Saturday, January 29, 2022

@22:30, , 1/28/22

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1

U.S. Blocks $130 Million in Aid for Egypt Over Rights Abuses
The Middle Eastern ally continues to buy billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the United States. read more
 
Payments to Egypt buy peace or at least quiet for Israel.
 
2
As Breyer Pondered Retirement, Biden Bet on a Hands-Off Strategy
The president believed pressuring the court’s oldest justice to retire might backfire. A chorus of liberals took a different approach. read more
 
Breyer made his retirement conditional on a liberal replacement.
 
3
What Mattered This Week
Democrats’ not-so-terrible news, the limits of Trump’s power and the allure of ’24. read more
 
There will be votes in the senate.
A majority of one vote is not enough,
 
4
Pentagon Warns of Russia's Troop Deployments Near Ukraine
Russia has massed more than 100,000 troops at Ukraine’s borders, officials said, publicly confirming what intelligence analysts have described for weeks. read more
 
The Pentagon has cried Wolf! before. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf

5
Jan. 6 Committee Subpoenas Fake Trump Electors
The panel demanded information from 14 people who were part of bogus slates of electors for President Donald J. Trump, digging deeper into an aspect of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. read more
 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treason
 Treason is such an ugly concept.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2385
There seems to be no better word for the act.

6
As Breyer Pondered RetireTreasonment, Biden Bet on a Hands-Off Strategy
The president believed pressuring the court’s oldest justice to retire might backfire. A chorus of liberals took a different approach. read more
 
Breyer made his retirement conditional on a liberal replacement.
 

White House Warnings Over Russia Strain Ukraine-U.S. Partnership
While Ukraine’s president complained about “acute and burning” warnings from Washington, the Pentagon issued a dire new appraisal asserting Russia has amassed enough troops to invade his entire country. read more
 
The Pentagon has cried Wolf! before.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Boy_Who_Cried_Wolf
 
Ukraine does not perceive an immediate threat of invasion.
 
8
Republicans Relish Biden’s Troubles, Eyeing a Takeover of Congress
The president’s woes have delighted Republicans, who have been seeking to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of voters after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. read more
 
Convict Trump of treason as quickly as possible.
 
9
Pennsylvania Court Says State’s Mail Voting Law Is Unconstitutional
The decision, which could deal a blow to voting access in a critical battleground state, was immediately appealed. read more
 
Pennsylvania may lose this important case.

10
Inflation Continued to Run Hot and Consumer Spending Fell in December
Prices are rising rapidly, wages are growing and consumers are glum as a fraught economic moment poses big challenges for policymakers. read more
 
The Republican party is terrified of inflation. 

11
The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon
A Times investigation reveals how Israel reaped diplomatic gains around the world from NSO’s Pegasus spyware — a tool America itself purchased but is now trying to ban. read more
 
A ban on spyware is about as effective as a ban on Fentanyl. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl

12
F.B.I. Secretly Bought Israeli Spyware and Explored Hacking U.S. Phones
Israel used the NSO Group’s software as a tool of diplomacy. The F.B.I. wanted it for domestic surveillance. Then everything soured. Here are highlights of a New York Times Magazine investigation. read more
 
A ban on spyware is about as effective as a ban on Fentanyl. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fentanyl
 
13
Relax, America: Willow, the White House Cat, Has Arrived
She interrupted a campaign speech. Jill Biden wanted to keep her. read more
 
The White House has a staff.
 
14
Ian Welsh15 hours ago
The Ukraine Crisis Is Just A Chance To Acknowledge Choices Already Made
[image: The Ukraine Crisis Is Just A Chance To Acknowledge Choices Already Made] I read two fairly good articles this week. One, in Foreign Affairs, makes out the maximalist Russian case: Putin also believes that Russia has an absolute right to a sphere of privileged interests in the post-Soviet space. This means its former Soviet neighbors should not join any alliances that are deemed hostile to Moscow, particularly NATO or the European Union. Putin has made this demand clear in the two treaties proposed by the Kremlin on December 17, which require that Ukraine and other post-Sov... read more
 
Ian Welsh is often wrong.
 
15
Biden Includes European Allies As He Confronts Putin On Ukraine
In what amounts to a much-needed diplomatic reset, the U.S. is orchestrating the response to Russia’s threatening moves and making sure to include his European allies. read more
 
Biden has diplomatic skills.
 
16
Are New Voting Bill Talks for Real or for Show?
Senators involved in the negotiations underway say the discussions are serious and substantive, but some Democrats remain wary. read more
 
Trump and McConnell like to tease.
 
17
Biden to Name Breyer's Supreme Court Successor Soon
Speaking with Justice Stephen Breyer by his side, Mr. Biden hailed his decades on the federal bench, including almost 28 years on the Supreme Court. read more
 
Any successor must get the approval of a majority of the senate.
 
18
The Man at the Center of Arizona’s Primary Is Donheald Trump
Spoiler alert: It’s Donald Trump. read more
 
The "Founding Fathers" decided there would be no King of the American republic.

19
McConnell Warns Against ‘Radical’ Supreme Court Pick
Lawmakers from both parties and interest groups swung into gear to influence President Biden’s choice for the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest court. read more
 
Radical to Mitch McConnell is anyone not himself.
 
20
New Justice Is Unlikely to Thwart Supreme Court’s Rightward Lurch
The replacement of Justice Stephen G. Breyer with another liberal is unlikely to alter the basic dynamic at the court or to slow its accelerating conservative ambitions. read more
 
Any Justice appointed by President Biden will serve in the Liberal minority.
 
 
 
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