;)
Monday
Jan302023
January 30, 2023
Afternoon Update:
William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office on Monday began presenting evidence to a grand jury about Donald J. TrumpAlvin L. Bragg, is nearing a decision about whether to charge Mr. Trump.... The developments compound Mr. Trump's legal woes in the early days of his third presidential campaign." NPR's story is here.
California. Lisa Bonos & Joyce Lau of the Washington Post: "More details have emerged about the workplace dispute that led Zhao Chunli, 66, to allegedly kill seven people and attempt to kill another at two mushroom farms in Northern California a week ago. Zhao told investigators that his Half Moon Bay shooting was sparked after his boss asked him to pay a $100 repair bill for damage that had been done to heavy construction equipment, according to local news reports confirmed by San Mateo County District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe. After confronting his supervisor and a co-worker, whom Zhao thought were responsible for the collision between his forklift and a bulldozer, he allegedly shot them, according to reports confirmed by Wagstaffe."
Tennessee. Jessica Jaglois of the New York Times: "The Memphis Police Department confirmed on Monday that a sixth officer had been taken off duty in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols. Five officers were fired by the department earlier this month, soon after being placed on leave, and charged last week with second-degree murder in connection with Mr. Nichols's death. The sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, has been placed on administrative leave; it is not clear exactly what role he played in the encounter." ~~~
~~~ Adrian Sainz has the AP story. In an update, Sainz writes, "Also Monday, Fire Department officials announced the firing of emergency medical technicians Robert Long and JaMicheal Sandridge and fire[person?] Lt. Michelle Whitaker in connection with Nichols' death. Fire Chief Gina Sweat said in a statement that the department received a call from police to respond to a report of a person who had been pepper-sprayed.... Long and Sandridge, based on the nature of the call and information they were told by police, 'failed to conduct an adequate patient assessment of Mr. Nichols,' the statement said. Whitaker and the driver remained in the engine. An investigation determined that all three violated 'multiple' policies and protocols, the statement said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Am I alone in wondering if there was some other, perhaps personal, motivation here? All of these perps knew what happened to the killers of George Floyd. Why would they risk the same fate? This looks like a conspiracy among at least nine city officers to beat one man to death and/or to facilitate the murder. It's hard to believe the only reason is a shared general assumption they could get away with it.
David Firestone of the New York Times: "Former Attorney General William Barr has spent the last year in a desperate salvage operation for what's left of his legal and ethical reputation. During his 22 months in office, he allowed his Justice Department to become a personal protection racket for his boss, Donald Trump, and left prosecutors, the F.B.I. and other law enforcement officials subject to the worst impulses of the president. But then, in his 2022 memoir, Mr. Barr did an about-face, bashing Mr. Trump for lacking a presidential temperament and singling out his 'self-indulgence and lack of self-control.'... The hollow and self-serving nature of this turnabout was always apparent.... [And last week's Times] reporting demonstrated a staggering abuse of the special counsel system and the attorney general's office, all in a failed attempt by Mr. Barr to rewrite the sour truths of Mr. Trump's history.... His efforts came to naught, and so will his campaign to be remembered as a defender of the Constitution."
~~~~~~~~~~
Why Biden Won't Negotiate the Debt Limit: Been There, Done That. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "In 2011, after faltering debt limit negotiations with House Republicans brought the U.S. to the brink of economic calamity, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden sat by the fireplace in the Oval Office, with their top aides on the couch.... Obama and Biden made a vow: Never again. They agreed that going forward, 'Nobody can use the threat of default or not increasing the debt limit as a negotiating tool,' said a former Obama official involved in the fiscal discussions, who recounted the Oval Office meeting and the 'lesson of 2011' they all discussed." ~~~
~~~ But Kevin Is Optimistic! Olivia Olander of Politico: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Sunday he thinks President Joe Biden will come to an agreement with him regarding the debt ceiling, despite the Biden administration's previous assertions that they wouldn't negotiate with House Republicans on the issue. 'His staff tries to say something different, but I think the president will be willing to make an agreement together,' McCarthy said on CBS" 'Face the Nation.' The pair are scheduled to meet Wednesday, McCarthy said."
