July 15, 2022

The New York Times' live updates of President Biden's trip to the Middle East are here: "Saudi Arabia has taken a small step toward normalizing relations with Israel by agreeing to allow Israeli planes to fly between the two countries, President Biden said on Friday -- a new example of the growing ties between Israel and the Arab world after decades of diplomatic isolation.... On the eve of Mr. Biden's visit, the White House announced several financial measures intended to improve Palestinian life but stopped short of a political process to create a Palestinian state and left several Trump-era measures in place."

Bethan McKernan of the Guardian: "Joe Biden has defended his imminent trip to Saudi Arabia, saying he will not avoid human rights issues on the final leg of his Middle East tour, despite refusing to commit to mentioning the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi when he meets the kingdom's crown prince. Speaking during a news conference with the interim Israeli prime minister, Yair Lapid, in Jerusalem on Thursday, the US leader said his stance on Khashoggi's killing was 'absolutely' clear. US intelligence services concluded last year that Khashoggi’s 2018 killing at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was approved by the powerful heir to the throne, Mohammed bin Salman."

Burn Planet, Burn. Emily Cochrane & Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, pulled the plug on Thursday on negotiations to salvage ke pieces of President Biden's agenda, informing his party's leaders that he would not support funding for climate or energy programs or raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. The decision by Mr. Manchin, a conservative-leaning Democrat whose opposition has effectively stalled Mr. Biden's economic package in the evenly divided Senate, dealt a devastating blow to his party's efforts to enact a broad social safety net, climate and tax package." The Hill's report is here.

How Conveeeenient. Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Text messages sent and received by Secret Service agents around the time of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol last year have been erased, an inspector general said on Thursday, prompting concern from the House committee investigating the assault. In a letter obtained by The New York Times, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of the Secret Service, reported that many of the agents' texts were erased as part of a device replacement program even after the inspector general had requested them as part of his inquiry into the events of Jan. 6.... In a statement, the Secret Service disputed parts of the inspector general's findings, saying that it 'lost' data on 'some phones' as part of a preplanned three-month 'system migration' in January 2021, but maintaining that no texts pertinent to the inquiry 'had been lost in the migration.' The agency said that the project was underway before it received notice from the inspector general to preserve its data, and that it did not 'maliciously' delete text messages." The Intercept story, which broke the news, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a whiney, indignant press release from Anthony Guglielmi, the Secret Service spokesman (chief of communications). MB: I'd suggest the Secret Service find a new spokesman; this guy's communications skills stink, & his release is, at best, unprofessional. ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Solender of Axios: "The chair of the Jan. 6 select committee [Rep. Bennie Thomson (D-Miss.)] on Thursday said the panel will try to 'reconstruct' deleted U.S. Secret Service text messages flagged by an agency watchdog.... The text messages ... could shed light on reported efforts to remove former Vice President Mike Pence from the Capitol, and former President Trump's alleged attempts to travel to the Capitol to join his supporters on that day.... Thompson said the Jan. 6 panel has not yet interviewed [agents Anthony] Ornato and Robert Engel, [who were with Trump in the vehicle] but said, 'We've been talking to them.'... The Secret Service has turned over roughly 786,176 emails and 7,678 internal messages that reference conversations and operational details related to Jan. 6, according to a Secret Service official."

Jamie Gangel & Annie Grayer of CNN: "A Washington, DC, police officer has corroborated to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, details regarding a heated exchange ... Donald Trump had with his Secret Service detail when he was told he could not go to the US Capitol after his rally, a source familiar with the matter tells CNN. The officer with the Metropolitan Police Department was in the motorcade with the Secret Service for Trump on January 6 and recounted what was seen to committee investigators, according to the source.... The committee is also engaging with the driver who was in the presidential SUV regarding possible testimony, the source said.... CNN has previously reported that two Secret Service sources have said they heard about Trump angrily demanding to go to the Capitol and berating his detail when he didn't get his way. The sources told CNN that stories circulated about the incident in the months after January 6 -- including details that are similar to what Hutchinson described to the committee."

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot said its next hearing will focus on how ... Donald Trump;s failure to quell the violent mob for several hours showed a 'supreme dereliction of duty.' The committee's eighth public hearing, expected to air in prime time July 21, marks its last scheduled presentation of evidence implicating Trump in a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss that culminated in the deadly invasion. The final hearing will highlight the more-than-three-hour gap between Trump's departure from a rally that preceded the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and his eventual call for the mob to go home, committee members said. The lawmakers 'plan to go through that 187 minutes,' said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., in an ABC News interview Wednesday afternoon." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Republican members of Congress regularly blame others -- often Nancy Pelosi -- for not adequately securing the Capitol on January 6. I hope the committee makes it abundantly clear that Donald Trump purposely engineered the low level of security at the Capitol (by keeping secret his plans to storm the building) when the mob first attacked and the failure of the National Guard or federal agencies to assist the police as the mob breached the building.

Rebecca Beitsch & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol scrambled to add new testimony from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to its latest hearing on Tuesday, and in the process bumped aside evidence about former President Trump's ties to violent extremist groups.... Left unmentioned, for instance, was a Jan. 5 request from Trump to have chief of staff Mark Meadows contact two informal advisors, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who both used extremist groups as security details. The panel also excluded any mention of the so-called war room at the Willard Hotel near the White House, where leading Trump allies -- including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani -- had huddled to devise strategy ahead of Jan. 6. At least one member of an extremist group, the 1st Amendment Praetorian, was reportedly among them." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A judge once again on Thursday refused to delay Steve Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress, which is set to get underway on Monday.... Bannon's lawyers had once again argued that there was too much pre-trial publicity about the case.... 'We're still going to be at trial on Monday,' [Judge Carl] Nichols said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols of Washington, a Trump appointee, appears ready, willing and able to come down hard on Bannon's flouting of a congressional subpoena last year.... The Great Manipulator could even serve some jail time if convicted -- as much as two years or, perhaps more likely, as little as 30 days.... My animus for Bannon comes partly from the way he has helped to turn the public against the reality-based press and the way he has tried to bury truth under an avalanche of lies and misdirection.... Days before Jan. 6, 2021, Bannon used his podcast to summon deluded and criminal mobs to the gathering storm at the U.S. Capitol with a drumbeat of election lies: 'It all comes down to, are we going to affirm the massive landslide of Donald J. Trump? Or are we going to turn over our constitutional republic ... to the forces of darkness?'... Of all the Trump-era villains -- and, let's face it, they are legion -- Stephen K. Bannon surely is one of the worst." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "An armed man who reportedly threatened to kill Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) was arrested outside her Seattle home Saturday on suspicion of committing a hate crime, police said. The man, whose name was redacted from publicly available police reports, was released from jail Wednesday because police could not confirm his threats or that he told Jayapal to 'go back to India,' and an investigation is ongoing, the Seattle Times reported. On Saturday night, Jayapal called 911 to report that someone was outside her home using obscene language and may have fired a pellet gun, according to a probable cause statement from Seattle police obtained by King 5 News.' According to the statement, police found a 48-year-old man outside Jayapal's home who was 'standing in the middle of the street with his hands in the air' and a .40-caliber Glock 22 handgun holstered on his waist."

