The Conversation -- November 26, 2024
Alexandra Hutzler of ABC News: "President Joe Biden on Tuesday celebrated the acceptance of a ceasefire deal brokered by the United States to end the 'devastating conflict' between Israel and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah after more than a year of fighting. Biden, in remarks delivered from the White House Rose Garden, said he had just spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Lebanon's caretaker prime minister Najib Mikati. 'Under the deal reached today, effective at 4 a.m. tomorrow local time, the fighting across the Lebanese-Israeli border will end. Will end. This is designed to be a permanent cessation of hostilities,' Biden said." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging developments here. ~~~
Alice Ollstein of Politico: “The Trump transition has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Biden White House, incoming chief of staff Susie Wiles announced on Tuesday — a move that clears the way for coordination with the federal agencies they will soon take over. The Trump team’s unprecedented delay in signing these agreements, weeks after being declared the winner of the election, had alarmed former officials and ethics experts who warned it could lead to conflicts of interest and leave the new government unprepared to govern on day one. In the Tuesday announcement, Wiles suggested the Trump transition will not sign a separate agreement with the General Services Administration, which would have allowed them to receive federal funding, cybersecurity support and government office space, pledging instead to fund the transition with private dollars.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Whaddaya mean, "unprepared to govern on Day One." Why, Trump is going to solve all the world's conflicts on Day One AND slap tariffs on every item being offloaded from every ship in every port in the U.S.A. AND start rounding up all the immigrants (except Elon) AND put all the Democrats & liberal reporters and other trouble-makers in jail. Oh, they'll be ready.
BTW, in a Bluesky skeet RAS linked earlier Tuesday, Jon Wolfsthal, a security analyst who served in the Obama administration, wrote, "The push to fire Government workers is actually a scam designed to funnel even more money to government contractors and management consulting. The dirty secret of 'smaller government' is that it benefits management consulting firms. The works still has to get done, but with 40% overhead." So, graft on a grand scale. Just think of the vast opportunities for bribes and "favors" and insider trading and profiteering and and and.
Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: “The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday granted a request from special counsel Jack Smith to drop President-elect Trump’s Florida documents case, ending the battle to charge him over retaining records with classified markings after leaving office. The order fulfills a request from Smith to end an appeal in the case as it relates to Trump though the case continues for his two co-defendants – valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos de Oliveira.” This is a developing story. It does not report whether the case against Trump was dropped with prejudice or without prejudice.
Helene Cooper, et al., of the New York Times: “A Republican senator is blocking the promotion of Lt. Gen. Christopher T. Donahue, the commander of U.S. troops in the final days of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, in what could be the first salvo in a Trump administration war against America’s generals. Senator Markwayne Mullin, Republican of Oklahoma, put a hold on General Donahue’s promotion to four stars, or general, after his nomination was sent to the Armed Services Committee last week, officials said.... Trump transition officials have said they plan to go after generals in the Pentagon for a list of perceived crimes, including taking part in the Afghanistan evacuation and promoting diversity in the ranks....
“General Donahue was the last American service member to depart Afghanistan as Taliban fighters took control on Aug. 31, 2021. A decorated former Delta Force commander, Army Ranger and paratrooper with multiple tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, he was recently selected to lead the U.S. Army’s Europe Command as the war in Ukraine heads into its fourth year.... General Donahue arrived at Kabul international airport on Aug. 18, three days after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban. In front of him was an impossible puzzle: a sprawling airport besieged by desperate people trying to flee and not enough troops to carry out an orderly end to America’s longest war. Days later, on Aug. 26, 2021, a suicide bombing at the airport’s Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members and scores of Afghan civilians. General Donahue was not responsible for that part of the airport when the attack occurred.”
