July 31, 2023 -- The Last Gasp

Marie: So here's the "plan." I've paid for this site for the next month or so. I'm not going to do any more on it, except that I will set up a page each day, and anyone who wants to can comment. I won't timely monitor the comments, as I've tried to do, so there might be some "inappropriate" comments that sit untended for hours. Occasionally, I'll likely post a link to some news item or opinion piece that I happen to read, but I'm not sitting around waiting for Jack Smith's last shoe to drop, or whatever, as I sometimes do. We'll see how things are going at the end of the month. If the site kind of "works" until this so-called plan, I might continue in that vein.

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Afternoon Update:

Another "Star" GOP Witness Reveals ... an "Illusion." Zachary Cohen & Kara Scannell of CNN: "Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee on Monday that his former business partner, Hunter Biden, was selling the 'illusion' of access to his father, according to a source familiar with the closed-door interview, the latest development in the Republican-led congressional investigations into the president's son. The source also reiterated that Archer provided no evidence connecting President Joe Biden to any of his son's foreign business dealings. Rep. Dan Goldman, a Democrat on the panel who sat through the portion of Archer's interview where he was questioned by Republicans, also said there was a lack of evidence connecting the president to his son's foreign dealings. Goldman said Archer told the panel that Hunter Biden did put his father on speaker phone in the presence of business partners, but that business was never discussed.... Goldman told reporters during a break in the hearing that Archer later said that Hunter Biden putting his father on speaker phone with business associates was 'part of the daily conversations' between father and son, adding, 'The witness was very consistent that none of those conversations ever had to do with any business dealings or transactions." Goldman said that it is 'kind of a preposterous premise to think that a father should not say hello to the people that a son is at dinner with and that is literally all the evidence is.'" Archer is awaiting incarceration on an unrelated fraud case. The New York Times story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden's White House roasted Republicans over a 'much-hyped witness' they say ended up 'debunking' claims against Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer testified for Congress behind closed doors Monday, and while Republicans have not had much to say, Democratic New York Congressman and House Oversight Committee member Rep. Dan Goldman has been outspoken in making the case that the testimony backs up the president." ~~~

     ~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Fox News host Sean Hannity got a less-than-emphatic answer when he flat-out asked House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer if he will be able to prove allegations that President Joe Biden is guilty of participating in a bribery scheme. ~~~

Hannity: '... Do you believe that this is now officially the Joe Biden bribery allegation? And do you believe that you will be able to prove that?...'

Comer: 'I sure hope so.... And I do believe that there's a lot of smoke.'

Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: "... the installation of orange security barriers near the main entrance of the Fulton County Courthouse in downtown Atlanta ... was the most visible sign yet of the looming charging decision in a case that has ensnared not only [Donald] Trump but several high-profile Republicans who could either face charges or stand witness in a potential trial unlike anything seen before in this Southern metropolis.... Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis took the unusual step of publicly telegraphing that she plans to announce a charging decision in the Georgia case during the first three weeks of August, a period that opens Monday. 'The work is accomplished,' Willis (D) told Atlanta's WXIA-TV Saturday. 'We've been working for two-and-a-half years. We're ready to go.'... The county courthouse has already been subject to enhanced security because of ongoing threats to Willis and her staff -- including racist, threatening phone calls related to the election investigation...."

Sara Murray & Jason Morris of CNN: "A judge in Fulton County, Georgia, on Monday rejected efforts by Donald Trump's legal team to toss evidence in the criminal investigation into the former president's efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia and to disqualify the district attorney investigating him. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney also rejected efforts by Cathy Latham, who served as one of the GOP fake electors in Georgia, to join Trump's push." The New York Times story is here.

Second Trump Co-conspirator Just Can't Find a Florida Lawyer. Shayna Jacobs & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Carlos De Oliveira -- the second person charged alongside Donald Trump in a case involving the alleged hoarding of sensitive government materials at Mar-a-Lago -- made his first court appearance here on Monday morning and was released on a personal surety bond, with an arraignment scheduled for Aug. 10. Chief Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres read De Oliveira the charges against him and informed him of his legal rights. De Oliveira did not have an attorney who is accredited to practice in Florida, so he was unable to enter a plea before the judge. His Washington, D.C.-based attorney, John Irving, was in court with him." CNN's report is here.

