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Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

Washington Post: “'Mary Cassatt at Work' is a large and mostly satisfying exhibition devoted to the career of the great American artist beloved for her sensitive and often sentimental views of family life. The 'at work' in the title of the Philadelphia Museum of Art show references the curators’ interest in Cassatt’s pioneering effort to establish herself as a professional artist within a male-dominated field. Throughout the show, which includes some 130 paintings, pastels, prints and drawings, the wall text and the art on view stresses Cassatt’s fixation on art as a career rather than a pastime.... Mary Cassatt at Work is on view at the Philadelphia Museum of Art through Sept. 8. philamuseum.org”

New York Times: “Bob Newhart, who died on Thursday at the age of 94, has been such a beloved giant of popular culture for so long that it’s easy to forget how unlikely it was that he became one of the founding fathers of stand-up comedy. Before basically inventing the hit stand-up special, with the 1960 Grammy-winning album 'The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart' — that doesn’t even count his pay-per-view event broadcast on Canadian television that some cite as the first filmed special — he was a soft-spoken accountant who had never done a set in a nightclub. That he made a classic with so little preparation is one of the great miracles in the history of comedy.... Bob Newhart holds up. In fact, it’s hard to think of a stand-up from that era who is a better argument against the commonplace idea that comedy does not age well.”

Washington Post: “An early Titian masterpiece — once looted by Napolean’s troops and a part of royal collections for centuries — caused a stir when it was stolen from the home of a British marquess in 1995. Seven years later, it was found inside an unassuming white and blue plastic bag at a bus stop in southwest London by an art detective, and returned. This week, the oil painting 'The Rest on the Flight into Egypt' sold for more than $22 million at Christie’s. It was a record for the Renaissance artist, whom museums describe as the greatest painter of 16th-century Venice. Ahead of the sale in April, the auction house billed it as 'the most important work by Titian to come to the auction market in more than a generation.'”

Washington Post: The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., which houses the world's largest collection of Shakespeare material, has undergone a major renovation. "The change to the building is pervasive, both subtle and transformational."

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Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Wednesday
Mar202024

The Conversation -- March 21, 2024

** Luke Broadwater & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The threat from ... Donald J. Trump to his vice president, Mike Pence, was clear and direct: If you defy my effort to overturn the 2020 election by certifying the results, your future in Republican politics is over. 'Mike, this is a political career killer if you do this,' Mr. Trump told Mr. Pence by phone on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, according to the White House valet who was with the president for much of the day and told Congress he had overheard the conversation. The testimony of Mr. Trump's valet, provided to the now-defunct House Jan. 6 Committee in 2022 but not previously released publicly, offers a rare firsthand look into the former president's behavior in the hours before, during and after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol seeking to halt the certification of President Biden's victory.... Mr. Trump ... stewed about Mr. Pence's refusal for hours after violence engulfed Congress. Told that a civilian had been shot outside the House chamber amid the mob attack, he recalled, Mr. Trump appeared unconcerned.... [The valet] did recall hearing the president ask about contacting top officials on the possibility of dispatching the National Guard to Capitol Hill -- though there is no indication that he ever followed through.... The copy [of the transcript] reviewed by The Times is heavily redacted, and the valet is referred to simply as 'a White House employee.'" Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' copy of the valet's transcript is here.

The New York Times live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The United States has submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations Security Council calling for 'an immediate cease-fire tied to the release of hostages' in Gaza, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said on Wednesday in Saudi Arabia, during his latest trip to the region to broker a diplomatic resolution to the war between Israel and Hamas. Biden administration officials have grown more forceful in recent weeks in their push for a cease-fire, as conditions worsen for Gazan civilians and pressure mounts for stronger international action.... Israeli officials said ahead of this week's talks that the broad proposal being discussed includes a 42-day pause in fighting, in exchange for the release of 40 of the more than 100 hostages taken from Israel who remain captive in Gaza." MB: There seems to be a good deal of confusion over whether the draft resolution is for a permanent or temporary cease-fire.

Tara Bernard of the New York Times: "The Biden administration continued its effort to extend student debt relief on Thursday, erasing an additional $5.8 billion in federal loans for nearly 78,000 borrowers, including teachers, firefighters and others who largely work in the public sector. To date, the administration has canceled $143.6 billion in loans for nearly four million borrowers through various actions, fixes and federal relief programs. That's the largest amount of student debt eliminated since the government began backing loans more than six decades ago, but it's still far less than President Biden's initial proposal, which would have canceled up to $400 billion in debt for 43 million borrowers but was blocked by the Supreme Court." The AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Have I thanked the Supremes yet? Nothing like a cabal of old fogies sticking it to young people and families who not only need the money but also would have put most of that money right back into the economy in the form of purchases that young people need. ~~~

     ~~~ Here's President Biden's statement, via the White House.

David McCabe & Tripp Mickle of the New York Times: "The Justice Department joined 16 states and the District of Columbia to file an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday, the federal government's most significant challenge to the reach and influence of the company that has put iPhones in the hands of more than a billion people. In an 88-page lawsuit, the government argued that Apple had violated antitrust laws with practices that were intended to keep customers reliant on their iPhones and less likely to switch to a competing device. The tech giant prevented other companies from offering applications that compete with Apple products like its digital wallet, which could diminish the value of the iPhone, the government said. Apple's policies hurt consumers and smaller companies that compete with some of Apple's services, in the form of 'higher prices and less innovation,' the lawsuit said." The AP story is here.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Top congressional negotiators in the early hours of Thursday unveiled the $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September, though it remained unclear whether Congress would be able to complete action on it in time to avert a brief partial government shutdown over the weekend. Lawmakers are racing to pass the legislation before a Friday midnight deadline in order to prevent a lapse in funds for over half the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Pentagon and health agencies. They are already six months behind schedule because of lengthy negotiations to resolve funding and policy disputes. Now that they have agreed on a final package, which wraps six spending bills together, passage could slip past 12:01 on Saturday morning because of a set of arcane congressional rules."

Jesse McKinley & Kate Christobek of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office said in court papers Thursday that a large cache of newly disclosed documents contained little that might influence or delay the criminal trial of Donald J. Trump, which is scheduled to begin in mid-April.... 'The people now have good reason to believe that this production contains only limited materials relevant to the subject matter of this case and that have not previously been disclosed to defendant,' the filing read. 'The overwhelming majority of the production is entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materials.' It added that the current delay == until April 15 -- 'is a more than reasonable amount of time for defendant to review the information provided.'" CNN's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "Four-time indicted ... Donald Trump suffered arguably his worst loss(es) in any criminal matter this week when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence. By contrast, the judge largely granted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's motions to exclude evidence for trial that Trump believed might be exculpatory.... Trump, for example, moved to exclude testimony of former fixer Michael Cohen on the grounds Cohen is 'a liar.' The court rebuked this desperate move.... Most important, Merchan refused to exclude more than 100 Trump statements since these can be classified as 'admissions against interest.' Despite Trump's plea, he will also allow in Allen Weisselberg's notes, if the prosecutor shows they are business records. In sum, the lion's share of the evidence that Trump views as damaging will be heard by the jury." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If you read through Rubin's quick summary of Merchan's rulings and compare them to the "fantastical, absurd" hoohah from Judge Aileen Cannon (only a bit of which is discussed in the Barrett & Stein WashPo story linked below), you likely will be struck by what a difference a judge makes. Somehow or the other, Jack Smith has got to get Miss Aileen removed to traffic court, where she can equivocate over the meaning of stop signs (hey, maybe they're optional when a rich Republican rolls through them).

Drew Harwell of the Washington Post: "When ... Donald Trump's Trump Media & Technology Group and its proposed merger partner, Digital World Acquisition, announced last month a shareholder vote on their long-delayed deal, it marked a final step for the owner of Truth Social to become a public company potentially worth billions of dollars -- most of which is owned by Trump himself. But in the lead-up to Friday's vote, both companies have been rocked by legal warfare. Their leaders, past and present, have traded heated accusations of deception and impropriety across four lawsuits in three states. And the cases threaten to erode Trump's grasp on a stake in the post-merger company potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars -- a possible financial lifeline, given that he owes more than $500 million in legal fines.... If the deal is approved, Trump would own about 60 percent of the post-merger company, a stake that at Digital World's current price would be worth more than $3 billion."

Alabama. Praveena Somasundaram & Hannah Natanson of the Washington Post: "Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a sweeping bill Wednesday that will restrict the teaching of 'divisive concepts' and limit diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs at public schools, universities and state agencies. The legislation, which the state's GOP-controlled legislature sent to Ivey's desk Tuesday, stipulates that schools and agencies cannot sponsor any DEI programs or require their students or employees to participate in them. It also states that they cannot punish students or employees for their 'refusal to support, believe, endorse, embrace, confess, or otherwise assent to a divisive concept or diversity statement.'... The legislation also includes language that public colleges and universities must require students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex at birth, citing existing state law.... Civil rights groups have condemned the bill, saying it furthers the chilling effect classrooms have experienced in recent years as they become the site of culture wars across the country."

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Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation's history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers' lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. Cars and other forms of transportation are, together, the largest single source of carbon emissions generated by the United States, pollution that is driving climate change and that helped to make 2023 the hottest year in recorded history." (Also linked yesterday.)

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "President Biden on Wednesday awarded $8.5 billion in grants to Intel, a major investment to bolster the nation's semiconductor production, during a tour of battleground states meant to sell his economic agenda. Speaking from the Intel campus in Chandler, Ariz., Mr. Biden said the award would support thousands of new manufacturing jobs, including ones that do not require a college degree.... The award, which will go to the construction and expansion of Intel facilities around the United States, is the biggest the federal government has made with funding from the CHIPS Act, which lawmakers passed in 2022 to help re-establish the United States as a leader in semiconductor manufacturing.... In addition to the grants, the federal government is planning to award Intel up to $11 billion in loans on what the company characterized as generous terms.... The grants are intended to help fund the company's construction plans in Arizona, Ohio, New Mexico and Oregon. The projects are expected to create more than 10,000 manufacturing jobs and roughly 20,000 construction jobs, according to Biden administration officials."

