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INAUGURATION 2029

Commencement ceremonies are joyous occasions, and Steve Carell made sure that was true this past weekend (mid-June) at Northwestern's commencement:

~~~ Carell's entire commencement speech was hilarious. The audio and video here isn't great, but I laughed till I cried.

CNN did a live telecast Saturday night (June 7) of the Broadway play "Good Night, and Good Luck," written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, about legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow's effort to hold to account Sen. Joe McCarthy, "the junior senator from Wisconsin." Clooney plays Murrow. Here's Murrow himself with his famous take on McCarthy & McCarthyism, brief remarks that especially resonate today: ~~~

     ~~~ This article lists ways you still can watch the play. 

New York Times: “The New York Times Company has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon for use in the tech giant’s artificial intelligence platforms, the company said on Thursday. The multiyear agreement 'will bring Times editorial content to a variety of Amazon customer experiences,' the news organization said in a statement. Besides news articles, the agreement encompasses material from NYT Cooking, The Times’s food and recipe site, and The Athletic, which focuses on sports. This is The Times’s first licensing arrangement with a focus on generative A.I. technology. In 2023, The Times sued OpenAI and its partner, Microsoft, for copyright infringement, accusing the tech companies of using millions of articles published by The Times to train automated chatbots without any kind of compensation. OpenAI and Microsoft have rejected those accusations.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea what this means for "the Amazon customer experience." Does it mean that if I don't have a NYT subscription but do have Amazon Prime I can read NYT content? And where, exactly, would I find that content? I don't know. I don't know.

Washington Post reporters asked three AI image generators what a beautiful woman looks like. "The Post found that they steer users toward a startlingly narrow vision of attractiveness. Prompted to show a 'beautiful woman,' all three tools generated thin women, without exception.... Her body looks like Barbie — slim hips, impossible waist, round breasts.... Just 2 percent of the images showed visible signs of aging. More than a third of the images had medium skin tones. But only nine percent had dark skin tones. Asked to show 'normal women,' the tools produced images that remained overwhelmingly thin.... However bias originates, The Post’s analysis found that popular image tools struggle to render realistic images of women outside the Western ideal." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The reporters seem to think they are calling out the AI programs for being unrealistic. But there's a lot about the "beautiful women" images they miss. I find these omissions remarkably sexist. For one thing, the reporters seem to think AI is a magical "thing" that self-generates. It isn't. It's programmed. It's programmed by boys, many of them incels who have little or no experience or insights beyond comic books and Internet porn of how to gauge female "beauty." As a result, the AI-generated women look like cartoons; that is, a lot like an air-brushed photo of Kristi Noem: globs of every kind of dark eye makeup, Scandinavian nose, Botox lips, slathered-on skin concealer/toner/etc. makeup, long dark hair and the aforementioned impossible Barbie body shape, including huge, round plastic breasts. 

New York Times: “George Clooney’s Broadway debut, 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' has been one of the sensations of the 2024-25 theater season, breaking box office records and drawing packed houses of audiences eager to see the popular movie star in a timely drama about the importance of an independent press. Now the play will become much more widely available: CNN is planning a live broadcast of the penultimate performance, on June 7 at 7 p.m. Eastern. The performance will be preceded and followed by coverage of, and discussion about, the show and the state of journalism.”

No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. -- Magna Carta ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “Bought for $27.50 after World War II, the faint, water stained manuscript in the library of Harvard Law School had attracted relatively little attention since it arrived there in 1946. That is about to change. Two British academics, one of whom happened on the manuscript by chance, have discovered that it is an original 1300 version — not a copy, as long thought — of Magna Carta, the medieval document that helped establish some of the world’s most cherished liberties. It is one of just seven such documents from that date still in existence.... A 710-year-old version of Magna Carta was sold in 2007 for $21.3 million.... First issued in 1215, it put into writing a set of concessions won by rebellious barons from a recalcitrant King John of England — or Bad King John, as he became known in folklore. He later revoked the charter, but his son, Henry III, issued amended versions, the last one in 1225, and Henry’s son, Edward I, in turn confirmed the 1225 version in 1297 and again in 1300.”

NPR lists all of the 2025 Pulitzer Prize winners. Poynter lists the prizes awarded in journalism as well as the finalists in these categories.

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Constant Comments

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolvesEdward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Friday
Mar222024

The Conversation -- March 22, 2024

Russia. AP: "Several gunmen burst into a large concert hall on the edge of Moscow on Friday and sprayed visitors with automatic gunfire, killing at least 40 and injuring 100 others in an attack that came just days after President Vladimir Putin cemented his grip on the country in a highly orchestrated electoral landslide. There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the raid..., which state authorities were investigating as an act of terrorism. It was the deadliest attack in Russia in years and came as the country's war in Ukraine dragged into a third year. Russia's Federal Security Service, the main domestic security and counter-terrorism agency, said 40 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in the attack at Crocus City Hall, a large music venue on Moscow's western edge. Russian news reports said that the assailants threw explosives, triggering the massive blaze at the hall, which can accommodate 6,000. Video from outside showed the building on fire.... The attack followed a statement issued earlier this month by the U.S. Embassy in Moscow that urged the Americans to avoid crowded places in the Russian capital in view of an imminent attack, a warning that was repeated by several other Western embassies." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is running a liveblog here.

U.K. Karla Adam & Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "Catherine, Princess of Wales, said she has been diagnosed with cancer and that she was in the early stages of chemotherapy, as she asked for 'time, space and privacy' while completing treatment. The news came as a 'huge shock,' Catherine said in a prerecorded message posted on X on Friday and broadcast on the BBC. 'William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family,' she said. She said that after she underwent major abdominal surgery in January, she thought that her condition was noncancerous. 'The surgery was successful, however, tests after the operation found that cancer had been present,' she said."

Eleanor Mueller & Olivia Beavers of Politico: "Speaker Mike Johnson is about to drop to a one-vote majority, as retiring Rep. Mike Gallagher has decided he will exit the House as soon as next month, according to two people with knowledge of the matter. In a statement shortly after this story published, Gallagher said he planned to leave April 19.... Wisconsin law dictates that Gallagher's seat -- in a solidly red district -- will stay empty for the rest of his term. Departing before April 9 would have triggered a special election. The Wisconsin Republican announced earlier this year that he would not seek reelection, after he received blowback for voting against impeaching Homeland Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. His allies, however, say he was long jaded by the antics of the House following the ouster of Speaker Kevin McCarthy."

Glenn Thrush & Adam Goldman of the New York Times: At the time Merrick Garland was sworn in as attorney general, in March 2021, "some in the Justice Department were pushing for the chance to look at ties between pro-Trump rioters who assaulted the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, his allies who had camped out at the Willard Hotel, and possibly [Donald] Trump himself.... 'Follow the connective tissue upward,' said Mr. Garland.... Mr. Garland, 71, a former federal judge and prosecutor, proceeded with characteristic by-the-book caution, pressure-testing every significant legal maneuver, demanding that prosecutors take no shortcuts and declaring the inquiry would 'take as long as it takes.' As a result, prosecutors and the F.B.I. spent months sticking to their traditional playbook.... It would take the department nearly a year to focus on the actions contained in the indictment ultimately brought by Jack Smith.... Like many before them, Mr. Garland and his team appear to have underestimated Mr. Trump's capacity for reinvention and disruption, in this case through delay."

California Senate Race. M.L. Nestel of the Raw Story: "Steve Garvey, the celebrity candidate angling to fill the late Sen. Diane Feinstein's seat, is deep in the hole with state and federal taxes. Garvey, a Los Angeles Dodger and San Diego Padres great, owes at least $350,000 and as much as $750,000 in back taxes dating over a decade ago, according to his February financial disclosure statement listing two estimated six-figure amounts and first reported by The Sacramento Bee.... Garvey is ... facing off against Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) in the November general election...."

Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "Ronna McDaniel, who stepped down as chairwoman of the Republican National Committee this month, is joining NBC News as an on-air contributor, the network said on Friday. The hire adds a reliably conservative voice to NBC's stable of political analysts. Ms. McDaniel is also expected to provide commentary on MSNBC, NBC's left-leaning cable cousin and a network that ... Donald J. Trump and his allies often accuse of being an arm of the Democratic Party." MB: I guess Donnie Junior wasn't available. ~~~

     ~~~ John Knefel of Media Matters cites the network's own coverage of McDaniel's career as head of the RNC, like her prominent role in the fake electors scheme.

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The House approved a $1.2 trillion spending package Friday, hours before a midnight government shutdown deadline -- forcing the Senate up against a ticking clock to take up and pass the measure. The bill, which passed by a 286 to 134 vote, would fund about three-quarters of the federal government for the next six months, while also raising military pay, eliminating U.S. funding for the U.N. relief agency for Palestinians and bolstering security at the U.S.-Mexico border. The legislation's passage in the Senate is not in doubt -- it has the support of President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). But a single senator can throw up procedural roadblocks that push the government past the deadline and force a vote days later.... Republican Sens. Rand Paul (Ky.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Bill Hagerty (Tenn.) have already signaled they are likely to offer amendments, which would slow the Senate's progress on the bill." ~~~

     ~~~ SO THEN. Manu Raju, et al., of CNN: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to oust Mike Johnson from the speakership, according to sources familiar with the matter, amid anger about the government funding bill. The House would have to consider Greene's motion within two legislative days after she is recognized. The chamber is heading for a two-week recess, and Greene told reporters she would not call up the resolution on Friday, which means the clock to force a vote has not started. Asked for a reaction by CNN, Johnson didn't respond, dismissing the question with a wave. After Greene filed the motion, she was swarmed by her Republican colleagues. A source close to the conversations told CNN that a number of fellow GOP lawmakers were trying to convince the Georgia Republican not to bring the motion.... Part of the argument to Greene from her Republican colleagues is that if she goes through with this, it could lead to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries inadvertently becoming speaker...."

Edith Lederer of the AP: "Russia and China on Friday vetoed a U.S.-sponsored U.N. resolution calling for 'an immediate and sustained cease-fire' in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza to protect civilians and enable humanitarian aid to be delivered to more than 2 million hungry Palestinians. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 11 members in favor, three against and one abstention." ~~~

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

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's social media company on Friday completed a long-awaited merger with a cash-rich shell company, raising Mr. Trump's wealth by billions and potentially providing him a fresh source of cash to pay his mounting legal bills. In approving the merger, shareholders of Digital World Acquisition Corporation will become shareholders of Trump Media & Technology Group, which will trade on the stock market under the stock symbol DJT. The deal will pump more than $300 million into Trump Media, which has all but exhausted its available cash and will allow Truth Social, the company's flagship digital media platform, to keep operating. Based on Digital World's stock price of $44 a share just before the vote announcement, Trump Media will debut with a market value of more than $5 billion. That means Mr. Trump's personal stake will be worth more than $3 billion. Shares of Trump Media could begin trading under the new stock symbol as soon as next week." Related stories linked below.

It's a Miracle! Rebecca Shabad & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump claimed early Friday morning that he has 'almost' $500 million in cash, undercutting his lawyers' claims that he would not be able to comply with the $464 million judgment against him and his co-defendants in the civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. 'Through hard work, talent, and luck, I currently have almost five hundred million dollars in cash, a substantial amount of which I intended to use in my campaign for president,' Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social in all caps. 'The often overturned political hack judge on the rigged and corrupt A.G. case, where I have done nothing wrong, knew this, wanted to take it away from me, and that's where and why he came up with the shocking number which, coupled with his crazy interest demand, is approximately $454,000,000.'... Trump hasn't contributed any of his own money to his presidential campaigns since 2016." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd be curious to see Trump's filings & letters to the appeals court & to Justice Engoron. Does the attorneys assert that he doesn't have the cash? If so, that's a misrepresentation -- assuming he's able to pull $454MM out of a hat now.