Texas Is for Misogynists. David Goodman & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Days after the Biden administration moved to ensure access to abortion in certain emergency situations, Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging the federal guidance, saying it would 'force abortions' in hospitals in the state. The suit was an opening salvo in what is likely to be a protracted legal tug of war between the administration and states like Texas that have swiftly taken steps to ban abortion in almost all cases in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. The suit, which names Mr. Biden's health secretary, Xavier Becerra, as its lead defendant, grows out of guidance issued on Monday by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The agency has instructed hospitals that, even in states where abortion is illegal, federal law requires doctors to perform abortions for pregnant women who show up in their emergency departments if they believe it is 'the stabilizing treatment necessary' to resolve an emergency medical condition."

Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Democratic legislation that would protect the right to travel freely from state to state to seek abortion care was blocked in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Lankford, who supports instituting a national ban on abortion, dismissed it as unnecessary.... The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) earlier this week, would clarify the right to cross state lines to obtain reproductive health care services. It would also empower the U.S. attorney general and affected individuals to bring civil lawsuits against anyone who attempts to restrict that right.... 'This is a form of gaslighting to keep insisting that American women will be able to get care when we know that anti-choice legislators and groups are working to stop them from doing so,' [Cortez Masto] said on Thursday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Like, for instance, when a 10-year-old pregnant child crossed stated lines from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion, Indiana went after her physician. ~~~

~~~ Myah Ward of Politico: "Indiana's Republican attorney general said on Wednesday that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, has told multiple outlets that she provided care to the 10-year-old after a child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted her. 'We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it's a crime ... to intentionally not report,' state Attorney General Todd Rokita said on Fox News on Wednesday night." MB: The bastards never let up. And it's surprising how many of them, like Rokita, physically resemble ugly, fat, pink pigs with dull, beady eyes. Related stories linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ More Republican Men Confused About Female Anatomy. Scott Wong of NBC News: "Confronted with the reality of the case, GOP lawmakers interviewed Thursday appeared to be grappling with how to respond -- from confusion to blaming the media. Many expressed shock that it was even biologically possible for the 10-year-old child to become pregnant.... 'I'm amazed a 10-year-old got pregnant.... You really wrestle with that. That's a tough one,' Rep. Bob Gibbs, R-Ohio, said Thursday.... Asked whether he regretted calling the story a lie, [Rep. Jim] Jordan [R-Ohio] blamed [the alleged rapist], an undocumented immigrant, and the news media [MB: and President Biden]." MB: Jordan has learned -- possibly from Donald Trump -- that every ignorant, reckless thing he does or says is the fault of several other people and he has no reason to apologize. ~~~

~~~ Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "Rather than apologize to Caitlin Bernard for calling her a liar, many on the right have started attacking her for not reporting the rape herself, even though the police already knew about it by the time she saw the girl. It looks like the only thing Bernard did wrong, though, is to embarrass Republicans. On Thursday afternoon, The Star reported that Bernard reported the abortion to the Indiana Department of Health and the Department of Child Services, as state law requires. In a statement, her lawyer said she's considering legal action against [Indiana AG Todd] Rokita and others who have 'smeared' her. This whole hideous episode has demonstrated the extent to which conservatives are unwilling to grapple with the reality of the abortion regime they are imposing on much of the country." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I hope Dr. Bernard does sue. She is not a public figure, and the attackers obviously had maliciously intent. Moreover, the Ohio & Indiana AGs had access to public records to determine whether or not the false charges they made were true -- but they were too anxious to become Fox "News" stars to bother to check the facts before they attacked Dr. Bernard & her patient.

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "is now eyeing a September announcement [of his presidential candidacy], according to two Trump advisers.... His team has instructed others to have an online apparatus ready for a campaign should he announce soon, two people familiar with the matter said. He also has begun meeting with top donors to talk about the 2024 race...." Some Republicans are worried an early announcement from Trump will upset their 2022 plans. MB: They have only themselves to blame. Senate Republicans could have convicted Trump in his second impeachment and voted him ineligible to run for office. Ever. As for me, I urge media outlets to ignore Trump's run as much as possible. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Peter Nicholas of NBC News: Ty Cobb, the attorney who led Donald Trump's response to the Mueller report, now describes Trump as a "disaster": "The Big Lie, and the related violence, election interference and other perceived misconduct, was and is an affront to this nation and its first principles. It has permanently soiled the history pages and deepened the abyss that divides our country and continues to expand due to the delusions and lack of accountability of politicians in both parties. It should be disqualifying for Trump and his political acolytes, and would have been at any other time in our history." MB: In fairness to Trump, he probably didn't pay Cobb, so maybe Cobb is suffering from a case of sour grapes.

Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Ivana Trump, the glamorous Czech-American businesswoman whose high-profile marriage to Donald J. Trump in the 1980s established them as one of New York's quintessential power couples of that era, died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 73.... The New York City police are investigating whether Ms. Trump fell down the stairs at her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, just off Fifth Avenue near Central Park, according to two law enforcement officials.... One of the officials said there was no sign of forced entry at the home, and the death appeared to be accidental. A spokeswoman for the city's chief medical examiner's office said it would investigate the death." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A judge in Colorado issued an arrest warrant on Thursday for Tina Peters, the Mesa County clerk who is under indictment in relation to a breach of election equipment after the 2020 presidential contest, for violating conditions of her bond that prevented her from traveling without court approval. The judge, Matthew D. Barrett of Colorado's 21st Judicial District, also revoked her $25,000 cash bond and called for her to be held in jail pending a hearing. Ms. Peters traveled to Las Vegas this week to speak at an event hosted by ... a conservative group of county sheriffs and their allies.... Ms. Peters had been deemed a flight risk..., but because she was running for the Republican nomination for Colorado secretary of state, Ms. Peters was given permission to travel outside the state for political purposes, as long as she notified the court of her plans. She lost her primary bid last month, and on Monday, Judge Barrett ruled that she would again need the court's approval before traveling out of state. Ms. Peters has continued to claim, without evidence, that her election loss was the result of fraud." A CBS News report is here.

New York. Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "A Tops Friendly Markets location in Buffalo where 10 people died in a racially-motivated massacre two months ago is set to reopen to the public on Friday, generating mixed feelings from the predominantly Black community the grocery store used to serve. Tops executives held a moment of silence at the site on Thursday afternoon with local officials and others in attendance. Also Thursday, a federal grand jury in the Western District of New York returned a 27-count indictment against the alleged gunman in the massacre, who was charged last month with hate crimes and a gun violation and could face the death penalty for the weapons charge. The accused shooter, Payton Gendron, 19, separately has been charged in state court >with hate-motivated domestic terrorism, first-degree murder and other counts. He is being held without bail and faces a maximum penalty of life without the possibility of parole in the state-level case."

