;)
March 2, 2022
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "... fierce Ukrainian resistance continued to deny the Kremlin the easy victory it had anticipated, even as Russian forces advanced in the south while edging closer to a capital buffeted by fear. They were also intensifying the indiscriminate bombing of civilian targets, potentially altering the war's dynamics by increasing the human toll. The Russian military was bearing down on several Ukrainian cities, including Kherson, a port near the Black Sea, whose capture would mark the first major city to come under full control of President Vladimir V. Putin's forces since the invasion began last Thursday. Russia claims it is fully in control of the city, but Ukrainian officials said the municipal government was still in place. Neither claim could be independently verified."
OPEC Takes Advantage of a Crisis. Stanley Reed of the New York Times: "With the price of a barrel of oil soaring, the group of oil producers known as OPEC Plus declined to take steps to cool the market at its monthly meeting on Wednesday. In a statement that had surreal qualities given the surging prices in recent weeks, the group, which includes Russia, said current fundamentals and the outlook for the future pointed 'to a well-balanced market.'"
** William Saletan of the Bulwark contrasts President Biden's vision of the U.S., as laid out in his SOTU speech, with Donald Trump's views, expressed in his CPAC speech and other recent remarks.
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Republicans like [Gov. Kim] Reynolds [Iowa] want to align the GOP with Ukraine while burying the GOP's record of apologizing for Trump's embrace of Putin throughout the Ukraine scandal.... Long before Reynolds was tapped [to give the GOP response to the SOTU address], she offered [an] absurd whitewashing of Trump's appalling corruption, which was only one of an extensive series of official acts that aligned with Putin's interests against those of Ukraine, the West and democracy."
Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: "Confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson will begin on March 21, the Senate Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday, a timetable that could put President Biden's first pick for the nation's most influential court on track to be confirmed by mid-April. The announcement came as Jackson, currently a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, began her gauntlet of one-on-one meetings with key senators. She sat down Wednesday morning with Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and was scheduled to meet later in the day with Judiciary Committee chairman Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and the panel's top Republican, Charles E. Grassley (Iowa)."
Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House unveiled a new pandemic road map on Wednesday that calls for better surveillance of new variants and dispensing antiviral pills 'on the spot' when someone tests positive, but rules out school and business closings. The plan was released hours after President Biden announced a pandemic reset in his State of the Union address, asserting that the wide availability of vaccines and therapeutics had made the threats more manageable, while taking pains to avoid last summer's premature victory lap. The 96-page road map is part of a broader White House strategy to move the country from crisis footing and convince Americans that their lives can return to normal amid the president's tanking approval ratings and Democratic anxiety that nosediving cases and school reopenings have not buoyed a dyspeptic public."
North Carolina. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: William "Spivey, the former police chief in Chadbourn, N.C., who has been charged with more than 70 felonies, went boating on the [Lumber R]iver ... and had left a note ... indicating he wanted to die by suicide, [his wife Eve] Waddell told [Columbus County] detectives. But the boat, which was afloat, was empty, the authorities learned, and Mr. Spivey ... was missing.... Shortly after midnight on Feb. 24, the authorities said they found Mr. Spivey, 36, hiding near an apartment complex in Loris, S.C., and charged him with obstruction of justice for staging his death.... Last spring, Mr. Spivey was charged with ... stealing or destroying evidence, embezzlement and opioid trafficking, stemming from his time as the police chief in Chadbourn, a town of 1,500 people about 120 miles south of Raleigh. [Jon] David, the district attorney [for three counties], said that Mr. Spivey repeatedly raided the department's evidence room, stealing drugs and thousands of dollars. He also stole firearms and sold them to friends and relatives, Mr. David said." And more! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
~~~~~~~~~
State of the Union Address:
~~~ Here's a transcript of the prepared speech, via the White House.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Appearing before a joint session of Congress at a fraught moment in modern history, [President] Biden called for a united resistance to defend the international order endangered by Russian aggression and warned the oligarchs who bolster Mr. Putin's regime that he would seize their luxury yachts and private jets.... While the guns of Europe overshadowed the political disputes at home that have weighed down his presidency, Mr. Biden sought to use his first formal State of the Union address to persuade glum Americans that the country is making impressive progress containing the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the economy. ~~~
~~~ [Girls Behaving Badly.] "... the discord of today's politics erupted in the House chamber in ways that would have once been unthinkable. When Mr. Biden talked about immigration reform, Representative Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican from Colorado given to angry spectacle and conspiracies, tried to start a 'build the wall' chant but was joined only by a like-minded colleague, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia. Later in the speech, when Mr. Biden was paying tribute to American troops in flag-draped coffins, Ms. Boebert interrupted again. 'You put them in -- 13 of them!' she shouted...." MB: According to the WashPo report, linked below, "Democrats began booing and one shouted, 'Kick her out!'" ~~~
~~~ CNN's report, by Maegan Vazquez, is here.
