Kicking the 14th Amendment down the road

Whistling past a graveyard. Tiptoeing through a minefield. Neither the courts nor election officials nor Congress want to touch ruling Donald Trump ineligible to serve as president.

Colorado Politics:

A Denver judge on Friday found Donald Trump remains eligible for the state’s 2024 presidential ballot even though he engaged in an insurrection, joining courts elsewhere that have rejected attempts to disqualify the leading Republican candidate.

District Court Judge Sarah B. Wallace determined the provision of the 14th Amendment barring insurrectionists from holding office does not apply to presidents and, therefore, does not disqualify Trump.

“While the Court agrees that there are persuasive arguments on both sides, the Court holds that the absence of the President from the list of positions to which the Amendment applies combined with the fact that Section Three specifies that the disqualifying oath is one to ‘support’ the Constitution whereas the Presidential oath is to ‘preserve, protect and defend’ the Constitution,” Wallace wrote.

‘Tis the season for reluctance

“To be clear, part of the Court’s decision is its reluctance to embrace an interpretation which would disqualify a presidential candidate without a clear, unmistakable indication that such is the intent,” she wrote in a Nov. 17 order.

Nonetheless, the 102-page order offered a damning critique of Trump’s conduct leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, and Wallace concluded Trump did, in fact, incite an insurrection to halt the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory.

Associated Press:

The decision by District Judge Sarah B. Wallace is the third ruling in a little over a week against lawsuits seeking to knock Trump off the ballot by citing Section 3 of the amendment. The Minnesota Supreme Court last week said Trump could remain on the primary ballot because political parties have sole choice over who appears, while a Michigan judge ruled that Congress is the proper forum for deciding whether Section 3 applies to Trump.

Three judges. Three different explanations for why they could not rule Donald Trump disqualified under the 14th Amendment from serving again in elected office.

Ruby Freeman knows well what it’s like to draw the wrath of the Trump cult. As do other election workers. Members of Congress and Secret Service members who sheltered in place during the January 6th attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters do too. Prosecutors involved in Trump cases in New York, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C. face a flood of threats and require beefed-up security details. Sen. Mitt Romney has spent $5,000/day on personal and family security since the Jan. 6 insurrection.

As we head into holiday season, we’ll repeatedly see Hans Gruber fall from the 30th floor of the Nakatomi Tower. But not before he ruins Joe Takagi’s London-made suit by splattering it with Takagi’s brains and blood. The priciest judge’s robes I found online are not nearly that expensive. Still, if I were wearing one I’d rather not see it ruined that way either.

How much of a factor in a judge’s decision-making in a Trump case is the deepening fog of threats, menace, and intimidation from Trump and his followers over Trump’s prosecutions and his attempts to return to the White House he called “a real dump“?

I don’t know. But I do know we put up with this shit. And I’m sick of it.

The soothing sounds of Steely Dan to ease your way into the weekend. You’re welcome.

Steely Dan, guitarist Walter Becker and singer-pianist Donald Fagen are masters of irony and erudition. They grew up listening to Bill Evans, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Charlie Parker and Duke Ellington. Since the late 1960s, they have been a musical Rubik’s Cube, continually honing their integration of jazz and rock. The pair performs Steely Dan hits “Josie” and “Chain Lightning” as well as standards “Mood Indigo” and “Hesitation Blues.”

Originally recorded July 23, 2002. Originally aired in 2003.

Rescue Cubs!

Two very young, orphaned mountain lion siblings were rescued and transported to Oakland Zoo yesterday morning by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) following their search for the kittens, which started yesterday morning. An adult female mountain lion, who CDFW suspects is their mother, was struck by a car and killed on Saturday, November 11th, along Highway 280, near the Hillsboro/Burlingame area. Over the weekend, residents reported seeing two cubs alone near the area, and they were found safe in one of the reporting residents’ backyard. Both kittens are female, approximately six to ten weeks old, and weigh five and five-and-a-half pounds, respectively. These kittens mark the 25th and 26th mountain lion rescues as part of the Zoo’s Rescue and Recovery Program for local wildlife in need.

Upon arrival, at 11:30am today, Oakland Zoo’s Veterinary Hospital staff conducted a thorough health examination on both female cubs. The exam included virus testing, parasite treatment, and bloodwork testing. Additionally, vital fluids were administered to the visibly dehydrated kittens. Although underweight and dehydrated, they are showing no signs of extreme illness at this time. The Zoo’s Vet Hospital staff are awaiting laboratory results to determine if the kittens are anemic and will need blood transfusions.

“Our team will be caring for the cubs daily to restore them to full health and for their overall animal wellbeing,” said Dr. Alex Herman, Oakland Zoo’s Vice President of Veterinary Services.

Orphaned kittens, such as these, remain on average for eight days in the Zoo’s ICU. Once cleared, they are moved to a holding area at the Zoo’s Vet Hospital for weeks or months until CDFW identifies a proper home for the cubs. In the wild, mountain lion cubs need about two years with their mother to learn survival skills. Because the cubs are so young, they lack those skills and cannot return to the wild.

“These cubs became orphans when their mother was struck by a car on a busy highway, a tragedy suffered by wildlife when safe passage across their natural territories isn’t possible. We support and advocate for more wildlife crossings, such as the one opened in Santa Cruz earlier this year on Highway 17,” said Nik Dehejia, Oakland Zoo’s CEO. 

In 2012, the Oakland Zoo participated in a training session focused on resolving conflicts between humans and wildlife. This training led to forming BACAT (Bay Area Cougar Action Team). The alliance brings together various agencies, non-profit organizations, local parks, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and mountain lion researchers. With a shared message and a team-based approach, BACAT aims to create a support system that serves as a model for other regions in California and beyond. Through BACAT, Oakland Zoo has already rescued and rehabilitated 24 mountain lions most of whom were victims of human-wildlife conflicts or wildfires.

To learn more about the Zoo’s Mountain Lion Rescue and Recovery program, visit: https://www.oaklandzoo.org/wildlife-conservation/mountain-lions#taking-action

Via Zooborns

Kevin Drum adds:

There is, obviously, not much that can be done about the fact that Biden reads as old. But having now listened to a number of Biden’s recent speaking gigs, there’s really no question that this is solely about his physical appearance. Cognitively, Biden is perfectly normal. The worst he ever does is the occasional verbal flub, a longtime Biden habit.

Agree with him or not, he says what he means to say and has obviously run the White House to his own specifications. He withdrew from Afghanistan despite internal qualms. He continued negotiating with Joe Manchin even though much of his staff hated the guy. He is staunchly pro-Israel in the face of a virtual staff revolt. He thinks Xi Jinping is a dictator and has repeated this through the grimaces of his Secretary of State.

Contrast that with Donald Trump, who doesn’t read as old but can barely remember who the president is, who he’s run against in the past, and how many world wars we’ve had.

We can either have the charade of an active president with a deteriorating mind behind it, or we can have an actual active president with a strong mind but physical limitations. Which would you rather have?

Yeah, I’m pretty sure what sane people would choose. I’m just not sure a majority of this country is sane right now.

Is social media fueling the economic angst

This explains things a little bit to me:

Look at economic data, and you’d think that young voters would be riding high right now. Unemployment remains low. Job opportunities are plentiful. Inequality is down, wage growth is finally beating inflation, and the economy has expanded rapidly this year.

Look at TikTok, and you get a very different impression — one that seems more in line with both consumer confidence data and President Biden’s performance in political polls.

Several of the economy-related trends getting traction on TikTok are downright dire. The term “Silent Depression” recently spawned a spate of viral videos. Clips critical of capitalism are common. On Instagram, jokes about poor housing affordability are a genre unto themselves.

Social media reflects — and is potentially fueling — a deep-seated angst about the economy that is showing up in surveys of younger consumers and political polls alike. It suggests that even as the job market booms, people are focusing on long-running issues like housing affordability as they assess the economy.

The economic conversation taking place virtually may offer insight into the stark disconnect between optimistic economic data and pessimistic feelings, one that has puzzled political strategists and economists.

Never before was consumer sentiment this consistently depressed when joblessness was so consistently low. And voters rate Mr. Biden badly on economic matters despite rapid growth and a strong job market. Young people are especially glum: A recent poll by The New York Times and Siena College found that 59 percent of voters under 30 rated the economy as “poor.”

