It is a sad comment on the state of our politics that Charles Blow feels the necessity to apologize for a mild, but crucial criticism of the Biden Administration.
Tag: Democratic Elite
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Sunday News Notes:
Ukraine
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/01/putin-ally-challenges-russian-president-calling-zelensky-nice/
- Founder of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, challenges Putin.
- Prigozhin praised Ukrainian president, Zelensky, on his social media platform.
- “Although he is the president of a country that’s hostile to Russia right now, Zelensky is a strong, confident, pragmatic and nice guy,”
- In a second post, Prigozhin followed up with a warning: “Don’t underestimate him.” The second post was described by the Telegraph as “explaining why he was offering such a discordant view of” Zelensky.
- Prigozhin holds no formal role with the Russian government, but his position has increased in importance as he has funneled more and more soldiers into Ukraine fighting for Russia.
- His statement is not in line with the Kremlin presentation of Zelensky as a drug-addled Nazi. And, it is not the first time Prigozhin has challenged Putin. Earlier he questioned the military’s conduct of the war.
- The Washington Post reported that Prigozhin along with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, has become more vocal in their criticisms of military leaders prosecuting Putin’s war.
- According to the Telegraph: “British lawyers McCue Jury and Partners on Tuesday announced they were bringing legal action against Wagner for “terrorism” in Ukraine, aiming to claim compensation for victims of the mercenary group”
- Prigozhin was filmed in September of 2022 recruiting soldiers in Russian prisons. He promised them they would be freed is they survived six months in Ukraine. He also promised they would be shot if they tried to desert.
- “In another public message, he defended recruiting rapists and murders on the basis that it meant “your sons” would not be sent to the front. Weeks later Putin announced a mobilisation that has sent around 300,000 extra men to war.”
- Telegraph: “The Institute for the Study of War in its latest report on Tuesday said that Mr Prigozhin was “establishing himself as a political force, using his popular status and his affiliation with Wagner to criticise his opponents within elite circles”.
- In testimony to British parliament on Tuesday, Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky confirmed reports of Mr Prigozhin’s special place in Putin’s court, describing him as a “significant tool for the Kremlin”.
- “The number of meetings with the dictator is the only currency that’s in demand in that regime, and Mr Prigozhin has got a lot of those meetings,” said Mr Khodorkovsky, who was released after a decade in Russian prison in 2013, and was formerly the country’s richest man.”
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A lot of people were extremely upset with the Democratic leadership for loudly proclaiming on the one hand, that Trump presented a grave danger to the country and on the other, calmly informing us that they were going to wait over the weekend to start impeachment proceedings.
I was one of those people. This morning, turned on my computer to find that someone named Samantha Corbin was lecturing me about House rules. According to her, Democrats could not reconvene until Monday without Unanimous Consent and Kevin McCarthy was holding this up. So, I could just shut my uninformed mouth and stop carping.
Others who were disgusted with the Democrats were also lectured on Twitter their lack of understanding of House rules and procedures and chided for childish impatience.
This is so characteristic of the Democratic elite I just don’t know where to begin.
First of all, on the rules question. Corbin and evidently Pelosi’s daughter @sfpelosi (whose tweets I am prevented from seeing because she strictly limits access) presented this rule about reconvening as iron clad. The House could not reconvene until Monday, period. No way, no how without the unanimous consent of the House.
But, as other people in the Twitter discussion pointed out, it was simply impossible to believe that there was not a way around this rule. What happens, for example, if the House needs to meet on a Sunday because of a national emergency (which this is)? Are they sincerely telling us that under no circumstance can the House meet before Monday without unanimous consent?
And @MattGlassman312 contested Corbin and Peliso’s read of the rule. He wrote that was required was “consultation” with the minority leader, not consent, and definitely not unanimous consent.
So, there is a question of whether what Pelosi et. al. are asserting about the rule is even correct. And, even if it is correct, aren’t there ways around the rule? If Nancy Pelosi is the strategic genius her supporters (and her daughter) maintain she is, why hasn’t she figured out how to get around this rule? I would be willing to take a bet that if this rule was constraining Mitch McConnell he would have figured out a way around the rule or would simply violate the rule and worry about the consequences later.
And, as another person in the discussion pointed out, even with all this self-righteous lecturing about the rule, we don’t know whether Pelosi formally requested a weekend session and McCarthy objected or whether the Democratic elite were simply assuming that McCarthy would object and not bothering to even ask. One of the people in the discussion points out that a “statement would be helpful.” Ya think?
Pelosi et. al. are whining on Twitter about being misunderstood, receiving unfair criticism from ignorant people, but we wouldn’t even be in this position if the elite in the Democratic Party felt it in any way incumbent on them to explain to the American people what was going on.
For at least yesterday and today, Pelosi’s phone couldn’t be reached. The mailbox is full and nobody is answering. Now, if Nancy Pelosi sincerely wanted to know what the unwashed masses thought, she would arrange for her phones to be working and messages to be taken. But, the truth is that she doesn’t care.
If indeed the Democrats absolutely cannot convene until Monday, they should be all over the news explaining exactly why and who is holding them up. They aren’t. This is the very first time I have ever heard that the rules prevent them from convening and that McCarthy is holding them up.
Why, oh why, can’t the Democrats seem to understand that every time the Republicans obstruct them, pointing this out gains them political points? What’s so hard about that? Why can’t the Democrats bring themselves to tell the truth about their “colleagues?”
There is political advantage to be gained by first of all explaining what they are doing to the American people and second of all scoring points off the Republicans’ obstruction. They just won’t do it. You tell me why.
Part of the attitude seems to come from an unbelievable hubris that characterizes the Democratic elite and the absolute belief that a class of professionals who make an enormous amount of money for consulting and advising, know what’s best. They aren’t out there explaining to the rest of what they are doing because they don’t think they have to. They regard us as a necessary evil. It reminds me of that line in “The Postman Always Rings Twice” where the lawyer (Hume Croyn) says with sinister finality: “When I say I’m handling it, I’m handling it.” The Democratic elite doesn’t feel a need to explain. They don’t feel a need to answer their phones in a crisis. And, they get damn offended if anybody questions them.
Nancy Pelosi and her minions have managed to create this narrative that Pelosi is this genius strategist and that the rest of us just aren’t smart enough to understand the three-dimensional chess game she is playing. I have heard this mouthed by Mika Brzezinski and Jennifer Rubin, to name but two. The “she’s a genius” combined with a big chunk of “you’re just criticizing her because she’s a woman” intimidates a lot of people.
As another person in the twitter discussion (@RhiFionn) pointed out: “If you want understanding, explain what’s going on…”
Sunday News Notes:
Ukraine
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/01/putin-ally-challenges-russian-president-calling-zelensky-nice/
- Founder of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, challenges Putin.
- Prigozhin praised Ukrainian president, Zelensky, on his social media platform.
- “Although he is the president of a country that’s hostile to Russia right now, Zelensky is a strong, confident, pragmatic and nice guy,”
- In a second post, Prigozhin followed up with a warning: “Don’t underestimate him.” The second post was described by the Telegraph as “explaining why he was offering such a discordant view of” Zelensky.
- Prigozhin holds no formal role with the Russian government, but his position has increased in importance as he has funneled more and more soldiers into Ukraine fighting for Russia.
- His statement is not in line with the Kremlin presentation of Zelensky as a drug-addled Nazi. And, it is not the first time Prigozhin has challenged Putin. Earlier he questioned the military’s conduct of the war.
- The Washington Post reported that Prigozhin along with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, has become more vocal in their criticisms of military leaders prosecuting Putin’s war.
- According to the Telegraph: “British lawyers McCue Jury and Partners on Tuesday announced they were bringing legal action against Wagner for “terrorism” in Ukraine, aiming to claim compensation for victims of the mercenary group”
- Prigozhin was filmed in September of 2022 recruiting soldiers in Russian prisons. He promised them they would be freed is they survived six months in Ukraine. He also promised they would be shot if they tried to desert.
