;)
Monday
Feb222021
The Commentariat -- February 23, 2021
Daniel Strauss of the Guardian: "In a somber address to the nation as the US surpassed half a million coronavirus deaths on Monday, Joe Biden urged the country to unify in its battle against the virus.... Biden used the speech to urge Americans to overcome partisanship and follow public health guidelines as his administration races to distribute vaccines and end the pandemic.... Biden focused on the loss Americans have felt because of the pandemic and the larger theme of coming together.... Biden's speech was bookended by solemn rituals to honor the 500,000 deaths. Ahead of his address, the National Cathedral rang its bells 500 times; afterwards, the president joined the first lady Jill Biden, Vice-president Kamala Harris, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff outside the White House, where they observed a moment of silence surrounded by 500 candles." A Washington Post story is here. ~~~
Michael Balsamo, et al., of the AP: "Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's attorney general nominee, vowed Monday to prioritize combating extremist violence and said his first focus would be on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol as he sought to assure lawmakers that the Justice Department would remain politically independent on his watch.... 'The attorney general represents the public interest, particularly and specifically as defined by the Constitution and the statutes of the United States,' Garland said. 'I do not plan to be interfered with by anyone.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) Update: The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Wherein Judge Garland Explains Sedition to a Seditionist. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... [Sen. Josh] Hawley [R-Kan.Mo.] didn't want to talk about the violence against police generated by his own attempt to overturn the election. He insisted that [Judge Merrick] Garland talk about 'assaults on federal property in places other than Washington' -- specifically, during racial-justice protests -- and whether those qualify as 'domestic terrorism.' Garland was not distracted by the seditionist's sleight of hand. He explained that using violence 'to disrupt democratic processes' (as occurred in the Capitol) is domestic terrorism, while attacking a courthouse at night (as occurred in Portland) is not. 'Both are criminal, but one is a core attack on our democratic institutions.'... For four years..., Donald Trump railed about 'law and order' while breaking the former and undermining the latter. In Garland, we see a restoration of actual law and order."
Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "Neera Tanden, president of the left-leaning Center for American Progress, seemed unlikely to be confirmed as budget director in the Biden administration after Susan Collins and Mitt Romney, two moderate Republican senators, said they would not vote in her favour." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ IOKIYAR White Guy. Laura Barron-Lopez & Christopher Cadelago of Politico: "Women's rights activists and allied Democrats are growing increasingly vocal about what they call the unfair targeting of women and people of color nominated by Joe Biden to top posts in his administration.... Inside the White House, it did not go unnoticed that many of the lawmakers objecting to Tanden's social media missives -- including [Joe] Manchin [D-W.Va.] -- voted to confirm Richard Grenell, the acid-tongued Trump booster, to the post of U.S. ambassador to Germany. Democrats on and off the Hill likewise argued that [Neera] Tanden, who is of South Asian descent, was one of several nominees of color being treated differently than Trump-era nominees who lobbed personal attacks or expressed bigoted views.... Her supporters now say that her social media presence is being used as a cover by her opponents, noting that she has apologized, deleted and taken ownership for her tweets. And Democrats argue that after the Trump years, there is little justification for having someone's online behavior serve as a disqualifier." ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: "Republicans spent four years playing down and forgiving ... Donald Trump's disgusting tweets. Not a single Republican voted against confirming Richard Grenell, Mr. Trump's ambassador to Germany, despite his history of Twitter trolling -- including nasty comments about the appearances of female journalists and world leaders -- which was far worse than Ms. Tanden's tweets. Mr. Manchin voted to confirm Mr. Grenell, too.... Is it unacceptable for the OMB director to be strongly partisan? Republicans didn't think so when they jammed through Mick Mulvaney, a co-founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, to be Mr. Trump's first OMB chair...."
Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "The U.S. is preparing to respond to Russia's poisoning and jailing of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, and is expected to coordinate a sanctions rollout with European allies in the coming weeks, according to people familiar with the matter. The response would mark a break with the previous administration, which prepared a sanctions package following Navalny's poisoning but never implemented it, the people said. It would also constitute the new administration's first major step in holding Russia accountable for human rights abuses, which [President] Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have listed as a key pillar of their foreign policy agenda."
