The Conversation -- May 24, 2024

Karen Yourish & Charlie Smart of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has baselessly and publicly cast doubt about the fairness of the 2024 election about once a day, on average, since he announced his candidacy for president, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Though the tactic is familiar -- Mr. Trump raised the specter of a 'rigged' election in the 2016 and 2020 cycles, too -- his attempts to undermine the 2024 contest are a significant escalation. Mr. Trump's refusal to accept the results of the 2020 election had historic consequences. The so-called 'Big Lie' ... led to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol and two of four criminal indictments against Mr. Trump, as well as his second impeachment. But Mr. Trump had planted seeds of doubt among his followers long before Election Day, essentially setting up a no-lose future for himself: Either he would prevail, or the election would be rigged. He has never given up that framing, which no evidence supports, even well after the end of his presidency. And as he seeks to return to the White House, the same claim has become the backbone of his campaign."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "It cannot be overstated how Trump's deportation plan would surely rank as one of the worst crimes perpetrated by the federal government on the people of this country.... [The plan] begins, as [Stephen] Miller explained ... last year, with creating a national deportation force. Because it would be beyond the capacity of the federal government to immediately return detainees to their 'home' countries, the Trump team also plans to build 'vast holding facilities that would function as staging centers' for immigrants on land near the Texas border. Internment camps, essentially.... On the first day of his second term, the campaign has let it be known, Trump will sign an executive order 'to withhold passports, Social Security numbers and other government benefits from children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States.'"

** Mike Corder of the AP: "The top United Nations court ordered Israel on Friday to immediately halt its military offensive in the southern Gaza city of Rafah -- but stopped short of ordering a cease-fire for the enclave. While Israel is unlikely to comply with the order, it will ratchet up the pressure on the increasingly isolated country. Criticism of Israel's conduct in the war in Gaza has been growing, particularly once it turned its focus to Rafah.... Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is also under heavy pressure at home to end the war, which was triggered when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel, killing 1,200 people, most civilians, and taking some 250 captive. Thousands of Israelis have joined weekly demonstrations calling on the government to reach a deal to bring the hostages home, fearing that time is running out.... The International Court of Justice ... does not have a police force to enforce its orders."

Biden's DOJ authorized use of deadly force against President Trump in the Mar-a-Lago raid. -- Donald Trump, social media post, May 21

A shocking claim -- that President Biden ordered the assassination of his rival -- was allowed to take root on the flimsiest of evidence. The original citation was in a three-month-old filing by Trump's lawyers -- a filing that misleadingly quoted from standard FBI language in search-warrant instructions. As is typical in social media frenzies, quotes were taken out of context without due diligence or actual reporting. Then Trump used the outrage to gin up a fundraising appeal. Ironically, Trump in his effort to win immunity for his actions as president has suggested that ordering the killing of a rival would not be subject to criminal prosecution. -- Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post

This is just a way to turn the creepy immunity argument that a president has the right to order Seal Team Six to kill his political opponent inside out -- the 'I know you are but what am I' tactic they love so much. But it's also dangerous. This ratchets up the lie that Biden is the extremist who threatens democracy and the rule of law but the difference is that MAGA is full of violent, gun toting weirdos who have already shown a willingness to take matters into their own hands. It's as irresponsible as it gets. -- digby, who copied the WashPo's timeline of how the right wing makes up a shocking story (Thanks to RAS for the link.)

Related story re: Merrick Garland linked below.

