The Conversation -- December 19, 2024
Once again, Not-President Trump -- this time with his co-president* (or his puppetmaster) Elon Musk -- has sent a normally-chaotic Washington into utter disarray. Why, one just might think this is what they want. ~~~
One or two puppet masters weigh in and extreme MAGA Republicans decide to do the bidding of the wealthy, the well-connected, the millionaires and billionaires, not working-class people all across America.... The bill that is before us today is just part of an effort to shut down the government. -- Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, on the House floor, Thursday ~~~
~~~ Jacob Bogage & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "The federal government moved closer to a weekend shutdown Thursday, after the House overwhelmingly voted down Speaker Mike Johnson’s new plan to extend the deadline despite support from ... Donald Trump and his billionaire adviser Elon Musk. The GOP proposal would have extended federal operations into mid-March, sent more than $100 billion to natural-disaster survivors and suspended the country’s borrowing limit for two years. But it needed the support of two-thirds of the House to pass, and it went down by a 235-174 vote, with one member voting present. It wasn’t clear Thursday night what the next move will be....
"Only two Democrats supported the legislation, with 197 of them opposing it. But 38 Republicans also voted no — an indication of how difficult finding an alternative solution before the shutdown deadline may be for the GOP leader. The bipartisan legislation the House GOP scrapped Wednesday was substantially similar to the bill that Johnson tried to advance Thursday, though he dropped some provisions unrelated to spending and added — at Trump’s request — a suspension of the debt limit." This is an update of a story linked earlier Thursday.
You know those classic rom-coms where a couple meets at work, hilarity ensues, and everything works out in the end? They are fiction, people! ~~~
~~~ Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Georgia’s Court of Appeals on Thursday disqualified the Atlanta prosecutor who brought an election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump and his allies, a surprise move that threw the entire case into disarray. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel reversed the trial judge, who in March had allowed Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County, Ga., to keep the case, despite revelations about a romantic relationship she had with the lawyer who was hired to manage the prosecution. All three of the appeals judges are Republican appointees. While the decision is likely to be appealed to the full court, if it stands, it could doom the entire case, which is the last active criminal prosecution involving charges against Mr. Trump."
Jeanna Smialek & Ana Swanson of the New York Times: "The U.S. economy is pulling ahead of its global peers. Inflation is moderating, and the Federal Reserve is cutting interest rates.... The unemployment rate is low. Consumers are spending.... Add in a decrease in unlawful southern border crossings and revved-up domestic production in several critical industries and they amount to a rough list of Donald J. Trump’s campaign promises. It’s a list of economic wins that Mr. Trump is inheriting in large part because of policies that the Federal Reserve and Biden administration have pursued in recent years.... But a variety of risks — some sheer happenstance, some floated by Mr. Trump — could interfere with that rosy outcome just as ... [he] takes office.... Economists have ... warned that Mr. Trump’s own policies could lift inflation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Partly but not wholly because Congressional Republicans oppose most laws designed to help ordinary Americans, Joe (Biden) & Jay (Powell) did not do enough to make the U.S. economy work ideally for its people. But in an irony upon irony, Joe & Jay did manage to make ours the best economy in the world, and now Trump, who promised butterflies and rainbows, is poised to wreck all that.
Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "The 26-year-old man accused of murdering a health care executive in Manhattan agreed at a court hearing on Thursday to be extradited to New York, where he is facing a first-degree murder charge. The man, Luigi Mangione, was being held at a prison in Pennsylvania after he was spotted in a McDonald’s in the central part of the state and arrested by the local police. The Manhattan district attorney’s office sought to bring him to New York to prosecute him for the death of Brian Thompson, the chief executive of UnitedHealthcare.... After his arrest last week, Mr. Mangione initially indicated through his lawyer that he would contest extradition to New York. Mr. Mangione has been represented by a lawyer in Pennsylvania, but he has also hired a prominent New York defense lawyer who formerly worked as a top prosecutor in the Manhattan district attorney’s office."
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Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the United States would aim to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by between 61 and 66 percent by 2035, compared with 2005 levels, even as the nation remains far off-track from meeting the climate goal he laid out for the end of the decade. The action comes despite the fact that ... Donald Trump has vowed to scrap dozens of climate rules and policies."