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected ... Donald Trump's last-chance effort to keep his private financial records from the Manhattan district attorney, ending a long and drawn-out legal battle. After a four-month delay, the court denied Trump's motion in a one-sentence order with no recorded dissents. District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has won every stage of the legal fight -- including the first round at the Supreme Court -- but has yet to receive the records he says are necessary for a grand jury investigation into whether the president's companies violated state law." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. As Ken writes, "Whoopie!" Update: The New York Times' story is here. Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ "What's Next?" William Rashbaum, et al., of the New York Times: "Terabytes of data. Dozens of prosecutors, investigators and forensic accountants sifting through millions of pages of financial documents. An outside consulting firm drilling down on the arcana of commercial real estate and tax strategies. That is the monumental task that lies ahead in the Manhattan district attorney's criminal investigation into ... Donald J. Trump and his family business after a United States Supreme Court order on Monday cleared the way for prosecutors to obtain eight years worth of Mr. Trump's tax returns and other financial records.... The crucial next phase in the Manhattan inquiry will begin in earnest this week when investigators for the district attorney's office collect the records from the law firm that represents Mr. Trump's accountants, Mazars USA...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "In addition to the tax returns, Mr. Trump's accountants, Mazars USA, must also produce business records on which those returns are based and communications with the Trump Organization. Such material could provide important context and background to decisions that Mr. Trump or his accountants made when preparing to file taxes." ~~~
~~~ digby reproduces much of Jonathan Chait's (New York) post on how angry Trump is that a grand jury will get to see tax returns that every other presidential candidate in recent history has voluntarily revealed publicly. Chait: "Trump's position on the tax returns rests on a series of assertions, ranging from his false claim that Robert Mueller found 'No Collusion' to his insistence that he actually won the 2020 election to his extremely ironic complaint that prosecutors targeting their political opponents is 'fascism, not justice.'... The most conspicuous absence from Trump's statement is any explanation as to why he has fought so hard to conceal this information, which all his predecessors willingly disclosed." Here's a funny part of Trump's everybody's-picking-on-me rant: "This is something which has never happened to a president before." Chait points to the obvious: no other president has refused to release the info. ~~~
~~~ Steve M. reproduces Trump's rant, via Jim Acosta of CNN. Steve sees in the rant another call to violence: "He says prosecutors want to 'take [him] out' -- and then writes, 'except that the people of our Country won't stand for it.'... After January 6, we know ... they'd do it by means of political violence.... The risk of a violent mass disruption of a Trump trial is great. And in his statement today, I think Trump is trying to summon just such a response." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Steve also points out something I've been meaning to mention: "When Trump says, 'the people of our Country,' he always means the people of his country: Trump voters, whom he regards as the only legitimate Americans." This is made obvious, I think, by the way Trump often pronounces "our" when he says "our country." When I say "our country," it usually comes out "are country," with the emphasis on "country"; I slide over "our." When Trump says "our country," he emphasizes "our," which he extends to two syllables: "ow!-er" and makes the modifier "our" as important as -- or more important than -- the noun "country."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "... a bipartisan group of senators is pressing ahead with a series of investigative hearings to scrutinize the security breakdowns that failed to prevent the deadly pro-Trump rampage. The inquiry begins on Tuesday with a joint hearing of two Senate committees to question the officials who were in charge of securing the Capitol during the attack, when Capitol Police officers and members of the District of Columbia's police force called in as reinforcements were overrun as the vice president and members of the House and the Senate were gathered inside."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear an appeal from Pennsylvania Republicans who sought to disqualify mailed ballots in the 2020 presidential election that arrived after Election Day. The court's brief order gave no reasons for turning down the case, which as a practical matter marked the end of Supreme Court litigation over the election. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented, saying the court should have used it to provide guidance in future elections. The dissenting justices acknowledged that the number of ballots at issue in the case was too small to affect President Biden's victory in the state. But the legal question the case presented -- about the power of state courts to revise election laws -- was, they said, a significant one that should be resolved without the pressure of an impending election."
