;)
The Conversation -- December 13, 2023
** House Votes for Impeachment About Nothing. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The House voted on Wednesday to formally open an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, pushing forward with a yearlong G.O.P. investigation that has failed to produce evidence of anything approaching high crimes or misdemeanors. Republicans said the vote was needed to give them full authority to continue carrying out their investigation amid anticipated legal challenges from the White House. Democrats have denounced the inquiry as a fishing expedition and a political stunt." ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Beitsch & Emily Brooks of the Hill: "The House GOP on Wednesday formalized its impeachment inquiry into President Biden with a House vote, a step Republicans hope will add legal weight to their demands as the probe moves into a more aggressive end stage. Lawmakers voted 221-212 along party lines to approve the resolution authorizing the inquiry."
Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve left interest rates unchanged at its final meeting of the year on Wednesday, as financial markets eagerly await any sign that the central bank is done raising borrowing costs -- and might even start lowering rates in 2024. The Fed's announcement was expected, on the heels of encouraging economic data on inflation, the job market, wages and consumer spending."
** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Wednesday put on hold all of the proceedings in ... Donald J. Trump's trial on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election as his lawyers asked an appeals court to move slowly in considering his claim that he is immune from prosecution in the case. The separate but related moves were part of an ongoing struggle between Mr, Trump's legal team and prosecutors working for the special counsel, Jack Smith, over the critical question of when the trial will actually be held.... On Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump's lawyers asked the federal appeals court to avoid setting an expedited schedule as it considered whether to dismiss the election subversion charges based on the former president's sweeping claims of executive immunity. In a 16-page filing that blended legal and political arguments, the lawyers asked a three-judge panel of the court not to move too quickly in mulling the question of immunity, saying that a 'reckless rush to judgment' would 'irreparably undermine public confidence in the judicial system.'... On Wednesday afternoon, the trial judge overseeing the election case, Tanya S. Chutkan, handed Mr. Trump a victory by suspending all 'further proceedings that would move this case towards trial' until the appeal of the immunity issue is resolved."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Hunter Biden, the president's son, appeared on Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning to offer to publicly testify in House Republicans' impeachment investigation into his father, though he insisted he would not appear for a private deposition they scheduled over his refusals. The younger Mr. Biden, who has been served a subpoena to testify, spoke to reporters in a hastily called news conference outside the Capitol near the Senate, across the complex from a House office building where Republican lawmakers were waiting to question him behind closed doors. It was a dramatic moment that came just hours before House Republicans were to hold a vote to formalize their impeachment inquiry into President Biden, after a year of investigation that has turned up no concrete evidence of high crimes or misdemeanors. They have pursued Hunter Biden for years, searching for evidence that his father was involved in corruption related to his business dealings with foreign entities...." ~~~
~~~ Annie Grayer, et al., of CNN: "The Republican chairman behind the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden said Wednesday they will start contempt of Congress proceedings against Hunter Biden for not participating in his closed-door deposition on Wednesday, after he demanded to testify publicly. 'Hunter Biden today defied lawful subpoenas and we will now initiate contempt of Congress proceedings,' said House Oversight Chair James Comer and House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan in a joint statement. 'We will not provide special treatment because his last name is Biden.'"
Adam Reiss & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "A federal appeals court on Wednesday shot down ... Donald Trump's attempt to use presidential immunity in the upcoming E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, finding he'd waited too long to raise the defense. Trump had argued he couldn't be sued for comments he made in 2019 about the writer and her sexual assault claims against him because he was president at the time and, he contended, they related to his duties because he needed to speak out and assure the public her accusations were untrue. In a unanimous ruling, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found Trump had waited too long -- three years -- to raise the defense."
