Lindsey Boylan, a former aide for New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo who has accused him of sexual misconduct, said on Wednesday that she did not intend to take part in the state-led impeachment probe into claims against the Democratic governor.
Life comes at you fast sometimes. Just last summer, Zach Rehl led his Philadelphia-based contingent of Proud Boys in a counterprotest to support then-Vice President Mike Pence. This week, he was arrested for helping lead a mob inside the U.S. Capitol that was intent on lynching Pence.
Rehl was one of two Proud Boys arrested by the FBI this week and charged with the most serious federal crimes facing the insurrectionists at the Jan 6 Capitol siege: conspiracy to obstruct the certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, and to attack Capitol Police officers. Also arrested this week was a Proud Boys leader from North Carolina, Charles Donohoe.
A total of 13 Proud Boys, who played a central role in the ability of the pro-Trump mob to break down police barricades and enter the Capitol building that day, have now been charged in the insurrection. The indictment is similar to one unveiled by prosecutors against two other key Proud Boys figures—Ethan Nordean and Joe Biggs—who played key roles in leading the mob that day.
Last July, Rehl’s Philadelphia Proud Boys group gathered outside a Fraternal Order of Police lodge where Pence was speaking, and a small cluster of protesters had gathered. The men shouted at Black Lives Matter protesters and at a group of women.
Rehl, left, with Biggs on Jan. 6.
Rehl, a 35-year-old Port Richmond man, was among them, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, “drinking beer and chatting with others in the parking lot who were openly carrying a Proud Boys flag.” Among the men they were chatting with were Philadelphia police officers, underscoring the Proud Boys’ cozy relationship with police officers around the country—a relationship that helped feed their smug far-right extremism. Rehl is a veteran and the son of two Philadelphia police officers.
On Jan. 6, their view of Pence had clearly transformed, largely because the vice president had chosen not to try to contest the validation of the Electoral College votes as Donald Trump had urged him to do—which the crowd at Trump’s rally that morning viewed as a betrayal. The mob entering the Capitol was filmed chanting: “Hang Mike Pence!” Pence himself narrowly escaped encountering this mob, it was revealed during Trump’s subsequent impeachment trial.
Rehl, who later turned up in photos in The New Yorker showing Proud Boys trashing the Senate offices of Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley, is expected to have his first hearing in federal court in Philadelphia Friday. His indictment makes clear that federal prosecutors are preparing a conspiracy case charging several Proud Boys with conspiracy, including Biggs and Nordean.
According to indictments released in those cases, investigators say that Biggs, 37, of Ormond Beach, Florida, and Nordean, 30, of Auburn, Washington, were equipped with radios and a bullhorn as they led a mob of about 100 men through the streets of Washington and up the Capitol Mall. Several Proud Boys were among the rioters who shattered windows that enabled others to enter the building and attack Capitol Police officers inside.
Republicans in Washington are finally starting to realize they botched the first big political battle of Joe Biden's presidency, according to Politico. That belated revelation comes as a new poll from Politico/Morning Consult showed the American Rescue Plan garnering 72% support among voters (with just 21% opposing it) and Biden notching a 62% approval rating in the survey. Over the weekend, a CBS-YouGov survey also found that 71% of Americans think the $1.9 trillion plan will help the middle class more than wealthy Americans—which is true.
In retrospect, Republicans are now wondering whether their laser-like focus on the great Seuss-silencing and Potato Head scandals of 2021 really met the political moment. Hmm.
“Whenever there is something that goes into pop culture and now all this cancel culture stuff, it is catnip for the base and the media and Republicans are going to talk about that,” GOP strategist Doug Heye told Politico.
Shocker—Republicans got caught up in a useless round of conservative media-fueled demagoguery while the rest of America reeled from the greatest public health disaster in a century. Democrats simply blew right past Republicans to answer the national need. But what confounds GOP strategists is that the Republican party really mounted no concerted effort to oppose the Democratic legislation as it gained widespread traction and was broadly embraced by voters.
