May 27, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon/Evening Update:

** Jim Tankersley, et al., of the New York Times: "Top White House and Republican negotiators on Saturday reached a deal in principle to raise the debt limit for two years while cutting and capping some government spending over the same period, a breakthrough after a marathon set of crisis talks that has brought the nation within days of its first default in history, three people familiar with the agreement said. Congressional passage of the plan before June 5, when the Treasury is projected to exhaust its ability to pay its obligations, was not assured, particularly in the House.... But the compromise, which would effectively freeze federal spending that had been on track to grow, had the blessing of both President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, raising hopes that it could break the fiscal stalemate that has gripped Washington and the nation for weeks, threatening an economic crisis. The two spoke by phone on Saturday evening to resolve final sticking points."

Hasta La Vista. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "The Texas House impeached Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday over allegations of bribery, unfitness for office and abuse of public trust, a stunning rebuke of the conservative firebrand that at least temporarily forces him from office pending a state Senate trial that could lead to his permanent ouster.... Gov. Greg Abbott, a fellow Republican who has worked closely with the attorney general, will be able to appoint a temporary replacement.... Paxton has been a fierce defender of ... Donald Trump and a defiant opponent of the Biden administration, but his impeachment came at the hands of fellow Texas Republicans, who have long controlled all three branches of state government.... Of 146 House members present, 121 voted to impeach Paxton -- more than the majority required, including all but one Democrat and 60 Republicans -- 23 voted no (all Republicans), and two were present but did not vote.... Rep. Charlie Geren (R) ... noted that several colleagues had 'received telephone calls from Gen. Paxton personally threatening them with political consequences in their next election.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Zach Despart & Zach Barragan of the Texas Tribune: "Defying a last-minute appeal by ... Donald Trump, the Texas House voted overwhelmingly Saturday to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, temporarily removing him from office over allegations of misconduct that included bribery and abuse of office." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments in Texas AG Ken Paxton's impeachment hearing. The Texas Tribune is airing the proceedings, as well as running a liveblog, here.

Marie: Alan Rappeport of the New York Times blames Democrats for the debt ceiling crisis, and for once I think a both-sides MSM reporter is right: Last fall, "in an interview on her flight from New Delhi to Bali, Indonesia..., [Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen] urged Democrats to use their remaining time in control of Washington to lift the debt limit beyond the 2024 elections.... Democrats did not heed Ms. Yellen's advice."

Arizona. Jared Gans of the Hill: "Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) said her predecessor, Republican Doug Ducey, misappropriated $50 million that the federal government provided to the state through the American Rescue Plan. Hobbs said in a release Friday that Ducey made the grant to the state treasurer in the final hours of his administration to fund all-day kindergarten for student recipients of empowerment scholarship accounts, which allow for parents to use the money they would pay in taxes for education to send their student to the school that they choose. But the memo notes that the state only funds half-day kindergarten for students in public school.... 'Illegally giving $50 million to private schools while failing to properly invest in public education is just one egregious example of the previous administration's blatant disregard for public school students,' Hobbs said." Hobbs' statement implies she has been able to prevent the funds from being unlawfully distributed to parents of private-school students.

New York. Alysia Santo of the Marshall Project, published by the New York Times: "Over a dozen years, New York State officials have documented the results of attacks by hundreds of prison guards on the people in their custody. But when the state corrections department has tried to use this evidence to fire guards, it has failed 90 percent of the time, an investigation by The Marshall Project has found. The review of prison disciplinary records dating to 2010 found more than 290 cases in which the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision tried to fire officers or supervisors it said physically abused prisoners or covered up mistreatment that ranged from group beatings to withholding food. The agency considered these employees a threat to the safety and security of prisons. Yet officers were ousted in just 28 cases."

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Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Friday that the United States will run out of money to pay its bills on time by June 5, moving the goal post back slightly while maintaining the urgency for congressional leaders to reach a deal to raise or suspend the debt limit. The letter provided the most precise date yet for when the United States is expected to run out of cash. Ms. Yellen had previously said the United States could hit the so-called X-date -- the moment when it does not have enough money to pay all of its bills on time -- as soon as June 1." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) An AP story is here.

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said he is 'very frustrated' over the state of debt ceiling talks and questioned why President Biden is continuing to negotiate with what the congressman called 'economic terrorists' in the Republican party. 'I called on the president to invoke the 14th Amendment and mint a coin and do not negotiate with hostage takers,' Bowman told CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday. 'I mean, we don't negotiate with terrorists globally. Why are we gonna negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party?'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Conservative lawmakers have begun mounting a campaign against the emerging deal on the debt ceiling between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as objections from the right threaten to undermine an agreement even before its contents are publicly released. On Thursday and Friday, in response to reports about the details of the agreement, leading conservative lawmakers and budget experts raised strong objections, arguing McCarthy had failed to extract sufficient concessions from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. McCarthy pushed back in remarks to reporters on Friday, saying the criticisms were being leveled by people unaware of the substance of the deal" MB: They're not "conservatives" they're radical right hostage-takers & as Bowman calls them "economic terrorists." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kara Voght of the Washington Post: “At a White House event, Angel Reese of Louisiana State University's championship NCAA team & Dr. Jill Biden hug and make up after Biden's gaff last month in which she suggested the mostly-white Iowa Hawkeyes, whom L.S.U. defeated in the final game, be invited to the White House, too. Politico's story is here.

