SUNDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2023
Plus, Drum delivers the mail: We hadn't planned to post today. We'll do so for two reasons:
The Times disappears Justice Thomas:
First, there they go again! In print editions, these are the headlines which sit atop the featured front-page news report in today's New York Times:
With Ex-Clerks and Allies, Thomas Builds Power Block
Extended Family Shares Justice's Ideology and Wields Influence in High Posts
For better or worse, there it is, as you can see right here. In this morning's print editions, that report about Justice Thomas sits in the upper right-hand corner of the New York Times front page.
Having said that, so what? For whatever reason, this major report isn't listed in any way at the Times' "Today's Paper" site.
Plainly, that site purports to provide a full listing of all the reports, analyses, essays and columns in today's print edition. Indeed, the full heading on the site says this:
Today's Paper
The Times in Print For Dec. 24, 2023
Inevitably, subscribers scrolling through that site will think they're seeing a list of every article in today's print edition. But for at least the fourth time in recent weeks, the featured report on the Times front page is MIA at that site.
So too with a second front-page report from today's print edition! (Headline: "World Economy Faces a Jumble of Risk in 2024.")
Everybody makes mistakes, but this seems to be a regular practice. This strikes us as very, very strange. Then again, what else is new?
Also this:
Drum delivers the mail:
In yesterday's report, we were puzzled by some of what we read about a court decision concerning Wisconsin's gerrymandered state legislative districts.
Kevin Drum to the rescue! In a subsequent post, Kevin explained the basis upon which the Wisconsin Supreme Court made the statement which was reported in yesterday's Washington Post:
Wisconsin Supreme Court overturns GOP-favored legislative maps
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday overturned Republican-favored legislative maps, ordering new boundary lines for the state less than a year before the 2024 election.
In a 4-3 decision along ideological lines, the justices said that at least 50 of the 99 Assembly districts and at least 20 of the 33 Senate districts in the map violate a mandate in the state’s constitution that requires state legislative districts be composed of “contiguous territory.” Many of the state’s districts include portions that are not attached to other parts of the same district.
So it said in the Washington Post! For various reasons, we were puzzled by the claim that "at least 50 of the 99 Assembly districts and at least 20 of the 33 Senate districts" violated the mandate concerning “contiguous territory.”
In yesterday's post, Kevin explains the (somewhat tortured) basis for that claim. Along the way, he expressed this view about the Wisconsin Supreme Court's two factions, producing some howls in comments:
The primary question is whether to change existing precedent on municipal islands, and you can make a perfectly good case for either side. Nobody really wants to say this out loud, but it's pretty obvious that the previous Republican court ruled in favor of Republicans and the new Democratic court has ruled in favor of Democrats. Neither side is especially imbued with either virtue or villainy here.
Is it true that neither side is "especially imbued with virtue?" That takes us well beyond any place we ever intended or wanted to go.
We will say this:
We'll guess that the pre-existing (marginally defensible) treatment of those "municipal islands" was not the source of the vast partisan imbalance the outlawed legislative map had helped create.
We'll guess that the actual source of that vast imbalance involved the crazy shapes of many legislative districts the previous Republican majorities in the state legislature had devised. The crazy shapes of those previous districts reek of the ancient practice known as "gerrymandering."
As we noted yesterday, the woods are very dark and deep, and few things are ever clear. That said, Kevin's excellent exploration takes us further down a lightly trod journalistic path.
Meanwhile, as it turned out, alas!
The State Constitution's insistence on "contiguous territory" in forming legislative districts actually wasn't a piece of "plain text" to the extent we originally imagined! Our question:
Where does a citizen have to go to find some plain text around here?
Kevin says the dissent was poorly reasoned.
ReplyDeletehttps://jabberwocking.com/heres-the-legal-issue-at-stake-in-the-wisconsin-redistricting-decision/
That’s an understatement.
DeleteUnderstatements are better than overstatements. I am Corby.
DeleteThe Drum piece is already linked to in the post.
DeleteTwo links are better than one. I am Korbi.
DeleteIf you state that you are Korbi, why are you commenting as "anonymous"?
DeleteI lost my nym when I updated my system.
DeleteMerry Christmas, dear Bob!
ReplyDeleteAll the best to anonymouse Scrooges and Tiny Tims.
Merry Christmas, Cecelia! I am not Corby.
DeleteAnd to the mercinary hag who lifts Scrooge’s curtains. I think her name was Cecelia!
DeleteMerry Christmas, Cec.
DeleteRussian orthodox Christmas is on January 7 this year.
