August 30, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

David Hoffman of the Washington Post: "Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who embarked on a path of radical reform that brought about the end of the Cold War, reversed the direction of the nuclear arms race and relaxed Communist Party controls in hopes of rescuing the faltering Soviet state but instead propelled it toward collapse, has died in Moscow. He was 91. His death was announced by Russian news agencies, citing the government hospital where he was being treated, but no further details were immediately available."

David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "Donald Trump is having a meltdown on his Truth Social platform. The former president ... is lashing out at his opponents, rapidly reposting memes from his supporters celebrating him and attacking President Joe Biden and the Democrats, and promoting falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and vaccines. Trump's meltdown, which includes dozens of posts and reposts per hour, comes amid his baseless demand on Monday to either be named president again or have the nation hold a new election 'immediately.' 'Trump is spending his morning on Truth Social directly posting 4chan and Q messages.... He's doing explicitly what he used to try to shade or use coded language for,' Politico's Kyle Cheney observes...." An interesting read. MB: And I told you he was nuts.

Iraq. Jane Arraf of the New York Times: "The influential Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr tried on Tuesday to defuse an eruption of violence in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, calling on his followers to stand down after at least 24 people were killed in two days of clashes with security forces. The violence, after three years of relative stability in Baghdad, began on Monday shortly after Mr. Sadr declared on Twitter that he was quitting politics for good. His supporters went out to protest and stormed the heavily protected Green Zone in Baghdad, home to Iraqi government offices, the United Nations and diplomatic missions including the U.S. Embassy. After coming under fire from government security forces, who included members of Iran-backed militias, fighters loyal to Mr. Sadr armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades emerged to take on the security forces."

Mississippi. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "The governor of Mississippi urged residents of Jackson, the state's capital and largest city, not to drink the water there -- if they still had access to it -- warning that running water would soon be unavailable as the city's long-struggling treatment plant failed. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said during an emergency briefing Monday night that the city would be without 'reliable running water at scale' for the near future.... Until the situation is resolved, residents in the city of 150,000 should not drink the water or use it to cook or brush their teeth unless they boil it first, officials said. Reeves said the situation was 'very different' from a boil-water notice, as the water itself would run out -- leaving residents unable to flush their toilets.... There would not even be enough water to fight fires, Reeves said, adding that the state this weekend started gathering alternative sources of water, including for firefighting. Separate sources of drinking water and non-potable water for flushing toilets would be distributed, he said."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mariana Alfaro & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden will deliver a prime-time address Thursday on the fight for democracy in America and 'the continued battle for the soul of the nation,' a White House official said Monday, an address that is likely to confirm his growing rhetorical emphasis on the anti-democratic forces he sees as capturing much of the Republican Party. Speaking at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, the president is expected to highlight his administration's achievements and argue that the country's democratic values will be at stake during the midterm elections.... Thursday's speech is not billed as a political event, and given its character as a prime-time presidential address, Biden may avoid some of his sharper denunciations." An NBC News story is here.

Marie: The most remarkable aspect of the purloined papers is that they are the spoils of a crime that both the National Archives and the Justice Department bent over backwards to persuade Trump to undo. But he persisted. Not only did Trump fail to turn over any documents for a year, his attorney -- almost certainly on his instruction -- later falsely stated he had turned over all classified documents. And, according to a Washington Post report, "... the Archive's work may not yet be done: Some NARA officials believe that there might still be more records missing...." That is, it's quite likely the crime is still ongoing. Yet for all their patience, for all their efforts to save Trump from himself, Republicans and their allies have awarded the agencies with vitriol & threats of violence. Here's one such threat:

Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him.... And I'll say this: If there's a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle ... there'll be riots in the streets. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), on Fox "News," Sunday night ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham's prediction on Sunday that a prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump would lead to 'riots in the streets' added an element of menace to the fraught decisions facing Justice Department officials as they consider next steps in the investigation of Mr. Trump's handling of classified material. Mr. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who moved from a fierce critic of Mr. Trump to a loyal companion, appeared on Fox News, drawing a comparison between the investigation of Mr. Trump and the Justice Department's decision in 2016 not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for using a private server for State Department communications. In 2019, a State Department inquiry into the server concluded, 'There was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.'... And Mr. Trump amplified Mr. Graham's comments by posting them on his own social network, Truth Social." The Guardian's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Moreover, Clinton did not email classified docs on her server. As Jeffrey Fields explained in Salon in July 2016, "It is extremely difficult to share a classified document electronically over email. Most government agencies, including the State Department, maintain separate systems precisely to make it all but impossible to electronically pass information between classified and unclassified systems.... When Secretary Clinton began turning over emails as part of an investigation into the Benghazi, Libya attacks, the inspector general (IG) for the intelligence community assessed that information in several of them was classified and should not have been transmitted over an open email system. But the State Department disagreed with the IG's assessment." ~~~

     ~~~ Washington Post Editors: "There is no excuse for this irresponsible rhetoric, which not only invites violence but also defies democratic norms. The comments the South Carolina Republican made on Fox News's 'Sunday Night in America' imply that there is no plausible case against Mr. Trump based on his taking sensitive White House documents to store, unsecured, at Mar-a-Lago.... The Jan. 6 insurrection showed the country how readily some voters will interpret a leader's words as a call to arms -- and then action.... By talking about the possibility of violence without condemning it, Mr. Trump's sympathizers play a game of intimidation: daring Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring a case and face the consequences.... 'I worry about our country,' Mr. Graham said at the end of Sunday's interview. His reckless words and others like them are cause for the greatest concern." ~~~

