;)
Monday
Jul242023
July 25, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in California on Tuesday struck down the Biden administration's temporary restrictions on migrants seeking asylum, ruling that the government's plan to reduce illegal crossings on the southern border violated federal law. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar ruled against a system the Biden administration imposed more than two months ago to penalize migrants who crossed the border illegally and reward those who scheduled appointments to seek asylum instead. Tigar granted the government's request to delay the ruling from taking effect for 14 days to allow time for officials to appeal." CNN's report is here.
Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "United Parcel Service announced Tuesday that it had reached a tentative deal on a five-year contract with the union representing more than 325,000 of its U.S. workers, a key step in averting a potential strike next month.... The union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, reported in June that its UPS members had voted to authorize a strike after the expiration of the current agreement on Aug. 1, with 97 percent of those who took part in the vote endorsing the move.... The Teamsters said that under the tentative agreement, current full- and part-time UPS employees represented by the union would receive a $2.75-an-hour raise this year, and $7.50 an hour in raises over the course of the contract.... The deal, if ratified, removes a serious threat to the U.S. economy.... A 10-day UPS strike would cost the U.S. economy about $7 billion, according to an estimate from the Anderson Economic Group." Politico's story is here.
On the Theory of Barbie. (1) Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "This summer's two biggest entertainment phenomena, the movie 'Barbie' and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, have a lot in common. Both feature conventionally gorgeous blond women who alternately revel in mainstream femininity and chafe at its limitations, enacting an ambivalence shared by many of their fans. Both, beneath their slick, exuberant pop surfaces, tell female coming-of-age stories marked by existential crises and bitter confrontations with sexism.... The film's blunt feminism -- its villain is, literally, patriarchy -- has prompted an enjoyably impotent right-wing backlash.... An obvious lesson from the gargantuan success of both 'Barbie' and the Eras Tour is that there is a huge, underserved market for entertainment that takes the feelings of girls and women seriously.... For the most part, unfortunately, it appears as if the lesson Hollywood is going to take from the success of 'Barbie' is not to make more stories for women, but to make more movies about toys." ~~~
On the Theory of Barbie. (2) Jessica Bennett of the New York Times: "Barbie [the Mattel doll] has been a protest slogan ('I am not your Barbie'), a bimbo (remember 'Math class is tough' Barbie?), an eating disorder accelerant.... But Barbie has also been a lawyer, a pilot, an astronaut and the president. She has never married, lives alone and does not have children. The movie seemed as full of contradictions as the doll. It was promoted through a marketing campaign that had more licensing deals than Barbie has outfits.... But it also had a director -- Greta Gerwig -- with indie street cred, and early reviews focused on the film's subversiveness.... [Feminist writer Susan Faludi, who views the film with Bennett, told her,] 'It seems to me that a big theme underlying the movie is shock and horror over what happened to us -- what happened to women -- from 2016 on, with the double whammy of Trump and then Dobbs. And in particular, I thought abortion was the subtext to a lot.'"
Jeremy Merrill & Hanna Koslowska of the Washington Post: "While the legitimacy of the gold retirement investment industry is the subject of numerous lawsuits -- including allegations of fraud by federal and state regulators against ... companies [that sell gold and silver coins] -- its advertising has become a mainstay of right-wing media. The industry spends millions of dollars a year to reach viewers of Fox, Newsmax and other conservative outlets, according to a Washington Post analysis of ad data and financial records, as well as interviews with industry insiders.... An analysis by The Post of political newsletters, social media, podcasts and a national database of television ads collected by the company AdImpact found that pitches to invest in gold coins are a daily presence in media that caters to a right-wing audience and often echo conservative talking points about looming economic and societal collapse. The Post found no similar ads for gold retirement investments in mainstream or left-wing media sources in the databases." The coins these sellers offer have high mark-ups, far higher than typical coin dealers charge. Among the promoters of the rip-offs: Rudy Giuliani & Ted Cruz. MB: I'll bet that surprises you.
One Way or Another, She's Gonna Getcha, Getcha, Getcha. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump;s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia in recent weeks has weighed several potential statutes under which to charge, including solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud..., as well as solicitation of a public or political officer to fail to perform their duties and solicitation to destroy, deface or remove ballots..., according to two people briefed on the matter.... The district attorney is also seeking to charge at least some of the Trump operatives who were involved in accessing voting machines and copying sensitive election data in Coffee county, Georgia, in January 2021 with computer trespass crimes, the two people said.... The move by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, to identify a list of potential charges marks a major juncture in the criminal investigation and suggests prosecutors are on course to ask a grand jury to return indictments next month."
Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and members of his team were involved in a car accident Tuesday morning but are uninjured, his campaign said.... 'We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail,' [campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement]." MB: I don't wish car crashes on anyone, but "well wishes of the nation";? What a presumptuous twit. And I'll be damned if I'll get down on my knees and thank the lord for protecting DeSantolini while he's out among the dimwits hustling votes.
Marie: I was watching a German teevee series this morning, and in one scene, a neo-Nazi gang leader said that if Germany didn't get rid of Muslim immigrants, "we won't have a country anymore." This is precisely -- almost word-for-word -- what Donald Trump says, in various contexts, about the U.S. I don't think that's a coincidence. Trump does not just tolerate neo-Nazis; he takes inspiration from them. Some might say Trump is a neo-Nazi.
~~~~~~~~~~
Seung Min Kim of the AP: "President Joe Biden is tapping Shuwanza Goff -- a veteran congressional aide who also served as his main point of contact to the House at the start of the administration -- as his new director of legislative affairs, making her the first Black woman to be the White House's chief emissary to Capitol Hill. Goff succeeds Louisa Terrell in the role, a position that is especially vital for a president who spent more than three decades in Congress and takes pride in his connections to lawmakers. Goff comes into the job with deep relationships not just with Democrats but with Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that were honed over more than a decade on Capitol Hill. In a statement announcing the hire, Biden called Goff a 'proven leader and trusted voice on both sides of the aisle' who played a key role in the biggest legislative accomplishments from the first two years of his presidency ... as well as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson." (Also linked yesterday.)
Fatima Hussein of the AP: "The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it is ending its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits, in an effort to help keep its workers safe and to combat scammers who pose as IRS agents. Effective immediately, revenue agents will no longer make unplanned visits to taxpayers' homes and businesses 'except in a few unique circumstances,' the Treasury Department said in a statement. The agency will instead mail letters to people to schedule meetings."
Impeachment! Emily Brooks of the Hill: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he expects the House GOP's investigations into the foreign business activities of President Biden's family to rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry[.]... McCarthy's impeachment inquiry tease comes days after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) released an FBI form that documented unverified allegations of corruption stemming from Hunter Biden's work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma. It also comes as the New York Post reported Monday that former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer plans to tell the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a closed-door interview this week that Hunter Biden would put then-Vice President Biden on speakerphone during meetings with foreign business partners." ~~~
~~~ Emily Brooks & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are poking holes in GOP arguments that President Biden is corrupt, claims that are founded on unverified allegations from an FBI form released [by Chuck Grassley & Jim Comer] in controversial fashion last week.... The form documents information that a confidential human source relayed to an FBI agent, but does not assess that information.... The FBI last week admonished Comer and Grassley for releasing the form.... The Democratic memo also quoted numerous Republicans -- including Grassley -- casting doubt on the veracity of the claims in the memo."
Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "The handiwork of Hunter Biden ... was purchased by a Democratic donor and Biden commission appointee, according to a new report from Business Insider. Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Democratic donor who hosted a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris last year, purchased Biden's paintings, which debuted at extraordinarily high prices sometimes stretching up to and well past six figures in 2021. Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell confirmed that [presumably Hunter] Biden was aware that Hirsh Naftali had bought some of his paintings because she is friends with Biden and had told him as much. According to the report, Hirsh Naftali was appointed to the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad in July 2022, and 'it is unclear whether Hirsh's purchase of Hunter Biden's artwork occurred before or after that appointment.'... An administration official claimed that Hirsh Naftali had been recommended [for the appointment] by Nancy Pelosi."
