The Conversation -- September 24, 2023

Ashley Strickland of CNN: "Seven years after launching to space, the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft flew by Earth Sunday to deliver a pristine sample collected from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. It's NASA's first time returning an asteroid sample from space.... OSIRIS-REx, which stands for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer, lifted off in 2016 and began orbiting Bennu in 2018. The spacecraft collected the sample in 2020 and set off on its lengthy return trip to Earth in May 2021.... NASA is providing a livestream of the delivery." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The plan was for OSIRIS to return to earth in December 2020, but NASA scientists were afraid Trump would confiscate the asteroid sample, dump it in a file box and store it in a bathroom at Mar-a-Lardo alongside a pair of his golf shoes and a classified file of naughty photos of Boris Johnson.

~~~~~~~~~~

AP: "President Joe Biden has gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine and annual flu shot, the White House said Saturday. The White House physician, Dr. Kevin O'Connor, said in a memo that Biden received both shots on Friday. O'Connor said Biden, 80, also was vaccinated several weeks ago against the respiratory illness known as RSV.... Experts worry that immunity from previous vaccinations and infections is fading in many people, and a new shot would save many lives."

Julian Barnes & Ian Austen of the New York Times: "American spy agencies provided information to Ottawa after the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in the Vancouver area, but Canada developed the most definitive intelligence that led it to accuse India of orchestrating the plot, according to Western allied officials. In the aftermath of the killing, U.S. intelligence agencies offered their Canadian counterparts context that helped Canada conclude that India had been involved. Yet what appears to be the 'smoking gun,' intercepted communications of Indian diplomats in Canada indicating involvement in the plot, was gathered by Canadian officials, allied officials said. While Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken has called on India to cooperate with the Canadian investigation, American officials have largely tried to avoid triggering any diplomatic blowback from India. But the disclosure of the involvement of U.S. intelligence risks ensnaring Washington in the diplomatic battle between Canada and India at a time when it is keen to develop New Delhi as a closer partner."

Haley Talbot & Kristen Wilson of CNN: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said Saturday he still lacks support from a handful of GOP hardliners to put a Republican stopgap measure on the floor next week, making a government shutdown likely with just one week until the deadline.... 'I think when it gets to crunch time, people ... that have been holding off all this time, blaming everybody else, will finally hopefully move off because shutting down and having border agents not be paid, your Coast Guard not get paid; I don't see how that's a victory,' he said." MB: Yeah, Kev, I'm pretty sure Matt Gaetz will get to reasonable for the first time in his life. ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "Speaker Kevin McCarthy is backtracking on his plan to remove Ukraine aid from a massive military spending bill as Republicans scramble to find a way forward on funding the government. The California Republican's U-turn comes a day after he told reporters he would remove the roughly $300 million from the Pentagon bill and give it a separate vote as he faced GOP pushback on its inclusion.... The decision injects fresh doubt into whether the Pentagon spending bill will come up for debate at all after failing twice in recent weeks. 'It became too difficult to do that, so we're leaving it in,' McCarthy told reporters about the Ukraine funds." MB: Maybe the cut-and-paste function doesn't work on the House's computer software. And maybe that's a good thing. ~~~

~~~ Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "With a disruptive government shutdown just days away, Washington is in the grip of an ultraconservative minority that sees the federal government as a threat to the republic, a dangerous monolith to be broken apart with little regard for the consequences. They have styled themselves as a wrecking crew aimed at the nation's institutions on a variety of fronts. They are eager to impeach the president and even oust their own speaker if he doesn't accede to their every demand. They have refused to allow their own party to debate a Pentagon spending bill or approve routine military promotions -- a striking posture given that unflinching support for the armed forces has long been a bedrock of Republican orthodoxy. Defying the G.O.P.'s longstanding reputation as the party of law and order, they have pledged to handcuff the F.B.I. and throttle the Justice Department. Members of the party of Ronald Reagan refused to meet with a wartime ally, President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, this week when he visited the Capitol and want to eliminate assistance to his country, a democratic nation under siege from an autocratic aggressor. And they are unbowed by guardrails that in past decades forced consensus even in the most extreme of conflicts...."

Nicole Hong of the New York Times: "The 39-page indictment [against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.), his wife and three others] -- which laid out in painstaking detail a series of deleted text messages, encrypted phone calls and shell company payments -- painted a portrait of a couple motivated by relentless greed. Ms. Menendez, 56, often pestered her associates for more bribe payments, prosecutors said, and did not hesitate to peacock her husband's influence, once sending a news article to Mr. Hana about $2.5 billion of military sales to Egypt and writing, 'Bob had to sign off on this.' The business associates around [Wael] Hana [an Egyptian-American businessman and long-time friend of Mrs. M. --] seemed to find more and more ways to extract what they needed from Mr. Menendez, as long as they could deliver the cash.... An F.B.I. search last year of the couple's New Jersey home revealed some of the fruits of their scheme, prosecutors said. Federal agents found more than $480,000 in cash stuffed throughout the house in envelopes and in the pockets of jackets that were embroidered with the senator's name. Inside the home were more than $100,000 worth of gold bars, some of which had unique serial numbers that traced back to Mr. Hana. A shiny Mercedes-Benz convertible sat in the garage." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And may I add here that the lovely Mrs. M. is a flagrant body-boaster. In the photo accompanying the NYT story, she is wearing a short-skirted, low-neckline dress with tassels hanging from where a younger woman's nipples would be. The photo suggests a White House setting. I've seen other photos of her wearing similar low-cut dresses and short skirts. Oh, and she's a badly-bleached blonde. Totally tacky. ~~~

