The Conversation -- August 19, 2023

Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Prominent conservative legal scholars are increasingly raising a constitutional argument that ... Donald Trump should be barred from the presidency because of his actions to overturn the previous presidential election result. The latest salvo came Saturday in The Atlantic magazine, from liberal law professor Laurence Tribe and J. Michael Luttig, the former federal appellate judge and a prominent conservative who's become a strong critic of Trump's actions after the election. Not all in the legal community agree -- and what the scholars are proposing would need to be tested in court.... They and others base their arguments on a reading of part of the 14th Amendment, a post-Civil War provision that excludes from future office anyone who, previously, as a sworn-in public official, 'engaged in insurrection or rebellion ... or [had] given aid or comfort to the enemies' of the government.' The pair write: '... both of us concluded some years ago that, in fact, a conviction would be beside the point. The former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, and the resulting attack on the U.S. Capitol, place him squarely within the ambit of the [the] disqualification clause, and he is therefore ineligible to serve as president ever again.'"

More on Rudy's desperate pleas to the Biggest Deadbeat: ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "Rudolph W. Giuliani is running out of money and looking to collect from a longtime client who has yet to pay: ... Donald J. Trump. To recover the millions of dollars he believes he is owed for his efforts to keep Mr. Trump in power, Mr. Giuliani first deferred to his lawyer, who pressed anyone in Mr. Trump's circle who would listen. When that fizzled out, Mr. Giuliani and his lawyer made personal appeals to the former president over a two-hour dinner in April at his Mar-a-Lago estate and in a private meeting at his golf club in West Palm Beach. When those entreaties largely failed as well, Mr. Giuliani's son, Andrew, who has an independent relationship with the former president, visited Mr. Trump at his club in New Jersey this month, with what people briefed on the meeting said was the hope of getting his father's huge legal bills covered.... For the better part of a year, as Mr. Giuliani has racked up the bills battling an array of criminal investigations, private lawsuits and legal disciplinary proceedings stemming from his bid to keep Mr. Trump in office after the 2020 election, his team has repeatedly sought a lifeline from the former president.... And even as the bills have pushed Mr. Giuliani close to a financial breaking point, the former president has largely demurred...."

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What Real Presidents Do

Toluse Olorunnipa & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "President Biden sought to mark a 'new era' for one of the United States' most high-profile trilateral partnerships Friday, using a first-of-its-kind summit with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts at Camp David to announce new measures on defense, technology, education and other key areas of cooperation. 'This is the first summit I've hosted at Camp David, and I can think of no more fitting location to begin the next era of cooperation,' Biden said at a joint news conference, standing between Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at his presidential retreat in Maryland and pledging that the commitments the leaders agreed to will stand the test of time. 'This is about decades and decades.' The summit was the culmination of what White House aides have described as a two-year effort to assist in a rapprochement between South Korea and Japan after decades of frosty relations. It also marked the beginning of what the White House hopes will be an extended stretch of three-way engagement, designed in part to counter China's military aggression and economic coercion and North Korea's growing nuclear weapons program." ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden welcomed his counterparts from Japan and South Korea to Camp David on Friday morning as he seeks to cement a newly fortified three-way alliance, bridging generations of friction between the two Asian powers to forge mutual security arrangements in the face of an increasingly assertive China. Mr. Biden greeted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea at the presidential retreat in Maryland, the first time he has invited foreign leaders there and the first time the leaders of the three countries will have met in a stand-alone session rather than on the sidelines of larger international gatherings.... Biden administration officials said the leaders would sign off on a formal 'commitment to consult,' an understanding that the three nations would treat any security threat to one of them as a threat to all, requiring mutual discussion about how to respond. The pledge would not go as far as the NATO treaty's Article 5, which obligates allies to 'take action' in the event of an attack on any member, but it would reinforce the expectation that the three would act in tandem." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The White House has published the Camp David Principles here.

MEANWHILE, What Anti-Americans Do

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "While [Donald Trump]'s name appeared nowhere in the 'Camp David Principles' that the leaders issued at the presidential retreat, one of the subtexts was the possibility that he could return to power in next year's election and disrupt ties with America's two closest allies in the Indo-Pacific region. Both Japan and South Korea struggled for four years as Mr. Trump threatened to scale back longstanding U.S. security and economic commitments while wooing China, North Korea and Russia. In formalizing a three-way alliance that had long eluded the United States, [President] Biden and his counterparts hoped to lock in a strategic architecture that will endure regardless of who is in the White House next." MB: So, in a way, Trump -- or the Trump threat -- has improved Indo-Pacific relations.

I, Trumpius. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump plans to upstage the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday by sitting for an online interview with the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.... 'Reagan didn't do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?' [Trump wrote on his knock-off social media site.]... If [the interview] goes ahead as currently planned, the debate-night counterprogramming would serve as an act of open hostility .... to both the R.N.C. and Fox News, which is hosting the event." CNN's story is here. MB: No normal person would publicly describe himself as the BEST EVER, even if -- like the Evil Queen in "Snow White" -- that's what he told the mirror, mirror on the wall.