So Unfa-a-a-air! David Klepper of the AP: "X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has threatened to sue a group of independent researchers whose research documented an increase in hate speech on the site since it was purchased last year by Elon Musk. An attorney representing the social media site wrote to the Center for Countering Digital Hate on July 20 threatening legal action over the nonprofit's research into hate speech and content moderation. The letter alleged that CCDH's research publications seem intended 'to harm Twitter's business by driving advertisers away from the platform with incendiary claims.' Musk is a self-professed free speech absolutist who has welcomed back white supremacists and election deniers to the platform, which he renamed X earlier this month. But the billionaire has at times proven sensitive about critical speech directed at him or his companies." MB: So free speech for racists & liars but not for anyone who writes about racists & liars. That seems reasonable.

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Arlette Saenz of CNN: "The Biden administration is launching a beta website for its new income-driven student loan repayment plan today, officials told CNN, allowing borrowers to begin submitting applications for the program as federal student loan payments are set to resume in October. The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan was finalized after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness initiative in June. It marks a significant change to the federal student loan system that could lower monthly loan payments for some borrowers and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Aliens Among Us. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: Last week, the "House Oversight Committee [held a] hearing on unidentified anomalous phenomena, the curiosity formerly known as UFOs. The panel's national security subcommittee brought in, as its star witness, one David Grusch, a former Defense Department intelligence official.... [Grusch made numerous claims, including the assertion that the U.S. government (and the Vatican!) had conspired in a massive, decades-long cover-up.] Alas, Grusch has no documents, photos or other evidence to corroborate any of his fantastic claims. It's classified, you see.... Republicans on the panel ... greeted his out-of-this-world claims with total credulity, using them as just more evidence that the deep-state U.S. government is lying to the American people.... Just over a year ago, a House Intelligence subcommittee held a similar hearing.... The panel's bipartisan leadership ... assured the public there was no evidence of 'anything nonterrestrial in origin,' and they cautioned against conspiracy theories.... The truth is out there. Just don't expect to learn it from the alien life forms currently running the People's House."

Still Crazy After All These Years. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump made the odd claim on Friday that Special Counsel Jack Smith can't charge him for crimes related to his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and the Jan. 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. 'How can Deranged Jack Smith bring a case on January 6th., as ridiculous as it is anyway, when I have already won such a case, and been fully acquitted, in the U.S. Senate? In other words, I was Impeached on this, and WON!!! ELECTION INTERFERENCE & PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT, all rolled up as one. We are truly a Nation In Decline!' Trump raged on his Truth Social platform." ~~~

     ~~~ And throughout the land, Trumpbots arose and screamed "DOUBLE JEOPARDY!!"

Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "Yuscil Taveras, a Mar-a-Lago employee who oversees the property's surveillance cameras, received a target letter from federal prosecutors after ... Donald Trump was first indicted in June on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents after leaving office, sources told CNN. Taveras also met with investigators following the initial indictment in the classified documents case overseen by special counsel Jack Smith, sources said. While it is unclear whether Taveras is cooperating with prosecutors, some of the new allegations against Trump that were included in a superseding indictment filed last week were based, at least in part, on information he provided during that interview, CNN has learned.... The updated indictment, which adds major accusations against Trump and a new co-defendant to the case, refers to Taveras as 'Trump Employee 4.'... After receiving the target letter, Taveras changed lawyers because his attorney, Stan Woodward, also represented [Walt] Nauta, which presented a conflict, sources said." ~~~

     ~~~ MB: I've read elsewhere that Trump is paying the fees of Taveras' current lawyer John Irving; it's not 100% definite that's true, as Irving has declined to comment on whether or not he represents Taveras.

