May 15, 2023

Afternoon Update:

Your Tax Dollars Going Down Rabbit Holes. Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times:"John Durham, the Trump-era special counsel who for four years has pursued a politically fraught investigation into the Russia inquiry, accused the F.B.I. of a 'lack of analytical rigor' in a final report made public on Monday that examined the bureau's investigation into whether the 2016 Trump campaign was conspiring with Moscow. Mr. Durham's 306-page report appeared to show little substantial new information about the F.B.I.'s handling of the Russia investigation..., and it failed to produce the kinds of blockbuster revelations impugning the bureau that ... Donald J. Trump and his allies had once suggested that Mr. Durham would find. Instead, the report -- released without substantive comment or redactions by Attorney General Merrick B. Garland -- repeated previously exposed flaws in the inquiry, including from a 2019 inspector general report, while concluding that the F.B.I. suffered from a confirmation bias as it pursued leads about Mr. Trump's ties to Russia." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Read on. The Durham "report" sounds less like a report than a documented conspiracy theory that -- after four years of "investigating" -- couldn't find any facts to support it. ~~~

     ~~~ Politico's report is here. The so-called Durham report, via the DOJ, is here.

Luke Broadwater & Remy Tumin of the New York Times: "A man armed with a baseball bat and demanding to see Representative Gerald E. Connolly, Democrat of Virginia, attacked and injured two staff aides ... with what appeared to be a metal baseball bat ... in a destructive rampage inside the congressman's Fairfax, Va., office, the latest episode in a surge of political violence across the country. Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, of Fairfax, was facing charges for one count of felony aggravated malicious wounding and one count of malicious wounding, according to the Fairfax City Police Department. He was being held without bond. Police said they had not yet identified a motive, and Capitol Police said in a statement that the suspect was not known to them.... The two aides [were] taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries."

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Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Relative quiet has prevailed along the southern U.S. border since Friday, despite widespread fears that ending a pandemic-era policy to immediately expel most migrants, even asylum seekers, would set off a stampede from Mexico. A surge in migrants did in fact happen, in the run-up to the expiration of the pandemic-era expulsion policy, known as Title 42. Uncertain of the impact of new deterrent measures, migrants braved turbulent rivers, cut through concertina wire and scaled the steel border wall to reach the United States and turn themselves in to U.S. Border Patrol agents. On some days last week, apprehensions reached about 11,000, among the highest recorded. Alejandro Mayorkas, Homeland Security secretary, said on Sunday that agents apprehended only 6,300 migrants on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday."

     ~~~ Marie: They "scaled the steel border wall"? Unpossible!

Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) sees the military in a dramatic leftward lurch that has hurt recruiting and combat readiness. The third-year senator believes Pentagon leaders are forcing troops to read liberal books. That they are helping provide abortion services. And, in new remarks the past few days, that they are inappropriately driving 'white nationalists' out of the service. 'They're politicizing the military so much, they're ruining our military,' Tuberville told reporters on Thursday, noting that the Army missed its 2022 recruiting goal by 25 percent. 'Something's going wrong in our military.' These positions have placed Tuberville -- whose military background consists of using war metaphors to inspire his teams during three decades coaching college football -- in the spotlight as the leading conservative antagonist to the Defense Department.... Tuberville made things more complicated when he gave an interview to his local public radio station on Wednesday that criticized Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin for trying 'to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists' from the military." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Probably worth at least skimming the whole article so you can catch the nuances of Sen. Potatohead's racism, nuances which seem to have eluded him, of course. A commentator on MSNBC noted that before becoming a U.S. senator, Coach Potatohead enjoyed an entire career as the master of a Black slave plantation system known as college football. You know, where the strong Black kids do all the grueling work for no pay and the master orders them around & berates them? ~~~

~~~ Nice to know the Senate Republican caucus is an equal-opportunity racist outfit: ~~~

     ~~~ Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Mexicans 'would be eating cat food out of a can and living in a tent behind an Outback' Steakhouse restaurant if it were not for their nation's proximity to the US, and their country should be invaded because of the presence of drug cartels there, the US senator John Neely Kennedy said. The Louisiana Republican's racist remarks drew a strong condemnation from Mexico's foreign affairs secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, who called Kennedy 'a profoundly ignorant man'. Mexico's president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, meanwhile, urged the 37 million Americans of Mexican descent -- along with other Latinos in the US -- 'not to vote for people with this very arrogant, very offensive and very foolish mentality' in the future."

The Spy Who Went Out in the Cold. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Rep. James Comer (R-KY) revealed on Sunday that Republicans had lost track of a top witness in the investigation of President Joe Biden and his family.... 'Well, unfortunately, we can't track down the informant," Comer [told conspiracy-credulous Fox 'News' star Maria Bartiromo].... Comer ... explain[ed] the informant was in the 'spy business' and 'they don't make a habit of being seen a lot.'" MB: Comer & Jungle Gym Jordan have been "investigating" Joe Biden's supposed rampant corruption for months. Despite their promises of blockbuster revelations, their show hearings have showed nothing. So now they're resorting to dog-ate-my-homework excuses.

Hunter Walker of TPM: “The ChickenRight persona was a unique figure in the [white-supremacist] Groyper movement. [Nick] Fuentes' core audience is made up of young, alienated 'Zoomers' who watch his hours-long streams, in which he rails against minorities and gays.... TPM has uncovered an extensive digital trail of interconnected Groyper social media pages using variations of the 'ChickenRight' and 'Chikken' handles that can be linked to Wade Searle, who works as the digital director for Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ), one of the most extreme, far-right members of Congress.... 'The Groypers are essentially the equivalent of neo-Nazis,' said [historian Nicole] Hemmer.... Gosar has his own direct links to Fuentes."

Oh why oh why are so many right-wingers corrupt? ~~~