Matt Viser & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "The House chamber was filled with blue and yellow hues, with women in dresses and scarfs and with men wearing bright ties and ribbons on their lapels, honoring the colors of the Ukrainian flag and providing an evocative image of the type of American support that President Biden highlighted in his remarks.... In a country that has few unifying moments, members from both sides of the aisle repeatedly stood and applauded together in support of Ukraine, or when he announced that the United States was closing its airspace to Russian planes.... But despite the opening moments of unity for an ally under attack and the waning presence of the pandemic in the chamber, the political tensions and fissures in the nation were still evident.... Sen. Joe Manchin III, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia who has derailed some of the Biden administration's top priorities, sat on the Republican side."
Aamer Madhani & Josh Boak of the AP report their takeaways from President Biden's SOTU address.
"We're Going to Be OK." Jonathan Lemire of Politico: "President Joe Biden unfurled a resolute defense of democracy in his first State of the Union address on Tuesday, declaring that the United States would act as a leader for the free world as it rallies with Ukraine against a brutal Russian invasion. With a war raging an ocean away, Biden vowed that the United States would emerge from years of division and disease to protect and expand freedoms at home and abroad."
New York Times reporters liveblogged the SOTU. Prior to the address, the Times has printed excerpts from the President's prepared remarks. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here.
Zeke Miller & Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden will vow to make Vladimir Putin 'pay a price' for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in his first State of the Union address, rallying allies abroad while also outlining his plans at home to fight inflation and the fading but still dangerous coronavirus.In addition to recounting U.S. and allied economic sanctions against Russia, Biden planned to announce that the U.S. is following Canada and the European Union in banning Russian planes from its airspace in retaliation for the invasion of Ukraine, according to two people familiar with his remarks[.]"
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Ukrainian ambassador to the United States and the whistle-blower who exposed Facebook documents about the company's handling of misinformation will be among President Biden's guests in the House chamber during the State of the Union address, White House officials said Tuesday. Ambassador Oksana Markarova and nine other guests will be seated in the first lady Jill Biden's box, officials said...." MB: A slap in the face to Mark Zuckerberg, to be a villain called out in the same breath as the barbarous warmonger Vladimir Putin.
A Snide, Screechy, Whiney, "Rebuttal." Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa delivered a scathing Republican rebuke of President Biden's State of the Union address on Tuesday, casting his presidency as an unwanted remake of 'That '70s Show,' complete with 'runaway inflation,' rampant crime and a rampaging 'Soviet army.' Ms. Reynolds, who was chosen by Republican Senate leadership to deliver the party's official response, portrayed the populist revolt against mask mandates and remote learning as a 'pro-parent, pro-family revolution,' hoping to harness the backlash ahead of this year's midterm elections. The governor, who has been in that office since 2017, used her address to preview themes, poll-tested and echoed by conservatives on social media, that are likely to be repeated by Republican candidates across the country as they seek to seize control of Congress two years after the party lost the White House and Senate. That included stoking fears that the Biden administration -- and Democrats -- want to control what children can learn in school and whether parents should have a say."
