;)
The Conversation -- January 4, 2024
Holmes Lybrand of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team told a federal judge on Thursday that special counsel Jack Smith and prosecutors in& his office should be severely sanctioned and possibly held in contempt after they continued to submit filings in the case following a stay order from the judge. Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the Washington, DC, election subversion case, issued a stay on the case after Trump appealed her ruling dismissing his claims that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution.... Trump's attorneys have asked Chutkan to issue an order for Smith and the prosecutors to show why they should not be held in contempt, be forced to withdraw their filings and be 'forbidden' from submitting further filings.... 'Such malignant conduct undermines the integrity of this proceeding and warrants severe sanction,' Trump's attorneys wrote."
More News from Trumpsidedown World. Marie: Congressional Republicans are busy trying to impeach President Joe Biden for imaginary benefits they claim without evidence he got -- while not in office -- from his son Hunter's foreign enterprises. But why don't they register shock and horror at Donald Trump for definitely raking in millions from countries like China while he was in office and in violaton of the emoluments clause of the Constitution??? Much of the proof of these unconstitutional payments/bribes comes from Trump's own accounting firm. ~~~
** ~~~ Kleptocrat-in-Chief. Zachary Cohen & Kara Scannell of CNN: "The Chinese government and its state-controlled entities spent over $5.5 million at properties owned by Donald Trump while he was in office, the largest total of payments made by any single foreign country known to date, according to financial documents cited in a report from House Democrats released Thursday. Accounting records from Trump's former accounting firm, Mazars USA, were obtained by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee.... The House Democrats say that China is one of 20 countries that made at least $7.8 million in total payments to Trump-owned businesses and properties during the former president's stint in the White House.... The documents offer additional evidence of the rare practice of foreign governments spending money directly with businesses owned by a sitting president but are not a complete record of all foreign payments made to Trump's businesses during his time in the White House." Read on to see how these payments effectively worked as bribes to deter Trump from imposing recommended sanctions on companies that paid up. ~~~
~~~ UPDATE. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report called 'White House For Sale' that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, offer concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him.... They have so far failed to show that President Biden was enriched in any way by any of those transactions.... The Constitution prohibits a president from accepting money, payments or gifts 'of any kind whatever' from foreign governments and monarchs unless he obtains 'the consent of the Congress' to do so. The report notes that Mr. Trump never went to Congress to seek consent.... House Republicans ... dismissed the revelations, arguing that there was nothing wrong with Mr. Trump receiving revenue from foreign governments while he was president but that Mr. Biden's family's business was corrupt." ~~~
~~~ Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "When Republicans took control of the House in 2023, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) ended the congressional investigation into Trump's alleged violations of the emoluments clause. He also declined to enforce a court-ordered agreement that Mazars USA, Trump's former accounting firm, produce evidence related to Trump's financial dealings." ~~~
~~~ The report, via Axios, is here.
A new Biden/Harris campaign ad:
Iowa. Remy Tumin & Victor Mather of the New York Times: "The police in Perry, Iowa, said there were multiple victims in a school shooting early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Sheriff Adam Infante said at a news conference on Thursday that there was no further threat to the public. He would not say if the shooter was dead or captured. He said that the shooter had been identified but did not reveal the identity. The Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy held a scheduled campaign event in Perry amid reports of the shooting. The candidate led a prayer circle as attendees expressed fear, but little surprise." Thanks to contributor El for the link. ~~~
~~~ New Lede: "A gunman killed a sixth-grade student and injured five other people at a high school in Perry, Iowa, early Thursday morning just as students were arriving back to school after their winter break. Four of the injured were students, and one was an administrator, said Mitch Mortvedt ... of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, at a news conference on Thursday. One of the injuries was critical.... The shooter, Dylan Butler, a 17-year-old student at Perry High School, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mr. Mortvedt said. Law enforcement believe he acted alone."
