The Ultimate Holiday Eve News Dump. Julianne McShane of MS Now: "The House Oversight Committee on Wednesday released the transcript and video of its deposition with former special counsel Jack Smith, who led two failed prosecutions of ... Donald Trump.... The deposition took place on Dec. 17 in Washington, D.C. Read the full transcript of the deposition below." ~~~
~~~ Here's the video, posted by Meidas Touch: ~~~
“Trump Is the Jan. 6 President.” New York Times Editors: “... Jan. 6, 2021 ...was a turning point toward a version of Mr. Trump who is even more lawless than the one who governed the country in his first term. It heralded a culture of political unaccountability, in which people who violently attacked Congress and beat police officers escaped without lasting consequence. The politicians and pundits who had egged on the attack with their lies escaped, as well. The aftermath of Jan. 6 made the Republican Party even more feckless, beholden to one man and willing to pervert reality to serve his interests. Once Mr. Trump won election again in 2024, despite his role in encouraging the riot and his many distortions about it, it emboldened him to govern in defiance of the Constitution, without regard for the truth and with malice toward those who stand up to his abuses.... Americans must summon the collective will to bring this era to an end and make certain that the violence, lawlessness and injustice of Jan. 6 do not endure.” This is a very long editorial.
Tyler Pager of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Wednesday that he would abandon, for now, efforts to deploy the National Guard in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland, Ore. The decision comes after the Supreme Court ruled last week that Mr. Trump could not deploy troops in the Chicago area over the objections of Illinois officials. The president’s announcement made no mention of the ruling, but he suggested his administration would not hesitate to deploy troops in the future. 'We will come back, perhaps in a much different and stronger form, when crime begins to soar again — Only a question of time,' he wrote on Truth Social. The president’s announcement also did not acknowledge that in both Portland and Chicago the troops had a limited, if nonexistent, presence in part because of legal challenges to their deployment.”
Arc de Trump. Sophia Cai of Politico: “... Donald Trump said in an interview Wednesday that construction of his long-teased Triumphal Arch is expected to begin 'sometime in the next two months.'... 'It hasn’t started yet. It starts sometime in the next two months. It’ll be great. Everyone loves it,/ Trump told Politico. 'They love the ballroom too. But they love the Triumphal Arch.' The proposed structure — modeled loosely on European victory monuments — is one of several high-profile projects Trump has personally championed as part of the semiquincentennial celebrations, a sprawling effort expected to include national and local events across the country.... Trump has framed the project as a patriotic landmark meant to honor American history and military service, though critics have raised questions about cost, aesthetics and whether the executive branch has the authority to unilaterally move forward with such construction in Washington.”
Marie: I can't find a print story of this PBS report: "The CIA has assessed that Ukraine was not targeting a residence of Russian President Vladimir Putin in a recent drone attack, a claim that Putin told ... [Donald] Trump, and that Trump seemed to accept. Trump now suggests that he agrees with European leaders that it’s Russia blocking the path to a peace agreement." Here's the video report. I wonder how long Trump will remember this.
Here's the New York Times story on Trump's vetoes. It leans into the retaliatory nature of the vetoes, something the CBS News story, linked below, addresses much more obliquely -- mostly through politicians' remarks near the end of the story. ~~~
~~~ Jack Healy of the New York Times: “Miffed at Colorado’s votes against him in three successive elections and furious at its refusal to free Tina Peters, a convicted election denier and ardent Trump supporter, Mr. Trump has opened an assault against the Democratic-run state. His administration has cut off transportation money, relocated the military’s Space Command, vowed to dismantle a leading climate and weather research center and rejected disaster relief for rural counties hammered by floods and wildfires. A major escalation to Mr. Trump’s attacks on the state came on Tuesday, when he used the first veto of his second term to kill a pipeline project to provide clean drinking water to the state’s eastern plains, a largely conservative area. If there were any doubts about Mr. Trump’s sentiments toward the state’s leaders, he posted a New Year’s Eve message telling Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, and the Republican district attorney in Mesa County who prosecuted Ms. Peters, Daniel P. Rubinstein, to rot in Hell.... I wish them only the worst.'...”
Ken Bensinger & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “A 43-minute video posted online in the past week, purporting to expose extensive fraud at Somali-run child care centers in Minnesota..., has also set off a series of events that show the symbiotic relationship between the Trump administration and self-described citizen journalists. It was posted to X and YouTube the day after Christmas by Nick Shirley, a 23-year-old who has ... produc[ed] viral content that aligns with MAGA policies.... The New York Times could not verify the claims made in the video. Mainstream news sites have reported on cases of social services fraud in Minnesota for years, including a 2,200-word article in The Times last month.... The scale of the reaction to Mr. Shirley’s video ... highlights the way the White House seeds narratives about key issues, then rewards sympathetic creators who deliver viral content. That content need not be new, or even particularly revelatory, to succeed.
