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January 10, 2022
New York Times: "With the threat of Russian military action in eastern Ukraine stirring concern across Europe, American and Russian officials met on Monday to try and find a diplomatic path to ease tensions and avoid the potential for bloodshed. The official delegations, led by a Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, and the American deputy secretary of state, Wendy Sherman, sat down at the U.S. Mission in Geneva just after 9 a.m. local time, the StateDepartment said. This is a liveblog.
Lighting the U.S. the Trump Way.Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "Before Donald Trump launched his war against energy-efficient appliances, incandescent lightbulbs were on their way out. Federal rules required retailers to take them off their shelves by 2020 and sell replacements that would save customers money and energy instead. That transition didn't happen. Now the Biden administration is working to reinstate those rules and a dozen other efficiency regulations weakened under the former president -- an unglamorous but effective way to cut energy use and fight climate change. But the Energy Department faces delays, bureaucratic obstacles and a huge backlog of long-overdue standards affecting dozens of household appliances, threatening the government's ability to slash greenhouse gas emissions.... As of last month, 33 energy efficiency standards for home appliances and equipment including gas furnaces, freezers and clothes dryers are overdue for updates, the department said, after Trump officials failed to act on them for four years. As many as 30 more will come due by the end of Biden's term."
He Can Dish It Out But.... Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, announced on Sunday that he was refusing to cooperate with the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, joining a growing list of allies of ... Donald J. Trump who have adopted a hostile stance toward the panel's questions.... Mr. Jordan was deeply involved in Mr. Trump's effort to fight the election results, including participating in planning meetings in November 2020 at Trump campaign headquarters in Arlington, Va., and a meeting at the White House in December 2020." Politico's report is here.
The Conspiracy Widens. Ivana Seric of Axios: "Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham named 'a lot of names' during their phone call about the events of Jan. 6, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) told CNN.... Raskin, a member of the House select committee investigating the insurrection, invited Grisham to testify before the committee after the two had a 'candid' phone call about what was happening in the White House that day.... According to Raskin, Grisham named a 'lot of names I had not hear before' and 'identified some lines of inquiry that had never occurred to me' during the course of their phone call...." (The CNN link is to an item in a January 7 liveblog.
Joseph Choi of the Hill: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday accused Republicans across the country of carrying out a 'legislative continuation' of Jan. 6, 2021, through new election laws that she said 'undermine our democracy.'"
Joseph Choi of the Hill: "House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) lambasted Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Sunday for saying a vote on changing voting rights laws must be bipartisan.... 'I am, as you know, a Black person, descended of people who were given the vote by the 15th Amendment to the United States Constitution. The 15th Amendment was not a bipartisan vote. It was a single-party vote that gave Black people the right to vote,' Clyburn told [Bret] Baier [of Fox 'News']. 'Manchin and others need to stop saying that because that gives me great pain for somebody to imply that the 15th Amendment of the United States Constitution is not legitimate because it did not have bipartisan buy-in,' he added."
Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Biden, Democratic leaders and their emissaries are trying to convince Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to pass a sweeping federal elections bill with a menu of filibuster alternatives. The problem is speaking with him is 'like negotiating via Etch A Sketch,' sources with direct knowledge of his recent meetings tell Axios.... 'You think you're just about there. You think you've got an agreement on most of the things and it's settling in. And then you come back the next morning and you're starting from scratch,' said the one source who made the Etch A Sketch analogy. To date, Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) haven't wavered in their opposition to lowering the 60-vote threshold for passing major legislation or creating a one-time carve-out to bypass the filibuster. That's made the conversations largely futile." MB: Or, to put the obvious more bluntly, Manchin is a slimy bastid who does not negotiate in good faith.
Ashley Parker & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post examine how important Fox "News" was to setting Donald Trump's policy priorities. Not only were Fox "News" personalities acting as advisors to Trump -- a relationship they did not reveal to their audience -- but Trump would make some decisions based on what their guests said. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brady Dennis & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "U.S. greenhouse gas emissions roared back in 2021, the latest indicator that the country remains far off track from meeting President Biden's ambitious climate change targets for the end of this decade. A 17 percent surge in coal-fired electricity helped drive an overall increase of 6.2 percent in greenhouse gas emissions compared with the previous year, according to an analysis published Monday by the Rhodium Group. While emissions remained below pre-pandemic levels, it marked the first annual increase in reliance on the nation's dirtiest fossil fuel since 2014, the independent research firm said." MB: Let's ask Joe Manchin how he's going to fix that for the grandkids.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Monday are here.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Bruce Haring of Deadline: "... Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has tested positive for Covid-19, her office said in a statement. Ocasio-Cortez, who is fully vaccinated and has had a booster shot, is 'experiencing symptoms and recovering at home,' her office said in a statement.... The congresswoman caused a recent stir by vacationing without a mask in Florida, which has few requirements for pandemic protections. Critics pointed out that her home state of New York has many restrictions."