Marie: A comment by Ken W. in today's thread reminded me of Chris Hayes' top segment last night. This is a highlights video, so the meat of Hayes' comparison of Trump's failures to Biden's successes begins at about 2:40 in to about 7:35 min. in, though it wouldn't hurt to listen to what came before & what follows: ~~~
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Lauren Fox, et al., of CNN: "House Republicans will forge ahead with steps to impeach Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the border crisis, a GOP source tells CNN. In a statement provided to CNN, a committee spokesperson said 'the House Committee on Homeland Security has conducted a comprehensive investigation into Secretary Mayorkas' handling of, and role in, the unprecedented crisis at the Southwest border' for nearly a year.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: GOP Game Plan. (1) Refuse -- for decades -- to cooperate with Democrats in the House & Senate (and the White House) to pass meaningful immigration legislation; (2) Refuse to fund programs and agencies that mitigate border problems; (3) Endorse a presidential* candidate who coarsely demeans immigrants from everywhere but northern Europe; (4) Blame Democrats for everything; (5) Impeach a Cabinet secretary who is a Jewish Cuban-American and is trying to work within the limitations Republicans have imposed. (6) Impeach a Democratic president who is doing the same. In fairness to Republicans, the number of people trying to cross into the U.S. soared at the end of last year, probably partly as a result of the Biden administration's making the U.S. a more attractive country than it was under the racist, xenophobic former guy. See also Akhilleus' commentary in today's thread.
See Bob Make New Friends. Vivian Nereim & Tariq Panja of the New York Times: Less than a year after Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) visited Qatar and praised the nation for the progress it has made on labor rights -- in the midst of global condemnation over its exploitation of migrant workers -- "Mr. Menendez, 70, was charged in a federal indictment with taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including bars of gold, to wield his power at home and abroad. The case initially focused on actions that benefited Egypt. But on Tuesday, updated court documents added new details related to Qatar. In the updated indictment, prosecutors accused Mr. Menendez of using his influence and connections -- a byproduct of his powerful position as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- to help a New Jersey developer get financial backing from an investment fund run by a Qatari royal family member in exchange for lucrative bribes. To help win over the Qataris, prosecutors said, the developer, Fred Daibes, also expected Mr. Menendez to 'take action to benefit the government of Qatar.'"
Jordan Rubin of MSNBC: "One interesting aspect to watch for in 'the January 9 appeals court] hearing [in Donald Trump's immunity gambit] will be whether the three-judge panel is receptive to an argument that neither Trump nor special counsel Jack Smith has raised: that the court doesn't even have the authority to consider the merits of Trump's appeal at this time. That view comes from an amicus brief by the nonprofit American Oversight, which urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to dismiss the appeal and send the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan 'for prompt trial and judgment without any further delay.' The group cites Supreme Court precedent for the proposition that challenges are only allowed at this early stage of a criminal case if they're based on claimed rights that would stop a trial from happening in the first place, and those rights are limited to what's explicitly set out in a statute or the Constitution.... Notably, the appeals court on Tuesday said the lawyers need to be prepared to address arguments raised in amicus briefs on Jan. 9. So it may be something the panel is seriously considering."