It is most likely that, by the time we get on the debate stage on August 23, the [Republican presidential] front-runner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. -- Chris Christie, Sunday

Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "Yellow, the beleaguered trucking company that received a $700 million pandemic loan from the federal government, notified staff on Friday that it is shutting down and laying off employees at all of its locations. The move comes ahead of an expected bankruptcy filing by Yellow in the coming days. The closure of the company would mean the loss of approximately 30,000 jobs and mark the end of a business that just three years ago was deemed so critical to the nation's supply chains that it warranted a federal bailout.... Yellow is one of the largest freight trucking companies in the United States, and its downfall could have a ripple effect across the nation's supply chain.... In 2020, the Trump administration, which had ties to the company and its executives, agreed to give the firm a pandemic relief loan in exchange for the federal government assuming a 30 percent equity stake in the company."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "Now that climate change has raised the Earth's temperatures to the highest levels in recorded history, with projections showing that they will only climb further, new research shows the impact of heat on workers is spreading across the economy and lowering productivity. Extreme heat is regularly affecting workers beyond expected industries like agriculture and construction. Sizzling temperatures are causing problems for those who work in factories, warehouses and restaurants and also for employees of airlines and telecommunications firms, delivery services and energy companies. Even home health aides are running into trouble.... The cost is high. In 2021, more than 2.5 billion hours of labor in the U.S. agriculture, construction, manufacturing, and service sectors were lost to heat exposure, according to data compiled by The Lancet."

Beyond the Beltway

Arkansas. Annabelle Timsit of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked a state law that would have made it a crime for librarians and booksellers to give minors materials deemed 'harmful' to them -- a move celebrated by free-speech advocates, who had decried the law as a violation of individual liberties. Act 372 would have taken effect Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction Saturday, siding with bookstores, libraries and patrons in the state that argued in a lawsuit filed last month that parts of the law were unconstitutional."

Colorado. Amanda Holpuch of the New York Times: "A Colorado police officer was found guilty of two misdemeanors on Friday after facing charges for putting a handcuffed woman in a patrol car that was parked on active railroad tracks and then struck by a freight train. The Fort Lupton police officer, Jordan Steinke, is one of two officers facing criminal charges after Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, 21, was pulled over on the night of Sept. 16, 2022, and then struck by the train while trapped in the police car.... Ms. Rios-Gonzalez ... suffered 'severe head trauma' and 'serious bodily injury,' according to court records."

North Carolina. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: "A man driving an S.U.V. plowed into a group of six migrant workers outside a Walmart in Lincolnton, N.C., on Sunday in an 'intentional assault,' the police said. The attack took place just after 1:15 p.m., when the man, who was behind the wheel of a midsize black S.U.V. with a luggage rack, steered toward the group, according to a statement released on Sunday evening by the Lincolnton Police Department. The episode was caught on video, and the department was asking the public for help in identifying the vehicle or the driver. All six of the workers were transported to Atrium Health Lincoln with 'various injuries' that were not life-threatening, the police said."

Way Beyond

A Climate Warning from the Fertile Crescent. Alissa Rubin, et al., of the New York Times: "The word itself, Mesopotamia, means the land between rivers.... The rivers here, some scholars say, fed the fabled Hanging Gardens of Babylon and converged at the place described in the Bible as the Garden of Eden. Now, so little water remains in some villages near the Euphrates River that families are dismantling their homes, brick by brick, piling them into pickup trucks -- window frames, doors and all -- and driving away.... Nearly 40 percent of Iraq, an area roughly the size of Florida, has been overtaken by blowing desert sands that claim tens of thousands of acres of arable land every year. Climate change and desertification are to blame, scientists say. So are weak governance and the continued reliance on wasteful irrigation techniques that date back millenniums to Sumerian times."

Pakistan. Sophia Saifi & Allegra Goodwin of CNN: "At least 44 people died after a suicide bomber attacked a political convention organized by an Islamist party in northwestern Pakistan, police said. More than 100 were injured, 17 critically, in the attack targeting members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, who had gathered in the town of Khar, close to the border with Afghanistan. Local police said the attacker detonated explosives near the convention's stage. There has been no initial claim of responsibility for the attack. But the local branch of ISIS has previously targeted JUI-F party leaders as they consider them apostates." (Also linked yesterday.)

