;)
Friday
May262023
May 27, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon/Evening Update:
** Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "Top White House and Republican negotiators on Saturday reached a deal in principle to raise the debt limit for two years while cutting and capping some government spending over the same period, a breakthrough after a marathon set of crisis talks that has brought the nation within days of its first default in history, three people familiar with the agreement said. Congressional passage of the plan before June 5, when the Treasury is projected to exhaust its ability to pay its obligations, was not assured, particularly in the House.... But the compromise, which would effectively freeze federal spending that had been on track to grow, had the blessing of both President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, raising hopes that it could break the fiscal stalemate that has gripped Washington and the nation for weeks, threatening an economic crisis. The two spoke by phone on Saturday evening to resolve final sticking points."
Hasta La Vista. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "The Texas House impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust, a stunning rebuke of the conservative firebrand that at least temporarily forces him from office pending a state Senate trial that could lead to his permanent ouster.... Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican who has worked closely with the attorney general, will be able to appoint a temporary replacement.... Paxton has been a fierce defender of ... Donald Trump and a defiant opponent of the Biden administration, but his impeachment came at the hands of fellow Texas Republicans, who have long controlled all three branches of state government.... Of 146 House members present, 121 voted to impeach Paxton -- more than the majority required, including all but one Democrat and 60 Republicans -- 23 voted no (all Republicans), and two were present but did not vote.... Rep. Charlie Geren (R) ... noted that several colleagues had 'received telephone calls from Gen. Paxton personally threatening them with political consequences in their next election.'" ~~~
~~~ Zach Despart & Zach Barragan of the Texas Tribune: "Defying a last-minute appeal by ... Donald Trump, the Texas House voted overwhelmingly Saturday to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, temporarily removing him from office over allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments in Texas AG Ken Paxton's impeachment hearing. The Texas Tribune is airing the proceedings, as well as running a liveblog, here.
Marie: Alan Rappeport of the New York Times blames Democrats for the debt ceiling crisis, and for once I think a both-sides MSM reporter is right: Last fall, "in an interview on her flight from New Delhi to Bali, Indonesia..., [Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen] urged Democrats to use their remaining time in control of Washington to lift the debt limit beyond the 2024 elections.... Democrats did not heed Ms. Yellen's advice."
Arizona. Jared Gans of the Hill: "Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) said her predecessor, Republican Doug Ducey, misappropriated $50 million that the federal government provided to the state through the American Rescue Plan. Hobbs said in a release Friday that Ducey made the grant to the state treasurer in the final hours of his administration to fund all-day kindergarten for student recipients of empowerment scholarship accounts, which allow for parents to use the money they would pay in taxes for education to send their student to the school that they choose. But the memo notes that the state only funds half-day kindergarten for students in public school.... 'Illegally giving $50 million to private schools while failing to properly invest in public education is just one egregious example of the previous administration's blatant disregard for public school students,' Hobbs said." Hobbs' statement implies she has been able to prevent the funds from being unlawfully distributed to parents of private-school students.
New York. Alysia Santo of the Marshall Project, published by the New York Times: "Over a dozen years, New York State officials have documented the results of attacks by hundreds of prison guards on the people in their custody. But when the state corrections department has tried to use this evidence to fire guards, it has failed 90 percent of the time, an investigation by The Marshall Project has found. The review of prison disciplinary records dating to 2010 found more than 290 cases in which the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision tried to fire officers or supervisors it said physically abused prisoners or covered up mistreatment that ranged from group beatings to withholding food. The agency considered these employees a threat to the safety and security of prisons. Yet officers were ousted in just 28 cases."
~~~~~~~~~~
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Friday that the United States will run out of money to pay its bills on time by June 5, moving the goal post back slightly while maintaining the urgency for congressional leaders to reach a deal to raise or suspend the debt limit. The letter provided the most precise date yet for when the United States is expected to run out of cash. Ms. Yellen had previously said the United States could hit the so-called X-date -- the moment when it does not have enough money to pay all of its bills on time -- as soon as June 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here.
Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said he is 'very frustrated' over the state of debt ceiling talks and questioned why President Biden is continuing to negotiate with what the congressman called 'economic terrorists' in the Republican party. 'I called on the president to invoke the 14th Amendment and mint a coin and do not negotiate with hostage takers,' Bowman told CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday. 'I mean, we don't negotiate with terrorists globally. Why are we gonna negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Conservative lawmakers have begun mounting a campaign against the emerging deal on the debt ceiling between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as objections from the right threaten to undermine an agreement even before its contents are publicly released. On Thursday and Friday, in response to reports about the details of the agreement, leading conservative lawmakers and budget experts raised strong objections, arguing McCarthy had failed to extract sufficient concessions from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. McCarthy pushed back in remarks to reporters on Friday, saying the criticisms were being leveled by people unaware of the substance of the deal" MB: They're not "conservatives" they're radical right hostage-takers & as Bowman calls them "economic terrorists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Kara Voght of the Washington Post: “At a White House event, Angel Reese of Louisiana State University's championship NCAA team & Dr. Jill Biden hug and make up after Biden's gaff last month in which she suggested the mostly-white Iowa Hawkeyes, whom L.S.U. defeated in the final game, be invited to the White House, too. Politico's story is here.
Beobert Admits "Conservatives" Are Antisemites. She Should Know. Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday released the country's first national strategy for combating antisemitism, a landmark lauded by Jewish and anti-hate groups as progress toward addressing the increasing instances of violence and bias toward Jewish people in the United States. But Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) saw the effort as an attack on those of her political persuasion. 'When they say stuff like this, they mean they want to go after conservatives,' she tweeted. 'Their tactics are straight out of the USSR's playbook.' Her comments quickly attracted criticism from detractors who accused her of conflating a straightforward campaign against antisemitism with an assault on the right -- and, by implication, equating conservatives with antisemites. 'So you agree? You think you're antisemitic?' Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) tweeted in a popular meme format from the teen comedy 'Mean Girls.'" A Huffington Post story is here. ~~~
~~~ Historian Michael Beschloss said on MSNBC Friday that U.S. democracy has never in its history been under greater threat than it is now. Boebert's equating her own political allies with antisemitism is just more evidence that Beschloss is right. Donald Trump's Dinner with Nazis is another example. Anti-democratic, authoritarian movements start with scapegoating marginalized groups. Then there are these folks: ~~~
~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A self-styled militia leader and bar owner from Ohio and a former welder from Florida were sentenced to 8½ years and four years in prison Friday for joining Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in disrupting Congress's confirmation of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Army veterans Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on other felony counts in November at trial with Rhodes and his on-the-ground leader, Kelly Meggs." The Guardian's report is here.
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rejected a challenge to the government's ability to disarm defendants as part of their criminal sentences, one of the first decisions to uphold the constitutionality of a gun ban for people on probation for misdemeanors since a watershed Supreme Court decision last year set a new test to evaluate such limits. Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington issued the ruling temporarily barring gun possession by Daniel Shaw, a Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack defendant who pleaded guilty last November to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing. '[W]hile Shaw's role in the mob was minor, the fact of his participation in an insurrection whose aim was to impair the peaceful transfer of power suggests that a firearms restriction during his probationary period is appropriate,' Boasberg wrote on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)
Eleni Schirmer & Louise Seamster, in a New York Times op-ed, examine the case six GOP attorneys-general brought against the Biden administration, putting on hold President Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in college loan debt for millions of Americans. "We found that the states' most fundamental justification for bringing the case -- that canceling student loans could leave a Missouri-based loan authority unable to meet its financial obligations to the state -- is false. [When Judge Jackson asked the AGs a fact question about the loan program's financial stability, the 'factual' answer was, 'It's very hard to believe.'] As our research shows, and the loan authority's own documents confirm, even with the new policy in place, its revenues from servicing loans will increase.... [Moreover, the states haven't showed they have standing. Nevertheless,] the confederate Supremes issued certiorari before judgment, meaning the suit did not first have to wend its way through lower courts." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If you brought a civil case in which your only "proof" was that you didn't believe your opponent's assertions, obviously you'd be booted out of court before a proper hearing. But the authors say the confederate Supremes accepted these AGs' beliefs because of what's called the "'hierarchy of credibility': Those at the top of the social hierarchy don't have to prove their claims; they're just taken for granted." This seems to be the converse of charging decisions about suspected criminals: there's a "hierarchy of presumed innocence'; that is, the burden of proof against Donald Trump, for instance, is vastly greater than it would be for ordinary citizens. Michael Cohen went to jail for committing a crime the feds credibly assert Trump directed, but the DOJ has never charged Trump for committing the crime for which it incarcerated Cohen for several years. Similarly, lesser lights have been successfully prosecuted for stealing and retaining classified documents on far more flimsy evidence than what we already know the DOJ has on Trump. And, no, screaming "hoax" & "witch hunt" wouldn't help you.
