The Conversation -- September 28, 2023
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden issued a broad and blistering attack against ... Donald J. Trump on Thursday, accusing his predecessor and would-be successor of inciting violence, seeking unfettered power and plotting to undermine the Constitution if he returns to office in next year's elections. In his most direct condemnation of his leading Republican challenger in many months, [in a speech in Tempe, Arizona,] Mr. Biden portrayed Mr. Trump as a budding autocrat with no fidelity to the tenets of American democracy and who is motivated by hatred and a desire for retribution. While he usually avoids referring to Mr. Trump by name, Mr. Biden this time held nothing back as he offered a dire warning about the consequences of a new Trump term.... 'Seizing power, concentrating power, attempting to abuse power, purging and packing key institutions, spewing conspiracy theories, spreading lies for profit and power to divide America in every way, inciting violence against those who risk their lives to keep Americans safe, weaponizing against the very soul of who we are as Americans,' Mr. Biden said. 'This MAGA threat is a threat to the brick and mortar of our democratic institutions. It's also a threat to the character of our nation.'" ~~~
~~~ Here are excerpts of President Biden's prepared remarks, via the White House.
Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey made a defiant and impassioned speech to his fellow Senate Democrats on Thursday, maintaining his innocence and repeating that he had no intention of stepping down after being indicted on bribery charges, despite calls from many of his colleagues to do so. Mr. Menendez's obstinate address at a closed-door luncheon in the Capitol followed appeals by more than half of the Senate Democrats, including the head of their campaign arm, for him to resign. It prompted one of his Democratic colleagues, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, to float the idea of forcing him to leave office.... Any senator can file a resolution to expel a member of the body, but two-thirds of the Senate -- 67 votes -- is required to eject any member.... Thus far, it does not appear there would be enough votes in the Senate to support a measure to oust him.... Senators Chris Coons of Delaware, Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the three Democratic members of the Senate Ethics Committee, voluntarily left the room before Mr. Menendez spoke, according to Mr. Coons."
Olivia Rubin of ABC News: "Attorneys for Donald Trump have notified a Fulton County court that the former president will not seek to have his Georgia election interference case removed to federal court. The move comes three weeks after a judge denied a bid by co-defendant Mark Meadows, Trump's former chief of staff, to have his case moved.... Trump last month notified the court that he may file to remove, which the new filing says was done 'in an abundance of caution.'" MB: Probably not because he realizes an attempt to remove the case to federal court is a lost cause but because he wants the trial to be televised, which is unlikely in his federal trials. Just saying. ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Jonah Bromwich & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump's civil fraud trial over accusations that he inflated the value of his properties by billions of dollars could begin as soon as Monday after a New York appeals court rejected the former president's attempt to delay it. The appeals court, in a terse two-page order Thursday, effectively turned aside for now a lawsuit Mr. Trump filed against the trial judge, Arthur F. Engoron. The lawsuit had sought to delay the trial, and ultimately throw out many of the accusations against the former president. Thursday's ruling came two days after Justice Engoron issued an order that struck a major blow to Mr. Trump, finding him liable for having committed fraud by persistently overvaluing his assets and stripping him of control over his New York properties." ~~~
~~~ Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "A New York judge ... determin[ed] in a ruling that [Donald Trump] had inflated the value of his properties by considerable sums to gain favorable terms on loans and insurance. If the ruling stands, Mr. Trump could lose control over some of his most well-known New York real estate -- an outcome the state's attorney general, Letitia James, sought when she filed a lawsuit last year that accused him of fraud and called for the cancellation of his business certificates for any entities in the state that benefited from deceitful practices." The article lists the main New York properties that could be transferred to the control of an independent receiver.
Marie: Sorry, forgot this one earlier: ~~~
~~~ Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior White House adviser, Jared Kushner, tried to persuade the publisher of the Washington Post to fire its editor over coverage of the Russia investigation, that editor, Marty Baron, writes in a new book.... 'In December 2019, Kushner would lean on [publisher Fred] Ryan to withdraw support for me and our Russia investigation.... "He aims to get me fired," I told Ryan.'... Kushner, Baron now writes, 'suggested the Post issue an apology and there be a "reckoning of some sort" -- as he advised that he himself had made a huge mistake in once standing by a former editor of the New York Observer and one of its stories when he owned the publication.... The Post won a Pulitzer prize (shared with the New York Times) for its coverage of the investigation of Russian election interference in 2016 and links between Trump and Moscow.... [When special counsel Robert Mueller did not indict Trump himself,] Trump claimed exoneration -- which Mueller did not offer -- and called for prizes awarded for Russia reporting to be rescinded; calls rejected by the Pulitzer board."
Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government started notifying federal workers on Thursday that a shutdown appears imminent, as a Republican-led standoff on Capitol Hill forced the Biden administration to embark on the formal, methodical process of preparing much of Washington to come to a halt. The messages acknowledged the growing risk that millions of employees and military service members may stop receiving pay in just three days, unless lawmakers in Congress can clinch a last-minute -- and increasingly unlikely -- deal that would extend government funding beyond Saturday."
Jacqueline Alemany & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "House Republicans are holding their first hearing Thursday as part of an inquiry into whether to impeach President Biden, which House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has said will lay out the basis for a probe that has so far shown no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.... In his opening statement, Comer alleged Biden has for years 'lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family's corrupt business schemes.'... Rep. Jamie Raskin (Md.), the ranking Democrat on the committee, hit back in his opening statement.... Raskin concluded his fiery remarks by saying that the inquiry all boils down to a 'thoroughly demolished lie' that Rudy Giuliani and [Donald] Trump launched years ago regarding Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine.... [The GOP's own star witness Jonathan] Turley said that he supported an impeachment inquiry but that the current evidence did not warrant articles of impeachment." The story has been updated. MB: I heard a clip of Raskin's saying, "No gun. No smoke." ~~~
~~~ Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The first hearing in House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into President Biden featured their star witnesses testifying that they lacked proof that he committed impeachable offenses, multiple procedural skirmishes the G.O.P. majority nearly lost and, at times, nearly a dozen empty Republican seats. What it did not include was any new information about Mr. Biden's conduct -- or any support for Republicans' accusations that he had entered into corrupt overseas business deals.... 'I am not here today to even suggest that there was corruption, fraud or any wrongdoing,' said Bruce G. Dubinsky, a forensic accountant [and a GOP witness]. 'In my opinion, more information needs to be gathered and assessed before I would make such an assessment.'... As the hearing ended, [Oversight Committee chair Rep. James] Comer [R-Ky.] said he was authorizing subpoenas for the personal bank records of Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president's brother, and their affiliated companies.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors on Thursday accused ... Donald J. Trump's lawyers of trying to employ an arcane law governing the use of classified material to 'intentionally derail' the timing of his trial on charges of mishandling national security documents and obstructing efforts to retrieve them.... In court papers filed to Judge Aileen M. Cannon..., the prosecutors accused Mr. Trump's legal team of seeking to delay by at least three months a crucial step in how the government intends to prepare the classified documents at the heart of the proceeding for review by the defense. That request for a delay, wrote one of the prosecutors, Jay I. Bratt, 'threatens to upend the entire schedule established by the court' and 'amounts to a motion to continue the May 20, 2024, trial date.'... In their filing, prosecutors said there were at least nine documents that were so sensitive they were not allowed to be stored in the SCIF in Florida and would be made available to Mr. Trump's lawyers only in Washington." The Guardian's story is here.
Isaac Arndorf of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump sharpened a stridently nationalist pitch for a general election rematch against President Biden, trading the GOP primary debate stage for a factory floor where he demanded union support for his vision of more aggressive state intervention in industrial policy."