     ~~~ A Washington Post story, by Isaac Stanley-Becker, lays out some of the same details of the (alleged!) crimes the couple and their associates committed. ~~~

     ~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post is not amused: "The presumption of innocence does not mandate the willing suspension of disbelief.... The Menendez indictment ... is jaw-dropping." Marcus does remind us that, thanks to the Supremes, it's no longer easy to make a bribery case, but the prosecutors here seem to have the goods on Menendez crime family. ~~~

~~~ Senate Race 2024. Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Rep. Andy Kim of New Jersey announced on Saturday that he will run against Sen. Robert Menendez in the state's Democratic primary for Senate next year, saying he feels compelled to run against the three-term senator after he and his wife were indicted on sweeping corruption charges. Kim's surprise announcement came as a growing number of Democrats are calling for Menendez to step down. Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman became the first Democratic senator to do so, and several members of New Jersey's congressional delegation, along with the state's Democratic governor, have said he should resign."

When the Apology Is Worse than the Offense. David Brooks makes a piss-poor "apology" when asked by guest-host William Brangham during Friday's "PBS Newshour" about that $78 tab for a boozy airport meal. Brooks does say, "I made a mistake. It was stupid." But what was stupid, according to Brooks, is that he was insensitive to the little people "who are less fortunate than I am...." He never mentions the three double bourbons that prove the lie of his fake inflation thesis. He is sorry for tweeting, but he doesn't let on that he was likely drunk-tweeting. And he isn't sorry at all for being a supercilious snob. In fact, the point of his "apology" seems to be that he's richer than you are. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

News Lede

AP: "Tropical Storm Ophelia was downgraded to a post-tropical low on Saturday night but continued to pose a threat of coastal flooding and flash floods in the mid-Atlantic region, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said. Residents in parts of coastal North Carolina and Virginia experienced flooding Saturday after the storm made landfall near a North Carolina barrier island, bringing rain, damaging winds and dangerous surges."

The Conversation -- September 23, 2023

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The [Justice D]epartment's aggressive pursuit of [Sen. Robert] Menendez [D-N.J.] appeared to undercut claims that [Donald] Trump is the victim of pervasive political bias that targets leaders on the right while shielding transgressors on the left.... Barbara Comstock, a former Republican congresswoman from Virginia, said recent indictments showed the department was functioning as it should. 'The department goes where the facts lead them," she wrote on X-...Twitter. 'Trump, Hunter Biden, Menendez now. That's how it's supposed to work.'... Shortly after the charges were announced, Mr. Menendez issued a blistering one-page-long denial that was not unlike the vehement pushback by Mr. Trump and his supporters in response to his multiple criminal indictments." ~~~

~~~ Matt Friedman of Politico: "Democrats figured there would be new developments in the Bob Menendez investigation, but the charges are far more serious than any of them anticipated.... The statements late Friday afternoon [from New Jersey Democrats urging Sen. Bob Menendez (D) to resign] came after a meeting in Newark between [Gov. Phil] Murphy [D] and a small group of high-ranking Democratic leaders.... The allegations involving Egyptian arms sales and the passing on of sensitive information to foreign sources in particular caught them off guard and have left them privately frustrated that a senator who already imperiled a safe seat in 2018 over corruption allegations would now put them in an even worse position.... The Democrats' response starkly contrasts with the unified front of support last time Menendez was indicted." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Gov. Murphy's statement. ~~~

~~~ ** Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has been charged in a sweeping federal corruption indictment, the authorities said on Friday. The three-count indictment, which also charges the senator's wife and three New Jersey businessmen, accuses him of using his official position in a wide range of corrupt schemes at home and abroad. In one, he sought to benefit the government of Egypt, including secretly providing it with sensitive U.S. government information, while in two others, he aimed to influence criminal investigations of two New Jersey businessmen, one of whom was a longtime fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez.... In exchange for all those actions, the indictment said, the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes, including cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, a luxury vehicle and other valuable things....

"The businessmen named in the indictment, which was unsealed in Manhattan federal court, are Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer and fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez; Wael Hana, a longtime friend of Ms. Menendez's who founded a halal meat certification business and Jose Uribe, who works in the trucking and insurance business.... The 39-page indictment charges the senator, his wife and the businessmen with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. It also charges Mr. Menendez and his wife with conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of official right, meaning using his official position to force someone to give them something of value." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

The story has been updated to add: "Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey, a close Democratic ally, called on Mr. Menendez to resign, an admonition that unleashed a torrent of similar messages from political leaders throughout the state. Mr. Menendez gave no indication that he would heed them. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he said in a statement Friday evening. Mr. Menendez did send a letter to Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate majority leader, informing him that he was stepping down as chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, as required by rules the Senate Democrats adopted to govern themselves."

     ~~~ Erica Orden & Matt Friedman of Politico: "During a search of the Menendezes' New Jersey home in June 2022, federal agents probing the alleged scheme found 'over $480,000 in cash -- much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe' along with $70,000 in Nadine Menendez's safe-deposit box, the indictment says.... Menendez has survived two previous federal investigations." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ The indictment, via Politico, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Congrats to Bob Menendez for extending & enhancing New Jersey's long tradition of (allegedly!) crooked Democratic pols! And he made it a family affair. Lovely. Which brings us to ~~~

~~~ Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "James E. McGreevey, a former [Democratic] New Jersey governor who resigned two decades ago in scandal..., is making plans to do what he had said he would not: re-enter politics. Over the past several months, Mr. McGreevey has begun cobbling together support for an expected run for mayor of Jersey City, the state's second-largest city, where he has lived for eight years.... He expects to make a final decision before Thanksgiving.... The current mayor, Steven Fulop, who is running for governor, does not intend to run for re-election. But the contest is not until November 2025...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Thankfully, Clarence Thomas continues to do his bit for (alleged!) GOP corruption: ~~~

     ~~~ ** Joshua Kaplan, et al., of ProPublica: "On Jan. 25, 2018..., some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising lay ahead. Just after 6 p.m., a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network's most powerful allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.... The justice was brought in to speak, staffers said, in the hopes that such access would encourage donors to continue giving. That puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term. Thomas never reported the 2018 flight to Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form, an apparent violation of federal law requiring justices to report most gifts....