So here is a bit of Michael Gold's New York Times report on Donald Trump's rally in the Bronx Thursday: "In front of [Trump] was a more diverse crowd than is typical of his rallies, with many Black and Hispanic voters sporting bright red 'Make America Great Again; hats and other Trump-themed apparel ordinarily scarce in deep-blue New York City. Still more people stood outside, waiting to get past security.... As he spoke, more than 100 protesters demonstrated outside the fenced-off area of Crotona Park where he had staged the rally.... As the protesters were demonstrating, the atmosphere became momentarily charged, with Trump supporters and anti-Trump protesters screaming obscenities at one another from across the street. The New York Police Department began separating both sides, lining the streets with metal barricades." Gold had one helper: Jeffery Mays.~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Okay, sounds as if the report could be realistic. Lots of Trump fans, but a smattering of protesters. HOWEVER, this might be a good time to emphasize that the New York Times is in New York City. So is the Bronx. So I do kinda wonder why the Times didn't see this: ~~~

     ~~~ Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Former President Donald Trump repeatedly boasted about the crowd size attending Thursday's political rally in the Bronx, as his custom. However, a local New York evening news report from ABC7's Jim Dolan revealed a different story about how many people attended and who actually made up the crowd.... But b-roll of the event shown to viewers during Dolan's report painted a remarkably different picture than what Trump boasted about regarding crowd size[.] Dolan then pivoted to the home states of the pro-Trump rallygoers in attendance, with the aid of an unnamed professor who said, 'They're all from out of state. Go out there. Look at all them. Call that a pocket check out of where they came from. Tennessee. Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Texas.... It's just not clear that the people who attended were from the Bronx. The campaign controlled who got in, and the campaign ... picked only supporters." ~~~

Image: Donald Trump speaking before a huge crowd in the Bronx on Thursday, like nothing anybody's ever seen.

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Katie Rogers & Zach Montague of the New York Times: Among the guests at the Bidens' state dinner for President William Ruto of Kenya and his wife, Rachel, was Barack Obama, whose father was Kenyan. "... the [guest] list name-checked the people Mr. Biden will want to bring closer into the fold in the months ahead. The lineup included elected officials in several battleground states, influential Black political operatives, and powerful philanthropists, like Melinda French Gates." The story itself name-checks some of the more prominent guests, like Bill & Hillary Clinton and actor-director-producer Sean Penn. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's story is here. AND here's the full guest list, via the New York Times.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden suggested on Thursday that the decision to have Kenya lead a security mission in Haiti, without troops from the United States on the ground, was meant to avoid the fraught history of American intervention in the deeply troubled country. Mr. Biden said the United States would contribute money, logistical support and equipment as Kenya and other nations try to quell the gang violence that erupted there after the assassination of the country's president in 2021. But in response to a question about why American troops will not participate, Mr. Biden alluded to previous U.S. interventions there. 'We concluded that for the United States to deploy forces in the hemisphere just raises all kinds of questions that can be easily misrepresented by what we're trying to do,' he said during a news conference at the White House with President William Ruto of Kenya." (Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: For once, Merrick the Unready is taking a modest piece of my advice: ~~~

~~~ Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "Attorney General Merrick Garland said former President Trump's false claim about the FBI being ready to kill him in their Mar-a-Lago search is 'extremely dangerous' in recent comments. Trump falsely claimed in a fundraising email Wednesday that President Biden was 'locked & loaded and ready to take me out,' another attack about the classified records found at his estate. His email claimed Biden or the Justice Department was 'authorized to shoot' Trump.... 'That allegation is false, and it is extremely dangerous,' Garland said. 'Th document that has been referred to in the allegation is the Justice Department standard policy, limiting the use of force.... As the FBI advises, it is part of the standard operations plan for searches and in fact, it was even used in the consensual search of President Biden's home,' he continued.... Trump was not home when the FBI conducted its Aug. 8, 2022, search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and [the FBI decided to execute the warrant while the Trump family was away] to avoid any potential conflict." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government filed a sweeping antitrust lawsuit Thursday against Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, seeking to break up the conglomerate over allegations that it has amassed and abused unrivaled power in the ticketing and concert industries. The landmark case -- joined by 30 state and district attorneys general -- could dramatically reshape an ecosystem that has long sparked outrage from artists and fans alike, whose frustrations erupted in 2022 when high fees and site outages disrupted early sales for Taylor Swift's 'Eras' tour. Live Nation is an entertainment titan: It is a concert promoter, artist manager, venue owner, and ticket seller and reseller, constituting a sprawling empire that its executives publicly herald as the 'largest live entertainment company in the world.'"