Marie: Maybe you remember, as Akhilleus reminded us recently, how aggravating it was to witness Mitt Romney in 2012 tell lies about President Obama and his policies. Oh, for those good ole days. Romney never had a "shadow online ad agency" producing fake videos of Michelle Obama as a porn star or showing women in the Obama administration with red knees, suggesting they spent time giving blow jobs. Then along came Trump. ~~~
~~~ ** Trump's Meme Team. Ken Bensinger of the New York Times: "... a small circle of video meme-makers ... have effectively served as a shadow online ad agency for [Donald Trump']s presidential campaign. Led by a little-known podcaster and life coach, this meme team has spent much of the year flooding social media with content that lionizes the former president, promotes his White House bid and brutally denigrates his opponents. Much of the group, which refers to itself as Trump's Online War Machine, operates anonymously, adopting the cartoonish aesthetic and unrelenting cruelty of internet trolls. Cheered on by Mr. Trump, the group traffics freely in misinformation, artificial intelligence and digital forgeries known as deepfakes. Its memes are riddled with racist stereotypes, demeaning tropes about L.G.B.T.Q. people and broad scatological humor. Their most vulgar invectives are often aimed at women, particularly those seen as enemies of Mr. Trump.... Dan Scavino, Mr. Trump's social media adviser; Steven Cheung, the campaign's spokesman; and Donald Trump Jr. frequently share the memes on their social media accounts."
Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Wednesday that it would decide on the availability of a commonly used abortion pill, the first major case involving abortion on its docket since it overturned the constitutional right to the procedure more than a year ago. The move sets up a high-stakes fight over the drug, mifepristone, that could sharply curtail access to medication that is used in more than half of all pregnancy terminations in the United States. It could also have implications for the regulatory authority of the Food and Drug Administration, which approved the pill more than two decades ago.... The Biden administration had asked the court to take up the cases involving challenges to the pill after a panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued a decision that would curb the availability of the drug." MB: Millions of women have used mifepristone; that is, there is no question about its safety even above and beyond FDA approval.
That's No Gavel; It's a Monkey Wrench. Alan Feuer & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Wednesday to decide a question at the heart of the federal election-interference case against ... Donald J. Trump and hundreds of prosecutions arising from the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Can the government charge defendants in those cases under a federal law that makes it a crime to corruptly obstruct an official congressional proceeding? The decision to hear the case will complicate and perhaps delay the start of Mr. Trump's trial, now scheduled to take place in Washington in March. The Supreme Court's ultimate ruling, which may not arrive until June, is likely to address the viability of two of the main counts against Mr. Trump. It could severely limit efforts by the special counsel, Jack Smith, to hold the former president accountable for the violence of his supporters at the Capitol. The court's eventual decision could also invalidate convictions that have already been secured against scores of Mr. Trump's followers who took part in the assault. That would be an enormous blow to the government's prosecutions of the Jan. 6 riot cases."
~~~~~~~~~~
Fulfilling Their Oaths to the Orange Jesus. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "When the House votes on Wednesday to authorize an impeachment inquiry into President Biden, it will be the culmination of a slow but decisive political shift among Republicans -- urged on by ... Donald J. Trump and his closest allies in Congress -- from a place of resisting such an inquiry to fully embracing it. The vote is both a consequential step and a mere formality; Republicans have been conducting an impeachment investigation for months, a fact that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy made official when he announced in September that the inquiry was commencing without a House vote. But this week's action follows a monthslong effort by G.O.P. leaders to shore up support among more than a dozen mainstream conservatives who had been skeptical about pushing forward on impeachment amid an investigation that has so far failed to produce concrete evidence that the president has committed high crimes or misdemeanors."
Lindsay Whitehurst & Alanna Richer of the AP: "Scared for her life after Rudy Giuliani and other Donald Trump allies falsely accused her of fraud, former Georgia election worker Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss told jurors Tuesday she seldom leaves her home, suffers from panic attacks and battles nightmares brought on by a barrage of threatening and racist messages. Wandrea 'Shaye' Moss took the witness stand on the second day of the defamation trial that will determine how much the former New York City mayor will have to pay Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, for spreading a conspiracy theory that they rigged the state's 2020 election results. Moss noted that Giuliani just a day earlier -- after the trial began -- repeated the false claims about her and her mother, saying they were 'engaged in changing votes.' 'I personally cannot repair my reputation at the moment because your client is still lying on me and ruining my reputation further,' she told Giuliani's lawyer....
"Moss' testimony came hours after the judge scolded Giuliani for comments made outside the federal courthouse Monday in which he insisted his claims about the women were true.... U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell warned Giuliani's lawyer that his client's remarks amounted to 'defamatory statements about them yet again.' The judge was incredulous, asking Giuliani's lawyer [Joseph Sibley] about the contradiction of his opening statements calling Freeman and Moss 'good people' but then the former mayor repeating unfounded allegations of voter fraud... Sibley conceded her point and told the judge he discussed the comments with his client, but added, 'I can't control everything he does.' He also argued that the mayor's age and health concerns make long days in court challenging."
