The latest Productivity Commission report marks the end of an era That’s the headline for my latest piece in Inside Story I look at the rise and decline of the Productivity Commission as an advocate of radical neoliberal reform. It spans the fifty years from the creation of the Industries Assistance Commission, replacing the old […]
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In August of 1980, Ronald Reagan decided to campaign for president at the Neshoba County fair in rural Mississippi, where he gave a speech announcing his support for “states’ rights”, the rallying cry of segregationists for decades. The choice of location was hardly a coincidence. It was right outside the town of Philadelphia, site of the horrific murder of civil rights workers James Chaney, Mickey Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, who were abducted and killed by the Ku Klux Klan in 1964. Oh, the Republicans swore they didn’t mean anything by this, but everyone understood what they were signaling. It wasn’t exactly subtle. This was a dog whistle to rural Southerners, part of the GOP’s years-long effort to convert the racists among them to the Republican party. And it worked. Donald Trump adopted the GOP’s cultivation of racists but parted ways with the party on many other issues. Aside from stealing Reagan’s slogan “Make America Great,” Trump has never said much about him either. He seems to be taking a page from that 1980 playbook, however, with his plans for the first big Trump campaign rally of 2023.
Marge goes to jail Some background on the DC jail visit by House oversight members today. There are two wings of the DC jail: The Central Detention Facility (where most DC inmates are housed) and Central Treatment Facility (where Jan. 6 defendants, pretrial and post-conviction, are housed). In fall 2021, amid rising complaints by Jan. 6 defendants about the conditions of CTF — and a federal judge’s contempt order — US marshals did a surprise inspection They found that conditions at *CDF* were abysmal and ordered removal of 100s of prisoners. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/11/02/feds-transfer-prisoners-dc-jail-518604 But the marshals found conditions in *CTF* where Jan. 6 defendants were housed to be “largely appropriate.” Judges and advocates for Jan. 6 defendants have remained skeptical — and for good reason. There’s no question the DC jail had major issues and the same management running the main jail also runs CTF. Flash forward to this month, US District Court Judge McFadden indicated in a hearing that conditions of the main jail have improved markedly since the Nov. 2021 report, and marshals had been moving inmates back in.
He’s supposed to be the pro He’s been cast in the wrong movie: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ book tour has hit a few road bumps. In the first staffing shakeup for what’s widely seen as a pre-presidential campaign, the DeSantis road show lost a critical wheel this week when the operation’s top event coordinator pulled out of its contract, sources familiar with the move told The Daily Beast. It’s the latest in a series of setbacks for DeSantis, as his platoon of supporters and outside financial backers pushes out a “soft-launch” campaign in the shadow of the party’s frontrunner, former President Donald Trump. But Republican observers say that from what they’ve seen, the operation appears to be “out over its skis.” “This is amateur hour,” a seasoned GOP presidential campaign strategist told The Daily Beast.
The top-rated tourist attraction in Szczecin, Poland, is one of the city’s feline residents. The tuxedo cat, named Gacek, which translates to “long-eared bat” in Polish, is listed as a historical landmark in Szczecin, Poland, on Google Maps. The feline has a five-star rating on Google Maps and over 80 reviews — an impressive feat for a landmark in Poland’s seventh-largest city. Gacek is a free-roaming cat that lives in a box on Kaszubska Street, per The Independent. The feline has resided in the area for a few years. According to the news outlet, the cat initially drew worldwide attention after appearing in a documentary by wSzczecinie in 2020. Following the documentary, cat enthusiasts flocked to the city to see Gacek. The cat’s original Google Maps listing reportedly amassed more than 2,500 reviews before it was taken down, according to The Independent. Gacek’s old and current review rankings beat out other Szczecin tourist attractions like the Archcathedral Basilica of St.
HAPPY CRIME-FRAUD EXCEPTION DAY, FOR THOSE WHO CELEBRATE The headline above from Marcy at emptywheel made me smile. The subjects of her post have less reason to. For the US political world … today marks crime-fraud exception day, the day that at least one of Trump’s attorneys will be obliged to testify about how Trump lied to his lawyers to try to get away with hoarding stolen classified documents. Because Evan Corcoran (and possibly Georgia attorney Jennifer Little) will testify today, I thought it a good day to update the list of attorneys who were or have been witnesses or who may be subjects in one or more investigations into Trump. Since the Stormy Daniels payment may lead to Trump’s first indictment, Michael Cohen gets pride of place at number one on this list, a reminder that for seven years, Trump lawyers have been exposing themselves to legal jeopardy to help him cover things up.
It was reported today Sen. John Fetterman is doing well and is expected to be released in the next couple of weeks. The reaction from the wingnuts is just precious: I love how these goobers go on about how dumb the other side is.
Consent of the governed? Bah! Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper has seen it in North Carolina (2016). And Gov. Tony Evers in Wisconsin (2018). Voters’ choices pitted both Democrats against hostile Republican-dominated state legislatures. Before even taking office, Republicans in lame duck sessions, with support from outgoing Republican Govs. Pat McCrory and Scott Walker, stripped powers from the incoming Democratic governors. If Jan. 6 and GOP election-denying in its aftermath did not clue you in, political niceties such as respecting the will of voters is not part of the Republican playbook. Raw power is. Richard Nixon torpedoed the Paris Peace Talks in 1968 to win his. Operatives for Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1980 delayed for months the release of Americans held hostage in Iran ahead of his election and inauguration. Power mattered more. Neither paid a personal price for the resulting deaths and extended captivity of Americans. Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, reminds Slate readers that Republican power stripping of the sort deployed against Cooper and Evers has not stopped. After disturbing photos appeared in 2020 of Sen.
He went to jail for a hush money scheme Here’s a good rundown of why the Stormy Daniels case matters from Amanda Carpenter. It’s actually important, even in the great scheme of things. Donald Trump’s defenders would love for people to believe that the former president entered into totally normal, by-the-book, run-of-the-mill legal agreements with adult film actress Stormy Daniels and Playboy model Karen McDougal to purchase their silence, and that he did so in a way that was agreeable and beneficial to all parties. But that’s not what happened. Trump risks indictment because, allegedly at his behest, an illegal scheme was undertaken to deceive the public at a critical moment before the 2016 election. That was the purpose of the “hush money” payments—not to enrich the women or settle a personal matter, but, in the words of the man who went to prison for arranging the deals, “for the principal purpose of influencing the election.” A reminder of what really happened: In 2016, Daniels and McDougal each wanted to sell her own story about liaisons with Trump to the press.