;)
The Conversation -- December 23, 2023
Festivus explained, here and, (sort of) here: ~~~
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From CNN's liveblog, also linked earlier today: "US President Joe Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Saturday to discuss the latest developments in Israel and Gaza, according to the White House. Biden and Netanyahu discussed 'objectives and phasing' of the Israel-Hamas war during their call, according to a White House readout.... 'I did not ask for a ceasefire,' Biden said while leaving the White House Saturday afternoon. 'I had a long talk with Netanyahu today, and it's a private conversation.'"
From a Times of Israel liveblog: "Israel was about to 'preemptively' strike Hezbollah in Lebanon four days after Hamas's October 7 massacres, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was talked out of the plan at the last minute by US President Joe Biden, The Wall Street Journal reports, citing unnamed officials familiar with the details. The report says that 'Israel had intelligence -- which the US deemed unreliable -- that Hezbollah attackers were preparing to cross the border as part of a multipronged attack.'"
Anton Troianovski, et al., of New York Times: "Buoyed by Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive and flagging Western support, [Vladimir] Putin says that Russia's war goals have not changed. Addressing his generals on Tuesday, he boasted that Ukraine was so beleaguered that Russia's invading troops were doing 'what we want.... We won't give up what's ours,' he pledged, adding dismissively, 'If they want to negotiate, let them negotiate.' But in a recent push of back-channel diplomacy, Mr. Putin has been sending a different message: He is ready to make a deal. Mr. Putin has been signaling through intermediaries since at least September that he is open to a cease-fire that freezes the fighting along the current lines, far short of his ambitions to dominate Ukraine...."
He Has No Shame. Michael Bender of New York Times: "For decades, American elected officials facing criminal charges or grave violations of the public trust would yield their positions of power, if only reluctantly, citing a duty to save the country from embarrassment and ease the strain on its institutions. Then came Donald J. Trump. The former president isn't just forging ahead despite four indictments and 91 felony charges, but actively orchestrating a head-on collision between the nation's political and legal systems.... The heated legal debate over whether Mr. Trump engaged in an insurrection [-- as the Colorado supreme court determined --] obscured the extraordinary reality that he is running for president at all -- returning with fresh vengeance and a familiar playbook built around the notions that he can never lose, will never be convicted and will never really go away. That blueprint remains intact largely because his approach continues to yield political returns." ~~~
~~~ Marie: To me, Trump's "successes" say more about the cowardice of Republican officeholders and the moral depravity of broad swaths of the American people than they do about Donald Trump, who is nothing more than a vicious nincompoop.
Steven Mazie & Stephen Vladeck, in a New York Times op-ed, urge the Supremes not to be as ham-handed as the Supreme Court majority was in Bush v. Gore. Marie: No doubt the writers know their advice is offered in vain.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "The [Roman Catholic] church can't succeed in a time warp, moving at the pace of a snail on Ambien. Even Saudi Arabia is modernizing faster. It is simply immoral to treat women and gay people as unworthy of an equal role in their church. After all, isn't the whole point of the church to teach us what is right? And it's not right to treat people as partial humans." ~~~
~~~ News Flash to Observant Christians: The New Testament does not address Jesus' sexual orientation; therefore, there's every reason to believe he was supposed to be gay. He never married -- as Jewish teenaged boys were usually required to do -- and he spent the years of his ministry living and traveling with men. There is at least one hint in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas that Jesus had a sexual liaison with a woman. However, there is also a hint to the contrary in the Gospel of Mark (14:51-52): "Now a certain young man followed Him, having a linen cloth thrown around his naked body. And the young men laid hold of him, and he left the linen cloth and fled from them naked." Some scholars have asserted this suggested that Jesus and his male followers engaged in group sexual rituals. Dowd is right that the Gospels identify numerous strong women. They are generally portrayed as wiser than the male Gospel characters.
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** Supremes Give Donald a Huuuge Christmas Gift. Adam Liptak of New York Times: "The Supreme Court declined on Friday to decide for now whether ... Donald J. Trump is immune from prosecution on charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election. The case will move forward in an appeals court and most likely return to the Supreme Court in the coming months. The decision to defer consideration of a central issue in the case was a major practical victory for Mr. Trump, whose lawyers have consistently sought to delay criminal cases against him around the country." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Secret Santas. Devan Cole of CNN: "The court did not explain its reasoning and there were no noted dissents.... An expedited review of the issue is already underway at the DC Circuit, which has scheduled oral arguments for January 9. The election subversion trial is currently set to begin in March." (Also linked yesterday.)
Donnie DeNile. Kierra Frazier of Politico: "In a wide-ranging interview on Friday with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, [Donald] Trump said he would peacefully transfer power to the next president if reelected, despite insisting in the same interview that he peacefully turned over power to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.... 'Of course,' Trump responded to Hewitt when asked if he would hand over power peacefully if reelected. 'And I did that this time. And I'll tell you what. The election was rigged, and we have plenty of evidence of it. But I did it anyway.'"
Michael Gold of New York Times: Donald Trump's "focus on bloodlines and genetics ... has received renewed attention and scrutiny in his third bid for president.... Much as news articles, biographers and books about his presidency have documented Mr. Trump's long interest in Adolf Hitler, they have also shown that Mr. Trump has frequently turned to the language of genetics as he discusses the superiority of himself and others. Mr. Trump was talking publicly about his belief that genetics determined a person's success in life as early as 1988, when he told Oprah Winfrey that a person had 'to have the right genes' in order to achieve great fortune.... [In 2010,] he would tell CNN that he was a 'gene believer,' explaining that 'when you connect two racehorses, you usually end up with a fast horse' and likening his 'gene pool' to that of successful thoroughbreds.... The former president has not just promoted his own 'good genes,' but has repeatedly lauded those of British business leaders, Christian evangelical leaders, a top campaign adviser and the American industrialist Henry Ford."
Darren Samuelsohn of the Messenger: "Donald Trump's co-defendant and ex-Justice Department loyalist Jeffrey Clark lost on Thursday in his bid to have his part of the Georgia 2020 election racketeering case immediately put on hold until a federal appeals court decides where he can fight the charges. A three-judge panel from the 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which included a pair of Trump appointees, ruled that Clark 'cannot show any chance of success on the merits' and so 'there can be no basis for granting a stay.'"
Adam Entous of New York Times: "In January 2019, Hunter Biden sent a text message to his daughter Naomi. 'I Hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro 30 years,' he wrote in the typo-filled message. 'It's really hard. But don't worry unlike Pop I won't make you give me half your salary.'... [House] Republicans have portrayed it as evidence that he was privately acknowledging that he split his [substantial Burisma] income with his father.... But a close examination of the circumstances ... shows the extent to which the contents of the communications have been misunderstood or outright distorted [by Republicans].... The 2019 message was a reference to a story from Hunter's youth.... [Hunter's] roommate [at Georgetown U.] at the time recalled Hunter telling him and his twin brother 'a million times' that then-Senator Biden encouraged him to work, saying, 'You can keep half of the paycheck, but you have to hand over the other half for "room and board."'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Hunter may have thought it wasn't "fair" to have to share his income with his parents to help pay his expenses, but a lot of young people do that, whether or not it's described as "room and board." I saved at least half of all of the income I earned as a teenager to help pay for my college tuition & dorm fees. I never considered that any sort of burden; my parents paid what they could and I paid what I could. And I was the beneficiary of every cent. Joe Biden, often described as "the poorest Senator" (because that's what Senate financial disclosures showed) likely did as my parents did: paid the portion of the children's college expenses he could afford. Of course, Hunter's friends were, on the whole, richer than my friends, so I can see why he might have compared his circumstances to those of his wealthy friends. ~~~
~~~ Luke Broadwater of New York Times: "As they search for evidence they can use to impeach President Biden, House Republicans have repeatedly pointed to evidence that they say undercuts his claims that he never had anything to do with the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.... But an examination of some of the highest-profile examples cited by Republicans shows that they have been taken out of context, or that Republicans have omitted key messages in email or text chains that often cast the communications in a more innocuous light." Broadwater examines several examples of those mountains-to-molehills conversions. (Also linked yesterday.)
