;)
October 4, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Marie: It's Tuesday afternoon as I type this, and Trump hasn't filed a new lawsuit since way back on Monday. So ~~~
~~~ Not a New Case, But a New Venue. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to intervene in the litigation over documents marked as classified that the F.B.I. removed from his Florida estate, saying that an appeals court had lacked jurisdiction to rule on the matter. Although the Supreme Court is dominated by six conservative justices, three of them appointed by Mr. Trump, it has rejected earlier efforts to block the disclosure of information about him, and legal experts said Mr. Trump's new emergency application faced significant challenges. The new filing was largely technical, saying that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, had not been authorized to stay aspects of a trial judge's order appointing a special master in the case." ~~~
~~~ Oh, and There's This. Devlin Barrett & Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The petition was filed with Justice Clarence Thomas, who oversees emergency requests from the 11th Circuit. Thomas instructed the Justice Department to file a response to the court by Oct. 11." MB: I don't see a problem. Do u?
Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "During his four years in office, [Donald] Trump never strictly followed the rules and customs for handling sensitive government documents, according to 14 officials from his administration.... He took transcripts of his calls with foreign leaders as well as photos and charts used in his intelligence briefings to his private residence with no explanation. He demanded that letters he exchanged with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un be kept close at hand so he could show them off to visitors. Documents that would ordinarily be kept under lock and key mingled with piles of newspaper articles in Trump's living quarters and in a dining room that he used as an informal office.... Several former aides said Trump spent his time in office flouting classification rules and intimidating staffers who might try to take secret intelligence material away from him." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Those 14 former aides are all liars, Maggie Haberman is a creep, and if you don't acknowledge that only Donald Trump is the source of all truth and knowledge, human and divine, Democrats will come & eat you and your children alive.
Kate Conger & Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "Elon Musk, in a surprise move..., proposed a deal with Twitter on Monday evening that could bring to an end an acrimonious legal fight between the billionaire and the social media company. The arrangement would allow Mr. Musk to acquire Twitter at $54.20 per share, the price he agreed to pay for the company in April, two people familiar with the proposal who were not authorized to speak publicly said. But it was not immediately clear whether Twitter planned to accept his offer, which could be seen as a negotiating tactic by Mr. Musk to halt Twitter's litigation against him."
Georgia. Hypocrites on Parade. Shane Goldmacher, et al., of the New York Times: "National Republicans quickly began to close ranks on Tuesday behind Herschel Walker, the party's embattled nominee for Senate in Georgia, a day after a report that Mr. Walker, an outspoken supporter of an abortion ban with no exceptions, had paid for a girlfriend's abortion in 2009.... Mr. Walker appeared on Fox News on Monday hours after the allegations broke, denying the Daily Beast report and explaining away the $700 payment by saying, 'I send money to a lot of people.'... The statements of support from fellow Republicans came quickly on Tuesday.... Mr. Walker, who has spoken extensively about his religious faith, is counting on the support of evangelical Christians in Georgia. [Christianist leader Ralph] Reed argued that the latest report could lift turnout among social conservatives, saying voters would rally to defend Mr. Walker." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. How is it that Walker is such a paragon of Christian virtue, whereas Sen. Warnock, who has a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary & for decades has been pastor of prominent churches, is not?
~~~~~~~~~~~
Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden traveled to Puerto Rico on Monday, promising $60 million in hurricane relief funds and 'every bit of help' from the federal government to help the storm-battered territory rebuild faster than in the past. Mr. Biden and Jill Biden, the first lady, visited Ponce, a city on Puerto Rico's southern coast that was hit by Hurricane Fiona two weeks earlier -- five years after Hurricane Maria, a strong Category 4 storm, decimated the island.... Ahead of Mr. Biden's arrival in Puerto Rico, the White House announced that the territory would receive $60 million to help coastal areas prepare for future storms, and pointed out that the administration had removed many of the restrictions on federal aid that ... Donald J. Trump put into place during his presidency."
