The Conversation -- January 2, 2025
Cecilia Kang of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court struck down the Federal Communications Commission;s landmark net neutrality rules on Thursday, ending a nearly two-decade effort to regulate broadband internet providers like utilities. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, said that the F.C.C. lacked the authority to reinstate rules that prevented broadband providers from slowing or blocking access to internet content. The decision put an end to the Biden administration’s hallmark tech policy, which had drawn impassioned support from consumer groups and tech giants like Google and fierce protests by telecommunications giants like Comcast and AT&T.... In its opinion, a three-judge panel pointed to a Supreme Court decision in June, known as Loper Bright, that overturned a 1984 legal precedent that gave deference to government agencies on regulations." The FCC put net neutrality regulations in place during the Obama administration, but the Trump administration repealed them. At 3:30 pm ET, this is a developing story.
Andrew Solender of Axios: "House Democrats are pushing back furiously against a proposed change to House rules that would allow only Republicans to force a vote on removing the speaker of the House.... 'This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground,' Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said of the rules change in a statement. McGovern added: 'Instead of electing a Speaker of the House, they have decided to elect a Speaker of the Republican Conference -- held hostage by their most extreme members.'... Whereas in the last Congress, any single House member could introduce such a motion, now eight others have to co-sponsor the measure. But all nine of those lawmakers have to be members of the majority party...."
Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) on Thursday endorsed Ben Wikler, chairman of the Wisconsin Democratic Party, to lead the national party, making Schumer the highest-ranking Democratic official to weigh in on the race so far.... DNC members are set to pick the next chair in a Feb. 1 election. Wikler's opponents include Ken Martin, a DNC vice chair who leads the Minnesota party; Martin O;Malley, the former commissioner of the Social Security Administration and a former governor of Maryland; and James Skoufis, a New York state senator."
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Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Biden will award the Presidential Citizens Medal, one of the nation's highest civilian honors, to 20 people on Thursday afternoon, including former Representative Liz Cheney and two close personal advisers, Ted Kaufman and Christopher J. Dodd. The recipients the president selected to be honored in his last medal ceremony have 'performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens,' the White House said in a statement on Thursday." The article names all who will receive the award today. ~~~
~~~ Colleen Long of the AP: "President Joe Biden is bestowing the second highest civilian medal on Liz Cheney and Bennie Thompson, leaders of the congressional investigation into the Capitol riot who Donald Trump has said should be jailed for their roles in the inquiry."
Ellen Nakashima & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Chinese government hackers breached a highly sensitive office in the Treasury Department that administers economic sanctions against countries and groups of individuals -- one of the most potent tools possessed by the United States to achieve national security aims, according to U.S. officials.... The hack also compromised the Treasury Department's Office of Financial Research, according to the officials. The full impact of the breach, which was disclosed by Treasury in a letter to Congress on Monday, is still being assessed. The documents accessed were unclassified and there is no evidence the hacker still has access to Treasury systems, the department said."
Jennifer Jacobs & Robert Costa of CBS News: "... Donald Trump will hold a rally-type event on Jan. 19 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., just ahead of his inauguration, according to multiple sources familiar with the planning. Capital One Arena, home of the Washington Wizards basketball team and Washington Capitals hockey team, can hold approximately 20,000 attendees. The 'Make America Great Again Victory Rally' is scheduled to kick off at 3 p.m. ET, according to a sign-up link from the Trump-Vance Inaugural Committee."