Liz Dye in Above the Law: "Clearly [Trump's] attorneys [in the election interference case] ... have run out of merely bad ideas. They have drilled through the bottom of the barrel into a subterranean underworld of batshittery.... They have been reduced to pointing to arguments which undermine their case and gamely insisting that that they do the exact opposite.... This brief is stuffed with more athletic leaps of logic than the Bolshoi Ballet. [For instance,] Trump claims that his impeachment for incitement means that jeopardy attaches, and thus he can't be prosecuted for obstructing Congress. As the government notes, impeachment is explicitly not a criminal process.... But, Trump counters, under English common law, impeachment could result in the death penalty, and ipso facto, impeachment by the US Congress is actually a criminal process." ~~~
~~~ ** Trump's Defense Makes Prosecutors' Case. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Tucked into Trump's latest legal brief in his appeal for presidential immunity in his federal Jan. 6 case is ... a social media post from Trump the same day of the filing -- Tuesday -- which links to a report from an unnamed source running down various voter-fraud claims. The filing cites the report to argue that there remain 'vigorous disputes and questions about the actual outcome of the 2020 Presidential election.'... The report begins with a series of astonishing and false claims.... [It is filled with] claims that have already been debunked or have no actual proximity to voter fraud.... No links are provided to the claims or documents.... And that Trump's legal team would see fit to include it in a filing would not seem to augur well for his defense.... What it demonstrates is how much this entire effort was about manufacturing smoke. And in that way, the Trump lawyers in effect just proved the prosecutors' point.... It's one thing to say these things in public; it's quite another to include them in a legal filing." ~~~
~~~ Liz Dye's post, linked above, reproduces Trump's Liars Social post, which Blake discusses in depth: "In their brief, Trump's lawyers actually cite this social media post" in which he claims the "report that is fully verified" and "was compiled by the "most highly qualified Election Experts in the Country."
Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A former top lawyer for the D.C. National Guard [-- Col. Earl Matthews --] has accused Army officials of retaliating against him for asserting to Congress that two top Army officers lied about why deployment of the Guard was delayed during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, according to a complaint filed with the Defense Department.... A copy of the 37-page whistle-blower reprisal complaint was filed with the Pentagon's inspector general in October.... At the center of this particular dispute is a still-simmering feud inside the military over who is to blame for the more than four-hour delay in deploying the National Guard as the rioters battled their way into the Capitol, assaulting dozens of police officers along the way and endangering members of Congress, their staffs and others working in the building.... Colonel Matthews drafted a 36-page memo that he submitted to the House Jan. 6 committee, accusing General [Walter] Piatt and Gen. Charles Flynn of being 'absolute and unmitigated liars' in their testimony before Congress." Col. Matthews described various retaliatory measures made against him.
~~~ Marie: Charles Flynn is the brother of Michael Flynn, Trump's notorious former national security advisor, who admitted to lying to F.B.I. agents regarding his actions before Trump took office.
Status Report. Alan Feuer & Molly Escobar of the New York Times: "Nearly three years after a mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in support of ... Donald J. Trump, the criminal investigation into the events of that day pushes on. Prosecutors have called the riot inquiry the largest in the history of the Justice Department.... Every week, a few more people are arrested. As of December, about 1,240 people had been arrested in connection with the attack, accused of crimes ranging from trespassing, a misdemeanor, to seditious conspiracy, a felony. More than 350 cases are still pending. Around 170 people have been convicted at trial, while only two people have been fully acquitted. Approximately 710 people have pleaded guilty ... and among those, around 210 pleaded guilty to felony offenses. After being convicted or pleading guilty, more than 720 people have received sentences so far ... and more than 450 of them were sentenced to periods of incarceration, ranging from a handful of days to more than 20 years. And while there have been about 1,240 arrests as of early December ... that may be only half of the total indictments that will ultimately be filed." With lots of illustrations.
The Strange Case of Ray Epps. Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "In July 2021..., the Justice Department officially declined to prosecute a 65-year-old named Ray Epps. 'Investigation did not reveal sufficient evidence that Epps entered the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, engaged in acts of violence or committed any other criminal violations,' an FBI agent wrote. Two and a half years later, Epps was charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct and promptly pleaded guilty. And in a sentencing memorandum filed Tuesday, the government said he actually engaged in 'felonious' behavior and should spend six months behind bars.... The Arizona man became a focus of a conspiracy theory that the federal government ignited the Capitol riot.... In the years since the riot, Epps became a focus of right-wing activists seeking to shift blame from former president Donald Trump and his followers to the government and left-wing protesters. Fox News falsely accused him of being an undercover FBI operative.... Republican lawmakers amplified the conspiracy theory in hearings and news conferences. Trump has referenced it in speeches and demanded information on Epps.... [Epps'] defense attorney, Edward Ungvarsky, said the charging reversal 'seems to be an ill-considered reaction to extremists' relentless pressure on the government to charge Mr. Epps.'"