~~~ David Fahrenthold & Tiff Fehr of the New York Times: "A group of conservative operatives using sophisticated robocalls raised millions of dollars from donors using pro-police and pro-veteran messages. But instead of using the money to promote issues and candidates, an analysis by The New York Times shows, nearly all the money went to pay the firms making the calls and the operatives themselves, highlighting a flaw in the regulation of political nonprofits.... A group of five linked nonprofits ... have exploited thousands of donors in ways that have been hidden until now by a blizzard of filings, lax oversight and a blind spot in the campaign finance system.... Just 1 percent of the money they raised was used to help candidates.... The groups ... paid $2.8 million, or 3 percent of the money raised, to three Republican political consultants from Wisconsin who were the hidden force behind all five nonprofits...."

Talmon Smith of the New York Times: "An intergenerational transfer of wealth is in motion in America -- and it will dwarf any of the past.... Born in midcentury as U.S. birthrates surged in tandem with an enormous leap in prosperity after the Depression and World War II, [baby] boomers are now beginning to die in larger numbers, along with Americans over 80.... The wealthiest 10 percent of households will be giving and receiving a majority of the riches. Within that range, the top 1 percent -- which holds about as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, and is predominantly white -- will dictate the broadest share of the money flow.... The scale of the transfer is made possible in part by the U.S. tax code. Individuals can transmit up to $12.9 million to heirs, during life or at death, without federal estate tax (and $26 million for married couples).... Legally approved forms of tax avoidance are the major tool of wealth preservation."

Julia Mueller of the Hill: "Former President Trump has said he'll bring back his former national security adviser Michael Flynn if he wins another four years in the White House in 2024. 'I will say, General Flynn, he's some general. He's some man. He took abuse like nobody could have handled, and he came out bigger, better, stronger than ever before,' Trump said via phone to the 'ReAwaken America' rally at Trump National Doral Miami, according to a Rolling Stone report.... [Flynn] has been tied to QAnon and backed Trump's claims of widespread election fraud." ~~~

     ~~~ The AP & Frontline describe the ReAwaken America tour, which Michael Flynn co-founded after January 6, 2021, "as a traveling roadshow and recruiting tool for an ascendant Christian nationalist movement that's wrapped itself in God, patriotism and politics and has grown in power and influence inside the Republican Party." ~~~

     ~~~ Alex Deluca of the Miami News Times (May 11): "Scott McKay and Charlie Ward, two purveyors of anti-Semitic and occult conspiracy theories, have been removed from the scheduled list of speakers for the ReAwaken America tour stop at the Trump National Doral Miami resort on May 12-13. Prominent attorney and Trump family confidant Alan Dershowitz said on his podcast on the Rumble platform that Eric Trump, one of the event headliners, confirmed McKay would not be allowed on the Trump property."

Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "The US rental car giant Hertz has apologized and pledged to retrain its staff after an employee denied a Puerto Rican customer a prepaid vehicle on the mistaken belief that he was from a foreign country and needed a passport. During the encounter with the customer at New Orleans's Louis Armstrong international airport, the Hertz employee also waved over a law enforcement officer who allegedly threatened to turn the man over to immigration authorities even though Puerto Rico has been a US territory since 1898 and has a representative in Congress as well, according to a stunning report which CBS correspondent David Begnaud published on Twitter and Instagram late Saturday."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "A Florida teacher under investigation because she showed her class the Disney animated movie Strange World which features a gay character has defended herself on social media, insisting the film related to the curriculum and warning that state investigators were traumatizing her 10- and 11-year-old students. Jenna Barbee, a teacher at Winding Waters school in Hernando county, Florida, released a six-minute TikTok video in which she gave her side of the story. She said she had been reported to the local school board by one of her students' mother, who sits on the board and was on a 'rampage to get rid of every form of representation out of our schools', Barbee alleged.... On Sunday, the Tallahassee Democrat named the parent and board member who had reported Barbee as Shannon Rodriguez. A member of the rightwing group Moms for Liberty, Rodriguez has been a leader of demands to have books she describes as 'smut' and 'porn' taken off library and school shelves." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You call this smut? What about Donald Duck doesn't wear pants?

Way Beyond

Thailand. Sui-Lee Wee & Muktita Suhartono of the New York Times: "Voters in Thailand overwhelmingly sought to end nearly a decade of military rule on Sunday, casting ballots in favor of two opposition parties that have pledged to curtail the power of the country's powerful conservative institutions: the military and the monarchy. With 97 percent of the votes counted early Monday morning, the progressive Move Forward Party was neck and neck with the populist Pheu Thai Party. Move Forward had won 151 seats to Pheu Thai's 141 in the 500-seat House of Representatives. In most parliamentary systems, the two parties would form a new governing coalition and choose a prime minister. But under the rules of the current Thai system, written by the military after its 2014 coup, the junta will still play kingmaker."

Turkey. Ben Hubbard & Gulsin Harman of the New York Times: "Turkey's presidential election appeared on Sunday to be headed for a runoff after the incumbent, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, failed to win a majority of the vote, a result that left the longtime leader struggling to stave off the toughest political challenge of his career. The outcome of the vote set the stage for a two-week battle between Mr. Erdogan and Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the opposition leader, to secure victory in a May 28 runoff that may reshape Turkey's political landscape. With the unofficial count nearly completed, Mr. Erdogan received 49.4 percent of the vote to Mr. Kilicdaroglu's 44.8 percent, according to the state-run Anadolu news agency. But both sides claimed to be ahead."

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Monday is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the United Kingdom Monday morning, the latest stop on a tour of Western European countries aimed at securing new aid commitments for the war and maintaining the support of Kyiv's allies. Zelensky previously secured fresh commitments from Berlin and Paris for military aid and support during weekend visits to those cities.... Zelensky will meet with British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at his official countryside retreat, Chequers, for talks about the war, the prime minister's office said in a statement.... Chinese envoy Li Hui arrives in Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, on Monday. He will be the highest-ranking Chinese diplomat to visit since the start of the war.... The head of the Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group offered to give Russian troop locations to Ukraine if Ukraine's commanders withdrew their soldiers from the area around Bakhmut, leaked intelligence documents reveal. Wagner mercenaries are taking heavy losses in the beleaguered Ukrainian city."

News Lede

New York Times: "An 18-year-old gunman fired indiscriminately while roaming a residential street in Farmington, N.M., on Monday morning, killing three people before the police arrived and killed the suspect, the authorities said. Six other people, including two officers, were injured.... Chief Steve Hebbe of the Farmington Police Department said in a video statement released on Monday night ... that the rampage appeared to be 'purely random.' Chief Hebbe said that the gunman, whom he did not name, had used at least three different weapons, including an 'AR-style rifle,' a gun commonly used in mass shootings, as he roamed through the neighborhood, randomly firing 'at whatever entered his head to shoot at' including at least six houses and three cars."