Stefanos Chen & Olivia Bensimon of the New York Times: A hearing in a federal court in Manhattan on Monday, scheduled to “to discuss [Rudy Giuliani's] continuing failure to give up nearly $11 million worth of personal assets..., was the most contentious yet in the winding search for his personal assets.... But first, Judge Lewis Liman allowed Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers to withdraw from the case.” Giuliani's new lawyer said one reason he was requesting a delay in the case was that Giuliani wanted to attend Trump's inauguration. “The answer, Judge Liman said, was no.” Oh, and one of the few items Rudy did turn over to the plaintiffs -- a vintage Mercedes supposedly once belonging to Lauren Bacall -- he surrendered without the keys and the title. So Shaye & Ruby can't even drive around in style. But his failure to do even the bare minimum required by the court didn't stop Rudy from yelling at the judge or from whining about how the women have tied up his last penny. This would be sad if Rudy didn't deserve every indignity imposed upon him.
Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice: “Trump ... seems to surround himself with certain men because they mistreat women, not in spite of it. The contemporary GOP under Trump has defined itself as a party devoted to violence, harassment, and the denial of women’s bodily autonomy. Abuse, harassment, and dismissing the testimony of women are central to the party’s policies and to its ethics. Not only are Republicans unable to expel abusers, they actively empower them.... Public, sexualized attacks on women are central to MAGA politics. One of Trump’s main accomplishments in his first term was appointing far right Supreme Court justices ... who destroyed women’s right to abortion and bodily autonomy.... One of [those] Supreme Court picks, Brett Kavanaugh, was accused of sexual assault during his confirmation hearing. But instead of taking the claim seriously, Trump secretly blocked an FBI investigation into the charges, and Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate.... Following [Kamala] Harris’s defeat, pro-Trump men began trolling women on social media with posts declaring, 'Your body, my choice.'... Make America Great Again always meant returning America to a time when rich white men had power to subjugate others with impunity.”
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We live in Trumplandia now, and Donald I will soon be crowned. Preparations are underway. ~~~
The Government’s position on the merits of the defendant’s prosecution has not changed.... [This motion] does not turn on the gravity of the crimes charged, the strength of the Government’s proof, or the merits of the prosecution, which the Government stands fully behind. -- Jack Smith, Motion to Dismiss the election interference case against Donald Trump ~~~
~~~⭐Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: “The special counsel Jack Smith asked two courts on Monday to effectively shut down the federal criminal cases he brought against ... Donald J. Trump last year, bowing to a Justice Department policy that says it is unconstitutional to pursue prosecutions against sitting presidents. The twin requests by Mr. Smith — made to judges in Washington and Atlanta — were an acknowledgment that Mr. Trump will re-enter the White House in January unburdened by federal efforts to hold him accountable through charges of plotting to subvert the last presidential election and holding on to a trove of highly classified material following his first term in office.... In both of the court submissions, Mr. Smith made clear that his moves to end the charges against Mr. Trump were a necessity imposed on him by legal norms, rather than a decision made on the merits of the cases or because of problems with the evidence....
“While Mr. Smith sought to end the criminal cases before Mr. Trump was inaugurated, he did not definitively close the door on the possibility of the prosecutions one day being revived. In both filings, his requests were for dismissals 'without prejudice,' leaving open the possibility that the charges might be refiled after Mr. Trump leaves office for the second time.... Hours after Mr. Smith submitted his requests, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, who is overseeing the election interference case in Washington, issued a brief order dismissing the proceeding.” The reporters do not indicate whether Judge Chutkan dismissed the case with or without prejudice. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Smith's Motion to Dismiss in the insurrection/election interference case is here. His Motion to Dismiss the Appeal as to Trump in the stolen classified documents case is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times on the legal morass the confederate Supremes have left in Trump's wake: “The result [of the dismissals] is not just that Mr. Trump appears set to escape any criminal accountability for his actions. (Mr. Smith left the door open to, in theory, refiling the charges after Mr. Trump leaves office, but the statute of limitations is likely to have run by then.) It also means that two open constitutional questions the cases have raised appear likely to go without definitive answers.... One is the extent of the protection from prosecution offered to former presidents by the Supreme Court’s ruling this summer establishing that they have a type of broad but not fully defined immunity for official acts taken while in office. The other is whether, when a president is suspected of committing crimes, the Justice Department can avoid conflicts of interest by bringing in an outside prosecutor.... The uncertainty that will linger over those questions could have implications for the future of American democracy....” ~~~
