The Conversation -- January 7, 2024
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Senate and House leaders announced on Sunday that they had struck an overarching agreement on 2024 government funding, but it was not clear whether they would be able to cement the deal and pass it into law in time to avert a partial government shutdown in less than two weeks. After weeks of negotiations and on the eve of Congress returning from its holiday break, top Senate and House members said they had agreed to set the total amount of spending at nearly $1.66 trillion, bringing funding in line with the deal struck last year between President Biden and then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy that met with vehement conservative opposition."
Kelly Garrity of Politico: "House Speaker Mike Johnson called suggestions that he is an election denier 'nonsense,' but refused to affirm that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election during an interview that aired Sunday. The Constitution was 'clearly violated during the 2020 election,' the Louisiana Republican told CBS' Margaret Brennan during an interview on 'Face The Nation.'... 'The Constitution was violated in the run up to the 2020 election, not always in bad faith, but in the aftermath of Covid, many states changed their election laws in ways that violated that plain language. That's just a fact,' Johnson said. Saying it was now 'water under the bridge,' Johnson noted that he works 'with President Biden as the President of the United States.'" ~~~
~~~ Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y. [the fourth-ranking House Republican], on Sunday wouldn't commit to certifying the 2024 election results during an interview on NBC News' 'Meet the Press.'... After [host Kristen] Welker pressed her [twice, Stefanik said,] 'We will see if this is a legal and valid election.... What we're seeing so far is that Democrats are so desperate, they're trying to remove President Trump from the ballot. That is a suppression of the American people.'... Stefanik ... said that she did not vote to certify the 2020 results in the state of Pennsylvania and several other states because there were 'unconstitutional acts circumventing the state legislature and unilaterally changing election law.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: So now we know the new talking point, one meant to imply that these folks are sane, that they know the vote tallies show Joe Biden won, but that the election itself was illegitimate because "Constitutional violations." Because Covid.
Trump's Former Golf Caddy Talks! Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team has uncovered previously undisclosed details about ... Donald Trump's refusal to help stop the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol three years ago as he sat watching TV inside the White House, according to sources.... Many of the exclusive details come from the questioning of Trump's former deputy chief of staff, Dan Scavino.... Scavino wouldn't speak with the House select committee.... Sources said Scavino told Smith's investigators that as the violence began to escalate that day, Trump 'was just not interested' in doing more to stop it.... After unsuccessfully trying for up to 20 minutes to persuade Trump to release some sort of calming statement, Scavino and others walked out of the dining room, leaving Trump alone, sources said. That's when, according to sources, Trump posted a message on his Twitter account saying that Pence 'didn't have the courage to do what should have been done.' Trump's aides told investigators they were shocked by the post." There's more.
The Art of the Deal. If Only Lincoln Had Been as Smart as Trump. Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump suggested Saturday at a campaign event [in Iowa] that the U.S. Civil War 'could have been negotiated,' a remark that drew criticism from historians as well as political opponents. 'The Civil War was so fascinating, so horrible,' Trump said. 'So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you. I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died, so many people died. You know, that was the disaster.' Trump went on to ... suggest that 'Abraham Lincoln, of course, if he negotiated it, you probably wouldn't even know who Abraham Lincoln was.'... David Blight, a history professor at Yale University, described Trump's suggestion that the Civil War could have been negotiated as 'elementary school nonsense' and 'historically ignorant.'... Former House member Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) posted on X: 'Which part of the Civil War "could have been negotiated"? The slavery part? The secession part? Whether Lincoln should have preserved the Union?...'" CNN's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The odd part about this is that Trump has no idea he embarrasses himself every time he opens his mouth.
Forrest M. points out in today's Comments that Trump was not only a better president* than Lincoln because he would have negotiated the states out of the Civil War before it started. Why, in his spare time, he's a brilliant scientist, too! ~~~
~~~ Kelly McClure of Salon: At an event in Iowa (where somehow he got to talking about magnetic elevators): "Trump said, 'Think of it, magnets. Now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of water, let me drop it on the magnets, that's the end of the magnets. Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere.' After a bit more along these same lines, Trump did a little dance and left the stage." ~~~
~~~ Marie: That's a radical scientific theory, akin to the theory of drinking bleach to cure Covid. Oddly, any number of sciency guys write this, or a variation thereof: "Magnets work great underwater. You can even get special magnets, called retrieving magnets, to pick up objects containing iron that have fallen into lakes or wells."
