I guess we all knew it was likely at some point. Vladimir Putin is a murderous dictator and it was clear that Navalny was being mistreated in prison. But it’s still shocking and depressing that it has happened.
The death of Aleksei A. Navalny, reported by the authorities in Russia on Friday, would leave the country without its most prominent opposition voice at a time when President Vladimir V. Putin has amassed near-total power, invaded neighboring Ukraine and drawn the sharpest divisions with U.S.-led Western allies since the end of the Cold War.
Mr. Navalny had been serving multiple prison sentences — on what supporters said were fabricated charges — that would likely have kept him locked up until at least 2031. The news of his death shocked world leaders, with Vice President Kamala Harris saying that while the United States was still trying to confirm the reports, it believed “Russia is responsible.”
Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said in a statement that Mr. Navalny, 47, had lost consciousness and died after taking a walk on Friday in the Arctic prison where he was moved late last year. “All necessary resuscitation measures were taken, which did not lead to positive results,” the statement said.
Mr. Navalny’s spokeswoman, Kira Yarmysh, said on social media that his team could not immediately confirm his death and that a lawyer was traveling to the remote town where the prison is. “As soon as we have any information, we will report it,” she said.
Here are some clips and comments about it from this morning:
Yulia Navalny gets a standing ovation at the Munich Security Conference, hours after being told her husband is dead.
Via translator: “I thought, ‘Should I stand here before you or should I go back to my children?’ Then I thought, ‘What would would have Alexei done in my place?’” pic.twitter.com/wpv2q80bJo
"… around him, his government, his friends, I want them to know that they will be punished for what they have done with our country, with my family and with my husband. They will be brought to justice and this day will come soon." https://t.co/MvG6YKqZFz
This is the moment I mentioned in my previous tweet. So damn poignant. Be inspired by @navalny's bravery. And beware of those who praise or prop up Vladimir Putin and his regime of repression and war crimes. https://t.co/Zijah66b9P
It’s probably a coincidence that Tucker Carlson is in Moscow right now prancing around singing Russia’s praises and that just this week Trump gave the green light for Putin to invade any country in Europe.
really *something* to have one of the most famous people on the American right unfurling a hype campaign for Russia as Vladimir Putin's top critic is found dead https://t.co/byP3akCS0q
The enormous contrast between Navalny’s civic courage and the corruption of Putin’s regime will remain. Putin is fighting a bloody, lawless, unnecessary war, in which hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russians have been killed or wounded, for no reason other than to serve his own egotistical vision. He is running a cowardly, micromanaged reelection campaign, one in which all real opponents are eliminated and the only candidate who gets airtime is himself. Instead of facing real questions or challenges, he meets tame propagandists such as Tucker Carlson, to whom he offers nothing more than lengthy, circular, and completely false versions of history.
Even behind bars Navalny was a real threat to Putin, because he was living proof that courage is possible, that truth exists, that Russia could be a different kind of country. For a dictator who survives thanks to lies and violence, that kind of challenge was intolerable. Now Putin will be forced to fight against Navalny’s memory, and that is a battle he will never win.
Meanwhile, here’s the spin coming from the right wing.
When a Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) or a Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) stand up and call out Republican BS or CEO excess, it’s like a breath of fresh air to liberal politics. Not Jon Stewart brashness, exactly, but not the usual business-as-usual politics that is too easy for the press to ignore.
Nerds. Maybe it’s because we’re nerds, rarely sure enough of ourselves to go straight at the opposition or stand up for ourselves. Democrats wanting to be liked are forever second-guessing themelves. Republicans will settle for being feared. Why else all the posing with guns? On one side of this Lord of the Flies narrative, Ralph and Piggy try to maintain order and improve living conditions on the island while Jack and his spear-armed tribe cohere around fear of the Beast (any real or imagined threat).
The press preferences flash over substance and pays more attention to the former. Digby observed yesterday that the press under-reports Joe Biden’s economic accomplishments because he “hasn’t been entertaining enough for them.”
Piggy wore spectacles. Jack’s “warriors” made spectacle.
