;)
August 30, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
David Hoffman of the Washington Post: "Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, who embarked on a path of radical reform that brought about the end of the Cold War, reversed the direction of the nuclear arms race and relaxed Communist Party controls in hopes of rescuing the faltering Soviet state but instead propelled it toward collapse, has died in Moscow. He was 91. His death was announced by Russian news agencies, citing the government hospital where he was being treated, but no further details were immediately available."
David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "Donald Trump is having a meltdown on his Truth Social platform. The former president ... is lashing out at his opponents, rapidly reposting memes from his supporters celebrating him and attacking President Joe Biden and the Democrats, and promoting falsehoods about the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 insurrection, and vaccines. Trump's meltdown, which includes dozens of posts and reposts per hour, comes amid his baseless demand on Monday to either be named president again or have the nation hold a new election 'immediately.' 'Trump is spending his morning on Truth Social directly posting 4chan and Q messages.... He's doing explicitly what he used to try to shade or use coded language for,' Politico's Kyle Cheney observes...." An interesting read. MB: And I told you he was nuts.
Iraq. Jane Arraf of the New York Times: "The influential Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr tried on Tuesday to defuse an eruption of violence in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, calling on his followers to stand down after at least 24 people were killed in two days of clashes with security forces. The violence, after three years of relative stability in Baghdad, began on Monday shortly after Mr. Sadr declared on Twitter that he was quitting politics for good. His supporters went out to protest and stormed the heavily protected Green Zone in Baghdad, home to Iraqi government offices, the United Nations and diplomatic missions including the U.S. Embassy. After coming under fire from government security forces, who included members of Iran-backed militias, fighters loyal to Mr. Sadr armed with rifles and rocket-propelled grenades emerged to take on the security forces."
Mississippi. Bryan Pietsch of the Washington Post: "The governor of Mississippi urged residents of Jackson, the state's capital and largest city, not to drink the water there -- if they still had access to it -- warning that running water would soon be unavailable as the city's long-struggling treatment plant failed. Gov. Tate Reeves (R) said during an emergency briefing Monday night that the city would be without 'reliable running water at scale' for the near future.... Until the situation is resolved, residents in the city of 150,000 should not drink the water or use it to cook or brush their teeth unless they boil it first, officials said. Reeves said the situation was 'very different' from a boil-water notice, as the water itself would run out -- leaving residents unable to flush their toilets.... There would not even be enough water to fight fires, Reeves said, adding that the state this weekend started gathering alternative sources of water, including for firefighting. Separate sources of drinking water and non-potable water for flushing toilets would be distributed, he said."
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Mariana Alfaro & Tyler Pager of the Washington Post: "President Biden will deliver a prime-time address Thursday on the fight for democracy in America and 'the continued battle for the soul of the nation,' a White House official said Monday, an address that is likely to confirm his growing rhetorical emphasis on the anti-democratic forces he sees as capturing much of the Republican Party. Speaking at Philadelphia's Independence National Historical Park, the president is expected to highlight his administration's achievements and argue that the country's democratic values will be at stake during the midterm elections.... Thursday's speech is not billed as a political event, and given its character as a prime-time presidential address, Biden may avoid some of his sharper denunciations." An NBC News story is here.