Jeanna Smilek of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and continued to forecast that borrowing costs will come down somewhat by the end of the year as inflation eases. Fed policymakers have been battling rapid inflation for two full years as of this month, and while they have been encouraged by recent progress, they are not yet ready to declare victory over price increases. Given that, they are keeping interest rates at a high level that is expected to weigh on growth and inflation, even as they signal that rate cuts are likely in the months ahead. Officials held interest rates steady at about 5.3 percent, where they have been set since July 2023, in their March policy decision." (Also linked yesterday.)

Rachel Frazen & Zack Budryk of the Hill: "House Republicans on Wednesday kicked off voting on a slate of legislation for what they are dubbing 'energy week,' passing two measures in support of oil and gas development. Collectively, the energy-related legislation that passes this week is virtually certain not to become law because it would be unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-led Senate or approved by the White House."

A Budget to Die From. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "A new budget by a large and influential group of House Republicans calls for raising the Social Security retirement age for future retirees and restructuring Medicare. The proposals, which are unlikely to become law this year, reflect how many Republicans will seek to govern if they win the 2024 elections. And they play into a fight President Joe Biden is seeking to have with ... Donald Trump and the Republican Party as he runs for re-election. The budget was released Wednesday by the Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 170 House GOP lawmakers, including many allies of ... Donald Trump. Apart from fiscal policy, the budget endorses a series of bills 'designed to advance the cause of life,' including the Life at Conception Act, which would aggressively restrict abortion and potentially threaten in vitro fertilization, or IVF, by establishing legal protections for human beings at 'the moment of fertilization.' It has recently caused consternation within the GOP following backlash to an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that threatened IVF." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: As usual, the Republican plan is both cruel and stupid. It's true that many workers -- primarily those who work in white-collar jobs -- prefer to work past age 65. And they do, deferring Social Security benefits up to age 70. The plan is hardest on individuals who work in demanding physical jobs. And it's probably bad for the economy: in general, older workers cost industry more because they have seniority. And they are not necessarily more effective workers or more innovative than young workers.

The only information ever pushed on the Bidens and Ukraine has come from one source and one source only: Russia and Russian agents, which everyone sitting here today knows. -- Lev Parnas, testimony at House hearing Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Jacqueline Alemany of the Washington Post: "Lacking support and evidence, the GOP-led impeachment inquiry against President Biden continued to sputter out, even as House Republicans on Wednesday held a hearing that featured witnesses who reiterated thin allegations that members of the Biden family capitalized financially on their father's name.... Fifteen months [into their 'investigation,'] no evidence or testimony obtained by congressional Republicans has showed that Joe Biden was a direct participant in or beneficiary of his son Hunter Biden's business dealings.... Tony Bobulinski, a onetime business associate of Hunter Biden's, and Jason Galanis, who is serving a nearly 16-year federal prison sentence ... for multiple fraud schemes, both testified at the hearing Wednesday at the behest of House Republicans.... Galanis, who testified via Zoom from prison..., described a 'relatively short discussion with then-Vice President Biden in May 2014....

"Several Democrats needled Republicans for choosing to hold a hearing for an impeachment inquiry that was in part opened on the basis of a claim that authorities now say was untrue.... The allegations made by [Alexander] Smirnov [MB: now jailed under a DOJ indictment & thought to be a Russian asset] were previously reviewed by the FBI under then-Attorney General William P. Barr and found not to be supported by facts.... Democrats also questioned Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani's who was convicted in a campaign finance fraud case and appeared Wednesday, about his time working with Giuliani in 2018 and 2019 to track down damaging information about Joe Biden.... At the end of the hearing, Comer said he was inviting the president to testify to Congress, an invitation a White House spokesperson laughed off on social media." The AP's report, also linked yesterday, is here. ~~~

~~~ Andrew Feinberg & Eric Garcia of the Independent: "The House Oversight Committee's latest attempt to hold an impeachment hearing on President Joe Biden took a bizarre turn on Wednesday when one of the three witnesses who gave evidence before the Republican-led panel began revealing unflattering information on ... Donald Trump's disgraced ex-personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani. Lev Parnas ... told committee members that he'd been a 'key participant' in a scheme to dig up dirt on Mr Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election. He said Mr Giuliani had 'tasked' him with 'finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them' so Mr Trump and his allies could 'damage the Bidens' reputations and secure the 2020 election for Trump'....

"Under questioning from Republicans, the incarcerated felon [Jason Galanis] described Hunter Biden as offering what he called a 'Biden lift' to potential business deals through his father's involvement.... Yet in a 2018 court opinion, US District Judge Ronnie Abrams said it was Galanis — not Hunter Biden -- who was leveraging Hunter's family name for his own gain.... [Tony] Bobulinski, who was represented by an attorney from Elections LLC -- a firm run by former Trump administration officials which has been paid by Mr Trump's political action committee, repeatedly engaged in theatrics throughout his testimony, displaying visible contempt for Democrats on the panel and personally attacking two Democratic members...." ~~~

~~~ Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Lev Parnas ... named members of Congress on Wednesday he alleged were 'doing the bidding' of Russia by attempting to dig up 'dirt' on President Biden during his 2020 campaign.... Parnas named Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas) during his testimony as collaborators in their efforts.... Parnas, whom Democrats selected as a witness, was indicted on fraud and campaign finance crimes and was sentenced to 20 months in prison in 2022.... The indictment accused Parnas and his business partner Igor Fruman, who was also indicted, of heavily lobbying an unnamed congressman for the removal of Marie Yovanovitch as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The indictment said they 'committed to raise $20,000 or more for a then-sitting U.S. Congressman.' The unnamed congressman, 'Congressman-1,' was later reported by multiple outlets to be Sessions." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Jamie Raskin, appearing on MSNBC, spoke to a remarkable irony: that House Republicans' entire effort to impeach Joe Biden is based on the very lies that Trump tried to pressure Ukraine President Zelensky to falsely confirm in the "perfect phone call" that led directly to Trump's first impeachment. Raskin said he wish he had understood at the time that the whole Trump/Giuliani/Lev & Igor tall tale was the product of Russian disinformation. Decades past my time, Americans may get a fairly full picture of the conspiracy between the Trump gang and their Putin handlers. This pathetic little impeachment effort against Biden is a piece of a much bigger American story, and we know only bits of it. ~~~

     ~~~ It's also worth noting that RAS posted a list in yesterday's Comments of nine House Republicans who voted against a resolution condemning the Russian abduction of Ukrainian children. You have to be pretty deep in the tank to want to appear to favor child abduction. Maybe the GOP has adopted IOKIYAR and given it a new meaning: "It's Okay If You're A Russian."

~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Republicans on the House Oversight Committee tabled a motion to subpoena Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of, and former White House adviser to Donald Trump. [Democrat Jamie Raskin (Md.) brought the motion.] Six months after exiting the White House, Kushner's private equity firm Affinity Partners received a $2 billion investment from Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund over the objections of the fund's advisers. They were overruled by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had developed a close relationship with Kushner. The Oversight Committee convened on Wednesday for another hearing on Hunter Biden and his business dealings that Republicans say illicitly benefitted his father President Joe Biden. Despite investigating the matter for more than a year, the committee has turned up no proof." MB: Why, you'd almost think the "oversight" committee is not serious about overseeing administrative affairs. ~~~

~~~ Alex Griffing of Mediaite: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) sparred with Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, at a GOP-led impeachment hearing for President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Ocasio-Cortez pressed Bobulinski to name a 'specific crime' committed by President Biden and when he could not do so she turned her ire to the Republican Party for continuing an investigation despite its key witness being arrested by the FBI for lying to officials about the Bidens.... '... At this point, the story is not the fact that the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. The story is why it's proceeding anyway. Why is this committee proceeding based on false charges?... I have yet to hear in the chairman's opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the president of the United States with.... I have yet to hear in the chairman's opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the president of the United States with."

The Trials of Trump

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday urged an appeals court not to believe Donald Trump's recent assertion that he is unable to secure a bond for more than $450 million to satisfy the civil business-fraud judgment against him.... On Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a lawyer for James, told the appeals court that Trump's claims of striking out with insurance companies are not reliable because they are based on sworn statements from Gary Giulietti, a personal friend of Trump's, and from Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization. Fan wrote that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw James's civil trial against Trump, decided Giulietti was not a credible witness. He argued that Garten was involved in the conduct at issue and 'has professional interests in this litigation.'" The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "... Donald Trump is in panic mode as the deadline approaches to secure a half-billion-dollar bond to appeal his civil fraud case in New York, according to multiple sources.... Trump's team has sought out wealthy supporters and weighed what assets could be sold -- and fast. The presumptive GOP presidential nominee himself has become increasingly concerned about the optics the March 25 deadline could present -- especially the prospect that someone whose identity has long been tied to his wealth would confront financial crisis."

"A Fantastical View of the Law.... Absurd." Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "On Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the [Trump documents] case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts.... 'What she has asked the parties to do is very, very troubling,' Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts, said of Cannon. 'She is giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd. She is ignoring a raft of other motions, equally absurd, that are unreasonably delaying the case.'... 'The [Presidential Records Act] is just not relevant here in any way it all; it provides no defense. To even allow it to be argued at trial would create confusion for the jury,' said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. attorney.... Cannon's order suggests that she thinks the PRA is critical to the case -- and that parts of the law are open to interpretation. Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said that's just not true. He said Cannon seems to continually conflate the PRA with the Espionage Act.... Baron said the judge, who has not previously overseen a major national security trial, seems to be embracing a fantastical view of the law." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jason Morris & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "A Georgia judge on Wednesday greenlit an effort by ... Donald Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the 2020 election subversion case there. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled last week against the defendants' efforts to disqualify Willis, has issued a certificate of immediate review, allowing the case to be revealed by a Georgia Appeals Court.... The move doesn't pause the prosecution but allows appeals on the disqualification effort to play out before trial." (Also linked yesterday.)


Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... Whatever the 5th Circuit decides, the status of the law is likely to end up back before the Supreme Court." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' liveblog of developments. (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Rebecca O'Brien of the New York Times: "President Biden's re-election campaign had $71 million on hand at the end of February, more than double the $33.5 million in ... Donald J. Trump's campaign account, as Democrats continued to expand their fund-raising advantage over Republicans in the presidential race. The cash disparity was detailed in filings with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday, when campaigns and some presidential committees had a deadline to file fund-raising and spending reports for February.... Over the weekend, Mr. Biden's team reported raising a combined $53 million in February across the committees backing his re-election bid, with a combined total of $155 million, up from $130 million at the end of January.... Mr. Biden will also be backed by more than $1 billion that outside groups have pledged to support his bid -- money that is separate from the party accounts that filed on Wednesday. Mr. Trump's campaign told Fox News on Wednesday that it had raised a combined $20.3 million with a joint fund-raising committee, with $42 million on hand between the two groups." ~~~