Brian Beutler this morning goes straight at “finger-in-the-wind style analysis rooted in little more than the media’s sense that Things Seem Bad For Democrats On TV.” Beutler sees its roots in “the clash between insecure liberalism and kayfabe conservatism.” But the press also reflects “Democratic neurosis and artificial Republican aggression” back to the world, Beulter writes:
A toughness schtick has been integral to every Republican campaign and strategy I’ve ever covered, but it has reached cartoonish levels in the Trump era. It’s visible in their efforts to spare Donald Trump from prosecution, their “don’t make me hurt you” threats of tit-for-tat retribution in response to any measure of accountability, and Trump’s constant lying about polls.
Sometimes it’s so effective at warping political junkies’ sense of what’s what that they retroactively confuse the facade for reality. Ahead of the 2022 election, polls showed Democrats holding up surprisingly well, particularly given the historical pattern of incumbent parties losing badly in midterms. Republicans had just overturned the right to abortion, and fielded Big Lie election deniers for high office in key swing-states. Survey data said Democrats were poised to benefit. Republicans responded with a blitz of propaganda focused on crime (which has fallen under President Biden from its Trump-year highs) and inflation (which was actually elevated at the time). Elite Democrats were spooked; many of them second-guessed their campaigns for playing to the pro-choice, pro-democracy base. The distortion was so severe that when Democrats crushed expectations, observers stipulated that the polls must have been wrong. But the polls were right! The discourse was wrong.
Democrats attributed Tom Suozzi’s NY-03 victory “to his conservative bona fides,” writes Beutler, while Republicans beat their chests and swore they’d win back the seat when the fall campaign shifts, New York GOP chair Ed Cox said, to “Joe Biden and Democrats’ disastrous open-border, soft-on-crime policies.” But it’s so much bad faith and false bravado.
There’s plenty of Republican faithlessness out there, Beutler continues, but it’s not wise to chalk it all up to posturing. “A puffy chest … is not a concrete promise to commit atrocities.” Some may be them playing mind games with Democrats. But when “they promise to purge ‘vermin’ or intern immigrants or cheer Vladimir Putin on as he marches into NATO countries … we should still take them at their word.”
Democrats may in some instances benefit from setting expectations low. They may, in fact, playact at losing to galvanize their voters. But it just as easily risks demoralizing their base while overconfidence invites complacency.
But losing is demoralizing, feelinglikeyou’re losing is both demoralizing and disorienting. When you’re not actually losing, it makes you prone to errors—like changing the theme of a campaign, downplaying issues that benefit your party (abortion rights, democracy protection) in order to increase the salience of issues like crime and immigration that galvanize white reactionaries.
[…]
But even if you can’t see through the nonsense every single time, healthy skepticism of GOP rhetoric and healthy confidence in your own values are available to all of us. They’re more productive than chasing neurotic self-doubt into the fetal position every time a Republican pretends to be triumphant or angry.
Older Democrats, in particular, I’ve observed, fret like abused spouses over what Republicans might do or say in response to liberal statements or policies. They tend to be policy liberals and cautious campaign conservatives, always trying to appeal to the middle without inflaming the right. That is a mistake. For one, because it is not a good look. Voters seeking leaders watch for cues that tell them this candidate or that one will have their backs. They want heroes. How many Rocky movies did Stallone make? They’ll root again and again for an underdog with heart and grit.
The irony of MAGA is that Trump is just an insecure bully who kayfabes confidence (some of his lieutenants are actual authoritarian bullies). MAGA followers are attracted like medieval peasants to promises of protection by their liege-lords while deluding themselves that fealty to cartoonish tough guys makes them American Übermensch. That and AR-15s.
Democrats can do better than feeding delusion. But they’ll need to display more heart and grit. That’s why Raskin and Porter make us cheer.
A good message engages your liberal base, persuades the middle, and alienates the right. It draws a contrast voters can see. Milquetoast doesn’t do that. Drew Westen, author of “The Political Brain,” chuckled when I told him a key lesson I took from his book on messaging came down to this: If you’re not pissing ‘em off, you’re not doing it right.
