The Conversation -- December 18, 2024

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The electoral college convened in all 50 states Tuesday to elect Donald Trump to be the 47th president of the United States over Vice President Kamala Harris by a vote of 312 to 226. The gatherings unfolded uneventfully.... Although Trump won the electoral college comfortably this time, and he defeated Harris in the popular vote by more than 2 million votes, his share of the popular vote when third-party candidate totals are included falls slightly below a majority, at 49.9 percent, according to data compiled by the Associated Press."

Note to Justin: Relentless Bullies Are Relentless. Elena Giordiano of Politico: "Early on Wednesday ... [Donald Trump] suggested turning Canada into a part of the U.S., calling it 'a great idea.'... 'No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense! Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!! he boomed on his social media platform.... [This and earlier] mocking posts land amid tensions between the two countries after Trump threatened to impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and accused the government of failing to address trade and immigration issues."

Dominick Mastrangelo & Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "... Trump's attorney unsuccessfully asked a federal judge to move forward with his lawsuit against journalist Bob Woodward over published audio tapes of interviews the famed Watergate reporter conducted with Trump for a 2020 book. U.S. District Judge Paul Gardephe, an appointee of former President <George W. Bush who is overseeing the case, denied the request to expedite it around five hours after the request was filed.... The case has stalled for months as the judge weighs the defendants' bid to dismiss the lawsuit, but the sudden activity comes as Trump assumes a more emboldened posture in scrutinizing media outlets in the wake of his November presidential victory."

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Republican Sen. Eric Schmitt (Mo.) on Tuesday blocked a request by Democratic senators to pass legislation to protect federal workers from civil service reforms that President-elect Trump has endorsed to fight what he calls the 'deep state' in Washington, D.C. Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) stood on the Senate floor Tuesday afternoon to ask for unanimous consent to pass the Saving the Civil Service Act, warning there have been 'attempts in recent years to erode the independence of the federal civil service,' referring to Trump's efforts during his first term. Kaine and other Democrats fear that Trump, now reelected, may attempt to reclassify tens of thousands of federal workers as political appointees who could be hired and fired at will."

And a Very Icky Christmas to All. Alayna Treene, et al., of CNN: "The House Ethics Committee secretly voted earlier this month to release its report into the conduct of former Rep. Matt Gaetz before the end of this Congress, according to multiple sources.... The report is now expected to be made public after the House's final day of votes this year.... The vote, which has not previously been reported, amounts to a stark reversal for the panel after it had voted along party lines in late November not to release the results of the investigation. The decision to release the report suggests that some Republicans ultimately decided to side with Democrats on the matter.... When the committee voted last month to shelve the report, Gaetz was ... Donald Trump's choice to be attorney general. Since then, Gaetz withdrew himself from consideration..., though he maintains frosty relations with many in his party and is still active in GOP politics."

Paul Kiel of ProPublica: "Fourteen years ago, Congress ... created a new type of Medicare tax to capture the kinds of income the rich often enjoy: interest, dividends and capital gains from investments. A host of billionaires -- sports team owners, oil barons, Wall Street traders and others -- have managed to avoid paying it, ProPublica found.... We identified 17 people who, in the first six years of the law, 2013 through 2018, each shielded at least $1 billion in capital gains from the tax. Together, this small group, by collectively exempting more than $35 billion, saved about $1.3 billion in taxes. Most members of the group were able to sidestep the tax because of a huge gap written into the law, which allows owners to exempt gains from the sale of their businesses.... But others eluded the tax in ways that raise questions about how the law is being enforced."

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How Not to Treat a Neighbor & Close Ally. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his government were in serious trouble well before Donald J. Trump was re-elected in November.... Opinion polls show that, in national elections that must take place by the fall under Canadian electoral rules, Mr. Trudeau is unlikely to win a fourth term as prime minister. Mr. Trump has tapped into this brewing trouble, even before taking office. He has threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian goods, sending the country into panic mode. He has trolled Mr. Trudeau as the 'governor' of the 'Great state of Canada,' putting his disdain on public display and triggering debates about how or whether Mr. Trudeau should respond. And on Monday, Mr. Trump offered gleeful, acerbic commentary on the bombshell resignation of a top Canadian minister he had long disliked, showing that he is happy to mine this fraught moment in Canadian politics." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sure, we can attribute a lot of Trump's disgusting behavior to little quirks like racism, misogyny and xenophobia, but a lot of it comes down to this: he's just uncouth. He doesn't know how to behave in polite company; he has never been polite company. He's a lout and a philistine, and at some level he knows it; at some level he's ashamed of it. And he deals with that secret shame with a continual bullying, bad-ass performance. He's pathetic. ~~~

~~~ Oh, Trump seems to be trolling the Bahamas, too: ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump selected Herschel Walker on Tuesday to be the U.S. ambassador to the small Caribbean nation of the Bahamas, turning to a longtime ally and former football star who generated national headlines in his failed run for a Senate seat in Georgia in 2022.... Mr. Walker rose to the national political stage in 2022 after he was handpicked by Mr. Trump to challenge Senator Raphael Warnock for his Senate seat in Georgia. A political neophyte buoyed by his football stardom, Mr. Walker ran a campaign shadowed by incendiary statements and damaging revelations about his personal life and business career. Mr. Warnock ultimately defeated Mr. Walker even as Republicans won every other statewide race.... Mr. Walker has no previous diplomatic experience, and no obvious ties to the Bahamas, an island nation of about 400,000 people just off the coast of Florida.... The announcement also caps a run of potential appointments for Republicans who lost recent Senate races in Georgia. Former Senator Kelly Loeffler, who was unseated by Mr. Warnock, was picked to run the Small Business Administration. And former Senator David Perdue, who lost his seat to Senator Jon Ossoff, was selected to be ambassador to China."

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "Some of Trump's 1930s-ish plans [to Make America the Great Depression Again] have received a fair amount of media coverage, such as his anti-vaccine nominees for senior health jobs and his thirst for new trade wars. But less attention has been afforded to his threats to the U.S. banking system, which Trump seems intent on making more vulnerable to crises. Consider the troubling idea to abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.... [established in 1933] in response to a series of painful, 'It's a Wonderful Life'-style bank runs.... Right now seems like a peculiar time for any pre-FDIC-era nostalgia. After all, last year was the biggest year for bank failures in modern history, thanks to a crisis that took down Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and First Republic. Runs on these regional banks threatened contagion across the rest of the financial system -- at least until federal regulators (including the FDIC) stepped in to stem the panic and protect depositors."

Capitulation. Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "When Disney reached a settlement last week with ... Donald J. Trump in his defamation case against ABC News, it led to accusations that the company had caved to him.... Disney executives had anticipated the blowback. But they also determined that they had a flawed case.... At a minimum, the $205 billion company would be litigating against a vindictive sitting president and risking harm to its brand.... The concerns about the case among Disney executives, and the eventual decision to settle, involved multiple considerations, according to three people inside the company.... The settlement was recommended by Horacio Gutierrez, Disney's general counsel, and approved by Robert A. Iger, Disney's chief executive." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's another lawsuit Disney just settled. (This story seems to have received much less attention. Hmmm, could that be because the press is so much more interested in writing about, um, the press? ~~~

     ~~~ Judd Legum of Popular Information: "This week, Disney agreed to settle [a] class action lawsuit for $233 million, the largest settlement for wage theft in California history. The settlement includes over $100 million in back wages that Disney, with the help of the City of Anaheim, attempted to steal from Disneyland workers. The remainder of the settlement includes interest on the back pay, penalties, and legal fees." In 2018, an Occidental College study found that workers at Disneyland in California earned less than a living wage and their income in real dollars was dropping. Meanwhile, Legum writes, "Meanwhile, Disney CEO Bob Iger was paid $65.6 million in 2018, as much as 'the total pay of 9,284 Disneyland workers.'"

Pre-Capitulation. Nicole Sperling of the New York Times: "Pixar, a division of Walt Disney Studios, removed a transgender story line from its animated series 'Win or Lose,' which is set to start streaming in February, Disney said on Tuesday. The series follows a middle school coed softball team in the week leading up to the championship game, and each episode is told from the perspective of a different character. The character will remain in the show, Disney said, but a few lines of dialogue focused on her gender, a plot point that appeared near the end of the eight-episode series, have been edited out.... The decision to remove the story arc was made over the summer," Disney said. ~~~

     ~~~ The Hollywood Reporter story, which broke the news, is here. Reporter Pamela McClintock, BTW, writes that Trump won "a sweeping victory," which he did not. (MB: Not sure if this link [to a Politico Magazine piece] will work because the publication is billing the link as some kind of special log-in. There's a WashPo op-ed here with a similar message.) ~~~

