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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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Thursday
Aug252022

August 26, 2022

Afternoon Update:

Glenn Thrush & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The Justice Department asked to search ... Donald J. Trump's Florida residence after retrieving an initial batch of highly classified national security documents, out of concern that their disclosure could compromise 'clandestine human sources' used in intelligence gathering, according to a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain the warrant. The affidavit -- including more than three dozen pages of evidence and legal arguments presented by the Justice Department's national security division plus supporting documents -- describes the government's monthslong push to recover highly classified materials taken from the White House by a former president who viewed state documents as his private property." This is a liveblog that is being updated Friday afternoon. Reporters' comments are informative. Following are a few items in the liveblog: ~~~

"Less than an hour after a heavily redacted copy of the affidavit used to justify the F.B.I.'s search of ... Donald J. Trump's residence in Florida was released on Friday, he and many of his allies were directing their ire toward the judge who signed the warrant. In a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, Mr. Trump named Judge Bruce Reinhart and falsely described the search of Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 to retrieve classified documents as a 'break-in of my home.'...

[Another Lie.] "The General Services Administration, the federal agency charged with managing the government's property, rebutted on Friday a claim made by ... Donald J. Trump's aides that the agency had improperly packed hundreds of pages of documents with classified markings that were sent from the White House to Mr. Trump's home in Florida.... The agency said that it had no role in packing the boxes.... In the aftermath of the F.B.I.'s search of Mr. Trump's property two weeks ago, a top aide to Mr. Trump, Kashyap Patel, said ... that 'the G.S.A., not Trump, had mishandled the packaging of the documents.'... Around the same time, Mr. Trump's spokesman told NBC News that the former president was working to ensure that any items improperly moved by the General Services Administration were appropriately returned.'... The [GSA] said that while it was in charge of moving the boxes after they were packed[, shrink-wrapped & put on pallets], its personnel never examined the contents of the boxes, nor did it have any idea what was in them....

"A letter from the Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran to Jay Bratt, the top counterintelligence official in the national security division at the Justice Department, suggests that Trump had absolute declassification authority. But the letter does not state that Trump actually declassified any of these documents. Instead, the Trump adviser Kash Patel started making that claim around that time....

"A rare, unredacted line in a largely censored set of pages recounting events says that the National Archives made a request for the missing government documents on May 6, 2021, 'and continued to make requests until approximately late December 2021,' when Trump's office told them they had found 12 boxes that were ready for the agency to retrieve from Mar-a-Lago."

     ~~~ The Washington Post story, by Perry Stein & Devlin Barrett, is here. According to a note, it will be updated frequently. "The details contained in the affidavit and unsealed Friday ... underscore the high stakes and unprecedented nature of a criminal probe into whether the former president and his aides took secret government papers and refused to return all of the material -- even in the face of demands from senior law enforcement officials.... 'There is also probable cause to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found,' the affidavit says.... Of the 38 pages in the affidavit, nearly half are entirely or mostly redacted." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Records the FBI obtained from Trump’s Florida home in advance of the Aug. 8 search bore indications they contained human source intelligence, intercepts under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and signals intelligence, as well as other tags indicating high sensitivity. Several of those tightly-controlled documents contained Trump's 'handwritten notes,' the partially-redacted affidavit detailing the Justice Department investigation says.... In those boxes [obtained early this year], agents found 184 unique documents, 25 of which were marked 'top secret,' 92 of which were marked 'secret,' and 67 of which were marked 'confidential' -- the lowest level of national security classification. Prosecutors also added in another court filing unsealed Friday that the ongoing criminal probe into government records stashed at Trump's Florida home has involved 'a significant number of civilian witnesses' whose safety could be jeopardized if their identities were revealed."

     ~~~ Politico has a facsimile of the affidavit here.

Yeah but, what with all the security at Mar-a-Lago, there's no possibility any foreign spies or shady characters got into Mar-a-Lago. ~~~

~~~ Nikki Schwab, et al., of the Daily Mail: "A Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking dynasty successfully infiltrated Mar-a-Lago and former President Donald Trump's inner circle and is now being investigated by the FBI and Canadian authorities. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project were out with a report Friday on 33-year-old Inna Yashchyshyn, who told Florida socialites she was heiress Anna de Rothschild, and was 'fawned all over' by guests at Trump's private club.... Canadian law enforcement confirmed Yashchyshyn has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February, the Post-Gazette reported. Yashchyshyn started showing up at Mar-a-Lago last spring...." Yashchyshyn carries Ukrainian & Russian passports. Her Florida drivers license lists an address at a mansion where she had never lived. She was involved with a man whom she described in court as a violent criminal who held her hostage; he said she was a grifter. Article includes a photo of Yashchyshyn posing with Trump & Lindsey Graham at Trump's Palm golf club.