Marie: The most remarkable aspect of the purloined papers is that they are the spoils of a crime that both the National Archives and the Justice Department bent over backwards to persuade Trump to undo. But he persisted. Not only did Trump fail to turn over any documents for a year, his attorney -- almost certainly on his instruction -- later falsely stated he had turned over all classified documents. And, according to a Washington Post report, "... the Archive's work may not yet be done: Some NARA officials believe that there might still be more records missing...." That is, it's quite likely the crime is still ongoing. Yet for all their patience, for all their efforts to save Trump from himself, Republicans and their allies have awarded the agencies with vitriol & threats of violence. Here's one such threat:
Most Republicans, including me, believe when it comes to Trump, there is no law. It's all about getting him.... And I'll say this: If there's a prosecution of Donald Trump for mishandling classified information after the Clinton debacle ... there'll be riots in the streets. -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), on Fox "News," Sunday night ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Senator Lindsey Graham's prediction on Sunday that a prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump would lead to 'riots in the streets' added an element of menace to the fraught decisions facing Justice Department officials as they consider next steps in the investigation of Mr. Trump's handling of classified material. Mr. Graham, a South Carolina Republican who moved from a fierce critic of Mr. Trump to a loyal companion, appeared on Fox News, drawing a comparison between the investigation of Mr. Trump and the Justice Department's decision in 2016 not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for using a private server for State Department communications. In 2019, a State Department inquiry into the server concluded, 'There was no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of classified information.'... And Mr. Trump amplified Mr. Graham's comments by posting them on his own social network, Truth Social." The Guardian's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Moreover, Clinton did not email classified docs on her server. As Jeffrey Fields explained in Salon in July 2016, "It is extremely difficult to share a classified document electronically over email. Most government agencies, including the State Department, maintain separate systems precisely to make it all but impossible to electronically pass information between classified and unclassified systems.... When Secretary Clinton began turning over emails as part of an investigation into the Benghazi, Libya attacks, the inspector general (IG) for the intelligence community assessed that information in several of them was classified and should not have been transmitted over an open email system. But the State Department disagreed with the IG's assessment." ~~~
~~~ Washington Post Editors: "There is no excuse for this irresponsible rhetoric, which not only invites violence but also defies democratic norms. The comments the South Carolina Republican made on Fox News's 'Sunday Night in America' imply that there is no plausible case against Mr. Trump based on his taking sensitive White House documents to store, unsecured, at Mar-a-Lago.... The Jan. 6 insurrection showed the country how readily some voters will interpret a leader's words as a call to arms -- and then action.... By talking about the possibility of violence without condemning it, Mr. Trump's sympathizers play a game of intimidation: daring Attorney General Merrick Garland to bring a case and face the consequences.... 'I worry about our country,' Mr. Graham said at the end of Sunday's interview. His reckless words and others like them are cause for the greatest concern." ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: "A retired Air Force lawyer and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Graham said nothing to convey dismay over the prospect of violence; to the contrary, his clear meaning was that outrage would be justified. Marcus addresses the "supposed 'double standard' between Trump and Hillary Clinton" and concludes, "There isn't one." ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post covers the same themes & points out how ridiculous -- and dangerous -- Graham's position is: "... if law enforcement must reach equivalent prosecution decisions regardless of what the facts dictate, simply because the two cases involve opposing politicians -- that itself makes a mockery of the rule of law. 'The idea that Trump can never be prosecuted for any of his crimes because the FBI concluded Hillary Clinton didn't commit any isn't impartiality at all,' [political theorist Jacob Levy said]." ~~~
~~~ Steve M. "Graham is effectively admitting that his fellow Trump-lovers will be the rioters -- yet it still won't be their fault. Graham knows, of course, that much of the mainstream commentariat agrees with him and will blame Democrats if Republicans riot. But if that's what you believe, then you should also believe George Floyd protestors were entitled to burn entire cities to the ground. The cops made them do it, right?" ~~~
~~~ Charles Pierce of Esquire: "It's time for Lindsey Graham to take the rest of the year off. Because his relentless sycophancy toward the former president* clearly has poisoned his mind and it is now a danger to the public order.... The only saving grace is that it's Lindsey Graham, so that makes the whole thing completely laughable because Lindsey Graham is the single-most ridiculous person in American public life.... Now, he's sent out to be some sort of half-assed consigliere. These people are worse at being mobsters than they are at being politicians." Firewalled.
Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "FBI agents have already finished their review of possibly privileged documents seized in an Aug. 8 search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, according to a Justice Department court filing Monday that could undercut the former president's efforts to have a special master appointed to review the files. The 'filter team' used by the Justice Department to sort through the documents and weed out any material that should not be reviewed by criminal investigators has already 'completed its review,' the brief filed by Justice Department prosecutors says.... The new government filing says prosecutors will provide more information later this week. But in the meantime, it notes that even before the judge's weekend ruling, the filter team 'identified a limited set of materials that potentially contain attorney-client privileged information ... and is in the process of following the procedures' of the search warrant to handle any privilege disputes." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Glenn Thrush & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A deeper 'classification review' of the intelligence implications of Mr. Trump's retention of government documents by the F.B.I. and the director of National Intelligence is continuing, the filing revealed.... On Tuesday, the department is expected to file a detailed inventory of the materials seized. But that list, which will go into greater depth than the nominal description in the search warrant that was unsealed this month, will be filed under court seal.... The judge herself will now have access to the government's own assessment of the materials, and could have the information needed to rule on requests by Mr. Trump's team to exclude individual documents[, thus eliminating the need for a special master]." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Among the information that was seized at Mar-a-Lago was a document about French President Emmanuel Macron. And according to Donald Trump it was about his sex life, Rolling Stone reported on Monday evening. The report cited two sources that Trump has had a 'tawdry' interest in Macron for years and even bragged recently that he knew 'illicit details about the love life' of Macron. 'The former president even claimed that he learned about some of this dirt through "intelligence" he had seen or been briefed on,' these sources told Rolling Stone. It's unknown if any of that was among the documents taken from the FBI search at Mar-a-Lago.... See the full report at Rolling Stone [firewalled]." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This may seem like a relatively benign misuse of U.S. intelligence, and it is, when compared to selling nuclear secrets to Putin. But it's an embarrassment to the U.S. and it can only hurt our relationship with one of our closest allies to once again reveal that we are spying on them. You may recall the kerfuffle that occurred during the Obama administration when reports emerged that the U.S. was eavesdropping on Angela Merkel. The issue also came up against in 2021.
Georgia Judge Delay's Kemp Testimony. Amy Wang & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The judge presiding over the Georgia grand jury investigation into possible election interference by Donald Trump and his allies on Monday denied a motion from Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) to quash a subpoena requiring him to testify. However, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney also delayed Kemp's appearance before the grand jury until 'some date soon after' Election Day in November. Kemp, who is running for reelection against Democrat Stacey Abrams, has alleged that the investigation is politically motivated. In his six-page order, the judge rejected Kemp's request to toss the subpoena while recognizing the potential impact of the investigation on the upcoming Nov. 8 election." Politico's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Tony Ornato, the senior Secret Service official who served as a top aide in Donald Trump's White House and faced scrutiny from the Jan. 6 select committee earlier this summer, announced his retirement Monday. The agency confirmed Ornato's retirement, which was announced internally earlier in the day. He's the latest high-level official in the Secret Service to announce his departure in recent weeks. Spokesperson Anthony Guglielmi said Ornato -- who joined the Secret Service in 1997 -- became eligible for retirement earlier this year and leaves the agency in good standing.... Ornato's departure comes shortly after the director of the Secret Service, James Murray, announced his own intention to retire but put it on hold amid expanding investigations into the agency's conduct in the days surrounding the Capitol attack."
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A former D.C. bartender and Proud Boy who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 was sentenced to 55 months in federal prison on Monday. Joshua Pruitt, 40, pleaded guilty in June to obstruction of an official proceeding after he was caught on video joining a mob pursuing police officers and smashing a sign inside the U.S. Capitol. Two U.S. Capitol Police officers wrote victim impact statements in his case urging Judge Timothy J. Kelly to give Pruitt a severe sentence in the case. Ultimately, Kelly imposed a sentence that fell a few months short of the five years that prosecutors had requested.... Pruitt said that he apologized for his actions and he was 'not happy that Jan. 6 happened at all,' but said he still held onto his beliefs that Donald Trump actually won the election that he lost to President Joe Biden." Worth clicking on; scroll down the page a bit to see a photo of Pruitt. Would I cross the street if I saw this guy coming toward me? Yes I would. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times story is here.
