January 30, 2021

If Republicans won't risk defeat to tell the truth, Trump will own their party

Retiring senators are handing the GOP over to its wild fringe.

By Norman Ornstein

When Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), once mocked by President Donald Trump as “Liddle’ Bob Corker,” retired in 2018, Trump loyalist Marsha Blackburn succeeded him. When Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) retired, he gave a farewell speech making clear that he didn’t want to be “complicit” in the Trump agenda but declined to defend his seat in a primary. On Monday, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) announced that he, too, would not seek another term, noting, “We live in an increasingly polarized country where members of both parties are being pushed further to the right and further to the left.”

On one level, it’s easy to sympathize: It’s almost impossible to be a traditional Republican in the Trump era. And to be a senator of any stripe in a divided Senate can seem pointless. Portman wasn’t wrong to point out that “it has gotten harder and harder to break through the partisan gridlock and make progress on substantive policy.”

But by pulling the plug rather than facing a potentially bruising primary (or a tightly contested general election) — and risking a rout at the polls — these senators all evaded the bigger debate about the future of the Republican Party: Instead of taking a stand to help the GOP revert to a right-of-center, problem-solving party that doesn’t see compromise as a dirty word, they’re standing aside while the party remakes itself as a xenophobic cult of personality for conspiracy theorists and trade protectionists. Fear of defeat is handing their party over to Trump, his loyalists and Trumpism — and it is warping the country.

Portman is an instructive example. He worked for Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, including as Bush 43’s U.S. trade representative and Office of Management and Budget director. He served for more than a decade in the House of Representatives, where he toiled closely with liberal Rep. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) on pension reform. Portman has favored free trade and containing deficits.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trump-mcconnell-portman-toomey-kinzinger-republicans/2021/01/29/a71efed4-60f0-11eb-9061-07abcc1f9229_story.html

January 30, 2021

The GOP isn't doomed. It's dead.

Opinion by Kathleen Parker

With the electoral eviction of Donald Trump from the Oval Office, Republicans had a shot at redemption and resurrection.

They missed and failed — and deserve to spend the next several years in political purgatory. The chaos now enveloping what’s left of the Grand Old Party after four years of catering to an unstable president is theirs to own. Where conservatism once served as a moderating force — gently braking liberalism’s boundless enthusiasm — the former home of ordered liberty has become a halfway house for ruffians, insurrectionists and renegadewarriors.

What does Trump have on these people, one wonders? The continuing loyalty of so many to a man so demonstrably dangerous can’t be explained by “the base,” a word never more aptly applied. What secrets were shared by Trump and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who, after blaming Trump for the Jan. 6 mob attack, visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago this week to make amends? It seems that The Don, yet another appropriate nickname, need only purse his button lips and whistle to summon his lap dogs to Palm Beach, there to conspire for the next Big Lie.

The party’s end was inevitable, foreshadowed in 2008 when little-boy Republican males, dazzled by the pretty, born-again, pro-life Alaska governor, thought Sarah Palin should be a heartbeat away from the presidency. The dumbing down of conservatism, in other words, began its terminal-velocity plunge, with a wink and a pair of shiny red shoes. Palin cast a spell as potent as the poppy fields of Oz, but turned the United States into her own moose-poppin,’ gum-smackin’ reality show.

Forget Kansas. We’re not in America anymore.

Eight years of Barack Obama added insult to injury and paved the way for Trump — a gaudier, cinematic version of the “thrillah from Wasilla.” Seizing upon our every worst instinct, he turned Palin’s lipsticked pig into a herd of seething, primitive barbarians. Now, the Department of Homeland Security is warning of yet more violence by domestic extremists, presumably from the ranks of the mob and QAnon conspiracists who stormed the Capitol with blood on their minds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-gop-isnt-doomed-its-dead/2021/01/29/07d08c3a-6271-11eb-afbe-9a11a127d146_story.html

Sounds like the GOP has now lost the once-reliably Republican Kathleen Parker forever...

January 30, 2021

Job Seekers With Trump White House on Their Resumes Face a Cold Reality

Working at the White House has traditionally been a ticket to a lucrative future. But that hasn’t been the case so far for Trump alumni.

After announcing her departure from the Trump administration in the middle of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, Sarah Matthews, a deputy White House press secretary, kept running into the same question as she worked her contacts to find a new job: What was it like?

Ms. Matthews turned the answer to that question into a strategy to succeed in a job market not exactly clamoring for former Trump administration aides — presenting her experience in President Donald J. Trump’s press office as essentially a daily lesson in crisis communications, and a marketable asset.

“In general, you would think that working in the Trump White House would kind of show how battle-tested you are,” Ms. Matthews, who plans to stay in Republican politics, said in an interview. “It shows that you can survive one of the most high-pressure jobs.”

However they choose to spin their experience, the decision to stay in the Trump White House to the very end will create headwinds for some former officials, especially those who lasted until a presidency defined by grievance went out in violence. Mr. Trump may have jetted off to Florida urging those he left behind to “Have a nice life,” but the stigma of his political brand will not be so easy for his former aides to escape, particularly the high-profile ones, or anyone who had any hopes of moving beyond the Trump realm.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/us/politics/trump-white-house-jobs.html

January 30, 2021

G.M.'s Electric Car Push Could Put China in the Driver's Seat

With government support and lavish subsidies, Chinese companies have come to dominate the market for batteries, motors and other essentials Detroit may need for its new fleets.

The business of making cars has reached a critical juncture — and it looks as if China is in the driver’s seat.

General Motors’ surprise announcement on Thursday that it aspires to eliminate gasoline and diesel cars from its fleet by 2035 and embrace electric cars follows a road map successfully drawn by Beijing. To get there, G.M., the Detroit stalwart and symbol of American industrial might, may have no choice but to embrace car and battery technologies in which Chinese companies play leading roles.

Even when setting the time frame, G.M. seems to be matching Beijing’s speed. Just three months ago, Chinese policymakers ordered that most vehicles sold in China must be electric by 2035.

“When it comes to global automakers’ electric vehicle plans, all roads lead back to Beijing,” said Michael Dunne, a former president of G.M.’s Indonesia operations.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/business/gm-china-electric-cars.html

January 30, 2021

Electric Cars Are Coming, and Fast. Is the Nation's Grid Up to It?

GM’s decision this week to phase out gasoline vehicles is the latest in a major shift that will mean drastic new demands on electric utilities. Here are four things that will need to happen.

Major automakers are increasingly betting that millions of new cars and trucks over the next decade will be plugged into electrical outlets, not fueled up at gas stations. That raises a question: Is the nation’s power grid ready to handle this surge of new electric vehicles?

Today, fewer than 1 percent of cars on America’s roads are electric. But a seismic shift is underway.

General Motors said Thursday that it aims to stop selling new gasoline-powered cars and light trucks by 2035 and will pivot to battery-powered vehicles. California’s governor has set a goal of phasing out sales of new combustion engines statewide in just 15 years. Automakers like Tesla, Ford and Volkswagen plan to introduce dozens of new electric models in the years ahead, spurred on by plummeting battery prices and concerns about climate change.

That shift will have sweeping implications for the companies that produce and sell electricity and manage the grid. Analysts generally agree that it is entirely feasible to power many millions of new cars with electricity, but it will take careful planning.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/climate/gm-electric-cars-power-grid.html

January 30, 2021

G.M. Announcement Shakes Up U.S. Automakers' Transition to Electric Cars

Every carmaker is trying to figure out how to make the leap before governments force it and Tesla and other start-ups lure away drivers.

A new president took office this month determined to fight climate change. Wall Street investors think Tesla is worth more than General Motors, Toyota, Volkswagen and Ford put together. And China, the world’s biggest car market, recently ordered that most new cars be powered by electricity in just 15 years.

Those large forces help explain the decision by G.M.’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, that the company will aim to sell only zero-emission cars and trucks by 2035.

Her announcement, just a day after President Biden signed an executive order on climate change, blindsided rivals who usually seek to present a united message on emissions and other policy issues. But it was also years in the making. G.M. has had a love-hate relationship with electric cars going back decades, but under Ms. Barra, who took over in 2014, it has inched its way toward a full embrace of the technology.

She has also shown a penchant for making big moves that her predecessors might have considered brash or impulsive given the company’s reputation for deliberate — or plodding to some — decision making. When Donald J. Trump became president, she pushed him to relax Obama-era fuel economy standards that G.M. had endorsed when they were put in place. Then, after Mr. Trump lost his re-election bid in November, Ms. Barra withdrew from a lawsuit seeking to prevent California from maintaining its own high fuel standards.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/business/general-motors-electric-cars.html

January 29, 2021

Palm Harbor Messianic rabbi is the latest Floridian accused in U.S. Capitol riot

A federal complaint accuses Michael Stepakoff of Palm Habor of entering the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

A rabbi who leads a Palm Harbor synagogue is among the latest Floridians to be accused of crimes related to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

A federal criminal complaint filed this week in U.S. District Court in Washington D.C. alleges that Michael Stepakoff entered the Capitol after a mob of supporters of former President Donald Trump stormed the building, disrupting congressional certification of the electoral college vote.

Stepakoff, 55, leads Temple New Jerusalem, a Messianic synagogue in Palm Harbor and is a former lawyer. He is now one of at least 17 Floridians who have been accused of crimes related to the insurrection.

Messianic Judaism is a syncretic religion that combines Jewish traditions with Christianity, including the belief in Jesus as the Jewish Messiah. Most Jews consider it rooted in Christianity and not representative of their faith, according to the Pinellas County Board of Rabbis.

https://www.tampabay.com/news/nation-world/2021/01/29/palm-harbor-rabbi-is-the-latest-floridian-accused-in-us-capitol-riot/

January 29, 2021

Crust Punk Bleeds Out After Flossing Teeth for First Time in 12 Years

TORONTO — Crust punk Seth Ulrich tragically bled to death yesterday after making the unfortunate decision to floss his teeth for the first time in 12 years, bereaved friends and family confirmed.

