;)
January 31, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia angrily denounced the United States Monday for 'whipping up hysteria' over Ukraine, saying it had brought 'pure Nazis' to power on Russia's border and wanted to make 'heroes out of those peoples who fought on the side of Hitler.' In a blistering attack at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council, Russian Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya said the United States itself was 'provoking escalation' of the situation by falsely charging Moscow with preparing to invade Ukraine.... With the support of only China, the Russians forced a vote at the beginning of the U.S.-called meeting on whether to hold the session behind closed doors.... But the majority of the 15-member council voted to proceed with the public session...."
Dylan Stableford of Yahoo! News: "The Georgia prosecutor looking into ... Donald Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election results is asking the FBI for protection after Trump called for protests of the 'racist prosecutors' investigating him. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter to the FBI's Atlanta field office on Sunday requesting that the bureau conduct a risk assessment of the county courthouse and government center, as well as provide protective resources, including 'intelligence and federal agents' as her office ramps up its own investigation of the former president."
Whitney Wild, et al., of CNN: "Then-Vice President-elect Kamala Harris drove within several yards of a pipe bomb lying next to a bench outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters on January 6, 2021, and remained inside the DNC for nearly two hours before the bomb was discovered, according to multiple law enforcement officials familiar with the situation. Details about Harris' proximity to the pipe bomb and the extended period she remained inside the DNC have not been previously reported. The revelations further expose a security lapse on January 6 as law enforcement tried to respond to multiple major events, protect highly visible politicians, and fend off tens of thousands of riotous protesters that had flooded into Washington and attacked the US Capitol."
Tim Miller in the Bulwark: "... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Concerned) was asked on ABC's This Week whether she would support Donald Trump if he ran in 2024. She demurred, leaving the door open to the possibility of having faith in a Trump resurrection, while providing some perfunctory lip service to the notion that there were other people she might prefer, but whom she -- of course -- did not name. She was rewarded a few hours later with the former president attacking her for not having given his coup attempt a full-throated endorsement.... If someone as politically safe as Collins won't stick her neck out, what hope is there that a meaningful group of others will find the mettle not just to privately hope for an alternative but to wage a vigorous, scorched-earth campaign on behalf of the alternative?"
Jessica Bursztynsky of CNBC: "Podcaster Joe Rogan has apologized to Spotify, while also addressing the controversy around his podcast." MB: He didn't apologize to the dopes he duped by presenting Covid disinformation. But then some of them are dead.
Florida. Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "A slew of bills has advanced [through the GOP-led Florida legislature] attacking everything from diversity rights, abortion protections and free speech in schools, in addition to a proposal that would legally shield white people from feeling 'discomfort' over the state's racist past.
U.K. Esther Webber & Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico: "An update from the official inquiry into claims of lockdown-busting parties in Boris Johnson's administration has found 'a serious failure' to observe the standards expected in government. Sue Gray, a senior civil servant, was asked to look into a series of allegations that social gatherings were held in No. 10 Downing Street in breach of COVID-19 rules. In her 12-page update -- truncated while the Metropolitan Police separately investigates some of the allegations -- Gray found there was 'too little thought given to what was happening across the country' when considering whether some of the events should have gone ahead. Johnson told his restive Conservative MPs Monday he was 'sorry' -- and vowed to learn lessons." Johnson refused to resign and instead "announced the creation of an 'office of the prime minister' and promised other improvements to the way No. 10 and the Cabinet Office are run." MB: IOW, add a layer of bureaucracy. That should help. ~~~
~~~ Rowena Mason of the Guardian has more on Boris's Very Bad Hair Day. ~~~
I'm sorry for the parties during Covid.
I'm sorry that I couldn't find my mask.
But more than anything else,
I'm sorry for myself,
'Cause you're taking me to task.
~~~~~~~~~~
New York Times Liveblog: "The United States and Russia prepared for confrontation Monday at the United Nations Security Council over the Ukraine crisis, with the Americans vowing to make the Russians justify their massing of troops on Ukraine's borders and Kremlin diplomats dismissing the meeting as farcical theatrics." The Guardian's liveblog of the Russian threat to Ukraine is here.
Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "Public education is facing a crisis unlike anything in decades, and it reaches into almost everything that educators do: from teaching math, to counseling anxious children, to managing the building. Political battles are now a central feature of education, leaving school boards, educators and students in the crosshairs of culture warriors. Schools are on the defensive about their pandemic decision-making, their curriculums, their policies regarding race and racial equity and even the contents of their libraries. Republicans -- who see education as a winning political issue -- are pressing their case for more 'parental control,' or the right to second-guess educators' choices. Meanwhile, an energized school choice movement has capitalized on the pandemic to promote alternatives to traditional public schools.... Remote learning, the toll of illness and death, and disruptions to a dependable routine have left students academically behind -- particularly students of color and those from poor families.... Many students and teachers say they are emotionally drained, and experts predict schools will be struggling with the fallout for years to come." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This really is a crisis. And Republicans are doing their part to make it even worse. Just as they are happy to sacrifice the lives of Americans for their own political benefit -- think Covid disinformation & gun proliferation -- so they are happy to sacrifice the well-being of educators, students & parents for their small political advantage.
Welcome to America! Antonio Olivo of the Washington Post: "Scores of Afghan evacuees in the Washington region have been languishing inside cramped hotel rooms, where parents sleep on the floor while their bored children share one bed. Months after their arrivals, overwhelmed resettlement groups have been unable to find many of the evacuees affordable permanent homes. So while those organizations attend to other newly arrived families, the evacuees are left to their own devices for weeks at a time inside rooms shared by as many as five people, community activists say. During the day, the families have little to do, because the adults have yet to receive Social Security numbers or federal work authorization documents. The children, lacking a permanent address, are unable to enroll in school. The problem is particularly acute in Maryland -- and may soon grow worse, resettlement groups say, as federal officials plan to send more evacuees to the area." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trump Confesses! Ayman Mohyeldin of MSNBC noted that Donald Trump issued a statement Sunday evening opposing efforts in Congress to update the Electoral College Act. In the statement, Trump wrote, "... Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they are now trying to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the election." Mohyeldin remarked, "I see that as a flat-out admission of guilt for what he was trying to do on January the 6th." ~~~
~~~ Update. Right-wing wag Bill Kristol tweeted, "Talk about saying the quiet part loud. Trump here admits or rather boasts that what he wanted Mike Pence to do was to 'overturn the election.." Law expert Joyce Vance agrees. She tweeted, "This is what prosecutors call guilty knowledge. And also, intent." AND Olivia Troye, a former pence staffer, has some practical advice for 2022 candidates: "Trump boasting in his latest statement: the goal was to overturn the election -- after touting at his rally that he'll pardon Jan 6 insurrectionists. Every Republican candidate & official should go on record with their answer: Do you support sedition & pardoning domestic terrorists?" Tweets via Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post. ~~~
~~~ Steve M. is pessimistic: "Maybe Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, and other Republican presidential wannabes ... will refrain from backing the rioters, but [Ted] Cruz and [Ron] DeSantis will certainly portray them as pitiable freedom fighters locked in an American gulag. And there'll be no downside for them. There's no evidence in America of a bloc of voters who are Republican-curious for 2024 but who regard support for the January 6 crowd as a dealbreaker.... It's one more issue that Republican extremists can milk for maximum base motivation because swing voters can't be bothered to focus on it." ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Saturday night sent his strongest signal to date that he will fight his legal problems outside of a court of law. He encouraged people to engage in massive demonstrations in jurisdictions pursuing criminal investigations against him over Jan. 6 and tax-related issues. Then, minutes later, he said that if he's reinstalled as president, he would consider pardoning some of the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters. Both Trump comments were ... carefully tailored. (Trump seemed to be reading them off a teleprompter....) The combination of the two comments, though, can't help but conjure a repeat ... of the kind of lawlessness we saw just over a year ago.... He's suggesting that those who rise up in support of him will earn his protection, even while urging them to rise up again (in peaceful protest, of course!)." ~~~
~~~ Erik Loomis in LG&$: "Worth noting that last night, our ex-president not only promised to pardon his fascist coup supporters, but also basically promised a race war by calling the Black prosecutors investigating his many crimes to be 'racists.'"