If I was giving [Trump] one piece of advice, fire every single mid-level bureaucrat, every civil servant in the administrative state. Replace them with our people. And when the courts ... stop you, stand before the country like Andrew Jackson did and say: "The chief justice has made his ruling. Now let him enforce it." -- JD Vance, in a 2021 podcast ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "John G. Roberts Jr., in his year-end report on the federal judiciary, didn't call out JD Vance by name. But the chief justice took an unmistakable -- and well-deserved -- swipe at the vice president-elect over his reckless suggestions that it is sometimes acceptable to defy the rulings of federal courts.... Judicial independence, he wrote, 'is undermined unless the other branches [of government] are firm in their responsibility to enforce the court's decrees.' He cited, of course, the response to the court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, when governors throughout the South sought to defy court orders to desegregate public schools.... Of all the 'elected officials from across the political spectrum' who have toyed with defying court orders, the most prominent by far -- and the one who ought to know better -- is JD Vance, Yale Law School Class of 2013, whose wife, Usha, clerked for Roberts from 2017 to 2018." ~~~
~~~ Marie: It will be fun (and perhaps frightening) to watch a power struggle between Trump/Vance & the Supremes. But the Supremes have it coming. Every Supreme appointed by a Republican president (or president*) is a jackass, and his/her rulings often are based not on 21st-century jurisprudence & norms but on fantastic medieval beliefs (Dobbs) or "reasoning" so convoluted & politically-motivated as to defy sensible jurisprudence & common-sense(Trump).
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Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Investigators are looking into whether the deadly terrorist attack in New Orleans on Wednesday is linked to the detonation of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas later in the day, but they have yet to find any connection between the two episodes, President Biden said. Local and federal law enforcement officials are trying to determine if the man who drove a truck into a crowd in the French Quarter just after 3 a.m. on Wednesday and the man who rented the Tesla that exploded in Nevada are connected beyond superficial similarities: Both men chose soft targets on New Year's Day and rented trucks through the same budget car rental app, Turo.... Mr. Biden's statement reflected the heightened sense of alarm among federal law enforcement officials who are investigating whether the New Orleans attack involved a larger cell of ISIS sympathizers -- a scenario the F.B.I. and intelligence officials have warned was a growing threat."
Louisiana. Jenna Russell, et al., of the New York Times: Just after 3 am Wednesday in New Orleans, where many were still celebrating the new year, a white pickup truck "careened onto Bourbon Street and slammed into the crowd.... Described by federal authorities as a deliberate act of terror, the attack killed at least 15 people, injured about three dozen others and left New Orleans, a city of 364,000, on edge; investigators said at a news conference on Wednesday that they believed that the driver did not act alone. The driver, who was killed in a shootout with police, was identified by the F.B.I. as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas. He had loaded his rented truck with weapons and at least one 'potential' improvised explosive, authorities said, and an Islamic State flag was found on the trailer hitch of his rented white Ford pickup." The AP's report is here. ~~~
~~~ New York Times: "A day after at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in an attack in New Orleans, a key question confronting investigators on Thursday was whether the man who rammed a pickup truck into a crowd had accomplices. The authorities have said they do not believe the suspect, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran, acted alone." This is a liveblog bearing today's date & may be updated. ~~~
~~~ Here is yesterday's New York Times liveblog related to the Bourbon Street massacre. The AP's live reports yesterday are here. The New Orleans Times-Picayune's live updates yesterday are here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Donald Trump lies about everything, sometimes more than once even in a brief post. And, as Akhilleus pointed out the other day in regard to Trump's remarks on the death of President Carter, Trump can twist any event into self-congratulatory bloviation: ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "On Wednesday morning, hours after a man drove a pickup truck into New Year's Eve revelers in New Orleans, killing 10 people..., Donald J. Trump falsely suggested on social media that his condemnations of undocumented immigrants had been validated. 'When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true,' Mr. Trump said on his website, Truth Social. 'The crime rate in our country is at a level that nobody has ever seen before,' he added falsely.... Officials have since identified the suspect as a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran who lived in Texas...." A Mediaite item is here.
Nevada. Alexandra Petri, et al., of the New York Times: "One person was killed and at least seven were injured after a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, the authorities said.... Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said during a news conference that the authorities 'believe this to be an isolated incident,' but have not yet ruled out a connection to the Wednesday morning attack in New Orleans that killed at least 15 people. The Las Vegas Police Department received a report of an explosion at the Trump Hotel at about 8:40 a.m. local time. Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive, said in a statement on X that 'the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck,' and said the vehicle was functioning properly.... The driver was the only person in the truck, Mr. McMahill said, and had been killed inside the vehicle." CNN's report is here. The AP report is here.
