The Conversation -- August 27, 2023

Fox "News" personality Jessica Tarlov of the Fox show "The Five" gave Fox viewers a taste of reality Friday. Stephanie Kaloi of the Wrap: Tarlov responded to a comment from her co-host Will Cain who opined that Donald Trump's mugshot was like Martin Luther King, Jr.'s. After pointing out that the reasons for Trump's and King's arrests were completely different, Tarlov turned her attention to "the many indictments that the former president still faces.... 'This wasn't Joy Reid and Rachel Maddow sitting there. It was regular people's most loyal base of voters continues to support him, the 'average American' doesn't seem to be a fan. As she noted, recent polling indicates that '62% [of Americans] think he committed a crime, including 67% of independents. 61% think that he must stand trial before the election.'... [When Cain said the public was concerned about a two-tiered system of justice,] Tarlov fired back, 'I don't think when they think of a two-tiered system of justice, they think of a white billionaire who tried to overthrow the election.'"

Russia. AP: "Russian authorities on Sunday confirmed the death of Wagner Group chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, putting to rest any doubts about whether the wily mercenary leader turned mutineer was on a plane that crashed Wednesday, killing everyone on board. Genetic testing on the 10 bodies recovered at the crash site 'conform to the manifest' for the flight, Russian Investigative Committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said in a statement. Russia's civil aviation authority had said Prigozhin and some of his top lieutenants were on the list of seven passengers and three crew members. The Investigative Committee did not indicate what might have caused the business jet to plummet from the sky halfway between Moscow and St. Petersburg, Prigozhin's hometown." The Washington Post's story is here.

Marie: I think I've linked a couple of stories that related Stupid Things Trump Said to TuKKKer during the GOP "debate," but to cover the whole fascinating interview in two minutes, RAS found this: ~~~

This is an annotated version of Tucker Carlson's interview with Donald J. Trump on the night of the first GOP Presidential debate. It's Trump without Trump. You won't have to listen to his voice. I break it down in 2 minutes. Trump was all over the place for this one. 🤔 pic.twitter.com/lZsMF8hOk6

— Decoding Fox News (@DecodingFoxNews) August 26, 2023

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Aaron Morrison & Ayanna Alexander of the AP: "Thousands converged Saturday on the National Mall for the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, saying a country that remains riven by racial inequality has yet to fulfill his dream.... A host of Black civil rights leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies rallied attendees on the same spot where as many as 250,000 gathered in 1963 for what is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice and equality demonstrations in U.S. history."

Trump Family Crime Blotter

Indictments Are Breaking Up That Old Gang of Trump's. Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Even as ... Donald J. Trump and his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case turned themselves in one by one at an Atlanta jail this week, their lawyers began working to change how the case will play out. They are already at odds over when they will have their day in court, but also, crucially, where. Should enough of them succeed, the case could split into several smaller cases, perhaps overseen by different judges in different courtrooms, running on different timelines.... All [of the defendants] bring their own agendas, financial concerns and opinions about their chances at trial."

