;)
June 10, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Dominick Mastrangelo & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "A former top editor at Fox News said on Friday that he has been called to testify next week before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Chris Stirewalt, who was ousted from the network following the 2020 presidential election and is now a political editor at NewsNation, said the committee had requested his testimony during its next hearing on Monday.... Stirewalt was part of the team at Fox News that made the decision to call Arizona for Joe Biden on election night 2020, a move that infuriated former President Trump and his top aides, some of whom reportedly complained directly to Fox leadership about the relatively early race call."
MSNBC is reporting on-air that Jeffrey Rosen, Trump's acting attorney general, who refused to go along with Trump's scheme to decertify electors in states Biden narrowly won, has agreed to testify before the House committee on January 6. Speaking of fake elector schemes: ~~~
~~~ Ginni Blasts Emails. Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed 29 Republican state lawmakers in Arizona -- 27 more than previously known -- to set aside Joe Biden's popular vote victory and 'choose' presidential electors, according to emails obtained by The Washington Post.... On Nov. 9, she sent identical emails to 20 members of the Arizona House and seven Arizona state senators. That represents more than half of the Republican members of the state legislature at the time. The message, just days after media organizations called the race for Biden in Arizona and nationwide, urged lawmakers to 'stand strong in the face of political and media pressure' and claimed that the responsibility to choose electors was 'yours and yours alone.'... On Dec. 13, the day before members of the electoral college were slated to cast their votes and seal Biden's victory, Thomas emailed 22 House members and one senator. 'Before you choose your state's Electors ... consider what will happen to the nation we all love if you don't stand up and lead,' the email said."
Trump Blasts Ivanka. Kristen Holmes of CNN: "A day after the House January 6 committee revealed previously unseen video of ... Donald Trump's daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, saying she accepted then-Attorney General Bill Barr's statement that the Justice Department found no fraud sufficient to overturn the election, the former President is responding... 'Ivanka Trump was not involved in looking at, or studying, Election results. She had long since checked out and was, in my opinion, only trying to be respectful to Bill Barr and his position as Attorney General (he sucked!),' Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social."
Philip Bump of the Washington Post has some thoughts on Fox "News" "coverage" of Thursday's Jan. 6 committee hearing: "The hearing began just as Tucker Carlson's show kicked off, and few people in America have been more energetically engaged than Carlson in casting the Jan. 6 riot as not worthy of discussion. Or as largely innocuous, save for some vandalism. Or maybe it's a government false flag aimed at casting Republicans as racists or something. Rhetorical consistency is not Carlson's strength, but that is happily for him not a limitation for his job."
Dan Morse of the Washington Post provides some new details on how Nicholas Roske abandoned his plan to murder Justice Brett Kavanaugh, then turn the gun on himself.
Zeke Miller of the AP: "The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus. A senior administration official said Friday that the mandate will expire Sunday at 12:01 a.m. EDT, adding that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention determined it is no longer necessary."
~~~~~~~~~~
Marie: I don't know about you, but I feel just gutted. ~~~
The violence was no accident. It represents Trump's last stand, most desperate chance to halt the transfer of power. -- Rep. Bennie Thompson (R-Miss.), Chair of the House January 6 committee ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In the entire 246-year history of the United States, there was surely never a more damning indictment presented against an American president than outlined on Thursday night in a cavernous congressional hearing room where the future of democracy felt on the line.... The case against Donald J. Trump mounted by the bipartisan House committee investigating the ... attack on the Capitol described not just a rogue president but a would-be autocrat willing to shred the Constitution to hang onto power at all costs.... Most incriminating were the words of Mr. Trump's own advisers and appointees, played over video.... [Rep. Liz] Ms. Cheney [R-Wy.] pulled together the committee's central findings in relentless, prosecutorial fashion.... Ms. Cheney ... reported that in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, members of Mr. Trump's own cabinet discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove the president from office.... And she noted that while [Mike] Pence repeatedly took action to summon help to stop the mob on Jan. 6, the president himself made no such effort. Instead, his White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, tried to convince Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to pretend that Mr. Trump was actively involved.... As she previewed the story that will be told in the weeks to come, Ms. Cheney all but wrote the script for [Attorney General Merrick] Garland." ~~~
~~~ Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "Thursday's prime-time congressional hearing -- the first from the select House committee established to investigate the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol -- was like none Capitol Hill had ever seen. Far from a dry examination of established facts or a bare-knuckle partisan throwdown, the presentation Thursday was carefully calibrated to tell a story.... After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) moved to strike some Republican appointees to the special committee, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) opted to pull out entirely. So while most congressional hearings on sharply partisan matters give viewers competing arguments on the matter at hand, [Chair Bennie] Thompson, [Vice Chair Liz] Cheney and their fellow panel members were free to weave a seamless narrative....
Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards recounted her harrowing experience on Jan. 6 as one of the first cops overrun on the Capitol's West Front.... Her appearance Thursday -- blond, blue-eyed and perfectly composed -- stood in devastating contrast to video shown moments later, of a rioter savagely flinging her into a concrete staircase and knocking her unconscious. Edwards described coming to, getting up and rejoining the fight, later finding herself behind a battle line watching a 'war scene' unfold. 'I was slipping in people's blood,' she said. 'It was carnage. It was chaos.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Let us pause to acknowledge that we own Kevin McCarthy our thanks. It was his stupid moves, first to oppose a bipartisan commission, then to select dunderheads like Jim Jordan for the committee, then to pull out altogether, that allowed for this extraordinary hearing to go forward unfettered by the harangues of the insurrection's defenders & apologists. ~~~
~~~ An AP story, by Farnoush Amiri, on Caroline Edwards' testimony is here.
Jan. 6 was the culmination of an attempted coup, a brazen attempt, as one rioter put it shortly after Jan. 6, to overthrow the government. The violence was no accident. -- Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), committee hearing Thursday ~~~
~~~ Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "The House panel investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol laid the blame firmly on Donald Trump Thursday night, saying the assault was hardly spontaneous but an 'attempted coup' and a direct result of the defeated president's effort to overturn the 2020 election. With a never-before-seen 12-minute video of extremist groups leading the deadly siege and startling testimony from Trump's most inner circle, the 1/6 committee provided gripping detail in contending that Trump's repeated lies about election fraud and his public effort to stop Joe Biden's victory led to the attack and imperiled American democracy[.]"
The New York Times is live-updating the hearing of the January 6 committee here: "The Democratic and Republican leaders of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot began laying out on Thursday evening what they described as a methodical conspiracy, led and coordinated by ... Donald J. Trump, to remain in power, which culminated in the worst attack on the Capitol since 1814. The committee's chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi, and its vice chairman, Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming, used a multimedia presentation that relied on the videotaped testimony of Trump loyalists, including the former attorney general, William P. Barr, the former president's daughter Ivanka Trump, and a longtime aide and spokesman Jason Miller." ~~~
~~~ ABC News' live updates are here.
The video timeline of the attack, which was presented at the hearing:
Rep. Liz Cheney's opening remarks, which laid out the committee's case:
I say this to my Republican colleagues who are defending the indefensible. There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain. --Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.), opening statement ~~~
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Liz Cheney "outlined for the country, and for history, two contrasting stories about the bloody insurrection. One was a tale of honor and duty. Officials in the Justice Department and White House, to a greater extent than was previously known, confronted Trump about his election lies and repeatedly threatened to resign if he followed through with his darkest impulses. The other was a tale of brutality and deceit by Trump and a small band of loyalists. They knew he had lost, and yet, as Cheney put it, 'Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated, seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power.'... 'Aware of the rioters' chants to hang Mike Pence, the president responded with this sentiment, quote, "Maybe our supporters have the right idea." Mike Pence, quote, "deserves it."'"
Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In brief video clips, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump appeared [via video clips] in the first of a half-dozen public hearings held by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.... In his video he was pressed by Representative Liz Cheney ... about whether he was aware that the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, had been threatening to resign because Mr. Trump was making increasingly outlandish efforts to stay in power.... [Kushner said] that he knew that Mr. Cipollone and 'the team were always saying, "Oh we are going to resign, we are not going to be there if this happens, if that happens." So I kind of took it up to just be whining, to be honest with you.'... Mr. Kushner's words enraged Mr. Cipollone’s former colleagues, many of whom traded messages as they complained to reporters and one another ... that the former president's son-in-law was 'arrogant.'.... According to more than a half-dozen former Trump advisers..., neither [Ivanka nor Jared] made much of an effort to pull Mr. Trump away from his obsession with staying in power. Instead, they left that task to the paid staff, who in turn kept waiting for the family to intervene more aggressively."