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer whose family has long held power and influence in a rural swath of South Carolina, was charged on Thursday with killing his wife and one of his sons at the family's secluded hunting estate in a mysterious murder that remained unsolved for more than a year.... The killings immediately put scrutiny on the Murdaugh family and the deaths of several people associated with them. The police began to re-examine the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old man who was found along a road about 10 miles from the Murdaugh's home and who was thought to have been hit by a truck, as well as the death of Gloria Satterfield in 2018, a housekeeper who worked for the Murdaugh family who died after falling on their house's front steps. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh had been facing charges of drunkenly crashing a boat carrying several of his friends, killing a 19-year-old passenger, Mallory Beach." Read on, it you're not familiar with this Southern gothic melodrama, which looks suspiciously like a Netflix mini-series. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Texas. A Field Trip to Ted's House -- Without the Children. Steffi Cao of BuzzFeed News: "A fleet of 52 yellow school buses formed a mile-long procession to Sen. Ted Cruz's house in Houston on Thursday morning -- 4,368 empty seats to honor the number of children killed by gun violence since 2020. The first bus carried items from school shooting victims.... Named 'The NRA Children's Museum,' this project is the latest by artist Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin [who was killed by the Parkland shooter].... On Monday, [Manuel Oliver] interrupted President Joe Biden during a Rose Garden speech, calling on the White House to open an office specifically for gun violence.... Oliver hand-delivered a letter from his late son to Cruz's house on Thursday, who has received a total of $749,000 from the pro-gun group. The note, which was written by a 12-year-old Joaquin, spoke to gun owners about his thoughts on gun control in the country. When the buses arrived, a security guard came out and accepted the letter. Oliver did not receive an immediate response from Cruz. The procession left shortly after due to encircling police presence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Guardian: "Canada's finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, has told Russian officials at a meeting of G20 finance ministers that she held them personally responsible for 'war crimes' committed during Russia's war in Ukraine, a western official said. Freeland directly addressed the Russian delegation taking part in the meeting of the Group of 20 major economies, telling them on Friday: 'It is not only generals who commit war crimes, it is the economic technocrats who allow the war to happen and to continue,' the official said. Freeland, whose maternal grandparents were born in Ukraine, told the opening G20 session that the war was the 'single biggest threat to the global economy right now', the official said. A day before the meeting, the US Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, set the tone, calling Russia's war in Ukraine the 'greatest challenge' to the global economy and saying members of Putin's government 'have no place' at the talks." ~~~

~~~ Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Friday denounced Russia's war in Ukraine in a closed-door meeting of the Group of 20 nations attended by a senior Kremlin official, according to a Treasury official. Yellen criticized Russia over the atrocities committed in Ukraine and the war's impact on the global economy, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe behind-the-scenes discussions.... 'Russia's officials, including those participating in this session, should recognize that they are adding to the horrific consequences of this war through their continued support of the Putin regime. You share responsibility for the innocent lives lost and the ongoing human and economic toll that the war is causing around the world,' she [said].... It was unclear if the deputy finance minster was still in the room when Yellen delivered the remarks." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Sounds to me as if either the deputy was in the room or the finance minister was there virtually (or both); otherwise Yellen would not have said "you." ~~~

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Italy. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Italy's golden period of stability suddenly seemed on the familiar precipice of chaos on Thursday after Prime Minister Mario Draghi tendered his resignation in response to a revolt by anti-establishment populists within his broad national unity government. But in a sign of how traumatic Mr. Draghi's departure would be for Italy, the country's president refused to accept his resignation, essentially freezing the political situation in place until next week, when Mr. Draghi will address Parliament. The unexpected government crisis, and the theatrics and behind-the-scenes machinations, left Italy in a state of suspended animation and created a potential calamity for Europe as it seeks a united front against Russia's aggression in Ukraine, and faces a wave of Covid infections and an energy crisis."

Sri Lanka. A Day Late, Millions of Dollars Short. Niha Masih & Hafeel Farisz of the Washington Post: "Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned Thursday from his sudden exile in Singapore, a day after fleeing the country he led for nearly three years. Forced out by a civilian uprising over the island nation's economic collapse, the 73-year-old Rajapaksa had left Sri Lanka before dawn Wednesday to escape public fury over an economy in free fall. He kept his country on tenterhooks even as he was on the run, first flying to Maldives and then missing his self-declared deadline for stepping down. The delay helped him escape while he still enjoyed presidential immunity, but his maneuver sparked fresh protests in which one person died. His ouster now sets off a full leadership struggle." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.

July 14, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Ivana Trump, the glamorous Czech-American businesswoman whose high-profile marriage to Donald J. Trump in the 1980s established them as one of New York's quintessential power couples of that era, died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 73.... The New York City police are investigating whether Ms. Trump fell down the stairs at her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, just off Fifth Avenue near Central Park, according to two law enforcement officials.... One of the officials said there was no sign of forced entry at the home, and the death appeared to be accidental"

Rebecca Beitsch & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol scrambled to add new testimony from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to its latest hearing on Tuesday, and in the process bumped aside evidence about former President Trump's ties to violent extremist groups.... Left unmentioned, for instance, was a Jan. 5 request from Trump to have chief of staff Mark Meadows contact two informal advisors, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who both used extremist groups as security details. The panel also excluded any mention of the so-called war room at the Willard Hotel near the White House, where leading Trump allies -- including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani -- had huddled to devise strategy ahead of Jan. 6. At least one member of an extremist group, the 1st Amendment Praetorian, was reportedly among them."

Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot said its next hearing will focus on how ... Donald Trump's failure to quell the violent mob for several hours showed a 'supreme dereliction of duty.' The committee's eighth public hearing, expected to air in prime time July 21, marks its last scheduled presentation of evidence implicating Trump in a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss that culminated in the deadly invasion. The final hearing will highlight the more-than-three-hour gap between Trump's departure from a rally that preceded the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and his eventual call for the mob to go home, committee members said. The lawmakers 'plan to go through that 187 minutes,' said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., in an ABC News interview Wednesday afternoon." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Republican members of Congress regularly blame others -- often Nancy Pelosi -- for not adequately securing the Capitol on January 6. I hope the committee makes it abundantly clear that Donald Trump purposely engineered the low level of security at the Capitol (by keeping secret his plans to storm the building) when the mob first attacked and the failure of the National Guard or federal agencies to assist the police as the mob breached the building.

Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A judge once again on Thursday refused to delay Steve Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress, which is set to get underway on Monday.... Bannon's lawyers had once again argued that there was too much pre-trial publicity about the case.... 'We're still going to be at trial on Monday,' [Judge Carl] Nichols said." ~~~

~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols of Washington, a Trump appointee, appears ready, willing and able to come down hard on Bannon's flouting of a congressional subpoena last year.... The Great Manipulator could even serve some jail time if convicted -- as much as two years or, perhaps more likely, as little as 30 days.... My animus for Bannon comes partly from the way he has helped to turn the public against the reality-based press and the way he has tried to bury truth under an avalanche of lies and misdirection.... Days before Jan. 6, 2021, Bannon used his podcast to summon deluded and criminal mobs to the gathering storm at the U.S. Capitol with a drumbeat of election lies: 'It all comes down to, are we going to affirm the massive landslide of Donald J. Trump? Or are we going to turn over our constitutional republic ... to the forces of darkness?'... Of all the Trump-era villains -- and, let's face it, they are legion ... Stephen K. Bannon surely is one of the worst."

Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "is now eyeing a September announcement [of his presidential candidacy], according to two Trump advisers.... His team has instructed others to have an online apparatus ready for a campaign should he announce soon, two people familiar with the matter said. He also has begun meeting with top donors to talk about the 2024 race...." Some Republicans are worried an early announcement from Trump will upset their 2022 plans. MB: They have only themselves to blame. Senate Republicans could have convicted Trump in his second impeachment and voted him ineligible to run for office. Ever. As for me, I urge media outlets to ignore Trump's run as much as possible.

Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Democratic legislation that would protect the right to travel freely from state to state to seek abortion care was blocked in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Lankford, who supports instituting a national ban on abortion, dismissed it as unnecessary.... The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) earlier this week, would clarify the right to cross state lines to obtain reproductive health care services. It would also empower the U.S. attorney general and affected individuals to bring civil lawsuits against anyone who attempts to restrict that right.... 'This is a form of gaslighting to keep insisting that American women will be able to get care when we know that anti-choice legislators and groups are working to stop them from doing so,' [Cortez Masto] said on Thursday." ~~~

