Among those under consideration for grants of clemency are the former New York Assembly speaker Sheldon Silver and the rapper Lil Wayne.

By Maggie Haberman, Kenneth P. Vogel & Dana Rubenstein @ NYTimes.com, Jan. 18

Those under consideration include such disparate figures as Sheldon Silver, the disgraced former New York Assembly speaker, and the rapper Lil Wayne, who pleaded guilty last month to a gun charge. Rudolph W. Giuliani says he does not expect one, and Stephen K. Bannon’s chances seem to have dimmed. Mixed in among the big names, low-level drug offenders are under consideration.

As President Trump enters the final hours of his term, he has been intently focused on who should benefit from his clemency power. Along with the White House counsel, Pat A. Cipollone, and advisers including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, his daughter and son-in-law, Mr. Trump has spent days sifting through names and recommendations, assembling a list that officials say he intends to disclose on Tuesday, his last full day in office.

The size and precise composition of the list is still being determined, but it is likely to cover at least 60 pardons or commutations and perhaps more than 100. Already, Mr. Trump has been making calls to some of the recipients, people briefed about them said, and he held another meeting about the topic on Monday afternoon.

There are no plans for Mr. Trump to include a pardon for himself on the list to be released on Tuesday or for him to pre-emptively pardon his two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, neither of whom has been charged with any wrongdoing, officials said. But Mr. Trump’s ultimate decision about pardoning himself and members of his family, they said, could remain an open question until noon on Wednesday, when his four-year tenure comes to an end [....]

By Noah Smith (columnist @ Bloomberg) @ noahopinion.subtack.com, Jan. 19

We’re all familiar by now with Right-NIMBYs — conservatives who block transit and housing development in order to keep poor people and minorities out of their quiet white-flight suburban neighborhoods [....]

But leftists can be NIMBYs as well (and remember, leftists and liberals are generally different people). In various cities, concerns over gentrification, environmental preservation, and profits for private developers have hardened into a sort of Left-NIMBY Canon — a standardized, off-the-shelf package of beliefs, attitudes, and arguments that are easy to deploy in opposition to nearly any proposed housing or transit project.

The Left-Nimby Canon goes something like this:

• Allowing private developers to build market-rate housing results in the construction of “luxury” housing instead of “affordable” housing.

• In addition to lining the pockets of developers, this “luxury” housing raises rents in an area, leading to gentrification and displacement.

• People who argue for upzoning, easier permitting, or other policies to allow market-rate housing development are shills for developers, who don’t actually care about housing the poor or driving down rents.

• These shills use the discredited economic theory of “supply and demand” to trick the public into thinking that allowing market-rate housing construction reduces rents.

• Only rent control, or government-operated social housing, can reduce rents.

I’m trying to summarize rather than straw-man this package of ideas. I think it’s mostly wrong, but it’s worth engaging rather than dismissing.

Nathan J. Robinson of Current Affairs advances the Left-Nimby Canon in a recent piece entitled “The only thing worse than a NIMBY is a YIMBY” [....]

GOP fractures Part I thread is here, thru Jan. 11-18

..(Violence) is what is offered to the masses (by Republican far right radicals) in lieu of actual power. The result is violence that becomes almost casual . .. a politics of delusion that is acted out in the real world ... many who participated in the (Capitol) attack are having trouble grasping the legal consequences that came along with their live-streamed insurrection .. For far-right leaders today, inciting violence against the nation's "enemies" (the press, the "Deep State", Democrats, liberals, BLM) offers the fan base a pathway to political participation ...freedom has been refashioned to contain violence at its core: freedom to carry a weapon and use it at will, to infect others around you during a pandemic ...

By Sylvan Lane @ TheHill.com, Jan. 14

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) lost her seat on the House Financial Services Committee after House Democratic leaders on Thursday rejected her request for a waiver to serve on the Financial Services panel and other committees simultaneously, two House Democratic sources told The Hill.

The Financial Services Committee is one of five House panels deemed “exclusive” by Democratic leaders under caucus rules adopted in July 2020.

Democrats on exclusive committees are barred by caucus rules from serving on any other committee without a waiver from the party’s steering committee, a panel of several dozen lawmakers chaired by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that determines committee assignments.

Porter, a former financial law professor known for dressing down administration officials and executives in hearings, was appointed to the Financial Services Committee and received a waiver to serve on the House Oversight and Reform Committee during her first term.

In a Nov. 30 letter to Pelosi, Porter asked to be considered for seats on the Oversight and Reform, Natural Resources, and Financial Services committees — in that order — in the new Congress that began on Jan. 3.

Porter also asked Pelosi to “prioritize” her spot on the Oversight Committee and asked to rejoin the Financial Services Committee on a waiver [....]

 Here Are the Reasons Why.