July 25, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in California on Tuesday struck down the Biden administration's temporary restrictions on migrants seeking asylum, ruling that the government's plan to reduce illegal crossings on the southern border violated federal law. U.S. District Judge Jon S. Tigar ruled against a system the Biden administration imposed more than two months ago to penalize migrants who crossed the border illegally and reward those who scheduled appointments to seek asylum instead. Tigar granted the government's request to delay the ruling from taking effect for 14 days to allow time for officials to appeal." CNN's report is here.

Noam Scheiber of the New York Times: "United Parcel Service announced Tuesday that it had reached a tentative deal on a five-year contract with the union representing more than 325,000 of its U.S. workers, a key step in averting a potential strike next month.... The union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, reported in June that its UPS members had voted to authorize a strike after the expiration of the current agreement on Aug. 1, with 97 percent of those who took part in the vote endorsing the move.... The Teamsters said that under the tentative agreement, current full- and part-time UPS employees represented by the union would receive a $2.75-an-hour raise this year, and $7.50 an hour in raises over the course of the contract.... The deal, if ratified, removes a serious threat to the U.S. economy.... A 10-day UPS strike would cost the U.S. economy about $7 billion, according to an estimate from the Anderson Economic Group." Politico's story is here.

On the Theory of Barbie. (1) Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "This summer's two biggest entertainment phenomena, the movie 'Barbie' and Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, have a lot in common. Both feature conventionally gorgeous blond women who alternately revel in mainstream femininity and chafe at its limitations, enacting an ambivalence shared by many of their fans. Both, beneath their slick, exuberant pop surfaces, tell female coming-of-age stories marked by existential crises and bitter confrontations with sexism.... The film's blunt feminism -- its villain is, literally, patriarchy -- has prompted an enjoyably impotent right-wing backlash.... An obvious lesson from the gargantuan success of both 'Barbie' and the Eras Tour is that there is a huge, underserved market for entertainment that takes the feelings of girls and women seriously.... For the most part, unfortunately, it appears as if the lesson Hollywood is going to take from the success of 'Barbie' is not to make more stories for women, but to make more movies about toys." ~~~

On the Theory of Barbie. (2) Jessica Bennett of the New York Times: "Barbie [the Mattel doll] has been a protest slogan ('I am not your Barbie'), a bimbo (remember 'Math class is tough' Barbie?), an eating disorder accelerant.... But Barbie has also been a lawyer, a pilot, an astronaut and the president. She has never married, lives alone and does not have children. The movie seemed as full of contradictions as the doll. It was promoted through a marketing campaign that had more licensing deals than Barbie has outfits.... But it also had a director -- Greta Gerwig -- with indie street cred, and early reviews focused on the film's subversiveness.... [Feminist writer Susan Faludi, who views the film with Bennett, told her,] 'It seems to me that a big theme underlying the movie is shock and horror over what happened to us -- what happened to women -- from 2016 on, with the double whammy of Trump and then Dobbs. And in particular, I thought abortion was the subtext to a lot.'"

Jeremy Merrill & Hanna Koslowska of the Washington Post: "While the legitimacy of the gold retirement investment industry is the subject of numerous lawsuits -- including allegations of fraud by federal and state regulators against ... companies [that sell gold and silver coins] -- its advertising has become a mainstay of right-wing media. The industry spends millions of dollars a year to reach viewers of Fox, Newsmax and other conservative outlets, according to a Washington Post analysis of ad data and financial records, as well as interviews with industry insiders.... An analysis by The Post of political newsletters, social media, podcasts and a national database of television ads collected by the company AdImpact found that pitches to invest in gold coins are a daily presence in media that caters to a right-wing audience and often echo conservative talking points about looming economic and societal collapse. The Post found no similar ads for gold retirement investments in mainstream or left-wing media sources in the databases." The coins these sellers offer have high mark-ups, far higher than typical coin dealers charge. Among the promoters of the rip-offs: Rudy Giuliani & Ted Cruz. MB: I'll bet that surprises you.

