;)
June 4, 2022
Greg Cannella of CBS News: "President Biden on Friday responded to Elon Musk's recent doubts about the U.S. economy, saying he wished the Tesla CEO 'lots of luck on his trip to the moon.' According to Reuters, Musk said in an email to Tesla executives Thursday he has a 'super bad feeling' about the economy and he said in an email to employees Friday that he'll be cutting about 10% of workers."
Andrea Mitchell & Josh Lederman of NBC News: "President Joe Biden's planned visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel later this month have been postponed until July, several officials told NBC News on Friday. The White House is now planning a broader trip to the Middle East next month, sources said. 'We are working on a trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia for a GCC+3 Summit,' a senior administration official told NBC News. 'We are working to confirm dates. When we have something to announce, we will.'"
** It Couldn't Have Happened to a Bigger Jerk. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro has been indicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the Justice Department announced Friday. Navarro, who was a trade adviser to Trump, also revealed he received a grand jury subpoena in a lawsuit he filed Tuesday against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the bipartisan House committee. Navarro, 72, is charged with one contempt count involving his refusal to appear for a deposition and another involving his refusal to produce documents to the committee, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for Washington. The indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed Friday, and Navarro is to make his initial appearance this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia." The Hill's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The DOJ's statement is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: At 1:00 pm ET, MSNBC reports that Navarro "is in federal custody" & will appear in court t. MB: Perp walk, please. ~~~
~~~ Update 2: So, according to MSNBC, the reason the FBI decided to keep Navarro's indictment under seal Thursday and then to toss him in the slammer before his court appearance was that officials were concerned he was a flight risk & that he might destroy evidence. Sure enough, agents picked up Pete at the airport, & clapped him into cuffs & leg irons. Outstanding! MB: Lordy, I hope there is video. ~~~
We find the decision to reward Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino for their continued attack on the rule of law puzzling. Mr. Meadows and Mr. Scavino unquestionably have relevant knowledge about President Trump's role in the efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the events of Jan. 6. -- Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) & Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "A federal grand jury on Friday indicted Peter Navarro, a White House adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, for failing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol attack, even as the Justice Department declined to charge Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino Jr., two other top officials who have also refused to cooperate.... Prosecutors charged Mr. Navarro, 72, with what amounted to a misdemeanor process crime for having failed to appear for a deposition or provide documents to congressional investigators in response to a subpoena issued by the House committee on Feb. 9. The indictment includes two counts of criminal contempt of Congress that each carry a maximum sentence of a year in prison, as well as a fine of up to $100,000. The Justice Department has declined to take similar steps against Mr. Meadows, Mr. Trump's final chief of staff, and Mr. Scavino, the deputy chief of staff, according to people familiar with prosecutors' decision and a letter reviewed by The New York Times informing the top House counsel of it.... ~~~
~~~ "Mr. Navarro appeared in court on Friday afternoon, speaking on his own behalf and telling a federal magistrate judge that the congressional subpoena he was served with was 'illegal' and 'unenforceable.' At the court hearing, he cast himself as a victim of an unfair system run by Democrats bent on destroying him and Mr. Trump.... He also complained that although he lives close to F.B.I. headquarters, federal agents arrested him at the door of an airplane as he was on his way to Nashville.... A federal magistrate judge, Zia M. Faruqui, released him from custody with a standard set of conditions, mostly simple restrictions on Mr. Navarro's travel privileges...."
~~~ Marie: Addressing the press outside the courtroom after his court appearance, Navarro complained that the way the feds arrested him was so unfair because if they had just telephoned him and told him they wanted him to come in, he would have "gladly done what the government wanted." Ari Melber of MSNBC pointed out that claim was a bit ironic inasmuch as the indictments against Navarro are based wholly on his refusal "to do what the government wanted." Anyway, sad news about Meadows & Scavino. Inasmuch as they likely participated in crimes related to a conspiracy to overturn the election, it seems to me that any claims of executive privilege would be moot. My hope is that the reason Matthew Graves, the D.C. U.S. attorney, did not charge them for failing to answer subpoenas is that Meadows & Scavino are the subjects of ongoing investigations and eventually will be charged for more serious crimes than failing to comply with subpoenas. ~~~
~~~ A Politico story, by Josh Gerstein & others, about the DOJ's decision not to charge Meadows & Scavino, is here.