That’s where social media could offer insight. Popular interest drives what content plays well — especially on TikTok, where going viral is often the goal. The platforms are also an important disseminator of information and sentiment.

“A lot of people get their information from TikTok, but even if you don’t, your friends do, so you still get looped into the echo chamber,” said Kyla Scanlon, a content creator focused on economic issues who posts carefully researched explainers across TikTok, Instagram and X.

Ms. Scanlon rose to prominence in the traditional news media in part for coining and popularizing the term “vibecession” for how bad consumers felt in 2022 — but she thinks 2023 has seen further souring.

“I think people have gotten angrier,” she said. “I think we’re actually in a worse vibecession now.”

Surveys suggest that people in Generation Z, born after 1996, heavily get their news from social media and messaging apps. And the share of U.S. adults who turn to TikTok in particular for information has been steadily climbing. Facebook is still a bigger news source because it has more users, but about 43 percent of adults who use TikTok get news from it regularly, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center.

It is difficult to say for certain whether negative news on social media is driving bad feelings about the economy, or about the Biden administration. Data and surveys struggle to capture exactly what effect specific news delivery channels — particularly newer ones — have on people’s perceptions, said Katerina Eva Matsa, director of news and information research at the Pew Research Center.

“Is the news — the way it has evolved — making people view things negatively?” she asked. It’s hard to tell, she explained, but “how you’re being bombarded, entangled in all of this information might have contributed.”

In my opinion there is little doubt that Tik Tok is making younger people feel like shit in a million different ways. And I don’t think there’s any doubt that a lot of it is being manipulated by malevolent actors, foreign and domestic.

The young people in my life are doing better economically and they know it. They aren’t out there lamenting the price of eggs because they really weren’t aware of what the prices were before the pandemic induced inflation anyway. Their main thing is wages and jobs which are much improved. They do legitimately complain about housing but it’s not a recent thing. They’ve been stuck still living at home or sharing space with others for quite some time and they see it as a normal, if frustrating, fact of life. None of them are Tik Tok people though. They hang on Youtube and Instagram.

That’s just my personal experience but I do think there’s something happening on TikTok that’s very toxic. Some of it’s great. I enjoy the comedy myself. But this other stuff, like the bin Laden letter being circulated with a positive mention and getting millions of views is creepy. And I think this negative “vibe” is creepy too.

While the Israel-Gaza horror carries on, Biden and Xi manage to thaw the frozen relationship with China a little bit

This David Sanger piece is a nice succinct rundown of the summit this week Between Biden and Xi:

When President Biden met President Xi Jinping on Wednesday on the edges of Silicon Valley, there was a subtle but noticeable shift in the power dynamic between two countries that have spent most of the past few years denouncing, undercutting and imposing sanctions on each other.

For the first time in years, a Chinese leader desperately needed a few things from the United States. Mr. Xi’s list at the summit started with a revival of American financial investments in China and a break in the technology export controls that have, at least temporarily, crimped Beijing’s ability to make the most advanced semiconductors and the artificial intelligence breakthroughs they enable.

All this may explain why Mr. Biden’s aides were able to negotiate, fairly quickly by Chinese diplomatic standards, potentially major breakthroughs on stopping the flow of the chemical precursors for fentanyl to the United States and a resumption of military-to-military communications, critical for two superpowers whose forces bump up against each other every day.

The lurking question now is whether Mr. Xi’s charm offensive — on full display Wednesday night as he entertained chief executives — marks a lasting shift or a tactical maneuver.

While Mr. Biden’s aides were pleased by the concrete outcomes of the summit, they readily conceded those may be short-lived, designed to get Mr. Xi through the roughest era of bankruptcies, property-value collapses and loss of consumer confidence in four decades. Nonetheless, Mr. Biden seems happy to take advantage of the breathing space, hoping that he will have more time before the presidential election to rebuild manufacturing competitiveness and hem in China’s gains in the Pacific.

But few doubt that when he can, Mr. Xi will reignite his effort to displace the United States as the most skilled military, technological and economic power in the world.

