November 19, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Trump flaunts his faux Macho Macho Man rhetoric. For decades, Republicans have lectured Americans to quit embracing victimhood and stand on their own two feet, and here's their leader announcing his presidency on a platform of Woe is me! Quit picking on me! Elect me because I'm a fall guy!' I will tell you I'm a victim,' Trump said to a less-than-festive gathering where Melania seemed like a hostage and Ivanka was a no-show.... Trump's martyrdom extends to his life with Melania in an oceanside resort, which he said, 'hasn't been the easiest thing. I go home,' he said, 'and she says, "You look angry and upset." I say, "Just leave me alone."' Fun couple!"

Jared Gans of the Hill: "Former Attorney General William Barr said Friday that the Department of Justice (DOJ) probably has a 'basis for legitimately indicting' former President Trump over the classified and sensitive documents law enforcement says were taken to Mar-a-Lago. Barr told PBS's Margaret Hoover during an interview on 'Firing Line' he thinks the DOJ has enough evidence to reach the amount they would need to indict his former boss.... 'If the Department of Justice can show that these were indeed very sensitive documents, which I think they probably were, and also show that the president consciously was involved in misleading the department, deceiving the government, and playing games after he had received the subpoena for the documents, those are serious charges,' Barr said." MB: Congrats, Bill, on your amazing rehabilitation tour. Still, you're a total dick.

~~~~~~~~~~

Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Merrick Garland has named a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigation into ... Donald Trump's possible mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence, as well as key aspects of the Jan. 6 investigation. Garland announced his decision Friday afternoon, tapping Jack Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor who has in recent years been working at the International Criminal Court at The Hague. The announcement comes three days after Trump formally declared himself a 2024 candidate for president. 'Based on recent developments, including the former president's announcement that he is a candidate for president in the next election, and the sitting president's stated intention to be a candidate as well, I have concluded that it is in the public interest to appoint a special counsel,' Garland said at a news conference at the Justice Department....

Hillary Clinton, Trump's Democratic opponent in 2016. The FBI investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server for government matters was opened in mid-2015, continued throughout the primaries, was closed just before the nominating convention and then publicly reopened less than two weeks before Election Day." MB: Yes, and didn't that go well. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: On the down side, Merrick the Unready remains as unready ever, and Donald Trump is the beneficiary of yet another big DOJ delay.* A number of pundits -- not the least of whom is Neal Katyal, who wrote the special counsel rules -- opined Friday that there is no advantage to appointing a special counsel: it does not effectively distance Garland from the investigation because under the rules, the AG is still required to make the final decision on whether or not to bring charges. On the up side, Barbara McQuade opined on MSNBC that Garland would not have appointed a special counsel if he was about to drop the investigation of Trump. And a guy who's been prosecuting war criminals at the Hague is unlikely to by fazed by the slings & arrows of a cowardly wimp like Donald Trump. BTW, one pundit (don't recall who) pointed out that Garland's acknowledged Friday for the first time that Trump was the subject of investigations. ~~~

     ~~~ * Andrew Weissmann & Paul Butler, appearing last night on Lawrence O'Donnell's MSNBC show, seemed to agree that Smith would not shut things down because (1) the Trump Inquiries now have a dedicated boss, as opposed to Garland, who was supposedly leading the inquiry groups but has many other responsibilities, and (2) Smith is a speed demon. I'm not sure I'm convinced, but I hope they're right.

Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: Jack Smith, the Justice Department's newly appointed special counsel, will come to the task of investigating ... Donald J. Trump with a wealth of experience.... Mr. Smith got his start in the 1990s as a prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney's office and soon moved to a similar job at the United States Attorney's office in Brooklyn. There, he served in a number of supervisory positions, according to his Justice Department biography, and worked on an assortment of cases, many involving public corruption. From 2008 to 2010, Mr. Smith worked as the investigation coordinator in the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. In that role, he oversaw high-profile inquiries of foreign government officials and militia members wanted for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.... Mr. Smith served from 2010 to 2015 as chief of the Justice Department's public integrity section, which investigates politicians and other public figures on corruption allegations.... Mr. Smith will take on the role of special counsel after leaving his current position as a specialist prosecutor based in The Hague investigating war crimes. He will remain in the Netherlands for some time, according to the Justice Department, in order to recover from a recent bicycle accident." An NBC News story is here.

