Wednesday
Aug242022
August 24, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
As requested:
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department has released the entire text of a secret 2019 memo that played a crucial role in the decision not to charge or accuse ... Donald Trump of committing obstruction of justice in the investigation into whether Russia interfered in the 2016 election. The nine-page memo was the subject of a lawsuit by a government watchdog group, which argued the department had dishonestly kept the memo under wraps. A federal judge agreed, and an appeals panel last week upheld the judge's opinion and ordered the memo released. The memo was written by two senior Justice Department officials for then-attorney general William P. Barr, who subsequently told Congress there was not enough evidence to charge Trump with obstruction of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's inquiry. A redacted version was released last year, leaving the legal and factual analysis under seal. The newly-released analysis shows that Steven Engel, then the head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Edward O"Callaghan, then a senior Justice Department official, concluded in the memo that Mueller did 'not identify sufficient evidence to prove any criminal offense beyond a reasonable doubt.'" Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ The memo, via Politico, is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: The lede on these stories should have been: "The Department of Justice has released, under court order, a memo from two of Donald Trump's political appointees to attorney general Williiam Barr, also a Trump appointee. The nine-page memo, which Barr's DOJ has long attempted to keep secret, provided Barr with tortured reasoning that gave him a shaky basis to falsely claim that special counsel Robert Mueller had not found sufficient evidence to charge Donald Trump with obstruction of justice in regard to Mueller's Russia investigation."
Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: “President Biden announced on Wednesday that he would cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for those earning less than $125,000 per year, with an additional $10,000 for those who had received Pell grants for low-income students, providing economic relief for tens of millions of Americans. Th debt forgiveness, although less than the amount that some Democrats had been pushing for, comes after months of deliberations in the White House over fairness and fears that it could exacerbate inflation before the midterm elections. The plan will almost certainly face legal challenges, making the timing of any relief uncertain." CNN's report is here.
Coral Davenport & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "California is expected to put into effect on Thursday its sweeping plan to prohibit the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035, a groundbreaking move that could have major effects on the effort to fight climate change and accelerate a global transition toward electric vehicles.... The rule, issued by the California Air Resources Board, will require that 100 percent of all new cars sold in the state by 2035 be free of the fossil fuel emissions chiefly responsible for warming the planet, up from 12 percent today. It sets interim targets requiring that 35 percent of new passenger vehicles sold in the state by 2026 produce zero emissions. That would climb to 68 percent by 2030." A CNN story is here.
Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "A superyacht sank off the southern coast of Italy over the weekend in a spectacular capsizing captured on video and shared on Twitter by the Italian coast guard." MB: Gosh, I sure hope that's not the superyacht that nice Sen. Rick Scott was cruising on while complaining how terrible it was for Joe Biden to take a few vacation days in Delaware. Glub glub. Related story linked below.
Faiz Siddiqui & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post:" Elon Musk's attorneys raised a new whistleblower complaint in arguments in court Wednesday, leaning heavily on the high-ranking former Twitter executive's allegations as they sought the right to additional data to support their case. Twitter has sued Musk over his attempt to back out of a $44 billion deal to buy the social media site, and Musk has countersued alleging fraud and breach of contract."
Mariana Alfaro & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "First lady Jill Biden has tested positive for the coronavirus in a rebound case, the White House said Wednesday, and will resume isolation procedures. 'After testing negative on Tuesday, just now, the First Lady has tested positive for COVID-19 by antigen testing,' her spokeswoman, Kelsey Donohue, said in a statement. 'This represents a "rebound" positivity.' Donohue added that Biden has not experienced a reemergence of symptoms and that the White House has traced and notified the first lady's close contacts. She is in Delaware and will remain there as she isolates."
Wherein Trump Files a Brief Admitting He's a Thief. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "Donald Trump appeared to concede in his court filing surrounding the seizure of materials from his Florida resort that he unlawfully retained official government documents, as the former president argued that some of the documents collected by the FBI could be subject to executive privilege. The motion submitted on Monday by the former president's lawyers argued that a court should appoint a so-called special master to separate out and determine what materials the justice department can review as evidence due to privilege issues. But the argument from Trump that some of the documents are subject to executive privilege protections indicates that those documents are official records that he is not authorized to keep and should have turned over to the National Archives at the end of the administration." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Several legal experts made the same point on TV yesterday. Andrew Weissmann further argued that there is no such thing as an "executive privilege" that would bar DOJ, FBI & National Archives personnel from viewing "executive" documents inasmuch as these agencies are all part of the executive branch of the government. That is, they share the "privilege."
