February 9, 2022

Late Afternoon Update:

Basta! Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "The National Archives and Records Administration has asked the Justice Department to examine Donald Trump's handling of White House records, sparking discussions among federal law enforcement officials about whether they should investigate the former president for a possible crime, according to two people familiar with the matter. The referral from the National Archives came amid recent revelations that officials recovered 15 boxes of materials from the former president's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida that were not handed back in to the government as they should have been, and that Trump had turned over other White House records that had been torn up. Archives officials suspected Trump had possibly violated laws concerning the handling of government documents -- including those that might be considered classified -- and reached out to the Justice Department, the people familiar with the matter said." A CNN report is here.

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol issued a subpoena on Wednesday to Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to ... Donald J. Trump who was involved in what he called an 'operation' to keep Mr. Trump in office after he lost the 2020 election.... In his book, titled 'In Trump Time,' and in interviews with The New York Times and other outlets, Mr. Navarro has said that he worked with Stephen K. Bannon and other allies of Mr. Trump to develop and carry out a plan to delay Congress's formal count of the 2020 presidential election results to buy time to change the outcome.... On Wednesday, [Mr. Navarro] said he would not comply with the committee's subpoena, citing Mr. Trump's invocation of executive privilege." MB: I think you can open the pdf containing the committee's letter here.

Jon Swaine of the Washington Post: "In the weeks after the 2020 election, Rudolph W. Giuliani and other legal advisers to ... Donald Trump asked a Republican prosecutor in northern Michigan to get his county's voting machines and pass them to Trump's team, the prosecutor told The Washington Post. Antrim County prosecutor James Rossiter said in an interview that Giuliani and several colleagues made the request during a telephone call after the county initially misreported its election results. The inaccurate tallies meant that Joe Biden appeared to have beaten Trump by 3,000 votes in a Republican stronghold, an error that soon placed Antrim at the center of false claims by Trump that the election had been stolen. Rossiter said he declined. 'I said, "I can't just say: give them here." We don't have that magical power to just demand things as prosecutors. You need probable cause.' Even if he had had sufficient grounds to take the machines as evidence, Rossiter said, he could not have released them to outsiders or a party with an interest in the matter." County elections officials soon corrected & acknowledged the mistakes.

"The Supreme Court Has Crossed the Rubicon." Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times on the 5-4 Supreme Court shadow-docket ruling to stay lower courts' rulings against Alabama Republicans' gerrymandering which violated the remnants of Voting Rights Act: "Chief Justice Roberts objected that the ordinary standards under which the Supreme Court grants a stay of a lower court opinion had not been met.... Justice Elena Kagan, joined by Justices Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor, also dissented in a more extensive opinion that accused the majority of using the court's emergency 'shadow docket' not only to intervene improperly on behalf of the state but also to change voting rights law in the process.... What happened Monday night was a raw power play by a runaway majority that seems to recognize no stopping point, [especially because the same justices refused to stay Texas' unconstitutional abortion law]."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Wednesday readied plans for U.S. military forces to help evacuate Americans once they cross into Poland should Russia attack Ukraine, preparations that came one day ahead of a major Russian military exercise on Ukraine's border that some officials fear could provide cover for an invasion. About 7,500 Americans are registered with the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv and thousands more could be in the country but the U.S. government has no way to track them, according to U.S. officials."