- “In another public message, he defended recruiting rapists and murders on the basis that it meant “your sons” would not be sent to the front. Weeks later Putin announced a mobilisation that has sent around 300,000 extra men to war.”
- Telegraph: “The Institute for the Study of War in its latest report on Tuesday said that Mr Prigozhin was “establishing himself as a political force, using his popular status and his affiliation with Wagner to criticise his opponents within elite circles”.
- In testimony to British parliament on Tuesday, Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky confirmed reports of Mr Prigozhin’s special place in Putin’s court, describing him as a “significant tool for the Kremlin”.
- “The number of meetings with the dictator is the only currency that’s in demand in that regime, and Mr Prigozhin has got a lot of those meetings,” said Mr Khodorkovsky, who was released after a decade in Russian prison in 2013, and was formerly the country’s richest man.”
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MORNING THOUGHTS
MSNBC is no longer a news channel. It is a channel where the corporate Democratic strategists talk to each other and try to convince the rest of us that what they want to be true is true.
Morning Joe was devoted today to everything about every candidate in New Hampshire except the front runner, Bernie Sanders.
Early in the program, MSNBC posted a chart showing Sanders as the front runner and his steady line as the front runner in New Hampshire. So, was the conversation about Sanders? Of course not. It was about Buttigieg and Klobuchar. According to the panel, the campaigns of Klobuchar and Buttigieg were taking off. They are the “candidates on the move.”
John Heileman had to try to make Sanders’ steady lead sound like it was a negative. He said that Sanders was in the lead, but he was just “sitting there.”
Scarborough (who helped Trump get elected) talked about Biden being in the “second tier” in the polls. If, he added, you BELIEVE IN THE POLLS. Morning Joe and the panel have been touting polls for months showing Biden leading, but all of a sudden, when he’s in fourth or fifth place, Joe has to add “if you believe in the polls.”
(Note: I would just like to add that Scarborough and the dreadful Mika were at Mara-la-go AFTER the 2016 election. Their break with Trump came after he outed their adulterous affair.)
O.K. then, we have the panel trying desperately to rehabilitate Biden, just like always. They tried to make excuses for Biden’s lack of ability to raise money at the grassroots. Well, one said, he is old school. He “can’t raise money online.” Adrienne Elrod (one of the Clinton mean girls who is still incapable of expressing anything but contempt and resentment at Bernie Sanders because he dared DARED to run against Clinton) had to add that Biden didn’t really “plan to run well” in Iowa, i.e., he didn’t really try. (This is the best excuse she could come up with?)
Elrod then adds that Biden also doesn’t expect to run well in New Hampshire, already trying to dampen expectations before the primary. Talking about the Biden campaign, she says “they want to move on.” Want to move on? Where the hell to they expect to move on to? Where do they expect to win? This is the man that @MSNBC pundits have been telling us was the front runner for months.
Then, MSNBC shows us a Biden campaign ad (when was the last time they showed us a Bernie campaign ad?) and say that the problem is that Biden isn’t being allowed to be Biden. In the ad, Biden contrasts what are supposed to be his best contributions to history, with the most trivial things Buttigieg has ever done. The panel argues that this ad and these little episodes with Biden, where he acts like an entitled ass, are to be blamed on his campaign not letting him be himself. The Dreadful Mika has to add that Biden would never respond with contempt and derision if he was in a room with a former Mayor (like Buttigieg) who was touting his accomplishments. Jesus. We are supposed to believe that the ad made by his campaign, approved by him is “not Biden.” Those little episodes (pointing fingers at the chest of voters, telling one she’s a liar, acting like a pathetic old man pretending to be a hard ass) are not Biden. That’s ignorant. Those episodes are Biden. That’s what he is, a resentful, entitled, defensive old man who thinks he’s owed being president. (Remind you of anybody?)
Then, Morning Joe announced their guests for the morning, James Carville, David Plouffe, Klobuchar and Bennett. A progressive is in the lead in New Hampshire. Any Progressives? Hell no, a show full of people who despise Bernie Sanders and everything he stands for.