Bada Bing. Jeremy Herb of CNN: "... Donald Trump falsely claimed he had given the letters he exchanged with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to the National Archives last year when he was interviewed by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman for her forthcoming book, according to audio of the interview obtained by CNN.... Haberman told The New York Times, which first reported the audio clips, that she asked Trump in a September 2021 interview 'on a lark' whether he had taken any memento documents from the White House. Trump told Haberman, 'Nothing of great urgency, no,' before bringing up the Kim letters unprompted. 'I have great things though, you know. The letters, the Kim Jong Un letters. I had many of them,' Trump said. 'You were able to take those with you?' Haberman asked. 'No, I think that has the ... I think that's in the archives, but most of it is in the Archives. But the Kim Jong Un letters, we have incredible things. I have incredible letters with other leaders.'... CNN and other outlets have previously reported that Trump, in fact, had kept the Kim letters among the tens of thousands of government documents that he took to his Mar-a-Lago resort after leaving the White House." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Kind of fun to see how Trump uses word salad to lie his way out of an accidental moment of candor. And how Haberman, a Trump pro, catches him. First, she asks an "innocent" question. He answers with a boast, saying he has (present tense) many great things. Then he mentions, without using a connective word, the Kim letters. Then he says he had (evidently the exact same subject, but now, inexplicably, he describes his possession of them in the past tense) many of them (so not all??). As we now know, "I have" is true, but Trump suddenly realizes in the conversation with Haberman that it's illegal for him to "have" them. So "have" becomes "had" in the very same thought fart. Haberman tries to verify that Trump kept the letters, but by then he's ready to embellish his lie with more obfuscation, telling her he thinks the Kim letters are in the Archives. Then he utters one of those nonsense sentences for which he is famous: "But the Kim Jong Un letters, we have incredible things." Those letters are "great," they're "incredible." Superlatives required. Finally, he changes the subject to "incredible" exchanges with other leaders. ~~~
~~~ AND, as Akhilleus pointed out at the end of yesterday's Comments thread, this story begins as most stories about Trump do: "Donald Trump falsely claimed...." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE, Trump is out there calling Haberman a lying creep. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ AND David Leonhardt of the New York Times goes a bit meta when he interviews Haberman about interviewing Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)
Bada Boom. Josh Dawsey & Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump asked one of his lawyers [-- Alex Cannon --] to tell the National Archives and Records Administration in early 2022 that Trump had returned all materials requested by the agency, but the lawyer declined because he was not sure the statement was true, according to people familiar with the matter. As it turned out, thousands more government documents -- including some highly classified secrets -- remained at Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence....
"Cannon ... had facilitated the January transfer of 15 boxes of presidential records from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives.... Trump himself eventually packed the boxes that were returned in January, people familiar with the matter said. The former president seemed determined in February to declare that all material sought by the archives had been handed over.... Trump asked his team to release a statement he had dictated. The statement said Trump had returned 'everything' the archives had requested. Trump asked Cannon to send a similar message to archives officials, the people said. In addition, the former president told his aides that the documents in the boxes were 'newspaper clippings' and not relevant to the archives.... But Cannon, a former Trump Organization lawyer who worked for the campaign and for Trump after the presidency, told Trump he could not tell the archives all the requested material had been returned.... Other Trump advisers also encouraged Cannon not to make such a definitive statement.... The Feb. 7 statement Trump dictated was never released over concerns by some of his team that it was not accurate...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: As you may notice, "not accurate" has become another euphemism for "honking big lie." To be perfectly clear, say I ask you how many jelly beans there are in a bottle containing 3,100 jellybeans, and you guess there are 2,500 jellybeans. Your guess was not accurate. Then I tell you that I've given away the whole bottle of jellybeans, but you pop over & discover the full bottle sitting on my kitchen counter, that would be a honking big lie. Oh, and did I mention that this is another blatant example of Trump throwing a young employee under the bus. Cannon (any relation to Aileen???) could be disbarred or prosecuted for making misrepresentations to federal officials.