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "At least four people died, and 43 were injured after Russian missiles struck the southern city of Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine's Internal Affairs Ministry said Monday. Kryvyi Rih is President Zelensky's home town.]... On Sunday, Zelensky did not directly address Russia's accusation that Ukraine was behind weekend drone attacks in Moscow and Crimea, all of which Kremlin officials said were thwarted.... The Russian Defense Ministry said it thwarted a drone attack Sunday on Moscow and blamed Ukraine for the strike...."

News Ledes

New York Times: "Paul Reubens, the comic actor whose childlike alter-ego Pee-wee Herman became a movie and television sensation in the 1980s, and whose career was briefly derailed by a sex scandal in the early 1990s, died on Sunday. He was 70."

AP: "At about summer's halfway point, the record-breaking heat and weather extremes are both unprecedented and unsurprising.... Globally, June this year was the hottest June on record -- and scientists say July has been so hot that even before the month was over they could say it was the hottest month on record. But it's individual places where people live that the heat has stuck around and killed.Phoenix, where the last day of June and each day of July has been at least 110 degrees (43 degrees Celsius), set records for the longest mega-heat streak and longest stretch when the temperatures didn't go below 90 degrees (32 degrees Celsius) at night.... 'We are favoring above normal temperatures for the next three months,' said NOAA Climate Prediction Center meteorologist Matt Rosencrans." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Meanwhile, in New Hampshire, July 31 is forecast to be the coolest July 31 on record. Really.

July 30, 2023

Afternoon Update:

It is most likely that, by the time we get on the debate stage on August 23, the [Republican presidential] front-runner will be out on bail in four different jurisdictions. -- Chris Christie, Sunday

Arlette Saenz of CNN: "The Biden administration is launching a beta website for its new income-driven student loan repayment plan today, officials told CNN, allowing borrowers to begin submitting applications for the program as federal student loan payments are set to resume in October. The SAVE, or Saving on a Valuable Education, plan was finalized after the Supreme Court struck down President Joe Biden's student debt forgiveness initiative in June. It marks a significant change to the federal student loan system that could lower monthly loan payments for some borrowers and reduce the amount they pay back over the lifetime of their loans."

Pakistan. Sophia Saifi & Allegra Goodwin of CNN: "At least 44 people died after a suicide bomber attacked a political convention organized by an Islamist party in northwestern Pakistan, police said. More than 100 were injured, 17 critically, in the attack targeting members of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) party, who had gathered in the town of Khar, close to the border with Afghanistan. Local police said the attacker detonated explosives near the convention's stage. There has been no initial claim of responsibility for the attack. But the local branch of ISIS has previously targeted JUI-F party leaders as they consider them apostates."

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David Sanger & Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Biden administration is hunting for malicious computer code it believes China has hidden deep inside the networks controlling power grids, communications systems and water supplies that feed military bases in the United States and around the world, according to American military, intelligence and national security officials. The discovery of the malware has raised fears that Chinese hackers, probably working for the People's Liberation Army, have inserted code designed to disrupt U.S. military operations in the event of a conflict.... The malware, one congressional official said, was essentially 'a ticking time bomb' that could give China the power to interrupt or slow American military deployments or resupply operations by cutting off power, water and communications to U.S. military bases. But its impact could be far broader, because that same infrastructure often supplies the houses and businesses of ordinary Americans, according to U.S. officials."

Thomas Brewster of Forbes: "The Pentagon is investigating what it has called a 'critical compromise' of communications across 17 Air Force facilities by one of its engineers, according to a search warrant obtained by Forbes. The document also details evidence of a possible breach of FBI communications by the same employee, who worked at the Arnold Air Force Base in Tennessee. The government had been tipped off by a base contractor that the 48-year-old engineer had taken government radio technologies home, effectively stealing them for his own use, according to the warrant, which alleged the amount of pilfered equipment was worth nearly $90,000. When law enforcement raided his home, they found he had 'unauthorized administrator access' to radio communications tech used by the Air Education and Training Command (AETC), 'affecting 17 DoD installations,' according to the warrant. The AETC is one of nine 'major commands,' defined by the Pentagon as 'interrelated and complementary, providing offensive, defensive, and support elements' to Air Force HQ."