** Top Trump Aide Warned Secret Service of Danger to Pence. Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The day before a mob of ... Donald J. Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, Vice President Mike Pence's chief of staff called Mr. Pence's lead Secret Service agent to his West Wing office. The chief of staff, Marc Short, had a message for the agent, Tim Giebels: The president was going to turn publicly against the vice president, and there could be a security risk to Mr. Pence because of it. The stark warning -- the only time Mr. Short flagged a security concern during his tenure as Mr. Pence's top aide -- was uncovered recently during research by this reporter for an upcoming book ... to be published in October." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) a CBS News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Robert Legare of CBS News: "Attorney Kenneth Chesebro sent an email to ... Rudy Giuliani on Dec. 13, 2020, with detailed plans that would put then-Vice President Mike Pence and Senate president pro tempore Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, in central roles in the Congress' joint session.... According to the email -- revealed via a recent court filing by the House Jan. 6 Committee in its legal fight against Trump attorney John Eastman -- Chesebro wanted Pence to recuse himself from his constitutional position as ... presiding officer ... and claim a 'conflict of interest' by way of being a candidate on the ballots in question.... Once recused, the email continued, Grassley or another senior Republican majority member would become the presiding officer of the joint session and begin the election certification. Citing the possibility of a set of alternate electors, the memo continues that the new presiding officer of the Senate [would refuse to certify Arizona's Electors].... The memo then lays out various scenarios based on possible rulings from the Supreme Court on Arizona's electors." ~~~
~~~ Chris Hayes of MSNBC weaves together threads of what is publicly know to produce the tapestry of a conspiracy: ~~~
~~~ Marie: Later, during an interview of former Pence aide Olivia Troye, Hayes remarked that there were two ways to view Trump's part in the coup attempt: (a) that poor ole Trump was so obsessed & upset at losing the election that he just got swept up by various conspiracy theories & sort of accidentally and haplessly landed in the middle of a coup; or (b) that disposing of Pence -- either by hanging or by simply removing Pence to a place far, far away so he couldn't certify the election -- was a piece of Trump's conscious, quasi-organized plot to overturn the election results. Hayes said he was inclined to go with (b). ~~~
~~~ digby would seem to agree, at least in part, with Hayes' assessment: "I guess we know why Pence didn't want to get in the car with anyone but his own secret service detail on January 6th now[.]" She also has republished a chunk of Haberman's report for those who can't access the NYT original. ~~~
~~~ Betty Cracker of Balloon Juice agrees, too: "When the mob stormed the Capitol Building, Giebels hustled Pence to the loading dock, where he refused to get in the car. According to Haberman's article, aides say Pence wouldn't get in the car because 'it would let the rioters and others score a victory against a core democratic process.' Huh. I still think he was afraid they'd clap a chloroformed cloth over his face and dump him in the Potomac. The January 6 hearings are gonna be LIT."
Nicholas Wu & Kyle Cheney of the Politico: "Jan. 6 select committee leaders are furious that a onetime adviser to the panel, former Rep. Denver Riggleman, divulged private details about their work in what they say was an 'unauthorized' CNN interview. In an internal email obtained by Politico that was sent Wednesday night, shortly after the interview aired, staff director David Buckley told colleagues that Riggleman's appearance was 'in direct contravention to his employment agreement.'... The conflict centers on a rare breach for a committee that has, by most accounts, operated with little internal drama and dissension.... The former GOP congressman from Virginia said he was no longer employed by the panel and not bound by any agreement restricting his media appearances."