What Trump Needs is Another Lawsuit. Michael Grynbaum of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump sued CNN on Monday, claiming that the network defamed him and demanding $475 million in damages. Over the course of his business and political career, Mr. Trump has frequently threatened to sue media organizations over news coverage that he deems unfair or disrespectful. Although he rarely followed through, his attacks on the media became a staple of his political messaging and have often been cited in fund-raising entreaties in the run-up to this year's midterm elections.... In Monday's suit, Mr. Trump's lawyers justified their demand for $475 million in damages in part by alleging that CNN's coverage has caused the former president to suffer 'embarrassment, pain, humiliation and mental anguish.'" The Guardian's story is here. MB: He is a very sensitive fellow.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Setting out their opening argument in the trial of [Oath Keepers leader Stewart] Rhodes and four other members of the Oath Keepers on charges of seditious conspiracy, federal prosecutors said on Monday that [beginning as early as two days after the November 2020 election, Oath Keepers made] a broad effort to stop the transfer of presidential power and to use the might of the far-right militia to keep ... Donald J. Trump in office.... Mr. Rhodes riled up and recruited dozens of Oath Keepers to join his plot, prosecutors said, eventually deploying them in Washington and across the river in Virginia to disrupt the certification on Jan. 6, 2021, of Mr. Biden's victory.... In his own opening statement, Phillip Linder, Mr. Rhodes's lawyer, said that Mr. Rhodes and his subordinates had never planned an illegal attack against the government.... Instead, Mr. Linder said, the Oath Keepers were waiting for Mr. Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act -- a move, they claim, would have given the group standing as a militia to employ force of arms in support of Mr. Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) The Washington Post's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Tierney Sneed, et al., of CNN outline takeaways from the first day of the trial. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This may prove to be an interesting trial to follow because it's likely to release some new facts about the insurrection (in the form of evidence) or ones we've only speculated about.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "In its first argument of the Supreme Court's new term and the first to feature its newest member, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the justices on Monday considered a dispute over the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to police some kinds of water pollution. In June, on the final day of its last term, the court limited the E.P.A.'s power to address climate change under the Clean Air Act. The new case concerned its authority under a different law, the Clean Water Act, which allows the regulation of discharges into what the law calls 'waters of the United States.' The question for the justices was how to determine which wetlands qualify as such waters." (Also linked yesterday.)
Lawrence Hurley of NBC News: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's bid to fend off a defamation lawsuit the voting machine company Dominion Voting Systems filed over his far-fetched claims about the 2020 presidential election. The justices' decision not to hear the case means a federal judge's ruling in August 2021 that allowed the lawsuit to move forward remains in place." (Also linked yesterday.)
Kevin Draper of the New York Times: "... a highly anticipated investigative report into abuse in women's soccer ... found sexual misconduct, verbal abuse and emotional abuse by coaches in the game's top tier, the National Women's Soccer League, and issued warnings that girls face abuse in youth soccer as well. The report was published Monday, a year after players outraged by what they saw as a culture of abuse in their sport demanded changes by refusing to take the field. It found that leaders of the N.W.S.L. and the United States Soccer Federation -- the governing body of the sport in America -- as well as owners, executives and coaches at all levels failed to act on years of voluminous and persistent reports of abuse by coaches.... 'Our investigation has revealed a league in which abuse and misconduct -- verbal and emotional abuse and sexual misconduct -- had become systemic, spanning multiple teams, coaches and victims,' Sally Q. Yates, the lead investigator, wrote in the report's executive summary." ~~~
~~~ Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times outlines some takeaways from the report. MB: My big takeaway: the modern women's movement began in earnest six decades ago. Laws have changed, but male "culture" has not. American men still think and act on the belief that they can abuse women with impunity. And they're right, even on a systemic basis.
From Marie's Celebrity* News Page. Declan Harty & Sam Sutton of Politico: "Kim Kardashian will pay $1.26 million to settle federal charges that she promoted a cryptocurrency without disclosing she was paid to do so, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Monday. The SEC alleged that the celebrity billionaire and reality TV star used her Instagram account -- followed by 331 million people -- to tout EthereumMax's token, EMAX, without disclosing that she was being given $250,000 in exchange. EMAX is a token built on the popular Ethereum blockchain. Its value has fallen by more than 99 percent since peaking in May 2021." MB: BTW, herein we find an opportunity to appropriate use the word "deceptive." (See today's Comments). As in, "By failing to disclose that she received a fee for endorsing the product, Ms. Kardashian engaged in deceptive advertising." (Also linked yesterday.)
*Celebrity: someone who is famous for being famous. And not much else.
