Tuesday, January 18, 2022

And another day of subpoenas, not happy justices, strategizing against Trump, Sununu tells it like it is, a coming wave of omicron deaths, the WH website for tests goes live, and pausing 5G because of airline disruptions comes to a close:

“The secret of the demagogue is to make himself as stupid as his audience so they believe they are as clever as he.” — Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

"I can't believe what you say because I see what you do." -- James Baldwin

Deaths

US: 877,240 (+2919)

World: 5,573,399 (+9934)

Cases

US: 68,766,247 (+1,135,056)

World: 335,306,439 (+3,895,548)

Republicans Sing Praises of Civil Rights Icon While Blocking Civil Rights. The Republicans proclaiming their reverence Monday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. make up an all-star roster in the effort to undermine voting rights, a denial of a civil right that disproportionately disenfranchises Black people in the United States.

Rudy Giuliani among Trump allies subpoenaed by Jan. 6 panel. The committee is continuing to widen its scope into Trump’s orbit, this time demanding information and testimony from Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, Sidney Powell and Boris Epshteyn. All four publicly pushed Trump’s baseless voter fraud claims in the months after the election.

Supreme Court justices aren't 'scorpions,' but not happy campers either. Sotomayor has diabetes, a condition that puts her at high risk for serious illness, or even death, from COVID-19. She has been the only justice to wear a mask on the bench since last fall when, amid a marked decline in COVID-19 cases, the justices resumed in-person arguments for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. Now, though, the situation had changed with the omicron surge, and according to court sources, Sotomayor did not feel safe in close proximity to people who were unmasked. Chief Justice John Roberts, understanding that, in some form asked the other justices to mask up. They all did. Except Gorsuch, who, as it happens, sits next to Sotomayor on the bench. His continued refusal since then has also meant that Sotomayor has not attended the justices' weekly conference in person, joining instead by telephone. — Fuck Gorsuch. What a prick. — Anybody who regularly watches Supreme Court arguments is used to seeing testy moments among the justices. But you don't have to be a keen observer these days to see that something out of the ordinary is happening…And, [Feldman] says, if the conservative majority overturns Roe v. Wade, "as it looks like it probably will, it will be doing something the Supreme Court has never done ... in its history, and that is, reverse a fundamental right that ordinary people have enjoyed for 50 years, and say, 'Whoops, ... you never really had this right at all." The court, he maintains, "has never turned back the clock of liberty in that way before." What would be the longer-term consequence of that for the court? Perhaps nothing. It certainly seems preposterous today to imagine enough votes in Congress, especially in the Senate, to expand the size of the court and allow a Democratic president to fill the new seats. And clearly President Biden doesn't want to do that. But some constitutional scholars, like Feldman, see the kind of conservative judicial activism that is unfolding as posing a danger to the court itself not too far down the road. "Abortion, guns and religion are and will always be hot-button front page topics in the United States," Feldman observes, adding that over time, those kinds of decisions "add up," and sooner than one might imagine, there can come a breaking point. "I don't think it will happen through the drip, drip drip," he says. "I think it will happen through the tsunami. But I also think that overturning Roe v. Wade ... could well turn out to be the beginning of that tsunami."

Former Trump administration officials hold call to strategize against former boss' efforts in 2022 and 2024. Around three dozen former Trump administration officials, disillusioned with their former boss and concerned about his impact on the GOP and the nation, held a conference call last Monday to discuss efforts to fend off his efforts to, in their view, erode the democratic process. The only items the group seemed to agree upon in its first meeting, however, were that they're not sure what their way forward should be, and that they are way behind the efforts of former President Donald Trump and his allies to set the stage for 2022, 2024, and beyond. — Even they don’t want him back. And they worked for the motherfucker. 

Chris Sununu explains going from 'pretty close' to no on New Hampshire Senate bid. New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu was on the verge of running for Senate and delivering the Republican Party its biggest recruiting coup of 2022. Then he talked it over with Republican senators…Everything changed after the governor consulted with Republican senators about the aspects of serving on Capitol Hill and what to expect for at least the first two years on the job. Sununu did not like what he heard. “They were all, for the most part, content with the speed at which they weren't doing anything. It was very clear that we just have to hold the line for two years. OK, so I'm just going to be a roadblock for two years. That's not what I do,” Sununu said. The governor said the message from virtually every GOP senator he chatted with — and he chatted with most of them — was that they plan to do little more with the majority they are fighting to win this November than obstruct President Joe Biden until, “hopefully,” 2024 ushers a Republican into the White House. “It bothered me that they were OK with that,” Sununu said. More than that, Sununu was “bothered” by Republicans' seeming inability to answer this question: “I said, ‘OK, so if we're going to get stuff done if we win the White House back, why didn't you do it in 2017 and 2018?’” How did the Republicans Sununu spoke with answer his challenge? “Crickets. Yeah, crickets,” the governor said. “They had no answer.” — Republicans have no plan to help the country. Their only goal is to make rich people richer and people who are not rich suffer. Everyone in their ranks knows this. These comments from Sununu prove it. Never forget, we all lose when you vote Republican.

US faces wave of omicron deaths in coming weeks, models say. The fast-moving omicron variant may cause less severe disease on average, but COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. are climbing and modelers forecast 50,000 to 300,000 more Americans could die by the time the wave subsides in mid-March.

The surge of COVID-19 cases related to the omicron variant has become too much for Kansas officials to keep up with. As a result, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment will end its contact tracing program as of Feb. 1. In a news release, KDHE officials said the decision to end the state's contact outreach and monitoring program, also known as contact tracing, was made due to the large surge in cases, and the fact that the public's willingness to participate has diminished since the start of the pandemic.

How to order free at-home Covid tests: White House website goes live. The website says "every home in the U.S. is eligible to order 4 free at-home COVID-19 tests. The tests are completely free. Orders will usually ship in 7-12 days."

AT&T, Verizon pause some new 5G after airlines raise alarm. AT&T and Verizon will delay launching new wireless service near key airports after the nation’s largest airlines said the service would interfere with aircraft technology and cause widespread flight disruptions.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.