May 14, 2023

Peter Baker & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "President Biden declared on Saturday that white supremacy is 'the most dangerous terrorist threat to our homeland' and warned a predominantly Black audience that 'sinister forces' embraced by his predecessor and putative challenger are trying to reverse generations of racial progress in America. Mr. Biden never named ... Donald J. Trump in his sometimes stark commencement address to the graduating class of Howard University, the nation’s most prestigious historically Black college. He alluded, however, to Mr. Trump's past statements to link him to racist elements in American society and suggest that the presidential campaign that has just gotten underway will determine whether justice will prevail over hate, fear and violence." CNN's story is here.

Republicans Back Vigilante Killer. Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: "In the nearly two weeks since Daniel Penny was recorded killing Jordan Neely on a New York City subway with a minutes-long chokehold, the 24-year-old Marine Corps veteran has faced calls to be arrested, been denounced as a vigilante by activists and been labeled a 'murderer' by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). But in the lead-up to the Manhattan district attorney's office charging him with second-degree manslaughter, Penny has found a groundswell of financial and online support from high-profile Republicans such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Fox News personalities and conservatives on Elon Musk's Twitter. Many of them have rallied around Penny and hailed the veteran as a 'hero' and 'good Samaritan.' 'The Marine who stepped in to protect others is a hero,' tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).A legal-defense fund set up by Penny's attorneys on a crowdfunding site that has hosted fundraisers for defendants in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection and Kyle Rittenhouse had raised more than $1 million as of Saturday afternoon." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait, wait. Good Samaritan?? In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Samaritan (who represents an "outsider" group) helps a Jewish guy left for dead by the side of the road. Penny, who is a white guy (thus an "insider"), killed the guy in distress by the side of the subway. The point of the Good Samaritan parable is to establish "who is my neighbor?": the outsider Samaritan, or some "insider" priestly fellows who ignored the man in distress. The answer is obvious. That is, DeSantis is holding up Penny as a good neighbor. Katie, bar the door.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times thinks Kaitlin Collins was "terrific" and airing the Trump Show was a good thing. "Trump is spiraling into even more of a self-deluded narcissist, if that's possible.... The town hall was enlightening -- and frightening. But we needed that reminder to be on full alert, because Trump is not just an unhinged and dangerous extremist; he is also a cunning and dominating insurgent. The argument that the media should ignore Trump and keep him under a bushel basket is ridiculous.... President Biden needs to see what he's up against." ~~~

~~~ The Lincoln Project disagrees. Here's a video they have labeled "Wrongump":

Anna Fazackerley of the Guardian/Observer: "Some of the UK's top scientists are struggling to deal with what they describe as a huge rise in abuse from climate crisis deniers on Twitter since the social media platform was taken over by Elon Musk last year. Since then..., several users with millions of followers who propagate false statements about the climate emergency, including Donald Trump and rightwing culture warrior Jordan Peterson, have had their accounts reinstated. Climate scientists say the change has been stark, and they are fighting to make themselves heard over a 'barrage' of often hostile comments. 'There's been a massive change,' said Mark Maslin, professor of earth system science at University College London and the author of popular books including How to Save Our Planet.”

Beyond the Beltway

North Carolina. Kate Kelly of the New York Times: "The governor of North Carolina, Roy Cooper, vetoed a ban on abortion that was passed by the state's Republican-led legislature. The bill prohibited abortion past 12 weeks, with some exceptions for rape, incest or to preserve the life and health of the mother. The veto by Mr. Cooper, a Democrat, sets him up for a showdown with the legislature, which now has a slim Republican supermajority. That means it has the power to override his veto and enact the ban, if the party can muster enough votes. Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning in Raleigh for Mr. Cooper's 'veto rally' to watch him sign as a way to call attention to his fight with Republicans."

Way Beyond

Turkey. Kareem Fahim of the Washington Post: "Voters across Turkey headed to the polls Sunday in a crucial election pitting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who has rallied a broad coalition of opposition parties to his side, leaving Erdogan more vulnerable to defeat than ever before.... Kilicdaroglu has promised to usher Turkey, a NATO member, into a new era by revitalizing democracy after years of government repression and refreshing ties with Turkey’s allies in the West."

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Sunday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Berlin on a visit that could help repair the strained ties between Kyiv and Germany, a country that for decades has preferred to avoid involvement in military conflicts. At a news conference with Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky described a new German defense package as 'a very strong pillar of support' and thanked Germany 'for every life in Ukraine you saved.'... Zelensky also met with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the trip, his first to the country since the Russian invasion began.... For the first time, Russia appeared to acknowledge Ukrainian claims of an advance in the embattled eastern city of Bakhmut. Russian troops retreated from some northwest positions in Bakhmut, according to Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov, who described the move as a decision to 'enhance defense lines.'"

Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine met [Pope] Francis in the Vatican on Saturday, part of a whirlwind visit to Rome that included talks with Italy's president and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, both of whom offered their full support.... Ms. Meloni, who greeted Mr. Zelensky warmly before a 70-minute meeting, affirm[ed] her staunch support of Ukraine's war effort.... The pope has sought to position himself as a potential peacemaker in a way that critics, including Ukrainian officials, argue is counterproductive to the achievement not only of Ukrainian victory, but also of a real and just peace. To preserve the Vatican's traditional neutrality, Francis, while consistently expressing sympathy for the suffering of Ukrainians, has made often confusing and contradictory remarks about whether he blames President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia for the invasion of Ukraine.... [He said recently he was working on a secret peace plan.] Asked afterwards on Italian television whether Francis ... could be a peacemaker between him and Mr. Putin, Mr. Zelensky said 'with all respect for His Holiness,' Ukraine did not need mediators because 'you can't do mediation with Putin.'"

