July 23, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. blamed the media for dragging his campaign Sunday, saying he has been slammed 'even more than President Trump was slammed' by mainstream media outlets. 'I've been really, you know, slammed in a way that I think is unprecedented,' Kennedy said during an interview on Fox News" 'Sunday Morning Futures.'"

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Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Joe Biden plans to name a new national monument next week after Emmett Till, a White House official told CNN, honoring the Black teenager whose murder in 1955 helped galvanize the civil rights movement. Biden will designate the monument on Tuesday, which would have been Till's 82nd birthday. 'The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till's too-short life and racially-motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously brought the world's attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the civil rights movement,' a White House official said. The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument will be centered in Illinois and Mississippi, the states where Till was from and killed, respectively."

WWJD? Shera Avi-Yonah of the Washington Post: "A three-star Air Force general said the U.S. military's approach to artificial intelligence is more ethical than adversaries' because it is a 'Judeo-Christian society.'... Lt. Gen. Richard G. Moore Jr. made the comment at a Hudson Institute event Thursday while answering a question.... 'Regardless of what your beliefs are, our society is a Judeo-Christian society, and we have a moral compass. Not everybody does,' Moore said." MB: I hope Moore is one of the general officers whose promotion Tommy Tuberville is sitting on.

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "In a text message [sent before January 6, 2021,] that has been scrutinized by federal prosecutors, [Trump Chief-of-Staff Mark] Meadows wrote to a White House lawyer that his son, Atlanta-area attorney Blake Meadows, had been probing possible fraud and had found only a handful of possible votes cast in dead voters' names, far short of what Trump was alleging.... [At the time, numerous] Trump aides and other Republican officials expressed deep skepticism or even openly mocked the election claims being made publicly by Trump.... Days after Meadows sent the text, he organized the [Jan. 3 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger..., in which Trump pressed to 'find' the votes in the state necessary to overturn Biden's win.... A person close to Meadows said he knows his relationship with Trump is permanently ruptured and has told others he does not seek to antagonize Trump and his supporters but concluded he had to cooperate with Smith's office as required by law." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law.... On an Iowa radio show on Tuesday, Trump warned it would be 'very dangerous' if [Jack] Smith jailed him, since his supporters have 'much more passion than they had in 2020.'... Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, Trump's closest Republican challenger, defended Trump on Russell Brand's podcast Friday, dismissing the idea that there was an overt effort to upend the 2020 election. 'The idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true,' DeSantis said, 'and it's something that the media had spun up just to try to basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.' DeSantis seems almost as delusional as Trump...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

I Can't Believe I Read It on Fox "News": "In an article for the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, academics from Oregon State University wrote about their shock at receiving sarcasm and mockery in response to their research into undergraduate LGBTQ students studying in STEM fields. The team claimed 50 of 349 responses to their questionnaire on the topic contained 'slurs, hate speech, or direct targeting of the research team.' Labeling them 'malicious respondents,' they adapted their project to examine how the joke responses 'relate to engineering culture by framing them within larger social contexts -- namely, the rise of online fascism.'... Several answers contained profanity and other offensive and obscene language and many referenced memes. 'Online memes associated with white nationalist and fascist movements were present throughout the data, alongside memes and content referencing gaming and "nerd" culture,' the researchers further claimed." MB: The one tell that this is a Fox story is that the writer repeatedly reports that researchers "claimed" this and that; an MSM report would likely says researchers "found" those results. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race 2024

How to Lose Younger Voters. Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "Three of Donald Trump's rivals for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination are pushing for cuts to Social Security benefits that would only affect younger Americans, as the party's leaders grapple with the explosive politics of the retirement program. In comments on Sunday as well as in interviews earlier this year, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Social Security will need to be revamped -- but not for people who are near or in retirement. Former vice president Mike Pence and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley have taken similar positions since launching their presidential campaigns. From the earliest days of his 2016 run, Trump has vowed not to touch either Social Security or Medicare -- a break from GOP orthodoxy that has shifted the party's views...."

The Killer Governor. Sharon LaFraniere, et al., of the New York Times: "Once a vaccine advocate, [Gov. Ron DeSantis] lost his enthusiasm for the shot before the Delta wave sent Covid hospitalizations and deaths soaring. It's a grim chapter he now leaves out of his rosy retelling of his pandemic response.... The governor now presents his Covid strategy not only as his biggest accomplishment, but as the foundation for his presidential campaign. Mr. DeSantis argues that 'Florida got it right' because he was willing to stand up for the rights of individuals despite pressure from health 'bureaucrats.'... On the single factor that ... experts say mattered most in fighting Covid -- widespread vaccinations -- Mr. DeSantis's approach proved deeply flawed. While the governor personally crusaded for Floridians 65 and older to get shots, he laid off once younger age groups became eligible. Tapping into suspicion of public health authorities, which the Republican right was fanning, he effectively stopped preaching the virtues of Covid vaccines. Instead, he emphasized his opposition to requiring anyone to get shots, from hospital workers to cruise ship guests.... Floridians died at a higher rate, adjusted for age, than residents of almost any other state during the Delta wave, according to the Times analysis." MB: People died because Ron DeSantis of Ron DeSantis' personal vanity project. And it appears that the project itself has failed. It doesn't seem this cruel, creepy opportunist will become president*. ~~~

     ~~~ OR, as Paul Campos put it in LG&$, "Ron DeSantis killed tens of thousand of Floridians because he thought opposing vaccines would help make him president. I mean 'killed' is such a harsh word -- maybe 'helped kill via reckless indifference to their potential deaths' would be fairer." Campos also notes that DeSantis is unlikely to win the GOP presidential nomination, unless a recent Michigan poll, ferinstance, has "a margin of error of 56 points."

Kevin Sullivan & Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is intensifying his efforts to de-emphasize racism in his state's public school curriculum by arguing that some Black people benefited from being enslaved and defending his state's new African American history standards.... 'They're probably going to show that some of the folks that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life,' DeSantis said on Friday in response to reporters' questions while standing in front of a nearly all-White crowd of supporters.... Civil rights leaders, educators and others have expressed revulsion at the idea that enslaved people benefited from the experience.... DeSantis said he 'wasn't involved in writing the new teaching materials, which took effect this week. But he credited 'a lot of scholars' with creating 'the most robust standards in African American history probably anywhere in the country.'" MB: I wonder if DeSantis wishes he were a slave so he too could learn blacksmithing or how to pick cotton in the noonday sun. He should try it out. Sure hope the master doesn't beat DeSantis with a whip or sell his children at the St. Augustine slave market.

Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "For many educational publishing companies and book sellers, sales are plunging as districts shy from purchasing content they fear might fall afoul of state laws restricting education on race, sex and gender -- or draw complaints amid a historic surge in book challenges. Meanwhile, frazzled firms are spending months negotiating with education departments, politicians and school officials to ensure the books they sell won't leave them imprisoned, slapped with onerous fines or banned from doing business in a state under the raft of new legislation." MB: I don't see what the problem is. The publishing companies could just copy the books they printed when I was a schoolgirl; those sanitized "histories" were so Rah-Rah-You-Ess-Ay and devoid of meaningful social content that they would not offend any white evangelical nationalists. I'm not sure they even mentioned slavery, for instance, although that would mean they didn't tout the benefits slaves enjoyed as a result of forced servitude.