DeleteCan you believe those guys, preferring the Julian calendar over the Gregorian? Julius wasn’t a Christian, but Gregory was.
DeleteI hate the Arabs, the Persians, the Russians, and half of the Americans.
DeleteI am nice. I play bridge.
I am Corby.
Corby doesn’t hate anyone.
DeleteThe Arabs, the Persians, the Russians, and half of the Americans and funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar. They are not nice. They had childhood trauma. The are deplorable.
DeleteI am nice. I smell my fingers. My finger smells funny.
I am Corby.
2:49 - Your insults would have more sting if you knew how to spell.
ReplyDeleteCorrectly spelled insults come from the elites. Misspelled insults come from regular folks.
DeleteThere is no significant correlation between spelling and IQ, but there is a correlation with reading ability and education level. Does being educated make someone an elite? It depends on what is meant by that term.
Deleteelite definition -- "a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society"
It would be a tautology to say that spellers are part of an elite because they have the ability to spell.
Are regular folks undereducated and unable to read and spell as well as those who are better educated? Well, that seems like a tautology too.
tautology definition: "a phrase or expression in which the same thing is said twice in different words"
Anti-intellectualism is part of right wing thinking.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/03/magazine/how-elites-became-one-of-the-nastiest-epithets-in-american-politics.html
I read wikipedia and I smell my fingers.
DeleteI am Corby.
"Everybody makes mistakes, but this seems to be a regular practice."
ReplyDeleteSomerby complains that the top articles of the day are not listed by the Today's Paper section (which lists other contents of the day's paper). It seems likely to me that the editors assumed that two articles which are right in front of the reader don't have to be repeated in a section designed to tell them what else is found in the remaining pages.
Somerby doesn't seem to understand that print newspapers are limited in space because adding more pages makes the paper more expensive to print while not increasing the price paid by readers at all. There is no similar restriction on the online versions, although they still need to pay staff to create content. When a paper is limited in space, it makes no sense to lengthen the Today's Paper column by adding to it the articles that are already right in front of the reader's nose.
It’s better for the articles to be in front of the reader’s eyes than in front of his nose.
Delete"The New York Times disappears Justice Thomas!"
DeleteIf they have been leaving out the top stories routinely, then their action has nothing to do with Clarence Thomas. Why say the NY Times has been leaving Clarence Thomas out when their decision had nothing to do with him? Is this to get liberal readers angry with the NY Times by making it appear that the NY Times is censoring info about him, or doing something similarly biased?
This kind of tricksy maneuver is deceitful of Somerby. If anyone cannot be trusted, it seems to be him, not the NY Times, which was clearly not censoring stories about Clarence Thomas.
If anyone can’t be trusted, it’s Clarence Thomas.
DeleteI only trust Joe Biden. I ♥ Joe.
DeleteI am Corby.
Sadly the Times is so biased. They used a front page news article to subtly smear Justice Thomas. My paper copy says, Thomas "has carried his idiosyncratic brand of conservative legal thinking out into the nation's law schools, top law firms, the judiciary, and the highest reaches of government."
ReplyDeleteWhy add the adjective "idiosyncratic"? The phrase "his brand...of conservative legal thinking" already carries that meaning. And, it never was really true that Thomas alone favored interpreting provisions based on what the adopters understood the words to mean. In fact, the sentence itself shows that Thomas's legal philosophy is no longer idiosyncratic, if it ever was.
IMO the word "idiosyncratic" was added to indicate that there's something wrong with Thomas's legal approach. Note that the Times did not tell the readers what Thomas's legal approach is. If they did explain his approach, it would sound very reasonable to many readers. .
BTW liberals have been smearing Thomas since the day he was nominated. When Scalia was alive, they (falsely) portrayed Thomas as a mere follower of Scalia. This was implicitly based on his race. As this article points out, the exact opposite is true. Thomas has been a leader in legal philosophy. The article should have been framed to congratulate Thomas on his leadership achievements, particularly since he's black who came from poverty and racial discrimination.
One lie that used to be told about Thomas was that he was a poor writer. IIRC Sen. Biden repeated this canard. In fact, Thomas was always a particularly clear writer. The clarity of his writing is one reason why his approach spread so widely.
DeleteThe article also calls Thomas's judicial philosophy "singular," even though the article itself points out that his philosophy is now widespread.
DeleteBTW IMO one reason Thomas's approach has become popular is that there is no nonpartisan liberal alternative. Although liberals wouldn't use these words, their approach has been to interpret laws and the Constitution to justify whatever policy they think is preferable.
None of this matters because he is corrupt.
