Wednesday
Aug102022
August 11, 2022
Reality Chex was down for a couple of hours Wednesday afternoon, so don't be all surprised if it goes down again. If worse comes to worst, I'll post a few entries on Twitter @CONSTANTWEADER. In the meantime, if all goes well, it's bizniz as usual. -- Marie
Afternoon Update:
Harper Neidig & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The Justice Department on Thursday moved to unseal a warrant authorizing a search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate this week following escalating demands for answers about the unprecedented investigation. 'The public's clear and powerful interest in understanding what occurred under these circumstances weighs heavily in favor of unsealing,' Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing submitted Thursday afternoon. The filing coincided with a public statement from Attorney General Merrick Garland, his first since FBI agents executed the search warrant on Monday. Garland said he personally signed off on the decision to apply for and execute search warrant, and that the decision was not made 'lightly.'"
Dear Trumpbots, the Gestapo did not go to Trump's house. This is not like Nicaraqua, Marco. It is not a Third-World raid, Rick Scott. The agents did not go rogue, Steve Scalise. The Nazis did not plant evidence, Li'l Randy. ~~~
~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump received a subpoena this spring in search of documents that federal investigators believed he had failed to turn over earlier in the year, when he returned boxes of material he had improperly taken with him upon moving out of the White House, three people familiar with the matter said.... The subpoena suggests that the Justice Department tried methods short of a search warrant to account for the material before taking the politically explosive step of sending F.B.I. agents unannounced to Mar-a-Lago.... Two people briefed on the classified documents that investigators believe remained at Mar-a-Lago indicated that they were so sensitive in nature, and related to national security, that the Justice Department had to act. The subpoena was first disclosed by John Solomon, a conservative journalist who has also been designated by Mr. Trump as one of his representatives to the National Archives." ~~~
~~~ The reporters note that "The existence of the subpoena is being used by allies of Mr. Trump to make a case that the former president and his team were cooperating with the Justice Department in identifying and returning the documents in question and that the search was unjustified." Say what? Are Trumpbots just that flat-out stupid? Trump wasn't "cooperating." When caught, he returned some of the stuff he stole but not all of it. The FBI obtained the warrant because Trump did not fully cooperate. It's as if I robbed you, then when the cops found my fingerprints all over your house, I returned some of the stuff to you but kept your most expensive jewelry. Oh, and then I whined to the local newspaper that the police chief & the mayor were Nazis or third-world dictators.
Trump Hires #BillionDollarLawyer. Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has hired a high-powered Atlanta lawyer to represent him in an inquiry into election interference in Georgia. The lawyer, Drew Findling, has represented an array of rap stars including Cardi B, Gucci Mane and Migos, and is known by the hashtag #BillionDollarLawyer. But he has not been a fan of Mr. Trump; in one 2018 post on Twitter, after Mr. Trump criticized LeBron James, Mr. Findling referred to Mr. Trump as 'the racist architect of fraudulent Trump University.' In 2017, after Mr. Trump fired the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, Mr. Findling said on Twitter that it was 'a sign of FEAR that he would aggressively investigate the stench hovering over this POTUS.' He has also called Mr. Trump's history of harsh comments about the five Black and Latino men who as teenagers were wrongly convicted of the brutal rape of a jogger in Central Park 'racist, cruel, sick, unforgivable, and un-American!'"
