;)
March 31, 2022
Late Morning Update:
Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors have substantially widened their Jan. 6 investigation to examine the possible culpability of a broad range of figures involved in ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, people familiar with the inquiry said on Wednesday. The investigation now encompasses the possible involvement of other government officials in Mr. Trump's attempts to obstruct the certification of President Biden's Electoral College victory and the push by some Trump allies to promote slates of fake electors, they said." This is sort of a follow-up to the WashPo scoop linked below. MB: The report seems to indicate -- IMO -- that DOJ is still nibbling around the edges, going after "organizers and prominent participants in the rally on the Ellipse, and potential criminality in the promotion of pro-Trump slates of electors to replace slates named by states won by Mr. Biden."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.
~~~~~~~~~~
"Worse Than Watergate," Ctd.
** Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "The criminal investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol has expanded to examine the preparations for the rally that preceded the riot, as the Justice Department aims to determine the full extent of any conspiracy to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's election victory, according to people familiar with the matter. In the past two months, a federal grand jury in Washington has issued subpoena requests to some officials in ... Donald Trump's orbit who assisted in planning, funding and executing the Jan. 6 rally, said the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation. The development shows the degree to which the Justice Department investigation -- which already involves more defendants than any other criminal prosecution in the nation's history -- has moved further beyond the storming of the Capitol to examine events preceding the attack." The Hill has a summary report here.
** About Those Missing Call Logs. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump used an official White House phone to place at least one call during the Capitol attack on January 6 last year that should have been reflected in the internal presidential call log from that day but was not, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The former president called the phone of a Republican senator, Mike Lee, with a number recorded as 202-395-0000, a placeholder number that shows up when a call is incoming from a number of White House department phones, the sources said. The number corresponds to an official White House phone and the call was placed by Donald Trump himself, which means the call should have been recorded in the internal presidential call log that was turned over to the House select committee investigating the Capitol attack.... The origin of the call as coming from an official White House phone, which has not been previously reported, raises the prospect of tampering or deletion by Trump White House officials." Emphasis added.
George Conway in a Washington Post op-ed: "'A coup in search of a legal theory.' That was the sober, and apt, assessment made this week of ... Donald Trump's attempt to overturn the 2020 election ... in an opinion by a federal judge. And although that ruling, by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, did not decide a criminal case, it ought to presage one.... Carter's decision was at once pedestrian and remarkable. Pedestrian, because all the 44-page opinion did was methodically recite the law and apply it to the facts. Remarkable, because of where its analysis inexorably led: that a sitting president of the United States, with the help of his lawyer, 'more likely than not' violated two federal criminal laws in a desperate effort to keep himself illegally in power... [Attorney General Merrick Garland promised in January that DOJ was] 'committed to holding all Jan. 6th perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law -- whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy.'... For the attorney general's commitment to be met, the Justice Department's criminal investigation of Jan. 6 must focus closely on Trump."
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post is extremely skeptical that Donald Trump doesn't know what a burner phone is. MB: It does seem possible to me that Trump wasn't familiar with the term "burner phone." I think I've known of it for a long time because I watch a lot of police procedurals. Trump might have called burner phones "disposable phones" or something like that. But whether or not he is familiar with the term "burner phone" has nothing to do with the fact that 7-1/2 hours of the White House call logs on January 6 are missing. And, as the Guardian reports (linked above), it appears Trump White House officials tampered with/deleted the most relevant pages of the calls logs for January 6, 2021. When he was president*, Trump was required under the law to make sure records of his phone calls were preserved. But, hey, maybe Trump thought it was okay to rely on Russian & Chinese hackers to keep track of his calls. And they probably have, as contributor Patrick suggested Tuesday. But the House committee won't have much luck subpoenaing foreign hackers' records. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Brett Samuels of the Hill: "White House communications director Kate Bedingfield on Wednesday slammed former President Trump for encouraging Russian President Vladimir Putin to release potentially damaging information about President Biden's son Hunter Biden. 'What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin?" Bedingfield said at a press briefing."