Tom Jackman, et al., of the Washington Post: "Twenty-five percent of Americans say it is 'probably' or 'definitely' true that the FBI instigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a false concept promoted by right-wing media and repeatedly denied by federal law enforcement, according to a new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.... Among Republicans, 34 percent say the FBI organized and encouraged the insurrection, compared with 30 percent of independents and 13 percent of Democrats.... Despite a detailed congressional investigation and more than 725 completed federal prosecutions of Jan. 6 participants that did not yield evidence of FBI involvement, a substantial minority of Americans still embrace conspiracy theories not unlike the ones that drove many rioters to storm the Capitol three years ago." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The poll's finding is not unrelated to Brynn Tannehill's thesis (summary story linked below) that it doesn't take many dedicated Nazis to turn a country into a fascist dictatorship. We are so screwed.
Presidential Race 2024
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to keep him on the primary ballot in Colorado, appealing an explosive ruling from the state Supreme Court declaring him ineligible based on his efforts to overturn the 2020 election that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.... Mr. Trump's petition followed a similar one last week from the Colorado Republican Party.... Richard L. Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the petition was 'a strong legal document' that 'raises some serious, difficult questions.'... Mr. Trump's petition attacked the ruling on many grounds. It said the events culminating in the assault on the Capitol on Jan. 6 were not an insurrection.... Even if the events culminating in the Capitol riot could be called an insurrection, the petition said, Mr. Trump himself had not 'engaged in insurrection.' The petition also said Section 3 did not apply to him because he had not taken the relevant kind of oath. And it said that the presidency was not one of the offices from which oath-breaking officials were barred. Mr. Trump's lawyers said that Section 3 disqualified people subject to it from holding office -- not from seeking it.... The petition also argued that judges may not act unless Congress does." ~~~
~~~ Politico's report is here. Trump's petition is here. Andrew Weissmann & Neal Katyal, appearing on MSNBC, were mighty unimpressed with the petition, which both noted completely omitted any reference to the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3 clause, which bars from office anyone who has "given aid or comfort to the enemies" of the U.S.
Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Defense analyst Brynn Tannehill has taken a look at recent polling of Republican primary voters and has come to the sobering conclusion that many of them want ... Donald Trump to be a dictator. Writing in the New Republic, Tannehill notes that a recent poll of GOP voters showed that Trump's Nazi-esque rhetoric about migrants 'poisoning the blood' of the nation made 42 percent of respondents more likely to support him, while only 28 percent said it made them less likely to support him.... Tannehill points to historical precedent showing they don't need to be in order to impose a potential dictatorship on the country. '... perhaps only a million out of 70 million Germans were 'Fanatiker' (fanatics or true believers) -- the rest were just along for the perks or to simply avoid unwanted scrutiny for lack of ideological purity,' Tannehill explains."
Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo calls to our attention Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was designed to reduce the Congressional representation and number of Electors in states that suppress the votes of some citizens. A "Section 2 case is now moving toward resolution. Briefs have been filed, and oral argument is expected shortly before the court of appeals in Washington, D.C," according to Michael Meltzner, writing in the American Prospect. Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "Federal labor officials accused the rocket company SpaceX on Wednesday of illegally firing eight employees for circulating a letter critical of the company's founder and chief executive, Elon Musk. According to a complaint issued by a regional office of the National Labor Relations Board, the company fired the employees in 2022 for calling on SpaceX to distance itself from social media comments by Mr. Musk, including one in which he mocked sexual harassment accusations against him.... The case is scheduled to go before an administrative judge in early March unless SpaceX agrees to a settlement beforehand. A spokeswoman for the labor board said it was seeking make-whole remedies like reinstatement and back pay for the workers."