~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times' liveblog of Tuesday's primary election results is here:
[New York.] “Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, handily defeated his longtime congressional neighbor, Carolyn B. Maloney, in a bruising three-way primary battle on Tuesday that was preordained to end one of the powerful Democrats' political careers. The star-crossed skirmish in the heart of Manhattan was unlike any New York City -- or the Democratic Party writ large -- had seen in recent memory. Though few ideological differences were at stake, it pitted two committee chairs who have served side by side in Washington since the 1990s against each other, and cleaved party faithful into rival factions....
[New York.] "Daniel Goldman, the former assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the first impeachment case against Donald J. Trump, captured the Democratic nomination for an open House seat covering parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, according to The Associated Press. The victory on Tuesday in the heavily Democratic district all but assures Mr. Goldman a seat in Congress come 2023; he will face Benine Hamdan, a little-known Republican candidate, in November....
[New York.] "Nick Langworthy, the New York State Republican Party chairman, defeated Carl Paladino in a primary in New York's 23rd Congressional District on Tuesday, delivering a win for the party establishment against perhaps its most polarizing figure.... With an estimated 94 percent of votes reported, [Mr. Langworthy] had won 52 percent of the vote to Mr. Paladino's 48 percent....
[New York.] "Pat Ryan, a Democratic county executive in New York’s Hudson Valley, has won a special House election on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, in a contest that was seen as a potential test of the impact that the recent Supreme Court decision on abortion might have on the midterm elections. The result in the closely watched race, which was considered a tossup, will keep the swing-district seat, which was formerly held by Lt. Gov. Antonio Delgado, under Democratic control....
[New York.] "Joe Sempolinski, a local Republican Party leader and former congressional aide, won a special election on Tuesday for a vacant House seat in western New York, according to The Associated Press, keeping the sprawling rural district under Republican control. The race was surprisingly close, but Mr. Sempolinski was ultimately able to capitalize on his deep Republican Party ties in one of the most conservative regions of the state to repel a Democratic challenge by Max Della Pia, an Air Force veteran....
[New York.] "Representative Sean Patrick Maloney of New York, the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, won his primary contest on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, defeating Alessandra Biaggi, a state senator who challenged him from the left. The race for the newly redrawn 17th District of New York was a high-drama, divisive affair that drew involvement from an array of national figures. Democrats including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and former President Bill Clinton backed Mr. Maloney, while Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and a number of progressive organizations supported the state senator....
[Florida.] "Florida Democrats chose Representative Charlie Crist as their nominee for governor on Tuesday, betting that the former Republican governor who campaigned on a return to political decency was their best bet to try to defeat Gov. Ron DeSantis, the polarizing Republican incumbent. Mr. Crist's blowout victory sets up the general election against Mr. DeSantis as a contest between a centrist and a hard-right conservative, with Democrats believing that the well-known and peaceable Mr. Crist can attract independent voters and Republicans who are fed up with Mr. DeSantis's aggressive right-wing policies....
[Florida.] "Maxwell Alejandro Frost, a 25-year-old progressive activist, won a Democratic primary in an Orlando-area House district on Tuesday, setting himself up to be the first member of Congress from Generation Z....
[Florida.] "Representative Daniel Webster beat back a challenge from Laura Loomer, a far-right and anti-Muslim activist, in the Republican primary for Florida's 11th congressional district, according to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Ms. Loomer, a contributor to Infowars, the media company owned by the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, has been banned from Twitter and Facebook for violating rules about promoting misinformation, violence or hate....
[Florida.] "Representative Matt Gaetz, the far-right Republican who easily won his primary on Tuesday in Florida's First Congressional District, will face a Democratic challenger in November who made national headlines early in the coronavirus pandemic. Rebekah D. Jones, a former data manager for the Florida Department of Health, defeated Peggy Schiller in the Democratic primary, according to The Associated Press, after a confusing legal back-and-forth over whether Ms. Jones was eligible to appear on the ballot."