This is extraordinary. The Count of Mar-a-Lardo, who is currently an unemployed layabout, is about to shut down the government of one of the most important countries on Earth (as of this writing): ~~~
~~~ Catie Edmondson & Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "A bipartisan spending deal to avert a shutdown was on life support on Wednesday after ... Donald J. Trump condemned it, leaving lawmakers without a strategy to fund the government past a Friday night deadline. Mr. Trump issued a scathing statement ordering Republicans not to support the sprawling bill, piling on to a barrage of criticism from Elon Musk, who spent Wednesday trashing the measure on social media and threatening any Republican who supported it with political ruin. It was not yet clear how Speaker Mike Johnson planned to proceed as the package.... The bill appeared doomed when Mr. Trump weighed in late Wednesday afternoon, saying lawmakers needed to pass a 'temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS,' and said it should be combined with an increase in the debt ceiling.... It reflected a recognition by the president-elect that his party would have a difficult time raising the limit next year when they have full control of Congress, and that he would not want to sign such a measure." JayDee cosigned Trump's statement, and apparently Elon has a sidekick, too, as the report notes that Vivek Ramaswamy "joined" him in deriding the deal. Kinda sweet. Everybody will have someone to dance with at the inaugural ball. The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Update. Jacob Bogage & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "The federal government is careening toward a weekend government shutdown deadline as congressional Republicans, egged on by ... Donald Trump and Elon Musk, feud over legislation to keep agencies open over the Christmas holiday. Republicans on Wednesday rejected a plan by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) for a three-month stopgap funding extension, called a continuing resolution or CR, with more than $100 billion in aid for natural disaster survivors, bipartisan health-care policy changes and other unrelated provisions. In scrapping Johnson’s plan, Republicans cast doubt on his ability to maintain the speaker’s gavel in next year’s Congress."
~~~ Marie: The NYT report linked above says the government will probably run out of money in January. Still, it seems to me that Trump's push to raise the debt ceiling also is a tacit acknowledgment that he's going to drive up the national debt with his plans to continue tax cuts for corporations & the wealthy. ~~~
~~~ Or Is Trump Merely Elon's Puppet? Faiz Siddiqui, et al., of the Washington Post: "With a five-word post on X, [Elon] Musk threw the process [of passing a CR to keep the government runnin] into chaos. 'This bill should not pass,' [Musk] wrote at 4:15 a.m. Eastern time.... Over the ensuing 12 hours, Musk went on a prolific tirade against the bill — with more than 60 updates, some of which boosted false claims — that stood out even for a chronic poster who has commanded an audience of more than 200 million followers by broadcasting his largely uninhibited views on the site he owns. By midday, Musk’s barrage was increasingly acerbic, decrying the bill as 'terrible,' criminal,' '“outrageous,' 'horrible,' 'unconscionable,' 'crazy' and, ultimately, 'an insane crime.'... 'Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!' Musk wrote shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday.... Trump stayed largely silent on the measure through Wednesday afternoon, putting Musk in the unusual position of exerting more influence on the bill than the incoming president. Finally, by late afternoon, Trump, too, aired his opposition." ~~~
~~~ Apparently "Vice President Trump" and "President Musk" were trending on X. ~~~
~~~ Update. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “'What was confusing to me is Musk sends out one of his tweets, and he says no one should do anything until January 20th when Trump gets there,' [David Alexrod] noted [on CNN last night]. 'Trump sends out a tweet saying they ought to pass a clean, a clean [continuing resolution]… So they seem to be saying different things, and eventually they’re gonna have to get together and decide who the president is.' The crack prompted former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) to laugh. Earlier in the segment, Kinzinger referred to Musk as 'President Elon.'” AND ~~~
~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) accused ... Donald Trump of being Elon Musk’s 'puppet' on Wednesday after Trump followed Musk’s lead in opposing House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) continuing resolution to keep the government open. 'As the shadow Pres-Elect, Elon Musk is now calling the shots for House Rs on government funding while Trump hides in Mar-a-Lago behind his handlers,' Goldman wrote on X...." MB: Ha ha. All this has to really irritate Trump.
~~~ Daniella Diaz & Katherine Tully-McManus of Politico: "Among the 100-plus tweets Musk sent as part of his campaign were a number of misleading or outright false claims — a possible preview of the mogul’s new role as co-leader of a Trump-blessed effort to slash government funding. Musk didn’t seem to think a government shutdown would have significant consequences for the country.... [But] a A five-week shutdown from 2018 to 2019 caused the economy to lose about $3 billion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office. The billionaire falsely claimed that members of Congress would get a 40 percent pay raise as part of the package — something both Musk and the X account for his so-called Department of Government Efficiency got wrong.... Musk reposted a claim that the bill would provide $3 billion for a new NFL stadium in Washington. Not true.... He’s also wrong that the bill shields the Jan. 6 committee — a claim that may have helped draw Trump further into the debate." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Surely a number of GOP Congressmen who swore off the bill knew Musk was lying about it. But that didn't matter. ~~~
~~~ Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) suggested Wednesday that Democrats will oppose any federal spending bill that strays from the bipartisan deal announced a day before, accusing GOP leaders of reneging on the agreement at risk of a government shutdown. In a brief statement, Jeffries invoked the growing conservative outcry over the negotiated continuing resolution (CR) — including opposition from ... Trump — and warned Republicans that they will 'own' the economic and political fallout if a shutdown occurs."
Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The electoral college convened in all 50 states Tuesday to elect Donald Trump to be the 47th president of the United States over Vice President Kamala Harris by a vote of 312 to 226. The gatherings unfolded uneventfully.... Although Trump won the electoral college comfortably this time, and he defeated Harris in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes, his share of the popular vote when third-party candidate totals are included falls slightly below a majority, at 49.9 percent, according to data compiled by the Associated Press." (Also linked yesterday.) MB: Despite this, we are now unsure as to who will be the new president*.
Note to Justin: Relentless Bullies Are Relentless. Elena Giordiano of Politico: "Early on Wednesday ... [Donald Trump] suggested turning Canada into a part of the U.S., calling it 'a great idea.'... 'No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!! he boomed on his social media platform.... [This and earlier] mocking posts land amid tensions between the two countries after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and accused the government of failing to address trade and immigration issues." (Also linked yesterday.)
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dani Anguiano of the Guardian: "Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times, reportedly asked the newspaper’s editorial board to 'take a break' from writing about Donald Trump, in the latest report of the billionaire owner’s growing influence over the newspaper’s coverage. The newspaper and its owner were embroiled in controversy for weeks this fall after Soon-Shiong blocked the board from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. The decision led to a wave of resignations on the editorial board and the loss of thousands of subscriptions.... Earlier this month, Soon-Shiong announced plans to incorporate an artificial intelligence-powered 'bias meter' into newspaper articles. He also reportedly barred the newspaper’s editorial board from publishing an editorial about Trump’s cabinet picks unless it also published a piece with an opposing view.... The extent of Soon-Shiong’s involvement was detailed in a memo from members of the opinion section to the newspaper’s executive editor that was published in the Status newsletter by the media reporter Oliver Darcy."
Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "Titans of industry and commerce, beware. When you bend the knee to the Mad King, when you shower him with money and bathe him in flattery, he will receive your gifts with apparent gratitude. But he will want more. He will always want more.... In Trump’s worldview, loyalty flows in one direction: toward him. Don’t take my word; ask Mike Pence.... Iif history is any guide, reasonable people who try to work with Trump eventually reach a point where they feel they have to part ways with him. And when those reasonable people tell the world why, Trump lashes out at them."
Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "For years..., Donald J. Trump has made it known that people he believes to be his enemies should be prosecuted.... In a report released on Tuesday, House Republicans said [former Rep. Liz] Cheney [R-Wy.] should face an F.B.I. investigation for work she did for the congressional committee that examined Mr. Trump’s attempts to cling to power after he lost the 2020 election.... The House subcommittee’s report detailed a road map for what [a Justice Department] inquiry might ultimately look like — while also relieving Mr. Trump of the potentially fraught step of explicitly ordering the inquiry himself. Appearing to have it both ways, Mr. Trump seized on the House report on Wednesday morning, saying that it could present problems for Ms. Cheney, but avoiding responsibility for havi;ng been the cause of them." A similar AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait! Doesn't Trump like to take credit for every turn of events he favors? Even if he had nothing to do with it? Well, yes, but here Trump wants the public to think that other, legitimate investigators -- prosecutors, members of Congress -- independently discovered Trump's enemies' wrongdoing and acted out of principle and the rule of law to punish/correct the bad guys. Trump can still boast that he "predicted" such actions would befall his perceived enemies. And he thinks people are dumb enough (many are!) to believe that "investigations" by toadies like Bill Barr & John Durham were a legitimate inquiries.
But the Emails! Trump & Co. Continue to Be a Major Security Threat. Alice Ollstein of Politico: "Federal officials say they’re worried about sharing documents via email with Donald Trump’s transition team because the incoming officials are eschewing government devices, email addresses and cybersecurity support, raising fears that they could potentially expose sensitive government data. The private emails have agency employees considering insisting on in-person meetings and document exchanges that they otherwise would have conducted electronically, according to two federal officials granted anonymity to discuss a sensitive situation. Their anxiety is particularly high in light of recent hacking attempts from China and Iran that targeted Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance and other top officials....
Trump — who attacked his then-opponent Hillary Clinton over her use of a private email server for official business during his first presidential run — is overseeing a fully privatized transition that communicates from an array of @transition47.com, @trumpvancetransition.com and @djtfp24.com accounts rather than anything ending in .gov, and uses private servers, laptops and cell phones instead of government-issued devices.... The White House has sent guidance to federal agencies to be cautious when communicating with the Trump transition...."
Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice reviews Trump's "Person of the Year" interview with Time magazine and is reminded "He's staggeringly unfit. Always has been. Always will be.... When it’s possible to decipher what Trump is trying to say, it’s apparent he was trying to strike what for him him is a conciliatory tone, at least in comparison with the terrifying interview he did with Time last spring. This time around, he made mouth noises about compromise on abortion, on Ukraine, on Israel, and even, startlingly, on trans issues.... [But] even when Trump is trying to sound reasonable, he’s hampered by the fact that his knowledge of issues never goes deeper than talking points. Perhaps even worse, he’s clearly in thrall to the world’s worst conspiracy theorists and authoritarian rulers.... Amidst all the misty and disingenuous belching of verbiage, Trump did manage to demonstrate that to the extent he’s able to actually follow through on his policy agenda, it’ll be very bad news for the country." ~~~
~~~ Marie: A fun read, I guess, if you like scary stories. Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead, which he got via digby, who embeds an interview of Joe Biden & notes: "By contrast here’s a 15 minute interview with the president everyone says is demented. Joe Biden is no Barack Obama or Bill Clinton when it comes to oratory or political analysis. But he’s not Donald Trump either. It’s amazing that America hates this man and loves the addled weirdo who clearly has no idea what he’s talking about."
Olivia Rubin & Peter Charalambous of ABC News: "The state prosecution of Donald Trump on election interference charges in Georgia may be able to continue despite his impending inauguration, a lawyer for Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis signaled in a court filing that urged an appeals court to reject the president-elect's request to throw out the case based on presidential immunity. The filing argued that Trump's lawyers failed to demonstrate why a state prosecution would be subject to the Department of Justice memorandum prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting presidents -- which was cited by special counsel Jack Smith when he wound down his federal cases against Trump -- or impede Trump's duties as president."
Dominick Mastrangelo & Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "... Trump’s attorney unsuccessfully asked a federal judge to move forward with his lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward over published audio tapes of interviews the famed Watergate reporter conducted with Trump for a 2020 book. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, an appointee of former President George W. Bush who is overseeing the case, denied the request to expedite it around five hours after the request was filed.... The case has stalled for months as the judge weighs the defendants’ bid to dismiss the lawsuit, but the sudden activity comes as Trump assumes a more emboldened posture in scrutinizing media outlets in the wake of his November presidential victory." (Also linked yesterday.)
Joe Gould of Politico: "At least a dozen senators are pushing to see the FBI’s background check on Pete Hegseth, Donald Trump’s embattled pick for Pentagon chief — a rare move for the committee that oversees his confirmation and a sign the former Fox News host still faces hurdles in the Senate. Unlike some other committees, the Senate Armed Services usually limits access to these types of background checks to its two lead senators. But pressure is building from both Democrats and Republicans to provide more lawmakers with the ongoing report, whose contents could determine whether Hegseth makes it to the Pentagon.... The FBI’s background investigation is expected to thoroughly examine Hegseth’s personal and professional history, including interviews with associates, reviews of financial records, and queries into past legal issues."
Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo.) on Tuesday blocked a request by Democratic senators to pass legislation to protect federal workers from civil service reforms that President-elect Trump has endorsed to fight what he calls the 'deep state' in Washington, D.C. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) stood on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act, warning there have been 'attempts in recent years to erode the independence of the federal civil service,' referring to Trump’s efforts during his first term. Kaine and other Democrats fear that Trump, now reelected, may attempt to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees who could be hired and fired at will." (Also linked yesterday.)
And a Very Icky Christmas to All. Alayna Treene, et al., of CNN: "The House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources.... The report is now expected to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year.... The vote, which has not previously been reported, amounts to a stark reversal for the panel after it had voted along party lines in late November not to release the results of the investigation. The decision to release the report suggests that some Republicans ultimately decided to side with Democrats on the matter.... When the committee voted last month to shelve the report, Gaetz was ... Donald Trump’s choice to be attorney general. Since then, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration..., though he maintains frosty relations with many in his party and is still active in GOP politics." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times' report is here. ~~~
~~~ Update. Matt Plots His Revenge. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "In the wake of Wednesday’s surprising report that the House Ethics Committee had taken a secret vote to release its investigatory report into Gaetz’s conduct, the former congressman first replied with defiance — insisting he had been 'FULLY EXONERATED' and his behavior had merely been 'embarrassing, though not criminal' — before taking an even more aggressive stance.... Gaetz posted a new tweet that an unnamed person had “suggested the following plan” to him, detailing how, despite his previously stated intentions to not return to Congress in January, he would nonetheless show up and briefly take his seat.... [Here's the plan, via Gaetz's tweet:] '1. Show up 1/3/2025 to congress 2. Participate in Speaker election (I was elected to the 119th Congress, after all…) 3. Take the oath 4. File a privileged motion to expose every “me too” settlement paid using public funds (even of former members) 5. Resign and start my @OANN program at 9pm EST on January 6, 2025."
