;)
Sunday
Jul022023
July 2, 2023
Late Morning Update:
Marcy Wheeler on Republicans' "fake scandals," trolling and ancillary stunts. Thanks to Patrick for the link. I admire Wheeler for how closely she examines issues, much more closely than I do, alas. For instance, I've linked dozens of stories written or co-written by the Washington Post's Devlin Barrett. But I never noticed this: "Regurgitating right wing law enforcement claims of scandal credulously is what Devlin seems to do best."
Roberts Rules: Do Not Criticize the Supreme Court! Joan Biskupic of CNN: "In a highly unusual move, [Chief Justice John Roberts] took issue on Friday with dissenting colleagues and broader criticism of the court. 'It has become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary,' he wrote in the 6-3 student-debt relief case.... It is important that the public not be misled either. Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and the country.' Justice Elena Kagan countered with a dissent dripped with ridicule.... Roberts' approach to external concerns has been to recast them. He has suggested that public complaints arise simply from disagreement with the outcome of cases rather than doubts about the impartiality or integrity of the justices, who are appointed for life."
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Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "U.S. military and C.I.A. drone operators generally must obtain advance permission from President Biden to target a suspected militant outside a conventional war zone, and they must have 'near certainty' at the moment of any strike that civilians will not be injured, newly declassified rules show. The 15-page rules, signed by Mr. Biden last October, also limit such drone strikes to situations in which the operators deem 'infeasible' any option of capturing the targeted person alive in a commando raid. And if national security officials propose targeting any American, it prompts a more extensive review. The rules tightened constraints on drone strikes and commando raids that ... Donald J. Trump had loosened in 2017. The Biden administration partly declassified and disclosed the document, along with an 18-page national security memo laying out its international counterterrorism strategy, after The New York Times filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit."
Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "The U.S. attorney in Delaware denied retaliating against an I.R.S. official who had disclosed details of the Hunter Biden investigation, and denied being blocked from pursuing serious charges against Mr. Biden, the president's son, in Los Angeles and Washington. David C. Weiss, an appointee of ... Donald J. Trump held over by the Biden administration, defended the integrity of his investigation in a two-page letter sent to House Republicans late Friday, in which he provided the most detailed explanation yet of the five-year probe that culminated in a plea agreement last month that would rule out prison time for Mr. Biden, who was facing misdemeanor tax charges and a separate gun charge.... While Mr. Weiss did not deny [some of IRS agent Gary Shapley's general allegations], he backed up Attorney General Merrick B. Garland's public statement that he had been given full authority in the case, and that he had the option of overruling prosecutors by simply reaching out to Mr. Garland or his top aides." Read on for the details. CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Update. Marie: After reading Marcy Wheeler's post linked above, I note that it's possible/likely that the reason Weiss did not deny some of Shapley's allegations is that the law & DOJ rules do not permit him to do so. ~~~
~~~ Marie: For some months, this has sounded like a case of an IRS sourpuss who doesn't understand the convoluted rules under which the DOJ operates. It still sounds that way. ~~~
~~~ Julia Shapero of the Hill: "A lawyer for Hunter Biden blasted two IRS whistleblowers who claimed there was political interference in the investigation into the president's son in a scathing letter to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday. Biden attorney Abbe Lowell slammed Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.), alleging that the committee's decision to release the testimony of the two IRS agents last week was 'an obvious ploy to feed the misinformation campaign to harm our client, Hunter Biden, as a vehicle to attack his father,' according to the letter obtained by Axios. Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisory special agent, claimed in an interview with the House Ways and Means Committee that Biden received 'preferential treatment' and that the Justice Department 'slow-walked' its investigation into the president's son. Lowell criticized Smith in Friday's letter for improperly releasing tax and investigation information and disseminating 'incomplete half-truths, distortions, and totally unnecessary detail' about Biden." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update: The Washington Post's report, by Matt Viser, is here.