Presidential Race 2024
Marie: Gosh, I forgot to alert you that on Tuesday night CNN was hosting one of its fake "town halls" last night, this one featuring Rhonda Santis. ~~~
~~~ Eric Bradner & Steve Contorno of CNN: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday showed new urgency in taking on Donald Trump, attacking the former president at every turn at a CNN town hall in Iowa with the state's caucuses less than five weeks away. DeSantis was quick to flip many questions into opportunities to contrast his record as governor with Trump. The economy? Trump 'set the stage' for rising inflation, DeSantis said. The border crisis? Trump didn't complete the wall, and Mexico didn't pay for it, he said. Abortion? Trump is 'flip-flopping on the right to life,' the Florida governor claimed. He even blamed Trump for the Satanic Temple of Iowa's display at the state Capitol, a development that has roiled Iowa and triggered a free speech debate. 'Lo and behold, the Trump administration gave them approval to be under the IRS as a religion,' DeSantis said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service granting the group tax-exempt status in 2019."
Judd Legum & Rebecca Crosby of Popular Information list "10 alarming things Trump has promised to do in a second term:... He will 'abuse power' and be a 'dictator' on 'day one.'... Election fraud in 2020 gives him the power to 'terminate' the Constitution.... He will issue 'full pardons' to January 6 insurrectionists.... He will cut funding to schools that cover subjects he believes are 'inappropriate.'... He will legally erase trans people and ban them from military service.... He will end birthright citizenship by executive order.... He will impose a new 10% tax on all imported goods.... He will investigate NBC and MSNBC for treason and potentially remove the company from public airwaves.... He will demand anyone convicted of selling drugs get the death penalty.... He will order the arrest of all urban homeless and relocate them to federally-run tent cities...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Sad Schemes of a Huckster. Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: Donald "Trump announced Tuesday that snippets of the suit he wore for [his Georgia mugshot] would be available for purchase, as part of a new sale of NFT 'digital trading cards,' a product he debuted in late 2022. Customers who buy 47 of the $99 apiece digital cards, Trump says, will receive a physical card containing a piece of the suit Trump is seen wearing in the photo.... The $4,653 package also includes a dinner with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club and residence in Palm Beach, Florida.... Like the first round of card sales, the current offer claims the cards are 'not political and have nothing to do with any political campaign.' Still, by offering buyers an in-person dinner with Trump, the deal essentially provides access to a former president and current top presidential contender -- without any of the guardrails of federal campaign finance rules." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Not that it matters, but I'd guess that those scraps of cloth probably are not from the mugshot suit. Trump wears blue suits all the time, as he did for his mugshot. I doubt he knows which of the nearly identical suits he wore on Mugshot Day. He probably just picked out an old suit that was getting frayed & sweat-stinky, and instructed the help to cut it up. He scams even his scams. Oh, and the suit likely was not "Made in the USA."
Supreme Voter Suppression. Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed a local Texas election to go forward under a map that a lower court had found diluted the votes of Black and Latino residents. The order came in response to a challenge from civil rights advocates opposed to the voting districts in Galveston County. While the case involves the boundaries in just one locality, it could have broader implications for challenges to election maps and the protection of voting rights nationwide. As is customary with emergency applications, the Supreme Court majority did not explain its rationale for leaving the map in place for now."
Jeremy Peters, et al., of the New York Times: "Claudine Gay will stay on as president of Harvard University, the school's governing board announced on Tuesday, despite an uproar over her evasive answers at a congressional hearing about campus antisemitism. The members of the board, the Harvard Corporation, deliberated into the night on Monday before finally deciding not to remove Dr. Gay, the university's first Black president, from her post." This is an update of a story linked earlier yesterday. ~~~
~~~ Miles Herszenhorn & Calire Yuan of the Harvard Crimson: "The Harvard Corporation expressed concerns about allegations of plagiarism in University President Claudine Gay's academic work Tuesday morning, even as the board declared its unanimous support for Harvard's embattled president, providing Gay with a path forward to remain in office.... 'On December 9, the Fellows reviewed the results, which revealed a few instances of inadequate citation,' the Fellows wrote. 'While the analysis found no violation of Harvard's standards for research misconduct, President Gay is proactively requesting four corrections in two articles to insert citations and quotation marks that were omitted from the original publications.' In the statement, the Corporation revealed that it learned about the plagiarism allegations against Gay in late October. The board's concerns also call into question the presidential search committee's vetting process for the search that ended in Gay’s selection less than one year ago." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here's the statement of the Harvard Corporation, via Harvard. (Also linked yesterday.)