"Thomas' involvement in the events is part of a yearslong, personal relationship with the Koch brothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the Bohemian Grove, a secretive all-men's retreat in Northern California. Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for two decades, where he stayed in a small camp with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow and the Kochs, according to records and people who've spent time with him there.... The dinners' purpose was 'giving donors access and giving them a reason to come or to continue to come in the future,' a former Koch network executive told ProPublica.... Thomas' appearances were arranged with the help of Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society leader, according to the former senior network employee." Thanks to RAS for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I gather that Thomas did not report on his financial statements the gifts of travel and hospitality he received on the 2018 bucolic retreat/fundraiser and on other all-male (good grief!) Koch vacay ventures. Apparently, Clarence thinks the Supreme Court "ethics rules" require a justice to report only gifts he and his spouse have been caught accepting. The fact that he didn't report these Koch jaunts on the "amended report" he was forced to file this year is telling. And damning. ~~~

    ~~~ Paul Campos in LG&$: "... this increasingly absurd situation is just illustrative of the accelerating pace at which the anti-democratic features of the American constitutional system are becoming more and more self-evident. Lifetime tenure for unelected judges, appointed by a radically unrepresentative Senate, after being nominated by a president who lost the election -- in the sense of the definition of losing usually employed in democratic nations, i.e., getting less votes than your opponent -- mixes especially poorly with practically open New Gilded Age bribery of the Koch persuasion. There are mornings when I sincerely wonder how much longer this train can stay on the track, or even if it should."

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Elena Kagan said on Friday ... [during] a wide-ranging live-streamed public interview [link fixed]at Notre Dame Law School ... that the Supreme Court should adopt a code of ethics.... Justice Kagan did not discuss the [ProPublica] report [linked above], = but she said that an ethics code 'would, I think, go far in persuading other people that we were adhering to the highest standards of conduct.' She added that 'I hope we can make progress.' G. Marcus Cole, the law school's dean, asked her to identify the holdout among the justices. She refused, saying the justices' deliberations are private." Read on. Cole asked Kagan some good questions; her answers, not surprisingly, were fairly oblique. CNN's report is here.

Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday announced a new office dedicated to gun violence prevention, his latest effort to combat a growing national crisis through executive action instead of the more sweeping reforms that would require congressional approval. The office will be led by Vice President Kamala Harris, who pursued gun safety measures when she was California's top prosecutor. Its focus will be on helping the administration coordinate gun policy and pressing congressional leaders to act on the issue. 'We all want our kids to have the freedom to learn how to read and write instead of duck and cover, for God's sake,' Mr. Biden said during remarks in the Rose Garden, where survivors of school shootings were among the hundreds of attendees." Politico's story is here.

Reid Epstein, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden announced that he would travel to Michigan on Tuesday to 'join the picket line' with members of the United Automobile Workers who are on strike against the nation's leading automakers, in one of the most significant displays of presidential support for striking workers in decades.... The trip is set to come a day before Mr. Biden's leading rival in the 2024 campaign, Donald J. Trump, has planned his own speech in Michigan, and was announced hours after Shawn Fain, the union's president, escalated pressure on the White House with a public invitation to Mr. Biden." ~~~

     ~~~ Ali Velshi of MSNBC noted Friday night that this is the first time in U.S. history that a sitting POTUS would join a picket line. ~~~

~~~ Ellen Francis of the Washington Post: "The United Auto Workers (UAW) union has filed a labor complaint against Republican presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) after he suggested that workers who join a strike against the nation's three biggest carmakers should be fired. UAW President Shawn Fain reported Scott to the National Labor Relations Board after the senator criticized the strike against the Big Three automakers at a Monday campaign event, praising former president Ronald Reagan's response to federal air traffic controller strikes.The form filed Thursday against Scott, who has condemned the UAW more forcefully than other Republican candidates, alleges he violated the rights of his own employees by threatening the right to strike. A day after the complaint, Scott doubled down on his position, accusing unions of not representing workers' interests and tweeting that UAW 'want to threaten me & shut me up. They don't scare me.'... UAW members ... are legally protected from being fired for striking...." ~~~

~~~ Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers union on Friday significantly raised the pressure on General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Ram, by expanding its strike against the companies to include all the spare parts distribution centers of the two companies. Shawn Fain, the union's president, said Friday that workers at 38 distribution centers, which provide parts to dealerships for repairs, at the two companies would walk off the job at noon. He said talks with two companies had not progressed significantly, contrasting them with Ford Motor, which he said had done more to meet the union's demands.... The union said it was not striking more facilities at Ford because of the gains it had achieved in talks with that company, including on cost-of-living adjustments, the right to strike if the company decides to close plants and two years of pay and health care benefits for workers who are laid off indefinitely.... Mr. Fain also invited President Biden to join workers on the picket line." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Rothfeld of the New York Times: "A former top F.B.I. spy hunter pleaded guilty on Friday in Federal District Court in Washington to concealing payments he received from an Albanian-born businessman -- a former intelligence agent he had helped in business dealings overseas. The official, Charles F. McGonigal, the F.B.I.'s former director of counterintelligence in New York, had been the bureau's highest-ranking official to be accused of corruption in recent years. His plea marked the second time in as many months that Mr. McGonigal admitted to criminal wrongdoing. On Aug. 15, he pleaded guilty in federal court in New York to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions and to laundering payments from a prominent Russian oligarch, Oleg V. Deripaska."

