September 5, 2022
Then:
And Now:
Afternoon Update:
Alan Feuer & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A federal judge intervened on Monday in the investigation of ... Donald J. Trump's handling of sensitive government records, ordering the appointment of an independent arbiter to review a trove of materials seized last month from Mr. Trump's private club and residence in Florida. In a 24-page ruling, the judge, Aileen M. Cannon of the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also enjoined the Justice Department from using the seized materials for any 'investigative purpose' connected to its inquiry of Mr. Trump until the work of the arbiter, known as a special master, was completed.... Her order would not, however, affect a separate review of the documents by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence seeking to determine what risk to national security their removal to Mar-a-Lago may have caused.... Judge Cannon's ruling ... permitted whoever is appointed to the job to evaluate the documents not only for those protected by attorney-client privilege, a relatively common measure, but also for those potentially shielded by executive privilege, which typically protects confidential internal executive branch deliberations.... In her order, Judge Cannon evinced concern that Mr. Trump might suffer 'reputational harm.'... She also noted that, because of the search of Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump faced 'unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public.'" Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm kinda surprised Cannon didn't order Trump never again to make another public statement inasmuch as he "suffers reputational harm" every time his opens his fat lips & the best words come out. More seriously, Cannon seems confused by the concept of three branches of government, and -- as Akhilleus & I both speculated last week -- is not competent to do the judge thing. Moreover, the items she objected to cover matters that the government would never have presented in a case against Trump for the theft of government documents. She claimed that among the items seized were medical records & tax documents; but whether or not Trump lied about his heart rate & taxes is immaterial to the matters of espionage, theft & obstruction.
Pjotr Sauer of the Guardian: "Russia will not resume in full its gas supplies to Europe until the west lifts its sanctions against Moscow, the Kremlin said, as concerns over Russian gas supplies continued to drive up energy prices. Speaking to journalists on Monday, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin's spokesperson, blamed sanctions 'introduced against our country by western countries including Germany and the UK' for Russia's failure to deliver gas through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline."
Afghanistan. Robyn Dixon, et al., of the Washington Post: "A suicide bomber blew himself up outside the consular section of Russia's embassy in Kabul on Monday, killing a top diplomat, a Russian security guard and four Afghans, according to Russian and Afghan officials. Afghan police reported that Taliban guards at the embassy shot dead the attacker, but his device still detonated. The blast happened as the embassy's second secretary exited the building to read out names to a crowd waiting to hear about visas, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. The attack against one of the few countries that has maintained an embassy under the Taliban is a blow to the image of the group that took over Afghanistan a year ago and maintains it has control over the country."
~~~~~~~~~~
Will Weissert of the AP: "President Joe Biden is making his third trip to Pennsylvania in less than a week and returning just two days after his predecessor, Donald Trump, staged his own rally there -- illustrating the battleground state's importance to both parties as Labor Day kicks off a nine-week sprint to crucial midterm elections.... On Monday, [President Biden is] attending Labor Day festivities in Milwaukee, in another key swing state, Wisconsin, before traveling to Pittsburgh[, Pa.] for that city's parade.... The unofficial start of fall, Labor Day also traditionally kicks off political crunch time...."
Olivia Olander of Politico: "John Sullivan, the United States' ambassador to Russia, concluded his time in the role and left Moscow on Sunday after almost three years as envoy, according to a statement from the U.S. embassy in Russia. Elizabeth Rood, another diplomat who was the deputy chief of the embassy, will take it over until the ambassador's successor is appointed and confirmed, the statement said. She has been stationed at the embassy since June, but has been nominated to be the next ambassador to Turkmenistan. Sullivan was appointed by ... Donald Trump in 2019, but was asked to stay on by President Joe Biden. 'Following his departure, he will retire from a career in public service that has spanned four decades and five U.S. presidents,' the statement said."
Beyond the Beltway
Nevada. Eduardo Medina of the New York Times: "An investigative reporter for The Las Vegas Review-Journal was found stabbed to death outside his home on Saturday morning, prompting a search for the attacker.... The police believe Jeff German, 69, was in an altercation with someone on Friday that resulted in the stabbing, The Review-Journal reported. Dori Koren, a spokesman for the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, told the newspaper that the police had potential leads on an assailant. A motive was not immediately clear." The AP's report is here.
Way Beyond
** U.K. Pippa Crerar of the Guardian: "Liz Truss will become Britain's next prime minister after winning a resounding victory over Rishi Sunak in the bitterly fought Conservative leadership contest. The foreign secretary, who won 81,326 votes of Tory members, while the former chancellor picked up 60,399 votes takes over from Boris Johnson, who was ousted by his own MPs earlier this summer. But the euphoria of victory will quickly give way to the hard reality of the economic challenges ahead with the country gripped by a cost of living crisis leaving families struggling to pay their energy bills this winter. Truss has said she will reveal plans to support households within a week of taking office, with allies understood to be discussing a £100bn package that could include freezing energy bills. She has already pledged to reverse a national insurance rise even though it disproportionately benefits the well-off. An emergency budget is expected within the first month to set out how she will bolster the economy amid sustained low growth, soaring inflation, flat-lining wages and the very real prospect of recession."
~~~ New York Times: "Britain will learn the identity of its new prime minister at around 12:30 p.m. on Monday (7:30 a.m. in New York), when the Conservative Party announces the results of a hard-fought contest to replace Boris Johnson. Liz Truss, the foreign secretary, remains the heavy favorite over her opponent, Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer." This is a liveblog. An AP story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In case you think of the Brits as more hidebound than Americans, the U.K. now has its third female prime minister; they even had a Jewish (by birth) P.M. in the 19th century. In the U.S? None of the above: all of our presidents, except one, were white guys.
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' liveblogs of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "'The Ukrainian counteroffensive is making verifiable progress in the south and the east,' according to the Institute for the Study of War, a U.S.-based think tank. ISW analysts said 'Ukrainian forces are advancing along several axes' to the west of the Kherson region and 'have secured territory' in Donetsk, one of two eastern regions that make up the Donbas area. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday after a meeting of Ukraine's defense, military and intelligence chiefs that 'Ukrainian flags are returning to the places where they should be by right.'"
Chile. Jack Nicas of the New York Times: "For the past three years, Chileans have fought over a path forward for their country in the form of a new constitution, written entirely from scratch, that would transform their society and grant more rights than any national charter before it. On Sunday, voters overwhelmingly rejected that text. The proposed changes had looked to remake one of the most conservative countries in Latin America into one of the world's most left-leaning societies, but Chileans decided that went too far."
News Lede
New York Times: "The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in Saskatchewan said Monday night that one of the two men suspected in a wave of deadly stabbings had been found dead of wounds 'not believed to be self-inflicted.' After more than a day of manhunt that put three provinces on alert, the police said that Damien Sanderson, 31, had been found dead before noon on Monday in a grassy area near a house being investigated on the Cree Nation reserve. And they said his brother, Myles Sanderson, 30, had possibly been wounded.... The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in statement that the two men had been charged with first degree, attempted murder and break and enter." This is a liveblog.
Marie: Sorry, I lost some of the ledes of the day.
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Reader Comments (12)
"If capital an' labor ever do git together it's good night fer th' rest of us."
Edward V. Lucas––-1868-1938
Note from NRA: See, we told you, guns don't kill people, it knives
thats doin' it.
Biden's gonna' raid your kitchen and take all your knives, well, maybe
not the butter knives.
Labor. As a former sometimes union organizer in my youth, I've heard
every excuse imaginable not to sign up. The most common, of course,
is 'my church won't allow me to belong to secret organizations.'
I think the best one was a young lady whose wages would double.
'The company will never give us another Christmas party.' And those
parties were held in a Baptist church basement so you can imagine
how exciting that was.
Question for the new UK PM.