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a bipartisan border enforcement bill for a second time this year, voting down legislation they initially insisted upon to stem a surge of migrants across the United States border with Mexico but then abandoned amid a right-wing backlash cheered on by ... Donald J. Trump. The vote amounted to a political trap laid for Republicans by Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader. He scheduled it in hopes of using the bill's second failure on the floor to highlight an election-year contrast with the G.O.P. on immigration, an issue that polls show is a major potential liability for President Biden and his party. On a vote of 50 to 43, the measure failed to advance after falling well short of the 60 votes needed to move forward in the Senate. Four Democrats, who view the provisions in the border crackdown measures as too extreme, voted with almost all Republicans, who have condemned it as too lax, to block its advancement." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats opened an investigation on Thursday into ... Donald J. Trump's meeting with oil and gas executives last month to determine whether Mr. Trump offered a 'policies-for-money transaction' when he asked for $1 billion for his 2024 campaign so he could retake the White House and delete President Biden's climate regulations. The investigation is the second congressional inquiry into the April 11 fund-raising dinner at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump's private club in Florida. Over a chopped steak dinner, Mr. Trump told about 20 oil and gas executives that they would save far more than $1 billion in avoided taxes and legal fees after he repealed environmental regulations, according to several people who were present and who requested anonymity to discuss a private event.... In letters sent Thursday morning to top executives of eight oil companies and a trade group, the chairmen of two Senate committees, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, sought details of the executives' participation in the meeting and accused them and Mr. Trump of engaging in a quid pro quo." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Dawsey & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "In a rambling fundraising pitch to oil executives in Houston on Wednesday..., Donald Trump promised them he would immediately approve their projects and expand drilling in a second term -- just as he worked to expedite the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines soon after taking office in 2016.... The event, organized by three oil executives, underscores how Trump is courting an industry that ranked as a main beneficiary of his time in the White House, as he seeks to narrow President Biden's fundraising advantage." (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "The House passed legislation on Thursday that would undo a District of Columbia law allowing noncitizens to vote in local elections, part of a broader bid by Republicans to amplify false claims by ... Donald J. Trump of widespread illegal voting by immigrants, a rare occurrence that is already outlawed in federal elections. The bill has virtually no chance of being taken up in the Democratic-led Senate or making it to President Biden's desk to be signed into law. But Republicans have used it, and other legislation aiming to crack down on voting by noncitizens, to stoke distrust in the country's election laws and infrastructure ahead of the general election in November, a key pillar of Mr. Trump's strategy to preemptively accuse Democrats of cheating him out of the presidency." (Also linked yesterday.)

Anemona Hartocollis, et al., of the New York Times: "At the third congressional hearing with college presidents on Thursday, [House] Republicans sharply questioned them about the pro-Palestinian encampments that student protesters have pitched on their campuses and campuses across the country in response to the Israel-Hamas war. But the university leaders seemed to draw lessons from previous hearings, and sought to avoid enraging either the Republicans on the committee or members of their own institutions. They acknowledged some missteps and promised to do more to combat antisemitism, while also pushing back against some of the accusations leveled against them. The result was something of a culture clash, with the Republicans acting like prosecutors, demanding yes or no answers from the witnesses, as they tried to elicit the sort of damaging moment that helped to topple the presidents of Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania....

"While the hearing was taking place, hundreds of students walked out of Harvard University's commencement ceremony in Cambridge, Mass., chanting 'Let them walk!', a reference to 13 student protesters at Harvard who were barred from graduating.... And at U.C.L.A., students set up a new pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus, barricading a patio with umbrellas, tables and crates."

Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A growing number of Democratic lawmakers called for Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. to recuse himself from cases related to Jan. 6, 2021, and demanded new ethics rules for the Supreme Court after revelations that flags carried by rioters at the Capitol were flown outside his homes.... So far, Republicans in Congress have stopped short of joining calls for recusal, though several have said that having the flags up for the public to see demonstrated poor judgment. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana have both questioned the justice's decision making and conceded that the display of the upside-down flag invited scrutiny. And Democrats in Congress have seized on the revelations to drum up support for legislation that would require Supreme Court justices to adopt a binding code of conduct and create a mechanism to investigate possible violations."