~~~ Here's the New York Times story on Trump's suing the Des Moines Register, its parent company Gannett, and its pollster Ann Selzer. (Also linked yesterday.) I cited a Fox story in yesterday's Conversation.

Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media.... I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them ... -- Elon Musk, in a post on his failing social media platform, after the NYT article linked next was published ~~~

~~~ Kirsten Grind, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices -- and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX's chief executive -- have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts said. The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General opened a review into the matter this year, and the Air Force and the Pentagon's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security separately initiated reviews last month. The Air Force also recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have also expressed concerns that he could share sensitive data with others, according to defense officials....

For years, SpaceX workers responsible for upholding disclosure rules grudgingly allowed Mr. Musk to disregard many of the reporting procedures, as they did not want to lose their jobs.... Some SpaceX workers have become concerned about Mr. Musk's ability to handle sensitive information, especially as he posts openly on X.... It is unclear why Mr. Musk did not report some of this information to the government, especially since he sometimes posts on X about matters that he does not relay to the Defense Department.... As a matter of constitutional law, Mr. Trump could grant a security clearance to anyone after his inauguration, even if others in the government object." Thanks to laura h. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: "Aye, there's the rub." Until Donald turns on Elon, Elon will do what he wants and Trump will facilitate his flouting the law & passing secrets to foreigners when he's high or whatever. And just as Trump did in 2018 when he ordered John Kelly to grant a top-secret security clearance to young Jared when numerous officials "expressed concern" about it, he will grant clearance to old Elon. "The very rich are different from you and me." Oh, and here's one of a number of reasons, all rooted in jealousy, that Donald will turn on Oligarch No. 1: ~~~

~~~ Jeremy Merrill, et al., of the Washington Post: Elon Musk, "who is the world's richest person according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, has the most followed account on X and an audience that eclipses other top political accounts, including those of President Joe Biden, "Vice President Kamala] Harris and Trump himself, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Musk's posts have received a total of 133 billion views since July.... That's 15 times Trump's audience in the same period and more than 16 times the combined reach of all accounts belonging to members of the incoming Congress."

Donald's Little Elves Hop on the Retribution Sleigh. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Tuesday said their one-time colleague, former Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, should face a criminal investigation for her role on the select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A 128-page report from the House Administration Subcommittee on Oversight said Ms. Cheney should be investigated for witness tampering. It accuses her of colluding with Cassidy Hutchinson, the former White House aide who became the committee's star witness as it examined Donald J. Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The report -- released as Mr. Trump, now the president-elect, has been promising retribution against his political enemies, including Ms. Cheney — accused Ms. Cheney of using the select committee as a tool to attack Mr. Trump. It was spearheaded by Representative Barry Loudermilk of Georgia, the chairman of the oversight subcommittee. Ms. Cheney defended her work on the select committee in a detailed statement, and called the Republicans' report 'a malicious and cowardly assault on the truth.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Lisa Mascaro of the AP: "The findings issued Tuesday show the Republican Party working to reinforce Trump's desire to punish his perceived enemies including Cheney and members of the Jan. 6 committee that the president-elect has said should be in jail."

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, Kash & Pam, this is an action item for you. Make sure Liz is on your "Naughty" list, then ram a big lump of coal down her throat.

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Congressional leaders on Tuesday unveiled a bipartisan deal to punt a government shutdown deadline into March, but House Republican infighting could still endanger any agreement and push federal agencies to the brink of shuttering this weekend.... The measure includes $110.4 billion for disaster relief and approves a pair of local priorities, clearing the way for the District of Columbia to take over land so it can negotiate with the NFL's Washington Commanders for a possible stadium and committing the federal government to pay the full cost to rebuild Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge.... Congressional Republicans, led by House Speaker Mike Johnson (Louisiana), originally sought to restrict the bill to a simple funding extension.... But the non-spending priorities ... threatened to turn a routine spending short-term bill into a dreaded end-of-year 'Christmas tree,' decorated with lawmakers' pet projects, and to imperil Johnson's speakership."

Farnoush Amiri of the AP: "House Democrats on Tuesday picked 74-year-old Rep. Gerry Connolly to lead the party next year atop an influential congressional committee, pushing aside growing calls for generational change in leadership ahead of a second term for Donald Trump. In a closed-door meeting, the majority of the caucus voted for Connolly to be the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee over 35-year-old Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who campaigned on calls to pass the torch to younger leaders. Connolly has seniority on the committee, having served on it for 16 years. The vote was 131-84.... Connolly had unsuccessfully run for the Oversight role twice before. He was facing concerns from colleagues over his recent cancer diagnosis." ~~~

     ~~~ Paul Campos of LG&$: "Somebody posted on one of them newfangled social media sites you can access from your 'smartphone' that this feels like the dinosaurs staring dumbly up at that meteor streaking across the Atlantic, and wondering what it all means. Over the past seven years AOC has gone from a potential flash in the pan to the most impressive Democratic politician of her generation. Speaking of which, Joe Biden had been in the Senate for nearly 17 years already on the day Ocasio Cortez was born." ~~~

     ~~~ As Steve M. posted yesterday, this was Nancy Pelosi's doing. MB: Pelosi is 84 years old, and she couldn't be there for the votes in committee & in the entire caucus because she was in Luxembourg recovering from him-replacement surgery (typically, a procedure for old people), which she needed because she fell down some stairs (often happens to old people). So according to an uncredited report Campos linked, she had Steny Hoyer (Md.) -- aged 85 -- stand up and make the case for seniority -- and Connelly.

