Weekend Open Thread
]guest post by Dana]
Let’s go!
First news item
Expelled from Congress on a bipartisan vote, and reportedly left the scene in a Jaguar. Heh.
The final tally, 311-114-2, surpassed that mark, with 105 Republicans joining almost all Democrats to remove the scandal-plagued Santos after just 11 months in office… 112 Republicans backed Santos on Friday despite the growing controversy swirling around him. Those voices warned that removing an elected lawmaker from office without a criminal conviction sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to unwarranted, politically motivated expulsions in the future.
There goes a key Republican vote.
Second news item
Manic tirade in all caps coming in 3, 2, 1…
Former President Donald Trump can be sued in civil lawsuits related to the January 6, 2021, US Capitol riot in a long-awaited, consequential decision from the federal appeals court in Washington, DC.
The decision will have significant implications for several cases against Trump in the Washington, DC, federal court related to the 2020 election. The decision arises out of lawsuits brought by Capitol Police officers and Democrats in Congress.
The opinion, written by Chief Judge Sri Srinivasan, states that not everything a president does or says while in office is protected from liability.
Third news item
Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman to serve as a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, has died.
O’Connor was 93 years old.
She died in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday “of complications related to advanced dementia, probably Alzheimer’s, and a respiratory illness,” the Supreme Court said in a statement.
O’Connor was appointed to the court in 1981 by President Ronald Reagan and served nearly a quarter-century, retiring in 2006.
RIP
Fourth news item
Elon’s uh, winning business model??:
ANDREW ROSS SORKIN, NY TIMES: Obviously know that there’s a public perception that — and you are clarifying this now, but there’s a public perception that that was part of a apology tour, if you will. That this had been said online there was all of the criticism, there was advertisers leaving, we talked to Bob Iger today.
ELON MUSK: I hope they stop.
SORKIN: You hope —
MUSK: Don’t advertise.
SORKIN: You don’t want them to advertise?
MUSK: No.
SORKIN: What do you mean?
MUSK: If somebody’s going to try to blackmail me with advertising? Go fuck yourself.
SORKIN: But —
MUSK: Go fuck yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is. Hey, Bob, if you’re in the audience.
SORKIN: Let me ask you then —
MUSK: That’s how I feel. Don’t advertise.
Fifth news item
The “first partner” comes to Newsom’s rescue:
According to four sources in the DeSantis camp — one who witnessed the moment in the room and three others who were standing backstage (where there was no press or live studio audience) — Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, came into the debate room on at least two occasions to raise some objections. She also made her way to the stage during the break after the candidates agreed to extend the debate and put an end to it. A fifth source on the ground, unaffiliated with either campaign, confirmed that Siebel Newsom ended the debate on her husband’s behalf, saying, “We’re done.”
Sixth news item
A determined yet frustrated President Zelensky:
Asked if he was satisfied by the results of the counteroffensive, he gave a complex answer.
“Look, we are not backing down, I am satisfied. We are fighting with the second (best) army in the world, I am satisfied,” he said, referring to the Russian military. But he added: “We are losing people, I’m not satisfied. We didn’t get all the weapons we wanted, I can’t be satisfied, but I also can’t complain too much.”
Zelenskyy also said he fears the Israel-Hamas war threatens to overshadow the conflict in Ukraine, as competing political agendas and limited resources put the flow of Western military aid to Kyiv at risk.
And those concerns are amplified by the tumult that inevitably arises during a U.S. election year and its potential implications for his country, which has seen the international community largely rally around it following Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion.
From a historical perspective, US aid to Ukraine is relatively small compared to the cost of some past wars. This includes foreign military aid during World War II and the Spanish Civil War, as well as US military expenditures in the Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq wars. When measured in percent of donor GDP, the support of Eastern European countries to Ukraine has been particularly generous, especially when considering the cost of hosting Ukrainian refugees. The Baltic states, Poland, and Bulgaria, but also the United States, are among the top ten donors as a share of donor GDP. Although smaller than some past wars and smaller than overall European commitments, US aid to Ukraine is nevertheless substantial in both absolute and relative terms, indicating the Biden administration’s deep commitment to Ukraine so far.
Seventh news item
The U.N., after 7 weeks of silence on the rape and sexual abuse and torture of Israeli women by Hamas, finally called for an investigation into the reports, and now wants you to know:
⚠️Catcalling her is violence.
⚠️Stalking her is violence.
⚠️Forbidding her from going to work is violence.Violence against women comes in many forms.
Now that you know, you have #NoExcuse.
Learn more: https://t.co/tHbZxl0Vcw#16Days pic.twitter.com/UyLDqZ373V
— UN Women (@UN_Women) November 30, 2023
Just shut the fuck up, you disgusting and moribund entity. You’ve made it clear that Israeli women’s horrific trauma doesn’t matter to you.
Eighth news item
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults.
Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, “The Revivalist Manifesto,” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies.
The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein…
“Scott McKay presents a valuable and timely contribution with The Revivalist Manifesto because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing,” Johnson writes in his 300-word foreword.
Ninth news item
NYT caught sneakily replacing headline which relied on information from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health:
A newspaper can hide substantial reporting failures by describing a story as “updated” rather than admitting to malpractice by printing a correction. A headline on the front page of the Sunday New York Times told readers “Israel has killed more women and children than have been killed in Ukraine.” Could it be true that the Israeli military, with its professed concern for protecting civilians, has actually perpetrated greater savagery than Russian president Vladimir Putin’s forces in Ukraine?.
Alas, the story was too good (or bad) to be true. By noon on Sunday, the headline in question disappeared from the digital version of the Times’s story. By late afternoon, the Times added substantial information that contradicted its initial claim and suggested the death toll in Ukraine has been an order of magnitude greater than in Gaza. The only indication of these changes was a small note beneath the author’s byline indicating the story had been “updated.”
The Times built its initial story around a pair of data points that, when stripped of context, suggest Israel is conducting itself in a manner befitting Putin. For Gaza, the Times employed information from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, which says 14,000 Palestinians have been killed, of whom 10,000 are women and children.
MISCELLANEOUS
It’s the season.. 😂 pic.twitter.com/JmstRtxE2M
— Buitengebieden (@buitengebieden) November 30, 2023
Have a great weekend!
—Dana