Erica Solomon & Christopher Schuetze of the New York Times: "Germany on Saturday sent the strongest signal yet of its commitment to backing Ukraine in its battle against Russian occupiers, promising more tanks, armored vehicles and substantial air defense systems in its largest weapons package for Kyiv. The arms package, totaling 2.7 billion euros, or about $2.95 billion, amounted to roughly as much as Germany's total military aid to Ukraine since the war began in February 2022. The move was part of a budding effort by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to draw a line under a year of rocky relations over Germany's hesitancy to provide weapons and solidify a partnership that may prove increasingly critical to maintaining European unity in backing the war."

John Hudson & Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has won the trust of Western governments by refusing to use the weapons they provide for attacks inside Russia.... But behind closed doors, Ukraine's leader has proposed going in a more audacious direction -- occupying Russian villages to gain leverage over Moscow, bombing a pipeline that transfers Russian oil to Hungary, a NATO member, and privately pining for long-range missiles to hit targets inside Russia's borders, according to classified U.S. intelligence documents detailing his internal communications with top aides and military leaders. The documents, which have not been previously disclosed, are part of a broader leak of U.S. secrets circulated on the Discord messaging platform and obtained by The Washington Post. They reveal a leader with aggressive instincts that sharply contrast with his public-facing image as the calm and stoic statesman weathering Russia's brutal onslaught."

May 13, 2023

Another GOP Show Hearing Goes Awry. Stephen Groves of the AP: "An ex-prosecutor who once oversaw Manhattan's investigation of ... Donald Trump declined to substantively answer questions at a closed-door deposition Friday of the House Judiciary Committee, according to a Republican lawmaker in the meeting. The prosecutor and his boss said he was merely abiding by grand jury rules. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, exited the meeting after roughly one hour and said Mark Pomerantz, the former prosecutor, repeatedly invoked the Fifth Amendment that protects people from providing self-incriminating testimony.... Issa ... told reporters, 'This is an obstructing witness who has no intention of answering any questions.'... Pomerantz in a written opening statement called the committee's inquiry itself 'an act of political theater.' He also explained he was invoking the Fifth Amendment because the Manhattan District Attorney's office had previously warned him before he published a book on the investigation that he could face criminal liability if he revealed grand jury material or violated a provision of the New York City Charter dealing with misuse of confidential information."

Robert Legare of CBS News: "In the same Washington, D.C., courthouse where the Justice Department has been convening grand juries to investigate ... Donald Trump's actions around the 2020 presidential election and his handling of classified documents, federal prosecutors managing a separate case were successful Friday in their request to delay a Trump deposition that had been scheduled for later this month in a four-year-old civil lawsuit filed by former FBI officials. Former FBI counterintelligence official Peter Strzok and a one-time attorney at the Bureau, Lisa Page, sued the Justice Department after they were both fired during the federal probe into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. In the course of the investigation, text messages exchanged by the two revealed anti-Trump sentiments.... In a minute order issued Friday evening, Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled in favor of the Justice Department's request that FBI Director Christopher Wray be deposed before Strzok has a chance to question Trump."

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post notices how Republican lawmakers all over the country have suddenly become anti-business, Soviet-style economic planners.

** Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "The problem of the Supreme Court isn't that its members are mired in ethics scandals (although they are). It isn't that it's been captured by a network of conservative apparatchiks and right-wing billionaires (although it has). No, the problem of the Supreme Court is that it is a powerful and unaccountable branch of government whose traditional role has been to protect the rights of property and the prerogatives of the privileged above all other concerns. And on those rare occasions where the court has worked for the interests of ordinary Americans -- for workers, for Black Americans, for sexual minorities -- it has been to either reverse previous decisions (such as Brown v. Board of Education's reversal of Plessy v. Ferguson) or free Congress to enforce the Constitution as written.... If the court appeared liberal -- or at least friendly to liberalism -- in the first decades after the Second World War, it was because of the hegemony of New Deal liberalism over American politics, not because of any inherent quality of the Supreme Court itself.... [And] without court expansion or other serious reforms to the structure of the court -- and absent unforeseen circumstances like an inopportune death -- Republicans can expect to hold a majority on the Supreme Court until 2065, according to a recent [academic] paper...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Bouie's analysis may sound radical to you, but I think he's got it just right. And when you think about it, any institution that fairly demands its members come up through the ranks of Harvard & Yale Law School alumni is not likely to be egalitarian in nature.

No Surprise Here. Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "CNN media reporter Oliver Darcy was reportedly scolded by his boss Chris Licht, the chairman and CEO of the network, over his critical coverage of the network's Trump town hall on Wednesday night. Puck's Dylan Byers reported Friday that Licht 'summoned' Darcy 'and his editor to a meeting with himself and top executives in which they told him that his coverage of Trump town hall had been too emotional and stressed the importance of remaining dispassionate.'... 'Darcy stood by his work and pushed back on the "emotional" characterization, one source with knowledge of the meeting said. But afterward two sources who heard about the meeting described him as visibly shaken,' Byers reported.... Darcy took over Brian Stelter's Reliable Sources newsletter after Licht ousted Stelter at the network." MB: Licht fired Stelter and some other CNN personalities, supposedly because they were "too liberal." ~~~

