourse will go down in history along with the vast number of protesters who screamed for change in the gun laws. To think Tennessee was marked forever by the so called "Monkey trial" –-science versus religious dogma-- before that-the Klan and now this and as someone said last night "it once again shows how a vast number in this state hate blacks–-plain and simple."
The story about Thomas is laughable. He once answered a question about what his favorite kind of vacation looked like. "Well, I'm a simple person–-I come from a simple background" he began and then rattled off how much he liked a quiet country side and even enjoyed a Walmart's parking lot . Oh, Clarence, me thinks you is full of bull pocky as Rachel would say cuz she won't say "shit."
You don’t say…
Tinpot Florida dictator, Ronito DeSantolini, who is currently flailing around trying to salvage his fascist manliness after being handily throttled by Mickey, Donald, Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Goofy, has taken his authoritarian hate show on the road to see if he can resurrect his campaign to be Trump 2.0. To accomplish this feat, he has decided to visit Michigan, home of “that woman”, as Fatty calls Governor Whitmer, in order to see if he can “own the libs” in that state.
Some traitor flunkie state rep introduced Ronito, calling Michigan the “anti-Florida”. Ooohh very clever. Don’t know about you guys, but I certainly feel “owned” now.
But seriously. The anti-Florida? Isn’t that like calling breathing the anti-strangulation condition?
How about a lovely home with a cute garden, the anti-oubliette?
But nice try, anyway.
Douchebag.
Five Tennessee Republicans flipped from expelling Jones to saving Johnson. Does that mean their racist tendencies were stronger than their fascist ones at this moment?
Clarence Thomas has had such legal luminaries as John Eastman, John Yoo and Laura Ingraham clerk for him so I can buy that he is not getting the best legal advise. But as a Supreme Court Justice he is still not above the law, and access to real lawyers. Also the LA Times article clearly implies that it was the public airing of his corruption that lead him to stop reporting it.
GOP file: 21st Century.
So far, not even a quarter of the way into this century, the Party of Traitors, their leaders and their partisan hacks on the Supreme Court, have stopped the vote count in a presidential election and installed their own choice, a frighteningly inexperienced halfwit who spent his childhood torturing small animals, an election, it turned out, he would have lost without the intervention of the Court, lied to start a war that is still going on, a war that revved up terror recruitment across the globe, that destroyed millions of lives and cost trillions of dollars, they crashed the world economy, stole a Supreme Court seat, supported the candidacy of a racist, lying pussy grabber who completed their Supreme Court takeover, attempted a violent overthrow of the government, told women that they have no right to control their own lives, are currently expelling duly elected state representatives (black, natch) who refuse to bow to their violent, authoritarian, white supremacist demands, and are now devising ways for state attorneys general to vacate the results of fair elections if their candidates don’t win.
I’m leaving out a Domesday Book of interstitial vivisections of the will of the people, law, morality, and decency. Florida might be where “woke” goes to die, but red states are where democracy and the rule of law go to be garroted, the bodies desecrated, and buried in unmarked graves within sight of monuments to their revered Confederate generals who fought to keep humans beaten and in chains.
This is the Republican Party. The Party of Traitors.
…inhuman traitors.
Kamala Harris should be careful on her trip to the Monkey Trial Madhouse, they might try to expel her. She’s four things they despise, smart, decent, black, and a woman. Oh yeah, and she’s not a fan of children being liquified by Republican approved assault weapons.
Judge Invalidates F.D.A. Approval of the Abortion Pill Mifepristone
nytimes.com
Missing from this article is the scientific rationale for the Texas judge's ruling. I imagine it was extensive and well-founded.
BTW, as I've mentioned before, Bob Ferguson is my hero.