Beobert Admits "Conservatives" Are Antisemites. She Should Know. Meryl Kornfield of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday released the country's first national strategy for combating antisemitism, a landmark lauded by Jewish and anti-hate groups as progress toward addressing the increasing instances of violence and bias toward Jewish people in the United States. But Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) saw the effort as an attack on those of her political persuasion. 'When they say stuff like this, they mean they want to go after conservatives,' she tweeted. 'Their tactics are straight out of the USSR's playbook.' Her comments quickly attracted criticism from detractors who accused her of conflating a straightforward campaign against antisemitism with an assault on the right -- and, by implication, equating conservatives with antisemites. 'So you agree? You think you're antisemitic?' Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) tweeted in a popular meme format from the teen comedy 'Mean Girls.'" A Huffington Post story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Historian Michael Beschloss said on MSNBC Friday that U.S. democracy has never in its history been under greater threat than it is now. Boebert's equating her own political allies with antisemitism is just more evidence that Beschloss is right. Donald Trump's Dinner with Nazis is another example. Anti-democratic, authoritarian movements start with scapegoating marginalized groups. Then there are these folks: ~~~

~~~ Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A self-styled militia leader and bar owner from Ohio and a former welder from Florida were sentenced to 8½ years and four years in prison Friday for joining Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes in disrupting Congress's confirmation of Joe Biden's 2020 presidential election victory in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack. Army veterans Jessica Watkins and Kenneth Harrelson were acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted on other felony counts in November at trial with Rhodes and his on-the-ground leader, Kelly Meggs." The Guardian's report is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rejected a challenge to the government's ability to disarm defendants as part of their criminal sentences, one of the first decisions to uphold the constitutionality of a gun ban for people on probation for misdemeanors since a watershed Supreme Court decision last year set a new test to evaluate such limits. Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington issued the ruling temporarily barring gun possession by Daniel Shaw, a Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack defendant who pleaded guilty last November to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing. '[W]hile Shaw's role in the mob was minor, the fact of his participation in an insurrection whose aim was to impair the peaceful transfer of power suggests that a firearms restriction during his probationary period is appropriate,' Boasberg wrote on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Eleni Schirmer & Louise Seamster, in a New York Times op-ed, examine the case six GOP attorneys-general brought against the Biden administration, putting on hold President Biden's plan to forgive up to $20,000 in college loan debt for millions of Americans. "We found that the states' most fundamental justification for bringing the case -- that canceling student loans could leave a Missouri-based loan authority unable to meet its financial obligations to the state -- is false. [When Judge Jackson asked the AGs a fact question about the loan program's financial stability, the 'factual' answer was, 'It's very hard to believe.'] As our research shows, and the loan authority's own documents confirm, even with the new policy in place, its revenues from servicing loans will increase.... [Moreover, the states haven't showed they have standing. Nevertheless,] the confederate Supremes issued certiorari before judgment, meaning the suit did not first have to wend its way through lower courts." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you brought a civil case in which your only "proof" was that you didn't believe your opponent's assertions, obviously you'd be booted out of court before a proper hearing. But the authors say the confederate Supremes accepted these AGs' beliefs because of what's called the "'hierarchy of credibility': Those at the top of the social hierarchy don't have to prove their claims; they're just taken for granted." This seems to be the converse of charging decisions about suspected criminals: there's a "hierarchy of presumed innocence'; that is, the burden of proof against Donald Trump, for instance, is vastly greater than it would be for ordinary citizens. Michael Cohen went to jail for committing a crime the feds credibly assert Trump directed, but the DOJ has never charged Trump for committing the crime for which it incarcerated Cohen for several years. Similarly, lesser lights have been successfully prosecuted for stealing and retaining classified documents on far more flimsy evidence than what we already know the DOJ has on Trump. And, no, screaming "hoax" & "witch hunt" wouldn't help you.

Fodder for the Special Counsel. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "... there is probably no figure beyond golf more publicly linked to LIV [Golf] than [Donald] Trump, who has repeatedly and enthusiastically cheered Saudi Arabia's thunderous, flashy entrance into sports. At its events, he often seems like an eager M.C. whose role is at once decidedly conspicuous and deeply mysterious -- neither the Trump Organization nor LIV have disclosed how much money the former president's company is making for the events -- as the league looks to make inroads in a hidebound sport.... He has remained steadfast in his loyalty even though a special counsel from the Justice Department, Jack Smith, has subpoenaed the Trump Organization for records related to LIV." ~~~

     ~~~ Digby, in Salon: "... for some reason one obvious case has gotten very little media attention and, as far as we know, very little attention from investigators: Trump's cozy financial relationship with the Saudi-sponsored Public Investment Fund, the desert kingdom's massive sovereign wealth fund. (Its assets are estimated at more than $620 billion.).... LIV Golf is a key part of the Saudi regime's program of 'sportswashing,' meaning as a nation's attempt to use massive investment in sports to cover up for its human rights abuses.... Let's hope that unlike Robert Mueller, who refused to exceed his mandate and look at Trump's finances, Jack Smith sees this for the blatant corruption it is. Otherwise, we're just accepting that it's perfectly OK for presidents and presidential candidates to do big favors for autocratic foreign governments in exchange for money."

Adam Reiss & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "Prosecutors in New York have informed attorneys for Donald Trump that the evidence in their hush money case against the former president includes an audio recording of him and a witness, a court filing made public Friday shows.... The filing does not identify the witness or say when the recording was made or when Trump's lawyers were made aware of it." MB: Yeah, well, I think it goes something like this:

DONALD TRUMP: Michael, you pay Stormy $130,000 to shut her up so I win the election; then we'll hide it by you billing me the same amount in "legal fees."

MICHAEL COHEN: Okay, Boss.

Presidential Race 2024

The Essential Corruption of Ron DeSantolini. Nicholas Nehamas, et al., of the New York Times: "As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida begins his presidential bid, officials in his administration have solicited donations from lobbyists and endorsements from lawmakers in the state, blurring the line between his taxpayer-funded office and his political campaign. The outreach by the governor's office ... would normally fall to Mr. DeSantis's campaign staff.... Mr. DeSantis has yet to sign Florida's $117 billion budget, over which he retains a line-item veto -- meaning he can, with the stroke of a pen, eliminate spending projects sought by lobbyists and legislators in Tallahassee, the capital, where he has exerted firm control over the Republican-controlled Legislature.... In addition to the efforts to secure support from lobbyists, the main super PAC backing Mr. DeSantis's bid announced last week that 99 of Florida's 113 Republican state legislators had endorsed Mr. DeSantis for president. Several lawmakers said privately that they feared he might veto their bills or spending projects if they did not support him." ~~~

     ~~~ "That's a nice little community center you've planned there, Jack. It would be a shame if it disappeared from the budget."

After the Fail. Charisma Madarang of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill regarding spaceflight on Thursday just one day after he announced his presidential run in a glitch-filled interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 -- Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills. The law exempts 'spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of a crew resulting from spaceflight activities under certain circumstances.' The measure also requires 'a spaceflight entity to have a crew sign a specified warning statement.' Florida is a known launching point for SpaceX aircrafts, and the new law could potentially shield Musk and other space flight companies from being sued for accidents that injure or kill crew members." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Buck Stops Elsewhere. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Ron DeSantis told Newsmax host Eric Bolling that he's 'not a big social media guy' and 'would rather watch' cable news 'than be on some app,' following his disastrous presidential campaign launch on Twitter this week. During an appearance on Newsmax's The Balance, Thursday, DeSantis said Twitter 'were very confident that they had the ability to get a lot of people' for the event.... 'I was just in a room in Florida, so I didn't really know necessarily what was going on.'" MB: I read somewhere this week that DeSantis spends hours reading the comments beside his Twitter "likes." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mason Bissada of the Wrap: "Appearing Thursday to promote his campaign, at one point DeSantis was on a tear about the travel advisory the NAACP issued for Florida that cited numerous DeSantis policies it says 'erase Black history' and 'restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.' And as he delivered a whataboutist spiel about gun violence in Baltimore, Maryland, the television video feed -- and only the video feed -- froze. The audio was unaffected, as was the newscrawl at the bottom of the screen. DeSantis continued to deliver talking points from his usual 'anti-woke' playbook, while host Eric Bolling's face remained frozen mid blink, and DeSantis' stuck with his mouth pursed in mid-pronunciation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Peter Hoskins & Annabelle Liang of the BBC: "An engineering chief at Twitter says he is leaving the company a day after the launch of Ron DeSantis' US presidential campaign on the platform was hit with technical glitches. Foad Dabiri tweeted: "After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday.... Mr Dabiri did not specify why he had decided to leave Twitter or whether it was related to the problems with the DeSantis event on the platform." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ (Alleged!) Drug Addict Makes Classic On-air Freudian Slip. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis.... 'Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,' Trump Jr said on his online show.... After a short pause, and without correcting himself, Trump Jr continued...."

Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "A trove of documents released this week by the F.B.I. reveal details about an assassination threat against Queen Elizabeth II before a trip that she and her husband made to the United States in 1983, as well as other security concerns linked to the Irish Republican Army. The documents were published on the F.B.I.'s website after a request under the Freedom of Information Act." A San Francisco police officer learned of the plot (and presumably notified other authorities). "Though it is unclear if any arrests were made, the documents note that the monarch's visit was completed 'without incident.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was unaware that "Naked Gun"'s Frank Drebin had saved Elizabeth while she was in California in the 1980s, but near the end of yesterday's Comments, Patrick brought me up to speed. Fortunately, we have film: ~~~

Beyond the Beltway

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Across the country, we are seeing sharp new limits on the rights and privileges of Americans. And despite a national mythology that ties the threat of tyranny to the machinations of a distant, central government, the actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states.... Americans have a long history with various forms of sub-national authoritarianism: state and local tyrannies that sustained themselves through exclusion, violence and the political security provided by the federal structure of the American political system.... The history of American political life is the story of the struggle to unravel those sub-national units of oppression and establish a universal and inviolable grant of political and civil rights, backed by the force of the national government.... The [present-day conservative and reactionary] plan, as we have seen with abortion, is to unspool and untether those rights from the Constitution. It is to shrink and degrade the very notion of national citizenship and to leave us, once again, at the total mercy of the states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Florida. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: Ron "DeSantis is now defending a Florida school's decision to restrict access to [Amanda Gordon's] 'The Hill We Climb.'... DeSantis insisted the school district in question merely 'moved it from the elementary school library to the middle school library,' and ripped 'legacy media' for calling this a 'ban,' complaining of a 'poem hoax.' That's a shameless but revealing characterization of what happened.... This came in response to an objection from one parent. That parent's complaint ... was that the poem has indirect 'hate messages' and would 'cause confusion and indoctrinate students.' In reality, Gorman's poem calls for bridging our divides to enable our country to live up to its promise, declaring this an incomplete project. The idea that this represents hate and indoctrination is farcical.... This is happening all over Florida.... DeSantis's obvious relish of this moment shows he believes having an army of lone parents out there stirring up cultural controversies wherever possible can only help him in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries."

South Carolina. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A South Carolina judge on Friday moved to pause the state's six-week abortion ban until it can be reviewed by the state Supreme Court. Judge Clifton Newman of the South Carolina Circuit Court granted a temporary injunction Friday morning, barely 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the measure into law. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, along with a South Carolina clinic and two of its doctors, immediately filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the ban that took immediate effect with McMaster's signature. Friday's injunction means abortion access in South Carolina reverts back to being legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. Jacey Fortin & David Goodman of the New York Times: "The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. The vote was set to take place just two days after a bipartisan but Republican-led committee of representatives recommended that Mr. Paxton should be impeached for a range of abuses that may have been crimes.... The articles [of impeachment] charge Mr. Paxton with a litany of abuses including taking bribes, disregarding his official duty, obstructing justice in a separate securities fraud case pending against him, making false statements on official documents and reports, and abusing the public trust.... Mr. Paxton has been under criminal indictment for most of his tenure as the state's attorney general.... An impeachment would mean that Mr. Paxton would be temporarily removed from office pending a trial on the charges in the State Senate, where some of his closest allies, including his wife, would serve as jurors. The Senate proceedings could well be delayed until after the regular legislative session, which ends on Monday.... The ... timing remains highly uncertain." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The AP's report is here. A related Texas Tribune story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Patrick Svitek of the Texas Tribune: "For nearly a decade, Texas Republicans largely looked the other way as Attorney General Ken Paxton's legal problems piled up.... In revealing it had been secretly investigating Paxton since March -- and then recommending his impeachment on Thursday -- a Republican-led state House committee sought to hold Paxton accountable in a way the GOP has never come close to doing. It amounted to a political earthquake, and while it remains to be seen whether Paxton's ouster will be the outcome, it represents a stunning act of self-policing."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's ware on Ukraine is here. The Guardian's live updates for Saturday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Marc Santora of the New York Times: "Explosions far behind the front lines shook Ukraine on Friday, as a Russian missile demolished part of a hospital complex and apparent Ukrainian strikes hit Russian-occupied cities, in their escalating, long-range aerial war. The attack on a medical center in the central city of Dnipro killed at least two people, left three more missing and injured at least 30, Ukrainian officials said. It destroyed a three-story building and damaged several others. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine posted to social media a video of a gutted building, its roof and upper walls missing, belching smoke into the sky, calling it 'another crime against humanity.'"

Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "As Russian President Vladimir Putin's regime cracks down on critics of the war and other political dissenters, citizens are policing one another in an echo of the darkest years of Joseph Stalin's repression, triggering investigations, criminal charges, prosecutions and dismissals from work. Private conversations in restaurants and rail cars are fair game for eavesdroppers, who call police to arrest 'traitors' and 'enemies.' Social media posts, and messages -- even in private chat groups -- become incriminating evidence that can lead to a knock on the door by agents of the Federal Security Service of FSB. The effect is chilling, with denunciations strongly encouraged by the state and news of arrests and prosecutions amplified by propagandist commentators on federal television stations and Telegram channels."

Israel/Palestine. Imogen Piper, et al., of the Washington Post: "This year, under the most right-wing government in Israeli history, a growing number of [Israeli military] incursions have been carried out [in the West Bank] during the day, in densely packed urban areas such as Jenin. As of May 15, 108 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including militants and civilians, had been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations, more than double last year's toll from the same period. At least 19 were children...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

May 26, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said on Friday that the United States will run out of money to pay its bills on time by June 5, moving the goal post back slightly while maintaining the urgency for congressional leaders to reach a deal to raise or suspend the debt limit. The letter provided the most precise date yet for when the United States is expected to run out of cash. Ms. Yellen had previously said the United States could hit the so-called X-date -- the moment when it does not have enough money to pay all of its bills on time -- as soon as June 1."

South Carolina. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "A South Carolina judge on Friday moved to pause the state's six-week abortion ban until it can be reviewed by the state Supreme Court. Judge Clifton Newman of the South Carolina Circuit Court granted a temporary injunction Friday morning, barely 24 hours after Gov. Henry McMaster (R) signed the measure into law. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, along with a South Carolina clinic and two of its doctors, immediately filed a lawsuit Thursday to block the ban that took immediate effect with McMaster’s signature. Friday's injunction means abortion access in South Carolina reverts back to being legal up to 22 weeks of pregnancy."

Texas. Jacey Fortin & David Goodman of the New York Times: "The Republican-dominated Texas House has scheduled a vote on the impeachment of the state's Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, for Saturday at 1 p.m. The vote was set to take place just two days after a bipartisan but Republican-led committee of representatives recommended that Mr. Paxton should be impeached for a range of abuses that may have been crimes.... The articles [of impeachment] charge Mr. Paxton with a litany of abuses including taking bribes, disregarding his official duty, obstructing justice in a separate securities fraud case pending against him, making false statements on official documents and reports, and abusing the public trust.... Mr. Paxton has been under criminal indictment for most of his tenure as the state's attorney general.... An impeachment would mean that Mr. Paxton would be temporarily removed from office pending a trial on the charges in the State Senate, where some of his closest allies, including his wife, would serve as jurors. The Senate proceedings could well be delayed until after the regular legislative session, which ends on Monday.... The ... timing remains highly uncertain."

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) said he is 'very frustrated' over the state of debt ceiling talks and questioned why President Biden is continuing to negotiate with what the congressman called 'economic terrorists' in the Republican party. 'I called on the president to invoke the 14th Amendment and mint a coin and do not negotiate with hostage takers,' Bowman told CNN's Manu Raju on Thursday. 'I mean, we don't negotiate with terrorists globally. Why are we gonna negotiate with the economic terrorists here that are the Republican Party?'"

Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "Conservative lawmakers have begun mounting a campaign against the emerging deal on the debt ceiling between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), as objections from the right threaten to undermine an agreement even before its contents are publicly released. On Thursday and Friday, in response to reports about the details of the agreement, leading conservative lawmakers and budget experts raised strong objections, arguing McCarthy had failed to extract sufficient concessions from the Biden administration in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. McCarthy pushed back in remarks to reporters on Friday, saying the criticisms were being leveled by people unaware of the substance of the deal." MB: They're not "conservatives"; they're radical right hostage-takers & as Bowman calls them "economic terrorists."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rejected a challenge to the government's ability to disarm defendants as part of their criminal sentences, one of the first decisions to uphold the constitutionality of a gun ban for people on probation for misdemeanors since a watershed Supreme Court decision last year set a new test to evaluate such limits. Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg in Washington issued the ruling temporarily barring gun possession by Daniel Shaw, a Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack defendant who pleaded guilty last November to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing. '[W]hile Shaw's role in the mob was minor, the fact of his participation in an insurrection whose aim was to impair the peaceful transfer of power suggests that a firearms restriction during his probationary period is appropriate,' Boasberg wrote on Thursday."

After the Fail. Charisma Madarang of Rolling Stone, republished by Yahoo! News: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) signed a bill regarding spaceflight on Thursday just one day after he announced his presidential run in a glitch-filled interview with Elon Musk on Twitter Spaces. DeSantis signed into law CS/SB 1318 -- Spaceflight Entity Liability along with 27 other bills. The law exempts 'spaceflight entity from liability for injury to or death of a crew resulting from spaceflight activities under certain circumstances.' The measure also requires 'a spaceflight entity to have a crew sign a specified warning statement.' Florida is a known launching point for SpaceX aircrafts, and the new law could potentially shield Musk and other space flight companies from being sued for accidents that injure or kill crew members." ~~~