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Like other senators leaving the chamber next month, Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, on Tuesday marked the end of his three terms with an emotional, highly personal floor speech. But he refused to call it a farewell. 'It is not -- I promise you -- the last time you will hear from me,' Mr. Brown assured his applauding colleagues as he concluded remarks that caused him to choke up several times. In an interview, Mr. Brown, 72, a progressive labor champion in the Senate since 2007, would not say what form his future political activism might take.... But he also would not rule out running for office back in Ohio or trying to return to the Senate in two years...." Video of Sen. Brown's speech is here.

Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration on Tuesday released a long-awaited analysis of the dangers that liquefied natural gas exports pose to the environment and the economy, raising a potential hurdle to a central part of ... Donald Trump's energy agenda. The Energy Department study could undermine Trump's plans to immediately issue permits for billions of dollars' worth of facilities that export liquefied natural gas, or LNG. Environmentalists plan to cite the analysis in future lawsuits over the Trump administration's approvals of these projects, which some have called 'climate bombs' because of their enormous environmental footprints.... Trump has promised to end the pause [which President Biden imposed on LNG exports] on his 'very first day back' in the White House, saying it has stifled investments and jobs in the domestic gas industry. The Trump administration is expected to rebut the study and replace it with more industry-friendly findings." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That's right. If you don't like a scientific analysis, just make up stuff and merrily go about your corrupt business.

Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: "The Federal Reserve is poised to lower interest rates Wednesday by an additional quarter percentage point while probably signaling a slower pace of cuts next year as the fight against inflation stalled this fall.... Wednesday's announcement is set to come at 2 p.m. Eastern time, at the end of the Fed's two-day policy meeting. Then, at 2:30 p.m., Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell will appear at what will be a closely watched news conference...."

Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "Luigi Mangione on Tuesday was accused of first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare's chief executive, a charge that branded him a terrorist.... A grand jury formally indicted [him].... 'This was a frightening, well-planned, targeted murder that was intended to cause shock and attention and intimidation,' said Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, at a news conference on Tuesday.... Prosecutors said that Mr. Mangione's actions were meant to further terrorism and therefore merited a charge of first-degree murder. While some states define first-degree murder as a premeditated killing, New York requires an additional aggravating circumstance, one of which is terrorism.... Prosecutors also charged Mr. Mangione, 26, with second-degree murder in furtherance of terrorism and another count of second-degree murder. He also faces weapons charges."

News from Guantanamo. Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The Pentagon said on Wednesday that it had repatriated two Malaysian men from its prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who admitted to committing war crimes for an affiliate of Al Qaeda that carried out a deadly bombing in Bali, Indonesia, in 2002. The rare transfer, a day after the Pentagon released another prisoner to the custody of Kenya, reduced the detainee population to 27 men. The freed prisoners, Mohammed Nazir Bin Lep, 47, and Mohammed Farik Bin Amin, 49, have been held by the United States since 2003.... Before they left, the men gave sworn testimony that prosecutors hope will be useful in the eventual trial of Encep Nurjaman, the Indonesian prisoner known as Hambali. Mr. Hambali is accused of being the mastermind of the Bali bombing and other terrorist attacks in 2002 and 2003...."

Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Jim Leach, a soft-spoken, cerebral Iowa Republican who spent three decades in Congress tirelessly lofting the banner for the moderate political center -- so much so that he endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and switched parties in 2022 -- died on Dec. 11 in Iowa City. he was 82."

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Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday met with military officers in territory Israel recently took control of in Syria, and vowed that Israeli troops would remain in the country for the foreseeable future. In a statement issued from Mount Hermon, about six miles from the border of the Israeli-held Golan Heights, Mr. Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain on the mountain 'until another arrangement is found that guarantees Israel's security.' The prime minister's trip was likely to be viewed as provocative by Syria's new leadership, which has criticized Israel's expanded military presence across the de facto border since rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Today, Mount Hermon may be the site of a ski resort, but it figured into a number of Old Testament stories, & it is the source of the Jordan River. It is considered a sacred mountain, and you can bet its significance was not lost on Bibi. (Some Christians place the supernatural Transfiguration there, too, so that should ensure that King Donald will support Israel's continued occupation of the area.)

Ukraine/Russia, et al. Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "The Russian authorities said on Wednesday that they had detained a suspect in the killing of a senior military officer, Lt. Gen. Igor Kirillov, a major development in the most prominent political assassination case in the country since the start of the war in Ukraine. The suspect, a 29-year-old citizen of Uzbekistan whose name was not released, was detained in a village outside Moscow, a spokeswoman for Russia's prosecutor's office said. The spokeswoman said the detainee had confessed that Ukrainian intelligence agencies recruited him to kill General Kirillov, 54, who was in charge of the Russian military's nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces. An official with Ukraine's security service, known as the S.B.U., said on Tuesday that Ukraine had been responsible for the killing, which took place in central Moscow on Tuesday." ~~~

~~~ Aric Toler & Eve Sampson of the New York Times: "A video that an official with Ukraine's security service shared with The New York Times and other news outlets, recorded from the interior of a car, appears to show the moment that an explosion killed General Kirillov and an aide as they walked out onto a snowy Moscow street." MB: As far as I can tell (though the fault could be with my computer), the Times story includes only stills from the video. The Guardian has posted a few seconds of the video here.

The Conversation -- December 17, 2024

How Not to Treat a Neighbor & Close Ally. Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his government were in serious trouble well before Donald J. Trump was re-elected in November.... Opinion polls show that, in national elections that must take place by the fall under Canadian electoral rules, Mr. Trudeau is unlikely to win a fourth term as prime minister. Mr. Trump has tapped into this brewing trouble, even before taking office. He has threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian goods, sending the country into panic mode. He has trolled Mr. Trudeau as the 'governor' of the 'Great state of Canada,' putting his disdain on public display and triggering debates about how or whether Mr. Trudeau should respond. And on Monday, Mr. Trump offered gleeful, acerbic commentary on the bombshell resignation of a top Canadian minister he had long disliked, showing that he is happy to mine this fraught moment in Canadian politics." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sure, we can attribute a lot of Trump's disgusting behavior to little quirks like racism, misogyny and xenophobia, but a lot of it comes down to this: he's just uncouth. He doesn't know how to behave in polite company; he has never been polite company. He's a lout and a philistine, and at some level he knows it; at some level he's ashamed of it. And he deals with that secret shame with a continual bullying, bad-ass performance. He's pathetic.

Here's the New York Times story on Trump's suing the Des Moines Register..., Gannett, and its pollster Ann Selzer.

Deep state traitors are coming after me, using their paid shills in legacy media.... I prefer not to start fights, but I do end them ... -- Elon Musk, in a post on his failing social media platform, after the NYT article linked next was published ~~~

~~~ Kirsten Grind, et al., of the New York Times: "Elon Musk and his rocket company, SpaceX, have repeatedly failed to comply with federal reporting protocols aimed at protecting state secrets, including by not providing some details of his meetings with foreign leaders, according to people with knowledge of the company and internal documents. Concerns about the reporting practices -- and particularly about Mr. Musk, who is SpaceX's chief executive -- have triggered at least three federal reviews, eight people with knowledge of the efforts said. The Defense Department's Office of Inspector General opened a review into the matter this year, and the Air Force and the Pentagon's Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security separately initiated reviews last month. The Air Force also recently denied Mr. Musk a high-level security access, citing potential security risks associated with the billionaire. Several allied nations, including Israel, have also expressed concerns that he could share sensitive data with others, according to defense officials....