Russia calls for its 'partner Trump' to be installed as President. Trump calls for Russia to help him politically. All this while Russia commits war crimes through a brutal, unprovoked invasion of another democratic nation. This is the leader of the Republican Party. -- Attorney Daniel Goldman, House Counsel during Trump's impeachments ~~~
~~~ "Our Partner Trump." Igor Derysh of Salon: "Russian state TV ... perhaps in an attempt to troll American officials, suggested that Russia should push to overthrow Biden and help 'our partner Trump' replace him, especially after Biden's remark in a speech last week in Warsaw that Putin 'cannot remain in power.'... Retired Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, one of the impeachment whistleblowers who reported Trump's infamous phone call with [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, called Trump a 'traitor' in response to his latest comments and said his security clearance should be revoked. 'He openly conspires with the enemy, when the U.S. is attempting to steer clear of a war with Russia,' Vindman tweeted." Thanks to P.D. Pepe for the lead. MB: You can see why Trump feels comfortable asking his "partner" Vlad to dig up dirt on the Biden family even as Putin is otherwise occupied murdering Ukrainians & leveling Ukrainian cities. ~~~
~~~ Aw, Republicans Find the Trump-Putin Partnership Awkward. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Republicans are finding themselves on defense again after former President Trump urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to release dirt on the Biden family. The remarks are the latest Trump-fueled headache for Republicans this week and the most recent entry in a years-long fissure between Trump and many congressional Republicans over Russia. Trump's comments also come at a politically awkward moment for GOP lawmakers trying to push the Biden administration to do more in response to Putin's weeks-long, bloody invasion of Ukraine." ~~~
Putin's War Crimes, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "The war in Ukraine entered its sixth week with no end in sight and its catastrophic effects widening, as Russia steps up bomb and artillery attacks a day after saying it would drastically scale back its offensive and decamp to the separatist east. A senior Ukrainian official and the Pentagon spokesman confirmed that some Russian troops were indeed moving away from Kyiv and Chernihiv, but suggested it was for repositioning or resupply, not withdrawal.... Germany is taking its first steps toward rationing natural gas, in anticipation of Russia's potentially cutting off deliveries. The number of Ukrainian refugees has surpassed four million -- half of them children. And the United Nations is forecasting the most dire world hunger crisis since World War II. Ukraine and Russia are ordinarily major suppliers of the world's wheat and other grains.... The Biden administration released intelligence suggesting that ... Vladimir V. Putin of Russia <had been misinformed by his aides about the Russian Army's struggles,giving him overly optimistic reports. According to declassified U.S. intelligence, the misinformation has created mistrust and stoked tensions between Mr. Putin and his defense minister, Sergei K. Shoigu, who was once among the most trusted members of the Kremlin's inner circle." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are set to resume talks online Friday, head Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said in an overnight Telegram post...." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here: "In a virtual speech to MPs and senators in Canberra, the Ukrainian president requested Australia send Bushmaster armoured vehicles to assist in the fight against Russia, saying they would 'do much more for our common freedom and security than staying parked on your land.... You have very good armoured personal vehicles, Bushmasters, that could help Ukraine substantially, and other pieces of equipment that could strengthen our position in terms of armaments,' [President] Zelenskiy said. Zelenskiy accused Vladimir Putin of 'nuclear blackmail' and said that an unchecked Russia was a 'threat' to the world, suggesting its actions may inspire other nations to follow suit, in a thinly veiled warning to the parliament he was addressing."
Michael Birnbaum, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Vladimir Putin's advisers are shielding him from how badly the invasion of Ukraine is going, top U.S. officials said Wednesday, as the conflict raged on despite peace talks and the number of Ukrainians who have fled their country topped 4 million. Putin's advisers may be afraid to deliver bad news to a leader who has been willing to take increasingly extreme measures against people who dissent within the Russian system, U.S. intelligence officials said. One worrisome consequence, Pentagon officials said, was that negotiations underway between Russia and Ukraine to end the nearly five-week-old invasion could be undermined by misinformed expectations and directives from the Russian side. 'We have information that Putin felt misled by the Russian military, which has resulted in persistent tension between Putin and his military leadership,' White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield told reporters." A New York Times story is here.