Sean Lyngaas, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Jack Smith's office has asked former US officials about a February 2020 Oval Office meeting where ... Donald Trump praised improvements to the security of US elections, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. In the meeting with senior US officials and White House staff, Trump touted his administration's work to expand the use of paper ballots and support security audits of vote tallies. Trump was so encouraged by federal efforts to protect election systems that he suggested the FBI and Department of Homeland Security hold a press conference to take credit for the work.... Details from the February 2020 Oval Office meeting are likely relevant to Smith's election interference investigation because they speak to Trump's 'knowledge and intent' around the security of US elections, said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst. Those details offer a stark contrast to the voter-fraud conspiracy theories Trump began spreading publicly just weeks later and continued to use to question the 2020 election results."
Paula Reid, et al., of CNN: "Among the materials turned over to special counsel Jack Smith about supposed fraud in the 2020 election are documents that touch on many of the debunked conspiracies and unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud peddled by former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The documents had been withheld by former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who claimed they were privileged, only to be handed over to Smith on Sunday.... The files include affidavits claiming there were widespread 'irregularities,' shoddy statistical analyses supposedly revealing 'fraudulent activities,' and opposition research about a senior employee from Dominion Voting Systems that are central to civil litigation and a federal criminal probe stemming from a voting systems breach in Colorado. The documents turned over by Kerik also connect him and other members of the Trump legal team to the efforts to smear a Dominion Voting Systems executive -- efforts that are now the subject of both civil litigation and the Colorado state criminal investigation."
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A truck driver who assaulted a police officer with a flagpole at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Monday to 52 months in federal prison. The attack by the driver, Peter Stager, produced one of the most disturbing images to emerge from the Capitol attack. Mr. Stager, 44, of Conway, Ark., was captured on video beating the officer, Blake Miller, with the flagpole in a fit of rage as Officer Miller lay facedown in a mob of other rioters with 'no means of defending himself,' prosecutors wrote in court papers."
Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Conversations have started with North Korea's military about Travis King, a U.S. soldier who was detained after he intentionally crossed from South Korea, Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison, a British deputy commander of the U.S.-led multinational command that oversees the Korean War truce, said at a news conference Monday."
Twitter Isn't Twitter Anymore. Noam Scheiber & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk has made one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognized bird logo.... A stylized, black-and-white X appeared on the company's website in place of the blue bird logo. Twitter's corporate accounts also adopted the new branding, which was projected onto the side of the company's headquarters in San Francisco overnight.... 'X' is a term for what Mr. Musk has described as an 'everything app' that could combine social media, instant messaging and payment services, akin to the popular Chinese app WeChat." This is an update of a story linked below. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Andrew Lawrence of the Guardian: "On Sunday, in a series of posts that surely won't be called tweets for much longer, Elon Musk reasoned that his company's new logo, a badly rendered letter X, embodies 'the imperfections in us all that make us unique'. What does he mean by that? He, of course, has no idea. This is a man with a terrible, terrible history for naming things." MB: I'm tellin' ya, Musk should have picked from the great list of new names Akhilleus suggested yesterday. And it would have cost billionaire Musk a mere $75MM. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wikipedia already is referring to Twitter in the past tense.
** Another Way the Rich Are Different from You & Me: Preferential Admissions to Elite Universities. Aitish Bhatia, et al., of the New York Times: "Elite colleges have long been filled with the children of the richest families: At Ivy League schools, one in six students has parents in the top 1 percent. A large new study, released Monday, shows that it has not been because these children had more impressive grades on average or took harder classes. They tended to have higher SAT scores and finely honed résumés, and applied at a higher rate -- but they were overrepresented even after accounting for those things. For applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top 1 percent were 34 percent more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1 percent were more than twice as likely to get in. The study -- by Opportunity Insights, a group of economists based at Harvard who study inequality -- quantifies for the first time the extent to which being very rich is its own qualification in selective college admissions.... The result is the clearest picture yet of how America's elite colleges perpetuate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and opportunity." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The graph embedded in the story is stunning. The study also renders quaint the bribery scandal of several years ago, where wealthy parents were accused of gaming the admissions system. But it's so wrong to give disadvantaged minorities a leg up. And we know this because the Supreme Court sez so. If you think playing by the rules & "being the best you can be" is the best way to excel in your life's path, think again. The odds are against you.