** Mike McIntire of the New York Times: "To understand the ascendancy of gun culture in America, the files of [Rep. John] Dingell, a powerful Michigan Democrat who died in 2019, are a good place to start. That is because he was not just a politician -- he simultaneously sat on the N.R.A.'s board of directors, positioning him to influence firearms policy as well as the private lobbying force responsible for shaping it.... Mr. Dingell was one of at least nine senators and representatives, both Republicans and Democrats, with the same dual role over the last half-century -- lawmaker-directors who helped the N.R.A. accumulate and exercise unrivaled power.... Over decades, politics, money and ideology altered gun culture, reframed the Second Amendment to embrace ever broader gun rights and opened the door to relentless marketing driven by fear rather than sport.... The lawmakers, far from the stereotype of pliable politicians meekly accepting talking points from lobbyists, served as leaders of the N.R.A., often prodding it to action." Read on.

Andrew Zhang of Politico: "House Democrats are putting Justice Samuel Alito on blast over his comments that Congress does not have the constitutional authority to regulate the Supreme Court. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal editorial page published an extensive interview with the conservative justice in which he pushed back against a Democratic-led effort to regulate the Supreme Court's ethics rules.... Senate Democrats last week passed a bill in committee that would revamp ethics and transparency standards for the court's justices. But the bill has little chance of proceeding any further in the Senate.... 'Alito's next opinion piece in the WSJ is about to be "I am a little king, actually. The Constitution doesn't explicitly say I'm not,"' Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) quipped.... 'This view is more than controversial; it's incorrect,' Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) posted on X."

Josh Dawsey, et al, of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump's political group spent more than $40 million on legal costs in the first half of 2023 to defend Trump, his advisers and others, according to people familiar with the matter, financing legal work that has drawn scrutiny from prosecutors about potential conflicts of interest between Trump and witnesses. Save America, the former president's PAC, is expected to disclose about $40.2 million in legal spending in a filing expected Monday.... Trump's advisers say the costs of providing lawyers for dozens of people are necessary and will continue mushrooming as investigations continue trials are scheduled, and the possibility of indictment looms.... In an indictment unsealed Thursday ... in the classified documents case, authorities allege that Trump called [Carlos] De Oliveira last August to tell him he would pay for his attorney. That same day, authorities said, [Walt] Nauta had a conversation with a different Trump employee who assured Nauta that De Oliveira was loyal to Trump.... The PAC's own fundraising and creation is under investigation, The Post has reported, though the group has not been accused of wrongdoing. Much of the money it is using to pay for legal bills was raised on false claims that the 2020 election was stolen." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "The political action committee that ... Donald J. Trump is using to pay his legal bills faced such staggering costs this year that it requested a refund on a $60 million contribution it made to another group supporting the Republican front-runner, according to two people familiar with the matter. The decision signals a potential money crisis for Mr. Trump, who has so far refused to pay his own voluminous bills directly and has also avoided creating a legal-defense fund for himself and people who have become entangled in the various investigations related to him." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: We should bear in mind that this is all wasted money. It would never have been necessary had Trump not been corrupt. For instance, his stupid, stupid donors are spending their own money to bail out Trump because he insisted on stealing and keeping some classified souvenirs. And of course all of us bear the cost of prosecuting him.

Caroline Anders of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Friday dismissed Donald Trump's lawsuit against CNN, in which the former president said the network defamed him by associating him with Adolf Hitler. Trump argued that by using the phrase the 'big lie' in reference to his unfounded claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, the network created an unfair association between him and the Nazi regime. Hitler and Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels used the term as a propaganda tool that involved repeating a falsehood until the public started to believe it. A quote, 'If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,' is often attributed to Goebbels, though it's unclear where the comment came from." The judge, Raag Singhal, is a Trump appointee. Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Singhal called CNN's use of the term "repugnant." Frankly, I don't find calling a big lie a big lie repugnant at all. If claiming you won an election you lost (then directing a coup based on that false claim) isn't a big lie, what is?