Rebecca Robbins & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "In 2004, Gilead Sciences decided to stop pursuing a new H.I.V. drug. The public explanation was that it wasn't sufficiently different from an existing treatment to warrant further development. In private, though..., Gilead had devised a plan to delay the new drug's release to maximize profits, even though executives had reason to believe it might turn out to be safer for patients, according to a trove of internal documents made public in litigation against the company. Gilead, one of the world's largest drugmakers, appeared to be embracing a well-worn industry tactic: gaming the U.S. patent system to protect lucrative monopolies on best-selling drugs.... The 'patent extension strategy,' as the Gilead documents repeatedly called it, would allow the company to keep prices high for its tenofovir-based drugs.... The [decade-long] delayed release of the new treatment is now the subject of state and federal lawsuits in which some 26,000 patients who took Gilead's older H.I.V. drugs claim that the company unnecessarily exposed them to kidney and bone problems.... Gilead's apparent maneuver ... is so common in the pharmaceutical industry that it has a name: product hopping." MB: I hope those greedy bastards have to pay a high cruelty premium.

Dave Kindy of the Washington Post: On Thanksgiving Day 1945, Tony Bennett was stationed in Mannheim, Germany, when he bumped into a high school friend. The two young men were delighted to see each other and decided to spend the day together. It didn't work out. "An Army officer blasted the two soldiers -- one Black and the other White -- with a hate-filled rant for being together in public. In the segregated military of the day, the two men were not allowed to socialize. Back then, the punishment for Black and White soldiers associating with one another was more severe than if they fraternized with civilians in occupied Germany.... The 19-year-old corporal -- who also survived the horrors of combat and witnessed unspeakable atrocities while liberating Nazi death camps -- vowed to become a pacifist and to work for racial harmony." And he did. ~~~

     ~~~ At least a decade later and long after President Harry Truman desegregated the armed services in 1948, my uncle was a SAC pilot who, with three other officers, had to stop in some town in Florida. The Air Force chose their hotels: one for the three white guys and a different one for the Black officer, who was not permitted to stay in the nice white folks' hotel. Later, my uncle told his C.O. he wasn't going on any jaunts where AF personnel didn't receive equal accommodations. So put these stories in your school books, Ron DeSantis. Oh wait, your anti-woke legislation does not permit any text that might make some white students "feel uncomfortable."

Beyond the Beltway

California. A Bigoted Protest Backfires. Jill Cowan of the New York Times: Adrianne "Peterson, who has run [a San Diego L]ibrary branch since 2012 and highlighted books for Pride Month for the better part of a decade, was taken aback when she read an email last month from two neighborhood residents. They informed her that they had gotten nearly all of the books in the Pride display checked out and would not return them unless the library permanently removed what they considered 'inappropriate content.'... The text of their email was identical to a template posted online by a right-wing group called CatholicVote, which has an office in Indiana and is not affiliated with the Catholic church.... Soon..., stacks of Amazon boxes containing new copies of the books the protesters checked out started to arrive at the library after The San Diego Union-Tribune reported on the protest."

Florida Voter Suppression. Jane Timm of NBC News: "Florida Democrats say they're spending and organizing to chase down people who vote by mail after election officials across the state canceled all standing mail ballot requests this year. The mass cancellations were to comply with a 2021 election law that added new restrictions to mail-in voting. The legislation -- which was celebrated by Gov. Ron DeSantis and slammed by voting rights advocates as discriminatory -- cut the duration of mail-in ballot requests in half from four years to two. It also required that existing requests for mail ballots be canceled at the end of 2022, forcing election workers to cancel millions of requests and start their lists of vote-by-mail voters from scratch."

Way Beyond

Reuters: "The G20 bloc of wealthy economies meeting in India failed to reach a consensus on phasing down fossil fuels on Saturday after objections by some producer nations. Scientists and campaigners are exasperated by international bodies' foot-dragging on action to curb global heating even as extreme weather across the northern hemisphere underlined the climate crisis facing the world. The G20 member countries together account for more than three-quarters of global emissions and gross domestic product, so a cumulative effort by the group to decarbonise is crucial in the global fight against climate breakdown.... Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, South Africa and Indonesia are all known to oppose the goal of tripling renewable energy capacity this decade."