Brad Plumer of the New York Times: "For the first time since nations began meeting three decades ago to tackle climate change, diplomats from nearly 200 countries approved a global pact that explicitly calls for 'transitioning away from fossil fuels' like oil, gas and coal that are dangerously heating the planet. The sweeping agreement, which comes during the hottest year in recorded history, was reached on Wednesday after two weeks of furious debate at the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. European leaders and many of the nations most vulnerable to climate-fueled extreme weather were urging language that called for a complete 'phaseout' of fossil fuels. But that proposal faced intense pushback from major oil exporters like Saudi Arabia and Iraq as well as fast-growing countries like India and Nigeria. In the end, negotiators struck a compromise: The new deal calls on countries to accelerate a global shift away from fossil fuels this decade in a 'just, orderly and equitable manner,' and to quit adding carbon dioxide to the atmosphere entirely by midcentury."
~~~~~~~~~~
As New York Goes, So Goes the Nation? Maegan Vazquez & Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "The New York State Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted Democrats who control the state legislature a chance to approve a new set of congressional district lines for the state, effectively throwing out a map that led to several Republican victories in 2022 House races. The ruling could be consequential in determining which party controls the House during the next Congress. In 2022, Republicans flipped four districts in New York, giving them a razor-thin majority in the House. Democrats need to win a net of five seats to win back the House next year." Politico's story is here.
Texas. President Joe Biden, in a statement: "No woman should be forced to go to court or flee her home state just to receive the health care she needs. But that is exactly what happened in Texas thanks to Republican elected officials, and it is simply outrageous. This should never happen in America, period."
~~~~~~~~~~
Camilo Montoya-Galvaz of CBS News: "The Biden administration on Tuesday indicated to congressional lawmakers that it would be willing to support a new border authority to expel migrants without asylum screenings, as well as a dramatic expansion of immigration detention and deportations, to convince Republicans to back aid to Ukraine, four people familiar with the matter told CBS News. The White House informed Senate Democrats that it could back those sweeping and hardline immigration policy changes as part of the negotiations over President Biden's emergency funding request, a roughly $100 billion package that includes military aid to Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine, as well as money to bolster border enforcement and hire additional immigration officials." (Related links under "Ukraine, et al.," below.)
Israel/Palestine
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "President Biden said 'indiscriminate bombing' is eroding international support for Israel, in some of the sharpest criticism from Israel's closest ally over its offensive in Gaza since the latest war with Hamas began. The United Nations General Assembly for a second time voted overwhelmingly to demand a cease-fire, with 153 countries in favor -- an increase of more than 30 since the last vote for a similar resolution in October.... The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a public announcement Tuesday warning of potential 'lone actor violence' in the United States as a result of the war, including at holiday and faith-based gatherings. The announcement was not made in response to any specific plot, the agencies said." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Wednesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.
Times of Israel: "The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] has started pumping seawater into Hamas's underground tunnel system in Gaza, a move aimed at destroying the Palestinian terror group's subterranean network of passages and hideaways and driving its operatives above ground, a report said Tuesday. The development was reported by The Wall Street Journal, which earlier this month reported that the tactic was under 'consideration' and that the Israel Defense Forces had set up five large water pumps near the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, capable of flooding the tunnels within weeks by pumping thousands of cubic meters of water per hour into them.... 'With regard to the flooding of the tunnels.... There (are) assertions being made that there [are] no hostages in any of these tunnels, but I don't know that for a fact,' [President] Biden said in response to a question on the matter during a press conference [Tuesday] at the White House with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky."
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden told Israel's leaders on Tuesday that they were losing international support for their war in Gaza, exposing a widening rift with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who rejected out of hand the American vision for a postwar resolution to the conflict. Mr. Biden delivered the blunt assessment of America's closest ally in the Middle East during a fund-raiser in Washington, where he described Mr. Netanyahu as the leader of 'the most conservative government in Israel's history,' which doesn't 'want anything remotely approaching a two-state solution' to the country's long-running dispute with Palestinians.... The president's remarks came hours after Mr. Netanyahu pledged to defy weeks of American pressure to put the Palestinian Authority in charge of Gaza once the fighting ends. Mr. Netanyahu ruled out any role there for the group, which now governs Palestinian society in the Israeli-occupied West Bank." An AP story is here. A Reuters report is here.
Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "The U.N. General Assembly demanded an immediate cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in an overwhelming vote on Tuesday that highlighted much of the world's desire to bring the bloody conflict to an end. About three-quarters of the body's members voted in favor of the nonbinding resolution, underscoring the isolation of Israel and the United States, which last week blocked a cease-fire resolution in the Security Council. Resounding applause and cheers erupted after the vote was announced: 153 in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions. The resolution required two-thirds majority for passage."
Steven Erlanger of the New York Times: Under international law governing war, "proportionality is a key component in determining the legality of an act of war. It is not merely a question, lawyers said, of fairly balancing the death tolls on either side of a conflict's ledger. Instead, it is a matter of determining whether, at the moment the decision to launch any attack is made, the expected military advantage outweighs the expected harm to civilians once feasible measures are taken to reduce it. But there is no universal consensus on how to make such a comparison. Nor are the facts always clear in the fog of war.... The large numbers of civilian dead, more than in any previous Gaza conflict, do in aggregate raise questions about whether Israel's calculations of proportionality have changed in this war.... Israeli officials, speaking anonymously under military rules, acknowledge that the scale and scope of the operations in Gaza are much greater than in the past.... Officials recognize the reputational damage the war is causing and the public pressure that allied governments are feeling to bring the killing to a rapid close. But they claim they are being held to a higher standard than Hamas. Hamas, they say, has breeched numerous laws of war, including using civilians as human shields, using civilian infrastructure for military purposes and using rape as a weapon." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Israelis are correct that Israel is held to a higher standard than Hamas. But Israel is a nation; Hamas is a terrorist organization, which, by definition, doesn't play by the rules.
Ukraine, et al.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden warned on Tuesday that Russia was celebrating American division over providing aid to Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky hit a wall of resistance from congressional Republicans during a daylong lobbying blitz in Washington. Speaking from the White House with Mr. Zelensky by his side, Mr. Biden said failing to support Ukraine would be a gift to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. 'Putin is banking on the United States failing to deliver for Ukraine,' Mr. Biden said at the White House. 'We must, we must, we must prove him wrong.'... Mr. Biden accused Republicans of holding military aid to Ukraine 'hostage' in exchange for 'an extreme Republican partisan agenda on the border.' He cited the comments of Russian broadcasters praising Republicans for refusing to approve the Ukraine assistance.... Mr. Zelensky thanked the United States for coming to Ukraine's aid, but said the support must continue....
"Speaker Mike Johnson accused the White House of failing to articulate a clear path to Ukraine's victory, which Republicans have also said is a necessary condition to unlocking military aid. Mr. Johnson has voted repeatedly against aiding Ukraine.... During Mr. Zelensky's meeting with senators, a number of Republicans told him directly that securing the U.S. border with Mexico was the key to obtaining aid for his nation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I know this is too difficult for GOP numbskulls to understand inasmuch as their perceptions are limited by two factors: (a) if they can't see it, they don't get it, and (b) if they don't want to see it, the opposite is true. BUT. Most of the funds spent on military aid the U.S. sends to Ukraine (or anyplace else) stays in the U.S. Americans make munitions & other military stuff in U.S. factories, those same Americans go to the store & buy goods from U.S. companies, and those same job-holding Americans pay taxes to the U.S. Treasury Department. So this notion that Republicans keep repeating about how Americans are "giving billions" to Ukraine is only partially true. We're giving a lot more billions to ourselves than we are giving to Ukrainians. "Billions for Ukraine" is in fact largely a U.S. domestic redistribution of wealth. And let me add that Democrats are doing a piss-poor job of even trying to explain Econ 101 to their intellectually-impaired colleagues on the other side of the aisle. ~~~
