The Conversation -- May 27, 2024

This Memorial Day, Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?

We gather at this sacred place, at this solemn moment, to remember, to honor the sacrifice of the hundreds of thousands of women and men who have given their lives to this nation. Each one, literally ... a link in the chain of honor stretching back to our founding days, each one bound by common commitment; not to a place, not to a person, not to a president, but to an idea unlike any idea in human history: the idea of the United States of America. Today, we bear witness to the price they paid. -- President Joe Biden, Arlington National Cemetery, Memorial Day 2024

A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all 'suckers' because 'there is nothing in it for them.' A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because 'it doesn't look good for me.' A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family -- for all Gold Star families -- on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America's defense are 'losers' and wouldn't visit their graves in France.... God help us. -- Gen. John Kelly, remembering Donald Trump

Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country. -- Donald Trump, in a post Memorial Day 2024

Jonathan Swan & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: Whatever the verdict in his 2016 election interference criminal case, Donald Trump will be a dick about it. "If the past is any guide, even with a full acquittal, Mr. Trump will be angry and vengeful, and will direct attacks against everyone he perceives to be responsible for the Manhattan district attorney's prosecution. He will continue to level the attacks publicly, at rallies and on Truth Social, and privately encourage his House Republican allies to subpoena his Democratic enemies."

Presidential Race

Aaron Pellish of CNN: "Chase Oliver won the Libertarian Party presidential nomination on Sunday after seven rounds of voting at the party's convention in Washington, DC. The 38-year-old, who has previously run for Congress multiple times in Georgia, focused his pitch on making Libertarian values palatable to a broader audience." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ The Losers. Aaron Pellish of CNN: In the first round of voting, "independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was eliminated from contention for the Libertarian Party's presidential nomination during the party's convention Sunday.... Donald Trump was also nominated on the convention floor Sunday, but Libertarian Party Chair Angela McArdle ruled the former president was not qualified because he did not submit nominating papers. Trump spoke Saturday at the convention, where he was loudly and consistently booed...."

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Louisiana. GOP v. Earth. Shannon Osaka of the Washington Post: "For the past decade, Louisiana's program for coastal protection has been hailed as one of the best in the country, after the devastation from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita pushed the state to shore up coastlines, repair levees and protect natural habitats. But now, environmental advocates and experts say the state's new Republican governor is undermining its coastal protection agency -- the state's first and strongest line of defense against climate change-induced sea level rise. In an open letter published this week and signed by more than 200 business leaders, environmental advocates and other experts, various groups warned against Gov. Jeff Landry's plans to transform the state's Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority.... Environmentalists say that the new governor's actions could hobble the agency just as its work is most needed. The moves come as other right-leaning states are also cutting back on climate goals and even references to climate change."

Texas. Robert Downen & Renzo Downey of the Texas Tribune: "Republican Party of Texas delegates voted Saturday on a platform that called for new laws to require the Bible to be taught in public schools and a constitutional amendment that would require statewide elected leaders to win the popular vote in a majority of Texas counties. Other proposed planks of the 50-page platform included proclamations that 'abortion is not healthcare it is homicide'; that gender-transition treatment for children is 'child abuse'; calls to reverse recent name changes to military bases and 'publicly honor the southern heroes'; support for declaring gold and silver as legal tender; and demands that the U.S. government disclose 'all pertinent information and knowledge' of UFOs. The party hopes to finalize its platform on Wednesday, after Saturday's votes on each proposal are tabulated." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: I suppose the UFO thing wouldn't be so bad -- until you consider that it would not be there but for the tinfoil-hat vote.

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Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 35 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people in Rafah on Sunday, according to Gazan authorities. The Israeli military claimed it struck a Hamas compound in the area, killing two senior officials from the militant group. Sirens sounded in Tel Aviv and parts of central Israel on Sunday after rockets were fired at the city for the first time in months, according to the Israeli military. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.... Israel's government is facing an unprecedented level of diplomatic pressure over its war in Gaza, while also dealing with dissent at home. The Rafah strike comes days after the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to halt its offensive in the city." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates Monday are here.

News Ledes

New York Times: "More than 2,000 people were buried alive in the landslide that smothered a Papua New Guinea village and work camp on Friday in the country's remote northern highlands, the authorities told the United Nations on Monday."

New York Times: "More than 600,000 customers across 13 states from Texas to Pennsylvania had no power early Monday morning, after powerful storms and tornadoes over the weekend left at least 18 people dead."