~~~ Robert Reich on Substack: “Both filings were a grave mistake.... [Jack Smith] could have asked the courts to put the cases on hold until Trump is no longer president.... To be sure, Smith’s requests were for dismissals 'without prejudice,' which technically leaves open the possibility that charges could be refiled after Trump leaves office. But refiling charges is vastly more cumbersome than simply ending a stay.... [If Trump was going to quash the cases, Smith should have let him do that,] so all the world can see him seek to avoid accountability for what he has done.... In the meantime, Smith should release all the evidence that his team has accumulated about Trump’s plot to subvert the 2020 election and illegally possess highly classified information.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: As I wrote yesterday, the bright side for me -- the side that makes me regret I have not appreciated Donald Trump more -- is that he has given me something that few others could -- you see, he has almost made me shed all reason and succomb at long last to a deep belief in an eternal afterlife where I might live in perfect unison with the Lord and the Cosmos. And how has Donald Trump brought me to this near-epiphany? Because he has proved, once and for all time, that there is not, that there cannot be -- any fucking justice in this life on Earth. ~~~
We ordinary people are on notice to watch ourselves, but in the court of the king, everyone's a happy jester, mocking the world and plotting a course of international (and self-)destruction. ~~~
~~~ Ana Swanson, et al., of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump said on Monday that he would impose tariffs on all products coming into the United States from Canada, Mexico and China on his first day in office, a move that would scramble global supply chains and impose heavy costs on companies that rely on doing business with some of the world’s largest economies. In a post on Truth Social, Mr. Trump mentioned a caravan of migrants making its way to the United States from Mexico, and said he would use an executive order to levy a 25 percent tariff on goods from Canada and Mexico until drugs and migrants stopped coming over the border.... Taken together, the tariff threats were a dramatic ultimatum against the three largest trading partners of the United States, and a move that threatens to sow chaos in America’s diplomatic and economic relationships even before Mr. Trump sets foot in the White House. News of the tariffs immediately set off alarms in the three nations, with the currencies of Canada and Mexico sliding against the dollar and a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington warning that 'no one will win a trade war.'...
“Mexico, China and Canada together account for more than a third of the goods and services both imported and exported by the United States, supporting tens of millions of American jobs. The three countries together purchased more than $1 trillion of U.S. exports and provided nearly $1.5 trillion of goods and services to the United States in 2023.” CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times leads us to believe that this is all part of the Biggest Grift: “I’m not engaging in idle speculation here. Trump imposed significant tariffs during his first term, and many businesses applied for exemptions. Who got them? A recently published statistical analysis found that companies with Republican ties, as measured by their 2016 campaign contributions, were significantly more likely (and those with Democratic ties less likely) to have their applications approved. But that was only a small-scale rehearsal for what could be coming.... There have been many analyses of the probable macroeconomic impact of Trump’s tariffs, which will, if they are anywhere near as big as he has suggested, be seriously inflationary. Arguably, however, their corrupting influence will, in the long run, be an even bigger story.... The rules for how to succeed in American business are about to change, and not in a good way.” ~~~
~~~ “Special Relationship” No Longer So Special. Matt Honeycombe-Foster of Politico: “Elon Musk fired the latest shots in his war with the British government over the weekend, branding the U.K. a 'tyrannical police state,' boosting a petition calling for a fresh general election, and sharing a documentary by a jailed far-right activist to his millions of X followers. The X owner and adviser to ... Donald Trump has spent much of the year feuding with Britain’s new center-left Labour government. In his latest attack, Musk responded to a post about a viral online petition calling for an immediate general election in the U.K., which only went to the polls in July and returned Labour in a landslide.... Over the summer..., [Musk] leaped on the killing of three schoolgirls in the seaside town of Southport to offer his thoughts on policing in the U.K., spread inaccurate claims about the government’s response, and accuse [Prime Minister Keir] Starmer of running a 'two-tier' justice system that treats white people more harshly.... Pressed on the string of comments Monday, Starmer’s official spokesperson said the prime minister 'looks forward to working with President Trump and .. his whole team, including Elon Musk' to develop 'the special U.K.-U.S. relationship.'” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I find this astonishing. This is not how someone who holds an informal but influential position in a government-in-waiting treats the nation's closest ally. So I guess we have to assume international alliances will be changing. Drastically. A real president-elect would tell Musk his services were no longer required. But Trump is busy threatening our biggest trading partners, including our closest neighbors. He doesn't know how to be a real president, and Musk doesn't know how to behave. And neither of these arrogant brats thinks he has to learn. Meanwhile, "America First" is about to become "America Never." You cannot insult and harm your ostensible friends and expect them to grin & bear it. All of us will pay for what the MAGAts have done.