For years, SpaceX workers responsible for upholding disclosure rules grudgingly allowed Mr. Musk to disregard many of the reporting procedures, as they did not want to lose their jobs.... Some SpaceX workers have become concerned about Mr. Musk's ability to handle sensitive information, especially as he posts openly on X.... It is unclear why Mr. Musk did not report some of this information to the government, especially since he sometimes posts on X about matters that he does not relay to the Defense Department.... As a matter of constitutional law, Mr. Trump could grant a security clearance to anyone after his inauguration, even if others in the government object." Thanks to laura h. for the link.

     ~~~ Marie: "Aye, there's the rub." Until Donald turns on Elon, Elon will do what he wants and Trump will facilitate his flouting the law & passing secrets to foreigners when he's high or whatever. And just as Trump did in 2018 when he ordered John Kelly to grant a top-secret security clearance to young Jared when numerous officials "expressed concern" about it, he will grant clearance to old Elon. "The very rich are different from you and me."

Matthew Bigg of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday met with military officers in territory Israel recently took control of in Syria, and vowed that Israeli troops would remain in the country for the foreseeable future. In a statement issued from Mount Hermon, about six miles from the border of the Israeli-held Golan Heights, Mr. Netanyahu said Israeli forces would remain on the mountain 'until another arrangement is found that guarantees Israel's security.' The prime minister's trip was likely to be viewed as provocative by Syria's new leadership, which has criticized Israel's expanded military presence across the de facto border since rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Today, Mount Hermon may be the site of a ski resort, but it figured into a number of Old Testament stories, & it is the source of the Jordan River. It is considered a sacred mountain, and you can bet its significance was not lost on Bibi. (Some Christians place the supernatural Transfiguration there, too, so that should ensure that King Donald will support Israel's continued occupation of the area.)

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News of the Felon Who Will Be President*. Ben Protess & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: New York Justice& Juan M. Merchan "on Monday rejected Donald J. Trump's argument that a recent Supreme Court ruling had nullified his criminal case in New York, upholding the former and future president's felony conviction for falsifying records to cover up a sex scandal.... If the decision withstands an appeal, Mr. Trump could become the first felon to serve as president. The ruling, which addressed the Supreme Court's decision to grant presidents broad immunity for their official actions, thwarted only the first of several legal maneuvers Mr. Trump has concocted to clear his record of 34 felonies before returning to the White House." Reuters' story is here.

Donald Trump gave a press conference Monday afternoon and here's some of the stuff he said, via a New York Times liveblog: ~~~

Michael Shear: "In his first wide-ranging news conference since the election..., Donald J. Trump cited debunked data linking vaccines and autism, vowed to slash taxes and resume construction of his border wall, and accused the Biden administration of hiding the truth about recent drone sightings. Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Mr. Trump announced a $100 billion investment from SoftBank, a Japanese technology company. But he used the appearance before reporters to jump from one topic to another....

"Speaking directly to the reporters, he called the press 'very corrupt' and promised to continue pursuing legal action against news organizations that he believes have not quoted him correctly. He said he planned to sue the Des Moines Register for having a poll before the election that turned out to be wrong. And he said he was pursuing legal action against '60 Minutes' for what he said was a misquote.... Mr. Trump also said that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will cut $2 trillion out of the $6.8 trillion annual federal budget and 'it'll have no impact on people.' In fact, if you rule out cuts to Social Security, Medicare and defense, as Mr. Trump has, cutting $2 trillion would require shutting down almost the entire federal government."

Peter Baker: "Trump cites the horrors of the war in Ukraine and says he is working on it, but makes no mention of his promise to resolve it in 24 hours and to do so before he is sworn in."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs: "As he talks about migration, Trump repeats misleading claims about Latin American nations sending their prisoners to the United States. Most migrants crossing the border are those fleeing poverty, persecution and violence."

Baker: "Trump says Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine on his watch. In fact, Russia had already invaded Ukraine's eastern sections in 2014, during the Obama administration, and Trump did nothing to stop the war, which then expanded with the full-scale invasion in 2022.... Trump again throws out numbers about autism that have been debunked. Time magazine fact-checked his answer to the question during its interview.... 'We won in a landslide,' Trump claims, again. In fact, he won the popular vote by just 1.5 percentage points, one of the smallest margins of victory since the 19th century."

Maggie Haberman: "Trump says he would consider pardoning Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, who has praised Trump repeatedly." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "Donald Trump warned Republican senators who oppose his Cabinet nominees that they would likely face primary challenges at a press conference on Monday.... 'If they're unreasonable, if they're opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, I would say -- has nothing to do with me -- I would say they probably would be primaried'." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rules for Thee Are Not for Me. Curt Devine of CNN: "... Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to do everything in his power to benefit American workers. 'We will build American, buy American and hire American,' he said during a rally in August. Despite that pledge, Trump's own businesses sought to hire more foreign guest workers this year than any other year on record according to a CNN review of government labor data. Companies linked to some of Trump's top political backers and administration picks also have been given the green light to use guest workers this year. Trump's businesses, including the Mar-a-Lago Club, some of his golf courses and a Virginia winery, have collectively increased their reliance on temporary foreign laborers over the years. Just this year, Trump's businesses received approval from the US government to hire 209 foreign workers, nearly double the number of such laborers his companies received permission to hire about a decade ago." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rick Hasen of Election Law Blog republished a portion of a Fox "News" story: "... Donald Trump is suing the Des Moines Register and its top pollster J. Ann Selzer for 'brazen election interference' and fraud over its final 2024 presidential poll showing Vice President Kamala Harris leading him in Iowa, despite his ultimate victory in the state by more than 13 percentage points, Fox News Digital has learned. The lawsuit was filed Monday night in Polk County, Iowa under the Iowa Consumer Fraud Act and related provisions." Hasen writes, "I don't expect this lawsuit to go anywhere." Well, yes but there's ~~~

~~~ "The Great Capitulation." Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Since Trump won re-election -- this time with the popular vote -- many of the most influential people in America seem to have lost any will to stand up to him as he goes about transforming America into the sort of authoritarian oligarchy he admires.... Displays of submission aren't limited to tech [Mark Zuckerberg, Sam Altman, Jeff Bezos, Time's owner Marc Benioff, L.A. Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong] and media [ABC/Disney]. Christopher Wray, the head of the F.B.I., agreed to step aside before the end of his 10-year term rather than make Trump fire him. Several Democrats have signaled their willingness to work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: What you are witnessing in all of these dickheads is the calculated fear of irrelevance. All of them did something bold once, and now they (even the youngish ones) are petrified they have passed their prime. People who maintain their liberal values -- Elizabeth Warren, Marc Elias, Paul Krugman -- even when it may not be convenient to do so, are the real heroes. Musk, Zuck, & Co. -- they have proved they are meek, hollow has-beens. And no matter how many billions of bucks they amass now cannot cure the injury to the knee they have bent to the most despicable one of them all. ~~~

