;)
December 10, 2021
Speed-reader John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Friday cleared the way for abortion providers to pursue a federal lawsuit challenging a restrictive Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. The ruling did not deal directly with the ban's legality, and Texas's law remains intact for now. Rather, the justices determined that federal courts have the power to review their legal challenge against some of the named defendants. In a separate opinion, the justices dismissed a similar challenge brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Developing." ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Friday said that Texas abortion providers may sue to stop the state's ban on most abortions after six weeks, but left the law in place for now. The splintered decision allows the providers to return to a district judge who once blocked the law, saying it violated the constitutional right to abortion. That restarts the legal process that has seen the law remain in effect since Sept. 1, when the Supreme Court refused to step in to block it. Eight justices said the abortion providers may bring the challenge. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for himself and the court's three liberals, said the district judge should act quickly. 'Given the ongoing chilling effect of the state law, the District Court should resolve this litigation and enter appropriate relief without delay,' Roberts wrote." The New York Times report, by Adam Liptak, is here.
The Washington Post is live-updating the memorial service at the National Cathedral to former Sen. Bob Dole. There will be another service at the World War II memorial on the National Mall.
Barak Ravid in Axios: “Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu were the closest of political allies during the four years they overlapped in office, at least in public. Not anymore. "I haven't spoken to him since," Trump said of the former Israeli prime minister. 'F**k him.'... Trump repeatedly criticized Netanyahu during two interviews for my book.... The final straw for Trump was when Netanyahu congratulated President-elect Biden for his election victory while Trump was still disputing the result." MB: Trump is still "isputing the results."
~~~~~~~~~~
Aamer Madhani & Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Thursday opened the first White House Summit for Democracy by sounding an alarm about a global slide for democratic institutions and called for world leaders to 'lock arms' and demonstrate democracies can deliver. Biden called it a critical moment for fellow leaders to redouble their efforts to bolster democracies. In making the case for action, he noted his own battle to win passage of voting rights legislation at home and alluded to challenges to America's democratic institutions and traditions.... 'Here in the United States we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,' Biden said.... The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, said in its annual report that the number of countries experiencing democratic backsliding 'has never been as high' as the past decade, with the U.S. added to the list alongside India and Brazil." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Vice President Harris speaks at the Summit for Democracy & calls out anti-democratic efforts in the U.S.:
Paul Sonne & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "President Biden moved to solidify a unified position with Ukraine and U.S. allies on Europe's eastern flank in a set of phone calls Thursday, part of an urgent effort to prevent and prepare for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. In a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Biden emphasized American support for Kyiv, seeking to reassure a country that has seen Russian forces mass on its border in recent days. The White House is also trying to work out the shape of forthcoming talks with Russia on the Ukraine crisis and other security issues. Biden also held a separate call Thursday with the 'Bucharest Nine,' a group of NATO members on Europe's eastern edge close to Russia, including the Baltics and Poland, that are particularly sensitive to aggressive moves by Moscow."
The Biden Boom No One Has Noticed. Robert Shapiro in the Washington Monthly: "While many people are uncomfortable communicating bad news, Democrats have a problem these days talking about good news, especially on the economy. Based on the data, President Biden and the Democratic Congress are set to preside over the strongest two-year performance on growth, jobs, and income in decades -- so long as the current cycle of inflation eases, and the Omicron variant does not trigger another round of shutdowns. The future paths of inflation and the pandemic are large and important unknowns -- but if they break right, everything else points to a Biden boom through 2022. Over the first three quarters of this year, real GDP increased at a 7.8 percent annual rate -- that's adjusted for the current inflation. The Federal Reserve expects real growth of 5.9 percent for all of 2021, followed by another 3.8 percent increase in 2022. By any recent standard, these are extraordinary gains."