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Helene Cooper & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "It took the Pentagon three and a half days to inform the White House that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had been hospitalized on New Year's Day following complications from an elective procedure, two U.S. officials said Saturday. The extraordinary breach of protocol ... has baffled officials across the government, including at the Pentagon. Senior defense officials say Mr. Austin did not inform them until Thursday that he had been admitted to the intensive care unit at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. The Pentagon then informed the White House.... On Saturday night, Mr. Austin issued a mea culpa. 'I recognize I could have done a better job ensuring the public was appropriately informed,' he said in a statement. 'I commit to doing better.' Mr. Austin added, 'This was my medical procedure, and I take full responsibility for my decision about disclosure.' President Biden and Mr. Austin spoke by telephone Saturday night, a U.S. official said, adding that the president was glad to hear that Mr. Austin is recovering. Another official said that the president has full confidence in his defense secretary." Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait a minute. Didn't inform "the public";? Joe Biden isn't "the public." He's Austin's immediate boss and, BTW, President of the United States. There may or may not be a good reason for the defense secretary to keep private a serious medical condition during a time the U.S. is involved in two wars, but it's up to the president to make that determination. Moreover, I don't see how a proper temporary chain of command could have been put in place if the Pentagon didn't know the boss was laid up in an ICU. Austin or a family member should have informed appropriate officials as soon as it was feasible.
Ann Carrns of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service is rolling out a free option for filing federal tax returns this year to some residents of a dozen states.... Arizona, California, Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New York, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington State and Wyoming are participating.... Last month, the agency published details of its plan to test an in-house filing system, in which taxpayers submit their federal tax returns directly to the agency online at no cost.... The direct file pilot will be open to low- and moderate-income taxpayers with simple returns.... Residents of 12 states are eligible to participate if they meet certain criteria.... While the direct filing system is starting on a limited basis, it has already faced some resistance, particularly from commercial tax-preparation companies.... Many filers already have the option to prepare and submit free electronic returns based on their income, either through I.R.S. Free File, a partnership with do-it-yourself tax software firms, or directly through some commercial providers."
Happy Third Anniversary, Folks! Shania Shelton of CNN: "The FBI on Saturday arrested three people in Florida who were charged in connection with the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, and were considered fugitives after fleeing from law enforcement. Jonathan Daniel Pollock, Olivia Michele Pollock and Joseph Daniel Hutchinson III were taken into custody early Saturday morning, according to a press release from the FBI. They are scheduled to appear in federal court in Ocala, Florida, on Monday. The arrests come on the third anniversary of the attack on the Capitol."
Melanie Zanona & Kaanita Iyer of CNN: "The Justice Department has released new footage from the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol that shows a dramatic moment of rioters shouting through broken glass at two Republican lawmakers.... In the newly released eight-minute clip, rioters stare down Republican Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and Republican Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma -- who at that time was a member of the House -- through cracks in the entrance to the House chamber as they face the guns pointed at them by two members of law enforcement.... The video was shot by Damon Beckley, who was found guilty of obstructing the electoral college certification and of civil disorder. Beckley is set to be sentenced in February." Thanks to RAS for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I turned on closed captioning because naturally I didn't want to miss a word of this scintillating colloquy, but you can turn off CC. I especially like it that one of the dimwitted insurrectionists call these members of Congress "socialist pigs." Nehls & Mullin are a couple of the most incorrigible goobers on the Hill.
Maegan Vazquez & Marianna Sotomayor of the Washington Post: "House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) will be away from Washington until February so he can receive a stem cell transplant as part of his treatment for blood cancer, further dwindling the House Republicans' narrow majority. Scalise's temporary absence comes as the House is facing down significant deadlines.... Another Republican, Rep. Bill Johnson (Ohio) is retiring later this month to lead Youngstown State University -- narrowing the House GOP's bench further. That means Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) can only afford to lose two members of his party to pass any legislation, or rely on Democratic support for measures."
Presidential Race 2024
The Road to Hell Is Lined with Warning Signs. Cate Cadell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump did not sign a loyalty oath requested of candidates for election in Illinois that asks, among other things, to swear that they won't support overthrowing the government, according to an analysis of candidate petitions by the local news outlets WBEZ and Chicago Sun-Times.... The loyalty pledge is not required but is a long-standing tradition that candidates undertake as part of that paperwork. Trump has not publicly acknowledged the decision but had signed the oath during his presidential campaigns in 2016 and 2020.... The oath remains enshrined in Illinois law but has been struck down as unconstitutional on free speech grounds in federal courts. Other candidates, including President Biden and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), filed signed oaths along with their petitions, according to the local media reports." Here's the Sun-Times/WBEZ story.