Fodder for the Special Counsel. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "... there is probably no figure beyond golf more publicly linked to LIV [Golf] than [Donald] Trump, who has repeatedly and enthusiastically cheered Saudi Arabia's thunderous, flashy entrance into sports. At its events, he often seems like an eager M.C. whose role is at once decidedly conspicuous and deeply mysterious -- neither the Trump Organization nor LIV have disclosed how much money the former president's company is making for the events -- as the league looks to make inroads in a hidebound sport.... He has remained steadfast in his loyalty even though a special counsel from the Justice Department, Jack Smith, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records related to LIV." ~~~
~~~ Digby, in Salon: "... for some reason one obvious case has gotten very little media attention and, as far as we know, very little attention from investigators: Trump's cozy financial relationship with the Saudi-sponsored Public Investment Fund, the desert kingdom's massive sovereign wealth fund. (Its assets are estimated at more than $620 billion.).... LIV Golf is a key part of the Saudi regime's program of 'sportswashing,' meaning as a nation's attempt to use massive investment in sports to cover up for its human rights abuses.... Let's hope that unlike Robert Mueller, who refused to exceed his mandate and look at Trump's finances, Jack Smith sees this for the blatant corruption it is. Otherwise, we're just accepting that it's perfectly OK for presidents and presidential candidates to do big favors for autocratic foreign governments in exchange for money."
Adam Reiss & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Prosecutors in New York have informed attorneys for Donald Trump that the evidence in their hush money case against the former president includes an audio recording of him and a witness, a court filing made public Friday shows.... The filing does not identify the witness or say when the recording was made or when Trump's lawyers were made aware of it." MB: Yeah, well, I think it goes something like this:
DONALD TRUMP: Michael, you pay Stormy $130,000 to shut her up so I win the election; then we'll hide it by you billing me the same amount in "legal fees."
MICHAEL COHEN: Okay, Boss.
Presidential Race 2024
The Essential Corruption of Ron DeSantolini. Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida begins his presidential bid, officials in his administration have solicited donations from lobbyists and endorsements from lawmakers in the state, blurring the line between his taxpayer-funded office and his political campaign. The outreach by the governor's office ... would normally fall to Mr. DeSantis's campaign staff.... Mr. DeSantis has yet to sign Florida's $117 billion budget, over which he retains a line-item veto -- meaning he can, with the stroke of a pen, eliminate spending projects sought by lobbyists and legislators in Tallahassee, the capital, where he has exerted firm control over the Republican-controlled Legislature.... In addition to the efforts to secure support from lobbyists, the main super PAC backing Mr. DeSantis's bid announced last week that 99 of Florida's 113 Republican state legislators had endorsed Mr. DeSantis for president. Several lawmakers said privately that they feared he might veto their bills or spending projects if they did not support him." ~~~
~~~ "That's a nice little community center you've planned there, Jack. It would be a shame if it disappeared from the budget."
After the Fail. Charisma Madarang of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill regarding spaceflight on Thursday just one day after he announced his presidential run in a glitch-filled interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 -- Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills. The law exempts 'spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of a crew resulting from spaceflight activities under certain circumstances.' The measure also requires 'a spaceflight entity to have a crew sign a specified warning statement.' Florida is a known launching point for SpaceX aircrafts, and the new law could potentially shield Musk and other space flight companies from being sued for accidents that injure or kill crew members." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ The Buck Stops Elsewhere. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Ron DeSantis told Newsmax host Eric Bolling that he's 'not a big social media guy' and 'would rather watch' cable news 'than be on some app,' following his disastrous presidential campaign launch on Twitter this week. During an appearance on Newsmax's The Balance, Thursday, DeSantis said Twitter 'were very confident that they had the ability to get a lot of people' for the event.... 'I was just in a room in Florida, so I didn't really know necessarily what was going on.'" MB: I read somewhere this week that DeSantis spends hours reading the comments beside his Twitter "likes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Mason Bissada of the Wrap: "Appearing Thursday to promote his campaign, at one point DeSantis was on a tear about the travel advisory the NAACP issued for Florida that cited numerous DeSantis policies it says 'erase Black history' and 'restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.' And as he delivered a whataboutist spiel about gun violence in Baltimore, Maryland, the television video feed -- and only the video feed -- froze. The audio was unaffected, as was the newscrawl at the bottom of the screen. DeSantis continued to deliver talking points from his usual 'anti-woke' playbook, while host Eric Bolling's face remained frozen mid blink, and DeSantis' stuck with his mouth pursed in mid-pronunciation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Peter Hoskins & Annabelle Liang of the BBC: "An engineering chief at Twitter says he is leaving the company a day after the launch of Ron DeSantis' US presidential campaign on the platform was hit with technical glitches. Foad Dabiri tweeted: "After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday.... Mr Dabiri did not specify why he had decided to leave Twitter or whether it was related to the problems with the DeSantis event on the platform." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ (Alleged!) Drug Addict Makes Classic On-air Freudian Slip. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis.... 'Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,' Trump Jr said on his online show.... After a short pause, and without correcting himself, Trump Jr continued...."
Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "A trove of documents released this week by the F.B.I. reveal details about an assassination threat against Queen Elizabeth II before a trip that she and her husband made to the United States in 1983, as well as other security concerns linked to the Irish Republican Army. The documents were published on the F.B.I.'s website after a request under the Freedom of Information Act." A San Francisco police officer learned of the plot (and presumably notified other authorities). "Though it is unclear if any arrests were made, the documents note that the monarch's visit was completed 'without incident.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I was unaware that "Naked Gun"'s Frank Drebin had saved Elizabeth while she was in California in the 1980s, but near the end of yesterday's Comments, Patrick brought me up to speed. Fortunately, we have film: ~~~
Beyond the Beltway
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Across the country, we are seeing sharp new limits on the rights and privileges of Americans. And despite a national mythology that ties the threat of tyranny to the machinations of a distant, central government, the actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states.... Americans have a long history with various forms of sub-national authoritarianism: state and local tyrannies that sustained themselves through exclusion, violence and the political security provided by the federal structure of the American political system.... The history of American political life is the story of the struggle to unravel those sub-national units of oppression and establish a universal and inviolable grant of political and civil rights, backed by the force of the national government.... The [present-day conservative and reactionary] plan, as we have seen with abortion, is to unspool and untether those rights from the Constitution. It is to shrink and degrade the very notion of national citizenship and to leave us, once again, at the total mercy of the states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Ron "DeSantis is now defending a Florida school's decision to restrict access to [Amanda Gordon's] 'The Hill We Climb.'... DeSantis insisted the school district in question merely 'moved it from the elementary school library to the middle school library,' and ripped 'legacy media' for calling this a 'ban,' complaining of a 'poem hoax.' That's a shameless but revealing characterization of what happened.... This came in response to an objection from one parent. That parent's complaint ... was that the poem has indirect 'hate messages' and would 'cause confusion and indoctrinate students.' In reality, Gorman's poem calls for bridging our divides to enable our country to live up to its promise, declaring this an incomplete project. The idea that this represents hate and indoctrination is farcical.... This is happening all over Florida.... DeSantis's obvious relish of this moment shows he believes having an army of lone parents out there stirring up cultural controversies wherever possible can only help him in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries."
South Carolina. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A South Carolina judge on Friday moved to pause the state's six-week abortion ban until it can be reviewed by the state Supreme Court. Judge Clifton Newman of the South Carolina Circuit Court granted a temporary injunction Friday morning, barely 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the measure into law. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, along with a South Carolina clinic and two of its doctors, immediately filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the ban that took immediate effect with McMaster's signature. Friday's injunction means abortion access in South Carolina reverts back to being legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy." (Also linked yesterday.)
Texas. Jacey Fortin & David Goodman of the New York Times: "The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. The vote was set to take place just two days after a bipartisan but Republican-led committee of representatives recommended that Mr. Paxton should be impeached for a range of abuses that may have been crimes.... The articles [of impeachment] charge Mr. Paxton with a litany of abuses including taking bribes, disregarding his official duty, obstructing justice in a separate securities fraud case pending against him, making false statements on official documents and reports, and abusing the public trust.... Mr. Paxton has been under criminal indictment for most of his tenure as the state's attorney general.... An impeachment would mean that Mr. Paxton would be temporarily removed from office pending a trial on the charges in the State Senate, where some of his closest allies, including his wife, would serve as jurors. The Senate proceedings could well be delayed until after the regular legislative session, which ends on Monday.... The ... timing remains highly uncertain." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here. A related Texas Tribune story is here. ~~~
~~~ Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "For nearly a decade, Texas Republicans largely looked the other way as Attorney General Ken Paxton's legal problems piled up.... In revealing it had been secretly investigating Paxton since March -- and then recommending his impeachment on Thursday -- a Republican-led state House committee sought to hold Paxton accountable in a way the GOP has never come close to doing. It amounted to a political earthquake, and while it remains to be seen whether Paxton's ouster will be the outcome, it represents a stunning act of self-policing."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's ware on Ukraine is here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Explosions far behind the front lines shook Ukraine on Friday, as a Russian missile demolished part of a hospital complex and apparent Ukrainian strikes hit Russian-occupied cities, in their escalating, long-range aerial war. The attack on a medical center in the central city of Dnipro killed at least two people, left three more missing and injured at least 30, Ukrainian officials said. It destroyed a three-story building and damaged several others. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted to social media a video of a gutted building, its roof and upper walls missing, belching smoke into the sky, calling it 'another crime against humanity.'"
Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "As Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime cracks down on critics of the war and other political dissenters, citizens are policing one another in an echo of the darkest years of Joseph Stalin's repression, triggering investigations, criminal charges, prosecutions and dismissals from work. Private conversations in restaurants and rail cars are fair game for eavesdroppers, who call police to arrest 'traitors' and 'enemies.' Social media posts, and messages -- even in private chat groups -- become incriminating evidence that can lead to a knock on the door by agents of the Federal Security Service of FSB. The effect is chilling, with denunciations strongly encouraged by the state and news of arrests and prosecutions amplified by propagandist commentators on federal television stations and Telegram channels."
Israel/Palestine. Imogen Piper, et al., of the Washington Post: "This year, under the most right-wing government in Israeli history, a growing number of [Israeli military] incursions have been carried out [in the West Bank] during the day, in densely packed urban areas such as Jenin. As of May 15, 108 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including militants and civilians, had been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations, more than double last year's toll from the same period. At least 19 were children...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
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Reader Comments (9)
Is there a similarity between all these Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, the many variously named militias that have sprung up across the country and the proliferation of church sects that litter our landscape?
Maybe what American freedom means to them is the freedom to make stuff up, to form their own society, to fashion it in such a way that they achieve a social distinction they could not achieve or hold in the larger society that values them far less than they would like.
Big Fish in small ponds of their own devise, transforming losers into winners...
It's the American magic.
Yesterday I was going through my files on notes and pieces of the many books I was reading some years back and was taken aback at the sheer volume of my readings. This was a time when you'd say to someone, "So--what are you reading?" Today the humanities have been put on the back burner and we are poorer for it as Maureen Dowd spells out in her column today. Here are some snippets:
"The New Yorker ran an obit declaring “The End of the English Major.” One English professor flatly told Nathan Heller, the writer of the 10,000-plus-word magazine piece, that “the Age of Anglophilia is over.”
"How can students focus on slowly unspooling novels when they have disappeared inside the kinetic world of their phones, lured by wacky videos and filtered FOMO photos? Why should they delve into hermeneutics and epistemology when they can simply exchange flippant, shorthand tweets and texts?
But I find the deterioration of our language and reading skills too depressing. It is a loss that will affect the level of intelligence in all American activities."
"Political eloquence is scarce. Newt Gingrich told Laura Ingraham that the secret to Donald Trump’s success is that “he talks at a level where third-, fourth- and fifth-grade educations can say, ‘Oh yeah, I get that.’”
“There is no time in our history in which the humanities, philosophy, ethics and art are more urgently necessary than in this time of technology’s triumph,” said Leon Wieseltier, the editor of Liberties, a humanistic journal. “Because we need to be able to think in nontechnological terms if we’re going to figure out the good and the evil in all the technological innovations. Given society’s craven worship of technology, are we going to trust the engineers and the capitalists to tell us what is right and wrong?”
"It is not only the humanities that are passé. It’s humanity itself."
And speaking, Ken, of big fish in small ponds this piece does a good job of how Trump rolled back decades of Clean Water Protections and how the S.C. has gone even further: ( and Brett stepped up for a change.)
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/supreme-court-clean-water-act-rollback_n_6470df8ae4b091b09c2cdf13
@P.D.Pepe: Yeah, when Sucky Sam gets too ridiculous for even Bart O'Kavanaugh, he's really gone over the bend.
On the other hand, it's possible that Bart's head has been turned. Maybe Judge Jackson has been plying Bart with artisan beer, and Bart is persuaded not just by the beer but also by the fact that at long last, he gets to hang out with the cool kids instead of P.J. and Tobin and Squee.