Merrick the Unready, Ctd. Zachary Cohen of CNN: "The Justice Department has told lawmakers on the Senate Intelligence Committee that it is working to satisfy their demands for information about classified documents found at properties of President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump without harming ongoing special counsel investigations into both matters, according to a new letter obtained by CNN. The DOJ letter, dated Saturday, responds to the committee's August request for information about the documents recovered from Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence and follow-up inquiries by the panel about classified material found at the Penn Biden Center as well as Biden's Wilmington, Delaware, home." MB: Wait, wait! Senators first asked for some of this info last August, and the DOJ is just now getting around to saying it's working on it? Based on actuarial tables, all of the DOJ principles involved in these investigations will be dead before any charges are brought. ~~~
~~~ Olivia Olander & Nicholas Wu of Politico: “Sens. Mark Warner and Marco Rubio, the leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, jointly said they spoke for their entire committee in demanding access to documents found in the possession of President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump. 'I don't know how congressional oversight on the documents, actually knowing what they are, in any way impedes an investigation,' Rubio (R-Fla.) said in an interview that aired Sunday on CBS" 'Face the Nation,' referring to the ongoing Justice Department investigations of the storage and handling of the documents."
2016 Presidential Election. Joe Conason in Commentary, republished by the Raw Story: "The arrest of Charles McGonigal, chief of the FBI counterintelligence division in New York from October 2016 until his retirement in 2018, reopens festering questions about the troubled election that put Donald Trump in the White House.... During his FBI career, McGonigal oversaw investigations of [Russian oligarch & Putin pal Oleg] Deripaska and other oligarchs suspected of various crimes, including espionage. Now the exposure of his illegal connection with Deripaska may provide fresh insights into Trump's tainted victory.... A month before Election Day, FBI director James Comey appointed McGonigal as special agent in charge of the FBI counterintelligence division in New York City.... What followed ... were two seemingly separate incidents, occurring days before the election, that had a fateful impact. On October 28, Comey sent a letter to the Congress publicly announcing that the bureau had resumed its investigation of [Hillary] Clinton.... Meanwhile, on October 31, 2016, the New York Times published a front-page story on that other FBI investigation..., which unlike her emails had gotten no public attention (and inspired no leaks). The headline was declarative and conclusive: 'Investigating Donald Trump, F.B.I. Sees No Clear Link to Russia.' That false story, exonerating Trump of Kremlin connections that we now know were extensive and incriminating, was pushed by Trump operatives and agents and clearly originated in the New York FBI counterintelligence division...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Conason is a long-time left-wing firebrand, but he's often right. I do think we're seeing the tip of the iceberg in McGonigal's arrest. So, one again, thanks, Jim Comey! And thanks, New York Times!
So Unfa-a-a-air! Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "In an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC News' 'Meet the Press,' [Rep. Jim] Jordan, R-Ohio, [the House Judiciary Committee chair,] suggested that there was a double standard between the discovery of classified documents held by [Donald] Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and the vice presidential papers found at [President] Biden's Delaware home and a Washington office. Jordan accused the FBI and other agencies of being 'weaponized': 'The FBI raided the home of a former president 91 days before an election, took the phone of a sitting member of Congress and on and on.' Todd pushed back, saying: 'There was nine months between the initial action. ... the [National] Archives requested documents before they even turned it over to the Justice Department. The subpoena was issued 60 days before they actually executed a subpoena. And more importantly, the only time the public found out about it is because Donald Trump told the public about it.... It was actually a year and a half of Donald Trump not complying with any of the requests from National Archives,' Todd said. 'This is not some sort of proof that somehow they've been weaponized and playing politics.' Jordan said: "They raided Trump's home. They haven't raided Biden's home.' 'Because Biden didn't defy a subpoena, congressman,' Todd said, adding that Trump had 60 days to comply before the FBI executed a search warrant." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe what's newsworthy here is that Both-Sider Chuck stood up to a Republican. ~~~
~~~ If Only We Had More White Cops. Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said on Sunday that there are not enough 'good people' applying to be officers, citing the 'defund the police' movement as a reason. 'The other thing that needs to frankly happen is we're not getting enough good people applying because of the of the disparagement on police officers,' Jordan told Chuck Todd on NBC's 'Meet the Press' in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols. 'They don't get enough people applying, taking the test to enter the academy, to be an officer because there's been this "defund the police" concept out there,' he continued." MB: Akhilleus did a nice job translating Jungle Gym in yesterday's Comments: Black cops and Black protesters are the real problem. ~~~
~~~ Now, here's something Jordan can endorse: an Ohio-bred homeschooling curriculum: ~~~
~~~ You've Got to Be Carefully Taught. David Gilbert of Vice: Since the ['Dissident Homeschool' Telegram channel] began in October 2021 it has openly embraced Nazi ideology and promoted white supremacy, while proudly discouraging parents from letting their white children play with or have any contact with people of any other race. Admins and members use racist, homophobic, and antisemitic slurs without shame, and quote Hitler and other Nazi leaders daily in a channel open to the public. Vice News joined the group simply by clicking on a link, though the list of members was not publicly visible.... The [Ohio] couple who run the channel are not only teaching parents how to indoctrinate their children into this fascist ideology, they're also encouraging them to meet up in real life and join even more radical groups.... Katja Lawrence, who is in her mid-30s, launched the channel in October 2021, because she 'was having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material for [her] homeschool children,' as she told the neo-Nazi podcast 'Achtung! Amerikaner' last year." Read on.
