(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: The rich and powerful live by different rules, but progress can happen [1] ['Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags', 'Showtags Popular_Tags'] Date: 2023-01-30 Jill Lawrence/USA Today: 'Kid glove' treatment of Supreme Court won't find abortion leaker or stop ethics abuses Presidents and Supreme Court justices essentially police themselves. That's a recipe for disappointment and abuses. The investigation was conducted by Supreme Court Marshal Gail Curley and her staff, and deemed professional and thorough in a review by former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Ninety-seven employees were interviewed, some multiple times. But the report did not disclose that, according to new CNN reporting, the court had a financial relationship with Chertoff's security firm, the Chertoff Group. In addition, as attorney Mark Zaid told me, nobody could tell from the initial report whether the justices themselves had been interviewed. POLITICO Playbook on the state of the Republican Party: WHAT TRUMP CAN LEARN FROM McCONNELL, McCARTHY AND McDANIEL — Republicans have performed poorly in three elections in a row and yet they've maintained all of their key leaders: MITCH McCONNELL in the Senate, KEVIN McCARTHY in the House, and RONNA McDANIEL at the RNC. McConnell is now the longest-serving Senate leader in American history. McCarthy has had a top leadership position in the House GOP since 2010. McDaniel, by winning a fourth term, will be the RNC’s longest-serving chair since the Civil War. The three races had unique dynamics, but they had one big thing in common: Republicans making the case for “fresh leadership” all failed. That losing message is worth keeping in mind as the GOP turns its attention to the 2024 presidential primaries, which will feature frontrunner DONALD TRUMP against a large field of candidates arguing that it’s time for someone new to be in charge. To them, of course, it justifies their access coverage of those in power. We are a long, long way from I.F. Stone’s Weekly. Franklin Foer/The Atlantic: How Joe Biden Wins Again Biden Rest Stops as far as the eye can see Biden’s frustration with Obama was that he didn’t sufficiently consider the marketing potential of the stimulus. Obama frankly admitted that he took “perverse pride” in how his technocratic administration constructed policy without regard for political considerations. The 2009 Recovery Act included tax cuts, but intentionally didn’t advertise them. The government quietly withheld less money from paychecks, a dividend that almost nobody noticed. This furtive tax cut was theoretically effective, because consumers were less likely to save money that they didn’t know they possessed. But it was also a political nonfact. This humility of sorts transgressed a core Biden maxim: Good policy is useless without good politics. The health of the government (not to mention the health of the Democratic Party) depends almost entirely on public appreciation of the government’s deeds. “Good policy is useless without good politics.” So true. x There’s a lot of silly stuff out there about George Santos, but this is the stuff that he actually needs to fear. https://t.co/181Bx7BZ4E — Nathaniel Rakich (@baseballot) January 29, 2023 Perry Bacon Jr./The Washington Post: The police killing in Memphis is a reminder we must change policing The five officers were all Black, as was [Tyre] Nichols — as is Memphis’s police chief. That doesn’t make this situation less bad — or unrelated to racism. The problem, as Black Lives Matter activists have been saying for a decade, isn’t that individual officers hate Black people or other minorities. It’s that America’s police departments deploy and train their officers to view everyday citizens as either threats to the officers’ safety or disruptions to an orderly society — resulting in altercations escalating needlessly into killings. x Mostly peaceful protests held across the U.S. after release of Tyre Nichols footage https://t.co/kqYOwQUI3m — Shawn Peirce (@_silversmith) January 28, 2023 Alan Elrod/Arc Digital: The Hard Right Keeps Pathologizing Its Opponents “Groomers,” “mutilators,” and other fun labels Minors and their safety are central here. “Grooming,” “abuse,” and “mutilation” are the watchwords of anti-LGBTQ activism. There is even a catchy diagnosis that continues to ricochet around on the hard right: rapid onset gender dysphoria. This is the belief that exposure to LGBTQ socialization, confusing media, and even “grooming” practices can cause children to quickly develop gender dysphoria and, in the span of mere months, insist on transitioning their identity in ways they will surely regret. It should be noted that rapid onset gender dysphoria is not endorsed by the major medical associations, and research has been conducted that disputes the claims behind it. What I want to note is the way this idea invites a view of being trans as an illness and, by emphasizing it as a social contagion that can rapidly overwhelm a young person, one that is highly communicable. As to the supposed spreaders of this illness? Well, Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik was unequivocal in her condemnation of LGBTQ advocates, calling them “groomers” and concluding “I think they’re evil.” EJ Dionne, Jr./The Washington Post: [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/1/30/2150013/-Abbreviated-Pundit-Roundup-The-rich-and-powerful-live-by-different-rules-but-progress-can-happen Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/