~~~~~~~~~~

Dan Lamothe & Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "Senior White House and State Department officials failed to grasp the Taliban's steady advance on Afghanistan's capital and resisted efforts by U.S. military leaders to prepare the evacuation of embassy personnel and Afghan allies weeks before Kabul's fall, placing American troops ordered to carry out the withdrawal in greater danger, according to sworn testimony from multiple commanders involved in the operation. An Army investigative report, numbering 2,000 pages and released to The Washington Post through a Freedom of Information Act request, details the life-or-death decisions made daily by U.S. soldiers and Marines sent to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands converged on the airfield in a frantic bid to escape.... Military personnel would have been 'much better prepared to conduct a more orderly' evacuation, Navy Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, the top U.S. commander on the ground during the operation, told Army investigators, 'if policymakers had paid attention to the indicators of what was happening on the ground.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kyle Blaine, et al., of CNN: "Second gentleman Doug Emhoff is safe after being ushered out of a room at a Washington, DC, high school by the Secret Service after a bomb threat to the building, his spokesperson said. '"U.S. Secret Service was made aware of a security threat at a school where the @SecondGentleman was meeting with students and faculty. Mr. Emhoff is safe and the school has been evacuated. We are grateful to Secret Service and D.C. Police for their work,' Emhoff's spokesperson Katie Peters wrote on Twitter.... District of Columbia Public Schools press secretary Enrique Gutierrez told reporters at the event that a bomb threat had been called into Dunbar High School in Northwest Washington, where Emhoff was holding an event." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

House Keeps Playing Kick-the-Can. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday approved legislation to keep the government funded through mid-March, temporarily averting a shutdown as lawmakers struggle to reach a longer-term agreement on spending for federal agencies and departments for the remainder of the year. With funding set to lapse on Feb. 18, the decision to pass a three-week extension was an admission that private negotiations between Republicans and Democrats have so far failed to bridge disagreements over how to allocate billions of dollars in federal spending. Under the bill passed on Tuesday, by a vote of 272 to 162, the new deadline for a deal is March 11."

When does a white supremacist not know he's a white supremacist? When he's Ron Johnson, the Stupiest Senator. ~~~

~~~ Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Sen. Ron Johnson on Tuesday accused President Joe Biden's nominee to serve as the top U.S. antisemitism envoy of engaging in 'malicious poison' after the renowned Holocaust scholar [Deborah Lipstadt] called out the Wisconsin Republican for 'white supremacy.'... When Lipstadt got her long-awaited hearing on Tuesday, she offered the apology for her critical tweet about Johnson that the senator had denied insisting on as a condition of advancing her nomination. But she and Johnson also tangled openly.... In a March tweet, Lipstadt charged Johnson with engaging in 'white supremacy/nationalism. Pure and simple.' She was referring to Johnson telling a radio host last year that he would have been more fearful of Black Lives Matter protesters rioting at the Capitol than the supporters of ... Donald Trump who did so on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump's supporters 'love this country ... truly respect law enforcement, [and] would never do anything to break the law,' Johnson said.... Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), the chair of the Foreign Relations Committee, defended Lipstadt..., noting that many of the rioters 'literally wore and bore Nazi symbolism' on that day.... He called Johnson's comments about Jan. 6 'deeply problematic.'..."

Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "The House on Tuesday passed a sweeping bipartisan bill that would overhaul the US Postal Service's finances and allow the agency to modernize its service. The Postal Service Reform Act -- which cleared the House by 342-92 -- would require retired postal employees to enroll in Medicare whe eligible, while dropping a previous mandate that forced the agency to cover its health care costs years in advance. Those two measures would save the USPS nearly $50 billion over the next decade, according to the House Oversight Committee. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has vowed to take up the long-sought legislation before the end of next week."

Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell disagreed Tuesday with the Republican National Committee's recent censure of two GOP lawmakers, as well as its characterization of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. 'We all were here. We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election, from one administration to the next. That's what it was,' McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters at his weekly news conference. His remarks followed an outcry from Democrats and some Republicans after the RNC approved a resolution Friday accusing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., of 'participating in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse,' a reference to the Jan. 6 committee." A New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gonna Getcha, Getcha, Getcha. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Prosecutors have provided a revealing glimpse of their strategy for the first trial stemming from the attack on the Capitol, unveiling an inventory of the extensive evidence they intend to introduce, including surveillance videos, police communications, text messages, geolocation data and testimony from a Secret Service agent and the defendant's own children. The defendant in the trial, set to begin on Feb. 28, is Guy Wesley Reffitt, an oil industry worker who prosecutors say was a member of the Texas Three Percenters, a far-right group connected to the gun rights movement. Mr. Reffitt stands accused of storming the Capitol with a pistol at his waist. The charges against him include interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder and obstructing Congress's duty to certify the results of the 2020 election."