That's left people like Steve Bannon crying in his coffee. “It’s a fairly popular bill that polled well because it’s been sold as a COVID relief bill with direct cash payments to Americans—what’s not to like?” Bannon said. “However, that’s not what the bill is. That’s a huge problem because 2022 has already started and you don’t see the fight here.”
The Republican National Committee, for instance, issued a meager two statements about the bill. Conservative media went down the Seuss-Potato rabbit hole. And GOP lawmakers—who helped Donald Trump crank up the national debt by $7.8 trillion—apparently felt a little squeamish about suddenly attacking pandemic-related spending.
“Republicans lost credibility on [the deficit] issue during the Trump years, especially the first couple years when we had the power to do something about it,” said Brendan Steinhauser, a GOP consultant. “There was no interest in doing anything about it. It was just, ‘let’s not even talk about spending or the debt or deficit or anything like that.’”
Even Democrats have been baffled by the Republican whiff on such a major battle. John Anzalone, an external Biden adviser and former Biden campaign pollster, was amazed that Republicans settled on framing the package as unrelated to COVID-19 when so many Americans who will get the relief money are specifically reeling from pandemic-related illness, joblessness, and financial struggles.
“This is just really mind-boggling,” Anzalone said. “At a time that we’re going through three or four crises at once, they have basically just punted. They've completely punted.”
But the lack of a coordinated GOP campaign with only helter-skelter attempts to mount an opposition is really emblematic of a much bigger problem for the Republican party—it no longer knows what it is or what it stands for. With no core values to operate on after they spent four years surrendering the party to a completely unmoored Donald Trump, Republicans don't have any go-to plays or even messengers for that matter.
And once again, their main messenger—Trump—was so consumed with his own pity party over the lost election and impeachment that it crippled the party's ability to settle on a line of attack and prosecute it in the media.
This will be a continual problem moving forward for Republicans. It's not only a question of, “what do they stand for?” but one of, “who can even carry that message”?
People like Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina made feeble attempts at smearing the legislation, calling it "reparations" for Black farmers. Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas skewered Democrats for not excluding inmates from getting relief. But Cotton had voted in favor of a COVID-19 package under Trump that also included payments for those very same inmates.
The lack of both message and messenger has left Republicans hoping against hope that relief that has already started hitting bank accounts and will continue to target life-saving funds to the nation's neediest will somehow plummet in popularity.
“It’s at the peak of its popularity right now and the more it becomes unpopular we’ll pound against them,” said one GOP aide.
But who exactly will do the pounding and what in the heck will they say? No one even has a clue—least of all, Republicans.
One of the women accusing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment is slamming the state Assembly’s choice in retaining law firm Davis Polk to lead its impeachment investigation, calling it an “unacceptable conflict of interest” due to the firm’s alleged connection to the governor.
The New York Assembly on Wednesday retained a law firm to lead an impeachment investigation into the allegations of sexual harassment against Gov. Andrew Cuomo.
President Biden believes an investigation into sexual harassment claims against Andrew Cuomo needs to play out, but if the allegations are proven true, the New York Governor should resign.
Biden’s comments, made during an interview with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos Tuesday night, are another sign that the President is playing it safe with an ally he once reportedly considered for Attorney General.
“I know you said you want the investigation to continue,” Stephanopoulos said to Biden. “If the investigation confirms the claims of the women, should he resign?”
“Yes,” Biden replied. “I think he’ll probably end up being prosecuted, too.”
EXCLUSIVE: @GStephanopoulos on Gov. Andrew Cuomo: “If the investigation confirms the claims of the women, should he resign?”
Biden: Cuomo Should Resign If Women’s Allegations Are True
Of the scandals currently plaguing Cuomo, the sexual harassment claims, while nauseating, are more sensational but not quite as serious as the scandals involving nursing home deaths, obstructing justice revolving around the nursing home deaths, and threatening lawmakers.
That said, whatever happened to ‘believe all women?’
Now suddenly it’s ‘believe all women as long as a thorough investigation proves they’re not lying.’
Despite near-universal calls for Cuomo’s resignation from Democrats and Republicans, President Biden continues to play it safe.