~~~ Anderson Drinks the Kool-Aid, Passes Out Free Samples. Samantha Chery of the Washington Post: "CNN star Anderson Cooper defended his network's widely reviled town hall with ... Donald Trump, condemning 'ridiculous lies' Trump told at the event, but also admonishing critics who feel that CNN should have never held it.... Cooper said on his show late Thursday..., '...do you think staying in your silo and only listening to people you agree with is going to make that person go away?'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Anderson, do you think giving a platform designed to make the popular leader of a coup look good is going to make him go away? ~~~

     ~~~ Late yesterday in the Comments section, Akhilleus wrote a very good “and another thing' about CNN's The Trump Show disaster. One of the perps Akhilleus mentioned was this guy: "CNN is now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Discovery's largest shareholder, who now has a seat on CNN's board, is John Malone, a right-wing media billionaire who has publicly stated that his goal is to remake CNN in the mold of Fox News." Yes, you say, but maybe Malone is among those right-wing billionaires who don't like Trump. Well, whaddaboud this:

A frequent donor to Republican candidates and causes, [Malone] chipped in $250,000 to Trump's inauguration fund, tens of thousands of dollars to Trump's 2020 campaign and political committees focused on his reelection, and even 'contributed to Trump's "Save America" PAC, which funded the January 6 rally' at which Trump encouraged the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol, as my former colleague Parker Molloy reported. -- Matt Gertz of Media Matters, a column worth reading in full

Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "Many audience members at CNN's town hall with ... Donald Trump on Wednesday were 'disgusted' and 'bewildered' by the spectacle, but were told to be respectful and not to boo, according to a report. 'The floor manager came out ahead of time and said, Please do not boo, please be respectful. You were allowed to applaud,' claimed Republican political consultant Matthew Bartlett in an interview with Puck News senior political correspondent Tara Palmeri on Thursday.... He estimated that while around half of the audience expressed vocal support for Trump, the other half sat in silence. Bartlett also alleged that Trump repeatedly 'lost the audience' when he spoke about topics like January 6 or the results of the 2020 election, despite the appearance on CNN that the audience was consistently on his side." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If it's true the show's floor manager went out of his way to make the audience look more Trumpish than they actually were, CNN looks even worse.

Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson was willing to threaten lower-level company employees he felt were hurting the Fox brand by running critical stories about Donald Trump, newly-revealed text messages obtained by The Daily Beast show.... 'I'm happy to start threatening people individually,' [Carlson wrote in November 2020 in a text to his producer Justin Wells, whom Fox also terminated]. 'It's too much. And again, it will hurt us badly if we let it continue.'" The issue at hand was a print story about Trump's doing the annual turkey pardon despite being a lame duck president*.

Beyond the Beltway

Nevada. Gideon Rubin of the Raw Story: "A group of Nevada Republican electors who submitted paperwork that falsely claimed that Donald Trump won the Silver State's 2020 election will not face state charges, KLAS-TV Las Vegas reports. Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, a Democrat, said Thursday that the fake electors won't face charges because the state doesn't have a statute under which they can be prosecuted. Former Nevada Secretary of State Barbara Cegavske, a Republican, oversaw the official certification of the state's six electoral votes for Joe Biden, who won the state by more than 33,000 votes. On the same day the election was certified, the Nevada GOP's six electors signed paperwork indicating their support for Trump in a symbolic ceremony. Nevada GOP Party Chair Michael McDonald and 2024 U.S. Senate candidate Jim Marchant were among those who signed on." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, I'll bet Ford could have found a state statute that would have worked. According to the KLAS story, "Upon receiving the fake electoral votes from the Nevada GOP, the U.S. Senate Parliamentarian noted the document contained 'no seal of the state' and 'no evidence votes were delivered by the executive of the state for signature by electors,' the committee's final report said." That is, Nevada's fake electors submitted their fake certification notice to the U.S. Parliamentarian. It's almost certain Nevada has a general statute outlawing the signing of false documents. Without it, people would be signing false statements whenever it was to their advantage to do so.

New York. Hurubie Meko & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: "Daniel Penny, the Marine veteran who choked and killed Jordan Neely, a homeless man, on the subway last week, surrendered on Friday to face a charge of second-degree manslaughter. Mr. Penny, 24..., walked through the front doors of the Police Department's Fifth Precinct at around 8 a.m. Hands cuffed behind his back, Mr. Penny was led out of the precinct at 10:38 a.m. He was put into a waiting black police car to be taken to Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was to be arraigned later Friday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "Daniel Penny, who while riding the subway last week choked Jordan Neely, a homeless man, to death, was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court Friday on a charge of second-degree manslaughter, taking his first formal steps as a defendant in a case that has stunned New York City."

Way Beyond

Pakistan. Sophia Saifi, et al., of CNN: "Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan, has been granted bail by the Islamabad High Court, days after his dramatic arrest over corruption charges set off a deadly outpouring of anger against the country's military. Khan left the court on Friday under police protection to return to Lahore. Before leaving, he predicted he could be arrested again, despite a court order barring authorities from arresting him on any charges until Monday."

Russia. Welcome to Trumpingrad! Tim Hume of Vice: "Plans are underway in Russia to build a settlement for conservative American and Canadian immigrants seeking to leave the West 'for ideological reasons,' at least according to a Moscow-based immigration lawyer. Timur Beslangurov, a partner in the law firm VISTA Immigration, claimed that construction would begin next year on a village in the Moscow region for about 200 families from North America, financed by the immigrants themselves.... VICE News contacted Beslangurov asking for further information on the reported project, and to speak with some of the hundreds of potential Western immigrants he said existed to help verify his claims, but he replied that he wasn't able to provide further information 'at this stage.' Russian President Vladimir Putin has wooed Western right-wingers and conservatives by positioning himself as a staunch defender of a traditionalist, Christian European identity, resulting in pro-Russian narratives about the invasion of Ukraine becoming widespread in far-right and conspiracist networks."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Saturday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky landed in Rome Saturday, where he will hold meetings with Italy's president and prime minister. He is also set to meet with Pope Francis at the Vatican. It is the first time he is meeting the pontiff since Russia's invasion, though ultimately Francis' influence over the conflict may be limited. Ukrainian officials announced air alerts throughout the country early Saturday, reporting multiple injuries."