Aw, Trouble at the Court of Mar-a-Lardo. Maggie Haberman & Jonathan Swan of the New York Times: “... Donald J. Trump’s legal team found evidence that a top adviser asked for retainer fees from potential appointees in order to promote them for jobs in the new administration, five people briefed on the matter said on Monday. Mr. Trump directed his team to carry out the review of the adviser, Boris Epshteyn, who coordinated the legal defenses in Mr. Trump’s criminal cases and is a powerful figure in the transition.... David Warrington, who was effectively the Trump campaign’s general counsel, conducted the review in recent days.... The review claimed that Mr. Epshteyn had sought payment from two people, including Scott Bessent, whom Mr. Trump recently picked as his nominee for Treasury secretary. According to the review, Mr. Epshteyn met with Mr. Bessent in February ... and proposed $30,000 to $40,000 a month to 'promote' Mr. Bessent around Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s estate in Florida.... The second person cited in the review was a defense contractor from whom Mr. Epshteyn sought $100,000 a month during the transition period.” CNN's report is here.
Ana Marie Cox in the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! News: “For the members of this new [Trump] administration, favor-trading is their most obvious skill and slick morals the defining character trait. In a normal situation, these things would be blots on a résumé. In the Trump world, consequence-free bad behavior is the résumé. Hell, given the propensity of Trump administrations to become a snakepit, it’s also a survival skill.... Hegseth appears to believe that male sexual aggression is ... to be celebrated. Writing about Trump’s refusal to back down from the 'grab her by the pussy' footage, he lauded Trump for 'not playing by the rules of a game that was stacked against him—and against all patriotic Americans.'... Seizing what others would deny you or say you don’t deserve is the whole point of Trumpism.” (Also linked yesterday.)
Jason Wilson of the Guardian: “Pete Hegseth, Trump’s nominee for secretary of defense, has attacked several key US alliances such as Nato, allied countries such as Turkey and international institutions such as the United Nations in two recent books, as well as saying US troops should not be bound by the Geneva conventions. At the same time, the man who would head America’s gigantic military has tied US foreign policy almost entirely to the priority of Israel.... Elsewhere, Hegseth appears to argue that the US military should ignore the Geneva conventions and any international laws governing the conduct of war, and instead 'unleash them' to become a 'ruthless', ncompromising' and 'overwhelmingly lethal' force geared to 'winning our wars according to our own rules'.” (Also linked yesterday.)
The Supplicants Approach the King. Leah Douglas & Ted Hesson of Reuters: "U.S. farm industry groups want ... Donald Trump to spare their sector from his promise of mass deportations, which could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on immigrants in the United States illegally. So far Trump officials have not committed to any exemptions, according to interviews with farm and worker groups and Trump's incoming 'border czar' Tom Homan. Nearly half of the nation's approximately 2 million farm workers lack legal status, according to the departments of Labor and Agriculture...." MB: Better start turning the soil for a nice little victory garden, because -- as Forrest M. & others have been discussing -- there will be hardly anybody willing to pick your lettuce and corn, and you won't be able to afford what-all does get harvested. (Also linked yesterday.)
Trump Plays a Sour Note. Phil Weller in Guitar World: “Gibson has confirmed to Guitar World that it has issued a cease and desist order to Trump Guitars owner 16 Creative over the use of its single-cut electric guitar model, 'as the design infringes upon Gibson’s exclusive trademarks, particularly the iconic Les Paul body shape.'... Trump Guitars is not thought to be owned directly by the President-elect, but its electric model is being pitched as 'the only guitar officially endorsed by President Donald J. Trump'.... There is .. a mention [in the company's promotional material] of parts being supplied by 'multiple providers' that are 'both domestic and international,' so it’s possible the guitars are not made in the USA....
