;)
July 14, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Clay Risen of the New York Times: "Ivana Trump, the glamorous Czech-American businesswoman whose high-profile marriage to Donald J. Trump in the 1980s established them as one of New York's quintessential power couples of that era, died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 73.... The New York City police are investigating whether Ms. Trump fell down the stairs at her home on Manhattan's Upper East Side, just off Fifth Avenue near Central Park, according to two law enforcement officials.... One of the officials said there was no sign of forced entry at the home, and the death appeared to be accidental"
Rebecca Beitsch & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol scrambled to add new testimony from White House counsel Pat Cipollone to its latest hearing on Tuesday, and in the process bumped aside evidence about former President Trump's ties to violent extremist groups.... Left unmentioned, for instance, was a Jan. 5 request from Trump to have chief of staff Mark Meadows contact two informal advisors, Roger Stone and Michael Flynn, who both used extremist groups as security details. The panel also excluded any mention of the so-called war room at the Willard Hotel near the White House, where leading Trump allies -- including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani -- had huddled to devise strategy ahead of Jan. 6. At least one member of an extremist group, the 1st Amendment Praetorian, was reportedly among them."
Kevin Breuninger of CNBC: "The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot said its next hearing will focus on how ... Donald Trump's failure to quell the violent mob for several hours showed a 'supreme dereliction of duty.' The committee's eighth public hearing, expected to air in prime time July 21, marks its last scheduled presentation of evidence implicating Trump in a multi-pronged conspiracy to overturn his 2020 election loss that culminated in the deadly invasion. The final hearing will highlight the more-than-three-hour gap between Trump's departure from a rally that preceded the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and his eventual call for the mob to go home, committee members said. The lawmakers 'plan to go through that 187 minutes,' said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., in an ABC News interview Wednesday afternoon." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Republican members of Congress regularly blame others -- often Nancy Pelosi -- for not adequately securing the Capitol on January 6. I hope the committee makes it abundantly clear that Donald Trump purposely engineered the low level of security at the Capitol (by keeping secret his plans to storm the building) when the mob first attacked and the failure of the National Guard or federal agencies to assist the police as the mob breached the building.
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "A judge once again on Thursday refused to delay Steve Bannon's trial for contempt of Congress, which is set to get underway on Monday.... Bannon's lawyers had once again argued that there was too much pre-trial publicity about the case.... 'We're still going to be at trial on Monday,' [Judge Carl] Nichols said." ~~~
~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols of Washington, a Trump appointee, appears ready, willing and able to come down hard on Bannon's flouting of a congressional subpoena last year.... The Great Manipulator could even serve some jail time if convicted -- as much as two years or, perhaps more likely, as little as 30 days.... My animus for Bannon comes partly from the way he has helped to turn the public against the reality-based press and the way he has tried to bury truth under an avalanche of lies and misdirection.... Days before Jan. 6, 2021, Bannon used his podcast to summon deluded and criminal mobs to the gathering storm at the U.S. Capitol with a drumbeat of election lies: 'It all comes down to, are we going to affirm the massive landslide of Donald J. Trump? Or are we going to turn over our constitutional republic ... to the forces of darkness?'... Of all the Trump-era villains -- and, let's face it, they are legion ... Stephen K. Bannon surely is one of the worst."
Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: Donald Trump "is now eyeing a September announcement [of his presidential candidacy], according to two Trump advisers.... His team has instructed others to have an online apparatus ready for a campaign should he announce soon, two people familiar with the matter said. He also has begun meeting with top donors to talk about the 2024 race...." Some Republicans are worried an early announcement from Trump will upset their 2022 plans. MB: They have only themselves to blame. Senate Republicans could have convicted Trump in his second impeachment and voted him ineligible to run for office. Ever. As for me, I urge media outlets to ignore Trump's run as much as possible.