Whitney Wild of CNN: "The US Capitol Police on Friday charged a retired New York police officer with unlawful possession of high-capacity magazines and unregistered ammunition, according to the agency. Officers arrested Jerome Felipe of Michigan around 5 a.m. ET Friday, the agency said. Felipe had parked his 2017 Dodge Charger near the Capitol and allowed officers to search it, according to a USCP statement. Officers found a 'BB gun, two ballistic vests, several high capacity magazines, and other ammunition in the car,' the statement said. Felipe, 53, presented officers with a fake badge with the words 'Department of the INTERPOL' printed on it, and made a statement that he was a criminal investigator with the agency, USCP said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The acquittal of the defendant in the highest-profile case brought by special counsel John Durham intensified calls for him to wrap up his investigation into the origins of the FBI's probe into Donald Trump's Russia ties, but there are few signs that the Justice Department is pressuring Durham to pull the plug.... [The article cites complaints by Larry Tribe & George Conway.] Even some supporters of Durham's probe said [Michael] Sussmann's fast acquittal indicated that the long-time prosecutor misjudged the case.... However, the idea of [AG Merrick] Garland simply booting Durham seems far-fetched." ~~~
~~~ The Unmasking of Bill Barr. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "A jury deliberated for just six hours before ... acquitting former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussmann, leaving the Barr-appointed special prosecutor John Durham with essentially nothing to show for his years-long attempt to find wrongdoing by the FBI and the Clinton campaign.... Hours ... [later], BuzzFeed published a previously secret Justice Department report, also ordered by [Bill] Barr, in which Barr's own DOJ concluded that the Obama administration didn't intend to expose the identity of ... Michael Flynn 'for political purposes or other inappropriate reasons.' It was further evidence that another favorite Trump claim enabled by Barr -- that Obama officials engaged in illegal 'unmasking' -- was bunk.... Barr's argument[, made on Fox 'News' after the jury verdict], that the innuendo Durham spread is 'far more important' than proving actual wrongdoing, unmasks Barr's perverted view of justice.... Barr, unmasked, now claims the federal jurors in Durham's failed case violated their oaths by following political biases."
I don't want to die, my teacher is dead, my teacher is dead, please send help, send help for my teacher, she is shot but still alive. -- 10-year-old Khloie Torres, 911 call, inside classroom, while police stood around in the hallway outside ~~~
~~~ ** Police Loiter While Teacher & Children Die. David Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: "A New York Times examination of the police response [to the Uvalde grade school massacre], based on dozens of interviews with law enforcement officials, children who survived, parents who were witnesses outside and experts on policing, found that breakdowns in communication and tactical decisions [link fixed] that were out of step with years of police preparations for school shootings may have contributed to additional deaths, and certainly delayed critical medical attention to the wounded. A tactical team led by Border Patrol officers ultimately ignored orders not to breach the classroom, interviews revealed, after a 10-year-old girl inside the classroom warned 911 dispatchers that one of the two teachers in the room was in urgent need of medical attention. The report that the incident commander [Pete Arredondo] at least initially had no police radio emerges as the latest important detail in what has been a shifting official account of the police response that has at times proved to be inaccurate on key points about the May 24 shooting. Officers who arrived at the scene, coming from at least 14 agencies, did not go into the classrooms as sporadic gunfire could be heard inside, nor after 911 calls began arriving from children inside." MB: This report will make you sick. Read it anyway.