In Other News, Donald Trump Is Still Crazy. Nicole Guadiano of Insider, republished by Yahoo!: "... Donald Trump demanded reinstatement as president or 'a new Election, immediately' after news that Facebook temporarily limited a controversial story about Hunter Biden's laptop in users' news feeds before the 2020 election.... The laptop story had several red flags that raised questions about its authenticity and Facebook limited its reach on the site's news feeds for a few days. In his statement [on Orwellian Social], Trump wrote in all capital letters that the 'FBI BURIED THE HUNTER BIDEN LAPTOP STORY BEFORE THE ELECTION knowing that, if they didn't, "Trump would have easily won the 2020 Presidential Election." This is massive FRAUD & ELECTION INTERFERENCE at a level never seen before in our Country. REMEDY: Declare the rightful winner or, and this would be the minimal solution, declare the 2020 Election irreparably compromised and have a new Election, immediately!'... Federal investigators are weighing possible charges related to Hunter Biden's business activities." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm sorry. I realize most intelligent observers think Trump's demands are all part of some big master scheme to get the American people to rise up & carry him into the Oval Office. But I think he's nuts.
AND There's This: On Orwellian Social, Trump calls for FBI uprising:
"When are the great Agents, and others, in the FBI going to say 'we aren't going to take it anymore,' no reasonable much as they did when James Comey read off a list of all of Crooked Hillary Clinton's crimes only to say that no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute. The wonderful people of the FB went absolute 'nuts,' so Comey had to backtrack and DO A FAKE INVESTIGATION in order to keep them at bay...." Via Charles Pierce.
Hand Jive. Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "According to a report from Rolling Stone..., Donald Trump has been alternately raging at and ridiculing Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as the Florida governor has been rising as his heir apparent. The former president, as well as his family, have been sniping at the Florida Republican by claiming he has been 'stealing' from Trump, by which they mean he has been appropriating Trump's mannerisms when giving speeches as he sets in motion his bid for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.... As one Trump associate told Rolling Stone, 'There was this time, maybe a year ago that I remember him making fun of [DeSantis] for doing similar hand gestures and motions. He called it "stealing" from him and [to paraphrase] described it as a lame impression of Trump.'... Read more here [firewalled]." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Most people would find this purported emulation the sincerest form of flattery. Not Trump. He seems to think he can patent a gesture. Since I've never watched a DeSantis speech & seldom have seen much of a Trump speech, I have no idea if the Trump claim is true. But politicians do study successful politicians' style of speech & mannerisms. I recall reading that Bill Clinton practiced Ronald Reagan's style and even boasted once to Hillary that he had mastered a particular hand gesture that Reagan made. Clinton turned out to be one of the most effective American speakers of the 20th century, so the practice paid off. He is far better than Reagan, IMO, so there's more to it than mimicry.
Aw, GOP Candidates Are Getting Tired of Defending Trump. Meredith McGraw, et al., of Politico: "The investigation into Donald Trump's handling of classified national security records is forcing Republicans into a strained defense during a pre-midterm sprint in which they'd much rather be talking about Joe Biden. After having decried the FBI's search of the ex-president's home, many Trump defenders went silent upon the release on Friday of the probable-cause affidavit that revealed the extent of Trump's efforts to hold onto the top-secret documents." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Republicans hoping to seize control of the House in November are already setting their sights on what is, for many of them, a top priority next year: impeaching President Biden. A number of rank-and-file conservatives have already introduced impeachment articles in the current Congress against the president. They accuse Biden of committing 'high crimes' in his approach to a range of issues touching on border enforcement, the coronavirus pandemic and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.” MB: Also, Biden's dog bit a White House staffer.
Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Biden administration told the Supreme Court Monday that it should not take up a case about citizenship rights for American Samoa even though advocates say it would give justices a chance to upend a series of century-old precedents that have been roundly denounced as racist. Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar told the Supreme Court in a brief filed Monday that an appeals court had been right to find that Congress should make citizenship decisions about those born in territories, and the case in question, Fitisemanu v. U.S., would make a poor vehicle for reexamining a series of rulings called the Insular Cases. Last term, justices at both ends of the court's ideological spectrum -- Neil M. Gorsuch on the right and Sonia Sotomayor on the left -- criticized the rulings, which employed racist language and imperialist sentiment to find residents of some U.S. territories are not entitled to full constitutional protection, such as birthright citizenship."
Gwen Egan of Boston.com: Former Red Sox pitcher Curt "Schilling is facing Twitter's wrath after posting a critique of [President] Biden's student loan forgiveness plan. This digital anger was incited by Schilling's own business history. 'My body my choice? Your loan my responsibility? This isn't loan forgiveness, it's a generation of lazy unaccountable uneducated children being covered by hard working debt paying Americans,' Schilling wrote. Following that Aug. 24 tweet, repliers, and quote-tweeters were quick to remind Schilling about 38 Studios, his failed computer game venture. The company folded after the state volunteered $75 million in loan guarantees to the budding business." Here's some background, from a 2013 story by Matt Bai in the New York Times. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his comment below, which is more expansive and to-the-point than the Boston.com article. (Also linked yesterday.)
Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Jill Biden, the first lady, tested negative for the coronavirus on Monday after a rebound case had forced her back into isolation, according to the White House."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona Senate Race. Scrub-a-Dub-Dub. Andrew Kaczynski & Em Steck of CNN: "Arizona Republican Senate nominee Blake Masters removed language from his website following his primary win that included the false claim that the 2020 election was stolen from ... Donald Trump, along with a section arguing the country would be better off if Trump was still the president. A review of Masters' website by CNN's KFile showed he also removed controversial language saying Democrats were trying to 'import' a new electorate -- language that has drawn fire for mirroring far-right conspiracies that Democrats are trying to weaken the power of native-born Americans of European descent through mass immigration of non-White immigrants.... Masters's new campaign posturing comes as a flurry of Republican candidates nationwide attempt to distance themselves from unpopular or divisive policy positions.... NBC News first reported last week that Masters attempted to tone down his position on abortion by removing from his website his support of a 'federal personhood law' and a several other strict anti-abortion positions while releasing a video in which the Republican nominee took a softer stance on the issue." ~~~
~~~ His Team Scrubbed His Website But Not His Mind. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Blake Masters, the Republican nominee challenging Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona, suggested in a sarcastic Twitter post late Sunday that the nation's economic struggles were connected to increased gender and racial diversity in Federal Reserve leadership. He then dug in on Monday with a video in which he denounced 'the Democrats' diversity obsession' and described Vice President Kamala Harris as a beneficiary of an 'affirmative action regime.' 'Finally a compelling explanation for why our economy is doing so well,' Mr. Masters wrote on Sunday in response to an Associated Press report that found there were, according to the news agency, 'more female, Black and gay officials contributing to the central bank's interest-rate decisions than at any time in its 109-year history.'"
Maryland Gubernatorial Race. Another Man in a Tub. Washington Post Editors: "Maryland state Del. Dan Cox, the Republican gubernatorial nominee, has been an active poster on Gab, one of the internet's better-known and most nauseating cesspools of conspiracy-mongering, florid antisemitism and white supremacist hate speech. What did Mr. Cox post there? We can't say, and Maryland voters have no way of knowing -- because he recently deleted his account, along with more than 1,000 posts on the noxious site. There's already plenty of evidence that Mr. Cox is unfit to lead the state.... He recently termed the FBI's search of ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home 'nothing short of communist stasi police state tactics.'"
