;)
The Conversation -- August 30, 2023
** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that Rudolph W. Giuliani was liable for defaming two Georgia election workers by repeatedly declaring that they had mishandled ballots while counting votes in Atlanta during the 2020 election. The ruling by the judge, Beryl A. Howell in Federal District Court in Washington, means that the defamation case against Mr. Giuliani, a central figure in ... Donald J. Trump's efforts to remain in power after his election loss, can proceed to trial on the narrow question of how much, if any, damages he will have to pay the plaintiffs in the case.... Judge Howell's decision came a little more than a month after Mr. Giuliani conceded in two stipulations in the case that he had made false statements when he accused the election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, of manipulating ballots while working at the State Farm Arena for the Fulton County Board of Elections.... But Judge Howell, complaining that Mr. Giuliani's stipulations 'hold more holes than Swiss cheese,' took the proactive step of declaring him liable for 'defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, civil conspiracy and punitive damage claims.'" Politico's report is here.
Paul Duggan of the Washington Post: Federal Judge Amit Mehta "ruled Wednesday that Peter Navarro, a Trump White House adviser charged with criminal contempt of Congress, cannot argue to a jury that he was barred by executive privilege from providing testimony and documents to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Navarro, who has written and spoken extensively about his role in efforts to reverse ... Donald Trump's 2020 election defeat, is set to go on trial in the contempt case next week in U.S. District Court in Washington.... Navarro has produced nothing in writing from Trump [claiming to invoke executive privilege], nor has Trump publicly corroborated his account." MB: Trump lies about everything; why not lie for Navarro?
Frank Thorp of NBC News: "Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell appeared to freeze again Wednesday, this time during a gaggle with reporters in Covington, Kentucky, stopping for more than 30 seconds after he was asked if he would run for re-election.... When it became apparent that McConnell had frozen again on Wednesday, an aide came up to him and asked, 'Did you hear the question, senator?' McConnell continued to be unresponsive. Once McConnell re-engaged, he responded briefly to another question about Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican; his aide needed to repeat the question to him. McConnell was then asked about ... Donald Trump, another question that had to be repeated. McConnell brushed off the question because he does not usually engage in Trump-related topics." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Since Mitch has had these medical incidents twice in public, it's highly likely he has experienced others in private. Mitch and Sen. Dianne Feinstein should retire now.
It's Not Climate Change, It's a "Directed Energy Weapon." Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "As natural disasters and extreme environmental conditions became more commonplace around the world this summer, scientists pointed repeatedly to a shared driver: climate change. Conspiracy theorists pointed to anything but. Some claimed falsely that the record-smashing heat waves blistering parts of North America, Europe and Asia were normal, and that they had been sensationalized as part of a globalist hoax. Others made up tales that cloud-seeding airplanes or a nearby dam, rather than torrential rains, had caused the unusually intense flooding in northern Italy (and in places like Vermont and Rwanda).... Social media that racked up millions of views blamed the [Maui] blaze on a 'directed energy weapon' (the evidence: years-old footage not recorded in Hawaii).... Sometimes, 'the conspiracy theories] are amplified by top politicians and pundits -- the Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, for example, called climate change a 'hoax' during the first primary debate last week.... Deniers [describe scientific climate theory] as a tyrannical control tactic -- an effort to relocate rural residents to cities to be better monitored, to compel people to isolate indoors or to force a shift to renewable energy by sabotaging the fossil fuel industry."
Arizona. Jen Fifeld of the Arizona Mirror: "Maricopa County Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman ... told a judge ... he remembers the years of harassment against him[, his family] and his colleagues ... propelled by lies about the fairness of the county's [2020] presidential election.... Behind him at the defendant's table as he spoke sat Mark Rissi of Cedar Rapids, Iowa -- one of many who had threatened him. A few days after the release of the results of the partisan 'audit' of the county's 2020 election, in September 2021, Rissi called Hickman's office phone and accused him of lying about the fairness of the election, told him he was going to die, and said 'we're going to hang you.' He called former Attorney General Mark Brnovich a few months later with a similar threat. U.S. District Judge Dominic W. Lanza on Monday sentenced Rissi, 65, to two-and-a-half years in prison and three years of probation after Rissi pleaded guilty to two counts of making interstate threats.... On Monday, Rissi told the judge he was remorseful..., [but Lanza reminded him that when the FBI interviewed him in June 2022, he said] he 'didn't want anyone to be lynched or hanged illegally, but a lot of people still need to be hanged.'"