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Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "With a government shutdown as few as four days away, the Biden administration has started to ration federal disaster aid, delaying the delivery of about $2.8 billion in grants so the money is available in the event of a crisis, according to state and federal officials and budget documents.... The last-minute move has allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to shore up its rapidly dwindling budget against the immediate threat of wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters as they arise, according to a senior agency official.... Over the past month, FEMA has paused at least $555 million for long-term recovery projects in Florida, including those related to Hurricane Ian last year. It has held back $101 million from Louisiana and another $74 million in California, according to the federal records, which reflect delays through Sept. 18." MB: Thanks, Kevin! Funny how your (probably very short-term) disaster relief comes before everybody else's. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jacob Bogage, et al., of the Washington Post: "... the White House Office of Management and Budget told federal agencies Wednesday to be prepared to notify their employees of the status of government funding.... Those updates will occur Thursday morning, as part of the government's mandatory contingency process.... House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) rejected [the Senate's stopgap] measure, telling his conference in a closed-door meeting Wednesday morning that he would not put the Senate bill on the floor in its current form." The Hill's story on McCarthy's rejection of the Senate stopgap is here. ~~~
~~~ So House Wastes Time on Toothless Vituperative Measures. Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The Republican-led House voted on Wednesday to reduce the salary of Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to $1, as right-wing lawmakers tried to transform a Pentagon spending bill and a series of other funding measures into weapons to take aim at President Biden, his agenda and his top officials. There is little chance that Mr. Austin, the first Black defense secretary, will actually see his pay cut. The military spending bill is all but certain to die in the Senate, where it is expected to meet with bipartisan opposition. Three days before a government shutdown, House Republican leaders spent Wednesday adding the salary cut -- and a slew of other far-right proposals to handcuff the Biden administration -- to spending bills that have little chance of enactment. It was akin to a legislative tantrum driven by the hard right, whose members are helping push Congress toward a spending crisis." A related Politico story is here.
Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) appeared unable to answer questions Wednesday when he was pressed repeatedly about how his new 'evidence' in his probe of President Biden proved any actual wrongdoing. In a tense exchange during a press conference purporting to reveal 'new evidence' of Biden's alleged use of political influence to help his son, Hunter, NBC correspondent Ryan Nobles asked Smith how the evidence, dated in August 2017, could prove Biden used any political influence when he was not a public official at the time.... The exchange came as House GOP members are preparing for the first hearing Thursday into the Biden impeachment inquiry. Smith, as head of the Ways and Means Committee, is in charge of one of the three committees spearheading the investigations." MB: Worth reading. Smith's ignorance + bluster is hilarious. Maybe they're having an impeachment inquiry because they want to ask what impeachment is. ~~~
~~~ Taking Care of (Trump's) Business. Stephen Collinson of CNN: "Republicans are about to deliver on the driving purpose of their House majority -- enacting Donald Trump's retribution. Trump's lieutenants will on Thursday formally open an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden that his supporters, smarting from their leader's own double impeachment, have been demanding since the current president took office. The first hearing is taking place with just three days to reach a spending deal to keep the government open. Rather than try to solve the crisis, hardline House Republicans are driving the country toward a shutdown that Trump ordered up on social media, insisting it will damage Biden, his potential general election rival.... Impeachment and a shutdown brinkmanship are separate issues, but they spring from the same causes. Both are bound up in the Republican House majority's devotion to Trump and his manipulation of the party to advance his ends. Trump thinks that Biden, rather than the GOP majority...." ~~~
~~~ The Impeachment Show Must Go On. Marie: BTW, the House Administration Committee (controlled by Republicans, of course) has declared that impeachment staff are "essential workers" and therefore will not be furloughed or go unpaid, whereas "non-essential" government workers, like, say, soldiers will not get their paychecks.
Tracey Tully, et al., of the New York Times: "Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey pleaded not guilty on Wednesday to bribery charges, standing before a magistrate judge in Manhattan federal court, his wife, Nadine, seated nearby. About three hours earlier, the Menendezes had held hands as they pushed through a crowd of journalists and entered the courthouse without answering questions. A lone protester shouted 'Resign!' Ms. Menendez, 56, also entered a not-guilty plea for her role in the bribery conspiracy, which prosecutors said involved weapons sales and aid to the government of Egypt." MB: The number of Democratic senators who have called for Menendez to resign stands at 30 as of early Wednesday afternoon, according to on-air reporting. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Ken Dilanian & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "Sen. Robert Menendez ... singlehandedly blocked passage of bipartisan legislation in 2020 that would have strengthened the law regulating foreign influence and lobbying in Washington, Senate records show. The proposed Foreign Agents Disclosure and Registration Enhancement Act grew out of widespread concerns that the current law regulating foreign lobbying had seldom been enforced, and that foreign influence campaigns had successfully infiltrated American politics. Strengthening the law had drawn support from Democrats and Republicans on key committees. In December 2020, after a Republican senator asked for unanimous consent to bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote, Menendez stood and objected.... The bill had significant support from key Democrats.... Three years later, the Foreign Agents Registration Act, known as FARA, has not been updated." (Also linked yesterday.)
