;)
March 29, 2023
Afternoon Update:
Jan Hoffman of the New York Times: "Narcan, a prescription nasal spray that reverses opioid overdoses, can now be sold over the counter, the Food and Drug Administration said on Wednesday, authorizing a move long-sought by public health officials and treatment experts, who hope wider availability of the medicine will reduce the nation's alarmingly high drug fatality rates. By late summer, over-the-counter Narcan, could be for sale in big-box chains, vending machines, supermarkets, convenience stores, gas stations and even online retailers.... Narcan is a nasal spray version of the drug naloxone, which blocks an opioid's effect on the brain.... But for people who use drugs, as well as for their friends and relatives, ready access to the prescription medication has been elusive." An NPR report is here. MB: Not a solution to the opioid crisis, but this could be a real life-saver.
Bernie, for the People. Lauren Gurney of the Washington Post: "Former Starbucks executive Howard Schultz unequivocally denied that the coffee giant had broken the law in its fight against unionization during a tense questioning from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday.... 'Over the past 18 months, Starbucks has waged the most aggressive and illegal union-busting campaign in the modern history of our country,' Sanders said on Wednesday. 'That union-busting campaign has been led by Howard Schultz, the multibillionaire founder and director of Starbucks who is with us this morning only under the threat of subpoena.'... Schultz said he was not involved in decisions to discipline or fire union activists or close unionizing stores, though he said he had conversations that may have been interpreted as threatening to workers.... Schultz initially declined to testify at Wednesday's hearing, but he relented after Sanders, the committee's chairman, threatened to hold a vote earlier this month to subpoena him.... Organizers of the Starbucks Workers United campaign accuse Starbucks of stalling contract negotiations and continuously retaliating against employees engaged in labor organizing."
Zoë Richards of NBC News: "Twitter temporarily restricted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's congressional account Tuesday after she repeatedly posted a graphic that referred to a 'Trans Day of Vengeance.' According to a screenshot Greene, R-Ga., posted on her personal account, Twitter said it had 'temporarily limited' some of her account's features, with full functionality scheduled to be restored in seven days. The post in question, which Twitter has since removed, included a graphic that Greene said was for an antifa event in Washington, D.C., next month. 'Antifa is organizing a Trans Day of Vengeance,' Greene wrote in accompanying text.... 'We do not support tweets that incite violence irrespective of who posts them,' [a Twitter veep] tweeted. '"Vengeance" does not imply peaceful protest. Organizing or support for peaceful protests is ok.'"
** Happy Holidays, Everybody! Erica Orden of Politico: "The Manhattan grand jury examining Donald Trump's alleged role in a hush money payment to a porn star isn't expected to hear evidence in the case for the next month largely due to a previously scheduled hiatus, according to a person familiar with the proceedings. The break would push any indictment of the former president to late April at the earliest, although it is possible that the grand jury's schedule could change."
Trump v. the People. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Wherein Donald Trump tells Sean Hannity how much he admires "Chinese democracy": "... They have a caste system. And the smartest person gets to the top. The smartest and most vicious," Trump says. Bump: "What Trump appears to have been trying to describe is the stratified system of political ascent in the Chinese Communist Party, in which potential leaders work their way up through the ranks to power.... Trump's praise for the Chinese system ... was simply praise for a process in which ruthless actors can scramble for power and climb their way up to the top.... He was the autocratic leader of the Trump Organization and, save a bankruptcy or two, that worked out. Why not be the autocratic leader of the United States?... His view of democratic elections was not of an electorate empowered to choose its leaders but, instead, a process to be manipulated for power." ~~~
~~~ MB: Bump's brief post may explain most of Trump's "philosophy" and why he thinks he has a right to do whatever he wants, why everyone who defers to laws and norms is corrupt.
Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times: "On March 17, the Biden administration asked the [Supreme Court] justices to overturn an appeals court decision that can charitably be described as nuts, and accurately as pernicious. The decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit invalidated a federal law that for almost 30 years has prohibited gun ownership by people who are subject to restraining orders for domestic violence.... Now it is up to the justices to say whether that analysis is correct.... The government's petition points out that there are more than one million acts of domestic violence in the United States every year 'and the presence of a gun in a house with a domestic abuser increases the risk of homicide sixfold.' Will a fact like that matter to the Supreme Court? Do facts still matter at all?"
Marie: In today's Comments, Forrest M. suggests an excellent solution to the problem of the naked David. But I must offer an apology for mocking the prudes who consider the David to be not an ideal body but a pornographic monstrosity. It turns out the all-seeing God appreciates the concern and has an improvement for those who wish to gaze up without shock and horror at another Michelangelo masterpiece:
“Put these on. A group of American tourists is coming.” pic.twitter.com/Wlg8ryPW48
— Thee Rev. Dr. Boudyka (@bdk1521) March 26, 2023
~~~~~~~~~~
Oliver Milman of the Guardian: "An enormous swathe of the Gulf of Mexico, spanning an area the size of Italy, will be auctioned off for oil and gas drilling on Wednesday morning, in the latest blow to Joe Biden's increasingly frayed reputation on dealing with the climate crisis. Biden's department of interior is offering up a vast area of the central and western Gulf, including plunging deep water reaches, for drilling projects that will stretch out over decades, despite scientists' urgent warnings that fossil fuels must be rapidly phased out if the world is to avoid disastrous global heating. The auctions also come despite Biden's own pre-election promise to halt all drilling on federal lands and waters. In all, 73.3m acres (30m hectares), an area roughly the size of Italy, will be made available to drilling companies.... The auctions come just two weeks after Biden's administration approved the controversial Willow project, a drilling endeavor in the remote tundra of Alaska's arctic...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As far as I can tell from a couple of searches, neither the New York Times nor the Washington Post reported on this story. It seems like a big deal to me.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "After walking down a path where enslaved people once marched in chains to waiting ships, Vice President Kamala Harris entered a dungeon in Cape Coast, Ghana, where captive women had sung songs praying for death.... Ms. Harris, wiping her face and visibly emotional, walked outside this former slave port and connected the past to the present. 'The descendants of the people that walked through that door were strong people, proud people, people of deep faith who loved their families, their traditions, their culture,' Ms. Harris said during her visit to the port, called Cape Coast Castle, used for the slave trade in the 17th century. Those people, she added, 'went on to fight for civil rights, fight for justice in the United States of America and around the world.' Ms. Harris, who is on a tour of three countries in Africa -- Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia -- has been focused on promoting investments in the continent and collaboration with the United States. She has sought to showcase young artists by posting a Spotify playlist of her favorite African music and appearing with musicians at a studio in Accra, the capital of Ghana."
Lorena Figueroa, et al., of the Washington Post: "A fire at a migrant detention facility just south of the U.S. border killed at least 38 people, who appeared to be trapped in locked cells as flames spread Monday night and guards left the scene.... Security-camera footage began to circulate in Mexican media showing at least two guards walking past a large cell that was on fire. One prisoner tried desperately to kick open a locked door, but the guards ignored him.... In a Tuesday morning news conference, [Mexico's] President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the fire was apparently sparked during a protest by migrants who had learned they were going to be deported. 'In the door of the shelter they put some mattresses and set them on fire,' he said. 'They never imagined that would cause this tragedy.'" MB: The victims were in U.S. "protective" custody. Looks like negligent homicide to me, if not outright mass murder. ~~~
~~~ A related Guardian story by Marisol Chávez, which concentrates on the protest, is here.