Texas. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: "Beto O'Rourke on Wednesday railed against Texans' easy access to AR-style rifles like the one used in May to massacre 19 students and two of their teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex.... A heckler cackled." And it wasn't long before Beto responded: ~~~
“It may be funny to you mother f*cker, but it’s not funny to me.”@BetoORourke did not hold back when a supporter of Greg Abbott laughed loudly as Beto discussed the mass shooting in Uvalde. pic.twitter.com/ETJssUFZxS
— Travis Akers (@travisakers) August 11, 2022
~~~~~~~~~~
** Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden paused last week, during one of the busiest stretches of his presidency, for a nearly two-hour private history lesson from a group of academics who raised alarms about the dire condition of democracy at home and abroad. The conversation ... on Aug. 4 unfolded as a sort of Socratic dialogue between the commander in chief and a select group of scholars, who painted the current moment as among the most perilous in modern history for democratic governance.... Comparisons were made to the years before the 1860 election when Abraham Lincoln warned that a 'house divided against itself cannot stand' and the lead-up to the 1940 election, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled rising domestic sympathy for European fascism and resistance to the United States joining World War II." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As someone who has held high-level Washington jobs for all but four years since January 1973, Joe Biden is the best-informed president in American history. Donald Trump, who has never held a real job since his father had him collecting rents when he was a very young man, came to the presidency as the most uninformed person to hold the office. And yet, and yet. It is Joe Biden who has been holding meetings without outside experts to increase his knowledge of the bigger picture. Trump, on the other hand, whose defense of ignorance was to claim he had a very good brain, told experts -- rather than ask them -- what he thought the big picture was. For instance, we learned earlier this week that Trump told John Kelly, a retired Marine Corps general, that Hitler's generals were loyal to Hitler, unlike Trump's generals who didn't bend to his will. When Kelly informed Trump that Hitler's general were so disloyal that some of them tried to assassinate Hitler, Trump told Kelly he was wrong (NYT link). And that, kids, explains why Joe Biden has tried -- and mostly succeeded IMO -- to be a good president, and Donald Trump, who never gave good governance a thought, was the worst. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Also see Akhilleus' commentary on this in today's thread. Akhilleus has me enraged because every word he writes is true -- and infuriating.
Trumpidy-doo-dah, Trumpidy-ay, My Oh My ...
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Throughout his four years in the White House, [Donald] Trump tried to turn the nation's law enforcement apparatus into an instrument of political power to carry out his wishes. Now as the F.B.I. under [Christoper] Wray has executed an unprecedented search warrant at the former president's Florida home, Mr. Trump is accusing the nation's justice system of being exactly what he tried to turn it into: a political weapon for a president, just not for him. There is, in fact, no evidence that President Biden has had any role in the investigation. Mr. Biden has not publicly demanded that the Justice Department lock up Mr. Trump the way Mr. Trump publicly demanded that the Justice Department lock up Mr. Biden and other Democrats. Nor has anyone knowledgeably contradicted the White House statement that it was not even informed about the search at Mar-a-Lago beforehand, much less involved in ordering it. But Mr. Trump has a long history of accusing adversaries of doing what he himself does or would do in the same situation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Baker cites Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, who echoes something I said yesterday: "Trump simply doesn't understand people like Garland and the top leadership of D.O.J. and the F.B.I. because their values are so alien to him."
The Mole at Mar-a-Lardo. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "In a telling exclusive for Newsweek, Government officials revealed that a 'confidential informant' helped provide the basis for the FBI search of ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-lago resort home.... [Newsweek reports that] 'The raid on Mar-a-Lago was based largely on information from an FBI confidential human source, one who was able to identify what classified documents former President Trump was still hiding and even the location of those documents, two senior government officials told Newsweek.'... According to the two sources[, t]he raid had nothing to do with the January 6 investigation or any other alleged wrongdoing by the former president.'" ~~~
~~~ Alex Leary, et al., of the Wall Street Journal: "Monday's search [of Mar-a-Lago] came after weeks of internal deliberation among senior Justice Department and FBI officials and marked an escalation of their investigation into [Donald] Trump's handling of classified material, people familiar with the matter said.... The [search] warrant, signed by a judge in Palm Beach County, refers to the Presidential Records Act and possible violation of law over handling of classified information, according to Christina Bobb, a lawyer for the former president. The warrant hasn't been made public by Mr. Trump nor has the inventory of documents retrieved by the government. FBI officials showed up with instructions to keep the search as unobtrusive as possible, with agents dressed in plainclothes and told not to take any weapons, people familiar with the plan said.... In the days since then, Mr. Trump's associates have been reaching out to defense attorneys to see if they would represent Mr. Trump in the matter, a sign of concern over the former president's potential legal trouble." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As you no doubt know, WSJ stories are subscriber-firewalled, but I was able to access the story. If you can't access the story via the link above, try Googling a short quote. The Guardian has a related story here.
Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "... Donald Trump has so far declined to release the search warrant served at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, Florida on Monday, prompting various third-party efforts to unseal the document in federal court even as his supporters have taken to issuing an avalanche of death threats against the magistrate judge who issued the writ authorizing the unprecedented law enforcement visit. On Wednesday, conservative legal nonprofit group Judicial Watch filed a motion to unseal the Trump search warrant with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.... The judge overseeing the case, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce E. Reinhart, quickly directed the U.S. Department of Justice to respond to Judicial Watch-s motion to unseal by the end of next Monday, Aug. 15, 2022.... Two media organizations -- the Albany, New York-based Times Union and The New York Times -- filed their own motions in the case regarding the warrant."