Israel. Patrick Kingsley & Isabel Kershner of the New York Times:"Thousands of demonstrators were camped outside Israel's Parliament on Sunday as lawmakers debated a key part of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's plan to overhaul the judiciary, a proposal that has sparked perhaps the country's gravest domestic crisis since its founding 75 years ago. Talks were ongoing to reach an 11th-hour compromise over the judicial dispute, which centers on Mr. Netanyahu's plan to limit the ways in which the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions. But for now, lawmakers are expected to hold a binding vote on the law on Monday in Parliament, where Mr. Netanyahu's far-right and religiously conservative ruling coalition holds a four-seat majority." This is a liveblog. ~~~

~~~ Tia Goldenberg of the AP: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was recovering in a hospital on Sunday after an emergency heart procedure while opposition to his government's contentious judicial overhaul plan reached a fever pitch and unrest gripped the country. Netanyahu's doctors said on Sunday the heart pacemaker implantation went smoothly and that Netanyahu, 73, felt fine. According to his office, he was expected to be discharged later in the day."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Russia struck Odessa with a barrage of missiles overnight == the fifth day of attacks in a week for the embattled port city -- killing one civilian and injuring 19 others, including four children, Ukrainian officials said early Sunday. The strikes destroyed a historic cathedral in the city and damaged residential buildings, officials added. Russia has continuously bombed Odessa, home to Ukraine's biggest port, since backing out of a deal to allow the export of Ukrainian grain to the rest of the world.... The U.S. ambassador to Ukraine said the Odessa attack had 'terrible costs.' Bridget A. Brink said that the city, 'a world heritage site and a vital port for global food security,' was left with 'a destroyed cathedral, ruined homes, and burning grain silos.'... [President] Zelensky discussed steps with NATO's secretary general to unblock grain export routes outlined in the Black Sea Grain Initiative..., [he] said in his evening address.... 'Many may die' from starvation without an active Black Sea grain deal in place, said U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths." ~~~

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

News Lede

CNN: "A large wildfire tearing through the Greek island of Rhodes forced thousands of tourists to flee their hotels in what Greek officials said was the largest evacuation effort in the country's history. Those caught up in the blaze described chaotic and frightening scenes, with some having to leave on foot or find their own transport after being told to leave.The wildfire in the central and south part of Rhodes -- a hugely popular island for holidaymakers -- has been burning since Tuesday. It is the largest of a number of blazes in Greece, which is sweltering due to a heat wave that experts say is likely to become the country's longest on record."

July 22, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "In a text message [sent before January 6, 2021,] that has been scrutinized by federal prosecutors, [Trump Chief-of-Staff Mark] Meadows wrote to a White House lawyer that his son, Atlanta-area attorney Blake Meadows, had been probing possible fraud and had found only a handful of possible votes cast in dead voters' names, far short of what Trump was alleging. The lawyer teasingly responded that perhaps Meadows's son could locate the thousands of votes Trump would need to win the election. [Marie: according to MSNBC, Meadows texted back, "LOL."]... [At the time, numerous] Trump aides and other Republican officials expressed deep skepticism or even openly mocked the election claims being made publicly by Trump.... Days after Meadows sent the text, he organized the [Jan. 3 call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad] Raffensperger..., in which Trump pressed to 'find' the votes in the state necessary to overturn Biden's win.... A person close to Meadows said he knows his relationship with Trump is permanently ruptured and has told others he does not seek to antagonize Trump and his supporters but concluded he had to cooperate with Smith's office as required by law." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: That is, Meadows thought it was ludicrous to pretend there were some 12,000 missing Trump votes in Georgia. Yet days later he arranged a call in which Trump told the Georgia secretary of state to find him 11,780 votes. And on that same call, Meadows claimed -- in response to the secretary's assertion that they had found only two dead voters, "That may be what your investigation shows, but I can promise you there are more than that."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "A man is running to run the government he tried to overthrow while he was running it, even as he is running to stay ahead of the law.... On an Iowa radio show on Tuesday, Trump warned it would be 'very dangerous' if [Jack] Smith jailed him, since his supporters have 'much more passion than they had in 2020.'... Meanwhile, Ron DeSantis, Trump's closest Republican challenger, defended Trump on Russell Brand's podcast Friday, dismissing the idea that there was an overt effort to upend the 2020 election. 'The idea that this was a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States is not true,' DeSantis said, 'and it's something that the media had spun up just to try to basically get as much mileage out of it and use it for partisan and political aims.' DeSantis seems almost as delusional as Trump...."

I Can't Believe I Read It on Fox "News": "In an article for the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies, academics from Oregon State University wrote about their shock at receiving sarcasm and mockery in response to their research into undergraduate LGBTQ students studying in STEM fields. The team claimed 50 of 349 responses to their questionnaire on the topic contained 'slurs, hate speech, or direct targeting of the research team.' Labeling them 'malicious respondents,' they adapted their project to examine how the joke responses 'relate to engineering culture by framing them within larger social contexts -- namely, the rise of online fascism.'... Several answers contained profanity and other offensive and obscene language and many referenced memes. 'Online memes associated with white nationalist and fascist movements were present throughout the data, alongside memes and content referencing gaming and "nerd" culture,' the researchers further claimed." MB: The one tell that this is a Fox story is that the writer repeatedly reports that researchers "claimed" this and that; an MSM report would likely says researchers "found" those results.

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Christina Wilkie of CNBC: "Morgan Stanley is crediting President Joe Biden's economic policies with driving an unexpected surge in the U.S. economy that is so significant that the bank was forced to make a 'sizable upward revision' to its estimates for U.S. gross domestic product. Biden's Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is 'driving a boom in large-scale infrastructure,' wrote Ellen Zentner, chief U.S. economist for Morgan Stanley, in a research note released Thursday. In addition to infrastructure, 'manufacturing construction has shown broad strength,' she wrote."

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "President Biden has asked CIA Director William J. Burns to become a member of his Cabinet, reflecting the central role the veteran diplomat has taken carrying out the administration's foreign policy and his key role as a messenger to Russia. The move, which is largely symbolic, will not give Burns any new authorities. But it underscores the influence Burns has in the administration and will be read as a victory for the CIA, which was among the agencies in the U.S. intelligence community that accurately forecast the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.... Burns, who repeatedly stresses that he is not engaged in diplomacy, has nevertheless emerged as a sort of 'secretary of hard problems,' U.S. officials have said. Since well before Russia invaded Ukraine, Burns has been the White House's key interlocutor to Moscow, having had the most direct interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin of anyone in the administration.... Burns, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, has been one of the sharpest public critics of Putin...." (Also linked yesterday.)

John Ismay of the New York Times: "The White House announced on Friday that President Biden intends to nominate Adm. Lisa Franchetti to become the Navy's highest-ranking officer following the retirement of Adm. Michael M. Gilday this summer.... Currently the Navy's vice chief, Admiral Franchetti will serve in an acting role as the Navy's top officer, awaiting confirmation by the Senate -- a process that Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, has blocked for hundreds of admirals and generals in an attempt to force the Pentagon to drop a policy offering time off and travel reimbursement to service members who need to go out of state for abortions.... Admiral Franchetti would be the second woman to lead a branch of the armed forces. Adm. Linda L. Fagan became the first to do so when she took the oath of office as commandant of the Coast Guard on June 1, 2022. The White House and Pentagon both noted that Admiral Franchetti would be the first female officer to serve as a permanent member of the Joint Chiefs." The AP's story is here.

Sahil Kapur & Liz Brown-Kaiser of NBC News: "The White House plans to use a little-known law to keep acting Labor Secretary Julie Su in the job even if she fails to win Senate approval, a White House official told NBC News. 'Upon Secretary [Marty] Walsh's departure, Acting Secretary Su automatically became Acting Secretary under its organic statute, not under the Federal Vacancies Reform Act,' the White House official said in an email.... 'As a result, Su is not subject to the time limits of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and she can serve as Acting Secretary indefinitely.'... A law dating back to 1946 allows the deputy labor secretary, to which Su was confirmed by the Senate in 2021, to 'perform the duties of the Secretary until a successor is appointed.'... After Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., came out against her, the White House called on him and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who hasn't publicly taken a stance, to 'reconsider' their positions, implying that she also opposes the Su nomination." ~~~

~~~ Burgess Everett of Politico writes about the many ways in which Manchin & Sinema are "bedeviling" the White House & other Democrats.

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden's attorney on Friday requested that a congressional ethics panel take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), citing her use of sexually explicit images of the president's son that she displayed during a congressional hearing earlier this week. 'Your colleague has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct,' Abbe Lowell wrote in a four-page letter sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics." (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of illegally retaining dozens of classified documents set a trial date on Friday for May 2024, taking a middle position between the government's request to go to trial in December and Mr. Trump's desire to push the proceeding until after the 2024 election. In her order, Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the trial was to be held in her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., a coastal city two-and-a-half hours north of Miami that will draw its jury pool from several counties that Mr. Trump won handily in his two previous presidential campaigns. Judge Cannon also laid out a calendar of hearings, throughout the remainder of this year and into next year.... The date Judge Cannon chose to start the trial -- May 20, 2024 -- falls after the bulk of the primary contests. But it is less than two months before the start of the Republican National Convention in July and the formal start of the general election season." (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Special counsel Jack Smith recently asked Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for information about efforts by ... President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the election results in Georgia in 2020, the governor's spokesman confirmed Friday afternoon.... Trump also pressured Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) to help him overturn the results in Georgia after the 2020 election, calling both men, publicly attacking them when they declined to join his effort and sending advisers and emissaries to the state. Kemp has also been questioned by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) as part of her investigation of efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results...."

Vaughn Hillyard, et al., of NBC News: "Prosecutors from special counsel Jack Smith's office questioned former White House aide William Russell about ... Donald Trump's state of mind during and after the 2020 election period, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News. Russell -- who was with Trump for some of the day on Jan. 6, 2021 -- testified for hours Thursday before the federal grand jury deciding whether to indict the former president over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.... A source familiar with [Russell's] work at the White House told NBC News that he would often informally engage in conversations with Trump and key staff, including Mark Meadows who served as chief of staff, in the West Wing and Oval Office."