Virginia. Luke Barr of ABC News: Brad Spafford of Virginia "allegedly had a cache of weapons, a 'go box' and used a photo of President Joe Biden for target practice, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors this week.... 'The defendant has used pictures of the President for target practice, expressed support for political assassinations, and recently sought qualifications in sniper-rifle shooting at a local range,' prosecutors wrote.... The detention memo was filed to prevent Spafford from being released pending trial, which was granted, according to court records." See related reports in yesterday's Conversation.
News Ledes
New York Times: Just after 3 am Wednesday in New Orleans, where many were still celebrating the new year, a white pickup truck "careened onto Bourbon Street and slammed into the crowd.... Described by federal authorities as a deliberate act of terror, the attack killed at least 15 people, injured about three dozen others and left New Orleans, a city of 364,000, on edge; investigators said at a news conference on Wednesday that they believed that the driver did not act alone. The driver, who was killed in a shootout with police, was identified by the F.B.I. as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and U.S. Army veteran from Texas. He had loaded his rented truck with weapons and at least one 'potential' improvised explosive, authorities said, and an Islamic State flag was found on the trailer hitch of his rented white Ford pickup." ~~~
~~~ New York Times: "A day after at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in an attack in New Orleans, a key question confronting investigators on Thursday was whether the man who rammed a pickup truck into a crowd had accomplices. The authorities have said they do not believe the suspect, Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran, acted alone." This is a liveblog bearing today's date & may be updated.
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Reader Comments (23)
Of augurs and ogres
Ancient Greeks and Romans set great store by omens, and woe betide those who ignore the warnings of the gods. Augurs were often employed to interpret these signs. In the Iliad, Trojans see an eagle swooping down to drop a bleeding snake in their midst, a sign from Zeus that, basically, they were screwed.
Zeus’s eagle is a regular in these sorts of things. The poor bird got little rest. In the Odyssey, Penelope dreams of an eagle coming down from the sky and killing a bunch of geese, a sign she interprets, correctly, as foretelling the return of Odysseus and the violent demise of the mooching pain in the ass suitors.
But idiots often laughed at omens, to their detriment. In fairness, some signs from the gods could be tough to untangle. Did a bolt of lightning strike to left or the right of the augur? Did the eagle crap on a rock or a sacred weed? Get us someone to interpret this stuff! Stat!
But some omens are pretty goddam clear, no interpretation needed.
A crappy Musk Tesla blowing up in front of a cheesy Trump hotel?
Jesus. Could it be more obvious? But the MAGA ogres are certain to misinterpret this omen.
Me? I’m sitting back and waiting for these pricks to self destruct. While I reread the Iliad.
Why wouldn't the conservative Supremes have seen it coming?
Most pundits I've read who commented on the poor-me, paranoid strain in Robert's remarks have seen him pointed at court critics on the Left.
But, as the Vance remarks above make very clear, the real danger to the court is from the Right. It's the Right that mounted a recent insurrection; it's the Right that has promised to pardon the insurrectionists; it's the right that encourages lawbreakers by defunding the IRS; it's the Right that wants to make it easier for companies to fleece their customers; and it's the Right, not the Left, that proudly sports AR-15 pins on their lapels.
And remarkably, it's Robert's own Court that granted some kind of magical wide-scale immunity to the leader of another branch of government, thereby diminishing the relative powers of the Court, as well as further tarnishing respect for the ideal of Law itself.
The big problem with conservatives (one of them anyway) is that they can't see around the corner. Consequence and implication entirely escape them.