Jennifer Medina, et al., of the New York Times: "Nearly two dozen Republicans who have publicly questioned or disputed the results of the 2020 election are running for secretary of state across the country, in some cases after being directly encouraged by allies of ... Donald J. Trump.... All told, some 21 candidates who dispute Mr. Biden's victory are running for secretary of state in 18 states, according to States United Action, a nonpartisan group tracking races for secretary of state throughout the country.... Their candidacies are alarming watchdog groups, Democrats and some fellow Republicans, who worry that these Trump supporters, if elected to posts that exist largely to safeguard and administer the democratic process, would weaponize those offices to undermine it -- whether by subverting an election outright or by sowing doubts about any local, state or federal elections their party loses. For decades, secretaries of state worked in relative anonymity.... Several ..., who have formed a coalition calling itself the America First slate, are running in states won by Mr. Biden in 2020.... The coalition's members are coordinating talking points and sharing staff members and fund-raising efforts -- an unusual degree of cooperation for down-ballot candidates from different states." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It isn't just secretaries of state. See the story on the Spalding County, Georgia, board of elections, linked under "Georgia" below.
Elizabeth Harris & Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "Parents, activists, school board officials and lawmakers around the country are challenging books at a pace not seen in decades. The American Library Association said in a preliminary report that it received an 'unprecedented' 330 reports of book challenges, each of which can include multiple books, last fall.... Such challenges have long been a staple of school board meetings, but it isn't just their frequency that has changed..., it is also the tactics behind them and the venues where they play out. Conservative groups in particular, fueled by social media, are now pushing the challenges into statehouses, law enforcement and political races." ~~~
~~~ Backfire! Banned in Bumpkinville, a 30-Year-Old Novel Is Now a Bestseller. David Cohen of Politico: "Just days after the banning of 'Maus' by a Tennessee school district made national news, two editions of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning graphic novel about the Holocaust have reached the top 20 on Amazon.com and are in limited supply. 'Maus' was No. 12 on Amazon as of early Friday evening, and was not available for delivery until mid-February. 'The Complete Maus,' which includes a second volume, was No. 9 and out of stock." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here.
Ben Sisario of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Spotify responded on Sunday to growing complaints from musicians and listeners over the role of Joe Rogan, the streaming service's star podcaster, in spreading what has been widely criticized as misinformation about the coronavirus.... [Also t]his month, a group of more than 200 professors and public health officials called on Spotify to crack down on Covid-19 misinformation on its platform, and pointed to a recent episode of Rogan's podcast.... [CEO Daniel] Ek said that Spotify would add a 'content advisory' notice to any podcast episode that includes a discussion about the coronavirus, directing listeners to a 'Covid-19 hub' with facts and information.... Ek made no specific mention of Rogan.... Ek also wrote that for the first time, the service is publishing its platform rules, which address dangerous, deceptive, sensitive and illegal content. Among them are rules barring 'content that promotes dangerous false or dangerous deceptive medical information that may cause offline harm or poses a direct threat to public health.'..." The Verge's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Here's Ek's letter. You Spotify users can decided whether or not you think it's good enough.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Justin Glawe of the Guardian: A Republican takeover of the Spalding County board of elections "is part of Republican efforts to dominate elections mechanisms nationwide. [In Spalding County, as position on the board] was only vacant because of a new law, specific only to Spalding county, recently introduced by the area's two Republican state lawmakers. In the end, the judges chose a Republican, someone who had never served in a government position related to elections, to be the fifth and deciding vote for the Spalding county board of elections and registration. Almost immediately, that Republican, James Newland, cast that deciding vote to cancel Sunday voting -- a historically heavy turnout day for Black, largely Democratic voters."
Georgia. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Prosecutors have reached a plea deal with [Travis & Gregory McMichaels.] two of the three white men, facing federal hate-crimes charges for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, 25, the Black man who was chased through a Georgia neighborhood and fatally shot, court documents show.But Mr. Arbery's mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, denounced the pleas.... Ms. Cooper-Jones said she would try to persuade a judge to reject the plea agreements in a hearing Monday morning."