Zach Despart of the Texas Tribune: "Everyone in town is waiting to hear from Pete Arredondo. As chief of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Department, it was his call to wait more than an hour for backup instead of ordering officers on scene to immediately charge the shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School.... Now, Arredondo is a man in hiding, as calls for answers and accountability grow louder each day. In the week since state police singled him out for blame, Arredondo has hardly been seen. Police officers stand guard outside his home. He has declined to explain his actions, telling a television crew that staked out his office he would not do so until after the victims' funerals. City officials, too, have assisted in the vanishing act. They canceled a previously scheduled public ceremony Tuesday and instead swore in Arredondo in secret for his latest role on the City Council. Even state police complained this week that Arredondo has remained elusive to them, accusing him of not cooperating with a Texas Department of Public Safety investigation into the shooting, a claim Arredondo refuted." ~~~
~~~ Marie: While Arredondo's inaction as a police chief was infinitely more consequential than his inaction as a city councilman, that city council job is important, too. As a borough councilmember, I found out right away that the most time-consuming part of my job was what I would loosely call "constituent service." Listening to residents bitch -- oftentimes for good reason -- took up a good part of the time I was rendering constituent service. Where it was feasible, or remotely feasible, I tried to fix or otherwise address whatever the resident was complaining about; other times, where I had no way to effect a solution, I just listened. Pete, apparently, isn't doing even that.
Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) tells off Republican gunknobbers during a House committee meeting: ~~~
Michael Kaplan & Graham Kates of CBS News: "Two days after 19 children and two teachers were gunned down in a Texas elementary school on May 24, an investment banking firm sent a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton promising not to 'discriminate' against the firearms industry. The firm, Chicago-based Cabrera Capital Markets, LLC, is the most recent of dozens of banking institutions to make the declaration in the last year, in order to comply with legislation banning Texas state and local governments from working with firms that prohibit investments in firearms or ammunition manufacturers. The letters, more than 80 of which have been reviewed by CBS News, throw in stark relief the fraught political environment corporations face when called upon to respond to mass shootings."
What Happens When a Republican MOC Opposes Child Sacrifice? Nicholas Fandos & Jesse McKinley of the New York Times: "In the wake of deadly mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, Texas, Representative Chris Jacobs of New York, a congressman serving his first full term in the House, stunned fellow Republicans by embracing a federal assault weapons ban and limits on high-capacity magazines.... It took only seven days for political forces to catch up with him. On Friday, facing intense backlash from party leaders, a potential primary from the state party chairman and a forceful dressing down from Donald Trump Jr., Mr. Jacobs announced that he would abandon his re-election campaign." CNN's report is here. MB: Now the GOP is just the Party of Sick Fucks. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Phil McCausland of NBC News: "Two state legislatures are considering measures that would permit teachers and other school staff to carry arms in the aftermath of the Texas elementary school shooting that killed 19 children last month, despite opposition from gun safety advocates, teachers' groups and school security experts. While the idea isn't new -- many Republican-controlled legislatures considered similar legislation after the 2018 Parkland, Florida, shooting -- it is a growing talking point as the country has witnessed a number of mass killings in the past few weeks. Two states, Ohio and Louisiana, are now considering either decreasing the requirements to arm school staff or permitting employees to carry a firearm after fulfilling the required training." (Also linked yesterday.)
It's Not the Guns; It's the Moms. Colbert King of the Washington Post: "Appearing on 'Fox News Sunday' this week, Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks (R) attributed mass shootings in the United States to a decline in moral values -- and he pointed to single-parent families as a major factor in the phenomenon. 'Those single-parent households,' Brooks asserted, 'end up resulting in children who are more likely to be on welfare; who are less likely to get the kind of grades you expect to get in school; who are more likely to be involved in drugs; and who are, unfortunately, are more likely to be involved in criminal conduct.' On a previous occasion, Brooks said the Texas massacre 'reflects poorly on liberal policies that encourage out-of-wedlock childbirth, divorce, single-parent households and amoral values that undermine respect for life.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you're concerned about "amoral" single mothers, Mo, you might want to start by reversing your view on women's reproductive rights. On the other hand, today's news, like most news days, is a veritable montage of miscreants, including you yourself, Mo, and it's unlikely all of them were reared by single mothers. Brooks: nope. Trump: nope. Navarro: yes, after age 10. Barr: nope. Kavanaugh: nope. And so forth.
Circle the Schools with a Strapped Army! Braley Dodson of WBTW Florence, S.C.: "Sen. Lindsey Graham wants military veterans to go through school security training to work in school districts, according to tweets Friday afternoon. 'We have hundreds of thousands of well-trained former military members who could bring a lot to the table in terms of school safety,' he tweeted. 'ROTC instructors with firearms training should be allowed to possess weapons to enhance school security.' He said he will be working to create a certification process for veterans to undergo the training.... 'It is time to mobilize our retired and former service members who are willing to help secure our schools,' Graham said. 'Our schools are soft targets. They contain our most valuable possession -- our children, the future of our country -- and must be protected.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: First of all, Lindsey, children are not "possessions." Second, I'm sorry you're so upset that Ted Cruz & others wingers who have made crazy suggestions -- arm teachers, eliminate all but one door to the school -- are getting all the attention. But coming up with yet another crazy suggestion, instead of addressing the real problem -- is not the way to go. I mean, think of the press you would get if you proposed an assault weapons ban & a buy-back program!
Brian Metzger of Insider, republished in Yahoo! News: "Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska gave a speech on Thursday evening that included heavy criticism of his own party, urging fellow Republicans to re-orient themselves away from the politics of grievance and towards a forward-thinking party in order to tackle global threats. 'The left wants a powerful, nameless but supposedly benevolent bureaucracy, the right wants a strongman daddy figure,' said Sasse in a speech at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.... Much of Sasse's speech included criticisms of the Democratic Party -- which he says is 'increasingly drunk on elite leftism' and has 'little room for honest debate' -- as well as President Joe Biden's August withdrawal from Afghanistan. But the Nebraska Republican, a frequent critic of far-right figures like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz as well as ... Donald Trump, had a lot to say about the Republican Party as well. 'We Republicans? ... We can either continue to drift as a party that exists increasingly as a vehicle for the grievances of the angriest, oldest folks, or we could be a future-focused party of 2030.'" MB: And we know who Senator Sasse sees when he looks in the mirror: President Sasse.
Portion of a Rolling Stone article republished in LG&$: "When the Supreme Court's draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade leaked, Sen. Susan Collins said she was flabbergasted, deeply troubled, even shocked. After all, soon-to-be-Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh had promised her in 2018 that Roe was a matter of settled law -- despite his deeply conservative track record on abortion. Turns out, Collins ... was deliberately manipulated by Trump administration officials -- and a future Supreme Court Justice -- who viewed her as an easy mark. Two former senior Trump White House officials tell Rolling Stone that the pro-choice Collins wasn't even considered a serious threat to the devoutly conservative Kavanaugh. Instead, the team predicted she'd need only a vague assurance that the nominee would uphold the half-century-old ruling defending abortion rights. And they were right." ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux demurs: "... [The] bullshit is not Collins, it's the marginal voter in Maine. Collins knew what she was doing and what she was getting; the kayfabe is for Clinton/Biden-Collins voters who needed to be reassured that Roe was safe. It worked!" More on Susan So Concerned linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges in connection with a secret lobbying campaign on behalf of Qatar to influence the Trump White House and Congress in 2017, after implicating a retired four-star American general in the effort. Richard G. Olson, a 34-year career Foreign Service officer who served as the Obama administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2015 until 2016, admitted to lying in ethics paperwork and violating revolving door laws by lobbying for Qatar within a year of retiring from federal service. In pre-plea proceedings in federal court in Washington, Olson's defense counsel said he ... cooperated with federal prosecutors on the understanding that they were also investigating and pursuing criminal charges against retired four-star Marine general John G. Allen." In plea papers, Olson said he and Allen together met with various Qatari officials & U.S. congressmen.