Show Me the Money. John Wagner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Tuesday demanded a meeting with President Biden to discuss the nation's debt limit -- a move that the White House and Democrats suggested was premature until House Republicans overcome delays and produce their own budget proposal. In a letter, McCarthy sought to pin blame on Biden for the continuing standoff, saying he was putting the president 'on the clock' to find a meeting time so the two could discuss spending cuts that Republicans want in exchange for their support of legislation to raise the debt ceiling. But Biden and fellow Democrats suggested there is little point in an Oval Office meeting until House Republicans produce a budget document that can be compared to one issued by the White House nearly three weeks ago.... House Republicans are already behind schedule in crafting a budget plan, and lawmakers are about to take a scheduled two-week recess -- which Biden highlighted in his response letter to McCarthy on Tuesday evening."
Laura Reiley of the Washington Post: "Frank Yiannas, the [Food and Drug Administration's] deputy commissioner for food policy until his resignation earlier this year, testified before a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee that the agency was slow to act when concerns about sanitation arose at the Abbott Nutrition formula plant in Sturgis, Mich., sparking a chain reaction that dramatically reduced the U.S. supply of formula. The agency also failed to monitor the food supply chain, despite glaring deficiencies exposed by the pandemic, he said in written testimony.... The testimony comes during a period of upheaval at an agency that has been accused of giving short shrift to its role overseeing of the nation's food supply in favor of its drug approval side. Yiannas resigned in February, citing shortcomings in the FDA's ability to handle foodborne illness crises. His was among several recent departures of top officials at the FDA." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Sen. Potatohead Causes National Security Threat Because Abortion. Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: "The Pentagon is raising alarm over one Republican senator's bid to block the promotion of nearly 160 senior U.S. military officers in a dispute arising from the Defense Department';s abortion policy, joining top Democrats in labeling the political showdown a threat to national security. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking Tuesday before the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that by impeding these officers' promotions, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) had caused a 'ripple effect in the force that makes us far less ready than we need to be.'The remarks were Austin's most direct in a dispute that has grown increasingly acrimonious since Tuberville, earlier this month, promised he would require the promotions to be approved one-by-one, rather than in batches -- what Congress calls unanimus consent. The nominations can still move ahead, but would require time-consuming steps by Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D.-N.Y.), who complained Tuesday that Tuberville's gambit was tantamount to 'hostage taking.'" An NBC News story is here.
Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "A top regulator at the Federal Reserve on Tuesday blamed Silicon Valley Bank's executives for its collapse and provided little explanation for why supervisors had failed to stop its demise, saying that the central bank was examining what went wrong. Michael S. Barr, the Fed's vice chair for supervision, testified for more than two hours before the Senate Banking Committee alongside Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and Nellie Liang, the Treasury's under secretary for domestic finance. They faced skeptical questioning from lawmakers about why their agencies -- in particular the Fed, which was Silicon Valley Bank's main regulator -- had not done more to stop the bank from imploding."
The Tiny Hand That Guides Them. Annie Grayer, et al., of CNN: "Donald Trump continues to wield enormous power on Capitol Hill as House Republicans seek to curry favor with the former president, pursuing his fixations through their investigations and routinely updating him and his closest advisers on their progress. A number of top House GOP lawmakers have disclosed in recent days their efforts to keep the former president informed on the pace and substance of their investigations. Lines of communication appear to go both ways. Not only are Trump, his aides and close allies regularly apprised of Republicans' committee work, they also at times exert influence over it, multiple people familiar with the talks tell CNN. The constant, and sometimes direct, communication between Trump and the committees has emerged as a crucial method for Trump to shape Republicans' priorities in their newly-won House majority."