Mike Lillis of the Hill: "House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Thursday bashed Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for flying far-right flags associated with the 'Stop the Steal' movement outside two of his homes, demanding that Alito recuse himself from any cases related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Marie: Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) appeared on Lawrence O'Donnell's show Wednesday night and said, "The recusal requirement is a law, passed by Congress, specifically applicable to Supreme Court justices. So when they pay no attention to it, they're actually violating statutory law. This is not one of these rules that the Supreme Court or the judicial branch come up with for themselves....' No, this is the law of the land passed by Congress, and they're just flouting it." This makes me think Merrick the Unready and Chris Wray the Republican should open investigations into Sam Alito and Clarence Thomas to determine whether or not they have broken the law and should be prosecuted. While Sam & Clarence are putting their partisan thumbs on the scale of justice, you DOJ fellas need to get your own thumbs out of places the sun don't shine (she said delicately). (Video also linked yesterday.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court cleared the way on Thursday for South Carolina to keep using a congressional map that a lower court had deemed an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that resulted in the 'bleaching of African American voters' from a district. The vote was 6 to 3, with the court's three liberal members in dissent. A unanimous three-judge panel of the Federal District Court in Columbia, S.C., ruled in early 2023 that the state's First Congressional District, drawn after the 2020 census, violated the Constitution by making race the predominant factor. The panel put its decision on hold while Republican lawmakers appealed to the Supreme Court, and the parties asked the justices to render a decision by Jan. 1. After that deadline passed, the panel said in March that the 2024 election would have to take place under the map it had rejected as unconstitutional.... In effect, the Supreme Court's inaction had decided the case for the current election cycle." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary in yesterday's thread. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here the GOP Court is employing a gimmick it came up with up 2019 when the confederate judges, 5-4, decided that redistricting was a political issue that the judiciary cannot decide. So, even where redistricting amounts to extreme, obvious gerrymandering, that's the prerogative of state legislatures. Now, suppose that gerrymandering happens to discriminate against minorities by giving minorities less chance to select representatives. (or what Elena Kagan in her dissent called "the well-known correlation between race and voting behavior" [p. 70 of the pdf]). Well, it's up to the minorities to prove the intent of the discrimination against them was racist and not, you know, political. In today's ruling, here's the icing on cake: AP: "Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, criticized lower-court judges for their 'misguided approach' that refused to presume that lawmakers acted in good faith and gave too much credit to the challengers." (Emphasis added.) You think Sam is feeling contrite about getting his tit caught twice in the J-6 wringer? Nope, he's giving us all the finger. And so are the other five anti-democracy "justices." They're not even pretending anymore. Instead, they're faulting us for calling them racists when they might be merely your normal, corrupt, power-grasping bullies. (As Kagan writes, "It is not the ordinary thing to agonize so much about giving "offens[e]" to a discriminating State." [p. 78 of the pdf])

     ~~~ Let me just add that Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinions for the two 2019 cases. If the U.S. ever returns to being a liberal democracy, the Roberts Court will go down in history as nearly as bad as the infamous Taney Court. Update: Elie Mystal, on MSNBC, also blamed Roberts for this debacle. And, BTW, Mystal pointed out that in her dissent in the South Carolina case, Kagan alluded to the Alitos' treasonous flag: "But as with its upside-down application of clear-error review, the majority is intent on changing the usual rules when it comes to addressing racial gerrymandering claims." (p. 73 of the pdf; also p. 79, in case Insurrectionist Sam missed it) ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick Marley, et al., of the Washington Post: "The decision marked a victory for Republicans not only because it cleared the way for a map that is favorable to the GOP in a year when control of the narrowly divided U.S. House is on the line. It also set a high bar for determining when a map can be considered a racial gerrymander, rather than a partisan one. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You probably figured out a while back that, oddly enough, Clarence Thomas hates Black people. Need more evidence? ~~~

     ~~~ Russell Contreras of Axios: "Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued a strong rebuke of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling on Thursday, suggesting the court overreached its authority in the landmark decision that banned separating schoolchildren by race.... Thomas attacked the Brown decision in a concurrence opinion that allowed South Carolina to keep using a congressional map that critics say discriminated against Black voters.... The court 'took a boundless view of equitable remedies' in the Brown ruling, wrote Thomas, who in 1991 replaced Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall -- the first Black Supreme Court Justice and the lead lawyer in the Brown case. Those remedies came through 'extravagant uses of judicial power' to end racial segregation in the 1950s and 60s, Thomas wrote.... The U.S. marked the 70th anniversary of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling last week."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "Fani T. Willis, the lead prosecutor in the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump and 14 of his allies, said on Thursday that her office would appeal a judge's decision earlier this year to throw out six of the dozens of counts in the sprawling indictment.... Ms. Willis's decision to file the appeal was yet another indication that the closely watched election interference case was unlikely to go to trial before the upcoming presidential election."

