The Conversation -- December 15, 2024

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...."

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."

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Army-Navy Game Features Rogues' Gallery. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attended the annual Army-Navy football game in Maryland on Saturday with Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice for defense secretary, sending a message of support ahead of Senate confirmation hearings that are likely to take place next month. Allies and aides of Mr. Trump's posted video of the president-elect and Mr. Hegseth on the social media site X. In one video, the two men, along with Vice President-elect JD Vance, can be seen standing for the national anthem.... Mr. Trump was also accompanied at the game by Daniel Penny, a former Marine who was acquitted this week on a charge of criminally negligent homicide after putting a man in a chokehold in a New York subway car. Other allies of Mr. Trump's, including Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson, were also at the game." (Also linked yesterday.)

More Rogues for the Gallery.

     ~~~ Bad Moooos. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "....Donald J. Trump announced on Saturday that he would appoint Devin Nunes, a former member of Congress who had used his role as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee to try to delegitimize the Trump-Russia investigation, to head an independent advisory board on espionage policy. The organization -- the President's Intelligence Advisory Board -- dates back to the early Cold War and consists of private citizens with top-level security clearances who are supposed to help the White House analyze spy agency effectiveness and planning. Its members do not need Senate confirmation, so presidents can pick whomever they want for it.... Some members of the advisory board also serve on a presidential Intelligence Oversight Board, which was created in the 1970s after a congressional investigation into abuses by national security agencies and which tries to ferret out illegal spying activities. That group typically includes the larger board's chair, so it is likely that Mr. Nunes will participate in it as well." An NBC News story is here. MB: Will Devin Nunes' Cow get a seat on the Oversight Board? Will she oversee Devin? ~~~

     ~~~ Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump named Richard Grenell, his former ambassador to Germany and former acting director of national intelligence, as his 'envoy for special missions,' Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Saturday. A loyalist known for unbridled social media attacks on Mr. Trump's perceived critics and many others, Mr. Grenell led a shambolic effort to challenge the 2020 election results in Nevada after Mr. Trump's loss, and he has lobbied assiduously for a diplomatic job in the new administration. He got his start in government before Mr. Trump's rise, as a spokesman for the U.S. mission to the United Nations under multiple presidents. But his online toxicity, foreign business contacts and tendency toward biting personal attacks on political opponents and the media turned off many centrist conservatives, helping propel him toward Mr. Trump, a man he denounced in 2016 as 'dangerous.'"

Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The problem with [Kash] Patel leading the FBI in the second Trump administration is that typical checks on the power of the FBI director would almost certainly be gone, according to former FBI assistant director Frank Figliuzzi and other former officials familiar with the matter.... The alarm has come as Patel, who has called for shutting down FBI headquarters and drafted what critics call an 'enemies list' of Patel's opponents, appears set to have his nomination supported unanimously by Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee.... 'And then going through files? I imagine on the first day in office, he's going to say, "I need every file that has the word Trump in it,"' Figliuzzi said. 'That should be a real concern, that Kash Patel is going through informant files and saying, "Look at that, this guy coughed it up on Trump."'... Figliuzzi also suggested that Patel working in tandem with the Trump White House could exert influence over things like background checks, both for first-time applicants for security clearances and reinvestigations of people who previously went through FBI vetting." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary and Ken W.'s in yesterday's thread. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: IOW, access to FBI files will give Patel what he needs to expand his already-established "enemies list." In her post linked below, digby begins with a mention of Nixon's enemies list. Nixon's original list had only 20 people on it. Nixon aide Charles Colson expanded the list to 220. According to the New York Times (June 1973), "a memorandum written by [John] Dean in August, 1971, to President Nixon's top advisers, H. R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman -- Mr. Dean suggested 'how we can use the available Federal machinery to screw our political enemies.' Another memorandum that Mr. Dean said he prepared recommended using Internal Revenue Service machinery to harass political opponents of the President." I'm quite certain Patel can think up plenty of ways to "use the federal machinery to screw Trump's [perceived] political enemies." And Patel will do it. ~~~

~~~ Digby writes an excellent essay on why Chris Wray should have stood up to Donald Trump and forced Trump to fire him.

Kevin Kruse in a Substack essay: "The odds are good that pretty much all the president's men (cough) will be confirmed.... The danger with some of Trump's nominees isn't that they'll abuse their power and turn their agencies to evil ends, it's that they'll run their agencies into the ground, quite deliberately, in order to bring them to an evil end." Speaking of ends, read to the end of this one. As Jeanne wrote yesterday, it's karma. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump has expressed a keen interest in privatizing the U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks, three people with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could shake up consumer shipping and business supply chains and push hundreds of thousands of federal workers out of the government.... Told of the mail agency's annual financial losses, Trump said the government should not subsidize the organization, the people said.... [Trump] feuded with the nation's mail carrier as president in 2019, trying to force it to hand over key functions -- including rate-setting, personnel decisions, labor relations and managing relationships with its largest clients &-- to the Treasury Department.... As congressional Republicans and others in Trump's orbit have clamored in recent weeks for federal cost-cutting, the Postal Service has emerged as a prominent target. People who will work on the 'Department of Government Efficiency,' a nongovernmental panel led by tech entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, have also held preliminary conversations about major changes to the Postal Service...." The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Hardly a surprise. As Ken W. noted yesterday morning, "There's just so much money to be made by making public services private." Let's see. Who should lead the King Donald Postal Service on the road to disaster? How about Prince Donald Junior? And how is it that Trump was "told of the mail agency's annual financial losses"? Everybody who reads a real newspaper has known that for years. It is periodically repeated -- often when the USPS asks for another hike in the price of stamps. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "This is a classic Republican economic policy in that 1)it will be disastrous for rural and exurban areas that are the most reliable sources of Republican support and 2)won't hurt them with the typical voter in these areas at all even if they go through with it and their lives are negatively impacted." MB: And that's at least partially because people who live in the boonies are living in information deserts; they don't know WTF is going on & they don't know it's their favorite politicians who are sticking it to them.

Alan Feuer & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "ABC News agreed on Saturday to give $15 million to .... Donald J. Trump's future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump concerning on-air statements made by the network's star anchor George Stephanopoulos. The network and Mr. Stephanopoulos also published a statement saying they 'regret' remarks made about Mr. Trump during a televised interview in March. ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, will pay Mr. Trump an additional $1 million for his legal fees, under the terms of a settlement agreement filed in Federal District Court in Miami. The outcome marks an unusual victory for Mr. Trump in his ongoing legal campaign against national news organizations. Several of his previous attempts to sue media outlets for defamation, including lawsuits against CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, ended in defeat.... The settlement agreement was signed on the same day that a federal magistrate judge ordered Mr. Trump to sit for a deposition in the case next week in Florida. Mr. Stephanopoulos was also on the verge of being deposed." (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Read on. Of course the suits should not have caved. Maybe they were upset that NBC News got the only post-election MSM interview with Trump and they figured a $16MM suck-up would put them in Trump's good graces. Fat chance. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the headline on Paul Campos' post on LG&$: "ABC pays sex assaulter $15 million for saying jury found he had raped woman, as opposed to sexually assaulting her." Campos writes, "That's slicing the libel bologna extraordinarily thin, but on the other hand if you think of it as protection money it all makes sense. Except it won't actually buy much if any protection. Just like in the other made for TV rackets." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Quite right. The jury's charge was for sexual assault, but as the linked AP report explains, the judge in the case "said the verdict did not mean that Carroll 'failed to prove that Mr. Trump "raped" her as many people commonly understand the word "rape." Indeed ... the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.'"

Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "As the United States ambassador to Japan, a country where change typically follows a long process of quiet consensus-building referred to as 'nemawashi,' [the brash Rahm] Emanuel, 65, was initially seen as an unorthodox appointment. But maybe, he suggests, he was just what Japan needed.... In the past three years, Japan has doubled the amount earmarked for military spending, acquired Tomahawk missiles from the United States and, in a reversal of postwar restrictions on weapons exports, agreed to manufacture American-designed Patriot missiles to sell to the U.S. government. Although he acknowledged the groundwork was laid before he arrived, Mr. Emanuel said these changes didn't simply coincide with his term as American envoy to Tokyo. 'While I was here, they did more, went faster and farther and deeper than I think they themselves originally thought,' he said during an interview late last month in the library of his residence in Tokyo. 'Did I contribute to that?' Mr. Emanuel said. 'Uh, yeah.' Just how much credit should go to Mr. Emanuel is a matter of perspective."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Representative Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, had hip replacement surgery on Saturday after falling while on an official trip to Luxembourg, her office said in a statement. 'Earlier this morning, Speaker Emerita Pelosi underwent a successful hip replacement and is well on the mend,' Ian Krager, a spokesman for Ms. Pelosi, said in a statement. Ms. Pelosi traveled to Luxembourg as part of a congressional delegation attending a ceremony to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge, a pivotal fight during World War II. On Friday, she tripped and fell while going down marble stairs at the Grand Ducal Palace...."

