;)
December 11, 2021
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden made his first late-night show appearance since taking office on Friday, condemning partisanship in Congress and endorsing a song featuring the rapper Megan Thee Stallion to encourage Americans to get the Covid vaccine.... The president used the opportunity to celebrate the passage of his bipartisan infrastructure package, emphasize the importance of voting rights and encourage Americans to get their shots." ~~~
John Wagner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden hailed former senator Bob Dole as a 'genuine hero,' praising his courage on the battlefield and integrity on Capitol Hill, as he spoke at an invitation-only memorial service at Washington National Cathedral. Former senators Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), and Dole's daughter, Robin Dole, also spoke. At a public ceremony at the World II Memorial in Washington, actor Tom Hanks lauded Dole's military service and said 'the memory and conscience of the man himself will always be here, right here, for as long as there is an America.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: President Biden used his remarks to contrast Dole's political style with those of today's dangerous Republicans. Pretty good: ~~~
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued six new subpoenas on Friday, digging deeper into the rallies that preceded the mob violence and organizers' meetings with ... Donald J. Trump. Those issued subpoenas Friday included Robert 'Bobby' Peede Jr., a former director of the White House advance team and Max Miller, a former Trump White House aide, who both met with Mr. Trump in his private dining room by the Oval Office on Jan. 4 to discuss the rally planned for two days later at the Ellipse, a park just south of the White House; and Brian Jack, Mr. Trump's former political affairs director who reached out to several members of Congress to ask them to speak at the Jan. 6 rally. (Mr. Jack is currently the political director for ... Kevin McCarthy.)... The committee also issued subpoenas for Bryan Lewis, who obtained a permit for a rally outside the Capitol on Jan. 6 to 'urge Congress to nullify electoral votes from states that made illegal changes to voting rules during their elections'; and Ed Martin, an organizer of the Stop the Steal movement who the committee said was involved in the planning and financing of the rally immediately before the attack.... The panel also issued a subpoena to Kimberly Fletcher and her organization, Moms for America, which helped organize a Jan. 5 rally at Freedom Plaza and the Jan. 6 rally at the Ellipse...." Politico's story is here.
The clear purpose and actual effect of S.B. 8 has been to nullify this court's rulings.... It is the role of the Supreme Court in our constitutional system that is at stake. -- Chief Justice John Roberts, in a dissent joined by Sotomayor, Kagan & Breyer
This is a brazen challenge to our federal structure. It echoes the philosophy of John C. Calhoun, a virulent defender of the slaveholding South who insisted that States had the right to 'veto' or 'nullif[y]' any federal law with which they disagreed.... The Nation fought a Civil War over that proposition, but Calhoun's theories were not extinguished.... [B]y foreclosing suit against state-court officials and the state attorney general, the Court clears the way for States to reprise and perfect Texas' scheme in the future to target the exercise of any right recognized by this Court with which they disagree. This is no hypothetical. -- Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a separate dissent ~~~
~~~ 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. (Also liked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Dahlia Lithwick's commentary on these rulings is in Slate and is subscriber-firewalled. However, Annie Laurie of Balloon Juice republishes the meat of Lithwick's analysis: "The real story of the two decisions in U.S. v. Texas and Whole Woman's Health v. Jackson is that Chief Justice John Roberts has now lost control of his court." ~~~
~~~ Marie: For what it's worth, I think the "real story" is the one Sonia Sotomayor tells in her dissent: that the confederate Supremes have set a precedent -- and guidelines -- for states to nullify Constitutional rights which the Supreme Court has, over the years, defined & solidified. It gets as basic as First Amendment rights to freedom of speech, the press, religion. Any state could nullify these rights simply by allowing vigilantes to successfully sue, say, non-Protestants for practicing their religions. They could sue the local newspaper for writing an editorial disparaging the governor. They could sue you for standing on a soapbox in the town square & making "unapproved" remarks. They could sue, say, interracial or gay married couples. In less draconian ways, states could eliminate all manner of federal laws that have kept us safer. Ironically, by providing a pathway to making states invulnerable to federal oversight, the Fab Five have undercut their own authority. Apparently, that was their intention.
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 "disputing the results." (Also liked yesterday afternoon.)
Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is scrutinizing a 38-page PowerPoint document filled with extreme plans to overturn the 2020 election that Mark Meadows, the last chief of staff to ... Donald J. Trump, has turned over to the panel. The document recommended that Mr. Trump declare a national emergency to delay the certification of the election results and included a claim that China and Venezuela had obtained control over the voting infrastructure in a majority of states. A lawyer for Mr. Meadows, George J. Terwilliger III, said on Friday that Mr. Meadows ... merely received [the document] by email in his inbox and did nothing with it.... Phil Waldron, a retired Army colonel and an influential voice in the movement to challenge the election, said on Friday from a bar he owns outside Austin, Texas, that he had circulated the document.... Mr. Waldron said that he did not personally send the document to Mr. Meadows.... Rudolph W. Giuliani ... has cited Mr. Waldron as a source of information for his legal campaign." The Guardian's report is here.
** Jason Szep & Linda So of Reuters: On January 4, "a Chicago publicist for hip-hop artist Kanye West traveled to the suburban home of Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker who was facing death threats after being falsely accused by ... Donald Trump of manipulating votes.... The visitor, Trevian Kutti, gave her name but didn't say she worked for West, a longtime billionaire friend of Trump. She said she was sent by a 'high-profile individual,' whom she didn't identify, to give Freeman an urgent message: confess to Trump's voter-fraud allegations, or people would come to her home in 48 hours, and she'd go to jail. Freeman refused.... The day after Freeman's meeting with Kutti, an agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation called Freeman and urged her to leave her home of 20 years because it wasn't safe, Freeman said.... According to a defamation lawsuit Freeman and [her daughter Wandrea 'Shaye'] Moss [-- whom Trump also accused of illegally counting phony ballots --]..., left [her home on January 6,] hours before a mob of angry Trump supporters surrounded her home, shouting through bullhorns." The article includes video from a bodycam worn by a police officer who came to Freeman's house after she called 911 for protection. Related story linked below under Beyond the Beltway. ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Had Kutti successfully compelled Freeman to admit committing some crime, it would certainly have upended the conversation about the election at a particularly fraught moment. The results in Georgia would have been called into question with at least some legitimacy, giving Trump and his allies ammunition to stall the upcoming certification of electoral votes. Trump would almost certainly have still been ousted, but in a throw-spaghetti-at-the-wall strategy to retain power, even one sticky piece of pasta is useful." MB: BTW, police and other authorities have brought no charges against Kutti or any of the dozens & dozens of people who have threatened Freeman.
Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A Donald Trump campaign lawyer wrote two legal memos in the week before the Jan. 6 Capitol attack that claimed then-Vice President Mike Pence had the authority to refuse to count presidential electors from states that delivered Joe Biden the White House. The memos from then-Trump lawyer Jenna Ellis, which contain widely disputed legal theories about Pence's ability to stop a Biden presidency, underscore Ellis' promotion of extreme arguments that she promulgated amid Trump's effort to reverse the election results.... A Dec. 31 Ellis memo delivered to Trump's office suggested that Pence -- who was constitutionally responsible for presiding over Congress' counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6 -- should simply refuse to open envelopes from states whose election results Trump considered to be fraudulent.... In a second, previously unreported memo dated Jan. 5, Ellis made a more technical legal argument that she delivered to Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's outside lawyers." The memos are here (pdf).
Attention: Coup in Progress. Charles Homans of the New York Times: "According to a May Reuters/Ipsos poll, more than 60 percent of Republicans now believe the 2020 election was stolen. This belief has informed a wave of mobilization at both grass-roots and elite levels in the party with an eye to future elections. In races for state and county-level offices with direct oversight of elections, Republican candidates coming out of the Stop the Steal movement are running competitive campaigns, in which they enjoy a first-mover advantage in electoral contests that few partisans from either party thought much about before last November. And legislation that state lawmakers have passed or tried to pass this year in a number of states would assert more control over election systems and results by partisan offices that Republicans already decisively control."
David Ignatius of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin's path toward threatening an invasion of Ukraine is marked by reckless actions. In this move toward defiance of international norms, Putin has been subtly encouraged by ... Donald Trump, a fellow traveler in recklessness.... Trump has been doing Putin's work of destabilization for him.... Now, as Putin contemplates a move into Ukraine, he beholds an America weakened by political division bordering on dysfunction. He sees a moment of opportunity."