Former Harvard President Claudine Gay defends herself in a New York Times op-ed: "My hope is that by stepping down I will deny demagogues the opportunity to further weaponize my presidency in their campaign to undermine the ideals animating Harvard since its founding: excellence, openness, independence, truth.... The campaign against me was ... merely a single skirmish in a broader war to unravel public faith in pillars of American society. Campaigns of this kind often start with attacks on education and expertise, because these are the tools that best equip communities to see through propaganda.... Trusted institutions of all types -- from public health agencies to news organizations -- will continue to fall victim to coordinated attempts to undermine their legitimacy and ruin their leaders' credibility. For the opportunists driving cynicism about our institutions, no single victory or toppled leader exhausts their zeal." ~~~
~~~ Gay Is Right About That. Collin Binkley & Moriah Balingit of the AP: "Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who helped orchestrate the effort against Gay, celebrated her departure as a win in his campaign against elite institutions of higher education. On X..., he wrote 'SCALPED,' as if Gay was a trophy of violence, invoking a gruesome practice taken up by white colonists who sought to eradicate Native Americans and also used by some tribes against their enemies.... 'We must not stop until we have abolished DEI [diversity, equity & inclusion] ideology from every institution in America,' he said. In another post, he announced a new 'plagiarism hunting fund,' vowing to 'expose the rot in the Ivy League and restore truth, rather than racialist ideology, as the highest principle in academic life.'... The campaign against Gay and other Ivy League presidents has become part of a broader right-wing effort to remake higher education.... Republican detractors have sought to gut funding for public universities, roll back tenure and banish initiatives that make colleges more welcoming to students of color, disabled students and the LGBTQ+ community. They also have aimed to limit how race and gender are discussed in classrooms."
Matthew Goldstein & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Hundreds of pages of previously sealed court documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and registered sex offender, were made public Wednesday -- but as most legal experts familiar with the sordid affair had surmised, there was no smoking gun list of famous men who had sought to have sex with young women and teen girls. The documents, filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan, appeared to add a bit more context to the relationships that Mr. Epstein had maintained over the years with powerful men, such as the former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald J. Trump and a member of the British royalty, Prince Andrew. But they provided little, if any, new fodder for conspiracy theorists who remain fixated on Mr. Epstein's dealings more than four years after his death." Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ BUT according to Samanta Delouya & others of CNN: "The documents in total, including material yet to be unsealed, are expected to include nearly 200 names, including some of Epstein's accusers, prominent businesspeople, politicians and potentially more."
Fenit Nirappil & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "The United States is in the throes of another covid-19 uptick, cementing a pattern of the virus surging around the holidays as doctors and public health officials brace for greater transmission after Americans return to school and work this week.... JN.1, the new dominant variant, appears to be especially adept at infecting those who have been vaccinated or previously infected." ~~~
~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "... so far, this winter's Covid uptick seems less deadly than last year's, and much less so than in 2022, when the Omicron surge ground the nation to a halt.... Still, there are few masks in sight, and just a fraction of the most vulnerable people have received the latest Covid shots.... But trends in wastewater data, positive tests, emergency department visits, hospitalization rates and deaths point to a rise in infections in all regions of the nation, according to the C.D.C. These patterns have prompted many hospitals to reinstate mask policies, after initially resisting a return to them this fall." See also WashPo story under "Florida," linked below.
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Rebecca Reynolds of the AP: "A bomb threat emailed to officials in several states early Wednesday briefly disrupted government affairs and prompted some state capitol evacuations, but no explosives were found and federal officials quickly dismissed the threats as a hoax. The threats follow a spate of false reports of shootings at the homes of public officials in recent days. Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi and Montana were among the states that evacuated statehouse offices or buildings."
