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The Conversation -- March 18, 2024
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. ~~~
~~~ 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.
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.
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."
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Biden Is So
~~~ As digby writes, "You really can't make this stuff up[.]" MB: Really, Biden should be more like Trump, who has every elected and wanna-be-elected Republican cowering in fear that s/he, perhaps inadvertently, will get on the his wrong side & be subject to one of Trump's career-ending insults.
Reasonable view of the state of the nation.Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Former President Trump on Sunday doubled down on his push for former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to be prosecuted over allegations she and the other Jan. 6 committee members purposely withheld testimony and details from their investigation into the former president's actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.... 'SHE SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO OUR COUNTRY! SHE ILLEGALLY DESTROYED THE EVIDENCE. UNREAL!!!' Trump wrote on Truth Social while linking to [an article by his former aide Kash Patel]. Cheney clapped back Sunday, writing [on X], 'Hi Donald: you know these are lies. You have had all the grand jury & J6 transcripts for many months. You're trying to halt your 1/6 trial because your VP, WH counsel, WH aides, campaign & DOJ officials etc. will testify against you. You're afraid of the truth and you should be.'" ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite hits some of the other lowlights of Trump's interview with Kurtz.
Presidential Race
Sarah Fortinsky of the Hill: "Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday underscored the stakes of the November election after former President Trump warned of a 'bloodbath' for the auto industry and the country if he doesn't win a second term in the White House.... 'We just have to win this election because he's even predicting a bloodbath,' Pelosi told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.' '... "Praising Hitler, praising the Russians, honestly, I mean, condemning our soldiers for losing or dying in war or being captured in war.... There's something wrong here. So I just say, with all the respect in the world for voters and their right to make their decision, weigh these equities. How much are you concerned about ... women having the right to choose or LGBT people having the right to their lives, that you would vote for him?'" ~~~
~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Philip Nieto of Mediaite: "New Yorker writer Susan Glasser slammed ... Donald Trump over his 'bloodbath' remark, claiming the country has become 'inured' to his 'threatening' language.... On Sunday's edition of ABC's This Week, Glasser called Trump's comments 'un-American' and said journalists struggle to cover Trump's remarks because the country has become 'desensitized' to his 'threatening' rhetoric.... Other panel guests claimed Trump's 'bloodbath' comments were distracting and that the main issue voters should be worried about is the former president's 100% tariff policy on automobiles coming from Mexico. Glasser disagreed, adding that Trump is 'building alternate reality of America that is built on lies.'" MB: I'm not going to read the whole transcript, which is here, to find out what perp said what, but the other guests were former DNC chair Donna Brazile, former Justice Department spokesperson Sarah Isgur, and ABC News political director, Rick Klein. Martha Raddatz hosted. That's right, folks, let's just talk about policy issues and pretend Trump's language and his plan to end democracy in the U.S. (and elsewhere) is totally normal. Good discussion, everybody; pick up your stipend envelope as you leave the studio. ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Bahney of Mediaite: "MSNBC's Jen Psaki produced the receipts of Donald Trump's previous calls for political violence -- while arguing that his 'bloodbath' comments were not misconstrued." MB: Psaki is usually pleasantly milquetoast, and I seldom watch her shows, but she did a good job here.
When … please, please, please, tell me when, WHEN will it be enough? When will he say something that will make the media say 'Holy shit, this is bad'? When? Maybe if he said he could sexually assault women with impunity? Maybe if he said he could shoot someone in Times Sq. and suffer no consequences? Maybe if he said he had kingly immunity against any and all crimes, up to and including murdering a political rival, for life? Maybe if he promised to be a dictator? Maybe if he said he was going to suspend the Constitution? Maybe if he praised Hitler, called Nazis good people? Maybe if he vowed to release a horde of violent insurrectionists who attacked the Capitol and went looking for the Vice President to hang him? Maybe if he said elected officials who investigated his crimes should be locked up for life? Maybe if he... -- Akhilleus in today's Comments. Read on
Welcoming Back the Criminals. Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, according to four people familiar with the talks. The job discussions have largely centered around the 2024 Republican convention in Milwaukee in July and could include Manafort playing a role in fundraising for the presumptive GOP nominee's campaign, according to these people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations."
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump, in an interview broadcast Sunday, doubled down on his description of immigrants as 'poisoning the blood' of the country, language that echoes Hitler. 'Why do you use words like "vermin" and "poisoning of the blood"?' Howard Kurtz, the media critic and interviewer, asked on Fox News. 'The press, as you know, immediately reacts to that by saying, "Well, that's the kind of language that Hitler and Mussolini used."' 'Because our country is being poisoned,' Mr. Trump responded. He also repeated a claim he has made many times: that the migrants crossing the southern border are criminals flooding in from prisons and mental institutions. Evidence does not support that. According to border officials, most migrants are families fleeing violence and poverty, and despite a few high-profile cases, data show no increase in crime attributable to immigration. Crime rates, including that of murder, declined last year."
Historian Timothy Snyder on Substack describes dictatorships to stupid people: "Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman.... The vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing.... Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation. But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't.... An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators.' He will befriend them and compete with them. From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.... Dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive. It is about preventing anyone else from achieving anything. The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else weaker. Unaccountable to the law and to voters, the dictator has no reason to consider anything beyond his own personal interests." Read on. Send to dimwitted friend or relative. Snyder uses very simple language even they will understand. (Also linked yesterday.)
Adam Liptak of the New York Times spoke to retired Justice Stephen Breyer last month about a book Breyer has written. The book is to be released next week: "He said he meant to sound an alarm about the direction of the Supreme Court. 'Something important is going on,' he said. The court has taken a wrong turn, he said, and it is not too late to turn back.... The book devotes considerable attention to Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, the 2022 decision that eliminated the constitutional right to abortion. Justice Breyer, who had dissented, wrote that the decision was stunningly naïve in saying it was returning the question of abortion to the political process.