Marie: It's a sad, sad day when our justice system forces a good, Christian man to testify against the man who tried to have a mob hang him by the neck until dead. ~~~
~~~ ** Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge has decided that former Vice President Mike Pence must testify to a grand jury about conversations he had with Donald Trump leading up to January 6, 2021, according to multiple sources familiar with a recent federal court ruling. But the judge said -- in a ruling that remains under seal -- that Pence can still decline to answer questions related to his actions on January 6 itself, when he was serving as president of the Senate for the certification of the 2020 presidential election, according to one of the sources." At 1:20 pm ET, this is a breaking story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal judge has ordered former Vice President Mike Pence to appear in front of a grand jury investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election, largely sweeping aside two separate legal efforts by Mr. Pence and Mr. Trump to limit his testimony, according to two people familiar with the matter. The twin rulings on Monday, by Judge James E. Boasberg in Federal District Court in Washington, were the latest setbacks to bids by Mr. Trump's legal team to limit the scope of questions that prosecutors can ask witnesses close to him.... While Judge Boasberg issued a clear-cut ruling against Mr. Trump's attempts to assert executive privilege, his ruling on the 'speech or debate' clause was more nuanced.... The judge affirmed the idea that Mr. Pence had some protection under 'speech or debate' based on his role in overseeing the certification of the election.... But Judge Boasberg also said that Mr. Pence would have to testify to the grand jury about any potentially illegal acts committed by Mr. Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Trump Can't Handle Softball Questions. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's long-awaited return to Fox News's airwaves on Monday night after a months-long absence occasioned an altogether familiar exercise: His longtime ally Sean Hannity helpfully tries to coach him to give the right answers, and Trump utterly fails to oblige.... [Hannity] suggested both that Trump wouldn't deliberately possess the documents and that he didn't prevent federal authorities from searching for them. In both cases, Trump repeatedly declined to confirm Hannity's thesis." MB: When you read the Q&A, you may conclude that Trump's defense in the classified docs heist will run along the lines of, "I am too stupid and obstinate to knowingly commit theft and obstruction." My favorite part is where Trump claims that the Presidential Records Act gives him "the right to take stuff," when that, of course, is exactly the opposite of what the act requires.
Jonathan O'Connell & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Supreme Court justices and all federal judges must provide a fuller public accounting of free trips, meals and other gifts they accept from corporations or other organizations, according to revised regulations quietly adopted this month. The new requirements mark a technical but significant change that lawmakers and court transparency advocates hope will lead to more disclosure by judges and justices and also make it easier for parties in specific cases to request that judges remove themselves from cases when potential conflicts arise. Gifts such as an overnight stay at a personal vacation home owned by a friend remain exempt from reporting requirements. But the revised rules require disclosure when judges are treated to stays at commercial properties, such as hotels, ski resorts or corporate hunting lodges. The changes also clarify that judges must report travel by private jet."
Shawn Boburg & Emma Brown of the Washington Post: "A little-known conservative activist group led by Virginia 'Ginni' Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, collected nearly $600,000 in anonymous donations to wage a cultural battle against the left over three years, a Washington Post investigation found. The previously unreported donations to the fledgling group Crowdsourcers for Culture and Liberty were channeled through a right-wing think tank in Washington that agreed to serve as a funding conduit from 2019 until the start of last year, according to documents and interviews. The arrangement, known as a 'fiscal sponsorship,' effectively shielded from public view details about Crowdsourcers' activities and spending, information it would have had to disclose publicly if it operated as a separate nonprofit organization, experts said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Senate Chaplain Barry Black opened Tuesday's Senate session with this prayer:
Thom Hartmann, published by the Raw Story: "Republicans are trying to distract America from the easy access Audrey Hale had to weapons of war by discussing Hale's personal life, but the availability of guns and the Republican embrace of death as a political weapon are the only real issues here. We're the only developed country in the world that unconditionally allows civilians to own military-style assault weapons, that allows 'open carry,' and that lets gun manufacturers openly buy politicians (thanks, Republicans on the Supreme Court). As a consequence, we're also the only country in the world where the leading cause of death for children is being blown apart by bullets.... There are two simple reasons why Republicans want America drenched in guns and the deaths they bring. The first is that they've been taking piles of money from explicit peddlers of death: the NRA and gun manufacturers.... The second is that there's a substantial part of the violent white racist GOP base that is actively arming in preparation for a civil racial war in America, egged on by multiple Republican members of Congress."
