;)
May 9, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Bill Chappell of NPR: "Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel says she won't enforce her state's 1931 abortion law -- and she's hoping the Michigan Supreme Court finds it unconstitutional, even if the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down its Roe v. Wade decision.... Michigan's 1931 law defined abortion as a felony. It came under attack by its own government last month, when Gov. Gretchen Whitmer sued to vacate the ban. The push quickly gained new urgency after a draft opinion leaked that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling on abortion rights. If the Supreme Court overturns its abortion ruling, Michigan's law would again take effect, making it illegal to perform abortions in many circumstances, including in cases of rape and incest. The law also forbids using drugs to induce an abortion."
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Top leaders in the Oath Keepers, the far-right extremist group, have been turning over phones and digital files and sitting for interviews with the FBI -- and detailing how they worked to benefit Donald Trump's campaign and communicated with others in the former President's orbit, according to court records and multiple sources familiar with the federal investigation."
Philippines. Regine Cabato of the Washington Post: "With more than 85 percent of the vote counted, the son of former Philippine dictator Ferdinand Marcos took a commanding lead Monday in elections, with more than twice the votes of his nearest competitor." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.
Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Protesters doused Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergey Andreev, in bright red paint -- resembling blood -- as he was arriving at an event to honor Soviet soldiers who fought in World War II. Footage posted by Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti showed the ambassador's face dripping with the liquid as he arrived to lay flowers at the Soviet Military Cemetery on a day of widespread celebrations of victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. The video was shared without audio. Videos shared to Twitter, however, showed huge crowds, with some people angrily shouting 'Fascists!' at a group of Russian officials, whose faces were stained in red. Others at the scene held flowers and Ukrainian flags." ~~~
Roger Cohen of the New York Times writes a summary of Sunday's developments in Ukraine.
** Claire Miller & Margot Sanger-Katz of the New York Times: "Taking pills to end a pregnancy accounts for a growing share of abortions in the United States, both legal and not. If the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade as expected, medication abortion will play a larger role, especially among women who lose access to abortion clinics.... It's a regimen of pills that women can take at home, a method increasingly used around the world. The protocol approved for use in the United States includes two medications. The first one, mifepristone, blocks a hormone called progesterone that is necessary for a pregnancy to continue. The second, misoprostol, brings on uterine contractions.... The Food and Drug Administration has approved medication abortion for up to 10 weeks of pregnancy. World Health Organization guidelines say it can be used up to 12 weeks at home, and after 12 weeks in a medical office." It is safe & effective. "If Roe is overturned, about half of states are expected to ban abortion altogether, and medication abortion is expected to become a legal battleground." Read on if you or some you're close to might have a need for abortion medication.
Mark Meadows should go to jail, and not just for committing voter fraud: ~~~
~~~ Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Mark Meadows "had taken the job as chief of staff on the principle that his most important task would be 'to tell the most powerful man in the world when you believed he was wrong,' he wrote in his memoir.... But instead..., Meadows went to extraordinary lengths to push Trump's false assertions -- particularly during a crucial three-week period starting with his trip to Atlanta and culminating in the violent insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021. A review of Meadows's actions in that period ... -- based on interviews, depositions, text messages, emails, congressional documents, recently published memoirs by key players and other material -- shows how Meadows played a pivotal role in advancing Trump's efforts to overturn the election. In doing so, Meadows 'repeatedly violated' legal guidance against trying to influence the Justice Department, according to a majority staff report of the Senate Judiciary Committee."
Oh, Great! Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: QAnon adherents, "guns holstered on their hips, have been camping out near Sasabe, Ariz., as a self-appointed border force with the stated aim of protecting the thousands of migrant children who have been arriving from the evils of sex trafficking -- a favorite QAnon theme. They are the latest in what over the years has developed into a cottage industry of dozens of armed civilians who have packed camouflage gear, tents and binoculars and deployed along the southern border. [Jason] Frank, a QAnon influencer whose Facebook page in recent months has shown him pictured with ... Donald J. Trump Jr., Michael Flynn and Sidney Powell, has fashioned his team into a new style of border enforcers, motivated not so much by halting immigration as by guarding the country from other perceived threats -- in this case, an unfounded conspiracy theory that migrant children are being funneled into pedophilia rings.... Minors crossing the southern border as part of sex-trafficking schemes is unusual, according to groups that monitor and combat trafficking." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's clear to me that many of these conspiracy theorists are just lamebrains with too much time on their hands. You would think their friends at Hobby Lobby could get them into scrapbooking or stenciling or whatever.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York announced on Sunday that she had tested positive for the coronavirus -- the worst sort of Mother's Day surprise for the state's first mom governor. Aides said that Ms. Hochul was asymptomatic, and that the virus had been detected as part of the governor's testing routine in Albany."