Isaac Arnsdorf & Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump observed the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by glorifying people charged in the riot, repeating baseless claims that left-wing or government interlopers caused the breach, and attempting to turn the term 'insurrection' against his political opponents. The remarks were part of an ongoing escalation of Trump's and other Republicans' efforts to minimize, justify and deny the violence of three years ago while also defending the Trump supporters who committed it.... 'He's now directly saying that violence and criminality is okay if it's in service of my power,' said Michael K. Miller, a political science professor at George Washington University...."
Matt Viser & Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "A few hours after [President] Biden had given a sweeping denunciation of Trump, calling him a sore loser and a threat to American democracy, the former president made fun of Biden's childhood speaking impediment. 'Did you see him? He was stuttering through the whole thing,' Trump said to a chuckling crowd on Friday in Sioux Center, Iowa. 'He's saying I'm a threat to democracy. "He's a threat to d-d-democracy,"' he continued, pretending to stutter. 'Couldn't read the word.' The remark was not true; Biden said the word 'democracy' 29 times in his speech, never stuttering over it. Trump's comment also marked a particularly crass form of politics that he has exhibited throughout his career that places politeness and human decency at the center of the 2024 presidential election.... 'His speeches last about three minutes, you know why? Because he runs out of fuel,' Trump said during a campaign event in Newton, Iowa, on Saturday. (Biden's speech on Friday was 32 minutes.)"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: Yesterday I pointed to this New York Times he-said/he-said article as representing one of the worst current examples of both-sider "journalism"; out there. I see that the writers have revised the thrust story by adding this paragraph near the top: "Three years after the former president's supporters stormed the Capitol, Mr. Trump and his campaign are engaged in an audacious and baseless attempt to paint Mr. Biden as the true menace to the nation's foundational underpinnings. Mr. Trump's strategy aims to upend a world in which he has publicly called for suspending the Constitution, vowed to turn political opponents into legal targets and suggested that the nation's top military general should be executed." The Times also changed the headline from "Clashing Over Jan. 6, Trump and Biden Show Reality Is at Stake in 2024," to "Trump Signals an Election Year Full of Falsehoods on Jan. 6 and Democracy." Apparently others also were incensed, at least about the headline. (This is a Daily Beast link; the site is firewalled.) ~~~
~~~ Update: See also Marcy Wheeler's critique of recent MSM "journalism" on Biden's speech & Trump's reactions: "The reason Trump projects his own failures on other people is because journalists never fail to reward him for it, presenting his false claims alongside true ones, leaving the impression that truth is up for debate, that professionals are helpless to discern which of these claims are true. Trump's goal is to degrade the very notion of truth. And this kind of journalism only helps him do that." Wheeler also mentions the NYT headline change.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Too many commentators have spent too much time fretting over Trump's voters -- and how they might react to the effort to remove the former president from the ballot -- and not enough time thinking about the tens of millions of voters who have said, again and again, that they do not want this man or his movement in American politics.... Trump's voters are not the only ones who count." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Bouie doesn't say so, but I expect a good deal of that "fretting" has to do with the violent propensities of Trumpites, who, besides having no impulse control, don't put much stock in democratic processes. See video above.
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Florida. Nicolás Rivero of the Washington Post: "In this Florida development, no one pays an electricity bill. It's not because of subsidies, but by design: All of the 86 homes built or planned in Hunters Point, a residential development about an hour south of Tampa, boast 14 solar panels and a 12-kilowatt-hour home battery in the utility closet.... Hunters Point is the first residential development in the world to get a LEED Zero Energy certification, according to the U.S. Green Building Council, which means the entire community produces more electricity than it consumes.... In addition to reducing planet-warming carbon emissions, the solar panels and batteries in the homes at Hunters Point make them less likely to lose power in a storm."
Marie: I told you candidates for public office get disqualified for all kinds of reasons: ~~~
Ohio. Emily Schmall of the New York Times: "A transgender woman was disqualified from a race for the Ohio House of Representatives after she did not include her previous name in election materials, raising the prospect that transgender candidates would face similar barriers elsewhere. Vanessa Joy, a real estate photographer running as a Democrat in Ohio's 50th District, was informed in a letter from the Stark County Board of Elections on Tuesday that she had been disqualified from the state House race. The board cited a state law that requires a person running for office to list on the candidacy petition any name changes within five years of an election, and it gave Ms. Joy until Friday afternoon to appeal. Ms. Joy ... said in an interview that she had appealed the board's decision and planned to challenge the law in court."
