Patrick's Notebook

By Darmi Msarko

Amanda Gorman made history Wednesday as the youngest known inaugural poet. The 22-year-old Los Angeles resident delivered her poem “The Hill We Climb” at President Joe Biden’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.

Ahead of the performance, Gorman spoke about the impact of her poem with “CBS This Morning” and noted how the message changed after the violent attack on the Capitol. “I wanted it to be a message of hope and unity. And I think that Wednesday for me really just underscored how much that was needed,” she said. “But to not turn a blind eye to the cracks that really need to be filled.”

In 2017, Gorman became the first National Youth Poet Laureate. The Harvard graduate plans to release a children’s book of poems later this year. Like Mr. Biden, Gorman has struggled with a speech impediment throughout her life, making poetry a “lifeline” for her. Also like Mr. Biden, she has a long-term goal of running for president.

Read “The Hill We Climb” below.

When day comes we ask ourselves where can we find light in this never-ending shade,

The loss we carry a sea we must wade.

We have braved the belly of the beast.

We have learned that quiet isn’t always peace,

Somehow we do it. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Jesse Johnson

Supporters of Taiwan independence hold a rally in support of U.S. President Donald Trump in Taipei on Jan. 2

The Trump administration’s policy toward Taiwan is ending much as it started — by attempting to fundamentally alter the status quo.

The United States on Friday lifted decades-old restrictions on contacts between U.S. officials and their Taiwanese counterparts, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, just days before President-elect Joe Biden is due to take office.

The move in the waning days of Donald Trump’s presidency was the latest in a series of shifts by the White House that have more tightly bound Washington’s ties with Taipei amid an increasingly acrimonious relationship with Beijing.

As president-elect in December 2016, Trump took the rare step of receiving a congratulatory phone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen. The call, the first contact between a leader of Taiwan and an incumbent or incoming U.S. president in nearly four decades, angered China and set the stage for a rapid deterioration of Sino-U.S. ties under Trump.

In his statement Friday, Pompeo called Taiwan “a vibrant democracy and reliable partner” of the U.S., but said that for several decades the State Department had created “complex internal restrictions” on the interactions between U.S. diplomats, servicemembers and other officials with their Taiwanese counterparts. » Read the rest of this entry «

By Timothy Snyder

When Donald Trump stood before his followers on Jan. 6 and urged them to march on the United States Capitol, he was doing what he had always done. He never took electoral democracy seriously nor accepted the legitimacy of its American version.

Even when he won, in 2016, he insisted that the election was fraudulent — that millions of false votes were cast for his opponent. In 2020, in the knowledge that he was trailing Joseph R. Biden in the polls, he spent months claiming that the presidential election would be rigged and signaling that he would not accept the results if they did not favor him. He wrongly claimed on Election Day that he had won and then steadily hardened his rhetoric: With time, his victory became a historic landslide and the various conspiracies that denied it ever more sophisticated and implausible.

People believed him, which is not at all surprising. It takes a tremendous amount of work to educate citizens to resist the powerful pull of believing what they already believe, or what others around them believe, or what would make sense of their own previous choices. Plato noted a particular risk for tyrants: that they would be surrounded in the end by yes-men and enablers. Aristotle worried that, in a democracy, a wealthy and talented demagogue could all too easily master the minds of the populace. Aware of these risks and others, the framers of the Constitution instituted a system of checks and balances. The point was not simply to ensure that no one branch of government dominated the others but also to anchor in institutions different points of view. » Read the rest of this entry «

The Editorial Board, Houston Chronicle

In Texas, we have our share of politicians who peddle wild conspiracy theories and reckless rhetoric aiming to inflame.

Think U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert’s “terror baby” diatribes or his nonsensical vow not to wear a face mask until after he got COVID, which he promptly did.

This editorial board tries to hold such shameful specimens to account.

But we reserve special condemnation for the perpetrators among them who are of sound mind and considerable intellect — those who should damn well know better.

None more than U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz.