What "Zulu Nine Alpha" Saw. Carol Rosenberg & Julian Barnes of the New York Times:"During Gina Haspel's confirmation hearing to become director of the C.I.A. in 2018, Senator Dianne Feinstein asked her if she had overseen the interrogations of a Saudi prisoner, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, which included the use of a waterboard. Ms. Haspel declined to answer, saying it was part of her classified career.... But testimony at a hearing last month in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, included a revelation about the former C.I.A. director's long and secretive career. James E. Mitchell, a psychologist who helped develop the agency's interrogation program, testified that the chief of [a U.S. black ops] base [in Thailand] at the time, whom he referred to as Z9A in accordance with court rules, watched while he and a teammate subjected Mr. Nashiri to 'enhanced interrogation' that included waterboarding at the black site. Z9A is the code name used in court for Ms. Haspel."
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "... if we look at the 157 years after the Civil War..., it's not obvious that democratization and majority rule actually threaten minority rights[, as political philosophers often presume]. You might even say it is the reverse. Far from the tyranny of an unrestrained majority, the period of Reconstruction saw the first real attempt at equality under the law in the South, as well as efforts to build a more egalitarian society, with respect for the social and political rights of ordinary people.... The immediate threat to minority rights ... [in the early 20th century] came from opponents of a more open and democratic society.... the much-vaunted countermajoritarian institutions of the American system either stymied efforts to protect them ... or helped politicians to exclude them.... [In the 1950s and '60s] it took the expansion of political rights and the triumph of majority rule over our countermajoritarian institutions -- and the Senate, in particular -- to [expand civil rights]. The enduring belief that majority rule and democratization threaten the rights of minorities runs headfirst into the simple reality that, in the United States at least, the fundamental liberties of all Americans grew stronger and more secure as political rights spread from a narrow minority to an outright majority...."
Beyond the Beltway
~~~ “Suspense around the race for weeks deflected attention from Mr. Fetterman, who suffered a stroke May 13, days before the election, leading to a hospital stay and the implantation of a pacemaker and defibrillator in his heart. Mr. Fetterman's absence from the campaign trail ever since and his refusal until Friday to offer more than scant details of his condition raised questions about his ability to campaign in the general election.... Ramesh R. Chandra, [Fetterman's] cardiologist, said if Mr. Fetterman follows his instructions and takes his health seriously this time, 'he should be able to campaign and serve in the U.S. Senate without a problem.'" The AP's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Here's a related New York Times story on John Fetterman's condition. An NBC News story is here.
Wisconsin. Kelli Arseneau, et al., of the Milwaukee Journal: "A 68-year-old man was shot and killed in a targeted attack in his home in New Lisbon early Friday. Sources told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel the victim was retired Juneau County Judge John Roemer, who retired from the bench in 2017. Attorney General Josh Kaul said the assailant appeared to be targeting others as well. Sources told the Journal Sentinel that Gov. Tony Evers was among them, but Kaul declined to provide any names during a brief news conference.... A 56-year-old man found in the judge's house was transported to a hospital with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.... The Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team attempted to negotiate with the armed man and entered the house around 10:15 a.m., or nearly four hours after law enforcement was first contacted." ~~~
~~~ Mike Spalding of WTMJ Radio Milwaukee: "A source close to the investigation tells WTMJ's John Mercure the 56-year-old suspect was part of a militia and he had with him a hit list that included the names of several elected officials including Governor Tony Evers."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "[Jens] Stoltenberg, NATO's secretary general, said he had met with Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland in Washington on Friday, and discussed the country's application to the military alliance. He said he had also had a 'constructive phone call' with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey about Mr. Erdogan's concerns about Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Ukrainian troops have managed to push back Russian forces by 20 percent in Russia's fight for the city of Sievierodonetsk, the last major pocket of Ukrainian control in the eastern province of Luhansk, the regional military administrator said in a television interview. He had previously said that most of the industrial city had been taken over by the Russians." ~~~
~~~ A Hundred Days of War. Here's the New York Times' summary of Friday's developments. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "Putin believes he can outlast the West and Ukraine in any standoff and intends to deploy economic weapons, such as the blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports, to pressure his opponents. The European Union has sanctioned Russian Col. Azatbek Asanbekovich, who it accuses of leading the massacre in the Kyiv suburb of Bucha. Two Reuters journalists were injured and their driver killed after their vehicle came under attack on part of a road in Luhansk controlled by Russia."