David Gilbert of Vice: "Far-right extremists on pro-Donald Trump message boards and social networks are making violent, antisemitic threats against the judge who reportedly signed the warrant that allowed the FBI to search the former president's Mar-a-Lago property in Florida. Multiple members of these toxic online communities are even posting what appears to be Judge Bruce Reinhart's home address, phone numbers, and names of his family members alongside threats of extreme violence.... These threats of violence and antisemitic slurs [appeared] on a range of platforms, including 4chan, Telegram, Gettr, Gab, and Trump's own platforms called Truth Social.... A message board where a number of these threats were posted also happens to be the same one where many of those involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot posted threats of violence in the lead-up to Jan. 6.... As Trump has scrambled to explain why his home was searched, he has also pushed conspiracy theories about the FBI supposedly planting evidence there. Right-wing news outlets have also tried to connect the judge to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, [a friend of Trump's]." Reinhart once represented some of Epstein's employees, not Epstein himself. Some commenters said or implied Reinhart himself was a pedophile.
The mob takes the Fifth. If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment? -- Donald Trump, September 2016 (WashPo link) ~~~
~~~ Trump Surprised Constitution Can Come in Handy. From the New York Times liveblog, also linked below: "Donald J. Trump declined to answer questions from the New York state attorney general's office on Wednesday, a stunning gamble in a high-stakes legal interview that is likely to determine the course of a civil investigation into his company's business practices. In a statement released shortly after the questioning began on Wednesday, Mr. Trump said he would invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, explaining that he 'declined to answer the questions under the rights and privileges afforded to every citizen under the United States Constitution.' After the deposition began, two sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that he was refusing to answer questions, citing the Fifth Amendment." The Hill's report is here. The Guardian has a story here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Thanks to Ken W. for the link. MB: As Ken pointed out yesterday, there's a bit of irony in this development -- Trump spent four years as president* (and in his telling, he is still president) ignoring the laws & the Constitutution, but suddenly he finds something in the venerable document he likes. I suppose Ken & I are being a bit unfair inasmuch as Trump was fond on that part of the Article II -- apparently written in invisible ink, as no one else has seen it -- that said he could do whatever he wanted. ~~~
~~~ The New York Times now has a stand-alone story covering the nation's Number 1 Mob Boss & his pathetic deposition appearance: ~~~
~~~ Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump has long derided public figures who invoke their constitutional right against self incrimination, but on Wednesday he took full advantage of the Fifth Amendment. For hours under oath, Mr. Trump sat across from the New York State attorney general, Letitia James, responding to every question posed by her investigators by repeating the phrase 'same answer' over and over again.... Mr. Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right while openly questioning the legitimacy of the legal process -- as he has with the nation's electoral system -- and insulting a law enforcement official sitting just a few feet away. Mr. Trump's only detailed comment, people with knowledge of the proceeding said, was an all-out attack on the attorney general and her inquiry which he called a continuation of 'the greatest witch hunt in the history of our country.... I once asked, "If you're innocent, why are you taking the Fifth Amendment?"' he said while reading from a prepared statement, which overlapped significantly with one he released to the public. 'I now know the answer to that question.' He said that he was being targeted by lawyers, prosecutors and the news media, and that left him with 'absolutely no choice' but to do so." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Nothing shocking about Trump's insulting Letitia James. She's a Black woman who has power over him. Over the years, Trump has made it apparent he can't stand that. BTW, invoking the Fifth has consequences in a civil case, as this one is. As the NYT reporters note, "Jurors in civil matters can in many cases draw a negative inference when a defendant invokes his or her Fifth Amendment privilege, unlike in criminal cases, where exercising the right against self-incrimination cannot be held against the defendant." According to Lawrence O'Donnell of MSNBC, Trump invoked the Fifth 440 times over the course of four hours.
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "While the [New York] case involves Trump's personal business, Business Insider noticed that the ex-president used taxpayer dollars in his response that attacks New York Attorney General Letitia James. Four email messages were sent out from the official Office of the Former President of Donald J. Trump, all of which lashed out at Trump for what he deemed a 'radical witch hunt.' He then posted videos on the anything-goes video site Rumble attacking [James] further.... Read the full report at Business Insider (firewalled)."