Luis Martinez of ABC News: "Over the last 24 hours, the Pentagon has seen 'less than 20%' of the Russian troops that had been around Kyiv moving northward as they 'reposition' into Belarus so they can be re-equipped for possible action in eastern Ukraine, the Pentagon's top spokesman said Wednesday.... Specifically, [Pentagon press secretary John] Kirby said the Russian troops near the Hostomel airport north of the city have been seen moving north towards Belarus. The airport had been the scene of heavy fighting from the opening hours of Russia's invasion. Separately, a senior U.S. defense official said some Russian troops had also been seen moving out of the Chernobyl nuclear facility. However, it remained unclear if they would all be leaving.... 'If the Russians are serious about de-escalating, because that's their claim here, then they should send them home, but they're not doing that, at least not yet,' Kirby said. 'That's not what we're seeing.'"
Kevin Liptak & Jeremy Diamond of CNN: "President Joe Biden spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for nearly an hour Wednesday as airstrikes near Kyiv seemed to bear out Western skepticism that peace talks could ease Russia's assault on Ukraine. Biden told his counterpart the US would provide Ukraine another $500 million in 'direct budgetary aid,' the White House said afterward, and discussed 'how the United States is working around the clock to fulfill the main security assistance requests by Ukraine.'... A day after Russia claimed it was scaling back its military operation near the Ukrainian capital, strikes continued in the suburbs of Kyiv as well as in Chernihiv, whose mayor said the city was under 'colossal attack.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden is considering a plan to release one million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for as long as 180 days, a move that would add a large amount of oil to the global market, according to a person familiar with the White House deliberations on the issue. Mr. Biden could announce the plan to tap the reserve as soon as Thursday, said the official, who requested anonymity.... The idea would be to combat rising prices at the pump." ~~~
~~~ Monika SCcislowska & Frank Jordans of the AP: "Germany and Austria activated early warning plans Wednesday amid concerns that Moscow could cut natural gas deliveries, while Poland announced steps to end all Russian oil imports by year's end, in fresh signs of how Russia's war in Ukraine is affecting Europe's energy security. The German government said it was establishing a crisis team to step up monitoring of the gas supply, and called on companies and households to conserve energy following demands by Russia that deliveries should be paid in rubles. Western nations have rejected that demand, arguing it would undermine sanctions imposed because of the war." ~~~
~~~ Phillip Inman of the Guardian: "Why does Putin want payment in roubles? In the aftermath of the Russian invasion the value of the rouble fell off a cliff. It fell from about 85 to the euro last year to 110 as the tanks rolled across Ukraine's borders.... With the rouble trading at such low levels, Russian exports were going to bring in less money to subsidise state services and fund the war than previously expected. A higher valued rouble will not only bring in more cash, it is also a matter of pride that trading nations are prepared to pay for Russian exports in the Russian currency. A larger pool of roubles, generated by the demand from foreign countries and companies for Russian goods, would allow Moscow to challenge the US dominance, via the dollar, of global money markets, although it is not clear why China would support such a plan. Some analysts have also speculated that dollars and euros are less useful to Moscow while sanctions are tightening."
Paul Murphy, et al., of CNN: "The Red Cross warehouse in central Mariupol was hit by at least two military strikes, new satellite images from Maxar Technologies confirm. 'Under international humanitarian law, objects used for humanitarian relief operations must be respected and protected at all times,' [Red Cross spokesperson Jason] Straziuso said.... No Red Cross staff have been at the warehouse since March 15.... Straziuso said that intense fighting has prevented the Red Cross from bringing any humanitarian aid to the city.... Liudmyla Denisova, the Ukrainian Parliament commissioner for human rights, called for the 'world community to condemn' the shelling of the building. 'This is another war crime of the Russian army in accordance with the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and a gross violation of the 1949 Geneva Conventions,' she said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Woo-Hoo! Jackson Overcomes Collins' "Concerns." Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senator Susan Collins of Maine plans to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, ensuring that President Biden's nominee and the first Black woman to be put forward for the post will receive at least one Republican backer. After a second personal meeting with the judge on Tuesday afternoon, Ms. Collins said Judge Jackson had alleviated some concerns that surfaced after last week's contentious Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, when Republicans attacked the nominee for her record and grilled her on a host of divisive issues." An ABC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Steve M.: "... this vote will reinforce Collins's image as a non-partisan centrist. And then next year, when (in all likelihood) Republicans control the Senate and begin blocking all of Biden's judicial picks, Collins can go along with her party's blockade without a word of protest, and everyone will still remember this vote and see her as a foe of partisanship. She won't cast a consequential vote that defies her party; however, she'll cast this one, which is inconsequential but high-profile. That approaches continues to work for her, and her state's voters keep falling for it." MB: Steve is so cynical. And absolutely right.
Not sure why Republicans are acting so shocked by Cawthorn's alleged revelations about their party. One of their members is being investigated for sex trafficking a minor and they've been pretty OK w/ that. They issued more consequences to members who voted to impeach Trump. -- Rep. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), in a tweet ~~~
~~~ Republicans Don't Do Orgies & Blow. -- McCarthy. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said Wednesday after meeting with Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-N.C.) that the freshman lawmaker was not telling the truth when he made claims about an 'orgy' invitation and alleged drug use among unnamed members of Congress. Cawthorn's comments, which he made during a podcast interview last week, had outraged some of his fellow congressional Republicans, leading to Wednesday's meeting at the Capitol with McCarthy and other House GOP leaders.... Cawthorn also claimed that he had witnessed unnamed prominent figures in Washington doing cocaine." ~~~
~~~ Olivia Beavers, now of Politico: "The GOP leader said Wednesday -- after meeting with the North Carolina Republican that morning -- that Cawthorn has 'lost my trust' due to his repeated actions that were 'not becoming' for a congressman. And McCarthy warned the freshman he could face punishment if he doesn't take certain steps to turn himself around, which could include losing his committee spots.... McCarthy also cited Cawthorn's calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a 'thug' as problematic. Plus, Cawthorn had caused another controversy when he lied to an officer in the Capitol, saying GOP congressional candidate Robby Starbuck was one of his staffers to bring him onto the House floor. Additionally, McCarthy said it's unacceptable for a member of Congress to be caught driving without a license after failing to show up to court." ~~~
~~~ Melanie Zanona, et al., of CNN: "Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina is throwing his weight behind a primary opponent to freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn -- an extraordinary broadside against a fellow Republican from his home state, as internal frustration with the controversial MAGA firebrand reaches a boiling point.... Tillis ... is backing state Sen. Chuck Edwards in his primary against Cawthorn. Other GOP lawmakers who are at their wits' end with Cawthorn are considering endorsing one of his primary foes.... The two most powerful North Carolina Republicans in the state legislature -- Senate leader Phil Berger and House speaker Tim Moore -- are headlining a fundraiser for Edwards on Thursday, according to the Edwards campaign.... Retiring Sen. Richard Burr -- the senior GOP senator from North Carolina -- told CNN he won't be getting involved in Cawthorn's primary, but added: 'On any given day, he's an embarrassment.'"~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course Cawthorn is "an embarrassment." But that's not because he's so far-out. It's because his antics expose the rest of a party in which nearly all of its members are "an embarrassment" to democracy.
Presidential Election 2016. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic Party have agreed to pay $113,000 in fines to settle a Federal Election Commission investigation into whether they violated a campaign finance disclosure law when they funded an opposition research effort into Donald J. Trump and Russia that resulted in a discredited document known as the Steele dossier.... The commission has not yet made public the findings of its investigation.... So-called conciliation agreements attached to [an FCC] letter sent to [Dan] Backer [-- who filed a complaint against the Clinton campaign --] showed that the campaign and the party disagreed that they had inaccurately described the purpose of their spending.... Nevertheless, the documents said, the campaign and the party agreed in February to pay civil penalties totaling $113,000 -- $8,000 from the campaign and $105,000 from the party -- to resolve the matter 'expeditiously and to avoid further legal costs.'"