~~~ Like, for instance, when a 10-year-old pregnant child crossed stated lines from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion, Indiana went after her physician. ~~~

~~~ Myah Ward of Politico: "Indiana's Republican attorney general said on Wednesday that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, has told multiple outlets that she provided care to the 10-year-old after a child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted her. 'We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it's a crime ... to intentionally not report,' state Attorney General Todd Rokita said on Fox News on Wednesday night." MB: The bastards never let up. And it's surprising how many of them, like Rokita, physically resemble ugly, fat, pink pigs with dull, beady eyes. Related stories linked below.

South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughts of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer whose family has long held power and influence in a rural swath of South Carolina, was charged on Thursday with killing his wife and one of his sons at the family's secluded hunting estate in a mysterious murder that remained unsolved for more than a year.... The killings immediately put scrutiny on the Murdaugh family and the deaths of several people associated with them. The police began to re-examine the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old man who was found along a road about 10 miles from the Murdaugh's home and who was thought to have been hit by a truck, as well as the death of Gloria Satterfield in 2018, a housekeeper who worked for the Murdaugh family who died after falling on their house's front steps. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh had been facing charges of drunkenly crashing a boat carrying several of his friends, killing a 19-year-old passenger, Mallory Beach." Read on, it you're not familiar with this Southern gothic melodrama, which looks suspiciously like a Netflix mini-series.

Texas. A Field Trip to Ted's House -- Without the Children. Steffi Cao of BuzzFeed News: "A fleet of 52 yellow school buses formed a mile-long procession to Sen. Ted Cruz's house in Houston on Thursday morning -- 4,368 empty seats to honor the number of children killed by gun violence since 2020. The first bus carried items from school shooting victims.... Named 'The NRA Children's Museum,' this project is the latest by artist Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin [who was killed by the Parkland shooter].... On Monday, [Manuel Oliver] interrupted President Joe Biden during a Rose Garden speech, calling on the White House to open an office specifically for gun violence.... Oliver hand-delivered a letter from his late son to Cruz's house on Thursday, who has received a total of $749,000 from the pro-gun group. The note, which was written by a 12-year-old Joaquin, spoke to gun owners about his thoughts on gun control in the country. When the buses arrived, a security guard came out and accepted the letter. Oliver did not receive an immediate response from Cruz. The procession left shortly after due to encircling police presence."

Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.

Sri Lanka. A Day Late & Millions of Dollars Short. Niha Masih & Hafeel Farisz of the Washington Post: "Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned Thursday from his sudden exile in Singapore, a day after fleeing the country he led for nearly three years. Forced out by a civilian uprising over the island nation's economic collapse, the 73-year-old Rajapaksa had left Sri Lanka before dawn Wednesday to escape public fury over an economy in free fall. He kept his country on tenterhooks even as he was on the run, first flying to Maldives and then missing his self-declared deadline for stepping down. The delay helped him escape while he still enjoyed presidential immunity, but his maneuver sparked fresh protests in which one person died. His ouster now sets off a full leadership struggle." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The New York Times is liveblogging developments Thursday in President Biden's visit to the Middle East.

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States is 'not going to wait forever' for Iran to rejoin a dormant nuclear deal, a day after saying he'd be willing to use force as a last resort against Tehran if necessary. Biden made the comments at a news conference after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid following one-on-one talks in which they discussed Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program.... Resurrecting the nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama's administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of Iran returning to compliance."

Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "A year and a half after Donald J. Trump left the White House, Israeli leaders welcomed [President Biden] with a rapturous embrace, as if to prove that their love affair with the former president would not stand in the way of a close relationship with the new president. As for Mr. Biden, he seemed just as determined to prove that he took a back seat to no one in supporting Israel.... Mr. Biden ... rarely gets such unvarnished praise or loving hugs back in America, where his poll numbers have plummeted and even most Democrats do not want him to run for another term.... Mr. Biden indicated he wanted to restore traditional Democratic support for Israel even as he hoped to resume the American role of honest broker with the Palestinians. In an interview with Israeli television, he rejected Democrats who have denounced Israel as an apartheid state.... For the first day of his 10th visit to Israel, Mr. Biden chose two symbolic statements by receiving a briefing on Israel's latest defense against rocket attacks and visiting the country's iconic Yad Vashem memorial for Holocaust victims.... The mutual show of bonhomie, however, papered over fundamental differences, most notably on Iran and the Palestinians."

Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has asked the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol for evidence it has accumulated about the scheme by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies to put forward false slates of pro-Trump electors in battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020.Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, disclosed the request to reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.... Mr. Thompson said the committee was working with federal prosecutors to allow them to review the transcripts of interviews the panel has done with people who served as so-called alternate electors for Mr. Trump. Mr. Thompson said the Justice Department's investigation into 'fraudulent electors' was the only specific topic the agency had broached with the committee. A Justice Department official said the agency maintained its position that it was requesting copies of all transcripts of witness interviews." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This sure makes it seem that DOJ is doing nothing about Trump's other schemes to overturn the 2020 election. Former prominent DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, during an appearance on MSNBC, did say that some DOJ staff contacted him about his recent New York Times op-ed in which he urged the Department to take a multi-pronged approach to its investigations into Trump's schemes. Weissmann said he couldn't reveal what discussions he had or with whom. ~~~

~~~ Richard Wolffe of the Guardian: "Here we are, 18 months after his presidency, staring at clear evidence that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2020 election and the constitutional duties of Congress. He intentionally incited a violent mob that he knew was armed to mount an attempted coup on Capitol Hill. He knew from his own lawyers' opposition to his many crackpot schemes that he was breaking the law. But the US justice department has apparently only just begun to grapple with the debate over whether they can even investigate the former president. You have to wonder: if Trump did shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, would all those prosecutors still be struggling with the question of whether they could or should indict him?... There is just one principle more important than the attorney general's high-minded approach to the sanctity of prosecutorial power. It's called defending democracy. If he doesn't want to uphold the laws that protect the republic, he should step aside and let someone else do the job."