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Donald Trump was quick to attack Attorney General Merrick Garland's appointment of a special prosecutor to oversee criminal investigations of the former president.... On Friday, the former president maintained his innocence, calling the appointment 'unfair,' 'political,' 'not even believable,' and 'the worst politicization of justice in our country.' 'I have been proven innocent for six years on everything -- from fake impeachments to Mueller, who found no collusion, and now I have to do it more? It is not acceptable. It is so unfair. It is so political,' Trump told Fox, adding 'I am not going to partake in it.' At a news conference later Friday in front of patrons and supporters at his Mar-a-Lago residence..., he further called the various criminal probes against him 'corrupt' and the 2020 elections 'rigged' in a diatribe more usually delivered from a campaign rally stage. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the White House did not receive any advance notice of the appointment."

Caroline Kitchener, et al., of the Washington Post: "A televangelist who served as a spiritual adviser to Donald Trump says the former president has the tendency to act 'like a little elementary schoolchild' and suggests that Trump's focus on minor spats was preventing progress on larger goals. 'If Mr. Trump can't stop his little petty issues, how does he expect people to stop major issues?' James Robison, the president of the Christian group Life Outreach International, said Wednesday night at a meeting of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL), a conservative political group that focuses on social issues." The whole story is, well, interesting. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump fan who was convicted on all counts after telling jurors that he thought he was 'following presidential orders' when he stole a liquor bottle and a coat rack from the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Friday. Dustin Thompson, a college-educated Ohio man who testified that he believed Trump's lies about the 2020 election, was convicted on six charges in April after he told jurors he was seeking Trump's 'respect' and 'approval' on Jan. 6.... 'You didn't love America that day,' Senior U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton told Thompson while sentencing him on Friday. Walton said he didn't understand how 'people can be gullible enough to accept a lie and act on that lie.'"

From Stilettos to Sneakers. Nicholas Fandos & Annie Karni of the New York Times: Rep. Hakeem "Jeffries on Friday formally announced his run for Democratic leader, a bid that, if successful, would make him the first Black man to hold the top party leadership role in either chamber of Congress. For now, he is unopposed for the post, and widely regarded by his colleagues as all but certain to secure it. In many ways, he and [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi couldn't be more different. She is the daughter of a congressman and former mayor, who was born into a Baltimore political dynasty and later became a wealthy San Francisco homemaker.... In Congress, she has been a master legislator who has led with an iron grip on her caucus ... -- usually while wearing stilettos. Mr. Jeffries is the son of a working-class social worker and a substance abuse counselor, who became a high-powered litigator. He still lives in the heart of Black Brooklyn and often pairs his suits with sneakers. Outside of bipartisan federal sentencing reform, his own legislative record is relatively thin, pointing to a sharp learning curve ahead. What the two lawmakers share is a pragmatic streak, and a keen sense of where political compromise is available." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Former Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) -- a real dick, God rest his soul -- once disparaged my mother as "a little old lady in tennis shoes." So I prefer the sneakers.

Leigh Ann Caldwell of the Washington Post: "One day after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her top two lieutenants said they would step down as the top House Democrats, Rep. Katherine M. Clark (D-Mass.) announced Friday that she will run for the number two position in the caucus. Clark's move is part of Democrats' desire to quickly establish a new set of leaders after having the same three members at the top -- Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.) -- for 16 years.... Hoyer announced Thursday afternoon that he will not seek a leadership post in the next Congress.... Clark would be the second woman, behind Pelosi, in history to serve in one of the top two positions of House leadership.... She has been laying the groundwork for a prime leadership position for years.... No one has announced they will challenge Clark.... Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) is expected to announce he is running for the number three leadership post."

Inmates Take Over the Asylum. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Wednesday evening, Republicans formally won control of the House. Thursday morning, in the first public act of the new majority, senior House Republicans revealed their most urgent priority: They would investigate Hunter Biden. The incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the incoming chairman of the Oversight Committee, James Comer (R-Ky.), and about 10 other members of the brand-new majority ... mentioned Hunter two dozen times in their opening statements alone. Reporters tried to ask questions about other topics. Comer cut them off.... A few hours ... [later], Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) ... announce[d] plans to force a vote on ending funds for Ukraine. 'Is Ukraine now the 51st state?' asked Greene, who alleged an elaborate cryptocurrency conspiracy in which military aid for Ukraine actually funds Democrats' campaigns.... Even if he wins the [speakership], [Kevin McCarthy] might soon wish he hadn't. That's because he'll get it only by signing an endless pile of IOUs the crazies are demanding...."