Marie: We have been discussing the structural problems that have led the country to the sad state of affairs. Mister Mix of Balloon Juice has an idea that would help correct one of those structural problems: liberal-leaning media should follow part of Fox's successful model, not the part where they make up stuff, but by making "it left-wing infotainment, and not always overtly political or even about politics." That is, carry stories that support or show the need for liberal policies. This is much like what Dan Froomkin suggested a few days ago, but more specific: "The kinds of stories I'm talking about are stories of people being denied insurance coverage, women dying in parking lots for lack of a D&C, farmers who wouldn't be able to harvest crops or keep cattle without immigrant labor, and youth pastors raping kids." While these are depressing, Mix also suggests positive stories that show liberal ideas working like urban gardeners & volunteers helping their communities. ~~~

      ~~~ Since I don't watch Fox, I didn't realize how they were using real stories -- okay, anecdotes -- to reinforce their "political philosophy." I wasn't aware how calculating their infotainment was. What it is, I think, is strategically using local news tactics -- "if it bleeds, it leads" -- to hold and increase viewership. Local news, theoretically anyway, tells its stories without an agenda any deeper than the station's own ratings, but Fox tailors those stories to make right-wing points. So if it works for local news stations and it works for Fox (the highest-ratest cable news station), then it should work for MSM and liberal-leaning media, too.

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Florida. Hannah Critchfield & Juan Chavez of the Tampa Bay Times: "Florida banned local governments from providing increased oversight for workers exposed to high temperatures earlier this year, saying businesses and federal regulators alone could keep laborers safe. But the Tampa Bay Times found far more workers have died from heat across the state than authorities even know. The missing deaths bring recorded heat fatalities in Florida to at least 37 over the past decade -- double the number federal regulators had tallied during the same period. Employers are supposed to notify the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which oversees worker safety, about employee deaths within hours. OSHA has fined six businesses in the state after discovering they didn't follow the rule when workers died from heat. The Times identified 19 additional heat-related deaths kept from the agency.... The Times found that Florida companies have failed to report the vast majority of heat fatalities as required.... The vast majority were people of color. At least half were immigrants....

"Florida's ban on local governments adopting heat regulations drew national attention and criticism with nearly 90 environmental, faith-based and labor groups writing to Gov. Ron DeSantis asking him to veto the legislation before he signed it." MB: DeSantis signed the bill. Of course.

Drones Over New Jersey, New York, Maryland. Angie Hernandez, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Monday, Gov. Phil Murphy (D) attempted to soothe worries that the mysterious drones flying in New Jersey airspace posed a threat to public safety. But growing concern -- and additional sightings -- moved Murphy to write to President Joe Biden on Thursday, emphasizing the need for more federal resources.... The New Jersey State Police have received reports of drones since Nov. 18, Murphy wrote. The sightings have been spotted near homes, businesses, military research facilities and ... Donald Trump's golf course in Bedminster. Federal investigators said they don't have answers yet but added they don't believe the drones pose a public threat.... The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed drone flight restrictions near Bedminster and Picatinny while authorities investigate.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said in a statement Saturday that she was also requesting that the Biden administration surge federal law enforcement to her state after the runways at Stewart Airfield, about 70 miles north of New York City, were shut down on Friday night for about one hour 'due to drone activity in the airspace.' Earlier this week, the Bowie Police Department in Prince George's County[, Maryland] began receiving calls from community members about drone sightings and the calls have continued

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Syria. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in Syria are here: "U.S. officials have been in direct contact with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), Syria's new Islamist leaders, hoping to encourage the rebel group that deposed President Bashar al-Assad to steer the transition to a government representing all Syrians. Assad's sudden ouster a week ago prompted celebrations across Syria, upending half a century of authoritarian rule. But Western officials worry that a peaceful transition of power is not assured in a country wracked by years of civil war.."

The Conversation -- December 14, 2024

Army-Navy Game Features Rogues' Gallery. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attended the annual Army-Navy football game in Maryland on Saturday with Pete Hegseth, his embattled choice for defense secretary, sending a message of support ahead of Senate confirmation hearings that are likely to take place next month. Allies and aides of Mr. Trump's posted video of the president-elect and Mr. Hegseth on the social media site X. In one video, the two men, along with Vice President-elect JD Vance, can be seen standing for the national anthem.... Mr. Trump was also accompanied at the game by Daniel Penny, a former Marine who was acquitted this week on a charge of criminally negligent homicide after putting a man in a chokehold in a New York subway car. Other allies of Mr. Trump's, including Elon Musk and House Speaker Mike Johnson, were also at the game."

Alan Feuer & Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "ABC News agreed on Saturday to give $15 million to .... Donald J. Trump's future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Mr. Trump concerning on-air statements made by the network's star anchor George Stephanopoulos. The network and Mr. Stephanopoulos also published a statement saying they 'regret' remarks made about Mr. Trump during a televised interview in March. ABC News, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company, will pay Mr. Trump an additional $1 million for his legal fees, under the terms of a settlement agreement filed in Federal District Court in Miami. The outcome marks an unusual victory for Mr. Trump in his ongoing legal campaign against national news organizations. Several of his previous attempts to sue media outlets for defamation, including lawsuits against CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, ended in defeat.... The settlement agreement was signed on the same day that a federal magistrate judge ordered Mr. Trump to sit for a deposition in the case next week in Florida. Mr. Stephanopoulos was also on the verge of being deposed." ~~~

     ~~~ Read on. Of course the suits should not have caved. Maybe they were upset that NBC News got the only post-election MSM interview with Trump and they figured a $16MM suck-up would put them in Trump's good graces.

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Stopped Clock..., etc. Marie: OMG! I agree with Donald Trump about something: ~~~