“A woman should be presumed to be telling the truth and should not be scapegoated and become victimized by her coming forward,” the President said. “There should be an investigation to determine whether what she says is true.”
BREAKING: N.Y. lawmakers have opened an impeachment investigation into Gov. Cuomo as a growing number of them call for his resignation amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
Democrat New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting an independent investigation into the numerous sexual harassment claims, one of which involves groping a female aide.
The Albany Times Union reported that Cuomo “aggressively groped” the woman “in a sexually charged manner” after summoning her to the Executive Chamber.
The incident allegedly involved the Democrat governor “reach(ing) under her blouse” and fondling her.
An incident with potential criminal activity has since been reported to Albany police by the New York State Executive Chamber.
A reporter this past weekend became the seventh woman to accuse Cuomo of inappropriate touching saying, “Andrew Cuomo’s hands had been on my body … often enough by late 2014 that I didn’t want to go to the holiday party he was hosting for the Albany press corps.”
Stephanopoulos is considered a journalist, yet he didn’t think to then ask Biden about Cuomo killing thousands of seniors or perhaps inquiring about Biden’s own numerous allegations of unwanted touching or assault.
Stephanopoulos, often hailed as an exemplary member of the media, failed to follow up with Biden on two obvious transitions.
One, the more severe transgression involving the nursing home scandal, in which Cuomo’s executive order last March forced senior living facilities to take on COVID-positive patients, resulting in thousands of deaths, plus the subsequent cover-up that his administration confessed to.
And two, the more obvious transition, questioning Biden about his own numerous allegations of inappropriate touching.
No, Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegations against President Biden never dawned on Stephanopoulus.
Reade made an allegation of sexual assault against Biden during a podcast back last March after alluding to harassment in his office in the past.
“His hands were on me and underneath my clothes,” she alleged, claiming that when the assault was over Biden said, “C’mon man, I heard you liked me.”
Biden has repeatedly denied Reade’s story is true, saying her “claim has changed” and that “the truth of the case is nothing like this ever, ever happened.”
Perhaps that is why Biden can’t commit to calling on Cuomo to resign based on these women’s stories.
New York lawmakers are preparing an impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but should they vote to hold a trial, the outcome will be determined in part by the state's seven Court of Appeals judges — all of whom were appointed by Cuomo himself.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's state Assembly hired a Manhattan law firm to assist its impeachment investigation of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, legislative leaders announced Wednesday.
The firm of Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, which has more than 900 attorneys and offices around the world, will lead the probe, Assembly ...
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
●MA-Gov: YouGov's new poll for UMass Amherst finds Republican Gov. Charlie Baker leading five different Democrats in hypothetical 2022 general election matchups, but not by the massive spreads he's accustomed to. What's more, a huge portion of respondents are undecided in each trial heat, which makes it especially difficult to tell how much danger Baker might actually be in if he were to run for a third term.
First, the numbers, with Baker's share first in each case:
However, while YouGov finds Baker leading Healey by just three points and well under 50% against the other four Democrats, there's a big reason to be cautious. In that matchup a plurality of 34% of respondents are undecided (the remaining 7% say they would not vote), a proportion that's even higher in three of the other trial heats, and even in the Baker-Kennedy scenario, 28% still mark themselves as not sure.
All of that makes this poll hard to interpret and therefore not particularly helpful to understanding what the future might hold. Assuming the sample accurately reflects next year's electorate—no easy feat—it's still possible that, this far from Election Day, a huge number of voters really are on the fence and could go either way. However, it's just as possible that YouGov, for whatever reason, isn't doing enough to push respondents to express their preferences.
A considerably larger portion of YouGov's panel, though, did give its opinion of Baker's performance in office, with a 52-39 majority saying they approve. That's a positive number, especially for a Republican in a very blue state, but it's a massive drop from the 68-29 score Baker chalked up in October, the last time YouGov polled him for the school. It's also far lower than what almost every other poll has found since Baker took office in 2015: Last month, for instance, MassInc showed Baker with a 74-20 score.