Florida. Dangerous, Stupid News. Dan Diamond, et al., of the Washington Post: "Florida's top health official called for a halt to using mRNA coronavirus vaccines on Wednesday, contending that the shots could contaminate patients' DNA -- a claim that has been roundly debunked by public health experts, federal officials and the vaccine companies. Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo's announcement, released as a state bulletin, comes after months of back-and-forth with federal regulators who have repeatedly rebuked his rhetoric around vaccines. Public health experts warn of the dangers of casting doubt on proven lifesaving measures as respiratory viruses surge this winter. 'We've seen this pattern from Dr. Ladapo that every few months he raises some new concern and it quickly gets debunked,' said Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University's public health school who led the White House's national coronavirus response before stepping down last year. 'This idea of DNA fragments -- it's scientific nonsense. People who understand how these vaccines are made and administered understand that there is no risk here.'" MB: Ladapo is a DeSantis appointee. ~~~
~~~ Related Florida Politics stories here and here.
Florida Man. Sahil Kapur & Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A Florida man was arrested Wednesday in connection with threats to kill Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., and his children. Swalwell was not named in the court documents, but he confirmed that the threats targeted him and his family.... The five voicemail messages [Michael] Shapiro [of Greenacres, Florida] is alleged to have made from his Florida home on Dec. 19 included threats to 'come after you and kill you' and a threat to 'come and kill your children.'"
Kentucky. Maham Javaid of the Washington Post: "Almost eight years after a former county clerk refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples in Kentucky, she must now pay $260,000 in fees and expenses to attorneys who represented one of the couples, a federal judge has ruled. The ruling that circulated in the court system Tuesday is separate from a jury's earlier decision that Kim Davis must pay $100,000 in damages to the couple, David Ermold and David Moore.... Liberty Counsel, a religious freedom organization that represented Davis, said Wednesday that it would appeal the case, including the damages and the attorneys fees and costs award." The Hill's story is here. Thanks to Forrest M. for the link.
Texas. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department sued the state of Texas on Wednesday over a new state law that would authorize local police and judges to arrest and remove undocumented immigrants.... The statute is due to go into effect in a matter of months, and in a letter last week, Justice Department officials had warned Texas that it was unconstitutional, allocating to local officials powers that have been reserved for the federal government. In the same letter, the Justice Department gave Texas until Wednesday to respond.... The high court has ruled, as recently as 2012, that immigration enforcement is a federal, not state responsibility." The CBS News story is here.
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Iran. Vivian Yee & Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "A pair of explosions on Wednesday at a commemoration for Iran's former top military general Qassim Suleimani killed at least 103 people and wounded another 171, according to Iranian officials. The blasts sowed fear and grief in Iran and heightened tensions in the broader region even further a day after an explosion killed several Hamas officials in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon. Iranian officials told state media that a pair of bombs placed in bags along the road toward the cemetery in Kerman, Iran, had exploded as a procession of people was on its way there to commemorate the four-year anniversary of General Suleimani's assassination by the United States. The officials said the bags appeared to have been detonated via remote control, leaving bodies in pieces on the ground." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Hezbollah head Hasan Nasrallah warned of 'a response and punishment' following the assassination of senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri in a suspected Israeli drone strike in Beirut.... Fighting continued on Israel's border with Lebanon after Nasrallah's speech, according to Israel Defense Forces updates posted on social media. The IDF said it attacked observation devices and military infrastructure in Lebanon after detecting 'a number of launches' from the country.... U.N. agencies have been unable to deliver desperately needed aid to areas in northern Gaza for at least three days, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said, citing intense fighting in the area as well as 'access delays and denials.' A Biden appointee at the Education Department announced that he is resigning over the administration's handling of the war. Tariq Habash, who is Palestinian American, wrote in a letter that he 'cannot stay silent as this administration turns a blind eye to the atrocities committed against innocent Palestinian lives.'" ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here. CNN's live updates are here.
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Reader Comments (23)
The Covid stories linked above reminded me of my last visit to the local hospital. Like most hospitals, ours was just about the last public facility in the area to abandon the requirement to wear masks. Shortly before Christmas, I had to get a blood test at the hospital's lab. As I am a high-risk person, I wore a mask. As I walked into the teensy, windowless office where the technician was to take my blood, she coughed in my face. Less than a minute later, she asked me why I was wearing a mask as they were no longer required. I said I had a couple of high-risk factors and besides, she had just let go a hefty, loose cough. "Did I?" she asked. "I wasn't aware of it."