[Donald Trump] has not learned yet that ... three people you don't want to throw into the bus like that: your lawyer, your doctor and your mechanic. Because one way or the other, you're gonna go down the hill and there'll be no brakes. -- Michael Cohen, former Trump lawyer who found himself under the wheels of the Trumpmobile ~~~

~~~ Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo: "Alleged coup plotters, election subverters, and concealers of classified documents now find themselves under state and federal indictment. After doing the bidding of ... Donald Trump they risk not just jail for themselves and ruined reputations, but also financial ruin for their families.... Trump co-defendants Jenna Ellis (former Trump lawyer), Cathy Latham (former Republican Party chair of Coffee County, Georgia), John Eastman (former Trump lawyer), and Jeffrey Clark (former Department of Justice official) have all launched crowd-funding appeals to pay for their defense. Their piles are less than yooge. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is so short on cash for his defense that his son is organizing fundraiser dinners[.]... Co-defendant Harrison Floyd remains behind bars after a judge denied bail, Reuters reports: 'Harrison Floyd said at his first court appearance that he could not afford a private lawyer and had been denied representation by a public defender because he did not qualify....' [Judge Emily] Richardson denied Floyd bail because he is accused in a separate case in Maryland of assaulting an FBI agent who tried to serve him with a subpoena. She considers him a flight risk."

Jeremy Bailey of the Wrap: Social media users compared Donald Trump's mugshot to Stanley's Kubrick's maniacal characters: "Trump as jail bird joins a photo montage of villains from three of Kubrick's Warner Bros. classics -- Malcolm McDowell as Alex in 1971's 'A Clockwork Orange,' Jack Nicholson as Jack Torrance in 1980's 'The Shining' and Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle in 1987's 'Full Metal Jacket.'" ~~~

"The Kubrick Stare" is one of director Stanley Kubrick's most recognizable directorial techniques. A method of shot composition where a character stares at the camera with a forward tilt, to convey to the audience that they are at the peak of their derangement pic.twitter.com/qd2XWc3oHU

— Cry-Baby Chloe 🦋 (@ChloeNumberIII) August 25, 2023

     ~~~ Marie: I have seen only one of the three films Chloe cited -- "The Shining" -- but my first visceral reaction to the Trump mugshot was, "Jesus, he's doing Jack Nicholson."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "If there were any justice in the world, Donald Trump would have taken the Mug Shot of Dorian Gray. It should have shown Trump's corroding soul rather than his truculent face.... Trump has long felt that squinting or scowling is a good look for him.... Thursday night was performative for Trump: sweeping in with his private jet and giant motorcade that screamed two-tiered justice system, with law enforcement clearing the Atlanta streets, like centurions clearing the way for Caesar." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jen Psaki, in an MSNBC opinion piece, writes that Trump's promotion of his lovely mugshot will backfire. "He thinks this is a political winner for him. But as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told me in an interview that airs Sunday, 'independents hate it.'... It is hard to imagine that this image, of Trump scowling into the police camera, will make him more appealing to anyone who is not already a hardcore supporter."

See also yesterday's Comments thread for thoughts on the mugshot seen 'round the world. Patrick, for instance, pointed out that Trump seems to think that scowling into the camera makes him seem Churchillian. And Akhilleus noted that not only did Trump just claim he didn't know what "mugshot" means, last month Trump also claimed he didn't know what a subpoena was. According to Wikipedia, "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, including battles with casino patrons, million-dollar real estate lawsuits, personal defamation lawsuits, and over 100 business tax disputes." That means he and his businesses have received or issued more than 4,000 subpoenas over the years. I suppose the point of Trump's ridiculous claims of ignorance is to show that he is an innocent naif so unfamiliar with the justice system that he doesn't have even a passing knowledge of universally-known tools of the system.

MEANWHILE. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Donald Trump has turned his Georgia mugshot into a record-breaking fundraising haul. The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to Politico by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals. The campaign's fundraising has been powered by merchandise it has been selling through his online store."

Jack Shafer of Politico, in Politico Magazine, argues that [Donald] Trump's return to Twitter-currently-trying-to-be-known-as-X will prove he can never go home again. "Trump's [X-Twitter] post [of his mugshot], essentially concedes that his plan to build his own social media empire under the Truth Social banner is a bust.... But no man ever steps in the same river twice -- it's not the same river, and he's not the same man, as the sage said.... Thanks to inertia, changing technology, fickle tastes and Musk's determination to wreck it, the site has lost its cachet.... Trump became a Twitter star by two means. The first was the novelty of a presidential candidate popping off like a sloppy drunk at closing time.... [The second -- I guess, Shafer isn't clear -- is that journalists dutifully copied down & reported on Trump's tweets.] It's not the same press corps that transmuted his tweets into news stories back. They learned a lesson." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race 2024

A Bold Slogan Mocks Cowardly Candidates. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "The word 'DEMOCRACY' was emblazoned in all-capital letters on the back wall of the stage at the Republican presidential debate ... on Wednesday, a seeming reminder of what is at stake in the 2024 election. Yet during two hours of bickering and disagreement among the eight participating candidates, the topic was never seriously addressed.... Perhaps it is no surprise that the party led by [Donald] Trump and those allied with it are uneasy about discussing the issue.... That the state of democracy and the threats Trump poses remain relevant was underscored by comments the former president made during ... his counterprogramming interview with Tucker Carlson.... He declined to condemn [political violence] outright or call for calm in the upcoming election and the trials he might face during the election year. 'There's a level of passion that I've never seen,' he said. 'There's a level of hatred that I've never seen. And that's probably a bad combination.'... He called [January 6, 2021,] a day of 'love and unity,' saying, 'People in that crowd said it was the most beautiful day they ever experienced.' He claimed the events of the day were not reported 'properly' by the media."