Lisa Rein & Eric Yoder of Washington Post: "Federal employees will receive pay raises averaging 5.2 percent -- more in some high-salary areas -- under an order President Biden signed Thursday that delivers the biggest increase to U.S. government workers since the Carter administration. The salary hike for the federal civilian workforce of close to 2.2 million people is the heftiest since a 9.1 percent average raise in 1980. It's 0.6 percentage points higher than last year's increase, which itself was the highest in two decades, and will take effect in the first full pay period of 2024, starting Jan. 14 for most federal employees. The military is set to receive a comparable increase in January in the $886 billion defense bill that Congress approved this month."
Ellie Silverman & Toluse Olorunnipa of Washington Post: "D.C. residents may be able to clear their records of certain marijuana offenses after President Biden announced Friday that he will pardon those convicted of simple use and possession on certain federal lands and the nation's capital.... The announcement follows Biden's proclamation last year pardoning thousands of people convicted of marijuana possession under federal law as part of a broader effort to rectify what he has said are unjustified disparities in drug sentencing. No one was released from prison after that 2022 announcement because, White House officials said at the time, there is no one currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of cannabis.... ... Biden urged governors across the nation to follow his lead with regard to state offenses." An NPR story is here.
Abdi Dahir & Eric Schmitt of New York Times: "A senior leader of the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab, who was accused of planning multiple attacks that killed 148 Kenyans in a university town and three Americans on a military base, was killed in a U.S. military drone strike last Sunday, according to Somali and American officials. Maalim Ayman was killed on Dec. 17 by a U.S. Special Operations drone strike in a joint operation with the Somali national army, the officials said. He is believed to be responsible for the assault on Jan. 5, 2020 on a military base in Manda Bay, Kenya, that killed two U.S. contractor pilots and a U.S. soldier. A third U.S. contractor and two other U.S. service members were injured. Six U.S. aircraft were destroyed in the attack." (Also linked yesterday.)
Dan Lamothe & Shane Harris of Washington Post: "Jack Teixeira, the Massachusetts Air National Guard member charged with leaking classified U.S. intelligence documents on a gaming platform, alarmed fellow members of his unit, who worried that the young computer technician might, in the words of one, 'shoot up the place' after he was warned to stop looking at classified information that had nothing to do with his job, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.... Teixeira's concerned co-workers ... said that as early as the summer of 2021 he exhibited the warning signs they had been trained to look out for in a potential active shooter. The fuller report shows that Guard members who worked with Teixeira him saw him as a security risk, but not for the reasons that ultimately led to his arrest and indictment this year on charges of illegally removing and disseminating classified information.... Authorities determined that Teixeira owned more than a dozen registered firearms. For all the concerns about Teixeira's suspicious behavior and potential for violence, no one in the unit reported him to the appropriate security officials, the investigation found. Instead, investigators documented a pattern of buck-passing and downplaying of worries that Teixeira ... was really a danger." ~~~
~~~ Marie: One of the faults of a top-down, "conservative" organization is that "rocking the boat" is punished more than rewarded. Like cops with their thin blue line, potential whistleblowers are discouraged from coming forward. So even when a serious problem is obvious, and people may grumble among themselves about it, few will take the initiative to file a report that goes up the line.
Eduardo Medina of New York Times: "Under pressure from critics who say Substack is profiting from newsletters that promote hate speech and racism, the company's founders said Thursday that they would not ban Nazi symbols and extremist rhetoric from the platform.... The response came weeks after The Atlantic found that at least 16 Substack newsletters had 'overt Nazi symbols' in their logos or graphics, and that white supremacists had been allowed to publish on, and profit from, the platform. Hundreds of newsletter writers signed a letter opposing Substack's position and threatening to leave. About 100 others signed a letter supporting the company's stance.... Substack, which takes a 10 percent cut of revenue from writers who charge for newsletter subscriptions, has faced similar criticism in the past, particularly after it allowed transphobic and anti-vaccine language from some writers."