~~~~~~~~~~

Tara Bernard of the New York Times: "The Biden administration continued its effort to extend student debt relief on Thursday, erasing an additional $5.8 billion in federal loans for nearly 78,000 borrowers, including teachers, firefighters and others who largely work in the public sector. To date, the administration has canceled $143.6 billion in loans for nearly four million borrowers through various actions, fixes and federal relief programs. That's the largest amount of student debt eliminated since the government began backing loans more than six decades ago, but it's still far less than President Biden's initial proposal, which would have canceled up to $400 billion in debt for 43 million borrowers but was blocked by the Supreme Court." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Have I thanked the Supremes yet? Nothing like a cabal of old fogies sticking it to young people and families who not only need the money but also would have put most of that money right back into the economy in the form of purchases that young people need. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's President Biden's statement, via the White House. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Louisiana and 15 other Republican-led states sued the Biden administration on Thursday over its decision to temporarily stop approving new permits for facilities that export liquefied natural gas. The lawsuit contends that the Biden administration acted illegally when it decided in January to pause the approvals so it could study how gas exports affect climate change, the economy and national security."

David McCabe & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: "The Justice Department joined 16 states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, the federal government's most significant challenge to the reach and influence of the company that has put iPhones in the hands of more than a billion people. In an 88-page lawsuit, the government argued that Apple had violated antitrust laws with practices that were intended to keep customers reliant on their iPhones and less likely to switch to a competing device. The tech giant prevented other companies from offering applications that compete with Apple products like its digital wallet, which could diminish the value of the iPhone, the government said. Apple's policies hurt consumers and smaller companies that compete with some of Apple's services, in the form of 'higher prices and less innovation,' the lawsuit said." The AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Top congressional negotiators in the early hours of Thursday unveiled the $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September, though it remained unclear whether Congress would be able to complete action on it in time to avert a brief partial government shutdown over the weekend. Lawmakers are racing to pass the legislation before a Friday midnight deadline in order to prevent a lapse in funds for over half the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and health agencies. They are already six months behind schedule because of lengthy negotiations to resolve funding and policy disputes. Now that they have agreed on a final package, which wraps six spending bills together, passage could slip past 12:01 on Saturday morning because of a set of arcane congressional rules." (Also linked yesterday.)

Annie Grayer & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "The House Judiciary Committee is suing two Justice Department tax prosecutors involved in the Hunter Biden criminal investigation whom Republicans have been trying to interview for months, ratcheting up a separation of powers fight between Congress and the Biden administration that is now spilling into court. The Republican-led committee filed the lawsuit in Washington, DC's federal court against federal tax prosecutors Mark Daly and Jack Morgan. The committee has been demanding the men testify as part of its impeachment inquiry around the Biden family since September. The complaint asked the court on Thursday to step in immediately with an emergency order that would force Morgan and Daly to testify. That outcome is unlikely, however, as lawsuits like these typically are part of political tactics in standoffs between Congress and the executive branch when they are controlled by opposing political parties.... The Department of Justice has so far repeatedly told the House the DOJ wouldn't allow these employees to testify about their official work, and that the subpoenas were invalid...."

Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "... President Biden and fellow Democrats wasted little time lambasting a budget proposal from a large group of House Republicans that would, among other things, raise the retirement age for Social Security and endorse a bill that would codify that life begins at conception. The fiscal 2025 budget proposal was released Wednesday by the Republican Study Committee -- a bloc that includes 80 percent of Republicans in the House, including every member of House leadership.... While the proposal ... is unlikely to become law, it offers insight into how Republicans could seek to govern if they win control of Congress and the White House in the 2024 elections. The White House, Democratic lawmakers and political groups hoping to elect more Democrats in November seized on the issue.... Biden called RSC's proposal 'extreme' in a statement Thursday.... The White House also circulated a document among reporters about the RSC plan, saying it 'cuts Medicare and Social Security while putting health care at risk for millions,' and 'rigs the economy for the wealthy and large corporations against middle class families.'"

The Trials of Trump

Jesse McKinley & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office said in court papers Thursday that a large cache of newly disclosed documents contained little that might influence or delay the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, which is scheduled to begin in mid-April.... 'The people now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and that have not previously been disclosed to defendant,' the filing read. 'The overwhelming majority of the production is entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materials.' It added that the current delay -- until April 15 -- 'is a more than reasonable amount of time for defendant to review the information provided.'" CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Shayna Jacobs & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The documents at issue relate to a previous federal investigation into [Michael] Cohen, who is a central witness in [Manhattan D.A. Alvin] Bragg's case.... Thursday's court filing shows that there are two main categories of newly available evidence that are the subject of debate between Trump's lawyers and prosecutors: Cohen's phones, and interviews of Cohen conducted years ago by then-special counsel Robert S. Mueller III when he was investigating Russian interference efforts in the 2016 election.... The filings [also] offer a lot of new information about the types of documents that led to the current dispute -- including how state and federal prosecutors sometimes disagreed over their responsibilities in sharing information with each other, and with Trump's legal team." ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Four-time indicted ... Donald Trump suffered arguably his worst loss(es) in any criminal matter this week when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence. By contrast, the judge largely granted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's motions to exclude evidence for trial that Trump believed might be exculpatory.... Trump, for example, moved to exclude testimony of former fixer Michael Cohen on the grounds Cohen is 'a liar.' The court rebuked this desperate move.... Most important, Merchan refused to exclude more than 100 Trump statements since these can be classified as 'admissions against interest.' Despite Trump's plea, he will also allow in Allen Weisselberg's notes, if the prosecutor shows they are business records. In sum, the lion's share of the evidence that Trump views as damaging will be heard by the jury." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read through Rubin's quick summary of Merchan's rulings and compare them to the "fantastical, absurd" hoohah from Judge Aileen Cannon (only a bit of which is discussed in the Barrett & Stein WashPo story linked below), you likely will be struck by what a difference a judge makes. Somehow or the other, Jack Smith has got to get Miss Aileen removed to traffic court, where she can equivocate over the meaning of stop signs (hey, maybe they're optional when a rich Republican rolls through them).

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "When ... Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group and its proposed merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, announced last month a shareholder vote on their long-delayed deal, it marked a final step for the owner of Truth Social to become a public company potentially worth billions of dollars -- most of which is owned by Trump himself. But in the lead-up to Friday's vote, both companies have been rocked by legal warfare. Their leaders, past and present, have traded heated accusations of deception and impropriety across four lawsuits in three states. And the cases threaten to erode Trump's grasp on a stake in the post-merger company potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- a possible financial lifeline, given that he owes more than $500 million in legal fines.... If the deal is approved, Trump would own about 60 percent of the post-merger company, a stake that at Digital World's current price would be worth more than $3 billion." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Spoiler Alert. Marie: My guess is that the guy pictured on the cover of "The Art of the Deal" will pull this one off and sweep into the courthouse with bags of cash at the last possible second. All the sturm und drang building over the past week will have played perfectly into the melodrama. End of episode, end of season. Next week, when the reviews come in, all the critics will marvel at what a stable genius Trump is. Oh Lord, let me be wrong. Update: Yay! Looks as if I am! ~~~

     ~~~ Aimee Picchi & Jacob Rosen of CBS News: "... while a $3.5 billion stake in a publicly traded company could help relieve some of those financial pressures, it's unlikely to immediately help Trump. That's because he and other big shareholders are subject to a so-called 'lock-up' provision that bars him from selling his stock for at least six months.... Trump likely won't be able to use the stock to get a loan, either. That's because the DWAC [Digital World Acquisition Corp., the company that may merge with Trump Media today] regulatory filing states that founding investors can't sell, lend, donate or encumber their shares for six months after the deal closes. Legal experts say 'encumber' is a powerful word that could prevent Trump from using the stock as collateral to raise cash before six months have elapsed." The new company's board could waive the 6-month requirement, but that too seems fairly unlikely. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Kara Scannell of CNN: "The New York attorney general's office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Donald TrumpArthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.... The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump's properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located....