Robert Jimison of the New York Times: "After a brief departure from tradition that was tailored for Senator John Fetterman, the Pennsylvania Democrat who pressed to vote and preside in shorts and a hoodie rather than a business suit, the Senate on Wednesday formalized a longstanding -- but previously unofficial -- requirement that members show up to the chamber in business attire. The Senate late Wednesday unanimously approved a resolution that for the first time codified the suit-and-tie uniform. The action came a week and a half after Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat and the majority leader, announced a relaxing of the decades-old dress policy, prompting some senators including Mr. Fetterman to loosen their ties while others clutched their pearls. The new, enforceable standards, put forth by Senators Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, and Mitt Romney, Republican of Utah, assert that 'business attire' is required for all members, specifying that men are expected to don a coat, tie and slacks or other long pants." A CBS News story is here. ~~~
~~~ ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Marie: This is all stupid, but at least the Senate postponed enacting the frivolous until after it had passed stopgap spending measures to keep the government open, unlike the House which -- when it isn't taking time off -- fritters away valuable time on debating & passing DOA spending bills.
Aliza Chasen of CBS News/"60 Minutes": "Outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley has 'appropriate measures' to ensure his safety, he said this week in his first public response to shocking comments made by ... Donald Trump suggesting that the Army general is a traitor who deserves execution. Trump last week accused Milley of going behind his back to communicate with China during the final months of the Trump administration.... The chairman's spokesperson in 2021 said the general's calls to China were part of his regular communications with defense chiefs worldwide. The spokesperson described the calls as being crucial to reducing tensions between nations, as well as 'avoiding unintended consequences or conflict.... His calls with the Chinese and others in October and January were in keeping with these duties and responsibilities...," the spokesperson said in a written statement at the time. 'All calls from the chairman to his counterparts, including those reported, are staffed, coordinated and communicated with the Department of Defense and the interagency.'"
The Trials of Trump
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A federal judge overseeing ... Donald Trump's election interference case in Washington, D.C., had denied his request that she recuse herself from the case due to her prior comments in criminal cases against other Jan. 6 defendants. U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan wrote in her opinion that her comments in other Jan. 6 cases, which Trump's team took issue with, 'reflect the information and arguments presented by the defense in each case.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "In a strongly worded order..., Judge Tanya S. Chutkan of Federal District Court in Washington, rejected claims by Mr. Trump's lawyers that she had shown bias against the former president in statements she made from the bench in two cases related to the attack on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021. In the order, Judge Chutkan not only chided Mr. Trump's lawyers for putting words in her mouth, but she also asserted that the remarks did not betray any animus or unfairness toward Mr. Trump that would warrant the extraordinary step of removing her from the election interference case.... She also noted that an attempt to disqualify a judge from a case could be 'wrongfully deployed as a form of "judge shopping"' or used as 'a procedural weapon to harass opponents and delay proceedings.'" ~~~
~~~ Akhilleus put the ruling more succinctly: "Oh Donald ... message for you from Judge Chutkan ... ๐"
Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Donald "Trump could lose his grip on all three [of his New York City flagship] buildings after a state judge on Tuesday ruled that he had persistently committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets. The judge sided with New York's attorney general, Letitia James, who had brought a civil case against the former president. As a punishment, the judge, Arthur F. Engoron, effectively revoked Mr. Trump's licenses to operate those properties -- and potentially an even broader swath of the family business that Mr. Trump built over the last half-century. The ruling left much of his New York operation hanging in the balance. Mr. Trump is expected to appeal and has already sued Justice Engoron himself, who has been a thorn in the side of the Trump lawyers for more than a year.... In a Wednesday hearing, Mr. Trump's lawyers pleaded for clarity, asking Justice Engoron to explain exactly what the effect of his ruling would be."