Choose your fighter: Jesus vs. Satan — This TikToker pointed out the hyprocisy of some conservative Christians (via @ incrediberry on TikTok) pic.twitter.com/I79enQuQYr
Ron is now seeking some adjustments. Seems some members of his anti-woke mob are out of control. Here he is today:
“With objecting – if you go to a school board meeting objecting. If you have a kid in school, okay. But if you’re somebody who doesn’t have a kid in school and you’re gonna object to 100 books? No, I don’t think that’s appropriate. So I think the legislature is interested in limiting what the number of challenges you can do, and maybe making it be contingent on whether you actually have kids in school or not. We just want to make sure we’re not trying to incentivize frivolous objections or any type of games being played.”
They counted on MAGA to be stupid. Always a smart bet.
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This is an interesting tick-tock of the Border/Foreign Aid bill from the NY Times. (Gift link, here) It starts off recounting how the Republicans thought they could back the Dems into a corner by demanding a border component to Ukraine funding which they knew was vitally important to the White House. The Democrats decided that they would call their bluff and negotiate a border bill and one that would be seen as credible by serious border hawks. But they were not surprised when the Republicans balk:
The possibility that Republicans would bolt from their own deal had occurred to Mr. Schumer from the start, given his previous experience.
“We knew it way back then,” he said.
But Mr. Schumer saw a political upside should that occur: Democrats would be able to say they tried and point to the Republican opposition for failing to halt a surge of migrants illegally crossing the U.S. border with Mexico.
“It’s a win if Republicans abandon us at the last minute,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview, explaining his calculation, “because if Democrats could put together a tough, bipartisan bill on border, it would not take border away as an issue for the Republicans, but it would give us a 50-50 chance to combat it.”
I’m actually glad to hear that. I would have been very concerned if they weren’t prepared for this since the Republicans have been playing this game for quite some time. And I think that Joe Biden certainly knew it since he’s personally been involved in some of the most egregious examples of GOP bad faith saving the Democrats from a deal their voters hate.
A promising moment came when Congress returned last month, Mr. Schumer said. Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, the Republicans’ lead negotiator in the talks, began disclosing details of the potential agreement to top colleagues, who seemed to be impressed by how far Democrats had moved on the issue. Approval seemed possible, though in the weeks that followed, Mr. Trump began savaging the emerging deal pre-emptively and urging Republicans to reject it.
The deal quickly collapsed on Feb. 4, within hours of the details being made public. Far-right conservatives in the Senate rebelled, scoffing at the notion that Democrats had made real concessions and saying that Mr. Biden would not enforce the new law regardless.
Seeing the handwriting on the wall, Senate Republicans, including Mr. McConnell, ran from the agreement. Only four Republicans ended up voting to bring it to the floor. Republicans still intend to hammer Democrats on border security issues and blame the lack of tough border policy in the Ukraine aid bill as a rationale for not taking up the legislation in the House.
“The Senate’s foreign aid bill is silent on the most pressing issue facing our country,” Speaker Mike Johnson said in attacking the legislation and suggesting it was dead in the House.
Still, members of both parties credited Mr. Schumer for deftly playing a hand that insulated Democrats from a backlash to the collapse, provided a political defense on border policy and still allowed him and a bipartisan coalition of senators to salvage the Ukraine aid.
“He saw an opening, and he seized it,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut. “His approach has kept this effort bipartisan despite the rancor and resistance.”
It also allowed Democrats to wring maximum political benefit from the immigration debate without having to follow through with any policy concessions. They were able to signal to voters that they embraced strong border provisions — and blame Republicans for killing them — without having to put the restrictions into force, which would surely have alienated their progressive base.
Tom Suozzi ran on immigration by pointing out that Trump ordered them not to take the deal and suggesting that he would have voted for it with a path to citizenship for DREAMers and others already in the country. It seems to have worked for him.
It was risky for the Dems to do this because you never know for sure that the Republicans will refuse to take yes for an answer. But at this point it’s a pretty good bet.
This was ultimately what they expected to happen. They wanted the real winners of the election to riot so they could justify calling for the Insurrection Act and put the military on the streets of America. That’s what Trump meant when he said that he pre-authorized the Department of Defense to be prepared to deploy troops in DC in the days before the Insurrection.