Australia. Damien Cave & Matthew Futterman of the New York Times: "Novak Djokovic, the Serbian tennis star, won a legal victory on Monday in his bid to avoid deportation from Australia, as a judge ordered the government to release him from detention and restore a visa it had canceled because Djokovic has not been vaccinated for Covid-19."
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "The owner of a Georgia auto-repair shop who dumped 91,500 oil-covered pennies in a former employee's driveway was not just creating a sticky mess..., the U.S. Department of Labor said. He was also retaliating against the former employee for having complained to the department that he had not received his final paycheck, the agency said in a lawsuit that accuses the shop owner of violating federal labor law. The lawsuit represents the latest turn in an employment dispute that gained nationwide attention last year after the former employee's girlfriend posted a video of the oily pennies on Instagram, attracting the sympathies of thousands of people who said they, too, had contended with difficult bosses.... 'By law, worker engagement with the U.S. Department of Labor is protected activity,' Steven Salazar, district director of the department's wage and hour division in Atlanta, said in a statement. 'Workers are entitled to receive information about their rights in the workplace and obtain the wages they earned without fear of harassment or intimidation.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
New York. Grace Ashford of the New York Times: New York City "Mayor Eric Adams, setting aside prior misgivings, allowed a bill that would grant more than 800,000 noncitizens the right to vote in municipal elections to become law on Sunday.... The measure applies to legal residents, including those with green cards and so-called Dreamers who were brought to the country illegally as children but were allowed to remain under a federal program known as DACA." The AP's story is here.
Virginia. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Over three tumultuous years, [Gov. Ralph] Northam recovered from the scandal [of appearing in blackface in his medical school yearbook] to become what Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) [-- a former Virginia governor himself --] calls the most consequential Virginia governor of the modern era. Northam led a Democratic majority in the General Assembly to abolish the death penalty, expand access to the vote, legalize marijuana and pass a long list of other changes, large and small. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Kazakhstan. Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "At least 5,800 people have been detained and more than 2,000 injured during several days of violence last week in Kazakhstan, government officials said on Sunday, after protests ignited by a fuel price hike set off a political crisis and prompted the president to seek help from a Russia-led security alliance to restore order. The protests, which started last weekend in western Kazakhstan and spread thousands of miles east, also left the country's most populous city, Almaty, in disarray. On Sunday, government officials said that the chaos had been 'gradually stabilizing,' and that thousands of people had been swept up in an 'anti-terrorist' operation.... On Sunday, the Kazakh Health Ministry said that at least 164 people had died in the violence, including 103 in Almaty. But that figure was called into question later when the message was deleted from an official Kazakh government channel on Telegram.... The Information Ministry told Orda.kz, a local news site, that the message had been posted after a technical error."
Myanmar. Richard Paddock of the New York Times: "Myanmar's ousted civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, was convicted Monday and sentenced to four years in prison for possessing walkie-talkies in her home and for violating Covid-19 protocols. Altogether, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, has been sentenced to a total of six years in prison so far, with many more charges pending against her.... Her defenders have said the walkie-talkies belonged to her security detail, and that the charges were bogus and politically motivated."
News Ledes
New York Times: "Robert A. Durst, the scion of a New York real estate dynasty whose life dissolved in a calamity of suspicions over the unsolved disappearance of his first wife, the execution-style murder of a longtime confidante and the killing and dismemberment of an elderly neighbor, died early Monday as a prisoner in Stockton, Calif. He was 78."
New York Times: "After New York City's deadliest fire in decades, Mayor Eric Adams said on Monday that the door to the apartment where the blaze started may have failed to close as it was supposed to." This is a liveblog.
New York Times: "Bob Saget, the standup comic and actor known as Danny Tanner on 'Full House' and the host of 'America's Funniest Home Videos,' was found dead on Sunday in Florida. He was 65. His death was confirmed by the Orange County Sheriff's Office, which said that Mr. Saget was found unresponsive in a hotel room at the Ritz-Carlton Orlando, Grande Lakes. The cause of death was not known, but the Sheriff's Office said there were no signs of foul play or drug use."
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Reader Comments (8)
My vote for crassest realtor in the U.S.: I just got a cold call from a Miami realtor who asked me if I had considered selling a property I own in Fort Myers. I told her that I had considered it, but I decided not to because I had an elderly tenant living there and I wanted to allow her to stay as long as she was alive.