The Conversation -- May 26, 2024

Lauren Egan of Politico: "President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at the United States Military Academy on Saturday, leaning into themes about the importance of protecting democracy. Speaking on a sunny spring morning in an outdoor stadium..., Biden called the graduating class 'guardians of American democracy' and stressed that maintaining freedom required 'constant vigilance.'... Biden never mentioned ... Donald Trump by name. But his emphasis on duty, democracy and protecting the Constitution had clear political undertones and underscored a central message of his reelection bid." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Bidenreminded the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday that their oath is to the Constitution, not any political party or president, delivering an implicit rebuke of ... Donald Trump. In his 22-minute commencement address, Biden ... made clear that he was referring to his Republican opponent by pointing to a letter that was a clear reprimand of Trump's leadership. The open letter, signed by more than 1,000 West Point alumni, was addressed to the graduating class of 2020 before Trump delivered the commencement address here. It came just days after military police helped forcibly clear peaceful protesters outside the White House ahead of a Trump photo op. The alumni reminded that year's graduating class that they pledge service to 'no monarch; no government; no political party; no tyrant.' 'Remember what over 1,000 graduates of West Point wrote to the class of 2020 four years ago,' Biden said. 'The oath you've taken here "has no expiration date," they said.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

If you want to know why President Biden is behind in the polls, you need only look at the results of this survey, also linked here last week: ~~~

~~~ Lauren Aratani of the Guardian: "Nearly three in five Americans wrongly believe the US is in an economic recession, and the majority blame the Biden administration, according to a Harris poll conducted exclusively for the Guardian. The survey found persistent pessimism about the economy as election day draws closer. The poll highlighted many misconceptions people have about the economy, including: 55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing. 49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year. 49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low."

Trump Booed & Heckled. Michael Gold & Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's appearance before the Libertarian Party on Saturday was without modern precedent: the presumptive nominee of one party addressing the convention of another.... Mr. Trump's speech was delivered to an audience that included supporters wearing red MAGA hats, as well as Libertarians who were resentful of his presence at the convention where they will select their own presidential nominee. Throughout his remarks, the room's warring factions tried to drown each other out.... By and large, any moments of concord were eclipsed by raucous dissent..... Mr. Trump appeared irked by the chaotic atmosphere. He seemed to rush through his speech, appearing to stick to prepared remarks...." Reuters' report is here.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times on how Donald Trump is still stuck in the greed-is-good '80s.(Also linked yesterday.)

RAS was wondering last week why it took more than three years to learn that Insurrectionist Sam & his Little Missus were flying a symbol of the January 6 rioters just days after the attempted coup. Well, that seems to be because the Washington Post decided not to tell us about it. So far, in all of our (okay, two) encounters over the years with Mrs. Alito, we have found that she is a highly-strung sort of person who does not handle questions well, so not well-suited to be the spouse of a public figure. ~~~

~~~ Signs of Distress. Justin Jouvenal & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was 'an international signal of distress' and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute. Martha-Ann Alito made the comments when the reporter went to the couple's Fairfax County, Va., home to follow up on a tip about the flag, which was no longer flying when he arrived. The incident documented by reporter Robert Barnes, who covered the Supreme Court for The Post for 17 years and retired last year, offers fresh details about the raising of the flag and the first account of comments about it by the justice's wife. The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said....

"Barnes ... encountered the [Alitos] coming out of the house. Martha-Ann Alito was visibly upset by his presence, demanding that he 'get off my property.' As he described the information he was seeking, she yelled, 'It's an international signal of distress!' ... Alito intervened and directed his wife into a car parked in their driveway.... The justice denied the flag was hung upside down as a political protest, saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute and indicating that his wife had raised it. Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: 'Ask them what they did!' She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. 'There! Is that better?' she yelled.... One resident ... said the flag flew for between two and five days." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ digby: "Thomas and Alito are letting their wives do their blatant partisan activism for them while they use their lifetime appointments to enact their agenda from the bench. Just as Trump is using his surrogates to get around the gag order, these two wingnuts are using their wives to circumvent the rules and the laws they are supposed to be protecting. And since they're completely shameless, they are daring anyone to do something about it."

~~~ Marie: Martha-Ann's over-the-top response to a question I expect was delivered in a respectful manner is such that it merits reporting no matter what expressed sentiments Martha-Ann let fly in her extended melodramatic tantrum. And the Post's excuse for not reporting the story is as good as the media's for not reporting JFK's sexcapades or FDR's long love affair with Lucy Mercer, his useless legs or his failing health. It's a throwback to the good ole days of "journalism," when it was not "gentlemanly" to report inconvenient facts. ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Chris Geitner, the Law Dork: "In a series of paragraphs that are up there as being among the most shocking I have read in my journalistic career, the Post acknowledged on Saturday -- dropped in the middle of the holiday weekend, more than a week after the Times's report -- that they had known about the flag since at least January 20, 2021, and had not revealed knowledge of it until May 25, 2024.... The explanation given by the Post for failing to report the story in 2021 -- in the days after the insurrection -- is unacceptably vague and woefully inadequate for a paper whose motto is 'Democracy Dies in Darkness.' ... Who made that decision, and do they still have any role at the Post? And who all knew about it?... Perhaps most astonishing to me, why was this not reported in March 2022, when The Washington Post broke significant news about Ginni Thomas's texts to Mark Meadows urging him to take action to overturn the election.... Worse still, why did the Post still withhold this story from the public in its day-two follow-up report from Barnes himself, along with Marimow, about the ethics of a justice's participation in cases relating to January 6 when his wife had supported those efforts."

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "If flying one of these two [insurrectionists'] flags was enough, along with his sympathetic posture toward the insurrectionists in recent oral arguments, to raise suspicions about Alito's allegiances, then flying both is as close as we'll likely get to clear confirmation that he stands, ideologically, with the men and women who tried to overturn the Constitution for the sake of Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday.)

What do you do if on your busiest work days, you find yourself sitting between Clarence Thomas & Neil Gorsuch: ~~~