And, in fact, that’s what Trump and Steven Miller are planning to do in the second term except this time they plan to use immigration as their excuse.
They just want to use the military against Americans one way or another. There is no doubt that he will do it this time.
Guess what? The Biden administration is meeting its commitment to under served communities
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There was a bit of a brouhaha on Xitter in the last couple of days when an economic reporter for the NY Times posted that his friends in Brooklyn didn’t know about Biden’s economic successes and when confronted with the fact that the media bore some responsibility for that he fired back that he isn’t the Biden administration’s PR company. Let’s just say it wasn’t well received. Apparently, Biden hasn’t been entertaining enough for them to cover it. He needs to up his “PR” so the news media will feel it’s important to cover it.
Having said that, here’s a shout out to Axios for reporting this, which I did not know before:
There’s an unprecedented building boom underway in America. With it has come a less-noticed phenomenon: a surge of investment into communities left behind in the last economic expansion.
Why it matters: Poorer counties with lower employment rates have attracted a large share of the hundreds of billions of dollars allocated for clean energy projects, semiconductor mega-factories and more.
If sustained, the investment surge has the potential to help reshape local economies — a sharp departure from the 2010s, a period that saw more muted investment in these parts of the country.
Driving the news: These counties have received a disproportionate share of investments relative to their economic output, according to a new report from the Brookings Institute and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The researchers look at private investment in economically distressed communities — the 1,071 counties with a median income below $75,000 and prime-age employment that significantly lags the national average.
“The previous three years of data indicate that after decades of economic divergence, strategic sector investment patterns are including more places that have historically been left out of economic growth,” the report says.
The big picture: The building boom has been spurred in part by money allocated under Biden-era legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and CHIPS and Science Act — that’s helping put a floor under the national economy and sustaining demand for workers.
Some of that legislation provides incentives for investments in low-income areas.
Since 2021, distressed communities received 16% of investments in clean energy, chips, bio-manufacturing and other industries. That’s double their share of national GDP and about 1.2 times their share of the U.S. population.
Between the lines: When compared to overall private investment, investments in these specific industries are more likely to go to distressed communities.
“Distressed communities are attracting new clean energy and semiconductor investment at roughly twice the rate of traditional private investment,” says Brian Deese, former top White House economic adviser who joined MIT last year.
“If this trend continues, it has the potential to change the economic geography of the country and create economic opportunity in parts of this country that too many people have written off in the past,” says Deese, an author of the report and a key architect of Biden’s industrial policy.
The intrigue: These counties are mainly concentrated in southern states but include some areas in the Northeast, West and Midwest.
In effect, it’s created a new center for American private investment — a much different trend than that seen in the 2010-2020 period.
During that time, distressed counties received an average of 8% of total private fixed investment (excluding residential investments) — roughly the same as their share of national GDP.
Aaaaand:
The huge question heading into the 2024 election is what credit Biden gets for the investment boom.
In some states, Republicans are taking credit for the manufacturing renaissance, Axios’ Hans Nichols has reported.
Of course we all “wonder” if Biden will get any credit, which requires that the media report it but here we are back at square one. Still, kudos to Axios for at least putting it out there. maybe someone else will notice. I suspect that the best way for the democrats to get attention to this is by highlighting the GOP members taking credit. It’s only news when it’s “fun.” And that has an element of fun.
One of the more frustrating aspects of this “But He’s Old!” theme that the media has made into this year’s “But Her Emails!” is the fact that Biden is not slipping and we know this because he’s always been gaffe prone. It’s his personality, not his age. I suppose if people really don’t like that about him, that’s legitimate, but then they are back to square one deciding if this guy is the better choice:
Trump: It’s very hard to be sarcastic. When I interpose— I’m not a Nikki fan and I’m not a Pelosi fan. When I purposely interpose names, they say he didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki. pic.twitter.com/UFjnRq4Qg6
“When I say that Obama is the president of our country they go: ‘He doesn’t know that it’s Biden! He doesn’t know,’” Trump said Wednesday. “So it’s very hard to be sarcastic.” He went on to say: “I’m not a Nikki fan and I’m not a Pelosi fan, and I when I purposely interpose names, they said: ‘He didn’t know Pelosi from Nikki, from tricky Nikki.’”