Alex Henderson of AlterNet, republished by the Raw Story: "... Donald Trump has maintained that he did nothing wrong during his now-infamous early January 2021 phone conversation with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger -- a conservative Republican who has pushed back against Trump's false claims of a stolen election. Publicly, Trump has stuck with his claim that the call was 'perfect' and that he broke no laws when he asked Raffensperger to 'find' him votes. But ... privately..., Adam Rawnsley and Asawin Suebsaeng in an article published by Rolling Stone..., Trump has been furious with Raffensperger for making a recording of their call publicly available. And he wants to see his 'perfect' call excluded from being used as evidence. [He is] 'asking his attorneys to draw up proposals for how to suppress its use in the [Georgia] criminal case against him.... At Trump's urging, some of the former president's legal advisers have prepared arguments to try and suppress the call...,' [Rolling Stone reports]." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Since I can't access the Rolling Stone article, I don't know if the reporters cover this: "Georgia's wiretapping law is a 'one-party consent' law for purposes of making audio recordings of conversations." IOW, only one of the parties to the call must be aware of and consent to the call's being recorded. Same for Washington, D.C. Since Raffensperger was in Georgia and Trump was in D.C. when the call took place, it seems unlikely to me that a judge would disallow the call being played for a jury. Moreover, since Trump was aware that multiple people participated in or listening in on the call, I don't see how he could argue he had an "expectation of privacy."
Presidential Race 2024
Much Ado About Nothing: the Seven Dwarfs Debate. Maeve Reston, et al.,of the Washington Post: "Seven Republican presidential hopefuls, clamoring for attention as their time to overtake ... Donald Trump grows shorter, showed a new level of combativeness as they interrupted, disputed and at times insulted one another on the debate stage Wednesday night.... The debate descended into a shouting match at times, where it was impossible to hear what any one candidate was saying.... The GOP candidates spent far more of their time going after each other than the figure who holds a commanding lead in the polls." South Carolinians Tim Scott & Nikki Haley squabbled over curtains the Obama administration bought in 2016 for the official U.N. ambassador's residence. ~~~
~~~ Mike Pence Talks about Sex. Alexandra Ulmer of Reuters: "... former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie used a question about education to mention that Democratic President Joe Biden was 'sleeping with a member of the teachers' union' - a reference to his wife Jill Biden, a teacher. Building on that comment, Trump's former vice president, Mike Pence, said he had to admit that 'I've been sleeping with a teacher for 38 years' - a reference to his own wife, Karen Pence." MB: Okay, so a debate about curtains and men having sex with their wives. Riveting. ~~~
~~~ Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "It's probably time to acknowledge that presidential debates are pointless when the front-runner repeatedly refuses to show up.... The seven candidates on the stage [at the Reagan Presidential Library] talking over each other and repeating shopworn lines from their stump speeches. For most of the night, there was little by way of substantive engagement with each other or -- more important -- any explanation of why any of them would be a better alternative than the former president, who currently leads all of them by more than 40 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls.... The Trump campaign sent out an email blast declaring the debate to be 'boring and inconsequential,' and calling upon the Republican National Committee to 'immediately put an end' to any further ones so the party can train its energy on defeating Biden."
Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: &"Seeking more of the voters who paved his way to the White House in 2016..., Donald J. Trump rallied at a Michigan auto parts factory on Wednesday night, vying for the support of blue-collar workers one day after President Biden appeared on a picket line with striking United Automobile Workers. Mr. Biden on Tuesday affirmed his support for U.A.W. strikers' demands for a 40 percent pay raise. In his appearance at a nonunion factory on Wednesday, Mr. Trump repeatedly asked for the endorsement of the U.A.W. president, Shawn Fain -- calling him 'Shawn' -- but did not back any of the union's contract demands. 'Your head man, Shawn, he's a good man,' Mr. Trump told the crowd, though it was unclear if there were more than a handful of U.A.W. members present. 'But he's got to endorse Trump.'... Mr. Fain has been clear that the U.A.W. would never support Mr. Trump, who pursued many anti-union policies in office.... Mr. Trump was seeking to drive a wedge between rank-and-file workers and their leaders over the issue of electric vehicles, which he repeatedly attacked as an existential threat to American car companies and workers.... 'Get your union leaders to endorse me, and I'll take care of the rest,' Mr. Trump said.'...