AND the Supreme Leaker Is ... Sam Alito! Jodi Kantor & Jo Becker of the New York Times: "As the Supreme Court investigates the extraordinary leak this spring of a draft opinion of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade, a former anti-abortion leader has come forward claiming that another breach occurred in a 2014 landmark case involving contraception and religious rights. In a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and in interviews with The New York Times, the Rev. Rob Schenck said he was told the outcome of the 2014 case weeks before it was announced. He used that information to prepare a public relations push, records show, and he said that at the last minute he tipped off the president of Hobby Lobby, the craft store chain owned by Christian evangelicals that was the winning party in the case. Both court decisions were triumphs for conservatives and the religious right. Both majority opinions were written by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.... According to Mr. Schenck, the outcome [of the 2014 case] was shared with only a handful of advocates.... The Times found a trail of contemporaneous emails and conversations that strongly suggested he knew the outcome and the author of the Hobby Lobby decision before it was made public....

"In early June 2014, an Ohio couple who were Mr. Schenck's star donors shared a meal with Justice Alito and his wife, Martha-Ann. A day later, Gayle Wright, one of the pair, contacted Mr. Schenck, according to an email reviewed by The Times. 'Rob, if you want some interesting news please call. No emails,' she wrote. Mr. Schenck said Mrs. Wright told him that the decision would be favorable to Hobby Lobby, and that Justice Alito had written the majority opinion. Three weeks later, that's exactly what happened." Alito & Mrs. Wright deny the allegation.

Ben Leonard of Politico: "A group of anti-abortion organizations sued HHS and the FDA on Friday in a bid to reverse the FDA's approval of the abortion medication mifepristone. Lawyers from the conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom filed the suit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in Amarillo on behalf of the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American College of Pediatricians, the Christian Medical & Dental Associations and four doctors.... An HHS spokesperson defended the medication as safe and effective and said that 'denying women access to any essential care they need is downright dangerous and extreme.'"

Ryan Mac, et al., of the New York Times: "Twitter is teetering on the edge as [owner Elon] Musk remakes the company after buying it for $44 billion last month. The billionaire has pushed relentlessly to put his imprint on the social media service, slashing 50 percent of its work force, firing dissenters, pursuing new subscription products and delivering a harsh message that the company needs to shape up or it will face bankruptcy. Now the question is whether Mr. Musk, 51, has gone too far. On Thursday, hundreds of Twitter employees resigned after Mr. Musk gave them a deadline to decide whether to leave or stay. So many workers chose to depart that Twitter users began questioning whether the site would survive.... Some internal estimates showed that at least 1,200 full-time employees resigned on Thursday, three people close to the company said."

Erin Griffith of the New York Times: "Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of the failed blood-testing start-up Theranos, was sentenced to more than 11 years in prison on Friday for defrauding investors about her company's technology and business dealings.... Ms. Holmes, who raised $945 million for Theranos and promised that the start-up would revolutionize health care with tests that required just a few drops of blood, was convicted in January of four counts of wire fraud for deceiving investors with those claims, which turned out not to be true.... Ms. Holmes, 38, who plans to appeal the verdict, must surrender to custody on April 27, 2023. In the courtroom on Friday..., Ms. Holmes, who has a 1-year-old son and is pregnant with her second child, apologized to the investors, patients and employees of Theranos."

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Grisly News. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alabama called off its plans to execute a man on Thursday after a whirlwind few hours in which the Supreme Court allowed the execution to proceed, but prison officials determined they did not have enough time to kill the man before his death warrant expired at midnight. It was the second time in less than two months that Alabama had brought a prisoner into its execution chamber, strapped him to a gurney and begun trying to insert intravenous lines -- only to call off the execution and return him to his cell. In both cases, it appeared that prison officials had struggled to insert the lines into the prisoners after last-minute appeals were thrown out by the Supreme Court.... John Q. Hamm, the commissioner of Alabama's prisons, said at a news conference that prison officials determined that they could not insert a second, necessary line before the death warrant expired, and at 11:21 p.m. temporarily called the execution off." This is a substantial update of a story linked early yesterday. MB: One way to solve this problem is to quit executing people. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Colorado House Race. Bad News. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "In one of the country's closest House races, Adam Frisch, a Democrat challenging Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, a far-right gunslinger known for her provocations on Capitol Hill, said on Friday that he had called her to concede, as Ms. Boebert appeared increasingly likely to win a second term. The Associated Press has not called the contest. Mr. Frisch, a Democratic businessman and former Aspen, Colo., city councilman, had put up a fierce challenge to Ms. Boebert, 35, who was seen as a heavy favorite entering the race in Colorado's Republican-leaning Third Congressional District."