Brian Deese, et al., of the White House: "In September, we explained that meat prices are the biggest contributor to the rising cost of groceries, in part because just a few large corporations dominate meat processing. The November Consumer Price Index data released this morning demonstrates that meat prices are still the single largest contributor to the rising cost of food people consume at home. Beef, pork, and poultry price increases make up a quarter of the overall increase in food-at-home prices last month. As we noted in September, just four large conglomerates control approximately 55-85% of the market for pork, beef, and poultry, and these middlemen were using their market power to increase prices and underpay farmers, while taking more and more for themselves." Emphasis original.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
California. Lindsey Bever of the Washington Post: "The second-largest school district in the United States is facing mounting woes over its coronavirus vaccine mandate, recently terminating hundreds of employees who refused to comply and vowing to put thousands of unvaccinated students into online classes. Board members of Los Angeles Unified School District -- which has one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation -- voted Tuesday to terminate 496 employees who failed to get vaccinated ahead of the deadline. In addition, some 34,000 students are also in violation of the requirements, according to the Los Angeles Times. Per the district's vaccination policy, students 12 and older must be fully vaccinated -- or receive an exemption -- by the start of the second semester in January. Those who fail to do so will not be allowed on school campuses and will be referred to an online independent study program."
New York. Shannon Young of Politico: "All New Yorkers must wear masks inside any business that does not implement a vaccine requirement, Gov. Kathy Hochul said Friday, announcing one of the most stringent mandates in the nation. The new requirement, which takes effect Monday and will be reassessed on Jan. 15, comes amid a surge in Covid-19 cases throughout much of upstate New York, and as more cases of the Omicron variant are confirmed throughout the state."
Pennsylvania. Mark Scolforo of NBC 10 Philadelphia: "A statewide mask mandate for Pennsylvania schoolchildren was thrown out by the state Supreme Court on Friday, raising the prospect that at least some students in the state may soon be allowed to attend classes without a face covering. The justices announced their decision to invalidate the Wolf administration's statewide mandate for masks inside K-12 school buildings and child care facilities but did not issue a written opinion that explains their reasoning. They upheld a lower-court decision that the mandate was imposed by Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf's acting health secretary without legal authorization. The practical impact of the decision will depend on what the justices say in the written opinion or opinions they will issue in the case and which schools and school districts impose their own masking requirements. The court took action amid a statewide surge in new infections and hospitalizations."
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Perdue Goes All Trumpy. Jeff Amy of the AP: "Days after announcing his candidacy for governor, Republican David Perdue further embraced debunked claims of electoral fraud in Georgia's 2020 presidential race by joining a lawsuit seeking to prove he and ... Donald Trump were cheated out of election victories. The suit claims that fraudulent or counterfeit ballots were counted in Fulton County, the state's most populous jurisdiction, although investigators rebutted the same claims previously.... His position that Georgia's 2020 election was wrongly decided isn't new. He called on Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to resign while votes were still being counted in 2020, saying he 'failed to deliver honest and transparent elections,' said if he had been in the U.S. Senate on Jan. 6, he would have voted against accepting Georgia's electoral votes. But until now he hadn't sued.... The suit also renews debunked claims that election officials purposefully lied about stopping counting on election night, claiming that once observers left that election workers pulled out 'suitcases' of ballots and counted the votes multiple times, effectively running up the score for Democrats." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This fake claim about election workers recounting suitcases full of ballots refers to Ruby Freeman & her daughter Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss, and perhaps others. I hope they add Perdue to their defamation lawsuit.
Oregon. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A former member of the Proud Boys from Texas who traveled to Portland, Ore., to confront protesters there last year was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison for shooting a man in the eye with a paintball gun, spraying people in the face with bear mace and aiming a loaded handgun at a crowd, prosecutors said. The former member, Alan Swinney, 51, was a 'white nationalist vigilante cowboy,' who went to Portland to engage in political violence during protests there in the summer of 2020, prosecutors said. In social media posts, he made threats against 'the left' and 'antifa,' prosecutors said, and he tried to recruit people to form a militia to fight in what he believed was a civil war."
Texas. David Goodman & Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "Within the span of a few hours, a Texas judge and the U.S. Supreme Court appeared to undercut Texas' six-week abortion ban, ruling in separate opinions late Thursday and early Friday that aspects of the law were unconstitutional under state law and that federal challenges could go forward. But the victories for abortion rights supporters were largely hollow, and providers in Texas were not cheering on Friday. Neither decision altered the reality on the ground in the state. Both left in place the new abortion law, the most restrictive in the country, which effectively bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest.... For Texas women, the new normal will continue."
News Ledes
The New York Times maps where tornadoes were reported, provides some photographic images of the destruction & reports on power outages. ~~~
~~~ New York Times: "Dozens of people were feared dead and communities across the Midwest and southern United States were left scrambling to assess the damage on Saturday morning after a string of unseasonably powerful storms and tornadoes swept across five states overnight. Officials said that there were 'confirmed fatalities' after a roof collapsed at an Amazon warehouse in Illinois, leaving workers trapped inside, and that tornadoes had killed at least one person at an Arkansas nursing home. Kentucky's governor said that at least 50 had been killed in a tornado's path of over 200 miles, and that the state's death toll was likely to increase to more than 70 in the coming hours.″ The linked page is a liveblog and will be updated. ~~~
~~~ The Weather Channel is live-updating developments here.