Matt Viser, et al., of the Washington Post: "Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden. The Post did not find evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from or knew details about the transactions with CEFC, which took place after he had left the vice presidency and before he announced his intentions to run for the White House in 2020. But the new documents -- which include a signed copy of a $1 million legal retainer, emails related to the wire transfers, and $3.8 million in consulting fees that are confirmed in new bank records and agreements signed by Hunter Biden -- illustrate the ways in which his family profited from relationships built over Joe Biden's decades in public service." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Taylor Lorenz & Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking to turn the public against TikTok. The campaign includes placing op-eds and letters to the editor in major regional news outlets, promoting dubious stories about alleged TikTok trends that actually originated on Facebook, and pushing to draw political reporters and local politicians into helping take down its biggest competitor.... Employees with the firm, Targeted Victory, worked to undermine TikTok through a nationwide media and lobbying campaign portraying the fast-growing app, owned by the Beijing-based company ByteDance, as a danger to American children and society, according to internal emails shared with The Washington Post." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. The Continuing Foxification of CBS "News." Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "CBS News's decision to hire former Trump administration official Mick Mulvaney as a paid on-air contributor is drawing backlash within the company because of his history of bashing the press and promoting the former president's fact-free claims. But a top network executive seemed to lay the groundwork for the decision in a staff meeting earlier this month, when he said the network needed to hire more Republicans to prepare for a 'likely' Democratic midterm wipeout.... The reaction from CBS News employees to Mulvaney's hiring was as chilly as the reaction on social media, where many journalists and political commentators suggested that the network was jeopardizing its long history of journalistic excellence." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As usual, the suits are crass, stupid AND ignorant. They cannot see the difference between partisan Democrats & immoral, anti-American Republican liars. There is no equivalency there. ~~~
~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: Mick Mulvaney "fibbed about the administration's healthcare plans. He claimed that the media was exaggerating the threat of COVID-19 in order to hurt the president*. But the high point of his tenure -- and the episode most clearly related to current events -- probably came when Mulvaney was central to the plan to knuckle Ukraine into helping ratfck Joe Biden's campaign, the attempted extortion that resulted in Impeachment I.... As you can imagine, giving a gig to Mick Mulvaney at the height of the bloodletting in Ukraine did not go down well among the more honest souls at CBS.... When, oh Lord, when will the elite political media treat the current Republican Party as the threat to the republic that it most obviously is?... Cronkite wept." Firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "CBS News faced a firestorm of criticism Tuesday for making Mick Mulvaney a contributor, with one opponent calling the network's decision to hire the ex-aide of former President Donald Trump'a new low.'... 'Normalizing the villains,' tweeted podcast host and writer Bob Cesca.... 'There are plenty of conservative budget experts who (1) chose not to serve as an apologist and lackey for the racist-in-chief, (2) have integrity, and (3) aren't clueless hacks who once wrote a budget with a $2 trillion math error,'... [tweeted] Seth Hanlon of the Center for American Progress."
1950 Census Data to Be Released Friday. Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: "Early on Friday, [the 72-year rule for release of U.S. Census data] will have elapsed and the National Archives will unveil a huge batch of the intimate details from the 1950 Census -- on 6.4 million pages digitized from 6,373 microfilm census rolls. The data will include names, ages, addresses and answers to questions about employment status, job description and income.... The information is expected to be available and searchable online after the release at 12:01 a.m. Friday, officials said.... It should be a gold mine for scholars and genealogists, the Census Bureau says, and will provide a fascinating look at America at the midpoint of the 20th century." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I thought the headline should be, "Marie Burns Featured in Census Release for First Time." Oddly, a search of the article reveals that the story doesn't even mention me. But it is the first time my name will appear in a Census report, and I'm just giddy about the anticipated publicity.
