;)
February 25, 2023
Marie: If you recall, Reagan-appointed former judge Michael Luttig advised mike pence, at pence's request, about the limited Constitutional powers of the President of the Senate. Luttig's advice is largely what discouraged pence from pulling a Trump and trying to overturn the 2020 election & place himself back in office. Well, it looks as if the humorless Judge Luttig still is not amused: ~~~
~~~ Michael Luttig in a New York Times op-ed: "The former vice president should not want the embarrassing spectacle of the Supreme Court compelling him to appear before a grand jury in Washington just when he's starting his campaign for the presidency.... Injecting campaign-style politics into the criminal investigatory process with his rhetorical characterization of Mr. Smith's subpoena as a 'Biden D.O.J. subpoena,' Mr. Pence is trying to score points with voters.... But Jack Smith's subpoena was neither politically motivated nor designed to strengthen President Biden's political hand in 2024. Thus the jarring dissonance between the subpoena and Mr. Pence's characterization of it. It is Mr. Pence who has chosen to politicize the subpoena, not the D.O.J.... We can expect the federal courts to make short shrift of this 'Hail Mary' claim [that he is protected from questioning by the Congress's 'speech or debate' clause], and Mr. Pence doesn't have a chance in the world of winning his case in any federal court and avoiding testifying before the grand jury.... The only question now is not whether he will have to testify before the grand jury, but how soon." ~~~
~~~ Marie: We should remember, BTW, that Luttig was among the few who stood up for American democracy in the face of a devastating national crisis. And as much as I mocked Dan Quayle over the years, so was he.
No Deed Goes Unpunished. Jordain Carney of Politico: "House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and former Senate Judiciary chairs Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent letters on Friday to Robert Bauer & Cristina Rodríguez -- the two former co-chairs of the Supreme Court reform commission that released its final report in December 2021 -- requesting documents and communications.... [President] Biden formally formed the commission in April 2021 with the task of providing an 'analysis of the principal arguments' for and against reforming the Supreme Court, after facing months of pressure to embrace expanding the size of the Supreme Court.... While the final report included endorsements for some more modest ideas, like new codes of ethics and increased court transparency, it steered clear of endorsing topics like expansion and term limits, instead largely weighing the arguments made on both sides."
Margie Has a Dream. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: You can probably tell, from the substance of Greene's comments, that this 'national divorce' [Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene envisions] is more paranoid fantasy than serious proposal. Even so, it rests on a set of ideas and tropes that are in wide circulation in the public at large.... There's the idea, underneath all this, that states are, or ought to be, the fundamental unit of representation in the American political system.... Although states play an important role in the American political system, they are not the autonomous, nearly independent units of either Representative Greene's imagination or the folk civics that shapes political understanding for tens of millions of Americans.... A 'national divorce' is possible only if the states represent singular political communities. But they don't."
The Media Revolt. Anumita Kaur of the Washington Post: "Scores of news organizations -- including The Washington Post -- on Friday demanded congressional leaders release a trove of surveillance footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol that the House speaker provided exclusively to Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who has downplayed the violence. Attorney Charles Tobin sent a letter [to Speaker Kevin McCarthy] on behalf of CBS News, CNN, Politico, ProPublica, ABC, Axios, Advance, Scripps, the Los Angeles Times and Gannett.... 'Without full public access to the complete historical record, there is concern that an ideologically-based narrative of an already polarizing event will take hold in the public consciousness, with destabilizing risks to the legitimacy of Congress, the Capitol Police, and the various federal investigations and prosecutions of Jan. 6 crimes,' the letter stated.... Carlson has repeatedly cast doubt on official accounts of what happened on Jan. 6 and has claimed it was a 'false flag' operation." The CBS News story is here.
Here's an update to a story linked here yesterday: ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The chief judge of the federal district court in Washington, D.C., secretly rejected Rep. Scott Perry's bid to shield more than 2,000 messages relevant to Justice Department investigators probing efforts by Donald Trump to subvert the 2020 election, according to newly unsealed court filings. U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell unsealed her extraordinary Dec. 28 decision on Friday evening, determining that the 'powerful public interest' in seeing the previously secret opinion outweighed the need for continued secrecy.... Howell said Perry had taken an 'astonishing view' of his ['speech or debate' clause] immunity that would effectively put members of Congress above the law and free of political consequences for their actions. She ordered him to disclose 2,055 of the documents he sought to withhold -- including all 960 of his contacts with members of the executive branch, which she said are entitled to no constitutional protection at all. Some 161 items, she said, were proper to withhold.... Last month, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to stay Howell's ruling. On Thursday, those judges heard both public and private arguments about the dispute. The stay remains in place as the appeals court considers whether to leave Howell's ruling in place, set it aside or modify it in some way. The judges -- Karen Henderson, Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao -- appeared skeptical of the Justice Department's position and the breadth of Howell's ruling, although they discussed her stance only in broad strokes...." ~~~
~~~ Howell's opinion is here. MB: Bush I appointed Henderson; Trump appointed Katsas & Rao.