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... a long-running investigation into election interference by prosecutors in Atlanta has cast a ... broad net, with nearly 20 people already warned that they could face charges.... A special grand jury that heard evidence for roughly seven months recommended more than a dozen people for indictments, and its forewoman strongly hinted in an interview in February that [Donald] Trump was among them. The Trump aides and allies whose conduct has been closely scrutinized in the inquiry include Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump's former personal lawyer; Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff; John Eastman, a legal architect of Mr. Trump's efforts to stay in power; and Jeffrey Clark, a former high-ranking official at the Department of Justice who sought to intervene in Georgia after the 2020 election.... The Trump team filed an amended petition [Friday] seeking to have [Fulton County D.A. Fani] Willis disqualified and the work of the special grand jury thrown out. Ural Glanville, the chief judge of the Fulton County Superior Court, issued an order recusing all of the judges in Fulton County from deciding the question and referred it to another court. Earlier this week, the Georgia Supreme Court unanimously rejected a similar request by Mr. Trump's lawyers." ~~~

~~~ ** Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month, according to two people briefed on the matter.... In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said." MB: We don't know what's happening the grand jury Willis has convened, and we don't know that the grand jury will direct Willis to bring any charges. But treating Trump as a dirty mob boss seems entirely appropriate to me. (Also linked yesterday.)

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the longtime fixer to Donald J. Trump, who was set to go to trial next week against his former boss's company in a dispute over legal fees, has agreed to settle his lawsuit with the Trump Organization, lawyers for both parties said at a brief court hearing on Friday. Mr. Cohen's lawsuit, filed in 2019, accused the Trump Organization of failing to abide by the terms of a deal and refusing to pay more than $1 million in legal costs. Jury selection for the trial began earlier this week, and opening arguments were scheduled for Monday." (Also linked yesterday.) An AP story is here.

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta "on Friday sentenced a Jan. 6 'operations coordinator' for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes to two years' probation and 60 hours of community service, rejecting federal prosecutors' requests for prison time. Michael Greene, 40, of Indianapolis, was a paid contractor known as 'Whip' who helped the extremist group run security details for Republican VIPs at events leading up to and including the pro-Donald Trump rally before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. Greene, who did not enter the Capitol, was convicted at trial in May on one count of trespassing on restricted grounds. Greene's defense argued he was not a core follower, and a jury acquitted him of three felony counts, including conspiring with Rhodes and others and tampering with evidence. A judge declared a mistrial on a fifth count after a jury hung on a charge of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Over a forceful dissent from its three liberal members, the Supreme Court early Friday morning refused to halt the execution of a death row inmate in Alabama who said that the state's history of botched executions made it likely that he would suffer intense pain as he was put to death. The inmate, James Barber, was executed about two hours after the court's 1 a.m. order. Early news reports did not note major flaws in the procedure. Mr. Barber was convicted in 2003 of beating Dorothy Epps, 75, to death with his fists and a claw hammer. The Supreme Court's brief order gave no reasons for denying the stay.... In an 11-page dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the majority had empowered 'Alabama to experiment again with a human life.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "After pressure from the White House..., seven leading A.I. companies in the United States have agreed to voluntary safeguards on the technology's development, the White House announced on Friday, pledging to strive for safety, security and trust even as they compete over the potential of artificial intelligence. The seven companies -- Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI -- will formally announce their commitment to the new standards at a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon. The announcement comes as the companies are racing to outdo each other with versions of A.I. that offer powerful new tools to create text, photos, music and video without human input. But the technological leaps have prompted fears that the tools will facilitate the spread of disinformation and dire warnings of a 'risk of extinction' as self-aware computers evolve." (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: President* Trump could not get such an agreement because he thought "A.I." stood for "Article I" of the Constitution, which covers the powers of Congress, powers that under Trump's thumb are themselves already under a "risk of extinction." (See today's "My Kevin" news, for instance.)

Presidential Race 2024

I didn't know practically what a subpoena was and grand juries and all of this -- now I'm like becoming an expert. -- Donald Trump, in a speech Tuesday to the Linn County Republican Party in Cedar Rapids, Iowa

From the 1980s until he was elected president in 2016, Donald Trump and his businesses were involved in over 4,000 legal cases in U.S. federal and state courts. -- Wikipedia

I'm not sure how many -- if any -- grand juries investigated Trump before he became president*, but he and his companies surely received thousands of subpoenas and many a lawyer probably explained to Trump what a subpoena was. -- Marie~~~

~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Any distinction between [Donald Trump]'s White House bid and his criminal defense is vanishing as the charges against him mount. Fighting those prosecutions is increasingly dominating his time, resources and messaging, making the centerpiece of his candidacy an appeal to stay out of prison. As he forges ahead, much of the Republican base appears to be cheering him at each turn. What is likely to come is a campaign like the country has never seen before: A candidate juggling multiple criminal indictments while slashing the Department of Justice and his opponents, shuttling between early primary states for rallies and courtrooms for hearings, and spending his supporters' money on both millions of dollars' worth of campaign ads and burgeoning legal bills.... Just over half of the money he raised last quarter went not to the campaign itself but to an affiliated PAC that is footing the legal bills."

Marie: As reasonable as it is to blame White dummkopf, nationalist, evangelical, cultist voters for Donald Trump's likely victory in the nominating process, I place the responsibility on Republican "leaders" who have led the march behind him. How different the nominating process would be if Senate Republicans had convicted Trump in his second impeachment and rendered him ineligible for public office. How different the process would be if, failing that, Republican elected officials had uniformly, or almost uniformly, turned their backs on him and condemned him as unfit for office. It was not the voters, but the leaders who rid us of this corrupt president. "Days before he resigned, [and after the Watergate tapes were published] a Gallup poll found that only 31 percent of Republican [voter]s thought Nixon should no longer be president."

Those who ended Nixon's presidency were Congressional Republicans, who sent a delegation led by Sen. Barry Goldwater (R-Az.) to the White House to tell Nixon he should resign or face impeachment and conviction. This was the same Barry Goldwater who had said in his 1964 acceptance of the Republican nomination for president that "Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice." That is, in 1974, Nixon resigned because even the most extreme elements of the party's leadership were among those who forced him out. Today, almost all Republican "leaders," including most of those running against Trump in the primary, either applaud him or refuse to condemn him.

Sarah Mervosh of the New York Times:"After an overhaul to Florida's African American history standards, Gov. Ron DeSantis ... is facing a barrage of criticism this week from politicians, educators and historians.... Vice President Kamala Harris directed her staffers to immediately plan a trip to Florida to respond, according to one White House official. 'How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?' Ms. Harris ... said in a speech in Jacksonville on Friday afternoon." MB: Contributor & Floridian Bobby Lee said in yesterday's Comments thread that he would check to see if DeSantis and the GOP had changed the historical markers at St. Augustine's Old Slave Market to read "Immigrant Welcome Center." ~~~

~~~ Cleve Wootson of the Washington Post: "Vice President Harris, taking aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis's 'war on woke' on Friday in his home state, blasted Florida politicians for making changes to the public school curriculum that she said amounted to little more than a 'purposeful and intentional policy to mislead our children,' especially when it comes to slavery. Harris never mentioned DeSantis (R) by name, referring only to 'extremists' and people who 'want to be talked about as American leaders.' But her fiery speech in Jacksonville focused squarely on [DeSantis'] policies..., as well as on the state's Board of Education and its Republican-controlled legislature.... 'Come on -- adults know what slavery really involved,' Harris said. 'It involved rape. It involved torture. It involved taking a baby from their mother. It involved some of the worst examples of depriving people of humanity in our world.' She added, 'How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities, that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?'" An ABC News story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. Jim Crow Forever. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Alabama Republicans pushed through a new congressional map on Friday that will test the bounds of a judicial mandate to create a second majority-Black district in the state or something 'close to it,' incensing plaintiffs in the court case and Democrats who predicted the plan would never pass muster with a judicial panel charged with approving it. A month after a surprise Supreme Court ruling that found the state's existing map violated a landmark civil rights law by diluting the power of Black voters, the Republican supermajority in the Alabama Legislature backed a plan that would increase the share of Black voters in one of the state's six majority-white congressional districts to about 40 percent, from about 30 percent. The map also dropped the percentage of Black voters in the existing majority-Black district to about 51 percent from about 55 percent. In Alabama, more than one in four residents are Black. Notably, the redrawing ensures that none of the state's six white Republican incumbents would have to face one another in a primary to keep their seat. The proposal will have to be approved by a federal court, which will hold a hearing on it next month." The NBC News story is here.