~~~ The Buck Stops Elsewhere. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Ron DeSantis told Newsmax host Eric Bolling that he's 'not a big social media guy' and 'would rather watch' cable news 'than be on some app,' following his disastrous presidential campaign launch on Twitter this week. During an appearance on Newsmax' The Balance, Thursday, DeSantis said Twitter 'were very confident that they had the ability to get a lot of people' for the event.... 'I was just in a room in Florida, so I didn't really know necessarily what was going on.'" MB: I read somewhere this week that DeSantis spends hours reading the comments beside his Twitter "likes." ~~~

     ~~~ Mason Bissada of the Wrap: "Appearing Thursday to promote his campaign, at one point DeSantis was on a tear about the travel advisory the NAACP issued for Florida that cited numerous DeSantis policies it says 'erase Black history' and 'restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs.' And as he delivered a whataboutist spiel about gun violence in Baltimore, Maryland, the television video feed -- and only the video feed -- froze. The audio was unaffected, as was the newscrawl at the bottom of the screen. DeSantis continued to deliver talking points from his usual 'anti-woke' playbook, while host Eric Bolling's face remained frozen mid blink, and DeSantis' stuck with his mouth pursed in mid-pronunciation." ~~~

~~~ Peter Hoskins & Annabelle Liang of the BBC: "An engineering chief at Twitter says he is leaving the company a day after the launch of Ron DeSantis' US presidential campaign on the platform was hit with technical glitches. Foad Dabiri tweeted: "After almost four incredible years at Twitter, I decided to leave the nest yesterday.... Mr Dabiri did not specify why he had decided to leave Twitter or whether it was related to the problems with the DeSantis event on the platform." ~~~

~~~ (Alleged!) Drug Addict Makes Classic On-air Freudian Slip. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump Jr accidentally insulted his father on Thursday night, mixing up his words while trying to condemn Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump's closest rival for the Republican presidential nomination. 'Trump has the charisma of a mortician and the energy that makes Jeb Bush look like an Olympian,' Trump Jr said on his online show.... After a short pause, and without correcting himself, Trump Jr continued...."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Across the country, we are seeing sharp new limits on the rights and privileges of Americans. And despite a national mythology that ties the threat of tyranny to the machinations of a distant, central government, the actual threat to American freedom is coming from the states.... Americans have a long history with various forms of sub-national authoritarianism: state and local tyrannies that sustained themselves through exclusion, violence and the political security provided by the federal structure of the American political system.... The history of American political life is the story of the struggle to unravel those sub-national units of oppression and establish a universal and inviolable grant of political and civil rights, backed by the force of the national government.... The [present-day conservative and reactionary] plan, as we have seen with abortion, is to unspool and untether those rights from the Constitution. It is to shrink and degrade the very notion of national citizenship and to leave us, once again, at the total mercy of the states."