Igor Bobic of the Huffington Post: "Democratic legislation that would protect the right to travel freely from state to state to seek abortion care was blocked in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Lankford, who supports instituting a national ban on abortion, dismissed it as unnecessary.... The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) earlier this week, would clarify the right to cross state lines to obtain reproductive health care services. It would also empower the U.S. attorney general and affected individuals to bring civil lawsuits against anyone who attempts to restrict that right.... 'This is a form of gaslighting to keep insisting that American women will be able to get care when we know that anti-choice legislators and groups are working to stop them from doing so,' [Cortez Masto] said on Thursday." ~~~
~~~ Like, for instance, when a 10-year-old pregnant child crossed stated lines from Ohio to Indiana to get an abortion, Indiana went after her physician. ~~~
~~~ Myah Ward of Politico: "Indiana's Republican attorney general said on Wednesday that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion. Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, has told multiple outlets that she provided care to the 10-year-old after a child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted her. 'We're gathering the evidence as we speak, and we're going to fight this to the end, including looking at her licensure if she failed to report. And in Indiana it's a crime ... to intentionally not report,' state Attorney General Todd Rokita said on Fox News on Wednesday night." MB: The bastards never let up. And it's surprising how many of them, like Rokita, physically resemble ugly, fat, pink pigs with dull, beady eyes. Related stories linked below.
South Carolina. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughts of the New York Times: "Alex Murdaugh, the fourth-generation lawyer whose family has long held power and influence in a rural swath of South Carolina, was charged on Thursday with killing his wife and one of his sons at the family's secluded hunting estate in a mysterious murder that remained unsolved for more than a year.... The killings immediately put scrutiny on the Murdaugh family and the deaths of several people associated with them. The police began to re-examine the 2015 death of Stephen Smith, a 19-year-old man who was found along a road about 10 miles from the Murdaugh's home and who was thought to have been hit by a truck, as well as the death of Gloria Satterfield in 2018, a housekeeper who worked for the Murdaugh family who died after falling on their house's front steps. At the time of his death, Paul Murdaugh had been facing charges of drunkenly crashing a boat carrying several of his friends, killing a 19-year-old passenger, Mallory Beach." Read on, it you're not familiar with this Southern gothic melodrama, which looks suspiciously like a Netflix mini-series.
Texas. A Field Trip to Ted's House -- Without the Children. Steffi Cao of BuzzFeed News: "A fleet of 52 yellow school buses formed a mile-long procession to Sen. Ted Cruz's house in Houston on Thursday morning -- 4,368 empty seats to honor the number of children killed by gun violence since 2020. The first bus carried items from school shooting victims.... Named 'The NRA Children's Museum,' this project is the latest by artist Manuel Oliver, father of Joaquin [who was killed by the Parkland shooter].... On Monday, [Manuel Oliver] interrupted President Joe Biden during a Rose Garden speech, calling on the White House to open an office specifically for gun violence.... Oliver hand-delivered a letter from his late son to Cruz's house on Thursday, who has received a total of $749,000 from the pro-gun group. The note, which was written by a 12-year-old Joaquin, spoke to gun owners about his thoughts on gun control in the country. When the buses arrived, a security guard came out and accepted the letter. Oliver did not receive an immediate response from Cruz. The procession left shortly after due to encircling police presence."
Ukraine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here.
Sri Lanka. A Day Late & Millions of Dollars Short. Niha Masih & Hafeel Farisz of the Washington Post: "Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resigned Thursday from his sudden exile in Singapore, a day after fleeing the country he led for nearly three years. Forced out by a civilian uprising over the island nation's economic collapse, the 73-year-old Rajapaksa had left Sri Lanka before dawn Wednesday to escape public fury over an economy in free fall. He kept his country on tenterhooks even as he was on the run, first flying to Maldives and then missing his self-declared deadline for stepping down. The delay helped him escape while he still enjoyed presidential immunity, but his maneuver sparked fresh protests in which one person died. His ouster now sets off a full leadership struggle." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.
~~~~~~~~~~~
The New York Times is liveblogging developments Thursday in President Biden's visit to the Middle East.
Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: "President Joe Biden said Thursday that the United States is 'not going to wait forever' for Iran to rejoin a dormant nuclear deal, a day after saying he'd be willing to use force as a last resort against Tehran if necessary. Biden made the comments at a news conference after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid following one-on-one talks in which they discussed Iran's rapidly progressing nuclear program.... Resurrecting the nuclear deal brokered by Barack Obama's administration and abandoned by Donald Trump in 2018 was a key priority for Biden as he entered office. But administration officials have become increasingly pessimistic about the chances of Iran returning to compliance."