Michigan. Calling All Donors. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: :Oakland University -- where the campus extends into two cities, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, each about 30 miles from Detroit -- said it mistakenly told 5,500 incoming students [via email] that they had won [four-year] scholarships [worth $48,000].... But then, more than two hours later, came another email with a subject line that read, 'CORRECTION.... Because you are not a recipient of the Platinum Presidential Scholar Award, this message was unfortunately sent to you in error.'... [Several weeks later,] Central Michigan University told 58 high school seniors ... that they had won [scholarships] which would cover their tuition and room and board, and award them $5,000 to study abroad. But days later, the students were told that the email was a mistake and that they had not won the prestigious scholarship. The university then told those students that it would still pay their full tuition for four years, but that they would not receive other perks of the scholarship." No word that Oakland is going to do anything to mitigate its mistake. MB: Which sucks. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Say, there's this billionaire lady who lives in Michigan & cares so much about education that Donald Trump made her Secretary of Education. This would be a nice time for her to cough up $264 million to make it up to those disappointed students. The University could rename the Presidential Scholar Award to something like the De Vos Scholar Award. Alas, that would remind the recipients they didn't quite measure up.
New York. Grace Ashford & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "New York Democrats on Sunday proposed a starkly partisan redesign of the state's congressional map that would be one of the most consequential in the nation, offering the party's candidates an advantage in 22 of the state's 26 House districts in this fall's midterm election. Party leaders in Albany insisted that the redrawn districts were not politically motivated, but the map immediately exposed Democrats to charges that they were engaging in the same kind of gerrymandering that many in the party have denounced as anti-democratic and accused Republicans of carrying out elsewhere." Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Wikipedia: "The term gerrymandering is named after American politician Elbridge Gerry, Vice President of the United States at the time of his death, who, as Governor of Massachusetts in 1812, signed a bill that created a partisan district in the Boston area that was compared to the shape of a mythological salamander."
Way Beyond
Edith Lederer of the AP: "The United Nations has received 'credible allegations' that more than 100 former members of the Afghan government, its security forces and those who worked with international troops have been killed since the Taliban took over the country Aug. 15, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says. In a report obtained Sunday by The Associated Press, Guterres said that 'more than two-thirds' of the victims were alleged to result from extrajudicial killings by the Taliban or its affiliates, despite the Taliban's announcement of 'general amnesties' for those affiliated with the former government and U.S.-led coalition forces. The U.N. political mission in Afghanistan also received 'credible allegations of extrajudicial killings of at least 50 individuals suspected of affiliation with ISIL-KP,' the Islamic State extremist group operating in Afghanistan, Guterres said in the report to U.N. Security Council."
Yemen. Jon Gambrell & Isabel Debre of the AP: "The United Arab Emirates intercepted a ballistic missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels early Monday as the Israeli president, Isaac Herzog, was visiting the country, authorities said, the third such attack in as many weeks."
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Reader Comments (14)
Not mentioned (so far as I noticed) in any of the articles about Trump's statement concerning his effort to "overturn the election" was anything about Garland's, in my opinion, extraordinarily slow progress in bringing charges against Trump and his associates for their alleged, now admitted, efforts to overturn the election. This troubles me.
I saw a brief MSNBC video on YouTube this morning highlighting an unpatented Covid vaccine developed at Texas Children's Hospital. A search brought me to this announcement from December:
https://www.texaschildrens.org/texas-children%E2%80%99s-hospital-and-baylor-college-medicine-covid-19-vaccine-technology-secures-emergency
Why has this not gotten press? Normal refrigeration, can be produced by any capable organization, uses "old-fashioned" technology, what's not to like, other than the lack of monster profit opportunity?
WKRP in Cincinnati had an episode about radio censorship, "Clean Up Radio Everywhere," that has stuck with me for the last forty years. The show wasn't perfect, but it moved us forward. Rest easy, Howard Hesseman.
https://youtu.be/2_aiwgvyYxA
And yes, Peyton Manning killed it on SNL!
I'm sure Betsy would kick in the millions of $ to Oakland U. and
Central Michigan U. but they would have to agree to be privatized
and become "Christian" institutions (and race might also enter into
the equation).
I would check with her, but she took her 40 million $ yacht to the
Cayman Islands. That's where lots of rich people load cash into
their boats and planes for storage to avoid taxes.