Chauncey DeVega of Salon: Donald "Trump has shown a wide range of pathological behavior over the past seven years or so. He has an unhealthy fascination with violence. He lacks impulse control and empathy. He revels in cruelty. He compulsively lies and exhibits traits of malignant narcissism. He is a confirmed sexual predator and misogynist. He has a tenuous relationship to reality, and increasingly retreats into victimology and a persecution complex. He believes himself to be almost literally superhuman and often behaves like a cult leader.... Trump's pathological behavior is in no way separate from his role as leader of the neofascist MAGA movement and larger white right.... Sick societies produce sick leaders; sick leaders have sick followers; in combination, those forces produce sick political movements.... Donald Trump's poor mental health and aberrant behavior amount to a political, social and legal crisis for America and the world." DeVega interviews some psychiatrists, who describe Trump as a crazy (layman's interpretation) Orwellian character.

** The Architect, There at the Insurrection. Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "When conspiracy theorist Alex Jones marched his way to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, riling up his legion of supporters, an unassuming middle-aged man in a red 'Trump 2020' hat conspicuously tagged along.... The man dutifully recording Jones with his phone as the bombastic media personality ascended to the restricted area of the Capitol grounds where mobs of ... Donald Trump's supporters eventually broke in... The man ... is attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the scheme to subvert the 2020 Electoral College process by using fake GOP electors in multiple states. When asked by the House select committee where he was the first week of January 2021 and on January 6, Chesebro invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. But a CNN investigation has placed him outside of the Capitol at the same time as his alleged plot to keep Trump in office unraveled inside it. There is no indication Chesebro entered the Capitol Building or was violent. Jones did not enter the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or engage in violence, but he had warned of a coming battle the day before and urged his supporters to converge on the Capitol." The New York Times story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Strange Career of a Latter-Day Revolutionary. Ken Chesebro went from a long post-doctoral gig as liberal Harvard Law Prof. Lawrence Tribe's aide to hanging out at the insurrection with crazed right-wing provocateur & conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. According to this report by Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post, what seems to have flipped Chesebro's politics was making several million dollars in a cryptocurrency investment. MB: Now, Ken may go from crypto king to inmate in the Fulton County Jail. (Also linked yesterday.)

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "It is not hard to find commentators asking a simple question about the events of the past few years:... How did 'America's mayor' -- the man who rocketed to national fame after the Sept. 11 attacks -- come to disgrace and debase himself in defense of Donald Trump?... But ... the line from 'America's mayor' to indicted co-conspirator is a straight one.... He is the same man he's always been.... If we think of [Rudy] Giuliani as the scowling demagogue who stoked the flames of chauvinism and racial hatred against New York's first Black mayor [David Dinkins] for his own gain, then there's little other than his carefully crafted image in the press that separates the Giuliani of '92 from the Giuliani of '23.... It is easy to see that [Giuliani & Trump] are of a type. They share the same demagogic instincts, the same boundless resentment, the same authoritarian manner -- it is not for nothing that Giuliani reportedly tried to get the 2001 mayoral election canceled so that he could stay in office beyond the limit on his term -- and the same willingness to indulge in racism and use it for their own political purposes." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have long associated Giuliani with the racist police attack on Dinkins. But recently, when I looked for contemporaneous stories about the incident, I didn't find anything that mentioned Giuliani, so I thought I must have been mistaken. I was not. Bouie spells it out. The stories I read also hedged on the racism expressed during the police protest with language like, "reported to have used the N word." I lived in Manhattan then, and I saw the video on a local TV channel and the audio was replete with cops using the racial slur. It confused me for a moment because I had forgotten that Dinkins was Black. He never made his race a feature of his mayoralty and there was no reason for anyone else too, either.

On the Lam. Daniel Barnes & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Christopher Worrell, a Florida Proud Boy convicted on seven counts stemming from his actions during the Jan. 6 riot, was scheduled to be sentenced today in Washington, D.C, federal court but is now missing, according to a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.... Worrell had been initially detained pre-trial following his arrest in March 2021. However, [Judge Royce] Lamberth ordered Worrell released to home detention in November 2021 after finding that DC jail officials had failed to provide Worrell with adequate treatment for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a broken hand that may have required surgery. As part of his conditions of release, Worrell surrendered his passport and was subject to GPS monitoring." (Also linked yesterday.)

Emily Davies of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Department of Justice has designated the death of D.C. police officer Jeffrey Smith -- who took his own life after helping defend the Capitol during the Jan. 6 riot -- as having occurred in the line of duty, granting his widow access to hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal benefits, according to the family's attorney. The Justice Department revealed the determination to the family Thursday. It did so under a law amended last year to make it easier for families of officers who die by suicide to access death benefits, marking a shift in how the government treats first responders who suffer mental health crises arising from what they encounter on the job. 'I could have given up. But I did not want any future widow, or widower, to ever go through what I went through in the aftermath of Jeffrey's death,' said Erin Smith, Jeffrey Smith's widow, in a statement. She spent years pressing local and federal officials to honor officers who die by suicide in the same way as any others who die in the line of duty."