~~~ Rick Hasen comments here. ~~~
~~~ Clarence's "Argument from Ignorance." Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was not happy that his colleagues ... chose to pass up the opportunity to weigh in on a slew of cases stemming from last year's presidential elections, penning a highly critical dissent. Attorneys, on the other hand, pointed out that the stalwart conservative appeared to adopt the 'argument from ignorance' fallacy with regards to voter irregularities, suggesting that a lack of proof is not enough to show fraud did not occur.... In a footnote..., Thomas ... postulates that a proposition may be true simply because it hasn't been definitively proven to be false.... Thomas then went on to espouse what he views as the dangers inherently presented by widespread absentee voting, citing several examples of attempted fraud -- none of which took place over the latest election cycle -- and a 2012 New York Times article to conclude that 'the risk of fraud is "vastly more prevalent" for mail-in voting ballots.'"
Who Would Have Thought an "Oath Keeper" Would Lie in a Sworn Court Document? Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Jessica Watkins, a leader in an alleged Oath Keepers conspiracy in the US Capitol insurrection, changed her story Monday about meeting with Secret Service agents in describing her actions on January 6. In a court filing over the weekend, Watkins said she was given a VIP pass to the Trump rally, had met with Secret Service agents and was providing security for legislators and others, including in their march to the Capitol. But on Monday, Watkins took back some of those assertions, saying she had merely spoken with Secret Service members as she passed through security at the rally." MB: Apparently Oath Keepers don't take oath-keeping too seriously. Ever.
Ken Klippenstein & Eric Lichtblau of the Intercept: "Within hours of the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the FBI began securing thousands of phone and electronic records connected to people at the scene of the rioting -- including some related to members of Congress, raising potentially thorny legal questions.... The Justice Department has publicly said that its task force includes senior public corruption officials. That involvement 'indicates a focus on public officials, i.e. Capitol Police and members of Congress,' the retired FBI official said. In recent years, the FBI has had to tread lightly in seeking any records of members of Congress due to protections under the Constitution's speech or debate clause, which shields the legislative work of Congress from executive branch interference.... On January 11, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., released a statement warning against the Justice Department getting involved in the investigation of the attack, at least regarding members of Congress, asserting that the Senate should oversee the matter."
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: At civil rights icon John Lewis's funeral last year, President "Obama asked Democrats to kill the filibuster and pass a voting rights bill because it was the right thing to do. But there's a stronger argument: that if Democrats don't do this, they'll be at the mercy of a Trumpified Republican Party that has radicalized against democracy itself. Democrats have already written the kind of voting rights bill Obama spoke about. It's the For the People Act, designated as H.R. 1 in the House and S. 1 in the Senate. If passed and signed into law, it would establish automatic, same-day and online voter registration, protect eligible voters from overly broad purges that remove them from the rolls, restore the Voting Rights Act with a new formula for federal preclearance..., re-enfranchise the formerly incarcerated, strengthen mail-in voting systems, institute nationwide early voting and increase criminal penalties for voter intimidation."
Kevin Collier of NBC News: "Voting-machine maker Dominion Voting Systems has sued Mike Lindell, CEO of MyPillow and a staunch ally of ... Donald Trump, for $1.3 billion over his monthslong campaign of making false claims about the 2020 election. Lindell, the founder of a pillow company and one of Trump's most visible defenders after he lost the election, has spent months sharing a baseless conspiracy theory that President Joe Biden only won because of a sprawling conspiracy that includes the Venezuelan government and hacked voting machines."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Thanks to RAS for the link: ~~~
It really does seem like @chucktodd @jonkarl and @margbrennan oughta maybe call a meeting and talk about how not to let lies that nearly destroyed the country air unchecked on their shows. https://t.co/fKCmhzs6DQ
— Brian Beutler (@brianbeutler) February 22, 2021
Alan Feuer & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker, best known as El Chapo, was arrested Monday and charged with helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire and plotting to break him out of prison after he was captured in 2014. Ms. Coronel, a former beauty queen, had been under investigation for at least two years by U.S. federal authorities for being an accomplice to her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, who was convicted in 2019 at a trial in Brooklyn of masterminding a huge drug conspiracy and was subsequently sentenced to life in prison. Court documents filed in Ms. Coronel's case said she relayed messages for Mr. Guzmán that helped him make drug shipments from 2012 to 2014 and evade capture by the legions of American and Mexican authorities who had been pursuing him for years. Evidence emerged at Mr. Guzmán's trial that Ms. Coronel was also a chief conspirator in a sophisticated plot to break him out of the Altiplano prison in Mexico by digging a nearly mile-long tunnel into the shower of his cell."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here. See also President Biden's remarks, linked (+ embedded video) at the top of the page.)