Jacqueline Sweet of Politico: "George Santos lied to a Seattle judge about working for Goldman Sachs while speaking at a 2017 bail hearing for a 'family friend' who later pleaded guilty to fraud in an ATM skimming scheme, according to an audio recording of the proceeding and court records. 'So what do you do for work?' King County Superior Court Judge Sean O'Donnell asked Santos at the May 15, 2017 arraignment of defendant Gustavo Ribeiro Trelha. 'I am an aspiring politician and I work for Goldman Sachs,' Santos replied. 'You work for Goldman Sachs in New York?' the judge asked. 'Yup,' Santos responded.... A spokesperson for the bank told The New York Times in its original investigation into Santos' background that there was no record of him working there.... In a telephone interview, Trelha said Santos lied about their relationship, too. Trelha, through a translator, said he met Santos in the fall of 2016 on a Facebook group for Brazilians living in Orlando, Fla...." MB: Sweet does not make clear whether or not Santos was under oath when he lied to O'Donnell, but presuming that he was, we can add perjury to his growing list of (alleged!) crimes. ~~~
~~~ Update: According to the CBS News story, by Graham Kates, "Santos appears to address the court without being sworn in." Too bad. Perhaps it is a crime to lie to a judge or other official during a formal federal proceeding. Plus, Kates writies, "The newly uncovered recording of his court appearance was also a reminder of how little is known about his connection to a man at the center of a wide-ranging credit card fraud case that involved stealing peoples' ATM card information and delivering it to Brazilian accomplices. Santos has declined to answer questions about the case.... Santos was not charged in the case, nor was he a suspect."
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: In an interview with Piers Morgan, Rep. George Santos (R-Liar) "offered some insight into [his] ... strategy for political survival -- and why it may resonate with some in the MAGA crowd. True story: Santos claims he is the victim. His lies are everybody else's fault -- honest! This politics of victimhood, of course, is the essence of Donald Trump (who could, and did, claim it was sunny when it was raining).... Like Trump, Santos claimed to be the victim of a 'witch hunt' by 'desperate journalists' who are 'not interested in covering the facts.'... Yet there was one thing Santos said that rang true to me. 'If the media put the equal amount of efforts and resources,' he said, 'on all 435 members of the House and 100 members of the Senate, I think the American people would have more clarity of who represents them in Congress.'... The vast majority of House members ... never get a proper vetting because the parties can't be bothered and local media has been decimated.... How many others faked their way to high office with bogus claims or have backgrounds and associations that wouldn't hold up to scrutiny in the light of day? Maybe that's why so many of Santos's Republican colleagues refuse to expel this fraud." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Those of you who remember the old Stephen Colbert Show, which aired on Comedy Central, will also recall his "Better Know a District" segments [WashPo link] where Colbert interviewed & mocked MOCs. While the questions were sometimes humorously facetious, they also often revealed what complete dunderheads our representatives were. Local TV media should be so helpful.
Sara Boboltz of the Huffington Post: "Former Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) attributed his decision to retire due to the long-term effects of COVID-19, telling local newspaper Tulsa World that certain symptoms were still affecting him day-to-day. Inhofe voted against multiple coronavirus aid packages meant to help Americans at the height of the pandemic, including the Families First Coronavirus Response Act approved overwhelmingly by 90 senators in March 2020, and the American Rescue Plan in March 2021."
A (Possibly Unintended) Consequence of Right-wing Racism. Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The massive crush of layoffs washing through the United States tech sector is sparking panic among large numbers of immigrants, who are scrambling to stay employed or risk losing their right to live in this country. These workers, primarily Indian nationals, are in the country on temporary visas designed to help U.S. firms employ an exceptionally skilled and educated workforce. Many have been here for years, in some cases decades. But now that many have been laid off, their visas are set to expire in 60 days. They must leave the country unless they can find a new employer willing to navigate complex immigration rules and pay fees that can mount into thousands of dollars to hire them. The situation is becoming a crisis for families in the Silicon Valley and beyond, while exposing anew lawmakers' inability to fix the nation's immigration system, even on matters where there is broad agreement."
Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "... good for John Montenegro Cruz, an Arizona [death-row inmate] convicted in 2005 of murdering a Tucson police officer, and good for Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, who joined with the court's three liberals to grant Cruz a new sentencing hearing. But read the facts of Cruz's case, and a less cheery, more chilling, reaction seems called for: How can it be that Cruz's life was spared by only a bare majority? Four other conservatives, in a decision written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, would have stuck with a cramped rules-are-rules mentality to let an obviously unconstitutional death sentence stand." Read on. Justice Elena Kagan called Cruz's predicament "one that 'Kafka would have loved.'" MB: Yeah, Kafka & those Supremes who are all concerned about the lives of fetuses but not of us "born" people. Marcus suggests that those same Supremes lack "undamental humanity." She's got that right. If you are wondering about the ideas an AI right-wing robot would spout, check out Amy & Clarence & & Sam & Neil.
Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The attorneys general of a dozen Democratic-controlled states sued the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, asking a judge to remove special restrictions that the federal agency has long applied to the first of two drugs used in medication abortion.... [At the same time,] a federal judge in Texas is expected to issue an order soon in a case filed by anti-abortion groups that seeks to overturn the F.D.A.'s approval of the same abortion pill, mifepristone, and have it taken off the market.... The judge, a Trump appointee who is politically conservative and wrote an article that was critical of Roe v. Wade, could issue an order effectively blocking access to mifepristone across the country. Such a ruling would immediately be appealed, but if it ultimately stands, it would have far-reaching implications, affecting states where abortion is legal, not just states where abortion is already restricted. The new lawsuit filed by the 12 states does not address the possible outcomes of the Texas case, but it requests that the judge's ruling in the Washington case include orders that would effectively contravene steps that might be imposed by the Texas judge."
News You Can Use. Christina Jewitt & Emily Anthes of the New York Times: "The Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization for the first over-the-counter, at-home combination flu and Covid test on Friday, just two days after the company that makes the test announced that it had filed for bankruptcy protection based, in part, on the agency's lengthy approval timeline. The single-use test works with a self-collected nasal swab and provides a result in about 30 minutes, according to the F.D.A. The test is meant to be used by people 14 and older, or by an adult collecting a sample from someone age 2 or older.... Lucira Health [-- the developer of the test --] did not immediately respond to questions about its manufacturing capacity or how much the test would cost consumers."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Chris Quinn, Editor, [Cleveland] Plain Dealer: "Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, went on a racist rant this week on his Coffee with Scott Adams online video show, and we will no longer carry his comic strip in The Plain Dealer. This is not a difficult decision.... 'I would say, based on the current way things are going, the best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,' he says in the video. He says a lot more in the video, mostly hateful and racist, all viewable on Youtube.... Last year, according to The Daily Beast, 77 newspapers published by Lee Enterprises dropped it after Adams introduced his first Black character, apparently to poke fun at 'woke' culture and the LGBTQ community. We are part of Advance Local, and the leaders in all Advance Local newsrooms independently have made the same decision we did to stop running the strip.... In recent years, The Daily Beast says, Adams had gained attention for publicly embracing ridiculous right-wing conspiracies." MB: I had to sign in via Google to read the editorial.
Presidential Race 2024
Darlene Superville of the AP: "U.S. first lady Jill Biden gave one of the clearest indications yet that President Joe Biden will run for a second term, telling The Associated Press in an exclusive interview [in Nairobi, Kenya,] on Friday that there's 'pretty much' nothing left to do but figure out the time and place for the announcement.... The president himself was asked about his wife's comments just hours later in an interview with ABC News, and laughed when told of her remarks, adding, 'God love her. Look, I meant what I said, I've got other things to finish before I get into a full-blown campaign.'"
Jonathan Allen & Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence said Friday that he will make a decision 'by the spring' about whether to seek the presidency and suggested that he would pledge to support the eventual GOP nominee if that's a condition of participating in primary debates. 'If I'm a candidate, I'm sure I'll meet whatever the requirement is for debates,' Pence told NBC News in an exclusive interview. As for his timing, Pence said he has a little while before he has to make a decision. 'We're listening, we're reflecting, we're talking to firms,' Pence said, adding that 'by the spring, our family expects to have a very clear sense of our calling.'" More on pence linked under Ukraine, et al., below.