"Thursday, Engoron expanded the role of the monitor overseeing the Trump Organization to include more expansive oversight of Trump's real estate business' internal financial practices. Engoron also ordered the Trump Organization to supply detailed information to the monitor about its efforts to obtain bonds to cover judgments.... Engoron laid out a timeline of certain steps the Trumps must take within the next month, including providing the monitor, retired Judge Barbara Jones, with full access to its day-to-day financial operations.... Engoron also empowered the monitor to have copies of the Trump Organization's monthly bank and brokerage statements, be notified in advance of any transfers above $5 million, be provided information about the creation or dissolution of business entities, and be informed in advance of any debt financing."

** The Valet. Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The threat from ... Donald J. Trump to his vice president, Mike Pence, was clear and direct: If you defy my effort to overturn the 2020 election by certifying the results, your future in Republican politics is over. 'Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this,' Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence by phone on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, according to the White House valet who was with the president for much of the day and told Congress he had overheard the conversation. The testimony of Mr. Trump's valet, provided to the now-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee in 2022 but not previously released publicly, offers a rare firsthand look into the former president's behavior in the hours before, during and after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to halt the certification of President Biden's victory.... Mr. Trump ... stewed about Mr. Pence's refusal for hours after violence engulfed Congress. Told that a civilian had been shot outside the House chamber amid the mob attack, he recalled, Mr. Trump appeared unconcerned.... [The valet] did recall hearing the president ask about contacting top officials on the possibility of dispatching the National Guard to Capitol Hill -- though there is no indication that he ever followed through.... The copy [of the transcript] reviewed by The Times is heavily redacted, and the valet is referred to simply as 'a White House employee.'" Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' copy of the valet's transcript is here. (Also linked yesterday.) Martin Pengelly of the Guardian has a derivative story here.

Marie: If you wonder why Trump's legal bills are so high (currently $230,000 per day!), it might be because they busy themselves filing crap motions & briefs. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post cites a few of them, including one in which they grab an out-of-context citation from an old law review article by Brett Kavanaugh. The Kavanaugh article, as a whole, "actually took a different position from the one Trump's lawyers advanced.... Trump has pitched his many legal setbacks as a result of a biased and weaponized legal system. But when you have to reach for these kinds of arguments -- including citing your own Supreme Court nominee who clearly took a position at odds with your own -- it would seem to reinforce that you're not working with much."

Presidential Race

Sky Palma of the Raw Story: "During a speech at a fundraiser in Dallas, President Joe Biden took a shot at Donald Trump's legal headaches -- specifically the difficulty he's having obtaining the bond to allow him to appeal a civil judgment amounting to $454 million.... 'Just the other day, this defeated-looking man came up to me and said: "Mr. President I need your help. I'm in crushing debt. I'm completely wiped out,"' Biden said, adding that he then responded, 'Donald, I'm sorry. I can't help you.'"

Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump's new shared fund-raising agreement with the Republican National Committee directs a portion of donations to the political account he has used to pay his legal bills before any money goes to the party itself. The order in which entities will receive funds from big donors through what is known as the Trump 47 Committee was disclosed in the fine print of an invitation to a big dinner next month in Palm Beach, Fla., where top donors are asked to contribute up to $814,600 per person to attend.... The new fund-raising agreement comes shortly after Mr. Trump has functionally taken over the R.N.C. as the presumptive Republican nominee.... Mr. Trump is already directing 10 percent of every dollar he raises online to [the] PAC that pays his legal bills], a share that he raised from 1 percent early in his presidential run." This is part of a liveblog. Scroll down. The AP report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: According to on-air reports, the Daily Beast has calculated that Trump is spending, on average, $230,000 per day in personal legal costs.

Katherine Doyle of NBC News: "Huge funding from influential conservative donor networks is flowing into groups affiliated with a conservative venture aimed at creating a Republican 'government-in-waiting,' including over $55 million from groups linked to conservative activist Leonard Leo and the Koch network, according to an Accountable.US review shared exclusively with NBC News. Launched by the Heritage Foundation in April 2022, Project 2025 is a two-pronged initiative to develop staunch conservative policy recommendations and grow a roster of thousands of right-wing personnel ready to fill the next Republican administration."


