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Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: 2025 incoming [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-01-02
We begin today with Jenny Vrentas, Shannon Sims, and Eli Tan of The New York Times writing that possible links between yesterday’s deadly attack in New Orleans that killed 15 people and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas are being investigated.
The trucks used in the deadly attack in New Orleans and the explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday were rented through the same peer-to-peer rental app, Turo, according to the company. The owner of the Ford pickup truck used in New Orleans recognized his vehicle when he saw footage showing the truck and license plate on the news. He had rented the truck to a 42-year-old Army veteran who then used it to ram into crowds on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more. [...] In Las Vegas, the police said during a news conference that the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump Hotel’s lobby entrance, killing one and injuring at least seven others, was also rented from Turo. Officials called it a “coincidence” and said they were continuing to investigate any possible connections. The company said in a statement that it was “actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents.”
The deadly attack in New Orleans forced the postponement of the Sugar Bowl. Juliette Kayyem of The Atlantic asks what is the best way for continue with previously scheduled public activities in spite of terror attacks.
First, can the situation legitimately be described as no longer posing a continuing danger? In 2015 in Paris, a wave of terror attacks over one long night resulted in 130 deaths. The entire country was placed under what amounted to a three-month lockdown, with most public events canceled. That made some sense, given the sophistication and planning behind those attacks, and the fact that a concert hall and sporting venue had been targeted. “People have come from all over the country,” Representative Troy Carter of Louisiana told CBS about today’s attack, “but nothing is more important than public safety and making sure that we’re protecting the citizens and visitors alike.” [...] Second, if a city chooses to close down or delay events, does it have clear standards for what will allow it to reopen? This was the dilemma after the Boston Marathon bombings on a Monday in 2013, when the two terrorists initially evaded law enforcement. After the brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who had carried out the attack, killed an MIT police officer while making their escape, the governor asked residents of nearby towns to remain indoors as the search proceeded. The governor’s request, accepted by the scared public rather than enforced, ceased to be sustainable as the search dragged on for an entire day. European cities such as Brussels have faced the same issue after major attacks. It is easy to close down but harder to have metrics for what is perfectly safe, because that is an impossible standard. Third, can public-safety resources and planning be redeployed or reassessed in light of the terror attack without forcing the city to a standstill? A preplanned sports event, such as the Sugar Bowl, already has in place safety and security protocols that can be amended in just a few hours to allow for more resources from other jurisdictions and changes to vehicle access. Indeed, just a day after Boston’s lockdown, the Red Sox played at Fenway with a ramped-up public-safety presence. The Hall of Fame slugger David Ortiz memorably welcomed the anxious crowd by saying, “This is our fucking city.” He was reflecting a sense that terrorists elevate their cause if they can affect entire populations, and the best response can be an insistent normalcy.
Rex Huppke of USA Today and the most predictable thing in the world: At least according to the incoming shoe salesman himself, the president will always be right.
The most certain of all the certain things that will certainly happen in 2025 is this: Donald Trump, as president, will do everything right. He will tell us this repeatedly. His first month in office will be the most historic first month in office ever and nobody will be able to believe his incredible success, according to him.[...] At various points in the year, Trump will tell us about a big, tough guy who approached him with tears in his eyes and told him how amazingly perfect he has been as president. And Trump himself will agree with that assessment. [...] As Trump’s planned tariffs cause prices to skyrocket and his mass deportations harm companies across the country, leading to factory closures and downsizing, Trump fans will continue to cheer for their hero from their homeless encampments. Though most “Make America Great Again” hats will be burned for warmth, the spirit of the MAGA faithful will be unbowed, and they will fill social media with posts about the patriotic joy of going hungry.
Andrew Solender of Axios reports on proposed rules changes for the incoming U.S. House of Representatives that, among other things, will raise the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate the House speaker.