Without skipping a beat, the realtor asked, "Well, how long do you think that might be?"
Ezra Klein on "Steve Bannon [ who has made it his mission to recruit people who don't believe in democracy to serve as municipal poll workers] Is On to Something:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/09/opinion/trump-bannon-trumpism-democracy.html
Fury is useful only as fuel––says Klein, stop whining and run for a position of power to make a change. Democrats have to win more elections and to do that they need to make sure the country's LOCAL electoral machinery isn't corrupted by the Trumpist right.
And speaking of running for something: It looks to me that anyone with half a sense and the ability to speak can become a congress person. At present we have a whole lot of numskulls sitting in those leather seats. The latest person who has thrown his hat into the ring is a man, affectionally known, as Dr. Oz––an apt name in this case reminiscent of the behind the curtain wizard whom Dorthy exposed as a fraud. Today's Oz has made millions selling bogus medicinal remedies on T.V. and yet he, like other questionable candidates, can be elected. Should we then conclude that running for Congress is comparable to running for dog=catcher?
@Marie: Unbelievable! and actually very funny. Good for you to care for your tenant that way–--warms my heart on this cold winter day–-thanks.
P.D.
Fear and anger are great motivators, and Republicans have deliberately tapped those two emotions for forever...
Bannon and his ilk are just more direct and unapologetic about stoking them.
This one may have already been linked here; in any case, it is illustrative of Klein's point.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/01/08/far-right-school-boards/
Sent it along to my school board son, with a question: "Coming to a town near you?" I hope the question remains a joke, tho my worry is genuine.
The way I see the situation Klein points to is this: In the war for democracy, the liberal forces aren't as pissed off as the autocrats.
They--we--are too tolerant, too nice, too live and let live and frankly I don't know what to do about it...
That business about the meek inheriting the earth is at least questionable...or as basketball sage Charles Barkley put it, "The meek may inherit the earth, but they don't get rebounds.."
Speaking of meatheads occupying legislative leather seats:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/01/10/scott-baldwin-indiana-nazism-fascism/
Indiana R StateRep. Baldwin proposes a law that prohibits teachers from "changing" students. In the discussion, he first said that teachers should not express value judgments on Nazis, fascists, communists, then backtracked to say that what he meant to say is that teachers shouldn't teach "politics."
Clearly, the meathead thinks that Nazism is up for discussion again, as a current political idea, as in "sure Hitler was evil, but he had some good ideas." VW, the autobahn, spiffy uniforms ... what else?
Stalin's ideas were always "the best." You could have asked him, he'd tell you.
Is there hope for any of these folks? Or will they and their spawn be blockheads forever?
Patrick,
What fascinates me about the yahoos you mention is where their "logic" would take schools, or considering schools as a microcosm of the country, the country itself.
So schools can no longer teach anything political
Since politics is the action arm of what we consider right and true and just, of morality itself,.strictly interpreted, that would mean schools would have to avoid history, literature, health education and even "controversial" science, much of which is now to Republicans a mere matter of opinion.
Guess that leaves arithmetic. But even math is rife with problems for Republicans. They don't much like numbers either.
Maybe Baldwin just wants to close schools entirely.
Sure would save a lot of money.
A perpetual compliance loop
An Oklahoma congressman has proposed several new laws to empower sheriffs in the state to arrest federal agents that come to take the people's guns, make the feds ask permission to operate in their county, and allow the sheriffs to create a posse to stop the government from violating citizens' constitutional rights.
When a sheriff and an FBI agent pull their guns on each other and say "freeze, lower your gun, you are under arrest!" Who complies? Is it like the old sci-fi shows with the robots that are in a paradox and both their heads explode?
MSNBC has new fish to fry-- Richard Engle is wearing winter regalia, and glory be, now we can all obsess with Russia and the Ukraine. We all know what Putin is capable of, what he HAS done, and what he would LIKE to do. You know what? I don't want to think about Russia. It might be intriguing to some, but with our own country figuratively and literally (periodically--) on fire, I find myself not caring. I would speculate that TFG encouraged this sort of crap, especially since Ukraine did not play ball with the lies demanded by the Orange Monster, and we all need to be unswayed by Russia's demands and threats. They may have been headed in a better direction many years ago-- we were friends of Samantha Smith's family when she was doing youthful diplomacy-- but Putin is a thug and he wants what he wants. Not unlike the Orange Monster. This is a distraction. We need to pay attention to our own thugs. I include Mansion. And the Mean Girl. No better than the Traitor Caucus.