Still, the change in tone, even if temporary, was welcome. It began over the summer, when Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken made a trip to Beijing that had been delayed by the Chinese spy-balloon incident. With the depths of the economic crisis in China becoming apparent, Mr. Blinken reported back that he was struck by an eagerness there for visits by Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo. There were quiet meetings in Vienna, and then Washington, between Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, and his counterpart, Wang Yi.

It was all designed to culminate in the meeting with Mr. Xi, which lasted for four hours on Wednesday at the Filoli mansion and gardens.

During the meeting, Mr. Xi complained about the damage done to China by its portrayal as a villain in the United States, according to administration officials who would not speak on the record about the discussions. Mr. Xi voiced his longest and loudest protests about the cutoff of the fastest computer chips, which Mr. Biden responded would help the Chinese military. The two leaders were at fundamental odds on that issue: What Mr. Xi sees as economic strangulation, Mr. Biden sees as an issue of national security.

But the tone was always measured, sometimes friendly, leavened with Mr. Biden’s recollections of past trips with Mr. Xi in China, the United States and at summits around the world. Mr. Xi then fine-tuned his speech for the C.E.O.s to recall happier moments in the U.S.-China relationship.

“It did strike me that it was a speech that could be given seven or 10 years ago in the era of engagement,” said Michael Froman, the former U.S. trade representative and Citigroup executive, who recently became president of the Council on Foreign Relations and attended the dinner. “It was as if the era of ‘wolf-warrior diplomacy’ had never happened, and some of the events of the past few years had not occurred.”

In fact, the most striking element of the visit was Mr. Xi’s seeming abandonment of the “wolf warrior” tone — one the Chinese leader himself had encouraged.

The phrase came to embrace a Chinese diplomatic style, aimed especially but hardly exclusively at the United States, in which Chinese envoys described the end of an era of American dominance. China was rising, the wolf warriors declared, and America was in unstoppable decline. The arguments tracked closely with some that Mr. Xi himself made in speeches to party leaders and military officials in Beijing.

Mr. Xi dispatched one of his favorite wolf warriors, Qin Gang, to Washington as his handpicked ambassador. During Mr. Biden’s first year, the emissary spokes about “lies, disinformation” about China that were “spreading every day.” He complained, “China is being treated like a kid, being scolded by his or her parents every day. ‘You are wrong. You need to do this. You shouldn’t do that.’”

So when Mr. Qin was recalled from Washington to become foreign minister, there was an assumption in Washington that his approach had been a success — and he was being rewarded for the blunt, in-your-face diplomacy that once led Mr. Sullivan to ask aloud: “Who calls their diplomats wolf warriors?”

Mr. Xi appears to have rethought the wisdom of doing so. Mr. Qin disappeared over the summer, not long after meeting Mr. Blinken in Beijing. The conversations underway since have been largely practical, not polemical.

Mr. Blinken was able to negotiate outlines of the crackdown on the precursor chemicals for fentanyl during his summer trip, and the Chinese quickly made it illegal to trade in those chemicals — and in the past week or so began arresting violators, most identified by the United States. It was reminiscent of a previous era when China would crack down on arms and technology companies selling parts to North Korea, or Iran. Still, American officials caution that they fully expect some of the makers of the chemicals will figure out how to avoid the sanctions, and they will come back on the market. But this complicates their lives.

When the conversation on Wednesday turned to military-to-military communications, Mr. Xi repeatedly urged Mr. Biden to just pick up the phone and call him if there was a problem. Of course, calls between the leaders of the two countries are never that easy.

Everything is so fraught right now on the international front that it’s like a balm to see something that shows the possibility of even the slightest progress. I’ll take it.

The Speaker of the House has called an early recess for the Thanksgiving break because his Republicans members were so punchy from all the infighting and name-calling that they allowed a continuing budget resolution with no budget cuts to pass, mostly with Democratic votes, and couldn’t even work up a good old-fashioned cry. There are a few die hards who are still shaking their fists on the Capitol steps vowing never to let it happen again but nobody has the energy to cheer them on at this point:

"Strike one, strike two," Chip Roy warns Speaker Johnson after short-term spending bill was approved with Dem support under suspension of the rules and without spending cuts.
"The swamp won and the speaker needs to know that."