Paul Kiel of ProPublica: "Fourteen years ago, Congress ... created a new type of Medicare tax to capture the kinds of income the rich often enjoy: interest, dividends and capital gains from investments. A host of billionaires — sports team owners, oil barons, Wall Street traders and others — have managed to avoid paying it, ProPublica found.... We identified 17 people who, in the first six years of the law, 2013 through 2018, each shielded at least $1 billion in capital gains from the tax. Together, this small group, by collectively exempting more than $35 billion, saved about $1.3 billion in taxes. Most members of the group were able to sidestep the tax because of a huge gap written into the law, which allows owners to exempt gains from the sale of their businesses.... But others eluded the tax in ways that raise questions about how the law is being enforced." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials made their third and final rate cut of 2024 at their meeting on Wednesday. They also forecast two fewer rate reductions in 2025 than they had previously expected, as inflation lingers and the economy holds up.... Officials thought that it was clear that rates needed to come down notably from their 5.3 percent peak, and they have steadily lowered them to about 4.4 percent by making three back-to-back reductions. Policymakers do not want to cut rates so much that they reignite the economy, though — and they have now arrived at a point where it is uncertain how much further rates should fall.... Markets shuddered at [the Fed's] assessment, with the dollar soaring and stocks plummeting. The S&P 500 index fell nearly 3 percent, its worst tumble since August. The Dow Jones industrial average fell for a 10th-straight day, its longest losing streak since October 1974." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oddly, Smialek doesn't mention anywhere in her report (as of 5 am ET) what the rate cut yesterday was, though the number does show up in an embedded chart. ~~~
~~~ Rob Wile of NBC News: "The Federal Reserve announced a quarter-point cut to its key interest rate Wednesday, an effort to keep what appears to be a steady but cooling economy stable." ~~~
~~~ John Towfighi & David Goldman of CNN: "The Dow plunged Wednesday on a disappointing outlook from the Federal Reserve. In the process, the blue-chip index extended its losing streak to 10 days — the longest such stretch since Gerald Ford was president. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down about 1,123 points, or 2.6%, after the Fed indicated in a policy statement that it is forecasting just two interest rate cuts in 2025, not the previously projected four. The Fed now anticipates inflation will remain stubbornly above its target range for longer than it had initially expected. The Dow has fallen for 10 days in a row, the first time it has had a losing streak that long since September 20 through October 4, 1974, when the index fell for 11 sessions in a row."
Chelsia Marcius, et al., of the New York Times: "The suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive on a Manhattan sidewalk this month will now face federal charges in addition to the state murder indictment brought against him, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. It was not immediately clear what charges the suspect, Luigi Mangione, would face in the federal case, which is being brought by prosecutors with the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. On Tuesday, state prosecutors in the office of the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, indicted Mr. Mangione, 26, on three murder charges in the shooting of the executive, Brian Thompson, two of which branded him a terrorist. Federal charges, though, would potentially allow prosecutors to pursue the death penalty, which has been outlawed in New York for decades. It was not clear whether federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty, and any decision about capital punishment would most likely fall to the Justice Department once ... Donald J. Trump has taken office."
Lauren Gurley & Carolina O'Donovan of the Washington Post: "The Teamsters are launching strikes against seven Amazon warehouses Thursday, in the union’s biggest provocation yet against the nation’s second-largest private employer, threatening to delay some package delivery during the busy Christmas season. The strikes will take place at sites in New York City, Atlanta, San Francisco, Skokie, Ill., and Southern California. Roughly 9,000 Amazon workers around the country have joined the Teamsters, according to the union, but Amazon has refused to recognize their union and bargain with them. The Teamsters are hoping to force Amazon to the bargaining table...."
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California. L.A. Deputy Mayor in Charge of Public Safety Likely Sent Bomb Threat to City Hall. Will McCarthy of Politico: "FBI agents searched the home of Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Brian Williams this week as part of an investigation into a bomb threat made against City Hall, where Williams oversees public safety. The threat came earlier in the year and was quickly investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, which concluded there was no imminent danger and referred the investigation to the FBI.... City police department officials in a statement said their initial investigation found Williams was 'likely' the source of the threat, and that they referred the case because the deputy mayor supervises their department. Williams has since been placed on administrative leave."