     ~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "A retired Air Force lawyer and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham said nothing to convey dismay over the prospect of violence; to the contrary, his clear meaning was that outrage would be justified. Marcus addresses the "supposed 'double standard' between Trump and Hillary Clinton" and concludes, "There isn't one." ~~~

     ~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post covers the same themes & points out how ridiculous -- and dangerous -- Graham's position is: "... if law enforcement must reach equivalent prosecution decisions regardless of what the facts dictate, simply because the two cases involve opposing politicians -- that itself makes a mockery of the rule of law. 'The idea that Trump can never be prosecuted for any of his crimes because the FBI concluded Hillary Clinton didn't commit any isn't impartiality at all,' [political theorist Jacob Levy said]." ~~~

     ~~~ Steve M. "Graham is effectively admitting that his fellow Trump-lovers will be the rioters -- yet it still won't be their fault. Graham knows, of course, that much of the mainstream commentariat agrees with him and will blame Democrats if Republicans riot. But if that's what you believe, then you should also believe George Floyd protestors were entitled to burn entire cities to the ground. The cops made them do it, right?" ~~~

     ~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: "It's time for Lindsey Graham to take the rest of the year off. Because his relentless sycophancy toward the former president* clearly has poisoned his mind and it is now a danger to the public order.... The only saving grace is that it's Lindsey Graham, so that makes the whole thing completely laughable because Lindsey Graham is the single-most ridiculous person in American public life.... Now, he's sent out to be some sort of half-assed consigliere. These people are worse at being mobsters than they are at being politicians." Firewalled.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "FBI agents have already finished their review of possibly privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court filing Monday that could undercut the former president's efforts to have a special master appointed to review the files. The 'filter team' used by the Justice Department to sort through the documents and weed out any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has already 'completed its review,' the brief filed by Justice Department prosecutors says.... The new government filing says prosecutors will provide more information later this week. But in the meantime, it notes that even before the judge's weekend ruling, the filter team 'identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information ... and is in the process of following the procedures' of the search warrant to handle any privilege disputes." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A deeper 'classification review' of the intelligence implications of Mr. Trump's retention of government documents by the F.B.I. and the director of National Intelligence is continuing, the filing revealed.... On Tuesday, the department is expected to file a detailed inventory of the materials seized. But that list, which will go into greater depth than the nominal description in the search warrant that was unsealed this month, will be filed under court seal.... The judge herself will now have access to the government's own assessment of the materials, and could have the information needed to rule on requests by Mr. Trump's team to exclude individual documents[, thus eliminating the need for a special master]." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Among the information that was seized at Mar-a-Lago was a document about French President Emmanuel Macron. And according to Donald Trump it was about his sex life, Rolling Stone reported on Monday evening. The report cited two sources that Trump has had a 'tawdry' interest in Macron for years and even bragged recently that he knew 'illicit details about the love life' of Macron. 'The former president even claimed that he learned about some of this dirt through "intelligence" he had seen or been briefed on,' these sources told Rolling Stone. It's unknown if any of that was among the documents taken from the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.... See the full report at Rolling Stone [firewalled]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This may seem like a relatively benign misuse of U.S. intelligence, and it is, when compared to selling nuclear secrets to Putin. But it's an embarrassment to the U.S. and it can only hurt our relationship with one of our closest allies to once again reveal that we are spying on them. You may recall the kerfuffle that occurred during the Obama administration when reports emerged that the U.S. was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel. The issue also came up against in 2021.

Georgia Judge Delay's Kemp Testimony. Amy Wang & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies on Monday denied a motion from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify. However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney also delayed Kemp's appearance before the grand jury until 'some date soon after' Election Day in November. Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, has alleged that the investigation is politically motivated. In his six-page order, the judge rejected Kemp's request to toss the subpoena while recognizing the potential impact of the investigation on the upcoming Nov. 8 election." Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Tony Ornato, the senior Secret Service official who served as a top aide in Donald Trump's White House and faced scrutiny from the Jan. 6 select committee earlier this summer, announced his retirement Monday. The agency confirmed Ornato's retirement, which was announced internally earlier in the day. He's the latest high-level official in the Secret Service to announce his departure in recent weeks. Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said Ornato -- who joined the Secret Service in 1997 -- became eligible for retirement earlier this year and leaves the agency in good standing.... Ornato's departure comes shortly after the director of the Secret Service, James Murray, announced his own intention to retire but put it on hold amid expanding investigations into the agency's conduct in the days surrounding the Capitol attack."