~~~ Dan Diamond of the Washington Post: "'The Republican Party will use its best efforts to eliminate Daylight Saving Time, which has a small but strong constituency, but shouldn't!' [Donald Trump] wrote Friday on his social media platform Truth Social. 'Daylight Saving Time is inconvenient, and very costly to our Nation.' Any effort to permanently change the nation's clocks would require the cooperation of Congress, which has been gridlocked over recent time-change legislation -- and whether it makes sense to end daylight saving time or adopt it year-round instead.... Trump's announcement aligns him with public health professionals, who have long said that daylight saving time does not comport with humans' natural circadian rhythms and that the clock changes each spring and fall are linked to a greater risk of heart attacks, stroke and car accidents. Other countries have banished daylight saving time, with Mexico in 2022 moving to abolish the practice." The Hill has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I was growing up in Florida, the state did not have Daylight Savings Time, and that may be the reason I have always found it to be an annoying practice.

Notes on the Billionaires' Club: Tim Apple Makes the Pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lardo. Theodore Schleifer & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: Apple CEO "Tim Cook held a meeting on Friday with Donald J. Trump at Mar-a-Lago.... Mr. Cook and Mr. Trump later dined on the patio at Mar-a-Lago.... The two men had a warm relationship during Mr. Trump's first term -- much warmer than Mr. Trump's with other tech executives.... The meeting offers a chance for Mr. Cook to seek Mr. Trump's support on several issues that could challenge Apple's business in the coming years, including pressure on the App Store from European regulators and the potential that new tariffs could put the company's iPhone business at risk."~~~

~~~ Cade Metz of the New York Times: "OpenAI said on Friday that its chief executive, Sam Altman, was planning to donate $1 million to ... Donald J. Trump's inaugural fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with Mr. Trump.... Mr. Altman and OpenAI recently hired key executives who previously worked for Democratic administrations." ~~~

~~~ Theodore Schleifer & David Yaffe-Belany of the New York Times: "This was the week when many tech companies and their top executives, as reluctant as they may have been, acknowledged the reality of getting business done in Mr. Trump's Washington. With their donations, visits and comments, they joined a party that has already raged for a month, as a cohort of influential Silicon Valley billionaires, led by Elon Musk, began running parts of Mr. Trump's transition after endorsing him in the campaign. While businesses frequently try to get on an incoming president's good side, the frenzy of tech activity stood out from other industries."

~~~ Niall Stanage of the Hill: "Trump has received a display of homage at home and abroad since winning November's contest over Vice President Harris. It's the kind of public pomp that eluded him after his shock victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016. The nature of this acclaim is eliciting an unusual level of glee from Trump -- a man who biographers say has never quite left behind the outer-borough imprint of his upbringing in Queens, N.Y., where his family's wealth was never enough to buy him full entrée into the Manhattan cultural elite. The accolades and invites have come thick and fast this time." Stanage provides a short list of some of the more prominent flatterers.

The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease.... Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed -- they're dangerous.... Anyone seeking the Senate's consent to serve in the incoming administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts. -- Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell, a polio survivor, in a statement Friday ~~~

~~~ Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader and a survivor of polio, issued a pointed statement in support of the polio vaccine on Friday, hours after The New York Times reported that the lawyer for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has petitioned federal regulators to withdraw the vaccine from the market. Without naming Mr. Kennedy, Mr. McConnell suggested that the petition could jeopardize his confirmation to be health secretary in the incoming Trump administration." The NBC News story is here. MB: The NYT article notes that "Kennedy has said he does not want to take away anyone's vaccines," & the NBC News story reports, "Katie Miller, a spokesperson for RFK Jr, told NBC News in a statement, 'The Polio Vaccine should be available to the public and thoroughly and properly studied.'" But no mention in either report of this: ~~~

     ~~~ Tim Reid & Michael Erman of Reuters: "... Donald Trump in an interview published on Thursday said he will be talking to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, about ending childhood vaccination programs. When asked if he would sign off if Kennedy decided to end childhood vaccinations programs, Trump told Time magazine, 'we're going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there's something causing it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, I know it's disturbing that Trump is going to ruin the economy, increase income disparity and wreck our relations with leading democracies. But none of this is as frightening as these two dudes, both of whom are nutso and at least one of whom is quite stupid, getting together to determine healthcare (and outcomes) for the nation's children. It is true that many people will have their children vaccinated for at least some deadly diseases -- unless Kennedy & Trump outlaw those vaccinations. Then only people who are motivated and can afford to travel to other countries would be able to have their children immunized. Could they outlaw vaccines? Could they outlaw the polio vaccine? Well, notice that reference by Kennedy's spokesperson to "thoroughly and properly studying" polio vaccines. The purpose of studying something is to obtain information to help you decide on a course of action (or not.) So what if those thorough, proper studies suggest to Kennedy that the polio vaccine causes brain worms, or whatever? I think he'd recommend outlawing the vaccine, and it's quite possible he could get it done. ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux, writing in LG&$, is mightily unimpressed by McConnell's criticism of Trump's pick for HHS head: "Could McConnell have persuaded 16 other Republican senators to convict Trump for 1/6 had he made a serious effort to do it? I don&'t know, and likely the odds were against it. But we do know that -- having to know that his tenure as conference leader was coming to an end, and that he was never going to be majority leader again -- he didn't even try. He owns Trump (and RFK Jr.) lock. stock and barrel. And it's also a little hard to take for someone whose most important initiative in his final four years as majority leader was a nearly successful effort to take healthcare away from tens of millions of people to pay for an upper-class tax cut. RFK Jr. is a logical culmination of the Republican contempt for the idea that public health is an important issue, and McConnell is as guilty of this as anyone." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Lemieux begins his post with a brief discussion of sanewashing RFK Jr. as essentially a healthy-eating/fitness advocate -- uh, kinda like that crazy leftist Michelle Obama. Philip Bump of the Washington Post has a much more-developed post along this line, and it's well-worth reading. ~~~

