June 12, 2022

Afternoon Update:

The Prairie Dog Exception. In my state, they use [assault rifles] to shoot prairie dogs and, you know, other types of varmints. And so I think there are legitimate reasons why people would want to have them. -- Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), Minority Whip ~~~

~~~ Ten GOP Senators Realize They're on the Wrong Side of Public Opinion. Emily Cochrane & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate negotiators announced on Sunday they had agreed on a bipartisan outline for a narrow set of gun safety measures with sufficient support to move through the evenly divided chamber, a significant step toward ending a yearslong congressional impasse on the issue. The plan, endorsed by 10 Republicans and 10 Democrats, would include funding for mental health resources, boosting school safety and grants for states to implement so-called red flag laws that allow authorities to confiscate guns from people deemed to be dangerous. It would also expand the nation's background check system to include juvenile records for any prospective gun buyer under the age of 21. Most notably, it includes a provision to address what is known as the 'boyfriend loophole,' which would prohibit dating partners -- not just spouses -- from owning guns if they had been convicted of domestic violence. The framework says that convicted domestic violence abusers and individuals subject to domestic violence restraining orders would be included in criminal background checks. The outline, which has yet to be finalized, falls far short of the sprawling reforms that President Biden, gun control activists and a majority of congressional Democrats have long championed, excluding a ban on assault weapons. And it is nowhere near as sweeping as a package of gun measures passed nearly along party lines in the House last week...." Politico's story is here.

Daniella Diaz of CNN: "Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat who is on the House select committee investigating the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, said Sunday he believes Attorney General Merrick Garland knows 'what's at stake here' when it comes to a possible indictment of ... Donald Trump from the Department of Justice.... Rep. Adam Schiff, another Democratic member of the select committee, went a step further Sunday, saying he believes the DOJ should investigate potential criminal activity from Trump as it relates to January 6. 'I would like to see the Justice Department investigate any credible allegation of criminal activity on the part of Donald Trump or anyone else,' he said on ABC's 'This Week.'"

Brad Dress of the Hill: "Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) on Sunday said former President Trump is 'politically, morally responsible' for the Jan. 6 riot last year and called for Republicans to do some 'soul-searching' after the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Hutchinson told 'Fox News Sunday' guest host Bret Baier that while he did not believe Trump was criminally responsible for Jan. 6, he does think the former president shares blame for the insurrection. 'Trump is politically, morally responsible for much of what has happened, but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that,' the governor said of the House select panel investigating Jan. 6." See also Patrick's comment below.

Emma Brown & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A cybersecurity executive who has aided efforts by election deniers to investigate the 2020 vote said in a recent court document that he had 'forensically examined' the voting system used in Coffee County, Ga. The assertion by executive Benjamin Cotton that he examined the county's voting system is the strongest indication yet that the security of election equipment there may have been compromised following Donald Trump's loss.... In May, The Washington Post reported that former county elections official Misty Hampton had opened her offices to a man who was active in the election-denier movement to help investigate after the 2020 vote. Recounting the incident to The Post, Hampton said she did not know what the man, bail bond business owner Scott Hall, and his team did in her office.... [Cotton did not] explain how he gained access to voting system data from Coffee or provide evidence of his examination...."

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Marie: Of course I never heard of John Cena. He's a wrestler & an actor, it turns out, and a mensch: ~~~

Misha, a non-verbal teen with Down’s Syndrome, didn’t understand why his family had to flee Mariupol this year.

To placate him, his mother told him they were travelling to meet John Cena.

Cena heard… and went to Amsterdam to oblige.

Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/vix2OhkXZs

— Gavan Reilly (@gavreilly) June 11, 2022

~~~~~~~~~~

The Case Against Donald Trump: Opening Arguments. Peter Baker & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "For two hours on Thursday night, the House committee investigating the Capitol attack detailed what it called Mr. Trump's 'illegal and 'unconstitutional' seven-part plan to prevent the transfer of power. The panel invoked the Justice Department, citing charges of seditious conspiracy filed against some of the attackers, and seemed to be laying out a road map for Attorney General Merrick B. Garland to their central target[: Donald Trump]. Several former prosecutors and veteran lawyers said afterward that the hearing offered the makings of a credible criminal case for conspiracy to commit fraud or obstruction of the work of Congress. In presenting her summary of the evidence, Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and the committee's vice chairwoman, demonstrated that Mr. Trump was told repeatedly by his own advisers that he had lost the election yet repeatedly lied to the country by claiming it had been stolen. He pressured state and federal officials, members of Congress and even his own vice president to disregard vote tallies in key states. And he encouraged the mob led by extremist groups like the Proud Boys while making no serious effort to stop the attack once it began.... A Justice Department spokesman said Mr. Garland watched the hearing but would not elaborate." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Baker & Benner describe the case as "haunting" Donald Trump. But I would say it's a case that haunts the nation. Trump lacks the awareness to be "haunted." See also Maureen Dowd's column, linked below.