~~~ Sahil Kapur & Megan Lebowitz of NBC News: "Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Monday dismissed fears of Russia's military capabilities under President Vladimir Putin and suggested Ukraine should give up some of its land to end the war.... 'No one can explain to me how this ends without some territorial concessions relative to the 1991 boundaries,' he added. A day earlier, Vance said on CNN's 'State of the Union' that it was in 'America's best interest ... to accept Ukraine is going to have to cede some territory to the Russians.'" MB: This would be a good place for me to mention that J.D. is often characterized as Donald Trump's mouthpiece in the Senate. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) on Monday dug into Sen. JD Vance's (R-Ohio) recent remarks against sending further aid to Ukraine, calling the Ohio Republican's comments 'total and unmitigated bull‑‑‑‑.' Vance, in an interview with former White House aid[e] Steve Bannon earlier Monday, claimed some lawmakers are looking to cut Social Security benefits for more aid to Ukraine that he argued will be used so one of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's ministers 'can buy a bigger yacht.' Presented with Tillis's criticism later Monday, Vance said he believes Ukraine is 'one of the most corrupt countries in Europe.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
** Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Russian push in eastern Ukraine this fall and winter was designed to sap Western support for Ukraine, according to a newly declassified American intelligence assessment. The drive has resulted in heavy losses but has not led to strategic gains on the battlefield for Russia, said Adrienne Watson, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council. Since the beginning of the war Russia has suffered from a staggeringly high number of losses, according to another newly declassified assessment shared with Congress. At the start of the war the Russian army stood at 360,000 troops. Russia has lost 315,000 of those troops, forcing them to recruit and mobilize new recruits and convicts from their prison system. Moscow's equipment has also been crushed, according to the assessment. At the start of the war, Russia had 3,500 tanks but has lost 2,200, forcing them to pull 50 year old T-62 tanks from storage." A related Politico report is here.
News Lede
New York Times: "Andre Braugher, an Emmy Award-winning actor best known for playing stoic police officers on the television shows 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine' and 'Homicide: Life on the Street,' died on Monday. He was 61."
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Reader Comments (22)
Runny Hair Dye Man continues to lie. It’s all he’s got left. If he learned anything from his good buddy (who deserted him the way he deserts everyone who can no longer be of use) the Orange Monster, it’s to keep the lies coming, fast and furious. That’s all he has as well.
By the time his trial is over, it won’t matter how much Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman are awarded. They won’t see a cent. Giuliani will declare bankruptcy and screw them one more time, even as he declares yet again that they are drug dealers who helped Biden steal the election.
Just as an aside, the Trumpian MO, adopted now by the entire Party of Traitors, is to denigrate, attack, and destroy the concept of honest pubic service. If you show up and do your job, whether it’s working to count votes or helping a citizen fill out some form, unless you have taken an oath to abide by the wishes of a traitor, you are a member of the Deep State and will be dealt with as such.
Civic duty and responsibility, bedrocks of a democracy, are seen as anathema to an authoritarian regime. And even if a judge tells these scumbags to stop, they won’t.
Rudy Giuliani needs to see the inside of a cell.
And now a word from a baked potato.
Sen. Potato Head, asked why he’s not going to give a penny to Ukraine, draws on his decades of military experience to inform his interlocutor that, in his sagacious opinion, Ukraine was never gonna win anyways. So fuck ‘em.
You know, one of the things you learn in sports (or should learn) is not to give up. You show up, you work hard, and you never know. Even against the greatest odds, you can win. Hell, who thought colonial Americans with a ragtag army and a guy who couldn’t get a decent commission in the British army could defeat the greatest military power in the world? According to Tommy Two Face, the French should have said “Oh, those Americans, they don’t have a chance. Fuck ‘em.”
And what about Potato Head himself?
Here’s a two time Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from Alabama, John Archibald, on the idiot he refers to as a Tubervillain after Tommy Two Face finally stopped screwing with national security to make himself look important:
“What this Florida man did — he came to Alabama as if in the transfer portal, but kept his Florida permanent address — was posture and pander, at the expense of his country.
‘Coach’ Tuberville, as he likes to be called, came off as an opportunist looking to make his splash, a man who knew he was so out of his depth that he needed to create sound and fury to disguise the fact he has no qualifications as a U.S. Senator.”