Presidential Race 2024

Toluse Olorunnipa, et al, of the Washington Post: "The 2024 presidential race ... is increasingly being consumed by a roiling debate over reexamining, redefining and reimagining its past. Over the past 10 days, candidates from across the political spectrum have discussed the intricacies of slavery, Reconstruction, military desegregation and lynching -- a rare moment in modern presidential politics when Black history has become a more dominant subject than more traditional topics like taxes or crime."

Crazy, Corrupt Old Man Holds Rally. Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump lashed out at Republicans in Congress while campaigning in Pennsylvania on Saturday, threatening members of his party who do not share his appetite for pursuing corruption investigations against President Biden and his family -- and for retribution. In a litany of grievances about his deepening legal woes and the direction of the country, the twice-indicted former president cast G.O.P. holdouts as meek during a rally in Erie, Pa., criticizing their response to what he described as politically motivated prosecutions against him.... 'Any Republican that doesn't act on Democratic fraud should be immediately primaried,' said Mr. Trump, to the roaring approval of several thousand supporters at the Erie Insurance Arena. Throughout the night he referenced the case against Hunter Biden and accused the president of complicity in his son's troubles." ~~~

~~~ Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump called on congressional Republicans to withhold military support for Ukraine until the Biden administration cooperates with their investigations into the president and his son Hunter Biden's business dealings. The demand, delivered at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, echoed Trump's conduct at issue during his first impeachment, when Trump withheld aid from Ukraine while pressuring the country's president to announce an investigation of Biden." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I wish Joe Biden's infrastructure bill had concentrated on building giant insane asylums all over the country for Trumpbots. You have to be crazy to think this guy should run anything. I doubt he can run his own bath.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "Political reporters at our leading news organizations routinely put a thumb on the scale in favor of the far right -- both by failing to call out its racist and increasingly homophobic nature, and by adopting right-wing frames in reporting current events." MB: I've linked some of the stories Froomkin cites, and I couldn't agree more. You have to look for the references to racism & homophobia in MSM stories about racism & homophobia if you find them at all. The whole journalistic project seems to embrace the rationale, "Let's not insult bigots because we might lose some bigoted subscribers."

Adam Satariano, et al., of the New York Times: Elon "Musk, who leads SpaceX, Tesla and Twitter, has become the most dominant player in space as he has steadily amassed power over the strategically significant field of satellite internet. Yet faced with little regulation and oversight, his erratic and personality-driven style has increasingly worried militaries and political leaders around the world, with the tech billionaire sometimes wielding his authority in unpredictable ways. Since 2019, Mr. Musk has sent SpaceX rockets into space nearly every week that deliver dozens of sofa-size satellites into orbit. The satellites communicate with terminals on Earth, so they can beam high-speed internet to nearly every corner of the planet. Today, more than 4,500 Starlink satellites are in the skies, accounting for more than 50 percent of all active satellites. They have already started changing the complexion of the night sky, even before accounting for Mr. Musk's plans to have as many as 42,000 satellites in orbit in the coming years.... Starlink is often the only way to get internet access in war zones, remote areas and places hit by natural disasters." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. The Turncoat. Kate Kelly & Davi Perrmutt of the New York Times: "When Tricia Cotham, a former Democratic lawmaker, was considering another run for the North Carolina House of Representatives, she turned to a powerful party leader for advice. Then, when she jumped into the Democratic primary, she was encouraged by still other formidable allies. She won the primary in a redrawn district near Charlotte, and then triumphed in the November general election by 18 percentage points, a victory that helped Democrats lock in enough seats to prevent, by a single vote, a Republican supermajority in the state House. Except what was unusual -- and not publicly known at the time -- was that the influential people who had privately encouraged Ms. Cotham to run were Republicans, not Democrats.... Three months after Ms. Cotham took office in January, she delivered a mortal shock to Democrats and to abortion rights supporters: She switched parties, and then cast a decisive vote on May 3 to override a veto by the state's Democratic governor and enact a 12-week limit on most abortions -- North Carolina's most restrictive abortion policy in 50 years."

Way Beyond