Tennessee. That Went Well. Erin McCullough of WKRN (Nashville): "The special session of the Tennessee General Assembly ended in chaos, including pushing and shoving between lawmakers and shouting from the public. Republican lawmakers rammed through an adjournment of the House sine die before Rep. Justin Jones could officially call for a vote of no confidence of Speaker Cameron Sexton. Shortly after the House was gaveled out, a situation between Rep. Justin Pearson and Sexton broke out before lawmakers swarmed both men to separate them." ~~~
~~~ Kimberlee Kruesi & Jonathan Matisse of the AP: "Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday abruptly ended a special session initially touted to improve public safety in the wake of a deadly elementary school shooting, but it quickly unraveled into chaos over the past week as the GOP-dominant Statehouse refused to take up gun control measures and instead spent most of the time ensnared in political infighting.... Ultimately, lawmakers could only agree to pass four bills, which in part encourage but don't require using safe gun storage devices; require an annual human trafficking report; add the governor's existing order on background checks into state law; and increase funding for mental health and K-12 and higher education safety initiatives. Only a few gun control measures fell within the session's narrow parameters, and those were rejected without debate."
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Sheryl Stolberg & Rebecca Robbins of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Tuesday announced the first 10 medicines that will be subject to price negotiations with Medicare, kicking off a landmark program that is expected to reduce the government's drug spending but is being fought by the pharmaceutical industry in court. The medications on the list are taken by millions of older Americans and cost Medicare billions of dollars annually. The drugs were selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services through a process that prioritized medications that account for the highest Medicare spending, have been on the market for years and do not yet face competition from rivals.... Medicare gained the authority to negotiate the price of some prescription medicines when Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act last year, a signature legislative achievement for the president.... Republicans in Congress opposed authorizing Medicare to negotiate prices, criticizing the move as tantamount to imposing government price controls.... Polling ... has found broad, bipartisan public support for allowing Medicare to negotiate prices." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Tami Luhby of CNN: The drugs on the list "are: Eliquis, Jardiance, Xarelto, Januvia, Farxiga, Entresto, Enbrel, Imbruvica, Stelara, and Fiasp and certain other insulins made by Novo Nordisk, including NovoLog." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Four criminal indictments of Donald Trump have ignited his followers and spurred his House Republican allies to try to use the upcoming government funding deadline of Sept. 30 as leverage to undermine the prosecutions.... Special counsel Jack Smith's office is funded by a 'permanent, indefinite appropriation for independent counsels,' the [Justice D]epartment said in its statement of expenditures. Given its separate funding source, the special counsel would not be affected by a shutdown and could run off of allocations from previous years. As a result, Republicans are looking at ways to insert provisions in government funding legislation that would hinder federal and state prosecutors who have secured indictments of Trump, based on unproven claims that he's being politically targeted.... Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., a Trump ally who sits on the Appropriations Committee, said Monday he will introduce two amendments to eliminate federal funding for all three of Trump's prosecutors -- Smith, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg. His office said the measures would block their prosecutorial authority over 'any major presidential candidate prior to' the 2024 election." (Also linked yesterday.)