"It amounted to a political earthquake, and while it remains to be seen whether Paxton’s ouster will be the outcome, it represents a stunning act of self-policing.”
That's a laugh. Paxton is a continual embarrassment who had the bad form to have included attacking fellow Republicans in his bids for power. He is also extremely expendable. There are lines out the door of Republican lawyers willing to be just as cruel and heartless as he was while also remembering who the enemies are. That is no earthquake or self-policing. It is just the Republican majority getting rid of an individual who was no longer worth all the troubles he caused them. The next one will be just as cruel, just as lawless, and everything will go back to how they want it to be.
The press is always trying to find some kind of virtue in everything Republicans do. It's crazy that as much time as they've spent with Republicans and covering Republicans that most of them seem incapable of actually understanding why or who they actually are or what are their motivations.
@RAS: It depends upon what the meaning of "stunning" is. Frankly, I consider any "self-policing" Republicans do to be "stunning" because they're much better at gross malfeasance followed by cover-ups. Generally speaking, if you're "stunned," it's because you got knocked in the head and are in a state of shock; i.e., not a good thing.
I don't see where "stunning" implies a virtue, but I do understand that it can be taken that way. Just check a mirror the next time a friend tells you, "You look stunning." That friend may be using "stunning" the same way I use "remarkable" when someone tells me something that's "remarkably" stupid.
RAS-- you are unerringly, magnificently right. I am currently on a tear about how stupid the mainstream media is, as a group. I don't respect any of them anymore, and I can't read their mushmouthed assertions that..."both sides blah blah blah..." I am tired of the little blonde girls reporting from far too many bigoted ratholes in the south and west on the silly people that are so earnest in their admiration and respect for a reptile like Dumpsterhead and all the others trying to be him. For the life of me, I can't understand any of it. How can anyone hitch their wagons to a deathstar cur like him or the others? How can a whole nation be held as hostage material to the morons who nailed stupid Kevin to a cross he allowed them to make? This debt just needs to be paid right now, no matter what. These stupid people with the big mouths need to be nailed to the cross with Kevin. I am not listening to any more breathless reports on...what?? There's been nothing worth hearing all week, much less "breaking news." Disgusting, all of them. It is past time for Biden to end this charade any way possible.
@Marie: I read the self-policing as giving Republicans an undeserved credit for showing an ounce of morality for maybe creating consequences for the years of alleged criminal behavior by Paxton. The press usually gives Republicans the rosiest motivations for whatever they do especially when they do anything that could be seen as having even slightly positive outcomes. Paxton getting fired would undoubtedly be positive, but that doesn't mean the Texas legislature is doing it for the right reasons. And he will still have a replacement pick up where he left off. Paxton's criminal accusations have been around for years, but only now is anything being done. If the Republicans truly cared they would have acted years ago. There will be no seismic shift in how the GOP conducts business. Unfortunately the press likes to reward Republicans with positive reports for being less awful. It is like giving the good treats to your dog for only taking a smaller crap on the carpet, but the press can't help themselves from still giving regular rewards for the big piles most of the time too. It just annoys me that the press interprets most of what the Right does with rose colored glasses no matter how awful and then turns around and criticizes Democrats for falling short of being perfect on a near daily basis.
@RAS: I agree with you, and I think the word "stunning" is ambiguous. The reporters may have unconsciously chosen such an adjective -- or the editors may have done so consciously; in any event, the meaning is in the eye of the beholder.
I'm disinclined to give Republican politicians the benefit of the doubt, and like you, I doubt there were any "good government" considerations behind the decision to bring impeachments proceedings against Paxton.
HOWEVER, there's a real problem when voters elect a reprehensible, corrupt politician. In a democracy, we're supposed to respect the will of the people, even when the people are dumb as dirt. The public knew Donald Trump was a horrible person and completely unqualified to be president*, yet -- within the confines of the Electoral College -- they voted him in anyway.
Other politicians can't just impeach an elected official on the general principle he's a jerk. (Nearly half the Congress would be cleared out if that were the case.) And the Texas House certainly could have brought charges against Paxton sooner. (I tuned in to the hearing this afternoon for about 30 seconds. Some member was talking about what a brilliant, effective AG Paxton was.) Or never. But as you say, Paxton has a long record (some of which predates the last election) of malfeasance, and that has given Texas legislators the excuse to perhaps impeach and remove him from office.
We'll see what happens.