Ryan Nobles, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump tried to call a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The support staffer was not someone who routinely communicated with the former President and was concerned about the contact, according to the sources, and informed their attorney. The call was made after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified publicly to the committee. The White House staffer was in a position to corroborate part of what Hutchinson had said under oath, according to the sources.... The initial revelation about Trump's phone call was made in a dramatic moment at the end of this week's hearing by committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney.... A source familiar with the panel's investigation added that the committee has spoken to the person Trump tried to call, but not as part of a deposition." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump surely knows that it's against the law to try to intimidate a witness. But following the law has never been of much interest to Trump. So apparently he thought it was fine to lean on, say, the guy who -- with Hutchinson -- cleaned up the ketchup Trump threw at the wall or some other staffer whose name he had never bothered to learn.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Mother Jones is out with a new Bannon tape from Oct. 31, 2020, [also linked here yesterday] in which [Steve] Bannon talks in detail -- presciently, it turns out -- about how ... Donald Trump would claim victory on election night regardless of where the vote count stood.... In an interview with Showtime's 'The Circus' released in early October -- about a month before these other comments -- Bannon predicted that there would be such uncertainty that Congress would be forced to decide the election.... [Days before the election], Axios's Jonathan Swan reported that Trump had told advisers that he would declare victory if it looked like he was ahead at the time -- even if the outcome wasn't final.... Bannon's theorizing didn't come out of nowhere.... On [Bannon's September 25, 2020,] show, a former Trump White House official [Bill McGinley] had talked about just such a scenario. The following day, Trump himself talked about the advantage he could have if it ever went to Congress, by virtue of there being more GOP-controlled congressional delegations than Democratic ones.... ~~~

~~~ "In total, Bannon predicted Trump's premature victory declaration, which came true. He predicted that all hell would break loose on Jan. 6, which came true. He predicted that uncertainty about election results spurred by a bunch of lawsuits would force Congress to decide the election, which wound up essentially being Trump's plan. And he suggested that unrest was perhaps desirable and/or could be of some utility in all of this, which evidence suggests Trump might well have agreed with on Jan. 6." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Trump is not a stupid as many of his remarks would suggest. He didn't know anything about public policy or how to run a vast federal bureaucracy because he didn't care about governance. When it came to looking out for his own interests, Trump was pretty good at grasping the details.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Trump-appointed judges keep ruling against Trump and his acolytes in cases related to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.

Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "A Maryland man who used a lacrosse stick attached to a Confederate battle flag to shove a police officer during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in prison, according to a Justice Department spokesman. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also sentenced David Alan Blair, to 18 months of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution, said William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia."

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Biden administration warned the nation's 60,000 retail pharmacies on Wednesday that they risk violating federal civil rights law if they refuse to fill prescriptions for pills that can induce abortion -- the second time this week that it has used its executive authority to set up showdowns with states where abortion is now illegal. In four pages of guidance, the federal Department of Health and Human Services ticked off a series of conditions -- including miscarriage, stomach ulcers and ectopic pregnancy -- that are commonly treated with drugs that can induce abortion. It warned that failing to dispense such pills 'may be discriminating' on the basis of sex or disability. The guidance came two days after Xavier Becerra, President Biden's health secretary, instructed hospitals that even in states where abortion is now illegal, federal law requires doctors to perform abortions for pregnant women who show up in their emergency departments if they believe it is 'the stabilizing treatment necessary' to resolve an emergency medical condition."

Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "Democratic-controlled cities within Republican states have launched improvisational efforts to preserve abortion services, even as officials acknowledge they will probably fall short of protecting doctors and patients sufficiently to serve as a substitute for a constitutional right to the procedure.... Dozens of big-city prosecutors, mostly in the South and Midwest, have said they will not file charges against medical workers who conduct abortions or their patients.... Last week, the [New Orleans] city council ... passed a resolution instructing the police department not to pursue cases against abortion providers or patients.... Taken together, the steps do not amount to an affirmative right, but they could make the penalties for abortion more hypothetical than Republicans running the prosecutors' states would prefer as they invoke bans on the procedure.... The net result is widespread confusion...."

Ava Sasani of the New York Times: "An Ohio man has been arrested and charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl, whose travel across state lines to receive an abortion captured national attention. Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arraigned on Wednesday in Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, where he was charged with the rape of a child under 13 years old, a felony that can carry a lifetime prison sentence. He was being held on $2 million bond.... The case of the young victim became a focus of the abortion debate after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade.... The girl's story, which first appeared in The Indianapolis Star, was immediately seized on by abortion rights advocates as the tragic but expected consequence of severe abortion restrictions....

~~~ "Before this week's arrest, some conservatives, including Ohio's top prosecutor, cast doubt on the story.... In an editorial published before news of the arrest, The Wall Street Journal called the case 'an unlikely story from a biased source that neatly fits the progressive narrative but can't be confirmed.' The Journal later added an editor's note acknowledging the arrest.... 'It's always shocking to me that people are surprised to hear about these stories,' Dr. [Caitlin] Bernard, [the OB/GYN who first told The Star about the case,] said in an interview with The New York Times. 'The fact that anyone would question such a story is a testament to how out of touch lawmakers and politicians are with reality.'" ~~~

~~~ An AP story is here. A Law & Crime story, which provides details of the arrest, including a copy of the complaint, is here. Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, details some of the right wing's "skepticism." ~~~

~~~ AND this almost goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "On Wednesday, Tucker Carlson criticized President Joe Biden for relaying the true story about a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio even though Carlson himself had inaccurately proclaimed, 'The story was not true.'... On Tuesday's show, Carlson said that 'politicians are lying about this.'... 'Where is the rapist?' he asked.... [After the suspect was arrested,] Carlson made no mention of his [false] claim the night before. Instead, he attacked Biden for supposedly failing to vet the story.... 'Nobody seemed interested at all in learning who this person was,' Carlson added. 'And maybe there was a reason for that.' The host revealed the [alleged] rapist is a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant." MB: The post is a little confusing as to what Tucker said when. But inasmuch as TuKKKer's intent is always to obfuscate, that seems fair enough. ~~~

~~~ ** Judd Legum of Popular Information reports on the right-wing smear campaign against Dr. Caitlan Bernard, who performed the abortion, & Indy Star veteran reporter Shari Rudavsky, who was the lead writer to break the story of the 10-year-old victim. "There was never any reason to doubt the accuracy of this story."

Casey Parks of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year after the Department of Veterans Affairs promised to restore benefits to some former members of the military who were forced out for being gay, a nonprofit legal group that represents veterans says VA has refused to explain what its new guidance entails -- or whether it was implemented. The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) filed a complaint in federal court late last month, alleging that VA has not responded to requests to release what the department called 'newly-issued guidance.'... Because many of those were booted from the military with 'less than honorable' or 'other than honorable' discharges, thousands of people ousted under [President Clinton's] 'don't ask, don't tell' do not have benefits, including access to health care, home loans and educational support through VA." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I do not understand why the VA, no matter the presidential administration, always does such a crappy job. Every president & president* talks about how much we owe our wonderful self-sacrificing military, all the while the VA is ignoring or downright mistreating our wonderful veterans. Are they not as wonderful once they have completed their service to the country?

Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "A former Central Intelligence Agency software engineer was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday of causing the largest theft of classified information in the agency's history. The former C.I.A. employee, Joshua Schulte, was arrested after the 2017 disclosure by WikiLeaks of a trove of confidential documents detailing the agency's secret methods for penetrating the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists. The verdict came two years after a previous jury failed to agree on eight of the 10 charges he faced then.... [Mr. Schulte] was convicted on Wednesday on nine counts, which included illegally gathering national defense information and illegally transmitting that information."

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "U.S. regulators Wednesday authorized the nation's fourth coronavirus vaccine, a shot developed by Novavax, a Maryland biotechnology company that has been a straggler in the vaccine race. For a relatively small niche of people who want to be vaccinated, but can't or won't take existing vaccines, Wednesday's decision by the Food and Drug Administration has been impatiently awaited. Some people are allergic to an ingredient in messenger RNA vaccines or simply prefer the more traditional technology at the core of Novavax's shot, which is the United States' first protein-based vaccine." A Guardian report is here.

Georgia. Alex Traub of the New York Times: "The former mayor of Stonecrest, Ga., a small city outside Atlanta, was sentenced on Wednesday to four years and nine months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money intended to help his city cope with the pandemic, the authorities said. The former mayor, Jason Lary, who pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Atlanta in January to wire fraud, stealing federal money and conspiracy, used the money he took to pay off his mortgage on his lakeside home and outstanding tax liabilities, prosecutors said. In addition to the prison time, he was ordered by Judge Thomas Thrash of U.S. District Court to pay nearly $120,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has launched a global campaign to defund Russia's war chest. This week, she was in Japan promoting her plan "to create a new global price cap on Russian oil.... After visiting Japan, Yellen flew on Wednesday to Indonesia for meetings of finance ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations, where she will attempt to rally a much broader swath of countries to pledge to buy Russian oil only at a discount rate. If successful, her campaign could deliver a major blow to Russia's war effort and help prevent the United States and the rest of the world from plunging into economic recession."

Karina Tsui of the Washington Post: "Russia has deported 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine in a systemic 'filtration' operation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday, in a loud condemnation of Moscow and affirmation of claims that Ukrainian officials have levied for weeks. Many of those 'forcibly deported,' including 260,000 children, some separated from their families, have wound up in isolated regions in Russia's far east, Blinken said. 'Reports indicate' that Russian forces have taken thousands of children from orphanages in Ukraine and placed them up for adoption in Russia, according to the statement." MB: Assuming this is true or substantially true, it's a vast humanitarian catastrophe.

Will Oremus of the Washington Post: "In the frantic first weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. tech companies that control the world's largest information hubs sprang into action. Responding to pressure from Western governments, social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube banned or throttled Russian state media accounts, beefed up their fact-checking operations, curtailed ad sales in Russia and opened direct lines to Ukrainian officials, inviting them to flag Russian disinformation and propaganda to be taken down. As the war grinds toward its sixth month, however, Russian propaganda techniques have evolved -- and the tech firms haven't kept up. Ukrainian officials who have flagged thousands of tweets, YouTube videos and other social media posts as Russian propaganda or anti-Ukrainian hate speech say the companies have grown less responsive to their requests to remove such content. New research shared with The Washington Post by a Europe-based nonprofit initiative confirms that many of those requests seem to be going unheeded...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This is hardly surprising. These companies are essentially unregulated, so there's nothing except public opinion -- or boycotts -- to curb their behavior. As long as Congress does nothing to establish a regulatory framework to harness these 21st century versions of robber barons, they will keep on keepin' on.

Sri Lanka. Niha Masih & Hafeel Farisz of the Washington Post: "Sri Lankan protesters withdrew on Thursday from three major government buildings they had occupied, just a day after violent clashes with security forces, and even as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was yet to resign." A Guardian story is here.

U.K. Amanda Bryant of the Guardian: American actor "Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault dating back 17 years in a hearing at the Old Bailey. The 62-year-old actor appeared in court one of the London court on Thursday to plead not guilty to four charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent."

July 13, 2022

Late Morning Update:

Here's the New York Times' liveblog of President Biden's trip to the Middle East.

Marie: President Biden is going to Saudi Arabia to aid U.S. interests. Trump has invited Saudi Arabia to his place(s) because greed: ~~~