Louisiana, California. Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "An individual in Louisiana has the first severe illness caused by bird flu in the United States, federal health officials said Wednesday.... It’s the first case of H5N1 bird flu in the United States that has been linked to exposure to a backyard flock, and news of the infection comes the same day California officials declared a state of emergency to confront the outbreak spreading among dairy cows."
Michigan. Chris Benson of UPI: "A Michigan man pleaded guilty to plotting a mass shooting at a local bar and Democratic Party office over his hatred for gay people after a string of other related charges, according to court documents. Mack Davis, 22, of Owosso, pleaded guilty to a single count of committing a hate crime, according to a release Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Department. He faces a maximum penalty of life in a federal prison.... The local Owosso police previously had arrested Davis in connection to separate incidents. It's alleged he fired 60 bullets from a rifle into the property of several neighbors and vandalized the car of a neighbor he knew to be gay. He then was transferred to federal custody, where he remains."
Montana. Anna Phillips of the Washington Post: "Montana’s permitting of oil, gas and coal projects without consideration for climate change violates residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment, the state’s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, upholding a landmark ruling in a case brought by youth activists. The 6-1 ruling is a major, and rare, victory for climate activists.... In their decision, the Montana justices affirmed an August 2023 ruling by a state judge, who found in favor of young people alleging the state violated their right to a “clean and healthful environment” by promoting the use of fossil fuels."
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France. Leo Sands of the Washington Post: "Judges on Thursday convicted a Frenchman of aggravated rape and other charges, after the 72-year-old admitted to repeatedly drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of other men to rape her over almost a decade. The court in Avignon, southern France, sentenced Dominique Pelicot to 20 years in prison — the maximum sentence allowed in French law — after finding him guilty on all charges in a case that has shocked the world. The other 50 defendants were also found guilty of various charges: 46 of rape, two of attempted rape and two of sexual assault.... The three-month trial, which took place in an open court at the request of Pelicot’s former wife Gisèle Pelicot, 72 — who said she wanted the world to know what had happened to her — shook the country, triggering a nationwide debate about rape as well as international scrutiny of the case."
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Israeli's wars are here: "The United States and Arab mediators continued to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the remaining Israeli hostages held there, as CIA Director William J. Burns arrived in Qatar on Wednesday for the latest round of talks, according to a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details.... Meanwhile, Israeli forces are continuing to carry out airstrikes in Gaza City and elsewhere in the Gaza Strip. A strike on one of the last functioning medical facilities in northern Gaza on Tuesday killed at least eight people, according to medics.... Israel’s military said Thursday it had carried out retaliatory strikes on Houthi rebel targets in Yemen, including ports and energy infrastructure, after intercepting a projectile that was launched from Yemen. Human Rights Watch in a report Thursday accused Israel of killing thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza by denying them adequate access to water since October 2023, which the organization said amounts to a 'crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.'”
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Calling all opportunists:
https://www.goskagit.com/throw-the-book-at-em/article_975800f4-bc31-11ef-81cf-931c62a22e09.html
A syndicated column that appeared in our local paper this AM.
Do the gears mesh?
So we have the Pretender-friendly Teamsters launching strikes against Amazon whose owner has callused his knees bending to the same Pretender.
I'm guessing we'll see more such chaos ahead, a consequence of Republicans having no clear idea of what they are doing.
"The House subcommittee’s report detailed a road map for what [a Justice Department] inquiry might ultimately look like — while also relieving Mr. Trump of the potentially fraught step of explicitly ordering the inquiry himself."
Trump has already called for Cheney's jailing, "On the network’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker,” Trump said leaders of the special congressional panel that probed the Capitol riot “lied” and “should go to jail.”
Trump singled out committee Chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and a senior Black member of Congress, and former high-ranking House Republican Liz Cheney of Wyoming, who co-chaired the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
“Cheney did something that’s inexcusable, along with Thompson and the people on the un-select committee of political thugs and, you know, creeps,” Trump told NBC host Welker."
The press is already trying to cover for Donald's fat ass after the fact. They twist themselves into knots trying to excuse or deflect all the things Trump explicitly says. "But somewhere else he said something different, blah blah blah." And as was pointed out above, this is only a one way street. Trump will turn on every single one of these idiot reporters the second it is convenient or he is grouchy or when someone brings up some past slight from them. But so many of them can't help but go out of their way to give the most generous benefit of the doubts to the biggliest lying moron vindictive asshat any of them have ever seen.