Holly Bailey & Hannah Allam of the Washington Post: "The FBI has joined an investigation into a barrage of threats against Fulton County officials in recent days, including members of the Atlanta-area grand jury that voted to indict ... Donald Trump and 18 of his allies in a sweeping criminal case focused on alleged 2020 election interference."

Kathryn Watson of ABC News: "Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' office is conducting an ongoing investigation of an alleged attempt to use alternate electors after the 2020 presidential election to benefit ... Donald Trump, a spokesperson for the attorney general confirmed." ~~~

     ~~~ Gideon Rubin of the Raw Story: "Rolling Stone reported that, 'Investigators have started asking questions about any potential contacts between false electors such as [for Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward..., then-President Trump, and other out-of-state officials and lawyers working on his behalf to steal the election, one of the sources tells Rolling Stone. In recent discussions with possible witnesses and others, some investigators have asked or requested information related to a video -- tweeted by the Arizona GOP in December 2020 -- where Ward and other Trump allies sign documents falsely claiming to be the state's legitimate electors.'"

Marie: It strikes me that if the United States is headed for civil war -- and we may be -- the Supreme Court might be, if not the catalyst, at least a central player in the crisis. If no one institution is "the decider," then there is no rule of law and everyone is a decider. We would be living in a Rand Paulish dystopian/everyone-for-himself world. ~~~

~~~ Weekend Read. Garrett Epps in the Washington Monthly: "The precedent-smashing, highly political Roberts Court is likely to trigger outright defiance by the left and right. Just look at Alabama's failure to comply with a recent Court ruling.... By balking at producing a redistricting plan that can pass judicial muster, [Alabama's] legislature has refused to comply with a district court order and a Supreme Court Voting Rights Act decision in what may be a foretaste of future crises on the left and right. States on both sides of the red-blue divide are growing querulous about Supreme Court rulings. Even though it is now dominated by a radical-right majority, resistance to its precedent-shattering decisions seems at least as likely to come from the right as from the left.... The Court may even face something not seen since the Civil War -- defiance of a President of the United States.... [The Supreme Court] is not acting like a court; it will not be treated indefinitely by friend or foe as if it were one." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In his analysis of Alabama's definance of a Supreme Court decision, Epps concludes that "The question seems to be whether the Supreme Court will let Alabama back it off. The answer is by no means clear." You'll have to read the analysis to see why. But let's say the Supremes do not back off. It strikes me that a president could once again enforce a federal court order on the state, just as occurred when Gov. George Wallace infamously stood at the University of Alabama door to block Black students from entering, only to step aside when J.F.K.'s federalized National Guard confronted him. But that assumes a reasonable court order and a reasonable president. On the other hand ~~~

     ~~~ Here's Epps' example of defiance from the left: "The next debt-ceiling crisis is scheduled for January 1, 2025, or shortly thereafter. Imagine a re-elected Biden facing a Republican House that will not listen to reason this time. I have argued since 2011 that a President would have the constitutional duty to set aside the debt-ceiling statute and pay the nation's debt. Now imagine the Supreme Court telling him to stop paying it -- in effect, ordering him to preside over the economy's collapse. Honestly, reader, if you were President, what would you do?"

Kasha Patel of the Washington Post: "The richest 10 percent of U.S. households are responsible for 40 percent of the country's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a study released Thursday in PLOS Climate. The study, which looked at how a household's income generated emissions, underlines the stark divide between those who benefit most from fossil fuels and those who are most burdened by its effects.... Many of the ways people earn money are also linked to carbon pollution, including from how and where they earn their wages to where they invest parts of their income. These investments, especially if linked with fossil fuel-related industries, can seriously tip who is most responsible for the nation's greenhouse gas emissions, said ... Jared Starr, lead author of the study. 'It just seems morally and politically problematic to have one group of people reaping so much benefit from emissions while the poorer groups in society are asked to disproportionately deal with the harms of those emissions,' Starr, a sustainability scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, said." The Raw Story's report is here. Thanks to RAS for the link.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "James L. Buckley, a conservative recruit from Connecticut who invaded the New York strongholds of Democrats and liberal Republicans in 1970 and against the odds won a United States Senate seat on the Conservative Party line, died early Friday in Washington. He was 100." (Also linked yesterday.)

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Kansas. Bill Chappell of NPR: "...Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, who signed the search warrant allowing police to seize the equipment [of the Marion County Record], was arrested at least twice for driving under the influence. Those 2012 arrests came months apart in two counties -- and it's not clear how much information was shared between officials at the time, The Wichita Eagle reports.... It was a confidential tip to the Record about the DUI history of Kari Newell, a local restaurant and catering company owner, that set incidents in motion." The city police chief Gideon Cody, who initiated the warrant request, previously had threatened to sue the newspaper because it had looked into disciplinary action taken against him in his previous job. MB: So small-town politics as usual.

News Ledes