Ben Collins of NBC News: "Investigators for the House Jan. 6 committee are scrutinizing rallies and events as far back as a year before the Capitol riot in an effort to identify a broader network of planning and the causes of the attack, according to a half-dozen people helping conduct the committee's investigation who spoke with NBC News. The committee's investigators are zeroing in on events attended by members of domestic extremist movements like the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in 2020. Those events include Covid lockdown protests, counterprotests to some racial justice demonstrations, armed protest activity focused on state Capitols across the U.S., and 'Stop the Steal' rallies that occurred prior to Jan. 6, 2021."

Man Out on Bail for Attempted Murder Arrested for Legitimate Political Discourse. Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Federal authorities have arrested Matthew Beddingfield for his role in the Capitol insurrection, which he attended with his father while out on bail for a first-degree attempted murder charge. Beddingfield, who was arrested on Tuesday, was caught on camera brawling with police and entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6. He could also be seen jabbing at cops with a flagpole, and later was spotted inside the building. In addition to several misdemeanors, he faces felony charges of assaulting officers, impeding officers during a civil disorder, and carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon on restricted Capitol grounds, as first reported by NBC News.... In long conversations with [the] HuffPost..., [Beddingfield's father Jason] Beddingfield acknowledged that he himself had traveled to the Capitol on Jan. 6 in support of ... Donald Trump..., but was adamant that his son wasn't there." Citizen sleuths first identified the younger Beddingfield using facial recognition software. Charles was out on bond for allegedly having shot a man in the head. ~~~

~~~ Michael Kunzelman of the AP: Also arrested Tuesday was Eric Gerwatowski, 31, of New Hyde Park, New York. Gerwatowski, too, was first identified by citizens using facial recognition software. "A video showed Gerwatowski at the front of a crowd where police were trying to close doors to stop rioters from entering the Capitol. He pulled open one of the doors that police had just closed, turned to the crowd, yelled, 'Let's Go!' and then entered the building, the FBI says." According to the report, Charles Beddingfield was not out on bond but "was on probation for a criminal conviction in North Carolina, and his probation officer identified him in photos of the riot, the FBI says."

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "U.S. Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger said Tuesday that an officer conducted a security check of a Capitol Hill office that was left open, rejecting a GOP congressman's claim that police were involved in an illegal probe last November. In a Twitter thread Tuesday, Rep. Troy E. Nehls (R-Tex.) claimed without evidence that 'The @CapitolPolice Intelligence Division investigated my office illegally and one of my staffers caught them in the act.'... [An officer] entered [Nehls'] office in the Longworth House Office Building with no prior notice Nov. 20, 2021, ahead of the Thanksgiving break, and took pictures of a whiteboard. The officer filed a report raising concerns about the contents of the whiteboard, which included mentions of 'body armor' and a poorly drawn map of the Rayburn House Office Building -- which is also part of the Capitol complex -- that had an X at one of the building's entrances." Nehls proffered innocent explanations for the entries on the whiteboard & said he thought the Capitol Police were targeting him because he had been vocal in his criticism of the January 6 committee.

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "'Today, while heading to the House floor for votes, I respectfully asked my colleague @RepHalRogers [R-Ky.] to put on a mask while boarding the train,' [Rep. Joyce] Beatty [D-Ohio] tweeted. 'He then poked my back, demanding I get on the train. When I asked him not to touch me, he responded, "kiss my a--."'... Beatty, 71, said the exchange was 'the kind of disrespect we have been fighting for years,' and indicative of the wider problem of Republicans legislators disregarding health and safety mandates put in place in Congress at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic. Beatty has publicly called on Rogers to apologize.... In a statement, Rogers, 84, said he had met with Beatty to personally apologize.... Members of the Congressional Black Caucus gathered Tuesday evening to condemn the incident between Beatty and Rogers, and called on Rogers to publicly apologize as well." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: These ole white boys think they can mistreat women with impunity; they especially think they can mistreat older women; & they think they have a duty to mistreat older Black women. Rogers' outburst had nothing to do with mask-wearing & everything to do with his taking umbrage at the very idea that a Black woman would dare to tell an ole white boy what to do.

Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Yet again, the GOP is being dragged into internal recriminations and down an extreme road that could lead to violence and fresh assaults on democracy by the demagoguery, loyalty demands and obsessions of [Donald Trump]. The RNC's whitewashing of the true nature of the insurrection is typical of the cult-like subservience many in the party still show to Trump. It made clear that the price of entry to the 2022 campaign for Republicans is now not just acceptance of Trump's stolen election delusions but a willingness to deny the truth of the worst attack on democracy in modern American history.... The GOP's march toward extremism will never slow while Trump is dominant."

Fake "Author" of The Art of the Deal Made a Terrible Deal with China. Katie Lobosco of CNN: "China fell more than $213 billion short of its commitment to increase purchases of US goods and services that it made to ... Donald Trump in 2020, according to a report released Tuesday. The commitment was made in what's known as the Phase One deal, in which Beijing promised to purchase $200 billion more in American exports than it had in 2017, before a US-China trade war began. Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping both stopped escalating tariffs after the deal was signed.... 'China bought none of the additional $200 billion of exports Trump's deal had promised,' wrote Chad Bown, a senior fellow at the [Peterson I]nstitute, in his report.... Experts had been skeptical from the start that China would be able to meet the ambitious purchase commitments.... The Phase One agreement didn't include any repercussions for China if it missed its goals. But President Joe Biden suggested last month that China's failure to meet the purchase commitments is the reason he's leaving Trump's tariffs on Chinese-made goods in place, despite facing pressure from the US business community to lift them."

Steve Vladek of MSNBC, in responding to the Supreme Court's 5-4 "shadow docket" ruling to allow Alabama Republicans to get away with a violation of what's left of the Voting Rights Act, argues that, "The more SCOTUS justices hand down major decisions affecting the rights of millions of people without explanation, the more they wear out the legitimacy of the institution itself.... During the Trump administration, for instance, the justices routinely used shadow docket orders to allow controversial policies that lower courts had blocked to go back into effect while those rulings were appealed. Virtually none of those policies were ever actually upheld by the Supreme Court. Since the start of the pandemic, the court has used shadow docket orders to block gathering restrictions in a number of blue states based on a novel understanding of the religious liberty protected by the First Amendment.... [One] innovation in recent years has been the court's treatment of even unsigned and unexplained orders as having precedential value -- and its criticism of lower courts for refusing to read between the lines."

Adela Suliman of the Washington Post: "A judge in San Antonio has ordered the United States Air Force to pay more than $230 million in damages to the survivors and families of victims of a Texas church shooting in 2017, where 26 people were killed and 22 injured by a former airman. U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez described in his judgment how, in a span of seven minutes and 24 seconds, the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, fired 450 rounds using an AR-556 rifle. Worshipers at the small First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., scrambled to take cover under pews during the routine Sunday service, and the massacre left children among the dead and multigenerational gaps in some families." (Also linked yesterday.)

Heather Morgan Is a Versatile Crook. Sarah Emerson of BuzzFeed News: "A husband and wife were arrested in Manhattan on Tuesday for allegedly conspiring to launder $4.5 billion in stolen cryptocurrency. In an announcement, the Department of Justice called its confiscation of 94,000 bitcoins, which amounts to $3.6 billion, the agency's 'largest financial seize ever.' The department named Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan as the individuals responsible for allegedly attempting to launder 119,754 bitcoin stolen from the cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex. Bitfinex was targeted by hackers in August 2016 who '​​initiated more than 2,000 unauthorized transactions,' the DOJ said. Investigators claim the stolen bitcoins were sent to a digital wallet managed by Lichtenstein. Roughly 25,000 of those bitcoins were then allegedly moved to financial accounts controlled by Lichtenstein and Morgan while the remainder stayed in the wallet used in connection with the hack.... On Twitter, Morgan allegedly identified herself as a 'serial entrepreneur,' 'surreal artist,' 'rapper,' and 'also Forbes writer.' Indeed, a Forbes contributor page for Heather R Morgan lists numerous posts, including a story titled "Experts Share Tips to Protect Your Business From Cybercriminals.'"