~~~~~~~~~~
You are fighting for the Motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of World War II. So that there is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis. -- Vladimir Putin, in a demonstration Monday of how a rampaging, murderous dictator tries to justify his actions ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "... Vladimir V. Putin used his Victory Day speech on Monday to try to channel Russian pride in defeating Nazi Germany into support for this year's invasion of Ukraine. But contrary to some expectations he did not make any new announcements signaling a mass mobilization for the war effort or an escalation of the onslaught.... He also made plain his ever-more-open nostalgia for the Soviet empire, describing May 9, 1945, as a day of triumph for 'our united Soviet people.'" ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here: Putin "told the 11,000 assembled service personnel gathered to mark Victory Day, a commemoration of the Soviet Union's World War II role in defeating Nazi Germany, that Russian forces entered Ukraine as 'preemptive pushback' to what he claimed, without evidence, were Western plans to carry out attacks on eastern Ukraine. The United States and Western allies, while backing Ukraine and funneling in weapons and aid, have not entered the fight directly.... Meanwhile in Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky paid tribute to the 8 million Ukrainians who died in World War II, saying: 'They fought for freedom for us and won. We are fighting for freedom for our children, and therefore we will win.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Putin is almost as good as Republicans at making up phrases designed to make something horrible sound reasonable. "Preemptive pushback"? Really? That's an internally inconsistent nonsense term akin to "drunk sobriety" or "boastful humility." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's "full report" is here.
Zachary Basu of Axios: "The U.S., G7 and European Union agreed to impose sweeping new sanctions on Russia ahead of its symbolic Victory Day holiday on May 9, including additional export controls and a commitment to phase out Russian oil." ~~~
~~~ Patrick Wintour & Andrew Sparrow of the Guardian: "Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine has brought shame on Russia and the sacrifices its people made to defeat Nazi Germany in the second world war, leaders of the G7 group of leading western economies have said in a statement marking the 77th anniversary of the end of the global conflict. The statement, made on Sunday after a video conference between the G7 leaders and the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, was intended as a rallying call by liberal democracies in advance of Russia's 9 May Victory Day parade in Moscow."
Maura Forrest & Sue Allan of Politico: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a secret visit to Ukraine on Sunday, joining the list of VIPs who have visited the war-torn country since Russia's invasion began in February. Trudeau was joined by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly and Canadian Ambassador to Ukraine Larisa Galadza as he raised the Canadian flag at the embassy in Kyiv and announced its reopening."
Darlene Superville of the AP: "Jill Biden made an unannounced visit to western Ukraine on Sunday, holding a surprise Mother's Day meeting with first lady Olena Zelenska to show U.S. support for the embattled nation as Russia presses its punishing war in the eastern regions. Biden traveled under the cloak of secrecy, becoming the latest high-profile American to enter Ukraine during its 10-week-old conflict with Russia.... Biden spent about two hours in Ukraine, traveling by vehicle to the town of Uzhhorod, about a 10-minute drive from a Slovakian border village where she had toured a border processing facility. Zelenska thanked Biden for her 'courageous act.'... Earlier, in the Slovakian border village of Vysne Nemecke, [Biden] toured its border processing facility, surveying operations set up by the United Nations and other relief organizations to assist Ukrainians seeking refuge. Biden attended a religious service in a tent set up as a chapel...." (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's story is here.
Celebrating Mass Murder. Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "One day before a planned celebration in Russia that marks the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany, an airstrike on a school in eastern Ukraine serving as a bomb shelter left as many as 60 people buried under rubble and feared dead, Ukrainian officials said, in what may prove to be one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in the nearly three-month-old war."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Democrats rang alarm bells on Sunday about the likelihood that Republicans would try to restrict abortion nationwide, two days after an interview was published in which Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, said a ban was 'possible' if his party gained control in Washington.... 'If the leaked opinion became the final opinion, legislative bodies -- not only at the state level but at the federal level -- certainly could legislate in that area,' Mr. McConnell said when asked if a national abortion ban was 'worthy of debate.'... On the Sunday talk shows and in other public statements, Democratic senators said Republicans would not stop at letting the states decide the issue, but would most likely push for federal restrictions. That made it paramount, they said, that the Democratic Party maintain control of the Senate as it tries to codify abortion rights into federal law.'