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Many witnesses who spoke with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots have indicated that former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was repeatedly inebriated in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. Now sources are telling Rolling Stone that special counsel Jack Smith may use these alleged instances of inebriation to undermine ... Donald Trump's ... expected [defense that he was] following the best advice of his attorneys. 'In their questioning of multiple witnesses, Smith's team of federal investigators have asked questions about how seemingly intoxicated Giuliani was during the weeks he was giving Trump advice on how to cling to power,' the publication writes. 'The special counsel's team has also asked these witnesses if Trump had ever gossiped with them about Giuliani's drinking habits, and if Trump had ever claimed Giuliani's drinking impacted his decision making or judgment. Federal investigators have inquired about whether the then-president was warned, including after Election Night 2020, about Giuliani's allegedly excessive drinking.'... In other words, if Trump were knowingly taking legal advice from a drunken Giuliani, it would hurt claims that he was solely seeking the best sober-minded legal advice available to him rather than just cherry-picking the advice of people who told him only what he wanted to hear." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Giuliani's propensity to hit the bottle hardly would be a surprise to Trump. As Martin Pengelly of the Guardian reported August 24, "Depressed and drinking to excess after the failure of his run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008, Rudy Giuliani secretly recovered at the Florida home of ... Donald Trump. 'We moved into Mar-a-Lago and Donald kept our secret,' Giuliani's third wife, Judith Giuliani, says in a new book.... Reports of [Giuliani's] drinking while fulfilling his late-career role as Trump's personal attorney are legion, whether regarding his behavior around reporters or in his presence at the White House on election night in 2020, when he exhorted Trump to declare victory before all results were counted. In testimony to the House January 6 committee, Jason Miller, a senior Trump adviser, said Giuliani was 'definitely intoxicated' that night."
Ella Lee of the Hill: "Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a Georgia judge Tuesday to expedite the cases of all 19 defendants charged in a sweeping racketeering case over interference in the state's 2020 election. After defendant Kenneth Chesebro demanded a speedy trial in the case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee set his trial date for Oct. 23, four months sooner than the date Willis had originally proposed.... Willis said Tuesday that her office maintains its position that 'severance is improper at this juncture and that all Defendants should be tried together' -- a position she has held since announcing charges earlier this month. 'At an absolute minimum, the Court should set Defendant Powell's trial and that of any other defendant who may file a speedy trial demand on the same date as Defendant Chesebro's,' Willis said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Harrison William Prescott Floyd, a supporter of Donald J. Trump's who was indicted along with the former president in the Georgia election interference case, was granted a $100,000 bond on Tuesday, the last of the 19 defendants in the case to reach a bond agreement. While the other defendants named in the indictment, including Mr. Trump, made only brief visits to an Atlanta jail in recent days to be booked, Mr. Floyd, 39, who once led a group called Black Voices for Trump, spent a number of days at the jail after turning himself in last Thursday, apparently because he showed up to his booking without a lawyer. As of Tuesday evening, Fulton County inmate records showed that Mr. Floyd had not yet been released."
Very Helpful! Zoe Richard & Lawrence Hurley of NBC News: "John Eastman, a Trump-allied lawyer indicted in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia, is among more than 100 of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' former law clerks defending Thomas' integrity in an open letter. The undated letter, which appears to be in response to the fallout from a bombshell ProPublica article about lavish trips taken by Thomas and funded by a billionaire GOP donor, calls Thomas' character 'unimpeachable.'" Also signing on: John Yoo, the torture-memos author.
Aliza Chasen of CBS News: "Canada updated its international travel advisory on Tuesday to warn LGBTQ+ travelers of laws and policies in some U.S. states.... While the advisory doesn't dive into specific U.S. states or policies, a Global Affairs Canada spokesperson pointed to laws passed in the U.S. this year banning drag shows, restricting gender-affirming care and blocking participation in sporting events. The American Civil Liberties Union is currently tracking 495 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S." MB: Yes, the U.S. is a dangerous country to visit. But, hey, were not quite Uganda!
Emma Brown & Peter Jamison of the Washington Post: “On a private call with Christian millionaires, home-schooling pioneer Michael Farris pushed for a strategy aimed at siphoning billions of tax dollars from public schools[.]... [Farris's] solution: lawsuits alleging that schools' teachings about gender identity and race are unconstitutional, leading to a Supreme Court decision that would mandate the right of parents to claim billions of tax dollars for private education or home schooling.... The 50-minute recording, whose details Farris did not dispute..., is a remarkable demonstration of how the ideology he has long championed has moved from the partisan fringe to the center of the nation's bitter debates over public education." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. See also his comment & others in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2024
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: “Miami Mayor Francis Suarez is ending his long-shot 2024 presidential campaign less than three months after he launched it.... Suarez, the only Hispanic candidate in the GOP nominating contest, launched his campaign in mid-June, later than most of his now-former rivals. Last week, he failed to qualify for the first Republican debate after falling short of the necessary polling requirements."
Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News: "Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said Tuesday that his office is figuring out how to handle potential complaints over whether ... Donald Trump should be disqualified from appearing on the 2024 ballot. The issue centers on the 14th Amendment, which prohibits people who have 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion' from holding public office. Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson raised the theory at last week's GOP presidential debate that Trump's conduct on Jan. 6, 2021, might disqualify him on those grounds -- a theory that has gained traction among some legal scholars, though others discount the possibility.... New Hampshire Secretary of State David Scanlan is dealing with the same question...."
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Michigan. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "The Michigan Republican Party is starving for cash. A group of prominent activists -- including a former statewide candidate -- was hit this month with felony charges connected to a bizarre plot to hijack election machines. And in the face of these troubles, suspicion and infighting have been running high. A recent state committee meeting led to a fistfight, a spinal injury and a pair of shattered dentures. This turmoil is one measure of the way Donald J. Trump's lies about the 2020 election ... [broke] the state party into ardent believers and pragmatists wanting to move on. Bitter disputes, power struggles and contentious primaries followed, leaving the Michigan Republican Party a husk of itself.... [The election-denying candidates] were resoundingly defeated [in 2022].... Republicans across the state were left pointing fingers." (Also linked yesterday.)
Wisconsin. Scott Bauer of the AP: "The conservative chief justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court on Monday told the new liberal majority in a scathing email that they had staged a 'coup' and conducted an 'illegal experiment' when they voted to weaken her powers and fire the director of state courts. Chief Justice Annette Ziegler, in two emails obtained by The Associated Press, said that firing and hiring a new state court director was illegal and ordered interim state court director Audrey Skwierawski to stop signing orders without her knowledge or approval. 'You are making a mess of the judiciary, the court and the institution for years to come,' Ziegler wrote to her fellow justices and Skwierawski. 'This must stop. ... I have no confidence in the recent hostile takeover and the chaotic effect it has had on the court, staff, and the overall stable functioning of the courts.'" MB: The good news: Ziegler won the National Worst Boss prize for August.
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Russia. Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "Even in death, the movements of Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the Russian mercenary boss, were the subject of intense interest, contradictory reporting and cultivated confusion. Speculation about where Mr. Prigozhin would be buried on Tuesday ricocheted around news media and channels on the Telegram messaging app, including those considered close to the Russian security services. There were reports (true) of increased security presence and barriers erected at several cemeteries around his hometown, St. Petersburg, and other reports (false) of hearses and a funeral cortege. The fog of misinformation was so dense that a joke spread on social media calling it a 'special funeral operation,' a pun on the Kremlin's term for the war in Ukraine, 'special military operation.' Then, at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday, came the announcement from his company's press service that Mr. Prigozhin had been buried around 1 p.m., with a small group of people in attendance, at the Porokhovskoye Cemetery in the eastern part of St. Petersburg."
News Ledes
Weather.com: "Hurricane Idalia is rapidly intensifying over the Gulf of Mexico, headed for a Florida Gulf Coast landfall Wednesday with catastrophic, life-threatening storm surge, hurricane-force winds and flooding rain. Parts of south Georgia and the Carolinas will also see significant impacts from Idalia, including damaging winds, flooding rain and tornadoes." ~~~
~~~ Weather.com Update: "The center of Idalia came ashore near Keaton Beach at 7:45 a.m. EDT with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph, making it a strong Category 3. This preliminarily ties as the strongest hurricane landfall on record in Florida's Big Bend region." ~~~
~~~ Weather.com Update 2: "People are being rescued from their homes, bridges are closed and evacuation orders remain in place after Hurricane Idalia slammed into Florida's Gulf Coast this morning. The storm is over land bringing heavy rain and other impacts to parts of Georgia and South Carolina."