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Wisconsin. Julie Bosman of New York Times: "The Wisconsin Supreme Court said on Friday that the state's heavily gerrymandered legislative maps that favor Republicans were unconstitutional and ordered new maps before the 2024 election. The ruling has the potential to produce a seismic political shift in a crucial presidential swing state. Justice Jill J. Karofsky, writing for the majority, said that Wisconsin's current maps violate a requirement in the State Constitution 'that Wisconsin's state legislative districts must be composed of physically adjoining territory.'... The decision was widely expected from a court that flipped to a 4-to-3 liberal majority this year after the most expensive judicial election in U.S. history. The winner of that election, Justice Janet Protasiewicz, a former Milwaukee County judge, was openly critical of the current legislative maps, calling them 'rigged' and 'unfair' during her campaign." The AP story is here.
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Israel/Palestine
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 136 United Nations workers have been killed in Gaza in 75 days, Secretary General António Guterres said on Friday, calling it unprecedented in U.N. history. 'I pay tribute to them & the thousands of aid workers risking their lives as they support civilians in Gaza,' he wrote in a social media post." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here. CNN's live updates are here: "Israel has indicated it is widening its military operation, ordering residents in the central part of Gaza to seek safety in shelters. The White House said Israel has assured the US of its plans to pivot to a lower-intensity operation as its objectives shift."
Farnaz Fassihi & Michael Levenson of New York Times: "The United Nations Security Council on Friday adopted a resolution that would allow more aid to reach desperate civilians in the Gaza Strip, ending nearly a week of intense diplomatic wrangling intended to prevent the United States from blocking the measure. But the resolution stopped short of past attempts to impose a cease-fire. The vote was 13 to 0, with the United States and Russia abstaining. The resolution was adopted after diplomats repeatedly delayed the vote this week and reworked the measure in heated negotiations aimed at winning support from the United States, which previously vetoed two resolutions that called for a cease-fire in the war between Israel and Hamas." (A versiono f this story, published as part of the NYT liveblog on Israel/Hamas, was linked yesterday.)
Joanna Slater, et al., of Washington Post: "The Israeli government on Friday confirmed the death of a 73-year-old Israeli American, Gadi Haggai. Haggai was killed during the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel, and his body was taken by fighters into Gaza, where it is still being held, a spokesperson for his home kibbutz of Nir Oz said in a statement. His wife, Judi Weinstein Haggai, 70, is 'still held hostage' by Hamas, the statement said. She is also an Israeli American.... On Friday, [President] Biden offered his condolences to the Haggai family in a White House statement."
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Reader Comments (13)
As has happened too many times to count, a nasty, sleazy, mendacious, and crooked charlatan is saved from accountability by appallingly shameful legalistic trickeration. The Supremes have pretty much guaranteed that not only will Trump never see the inside of a courtroom (especially if they allow him to steal another election), but that he can still play the victim card to his MAGAts. They do this just as further evidence of Orange Hitler’s treasonous tactics come to light about a phone call to Michigan officials threatening them if they didn’t falsely steal the election from Joe Biden and award him the victory.
Also, just as the Supremes bend over to assist Trump in his latest cavalcade of corruption, reports arrive that his MAGA minions are threatening the lives of Colorado Supreme Court justices who had the temerity of finding Fatty’s treasonous behavior unconstitutional.
And, as is typical of the sniveling, cowardly Roberts Court, no reason was given other than “We are not pleased with Jack Smith bothering our royal persons.”
When you come down to it, this was expected from the hyper partisan, ideological warriors on the Court. The person I blame for this mess is Creampuff Casper Milquetoast Garland. Merrick Garland sat on this shit for two years before working up to being able to do something about it. Incredibly, it was a congressional hearing that finally prompted him to get off the dime and fucking do something about a criminal, fascist fuck who tried to steal an election, got people killed, and sent a mob to string up the Vice President. When is Congress ever the first to do the right thing?
And if you’re thinking “Well, there’s still the Georgia case”, think again. Georgia will be stymied by Trump’s Loose Cannon in Florida. The trial in Florida involving MORE corruption that put American national security interests in the pockets of a narcissistic and greedy fat pig is supposed to start in June, Georgia’s trial involving that sane fat pig’s efforts to screw voters in that state, in August. But Cannon will delay the Florida trial long enough to make sure Georgia never has a chance to convict her boss before the election. I guarantee it.
So thank you, Merrick, and thank you Supreme lovers of authoritarianism, fascism, and middle fingers to the rule of law.
It’s all up to the voters now. And Party of Traitors operators are making sure that’s as difficult as possible. As always.