Tom Sullivan in Hullabaloo: "A thread by British science fiction writer Charlie Stross attempts to simplify the (impending?) death of Roe to a single, universal idea: 'Big idea here: The US right's war on abortion is part of a bigger fight -- their war on the Enlightenment era concept of rights.... The solution is a basic right to bodily autonomy and self-determination....' Sullivan also cites a 1928 dissent by Justice Louis Brandeis: "The makers of our Constitution ... conferred, as against the government, the right to be let alone...." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Brandeis based his opinion on the Fourth Amendment, a guarantee against unreasonable search & seizure. While ensuring a right to be let alone (i.e., a right to privacy) is commendable and (mostly) desirable, I would agree with the wingnuts that it is not in the U.S. Constitution. It's a human right, to be sure, but our Constitution is remarkably imperfect, and the Bill of Rights in particular is messy and limited in scope. In fact, one of the greatest U.S. feminists of all, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, also thought Roe was wrongly decided; it should have been based instead on the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This error by the Warren Court, IMO, is what has given the Supreme confederates an opening to strike it down. (Yeah, they probably would have done so anyway, but perhaps with an argument that looked even more ridiculous.)
Amy Phony Barrett explains why it's silly to complain about the overturn of Roe: "Just do your nine. Give it to a stork and the stork will give it to a lesbian. I would think that lesbians would be happy because now there's more babies for them to adopt. Until we ban that, too." ~~~
~~~ Mississippi Govenor Agrees. Amy Wang & Silvia Foster-Frau of the Washington Post: "Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility that his state would ban certain forms of contraception, sidestepping questions about what would happen next if Roe v. Wade is overturned. On CNN's 'State of the Union,' Reeves confirmed that, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade, a trigger law passed in Mississippi in 2007 would go into effect that essentially outlaws abortions in the state, although it makes exceptions for rape and for the life of the mother. When asked if Mississippi might next target the use of contraceptives such as the Plan B pill or intrauterine devices, Reeves demurred, saying that was not what the state was focused on 'at this time.'" MB: Here's the thing, Li'l Darlin'. If you're gonna have sex-you-all intercourse, you're gonna have a baby.
Wisconsin. Luke Vander Ploeg & Addison Lathers of the New York Times: "The headquarters of an anti-abortion group in Madison, Wis., was set on fire on Sunday morning in an act of vandalism that included the attempted use of a Molotov cocktail and graffiti that read 'If abortions aren't safe then you aren't either,' according to the police. No one in the group, Wisconsin Family Action, was in the building at the time, and there were no injuries reported. Although the Molotov cocktail that was thrown through a window failed to ignite, the vandal or vandals started another fire nearby, the authorities said. The fire burned part of a wall." A madison.com report is here.
Mark Esper: How I Saved America from an Insane President* & Kept It a Secret from Voters So I Could Sell Some Books. Video & transcript of Norah O'Donnell's interview for "60 Minutes" of former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Esper tells O'Donnell Trump is a threat to American democracy. No kidding. ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper told CBS in an interview broadcast Sunday he helped prevent a series of 'dangerous things that could have taken the country in a dark direction' during his time in the Trump administration.... He cited a proposal to 'take military action against Venezuela,' to 'strike Iran' and, 'at one point, somebody proposed we blockade Cuba.' Esper agreed with [Norah] O'Donnell that he had to keep pressing Trump to release $250 million in aid to Ukraine. 'It would be an argument after an argument. And I'd have to say, "Look, Mr. President, at the end of the day, Congress appropriated. It's the law. We have to do it,"' he [said]."
David Fahrenthold & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times highlight a ludicrous giveaway/"investment" of millions of dollars by the U.N.'s little-known Office for Project Services. "The story of these misbegotten investments was, at times, surreal.... But diplomats and former U.N. officials say the tale also demonstrates what critics say is a serious problem with the U.N.: a culture of impunity among some top leaders, who wield huge budgets with little outside oversight.... The top official at the Office for Project Services, Grete Faremo of Norway, announced early Sunday [shortly after this story dropped] that she was stepping down."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Philippines. Regine Cabato of the Washington Post: "Millions of Filipinos lined up in the blazing sun on Monday to vote for a new president, with the late dictator's son, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., looking poised to lead the country his family once plundered billions from. The election is a test of truth and the memory of history for about 65 million registered voters in this archipelago, where the Marcos family has spent over a decade rehabilitating their name through an elaborate historical revisionism campaign on social media." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Perhaps democracy's biggest flaw: it's so destructible.