Beyond the Beltway
Illinois. All the Pretty White People. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "A viral Tiktok video shows a [MB: presumably White] woman calling the police on a Black man for clearing the snow on the sidewalk running near her property, reported The Daily Beast on Friday. 'Gregory McAdory, who uploaded the video to TikTok on Feb. 18, said in an interview with The Daily Beast that he and his friend have a snow removal business in Rockford, Illinois,' reported Brooke Leigh Howard. 'He explained that on Feb. 17 they finished clearing his friend's father's driveway, then moved onto the sidewalk in front of the neighbor's house. That's when the neighbor came out and "bugged" up on them, threatening to call the police, he said. "When the police is called on people of my color, just to be on the safe side, I just say, 'Record,'" McAdory said.'... On the phone call with police, which Rockford officers confirmed was lodged with them at half past noon on February 17, she can be heard saying, 'These two guys are African American, and I don't get along with them.... They are making fun of me. See, they don't have no respect!'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: I must say it irritates me when reporters describe an interaction between White people & minorities, & they don't identify the White person as White. We the readers are just supposed to assume that anyone who is a "person" is a "White person." "Other" people, however, are "Black" or "Asian" or "Hispanic." IMO, this does nearly as much to "otherize" people of color as does whatever bigotry the reports presume to highlight.
Montana. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "A man from Kalispell has been arrested and charged with sending graphic death threats to Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), reported the Daily Montanan on Friday. 'Kevin Patrick Smith, 45, pleaded not guilty to an indictment filed on Feb. 22 charging him with two counts of threats to injure and murder a United States senator, the news release said,' said the report.... According to prosecutors, Smith left a series of threatening voice mail messages for Tester, and continued after FBI agents contacted him and warned him to stop. 'There is nothing I want more than to have you stand toe to toe with me.... I rip your head off. You die...,' Smith allegedly said in one message. 'I will never stop.... And I would love to destroy you and rip your (obscenity) head from your shoulders. That is no problem. Call that a threat. Send the FBI. I would love to (obscenity) kill you. I would love to see your FBI at my door. I would love to see something in the news.'"
South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "After five weeks of trial, the murder case against Alex Murdaugh narrowed on Friday to the question of what happened in a critical few minutes after the prominent South Carolina lawyer went down to his family's dog kennels where his wife and son were found shot to death later that night. On the second and final day of Mr. Murdaugh's crucial testimony in his own defense, prosecutors aggressively challenged him about those key minutes, showing that his new account of his movements that night -- offered this week after more than 20 months of denying he was at the kennels at all -- is difficult to reconcile with the timeline of the murders. Armed with telephone calls, texts, videos, car navigation data and cellphone step counts, the lead prosecutor, Creighton Waters, showed that Mr. Murdaugh would have had to have left the kennels and returned to the house a short distance away only minutes before the killings -- despite his claims that he had heard no gunshots. [Waters] emphasized that Mr. Murdaugh had not admitted to being at the kennels until the crucial video, shot by his son Paul that night, emerged in court."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Saturday is here: "President Biden ruled out sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine 'for now,' saying the U.S. military deemed other military support more crucial at this stage. Kyiv has ramped up pleas for fighter jets since the United States and European countries pledged to send heavy tanks, but as Ukraine's allies rallied to mark one year of war, Biden told ABC News that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 'doesn't need F-16s now.'... Zelensky described Feb. 24, 2022 as 'the hardest day of our modern history,' in a news conference marking one year since the Russian invasion....
"Poland delivered four Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine on the first anniversary, officials said, with Ukrainians troops having begun training in Germany.... Russian forces carried out more than a dozen airstrikes targeting Ukraine's east and south, the country's Defense Ministry said Friday on Telegram.... Marches, vigils and other actions against the war were held Friday around the world, including outside Russian embassies in cities such as London and Berlin.... Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged the United States and its allies to renew their resolve to help Ukraine, tacitly pushing back against members of his party who have become loudly skeptical of Ukraine's fight as the conflict passes the one-year mark.... The global watchdog for money laundering and terrorism financing has suspended Russia from its membership. It was the first time the Financial Action Task Force has taken such action, according to a statement from the U.S. Treasury Department."