Leigh Ann Caldwell, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a phone call in late 2020..., Donald Trump tried to pressure Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to overturn the state's presidential election results, saying that if enough fraudulent votes could be found it would overcome Trump's narrow loss in Arizona, according to three people familiar with the call. Trump also repeatedly asked Vice President Mike Pence to call Ducey and prod him to find the evidence to substantiate Trump's claims of fraud.... Pence called Ducey several times to discuss the election..., though he did not follow Trump's directions to pressure the governor.... Ducey described the 'pressure' he was under after Trump's loss to a prominent Republican donor over a meal in Arizona earlier this year, according to the donor.... The account was confirmed by others aware of the call. Ducey told the donor he was surprised that special counsel Jack Smith's team had not inquired about his phone calls with Trump and Pence.... After learning that Ducey was not being supportive of his claims, Trump grew angry and publicly attacked him." (Also linked yesterday.)~~~
~~~ Thanks to RAS, who describes Trump's call to Ducey as "just another perfect call." Update: CNN now has a report here.
Kagan Tells Confederate Supremes to MYOB. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: In her dissent in the student loan forgiveness case, "Justice Elena Kagan ... didn't just challenge the chief justice's reasoning [in his majority opinion], she questioned whether the court's decision was even constitutional.... 'At the behest of a party that has suffered no injury, the majority decides a contested public policy issue properly belonging to the politically accountable branches and the people they represent.... The Court is supposed to stick to its business -- to decide only cases and controversies, and to stay away from making this Nation's policy about subjects like student-loan relief.' The court, Kagan concluded, 'exercises authority it does not have. It violates the Constitution.'... Democrats may or may not get this particular message. But John Roberts heard it loud and clear. 'It has become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary,' he wrote in his opinion. 'It is important that the public not be misled either. Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and our country.' For Roberts, the problem isn't that the Supreme Court is overstepping its bounds, it's that one of its justices has decided that she's had enough." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jill Lepore writes a New York Times op-ed on the tens of thousands of proposals to amend the U.S. Constitution that went nowhere. MB: IMO, that the country needs to do one of two things: (1) amend the way we amend the Constitution, or (2) replace the Constitution altogether, which the country has already done once.
Eduardo Medina & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk said on Saturday that Twitter will temporarily limit the number of posts users can read per day to address concerns over data scraping, just hours after thousands of users reported widespread problems using the site. Many of those users reported that they were getting an error message that they had 'exceeded' their 'rate limit.'... The billionaire has been vocal about his dislike for organizations that scrape Twitter and use tweets for research or to train artificial intelligence programs.... Since Mr. Musk's takeover in October and his moves to eliminate more than 75 percent of the company's work force, Twitter has become less stable, with features or the whole site sometimes going down without explanation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: For a person who pretends to promote free speech, Musk has done a bang-up job of de-democratizing Twitter. Users now have to pay to get special "verified/blue-check" status, even though there's nothing "verified" about the supposedly-verified accounts. And this new reading limit grants "unverified" users -- i.e., those who can't or won't pay for the blue checks, to one-tenth of the number of tweets so-called verified accounts can read. As dysfunction as it is, Musk's Twitter has purposely and with avaricious intent, made Twitter a venue for people rich enough to take better advantage of the service. Moreover, with this latest move, as the Times report points out, he has made the service useless to some public service-type operations, like weather alerts. Twitter is now, to put it as delicately as possible, a slow-rolling clusterfuck.
Presidential Race 2024
Horrible. Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump drew a crowd of thousands on Saturday to a quiet South Carolina town's Independence Day event, where he assailed the integrity of major American institutions and painted a dark portrait of the country ahead of a holiday meant to celebrate its underpinnings. Speaking for nearly 90 minutes on Main Street in Pickens, S.C., with at least 20 American flags behind his back, Mr. Trump often eschewed the rhetorical flag-waving and calls for unity.... Instead, the twice-impeached and twice-indicted former president railed against Democrats and liberals, who he said threatened to rewrite America's past and erase its future. He skewered federal law enforcement, which he accused without evidence of rampant corruption. And he attacked President Biden, enumerating what he saw as his character flaws and accusing him of taking bribes from foreign nations." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, Natalie Allison of Politico paints a picture of Trump as more of a small-town hero who led a rally of as many as 50,000 faithful, sweaty people. MB: I saw a few photos of rally-goers, who are -- for the most part -- unattractive white people. So he is one of them.