~~~~~~~~~~

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday night launched a push toward the midterm elections with a fiery speech in Rockville, Md., in which he cast the Republican Party as one that was dangerously consumed with anti-democratic forces that had turned toward 'semi-fascism.' It was some of the strongest language used by Biden, a politician long known -- and at times criticized for -- his willingness to work wit members of the opposite party. 'The MAGA Republicans don't just threaten our personal rights and economic security,' Biden said, referencing ... Donald Trump's Make America Great Again slogan. 'They're a threat to our very democracy. They refuse to accept the will of the people. They embrace -- embrace -- political violence. They don't believe in democracy.'" Read on. CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: When Barack Obama was president, the White House read Reality Chex. I expect President Biden's White House staff does, too.

Charlotte Alter of Time: "Many of the older conservatives who are angry at the idea that taxpayers might pay for student loan forgiveness went to school at a time when the government was heavily subsidizing higher education.... Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell called Biden's loan forgiveness plan 'student loan socialism' and said it was a 'slap in the face to every family who sacrificed to save for college.' But when McConnell graduated from the University of Louisville in 1964, annual tuition cost $330 (or roughly $2,500 when adjusted for inflation); today, it costs more than $12,000, a 380% increase. When House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who called the policy a 'debt transfer scam,' graduated from California State University, Bakersfield in 1989, tuition was less than $800; today, it's more than $7,500, a 400% increase when adjusted for inflation.... Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who called the policy 'UNFAIR' on Twitter..., graduated from the University of Northern Iowa in 1955, when annual tuition cost roughly $159, or between $40 and $53 per quarter. Today, it costs more than $8,300, a nearly 500% increase even when adjusted for inflation."

Trolling MTG. Julia Mueller of the Hill: "The White House on Thursday called out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's (R-Ga.) criticism of President Biden's plan to forgive some student loans, noting that the congresswoman had Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven.... 'Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene had $183,504 in PPP loans forgiven,' the White House wrote, referring to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a lifeline extended to help small businesses stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic.... The White House Twitter account has created a thread below its response to Greene's criticism, with similar responses to other Congressional critics of the student loan debt announcement. The congressmen whose PPP loan amounts were revealed include Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.), Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) and Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.)."

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "On Wednesday, President Biden announced a plan to reduce most students' debt by $10,000, with lower-income students eligible for twice that amount.... Assuming it survives legal challenges, it will be a big deal for millions of Americans, although the overall economic impact will ... be limited.... A preliminary analysis by Goldman Sachs estimates that student loan payments will fall to 0.3 percent of personal income from 0.4 percent. This is supposed to feed the fires of inflation?... The Biden plan also calls for an end to the pandemic pause in payments, which will suck considerably more cash out of the economy than debt relief will put back in.... There's solid evidence that freeing former students from overhanging debt makes it easier for them to move to better jobs and increases their income.... And to Republicans whining that this plan does nothing for blue-collar Americans who didn't go to college, a question: What are you proposing to do for such people -- other than cut taxes on the rich and claim that the benefits will trickle down? So you should ignore the inflation scaremongers, whose numbers don't add up."

Eric Schmitt, et al., of the New York Times: "The Pentagon on Thursday announced sweeping changes aimed at reducing risks to civilians in U.S. military operations by fostering a culture in which those in the field view preventing such harm as a core part of their missions. A 36-page action plan directs broad changes at every level of military planning, doctrine, training and policy in not only counterterrorism drone strikes but also in any future major conflict. It includes emerging war-fighting tactics like attacks on satellites and computer systems. The directive -- which follows an investigative series by The New York Times into civilian deaths from American airstrikes -- contains 11 major objectives."


Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a warrant for ... Donald J. Trump's Florida residence be unsealed by noon on Friday -- paving the way for the disclosure of potentially revelatory details about a search with enormous legal and political implications. The decision by Judge Bruce E. Reinhart came just hours after the Justice Department submitted its proposal for extensive redactions to the document, in an effort to shield witnesses from intimidation or retribution if it is made public, officials said. Judge Reinhart appeared to accept the requested cuts and, moving more quickly than government lawyers had expected, directed the department to release the redacted affidavit in a brief two-page order issued from Federal District Court in Southern Florida. The order said that he had found the Justice Department's proposed redactions to be 'narrowly tailored to serve the government's legitimate interest in the integrity of the ongoing investigation.'" (This is an update of a story linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The Hill's report is here. CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gabby Orr, et al., of CNN: "Not long after the National Archives acknowledged in February that it had retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records from ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, Trump began fielding calls from Tom Fitton..., the longtime head of the [right-wing] legal activist group Judicial Watch. [Fitton told Trump] ... it was a mistake to give the records to the Archives..., according to three sources familiar with the matter. Those records belonged to Trump, Fitton argued, citing a 2012 court case involving his organization that he said gave the former President authority to do what he wanted with records from his own term in office. The Judicial Watch president suggested to Trump that if the Archives came back, he should not give up any additional records...." As Akhilleus points out in today's Comments, Fitton is not a lawyer. MB: This jibes with Trump's well-worn practice of finding "advisors" to fit his own views rather than advisors who will give him counsel that fits the facts & the law.

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "... on Thursday, [lawyers for Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp argued] that the governor should not have to help with the ongoing criminal investigation into [2020] election meddling by testifying before a special grand jury. Mr. Kemp's legal team has accused Fani T. Willis, a Democrat and the local prosecutor leading the inquiry, of politicizing the investigation, and wants any testimony to take place after the polls close on his re-election bid in November.... The lawyers for Mr. Kemp made a number of arguments as to why he should not have to comply with the subpoena at all, but they were received skeptically by Judge Robert C.I. McBurney of Fulton County Superior Court, who did not immediately make a ruling.... In a sign of how widely her case is expanding, Ms. Willis also moved on Thursday to compel testimony from a number of additional Trump advisers, including Mark Meadows, his former chief of staff in the White House, and Sidney Powell, a lawyer who advanced the most aggressive conspiracy theories falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen. And Ms. Willis indicated in court filings that her investigation now encompasses 'an alleged breach of elections data' in rural Coffee County, Ga., which was part of a larger effort by Trump allies to infiltrate elections systems in swing states." ~~~

     ~~~ Mattnew Brown, et al., of the Washington Post: "The judge presiding over the grand jury investigation into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies expressed skepticism Thursday over arguments from Republicans that the prosecution, led by a Democratic district attorney, was politically motivated. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney did not immediately rule on a request from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to toss a subpoena for his testimony from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D). 'It is not my space' to focus on politics, McBurney said as lawyers for Kemp argued that the subpoena had already become a political issue this election season. 'I don't think it is the right forum' to debate the political ramifications of the case, said the judge."

Jeremy Peters of the New York Times: "Some of the biggest names at Fox News have been questioned, or are scheduled to be questioned in the coming days, by lawyers representing Dominion Voting Systems in its $1.6 billion defamation suit against the network, as the election technology company presses ahead with a case that First Amendment scholars say is extraordinary in its scope and significance. Sean Hannity became the latest Fox star to be called for a deposition by Dominion's legal team, according to a new filing in Delaware Superior Court. He is scheduled to appear on Wednesday. Tucker Carlson is set to face questioning on Friday. Lou Dobbs, whose Fox Business show was canceled last year, is scheduled to appear on Tuesday. Others who have been deposed recently include Jeanine Pirro, Steve Doocy and a number of high-level Fox producers, court records show.... The depositions are among the clearest indications yet of how aggressively Dominion is moving forward with its suit, which is set to go to trial early next year, and of the legal pressure building on the nation's most powerful conservative media company. There have been no moves from either side to discuss a possible settlement...."

Neal Boudette of the New York Times: "For years, as California has moved ahead with ambitious clean-air regulations, the state has had to prod the auto industry to go along. Now, in the push to electrify the nation's car fleet, it is California that is keeping up with automakers. Even before state regulators acted Thursday to ban sales of new internal-combustion vehicles by 2035, Detroit's Big 3 and their international rivals were setting increasingly aggressive targets for exclusively electric product lines.... 'To move everything to E.V.s in California doesn't seem outlandish and unattainable right now,' said Jessica Caldwell..., an auto-market researcher. 'But I'm sure each automaker will face challenges to achieve their targets, and a few may even struggle a bit.'"