N. Kirkpatrick, et al., of the Washington Post: "The AR-15 fires bullets at such a high velocity -- often in a barrage of 30 or even 100 in rapid succession - that it can eviscerate multiple people in seconds. A single bullet lands with a shock wave intense enough to blow apart a skull and demolish vital organs. The impact is even more acute on the compact body of a small child.... The carnage is rarely visible to the public. Crime scene photos are considered too gruesome to publish and often kept confidential.... The Washington Post sought to illustrate the force of the AR-15 and reveal its catastrophic effects." MB: The Post published this article shortly before the mass murder in a Nashville, Tennessee, grade school.
The Murdoch Effect. Elias Visontay of the Guardian: "Speaking to a capacity crowd of about 9,000 people at Sydney[, Australia]'s Aware Super Theatre on Tuesday night..., the former US president Barack Obama has suggested that Rupert Murdoch's media empire has led to greater polarisation in western societies through news coverage designed to 'make people angry and resentful'.... '... if all you're doing is, in America it's Fox News, here I guess it's Sky, whatever it is, if all you're doing is watching one source of news..., you no longer have a joint conversation and a shared story.... The easiest way to attract attention without having to have a lot of imagination, thought, or interesting things to say, is just to make people angry and resentful and to make them feel as if somebody's trying to mess with them and take what's rightfully theirs. And if you throw in some good old-fashioned racism and xenophobia and sexism and homophobia, all of that, because now we're in the realm of identity politics. And it's very difficult to compromise around identity politics.'"
Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Lawyers for Fox News were met with skepticism Tuesday when they argued that Fox Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch should be excused from testifying in court as part of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against the company. At a hearing in Delaware Superior Court, Judge Eric Davis said he'd received a letter from Fox saying it would be an 'inconvenience' for Murdoch, 92, to provide testimony in the courtroom.... The judge said that after receiving the letter he was told that Murdoch had just gotten engaged and was discussing plans to travel more in the coming years.... The judge did not rule on whether Murdoch will be required to testify in person...."
Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors added a foreign bribery charge to the growing list of crimes already pending against the FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a new indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors said that in 2021 Mr. Bankman-Fried instructed those working for him to pay a bribe of $40 million to one or more Chinese officials to help unfreeze trading accounts maintained by Alameda Research, FTX's sister company, that held about $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. The bribe money was paid to the Chinese officials in cryptocurrency, the document said. The indictment said the effort to pay off the unnamed Chinese officials was successful in getting the trading accounts unfrozen." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Beyond the Beltway
Idaho. Alana Vaglanos of the Huffington Post: Idaho state "House Bill 242, which passed through the state House and is likely to move quickly through the Senate, seeks to limit minors' ability to travel for abortion care without parental consent. The legislation would create a whole new crime -- dubbed 'abortion trafficking' -- which is defined in the bill as an 'adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor, either procures an abortion --- or obtains an abortion-inducing drug' for the minor.... Abortion trafficking would be a felony, and those found guilty would face two to five years in prison.... The legislation doesn't actually say anything about crossing state lines, but ... State Rep. Barbara Ehardt (R), one of the sponsors of the abortion trafficking bill, said plainly that the intent of the legislation is to limit minors' ability to travel out of state without parental consent." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I can't picture how the state will enforce the law. Will officers stop everybody traveling with a teenaged girl? Will everybody be stopped at state borders, creatiing a sort of Independent Sovereign State of Idaho?