“I interpose [the names], and they make a big deal out of it,” Trump said. “I said: ‘No, no, I think they both stink. They have something in common—they both stink,’” he added. “And remember this: when I make a statement like that about Nikki that means she will never be running for vice president.”
That is the lamest, most ridiculous attempt to wriggle out of his obvious mental glitch that I’ve ever seen. Good God, the man not only is incapable of admitting he did something wrong, the gyrations he goes through to pretend that he meant to do it are just jaw dropping.
Anyway, back to Biden. Public Notice (subscribe to Public Notice ) did a service today by posting some examples of Biden’s older gaffes, just for the record:
While filing the paperwork in 2007 for his second failed presidential run, Biden made a racially tone-deaf comment about fellow candidate Barack Obama: “I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” This was obviously not how he wanted to lead a news cycle after launching his candidacy.
There were other incidents of what the media diagnosed as Biden’s “foot in mouth” disease. He told donors at a private fundraiser just a few weeks before the 2008 presidential election that there would be an “international crisis, a generated crisis” in the first few months of an Obama presidency that would “test the mettle of this guy.” John McCain’s campaign leapt on Biden’s remarks, and the Obama team scrambled to play clean up.
This was a common theme, sort of like the running gag in a political sitcom. The New York Times described Biden in 2008 as a “distinctive blend of pit bull and odd duck” with “weak filters” that made him blurt out “out-of-nowhere comments” and “goofy asides.” The gaffes were usually minor and amusing — describing the Affordable Care Act as a “big fucking deal” or publicly mourning the Irish Prime Minister’s mother who was still very much alive (see video below) — but occasionally, they were politically perilous.
Biden revealed to House Democrats at their 2009 caucus retreat candid White House discussions about the $900 billion economic-stimulus package and how Democrats could face major political blowback in the upcoming midterm elections. Obama later joked, “I don’t remember exactly what Joe was referring to, not surprisingly.”
Then there was Biden’s 2009 appearance on the Todayshowwhen his response to a swine flu outbreak seemed to border on outright panic.
“I would tell members of my family, and I have, I wouldn’t go anywhere in confined places right now,” he said. “It’s not that it’s going to Mexico, it’s that you are in a confined aircraft. When one person sneezes, it goes everywhere through the aircraft. That’s me.”
This infuriated the airline industry, and once again the White House need to smooth over Biden’s remarks. It wasn’t surprising that many Democrats believed Hillary Clinton was a more reliable heir apparent to Obama. (The Washington Post had even asked prior to the 2012 election if Biden was a “liability for Obama.”) However, no one ever suggested Biden was senile. He was perceived more like your wacky uncle after his second beer — good for a laugh but perhaps not the ideal political candidate.
After Biden launched his 2020 presidential campaign, The Guardian observed that over his “decades-long career in politics, he has cultivated a reputation of being gaffe-prone, often stumbling on his words — if not outright saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.” What’s revealing is that the article never makes Biden’s age the issue, and he was already 76. There’s no idle speculation about whether he’s losing a step or outright sundowning. This wasn’t an oversight. If Bill Clinton or Barack Obama suddenly lost their rhetorical mastery, we might assume a possible cognitive decline, but Biden never boasted a reputation as a great communicator or savvy political operator.
Biden has if anything toned done the gaffes with age
In 2015, CNN questioned a potential Biden candidacy after a series of public gaffes. During former Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s swearing in, Biden held his wife Stephanie’s shoulders and whispered into her ear.
This became another embarrassing viral moment that dogged Biden during his 2020 campaign. However, it’s vanished as a major issue today. Biden, responding to feedback, released a video in 2019 where he apologized for his past handiness and promised to “much more mindful” of personal space. He adjusted his behavior and has had no issues of this sort since. That is not typical of a confused elderly person who’s mentally slipping.
Yes, Biden has a habit of Paul Bunyan-esque tall tales about his life, including vastly overstating his personal involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, but that’s not a recent development. He’s done this for almost 40 years, and there’s no evidence that it’s worsening or that he’s become disconnected from reality. A character quirk shouldn’t trigger the 25th Amendment.