Africa. From Sea to Sea. Declan Walsh of the New York Times: "Africa's coup belt spans the continent: a line of six countries crossing 3,500 miles, from coast to coast, that has become the longest corridor of military rule on Earth. This past week's military takeover in the West African nation of Niger toppled the final domino in a band across the girth of Africa, from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, now controlled by juntas that came to power in a coup -- all but one in the past two years.... Russia has positioned itself as the torch bearer of anti-Western, and especially anti-French, sentiment in a swath of Africa in recent years.... For Wagner's mercurial boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin the run of coups is a business opportunity. His forces already operate openly in Mali and Sudan in the coup belt, as well as in the nearby Central African Republic and Libya. Hovering on the margins of the St. Petersburg summit this past week, Mr. Prigozhin praised the coup in Niger, then proposed sending his own armed fighters to help." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Colombia. AP: "Colombian police arrested the president's son Saturday as part of a high-profile money laundering probe into funds he allegedly collected from convicted drug traffickers during last year's presidential campaign. President Gustavo Petro, a former rebel who rose through Colombia's political ranks as an anti-corruption crusader, said he wouldn't interfere with the investigation."

Haiti. Justine McDaniel, et al, of the Washington Post: "An American woman and her child were allegedly kidnapped near Haiti's capital city on Thursday, according to the nonprofit organization she works for. The woman, Alix Dorsainvil, 31, is from New Hampshire but lives in the Caribbean nation and is married to the organization's director, Sandro Dorsainvil.... [Alix] is the organization's community health nurse.... On Thursday, the U.S. State Department ordered non-emergency U.S. government workers at the embassy in Port-au-Prince and diplomatic family members to evacuate and advised all American citizens in Haiti to leave."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "A barrage of Russian attacks on Saturday left civilians dead and buildings destroyed, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. It said Russia launched five missile strikes and 19 airstrikes and fired 30 times with multiple-launch rocket systems on cities and military forces. The attacks come as Ukraine ramps up a counteroffensive that, according to Russia, has included a number of mostly intercepted drone attacks on Moscow."

Jack's Cliffhangers

The cliffhanger is an underappreciated element of the special counsel's indictments of Donald Trump and his fellow defendants in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. I hear legal experts calling these indictments "speaking indictments," in that they go beyond the minimum requirement of an indictment to recite a list of the charges against the accused. Rather, these so-called speaking indictments lay out in some detail the facts and allegations underlying the case.

Jack Smith and his team have surpassed the standard speaking indictment. They have made something of a literary narrative of the case. But rather than leaving the public with self-contained short stories, each indictment contains at least one cliffhanger: one thread of the story left dangling so that readers wonder what happens next. That is, Smith weaves into his narrative an essential literary tool: the element of suspense.

In the original indictment, prosecutors tell the story of Trump's waving around a classified document in front of staff and people working on a book for Mark Meadows. None of these visitors -- according to the indictment -- had either classified clearances or a need to know the information in the document. (See esp. p. 2 & pp. 14 ff. of the indictment.) At that July 21, 2021 meeting at Trump's Bedminister club, Trump himself told his visitors the document he showed them was "highly confidential" and "secret." He also admitted that the document was classified and that, since he was no longer president*, he did not have the authority to declassify it. What Trump did not say was that Bedminster is not an "authorized location" to keep classified documents, and in fact Trump had no right to take any classified documents out of the White House when he left office.

Yet the prosecutors drop the Bedminster story right there. They don't tell us exactly what the classified document was or who wrote it. They don't tell us whether or not they have the document. And even though they devote several pages to this thread of the narrative, they don't charge Trump with any criminal act related to the incident. That is, they just leave the incident "out there," as if it's nothing more than an indication of how cavalier Trump is in his handling of classified documents.