North Dakota, California. Luz Lazo of the Washington Post (March 27): "A freight train derailed in rural North Dakota late Sunday, spilling hazardous materials, officials said. Another derailment hours later in Southern California brought no threat to the public or the environment, authorities said. In North Dakota, the Canadian Pacific train was traveling ... in the southeast part of the state when 31 of 61 cars derailed. The railroad said there were no injuries and there was no danger to residents. [A] Canadian Pacific spokesperson ... said ... that four cars filled with liquid asphalt and two cars filled with ethylene glycol spilled part of their loads, while a car carrying propylene sustained a small puncture and released some vapor. He said the spills have been mitigated. [He] said the railroad's environmental teams at the site have begun cleanup efforts and are working with the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality on a remediation plan.... [A] Union Pacific train was carrying iron ore ... when 55 cars derailed near Kelso, [California,] the San Bernardino County Fire Department said. Officials said fire engines and a hazmat team were responding to the incident, adding that one car had a minor fuel leak...."
Tennessee. Silvia Foster-Frau, et al., of the Washington Post: "The attacker who killed six people at a small Christian school in Nashville had been receiving treatment for 'an emotional disorder' and hid several weapons from their parents before opening fire, police said Tuesday. The parents thought 28-year-old Audrey Hale 'should not own weapons' and wrongly believed Hale had only owned one gun, which was sold, according to John Drake, the Nashville police chief. But the shooter had legally purchased seven guns at five local gun stores, Drake said, and on Monday morning used three of them to attack the school Hale once attended, killing three small children and three adults.... It appears, police said, that the school itself was the shooter's target, rather than any individual people there." A CNN story is here.
Virginia State Senate Election. Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Democrat Lamont Bagby was projected to defeat Republican Stephen Imholt in a special election Tuesday for the Richmond-based state Senate seat vacated by Jennifer McClellan (D), who was elected to Congress last month. Bagby's projected victory, declared shortly after polls closed at 7 p.m., ensures Democrats will maintain their 22-18 edge in the state Senate to offset Republican control of the House of Delegates."
Wisconsin, where school administrators deem the Dolly Parton/Miley Cirus song Rainbowland too "controversial" for first-graders to sing at a Waukesha grade-school assembly. María Luisa Paúl of the Washington Post reports, "Why the song was found contentious is still unclear."
Way Beyond
Israel. Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel responded defiantly on Wednesday to sharp criticism from President Biden over his government's contentious judicial overhaul plan.... As weeks of quiet diplomatic pressure burst into an open dispute between the allies, Mr. Netanyahu's opponents in Israel accused him of endangering the longstanding and critical relationship with the United States that could harm the country's ability to face daunting security challenges.... [In a statement, Mr. Netanyahu said,] 'Israel is a sovereign country which makes its decisions by the will of its people and not based on pressures from abroad, including from the best of friends.' Mr. Netanyahu's remarks, first issued by his office at the unusual time of about 1 a.m. in Israel, came after Mr. Biden told reporters that he was 'very concerned' about the events in Israel. The president's comments came after suggestions on Tuesday by the U.S. ambassador in Israel that Mr. Netanyahu would be welcome in Washington sometime soon.... When asked whether Mr. Netanyahu would be invited to the White House, the president replied bluntly: 'No. Not in the near term.'"; The AP's story is here.
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Wednesday is here: "Russian forces now occupy about 65 percent of the city of Bakhmut, according to analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, citing geolocated footage. Russian-backed fighters continue to make gains within the front-line city.... A Russian victory in Bakhmut would increase the global and domestic pressure on Kyiv to concede to an unfavorable deal with the Kremlin, [President] Zelensky said in an interview.... [U.S. Secretary of State Antony] Blinken said a cease-fire in Ukraine could freeze the conflict where things stand, allowing Russia to consolidate the territory it has illegally seized and 'use the time to rest and refit and then reattack.'... Ukrainian officials say 4,390 children have been forcibly deported to Russia."
News Lede
Death of the Oldest Drag Queen. New York Times: "Walter Cole, otherwise known as Darcelle XV, a rhinestone-bedecked drag performer with an exuberant blonde beehive whose popular Portland, Ore., nightclub hosted what is believed to be the longest-running drag show west of the Mississippi, died on March 23 at a hospital in his hometown. He was 92.... Seven years earlier, when he was 85, Mr. Cole earned an entry in Guinness World Records as the world's oldest drag performer."