Kim Bellware & Kyle Rempfer of the Washington Post: "In the strange saga of the downed, and briefly missing, military F-35 jet, the 911 call received after the pilot ejected into a suburban Charleston, S.C., family's backyard is fittingly as bizarre as the incident. 'I guess we got a pilot at our house and he says he got ejected. He ejected from a plane,' the resident says as he requests an ambulance, according to a recording of the call from Charleston County.... As the call continues, the 47-year-old pilot jumps on the line to explain he ejected from a military plane and parachuted 2,000 feet to the unidentified family's backyard in North Charleston.... The Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II jet, which has a current cost of $145 million, continued flying away from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., on Sunday afternoon after the pilot safely ejected. Investigators soon enlisted the public's help to find where the costly jet might have crashed before eventually locating a debris field Monday evening in Williamsburg County.... 'Normally, when a pilot ejects from an aircraft, the aircraft crashes really close to where the pilot lands,' [former Marine captain Dan] Grazier told The Post. 'So why did the pilot eject from an aircraft that flew for another 60 miles?...'" Included redacted audio of the 911 call.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "The judge overseeing New York Attorney General Letitia James's $250 million business fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, on Friday became visibly annoyed with defense lawyers for what he called false statements and previously used arguments.... 'You cannot make false statements used in business, [New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur] Engoron told Christopher Kise, banging his fist on his bench and raising his voice. 'That's what this statute prohibits, and that's what's alleged here.'... One of [the Trump lawyers'] arguments was that James (D), the top legal authority in the state, does not have standing to sue. 'When I first heard those arguments I thought it was a joke,' Engoron [said]...." MB: The upside for Trump is that this a civil case, so it won't put him in jail if he loses.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Special counsel Jack Smith has added a veteran war crimes prosecutor -- who served as Smith's deputy during his stint at the Hague -- to his team as it prepares to put ... Donald Trump on trial in Washington and Florida. Alex Whiting worked alongside Smith for three years, helping prosecute crimes against humanity that occurred in Kosovo in the late 1990s.... He also spent seven years prosecuting organized crime in Boston for the Justice Department from 1995 to 2002.... Whiting's precise role on Smith's team is unclear.... But a Politico reporter observed Whiting at the U.S. district courthouse in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday and Thursday, spending several hours monitoring the trial of a Jan. 6 defendant. The judge in the case is Tanya Chutkan.... During a break..., Whiting introduced himself to prosecutors as a new member of Smith's team, saying he 'just joined' the office."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: War crimes and organized crimes? Sounds like the right experience for a Trump prosecution.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times cites numerous examples of Donald Trump's being and boasting that he was the "abortion president*. Then: "Whether or not Trump is personally opposed to abortion is immaterial. The truth, established by his record as president, is that he is as committed to outlawing abortion in the United States as any other conservative Republican. There is no reason, then, to take seriously his remarks on Sunday, in an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press,' where he criticized strict abortion bans and tried to distance himself from the anti-abortion policies of his rivals for the Republican presidential nomination.... Trump is triangulating. He sees, correctly, that the Republican Party is now on the wrong side of the public on abortion. By rejecting a blanket ban and making a call for compromise with Democrats, Trump is trying to fashion himself as an abortion moderate, a strategy that also rests on his pre-political persona as a liberal New Yorker with a live-and-let-live attitude toward personal behavior.... There's a ... [great] chance that this gambit falls flat."

This meal just cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/1qeV9qOBL3

— David Brooks (@nytdavidbrooks) September 21, 2023

~~~ Wherein Our Miss Brooks Got Tipsy at Newark Airport. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Unfortunately for [David] Brooks, a conservative [New York Times columnist] whose books include The Road to Character and The Second Mountain: The Quest for a Moral Life, large numbers of his followers on X[...Twitter, decided to look into his complaint.... Kurt Eichenwald..., reporter for the Conversation, wrote: 'That same meal at Newark airport cost me just over $17 (Smokehouse Restaurant, right?).['] Jacob Bacharach, a novelist and critic, wrote: 'A typical airport burger and fries is in the $18 range; a typical double .. whiskey rocks is in the $20 range. Solve for x: 18+20x=78.'" [MB: So three double whiskeys.]... [Comedian Jay] Black said: '... My family has had to cut back to only eating at airport restaurants four nights a week. THANKS JOE BIDEN!'" Thanks to Monoloco for the link. ~~~

This meal cost me $78 at Newark Airport. This is why Americans think the economy is terrible. pic.twitter.com/UoR6WnoQcl

— derek guy (@dieworkwear) September 21, 2023

     ~~~ Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "The restaurant [-- the 1911 Smoke House Barbeque] ... has also made a new meal available to customers: the 'D Brooks Special.' Instead of paying $78, customers can get a burger, fries and a double shot of whiskey for $17.78..., [which] will be available at [the restaurant's] Trenton location.... 'There's a lot I'd love to say, but I will leave it with no comment -- and please continue to support small business, especially small Black businesses,' [restaurant owner Michael Hallett] said." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: On a more serious note, there is scarcely anyone better at deflecting blame for various right-wing excesses & failures than David Brooks. He's a masterful dissembler, an expert at twisting, exaggerating or disguising the facts. The airport tweet is a too-perfect example: the photo he provided as "evidence" is misleading: he asserts the photo includes everything in the $78 order. But someone quickly realized that the bill did not cover just the one drink in the photo but three drinks. Maybe Brooks was angry he had to wait a while for his plane, maybe he was a little drunk, maybe he was pissed the restaurant makes so much money pouring liquid & ice into a glass, maybe his wife (whom he met when she assisted him in writing that Road to Character book) has been complaining he drinks too much. Whatever. But instead of directing his anger at its source, he conjures up a scapegoat: the "terrible economy" that liberals are overseeing. Oh, and never mind that the economy isn't terrible, and restaurant drinks have been overpriced for as long as anyone alive can recall.