~~~ Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "Some days, after Justice Sonia Sotomayor listens to the Supreme Court announce its decisions, she goes into her chambers, shuts the door and weeps.... The comments about the challenges of being a liberal on a court dominated by conservatives came at the tail end of a public conversation with her friend and law school classmate, Martha Minow, a former dean of Harvard Law School and human rights scholar. The justice set a tone of optimism even as she voiced frustration with some of the court's rulings, a possible signal that the end of the term, when the most high-profile decisions typically land, could bring more conservative victories. She urged a long-term view of pushing for the values she views as guiding principles -- equality, diversity and justice."

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California. Kim Bellware of the Washington Post: "Over 17 hours of police interrogation, detectives falsely claimed Thomas Perez Jr.'s father was dead, suggested his dog would be euthanized when Perez went to prison for killing him, denied him anxiety and blood pressure medications, and extracted a confession for a murder that never happened, according to court records and video of the questioning. The 2018 interrogation by Fontana, Calif., police kicked off a years-long legal battle that appeared headed for trial before the city agreed to settle Perez's federal lawsuit for nearly $900,000. The city council in Fontana, about 46 miles east of Los Angeles, approved the agreement this month."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Protesters clashed with police in Tel Aviv Saturday night, following a day of rallies calling for a ceasefire and the return of hostages. One video showed horse-mounted police and water cannons trying to clear demonstrators. Ceasefire and hostage talks are set to resume in Cairo on Tuesday, an Egyptian official told CNN.... At least 10 people, including children, died in northern Gaza on Saturday after a drone strike hit a school they were sheltering in, health workers said. Fighting continues across Gaza, including in areas Israel previously said it controlled. Spain's defense minister has said that what is happening in Gaza is a 'real genocide.' Spain was one of three European countries to announce plans to recognize a Palestinian state, further piling pressure on Israel."

News Lede

CNN: "Tornado-spawning storms tearing across parts of the Central United States caused injuries, damaged homes, left thousands in the dark and fueled calls to seek shelter overnight in North Texas and Oklahoma as severe weather continues to disrupt Memorial Day weekend. More than 110 million people across broad swaths of the US are under threat of large hail, damaging winds and a fierce twisters Sunday, mainly throughout the mid-Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee River valleys."

The Conversation -- May 25, 2024

Lauren Egan of Politico: "President Joe Biden delivered the commencement address at the United States Military Academy on Saturday, leaning into themes about the importance of protecting democracy. Speaking on a sunny spring morning in an outdoor stadium..., Biden called the graduating class 'guardians of American democracy' and stressed that maintaining freedom required 'constant vigilance.'... Biden never mentioned former President Donald Trump by name. But his emphasis on duty, democracy and protecting the Constitution had clear political undertones and underscored a central message of his reelection bid." ~~~

     ~~~ Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden reminded the graduating class of the U.S. Military Academy on Saturday that their oath is to the Constitution, not any political party or president, delivering an implicit rebuke of ... Donald Trump. In his 22-minute commencement address, Biden ... made clear that he was referring to his Republican opponent by pointing to a letter that was a clear reprimand of Trump's leadership. The open letter, signed by more than 1,000 West Point alumni, was addressed to the graduating class of 2020 before Trump delivered the commencement address here. It came just days after military police helped forcibly clear peaceful protesters outside the White House ahead of a Trump photo op. The alumni reminded that year's graduating class that they pledge service to 'no monarch; no government; no political party; no tyrant.' 'Remember what over 1,000 graduates of West Point wrote to the class of 2020 four years ago,' Biden said. 'The oath you've taken here "has no expiration date," they said.'"