Imogen Piper, et al., of the Washington Post: "This year, under the most right-wing government in Israeli history, a growing number of [Israeli military] incursions have been carried out [in the West Bank] during the day, in densely packed urban areas such as Jenin. As of May 15, 108 Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including militants and civilians, had been killed by Israeli forces, according to the United Nations, more than double last year's toll from the same period. At least 19 were children...."

Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "A trove of documents released this week by the F.B.I. reveal details about an assassination threat against Queen Elizabeth II before a trip that she and her husband made to the United States in 1983, as well as other security concerns linked to the Irish Republican Army. The documents were published on the F.B.I.'s website after a request under the Freedom of Information Act." A San Francisco police officer learned of the plot (and presumably notified other authorities). "Though it is unclear if any arrests were made, the documents note that the monarch's visit was completed 'without incident.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I was unaware that "Naked Gun"'s Frank Drebin had saved Elizabeth while she was in California in the 1980s, but in today's Comments, Patrick brought me up to speed. Fortunately, we have film: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~

Hostage-Takers Win, Extract Minor Ransom from Biden. Jim Tankersley & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Top White House officials and Republican lawmakers were closing in Thursday on a deal that would raise the debt limit for two years while capping federal spending on everything but the military and veterans for the same period. Officials were racing to cement an agreement in time to avert a federal default that is projected in just one week. The deal taking shape would allow Republicans to say that they were reducing some federal spending -- even as spending on the military and veterans' programs would continue to grow -- and allow Democrats to say they had spared most domestic programs from significant cuts. Negotiators from both sides were talking into the evening and beginning to draft legislative text, though some details remained in flux." A Guardian story is here.

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "As disaster looms, it's important to keep in mind that Republicans are the villains here: They're the ones engaged in extortion.... There are at least three ways the administration could, in principle, bypass the debt ceiling.... The first possible strategy is simply to ignore the debt limit, declaring it unconstitutional.... I don't find the case against the constitutional option persuasive.... A second strategy would be to exploit a peculiar legal provision that allows the Treasury to mint platinum coins of any value it chooses.... A third option would be to issue perpetual bonds -- bonds that pay interest forever but no principal, and hence have no face value. Since the ceiling is defined in terms of the face value of U.S. debt, not its fluctuating market value, it's hard to see how the ceiling can apply. This isn't a radical idea -- it has a long history, especially in Britain, but has also been used in the United States.... The arguments against these options all boil down to political guesses."

Peter Baker & John Ismay of the New York Times: "President Biden called for a new era of innovation in the American military on Thursday as he formally unveiled his choice to steer the country's armed forces into an uncertain future hunting down terrorists, managing the growing competition with China and countering Russian aggression in Europe. Introducing Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as his nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mr. Biden praised him as a 'proud, butt-kicking American airman' and 'top-notch strategist.' But he said that one of the qualities that most appealed to him was the general's vision and determination to continually think ahead, exemplified by the 'accelerate change or lose' doctrine that he followed as Air Force chief of staff." ~~~

Meagan Flynn of the Washington Post: "President Biden vetoed a GOP effort to block D.C's major police accountability legislation Thursday, noting the legislation contained 'common-sense' changes aimed at enhancing public trust. 'The Congress should respect the District of Columbia's right to pass measures that improve public safety and public trust,' the president said in a message to Congress accompanying his veto. 'I continue to call on the Congress to pass common-sense police reform legislation. Therefore, I am vetoing this resolution.' Biden's veto came on the third anniversary of the police killing of George Floyd, which sparked nationwide protests and reexamination of policing and use of force -- including in the District."

David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "The White House on Thursday pledged to increase federal efforts to combat rising antisemitism with new initiatives aimed at improving public awareness in places such as schools and college campuses and offering more community training to encourage the reporting of hate crimes. In its national strategy to counter antisemitism, the White House also calls on social media companies to more aggressively prevent the spread of hate speech and anti-Jewish content online. It asks Congress to hold accountable those platforms that do not provide transparency on how such content is disseminated. The plan lays out dozens of commitments from the Biden administration to help protect Jewish communities, while calling on Congress and local governments to follow suit." The AP's report is here.

Bob Menendez, in Trouble Again. Tracey Tully & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors and the F.B.I. are investigating whether Senator Robert Menendez or his wife received unreported gifts of a luxury car and an apartment in Washington from a halal meat company that is also the focus of a criminal inquiry, two people with knowledge of the matter said on Thursday. The investigation into Mr. Menendez, a Democrat who is the senior senator from New Jersey, is linked to a government search of the meat company's offices and the home of its president, according to a lawyer who met with prosecutors." Denials all around, of course. An NBC News story is here.

What This Country Needs Is More Straight White Male Judges. Talyler Mitchell of the Huffington Post: "Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) has apparently found fault with President Joe Biden's choice to appoint a diverse range of judges to the overwhelmingly white and male federal bench. On the House floor on Thursday, Grothman said Biden had appointed just five 'white guys' out of 97 judicial appointments in his first two years in office, citing an unnamed study.... 'So [it's] almost impossible for white guys [that are] not gay apparently to get appointed here,' he continued. According to a January report by The 19th, the federal judiciary consists of about 800 active judges -- 46% were white men, 23% were white women, 16% were men of color and 14% were women of color.... In March, he called the appointments 'a little bit scary' and raised the possibility that the president was 'actively discriminating against white heterosexual men.'"

** Scenes from a Heist. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two of Donald Trump's employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president's Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena -- timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a 'dress rehearsal' for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter.... Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said. Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than has been previously reported." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times flesh out some of the particulars of the WashPo story linked above.

You, sir, present an ongoing threat and a peril to this country, to the Republic and the very fabric of our democracy. -- Judge Amit Mehta, to Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes during sentencing hearing ~~~

~~~ ** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in prison for his conviction on seditious conspiracy charges for the role he played in helping to mobilize the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The sentence, handed down in Federal District Court in Washington, was the most severe penalty so far in the more than 1,000 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack -- and the first to be increased for fitting the legal definition of terrorism. It was also the first to have been given to any of the 10 members of the Oath Keepers and another far-right group, the Proud Boys, who were convicted of sedition in connection with the events of Jan. 6." Read on. Rhodes remains an unrepentant danger to society. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Rabinowitz & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A second Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida contingent of the group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentences are the first handed down in over a decade for seditious conspiracy." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to police water pollution, ruling that the Clean Water Act does not allow the agency to regulate discharges into some wetlands near bodies of water. The court held that law covers only wetlands 'with a continuous surface connection' to those waters, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for five justices. The decision was nominally unanimous, with all the justices agreeing that the homeowners who brought the case should not have been subject to the agency's oversight. But there was sharp disagreement about the majority's reasoning. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by the three liberal justices in a concurring opinion, said the decision would harm the E.P.A.'s ability to combat pollution." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Richard Lazarus in a Washington Post op-ed: "Congress was not at all shy about the geographi reach of the [1972] Clean Water Act. The statute targeted discharges into 'navigable waters,' but Congress also expressly defined that to include all 'waters of the United States.' Since the mid-1970s, the courts have uniformly agreed that Congress intended with that expansive definition to extend the law's protections far beyond traditional navigable waters.... Relying on a dictionary definition of 'waters' and ignoring the Clean Water Act's purpose, the court's conservative majority has adopted a radically truncated view of the reach of the law's restriction on water pollution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The obvious fix for Sam & the Gang's ruling is for Congress to amend the Clean Water Act to specifically name the types of waters (i.e., wetlands & seasonal waterways) the EPA should regulate. Let's just ask My Kevin & Miss Margie to draft some legislation (ha ha ha).

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon ... is scheduled to stand trial in May of next year for what prosecutors say was his role in defrauding Americans who paid money toward the construction of a southern border wall, a judge said Thursday. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, said that while the May 27, 2024 trial was later than he had anticipated -- he had originally considered a November date -- he was satisfied with the schedule proposed by Mr. Bannon's lawyers as long as prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office were satisfied. A prosecutor, Daniel Passeser, said that he was." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024. Matt Dixon & Jonathan Allen of NBC News: "Officials who work for Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration -- not his campaign -- have been sending text messages to Florida lobbyists soliciting political contributions for DeSantis' presidential bid, a breach of traditional norms that has raised ethical and legal questions and left many here in the state capital shocked. NBC News reviewed text messages from four DeSantis administration officials, including those directly in the governor's office and with leadership positions in state agencies. They requested the recipient of the message contribute to the governor's campaign through a specific link that appeared to track who is giving as part of a 'bundle' program.... DeSantis [can use] his line-item veto pen to slash funding for projects that the same lobbyists whom they are asking for political cash have a professional stake in. Most of the lobbyists said they felt pressure to give to the governor's campaign." ~~~