Worse. Nicholas Nehamas & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis's campaign shared a provocative video on Friday attacking the record of ... Donald J. Trump regarding L.G.B.T.Q. people that was widely condemned as homophobic, including by a prominent group representing gay and lesbian Republicans. The video, [created by someone else and] posted on Twitter by the 'DeSantis War Room' account, opens by showing Mr. Trump proclaiming, 'I will do everything in my power to protect our L.G.B.T.Q. citizens.' Mr. Trump made those remarks at the Republican National Convention in July 2016, after invoking the horror of the Pulse nightclub shooting the previous month.... The video goes on to show Mr. Trump expressing support for transgender people using the bathrooms of their choice. It then attempts to contrast Mr. Trump's position with the hard-line stance of Mr. DeSantis, abruptly transitioning into a jarring series of images of Mr. DeSantis (including one with lasers shooting out of his eyes) that are interspersed with right-wing internet memes (the smiling, heavily muscled man known online as 'GigaChad'), news headlines ('Pride event in St. Cloud canceled after DeSantis signs "Protection of Children Act" into law') and pop culture references (among them shots of the titular character from the film version of the serial killer narrative 'American Psycho')." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Not many candidates for political office would proudly portray themselves (or embrace a portrayal of themselves) as homicidal psychos. It seems so blatantly self-imolulating that I'm beginning to think DeSantis is a fake candidate and has made some kind of clandestine deal with Trump to make Trump look good.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times interviews Chris Christie. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond the Beltway
France. Cara Anna, et al., of the AP: "Hushed and visibly anguished, hundreds of mourners from Francer's Islamic community formed a solemn procession from a mosque to a hillside cemetery on Saturday to bury a 17-year-old whose killing by police has triggered days of rioting and looting across the nation. Underscoring the gravity of the crisis, President Emmanuel Macron scrapped an official trip to Germany after a fourth straight night of unrest across France. Officials said they were again deploying 45,000 police to the streets nationwide in an effort to head off a fifth night of violence. Some 2,400 people have been arrested overall since the teen's death on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Greece. Matina Stevis-Gridneff & Karam Shoumali of the New York Times: "Satellite imagery, sealed court documents, more than 20 interviews with survivors and officials, and a flurry of radio signals transmitted in the final hours suggest that the scale of death [on the Adriana which sank last month near Greece] was preventable. Dozens of officials and coast guard crews monitored the ship, yet the Greek government treated the situation like a law enforcement operation, not a rescue. Rather than send a navy hospital ship or rescue specialists, the authorities sent a team that included four masked, armed men from a coast guard special operations unit.... The sinking of the Adriana is an extreme example of a longtime standoff in the Mediterranean.... European coast guards often postpone rescues out of fear that helping will embolden smugglers to send more people on ever-flimsier ships.... So even as passengers on the Adriana called for help, the authorities chose to listen to the boat's captain, a 22-year-old Egyptian man who said he wanted to continue to Italy." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
Saturday Night in Guns America. Washington Post: "Thirty people were injured, two fatally, during an overnight shooting in southern Baltimore, police said Sunday. The shooting occurred around 12:35 a.m., acting Baltimore police commissioner Richard Worley said during a news conference. There was a block party underway at the address, he said."
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https://democraticunderground.com/100218053258
Radical supreme court runs into trouble. Justice Roberts says we're
out of ways to ruin lives.
We've made things worse for women, LGBTQ people, blacks &
latinos, and students.
We need someone to submit climate change legislation so we can
rule on that and destroy the planet.
@Akhilleus: Anent your note at the end of yesterday's thread, I guess I should post a public-service warning: Lamps Are Dangerous! Even as I write, I am suffering from a burnt arm, thanks to my running into a bulb on a lamp I had placed on the kitchen floor, so I could see inside a cabinet I was doing some interior renovation on.