New York Times: "As Hurricane Hilary heads north, Southern California and Mexico are bracing for a rare and powerful storm that could produce dangerous flash flooding and sustained winds that have not been seen for decades.... The Category 4 hurricane is so unusual that it has prompted the National Hurricane Center to issue a tropical storm watch for California for the first time in its history. Hilary is currently projected to make landfall in Baja California on Sunday and move northward as a tropical storm near San Diego and across the deserts and mountains east of Los Angeles -- though its path could still veer elsewhere."

Washington Post: "Dueling heat waves -- across Texas and the South, and in the Pacific Northwest to northern Plains -- are joining forces to deliver the hottest stretch of weather this year to the central Plains and parts of the Midwest." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Weirdly, I have run my A/C a total of no more than 36 hours this summer, not at all in August -- so far. As I write, the outside temp in lower New Hampshire is 58 degrees.

The Conversation -- August 18, 2023

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden welcomed his counterparts from Japan and South Korea to Camp David on Friday morning as he seeks to cement a newly fortified three-way alliance, bridging generations of friction between the two Asian powers to forge mutual security arrangements in the face of an increasingly assertive China. Mr. Biden greeted Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan and President Yoon Suk Yeol of South Korea at the presidential retreat in Maryland, the first time he has invited foreign leaders there and the first time the leaders of the three countries will have met in a stand-alone session rather than on the sidelines of larger international gatherings.... Biden administration officials said the leaders would sign off on a formal 'commitment to consult,' an understanding that the three nations would treat any security threat to one of them as a threat to all, requiring mutual discussion about how to respond. The pledge would not go as far as the NATO treaty's Article 5, which obligates allies to 'take action' in the event of an attack on any member, but it would reinforce the expectation that the three would act in tandem."

** The Architect, There at the Insurrection. Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "When conspiracy theorist Alex Jones marched his way to the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, riling up his legion of supporters, an unassuming middle-aged man in a red 'Trump 2020' hat conspicuously tagged along.... The man dutifully recording Jones with his phone as the bombastic media personality ascended to the restricted area of the Capitol grounds where mobs of ... Donald Trump's supporters eventually broke in... The man ... is attorney Kenneth Chesebro, the alleged architect of the scheme to subvert the 2020 Electoral College process by using fake GOP electors in multiple states. When asked by the House select committee where he was the first week of January 2021 and on January 6, Chesebro invoked his Fifth Amendment rights. But a CNN investigation has placed him outside of the Capitol at the same time as his alleged plot to keep Trump in office unraveled inside it. There is no indication Chesebro entered the Capitol Building or was violent. Jones did not enter the Capitol on January 6, 2021, or engage in violence, but he had warned of a coming battle the day before and urged his supporters to converge on the Capitol." The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ The Strange Career of a Latter-Day Revolutionary. Ken Chesebro went from a long post-doctoral gig as liberal Harvard Law Prof. Lawrence Tribe's aide to hanging out at the insurrection with crazed right-wing provocateur & conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. According to this report by Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post, what seems to have flipped Chesebro's politics was making several million dollars in a cryptocurrency investment. MB: Now, Ken may go from crypto king to inmate in the Fulton County Jail.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "It is not hard to find commentators asking a simple question about the events of the past few years:... How did 'America's mayor' -- the man who rocketed to national fame after the Sept. 11 attacks -- come to disgrace and debase himself in defense of Donald Trump?... But ... the line from 'America's mayor' to indicted co-conspirator is a straight one.... He is the same man he's always been.... If we think of Giuliani as the scowling demagogue who stoked the flames of chauvinism and racial hatred against New York's first Black mayor [David Dinkins] for his own gain, then there's little other than his carefully crafted image in the press that separates the Giuliani of '92 from the Giuliani of '23.... It is easy to see that [Giuliani & Trump] are of a type. They share the same demagogic instincts, the same boundless resentment, the same authoritarian manner -- it is not for nothing that Giuliani reportedly tried to get the 2001 mayoral election canceled so that he could stay in office beyond the limit on his term -- and the same willingness to indulge in racism and use it for their own political purposes." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have long associated Giuliani with the racist police attack on Dinkins. But recently, when I looked for contemporaneous stories about the incident, I didn't find anything that mentioned Giuliani, so I thought I must have been mistaken. I was not. Bouie spells it out. The stories I read also hedged on the racism expressed during the police protest with language like, "reported to have used the N word." I lived in Manhattan then, and I saw the video on a local TV channel and the audio was replete with cops using the racial slur. It confused me for a moment because I had forgotten that Dinkins was Black. He never made his race a feature of his mayoralty and there was no reason for anyone else too, either.

On the Lam. Daniel Barnes & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Christopher Worrell, a Florida Proud Boy convicted on seven counts stemming from his actions during the Jan. 6 riot, was scheduled to be sentenced today in Washington, D.C, federal court but is now missing, according to a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.... Worrell had been initially detained pre-trial following his arrest in March 2021. However, [Judge Royce] Lamberth ordered Worrell released to home detention in November 2021 after finding that DC jail officials had failed to provide Worrell with adequate treatment for his non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and a broken hand that may have required surgery. As part of his conditions of release, Worrell surrendered his passport and was subject to GPS monitoring."