New Jersey. Juan Carlos Castillo of the Asbury Park Press: "The township [of Lakewood] cut down all of the shade trees that once lined Town Square in a controversial move designed to prevent homeless people from spending time there. Mayor Ray Coles said the decision was made after a recommendation from the Police Department Quality of Life Unit, which the township said was triggered by numerous complaints from residents and township employees about homeless people defecating and urinating in the area." MB: I highly recommend that take down all the bridges into the town, lest homeless people sleep under them. And demand all building owner remove the eaves from their buildings. Oh, and there's an arboretum in town. Probably has some trees. They've gotta go. And so forth. Until the Quality of Life is really great.
California. Ramon Vargas of the Guardian: "Southern California government officials have agreed to pay $480,000 to a woman who went into labor while detained in a local jail and then lost her baby after the guards stopped at a coffee shop while taking her to the hospital. The payment -- designed to settle a federal wrongful death lawsuit pursued by the mother, Sandra Quinones -- was approved at a 23 August meeting of the Orange county board of supervisors, according to the minutes of the panel's session that day.... According to her lawsuit, Quinones was in a jail cell when her water broke on 28 March 2016.... Quinones pressed a button in her cell meant to call for help, but no staffers at the jail responded for two hours, said the lawsuit from Quinones, whom [her attorney] described as homeless and mentally ill. When staffers did get to her, they put her in a jail deputy's patrol car to drive her to Anaheim Global Medical Center rather than in an ambulance. Quinones' complaint alleged that the deputies taking her to the hospital then made a stop at a Starbucks to buy coffee...."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Tuesday are here: "IAEA inspectors have arrived in Ukraine, a diplomat familiar with the situation told The Washington Post. The group is set to arrive at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant later this week to assess whether weeks of strikes -- which Ukraine and Russia have blamed on each other -- have dangerously damaged the facility. More attacks were reported near the plant.... Russia picked up its first shipment of combat drones from Iran 10 days ago, U.S. officials said, highlighting Moscow's efforts to deepen ties with allies as Western nations continue to freeze it out in response to the war in Ukraine. But the weapons transfer has not gone smoothly, and the drones have experienced technical difficulties in test settings."
John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Ukraine may be outgunned but in the latest sign it is not yet outfoxed, a fleet of decoys resembling advanced U.S. rocket systems has tricked Russian forces into wasting expensive long-range cruise missiles on dummy targets, according to interviews with senior U.S. and Ukrainian officials and photographs of the replicas reviewed by The Washington Post. The Ukrainian decoys are made out of wood but can be indistinguishable from an artillery battery through the lens of Russian drones, which transmit their locations to naval cruise missile carriers in the Black Sea. After a few weeks in the field, the decoys drew at least 10 Kalibr cruise missiles, an initial success that led Ukraine to expand the production of the replicas for broader use...."
Iraq. Qassim Abdul-Zahra & Samya Kullab of the AP: "A hugely influential Shiite cleric announced Monday he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response, sparking fears that violence could erupt in a country already beset by its worst political crisis in years.... At least one demonstrator, a follower of an influential Shiite cleric, was killed in clashes with Iraqi security forces who used tear gas, gunfire and physically shoved back crowds after hundreds stormed the government palace on Monday. Three Iraqi officials confirmed the death in violence that broke out after the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr, announced he would resign from Iraqi politics and his angry followers stormed the government palace in response." (Also linked yesterday.)"
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Reader Comments (17)
As I said in my brief comment on the WAPO Marcus piece, Lindsey did have one thing right: "When it comes to Trump, there is no law..."
So far, there sure hasn't been any. As the Pretender himself said, he can do anything he wants...
@Ken Winkes: Unfortunately, Lindsey meant just the opposite of what you mean. His point is that the DOJ has it in for Trump: "It's all about getting him," Graham said. This is extremely dangerous: a U.S. Senator saying that Trump is the victim of zealous partisans using the power of federal law to unjustly persecute/prosecute Trump. And the only remedy, Graham implies, is for upstanding citizens to "riot in the streets."