Carter Sherman & Paul Blest of Vice: "A man who worked as a political director for Texas Right to Life, the premier anti-abortion group in the state, has been arrested for the online solicitation of a minor. Lucas 'Luke' Bowen, 33, was charged with the second-degree felony on August 3. A minor, under that statute, refers to anyone who's younger than 17 or who the arrested person believes to be younger than 17. Bowen allegedly 'knowingly' solicited a minor online 'with the intent' of engaging 'in sexual contact or sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse,' according to a complaint filed by Montgomery County prosecutors obtained by The Courier of Montgomery County." MB: One reason people go to work for right-to-life organizations is that they love having a job where they get to talk all day about having sex with minors.

Adam Goldman & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two Florida residents pleaded guilty in federal court in Manhattan on Thursday to stealing a diary and other belongings of President Biden's daughter, Ashley Biden, and selling them to the conservative group Project Veritas in the final weeks before the 2020 election. Aimee Harris, 40, and Robert Kurlander, 58, admitted they took part in a conspiracy to transport stolen materials from Florida, where Ms. Biden had been living, to New York, where Project Veritas has its headquarters. Prosecutors said Mr. Kurlander agreed as part of a plea deal to cooperate with the Justice Department's investigation into how the diary was acquired by Project Veritas, whose deceptive operations against liberal groups and traditional news organizations made it a favorite of ... Donald J. Trump.... Whether the Justice Department ultimately charges anyone who worked for Project Veritas is unclear." But an operative for Project Veritas, according to prosecutors, was involved in arranging the theft of some of Ms. Biden's belongings, and Project Veritas later demanded an interview with President Biden about the contents of the diary. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Guardian report is here.

Elizabeth Williamson of the New York Times: "Sandy Hook victims' families asked a federal bankruptcy court on Thursday to order the Infowars conspiracy broadcaster Alex Jones to relinquish control over his company, saying he has 'systematically transferred millions of dollars' to himself and his relatives while claiming to be broke. In a filing in the bankruptcy court in Houston, the families of nine Sandy Hook victims said they sought to have a bankruptcy trustee who is already monitoring the case take control of Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Mr. Jones's misinformation-peddling media outlet.... Mr. Jones's claimed insolvency is at the heart of his efforts to avoid paying for the damage done by his Sandy Hook lies."

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona Senate Race. Never Mind. Allan Smith & Marc Caputo of NBC News: "Arizona Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters softened his tone and scrubbed his website's policy page of tough abortion restrictions Thursday.... In an ad posted to Twitter on Thursday, Masters sought to portray his opponent, Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, as the extremist on the issue while describing his own views as 'commonsense.'... Just after it released the ad, Masters' campaign published an overhaul of his website and softened his rhetoric, rewriting or erasing five of his six positions. NBC News took screenshots of the website before and after it was changed. Masters' website appeared to have been refreshed after NBC News reached out for clarification about his abortion stances."

North Dakota. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "The day before a near-total abortion ban would have taken effect in North Dakota, a judge put that law on hold Thursday afternoon, pending the conclusion of a legal challenge being mounted by the state's former sole abortion clinic. Burleigh County District Judge Bruce Romanick granted a preliminary injunction in a legal challenge brought by Red River Women's Clinic, which was North Dakota's only abortion clinic until it moved just across state lines earlier this month. Although the trigger ban has been blocked, the state will have no abortion clinic for the foreseeable future. The clinic relocated from Fargo to Moorhead, Minn., on Aug. 6 to stay open in the event that the North Dakota trigger ban went into effect. Tammi Kromenaker, the clinic's director, said Red River Women's Clinic would probably stay in Moorhead even if it wins its lawsuit and defeats the trigger ban, because Minnesota's abortion laws are far more permissive."