Lauren Weber & Sabrina Malhi
of the Washington Post: "Physicians say they're seeing an explosion of birth-control misinformation online targeting a vulnerable demographic: people in their teens and early 20s who are more likely to believe what they see on their phones because of algorithms that feed them a stream of video reinforcing messages often divorced from scientific evidence.... Many social media influencers recommend 'natural' alternatives, such as timing sex to menstrual cycles-- a less effective birth-control method that doctors warn could result in unwanted pregnancies in a country where abortion is now banned or restricted in nearly half the states.... Physicians and researchers say little data is available about the scale of this new phenomenon, but anecdotally, more patients are coming in with misconceptions about birth control fueled by influencers and conservative commentators." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This has to be a manifestation of our "educational system." Clearly, teachers aren't explaining to students the difference between straight reporting from more-or-less reputable news outlets and crap some stranger writes on TikTok or Facebook. Of course before there was an Internet -- and still today -- plain ole gossip and old wives tales influence people, but "my friend says" may not carry the same weight as something "in print" on the Internet. ~~~

~~~ Then There's Elon. Steve M. debunks Musk's latest foray into disinformation: "Greg Sargent reports: 'For much of the last week, Elon Musk's mighty Twitter feed -- sorry, his X feed -- featured as its pinned tweet a video that purports to lay bare a vast conspiracy among Democrats to 'flood' the country with 'illegals' to lock in a 'permanent voting majority.' Many people have picked apart the video's numerous lies. It is a strikingly crafted piece of 'great replacement theory' propaganda....' [Part of the 'Democrat' plan, according to the video, is to include non-citizens in the census.] Counting non-citizens in the census? That's been done in literally every census since the first one in 1790.... Sanctuary cities? They've been around since the 1980s. Mail and early voting? That's also been on the rise since the late twentieth century, though there was a decline in 2022 after a peak in 2020. In other words, for quite a while the elements have been in place for the evil Democrat Party to achieve single-party rule...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'd like to think that if I had several huge corporations to run, I would not be wasting my time reading and promoting crap conspiracy theories on the Internet. And that would be true of me even if my rocket ships didn't keep blowing up and my automatic-drive vehicles didn't keep crashing. (But then, who knows? I suppose each of us has the potential to be just as big a jerk as Elon Musk.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Alabama. Praveena Somasundaram & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a sweeping bill Wednesday that will restrict the teaching of 'divisive concepts' and limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at public schools, universities and state agencies. The legislation, which the state's GOP-controlled legislature sent to Ivey's desk Tuesday, stipulates that schools and agencies cannot sponsor any DEI programs or require their students or employees to participate in them. It also states that they cannot punish students or employees for their 'refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, or otherwise assent to a divisive concept or diversity statement.'... The legislation also includes language that public colleges and universities must require students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex at birth, citing existing state law.... Civil rights groups have condemned the bill, saying it furthers the chilling effect classrooms have experienced in recent years as they become the site of culture wars across the country." (Also linked yesterday.)

Idaho. Frances Vinall of the Washington Post: "An escaped inmate and his suspected accomplice have been captured in Idaho after 36 hours on the run, during which time authorities believe they killed two men. Skylar Meade, 31, escaped custody about 2 a.m. Wednesday during a medical transport after Meade injured himself in prison, authorities said. The transport was about to return him to prison from Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise when Nicholas Umphenour, 28, is accused of ambushing the transport and shooting two officers. A third corrections officer was shot by Boise police on arrival, police said.... [The pair] are suspected of killing two adult men in separate locations before they were recaptured about 2 p.m. Thursday in Twin Falls. Meade and Umphenour are both members of the Aryan Knights, Idaho Department of Correction director Josh Tewalt said at a news conference Thursday -- a white supremacist prison gang based primarily in Idaho.... Two of the three injured corrections workers remain in hospital...."

Mississippi Is Still Mississippi. Brian Howey & Nate Rosenfield of the New York Times: "Sentencing hearings this week for six law enforcement officers, some of whom were members of the Goon Squad, revealed a disturbing portrait of a Mississippi sheriff's department that encouraged deputies to use extreme violence as a policing tool. Prosecutors, along with several of the deputies who were sentenced, described a toxic culture in which senior officers directed the men they oversaw to humiliate and torture people suspected of crimes. Young deputies said they saw violence as a way to earn promotions and to live up to the expectations of their supervisors, who were considered heroes of the Rankin County Sheriff's Department.... An investigation by Mississippi Today and The New York Times last year exposed a decades-long reign of terror by nearly two dozen Rankin County deputies, several of them high-ranking investigators who reported directly to the Rankin County Sheriff, Bryan Bailey.... Judge Tom Lee of U.S. District Court sentenced the last of the officers Thursday. Brett McAlpin, a senior detective who has been described as the Goon Squad's ringleader, was sentenced to more than 27 years in prison. Joshua Hartfield, a narcotics detective for the Richland Police Department, received a 10-year sentence."

New Jersey Senate Race. Nicholas Fandos & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey announced on Thursday that he would not run for re-election as a Democrat this year, bowing to intense political pressure and federal charges that place him at the center of an international bribery scheme. But in a nine-minute video posted on social media, Mr. Menendez, 70, reiterated that he would not resign and left the door open to running as a political independent if he is exonerated at a trial scheduled for May." Politico's story is here.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel Friday and is set to tell officials there that a military incursion into Rafah would be a 'mistake.' During his Middle East trip this week Blinken told reporters gaps 'are narrowing' in cease-fire talks. Later Friday, a U.S.-sponsored resolution supporting an immediate cease-fire and hostage release will be up for a vote at the U.N. Security Council in New York.... Head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said the agency had lost contact with health personnel at al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza during Israeli raids this week.... Britain and Australia on Friday in a joint statement, called for an 'immediate cessation of fighting in Gaza to allow aid to flow and hostages to be released as a crucial step toward a permanent, sustainable cease-fire.' It follows a statement a day earlier from European Union leaders also calling for an 'immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable cease-fire.'"

Michael Crowley & Thomas Fuller of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, traveling in the Middle East on Thursday, pressed for a halt to fighting in the Gaza Strip as the United States prepared to introduce a resolution at the United Nations on Friday calling for 'an immediate and sustained cease-fire.' The Security Council resolution drafted by the United States contains the strongest language that Washington has supported so far, and was an apparent shift for Israel's closest ally. In February, the United States vetoed a Council resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire." The Hill's story is here.

Wednesday
Mar202024

The Conversation -- March 21, 2024

** Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The threat from ... Donald J. Trump to his vice president, Mike Pence, was clear and direct: If you defy my effort to overturn the 2020 election by certifying the results, your future in Republican politics is over. 'Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this,' Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence by phone on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, according to the White House valet who was with the president for much of the day and told Congress he had overheard the conversation. The testimony of Mr. Trump's valet, provided to the now-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee in 2022 but not previously released publicly, offers a rare firsthand look into the former president's behavior in the hours before, during and after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to halt the certification of President Biden's victory.... Mr. Trump ... stewed about Mr. Pence's refusal for hours after violence engulfed Congress. Told that a civilian had been shot outside the House chamber amid the mob attack, he recalled, Mr. Trump appeared unconcerned.... [The valet] did recall hearing the president ask about contacting top officials on the possibility of dispatching the National Guard to Capitol Hill -- though there is no indication that he ever followed through.... The copy [of the transcript] reviewed by The Times is heavily redacted, and the valet is referred to simply as 'a White House employee.'" Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' copy of the valet's transcript is here.

The New York Times live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The United States has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for 'an immediate cease-fire tied to the release of hostages' in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, during his latest trip to the region to broker a diplomatic resolution to the war between Israel and Hamas. Biden administration officials have grown more forceful in recent weeks in their push for a cease-fire, as conditions worsen for Gazan civilians and pressure mounts for stronger international action.... Israeli officials said ahead of this week's talks that the broad proposal being discussed includes a 42-day pause in fighting, in exchange for the release of 40 of the more than 100 hostages taken from Israel who remain captive in Gaza." MB: There seems to be a good deal of confusion over whether the draft resolution is for a permanent or temporary cease-fire.

Tara Bernard of the New York Times: "The Biden administration continued its effort to extend student debt relief on Thursday, erasing an additional $5.8 billion in federal loans for nearly 78,000 borrowers, including teachers, firefighters and others who largely work in the public sector. To date, the administration has canceled $143.6 billion in loans for nearly four million borrowers through various actions, fixes and federal relief programs. That's the largest amount of student debt eliminated since the government began backing loans more than six decades ago, but it's still far less than President Biden's initial proposal, which would have canceled up to $400 billion in debt for 43 million borrowers but was blocked by the Supreme Court." The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Have I thanked the Supremes yet? Nothing like a cabal of old fogies sticking it to young people and families who not only need the money but also would have put most of that money right back into the economy in the form of purchases that young people need. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's President Biden's statement, via the White House.

David McCabe & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: "The Justice Department joined 16 states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, the federal government's most significant challenge to the reach and influence of the company that has put iPhones in the hands of more than a billion people. In an 88-page lawsuit, the government argued that Apple had violated antitrust laws with practices that were intended to keep customers reliant on their iPhones and less likely to switch to a competing device. The tech giant prevented other companies from offering applications that compete with Apple products like its digital wallet, which could diminish the value of the iPhone, the government said. Apple's policies hurt consumers and smaller companies that compete with some of Apple's services, in the form of 'higher prices and less innovation,' the lawsuit said." The AP story is here.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Top congressional negotiators in the early hours of Thursday unveiled the $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September, though it remained unclear whether Congress would be able to complete action on it in time to avert a brief partial government shutdown over the weekend. Lawmakers are racing to pass the legislation before a Friday midnight deadline in order to prevent a lapse in funds for over half the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and health agencies. They are already six months behind schedule because of lengthy negotiations to resolve funding and policy disputes. Now that they have agreed on a final package, which wraps six spending bills together, passage could slip past 12:01 on Saturday morning because of a set of arcane congressional rules."

Jesse McKinley & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office said in court papers Thursday that a large cache of newly disclosed documents contained little that might influence or delay the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, which is scheduled to begin in mid-April.... 'The people now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and that have not previously been disclosed to defendant,' the filing read. 'The overwhelming majority of the production is entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materials.' It added that the current delay == until April 15 -- 'is a more than reasonable amount of time for defendant to review the information provided.'" CNN's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Four-time indicted ... Donald Trump suffered arguably his worst loss(es) in any criminal matter this week when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence. By contrast, the judge largely granted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's motions to exclude evidence for trial that Trump believed might be exculpatory.... Trump, for example, moved to exclude testimony of former fixer Michael Cohen on the grounds Cohen is 'a liar.' The court rebuked this desperate move.... Most important, Merchan refused to exclude more than 100 Trump statements since these can be classified as 'admissions against interest.' Despite Trump's plea, he will also allow in Allen Weisselberg's notes, if the prosecutor shows they are business records. In sum, the lion's share of the evidence that Trump views as damaging will be heard by the jury." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read through Rubin's quick summary of Merchan's rulings and compare them to the "fantastical, absurd" hoohah from Judge Aileen Cannon (only a bit of which is discussed in the Barrett & Stein WashPo story linked below), you likely will be struck by what a difference a judge makes. Somehow or the other, Jack Smith has got to get Miss Aileen removed to traffic court, where she can equivocate over the meaning of stop signs (hey, maybe they're optional when a rich Republican rolls through them).

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "When ... Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group and its proposed merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, announced last month a shareholder vote on their long-delayed deal, it marked a final step for the owner of Truth Social to become a public company potentially worth billions of dollars -- most of which is owned by Trump himself. But in the lead-up to Friday's vote, both companies have been rocked by legal warfare. Their leaders, past and present, have traded heated accusations of deception and impropriety across four lawsuits in three states. And the cases threaten to erode Trump's grasp on a stake in the post-merger company potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- a possible financial lifeline, given that he owes more than $500 million in legal fines.... If the deal is approved, Trump would own about 60 percent of the post-merger company, a stake that at Digital World's current price would be worth more than $3 billion."

Alabama. Praveena Somasundaram & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a sweeping bill Wednesday that will restrict the teaching of 'divisive concepts' and limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at public schools, universities and state agencies. The legislation, which the state's GOP-controlled legislature sent to Ivey's desk Tuesday, stipulates that schools and agencies cannot sponsor any DEI programs or require their students or employees to participate in them. It also states that they cannot punish students or employees for their 'refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, or otherwise assent to a divisive concept or diversity statement.'... The legislation also includes language that public colleges and universities must require students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex at birth, citing existing state law.... Civil rights groups have condemned the bill, saying it furthers the chilling effect classrooms have experienced in recent years as they become the site of culture wars across the country."

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Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation's history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers' lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. Cars and other forms of transportation are, together, the largest single source of carbon emissions generated by the United States, pollution that is driving climate change and that helped to make 2023 the hottest year in recorded history." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday awarded $8.5 billion in grants to Intel, a major investment to bolster the nation's semiconductor production, during a tour of battleground states meant to sell his economic agenda. Speaking from the Intel campus in Chandler, Ariz., Mr. Biden said the award would support thousands of new manufacturing jobs, including ones that do not require a college degree.... The award, which will go to the construction and expansion of Intel facilities around the United States, is the biggest the federal government has made with funding from the CHIPS Act, which lawmakers passed in 2022 to help re-establish the United States as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.... In addition to the grants, the federal government is planning to award Intel up to $11 billion in loans on what the company characterized as generous terms.... The grants are intended to help fund the company's construction plans in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon. The projects are expected to create more than 10,000 manufacturing jobs and roughly 20,000 construction jobs, according to Biden administration officials."

Jeanna Smilek of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and continued to forecast that borrowing costs will come down somewhat by the end of the year as inflation eases. Fed policymakers have been battling rapid inflation for two full years as of this month, and while they have been encouraged by recent progress, they are not yet ready to declare victory over price increases. Given that, they are keeping interest rates at a high level that is expected to weigh on growth and inflation, even as they signal that rate cuts are likely in the months ahead. Officials held interest rates steady at about 5.3 percent, where they have been set since July 2023, in their March policy decision." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rachel Frazen & Zack Budryk of the Hill: "House Republicans on Wednesday kicked off voting on a slate of legislation for what they are dubbing 'energy week,' passing two measures in support of oil and gas development. Collectively, the energy-related legislation that passes this week is virtually certain not to become law because it would be unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-led Senate or approved by the White House."

A Budget to Die From. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "A new budget by a large and influential group of House Republicans calls for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and restructuring Medicare. The proposals, which are unlikely to become law this year, reflect how many Republicans will seek to govern if they win the 2024 elections. And they play into a fight President Joe Biden is seeking to have with ... Donald Trump and the Republican Party as he runs for re-election. The budget was released Wednesday by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 House GOP lawmakers, including many allies of ... Donald Trump. Apart from fiscal policy, the budget endorses a series of bills 'designed to advance the cause of life,' including the Life at Conception Act, which would aggressively restrict abortion and potentially threaten in vitro fertilization, or IVF, by establishing legal protections for human beings at 'the moment of fertilization.' It has recently caused consternation within the GOP following backlash to an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As usual, the Republican plan is both cruel and stupid. It's true that many workers -- primarily those who work in white-collar jobs -- prefer to work past age 65. And they do, deferring Social Security benefits up to age 70. The plan is hardest on individuals who work in demanding physical jobs. And it's probably bad for the economy: in general, older workers cost industry more because they have seniority. And they are not necessarily more effective workers or more innovative than young workers.

The only information ever pushed on the Bidens and Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents, which everyone sitting here today knows. -- Lev Parnas, testimony at House hearing Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Lacking support and evidence, the GOP-led impeachment inquiry against President Biden continued to sputter out, even as House Republicans on Wednesday held a hearing that featured witnesses who reiterated thin allegations that members of the Biden family capitalized financially on their father's name.... Fifteen months [into their 'investigation,'] no evidence or testimony obtained by congressional Republicans has showed that Joe Biden was a direct participant in or beneficiary of his son Hunter Biden's business dealings.... Tony Bobulinski, a onetime business associate of Hunter Biden's, and Jason Galanis, who is serving a nearly 16-year federal prison sentence ... for multiple fraud schemes, both testified at the hearing Wednesday at the behest of House Republicans.... Galanis, who testified via Zoom from prison..., described a 'relatively short discussion with then-Vice President Biden in May 2014....

"Several Democrats needled Republicans for choosing to hold a hearing for an impeachment inquiry that was in part opened on the basis of a claim that authorities now say was untrue.... The allegations made by [Alexander] Smirnov [MB: now jailed under a DOJ indictment & thought to be a Russian asset] were previously reviewed by the FBI under then-Attorney General William P. Barr and found not to be supported by facts.... Democrats also questioned Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani's who was convicted in a campaign finance fraud case and appeared Wednesday, about his time working with Giuliani in 2018 and 2019 to track down damaging information about Joe Biden.... At the end of the hearing, Comer said he was inviting the president to testify to Congress, an invitation a White House spokesperson laughed off on social media." The AP's report, also linked yesterday, is here. ~~~