Maybe thirty years ago, I was insulating the ceiling of a cottage I had in upstate New York. I had gone up to the lake on a Thanksgiving weekend to finish the job. Partway through the job, it started to snow, and I figured I had better go outside and bring in some more wood for the woodstove, which was essentially my only source of heat for the cottage. While collecting the logs, I looked up and noticed that you could tell by the pattern on the roof that the snow was sticking to the roof in the places I had insulated, but it had melted in the places I had not insulated yet. I figured I'd better finish the job right away. I was working from a ladder my husband was very proud of because it weighed only about a pound. But it wasn't very stable. So as I was standing on the ladder, looking overhead to staple a long piece of insulation, I reached too far and lost my balance. As I started to fall, I saw that I was going to hit a nice desk lamp (with a glass globe) my parents had bought me when I was a child. So I twisted in such a way as to miss the lamp. I did miss the lamp, and it's still in use today. BUT I also took a chip out of an ankle bone. It hurt like hell, but I righted the ladder, hobbled with one foot back on it and finished the insulating job. Since it was wintertime and the cabins around the lake were mostly summer cottages, nobody else was at the lake. I didn't have a phone. Also, I had to get back to the city by Sunday. My car had a "hard" stick shift, so I couldn't drive it. I thought about crawling a quarter-mile down to a public road to get help, but it was the beginning of deer hunting season, and the only clothes I had up there were deer-colored. I was sure some amateur hunter would bag me. So I was stuck. Finally, after a couple of days, a couple who lived across the lake came by to look at their property, and I shouted at them for help. They came over and called the ambulance, and the guys carted me off to the Binghamton hospital. Bottom line: just like the forever scar you got from your childhood lamp-whittling effort, my ankle still hurts sometimes.
So: Lamps Are Dangerous!
@Forrest Morris: Nah, the Supremes aren't done. They decided this week that they would hear a case on whether or not the Second Amendment demands that people with domestic violence orders can buy guns. I can't predict the future, of course, but the odds are good that if you have taken out a restraining order against someone, by this time next year, s/he will have a Constitutional right to obtain an AR-15 & ammo.
Do you ever wonder if every time someone mouths off with "It can't possibly get any worse than this" if the forces of darkness take that as a personal challenge?
Marie: Your story above re: the potential danger of lamps shows us once again not only your skills in house repairs inside and out–––something you did not learn in woodworking class that was only for boys but discovered on your own, I presume––-another example of female moxy, grit and sheer determination to get the job done. When your ankle hurts, smile–––it's reminding you of your tenacity.
Re: the Super Six: Will they reflect heavily on their "stupid" decisions as they sit in their church pews this morning? Will their God speak kindly or let them twist in the wind? My guess is they are thinking of what to have for brunch.
Some Republicans didn't like the FBI even before there was one.
During the first Roosevelt administration when conservation-minded Teddy had his Justice Dept. "borrow" some Secret Service agents to investigate crooked land deals that put vast swaths of federal lands intended for family holdings in the hands of timber and mineral exploiters, Republican members of Congress who were involved in and profited from the chicanery strongly objected.
The result? 1908 legislation that included the Tawney (R-Minnesota) Amendment that prohibited the Justice Dept. from borrowing investigators from the Secret Service.
Even then the complicated issue of division of powers between the Executive and Congressional branches of government was in play, but the precipitating factor in the dispute that led to the Tawney Amendment seems to have been Roosevelt's directive to investigate crooked land deals in which members of Congress were implicated.
The irony? Tawney's Amendment forced the Justice Department in another direction. It created its own investigative body.
Today we know it as the FBI.
Marie,
LED work lights. I use one all the time when doing repairs in unlighted areas (most recently replacing the drain pump on our dish washer). Cheap, good light, rechargeable, and no burning flesh problems.
The ankle problem, I dunno…I’d been using a rickety old aluminum ladder (that weighed about a pound) for years until my wife said she’d refuse to drive me to the hospital if I fell off the thing so I’d better get a real ladder. I did. It’s great. Shoulda done it a long time ago.
But hey, next time you’re at a Trump rally, you can point out to Cadet (Fake) Bone Spur that you had a real ankle injury and it didn’t just magically get better when it was clear that you weaseled your way out of the draft.