No wonder President Biden has decided to make a prime-time speech about the dangers to democracy. I don't think Biden wants to do it; I think he realizes he has to. He has to try to save the country not just from Trump but from the Lindsey Grahams & the radical wingers running for office.
I knew what he meant, Marie. Didn't intend to treat the situation too lightly, tho maybe I did.. Was just funnin' a bit.
Thought Lindsey's remark particularly poorly expressed, leaving space as it did for a yokel like me to "misunderstand"it.
Ken,
But you’re right. When it comes to Trump, no law seems to matter. But the mere possibility that his serial criminality could, at some point, suffer legal consequences is enough for idiots like Graham to threaten civil war, giving the nod to the truly dangerous thugs out there that it’s time to bring out the big guns.
Contrary to what Aunt Pittypat declared, when it comes to Trump there is plenty of law, but little of it sticks.
Aside from the humor I found in Lindsey's stupid remark, I also saw it as as another clear illustration of the Republican state of mind.
"Most Republicans, including me, believe..." he says, notably, if unintentionally, emphasizing that Republicanism is a belief system first, and has no necessary relationship to reality.
Clearly to Lindsey and his band of believers, none is required.
These guys eat fantasies for breakfast, hallucinations for lunch, and delusions for dinner.
Sometimes the only way to 'undo' a mob boss is that thing called
tax evasion.
So maybe there's still hope unless some faction manages to do
away with the IRS or defund it to the bones.
I'm not claiming that the trump crime family are tax cheats, in case
the authorities are reading this, just speculating.
When I was working with what we called then–-"disturbed children" at the Children's Center in Hamden, Ct. there were many stand-offs between these kids. One that sticks with me involved a Black girl and a white boy yelling at each other outside on the green. It went something like this:
B: Your mama sucked dick for a living so don't you dare call my mom a drunken slut!
G: Shut the fuck up, you skinny shit–-come on---try to hit me–--come on ––I wanna see you try to hit me.
And so on---- -until this confrontation was broken up there were kids on both sides rooting for their leader. Someone joked later that "what we have here is a lack of communication"––a line from the film "Cool Hand Luke." I thought of these crude confrontations this morning when I read this:
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) on Sunday demanded an apology from Joe Biden after the president criticized a wing of the Republican Party for embracing authoritarianism. Oh, my lord, will you listen to that! Sununu takes umbrage at what is exactly going down!
“The fact that the president would go out and just insult half of America [and] effectively call half of America semi-fascist,” Sununu said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “He’s trying to stir up controversy. He’s trying to stir up this anti-Republican sentiment right before the election. It’s horribly inappropriate.”
And then Marco and Teddy weighed in:
"Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) recently said the country is controlled by “Marxist crazies and laptop liberals,” while Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) seemed to welcome the contrast drawn by Biden.
“The communists have always called their enemies ‘fascists,’” Cruz tweeted."
Of course Aunt Pittypat done it best cuz he's the one whose fealty to the force majeure otherwise known as DJT knows no bounds. The lines are drawn––-unlike the kids on the green no one is going to break up this fight. It will fester and boil over until enough of this country's population votes for change and those complicit of criminal activity get their just due. But as I write this last sentence I fear it will not be as clear cut–––tensions are high and intellect low––bad combination at any time. Bye .bye, American Pie?
The Republicans recognize that when Biden calls out MAGA-republicans that encompasses nearly all of them now. Even the so called moderates will jump back in line and vote for Trump again if he is on the ballot. Sununu is offended on his own behalf and no one else's because he knows how low he will go to keep his party and himself clinging to power. No matter what the consequences for the rest of America or the world. And if they can't have it then no one will. These are the people who would cut down the trees to spite their face.
There's a lack of communication at all levels in this country. I don't
know if it's the education system or lack of family input, or what.
Yesterday at the local hospital, one of the nurses asked me before
the procedure 'do you know your name and date of birth?' Since
that was a yes or no question, I answered 'yes'. Everyone in the room
laughed, even more than at the jokes I told.
