Flaming Hydra (00:00.642)
Good morning. It is December 13th, a Friday. It's another clear, cold morning in New York City. And this is your indignity morning podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

Quick correction on yesterday's podcast. I mispronounced the name of Douglas Elliman real estate. Thanks to never having properly focused my eyes on which of the vertical letters were L's and which were I's. The Indignity Morning podcast regrets the error. 

On the front of this morning's New York Times, the lead story is, “IN SWEEPING ACT, BIDEN COMMUTES 1,500 SENTENCES, A RECORD FOR ONE DAY, Most Had Been Placed in Home Confinement During Pandemic.” Some of the people who got this relief were real scumbags. One of them, the Times writes, was Michael T. Conahan, a former Pennsylvania judge who was sentenced to more than 17 years in prison in 2011, for wrongly imprisoning juveniles into for-profit detention centers in exchange for financial kickbacks. The Justice Department at the time called the case the worst judicial scandal in Pennsylvania's history. But, you know, that's why the executive's powers of mercy are powers of mercy. Along with the commutations, Biden also issued 39 pardons. The pardon recipients, the Times writes, “include multiple people who were convicted of drug crimes as young adults only to serve in the military and go on to support families of slain US troops help charities or train local firefighters.” But the people who got the commutations didn't get them because they were model citizens. They got them because they were out of prison and behaving themselves on home confinement. And the Times writes, “some Republicans who are set to take control of Congress next month have tried to push legislation that would have forced them to return to prison.” The story also notes that as Joe Biden is working his way down the list of things to do with his presidential powers while he still has them. “Some congressional Democrats and others have also called on Mr. Biden to reduce the sentences of all 40 people on federal death row to life without parole. Donald Trump,” the Times writes, “supports the death penalty and restarted federal executions after a nearly 20 year pause during his first term.” That's a bit of an understatement for the spectacular killing spree that attorney general Bill Barr embarked on. As ProPublica wrote four years ago, “In its hurry to use its final days in power to execute federal prisoners, the administration of President Donald Trump has trampled over an array of barriers, both legal and practical, according to court records that have not been previously reported. Officials gave public explanations for their choice of which prisoners should die that misstated key facts from the cases. They moved ahead with executions in the middle of the night. They left one prisoner strapped to the gurney while lawyers worked to remove a court order. They executed a second prisoner while an appeal was still pending, leaving the court to then dismiss the appeal as moot because the man was already dead. They bought drugs from a secret pharmacy that failed a quality test. They hired private executioners and paid them in cash.” And that was the original, with-guardrails version of the Trump administration. There is no reason for them to be that scrupulous this time around. 

Down below the jump on that story, at the bottom of page A19, “House passes defense bill denying transgender health coverage for minors. A provision that Republicans inserted into the defense bill,” the Times writes, “would bar TRICARE, the military's health care plan, from covering medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization for children under 18. Republicans, the Times-Rights, had pressed for a far more expansive ban on transgender health care coverage, pushing through legislation in June that would deny such treatment for service members or anyone covered under the military's insurance plan. The provision was narrowed in negotiations with the Democratic-led Senate which is expected to take up and pass the measure in the coming days. But,” the story continues, “the fact that it survived to be included in the measure was a departure from previous years when Republicans and Democrats strove to keep contentious social issues out of the defense bill altogether. The break with tradition, both Republican and Democratic aides said, reflected the GOP's sweeping election wins, which handed the party full control of Congress and President-elect Donald J. Trump a second term.” 

That's a particularly grim context in which to see Democrats and effectively the New York Times continuing to conflate how shocking and gross it is that Donald Trump won the presidency, with the actual magnitude of Trump's support The Republican majority in the house, for instance, is passing this particular measure after the voters in fact, shrank the party's existing majority in the chamber some opposition parties might dig in after a show weakness like that But not the party this country has.

Back on page 1 most of the top of the page is taken up by a photo of a Taliban leader named Mullah Osman Jawhari, in a valley in Nuristan province, Afghanistan, to illustrate a long, end of year, prize-season story about how on their way to losing all of Afghanistan to the Taliban, the United States lost this one particular piece of it. The answer is by indiscriminately slaughtering civilians who supported the American cause, but there's four full pages of the particulars inside, culminating with the story of one resident who supported the Americans right to the brink of their withdrawal from the valley, at which point he and his family decided to flee the Taliban, and American helicopters strafed the two trucks in which they and other civilians were trying to get away, killing his family and maiming him for life. “The Americans,” the Times writes, “once again declared the strike a success.” 

Next to that on page one, is an update on the Trump administration's staffing. “Trump's pick as Mideast advisor isn't tycoon he's reputed to be.” The Times writes, “President-elect Donald J. Trump's incoming Middle East advisor, Mossad Boulos, has enjoyed a reputation as a billionaire mogul at the helm of a business that bears his family name. Mr. Boulos has been profiled as a tycoon by the world's media, telling a reporter in October that his company is worth billions. Mr. Trump called him a highly respected leader in the business world with extensive experience on the international scene. In fact,” the Times writes, “records show that Mr. Boulos has spent the past two decades selling trucks and heavy machinery in Nigeria for a company his father-in-law controls. The company, SCOA Nigeria PLC, made a profit of less than $66,000 last year. Corporate filings show, is no indication in corporate documents that Mr. Boulos, a Lebanese American whose son is married to Mr. Trump's daughter Tiffany, is a man of significant wealth as a result of his businesses. The truck dealership is valued at about $865,000 at its current share price. Mr. Boulos' stake, according to securities filings, is worth $1.53. As for Boulos Enterprises, the company that has been called his family business in the Financial Times and elsewhere, a company officer there said it is owned by an unrelated Boulos family. Later in the story, the Times clarifies what it means by and elsewhere, writing, “in October, The Times asked him about his wealth and business dealings. ‘Your company is described as a multi-billion dollar enterprise, the reporter said. Are you yourself a billionaire?’ Mr. Bullos said he did not like to describe himself that way, but the journalists had picked up on the label. ‘It's accurate to describe the company as a multi-billion dollar, the reporter followed up.’ ‘Yeah,’ Mr. Bullos replied. ‘It's a big company.’” Long history. Versions of this history have been recounted in The New York Times, The Economist, CNN, and The Wall Street Journal. But in a subsequent interview on Tuesday, the Times writes, “Boulos said that he had only meant to confirm that other news outlets had written, incorrectly, that he runs such a company. In another call, on Wednesday, he said he was referring to his father-in-law's companies, which he said were collectively worth more than $1 billion, though the company he runs is not.” Really excellent process story. It's not a real Trump administration until you've found some fake billionaires in the mix, like they did last time around. Back then, it was Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who turned out to have been lying his way onto the Forbes Billionaires list. Keep squeezing on those valuations and see what falls out. 

That is the news. Thank you for listening. The Indignity Morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. You, the listeners, sustain our work through your subscription dollars and your tips, so please keep those coming. 

The Teamsters have just approved strike authorizations for two New York City Amazon facilities as their December 15th contract deadline approaches. So maybe get out and do some bricks and mortar holiday shopping, but bundle up. Enjoy the weekend, and if nothing unforeseen happens, we'll talk again on Monday.