~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "It's an idea as popular as it is incorrect: American babies now receive too many vaccines, which overwhelm their immune systems and lead to diseases like autism. This theory has been repeated so often that it has permeated the mainstream, echoed by ... Donald J. Trump and his pick to be the nation's top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.... But the idea that today's vaccines are overtaxing children's immune systems is fundamentally flawed, experts said. Vaccines today are cleaner and more efficient, and they contain far fewer stimulants to the immune system -- by orders of magnitude -- than they did decades ago. What's more, the immune reactions produced by vaccines are 'minuscule' compared with those that children experience on a daily basis, said Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, a pediatrician at Stanford University who advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines."

Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "Kash Patel..., Donald J. Trump's pick to be F.B.I. director, often burnishes his credentials as a former prosecutor even as he portrays law enforcement agencies as an inept and politicized 'deep state.' A critical piece of that narrative is the investigation into the 2012 attack on a diplomatic compound and a C.I.A. annex in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans. Mr. Patel, who worked at the Justice Department from early 2014 to 2017, was involved in that inquiry. He described it in his 2023 memoir ... and in a conversation on a September podcast of 'The Shawn Ryan Show.' But he has both exaggerated his own importance and misleadingly distorted the department s broader effort.... Mr. Patel has repeatedly made it sound as if he led the government's overall effort to investigate and prosecute militants involved in the 2012 attack. [But he was merely a member of a team who aided the Benghazi investigators, and he didn't work there when the investigation started or when it ended.]... He is said to have passed off the role to another colleague after friction with the prosecutorial team." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ And of course, "Alex Pfeiffer, a spokesman for the Trump transition, stood by Mr. Patel's description of his duties." MB: If Patel were a Democratic nominee, Comer & Jordan would have jump-started a whole 'nother Benghazi probe.

Marie: In yesterday's Conversation, I wondered why bankers would want the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. eliminated, something Trump aides are reportedly considering (in order, I guess, to boost the value of Trump's investment in cryptocurrency). Patrick explained in yesterday's Comments (in two seperate entries) several reasons why banks would want to ditch the FDIC, all based ultimately in the fact that it's the banks who pay FDIC insurance premiums. (Of course they pay the premiums with your money and mine, but they'd get to keep a little more of our money if they didn't have those darned premiums to pay.) RAS also noted the reason bank customers will stick with the banks. I do think other, non-bank companies could handle most of those transactions that RAS correctly notes are handled (at least in part) by banks today. So if you're wondering why bankers might be happy to get rid of FDIC insurance, see yesterday's Comments.

Meryl Kornfield & Maham Javaid of the Washington Post: "Vice President-elect JD Vance has invited Daniel Penny, a former Marine who was acquitted in the chokehold death of a fellow New York subway rider, to be his guest Saturday at the annual Army-Navy football game....Vance and Penny will join ... Donald Trump in his suite at the game.... A New York City jury found Penny, 26, not guilty Monday of criminally negligent homicide in the May 2023 choking death of Jordan Neely, a 30-year-old subway performer and homeless man with a history of mental health problems.... Penny has been lauded as a citizen hero by many Republicans who have pushed for a greater clampdown on crime in the city and criticized [Alvin] Bragg's prosecution of Trump in a hush money case. [Bragg's office prosecuted Penny.] Meanwhile, city officials had decried Neely's death after a video of the minutes-long chokehold went viral, leading to protests over what some saw as vigilante violence against someone in need of the city's services." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How odd that people who say they're appalled by violent crime promote violent crime. Then they celebrate it by all going out to watch a violent game (guess there were no wrestling or boxing fight nights scheduled).

Annie Grayer of CNN: "Rep. Nancy Pelosi was admitted to a hospital in Luxembourg after she 'sustained an injury during an official engagement,' a spokesperson said. Pelosi, 84, is continuing to work, the spokesperson, Ian Krager, said, and is currently receiving 'excellent' treatment from doctors and medical professionals. 'While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge,' Krager said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Nitasha Tiku of the Washington Post: "OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, released emails and text messages from its co-founder Elon Musk on Friday that showed the billionaire in 2017 demanding majority control of the company and the title of CEO. The trove of messages were released by the artificial intelligence developer as part of its response to a federal lawsuit filed in August by Musk, who departed the company's board in 2018."

Maria Cramer & Shayla Colon of the New York Times: "Investigators received a tip from the San Francisco Police Department identifying Luigi Mangione as a suspect before he was arrested in the killing of an insurance executive in Midtown Manhattan, the New York F.B.I. field office said Friday. The tip, which the bureau passed to the New York police, was one of many that law enforcement officials received in the days after the UnitedHealthcare chief executive, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot on Dec. 4. Mr. Mangione's family had reported him missing in San Francisco weeks before the killing. The timing of when the bureau gave that information to the New York police remains unclear, as well as whether it might have helped speed his arrest."

Walt Bogdanich & Michael Forsythe of the New York Times: "McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a Justice Department investigation of its work with the opioid maker Purdue Pharma. A former senior partner, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying internal company records in connection with that work. At the center of the government's case was McKinsey's advice that Purdue Pharma should 'turbocharge' sales of Purdue's flagship OxyContin painkiller in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic that was killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. More than two dozen McKinsey partners consulted for Purdue over roughly 15 years, earning the firm $93 million." (Also linked yesterday.)

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California, et al. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is expected in the coming days to grant California and 11 other states permission to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, one of the most ambitious climate policies in the United States and beyond.... Donald J. Trump is expected to revoke permission soon after taking office, part of his pledge to scrap Biden-era climate policies. 'California has imposed the most ridiculous car regulations anywhere in the world, with mandates to move to all electric cars,' Mr. Trump has said. 'I will terminate that.' The state is expected to fight any revocation, setting up a consequential legal battle with the new administration."