Clare Foran, et al., of CNN: "The Senate voted on Thursday to advance a bill to create a fast-track process allowing Democrats to raise the federal debt limit without votes from Republicans, a crucial next step as lawmakers race the clock to avert a catastrophic debt default. A first-ever default would trigger financial disaster and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has warned the debt limit could be reached on December 15, leaving little time left to act.... The first vote to take place in the Senate on Thursday was a cloture vote to break a GOP filibuster, which required 60 votes to succeed. The vote tally was 64 to 36 and 14 Senate Republicans crossed the aisle to vote with Democrats...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The breakthrough came after 14 Republicans joined every Democrat to effectively end their party's monthslong blockade of debt-limit legislation, allowing the bill to advance in the 50-50 Senate. The legislation later passed by a similar margin, 59 to 35, with 10 Republicans joining Democrats for final passage. President Biden is expected to quickly sign the bill into law.... [Senate GOP Leader Mitch] McConnell was among the 10 Republicans who voted both to advance and pass the legislation, amid recriminations from lawmakers and activists in his party who said it was a betrayal." Cochrane explains the convoluted route debt-ceiling legislation will continue along after Biden signs this bill.
** Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "As Democrats race to finish their marquee Build Back Better legislation, it's worth noting just how much their political ambitions have narrowed in this past year. Democratic lawmakers have nearly abandoned trying to solve many of the major social problems that their constituents want them to address. That's not entirely by choice. It's because of complicated Senate rules -- rules that befuddled, frustrated voters might ultimately punish Democrats for abiding by. The problem is this: We have a system of governance that nobody in their right mind would design." Emphasis added. Read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Rampell doesn't really mention it, but it's important to keep in mind that, for the most part, the way the Senate operates is not specified (or even implied) by the Constitution or by law. Nope, the Senate governs itself by rules that the Senate makes up and revises every few years. These are not rules that are cloaked in sacred tradition, as some would have it. In fact, the Senate changed the rules just this week for the sole purpose of letting Republican senators pretend they had nothing to do with increasing the debt limit. There is no reason the majority (and that would include you, Manchin, Sinema & Tester) can't change or flat-out ignore unhelpful Senate rules.
Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday passed a sweeping package of constraints on presidential power, which Democrats framed as a response to Donald J. Trump's norm-busting presidency and Republicans unanimously opposed for the same reason. By a nearly party-line vote of 220 to 208, the House approved the Protecting Our Democracy Act, which would impose new curbs on executive power. Proponents of tighter government ethics have long sought many of the measures, and Republican have supported them, but they have been recast as partisan issues because of their association with Mr. Trump.... The legislation would require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns.... The act would also strengthen the Constitution's previously obscure ban on presidents taking emoluments, or payments, by extending anticorruption prohibition to commercial transactions.... The bill would also require campaigns to report any offers of foreign assistance to the F.B.I.... Among many other things, the bill would make it harder for presidents to bestow pardons in briberylike contexts. It would create new protections against firing inspectors general without a good reason or retaliating against whistle-blowers. And it would constrain a president's ability to spend or secretly freeze funds contrary to congressional appropriations.... The package now moves to the Senate, where the 60-vote threshold for passing legislation means that Republicans can block it.... Supporters of the bill envision breaking it up and attaching different components to other legislation in the Senate in a bid to regain bipartisan backing...." CNN's report is here.
Amy Goldstein of the Washington Post: "The pharmaceutical industry relies on drug-pricing practices that are 'unsustainable, unjustified and unfair,' according to findings from a nearly three-year investigation by the House Oversight Committee. The findings, released Friday, show that companies studied by the committee raised prices of common brand-name drugs during the past five years by nearly four times the rate of inflation. The report seeks to debunk industry contentions that companies' price strategy is needed to plow money back into researching and developing new medicines, finding that revenue is substantially greater than those investments. The 269-page report is the work of the committee's Democratic majority." Committee Republicans wrote their own report, blaming price hikes on "pharmacy benefit managers, which act as go-betweens to manage drug benefits on behalf of private insurers, Medicare drug plans and other payers."
Reuters, republished by Yahoo! News: "A casket bearing the remains of former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, a three-time Republican presidential candidate and decorated World War Two veteran, was placed in the Capitol's Rotunda on Thursday as dignitaries gathered there for a memorial service.... President Joe Biden was on hand to deliver remarks. Dole's wife Elizabeth, also a former senator, stood at the top of the Capitol's East Front steps as a military honor guard carried his flag-draped casket up the steep incline to be placed in the building's storied Rotunda for the memorial service. Members of Congress and other invited guests paid their respects to Dole...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "The Elizabeth Dole Foundation has cut ties with Tim Unes, an event planner working on former Senator Bob Dole's funeral, after the Senate's top Republican complained that Mr. Unes had been subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 select committee for his work organizing the rally before that day's attacks.... Representatives of Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, raised the issue this week with a contact for the Dole family, who quickly agreed that Mr. Unes's role in the event would be limited and that he would not be attending the ceremony in the Capitol.... In a Sept. 29 letter to Mr. Unes, the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack wrote that paperwork filed for the rally permit listed him as the 'stage manager' for the event."