~~~ Jessica Piper, et al., of Politico: "Donald Trump's leadership PAC spent another $5.6 million on legal expenses in February, furthering a trend that has seen the former president put valuable campaign dollars into his courtroom fights. That leadership PAC, Save America, was kept afloat last month by a $5 million refund from another Trump-related political group, the super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. The latter entity has now sent more than $50 million to Save America since last year to help cover Trump's many legal costs. The arrangement raises questions about where Trump will continue to find the money to pay his lawyers. Save America ended the reporting period with just over $4 million in cash on hand. And MAGA Inc. has just $7.75 million more that it can refund the group."

Adam Kinzinger on Substack: "As he campaigned for president last week Donald Trump turned up the volume on his authoritarian message. He followed the well-known blueprint for dictatorship, which included dehumanizing outsiders, predictions of violence, and dramatic warnings about a supposed emergency facing the nation.... Many of the fans -- err, voters -- who stand in line for hours to be admitted to a rally, seemed to be bored by the show."

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's long fixation on mental fitness followed years of watching his father's worsening dementia -- a formative period that some associates said has been a defining and little-mentioned factor in his life, and which left him with an abiding concern that he might someday inherit the condition. While much remains unknown about Alzheimer's, experts say there is an increased risk of inheriting a gene associated with the disease from a parent.... Trump's father's condition also drove a wedge into his family, which fell into years of lawsuits that alleged in part that Donald Trump sought to take advantage of his father's dementia to wrest control of the family estate -- litigation that introduced reams of medical records detailing Fred Trump Sr.'s condition.... (A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, told The Post via email that neither of [President] Biden's parents had dementia.)" (Also linked yesterday.)

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Mississippi. Michael Goldberg & Emily Pettus of the AP: "Two former Mississippi deputies wept in court Wednesday as a federal judge sentenced them to years in prison and condemned their cruelty for breaking into a home with four other white officers and torturing two Black men. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee sentenced Christian Dedmon, 29, to 40 years in prison and Daniel Opdyke, 28, to 17.5 years. Lee said Dedmon carried out the most 'shocking, brutal and cruel attacks imaginable' against the two Black men, Michael Corey Jenkins and Eddie Terrell Parker, and against a white man during a traffic stop weeks earlier.... Jenkins, who has trouble speaking after being shot in the mouth during the January 2023 attack, said in a statement read by his lawyer that Dedmon's actions were the most depraved of any of those who attacked him.

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Ireland. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Leo Varadkar, Ireland's barrier-breaking taoiseach or prime minister, said on Wednesday that he would step down as the country's leader, days after the defeat of two referendums that the coalition government had championed and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael. Ireland is scheduled to hold a general election early next year, and his decision will not trigger an earlier election, he said.... Citing reasons both 'personal and political,' Mr. Varadkar said he would step down from the party leadership effective immediately and would continue to serve as prime minister until his party elects a new leader.... There had been little indication of his decision just days earlier when he visited the White House and met with President Biden for St. Patrick's Day.... Mr. Varadkar, who is gay and whose father is of Indian heritage, broke a number of barriers when he became the country's youngest-ever leader in 2017." (Also linked yesterday.)

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Egypt on Thursday, and will make a stop in Israel on Friday, as talks for a cease-fire and hostage deal in Gaza falter. The United States said it will review a written assurance from Israel that its use of U.S.-supplied defense equipment does not violate international or U.S. human rights law.... The Israeli military said Thursday its raid of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City was ongoing and that 140 militants were killed. Civilians in the area have said they were trapped in dire conditions. Israel's chief of staff said from the hospital that the goal was striking Hamas and 'putting pressure on the negotiations.'"

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel assailed Senator Chuck Schumer on Wednesday in a closed-door speech to Senate Republicans, days after the Democratic majority leader branded him an impediment to peace in the Middle East and called for a new election to replace him after the war winds down. Mr. Netanyahu's virtual appearance at a weekly gathering of Republican senators -- and a refusal by Mr. Schumer to allow him to make a similar address to Senate Democrats -- dramatized the growing partisan split on Capitol Hill and in American politics over Mr. Netanyahu's leadership and Israel's offensive in Gaza. 'Senator Schumer made it clear that he does not think these discussions should happen in a partisan manner,' said Alex Nguyen, a spokesman.... Inside the meeting with Republicans, Mr. Netanyahu called Mr. Schumer's speech last week on the Senate floor 'wholly inappropriate and outrageous,' according to Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri.... And many Republican senators spoke up to say they agreed with him."

Ukraine, et al.

Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "Russian missiles streaked into Kyiv early Thursday in the biggest assault on the Ukrainian capital in weeks, injuring at least 13 people and damaging several residential buildings and industrial facilities, according to local officials. The Ukrainian Air Force said that air defense systems had intercepted all 31 of the Russian missiles that targeted Kyiv. Still, debris from the downed missiles fell in various parts of the city, causing the injuries and damage. No deaths have been reported so far."

John Hudson & Siobhan O'Grady of the Washington Post: "National security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled in secret to Ukraine on Wednesday in a trip aimed at reaffirming U.S. support for the beleaguered ally despite an impasse in Congress over additional funding for the war effort.... Kyiv is facing chronic shortages of ammunition and soldiers as House lawmakers in the United States weigh a Senate aid package that includes $60 billion for Ukraine. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has thus far refused calls to vote on the measure, sending the White House scrambling to find weaponry and equipment it can send to Ukraine. 'You should believe in the United States,' Sullivan told reporters in a briefing at Ukraine's presidential office in Kyiv. 'We are confident we will get this done....'"

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Wednesday
Mar202024

The Conversation -- March 20, 2024

Jeanna Smilek of the New York Times: "Federal Reserve officials left interest rates unchanged on Wednesday and continued to forecast that borrowing costs will come down somewhat by the end of the year as inflation eases. Fed policymakers have been battling rapid inflation for two full years as of this month, and while they have been encouraged by recent progress, they are not yet ready to declare victory over price increases. Given that, they are keeping interest rates at a high level that is expected to weigh on growth and inflation, even as they signal that rate cuts are likely in the months ahead. Officials held interest rates steady at about 5.3 percent, where they have been set since July 2023, in their March policy decision."

Marie: Apparently the House held another sham impeachment hearing Wednesday to try to develop some dirt on President Biden. I haven't found a story on it yet, but for Republicans it was, according to on-air MSNBC opinionators, a disaster. I'll look for something overnight.

      ~~~ Update. Some stories are trickling in. Lisa Mascaro of the AP makes a stab at reporting on whatever Jim Comer thinks he's doing. Comer's star witness testified from jail where he is serving a long term for fraud. Not to be outdone, the Democrats' top witness was Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani's former sidekick who tried in vain to sell fake claims against Biden. Lev, who's been released from jail now, said he and his pals could never find anything on Joe Biden.

Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post: "New York Attorney General Letitia James on Wednesday urged an appeals court not to believe Donald Trump's recent assertion that he is unable to secure a bond for more than $450 million to satisfy the civil business-fraud judgment against him.... On Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a lawyer for James, told the appeals court that Trump's claims of striking out with insurance companies are no reliable because they are based on sworn statements from Gary Giulietti, a personal friend of Trump's, and from Alan Garten, general counsel at the Trump Organization. Fan wrote that New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who oversaw James's civil trial against Trump, decided Giulietti was not a credible witness. He argued that Garten was involved in the conduct at issue and 'has professional interests in this litigation.'" The AP's report is here.

"A Fantastical View of the Law.... Absurd." Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "On Monday evening, U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the [Trump documents] case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts.... 'What she has asked the parties to do is very, very troubling,' Nancy Gertner, a former federal judge in Massachusetts, said of Cannon. 'She is giving credence to arguments that are on their face absurd. She is ignoring a raft of other motions, equally absurd, that are unreasonably delaying the case.'... 'The [Presidential Records Act] is just not relevant here in any way it all; it provides no defense. To even allow it to be argued at trial would create confusion for the jury,' said Barbara McQuade, a law professor at the University of Michigan and a former U.S. attorney.... Cannon's order suggests that she thinks the PRA is critical to the case -- and that parts of the law are open to interpretation. Jason R. Baron, former director of litigation at the National Archives and Records Administration, said that's just not true. He said Cannon seems to continually conflate the PRA with the Espionage Act.... Baron said the judge, who has not previously overseen a major national security trial, seems to be embracing a fantastical view of the law."

Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday issued one of the most significant climate regulations in the nation's history, a rule designed to ensure that the majority of new passenger cars and light trucks sold in the United States are all-electric or hybrids by 2032. Nearly three years in the making, the new tailpipe pollution limits from the Environmental Protection Agency would transform the American automobile market. A record 1.2 million electric vehicles rolled off dealers' lots last year, but they made up just 7.6 percent of total U.S. car sales, far from the 56 percent target under the new regulation. An additional 16 percent of new cars sold would be hybrids. Cars and other forms of transportation are, together, the largest single source of carbon emissions generated by the United States, pollution that is driving climate change and that helped to make 2023 the hottest year in recorded history."

Nick Miroff & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... The push by Republican-led states to take on a direct role in immigration enforcement -- historically a federal matter -- went before an appeals court Wednesday morning, a day after the Supreme Court briefly allowed Texas to begin arresting and deporting migrants under a controversial new law.... Whatever the 5th Circuit decides, the status of the law is likely to end up back before the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Here's the New York Times' liveblog of developments.

Jason Morris & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "A Georgia judge on Wednesday greenlit an effort by ... Donald Trump and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the 2020 election subversion case there. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee, who ruled last week against the defendants' efforts to disqualify Willis, has issued a certificate of immediate review, allowing the case to be revealed by a Georgia Appeals Court.... The move doesn't pause the prosecution but allows appeals on the disqualification effort to play out before trial."

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: Donald "Trump's long fixation on mental fitness followed years of watching his father's worsening dementia -- a formative period that some associates said has been a defining and little-mentioned factor in his life, and which left him with an abiding concern that he might someday inherit the condition. While much remains unknown about Alzheimer's, experts say there is an increased risk of inheriting a gene associated with the disease from a parent.... Trump's father's condition also drove a wedge into his family, which fell into years of lawsuits that alleged in part that Donald Trump sought to take advantage of his father's dementia to wrest control of the family estate -- litigation that introduced reams of medical records detailing Fred Trump Sr.'s condition.... (A White House spokesman, Andrew Bates, told The Post via email that neither of [President] Biden’s parents had dementia.)"

Ireland. Megan Specia of the New York Times: "Leo Varadkar, Ireland's barrier-breaking taoiseach or prime minister, said on Wednesday that he would step down as the country's leader, days after the defeat of two referendums that the coalition government had championed and after years of waning public support for his political party, Fine Gael. Ireland is scheduled to hold a general election early next year, and his decision will not trigger an earlier election, he said.... Citing reasons both 'personal and political,' Mr. Varadkar said he would step down from the party leadership effective immediately and would continue to serve as prime minister until his party elects a new leader.... There had been little indication of his decision just days earlier when he visited the White House and met with President Biden for St. Patrick's Day.... Mr. Varadkar, who is gay and whose father is of Indian heritage, broke a number of barriers when he became the country's youngest-ever leader in 2017."

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Primary Races

Chris Cameron & Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "It was the biggest primary night since Super Tuesday, and there were few surprises in the results. Bernie Moreno won the Republican Senate primary in Ohio, wielding the powerful endorsement of ... Donald J. Trump to become the Republican nominee in perhaps the most consequential race in the battle for the Senate this November.... Two incumbent Democratic representatives in Illinois faced significant challengers in Tuesday's primary, and survived -- demonstrating the power of incumbency. Representative Danny Davis won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary for the Seventh Congressional District.... Representative Jesús García, a progressive Democrat known as Chuy, won by a wide margin in the Democratic primary in the Fourth Congressional District in Chicago, beating his opponent, Raymond Lopez, in a landslide.... Another race featuring an incumbent, the Republican primary in the 12th Congressional District, was still undecided early Wednesday morning. Representative Mike Bost is nobody's idea of a moderate Republican, and had Mr. Trump's endorsement, but he was nevertheless challenged from his right by Darren Bailey, an ardent pro-Trump Republican who lost the governor's race to J.B. Pritzker by a wide margin in 2022....

"Vince Fong, a Republican state assemblyman, advanced in a special primary in California to complete the term of [Kevin] McCarthy, a Republican who was ousted from his role as speaker of the House and resigned soon after. Mr. Fong did not hit the 50 percent threshold to avoid a runoff, and two other candidates were running close for second place, with votes still outstanding.... Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump, the presumptive presidential nominees of their parties, swept to near-total victories in the states that held primaries on Tuesday: Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Kansas and Ohio.... Nikki Haley, who dropped out of the [Republican] race after Super Tuesday, took notable minorities of the vote in each primary. Her best showing was in Arizona. Mr. Biden took an even larger percentage of the vote in the Democratic primaries, winning at least 83 percent of the vote in each state as of early Wednesday. But some voters still registered their discontent with his candidacy." This is the pinned item in a liveblog.

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders said on Tuesday morning that they had reached an agreement on the final package of spending legislation to fund the federal government through the fall, though it was unclear whether they would be able to pass it in time to avert a brief partial shutdown over the weekend.... It will take congressional staff time to draw up text of the bill.... House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House had been at loggerheads over funding levels for the Department of Homeland Security. For days, they had been litigating disagreements that threatened to imperil the spending package that also funds the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies. They are facing a midnight deadline on Friday to pass the measure and avert a lapse in funding. A breakthrough on Monday night, in which Democrats and Republicans were able to agree to homeland security funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year, allowed negotiators to finalize their deal." (Also linked yesterday.)

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Former President Trump argued Tuesday he would have to take extreme measures in order to pay a $464 million bond due next week in his New York civil fraud case, such as selling some of his properties for cheap 'fire sale' prices. Trump blasted New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled against the former president in the fraud case, in a Truth Social post objecting to having to post the bond.... 'I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!' Trump added." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A group of more than 100 Democratic donors and activists on Monday sent a letter to President Biden's campaign warning that progressive anger over Israel's war in Gaza is 'increasing the chances of a Trump victory.'"

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is preparing to bring back into his campaign fold [Paul Manafort,] a man convicted of multiple crimes and whom a bipartisan Senate report labeled a 'grave counterintelligence threat' because of his ties to a Russian spy.... Trump pardoned Manafort after losing the 2020 election, claiming he had been treated unfairly and sparing him years more in confinement after his convictions for money laundering, obstruction and foreign lobbying violations. And Trump has broadly dismissed the Russia probe that ensnared Manafort as a 'hoax.'" Blake goes into details of the Senate report; Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) chaired the committee that investigated and wrote the report. (Also linked yesterday.)

Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "During a campaign event in Nebraska, second gentleman Doug Emhoff criticized former President Trump for his recent comments about Democratic Jewish voters, saying he should be 'condemned' for his 'disgusting, toxic and antisemitic remarks.'... Emhoff was responding to Trump's recent interview with conservative radio host Sebastian Gorka, where he said Democrats 'hate Israel' and that Jewish voters who back Democrats hate their religion."

Timothy Snyder on Substack on the Bloodbath Candidate: "... right at the beginning, Americans at the [Trump] rally [Saturday] are told to identify themselves with people who tried to overthrow an election by force, who are celebrated as 'unbelievable patriots.' That is perhaps the most essential element of context to Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. He has already made clear, in a the collective performance, that violent insurrection is the best form of politics. Well before he actually used the word, he had instructed his audience that bloodbaths are the right form of politics.... Right at the beginning of his Vandalia speech, Trump referred to the convicts as 'hostages' and promised to pardon them 'the first day we get into office.' That pardon pledge is a second essential context for Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. Trump is saying that, as president, he will have the power to protect violent criminals who help him get into office." Read the whole essay. (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Trump Urges Supremes to Declare Him Exempt from U.S. Law. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to rule that he is absolutely immune from criminal charges stemming from his attempts to subvert the 2020 election.... The brief, Mr. Trump's main submission to the justices before the case is argued on April 25, continued to press an expansive understanding of presidential immunity, one that it said was required by the very structure of the Constitution. Legal experts said Mr. Trump was unlikely to prevail but added that how and when the court rejects his arguments will effectively determine whether and when Mr. Trump's trial, which had been scheduled to start March 4, will proceed." A CBS News report is here.

David Kurtz in TPM: "U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has unlocked new achievements in weirdness and incompetence. On Monday, she issued an order directing Special Counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump to each come up with a set of proposed jury instructions based on two hypothetical interpretations of the Presidential Records Act. Both of her interpretations are wrong as a matter of law and favorable to Trump, putting Smith in an extraordinary bind. If this is confusing, trust me, it's not you. This is a strange and unusual place to be at this stage in a criminal case. Cannon clearly doesn't understand her role or the law at issue. She is casting about for help, but doing so in a way that is not going to be helpful to her or to the case." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "Lawyers were left scratching their heads over the Mar-a-Lago trial judge's Monday order asking the prosecution and defense to propose jury instructions under the assumption that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) allowed ... Donald Trump to unilaterally decide that classified documents were personal." Includes numerous lawyerly reactions, including a reprise of the Weissmann-Moss dialog mentioned yesterday. (Also linked yesterday.)

Zach Montague & David Adams of the New York Times: "Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami on Tuesday, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to serve time over his role in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Mr. Navarro, 74, who helped engineer Mr. Trump's plans to stay in power after his electoral defeat in November 2020, was sentenced to four months in prison in January for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. At a hastily organized news conference shortly before he was set to check into the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, a low-security prison next to the Miami-Dade zoo, Mr. Navarro reprised familiar denunciations of the Justice Department and the Biden administration." MB: "Hastily organized," I surmise, because Navarro was planning to be elsewhere this morning. Alas, Supreme Court CJ John Roberts did not catch Navarro's late-in-the-4th-quarter Hail-Mary pass; story linked below. (Maybe Balls-and-Strikes Roberts prefers baseball to football.) The Guardian's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Luckily for Sneaky Pete, he has a prison consultant, who is advising Navarro how to make his term in the hoosegow shorter and more pleasant. CNN's story is here. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. And you won't want to miss his commentary in yesterday's thread.