“Mr. Shirley’s latest video appears to have been filmed on Dec. 17 in and around Minneapolis, where he knocks on the doors of numerous child care and autism centers.... When someone does open up, Mr. Shirley demands to see whether there are children inside but is never shown any. At each stop, Mr. Shirley, citing state billing records, announces that the operation is fraudulent because he does not see any children. All told, he claims to have personally uncovered $110 million in fraud.... One of the locations Mr. Shirley visited, Mako Childcare Center, has been out of business for three years.” The link is a gift link. Related stories linked below. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The story exposes how phony Trump and his minions -- Vance, Noem, Patel, etc. -- are. While I don't doubt that some of these Somalis -- not necessarily the ones Shirley identified -- are criminal frauds, they may have been as successful at their craft as some of the fraudsters Trump has pardoned. The brouhaha the administration has drummed up is based in racism. ~~~
~~~ All based on a 'gotcha' video claiming that 3 daycares had no kids. One hadn’t opened yet for the day; one is actually closed. Dude arrived with no I.D. No call ahead. They DIDN’T LET HIM IN! The fraud they’re referencing was investigated & prosecuted by the Biden DOJ. The ringleader was white. -- Sherrilyn Ifill on Bluesky (thanks to RAS for the link)
RAS remarks in today's Comments, "Donnie can't even identify the national bird, which is pretty distinctive, so now I am wondering about that 'camel' he keeps bragging about remembering." Good point. MB: I then went hunting and found this copy of Donnie's Minnesota cognitive test results online: ~~~
Heather Cox Richardson assesses the Trumpian Year That Was: "The hallmark of the first year of ... Donald J. Trump’s second term has been the attempt of the president and his cronies to dismantle the constitutional system set up by the framers of that document when they established the United States of America. It’s not simply that they have broken the laws. They have acted as if the laws, and the Constitution that underpins them, don’t exist."
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Adam Entous of the New York Times conducted more than 300 interviews to document how Trump and his administration screwed Ukraine. The link is a gift link.
Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Monday said he might sue Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell for what the president called 'gross incompetence,' injecting new tension into the already strained relationship between the White House and the independent central bank. Speaking at a news conference beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mar-a-Lago, Trump said 'the guy is just incompetent.' Trump first brought up the Fed’s multibillion-dollar renovation project, which at times has become a stand-in for Trump’s ongoing attacks on the Fed system.” MB: Geez, Trump said this at a press conference. Why didn't one of those sharp young journos ask him if the public should sue him for “gross incompetence”? (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Trump's Secret Demolition Derby. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: has a slide show of new photos -- taken by Treasury Department employees -- of the destruction of the East Wing of White House. The link is a gift link.
“Tilting at Windmills.” Robert Mackey of the Guardian: “Late Tuesday..., [Donald Trump] posted an image of a dead bird beneath a [wind] turbine on social media, accompanied by the lament: 'Windmills are killing all of our beautiful Bald Eagles!' The post was immediately amplified by an official White House account on X with more than a million followers....Closer inspection reveals the photograph does not show a bald eagle and was not taken in the United States. The image actually shows a falcon that was killed at a wind farm in Israel eight years ago.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: While the headline is clever, we should establish that Don Trump is no Don Quixote. Sure, there are some similarities, like that episode where Don Quixote frees a group of convicted criminals. And of course both Dons are farcical loons. But Quixote is a romantic idealist, and he sets out on his misadventures in a chivalric quest to honor his supposed lady love. The self-serving, avaracious Don Grab-'Em-by-the-Pussy Trump is not that guy.
Trump Signs Two Retaliatory Vetoes. Joe Walsh of CBS News: Donald "Trump used his veto power this week for the first time since returning to the White House, rejecting a pair of bipartisan bills. Mr. Trump vetoed the two bills on Monday, the White House announced on X.... The bills had ... passed the House and Senate through voice votes.... One of the bills — the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendments Act — would have added a small village called the Osceola Camp to a section of the Florida Everglades that the Miccosukee Native American Tribe has control over.... But in a message to Congress on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the project benefits 'special interests' — and accused the tribe of not cooperating with his immigration policies.... The Finish the Arkansas Valley Conduit Act ... was aimed at completing a long-planned water pipeline that could serve some 50,000 people in southeastern Colorado.... Mr. Trump said he vetoed the bill as part of a broader push to cut 'taxpayer handouts.'... [Rep. Lauren] Boebert [R-Colo.] castigated the veto in a ... statement to local reporter Kyle Clark, calling the bill 'completely non-controversial' and saying she hopes Mr. Trump's veto 'has nothing to do with political retaliation.'" Colorado's governor & U.S. senators are Democrats. Trump has been feuding with Gov. Jared Polis.
Devlin Barrett of the New York Times: “The Justice Department is seeking to enlist about 400 lawyers to review roughly 5.2 million pages of Epstein files documents, an effort that is drawing in prosecutors who work on national security and criminal cases, and in U.S. attorneys’ offices in New York and Florida, according to people familiar with the matter. The number represents a more precise, and potentially much larger, figure than previous estimates provided by the department.... The disclosure that only a fraction of the documents have been released has only added to the troubles surrounding the rollout of the material.”