Irony Stacked Upon Irony. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "If Trump is found to have violated federal law in removing and retaining classified documents without authorization, he could be convicted of a felony punishable by five years in prison. And that conviction would be a felony carrying that punishment because of a law signed by President Donald Trump.... During his first year in office, a central tool used for surveillance by the intelligence community -- Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act -- was set to expire. Shortly before it did, Congress passed an extension of the authority for another five years.... [Trump criticized the extension, but] on Jan. 18, 2018, he signed it into law.... [The bill, as signed, included a provision that escalated the punishment for improperly retained classified documents, specifying that a person who does so]: '... shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years, or both.' And with that, it became a felony." Former administration official Kash Patel claimed on Fox "News&" Tuesday that Trump has declassified all the material he took from the White House. "... it is conceivable that Trump's defense against his potential possession of classified material at Mar-a-Lago may be that he declassified it while still president, even if no formal record of the declassification was made." ~~~
~~~ AND Hillary Gets the Last Laugh. Marie: Bump adds a fun coda: Accurately describing Patel as "one of the [Trump] administration's most loyal defenders during Trump's presidency," Bump reminds us that Patel had previously served as a staffer to Rep. Devin Nunes during the infamous period in which Nunes made an hilarious midnight White House run in an attempt to absolve Trump from the Russia scandal. Nunes also was a prominent critic of Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server. So ... "H.R. 4478, the legislation that became S. 139 and which escalated the punishment for the retention of classified material, was introduced in the House by Nunes." ~~~
Marie: The "I declassified all this stuff" defense may not prove to be convincing. First, a former president or president* has no ability to declassify classified material. Even as Patel claims Trump declassified the docs while he was still president*, numerous reports have asserted that the classified docs retrieved at Mar-a-Lardo were not properly recorded as declassified & were not marked as such. There's no evidence, IOW, that Trump declassified the docs -- other than his say-so. Which is worthless. Moreover, since Trump is still president* only his own mind, the real President -- Joe Biden -- can reclassify documents Trump has declassified. (It occurs to me that since Biden doesn't necessarily know what-all Trump stole, Biden may not have been able to reclassify documents he doesn't know Trump claims to have declassified.) And then there's this: Neal Katyal pointed out on MSNBC that Trump, unlike former real presidents, does not have security clearance because President Biden determined Trump could not be trusted to safely handle classified information. In addition, as Bump points out, Trump signed a bill making what he did a felony, so he can hardly assert ignorance of a law of his own making. In short, IMO, Trump not only had no right to retain classified documents that belong to the federal government, he has no right to read or otherwise access them.
Jan Murphy & Charles Thompson of the (Harrisburg, Pa.) Patriot-News: "Federal investigators delivered subpoenas or paid visits to several House and Senate Republican offices in the Pennsylvania Capitol on Tuesday and Wednesday, according to multiple sources. At least some of the individuals receiving subpoenas were told they were not targets of an investigation..., but that they may have information of interest to the FBI. The information being requested centered around U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., and the effort to seek alternate electors as part of ... Donald Trump's efforts to remain in office after the 2020 election, several sources said.... Perry, in a post to his re-election campaign's Facebook page Tuesday evening, called the seizure of his phone ... 'banana republic tactics.... I'm outraged -- though not surprised -- that the FBI under the direction of Merrick Garland's DOJ, would seize the phone of a sitting member of Congress,' he said. If the telephone was seized under the cover of a search warrant, however, it would have had to have been approved by a federal magistrate judge.... Perry, in a [new] statement..., said that he has been told he is not a target of the probe that resulted in the seizure of his phone." Perry also invoked the Constitution's speech & debate clause. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Would that be where Article I says you can do anything you want, Scotty? I don't see where a cellphone record, unless it records something you said into an open mic on the House floor, is protected under the speech & debate clause. You people need to grow up & take responsibility for your actions. ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: "The F.B.I.'s seizure of Representative Scott Perry's phone this week was at least the third major action in recent months taken in connection with an escalating federal investigation into efforts by several close allies of ... Donald J. Trump to overturn the 2020 election, according to two people familiar with the matter.... While the [DOJ] inspector general's office had initial jurisdiction in the probe because [former DOJ official Jeffrey] Clark [-- also part of the scheme Perry allegedly advanced --] was an employee of the department, there have been signs in recent days that the investigation is increasingly being run by prosecutors from the U.S. attorney's office in Washington.... Mr. Perry was instrumental in pushing Mr. Trump to appoint Mr. Clark as his acting attorney general over the objections of several other top officials at the Justice Department. At one of its presentations, the House committee released text messages in which Mr. Perry repeatedly pressured Mark Meadows ... to reach out to Mr. Clark."