Peter Baker, et al., of the New York Times: "A year and a half after Donald J. Trump left the White House, Israeli leaders welcomed [President Biden] with a rapturous embrace, as if to prove that their love affair with the former president would not stand in the way of a close relationship with the new president. As for Mr. Biden, he seemed just as determined to prove that he took a back seat to no one in supporting Israel.... Mr. Biden ... rarely gets such unvarnished praise or loving hugs back in America, where his poll numbers have plummeted and even most Democrats do not want him to run for another term.... Mr. Biden indicated he wanted to restore traditional Democratic support for Israel even as he hoped to resume the American role of honest broker with the Palestinians. In an interview with Israeli television, he rejected Democrats who have denounced Israel as an apartheid state.... For the first day of his 10th visit to Israel, Mr. Biden chose two symbolic statements by receiving a briefing on Israel's latest defense against rocket attacks and visiting the country's iconic Yad Vashem memorial for Holocaust victims.... The mutual show of bonhomie, however, papered over fundamental differences, most notably on Iran and the Palestinians."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Justice Department has asked the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol for evidence it has accumulated about the scheme by ... Donald J. Trump and his allies to put forward false slates of pro-Trump electors in battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020.Representative Bennie Thompson, Democrat of Mississippi and the chairman of the committee, disclosed the request to reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.... Mr. Thompson said the committee was working with federal prosecutors to allow them to review the transcripts of interviews the panel has done with people who served as so-called alternate electors for Mr. Trump. Mr. Thompson said the Justice Department's investigation into 'fraudulent electors' was the only specific topic the agency had broached with the committee. A Justice Department official said the agency maintained its position that it was requesting copies of all transcripts of witness interviews." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This sure makes it seem that DOJ is doing nothing about Trump's other schemes to overturn the 2020 election. Former prominent DOJ prosecutor Andrew Weissmann, during an appearance on MSNBC, did say that some DOJ staff contacted him about his recent New York Times op-ed in which he urged the Department to take a multi-pronged approach to its investigations into Trump's schemes. Weissmann said he couldn't reveal what discussions he had or with whom. ~~~
~~~ Richard Wolffe of the Guardian: "Here we are, 18 months after his presidency, staring at clear evidence that Trump led a criminal conspiracy to interfere with the 2020 election and the constitutional duties of Congress. He intentionally incited a violent mob that he knew was armed to mount an attempted coup on Capitol Hill. He knew from his own lawyers' opposition to his many crackpot schemes that he was breaking the law. But the US justice department has apparently only just begun to grapple with the debate over whether they can even investigate the former president. You have to wonder: if Trump did shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, would all those prosecutors still be struggling with the question of whether they could or should indict him?... There is just one principle more important than the attorney general's high-minded approach to the sanctity of prosecutorial power. It's called defending democracy. If he doesn't want to uphold the laws that protect the republic, he should step aside and let someone else do the job."