~~~ Marc Caputo of NBC News, republished by CNBC: "Later this month, Trump National Golf Club Bedminster in New Jersey hosts its first tournament for the new LIV Golf series, funded by Saudi Arabia, which is upending the sport's establishment with a $2 billion investment and contracts with top players that reportedly reach $150 million or more. The series closes in October with a $50 million purse at Trump's signature Florida course, Trump National Doral Miami, promising an infusion of unknown millions into Trump's golf empire, which began to noticeably struggle after he began his run for president in 2016. The huge Saudi sums could not only benefit Trump financially as he mulls a comeback bid in 2024, but they also pose a mortal threat to the PGA Tour...."

Ellen of Crooks & Liars reports that the bromance between Trump & Musk is so over. And, like many a break-up, they're having a very public spat about it. For some strange reason, they're calling each other liars. Sad!

Aaron Gregg, et al., of the Washington Post: "For the first time in two decades, the U.S. dollar is equal to the euro in value as Europe grapples with growing recession fears and the fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine. The euro matching or dipping below the dollar presents a mostly psychological milestone, some experts say, but central banks and policymakers across the European bloc are likely to face pressure to address depreciation concerns. The two currencies reached parity Wednesday morning, according to Bloomberg, after the euro abruptly lost value following worrisome U.S. inflation data. The euro has been losing ground against the dollar since the start of the year.... The stronger dollar is good news for Americans considering a European vacation or buying goods abroad. Conversely, traveling and spending in U.S. dollars have now become pricier for those who earn wages in euros."

~~~~~~~~~

Marie: Sorry for the delay in posting. My Internet service was out for hours yesterday (& at 3:30 am ET it's still going up & down), after which my power went out in the middle of the morning (2:30 am ET), after which I discovered the Googles aren't working, after which I found other pages wouldn't load.

Luke Broadwater & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attempted to make the Jan. 6, 2021, march on the Capitol appear spontaneous even as he and his team intentionally assembled and galvanized a violence-prone mob to disrupt certification of his electoral defeat, the House committee investigating the attack showed on Tuesday. 'POTUS is going to have us march there/the Capitol,' Kylie Jane Kremer, an organizer of the 'Save America' rally on Jan. 6, wrote in a Jan. 4 text shown by the panel on Tuesday as it detailed Mr. Trump's efforts to gather his backers in Washington for a final, last-ditch effort to overturn his loss. Ms. Kremer added that Mr. Trump was 'going to just call for it "unexpectedly."' Mr. Trump weighed announcing the move, according to documents obtained from the National Archives, which provided the investigators with a draft tweet that said: 'I will be making a Big Speech at 10AM on January 6th at the Ellipse (South of the White House). Please arrive early, massive crowds expected. March to the Capitol after. Stop the Steal!!' The tweet was never sent." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's main report is here. The Guardian's report is here. The AP's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: "The Jan. 6 select committee's Tuesday hearing, ostensibly focused on extremism, drove clearly toward a subtle goal: Stripping away doubt that Donald Trump was anything but a full participant in a plot to subvert the 2020 election. The former president wasn't duped into disbelieving his own loss by fringe lawyers and advisers, select committee members argued. Rather, he assembled that squad of enablers, overrode his more sober-minded staff and forged the path that led to the chaos engulfing the Capitol, they contended...." ~~~

     ~~~ You can watch the hearing here, on a committee Webpage.

Marie: After yesterday's hearing, Akhilleus heard an NPR commentator claim the committee didn't find direct evidence that Trump plotted the insurrection, and I heard a similar claim from a former prosecutor on CNN. I've got news for them (and for Merrick the Reluctant): (1) juries regularly convict criminals on way less compelling circumstantial evidence than the committee revealed; (2) as Andrew Weissmann wrote in a NYT op-ed, also linked yesterday, this is why DOJ should broaden the scope of its investigation to include the entire array of Trump's plots to overturn the election. From these naysayers' points of view, prosecutors would never bring a case against a murder who pleads not-guilty unless they find a notarized confession in the murderer's sock drawer, find the murder weapon on the murderer & his hairs & fibers all over the body, and he helps them find the body of someone else he killed in the same manner the previous year. I wrote a few days ago that it appeared the committee did not have a notarized confession from Donald Trump. And they don't. But the circumstantial evidence and the number of convincing witnesses is overwhelming. He did it, and as long as he thought it was working, he refused to stop it.

Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Even by the standards of the Trump White House..., the Dec. 18, 2020, meeting became known as an 'unhinged' event -- and an inflection point in Mr. Trump's desperate efforts to remain in power after he had lost the election.... The meeting lasted for more than six hours, past midnight, and devolved into shouting that could be heard outside the room. Participants hurled insults and nearly came to blows. Some people left in tears.... [In attendance were conspiracy theorist/lawyer] Sidney Powell...; Michael T. Flynn...; and Patrick Byrne, the former chief executive of Overstock.com. On the other side were Pat A. Cipollone, the White House counsel; [White House lawyer Eric] Herschmann; and Derek Lyons, the White House staff secretary. The arguing began soon after Ms. Powell and her two companions were let into the White House by a junior aide and wandered to the Oval Office without an appointment. [A concerned staffer alerted Mr. Cipollone of the meeting, and he made a beeline for the Oval.]... After the meeting had started, Rudolph W. Giuliani ... was called in by the White House advisers.... Eventually the meeting migrated to the Roosevelt Room and the Cabinet Room, where Mr. Giuliani found himself alone at one point.... Ms. Powell believed that she had been appointed special counsel, something that Mr. Trump declared he wanted, including that she should have a security clearance, which other aides opposed. She testified that others said that even if that happened, they would ignore her. She said she would have 'fired' them on the spot for such insubordination."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times outlines four takeways from the hearing, including Liz Cheney's cliffhanger, delivered at the end of the hearing. Here's a tidbit: "The committee also cited a deposition by the White House photographer, Shealah Craighead, who was present at an Oval Office gathering on the evening of Jan. 5, when Mr. Trump and some of his aides could hear a crowd of his supporters who were gathered nearby. Ms. Craighead testified that Mr. Trump was saying, 'We should go up to the Capitol. What's the best route to the Capitol?'"