Betsy Swan & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "A day before a mob of Donald Trump supporters smashed their way into the Capitol to disrupt the transfer of presidential power, then-Vice President Mike Pence's top lawyer [wrote] a fateful memo. In the three-page document, attorney Greg Jacob concluded that if Pence were to embrace Trump's demand that he single-handedly block or delay the counting of electoral votes on Jan. 6, he would be breaking multiple provisions of the Electoral Count Act, the law that has governed the transfer of power since 1887. Such a move, Jacob concluded, would assuredly fail in court. Or worse, he said, the courts would refuse to get involved and leave America in an unprecedented political crisis.... Jacob is scheduled to testify publicly Thursday to the Jan. 6 select committee about Pence's decision to resist Trump's pressure campaign. The panel declined to comment on Jacob's memo. The memo informed Pence's ultimate decision to rebuff pressure from Trump to reverse the outcome of the election." Includes copy of Jacob's memo. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times story, by Maggie Haberman, is here.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "It never for a moment crossed Donald Trump's mind that an American president committing sedition would be a debilitating, corrosive thing for the country. It was just another way for the Emperor of Chaos to burnish his title.... In his dystopian Inaugural speech, Trump promised to end 'American carnage.' Instead, he delivered it. Now he needs to be held accountable for his attempted coup -- and not just in the court of public opinion."

Theo Zenou in the Washington Post: In 1955, a "group of seven intellectuals published ... an essay collection, ... [titled] 'The New American Right'... [which] has never looked more prescient.... The authors wrote that far-right activists who wrapped themselves in the American flag actually posed a grave threat to the country's core principles. In the name of protecting U.S. democracy, they warned, the radical right would employ the language and methods of authoritarianism.... [Sociologist Daniel] Bell's team of academics revised 'The New American Right' and rereleased it in 1963 as 'The Radical Right.' It would become a must-read for students of modern American history.... [The radical right] blasted free elections and the peaceful transfer of power, lamented the independence of the judiciary and opposed civil rights.... They posed as conservatives but in truth were authoritarians with a nihilistic urge to watch the world burn.... They lived amid what their successors would come to call 'alternative facts.'" ~~~

~~~ Sarah Bailey of the Washington Post: "Over the past year, parental rights have become a popular cause as Republicans have assailed pandemic measures and the teaching of gender and race in schools.... For Christian home-school advocates..., it's a long-awaited payoff.... Besides laying a foundation for the current wave of parental rights-related policies, conservative Christian home-school advocates are also taking an active role in making these policies law." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What seems to have happened here is that Republicans, who have never had any policy principles beyond "just say no," continue to flail around looking for some "defining" principles. They have always found these "principles" in extremist movements, from Barry Goldwater's "extremism in defense of liberty" to Newt Gingrich's "Contract for America" to Donald Trump's white nationalism. The lunatics will always be with us. The fight to overcome them is a war without end.

Michael Wines, et al., of the New York Times: "... thousands of protesters rallied against gun violence on Saturday in Washington, D.C., and in cities across the country. With their signs, chants and mere presence, they condemned the drumbeat of mass shootings in the United States and renewed a call -- so far, a futile one -- for federal legislation to limit the use of the military-style weapons that have made many of them possible. Many vowed to fight the inaction at the polls. 'I'll be taking your thoughts and prayers to the ballot box,' read a sign carried by Maria Vorel, 67, who demonstrated at the Washington Monument.... The demonstrations [were] organized by [the student group] March for Our Lives...." ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News report is here. A Washington Post report is here. A Texas Tribune report is here.