~~~ Erik Wemple of the Washington Post: "ABC News will never live down this capitulation. Never.... The posture of ABC News progressed from unreasonably dismissive (rejecting legitimate demands for correction) to unreasonably accommodating (giving away the store to Trump via $15 million, a note of contrition and so on)." Wemple provides considerable detail on the case. ~~~

~~~ Richard Tofel in the Columbia Journalism Review: The ABC News case "is the only one against a media defendant of which I am aware in which Donald Trump either prevailed or settled for a cash payment.... I -- and every experienced press lawyer not involved in the case with whom I have discussed it -- considered the case one in which ABC was likely to eventually prevail." Tofel also goes into some detail on the particulars of the case. He then asks questions which ABC has refused to to answer. A number are of a technical legal nature but some are not. Like, "Have any ABC employees been disciplined with respect to this segment?"

Dave Philipps & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "When Pete Hegseth visited senators on Capitol Hill this month in an effort to show that he has the qualifications and judgment to lead the Defense Department, he was escorted by a security guard with a dark episode in his past. The guard, a former Army Special Forces master sergeant named John Jacob Hasenbein, left the military after a 2019 training event in which witnesses said he beat a civilian role player -- kicking him, punching him and leaving him hogtied in a pool of his own blood. Mr. Hegseth's choice of Mr. Hasenbein as a security escort is the latest instance in which he has stood by soldiers accused of crimes. He has repeatedly criticized military leaders as being too 'woke' and waging a 'war on warriors.'" Read on. A military jury convicted Hasenbein of assault, but the judge declared a mistrial, & it appears Hasenbein left the military in order to avoid a second trial. The reporters write, "It is unclear whether Mr. Hegseth ... knew of Mr. Hasenbein's record when he hired him. But some details of his case have been online for years."

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "In a speech at the New York Young Republican Club's gala on Sunday night, Steve Bannon ... floated the prospect of Trump making a fourth consecutive run for the White House in 2028.... 'Since [the Constitution] doesn't actually say consecutive, I don't know, maybe we do it again in '28?' Bannon said, to cheers from the crowd." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lindsay Whitehurst of the AP: "The Supreme Court turned back an appeal Monday from Peter Navarro, the former White House official who is set to return in Donald Trump's second term after serving prison time on contempt of Congress charges. The court declined to hear the appeal in a brief order without explanation, as is typical. It comes after the Justice Department sued Navarro, saying he had retained presidential records on an unofficial email account he used during his previous White House tenure under Trump. The government says the records must be turned over to the National Archives. Lower courts have agreed, but Navarro argues that the Presidential Records Act doesn't allow the federal government to search email accounts and retrieve records. He indicated in court documents that he expects to file additional appeals in the case." MB: Gosh, even the Trumpist Supremes are sick of Whiney Pete.

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "A bipartisan framework to put off a government shutdown appeared to hit snags over the weekend, and lawmakers continued bickering Monday over a federal funding bill that will lay the groundwork for the early days of the incoming Trump administration. Without new legislation, government agencies will shutter just after midnight Saturday. Lawmakers are on the cusp of approving a stopgap bill to extend federal funds into mid-March, but new disputes over farm aid and disaster recovery spending have stalled progress near the final stages.... During last-minute negotiations, the speaker [Mike Johnson] attempted to tack on more financial assistance for farmers, according to two people familiar with the talks who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations. Democrats responded by seeking federal funds to reconstruct Baltimore's collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge. Maryland's congressional delegation, which holds outsize sway on the appropriations process, issued additional demands, too, related to negotiations over the future home of the Washington Commanders." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Ah, what could be more quintessentially American than shutting down the government at Christmas-time because of a dispute over a football stadium?

The Gentlemen of the Senate Take Umbrage. Anthony Adragna of Politico: A few "federal judges who previously announced retirements are pulling back those decisions. Most prominent among the federal jurists to reverse a retirement announcement is Judge James Wynn of the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals. His name vanished from a list of pending vacancies over the weekend, joining two district court judges in North Carolina -- Algenon Marbley and Max Cogburn -- in pulling back their decisions once it became clear President Joe Biden would not be able to appoint their successors.... All three were appointed by Democratic presidents.... 'Never before has a circuit judge unretired after a presidential election,' [Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell said on the Senate floor on Dec. 2. 'It's literally unprecedented. And to create such a precedent would fly in the face of a rare bipartisan compromise on the disposition of these vacancies.'... '"When I hear the senator [McConnell] come to the floor -- and talk about whether there is any gamesmanship going on..., I can tell you we saw it at the highest possible level in filling the vacancy on the Supreme Court when Antonin Scalia passed away,' said Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on the floor following McConnell's remarks/" Read on, if only for the staement by Adeel Mangi. ~~~

     ~~~ Well, here's more on Manji: ~~~

This unfortunate fact remains: We have a fundamentally broken process for choosing federal judges.... This is no longer a system for evaluating fitness for judicial office. It is now a channel for the raising of money based on performative McCarthyism before video cameras, and for the dissemination of dark-money-funded attacks that especially target minorities.... I entered this nomination process as a proud American and a proud Muslim. I exit it the same way, unbowed. -- Adeel Manji, to President Biden ~~~

     ~~~ Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The first Muslim American to be nominated for a federal appellate court judgeship lashed out at senators and the judicial confirmation process in a letter to President Biden on Monday, saying he had been the victim of a bigoted smear campaign. Adeel Mangi, a New York lawyer picked for a spot on the Philadelphia-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, wrote the letter after Democratic senators cut a deal that in effect left him and other Biden appeals court nominees with no path to confirmation.... The nomination of the Pakistani-born Mr. Mangi stalled under withering assault from Republicans.... But the insurmountable obstacle was the refusal of at least three Democrat to support him, leaving him short of the votes needed for confirmation." ~~~

     ~~~ Hulse's article has a link to Manji's letter. Or you can read it here, on an NJ.com page.

Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Three Democratic senators unveiled a constitutional amendment to abolish the Electoral College system Monday, just more than a month after President-elect Trump stunned the Democrats by sweeping all seven battleground states, knocking off three Senate Democratic incumbents in the process. Sens. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii,) Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), three leading progressive Senate voices, say it's time to 'restore democracy' by allowing for the direct election of presidents through the popular vote alone." MB: I don't know why they're introducing this bill now, when it has no chance of getting through Congress before the term ends -- this week. The bill is essentially "dead" and would have to be refiled in the new Congress.

Betsy Klein of CNN: "Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is making an all-out push in the waning days of the Biden administration that she believes could bolster reproductive rights, calling on the president to certify the Equal Rights Amendment and enshrine its protections into the Constitution. The move, the New York Democrat wrote in a memo to interested parties, gives Joe Biden a way to 'codify women's freedom and equality without needing anything from a bitterly divided and broken Congress' in the aftermath of the 2022 Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Biden has taken some executive actions to protect abortion rights following the decision, but the White House has essentially exhausted its options short of Congress codifying Roe's protections, which remains unlikely. Gillibrand contends Biden could simply direct the archivist of the United States, Dr. Colleen Shogan, to certify and publish the ERA, a bill approved by Congress in 1972 that enshrines equal rights for women.... But legal experts contend it isn't that simple: Ratification deadlines lapsed and five states [of the Constitutionally-required 38] have rescinded their approval, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University's law school...."

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has charged two men with illegally supplying parts used in an Iranian-backed militia's drone attack in January that killed three U.S. service members and injured more than 40 others at an American military base in Jordan, federal prosecutors in Boston announced on Monday. Mahdi Mohammad Sadeghi, 42, a dual U.S.-Iranian national of Natick, Mass., and Mohammad Abedini, 38, of Tehran, were charged with conspiring to export sophisticated electronic components to Iran, violating American export control and sanctions laws. Mr. Abedini was also charged with providing material support, resulting in death, to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian military that the U.S. has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Mr. Sadeghi was arrested on Monday and made an initial appearance in the federal court in Boston. Mr. Abedini was arrested, also on Monday, in Italy by Italian authorities at the request of the United States."

Nobody Loves Clarence. Or John or Sam. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Public confidence in the American legal system has plunged over the past four years, a new Gallup poll found, putting it in the company of nations like Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela. 'These data on the U.S. courts are stunning,' said Tom Ginsburg, an authority on comparative and international law at the University of Chicago. After the Supreme Court's decision overturning Roe v. Wade and the several prosecutions of Donald J. Trump, Professor Ginsburg said, 'there is a perception that the judiciary has become inexorably politicized.'... Public confidence in the judiciaries of other developed nations has remained stable."

That didn't take long. Krugman is on Substack: ~~~