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: on the first GOP "debate": "... the issue wasn't just that Trump was unavoidable; it was that none of the other candidates had much to say for themselves.... Trump's absence underscored the extent to which he is the only Republican of national stature with the political chops to appeal to Republican voters as well as a considerable chunk of the American electorate."

Several days ago, contributor RAS linked to a piece by Radley Balko in which Balko listed a number of very good questions that the Fox "News" moderators should have asked of those very flimsy candidates for president*. I don't expect the candidates would have come up with satisfactory answers, but that's the point.

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Kansas. Jonathan O'Connell, et al., of the Washington Post tell the story of the police raid on the Marion County Record and how small-town animosities led to an extraordinary -- and likely unconstitutional -- police action against a newspaper. The story gained international attention and condemnation from many free-press advocates. MB: One thing I find odd: the immediate catalyst for the raid was a local luminary's public -- but probably bogus -- assertion that the Record had unlawfully obtained information about her 15-year-old DUI conviction. The Record did not publish a story about the woman's DUI. Yet the article never mentions, as it explores the motivations other folks to act as they did, that the judge who issued the search warrant "was arrested at least twice for driving under the influence," according to NPR and other news outlets, including the Wichita Eagle. It certainly seems to me that this is a case of judging under the influence of the judge's own experience as a drunk driver. This appears to be a highly relevant element of the overall dynamic, and the Post reporters never mention how the judge's personal bias may have colored her decision to approve a questionable warrant. Meanwhile, if you think small-town life is the American ideal, this story will cause you to think again.

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Russia. Brutal Strongman v. Brutal Strongman. Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "Russians mourning the presumed death of Wagner chief Yevgeniy Prigozhin have set up makeshift memorials in nearly two dozen cities across Russia and occupied Ukraine in recent days, a sign of the commander's lingering popularity and potential challenge for President Vladimir Putin amid divisions within the elite and in the military over the conduct of the war.... The memorials ... showed Prigozhin's support across Russia in hard line pro-war circles, and highlighted the Kremlin's delicate task of managing potential anger among his supporters, with many in Russia's elite convinced Prigozhin's presumed death was an assassination ordered by the Kremlin." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The cult of Prigozhin is a reminder that Trumpbot delusion is not unique. I saw a CNN story in which Prigozhin fans were laying memorial flowers. One middle-aged woman told the reporter, "Russia needs another Stalin." It would seems there are millions and millions of people who have determined that it's better to have a dictator telling you what to do than to think for yourself about the messy problems humans face.

News Lede

AP: "A United States Marine Corps aircraft with 23 Marines aboard crashed on a north Australian island Sunday, killing at least three and critically injuring at least five during a multinational training exercise, officials said. Three had been confirmed dead on Melville Island and five were flown in serious condition 80 kilometers (50 miles) to the mainland city of Darwin for hospital treatment after the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey aircraft crashed around 9:30 a.m., a statement from the Marines said."

The Conversation -- August 26, 2023

Jack Shafer of Politico, in Politico Magazine, argues that [Donald] Trump's return to Twitter-currently-trying-to-be-known-as-X will prove he can never go home again. "Trump's [X-Twitter] post [of his mugshot], essentially concedes that his plan to build his own social media empire under the Truth Social banner is a bust.... But no man ever steps in the same river twice -- it's not the same river, and he's not the same man, as the sage said.... Thanks to inertia, changing technology, fickle tastes and Musk's determination to wreck it, the site has lost its cachet.... Trump became a Twitter star by two means. The first was the novelty of a presidential candidate popping off like a sloppy drunk at closing time.... [The second -- I guess, Shafer isn't clear -- is that journalists dutifully copied down & reported on Trump's tweets.] It's not the same press corps that transmuted his tweets into news stories back. They learned a lesson."

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "If there were any justice in the world, Donald Trump would have taken the Mug Shot of Dorian Gray. It should have shown Trump's corroding soul rather than his truculent face.... ... Trump has long felt that squinting or scowling is a good look for him.... Thursday night was performative for Trump: sweeping in with his private jet and giant motorcade that screamed two-tiered justice system, with law enforcement clearing the Atlanta streets, like centurions clearing the way for Caesar."

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Trump Family Crime Blotter

Inmate No. P01135809

Alex Gangitano of the Hill: "President Biden on Friday chimed in on former President Trump's mug shot.... When asked about the mug shot, Biden told reporters, 'I did see it on television. Handsome guy.'... Biden spoke to reporters while on vacation in Lake Tahoe, Nev." MB: Biden was smiling broadly when he weighed in on Trump's good looks.

Jennifer Behney of Mediaite: In a NewsMax interview Thursday night, Donald Trump said his booking in the Fulton County jail was a &"terrible experience." "'I came in, I was treated very nicely. But, it is what it is; I took a mugshot, which, I'd never heard the words "mug shot." They didn't teach me that at the Wharton School of Finance,' Trump said before railing about what he called 'election interference' by a 'radical-left district attorney.'" MB: So here's Trump, Leader of the People, portraying himself as superior to them. He's treated very nicely, implicitly because he's better than the usual inmate who would get roughed up or maybe even killed at the Fulton County Jail. He's never heard of mugshots because people in his rarefied circle have no occasion to discuss or even read about such things. He had a very fine education -- where professors are fastidiously silent on the travails of the "other" -- because he's a very fine person. Oh, and he showed up in Atlanta in his own jet plane and traveled to & from the jail with an entourage & an escort of maybe 100 law enforcement officers. I'm still waiting to learn how that happened.

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "As of late Friday morning, all 19 defendants in the state election interference case involving ... Donald J. Trump had turned themselves in. Jeffrey A. Clark, the former high-ranking Justice Department official..., was booked at the Fulton County Jail early on Friday, a few hours after the former president's dramatic booking at the same Atlanta facility.... The last two defendants in the case, Trevian C. Kutti and Steven C. Lee, surrendered on Friday morning before noon, the deadline the Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, had set for them to appear at the jail before she would start to issue arrest warrants. All but one of the 19 defendants negotiated bail agreements with prosecutors ahead of time, and were released immediately after being processed at the jail. The one defendant [Harrison Floyd] who did not do so was still being held at the jail on Friday." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Conway, a House Judiciary Committee counsel during the Watergate investigation, in an MSNBC opinion piece: "... the felony charges against little-known Georgia residents [Scott] Hall, Cathy Latham and Misty Hampton -- who have been charged with conspiracy to commit election fraud, computer fraud, illegal access to voting machines and invasion of privacy -- reveal the extent of the Trump campaign's effort to overturn the election. Their brazen intrusion and the futility of their efforts recall ... the hapless criminal conduct of the White House's so-called Plumbers[, which] was a major element of the Watergate scandal that led to President Richard Nixon's resignation. Both Nixon's Plumbers and the Coffee County Three tried to seize sensitive information.... And it was the need to subsequently hide the existence of the Plumbers -- whose members, [Gordon] Liddy and [Howard] Hunt, oversaw the burglary -- that was a key factor in the Watergate cover-up.... The Trump loyalists who breached the voting machines in Coffee County, Georgia, made little effort to conceal their activities.... Just as the rule of law punished the guilty almost five decades ago, the prosecutions of those who broke the law to do Trump's bidding must succeed in order to preserve our democracy."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Attorney John Eastman, an architect of Donald Trump's last-ditch bid to subvert the 2020 election, may not postpone his ongoing disbarment hearings just because he's been indicted in Georgia, a California judge ruled Friday. Yvette Roland, a judge on the California State Bar Court, said Eastman had effectively waived any rights against self-incrimination by taking the stand in his disbarment proceedings in June -- even though he knew he could be indicted in either Washington, D.C., or Georgia."

MEANWHILE, in Arizona. Alex Henderson of Alternet: Rolling Stone reports, "'Investigators assigned ... by Arizona's Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes have recently asked potential witnesses and other individuals specific questions not only about [Rudy] Giuliani's behind-the-scenes [post-election activity], but that of other key Trump lieutenants at the time, as well.... Prosecutors appear particularly interested in a number of notable meetings and phone calls, including a late November 2020 meeting with members of Arizona's state legislature convened by the Trump legal team, which aired bogus claims of voter fraud and lobbied lawmakers to "take over" the state's selection of electors, the sources say.'... [Rolling Stone reporters Adam] Rawnsley and [Asawin] Suebsaeng report that Arizona investigators, sources say, 'have also at times inquired about [Donald] Trump's level of personal involvement in' the 'Arizona-focused pressure campaign....'"

Darlene Superville of the AP: "President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will observe Monday's 60th anniversary of the March on Washington by meeting with organizers of the 1963 gathering and relatives of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered his 'I Have a Dream' speech at the Lincoln Memorial. The Oval Office meeting will be held six decades after President John F. Kennedy and King met at the White House on the morning of the march on Aug. 28, 1963.... Biden also will speak later Monday at a White House reception commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, a nonpartisan, nonprofit legal organization that was established at Kennedy's request to help advocate for racial justice.... Black civil rights leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies will gather in Washington on Saturday to mark six decades since the first march."

More Trouble in Winger World. Natalie Allison of Politico: "The vice chair of the Conservative Political Action Coalition has resigned from his longtime position on the organization's board and is calling for investigations into the group's top leader and its financial practices, among other issues. Charlie Gerow, an attorney and communications executive who has served on the board of CPAC and its parent organization, the American Conservative Union, for nearly two decades, submitted his letter of resignation on Friday.... Gerow's resignation follows months of turbulence at the prominent conservative organization, where Chair Matt Schlapp earlier this year was sued by a former Herschel Walker Senate campaign staffer over allegations of sexual assault. Board member and treasurer Bob Beauprez resigned from his position in May, citing concerns over the organization's financial reports, while Randy Neugebauer and Mike Rose also stepped down from the board earlier this year."

Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) could face new corruption charges as prosecutors meet with lawyers to weigh a decision, reported the Wall Street Journal on Friday. According to the report, prosecutors are looking into whether he or his wife Nadine Arslanian sold political favors in exchange for gifts. They are also investigating how a New Jersey businessman became the sole certifier of Halal meat exported from the United States to Egypt one month after a meeting with Menendez. A report earlier this summer found that another person caught up in the probe, real estate magnate Fred Daibes, has ties to the mob."

Presidential Race 2024

Hannah Demissie & Laura Gersony of ABC News: "... over the past few weeks a growing body of conservative scholars have raised the constitutional argument that [Donald] Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election make him ineligible to hold federal office ever again ... [under] Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution's 14th Amendment.... On Tuesday, Bryant 'Corky' Messner, a lawyer who lives in New Hampshire, became the first person to announce concrete plans to ... keep Trump off the ballot.... New Hampshire's Secretary of State Office confirmed to ABC News that Messner met with Secretary of State David Scanlan Friday to discuss Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. 'Secretary Scanlan will be conferring with the New Hampshire Attorney General and other legal counsel on this issue; however, he believes any action taken under this Constitutional provision will have to be based on Judicial guidance,' Anna Sventek, communications director for Scanlan, told ABC News...." Two public advocacy organizations, CREW & Free Speech for People, also say they are pursuing efforts to keep Trump off state ballots.

Lisa Lerer & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: Ron DeSantis is using an unverifiable story of a botched abortion that was supposed to have taken place in 1955 as his rationale for draconian anti-abortion laws. MB: That's pretty odd. There have been numerous verified stories about botched state-run executions, yet this year DeSantis made it easier to impose the death penalty.

News Lede

AP: "Multiple people were fatally shot Saturday inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store, the city's mayor has told a television station. Mayor Donna Deegan told WJXT 'there are a number of fatalities' inside the store but didn't give a precise number." MB: Officials have released very little information about the shootings. ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "A white man fatally shot three people inside a Jacksonville, Florida, Dollar General store on Saturday in a predominately Black neighborhood in an attack that the local sheriff called 'racially motivated.' The shooter then killed himself. 'He hated black people,' Sheriff T.K. Waters told a news conference. 'There is absolutely no evidence the shooter is part of any larger group.'"

The Conversation -- August 25, 2023

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "As of late Friday morning, all 19 defendants in the state election interference case involving ... Donald J. Trump had turned themselves in. Jeffrey A. Clark, the former high-ranking Justice Department official criminally charged in Georgia in connection with efforts to overturn Donald J. Trump's 2020 election loss in that state, was booked at the Fulton County Jail early on Friday, a few hours after the former president's dramatic booking at the same Atlanta facility.... The last two defendants in the case, Trevian C. Kutti and Steven C. Lee, surrendered on Friday morning before noon, the deadline the Fulton County district attorney, Fani T. Willis, had set for them to appear at the jail before she would start to issue arrest warrants. All but one of the 19 defendants negotiated bail agreements with prosecutors ahead of time, and were released immediately after being processed at the jail. The one defendant [Harrison Floyd] who did not do so was still being held at the jail on Friday."

Marie: Despite all his multi-million-dollars grifts, I'm not sure #BillionaireTrump is doing too well, money-wise. For one thing, he used a bail bondsman to post his bond in Fulton County. That cost him $20K out-of-pocket, where your "normal" richy-rich inmate would post his own bail and save the $20K -- assuming he was planning not to skip the country. Then there's this: ~~~

     ~~~ Susie Madrak of Crooks & Liars: "Well, well, well! According to British publication The Express, online property records show [Donald] Trump transferred the ownership of Mar-A-Largo to a corporation headed by Junior. 'Zillow, which claims to receive "information from the municipal office responsible for recording real estate transactions in your area", reports the property was sold for $422 million on August 4, 2023. A quick search of the website SunBiz ... (shows) that the current owner of Mar A Lago is a company called Mar A Lago, Inc. The owner of the company, and its registered agent, is Donald Trump Jr....'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Florida's bankruptcy laws are generous to residents who live in multi-million-dollar houses, allowing them to keep their luxurious residences even as they stiff all their creditors. But those laws may not apply to a "home" that's part of a for-profit resort hotel. Madrak suggests Trump the Elder is trying to protect his assets. That sounds mighty plausible. ~~~

     ~~~ OOPS! Update and correction: "'Zillow has since updated the posting to show that the property is not currently on the market and hasn't changed hands since 1995 when Trump turned the residence that he originally purchased in 1985 for $2 million into The Mar-a-Lago Club.' So apparently this was fake? Though Zillow hasn't said how that listing appeared." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the heads-up.

Marie: I have no idea if the video is real or fake (I'd guess fake). But whatever; it expresses my feelings. Thanks to RAS for the lead:

Marie: The Pulitzer committee is going to have to decide if the person who snaps mugshots at the Fulton County Jail is eligible for the news photography prize; after all, s/he has taken the picture of the year.

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Inmate No. P01135809

This photo of a man who resembles the movie thriller version of a villainous, scary character is the way Donald Trump wants to be -- and will be -- remembered for as long as human civilization continues. This is the first-ever mugshot of a U.S. president* (or president). ~~~

     ~~~ Jonathan Cooper of the AP: When the camera shutter blinked inside an Atlanta jail on Thursday, it both created and documented a tiny inflection point in American life. Captured for posterity, there was a former president of the United States, for the first time in history, under arrest and captured in the sort of frame more commonly associated with drug dealers or drunken drivers. The trappings of power gone, for that split second. Left behind: an enduring image that will appear in history books long after Donald Trump is gone."

~~~ Niha Masih of the New York Times: "... Donald Trump made a return to X...-Twitter, late Thursday, with his account sharing his mug shot and a link to his website hours after his surrender and subsequent release from an Atlanta jail on charges connected to his attempts to reverse the 2020 election results in Georgia." MB: Weirdly, Trump's caption for his mugshot included the admonition "NEVER SURRENDER!" Surrender is precisely what Trump did in Atlanta Thursday. According to Lawrence O'Donnell, the Biggest Grifter is hawking T-shirts emblazoned with his mugshot for $34 or $35. I guess he thinks his mugshot is a good look.

Marie: I heard on MSNBC that four or five more perps, including Jeffrey Clark, were booked this morning. Update: According to CNN's liveblog in an item posted later this morning, all but two of the gangsters have surrendered. The liveblog doesn't identify the two people who are still on the lam. According to an ABC News liveblog, "Out of the 19 total defendants, only Trevian Kutti and Stephen Lee have yet to turn themselves in as today's noon deadline approaches." Here's more on these two from Diane Pathieu of ABC-7 Chicago.

The New York Times liveblogged the Fulton County, Georgia, hoohah: "... Donald J. Trump was booked at an Atlanta jail on Thursday in his fourth criminal arrest this year, this time in a sweeping racketeering case accusing him and his allies of conspiring to reverse his 2020 election loss in Georgia. Mr. Trump flew to Atlanta in a private plane from Newark, N.J., and was whisked to the Fulton County Jail in a motorcade with a police escort, arriving at 7:35 p.m. He was then fingerprinted and photographed like other people accused of state crimes and released on bond. About 20 minutes later, he returned directly to the Atlanta airport, where he briefly spoke to reporters on the tarmac before boarding his plane. Saying he had done nothing wrong, he called the charges a 'travesty of justice' and added 'we have every right to challenge an election we think is dishonest.'... Mr. Trump was listed in the Fulton County booking system as having 'blonde or strawberry' hair, a height of 6 foot 3 inches and weight of 215 pounds. That weight is 24 pounds less than the White House doctor reported Trump weighed in 2018 [MB: and according to MSNBC, 25 pounds less than Mark Meadows weighed the same day. CNN said Trump was allowed to 'self-report']....

"Harrison Floyd III, a former 2020 Trump campaign staff member, remains in custody Thursday evening because he showed up to his booking without a lawyer, according to a person with knowledge of what took place. Unlike other defendants, he did not take up the district attorney's offer to work out a bond agreement ahead of time, meaning he could be in jail for several days....

"Donald Trump will use a commercial bondsman, Charles Shaw of Foster Bail Bonds, to post his bond in exchange for $20,000, the bondsman confirmed.... The 10 percent fee will be nonrefundable.... It's not only notable that the billionaire businessman is using a bail bondsman, but also that he's covering the percentage himself....

"A flurry of legal motions were filed on Thursday ahead of [Donald Trump's] appearance, with Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, asking a judge to set a trial date of Oct. 23 and Mr. Trump objecting to that timing, indicating that he wants to move more slowly. Mr. Trump's filing also said that he would seek to have his case severed from that of Kenneth Chesebro, a co-defendant who on Wednesday filed a speedy trial demand in state court. ...

"Judge Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court approved the motion of Kenneth Chesebro, one of the defendants in the Georgia election interference case, for a speedy trial, setting a start date for Oct. 23....

"Trump is on Truth Social attacking Atlanta as crime-ridden as he heads to Fulton County for his arrest. It's unclear whether any of these posts will test the limits of his social media restrictions under his bond package....

Two more of his co-defendants turned themselves in on Thursday: Mark Meadows, his former White House chief of staff, and Harrison Floyd, a former campaign staffer." (Also linked yesterday.)

Politico publishes a rogues' gallery of all of the mugshots of the Trump gang which the Fulton County Jail had released as of early this morning. The accused must surrender by noon ET today.

Another Gangster Says "Trump Made Me Do It." Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Shawn Still, a Georgia Republican charged alongside ... Donald Trump..., says he signed false papers claiming to be a legitimate presidential elector at Trump's direction.... 'The president's attorneys instructed Mr. Still and the other contingent electors that they had to meet and cast their ballots on Dec. 14, 2020,' his attorney Thomas Bever argued Thursday in a court filing seeking to transfer the case against him to federal court.... [Still] contends that because Trump effectively instructed him to cast the ballot ..., he was acting with the imprimatur of the federal government.... [Similarly, former GOP chair David] Shafer's attorney wrote in a petition seeking to move the Fulton County case to federal court, 'Mr. Shafer and the other Republican Electors in the 2020 election acted at the direction of the incumbent President and other federal officials.... The arguments by Still and Shafer underscore the tensions and cracks likely to emerge among the 19 defendants."