"The book is a sustained critique of the current court's approach to the law, one that he said fetishizes the texts of statutes and the Constitution, reading them woodenly, without a common-sense appreciation of their purpose and consequences.... There are three large problems with originalism, he wrote in the book. 'First, it requires judges to be historians -- a role for which they may not be qualified -- constantly searching historical sources for the "answer" where there often isn't one there,' he wrote. 'Second, it leaves no room for judges to consider the practical consequences of the constitutional rules they propound. And third, it does not take into account the ways in which our values as a society evolve over time as we learn from the mistakes of our past.'"
~~~ Marie: Liptak implies Breyer lets it rip in his new book. I doubt it. Breyer still has offices in the Supreme Courthouse, so I suppose he has to see the current crop of Supremes around the water cooler. That's the only excuse I can think of for pretending that the confederate Supremes are decent -- if misguided -- people just trying to do their best for the country.
Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: Steve Doocy's has emerged "as the resident dissenter on 'Fox & Friends' -- a rare member of the Fox News opinion wing who is challenging conventional Republican wisdom on a regular basis. In particular, Doocy has stood out as a skeptic of congressional investigations into Joe and Hunter Biden, bucking the party line while Fox hosts like Sean Hannity regularly decry what they call 'the Biden crime family.' He has also emphasized the significance -- and veracity -- of the legal challenges facing Trump, talked up Trump challengers like Nikki Haley, and dinged the MAGA wing of the Republican Party.... Doocy first made waves in 2021, when he emerged as a prominent promoter of the coronavirus vaccine, even as some of his prime time counterparts raised concerns and fed doubts."
Jason Samenow & Kevin Ambrose of the Washington Post: "Exceptionally warm March weather propelled Washington's cherry blossoms to their second-earliest peak bloom in more than a century of records Sunday, reflecting the growing influence of human-caused climate change on the famed trees. 'PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! PEAK BLOOM! Did we say PEAK BLOOM?!,' the National Park Service wrote on X at 4 p.m. Sunday. 'The blossoms are opening & putting on a splendid spring spectacle.' Sunday's peak bloom at the Tidal Basin, about two weeks earlier than normal, tied with 2000 as the second earliest on record; only the March 15, 1990, bloom came sooner in observations that date to 1921." The Hill's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
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North Carolina Governor's Race. Annals of "Journalism, Ctd." Marie: After an epic fail at describing Mark Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor, some New York Times reporters try again. Not. Much. Better. Nick Corasaniti & others do manage this time to hint at a few of Robinson's hate-filled views. But they haven't got the guts to own an analysis, much less cite some the worst remarks I've read elsewhere. Just look at how the reporters couch their profile in criticisms that come from, well, someplace: "He has made comments widely seen as antisemitic." "Democrats are painting Mr. Robinson as radical...." Yeah, "widely seen" and "Democrats say." He is "conservative." He has a "long history of [making] inflammatory statements." Oh, please. All the News That Won't Discomfit the Gray Lady. See also Akhilleus' comments in yesterday's thread about a couple of NYT articles linked here yesterday.
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Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post: "... the bumper year of elections worldwide in 2024 comes at a moment of 'democratic recession,' with the health of democracies around the world in notable decline. A new study this month from the V-Dem Institute, a leading center for the analysis of comparative politics at Sweden's University of Gothenburg, laid out some of the worrying macro-indicators.... This year's report found 35 countries witnessing a decline in free and fair elections. In 2019, the number was only 16.... In V-Dem's analysis, the greatest source of concern is India, where the ruling Hindu nationalists under Prime Minister Narendra Modi look set to tighten an already outsize grip on power in upcoming elections. Some 42 countries are 'autocratizing,' according to V-Dem, and 71 percent of the world's population now lives in autocracies -- up from 48 percent just a decade ago."
Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel's military said it was carrying out a 'precise operation' at Gaza's al-Shifa Hospital early Monday, citing Israeli intelligence that the complex was being used by senior Hamas militants. The Gaza Health Ministry said communications were cut and reported people killed or injured. The Washington Post could not immediately verify either side's claims.... The Israel Defense Forces said it exchanged fire with armed individuals in the hospital complex and arrested 80 people. Hamas accused Israel of directly targeting hospital complex buildings without concern for patients. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denounced a call by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) for fresh elections in Israel, describing it as 'totally inappropriate' during an interview that aired Sunday on CNN." MB: Yeah, just send us war weapons and STFU, Chuck.
Russia. Francesca Ebel & Robyn Dixon of the Washington Post: "On the final day of a presidential election with only one possible result, Russians protested Vladimir Putin's authoritarian hold on power by forming long lines to vote against him at noon Sunday -- answering the call of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who had urged the midday action before dying suddenly in prison last month. Preliminary results affirmed that Putin would claim a landslide victory and extend his rule to at least 2030 with another six year term. Russia's Central Election Commission, which routinely bars any real challengers from running, reported late Sunday that Putin had received 87.34 percent of the vote with half of ballots counted.... The 'Noon Against Putin' protest, with voters forming queues outside polling stations in major cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk and Novosibirsk, was a striking -- if futile -- display of solidarity and dissent and it undercut the Kremlin's main message: that Putin is a legitimate president commanding massive support." The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Who knows? If Trump is still alive in 2028, we may have to show up at a "Noon Against Trump" as a last resort. Hell, as much as a normally try to avoid long lines for anything, I just might show up at my polling place at high noon on Nov. 5, 2024. Even if I am against Trump 24/7.
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