Presidential Race

Praveena Somasundaram & Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump again invoked authoritarian leaders at a rally [in the Bronx] Thursday, a reminder of a vision he has been outlining for a potential second term. Trump referenced Russian President Vladimir Putin, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Chinese leader Xi Jinping and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- authoritarian foreign leaders he has praised numerous times before -- during the campaign stop in the South Bronx. Seeking to contrast them with President Biden, Trump said the leaders were 'at the top of their game, whether you like it or not.' He also said that if he was elected for a second term, he would bring the United States to a position where 'the world is going to respect us again.'"

Guardian: "Donald Trump boasted on Thursday he would quickly free the jailed US journalist Evan Gershkovich from Russia if he wins the presidential election, but Moscow denied discussing the case with the Republican candidate. The former president ... said the Moscow strongman 'will do that for me, but not for anyone else'.... But when asked about the remarks, the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said, 'There aren't any contacts with Donald Trump'.... 'Donald Trump doesn't give a damn about the innocent Americans unjustly imprisoned by Vladimir Putin,' the Biden campaign adviser TJ Ducklo said in an email. 'Trump has called journalists "enemies of the people" and pledged to imprison reporters whose coverage he doesn't like -- not all that dissimilar to what's happening right now to Evan Gershkovich in Russia.'"

New Hampshire. A Costly Stunt. Maegan Vazquez, et al., of the Washington Post: "Steve Kramer, a Democratic operative who admitted to commissioning an artificial intelligence-generated robocall of President Biden that instructed New Hampshire voters to not vote early this year, is now facing criminal charges and federal fines. New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella announced on Thursday that Kramer had been indicted on charges of felony voter suppression and misdemeanor impersonation of a candidate. He faces a total of 26 counts across four counties based on the residences of 13 New Hampshire residents who received the calls. The Federal Communications Commission also announced Thursday that it would propose fining Kramer $6 million for violating the Truth in Caller ID Act. The FCC also proposed a $2 million fine for Lingo Telecom, a carrier that put the AI calls on the line."

Ohio. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio [R] has called a special session of the General Assembly to resolve an issue that the state's top elections official has said would prevent President Biden from being placed on the November ballot there. Frank LaRose, the Republican secretary of state, had previously said that he planned to exclude Mr. Biden from the ballot because he would be officially nominated after a deadline for certifying presidential nominees on the ballot. This is usually a minor procedural issue, and states have almost always offered quick solutions to ensure that major presidential candidates are not excluded. But ... the General Assembly adjourned on Wednesday without a solution in place. Mr. DeWine, who is also a Republican, said in his statement announcing the special session that the legislature had 'failed to take action on this urgent matter,' noting that Ohio had previously passed temporary extensions to its certification deadline for President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney in 2012 and for ... Donald J. Trump in 2020.... Mr. LaRose, who had previously pushed for a legislative fix for the issue, lauded Mr. DeWine's decision...." NBC News' story is here.

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California/Arizona. Alex Tabet of NBC News: "A new measure signed into law Thursday temporarily allows Arizona abortion providers to perform the procedure in neighboring California. California Gov. Gavin Newsom enacted* the bill, which takes effect immediately, in response to a recent Arizona Supreme Court ruling that said a near-total abortion ban from 1864 is enforceable in the state. The law also would allow patients to receive abortion services from their Arizona health care providers in California through Nov. 30." ~~~

     ~~~ * Marie: Of course Newsom did not "enact" the bill. The state legislature appears to have done so, but you wouldn't know it from this report. Legislatures enact bills. Governors sign them. Or not.

