The Conversation -- September 25, 2023

Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez, Democrat of New Jersey, returned Monday to Union City, the community where he rose to political prominence, to offer a clear answer to former allies who have called for his resignation in the face of federal bribery charges: No. 'The allegations leveled against me are just that -- allegations,' Mr. Menendez said at a news conference at a community college not far from where he grew up, the child of Cuban refugees. 'I recognize that this will be the biggest fight yet,' he said, adding that once the judicial process concluded, he expected that 'not only will I be exonerated, I will still be New Jersey's senior senator.'" ~~~

~~~ Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "The word 'gold' appears 26 times in the federal indictment unsealed Friday against Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey along with his wife, Nadine, and three businessmen. There are details about the senator's internet searches for the price of gold and Ms. Menendez's trip to a jeweler to sell gold and photos of the serial numbers stamped on some of the 13 gold bars found in their home. Yet gold is rarely mentioned in the financial disclosure forms he is required to file annually as a senator, showing up for the first time last year."

Rachel Scully of the Hill: "Former President Trump pledged to investigate Comcast, the parent company for NBC and MSNBC, if he is elected in 2024, saying it 'will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events.... They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its "Country Threatening Treason,"' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Sunday." MB: I suppose he'll soon be directly threatening particular hosts and anchors. Most dangerous man in the U.S., bar none.

~~~~~~~~~~

Carl Hulse & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "With a potential government shutdown now less than a week away, President Biden and other administration officials this weekend intensified their warnings of the consequences of closing government agencies as they pressed congressional Republicans to find a way out of their spending stalemate. Both the president and the transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, made public calls for Republicans to resolve their differences before next Sunday, when federal funding is set to lapse. They noted that a shutdown would mean that members of the military would go without paychecks, air travelers could experience disruptions and a variety of programs safeguarding the public would be shuttered. Yet even after a weekend of private haggling at the Capitol, there was no sign that the G.O.P. was moving toward a resolution."

Dan Lamothe, et al., of the Washington Post: Gen. Mark "Milley, whose four-year tenure as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ends with his retirement this month, will exit center stage as one of the most consequential and polarizing military chiefs in recent memory, leading America's armed forces through a fraught period that included the precarious final months of Donald Trump's presidency, a disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Washington's high-stakes standoff with Moscow." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It seems to me that there are times, especially when we have a deranged president*, that the chairman of the joint chiefs must put country before blind obedience to the commander-in-chief, and either act or speak out to right dangerous decisions. In most cases, I would support the chairman, even when I disagreed with his actions or statements. The exception would be when s/he erred toward military aggression.

Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: "As the prosecutions of [Donald] Trump have accelerated, so too have threats against law enforcement authorities, judges, elected officials and others. The threats, in turn, are prompting protective measures, a legal effort to curb his angry and sometimes incendiary public statements, and renewed concern about the potential for an election campaign in which Mr. Trump has promised 'retribution' to produce violence. Given the attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, 2021, scholars, security experts, law enforcement officials and others are increasingly warning about the potential for lone-wolf attacks or riots by angry or troubled Americans who have taken in the heated rhetoric. In April, before federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Trump, one survey showed that 4.5 percent of American adults agreed with the idea that the use of force was 'justified to restore Donald Trump to the presidency.' Just two months later, after the first federal indictment of Mr. Trump, that figure surged to 7 percent."

News Flash! Miss Margie Is Remarkably Ignorant. David McAfee of the Raw Story: In the spirit of ecumenicism, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) tweeted a Hanukkah message to celebrate Yom Kippur. It included an image of a menorah. "'Everyone's making fun of Marjorie Taylor Greene for putting a menorah on her Yom Kippur message, but in her defense she thought it was an eight-pronged Jewish space laser,' [comedy writer Frank Lesser] wrote." MB: Think of it as sending you a birthday card for Mothers Day. It's the thoughtlessness that counts.

Brooks Barnes & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Hollywood's bitter, monthslong labor dispute has taken a big first step toward a resolution. The Writers Guild of America, which represents more than 11,000 screenwriters, reached a tentative deal on a new contract with entertainment companies on Sunday night, all but ending a 146-day strike that has contributed to a shutdown of television and film production. In the coming days, guild members will vote on whether to accept the deal, which has much of what they had demanded, including increases in compensation for streaming content, concessions from studios on minimum staffing for television shows, and guarantees that artificial intelligence technology will not encroach on writers' credits and compensation." The NBC News story is here.

Presidential Race 2024. E.J. Dionne of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's standing in the polls is less about his strength than about the weakness of the rest of the field -- and the traditional Republican Party.... It didn't have to be like this, because the strength of Trump's lock on the party is vastly exaggerated.... His primary foes have plainly failed to impress voters. At least as important, they and Trump's (often secret) party critics were unwilling to risk enraging him and his supporters.... That's no way to beat a brawler who'll do anything to win.... In the short term, Republican strategists see no path to rebuilding a more moderate coalition. The party's primary electorate is concluding that in a closely divided country, Trump is about as electable as any of his less-than-stellar rivals."

~~~~~~~~~~

Florida, California. Luz Lazo of the Washington Post: "Rail company Brightline began operating trains Friday from Miami to Orlando, using the fastest American trains outside the Northeast Corridor to become the first privately owned passenger operator to connect two major U.S. metropolitan areas in decades. The debut of the 235-mile, 3.5-hour ride completes a $6 billion private investment in Florida. With the Orlando segment complete, Brightline says it will move to advance a $12 billion high-speed railway project from Las Vegas to Southern California, with a goal to put trains traveling at 186 mph on America's tracks by 2028."

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.