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Israel/Palestine. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken is visiting the Middle East as the United States seeks to avoid escalation in the region, prioritizing the prevention of a wider war between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, The Washington Post reported. Nearly 90 percent of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced in three months of war, the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said, warning that a famine is looming.... The Israeli military has dismantled Hamas's 'military framework' in northern Gaza, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, an Israel Defense Forces spokesman, said. The IDF will now focus on similar operations in the Strip's central and southern areas, he said. Israel says it has killed 8,000 Hamas fighters in northern Gaza." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates for Sunday are here. ~~~
~~~ Hagari's assertion notwithstanding, CNN's main-page top left-hand column headline is "Israel is nowhere near destroying Hamas." Rob Picheta: "Now, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is shifting to a new phase of its war on Hamas in Gaza -- and there are signs its objectives are changing too.... 'IDF leadership understands very well that the most they can do is severely degrade the military capabilities of Hamas,' [Middle-East expert Bilal] Saab said.... And as international pressure increases, so too could domestic unease towards Netanyahu -- an embattled prime minister eager to point to tangible victories. 'There is a race against time,' said Saab, outlining the key questions facing Israel's leadership. 'At what price is this tactical success going to come, and how much time do the Israelis have to achieve that tactical success without suffering from more significant international outrage?'"
News Ledes
New York Times: "The Federal Aviation Administration on Saturday ordered U.S. airlines to stop using some Boeing 737 Max 9 planes until they were inspected, after one of those planes lost a piece of its body in midair, terrifying passengers until the plane landed safely. Alaska and United Airlines on Saturday began canceling dozens of flights after grounding their Max 9 fleets so the planes could undergo the federally mandated inspections."
New York Times: "Maj. Mike Sadler, a World War II navigator on the trackless Sahara of North Africa, who guided Britain's first special forces across sand seas on daring behind-the-lines night raids that blew up enemy aircraft on the ground and troops in their billets, died on Thursday in Cambridge, England. He was 103." MB: This obituary may be nearly half as colorful as Mr. Sadler's exploits, some of which are recounted in a BBC TV series.
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Reader Comments (13)
From Yastreblyansky's substack: ...David F. "Brooks’s argument that we shouldn’t be complaining about the inequities of capitalism because capitalism is really a “positive-sum” game, as illustrated by the value-creating operations of increasing the division of labor, is dumb, but it’s also not original. In fact, it’s stolen, from the investor and author George Gilder, as put forward in his Wealth and Poverty (revised edition, 2012)."...
@MKaneJeeves: Brooks reads widely, so it's not unlikely he'd read Gilder. However, I'm not entirely convinced Brooks plagiarized Gilder.
As Yastreblyansky's citations indicate, the idea that division of labor is a "positive-sum game" has been widely-recognized, well, for centuries, even if earlier economists or "political arithmetickers" didn't use our current buzz-term.
If there's a unique idea here, it's that economists & other observers suddenly noticed that everybody up & down the economic ladder benefited from the division of labor. And Brooks does credit this "original" idea (and I'm sure it wasn't original) to Lippmann.
Plus, it looks as if Brooks does have an original idea: Biden should become a more liberalish Reagan! You know, make this his campaign message: "Folks, even if you can't quite scrape by on $8/hour, don't be jealous of the CEO of your company who makes millions every year -- because 'division of labor.'" That should work.
We can get too carried away with the meaning of plagiarism. I have news shows running on the teevee for several hours a day, and I hear numerous talking heads making the same points as other talking heads made an hour earlier. Occasionally, they will credit somebody else -- particularly a prominent person -- with a unique idea, but usually they just utter variations of what others are saying, without attribution. And that's okay. If you say, "Trump told another whopper," you don't have to credit the observation to the first person who said so.
And "original" ideas do become generic. I'm sure I wasn't the first person to call Trump a fascist, for instance, and I may have credited the writer who made the connection for me (don't know who or when that was) the first time I wrote it. But for me, now, "Trump = fascist" has become a truism.
In general, I don't think many of us have original ideas. The most clever among us connect two previously unconnected ideas or events to draw a previously-unspecified inference. But mostly, ideas percolate from our readings and observations into what may seem a eureka! moment, but in fact had been out there for some time.
Has Bible Mike authorized Steve Scalise’s stem cell procedure?!?!
So Steve Scalise, noted right-wing Bible banger (and we’ll known racist), is undergoing a stem cell transplant to assist his treatment for a rare form of blood cancer. Good for him. It’s great that such procedures are available. But guess what? It wouldn’t have been possible without early embryonic stem cell research which religious Republicans (like George W. Bush, who signed a bill killing federal funding for stem cell research in 2001) once screeched was the work of the devil, no different than abortion.
Scalise’s procedure will be using autologous stem cells, cells developed from his own body, but that breakthrough came about as a spin off of the original ES (embryonic stem cell) research.
As the Church Lady used to say…”Isn’t that special?”.
In the legal world, such advancements would be termed fruit of the poisonous tree, and dismissed with prejudice.
But how convenient for Scalise (and millions of others) that SCIENCE the ever present bogeyman for right-wingers, has been able to figure out a way to keep his ass alive.
You’re welcome.
Biden and all Democrats need to keep banging the drum about Trump’s authoritarian promises. The MSM won’t, so they must. I heard some idiot in the grocery store talking about the upcoming election saying it’s like trying to choose the lesser of two evils (Biden or Trump). No. It’s not. Biden is a good and decent man. Whatever you think of his policies and positions, he’s not evil. Trump IS.
But this is the consequence of both-sides journalism.
@Akhilleus: Thanks for explaining that stem-cell stuff. As soon as I read Scalise was getting stem-cell therapy, I looked it up, thinking the therapy involved embryonic stem-cells, only to find out that it did not.
Marie,
Appreciate your thoughts on the nuances of plagiarism. The lines do blur.
Might have already told this one (I don't remember. It's another blur), but years ago I ran into the parent of a former student at the local post office. In our how are your kids doing conversation she thanked me for what I'd done (not sure what) and said she had so much liked what I said about maturity that she'd written it down and posted it on her refrigerator.
I was curious and asked her what it was. She told me. It seemed vaguely familiar, like something I'd heard before, but I never knew if I'd heard it somewhere else or if I'd made it up. I still don't.
And in something I wrote here years back I claimed that I'd come up with the phrase "government by gossip." I was kinda proud of it.
Another RC'er cited an earlier use of the phrase from decades before in something I'd assuredly never read.
Not a fall, but a trip. So much for pride.
Florida isn't finished with Jacksonville and it's Confederate statuw: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/2024/01/05/florida-legislature-andflorida-bill-that-jacksonville-lawmaker-says-isnt-about-confederate-monuments/72097748007/
Electoral-vote.com asked readers: What do you like about Biden? Here is one response
What everyone needs to understand about Crypto.
Had forgotten the wonderful, time-tested phrase "blithering idiot."
Thanks to RC and the Pretender for reminding me.
Here is the real message from Trump's "and then God made Donald" video from a few days ago
Methinks the Donald must be off his meds. At his campaign rally
in Iowa he touched on many important topics. Here's one: "Think of it,
magnets, now all I know about magnets is this, give me a glass of
water, let me drop it on the magnet. That's the end of the magnet.
Why didn't they use John Deere? Why didn't they bring in the John
Deere people? Do you like John Deere? I like John Deere."
After a bit more nonsense, he did a little dance and left the stage.
(Maybe to look for his meds?)
https://news.yahoo.com/trump-presents-interesting-theory-magnets-
155136264.html
Uh, did the Mango Moron even know what John Deere builds?? That made zero sense and wandered off into the underbrush of his blistered mind... At one point in our lives, husband worked for a Catholic college in Dubuque, and we lived across the Mississippi in Galena, IL. During that period, John Deere (called "Deersss") employees made great money, which was poor for college enrollment of local students, but good for families. They certainly didn't build elevators. I expect the company doesn't need the gobbledygook issuing from the former president's pie hole. Honestly, someone should cart him off to the funny farm. His meanderings sound like anyone's drunk uncle. (I heard he insulted Iowans again cuz he wanted to be in his own "beautiful home in Florida." Did they even notice?)
As for the "unconstitutional rule-changing" that the idiots, blithering or not, keep going on about, that happened in PA and the courts were JUST FINE WITH IT. We have listened to this crapola for years now. The right landed on the fact that COVID made the elections hard to vote in person, and for older people, almost impossible, or risk safety. It became sensible to vote by mail for reasons other than just that people would be out of town on election day. So an exception was made. The courts told the various lawsuits to pound sand. Now, the wingers have been pushing voting by mail, so they have fastened on the legislatures not meeting to decide this. Ya know, COVID... Stefanik makes me nauseous. I can't listen to her or view her fat face, especially since she has hounded two female college presidents to death. The fascists are beyond help or education. I say get rid of 'em all. By the way, today we got our applications for this year's vote by mail permissions. So there, Stefanik...