Texas. Johnny Get Your Gun. Eliza Fawcett of the New York Times: “A federal judge in Fort Worth struck down a Texas law on Thursday that prohibits adults under 21 from carrying handguns, on the grounds that the restriction violated the Second Amendment.... A lawsuit brought against the state in November 2021 by two adult plaintiffs under 21 and the Firearms Policy Coalition, a gun-rights advocacy nonprofit, challenged the constitutionality of the statute. The lawsuit argued that '18- to 20-year-old adults were fully protected by the Second Amendment at the time of its ratification.'... Judge [Mark] Pittman, who was nominated by ... Donald J. Trump in 2019, ordered the injunction stayed for 30 days, pending appeal...."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The Washington Post's live briefings of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Electricity has been restored to Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant on Friday, narrowly averting a 'radiation accident,' says Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky. The facility was cut off from Ukraine's electricity grid a day earlier, causing a massive power outage before backup diesel generators kicked in. Zelensky warned that Europe remained 'one step away from a radiation disaster' as long as Russian troops controlled the plant.... Although now receiving power, [the plant] is not yet providing any power to the rest of the country.... Russia is using 21 sites in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, to detain, interrogate and process prisoners of war and civilians in so-called 'filtration camps,' a report by Yale University and the State Department has found. Its findings are based on data and commercial satellite imagery identifying with 'high confidence' the separate locations, it said, one of which contains 'potential graves.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Ukraine's largest nuclear power plant was cut off from the country's electricity grid, setting off a mass power outage in the adjacent area after fires damaged its last functioning transmission line, Ukraine's nuclear power company said Thursday. The incident renewed fears about safety at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), which is also the largest atomic energy plant in Europe and is located in an area now occupied by invading Russian forces. Fighting in the vicinity of the plant has led to acute worries of a potential catastrophe and to calls from many world leaders for U.N. nuclear experts to be allowed to visit the site." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Comments Off

Reader Comments (11)

Don’t kill the IRS right away…

Sez extreme right wing hate group the Family Research Council. The FRC, branded a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, has gotten itself listed as a church, despite holding no religious services and performing no churchy-type business.

So how does such a thing happen?

“That’s what forty members of Congress are trying to figure out. They recently asked the IRS and the Treasury ‘to investigate what the lawmakers termed an ‘alarming pattern’ of right-wing advocacy groups registering with the tax agency as churches, a move that allows the organizations to shield themselves from some financial reporting requirements and makes it easier to avoid audits.’”

But that’s not all. It appears getting your own political action hate group designated a church is the cool new grift in MAGA land:

“Beginning under Trump and continuing under Biden, organizations like the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Liberty Counsel, and the American Family Association have lined up to be granted church status, describing themselves as ‘associations of churches’—a designation that really only makes sense for denominations with member churches, which they are not.”

“Associations of churches”? So can far right whack job militia groups now mooch off the Defense budget by declaring themselves “associations of soldiers”?

Look for Fatty to jump aboard this grift ASAP by getting Martyr Lardo designated the Church of Donald. How much more money could he rake in by screeching that the FBI and Merrick Garland “raided” a church? The cons never stop.

So I guess they won’t try to kill ALL IRS employees. At least not yet.

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-berkowitz/102904/the-family-research-council-a-very-powerful-right-wing-lobbying-group-is-designated-a-church-cmon-m

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Get yer red hot legal advice! Step right up…

It’s become a matter of some jocularity that Fatty has been unable to entice assistance from top law firms and respected attorneys, relying instead on legal advice from a parking garage mouthpiece.

Oh, but that’s not all. For a cheapskate like Trump, who never pays his bills, why bother with real lawyers when you can get your legal advice from a guy who ISN’T a lawyer:

“Judicial Watch president and MAGA loyalist Tom Fitton began providing legal advice to former President Donald Trump soon after the National Archive acknowledged in February it had taken 15 boxes of records from Mar-a-Lago, CNN reported on Thursday. Fitton, who is not an attorney but is one of the worst purveyors of misinformation about Trump’s 2020 election loss, reportedly advised the ex-president not to provide any additional records to the archives.”

Fatty became so enamored of this jabroni’s bullshit “legal” reasoning that he had him brief his real lawyers. Kinda like calling in the Pillow Guy to brief the Pentagon. Fitton’s primary argument to Trump was that those documents belonged to him so he could tell the National Archives and the FBI to pound sand.