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former D.C. bartender and Proud Boy who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to 55 months in federal prison on Monday. Joshua Pruitt, 40, pleaded guilty in June to obstruction of an official proceeding after he was caught on video joining a mob pursuing police officers and smashing a sign inside the U.S. Capitol. Two U.S. Capitol Police officers wrote victim impact statements in his case urging Judge Timothy J. Kelly to give Pruitt a severe sentence in the case. Ultimately, Kelly imposed a sentence that fell a few months short of the five years that prosecutors had requested.... Pruitt said that he apologized for his actions and he was 'not happy that Jan. 6 happened at all,' but said he still held onto his beliefs that Donald Trump actually won the election that he lost to President Joe Biden." Worth clicking on; scroll down the page a bit to see a photo of Pruitt. Would I cross the street if I saw this guy coming toward me? Yes I would. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

In Other News, Donald Trump Is Still Crazy. Nicole Guadiano of Insider, republished by Yahoo!: "... Donald Trump demanded reinstatement as president or 'a new Election, immediately' after news that Facebook temporarily limited a controversial story about Hunter Biden's laptop in users' news feeds before the 2020 election.... The laptop story had several red flags that raised questions about its authenticity and Facebook limited its reach on the site's news feeds for a few days. In his statement [on Orwellian Social], Trump wrote in all capital letters that the 'FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn't, "Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election." This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!'... Federal investigators are weighing possible charges related to Hunter Biden's business activities." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm sorry. I realize most intelligent observers think Trump's demands are all part of some big master scheme to get the American people to rise up & carry him into the Oval Office. But I think he's nuts.

AND There's This: On Orwellian Social, Trump calls for FBI uprising:

"When are the great Agents, and others, in the FBI going to say 'we aren't going to take it anymore,' no reasonable much as they did when James Comey read off a list of all of Crooked Hillary Clinton's crimes only to say that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute. The wonderful people of the FB went absolute 'nuts,' so Comey had to backtrack and DO A FAKE INVESTIGATION in order to keep them at bay...." Via Charles Pierce.

Hand Jive. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a report from Rolling Stone..., Donald Trump has been alternately raging at and ridiculing Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the Florida governor has been rising as his heir apparent. The former president, as well as his family, have been sniping at the Florida Republican by claiming he has been 'stealing' from Trump, by which they mean he has been appropriating Trump's mannerisms when giving speeches as he sets in motion his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.... As one Trump associate told Rolling Stone, 'There was this time, maybe a year ago that I remember him making fun of [DeSantis] for doing similar hand gestures and motions. He called it "stealing" from him and [to paraphrase] described it as a lame impression of Trump.'... Read more here [firewalled]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most people would find this purported emulation the sincerest form of flattery. Not Trump. He seems to think he can patent a gesture. Since I've never watched a DeSantis speech & seldom have seen much of a Trump speech, I have no idea if the Trump claim is true. But politicians do study successful politicians' style of speech & mannerisms. I recall reading that Bill Clinton practiced Ronald Reagan's style and even boasted once to Hillary that he had mastered a particular hand gesture that Reagan made. Clinton turned out to be one of the most effective American speakers of the 20th century, so the practice paid off. He is far better than Reagan, IMO, so there's more to it than mimicry.

Aw, GOP Candidates Are Getting Tired of Defending Trump. Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: "The investigation into Donald Trump's handling of classified national security records is forcing Republicans into a strained defense during a pre-midterm sprint in which they'd much rather be talking about Joe Biden. After having decried the FBI's search of the ex-president's home, many Trump defenders went silent upon the release on Friday of the probable-cause affidavit that revealed the extent of Trump's efforts to hold onto the top-secret documents." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Republicans hoping to seize control of the House in November are already setting their sights on what is, for many of them, a top priority next year: impeaching President Biden. A number of rank-and-file conservatives have already introduced impeachment articles in the current Congress against the president. They accuse Biden of committing 'high crimes' in his approach to a range of issues touching on border enforcement, the coronavirus pandemic and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.” MB: Also, Biden's dog bit a White House staffer.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Monday that it should not take up a case about citizenship rights for American Samoa even though advocates say it would give justices a chance to upend a series of century-old precedents that have been roundly denounced as racist. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the Supreme Court in a brief filed Monday that an appeals court had been right to find that Congress should make citizenship decisions about those born in territories, and the case in question, Fitisemanu v. U.S., would make a poor vehicle for reexamining a series of rulings called the Insular Cases. Last term, justices at both ends of the court's ideological spectrum -- Neil M. Gorsuch on the right and Sonia Sotomayor on the left -- criticized the rulings, which employed racist language and imperialist sentiment to find residents of some U.S. territories are not entitled to full constitutional protection, such as birthright citizenship."

Gwen Egan of Boston.com: Former Red Sox pitcher Curt "Schilling is facing Twitter's wrath after posting a critique of [President] Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. This digital anger was incited by Schilling's own business history. 'My body my choice? Your loan my responsibility? This isn't loan forgiveness, it's a generation of lazy unaccountable uneducated children being covered by hard working debt paying Americans,' Schilling wrote. Following that Aug. 24 tweet, repliers, and quote-tweeters were quick to remind Schilling about 38 Studios, his failed computer game venture. The company folded after the state volunteered $75 million in loan guarantees to the budding business." Here's some background, from a 2013 story by Matt Bai in the New York Times. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his comment below, which is more expansive and to-the-point than the Boston.com article. (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Jill Biden, the first lady, tested negative for the coronavirus on Monday after a rebound case had forced her back into isolation, according to the White House."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Senate Race. Scrub-a-Dub-Dub. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters removed language from his website following his primary win that included the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump, along with a section arguing the country would be better off if Trump was still the president. A review of Masters' website by CNN's KFile showed he also removed controversial language saying Democrats were trying to 'import' a new electorate -- language that has drawn fire for mirroring far-right conspiracies that Democrats are trying to weaken the power of native-born Americans of European descent through mass immigration of non-White immigrants.... Masters's new campaign posturing comes as a flurry of Republican candidates nationwide attempt to distance themselves from unpopular or divisive policy positions.... NBC News first reported last week that Masters attempted to tone down his position on abortion by removing from his website his support of a 'federal personhood law' and a several other strict anti-abortion positions while releasing a video in which the Republican nominee took a softer stance on the issue." ~~~