~~~~~~~~~~

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Mayor Eric Johnson of Dallas announced on Friday that he had switched his party affiliation to become a Republican, saying that leaders in the Democratic Party had focused on 'virtue signaling' and had not done enough to help residents of the nation's cities. The decision was surprising for its timing: Mr. Johnson was re-elected to a second term last year after running unopposed, and cannot run for a third. But the move appeared in line with how he had increasingly been positioning himself politically: At his second inauguration, Mr. Johnson was joined by Texas's two Republican U.S. senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn. Technically, the position of mayor in Texas is nonpartisan. But Mr. Johnson served in the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat before he ran for mayor, and was long aligned with the party's moderate wing." The Texas Tribune's story is here.

News Ledes

Weather Channel: Hurricane "Ophelia is headed into North Carolina, then the mid-Atlantic states, spreading heavy rain, strong wind gusts, high surf, and coastal flooding up the Eastern Seaboard into the weekend." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Weather Channel: "Tropical Storm Ophelia is spreading heavy rain, strong wind gusts, high surf, and coastal flooding along the Eastern Seaboard this weekend. T​he storm made landfall at about 6:15 a.m. EDT near Emerald Isle, North Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center. At landfall, Ophelia had maximum sustained winds of 70 mph, just shy of hurricane strength." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating developments.

The Conversation -- September 22, 2023

** Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, the chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, has been charged in a sweeping federal corruption indictment, the authorities said on Friday. The three-count indictment, which also charges the senator's wife and three New Jersey businessmen, accuses him of using his official position in a wide range of corrupt schemes at home and abroad. In one, he sought to benefit the government of Egypt, including secretly providing it with sensitive U.S. government information, while in two others, he aimed to influence criminal investigations of two New Jersey businessmen, one of whom was a longtime fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez.... In exchange for all those actions, the indictment said, the senator and his wife, Nadine Menendez, accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of bribes, including cash, gold bars, payments toward a home mortgage, a luxury vehicle and other valuable things....

"The businessmen named in the indictment, which was unsealed in Manhattan federal court, are Fred Daibes, a prominent New Jersey real estate developer and fund-raiser for Mr. Menendez; Wael Hana, a longtime friend of Ms. Menendez's who founded a halal meat certification business and Jose Uribe, who works in the trucking and insurance business.... The 39-page indictment charges the senator, his wife and the businessmen with conspiracy to commit bribery and conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud. It also charges Mr. Menendez and his wife with conspiracy to commit extortion under the color of official right, meaning using his official position to force someone to give them something of value." ~~~

     ~~~ Erica Orden & Matt Friedman of Politico: "During a search of the Menendezes' New Jersey home in June 2022, federal agents probing the alleged scheme found 'over $480,000 in cash -- much of it stuffed into envelopes and hidden in clothing, closets, and a safe' along with $70,000 in Nadine Menendez's safe-deposit box, the indictment says.... Menendez has survived two previous federal investigations."

     ~~~ The indictment, via Politico, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Congrats to Bob Menendez for extending & enhancing New Jersey's long tradition of (allegedly!) crooked Democratic pols! And he made it a family affair. Lovely. Which brings us to ~~~

~~~ Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "James E. McGreevey, a former [Democratic] New Jersey governor who resigned two decades ago in scandal..., is making plans to do what he had said he would not: re-enter politics. Over the past several months, Mr. McGreevey has begun cobbling together support for an expected run for mayor of Jersey City, the state's second-largest city, where he has lived for eight years.... He expects to make a final decision before Thanksgiving.... The current mayor, Steven Fulop, who is running for governor, does not intend to run for re-election. But the contest is not until November 2025...."

Thankfully, Clarence Thomas continues to do his bit for (alleged!) GOP corruption: ~~~

     ~~~ Joshua Kaplan, et al., of ProPublica: "On Jan. 25, 2018..., some of the richest people in the country were arriving for the annual winter donor summit of the Koch network, the political organization founded by libertarian billionaires Charles and David Koch. A long weekend of strategizing, relaxation in the California sun and high-dollar fundraising lay ahead. Just after 6 p.m., a Gulfstream G200 jet touched down on the tarmac. One of the Koch network's most powerful allies was on board: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.... The justice was brought in to speak, staffers said, in the hopes that such access would encourage donors to continue giving. That puts Thomas in the extraordinary position of having served as a fundraising draw for a network that has brought cases before the Supreme Court, including one of the most closely watched of the upcoming term. Thomas never reported the 2018 flight to Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form, an apparent violation of federal law requiring justices to report most gifts....

"Thomas' involvement in the events is part of a yearslong, personal relationship with the Koch brothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the Bohemian Grove, a secretive all-men's retreat in Northern California. Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for two decades, where he stayed in a small camp with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow and the Kochs, according to records and people who've spent time with him there.... The dinners' purpose was 'giving donors access and giving them a reason to come or to continue to come in the future,' a former Koch network executive told ProPublica." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "The United Automobile Workers union on Friday significantly raised the pressure on General Motors and Stellantis, the parent of Jeep and Ram, by expanding its strike against the companies to include all the spare parts distribution centers of the two companies. Shawn Fain, the union's president, said Friday that workers at 38 distribution centers, which provide parts to dealerships for repairs, at the two companies would walk off the job at noon. He said talks with two companies had not progressed significantly, contrasting them with Ford Motor, which he said had done more to meet the union's demands.... The union said it was not striking more facilities at Ford because of the gains it had achieved in talks with that company, including on cost-of-living adjustments, the right to strike if the company decides to close plants and two years of pay and health care benefits for workers who are laid off indefinitely.... Mr. Fain also invited President Biden to join workers on the picket line."