** The Purloined Papers, Ctd. The following WashPo & NYT stories repeat & substantially elaborate on information we learned yesterday. If you can access these stories directly, I recommend you do so. The narrative is more tortured than I can convey in excerpts. ~~~
~~~ “Trump Oversaw the Process Himself." Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the key events that led to the FBI search [of Mar-a-Lago] took place only this year, after months of slow-rolling conflict between the former president and law enforcement agencies. Some material recovered in the search is considered extraordinarily sensitive, two people familiar with the search said, because it could reveal carefully guarded secrets about U.S. intelligence-gathering methods. One of them said the information is 'among the most sensitive secrets we hold.'... Trump ignored multiple opportunities to quietly resolve the FBI concerns by handing over all classified material in his possession -- including a grand jury subpoena that Trump's team accepted May 11. Again and again, he reacted with a familiar mix of obstinance and outrage, causing some in his orbit to fear he was essentially daring the FBI to come after him....
[After Trump left office, there followed] a tortured standoff among Trump; some of his own advisers, who urged the return of documents; and the bureaucrats charged by the law with maintaining and protecting presidential records. Trump only agreed to return some of the documents after a National Archives official asked a Trump adviser for help, saying they may have to soon refer the matter to Congress or the Justice Department. Nearly a year later, on Jan. 17, 2022, Trump returned 15 boxes of newspaper clips, presidential briefing papers, handwritten notes and assorted mementos to the National Archives.... People familiar with the episode said Trump oversaw the process himself -- and did so with great secrecy, declining to show some items even to top aides.... As the fight with the Archives came to an uneasy conclusion, the FBI proceeded with interviews with others in Trump's orbit, including valets and former White House staffers.... Agents were told that Trump was a pack rat who had been personally overseeing his collection of White House records since even before leaving Washington and had been reluctant to return anything." On Tuesday, acting archivist Debra Steidel Wall released a May 10 letter to Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran, a letter that Trump ally John Solomon published earlier. ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump took more than 700 pages of classified documents, including some related to the nation's most covert intelligence operations, to his private club and residence in Florida when he left the White House in January 2021, according to a letter that the National Archives sent to his lawyers this year. The letter, dated May 10 and written by the acting U.S. archivist, Debra Steidel Wall, to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers, Evan Corcoran, described the state of alarm in the Justice Department as officials there began to realize how serious the documents were. It also suggested that top department prosecutors and members of the intelligence community were delayed in conducting a damage assessment about the documents' removal from the White House as Mr. Trump's lawyers tried to argue that some of them might have been protected by executive privilege.... The letter could further implicate Mr. Trump in a potential crime....
"[An email dated April 13 from Archives officials to two of Mr. Trump's archive representatives, Patrick F. Philbin and John Eisenberg further filled out the timeline and] further undermine the repeated assertions from Mr. Trump's legal team that federal officials could have simply asked for the material at any time and that the matter was just an amiable ongoing negotiation.... [The letter] also revealed that well before Mr. Trump's lawyers argued in their court filing on Monday that many of the records were protected by executive privilege, the same argument had been rejected by the White House and a top official at the Justice Department."
~~~ Marie: So what happened here is (1) Trump stole box-fulls of documents & other stuff that by law the National Archives must retain. (2) Trump refused for a year-and-a-half to return the documents, even though multiple officials repeatedly told him he must do so. (3) Under extreme pressure, Trump secretly went through the boxes, picking out the stuff he really, really wanted to keep, then allowed the National Archives to have less important stuff. (4) Trump (probably) instructed his bush-league attorneys to swear he had returned all of the documents he stole, even though he had saved the "good stuff" for himself. (5) When the FBI finally forcefully collected that part of the remainder they could find, under cover of a judge's order, Trump squealed. It was Trump, not the FBI or some "leakers" who revealed the search. (6) Trump riled up Trumpbot Nation with complaints of an "unannounced raid on my home" & started shooting out fundraising emails based on the horror of his purloined papers being returned to the American people who owned them.
