Good morning. It is January 7th. It is cold and windy and bright in New York City this morning. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. A major earthquake struck Tibet, killing at least 95 people. Reuters reports that the China Earthquake Network Center measured it at 6.8 on the Richter scale, centered some 50 miles north of Mount Everest, and 10 kilometers underground. Reuters translates that at 6.2 miles which seems overprecise. The US Geological Service measured it at 7.1 

On the front of this morning's New York Times the paper tries to fit a rational frame around the absurdity of Donald Trump seizing power through constitutional forms four years after he attempted to seize it through raw violence. “Peace not mobs as ritual seals Trump's victory,” is the headline. “A contrast with 2021. Congress certifies votes with no objections from Democrats. A joint session of Congress on Monday certified President-elect Donald J. Trump's victory in the 2024 election,” the Times writes, peacefully performing a basic ritual of democracy that was brutally disrupted four years ago by a violent pro-Trump mob inflamed by his lie about a stolen election.

Here we have the performance of a ritual as a mystic substitute for the substance of a thing. Neither Trump nor a substantial portion of the Congress that assembled for the occasion are constitutionally eligible to hold office after their attempt to overthrow the government. But they're still there and they've passed through the procedural forms of democracy with violence at their back, and for anyone to object now would be to admit that violence tried the Constitution. And so instead it's laundered into personalities and manners. 

On page A12, the story is, “Harris performs awkward task of certifying election she lost.” Just one more act of good sportsmanship in the game of American politics. 

Next to the page one story on the electoral count is a column of news analysis. “Inauguration won't put end to legal woes.” Maggie Haberman writes, “as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares for his inauguration, some of the legal cases that spilled out of Mr. Trump's first presidency will follow him into the second.” The example at hand is his sentencing for his multiple convictions of felony falsification of business records in New York, which is due to happen on Friday. If it still counts as a sentencing, now that, as Haberman writes, “the judge signaled he planned to give Mr. Trump an unconditional discharge in the case allowing him to walk free, but leaving him with a criminal record.” After that, the story is mostly about how Trump's legal problems, at least his criminal legal problems, will absolutely not follow him into office, and that in fact his project of obstructing and delaying justice was a sweeping success. The federal charges against him for the January 6th attack have already been withdrawn, as have the charges for carrying off classified documents and obstructing the efforts to retrieve them.

Prosecutorial misconduct has all but destroyed the state case against him for his efforts to steal the 2020 election in Georgia. What's left are his appeals of his losses in civil suits for business fraud and for defamation and the Times writes, “eight civil suits accusing Mr Trump of inciting his supporters to rush the Capitol building on January 6th 2021.” At this point that just feels like the Goldman family chasing down O.J. Simpson in civil court. 

At the top of the jump page, the story is, “President-elect raises $200 million since vote,” about how everyone is piling over themselves to shovel money into Trump's inaugural. “A staggering sum,” the Times writes, “that underscores efforts by donors and corporate interests to curry favor with Mr. Trump ahead of a second presidential term after a number of business leaders denounced him following the violence by his supporters at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. Mr. Trump,” the story continues, “has promised to gut the deep state and made various promises to industry supporters. Among the pledged donors for the inaugural events are Pfizer, OpenAI, Amazon, and Meta, along with cryptocurrency firms. The total haul,” the Times writes, calling it “the total haul,” good for them, “will eclipse the record-setting $107 million raised for his 2017 inauguration. The excess, beyond inaugural expenses, will be rolled into the Trump Foundation and Library,” which is so nakedly a slush fund that, as the Times reports, “it was incorporated in Florida on December 20th, six days after it was revealed that ABC News had agreed to donate $15 million to Mr. Trump's future presidential foundation and museum to settle a defamation claim it brought against the network.” Nakedly just a place to dump money. 

On page A13, the top of the page is, “Biden halts new oil and gas wells along most US coasts.” 

The bottom of the page is, “House GOP vows to expand drilling and make it easier to shed federal lands.” There's your back and forth. As the question of whether to destroy the planet, or really, how much faster to destroy the planet, swings 180 degrees based on a tiny margin of votes cast, again, for people who aren't constitutionally eligible. “Shed” is really quite a verb choice for stealing public property. But the internet already lost its mind about that decision when the story went up on the website, and obviously, it didn't bother anyone enough to change the print edition. 

On page A17, The Times takes a look at the debut of congestion pricing in New York City, in its long delayed and much diminished form. A trio of reporters went out to take the mood of the city and brought back lots of quotes from people speaking nonsense. “The tolls,” the Times writes, “increased the cost of business for Sergio Balbuena Jr. and his father, who drive their food cart from the Bronx to serve coffee, pastries and breakfast sandwiches at East 59th Street and Second Avenue. They plan to raise their prices to help offset the new tolls.” The toll is $9 a day. You're going to raise your prices a nickel? The Times then writes that “there was confusion among some for hire drivers who mistakenly believed they would be charged instead a small fee. $1.50 for Ubers and lifts and 75 cents for taxis will be added to each fare paid by passengers. Still, one Uber driver, Angel Rodriguez, 33, idled Monday morning just outside the congestion zone because he worried that the tolls would cost him mucho dinero.”

Right, but he's wrong. Next up, “I hate congestion pricing,” said Jay Beam, who was driving a passenger in an Access-A-Ride van and was trying to avoid crossing into the tolling zone.” The Times does not mention that vehicles transporting people with disabilities are specifically excluded from the tolls. And it ends on a carriage driver who drives down from Riverdale saying, “I guess I'm going to take my horse all the way to Riverdale.” I mean, sure. Let your feelings out. Again, it's nine bucks on the first Central Park carriage ride website that I pulled up through Google. The prices start with a 25 minute trip for $89. 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. Our podcasting efforts are sustained through the subscription dollars and tips provided by you, the listeners. Please keep those coming. And if nothing unexpected happens, we will talk again tomorrow.