California. Adam Liptak & Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to consider whether business groups may challenge an unusual federal program that lets California set its own limits on tailpipe emissions to combat climate change. The groups, including fuel producers and sellers, told the justices that the court's intervention was needed to prevent California from effectively setting national policy. 'Without this court's immediate review,' their petition seeking review said, 'California's unlawful standards will continue to dictate the composition of the nation's automobile market.' The challengers asked the court to decide two questions: whether they had suffered the sort of injuries that gave them standing to sue and whether the Environmental Protection Agency program granting California a waiver to set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions was lawful."

North Carolina. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "The stripper who accused Duke University lacrosse players of gang-raping her insisted in her 2008 memoir that she'd been attacked, a year after authorities determined she had lied and dropped the charges against her alleged assailants.... In an episode of the online interview show 'Let's Talk with Kat' released Wednesday, [Crystal] Mangum, 46, said she lied about being gang-raped by the lacrosse players after they hired her to strip at their party -- an accusation that sparked a national scandal and forced a reckoning across the country about sexual assault on college campuses. 'I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped me when they didn't, and that was wrong,' she told interviewer Katerena DePasquale on Nov. 13.... The case dominated national news for months.... But as the months went by, the case against the lacrosse players unraveled.... Three months after taking over the case, [then state District Attorney (and now Gov.) Roy] Cooper dismissed the charges against the lacrosse players."

Texas/New York, et al. David Goodman & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The Texas attorney general opened a new front in the contentious battle over access to abortion this week by suing a New York doctor for sending abortion pills into Texas. It appeared to be among the first attempts to stop the mailing of such medication into states that ban abortion. The lawsuit from Attorney General Ken Paxton -- filed on Thursday in state court in Collin County, north of Dallas -- pits the laws of Texas, which has a near-total ban on abortion, against those of New York, where lawmakers have taken steps to shield doctors from out-of-state prosecution. Under shield laws, states like New York will refuse to cooperate with attempts by other states to prosecute or sue abortion providers who prescribe and send pills across state lines.

"Such laws exist in eight states and have allowed doctors there to send more than 10,000 abortion pills per month to women in states with bans. But legal experts say they expect Texas to try to pursue its case even if it is rebuffed by New York's law. Such an effort could wind up in federal court, potentially imperiling the ability of women in other states with bans to receive abortion pills by mail, and becoming a major test of whether states can enforce contradictory laws across state lines.... In a statement on Friday, Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York said that she was 'committed to maintaining New York's status as a safe harbor for all who seek abortion care.... I will do everything in my power to enforce the laws of New York State.'" The Texas Tribune story is here.

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France. Aurelien Breeden & Catherine Porter of the New York Times: "President Emmanuel Macron on Friday tapped François Bayrou, a veteran centrist politician and one of his top allies, as the new prime minister, a move that few expect would stabilize France's roiling politics. Mr. Bayrou becomes the country's fourth prime minister this year -- an ominous record. The task ahead is immense: He must now form a cabinet capable of shepherding bills through a fractured, cantankerous lower house of Parliament that ousted his predecessor last week."

South Korea. Michelle Lee of the Washington Post: "The South Korean National Assembly voted Saturday to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol, forcing him to immediately hand over power to the prime minister following his short-lived attempt to impose martial law this month. The hundreds of thousands of South Koreans waiting outside the National Assembly, many singing along to K-pop-style songs with ad-libbed lyrics calling for Yoon's departure, erupted into cheering and crying when the verdict was announced. But South Korea now enters a prolonged period of uncertainty: The Constitutional Court must decide whether to uphold the impeachment charges, a process that could take up to six months. If the court decides the legislature's decision is constitutional, Yoon will be removed from office and a new presidential election will be held within 60 days."

Syria, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in Syria are here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times live-updated developments Friday in Syria: "The Russian military appeared to be packing up equipment at one of its most critical bases in Syria on Friday, in what could be a prelude to Moscow's military withdrawal from an important strategic foothold in the Middle East. The movements of Russian equipment came as jubilant crowds gathered in cities across Syria for the first Friday Prayers since rebels toppled President Bashar al-Assad.... Also on Friday, Travis Timmerman, an American citizen who was found outside Damascus earlier this week, was handed over to U.S. forces by Syrian opposition representatives.... Rebel fighters in Syria said that they had found vast stockpiles of an illegal amphetamine called captagon in a Damascus warehouse. The drug was the cornerstone of a narcotics-trafficking ring worth billions of dollars a year that was run by relatives and associates of ... Bashar al-Assad.... A federal grand jury in Los Angeles charged a former Syrian government official with torturing political dissidents at a prison in Damascus." ~~~

~~~ All Is Not Well in Paradise. Farnaz Fassihi of the New York Times: "In the days since the abrupt and unexpected obliteration of Iran as a dominant presence in Syria, the government has faced a fierce public backlash over the billions of dollars spent and the Iranian blood shed to back the Assad regime. The criticism has come from unexpected corners, including conservatives, and is flowing freely on television channels and talk shows, and in social media posts and virtual town halls attended by thousands of Iranians. It also appears on the front pages of newspapers every day.... While opponents of the government have long bristled at the money Iran has sent all over the Middle East, the sentiment now seems to have spread."

The Conversation -- December 13, 2024

Annie Grayer of CNN: "Rep. Nancy Pelosi was admitted to a hospital in Luxembourg after she 'sustained an injury during an official engagement,' a spokesperson said. Pelosi, 84, is continuing to work, the spokesperson, Ian Krager, said, and is currently receiving 'excellent' treatment from doctors and medical professionals. 'While traveling with a bipartisan Congressional delegation in Luxembourg to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge,' Krager said."

Walt Bogdanich & Michael Forsythe of the New York Times: "McKinsey & Company has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a Justice Department investigation of its work with the opioid maker Purdue Pharma. A former senior partner, Martin Elling, has also agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of justice for destroying internal company records in connection with that work. At the center of the government's case was McKinsey's advice that Purdue Pharma should 'turbocharge' sales of Purdue's flagship OxyContin painkiller in the midst of an opioid addiction epidemic that was killing hundreds of thousands of Americans. More than two dozen McKinsey partners consulted for Purdue over roughly 15 years, earning the firm $93 million."

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It's Friday the 13th, Trump is the president*-elect. What could possibly go wrong?

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Kash Patel..., Trump's pick to lead the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has called the top ranks of the bureau 'a threat to the people' and published a list of enemies, vowing retribution for investigations of top Republicans. He appears -- at least for now -- to be on a glide path for confirmation, with Republican senators lining up enthusiastically behind him. As Mr. Patel made the rounds on Capitol Hill this week ahead of his confirmation hearing, he received almost universal praise from G.O.P. members, even those who had raised concerns about some of Mr. Trump's other picks. Mr. Patel's warm welcome is fueled in part by an eagerness among Republicans to avoid incurring the wrath of Mr. Trump and his base after a groundswell of anger at Senate pushback to his picks to lead the Pentagon and the Department of Justice.... But it also reflects the extent to which a deep distrust of the F.B.I. has become Republican orthodoxy." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Of course we are not surprised that GOP senators are lying down in the path of the Trump bus to facilitate his running over them (beep beep). And that's especially a shame give the following item, which I missed, but which laura h. picked up on it in yesterday's Comments: ~~~

     ~~~ David French of the New York Times: "By stepping down, as the conservative writer Erick Erickson observed, [FBI Director Christopher] Wray has created a 'legal obstacle to Trump trying to bypass the Senate confirmation process.'... According to the Vacancies Reform Act, if a vacancy occurs in a Senate-confirmed position, the president can temporarily replace that appointee (such as the F.B.I. director) only with a person who has already received Senate confirmation or with a person who's served in a senior capacity in the agency (at the GS-15 pay scale) for at least 90 days in the year before the resignation. Kash Patel, Donald Trump's chosen successor at the F.B.I., meets neither of these criteria.... That means he can't walk into the job on Day 1.... So a resignation that at first blush looks like a capitulation (why didn't he wait to be fired?) is actually an act of defiance.... Patel is just such an 'unfit character' [as Alexander Hamilton referenced in Federalist No. 76,] and now it's senators' responsibility to protect the American republic from his malign influence -- if, that is, they have the courage to do their jobs." ~~~