~~~ Andrew Feinberg & Eric Garcia of the Independent: "The House Oversight Committee's latest attempt to hold an impeachment hearing on President Joe Biden took a bizarre turn on Wednesday when one of the three witnesses who gave evidence before the Republican-led panel began revealing unflattering information on ... Donald Trump's disgraced ex-personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. Lev Parnas ... told committee members that he'd been a 'key participant' in a scheme to dig up dirt on Mr Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. He said Mr Giuliani had 'tasked' him with 'finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them' so Mr Trump and his allies could 'damage the Bidens' reputations and secure the 2020 election for Trump'....

"Under questioning from Republicans, the incarcerated felon [Jason Galanis] described Hunter Biden as offering what he called a 'Biden lift' to potential business deals through his father's involvement.... Yet in a 2018 court opinion, US District Judge Ronnie Abrams said it was Galanis — not Hunter Biden -- who was leveraging Hunter's family name for his own gain.... [Tony] Bobulinski, who was represented by an attorney from Elections LLC -- a firm run by former Trump administration officials which has been paid by Mr Trump's political action committee, repeatedly engaged in theatrics throughout his testimony, displaying visible contempt for Democrats on the panel and personally attacking two Democratic members...." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Lev Parnas ... named members of Congress on Wednesday he alleged were 'doing the bidding' of Russia by attempting to dig up 'dirt' on President Biden during his 2020 campaign.... Parnas named Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) during his testimony as collaborators in their efforts.... Parnas, whom Democrats selected as a witness, was indicted on fraud and campaign finance crimes and was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2022.... The indictment accused Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman, who was also indicted, of heavily lobbying an unnamed congressman for the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The indictment said they 'committed to raise $20,000 or more for a then-sitting U.S. Congressman.' The unnamed congressman, 'Congressman-1,' was later reported by multiple outlets to be Sessions." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Jamie Raskin, appearing on MSNBC, spoke to a remarkable irony: that House Republicans' entire effort to impeach Joe Biden is based on the very lies that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine President Zelensky to falsely confirm in the "perfect phone call" that led directly to Trump's first impeachment. Raskin said he wish he had understood at the time that the whole Trump/Giuliani/Lev & Igor tall tale was the product of Russian disinformation. Decades past my time, Americans may get a fairly full picture of the conspiracy between the Trump gang and their Putin handlers. This pathetic little impeachment effort against Biden is a piece of a much bigger American story, and we know only bits of it. ~~~

     ~~~ It's also worth noting that RAS posted a list in yesterday's Comments of nine House Republicans who voted against a resolution condemning the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children. You have to be pretty deep in the tank to want to appear to favor child abduction. Maybe the GOP has adopted IOKIYAR and given it a new meaning: "It's Okay If You're A Russian."

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee tabled a motion to subpoena Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of, and former White House adviser to Donald Trump. [Democrat Jamie Raskin (Md.) brought the motion.] Six months after exiting the White House, Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund over the objections of the fund's advisers. They were overruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had developed a close relationship with Kushner. The Oversight Committee convened on Wednesday for another hearing on Hunter Biden and his business dealings that Republicans say illicitly benefitted his father President Joe Biden. Despite investigating the matter for more than a year, the committee has turned up no proof." MB: Why, you'd almost think the "oversight" committee is not serious about overseeing administrative affairs. ~~~

~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sparred with Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, at a GOP-led impeachment hearing for President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Ocasio-Cortez pressed Bobulinski to name a 'specific crime' committed by President Biden and when he could not do so she turned her ire to the Republican Party for continuing an investigation despite its key witness being arrested by the FBI for lying to officials about the Bidens.... '... At this point, the story is not the fact that the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. The story is why it's proceeding anyway. Why is this committee proceeding based on false charges?... I have yet to hear in the chairman's opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the president of the United States with.... I have yet to hear in the chairman's opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the president of the United States with."

The Trials of Trump

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday urged an appeals court not to believe Donald Trump's recent assertion that he is unable to secure a bond for more than $450 million to satisfy the civil business-fraud judgment against him.... On Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a lawyer for James, told the appeals court that Trump's claims of striking out with insurance companies are not reliable because they are based on sworn statements from Gary Giulietti, a personal friend of Trump's, and from Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization. Fan wrote that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw James's civil trial against Trump, decided Giulietti was not a credible witness. He argued that Garten was involved in the conduct at issue and 'has professional interests in this litigation.'" The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump is in panic mode as the deadline approaches to secure a half-billion-dollar bond to appeal his civil fraud case in New York, according to multiple sources.... Trump's team has sought out wealthy supporters and weighed what assets could be sold -- and fast. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee himself has become increasingly concerned about the optics the March 25 deadline could present -- especially the prospect that someone whose identity has long been tied to his wealth would confront financial crisis."

"A Fantastical View of the Law.... Absurd." Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "On Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the [Trump documents] case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts.... 'What she has asked the parties to do is very, very troubling,' Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts, said of Cannon. 'She is giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd. She is ignoring a raft of other motions, equally absurd, that are unreasonably delaying the case.'... 'The [Presidential Records Act] is just not relevant here in any way it all; it provides no defense. To even allow it to be argued at trial would create confusion for the jury,' said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. attorney.... Cannon's order suggests that she thinks the PRA is critical to the case -- and that parts of the law are open to interpretation. Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said that's just not true. He said Cannon seems to continually conflate the PRA with the Espionage Act.... Baron said the judge, who has not previously overseen a major national security trial, seems to be embracing a fantastical view of the law." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jason Morris & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "A Georgia judge on Wednesday greenlit an effort by ... Donald Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the 2020 election subversion case there. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled last week against the defendants' efforts to disqualify Willis, has issued a certificate of immediate review, allowing the case to be revealed by a Georgia Appeals Court.... The move doesn't pause the prosecution but allows appeals on the disqualification effort to play out before trial." (Also linked yesterday.)


Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti
of the Washington Post: "The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... Whatever the 5th Circuit decides, the status of the law is likely to end up back before the Supreme Court." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' liveblog of developments. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "President Biden's re-election campaign had $71 million on hand at the end of February, more than double the $33.5 million in ... Donald J. Trump's campaign account, as Democrats continued to expand their fund-raising advantage over Republicans in the presidential race. The cash disparity was detailed in filings with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, when campaigns and some presidential committees had a deadline to file fund-raising and spending reports for February.... Over the weekend, Mr. Biden's team reported raising a combined $53 million in February across the committees backing his re-election bid, with a combined total of $155 million, up from $130 million at the end of January.... Mr. Biden will also be backed by more than $1 billion that outside groups have pledged to support his bid -- money that is separate from the party accounts that filed on Wednesday. Mr. Trump's campaign told Fox News on Wednesday that it had raised a combined $20.3 million with a joint fund-raising committee, with $42 million on hand between the two groups." ~~~

~~~ Jessica Piper, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump's leadership PAC spent another $5.6 million on legal expenses in February, furthering a trend that has seen the former president put valuable campaign dollars into his courtroom fights. That leadership PAC, Save America, was kept afloat last month by a $5 million refund from another Trump-related political group, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. The latter entity has now sent more than $50 million to Save America since last year to help cover Trump's many legal costs. The arrangement raises questions about where Trump will continue to find the money to pay his lawyers. Save America ended the reporting period with just over $4 million in cash on hand. And MAGA Inc. has just $7.75 million more that it can refund the group."

Adam Kinzinger on Substack: "As he campaigned for president last week Donald Trump turned up the volume on his authoritarian message. He followed the well-known blueprint for dictatorship, which included dehumanizing outsiders, predictions of violence, and dramatic warnings about a supposed emergency facing the nation.... Many of the fans -- err, voters -- who stand in line for hours to be admitted to a rally, seemed to be bored by the show."

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's long fixation on mental fitness followed years of watching his father's worsening dementia -- a formative period that some associates said has been a defining and little-mentioned factor in his life, and which left him with an abiding concern that he might someday inherit the condition. While much remains unknown about Alzheimer's, experts say there is an increased risk of inheriting a gene associated with the disease from a parent.... Trump's father's condition also drove a wedge into his family, which fell into years of lawsuits that alleged in part that Donald Trump sought to take advantage of his father's dementia to wrest control of the family estate -- litigation that introduced reams of medical records detailing Fred Trump Sr.'s condition.... (A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, told The Post via email that neither of [President] Biden's parents had dementia.)" (Also linked yesterday.)

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Mississippi. Michael Goldberg & Emily Pettus of the AP: "Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years. Lee said Dedmon carried out the most 'shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable' against the two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.... Jenkins, who has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth during the January 2023 attack, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon's actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.

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Ireland. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Leo Varadkar, Ireland's barrier-breaking taoiseach or prime minister, said on Wednesday that he would step down as the country's leader, days after the defeat of two referendums that the coalition government had championed and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael. Ireland is scheduled to hold a general election early next year, and his decision will not trigger an earlier election, he said.... Citing reasons both 'personal and political,' Mr. Varadkar said he would step down from the party leadership effective immediately and would continue to serve as prime minister until his party elects a new leader.... There had been little indication of his decision just days earlier when he visited the White House and met with President Biden for St. Patrick's Day.... Mr. Varadkar, who is gay and whose father is of Indian heritage, broke a number of barriers when he became the country's youngest-ever leader in 2017." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt on Thursday, and will make a stop in Israel on Friday, as talks for a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza falter. The United States said it will review a written assurance from Israel that its use of U.S.-supplied defense equipment does not violate international or U.S. human rights law.... The Israeli military said Thursday its raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was ongoing and that 140 militants were killed. Civilians in the area have said they were trapped in dire conditions. Israel's chief of staff said from the hospital that the goal was striking Hamas and 'putting pressure on the negotiations.'"

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel assailed Senator Chuck Schumer on Wednesday in a closed-door speech to Senate Republicans, days after the Democratic majority leader branded him an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him after the war winds down. Mr. Netanyahu's virtual appearance at a weekly gathering of Republican senators -- and a refusal by Mr. Schumer to allow him to make a similar address to Senate Democrats -- dramatized the growing partisan split on Capitol Hill and in American politics over Mr. Netanyahu's leadership and Israel's offensive in Gaza. 'Senator Schumer made it clear that he does not think these discussions should happen in a partisan manner,' said Alex Nguyen, a spokesman.... Inside the meeting with Republicans, Mr. Netanyahu called Mr. Schumer's speech last week on the Senate floor 'wholly inappropriate and outrageous,' according to Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri.... And many Republican senators spoke up to say they agreed with him."

Ukraine, et al.

Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "Russian missiles streaked into Kyiv early Thursday in the biggest assault on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, injuring at least 13 people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities, according to local officials. The Ukrainian Air Force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far."

John Hudson & Siobhan O'Grady of the Washington Post: "National security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled in secret to Ukraine on Wednesday in a trip aimed at reaffirming U.S. support for the beleaguered ally despite an impasse in Congress over additional funding for the war effort.... Kyiv is facing chronic shortages of ammunition and soldiers as House lawmakers in the United States weigh a Senate aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has thus far refused calls to vote on the measure, sending the White House scrambling to find weaponry and equipment it can send to Ukraine. 'You should believe in the United States,' Sullivan told reporters in a briefing at Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv. 'We are confident we will get this done....'"

Wednesday
Mar202024

The Conversation -- March 20, 2024

Jeanna Smilek of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and continued to forecast that borrowing costs will come down somewhat by the end of the year as inflation eases. Fed policymakers have been battling rapid inflation for two full years as of this month, and while they have been encouraged by recent progress, they are not yet ready to declare victory over price increases. Given that, they are keeping interest rates at a high level that is expected to weigh on growth and inflation, even as they signal that rate cuts are likely in the months ahead. Officials held interest rates steady at about 5.3 percent, where they have been set since July 2023, in their March policy decision."

Marie: Apparently the House held another sham impeachment hearing Wednesday to try to develop some dirt on President Biden. I haven't found a story on it yet, but for Republicans it was, according to on-air MSNBC opinionators, a disaster. I'll look for something overnight.

      ~~~ Update. Some stories are trickling in. Lisa Mascaro of the AP makes a stab at reporting on whatever Jim Comer thinks he's doing. Comer's star witness testified from jail where he is serving a long term for fraud. Not to be outdone, the Democrats' top witness was Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani's former sidekick who tried in vain to sell fake claims against Biden. Lev, who's been released from jail now, said he and his pals could never find anything on Joe Biden.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday urged an appeals court not to believe Donald Trump's recent assertion that he is unable to secure a bond for more than $450 million to satisfy the civil business-fraud judgment against him.... On Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a lawyer for James, told the appeals court that Trump's claims of striking out with insurance companies are no reliable because they are based on sworn statements from Gary Giulietti, a personal friend of Trump's, and from Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization. Fan wrote that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw James's civil trial against Trump, decided Giulietti was not a credible witness. He argued that Garten was involved in the conduct at issue and 'has professional interests in this litigation.'" The AP's report is here.

"A Fantastical View of the Law.... Absurd." Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "On Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the [Trump documents] case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts.... 'What she has asked the parties to do is very, very troubling,' Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts, said of Cannon. 'She is giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd. She is ignoring a raft of other motions, equally absurd, that are unreasonably delaying the case.'... 'The [Presidential Records Act] is just not relevant here in any way it all; it provides no defense. To even allow it to be argued at trial would create confusion for the jury,' said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. attorney.... Cannon's order suggests that she thinks the PRA is critical to the case -- and that parts of the law are open to interpretation. Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said that's just not true. He said Cannon seems to continually conflate the PRA with the Espionage Act.... Baron said the judge, who has not previously overseen a major national security trial, seems to be embracing a fantastical view of the law."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation's history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers' lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. Cars and other forms of transportation are, together, the largest single source of carbon emissions generated by the United States, pollution that is driving climate change and that helped to make 2023 the hottest year in recorded history."

Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... Whatever the 5th Circuit decides, the status of the law is likely to end up back before the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' liveblog of developments.

Jason Morris & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "A Georgia judge on Wednesday greenlit an effort by ... Donald Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the 2020 election subversion case there. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled last week against the defendants' efforts to disqualify Willis, has issued a certificate of immediate review, allowing the case to be revealed by a Georgia Appeals Court.... The move doesn't pause the prosecution but allows appeals on the disqualification effort to play out before trial."

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's long fixation on mental fitness followed years of watching his father's worsening dementia -- a formative period that some associates said has been a defining and little-mentioned factor in his life, and which left him with an abiding concern that he might someday inherit the condition. While much remains unknown about Alzheimer's, experts say there is an increased risk of inheriting a gene associated with the disease from a parent.... Trump's father's condition also drove a wedge into his family, which fell into years of lawsuits that alleged in part that Donald Trump sought to take advantage of his father's dementia to wrest control of the family estate -- litigation that introduced reams of medical records detailing Fred Trump Sr.'s condition.... (A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, told The Post via email that neither of [President] Biden’s parents had dementia.)"

Ireland. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Leo Varadkar, Ireland's barrier-breaking taoiseach or prime minister, said on Wednesday that he would step down as the country's leader, days after the defeat of two referendums that the coalition government had championed and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael. Ireland is scheduled to hold a general election early next year, and his decision will not trigger an earlier election, he said.... Citing reasons both 'personal and political,' Mr. Varadkar said he would step down from the party leadership effective immediately and would continue to serve as prime minister until his party elects a new leader.... There had been little indication of his decision just days earlier when he visited the White House and met with President Biden for St. Patrick's Day.... Mr. Varadkar, who is gay and whose father is of Indian heritage, broke a number of barriers when he became the country's youngest-ever leader in 2017."