New York Times: "Michael Nesmith, who rocketed to fame as the contemplative, wool-cap-wearing member of the Monkees in 1966, then went on to a diverse career that included making one of the rock era's earliest music videos and winning the first Grammy Award for video, died on Friday at his home in Carmel Valley, Calif. He was 78." ~~~
~~~ Little Known Fact: Nesmith's mother was Bette Nesmith Graham, who invented Liquid Paper, & who -- through incredible pluck -- turned the product into an international business that made the one-time $300/month clerk-typist a wealthy woman. (NYT link.)
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I just can't get into the heads of the 60% of Republican who still believe the Pretender really won in the 2020 election. There's ignorance, yes, and I know there's proof aplenty that weak-minded people are easily duped (the Pretender is still making lotsa money by relying on their credulousness) given to believing the strangest, most irrational things but, still....
I comfort myself by doing the arithmetic. Sixty percent of a minority party, even with the aid of a Constitutionally-blessed government that empowers minority rule, can make my life uncomfortable but they can't call all the shots. Maybe I can live with that.
But when my thoughts turn to those so-called conservative justices who do call the shots, I'm at a loss. What makes them tick? It can't be ignorance. Too much education for that. Ideology? In ACB's case, maybe. The most dangerous of all, that lady, doing Gods's work.
But the men? A little finger in the eye of the establishment, perhaps. A desire to stand out, to assert a trampled ego? I have long seen that in Clarence.
The others I'm not so sure about, but Kavanaugh certainly and perhaps Alito and Gorsuch strike me as snot-nosed boys finally given the opportunity to strut their uncertain masculinity, both within and outside of the halls of justice. Like I have said for Presidents. We can't afford to use that office as therapy for its occupant.
And I always come back to the same question:
What are they thinking? Do they really want to rip the nation apart? Set state against state? They surely don't believe or want a country in which states can willy-nilly set aside the federal laws they don't like. If so, I have a few I'd like to get rid of today.
Is it their vision to dismantle the country's governance, to leave no dominant, over-arching power to organize the polity other than the web and woof of corporate power that is already exerting more control of our lives and the planet than is good for us or for it?
But I don't know what they're thinking and dammit, those black robes should not be a black box.
IF–-John Roberts has lost control of his court ––and it certainly appears that way––then we are without any balls, never mind all those strikes. This mellow minded Justice who someone once said looked the part of a leader on the Court plus had the good looks of a film star, has, I fear, revealed his lack of leadership. The suggestion that he step down and let Biden choose a replacement–-a bull dog–- is wishful thinking––she or he would never get the votes, I fear, from the other side that refuses to side with anything the Democrats initiate.
The Ruby Freeman story takes the cake! What this poor woman and her daughter are going through is beyond belief! Again–––where is our justice system? A coup in the works by the clowns in the circus whose whipper snapper still holds the reins.
Yesterday it snowed ––today the snow is gone and it's muggy and dark with poor visibility which corresponds nicely to this nation's state of affairs.
What we should learn from the horrible behavior of the publicist of Kanye West and R.Kelly and by extension Kardashians is what horrible people lead the twitter/instagram universe. Yeah, there is guilt by association and these people are simply horrible. Now, I'm going to go wash my typing fingers.
Any person, including law enforcement, who frees a slave or assist a fleeing slave can be sued by any person in the United States of America for a minimum of $10k. Because states rights. The corporations will love the new America and so will their stockholders.
In order to keep your freedom you'll probably need to know the answer to the question, "who is the greatest doctor in America?" And you'll need to answer, Joe Rogan.
Maybe a little hope:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/09/technology/birds-arent-real-gen-z-misinformation.html?
This one makes me smile.
A WORD FROM GERMANY:
I had asked David, my son in Germany, what his take is on Olaf Scholz; this was his reply:
I don’t think Olaf is a stella fella, but I think maybe he will be fine. I don’t see him as a leader, but as a member of a coalition that may be able to achieve something if they can keep it together. In a recent press conference Scholz was asked three times if Germany would join the U.S. in a boycott of the Olympic Games in Beijing and after twice avoiding to answer he finally said, “We believe that it is important that one does everything necessary to ensure that the world works together and in a world that has to work together, all measures that one would consider should be carefully evaluated as well as sending a signal of working together.” In German slang this is known as “schwafeln” and is typical of Scholz. If he continues like this soon people will stop listening.