“Meanwhile, it is still not confirmed whether or not the President-elect actually plays guitar, but there have been previous crossovers with the six-string world. Last summer, eagle eyed players spotted a Gibson guitar case sat in storage next to classified documents at Mar-a-Lago last summer. Then there were some bizarre NFT cards that pictured Trump playing a Gibson ES-335-like guitar, complete with an 'alarmingly inaccurate' whammy bar.” Thanks to RAS for the lead.
Miriam Elder, in a New York Times op-ed, remembers the “internal emigration” that occurred when many Russians abandoned political activism for apolitical domestic pursuits when Putin returned to power in 2012. “Aliona Doletskaya, a former editor in chief of Russian Vogue..., [created] her own 'internal Copenhagen' to shut out the horrors outside.” Elder urges Americans not to emulate the Russians who gave up. “... something binds these men who seek power with no controls — the creation of internal enemies, the constant shock moves to keep people on their toes, their viselike grip on the information environment, as well as the anger and exhaustion they provoke in their critics. Here we go again.... A new approach is necessary if America is to avoid the fate that befell so many Russians.” (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: As for me, I don't want an "internal Copenhagen." I want to move to Copenhagen! I want to be there, to sit in the Glyptotek gardens, surrounded by nice, reasonable Danish people. Alas, that's not really possible, so I'm stuck living amidst dumb, selfish slackers, a population with the mentality and morality of 13-year-old juvenile deliquents.
Kristin Brown & Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "President Biden and first lady Jill Biden will attend ... Donald Trump's inauguration on Jan. 20, the White House said Monday. Before the election, Mr. Biden said he would attend, regardless of who won. Trump did not attend Mr. Biden's 2021 inauguration, which took place two weeks after Trump's supporters stormed the Capitol ahead of the certification of the election results. Trump was the first president in more than 150 years to not attend his successor's inauguration."
Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: “Donald Trump and his party, having triumphed in an election in which they demonized trans people, seem hellbent on driving them out of public life.... Democratic leaders have been far too quiet as congressional Republicans, giddy and vengeful in victory, seek to humiliate their new colleague, Representative-elect Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, by barring her and other trans people from using the appropriate single-sex bathrooms in the Capitol.... The bullying of McBride — who has handled Republican cruelty with exceptional grace — is only the opening salvo in what is likely to be a far-reaching national campaign against trans people.... Politically, nuance is a harder sell than certainty. But it’s more honest, and honesty is what’s needed in the face of a coming tsunami of malicious MAGA propaganda.... There’s some ideological ground that Democrats should retreat from. But then they need to find a place where they will stand and fight.”
David McCabe & Celilia Kang of the New York Times: “Lawyers for the United States on Monday said that Google had created a monopoly with its services to place ads online, closing out an antitrust trial over the company’s dominance in advertising technology that could add to the Silicon Valley giant’s mounting woes. The legal case concerns a system of software that is used by advertisers to place ads on websites around the internet. Aaron Teitelbaum, a lawyer for the Justice Department, told Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia that the company had linked its products together in a way that made it hard for publishers and advertisers to use alternatives. 'Google is once, twice, three times a monopolist,' he said. 'These are the markets that make the free and open internet possible.'”
Alex Fitzpatrick of Axios: "A typical Thanksgiving dinner for 10 will cost about $58 this year, a new report finds — down around 5% from last year but up nearly 20% in unadjusted dollars from 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic." MB: My own costs are going way down because last year I bought a pricey, ready-rolled turducken roulade flown in from Louisiana, but this year I'm going to try to make my own from scratch.
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Florida. Annie Correal of the New York Times: “A white woman in Florida who fatally shot a Black neighbor who confronted her amid a longstanding dispute over the neighbor’s children was sentenced on Monday to 25 years in prison. In a case that prompted national outrage and reignited debate around “stand your ground” laws, Susan Lorincz, 60, shot Ajike (A.J.) Owens as Ms. Owens, 35, stood outside the door of Ms. Lorincz’s home in Ocala..., in June last year. Ms. Lorincz, who was convicted of manslaughter by an all-white jury in August, had faced a maximum sentence of 30 years.”
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