"Before the former president took the stage, a few hundred people were seated on the floor of the factory, and at least one man in a red U.A.W T-shirt said he was a union member and voiced support for the strike. Two people holding 'Union Members for Trump' signs said they were not union members.... On Tuesday, as Mr. Biden became the first president of modern times to join a picket line, Mr. Trump issued a statement predicting that 'in three years there will be no autoworker jobs' if Mr. Biden's policies prevail. He hammered that same message in his address on Wednesday, accusing Mr. Biden of 'economic treason.'" MB: It's about time. Trump has been accusing all kinds of real patriots -- like Gen. Mark Milley, President Obama & former FBI Director Jim Comey -- of treason or of committing treasonous acts. I was beginning to think it was damned odd he didn't label President Biden treasonous. A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden's reelection campaign called former President Trump's speech in Michigan 'incoherent' and said that workers aren't buying his attempts to woo them. 'Donald Trump's low-energy, incoherent "speech" at a non-union factory in Michigan was a pathetic, recycled attempt to feign support for working Americans. Americans have seen him try this before and they aren't buying it," Biden campaign spokesman Kevin Munoz said."
Marie: Hey, I found a doctor who says Trump is nuts. Okay, a Ph.D. kind of doctor, but still a doctor? No? ~~~
~~~ Robert Reich in AlterNet: "Seeking to balance Trump's criminal indictments against Biden's age is the ultimate false equivalence. Biden is old. But so is Trump. They're just three years apart. If Trump wins the presidency next year, he'll be the oldest person ever elected to the White House. But Trump is not facing nearly the same scrutiny for his age as is Biden. Yet Trump should be.... Biden is sane. Trump is nuts -- and his condition seems to be getting worse.... This should be the comparison, rather than the false equivalence of Biden's age with Trump's alleged criminality." MB: This is more-or-less what I wrote in a comment yesterday on the media's coverage of Trump's insane rants. ~~~
~~~ Trump Says He Won Every Presidential Race in the 21st Century. Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "To be sure, Trump was never playing with a full deck.... Lately, however, his brain functioning, as impossible as it may be to believe, seems even worse. He appears to believe he's won every presidential election in the last two decades, instead of that one electoral college-based win against Hillary Clinton in 2016. During a campaign stop in South Carolina, Trump spun out a whole story about defeating a famous military leader named 'Bush.' 'When I came here, everyone thought Bush was going to win,' he rambled, saying it was 'because Bush supposedly was a military person.... He got us into the, uh, he got us into the Middle East. How did that work out, right?'... Before bragging about besting two-term winner George W. Bush, Trump gave another speech boasting about his imaginary win against another two-termer, President Barack Obama. 'With Obama, we won an election that everyone said couldn't be won," he prattled on in a speech in Washington, D.C. last week.'" MB: And probably no one can count how many times Trump says he beat Joe Biden in 2020. Some may argue that Trump did not claim to win the 2000 presidential election, but just you wait and he'll soon tell you he beat Al Gore. Besides, technically, 2000 is the last year of the 20th century. ~~~
~~~ WSJ Warns Against Trump "Lunacy." Alex Henderson of AlterNet: "The Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial board aren't full-fledged Never Trumpers and have defended Trump in the past. But in a September 26 editorial, the board cite Trump's rants against [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark] Milley and NBC as prime examples of why he shouldn't receive the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. 'Donald Trump suggested the other day that Gen. Mark Milley, the nation's highest military officer, deserves execution -- as in death,' the WSJ board writes. 'He said NBC should be investigated for treason and that the FBI should raid the homes of Senate Democrats. Then, he accused President Biden of being manipulated by "the Fascists in the White House."' The board warns that these 'unhinged posts' are the type of 'lunacy' Republicans can expect to deal with if they nominate Trump in 2024." ~~~
~~~ Oh, as if you needed any more proof that Trump's voters are delusional ~~~
~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "A new poll released this week by the Deseret News found that former President Donald Trump [is] more identified as a 'person of faith' by Republican voters than any of his 2024 GOP rivals or even Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT).... "Only 23% of Republicans said Biden is a person of faith...,'..." MB: I should check with the Two Corinthians to see if they have any opinions on Trump's faith.