~~~ "Crypto Is for Criming." Paul Krugman: "The tech bros who helped put Trump back in power expect many favors in return; one of the more interesting is their demand that the government intervene to guarantee crypto players the right to a checking account, stopping the 'debanking' they claim has hit many of their friends. The hypocrisy here is thick enough to cut with a knife. If you go back to the 2008 white paper by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto that gave rise to Bitcoin, its main argument was that we needed to replace checking accounts with blockchain-based payments because you can't trust banks; crypto promoters also tend to preach libertarianism, touting crypto as a way to escape government tyranny. Now we have crypto boosters demanding that the evil government force the evil banks to let them have conventional checking accounts.... The real reason banks don't want to be financially connected to crypt is that they believe, with good reason, that to the extent that cryptocurrencies are used for anything besides speculation, much of that activity is criminal.... [And] what [Elon] Musk and [Marc] Andreesen are demanding could be seen as a call for the U.S. government to intervene to make life easier for criminals. And if you think such a thing would be inconceivable under the second Trump administration, you haven't been paying attention." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Stargazing in Maryland. You know those drones over New Jersey, mose of which seem to be small planes or little hobby drones? Well, down in Maryland, former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Natch) is seeing stars: ~~~

     ~~~ Victor Tangermann of Futurism, republished by Yahoo! News: "Former governor of Maryland Larry Hogan shared a video on Friday, claiming to have 'personally witnessed (and videoed) what appeared to be dozens of large drones in the sky above my residence in Davidsonville, Maryland.'... A community note appended to Hogan's original tweet notes that the 'stars at the 39-second mark are recognizably the constellation Orion.... From this, you can determine that the bright lights behind the trees are the stars Sirius and Procyon.... No anomalous objects are apparent in this video.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This "official" sighting, however, is not quite as moronic (or knee-jerk violent) as the assessment of the person (R-Natch) who will soon have the power to decide what to do about UFOs: "Can this really be happening without our government's knowledge. I don't think so.... Let the public know, and now.... Otherwise, shoot them down!!!" Yeah, when in doubt, shoot.

~~~~~~~~~~

Canada. Ian Austen & Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister who led Canada's response to the first Trump administration, resigned abruptly on Monday from her cabinet role in a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, marking the first open dissent from any cabinet member and raising questions about his hold on power. The revelation, in a letter of resignation, came hours before Ms. Freeland, who had been the finance minister, was scheduled to outline the government's commitments to improve border security with the United States. Mr. Trudeau's cabinet, which was meeting in Ottawa soon after the letter was made public, seemed stunned by the development.... In her resignation letter, Ms. Freeland indicated that Mr. Trudeau had attempted to force her out of the position on Friday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Germany. Christopher Schuetze & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German Parliament on Monday, a defeat that effectively ended the increasingly unpopular government he has led since 2021 and set the stage for elections early next year. The collapse of the government just nine months before elections had been scheduled was an extraordinary moment for Germany. This will be only the fourth snap election in the 75 years since the modern state was founded, and it reflected a new era of more fractious and unstable politics in a country long known for durable coalitions built on plodding consensus. German lawmakers voted to dissolve the existing government by a vote of 394 to 207, with 116 abstaining." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine, et al. Miriam Berger & Hazem Balousha of the Washington Post: "With its military power depleted and its political influence on the wane, Hamas is under growing public pressure to help bring the war in Gaza to an end.... Last week, Hamas publicly softened its negotiating position with Israel. A new proposal for a 60-day pause in hostilities and the exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners includes key concessions from Hamas, which relented on its demands for a complete halt to the war and the full withdrawal of Israeli forces, a Hamas official told The Washington Post."

Ukraine/Russia. Anton Troianovski & Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "A general in charge of the Russian military's nuclear and chemical weapons protection forces was killed by a bomb on a Moscow street on Tuesday, the Russian authorities said, in one of the most brazen assassinations since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago. The general, Igor Kirillov, died along with an aide after an explosive device planted in a scooter was detonated on Tuesday morning near the entryway to a residential building, Russia's Investigative Committee, a law enforcement agency, said in a statement. An official with Ukraine's security service, known as the S.B.U., said that Ukraine was responsible for the killing.... A day before his killing, the S.B.U. had charged General Kirillov in absentia, saying he was responsible for the 'massive use of banned chemical weapons' in Ukraine."

News Lede

New York Times: "The shooter who killed at least two people on Monday at a Christian school in Madison, Wis., was identified as Natalie Rupnow, a 15-year-old student who later died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the police said. The shooter, who went by 'Samantha,' opened fire in a study hall classroom with students from several grades at Abundant Life Christian School, said Shon F. Barnes, the Madison police chief. Officers arrived after a second-grade student placed a 911 call to report the shooting. A teacher and a teenage student were killed, and five students and another teacher were injured, the authorities said. The shooter was found with a gunshot wound inside the school when police officers arrived and was pronounced dead soon after."

The Conversation -- December 16, 2024

Donald Trump gave a press conference Monday afternoon and here's some of the stuff he said, via a New York Times liveblog: ~~~

Michael Shear: "In his first wide-ranging news conference since the election..., Donald J. Trump cited debunked data linking vaccines and autism, vowed to slash taxes and resume construction of his border wall, and accused the Biden administration of hiding the truth about recent drone sightings. Speaking from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, Mr. Trump announced a $100 billion investment from SoftBank, a Japanese technology company. But he used the appearance before reporters to jump from one topic to another....

Speaking directly to the reporters, he called the press 'very corrupt' and promised to continue pursuing legal action against news organizations that he believes have not quoted him correctly. He said he planned to sue the Des Moines Register for having a poll before the election that turned out to be wrong. And he said he was pursuing legal action against '60 Minutes' for what he said was a misquote.... Mr. Trump also said that Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy will cut $2 trillion out of the $6.8 trillion annual federal budget and 'it'll have no impact on people.' In fact, if you rule out cuts to Social Security, Medicare and defense, as Mr. Trump has, cutting $2 trillion would require shutting down almost the entire federal government."

Peter Baker: "Trump cites the horrors of the war in Ukraine and says he is working on it, but makes no mention of his promise to resolve it in 24 hours and to do so before he is sworn in."

Zolan Kanno-Youngs: "As he talks about migration, Trump repeats misleading claims about Latin American nations sending their prisoners to the United States. Most migrants crossing the border are those fleeing poverty, persecution and violence."

Baker: "Trump says Russia wouldn't have invaded Ukraine on his watch. In fact, Russia had already invaded Ukraine's eastern sections in 2014, during the Obama administration, and Trump did nothing to stop the war, which then expanded with the full-scale invasion in 2022.... Trump again throws out numbers about autism that have been debunked. Time magazine fact-checked his answer to the question during its interview.... 'We won in a landslide,' Trump claims, again. In fact, he won the popular vote by just 1.5 percentage points, one of the smallest margins of victory since the 19th century."

Maggie Haberman: "Trump says he would consider pardoning Eric Adams, the mayor of New York City, who has praised Trump repeatedly." ~~~

     ~~~ Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "Donald Trump warned Republican senators who oppose his Cabinet nominees that they would likely face primary challenges at a press conference on Monday.... 'If they're unreasonable, if they're opposing somebody for political reasons or stupid reasons, I would say -- has nothing to do with me -- I would say they probably would be primaried'."

Canada. Ian Austen & Matina Stevis-Gridneff of the New York Times: "Chrystia Freeland, the deputy prime minister who led Canada's response to the first Trump administration, resigned abruptly on Monday from her cabinet role in a stinging rebuke to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, marking the first open dissent from any cabinet member and raising questions about his hold on power. The revelation, in a letter of resignation, came hours before Ms. Freeland, who had been the finance minister, was scheduled to outline the government's commitments to improve border security with the United States. Mr. Trudeau's cabinet, which was meeting in Ottawa soon after the letter was made public, seemed stunned by the development.... In her resignation letter, Ms. Freeland indicated that Mr. Trudeau had attempted to force her out of the position on Friday."

Germany. Christopher Schuetze & Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in the German Parliament on Monday, a defeat that effectively ended the increasingly unpopular government he has led since 2021 and set the stage for elections early next year. The collapse of the government just nine months before elections had been scheduled was an extraordinary moment for Germany. This will be only the fourth snap election in the 75 years since the modern state was founded, and it reflected a new era of more fractious and unstable politics in a country long known for durable coalitions built on plodding consensus. German lawmakers voted to dissolve the existing government by a vote of 394 to 207, with 116 abstaining."

Rules for Thee Are Not for Me. Curt Devine of CNN: "... Donald Trump vowed on the campaign trail to do everything in his power to benefit American workers. 'We will build American, buy American and hire American,' he said during a rally in August. Despite that pledge, Trump's own businesses sought to hire more foreign guest workers this year than any other year on record, according to a CNN review of government labor data. Companies linked to some of Trump's top political backers and administration picks also have been given the green light to use guest workers this year. Trump's businesses, including the Mar-a-Lago Club, some of his golf courses and a Virginia winery, have collectively increased their reliance on temporary foreign laborers over the years. Just this year, Trump's businesses received approval from the US government to hire 209 foreign workers, nearly double the number of such laborers his companies received permission to hire about a decade ago."

Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "In a speech at the New York Young Republican Club's gala on Sunday night, Steve Bannon ... floated the prospect of Trump making a fourth consecutive run for the White House in 2028.... 'Since [the Constitution] doesn't actually say consecutive, I don't know, maybe we do it again in '28?' Bannon said, to cheers from the crowd."

That didn't take long. Krugman is on Substack: ~~~