Annie Grayer & Melanie Zanona of CNN: "The Republican-led House Judiciary Committee has opened a congressional investigation into Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a development that was first reported by CNN and comes the same day [Donald] Trump is slated to surrender at the county jail after being charged for participating in schemes to meddle with Georgia's 2020 election results. The committee sent a letter to Willis on Thursday asking whether she communicated or coordinated with the Justice Department, who has indicted Trump twice on two separate cases, or used federal dollars to complete her investigation that culminated in the fourth indictment of Trump. The questions from Republicans about whether Willis used federal funding in her state-level investigation mirrors the same line of inquiry that Republicans used to probe Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who indicted Trump in New York earlier this year for falsifying business records to cover up an alleged hush money scheme." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In a Congress that refuses to fund the federal government, I am damned sick of their funneling millions of tax dollars into the line item "Trump Defense Expenditures."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... it was a bit startling to see Trump propose, as he did last week on Fox Business, a 10 percent tariff on all U.S. imports, which he called a 'ring around the collar' of the U.S. economy. Before I get to why that would be a really bad idea, I can't help noting how remarkable it was to hear Trump using that phrase. It's an article of faith among many Republicans that President Biden is doddering and senile (even though he isn't, at all). What would they be saying if Biden were promoting one of his big policy ideas with a 55-year-old advertising slogan that was meant to describe something bad? (Wisk detergent was supposed to prevent ring around the collar.)... A tariff would, of course, be a tax -- a tax that would, whatever Trump may assert, fall on U.S. families, probably disproportionately hitting lower income households.... The geopolitical effects of such a tariff would be disastrous.... If America were to implement Trump's proposal for a unilateral, across-the-board tariff, it would in effect be seceding from the international order it did so much to create. The result would be a global wave not so much of retaliation -- although that too -- as of emulation, a free-for-all of tariffs imposed to cater to various interest groups."

Presidential Race 2024

Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this, you lose. ~~~

~~~ Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Trump's power is entirely due to the vacuum created by the vapidity of Republican leaders. Watching this non-debate was mainly a reminder that none of these politicians possess anything resembling substance. Despite all the chatter from the punditry about 'policy,' the voters these candidates are trying to reach could not care less about the nuts and bolts of governance. The GOP exists mainly as a vehicle for the endless parade of unwarranted, incoherent grievances of the Republican base.... For a base that just wants to hear how they're the real victims here, Trump's 'woe is me' messaging and retribution-oriented rhetoric is political heroin straight into their MAGA veins. Wednesday night's debate was a painful illustration of this.... The party's base actively repels any discourse with real meaning.... There's no such thing as 'policy discourse' in a world built entirely around conspiracy theories." (Also linked yesterday.)

Not a Mugshot. Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "The U.S. Postal Service is set to unveil its new stamp honoring late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg this October. The Postal Service announced Thursday it will hold a first-day-of-issue ceremony in October for the new Forever stamp commemorating Ginsburg's legacy.... The stamp features an oil painting of Ginsburg wearing her black judicial robe and white collar."

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The Justice Department has accused Elon Musk's SpaceX company of violating federal law by refusing to hire foreign nationals who were granted U.S. work permits as asylum-seekers or refugees. In a complaint filed Thursday, DOJ officials claim SpaceX rebuffed applications from asylum-seekers and refugees from 2018 through last year.... The 13-page complaint filed with a unit of Justice's Executive Office for Immigration Review does not mention the outspoken Musk by name but does allege that as the company's CEO, he publicly advanced the incorrect claim that a green card or citizenship was necessary to work at the company."

~~~~~~~~~~

Russia. The New York Times liveblog of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Here's the latest on the plane crash [that apparently killed Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and nine others]. U.S. and other Western officials said Thursday that preliminary intelligence reports led them to believe that an explosion on board likely brought down the aircraft in Russia, killing all the passengers aboard. And, for the first time, the Pentagon openly said it believed Mr. Prigozhin was dead. 'Our initial assessment is that it's likely Prigozhin was killed,' the Pentagon spokesman, Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder, said on Thursday afternoon. There has been no official confirmation that Mr. Prigozhin was killed, but President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia on Thursday, in his first comments on the crash, spoke obliquely of his death, referring to him in the past tense. 'He made some serious mistakes in life, but he also achieved necessary results,' Mr. Putin said in a televised meeting." ~~~

     ~~~ An AP story is here. ~~~

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

News Lede

New York Times: "Authorities in Hawaii released a list late on Thursday naming 388 people who are still unaccounted for in the aftermath of the deadliest wildfires in America in more than a century, which killed at least 115 people. The fires devastated the coastal town of Lahaina on the island of Maui, as well as other areas of the island, more than two weeks ago. Search-and-rescue teams are still sifting through the last patches of ash and rubble looking for human remains.In publicizing the names, the authorities hope to narrow the tally of the missing." ~~~

     ~~~ The AP's story is here.