Sam Rucker of the Times (of London): "Jeffrey Epstein was banned from ... [Donald] Trump’s Mar-a-Lago spa in 2003 after an 18-year-old employee complained to managers about the paedophile pressuring her for sex.... Prior to the ban, the late financier is believed to have been a frequent visitor to the Mar-a-Lago Club, which for years would send employees to his nearby mansion for massages and manicures, among other services. The house calls continued despite spa employees warning one another about Epstein being sexually suggestive and exposing himself during appointments, according to The Wall Street Journal. Former Mar-a-Lago and Epstein employees told the newspaper that the visits were put to a halt in 2003, when an 18-year-old beautician returned to the club and told managers [Epstein] had pressured her for sex. Trump was sent a fax detailing the staff member’s allegations, the report added, after which he ordered Epstein be barred from the Mar-a-Lago Club. While Epstein was not a paying member of the spa, before the ban Trump is reported to have told his staff to treat him like one nonetheless, giving the sex offender access to house calls.... Trump has always maintained that he was never aware of the financier’s sexual abuse."
Thomas Edsall of the New York Times: On Christmas Eve 2008, President George W. Bush revoked a pardon he had issued a day earlier because he learned that the father of the pardoned person had contributed $28,000 to the GOP so the pardon “might create an appearance of impropriety.” “In the Trump administration, contributing money to his campaign, to his inauguration or to a special Trump project such as the East Wing ballroom appears to be one of the factors qualifying convicted criminals for special treatment when seeking a presidential pardon.... I put together a list of ... [the] ingredients for [Trump's] stew of corruption.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Surprisingly, Edsall fails to mention what I think is an essential element of Trump's corrupt schemes: the constant lies in which he characterizes himself as the innocent victim of one malicious Democratic "hoax" after another at the same he accuses Democrats of the very crimes he himself commits daily. Trump's lies -- about everything -- are at the crux of his assault on democracy; he could not get away with most of his illegal shenanigans if millions of people didn't believe that George Soros & Joe Biden, et al., were far more steeped in corruption than poor, mistreated Donald. The media don't get it; the Washington Post documented more than 30,000 lies Trump told in his first term (I guess Bezos put a stop to that), but I don't think the Post ever explained the effect of those lies, the permission slip they gave Trump to do whatever misdeed he was up to.
Janay Kingsberry & Kelsey Ables, et al., of the Washington Post: “The Kennedy Center adopted bylaws earlier this year that limited voting to presidentially appointed trustees, a move that preceded a unanimous decision this month by board members installed by ... Donald Trump to add his name to the center. The current bylaws, obtained by The Washington Post, were revised in May to specify that board members designated by Congress — known as ex officio members — could not vote or count toward a quorum. Legal experts say the move may conflict with the institution’s charter. Trump took over the Kennedy Center in February, purging its board of members he had not appointed.... Roma Daravi, the center’s vice president of public relations, told The Post that ex officio members have never voted.... The law identifies [certain officials] as part of the board of trustees, which it directs to maintain and administer the facility as a living memorial. But it does not distinguish between voting and nonvoting members.... The center’s original bylaws didn’t distinguish voting powers, either. But its most recent tax filings list 59 'voting members' of its governing body — a total that includes both general and ex officio members.” ~~~
~~~ Samantha Chery of the Washington Post: “The Kennedy Center Honors [TV viewership] ratings fell sharply this year, the latest setback for the arts and culture institution since ... Donald Trump’s takeover has led to a controversial renaming of the venue, waves of performance cancellations and plummeting ticket sales. The show averaged 3.01 million viewers, according to Nielsen’s report, CBS publicist Julie Holland shared in an email Tuesday — down about 25 percent from the previous year. Ratings had already been declining for the CBS broadcast, with last year’s Honors hitting what was then a record low of 4.1 million viewers.”