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "James L. Buckley, a conservative recruit from Connecticut who invaded the New York strongholds of Democrats and liberal Republicans in 1970 and against the odds won a United States Senate seat on the Conservative Party line, died early Friday in Washington. He was 100."

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Trump Family Crime Blotter

Seems Reasonable. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Donald Trump says he'll be ready to go on trial on federal charges over his bid to subvert the last election ... in April 2026. Citing extraordinary amounts of evidence -- including a tranche of 11.5 million pages that prosecutors handed over earlier this month -- Trump lawyers John Lauro and Todd Blanche said in court papers filed Thursday that a 2.5-year delay before picking a jury would properly factor in the complexity of the case. The proposal stands in almost absurd contrast to prosecutors' call for a trial to begin on Jan. 2, 2024, a highly ambitious timeline.... [In their own filing last week, prosecutors] noted that Trump [has had access to and] is privy to large swaths of evidence arrayed against him as a result of the House Jan. 6 select committee's hearings and trove of public documents. And he also has access to millions of pages of records that overlap with the materials the government is producing to him -- such as documents from his White House, his campaign and his PAC." The New York Times story is here.

Katherine Faulders & Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's promised press conference to refute the allegations in the indictment handed up by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office is now very much in doubt.... Sources tell ABC News that Trump's legal advisers have told him that holding such a press conference with dubious claims of voter fraud will only complicate his legal problems and some of his attorneys have advised him to cancel it." MB: Darn, because I thought telling more of the same lies that led to federal and state indictments was a brilliant idea. Trump should fire his lawyers for taking away his First Amendment rights. And election interference! And whatever! (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Soo Rin Kim & Lalee Ibssa of ABC News: "... Donald Trump says his press conference previously scheduled for Monday regarding Georgia's 2020 election results ... was canceled because his lawyers would prefer putting his allegations 'in formal Legal Filings.... Therefore, the News Conference is no longer necessary!' he wrote [on his social media platform]. MB: So even his reason for cancelling a presser is a lie: his lawyers are not planning to put his false charges in legal filings; they're trying to bury Trump's lies so nobody ever see them again.

Spirit Animals Are Attacking Jeff Clark. Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post: "Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official under Donald Trump, is posting online about supernatural beings in the wake of his racketeering indictment in Georgia.... 'Today witches, spiritists, mediums, those with spirit animals, and Ukrainian NPCs resumed their attacks on me,' Clark wrote on X-...Twitter, on Wednesday." MB: Do you suppose Clark is working up an insanity defense? (Also linked yesterday.)

Anna Betts, et al., of the New York Times: "The Fulton County Sheriff's Office said Thursday that it was investigating online threats against the grand jurors who voted this week to indict ... Donald J. Trump and 18 others, accusing them of conspiring to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. The jurors' names are listed early in the sprawling 98-page indictment, as required in Georgia, making the state an outlier among federal and state court systems. [Facebook took down a post that purported to reveal personal info about some of the grand jurors.] On Truth Social, the social media platform founded by Mr. Trump -- who has himself lashed out at prosecutors, judges and private citizens who have sued him -- many users reposted the names. In one response to a list of several jurors, a user urged others to make them 'infamous' and to 'make sure they can't walk down the street.'"

Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "A woman was sentenced on Thursday to more than 21 years in prison for mailing letters containing the lethal substance ricin to ... Donald J. Trump and eight Texas law enforcement officials in 2020, the Justice Department said. The woman, Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, 55, of Quebec was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. After she completes her prison term, she will be on supervised release for the rest of her life, the Justice Department said in a statement." CNN's report is here.

There's excellent commentary in yesterday's thread on a Fifth Circuit decision to limit access to the abortion drug mifepristone. Commentary centers of Judge James Ho's notion that a central purpose of procreation is to satisfy doctors' right to look at pictures of fetuses and babies. ~~~

Love to hear it explained yet again that men’s emotions matter more than women’s safety and dignity. https://t.co/6aSTvegEsf

— Moira Donegan (@MoiraDonegan) August 16, 2023

     ~~~ Adorable ultrasound photos & baby pictures aside, you may best recall Judge Ho from this photo of his swearing-in in Harlan Crow's palatial library. The swearer-inner? "Justice" Clarence Thomas, who flew down to Dallas for the occasion in Crow's private jet.

Presidential Race 2024

Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "Ron DeSantis needs 'to take a sledgehammer' to Vivek Ramaswamy, the political newcomer who is rising in the polls. He should 'defend Donald Trump' when Chris Christie inevitably attacks the former president. And he needs to 'attack Joe Biden and the media' no less than three to five times. A firm associated with the super PAC that has effectively taken over Mr. DeSantis's presidential campaign posted online hundreds of pages of blunt advice, research memos and internal polling in early nominating states to guide the Florida governor ahead of the high-stakes Republican presidential debate next Wednesday in Milwaukee.... Super PACs are barred by law from strategizing in private with political campaigns. To avoid running afoul of those rules, it is not unusual for the outside groups to post polling documents in the open, albeit in an obscure corner of the internet where insiders know to look.... But it is unusual, as appears to be the case, for a super PAC, or a consulting firm working for it, to post documents on its own website...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Religious Freedom for Me but Not for Thee. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: An opposition research memo about the Republican presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy that was written by the super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida invokes the entrepreneur's Hindu faith and family visits to India. The document's first paragraph, addressing Mr. Ramaswamy's past support for inheritance taxes, draws a link between that policy position and his Hindu upbringing as the son of Indian immigrants. 'Ramaswamy -- a Hindu who grew up visiting relatives in India and was very much ingrained in India's caste system -- supports this as a mechanism to preserve a meritocracy in America and ensure everyone starts on a level playing field,' the document states. Mr. Ramaswamy is the only candidate joining Mr. DeSantis on the debate stage whose national or religious backgrounds were mentioned in any of the documents posted on the Axiom Strategies website." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The underlying irony of this criticism is that DeSantis' backers seem to present as a bad thing a religion-based policy position -- ensuring a level playing field -- that is a democratic ideal. Uh, unless you're a Republican. So bigotry AND anti-democratic values.

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Arkansas. Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: "The Little Rock School District in Arkansas said on Wednesday that it would continue to offer Advanced Placement African American studies, over the objections of the administration of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican who has limited instruction on race. The decision comes after the State Department of Education announced on Monday that the course's content might violate a new law banning 'indoctrination' in schools.... 'A.P. African American Studies will allow students to explore the complexities, contributions and narratives that have shaped the African American experience throughout history, including Central High School's integral connection,' the district said.... In 1957, a group of nine Black teenagers, escorted by the U.S. National Guard, integrated Little Rock Central High School as white protesters spit and jeered."

The Conversation -- August 17, 2023

Spirit Animals Are Attacking Jeff Clark. Josephine Harvey of the Huffington Post: "Jeffrey Clark, a former top Justice Department official under Donald Trump, is posting online about supernatural beings in the wake of his racketeering indictment in Georgia.... 'Today witches, spiritists, mediums, those with spirit animals, and Ukrainian NPCs resumed their attacks on me,' Clark wrote on X-...Twitter, on Wednesday." MB: Do you suppose Clark is working up an insanity defense?

Katherine Faulders & Jonathan Karl of ABC News: "... Donald Trump's promised press conference to refute the allegations in the indictment handed up by the Fulton County District Attorney's Office is now very much in doubt.... Trump's legal advisers have told him that holding such a press conference with dubious claims of voter fraud will only complicate his legal problems and some of his attorneys have advised him to cancel it." MB: Darn, because I thought telling more of the same lies that led to federal and state indictments was a brilliant idea. Trump should fire his lawyers for taking away his First Amendment rights. And election interference! And whatever!

Presidential Race 2024. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "Ron DeSantis needs 'to take a sledgehammer' to Vivek Ramaswamy, the political newcomer who is rising in the polls. He should 'defend Donald Trump' when Chris Christie inevitably attacks the former president. And he needs to 'attack Joe Biden and the media' no less than three to five times. A firm associated with the super PAC that has effectively taken over Mr. DeSantis's presidential campaign posted online hundreds of pages of blunt advice, research memos and internal polling in early nominating states to guide the Florida governor ahead of the high-stakes Republican presidential debate next Wednesday in Milwaukee.... Super PACs are barred by law from strategizing in private with political campaigns. To avoid running afoul of those rules, it is not unusual for the outside groups to post polling documents in the open, albeit in an obscure corner of the internet where insiders know to look.... But it is unusual, as appears to be the case, for a super PAC, or a consulting firm working for it, to post documents on its own website...."

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Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden staged a day of celebration on Wednesday to herald the reduction in inflation and the Inflation Reduction Act even though experts believe one had little to do with the other. Mr. Biden hosted a boisterous ceremony in the East Room of the White House while allies and aides conducted briefings, gave speeches, published newspaper articles, sent emails, went on television and distributed talking points to mark the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, the major climate and energy law that is one of the signature accomplishments of his presidency. The fact that the anniversary came at the same time as a significant decrease in the inflation rate was more happy coincidence than anything else, say economists, who attribute it more to the Federal Reserve's interest rate increases and other factors. The legislation did plenty of important things in terms of investing in clean energy, raising corporate taxes and curbing prescription drug prices. But it was not really about inflation. As even Mr. Biden implicitly conceded last week, the name of the bill was more about political branding than policy goals."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senator Chuck Schumer, the majority leader, said Wednesday that he and Speaker Kevin McCarthy had agreed that a bill to temporarily fund the government is necessary in order to stave off the possibility of an impending government shutdown on Oct. 1 and keep the government funded through early December. But his comments were also an acknowledgment that Congress remains far from reaching any agreement on spending levels that would keep the government running on a longer-term basis. 'Speaker McCarthy and I met a few weeks back, and we agreed we should do what's called a C.R. -- in other words, a congressional resolution where you just extend the existing funding for a few months so we could work this out,' Mr. Schumer said on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe.'"