We Have Met the Culprits and They Are Us. Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The analysis by the World Weather Attribution network, a coalition of scientists that conducts rapid analyses to determine how the warming atmosphere influences extreme weather events, examined weather data and computer model simulations to compare the climate as it is today, having experienced warming of about 1.2 Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s, with the climate of the past. The results came with a sobering reminder: Once unfathomable heat waves are ... becoming more common.... The findings support a growing consensus among researchers: The warmer the world gets, the more likely regions are to experience crippling heat waves, stronger storms and other climate-fueled disasters.... The heat waves that baked the Southwest and southern Europe would have almost no chance of happening in a world without climate change.... Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions made the heat wave hotter than it would otherwise have been...." The Guardian's report is here.
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Chris Boyette & Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice. 'Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,' Abbott wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden following last week's DOJ request to remove the barriers. He added, 'Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.' The showdown between Abbott and the federal government comes as Texas' treatment of migrants who attempt to cross into the US illegally faces increased scrutiny. Biden administration officials have grown increasingly concerned in recent months about Abbott's measures, which have disrupted US Border Patrol operations in the region and put migrants at risk." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
Way Beyond
Israel
Tia Goldenberg & Isaac Scharf of the AP: "Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's divisive plan to reshape the country's justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. The vote came after a stormy session in which opposition lawmakers chanted 'shame' and then stormed out of the chamber. It reflected the determination of Netanyahu and his far-right allies to move ahead with the plan, which has tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawn concern from its closest ally, the United States.... In Monday's vote, lawmakers approved a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are 'unreasonable.' With the opposition out of the hall, the measure passed by a 64-0 margin." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I couldn't figure out precisely why the opposition "stormed out of the chamber" and was "out of the hall" for the vote, but according to the NYT liveblog, also linked below, "... members of the opposition left the chamber, boycotting the vote they had no chance of winning."
The New York Times' live updates of developments are here.
Isabel Kershner & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved the contentious plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrict the influence of the Supreme Court, defying a wide array of opposition movements that have threatened to shut down large parts of the country with protests. The plan limits the ways in which the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions.... The decision to press ahead with the overhaul could disrupt Israel's economy, further strain the country's relations with the Biden administration, and lead thousands of military reservists, a core part of Israel's armed forces, to refuse to volunteer for duty. Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, has warned that the schism could lead to civil war."~~~
~~~ Marie: The article attempts to tell you "what you need to know" about the new law. But it doesn't cover this essential information, which former Obama national security expert Ben Rhodes laid out on MSNBC Monday: Israel has a one-house legislature, so there's no possibility of bicameral checks and balances. In addition, the prime minister is chosen by the party or parties that form a majority of the house or the Knesset, so they form a sort of "unit". So there's no possibility of checks and balance there. Now, as this "unit" guts the judiciary, there are no checks and balances there. As Israel does not have a federal system, so there are no states that share aspects of governance. And it has no constitution to which the Knesset is supposed to adhere. Ergo, one (theoretically) cohesive, central political entity controls the entire government, with no checks on it anywhere.
Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Once again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has pushed the limits, defying a nationwide protest movement to win new curbs on the Israeli judiciary's power to pose a check to his far-right coalition government. But after years of brinkmanship and chaos management by the Israeli leader, this feels different. Such is the rancor and rupture caused by this particular Netanyahu victory that many Israelis wonder whether the damage to society might not be fixable -- and whether Mr. Netanyahu will be able to manage the aftermath of a showdown he set in motion."
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "Experts found land mines on the periphery of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a walk-through this week, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Mariano Grossi said. The mines were spotted in a buffer zone between the site's internal and external perimeter barriers.... Talks on resuming the Black Sea grain initiative are not happening, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said Tuesday, according to Reuters.... Putin has signed legislation that bans people from gender-affirming procedures."