Marie: If anything can get Trump to back off part of his Venezuelan campaign, this might be it: ~~~
~~~ Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: “The crew of an oil tanker fleeing U.S. forces in the Atlantic Ocean recently painted a Russian flag on the side of the vessel, in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection, two American officials said on Tuesday. It’s the latest twist in a bizarre odyssey that began on Dec. 21 when the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept the ship, Bella 1, in the Caribbean Sea as it sailed toward Venezuela to pick up oil, putting it in the cross hairs of ... [Donald] Trump’s quasi-blockade of the Venezuelan government’s economic lifeline. The Bella 1’s crew members have since painted a Russian flag on the tanker during the escape and are now claiming Russian status, according to the U.S. officials, who were briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive operation. The tanker has been under U.S. sanctions since last year for transporting Iranian oil, which federal authorities have said is sold to finance terrorism.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Paul Schwartzman of the Washington Post: “The Department of Homeland Security is seeking to fast-track the demolition of more than a dozen historic buildings at St. Elizabeths in Southeast Washington, asserting that the conditions of the vacant structures represent an 'emergency' and pose potential security risks, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. DHS Secretary Kristi L. Noem, in a Dec. 19 memo to the General Services Administration, said the buildings 'constitute a present risk to life and property' on the 176-acre West Campus, a fortified complex that Homeland Security has been transforming into its new headquarters over the past 15 years.... DHS’s proposed demolition is prompting opposition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the D.C. Preservation League, which are seeking to participate in a detailed on-site assessment of the structures, nine of which they say were built in the late 1800s.... Established by Congress in 1855, St. Elizabeths was originally known as the 'Government Hospital for the Insane,' according to the GSA’s website.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Earlier this month, the Senate confirmed a new commandant of the Coast Guard. Normally, this would mean Coast Guard Adm. Kevin Lunday could move into the swanky residence reserved for the Coast Guard commandant at the Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling in Washington, D.C. A slight glitch: ICE Barbie, whose Department of Homeland Security oversees the Coast Guard, has moved herself, rent-free, into the commandant's residence. My solution: the buildings at St. Elizabeths are already on a DHS campus, so DHS should be able to secure them, despite DHS's claim that “the structures 'provide a tactical advantage for carrying out small arms or active shooter scenarios.'” In the hopes that Noem herself would not be carrying out “active shooter scenarios” (which, admittedly, is something she likes to do), free up the commandant's residence and move ICE Barbie into the “Government Hospital for the Insane.” Seems like just the place for her.
Carol Leonnig & Ken Dilanian of MS NOW: "... several days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, a Justice Department lawyer passed ... a one-page summary [report to top Trump transition official Emil Bove. The report] revealed that Tom Homan — at that time, a frequent companion of Trump’s on the campaign trail who had publicly boasted he would be joining Trump’s administration to lead his immigrant deportation strategy — was the subject of an ongoing bribery investigation. Undercover FBI agents posing as private contractors had recorded him accepting $50,000 in cash in exchange for what they believed was Homan’s vow to help get border enforcement contracts in the new Trump administration.... Justice officials felt sure Homan would not be able to obtain a security clearance based on the evidence gathered in the corruption probe.... Without the benefit of a background check to alert Trump’s team to the ongoing investigation of Homan, Trump on Nov. 10 publicly announced Homan as his new border czar, a senior White House advisor position.... It remains unclear how Homan was eventually granted a security clearance, or whom Bove alerted after being briefed on the Homan probe...." (Also linked yesterday.)
It's Not All RFKJ's Fault. Lauren Weber, et al., of the Washington Post: “Vaccination rates among kindergarten students have plunged across broad swaths of the United States since before the pandemic, exposing children and families to increasing health risks.... The accelerating decline reveals the lasting medical consequences of a political backlash against public health efforts during the pandemic, which radicalized many against long-standing vaccine mandates. The share of U.S. counties where 95 percent or more of kindergartners were vaccinated against measles — the number doctors say is needed to achieve overall protection for the class, known as 'herd immunity' — has dropped from 5o percent before the pandemic to 28 percent, according to The Post’s examination of the public records from 44 states and the District of Columbia. Most of the counties that previously lacked herd immunity for kindergarten classrooms got worse.... Schools, buffeted by post-pandemic politics, have become less strict in enforcing vaccination mandates....”
Joseph Choi of the Hill: “Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, on Tuesday called the seasonal flu vaccine 'controversial of late' and advised various Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiatives as ways to 'overcome' the virus.... '“But like many illnesses, the best news out there is if you can take care of yourself, so that when you do end up running into the flu, you can overwhelm it.'... Aaron Siri, a Kennedy-aligned attorney who presented to the CDC’s vaccine advisory committee earlier this month, argued in October that studies showed 'no convincing evidence — none — that flu shots lowered the chances of dying, being admitted to the hospital, suffering serious complications from the flu, or transmitting flu to others.'... While there are concerns that the current flu vaccine may not be a good match for the H3N2 subclade K virus, which is the predominant flu strain this year, experts say the shot should still offer significant protection from transmission and severe illness.”