Death Comes to the Archbishop. Rick Rojas & Josh Peck of the New York Times: "The day after an 18-year-old gunman massacred 21 students and teachers at an elementary school [in Uvalde, Texas.]..., Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller [of San Antonio, Texas,] ... made a spontaneous and impassioned appeal to some of the many reporters who had swarmed into Uvalde: The nation must overhaul its gun laws, limiting access to weapons designed to maximize carnage and suffering, he said. It must also abandon what he described as an unsettling cultural embrace of violence these weapons represented.... Since the attack, the archbishop, whose vast domain of roughly 796,000 Catholics includes Uvalde, has emerged as one of the most visible and vocal gun control advocates in South Texas. He has delivered sermons, spoken at public gatherings, appeared on national television, and given interviews to local and international journalists."

Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for children under 6 is effective in preventing symptomatic infection without causing worrisome side effects, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday night. Advisers to the F.D.A. are scheduled to meet next week to decide whether to recommend that the agency grant Moderna's request for emergency authorization of its vaccine for children ages 6 months to 17 years. They will also consider an application from Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, to clear its pediatric vaccine for children under 5. The F.D.A. is expected to release its analysis of Pfizer's application on Monday."

Beyond the Beltway

Idaho. Daniel Walters of the New York Times: "Dozens of members of a white supremacist group were arrested on Saturday in Idaho before they could act on plans to riot at a local Pride event, the police said. After receiving a tip from a concerned citizen, the police detained and charged 31 people who belonged to a far-right group known as Patriot Front, said Lee White, the chief of the Coeur d'Alene Police Department, at a news conference. They are being charged with conspiracy to riot, a misdemeanor, he said.... 'And they were all dressed like a small army,' Sheriff [Bob] Norris said.... The Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremist organizations and hate crimes, describes Patriot Front as a Texas-based white supremacist group that formed when members of another white supremacist group, Vanguard America, broke off after the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017. The members arrested had come to Idaho from several states, the police said, including Texas, Utah, Colorado, South Dakota, Illinois, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon and Virginia." An AP report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Fighting in the streets of Severodonetsk continues, with Ukrainian officials claiming Saturday that their forces still controlled a third of the city and a Moscow-backed local official saying Russian troops had encircled hundreds of Ukrainian fighters at a chemical plant.... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted the 'fierce street battles' taking place in Severodonetsk in his nightly address and said that, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's visit to Kyiv on Saturday to discuss Ukraine's E.U. candidacy, 'the final phase of the big diplomatic marathon' had begun. A recommendation from the commission on Ukraine's status is expected next week.... Zelensky on Saturday responded to reports that Russian passports were being handed out in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, saying, 'It looked like not a queue to get a passport, but an attempt to get a ticket to flee.'... Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, China's defense minister appeared to play down his country's support of Moscow and said it had never given weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here.

The New York Times' summary of Saturday's developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Dan Lamothe & Claire Parker of the Washington Post: "Russia is likely to seize control of the entire Luhansk region of Ukraine within a few weeks, a senior U.S. defense official said, as Ukraine sustains heavy casualties and its supplies of ammunition dwindle. Such a move would leave Russia short of its war aims of capturing all of Luhansk and Donetsk, which together make up the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. But it would still amount to a win for Russian forces and create a new de facto front line that could last for some time."

David Keyton & John Leicester of the AP: "Ukrainian and British officials warned Saturday that Russian forces are relying on weapons able to cause mass casualties as they try to make headway in capturing eastern Ukraine and fierce, prolonged fighting depletes resources on both sides. Russian bombers have likely been launching heavy 1960s-era anti-ship missiles in Ukraine, the U.K. Defense Ministry said. The Kh-22 missiles were primarily designed to destroy aircraft carriers using a nuclear warhead. When used in ground attacks with conventional warheads, they 'are highly inaccurate and therefore can cause severe collateral damage and casualties,' the ministry said."

France. Sylvie Corbet of the AP: "French voters are choosing lawmakers in a parliamentary election Sunday as President Emmanuel Macron seeks to secure his majority while under growing threat from a leftist coalition. More than 6,000 candidates, ranging in age from 18 to 92, are running for 577 seats in the National Assembly in the first round of the election. Those who receive the most votes will advance to the decisive second round on June 19. Following Macron's reelection in May, his centrist coalition is seeking an absolute majority that would enable it to implement his campaign promises, which include tax cuts and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65."

