An active, not passive, part of the plot

This might be my last post before vacation that begins Monday morning. I’ll be gone for two weeks. I doubt I’ll post tomorrow. If I post at all during the trip it will be as a travelogue. The first part of the trip will be time with Brother’s family. The second will be a handbell event. So I suspect there won’t be much for me to share. This handbell event is an international event, this time held here in the US. It is the same event that prompted me to travel to Britain, Canada, Japan, Korea, and Australia over the last 35 years. I think this year the international presence will be small. This is my first trip of more than a day long since the start of the pandemic. My most recent multi-day trip was late February and early March of 2020 in which I visited Brother’s family and attended a handbell event. Arranging hotels for this trip took a little extra doing because so many hotels had gotten bad ratings over the last few months and the common complaint was lack of cleanliness. I’m sure that’s because they don’t have the cleaning staff they need. One of the hotels I did book said the cleaning staff will come only every other day. By the time I get back some of the stories that remain in browser tabs should probably be closed. And I just closed several of them. This is scary. Lauren Sue of Daily Kos reported that North Carolina state Reps. Larry Pittman and Mark Brody introduced legislation that declares life begins at fertilization. Therefore a woman who has an abortion is a murderer of the first degree. And therefore murdering a pregnant person before an abortion is acting in defense of the unborn child. Yep, they are proposing that it is just fine to murder a pregnant person who is planning an abortion. Their solution for a great many things is violence. Sue assures us this bill isn’t and won’t be acted on. However, she agrees that its existence is terrifying. I add that someone thinking this sort of bill is acceptable is also terrifying. They’re likely to propose it again or something equally vile. And future Republican controlled legislatures might find such a bill to be just dandy. Joan McCarter of Kos reported election workers in three counties in Pennsylvania have refused to certify some mail in ballots from the May 17th primary. They say the ballots don’t qualify because they don’t have a date. A lack of date doesn’t invalidate the ballot, said several courts (I think the Supremes included). A county failing to submit results is easily detected. A county presenting incomplete results as complete is election subversion. These election workers are saying they get to decide which votes to count. That’s scary. April Seise of Kos reported that Biden went to Massachusetts and used a former coal burning energy plant as a backdrop to announce some executive orders to protect the climate. He spoke of an alternative to that plant getting the same number of jobs it had. He said there will soon be offshore leasing for wind farms – generating enough energy in the Gulf of Mexico to power two thirds of the population of Louisiana. Climate activists were not impressed. Yeah, this is all to the good. But Biden is also signaling support for oil and gas projects in Alaska. If he really wants to tackle climate change he must stop support for pollution heavy projects. The January 6 Connittee held a prime time hearing on Thusday. Brandi Buchman of Kos did liveblogging during it (here and here). I’ll work with the summaries. Mark Sumner of Kos reported on the time after the Secret Service refused to take the nasty guy to the Capitol so he could lead the insurrection in person. Sumner wrote of the hearing:

But the main focus of the night was on the three hours after Trump returned to the White House. Hours in which he sat at a table in a White House dining room, staring at a TV playing Fox News, and resisting efforts from members of Congress, staff members at all levels, and members of his own family who attempted to get him to call off the assault. As the hearing would ultimately show, Trump’s refusal to even make a call for the insurrectionists to leave the Capitol was an active, not passive, part of the plot. And Trump didn’t move until it was clear that his forces had been unsuccessful and the National Guard was on the way.

Well, he did wiggle his thumbs to send out a tweet saying the vice nasty didn’t have the courage to do what he wanted. And two minutes later the vice nasty’s Secret Service detail demanded they get him out of the Capitol. The nasty guy also called various senators (notably not on the White House phone with a log of calls) to try to enlist their help in stopping the Electoral College count. Some who tried to get him to call off the assault, like deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger, were disgusted with his actions and resigned. Only when the fight was lost did the nasty guy say anything. And he asked for a withdrawal. He didn’t admit defeat. The conclusion is that the nasty guy violated his oath of office and was derelict in his duty to the nation. Buchman wrote a summary of her liveblogging that adds detail to Sumner’s report. Cassidy Hutchinson was the star witness of an earlier hearing. She talked about the nasty guy grabbing the steering wheel when the Secret Service refused to take him to the Capitol. She was denounced by conservative talking heads. Sumner reported that a security professional at the White House at the time confirmed Hutchinson’s story. This person didn’t confirm the steering wheel grab, but did confirm the nasty guy knew his crowd was armed, but wanted to take away the weapons detectors. They also confirmed the nasty guy was adamant about going to the Capitol, even though the Secret Service knew what it meant. This security person’s image was not shown and their voice was disguised to protect them from other agents. There has been a lot of news about the Secret Service deleting text messages for January 6 and 7. The official reason is they were deleted as part of a migration to new devices. But that violates government record retention requirements. Joan McCarter of Kos reported the SS agents have declined to work with the January 6 Committee and have lawyered up. Congress is about to leave town for their August break (though they have plenty that urgently needs doing and they face deadlines at the end of September). Committee members say more people are coming forward with information and there will be more hearings in September. Steve Bannon was an early advisor to the nasty guy and quite a loud promoter of what the nasty guy wanted. The Committee subpoenaed him to testify. He refused. The Department of Justice charged him with two counts of contempt of Congress. His trial was finally this past week. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported the jury found him guilty of both counts after less than three hours of deliberation. Sumner discussed a plan reported by Axios the nasty guy intends to follow if he ever gets back into the White House. The core of the plan is he will replace all federal government workers with toadies, not just the appointed ones. Most federal workers, the ones that actually do the work, are protected by laws that prevent removal for political reasons. The nasty guy tried to get rid of that law before he was booted, but Biden restored it. How does the nasty guy hire 2.8 million toadies – where loyalty, not competence, is the goal? Hire everyone who comes to his rallies. He doesn’t need to replace them all, just enough so the real workers won’t cause trouble. In a Ukraine update Kos of Kos discussed how Ukraine might “shape the battlefield” prior to its big offensive that might start soon. One way to do that is to target a few bridges, either by blowing them up, or damaging them enough a tank would not want to cross them. Another way is to target key rail lines, damaging Russian logistics, which are already pretty bad. Nadin Brzezinski, writing for Medium, documents Russia’s logistics collapse, though it was always quite poor. Many military people know how bad it is and know Russia has lost the war. Many military bloggers within Russia know too. And they blame Putin. Brzezinski noted every time Russia sees a reversal the bombing of civilian areas increases, as does talk of nuclear use. “These are the threats of a government that can see the writing on the wall.” Extinction Rebellion tweeted an image of a Simpson character (no I didn’t watch the show) seeming to be giving a lecture and on the screen behind her are the words:

Eating just on Billionaire would do more to prevent climate change than going vegan or never driving a car for the rest of your life.

Yes, the super rich have an outsize impact on the climate. Bill in Portland, Maine, in a Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted late night commentary.

Some rare encouraging good news out of Washington. The House voted to protect same-sex marriage and interracial marriage. It's great. It's also a little bit scary that they have to do this in the first place. Are we going to have to re-do all of our laws now? If that's the case, I'd like to lock down the whole “women have the right to vote” thing. —Jimmy Kimmel Live guest host Kerri Washington