~~~~~~~~~~

Primary Races

Chris Cameron & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "It was the biggest primary night since Super Tuesday, and there were few surprises in the results. Bernie Moreno won the Republican Senate primary in Ohio, wielding the powerful endorsement of ... Donald J. Trump to become the Republican nominee in perhaps the most consequential race in the battle for the Senate this November.... Two incumbent Democratic representatives in Illinois faced significant challengers in Tuesday's primary, and survived -- demonstrating the power of incumbency. Representative Danny Davis won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary for the Seventh Congressional District.... Representative Jesús García, a progressive Democrat known as Chuy, won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary in the Fourth Congressional District in Chicago, beating his opponent, Raymond Lopez, in a landslide.... Another race featuring an incumbent, the Republican primary in the 12th Congressional District, was still undecided early Wednesday morning. Representative Mike Bost is nobody's idea of a moderate Republican, and had Mr. Trump's endorsement, but he was nevertheless challenged from his right by Darren Bailey, an ardent pro-Trump Republican who lost the governor's race to J.B. Pritzker by a wide margin in 2022....

"Vince Fong, a Republican state assemblyman, advanced in a special primary in California to complete the term of [Kevin] McCarthy, a Republican who was ousted from his role as speaker of the House and resigned soon after. Mr. Fong did not hit the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff, and two other candidates were running close for second place, with votes still outstanding.... Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, the presumptive presidential nominees of their parties, swept to near-total victories in the states that held primaries on Tuesday: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.... Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the [Republican] race after Super Tuesday, took notable minorities of the vote in each primary. Her best showing was in Arizona. Mr. Biden took an even larger percentage of the vote in the Democratic primaries, winning at least 83 percent of the vote in each state as of early Wednesday. But some voters still registered their discontent with his candidacy." This is the pinned item in a liveblog.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders said on Tuesday morning that they had reached an agreement on the final package of spending legislation to fund the federal government through the fall, though it was unclear whether they would be able to pass it in time to avert a brief partial shutdown over the weekend.... It will take congressional staff time to draw up text of the bill.... House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House had been at loggerheads over funding levels for the Department of Homeland Security. For days, they had been litigating disagreements that threatened to imperil the spending package that also funds the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies. They are facing a midnight deadline on Friday to pass the measure and avert a lapse in funding. A breakthrough on Monday night, in which Democrats and Republicans were able to agree to homeland security funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year, allowed negotiators to finalize their deal." (Also linked yesterday.)

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Former President Trump argued Tuesday he would have to take extreme measures in order to pay a $464 million bond due next week in his New York civil fraud case, such as selling some of his properties for cheap 'fire sale' prices. Trump blasted New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled against the former president in the fraud case, in a Truth Social post objecting to having to post the bond.... 'I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!' Trump added." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A group of more than 100 Democratic donors and activists on Monday sent a letter to President Biden's campaign warning that progressive anger over Israel's war in Gaza is 'increasing the chances of a Trump victory.'"

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is preparing to bring back into his campaign fold [Paul Manafort,] a man convicted of multiple crimes and whom a bipartisan Senate report labeled a 'grave counterintelligence threat' because of his ties to a Russian spy.... Trump pardoned Manafort after losing the 2020 election, claiming he had been treated unfairly and sparing him years more in confinement after his convictions for money laundering, obstruction and foreign lobbying violations. And Trump has broadly dismissed the Russia probe that ensnared Manafort as a 'hoax.'" Blake goes into details of the Senate report; Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) chaired the committee that investigated and wrote the report. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "During a campaign event in Nebraska, second gentleman Doug Emhoff criticized former President Trump for his recent comments about Democratic Jewish voters, saying he should be 'condemned' for his 'disgusting, toxic and antisemitic remarks.'... Emhoff was responding to Trump's recent interview with conservative radio host Sebastian Gorka, where he said Democrats 'hate Israel' and that Jewish voters who back Democrats hate their religion."

Timothy Snyder on Substack on the Bloodbath Candidate: "... right at the beginning, Americans at the [Trump] rally [Saturday] are told to identify themselves with people who tried to overthrow an election by force, who are celebrated as 'unbelievable patriots.' That is perhaps the most essential element of context to Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. He has already made clear, in a the collective performance, that violent insurrection is the best form of politics. Well before he actually used the word, he had instructed his audience that bloodbaths are the right form of politics.... Right at the beginning of his Vandalia speech, Trump referred to the convicts as 'hostages' and promised to pardon them 'the first day we get into office.' That pardon pledge is a second essential context for Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. Trump is saying that, as president, he will have the power to protect violent criminals who help him get into office." Read the whole essay. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Trump Urges Supremes to Declare Him Exempt from U.S. Law. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to rule that he is absolutely immune from criminal charges stemming from his attempts to subvert the 2020 election.... The brief, Mr. Trump's main submission to the justices before the case is argued on April 25, continued to press an expansive understanding of presidential immunity, one that it said was required by the very structure of the Constitution. Legal experts said Mr. Trump was unlikely to prevail but added that how and when the court rejects his arguments will effectively determine whether and when Mr. Trump's trial, which had been scheduled to start March 4, will proceed." A CBS News report is here.

David Kurtz in TPM: "U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has unlocked new achievements in weirdness and incompetence. On Monday, she issued an order directing Special Counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump to each come up with a set of proposed jury instructions based on two hypothetical interpretations of the Presidential Records Act. Both of her interpretations are wrong as a matter of law and favorable to Trump, putting Smith in an extraordinary bind. If this is confusing, trust me, it's not you. This is a strange and unusual place to be at this stage in a criminal case. Cannon clearly doesn't understand her role or the law at issue. She is casting about for help, but doing so in a way that is not going to be helpful to her or to the case." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "Lawyers were left scratching their heads over the Mar-a-Lago trial judge's Monday order asking the prosecution and defense to propose jury instructions under the assumption that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) allowed ... Donald Trump to unilaterally decide that classified documents were personal." Includes numerous lawyerly reactions, including a reprise of the Weissmann-Moss dialog mentioned yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Zach Montague & David Adams of the New York Times: "Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami on Tuesday, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to serve time over his role in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Mr. Navarro, 74, who helped engineer Mr. Trump's plans to stay in power after his electoral defeat in November 2020, was sentenced to four months in prison in January for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. At a hastily organized news conference shortly before he was set to check into the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, a low-security prison next to the Miami-Dade zoo, Mr. Navarro reprised familiar denunciations of the Justice Department and the Biden administration." MB: "Hastily organized," I surmise, because Navarro was planning to be elsewhere this morning. Alas, Supreme Court CJ John Roberts did not catch Navarro's late-in-the-4th-quarter Hail-Mary pass; story linked below. (Maybe Balls-and-Strikes Roberts prefers baseball to football.) The Guardian's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Luckily for Sneaky Pete, he has a prison consultant, who is advising Navarro how to make his term in the hoosegow shorter and more pleasant. CNN's story is here. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. And you won't want to miss his commentary in yesterday's thread.


John Fritze
of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Texas to immediately begin enforcing a controversial immigration law that allows state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. The court's three liberals dissented. Legal challenges to the law are ongoing at a federal appeals court, but the decision hands a significant -- yet temporary -- win to Texas, which has been in an ongoing battle with the Biden administration over immigration policy. The court had been blocking the law from taking effect, issuing an indefinite stay on Monday, which was wiped away by Tuesday's order.... As is often the case in emergency applications, the court did not explain its reasoning. However, a concurring opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, explained that the appeals court had only handed down a temporary 'administrative' order.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Ah, but it's only temporary. Temporary as in, "Greggers, you can forget the Constitution & destroy the lives of quite a few migrants -- but only for a little while." ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Levenson of Balloon Juice: "We've just entered a new phase, in which the Supreme Treason caucus just decided that states do have what we fought the Civil War to deny: the right to ignore federal rule at will[.]... Actual lawyers should weigh in, but there is little or no other area of law in which the issue is as clear and as settled as who gets to run immigration policy in the US. Spoiler: it ain't the individual states.... The legal regime the Supreme radicals are imposing on us is, in essence and in my not-a-lawyer humble opinion, a direct attack on the entire idea and edifice of Constitutional gov't."

     ~~~ UPDATE. David Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: "The State of Texas late Tuesday was once again prevented from enforcing a strict new immigration law that gives local police agencies the power to arrest migrants who cross the border without authorization. The order, issued by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel before midnight, capped a day of legal whiplash and came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to temporarily go into effect. The justices' ruling created confusion along the border, outraged immigration advocates and led to a show of defiance by the Mexican government. Hours later that was all moot, except the confusion.... Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices had kicked the case back to the Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans and had been considering the Biden administration's challenge of the law." This is the pinned item in a liveblog. Here are some of the other entries: ~~~

Edgar Sandoval: :Migrants newly arrived in Texas were already expressing worry on Tuesday over whether they could face arrest by state authorities under the state's new immigration law.:

Jack Healy: "The Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday allowing Texas to arrest and deport migrants resonated deeply in Arizona, which passed its own divisive crackdown against illegal immigration more than a decade ago.... It sparked boycotts and angry protests. A political backlash removed the law's Republican architect from office. Legal challenges gutted major provisions of the law.... The Supreme Court struck down portions of Arizona's law in a 2012 decision declaring that the federal government, and not states, had the power to set immigration policy." [Yeah, well, so much for precedent, human rights & the U.S. Constitution.]

Emiliano Mega: "Mexico will not accept deportations made by Texas 'under any circumstances,' the country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow Texas to arrest migrants who cross into the state without authorization. The ministry condemned the state law, known as Senate Bill 4, saying it would separate families, violate the human rights of migrants and generate 'hostile environments' for the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin living in Texas. Mexico's top diplomat for North America, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, rejected the ruling on the social media on Tuesday, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments."