** Georgia Senate Race. Matthew Brown of the Washington Post: "A Georgia judge ruled that early voting can take place on a Saturday in the highly watched Senate runoff election between Democratic incumbent Raphael G. Warnock and Republican Herschel Walker. In a ruling Friday afternoon ruling, Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. found that a provision of Georgia's election code cited by the secretary of state's office as barring Saturday voting 'does not specifically prohibit counties from conducting advanced voting on Saturday, November 26, 2022, for a runoff election.' The court further noted that 'there is an absence of settled law on this specific issue' in Georgia but that the intent of the state legislature was 'obvious' in omitting any specific reference to a runoff election in the law. The ruling is a victory for Democrats and voting rights advocates.... 'We disagree with the court's order and look forward to a prompt appeal,' [Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger [R] said in a statement. The decision on whether to appeal the case will be made by Republican Chris Carr, the state's attorney general." CNN's report is here.

Maryland. Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "The attorney general of Maryland [Brian Frosh] has identified more than 600 young victims of clergy sexual abuse over the course of 80 years in the Archdiocese of Baltimore, according to a court document filed Thursday. The filing, which broadly outlines the attorney general's findings, requests that a judge allow the release of the full report: a 456-page document detailing decades of clergy sex abuse in Maryland.... Baltimore is the first Catholic diocese established in the United States and is led by an influential archbishop, William E. Lori, who was elected this week as vice president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Saturday are here: "At least 17 regions in Ukraine, plus the capital, Kyiv, were being plunged into intermittent darkness this weekend, grappling with emergency electricity shutdowns and scheduled blackouts, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address. Meanwhile, more than 17,000 people in the Zaporizhzhia region were left without heating on Saturday following overnight rocket attacks, its local governor said.... The first train from Kyiv to Kherson since the war began arrived to cheers in the recently liberated city on Saturday.... Ukraine appeared to soften its stance on who was responsible for a missile blast that killed two in Poland earlier this week.... A spokesman for Ukraine's air force said in an interview Friday said that missile fragments landing in Poland could have been Ukrainian.... The United Nations Human Rights Office is looking into videos that the Kremlin said show Ukraine executing Russian prisoners of war, Reuters reported. U.N. officials said this week they found 'patterns of torture and ill-treatment' by Russia against prisoners of war that had fought for Ukraine, and 'sporadic cases of torture and ill-treatment' by Ukraine against Russian prisoners of war who had been in custody for extended periods."

Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "One day after lawyers confirmed that the American basketball star Brittney Griner had been transferred to a penal colony outside Moscow, Russia on Friday reiterated its openness to a prisoner exchange with the United States involving the notorious convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated: "A day after the American basketball star Brittney Griner was sent to a Russian penal colony, a top Russian diplomat said on Friday that the prospect of a prisoner exchange was increasing, and acknowledged that it could involve a Russian arms dealer imprisoned in the United States. But U.S. officials dismissed the suggestion of any new optimism about an agreement, saying that the Kremlin had not been serious about negotiating a deal. Since June, the Biden administration has been proposing trading Viktor Bout, the arms dealer, for Ms. Griner, who has been jailed for nine months and Paul N. Whelan, an American held for almost four years and convicted of espionage, according to U.S. officials and numerous news media reports."

Iran. Cora Engelbrecht of the New York Times: "... hundreds of victims ... have suffered severe eye injuries inflicted by Iranian security forces since mid-September, according to doctors and medical facilities. That month, antigovernment protests swept across the country, prompting a violent crackdown. More than 300 Iranians have been killed, according to rights groups. Thousands have been injured. Among the most irreversible effects of the government's efforts to crush the uprising has been the blinding of people taking part in them. Across Iran, scores of protesters have gone to hospitals with eyes ruptured by the metal pellets and rubber bullets that security forces fire to disperse crowds."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

“And the Special Counsel shall save us, Amen.”

No. He won’t. If Garland thinks the appointment of Jack Smith will somehow blunt criticism by the Party of Traitors that the entirety of the investigations into the illegal and unconstitutional actions of Donald Trump are nothing more than a hyper partisan attack on their (former?) hero, he hasn’t been paying much attention.

The well of vitriolic lies and conspiracy theories on the right is deeper than the Marianas Trench, and just as unplumbable.

Had he appointed King Solomon, R’s would rip him as a hopelessly compromised “Democrat hack”. Look how they went after Bob Mueller, a lifelong Republican! And no special prosecutor can divert attention from the fact that the call to indict ultimately comes from Garland himself.

The traitors don’t care about efforts to be as non-partisan as possible. They’ll paint even the most pristine investigation as a pile of lies designed to hide the “truth”.

So this special prosecutor idea has its tires flattened before it even leaves the garage.

I’m encouraged by Barb McQuade’s interpretation of this move as an indication of some kind of action, maybe in a couple of years or so, but Garland already has more than enough to indict that fat piece of shit.

No special counsel will save us from the coming tsunami of phony bullshit and screams of partisan shenanigans from the right. And the press will, as they always do, repeat every R lie and stupid innuendo verbatim, so the public won’t be saying “Gee, looks like these investigations are entirely fair and above board”.

Fuck’s sake.

[`PD Pepe]

AK: Oh ye of little faith but may be entirely correct, could I offer just a wee positive. Jack Smith is no Robert Mueller who appeared to be losing a lot of that whipper snappiness of yore. Smith on the other hand, is younger and fit for bear, plus we ain't got Barr to take Smith's findings and sprinkle happy dust on them.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Or crap nuggets…Barr saves the happy dust for himself as he continues his “Save my reputation” tour.

Smith’s pedigree is certainly impressive, and as Marie points out, after chasing down war criminals, Smith is not likely to worry about a lying, bloated baby narcissist.

My problem is not with Smith but with Garland who seems to think that a special prosecutor will insulate the process from charges of partisanship. It won’t. What it will do is take time and money, and give the Fat Fascist more time to whip up the MAGAts against Justice, not to mention justice.

Maybe it will provide some cover for Biden heading into the ‘24 election, at least with the chimerical undecideds, but the whole thing could still take 18 months or more and if we get close to the election, Garland (aka Hamlet on the Potomac) may decide it’s “too close” to issue any indictment, giving Fatty even more of a break.

In New York, it’s looking like Trump’s lawyers are trying to prove that the fraud committed by the Trump Crime Family was all the fault of one guy, not named Trump. The Jan. 6 probe doesn’t seem likely to prove, beyond reasonable doubt to a jury, that he was directly responsible for the insurrection. Just so tired of seeing this epic criminal skate on everything, which makes Garland’s super-abundance of caution all the more maddening.

Just do it!

[unwashed]

Marcy Wheeler has a couple of posts today that might assuage some concerns about the Smith appointment, #1 and #2. I think they're worth reading and thinking about.

[Forrest Morris]

I'm speculating about the Republican's plans for the next two years
and betting it will mostly be 'let's break the impeachment record.'

If we could only come up with some reasons. Maybe student loan
forgiveness---we don't like that one. And supporting Ukraine---we
should be kissing Putin's whatever.
And fathering Hunter---we can work that one in maybe.

It's going to be a strange two years, even stranger than the last two.

[NJC]

#45 is so conflicted, as usual. He should be thanking his lucky stars that Merrick has provided yet another delay tactic. Instead tfg says he won't "partake," whatever that means. If he resists subpoenas, etc. he may find himself in serious contempt doodoo. That has the potential to simplify matters. At least the special counsel might provide some antidote to the R's planned shitshow of investigations.
Of course, if any of those of us represented here had absconded with classified documents, we'd be imprisoned right now.

[Jeanne]

I feel like we have been screwed again by an AG and this time, he is one of ours. There is no justice at Justice, to paraphrase AK. What is it about the POS twice-impeached glory hog that makes everyone fall in line and treat him gently? So angry and disappointed about this development. To be honest, I do not hold out any hope that the creep will ever be treated correctly. Totally infuriating. Go back to sleep, Rip van Garland. The damage you have done so far is incalculable. You knew what’s at stake here and yet you waffle—

[Patrick]

One thing the special counsel decision does is to free up the senior DOJ leadership from the daily drag of BS that will increase in volume and frequeny in the coming months, assuming indictment(s) are forthcoming. They will be able to prioritise a dozen things (whatever they may be) rather than be hung up shoveling DiJiT's pile.

We will know shortly whether this slows things down or not. If the SP picks up most of the folks who have already been dealing with Donnie, they can avoid the learning curve. If they come in with a brand new team, it will be like taking all the steam out of the engine. These guys have to run up the score before the new House takes seats in January. Gym Jordan & Co. will be playing stallball-Calvinball after New Year.

[Akhilleus]

If the special prosecutor steps in, kind of like an assistant coach taking over after the manager has been thrown out of the game, to pick up where the people in Justice are at this moment, rather than starting from scratch, we might have something resembling an indictment within months rather than years.

But if he wants to assemble a new team and start re-interviewing everyone, fuggedaboutit. But if there’s any chance that Biden won’t be tarred with this thing, the quicker the better.

The closer we get to the ‘24 elections, the more difficult it will become to prosecute that fat fuck. But remember, Fatty isn’t running for president right now. He’s not. He’s campaigning to run in the Traitor primaries to win the nomination. Only after that will he technically be running for president*. None of that will stop him and his servants on the right from screaming about unfair, partisan treatment.

But here’s the other thing that Garland’s actions demonstrate: the ability of the right to scaremonger anyone they choose. Empowering a special counsel in this case is a reaction to the screams of unfairness from the Trump camp. What he’s tacitly acknowledging is that Justice is not equipped to run an unbiased, fair investigation on its own, an admission that the traitors have a point that nothing Democrats do can possibly be fair to them.

This, of course, is projection on the part of the traitors. They know that when they ran Justice, of COURSE they weren’t going to be fair and unbiased. And they weren’t. Thus, they believe Democrats are as devious and manipulative as they are.

If Garland truly believed that his department could operate fairly and impartially, basing its decisions on the facts and not, as the right always does, on political expediency, he’d have told them all to fuck off and buckle their seat belts.

As it is, we’re the ones who are having to strap in. As usual.

[Marie Burns]

The Marcy Wheeler posts which unwashed linked are definitely worth reading. And Marcy brings up something I had sort of been thinking about at lunch: prosecutions could affect who holds the House majority.

In fact, it isn't just prosecutions. For instance, what if a few Republicans get sick or die & can't vote? States have different rules for replacing members of Congress who die or resign, & it's possible that a GOP member could die & the Democratic governor of her state would replace her with a Democrat. Ooh, would that be fair? Yes it would.

So while Kevin is planning to do nothing but watch porno on Hunter's laptop, he might stop & think about what will happen if Margie defects to Russia or gets carried into space on a Hebrew laser beam & Matt Gaetz gets prosecuted after all and one of the anti-vax caucus croaks from Covid. Just sayin'.

[Akhilleus]

Speaking of who controls things in Congress, I learned today—something I may have heard before but hadn’t thought of recently—was that the Georgia run-off between Senator Warnock and Vampire-abort-my-baby-Man, has greater implications than just one more Democrat (hopefully) in the Senate.

A 50-50 split gives Democrats a leg up (now and then, depending on what Manchinema wants to do) because of a Democratic VP, but a 51-49 split in favor of the good guys means that Democrats have much better control of committee assignments. 50-50 means that committee memberships are all evenly split and the traitors can easily keep legislation from being reported out from committees, which in many ways means they have a larger amount of control over much Congressional business.

So the Georgia vote doesn’t represent icing on the cake, it IS the cake.

[Akhilleus]

Elon Musk has reactivated Fatty’s Twitter account. As expected. Two assholes together again for the first time.

The Fat Fascist sez he’ll stick with his pitiful antisocial app, but we’ll see how long that lasts when he can go back to spreading lies to tens of millions as opposed to the 37 losers on his platform.

A great day for democracy. Musk-Trump style.