Events since those two polls were conducted, including Massachusetts' widely panned coronavirus vaccine rollout, may have hurt the governor, but the two pollsters' methodologies may simply be leading them to measure public opinion differently. No matter what, though, we should never let one survey determine our view of a contest. Hopefully, more firms will survey the Bay State in the near future to give us a better idea as to whether Baker remains strong at home or if he really could be in for a tough race if he runs again.
Senate
●GA-Sen: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Greg Bluestein reports that Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson is considering a bid against Democratic incumbent Raphael Warnock.
Ferguson, who was elected in 2016 to represent a safely red seat in the southwestern Atlanta exurbs, has not said anything publicly, though unnamed allies tell Bluestein he’s “being pressured by some state and national GOP figures” to run. Bluestein also notes that Ferguson is an ally of former Rep. Doug Collins, who is openly mulling another bid here, though it remains to be seen how that might impact either man’s calculations.
Several other Republicans are thinking about getting in. Bluestein relays that one of those “said to be considering” is businessman Kelvin King, though there’s no other word on King’s interest.
●IA-Sen: Retired Vice Adm. Mike Franken, a Democrat who lost last year's primary for Iowa's other Senate seat, told The Gazette on Monday that he's not ruling out a campaign against Republican incumbent Chuck Grassley. Franken said of Grassley, who has not yet said if he'll seek an eighth term, "A lot can happen in six months, but I think the prudent person would expect that he would run again. Betting otherwise would be a fool's pursuit."
Last year, Franken went up against businesswoman Theresa Greenfield, who had the backing of the national Democratic establishment, in a very difficult primary. Greenfield, who decisively outspent Franken and benefited from close to $7 million in outside spending, beat him 48-25 before losing to Republican Sen. Joni Ernst months later.
Governors
●AZ-Gov: Former homeland security official Marco López, a Democrat who previously served as mayor of Nogales, on Tuesday became the first notable candidate from either party to announce a bid to succeed termed-out Republican Gov. Doug Ducey. López, whose parents emigrated to the United States from Mexico, would be the state's second-ever Latino governor following fellow Democrat Raul Castro, who was elected in 1974 and resigned in 1977 to become Jimmy Carter's ambassador to Argentina.
López himself won elected office in 2000 when he was elected mayor of Nogales, which shares a name with its far larger neighbor on the other side of the international border, at the age of 22. After serving in several state posts under Arizona's last Democratic governor, Janet Napolitano, López also worked under her at the Department of Homeland Security as chief of staff for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
López, who has spent the last decade as an international business consultant, has also acted as an advisor to billionaire Carlos Slim, who is the richest man in Mexico and one of the wealthiest people in the world. The Arizona Republic, though, writes that López is pushing back on "rumors" that he'd fund his bid with his own money. López instead said he'd be asking for donations, though he doesn't appear to have addressed if he's open to self-funding some of his campaign.
López will likely have company in next year's primary as Team Blue looks to score another win in a state that Joe Biden narrowly carried in 2020. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said about a year ago that she was considering and would likely decide in early 2021, though she doesn't appear to have given any other details about her deliberations since then. A few other Democrats have also been mentioned, though no one else seems to have said anything publicly about their interest.
House
●AZ-02: State Rep. Randy Friese confirmed Tuesday that he was considering running to succeed his fellow Democrat, retiring Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, in this Tucson-area seat.
●TX-06: This week, 22nd District Rep. Troy Nehls became the state’s fifth Republican House member to back party activist Susan Wright in the May 1 all-party primary to succeed her late husband, Rep. Ron Wright. Another GOP candidate, former Trump HHS official Brian Harrison, also used his second TV ad to talk about what a “big government” hater he is.
Mayors
●Los Angeles, CA Mayor: On Monday, City Councilman Joe Buscaino announced that he would compete in next year's race to succeed termed-out incumbent Eric Garcetti as mayor of America's second-most populous city. Buscaino joins City Attorney Mike Feuer, a fellow Democrat who kicked off his campaign a year ago, in the June 2022 nonpartisan primary, and there are plenty of other politicians in this very blue city who could get in.
