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So much information has gone under the bridge about the insurrection that I’ve lost sight of some of the more interesting details that flush out what happened on January 6th — and who is responsible. (People like Marcy Wheeler who follow the trials are very well aware, of course.) This piece from June 2021 by Amanda Carpenter came to my attention over the holidays and I thought it was interesting. If you still think that Trump didn’t actually incite the insurrection, this is important to consider: To understand January 6, 2021, we must first look back to June 1, 2020. That was the day Donald Trump delivered a terse Rose Garden speech threatening to deploy the U.S. military to any city or state that “refuses to take the actions that are necessary to defend the life and property of their residents.” The speech was prompted by the protests that began on May 26 in Minneapolis and spread throughout the country after George Floyd was killed by police.
Paul Krugman agrees that things are looking up. Will people recognize it in time or will they continue to blame Joe Biden for the chaos and ugliness that Trump and his cult are creating? Almost four years have passed since Covid-19 struck. In America, the pandemic killed well over a million people and left millions more with lingering health problems. Much of normal life came to a halt, partly because of official lockdowns but largely because fear of infection kept people home. The big question in the years that followed was whether America would ever fully recover from that shock. In 2023 we got the answer: yes. Our economy and society have, in fact, healed remarkably well. The big remaining question is when, if ever, the public will be ready to accept the good news. In the short run, of course, the pandemic had severe economic and social effects, in many ways wider and deeper than almost anyone expected. Employment fell by 25 million in a matter of weeks.
I got my law degree from watching “Law and Order” so I’m not what anyone would call an attorney. But I do find this stuff fascinating. I came across this last night on the presidential immunity question. (That question drives me crazy because it seems so obvious I can’t even imagine how it can be debatable but here we are.) Anyway: A new wrinkle has emerged in former President Donald Trump‘s immunity battle in his federal election interference case, with a watchdog group filing a brief on Friday calling for his appeal effort to be dismissed and for his trial allowed to resume. Trump is currently contending with four criminal indictments at the state and federal levels, totaling 91 criminal charges in all. Among these cases is the federal one brought by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and special counsel Jack Smith pertaining to Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which ultimately led to the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. Trump, the frontrunner in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has maintained his innocence in the case.
Our 7th most-read article of 2023.
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Originally published August 11, 2023.
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You were riding during rush hour.
Why were you riding then? There are way too many cars on the road. If you were commuting, you should have contacted your boss and politely asked to work from 3:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. instead.
You were riding at night or in the early morning.
There’s no way drivers can see you. Remember: if you’re one of those people who rides bikes because it keeps the mental darkness at bay, the best time to do so is in the middle of the workday.
You were riding in the middle of the workday.
The only people who should ride their bikes during the workday are bike messengers, who I also dislike. They weave, they bob—it’s inappropriate. Bike messengers need to do what drivers do: go straight, get pissed off, and hate everyone.
Stephen Miller will be a very important influence in Trump 2.0 Judd Legum talks about the Trump threat in his newsletter today. I thought I would highlight just one little passage for those who think it might be useful to punish Biden and the Democrats by letting Trump have another term. It’s pretty clear it won’t just be the Democrats who suffer at Trump’s hands.
Doctor Who Showrunner Russell T. Davies & the team aren't wasting a second of 2024, with RTD signaling that they're already "back to work."
In this series, I explore how US narratives on the ‘China threat’ have become entrenched in Western security communities and how a ‘China threat’ narrative has been constructed by Republicans and Democrats in the United States in an attempt to create a “rally round the flag” effect designed to internally unite a deeply divided America. Continue reading »
We tramped along streets of rubble and twisted girders of metal in Gaza – these had been a home, a school and even a hospital. From one heap of rubble, a sobbing Granny ran up to me – it was winter and bitterly cold. She was camped in a hollow in the bombed out ruin Continue reading »
Jimmy Lai Chee-ying is now in the dock facing charges of colluding with foreign forces under the national security law and a separate one for sedition. It will be interesting to hear the evidence, but even before that, the Western press just wants to put Hong Kong on trial. Is Lai guilty or not? I Continue reading »
At the end of this war, Israel will find itself in a worse situation than when the war began. Israel has become a pariah state. Even if Israel is able to realize its goals, which appear to be receding, the country’s situation will be worse than before. Since the moral aspects of this war hardly Continue reading »
Israel’s brutality in Gaza is becoming a true threat to Israel’s survival. When Congress returns in January, President Joe Biden will push the case to deepen American complicity in Israel’s war in Gaza through another US armaments package for Israel. Americans should raise their voice in a resounding no. An arms package for Israel is Continue reading »
The latest Roy Morgan Most Trusted & Distrusted Leaders research has bad news for Anthony Albanese but worse news for Peter Dutton. … and the political class as a whole also has deep problems with Michelle Levine, Roy Morgan CEO, saying that overall trust is down and deep and toxic distrust has increased. Albanese recorded Continue reading »
The old adage “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts” is a warning not to take things at face value. If caution is abandoned, the consequences may be dire. In Tokyo, at a special summit from Dec 16-18, Japan and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) marked their 50 years of official ties. The host, Continue reading »
Instead of thinking through and independently acting in Australia’s best interests, Prime Minister Albanese has followed in the footsteps of his discredited predecessors and outsourced defence and foreign policy to the US. The Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, is a provincial man with a strong social conscience. He understands issues of health, education and infrastructure and Continue reading »
The judgment of history awaits as we continue to witness the nightmarish visions of innocents being vaporised because of Washington’s unconditional backing of the Israeli blitzkrieg against the people of Gaza. The humiliation of the U.S. government, which is actively complicit in providing the weaponry, funding, and UN vetoes backing the Israeli government’s attack on Continue reading »
Wayne LaPierre is going on trial. As further evidence of the total corruption of the conservative movement, despite being shown to have ripped off the membership in the millions LaPierre was welcomed back into the fold. But this could be the end of him, God willing: For decades, Wayne LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s longtime leader, has been a survivor. He has endured waves of palace intrigue, corruption scandals and embarrassing revelations, including leaked video that captured his inability to shoot an elephant at point-blank range while on a safari. But now, Mr. LaPierre, 74, faces his gravest challenge, as a legal showdown with New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, goes to trial in a Manhattan courtroom. Ms. James, in a lawsuit filed amid an abrupt effort by the N.R.A. to clean up its practices, seeks to oust him from the group after reports of corruption and mismanagement. Much has changed since Ms. James began investigating the N.R.A. four years ago. The organization, long a lobbying juggernaut, is a kind of ghost ship.