TUE 3/22/22
Culture Wars and the KBJ Hearings – Republican scrutiny of President Biden’s nominee for Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, began with Sen. Lindsay Graham’s (R-SC) complaint that far-left lobbying groups and “dark money” sunk White House consideration of Judge J. Michelle Childs for the seat, because of her alleged rulings that were unfriendly to labor unions.
Childs is a U.S. district judge in South Carolina, who also had the backing of Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC), a close ally of Biden.
But scrutiny of Jackson reached a crescendo when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) said, “You once wrote that every judge has ‘Personal, hidden agendas’ that influence how they decide cases. I can only wonder what your hidden agenda is?”
Backlash: According to Fox News Digital, “reporters and media commentators took to social media to complain about Blackburn asking for the Supreme Court nominee’s ‘hidden agenda’. First example was by CNN reporter Manu Raju, who tweeted this caption to a photo from the hearings: “Judge Jackson listens on as Marsha Blackburn questions whether the Supreme Court nominee has a ‘hidden agenda.’”
You can read other examples here: https://www.foxnews.com/media/media-attack-marsha-blackburn-take-hearing-comments-context
A Blackburn aide told Fox News Digital, “You can always count on mainstream media to target and harass the only female conservative in the room – it appears that’s their full-time job.”
Day Two: And that’s just from the opening comments on the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation hearings. The second day, with committee grilling of Brown, has just begun.
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Vintage Defense in Ukraine – The U.S. is sending into Ukraine Russian defense systems it secretly obtained before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, as protection against Russia’s attacks. The U.S. military acquired the Soviet-era defense systems to better understand the capabilities of missile defense systems Moscow was using around the world, according to The Wall Street Journal.
What’s Not 40-years Old: Meanwhile, President Biden warned Monday of likelihood of Russian cyber-attacks against “critical-sector” U.S. companies, The Washington Post says.
On the Physical Battlefield: President Volodymyr Zelensky says some Ukrainian cities have been bombed beyond recognition as Russia steps up its shelling. Ukrainian forces have re-taken a suburb of Kyiv as Russian troops remain stalled outside the city.
On Tuesday, Zelensky told the Italian government that Ukraine is on the brink of surviving the war, per BBC.
And What Would Trump Do?: As the Trump wing of the Republican Party continues to paint President Biden as “weak” on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Fox News host Stuart Varney pressed Donald J. Trump on what the ex-president would have done better. Would Trump send in MiG jets, as requested by Zelensky?
“Well, maybe, even more, to be honest with you,” according to a transcript of the Varney & Co. segment published by Mediaite.
“Like what, Mr. President, like what?” Varney pressed.
“Let me just explain that Putin is saying things like ‘don’t you dare send in anything … In the meantime, he’s killing thousands and thousands of people…” Trump went on to explain that the U.S. military has a fleet of “44-year-old” fighter jets.
“Well, what I would do, is I would, we would, we have tremendous military capability and what we can do without planes, to be honest with you, without 44-year-old jets, what we can do is enormous, and we should be doing it and we should be helping them to survive and they’re doing an amazing job.”
And there you have it. That’s why the Trump wing of the GOP finds Biden “weak” on the war.
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Meanwhile, in proposed financial/environmental regulations – The Securities and Exchange Commission announced yesterday a proposed rule change that would require public companies to include information about “climate-related risks that are reasonably likely to have a material impact on their business, results of operations, or financial condition, and certain climate-related financial statement metrics in a note to their audited financial statements.”
Rationalizing this, SEC chairman Gary Gensler wrote, “Today, investors representing literally tens of trillions of dollars support climate-related disclosures because they recognize that climate risks can pose significant financial risks to companies, and investors need reliable information about climate risks to make informed investment decisions. Today’s proposal would help issuers more efficiently and effectively disclose these risks and meet investor demand, as many issuers already seek to do.”
The proposal calls for companies to include information about:
- Its approach to handling climate-related risks
- Any identified climate-related risks that may impact its financial situation in the short-, medium- and long-term
- How climate-related risks have affected or are likely to affect the company’s business
- The impact that climate-related risks have had on the company
What’s more, it would require companies to disclose information about the greenhouse gas emissions that it produces directly or indirectly (e.g., by purchases from other companies that generate GHG).
A Form Too Far: While we all like clean air and water, this may be a case of what is commonly referred to as “government overreach.” To be sure, if a company is polluting and it is found out, odds are its stock will plummet and investors will be negatively affected (to say nothing of those who are affected by the waste).