God Forgives Me. Chicago Harlan of the Washington Post: "Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on Tuesday expressed his 'profound shame' to the victims of clerical abuse, and he said he was pained by 'errors' that occurred in various places across his career in the church. But he stopped short of acknowledging any specific personal responsibility after a church-commissioned German report accused him of mishandling four cases during his time running the archdiocese of Munich between 1977 and 1982. 'However great my fault may be today, the Lord forgives me, if I sincerely allow myself to be examined by him, and am really prepared to change,' the 94-year-old retired pope wrote." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Pandemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here.

New York. Luis Ferré-Sadurní & Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "Gov. Kathy Hochul will drop New York's stringent indoor mask mandate on Wednesday, ending a requirement that businesses ask customers for proof of full vaccination or require mask-wearing at all times, and marking a turning point in the state's coronavirus response, according to three people briefed on her decision." The Hill's story is here.

Canada/U.S. Amanda Coletta, et al., of the Washington Post: "The busiest crossing on the U.S.-Canada land border was obstructed on Tuesday as demonstrations against vaccine mandates and other coronavirus public health measures that have paralyzed Canada's capital spread to a crucial trade artery. The Canada Border Services Agency said Tuesday that the Ambassador Bridge, which links Windsor, Ontario, to Detroit, was 'temporarily closed' for passengers and commercial traffic. The Michigan Department of Transportation also said the border was closed. Windsor Police said 'limited traffic' was being allowed into the United States." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Butt Out, Trump, et al. Amy Cheng of the Washington Post: "Senior Canadian officials hit back Monday at high-profile U.S. Republicans who have voiced support for the self-described 'Freedom Convoy,' as the group continued to block traffic in downtown Ottawa in protest of vaccine rules for cross-border truckers." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "In a move intended to address its history of segregation, trustees at the University of Alabama agreed last week that a building named for David Bibb Graves, a former governor and Ku Klux Klan leader, will also carry the name of Autherine Lucy Foster, who in 1956 was the first Black person to attend the school. The decision to rename the building Lucy-Graves Hall was made on Thursday, exactly 66 years after Ms. Foster started classes on the university's campus in Tuscaloosa, Ala.... The decision drew a swift backlash. The student newspaper, The Crimson White, said the building should not bear the name of a person who endorsed white supremacy at any time." MB: The rationale for retaining Graves' name seems to be that he wasn't as bad as other Klan members.

California. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: "The University of California has agreed to pay $243 million to settle the claims of 203 women who alleged sexual misconduct by a gynecologist at the Los Angeles campus, the latest among several nine-figure payouts that universities have announced in recent years in response to sexual abuse allegations. The payout in the case of Dr. James Heaps, who was affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, in various roles from 1983 to 2018, comes on top of a $73 million settlement made public in November 2020 to resolve a class-action suit that involved more than 5,000 people who had been patients of Dr. Heaps since the 1980s."

Colorado. Bente Birkeland of Colorado Public Radio: "Mesa county's Republican clerk and recorder, Tina Peters, who is currently being investigated by a grand jury for election tampering and misconduct, was arrested on unrelated charges Tuesday in Grand Junction. The incident occurred as police were trying to carry out a search warrant to seize Peters' iPad to determine whether she illegally recorded a criminal court hearing Monday. According to the affidavit for the search warrant, Peters may have used her iPad to film part of the hearing, in spite of posted signs saying recordings are prohibited, and then lied to the judge about her actions. If Peters is found to have done those things, she could be charged with attempting to influence a public servant. The court hearing was in the case of Mesa county's deputy clerk, Belinda Knisley..., [who] was placed on paid leave last year after ... [being] charged with burglary and misdemeanor cyber crimes for allegedly ... trying to access the election office's secure computer systems using Peters' login information." Peters resisted arrest by yelling at the arresting officers & kicking them. Allegedly. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Peters -- a Big Lie conspiracy believer -- is a MyPillow Guy acolyte. For a while, Mike Lindell was hiding her from the FBI. I think she's out of the running for public servant of the month. But maybe in a new Trump administration, she'll get Chris Krebs' old job as U.S. cybersecurity honcho.