Nebraska. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally concealing human remains. The teenager, Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages, which showed them discussing plans to end the pregnancy and 'burn the evidence.' Prosecutors said the mother had ordered abortion pills online and had given them to her daughter in April 2022, when Celeste Burgess was 17 and in the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy. The two then buried the fetal remains themselves, the police said. Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty in July to violating Nebraska's abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing on Sept. 22.... The police investigation into the Burgesses began before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022."

Texas. Priscilla Alvarez & Shimon Prokupecz of CNN: "The Justice Department told Texas [Gov. Greg Abbott] Thursday that it intends to file legal action against the placement of floating barriers in the Rio Grande as part of the state's operation along the Texas-Mexico border.... 'The State of Texas's actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government's ability to carry out its official duties,' the letter stated, citing a clause in the law that 'prohibits the creation of any obstruction to the navigable capacity of waters of the United States, and further prohibits building any structure in such waters without authorization from the United States Army Corps of Engineers....' This is separate from the ongoing assessment of mistreatment of migrants, which the Justice Department described as 'troubling reports.'... The letter ... detail[s] 'sharp razor wire' in the Rio Grande, which is 'creating death traps for migrants and violating U.S. treaty commitments with Mexico.'"

Texas. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "Texas A&M University said on Friday that its president was resigning 'immediately' following a conflict over the school's shifting offers to a candidate who appeared set to lead its journalism school but ultimately declined the position after facing pushback over her work promoting diversity. The president, M. Katherine Banks, submitted a letter of retirement late on Thursday, in which she said that the negative attention over the journalism director, Kathleen McElroy, was a distraction for Texas A&M...." The Texas Tribune's story is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan it was an 'absolute priority' to restore the Black Sea corridor, where ships carry Ukrainian grain to the world, according to the Ukrainian leader's office.... Brokered by Turkey and the United Nations last year, the agreement allowed the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine, a major exporter.... UNESCO condemned Russian attacks on the 'historic center of Odessa,' which is protected under the World Heritage Convention.... Radar imagery appears to show newly arrived vehicles and equipment in Belarus, at a rumored base for fighters from the Wagner Group.... The United States is planning to announce a new $400 million military assistance package for Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing three unidentified American officials.... Zelensky has dismissed Ukraine's ambassador to Britain, according to the BBC. Kyiv did not announce a reason for the removal of Vadym Prystaiko, who criticized the president's response after British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace suggested Ukraine should show gratitude for security assistance." ~~~

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

July 21, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "President Biden has asked CIA Director William J. Burns to become a member of his Cabinet, reflecting the central role the veteran diplomat has taken carrying out the administration's foreign policy and his key role as a messenger to Russia. The move, which is largely symbolic, will not give Burns any new authorities. But it underscores the influence Burns has in the administration and will be read as a victory for the CIA, which was among the agencies in the U.S. intelligence community that accurately forecast the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022.... Burns, who repeatedly stresses that he is not engaged in diplomacy, has nevertheless emerged as a sort of 'secretary of hard problems,' U.S. officials have said. Since well before Russia invaded Ukraine, Burns has been the White House's key interlocutor to Moscow, having had the most direct interactions with Russian President Vladimir Putin of anyone in the administration.... Burns, who served as U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, has been one of the sharpest public critics of Putin...."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of illegally retaining dozens of classified documents set a trial date on Friday for May 2024, taking a middle position between the government's request to go to trial in December and Mr. Trump's desire to push the proceeding until after the 2024 election. In her order, Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the trial was to be held in her home courthouse in Fort Pierce, Fla., a coastal city two-and-a-half hours north of Miami that will draw its jury pool from several counties that Mr. Trump won handily in his two previous presidential campaigns. Judge Cannon also laid out a calendar of hearings, throughout the remainder of this year and into next year.... The date Judge Cannon chose to start the trial -- May 20, 2024 -- falls after the bulk of the primary contests. But it is less than two months before the start of the Republican National Convention in July and the formal start of the general election season."

** Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia has developed evidence to charge a sprawling racketeering indictment next month, according to two people briefed on the matter.... In the Trump investigation, the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, has evidence to pursue a racketeering indictment predicated on statutes related to influencing witnesses and computer trespass, the people said." MB: We don't know what's happening the grand jury Willis has convened, and we don't know that the grand jury will direct Willis to bring any charges. But treating Trump as a dirty mob boss seems entirely appropriate to me.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen, the longtime fixer to Donald J. Trump, who was set to go to trial next week against his former boss's company in a dispute over legal fees, has agreed to settle his lawsuit with the Trump Organization, lawyers for both parties said at a brief court hearing on Friday. Mr. Cohen's lawsuit, filed in 2019, accused the Trump Organization of failing to abide by the terms of a deal and refusing to pay more than $1 million in legal costs. Jury selection for the trial began earlier this week, and opening arguments were scheduled for Monday."

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Over a forceful dissent from its three liberal members, the Supreme Court early Friday morning refused to halt the execution of a death row inmate in Alabama who said that the state's history of botched executions made it likely that he would suffer intense pain as he was put to death. The inmate, James Barber, was executed about two hours after the court's 1 a.m. order. Early news reports did not note major flaws in the procedure. Mr. Barber was convicted in 2003 of beating Dorothy Epps, 75, to death with his fists and a claw hammer. The Supreme Court's brief order gave no reasons for denying the stay.... In an 11-page dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said the majority had empowered 'Alabama to experiment again with a human life.'"

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden's attorney on Friday requested that a congressional ethics panel take action against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), citing her use of sexually explicit images of the president's son that she displayed during a congressional hearing earlier this week. 'Your colleague has lowered herself, and by extension the entire House of Representatives, to a new level of abhorrent behavior that blatantly violates House Ethics rules and standards of official conduct,' Abbe Lowell wrote in a four-page letter sent to the Office of Congressional Ethics."