~~~~~~~~~~

Groundhog Day All Over Again. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Right-wing House Republicans dealt another stunning rebuke to Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday morning, blocking a Pentagon funding bill for the second time this week in a vivid display of G.O.P. disunity on federal spending that threatens to lead to a government shutdown in nine days. Just hours after Mr. McCarthy signaled he had won over some of the holdouts and was ready to move forward, a handful of Republicans broke with their party to oppose the routine measure that would allow the military appropriations bill to come to the House floor for debate, joining with Democrats to defeat it. It was a major black eye for Mr. McCarthy, who has on multiple occasions admonished his members in private for taking the rare step of bringing down such votes, known as rules, proposed by their own party -- a previously unheard-of tactic.... 'This is a whole new concept of individuals that just want to burn the whole place down,' Mr. McCarthy said on Thursday." The NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yo, Kevin, "burning the whole place down" has been a GOP tactic at least since the Gingrich era, and you've lit a few matches yourself. So don't act all shocked when the mob nails you to the stake. ~~~

     ~~~ House Nihilists Take a Long Weekend. Here's an update to the NYT story: "By Thursday afternoon, lawmakers were flying home for the weekend, scrapping plans to stay in session to pass spending legislation after a week in which they were unable to make any progress toward resolving their impasse." ~~~

     ~~~ The NBC News story linked above, by Scott Wong & others:, "'We are very dysfunctional right now,' Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said, adding that the failure proves that GOP leaders 'obviously can't count' votes, unlike Democrats.... 'Speaker Pelosi, love her or hate her, she put something out there and they'd rally around it.'... Moderate Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., who faces a tough re-election bid next year, has described the GOP dysfunction as a 'clown show' and warned that pragmatists would work with Democrats to keep the government funded. 'For my colleagues, they have to come to a realization: If they are unable or unwilling to govern, others will. And in a divided government where you have Democrats controlling the Senate, a Democrat controlling the White House, there needs to be a realization that you're not going to get everything you want,' he said. 'And just throwing a temper tantrum and stomping your feet, frankly not only is it wrong -- it's pathetic,' he added." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In fairness to House Republicans, they need to go home to boast to constituents that they're showing their unwavering support for the Great Pretender. Reuters: "... Donald Trump has urged fellow Republicans in Congress to shut down the government to thwart the federal prosecutions against him, although any funding lapse was unlikely to stop the cases from being pursued.... 'Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden's weaponized Government,' Trump wrote on his Truth Social media site late on Wednesday, calling it 'the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots.' The U.S. Justice Department has previously said activities funded by 'permanent indefinite appropriations" would continue during any funding lapse." ~~~

     ~~~ MEANWHILE, a Tweet of His Own. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "President Joe Biden ... fired off a tweet reminding lawmakers that the last shutdown led to some 800,000 government workers ― more than a third of the federal workforce ― being furloughed without pay. 'But enjoy your weekend,' he added sarcastically[.]... The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the 35-day shutdown in 2018-2019 cost the economy about $3 billion, according to Reuters." MB: The 2018-2019 shutdown was a wholly owned-and-operated GOP production: Donald Trump was president*, and Republicans controlled (well, maybe "controlled" isn't the best word here) both the Senate and House. ~~~

     ~~~ Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "White House officials have begun preparing for a government shutdown that they are confident the public will blame on the GOP.... With less than two weeks until federal funding lapses, Biden aides are in communication with congressional leaders in the House and Senate about the best path forward to extend the Sept. 30 deadline. But congressional aides and experts on both sides of the aisle say a shutdown is likely to redound to the White House's political benefit, particularly as the GOP House is consumed in a fierce internal battle. The result is that while Biden aides do not want the government to close down, the White House isn't working as urgently to avert one as it did earlier this year to head off a breach of the U.S. debt ceiling." ~~~