Before we take a look at the current and potential fields, though, we'll address why this contest is taking place in an even-numbered year for the first time in living memory. Mayoral races in The City of Angels have been low-turnout affairs for a long time, with only just over 20% voters turning out for the very competitive 2013 contest that Garcetti ultimately won.
But in 2015, voters, albeit on another ultra-low turnout citywide Election Day, overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure to require city elections to coincide with federal and statewide races starting with the mayoral race in 2022. In order to align future races to the new calendar, Garcetti successfully competed for a special five-and-a-half-year term in 2017 rather than the standard four-year term his successor will be elected to.
Feuer earned headlines for suing the Trump administration several times during his tenure, but he's also attracted unfavorable attention at home. In October of last year, a state judge ordered the city to pay a $2.5 million fine after ruling in favor of what the Los Angeles Times's Dakota Smith described as a "consulting firm that accused City Atty. Mike Feuer's office of concealing evidence" in a long running scandal involving over-billing by the Department of Power and Water.
Buscaino, by contrast, is a Los Angeles Police Department veteran whom the paper says is "well known to many in San Pedro but is probably less familiar to residents in other parts of the city." Buscaino, who last year was one of just two members on the 15-member City Council to vote against cutting $150 million from the police budget, defended the LAPD this week as the "largest reformed police department in the country." Buscaino also said that he spent his time as a cop "focused on problem solving, on creating partnerships to improve the quality of life here," and that he was in favor of directing more money to social services.
There are plenty of others who may run as well. Smith reports that two influential business figures, Central City Association head Jessica Lall and mall developer Rick Caruso, are both thinking about getting in. City Councilman Kevin de León, who waged an unsuccessful 2018 intra-party bid against Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and fellow City Councilman Mark Ridley-Thomas also have not ruled out running.
●Seattle, WA Mayor: Former City Councilman Bruce Harrell announced Tuesday that he would run in this year's race to succeed retiring Mayor Jenny Durkan. Harrell is a relative moderate by the standards of this very blue city, and The Stranger's Nathalie Graham characterizes him as the type of "pro-business candidate the Seattle business community could get behind."
In 2018, Harrell served as president of the City Council when it unanimously passed a new tax on large employers. Harrell, though, voted along with most of his colleagues to repeal the law just a month later in the face of business pressure, and analysts attributed the entire matter to the City Council's poor ratings in polls. Harrell, who retired in 2019, kicked off his new campaign by arguing that local leadership was failing and it was time to "change the way we do things, radically."
Harrell joins a field that includes Council President Lorena González and Chief Seattle Club Executive Director Colleen Echohawk, either of whom would be the first woman of color to serve as mayor. The filing deadline is in late May for the August nonpartisan top-two primary.
Other Races
●Nassau County, NY Executive: On Monday, Hempstead Councilman Bruce Blakeman launched his bid against Democratic incumbent Laura Curran with the support of the Nassau County Republican Party. No other notable Republicans have shown any obvious interest in competing here ahead of the April 1 filing deadline, so it would be a big surprise if Blakeman faces any serious opposition in the June party primary. The general election to lead this suburban Long Island county of 1.4 million people will take place in November.
Nassau County backed Joe Biden 54-45 last year, but Republicans are hoping that Blakeman will help them return to power down the ballot. As Steve Kornacki described in an excellent 2011 piece in Politico that remains one of our favorite articles about local politics anywhere, the local GOP spent decades in complete control over the county until it was brought down by corruption, infighting, and the electorate’s gradual shift to the left. Democrat Tom Suozzi finally broke the GOP's long stranglehold on the county executive's office in 2001, and he won re-election four years later.
But in 2009, with the Great Recession hurting Democrats nationwide, the GOP unexpectedly regained control over Nassau County when Ed Mangano unseated Suozzi by 386 votes. Suozzi sought a comeback in 2013, but Mangano defeated him 59-41 in another contest that foreshadowed the national Democratic Party's problems for the following year. (Suozzi would resurrect his political career in 2016 when he won a seat in Congress.)