One Way or Another, She's Gonna Getcha, Getcha, Getcha. Hugo Lowell of the Guardian: "The Fulton county district attorney investigating Donald Trump;s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia in recent weeks has weighed several potential statutes under which to charge, including solicitation to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit election fraud..., as well as solicitation of a public or political officer to fail to perform their duties and solicitation to destroy, deface or remove ballots..., according to two people briefed on the matter.... The district attorney is also seeking to charge at least some of the Trump operatives who were involved in accessing voting machines and copying sensitive election data in Coffee county, Georgia, in January 2021 with computer trespass crimes, the two people said.... The move by the Fulton county district attorney, Fani Willis, to identify a list of potential charges marks a major juncture in the criminal investigation and suggests prosecutors are on course to ask a grand jury to return indictments next month."

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and members of his team were involved in a car accident Tuesday morning but are uninjured, his campaign said.... 'We appreciate the prayers and well wishes of the nation for his continued protection while on the campaign trail,' [campaign spokesperson Bryan Griffin said in a statement]." MB: I don't wish car crashes on anyone, but "well wishes of the nation";? What a presumptuous twit. And I'll be damned if I'll get down on my knees and thank the lord for protecting DeSantolini while he's out among the dimwits hustling votes.

Marie: I was watching a German teevee series this morning, and in one scene, a neo-Nazi gang leader said that if Germany didn't get rid of Muslim immigrants, "we won't have a country anymore." This is precisely -- almost word-for-word -- what Donald Trump says, in various contexts, about the U.S. I don't think that's a coincidence. Trump does not just tolerate neo-Nazis; he takes inspiration from them. Some might say Trump is a neo-Nazi.

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Seung Min Kim of the AP: "President Joe Biden is tapping Shuwanza Goff -- a veteran congressional aide who also served as his main point of contact to the House at the start of the administration -- as his new director of legislative affairs, making her the first Black woman to be the White House's chief emissary to Capitol Hill. Goff succeeds Louisa Terrell in the role, a position that is especially vital for a president who spent more than three decades in Congress and takes pride in his connections to lawmakers. Goff comes into the job with deep relationships not just with Democrats but with Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that were honed over more than a decade on Capitol Hill. In a statement announcing the hire, Biden called Goff a 'proven leader and trusted voice on both sides of the aisle' who played a key role in the biggest legislative accomplishments from the first two years of his presidency ... as well as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson." (Also linked yesterday.)

Fatima Hussein of the AP: "The Internal Revenue Service said Monday it is ending its decades-old policy of making unannounced home and business visits, in an effort to help keep its workers safe and to combat scammers who pose as IRS agents. Effective immediately, revenue agents will no longer make unplanned visits to taxpayers' homes and businesses 'except in a few unique circumstances,' the Treasury Department said in a statement. The agency will instead mail letters to people to schedule meetings."