     ~~~ AND. Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "... Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Thursday set up a path for the Senate to move first on a bill to fund the government beyond Sept. 30. Schumer filed cloture on a motion to proceed to H.R. 3935, the House-passed bill to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which could serve as a legislative vehicle to pass a continuing resolution to fund government through the Senate.... Traditionally, the House moves first on spending and revenue bills but senators feel they must make the first move to keep the government funded because Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has not been able to round up 218 Republican votes in the House to move a stopgap funding measure.... The Senate will hold a pro-forma session Friday and not reconvene until 3 pm on Tuesday in observance of Yom Kippur, which ends at sundown Monday."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "The Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly confirmed Gen. Randy George of the Army and Gen. Eric Smith of the Marines as the chiefs of staff of their respective services, circumventing a single senator's blockade against senior military promotions but leaving hundreds more still in limbo. The action followed the confirmation on Wednesday night of Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. to serve as the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The three moved forward after Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, steered around a longstanding roadblock by Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, who has halted military promotions in protest of a Pentagon policy on abortion access. But Mr. Tuberville made it clear that he had no intention of lifting his blockade.... The Alabama senator said the only way to get around his obstruction would be for Mr. Schumer to continue to consider the promotions one by one, a time-consuming process that Democrats and many Republicans agree is untenable." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: While Sen. Potato Head deserves all the criticism he is receivng and then some, the stupid part nobody mentions is retaining a Senate rule that allows a single senator to impose a sweeping hold on routine Senate actions like wholesale approval of noncontroversial military promotions by voice vote. While changing standing rules normally takes a 2/3rds vote, a single senator can invoke the "nuclear option," which -- if supported by a simple majority -- overrides the standing ruling. In view of Tuberville's six-month-old hold on all military officers' promotions & nominations, I can't understand why Senate Democrats won't go that route. Unless Manchin. ~~~

~~~ Speaking of Manchin, he's addressing serious Senate matters: ~~~

     ~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Centrist Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) is circulating a proposal to reestablish the Senate's dress code, which Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) loosened over the weekend to allow senators to wear whatever they want on the Senate floor, according to senators familiar with the proposal.... Schumer's decision appeared aimed at catering to first-term Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), whose hoodie was a signature look on the campaign trail in 2022 and who wore a dark short-sleeved collared shirt and dark shorts to work Thursday. But the decision to loosen the dress code is getting bipartisan pushback, including from Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (Ill.), who says the Senate should have standards." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Personally, I think Fetterman looks ridiculous wearing shorts & a hoodie on the Senate floor. But I also think that senators are supposed to be smart enough to know how to dress appropriately without being required to conform to a dress code. Those who aren't, like Fetterman & Krysten Sinema, may or may not pay a price at the ballot box for sloppy or outlandish attire. Besides, there may be times a dress code is itself ridiculous; for instance, should a senator have to wear a necktie when appearing for a 2:00 am vote? I don't think so.

In His Unrelenting Search for Impeachable Offenses, Comer Uncovers Evidence That Some Women Find Joe Biden Sexy. Heidi Przybyla of Politico: :House Oversight Chair James Comer, who is investigating President Joe Biden for what Republicans call potentially impeachable offenses, was given unrestricted access Thursday to a batch of his emails from his time as vice president, according to two sources familiar with them. Comer has made gaining access to redacted portions of Biden&'s emails a major target as he tries to build a case that the former vice president sought to dictate U.S. policy on Ukraine to benefit the business interests of his son, Hunter. But the new emails do not provide any evidence that Joe Biden personally benefited from his son's business dealings.... They include schedules with ordinary family get-togethers.... And then there are the private musings of multiple Georgian [the country, not the U.S. state] women saying they found Joe Biden 'sexy' during a 2009 trip that also included a stop in Ukraine."

Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: "A Biden administration rule that allows employee retirement plans to consider environmental, social and governance issues in investment decisions survived a legal challenge by 26 states on Thursday. Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of U.S. District Court in Amarillo, Texas, said in a 14-page opinion that he would not block the rule, part of the so-called E.S.G. investment trend that places emphasis on companies' records on labor issues, social justice and environmental factors." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is kind of amazing inasmuch as the states clearly chose Kacsmaryk's lonely Amarillo court because the Trump appointee has been a reliable rubber stamp for far-out right-wing causes.

Luke Barr & Jack Date of ABC News: "The Justice Department has arrested and charged an IT contractor with two counts of espionage for allegedly taking secret and top-secret information from the State Department and sending it to a foreign country. Abraham Teklu Lemma, a foreign national with U.S. citizenship, was working as an evening help desk technician assigned to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research with the U.S. Department of State when he is alleged to have copied large amounts of classified information, including documents, photographs, notes, maps and satellite imagery, and transmitted it to a foreign country using an encrypted messaging application.... The Justice Department alleges Lemma was paid over $100,000 in exchange for the information.... In addition to his work at the State Department, he is currently employed during the day as a contract management analyst at the Justice Department, according to court records." ~~~

     ~~~ Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "The New York Times revealed this month that [Lemma] had been arrested in August and charged with spying for Ethiopia, a country that is a significant recipient of aid from the United States, but little else was known. While the complaint does not disclose what country Mr. Lemma was working for, U.S. officials identified it as Ethiopia and described the suspected spying as narrow in focus." Lemma is of Ethiopian descent.

Marie: If you have a subscription to the Atlantic, editor Jeffrey Goldberg has written an article on outgoing Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, which details how Milley dealt with irrational President* Donald Trump. The Atlantic article is here. Tatyana Tandanpolie of Salon summarizes a couple of the highlights of Goldberg's report. Another reminder that when Trump calls special counsel Jack Smith "deranged," Trump is projecting; that is, talking about himself.

Marie: For those of you who are unfamiliar with the name Jude Wanniski -- as I was -- I commend to you an illuminating article by Thom Hartmann, which RAS linked in yesterday's Comments. Wanniski, according to Hartmann, "literally transformed American politics with a plan that the American mainstream media, astonishingly, continues to ignore.... Wanniski's 'Two Santas' strategy dictates, when Republicans control the White House they must spend money like a drunken Santa and cut taxes on the rich, all to intentionally run up the US debt as far and as fast as possible. They started this during the Reagan presidency and tripled down on it during the presidencies of Bush and Trump with massive tax cuts for billionaires and increases in spending across-the-board.... Then ... when a Democrat is in the White House, Republicans must scream about the national debt as loudly and frantically as possible, freaking out about how 'our children will have to pay for it!' and 'you must cut spending to solve the crisis!' The 'debt crisis,' that is, that they themselves created with their massive tax cuts and wild spending." ~~~

~~~ Presidential Race 2024. Here, BTW, is Nikki Haley, criticizing her old pal Trump for "spending a lot of money" and predicting "we're all paying for it." Funny she doesn't mention the massive Trump tax cut for the rich. You can bet that, should she become president*, Haley would be advocating for reducing taxes on the rich & spending on GOP pet projects. Because that's the job of a Republican president*.