Trump Crime Blotter

Olivia Rubin of ABC News: "Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has proposed a March start date for the trial of ... Donald Trump and 18 others on charges related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. The proposed pretrial scheduling order, filed on Wednesday, proposes a start date of March 4. The date is one day before Super Tuesday in the 2024 presidential race...."

This Is Irritating. Danny Hakim & Richard Fausset of the New York Times: According to the local sheriff, defendants in the case will be processed in the Fulton County Jail where "they would undergo a medical screening, be fingerprinted and have mug shots taken, and could spend time in a holding cell at the jail, weeks after the Justice Department announced an investigation for what it called 'serious allegations of unsafe, unsanitary living conditions' there.... But whether Mr. Trump himself is processed there will very likely depend on the Secret Service.... The Rice Street jail is not a place for the faint of heart, said Robert G. Rubin, a veteran defense lawyer.... In recent weeks, two inmates have been found dead at the jail. Last year, a detainee was found dead in his cell, his body covered in bites from bed bugs and other insects, according to his lawyer.... 'It's miserable. It's cold. It smells. It's just generally unpleasant,' he said, relying on his clients' past descriptions." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie BTW: Yesterday, when it seemed Trump would be booked at the jail, I suggested there was a C&W song asking to be written about it, and contributor Patrick came up with some great lyrics (see Comments thread). We aren't the first to find the Fulton County jail a source of artistic inspiration. According to the Times report, "At least two songs on Spotify are titled '901 Rice Street,' the jail's address. The popular rapper Latto has a song whose title refers to Rice Street with an expletive. And a line from a Killer Mike rap goes, 'Locked in like Rice Street without a bond.'"

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's defenses against his four indictments are, characteristically, absolutist. The phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), which undergirds Trump's newest indictment, was a 'perfect phone call.' The 91 criminal charges against Trump aren't just overzealous but born of meritless 'witch hunts.' Bristling at a question about a hypothetical plea deal in Georgia, Trump said, 'We did nothing wrong.'... Increasingly, few Americans actually believe Trump did 'nothing' wrong, according to new polling. And while Republicans overwhelmingly say they don't think Trump broke the law, most -- even a very strong majority -- fault him in some measure."

Trump Revises a Toxic Racist Slur to Attack Georgia Grand Jurors. Blayne Alexander & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "The purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury that indicted Donald Trump and 18 of his co-defendants on state racketeering charges this week have been posted on a fringe website that often features violent rhetoric, NBC News has learned. NBC News is choosing not to name the website featuring the addresses to avoid further spreading the information.... The indictment issued Monday lists the names of the grand jury members but not their addresses or other personal information. Tuesday -- after Trump posted on his social media website that authorities were going 'after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!' -- Advance Democracy said Trump supporters were 'using the term "rigger" in lieu of a racial slur' in posts.... 'These jurors have signed their death warrant by falsely indicting President Trump,' a post on a pro-Trump forum read in response to a post including the names of jurors, which was viewed by NBC News."

Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A Texas woman has been charged with threatening to kill Tanya S. Chutkan, the federal judge in Washington who is overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of seeking to overturn the 2020 election. The woman, Abigail Jo Shry, of Alvin, Texas, called Judge Chutkan's chambers on Aug. 5, two days after Mr. Trump was arraigned on the election interference charges, and left a voice mail message attacking the judge, who is Black, with a racial slur, according to a criminal complaint unsealed on Friday. In the message, Ms. Shry told Judge Chutkan, 'If Trump doesn't get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, bitch,' according to the complaint. She added, 'You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.'" The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If like me, you keep wondering what possible appeal a whiney, selfish, entitled, elderly fat man could have, Mizz Shry answers that question. Most likely, she is not a crazy person. She is the Kracken, and Donald Trump has released her. He has given her permission to degrade, threaten and even kill authority figures who irritate her. Trump has transferred power from those charged with enforcing the rule of law & normal "fairness" to individual Americans who have long felt that "fairness" means that they have the freedom and individual right to harm anyone who displeases them. Trump thought he had "an Article II where I have the right to do whatever I want," and every surly, ragtag Trumpbot believes Trump has transferred that same right to them.

Gideon Rubin of the Raw Story: "Longtime GOP operative and Donald Trump ally Roger Stone is shown hatching plans to overturn the 2020 election before the results were even known in a video obtained by MSNBC host Ari Melber. The video, which the cable network released publicly on Wednesday..., shows Stone ... dictating the plans to an associate on Nov. 5, 2020, two days after Election Day. The statement outlines plans to compel state legislatures to overturn close races by claiming election fraud." Includes video.