The Protest That Wasn't. Zachary Petrizzo of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News: "Only a handful of protesters inspired by anti-vaccine mandate trucker convoys in Canada showed up in the nation's capital Tuesday afternoon for the 'Stage of Freedom' event near the Washington Monument. Despite the initial hefty estimate that upwards of 3,000 attendees would show, only 12 rally-goers had actually assembled for the gathering just hours ahead of President Joe Biden's State of the Union address Tuesday evening. The right-wing rally's organizer, MMA fighter and Maryland gubernatorial hopeful Kyle Sefcik, opened the event -- where press and police massively outnumbered protesters -- by reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before launching into a lengthy speech mixing shameless self-promotion with grievances aimed at the truckers who didn't show up."
~~~~~~~~~~
Putin's Crimes Against Humanity
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian forces continued their deadly assault on key Ukrainian cities early Wednesday, prompting some locals officials to warn that their cities were near the breaking point. Russian tanks entered the Black Sea port of Kherson, where the mayor said the city was 'waiting for a miracle' to stay out of enemy hands. As Russia faced stiff resistance from Ukrainian military and civilian defenders throughout the country, the capital, Kyiv, endured overnight attacks, according to military analysts. A massive convoy of Russian tanks and combat vehicles remained stalled about 20 miles north of the city's center as the invading force grappled with fuel and food shortages." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates for Wednesday are here.
Where Have All the Young Men Gone? Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Moscow may be losing [as many as 400] soldiers daily in [Vladimir] Putin’s latest invasion of Ukraine, American and European officials said. The mounting toll for Russian troops exposes a potential weakness for the Russian president at a time when he is still claiming, publicly, that he is engaged only in a limited military operation in Ukraine’s separatist east.... The bodies of Russian soldiers have been left in areas surrounding Kharkiv. Videos and photos on social media show charred remains of tanks and armored vehicles, their crews dead or wounded.... Ukraine has said its forces have killed more than 5,300 Russian troops.... One American official put the Russian losses as of Monday at 2,000, an estimate with which two European officials concurred.... For a comparison, nearly 2,500 American troops were killed in Afghanistan over 20 years of war. For Mr. Putin, the rising death toll could damage any remaining domestic support for his Ukrainian endeavors."
Daniel Uria of UPI: "Ukrainian forces foiled a plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky amid Russia's invasion of the country, Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council chief Oleksiy Danilov said Tuesday. Danilov announced that a unit of Chechen special forces sent to assassinate Zelensky was 'eliminated' after the president had warned last week that Russian 'sabotage groups' had entered the nation's capital, Kyiv, and were hunting for him and his family.... Danilov said Ukraine received intelligence about the assassination plot from Russian Federal Security Service -- or FSB -- agents who oppose the war."
Jeff Stein & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "Senior Biden administration officials are preparing to dramatically expand the number of Russian oligarchs subject to U.S. sanctions, aiming to punish the financial elite close to President Vladimir Putin over his invasion of Ukraine, according to three people briefed on internal administration deliberations. Officials at the White House and Treasury Department are working on producing a list of names that is expected to overlap in part with the lineup of Russian oligarchs who were newly subjected to sanctions by the European Union on Monday, the people said.... America's sanctions are expected to be more complicated than those imposed by the E.U., targeting not just the individuals but also their family members and companies they own...."
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Vladimir Putin "is betting that division within the United States will sap American resolve and thereby sow disunity between the United States and European democracies -- allowing him to crush Ukraine's democracy and potentially others. And Republicans are giving him what he wants. They are so determined to see President Biden fail that they would let President Putin succeed.... [As Biden spoke of unity during his SOTU speech,] Republican lawmakers sniped at him on Twitter. 'Joe Biden sought to appease Vladimir Putin from the very beginning,' wrote Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.). 'Biden is empowering our enemies.'" And so forth. MB: Cruz's charge, of course, is insane, especially given Donald Trump's long history of fawning over Putin. But lies are of the essence of their scheme. ~~~
~~~ Say, Let's Ask John Bolton. Cameron Joseph of Vice: "Former President Trump's top national security adviser thinks his old boss did 'a lot of damage' to U.S.-Ukraine relations during his time in office -- and emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin. Former National Security Adviser John Bolton said Trump's delay of military aid to Ukraine in 2019, as he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for dirt on then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, made clear to Putin exactly how little Trump cared about Ukraine.... Bolton spoke with VICE News about his experiences within the Trump administration as Trump bullied Zelensyy, the impact that had on Ukraine's ability to deter or fight off an invasion, and his thoughts on Trump recently calling Putin a 'genius.'" ~~~
~~~ Caroline Vakil of the Hill: "In an interview on right-wing Website Newsmax, "Former national security adviser John Bolton pushed back against the idea that former President Trump's behavior discouraged Russian military aggression while he was in office, saying, 'It's just not accurate to say that Trump's behavior somehow deterred the Russians.'... [Bolton] claimed the former president did not know where Ukraine was on a map and said he believed Russia did not take more aggressive actions while Trump was in office because Russia 'didn't feel that their military was ready.... The fact is that he barely knew where Ukraine was. He once asked John Kelly, his second chief of staff, if Finland were a part of Russia." MB: Finland, of course, is nowhere near Ukraine.