Emily Brooks & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) was one of 'multiple' GOP lawmakers who asked President Trump for pardons given their roles in seeking to unwind the 2020 election results, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol said in its first hearing Thursday night.... 'As you will see, Representative Perry contacted the White House in the weeks after January 6th to seek a presidential pardon. Multiple other Republican congressmen also sought presidential pardons for their roles in attempting to overturn the 2020 election,' [Rep. Liz] Cheney said. Perry's office forcefully denied the allegation....'Laughable, ludicrous, and a thoroughly soulless lie,' [Perry's spokesman] told The Hill." ~~~
~~~ Marie: After the hearing, Manu Raju of CNN said on-air that he had spoken to committee chair Bennie Thompson, who said the committee had the receipts -- which they would present in a future hearing -- on Perry and others. On MSNBC, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), a committee member & former prosecutor, said that requesting a preemptive pardon was evidence of consciousness of guilt.
MEANWHILE. Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Igor Derysh of Salon: "Fox News was the only news network not to carry the first day of the Jan. 6 committee hearings as its hosts repeatedly trashed the two-hour hearing without providing their audience any of the content.... At one point, as the committee showed damning footage of the violence in the Capitol, Fox News cut away from its side graphic showing the hearing to a panned-out shot of the hearing room.... 'This is the only hour on an American news channel that will not be carrying their propaganda live,' [Tucker] Carlson said. 'They are lying and we are not going to help them do it. What we will do instead is try to tell you the truth.'... "Fox is desperate to keep its viewers from switching to another channel and seeing the hearing in real time,' [Media Matters' Matt] Gertz tweeted.... Sean Hannity also did not air any of the hearing, describing it as the 'dullest, the most boring -- there's absolutely nothing new -- multi-hour Democratic fundraiser masquerading as a Jan. 6 hearing.' After the hearing wrapped up, Hannity declared that the 'one person that looks good is Donald Trump.'"
Betsy Swan of Politico: "Cassidy Hutchinson -- a top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Trump era — has parted ways with her lawyer and brought on new representation. Her new lawyer, Jody Hunt of Alston Bird, confirmed the move to Politico. The change in counsel signals an increased willingness from Hutchinson to cooperate fully with the Jan. 6 select committee's probe, according to a person familiar with her thinking. The panel has signaled that it views her as a key witness. Hutchinson's former attorney, Stefan Passantino, has deep Trump World connections. Her new lawyer, Jody Hunt, is a longtime close ally of Jeff Sessions and served as his chief of staff when the former attorney general enraged Trump by recusing from the Russia probe." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Balsamo of the AP: "In a court filing, the Justice Department alleged that [Trump economic advisor Peter] Navarro lied to the judge and to members of the media by claiming he was told he couldn't call a lawyer and that he was denied food and water while being held for several hours after his arrest on Friday.... [An] The FBI report said Navarro was given a bottle of water, chocolate, nuts and dried fruits about an hour after he was arrested at the airport. Navarro 'was asked if he wanted anything else to eat or drink which he declined,' the report said." While still at the airport where Navarro was arrested, the FBI report said agents offered to call Navarro's attorney for him. However, Navarro told the judge he did not have an attorney. Appearing later on Tucker Carlson's show, Navarro said, "Next thing I know, I'm in leg irons, handcuffs and strip-searched.... People do not want to sit in solitary confinement in leg irons, denied food, denied water, denied an attorney...." ~~~
~~~ Kyle Cheney, et al., of Politico: "Former Trump administration official Peter Navarro called the FBI agents who arrested him 'Nazis,' according to Justice Department documents filed Thursday in court accusing Navarro of repeatedly lying about the conditions of his arrest.... 'NAVARRO made statements to the effect that the arresting agents were "kind Nazis' and "how could you live with yourselves?"'" The FBI report mentions that Navarro was handcuffed, but makes no mention of placing him in leg irons, which Navarro has asserted they did.