However, scandal would again plague the Nassau County GOP. Mangano was indicted on federal corruption charges in 2016, and local Republicans successfully pressured him not to seek a third term in 2017. (Mangano was found guilty after leaving office, but his team is trying to overturn the verdict.) Curran went on to retake the executive office for Team Blue by beating the Republican nominee, former state Sen. Jack Martins, in a close 51-48 contest, but the GOP still controls the gerrymandered county legislature 11-8.
●Presidential Elections: Daily Kos Elections' Stephen Wolf has compiled a spreadsheet with the results of every presidential election by state from 1828 through 2020. The spreadsheet additionally includes calculations of the results for each of the country's four major geographic regions, and it also includes a "partisanship score" metric for comparing the result in a state with the national result for a given year. For instance, Georgia had an R+4 partisanship score in 2020 because Joe Biden's 0.2-point margin of victory there was roughly four points more Republican than his national victory margin, and it had a W+5 score in 1840 because Whig President William Henry Harrison carried the state by five points more than his national victory margin.
Grab Bag
●Podcasts: Daily Kos political director David Nir just appeared on pollster Zac McCrary's brand-new podcast, Pro Politics, to discuss his own journey into politics and the rise of the progressive netroots, which (as Zac puts it) morphed over the course of two decades from "a ramshackle group of political junkies" running small-time blogs into "one of the pillars of the Democratic political universe."
Among the many topics they covered: How being the child of a Holocaust survivor has informed who David is … why seeing a Geraldine Ferraro rally in 1984 was an ill omen for the ticket’s chances … the candidate who taught David to avoid getting too attached to any individual politician … how David made the decision to forego a legal career to plunge full-time into politics… and the story of Daily Kos and the rise of Jon Ossoff—and the death of the IDC.
"When I’m sometimes asked when will there be enough [women on the Supreme Court], and I say, ‘When there are nine,’ people are shocked. But there’d been nine men, and nobody’s ever raised a question about that."
—Ruth Bader Ginsburg
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary."
—James Madison
"Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind."
—Albert Einstein
Continued…
"My favorite line belongs to an old Irish woman taxi driver in Boston. Flo Kennedy and I were in the backseat talking about Flo’s book, Abortion Rap, and the driver turned around and said,'Honey, if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.' I wish I’d gotten her name so we could attribute it to her.”
—Gloria Steinem
"Nixon is the kind of guy who, if you were drowning twenty feet from shore, would throw you a fifteen-foot rope."
—Eugene McCarthy [Also applies to Trump]
The birthday Speaker said it all without saying a word.
"When I was 40 and looking at 60, it seemed like a thousand miles away. But 62 feels like a week and a half away from 80. I must now get on with those things I always talked about doing but put off."
—Harry Belafonte, now 94
"My folks came to the U.S. as immigrants, aliens, and became citizens. I was born in Boston a citizen [and] went to Hollywood and became an alien.”
—Leonard Nimoy
"If Attila the Hun were alive today, he'd be a drama critic."
—Edward Albee
“Like the other immigrant groups, the day will come when we win the economic and political rewards which are in keeping with our numbers in society. The day will come when the politicians do the right thing by our people out of political necessity and not out of charity or idealism.”
—Cesar Chavez
“Who hasn’t had a weight issue? If not the body, certainly the big head.”
—Aretha Franklin
If you celebrate a birthday in March, we wish you many blessings on your camels. And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, March 17, 2021
Note: For all your paper clip needs, we strongly recommend paper clips. Quality you can see, dependability you can trust, and now value priced at only, let’s say, $1,400.
—A message from the American Paper Clip Marketing Council
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By the Numbers:
29 days.