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Reader Comments (14)
Maybe an assignment for an enterprising reporter:
Would like to see the list of Thomas' former law clerks who now publicly attest to his integrity annotated with their current occupations and political affiliations.
Don't think it would surprise any of us to find that not a one of them is out there in the world simply "calling balls and strikes."
@Ken Winkes: I'd look for the fanciest motor homes in the parking lot of your local Walmart, where you will find the former clerks happily socializing with the “regular stock” (as Clarence put it) who have pulled up nearby for an overnighter.
This article includes the list of the over 100 letter signers regarding
Justice Thomas' integrity.
One of them is Jim Ho.
It's Fox News, so ?
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/over-over-100-former-clerks-justice-
thomas-sign-letter-defending-his-integrity-independence
No political affiliations mentioned but one can only surmise.
Maybe Wickipedia.org would know.
Douthat fussed about the timing of the Pretender trials....I read part of what he had to say.
My morning thoughts on the matter:
Agree that it's too bad Trump's trials will occur at a critical point in next year's presidential campaign season. Like Ross, I wouldn't have arranged it that way either. Nice to be able to agree with him for once.
But, really, does it matter?
Trump has been cruising for his bruisings (as my father was fond of saying back when American was Great) during most of his adult life. His presidency was marked by thousands of obvious lies, rampant corruption and brazen peculation.
Everyone knows what kind of man he is.
He just finally ran out of the immunity his immense wealth, the position of the presidency and the spineless Republican Senate granted him twice over.
Given Trump's history of misbehavior and the fact that for at least the last twenty years we seem always to be in the midst of a seemingly perpetual campaign season, the trials and campaigns were bound to collide at some point.
That, added to the fact that Trump's public behavior has already convicted him in the public eye (everyone knows what kind of man he he; some just don't care), and the equally obvious fact that he would like to be president again just to stay out of jail, means the timing of any of these long-overdue trials doesn't matter a whit.
The only perfect time to try and convict Trump would have been before 2016.
Would have saved all of us a whole lot of trouble.
“Stunningly stupid…”
Who? Why, Trump, natch. To be more specific, Trump’s sleazy mouthpieces, but it’s exactly the sort of outrageous move that narcissistic piece of shit would try.
Whining that he’s not being given the 25 years he has demanded to prepare for his trial (which one? Oh, yeah, there are so many…this is the one for trying to steal the election—well, one of the trials for trying to steal the election), the date set by Judge Chutkan is being described as being done with the “haste of a mob”, with Trump being compared to…are you ready for this?!?!…the Scottsboro Boys!!!!
Speaking on CNN, retired California Superior Court Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, called the comparison “stunningly stupid”. The idea is that Trump is being given “no time” to prepare for his trial. Just like the Scottsboro Boys.
Okay…first, the Scottsboro Boys, all young black guys, who were accused of raping two white women in Scottsboro, Alabama in 1931 went to trial six days after the alleged rape, a crime of which they were all innocent. Trump will go to trial over three years after his attempted coup and now has over seven months to prepare.
Second, the Scottsboro Boys were innocent of rape. Trump is a convicted rapist. AND he’s guilty as charged in his attempt to hold on to power by subverting the democratic process.
The unbelievable chutzpah continues unabated. First he’s compared to MLK and Churchill, now he’s a victim of “the mob”, just like the Scottsboro Boys.
The Traitors are all up in arms about a two-tiered justice system. They are, in fact, correct about that. That fat fuck has been given enormous consideration at every step of the way in all his trials. Think the Scottsboro Boys were allowed to turn themselves in when they felt like it, and were given a police escort to arrive at the courthouse “like Caesar”?
But waaaahhh…it’s just like the Scottsboro Boys.
One more thought on this incredible Trump=Scottsboro Boys ploy.
You have to figure that Trump’s lawyers spent at least a little time in school, meaning they’re not (or shouldn’t be) completely dim. So why trot out an obviously insulting comparison…in front of a black judge (who isn’t Clarence Thomas, that is)? Especially given the fact that you are defending a racist asshole who calls Nazis “good people”. It would be like a wife beater showing up in court and his lawyers demanding consideration because he has “Me Too” concerns.