~~~ ⭐Garrett Graff in Politico Magazine: Christopher "Wray's surprise decision [to resign] is, simply put, a damning decision, an abdication of leadership, and a terrifying indication of how unready Washington remains for a second Trump term. Wray's decision undermined decades of hard work -- by Congress, presidents, the Justice Department and the FBI itself -- to move it out of a partisan, political framework.... [Established] safeguards and traditions exist because the FBI, in the wrong hands, is incredibly dangerous to American democracy.... We've spent a half-century as a nation trying to make sure that [J. Edgar Hoover's abuse of the agency's power] never happens again -- and now Trump is explicitly saying he wants to restart that darkest chapter of the FBI's history.... The only reason Trump wants to change FBI directors is he doesn't think he can boss, bend and break Wray to his will sufficiently.... Wray's ... decision ... seems to help only one person: Wray, easing his way back into polite legal society and a top-shelf corporate or legal role with a minimum of awkward fuss and Trump vitriol." Read to the end; Graff smacks down Jim Comey, too.

Marie: Donald Trump will kill millions of Americans. His plan is already past the planning stage. I'm not kidding: ~~~

~~~ ⭐Christina Jewitt & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The lawyer helping Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pick federal health officials for the incoming Trump administration has petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine, which for decades has protected millions of people from a virus that can cause paralysis or death. That campaign is just one front in the war that the lawyer, Aaron Siri, is waging against vaccines of all kinds. Mr. Siri has also filed a petition seeking to pause the distribution of 13 other vaccines; challenged, and in some cases quashed, Covid vaccin mandates around the country; sued federal agencies for the disclosure of records related to vaccine approvals; and subjected prominent vaccine scientists to grueling videotaped depositions. Much of Mr. Siri's work — including the polio petition filed in 2022 -- has been on behalf of the Informed Consent Action Network, a nonprofit whose founder is a close ally of Mr. Kennedy. Mr. Siri also represented Mr. Kennedy during his presidential campaign." ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Payne of Politico: "... Donald Trump said he's open to getting rid of vaccines depending on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s review of their safety. Trump's comments to Time magazine contradict promises previously made by Kennedy, who is Trump's choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services and has long been skeptical of vaccines widely considered to be safe and effective. Last month, Kennedy told NBC he would not take vaccines away from anyone who wants them. But Trump said in an interview with Time released Thursday that he might get rid of some vaccines if he thinks they're 'dangerous' or 'not beneficial' after working with Kennedy to review evidence of them."

What? Trump repeatedly made a major campaign promise that he's broken even before taking office? Unpossible! ~~~

     ~~~ Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump said in an interview that bringing down grocery prices will be 'very hard,' after he repeatedly promised during his campaign to cut costs, a major factor in winning over voters dissatisfied with the economy.... Throughout the campaign, Trump vowed to reduce the cost of food and energy as he blamed price hikes on Vice President Kamala Harris, who had promised to push for a federal ban on price gouging. In August at his club in Bedminster, New Jersey, Trump stood near a table of produce such as milk, eggs, cereal and coffee and attributed the price hikes to Harris.... 'I'd like to bring them down. It's hard to bring things down once they're up. You know, it's very hard. But I think that they will,' he said....

"In a wide-ranging interview on Nov. 25 that was published Thursday as part of his Time 'Person of the Year' honor, Trump said he would pardon people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol within hours of his inauguration, sought to distance himself from anti-transgender messages that Republicans used effectively against Democrats in the election and described the Middle East as an 'easier problem' to resolve than Russia's war against Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Well, sure, because Trump has a super-duper Middle-East advisor who says he hasn't even visited the Middle East in years and apparently is not the crack dealmaker Trump claims (see related story on Tiffany Trump's father-in-law, linked below).

Dancing with Donald at the Billionaires' Ball

Karen Weise & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Amazon said on Thursday that it was planning to donate $1 million to ... Donald J. Trump's inaugural fund, part of a pattern in which tech companies and their leaders are taking steps to repair their relationships with Mr. Trump. [Mark Zuckerberg's company] Meta, the parent company of Facebook, said on Wednesday that it was putting $1 million into the inaugural fund.... Amazon and its founder, Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post, have had a rocky history with Mr. Trump.... But over the summer, Mr. Bezos spoke with Mr. Trump after the former president was shot at a campaign event.... More recently, Mr. Bezos has said that he is 'very optimistic' about the incoming Trump administration. At the DealBook Summit in New York on Dec. 4, Mr. Bezos said that Mr. Trump 'seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And my point of view is, if I can help him do that, I'm going to help him, because we do have too much regulation in this country.'... Mr. Trump said on Thursday that Mr. Bezos, who chairs Amazon's board, was meeting him next week." ~~~

     ~~~ Make that $2MM. Thanks Jeff! Filip Timotija of the Hill: "Amazon will be donating $1 million to Trump's inauguration and also making a $1 million in-kind contribution, as the company will stream the formal admission through Prime Video, multiple outlets reported...." ~~~

     ~~~ Keeping the Lights On. Marie: If you saw yesterday's Conversation, you know that Jeff is happy to have you and me pay for Amazon delivery personnels' safety (which I'm glad to do), while he gives billionaire Trump $1MM. ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Katie Robertson of the New York Times: "After ... Donald J. Trump announced a cascade of cabinet picks last month, the editorial board of The Los Angeles Times ... prepared an editorial arguing that the Senate should follow its traditional process for confirming nominees, particularly given the board's concerns about some of his picks, and ignore Mr. Trump's call for so-called recess appointments.... Hours before the editorial was set to be sent to the printer for the next day's newspaper..., the paper's owner, the billionaire medical entrepreneur Dr. Patrick ... Soon-Shiong told the opinion department's leaders that the editorial could not be published unless the paper also published an editorial with an opposing view.... Editors removed the editorial, headlined 'Donald Trump's cabinet choices are not normal. The Senate's confirmation process should be.' It never ran. Dr. Soon-Shiong's intervention, recounted by four people inside the Times..., is one of a string of events in which he has waded into the publication's opinion section in ways that he hadn't until this fall's presidential campaign." ~~~