Tiffany Hsu & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: [Calls for voter drop-box stakeouts] "were galvanizing people in at least [ten] states, signaling the latest outgrowth from rampant election fraud conspiracy theories coursing through the Republican Party. In the nearly two years since ... Donald J. Trump catapulted false claims of widespread voter fraud from the political fringes to the conservative mainstream, a constellation of his supporters have drifted from one theory to another in a frantic but unsuccessful search for evidence. Many are now focused on ballot drop boxes ... under the unfounded belief that mysterious operatives, or so-called ballot mules, are stuffing them with fake ballots or otherwise tampering with them. And they are recruiting observers to monitor countless drop boxes across the country, tapping the millions of Americans who have been swayed by bogus election claims.... Some online commenters discussed bringing AR-15s and other firearms, and have voiced their desire to make citizens' arrests and log license plates." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Love the photo accompanying the story. That little old lady inserting what appears to be a single ballot into a drop box doesn't look much like a "ballot mule." But, hey, appearances can be deceiving!
Jordan Williams of the Hill: "President Biden on Wednesday signed into law a bill to expand benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxins during war and are suffering illnesses as a result. The Sergeant First Class Heath Robinson Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act also expands presumptions of service connections for a variety of conditions related to toxic exposure -- meaning veterans don't have to prove their illness was service-connected." (Also linked yesterday.) A New York Times story is here. ~~~
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has charged a member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in connection with a plot to murder former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, accusing him of attempting to pay individuals $300,000 to kill Bolton in D.C. or Maryland. The suspect, Shahram Poursafi, 45, remains at large abroad, the Justice Department said. If found and convicted, he would face up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine up to $250,000 for the use of interstate commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire, and up to 15 years imprisonment and a fine up to $250,000 for providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot. Federal officials said the attempted assassination of Bolton would have been retaliation for the U.S. military killing in January, 2020 of Qasem Soleimani, a top commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is a branch of Iran's military. Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update: This essential DOJ assertion has been added to the story: "Officials said Poursafi was acting on behalf of the IRGC's elite Quds Force." An AP story is here.
Kate Sullivan of CNN: "Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Wednesday directed the Internal Revenue Service not to use any of the new funding allocated in the Democrats' new health care and climate bill to increase the number of audits of Americans making less than $400,000 a year, according to a copy of the letter obtained exclusively by CNN. The letter to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig comes amid attacks from Republicans that the $80 billion the Inflation Reduction Act would give to the IRS over the next 10 years would result in more middle-class Americans and small businesses getting audited. The Biden administration has repeatedly said the IRS would focus on increased enforcement activity on high-wealth taxpayers and large corporations and not target households who earn less than $400,000 a year."
Happy Holidays! Hamza Shaban of the Washington Post: "Sending loved ones packages this holiday season will get more expensive, based on a planned rate hike from the U.S. Postal Service. The mail agency's board of governors approved a peak-season plan to up the costs of commercial and retail parcels from early October through late January to capture the bustling holiday shopping season when packages crisscross the country. Postal officials said the surcharge was necessary to keep rates competitive. The Postal Service generally does not receive taxpayer funding, but Congress restructured its finances this year to relieve $107 billion in past-due and future obligations. The agency relies on the sale of postage products to fund its operations, but Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Tuesday that the agency was facing a $60 billion to $70 billion shortfall over the next decade without substantial revisions and price hikes."
Jasmine Hilton of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors allege that a special deputy U.S. Marshal from Marylandwas part of a network that defrauded seniors out of almost $2 million in 'romance scams' over several years. Isidore Iwuagwu, 35, of Upper Marlboro, [Maryland,] has been charged with conspiring to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, according to the U.S. attorney's office for Maryland. Between October 2015 and July 2021, Iwuagwu was a part of romance scams where individuals engaged in online relationships with more than 20 victims via social media platforms and dating websites and swindled them out of large sums of money, prosecutors alleged. Victims reported a combined loss of $1.9 million,according to an affidavit, and at least $585,180 was connected to accounts belonging to Iwuagwu." MB: Well, see, Trump is right; you can't trust federal law enforcement officials. (Okay, never mind that Trump himself has scammed nitwits out of $millions.)