The Old "I Forgot" Excuse. Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "A staffer on Capitol Hill was arrested Thursday morning after he allegedly brought a handgun into a House office building, U.S. Capitol Police said. Officers in the Longworth House Office Building spotted the image of a gun in a bag on an X-ray screen. The bag's owner, identified as 57-year-old Jeffrey Allsbrooks, was tracked down four minutes later and arrested, U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement. He is being charged with carrying a pistol without a license. Allsbrooks, who works for the House Chief Administrative Office, told officers he forgot the gun was in his bag, according to U.S. Capitol Police. It is unclear why officers didn't stop Allsbrooks at the security checkpoint and only later tracked him down." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Drip, Drip. Jamie Gangel & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows provided the House select committee investigating the January 6 riot with text messages and emails that show he was 'exchanging with a wide range of individuals while the attack was underway,' according to a source.... The messages on Meadows' personal cell phone and email account, which were voluntarily handed over without any claim of executive privilege, relate to 'what Donald Trump was doing and not doing during the riot,' the source added. These communications offer a window into what people were texting to Meadows on January 6, what he was telling them about Trump in real time, and what the former President was doing for those hours while the Capitol was under attack and rioters were chanting 'Hang Mike Pence,' according to the source." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: You know other major media are working this story, so I don't think it will be long before we get a fuller account of the tunes Nero was fiddling while the Capitol was breached. ~~~
~~~ Nicholas Wu, et al., of Politico: "Mark Meadows and the National Archives are in talks over potential records he did 'not properly' turn over from his personal phone and email account, the presidential record-keeping agency confirmed Thursday.... Meadows, in recent legal filings, indicated he shared 6,800 pages of emails and more than 2,300 text messages with the Jan. 6 committee in an initial bid to cooperate. But members of the committee raised alarms about Meadows' claim that some of his private records were shielded by executive privilege. If that's the case, they said, those records should likely have been turned over to the National Archives as part of official government business.... In a series of recent statements, members of the select panel have suggested that Meadows may have violated the Presidential Records Act by failing to transfer official documents to the National Archives that he maintained on his personal cell phone and email accounts."
** Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Thursday rejected ... Donald Trump's bid to keep his White House documents secret from a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, potentially setting up an emergency review by the Supreme Court. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a lower court's opinion, which said that in a dispute between a current and past president over whether to release White House records, the sitting president must prevail. Judges Patricia A. Millett, Robert L. Wilkins and Ketanji Brown Jackson denied Trump's request for a preliminary injunction blocking the National Archives and Records Administration from releasing the first roughly 800 pages of disputed Trump papers after President Biden declined to assert executive privilege as requested by his predecessor, setting up the first of its kind constitutional controversy. The court stayed the opinion 14 days for Trump's legal team to appeal to the Supreme Court, as they requested at a Nov. 30 hearing in case of adverse ruling." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Politico's report is here. The opinion, via the court, is here (pdf). ~~~
~~~ Marie: The ruling also is bad news for Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows & Jeffrey Clark, because the Appeals Court rejects arguments both of them are making in their attempts to avoid testifying under subpoena. Maybe Meadows will flip-flop again & decide to appear before the committee. More bad news, BTW, for Trumpzilla linked under Beyond the Beltway/New York.
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol will fail us if it quietly goes about its important work. It needs to be louder. Much louder.... The committee ... is doing the right things. But most of its work is out of sight -- which, for most Americans, means out of mind.... But the insurrection was an unprecedented event in our life as a nation, and we must not allow it to be minimized.... The select committee has no power to prosecute. Its only job is to reveal -- and to do so in a way that makes the nation pay attention."
