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MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Order today at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to take a very hard line over Biden's plan to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, in contrast with the more moderate approach favored by Defense Minister Benny Gantz, Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and the heads of Israel's security services.
I figure this recommendation requires starting another thread on what happened with the Capitol Police. If I don't give its own post, someone else would.
In Washington, Republicans were dealing with a burgeoning crisis in their ranks, with high-profile resignations and bitter infighting over how to deal with an erratic and isolated president. But at the Republican National Committee’s winter meeting on Friday, most party members were operating in a parallel universe.
In a chandelier-adorned ballroom at the seaside Ritz-Carlton here, there was no mention of President Trump’s disruption .....
today's Statement by President-elect Biden on the 10th Anniversary of the Tucson Shooting.
Including Friedersdorf's comment on the article here because it's a good example of the gnarly issues this is going to raise:
This seems MAJOR to me! Almost as if the right-wing-nutso meme makers are being policed into non-existence by the capitalist titans of today ganging up on them in order to maintain economic stability. Now they cannot even use Parler which was created to give them a place at the "try to go viral" table
Biden was widely expected to choose a Labor Department head who enjoyed the support of unions, given the president-elect's longstanding ties with labor leaders.
@ Politico.com, Jan. 7
[...] Walsh beat out a host of other names floated for the position, including Rep. Andy Levin (D-Mich.), former Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris, California Labor Secretary Julie Su and AFL-CIO Chief Economist Bill Spriggs. His selection suggests that Biden was willing to overlook calls for a more diverse choice, since Walsh is a white man, and Asian American and Pacific Islanders had been lobbying heavily for Su. Spriggs is Black [....]
REALLY. Doesn't mention the name Biden, but he's throwing in the towel, admits a transition and says rioters will be prosecuted. I imagine someone forced him, they gave him a text, allowed a few edits and put him in front of the camera
... To be clear, when I refer to whiteness, I mean the privileges, expectations, and elevated humanity afforded those in American society whose skin happens to be white.... Televised scenes showed thousands of Donald Trump–supporting rioters and criminals, largely white and typically mask-less, descending on the nation’s largely Black capital. They held alternate-reality rallies. They heard speeches intended to recklessly inflame emotions and not-so-subtly encourage violent confrontation.... despite the mobsters’ extraordinary disregard for the rule of law, for agents of law enforcement ... a near-mythical graciousness was shown to the insurrectionists. They were allowed in after the fences were breached. And they were free to wantonly roam the United States House and Senate hallways, entering offices, intimidating elected officials and their staffers ... taking selfies at times with willing Capitol Police.
The violent, anti-democratic attack on the Capitol doesn’t fit the technical definition of a coup even though the president incited and encouraged it. That matters, experts say, because different actions are required to prevent this type of attack from harming democracy. A coup is an illegal attempt to take power through force or the threat of force, usually involving at least a faction of the military or formal security forces, though sometimes they are backed by paramilitaries or other armed groups. That’s not what happened in Washington yesterday.
with this story, time for a new thread on topic, I think; the earlier 25th amendment & related talk was posted starting here on the thread "Republicans abandon Trump" and on Pence's troubles Weds and related here.
there was also real terrorism being planned while the Capitol kabuki was being performed
By EricTucker & Michael Balsamo @ APnews.com, 5 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has selected Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge who in 2016 was snubbed by Republicans for a seat on the Supreme Court, as his attorney general, two people familiar with the selection process said Wednesday.
Biden is expected to announce Garland’s appointment on Thursday, along with other senior leaders of the department, including former homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco as deputy attorney general and former Justice Department civil rights chief Vanita Gupta as associate attorney general.
In picking Garland, Biden is turning to an experienced judge who held senior positions at the Justice Department decades ago, including as a supervisor of the prosecution of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The pick will force Senate Republicans to contend with the nomination of someone they spurned in 2016 — refusing even to hold hearings when a Supreme Court vacancy arose — but Biden may be banking on Garland’s credentials and reputation for moderation to ensure confirmation.
Garland was selected over other finalists including Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates. The people familiar with the process spoke on condition of anonymity.
If confirmed, Garland would confront immediate challenges, including an ongoing criminal tax investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter, as well as calls from many Democrats to pursue inquiries into Trump after he leaves office. A special counsel investigation into the origins of the Russia probe also remains open, forcing a new attorney general to decide how to handle it and what to make public [....]
of major note, the president-elect's nominee for Sec. of State has retweeted this news story with a policy statement!
Excellent example of how many of our "wonderful" U.S. hospitals operate, "best health care in the world"--bleh bleh. Like with many universities, where P.R. is priority #1 and big squeaky wheels can get immediate grease on problems:
"(Republicans) don’t get news from the outside world, because they get their information from partisan sources that simply don’t report inconvenient facts. They don’t face adult supervision, because in a polarized political environment there are few competitive races.
So they’re increasingly inward-looking, engaged in ever more outlandish efforts to demonstrate their loyalty to the tribe. Their partisanship isn’t about issues, although the party remains committed to cutting taxes on the rich and punishing the poor; it’s about asserting the dominance of the in-group and punishing outsiders...."