Beyond the Beltway
Alabama State GOP Chairman Used Fake ID to Vote. Kyle Whitmere of AL.com: In "Alabama, state law requires you to show a photo ID at the polls. For most folks, this means a driver's license, but other forms of government-issued ID are permitted -- a military ID, a passport or a college student ID, among others.... And if you don't have any of those, the Alabama Secretary of State's office will help you get a special voter ID. The office will even make house calls for the non-ambulatory. But the last few times Alabama Republican Party Chairman John Wahl voted, he presented poll workers with an ID they'd never seen before.... It bore a state seal, a barcode and Wahl's picture. The badge said Wahl was a media representative for State Auditor Jim Zeigler. But when I asked the Alabama Department of Finance, which administers employee IDs, that department said it had never issued him one, nor was Wahl on the list of employees, past and present, in Zeigler's office. As it turns out, Wahl made the ID, he says, with Zeigler’s permission. And now, the state's top election official, Secretary of State John Merrill, says that badge is not a valid voter ID." MB: The story gets weirder. Uh, something about Anabaptists & the "mark of the beast." Really. (Also linked yesterday.)
Florida, etc. This New York Times story, by Edgar Sandoval & others, examines how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis used Florida funds to round up asylum-seekers in San Antonio, Texas, and ship them to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, without telling the migrants their destination or that they were going to a place that had no jobs or facilities for them. The story also identifies (MB: for the first time, I think) who the mysterious recruiter "Perla" is.
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The New York Times has now identified ... Perla Huerta, describing her as a 'former combat medic and counterintelligence agent.' This opens the door to a host of new inquiries that could implicate DeSantis more deeply in the scheme's sordid aspects. Specifically, lawyers for migrants suing DeSantis tell me they are moving to name Perla Huerta as a defendant in the lawsuit. They say this could pave the way to deposing her for details about the DeSantis administration's potential involvement in deceiving the migrants.... As Brian Beutler argues, it's critical that the country understands the truly sordid and potentially criminal nature of DeSantis's scheme. This would illustrate how central the toxic combination of official corruption and racist agitprop has become to GOP politics these days.”
Georgia Senate Race. Maya King of the New York Times: "Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Georgia and an avowed abortion opponent, paid for his then-girlfriend to have an abortion in 2009, according to a report published Monday in The Daily Beast. Mr. Walker called the claim 'a flat-out lie.' The woman, who The Daily Beast said asked to remain anonymous out of privacy concerns, said that she and Mr. Walker had conceived the child while the two were dating, and mutually agreed not to go ahead with the pregnancy. She said Mr. Walker, who was not married at the time, reimbursed her for the cost of the procedure, the outlet reported. As evidence, the woman provided a copy of a $700 check from Mr. Walker, a receipt from the abortion clinic and a 'get well' card from Mr. Walker, The Daily Beast reported.... Mr. Walker has made his opposition to abortion a cornerstone of his campaign message, saying repeatedly that he supports bans on the procedure with no exceptions for rape or incest." An ABC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Herschel Walker's son Christian took to Twitter after the story broke that the former NFL player paid for the abortion of an ex.... 'I know my mom and I would really appreciate if my father Herschel Walker stopped lying and making a mockery of us,' Christian Walker said. 'You're not a "family man" when you left us to bang a bunch of women, threatened to kill us, and had us move over 6 times in 6 months running from your violence.' Walker is alleged to have threatened his ex-wife with a knife and a gun. 'Every family member of Herschel Walker asked him not to run for office, because we all knew (some of) his past. Every single one. He decided to give us the middle finger and air out all of his dirty laundry in public, while simultaneously lying about it. I'm done,' Walker's son continued."
Louisiana Congressional Race. A gutsy campaign ad by Katie Darling, the Democrat running a long-shot campaign against homo sapiens throwback & House Minority Whip Steve Scalise: ~~~
Minnesota Gubernatorial Race. Another GOP Candidate Lives in a Right-wing Conspiracy Bubble. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "The Republican candidate for governor of Minnesota repeated last week a bizarre hoax claim which has been debunked that children are being told they can identify as anthropomorphic cats and are being allowed to use litter boxes to urinate in schools. Scott Jensen, the Republican candidate and a former state lawmaker, made the comments while speaking to supporters, according to a video of the event posted on Facebook. 'But what about education?' Jensen said. 'What are we doing to our kids? Why are we telling elementary kids that they get to choose their gender this week? Why do we have litter boxes in some of the school districts so kids can pee in them, because they identify as a furry? We've lost our minds. We've lost our minds.'" MB: Actually, Scotty boy, we haven't lost our minds. You've lost yours.