"Not an Impressionable Child." Amber Philips of the Washington Post has five takesways here. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) noted that Trump's defenders lately had sought a new way of excusing his actions: "'The strategy is to blame people his advisers called 'the crazies' for what Donald Trump did,' Cheney said Tuesday. 'This, of course, is nonsense. President Trump is a 76-year-old man. He is not an impressionable child. Just like everyone else in our country, he is responsible for his own actions and his own choices.... Donald Trump cannot escape responsibility by arguing he is willfully blind.'... On Dec. 19 [MB: at 1:42 am], hours after [the UNHINGED] meeting [MB: which ended after midnight (see Haberman, linked above], Trump tweeted what the committee has argued was a call to arms to his supporters to overturn his election loss: 'Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!' In the hours after that tweet, one pro-Trump group, Women for America First, requested to move their rally permit from Inauguration Day, on Jan. 22, to Jan. 6, the committee showed. The next day, [Rep. Jamie] Raskin [D-Md.] said, Ali Alexander, the leader of the Stop the Steal organization and organizer of its Jan. 6 rally, registered wildprotest.com. Trump supporters including Alex Jones [said] Jan. 6 [would be] a 'historic day.' And numerous others chimed in with violent threats: 'Jan. 6, kick that [f---ing] door open.' 'It "will be wild" means we need volunteers for the firing squad."

Ben Jacobs of Vox highlights six takeaways.

Rep. Jamie Raskin's closing remarks Tuesday: some lessons (and a tearjerker): ~~~

Cheney's Cliffhanger. Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Sometime in the past two weeks, [Rep. Liz] Cheney said [at then end of Tuesday's hearing, Donald] Trump tried to call someone whom she identified as a witness who has not yet appeared in the committee;s hearings. The person didn't take the call and instead alerted their lawyer, who in turn told the committee. The committee reported the call to the Justice Department, Cheney said, suggesting the possibility of a crime.... The revelation was extraordinary because the call allegedly came from Trump himself, rather than an intermediary, and followed a warning at the committee's previous hearing on June 28 about messages to one of the committee's witnesses.... It is a crime to pressure someone to lie to government investigators."

The Collaborators. Andrew Solender of Axios: "Ten Republican members of Congress attended a Dec. 21 White House meeting focused on efforts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to help overturn the 2020 election, according to the Jan. 6 committee.... House visitor logs reveal 10 members were physically in attendance": Brian Babin (Texas), Andy Biggs (Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Paul Gosar (Ariz.), Andy Harris (Md.), Jody Hice (Ga.), Jim Jordan (Ohio), Scott Perry (Pa.), Now-Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.). "Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson ... noted that 'they dialed in a few Members over the course of that meeting.' She mentioned two members -- Reps. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) and Debbie Lesko (R-Ariz.).... A note on Trump's private schedule for the day about a 2:00 pm [read] "private meeting with Republican members of Congress" in the Oval Office. Pence, Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and ... Rudy Giuliani were all in attendance, according to [Rep. Stephanie] Murphy [D-Fla.]."

Ankush Khardori interviews Andrew Weissmann for Politico Magazine on Weissmann's views on the DOJ's apparent reluctance to investigate & charge Donald Trump and other notables with crimes related to efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Weissmann's op-ed in Monday's New York Times "sharply criticized the Justice Department's investigation into the siege of the U.S. Capitol. It was an essay that captured the frustrations of some legal observers and former Justice Department prosecutors, but it drew immediate attention because it came from one of the most prominent and well-respected prosecutors in the country."

Trump, Crazier Than Team Crazy. Eugene Robinson of the Washington Post: "It was Donald Trump, and Donald Trump alone, who summoned and loosed the mob that sacked the Capitol, threatened Congress and the vice president and imperiled our democracy. That is the powerful message that emerged from Tuesday's televised hearing of the Jan. 6 select committee. And these hearings make clear just how dangerous it would be for the former president to be elected again. Amazingly enough, this wasn't the plan advanced by Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, Michael Flynn and the rest of Trump's 'Team Crazy' advisers. The page from the authoritarian playbook they chose was sedate by comparison...." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Given the available evidence, as of now, it is not possible to consider that early-morning December 19 tweet as nothing more than a momentary burst of insanity by an old man drunk on power. He kept up that drunk-on-power thing right through January 6, 2021, and beyond. He pre-planned, mostly in secret, the violent attack on the Capitol, and according to Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony, he planned to join the attack, right up until the last minute when his Secret Service detail wouldn't let him go. (Their attempt to get mike pence out of the Capitol complex looks like a consolation prize for refusing to let Trump put the noose around pence's neck.) And once the attack had started, and Trump's "army" was brutally attacking Capitol & D.C. police, Trump insisted it continue.

It's Mighty Easy to Compromise a Republican. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "As the dust was settling on the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on the evening of Jan. 6, [former Trump campaign manager Brad] Parscale ...called the situation 'a sitting president calling for civil war' and added, 'This week I feel guilty for helping him win.'... Here was a guy who helped elevate Trump to the presidency reckoning with what he had wrought -- and blaming Trump directly for pursuing no less than civil war. Exactly a month later, though, Brad Parscale ... decided it was time for this same former president to return to office. On Feb. 6, Parscale urged Trump to run again.... Since then, Parscale's business has accepted $150,000 in payments from Trump's political operation."

If Biden is winning, Trump is going to do some crazy shit. -- Steve Bannon, October 31, 2020 ~~~

~~~ ** Trump Planned the Big Lie Before the Election. Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: Donald "Trump's plan to falsely declare victory while tens of millions of votes were still being counted was public knowledge even before the election. Axios reported on the scheme at the time. [Steve] Bannon himself discussed the idea on November 3 -- Election Day -- on his War Room podcast. Weeks earlier, Bannon had interviewed a former Trump administration official who outlined how Trump would use allegations of fraud to dispute an electoral defeat and would seek to have Congress declare him the winner. Last month, the congressional committee investigating January 6 detailed how Rudy Giuliani convinced Trump to go ahead with a victory declaration after 2 a.m. on November 4, over the objections of campaign staff. 'Frankly, we did win this election,' Trump insisted in that infamous news conference. [A] nearly hour-long [leaked] audio obtained by Mother Jones is new evidence that Trump's late-night diatribe ... followed a preexisting plan to lie to Americans about the election results in a bid to hold onto power. The new recording stands out for the striking candor and detail with which Bannon described a scheme to use lies to subvert democracy. Bannon also predicted that Trump's false declaration of victory would lead to widespread political violence, along with 'crazy' efforts by Trump to stay in office."