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "After pressure from the White House..., seven leading A.I. companies in the United States have agreed to voluntary safeguards on the technology's development, the White House announced on Friday, pledging to strive for safety, security and trust even as they compete over the potential of artificial intelligence. The seven companies -- Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft and OpenAI -- will formally announce their commitment to the new standards at a meeting with President Biden at the White House on Friday afternoon. The announcement comes as the companies are racing to outdo each other with versions of A.I. that offer powerful new tools to create text, photos, music and video without human input. But the technological leaps have prompted fears that the tools will facilitate the spread of disinformation and dire warnings of a 'risk of extinction' as self-aware computers evolve." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: President* Trump could not get such an agreement because he thought "A.I." stood for "Article I" of the Constitution, which covers the powers of Congress, powers that under Trump's thumb are themselves already under a "risk of extinction." (See today's "My Kevin" news, for instance.)

~~~~~~~~~~

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday approved legislation that would impose strict new ethics rules on justices, moving over fierce objections from Republicans to address a string of revelations about Supreme Court justices taking free luxury trips and receiving other financial benefits from wealthy benefactors. The legislation, which stands little chance of advancing given the strong G.O.P. opposition, would require the Supreme Court to, at a minimum, adopt and adhere to ethics and disclosure rules equivalent to those applied to members of Congress. It would also impose new transparency requirements and create a panel of appellate judges to review misconduct complaints made against the justices. Democratic members of the committee said the action was necessary because the court has refused to police itself." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I acknowledge that it is a given that Republicans are horrified that confederate justices should have to abide by some kind of ethics code. But will somebody please remind me of why. What is the rationale -- real or fake -- behind "It's so wrong for our vaunted justices-for-life to be required to demonstrate that they're following ethical principles." I really cannot think of a quasi-reasonable excuse for the GOP's "strong opposition" to the proposed legislation. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Near the end of yesterday's Comments section, Ken W. responded. His answer to my question, if not satisfactory, sounds right to me. And in today's thread, Akhilleus thinks up several rationales. I suspect his final thought is most apt. ~~~

     ~~~ Update 2: Come now Fox "News" & Sen. Foghorn Leghorn with this remarkable excuse: "Senator John Kennedy, R-La., called a new bill from Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats to install a Supreme Court code of ethics a 'court-killing machine' that was both 'dangerous' and 'unserious.'... It would allow any jackaloon out there in America in a tinfoil hat, whose own dog thinks he's an utter nutter, to file a motion to recuse a United States Supreme Court Justice.'"

Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "The House on Thursday overwhelmingly passed bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration for the next half-decade, [also] moving ... to make a number of changes that affect passengers. The bill would address airlines' refunds and reimbursement obligations to passengers, enhance protections for passengers with disabilities, boost hiring of air traffic controllers, shore up aviation safety, unlock funding to modernize airport infrastructure, invest in upgrades to the agency's technology and more. The House passed it on a vote of 351 to 69, sending it to the Senate." MB: Apparently, anti-regulation Republicans, most of whom fly regularly, favor "deep-state" regs that help keep them safe.

Marie: If you would like to know what-all happened in Wednesday's House Biden Crime Family Hearing -- other than MTG displaying huge dick pix in front of those assembled in the room -- Aaron Blake of the Washington Post does a good job at explaining the, ah, substance: "It's basically one big he-said, they-said. And despite the hearing Wednesday, it remained in that realm." It appears star wingnut witness Gary Shapley, an IRS supervisor agent, didn't understand the DOJ's distinction between a "special counsel" & a "special attorney" when he spoke to Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss a while back. Now, I don't think the average person would know the difference, either, nor would the average surly IRS agent. Necessarily. But Weiss wrote a much-publicized letter to the committee last week, explaining Shapley's apparent misapprehension and assuring the committee that AG Merrick Garland did nothing to limit Weiss's investigation and charging decisions re: Hunter Biden. So one would think Shapley would have an Emily Litella moment and back out of the hearing. But no. He insisted to Democratic interrogators that Weiss was not telling the truth. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wonder if Miss Margie should be prosecuted for displaying pornographic photos on C-SPAN (available in all major cable network packages) during children's viewing hours. Imagine some little kid tiring of Sesame Street's alphabet lesson and deploying the remote to switch to C-SPAN, whereupon the heretofore innocent child sees this.

Desperate Measures. Lucien Bruggeman, et al., of ABC News: "Sen. Chuck Grassley on Thursday released a confidential FBI informant's unverified claim that, years ago, the Biden family 'pushed' a Ukrainian oligarch to pay them $10 million. The exceedingly rare step by Grassley, R-Iowa, further promulgates an allegation that Democratic critics warned against accepting at face value and which the White House continues to deny, saying it has been investigated under the Trump administration and 'debunked.'... Grassley's office said he obtained his version of the FD-1023, which is only lightly redacted, 'via legally protected disclosures by Justice Department whistleblowers,' though the bureau said in a statement that such a release 'at a minimum - unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source.'"

My Kevin Makes a Deal. Rachel Bade of Politico: "After House Speaker Kevin McCarthy suggested on national television last month that Donald Trump may not be the GOP's best presidential nominee in 2024, the former president was furious.... 'He needs to endorse me -- today!' Trump fumed to his staff.... But [McCarthy] ... wasn't ready to do that. To calm Trump, McCarthy made him a promise...: The House would vote to expunge the two impeachments against the former president. And -- as McCarthy would communicate through aides later that same day -- they would do so before August recess. That vow -- made reflexively to save his own skin -- may have bought McCarthy some time, staving off a public war with the man who almost single-handedly rehabilitated his entire career and ensured he won the gavel in January." But the plan may not go down well with so-called moderate House Republicans, Constitutionalist Republicans, and those who want to forget about January 6. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ My Kevin Denies He Made a Deal. Arthur Jones & Lauren Peller of ABC News: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Thursday denied a report claiming he promised ... Donald Trump that the House would hold a vote before its August recess on expunging Trump's past impeachments. 'There's no deal, but I've been very clear from long before -- when I voted against impeachments -- that they put them in for purely political purposes. I support expungement but there's no deal out there,' McCarthy said." MB: IOW, McCarthy would have prostrated himself before the Lord High Executioner no matter what. That's the way to stand up to a commander-in-chief* who denied your frantic pleas to him to call off the barbarians who had crashed the gate on January 6. ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney, et al., of Politico: "Roughly a half-dozen swing district Republicans said Thursday they were skeptical -- or even downright opposed -- to any vote designed to symbolically rescind one or both of Trump's impeachments." ~~~

~~~ digby: "I think McCarthy needs to call for that vote. It will either lose because the GOP moderates refuse to go along in which case Trump gets furious and there is hell to pay or it passes and every Democratic challenger in those swing districts use that vote to illustrate how Trump owns them. It's a good plan. Go for it."

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "On Thursday, two of [the] legal proceedings [against Donald Trump] collided in an unusual spectacle, as a federal judge hauled the prosecutor leading the election interference investigation out of a grand jury proceeding and summoned him into his courtroom. The judge, Trevor N. McFadden, was apparently upset that the prosecutor, Thomas P. Windom, had kept a lawyer [-- Stanley Woodward Jr. --] representing a witness in front of the grand jury from appearing on time for the reading of a verdict for a Jan. 6 defendant whom the lawyer was also representing. While the incident came to an end quickly and seemed to have resulted in little more than a public display of tension, it nonetheless reflected the complexities that have ensued from Mr. Trump's crowded legal calendar." The article explains the delay, which was caused by Woodward's consultations with Trump bodyman Will Russell, who was appearing in a grand jury hearing. Politico's story is here. MB: Teevee commenters yesterday said it was unusual for one attorney to represent so many clients in so many different aspects of cases related to Donald Trump's misadventures.