A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase the people's love of liberty. Brutality will never grind down the will of the free. And Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. Never. -- President Joe Biden, in a statement ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden marked the start of a second year of war in Europe on Friday by announcing billions of dollars in additional military aid for Ukraine, imposing more sanctions on those helping President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and delivering a grim warning about an alliance between Russia and Iran.... Mr. Biden joined the leaders of the other Group of 7 nations -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Britain-- in reaffirming his support for the beleaguered country and condemning Russia's invasion a year ago."
Jonathan Allen & Ali Vitali of NBC News:"Former Vice President Mike Pence on Friday rebuked fellow Republicans who have given less-than-robust support for America's defense of Ukraine -- a group that includes potential presidential campaign rivals like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. 'I would say anyone that thinks that Vladimir Putin will stop at Ukraine is wrong,' Pence said in an exclusive interview with NBC News when asked about DeSantis' position on U.S. efforts to help repel Russia in Europe. The interview came moments after a Pence speech at the University of Texas on the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 'While some in my party have taken a somewhat different view, there can be no room in the leadership of the Republican Party for apologists for Putin,' Pence ... said without naming names in his speech. 'There can only be room for champions of freedom.'"
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Reader Comments (6)
You can bet the mortgage that TuKKKer is instructing his toady, My Kevin, to under no circumstances release HIS video of the Trump insurrection mob until he (TuKKKer) has had a chance to muddy the waters and declare, via hellaciously edited and doctored imagery, that the whole thing was a Democrat plot, in cahoots with FBI agents posing as Proud Boys, with Capitol Police murdering poor Fox addicted patriots.
Then, when legitimate news organizations are finally allowed to peek at the video, any effort to refute the KKKarlson fabrications will be deemed lies by the Liberal Media trying to hide the TRUTH from real ‘mericans, and thereby steal their freeeedoms!
Must be a lot of overtime going on at Faux News headquarters.
Can't wait to see those segments of doctored tapes showing stuff
like mike pence with two six shooters scaring away rioters, instead
of actually looking for a hiding place.
And there's Nancy Pelosi with her feet on her desk, (photoshopped of
course).
And over there is a group of Proud Boys handing out coffee and
donuts to the police who aren't at all beaten or lying on the floor.
Would a news organization lie to the public?
@Forrest Morris: Sounds very TuKKKerish to me. Maybe -- for a hefty fee -- you could swing by & help TuKKKer's staff punch up their script. Be sure to get some Proud Boys in there chanting, "We are the Prou... Antifa! We're Antifa! Oh, Nancy, we're coming for you. We're going to make you President!" This will all require some video edits, but don't worry; TuKKKer's squad is good at that.
If I were Schumer (who, I believe, has the authority to do it) I would get the original Jan 6 video files to the U.S. Archives tout de suite. Once even a single copy is out there beyond the control of US agencies, the probability of creation of false outtakes (CGI, deepfake, etc) approaches 100 % . No matter what Fox does with their access, the entire record will be jeopardized. Archives needs to protect the originals like Fort Knox.
@Marie: Tucker wouldn't be at all interested in me since I don't
do fiction. Just the facts please.
Spent 25 years translating government jargon into understandable
English for the 2nd largest trucking company in the U.S.
Deregulation ended that. No regulations. No rules. You trucking
companies can do whatever floats your boat.
And they did just that. For example, there were regulations that
stated that if you have a permit to go from point A to point B,
you must serve all those little towns between those two points and
here's how you charge them.
Lots of those little towns were left with no service after deregulation.
Guess that's the reason UPS, DHL and the like grew so fast.
A very real problem with a liar and propagandist like TuKKKer and his clown car staff getting ahold of these videos is the likelihood that security measures could be viewed by exactly the types (KKKarlson’s violent white supremacist fans) you don’t want seeing this stuff, for instance, the routes taken by Capitol police while escorting members of Congress, including the half-pence, to secure and ostensibly hidden areas.
Once TuKkker shows that stuff, you can kiss that security playbook goodbye. This is why the Jan. 6 committee was extremely circumspect about what they showed during their hearings. Neither My Kevin nor TuKKKer are circumspect when it comes to what’s good for them versus what’s good for the nation. Their personal advantage always wins.
My Kevin has just handed a supporter of violent white supremacists a guidebook for the next right-wing attack on the Capitol.