Delete@8:50 the corruption claim is just the next false attack, after the earlier smears failed. If Thomas took gifts from a party to a case that he was ruling on or, or took gifts from a party with a financial interest in the case, that would be corrupt. But, for Thomas to take gifts from a conservative person is not corrupt. Neither is it corrupt when liberal Justices take gifts from liberal people or liberal organizations.
DeleteBTW the Democrats treatment of Thomas belies their claim to care about black people. They care about winning. When calling Republicans "racists" helps them win, they do it. When making unfair attacks on a black person helps them win, they do that.
There is too much evidence tocall this a false attack and Thomas is also compromised b his wife’s activities.
DeleteHow do Ginni's activities compromise Clarence? Please explain @9:50.
DeleteBTW did RBG's relationship with the ACLU compromise her?
If it wasn't for Clarence Thomas, Right-wingers would hate every black person that is corrupt as fuck.
DeletePutting thugs, like Thomas and Alito, on the Supreme Court was a mistake.
DeleteDavid, Ginni Thomas was part of Trump's effort to retain the presidency after losing in 2020. Now Clarence Thomas may hear cases involving Donald Trump's insurrection. That is a direct conflict of interest. RGB didn't urge any president to engage in an insurrection to stay in power after losing an election. The right wing has been calling for RBG to recuse herself on a variety of cases since she was appointed, as a political maneuver. In Thomas's case, his wife participated in the actions that would be considered as part of Trump's cases.
DeleteI ♥ Joe, because Joe ♥♥♥ children.
DeleteJoe Biden is highly ethical, with American interests at ♥.
I am Corby.
Defending Clarence Thomas is a new low, David.
DeleteTruly, you are shameless.
If Thomas took gifts from a party to a case that he was ruling on or, or took gifts from a party with a financial interest in the case, that would be corrupt.
DeleteAre you fucking kidding me, David. You know for a fact that all cases these billionaires had no financial interest? Directly or indirectly?
ProPublica has not identified any legal cases that Huizenga, Sokol or Novelly had at the Supreme Court during their documented relationships with Thomas, although they all work in industries significantly impacted by the court’s decisions. https://www.propublica.org/article/clarence-thomas-other-billionaires-sokol-huizenga-novelly-supreme-court
Clarence Thomas is Boris. Clarence Thomas is funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar.
DeleteI am Corby.
@8:20 It seems unlikely that the SC will hear a case involving "Trump's (alleged) insurrection". Trump hasn't been charged with insurrection, not even by the Special Prosecutor.
DeleteHow the hell is that corrupt POS a textualist when he can't read "in a well regulated militia". Wish he choked to death on his pube hairs. And jesus christ Dave, "alleged". Do better.
DeleteDavid is being deliberately obtuse. There is no specific crime called insurrection, which is why he has not been charged with that. The case going to the supreme court is about whether Trump can be kept off the ballot using Section 3 of the 14th Ammendment which forbids anyone swearing to uphold the constitution and then participating in an insurrecton from holding future public office. The supreme court of Colorado has already determined that Trump DID participate in an insurrection. The other insurrection-related criminal charges against Trump (which he HAS been charge with) are those listed in the 1/6 Federal case being prosecuted by the DOJ Special Prosecutor.
DeleteThis is about this 5th or 6th time DiC has triumphantly announced to the world his astute observation that Trump hasn't been indicted for the crime of insurrection.
DeleteAnd each time, someone like Anon 9:50 will patiently reply and explain the flaw in David's peculiar theory. And DiC will simply ignore it.
It is like trying to get a pebble to absorb the water in a stream.
The NY Times fact checks Trump's bizarre statements about immigration:
ReplyDeletehttps://digbysblog.net/2023/12/24/important-fact-check/
Digby correctly points out that Trump's allegations regarding illegal immigrants lack evidence. However, it's also the case that we simply don't know the background of the millions of illegal immigrants. Trump's unverified, exaggerated claims ar in the right direction IMO. Our illegal' immigration policies deserve harsh criticism.
DeleteWe allow a million or so legal immigrants every year. That's a generous number. These people are thoroughly vetted. It's appalling that we also welcome an unlimited number of illegal immigrants with no vetting at all.
Which is worse: Trump's evidence-free exaggerations or an immigration policy that does major, irreparable harm to America? For me, the answer is the latter.
Any one of those illegal immigrants might find the cure for cancer, but that isn't good enough for our David in Cal.
DeleteSay what you will for Right-wingers, but they sure do like to set the bar impossibly high for those they don't consider people.
Trump's shtick of lying all the time doesn't harm the country half as much as having Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court does.