Ilya Marritz of ProPublica: "... Russia has been working for years to influence and undermine the independence of ... [Ukraine]. As it happens, some Americans have played a role in that effort. One was ... Donald Trump's campaign chairman Paul Manafort. Another was Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani." Marritz outlines what Manafort & Giuliani did.
From the New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine, also linked early yesterday: "Africans who had been living in Ukraine say they were stuck for days at crossings into neighboring European Union countries, huddling in the cold without food or shelter, held up by Ukrainian authorities who pushed them to the ends of long lines and even beat them, while letting Ukrainians through.... Plagued by poor morale as well as fuel and food shortages, some Russian troops in Ukraine have surrendered en masse or sabotaged their own vehicles to avoid fighting, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday. Some entire Russian units have laid down their arms without a fight after confronting surprisingly stiff Ukrainian defense, the official said.*... The United Nations appealed on Tuesday for some $1.7 billion to aid millions of victims of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and address the escalating destruction of critical infrastructure.... About 100 diplomats, many from Western countries, walked out of a speech by Russia's foreign minister [Sergey Lavrov] at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday in protest over his country's invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine's ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva led the walkout, which left a largely empty conference hall...."
* Marie: I heard on the teevee that a number of Russian soldiers thought they were going to Belarus for military exercises & had no idea they would be attacking Ukraine in a live war.
Yuras Karmanau, et al., of the AP: "Russian forces stepped up their attacks on crowded urban areas Tuesday, bombarding the central square in Ukraine's second-biggest city and Kyiv's main TV tower in what the country's president called a blatant campaign of terror. 'Nobody will forgive. Nobody will forget,' President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed after the bloodshed on the square in Kharkiv." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Who's the Nazi? Isabelle Khurshudyan, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Russian missile strike that appeared to target a TV tower in Ukraine's capital on Tuesday also hit the nearby Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial, the site of a World War II massacre, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Twitter. Five people were killed in the strike, according to Ukrainian officials. 'To the world: what is the point of saying "never again" for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating ...' Zelensky tweeted.... Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said in a statement that Israel would help to rebuild the site."
Maureen Breslin of the Hill: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday received a lengthy standing ovation after delivering an emotional speech via video to the European Parliament calling for Ukraine to be granted membership to the European Union. 'I don't read from paper, the paper phase is over, we're dealing with lives. Without you, Ukraine will be alone. We've proven our strength; we're the same as you. Prove that you'll not let us go. Then life will win over death, Zelensky said to representatives of the 27 EU member states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Army Maj. Gen. Mike Repass (Ret.), in a Washington Post op-ed, explains that Ukraine's resilient defense against Russia is no accident: "Over the past seven years, the Ukrainian leadership has been very clear-eyed about reforming its government to prepare for this moment. The Ukrainians have reshaped their national defense structures to cooperate with NATO militaries more easily and have made important leadership, doctrinal and tactical changes. They have also built Territorial Defense Forces and instituted programs to involve others in the common defense."
David McHugh of the AP: "The International Energy Agency's 31 member countries agreed Tuesday to release 60 million barrels of oil from their strategic reserves -- half of that from the United States -- 'to send a strong message to oil markets' that supplies won't fall short after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The board of the Paris-based IEA made the decision at an extraordinary meeting of energy ministers chaired by U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm. She said in a statement that U.S. President Joe Biden approved a commitment of 30 million barrels and that the U.S. is ready to 'take additional measures' if needed." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sarah Fischer of Axios: "DirecTV plans to drop RT America from its lineup in light of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a spokesperson said.... DirecTV rival Dish said in a statement earlier this week it's 'closely monitoring the situation.'" MB: Whatever that means. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Samuel Stolton of Politico: "U.S streaming giant Netflix has responded to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine by saying that it will not comply with new Russian rules to carry 20 [of Russia's] state-backed channels." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: While Donald Trump is now absurdly claiming that he stood strongly behind NATO & Ukraine, he did much more than just try to extort Volodymyr Zelensky by withholding military aid till Zelensky made up a story that would hurt Joe Biden. "In episode after episode, Trump aligned our interests with those of Russian President Vladimir Putin and against those of Ukraine, NATO and the West.... As early as 2017, Trump began voicing the conspiracy theory that Ukraine, not Russia, had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.... Trump pushed out Marie Yovanovitch in 2019, after his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani mounted a smear campaign against her.... Well before extorting Zelensky, Trump alarmed officials by freezing military aid to Ukraine that Congress had appropriated, but without meaningful policy justification.... [Trump] withheld a White House meeting from Zelensky.... [Trump] turned Ukraine policy over to Giuliani." (Also linked yesterday.)
Eric Wemple of the Washington Post reports on how busy Fox "News" national security correspondent & fact-checker Jennifer Griffin has been debunking Fox hosts' & guests' misinformation about Putin's war on Ukraine. Wemple notes that in one of her debunking forays she referred to a guest as having spewed "so many distortions"; Wemple thought "So Many Distortions" would be a good slogan for Fox "News."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol on Tuesday subpoenaed a half-dozen lawyers and other allies of ... Donald J. Trump who promoted false claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election and worked to overturn his loss. Those who were sent subpoenas for documents and testimony participated in a range of attempts to invalidate Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory, including filing lawsuits, pressuring local election officials to change the results and drafting proposed executive orders to seize voting machines.... Among those summoned was Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer who the panel said 'promoted false claims of election fraud to members of Congress' and participated in a call in which Mr. Trump tried to pressure Georgia's secretary of state to '"find" enough votes to reverse his loss there.'"
Mitch in Charge. Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday publicly rejected a proposal by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who last month released a '11-point plan to rescue America' that has drawn criticism from several prominent Republicans. McConnell insisted that if Republicans win the majority in November, he will decide the party's course, staking out a defiant stance against ... Donald Trump's efforts to oust him as the GOP leader. At a Senate GOP leadership news conference Tuesday afternoon, McConnell seemed to take issue not only with Scott's plan -- which included a proposal for all Americans to pay some form of income tax -- but also with the fact that Scott, a member of the leadership team, had released one purporting to represent the Republican Party." Politico's report is here.
Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "A federal judge [Jed S. Rakoff] on Tuesday refuted Sarah Palin's claims that The New York Times defamed her in a 2017 editorial, concluding in a written opinion that the case should be dismissed because she had 'wholly failed to prove her case even to the minimum standard required by law.' It was the latest development in a case that unfolded with unexpected twists last month, culminating with Ms. Palin's motion for a new trial after several jurors said they had seen news reports of the judge's unusual decision to announce that he was preparing to dismiss the case while they were still deliberating."
Marie's Sports Report. James Wagner of the New York Times: "Major League Baseball canceled the first two series of the 2022 regular season on Tuesday after the league and the players' union failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. After nearly a year of negotiating, including a week of daily talks between the league and the players' union in Florida starting Feb. 21, the sides could not come to a new pact by M.L.B.'s self-imposed deadline of 5 p.m. Tuesday in order to begin the 162-game season on March 31 as scheduled. Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the cancellations in a news conference on Tuesday." MB: It deeply saddens me when millionaires can't get along with billionaires.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "President Biden, looking to usher the nation out of the coronavirus crisis into what some are calling a 'new normal,' used his State of the Union address Tuesday night to sketch out the next phase of his pandemic response, including a new 'test to treat' initiative aimed at providing patients with new antiviral medications as soon as they learn they are infected."