Mitch Smith: "Iowa lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would make it a crime to enter the state after being deported or denied entry into the United States. The passage puts the Midwestern state on track to join Texas in enforcing immigration outside the federal system."

Miriam Jordan: "A new state law that would allow Texas to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border without authorization has raised concerns from critics that those seeking protection from persecution in their homelands could be deprived of their right to apply for asylum."

Daniel Victor: "Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said in a statement that the Supreme Court had undermined its credibility by allowing the law to take effect and 'has opted to allow for a trial run of a constitutional crisis.' He called the law 'an alarming state overreach that will likely lead to massive civil rights violations across our state.'"

Victor: "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, briefly responded to the court ruling on social media, calling it 'clearly a positive development.' U.S. Senate Republicans responded more forcefully, declaring the decision 'a big win for those who believe in the rule of law and secure borders.'"

Victor: "Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that 'we fundamentally disagree' with the Supreme Court order. The state law 'will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border,' she said." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report on the Fifth Circuit's midnight hold is here.

Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "New FBI data confirms [confirm!] previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising. The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That's based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with data through December."

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Alabama. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Alabama Republicans pushed through a sprawling measure on Tuesday that would not only ban state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities, local boards of education and government agencies, but also limit the teaching of 'divisive concepts' surrounding race, gender and identity. The bill passed with broad support in the State Legislature, but faced vehement opposition from student groups, civil rights advocates and Democrats who said it was a chilling attempt to undercut free speech and diversity efforts, especially given Alabama's history of educational segregation and racism. The bill also forbids public universities and colleges from allowing transgender people to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity."

Arizona. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "On Monday, [Arizona state senator Eva Burch] shared her [abortion] story in a 10-minute speech on the Senate floor. Voice shaking, Burch told her colleagues that she'd visited a clinic on Friday where she was given an invasive ultrasound and counseling on alternatives to abortion, despite already knowing her pregnancy was not viable. Required under Arizona law, those experiences, Burch said in the speech, were 'cruel.'... 'There's no one-size-fits-all script for people seeking abortion care, and the legislature doesn't have any right to assign one,' she said Monday.... She said she could see some GOP senators leaving the chamber.... Before she was elected to the Arizona Senate, Burch spent more than a decade working as a nurse at a women's health clinic." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How about those gutless Republicans who are willing to put women's health at risk but don't have the guts to even listen to a colleague describing first-hand experience with the consequences of the cruel, dangerous laws they so blithely and sanctimoniously pass. It's fine and dandy to hurt women, their families and their healthcare providers, but please have the decency not to confront me with facts that might make me "uncomfortable."

Mississippi. Emma Tucker, et al., of CNN: "Hunter Elward, a former Mississippi sheriff's deputy who faced the most serious of federal charges against him and five other officers in the torture of two Black men last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a highly emotional hearing Tuesday. Elward pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the January 2023 incident. The former officer was also ordered to pay $79,500 in restitution to the victims. Details from the January 24, 2023, incident in Braxton, just southeast of Jackson, eventually came to light after the victims -- Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker -- filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in June. They alleged the officers illegally entered their home and handcuffed, kicked, waterboarded and tased them and attempted to sexually assault them over nearly two hours before one of the deputies put a gun in Jenkins' mouth and shot him.... Some of the officers called themselves 'The Goon Squad' because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it, federal prosecutors said." (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated to reflect the sentencing of a second former deputy. ~~~

     ~~~ David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Hunter Elward, 31, who shot one of the victims in the face, was sentenced to just over 20 years in prison, and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, was sentenced to 17½ years. Both men and four other officers, all of them White, pleaded guilty last summer to federal civil rights charges that included conspiracy and deprivations of rights. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the crimes 'egregious and despicable.'... Though [Michael] Jenkins was bleeding [after Edward shot him in the mouth], the officers failed to provide medical aid and instead concocted a coverup story that included planting a gun on Jenkins and destroying evidence, authorities said."

Nebraska. Maya King of the New York Times: "A Republican state lawmaker in Nebraska wanted to make a point about explicit content in school-sanctioned books. But his decision to name two Democrats during his reading of a graphic rape scene has led to calls for his resignation. During a debate on Monday about legislation that would tighten restrictions on the content of books used in schools, the lawmaker, State Senator Steve Halloran, read a passage from a book that he said could be found in more than a dozen public libraries across the state.... Mr. Halloran stood on the floor of the State Capitol in Lincoln and interjected the names of two of his Democratic colleagues -- Machaela Cavanaugh and her brother, John -- into the text as he read it aloud. At one point, he inserted 'Senator Cavanaugh' while reading a section in which Ms. Sebold described a man demanding oral sex from her.... Shortly after Mr. Halloran finished reading the passage with his interjections, Ms. Cavanaugh responded, tearfully calling his altering of the passage unnecessary harassment that diminished the integrity of the legislation they were debating." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Annie Gowen & Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "Nebraska state Sen. Steve Halloran apologized Tuesday for reading a sexually graphic passage during debate over an obscenity bill and inserting a colleague's name into the text...." MB: The only way to interpret Steve's extemporaneous rewriting of a graphic scene is to assume that he had fantasized about violently abusing his colleague. Had he phoned in what he said on the statehouse floor (where even violent sexual remarks are likely protected speech), law enforcement would have come after him for threatening a public official.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 7, the Israeli military conducted a targeted missile strike on a car carrying four Palestinian journalists outside Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Two members of an Al Jazeera crew -- Hamza Dahdouh, 27, and drone operator Mustafa Thuraya, 30 -- were killed, along with their driver. Two freelance journalists were seriously wounded. They were returning from the scene of an earlier Israeli strike on a building, where they had used a drone to capture the aftermath. The drone -- a consumer model available at Best Buy -- would be central to the Israeli justification for the strike.... The Washington Post obtained and reviewed the footage from Thuraya's drone, which was stored in a memory card recovered at the scene and sent to a Palestinian production company in Turkey. No Israeli soldiers, aircraft or other military equipment are visible in the footage taken that day -- which The Post is publishing in its entirety -- raising critical questions about why the journalists were targeted. Fellow reporters said they were unaware of troop movements in the area.... The Post found no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day." (Also linked yesterday.)

Always Look on the Bright Side. Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Jared Kushner has praised the 'very valuable' potential of Gaza's 'waterfront property.'... [Kushner] made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 15 February. The interview was posted on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative ... earlier this month. Kushner was a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump's presidency and was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East. Critics of the plan, which involved Israel striking normalisation deals with Gulf states, said it bypassed questions about the future for Palestinians.... 'Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable ,,, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,' Kushner told his interviewer.... 'It's a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel's perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,' Kushner said.... Kushner also said he thinks Israel should move civilians [MB: presumably Palestinians] from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern Israel.... Responding to a question about whether the Palestinians should have their own state, Kushner described the proposal as 'a super bad idea' that 'would essentially be rewarding an act of terror'." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, yes, Jared, it is "a little bit of an unfortunate situation there," but under your direction I'm sure it would be easy enough to halt the pesky relief boats that are pulling up on that valuable waterfront property to feed starving Palestinians. Certainly the peasants would thrive in the ever-so-hospitable Negev, what with its near-zero rainfall and extreme temperatures. In fairness, Jared does raise some serious practical, philosophical and ethical questions. Like, "Nature or nurture? What's the matter with Jared?" And "Can a young man who was reared by a criminal and associates with known criminals learn to think like a human being with normal affective behavior?" And "How did Harvard fail Jared Kushner?" Or, "Should Harvard drop its policy of admitting the unqualified offspring of big donors?" Or maybe, "Should Harvard develop a study-abroad program for the Negev?" From great failure can come great knowledge.

The New York Times' live updates of Tuesday's developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here. (Also linked yesterday.)


Ukraine. David Stern
of the Washington Post: "Ukraine manufactured practically no weapons before Russia invaded in February 2022, but the local arms industry is now booming. Factories spit out shells, mortar rounds, military vehicles, missiles and other items crucial to the war effort. Production tripled in 2023 and is expected to increase sixfold this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a Ukrainian government meeting in January. Local production is not sufficient to make up for a loss of international support, especially weapons from the United States. But with a $60 billion aid package stalled in Congress, domestic manufacturing is more critical than ever."

U.K., Sort of. Seb Starcevic of Politico: "Prince Harry could be deported from the U.S. if he lied about taking drugs on his American visa application, according to ... Donald Trump. In a preview of an interview with GB News that's set to air Tuesday evening, Trump weighed in on the visa drama enveloping Prince Harry, saying the royal, who now lives in California, shouldn't receive special treatment. 'We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action,' Trump said.... Prince Harry's visa status has been at the center of a legal row since an American conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, last year sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for access to his immigration records. Applicants for certain American visas typically must disclose whether they have ever taken drugs, and doing so can result in their application being denied. Other public figures have run into issues entering the U.S. over their reported drug use. In his memoir 'Spare,' Harry admitted to using various drugs and psychedelics including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms, but it's unclear whether he declared this on his visa application." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait! Doesn't Harry have, like, royal immunity? Like Trump's Article II "I can do whatever I want" immunity? Only better because it's a birthright. Seriously, Trump must love the idea of lording it over a British royal, especially a royal who is a friend of the Obamas. Update: Akhilleus has some practical advice, at the top of today's Comments, to help Trump answer thorny questions like this one. And others!