Send in the Goons. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) on Thursday talked with conservative broadcaster Steve Bannon about a plan to use '4,000 shock troops' to take over the jobs of federal government employees.... 'Understand, this is a theory of governing,' Bannon [said]. 'It's fresh and it's new. This is Trumpism in power. That's when we went to the 4,000 shock troops we have to have that's going to man the government. Get them ready now. Right? We're going to hit the beach with the landing teams and the beachhead teams and all that nomenclature they use when President Trump wins in 2024 -- or before.'... 'Yes,' Gaetz replied. 'And we're going to go after this administrative state and we're going to start at the Department of Justice and the FBI. That's the job I want. You know, send me over to the Judiciary Committee and their sphincters will tighten because they have been doing a lot of corrupt things over there.'"
Chantal Da Silva of NBC News: "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Friday came one step closer to facing charges he allegedly broke a United States spying law and conspired to hack into government computers after Washington won an appeal over his extradition in a British court. Assange's legal team promised to appeal. Assange, 50, is wanted in the U.S. to face trial on 18 charges, including breaking espionage laws after WikiLeaks published thousands of secret U.S. files in 2010." The New York Times report is here.
Will Englund of the Washington Post: "Look at any map of charging stations in the United States, and in most of the big cities, what is immediately apparent are big blank spaces coinciding with Black and Latino neighborhoods. Electric vehicle advocates call them charging deserts. While electric vehicle use is growing rapidly in well-to-do, mostly White communities, minority neighborhoods are being left behind.... In the coming age, the lack of charging stations and electric vehicles that depend on them threatens to worsen an already disproportionate exposure to air pollution in minority neighborhoods and relegate Black and Latino drivers to gasoline-powered cars, which, though cheaper to buy, are more expensive to fuel and maintain." ~~~
~~~ Marie: So corporate America has found another way to discriminate against racial minorities. I blame local governments, too. When they issue permits for new facilities, they could force corporations to add or maintain outlets in minority neighborhoods. For instance, back when I lived in Fort Myers, Florida, the city council permitted Publix supermarkets to open two new grocery stores in growing, upscale neighborhoods. During hearings, Publix "promised" to maintain the stores in areas of town that had become racially mixed, but the chain closed the minority-area stores as soon as they opened their new stores. The council could have put teeth in Publix's promises; it did not.
Jonathan Franklin of NPR: "Local officials in Washington, D.C., have passed a bill that will name a portion of the street outside the Saudi embassy after slain Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The 'Jamal Khashoggi Way Designation Act,' which passed unanimously on Tuesday, will serve as a reminder of the dangers faced by journalists across the world, noting that a free press is 'fundamental to our democracy,' said D.C. councilmember Brooke Pinto in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Friday are here.
Laurie McGinley of the Washington Post: "Federal regulators Thursday authorized booster shots of Pfizer-BioNTech's coronavirus vaccine for 16- and 17-year-olds, a step that could bolster protection against delta, the dominant variant in the United States, and the emerging omicron version. The Food and Drug Administration's decision came the day after new data from the companies suggested that boosters may play a critical role in helping control the omicron variant by raising virus-fighting antibodies to block the pathogen, which echoed a finding by leading scientists in South Africa released earlier this week. The FDA's authorization is expected to be reviewed and endorsed by Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, perhaps as soon as Thursday. The clearance means 16- and 17-year-olds who received the initial two-shot series of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be able to get a booster six months after the second dose. The Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are not authorized for anyone under 18." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michigan. Katharine Seelye of the New York Times: "William Hartmann, one of two Republican election officials from Michigan who initially refused to certify the results of the 2020 presidential election in Wayne County, where Joseph R. Biden Jr. had trounced Donald J. Trump, died on Nov. 30 at a hospital in Wyandotte, Mich., near Detroit. He was 63. About two weeks before his death, which was confirmed by the Michigan Republican Party, his sister, Elizabeth Hartmann, wrote on Facebook that Mr. Hartmann was 'in ICU with Covid pneumonia and currently on a ventilator.' He had been outspoken in his opposition to Covid vaccines."