~~~ Caroline O'Donovan, et al., of the Washington Post: "Top executives in the technology industry have long been a target of Donald Trump's vitriol. As he prepares to return to the White House, they're lining up to gain favor with the president-elect. Some come bearing checkbooks. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was scheduled for a sit-down with him on Thursday. Salesforce CEO and Time magazine owner Marc Benioff celebrated his publication's naming of Trump as 'person of the year.'... The corporate giants appear to be hoping for a fresh start with Trump, who has lambasted the industry as biased and anticompetitive and targeted some of the biggest tech companies with threats of punitive action.... Trump filed lawsuits against Google and Meta in 2021, accusing them of censorship, and as president in 2019 threatened the two companies with legal assaults from the U.S. government.... Trump said Andrew Ferguson, his pick to head the Federal Trade Commission, will be 'standing up to Big Tech censorship.'" ~~~

~~~ So, Um, Not a Billionaire. Ruth Maclean, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump's incoming Middle East adviser, Massad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul at the helm of a business that bears his family name. Mr. Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world's media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions.... In fact, records show that Mr. Boulos has spent the past two decades selling trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company his father-in-law controls. He is chief executive of the company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, which made a profit of less than $66,000 last year, corporate filings show. There is no indication in corporate documents that Mr. Boulos, a Lebanese-American whose son is married to Mr. Trump's daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his businesses. The truck dealership is valued at about $865,000 at its current share price. Mr. Boulos's stake, according to securities filings, is worth $1.53. As for Boulos Enterprises, the company that has been called his family business in The Financial Times and elsewhere, a company officer there said it is owned by an unrelated Boulos family. Mr. Boulos will advise on one of the world's most complicated and conflict-wracked regions -- a region that Mr. Boulos said this week that he has not visited in years." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Times headline calls Boulos "a small-time truck salesman." Donald Trump calls him a "dealmaker" and a "highly respected leader in the business world, with extensive experience on the international scene." While I will agree that a small-time truck salesman must make deals and can be highly-respected. But a leader in the business world? Seems a bit of a stretch. In fairness to Boulos, it's entirely possible that the reason his company's profits were so low is that he and his father-in-law skimmed millions off the top.

Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday charged global financial services firm Cantor Fitzgerald with violating laws related to regulatory disclosures by so-called blank-check companies before they raise money from the public. Cantor's chairman and CEO, Howard Lutnick, was recently nominated by ... Donald Trump to lead the Commerce Department. Lutnick is co-chair of Trump's transition team. Cantor agreed to settle the SEC's charges by agreeing to pay a $6.75 million civil penalty and agreeing to not violate the securities laws at issue in the case. The firm did not admit or deny the charges...." MB: Oh, there's a way to eliminate fines for violating regulatory laws. Just repeal or ignore the laws! Or the agencies that enforce them! ~~~

⭐ ~~~ Party Like It's 1929 All Over Again. Alex Lang of the Independent: "Donald Trump's transition team has reportedly looked at ways to shrink or eliminate banking oversight - a move that could have dramatic impacts on everyday Americans and protecting their money. In interviews with candidates to oversee the banking sector, Trump advisers and DOGE - the advisory Department of Government Efficiency - officials have asked if the president-elect can abolish the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal. Trump's team has also asked if the FDIC could be absorbed into the Treasury Department. Any move to eliminate the FDIC would require Congressional approval. But, if it were to happen, it would be a massive shakeup in the industry. The FDIC was created during the Great Depression. It is designed to help bulk up faith in the nation's banking system. Most people know the agency as it insures deposits in banks up to $250,000." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So the worst of both worlds: (1) inflation guaranteed because of tariffs, & (2) you'll have to keep your money under the mattress, where it will lose value every day. I don't see how fatcat bankers would think eliminating the FDIC would benefit them. Anyhow, major financial institutions will fail and the economy will collapse. Other than that, great idea!

Another Trumpy Conspiracy Theory Bites the Dust. Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "More than two dozen F.B.I. informants were in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but contrary to widespread conspiracy theories, bureau officials did not order anyone to break the law as a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol that day, according to a report by a Justice Department watchdog released on Thursday. After a nearly four-year investigation, the department's inspector general, Michael E. Horowitz, also determined that the F.B.I. had not stationed any undercover agents in the crowd that gathered at the Capitol to disrupt the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s electoral victory over Donald J. Trump in the 2020 election. In his nearly 90-page report, Mr. Horowitz said the bureau 'undertook significant efforts to identify domestic terrorism subjects' who planned to travel to the Washington area on Jan. 6. But he criticized its leaders for failing to recognize the potential dangers posed by the rioters before they descended on the city. Moreover, he specifically chided the F.B.I.'s top ranks for failing to follow through on their promise to canvass their field offices for intelligence on potential threats after the 2020 election." (The link to the report embedded in the story is to a DOJ webpage, not to a NYT page, so it's free.) Politico's story is here.

GOP's Pet Biden-Corruption Fabulist to Go to Prison. Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "The FBI informant accused of lying about the Biden family's business dealings has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, admitting that he concocted a tale of President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepting bribes in exchange for protecting a Ukrainian energy company. The defendant, Alexander Smirnov, will also plead guilty to multiple tax charges, according to the agreement filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Thursday morning. Special counsel David Weiss charged Smirnov in February with making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.... In November, prosecutors indicted him again on tax charges.... As part of the plea agreement filed Thursday -- which still needs to be reviewed by a judge -- prosecutors recommended that Smirnov be sentenced to 48 to 72 months in prison.

"The agreement brings to a close an ugly chapter in which Republicans in Congress pinned allegations of Biden family corruption largely on claims Smirnov made to FBI agents in 2020 -- claims that Smirnov now admits were lies. Again and again, lawmakers repeated these and other accusations about the Biden family, at the same time saying that the Justice Department and FBI were not aggressively prosecuting the Bidens and other Democrats.... Parts of Smirnov's tale emerged in FBI documents trumpeted by congressional Republicans, even as his identity remained unknown on Capitol Hill -- and his claims unvetted."

Tobi Raji of the Washington Post: "A bill that would create dozens of new federal judgeships across the country received final approval in Congress on Thursday morning, setting up a likely veto from President Joe Biden even as his administration pushes to confirm his final nominees to fill existing judicial vacancies.... The White House announced this week that Biden would veto the bill, and leading Democratic lawmakers who had supported it are questioning it as well, wary of handing ... Donald Trump a trove of new federal judicial vacancies to fill once he takes office."

Annie Correal of the New York Times: "... a burial ground for enslaved people has been discovered at Andrew Jackson's home in Nashville, known as the Hermitage, the Andrew Jackson Foundation announced this week. The brash and divisive seventh U.S. president, whose portrait hung in the Oval Office during ... Donald J. Trump's first term, was known to have owned, along with his son, more than 300 enslaved people before the Civil War."

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "Before the two-year marine heat wave that ended in 2016, Alaska had an estimated 8 million common murres -- a quarter of the world's population -- spread across abundant colonies in the Gulf of Alaska and the Eastern Bering Sea. These black-and-white seabirds nest in dense clusters among shoreline cliffs during the summer months and then head to the ocean the rest of the year to feast on schools of small fish such as capelin and sand lance, herring and krill. Some populations of such forage fish collapsed during the heat wave as temperatures in the north Pacific spiked by 2.5 to 3 degrees Celsius above normal. Many predators that rely on them suffered.... The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ... found that more than half of Alaska's common murres died -- some 4 million birds -- in what they described as the largest mortality event of any non-fish vertebrate wildlife species reported during the modern era. The killing was an order of magnitude larger, she said, than the hundreds of thousands of murres that perished in the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska."

In yesterday's Conversation, we had some discussion about the structural problems in our socio-political system that have led us to this perilous point in our national history. Here's a part of the overall problem: ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "The nation's biggest, most important news organizations failed in their biggest, most important task in 2024. The whole reason the press is free in this constitutional democracy of ours, after all, is to create an informed electorate. And this one decidedly was not.... Why wasn't the media more aggressive about fighting disinformation and advancing democracy?... Why don't working-class voters pay as much attention to traditional media anymore?...

The answer to both questions is the same: It's the business model ... that singularly values affluent customers. And that business model affects everything they do.... The advertisers want to connect with the affluent, not the working class. The rich can afford subscriptions.... The marketing? It's directed at people with disposable income.... That means a tone that is effete, cautious, careful not to offend, and almost never outraged. That means avoiding anything that could conceivably be seen as partisan, for fear of alienating the affluent or the advertisers.... Nothing too antagonistic to corporate power. In short, nothing too populist." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Froomkin goes on in Part II to describe what he considers an ideal, non-profit news organization, one that was accessible, explanatory, committed to fighting disinformation, & crusading. After Froomkin details what he means here, he writes: "So how do we get this ideal newsroom? The easiest, quickest way would be for Jeff Bezos to turn the Washington Post -- and an endowment -- over to an independent nonprofit with a board of esteemed, public-minded journalists. That would be a good start. Another possibility: ProPublica -- the wildly successful nonprofit investigative news organization -- could spin off its Washington bureau and start doing non-investigative work as well.... Any solution inevitably involves philanthropy...."

     ~~~ Marie: Say, what are the odds of Jeff Bezos giving away/relinquishing control of his newspaper? Therein lies the structural problem. Who are philanthropists? Oh, they're rich people. Multi-millionaires and billionaires. Those who aren't ultra-rich but might give to independent journalistic enterprises are likely to be well-educated. You know, the elite. The people who need the information Froomkin recommends are not in a position or of a mood to financially support informative political journalism. Hop on a NYC subway that goes to the outer boroughs, and you'll see what I mean: the straphangers (who may not be wealthy but who are, on the whole, better-educated than the average American) are reading a tabloid, possibly a Murdoch tabloid.

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Kentucky. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department announced an agreement Thursday with the city of Louisville on a federal oversight plan tha will require the local police department to make sweeping changes aimed at curbing excessive force and racial discrimination. Authorities said the 242-page consent decree, which will be submitted to a federal judge for approval, mandates that the Louisville Police Department pursue changes to use-of-force policies, officer training and supervision, the handling of search warrants and officer wellness initiatives under the supervision of a federal monitor. The plan emerged more than 4½ years after a Louisville officer fatally shot Breonna Taylor, a Black woman, during a nighttime raid on her apartment in March 2020, an incident that helped spark nationwide social justice protests. One former officer who participated in the raid and another who helped falsify the search warrant were convicted on federal charges related to the raid, while two others are under indictment." (The embedded link is to a DOJ document, not a WashPo doc.)

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Syria. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in Syria are here: "A growing swell of diplomatic action is focused on the transition of power in Syria in the wake of the sudden collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime last week, along with broader de-escalation across the Middle East. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Friday in Ankara, the second day of meetings that reflect the central role Turkey will play in the weeks to come as the United States and its allies seek an inclusive and orderly transition of power. Turkey backed Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the rebel group that led the assault that ultimately toppled Assad, and reopened its embassy in Damascus on Thursday. Blinken has repeatedly pushed for an inclusive Syrian transition this week in his visits to Turkey and Jordan, a call echoed by the Group of Seven nations in a joint statement saying they would back a 'credible, inclusive, and non-sectarian governance' in Syria. U.N. Secretary General António Guterres also echoed those calls, at the same time calling on Israel to refrain from taking additional military moves there, saying Israel's attacks on Syrian targets this week represented 'extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity.' Israel has said that its attacks were designed to prevent weapons from ending up in the wrong hands. White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan, in the Middle East for visits to Israel, Qatar and Egypt, echoed that defense on Thursday."