@Ken Winkes: The thing is, there's little ideological space between the Supreme wingers & the JayDee-style wingers. The Supreme "conservatives," re-interpreting the meaning of the Second Amendment. (Former CJ Warren Burger called the idea that the amendment gave individual Americans the unfettered right to bear arms “a fraud on the American public.”)
Also, the Court just pretty much gave Trump the power to do whatever he wanted, without consequence. (Roberts himself wrote the wacky opinion.) Over many decisions, the Supremes have weakened federal agencies' regulatory powers. They have made bribery fairly close to legal. They have gutted campaign finance reform & pretty much ruled that, as the Mittser infamously said, "Corporations are people, my friend."
So John Roberts & Co. are co-conspirators with Vance, Grassley, et al. Roberts' concern is not so much what Trump, et al., may do, but about whether or not Trump & the Trumpettes will submit to the Court's decisions, should the Court rule in some regard against Trump.
This is strictly about power. Roberts want to "be the boss of Trump."
If his were a normal Supreme Court that itself abided by the rule of law, I would want that, too. But this is a Court of grifters and hypocrites, religious bigots and ideological wackos whose decisions tend to be bad for democracy and have bent what is "law" to their own unsavory proclivities. So whichever side "wins" the power struggle, it's bad news for those of us who favor democracy.
DiJiT hears that Noah Webster has been doing great work, and more and more people are beginning to appreciate that. Unfortunately, he can't join DiJiT's non-cabinet non-confirmed non-appointees, because he is dead (adj; devoid of life : sleeping with the fiches : pining for the fjords).
Were he on the M-a-L patio round table, he would most assuredly advise the proprietor that this sentence does not mean what he thinks it means:
"... that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true ..."
-- refute: to prove wrong, by argument or evidence : show to be false or erroneous
Parsing and subbing we get "... they proved that statement wrong but it became true."
Nonsense. With all his gelt, can he not hire an effing copy editor? Or does he do this stuff to annoy the not poorly educated?
Or, occaming here, is he just stupid?
I have seen some on the Left talk about how the court doesn't have an enforcement mechanism too with respect to the courts' ignoring precedence and the laws and the damage it has caused to people and the government. I read Roberts' words as a reference to those people. It may be that I am stuck viewing things through my own political lense, but most of the other complaints Roberts had were directed at critics from the Left or middle. So it seems rather generous to the pompous Roberts to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was calling out the Vances of the Right on this issue.
@Marie,
Or in other words (mine), the Supreme conservatives are so tied to their own urges they are blinded to anyone's wishes but their own. And since those urges are so self-centered, they are essentially and substantially anti-democratic, so we should not be surprised when their decisions are equally so.
The entertainment to come will be, as you say, watching the Executive
and the Court vying for supremacy.
Not just the Founders (who could see around some corners) but John Marshall, too, will be aghast.
@ Patrick,
I'll go with Occam.
Wall Street Journal
"UnitedHealth’s Army of Doctors Helped It Collect Billions More From Medicare
The biggest Medicare Advantage insurer presented physicians with checklists of potential diagnoses; ‘I didn’t think I was obese’
Like most doctors, Nicholas Jones prefers to diagnose patients after examining them. When he worked for UnitedHealth Group, though, the company frequently prepared him a checklist of potential diagnoses before he ever laid eyes on them.
UnitedHealth only did that with the Eugene, Ore., family physician’s Medicare Advantage recipients, he said, and its software wouldn’t let him move on to his next patient until he weighed in on each diagnosis.
Patients examined by doctors working for UnitedHealth, an industry pioneer in directly employing large numbers of physicians, had some of the biggest increases in sickness scores after moving from traditional Medicare to the company’s plans, according to the Journal’s analysis of Medicare data between 2019 and 2022."
RAS,
No doubt that's what Robert's thought he was doing, but conservatives have their own lenses.
I just don't believe he knew where the real dangers to the Court and the rule of Law were. First, he didn't look in the mirror, and secondly, he wasn't paying attention to the current political scene.