Bryan Schott of the Salt Lake Tribune: "Leaked text messages between Utah Sen. Mike Lee and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows suggest Lee was a participant in the plot to keep Donald Trump in office, a charge Lee vehemently disputes. Recently released court documents could prove problematic for Lee's defense.... His text messages with [White House Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows make repeated references to alternate electors in the run-up to Jan. 6.... On December 8, Lee texted Meadows, 'If a very small handful of states were to have their legislatures appoint alternative slates of delegates, there could be a path.'... On Jan. 3, 2021, Lee texted Meadows several times, stressing the need for action by state legislators. 'Everything changes, of course, if the swing states submit competing slates of electors pursuant to state law, Lee wrote in one message. 'Again, all of this could change if the states in question certified Trump electors pursuant to state law,' Lee texted later. The next day, Lee texted Meadows, claiming he was 'spending 14 hours a day' working on electoral objections.... Lee has repeatedly claimed he was [merely] investigating 'rumors' that states were considering appointing Trump electors...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Robert Snell, et al., of the Detroit News: "FBI agents arrested [Michigan] Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. The arrest and search unfolding at Kelley's home in Allendale add more uncertainty to a chaotic race for governor that has seen several Republican candidates blocked from the ballot for submitting fraudulent nominating petition signatures. Kelley, 40, is expected to make an initial appearance later Thursday in federal court in Grand Rapids. Prosecutors filed four charges against Kelley.... Federal court records describe Kelley as being an active participant in the riot, climbing onto portions of the Capitol, encouraging yelling, gesturing to participants and removing a covering from a temporary structure outside the Capitol.... Kelley unwittingly helped FBI investigators by wearing identical clothing to various rallies and marches in the first few months of the pandemic in 2020." Read on. MB: Besides needing a more extensive wardrobe, the guy is a real nutjob. I just hope his arrest today doesn't mean he'll have to miss watching the Jan. 6 hearing tonight. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. The Washington Post report, by Spencer Hsu & others, is here: "Kelley was released from custody Thursday afternoon after a brief initial appearance in federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sally J. Berens of Grand Rapids, Mich." MB: So my worries yesterday, that he would miss watching his traitorist self in teevee footage Thursday night, have been allayed.
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A D.C. chiropractor who stormed the halls of Congress on Jan. 6 was arrested on federal charges Wednesday as FBI special agents descended on his office just blocks from the Capitol. A source familiar with the case confirmed to NBC News the arrest of David Walls-Kaufman of the Capitol Hill Chiropractic Center.... Walls-Kaufman faces four misdemeanor charges in connection with the Jan. 6 attack.... The FBI affidavit in Walls-Kaufman's case includes surveillance images that the bureau snapped of the chiropractor in October. The FBI said he was spotted on 'approximately nine different U.S. Capitol security cameras, and approximately twenty Metropolitan Police Department body worn cameras on January 6, 2021.'" MB: That guy should have been realigning his head instead of other people's bones.
Elliott Spagat & Chris Megherian of the AP: "President Joe Biden and other Western Hemisphere leaders are set to announce on Friday what is being billed as a roadmap for countries to host large numbers of migrants and refugees. 'The Los Angeles Declaration' is perhaps the biggest achievement of the Summit of the Americas.... A set of principles to be announced Friday on the summit's final day includes legal pathways to enter countries, aid to communities most affected by migration, humane border management and coordinated emergency responses, according to a senior U.S. official who briefed reporters ahead of an official announcement. It is a blueprint already being followed to a large extent by Colombia and Ecuador, whose right-leaning leaders were warmly greeted at the summit for welcoming many of the 6 million people who have left Venezuela in recent years.”
Amanda Seitz of the AP: "White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo. Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues, like abortion, guns, immigration and LGTBQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months. These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it's nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday."
Child Sacrifice. GOP Voters: Guns Are More Important than Children. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: In a recent Marist poll, "Respondents were asked which they felt was more important: protecting gun rights or controlling gun violence.... Overall, Americans were more likely to say that controlling gun violence is more important, 59 to 35 percent. Among gun owners, as you might expect, protecting gun rights was the majority position, although only barely.... Democrats said that controlling gun violence was more important by a nearly 90-point margin. Independents said the same, more narrowly. Among Republicans, though, more than two-thirds said protecting gun ownership was more important -- a higher level of support than even among gun owners themselves." Emphasis added.