     ~~~ His Team Scrubbed His Website But Not His Mind. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Blake Masters, the Republican nominee challenging Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, suggested in a sarcastic Twitter post late Sunday that the nation's economic struggles were connected to increased gender and racial diversity in Federal Reserve leadership. He then dug in on Monday with a video in which he denounced 'the Democrats' diversity obsession' and described Vice President Kamala Harris as a beneficiary of an 'affirmative action regime.' 'Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well,' Mr. Masters wrote on Sunday in response to an Associated Press report that found there were, according to the news agency, 'more female, Black and gay officials contributing to the central bank's interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history.'"

Maryland Gubernatorial Race. Another Man in a Tub. Washington Post Editors: "Maryland state Del. Dan Cox, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has been an active poster on Gab, one of the internet's better-known and most nauseating cesspools of conspiracy-mongering, florid antisemitism and white supremacist hate speech. What did Mr. Cox post there? We can't say, and Maryland voters have no way of knowing -- because he recently deleted his account, along with more than 1,000 posts on the noxious site. There's already plenty of evidence that Mr. Cox is unfit to lead the state.... He recently termed the FBI's search of ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home 'nothing short of communist stasi police state tactics.'"

New Jersey. Juan Carlos Castillo of the Asbury Park Press: "The township [of Lakewood] cut down all of the shade trees that once lined Town Square in a controversial move designed to prevent homeless people from spending time there. Mayor Ray Coles said the decision was made after a recommendation from the Police Department Quality of Life Unit, which the township said was triggered by numerous complaints from residents and township employees about homeless people defecating and urinating in the area." MB: I highly recommend that take down all the bridges into the town, lest homeless people sleep under them. And demand all building owner remove the eaves from their buildings. Oh, and there's an arboretum in town. Probably has some trees. They've gotta go. And so forth. Until the Quality of Life is really great.

California. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Southern California government officials have agreed to pay $480,000 to a woman who went into labor while detained in a local jail and then lost her baby after the guards stopped at a coffee shop while taking her to the hospital. The payment -- designed to settle a federal wrongful death lawsuit pursued by the mother, Sandra Quinones -- was approved at a 23 August meeting of the Orange county board of supervisors, according to the minutes of the panel's session that day.... According to her lawsuit, Quinones was in a jail cell when her water broke on 28 March 2016.... Quinones pressed a button in her cell meant to call for help, but no staffers at the jail responded for two hours, said the lawsuit from Quinones, whom [her attorney] described as homeless and mentally ill. When staffers did get to her, they put her in a jail deputy's patrol car to drive her to Anaheim Global Medical Center rather than in an ambulance. Quinones' complaint alleged that the deputies taking her to the hospital then made a stop at a Starbucks to buy coffee...."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "IAEA inspectors have arrived in Ukraine, a diplomat familiar with the situation told The Washington Post. The group is set to arrive at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant later this week to assess whether weeks of strikes -- which Ukraine and Russia have blamed on each other -- have dangerously damaged the facility. More attacks were reported near the plant.... Russia picked up its first shipment of combat drones from Iran 10 days ago, U.S. officials said, highlighting Moscow's efforts to deepen ties with allies as Western nations continue to freeze it out in response to the war in Ukraine. But the weapons transfer has not gone smoothly, and the drones have experienced technical difficulties in test settings."

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Ukraine may be outgunned but in the latest sign it is not yet outfoxed, a fleet of decoys resembling advanced U.S. rocket systems has tricked Russian forces into wasting expensive long-range cruise missiles on dummy targets, according to interviews with senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials and photographs of the replicas reviewed by The Washington Post. The Ukrainian decoys are made out of wood but can be indistinguishable from an artillery battery through the lens of Russian drones, which transmit their locations to naval cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea. After a few weeks in the field, the decoys drew at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles, an initial success that led Ukraine to expand the production of the replicas for broader use...."

Iraq. Qassim Abdul-Zahra & Samya Kullab of the AP: "A hugely influential Shiite cleric announced Monday he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response, sparking fears that violence could erupt in a country already beset by its worst political crisis in years.... At least one demonstrator, a follower of an influential Shiite cleric, was killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces who used tear gas, gunfire and physically shoved back crowds after hundreds stormed the government palace on Monday. Three Iraqi officials confirmed the death in violence that broke out after the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, announced he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response." (Also linked yesterday.)"

August 29, 2022

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Hand Jive.Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: According to a report from Rolling Stone..., Donald Trump has been alternately raging at and ridiculing Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the Florida governor has been rising as his heir apparent. The former president, as well as his family, have been sniping at the Florida Republican by claiming he has been 'stealing' from Trump, by which they mean he has been appropriating Trump's mannerisms when giving speeches as he sets in motion his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.... As one Trump associate told Rolling Stone, 'There was this time, maybe a year ago that I remember him making fun of [DeSantis] for doing similar hand gestures and motions. He called it "stealing" from him and [to paraphrase] described it as a lame impression of Trump.'... You can read more here [firewalled]." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Most people would find this purported emulation the sincerest form of flattery. Not Trump. He seems to think he can patent a gesture. Since I've never watched a DeSantis speech & seldom have seen much of a Trump speech, I have no idea if the Trump claim is true. But politicians do study successful politicians' style of speech & mannerisms. I recall reading that Bill Clinton practiced Ronald Reagan's style and even boasted once to Hillary that he had mastered a particular hand gesture that Reagan made. Clinton turned out to be one of the most effective American speakers of the 20th century, so the practice paid off. He is far better than Reagan, IMO, so there's more to it than mimicry.