Days 'til Tax Day: 29
Percent of Americans polled by CBS-YouGov who approve of Biden’s job as president: 62%
Percent who approve of Joe's handling of the pandemic: 67%
Percent of members of Congress who haven’t been vaccinated yet: 25%
Amount that the American Rescue Plan will allocate to the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program, which will help live entertainment venues stay open: $1.25 billion
Percent by which Goldman Sachs predicts the economy will grow this year: 8%
Number of cannabis shop applications currently waiting to be approved by the City of Portland, Maine: 31
CHEERS to America's new Interior designer. Let's see: the two Interior Secretaries under the previous president were an oil and gas industry lobbyist and this walking Corruption 101 textbook.To them, American lands were to be chewed up and spit out. So it makes the confirmation of President Biden's Interior Secretary, Pueblo of Laguna Native American and 35th-generation New Mexican Deb Haaland, literally a transition from evil to good. Very, very, very good:
"I just think about my son and how he's going to be able to visibly see someone who looks like him, someone who comes from his same community, who is at that level," said Valerie Siow, an educator and Laguna Pueblo Native. "Sometimes I can't even believe it." […]
You can call her Madam Secretary.
"A lot of people don't really understand the relationship that Indigenous people to this country have had with the federal government. There's a whole history of broken treaties, of land for forced removal of our people," she said. "It's kind of hard to explain outside of Indigenous circles but our way of life is so connected to [the land]," she said. "The land always calls us home."
Haaland's confirmation, Cajete believes, "gives her the power to be able to right some very deep wrongs to Native tribes." Along with the acreage itself come concerns about stewardship, about air, land and water quality.
I don’t know why Republicans are freaking out over Secretary Haaland's confirmation. They should love her. After all, she's following their ideological playbook: after all the damage her predecessors did, she’ll be spending most of her time standing athwart history yelling "Stop!" (I’m guessing with a few well-placed cuss words thrown in.)
JEERS to the least surprising development of the day. Remember that Republican "shaman" in the horns and carrying the spear who took part in the Capitol insurrection on January 6th? Remember how he and his mom told 60 Minutes that he was innocent because the Capitol doors were open so he felt he could walk in to spread his "positive vibes"? Yeah, well, the judge reviewed video footage and you'll never guess:
Senior Judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, narrated what the footage showed. “Not only is defendant unable to offer evidence substantiating his claim that he was waved into the Capitol, but evidence submitted by the government proves this claim false.
Just spreading the love, man.
“The government’s video shows that defendant blatantly lied during his interview with 60 Minutes+ when he said that police officers waved him into the building,” Lamberth added. “This video confirms that defendant did not, as defense counsel claims, enter the building ”contemporaneously with the exiting by Capitol Police.” […] Nor did he enter, as defense counsel represents, in the ‘third wave’ of the breach. To the contrary, he quite literally spearheaded it.”
It's a good thing Mr. Whipple isn’t alive to see this. He hates it when people squeeze the shaman.
CHEERS to favorite First Couples. Today is the wedding anniversary of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. They were married on March 17, 1905 in New York:
The 20-year-old bride was escorted down the aisle by her uncle, then President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
FDR knitted. Who knew???
The ceremony took place at the New York City home of Eleanor’s great uncle and aunt, Edward and Margaret Livingston Ludlow. The reception took place next door at the home of her cousin, Susan Parish. Though no photographs of the day are known to exist, several artifacts from the wedding are in the FDR Library’s museum collection.
So, uh…what do you get a 139-year-old man and a 137-year-old woman on their 116th anniversary? If they're still actually walking the earth after all this time, I'd say the #1 thing on their list would probably be: "Braaaaains..."
CHEERS to happy endings. Look up "Honor and Integrity" in the dictionary, and you'll see…well, nothing, because honor and integrity are two different words with their own separate listings and….oh, damn me and my tangents. The point is, the Vindman brothers—Alexander and Eugene—are honor and integrity personified, and they got absolutely shafted by Trump for, respectively, telling the truth and being the brother of the guy who told the truth. And with Trump now relegating to scaring the guests at Mar-A-Lago, the good karma is coming home to roost:
Lt. Col. Yevgeny "Eugene" Vindman, who was fired last year from his job in the Trump White House after he raised concerns about the former president's dealings with Ukraine, says he is set to be promoted to a full colonel.
Vindman is the twin brother of Alexander Vindman, who was a key witness in the Ukraine impeachment inquiry. The brothers were both Army officers serving on the National Security Council when they raised concerns about former President Donald Trump's phone call to Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky in July 2019. […]
Both men were sacked from the NSC days after the conclusion of the impeachment trial and escorted out of the White House.