Beyond the Beltway
Indiana. One Way to Steal an Election. And It Works! Meryl Kornfied of the Washington Post: “Two Indiana officers were suspended after a stunning courtroom revelation that police thought a potential town council candidate was anti-police and arrested him, stopping him from running for office. During a July 19 hearing, Franklin County Prosecutor Chris Huerkamp dropped charges that included drug possession against Trevin Thalheimer after an officer and witness recounted how Brookville police talked about Thalheimer. Huerkamp, who also did not pursue a rape charge police had investigated, said he was 'disturbed beyond words' by the alleged police conduct and reported the incident to the Indiana State Police, which launched a criminal investigation. Brookville Police Chief Terry Mitchum and the investigating officer, Ryan Geiser, were suspended with pay from the nine-person force Thursday by the town’s council, which ordered them to stay away from other officers and town property.” Thalheimer said his arrest caused him not to seek election to the town council.
Minnesota House Race. Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: “Republican Brad Finstad, a former state lawmaker, won the special election for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, defeating Democrat Jeff Ettinger in a closely watched race. The Associated Press called the race Wednesday morning, with Finstad holding a narrow lead of 51.1 percent to 46.9 percent with 98 percent of precincts reporting. The seat had been held by Rep. Jim Hagedorn (R-Minn.), who died in February after a battle with kidney cancer. A member of a family that has farmed for generations, Finstad is the former director of rural development in Minnesota for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The 46-year-old Minnesota native was appointed to the position by ... Donald Trump.”
New Mexico. Ava Sasani, et al., of the New York Times: “The Afghan man accused of killing two Muslim men in Albuquerque had been charged in a series of assaults in recent years, accused of beating his wife and son and attacking a man whom his daughter was dating, according to police records released on Wednesday. Each time, prosecutors dismissed the charges against the man, Muhammad Syed, 51, who is now the leading suspect in the shooting deaths of four Muslim men — three of them over a recent 10-day stretch — that have shaken the tight-knit Muslim community in Albuquerque. Mr. Syed, who is also Muslim, was arrested on Monday by police officers who stopped his car about 100 miles from the Texas state line.”
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Thursday are here: “Craters can be seen near a runway in aerial images of the Saki Air Base in Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014. The pictures by U.S.-based Planet Labs emerged as a Ukrainian official ... told The Washington Post that Ukrainian special forces were behind the attack on the Russian base. While Kyiv claimed nine warplanes were destroyed, Moscow said an ammunition explosion caused Tuesday’s blasts.... Two separate explosions at the Crimea base suggest a potential attack rather than an accident in Tuesday’s incident, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said.... Russia and the United States are negotiating a prisoner exchange, a Russian foreign ministry official said, confirming talks on a swap are ongoing, without providing further details.... Russia requested a U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday over the Zaporizhzhia plant in Ukraine. The head of the U.N. atomic energy watchdog has appealed for access to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant and warned of the need to avert 'nuclear disaster.'... China’s ambassador to Moscow called Washington the 'main instigator' in the war.”
News Ledes
New York Times: “An armed man accused of trying to break into the F.B.I.’s Cincinnati office on Thursday morning exchanged gunfire with law enforcement officers after fleeing the area. He remained in a standoff hours later, officials said. The attack came three days after F.B.I. agents served a search warrant at the Florida home of ... Donald J. Trump, and a day after the F.B.I. director told reporters that online threats against federal law enforcement were 'deplorable and dangerous.' There was no immediate indication that the incident in Ohio was related to the Trump search.” This is a liveblog.
New York Times: “Gas prices in the United States fell below $4 a gallon on Thursday, retreating to their lowest level since March, a drop that has brought relief to Americans struggling with the skyrocketing cost of everything from groceries to rent. The national average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline now stands at $3.99, according to AAA. That’s higher than it was a year ago but still well below a peak of nearly $5.02 in mid-June.”
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Reader Comments (7)
The best is yet to come (hopefully).
https://democraticunderground.com/100217025133
NY AG Letitia James may seek the "corporate death penalty"
against the Trump Organization---a law that allows the AG to seek
to dissolve businesses that operate 'in a persistently fraudulent or
illegal manner.' Sounds about right.