Neil MacFarquhar & Alina Lobzina of the New York Times: "Three months ago..., Vladimir V. Putin signed into law draconian measures designed to silence war critics, putting even use of the word 'war' off-limits.... While the laws initially led to a few, highly publicized cases, it is now becoming clear that local prosecutors nationwide are applying them with particular zeal. At least 50 people face prison sentences of up to either 10 years or five years hard labor, or fines of as much as $77,000, for spreading 'false information' about the military. More than 2,000 people have been charged with lesser infractions, according to a human rights organization that tracks cases nationwide." MB Note to optimists: This could happen here. In fact, it has happened here, during the first Republican administration and during a Democratic administration. And we should never forget the internment of Japanese-Americans and 10,000+ people of German & Italian ancestry during World War II. These people didn't have to say or do a thing to have their fundamental human rights abridged.
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Reader Comments (9)
Mondaire Jones gets the golden ring and brass band for his diatribe directed at his fellow "gunknobbers" in Congress yesterday. Once again "One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being."
And they sat there listening to Jones while sucking away the oxygen of hope, their minds closed to any possibility of change––of preventing purchase of an assault weapon designed for combat in wars. It defies understanding and I have yet to hear any of them explain why these guns would be necessary outside of the military.
AK: I want to thank you for the interesting post from yesterday re: that god besotted Noah Webster. Good stuff from the Wayback Machine.
Got to the Jamelle Bouie column too late to submit this comment to the Times. Did find his column thought-provoking.
Interesting essay. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to put it together.
Of course there are tensions in any group that attempts to balance the rights of individuals. The simplest way to eliminate them is to establish a hierarchy in which all the power flows from the top down, where might and Divinely determined precedent is always right.
The Enlightenment messed up that neat arrangement by suggesting the revolutionary idea that everyone should have rights. That's where the necessity for a balancing act came in.
And since our Constitution was forged in the time of the French Revolution, the men(!) who put it together were very aware of the bloody excesses of uncontrolled mobs they feared might threaten their own privileged status.
Hence the balance they tried to achieve with their Constitutional compromises, a directly elected House based on population and with appointed Senators, two/state. And a Bill of Rights that was only an afterthought, one, we should remember, that did not extend fully to women or the poor and did not touch slaves at all.
From the beginning, our experiment in democracy hardly achieved a perfect balance between the rights of minorities (the elites who designed it ) and the majority.
Thought of this way, the elites have always been the minority, and since we define as those with the most money, it is those interests most concerned with protecting their minority rights.
In this sense, things haven't changed that much at all.
Aunt Pittypat thinks "... It is time to mobilize our retired and former service members ..." to carry weapons and cordon off schools.
First, a really stupid idea, and I won't take the time to explain the math of it. You all have seen it all before over the years.
But, second, if I have already put my body on the line during my pre-frontally deprived youth, why would I want to do that now that I am old, wise and slow? Is Aunt PP thinking the job is like those warehouse guards where superannuated codgers with flashlights sit around waiting for the end of their shift? No shooting or killing is really expected, so you don't have to be sharp and your eyesight can be a bit rheumy.
Clearly, Aunt PP has never contemplated being shot at. What a dufus.
Also, if I did my bit getting shot at, it's someone else's turn.
GOP blames moms, trans people, mental illness, and probably Count Chocula cereal for mass murders.
Their solutions? Turning elementary schools into prisons with a single barricaded entrance, watch towers, armed security inside and out. And more guns. LOTS of guns. Guns for the teachers (see Marie’s very accurate hypothetical as to how that might work out in yesterday’s comments), janitors, and cafeteria ladies (“Oh crap! My Glock fell into the tomato soup!”). School administrators should become Robocops too.