Have you learned the biggest lesson there is for a prime minister?
Whatever you do, the most important thing to keep in mind is never, ever say anything mean about Father Samuel Alito (or any of the other theocrats on the SCOTUS). You see what happened to Boris. He said he didn’t think denying women the right to control their own healthcare was a good idea, and like Fr. Sam sed, “he paid the price!”
Don’t diss the Savonarolas.
P.D.
Good morning. Need a little help here. Looked up this Lucas guy and see that among other things he was a humorist, which might go some way to explain what he said. Was he saying he was not capital or labor, or what? A member of an emerging professional class, maybe?
Maybe I have the Monday morning dulls. Otherwise, no matter how much I labor, I just don't get it...
My guess, if you sub "unions" for "labor", Lucas may be saying that non-union independent skilled workers (plumbers, electricians, masons, etc.) and first-time labor entrants (kids who need a sponsor to get a union card) would be squeezed hard. Unskilled workers (think stevedores "On the Waterfront") would be at the mercy of union bosses, with no company benefits.
Not to worry -- capital and labor in the US don't get together. The idea of "ownership" here sort of squashes the idea of cooperative production. When the company can absorb the union pension fund into its own assets, the temptation is too great. And by the time the employees find out, they're close to dead already. Sad.
Here's your labor day sing-out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRwr5R8T7eY
We talk about the Machismo of Latin America, yet the majority of the Latin American nations have had female presidents.
Keep pushing, Ladies! Us old farts won't live forever.
Trumpy judge jumpies for Trumpy.
That (I’m sure, incredibly qualified ) judge appointed by Fatty to do his bidding, comes through for the traitors, telling the DoJ that a special master will be holding up the works for a couple of years so Trump won’t be bothered while he sells the rest of those top secret documents.
Rule of law? What rule of law? National security? What’s that? Trump abides by no laws. Neither do “his” judges. They do what they’re told. Laws be damned. Trump has always found ways to twist the system to help him escape responsibility and consequences, it’s happening again, in real time. Only this time he’s taking national security down with him, because what’s that when Trump is in trouble?
Garland cannot let this shit stand. This traitor has got to be indicted and prosecuted. You can imagine who this judge will put in the position of special master, some other Trumpy hack, with a degree from the Kraken School of “Law”.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/politics/live-news/trump-decision-special-master-fbi-search/index.html
Words DO matter, and reading the WaPo Special Master story noticed they referred to the warranted FBI search on Trumps Florida dwelling as the "FBI raid"..
Raid (n.)
1. A sudden, hostile attack, esp. by troops, military aircraft, etc.
2. Any sudden invasion of some place by police, for discoveries and
dealing with violations of the law.
I don't think that when the FBI goes to the trouble to obtain a search
warrant, that it could be considered a "sudden" invasion of a place.
They're making it sound like some kind of raid during prohibition or
some such crap.
Bobby Lee and Forrest,
Exactly what I’ve been saying. It’s one thing for Pro-Treason outlets like Faux and OAN and Newsmax and the NY Post to scream “Raaaid!” like the little cockroaches in those old Raid TV commercials, but when the WaPo and the Times continue to push the traitor narrative of a raid on poor innocent Donald’s “beautiful home” (it’s not…legally it’s a club of some kind where spies from all antagonistic nations are welcomed and handed maps showing “You are here” and “US top secrets are here” graphically depicted) truth has not only lost, it’s been bludgeoned, hammered in the head, chopped up by Proud Boys, ground down and served as hors d’oeuvres at the next Marred a Lago white supremacy, RNC party.
This is beyond bullshit. This is democracy agonistes.
We're being spied on. Last night we watched on Netflix, Passport
to the World: Route 66.
I just turned on You-tube streaming and right away playing is
Diana Krall singing "Get Your Kicks on Route 66."
I love Diana Krall, but guess I should wear more clothes if someone
is watching.
Texas Paul goes off on TFG and his MAGA crowd. What he said.