Gwen Egan of Boston.com: Former Red Sox pitcher Curt "Schilling is facing Twitter's wrath after posting a critique of [President] Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. This digital anger was incited by Schilling's own business history. 'My body my choice? Your loan my responsibility? This isn't loan forgiveness, it's a generation of lazy unaccountable uneducated children being covered by hard working debt paying Americans,' Schilling wrote. Following that Aug. 24 tweet, repliers, and quote-tweeters were quick to remind Schilling about 38 Studios, his failed computer game venture. The company folded after the state volunteered $75 million in loan guarantees to the budding business." Here's some background, from a 2013 story by Matt Bai in the New York Times. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his comment below, which is more expansive and to-the-point than the Boston.com article.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former D.C. bartender and Proud Boy who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to 55 months in federal prison on Monday. Joshua Pruitt, 40, pleaded guilty in June to obstruction of an official proceeding after he was caught on video joining a mob pursuing police officers and smashing a sign inside the U.S. Capitol. Two U.S. Capitol Police officers wrote victim impact statements in his case urging Judge Timothy J. Kelly to give Pruitt a severe sentence in the case. Ultimately, Kelly imposed a sentence that fell a few months short of the five years that prosecutors had requested.... Pruitt said that he apologized for his actions and he was 'not happy that Jan. 6 happened at all,' but said he still held onto his beliefs that Donald Trump actually won the election that he lost to President Joe Biden." Worth clicking on; scroll down the page a bit to see a photo of Pruitt. Would I cross the street if I saw this guy coming toward me? Yes I would.

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "FBI agents have already finished their review of possibly privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court filing Monday that could undercut the former president's efforts to have a special master appointed to review the files. The 'filter team' used by the Justice Department to sort through the documents and weed out any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has already 'completed its review,' the brief filed by Justice Department prosecutors says.... The new government filing says prosecutors will provide more information later this week. But in the meantime, it notes that even before the judge's weekend ruling, the filter team 'identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information ... and is in the process of following the procedures' of the search warrant to handle any privilege disputes." ~~~

     ~~~ Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A deeper 'classification review' of the intelligence implications of Mr. Trump's retention of government documents by the F.B.I. and the director of National Intelligence is continuing, the filing revealed.... On Tuesday, the department is expected to file a detailed inventory of the materials seized. But that list, which will go into greater depth than the nominal description in the search warrant that was unsealed this month, will be filed under court seal.... The judge herself will now have access to the government's own assessment of the materials, and could have the information needed to rule on requests by Mr. Trump's team to exclude individual documents[, thus eliminating the need for a special master]." CNN's report is here.

Georgia Judge Delay's Kemp Testimony. Amy Wang & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies on Monday denied a motion from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify. However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney also delayed Kemp's appearance before the grand jury until 'some date soon after' Election Day in November. Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, has alleged that the investigation is politically motivated. In his six-page order, the judge rejected Kemp's request to toss the subpoena while recognizing the potential impact of the investigation on the upcoming Nov. 8 election." Politico's report is here.

Qassim Abdul-Zahra & Samya Kullab of the AP: "A hugely influential Shiite cleric announced Monday he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response, sparking fears that violence could erupt in a country already beset by its worst political crisis in years.... At least one demonstrator, a follower of an influential Shiite cleric, was killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces who used tear gas, gunfire and physically shoved back crowds after hundreds stormed the government palace on Monday. Three Iraqi officials confirmed the death in violence that broke out after the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, announced he would resign from Iraq politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response."

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump & a Trumpy Judge Create Another Mess. David Nakamura & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A federal judge's indication that she is prepared to appoint a special master to review materials seized from Mar-a-Lago by federal agents could present new complications and unresolved legal questions in the federal government's high-stakes quest to wrest control of the documents from ... Donald Trump. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon's two-page order issued on Saturday appeared unusual in that the judge has not yet heard arguments from the Justice Department, said former federal prosecutors and legal analysts on Sunday. Cannon, 41, whom Trump appointed to the bench in the Southern District of Florida in 2020, has also given federal officials until Tuesday to provide the court with a more detailed list of items the FBI had removed from Trump's Florida estate on Aug. 8.... Her ruling left unclear how a special master would operate and who might qualify to take on such a role in a case involving classified national security secrets."

Maggie Haberman & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Often tinged with Mr. Trump's own bombast and sometimes conflating his powers as president with his role as a private citizen, the legal arguments put forth by his team sometimes strike lawyers not involved in the case as more about setting a political narrative than about dealing with the possibility of a federal prosecution.... The former president has a history of approaching legal proceedings as if they are political conflicts, in which his best defense is the 74 million people who voted for him in the 2020 election."

Marie: This story from August 26 raises a question. Eric Tucker & Michael Balsamo of the AP: "Fourteen of the 15 boxes recovered from ... Donald Trump's Florida estate early this year contained classified documents, many of them top secret, mixed in with miscellaneous newspapers, magazines and personal correspondence, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday." Other reporting suggests Trump himself went through the boxes deciding what to send to the Archives. My question: Whether or not that is true, why would Trump or his staff send newspaper & magazine clippings to the National Archives? If some of the clippings had notes on them or attached to them, I can see that those could be considered presidential records. But a raw clipping? The only purpose to box those up could have been to spite the archivists. The fact that Trump's staff included no inventory of what-all was in the boxes supports that theory. And there's this from the story: "Douglas London, a former senior CIA officer..., said this showed Trump's lack of respect for controls. 'One of the rules of classified is you don't mix classified and unclassified so there's no mistakes or accidents,' he said."

Beyond the Beltway

Michigan Congressional Race. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Michigan state Sen. Tom Barrett, a Republican congressional candidate, reportedly removed the 'values' section of his campaign website that revealed he opposes abortion rights. The Detroit News first reported over the weekend that Barrett's campaign had updated his website to remove the 'values' portion 'that touted his anti-abortion position and history with the pro-life movement.' In a statement to the paper, Barrett insisted that he continues to oppose abortion rights. 'I don't watch my own website every day, so I don't know,' Barrett [said]." He suggested his team "probably" just updated the Website to highlight "the most salient issues." MB: Right. Because depriving women of bodily autonomy is not "salient."

New Hampshire Senate Race. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Don Bolduc, a retired Army general who leads the Republican field in what should be a competitive race for the New Hampshire Senate seat held by Senator Maggie Hassan, a Democrat..., has said the state's popular Republican governor is 'a Chinese Communist sympathizer,' called for the repeal of the 17th Amendment allowing direct popular election of senators and raised the possibility of abolishing the F.B.I.... 'I signed a letter with 120 other generals and admirals saying that Donald Trump won the election and, damn it, I stand by' it, Mr. Bolduc said at a recent debate.... In the final competitive primary of the year, scheduled for Sept. 13, Republican officials in New Hampshire ... warn that grass-roots voters are poised to elect another problematic nominee, Mr. Bolduc, and jeopardize a winnable race against a vulnerable Democrat."

Texas Gubernatorial Race. Vimal Patel of the New York Times: Beto O'Rourke, the former congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate who is running to unseat Greg Abbott in the tightening race for Texas governor, said on Sunday that he would be sidelined from campaigning because of a bacterial infection. Mr. O'Rourke, 49, said on Twitter that he had gone to Methodist Hospital, in San Antonio, after feeling ill on Friday." Politico's report is here.

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Monday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "A 'support and assistance mission' from the International Atomic Energy Agency is 'on its way' to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southeastern Ukraine, the head of the organization said Monday, after Russian forces struck perilously close to the plant, according to Ukrainian officials.... Ukrainian officials reported more strikes around the Zaporizhzhia plant. Ten people were injured Sunday, including four of the plant's workers, in shelling that hit the city of Enerhodar, where the facility is located and many of its workers live, according to Energoatom, the Ukrainian state nuclear power company."

Julia Mueller of the Hill: "A 24-year-old man from Memphis, Tenn., was the latest American killed in the conflict in Ukraine, according to reports that he died fighting Russian forces in the contested Donbas region.... [The State Department] State confirmed the death of an American to USA Today, but declined to confirm his identity."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "Today, [after many delays, a test rocket in NASA's Space Launch System] stands on Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, towering at 322 feet.... NASA is scheduled to make its first attempt to launch Monday at 8:33 a.m., a test flight that is meant to propel the Orion crew capsule, without any astronauts on board, into orbit around the moon. A successful launch will mark a major milestone in NASA's quest to return astronauts to the lunar surface under its Artemis program.' ~~~

     ~~~ Update. BUT. AP: "Fuel leaks and a possible crack discovered during final liftoff preparations threatened to delay the launch of NASA's mighty new moon rocket Monday morning on its shakedown flight with three test dummies aboard. As precious minutes ticked away, NASA repeatedly stopped and started the fueling of the Space Launch System rocket with nearly 1 million gallons of super-cold hydrogen and oxygen because of a leak. The fueling already was running nearly an hour late because of thunderstorms off Florida's Kennedy Space Center." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. NEW AP Lede: "Fuel leaks have forced NASA to scrub the launch of its new moon rocket on a no-crew test flight. The next launch attempt will not take place until Friday at the earliest."

New York Times: "Two people were shot and killed and a third was wounded at a shopping center in Bend, Ore., on Sunday, prompting law enforcement agencies to flood the area and enter a grocery store, where officers found the gunman dead from a gunshot wound, the authorities said."

August 28, 2022

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "Ironic that Friday was Women's Equality Day, designated so by Congress in the '70s. At a time when women all over the world should be blossoming, we're seeing stunning setbacks. There's a bizarre trend of punishing women, Saudi-style, for their sexuality. Sanna Marin, Finland's 36-year-old prime minister, is under fire for dancing with her friends in a country that always gets named 'the happiest country in the world' in the United Nations-sponsored World Happiness Report. What a grim, still-sexist world this is, when Marin is forced to tearfully apologize -- and take a drug test -- after video leaked of her letting loose.... The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, was cheered for chugging beers at a public concert while Marin was under fire for dancing at a private party."