MTG: "It's extremely concerning to me" pic.twitter.com/P7IbW5MJqZ

— Manu Raju (@mkraju) November 16, 2023

Their obsession with “individual spending bills” instead of omnibus legislation doesn’t really seem like the greatest idea at the moment since they can’t even get their own draconian spending bills to the floor much less pass them. So I’m not sure why they thought a government shutdown was going to shake anything loose. Not that it really matters. They have not done any actual legislating since this congress convened nearly a year ago so why start now?

America is tired too — tired of their inane, infantile, behavior. And people are no doubt grateful to be spared any more of it for the next week or so. Unfortunately, these Republicans are ready to hit the ground running when they come back with the only thing they know how to do: put on a circus sideshow to own the libs.

The new Speaker, Mike Johnson, issued a statement this week that he thinks they’ve got the goods on Joe Biden and it’s time to put the finishing touched on that impeachment inquiry:

At this stage, our impeachment inquiry has already shown the corrupt conduct of the President’s family, and that he and White House officials have repeatedly lied about his knowledge and involvement in his family’s business activities,It has also exposed the tens of millions of dollars from foreign adversaries being paid to shell companies controlled by the president’s son, brother, and their business associates. Now, the appropriate step is to place key witnesses under oath and question them under the penalty of perjury, to fill gaps in the record

Actually, the impeachment inquiry has been a total bust. Most of what they say has been “exposed” were things that were already known before they started and they didn’t show corrupt behavior then and they don’t show corruption now. This business about “shell companies” has been debunked over and over again. The companies the Republicans list as shady money laundering entities which Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., describe as “fake” companies “don’t make anything…don’t produce anything …don’t provide a good or service” are actual businesses with employees and everything. It may sounds impressive to sling those important sounding words around on Hannity guest spots but that doesn’t make them true.

Comer’s committee has already subpoenaed thousands of documents and bank records which have, as far as we know, only turned up the copy of a $200,000 check from James Biden paying back a loan to his brother, who was out of office at the time, which they claim without evidence was some sort of money laundering scheme. Apparently, Comer and company forgot to mention that the same bank documents show that the loans were made and paid back in a matter of weeks, putting the lie to the claim that they represented some kind scheme concocted years before when Biden was in office. (It turns out that Comer himself has a checkered history of six figure transactions between he and his own brother with some very shady tax implications and it infuriated him to have that pointed out in a hearing on Tuesday.)

Last week the committee sent voluntary interview requests to several members of Biden’s family, including James’ wife, Biden’s late son Beau’s widow Hallie, Elizabeth Secundy, Hallie Biden’s sister, Hunter Biden’s wife and Tony Bobulinski a nefarious character who used to work with Hunter Biden. (He’s the man who former White House staffer Cassidy Hutchinson described in her book as wearing a ski mask when clandestinely meeting with then Chief of Staff Mark Meadows at the behest of “the boss.”) It’s unknown when or if they might appear.

And Comer also authorized the subpoenas of Hunter Biden, James Biden, the president’s brother, as well as Rob Walker, one of their business associates. They are demanding that Walker appears on November 29th, James Biden on December 4th and Hunter a week after that (as an early Christmas present to Donald Trump.)

If this testimony goes as badly for them as the first and only hearing they have held, I won’t be surprised if we end up with another brawl in the committee room. One Republican staffer called it “an unmitigated disaster” and another said they had “botched this bad.”

Even their biggest fans were unimpressed:

On Steve Bannon’s show, they have been ripping Jim Jordan and James Comer all day: “Today really was rock bottom. Our House Republicans don’t know what they’re doing. These people are fundamentally unserious.” pic.twitter.com/cWsimz2uW5

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 28, 2023

Just to recap what happened, the Democrats ran circles around their so-called expert witnesses who ended up admitting that there wasn’t enough evidence to impeach and once again made all the tiresome recitations of exonerating facts about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine. It was so bad that Comer later said the didn’t think there’s be a need for any more public hearings.