News Lede
New York Times: "A national manhunt for a corrections officer and the Alabama inmate she helped to escape last month ended Monday after a police pursuit resulted in a crash in Indiana, the authorities said. The inmate surrendered, and the officer fatally shot herself, they said. The former officer, Vicky White, had been on the run with the inmate, Casey White, whom she was not related to, since April 29, when they left the Lauderdale County Jail in Florence, Ala., for a courthouse appointment that was later revealed to be a fabrication. The crash occurred in Evansville, Ind., more than 200 miles north of the jail from which Mr. White had escaped, after the authorities there heard that the Whites were in a vehicle near the sheriff's office and began pursuing it. A U.S. marshals vehicle collided with the vehicle the Whites were in, causing it to roll over and crash during the pursuit.... With the vehicle wrecked...."
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Reader Comments (11)
@Marie
In this case, "almost as good as" doesn't quite cover it.
I knew I'd heard that "preemptive" business somewhere before.
It's cribbed directly from the Bush II Doctrine.
https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-new-national-security-strategy-and-preemption/
I remember cringing when Darth Vader and Co. propounded it to justify their depredations. Tho' I don't know the language, I'm guessing it doesn't sound any better in Russian.
There's a reason the Republicans and the Putin party are increasingly indistinguishable. They've been on the same course for a long time.
Kinda funny where our once virulently anti-Soviet party ended up, ennit?
Traitor World is ablaze today (so to speak) because of a fire set at an anti-choice group’s offices in Wisconsin. Members of that group
are screaming about their victimhood and intolerance, blah, blah, blah.
I wouldn’t be a bit surprised to find that some other anti-choicers are to blame for this. The false flag idea is never far from the blackened minds of righty-right conspiracy nuts, so perhaps this is an actual false flag event. And no one was hurt. Historically, it’s the anti-choice mob that relies on violence to get their way. Clinic bombings, the murder of doctors, are the calling cards of, can we say it?, ACTUAL intolerance.
But leave it to the confederates to screw millions of Americans then claim that they themselves are the victims.
“Preemptive pushback”? Tortured euphemisms (emphasis on torture) are a hallmark of mendacious authoritarian cultures, like Putin’s murderous Russians. And Republicans. Think “enhanced interrogation”, “sanctity of marriage”, “stop the steal”, “America first”, “real Americans”, “fair and balanced”, “trickle down economy”, “job creators”, “pro-life”, “right to work”, “compassionate conservative”.
They got a million of ‘em.
Akhilleus,
You might be right. Certainly you are about the history of anti-abortion violence.
But it's also possible that someone (or someones) who typically possesses good sense and habitually tolerates a lot, had finally had more than enough from the pro-life crowd.
If so, maybe it was not the murders of physicians, the bombings of clinics or the draconian anti-abortion laws being enacted in one state after another that pushed him or her over the edge, but the violence Alito's opinion did to logic and history was just too much to take.
Once upon a time in America we had mafia thugs running a whole lot of political bus-in-nesses and young punks copied their antics and grew up to be even more ruthless but covered it up by pretending to be legit. And once upon a time Joe Biden fancied himself able to unite this fractured nation and heal what Trump had destroyed with that old fashioned bipartisan Senate dealmaking. Somewhere along the line it's hit him hard that "it ain't necessarily so" and Joe, last Wednesday, said this:
: “This is about a lot more than abortion; Republicans are radical and dangerous, not only anti-woman but anti-gay, anti-personal freedom, and anti-democracy. The Trumpist maga movement, is the most extreme political organization that’s existed in recent American history.”
No more boot-leg liquor and mass executions in dark alleys but are we going back to another back alley operation? "We are NOT going back" is a slogan on my fridge––-now again a hot issue in this cold climate. Like so much else in this country that never gets resolved.
Oh, and by the way–-if you were thinking of getting away for a few days by going to the Bahamas and booking into that "Sandals" paradise place, you may want to revise your plans. According to the latest, quite a few quests have gotten seriously ill and two have died. No word as yet for why.
You know how things disappear into the ether, PD? The Dominican Republic, not sure if specific resorts, lost people for no apparent reason, a couple of years ago. I don't know that I ever heard why they died in their hotel rooms-- this Bahamas thing sounds the same. Some crazy enhanced strain of Legionnaires'...? Alcohol poisoning? Who knows, and apparently, who cares... The DR deaths dropped out of the news. (Probably because of Covid or the fact that life continues to be brutal and one brutality simply runs into the next...)