Louisiana. Emily Cochrane & Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Louisiana lawmakers passed legislation on Thursday to make the state the first in the nation to designate abortion pills as dangerous controlled substances. Possession of the drugs without a prescription would be a crime punishable with jail time and thousands of dollars in fines. The legislation, which passed the State Senate by a vote of 29 to 7, now goes to Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican who previously defended the state's stringent abortion ban in court as attorney general. He is widely expected to sign it.... Most abortions are banned in the state...." ~~~

     ~~~ Sara Cline of the AP: "Passage of the bill comes as both abortion rights advocates and abortion opponents await a final decision from the U.S. Supreme Court on an effort to restrict access to mifepristone. The justices

Maryland. Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "A former Baltimore city prosecutor who achieved a national profile for charging police officers in a Black man's death was spared prison time in her sentence Thursday for perjury and mortgage fraud. Democratic former State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby's sentence includes 12 months of home confinement, 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release.... Mosby, 44, has maintained her innocence.... Her lawyers said they would appeal her conviction and sentence while they seek a presidential pardon[.]"

Minnesota Senate Race. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Republicans in Minnesota just endorsed Royce White, a former NBA player and pro-Trump conspiracy theorist, for the Senate race against Democratic incumbent Amy Klobuchar.... According to The Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger and Mini Racker, 'At five in the morning one week after Republican Royce White lost his 2022 Minnesota congressional primary, his campaign shelled out more than $1,200 in donor funds to ... an all-nude strip club in Miami, Florida.... That is just one among dozens of outlandish but previously unreported payments that The Daily Beast has identified from White's 2022 Federal Election Commission filings. Several campaign finance experts characterized some of the expenses as potentially illegal spending.... The unusual expenses include a total of more than $100,000 in mysterious wire transfers and checks reported as paid to the campaign; hefty tabs at spicy nightspots; getaways at posh hotels in at least seven states; thousands of dollars in limousine services; unexplained cash withdrawals; eye-popping purchases from electronics, sporting goods, clothing, and musical instrument retailers; and the DribbleUp smart basketball training app that White himself admitted might be personal use.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "... the deep suspicion of government authority that inspired [Royce White] to march in the summer of 2020 [to protest George Floyd's murder has] carried him into [Alex] Jones's paranoid orbit.... 'Women have become too mouthy,' White said on [Steve] Bannon's 'War Room' podcast.... Elsewhere, White denounced the 'Jewish lobby' and the 'Jewish elite' and called Israel 'the linchpin of the new world order.' He described the L.G.B.T.Q. movement as 'Luciferian' and wrote that it's 'the brainchild of radical feminists and their cucked men.'... White's evolution might seem familiar to those who've followed the journeys of onetime progressive icons like Naomi Wolf and Russell Brand into what Naomi Klein called, in her great book 'Doppelganger,' the 'mirror world' of the far right.... White demonstrates how that mirror world is consuming the Republican Party, because on Saturday, delegates at Minnesota's Republican convention voted overwhelmingly to endorse him for Senate."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israeli military said its forces recovered the bodies of three hostages overnight in northern Gaza. It said they were killed and abducted during the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, bringing to seven the number of dead hostages recovered since last week.... The Hostages Families Forum said the recovery of Hanan Yablonka, Michel Nisenbaum and Orion Hernandez Radoux was 'a silent but resolute reminder' that Israel must 'immediately dispatch negotiation teams with a clear demand to bring about a deal that will swiftly return all the hostages home.'... At The Hague, the International Court of Justice will rule Friday on South Africa's request that the court order Israel to cease military operations in Gaza, in particular its offensive in Rafah.... The ICJ said its judgment is expected around 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern time) on Friday." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's live updates for Friday are here. The New York Times' live updates are here.

Comments

[Akhilleus]

So…Uncle Tom criticizes the Brown decision? That was a great decision, momentous. You know what a truly bad decision was? Putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court.

I’m wondering if thin skinned Clarence has gone out of his way to deride “Brown” in order to curry additional favor with his white Nazi billionaire providers, or whether it perhaps was his way of getting back at one of the great jurists in American history, the man most responsible for the decision to end racial segregation in American schools, the Justice he replaced, Thurgood Marshall.

After the extremely close vote to put Uncle Tom on the court, Marshall reportedly described the elevation as going “from chicken salad to chicken shit.”

For my money you can edit out “chicken” in the latter part of that estimation. Thomas has been a despicable disgrace from day one.

The moment he either retires or is impeached can’t come too soon for me. He can go back to Uncle Tom’s Luxury RV and enjoy the sights in whatever Walmart parking lot he and Eva Braun choose.

[ForrestMorris]

Small town politics can sometimes be just as frustrating as national
politics.
The latest from our city council (mostly youngsters) is a debate about
the 4th of July fireworks. One council person says it upsets her dog
so she's against it. Another thinks it could burn the town down. Never
mind the fact that the fireworks take place over the harbor, which is
about the size of 20 football fields.
We've had fireworks here for decades with no problems, except the
time a lady came up behind me and almost pushed me into the lake
with her size 50 you-know-whats.
And the inlaws in Ohio are celebrating like mad with gallons of
koolaid hoping that Biden can't get on the ballot in Ohio. They're
died in the wool Trumpbots and anti anything that normal people
would be for.

[Patrick]

It seems that we hear more frequently, recently, the aphorism that "history doesn't repeat but it rhymes" (Twain? Probably not.) And so. this morning for no particular reason I was reading "The Federalist #1", Publius (Alexander Hamilton), to the citizens of NY (and the ages). Part of the opening paragraph rhymes like "The Name Game."

" ... you are called upon to deliberate on a new Constitution for the United States of America. The subject speaks its own importance; comprehending in its consequences nothing less than the existence of the UNION, the safety and welfare of the parts of which it is composed, the fate of an empire in many respects the most interesting in the world. It has been frequently remarked that it seems to have been reserved to the people of this country, by their conduct and example, to decide the important question, whether societies of men are really capable or not of establishing good government from reflection and choice, or whether they are forever destined to depend for their political constitutions on accident and force. If there be any truth in the remark, the crisis at which we are arrived may with propriety be regarded as the era in which that decision is to be made; and a wrong election of the part we shall act may, in this view, deserve to be considered as the general misfortune of mankind. ..."

Substitute "election" for "new Constitution", and you can dance to it.

[RAS]

Trump's Bronx rally

[RAS]

Haley endorsement

Clearance Thomas

[RAS]

Watching the fake news spread

[RAS]

Do you think all the we should believe the racist liars when they are obviously lying to us may be a little projection on Alito's part. It is the only way anyone would believe the bullshit excuses for his terrible behavior and also his worthless, but powerful legal opinions.

[Ken Winkes]

The fundamental problem with the neat distinction the SCOTUS made between political and racist gerrymandering is that one of our POLITICAL parties attracts and welcomes RACISTS, so that in a state legislature controlled by that party, politics and racism are one and the same.

In other words, the distinction is so dumb it doesn't even sound good.

Again, so much for education. As I said yesterday, blame it on the schools.

[Ken Winkes]

The phrase that escaped me:

RACE versus POLITICS is in this case a distinction without a difference.

[RAS]

"Congressional Black Caucus condemns Speaker Johnson’s treatment of Kenya’s president

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) shared a post online Wednesday condemning Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for refusing to host Kenyan President William Ruto for a joint meeting of Congress, which is typically extended to other international leaders."

[pat]

https://wapo.st/3Vca77J
“Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Ron DeSantis, Florida continues to be the freest state in the nation.”

How do you say this with a straight face? This is in regard to his denying any other than red-white-blue lights to highlight bridges, where previously they would light up with rainbow colors, and other colors to celebrate various dates throughout the year.

[Ken Winkes]

Per the Pretender campaign, "Trump will sign an executive order 'to withhold passports, Social Security numbers and other government benefits from children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States."

So much for birthright citizenship.