I got a laugh at the dentist's office yesterday on the part of the form
for allergies. "Fox News" was the only one.
Marie’s distinction between a smart person (Biden) and an ignorant lout (Trump) can be extended to the rotten apples that have fallen off that corrupt tree.
Whining about the FBI visit to Marred-a-Lardo, Eric (aka the Stupidest Trump) had this to say:
“ I know the white house as well anyone. I know the system. This did not happen without Joe Biden's explicit approval.”
Okay, two things. I’m guessing there are about 10, 000 people who know the White House far better than Stupid Eric. Daddy may have stomped around the place for four years, but unlike Princess Ivanka, Stupid Eric didn’t have an office there (I was going to say “didn’t work there” but that assumes that PI did actual work while she took up space). He visited, mooched the food, enjoyed the trappings of power, and tweeted stupid things, but that’s about it. More importantly, Stupid Eric’s contention that neither Justice nor the FBI move without the president’s express authorization was likely true under his authoritarian daddy who weaponized government agencies to attack his political enemies, but it’s not how things work in a real (ie, non-corrupt) White House. Quiet part out loud. Again.
Also, the absolute assurance that you know more than anyone else, even though you had only extremely limited exposure to something, is a classic Trump tic. Fatty once demanded that he be allowed to negotiate a nuclear arms treaty (before slithering into the White House) because no one knew more than him, who could barely spell “nuclear”. His experience as Cadet Bonespur (ie, zero experience) gave him the right to claim that he knew more than generals who had spent a lifetime in the service. I’m sure this Fat Fuck would have dissed Einstein’s theory as being not very special had he been around back then.
But in addition to Stupid Eric’s revelation about the insanely corrupt workings of the Trump White House, he then went on to bleat that his family suffered more than any other in history. “Waaaahhh…no family in history has taken as many arrows in the back as our family! Waaahh.”
Spoken only as it could be from the mealy mouth of a spoiled, stupid, stupid, stupid, rich kid who’s had everything handed to him on a platter. Maybe he’d like to be part of a family of immigrants who had their children taken away by his racist pig of a father, locked up in prison, never to see their babies again in this life. Or the family of a guy who was gunned down after being chased by white supremacists his father refers to as “good people”, for the crime of being black.
The combination of unearned superiority coupled with world historical victimhood, with a huge helping of jaw dropping ignorance is emblematic of the entire right wing, but especially prevalent in the Trump Crime Family.
One of the distinctions of a truly smart person is the understanding that you can never know too much. The more you know, the more you realize how much stuff you have left to learn. Education is a lifetime process. For the Trump’s it ends the day you find, to your delight, that you can spit on those less fortunate with no consequences. And pick their pockets while you’re at it.
While we are awash once again in Trumphilia, Linda Greenhouse reminds us not to take our eyes off the prize that Alito thinks he has tucked under his black robe––his call to arms to secure religious liberty. She begins her essay by citing Alito's talk in Rome in which his snarky remarks about world leaders who had the effrontery––oh my!–– to criticize what the S.C. ruled in the abortion case, mentioning Boris Johnson by name saying, "but he paid the price!"
"One can debate the degree of bad taste displayed by such a remark, but that's not my concern: What interests me about his talk was its substance. A call to arms on behalf of religion."
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/11/opinion/religion-supreme-court-alito.html
And I'd add that the kind of dangerous rallying round Trump––"Git them guns out and shoot them bastards that want to put our King in jail" smacks a lot like a religious fealty to a savior-like scapegoat. When Trump gets dumped and he better–––where will his brethren go? Who will they turn to? How much destruction will they leave in their wake? Surely not for heaven's sake.
Please to be telling me how that sonuvabitch Louis DeJoy is still running (ruining?) the USPS. Stamp “Return to Sender” on his ass and get someone in there who has worked a single day in their life in a post office. Talk about having zero experience and thinking you know it all. Jesus!
PD,
It took me a while to actually read Alito’s speech, but it’s a stunning piece of theocratic claptrap. His contention is that religious freedom is under attack by those who disdain religion.