Paula Reid, et al., of CNN: "As anticipation builds for ... Donald Trump to be indicted for the third time this year, investigators in the special counsel's election interference probe are expected to speak with additional witnesses over the next several weeks, including at least one former Trump attorney.... Prosecutors have been in talks with at least two witnesses to schedule interviews with investigators that won't be completed for at least another month. Former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, a Trump ally, is still in the process of scheduling his upcoming interview, and a former Trump lawyer plans to talk to investigators next month, sources familiar with the planned meetings told CNN. It is unclear if prosecutors would wait until after their interviews have been completed before indicting Trump."

Marie: Wednesday night I read U.S. Code Section 241 of Title 18, which is a "surprise" citation in Trump's target letter. I came to much the same conclusion, based on the same recent evidence, Marcy Wheeler reached: "The recent news that Jack Smith has subpoenaed the security footage from the State Farm arena vote count location in Georgia, taken in conjunction with Trump's efforts in places like Michigan -- where his efforts focused on preventing a fair count of Detroit, where he had actually performed better than in 2016, rather than Kent County, the still predominantly white county where he lost the state -- is a reminder that Trump and his mobs, many associated with overt white supremacists like Nick Fuentes, aggressively tried to thwart the counting of Black and Latino people's votes." We have known for a long time that Trump ran a Jim Crow presidency*. You see it in his political appointees, you see it in his judicial nominations. You see it in his immigration sentiments: more Norwegians, fewer people from "shithole countries," no Mexican "rapists," no Muslims. "There are very fine people on both sides." Message to violent white nationalist Proud Boys: "Stand back and stand by." The only Black people Trump has ever been able to make friends with are entertainers or sports figures, and many White racists have long given a pass to Black celebrities. If we failed to notice that Trump was picking on areas with primarily Black voters, then we haven't been paying attention to Republicans back to Richard Nixon. Wheeler gives a big shout-out to Roger Stone, and he is obviously provides a through-line from Nixon to Trump. But the racism is party-wide and hardly concealed. Just ask Paul Ryan why he and Mitt Romney lost the 2012 election:"urban voters." If the DOJ is catching up to reality -- and that remains a supposition -- well, good for them. (Also linked yesterday.)

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: “The Securities and Exchange Commission said on Thursday that it had reached a settlement with the cash-rich shell company that planned to merge with ... Donald J. Trump’s social media company, potentially paving the way for the much-delayed deal to proceed. Under the settlement, Digital World Acquisition Corp. will pay a penalty of $18 million and revise some of its corporate filings to comply with federal securities laws. The S.E.C. was investigating whether Digital World had flouted merger laws governing special purpose acquisition companies. The S.E.C. charged Digital World, a special purpose acquisition company, with misleading investors with its disclosures.... But many hurdles remain for Digital World to complete its merger with Trump Media & Technology Group.... It is unclear why ... Trump Media has not yet signaled it is willing to keep the pending deal alive...."

Trump Appointee Found Guilty in Jan. 6 Insurrection. Spencer Hsu & Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "A former political appointee of ... Donald Trump was found guilty Thursday of joining assaults on police on Jan. 6, 2021, that included one of the most prolonged attacks on officers by rioters in a tunnel at the Lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol. Federico G. Klein, a State Department appointee with a top-secret clearance, was convicted on all counts, including 10 felony charges involving six violent confrontations with multiple law enforcement officers and obstruction of the electoral vote count, after a week-long bench trial before U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden. A co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, was convicted of six felony counts, but McFadden acquitted him of the obstruction charge and a misdemeanor, ruling that Cappuccio was not politically savvy enough to intend to stop the electoral vote count.... One [of their victims was] D.C. police officer Daniel Hodges, who in one of the day's most harrowing events was recorded on camera being pinned to a metal door frame by the mob with Klein's help, while Cappuccio ripped away his baton and gas mask while yelling, 'How you like me now, f[uck]er!'... Klein, 42, served in the Marine Corps Reserves in Iraq before working on Trump's 2016 presidential campaign and gaining a mid-level State Department appointment." The NBC News story is here.

Rachel Weiner of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Thursday denied a bid from Jacob Chansley to withdraw his guilty plea to obstructing Congress on Jan. 6 and rebuked the so-called 'QAnon Shaman' for going on a Tucker Carlson program that gave a distorted view of the riot.... Judge Royce C. Lamberth sentenced [Chansley] in November 2021 to 41 months in prison, the low end of federal sentencing guidelines, after Chansley said he was 'truly repentant' and called his behavior 'indefensible.'... But after leaving prison, he asked Lamberth to undo his conviction, saying security camera footage from inside the Capitol aired by Fox News host Tucker Carlson a few weeks prior showed police allowed him to wander around the building on Jan. 6. The attorney who represented Chansley when he took his plea told Carlson he did not have that video at the time.... All but 10 seconds of the video Carlson showed was produced to Chansley before his sentencing, Lamberth said, and the surveillance video Chansley now claims undermines his conviction is duplicative of police body-camera footage he was given months before he decided to plead guilty.

"'These videos are decidedly not exculpatory,' Lamberth wrote. 'Such footage, conveniently omitted by the [Fox News] program, shows nearly all of Mr. Chansley's actions that day, including: carrying a six-foot-long pole armed with a spearhead, unlawfully entering the Capitol through a broken door, disobeying orders from law enforcement on more than a half-dozen occasions, screaming obscenities, entering the Senate chamber, climbing onto the Senate dais, sitting in the Vice President's chair, and leaving a threatening message for the Vice President.... That law enforcement officers outnumbered by the quantity of rioters did not physically engage Mr. Chansley or impede his progress is irrelevant.'" MB: Otherwise, the bare-chested, spear-carrying, horn-wearing Chansley was just a patriotic tourist enjoying the sights in our nation's capitol. Why, I wouldn't mind seeing him in a Trump campaign video, all decked out in his patriotic touring outfit.

The Lionization of Clarence Thomas (Sponsored by a Guy Named Leo). Shawn Boberg, et al., of the Washington Post: "In 2016, after HBO produced & aired a drama about Clarence Thomas & Anita Hill, there arose a "rush of favorable content [that] was part of a coordinated and sophisticated public relations campaign to defend and celebrate Thomas.... The campaign would stretch on for years and include the creation and promotion of a laudatory film about Thomas, advertising to boost positive content about him during internet searches and publication of a book about his life. It was financed with at least $1.8 million from conservative nonprofit groups steered by the judicial activist Leonard Leo, [a Washington Post] examination found." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ... appeared before the House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government ... [and] said he had 'never been anti-vax' and had taken all recommended vaccines except the coronavirus vaccine. Thursday's hearing ... was rooted in a lawsuit, filed last year by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana and known as Missouri v. Biden, that accused the [Biden] administration of colluding with social media companies to suppress free speech on Covid-19, elections and other matters. The subcommittee's chairman, Representative Jim Jordan..., opened the hearing by citing an email that emerged in that case, in which a White House official asked Twitter to take down a tweet in which Mr. Kennedy suggested -- without evidence -- that the baseball legend Hank Aaron may have died from the coronavirus vaccine.... Thursday's session had all the makings of a Washington spectacle." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Daniel Dale of CNN fact-checks Kennedy's stunning claim (made under oath) that he's never been anti-vaccine. Definitely worth watching:

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: As Republicans & Fox "News" fawn over RFK Jr., his poll numbers turn south.