Just like their sham impeachment efforts, Republicans have no actual evidence that Biden’s senile and incompetent. They sound alarms over Biden confusing world leaders with their dead predecessors, but flubs like this are fairly common among past presidents, regardless of age.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama said he’d visited “57 states.” This was obviously a slip of the tongue and a not a sign of early onset dementia. Trump, however, has recently suggested Obama is still president multiple times, to the point where he’s had to try to explain it away by claiming he was being sarcastic. But the sarcasm defense wouldn’t explain Trump in 2019 claiming the Continental Army “took over airports” during the Revolutionary War. That he blamed on the telepromter.
This is key:
The Biden administration has run far more smoothly than one might’ve expected from the Joe Biden who once provided reliable fodder for late night comedy monologues. It wasn’t long before journalists privately and publicly complained that Biden was simply dull — arguably what the media finds more offensive than his advanced age. Politico complained in 2022 that Biden had “over-delivered” on boredom and that this carried “a political cost in a Permanent Washington that, for better or worse, thrills to displays of executive-branch social fireworks.”
Those “fireworks” are more fun for the press to cover than a quietly competent presidential administration. It’s as if they would prefer the Onion parody Biden.
He’s not old, he’s boring and that the news media will not abide. They loved Obama, for instance, and gave him a pretty easy time not because they cared about his ideology but because he’s cool. He’s good looking, played basketball, killed a fly with one hand during an interview and was funny and wry. He could even sing. The Kewl kidz thought Obama was fun in a positive way while Trump was even more fun in a negative way. Either way, it’s all about how much fun they’re having.
Here’s more Trump last night, FYI. I don’t think it’s senility. He’s always done this. He’s just mentally and verbally incontinent and always has been.
There is no denying it- Trump is going senile.
It is impossible to watch this clip of him rambling and not come to the same conclusion.
At this point in 2016, former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland – who left office far less popular than Hogan did in Maryland – was in a dogfight against Sen. Rob Portman.
I will be shocked if Maryland sends Hogan to the Senate. He was a popular governor but his time has passed. I’m not even sure he can get Republican votes since the rural areas are very MAGA and he’ll have to separate himself very strongly from Trump. It’s a blue state and I think Democratic voters understand the stakes this time. I hope …
Former president Donald Trump is in a Manhattan courtroom Thursday for a hearing in one of his criminal cases, while a hearing in a different case is held in Atlanta.
In New York, a judge ordered jury selection to begin on March 25 in Trump’s trial related to 2016 hush money payments. The judge also denied a motion to dismiss the case.
The Atlanta hearing centers on allegations that Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) engaged in an improper relationship with a special prosecutor she named to lead the case.
In Manhattan, Trump faces “34 counts of falsifying business records connected with alleged hush money payments made to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.” Trump is in the courtroom now.
In the Georgia case, Trump and others were charged with conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election results there. Trump and some of his co-defendants are seeking to have Willis removed from the case and the charges dismissed. Judge Scott McAfee said Thursday’s hearing will look into whether she financially benefited from hiring special prosecutor Nathan Wade, when their romantic relationship began and whether it continues.
Willis’ continued involvement in the Trump election conspiracy case may turn on when she hired Wade for the Trump case, before or after their relationship began.
NBC News reports that Trump’s effort to have his New York case dismissed failed:
The judge presiding over Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday denied his bid to dismiss the charges against him and ordered his trial to proceed as scheduled next month.
The “defendant’s motions to dismiss have been denied,” Judge Juan Merchan told the packed Manhattan courtroom, which included the former president at the defense table. “We will move ahead with jury selection on March 25th.”
The absurdity of Trump even being considered as a presidential candidate by a major American political party is gobsmacking. The clip below featuring former Chief Assistant District Attorney of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, Karen Friedman Agnifilo, sums up the lunacy of what the rest of the world sees and I’m watching now.
Agnifilo: You’ve got Trump who’s been found by a jury to have sexually assaulted Carroll… and somehow that is not disqualifying for the highest office but Fani Willis is in a consensual relationship and that there’s a hearing happening about this, I think that’s atrocious pic.twitter.com/9u4MyxB0Gs