Um…correct me if I’m wrong, but the First Amendment says it’s perfectly okay to disdain religion. It’s okay to have no religion at all. THAT’S religious freedom. In the same way the right, and this court, has twisted the Second Amendment to fit its political agenda, Alito and the theocrats on the court and in congress (lookin’ at you, MTG) have warped the idea of religious freedom into religious requirement. The Constitution says the state cannot support the establishment of religion. What Alito and Barrett and Thomas, et al, are doing is exactly that: establishing religion, making those who have no religion or who are against the baleful effects of religious tenets twisting public policy to suit theocratic ends, into enemies of the state.
He also says something to the effect that those who refuse to bow to his religious diktats want “complete control”. Sounds like just a wee bit of projection there, Sammy. Who is looking for complete control?
And yes (I haven’t read Greenhouse yet), his umbrage at anyone, especially world leaders, having the temerity to criticize his opinion is astounding, but it’s in line with how right wing religious zealots think. No one can criticize them. Jesus is on their side. And his little joke about how “Boris paid the price” for daring to say anything is hubris like you read about. Johnson’s problems have nothing to do with his criticism of Alito. Zip. Zero. But in Alito’s mind, he was punished by god for assaulting the Word of Sam.
Such bullshit. But these are the people controlling our country now.
Oh, one other thing. Father Alito snipped off a few history bits, reminding everyone of how Christians have been SOOOO persecuted through the ages, dredging up that old saw about how they were all killed in the Roman Forum because of their faith. Historians (real historians, that is) have long put this idea to bed. Yes, some Christians were killed during the Roman era, but as often as not, it had nothing to do with their religion. And if you read Gibbon, you’ll see that he directly connects the fall of the Roman Empire with the rise of Christianity. Looks like they got the last laugh. Plenty of Christians still around, running things. Rome’s been gone for 1,600 years.
He also deigned to mention how Jews might have suffered a little persecution, here and there, ya know? The one major religion he makes no mention of, in terms of its hard times, is Islam. Surprised?
As for his contention that religion is under unprecedented attack today, I would point out that no subject, other than guns, of course, has been treated with more deference by courts in this country, and especially by the Supreme Court, than religion. Religion wins. All the time. Sound like “unprecedented attacks” to you?
So fuck off, Sammy. And if you wanna do stand up comedy, at least be funny.
Addendum:
When I said “religion wins all the time” I meant Christianity.
If you’re a practitioner of certain Native American religions and you use peyote as part of a religious service, you’re shit out of luck. Cavalry commander Scalia put a stop to that there injun nonsense years ago. Now if peyote had been part of the Catholic Mass for a thousand years…hey, I wonder if there’s an exception for kidnapping and forced participation in the worship of Aqua Buddha.
Oopsie!
Last week we referenced the abysmal incompetence of many so-called lawyers representing the stalwarts of the right (aka criminal assholes and traitors), noting with unrestrained glee the spilling of the Alex Jones text message beans to opposing counsel*.
One of the bits of information we’ve gotten from the work of the Jan. 6 committee is how much these dysfunctional douchebags stay in touch with each other over little things like opposition to the law, treason, and plots to install a dangerous crook in the seat of power he lost, bigly.
Now it appears that one TuKKKums KKKarlson is, as the phrase goes, “shitting himself” over the fact that he and fellow lying shithead, Alex Jones, have been trading daily love notes. For years. “Oh, Alex! Your beautiful wickedness makes my little member quiver!” …and like that. Or maybe it’s just stuff like “Kill pence!”
In any event, just imagine what Liz Cheney will do with the trove of nastiness spawned by these two dickheads. Oh yeah, almost forgot. Ol’ Alex sent at least one naked picture of his wife to fellow pervert Roger (Fuck my wife, please) Stone. I’m guessing that made the tattoo of Nixon on his back do a little shimmy-shim-shim.
Now maybe Jones, Stone, and TuKKKums will be doing a little dance of their own when more is revealed.
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/tucker-carlson-is-reportedly-a-mess-over-fear-of-alex-jones-phone-leak/
*I heard an interesting idea last week. Maybe Jones’ lawyer’s boo-boo wasn’t inadvertent. Maybe it was deliberate. His professional bio doesn’t sound like that of the usual winger moron, but you never know. Maybe he got to the point where he said “Fuck this. Jones is a piece of shit. I’m taking him down.” Of course, his career is now on the line as well. I’d love to think there was some kind of moral stance at play here, but…would Alex Jones hire anyone who had a shred of moral fiber? Anyway…