A brilliant and frequent advocate before the U.S. Supreme Court and a former Texas solicitor general, Cruz knew exactly what he was doing, what he was risking and who he was inciting as he stood on the Senate floor Wednesday and passionately fed the farce of election fraud even as a seething crowd of believers was being whipped up by President Donald Trump a short distance away.

Cruz, it should also be noted, knew exactly whose presidency he was defending. That of a man he called in 2016 a “narcissist,” a “pathological liar” and “utterly amoral.”

Cruz told senators that since nearly 40 percent of Americans believed the November election “was rigged” that the only remedy was to form an emergency task force to review the results — and if warranted, allow states to overturn Joe Biden’s victory and put their electoral votes in Trump’s column. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Darmi Msarko

A violent mob incited by President Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol Wednesday, attacking police, ransacking and looting offices, and sending lawmakers diving for cover amid gunfire and tear gas. The unprecedented violence interrupted a joint session of Congress convened to certify Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s Electoral College victory. It came after President Trump — backed by his attorney, Rudy Giuliani — rallied thousands of supporters outside the White House, urging them to march on the Capitol to overturn the results of the election.

Rudy Giuliani: “Let’s have trial by combat!”

Donald Trump: “Because you’ll never take back our country with weakness. You have to show strength, and you have to be strong.”

After the speech, Trump retreated to the White House while his mob marched on Congress, where they pushed past police and smashed their way into the Capitol. The Secret Service whisked Vice President Mike Pence to safety as terrified lawmakers fled the House and Senate chambers. A dozen lawmakers were trapped on the gallery above the House floor as marauders tried to force their way past barricades. Some of the lawmakers put on emergency gas masks as tear gas filled the air; others broke furniture apart to fashion makeshift clubs to defend themselves before Capitol Police finally cleared a path for their escape. The insurrectionists overturned desks, tore paintings off walls, posed for photos on the House and Senate daises, and looted the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Ben Quinn

Judge says it would be ‘oppressive’ to extradite WikiLeaks founder to US, citing concerns for his mental health

Julian Assange will make a fresh bid to be released from prison on Wednesday after a British judge ruled that he cannot be extradited to the US to face charges of espionage and of hacking government computers.

Lawyers for US authorities are appealing against the ruling at the Old Bailey, which rejected arguments that the WikiLeaks co-founder would not get a fair trial in the US but blocked extradition on the basis that procedures in prisons there would not prevent him from potentially taking his own life.

Assange will appear on Wednesday at Westminster Magistrates court in west London for a new bail application, where his legal team is expected to refer to conditions at Belmarsh high-security prison in south London against the backdrop of the worsening Covid-19 pandemic. Legal experts say they would be surprised if bail is granted, given Assange’s categorisation as a flight risk.

Wearing a mask and a navy suit, the 49-year-old listened on Monday from the dock at the central criminal court of England and Wales as the district judge, Vanessa Baraitser, initially knocked down arguments by his lawyers one after another and accepted the US authorities’ assertion that his alleged activities fell outside of the realm of journalism. » Read the rest of this entry «

by Greg Walters

“His best defense would be insanity,” tweeted a well-known Washington defense lawyer

President Trump has gotten himself in trouble before with mob boss-style rantings around election season—like the call with the Ukrainian president that got him impeached a year ago.

But legal experts say Trump might have broken both federal and state criminal statutes in his already-infamous call with Georgia officials on Saturday night.

Trump hectored and berated Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in an hourlong group call with lawyers and White House aides, pressuring the state official to find a way to reverse Trump’s election defeat. Trump incessantly repeated groundless conspiracy theories, railed about dead people voting, and switched between cajoling, begging, and threatening.

“I just want to find 11,780 votes,” Trump said, citing a figure one higher than his margin of defeat, in a recording first released by The Washington Post on Sunday evening. “So what are we going to do here, folks? I only need 11,000 votes. Fellas, I need 11,000 votes. Give me a break.” » Read the rest of this entry «