And even fewer qualifications to pontificate about international events he knows nothing about.
So just take it from Tommy. If things look tough, just give up. That’s leadership, I’m tellin’ ya.
What now?!
They just never give up. It’s not enough that we have a Supreme Court on the verge of turning this country into a Christian theocracy, that the tiniest imagined slights are turned into a War on Christians, now the Christian nationalists are going after “White Christmas”.
Why?
Jew. Eeeww…
Some of the most popular Christmas songs were written by Jews, and the bigots cannot abide this.
“Christian nationalist Andrew Torba is putting a new spin on the Jews despoiling Christmas trope. Torba, the founder of Gab and an ultraconservative web commentator, has discovered something akin to Columbus discovering America … Jews are responsible for some of the greatest, most revered and enduring Christmas songs ever written. And that pisses him off!”
Other songs on the Written by Jews list.
‘Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire’ by pop-jazz singer Mel Torme
‘Santa Baby’ by Joan Javits and Phil Springer, two composers
‘It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year’ by George Wyle and Eddie Pola, two writers and musicians
‘Silver Bells’ by Ray Evans and Jay Livingston, musical partners that met in college
In addition to Rudolph, Marks also wrote ‘Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree,’ and ‘Silver and Gold’
‘Walkin’ In a Winter Wonderland’ by Felix Bernard, a Jewish composer and conductor, along with his non-Jewish colleague, Richard B. Smith.
And leave us not forget that “White Christmas”, at one time the most recorded song in the world, was written by Irving Berlin, one of the greatest songwriters in popular music history.
Great stuff, right?
But never mind that, because JEW!
“Andrew Torba’s contended that these songs are aimed at kicking Christ out of Christmas, and turning the celebration of the birth of Jesus (not so coincidentally a Jew) into a winter holiday.. ‘Knowing this, how could you allow your household to be filled with this music?’ Torba asked his listeners.”
Would Goebbels have loved this guy!
He goes on to tear into Hanukkah for butting into Christmas. What a guy.
So now I have a complaint. I wanna know who I see about how Christians booted Saturn out of Saturnalia. All those great Saturnalian feast ideas, wreaths, candles, gift giving, swiped by Bible beaters. And the songs!! Jumping Jupiter! What have we come to?
@Akhilleus: Definitely horrifying that Christianity stole the Saturnalia from pagans. In fact, almost all "Christmas traditions" are really some kind of usurpation of "pagan" beliefs & festivities. There's not one verse in the New Testament that puts the birth of Jesus at the winter solstice. "Jesus' birthday" didn't have a place in the Church at all till maybe the 4th century. But now it's the most wonderful time of the year!
You find a Christian tradition -- you'll find a pagan origin.
I think the real problem Christians have with other religions "horning in" on Christmas (did I mention that the holiest Christian season totally swipes Passover from the Jews?) is that when you notice that Christian observances have their antecedents in the rites of other religions, it suddenly looks as if Christianity is just another religion among many and not the One True Religion. And that is way upsetting.
Speaking of religion, I'm reminded of what happened a few nights
ago as I was saying my prayers.
God: Since you've lived an exemplary life, I grant you one wish.
Me: I'd like a bridge build to Hawaii so I can drive there anytime.
God: That's an interesting wish, but highly unlikely to be done, even
by me because it would take all the steel an cement left on earth so
that would ruin 'Infrastructure Week.' You should ask for something
that would make us both look good.
Me: O.K., you know about that Congress in Washington D.C. that
we voted into office? Could you make them all work together,
Republicans and Democrats, for the good of the people and for the
good of the country?
God: How many lanes do you want on that bridge, 2 or 4?
Supreme Court to decide whether to restrict abortion drug nationwide.
How about restricting Viagra? That might prevent the need for a lot
of abortions.
Forrest,
Good one. My wife laughed aloud and sends you her compliments.
Thanks.
"failed to produce concrete evidence that the president has committed high crimes or misdemeanors.”
They don't have non-concrete either. They have produced No evidence of criminality and in fact have shown many of the acts they are trying to impeach Biden over were legal, normal, and in the case of Ukraine for the good of the country.
The Republican Way
"You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic." ― Robert A. Heinlein
RAS,
Robert Heinlein (or his alter ego, Lazarus Long) said so many smart things that I've never entirely understood why or how he lost his political way in his later years.