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "President Biden stepped up pressure on Congress to approve billions of dollars in emergency coronavirus relief aid, using a speech at the White House on Wednesday to warn that U.S. progress against Covid-19 would be at severe risk if Congress failed to act right away. 'This isn't partisan. It's medicine,' Mr. Biden said, adding, 'Americans are back to living their lives again; we can't surrender that now. Congress, please act. You have to act immediately.' On Capitol Hill, senators of both parties said they hoped a deal could be struck before Congress leaves next week for a two-week April recess. Such a deal would likely be $15.6 billion, matching the size of the smaller package that Democrats abruptly removed from a catchall spending bill earlier this month when rank-and-file lawmakers and governors objected to clawing back state aid to help pay for the deal." (An earlier version also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Kate Sullivan of CNN: "After delivering his speech, the President received his second booster shot on camera. The US Food and Drug Administration said Americans 50 and older who received their first booster shot at least four months ago are eligible for a second booster shot of Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines. The President received his first booster shot in September. ~~~
Eileen Sullivan of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is expected to lift a pandemic-related public health order this week that has restricted immigration for the past two years, a change that could more than double what is already a historic number of migrants surging into the United States from Mexico. The change is to take effect in late May, according to people familiar with the planning, and should restore the right of migrants to request asylum once they are in the United States, just as they did before the pandemic. Even with the rule in place, the administration has struggled to manage a record spike in illegal migration along the border with Mexico, which Republicans have cast as out of control since President Biden took office. In recent days, border officials have encountered about 7,000 migrants daily." An AP story is here.
Horse Dewormer Is for Horses with Worms. Carl Zimmer of the New York Times: "The anti-parasitic drug ivermectin, which has surged in popularity as an alternative treatment for Covid-19 despite a lack of strong research to back it up, showed no sign of alleviating the disease, according to results of a large clinical trial published on Wednesday. The study, which compared more than 1,300 people infected with the coronavirus in Brazil who received either ivermectin or a placebo, effectively ruled out the drug as a treatment for Covid, the study's authors said. 'There's really no sign of any benefit,' said Dr. David Boulware, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Minnesota."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona. Bob Christie & Jonathan Cooper of the AP: "Arizona's Republican governor signed a series of bills Wednesday targeting abortion and transgender rights, joining a growing list of GOP-led states pursuing a conservative social agenda. The measures signed by Gov. Doug Ducey will outlaw abortion after 15 weeks if the U.S. Supreme Court allows it, prohibit gender confirmation surgery for minors and ban transgender girls from playing on girls and women's sports teams."
Kentucky. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The Republican-controlled legislature in Kentucky passed sweeping legislation this week that would make abortion illegal after 15 weeks of pregnancy and grant no exemptions in cases of rape or incest. The legislation, which resembled a restrictive Mississippi law that is being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, folded together half a dozen bills that were introduced by Republicans in the state House and Senate. Opponents of the bill, passed on Tuesday, said the legislation is even more restrictive than measures passed in Mississippi, Idaho, Florida and Texas and could effectively end abortion in Kentucky, where there are two abortion providers for the entire state.... Opponents of the bill in Kentucky have called on Gov. Andy Beshear, a Democrat who has expressed support for abortion rights, to veto the legislation.... 'We easily have the votes to override his expected veto,' [state Senator Max Wise (R), the bill's Senate sponsor,] said in his statement."
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Here's Steve Martin enacting Marie's anticipated reaction to seeing her name in print in the 1950 census. Exciting stuff. And Steve was happy to do the skit for her, but didn't want to play the banjo too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7aIf1YnbbU
Whatta guy!
A couple of weeks ago, I read an op-Ed that outlined the likely reasons Merrick Garland would give Fatty’s myriad crimes a pass, but every day that goes by, it seems, more and more evidence of these crimes piles up. It’s getting ridiculous. And equally ridiculous is just letting him get away with it. He knows he can do anything he likes and no one will stop him. He will never pay for his treason or his many crimes against the country.
And all the while he’s demanding that his enemies be investigated for made up shit!!
It’s more depressing than I care to contemplate.
A piece (linked above) about CBS hiring a Trump ratfucker has the following baffling line:
“But a top network executive seemed to lay the groundwork for the decision in a staff meeting earlier this month, when he said the network needed to hire more Republicans to prepare for a 'likely' Democratic midterm wipeout.”
Help me understand how hiring lying supporters of treason will help CBS’ coverage of this expected electoral “wipeout”. What it will do is give the liars and ratfuckers free rein to salt the earth PRIOR to the election, spreading misinformation, sowing chaos, and ginning up conspiracy theories against Democrats for months prior to the election.