Tim Balk & Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: “The Health and Human Services Department said on Tuesday that it had paused its child care payments to Minnesota, days after the posting of a widely circulated video that added new accusations to a fraud scandal in the state’s social services programs.... The decision blocks a funding stream that provides $185 million in annual aid to Minnesota day care centers.... More than a dozen schemes have come to light in Minnesota in recent years, many of them involving people of Somali origin. Prosecutors say the schemes have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.... On Friday, a conservative active on social media, Nick Shirley, posted a video purporting to uncover rampant fraud in day care centers run by people of Somali origin.... None of the centers featured in the video have been accused of fraud by the authorities. Nevertheless, the video drew accolades from several senior White House officials.... Mr. Trump has seized on the scandal, using it to unleash xenophobic tirades against America’s Somali community. ” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Minnesota Public Radio: "In a viral video over the weekend, a YouTuber travels to Minnesota, knocking on doors and accusing Somali-owned day care centers of fraud. Minnesota House Speaker Lisa Demuth said Monday that her caucus steered YouTube creator Nick Shirley to day care sites in Minnesota. Those featured in his widely viewed video have been part of a state-administered child care program using federal money, although some recently had operations or payments suspended.... Demuth is among the Republicans challenging [Gov. Tim] Walz in the governor's race.... University of Minnesota media law professor Jane Kirtley said the video is flashy, but not meaty. There aren’t a lot of facts to back up the claims. 'It’s a lot of rhetoric with relatively little substance behind it,' Kirtley said." ~~~
~~~ Max Rego of the Hill: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) claimed Tuesday that Politico reporter Josh Gerstein was 'inciting violence against federal agents.' Gerstein, a senior legal affairs reporter at the outlet, said Monday on the social platform X, 'At some point, the amateur effort to knock on doors of home daycares intersects with robust stand-your-ground laws.' The post referred to the ongoing federal investigation into alleged fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs, and laws that allow people to 'stand their ground' and defend themselves or homes with the use of deadly force.... After ICE posted its accusation, Gerstein said on X that 'to observe that something is likely to happen or there’s a serious risk of it happening is not to advocate for it happening.'” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course it's ridiculous that Gerstein has to explain that to ICE officials, the same officials who, BTW, are purposely recruiting people prone to gun violence via a recruitment campaign that emphasizes violence as a tactic to overpower immigrant "enemies." This flipping of reality is exactly what Trump does when he lies: whining about what his opponents are doing while doing exactly what he falsely claims the opponents are doing.
Travis Loller of the AP: “A newly unsealed order in the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia reveals that high-level Justice Department officials pushed for his indictment, calling it a 'top priority,' only after he was mistakenly deported and then ordered returned to the U.S. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty in federal court in Tennessee to charges of human smuggling. He is seeking to have the case dismissed on the grounds that the prosecution is vindictive — a way for ... Donald Trump’s administration to punish him for the embarrassment of his mistaken deportation.” MB: Read on. It looks as if Acting U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire lied to the court. (Also linked yesterday.)
Safiyah Riddle & Charlote Kramon of the AP: “Hundreds of people from South Sudan may be able to live and work in the United States legally, while a federal judge on Tuesday weighs whether ... Donald Trump’s move to revoke temporary protected status for immigrants from the East African country was illegal. The termination was set to take effect on January 6, 2026, at which point the roughly 300 South Sudanese nationals living and working in the U.S. under the program — or who otherwise have pending applications — would be eligible for deportation. Civil rights groups sued the Department of Homeland Security in late December, writing in a complaint that the change violated administrative procedure and was unconstitutional because it aimed to 'significantly reduce the number of non-white and non-European immigrants in the United States' on the basis of race. The court order written by U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley in Massachusetts temporarily bars the federal government from initiating deportation while the final decision is pending.”
Aiden Reiter of Politico: “The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Tuesday issued an order rebuking the Trump administration’s efforts to defund and shutter the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Earlier in the month, the D.C. Circuit of Appeals agreed to hear an ongoing lawsuit brought by the National Treasury Employees Union, representing CFPB employees, against OMB director and acting CFPB director Russ Vought. The federal appeals court upheld an injunction from the district court ahead of a February hearing, stating that the Trump administration must cease its efforts to shutter the bureau while the case is ongoing.... On Tuesday, the district court issued a clarification of the injunction, stating that the agency must continue to be funded up until the appeals court hearing in February. The district court judge also cast doubt on Vought’s broader argument, stating that the 'lapse' in funding was 'manufactured by the defendants' and is 'not a valid justification for the agency’s unilateral decision to abandon its obligations.'...” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: “A recent opinion by Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, which has all of the appearances that he wants the expression 'Kavanaugh stops' to fade into obscurity, was panned by Slate legal analysts Dahlia Lithwick and Mark Joseph Stern on Tuesday.... In a much-criticized opinion in September, the justice supported the Trump administration’s campaign of randomly stopping Hispanics on the street in an effort to root out undocumented immigrants.... That opinion gave rise to what is now called a “Kavanaugh stop” — coined by Drexel Kline School of Law Professor Anil Kalhan.... Kavanaugh now [opines] in a recent footnote, 'that race and ethnicity could not be “considerations” when officers make “immigration stops or arrests,”’ is a stab at cleaning his already troubled legacy.”
Penelope Green of the New York Times: “Tatiana Schlossberg, an environmental journalist and a daughter of Caroline Kennedy — and granddaughter of President John F. Kennedy — whose harrowing essay about her rare and aggressive blood cancer, published in The New Yorker magazine in November, drew worldwide sympathy and praise for Ms. Schlossberg’s courage and raw honesty, died on Tuesday. She was 35.” (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's obituary is here.
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: “Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a Cheyenne Indian who walked into a political caucus in Colorado to kill time one day in 1982 and wound up serving two terms as a state legislator, three more in Congress and 12 years as a United States senator, died on Tuesday at his ranch in southwestern Colorado. He was 92.”