Marcy Wheeler does a clear exposition of how the House majority, the problematic IRS investigators, and the WaPo continue to push the Hunter Biden cases to sully the President and cloud voters' minds. And how this is an example of a standard GOP Modus Operandi. Worth the read.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2023/07/01/republican-house-chairmen-are-resorting-to-immunizing-crimes-to-gin-up-their-fake-scandals/
@Akhilleus: Good point. It's funny how Cadet Bone Spurs' "disability" cleared right up, but he never stops whining about the old injuries -- real and imagined -- caused by other peoples' criticisms.
Ken,
It’s a pretty amazing transmogrification, at least on the surface, for the FBI to become, in the MAGA hive mind, a deep state operation full of woke libs.
Since it’s founding, the FBI has been almost religiously right-wing, down to a sub-atomic level. They went after war protesters, civil rights advocates, anyone who had ever walked slowly past a building with communist party connections, you name it. And, don’t forget…the FBI, since its inception, has never been run by a Democrat.
But then you have to realize that for die hard wingers, the federal government—any part of it—has been the enemy, since the Civil War. Anytime they need to whip up hatred and paranoia, as a call to arms, they turn to the “The guv’mint is coming to take your guns! Aieeee!” page in the Traitor Handbook.
The FBI is part of the federal government. Their involvement, along with the ATF in the Waco and Ruby Ridge incidents have become touchstones of right wing hatred and animus especially toward the government. This is what set Timothy McVeigh on the path to Oklahoma City.
It used to be that people owned guns for recreation, hunting, skeet shooting, target practice, etc. Then, during the Civil Rights movement’s heyday, guns were necessary to protect against “those people”. Now it’s “We need guns to shoot government agents coming after us!” Members of Congress say this shit! Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz have both claimed that they own weapons to battle the government! Of which they are a part!! Bobo brings loaded weapons to House hearings.
The force of hatred and paranoia reigns supreme with these nuts.
My dad used to say “The Civil War is still going on.” I didn’t completely get that when I was 12. I do now, and have for a long time.
I have never had a Twitter account, but often click on tweets embedded in articles as references. As of yesterday, July 1, when I click on a tweet (e.g. in the left margin of Digby's blog), I get a message saying "something went wrong." Does this mean that Elmo is denying non-subscribers access to read tweets?
@Patrick: Come to think of it, I had trouble yesterday accessing a tweet -- it required me to sign in through Google, but that didn't work. Using the same link, I was able to access the tweet later. So I guess what this means is St. Elmo the Cheapskate Billionaire is not the genius he tells us he is.
In Roberts' latest defense of the Court do I detect some of the same confusion between the persons, the institution and the country that I have come to recognize as the same confusion all would be-dictators share?
To whit: "It has become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary," he wrote in the 6-3 student-debt relief case...." It is important that the public not be misled either. Any such misperception would be harmful to this institution and the country."
I think he meant harmful to "me," so my answer is "yes."
Thanks for all the viewpoints. I guess I missed whatever transpired yesterday about lamps. I love lamps. That is because I hate the cold white light of contemporary light sources, especially overhead lights. I run around shutting them off but husband can peacefully snore in his chair with all the overheads and two other lamps on. Weird. I have no feelings for or against ladders, but I refuse to set foot on any ladder taller than my stepstool to get at high cupboards, which is two steps. Other than that, I am planning to spend a lot of time disliking and distrusting the so-called Supreme court. It sure ain't.
But happy Fourth tomorrow and Tuesday. My bunting is hung on the porch. I think we libs are allowed to display red, white and blue also...
Jeanne,
Our bunting is up as well. Just because I’m not a MAGA supporter of insurrection, violent government overthrow, racism, authoritarianism, and anti-democratic disinformation doesn’t mean I’m not an American who is proud of what we’ve been able to achieve over 250 years despite all of the above.
And speaking of ladders, how interesting that Party of Traitor “leaders” are so big on pulling up the ladders after they’re safely on the upper floors. Clarence Thomas sets fire to the affirmative action ladder after he climbed it. MTG and other traitors dead set against Biden’s loan forgiveness program had their loans forgiven, including Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
Big surprise.
And how could we forget Lyin’ Paul Ryan, whose entire career was based on Social Security payouts, trying like mad to make sure no one else enjoyed similar benefits.
It’s a continuation of the Reagan era ladder pulling, the ol’ “Fuck you, Charlie, I got mine” ethos.
Same as it ever was.