Washington Post Editors: "The president has challenged ... critics [of the $1.9 trillion Covid relief package by asking rhetorically]: 'What would they have me cut? What would they have me leave out?...'... The first trim should be to Mr. Biden's proposed $1,400 direct payments, the current House version of which would cost $422 billion. The 'checks' would phase out between $75,000 and $100,000 of individual income, and $150,000 and $200,000 for couples -- meaning all but the top-earning 10 percent of U.S. households would get at least some cash. That's a lot of money to shower on the non-poor.... Second, it is increasingly clear that the pandemic reduced states and local governments' revenue far less than initially feared, especially considering federal aid they have already received." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I don't know enough about the editors' second proposal to agree or disagree, but I strongly agree with their first suggestion. First, researchers have found that the great majority of recipients of the first stimulus checks in May 2020 saved, rather than spent, the checks. I'm all for families building up their savings, but not at my expense. I resent being forced to take money out of my pocket to give to the savings accounts of couples who earn more than I do (I won't receive a stimulus check & have not in the last two rounds). The entire reason Biden & Congress are proposing the $1,400 for middle-class & upper-middle-class families is to make the measure more popular with a demographic group their courting (and with the White House aides who wrote the bill & Congressional aides who will help push it through, many of whom will see checks cut for them).
Julie Steenhuysen of Reuters: "Dr. Anthony Fauci ... said political divisiveness contributed significantly to the 'stunning' U.S. COVID-19 death toll, which on Monday surpassed 500,000 lives lost.... 'Even under the best of circumstances, this would have been a very serious problem,' Fauci said, noting that despite strong adherence to public health measures, countries such as Germany and the UK struggled with the virus. 'However, that does not explain how a rich and sophisticated country can have the most percentage of deaths and be the hardest-hit country in the world,' said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a top adviser to President Joe Biden. 'That I believe should not have happened.'... The nation's failure cannot all be laid at the feet of Donald Trump, Fauci said. 'But the lack of involvement at the very top of the leadership in trying to do everything that was science-based was clearly detrimental to the effort.'... He called ... disregard [of Task Force-recommended phasing-in standards] by several governors and mayors "incomprehensible to me (when) you could see right in front of your eyes what was happening.'"
Beyond the Beltway
Colorado. Guardian & Agencies: "Police officers in Aurora, Colorado, did not have a legal basis to stop, frisk and use a chokehold on Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who died after being restrained by officers and paramedics in the Denver suburb in August 2019, an independent investigation has found. According to a report published on Monday, 'body worn camera audio, limited video and ... interviews with the officers tell two contrasting stories. The officers' statements on the scene and in subsequent recorded interviews suggest a violent and relentless struggle.' The report added: 'The limited video, and the audio from the body worn cameras, reveal Mr McClain surrounded by officers, all larger than he, crying out in pain, apologizing, explaining himself and pleading with the officers.' McClain, a keen musician and athlete, was stopped on 24 August 2019, while walking home from a convenience store. He was not suspected of any crime."
Texas. Alana Rocha of the Texas Tribune: "At the height of last week's winter storm that left millions of Texans without access to heat and clean water, Attorney General Ken Paxton and his wife, state Sen. Angela Paxton, were out of state on a 'previously planned' business trip to Utah, a spokesman confirmed.... 'AG Paxton did lose power, but did not leave Texas until after power had returned to most of the state, including his own home,' [a spokesperson] said in a statement." MB: But that isn't true. Power was out in wide swaths of the state last Thursday, and Ken had meetings in Utah on Wednesday & Friday. His staff did not reveal his whereabouts on Monday of precise when he left Texas & came back. ~~~
~~~ Paul LeBlanc, et al., of CNN: "As Texas attorney general, Paxton is responsible for overseeing key aspects of the state's response to the devastating winter storm." MB: That includes, for instance, consumer protection, at a time Texas were hit with multi-thousand-dollar bills for a few hours of power.