John Fritze of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Texas to immediately begin enforcing a controversial immigration law that allows state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. The court's three liberals dissented. Legal challenges to the law are ongoing at a federal appeals court, but the decision hands a significant -- yet temporary -- win to Texas, which has been in an ongoing battle with the Biden administration over immigration policy. The court had been blocking the law from taking effect, issuing an indefinite stay on Monday, which was wiped away by Tuesday's order.... As is often the case in emergency applications, the court did not explain its reasoning. However, a concurring opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, explained that the appeals court had only handed down a temporary 'administrative' order.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Ah, but it's only temporary. Temporary as in, "Greggers, you can forget the Constitution & destroy the lives of quite a few migrants -- but only for a little while." ~~~

     ~~~ Tom Levenson of Balloon Juice: "We've just entered a new phase, in which the Supreme Treason caucus just decided that states do have what we fought the Civil War to deny: the right to ignore federal rule at will[.]... Actual lawyers should weigh in, but there is little or no other area of law in which the issue is as clear and as settled as who gets to run immigration policy in the US. Spoiler: it ain't the individual states.... The legal regime the Supreme radicals are imposing on us is, in essence and in my not-a-lawyer humble opinion, a direct attack on the entire idea and edifice of Constitutional gov't."

     ~~~ UPDATE. David Goodman, et al., of the New York Times: "The State of Texas late Tuesday was once again prevented from enforcing a strict new immigration law that gives local police agencies the power to arrest migrants who cross the border without authorization. The order, issued by a Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals panel before midnight, capped a day of legal whiplash and came just hours after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the law to temporarily go into effect. The justices' ruling created confusion along the border, outraged immigration advocates and led to a show of defiance by the Mexican government. Hours later that was all moot, except the confusion.... Earlier on Tuesday, the Supreme Court justices had kicked the case back to the Fifth Circuit, which is based in New Orleans and had been considering the Biden administration's challenge of the law." This is the pinned item in a liveblog. Here are some of the other entries: ~~~

Edgar Sandoval: :Migrants newly arrived in Texas were already expressing worry on Tuesday over whether they could face arrest by state authorities under the state's new immigration law.:

Jack Healy: "The Supreme Court's decision on Tuesday allowing Texas to arrest and deport migrants resonated deeply in Arizona, which passed its own divisive crackdown against illegal immigration more than a decade ago.... It sparked boycotts and angry protests. A political backlash removed the law's Republican architect from office. Legal challenges gutted major provisions of the law.... The Supreme Court struck down portions of Arizona's law in a 2012 decision declaring that the federal government, and not states, had the power to set immigration policy." [Yeah, well, so much for precedent, human rights & the U.S. Constitution.]

Emiliano Mega: "Mexico will not accept deportations made by Texas 'under any circumstances,' the country's foreign ministry said on Tuesday in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to allow Texas to arrest migrants who cross into the state without authorization. The ministry condemned the state law, known as Senate Bill 4, saying it would separate families, violate the human rights of migrants and generate 'hostile environments' for the more than 10 million people of Mexican origin living in Texas. Mexico's top diplomat for North America, Roberto Velasco Álvarez, rejected the ruling on the social media on Tuesday, saying that immigration policy was something to be negotiated between federal governments."

Mitch Smith: "Iowa lawmakers passed a bill on Tuesday that would make it a crime to enter the state after being deported or denied entry into the United States. The passage puts the Midwestern state on track to join Texas in enforcing immigration outside the federal system."

Miriam Jordan: "A new state law that would allow Texas to arrest migrants suspected of crossing the border without authorization has raised concerns from critics that those seeking protection from persecution in their homelands could be deprived of their right to apply for asylum."

Daniel Victor: "Representative Joaquin Castro, a Democrat, said in a statement that the Supreme Court had undermined its credibility by allowing the law to take effect and 'has opted to allow for a trial run of a constitutional crisis.' He called the law 'an alarming state overreach that will likely lead to massive civil rights violations across our state.'"

Victor: "Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, a Republican, briefly responded to the court ruling on social media, calling it 'clearly a positive development.' U.S. Senate Republicans responded more forcefully, declaring the decision 'a big win for those who believe in the rule of law and secure borders.'"

Victor: "Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said in a statement that 'we fundamentally disagree' with the Supreme Court order. The state law 'will not only make communities in Texas less safe, it will also burden law enforcement, and sow chaos and confusion at our southern border,' she said." ~~~

     ~~~ CNN's report on the Fifth Circuit's midnight hold is here.

Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "New FBI data confirms [confirm!] previous indications that crime in the U.S. declined significantly in 2023, continuing a post-pandemic trend and belying widespread perceptions that crime is rising. The new fourth-quarter numbers showed a 13% decline in murder in 2023 from 2022, a 6% decline in reported violent crime and a 4% decline in reported property crime. That's based on data from around 13,000 law enforcement agencies, policing about 82% of the U.S. population, that provided the FBI with data through December."

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Alabama. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Alabama Republicans pushed through a sprawling measure on Tuesday that would not only ban state funding for diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities, local boards of education and government agencies, but also limit the teaching of 'divisive concepts' surrounding race, gender and identity. The bill passed with broad support in the State Legislature, but faced vehement opposition from student groups, civil rights advocates and Democrats who said it was a chilling attempt to undercut free speech and diversity efforts, especially given Alabama's history of educational segregation and racism. The bill also forbids public universities and colleges from allowing transgender people to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity."

Arizona. Praveena Somasundaram of the Washington Post: "On Monday, [Arizona state senator Eva Burch] shared her [abortion] story in a 10-minute speech on the Senate floor. Voice shaking, Burch told her colleagues that she'd visited a clinic on Friday where she was given an invasive ultrasound and counseling on alternatives to abortion, despite already knowing her pregnancy was not viable. Required under Arizona law, those experiences, Burch said in the speech, were 'cruel.'... 'There's no one-size-fits-all script for people seeking abortion care, and the legislature doesn't have any right to assign one,' she said Monday.... She said she could see some GOP senators leaving the chamber.... Before she was elected to the Arizona Senate, Burch spent more than a decade working as a nurse at a women's health clinic." The AP's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: How about those gutless Republicans who are willing to put women's health at risk but don't have the guts to even listen to a colleague describing first-hand experience with the consequences of the cruel, dangerous laws they so blithely and sanctimoniously pass. It's fine and dandy to hurt women, their families and their healthcare providers, but please have the decency not to confront me with facts that might make me "uncomfortable."

Mississippi. Emma Tucker, et al., of CNN: "Hunter Elward, a former Mississippi sheriff's deputy who faced the most serious of federal charges against him and five other officers in the torture of two Black men last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a highly emotional hearing Tuesday. Elward pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the January 2023 incident. The former officer was also ordered to pay $79,500 in restitution to the victims. Details from the January 24, 2023, incident in Braxton, just southeast of Jackson, eventually came to light after the victims -- Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker -- filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in June. They alleged the officers illegally entered their home and handcuffed, kicked, waterboarded and tased them and attempted to sexually assault them over nearly two hours before one of the deputies put a gun in Jenkins' mouth and shot him.... Some of the officers called themselves 'The Goon Squad' because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it, federal prosecutors said." (Also linked yesterday.) The story has been updated to reflect the sentencing of a second former deputy. ~~~

     ~~~ David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "Former Rankin County sheriff's deputies Hunter Elward, 31, who shot one of the victims in the face, was sentenced to just over 20 years in prison, and Jeffrey Middleton, 46, was sentenced to 17½ years. Both men and four other officers, all of them White, pleaded guilty last summer to federal civil rights charges that included conspiracy and deprivations of rights. U.S. District Judge Tom Lee called the crimes 'egregious and despicable.'... Though [Michael] Jenkins was bleeding [after Edward shot him in the mouth], the officers failed to provide medical aid and instead concocted a coverup story that included planting a gun on Jenkins and destroying evidence, authorities said."

Nebraska. Maya King of the New York Times: "A Republican state lawmaker in Nebraska wanted to make a point about explicit content in school-sanctioned books. But his decision to name two Democrats during his reading of a graphic rape scene has led to calls for his resignation. During a debate on Monday about legislation that would tighten restrictions on the content of books used in schools, the lawmaker, State Senator Steve Halloran, read a passage from a book that he said could be found in more than a dozen public libraries across the state.... Mr. Halloran stood on the floor of the State Capitol in Lincoln and interjected the names of two of his Democratic colleagues -- Machaela Cavanaugh and her brother, John -- into the text as he read it aloud. At one point, he inserted 'Senator Cavanaugh' while reading a section in which Ms. Sebold described a man demanding oral sex from her.... Shortly after Mr. Halloran finished reading the passage with his interjections, Ms. Cavanaugh responded, tearfully calling his altering of the passage unnecessary harassment that diminished the integrity of the legislation they were debating." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Annie Gowen & Kelsey Ables of the Washington Post: "Nebraska state Sen. Steve Halloran apologized Tuesday for reading a sexually graphic passage during debate over an obscenity bill and inserting a colleague's name into the text...." MB: The only way to interpret Steve's extemporaneous rewriting of a graphic scene is to assume that he had fantasized about violently abusing his colleague. Had he phoned in what he said on the statehouse floor (where even violent sexual remarks are likely protected speech), law enforcement would have come after him for threatening a public official.

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 7, the Israeli military conducted a targeted missile strike on a car carrying four Palestinian journalists outside Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Two members of an Al Jazeera crew -- Hamza Dahdouh, 27, and drone operator Mustafa Thuraya, 30 -- were killed, along with their driver. Two freelance journalists were seriously wounded. They were returning from the scene of an earlier Israeli strike on a building, where they had used a drone to capture the aftermath. The drone -- a consumer model available at Best Buy -- would be central to the Israeli justification for the strike.... The Washington Post obtained and reviewed the footage from Thuraya's drone, which was stored in a memory card recovered at the scene and sent to a Palestinian production company in Turkey. No Israeli soldiers, aircraft or other military equipment are visible in the footage taken that day -- which The Post is publishing in its entirety -- raising critical questions about why the journalists were targeted. Fellow reporters said they were unaware of troop movements in the area.... The Post found no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day." (Also linked yesterday.)