Louisiana. Laissez les Bon Temps Rouler. Katy Reckdahl & Sophie Kasakove of the New York Times: "Across New Orleans, in a combination of joy, defiance, trepidation and celebration, Mardi Gras returned on Tuesday with one eye on the pain of the past two years in a city especially hard hit by the pandemic and the other very much looking forward to strutting, parading and moving on. Last year, all Carnival parades were canceled, and celebrations were scaled back to small, same-household gatherings and decorated porches known as 'house floats.' But this month, New Orleans's Carnival celebration returned in full swing, raising hopes about the city's resurgence from devastating pandemic losses."
Beyond the Beltway
Georgia. Richard Fausset & Tariro Mzezewa of the New York Times: Marcus Ransom, the jury foreman & the only Black person on the federal jury that convicted three white racists of hate crimes in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, talks to New York Times reporters.
Montana. A-Hunting He Will Go. Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "On public land north of Yellowstone National Park late last year, Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R) shot and killed a mountain lion that was being monitored by National Park Service staff, after hunting dogs had chased it up a tree. The mountain lion hunt, which has not been previously reported, occurred on Dec. 28.... Less than a year earlier, Gianforte killed a Yellowstone wolf in a similar area that was wearing a tracking collar, prompting an outcry among environmentalists.... One person familiar with the incident told The Post that the mountain lion was kept in the tree by the hunting dogs for a couple of hours while Gianforte traveled to the site...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nevada. Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "Gov. Steve Sisolak of Nevada was accosted at a Mexican restaurant in Las Vegas on Sunday by a man who recorded the confrontation in a video in which he threatens to 'string you up by a lamppost.' In the video, the man asks Mr. Sisolak, a Democrat, for a photo together. The governor agrees, and the man puts his arm around him before going into a profanity-laced rant and calling the governor a 'new world order traitor.'... The man follows the governor and his wife into the parking lot of the restaurant, accusing Mr. Sisolak of treason and working for China. The governor's wife, Kathy Sisolak, who was born in Nevada, is of Chinese descent, according to the governor's website.... The governor's office said the confrontation was being investigated...."
Texas. Here's a liveblog of Texas primary election results. "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas will face Beto O'Rourke in the fall. The state's embattled attorney general, Ken Paxton, is headed to a runoff with George P. Bush.... A 28-year-old liberal immigration lawyer [Jessica Cisneros] was headed for a runoff in May with Representative Henry Cuellar, South Texas's 17-year incumbent, after neither candidate on Tuesday was able to muster 50 percent of the vote in the state's most closely watched House primary.... Monica De La Cruz, a Republican with ... Donald J. Trump's backing, won her party's nomination in what is likely to be one of the most closely watched House races of the midterms. The race for the Democratic nomination will go to a runoff: Ruben Ramirez, a lawyer, was leading a crowded field with no candidate over 30 percent." CNN's report is here. The Texas Tribune's report is here.
Texas. Casey Parks of the Washington Post: "A Texas family and a psychologist filed a legal challenge Tuesday, asking a district court to block an order that directed state officials to investigate families for child abuse if they allow their children to medically transition genders. In a letter sent last week to state health agencies, Gov. Greg Abbott (R) noted that the Office of the Attorney General had determined that providing medical treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy could 'legally constitute child abuse' under Texas law.... According to the suit filed Tuesday, the department has begun investigating families -- including one mother who works for the department responsible for the investigations.... The day after Abbott issued his order, Jane Doe was placed on leave from the Department of Family and Protective Services, court documents say. Two days later, a child protective services investigator visited the family's home.... The plaintiffs, who are represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Lambda Legal and the law firm Baker Botts, argue that Abbott has circumvented the legislative process in an 'attempt to legislate by press release.'"