Virginia. Laura Vozzella & Gregory Schneider of the Washington Post: "Two bills to abolish the death penalty in Virginia won final approval in the state General Assembly on Monday and were headed to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who is expected to sign them. Virginia -- historically one of the nation's most prolific death penalty states -- would then become the first in the South to abandon the ultimate punishment. The state Senate approved by a vote of 22 to 16 a House bill that bans executions and establishes a maximum punishment of life in prison without the possibility of parole. A judge would have discretion to suspend part of that sentence -- a sticking point for some Republicans, who pushed unsuccessfully to make life without parole a mandatory minimum. An identical Senate bill, sponsored by Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax), passed the House by a 57-to-43 vote, with two Republicans joining all Democrats. Del. Michael P. Mullin (D-Newport News), a prosecutor for the city of Hampton, carried the House version." (Also linked yesterday.)
News Ledes
CNN: Golfer Tiger Woods was severely injured in a single-vehicle crash in Los Angeles County at about 7 am PT today. This page is a liveblog of developments.
New York Times: "Lawrence Ferlinghetti, a poet, publisher and political iconoclast who inspired and nurtured generations of San Francisco artists and writers from City Lights, his famed bookstore, died on Monday at his home in San Francisco. He was 101.... The spiritual godfather of the Beat movement, Mr. Ferlinghetti made his home base in the modest independent book haven now formally known as City Lights Booksellers & Publishers. A self-described 'literary meeting place' founded in 1953 and located on the border of the city's sometimes swank, sometimes seedy North Beach neighborhood, City Lights, on Columbus Avenue, soon became as much a part of the San Francisco scene as the Golden Gate Bridge or Fisherman's Wharf. (The city's board of supervisors designated it a historic landmark in 2001.)"
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Reader Comments (16)
Won't link it here (the curious and strong-stomached can easily find it), but I'm betting the (former) pretend president wrote his statement on the SCOTUS decision allowing the NY grand jury to see his taxes and financial records all by himself. This one sounded like he talks...
I saw no misspellings, though, which would imply he had an editor.
Interesting parsing of the Pretender's pronunciation of "our." There is a private property as an expression of greed fetish (it's mine, all mine!) behind this my and our country business, isn't there?
But when translating the Pretender, my simpler mind began to substitute "my country" for "our country," or substitute the even shorter "me" a long time ago, which seemed to take care of most of the possible meanings the Pretender might be reaching for with his our country bit.
It wasn't a stretch when it became clear early on that "unpatriotic" meant "you don't like me."
This was one of the most moving scenes I've witnessed in a long time. Here's Merrick Garland during his confirmation hearing telling Congress how he feels an obligation to this country for taking his family in when they fled anti-semitism. How fortunate we will be to have this man take the position of A.G.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_-PNEQVbDI
Trump’s constant references to “our” (meaning HIS) country have been a staple of his appeals to nationalism, white supremacy, racism, and hatred. He’s been pulling this shit since he waddled down the golden escalator to the tepid cheers of paid actors. A huge amount of what constitutes Trump is fraudulent and phony. His call to arms to the haters is not.
When he whines that actions taken by those looking to hold him accountable to the rule of law and his oath of office are an “embarrassment to our country” he means an embarrassment to his royal person.
Look for more of this. A lot more.
Speaking of oaths, what, pray tell, is the oath supposedly being kept by the Oath Keepers? To uphold the Constitution? To defend against enemies foreign and domestic?
Huge fail on all counts. First, acts of secession, of attacking the Capitol to try to overturn a legitimate and fair election aren’t suggested in any part of the Constitution I’ve read. Maybe that’s it. Like the Fat Fascist, they’ve never actually read that document. They just go by what they hear on far right treason web sites.
As for protecting against enemies, they ARE the enemy. The domestic one, anyway. And their actions attempting to derail democracy and plunge the nation into armed chaos and insurrection offer immense support for foreign enemies.
But that’s the right wing way.
So I ask again: what oath?
Or maybe, like their hero, they believe that oaths are optional depending on what outcome you hope will prevail.
Another staple of the right.
So Cyrus Vance will get a look-see into the muddy, sleazy, nasty, stinking world of Trump financials. I certainly hope he finds something criminal. Lying about assets to get loans, then changing the numbers when it’s time to pay taxes are both illegal, but well connected fraudsters like Trump get away with that stuff all the time. It might be jail time for Mr. and Mrs. Middle Class, but almost never for the likes of snakes like Fatty.
Hopefully there’ll be something in there connecting him to Russian mobsters, but Trump has been at this a long time. And he has hired cagey lawyers who know how to bury things under mountains of deniability.