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Reader Comments (12)
The Justice system in the United States is an “inconvenience” for Rupert Murdoch? Gee. What a surprise. This is not something new, that the rich and powerful find things like testifying in court an inconvenience to their rarefied lifestyle. But it’s now the case that major media outlets find it not just inconvenient, but an outrage that certain rich and powerful types be treated the same as everyone else under the law.
I’m in line with many others who feel that the Stormy Daniels thing is not the most egregious crime perpetrated by the Orange Monster, but that doesn’t mean we should give that fat fuck a pass. We either have rule of law, or we don’t. What he did was a crime. And trying to cook the books to hide that hush money payoff takes it from a misdemeanor to a felony. So fuck him.
As for Murdoch’s inconvenience…he just got married again, right? Well, he can put the cap on his giant bottle of viagra and trot his ass down to the courthouse. This ain’t a parking ticket that’s being adjudicated, this is a billion dollar lawsuit against his company for lies told by his employees under his direction and with his permission.
So fuck him too.
Don't want to swell Douthat's head even more than it already is but this time around thought he has a few interesting things to say about the recent WSJ poll that found some conservative attitudes toward religion, patriotism and money (well discussed by Patrick the other day) have taken a big hit of late.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/29/opinion/america-unhappy-poll.html
Could it be that the anomie he ascribes to liberals is in large part due to the extent to which crazy has taken over the Right?
Frankly, I find living in a country in which a large portion of the nation believes that the best way forward is to make it easier to own assault weapons and harder to vote, that rejects vaccines, bans books, admires dictators, and doesn't want to pay its debts (etc. etc....) more than a little depressing.
Emmit Till's mother was brave enough to allow her son to be exposed in his casket for all the world to see what his murderers had done to him. Perhaps pictures of what these assault weapons do to children could be shown to congress. OR have the parents of these children address these legislators. Oh wait! Wasn't that done already? Sandy Hook parents are still fighting for change. I try and put on the shoes of these parents but the fit is too agonizing to contemplate.
Christmas cards sent with a photo of a family bearng weapons is wildly "in your face" crazy! Will one of those cbildren be a victim in another school shooting?
From yesterday re: the life and times of Jesus. If, as some scholars have posited, Jesus was just a made up composite, then he very well could be gay one day and on the prey for a damsel another depending on who was writing the script.
Imagine 92-year-old Rupert on the stand:
Q: Please state your name for the record.
A: I can't recall.
(Repeat a few times).
Q: Your honor, the state requests the court find this witness in contempt.
Judge: Sorry, he's 92, prima facie non prevagenus, witness dismissed.
Michelangelo's David enters RuPaul's Drag Race.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CqXR8yiusXS/
Whenever I see news about Trump's supposedly impending indictment I'm reminded of how during the Trump administration we were always two weeks away from finding out the details of anything no matter when they were asked about it. We seem to always be two weeks away from answers as the goal posts continue moving out of our reach.
@RAS: You know, that's the most common type of nightmare I have, or at least the one that most commonly wakes me so I remember it: in a myriad of different settings & situations, I'm trying to get something done that I just can't get done: it may be that I'm trying to reach some geographical destination and I just can't get there (for instance, this morning I got lost in SoHo, trying to get to Washington Square, & I kept getting turned around & going the wrong way), or I'm trying to find someone, and I keep getting conflicting clues as to where s/he is, etc.
The real Trump nightmares are a lot like my actual nightmares; the press or others -- Fani Willis, Donald Trump -- tell us an indictment is "imminent," and yet it never happens. I try to keep readers apprised of the latest "reports" of "imminent Trump arrests," because I suspect that one of these days one of these reports will come true.
I don't do it out of cruelty. Rather, I'm the Will Rogers of bloggers: "All I know is what I read in the papers." And I share it. Or mean to.