DeleteDavid, set an example of legal immigration. Make Aliyah.
DeleteI ♥♥♥♥ illegal immigrants. From a safe distance.
DeleteI am Corby.
Let's start saying what Trump is really afraid of:
DeleteIndigenous and white labor cross-community resistance to fascism
Trump is only afraid of things that affect himself personally.
DeleteI like Presidential candidates who aren't Putin's bitch.
ReplyDeleteI smell my fingers. I was told that I am a bitch.
DeleteI am Corby.
Didn't anyone buy you a present or include you in their holiday celebrations, Corby troll? It is so sad that you are here on this Christmas morning, instead of opening presents with your family.
DeleteYou are Boris. I was told I am a bitch. Many times. It was offensive. I smell my fingers.
DeleteI am Corby.
Many professors, like me, have had the experience of writing letters to support the immigration applications of Dreamers. These are hard-working college students who were brought to the US as young children by parents who came here without documentation. Many Dreamers did not know they weren't citizens until told as teens by their parents, or when asked to provide a birth certificate.
ReplyDeleteThese young people are indistinguishable from other college students coming from immigrant families. They are fluent in Engish, assimilated into our culture, get A's in their college classes, have hopes of becoming productive professionals working in occupations requiring education. They are an asset to our country and they deserve the chance they have worked very hard to earn.
When I hear David and others disparaging these young people, who are part of our immigrant community, it angers me at the unfairness of the way immigrants are being portrayed by the right wing, including both David and Trump.
It is time to realize that all immigrants are people, just like your own friends and family members, and we are all trying to improve our lives and get along in a complex world. Dreamers didn't ask to be born where they were or brought to America, and they haven't done anything wrong by continuing to live here and work towards their futures. It is wrong to upend their lives over distant past actions of their parents. But right wingers don't seem to have empathy for anyone except themselves. And that seems especially wrong to me on Christmas Day.
People like DiC especially disgust me. It wasn't too long ago that his people escaped Eastern Europe and came across on the ships to Ellis Island looking for a better life. There were people in this country at that time, just like David is today, who didn't want them coming into this country to poison our blood. But this country welcomed them and, in a generation, David is living the good life in a gated community in one of the richest parts of California with his nose up in the air and spouting bullshit lies from his radical right wing sources and crying about "vetting". How much "vetting" do you think went on at Ellis Island?
Delete@10:15 You ask about vetting at Ellis Island. My uncle Morris was 16 years old when his family came here in 1920. Morris was prevented from entering the country because of some medical condition. Morris had to make some arrangements for living on his own for several months before he was allowed to enter the country and join his family.
DeleteToday, legal immigrants are vetted medically. Illegal immigrants can carry any sort of communicable disease. That's one reason why communicable diseases like measles are increasing. (Of course another reason is the anti-vaxxer nuts.)
Yeah, so was Vito Corleone, David. You're a fuckig liar by the way.
DeleteDavid is funded by Russia via Iran and Qatar. David is Boris.
DeleteI am Corby.
@9:44 when you use the word "indistinguishable," you open an important debate. Are all immigrants equal, or are some immigrants more desirable as fellow citizens? This is a non-PC question, but let's take an honest look. I think you would agree that Albert Einstein and other brilliant scientists did more for the US than some ignorant peasant.
DeleteYou might not want to agree that Muslims are, in general, less desirable immigrants than non-Muslims. That's because antisemitism and homophobia are baked into the Islam religion. Look at. Europe. Islamic immigrants are causing all sorts of problems.
Melania was admitted on a visa intended for people like Einstein. How do you feel about that? Then she brought her parents. Is that fair?
DeleteThere are no visas set aside for terrorists.
DeleteThe problem in Europe is not the immigrants but the attitudes people hold about them. They have mistaken beliefs, such as that nothing should ever change, that their own culture is best, that people with other ways will require anyone else to change, that unfamiliarityis bad. Ultraconservatives everywhere are making promises they cannot keep.
DeleteNo one is saying let in unlimited numbers —strawman.
Dumping immigrants in large cities with preexisting housing problems is a political stunt. Immigrants help our economy, documented or not. There are many programs, non-profit orgs and churches that help immigrants acculturate. They welcomed those dumped in Nantucket for example. If allowed to settle in immigrant communities, they help each other.
The German speakers in Texas changed the nature of that previously Mexican state in the 1800s. Was that a bad thing or should Texas go back to its Spanish roots?
Are you aware that our birthrate is declining? We are not in danger of being overpopulated but in danger of having too few young people to care for our aging elders.