Then, we must hear about Bloomberg and how he is “driving Trump crazy.” What evidence is there for this? Who’s ass do they pull this stuff out of? Everybody on the panel agrees. Oh, they slobber, Bloomberg is “tougher” than Trump, “richer” than Trump. Bloomberg’s money will be the “great equalizer” in the race. When was a rich man running against another rich man ever considered a “great equalizer?” Joe Scarborough obviously enjoys bragging about how much more money Bloomberg has than Trump.
(Note: This is where we are folks. The obvious delight with which Scarborough describes Bloomberg’s wealth just tells you everything about him.)
Elrod says that Bloomberg is “still the most electable” candidate for many Americans. Again, who’s ass did she drag that out of? What evidence is there for that? She would rather choke than say such a thing about Bernie even though there is much more evidence that the same statement about Bernie.
The panel ended with a discussion of the “fear” that the populace has about the current crop of candidates. What they are communicating is that they have a deathly “fear” of Bernie Sanders. All of them know that Sanders and his people would never let them get near the White House if he was elected. That’s what they are scared of.
I can’t watch MSNBC anymore. The only reason for watching is to document the almost complete slide into corporate Democratic promotion as the Party and the party elite face the terror of people, real people, exercising their rights and fighting for their rights.
Turn over to CSPAN and you can watch Bernie giving a speech in New Hampshire. The reason the corporate media doesn’t ever show you Bernie unless they have to is that they are terrified people will see what a real candidate is like, a candidate who believes in what he is saying, a real person, fighting, perhaps giving his life, to fight for regular people, for the changes that will give regular people an opportunity to take some benefit from a society they contribute so much to. Please listen to Bernie Sanders. Please stop listening to MSNBC and CNN.
Sunday News Notes:
Ukraine
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2022/11/01/putin-ally-challenges-russian-president-calling-zelensky-nice/
- Founder of Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, challenges Putin.
- Prigozhin praised Ukrainian president, Zelensky, on his social media platform.
- “Although he is the president of a country that’s hostile to Russia right now, Zelensky is a strong, confident, pragmatic and nice guy,”
- In a second post, Prigozhin followed up with a warning: “Don’t underestimate him.” The second post was described by the Telegraph as “explaining why he was offering such a discordant view of” Zelensky.
- Prigozhin holds no formal role with the Russian government, but his position has increased in importance as he has funneled more and more soldiers into Ukraine fighting for Russia.
- His statement is not in line with the Kremlin presentation of Zelensky as a drug-addled Nazi. And, it is not the first time Prigozhin has challenged Putin. Earlier he questioned the military’s conduct of the war.
- The Washington Post reported that Prigozhin along with Ramzan Kadyrov, the Chechen leader, has become more vocal in their criticisms of military leaders prosecuting Putin’s war.
- According to the Telegraph: “British lawyers McCue Jury and Partners on Tuesday announced they were bringing legal action against Wagner for “terrorism” in Ukraine, aiming to claim compensation for victims of the mercenary group”
- Prigozhin was filmed in September of 2022 recruiting soldiers in Russian prisons. He promised them they would be freed is they survived six months in Ukraine. He also promised they would be shot if they tried to desert.
- “In another public message, he defended recruiting rapists and murders on the basis that it meant “your sons” would not be sent to the front. Weeks later Putin announced a mobilisation that has sent around 300,000 extra men to war.”
- Telegraph: “The Institute for the Study of War in its latest report on Tuesday said that Mr Prigozhin was “establishing himself as a political force, using his popular status and his affiliation with Wagner to criticise his opponents within elite circles”.
- In testimony to British parliament on Tuesday, Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky confirmed reports of Mr Prigozhin’s special place in Putin’s court, describing him as a “significant tool for the Kremlin”.
- “The number of meetings with the dictator is the only currency that’s in demand in that regime, and Mr Prigozhin has got a lot of those meetings,” said Mr Khodorkovsky, who was released after a decade in Russian prison in 2013, and was formerly the country’s richest man.”
Law, Power and Justice 