Jonathan V. Last through digby
"Never Trumpers Were Right, Actually
A response to Bret Stephens.
the reality of Trump’s first term came pretty close to the worst-case scenarios. It is simply not true that Trump’s critics oversold the danger he represented. If anything, they underestimated it."
Musk is starting to make me think that he is as stupid and ignorant as Trump. Probably why they have gotten on so well to this point. Though I'm half waiting for a tweet from Musk saying that he will be sending his own electors on January 6th because he took a poll on X that said he should actually be president and that it will be wild. Four+ years of this idiocracy is going to be hard to take. Because of Trump's desire to be in the spotlight 24/7 it is going to be hard to catch your breath and get away without completely checking out. The PAB and those around him are so dangerously stupid that I can not imagine the damage they will do to this country and it's people.
Fatty sez “She lied and should go to jail!”, referring to Lynn Cheney’s role in making explicit the nature and extent of his high crimes against the country.
Gee, if we take his contention seriously, liars should go to jail, then he’d be imprisoned for hundreds of years for the tens of thousands of lies he has told, including lies that got people killed. Hoist on his own petard, as it were. The stupid is outweighed only by the greed and narcissism.
Out of control
Elon Musk must really be enjoying himself. He’s always known he was the smartest man in the world, but the world didn’t always do what he liked. So he bought Twitter to fix that. And now a once thriving social media mainstay is a Pandora’s Box of brutality and bigotry. Not long after Musk instituted his “improvements” to Twitter, it was losing over $4 million a day. Twitter has lost 80% of its value since he paid $44 billion to be the Big Man and “fix” shit.
But that was just a company. Now he believes he owns the United States and can do for us what he did for Twitter.
He didn’t know what he was doing with Twitter and he sure as shit doesn’t know what he’s doing with the US, but he’s having fun pretending to be all powerful and making pronunciamentos about how the place should be run. But somehow the traitors have never figured out that running a country is not like running a business. The CEO president, The Decider, was a disaster as a business owner. He helped trigger a world wide recession that dumped trillions down the shitter. And he started a war which has fucked up dozens of countries, and continues to cost money and lives.
Then we got Trump. A bigger failure at business than Little Georgie Piggy Toes ever was. It showed. Now we have Musk thinking he can take over the country, wave his little magic wand, and control everything without knowing jack.
In that regard, he’s like Mickey Mouse in the Sorcerer’s Apprentice segment of the Disney classic, “Fantasia”.
While doing odd jobs for a sorcerer, Mickey dons the Sorcerer’s chapeau and starts casting spells. But he has no idea what he’s doing. Shit goes south in a hurry and Mickey is being flushed down the tubes. Finally, the sorcerer returns and sets things to right. Mickey is chastened, and goes back to work.
Now here we are with Mickey Musk, waving his little magic wand around with no clue about how to fix whatever he’s about to break. Even worse, there’s no sorcerer to show up to restore order. In our case, the fat sorcerer is just as clueless. And we’re the ones about to be flushed down the tubes by Mickey Musk and the fat sore sir.
The movie was cute. What’s happening here is about as cute as roadkill.
@Akhilleus: Before there were Mickey Musk & Mickey Mouse, there was Goethe's "Der Zauberlehrling", and before him the Greek satirist Lucian's.
The very disturbing problem -- as you note -- is that our modern-day Apprentice is different from all the preceding versions of The Sorcerer's Apprentice in that there is no sorcerer to come back and fix the mess Musk is making/will make. Trump, the star of NBC's "The Apprentice"? Ha ha ha.
I don't think I ever saw the film Fantasia, but much of it was played in segments of the Walt Disney Show, which was a weekly TV show in the 1950s (& the '60s & '70s, but I don't think I saw it then). When "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" segment aired (perhaps only in part) on the TV show, I immediately recognized the score (by Paul Dukas) because my father listened to classical music, and we lived in a small house. I think I was kind of awed and surprised that classical music could be, well, cartoon-funny, although I was also aware of Prokofiev's "Peter & the Wolf," and some other classical pieces that were meant to convey or invoke stories. But I guess, in general, I thought at the time that a score had to have a libretto to have "meaning." Else I thought it was just fancy "tunes," most of which I could not identify.
Edward Zitron's long essay on our worsening technologically advanced world.
"In the last year, I’ve spent about 200,000 words on a kind of personal journey where I’ve tried again and again to work out why everything digital feels so broken, and why it seems to keep getting worse, despite what tech’s “brightest” minds might promise. More regularly than not, I’ve found that the answer is fairly simple: the tech industry’s incentives no longer align with the user.