But couldn’t one argue that it would be worth knowing the cholesterol levels and blood pressure readings to the executives in charge of public companies, too? After all, if a key executive has a health issue that puts them out of action, odds are the valuation of said company is going to take a tumble.
--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Nic Woods
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MON 3/21/22
Public Defenders Get Their Day – The first-ever Supreme Court justice nominee to have served as a public defender, Ketanji Brown Jackson (pictured above), gets grilled beginning today by the Senate Judiciary Committee. Jackson most recently sailed through her nomination by President Biden to federal court, but now Judiciary Committee Republicans including Ted Cruz and John Cornyn of Texas, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, envision soundbites of their grilling Jackson as being “soft on crime” for their re-election campaigns. One of the issues they’ll focus on is her membership on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, described by The Washington Post as a “bipartisan agency created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparity and promote transparency and proportionality in sentencing.”
Retiring Justice Stephen Breyer is the only former member of the Sentencing Commission to sit on the Supreme Court.
Known Knowns: In 2010, Jackson was one of several federal public defenders who “had either represented Guantanamo detainees or done policy work on behalf of detainees,” Lawforce editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes writes. The Republican National Committee says, Wittes continues, that Jackson’s “advocacy” goes “beyond just giving them a competent defense.” (She had continued advocating for the Guantanamo defendants after moving on to private practice.)
Jackson’s advocates fear Cruz & Co. will attack her for doing what public defenders are supposed to do: Practice law that is effective in defense against a determined prosecution.
Unknown Unknowns: SCOTUS watchers figure the Democratic majority on the Judiciary Committee will send Jackson’s nomination to the full Senate, where she will pass by at least a vote of 51-50.
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Zelensky to CNN – Volodymyr Zelensky told CNN in an exclusive interview over the weekend he is open to negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, but if such talks fail it could lead to “a third World War.”
Known Unknowns: Zelensky still hopes to convince NATO to transfer Polish MiG fighter jets to Ukraine at the very least and conduct a no-fly zone over his country at best, which NATO leaders and President Biden believe will also lead to World War III. Meanwhile, Russia has negotiated “ceasefires” and “humanitarian corridors” which it has promptly violated by firing upon and bombing Ukrainian civilians, so this begs the question of whether Putin expects -- or even wants -- to fire of some nuclear missiles to trigger WWIII no matter what.
How does Zelensky negotiate with such a leader?
The Latest in Negotiations: Ukraine on Monday rejected Russia’s demand it surrender Mariupol, NPR reports.
General Count: Latest reports claim the Ukraine’s military has killed five of 20 Russian generals who are part of the invasion.
Least-Worst Outcome?: Experts tell The Washington Post the war could end in a “stalemate.” “I don’t think Ukraine forces can push Russian forces out of Ukraine, but I also don’t think Russian forces can take that much more of Ukraine,” says former U.S. Marine Rob Lee, a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
President Biden travels to Brussels Wednesday to meet with leaders of NATO, the European Commission and G-7, then on to Warsaw Friday to meet with Polish President Andrzej Duda, according to Punchbowl News.
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Meanwhile, in COVID-adjacent news -- On Friday President Biden signed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act (H.R. 1667), which might seem unimportant to you, unless you happen to ever need to see a health care professional.
The bill, according to the American Hospital Association (AHA):
- Authorizes “grants for programs that offer behavioral health services for front-line health care workers.”
- Requires “the Department of Health and Human Services to recommend strategies to facilitate health care provider well-being and launch a campaign encouraging health care workers to seek assistance when needed.”
On March 4, 2021, the AHA — which represents some 5,000 hospitals, 270,000 physicians, 2 million nurses and caregivers — wrote a letter to four senators:
“Front-line health care workers have been steadfast in leading the fight against this pandemic since the first COVID-19 cases were identified last January, and their efforts have been extraordinary. After more than a year of working through the intensity of the pandemic, these dedicated workers are still on the front lines.
“Concerns are mounting about how the number of physicians, nurses and other health workers are coping with emotional and physical strain from treating COVID-19 patients. We know – both from survey data and anecdotally from extensive discussions with our members – that clinicians are suffering. A study reported by the National Academy of Medicine shows that between 35% and 54% of clinicians report at least one symptom of burnout, more than double the amount of burnout found in other fields. The COVID-19 pandemic has made this situation worse. These workers need and deserve added support as they continue to care for severely ill patients.”
And back then it seemed as though COVID would soon be gone.
Think about what the AHA wrote when considering the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers.
The bill was named for a doctor who led the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital. Dr. Breen, 49, overwhelmed by what she was facing day after day after day, committed suicide.
--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash