The Ledes

Friday, September 6, 2024

CNBC: “The U.S. economy created slightly fewer jobs than expected in August, reflecting a slowing labor market while also clearing the way for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates later this month. Nonfarm payrolls expanded by 142,000 during the month, down from 89,000 in July and below the 161,000 consensus forecast from Dow Jones, according to a report Friday from the Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics.”

New York Times: “Colin Gray, the father of the 14-year-old accused of killing two teachers and two students at his Georgia high school, was arrested and charged on Thursday with second-degree murder in connection with the state’s deadliest school shooting, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said. In addition to two counts of second-degree murder, Mr. Gray, 54, was also charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter and eight counts of cruelty to children, according to a statement. At a news conference on Thursday night, Chris Hosey, the G.B.I. director, said the charges were 'directly connected with the actions of his son and allowing him to possess a weapon.'” At 5:30 am ET, this is the pinned item in a liveblog. ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report is here.

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The Ledes

Thursday, September 5, 2024

CNBC: “Private sector payrolls grew at the weakest pace in more than 3½ years in August, providing yet another sign of a deteriorating labor market, according to ADP. Companies hired just 99,000 workers for the month, less than the downwardly revised 111,000 in July and below the Dow Jones consensus forecast for 140,000. August was the weakest month for job growth since January 2021, according to data from the payrolls processing firm. 'The job market’s downward drift brought us to slower-than-normal hiring after two years of outsized growth,' ADP’s chief economist, Nela Richardson, said. The report corroborates multiple data points recently that show hiring has slowed considerably from its blistering pace following the Covid outbreak in early 2020.”

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Georgia school massacre are here, a horrifying ritual which we experience here in the U.S. to kick off each new School Shooting Year. “A 14-year-old student opened fire at his Georgia high school on Wednesday, killing two students and two teachers before surrendering to school resource officers, according to the authorities, who said the suspect would be charged with murder.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I heard Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) speak during a press conference. Kemp is often glorified as one of the most moderate, reasonable GOP elected public officials. When asked a question I did not hear, Kemp responded, "Now is not the time to talk about politics." As you know, this is a statement that is part of the mass shooting ritual. It translates, "Our guns-for-all policy is so untenable that I dare not express it lest I be tarred and feathered -- or worse -- by grieving families." ~~~

~~~ Washington Post: “Police identified the suspect as Colt Gray, a student who attracted the attention of federal investigators more than a year ago, when they began receiving anonymous tips about someone threatening a school shooting. The FBI referred the reports to local authorities, whose investigations led them to interview Gray and his father. The father told police that he had hunting guns in the house, but that his son did not have unsupervised access to them. Gray denied making the online threats, the FBI said, but officials still alerted area schools about him.” ~~~ 

     ~~~ Marie: I heard on CNN that the reason authorities lost track of Colt was that his family moved counties, and the local authorities who first learned of the threats apparently did not share the information with law enforcement officials in Barrow County, where Wednesday's mass school shooting occurred. If you were a parent of a child who has so alarmed law enforcement that they came around to your house to question you and the child about his plans to massacre people, wouldn't you do something?: talk to him, get the kid professional counseling, remove guns and other lethal weapons from the house, etc.

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New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass.

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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The Commentariat -- October 24, 2019

Afternoon Update:

IOKIYAR. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: In 2016, when Secretary of State & Sycophancy Mike Pompeo was a member of Congress, he "defended the House Select Committee on Benghazi for the closed-door interviews they conducted while investigating the attack.... 'We felt like these closed door interviews were a much more effective way to get the facts for the American people.'... [Trey] Gowdy [R], the former South Carolina representative and chairman of the Benghazi committee, similarly defended private hearings in 2015 by saying they 'always produce better results.' 'I can just tell you that of the 50-some odd interviews we have done thus far, the vast majority of them have been private,' the former congressman said in an interview with Chuck Todd. 'And you don't see the bickering among the members of Congress in private interviews.'"

Rudy Incriminates Donald. Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "After months of insisting he was working at the behest of the State Department, Rudy Giuliani on Wednesday evening unequivocally stated that his work in Ukraine was performed in his capacity as ... Donald Trump's private attorney, an admission legal commentators say may have serious repercussions for both Giuliani and the White House. 'With all the Fake News let me make it clear that everything I did was to discover evidence to defend my client against false charges...,' Giuliani tweeted.... [Marty Lederman, a constitutional scholar, wrote, 'This merely confirms what was so outrageous: ... [Giuliani's] duty of loyalty was 100% to his (personal capacity) client. And yet Trump told Ukraine it had to dance to Rudy's tune -- a tune designed to advance Trump's personal interests -- in order to remain in the U.S.'s good graces (e.g., to secure access, aid, etc.).... This is the highest of high crimes -- using the leverage of his position as chief diplomat to advance his own interests -- and it's hard to imagine anything more inconsistent w/Trump's constitutional oath & duty and more revealing of his utter unfitness for office. And that'd be true *even if there were no quid pro quo* (but of course there was, which makes it all the worse).'" ~~~

~~~ Erica Orden, et al., of CNN: "Rudy Giuliani has been approaching defense attorneys for possible representation, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The move by Giuliani, who is President Donald Trump's personal attorney, is notable because last week he said he would not be seeking a new lawyer unless he felt one was needed. His previous lawyer, John Sale, was helping him deal with congressional inquiries." Mrs. McC: It would have been a good idea if Rudy had found an attorney in time for said attorney to tell him to STFU. But, as far as the nation is concerned, it's nice of him to admit his job was helping Trump commit an impeachable offense.

Anna Momigliano of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte of Italy said his country's intelligence services had informed the American attorney general, William P. Barr, that they played no role in the events leading to the Russia investigation, taking the air out of an unsubstantiated theory promoted by President Trump and his allies in recent weeks. 'Our intelligence is completely unrelated to the so-called Russiagate...,' Mr. Conte said in a news conference in Rome on Wednesday evening after spending hours describing Italy's discussions with Mr. Barr to the parliamentary committee on intelligence.... Mr. Trump and his associates have asserted, without evidence, that [Joseph] Mifsud [-- who told George Papadopoulos that Russia had thousands of e-mails that contained damaging info about Hillary Clinton --] is not a professor with links to Russia, as the special counsel's report states, but a Western intelligence asset working as part of an Obama administration plot to spy on the Trump campaign. That theory, once relegated to the far-right margins, has become a frequent talking point of Mr. Trump's as he seeks to undermine the special counsel's report. Mr. Barr at least twice visited Rome to investigate the allegations, on Aug. 15 and Sept. 27."

Andrew Kirell of the Daily Beast: "White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham on Thursday doubled down on her boss' 'human scum' attack on so-called 'Never Trump' Republicans and seemingly expanded it to include anyone who has worked against the president's agenda.... 'The people who are against him, and who have been against him, and have been working against him since the day they took office are just that.'" Mrs. McC: As New York's Intelligencer pointed out, at least Trump (and now Grisham) are conceding the Never-Trumpers are human.

Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "Today, the Wall Street Journal editorial board has chimed in with a bizarre, new argument for why Trump should not be impeached: he's simply too inept. No, seriously. 'Intriguingly, Mr. Taylor says in his statement that many people in the Administration opposed the Giuliani effort, including some in senior positions at the White House. This matters because it may turn out that while Mr. Trump wanted a quid-pro-quo policy ultimatum toward Ukraine, he was too inept to execute it. Impeachment for incompetence would disqualify most of the government, and most Presidents at some point or another in office. The editorial is here.

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: Wherein CNN's Poppy Harlow busts Rep. Jodey Arrington (R-Texas) "for blatantly misstating the facts about the whistleblower who filed a complaint against ... Donald Trump."

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post makes fun of fact-checks Trump's Syria speech. Related stories linked below.

Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "... a top Education Department official who oversaw federal student loans suddenly resigned on Thursday and proposed a sweeping plan to tackle student debt. The Wall Street Journal reported that A. Wayne Johnson, appointed by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to serve as the the chief strategy and transformation officer of the department's Office of Federal Student Aid, has stepped down and will run for Sen. Johnny Isakson's (R-GA) seat. Slamming the student loan system as 'fundamentally broken,' Johnson proposed cancelling up to $50,000 in federal student loans for any borrower. Johnson's plan is particularly surprising given his former workplace;s repeated efforts to gut student forgiveness programs under DeVos' leadership. He also served as CEO for several private student loan companies before he began working for the Trump administration. The former official told the Wall Street Journal that his proposal aims to eliminate the government's role in providing student loans and provide borrowers with a $50,000 voucher for tuition instead."

** Michael Wines of the New York Times: "After decades of treating elections as an afterthought, college students have begun voting in force. Their turnout in the 2018 midterms -- 40.3 percent of 10 million students tracked by Tufts University's Institute for Democracy & Higher Education -- was more than double the rate in the 2014 midterms, easily exceeding an already robust increase in national turnout. Energized by issues like climate change and the Trump presidency, students have suddenly emerged as a potentially crucial voting bloc in the 2020 general election. And almost as suddenly, Republican politicians around the country are throwing up roadblocks between students and voting booths. Not coincidentally, the barriers are rising fastest in political battlegrounds and places like Texas where one-party control is eroding. Students overwhelmingly lean Democratic, with three in four supportive of impeaching President Trump, according to an Axios/College Reaction poll released this month."

Susan Davis of NPR: "The first lawmaker to trigger ... new [House] rules ... [that] prohibit lawmakers from having sexual relations with anyone who works in their congressional office or on any committees on which they serve ... is a woman, freshman Rep. Katie Hill, D-Calif., and a member of House Democratic leadership." The House Ethics Committee is investigating. Davis reports the background.

Forgot this earlier. Theodore Schleifer of Vox: "Wednesday was open season on Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook -- this time in the halls of the US Congress. While the hearing was supposed to be about Facebook's push to create a new digital currency called Libra, about half of the back and forth centered on other topics, from its controversial political ads policy to Facebook's record on diversity to particular congresspeople's pet issues. Facebook is balancing multiple overlapping crises simultaneously, and each individual congressperson chose their own line of attack, giving the whole hearing a scattershot feeling that lacked a clear partisan or even thematic bent.... Sixty different politicians had five minutes each to grill Zuckerberg about whatever they wanted, and they jumped at the opportunity to try and test him at yet another politically delicate moment in his company's history. With some notable exceptions, Congress came across as prepared, serious, and thoughtful -- especially compared to prior outings, when technological illiteracy reigned supreme.... Almost all of the questions -- no matter the issue area -- centered on the overwhelming question of trust. One member suggested that Facebook had lied. Another said Facebook was often found at the 'scene of the crime.' The big idea: Why should anyone trust Facebook to responsibly do something new, particularly something related to its users' money, when it can't even execute on its existing projects?"

~~~~~~~~~~

Republicans Behaving Badly

Rebels Without a Clue. Or, in one case, a suitcoat. Getty image, taken outside the SCIF.

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans' defense of President Trump grew more frantic and disjointed Wednesday, with House members storming a closed-door meeting, delaying the testimony of an impeachment witness as the GOP grappled with a growing abuse-of-power scandal centered on the president. A group of Trump's congressional allies escalated their complaints about the impeachment inquiry by barging into a secure facility on Capitol Hill where a Pentagon official was to testify before the House Intelligence Committee.... Before entering the closed-door hearing, Republican lawmakers held a news conference to decry how [Adam] Schiff, the California Democrat who runs the Intelligence Committee, was carrying out the panel's portion of the impeachment inquiry.... But none of the 13 Republicans who spoke defended Trump on the central allegation that he had pushed Ukraine to investigate Democrats while blocking military aid that had been approved for Kyiv. Damning testimony from William B. Taylor Jr., the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, has rocked the White House's impeachment defense, making it more difficult for Republicans to claim that Trump did nothing wrong." Emphasis added. ~~~

~~~ Li Zhou & Elia Nilsen of Vox: "Roughly 30 Republicans reportedly rushed past police officers and occupied the room for hours, even ordering pizza at one point -- all to delay witness testimony from Pentagon official Laura Cooper.... According to a Bloomberg report, Trump was aware of House Republicans' Wednesday plans to storm the SCIF, discussing the matter with lawmakers during a Tuesday meeting they had about the impeachment inquiry.... Those process complaints are useful distractions from the growing allegations against Trump, and for Republicans who don't want to engage with the facts the inquiry is uncovering. At least one high-ranking Republican senator, John Thune of South Dakota, acknowledged those facts...[:] 'The picture coming out of [officials' testimony] based on the reporting we've seen is, yeah, I would say it's not a good one,' Thune told reporters. 'But I would say also, until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this with full transparency, it's pretty hard to come to hard and fast conclusions.'" ~~~

~~~ Olivia Beavers & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The five-hour protest came to an end just after 3 p.m., shortly after the House Sergeant at Arms, Paul Irving, was seen going alone into the secure room. It doesn't appear that Republicans won any concessions, however...." ~~~

~~~ New York Times liveblog: "President Trump took to Twitter again to denigrate the impeachment inquiry as a Defense Department official headed to Capitol Hill to testify on the Ukraine affair.... House Republicans ... attempted to storm the secure room, delaying proceedings, where impeachment investigators were questioning a witness.... About two dozen House Republicans, chanting 'Let us in! Let us in!' tried to storm the secure room where a Defense Department official arrived Wednesday morning to testify in the impeachment inquiry.... The lawmakers -- most of whom do not sit on the committees conducting the inquiry and are therefore not entitled to attend its hearings -- said they were protesting the closed-door nature of the proceedings.... The chaotic scene in the bowels of the Capitol unfolded as the panel was getting ready to hear from Laura B. Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, and halted the session. [Adam] Schiff summoned the Sergeant-at-arms to disperse the uninvited Republican guests, some of whom brought cellphones, which are forbidden in the secure suite.... It is common practice for sensitive congressional investigations to be conducted behind closed doors, at least in their preliminary stages. House Republicans did just that when they controlled the chamber and opened an inquiry into the 2012 attack on the United States embassy in Benghazi, Libya. Democrats have said they plan to hold open hearings after the committees finish deposing witnesses...." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Zachary Basu of Axios: "Republicans reportedly took pictures inside the House Intelligence Committee's Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) -- forcing police to conduct a sweep for possible security breaches. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) tweeted from inside the SCIF: 'BREAKING: I led over 30 of my colleagues into the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment depositions. Still inside - more details to come.' Gaetz later added: '**Tweet from Staff**'.... Worth noting: The group alleges that they are being shut out of the impeachment process, but there are Republicans on the three panels conducting the investigation -- the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees -- that are present and able to ask questions at every hearing." Mrs. McC: The NYT liveblog, linked above, now has a photo of someone -- it looks like Gaetz's backside -- walking into the SCIF while holding up his phone, as if he's recording. So that "Tweet from Staff" disclaimer is pretty unconvincing. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ How Fake Was Their "Protest"? Ursula Perano of Axios: "13 of the 41 Republican lawmakers who stormed a closed-door hearing Wednesday ... sit on committees with the power to question witnesses and review documents." ~~~

~~~ Ed Kilgore of New York: "Here's the real howler, though: the idea that in demanding an end to the closed hearings Republicans are striking a blow for openness and transparency.... The president these birds are defending has stonewalled every single congressional inquiry into his conduct.... If you actually want 'open government,' [as the fake protesters claim,] you might want to start by asking the obsessive leak-freak and stonewaller in the White House to set a better example."

The Ukraine Cover-up Is a Spectacular Failure. Wednesday's Entries:

     ** (1) Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has sought repeatedly to cut foreign aid programs tasked with combating corruption in Ukraine and elsewhere overseas, White House budget documents show, despite recent claims from President Trump and his administration that they have been singularly concerned with fighting corruption in Ukraine. Those claims have come as the president and his administration sought to explain away a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump pressured his counterpart to open investigations into Joe Biden and his son Hunter, and into a debunke conspiracy theory involving a hacked Democratic National Committee computer server. 'I don't care about politics, but I do care about corruption. And this whole thing is about corruption,' Trump told reporters earlier this month when discussing the Ukraine issue. 'This whole thing -- this whole thing is about corruption.'" The Raw Story has a summary of the WashPo report here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     (2) Andrew Kramer & Ken Vogel of the New York Times: "Following testimony by William B. Taylor Jr. ... to House impeachment investigators on Tuesday that the freezing of [military] aid [to Ukraine] was directly linked to Mr. Trump's demand for the investigations, the president took to Twitter on Wednesday morning to approvingly quote a Republican member of Congress saying neither Mr. Taylor nor any other witness had 'provided testimony that the Ukrainians were aware that military aid was being withheld.'... [Trump's argument is that there] could not have been any quid pro quo because the Ukrainians did not know the assistance had been blocked.... But in fact, word of the aid freeze had gotten to high-level Ukrainian officials by the first week in August, according to interviews and documents obtained by The New York Times.... They were advised they should reach out to Mick Mulvaney..., according to the interviews and records.... The Ukrainian government was aware of the freeze during most of the period ... when .. Rudolph W. Giuliani and two American diplomats were pressing President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to make a public commitment to the investigations being sought by Mr. Trump.... Mr. Taylor told the impeachment investigators that it was only on the sidelines of a Sept. 1 meeting in Warsaw between Mr. Zelensky and Vice President Mike Pence that the Ukrainians were directly told the aid would be dependent on Mr. Zelensky giving Mr. Trump ... an investigation into Burisma, the company that had employed Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s son." But they knew what was expected of them weeks earlier. This timeline not only contradicts Trump's claims, it corroborates the whistleblower's timeline. A Raw Story summary report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ** (3) Desmond Butler & Michael Biesecker of the AP: "More than two months before the phone call that launched the impeachment inquiry into ... Donald Trump, Ukraine's newly elected leader was already worried about pressure from the U.S. president to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden. Volodymyr Zelenskiy gathered a small group of advisers on May 7 in Kyiv for a meeting that was supposed to be about his nation's energy needs. Instead, the group spent most of the three-hour discussion talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for a probe and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting. The meeting came before Zelenskiy was inaugurated but about two weeks after Trump called to offer his congratulations on the night of the Ukrainian leader's April 21 election. The full details of what the two leaders discussed in that Easter Sunday phone call have never been publicly disclosed, and it is not clear whether Trump explicitly asked for an investigation of the Bidens.... The White House has offered only a bare-bones public readout on the April call, saying Trump urged Zelenskiy and the Ukrainian people to implement reforms, increase prosperity and 'root out corruption.' In the intervening months, Trump and his proxies have frequently used the word 'corruption' to reference the monthslong efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate Democrats." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Zelensky found out somehow that Trump wanted him to investigate Biden way back in May. We surely need to find out what-all Trump said in his April 21 "congratulatory" call to Zelensky. ~~~

~~~ "GOP Weariness Grows as Trump Defenses Give Way." Rick Klein & Maryalice Parks of ABC News: "The deeper things get and the more likely impeachment is, the more ... Donald Trump needs his Republican Party to stay loyal.... But ... he may be losing ... the ability to convince GOP leaders that loyalty is worth its increasingly evident risks.... Trump is responding with complaints about the process that are awkward for Republicans to defend -- his 'lynching' Tweet is Exhibit A -- and thinly veiled political threats at GOP leaders who dare defy him." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Yay! Matt Whitaker Is Back. And He's Just as Smart as Ever. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Following Tuesday's devastating House testimony by acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor..., former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker defended the president by claiming 'abuse of power is not a crime.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "As the factual defense of Trump's behavior in the Ukraine scandal has disintegrated, Trump has slowly fallen back to the case he truly believes in his heart. Sessions was too naïve, and Barr too sophisticated, to present Trump's worldview in such bald terms. It fell to Whitaker to articulate the ethos of the 45th president -- that he is entitled to abuse power as he sees fit." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Arciga of the Daily Beast: "President Trump on Wednesday blasted Republicans who won't pledge fealty to him in the impeachment fight, claiming such people are 'human scum.' 'The Never Trumper Republicans, though on respirators with not many left, are in certain ways worse and more dangerous for our Country than the Do Nothing Democrats,' Trump wrote in a tweet, which he subsequently pinned to his profile. 'Watch out for them, they are human scum!' The president called Bill Taylor, his own acting ambassador to Ukraine, a 'Never Trumper' along with Taylor's lawyer." According to the WashPo report by Toluse Olorunnipa & others, linked above, Trump "later apparently deleted the tweet." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's worth noting that besides implying that Ambassador Taylor was "human scum," Trump also took a swipe at his awkwardly loyal Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. From the Olorunnipa report: "On Wednesday..., Trump turned his fire on [Ambassador] Taylor.... He also acknowledged, however, that his own administration had chosen Taylor for the Ukraine posting. 'It would be really great if the people within the Trump Administration, all well-meaning and good (I hope!), could stop hiring Never Trumpers who are worse than the Do Nothing Democrats,' Trump wrote on Twitter. 'Nothing good will ever come from them!' Few Republicans have echoed Trump's personal attacks on Taylor, a Vietnam veteran who served in the government under Republican and Democratic presidents and was originally appointed ambassador to Ukraine by President George W. Bush. Taylor said in his testimony that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one of Trump's closest advisers, had personally asked him to take the acting position this year."

Spencer Ackerman & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Whatever hope Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had of staying in the background of the House Democratic impeachment inquiry evaporated under the heat of Amb. William Taylor's damning deposition. House Democrats are now redoubling their efforts at pulling Pompeo deeper into an impeachment inquiry the secretary has met with defiance. Taylor ... told legislators on Tuesday that Pompeo loomed large in what Taylor described as an 'irregular' effort to make assistance to Ukraine contingent on the young Volodomyr Zelensky government's willingness to investigate Trump's domestic political rivals." ~~~

     ~~~ Eric Tucker of the AP: "A judge on Wednesday ordered the State Department to begin producing within 30 days documents related to the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine, saying the records were of obvious public interest. The documents were sought under a Freedom of Information Act request by American Oversight, an ethics watchdog that investigates the administration. Any release of government documents could shed new light on ... Donald Trump' efforts to prod his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democratic rival Joe Biden, the matter at the heart of the Democrat-led House impeachment inquiry.... Among the records the group asked for are documents related to interactions between [Rudy] Giuliani and Ukraine, as well as documents about the recall of Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.... Meanwhile, three committees leading the impeachment investigation are asking the State Department for documents they say are central to the probe's 'core area of investigation' after the department defied a subpoena to provide them." Mrs. McC: The article doesn't indicate whether or not the State Department will appeal the ruling.

If you read every word of all the stories I linked yesterday on Bill Taylor's testimony, you would have figured this out, but in case you had other things to do ~~~

     ~~~ Robert Mackey of the Intercept zeroes in on Trump's script for the Zelensky Show: "Before agreeing to release nearly $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine..., Donald Trump extorted a promise from ... Volodymyr Zelensky, to appear on American television and act out a script prepared for him by Trump's aides, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, told the House impeachment inquiry on Tuesday. The scene a desperate Zelensky finally agreed to perform would have been the very definition of fake news: a dramatic announcement by the Ukrainian president, during a CNN interview, that he was opening criminal investigations on Joe Biden's family and other Democrats. The plot, which would have duped American voters into believing that there was some substance to a debunked conspiracy theory about Biden's work in Ukraine as vice president, came very close to working. According to Taylor..., Zelensky and his aides had resisted pressure from Trump to help him smear Biden.... But once the Ukrainians became aware that the much-needed security assistance Trump had personally held up might never be delivered, Zelensky, who was an actor and comedian before entering politics this year, agreed to play his part in a ruse intended to lend credibility to baseless conspiracy theories about Biden and other Democrats."

The Old "I Do Not Recall" Dodge. Aaron Davis of the Washington Post: "Sworn testimony provided by [Gordon] Sondland... and [William] Taylor ... now diverges on key points. Most critically, Taylor's testimony challenges Sondland's claim that he did not know of an alleged quid pro quo involving nearly $400 million in security aid for Ukraine.... Responding to questions by email, Sondland's attorney Robert Luskin wrote to The Washington Post on Wednesday that his client 'does not recall' ... a [September 1] conversation [in which] ... Sondland warned [President] Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak that the security assistance 'would not come' unless Zelensky committed to pursuing the investigation into Burisma, [a conversation to which Taylor testified].... Some members of the House Intelligence Committee have begun calling for Sondland to return for additional questioning to reconcile the two diplomats' accounts. Rep. Will Hurd (R-Tex.) said Taylor's testimony raises 'a lot of questions.' In an interview on CNN, he said 'for sure ... [Sondland] needs to come back and answer some of these questions.'" The Politico story is here.

Another Ukraine Sideshow? Julian Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: Colleagues of Kashyap Patel, a Devin Nunes protégé whom Trump placed on the National Security Council in February 2019, fear Patel had created a backchannel to Trump on Ukraine matters. "Colleagues grew alarmed after hearing that Mr. Trump had referred to Mr. Patel as one of his top Ukraine policy specialists.... House impeachment investigators are scrutinizing Mr. Patel's actions as well.... Fiona Hill, the National Security Council's former senior director for Eurasian and Russian affairs, testified to House investigators last week that she believed Mr. Patel was improperly becoming involved in Ukraine policy and was sending information to Mr. Trump, some of the people said. Ms. Hill grew alarmed earlier this year when an aide from the White House executive secretary's office told her that Mr. Trump wanted to talk to Mr. Patel and identified him as the National Security Council's 'Ukraine director,' a position held by one of Ms. Hill's deputies. The aide said Mr. Trump wanted to meet with Mr. Patel about documents he had received on Ukraine." ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand has the Politico story: Kashyap Patel, "a protégé of Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, was among those passing negative information about Ukraine to ... Donald Trump earlier this year, fueling the president's belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats.... [Patel's] 'unique access' to the West Wing, and the ease with which he has been able to interact directly with the president without NSC leadership's involvement, has also struck some as unusual, [a] former official said.... Patel's involvement demonstrates that the president had at least some support for the [Ukraine] scheme from within the NSC, and has given House impeachment investigators yet another name to add to their witness list -- a name they are already familiar with, given Patel's previous work in Congress to discredit the Russia investigation."

Lev & Igor Plead Not Guilty, Tie Their Fate to Trump. Nicole Hong & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "One of the two indicted associates of President Trump's personal lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, on Wednesday tied the case to the president himself, saying that some of the evidence gathered in the campaign-finance investigation could be subject to executive privilege. The unusual argument was raised by a defense lawyer in federal court in Manhattan as the two associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, pleaded not guilty to federal charges that they had made illegal campaign contributions to political candidates in the United States in exchange for potential influence." ~~~

~~~ Lawyer for Donald & Lev Claims Executive Privilege. Pervaiz Shallwani & Pilar Melendez of the Daily Beast: "During the hearing, Parnas' attorney, Edward MacMahon, told the judge that his client was told to invoke executive privilege in a letter that was submitted on Parnas' behalf by John Dowd, a former lawyer for the president, to a congressional committee conducting the impeachment inquiry. Asked by Judge Paul Oetken if Parnas has worked for the president, MacMahon said no, but that 'he worked for Mr. Giuliani.' MacMahon said that his concern stems from Parnas having used Giuliani as his lawyer for both personal and business dealings and that Giuliani also works for Trump." ~~~

~~~ As digby puts it, "These mobsters are being protected as part of Trump's legal team."

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you have a subscription to the Washington Post, it's worth at least skimming Philip Bump's (Oct. 21) attempt to work out the relationships among Rudy Giuliani and a whole buncha Trumpworld characters, most of them fairly shady.