The people running the majority of internet services have used a combination of monopolies and a cartel-like commitment to growth-at-all-costs thinking to make war with the user, turning the customer into something between a lab rat and an unpaid intern, with the goal to juice as much value from the interaction as possible. To be clear, tech has always had an avaricious streak, and it would be naive to suggest otherwise, but this moment feels different. I’m stunned by the extremes tech companies are going to extract value from customers, but also by the insidious way they’ve gradually degraded their products.
You’re battered by the Rot Economy, and a tech industry that has become so obsessed with growth that you, the paying customer, are a nuisance to be mitigated far more than a participant in an exchange of value. A death cult has taken over the markets, using software as a mechanism to extract value at scale in the pursuit of growth at the cost of user happiness.
These people want everything from you — to control every moment you spend working with them so that you may provide them with more ways to make money, even if doing so doesn’t involve you getting anything else in return. Meta, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and a majority of tech platforms are at war with the user, and, in the absence of any kind of consistent standards or effective regulations, the entire tech ecosystem has followed suit. A kind of Coalition of the Willing of the worst players in hyper-growth tech capitalism.
Things are being made linearly worse in the pursuit of growth in every aspect of our digital lives, and it’s because everything must grow, at all costs, at all times, unrelentingly, even if it makes the technology we use every day consistently harmful."
It is no wonder that an industry like this would create and enable so many worthless people who only value taking more from everyone else with giving back and creating so little in return.
Marie: There was a time, when the world was young, that I just assumed that Rossini was on contract to Warner Brothers Cartoons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYBce9Gsz7g
I grew up with exclusively classical music also. My mom loved Robert Shaw and the Christmas carols we listened to were his chorus and orchestra's. We also knew all the carols in the Methodist and Unitarian hymnals, and I have sung in various choirs from college on. I haven't been singing lately, and I miss it. We also had no teevee so we knew music from the long play records. Although I did not know the Sorcerer's Apprentice, I knew the Dukas. And Peter and the Wolf was a favorite, and others that used classical music to tell stories. Gosh, I thought I would enjoy the same with our kids, and now our grandkids, but sadly, it has not really penetrated. Too much video and not enough audio. I get a bit emotional when I think of the world we used to live in, and this toxic hodgepodge, topped off by the nutty world we are on the cusp of, makes me really, really sad. My kids are all grown up and everything is so different it's almost like a different planet sometimes.
How in the hell have we become ruled by a bunch of stunted monsters we didn't elect, put there by the one half of us did? Isn't there something that says government has a pattern, a style, an order, and these people are tearing it apart before their regime starts? Who let in these jackasses and rodents? We need pest control STAT.
Marie,
Right. And of course the Goethe poem was the inspiration for the Dukas piece (as you no doubt know). Patrick points out the appearance of Rossini’s music in Warner Bros cartoons. Quite so.
In fact Rossini was a favorite of certain Hollywood producers back then. In a veritable masterpiece of weird nightmare surrealism, with definite Faust overtones and a sidelong glance at Sisyphus, a Little Rascals episode depicted a vain Alfalfa’s demise as a hell bound singer forced to forever croon a croaked version of the “Largo al Factotum” aria from Rossini’s “Il Barbiere di Siviglia”: “I’m the barber of Seville…Figaro!” while Spanky and his Our Gang buddies look on humorously.
Orson Welles, as Charles Foster Kane, has his second wife practice “Uno voce poco fa”, Rosina’s aria (horribly) from the same opera, in “Citizen Kane”. Rossini was tough, man!
One of my favorite cartoons as a kid was a depiction of young Peer Gynt, running from Norwegian giants in Grieg’s “Hall of the Mountain Kings” segment. And of course, speaking of Warner Bros, the ne plus ultra of opera in cartoons has to be the Bugs Bunny-Chuck Jones take on Wagner’s “Der Ring des Niebelungen” in “What’s Opera Doc?” where Elmer Fudd intones “Kill da wabbit, kill da wabbit” to the tune of the Ride of the Valkyries”. It don’t get much better.
They don’t make ‘em like that anymore.
Jeanne,
My dad had a copy of the Robert Shaw Chorale doing the Bach B minor mass. I wore it out. One aunt loved Mitch Miller. I was a Beatles fan. There was no end of great vocal harmony in our house. Yeah. It’s a different world.
One other thought about the Musk-Trump plot:
We’re talking about a private citizen (Trump), taking marching orders from an unelected IMMIGRANT! to shut down the US government because neither of them see any benefit to themselves personally—in power or money—by keeping things running, despite the difficulties it will pose to average citizens.
Just imagine the galactic outrage were this a Democratic president-elect’s tactic, at the behest of an immigrant, prior to being inaugurated. They’d be cleaning the guns.