Marie's Sports News

Ken Belson of the New York Times: "Owners of the N.F.L.'s 31 other teams unanimously approved the sale of the Washington Commanders to a group led by Josh Harris, the private equity billionaire, who agreed to pay a record $6.05 billion to Daniel Snyder, the scandal-plagued owner of the team. The figure surpassed the previous highest price paid for an American sports team...."

Ken Belson & Jenny Vrentas of the New York Times: "Daniel Snyder was fined $60 million, by far the largest penalty ever levied against an N.F.L. team owner, after he was found to have sexually harassed a woman who was both a former cheerleader and a marketing employee for the Washington Commanders. A league-sponsored investigation released Thursday found credible claims made by Tiffani Johnston, the former team employee, who said that Snyder put his hand on her thigh without her consent at a work dinner in 2005 or 2006, and that he later attempted to push her toward the back seat of his car after the event.... White's report also substantiated claims made by a former Washington ticket executive, Jason Friedman, who said the team had intentionally shielded and withheld revenues that were intended to be shared among the league's 32 teams." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's report, which is more detailed, is here.

Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "Unionized workers at Anchor Brewing Company, the oldest craft brewer in the United States, want to buy the 127-year-old company and run it as a co-op to save it from shutting down, a union official said. The company said last week that economic pressures ... had left it 'with no option but to make this sad decision to cease operations.' But employees, who were given 60 days' notice and promised severance packages, have proposed a way to keep the beer flowing."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Way Down Upon de Swanee Ribber. Antonio Planas of NBC News: "Florida's public schools will now teach students that some Black people benefited from slavery because it taught them useful skills, part of new African American history standards approved Wednesday that were blasted by a state teachers' union as a 'step backward.' The Florida State Board of Education's new standards includes controversial language about how 'slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,' according to a 216-page document about the state's 2023 standards in social studies, posted by the Florida Department of Education. Other language that has drawn the ire of some educators and education advocates includes teaching about how Black people were also perpetrators of violence during race massacres.... Updates to the African American history curriculum were required by a controversial 2022 law that Gov. Ron DeSantis dubbed the 'Stop Wrongs To Our Kids and Employees Act,' or 'Stop WOKE Act,' NBC South Florida reported." See also Forrest M.'s comment at the top of today's thread.

Florida. Steve Contorno & Danielle Wiener-Bronner of CNN: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging the state's pension fund manager to consider legal action against Bud Light's parent company amid conservative backlash to the beermaker's recent marketing efforts, the latest attempt by the Republican presidential candidate to inject himself and the state he runs into the country's culture wars. In a Thursday letter obtained by CNN, DeSantis suggests AB InBev 'breached legal duties owed to its shareholders' when it decided to associate with 'radical social ideologies.' Sales of Bud Light have plummeted in the months since it entered into a minor partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that precipitated a boycott from conservatives.... Earlier this year, DeSantis praised conservative consumers for boycotting the company, telling the right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson: 'I'll never drink Bud again.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Here's how this works: DeSantis encourages and says he will participate in a boycott of Bud products, a boycott that is in line with DeSantis's infamous anti-woke campaign. The boycott brings down sales, which leads to a fall in the stock prices; ergo, also a fall in the stock's value in the state pension fund. So DeSantis says to sue Bud's parent company for falling prey to a boycott he aided. Can anyone see anything wrong with that?

Missouri. Anna Betts of the New York Times: "The Missouri Supreme Court ruled against the state attorney general's position on an abortion ballot initiative, a decision that allows an effort to restore abortion rights there to move forward. The court ruled that the attorney general, Andrew Bailey, who opposes abortion, had improperly held up his approval of a ballot initiative that would ask voters whether they want to change the constitution to include a right to abortion.... The delay prevented proponents of the initiative from beginning to collect signatures to try to place the question on the ballot for next year's election."

New York. Jake Offenhartz of the AP: "New York City has agreed to pay more than $13 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of roughly 1,300 people who were arrested or beaten by police during racial injustice demonstrations that swept through the city during the summer of 2020. If approved by a judge, the settlement, which was filed in Manhattan federal court Wednesday, would be among the most expensive payouts ever awarded in a lawsuit over mass arrests, experts said.... With certain exceptions, people arrested or subjected to force by NYPD officers at those events will each be eligible for $9,950 in compensation, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs."

Way Beyond

China. Peter Alexander & Carol Lee of NBC News: "China-linked hackers accessed the email account of the U.S ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, as part of a recent targeted intelligence-gathering campaign, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter confirmed. The hackers also breached the email account of Daniel Kritenbrink, the assistant secretary of state for East Asia, the officials said. Kritenbrink recently traveled to China with Secretary of State Antony Blinken. The breach, first reported Thursday by The Wall Street Journal, was limited to the diplomats' unclassified email accounts, the officials said."

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "Russia struck Odessa early Friday in the fourth day of pounding the Ukrainian port region, the governor said. The attack on an agricultural facility there injured two employees and destroyed tons of peas and barley ... days after the Kremlin pulled out of a U.N.-backed grain export deal. Moscow's withdrawal from the agreement suspends the flow of shipments from Ukraine, a major grain exporter, via Black Sea routes, raising fears for global food supplies.... On the battlefield, Ukraine is using U.S.-provided cluster munitions in an attempt to push through Russian lines in the southeast, The Washington Post reported. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the weapons were 'actually having an impact on Russia's defensive formations' and Ukrainian forces were using them 'effectively.'... [President] Zelensky called for limits on funding cultural activities during the war in his nightly address. The cultural minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, announced his resignation soon after, citing a 'misunderstanding about the importance of culture during war' with the president."

Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: "In the most detailed public account yet given by a U.S. official, the director of the C.I.A. offered a biting assessment on Thursday of the damage done to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia by the mutiny of the Wagner mercenary group, saying the rebellion had revived questions about his judgment and detachment from events. Speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, an annual national security conference, William J. Burns, the C.I.A. director, said that for much of the 36 hours of the rebellion last month, Russian security services, the military and decision makers 'appeared to be adrift.'... Mr. Burns confirmed that the United States had some notice that the uprising might take place.... Mr. Burns's remarks on the Kremlin's paralysis during the uprising carried out by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin and his mercenary group built on comments a day earlier from his British counterpart, Richard Moore, the chief of MI6, who said the rebellion showed cracks in Mr. Putin's rule."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Tony Bennett, a singer whose melodic clarity, jazz-influenced phrasing, audience-embracing persona and warm, deceptively simple interpretations of musical standards helped spread the American songbook around the world and won him generations of fans, died on Friday at his home in Manhattan, where he had lived for many decades. He was 96.... Mr. Bennett's career of more than 70 years was remarkable not only for its longevity, but also for its consistency. In hundreds of concerts and club dates and more than 150 recordings, he devoted himself to preserving the classic American popular song....

"A lifelong liberal Democrat, Mr. Bennett participated in the Selma-to-Montgomery civil rights march in 1965, and, along with Harry Belafonte, Sammy Davis Jr. and others, performed at the Stars for Freedom rally on the City of St. Jude campus on the outskirts of Montgomery on March 24, the night before the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the address that came to be known as the 'How Long? Not Long' speech. At the conclusion of the march, Viola Liuzzo, a volunteer from Michigan, drove Mr. Bennett to the airport; she was murdered later that day by members of the Ku Klux Klan.... [Mr. Bennett] was among the troops who arrived to liberate the prisoners at the Landsberg concentration camp, a subcamp of Dachau."