So, yeah, wear a mask if you're worried about contracting Covid or any other air-borne illnesses. When even the staff doesn't notice they are spewing beastie-filled droplets, at least a minimal defense seems prudent.
How’s this for a knee slapper? The crooks, charlatans, liars, and traitors going after Mayorkas are outraged, OUTRAGED, I tells ya, that he’s not abiding by the constitution! “The impeachment resolution accuses him of failing to adhere to his oath to ‘defend and secure our country and uphold the Constitution.’”
Lemme get this straight. These conniving jamokes, who ALL supported (and still support) an insurrection designed to violently take over the government and keep a traitor in power…are worried that someone else is not defending the Constitution as he has sworn to do.
Is that right? Do they mean they way they defend the Constitution? Because if so, I’d be pretty fucking worried about the border.
What we have here is a bunch of do-nothing treason mongers who couldn’t conceive, write, defend, and pass a piece of legislation to rename a post office (Paul Ryan’s single legislative accomplishment in 20 years) and now, in order to try and hide the fact that they are impotent lying sad sacks, are ginning up multiple impeachments, wasting time and taxpayer money on yet another brainless charade, instead of working in a bipartisan manner to fix a longstanding problem.
Oh, wait. If they fixed it, they’d have one less thing to lie about.
Never mind. But by all means, let’s be true to our oath of office to support and defend the Constitution. And oh, by the way, MAGA forever! Even if we have to kill democracy and overthrow the government AGAIN!!
@Akhilleus: And as far as we can tell from published reports, Merrick the Unready's DOJ is still investigating some of these traitorous members of Congress with a view toward bringing criminal charges against them for their participation in the insurrection.
Oh, wait. Did I call those PoT charlatans do-nothings? Au contraire! They’re doing something. A bunch of them are taking an all expenses paid (thanks, taxpaying schmoes!) trip to Texas to point fingers and say how horrible Biden and Mayorkas are! Hey, maybe if Biden put some babies in cages and sent the parents to Concentration Camp Trump, Bible Mike and his junket-goers would be happy? After all, didn’t Jesus say “Suffer the little brown children to come to me so’s I can torture them”?
Marie,
Yeah. Sometime in the next year or two or three.
Speaking of moving speedily (or not), for a party whose Dear Leader is all about delay, delay, delay, they sure can saddle up for impeachment proceedings pretty quickly. It’s perfect for indolent incompetents. No having to do anything, just show up, shout, scream, lie, get on Fox, repeat, then start again next day.
Here’s how these Potemkin impeachments will go. Bible Mike and his traitors will give their best impression of a banana republic kangaroo court, presenting made up bullshit, wild, unverified claims, and demands for life sentences all around. Fox will cheer them on.
Then…it goes to the Senate, where they’ll be told to STFU, sit down, and stop bothering the adults.
Bible Mike and his treasonous horde will scream bloody murder, go on Fox and whine that “We presented a case full of made up crap, no facts, and wildly irresponsible charges and they told us to SHUT UP! Aieeeee! Traitors!”
Yeah. You should know.
I've gotten all my Covid shots, but I'm not sure if they're working -- my keys still don't stick to my face. I was really looking forward to carrying them like that.
Maybe I need to ask George Soros to activate the microchip. Anybody got his number?
@D in MD: You must have received one of the many bogus Covid shots medicos are injecting into gullible Americans' arms. As for me, the magnetism thing is working fine. I can hardly pry the keys from my forehead when I need to use them to unlock things.
And the keys make fetching jewelry. Even some Covid deniers are stopping me at the Walmart and asking me where I got the beautiful Schlages & Kwiksets.
With friends like this…
How’s this for staunch legal support?
Idiot lawyer and fanatical Fatty mouthpiece, Christina Bobb, goes on Real America for Idiot Traitors, or one of those bug-eyed far-right pus-filled streaming services and screams that her boss, the Orange Monster, should be on the ballot even if he is, in fact, guilty of insurrection.