Party of family values strikes again.
Poor kids are hungry? Guess which party says “Fuck ‘em.”?
Akhilleus,
The untold power of possessive pronouns (emphasis on possessive):
It's not MY family; not MY values.
Ken,
Another way of saying “Fuck you, Charlie, I got mine.”
@Akhilleus: This July 2022 Washington Post report says the DOJ was "investigating President Donald Trump’s actions as part of its criminal probe of efforts to overturn the 2020 election results."
So apparently Merrick the Unready was doing something prior to hiring Jack Smith. I picture a 55-year-old career lawyer sitting in a windowless office with gray metal furniture 8 hours a day (minus breaks), poring over his retirement account, checking out Baja condos on the Internet, and writing weekly "progress" reports on the few people he talked to that week about the insurrection. The Post article indicates the effort was more robust than that, but it certainly didn't seem to be much of a priority or operate under any sense of urgency.
Apparently what forced Merrick's hand was Trump's decision to announce a run for the presidency* in mid-November 2022 -- ironically enough -- in order to, um, avoid prosecution. Three days after Trump's announcement, Garland appointed Jack Smith special counsel. So what made Merrick finally get off the dime was more Trump's foresight than Merrick's. Sad!
Trump getting some advise from a friend
The threats on the Colorado Justices illustrates what an effective move it was to leak the Dobbs decision. Right-wingers and forced birthers, pretty much the same, have a storied history of violence against those who don't agree with them.
@RAS: I think I'm missing your point.
The Dobbs decision gave the far right-wing what it wanted: control of women's previously-held reproductive rights. Liberals don't usually use violence as a means of political protest. Right-wingers do use violence and threats of violence as tools against authority figures who have curbed their enthusiasms. (I'm pretty sure I've seen some analyses that support this right/left difference in political behavior.)
So I don't see where leaking the Dobbs decision made Sam & Co. any safer. The confederate Supremes were not in any danger.
@RAS: Oh, so that's what a "kampf" is.
Isn't it odd that so-called 'christians' have abandoned 'What would
Jesus do?' and replaced it with 'What would Trump do?'
Of course, we all know what he would do. Take from the poor and
give to the rich.
@Marie: The leak made it known that they had the votes to overturn Roe. So if one of the Republicans on the court had changed their vote later to merely gutting abortion rights they would have been the target of the right-wing's hatred. The Right's extensive history of violence means they have to take those threats even more seriously. That would have meant that any justice getting second thoughts would be reluctant to put themselves and their family into that situation. In Romney's book he mentioned a Senator who refuse to vote against Trump because of the danger. I think the leaker knew the danger should anyone back out of their original vote. Though I course they used the media to play up the threat from someone on the left while ignoring the very real danger from the right.
I could be completely wrong here, but wasn't the Sermon on the Mount philosophy embraced by Christians when they themselves were the poor, the meek, thirsters for justice, ground under the heels of the rich of the Roman Empire? Here is a depressing look at the disconnect in modern England between faith and charity.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/23/opinion/christmas-england-priests.html
Spinoza knew centuries ago:
"[People] find—both in themselves and outside themselves—many means that are very helpful in seeking their own advantage, e.g., eyes for seeing, teeth for chewing, plants and animals for food, the sun for light, the sea for supporting fish … Hence, they consider all natural things as means to their own advantage. And knowing that they had found these means, not provided them for themselves, they had reason to believe that there was someone else who had prepared those means for their use. For after they considered things as means, they could not believe that the things had made themselves; but from the means they were accustomed to prepare for themselves, they had to infer that there was a ruler, or a number of rulers of nature, endowed with human freedom, who had taken care of all things for them, and made all things for their use.
"And since they had never heard anything about the temperament of these rulers, they had to judge it from their own. Hence, they maintained that the Gods direct all things for the use of men in order to bind men to them and be held by men in the highest honor. So it has happened that each of them has thought up from his own temperament different ways of worshipping God, so that God might love them above all the rest, and direct the whole of Nature according to the needs of their blind desire and insatiable greed. Thus this prejudice was changed into superstition, and struck deep roots in their minds.”
@RAS: Got it. I'm a little slow.