This seemingly irrelevant sidebar left legal experts and other observers scratching their heads. I don't think many recognized the element of suspense. I suspect the suspense was intentional, even if the intended target audience was not us but Donald Trump. No sooner was the indictment published than Trump made a series of contradictory claims about the Bedminister incident. He first said, "There was no document there. ... That was not a document, per se. There was nothing to declassify. These were newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles." After audio of the taped conversation surfaced in the media, Trump claimed he had 'copies of different plans' in his desk. Finally, his defense morphed into an admission: "I would say it was bravado, if you want to know the truth. It was bravado... I was talking and just holding up papers and talking about them, but I had no documents." In other words, Trump's changing story was no help at all. He isn't just an infamous liar so nothing he says can be believed; his final "defense" of this episode was to declare he was lying to his guests. 

But it turns out the Bedminster incident, as depicted in the original indictment, was a tease or preview of the superseding indictment. All will be explained in Episode 2. The dangling "loose end" wasn't loose at all. It was a cliffhanger. Tune in next month.

In the superseding indictment, released this past Thursday night, Smith revealed that prosecutors had possession of the Bedminster document (see p. 37, Count 32). More important, prosecutors charged Trump with an additional crime for the Bedminster "presentation," which they assert was "in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(e)." That is, the crime Trump committed at Bedminster was hiding in plain sight in the original indictment, but it was neither specified nor charged until Smith released the superseding indictment.

The Bedminister story was not Jack Smith's last cliffhanger. The superseding indictment leaves us with its own cliffhanger, one presented in a form and situation so common to episodic teevee mysteries and thrillers that everyone should recognize it. In formulaic scenes and finale, a subpoena for surveillance tapes threatens to reveal that Trump is still hoarding classified documents. (See pp. 27 ff. of the superseding indictment.) Oh noes! What to do, what to do? Trump and co-defendant Walt Nauta are in Bedminister, a thousand miles from Mar-a-Lago and Trump is scheduled to hold a rally in Illinois the following day. Nauta, Trump's body man, is supposed to go to Illinois with Trump, but Trump quickly dispatches Nauta to fly down to Mar-a-Lago instead, with an implied mission to destroy the taped evidence.

Once at Mar-a-Lago, Nauta and new defendant Carlos De Oliveira, a former Mar-a-Lago car valet and maintenance man, now described as a "property manager," skulk through a dark tunnel armed with flashlights to help them find surveillance cameras.

Subsequently, De Oliveira lures "Trump Employee 4" to a secret meeting in a windowless closet. Reporters quickly figured out the mysterious Employee 4 was "Yuscil Taveras, an information technology worker. Taveras oversaw the surveillance camera footage at the property." After insisting that the conversation remain private, De Oliveira told Taveras that "the boss" -- that is, Trump -- wanted a surveillance camera server deleted. Taveras was skeptical of the plan, according to prosecutors. He told De Oliveira "that he would not know how to do that, and that he did not believe that he would have the rights to do that." After some unspecified back-and-forth, the conversation ends, at least as far as Smith's narrative goes, with De Oliveira asking, "What are we going to do?"

Oh, cue ominous music. What indeed? That is the question. The superseding indictment leaves us hanging.

But -- unlike the cliffhanger in the original indictment -- this one at least lets us know that the question does not end the story. There is more to come. For one thing, the conversation-in-a-closet did not end the conspiracy among Trump and his co-defendants to destroy evidence that the government had subpoenaed. After De Oliveira's apparently inconclusive meeting with Taveras, Nauta and De Oliveira held two secretive meetings in the bushes of a property that abuts Mar-a-Lago (really!). Between those two clandestine meetings, according to the indictment, De Oliveira visited the IT office. There was a subsequent phone conversation between De Oliveira and Nauta.

We don't know what Nauta and De Oliveira said to each other in those meetings and phone call. We don't know what, if anything, was decided or promised during De Oliveira's visit to the IT office. We don't know if Trump's IT personnel refused to delete the surveillance server or if someone in IT tried and failed to delete the server. We don't know if someone in IT thought s/he had deleted the server but later the government was able to retrieve the video footage. We don't know if the Trump Organization turned over only a portion of the tapes while the co-conspirators managed to get some deleted.

What we do know is that the government did obtain enough surveillance footage to incriminate the defendants: in the first paragraph following the story of the meetings in the bushes, we learn that "In July 2022, the FBI and grand jury obtained and reviewed surveillance video from The Mar-a-Lago Club showing the movement of boxes...."

It seems unlikely that the special counsel will bring another superseding indictment, if only because each new indictment is apt to move back the trial date. Maybe reporters will ferret out the answer to this new cliffhanger, as they have done in other pieces of this story. Or perhaps the trial itself is Episode 3.