My comment (burbling up through my own filters) was directed at pundits who weren't either.
@Patrick: Trump wrote, "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the Fake News Media, but it turned out to be true."
So here's my parsing: The "it" in "it turned out to be true" refers to "that statement." "That statement" was "the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country." Ergo, "it turned out to be true ... that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country."
This is what Trump meant, I reckon, and this, IMO, is what he said. I think his meaning is clear, and his construction, if awkward, is correct as long as we assume that "it" refers back to his original assertion about the relative horridness of foreign-born & home-grown criminals.
Feel free to correct me. Oh, and sorry to learn about Noah Webster's passing. Fortunately, I hear that that George & Charles Merriam have been doing great work, and more and more people are beginning to appreciate that.
Ken,
I totally agree with you. I think Ruth Marcus was bending over backwards to give Roberts' words a more respectable tone. I think you are right that they can't see what is right in front of them, probably because they are so easily distracted by the latest outrage of the day like the rest of us. No where in Roberts' whining did he ever confront the idea of ethics or his and the courts massive failures to deal even superficially with the continued revelations of conflicts of interest with the Justices. And both the Supremes and Congress are more than willing to give away power to a Republican president. Even ones that like Trump and Vance who have openly dreamed of the abuses they would commit on the world. They probably believe their commonalities and proximity will protect them and allow them to help shape their preferred future. And Roberts can almost, but not quite comprehend that his power and influence lasts only as long as people in power continue to defer to the Supreme's judgements. But it is the far away threat of blue states protecting rights he wishes to take away that he focuses on instead of Trump's talk of ignoring rulings that he doesn't like. Roberts is a privileged white man who has always had power so he probably cannot comprehend a world where he would not have that power even as he gives it away.
I've been wondering what Melony thinks about Donald's affair with
Elon. Or maybe it's just Elon's money that he's fond of. Last I read,
she was holed up in Trump Tower in Manhattan (better shopping?).
Donald's MAGAs are going to be really surprised when he does those
import tariffs, especially the MAGAs who are living from paycheck
to paycheck.
Checking the grocery purchases this morning, at least ten items were
imported from Canada and Mexico. Things like tomatoes, broccoli,
zucchini, lettuce, and more, from Mexico. And fresh garlic comes
from China.
Maybe they won't be eating fresh salads after January 20th.
Marie: if DiJiT had said "constantly tried to refute", he'd be in good standing with the grammar police. But, you can't have something be "constantly refuted" and later "become true." "Refute" contains the meaning of "proven by fact", not "thought differently". DiJiT's problem here is not with the antecedent subject, but with the meaning of the verb.
This horse seems dead, so I'll stop beating it.
@RAS & Ken Winkes: Okay, you forced me to read/scan Roberts' year-end report. I could only find one instance where Roberts criticized a current "public official" for calling for the impeachment of a (female) district judge. I don't know to what public official or judge he was referring (talk about awkward sentences!).
But in general, I couldn't see where Roberts was finding more fault with liberals than with right-wing people. Can you point out some instances to me?
@Patrick: Okay, I finally get your argument. It relies on a limited definition of "refute." You made that plain in your original comment, and it was my own fault that I missed that.
"Refute" does not mean only "to prove wrong by argument or evidence," according to Webster. Webster's second definition is "to deny the truth or accuracy of." Or, as the Oxford folks put it, according to the Googles, to "deny or contradict (a statement or accusation)."
So let's assume what Trump means by "refute" is the second definition -- that is, that Democrats & the fake news denied or contradicted his original statement (the "it" in the "it" clause). He does not mean by "refute" that they proved their case. I think it's fair to assume Trump does not now nor did he ever mean to say that Democrats and the fake news proved their case (on this or on any other matter where they disagreed with Trump).
If you accept my reading of "refute," then what I wrote above still stands, & Trump did not make a grammatical error in that sentence that would render it to mean the opposite of what Trump most certainly meant to write.