Always Look on the Bright Side. Patrick Wintour of the Guardian: "Jared Kushner has praised the 'very valuable' potential of Gaza's 'waterfront property.'... [Kushner] made the comments in an interview at Harvard University on 15 February. The interview was posted on the YouTube channel of the Middle East Initiative ... earlier this month. Kushner was a senior foreign policy adviser under Trump's presidency and was tasked with preparing a peace plan for the Middle East. Critics of the plan, which involved Israel striking normalisation deals with Gulf states, said it bypassed questions about the future for Palestinians.... 'Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable ,,, if people would focus on building up livelihoods,' Kushner told his interviewer.... 'It's a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but from Israel's perspective I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up,' Kushner said.... Kushner also said he thinks Israel should move civilians [MB: presumably Palestinians] from Gaza to the Negev desert in southern Israel.... Responding to a question about whether the Palestinians should have their own state, Kushner described the proposal as 'a super bad idea' that 'would essentially be rewarding an act of terror'." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yes, yes, Jared, it is "a little bit of an unfortunate situation there," but under your direction I'm sure it would be easy enough to halt the pesky relief boats that are pulling up on that valuable waterfront property to feed starving Palestinians. Certainly the peasants would thrive in the ever-so-hospitable Negev, what with its near-zero rainfall and extreme temperatures. In fairness, Jared does raise some serious practical, philosophical and ethical questions. Like, "Nature or nurture? What's the matter with Jared?" And "Can a young man who was reared by a criminal and associates with known criminals learn to think like a human being with normal affective behavior?" And "How did Harvard fail Jared Kushner?" Or, "Should Harvard drop its policy of admitting the unqualified offspring of big donors?" Or maybe, "Should Harvard develop a study-abroad program for the Negev?" From great failure can come great knowledge.

The New York Times' live updates of Tuesday's developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here. (Also linked yesterday.)


Ukraine. David Stern of the Washington Post: "Ukraine manufactured practically no weapons before Russia invaded in February 2022, but the local arms industry is now booming. Factories spit out shells, mortar rounds, military vehicles, missiles and other items crucial to the war effort. Production tripled in 2023 and is expected to increase sixfold this year, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a Ukrainian government meeting in January. Local production is not sufficient to make up for a loss of international support, especially weapons from the United States. But with a $60 billion aid package stalled in Congress, domestic manufacturing is more critical than ever."

U.K., Sort of. Seb Starcevic of Politico: "Prince Harry could be deported from the U.S. if he lied about taking drugs on his American visa application, according to ... Donald Trump. In a preview of an interview with GB News that's set to air Tuesday evening, Trump weighed in on the visa drama enveloping Prince Harry, saying the royal, who now lives in California, shouldn't receive special treatment. 'We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action,' Trump said.... Prince Harry's visa status has been at the center of a legal row since an American conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, last year sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for access to his immigration records. Applicants for certain American visas typically must disclose whether they have ever taken drugs, and doing so can result in their application being denied. Other public figures have run into issues entering the U.S. over their reported drug use. In his memoir 'Spare,' Harry admitted to using various drugs and psychedelics including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms, but it's unclear whether he declared this on his visa application." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait! Doesn't Harry have, like, royal immunity? Like Trump's Article II "I can do whatever I want" immunity? Only better because it's a birthright. Seriously, Trump must love the idea of lording it over a British royal, especially a royal who is a friend of the Obamas. Update: Akhilleus has some practical advice, at the top of today's Comments, to help Trump answer thorny questions like this one. And others!

Comments Off
Monday
Mar182024

The Conversation -- March 19, 2024

John Fritze of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Texas to immediately begin enforcing a controversial immigration law that allows state officials to arrest and detain people they suspect of entering the country illegally. The court's three liberals dissented. Legal challenges to the law are ongoing at a federal appeals court, but the decision hands a significant -- yet temporary -- win to Texas, which has been in an ongoing battle with the Biden administration over immigration policy. The court had been blocking the law from taking effect, issuing an indefinite stay on Monday, which was wiped away by Tuesday's order.... As is often the case in emergency applications, the court did not explain its reasoning. However, a concurring opinion written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, explained that the appeals court had only handed down a temporary 'administrative' order."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Congressional leaders said on Tuesday morning that they had reached an agreement on the final package of spending legislation to fund the federal government through the fall, though it was unclear whether they would be able to pass it in time to avert a brief partial shutdown over the weekend.... It will take congressional staff time to draw up text of the bill.... House Republicans, Senate Democrats and the White House had been at loggerheads over funding levels for the Department of Homeland Security. For days, they had been litigating disagreements that threatened to imperil the spending package that also funds the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies. They are facing a midnight deadline on Friday to pass the measure and avert a lapse in funding. A breakthrough on Monday night, in which Democrats and Republicans were able to agree to homeland security funding levels for the rest of the fiscal year, allowed negotiators to finalize their deal."

Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Former President Trump argued Tuesday he would have to take extreme measures in order to pay a $464 million bond due next week in his New York civil fraud case, such as selling some of his properties for cheap 'fire sale' prices. Trump blasted New York Judge Arthur Engoron, who ruled against the former president in the fraud case, in a Truth Social post objecting to having to post the bond.... 'I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!' Trump added."

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is preparing to bring back into his campaign fold [Paul Manafort,] a man convicted of multiple crimes and whom a bipartisan Senate report labeled a 'grave counterintelligence threat' because of his ties to a Russian spy.... Trump pardoned Manafort after losing the 2020 election, claiming he had been treated unfairly and sparing him years more in confinement after his convictions for money laundering, obstruction and foreign lobbying violations. And Trump has broadly dismissed the Russia probe that ensnared Manafort as a 'hoax.'" Blake goes into details of the Senate report; Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) chaired the committee that investigated and wrote the report. (MB: Still can't find that Maddow segment!)

Timothy Snyder on Substack on the Bloodbath Candidate: "... right at the beginning, Americans at the [Trump] rally [Saturday] are told to identify themselves with people who tried to overthrow an election by force, who are celebrated as 'unbelievable patriots.' That is perhaps the most essential element of context to Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. He has already made clear, in a the collective performance, that violent insurrection is the best form of politics. Well before he actually used the word, he had instructed his audience that bloodbaths are the right form of politics.... Right at the beginning of his Vandalia speech, Trump referred to the convicts as 'hostages' and promised to pardon them 'the first day we get into office.' That pardon pledge is a second essential context for Trump's later reference to a bloodbath. Trump is saying that, as president, he will have the power to protect violent criminals who help him get into office." Read the whole essay.

Zach Montague & David Adams of the New York Times: "Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, reported to federal prison in Miami on Tuesday, becoming the first senior Trump administration official to serve time over his role in the effort to subvert the results of the 2020 election. Mr. Navarro, 74, who helped engineer Mr. Trump's plans to stay in power after his electoral defeat in November 2020, was sentenced to four months in prison in January for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot. At a hastily organized news conference shortly before he was set to check into the Federal Correctional Institution in Miami, a low-security prison next to the Miami-Dade zoo, Mr. Navarro reprised familiar denunciations of the Justice Department and the Biden administration." MB: "Hastily organized," I surmise, because Navarro was planning to be elsewhere this morning. Alas, Supreme Court CJ John Roberts did not catch Navarro's late-in-the-4th-quarter Hail-Mary pass; story linked below. (Maybe Balls-and-Strikes Roberts prefers baseball to football.) The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Luckily for Sneaky Pete, he has a prison consultant, who is advising Navarro how to make his term in the hoosegow shorter and more pleasant. CNN's story is here. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. And you won't want to miss his commentary below.

The New York Times' live updates of Tuesday's developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Mississippi. Emma Tucker, et al., of CNN: "Hunter Elward, a former Mississippi sheriff's deputy who faced the most serious of federal charges against him and five other officers in the torture of two Black men last year, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in a highly emotional hearing Tuesday. Elward pleaded guilty in August to federal charges of discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence, conspiracy against rights, deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and obstruction of justice related to the January 2023 incident. The former officer was also ordered to pay $79,500 in restitution to the victims. Details from the January 24, 2023, incident in Braxton, just southeast of Jackson, eventually came to light after the victims -- Michael Jenkins and Eddie Parker – filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in June. They alleged the officers illegally entered their home and handcuffed, kicked, waterboarded and tased them and attempted to sexually assault them over nearly two hours before one of the deputies put a gun in Jenkins' mouth and shot him.... Some of the officers called themselves 'The Goon Squad' because of their willingness to use excessive force and not report it, federal prosecutors said."