Marie's Sports Report. Tariq Panja of the New York Times: "The PGA Tour on Thursday said it had suspended the 17 players who have taken part in the first event of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour, a move that punished the rebel pros but also seemed aimed at dissuading further defections. In a memo sent to his membership, the PGA Tour's commissioner, Jay Monahan, said those golfers who teed off in the first LIV Golf event, which began Thursday outside London, were 'no longer eligible to participate' in events on the American-based tour or any of its affiliated tours. He also vowed to apply the same suspension to any pro who joins one of the rival tour's coming events. Ahead of the event at the Centurion Club, the majority of players who had signed on with LIV Golf, including Dustin Johnson, Louis Oosthuizen, Kevin Na and Sergio García, said they had resigned from the PGA Tour, perhaps to avoid a suspension or lifetime ban. But Monahan's letter said they faced excommunication anyway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)"
Max Tani of Politico: "The Washington Post has fired Felicia Sonmez after the well-known reporter complained publicly about a perceived lack of institutional willingness to confront misogynistic treatment of female staffers. Sonmez's firing comes days after the paper suspended a fellow reporter, Dave Weigel, for a month after he retweeted a crude joke about women. Sonmez was highly critical of Weigel for the tweet, prompting WaPo Executive Editor Sally Buzbee to put out a memo encouraging staff members to treat one another with respect and kindness, including on social media platforms, and reminding staff that criticizing fellow employees was a violation of company policies.... But the infighting continued to spill out into public view from there." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Here's the Washington Post's story, by Paul Schwartzman & Jeremy Barr.
Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "A team of scientists convened by the World Health Organization to better understand the origins of the coronavirus pandemic and possible future outbreaks has said a theory that the virus could have escaped from a laboratory needs 'further investigations.' However, in a report released Thursday, the WHO-backed team said it had not received any new data that would allow it to better evaluate that theory. Members of the group from Brazil, China and Russia objected to the calls for further investigation into the 'lab leak' theory. The report also said that available data suggests SARS-CoV-2 had a zoonotic origin, which means it spread between animals in a natural setting, but that neither the animal that infected humans nor the place where this infection occurred could be identified." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Louisiana. Jim Mustian & Jake Bleiberg of the AP: "The U.S. Justice Department is opening a sweeping civil rights investigation into the Louisiana State Police amid mounting evidence that the agency has a pattern of looking the other way in the face of beatings of mostly Black men, including the deadly 2019 arrest of Ronald Greene. The federal 'pattern-or-practice' probe announced Thursday followed an Associated Press investigation that found Greene's arrest was among at least a dozen cases over the past decade in which state police troopers or their bosses ignored or concealed evidence of beatings, deflected blame and impeded efforts to root out misconduct. Dozens of current and former troopers said the beatings were countenanced by a culture of impunity, nepotism and, in some cases, outright racism."
Montana Congressional Race. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Ryan Zinke, a former Trump administration official, is projected to win the GOP nomination for Montana's new U.S. House district, according to the Associated Press. Zinke, the Interior Department secretary during the Trump presidency, won the Republican nomination with Donald Trump's endorsement despite charges that he wasn't as conservative as some of the other candidates and that his wife's primary residence is in California. He will be heavily favored to win in November in a state Trump won by 16 points in 2020.... A former Navy SEAL officer and state senator, Zinke previously represented Montana in the House from 2015 to 2017, when he joined the Trump administration. He resigned as secretary of the Interior Department in December 2018 under pressure from the White House during probes into alleged misconduct in office. The Interior Department's inspector general had recently referred an inquiry to the Justice Department, which ultimately declined to bring charges. In a report released this year, the inspector general found that Zinke broke ethics rules while participating in real estate negotiations and lied to an ethics official."
New York Congressional Race. Nichols Fandos of the New York Times: "Carl P. Paladino, a Republican running for a House seat in Western New York, praised Adolf Hitler last year for inspiring his followers, describing the fascist dictator as 'the kind of leader we need today.'... 'He would get up there screaming these epithets and these people were just, they were hypnotized by him,' he said in [a radio] interview, resurfaced by the left-leaning watchdog group Media Matters. 'I guess, I guess that's the kind of leader we need today. We need somebody inspirational. We need somebody that is a doer.'" Paladino says he does not "support" Hitler.
Pennsylvania Senate Race. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the way for Pennsylvania to count mail-in primary ballots received by the Election Day deadline but lacked a state-required handwritten date on the return envelope. There are relatively few 'undated' ballots, though they could make a difference in tight races. But the sense of urgency surrounding the Supreme Court's action diminished last week, when Republican Senate candidate David McCormick conceded to rival Mehmet Oz. McCormick, who trailed Oz by less than 1,000 votes, sued to have the votes counted, and Pennsylvania's commonwealth court agreed. But there were not enough of the ballots to make a difference, McCormick decided.... The Supreme Court case also involves a judicial candidate in Lehigh County, who says counting the ballots threatens his lead in a close election. Three justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch -- noted their dissents from the court's order."
Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Heavily armed officers delayed confronting a gunman in Uvalde, Texas, for more than an hour even though supervisors at the scene had been told that some trapped with him in two elementary school classrooms needed medical treatment, a new review of video footage and other investigative material shows. Instead, the documents show, they waited for protective equipment to lower the risk to law enforcement officers.... There is no question that some of the victims were still alive and in desperate need of medical attention. One teacher died in an ambulance. Three children died at nearby hospitals, according to the documents." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It doesn't take a genius or someone with police training to figure out that after a gunman has been heard firing shots into a classroom full of children, there will be some wounded and in need of medical attention. Besides, waiting for body armor sounds to me like a made-up excuse. According to previous reports, when the Border Patrol went in, they did so carrying ballistic shields. So at least some of the officers loitering in the hallway already had protective gear. ~~~
~~~ James Barragán & Zach Despart of the Texas Tribune: "Criticized by law enforcement experts for slowness in taking out the shooter, Pete Arredondo described an agonizing wait for a key that would work. In an interview with The Texas Tribune, he said he hadn't spoken out sooner because he didn't want to compound his hometown's grief or point blame.... When keys arrived, he tried dozens of them, but one by one they failed to work.... Texas Department of Public Safety officials and news outlets have reported that the shooter fired his gun at least two more times as police waited in the hallway outside the classrooms for more than an hour.... [Arredondo] said he never considered himself the scene's incident commander and did not give any instruction that police should not attempt to breach the building.... [Experts] said by running into the school with no key and no radios and failing to take charge of the situation, the chief appears to have contributed to a chaotic approach in which officers deployed inappropriate tactics, adopted a defensive posture, failed to coordinate their actions, and wasted precious time as students and teachers remained trapped in two classrooms with a gunman who continued to fire his rifle."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "As his military suffers heavy losses in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian leaders are stepping up their pleas for the quick delivery of heavy weapons to help them in the current battles and for deeper political integration into Europe for a greater sense of security when the war is over.... A day after ... Vladimir V. Putin compared himself to the 18th-century czar, Peter the Great, saying that he was engaged in a similar struggle to win back lands he sees as rightfully Russian, Mr. Zelensky said it was time to listen to the current Russian leader's threats and act swiftly.... Two Britons and a Moroccan who fought for Ukraine were sentenced to death on Thursday by a court in Russian-held eastern territory, the Russian news agency Interfax reported. The men were accused of being mercenaries." ~~~
~~~ Here's the New York Times' summary of developments Thursday.
News Lede
CNBC: "Inflation accelerated further in May, with prices rising 8.6% from a year ago for the fastest increase since December 1981, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The consumer price index, a wide-ranging measure of goods and services prices, increased even more than the 8.3% Dow Jones estimate. Excluding volatile food and energy prices, so-called core CPI was up 6%, slightly higher than the 5.9% estimate. On a monthly basis, headline CPI was up 1% while core rose 0.6%, compared with respective estimates of 0.7% and 0.5%."
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Reader Comments (13)
“No one will care”, “Old news”, “Water under the bridge”, “A few bad apples”, and my favorite: “All Nancy Pelosi’s fault”.
Yesterday afternoon, NPR ran a story about the upcoming hearing into the attempt by Donald Trump and his violent minions to overthrow the government. The piece led with a lengthy clip from some R traitor whining “When are we gonna have a prime time televised hearing on stuff that matters? Huh? Like gas prices and inflation and kids not having enough food! How about those things?!”
That’s how some pusillanimous both-sides asshole decided this piece should open. If it were in print it would have read:
Hearing on Jan 6 tonight: but nothing about really important stuff.
It doesn’t matter that facts about the insurrection followed. The whole thrust of the piece was subverted right from the top. It gave any listener on the fence a chance to say “See? Even pinko commie NPR thinks this is bullshit. I’m not tuning in.”
I am SO FUCKING SICK of the media bending over to be sweet and nice to GODDAM FUCKING TRAITORS!
This is the biggest story in a generation but the headline is Hearing tonight: nothing of real importance.
People need to go to prison. Asshole supporters of lies, violence, and treason in congress need to be ejected. This was an existential attack on, and in, the heart of our nation.
And Trump—are you listening MERRICK?!?!?—needs to be indicted.
A gentle crowd of sweet patriots visiting the capitol? Yeah. Like Trump was a competent, decent, selfless leader of strong moral fiber.