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Iowa. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: “A Democratic candidate won a special election for the Iowa State Senate on Tuesday, The Associated Press said, a result that prevents Republicans from reclaiming a supermajority in that chamber. The Democrat, Renee Hardman, a member of the West Des Moines City Council, held a left-leaning suburban seat for her party, continuing a string of encouraging off-year election results for Iowa Democrats. Ms. Hardman defeated the Republican nominee, Lucas Loftin. This year, Democrats flipped two Republican-leaning Iowa Senate seats in special elections, breaking a two-thirds supermajority that had allowed Republican lawmakers to confirm the governor’s appointees without support from Democrats. Republicans could have regained a supermajority with a victory on Tuesday.” A RadioIowa report is here.
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Israel Kicks Humanitarian Heroes Out of Gaza. Melanie Lidman & Sam Mednick of the AP: “Israel on Tuesday said it had suspended more than two dozen humanitarian organizations, including Doctors Without Borders and CARE, from operating in the Gaza Strip for failing to comply with new registration rules. Israel says the rules are aimed at preventing Hamas and other militant groups from infiltrating the aid organizations. But the organizations say the rules are arbitrary and warned that the new ban would harm a civilian population desperately in need of humanitarian aid.” (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
30 comments:
Wow, that "peace plan" that Fat Hitler "negotiated" (*cough-cough*) in Gaza is working great guns it seems. Almost as good as his "peace plan" for Ukraine and Russia.
I guess Bibi is tired of waiting for a full resumption of bombing raids over what's left of the rubble in. Gaza in order to carry out the genocide he started. Now they've come up with a new wrinkle. No humanitarian aid! Hey! It won't kill Palestinians as fast as bombs and bullets, but it'll be just as effective. Any word from Fat Hitler on this outrageous assault on human rights? Oh, that's right. MAGA isn't down with human rights for anyone not in their camp. Business as usual.
I read about this a few days ago but it got lost in all the other horrible, stupid, illegal, unconstitutional shit Fatty pulls on a daily basis.
So we all know he's taken over the Kennedy Center. Why? Well, I guess it's cuz Trumpolini is a great supporter of the arts. The art of the lie, the grift, and the bullshit. Anyway, he slaps his name on the building and presto, it's automatically much better, full of "grandeur" as Tokyo Rose Garden KKKaroline put it. But what about inside the building? How to Trumpify things there? Hmmmm.....how can he jimmy the place to achieve his warped ideas of what a rich guy's building should include? Hey....how about....MARBLE ARMRESTS?
Yeah! That's the ticket. Cuz marble is such a comfy, cozy stone.
As Fat Hitler puts it, having armrests made of marble would be “unlike anything ever done or seen before.”
And there's a reason for that. IT"S A STUPID IDEA. How about toilet seats covered in sandpaper? Hand towels made of Saran Wrap? Locked fire doors? Surely there are cheaper ways to make the place Trumpy. I'll bet amphitheaters in Ancient Greece where patrons came to watch Aeschylus and Aristophanes put on their plays didn't have marble armrests (well, okay, they didn't actually have chairs...). Because anyone suggesting such a stupid idea would have been driven out of the city and forced to live on dried figs and dirty water for the rest of their life.
But marble armrests is his big idea. Because everyone wants to sit through a performance of a five hour Wagner Ring opera while leaning on cold, hard marble the entire time.
Could he be stupider? Hmmm....I dunno. But never say never. He always finds new ways to outstupid everyone else.
Three Bronx cheers for Polio Bob
"The U.S. has surpassed 2,000 measles cases for the first time in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Dec. 23, a total of 2,012 cases have been reported in the U.S. Of those cases, 24 were reported among international visitors to the U.S.
States with confirmed cases include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming."
But he's got more work to do....that's not all fifty states! Go get 'em, Bobby...kill those kids!
Cuz leave us not forget the 2019 measles outbreak on Samoa that killed 83 people. Know who did that? RFKJt!
"A stark example of the devastating impact of vaccine misinformation is Samoa's 2019 measles outbreak. In this island nation of 200 000, more than 5700 people were infected and 83 people died, most of whom were young children. Samoa's Ministry of Health cited Kennedy's visit and his rhetoric as exacerbating vaccine hesitancy at a crucial moment. Kennedy's non-profit, Children's Health Defense, contributed to this atmosphere of mistrust just months before the outbreak.4 Samoa's experience underscores how even one prominent anti-vaccine figure can ignite a public health crisis."
Keep on keepin' on, you fucking maniac.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, I saw the marble armrest proposal, too, and I thought it was IN-SANE. Other than a few marble benches, I've never seen any seating accommodation -- chair, sofa, bus seat -- with a marble armrest. Obviously, there's good reason "nobody's ever seen anything like it."
Not only is marble uncomfortable to "rest" your arm on, it's brittle and is prone to cracks, chips & stains. Not that many people will be occupying the seats with the marble armrests because both audiences & performers and hightailing it out of the Kennedy Center. But some of those few patrons who do take seats are likely to inadvertently damage the new armrests (if they don't crack their own elbows first). So there would have to be a near-constant replacement program.