“When I saw him go upstairs with a thing of dental floss, I assumed he was going to sew a new patch on his jacket, or maybe try stitching up that fox bite on his leg that’s been festering for the last eight months,” said Ulrich’s girlfriend Tammy Baker. “I never imagined he would do something so reckless as floss his teeth… or at least, what’s left of them. His gums would start bleeding if a stiff breeze hits his mouth. When I saw him steal that floss from Rexall, I should’ve known it was a cry for help. This didn’t have to happen.”

Seth’ uncle Alex Ulrich felt guilty about his nephew’s passing.

“I’m afraid I might have been the one to push him towards oral hygiene,” said a crestfallen Alex. “He came to my house last month to grab some scrap copper I’ve had lying around, and when he got near me, I told him his breath ‘smelled like trash water at the bottom of a manure pile.’ I guess it really hurt his feelings. I can’t help but blame myself.”

https://thehardtimes.net/music/crust-punk-bleeds-out-after-flossing-teeth-for-first-time-in-12-years/

January 29, 2021

Did Trump and His Supporters Commit Treason?

For years, Carlton F. W. Larson, a treason scholar and law professor at the University of California, Davis, has swatted away loose treason accusations by both Donald Trump and his critics. Though the term is popularly used to describe all kinds of political betrayals, the Constitution defines treason as one of two distinct, specific acts: “levying War” against the United States or “adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” Colluding with Russia, a foreign adversary but not an enemy, is not treason, nor is bribing Ukraine to investigate a political rival. Ordering the military to abandon Kurdish allies in Syria, effectively strengthening isis, is not treason, either—though that is getting warmer. During Trump’s Presidency, Larson told me, his colleagues teased him by asking, “Is it treason yet?” He always said no. But the insurrection of January 6th changed his answer, at least with regard to Trump’s followers who attacked the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress’s certification of the election. “It’s very clear that would have been seen as ‘levying war,’ ” he said.

Both of Trump’s impeachments, in 2019 and 2021, were for “high crimes and misdemeanors,” but the Constitution also names treason as an offense for which a President can be impeached. Individuals, including a former President, may also be criminally punished for treason, perhaps the highest offense in our legal system, carrying the possibility of the death penalty. Fearing abuse of treason charges, the Framers gave treason a narrow definition and made it extremely difficult to prove.

The Treason Clause dictates that a conviction can rest only “on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.” Partly as a result, there have been around forty treason prosecutions. No American has been executed for treason against the U.S., although Hipolito Salazar (a Mexican who officials thought was American) was federally executed for treason during the Mexican-American War, and some states have executed people for treason, including the abolitionist John Brown.

Larson wrote in his book “On Treason: A Citizen’s Guide to the Law,” from 2020, that the Framers “had a very specific image in mind—men gathering with guns, forming an army, and marching on the seat of government.” Few events in American history, if any, have matched that description as clearly as the insurrection of January 6th, which, court documents suggest, was planned by milita members who may have intended to capture elected officials. The American most associated with treason was one who did not “levy war” but rather gave “aid and comfort” to the enemy: Benedict Arnold. He at first fought heroically in the Revolutionary War but then attempted to aid the British; he fled to the enemy when his betrayal was discovered, and so was never punished. Treason prosecutions for levying war were brought against some individuals who took part in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, in which armed men burned down a tax collector’s house, and the Fries Rebellion of 1799, in which armed men stormed a prison and forced the release of tax resisters. Both resulted in conviction followed by pardon. The Jefferson Administration prosecuted the former Vice-President Aaron Burr, in 1807, for allegedly conspiring with a group of armed men to overthrow the U.S. government in New Orleans, but he was acquitted. In connection with that planned rebellion, the Supreme Court held that a mere conspiracy to levy war does not count as actually levying war. Another treason case resulted from the Christiana Riot, in which dozens of men fought the return of slaves to their owners as required by the Fugitive Slave Act. Supreme Court Justice Robert Grier, presiding at trial (as Justices did in those days), held that “levying war” had to involve an intent to overthrow the government or hinder the execution of law.

https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/did-donald-trump-and-his-supporters-commit-treason

January 29, 2021

Marco Rubio Deserves Ivanka Trump

Will the senator’s sycophancy and shape-shifting come to naught?

By Frank Bruni

It’s a measure of the Republican Party’s current depravity that I think of the period when Marco Rubio was besmirching Donald Trump’s genitalia as the good old days.

It was early 2016, Trump hadn’t yet locked down the Republican presidential nomination and Rubio, smarting from Trump’s nickname for him (“Little Marco’) and cracks about his overactive sweat glands, began pointing voters toward Trump’s private parts.

“He’s, like, 6-2, which is why I don’t understand why his hands are the size of someone who’s 5-2,” Rubio told voters at a campaign rally in late February that year. “Have you seen his hands? And you know what they say about men with small hands.”

In that age of innocence, we were talking and even laughing about the nether regions of Republican anatomy. Five years later, we’re talking and most certainly not laughing about the nether regions of Republican morality, which Rubio plumbs as shamelessly as his more exposed Senate colleagues Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton do.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/opinion/sunday/marco-rubio-ivanka-trump.html

Little Barko never wanted to remain a senator, anyway.