Comments

[P.D. Pepe]

Point fingers on the Fed for our rising inflation, not on Biden and the Democrats–––something the Republicans are doing, of course. Christopher Leonard's guest essay in the Times gives us a good background on this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/11/opinion/fed-federal-reserve-inflation-democrats.html

[Marie Burns]

Ba-a-a-a! I did enjoy yesterday's off-topic conversation about the "German shepherd." To joynone (is that joy-none, joy-n-one or joyn-one??), remember that the flight to Germany (hilarious!) would have taken place in the 1980s when airport security was more lax than it is now. Getting through customs might have been dicey, though. Hard to disguise a severed human arm as a side of Texas prosciutto or some other innocuous souvenir.

BTW, I looked up "German shepherd" on the Internets, and it appears the preferred term for the breed, when it appears in print, is "German Shepherd," not "German shepherd." So Akhilleus, besides making me feel better about my puzzlement, I think maybe we're accustomed to seeing both words capitalized, and that's why we made the mistake.

As silly as the conversation was, it wasn't a total waste. Here's something I learned: "Texas today leads the nation in sheep production." I never would have known that. Now I'll never forget it.

[P.D. Pepe]

SUNDAY SAMPLER: Part one:

Fintan O'Toole's new book, "We Don't Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland" is filled with delicious goodies. Since many of us here have a bit of the blarney running through our veins I thought I'd share bits and pieces from his book on successive Sundays.

James Wood, who reviewed this book, said it is like reading a great tragicomic Irish novel rich in memoir and record, calamity and critique.
For instance: The pedophile Dublin priest who built a swimming pool in his back garden––in drizzly Ireland no less–- so that little boys could swim ––with HIM. The censoring, all-seeing Archbishop of Dublin who kept a telescope and a magnifying glass in his official residence and boasted that when he used the magnifier to scrutinize "the drawings of women in ads for underwear, it was possible to see the the outline of a mons veneris." Yowza! The fact that Ireland didn't get an escalator until 1963 and one of my favorites:

Irish viewers could see only a chaste version of "Casablanca" that
"cut out all the references to Rick and Ilsa's passionate love affair in Paris, leaving their motivations entirely mysterious."

and we've only just begun...........

[Ken Winkes]

P.D.

Read the Leonard essay last night and appreciated the background it offered, but thought it wholly ignored the large part profiteering plays in our current mess.

Have an additional, paranoid thought about gas prices. Not only do high gas prices engorge the fossil fuel industries' balance sheets, as they are doing, but they are not good for Democrats--the party that makes noises about getting them and what they are doing to the planet-- and the oil companies like that effect too.

And now for a Sunday Sermon:

"My friend Rich used to say that every day he woke up and put his feet on the floor was a good day.

I thought of Rich this morning when I opened my eyes in the early light, looked around and wondered why the Republican Party thinks being awake is such a bad thing.

Much of what Republicans dislike is “woke,” they say, ironically stealing a Black Lives Matter term to heap their scorn on race, gender and voting rights issues, or anything that smacks of social justice. The complaint seems to be that “woke” folks are too sensitive to these matters, implying their delicacy is inappropriate because there’s no reason to be worrying over things that are really just fine as they are.

It’s a neat system. Any problem that can’t be conveniently, if wrongly, blamed on Democrats, like gasoline prices or inflation, is “woke” or doesn’t exist.

And what doesn’t exist for Republicans makes a long list.

Global warming. Mountains of money dumped into our elections. The stranglehold of monopolies on the economy. The excessive cost of pharmaceuticals. A healthcare system that still fails to serve millions. A lopsided tax system that targets the middle class. The daily carnage of gun violence. An insurrection Republicans work hard to ignore.

Republicans rarely even acknowledge such subjects. When legislation designed to address them is introduced in the Senate, they notice them only long enough to vote “no,” as they have on recent bills intended to protect voting rights or combat domestic terrorism (nytimes.com). House Republicans have dealt with legislation to lower drug prices the same way (vanityfair.com).

Unlike Republicans, Rich and I are happy to wake and get out of bed. Folks our age, sensitive to the passage of years, are aware of the grim alternatives: Being comatose or dead. "

[Akhilleus]

Ken wrote: “ Folks our age, sensitive to the passage of years, are aware of the grim alternatives: Being comatose or dead. "

Or Republican.