Trump's brain is fried.
Don Jr must have bought a marble mine in Italy, or Vermont.
The Trump greed is endless.
Donnie can't even identify the national bird, which is pretty distinctive, so now I am wondering about that "camel" he keeps bragging about remembering. You would think that the POTUS would be able to pick a bald eagle out of a line up. Kind of disqualifying for a so called patriot.
"The Year in Protest Signs"
Arstechnica
"The science of how (and when) we decide to speak out—or self-censor
The study’s main takeaway: “Be bold. It is the thing that slows down authoritarian creep.”"
The Nation
"In a Year of Violent Tumult, the Sports World Was Silent
When the country needed them to speak out, most athletes kept mum—and a few openly embraced embraced Trumpism."
Dave Zirin
Skimmed the Edsall piece yesterday but didn't finish it because my belief about belief got in the way.
The Pretender is such an obvious crook, such an obvious liar and con man, that accepting anything he says at face value often measures no more than how much the believer wants to be fooled. Those who are not fooled know he lies but don't care because he gives them what they want.
The first time around, he successfully took credit for the economy Obama left him with, which allowed him to pose as the great businessman he is obviously not, and people's perception of the economy does matter. Now again, with pricing and or affordability at issue, it still does.
But. many of the white Christian MAGAs he appeals to are also racists and he gives them that, too. The anti-immigrant measures he takes are fodder for them. His tough-guy law and order nonsense is designed to allay their fear of the "other."
The Pretender's moral failings are unmistakable. But they don't hurt him in the eyes of many because his morality matters not to whit to them. Besides, all politicians are on the take. Trump may be a crook, but he' my crook.
So, two factors: First, he draws much of his support from those who like to be fooled. The thoughtless believers who inhabit what I remember Mencken calling "the Sahara of the Bozart" for whom facts are an annoyance.
Then there are those who know he's.as my grandchildren say, "full of it", but who genuinely like what he's doing, as nasty and dishonest as it is.
New Year's Resolutions
I'm trying to wrap my brain around the fact that there exists 5.2 million
pages of Epstein documents.
Most books I read are about 300 pages. 5.2 million pages would be
about 17,300 books. If I read one per week, that would take me
about 332 years.
Guess I need to start speed reading.
@eestcoastman: Me, too. Besides all the irreparable damage Epstein & pedo band did to hundreds of vulnerable girls and young women, I hate to think how much they cost the American taxpayer who paid for producing (and reviewing, if they get around to it) all those 5.2MM (and counting) pages.
Westcoastman,
Years ago, eyeing the ever growing pile of books in my apartment, I decided to learn speed reading. I got pretty okay with it, but it was a terrible way to read stuff like novels and short stories...and poetry? Fuggedaboutit...
Here's Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice Cream" when read that way:
Call the roller of big cigars,The muscular one, and bid him whipIn kitchen cups concupiscent curds Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys Bring flowers in last month's newspapers. Let be be finale of seem.The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. Take from the dresser of deal. Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet On which she embroidered fantails once And spread it so as to cover her face. If her horny feet protrude, they come To show how cold she is, and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. Brrrrrrrrszzzz
It's okay for racing through newspaper articles, but with any kind of good writing, it's death.
You should ask Eva Braun Bondi for the Trump version of the Epstein Files. A single page with one bulleted sentence:
YOU DID NOTHING WRONG. IT WAS ALL BILL CLINTON.
RAS,
Thanks for the protest signs. Loved the one with the little girl whose sign read "Trump has a mugshot. My parents don't" Ain't it the truth...,
Here's how you know it's a cult.
Dr. Oz may be a Fatty enabler and helper along the road to authoritarianism, but he's clearly not an innately stupid guy. He's a con man and a grifter, but he's not stupid. So how do you account for him saying incredibly stupid and dangerous crap like "As with most illnesses, if you take care of yourself...you can overwhelm it."
Overwhelm it? Like scare the shit out of it so it leaves you alone? Beat it into submission? This is medieval mishegas, and when uttered by a preening con man like Oz, dangerous as all get out. This entire administration is one huge pathogen, and taking care of ourselves is not gonna "overwhelm" this disease. The only cure is the vote, which is why Little Johnny and the Dwarfs, and PoT apparatchiks all over the country are working day and night to make sure that this illness is fatal.
Akhilleus: talk about poetic entanglement! I just yesterday read that Steven's poem, and haven't for decades. (Theme from The Twilight Zone ...)
This one-time speedier (not speed) reader is slowing down. Just can't do it anymore---the so much to read and so little time crunch is very much upon me--, but the topic reminds me of a student book report I read back in the 1970's. Unfortunately, from the student's perspective, I had read the sf novel he reported on, and found his account of the novel's events unrecognizable.
When I asked him about it, he said rather proudly, I thought, that he'd been practicing his speed reading.
I believed him.