Impeachment! Emily Brooks of the Hill: "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that he expects the House GOP's investigations into the foreign business activities of President Biden's family to rise to the level of an impeachment inquiry[.]... McCarthy's impeachment inquiry tease comes days after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) released an FBI form that documented unverified allegations of corruption stemming from Hunter Biden's work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma. It also comes as the New York Post reported Monday that former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer plans to tell the House Oversight and Reform Committee in a closed-door interview this week that Hunter Biden would put then-Vice President Biden on speakerphone during meetings with foreign business partners." ~~~

~~~ Emily Brooks & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "Democrats on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee are poking holes in GOP arguments that President Biden is corrupt, claims that are founded on unverified allegations from an FBI form released [by Chuck Grassley & Jim Comer] in controversial fashion last week.... The form documents information that a confidential human source relayed to an FBI agent, but does not assess that information.... The FBI last week admonished Comer and Grassley for releasing the form.... The Democratic memo also quoted numerous Republicans -- including Grassley -- casting doubt on the veracity of the claims in the memo."

Isaac Schorr of Mediaite: "The handiwork of Hunter Biden ... was purchased by a Democratic donor and Biden commission appointee, according to a new report from Business Insider. Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, a Democratic donor who hosted a fundraiser for Vice President Kamala Harris last year, purchased Biden's paintings, which debuted at extraordinarily high prices sometimes stretching up to and well past six figures in 2021. Hunter Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell confirmed that [presumably Hunter] Biden was aware that Hirsh Naftali had bought some of his paintings because she is friends with Biden and had told him as much. According to the report, Hirsh Naftali was appointed to the Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad in July 2022, and 'it is unclear whether Hirsh's purchase of Hunter Biden's artwork occurred before or after that appointment.'... An administration official claimed that Hirsh Naftali had been recommended [for the appointment] by Nancy Pelosi."

Sean Lyngaas, et al., of CNN: "Special counsel Jack Smith's office has asked former US officials about a February 2020 Oval Office meeting where ... Donald Trump praised improvements to the security of US elections, according to multiple people familiar with the matter. In the meeting with senior US officials and White House staff, Trump touted his administration's work to expand the use of paper ballots and support security audits of vote tallies. Trump was so encouraged by federal efforts to protect election systems that he suggested the FBI and Department of Homeland Security hold a press conference to take credit for the work.... Details from the February 2020 Oval Office meeting are likely relevant to Smith's election interference investigation because they speak to Trump's 'knowledge and intent' around the security of US elections, said Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst. Those details offer a stark contrast to the voter-fraud conspiracy theories Trump began spreading publicly just weeks later and continued to use to question the 2020 election results."

Paula Reid, et al., of CNN: "Among the materials turned over to special counsel Jack Smith about supposed fraud in the 2020 election are documents that touch on many of the debunked conspiracies and unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud peddled by former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani. The documents had been withheld by former New York Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who claimed they were privileged, only to be handed over to Smith on Sunday.... The files include affidavits claiming there were widespread 'irregularities,' shoddy statistical analyses supposedly revealing 'fraudulent activities,' and opposition research about a senior employee from Dominion Voting Systems that are central to civil litigation and a federal criminal probe stemming from a voting systems breach in Colorado. The documents turned over by Kerik also connect him and other members of the Trump legal team to the efforts to smear a Dominion Voting Systems executive -- efforts that are now the subject of both civil litigation and the Colorado state criminal investigation."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A truck driver who assaulted a police officer with a flagpole at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Monday to 52 months in federal prison. The attack by the driver, Peter Stager, produced one of the most disturbing images to emerge from the Capitol attack. Mr. Stager, 44, of Conway, Ark., was captured on video beating the officer, Blake Miller, with the flagpole in a fit of rage as Officer Miller lay facedown in a mob of other rioters with 'no means of defending himself,' prosecutors wrote in court papers."

Jennifer Hassan of the Washington Post: "Conversations have started with North Korea's military about Travis King, a U.S. soldier who was detained after he intentionally crossed from South Korea, Lt. Gen. Andrew Harrison, a British deputy commander of the U.S.-led multinational command that oversees the Korean War truce, said at a news conference Monday."

Twitter Isn't Twitter Anymore. Noam Scheiber & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk has made one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognized bird logo.... A stylized, black-and-white X appeared on the company's website in place of the blue bird logo. Twitter's corporate accounts also adopted the new branding, which was projected onto the side of the company's headquarters in San Francisco overnight.... 'X' is a term for what Mr. Musk has described as an 'everything app' that could combine social media, instant messaging and payment services, akin to the popular Chinese app WeChat." This is an update of a story linked below. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Lawrence of the Guardian: "On Sunday, in a series of posts that surely won't be called tweets for much longer, Elon Musk reasoned that his company's new logo, a badly rendered letter X, embodies 'the imperfections in us all that make us unique'. What does he mean by that? He, of course, has no idea. This is a man with a terrible, terrible history for naming things." MB: I'm tellin' ya, Musk should have picked from the great list of new names Akhilleus suggested yesterday. And it would have cost billionaire Musk a mere $75MM. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wikipedia already is referring to Twitter in the past tense.

** Another Way the Rich Are Different from You & Me: Preferential Admissions to Elite Universities. Aitish Bhatia, et al., of the New York Times: "Elite colleges have long been filled with the children of the richest families: At Ivy League schools, one in six students has parents in the top 1 percent. A large new study, released Monday, shows that it has not been because these children had more impressive grades on average or took harder classes. They tended to have higher SAT scores and finely honed résumés, and applied at a higher rate -- but they were overrepresented even after accounting for those things. For applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top 1 percent were 34 percent more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1 percent were more than twice as likely to get in. The study -- by Opportunity Insights, a group of economists based at Harvard who study inequality -- quantifies for the first time the extent to which being very rich is its own qualification in selective college admissions.... The result is the clearest picture yet of how America's elite colleges perpetuate the intergenerational transfer of wealth and opportunity." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The graph embedded in the story is stunning. The study also renders quaint the bribery scandal of several years ago, where wealthy parents were accused of gaming the admissions system. But it's so wrong to give disadvantaged minorities a leg up. And we know this because the Supreme Court sez so. If you think playing by the rules & "being the best you can be" is the best way to excel in your life's path, think again. The odds are against you.

We Have Met the Culprits and They Are Us. Brady Dennis of the Washington Post: "The analysis by the World Weather Attribution network, a coalition of scientists that conducts rapid analyses to determine how the warming atmosphere influences extreme weather events, examined weather data and computer model simulations to compare the climate as it is today, having experienced warming of about 1.2 Celsius (2.2 Fahrenheit) since the late 1800s, with the climate of the past. The results came with a sobering reminder: Once unfathomable heat waves are ... becoming more common.... The findings support a growing consensus among researchers: The warmer the world gets, the more likely regions are to experience crippling heat waves, stronger storms and other climate-fueled disasters.... The heat waves that baked the Southwest and southern Europe would have almost no chance of happening in a world without climate change.... Human-caused greenhouse gas emissions made the heat wave hotter than it would otherwise have been...." The Guardian's report is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Chris Boyette & Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: “Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice. 'Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,' Abbott wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden following last week's DOJ request to remove the barriers. He added, 'Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.' The showdown between Abbott and the federal government comes as Texas' treatment of migrants who attempt to cross into the US illegally faces increased scrutiny. Biden administration officials have grown increasingly concerned in recent months about Abbott's measures, which have disrupted US Border Patrol operations in the region and put migrants at risk." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.

Way Beyond

Israel

Tia Goldenberg & Isaac Scharf of the AP: "Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's divisive plan to reshape the country's justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. The vote came after a stormy session in which opposition lawmakers chanted 'shame' and then stormed out of the chamber. It reflected the determination of Netanyahu and his far-right allies to move ahead with the plan, which has tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawn concern from its closest ally, the United States.... In Monday's vote, lawmakers approved a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are 'unreasonable.' With the opposition out of the hall, the measure passed by a 64-0 margin." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I couldn't figure out precisely why the opposition "stormed out of the chamber" and was "out of the hall" for the vote, but according to the NYT liveblog, also linked below, "... members of the opposition left the chamber, boycotting the vote they had no chance of winning."

The New York Times' live updates of developments are here.

Isabel Kershner & Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved the contentious plan of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to restrict the influence of the Supreme Court, defying a wide array of opposition movements that have threatened to shut down large parts of the country with protests. The plan limits the ways in which the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions.... The decision to press ahead with the overhaul could disrupt Israel's economy, further strain the country's relations with the Biden administration, and lead thousands of military reservists, a core part of Israel's armed forces, to refuse to volunteer for duty. Israel's president, Isaac Herzog, has warned that the schism could lead to civil war."~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The article attempts to tell you "what you need to know" about the new law.  But it doesn't cover this essential information, which former Obama national security expert Ben Rhodes laid out on MSNBC Monday: Israel has a one-house legislature, so there's no possibility of bicameral checks and balances. In addition, the prime minister is chosen by the party or parties that form a majority of the house or the Knesset, so they form a sort of "unit". So there's no possibility of checks and balance there. Now, as this "unit" guts the judiciary, there are no checks and balances there. As Israel does not have a federal system, so there are no states that share aspects of governance. And it has no constitution to which the Knesset is supposed to adhere. Ergo, one (theoretically) cohesive, central political entity controls the entire government, with no checks on it anywhere.

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Once again, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has pushed the limits, defying a nationwide protest movement to win new curbs on the Israeli judiciary's power to pose a check to his far-right coalition government. But after years of brinkmanship and chaos management by the Israeli leader, this feels different. Such is the rancor and rupture caused by this particular Netanyahu victory that many Israelis wonder whether the damage to society might not be fixable -- and whether Mr. Netanyahu will be able to manage the aftermath of a showdown he set in motion."

Ukraine, et al.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "Experts found land mines on the periphery of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant during a walk-through this week, International Atomic Energy Agency Director Rafael Mariano Grossi said. The mines were spotted in a buffer zone between the site's internal and external perimeter barriers.... Talks on resuming the Black Sea grain initiative are not happening, Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Vershinin said Tuesday, according to Reuters.... Putin has signed legislation that bans people from gender-affirming procedures."

The Little Despot Who Couldn't. Catherine Belton, et al., of the Washington Post: “When Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner mercenary group, launched his attempted mutiny on the morning of June 24, Vladimir Putin was paralyzed and unable to act decisively, according to Ukrainian and other security officials in Europe. No orders were issued for most of the day, the officials said. The Russian president had been warned by the Russian security services at least two or three days ahead of time that Prigozhin was preparing a possible rebellion.... 'Putin had time to take the decision to liquidate [the rebellion] and arrest the organizers' said ... a European security official.... The lack of orders from the Kremlin's top command left local officials to decide for themselves how to act.... Many on the local level could not believe the Wagner rebellion could be happening without some degree of agreement with the Kremlin.... The disarray in the Kremlin also reflects a deepening divide inside Russia's security and military establishment over the conduct of the war in Ukraine, with many including in the upper reaches of the security services and military supporting Prigozhin's drive to oust Russia's top military leadership...."

July 24, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Seung Min Kim of the AP: "President Joe Biden is tapping Shuwanza Goff -- a veteran congressional aide who also served as his main point of contact to the House at the start of the administration -- as his new director of legislative affairs, making her the first Black woman to be the White House's chief emissary to Capitol Hill. Goff succeeds Louisa Terrell in the role, a position that is especially vital for a president who spent more than three decades in Congress and takes pride in his connections to lawmakers. Goff comes into the job with deep relationships not just with Democrats but with Republicans, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., that were honed over more than a decade on Capitol Hill. In a statement announcing the hire, Biden called Goff a 'proven leader and trusted voice on both sides of the aisle' who played a key role in the biggest legislative accomplishments from the first two years of his presidency ... as well as the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson."

Texas. Chris Boyette & Priscilla Alvarez of CNN: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott will not be ordering floating barriers to be removed from the Rio Grande, in defiance of the US Department of Justice. 'Texas will fully utilize its constitutional authority to deal with the crisis you have caused,' Abbott wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden following last week's DOJ request to remove the barriers. He added, 'Texas will see you in court, Mr. President.' The showdown between Abbott and the federal government comes as Texas' treatment of migrants who attempt to cross into the US illegally faces increased scrutiny. Biden administration officials have grown increasingly concerned in recent months about Abbott's measures, which have disrupted US Border Patrol operations in the region and put migrants at risk."

Tia Goldenberg & Isaac Scharf of the AP: "Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved a key portion of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's divisive plan to reshape the country's justice system despite massive protests that have exposed unprecedented fissures in Israeli society. The vote came after a stormy session in which opposition lawmakers chanted 'shame' and then stormed out of the chamber. It reflected the determination of Netanyahu and his far-right allies to move ahead with the plan, which has tested the delicate social ties that bind the country, rattled the cohesion of its powerful military and repeatedly drawn concern from its closest ally, the United States.... In Monday's vote, lawmakers approved a measure that prevents judges from striking down government decisions on the basis that they are 'unreasonable.' With the opposition out of the hall, the measure passed by a 64-0 margin." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I couldn't figure out precisely why the opposition "stormed out of the chamber" and was "out of the hall" for the vote, but according to the NYT liveblog, also linked below, "... members of the opposition left the chamber, boycotting the vote they had no chance of winning."

Twitter Isn't Twitter Anymore. Noam Scheiber & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk has made one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognized bird logo.... A stylized, black-and-white X appeared on the company's website in place of the blue bird logo. Twitter's corporate accounts also adopted the new branding, which was projected onto the side of the company's headquarters in San Francisco overnight.... 'X' is a term for what Mr. Musk has described as an 'everything app' that could combine social media, instant messaging and payment services, akin to the popular Chinese app WeChat." This is an update of a story linked below. The NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wikipedia already is referring to Twitter in the past tense.

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The "Trump Tax." Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing criminal investigations into ... Donald J. Trump, employs 40 to 60 career prosecutors, paralegals and support staff, augmented by a rotating cast of F.B.I. agents and technical specialists.... In his first four months on the job, starting in November, Mr. Smith's investigation incurred expenses of $9.2 million. That included $1.9 million to pay the U.S. Marshals Service to protect Mr. Smith, his family and other investigators who have faced threats after the former president and his allies singled them out on social media. At this rate, the special counsel is on track to spend about $25 million a year.... Even the $25 million figure only begins to capture the full scale of the resources dedicated by federal, state and local officials to address Mr. Trump's behavior before, during and after his presidency.... Justice Department officials have long said that the effort alone to prosecute the members of the pro-Trump mob who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, is the largest investigation in its history....

"The main driver of all these efforts and their concurrent expenses is Mr. Trump's own behavior -- his unwillingness to accept the results of an election as every one of his predecessors has done, his refusal to heed his own lawyers' advice and a grand jury's order to return government documents and his lashing out at prosecutors in personal terms." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ It turns out Trump is reading his bad press. Phillip Nieto of Mediaite reports that Trump took to Liars' Social Sunday night to write about the "coordinated Hoax" designed "to STEAL ANOTHER ELECTION through PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT at levels never seen before in the U.S. Deranged Jack Smith has already spent over $25,000,000!" In a later post, he wrote, "Just think of it! Between Mueller, Deranged Jack Smith, and Congressional Committees, over 100 Million Dollars has been spent investigating me since I came down the escalator in Trump Tower. Biden is a criminal, and almost no money, by comparison, has been spent investigating him. Get smart, Republicans, they are trying to steal the Election from you!" An hour later he wrote, "Merrick Garland, Deranged Jack Smith, and coordinating Democrat 'Prosecutors' in New York and Atlanta, have become the Campaign Managers for the most corrupt and incompetent President in United States history, Joe Biden! Who would have thought this could happen in our once great Country?" MB: Who, indeed? And funny how Trump seemed to skip the part of the story that said out how the expenditures were the result of his own bad acts.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "The twice-indicted Donald Trump has a perfect record: He has lost every important challenge in the multiple, major legal cases swirling around him. Sometimes, this has happened at the trial court level; sometimes, it's been on appeal. But eventually, he has lost on every significant issue, civil or criminal, to come up. That ought to tell us something about the former president's ability to navigate the rough legal waters ahead of him -- and how dramatically the excuses his team serves up for the right-wing media zombies fall short in courts of law.... What passes for an argument on right-wing media or for MAGA cult members and lawmakers carries no weight in courts of law." MB: I dunno. "I declassified it in my mind" and "It was a perfect phone call" convinced me.

Marquise Francis & Andrew Romano of Yahoo! News cite the results of a new Yahoo News/You-Gov poll: "Asked how much of a problem racism currently is, just 19% of Trump voters describe racism against Black Americans as a 'big problem.' Twice as many (37%) say racism against white Americans is a big problem. Trump voters and self-identified Republicans -- overlapping but not identical cohorts -- are the only demographic groups identified by Yahoo News and YouGov who are more likely to say racism against white Americans is a problem than to say the same about racism against Black Americans." Via Mediaite.

Presidential Race 2024

Even Ron DeSantis Thinks Ron DeSantis is Bizarre. Tommy Christoper of Mediaite: "New York Times correspondent ... Maggie Haberman revealed that the much-derided anti-LGBTQ video attacking ex-President Donald Trump was produced by a Ron DeSantis staffer and 'passed off' to a supporter for publication. 'To wrap up "Pride Month," let's hear from the politician who did more than any other Republican to celebrate it....' the DeSantis War Room tweeted on June 30, along with a video that would be derided near-universally as bizarre and rabidly homophobic -- yet also oddly homoerotic. The video appeared in the tweet to originate from another account, and merely retweeted and commented on by the official DeSantis campaign account[.] But according to a deep dive on the DeSantis campaign 'reboot' published by Haberman and Shane Goldmacher, the retweet was a subterfuge to conceal the fact that the video was produced in-house[.]"

Report from the Dark Side. Philip Bump of the Washington Post explores how Donald Trump has been able to convince "his base that his indictments were aimed at them: ... [by exploiting] misinformation in the right-wing media, eight years of identifying as the base's voice, claims that the elites are worried about his imminent reelection...."

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

This Should Fix Everything. Noam Scheiber & Ryan Mac of the New York Times: "Elon Musk said he was about to make one of the most visible changes to Twitter since he took control of the social media company last fall: replacing its widely recognized bird logo. In a tweet early Sunday morning Eastern time, Mr. Musk said that 'soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds.'" Maybe he could rename Twitter "Muskville" or "Das Muskenhangers." At the top of today's Comments, Akhilleus has some much better ideas.