Yes, there was Annapolis training in his background and his early years when he was sympathetic to socialism but....
Even the brightest of us can suffer from bouts of True Believer-ism, it seems.
Something to guard against...
Happy Chrismahanukwanzakah to all.
Tell ya what…I’m not handing over any hard earned shekels for a swatch from a shitty suit, but I’ll happily open the wallet to get a piece of Fatty’s first federal corrections system jumpsuit.
The subpoena of Hunter Biden is not to obtain facts. These GOP is on the hunt for "Gotcha's".
Ken,
Re: Heinlein, my first exposure to his particular brand of sci-fi was through short stories like “Roads must roll” and the Future History stories. Then I read “Stranger in a Strange Land” which I found both weird and exhilarating. Heinlein described himself as a libertarian but there’s no way to miss the harsh, and violent, right-wing racism and overt trumpeting of military hegemony in a novel like “Starship Troopers”.
An amazing writer (he insisted that the science in his sci-fi have at least some basis in realistic possibilities) but a strange dude.
Early in my sci-fi reading, I came to sense that most science fiction tended towards a more liberal, or at least progressive world view (think Bradbury, Le Guin, eg), but like any other genre no single political point of view dominates.
I suppose one could demarcate science fiction this way: liberal/progressive writers look to the future (hope, understanding, advancing beyond past mistakes and tribal ignorance; yeah it’s chancy, but that’s how we grow as a species). Right-wing writers come down on the side of the past (protect what we have, kill those we don’t understand, and don’t trust new ideas or idiots who try to change things). Aliens show up? Wipe ‘em out. You Ess Ay!
A perfect example of this dichotomy can be found in the Denis Villeneuve 2016 film, “Arrival”, based on a Ted Chiang story (a terrific movie even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, it’s more a meditation on humanity than a blow-shit-up space opera).
The central problem in “Arrival” is this: aliens show up. Do we try to see what they have to tell us, or do we blow them up? The distinction is entirely analogous to the so-called border problem. Come up with a reasonable and humane immigration policy or deputize morons to shoot people not like us and put their babies in cages?
We know which choice Trump’s starship troopers go with.
Ken and AK,
I devoured every word of Heinlein in my youth, along with the ABCs (Asimov, Bradbury, and Clark). His Moon is a Harsh Mistress launched me into my childish libertarian phase. But one of my all time favorites still is Stranger in a Strange Land. Particularly the bit where Michael learns to grok laughter. Comedy is not pretty.
@D in MD: Since the New Year will bring us a Seinfeld Impeachment (i.e., an Impeachment About Nothing), don't you think it would be appropriate to celebrate the Seinfeld-inspired Festivus this month? What with the Airing of Grievances, I'm surprised Festivus is not wingers' favorite winter holiday.
"Is everything okay?"
RIP Andre Braugher
Marie,
Never saw Seinfeld. I haven't watched a regularly scheduled entertainment program on commercial TV in over thirty years. Don't tell anybody -- they might revoke my citizenship.
Still, Festivus sounds like a fun idea. I'm all for pagan rights and rites.
My favorite sci-fi book was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron.
Unwashed,
Never read the Cameron book, but sci-fi for kids has been around for a while. As a 10 year old, I found an old book of my dad’s (published in 1912!) in a bookcase in our cellar, “Tom Swift and His Wizard Camera”. I was hooked. It was a blast. I still remember that period of my reading life, when I raced through fantasy and sci-fi novels and short stories, with great fondness. We’ve read a few more recent sci-fi books with my son (just about to turn 13). A couple of our favorites are “The Wild Robot” and “The Last Kids on Earth”. Imagination is a powerful thing and the best of these genres tackle the art of the possible and peer into a future (and sometimes a past) that, like all good literature, considers what it means to be human.
AK,
Thanks for the memory. Tom Swift and the Hardy Boys... devoured them all.
D.
Yup.
In my wasted youth, there were also the Ken Holt mysteries, the Rick Brant, electronics genius,Tom Swift, Jr. and Ted Scott Flying something stories. Even Nancy Drew and another girl detective series I can't now recall.
And of course all the Edgar Rice Burroughs series...
Guess I never grew up and haven't changed much since then.
Am now reading Tarzan novels to my grandchildren.