And this problem the traitors have with being woke: the thought of being more aware of actual conditions in the world, as opposed to what Fox tells you, the idea of having a personal relationship with facts…these are anathema to the R lizard brains.

Better to remain in their fantasy world of You-Ess-Ay, good guys with guns, 1950’s style health care for women, autocracy, theocracy, and other assorted moronocracies, with an ignorant narcissistic dictator in charge.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

The over-abundance of sheep in Texas might explain the fearful inability to step up for things like sane gun laws or teaching something besides Christian-white nationalist propaganda in schools.

Very illuminating. With or without the severed arm.

[P.D. Pepe]

Baa-Ba Black sheep, have you any wool?

Yes, sir. yes sir, three bags full–––one for my master, one for my dame and one for the Texas lame brains that live down the lane.

Forgive me for wool gathering.

[Bobby Lee]

With the governor of Florida as an example I've got to say I don't like the way the GOP is taking the idea of "One man, one vote". With a super majority in the legislature it seems the governors vote is the only one that counts.

[Rockygirl]

So the House and Senate have passed a milquetoast package of gun safety changes, a package that is admittedly inadequate but is certainly the best we were gonna get 10 Rs to accept.

So my question to all the howling progressive types bewailing that the Dems and especially Biden have betrayed them again for not magically passing the totality of their gun safety wish list, my question is this: what should Biden and Dem leadership in the Congress have done to get the number of Rs needed in our current system (not the fantasy system you think we would have if we had just listened to you and elected Bernie). Please be specific, detailing the precise steps that should have been taken to get what you want. What? You can’t? Precisely. I am sooooo sick of that kind of BS. Yes, it’s less than we might want. But it is better than nothing, moves the Overton window in the right direction, and is a heck of a lot better than the nothing we’d get with your purity pony approach.

Okay, I’ve gotten my rant out of my system.

[Marie Burns]

@Rocky Girl: Yes. And I hope Democratic members of the House will vote for this measly bill. At least theoretically, it will save some lives.

[Patrick]

"The Hill" report on Arkansas Goober Asa Hutchinson's talk with Brett Baier says that AH "... did not believe "... that DiJiT was criminally responsible.

In fact, AH said "... but in terms of criminal liability, I think the committee has a long way to go to establish that...”

Big difference, what one believes about criminality v. what others need to do to establish it. It's like saying "though he's guilty they'll have to work hard to prove it."

Reporters should know better, how to write up elisions from professional politicians. Especially reporters for "The Hill."

[Patrick]

I haven't read the proposed gun bill, but from reports it appears that there will be federal red flag confiscations of weapons from dangerous people, 4th Amendment process TBD.

I am glad NOT to be a federal law enforcement official tasked with actually going to the property to sequester those weapons. Some red states have laws prohibiting local LE from assisting feds in gun collection, and if I remember correctly some states/localities even tried to make it a crime to enforce federal gun laws.

I'm not saying not to do it, just that I'm glad I don't have to. Ruby Ridge and Waco come to mind.

[Ken Winkes]

Senator Thune ought to have met my Idaho uncle who mounted his pickup flatbed with a rotating seat from which he would survey the sage prairie near where he lived and plink groundhogs with his .22 Hornet.

For him, it was sport. Don't think he'd have thought using an AR-15 would qualify....

Nor do I.

[Marie Burns]

@Patrick: You're right. I modified my entry above to reflect what Hutchinson actually said. And he is right to the extent that what the committee has presented to the public is merely the "opening argument." But some clips they did show in the first hearing were pretty impressive evidence, IMO.

On a related note, there been plenty of publicly-reported evidence that Jared Kushner was a jerk. But that clip of his complaining about the White House counsel "whining" while He Jared was so busy pushing out pardons for Trump's sleazy hangers-on was staggering. That "whining" was the counsel's saying he & his team would have to resign if Trump flagrantly broke this, that and the other law or Constitutional mandate.

[Patrick]

Whoops, I should have done homework on the gun bill. Apparently it does not establish fed gun collection, rather provides enabling to states which have red flag laws, to help them make them work.

I still would not want to be the guy ringing the doorbell with the writ.