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Each time former President Barack Obama ... wanted to review something ... [during] the three years that [he] wrote his 768-page memoir after leaving the White House..., his aides submitted precise requests to the National Archives and Records Administration. Sometimes, documents would be encrypted and loaded onto a laptop that would be brought to Mr. Obama at his office in Washington. Other times, a paper document would be placed in a locked bag for his perusal, and later returned the same way.... Aides to Mr. Obama said he did not request to see any classified documents while writing his book.... The tightly restricted process that Mr. Obama followed to gain access to the 30 million records from his presidency stands in stark contrast to ... Donald J. Trump's seemingly haphazard handling of some of the government's most sensitive documents after he left office in early 2021. People familiar with the actions of other recent presidents from both parties described similar, librarylike procedures to see documents, conforming to rules set out in the Presidential Records Act, which was passed in 1978.... It is unclear how many of the last-minute boxes that Mr. Trump and his aides packed up were turned over to the archives. But according to federal officials, dozens of boxes of documents ended up in the former president's custody. That is not the way it's supposed to happen. 'At 12:01 on Jan. 20, those documents become property of the United States government,' said Lee White, the executive director of the National Coalition for History."
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, a Florida judge informed two lawyers representing ... Donald J. Trump, neither of them licensed in the state, that they had bungled routine paperwork to take part in a suit filed following the F.B.I.'s search this month of Mr. Trump's Mar-a-Lago home and private club. 'A sample motion can be found on the Court's website,' the judge instructed them in her order.... The judge handling the Trump legal team's request for the appointment of a special master to review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago came back with some pointed questions. Judge Aileen M. Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump, asked the lawyers to respond by Friday about whether she even had jurisdiction to hear Mr. Trump's request, and what precisely his motion was asking her to do. This came hours after Judge Cannon informed the lawyers about their basic paperwork mistake....
"Mr. Trump's court filing on Monday requesting the special master to review the seized documents was styled as a legal motion, but it sounded more like a news release drafted by Mr. Trump himself. It was filled with bombastic complaints that the government had long treated Mr. Trump unfairly. The document cited purported examples like 'two years of noisy "Russian collusion" investigations.' It also contained Trumpian boasts about the former president being 'the clear front-runner' for the 2024 election.... The only real continuity in the defense is Mr. Trump himself, and his demands that his lawyers do what he wants, which is why so many of his legal filings sound as if they were dictated by him." The gist of the article is that, without the aid of the perqs of the presidency, Trump is in trouble. ~~~
~~~ Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump ordered him Tuesday to answer several key questions about his new lawsuit related to the FBI raid on his Florida home, including why her court should be the one hearing the case and to more precisely explain what he wants her to do." MB: Mangan doesn't say so, but it's obvious from Judge Cannon's order that a whiney motion/press release is an insufficient filing on which to rule.
Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, Rolling Stone reported that ... Donald Trump is privately demanding that his lawyers help him get 'my' classified documents back from the Justice Department, after they were seized in an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida. 'Trump wasn't merely referring to the alleged trove of attorney-client material that he insists was scooped up by the feds, two people familiar with the matter tell Rolling Stone,' reported Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley. 'The ex-president has been demanding that his team find a way to recover "all" of the official documents that Trump has long referred to as "mine" -- including the highly sensitive and top secret ones.'... You can read more here [firewalled]."
Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The House select committee scrutinizing the Jan. 6 attack has used the August congressional recess to gather more evidence as it prepares to resume public hearings next month, dispatching investigators to Europe and digging deeper into discussions by ... Donald J. Trump's cabinet after the riot about removing him from office. The panel has been holding closed-door interviews with senior Trump administration officials in an effort to uncover more about the period between Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Mr. Trump's supporters attacked Congress, and Jan. 20, when President Biden was sworn in, including talks about invoking the 25th Amendment. On Tuesday, the panel interviewed Robert O'Brien, Mr. Trump's former national security adviser, for several hours according to two people familiar with the committee's work." An NBC New story on O'Brien's interview is here.
Seung Min Kim, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden on Wednesday is set to announce his long-delayed move to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for many Americans and extend a pause on payments to January, according to three people familiar with the plan. Biden has faced pressure from liberals to provide broader relief to hard-hit borrowers, and from moderates and Republicans questioning the fairness of any widespread forgiveness. The delay in Biden's decision has only heightened the anticipation for what his own aides acknowledge represents a political no-win situation." ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case you think it's "not fair" for "kids today" to get away with not paying what is likely a small portion of their college debt, let me remind you that the price of college tuition has risen much faster than the cost-of-living. Way back when I went to school, it was possible for most Americans to get a good-to-excellent tuition-free or low-tuition education in many state-operated colleges & universities. Much less so today. Any loan forgiveness President Biden grants is, on the whole, simply a means of transferring a small portion of the cost of higher education from the states to the federal government. In addition, our young people are competing with European and other young people who do get tuition-free educations in their countries.
Deborah Solomon of the New York Times: "The Internal Revenue Service, which has been under sustained attack by Republican lawmakers and conservative outlets, is undertaking a 'comprehensive' review of its security amid threats to the tax agency and its employees. In a letter sent to staff on Tuesday, the I.R.S. commissioner, Charles P. Rettig, cited 'an abundance of misinformation and false social media postings, some of them with threats directed at the I.R.S. and its employees.'... Misinformation and conspiracy theories about the agency have proliferated in the wake of a Democrat-backed bill that gives the tax collector an additional $80 billion to help crack down on tax cheats."
Rick's Italian Vacation. Jonathan Swan, et al., of Axios: "Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is spending part of his congressional recess on a luxury yacht in Italy with his family after criticizing President Biden for vacationing in Delaware.... Scott is already under fire for his management of the [National Republican Senatorial Committee]. Vacationing in Europe while Republicans face cash problems and rough headlines about their midterm chances could further hurt his standing with his GOP colleagues."
Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The Biden administration plans to offer the next generation of coronavirus booster shots to Americans 12 and older soon after Labor Day, a campaign that federal officials hope will reduce deaths from Covid-19 and protect against an expected winter surge.... This week, both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech finalized their submissions to the F.D.A. asking for emergency authorization of booster shots aimed at BA.5 and another subvariant of Omicron that together account for most coronavirus cases in the United States. Federal health officials say they are eager to offer the updated boosters as quickly as possible, pointing to a death toll that now averages about 450 Americans per day and could rise in the coming months as people spend more time indoors.... The government plans to offer the new Pfizer booster to everyone 12 and older while limiting the new Moderna shot to adults. People who have already received the initial two-shot series of either vaccine would be eligible. So would those who have received the initial shots plus one or two booster shots. The new booster campaign could be broadened to younger children later."
Beyond the Beltway
California. Olga Rodriguez of the AP: "The husband of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pleaded guilty Tuesday to misdemeanor driving under the influence charges related to a May crash in California's wine country and was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation. Paul Pelosi already served two days in jail and received conduct credit for two other days, Napa County Superior Court Judge Joseph Solga said. Paul Pelosi will work eight hours in the court's work program in lieu of the remaining day, Solga said during Paul Pelosi's sentencing, which he did not attend. State law allows for DUI misdemeanor defendants to appear through their attorney unless ordered otherwise by the court."
Georgia Senate Race. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post extols Herschel Walker's anti-arborism platform.
Kentucky Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A former police detective admitted on Tuesday that she had helped mislead a judge into wrongly authorizing a raid of Breonna Taylor's apartment in Louisville, Ky., setting in motion the nighttime operation in which the police fatally shot Ms. Taylor. The former detective, Kelly Goodlett, pleaded guilty in federal court to one count of conspiracy, admitting that she had worked with another officer to falsify a search warrant application and had later lied to cover up their act. In pleading guilty, Ms. Goodlett became the first police officer to be convicted over the March 2020 raid, during which the police were searching for evidence of drug dealing by Ms. Taylor's former boyfriend, Jamarcus Glover."
Michigan. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "The first time federal prosecutors tried to convince a jury that a group of men plotted to kidnap Michigan's Democratic governor, they failed to get a single conviction. But on Tuesday, jurors in a second trial found the two remaining defendants guilty, providing a measure of vindication to federal law enforcement in a case filled with public setbacks.Prosecutors described the men, Barry Croft and Adam Fox, as threats to democracy who planned to capture Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at her vacation home in 2020 and instigate a national rebellion.... The case was seen as indicative of the rising threat of political violence and right-wing domestic terrorism, even before the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.... In a recent speech at a conservative conference, [Donald Trump] appeared to allude to the Michigan case, calling it 'fake' and saying 'Gretchen Whitmer was in less danger than the people in this room right now, it seems to me.'" CNN's report is here.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "Ukraine marked its Independence Day and six months of war, holding a muted ceremony Wednesday in the capital, Kyiv. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky placed flowers at a war memorial in the city and took part in a multifaith service at a church, alongside his wife. He also warned that Russia could step up its attacks, even as he hailed the courage of Ukrainians in the face of Russian aggression.... World leaders have offered their support to Kyiv as President Biden praised the Ukrainian response and called the day 'bittersweet' for many.... Ukraine is holding a ghost parade -- of burned and battered Russian tanks and artillery launchers -- on Kyiv's grandest boulevard to mark its first Independence Day since Russia invaded. The country is celebrating the statehood that ... Vladimir Putin has failed to destroy."
Lolita Baldor & Matthew Lee of the AP: "As Russia's war on Ukraine drags on, U.S. security assistance is shifting to a longer-term campaign that will likely keep more American military troops in Europe into the future, including imminent plans to announce an additiona roughly $3 billion in aid to train and equip Ukrainian forces to fight for years to come, U.S. officials said. U.S. officials told The Associated Press that the package is expected to be announced Wednesday, the day the war hits the six-month mark and Ukraine celebrates its independence day. The money will fund contracts for as many as three types of drones, and other weapons, ammunition and equipment that may not see the battlefront for a year or two, they said."
Sharpiegate, Hungarian-Style. Zach Rosenthal of the Washington Post: "Two top officials with Hungary's National Meteorological Service (NMS) were fired Monday after severe storms they had forecast for the capital on the country's most important national holiday did not materialize, instead passing to the south. The forecast called for intense storms in Budapest around 9 p.m. local time, according to reporting from the Associated Press, leading organizers to postpone a massive annual fireworks display. The fireworks show celebrating St. Stephen's Day, a holiday that marks the country's founding, is usually watched by more than a million people.... On Tuesday morning, 17 agency leaders ... posted a statement on the meteorological service's Facebook page to demand that their fired colleagues be reinstated as soon as possible, saying that the firings were politically motivated and that the forecast was issued based on the best possible information at the time."
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Reader Comments (11)
And here I'm the guy who's always saying things are complicated...
....but this morning I'm wondering what would MAGA world (and complicit Republican leadership) be saying if the Former Guy had decided to move Marred-a-Lardo onto public land, a National Park, say, and claim the land as his own...just, well because?
Think they'd be OK with that? With him taking a piece of a park that was clearly ours, not his?
His years of grifting are one thing. I don't like it and don't think much of the behavior. But a grifter always has a willing partner, most often sometime too stupid to know he is being fleeced. In grifting there is often blame enough to be shared and in the sharing blur the lines of responsibility.
But outright theft places the FG in the category of the Bundy gang, of people who think they have a god-given right to live off the largesse of others and even shoot them when they won't go along with the Plan.
In short, in the category of arrogant freeloaders.
Which makes me sad, because Freddie the Freeloader was one of my favorite comic characters, and the Florida Freeloader is now ruining those pleasant memories for me, too.
The Florida Freeloader ain't funny. Red Skelton was.
Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding trumpbots that keeps
truth, intelligence, reasoning from penetrating.
Unfortunately the bozone layer shows little sign of breaking down
in the near future.
@Ken Winkes: National security implications aside, the weird thing about this grift is that Trump is stealing those documents from the public, and some of those very same victims of his crime are not just defending him but sending him money to show their support for his stealing from them.
It's as if a mugger attacked you & stole your grandfather's gold watch. Then -- after the cops caught the mugger -- you went to court, paid the mugger's attorneys fees, insisted the mugger be allowed to keep grandpa's timepiece & threatened the judge that she and her family would be sorry if she didn't let the mugger go scot-free.
@Forrest Morris: I was interested in your post yesterday where you said that despite the fact that you had a security clearance, you didn't use it to look over classified documents. It turns out, at least according to the Times reporting linked above, you "used" you clearance the same way Barack Obama did after he left office: neither of you asked for a single classified document in the course of your work.
Before you wrote, I was kind of wondering what a top-secret security clearance would "get" you: I was pretty sure you couldn't waltz into Langley, for instance, and demand copies of all the latest top-secret stuff, no matter what the subject, then put it in a file box, pick up the box & walk out, waving goodbye.
Of course maybe if you assured them that you were going to put the box on a shelf in your basement where hardly anybody ever goes except the plumber, the HVAC repairman & friends you send downstairs during a party in search of another bottle of wine, the Langley guards would have said fine & waved back at you as you departed with the latest top secrets.
Yesterday late in the day we had the worst and most frightening thunder storm I can remember in this area––great bolts of lightening that lit up the skies and then torrents of rain followed. When I was a little girl my father and I would sit on the front stoop during thunder storms and he would tell me stories about all kinds of characters up in the heavens involved in bowling contests in order to assuage my fear of thunder. He always said, "You'll see, tomorrow will be bright and sunny–––this storm is nature's way of cleansing the earth."
Today is indeed bright and sunny and the air finally breathable after weeks of stifling heat. I'm thinking of connecting this with some of the more positive results in our primary run-offs yesterday and perhaps getting closer to rope in the Donald with a tighter noose. In order to cleanse our fetid air we need some great bolts of evidence in order to right the wrongs that one man thought he could get away with.
Of course when people actually vote again for someone like Matt Gaetz then we ain't out of them stormy weathers yet.
And Ken's fondness for Red's Freddie the Freeloader having been besmirched by a REAL free-loader is enough to make one weep.
Ken,
Arrogance and freeloading are two of Trump’s most characteristic qualities. His acknowledgment, during a debate with Hillary Clinton that, indeed, he did not pay taxes, in other words, mooched off millions of other Americans, is proof positive of his epic freeloading.
And unlike corporations that might be able to hide their non-tax paying freeloading by suggesting that they instead provide some sort of service or product, Trump’s business ventures serve(d) no one but himself. In fact, even the idea of running casinos (at which he failed miserably) demonstrates his essential predatory nature. Get people with gambling addictions to show up and hand you little Jimmy’s college fund money, or the mortgage.
Gambling, especially government approved gambling in the form of casinos, has long been largely recession proof (same with drugs and booze), relying as it does on an addiction. It’s pretty much a guaranteed winner. But Trump managed to screw it up. Not once, but several times. Ever the bombastic loser. But that’s where the arrogance came in. Of course people will flock to my place. I’m Donald Trump!
Next scene: bankruptcy court. Then…back to freeloading. And more arrogance.
And your connecting the First Moocher with dangerous, murderous moochers like the Bundy family recognizes one of the many tangents which link this arrogant POS with violent, anti-democratic extremists. They love him for all the right reasons. They all operate as laws into themselves. Whatever fills their own pockets can’t be wrong. And anyone who says differently will be harshly dealt with.
And full agreement that Skelton’s hobo, Freddie the Freeloader, was one of his best characters, along with Clem Kadiddlehopper.
Also, “Freddie Freeloader” is one of the best tracks on Miles Davis’ 1959 masterpiece, “Kind of Blue”. John Coltrane’s break alone is worth the price of admission. Or am I being too woke to say such a thing?
This article about "Freddie the Freeloader" suggests that Donald Trump is no Freddie.
So Freddie says, time's a thief...
Sure it.
Can't find a clip of it, but have a memory of a Jane Mansfield--Freddie exchange that went something like this.
Jane puts her hand in Freddie's pocket and says, "Freddie, I feel so crazy.."
Freddie says, "If you reach in a little farther, you'll feel nuts..."
That infamous exchange was memorably risqué TV at the time...
A far cry from the bragging pussy grabber who became a fake president.
Or maybe it's one of my Mark Twain memories, one that is so good that in one's later years it recalls things that never happened at all.
You folks are bringing back some memories. I'd love to see Mr Dunahee open the door and walk into the saloon with Jackie Gleason bartending or to hear Jimmy Durants's famous "goodnight" at the end of the show. Was it Mrs Calabash or Cavendish? I forget after all these years.
The article above under 'The Wires' about California banning
petrol burning new cars sometime in the future doesn't seem likely.
A lot of western electricity is generated by dams. Some are drying
up and some are really, really old.
It says that other states may follow suit. Well, our electricity is
partly generated by a coal burning plant and partly by a nuclear plant.
I fail to comprehend how burning coal is any different than burning
petrol, other than coal sounds like it is more polluting.
The west has lots of empty space and lots of sunshine. Why not
solar generated electricity?
Can't do that on my house roof. It's in the 'historic district' and that
wasn't done a hundred years ago so can't do it now.
That "reasonable doubt" thing is sure slippery.
Kinda depends on who's doing the reasoning, doesn't it?
I'm guessing my reasoning isn't the same as Bill Barr's or his lackeys' and would most likely find mine or that of a jury composed of ordinary folks to be much more "reasonable."