A few years back, one of our clients asked us to watch the dog
while they were gone. A banker friend from Chicago was flying to
the Cayman Islands and asked them to ride along. Of course, I had
to ask why a 2 day trip to that place. Her reply--I dare not say.
Call this comment a test, Marie.
The esteemed Senator for Maine doesn't think the President has handled his Supreme Court nomination opportunity properly.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/01/30/nation/susan-collins-faults-biden-clumsy-handling-breyer-replacement-supreme-court/
The woman should her a regular on SNL.
Here she is, saying in her cracked, aging, querulous voice, that Democrats don't know how to act nice, that (horrors!); they are "politicizing" SC picks, the implication being that Republicans would never, ever do such a thing.
Her own and her party's behavior (some very recent) aside, the idea the SC is not political, is a very bad joke. Always has been Even Susan Collins cannot be that dumb, so like the rest of them, she must be evil.
More to today's point: Here she is, tsk-tsk-ing Democrats for not living up to ideals of democracy her party now works very publicly to undermine and trample.
Voting rights? What are they?
Free and fair elections? Who needs 'em?
A color-blind society? Hah!
That Jeffersonian ideal of the yeomen farmer and growing economic equality?
Whatever courses through Republican Collins' veins, it's sure not blood.
Maybe unadulterated gall.
Ken: yes, I heard the "concern" in her voice also-- the idea that she called Biden clumsy makes me almost as crazy as the clips appearing this morning of the twice-impeached lunatic brazenly shrieking about what he WANTED to have happen and what HAS happened and trying to incite war and pestilence going forward. I don't understand Garland. Also, who is paying for the "rallies" arranged by the Dump Mafia? The promotion for this head case is unexplainable. F*** the Justice Department and Garland. And the whole R establishment. The house is on fire and there is one committee doing its job.
If Lindsey-baby is endorsing Michelle Childs, there must be something nefarious in her background.
Must stop shrieking myself and figure out how to dump Spotify-- I love what an IT expert I am...hey, I'm old...
Ken: Naw, it's Maine, so probably distilled potato juice.
Meeker's WaPo article on GOP disparagement of and resistance to anything that smacks of real education caused me to revisit an old adage:
If ignorance is bliss, why aren't Republicans smiling...instead of toting AR-15s?
I would like to ask Senator Collins if it's black people in general or black women specifically that she believes are incapable of making apolitical rulings in the court of law? Her premise that being black is in itself political shows why she's in the Republican party and why in the end she will probably vote for any president that has an R next to his name no matter how undemocratic they are.
With Floridas large Jewish population I find it hard to believe the tepid response to Neo Nazi demonstrations from the governors office. The official response almost shrugged it off and included a comment of how do we even know they're neo nazis?
The Orlando Sentinel sure thought so, complete with photo and story. Plus a comment on DeSantis criticized for his silence.
It was us people! That's what they say.
https://news.yahoo.com/nazis-rally-florida-desantis-spox-181927034.html
“Concerned” susan collins should be aware that while she is supporting the former Oval Office Occupier, he said (in his confession):
"If the Vice President (Mike Pence) had 'absolutely no right' to change the Presidential Election results in the Senate, despite fraud and many other irregularities, how come the Democrats and RINO Republicans, like Wacky Susan Collins, are desperately trying to pass legislation that will not allow the Vice President to change the results of the election? Actually, what they are saying, is that Mike Pence did have the right to change the outcome, and they now want to take that right away. Unfortunately, he didn't exercise that power, he could have overturned the Election!"
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/jewish-population-by-state. Bobby, it looks like this website says 3% of Florida is Jewish. They're outnumbered almost everywhere; yet, how soon many have forgotten important relationships with minority communities. Economics, as politics, makes for strange bedfellows. Particularly, the political separation between Jewish and minority communities shows the effectiveness of the Republican divide, weaken, and conquer agenda. Putin laughs....
“Russia angrily denounced the United States Monday for 'whipping up hysteria' over Ukraine, saying it had brought 'pure Nazis' to power on Russia’s border and wanted to make 'heroes out of those peoples who fought on the side of Hitler.'"
Apparently it was not just here in the US that Trump inspired angry idiots to spew every thought that comes into their tiny minds. They've always had the thoughts, but now they feel free to share them with everyone. Even in diplomacy.