~~~ DeSantolini Reflects the Lawlessness of the GOP. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post:"Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that, if elected president, he would consider pardoning some of those convicted on charges related to the deadly Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.... Twice in the interview, DeSantis avoided directly answering questions on whether he'd pardon Trump but left open the possibility.... DeSantis said he would use his pardon powers 'at the front end' of his administration, noting that 'a lot of people wait until the end of the administration to issue pardons.'" ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Even if [DeSantis' campaign] Twitter rollout had worked smoothly -- which it definitely did not — it would have been a debacle.... Behind these unforced errors lie deeper failures of political judgment by DeSantis, ones that speak to a blinkered and -- for all his cultural populism -- elitist worldview.... [Elon] Musk, while perhaps a genius in some areas, is also often an arrogant screw-up whose projects break down in public. (See: the Tesla Cybertruck's supposedly shatterproof windows or the explosion of the SpaceX Starship.)... DeSantis's decision to make his tacit alliance with Musk such an integral part of his campaign identity suggests a submissive and receding quality.... [DeSantis] speaks the language not of normal people but of right-wing counter-elites, thinkers and activists who come out of the same rarefied milieus as the progressive intellectuals they despise.... When he's speaking to plutocrats on Twitter Spaces, he thinks he's speaking to the people." ~~~

~~~ Marie: There was something else that went wrong with DeSantolini's presidential announcement, and this was something about which he had a couple of weeks' notice -- yet still did nothing to adjust his plans. Sally Goldenberg & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "DeSantis' original plan had been for him to do his first post-announcement interview on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, according to two people familiar with his plans. When the Fox News host was fired, the governor kept his commitment to the network. He appeared with fill-in host Trey Gowdy in the 8 p.m. hour although the cable news channel has seen evening viewership plummet since Carlson's ouster." Good leaders know how to plan. Moreover, if their plans don't work out, they know how to pivot to Plan B or C or D. If DeSantolini had had Lincoln's job during the U.S. Civil War, we'd all be living in slave states and singing "Swanee Ribber." But then today's Ron DeSantolini would be good with that. (Also linked yesterday.)

Randy Rainbow "interviews" Ron DeSantis:

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Andrew Lapin of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "Months before a Miami-area mother persuaded a local school to restrict access to an Amanda Gorman poem, she was posting antisemitic memes on her Facebook page. Now, Daily Salinas is apologizing for one of those things -- and unrepentant about the other. 'I want to apologize to the Jewish community,' Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday. She was saying sorry for a Facebook post she shared in March offering a summary of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' a notorious antisemitic forgery written more than a century ago in Russia. 'I'm not what the post says,' Salinas said. 'I love the Jewish community.'... [Salinas' Facebook] account, which JTA reviewed, features a flood of political posts reflecting right-wing ideologies -- and the antisemitic Protocols." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Marie: This struck me from the JTA story: "[Salinas] added that English is not her first language." She used her unfamiliarity with English as part of her excuse for not knowing about the Protocols. English is my first language, and I've taken a lot of English classes over the years. But I'm still baffled by a lot of poetry that critics tell us is brilliant. Do you suppose Salinas, who admits to having trouble with English, and member of that Miami Lakes school board, just might not "get" Gorman's poem? (Children, on the other hand, have open, receptive minds, and they are as likely as I or more likely than I to interpret the poem in positive ways. But I suppose that's what worries all the wingers: that their own children might grow up to be decent, caring human beings.)

Indiana. This Is Insane. Kim Bellware & Daniel Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: "Indiana's medical licensing board decided late Thursday night to discipline a doctor who made headlines last year for performing an abortion for a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim. The board gave the doctor a letter of reprimand and ordered her to pay a $3,000 fine for violating ethical standards and state laws by discussing the case with a reporter. Indiana's Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita for nearly a year pursued punishment for Caitlin Bernard, an OB/GYN and an assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Medicine who performed the abortion in June 2022, less than a week after Roe v. Wade was struck down, enacting trigger laws." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's precisely why the vindictive Rokita was angry about Dr. Bernard's statements AND why Dr. Bernard spoke up as she did: "She explained how, as a doctor, she felt she had 'an obligation' to ensure Hoosiers understood how abortion bans were affecting people across the country -- and could eventually affect them." Rokita wants to strut around pretending he's a paragon of virtue, and Bernard -- in warning the public -- exposed his cruelty. Bernard threatened Rokita's power over girls and women, and he can't abide that.

Mississippi. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "An unarmed 11-year-old Black boy [-- Aderrien Murry --] in Mississippi was shot by a police officer after he called 911 to report a domestic disturbance to try to protect his mother, his family's attorney said.... The boy was given a cellphone by his mother and told to call the police during a domestic disturbance involving the father of another one of her children, [an attorney for the family] said. After the child called 911, an Indianola police officer who was identified by the attorney as Greg Capers 'had his gun blazing' upon arrival at the home at around 4 a.m., Moore said. When Nakala Murry, the boy's mother, told the officer that no one in the house was armed, the officer yelled out that anyone in the home should come out with their hands up, [the attorney] said. Even though Aderrien adhered to the officer's commands and had his hands up, Capers shot him in the chest...." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ New Jersey. Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Charles Frederick Sharp III had called the police to his home in southwest New Jersey in the middle of the night to report trespassers in his backyard. One was carrying a gun, Mr. Sharp, who spent more than 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, told a 911 dispatcher. Within five seconds of arrival, a police officer had fired multiple shots, fatally wounding Mr. Sharp as he stood outside his home in Mantua, N.J., in September 2021, according to state officials and footage from body cameras worn by police officers. Mr. Sharp, 49, was still on the phone with the police when he was struck. On Wednesday, the state's attorney general announced that a grand jury voted this week to take the rare step of indicting the officer, Salvatore Oldrati, on manslaughter charges." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Can police departments across the U.S. please quit selecting officers for stupid? These cops seem to think that answering a 911 call gives them permission to immediately shoot the first person they see. What's the matter with them?

Texas. James Barragan, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "In an unprecedented move, a Texas House committee voted Thursday to recommend that Attorney General Ken Paxton be impeached and removed from office, citing a yearslong pattern of alleged misconduct and lawbreaking that investigators detailed one day earlier. During a specially called meeting Thursday afternoon, the House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously to refer articles of impeachment to the full chamber. The House will next decide whether to approve articles of impeachment against Paxton, which could remove the attorney general from office pending the outcome of a trial to be conducted by the Senate. If a majority of the 149-member House approves the articles before the regular legislative session ends Monday, senators would need to convene a special session to hear the case." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "At least one person was killed and 15 others injured Friday in a Russian rocket attack on a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a statement.... Ukraine's capital also faced a barrage of missile strikes early Friday -- the thirteenth such attack since the start of May -- regional officials said. No casualties or hits were recorded.... European nations led by Denmark and the Netherlands have agreed to form a coalition providing Ukraine with F-16 pilot training and maintenance, according to U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.... The war could go on for 'decades,' said outspoken Kremlin supporter Dmitry Medvedev.... Japan announced new economic sanctions on Russia Friday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

May 25, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Texas. James Barragan, et al., of the Texas Tribune: "In an unprecedented move, a Texas House committee voted Thursday to recommend that Attorney General Ken Paxton be impeached and removed from office, citing a yearslong pattern of alleged misconduct and lawbreaking that investigators detailed one day earlier. During a specially called meeting Thursday afternoon, the House General Investigating Committee voted unanimously to refer articles of impeachment to the full chamber. The House will next decide whether to approve articles of impeachment against Paxton, which could remove the attorney general from office pending the outcome of a trial to be conducted by the Senate. If a majority of the 149-member House approves the articles before the regular legislative session ends Monday, senators would need to convene a special session to hear the case."

** Scenes from a Heist. Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two of Donald Trump’s employees moved boxes of papers the day before FBI agents and a prosecutor visited the former president's Florida home to retrieve classified documents in response to a subpoena -- timing that investigators have come to view as suspicious and an indication of possible obstruction, according to people familiar with the matter. Trump and his aides also allegedly carried out a 'dress rehearsal' for moving sensitive papers even before his office received the May 2022 subpoena, according to the people familiar with the matter.... Prosecutors in addition have gathered evidence indicating that Trump at times kept classified documents in his office in a place where they were visible and sometimes showed them to others, these people said. Taken together, the new details of the classified-documents investigation suggest a greater breadth and specificity to the instances of possible obstruction found by the FBI and Justice Department than has been previously reported." Read on.

** Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia, was sentenced on Thursday to 18 years in prison for his conviction on seditious conspiracy charges for the role he played in helping to mobilize the pro-Trump attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The sentence, handed down in Federal District Court in Washington, was the most severe penalty so far in the more than 1,000 criminal cases stemming from the Capitol attack -- and the first to be increased for fitting the legal definition of terrorism. It was also the first to have been given to any of the 10 members of the Oath Keepers and another far-right group, the Proud Boys, who were convicted of sedition in connection with the events of Jan. 6." Read on. Rhodes remains an unrepentant danger to society. ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Rabinowitz & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A second Oath Keepers member, Kelly Meggs, the leader of the Florida contingent of the group, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The sentences are the first handed down in over a decade for seditious conspiracy."

** Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to police water pollution, ruling that the Clean Water Act does not allow the agency to regulate discharges into some wetlands near bodies of water. The court held that law covers only wetlands 'with a continuous surface connection' to those waters, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for five justices. The decision was nominally unanimous, with all the justices agreeing that the homeowners who brought the case should not have been subject to the agency's oversight. But there was sharp disagreement about the majority's reasoning. Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, joined by the three liberal justices in a concurring opinion, said the decision would harm the E.P.A.'s ability to combat pollution." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The obvious fix for Sam & the Gang's ruling is for Congress to amend the Clean Water Act to include the bodies of water the EPA wants to regulate. Let's just ask My Kevin & Miss Margie to draft some legislation (ha ha ha).

Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Stephen K. Bannon ... is scheduled to stand trial in May of next year for what prosecutors say was his role in defrauding Americans who paid money toward the construction of a southern border wall, a judge said Thursday. The judge, Juan M. Merchan, said that while the May 27, 2024 trial was later than he had anticipated -- he had originally considered a November date -- he was satisfied with the schedule proposed by Mr. Bannon's lawyers as long as prosecutors with the Manhattan district attorney's office were satisfied. A prosecutor, Daniel Passeser, said that he was."

Marie: There was something else that went wrong with DeSantis' presidential announcement, and this was something about which he had a couple of weeks' notice -- and still did nothing to adjust his plans. Sally Goldenberg & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "DeSantis' original plan had been for him to do his first post-announcement interview on Fox News with Tucker Carlson, according to two people familiar with his plans. When the Fox News host was fired, the governor kept his commitment to the network. He appeared with fill-in host Trey Gowdy in the 8 p.m. hour although the cable news channel has seen evening viewership plummet since Carlson's ouster." Good leaders know how to plan. Moreover, if their plans don't work out, they know how to pivot to Plan B or C or D. If DeSantolini had had Lincoln's job during the U.S. Civil War, we'd all be living in slave states and singing "Swanee Ribber." But then today's Ron DeSantolini would be good with that.