Maryland Senate Race. Steve Peoples & Brian Witte of the AP: "Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced Tuesday that he will not run for the U.S. Senate, rebuffing an aggressive recruitment push from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and other Republicans who saw the term-limited governor as the GOP's best chance to win in the deep-blue state. Hogan announced his decision during an unrelated afternoon press conference in the state Capitol, explaining that he could not finish his term as governor effectively and run for the Senate at the same time." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. thinks McConnell's calling "a violent insurrection" "a violent insurrection" was caused by Mitch's anger at Donald Trump for discouraging Hogan to run for the Senate.

Missouri. White Couple Prohibited from Waving Guns at Black People. Dan Margolies of NPR Kansas City: "The Missouri Supreme Court on Tuesday indefinitely suspended the law licenses of two St. Louis attorneys who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters in 2020, but it stayed their suspensions and placed them on probation for a year. The orders came after Missouri's chief disciplinary counsel last year asked the court to suspend the law licenses of Mark McCloskey and his wife, Patricia McCloskey, in connection with their guilty pleas to misdemeanors stemming from the gun-waving incident. The orders mean that if they violate the terms of their probation, their law licenses could be suspended indefinitely.... The court also ordered them to provide 100 hours of pro bono legal services during their terms of probation.... Missouri Gov. Mike Parson pardoned both ... [for the assault & harassment charges to which they pleaded guilty]." Mark McCloskey said he may appeal the state supreme court's ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. MB: The McCloskeys appeared in a video during the first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention because, you know, Second Amendment, Black people.

North Carolina Congressional Election. Marshall Cohen & Ethan Cohen of CNN: "The North Carolina State Board of Elections said on Monday that it has the power to block GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn from running for reelection over his role in the January 6 insurrection -- an open legal question at the center of liberal-backed efforts to disqualify him from future office. The bipartisan election board made the assertion in a court filing in a case Cawthorn brought against the board, hoping to shut down the constitutional challenge to his candidacy. Liberal activists filed the challenge to his candidacy last month. Their argument revolves around the little-used 'disqualification clause' of the US Constitution, which was ratified after the Civil War to prevent Confederate officials and those who supported 'insurrection' from returning to office."

Way Beyond

Russia/Ukraine/France. BBC News: "French President Emmanuel Macron has told reporters that President Vladimir Putin assured him that Russian forces would not ramp up the crisis near Ukraine's borders. 'I secured an assurance there would be no deterioration or escalation,' he said before meeting Ukraine's leader. However, Russia said any suggestion of a guarantee was 'not right'."

News Ledes

New York Times: "As a consequence of a geomagnetic storm triggered by a recent outburst of the sun, up to 40 of 49 newly launched [Space-X] Starlink satellites have been knocked out of commission. They are in the process of re-entering Earth's atmosphere, where they will be incinerated."

New York Times: "Bob Saget, the stand-up comedian and actor known for playing Danny Tanner on 'Full House,' died of head trauma after he accidentally hit something, his family said in a statement on Wednesday. Mr. Saget, 65, was found unresponsive on Jan. 9 in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lake, and he was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Orange County Sheriff's Office." An AP report is here.

CNN's live updates of the Winter Olympics are here. The AP's liveblog is here.

Comments

[Akhilleus]

No one but those who are just out of a 20 year coma could possibly believe that Moscow Mitch is taking the RNC to task based on his love of good government, fealty to oath of office, mom, apple pie and the USA. He is a slithering, conniving viper whose only loyalty is to himself and his own personal power.

So, yeah, maybe he did it because he’s pissed at Fatty for fucking up his plan to take over the senate and reinstall himself as that body’s Dark Lord. Or maybe he thinks the traitors in the House and that uppity Ronna McDaniel have forgotten who the sheriff is in Traitor Town. Maybe he saw some polls and thought hmmm…do I wanna be lumped in with these clowns? Or…maybe he’s happy to have the yokels and the knuckleheads do his dirty work for him so he can come along with his tsk, tsk, tsk, which will make a nice anecdote for his self-serving memoir.