And enough of being nice to people who live to fuck us!
The trick now, of course, is how the MSM treats this story. Will this in depth, factual recounting of our incredibly close call with governmental overthrow and the installation, by violence, of a dictator be given the gravitas and the space needed to warn the country of the precarious position we are in with a party of traitors running roughshod over the Constitution, or will it be “More stuff from Washington we can’t figure out. Next, will Ben Affleck and J-Lo get married on the International Space Station? Stay tuned!” ?
Not gutted so much as scared, Marie. That's how I feel.
Not scared so much of what the Republican traitors whose machinations to hold onto power failed the first time around. Not so much of the plans they are still pursuing to steal elections. And certainly not of their buffoonish leader, whom even given another couple of ill-gotten billions I'll never be able to take seriously..
....but of the truly evil masses, the millions of deplorable racists and ignoramuses (and proud of it!) who seem to think all this is OK, who either nod their heads and follow quietly along or are actively complicit in destroying the democracy that (in most cases) gave them so much. It is they who scare the hell out of me.
Looking at some of last night's footage, I was reminded again of the generations of spoiled children I dealt with over the years. So lucky to be alive in the period in which they happened to be born, but still whining about how tough, unfair, and miserable they were. The badly spoiled were in the minority and even most of them grew out of it, but I was reminded of them last night when I saw hundreds of shouting idiots--certain they had been put upon, abused, mistreated by something, somehow, somewhere, majorly aggrieved anyway for some reason or none at all-- attacking police, shoving aside barricades, damaging and entering the seat of my nation's government, even murdering and threatening murder---and only one of them was shot. Only one. What stupid, lucky bastards. Any other place, any other time....and those privileged clowns probably still have no idea how lucky they are.
Nor do the millions who stand behind them and support them silently. That's why I'm scared...,
Speaking of silence, I've noticed in the last six months or so, the letters to the editor comprised of standard Right Wing talking points have almost disappeared. There are exceptions, but locally, Republicans have gone almost silent and I don't know what the silence means.
I'd like to think they're hiding out of embarrassment and shame, but I still don't trust 'em. More likely they're just keeping their heads down, planning their next outrage. They're not going to go away.
And Akhilleus, of course you're correct. The likes of the pusillanimous NPR's sure don't help. And we're all wondering what Garland will do....
Having been filled up to the tipppy top with frustration and anger, the last thing I want to do is listen to an NPR both sides teeter totter screed. (AK has stronger muscle here) Marie says she feels "gutted"––-good word for what I feel and yet she is the one who puts on the news that helps us stay informed and yes, gutted. But we junkies persevere.
Watching the hearing last night I couldn't help thinking how ironic that Dick Cheney's (ole Darth Vader) daughter is the Republican who is leading a hearing that shows how Trump oversaw and coordinated a sophisticated seven-part plan to overturn the presidential election and prevent the transfer of presidential power. She has shown courage, integrity and stamina––unlike her fellow failures.
Meanwhile the GOP-peepers tell us why they need those assault weapons–--to shoot varmints: Pigs, raccoons and prairie dogs. Well, of course–--rat-a=dat=dat–-blow em up to pieces. It's the western way, don't ya know. And according to a reporter (Huff-Po) at the hearing these goons were complaining that this hearing is a waste of time–-we should be concentrating on the "gun business." Unbelievable!!!!!!!
Ken: Yes––scared––that, too. It's like the cockroach analogy –-when the lights go on there they are in multitude–--they were always there, we just don't see them in the dark. This country is fraught with those "spoiled children" you mention. I think many of them feel inadequate and need a cause to make their blood circulate. But last night's first hearing gave me hope that those lights that expose will change the fact that this country's fragile democracy cannot endure with the likes of a psychopath as a president along with his slaves and knaves.
And now the apologists and liars…
One thing that has always mystified me is how this is “All Nancy Pelosi’s fault!” She should have had better security! First, it’s not Pelosi’s job. More importantly, the necessary additional security was never going to be there because of Trump shenanigans making sure that the DC security apparatus was either hollowed out (Homeland Security) or ordered to pay no attention to the myriad red flags prior to Trump’s attempted takeover with his armed thugs.
And blaming lack of security is like saying, well, of course vicious criminals robbed the bank. There weren’t enough guards and the safe was easy to crack.
Nothing about the bank robbers? They’re all blameless?