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times on how Donald Trump is still stuck in the greed-is-good '80s.

RAS was wondering last week why it took more than three years to learn that Insurrectionist Sam & the Little Missus were flying a symbol of the January 6 rioters just days after the attempted coup. Well, that seems to be because the Washington Post decided not to tell us about it. So far, in all of our (okay, two) encounters over the years with Mrs. Alito, we have found that she is a highly-strung sort of person who does not handle questions well, so not well-suited to be the spouse of a public figure.

Signs of Distress. Justin Jouvenal & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told a Washington Post reporter in January 2021 that an upside-down American flag recently flown on their flagpole was 'an international signal of distress' and indicated that it had been raised in response to a neighborhood dispute. Martha-Ann Alito made the comments when the reporter went to the couple's Fairfax County, Va., home to follow up on a tip about the flag, which was no longer flying when he arrived. The incident documented by reporter Robert Barnes, who covered the Supreme Court for The Post for 17 years and retired last year, offers fresh details about the raising of the flag and the first account of comments about it by the justice's wife. The Post decided not to report on the episode at the time because the flag-raising appeared to be the work of Martha-Ann Alito, rather than the justice, and connected to a dispute with her neighbors, a Post spokeswoman said. It was not clear then that the argument was rooted in politics, the spokeswoman said....

"Barnes ... encountered the [Alitos] coming out of the house. Martha-Ann Alito was visibly upset by his presence, demanding that he 'get off my property.' As he described the information he was seeking, she yelled, 'It's an international signal of distress!'... Alito intervened and directed his wife into a car parked in their driveway.... The justice denied the flag was hung upside down as a political protest, saying it stemmed from a neighborhood dispute and indicating that his wife had raised it. Martha-Ann Alito then got out of the car and shouted in apparent reference to the neighbors: 'Ask them what they did!' She said yard signs about the couple had been placed in the neighborhood. After getting back in the car, she exited again and then brought out from their residence a novelty flag, the type that would typically decorate a garden. She hoisted it up the flagpole. 'There! Is that better?' she yelled.... One resident ... said the flag flew for between two and five days." ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "If flying one of these two [insurrectionists'] flags was enough, along with his sympauthetic posture toward the insurrectionists in recent oral arguments, to raise suspicions about Alito's allegiances, then flying both is as close as we'll likely get to clear confirmation that he stands, ideologically, with the men and women who tried to overturn the Constitution for the sake of Donald Trump."

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Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Friday night asked the judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's classified documents case to bar him from making any statements that might endanger law enforcement agents involved in the proceedings. Prosecutors tendered the request after Mr. Trump made what they described as 'grossly misleading' assertions about the F.B.I.'s August 2022 search of Mar-a-Lago.... This week, the former president falsely suggested that the F.B.I. had been authorized to shoot him.... 'Those deceptive and inflammatory assertions irresponsibly put a target on the backs of the F.B.I. agents involved in this case, as Trump well knows,' prosecutors wrote.... The request to Judge [Aileen] Cannon was the first time that prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, have sought to restrict Mr. Trump's public statements in the classified documents case.... Prosecutors did not seek to impose a gag order on Mr. Trump..., but instead asked Judge Cannon to revise his conditions of release to forbid him to make any public comments 'that pose a significant, imminent and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation.'" CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Apparently what most upset Trump's lawyers: prosecutors had filed their motion "on a holiday weekend."