@Marie: You are right that Roberts did not single out the Democrats in his statement. As I mentioned in my first comment I am biased when it comes to Roberts and could be reading more into his statements than intended. My reading too many lefty legal posts doesn't help too. But Roberts has always been a polite winger and has hid behind false equivalency and is more subtle in his public statements and public image. So it is harder to pin him down with what he says publicly. I'm mostly basing my opinion off of his recent rulings and his contempt for Democratic oversight. His Trump get out of jail free card ruling and slow walking was particularly egregious. Even before that he was part of many rulings that are only supported by winger logic. I may have pushed some of the winger cries I've read of blue states fighting Trump's worst policies onto Roberts which he can happily prove me wrong on when we get there.
*I have seen some speculation that the impeachment talk he alluded to might be about Judge Cannon.
@Marie
I was not arguing so much with what Roberts said as I was with what I had read the pundits say about it, which was that he was warning about more danger from the Left than the Right because so many of us Lefties (and an uncomfortable majority of others) disagreed with some of their decisions, especially the the Dodd and the immunity fiascos.
Roberts was deliberately vague. He wanted to assert the supremacy of the Supremes but for many reasons, as RAS said, did not dare to be too specific. His remarks were typical pablum with the point that the Court was and should remain Top Dog.
Whether the dangers Roberts perceives are real or not, or whether they are posed by the Left or the Right were more my issues than his. I, of course, see them as both real and coming from the Right.
Nevada. Alexandra Petri, et al., of the New York Times: “
Alexandra Petri writes for the WaPo. I'm surprised that this hasn't been noticed and corrected.
Forrest,
I’m guessing Melanie is happy that someone else has to deal with that tiny mushroom thing, even though (another guess) she probably hasn’t seen it in years.
@pat: No correction needed. There is one person named Alexandra Petri who is a humor columnist for the WashPo. There is another who is a reporter for the NYT.
I'm well aware that you look down your nose at me, but it is foolish to accuse Reality Chex readers of failing to correct what is not a mistake -- something you could have researched & figured out for yourself if you hadn't decided to start out the new year by knocking Reality Chex readers and, implicitly, me.
BTW, I make lots of mistakes and readers are kind enough to correct some of them. But they have real lives & don't have time to catch and correct my every goof-up.
@Forrest Morris & @Akhilleus: What you said about groceries (a word Donald Trump thinks he discovered, perhaps as a result of his respect for the underappreciated talents of Noah Webster). What Akhilleus said about Melanie.
Re: Fathead Donald a vocabullaree.
I will bet a Washington Monument full of cash that Fatso Trump hasn’t put a McDonald’s greasy fingerprint on a dictionary since he was looking up “darkie” as a 10 year old after listening to old man Trump and his KKK buddies going on about how the “lower races” are sullying good American-Aryan white blood.
He hears some MAGA infused dolt spout some word he’s never heard before (like refute), and uses it to make himself sound like he’s got all the bst wurds.
Linguists and philologists who rate his lexical abilities on a par with fifth graders are giving him a lot of credit. What they mean is a very slow fifth grader who should be in the seventh grade but has been kept back several times.
In my constant quest to always enjoy the replete Dumpstertalk, I am always ready to accuse the Fat Flabby Felon of NOT having written anything he "wrote." The rule is: if it contains a word the toxic emperor can't possibly know, or one he may have heard of or heard someone else use, and it seems to be wrong, it mostly is. The only thing the Orange Stain does well is blast unwitting others with lies and venom, and never, I say never, ever feel badly about it or apologize. He's eternally the POS Pigman we know and detest. Aren't we lucky...? We will, however, get mega fast with the mute button action.
Ooops, there are two Alexandria Petris. Who knew?
I have to apologize. I saw that this morning, came back after a lot of running around, and it was still there. I don't have a subscription to the NYT, only the WaPo, so I couldn't check. Guess I should have realized that Marie was not making a mistake.
Sorry.