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Washington Post Editors: "Florida public schools will now teach students that the once constitutionally protected system under which enslavers bought and sold human beings had an apparent upside.... Enslaved Black people 'developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.' The state's public school curriculum developed by the administration of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis ... will now also teach that the race massacres of the 19th and 20th centuries were 'perpetuated by' both Black and White Americans.... The revised curriculum follows the governor's rejection of a new Advanced Placement African American studies course, which his administration claimed 'lacks educational value.'... There is no historical counterargument to the atrocities of slavery or the racial violence that resulted from its abolition. Florida's plan to teach otherwise should alarm Americans everywhere." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm convinced that one of the purposes of DeSantis' dis-education campaign is to undermine Americans' faith in another fundamental American institution: public education. The entire right-wing project is to destabilize the country's institutions: the "deep-state" bureaucrats of the executive branch, Congress, the entire judicial system, the "liberal-elite" media, public libraries, whatever. While there is no question that each of the institutions within our system has plenty of room for improvement, together they form the network upon which the country runs. This also of course requires the destabilization and misinterpretation of our basic values as expressed in documents like the Constitution and its amendments and laws that enhance human rights, health and social security.

Way Beyond

Cambodia. Seth Mydans of the New York Times: "The party of the Cambodian prime minister, Hun Sen, declared victory on Sunday in stage-managed parliamentary elections that prepared the way for the first change in leadership since he took office nearly four decades ago. Although the official results will not be confirmed until Monday, the suppression of all meaningful opposition -- often by violence -- meant that Mr. Hun Sen's party was always a virtual lock to sweep the election."

Israel. The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the protests in Israel against PM Netanyahu's efforts to limit judicial oversight. "Labor and business leaders threatened to shut down the nation's economy as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition tries to push a proposal to limit judicial power through Parliament."

Spain. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Spain was thrust into political uncertainty on Sunday after national elections left no party with enough support to form a government, most likely resulting in weeks of horse trading or potentially a new vote later this year. Returns showed most votes were divided between the center right and center left. But neither the governing Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez nor his conservative opponents won enough ballots to govern alone in the 350-seat Parliament." CNN's report is here.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Monday is here: "A drone struck a skyscraper in Moscow early Monday, shattering glass on its 17th and 18th floors, Russian officials reported. The wreckage of a second drone was found on Komsomolsky Prospect, a thoroughfare in central Moscow. Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said two nonresidential buildings were struck but there were no casualties.... Moscow downed the drones by electronic means, the Russian Defense Ministry said, blaming Ukraine for the attack.... The incident comes after another night of attacks on Ukraine's Odessa region. Drones targeted port infrastructure along the Danube River, injuring six people and destroying a grain hangar, said Oleh Kiper, the regional governor.... Ukraine attacked an ammunition depot in Crimea with drones overnight, the Russian-backed head of the peninsula said.... Ukraine has taken back about half of the land that Russia initially seized in the invasion, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during an interview with CNN. However, he tempered Kyiv's inroads with warnings of a tough path ahead.... Ukrainian pilots will begin training with F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft developed by the U.S. Air Force next month, Ukrainian Defense Minister ​​Oleksii Reznikov told CNN, adding that training sessions would take place across several European countries."

News Ledes

Alabama. New York Times: "An Alabama woman whose brief disappearance this month drew national attention and prompted sprawling search efforts across the state said through a lawyer on Monday that she had faked the entire ordeal -- including her abduction and her claim of seeing a toddler on the side of a road. The woman, Carlee Russell, 25, said through her lawyer, Emory Anthony, that she had not been kidnapped on July 13 in Hoover, Ala., and that she had not seen a baby on the side of an interstate that night -- a detail that she had shared with a 911 dispatcher before being reported missing." The AP's report is here.

Florida. New York Times: "The chief of public safety for Miami-Dade County, Fla., suffered serious head injuries from a self-inflicted gunshot late on Sunday and was hospitalized in Tampa, the authorities said on Monday. Alfredo Ramirez III, who serves in a dual role as the public safety chief and the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department, the largest police department in the Southeast, was in stable condition after undergoing surgery on Monday, officials from Miami-Dade County and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said."

July 23, 2023

Afternoon Update:

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

~~~~~~~~~~

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Race 2024

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

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

Way Beyond

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

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

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

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

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

News Lede

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