Smooth Sailing. AP: "The U.S. Navy sailed two warships through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday, in the first such transit publicized since U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan earlier in August, at a time when tensions have kept the waterway particularly busy. The USS Antietam and USS Chancellorsville are conducting a routine transit, the U.S. 7th Fleet said. The cruisers 'transited through a corridor in the Strait that is beyond the territorial sea of any coastal State,' the statement said."

Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Florida gave notice on Saturday of her 'preliminary intent' to appoint an independent arbiter, known as a special master, to conduct a review of the highly sensitive documents that were seized by the F.B.I. this month during a search of Mar-a-Lago..., Donald J. Trump's club and residence in Palm Beach. In an unusual action that fell short of a formal order, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, signaled that she was inclined to agree with the former president and his lawyers that a special master should be appointed to review the seized documents.... Judge Cannon, who was appointed by Mr. Trump in 2020, set a hearing for arguments in the matter for Thursday in the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach -- not the one in Fort Pierce, Fla., where she typically works." The Hill's report is here.

Does This Orange Jumpsuit Make Me Look Fat? Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Since the release of the search warrant [on Mar-a-Lago], which listed three criminal laws as the foundation of the investigation, one -- the Espionage Act — has received the most attention. Discussion has largely focused on the spectacle of the F.B.I. finding documents marked as highly classified and Mr. Trump's questionable claims that he had declassified everything held at his residence. But by some measures, the crime of obstruction is as, or even more, serious a threat to Mr. Trump or his close associates. The version investigators are using, known as Section 1519, is part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a broad set of reforms enacted in 2002.... The heavily redacted affidavit [released Friday] provides new details of the government's efforts to retrieve and secure the material in Mr. Trump's possession, highlighting how prosecutors may be pursuing a theory that the former president, his aides or both might have illegally obstructed an effort of well over a year to recover sensitive documents that do not belong to him.... Section 1519's maximum penalty is 20 years in prison, which is twice as long as the penalty under the Espionage Act." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jeremy Herb & Annie Grayer of CNN: "Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has sent a letter to the House Intelligence and House Oversight committee chairs, saying the intelligence community is conducting a damage assessment of the documents taken from ... Donald Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago, according to a letter obtained by CNN.... Several members of Congress have called for an intelligence damage assessment of the documents." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Notes from the Scene of the Crime. Niall Stanage of the Hill: "One of former President Trump's main claims about the FBI's search of Mar-a-Lago is being undermined by Friday's release of a key affidavit. Trump has pushed the narrative that he and his lawyers were cooperating with the Department of Justice's (DOJ) inquiries about documents from his time in the White House. This, he claims, means that the Aug. 8 raid on his Florida estate was gratuitous.... Even in heavily redacted form, the affidavit points out that there was a prolonged process lasting around seven months in 2021 before Trump's team coughed up any documents at all.... [For instance,] according to a Trump legal filing earlier this week, one of the FBI agents, having been shown the storage room in which some documents were held, purportedly said, Now it all makes sense.' The same Trump filing refers to a June 8 letter in which the DOJ 'requested, in pertinent part, that the storage room be secured' -- a request that is implied to have been met when Trump told staff to put a second lock on the door. By contrast, the DOJ's affidavit quotes a letter on the same date -- presumably the same letter -- reiterating to a Trump lawyer that there was no 'secure location authorized for the storage of classified information' anywhere at the resort. The letter makes clear that the DOJ's request was not some generalized security check-up but a demand for the 'preservation' of the storage room in its 'current condition until further notice' -- phrasing that is far more redolent of an investigation of a possible crime scene than a friendly chat about padlocks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Steve Benin of MSNBC: "The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and Organized Crime Corruption and Reporting Project published a stunning report [Friday] on a young woman named Inna Yashchyshyn, who presented herself as Anna de Rothschild.... The report notes that this woman -- with a fake identity and shadowy background' -- allegedly bypassed the security at Mar-a-Lago with relative ease[.] The FBI has reportedly begun an inquiry into the matter.... Republican Sen. Ron Johnson, who actually chaired the Senate Homeland Security Committee for six years, downplayed the seriousness of Trump's scandal last week because, as the Wisconsinite put it, Mar-a-Lago is 'a pretty safe place' and 'a secure location.'... There's overwhelming evidence to the contrary."~~~

     ~~~ A related straight news story by Edward Helmore of the Guardian is here. Yashchyshyn is the daughter of an Illinois truck driver.

Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the nearly three weeks since the FBI searched ... Donald Trump's Florida home to recover classified documents, the National Archives and Records Administration has become the target of a rash of threats and vitriol.... Following the Aug. 8 FBI search, Trump and his allies unleashed a torrent of attacks on one of the most apolitical arms of the federal bureaucracy.... Trump's recent actions have whipped his followers into a fervor against the Archives, and he has empowered some of his most politically combative allies to represent him in negotiations with the agency.... In June, around the time the Justice Department stepped up its hunt for documents at Mar-a-Lago, Trump assigned two new Archives representatives who focused on pubicizing documents they claimed would vindicate Trump and damage the FBI: Kash Patel and John Solomon.... NARA's motto, Littera Scripta Manet, translates from Latin to 'the written word remains.' But in Trump's White House, the written word was often torn, destroyed, misplaced or hoarded.... Some NARA officials believe that there might still be more records missing, according to a person familiar with the matter." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I doubt that anyone who decides to embark upon a career as an archivist thinks, "Wow, this job is going to be fun. I'll be wrangling with presidents* & be in danger at every moment."