And I agree: repugs in high places are very good at brutalizing the language to suit their purposes. And the public remains idiotic about everything. So excited that repugs voted FOR a guy (Ohio?) who is in jail for killing his wife. Now they put blatant killers in office. The voting R electorate is as stupid as doorknobs. We are two countries now, and there's no going back.
Mentioned the parallel paths the Republican Party and Putin's oligarchy are traveling. Really, not a surprise.
While pretending to be many other things, and never fussy about where it gets its support (racists come immediately to mind) the Republican Party has long been the party most attuned to the desires of big business and big money.
Since most businesses are arranged hierarchically, top down, anti-democratically, they are naturally and happily autocratic. Add to that their purpose: pure and simple, to make more money, and often not too fussy (there's that word again) about how. In other words, often toying with or adopting corruption outright.
So, really what is the difference between a Putin oligarchy that amasses more and more money to Putin and his buddies and our own crony capitalism?
A difference of degree, not of kind, and since the 1980's at least we have seen the degree of separation between the two diminish by the day,
Ken,
The oligarchical, autocratic features of the Republican Party have been obvious for some time. But another feature of the Party of Traitors has superseded even those dominant elements. Certainly the anti-democratic pathogens have been gaining more and more control over the confederate body politic, but another, historically far more deadly virus, is already coursing through the veins.
Back in the days of Saint Ronnie of Raygun, R’s at least paid lip service to the concept of democracy. Today, no semblance of even trying to fake interest in the democratic process is evident. They don’t even care anymore. Open insurrection and overturning of free and fair elections (yup, elections, plural; you think that will be the one and only election they try to steal?) is not only tolerated, but heartily endorsed.
But hovering over all on the right, over the uncontrolled weapons for all mania, the insurrection and election rigging, the cupidity, the corruption, the racism, the rampant mendacity, the curtsying to big business and the dark money donor class, is religion: theocracy.
This whole anti-choice movement is informed, directed, and supercharged by religious extremists. It used to be that an opinion by a CEO (opinion!!) of a conservative corporation that poured tens of millions into a red state wouldn’t even merit a slightly raised eyebrow. Now, because the religious right wields such power over the Party of Traitors, that corporation is targeted for punishment. For a fucking opinion. You dare to open your mouth, and the Savonarolas will come after you.
Anti-choice is all about religion. Soon contraceptives may be banned as well. Religion. Gay marriage bans? Religion. Outright nationwide bans on abortion? Religion.
And because the Party of Traitors has gerrymandered so many electoral districts (with the blessings of the anti-democratic religious extremists on the Supreme Court), we may soon have more than just the trappings of a theocracy. We already have a small minority of religious zealots controlling the lives of millions of Americans. They demand that we all bow down to the the tenets of their religion, whether we’re members of that sect or not, whether we believe in it or not. It doesn’t matter to them. We must all bow before them.
We already have public money supporting religiously controlled charter schools; very soon, taxpayers may be required to pay for all religious education in the country (oh, sorry, not ALL, only Christian sects).
There was a reason—many reasons, in fact—that the founders wanted an impenetrable wall between church and state. The Party of Traitors and their prelates on the high court are busy tearing it down.
Their religion will control us all soon.
If that prospect isn’t enough to galvanize voters (at least those who are still allowed to vote) in every election from here on out, we deserve what we get.
Akhilleus,
Point well made.
So we have fundamentalist Christian religion, greed with its attendant and various corruptions, and autocracy working hand in hand to kill democracy.
Call it a three-legged stool (possible noisome pun here)....or in Russian, maybe a troika.
For the show vote on abortion rights maybe every female Senate Democrat should be tied to her chair and gagged, and then have their husbands, religious leaders or nearest male relation cast the vote in their stead. It what the winger Justices are doing anyway. We know that the vote is not going anywhere so we might as well put on a production for everyone to see. Blown up pictures of all the Senators when they were 12 and 13 years old so people can see how young that really is. Show pictures of what pre-Roe America truly looked like. Bring in piles of cash to represent all the money women and families are going to be paying in hospital bills for maternity care and prenatal care and postnatal care. Show the people what they have to look forward to in Republican America.
RAS,
Don’t forget maternal morbidity and mortality, consequences confederates will deem necessary for a thriving theocracy. And leave us not overlook the thousands (tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands?) of children who will grow up sick, malnourished, impoverished, and hungry, many of whom will die early or end up in some Republican sponsored for profit prison, because religious extremists declare them incidental to their theocratic triumphalism.
As the estimable Barney Frank once said (and few truer words have ever been uttered), “They only care about you from the time you’re conceived to the time you’re born. After that, you’re on your own.”
Praise Jesus!