“The president is elected by the entire nation and it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they are guilty of insurrection or not.”
Um…what? So…even though he’s guilty of planning and carrying out an attempted insurrection, Constitution be damned, he should still be on the ballot. Ooooh-kaaay.
By the way, this is the same idiot who has been shouting that it’s wrong to let voters know about all those Trump indictments, because, um, becaaauuse…ahhh…hmmm…oh yeah, propaganda! That’s the ticket. Telling the truth about Fatty is…propaganda. Yeah!
Hey, Christina. Here’s a cookie. Back to bed now. It’s nap time.
D! Dude. How many times I gotta tell ya? Don’t bother George. He’s busy pouring nuclear isotopes into red state groundwater. Or something. Those chips in your bloodstream are self-activating. Your every move is now monitored by the Deep State. Any funny business and their Jewish space lasers will nuke you.
The GOP I remember used to apply its standard game plan to only some things. Now, they deploy it to nearly every problem. I say nearly because instead of deliberate sabotage, they sometimes choose to close their eyes instead to some of our major challenges and just pretend they don't exist. Thinking climate change and racism (thank you, John Roberts) here.
But these Rats in the walls of the republic sure do work hard to make immigration issues worse. As they do the growing deficit, rampant economic inequality, work safety, and access to health care and to the ballot.
In fact, I need some help on this. Is there a single problem the nation faces that Republicans are working to fix?
In the face of such GOP obduracy, deviousness and disloyalty, have to say the Biden administration's success in its first three years has been truly miraculous.
It'll be interesting to see how many Republican Senators fall in line with this impeachment farce (assuming the House can actually whip the votes this time) and what someone like Manchin does as he considers whether to help elect Trump with a third party run against Biden.
Marie,
OK. I'll get some homeopathic Covid stuff, set it on a magnet for a few days, and then inject it.
Ak,
Jewish radioactive groundwater huh? Maybe that explains why the squirrels chewed through the cords on my Christmas lights. Next year I'll put out a Menorah to appease them.
Those polls about the insurrection tell me we all have a huge opportunity to get rich quick here.
Also last night Ari Melber mentioned that the government is releasing more UFO information. I'm sure it will be as groundbreaking as last time. But we might finally get the truth behind this.
I've finally figured out why Republican politicians do nothing.
In order to be impeached, they would have to do 'high crimes and
misdemeanors'.
Sitting on your ass and doing nothing for the country, I guess, can't
get you impeached.
Mayorkas was just probably doing his job. Whether doing a good job,
or doing a bad job, doesn't sound like either could be grounds for
impeachment.
I'm not a lawyer, but I dated one once. (just once).
One segment of the Chris Hayes video that struck me, not because it was new but that it hits to the heart of the Republican mindset:
When asked if their finances had improved during the Biden administration many Republicans whose income had definitely improved said it had gotten worse.
Same old question: Are they terminally deluded or just lying SOB's?
Rick Perlstein
"You Are Entering the Infernal Triangle
Authoritarian Republicans, ineffectual Democrats, and a clueless media"
Less than a week into the new year...
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/us/perry-iowa-school-shooting.html
And Ramaswamy wins the race to be the first to offer up prayers.
@Ken - you beat me to it. Does anyone think the MAGA crowd will EVER change their minds? If they are willing to go so far as to misrepresent actual gains because, you know, Democrats evil, well.. too bad we can't get them all onto the same ice floe.
Prayers versus bullets.. hm.. let me do the math..
Don't know if the Supremes will care, but they (particularly those who claim to be Originalists) ought to read this one.
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/04/opinion/the-case-for-disqualifying-trump-is-strong.html
Once again.
Thoughts and prayers.
C’mon, you liberal snowflakes, only one kid was killed in the latest NRA-Party of Traitors 2nd Amendment Gala. And the shooter killed himself, so he’s a hero because only a few others were shot (besides the kid he murdered). Guns for everyone!