House Republicans on Wednesday released their proposed rules package for the 119th Congress, which includes several notable changes to the rules that governed the lower chamber for the last two years. Why it matters: The most crucial alteration raises the threshold to introduce a motion to vacate— a measure to force a vote on ousting the House speaker. Instead of any single House member being able to force such a vote, now any such motion will have to be introduced by a Republican joined by eight additional GOP co-sponsors.
The change is the result of a deal struck between House Republican factions in November as the GOP met to renominate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). [...] Zoom in: The package also renames the Office of Congressional Ethics – another common GOP target – to the Office of Congressional Conduct. It authorizes subpoenas of Attorney General Merrick Garland and other DOJ officials as part of House Republicans' investigations into the Biden family's finances.
And it sets up votes on a dozen GOP bills implementing strict border security measures, sanctioning the International Criminal Court, requiring proof of citizenship to vote in federal elections and more.
Comfort Bro and Richard Atwood of Foreign Policy write about ten conflicts that will shape 2025.
Trump’s return brings fresh uncertainty. In Europe, the Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East, Trump’s promises are often contradictory, as are the views of his cabinet picks and loyalists. If he doubles down on confrontation, how much risk will he tolerate? If he seeks deals, what trade-offs might they entail, and what might the implications be for U.S. allies? Outside those arenas, if Washington is largely absent, how will others fill the space? Trump’s admirers see virtue in impetuousness. Keeping rivals and allies on their toes can deter the former and extract concessions from the latter. Putin, they say, was shyer of acting up with Trump in office, and Trump’s ambiguity about NATO has shaken Europeans out of their complacency about the continent’s security just as much as the Kremlin’s aggression has. But unpredictability could just as easily backfire. While no one wants all-out war, miscalculation is as much a risk along major-power fault lines as elsewhere. If Trump or top officials get too hawkish, a rival could respond in kind, aiming to reset a red line but crossing one of Washington’s own. Or a U.S. ally—the Philippines, say, or Taiwan or Israel—could overstep, prompting retaliation from China or Iran that risks dragging in the United States.
The article includes a section about each of the conflicts: Syria, Sudan, Ukraine and Europe, Israel-Palestine, Iran/U.S./Israel, Haiti, U.S.-Mexico, Myanmar, the Korean peninsula, and U.S.-China.
Javier G. Cuesta of El País in English examines 25 years of Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.
Putin was an unknown figure when Yeltsin appointed him prime minister months earlier, in August 1999. The offensive he launched a month later against Chechnya boosted his popularity. The reason for the war was a series of explosions in residential buildings that ended when the local police in Ryazan discovered another basement full of explosives that, as it turned out, belonged to the Federal Security Service (FSB), the successor agency to the KGB. Nikolai Patrushev, head of Russian intelligence at the time and a close adviser to Putin, said that it was “a training session.” The incident was never investigated by parliament. [...] “I remember us as free / but someone drank the poison / and the howling of hungry wolves / became the silence of the lambs,” sings the band Nogu Svelo!, now in exile. The hardening of Putinism was a gradual process with a tacit pact between the Kremlin and the Russian people: if you don’t meddle in politics, you will have a more or less peaceful life. [...] A quarter of a century later, the regime’s internal repression has surpassed the heavy-handedness of any post-Stalin Soviet leader. The independent outlet Proekt has identified at least 11,442 people tried under criminal cases and 116,000 under administrative proceedings for expressing their opinions or participating in demonstrations in Putin’s penultimate term in office (2018-2023). Of these, 5,613 citizens were tried for “extremism” or “discrediting the authorities,” compared to 3,234 similar cases recorded in the USSR from 1962 to 1985 under autocrats such as Leonid Brezhnev and Yuri Andropov.
Finally today, I propose that the beginning of the New Year be moved from midnight wherever you are to the near-end of the third quarter at the Rose Bowl game in Pasadena, California.
I always prefer the shot from the Goodyear Blimp, if it is available.
Everyone try to have the best possible day and Happy New Year!
[END]
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