And maybe one of his last accessible sources of cash, Deutsche Bank, refuses to acknowledge any wrongdoing on his part.
Because clearly Deutsche Bank, if they’ve been lending hundreds of millions to a known deadbeat like Trump, is into a lot of other stuff they’d rather not be on the hook for, loans to bad actors for weapons buys and money laundering for Russian mobsters, eg. They might not be the contemporary incarnation of the IBCC (international bank of crooks and criminals), but if they’re loaning money to a con man like Trump, you know there are loads of other bodies in their closets. It wouldn’t be very good for business if it looked like they rolled over for a DA in New York City. They probably deal with a lot of actors far more dangerous than a fat real estate fraudster from NY, president or no president.
It could be that the attempt to hide his returns is mostly ego on Trump’s part. Maybe he just doesn’t want anyone to know that he’s not a billionaire genius businessman, but a lying, incompetent schnook.
In any event, as much I dearly wish it. He won’t do any time.
He’s gotten with almost everything. But what he can’t control is how his beautiful, fanciful, fictional image of himself has been, and will continue to be, roasted over the coals of inconvenient truths.
I’m guessing that another chapter 11 is in his future as enormous loans, personally guaranteed, come due. That may cost him more, PR-wise, than anything Vance digs up.
I’m hoping that Treasury will go whole hog and put some significant effort into clawing back the PPE dollars that Trump friends, associates and like minded grifters received as well as all the asshats who spent funds outside the stated requirements. Tom Brady’s 960K forgivable loan for his nutrition company would be a great place to start. His high profile would bring much attention to the grifting.
Akh: about five years ago I loaned a book to a young colleague, "The Fall of the House of Dixie" (recommend). I mentioned that Lee was a traitor if for no other reason than that he violated his oath. The lad bought none of that: to him Lee was an exemplar of the Soldier's Code, and true to his oath, because he had volunteered his resignation before he accepted his CSA commission. Yadayada. So, for this guy, taking up arms against the Republic was OK as long as you are up front about it. I suspect Oath Keepers give themselves similar benefit of doubt.
Such people (not Lee, the kid) have no clue about honor or oath taking. Partly because oaths can be so dangerously slippery to many, may be why the Ten Commandments tells you to abjure them, and why you were taught in elementary school not to use them. Even when they are not originally "in vain," you can make them so by the slightest effort of casuistry.
But by accounts, Lee could not. He knew what he had done and it ate at him.
The first time I took that oath, I considered it an administrative box-check. The most recent time I took it, decades later, I knew that it is a thing that governs your life if you "undertake it freely and without reservation."
I read a right wing statement that I have to agree with. The media is suffering from "Trump withdrawal syndrome". Looking at news summary sites that name is creeping back into the headlines.
It's been nice to wake in the morning and not dread the morning news. But with his upcoming appearance at CPAC and the release of his tax records it's like he never left. They won't let him die.
A brief history of Path Keepers:
Path Keepers was founded in 2009 by a former Rand Paul
staffer, Elmer Stewart Rhodes, Yale Law School graduate,
disbarred by Montana Supreme Court for unprofessional
conduct.
Registered as a Nevada non-profit (send money).
Rhodes regularly appears on the Alex Jones conspiracy
talk show.
Their list of good deeds includes protecting Kim Davis,
the Kentucky county clerk who refused to issue marriage
licenses to same-sex couples.
Birds of a feather.
Oath Keepers. Damned spell check. O- a-t-h.
The Supreme Court is about to hear two cases that could destroy what remains of the Voting Rights Act
"the most important question in these cases isn’t what happens to the Arizona laws. It’s whether the Supreme Court waters down what remains of the Voting Rights Act to such an extent that it becomes virtually worthless."
That means it will be even more important to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act to keep democracy in America. Unfortunately the only way that will happen is if the Democrats get rid of the filibuster and pass the bill on their own. That does not look likely at the moment.
A nitpick: Josh Hawley "represents" Missouri, not Kansas.
Maybe the Washington Post was unintentionally trolling Hawley. Kansas and Missouri don't like each other very much. Going back to the bloody days leading up to the Civil War.
@Robin: Thanks, got it. You must be from Kansas or have friends there. I wouldn't want to claim him, either.
@RAS: That was my fault, not the WashPo's.