The usual GOP misdirection and lies.
It’s not my fault I drove my car into a crowd of innocent bystanders! They shouldn’t have let me get behind the wheel!
I have more or less bought into the media narrative that many Congressional Republicans were so shocked by Donald Trump's goons that they briefly decided to do the right thing and send him packing -- before they realized that their voter base had different ideas.
But I was wrong. Republican leaders never thought, "Gosh, I'd better do the right thing & rid this nation of this dangerous maniac." During the film presented at the House hearing last night, there's a brief clip of the insurrectionists invading Kevin McCarthy's office. When the barbarians broke the gates, these Republicans were afraid for their lives, as they should have been. A clip that circulated right after the insurrection showed the barbarians standing around Ted Cruz's Senate desk, flipping through his notebook. They only put down the notebook when one of them decided that Ted was on their side. But the numbskulls who invaded the Capitol were not the type who excelled in civics class; a lot of them didn't know whose "side" McCarthy and Cruz were on & Republican MOCs were smart enough to know that.
So the Republicans' sudden change in attitude during & in the few days following the attempted coup is a very visceral kind of self-preservation: they wanted to live to see another day. And when they did see that other day, thanks to heroic actions by Capitol and D.C. police, these Republicans quickly returned to their old, familiar form of self-preservation: pandering to the base. They never, even briefly, care about the republic. They never cared to do the right thing. It was always about themselves. The shift was natural and seamless, from one kind of self-interest to another.
Wasted time.
Replied to some troll's comment in the WAPO who wanted to know why the Capitol police were so incompetent, how many FBI assets were embedded in the rioters and why D.C. carjackers and murders were released on bail within 24 hours and so-call insurrectionists held in solitary for 13 months...
Since these are the fool folk (or algorithms) that scare me, decided to pretend to take him/it seriously (just for fun) and responded thusly:
"Presume you mean the police should have used more force--as in shot more of the insurrectionists storming the Capitol?
Good question, and I might agree with you, but I think we all know the answer. The police just weren't prepared for the mob's violence and likely were not given orders to shoot. The rioters took advantage of the gentle way they were treated, just as "free speech" advocates abuse their right to shout racist slogans and second amendment worshipers see no limits to their "freedom" to purchase, own, stockpile and brandish advanced weaponry.
I'm guessing, too, since you put "insurrectionists" in quotations you'd like to think of those trashing the Capitol as patriots. Patriots of what nation, pray tell...What exactly does that nation look like?"
When I submitted it, I received this notice (in red) from the WAPO. "You have responded to a comment the editors have deleted," which I admit was a more direct and effective response than mine.
Time to do last night's dishes.
@Ken Winkes: I don't think there was one thing wrong with your response. Not a word. The WashPo "moderators" were no doubt responding to complaints from the nitwits. Still, they should not have deleted your reply.
BTW, if the nitwits had watched the hearing, they would have known why the D.C. police were so "incompetent." Not only were they outmanned (personned?), but as Caroline Edwards testified, she learned in her police training how to deal with a few rowdies, not combat techniques. Anyway, stick those dishes in the dishwasher with the self-assurance that you're on the right side of history.
Marie,
Thanks, but I may have mis-written. I understood that my comment wasn't accepted because it responded to a post the editors deleted. IOW, by the time I submitted it, it was directed at nothing...figuratively, to one of the vacuous who scares me..
BTW, I'm so old and cranky I like to use the dishwasher as a drying rack.
The January 6 rioters are lucky that Capitol Police and MPD are not "trained in combat techniques," nor would they employ them to protect the Capitol. Two machine gun emplacements, one East, one West, would have dispersed the mob in minutes. "Combat techniques" are not about hand-to-hand combat.
But we don't do business like that in this country, nor should we.
As Ken said, they don't know how lucky they are.
(Storytime: I had a history professor, who was a really good lecturer, whose family had escaped Europe in the '30's, who noted to his History of Modern Europe lecture class that we were very lucky to live in a country where the Department of the Interior is in charge of trees.)
Colbert's monologue from last night after the January 6th hearing.
Ken:"BTW, I'm so old and cranky I like to use the dishwasher as a drying rack." At last! a fellow dishwasher. Since there are only two people in this household the use of the dishwasher is only for abundant consumption by guests or when the mister decides to create one of his signature dishes that use every bloody tool in the kitchen or when he makes his famous rolls that require many pans in order for the dough to rise.