After reading this, and because this Fitton idiot’s advice seems so sound, I’m all for doing a little edit on that line from “Henry VI, part 2”:

“First, let’s kill all the guys pretending to be lawyers”.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-sought-legal-advice-from-right-wing-activist-tom-fitton-who-is-not-a-lawyer

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Akhilleus,

Don't be too surprised at the Family Research Council's successful registration with the IRS as a church. We here have long noted that Right Wing ideologists are distinctly religious in their beliefs and their behavior.

The IRS is just acknowledging reality.

Yes, there is that old and no longer enforced prohibition of
churches engaging in politics (still on the books somewhere I'd guess)....but in this regard the Right has been having its cake and eating it, too, pretty much since Reagan.

Hell, we know that even the SCOTUS has become a religious tribunal.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

As is usual Rampell has it wrong, this time on her WAPO op-ed on student debt. Not worth reading.

"Glaucomatose" had it right in his comment, tho'.

"In constant (2015) dollars, in-state freshman tuition at Michigan State was $3,893 in 1975, while state funding amounted to $9,344 per student. By 2015, in-state tuition was $14,516, while state funding amounted to $6,071 per student. Put another way, in 1970 it would have taken 246 hours working a minimum-wage job to pay for a year of the national average in-state college tuition; by 2020 it would have taken 1457 hours.

To all the people whining about this act, how about this: don't think of forgiving $10k in college loans as a gift to today's students; think of it as an apology that they had to take those loans out in the first place."

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

Ken,

OMG! I can definitely picture the Supreme Court, under the control of Father Alito and Monsignor Thomas, applying for status as a church. They’re already a religious organization. Might as well make the theocracy complete.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterAkhilleus

Marie,

For all their talk of fiscal responsibility, what it comes down to with McConnell and the rest of 'em, is that they are not very good with math.

Maybe it's their religious bent. You can always believe 2 + 2=5, even if it doesn't.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterKen Winkes

AMAZING GRACE:

Our man of the hour does it again–––shows us how corrupt and disturbed he is––-even though he's sitting on hot coals ready to burn his fat fanny he has the audacity to criticize Biden's student forgiveness program–––"bailing out college administers who fleeced students and those who opted for fegrees there was no way they could afford." Full stop–––you take a deep breath and bring up baby's scam of yesteryear:

Trump paid $25 million in 2016 to settle three fraud lawsuits filed on behalf of customers who paid as much as $35,000 each to attend his own Trump University, which was never accredited as a university and didn’t provide any legitimate college degree.
Eric Schneiderman, New York’s attorney general at the time, said in a statement then concerning one of the suits, “My office sued Donald Trump for swindling thousands of innocent Americans out of ​millions of dollars through a scheme known at Trump University.” Another attorney said the settlement covered just 55% of the damages suffered by the students. The suits alleged that Trump University’s real estate seminar program used false advertising and deceptive business practices.

Ah, gee. Perhaps there is no shame in Trumpy land––we see this kind of thing in the GOP–some bloke running for office once realized his stance on antiabortion was toxic just erased it from his web-sight.

and all the people held hands and sang Amazing Grace once upon a time when churches were churches and we had a president worth jumping fences for.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterP.D. Pepe

A friend told me that inflation is so bad that Exxon-Mobil laid off
25 congressmen. R's, I assume.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterForrest Morris

The church/state demarkations used to be pretty clear. If we had a petition having to do with politics, we were unable to take it to after-church (UU) coffee hour. We had to stand on the sidewalk outside to catch people as they exited coffee hour. We all knew it was not "kosher" to politick from the pulpit, also. We should not mistake this grift for a shift in beliefs. This is simply the grifters doing their endless thing, not paying their fair share. In this regard, the Orange Moron fits in beautifully. I like the idea that the nonsupreme court IS a church. Joining the Catholics in name now? Sister Coney Island fits in with the various priests. How in the world can the liberal women fit in with this crowd??

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne

@Jeanne: You come up with the best names for the bozos. Sister Coney Island! Ha.

August 26, 2022 | Registered CommenterMarie Burns

Thanks, Marie-- one has to find fun where one can...plus I have an allergy to using the given names of any of these people, as they don't deserve the dignity. Also: Forrest? I love your joke, but it IS a bit of irony...If they aren't donating to the congressional crowd, they might be inclined (forced?) to raise or lower prices to get more profit from the gas-paying public.

August 26, 2022 | Unregistered CommenterJeanne
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