Michael Crowley & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Wednesday that the United States has brokered a permanent cease-fire in northeast Syria, taking credit for a tentative deal that will be enforced by Turkey and Russia, and lifting sanctions he had imposed after Turkey invaded Kurdish-run areas south of its border. The president cast the announcement as a triumph of diplomacy. But even many leading Republicans have decried the American retreat from Syria -- which allowed the Turkish invasion into northeast Syria earlier this month -- as a foreign policy debacle. 'Let someone else fight over this long bloodstained sand,' Mr. Trump said from the Diplomatic Room at the White House, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the White House national security adviser, Robert O'Brien.... Mr. Trump seemed to reject the idea of Russian influence. 'This was an outcome created by us, the United States, and nobody else,' he said. 'No other nation. Very simple.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: Trump "took credit for the cease-fire and suggested the agreement would save tens of thousands of Kurdish lives in the region -- even though one day earlier, Russia and Turkey agreed to a plan to push Syrian Kurdish fighters from a wide swath of territory just south of Turkey's border, cementing Russian President Vladimir Putin's preeminent role in Syria as American troops depart and U.S. influence wanes.... Trump also said he had spoken by phone with Kurdish general Mazloum Abdi, who he said assured him that Islamic State fighters will remain in captivity.... Even as Trump declared success in Syria, U.S. policy appeared to be in disarray. Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper was in the Iraqi capital to discuss the redeployment of hundreds of U.S. troops after Iraq' military announced its opposition to allowing American forces to stay i the country." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Deirdre Shesgreen & David Jackson of USA Today: "Lawmakers in both parties pilloried Trump's decision to lift sanctions. 'It's unthinkable that Turkey would not suffer consequences for malevolent behavior which was contrary to the interests of the United States and our friends,' Sen. Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted after Trump's announcement. Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, [tweeted,] 'Erdogan has NOT agreed to stop all military operations in #Syria.'... The senator said Russia will 'remove Kurdish forces from east & west of current Turk controlled areas, including Kurdish cities' and take control of five oil fields in Syria. While critics ridiculed Trump's claim of a victory, the president said a U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Turkey and the Kurds had held 'beyond most expectations.'... In Syria, the situation on the ground remains in flux. Russia has moved to fill a power vacuum created by the U.S. departure, the Kurds fear an ethnic cleansing by Turkish forces, and an estimated 100 Islamic State fighters have escaped from Kurdish detention facilities. Turkey's assault, even while suspended, has spawned a humanitarian crisis in Syria. The United Nations estimated Tuesday that about 180,000 Syrians have been forced to leave their homes or shelters, including 80,000 children, all in desperate need of humanitarian assistance." ~~~

~~~ Views from the Alternate World of Trump. Grace Segers of CBS News: "Mr. Trump also said those who had criticized his decision to pull troops from northern Syria were now praising him. 'Today's announcement validates our course of action with Turkey that only a couple of weeks ago was scorned and now people are saying, "wow, what a great outcome, congratulations,'" Mr. Trump said. He also praised Erdogan, who has been criticized for his autocratic tendencies and said that he and Erdogan may be meeting soon.... Mr. Trump said Wednesday the Kurdish leader had informed him that prisons holding ISIS fighters were secured. However, the top envoy to Syria, James Jeffrey, testified before Congress on Wednesday that over 100 prisoners have escaped and the U.S. does not know where they are."

The Geography of the Alternate World of Trump. Savannah Behrmann of USA Today: "... Donald Trump said Wednesday that a wall is being built in Colorado. 'And we're building a wall on the border of New Mexico. And we're building a wall in Colorado. We're building a beautiful wall. A big one that really works -- that you can't get over, you can't get under," Trump said during a speech ... in Pittsburgh." ~~~

Erin Durkin & Darren Samuelsohn of Politico: "Even if ... Donald Trump shot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue, New York authorities could not punish him while he is in office, the president's lawyers argued Wednesday. Attorneys for Trump made the claim while arguing before a federal appeals court in their suit against Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who has subpoenaed Trump's tax returns.... The case is expected to ultimately make its way to the Supreme Court.... Carey Dunne, general counsel for the District Attorney, said the privilege the president's lawyers are claiming is not founded in the law. 'There's no such thing as presidential immunity for tax returns,' he said. 'He may view them as embarrassing or sensitive but tax returns do in fact get subpoenaed all the time in financial investigations,' he said. 'They're making this up, your honor.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rachel Maddow said that an important element of this case was that the trial judge, Victor Marrero, ruled that not only were Trump's immunity arguments "repugnant," but that the infamous DOJ "guidance memos" that determined a sitting president cannot be indicted are incorrect. So, IMO, the whole Mueller investigation was a big honking sham. The Mueller team should have ignored the DOJ "guidance" & indicted Trump, at least in the Michael Cohen payoffs matter (where Trump showed up as an unindicted co-conspirator). If Mueller was unsure about following the DOJ guidance, he should have gone to court & argued that the guidance was flawed & should have no effect. Instead, he chose to follow the guidance in order to protect Trump. Please don't tell me about Mueller's integrity and years of public service, blah blah. He's one of those guys who sit on various "select commission" & love to catch the minnows, but don't even bring bait for the sharks & whales.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The National Archives and Records Administration has launched an investigation into Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross' use of private email for official business, according to a letter made public this week. The inquiry was triggered by an unflattering profile of Ross last month in the Washington Post, which cited government-related emails the watchdog group Democracy Forward received from Ross' private account. The group obtained the messages through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit." Mrs. McC: Gee, I wonder if this means Trump will start calling Ross "Crooked Wilbur." Okay, no.

Former Presidents to Eulogize the Son of a Sharecropper. Rich McKay of Reuters: "Former U.S. presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, along with former presidential candidate and Senator Hillary Clinton, are among a who's-who list of the Democratic Party slated to speak on Friday at the late Congressman Elijah Cummings' funeral.... Also slated to speak is former National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Kweisi Mfume, whose Maryland seat Cummings took over when Mfume became the leader of the civil rights group. The seat, Maryland's 7th congressional district, was held by Cummings for more than two decades.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Cumming's widow [Maya Rockeymoore-Cummings], brother and daughters will also speak."

Presidential Race 2020. Ursula Perano of Axios lists the nine Democrats who have qualified for the November presidential debate. "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, NBC's Andrea Mitchell, the Washington Post's Ashley Parker, and NBC's Kristen Welker ... will be moderating the debate.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Spain. "Generalissimo Francisco Franco Is Still Dead!"* Laura Maestro & Aimie Lewis of CNN: "The remains of Spain's former dictator General Francisco Franco have been exhumed in a controversial move that has divided opinion in Spain for decades. The Spanish government announced this week that it was to move Franco's remains from the grand mausoleum where he was buried in 1975 to the nearby Mingorrubio state cemetery in El Pardo, 12 miles north of Madrid, where his wife is buried. Despite the government's refusal to authorize two demonstrations, about 200 Franco supporters were protesting at a police blockade near the Mingorrubio cemetery. People of all ages held Spanish flags and signs that read 'Franco, thank you!' and 'National Unity.' Franco's exhumation follows a year-long legal battle between the caretaker Socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and relatives of Franco."

     * Here's the explanation for the headline. Mrs. McC: Maybe I should apologize for making jokes at this painful moment for the Franco family. Nah.

News Lede