How about, instead, making sure you have seasoned, experienced, smart, judicious, fact-based journalists to cover the election?
I guess the idea is to present a wave of triumphalist bullshit after the anticipated “wipeout”, their new employees gleefully cackling on air about how their wonderful wickedness screwed Democrats (and the country) by ensuring the emplacement of (even more) crazed bigots and anti-American traitors (just like them) in the halls of power.
It’s well known that the indolent and largely supine fourth estate immensely aided the rise of a crook and traitor into the White House. I’m gonna be nice and suggest that the installation of Donald Trump, with the help of an antagonistic foreign power, was due in large part to laziness on the part of the press, in other words, their complicity in the nightmare we now find ourselves in was not intentional.
The hiring of a proven, hyper partisan liar and supporter of treason, and the promise to hire more like him IS intentional. CBS is pretty much saying “We don’t care what happens to the country, in fact we know these people are dangerous lunatics, but we don’t want to be on their bad side when the takeover is complete.”
Well, heil fucking Hitler, then. Shine up your Gestapo boots while you’re at it.
What this craven plan completely ignores is the fact that, very much like Donald Trump, these people are loyal only to themselves. If, after you help them win, they see an opening to fuck you up one side and down the other, as long as it gets them applause from the droolers, they will not hesitate to drill you a new asshole.
More proof that there is no such thing as “the liberal media”. The media does not fear Democrats. But they will bend over backwards not to piss off the traitors.
This is malfeasance, pure and simple; this is abuse of the public trust that sits squarely behind the award of broadcast licenses. I guess pissing on one’s oath has become just the thing to do to garner a few attaboys from the traitor class.
Disgusting.
AK: and the fun never ends. Here's another bit about Americans kissing the Russian bear. Tulsi (such a pretty lass) Gabbard, during a broadcast on Russian state television, was introduced as "Our girlfriend Tulsi." Looks like the little lady has joined Tuckk-, bkums becoming "partners" with the War Criminal of Russia.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-tulsi-gabbard-russian-agent_n_62450ec2e4b0587dee64d81f
AK— Please send your letter in its entirety to CBS. I can’t imagine why the glib moron in question has ANY job, let alone that of a talking head. It DOES show that we cannot trust the media “elites” to analyze events of any kind. The local affiliates are wingers, so I will have to decide whether to watch CBS Sunday Morning, 60 Minutes and Colbert’s opening salvos. Does it count as a boycott to watch Colbert on YouTube? I will not miss the rest. That way I will miss the gleeful cackling by people too mean to live…
Does Trump know that Hunter Biden is not president and won't be running in 2024?
And of course Hillary has to pay a FCC fine while Donald walks away scot free from his hookup payoffs that landed Michael Cohen in jail.
@Patrick: Thank you. Hilarious. And perfectly apt. But I can't understand why the title character is the called "The Jerk." Seems like a very sensible guy to me.
As it happens, one time I won a lawsuit because my name -- or rather, my husband's name -- was in the phone book. In a town near where I lived in western New Jersey, a guy hit and ran my car when the car was parked on the main street. By luck, a friend was in a nearby cafe at the time, and he not only saw the guy hit my car, he took down the plate number & described the guy's truck. I filed a police complaint under my husband's name as our car was registered in his name. But the hit-and-run guy did not respond to the complaint. So I took him to municipal court.
In court, he testified that he did not believe he had hit our car, but he had tried to contact my husband to straighten things out. However, he said our phone number was not listed. So then I had to call my husband, who testified that our number was listed. So the judge said, "Oh yeah?" And I said, if your clerk or bailiff could go into the office and get a local phone book, I can prove it. So the clerk got the phone book, and, lo and behold, not only was my husband's name listed, it was the first one on the page, so his name appeared in bold at the top of that page of the phone book. The judge ruled in our favor, and the county prosecutor, who was there to try other cases, said I shoulda been a lawyer because I was so good at thinking on my feet. (Actually, I'm not,)
M.B. you may not be good at thinking on your feet but you sure proved you are one tenacious thinker in your head. YOU took that guy to municipal court, and you alone suggested the clerk get the phone book. This was actually a funny story––-that jerk thought he could ram your car and go his way without a say––-You, lady, did NOT make his day!