Choe Sang-Hun & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Pvt. Travis T. King, the American soldier who crossed into North Korea on July 18, was released into U.S. custody on Wednesday following weeks of diplomacy mediated by the Swedish government, according to senior U.S. administration officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the details of Private King's release as he was in transit to a U.S. military base, said he would be reunited with his family in the United States and given physical and mental health support after being held by the North Koreans for 70 days. His first stop after leaving North Korea was China, where U.S. officials were waiting for him. Private King then was put on a plane and flown to a U.S. military facility, though the officials declined identify it." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Natasha Bertrand, et al., of CNN: "US Army Private Travis King arrived back on United States soil Thursday after being returned to American custody weeks after he crossed into North Korea, a Defense Department official said. King flew in on a US military flight, landing at Kelly Field at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston around 1:30 a.m. ET, the official said."
Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Elon Musk, the owner of X...-Twitter, said Wednesday he has made cuts to X's election integrity team, which seeks to prevent election interference and manipulation on the platform. Responding to reports of the cuts, Musk wrote on X, 'Oh you mean the "Election Integrity" Team that was undermining election integrity? Yeah, they're gone.' It was not immediately clear how many people were slashed from team.... The cuts come less than a month after X said it was expanding its safety and elections team to 'focus on combating manipulation, surfacing inauthentic accounts and closeby monitoring the platform for emerging threats.'" ~~~
~~~ Byron Kaye of Reuters: "Elon Musk's X...-Twitter, disabled a feature that let users report misinformation about elections, a research organisation said on Wednesday, throwing fresh concern about false claims spreading just before major U.S. and Australian votes. After introducing a feature in 2022 for users to report a post they considered misleading about politics, X in the past week removed the 'politics' category from its drop-down menu in every jurisdiction but the European Union, said the researcher Reset.Tech Australia."
Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Target said Tuesday that it will close nine stores in urban areas across four states, citing increased violence related to theft and organized retail crime. By Oct. 21, three stores in Portland, Ore., two in Seattle, one in New York and three in the San Francisco-Oakland area will shut down. Retail crime at those locations has reached a level that threatens safety and 'business performance,' Target said.... Shoplifting, organized crime and violence have become significant concerns for regional and national retailers."
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Armenia. The Little Country that Couldn't. Francesca Abel of the Washington Post: "The leader of the self-declared Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh signed a decree Thursday to officially dissolve the breakaway state on Jan. 1, confirming its surrender to Azerbaijan following a failed 32-year quest for independence and international recognition.... A lightening military offensive by Azerbaijan last week forced the self-declared government of Nagorno-Karabakh to capitulate and agree to dismantle its armed forces. The advance of Azerbaijani forces also set off a mass exodus of the mountainous region's ethnic Armenian residents who say they fear genocide and, in any case, are unwilling to live under Azerbaijani rule."
Canada/Poland. Ellen Francis of the Washington Post: "A Polish government minister said this week he had 'taken steps' toward the possible extradition of Yaroslav Hunka, a 98-year-old Ukrainian veteran of a Waffen-SS unit who drew applause during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Canada's Parliament. Anthony Rota, the speaker of the House of Commons, invited Hunka, a constituent in his Ontario legislative district, to the joint session of Parliament last week.... But Jewish groups later said Hunka had served with the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, a unit of the Waffen-SS made up of ethnic Ukrainians.... Rota apologized for inviting Hunka to the event ... before announcing his resignation.... Poland's ambassador to Canada said a government minister launched a preliminary bid to establish whether Hunka is responsible for crimes committed in Poland as a basis for extraditing him."
News Ledes
New York Times: "A NASA astronaut safely returned to Earth on Wednesday after spending 371 days in space, a record in spaceflight for American astronauts. Frank Rubio of NASA and his crewmates, the Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, made a safe, parachute-assisted landing southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, at 7:17 a.m. Eastern time.... Mr. Rubio had expected to be gone only six months when he first embarked on his journey on the Russian Soyuz MS-22 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan last September. His return was upended in December, after mission control found a coolant leak in the Soyuz spacecraft. The leak could have created dangerously hot temperatures for the crew on their return to Earth, so a different spacecraft had to be sent to the space station, delaying Mr. Rubio's return."
Maryland. CNN: "A convicted felon suspected of killing tech executive Pava LaPere in Baltimore this week has been arrested, ending a dayslong manhunt across the city, police said early Thursday. Jason Dean Billingsley was wanted on first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the death of LaPere, the 26-year-old CEO of Baltimore-based startup EcoMap Technologies, according to the >Baltimore Police Department."
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