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

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

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

Related story re: Merrick Garland linked yesterday.

~~~ Marie: I was surprised that Trump's assertion that President Biden had authorized his assassination received so little attention from authorities and from the media. Of all of the tens of thousands of lies Trump has told, this was surely the most outrageous -- and most dangerous. Fortunately, after some 24 hours, Merrick Garland caught up with me, and now so has Jack Smith.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Donald Trump supporter who attacked officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol while wearing a 'MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN' sweatshirt was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison on Friday, lashing out at the Trump-appointed judge who sentenced him. Federal prosecutors had sought 14 years in federal prison for Christopher Quaglin, saying the New Jersey man was one of the most violent Jan. 6 rioters and 'viciously assaulted numerous officers' after calling for 'Civil War' and boasting about armed patriots storming the Capitol. [After Judge Trevor McFadden imposed the sentence, Quaglin said, 'You're Trump's worst mistake of 2016.'... Trump [appointed McFadden] in 2017."

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A Jan. 6 rioter dubbed 'Sedition Panda' for the costume head he wore when he stormed the Capitol has been convicted on each of the eight charges he faced, including assaulting a police officer. Jesse James Rumson was convicted Friday of assaulting Prince George's County Cpl. Scott Ainsworth, a lifelong Republican who testified about the Jan. 6 riot during Rumson's trial last week.... Rumson opted for a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols, a Donald Trump appointee who has been one of the most lenient judges for Jan. 6 defendants."

Presidential Race

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jada Yuan & Janay Kingsberry of the Washington Post: "A lawyer for ... Donald Trump has accused the filmmakers of 'The Apprentice' of defamation and illegal election interference in a cease and desist letter obtained by The Washington Post. The docudrama, which premiered to a huge standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday, stars Sebastian Stan as the future president and tracks Trump's rise to power and malevolence as a New York real estate mogul in the '70s and '80s. It depicts Trump as a rapist, and has been broadly attacked by the former president's lawyers as a politically-motivated fabrication.... The U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that movies are protected under the free speech clause of the First Amendment.... The film, which [director Ali] Abbasi has said he hopes to release in mid-September during the presidential debates, still has no U.S. distribution."

Absolute Immunity, Everywhere. Carl Gibson of AlterNet: "... Donald Trump is reportedly laying the groundwork to make it so he can be effectively above the law if elected to a second term this November. According to a Friday report in Rolling Stone, Trump is reaching out to Republicans in Congress and urging them to pass legislation to make it essentially impossible for local district attorneys and state attorneys general to prosecute him in court. The bill is called the 'Stop Political Prosecutions Act,' and would shield all former presidents from all non-federal prosecutions by allowing a president to move local and state cases to federal court."

Senator/Veep Contender Flies Insurrection Flag. Proudly! Edith Omstead of the Daily Beast, republished by Yahoo! News Australia: "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR), who is reportedly a top contender for Donald Trump's vice presidential pick, has jumped on the bandwagon of flying the Christian nationalist 'Appeal To Heaven' flag. Cotton proudly announced on social media that he had installed the flag outside his Senate office. 'I stand with George Washington and Martha-Ann Alito over pearl-clutching libs at the New York Times and Democrats in Congress,' he wrote."

Note to Insurrectionist Sam: It's Simple, Stupid. Judge Michael Ponsor in a New York Times op-ed: "Flying those flags was tantamount to sticking a 'Stop the steal' bumper sticker on your car. You just don't do it."

Benjamin Weiser & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "In a potential setback for the government, a federal judge on Friday blocked the introduction of certain evidence that prosecutors wanted to use to support their case that Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey accepted bribes in exchange for approving billions of dollars in aid to Egypt.... The ruling rests on protections afforded to members of Congress under the Constitution's 'speech or debate' clause, which bars the government from citing specific legislative actions in seeking to prove a federal lawmaker committed a crime." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Supremes already have made it extremely difficult to prove public officials have been bribed. Invoking the speech and debate clause could make it impossible: if an official's corrupt acts are "official acts," as they are bound to be, and if those official acts are protected behavior, then there's no way to show the triers of fact that an official responded to a bribe by fulfilling the conditions of the bribe. Neat!

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Texas. David Goodman of the New York Times: "The families of schoolchildren who were shot at Robb Elementary School in 2022 filed two lawsuits on Friday accusing Instagram, the publisher of the popular 'Call of Duty' video game and a manufacturer of semiautomatic rifles of helping to train and equip the teenage gunman who committed the massacre. The unusual lawsuits were filed on the second anniversary of the elementary school shooting, in which 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were killed in their classrooms by an 18-year-old gunman who had purchased his weapon -- an AR-15-style rifle -- a few days before, as soon as he was legally able. While much of the attention in the aftermath of the shooting has been on the flawed police response, the two suits -- one filed in California, the other in Texas -- focus on the gunman and the companies that he regularly interacted with leading up to the shooting. Each company, the lawsuits claim, took part in 'grooming' the teenager to become a mass shooter."

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Haiti. Frances Robles & David Adams of the New York Times: "An Oklahoma-based missionary group working in Haiti's capital was attacked by gangs on Thursday night, leaving two Americans and the group's director dead, the organization, Missions in Haiti, announced on Facebook. Missions in Haiti runs a school for 450 children, as well as two churches and a children's home in the Bon Repos neighborhood in the northern outskirts of Port-au-Prince, which is widely known to be controlled by two local gangs.... The attack occurred Thursday, after two different groups of gangs descended on the organization's compound, attacked employees and stole the organization's vehicles."

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

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