~~~ "Crypto Is for Criming." Paul Krugman: "The tech bros who helped put Trump back in power expect many favors in return; one of the more interesting is their demand that the government intervene to guarantee crypto players the right to a checking account, stopping the 'debanking' they claim has hit many of their friends. The hypocrisy here is thick enough to cut with a knife. If you go back to the 2008 white paper by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto that gave rise to Bitcoin, its main argument was that we needed to replace checking accounts with blockchain-based payments because you can't trust banks; crypto promoters also tend to preach libertarianism, touting crypto as a way to escape government tyranny. Now we have crypto boosters demanding that the evil government force the evil banks to let them have conventional checking accounts.... The real reason banks don't want to be financially connected to crypto is that they believe, with good reason, that to the extent that cryptocurrencies are used for anything besides speculation, much of that activity is criminal.... [And] what [Elon] Musk and [Marc] Andreesen are demanding could be seen as a call for the U.S. government to intervene to make life easier for criminals. And if you think such a thing would be inconceivable under the second Trump administration, you haven't been paying attention."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "More than 120 House Democrats have signed a letter asking President Joe Biden to urge the nation's archivist to recognize the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment by publishing the amendment first Hill's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Essentially, the Democrats are arguing (elliptically) that the 1982 deadline imposed by the Congress in the early 1970s was outside the bounds of their authority because the amendment met the Constitutional requirements when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the amendment in January 2020. But you can see where Congress would not want to officially lift the arbitrary deadline because barefoot and pregnant. ~~~

     ~~~ The Democrats' letter to President Biden is here. Via the House.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Without minimizing the many factors responsible for reelecting the most unfit presidential candidate in U.S. history, we must not forget the singular role played in 2021 by Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) in preventing ... Donald Trump's removal from office in his second impeachment trial, thereby enabling his return to office. It is therefore grotesquely hypocritical for McConnell now to bemoan the danger to the nation posed by the revival of Trump's 'America First' foreign policy."

Thanks for Encouraging Trump, ABC News! David Enrich of the New York Times: A "small flurry of threatened defamation lawsuits is the latest sign that the incoming Trump administration appears poised to do what it can to crack down on unfavorable media coverage. Before and after the election, Mr. Trump and his allies have discussed subpoenaing news organizations, prosecuting journalists and their sources, revoking networks' broadcast licenses and eliminating funding for public radio and television. Actual or threatened libel lawsuits are another weapon at their disposal -- and they are being deployed even before Mr. Trump moves back into the White House.... On Saturday, ABC News said it had agreed to give $15 million to Mr. Trump's future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation suit that Mr. Trump filed against the network and one of its anchors, George Stephanopoulos.... The deal set off criticism of ABC News by those who perceived the network as needlessly bowing down to Mr. Trump. And it led some legal and media experts to wonder whether the outcome would embolden Mr. Trump and others to intensify their assault on the media...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. argues that Trump will be sorry when he's managed to force every media outlet to heel and "there are no media outlets left for Trump to sue because they're all self-censoring? Who'll be left for him to crush if they're all courtiers and sycophants?... If Trump neutralizes all opposition, it will eventually be clear that bad things going on in America are his fault." MB: I'm not convinced. Although it's technically possible Trump can shut up the opposition by jailing or executing everyone who persists in criticizing him (what would it take to shut up Lawrence O'Donnell?), the right is very good at identifying "enemies of the people," and they certainly aren't all media figures or entities. In fact, most are cultural "enemies," from Black Lives Matter activists to feminists to teachers and librarians. Apparently if you watch Fox sporadically, you'll find out there are so many bad guys out there that you'll want to lock yourself up to avoid them.

Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has tapped the 71-year-old [Dave Weldon] former Army doctor [and former Congressman] to run the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.... Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the longtime vaccine skeptic..., proposed Weldon for the job.... Weldon's past record of promoting the disproven link between vaccines and autism in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence attesting to the safety and efficacy of vaccines raises concerns among some public health experts about his ability to run the CDC. If confirmed, Weldon could undermine confidence in the lifesaving shots at a time when infectious-disease threats such as measles and whooping cough are on the rise, they say. A Washington Post review of Weldon's public comments, media appearances and congressional letters along with accounts of those who worked with him reveal a portrait of a politician and physician who emphasized the experiences of individuals while dismissing dozens of studies based on data from hundreds of thousands of patients that showed no link between vaccines and autism." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The plan, it appears, is to knock the CDC back to the Dark Ages. But, hey, maybe potions and incantations will control diseases just as well as vaccines.

Julianne McShane of Mother Jones: "Devin Nunes, the ex-California congressman and current head of Trump's struggling social media platform, Truth Social, is getting his prize for being the next president's long-serving yes-man. On Saturday, Trump announced that he would appoint Nunes as chairman of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board.... Nunes will draw on a robust track record of foot entering mouth.... The Bee famously once called him 'Trump's stooge.' That seems to be the main qualification needed for the next admin."

Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "CEO's and business execs hoping to dissuade Donald Trump from enacting what they and many economists believe will be ruinous tariffs are finding he won't budge and that has them scrambling to find a way to get through to him.... As the [Wall Street] Journal's Brian Schwartz wrote, 'Trump isn't budging' before adding, 'So far, executives are facing setbacks as they canvass Trump's aides for advice on how to influence the president-elect's next steps. Trump is largely acting on his own, leaving his incoming team of advisers with few opportunities to shape his thinking.' The report adds that Trump's proposals often come late at night on his social media platforms leaving his advisors, who have been left in the dark, trying to catch up afterwards."

Astrid Galvan & Alayna Alvarez of Axios: "A handful of top U.S. universities are urging international students who travel home for winter break to be back in the country before ... Trump takes office.... Trump has vowed to crack down on both illegal and legal immigration, and school leaders are worried one of his first actions could be an executive order limiting entrance to the U.S. like he did with the Muslim Ban in 2017.... At least 10 universities, mostly on the East Coast, have told international students to be back stateside before the Jan. 20 inauguration. They include the University of Southern California, Brown University, University of Pennsylvania, MIT and others. USC [University of Southern California in an email to students on special visas said they are expected to be in class when the semester starts on Jan. 13, and that this 'is especially important given that a new presidential administration will take office on January 20, 2025, and -- as is common -- may issue one or more Executive Orders impacting travel to the U.S. and visa processing.'"

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Jackson Barton of the Washington Post: "Dallas-based start-up American Rounds rolled its first automated retail ammo [vending] machine into a Fresh Value grocery store in Pell City, Alabama, late in 2023, selling various brands of rifle, shotgun and handgun ammo. The company advertises its machines as a safer and more convenient way to buy ammo than at a large retail store or online. But public health experts have questioned whether the company's suicide prevention efforts are sufficient, and elected officials in areas where machines were set up have worried that the easy availability of ammunition could lead to impulsive purchases by people who seek to do harm." (Also linked yesterday.)

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? -- Jesus, note to Jeff Bezos (Matthew 16:26)

The shockingly dangerous working conditions at Amazon's warehouses revealed in this 160-page report are beyond unacceptable. Amazon's executives repeatedly chose to put profits ahead of the health and safety of its workers by ignoring recommendations that would substantially reduce injuries. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), in an Addendum of Matthew 16~~~

~~~ Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "For years, worker advocates and some government officials have argued that Amazon's strict production quotas lead to high rates of injury for its warehouse employees. And for years, Amazon has rejected the criticism, arguing that it doesn't use strict quotas, and that its injury rates are falling close to or below the industry average. On Sunday, the majority staff of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which is chaired by Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, published an investigation that found that Amazon itself had documented the link between its quotas and elevated injury rates. Internal company documents collected by Mr. Sanders's investigators show that Amazon health and safety personnel recommended relaxing enforcement of the production quotas to lower injury rates, but that senior executives rejected the recommendations.... The report also affirmed the findings of investigations undertaken by a union-backed group showing that injury rates at Amazon were almost twice the average for the rest of the industry.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments in Israel's wars are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he spoke with ... Donald Trump and discussed the 'need to complete Israel's victory' and efforts to release hostages held by Hamas in Gaza. Calling Trump 'my friend,' Netanyahu said the conversation was 'very friendly, warm and important.' The two spoke Saturday night, Netanyahu said in a statement Sunday. The Israeli government approved a plan Sunday that would expand settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, a move that Qatar, Iraq and the United Arab Emirates criticized. Israel said it was acting 'in light of the war and the new front facing Syria,' as it uses the power vacuum next door to consolidate security on its border and advance its aims of growing settlements. In his video statement, Netanyahu said he wanted to clarify that Israel has 'no interest in confrontation' with Syria, saying that 'our policy toward Syria will be determined by the reality on the ground.'"

Hiba Yazbek of the New York Times: "Israel's military said it carried out strikes and raids in northern Gaza on Sunday after days of deadly bombardments across the territory. The military said in a statement that it had targeted a 'terrorist meeting point' in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, among other actions. Wafa, the Palestinian Authority's news agency, reported that Israeli forces had raided a school building in the town and forced displaced families sheltering there to evacuate in unsafe conditions, killing and wounding several amid bombardment and gunfire."

Vivian Yee of the New York Times: "Israel struck Syrian weapons depots and air defenses overnight, a group monitoring the conflict said Sunday, in what appeared to be part of an effort Israel says is aimed at depriving 'extremists' of military assets after rebels seized power in Syria. In all, Israel struck its neighbor 75 times in attacks that began Saturday night near the Syrian capital, Damascus, and the cities of Hama and Homs, according to the group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based organization that has long tracked the conflict in Syria. There were no immediate reports of casualties."

Isabel Kershner of the New York Times: "Israel announced on Sunday that it was closing its embassy in Dublin in light of what it described as 'the extreme anti-Israel policies of the Irish government.' The decision came days after Ireland announced that it would file an intervention in support of South Africa's case against Israel in the International Court of Justice in The Hague. South Africa has accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, a charge Israel vehemently rejects. Israeli officials said shuttering the embassy in Ireland did not mean that Israel was severing diplomatic relations with Ireland. Officials from both countries noted that Ireland's embassy in Tel Aviv will continue to function."