Florida. Andrew Lapin of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "Months before a Miami-area mother persuaded a local school to restrict access to an Amanda Gorman poem, she was posting antisemitic memes on her Facebook page. Now, Daily Salinas is apologizing for one of those things -- and unrepentant about the other. 'I want to apologize to the Jewish community,' Salinas told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Wednesday. She was saying sorry for a Facebook post she shared in March offering a summary of 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,' a notorious antisemitic forgery written more than a century ago in Russia. 'I'm not what the post says,' Salinas said. 'I love the Jewish community.'... [Salinas' Facebook] account, which JTA reviewed, features a flood of political posts reflecting right-wing ideologies -- and the antisemitic Protocols." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This struck me from the JTA story: "[Salinas] added that English is not her first language." She used her unfamiliarity with English as part of her excuse for not knowing about the Protocols. English is my first language, and I've taken a lot of English classes over the years. But I'm still baffled by a lot of poetry that critics tell us is billiant. Do you suppose Salinas, who admits to having trouble with English, and member of that Miami Lakes school board, just might not "get" Gorman's poem? (Children, on the other hand, have open, receptive minds, and they are as likely as I or more likely than I to interpret the poem in positive ways. But I suppose that's what worries all the wingers: that their own children might grow up to be decent, caring human beings.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Leigh Ann Caldwell, et al., of the Washington Post: "House Democratic lawmakers are voicing frustration over President Biden's approach to negotiating a debt ceiling deal with Republicans, worrying that their priorities are not being championed aggressively enough and that Biden hasn't more forcefully pushed back publicly against Republican demands.... Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), who has served in the House for almost 30 years, encouraged Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) during Democrats' weekly caucus meeting Tuesday to ask the president to immediately address the nation, detailing how Republicans are toying with the economy and explaining that a default would catastrophically affect their lives. Jeffries acknowledged Jackson Lee's request and assured lawmakers that he and his leadership team would take a more aggressive approach to messaging while the White House adheres to a strategy of keeping negotiation behind closed doors." ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Every House Democrat has endorsed the discharge petition to force a vote on legislation to hike the debt ceiling and prevent a default, party leaders announced Wednesday. The signatures of the last final holdouts -- Reps. Jared Golden (D-Maine) and Ed Case (D-Hawaii) -- puts the total number at 213, meaning Democratic leaders still need to find five Republicans if the petition is to be successful. 'It takes a handful of members of the GOP to say, "Enough,"' Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the Democratic whip, told reporters in the Capitol. That's a heavy lift, since it would require GOP lawmakers to buck the wishes of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who is in tense negotiations with the White House over a debt-ceiling package and is opposed to a vote on the 'clean' debt-limit hike preferred by Democrats." (Also linked yesterday evening.) ~~~

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Pfeiffer of the Message Box: "When speaking with reporters about his 'negotiations' with the White House over extending the debt limit, [Kevin] McCarthy was asked what concessions his side was willing to make. Were the Republicans willing to raise taxes on the wealthy? Close a single tax loophole? Provide additional funding for one of [President] Biden's priorities? Nope. McCarthy responded: 'We're going to raise the debt ceiling.' And with that one sentence, the Speaker of the House admitted ... [that] what is happening between the White House and the House Republicans is not a negotiation; it's extortion, pure and simple.... The Republican position is this: give us what we want or we will blow up the global economy. McCarthy admits that if his requests aren't met, he will let the U.S. default on its obligations. That's not a negotiation. And the media should stop calling it that.... The legacy media is incapable of accurately portraying the MAGA era of American politics."

     ~~~ Monmouth University: "Half of Americans say the debt ceiling issue should be dealt with cleanly, while just 1 in 4 want to tie it to federal spending negotiations, according to the Monmouth ... University Poll. A plurality agrees with predictions that the country will suffer significant economic problems if the debt ceiling is not raised -- a view that increases to a clear majority among those who have been paying a lot of attention to the issue." (Also linked yesterday evening.)

Helene Cooper of the New York Times: "President Biden intends to nominate Gen. Charles Q. Brown, the Air Force chief of staff, on Thursday to become the country's most senior military officer, formalizing what had been one of the worst kept secrets in Washington. If confirmed by the Senate, General Brown would be only the second Black man, after Colin L. Powell, to hold the job of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the senior military adviser to the president. General Brown would succeed Gen. Mark A. Milley, whose term has spanned four tumultuous years that encompassed efforts by ... Donald J. Trump to use active-duty troops against American protesters; the riots at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021; the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan; and the war in Ukraine."

Jared Gans of the Hill: "The White House on Wednesday ripped GOP Reps. James Comer (Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) for what it called 'bizarre' congressional probes of President Biden and his family members, arguing that the investigations are politically motivated. White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a memo that Comer, who serves as the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and other members of the panel have 'aggressively' pursued politically motivated investigations of Biden and his family that are designed to hurt Biden personally instead of look into potential wrongdoing.... Sams also pointed to an interview that Comer gave Fox News on Monday in which he connected the investigation into the Biden family to the poll numbers showing former President Trump improving in his standing in a hypothetical matchup against Biden in 2024."

Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of the Washington Post: "As the Supreme Court deliberates the future of President Biden's student loan forgiveness program, the House voted Wednesday to overturn the controversial plan to cancel more than $400 billion in debt, as well as restart loan payments for tens of millions of borrowers. The 218-to-203 vote fell largely along party lines, with two Democrats -- Reps. Jared Golden (Maine) and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.) -- joining Republicans in endorsing a resolution to scrap the president's plan to cancel up to $20,000 of federal student debt per eligible borrower. The measure would also end the pause on federal student loan payments, a policy first introduced by the Trump administration in response to the coronavirus pandemic more than three years ago. The resolution also would prevent the Education Department from pursuing similar policies in the future. The measure now heads to the Senate, but Biden has already threatened a veto if it passes."

Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Democrats in the House chamber burst into raucous laughter when Marjorie Taylor Greene called for 'decorum'. The far-right Georgia Republican, controversialist and conspiracy theorist was presiding over the House on Wednesday as Steve Scalise, the Republican majority leader, was speaking." ~~~

Gail Collins of the New York Times: "Dianne Feinstein is giving old age a bad name.... It's time for her to set a good example and retire immediately. The country shouldn't discriminate against older workers, and older workers shouldn't insist on staying in jobs they can no longer really carry out."

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "In the last two fiscal years, federal judges considering appeals for denied [Social Security] benefits found fault with almost 6 in every 10 cases and sent them back to administrative law judges at Social Security for a new hearing -- the highest rate of rejections in years, agency statistics show. Court remands are on pace to reach similar levels this year. Federal judges have complained of legal errors, inaccurate assessments of whether claimants can work, failures to consider medical evidence and factual mistakes.... The scathing opinions have come from trial and appellate judges across the political spectrum.... The high rate of rejections for cases handled by administrative law judges and the attorneys who write their decisions is driven by stringent monthly quotas set by Social Security officials and growing pressure to deny more cases, according to current and former officials, audits and attorneys who represent the disabled.... The result has been an unmistakable shift to an adversarial disability system...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Don't worry, folks. If Congressional Republicans have their way, Social Security won't be paying any benefits at all. Lorie Konish of CNBC: "... experts are warning that Social Security checks could be at risk if there is a default. Based on the payment schedule for those monthly payments, the oldest and poorest beneficiaries could be the first who may have their payments affected, according to Kathleen Romig, director of Social Security and disability policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities."

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "An Arkansas man who became notorious for putting his foot on a desk in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office during the attack on the Capitol by supporters of ... Donald J. Trump was sentenced on Wednesday to four and a half years in prison. The man, Richard 'Bigo' Barnett, was found guilty at a trial in January of eight criminal offenses, including interfering with law enforcement during a civil disorder and obstructing the certification of the 2020 election that took place at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. After deliberating for less than three hours, a jury in Federal District Court in Washington rejected Mr. Barnett's testimony that he had ended up in Ms. Pelosi's office suite while looking for a bathroom and that the 950,000-volt stun gun he was carrying that day was not working." The NBC News story is here.

Melanie Zanona, et al., of CNN: Former Congressman & White House Chief of Staff Mark "Meadows is viewed as a critical first-hand witness to the investigations of both special counsel Jack Smith and Georgia's Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis. He's been ordered to testify before the grand jury in both investigations, and to provide documents to the special counsel after a judge rejected [Donald] Trump's claims of executive privilege.... It is unclear whether Meadows has responded to the special counsel's requests or appeared in front of that grand jury in Washington.... A source close to Trump's legal team said Trump's lawyers have had no contact with Meadows and his team and are in the dark on what Meadows is doing in the investigation, fueling speculation about whether Meadows is cooperating with the special counsel's probe -- or if Meadows himself is a target of the investigation.... One Trump adviser told CNN. 'No one really knows what he's doing....'" This story is largely about how Meadows advised MAGA-crazed members of the House on how to game out the disastrous House speaker selection process and how he's now advising them to blow up the economy in the debt-ceiling hostage-taking.

Trump, More Crazy After All These Years. Isaac Arnsdorf, et al., of the Washington Post: "On ... a host of subjects, from sexual assault to foreign and domestic policy, Trumps positions have become even more extreme, his tone more confrontational, his accounts less tethered to reality, according to a Washington Post review of Trump's speeches and interviews with former aides. Where he was at times ambiguous or equivocal, he's now brazenly defiant.... To experts who have reviewed his proposals, Trump is sketching out the contours of a second term potentially more dangerous and chaotic than his first. Critics across the political spectrum have voiced alarm at his increasingly menacing rhetoric. [For instance:] Not only has Trump never acknowledged his defeat in the 2020 presidential election, but over time his false claims of rampant fraud have become more elaborate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrea Cambron, et al., of CNN: "A man arrested for having an AK-47 on school property walked up to the CIA Headquarters' gate in Virginia and allegedly said, 'I'm here and I have a gun,' a law enforcement source told CNN. Uniformed federal officers turned him away at the gate Tuesday and notified Fairfax County police of his description, the source said Wednesday. The suspect, identified as 32-year-old Eric Sandow of Gainesville, Florida, was later arrested and charged with felony possession of a firearm on school property, police said. He allegedly trespassed on the grounds of Dolley Madison Preschool around 11 a.m. Tuesday, police said. The preschool is less than 1.5 miles from CIA Headquarters and about a 10-minute drive to major landmarks in Washington, DC, including the National Mall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: "The man with a Nazi flag who authorities say crashed a U-Haul truck into a security barrier outside the White House Monday and told investigators he would kill President Biden is not a U.S. citizen or lawful resident, a prosecutor said in court Wednesday.... [At a hearing Wednesday,] Magistrate Judge Robin M. Meriweather ordered Kandula held until a bond hearing on Tuesday."

David Ingram of NBC News: "Elon Musk's claims that he'd bring political balance to Twitter were already under heavy scrutiny given his ongoing embrace of Republican politicians and far-right politics. Now, after joining Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as he announced his presidential bid, the idea has taken hold among the left that Twitter is just another part of the conservative media apparatus. Democratic strategists said the joint Musk-DeSantis event was only the latest example of the tech billionaire aligning himself and Twitter with increasingly conservative politics in a rightward shift from the San Francisco company's previous identity.... The roughly hour-long event featured a series of people tapped to ask questions, all of whom were well-known conservative pundits and operatives who almost universally fawned over DeSantis. And those questions almost entirely centered on GOP culture war politics: Covid lockdowns, government overreach, the mainstream media, immigration, critical race theory and even bitcoin regulation." Much more on the DeSantis rollout linked below. ~~~