Joel Cappelletti & Michelle Price of the AP: "When ... Donald Trump visits Detroit next week, he'll be looking to blunt criticisms from a United Auto Workers union leadership that has said a second term for him would be a 'disaster' for workers. Trump will bypass the second Republican presidential debate on Sept. 27 to instead visit striking autoworkers in Michigan, where he has looked to position himself as an ally of blue-collar workers by promising to raise wages and protect jobs if elected to a second term.... A Trump campaign radio ad released Tuesday in Detroit and Toledo, Ohio, praised auto workers and said the former president has 'always had their back.'... But ... Union leaders have said his first term was far from worker-friendly, citing unfavorable rulings from the nation's top labor board and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as unfulfilled promises of automotive jobs. While the United Auto Workers union has withheld an endorsement in the 2024 presidential race, its leadership has repeatedly rebuffed Trump." ~~~

     ~~~ Olivia Olander, et al., of Politico report on Trump's anti-labor policies and his false boasts about supporting labor when his slapdash efforts to preserve or create jobs failed.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Another Dr. Frankenstein Horrified by His Own Monster. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "It's nice to know that Fox News, which has so deranged America while making Rupert Murdoch ungodly sums of money, has in the end made Murdoch miserable, at least if the journalist Michael Wolff is to be believed. But the consolation is a small one. Murdoch's unhappiness and befuddlement is the throughline of Wolff's amusingly vicious and very well-timed book, 'The Fall: The End of Fox News,' which is to hit shelves next week, days after Murdoch, 92, announced his retirement from the Fox Corporation and News Corporation boards. Wolff paints Fox's owner as embarrassed by the channel's vulgarity and horrified by its ultimate political creation, Donald Trump.... Few people bear more responsibility for Trump than Murdoch.... The electorate that Fox helped shape, and the politicians it indulges, have made this country ungovernable. An unbound Trump may well become president again, bringing liberal democracy in America to a grotesque end." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, isn't it gut-wrenching when a billionaire has a sad when he doesn't get his way?

~~~~~~~~~~

New York. Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "Days after a 1-year-old died and three children exposed to drugs at a Bronx day care site were hospitalized, investigators uncovered a trap door under a play area that was concealing fentanyl, other narcotics and drug paraphernalia. The police had already discovered a kilogram of fentanyl near nap mats at Divino Niño on Morris Avenue, but the new search was triggered by a tip that more drugs had been hidden, Lieutenant John Russo said on Thursday. A neighbor had said last week that the owners of the facility had spent months sprucing it up -- including laying down new floors. On Saturday, the day care program's operator, Grei Mendez, and a tenant, Carlisto Acevedo Brito, who lived in the apartment, were both arrested and charged with murder in the death of the toddler, Nicholas Feliz Dominici, as well as criminal possession of drugs and other related charges. In addition to the kilogram, the police had already recovered two so-called kilo presses used by drug dealers to package large quantities of drugs."

South Carolina. Ben Brasch of the Washington Post: "Alex Murdaugh pleaded guilty Thursday in federal court to financial crimes that factored heavily in the trial earlier this year that led to his conviction on charges of murdering his wife and son. This is the first time Murdaugh has admitted legal guilt in a web of lies and violence that rocked the South Carolina Lowcountry and drew national attention. Murdaugh pleaded guilty to 22 counts, including money laundering and bank fraud, according to court documents. The former lawyer stole money from clients, including teenagers and a quadriplegic man, to fund the family's extravagant lifestyle and his addiction to opioid pills that forced him into a rehabilitative-care facility three times before the June 2021 slayings. Prosecutors argued that Murdaugh killed his wife and son to shift the focus away from himself and prevent his financial crimes from being uncovered. In all, Murdaugh is accused of swindling nearly $9 million."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefings of developments in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Canada in a surprise visit after his trip to the United States, according to the office of Canadia Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Zelensky had just wrapped up a whirlwind day in Washington, where he visited the White House, the Pentagon and talked to congressional leaders, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), whose party includes lawmakers skeptical about sending additional aid to Kyiv. In a nightly address made to the Ukrainian people summarizing the day's events, Zelensky expressed thanks to President Biden for approving the latest tranche of U.S. military aid. 'Thank you, Mr. President Biden!' he said. The Ukrainian leader also thanked 'Congress -- both parties, both houses,' before saying that he had 'very frank, detailed conversations' with U.S. lawmakers.... Zelensky will spend Friday in Canada, Trudeau's office said. 'While in Ottawa, President [Zelensky] will deliver an address to Parliament,' it said. Trudeau and Zelensky 'will then travel to Toronto, where they will meet with Canadian business leaders to strengthen private sector investment in Ukraine';s future.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's main story, by Tyler Pager & others, on President Zelensky's visit to Washington, is here.