Phone books, another vestige of the past gone the way of phone booths, rotary dial phones, and black and white TVs. Don’t think I’ve seen a phone book in years. It was a regular yearly thing to get a delivery of white pages and yellow pages phone books.
You could go to the library and find phone books from other parts of the country. That was cool. It was always fun to see the thin little phone books from some sparsely populated area stacked next to three or four inch thick tomes from big metropolitan areas.
It was fun, when I was a kid, to see how many others in the book shared our family name, and to see if you could figure out the most and least common names (looking under X was a good starting point for the latter…”Hey! Here’s a Mrs. Xerxes!”). I guess part of the fun was having some kind of access to otherwise unobtainable information. “Oh look! Those O’Briens who live on Foch Street. Here’s their number!” I guess it didn’t take much to amuse us back then.
Old movies made use of phone books for scenes involving detectives or even bad guys trying to locate someone. More often than not, the page with the invaluable information would be ripped out and taken away. So much for the next guy. The Arnold Schwarzenegger character in “The Terminator” uses the phone book to find Sarah Conner, the woman he’s been sent to kill. Unfortunately there were several so…oops.
A guy in college showed me the secret to tearing a phone book in half. It didn’t have nearly the impact I thought it might, so I gave up phone book mutilation pretty quickly. Phone books were sometimes used as weapons in scenes where someone was getting smacked with one. I guess if the movie took place in West Bum, North Dakota it wouldn’t be so bad, but New York City? Ouch!
Although, very much like the Steve Martin character in “The Jerk”, it was pretty cool when I got my first apartment, to see my new number in black and white (college phone books didn’t count, it had to be the real thing). I wasn’t quite as taken with the whole thing as Steve Martin, but it was a nice marker on life’s journey.
Marie wrote, in a comment about the continued, extremely tentative nature of the DOJ looking at the treasonous actions of the Fat Fascist that “The report seems to indicate -- IMO -- that DOJ is still nibbling around the edges…”
Yeah. It’s like a huge platter with a giant hog in the center and Merrick and his guys are going after the parsley sprigs surrounding the fat pig. Bon appetit, guys. Now don’t get too filled up on that parsley…
Dear Abby: What does one do when one is part Ukrainian/Romanian
(those gypsies really got around, all the way to Scotland) and their
husband is of Russian heritage?
I'm thinking maybe divide the house between east and west. He gets
the eastern part (living room, library) and I get the western part
(kitchen, dining room, sun room). Bedrooms and bathrooms are a
tossup. Yours truly.
I have to stay up past midnight tonight to check out the census info
to find out if Marie's family had electricity and running water.
Would you believe that my grandparents back on the farm in Texas
were still using kerosene lamps and well water and cooking with a
wood burning kitchen stove? That's how granny burned the house down.
Worse than Watergate? Far worse. Not even on the same planet. For many reasons.
First, and most importantly, the system worked back then. Not all Republicans were aghast at Nixon’s ratfucking and subsequent cover up, but few of them were willing to just shrug it off, at least in public. A substantial number went to bat for the Constitution and the rule of law. And in the post-Tricky Dick period, 40 Nixon officials were indicted. A fair number were jailed. Nixon himself was on the verge of being impeached, triggering his resignation. Better to go back to San Clemente and walk the beach in street shoes than the ignominy of being publicly booted.
The system today? Republicans don’t even believe there is a system. They think that abiding by the Constitution and the rule of law is optional (except for Democrats).
And here’s another huge difference. Yes, Nixon’s Plumbers broke into the DNC headquarters, and yes he covered it up. But in Trump’s case, we’re talking about a full blown overthrow of the government THEN a cover up, which is ongoing.
And not a single member of the Fatty administration has been indicted or jailed. Most of them are making money by the barrel full.
Much worse.
Ted Cruz on democracy
Another activist judge overturning legislators who were just trying to do the right thing for democracy:
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/31/florida-judge-election-law-racism-00022041