MEANWHILE, A Picnic on the Lawn. Jim Tankersley of the New York Times: "For a few moments on Tuesday, before the thunder rolled and the clouds threatened to open, President Biden was shirt-sleeves deep in the sort of political camaraderie he placed at the center of his run for the White House: on the South Lawn, surrounded by barbecue and children and a few Republicans, extolling the virtues of learning to love people with whom you disagree.... At a time of mounting political division, the president threw a picnic for members of Congress and their families, inviting every Republican and Democrat in the House and Senate. He used it to renew his plea for a more personalized, civilized political discourse, reviving a tradition interrupted in recent years and seeking to recapture some of what the first lady, Jill Biden, called the 'magic' of the White House grounds to bring people together across the aisle."

David Sanger & Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden left Washington for a four-day trip to the Middle East on Tuesday to try to slow down an accelerating Iranian nuclear program, speed up the flow of oil to American pumps and reshape the relationship with Saudi Arabia without seeming to embrace a crown prince the C.I.A. believes was behind the killing of a prominent dissident who lived in the United States. All three efforts are fraught with political dangers for a president who knows the region well, but returns for the first time in six years with far less leverage than he would like to shape events. His 18-month long negotiation to restore the 2015 Iran nuclear deal has ground to a stop.... And while no explicit deal is expected to be announced on raising Saudi oil production ... that is likely to come in a month or two, officials say.... The trip is also partly about stemming China's inroads into the region." The AP report is here.

Dennis Overbye, et al., of the New York Times: "On Tuesday the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful space observatory yet built, offered a spectacular slide show of our previously invisible nascent cosmos.... ... The new pictures were rolled out during an hourlong ceremony at the Goddard Space Flight Center.... [The images present] both a new vision of the universe and a view of the universe as it once appeared new.... 'We're looking for the first things to come out of the Big Bang,' said John Mather, senior project scientist for the telescope.... To look outward into space is to peer into the past. Light travels at a constant 186,000 miles per second, or close to six trillion miles per year, through the vacuum of space. To observe a star 10 light-years away is to see it as it existed 10 years ago, when the light left its surface. The farther away a star or galaxy lies, the older it is, making every telescope a kind of time machine." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie (Updated): You can see the images on this Webb Telescope gallery page., which includes a facility that allows you to zoom in. Thanks to Robert for sending me the link (which I could not find earlier today). The Times article linked above also contains the images. The Washington Post (firewalled) has images here, with explanations.

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "When the Social Security Administration's inspector general investigated allegations earlier this year that one of the agency's senior leaders was routinely impaired on the job, six witnesses painted an alarming picture. Theresa Gruber, a deputy commissioner overseeing around 9,000 employees and a $1.2 billion budget in the hearings and appeals operation, displayed 'significant anomalies' at work over the course of at least a year, including slurred speech in which she 'appeared intoxicated,' leaving meetings without notice, slouching in her chair and aggressive behavior, witnesses told investigators. But five months after acting Social Security commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi was presented with the internal report, which The Washington Post obtained, Gruber remains on the job.... Gruber, 53, is also diabetic, the report notes, a condition that, when poorly treated, can cause irritability, disorientation or slurred speech.... One high-ranking official interviewed by The Post described a 'rudderless' department under Gruber, who sometimes does not communicate with her staff for days at a time, the official said."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate approved Steven Dettelbach's nomination Tuesday to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, making him only the second Senate-confirmed director in the gun regulatory agency's history. In a 48-46 vote, Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Rob Portman of Ohio joined Democrats in supporting the former U.S. attorney."

Kate Conger & Lauren Hirsch of the New York Times: "Twitter sued Elon Musk on Tuesday to force the billionaire to complete his $44 billion acquisition of the company, setting the stage for a prolonged legal battle over the fate of the social media service." CNN's report is here.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here.

Beyond the Beltway

Louisiana. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "Abortions became legal again in Louisiana on Tuesday after a Baton Rouge judge granted a temporary restraining order blocking the state's abortion bans from being enforced. The judge's decision was the latest in a series of legal maneuvers that have jolted the legal status of abortions in the state, leaving women and providers scrambling to adapt. One of the few remaining abortion clinics in the state said it would resume providing the procedure." MB: Woe be the Louisiana teenager whose life has been upended by an unexpected pregnancy & is trying to figure out where she can get an abortion.

South Carolina. Southern Gothic, Ctd. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs of the New York Times: "A long-running mystery over who killed the wife and son of Alex Murdaugh, an heir to a powerful legal dynasty in South Carolina, could be headed for a resolution this week as the police indicated they planned to indict Mr. Murdaugh in the murders, one of his lawyers said on Tuesday. Mr. Murdaugh had already been facing an array of charges of fraud and theft that resulted in his arrest in September 2021 and a wave of subsequent indictments. But no one had been formally accused in the deaths of Maggie Murdaugh, 52, and Paul Murdaugh, 22, who were fatally shot at the family's rural hunting estate in Islandton, about 65 miles west of Charleston."

Texas. Acacia Coronado & Paul Weber of the AP: "A new wave of anger swept through Uvalde on Tuesday over surveillance footage of police officers in body armor milling in the hallway of Robb Elementary School while a gunman carried out a massacre inside a fourth-grade classroom where 19 children and two teachers were killed. The video published Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman [firewalled] is a disturbing 80-minute recording of what has been known for weeks now about one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history: that heavily armed police officers, some armed with rifles and bulletproof shields, massed in the hallway and waited more than an hour before going inside and stopping the May 24 slayings. But the footage, which until now had not surfaced publicly, anguished Uvalde residents anew and redoubled calls in the small South Texas city for accountability and explanations that have been incomplete -- and sometimes inaccurate -- in the seven weeks since the shooting." ~~~

     ~~~ KVUE has the video here, in pieces, with explanations. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "If you can stomach it -- and I really, really don't blame you if you can't -- watching the law enforcement officials do nothing about an active school shooter is even more horrifying than reading about it[.]"

Way Beyond

Sri Lanka. The New York Times is liveblogging developments in the country's crisis. Here's one: others had said that the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, would resign on Wednesday. BUT: "President Gotabaya Rajapaksa of Sri Lanka fled the country on Wednesday after months of demonstrations demanding that he leave office culminated with protesters storming his official residence. Mr. Rajapaksa left on an Air Force plane to the Maldives at about 2 a.m. local time, said Colonel Nalin Herath, a spokesman for Sri Lanka's defense ministry.... Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, the speaker of the Parliament, said in a phone interview that he still had not received the president's letter of resignation, which would make the end of his presidency official." An AP report is here.

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

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "Military delegations from Ukraine and Russia are meeting in Turkey on Wednesday along with United Nations diplomats to discuss restarting grain shipments from Ukraine's blockaded Black Sea ports, the Turkish defense minister said.... On the battlefield, Ukrainian officials said they deployed advanced U.S. rocket launchers to strike a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied southern region of Kherson.... The euro and the U.S. dollar are exchanging at a nearly 1-to-1 rate for the first time in nearly two decades, partly due to global disruptions set off by the Russian invasion of Ukraine."

News Ledes

CNBC: "Shoppers paid sharply higher prices for a variety of goods in June as inflation kept its hold on a slowing U.S. economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. The consumer price index, a broad measure of everyday goods and services related to the cost of living, soared 9.1% from a year ago, above the 8.8% Dow Jones estimate. That marked another month of the fastest pace for inflation going back to December 1981." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times is running a liveblog on inflation news.