Who knows?

What I do know is that the geniuses in the Party of Traitors (including, presumably, Moscow Man), have made a huge tactical error in blowing off the Jan. 6 committee. Their belief in their own supremacy and wonderfulness, bolstered 24/7 by the flaming doucheknobs at Fox and Newsmax, and in the Echo Chamber of the damned (right wing talk radio) led them to think that by ignoring the committee and by refusing to participate (ie, do their fucking jobs), that no one would pay attention and it would all blow over so they could back to stealing elections, scooping up donor cash from morons like Pillow Guy, and urinating on the Constitution.

Instead, they get a bunch of incredibly damaging stories trumpeted every day on news sites, including this one. Now no one believes that they would have succeeded in getting a Gym Jordan or MTG or some other barking mad rama-lama ding dong on the committee, but had a Tom Cotton type weaseled through the cracks, they could have done their best to gum up the works, ask stoopid questions, and generally waste everyone’s time by pouring Traitor Sugar in the committee’s gas tank. Instead, the committee has been supercharged and is speeding along on high octane facts, with more being pumped in every day.

Now, maybe not much comes of this (by that I mean Fatty in an XXXL orange jumpsuit), but when even a rat bastard little schnook like mikey pence climbs aboard to talk about treason in high places, well, this likely ain’t what the crooks and thugs had in mind when they painted themselves into this corner.

So instead of the big nothingburger they were hoping for, we’re all waiting for duck a l’orange, well cooked.

[citizen625]

Hal Rogers: who is this numb skull? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Rogers: "He has a zero percent rating from the Human Rights Campaign " and "92% rating" from the Christian Coalition. Now I'm going to wash myself.

[Forrest Morris]

Hal Rogers looks like the future leader of the Republican Party.
He's against funding for NPR.
13% rating from the Humane Society--anti animal voting record.
28% rating from NAACP.
Opposes same-sec marriage.
He's for discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Against prosecution for anti-gay hate crimes,
and on and on.
Whatta guy!

[RAS]

The Jan. 6th committee is supposed to start doing some public hearings in the coming months. That is where McCarthy and McConnell will miss their attack dogs the most. Instead of the usual committee posturing or only half the legislators doing their actual job we should get real questions and witnesses allowed to answer in full. I hope they put on quite the show.

[P.D. Pepe]

After watching the PBS American Master's on Marion Anderson last night –––her foray into a world that was accepting her, loving her, as an exceptional singer but when she and her white husband wanted to purchase a home with expansive land abutting it, was first turned down because of her race. No blacks allowed no matter what. They managed to buy it by purchasing that existing land around it.

Knowing the history of racism is still a shock to have it hit you in the gut time and again and the fact that we are now in the process of trying to whitewash this history in the banning of books that detail this evil that is still with us.

And I got to thinking–-- one of the reasons we still have this animus is because the black population reminds these white nationalists that we all come from the same protoplasm that was swimming in the waters and eventually found its way onto land and then....What does that do to their God––white of course, who granted them life? I'm sure they wouldn't ever describe it thusly, but I wonder if it may be one of the factors.

Forest on Hal Rogers: ain't that the truth!

[P.D. Pepe]

To piggy back on Marie's link to Linda Greenhouse's piece above. here's something from the New Yorker:

Amy Coney Barrett's Long Game:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/14/amy-coney-barretts-long-game

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Would that that were true, that the winger racists and haters recognized that we are all the same. They don’t. Would Hal Rogers have treated a white lady like that? Never. He, like Trump and millions who support their bigotry, see blacks (and all non-whites, presumably) as lesser creatures, who have no business speaking to a white man, never mind instructing or correcting him.

The animus you refer to stems not from a reluctance to admit that we are all the same, but from a baked in assurance that we are not, that whites (and white men especially) are superior in every way, even if they are fat ignorant puddles of foul, Black Death vomit like Hal Rogers.