Conversely, with any luck, New York prosecutors will see to it that Trump is soon be demoted to full inmate.
CHEERS to the wearin' o’ the green beer. St. Patrick's Day is today and C&J extends a hearty "Begosh 'n Begorrah" to all our Irish and/or Irish-ish readers. My blood line is Swiss ("Is that the Matterhorn in your pocket or are you just happy to see me? Ha ha ha, I kid. It’s really an Alpine horn."), so I'm totally neutral about St. Patrick's Day. But since the parades appear to be canceled again, we bring you the following 15 seconds of copied-and-pasted mirth:
Have you heard about the Irish boomerang? It doesn't come back, it just sings songs about how much it wants to.
Moments later, a flock of seagulls ended the brief St. Patrick’s Day blimp era.
There's a new Irish restaurant being built in town. They're going to serve gourmet 7-course Irish meals. Everyone who comes in gets a potato and a six-pack.
On St. Patrick's Day, Americans are expected to drink over 13 million pints of Guinness. To give you an idea how much beer that is, go outside and look at the sidewalk.—Seth Meyers
What's Irish and sits outside in the summertime?
Paddy O'Furniture.
Remember: if someone walks up to you today and shouts “Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona duit!”, the proper response is, “Don’t move. I’m calling the CDC.”
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Ten years ago in C&J: March 17, 2011
CHEERS to the power of denial. So here's what I know about the situation in Japan: a massive earthquake hit, which was quickly followed by a killer tsunami that made what Moses did to Ramses look like a squirt gun fight. Then the nuclear plants started blowing up and catching fire which is really bad but, amazingly, not "yet" quite as bad as it sounds, unless they can't get water to cool down the nukular rods in which case... That's when I closed my eyes and stuck my fingers in my ears and things seemed to quiet down significantly. This is BiPM reporting live from under my bed. Back to you, Chet.
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And just one more...
CHEERS to my secret accomplice. I can admit it, now that Lou Ottens, the inventor of the cassette tape, has reached the end of Side B at age 94. (Plus I assume the statute of limitations will keep me out of the hoosegow.) When I was a teenager I'd sneak a cassette recorder into movie theaters and record my favorite scenes—notably the Battle of Hoth from The Empire Strikes Back and the face-melting scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark—so I could re-experience them through a hard plastic earpiece in glorious mono. I'm amazed I never got caught. Then there were the endless mix tapes and, when I pursued radio as a career, air check tapes. I had stacks of those little faux-leather briefcase-style cassette holders all over my apartment, and still have a bunch of 'em in storage. So this morning we doff our cap to Mr. Ottens, sad in the knowledge that whatever ailed him couldn’t be spliced back together with a sliver of Scotch tape:
When the first plastic cassette tape made its debut at a 1963 electronics fair, it boasted the slogan, “Smaller than a pack of cigarettes!” Ottens specifically designed the cassette to be tiny enough to fit in a jacket pocket, in part because he found other tape models to be unnecessarily large. “I got annoyed with the clunky, user-unfriendly reel-to-reel system,” he said years later. “It’s that simple.” […] All told, over 100 billion were sold worldwide.
RIP, guy who invented this.
As noted by music journalist Marc Masters, who is writing a book about the history of cassette tapes, the original prototype that Ottens’ team invented was created as “an opportunity for journalists or nature lovers to make sound recordings outside,” not as a way to listen to popular songs. “The very first one, we said, well, speech is good enough,” said Ottens. “Then we came to the conclusions that [the sound quality] was much better than we had anticipated. We said, if it’s made for music, we should have 30 minutes per side.” And thus, the cassette tape as a portable album was born.
His casket will be larger than normal so he'll have enough room to flip over every 30 minutes.
Have a happy humpday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
"Bill in Portland Maine is Boring—and it's Driving Daily Kos Crazy
(@rustyweiss74) March 17, 2021
(@ReadeAlexandra) March 16, 2021