~~~ The technical problems that delayed the DeSantis-Musk event by more than 20 minutes and greatly reduced the live audience were a disaster for both DeSantis & his lovely host Elon Musk:

     ~~~ Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "The technical problems on Wednesday showed how Twitter is operating far from seamlessly, turning what was supposed to be a crowning event for Mr. Musk into something of an embarrassment.... As the Twitter audio livestream faltered, the reaction -- including on Twitter itself -- was shock and scorn that what should have been a carefully choreographed announcement of a presidential run had stumbled so badly.... Inside Twitter, employees had been alarmed by Mr. Musk's turn into politics and whether the social media site could handle the influx of traffic, three employees said. There was no planning for what are known as 'site reliability issues' for the event with Mr. DeSantis, two ... people said.... Mr. Musk later said that his account, which has 140 million followers and which promoted and launched the livestream, had brought in too many listeners and that Twitter's systems had been unable to handle them. Twitter's systems recovered, the employees said, but the restarted livestream with Mr. DeSantis had a smaller audience, with about 275,000 listeners. Even before the glitches, the event had drawn criticism, especially since Mr. Musk has said Twitter is a politically neutral platform." ~~~

~~~ Presidential Farce 2024.

     ~~~ Via Steve M. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

New York Times liveblog: "Ron DeSantis's long-awaited official entry into the 2024 presidential campaign went haywire at its start on Wednesday during a glitch-filled livestream over Twitter.... On Wednesday, Mr. DeSantis's official run for the White House got off to an embarrassing start as the planned livestream with Twitter's eccentric billionaire owner, Elon Musk, was marred by technical problems and dead air. The audio cut in and out amid talk of 'melting the servers,' hot mic whispering and on-the-spot troubleshooting.... The extended social media hiccup -- as more than 500,000 people were waiting -- was gleefully cheered on the very platform Mr. DeSantis was supposed to be commandeering for his campaign. Donald Trump Jr. wrote a single word: '#DeSaster.' Mr. Biden posted a donation button to his re-election campaign with the words, 'This link works.' The audience when Mr. DeSantis did deliver his remarks was smaller than it had been during the initial minutes when no one was speaking." The article, which is the item pinned to the top of the liveblog, goes on to discuss DeSantis' strengths (a rich campaign chest) & weaknesses (he's Ron DeSantis). ~~~

     ~~~ An NBC News story is here. Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "The Florida governor has been preparing for months to run for president, but his official campaign launch committed a cardinal political sin -- offering his opponents, especially ... Donald Trump, an opening to turn him into an object of ridicule.... The cliche that the best day of any presidential candidate's campaign is when they first announce will not apply to DeSantis, who managed to obliterate his own message. And even when the event got up and running, it felt more like a fan fest for Musk, as various conservative opinion leaders called in to boost DeSantis but seemed more effusive about his host.... DeSantis ... had almost nothing to say to Americans who do not share his stark conservative ideology. There was no outreach to a wider, less partisan audience. And no sense that DeSantis, if elected, would represent all Americans or has any vision for how he would lead the Western world at a time of great international instability." ~~~

~~~ Josh Marshall of TPM: "One way to summarize the conversation was that about 50% of it was various guests saying Elon Musk is totally awesome; the other 40% was DeSantis saying DeSantis is totally awesome. I'm budgeting 10% for times the connection crashed.... The one through-line that united most of these together was relitigating COVID lockdowns.... Most people probably wouldn't even know half the things these guys were talking about. Lots of jargon, very inside stuff.... Toward the end when they got deep into the 'woke mob', weaponized banking and more an excited [David] Sacks [-- a venture capitalist/DeSantis backer who joined the conversation --] said President DeSantis would be a 'cool headed ruthless assassin' destroying the woke mob. To most people that kind of language is a mix of laughable and disturbing. Most people aren't trying to elect a chief ninja or a mass shooter." ~~~

~~~ Matt Flegenheimer of the New York Times: "The Florida governor's chosen rollout venue was always going to be a risk, an aural gamble on Mr. Musk, a famously capricious and oxygen-stealing co-star, and the persuasive powers of Mr. DeSantis's own disembodied voice.... Twitter's streaming tool, known as Spaces, has been historically glitchy. Executive competence, core to the DeSantis campaign message, was conspicuously absent. And for a politician credibly accused through the years of being incorrigibly online -- a former DeSantis aide said he regularly read his Twitter mentions -- the event amounted to hard confirmation, a zeitgeisty exercise devolving instead into a conference call from hell.... At 6:26 p.m., Mr. DeSantis finally announced himself, long after his campaign had announced his intentions, reading from a script that often parroted an introduction video and an email sent to reporters more than 20 minutes earlier." ~~~

Ben Schreckinger of Politico: "With Donald Trump holding a lock on the populist right, and the remnants of the GOP establishment split between several low-polling alternatives, Ron DeSantis is casting in his lot with a third group: very online, anti-'woke' Silicon Valley moguls.... DeSantis' decision to announce his presidential run on Twitter Spaces, scheduled for Wednesday evening with Elon Musk and the outspoken venture capitalist David Sacks, represents an embrace of a strain of right-leaning, anti-establishment politics that has gained currency in recent years among the tech set.... By announcing his run with the two moguls on Twitter Spaces, DeSantis is betting that his ultra-wealthy supporters will be useful not just for writing checks, but for framing his campaign for public consumption." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Schreckinger never mentions how perfect it is that a guy who can't stand to associate with the hoi polloi launches his presidential campaign in the company of one of the world's richest people and a wealthy venture capitalist. What he needed to do was establish some bona fides with the unwashed masses. Instead, he sent a clear signal that he'd rather hang with smarmy billionaires. (As Steve M. put it in a headline the other day, "DeSANTIS: I WANT TO BE YOUR PRESIDENT, EVEN THOUGH I HATE PEOPLE.")

Jared Gans of the Hill: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) cleared his own path to keep his current position while running for president, signing a bill that will allow him to remain as governor while being a presidential candidate. DeSantis announced in a release on Wednesday that he signed 20 bills, including one that will create an exception to a state election law that has required official candidates for federal office to resign from their positions if the terms of the two posts would overlap were the candidate [t]o win their race. The bill that DeSantis signed will exempt candidates for president or vice president from the resign-to-run law."

Beyond the Beltway

Gloria Oladipo of the Guardian: "Cities across the US have agreed to pay out a total of more than $80m in settlements to protesters injured by police during 2020 racial justice protests -- a figure experts believe is unprecedented and will rise further as many lawsuits are still playing out.... Litigation has done little to curb excessive force and police departments face no direct financial consequences.... Individual officers are also largely spared from criminal charges."

Florida. Alisha Ebrahimji of CNN: "Minorities, immigrants and now members of the LGBTQ community are being warned of the risks of visiting Florida after the nation's largest LGBTQ advocacy group issued a travel advisory following newly passed laws and policies that may be harmful to people in those communities. On Tuesday, the Human Rights Campaign in partnership with Equality Florida, a state LGBTQ advocacy group, issued an updated travel notice outlining potential impacts of six bills that were recently passed, many of which have already been signed by the state's Republican governor, Ron DeSantis. 'While not a blanket recommendation against travel nor a call for boycott, the travel advisory outlines the devastating impacts of laws that are hostile to the LGBTQ community,' the advocacy group said in a statement. Over the weekend, the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida 'in direct response to ... DeSantis' aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools.' And days earlier, LULAC -- the League of United Latin American Citizens -- issued its travel advisory after DeSantis signed a new immigration law that will go into effect in July."

Florida. Maham Javaid & Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: "Here is what you need to know about the challenges [poet Amanda] Gorman's book faces[.]... [A Miami-area] school district denied the book was banned or removed but acknowledged moving it so elementary school students had limited access to it." See also Akhilleus' comments in yesterday's thread on the banning of Gorman's poem.

South Carolina. Meredith Deliso of ABC News: "A grand jury has indicted convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, on federal fraud charges, prosecutors announced Wednesday. Murdaugh, 54, is currently serving life in prison after being convicted of murdering his wife and their youngest son. The federal grand jury returned a 22-count indictment against Murdaugh for conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud; bank fraud; wire fraud; and money laundering, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina said.... The alleged schemes involved routing clients' settlement funds to his own accounts as well as a fake account under the name 'Forge,' as well as conspiring with a banker to commit wire fraud and bank fraud. The banker, Russell Laffitte, was convicted on six federal charges in connection with the scheme in November 2022, prosecutors said. The indictment further alleges that Murdaugh conspired with another personal injury attorney to defraud the estate of his former housekeeper, Gloria Satterfield, who died after a fall at Murdaugh's home in February 2018, and funnel nearly $3.5 million into his 'fake Forge' account 'for his own personal enrichment,' prosecutors said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "The barely concealed disdain brewing for months among top Republicans in Texas burst into public view this week when the attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is under indictment, accused the speaker of the Texas House of performing his duties while drunk and called for the speaker's resignation. The move on Tuesday sent a shock through Austin. Then, less than an hour later, word came that Mr. Paxton might have had a personal motive for attacking the speaker, Dade Phelan: A House committee had subpoenaed records from Mr. Paxton's office, as part of an inquiry into the attorney general's request for $3.3 million in state money to settle corruption allegations brought against him by his own former high-ranking aides." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jack Despart & James Barragan of the Texas Tribune: "A Texas House committee heard stunning testimony Wednesday from investigators over allegations of a yearslong pattern of misconduct and questionable actions by Attorney General Ken Paxton, the result of a probe the committee had secretly authorized in March. In painstaking and methodical detail in a rare public forum, four investigators for the House General Investigating Committee testified that they believe Paxton broke numerous state laws, misspent office funds and misused his power to benefit a friend and political donor." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. Joyce Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the year since the Robb Elementary School massacre in Uvalde, Tex., much of the blame for law enforcement's decision to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman has centered on the former chief of the school district's small police force. But a Washington Post investigation has found that the costly delay was also driven by the inaction of an array of senior and supervising law enforcement officers who remain on the job and had direct knowledge a shooting was taking place inside classrooms but failed to swiftly stop the gunman." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu signed an agreement Thursday with his counterpart in neighboring Belarus, allowing for the storage of tactical nuclear weapons on the Russian ally's territory.... At the same time, he underlined that Russia 'is not giving nuclear weapons to Belarus' and that control over their use and deployment remains 'in the hands' of Moscow. [MB: That's reassuring.]... The delivery of the first F-16 fighter jet to Ukraine will be 'one of the strongest signals from the world that Russia will only lose,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his nightly address Wednesday.... Russia's Wagner forces began a planned withdrawal from Bakhmut, the mercenary group's chief, Yevgeniy Prigozhin, said in a video Thursday.... Regular Russian army units replaced Wagner forces in Bakhmut's suburbs, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said in a Telegram message Thursday." ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Andrew Kramer & Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "Fresh from leading a military incursion into Russian territory, commanders of anti-Kremlin armed groups on Wednesday taunted the Russian Army for its slow response and threatened Moscow with more raids to come. Russia, they told reporters at a news conference in a forest clearing in northern Ukraine near the border, should now understand that any section of the long frontier may become a new place that Moscow will be compelled to defend. Military analysts suggested that the cross-border attack in the region of Belgorod on Monday and Tuesday had twin goals, military and political. It appeared aimed at forcing Russia to divert badly needed troops from the front in eastern and southern Ukraine, even as Ukraine prepares a counteroffensive. And it threatened to embarrass President Vladimir V. Putin's government by showing Russia's vulnerability." ~~~

~~~ Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "As Russia vowed to respond 'extremely harshly' to a rare, two-day border incursion by pro-Ukrainian fighters, the leader of Russia's largest mercenary force warned that it faced further setbacks unless its ruling elite took drastic, and likely unpopular, measures to win the war. 'The most likely scenario for us in a special operation would not be a good one," Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group, said in a profanity-laced interview with a pro-Kremlin political observer published late Tuesday on the Telegram messaging platform. 'We are in such a condition that we could lose Russia,' he continued, his speech laced with profanity. 'We have to prepare for a very hard war that will result in hundreds of thousands of casualties." A related AP story is here.

Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "U.S. officials said the drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month was likely orchestrated by one of Ukraine's special military or intelligence units, the latest in a series of covert actions against Russian targets that have unnerved the Biden administration. U.S. intelligence agencies do not know which unit carried out the attack and it was unclear whether President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine or his top officials were aware of the operation, though some officials believe Mr. Zelensky was not.... U.S. officials say their level of confidence that the Ukrainian government directly authorized the Kremlin drone attack is 'low' but that is because intelligence agencies do not yet have specific evidence identifying which government officials, Ukrainian units or operatives were involved."