Wisconsin. Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A Republican report on the 2020 election in Wisconsin endorsed a host of debunked claims of fraud and false assertions about lawmakers' power to decertify President Biden's victory, lending credence to the conspiracy theories that have gripped Republicans in the state for more than 16 months. The claims in the report, commissioned by the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly and written by a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, immediately reopened a rift among Republicans in one of the nation's most narrowly divided battleground states.... [Former state justice Michael] Gableman presented his findings to the Wisconsin Assembly's elections committee during a hearing Tuesday. He directly contradicted a legal analysis conducted by the Legislature's lawyers in November that found there is no basis in law for decertifying an election."
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Reader Comments (9)
Whyte: I'm always pleased by accomplishment like that of your wife's. It takes a whole lot more effort to do what she achieved versus becoming a guidance counselor. And maybe the point is to discourage effort by the few because it unsettles existing order. My guidance counselor said go to vo-tech. I didn't listen.
About the baseball millionaires versus billionaires: I see that as the microcosm reflecting the macrocosm. Musk and Bezos pay no taxes while granny and families pays 20%. Since WWII, the rich pay less and less and everyone else pays for them. Ask how much Bezos pays to land his private jet at Boeing field - almost nothing. The ultimate welfare queens are rich. One of the biggest reasons I see that young people are bailing out on the economy and jobs is they see the deck is clearly stacked in the favor of older citizens who pay a shrinking percentage of society's costs as they use more and more. So, while temp workers with no benefits have become normal. The STEM 'millionaires' versus MBA 'billionaires' have become normalized.
Listened to part of the SOTU last night.
My reactions.
As a speech, it made me miss Obama, sorely. Nothing new there, tho'.
Seemed the Ukraine portion went over well. Kinda fun to watch the R's struggle to disagree on this issue. Must be hard for some of them to forget that Putin was/is one of their party leader's BBF. You could almost see them hoping their supporters would forget that uncomfortable fact. We'll see if they will.
The speech was packed with proposals and policies that would actually help people, but because of the R's and Manchin, little will get done. And since everyone present knew that, the proposals were met with muted enthusiasm. Their sails had little wind.
Something about Pelosi looked off kilter. Cruz was his usual Mephistophelian self. He must like the strange role he's adopted.
Best part: Watching Biden meet and greet after the speech. There he seemed his genuine happy, caring self, face to face with people he knows and likes....and believes he serves.
And the Republican response? Heard only the first two sentences, had two thoughts and turned it off.
First, she said she'd heard the SOTU, just like the rest of us, but knowing she was going to ignore it entirely and wander off in her own policy-shorn, complaint-laden direction, I had no interest.
Worse, hearing only a few words from her, I was beginning to react to her voice's quality in all the ways I'm been told are unfair to women.
"Screechy....whiney...." Thanks, Marie. You let me off the hook.
But every Republican is whiny. It's a cultural thing.
And psychology studies show that people (well, kids) whine because it gets them the attention they seek, regardless of the merits of their needs. Whining works even better than tantrums, which are sort of whines on steroids.
Except at Grandma's house; there's no whining at Grandma's house.
Screeching, I dunno, that's sort of larynx-conditional. I have two young granddaughters (i.e. small voice boxes = high pitch) and can attest that there is no more piercing sound than little-girl screeches. They're like alien war cries. And they like to do it just for the heck of it.
The Party of Nothing
As Ken points out, Biden and the Democrats have a variety of policy proposals and ideas for improving the country, and, frankly much of the thinking involves how we can recover from ANOTHER disgusting mess left by ANOTHER R president*. For a generation now, Democratic administrations have had to clean up the mess left by the traitors, traitors who have NO policy proposals, no solutions, no real ideas. No heart, and no soul.
Back in the Reagan days, I used to refer to R’s as the Party of No. Democrats developed solutions. Republicans said “No”. They never offered any (real, or realistic) ideas of their own however, because that would require work, and brainpower. Much easier to sit in the back of the class, swap dirty jokes and blow spitballs at the kids trying to actually do the work. And Gingrich gave them all a long list of insults to spit at the other side. Very helpful.
They’re still the Party of No: no taxes on the rich, no regulation, no stopping the tsunami of gun violence, no to women, no to choice, no to blacks, no to equality, no to education, no to truth, facts, decency, no to civil rights, unless you mean for (certain) whites. And lately, no to the rule of law, the Constitution (except for a few lines here and there), no to voting rights and no to democracy, to free and fair elections.
