Extra, Extra
American Justice? “They said they were punished in a dark room called the island, where they were trampled, kicked and forced to kneel for hours. One man said officers thrust his head into a tank of water to simulate drowning. Another said he was forced to perform oral sex on guards wearing hoods.” NYT (Gift Article): ‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison.
+ Resigning, Not Resigned: “President Donald Trump is using the law for partisan purposes, targeting his adversaries while sparing his friends and donors from investigation, prosecution, and possible punishment. This is contrary to everything that I have stood for in my more than 50 years in the Department of Justice and on the bench. The White House’s assault on the rule of law is so deeply disturbing to me that I feel compelled to speak out. Silence, for me, is now intolerable.” Federal Judge Mark L. Wolf: Why I Am Resigning. This probably won’t change Wolf’s mind: “President Trump has granted pardons to his former lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani and a wide array of other people accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to the Justice Department’s pardon attorney.” Trump Pardons Giuliani and Others Involved in Effort to Overturn 2020 Election.
+ ‘Pause and Effect: “The changes, expected within six months, represent a radical turnabout in what women have been told about hormone replacement therapy.” NYT (Gift Article): F.D.A. Will Remove Black Box Warnings From Hormone Treatments for Menopause. Meanwhile, our broader health politics just keep getting weirder. WaPo (Gift Article): ‘God is an anti-vaxxer’: Inside the conference celebrating RFK Jr.’s rise.
+ Same Aim: Supreme Court Denies Request to Revisit Same-Sex Marriage Decision. (This was somewhat expected as the case was perceived as weak. Don’t take it to mean same-sex marriage is safe from this court.)
+ Edited Out: “The memo suggested that the one-hour Panorama programme had edited parts of Trump’s speech together, so he appeared to explicitly encourage the Capitol Hill riot of January 2021.” BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness have resigned. Here’s a side-by-side comparison of BBC-edited Trump speech from day of Capitol attack with original. (It’s a bad edit. And the original is bad enough.)
+ Just a Little Outside … the Law: “Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were charged with fraud, conspiracy and bribery stemming from an alleged scheme to rig individual pitches that led to gamblers winning hundreds of thousands of dollars.” (It’s a safe bet we’ll see more of these cases.)
+ Student Government: “On Tuesday night, a charismatic teenager eked out a victory in a race for a county supervisor seat in southeastern Virginia. Cameran Drew’s victory was notable not only because of his age (19) or the narrow margin of victory (10 votes), but also because of the opponent he beat: his former high school government teacher.”
+ Resistance is Fusili: “Italy’s biggest pasta exporters say import and antidumping duties totaling 107% on their pasta brands will make doing business in America too costly and are preparing to pull out of U.S. stores as soon as January. The combined tariffs are among the steepest faced by any product targeted by the Trump administration.” WSJ (Gift Article): Italian Pasta Is Poised to Disappear From American Grocery Shelves. (Finally, we’ll be rid of that damn pasta from Italy!)