Beyond the Beltway
Tennessee. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, et al., of the New York Times: "Videos of the Jan. 7 beating [of Tyre Nichols] released on Friday have ... turned the public's attention to the emergency medical workers who first arrived on the scene after the beating, raising the question of whether they should or could have done more to help Mr. Nichols.... Both of the medical workers who arrived first to tend to Mr. Nichols appeared to be emergency medical technicians with the Memphis Fire Department.... A spokeswoman for the Fire Department said on Friday that the department had suspended two of its E.M.T.s who had treated Mr. Nichols and that an investigation was expected to wrap up early this week.... U.S. officials said they believed this strike was prompted by Israel's concerns about its own security, not the potential for missile exports to Russia."
Way Beyond
Israel/Iran. Ronen Bergman, et al., of the New York Times: "A drone attack on an Iranian military facility that resulted in a large explosion in the center of the city of Isfahan on Saturday was the work of the Mossad, Israel's premier intelligence agency, according to senior intelligence officials who were familiar with the dialogue between Israel and the United States about the incident. The facility's purpose was not clear, and neither was how much damage the strike caused. But Isfahan is a major center of missile production, research and development for Iran, including the assembly of many of its Shahab medium-range missiles, which can reach Israel and beyond."
Israel/Palestine. Matthew Lee of the AP: "U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel and the Palestinians on Monday to exercise restraint and ease tensions amid a spike in violence that has put the region on edge.... The latest spate of violence erupted last week with an Israeli military raid on a militant stronghold in the West Bank city of Jenin last week that killed 10 people, most of them militants, and a Palestinian shooting attack in an east Jerusalem Jewish settlement that killed seven Israelis. And, on Monday, shortly before Blinken's arrival, the Palestinian Health Ministry said Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the flashpoint city of Hebron, bringing the toll of Palestinians killed in January to 35."
Pakistan. Haq Khan of the Washington Post: "An explosion ripped through a mosque in the police compound in the northwest Pakistani city of Peshawar, bringing down the roof and killing at least 18, according to the hospital.... A spokesman for the Lady Reading Hospital in Peshar [sic.??] said there were 18 dead and 65 wounded, mostly policemen, but the toll is expected to rise as rescuers work through the mosque debris.... The Capital City Police compound in Peshawar is high security zone in this provincial capital.... The compound includes the headquarters for the counterterrorism and investigations departments." The AP's report, which has the death toll at 28 and the number of injured at 150, is here.
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for Russian athletes to be barred from competing in next year's Olympics while his country remains under attack.... The president said he has written to French President Emmanuel Macron to convey his request, after the International Olympic Committee reaffirmed last week that it will allow 'neutral athletes' from Russia and Belarus to participate without representing their state through flags, colors or anthems.... Ukrainian tank operators have arrived in the United Kingdom to receive training on how to use the Challenger 2 tanks that London recently pledged to send Kyiv.... -- including long-range weapons, advanced air defense systems and battle tanks -- have hampered Kyiv's ability to mount larger counteroffensive operations and take advantage of opportunities offered up 'by flaws and failures in Russian military operations,' analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank, said in their latest report.... Russian artillery struck a hospital, a school, residential buildings and municipal facilities in Kherson on Sunday, Zelensky said in his nightly address."
Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Former British prime minister Boris Johnson says Russian President Vladimir Putin personally threatened him with a missile attack in the run-up to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The accusation came in excerpts of a BBC documentary on Putin and the West set to air later Monday, and Johnson conceded that the Russian leader might have been joking. Johnson said Putin made the remarks during a 'very long' call in early February last year, as Russian troops were massing along the Ukraine border. Johnson, who was prime minister at the time, had recently visited Kyiv to show Western support for Ukraine. 'He sort of threatened me at one point and said, "Boris, I don't want to hurt you, but with a missile, it would only take a minute,” or something like that. You know ... jolly,' Johnson said." MB: Yeah, very jolly. The AP's story is here.
News Ledes
New York Times: "Cindy Williams, the actress best known for her role on the 1970s slapstick sitcom 'Laverne & Shirley,' died on Wednesday in Los Angeles. She was 75."
New York Times: "Bobby Hull, one of the National Hockey League's superstars of the 1960s, whose blond hair, lightning fast slap shot and furious, rink-length offensive rushes earned him the nickname 'the Golden Jet,' died on Monday. He was 84."
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Reader Comments (12)
Ya know, I like to think, as with most if not all of our RC community, that I’m up to date on most of the horrible crap out there, and over the last decade or so of right-wing lies, scams, treason, and violence, I’ve seen, well, not all, but most of their worst ideas. Silly me.
This morning, scanning down the list of news reports assiduously culled by our esteemed editor, I came up short on this line:
“ Katja Lawrence, who is in her mid-30s, launched the [Dissident Homeschool] channel in October 2021, because she 'was having a rough time finding Nazi-approved school material for [her] homeschool children,'”.
Nazi approved school material for her kids. WTF!?!
Well, Katja, I’ll bet if you email My Kevin, he’ll be thrilled to get some of the Nazi fucks he cozied up to in order to slither onto the Speaker’s dais, and create a Nazi Approved Homeschool Committee.
Jesus Christ…Nazi approved school material. Kids, we are well and truly through the looking glass.
Far right “government” now in charge of Israel. How do you know?
Bodies everywhere. Violence has become essential to right-wing ideology all over the world.
Surprised? Nah. I didn’t think so.
Gym Jordan’s solution for endemic police violence:
Do nothing.
Oh, except don’t hire darkies. They’re not “good people”. I guess Gym means hire people like his pals who stormed the Capitol. Or those “good people” lauded by Trump after they murdered a protester while screaming “Jews will not replace us”.
Cuz that will solve everything.
News of the latest FBI cluster fuck, the arrest of the counterintelligence chief for the FBI’s New York office, who apparently served as a double agent for the Russians, has prompted Donaldavich Trumpskyev to scream that this “proves” Russian interference in the 2016 election on his behalf is a hoax! Aieeee!
Of course it proves nothing of the sort. If he opened a can of Pepsi and it was flat he’d declare that as proof of the “Russian hoax”.
In fact, if anything, it seems far more likely that McGonigal helped bury evidence of Russian interference in order to help Fatty (and Deripaska and Putin).
It also indicates that Biden should wave bye-bye to Chris Wray. This shit went on right under his nose. We’ve had enough of Republicans in charge of everything. It’s been one thing after another with the Bureau. Wray is in charge. If he didn’t know anything, he should have. Time to start cleaning house.
And so much for the latest claim by the traitors that the FBI is a deep state operation run by diehard lefties and Trump haters. These days, wingers are far more likely to betray their country than liberals or progressives. They did it on January 6th.
My Kevin sez Biden “will come to an agreement with him” on the debt ceiling crisis. In other words, Biden will knuckle under to Party of Traitors ransom demands. It’s only a crisis because they’re making it one.
I gotta say, McCarthy knows all about knuckling under to the ransom demands of traitors. He’s a master at it…or should that be a slave at it?
I suppose he thinks because he’s a spineless bowl of quivering jello, that everyone else must be.
Aside to the president: Joe. This is a big fucking deal. Do not, under any circumstances, negotiate with these liars. Hang these fuckers out to dry. If the US defaults, it’s on them.
Fuck this asshole. And the jello he slithered in on.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/parents-start-homeschooling-
group-to-help-others-raise-their-children-as-nazis/ar-AA16SFEy
This link to the Nazi parents has a photo of one of the children
dressed as a young Hitler brownshirt complete with armband.
Looks to me like it's diet time for brownshirts.
Lotsa scary stuff out there. This morning, the Greenhouse column caught me eye. Kinda sorry I read it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/30/opinion/religion-supreme-court.html
My comment:
"When it arrives, the news of the anticipated decision wrought by the Court's religious zealots that Greenhouse describes will not be surprising.
What will be surprising to everyone but those Catholic priests who work in the wrong building will be the consequences to the way they've chosen to divine the legal entrails.
If everyone has the right to choose their own work schedule based on their "religion," workplace chaos will ensue--and no doubt religions of convenience will proliferate.
States already recognize marriages performed by mail-order- ordained "ministers," so it's not much of stretch to imagine how many ministers will be available to certify whatever work schedule suits me--or you.
I can recall the mess associated with determining conscientious objector status. Courts found it impossible to arrive at a consistent identification of which religious beliefs and circumstances made the cut, and the reason for that failure was obvious to any but the current conservative crop on the Court.
Belief is an internal matter, not visible and measurable. Genuine, sincere or just make up matters not a whit.
By deciding that one's "religion" takes precedence over rationality in the workplace or in our larger pluralistic society, our conservative jurists will have once proved how radical they really are.
Eschewing legal precedent, they (vide: "Dodd" ) slip the anchor of sense."
BTW, since I don't see religious beliefs all that much different from political beliefs, I'd guess--consistent as they are--our robed priests on the Court--would also have to give their blessing to Nazi schools.
It is a free country. Free to ignore reality and free to be nuts.
@Forrest Morris: Thanks. The article underlying the Nazi child porn picture you link is by Huffington Post writer Christopher Mathias. It's worth reading, too.
This is sort of like bringing to life Ira Levin's "Boys from Brazil." It's really surreal. And several of the experts Mathias consults say that if not "perfectly" legal in states that have adopted home-schooling standards, it doesn't take much for Nazi parents to fool the authorities.
@Marie: I wonder if this is the type of home schooling that my friend Betsy espouses. Christo-Nazi? Who knows.
I have over 300 cookbooks in my library but for the life of me,
couldn't find a recipe for that Fuhrer cake, so won't be able to celebrate
Hitler's birthday.
About 20 years ago there was a young Nazi couple in the next block
who opened a shop selling Nazi flags and souvenirs and they named
their dog Eva. The shop folded quickly, since this is the most liberal
town in the Midwest. They moved to Florida. They should have
gone into politics.
I am gobsmacked by the news stories about: The former FBI guy, liked and respected by all, who helped elect TFFG in 2016, also the Nazi homeschool people, the DOJ who is still thinking about the docs they got from Marred-et-Lardo, the people interviewed this morning in SC who still love that evil twit, and the commenter I read on Charlie yesterday who explained that he. the evil twit, was the "best president since Reagan" and that he loved his "plans for education."
It simply never ends.
Oh, and also Steve Kornaki explaining how Biden and the Democrats are "under water..." I have come to the conclusion that half the country has wasted any education they once embarked upon, and that they are fundamentally the stupidest people in the world. It is impossible to "work with" people like that. God help the good people in Congress. There's no help for the rest of them.
News stories, and statements by congresspersons (Rubio) and others, give the impression that the FBI or DOJ can "release" the recovered DiJiT classified documents to the congressional intell committees, as the committees have asked.
But the intelligence equities in those documents are not the FBI's. For example, each of the materials marked TS/SCI originated with one of the intelligence agencies. And those agencies are not about to allow "congress" (read: "the world") to have unredacted material that can in any way compromise a human source or a protected collection method. Period. And the FBI can't really write to "congress" that "we'd like to let you see all of it, but agencies X, Y and Z won't permit us to share N of the documents. Sorry." Those N documents would automatically be touted by "congress" as a cover-up. There are congressional and press folks who really don't care if disclosure would blow up a $20 billion intelligence feed and kill a few dozen cooperators, or result in the loss of allied cooperation.
FBI and DOJ may or may not be willing to share, but they can't if the originating agency won't say OK. And the FBI has to take the bullying, unable to publicly identify the originating agency.
I used to think that Hill and press folks knew this and pretended they didn't, but now I think they don't know nuthin'.
Marie,
I heard the other day that Nichols had some kind of relationship with the wife of one of the cops who murdered him. You’re right to wonder whether the murder had some kind of personal connection. It’s one thing to beat up on a guy. It’s a very different thing to kick him in the head like it was a football, multiple times, until he lost consciousness.
https://opoyi.com/amp/usa/was-tyre-nichols-involved-with-memphis-police-officers-wife-rumor-goes-rampant-after-dashcam-video-sparks-protests/