Josh Marshall/TPM:
Let’s Get Real about Ginni (And Clarence) Thomas
But all of this, I would say, dances around the real issue that I think all of us understand. Ginni Thomas obviously discussed all of this with her husband. We can pretend not to know this but we do. It was very clear that much of this controversy would or could end up before the Supreme Court. After all, this all turns on the fundamental laws of the state, which only the Supreme Court can arbitrate. Is there anything about these texts, either their substance or their affect, that tells you, “Oh, well, she clearly felt strongly about this but she would know not to broach the subject with her husband or push him on it.” Oh course, not. These texts are from someone who is fully feral, invoking God, a pitched battle between good and evil and more. Of course she talked about it with her husband! She thinks Joe Biden is an illegitimate interloper and for the first time in a quarter millennium patriots must overturn an election and install the loser in office and she’s going to be mindful of not discussing the matter with her husband? That’s clearly absurd.
Given what we know about their politics-saturated marriage (entirely common in DC) and their shared political activism which has been very public for decades, it’s all but a certainty not only that the two discussed it extensively but that the two were on the same page. You think we don’t know that? Gimme a break.
Mike the Mad Biologist/blog:
Professional Democrats Do Not Comprehend What They Are Facing
What Republicans put Jackson through today was appalling. The QAnon Reddit smear was appalling, the relentless shouting that she should answer questions she had answered multiple times was appalling, the snide insinuations that maybe she wasn’t bothered by violent child pornography because she’s OK with it was appalling. To be subject to an all-out inquisition about not having clairvoyance about which sex offenders would reoffend by some of the very same people who invited and justified the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capitol beggared belief.
The other recent Republican propaganda stream has been to accuse Democrats of supporting ‘grooming’ of children by gay people–a vile and pernicious smear–because Democrats are opposing “don’t say gay” (in schools) bills.
These might not seem related, but they’re both part of an attempt to link Democrats with pedophilia and child abuse. While this is red meat for the significant Q-Anon wing of the Republican Party, it is also an attempt to completely smear Democrats in the most vile way. Yet professional Democrats do nothing. Meanwhile, when a Republican senator says the Supreme Court was wrong to legalize interracial marriage, professional Democrats are quiet.
Professional Democrats suck at their jobs.
Pizzagate on steroids, now pushed by Republican Senators and Congressmen/women.
Greg Sargent/WaPo:
‘Morning Joe’ shock over Ginni Thomas points to a hidden Jan. 6 truth
[Trump CoS Mark] Meadows texted to Ginni Thomas that the “King of Kings” would ultimately “triumph” in the quest to overturn the election, which Meadows characterized as “a fight of good versus evil.” Thomas, a longtime conservative activist, replied: “Thank you!! Needed that!”
This sparked serious consternation on “Morning Joe,” with host Joe Scarborough delivering an emotional diatribe about it. “Think about the sickness of this,” Scarborough said Friday. “He summons the name of Jesus Christ for his help in overturning American democracy!”
The sentiment is understandable. But what this level of shock really indicates is this: We haven’t paid enough attention to the role of right-wing Christian nationalism in driving Trump’s effort to destroy our political order, and in the abandonment of democracy among some on the right more broadly.
Edward Luce/Twitter:
Have received a number of challenges and pushback to my equation of Putin's horrific Ukraine blunder with George W. Bush's Iraq one. Here’s my answer (forgive me: it’s a quiet morning)
This isn’t a moral contest, which I wouldn’t begin to know how to measure. It’s not ethical math. One’s invasion is a narcissistic swing for history based on bad intel bullied out of nervous professionals. The other is what Putin is up to.
Both invasions were based on manipulated ignorance. Fwiw, Ukraine is next door to Russia. Iraq is halfway around the world from us. I emphasise geography because some still believe Bush was well intentioned while Putin is dark. I agree Putin is a war criminal.
But if you consult a map, it should give you pause. Bush/Cheney got the system, including the media, to frame Iraq. My equivalence is about geopolitics. I don’t doubt Putin’s threat is existential & he must lose. If you’re a small country, you’ll feel Putin’s menace more keenly
In other words, the 2003 bloggers got it right.
NY Times:
Chris Wallace Says Life at Fox News Became ‘Unsustainable’
As he starts a new streaming show at CNN, the longtime TV anchor reflects on his decision to leave Fox News after 18 years.
“I just no longer felt comfortable with the programming at Fox.”
Chris Wallace uttered those words matter-of-factly, in between bites of a Sweetgreen salad at his new desk inside the Washington bureau of CNN, the network he joined in January after nearly two decades at Fox News.
For those on the left who admired him, and those on the right who doubted him, it’s a statement that was a long time coming…
So why did Mr. Wallace change the channel?
“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” Mr. Wallace said in his first extensive interview about his decision to leave. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
The Kremlin tries to stifle Radio Free Europe — and its audience surges
As the U.S.-funded broadcaster is forced to shut most of its Russian operations, its Web traffic indicates that Russian people are eagerly consuming its stories
But the story didn’t end there. The Russian people are searching for information, however they can. The proof is in the numbers,[Jamie Fly, the CEO of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty] told me.
In the first three weeks after the invasion, page views from Russia to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty sites skyrocketed to 26 million, more than 50 percent more than an earlier corresponding period. Video views from Russia to their YouTube channels more than tripled to 237 million. And this was happening despite sites being blocked within Russia.
“Despite the Kremlin pressure, people are still hungry for the truth,” Fly told me. “To some extent, they see through the propaganda, and they want to explore broader sources of information.”
See rest of thread.
Pizzagate = QAnon = numerous elements of the Republican party. I hope the beltway media is trying to understand how deep QAnon goes in the modern GOP. This isn't fringe, it's core.
Oh, and this in Ukraine:
David Rothkopf/Daily Beast:
Biden’s Facts Don’t Care About Putin’s Feelings
While America’s media is embroiled in another confected controversy, this one about whether Joe Biden hurt Vladimir Putin’s feelings by speaking the truth, it is missing two far bigger stories.
One of those stories is the historical shift signaled by Biden’s Warsaw speech. While some compared it to Kennedy’s “Ich bin ein berliner” speech or Reagan’s “Mr. Gorbachev tear down that wall” address, Biden’s was more like the speech given by Winston Churchill in Fulton Missouri on March 5, 1946. In that speech, with the words “From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent” the former British Prime Minister defined the front line of Europe’s new Cold War reality.
With his remarks, Biden acknowledged that, solely as a consequence of the ruthless aggression of Vladimir Putin, Europe was once again divided. More broadly, he defined the struggle of the moment as “a new great battle for freedom: a battle between democracy and autocracy, between liberty and repression, between rules-based order and one governed by brute force.”
And this in the US: