;)
The Conversation -- May 16, 2024
** Alito Denigrates U.S. Flag, Violates Ethics Code. Jodi Kantor of the New York Times: "After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag. One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors. The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed.... Donald J. Trump's supporters, including some brandishing the same symbol, had rioted at the Capitol a little over a week before. Mr. Biden's inauguration was three days away. Alarmed neighbors snapped photographs, some of which were recently obtained by The New York Times. Word of the flag filtered back to the court, people who worked there said in interviews.
"While the flag was up, the court was still contending with whether to hear a 2020 election case, with Justice Alito on the losing end of that decision. In coming weeks, the justices will rule on two climactic cases involving the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, including whether Mr. Trump has immunity for his actions. Their decisions will shape how accountable he can be held for trying to overturn the last presidential election and his chances for re-election in the upcoming one.... Judicial experts said in interviews that the flag was a clear violation of ethics rules, which seek to avoid even the appearance of bias.... The court has also repeatedly warned its own employees against public displays of partisan views, according to guidelines circulated to the staff...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As is the fashion these days among Washington's elite (alleged!) corrupt criminals, Alito blamed the Little Missus: He emailed the Times: "I had no involvement whatsoever in the flying of the flag. It was briefly placed by Mrs. Alito in response to a neighbor's use of objectionable and personally insulting language on yard signs." And it does seem the Times obtained corroborating evidence that Sam is telling the truth: "Interviews show that the justice's wife, Martha-Ann Alito, had been in a dispute with another family on the block over an anti-Trump sign on their law." For decades, I've felt sorry for Martha-Ann for having hitched her wagon to Insufferable Sam. I don't feel sorry for her anymore.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court rejected a challenge on Thursday to the way the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is funded, one that could have hobbled the bureau and advanced a central goal of the conservative legal movement: limiting the power of independent agencies. The vote was 7 to 2, with Justice Clarence Thomas writing the majority opinion.... The central question in the case was whether the way Congress chose to fund the bureau had violated the appropriations clause of the Constitution, which says that 'no money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law.' Justice Thomas said the mechanism was constitutional.... Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, dissented." MB: Because of course they did.
Glenn Thrush & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "President Biden has asserted executive privilege to deny House Republicans access to recordings of his interview with a special counsel investigating his handling of government documents, Justice Department officials and the White House counsel said on Thursday. The move is intended to shield Attorney General Merrick B. Garland from prosecution if House Republicans succeed in their effort to hold him in contempt for refusing to turn over audio of Mr. Biden's conversations with the special counsel, Robert K. Hur.... 'It is the longstanding position of the executive branch held by administrations of both parties that an official who asserts the president's claim of executive privilege cannot be prosecuted for criminal contempt of Congress,' Carlos F. Uriarte, the assistant attorney general for legislative affairs, wrote in a letter to Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio ... and Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky...."
We're back in downtown Manhattan with New York Times reporters who are liveblogging the proceedings in the Manhattan District Attorney's criminal case against Donald Trump:
Maggie Haberman: "Trump has walked into the courtroom, trailed by his son Eric, his lawyers, and Republican members of the House of Representatives, including Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. The entourage is so large today that some people are being made to sit in the back. Others had to leave and go to Trump's hold room." [MB: Yea! All the best people!]
Jonah Bromwich: "Outside in the hallway, before entering the courtroom, Trump seemed to potentially violate the gag order that forbids him from talking about prosecutors in the case, other than Alvin Bragg. He made what sounded like a reference to Matthew Colangelo, one of the prosecutors here, saying, 'a lead person from the D.O.J. is running the trial,' and baselessly adding, 'So Biden's office is running this trial.' Colangelo used to work at the Department of Justice, and Trump has used similar language to describe him in the past.... A very long sidebar is finally over. We do not know what it was about but the jurors were summoned almost 18 minutes late this morning....
"The judge just told the jurors that, if they are OK with it, court may be in session next Wednesday, despite the fact that the trial is usually off on Wednesdays. This suggests that the prosecutors and the defense were quibbling over the calendar [during the long sidebar]. The defense sought to delay the trial many times before it started, and Trump has complained that it was going too fast....
"Todd Blanche began questioning Michael Cohen about his texts with an investigator with the Manhattan district attorney's office, Jeremy Rosenberg, who was reportedly suspended for his interactions with Cohen. Blanche was going to ask Cohen about those texts, but Susan Hoffinger, one of the prosecutors, stood up and asked for a mid-cross voir dire, so she could question Cohen about the evidence in the middle of his cross-examination.... When she established that the texts had been taken out of context, she called for a sidebar. Her objection was sustained, so Blanche may be prevented from doing what he was trying to do with these texts.
"Cohen says that he learned that Trump was indicted before the indictment was unsealed in the courtroom, when The New York Times broke that news in 2023. He says Rosenberg alerted him to that article."
Jesse McKinley: "In the overflow room, laughter is heard as Justice Merchan shoots down Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer. Blanche asked for a sidebar and got a dismissive 'no' from Merchan."
Bromwich: "We are now hearing a recording of Michael Cohen celebrating Trump's indictment on his podcast. His voice is loud, over-energized, enthusiastic to the point of seeming off-putting."
Haberman: "Todd Blanche plays a second clip of Michael Cohen from his podcast, in which he says he hopes 'that this man ends up in prison,' and 'revenge is a dish best served cold,' and 'you better believe I want this man to go down and rot inside for what he did to me and my family.'"
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen is asked if he responded to a post on Truth Social, Trump's social media platform, in which Trump attacked Cohen and Stormy Daniels. He responds: 'I'm not on Truth Social, sir.' But when asked if he responded elsewhere by calling Trump 'dumbass Donald,' he agrees that he did."
Haberman: "Todd Blanche is now having Michael Cohen recall the lies he told to Congress about how many times he spoke to Trump about a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow. Blanche's goal is to show the jury Cohen is opportunistic even under oath. However, these were lies that Cohen has said he told to protect Trump.... So far today, Todd Blanche has yet to ask Michael Cohen about anything in connection to the actual case that's on trial.... Todd Blanche is now focusing on Michael Cohen's guilty plea in August 2018, and gets Cohen to say that he 'never denied the underlying facts' of the plea, and that he simply thought he shouldn't have been charged. Blanche then asks if prosecutors pressured him to plead guilty, and Cohen says his lawyer conveyed that he had only 48 hours to decide....
"Todd Blanche is now asking about the F.B.I. search of Michael Cohen's phones and his hotel room and office in April 2018, and the investigation into taxi medallions that Cohen had. Cohen walks through his partnership with a man who cooperated with the investigation, coherently. The jurors are paying close attention to Cohen right now.... This is a delicate moment for Michael Cohen, and the prosecution. This case largely rests on Cohen tying Trump to knowledge of how the false business records at the center of the case were structured. Todd Blanche is creating a portrait of Cohen as an indiscriminate liar who changes his story situationally."
Jonathan Swan: "Todd Blanche is seeking to show the jury that Michael Cohen has not fully taken responsibility for his crimes and still blames a range of people, quite implausibly, for being corrupt. The irony is that by showing that Cohen lashing out at the judge and prosecutors, Blanche is making him sound a lot like his former boss, and Blanche's current client, Donald Trump."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche continues to press his complicated point, about what Michael Cohen has said about his previous guilty pleas. Blanche notes that Cohen was asked if he lied because the stakes affected him personally. Cohen says yes.... As Blanche continues to hammer home what Cohen says were his lies to a federal judge, a prosecutor objects several times. The judge sustains the objections."
Haberman: "Blanche asks Cohen about blaming a lot of people for the conduct for which he was convicted. Cohen freely acknowledges he has."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche is now going over the complex financial transactions that allowed Michael Cohen to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels, perhaps the closest he's gotten to the subject matter of this particular case all day. He notes that Cohen hid those transactions from his wife, apparently seeking to call into question whether Cohen was really as concerned about his family -- and his wife -- as he suggested when explaining his federal guilty plea....
"Blanche just asked Cohen about a number of different events, including an exchange of public statements with Michael Avenatti, one of Stormy Daniels's lawyers, and conversations with his wife. He ended by asking Cohen if he had deleted his communications with his wife around that time, and Cohen seemed genuinely stumped. Then Blanche asks if Cohen, around this time, had taken to deleting his texts more generally.... The defense is trying to suggest that Cohen has a history of manipulating the types of phone records that prosecutors have used here to bolster their case.... Todd Blanche seems to have seized on another lie: Michael Cohen had testified years ago that he had never asked for a pardon, but testifies here today -- as he did in a deposition -- that he did, in fact, direct his lawyers to explore the possibility of a pardon.... Blanche says that Cohen has explained the distance between the two statements in different ways. At one point, under oath, he said that he had not explored a pardon, his lawyers had. At another point, also apparently under oath, he said that that the seeming disparity stemmed from a semantic distinction between the past and present tenses."
Swan: "Todd Blanche is demonstrating that Cohen told lies, big and small, over a long period of time and for various reasons."
Haberman: "At the same time, prosecutors have and will demonstrate in closing arguments that Trump has told lies, big and small, about a number of people and issues in this case...." [Morning break.]
"Todd Blanche is questioning Michael Cohen about his efforts, which began soon after he went to prison, to have his sentence reduced based on his cooperation with prosecutors working for the special counsel, Robert Mueller.... It's not clear that the jury is going to hold it against him that he tried to shorten his prison sentence and supervised release....
"Todd Blanche is now asking Michael Cohen if he wanted a job in the Trump White House. Cohen testified to the House in 2019 that he didn't want one. But other witnesses, like Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels's former lawyer, have testified that Cohen was interested and sad he was being left behind.... Blanche is now asking Cohen about texts in which he discussed the possibility of being White House chief of staff."
Bromwich: "Though none of the texts were definitive, there were a lot of them, and they do clearly show that Cohen was at least interested in the idea. When Reince Priebus was finally named chief of staff, Cohen told his daughter he was disappointed, Blanche shows. Cohen admits here that he was disappointed.... Cohen responds: 'I wanted a hybrid position, one where I would have the access to President Trump but not be a White House employee.' It's a helpful answer for prosecutors, underscoring, as they have said, that Cohen was bent on being close to Trump."
Haberman: "Blanche is making clear that Cohen was less than candid when he said he didn't want a job, as he walks through all the people to whom Cohen complained about being left behind. But it underscores a theme that's been true for awhile -- one I wrote about first in 2018 and repeatedly since -- that Trump went out of his way to abuse Cohen."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche is now asking about an embarrassing episode for Michael Cohen, who used an artificial intelligence program to generate legal citations for his previous lawyer. The cases listed by the software were not real cases."
Susanne Craig: "This made headlines, and was, as Jonah noted, embarrassing. But Cohen just explained what happened calmly, and I think it took some of the sting out of it."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche has brought up a phone call that Michael Cohen talked about during direct testimony, when he spoke to Trump over Trump's bodyguard's cellphone. Cohen said that during this conversation, he told Trump that the payment to Stormy Daniels had been made. Blanche is trying to cast doubt on that account, saying it was the first time that Cohen had discussed this call.... Todd Blanche has initiated a long sequence of questioning about whether Michael Cohen received harassing phone calls from a 14-year-old prankster in October 2016. He appears to be hoping to suggest an alternative reason for Michael Cohen's call to Keith Schiller, Trump's bodyguard.... As expected, Blanche has now suggested that Cohen was not, in fact, telling Trump about his plans to make the hush money payment to Trump but instead, simply reporting that he was being pranked by a teenager.... Todd Blanche, who is agitated, is seeking to set up a moment in which the jurors will have to choose whether to believe Cohen, who continues to say that during a relatively brief phone call, he both informed Trump's bodyguard of the teenage prankster and discussed the hush-money payment he planned to make to Stormy Daniels. It's a really interesting moment, and that's where we leave the trial for now. The jurors are excused for their lunch break."
Swan: "Todd Blanche is trying to get Michael Cohen to say that while working for Trump, he gave statements to reporters without checking in with his boss. Cohen is refusing to concede this, and says that he would always talk to Trump about every story.... Blanche is drawing out Michael Cohen about his relationships with reporters over the years. Blanche gets Cohen to admit that he serially recorded reporters without their knowledge, including our colleague Maggie Haberman. Blanche also gets Cohen to say that he sent a recording of somebody else to Haberman as she was reporting a story."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche ... is asking Michael Cohen how he can have specific memories of phone calls that he conducted eight years ago. Cohen responds that the reason he remembers them is because he's been talking about the conversations for six years.... Michael Cohen had previously testified that in June 2016, he was negotiating with The National Enquirer and Karen McDougal over her story about having had an affair with Trump. On the stand now, as Todd Blanche digs in about whether he can remember a specific call from that year, Cohen is insisting that seeing prosecutors' other evidence has jogged his memory about calls he had back then."
Swan: "Todd Blanche is now showing the hush-money contract that Michael Cohen struck with Stormy Daniels. He gets Cohen to agree it's a 'perfectly legal contract.' He's raising his voice to emphasize this point -- to try to make the jury feel like this arrangement was business as usual."
Bromwich: "Todd Blanche is now trying to undermine the close relationship Michael Cohen said he had with Trump himself. He is asking whether Cohen did legal work not only for Trump, but also for his family and the Trump Organization. Then Blanche notes that Cohen did not have a legal retainer to do this work."
Swan: "Todd Blanche is now getting Michael Cohen to admit he lied to reporters in early 2018 and also secretly recorded conversations with reporters about Trump's involvement in the hush-money payment."
Haberman: "Todd Blanche ... elicited testimony from Cohen on the second day of cross-examination portraying him as a liar who engaged in shady practices with people he dealt with across the board.... Justice Merchan stops early, as Todd Blanche says he's moving to another area."
Swan: "Todd Blanche tells Justice Merchan that he expects to be done with the cross-examination of Michael Cohen by the morning break on Monday. Which means by roughly 11 a.m."
Bromwich: "Blanche also says it's not clear yet whether Trump will testify in his own defense. Merchan takes away from this that the charging conference will be on Monday and asks both sides to be prepared to deliver their closing arguments on Tuesday.... The defense lawyers also alerted the judge that if they were to put on a witness or witnesses, it wouldn't take very long. They did not name any potential witnesses in particular besides Trump, who they said had yet to decide whether he would testify. But the judge, operating off the defense lawyers' comments, felt it appropriate to warn both sides to be ready for closing arguments on Tuesday. That could mean the case will go to the jury as early as next week."
Slovakia. Bela Szandelszky, et al., of the AP: "The Slovak interior minister said Thursday that a 'lone wolf' has been charged in the shooting that seriously wounded Prime Minister Robert Fico and prompted soul-searching among leaders in the deeply divided society. Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections. President-elect Peter Pellegrini visited Fico in the hospital and spoke to him but said that his condition 'remains very serious.'"
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Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, argued that President Joe Biden should have pardoned Donald Trump after the Justice Department brought indictments against the former president and pressured New York prosecutors not to pursue Trump's ongoing hush money trial.... Romney expressed his dismay in response to Republican lawmakers, including the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's vice presidential prospects, rallying to Trump's defense outside the Manhattan courthouse where Trump's hush money trial is taking place.... Romney, a vocal critic of Trump, said, 'I think it's a terrible fault for our country to see people attacking our legal system -- that's an enormous mistake. I think it's also demeaning for people to quite apparently try and run for vice president by donning a red tie and standing outside the courthouse. It's just -- I'd have felt awkward.'" Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "So not only should Biden issue a blanket pardon [to] Trump to create a de facto presidential immunity (albeit one that obviously will not be honored for Democratic presidents), total presidential immunity is so important that he should also interfere with state prosecutions to uphold it! Fighting Trumpism with Trumpism, apparently. At least Romney isn't one of the Republicans pulling the 'he can't be impeached because he can be prosecuted and he can't be prosecuted because he can be impeached' shell game, but it's still pretty grim."
Marie: Way back Wednesday morning Judd Legum was reminding us that Justice Juan "Merchan's order prohibits Trump from 'directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses." (Okay, I never forgot.) As Legum noted, "Many of Trump's surrogates appear to be speaking from a common script," so it was pretty obvious that somebody was coordinating and directing the Trumpiclones' remarks. Besides, does anybody think that Senator Potato Head could be counted on to say the right thing under his own volition? Of course not. In fact, when asked by a Newsmax host if he was speaking "to go against the gag order and intimidate witnesses because Trump can't," Tuberville answered, "Yes, sir." ~~~
~~~ So Now. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "New York Magazine contributing editor Andrew Rice claimed on Tuesday that he spotted ... Donald Trump 'editing' and 'making notations' to the speeches his allies then made outside of the courtroom during his hush money trial in New York.... 'Before or after?' asked MSNBC host Chris Hayes, to which Rice replied, 'While testimony was going on. While Michael Cohen was testifying against him, he was actually ... going through and annotating and editing the quotes that these people were going to say.'" On MSNBC Wednesday afternoon, Andrew Weissmann said Justice Merchan was unlikely to raise the issue on his own, so it would be up to the prosecutors if they wanted to call to the judge's attention the apparent violation of the gag order. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ AND the headline of this firewalled Rolling Stone story is "Trump's GOP 'Surrogates' Take Turns Bashing Judge's Daughter." Maybe that will get Justice Merchan's attention. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jim McGovern Is on a Roll. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) nuked House Republicans for going to Donald Trump's porn star hush money trial during a barn burner of a speech on Wednesday. 'It's probably not the best idea to take direction on law and order from a guy who, as we speak, is a defendant for covering up hush money payments to a porn star for political gain.... This is unbelievable. Here's a picture of the speaker of this House of Representatives. Second in line to the presidency, standing in front of a courthouse, acting as a prop for Donald Trump, trying to interfere with a criminal trial. Because apparently, Republicans like law and order unless it applies to them.... The American people ... certainly deserve better than the speaker of the House spending his time trying to influence our justice system at a courthouse in New York City....'" ~~~
~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) had quite the rebuttal to Rep. Nick Langworthy's (R-NY) floor speech about crime in Washington, D.C. On Wednesday, the House debated the rules concerning eight bills regarding crime and law enforcement.... [McGovern responded,] 'The Gentleman keeps on talking about crime in D.C., crime in D.C., crime on the rise.... I can tell you one thing. Crime is definitely down in the White House right now....' McGovern entered into the record a Washington Post article titled, 'Crime is down, though Fox News viewers might not be aware.'"
MEANWHILE, Down the Street. Aaron Katersky of the AP: "Sen. Robert Menendez 'put his power up for sale' and 'betrayed the people he was supposed to serve,' a prosecutor claimed Wednesday at the start of the New Jersey Democrat's federal bribery trial in New York.... 'He was powerful. He was also corrupt,' prosecutor Lara Pomerantz said of the senator during her opening statement.... His price, Pomerantz told the jury, was gold bars, envelopes stuffed with cash, checks to his wife for a no-show job and a Mercedes-Benz convertible.... The defense meanwhile introduced Menendez 'not as an agent of the Egyptian government' but as 'an American patriot' who 'took no bribes.' Menendez has pleaded not guilty to 16 federal charges including bribery, fraud, acting as a foreign agent and obstruction." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Benjamin Weisler & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "A lawyer for Senator Robert Menendez on Wednesday laid blame for the bribery charges the senator faces squarely on his wife -- a woman he found 'dazzling' but who, his lawyer said, hid her past dire finances and the source of her newfound income from her powerful husband. She had kept him in the dark about 'what she was asking others to give her,' the lawyer, Avi Weitzman, told a jury in opening statements at the start of the senator's federal corruption trial in Manhattan. The gold and some of the cash that the F.B.I. found in a search of the senator's New Jersey home -- items that prosecutors say were bribes 'were kept in a locked closet where his wife, Nadine Menendez, stored her clothing,' Mr. Weitzman said. 'He did not know of the gold bars that existed in that closet,' Mr. Weitzman added...."
Presidential Race
Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: "Josh Boak, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden and ... Donald Trump on Wednesday agreed to hold two campaign debates -- the first on June 27 hosted by CNN and the second on Sept. 10 hosted by ABC -- setting the stage for their first presidential face-off to play out in just over a month." This is an update of a story linked yesterday.
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "Ron Klain, the president's former chief of staff, will take some time away from his post-White House job to help President Biden prepare for a debate against Donald J. Trump. Mr. Klain, who left the White House last year, said in a text message that he would take a vacation from his job as the chief legal officer at Airbnb in the coming weeks to help get Mr. Biden ready.... Mr. Klain, 62, is one of the president's most trusted confidants, and was critical to Mr. Biden's debate preparations during the 2020 campaign. When he left the White House, Mr. Klain, whom Republicans sometimes referred to as 'prime minister' in describing his influence, took with him decades of institutional knowledge about Washington politics, the inner workings of Capitol Hill and an intimate knowledge of the Biden family. He was so well liked within the White House that staff members had a nickname for themselves: 'Klainiacs.'"
Michael Luciano of Mediaite: “... Sean Hannity spent the first 20 minutes of his Fox News show railing against the upcoming debates while demanding changes -- such as 'no notes, no teleprompter' -- to the format agreed to by Trump, who had said last month he would debate Biden 'any time, any place. We'll do it any way you want, Joe.' [Then Lara Trump, co-chair of the RNC and wife of Eric, joined Hannity] and called 'the two presidential debates Donald Trump had just agreed to, 'rigged.'" Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary at the end of yesterday's thread.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in a Guardian op-ed: "Today, in 2024, our country once again faces a pivotal moment in American history.... As the nation moves rapidly toward oligarchy, the billionaire class exerts enormous influence over the economic and political life of the nation.... Never before have the 1% done so well, or enjoyed so much power. Our political system is corrupt.... Our life expectancy and birth rate are in decline.... The climate crisis threatens the very future of the planet.... Biden is not popular and many progressives, including me, strongly disagree with his policies regarding Israel and this disastrous war in Gaza. But, let's be clear. Biden is not running against God. He is running against Donald Trump, the most dangerous president in American history whose second term, if he is re-elected, will be worse than his first. And, on his worst day, Biden is a thousand times better than Trump."
Eduardo Porter & Youyou Zhou of the Washington Post: "The public conversation over immigration that has raged at least since the days of the 1924 Johnson-Reed law [-- which imposed strict quotas to preserve the nation's 'pure, unadulterated Anglo-Saxon stock' --] can explain Washington's policy failure: There is no way America can reconcile the sentiments embodied by the Statue of Liberty -- 'Give me your tired, your poor,' etc. -- with its deep-seated fear that immigrants will reshape its ethnic makeup, its identity and the balance of political power. Try as they might, policymakers have always been unable to protect the White America they wanted to preserve. Today's 'melting pot' was built largely with policies that didn't work. Millions upon millions of migrants have overcome what obstacles the United States has tried to put in their way."
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Florida. Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Florida's state government will no longer be required to consider climate change when crafting energy policy under legislation signed Wednesday by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican. The new law, which passed the Florida Legislature in March and takes effect on July 1, will also prohibit the construction of offshore wind turbines in state waters and will repeal state grant programs that encourage energy conservation and renewable energy. The legislation also deletes requirements that state agencies use climate-friendly products and purchase fuel-efficient vehicles. And it prevents any municipality from restricting the type of fuel that can be used in an appliance, such as a gas stove.... Florida is one of the states most vulnerable to the costly and deadly impacts of climate change, which is largely driven by the burning of oil, gas and coal. Multiple scientific studies have shown that the increase of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has contributed to sea level rise and more flooding in the state's coastal cities. Last year was the hottest in Florida since 1895, and the waters off its coast heated to 90 degrees during the summer, bleaching corals and scorching marine life." And don't forget the hurricanes, their intensity drive by climate change. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently Ron will keep his head buried in the sand even when the beach floods. It's hard to believe anyone can be that blind to reality; for those of you who have and those of you who wish you had an Ivy League education, turns out it don't cure stupid.
Louisiana. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily revived a congressional map in Louisiana that includes a second majority-Black district, halting a lower court decision to pause the map over concerns that it was racially gerrymandered. The move could increase Democrats' likelihood of taking control of a second congressional seat in Louisiana. The newly drawn map had been approved in January by Louisiana's Republican-controlled legislature after it had been directed to redraw it. The decision, which was unsigned, said that it would remain in effect pending an appeal or a decision by the Supreme Court. The court's three liberal justices wrote that they would not have lifted the block on the proposed map, with Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan noting they would have denied the stay application." (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's report is here. MB: Maybe if you read both reports, you can figure out the logic here. I don't have time to try.
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "A temporary pier built by the United States to help distribute humanitarian aid delivered by sea was anchored at a beach in Gaza Thursday morning, U.S. Central Command said.... Aid trucks 'are expected to begin moving ashore in the coming days,' Centcom said, noting that 'as part of this effort, no U.S. troops entered Gaza.' U.S. officials say they could eventually deliver up to 2 million meals a day using the pier, though the success of the operation will depend on Israel allowing the free flow of material in.... The International Court of Justice will hold hearings Thursday and Friday on South Africa's request that the court order Israel to halt its offensive in Rafah." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates Thursday are here.
Slovakia. Jessie Yeung, et al., of CNN: "Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, is in a stable but serious condition after being shot five times from a close range and undergoing surgery, his deputy said Thursday, an assassination attempt that rocked the central European country and sparked global condemnation. The 59-year-old populist leader, who returned to power last year and whose controversial reforms have sparked protests in recent weeks, was attacked on Wednesday after an off-site government meeting in the town of Handlova. The prime minister had approached a small crowd of people waiting to meet him, when the suspected gunman in the crowd lunged forward and shot him five times from across a security barrier.... The alleged shooter has been identified by multiple local media outlets as a 71-year-old man from southern Slovakia. There has been no official confirmation of the identity of the shooter, but his face was clearly visible in some of the video footage of the attack and his subsequent arrest.... Nobody else was injured in the attack. The suspected gunman was detained by police...."
Ukraine, et al.
CNN's live updates of developments Thursday in the Russia/Ukraine ware are here: "Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in Beijing Thursday. China is Russia's top trade partner, and international sanctions over Moscow's war in Ukraine have driven the two economies closer. Russia is pushing into northeastern Ukraine after a surprise assault there last week. More than 7,500 people have been evacuated from the Kharkiv region. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky halted his upcoming international visits as his country grapples with the Russian offensive."
Michael Birnbaum of the Washington Post: "... Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced another $2 billion in U.S. military aid [to Ukraine] as he wrapped a two-day visit to Ukraine that was intended to demonstrate Washington's continued support for the war-hit country. Blinken's trip was planned before Russia's weekend advances on Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv. But it also served to highlight the lingering consequences of Washington's seven-month delay in approving more military aid for Ukraine. Stocks of artillery shells and other long-range munitions have run perilously low, leaving Ukrainian troops on the back foot."
News Lede
CBS News: "A barge has collided with the Pelican Island Causeway in Galveston, Texas, damaging the bridge, closing the roadway to all vehicular traffic and causing an oil spill. The collision occurred at around 10 a.m. local time. Galveston officials said in a news release that there had been no reported injuries. Video footage obtained by CBS affiliate KHOU appears to show that part of the train trestle that runs along the bridge has collapsed. The ship broke loose from its tow and drifted into the bridge, according to Richard Freed, the vice president of Martin Midstream Partners L.P.'s marine division."
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Reader Comments (12)
Equal time for…worms?
I heard a guy from the something, something commission on presidential debates this morning complaining that RFK, Jr. wouldn’t be included in a June debate since he won’t have time to hustle his name onto enough state ballots.
Yeah. One off-his-nut crazy person is enough in a debate about the fate of the nation. Two? That would be abuse. Can you picture the circus that would be? Biden trying to make sense and Trump and Kennedy going full woo-woo crazy.
But here’s my question. If Kennedy gets to be in the debates does the worm get equal time?
Oh yeah, before wrapping up, the debate commission guy made sure to toss out a Both Sides grenade. Addressing the problem of Fatty talking out of turn and yelling at Biden as he was trying to answer a question, the debate guy sez “We fixed that problem in the last debate by installing a mute button so neither of them could talk over the other.”
Yeah. I remember those debates. Only one guy did that: Trump. But let’s make sure to insinuate that Biden “might have” done it.
Always have to do the Möbius strip bendy thing to make sure to blame Biden too so’s we don’t look unfaaaair to poor Donald. So sick of this shit. He’s got everyone shilling for him.
Consequences either way
Romney is still The Rat. Commentators who applaud him as a lifeboat of sanity in the Party of Traitors get it wrong. This latest bullshit about how Biden should have raced to the aid of a traitor, waving a full pardon in his face isn’t evidence of the Rombot’s equanimity, it’s proof of how far into madness that party has descended. A lifeboat with holes in it ain’t worth shit. “C’mon into my lifeboat. I’ll save you all. Pay no attention to those holes. I drilled those to let the water out. Smart, right?”
Yeah. Romney, hearing about the Gnome shooting her dog probably thought, “Gee, she should have just tied that puppy to the roof of her pickup. For life.” Mittens mitt der good ideas.
A few months ago, the ever thoughtful Jill Lepore had a piece in the New Yorker offering a cautionary reminder of the danger of not prosecuting criminal presidents.
Her subject…Jefferson Davis.
“The insurrection at the Capitol cost seven lives. The Civil War cost seven hundred thousand. And yet Jefferson Davis was never held responsible for any of those deaths. His failed conviction leaves no trail. Still, it had consequences. If Davis had been tried and convicted, the cloak of Presidential impunity would be flimsier. Leniency for Davis also bolstered the cause of white supremacy.”
Quite. The longer Justice is delayed, the less chance there is of any Justice at all. The results can trigger very bad outcomes for generations to come.
“In 1865, plenty of Americans wanted Davis tried without delay. A rope-maker from Illinois wrote to Johnson, volunteering to make the rope to hang him. But U.S. Attorney General James Speed, belying his name, wanted to slow things down. [a contemporary Merrick Garland!] Americans were still mourning Lincoln and all that they had lost in the war. Speed, cautious by nature, wanted temperatures to cool. Many feared that bringing Davis to trial risked handing a rather stunning victory to the defeated Confederacy, as the legal historian Cynthia Nicoletti argued in a brilliant and exhaustively researched 2017 book, “Secession on Trial: The Treason Prosecution of Jefferson Davis.” To a charge of treason, Davis was expected to respond that he had forfeited his American citizenship when Mississippi seceded from the United States, and you cannot commit treason against another country. According to Nicoletti, the worry that an acquittal would have established the constitutionality of secession meant that interest in prosecuting Davis simply evaporated. There are other views. ”
And blah, blah, blah.
The same bullshit obtained when Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon. Nixon’s escape from the consequences of his crimes against the country continue to reverberate and can be felt every time some pearl clutcher whines about how awful it would be to put an ex-president on trial. No. It’s awful not to. There are consequences to not putting a criminal president on trial as well.
But you couldn’t tell that to Romney. Still a Rat.
The Family Values Pahty is at it again.
You might think children, especially young girls, being forced to marry a much older man is a bad thing, correct? There oughta be a law, right?
Guess which party doesn’t think so.
Git them young’uns married. Otherwise…ABORTION! Aieee!
Hey! You guessed it. First try.
Yup. If young girls get pregnant, there’s no choice: marry ‘em off.
“A 2021 study by the advocacy group Unchained at Last found that 300,000 minors were married between 2000 and 2018 in the United States. According to the group, 60,000 of those marriages involved an age difference that would have otherwise been considered a sex crime.
The vast majority of these minors were 16 or 17 years old, and most were girls wed to adult men who were four years older than they were, on average. There were five documented instances of children as young as 10 married in the U.S. in the period studied.
Several states legislatures have recently considered bills that would raise the marriage age recently — but they have run into opposition from Republican men who often cite abortion as the reason.”
…as young as 10. Jeeeezus.
Because giving young girls a chance at a better life would be a terrible thing.
But this is the same party that sez no ‘count kids who are in the labor force should not be allowed to have a lunch break. Because Capitalism!
Family values.
Awful Party
"The North Carolina state Senate voted along party lines Wednesday to ban anyone from wearing masks in public, even for health reasons.
Republican supporters of the ban said it would help law enforcement crack down on protesters who wear masks. They say demonstrators are abusing COVID-19 pandemic-era practices to hide their identities following a wave of pro-Palestine protests nationwide and at North Carolina universities.
The bill goes even further and repeals an exception that’s been state law since the early stages of the pandemic that allows people to wear masks in public for health and safety reasons.
Thirty senators voted in favor of House Bill 237, while 15 opposed it and five were absent.
Democrats raised concerns about the bill, particularly for those who are immunocompromised or those who may want to continue to wear masks during cancer treatments, WRAL News reported."
Ouch
"Secretary of State candidate and former House of Delegates member Doug Skaff is hospitalized after being bitten by two copperhead snakes while removing campaign signs.
Skaff, a former minority leader in the House, was defeated in Tuesday’s election in his run for Secretary of State."
Small wins
"Supreme Court Rejects Payday Lender Effort To Gut The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
The justices did not buy the industry’s argument that the consumer financial regulator’s funding mechanism was unconstitutional."
Merrick Garland would not have to worry about ever being prosecuted if they picked someone like him for AG. As it is. If Fatty weasels his way back in, there’ll be an assembly line of kangaroo court revenge prosecutions.
Can we get some of those copperheads and send them to Fatstuff and his dirty hordes? Another thing: Mitt Romney is even flakier than we thought. PARDON the Blimp? Sheesh.
This one is a BFD, to be Bidenesque about it.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/05/16/coal-leasing-powder-river-basin-climate/?
LOL
"Water, water everywhere"
What is the opposite of shocking?
"At Justice Alito’s House, a ‘Stop the Steal’ Symbol on Display
An upside-down flag, adopted by Trump supporters contesting the Biden victory, flew over the justice’s front lawn as the Supreme Court was considering an election case.
After the 2020 presidential election, as some Trump supporters falsely claimed that President Biden had stolen the office, many of them displayed a startling symbol outside their homes, on their cars and in online posts: an upside-down American flag.
One of the homes flying an inverted flag during that time was the residence of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in Alexandria, Va., according to photographs and interviews with neighbors.
The upside-down flag was aloft on Jan. 17, 2021, the images showed."