@P.D. Pepe: Although it's unfair to children, one of the nicer things you could say about today's GOP is that they behave like a bunch of "disturbed children." The difference is that the children either don't know better or they can't control themselves. GOP adults have no such valid excuses.
I got a kick out of Akhilleus's post yesterday where he cited MTG's ever-so-clever retort to the White House's outing her mooching off the government: "Go to hell Joe!" Besides being hypocritical and stupid, as Akhilleus points out, that's no way for a member of Congress to address the POTUS, no matter what the disagreement may be. I despise Donald Trump, but I wouldn't tell him to go to hell to his face, which is effectively what Margie did. (Worse, really, because she put it in writing & shared it with anyone willing to read her Twitter feed.) Many of the GOP "leaders" are menaces to society, and that, clearly, is what their voters want.
WHAT BILL BARR DID–––-to clear Trump is still a danger says Neal Katyal who begins his essay (NYT) citing the memo released last week re: the Mueller report , focusing on its substance, slipshod legal analysis and omission of damning facts. Worth a read.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/30/opinion/trump-barr-justice-department.html
Listened to a story by the TX correspondent John Burnett on NPR, and thought pretty much the same about the injured fee-fees of Graham Cracker as all the rest of you. Fascism is as fascism does. The story was about a librarian. (Last night Rachel recounted how many public servants and professionals are in hiding due to threats on their lives.) This story was about a group planning to infiltrate every parish in Louisiana, threatening librarians for defending the rights of all the rest of us to read whatever we want. Under the guise of "parents' rights," these local authoritarians are taking us all back to commie-outers and religious nuts trying to out everyone else as "atheists." I would say we are already there. This librarian fears for her life, for defending our rights as citizens. Sorry idiot Sunununoonoo is offended. He should be happy the cult members and friends were described as "semi-fascist." I would go the whole way. They are Nazis. Full stop.
Re: Gov. Sununu. He does like to pretend he's a moderate, playing into NH's reputation of once being filled with moderate Republicans. But as election time nears, he'll happily play to the right-wing crowd. When President Biden visited NH this summer, I saw a clip of his arrival, and Sununu made some comment about what a lousy job Biden was doing while standing right beside the president. Really, really want this guy gone. And, of course, for Maggie Hassan to keep her senate seat.
As for @Ken Winkes's comment about what Republicans eat at every meal, I suggest it be: Bollocks for breakfast, lunacies for lunch, and delusions for dinner.
@Elizabeth
Thanks. You greatly improved the line, which truth be told I already kinda liked. Now I love it. Might borrow it with your permission.
Disrespect, especially of the most insulting species, has, since the days of Newt the Insulter, become the essence of confederate discourse. You can’t simply disagree with someone and cite chapter and verse of the points with which you take issue, offering instead your own finely wrought opinion on the matter.
No.
That person is a commie, or a “laptop liberal”, whatever the hell that is. And those are the retorts of the more intellectually minded cons. Then there are the truly dangerous panderers who demand violence as a response to something they don’t like or understand. And then, like MTG, there are the barely literate dimwits.
Here’s a retort from a past Republican, commenting on a position he found wanting:
“His argument is as thin as the homeopathic soup that was made by oiling the shadow of a pigeon that had been starved to death.”
A. Lincoln
And here’s what we get now:
“Go to hell!”
M. Greene
Ah, the silver tongued devilry of the modern Republican Party.
And a miffed R might respond that well, I hear you out here on Realitychex calling Donald Trump a traitor, a con man, and a crook! How is that allowed?
Quite. The allowance extends directly from each of those descriptions being undeniably, provably, effulgently true.
The emancipation of Mumbet (aka Elizabeth Freeman) and Griswald v. CT. Who can name the lawyers that argued those cases, and won?
@unwashed: I would have taken a stab & guessed, um, John Adams & Ruth Bader Ginsberg. And I would have been wrong. Both times.