Their heroes are appalling imbeciles like MTG and Boebert, vile, cowardly, lying vipers like Ted Cruz and Rand Paul, and, of course, Putin’s puppy dog, the head traitor, Trump.
Biden is under attack now because he hasn’t fixed all the incredible damage done under the last administration. We have inflation, supply chain problems? This is the direct result of Trump and the Republicans fighting tooth and nail to keep from doing anything about the pandemic until it was completely out of control. There certainly would have been problems, but nothing of the scope and scale that Biden must now address. Oh, and by the way, he’s to blame for Putin’s war???? The previous guy rolled over for belly scratches from Putin for four years. For four years Putin believed he could do anything he wanted because America was ruled by an ignorant, pusillanimous putz.
But it’s all Biden’s fault.
They have nothing. Nothing but No, No, No.
@Ken Winkes: I frequently watch the last three or four minutes of home improvement shows where they do the reveal, wherein what was once a mess of a house has been reimagined, rebuilt & redecorated. However, there are at least two of these show finales I have to mute because the women's voices are so grating. I really can't stand to listen to them. These are young women, but they sound like Granny Clampett of "The Beverly Hillbillies."
I have tried to reproduce their voices, and I can do it, with difficulty, by speaking out of the back of my mouth. This style of speaking isn't necessary, and I imagine it can be unlearned. For instance, most female TV hosts have pleasant-sounding voices. Since so often people of the same sex in the same family sound strikingly alike, I imagine this -- for me -- difficult way of speaking is learned during a child's early years.
At first, I thought it was a Southern thang, but it isn't. There are plenty of Southern women who speak with normal, pleasant voices. And one of the women I have to mute seems to be working out of California and doesn't have a Southern accent. I don't know if elocution lessons would help, but if I talked like a parrot, as these women do, I'd give a voice coach a whirl.
As for Governor Kim, her screechy, whiney voice comes with her political POV.
Betty Bowers has some useful definitions for patriotic christians of one persuasion:
https://crooksandliars.com/2022/03/political-jargon-101
Our politics are simple, really.
Republicans do want to do some things---for some people--and in most cases doing nothing accomplishes their goals because their "some people" are a minority that could never get what they want by exerting their popular will.
The R's are against every major issue with real popular support, like those enumerated by the POTUS last night, and many others--like abortion rights-- because the majority are not their people. Saying what they are "for" paints them into the political corner where Boebert and MTG hang out.
Their people like unpopular things like voting restrictions on minorities, low taxes, loony gun rights, etc. just the way they are. They see no need to change. Guess that makes them conservatives.
And thanks to the Supremes, at the national level, the R's have to do nothing to accomplish their goals but say "No" and sit back and carp.
Well––I watched the whole of the State of the Union speech although was prepared to feel uncomfortable. I am extremely sensitive to Biden's struggle re: his stammer BUT–- last night he made it through without too many problems and I was most pleased with his delivery.
Ak's comments re: the Right's No's is exactly right. He lists them all and listening to Iowa's governor who presents as a 1950 actress in a GE commercial for the newest refrigerator, she refutes everything the Left stands for. "Whatever you're FOR, we're against it."
And the rude outburst of Boo-hoo Bert shows once again the decline in the Republican party whose members keep shooting themselves in the foot by opening their mouths, spewing hate and division.
It's interesting that at this volatile time in our history with half the world coming together against Putin's invasion plus still dealing with the pandemic, we as Americans would be more united than ever. Yet––even during WW11 that was not the case.
As for female voices: As an actress in my youth I practiced all kinds of accents and tone––my favorite was copying Elaine May's nasal quality. I would think if you are opting for a job where your voice will be front and center and you sound like a chicken in distress you'd get, as M.B. suggested, some voice coaching.
As Marie observes, members of the same family often have very similar voices, not only the sound of the voices but what they’re saying. This must be why members of the Trump Crime Family all sound like privileged, whiny, lying assholes. Diseased trees and rotten apples, and all that.