The Little Despot Who Couldn't. Catherine Belton, et al., of the Washington Post: “When Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, launched his attempted mutiny on the morning of June 24, Vladimir Putin was paralyzed and unable to act decisively, according to Ukrainian and other security officials in Europe. No orders were issued for most of the day, the officials said. The Russian president had been warned by the Russian security services at least two or three days ahead of time that Prigozhin was preparing a possible rebellion.... 'Putin had time to take the decision to liquidate [the rebellion] and arrest the organizers' said ... a European security official.... The lack of orders from the Kremlin's top command left local officials to decide for themselves how to act.... Many on the local level could not believe the Wagner rebellion could be happening without some degree of agreement with the Kremlin.... The disarray in the Kremlin also reflects a deepening divide inside Russia's security and military establishment over the conduct of the war in Ukraine, with many including in the upper reaches of the security services and military supporting Prigozhin's drive to oust Russia's top military leadership...."
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Reader Comments (7)
Marie, I hate to think of starting my day without your excellent and important commentary and links. You will be missed.
Good luck with your house. When we built our house in WI we had a great contractor who handled all the details, hired the workers, went with us to pick out windows and tile, etc. I guess we were incredibly lucky.
pat
Putin should consult with George W. Bush, whose inability to put aside "The Pet Goat" (often reported as "My Pet Goat") in the midst of disaster set a high bar for courage.
The Obama's chef found dead in a pond on Marthas Vineyard.
Conspiracy theories in 3-2-1 minutes.
He knew that Michelle wouldn't eat broccoli. She had him done in
before he could put that in a book.
Barack ate pizza with his hands, not with a knife and fork. That's
earth shattering news.
How can we work Hunter's laptop into this case?
https://abcnews.go.com/US/missing-paddleborder-found-dead-pond-
marthas-vineyard-police/story?id=101615039
How interesting that PoT congressional con artists are all about impeaching the president (and the a bunch of others) when they have no evidence, over unsubstantiated bullshit. But when they had a chance to impeach a president who had a mountain of actual evidence stacked against him, they cried foul and ran the other way.
Likewise, when they decide it was the FBI who planned and promoted the Trump Insurrection, again with no evidence, they were all about “Defund the FBI!!” but as soon as they find a couple of losers with an agenda, selling bullshit about Hunter Biden, they’re all “But it’s the FBI!”
But here’s the thing. They’ve learned that they don’t need evidence. Only Democrats, and those who believe in the rule of law need evidence. They’ve learned that they can lie with impunity, that all they need to do is shout “Biden’s a crook!” and Fox, Newsmax, the NY Post, the WSJ editorial flacks, and every other right-wing authoritarian loving outpost of hackery will do the work for them.
And the Both Sides media will say, “Hmmm…they couldn’t say that stuff unless they had something to go on. We better parrot what they’re saying and we can get away with it by saying ‘We’re just asking the tough journalistic questions’.”
It never ends.
How delicious that Fani Willis is considering RICO charges against Fatty and his band of cutthroat, lying lawyers, one of whom, Rudy Giuliani, made us name using RICO statutes in New York back in the day.
Karma, baby. More shoe polish, Rudes? Looking like another sweat stream’s about to start.
What passes for intellectual discourse on the right.
So…Barbie. A doll. Now a movie. A movie about a doll—a toy—that has right-wing babies peeing their tightie-whities.
Don’t know if you guys saw that video in which right-wing man-baby Ben Shapiro makes an intellectual point about the movie in a sputtering, wild-ass video that has him lighting a Barbie doll on fire. Clearly he passed philosophical discussion class with flying colors.
So now he joins two other reigning intellects on the right, DeSantolini, who attacks a cartoon character, and TuKKKer, who sees the end of Western civilization in a package of M&Ms.
And what’s the problem with the doll, the cartoon mouse, and the candy?
They’re too WOKE!!
A word that doesn’t even mean anything anymore. But this is the pinnacle of intellectual discourse on the right. Lighting a doll on fire, attacking the owners of a cartoon character, and crying about candy.
I suppose some people are moved by such Herculean feats of intellectual prowess.
Dangerous idiots, that is.