We've all heard -- and some of us have experienced -- how cumbersome and unresponsive our "justice" system is. The Tales of Trump only reinforce that. A number of other democracies manage to charge even their high-profile crooks in a fairly timely manner. We could do better, too. I realize it takes time to investigate and establish evidence, but we should not take years to bring charges for a slimy hush-payment conspiracy. The charging papers should have been handed to Trump as he got on the helicopter on January 20, 2021. Or, even better, the plane to Mar-a-Lardo should have been diverted to NYC so Trump could be booked.
And why the hell hasn't DOJ done a damned thing -- as far as we know -- about charging Trump & others involved in the fake-electors scheme? Why has only one DA in one of the several fake-elector-generating states even addressed the crime?
And and and.
Marie,
Soho to Washington Sq I can do: Broadway to Houston to Sullivan, you come out right at Washington Sq. where the 365 chess guys used to kick my ass when I was doing grad work at NYU.
As for directions to Fatty Indictment Time, I’m as up in the air as everyone else. Why is the grand jury taking a month off????
Is Bragg waiting (as I thought recently) for Fani Willis to go first?
Look. Everyone knows he did it. Everyone knows he’s as evil and as guilty as Haman. Why are Democrats so fearful of the right-wing fascist echo chamber?
So fucking sick of this shit.
@Akhilleus: Yes, but if, in my dreams, I planned to meet you at the chess tables, I'd never get there, and you'd have to let the chess guys whup you again while you waited in vain. I'd be walking around in SoHo till I woke up.
Our apartment, for most of the time we lived there, was at 29 Washington Square West, which is on the corner of Waverly & MacDougal, so I'm pretty sure I took MacDougal when I went to SoHo.
One day I bought a kitchen cart in some little SoHo shop. The cart was on wheels, so I pushed it all the way home. I'm sure my husband was mortified, but I learned not to care about looking silly. Originally, I was rather shy about it. I felt ridiculous one day when -- shortly after we moved to New York -- I found a half-mannequin in the street trash and decided "free" was a good price for a bedroom "sculpture." I'll admit I was a little embarrassed to be walking down 6th Ave. with a naked torso tucked under my arm -- until I passed a man wearing a live boa constrictor (or some kind of huge snake) wrapped around his neck. In comparison, I thought, I looked so together! I never worried about doing foolish things again. And whatever I might be lugging around, nobody paid the slightest attention. That's part of the beauty of the Village.
@Marie Burns: I never looked at what you're doing as cruel. And I appreciate all the work you do with RC and keeping us informed on what is happening out in the world. I would much rather know what is going on or what people think is going to happen. Sticking our heads in the sand will help no one.
Unfortunately the rich and powerful have screwed up and scared off much our justice system just like they've done with our political system. Therefore it takes that much more work and evidence and courage to hold them to account.
Part of my frustration is that I'm still somewhat optimistic that one of the numerous people who have Trump in their criminal sights will be brave enough to use all the evidence available to them to take the loser to court to stand trial for some of his wrong doing.
The Village for sure, at least when I was living there, was only a few steps from Terra Incognita, and maybe three or four more steps from Ultima Thule. I was once in a shop on (I think) 10th St. that sold unusual chess sets where two guys were sharing a huge spliff and playing a match completely in their heads. I listened for a while and commented that black shouldn’t have castled queen side, which caused white to cackle and offer me a hit on the bone.
Only in the Village.
Another time I was in a music store and pulled an old National Steel off the wall. I started playing a Blind Blake song when another guy walked up, pulled down a Martin D-38 and joined me. He was pretty good too. I mean really good. After he left, the manager came over and asked if I knew that guy. I didn’t. He said “That was Steve Miller”. Jesus, I thought. No wonder he was so good,
Only in the Village.
Oh, and that weed was X-Cellent. I walked back to my apartment on a cloud. Still don’t castle queen side unless absolutely necessary.
@Akhilleus: Your time in the Village was so much more interesting than mine.