Beyond the Beltway
Arkansas. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "Josh Duggar, a onetime star of the TLC reality show '19 Kids and Counting,' about a large family guided by conservative Christian values, was convicted on Thursday in federal court in Arkansas of downloading child sexual abuse imagery. A jury returned the verdict in the U.S. District Court in Fayetteville, Ark., one day after it began its deliberations in a case that drew widespread attention. Mr. Duggar, 33, was found guilty on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography, each of which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Illinois. David Li of NBC News: "A Chicago jury Thursday reached guilty verdicts on five of six charges against 'Empire' actor Jussie Smollett, who was accused of falsely reporting he was the victim of a disturbing, hate-fueled beating. The panel, deliberating since Wednesday afternoon, weighed six counts of felony disorderly conduct against Smollett for telling police he was brutally assaulted on Jan. 29, 2019, at 2:45 a.m. in the Windy City's Streeterville neighborhood. The offenses are class 4 felonies and could be punishable by up to three years behind bars. But Smollett has a clean criminal record, making any jail time highly unlikely." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The New York Times story is here.
Maryland. Democrats Can Gerrymander, Too. Meagan Flynn & Ovetta Wiggins of the Washington Post: "Gov. Larry Hogan on Thursday vetoed the proposed congressional map that the Maryland General Assembly sent to his desk less than 24 hours earlier, lambasting it as an unfair and partisan and calling on the Justice Department to add Maryland to a redistricting lawsuit filed this week over gerrymandered maps passed in Texas. But within hours, Democrats, who hold supermajorities in both chambers, convened to override Hogan's veto. Hogan (R) and anti-gerrymandering critics vowed to continue fighting the maps in court."
New York, New York. Katie Glueck & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, announced on Thursday that she was dropping out of the governor's race and running instead for re-election. Her decision upends the high-profile race for governor and further solidifies Gov. Kathy Hochul's standing as the early front-runner." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ New York, New York. Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking to question ... Donald J. Trump under oath in a civil fraud investigation, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, an unusual move that comes at a critical juncture in a parallel criminal investigation into the former president. Ms. James, whose office is also participating in the criminal investigation being run by the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., is seeking to question Mr. Trump on Jan. 7 as part of her separate civil inquiry into his business practices. If Ms. James finds evidence of wrongdoing, she could file a lawsuit against Mr. Trump, but she could not file criminal charges. But her request comes as Mr. Vance is pushing to determine whether Mr. Trump or his family business, the Trump Organization, engaged in a pattern of criminal fraud by intentionally submitting false property values to potential lenders. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, did not seek re-election and is leaving office at the end of the year." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here.
AND More New York. Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Employees at a Buffalo-area Starbucks store have voted to form a union, making it the only one of the nearly 9,000 company-owned stores in the United States to be organized and notching an important symbolic victory for labor at a time when workers across the country are expressing frustration with wages and working conditions. The result, announced on Thursday by the National Labor Relations Board, represents a major challenge to the labor model at the giant coffee retailer, which has argued that its workers enjoy some of the best wages and benefits in the retail and restaurant industry and don't need a union.... Starbucks responded to the union campaign with a sense of urgency. Throughout the fall, out-of-town managers and executives -- even [North American president Rossann] Williams -- converged on stores in Buffalo, where they questioned employees about operational challenges and assisted in menial tasks like cleaning bathrooms." Employees at two other Buffalo Starbucks also voted on whether or not to unionize; the results are not yet definitive. NPR's story is here.
AND More. Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "In the wake of growing outrage over the role the Sacklers may have played in the opioid crisis, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Sackler family jointly announced on Thursday that the Sackler name would be removed from seven exhibition spaces, including the wing that houses the Temple of Dendur." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Still More. Jeffery Mays & Annie Correal of the New York Times: "New York City became the largest city in the country to allow noncitizens to vote in local elections after the City Council on Thursday overwhelmingly approved legislation granting the right to more than 800,000 legal residents. The move places New York City at the forefront of the debate over voting rights, serving as a stark contrast to some states that have moved to add voting restrictions, including explicitly barring noncitizens from voting. The legislation was approved over the objections of Mayor Bill de Blasio, who questioned whether the City Council has the power to grant voting rights to noncitizens. Legal experts expect that the bill could face a legal challenge.... Mr. de Blasio has said he would not veto the bill. The bill automatically becomes law if it is not signed in 30 days." CNN's report is here.
Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "A state district court judge in Texas ruled on Thursday that the unique enforcement scheme of a restrictive abortion law violated the State Constitution by allowing any private citizen to sue abortion providers or others accused of breaking the law. In a 48-page opinion, Judge David Peeples found that the approach, which had been seen by anti-abortion groups as its greatest strength, unconstitutionally granted standing to those who were not injured, denied due process and represented an 'unlawful delegation of enforcement power to a private person.' While deemed an important victory for abortion rights groups, abortion providers said on Thursday that they would not immediately resume performing the procedure after about six weeks of pregnancy." ~~~
~~~ Reese Oxner & Eleanor Klibanoff of the Texas Tribune: "Although Thursday’s ruling is a win for abortion rights advocates, the order only has direct consequences for the 14 lawsuits in the case that the judge oversaw. The judge did not issue an injunction to block cases from being filed, though experts say it would likely be used as precedent in those cases."
~~~ Marie: How come this more-or-less local judge is so much smarter than the confederate Supremes, who were just flummoxed by the enforcement provisions of the Texas law?
Way Beyond
China. Is this Washington Post headline supposed to be a double entendre? "In need of a baby boom, China clamps down on vasectomies"?
Mexico. Oscar Lopez of the New York Times: "At least 53 people were killed and dozens injured in a horrific truck accident in southern Mexico on Thursday, the authorities said, with most of the victims believed to be migrants coming from Central America. The accident, which took place in southern Chiapas state, occurred when a truck carrying more than 100 people overturned on Thursday afternoon near Tuxtla Gutiérrez, the capital, the head of the state Civil Protection Service, Luis Manuel García Moreno, told Milenio TV. The accident is one of the deadliest involving migrants in decades.... Mr. García said that, based on witness testimony, the truck was traveling at excessive speed and then flipped over while rounding a sharp curve, with the trailer carrying the migrants then crashing into a pedestrian bridge and construction nearby.... Bordering Guatemala, the state of Chiapas has in recent years seen a surge of migrants from Central America, many of them being smuggled through Mexico on their way to the United States border."
News Lede
Washington Post: “Prices rose 6.8 percent in November to a nearly 40-year high, compared with [a] year ago, as inflation continues to squeeze households and businesses nationwide and complicate the political environment for Congress and the White House. Data released Friday by the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that prices rose 0.8 percent in November compared with October, with inflation spreading further throughout the economy, including to areas that had not been previously hurt by the coronavirus pandemic. The increases were driven by broad-based price hikes in most of the categories tracked, similar to October. Indexes for gasoline, shelter, food, used cars and trucks and new vehicles were among the larger contributors. Airline fares also increased. Also, rents have been climbing, influenced by soaring home prices." CNBC's report is here.
Share Article
Reader Comments (7)
Question:
What is the Pretender's henchmen's favorite number?
Answer: The fifth.
@Ken Winkes: I think they prefer it in the original German.
Or maybe in liquid form.
Have we been here before?
While history never exactly repeats itself, two recent economic reports had their near twins around 1970.
Inflation approaching six percent and the lowest job claim numbers between then and the recent unemployment filings report.
Might those two numbers from a half century back and those same numbers just reported be just a tad related?
Maybe Covid is our Vietnam.
@Marie. Thanks for the morning music.
BRIAN WILLIAMS' LAST THING BEFORE HE GOES:
Last night was Brian's farewell–-his fellow anchors and many of his guests that have been a mainstay on his program expressed their love for this man and their admiration for the kind of anchor he has been over many years. I join them in finding Williams to be outstanding in his field.
His biggest worry, he said, was for his country, which in 2021 became "unrecognizable to those who came before us and fought to protect it."
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/brian-williams-signs-off-msnbc-message_n_61b30ac1e4b0bb13fd05658c
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-texas-abortion-ban/2021/12/10/de0ade80-59c5-11ec-a808-3197a22b19fa_story.html?
Here's what my speed-reading tells me.
Maybe Hawley is right about American males declining masculinity.
It seems most of those on the SCOTUS have no balls.
Saw Brian’s last hurrah and it was gracious and touching. Maybe he is like others giving up on the toxic atmosphere in which we marinate. Maybe he can’t stand the news anymore. I can relate…
Re Publix—. Not surprised it is owned by liars. That heiress funded 1/6…
Why is Matt Gaetz still walking around free since he and fellow scumbucket Bannon are actively planning treason ad nauseum? Since when does free speech include being okay with people lighting fires in crowded theaters, over and above shouting “Fire”? I don’t get it at all.