And nothing will change. Schools with armed resource officers and a phalanx of heavily armed militarized cops on stand by are still shot up. Will more stupidity fix the current stupidity? Another useless—and dangerous—GOP idea designed to protect the gun industry, and themselves, from castgation.
But there’s another thing to consider, perhaps more stunning in its outcome. The psyches of children surrounded by guns, in a heavily fortified prison with regular active shooter drills.
There’s been reams of serious research done on the ravages and long term damage of stress in the lives of children. And it’s worse than growing up in a stressful household because kids spend more waking hours at school than they do at home. Stress is a killer and it reveals itself in often terrible ways: addiction, inability to sleep, violence, developmental problems that last a lifetime. How often have we heard stories of children in stressful situations turning out themselves to become violent adults? Even if violence doesn’t erupt, just think of the damaged inner lives of thousands and thousands of children.
Just so Ted Cruz can eat his sushi in peace. And get plenty of campaign cash from the gun lobby.
In many cases you hear about good intentions having bad outcomes.
What are the outcomes likely to be starting out with bad intentions?
Years ago, the GOP insisted on incarcerating anyone who stubbed their toes. Yeah, that worked out well.
Now they want to fuck up kids so they can be left alone by parents demanding that something be done about all the GOP sponsored murders.
Evil is the only word that fits.
Akhilleus,
You and Marie have depicted schools, with all their hallways, rooms, doors and massed weapons on every person and in every desk, as the possibly perfect venue for another violent video game.
What could be more exciting? A place where games and reality merge. A best seller for sure.
It occurs to me that if Russia continues in its successes in the south of Ukraine, it will control all the wheat exporting machinery. This will give it control of wheat exports, which could soon be its best way of evading sanctions on oil. Food insecurity has risen dramatically over the last 3 years, and I can imagine Putin staging auctions for the highest bid from desperate countries.
I bet the week after January 6th that Mike Pence was thinking about how he should have just got in the car. In the moment a number of Republicans realized the danger and damage being done to the country and more importantly themselves by the attempted insurrection. Only a week later they forgot the fear and realized that they had already rigged the elections enough that they didn't have to worry about their jobs no matter what they did. Since then most Repubicans have helped fuel the false election fraud conspiracy and helped to punish any fellow Republican that did not fall in line.
Where is our Fortinbras?
It seems as if the madness will never end. The good are spit upon, the wicked are rewarded. The madness abides.
RC fans of the Bard will recall that Fortinbras (often referred to as “young Fortinbras”, but hardly seen) is the character in Hamlet who appears at the end of the play, bodies littering the stage like Omaha Beach on D-Day. He puts things aright and re-establishes order in the severely troubled kingdom of Denmark, ending the play with Shakespeare’s standard rhyming couplet, the signal that the tragedy is over, order has been restored and leave us not forget all the crazy shit we’ve just witnessed.
Most of the Tragedies end with this formal restoration of order in the wake of murder, treason, suicide, and madness.
Romeo ends with the Prince declaiming on the love of Juliet for her Romeo. Lear, with Edgar sadly warning the young that their elders had some bad-ass shit to deal with. Lodivico in Othello is as gobsmacked as everyone else (this dude always seems to show up with fans and shit in dangerously close proximity). Octavius closes out Julius Caesar, and Malcom’s speech at the end of Macbeth is justly famous for his ability to restore order to a kingdom scarred by treason and murder.
When will Birnam Wood come to Dunsinane for us, the signal to Macbeth that he would soon be fucked?
When will Fortinbras arrive to announce that the assholes and traitors are dead?
Never, I fear. Life does not resemble art. The mad scene in Donizetti’s opera “Lucia di Lammermoor” lasts about 17 minutes, but it feels a lot longer. It’s wild and crazy, but could you stand a whole opera of this?
How about decades?
Because that’s what we’re going though now.
Will we ever hear a rhyming couplet that signals an end to our long national tragedy?
Wingers seeking power, babies killed
But now those gibbering idiots are stilled!
Exeunt.