Mississippi. Favre Gets a Great Effing Criminal Defense Attorney. Mike Allen of Axios: "Eric Herschmann, a top White House lawyer to President Trump, confirms to Axios he is now lead counsel to NFL legend Brett Favre, who is embroiled in a welfare-funds scandal in his home state of Mississippi.... [Favre] is at the center of Mississippi's biggest-ever public corruption case.... Herschmann ... represented Trump at his first impeachment trial.... Herschmann gave videotaped testimony to the House Jan. 6 committee."
Pennsylvania. Colby Itkowitz & Lenny Bernsthttps://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/04/arts/music/loretta-lynn-dead.html... as a Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Pennsylvania..., [Mehmet] Oz, a cardiothoracic surgeon, is putting his medical background and his popular TV show at the center of his campaign pitch. At a recent town hall in a Philadelphia suburb, he said his approaches to medicine and politics are similar: 'If you teach people on television or whatever forum you use, they actually begin to use the information and they begin to change what they do in their lives. I want to do the same thing as your senator. Empower you.' But during the show's run from 2009 to 2021, Oz provided a platform for potentially dangerous products and fringe viewpoints, aimed at millions of viewers, according to medical experts, public health organizations and federal health guidance. Among the treatments that Oz promoted were HCG, garcinia cambogia -- an herbal weight-loss product the FDA has said can cause liver damage -- and selenium -- a trace mineral needed for normal body functioning -- for cancer prevention."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Marie: Some of today's stories are reminders of the importance of journalists in advancing stories that help bolster our democracy, whether the stories are identifying possible witnesses in cases against cruel, corrupt politicians (NYT -- Florida), catching politicians' lies and hypocrisy (Daily Beast -- Georgia), finding evidence of cruel, corrupt conspiracies among politicians & influential muckitymucks (Mississippi Free Press), or exposing a quack doctor-politician (WashPo -- Pa.).
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "Days after retaking the Donetsk transportation hub of Lyman, Ukrainian forces extended their battlefield gains Monday in the country's eastern and southern regions, putting them in position to attack Russian forces in the nearby Luhansk region. In his nightly address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that fierce fighting continues on many fronts, claiming 'new liberated settlements in several regions.' Some of the recent advances are in areas that ... Vladimir Putin is trying to seize through illegal annexations. Russia's lower house voted to ratify the annexations Monday, and the upper house is expected to formalize them Tuesday.";
Dear @elonmusk, when someone tries to steal the wheels of your Tesla, it doesn't make them [the] legal owner of the car or of the wheels. Even though they claim both voted in favor of it. Just saying. -- President Gitanas Nauseda of Lithuania
Fuck off is my very diplomatic reply to you @elonmusk. -- Andrij Melnyk, Ukraine's ambassador to Germany ~~~
~~~ World's Richest & Most Arrogant Person Tweets a "Peace Plan." Sammy Westfall & Missy Ryan of the Washington Post: "Elon Musk, as he often does, fired off some tweets on Monday. This time, he took aim at the Russia-Ukraine war -- asking via a Twitter poll if his followers approved of a four-point peace plan to end the conflict. The internet was not impressed." ... MB: partly because the so-called plan was pro-Russia, partly because it ignored historical facts diplomatic considerations, and partly because any idiot should know a peace plan won't fit in a tweet.
U.K. Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "Liz Truss ... isn’t the first leader who has been forced to make a policy U-turn in the face of adverse market reactions. But announcing an economic program and then abandoning its central plank just 10 days later is something special.... The simple story -- Truss proposed policies that would increase the budget deficit and feed inflation, and markets reacted by pushing interest rates up and the pound down -- ... was ... largely about a government squandering its intellectual and moral credibility.... Questions about Truss's judgment were reinforced by the cluelessness of her timing. Right now ordinary Europeans, including Britons, are facing hard times, largely as an indirect consequence of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.... In tough times, leaders need to be perceived as being both realistic and fair. What Britain got instead was a leader who seems to live in a fantasy world and is oblivious to concerns about social solidarity. And it's going to be very hard to make up for the damage she did in just a few days."
News Lede
New York Times: "Loretta Lynn, the country singer whose plucky songs and inspiring life story made her one of the most beloved American musical performers of her generation, died on Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. She was 90."
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