The problem is that too few people, especially fearful conservatives, know anything about demographics and the American history of Immigration.
David,
DeleteImmigrants and refugees must undergo a medical exam as part of the immigration process for entry into the United States or adjustment of immigration status. The exam includes screening for any illness defined as a communicable disease of public health significance. The medical exams are conducted by doctors in other countries and in the United States."
It is your party and the inhumane restrictions on asylum seekers that puts us at risk when seek to enter the country outside of the immigration and refugee proper channels.
@12:13 unfortunately Islamic immigrants have been highly problematic in Western Europe. The Rotherham scandal isn't the only one
DeleteThe Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal consists of the organised child sexual abuse that occurred in the town of Rotherham, South Yorkshire, Northern England from the late 1980s until present and the failure of local authorities to act on reports of the abuse throughout most of that period.[9] Researcher Angie Heal, who was hired by local officials and warned them about child exploitation occurring between 2002 and 2007, has since described it as the "biggest child protection scandal in UK history"...
In August 2014 the Jay report concluded that an estimated 1,400 children[16] had been sexually abused in Rotherham between 1997 and 2013, predominantly by British-Pakistani men.[14] The victims were ethnically diverse; with British Asian girls in Rotherham also suffering,[17]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotherham_child_sexual_exploitation_scandal
Sounds like the Catholic Church, David.
DeleteAre you done with your nasty passive aggressive trolling for Christmas yet, David. Any other fights you want to pick? Bored, are you?
You might not want to agree that Christians are, in general, less desirable immigrants than non-Christians. That's because antisemitism and homophobia are baked into the Christian religion.
DeleteI wish the entire Howler community a very merry Christmas. I'm the nice Corby.
ReplyDeleteWhat is it that liberals want Clarence Thomas to do? Have no friends? Divorce his wife? Bad liberals — Bob Somerby, only slightly paraphrased.
ReplyDeleteRecuse himself.
DeleteSomerby is no liberal.
DeleteI am Corby.
Democrats want more than Thomas's recusal. They want Thomas to disappear. A highly intelligent, self-reliant, successful black conservative is a role model for other blacks. By simply existing, Thomas encourages blacks to not vote Democratic. That's why Democrats hate him.
DeleteAn ole escaped slave like me is mighty fortunate to have a Massah like David round to edumacate us dumb ones who don't know what that booklearning helps from not increasing the divorce rate of broken families
DeleteDavid,
DeleteI'm not sure how blowing a salary of $285K on lattes and avocado toasts, to the point that he had to solicit the worst people in America to pay his mortgage like Thomas has, is the best way to be a role model for other blacks.
His outright laziness isn't exactly a credit to his race either.
David is always on the lookout for role models who will reliably shit on the working class and rule for their billionaire benefactors. Trouble is, the billionaire benefactors only need a few to fill that role.
DeleteDavid is 10 pounds of bullshit stuffed into a 5 pound bag.
Somerby listens to C-SPAN call-in shows a lot and occasionally quotes a Republican caller. Here is how an actual liberal reacts to such shows (from Rawstory):
ReplyDelete"A Democrat from California unloaded a frustrated rant during a C-SPAN call-in show because callers on the Republican line "continue[d] to lie" despite being fact-checked by the guesthost Kimberly Adams.
After a Republican caller claimed that Democrats "got rid of democracy" because former President Donald Trump is facing investigation, C-SPAN fielded a call from a Democrat in San Jose named Tom.
"I get so depressed listening to people like the person who just called," Tom said. "You know, Republicans, 75% of them believe, like this guy, that, you know, the election was rigged."
"And these are the same people that will support Trump no matter what he does," he continued. "They only hear one side of the issue. They're not concerned about hearing the other side."
The caller praised the "great" C-SPAN hosts for fact-checking falsehoods.
"Right on air, you will correct people," he noted. "You will read something factually and correct these people. And what do they do? They don't believe it."
"And then they'll go on, and you'll pick up another Republican, and he'll say the same thing," he remarked. "They just, you know, if the election, they believe the election was stolen. It wasn't stolen. They believe that January 6th was a hoax, that it was QAnon, or it was like the FBI."
Tom said he found the misinformation cycle depressing and planned to stop watching C-SPAN.
"I've got to admit one thing," he pointed out. "I'm going to stop watching you guys, because I can't stand to hear these people call in who get fact-checked by the host, like yourself, and continue to lie. They just don't get it."
Trump is calling Joe Biden "a tyrant", even though Joe Biden is President, and it's totally legal for the President to do anything he likes.
ReplyDelete