And Speaker Johnson said recently in a closed door meeting that he wasn’t sure it was necessary to continue with the inquiry at all since Joe Biden’s popularity was already low, proving that this is a partisan exercise to damage the president’s re-election chances. (Coincidentally, you may recall that Kevin McCarthy lost his first bid for the speakership back in 2014 for saying the same thing about the Benghazi hearings and Hillary Clinton.)

But Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio wants the chance to browbeat Hunter and James Biden on TV so they’re going to try it again. And I would expect it will be no more convincing than the first although it will get huge ratings and the Fox News hosts will be frothing at the mouth. And that, in the end, is what these people believe is their job description.

It is almost assured that when all is said and done, Joe Biden is going to be impeached. It’s possible that a few GOP members who are in danger of losing their seats in the next election might balk and the vote will fail, but I wouldn’t count on it:

Hannity asked House Republicans if they expect Joe Biden to be impeached.

Nearly everyone in the room raised their hands. pic.twitter.com/E36Fz8a2yH

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) November 2, 2023

They may not be able to perform the most basic functions of governing but they know that their leader, Donald Trump, demands his retribution. And they will do his bidding if they possibly can.

Salon

Who needs consultants?

When opponents write your campaign ads for you?

Roy: One thing. I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing. One. That I can go campaign on and say we did. Anybody sitting in the complex, if you want to come down to the floor and come explain to me, one meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done pic.twitter.com/RGc4FTAelt

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 15, 2023

Vanity Fair:

On Wednesday, Representative Chip Roy took to House floor to tear into his fellow Republicans, accusing them of doing literally nothing useful with their time in Washington—definitely not anything he could actually tell voters about in an effort to get reelected. “You know, we have had a tumultuous year of sorts, but in the eyes of the American people, they’ve been watching from afar wondering when this body, the people’s House, will stand up in defense of the people who send us here,” Roy said. “When are we going to do what we said we would do?” Taking aim expressly at his GOP colleagues, Roy added: “For the life of me, I do not understand how you can go to the trouble of campaigning, raising money, going to events, talking to people, coming to this town as a member of a party who allegedly stands for something…and then do nothing about it. One thing: I want my Republican colleagues to give me one thing—one—that I can go campaign on and say we did. One!” Then he dared any Republicans in the room to come to the floor and “explain to me one material, meaningful, significant thing the Republican majority has done.”

You think Trump doesn’t mean you?

What Sinclair Lewis did say in It Can’t Happen Here: “But he saw too that in America the struggle was befogged by the fact that the worst Fascists were they who disowned the word ‘Fascism’ and preached enslavement to Capitalism under the style of Constitutional and Traditional Native American Liberty.”

The more familiar quote misattributed to Lewis was just years ahead of its time. Whatever. The truth of it seems increasingly evident.

Wrapped in the flag? ☑

Carrying a cross? ☑

We need it

The world is exhausting right now and I’ve reached my bandwidth for the day. So here’s a little something less important that might bring a little happiness:

Chinese President Xi Jinping signaled that China will send new pandas to the United States, calling them “envoys of friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.”

“We are ready to continue our cooperation with the United States on panda conservation, and do our best to meet the wishes of the Californians so as to deepen the friendly ties between our two peoples,” Xi said Wednesday during a dinner speech with business leaders.

The gesture came at the end of a day in which Xi and President Biden held their first face to face meeting in a year and pledged to try to reduce tensions. Xi did not share additional details on when or where pandas might be provided but appeared to suggest the next pair of pandas are most likely to come to California, probably San Diego.

The bears have long been the symbol of the U.S.-China friendship since Beijing gifted a pair of pandas to the National Zoo in Washington in 1972, ahead of the normalization of bilateral relations. Later, Beijing loaned the pandas to other U.S. zoos, with proceeds going back to panda conservation programs.

The National Zoo’s three giant pandas, Mei Xiang, Tian Tian and their cub Xiao Qi Ji, eight days ago began their long trip to China. After their departure, only four pandas are left in the United States, in the Atlanta Zoo.

“I was told that many American people, especially children, were really reluctant to say goodbye to the pandas, and went to the zoo to see them off,” Xi said in his speech. He added that he learned the San Diego Zoo and people in California “very much look forward to welcoming pandas back.”

Yes, yes we will. It’s not much but I’ll take it.