Emily Peck & Sara Fischer of Axios: "The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) refused Donald Trump's application for a trademark for 'Truth Social,' the name of his social media company earlier this month.... The USPTO found two other companies who already use the Truth Social wording, which would create what's known as 'likelihood of confusion' if Trump also got the mark. Typically, when a company files for a trademark -- the distinct brand-name it wishes to use exclusively -- lawyers vet the term to make sure there's no conflicts.... Trump can appeal, which trademark lawyers believe is likely.... The trademark refusal is just the latest setback for the former president's social media app and its parent company, which have been beset by a raft of issues over the past few months." MB: You might think Trump would have hired a patent attorney who knew how to apply for a patent, but I suppose he couldn't find any who would work for him without demanding a huge retainer. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's Truth Social website is facing financial challenges as its traffic remains puny and the company that is scheduled to acquire it expresses fear that his legal troubles could lead to a decline in his popularity. Six months after its high-profile launch, the site -- a clone of Twitter, which banned Trump after Jan. 6, 2021 -- still has no guaranteed source of revenue and a questionable path to growth, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings from Digital World Acquisition, the company planning to take Trump's start-up, the Trump Media & Technology Group, public. The company warned this week that its business could be damaged if Trump 'becomes less popular or there are further controversies that damage his credibility.' The company has seen its stock price plunge nearly 75 percent since its March peak and reported in a filing last week that it had lost $6.5 million in the first half of the year.” (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jared's Dilemma: "There's Different Words." Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Making the rounds promoting his new memoir, Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of ... Donald J. Trump, this week ... [was asked] Did he agree with Mr. Trump's false claim that the 2020 election was stolen? 'I think that there's different words,' Mr. Kushner told the talk show host Megyn Kelly during a friendly interview.... Pressed to say whether Mr. Trump lost, Mr. Kushner demurred. 'I believe it was a very sloppy election,' he said. 'I think that there's a lot of issues that I think if litigated differently may have had different insights into them.' In reality, the words that election officials have used to describe the 2020 contest are 'the most secure in American history,' and judges across the country rejected nearly all of the several dozen lawsuits that allies of Mr. Trump filed alleging fraud. Mr. Kushner's reluctance to concede as much reflected the contortions he is now attempting as he tries to sell a book whose success hinges on his close ties to Mr. Trump. At the same time, he is seeking to keep his distance from the lies and misdeeds that paved the way for the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Like the memoir itself, titled 'Breaking History,' the task involves a highly selective narrative that casts Mr. Kushner as a young star getting things done in the White House without getting his hands dirty." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yeah, it depends upon what the meaning of "lost" is. What a nitwit. Karni & Haberman have fun tearing into Jared in this straight news story.

Beyond the Beltway

Utah. Jim Acosta of CNN: "Utah independent Senate candidate Evan McMullin has accused a motorist of brandishing a firearm and pointing it at him and his wife as the couple was driving home from a campaign event in April. The allegation is described in a 'victim impact statement' filed by McMullin in the District Court for Utah County, Utah, this week.... In the filing, McMullin accused the motorist, Jack Aaron Whelchel, of making unprovoked threats that included forcing the couple's car into oncoming traffic, before aiming a firearm in a threatening manner. Whelchel was indicted in April on misdemeanor charges of making a threat with a dangerous weapon and disorderly conduct. Whelchel pleaded not guilty to both charges. McMullin testified as a witness during a preliminary hearing in July, at which he identified Whelchel as the motorist, but the candidate has not publicly mentioned the incident.... [Whelchel's attorney] said he expects the case to go to a jury trial after a scheduled hearing next month.... Whelchel's Facebook page features several far-right memes."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Sunday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Sunday are here: "Local authorities in Zaporizhzhia are distributing potassium iodide tablets in case of a leak of radioactive material , and residents are lining up. The tablets helps counteract the effects of radioactive exposure by blocking the body's absorption of the radioactive form of iodine.... The [U.S.] State Department confirmed another U.S. citizen has died but did not identify them.... Vladimir Putin has ordered payments and welfare benefits be made to Ukrainians arriving in Russia, according to a law signed this weekend."

Pakistan's "Climate Catastrophe." Zarar Khan of the AP: "Deaths from widespread flooding in Pakistan topped 1,000 since mid-June, officials said Sunday, as the country's climate minister called the deadly monsoon season 'a serious climate catastrophe.' Flash flooding from the heavy rains has washed away villages and crops as soldiers and rescue workers evacuated stranded residents to the safety of relief camps and provided food to thousands of displaced Pakistanis. Pakistan's National Disaster Management Authority reported the death toll since the monsoon season began earlier than normal this year -- in mid-June -- reached 1,033 people after new fatalities were reported in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and southern Sindh provinces."

News Lede

Washington Post: "Four people were dead after a man set a residence on fire, shot at people fleeing and was then killed by a police officer early Sunday in Houston, authorities said. Just after 1 a.m., the city's police and fire departments received calls about a fire and shooting at a house used as a rental facility, Houston Police Chief Troy Finner said at a news conference. Firefighters arrived first but had to take cover when the gunman opened fire, although it was not clear if he was firing at them. Soon after that, police officers got to the scene and found the shooter in a parking lot across the street from the house. An officer shot and killed the man, who was dressed in black and armed with a shotgun, Finner said. Two residents were pronounced dead at the scene, and a third died at a hospital."