@Patrick
Thanks for yesterday's poem. I had not seen it before.
So Fatso is such a nincompoop/liar/fraudster that he posts a picture of a falcon who died in Israel years ago as proof that American Bald Eagles are being killed, today, by wind farms...
Next thing you know, he'll be posting a picture of the Wright brothers at Kittyhawk as "proof" that illegal immigrants are flying into the country on homemade planes.
Patrick,
Twilight Zone is right....sort of like Einstein's reference to spooky action at a distance. Love that poem. Not all of Stevens' poetry is as cinematic as this (well some are, but they're more like dreamscapes): life going on downstairs, people in the kitchen, boys flirting with girls, the roller of big cigars and his "concupiscent curds". Can't get more lively than all that. And upstairs, the old lady who owned the house, laid out on the bed, sheet covering most of her, but not her (horny) feet. And lamp affixing its beam.
I think I first came across this poem years ago in the middle of my Stephen King period. There's a reference to the "Emperor of Ice Cream" in his book about vampires in a New Hampshire town ("Salem's Lot") where day after day, death (via the vampires) is visited upon the residents, until there's almost no one left. The emperor of ice cream, of course, is death. And life, like ice cream, a sweet but transitory thing.
Love ol' Wally. It's funny how a couple of New England yankees back in the 20's established new ground in the fields of cutting edge modernist poetry and music, Wallace and Charles Ives. Even neater, both of them had day jobs as insurance company executives. Go figure, right? My favorite anecdote about Stevens takes place at his insurance company offices. One of his employees, trying to work his way through some of Stevens' more recondite and difficult poems, tells the boss that he read some of his poems but didn't understand them. He asked for a little help. "Well", says Wallace, "it's not important that you understand them, only that I do",
Hahaha. Okay then.
Ken,
Funny story. I once had a student turn in a paper on film theory. Next day in class I had a question for him: "Did you write this this morning at 4:00 am or 5:00 am?"
Marie,
Hey, I hadn't thought about how easily marble stains (and cracks--just ask Michelangelo). Maybe Fatty can tape a container with a mixture of baking soda and hydrogen peroxide under the seats in case you sit down and find your marble arm rest looking nasty. Bring your own scrub brush.
Lies matter
Just wondering now how the MAGAts are going to spin the detailed confession of the would be J6 bomber? This man, Brian J. Cole Jr., according to a story in the Times, said he "felt he needed to 'speak up' after he began to suspect that the 2020 election, in which President Trump was defeated, had been 'tampered with.'"
So here a nutjob who listened carefully to Fatty's lies about a stolen election and decided to blow something up.
Trump gets so many passes for his lies, but here is yet another clear example of his Big Lie setting in motion a plan that, had it gone off correctly, could have killed many people. Not sure how this was the fault of Joe Biden and George Soros. Guess we'll find out.
Jeff Tiedrich
"this year in stupid: 2025 — part 3
a three-part look back at an entire year’s worth of dumbfuckery"
Jeff Tiedrich
Nerds, who needs them
"The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else. Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away."
According to Sherrilyn Ifill
"All based on a “gotcha” video claiming that 3 daycares had no kids. One hadn’t opened yet for the day; one is actually closed. Dude arrived with no I.D. No call ahead. They DIDN’T LET HIM IN!
The fraud they’re referencing was investigated & prosecuted by the Biden DOJ. The ringleader was white."
"Pressure", we have seen what actual pressure from the Trump administration looks like.
"Drugmakers plan to raise U.S. prices on at least 350 branded medications including vaccines against COVID, RSV and shingles and blockbuster cancer treatment Ibrance, even as the Trump administration pressures them for cuts, according to data provided exclusively by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
The number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when drugmakers unveiled plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median of this year’s price hikes is around 4% – in line with 2025."
Oz is quoted above saying "... you can take care of yourself, so that when you do end up running into the flu, you can overwhelm it ..."
One of the attributes of the hyper-deadly 1918 influenza first wave in the US was that it was especially, quickly, deadly for young, active, healthy adults. Medicine at the time was not equipped with any useful understanding of the mechanisms of the human immune system, but after a while came to realize that a healthy body reacted to the virus with such strength and alacrity that the immunity reactions blocked the body's cardio-pulmonary system's ability to function. The healthier the patient at onset, the worse the reaction, the quicker and more certain the death.
Flu is flu. Oz cannot know that the next black swan variant won't bring its own special perverse effect. He (and the administration) should be working like beavers on developing the shotguns promised by mRNA, but they are doing the exact opposite. One hopes for karma.
Pro-Family
"HHS Freezes Child Care Funding For All States
The Trump administration is pausing child care funding to all states after allegations of fraud in daycare centers in Minnesota emerged, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services said. The official said the funds will be released “only when states prove they are being spent legitimately.” The official did not provide details or more information about the proof the agency is requiring from states."
Obviously they are mad that they didn't get their cut.
Gotta figger James O'Keefe, that ugly stain on all Irishmen, had a hand in that Shirley video...
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