So why do it?
Pure racism. Or more exactly, a form of racial profiling.
“We need to help Donald push this trial back as far as possible. What’s the plan?”
“Look, the judge is black, right? Just pick some black reference. She’ll bite. It’s like Pavlov’s Dog, right? Heh-heh.”
Right. What’s next? They all show up in court dressed like a hip-hop band? They march in to Run DMC on a boom box wearing “Fuck da Police” t-shirts?
Oh, she’s black. We’ll say “Scottsboro Boys” and we’ll get anything we want.
Luckily, Judge Chutkan is not a moron, like Fatty’s lawyers. And not for nothin’, but…class…a show of hands. How many think Trump has ever even heard of the Scottsboro Boys?
What I thought…
Breaking news!
Big pharma agrees to lower prices on drugs for Americans on Medicare!
Here’s the list:
Aspirin
Castor oil
Milkweed sap
Sulfa
Leeches
King's Liniment for Rheumatism and Catarrh
Dr. Bonker’s Celebrated Egyptian Oil
Eye of newt
Animal dung ointment
Carter’s little liver pills
Medicine show snake oil
Mustard seed poultice
There ya go. Are those guys great, or what? Bet you thought they’d be greedy bastards.
@Akhilleus: That's just what I thought. These white guys are so white they think the mention of Black people whom the law has mistreated would make a Black judge think, "Oh, yeah, that nice Donald Trump is getting the Scottsboro Boys treatment. So unfa-a-a-a-ir!" If the lawyers could have worked Rosa Parks or Harriet Tubman into their argument, they would have. (The Scottsboro Boys analogy worked so well, maybe they'll try Rosa and Harriet next time.)
And part of that racial profiling/stereotyping of Judge Chutkan is the assumption that she's just a dumb Neegro woman who probably got her job only because of affirmative action.
I really don't get how these high-paid, experienced lawyers can be so stupid. Surely they've practiced before minority and female judges in the past, so they should know these judges aren't any dumber than (and probably on the whole are not as dumb as) white male judges. Or maybe the lawyers have lost case after case before minority and female judges and just assumed they lost the cases because the judges weren't very bright. Whatever, it's a puzzlement.
Opps
"Texas National Guard member fires across Rio Grande, wounds Mexican citizen
The Texas Military Department isn’t identifying the Guard member or providing details about the Saturday shooting. The man who was shot in the leg said he was working out near the river.
It’s the second time that a Texas National Guard member has shot a civilian while deployed for Operation Lone Star, and the third known time that a soldier has fired their weapon while on duty at the border"
The Biden news about lowering drug prices reminds me of Katie Porter taking down the drug companies and calling out their bullshit a couple years ago. Apparently the Republicans are now trying to sell the same R&D myth to attack the new negotiations. It's also worth remembering that the government pays for a lot of costs of new drugs with all the grants they give to the drug companies. They make us pay and pay and pay.
RAS,
And once again, Biden tries to help Americans in a concrete fashion, not just with incomprehensible word salads designed to whip up hatred, and what happens? He’s attacked by the Party of Traitors. Because helping Americans, especially older Americans on a fixed budget trying to decide between meds and food, is secondary to screwing Biden.
And I thought it was open season now on corporations. I guess that’s only if those corporations are the tiniest bit progressive and try to at least take a stab at diversity, otherwise as far as Republicans are concerned, corporate profits are far more important than grandma being able to afford her medications.
Cruelty is the point. Cruelty and power.
More on negotiating drug prices:
https://theintercept.com/2023/08/29/insulin-medicare-drug-price-negotiation/
If this is socialism, I like it.
I'm with @Marie. Both McConnell and Feinstein are done. It's not about they themselves, it's about their positions being in the interest of their constituents. Resign now, or die in dishonor for being self-centered.
Definitely am no fan of McConnell but the video today just made me very sad. He reminded me of my father towards the end, with almost a look of fear on his face, that he wasn’t sure where he was or what was going on. Dementia is a terrible thing and I don’t wish it on anyone. Even Mitch McConnell.