Kaitlan Collins & Paula Reid of CNN: "With his attorney in tow, Rudy Giuliani traveled to Mar-a-Lago in [late April] on a mission to make a personal and desperate appeal to ... Donald Trump to pay his legal bills. By going in person, a source familiar with the matter told CNN, Giuliani and his lawyer Robert Costello believed they could explain face-to-face why Trump needed to assist his former attorney with his ballooning legal bills.... But the former president ... didn't seem very interested. After Costello made his pitch, Trump verbally agreed to help with some of Giuliani's legal bills without committing to any specific amount or timeline. Trump also agreed to stop by two fundraisers for Giuliani, a separate source said.... But what has surprised those in Trump's inner circle is the former president's unwillingness to pay for Giuliani's bills, given Giuliani could find himself under intense pressure to cooperate with the federal and state prosecutors who have charged Trump."

Michael Gold & Grace Ashford of the New York Times: "A campaign associate of Representative George Santos who impersonated Speaker Kevin McCarthy's former chief of staff was charged with wire fraud and identity theft in a federal indictment unsealed on Wednesday. The aide, Samuel Miele, was arraigned Wednesday morning in Brooklyn federal court and released on $150,000 bond. He has pleaded not guilty. He was accused by federal prosecutors of sending 'fraudulent fund-raising' emails to more than a dozen potential contributors to an unnamed candidate. In those messages, he claimed to be a 'high-ranking aide to a member of the House with leadership responsibilities,' the indictment said. When Mr. Miele successfully solicited campaign contributions, he received a 15 percent commission, according to the indictment." Also linked yesterday. An NBC News story is here.

Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "A Republican lawmaker apologized Tuesday for a 'religious freedom' tweet he posted earlier that day after receiving backlash from both sides of the aisle. Rep. Max Miller (R-Ohio) asked Lizzie Marbach, director of communications at Ohio Right to Life, to delete one of her posts on X...-Twitter, that said there is 'no hope for any of us outside of having faith in Jesus Christ alone.' 'This is one of the most bigoted tweets I have ever seen. Delete it, Lizzie. Religious freedom in the United States applies to every religion. You have gone too far,' he posted on X. Just hours after that post, Miller apologized for the tweet." MB: Miller's mistake was the tone of his tweet, particularly because he's a public official, and he gives the dimwitty lady a command. But the sentiment? I'm with Miller. Marbach's tweet is a straightforward expression of religious bigotry. Also linked yesterday.

American Nightmare. Matt Berg of Politico: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution she had not ruled out the possibility of running for the Senate. And she would consider "very heavily" (which must be like considering "very strongly") accepting the V.P. spot on a Trump ticket. Also linked yesterday.

Pam Belluck & Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A federal appeals court panel said on Wednesday that the abortion pill mifepristone should remain legal in the United States but with significant restrictions on patients' access to it, setting up a showdown before the Supreme Court on the fate of the most common method of terminating pregnancies. The decision, which would prohibit the pill from being sent through the mail or prescribed by telemedicine, is the latest development in a closely watched lawsuit that seeks to remove abortion pills entirely from the market by invalidating the Food and Drug Administration's 23-year-old approval of mifepristone. But for now, the ruling will have no real-world effect: In April, the Supreme Court said mifepristone would have to remain available under the current rules until the appeals process concludes." Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I see no reason to look forward to a reasonable outcome. These old fogies, none of whom has medical or scientific expertise, think that because they cannot be overruled, they should decide what doctors and scientists are allowed to determine. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. It is the responsibility of the first two branches of government to get together and check the absolute power of the third.

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Kansas. Kevin Draper & Benjamin Mullin of the New York Times: "The top prosecutor in Marion County, Kan., said on Wednesday that there was not sufficient evidence to support a raid on a local newspaper last week, and that all the devices and materials obtained in the search would be returned. Joel Ensey, the Marion County attorney, said in a statement that, in light of the insufficient evidence, he directed local law enforcement to return the seized material. Police officers and county sheriff's deputies searched the newspaper's office, the home of its owner and editor and the home of a city councilwoman on Friday -- collecting computers, cellphones and other materials. It is extremely rare for law enforcement authorities in the United States to search and seize the tools to produce journalism." See related stories linked over the past few days.

North Carolina. Rick Rojas & Anna Betts of the New York Times: "North Carolina became the latest state to block minors from having access to gender-transition care, as Republican lawmakers voted on Wednesday to override the governor's veto of a bill restricting hormone treatments, puberty blockers and surgeries for young people. The move came as the State Legislature's Republican supermajorities marshaled the votes to topple several other of Gov. Roy Cooper's [D] vetoes, reviving legislation that limits female transgender students' participation in school sports and restricts what can be taught in schools about gender and sexual orientation. North Carolina now joins about 20 other states that have enacted legislation blocking access to transition-related care for minors, with many of those laws passed this year as conservative lawmakers across the country have seized upon L.G.T.B.Q. issues." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I would not say that they "have seized upon L.G.T.B.Q. issues." I would say that they have cruelly seized upon a group of young people to target, and like the Supremes, have put themselves in a position to overrule the best practices of medical professionals and the natural rights of parents to participate in decisions about their children's medical treatment. I do think the government has an inherent interest in professional standards, but this is not it.