David Kurtz in TPM: "U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has unlocked new achievements in weirdness and incompetence. On Monday, she issued an order directing Special Counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump to each come up with a set of proposed jury instructions based on two hypothetical interpretations of the Presidential Records Act. Both of her interpretations are wrong as a matter of law and favorable to Trump, putting Smith in an extraordinary bind. If this is confusing, trust me, it's not you. This is a strange and unusual place to be at this stage in a criminal case. Cannon clearly doesn't understand her role or the law at issue. She is casting about for help, but doing so in a way that is not going to be helpful to her or to the case." ~~~

~~~ Matt Naham of Law & Crime: "Lawyers were left scratching their heads over the Mar-a-Lago trial judge's Monday order asking the prosecution and defense to propose jury instructions under the assumption that the Presidential Records Act (PRA) allowed ... Donald Trump to unilaterally decide that classified documents were personal." Includes numerous lawyerly reactions, including a reprise of the Weissmann-Moss dialog mentioned below.

Louisa Loveluck, et al., of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 7, the Israeli military conducted a targeted missile strike on a car carrying four Palestinian journalists outside Khan Younis, in southern Gaza. Two members of an Al Jazeera crew -- Hamza Dahdouh, 27, and drone operator Mustafa Thuraya, 30 -- were killed, along with their driver. Two freelance journalists were seriously wounded. They were returning from the scene of an earlier Israeli strike on a building, where they had used a drone to capture the aftermath. The drone -- a consumer model available at Best Buy -- would be central to the Israeli justification for the strike.... The Washington Post obtained and reviewed the footage from Thuraya's drone, which was stored in a memory card recovered at the scene and sent to a Palestinian production company in Turkey. No Israeli soldiers, aircraft or other military equipment are visible in the footage taken that day -- which The Post is publishing in its entirety -- raising critical questions about why the journalists were targeted. Fellow reporters said they were unaware of troop movements in the area.... The Post found no indications that either man was operating as anything other than a journalist that day."

Seb Starcevic of Politico: "Prince Harry could be deported from the U.S. if he lied about taking drugs on his American visa application, according to ... Donald Trump. In a preview of an interview with GB News that's set to air Tuesday evening, Trump weighed in on the visa drama enveloping Prince Harry, saying the royal, who now lives in California, shouldn't receive special treatment. 'We'll have to see if they know something about the drugs, and if he lied they'll have to take appropriate action,' Trump said.... Prince Harry's visa status has been at the center of a legal row since an American conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation, last year sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for access to his immigration records. Applicants for certain American visas typically must disclose whether they have ever taken drugs, and doing so can result in their application being denied. Other public figures have run into issues entering the U.S. over their reported drug use. In his memoir 'Spare,' Harry admitted to using various drugs and psychedelics including cocaine, marijuana and magic mushrooms, but it's unclear whether he declared this on his visa application." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Wait! Doesn't Harry have, like, royal immunity? Like Trump's Article II "I can do whatever I want" immunity? Only better because it's a birthright.

~~~~~~~~~~

Today is primary election day in several states. The Washington Post highlights some key down-ballot races in Ohio, California & Illinois.

Oh Noes! Shayna Jacobs & Jonathan O'Connell of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump has been unable to finance an appeal bond for at least $450 million to cover a judgment in the New York attorney general's business fraud case against him and is seeking a reprieve from an appellate court to keep the state from seizing assets, according to a court filing Monday. The former president's lawyers said in the filing that Trump and the Trump Organization, the real estate hospitality and golf resort company he solely owns, have been unable to get a surety company to accept property as collateral -- stalling any efforts to obtain a bond that is due to be posted in a week." The story is breaking & will be updated. Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The New York Times also has a developing story. CNN's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'm so confused. Trump has said he was a multi-billionaire with loads of cash on hand. Could that be all a lie? I hope Tish James likes faux-gilded decor because she's about to get her some of it. ~~~

     ~~~ Kate Christobek & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "If he cannot produce the bond by March 25, Mr. Trump faces the possibility of financial disaster and humiliation. New York's attorney general, who brought the fraud case, would be entitled to collect the $454 million and could seek to seize Mr. Trump's New York properties or freeze his bank accounts.... [Also] as the presumptive Republican nominee for president, he is facing increased pressure to raise money to fund his campaign, lagging behind his opponent, President Biden, in fund-raising.... Here's what we know about Mr. Trump's financial problems[.]" MB: "Disaster and humiliation"? Let's all have a sad. While it lasts. Because you know Trump will weasel out of this predicament, as he usually does. ~~~

     ~~~ U.S.A. for Sale. Paul Campos in LG&$: "Note that there are thousands of individuals in this wide world of ours for who $454 million is a genuinely trivial sum of money. Now apply that logic to governments (the back of my envelope says Saudi Arabia's Sovereign Wealth Fund throws off something like that sum in additional investment income about once every three days). Basically, electing Trump would as practical matter mean putting the US government up for sale at a price that a random plutocrat, let alone a hostile government, would consider the Sale of the Century." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: Rachel Maddow elaborated on Campos' themes at the top of her show Monday, and I'll get up a video of the segment if MSNBC makes it available. In the meantime, think Friend-of-Russian-oligarchs Paul Manafort's likely return to the Trump campaign. Maddow makes the connection. Update: Still can't find that clip.

Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump on Monday sought to defend his declaration over the weekend that the country would face a 'blood bath' if he lost in November, saying -- as his campaign had previously -- that he had been referring only to the auto industry. 'The Fake News Media, and their Democrat Partners in the destruction of our Nation, pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry,' he wrote on his social media platform. He made the remarks in a speech in Ohio on Saturday, delivered on behalf of Bernie Moreno, whom he has endorsed in Tuesday's Republican Senate primary. After vowing to impose tariffs on cars manufactured outside the United States, he then said: 'Now, if I don't get elected, it's going to be a blood bath for the whole -- that's going to be the least of it. It's going to be a blood bath for the country.'... In the same speech, Mr. Trump called migrants 'animals' and 'not people, in my opinion'; described people convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol as 'hostages'; and suggested that American democracy would end if he lost. 'I don't think you're going to have another election, or certainly not an election that's meaningful,' he said." This is part of a liveblog, so you'll have to scroll down to the item. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Trump can dance backwards in high heels as far as I'm concerned; he can't explain what a bloodbath has to do with tariffs, unless perhaps he's thinking of a Boston Tea Party-type revolution in which gangs of folks in MAGA hats raid U.S. ports and attempt to destroy foreign-made vehicles. IMO, his threat of a bloodbath is another iteration of his well-worn bullying tactic. I can see low-information voters thinking, "I guess I'll vote for Trump in the hopes that if he wins, we won't have his violent supporters taking to the streets & rioting everywhere in the country." BTW, his plan to impost a 100% tariff on foreign-made vehicles will double the cost of those vehicles, and capitalism being what it is, will also raise the price of U.S.-made autos. It's. Just. Stupid. ~~~

     ~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... is it really ridiculous to suggest that the guy who warned of 'riots,' 'violence in the streets' and 'death & destruction' if he were wronged might be gesturing in that direction again? Of course not. More than that, history gives weight to comments like these. And that history includes Trump's supporters turning violent after the 2020 election -- and after they appeared to interpret his comments as encouragement.... You can argue that one comment is being blown out of proportion. But the track record here is clear." Blake provides a kind of greatest-hits reel of Trump's violent remarks.

     ~~~ Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump says that his recent warning of a 'blood bath' if he is not elected president in November was made in the context of electric vehicles and that he was not talking about political violence generally. But if discussing a type of automotive technology in bloody terms seems odd to some, it fits in the increasingly brutal language Mr. Trump has been applying to electric vehicles, one of his favorite foils. He has long claimed electric cars will 'kill' America's auto industry. He has called them an 'assassination' of jobs. He has declared that the Biden administration 'ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing' by encouraging the sales of electric cars.... Jennifer Mercieca, author of 'Demagogue for President: The Rhetorical Genius of Donald Trump,' noted that in his weekend speech, Mr. Trump jumped from complaining about the failure of the United Auto Workers to endorse him to making claims about the auto manufacturing industry leaving the United States for Mexico to the blood bath comment and then back to car sales." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe we should ask if Trump's favorite mode of transportation -- golf carts -- are powered by electricity or gas. Maybe a local government that controls one of his golf clubs has outlawed gas-powered golf carts and that's what has engendered his ridiculous outrage. We have to assume that, what it is, his hatred of electric vehicles is personal because -- as with everything Trump -- it's unlikely to have anything to do with the "good of the country."

Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion.... They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves because Israel will be destroyed. -- Donald Trump, while talking to a Neo-Nazi ~~~

~~~ Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump accused Jews who vote for Democrats of hating their religion and Israel, reviving and escalating a claim he made as president that Jewish Democrats were disloyal. A few hours later, facing mounting criticism from Jewish groups, Mr. Trump's campaign repeated his incendiary charge, declaring that 'Trump is right,' and that the Democratic Party 'has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, antisemitic, pro-terrorist cabal.' Mr. Trump made his remarks in an interview published online on Monday with Sebastian Gorka, a former White House aide.... " Cameron cites pushback from the White House, Chuck Schumer and Jewish organization. An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Cameron doesn't bother to say so, but Gorka "swore lifelong allegiance to a Hungarian Neo-Nazi group known as the Vitézi Rend before he came to the U.S.," according to an investigation by the Forward. So, maybe Gorka's radio show is not the very best forum to falsely criticize Jews for "hating" Israel & Judaism.

** Lisa Mascaro, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump has launched his general election campaign not merely rewriting the history of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, but positioning the violent siege and its failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election as a cornerstone of his bid to return to the White House. At a weekend rally in Ohio, his first as the presumed Republican Party presidential nominee, Trump stood onstage, his hand raised in salute to the brim of his red MAGA hat, as a recorded chorus of prisoners in jail for their roles in the Jan. 6 attack sang the national anthem. An announcer asked the crowd to please rise 'for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6th hostages.' And people did, and sang along. 'They were unbelievable patriots,' Trump said as the recording ended. Having previously vowed to pardon the rioters, he promised to help them 'the first day we get into office.'...

"In heaping praise on the rioters, Trump is shifting blame for his own role in the run-up to the bloody mob siege and asking voters to absolve hundreds of them -- and himself -- over the deadliest attack on a seat of American power in 200 years. At the same time, Trump-s allies are installing 2020 election-deniers to the Republican National Committee, further institutionalizing the lies that spurred the violence. That raises red flags about next year, when Congress will again be called upon to certify the vote.... Republicans in Congress are embarking on a re-investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack that seeks to shield Trump of wrongdoing while lawmakers are showcasing side theories about why thousands of his supporters descended on Capitol Hill in what became a brutal scene of hand-to-hand combat with police.... Taken together, it's what those who study authoritarian regimes warn is a classic case of what's called consolidation -- where the state apparatus is being transformed around a singular figure, in this case Trump." Emphasis added.


Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified-documents case issued an unusual order late Monday regarding jury instructions at the end of the trial -- even though she has not yet ruled on when the trial will be held, or a host of other issues. U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon instructed lawyers to file proposed jury instructions by April 2 on two topics that are related to defense motions to have the indictment dismissed outright.... Cannon asked the prosecutors and defense attorneys to consider two different hypothetical situations.... [The] second hypothetical would appear to be one in which Trump seemingly could not be convicted under almost any set of facts of improperly possessing classified documents. It was not immediately clear how Cannon envisions a trial potentially based on that premise." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Barrett does his best to explain Cannon's odd order, but it seems to boil down to instructing the jury to interpret a law that Cannon doesn't want to understand -- the Presidential Records Act -- OR instructing the jury that the Presidential Records Act gives Trump the right "to do whatever he wants" and they CANNOT convict him of anything. It was all a witch hunt! The peculiar instruction left attorneys Andrew Weissmann & Bradley Moss arguing on MSNBC about whether the government should go running to the appeals court right now or try some lesser prophylactic measure. ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Rabinowitz & Katelyn Polantz of CNN also make a stab at explaining what Cannon is up to here.

Luc Cohen of Reuters: "Donald Trump on Monday lost a bid to block testimony from Michael Cohen and Stormy Daniels at his upcoming trial on charges stemming from hush money that Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, paid Daniels, a porn star, before the 2016 election. Trump last month asked Justice Juan Merchan to block their testimony, arguing Cohen had a history of lying and would likely lie again, and that Daniels ... would seek to use the trial to monetize her story.... Merchan on Monday also denied Trump's request to exclude testimony from or any evidence about the three people who received hush money payments. These included Daniels, a doorman and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model who says she had an affair with Trump, which he also denies.... In a modest victory for Trump, Merchan said prosecutors could ask witnesses about the 'Access Hollywood' tape, but agreed with Trump that playing the clip itself for the jury could cause him 'undue prejudice.' The judge said he may reconsider that ruling 'should the Defense open the door.'"

Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: "Former President Trump sued ABC News and George Stephanopoulos on Monday, alleging defamation over the anchor's questioning of Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) about her endorsement of Trump. The March 10 interview on 'This Week' made headlines after Mace, a rape survivor, accused Stephanopoulos of trying to 'shame' her by probing why she endorsed the former president despite juries’ recent verdicts against him in advice columnist E. Jean Carroll's sexual battery and defamation lawsuits. Trump's lawsuit takes aim at how Stephanopoulos at multiple points in his questioning said Trump had been found 'liable for rape.' The jury had found Trump liable for sexual abuse under New York law, but not rape." MB: Yeah But. The judge in the case later specified that the attack for which the jury found Trump liable constituted rape under New York state law. (WashPo link.)

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times:"Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. ruled on Monday that Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to Donald J. Trump during his presidency, must start serving a four-month sentence for contempt of Congress while he pursues an appeal. The order will make Mr. Navarro, who refused to comply with a subpoena seeking information about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, the first senior aide to Mr. Trump to serve time in connection with the plot to overturn the 2020 election. Mr. Navarro must report to a federal prison in Miami on Tuesday. Chief Justice Roberts, acting on his own without referring the matter to the full Supreme Court, said he saw no reason to disagree with an appeals court's determination that Mr. Navarro had not 'met his burden to establish his entitlement to relief.'" The ABC News report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When I was a child in the Miami area, prisoners in black-and-white striped prison uniforms were sent out to work on literal chain gangs. Both the prisoners and their rifle-armed guards frightened me as we drove past. I suppose Navarro will get a nice orange jump suit to wear in his air-conditioned -- if cramped -- new quarters.

Marshall Cohen of CNN: "A pro-Trump lawyer who tried to overturn the 2020 election was arrested Monday after a court hearing about her recent leak of internal emails belonging to Dominion Voting Systems. There was an existing arrest warrant for the attorney, Stefanie Lambert, stemming from her failure to appear at recent court hearings in her separate criminal case in Michigan, where she was charged with conspiring to seize voting machines after the 2020 election. Lambert and a cadre of election deniers have disrupted one of Dominion's many ongoing defamation lawsuits by publicly leaking thousands of the company's internal emails in recent days, using the disclosures to resurrect false claims about voter fraud." US Marshals arrested Lambert behind closed doors after a hearing in another case, causing others in the courtroom to wonder why Lambert never emerged.


Supremes Find Another Group with Special First Amendment Rights: the NRA. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "A majority of the Supreme Court appeared on Monday to embrace arguments by the National Rifle Association that a New York State official violated the First Amendment by trying to dissuade companies from doing business with it after a deadly school shooting.... After the shooting ... in 2018 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla..., which killed 17 students and staff members, Maria Vullo, then a superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services, said banks and other insurance companies regulated by her agency should assess whether they wanted to continue providing services to the N.R.A. The gun rights group sued, accusing Ms. Vullo of unlawfully leveraging her authority as a government official." MB: Having bent the Second Amendment to their will, the NRA now seems to have taken over the First Amendment, too. On to the Third, I guess; soon, we'll be quartering NRA "soldiers" in our homes. ~~~

     (~~~ Marie: This is the case in which the ACLU is representing the NRA and the reason the ACLU didn't get my $$$ last year.)

Morgan Lee, et al., of the AP: "The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was kicked out of office over his participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Former Otero County commissioner Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor who rode to national political fame by embracing ... Donald Trump with a series of horseback caravans, is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack, which disrupted Congress as it was trying to certify Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory over Trump. At a 2022 trial in state district court, Griffin received the first disqualification from office in over a century under a provision of the 14th Amendment written to prevent former Confederates from serving in government after the Civil War. Though the Supreme Court ruled this month that states don&'t have the ability to bar Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates." (Also linked yesterday.)

More on the Presidential Race

Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "A new $120 million pledge to lift President Biden and his allies will push the total expected spending from outside groups working to re-elect Mr. Biden to $1 billion this year. The League of Conservation Voters, a leading climate organization that is among the biggest spenders on progressive causes, announced its plans for backing Mr. Biden on Tuesday, at a moment when his Republican challenger..., Donald J. Trump, is struggling to raise funds. Mr. Biden's campaign, independent of the outside groups, expects to raise and spend $2 billion as part of his re-election bid.... The pro-Biden outside money originates from nearly a dozen organizations that include climate groups, labor unions and traditional super PACs. There are left-wing groups like MoveOn and moderate Republicans like Republican Voters Against Trump."

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Donald Trump's reelection campaign has begun to see warning signs that the small-dollar donors who fueled his last run for the White House have slowed their support to the former president this year, according to people familiar with the matter.... The drop in Trump's small-dollar donations is magnified by a second problem: Many wealthy Republican donors have yet to commit to giving millions of dollars toward a pro-Trump political action committee, or to using their extensive networks to raise money for the campaign, according to people familiar with the matter."

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post: "While virtually all House and Senate Republicans have fallen into line to endorse Donald Trump..., the high-level advisers who served alongside him day in and day out have overwhelmingly refused to do so.... Even more stunning, these former advisers have shared hair-raising observations of Trump's outbursts, mind-set and personal depravity.... Some former advisers have gone so far as to warn that Trump is mentally unfit to serve. [Bill] Barr explained that 'he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct.... He's a very petty individual who will always put his interests ahead of the country.'... Beyond revealing Trump's praise for Hitler, [John] Kelly has described Trump in shockingly candid terms: 'A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about.... A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators.'... A 'duty to warn' group of former Trump advisers with eyewitness accounts of his rhetoric, conduct, intellectual limitations and emotional state during his presidency should band together, travel the country, submit op-eds, make media appearances and cut ads that argue against his election."


Minho Kim of the New York Times: "The organizer behind an honor named for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a lifelong champion of women's rights and liberal causes, is canceling the award ceremony scheduled for April after facing blistering criticism from her family and friends over several of this year's planned recipients. Justice Ginsburg helped establish the award in 2019 ... for 'women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility,' but four of the five intended recipients this year are men. Among them are Elon Musk..., Rupert Murdoch..., and [junk-bond criminal] Michael R. Milken.... A spokesman for the Opperman Foundation confirmed on Monday night that the ceremony had been canceled, but said no decision had been made on whether those selected would still receive the award. In its statement, the foundation said it would 'reconsider its mission' and assess 'how or whether to proceed in the future.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Still no mention in the Times of what we learned from Mother Jones: that both the chair of the awards and the chair of the foundation behind them are big-time Republicans. P.S. I suppose it's not accurate for me to call Milken a criminal, because Trump pardoned him. So clean slate. ~~~

     ~~~ Maura Judkis of the Washington Post writes that the awards themselves have been "abruptly cancelled." Judkis does go into why the awards were named for Ginsburg & the currently strained family dynamic behind the foundation. And, to help ground the whole debacle is reality, she writes, "Galas built around impressively named awards are a stalwart of the Washington elite social scene -- and a way to entice celebrity honorees to rub elbows with politicians and business leaders over $1,000-a-head plates of prime rib. Even as many of these awards dinners succeed at raising funds or awareness for worthy causes, the see-and-be-seen spectacle is often what fuels the entire endeavor."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Tuesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted President Biden's invitation to send a senior delegation to Washington, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said, to 'hear U.S. concerns about Israel's current Rafah planning and to lay out an alternative approach' to targeting Hamas in the crowded city in southern Gaza. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week amid ongoing negotiations for a cease-fire deal.... In his first call with Netanyahu in more than a month, Biden repeated his objections to any Israeli effort to 'smash' into Rafah. Biden is deeply concerned that a military offensive in Rafah would worsen the humanitarian disaster in Gaza and be detrimental to Israel's long-term security, Sullivan said. Marwan Issa, the deputy commander of Hamas's military wing, was killed in an Israeli strike this month in central Gaza, Sullivan confirmed Monday."

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