Guardian: "The 39 people found dead in a lorry trailer in Essex were Chinese nationals, police have confirmed. The victims, discovered in a refrigerated trailer in Grays on Wednesday, were eight women and 31 men, Essex police added. The reports came as Belgian authorities released details about the trailer's journey and UK police pressed ahead with a murder investigation."

Comments Off

Reader Comments (13)

Let me see if I've been following along correctly here...
The president* of the United States is currently protecting Ukranian/American money launderers through bogus executive power claims (blessed by the highest law enforcement officer in the country, AG Bill Barr's, Unitary Executive Monarch Theory, which is now being claimed in court to protect a president from homicide and tax dodges) through his personal attorney Giuliani who assisting in conspiring to allegedly use the money of a foreign Ukrainian oligarch awaiting extradition to the US trying to escape justice by bribing Drumpf and other Republicans through illegal, laundered campaign donations.

We're in deep.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered Commentersafari

safari: It appears, sir, you got that right, and deep are those waters where "human scums" rise to the top giving off the stench that we can smell from miles away.

And Marie: Shocked I am of your assessment of that fine gentleman of long standing who took two years to give us dirt but no payment on a president who sailed on by by the hair of his chinny chin chin. A whole bucket of minnows for the aforementioned human scum.

And speaking of such: Lawrence showed us last night a mug shot of Matt Gaetz in his salad days after being picked up for drunk driving, but because his Daddy was rich and a senator he was let go without a ticket or any kind of punitive measure. No wonder, Lawrence says, this punk thinks he can get away with anything. Well, looks like he did yesterday when he organized the sophomoric stunt of busting into that hearing. And I, too, am asking: Where were the guards?

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

I hate to break it to the Narcissist in Chief, but that "human scum" out there, "Never Trumpers" as he calls them, most of those people don't have anything personally against trump.

I don't know Ambassador Taylor, but from what I have read, he was willing and able to work for anyone who was advancing the interests of the nation. All trump had to do was follow the rules and try to make the world a better place, and Ambassador Taylor and all the rest would be working alongside him. But no, trump went full selfish bully on Ukraine, so the people who didn't cross their fingers during their oath of office are pushing back in every way they can.

I want to see every last one of the real scum marched out of office and into jail: trump, pence, pompeo, barr, perry, and sondland for starters.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterNiskyGuy

@NiskyGuy, can't leave off Giuliani.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

Even though he's not in an "official" office.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered Commenterunwashed

The current chaos in Washington is exactly what most of us expected when a fat, unruly, unruled, and undisciplined schemer and liar began hurling his insults, racial taunts, and promises of renewed greatness. Greatness can never be understood, much less achieved, by one so inimical to it's requirements and demands on one's intellectual gifts and moral sturdiness.

What is playing out now on the international stage is a reprise of an old movie starring that liar and cheat, Donald J. Trump, who years ago, found himself in the position of having to go hat in hand to shady banking types after burning bridges with respectable financial institutions because of his own scurrilous, sleazy, and unprincipled behavior, refusing to repay loans, spitting out law suits like peanut shells, and trying in every way to shirk his financial and ethical responsibilities.

Such irresponsible, untrustworthy behavior garners one a reputation as a bad actor not to be trusted and to be avoided at all costs. And this is exactly what's happening in the worlds diplomatic circles at this very hour.

Allies and foes alike have their radar up and are reassessing their relationship with the United States. One group has no choice if they are to protect their own interests from the cynical, ignorant, feckless Trump. The other, swooping in to take advantage of an enormous hole in the armor of what used to be a nation demanding respect and commanding fear when necessary. Now all we command are laughs.

And as goes the president* so goes his gormless party, afflicted with the gutless misprision of its administration's officials and led by bumbling, lawless sycophants in congress.

That a useful idiot like Trump could, in a few short years, destroy the reputation and smear the credibility of the nation is another alarum concerning the absolute civic necessity of voting. There is a lot of blame to go around here, but those who stay home on election day deserve a huge dollop.

In the meantime, anyone who believes Trump will somehow, at some point, become a real president, hasn't been paying attention and has forgotten that warning about the fate of those who are ignorant of the past.

Trump will not change. R's used to scream that it's all about character. It still is, but clearly they didn't really believe it when they used it as a handy cudgel to attack a Democrat because right now, the supremely low character of Donald Trump has brought us all down.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

When your subscription to National Geographic lapses...

So....a wall. On the Colorado border. Great idea, donnie! Now let's see, is this because he thinks New Mexico is part of Mexico (same name, sort of, I mean, who wouldn't think that?) or maybe it's something different. Maybe it's the word "new".

Yeah, that must be it. Because what idiot would think New Mexico is part of Mexico? Now really.

In that case, can we expect a wall around New Hampshire? Watch out, Marie! You might need a passport to get into Vermont. New Jersey, New York...and then there are the cities. A wall around New Orleans? Gotta keep them blah people from getting out into the countryside pestering the nice, decent white folks, right? For that matter, all of New England might be walled in. And because he's a right wicked smart internationalist (as Dubya once termed it), he might want to wall in New Caledonia, New Delhi, New Guinea, New Brunswick (Oh, no, we'll never get back to Magnetic Hill!).

Then again, maybe it's none of the above. Maybe it's just a dumb ass saying dumb ass stuff. Again. Occam is usually right.

But just in case, who'll chip in a buck or two to help restore the Orange Menace's subscription to National Geographic?

On second thought, he might, as he's looking at the pictures, decide that there are too many non-white people in the world and start thinking about nuking their shithole countries.

Never mind.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: After Trump made it clear during the transition that he intended to be a horrible president*, I thought he would be even worse than he is, because I thought he and his gang would be more competent than they are. Unaware as I was of his limitations, I figured he'd clean up his act and try to appear "presidential," that he would run the government effectively and that he'd wreck everything. I was right only in the last instance.

October 24, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

@Akhilleus: My parents lived in New Mexico for a couple of decades, and I recall reading stories about New Mexicans visiting other U.S. states & having officials there ask them for their passports. It's still happening. Here's the lede from an NPR story a year ago: "A New Mexico man applying for a marriage license in Washington, D.C., this month had his state driver's license rejected as a form of identification because a clerk and her supervisor believed New Mexico was a foreign country.... The clerk told him he would need an international passport on the apparent belief that he wasn't a U.S. citizen."

So why are we all picking on Trump for being as confused as the D.C. clerk? It's a common mistake -- one a president* who is never wrong can fix with a Sharpie.

October 24, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

The D.C. clerk's ignorance was particularly egregious because cops and gatekeepers of all kinds around the U.S. have looked at licenses of residents of the District of COLUMBIA thinking it's, like, a place where they grow coke and stuff, and ask to see their pasaportas.

Is everybody getting stupider, asymptotically approaching Kelvin dumb? Or does it just seem that way?

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterPatrick

Patrick,

I fully agree that the asymptote of assholism is a presuptive marker of wingnutty calculus.

I would hesitate, however to rope Lord Kelvin or his measurements into the stunted, weird ass trumpy Universe.

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Sorry, presumptive...

October 24, 2019 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

@Akhilleus: "Presuptive" refers to the hour before high tea.

October 24, 2019 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns
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