Ryan Nobles, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump tried to call a member of the White House support staff who was talking to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, two sources familiar with the matter tell CNN. The support staffer was not someone who routinely communicated with the former President and was concerned about the contact, according to the sources, and informed their attorney. The call was made after former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson testified publicly to the committee. The White House staffer was in a position to corroborate part of what Hutchinson had said under oath, according to the sources.... The initial revelation about Trump's phone call was made in a dramatic moment at the end of this week's hearing by committee Vice Chair Liz Cheney.... A source familiar with the panel's investigation added that the committee has spoken to the person Trump tried to call, but not as part of a deposition." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump surely knows that it's against the law to try to intimidate a witness. But following the law has never been of much interest to Trump. So apparently he thought it was fine to lean on, say, the guy who -- with Hutchinson -- cleaned up the ketchup Trump threw at the wall or some other staffer whose name he had never bothered to learn.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Mother Jones is out with a new Bannon tape from Oct. 31, 2020, [also linked here yesterday] in which [Steve] Bannon talks in detail -- presciently, it turns out -- about how ... Donald Trump would claim victory on election night regardless of where the vote count stood.... In an interview with Showtime's 'The Circus' released in early October -- about a month before these other comments -- Bannon predicted that there would be such uncertainty that Congress would be forced to decide the election.... [Days before the election], Axios's Jonathan Swan reported that Trump had told advisers that he would declare victory if it looked like he was ahead at the time -- even if the outcome wasn't final.... Bannon's theorizing didn't come out of nowhere.... On [Bannon's September 25, 2020,] show, a former Trump White House official [Bill McGinley] had talked about just such a scenario. The following day, Trump himself talked about the advantage he could have if it ever went to Congress, by virtue of there being more GOP-controlled congressional delegations than Democratic ones.... ~~~
~~~ "In total, Bannon predicted Trump's premature victory declaration, which came true. He predicted that all hell would break loose on Jan. 6, which came true. He predicted that uncertainty about election results spurred by a bunch of lawsuits would force Congress to decide the election, which wound up essentially being Trump's plan. And he suggested that unrest was perhaps desirable and/or could be of some utility in all of this, which evidence suggests Trump might well have agreed with on Jan. 6." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Trump is not a stupid as many of his remarks would suggest. He didn't know anything about public policy or how to run a vast federal bureaucracy because he didn't care about governance. When it came to looking out for his own interests, Trump was pretty good at grasping the details.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Trump-appointed judges keep ruling against Trump and his acolytes in cases related to Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
Michael Kunzelman of the AP: "A Maryland man who used a lacrosse stick attached to a Confederate battle flag to shove a police officer during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Wednesday to five months in prison, according to a Justice Department spokesman. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper also sentenced David Alan Blair, to 18 months of supervised release after his prison term and ordered him to pay $2,000 in restitution, said William Miller, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's office for the District of Columbia."
Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "The Biden administration warned the nation's 60,000 retail pharmacies on Wednesday that they risk violating federal civil rights law if they refuse to fill prescriptions for pills that can induce abortion -- the second time this week that it has used its executive authority to set up showdowns with states where abortion is now illegal. In four pages of guidance, the federal Department of Health and Human Services ticked off a series of conditions -- including miscarriage, stomach ulcers and ectopic pregnancy -- that are commonly treated with drugs that can induce abortion. It warned that failing to dispense such pills 'may be discriminating' on the basis of sex or disability. The guidance came two days after Xavier Becerra, President Biden's health secretary, instructed hospitals that even in states where abortion is now illegal, federal law requires doctors to perform abortions for pregnant women who show up in their emergency departments if they believe it is 'the stabilizing treatment necessary' to resolve an emergency medical condition."
Scott Wilson of the Washington Post: "Democratic-controlled cities within Republican states have launched improvisational efforts to preserve abortion services, even as officials acknowledge they will probably fall short of protecting doctors and patients sufficiently to serve as a substitute for a constitutional right to the procedure.... Dozens of big-city prosecutors, mostly in the South and Midwest, have said they will not file charges against medical workers who conduct abortions or their patients.... Last week, the [New Orleans] city council ... passed a resolution instructing the police department not to pursue cases against abortion providers or patients.... Taken together, the steps do not amount to an affirmative right, but they could make the penalties for abortion more hypothetical than Republicans running the prosecutors' states would prefer as they invoke bans on the procedure.... The net result is widespread confusion...."
Ava Sasani of the New York Times: "An Ohio man has been arrested and charged with the rape of a 10-year-old girl, whose travel across state lines to receive an abortion captured national attention. Gerson Fuentes, 27, was arraigned on Wednesday in Franklin County Municipal Court in Columbus, where he was charged with the rape of a child under 13 years old, a felony that can carry a lifetime prison sentence. He was being held on $2 million bond.... The case of the young victim became a focus of the abortion debate after the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion enshrined in Roe v. Wade.... The girl's story, which first appeared in The Indianapolis Star, was immediately seized on by abortion rights advocates as the tragic but expected consequence of severe abortion restrictions....
~~~ "Before this week's arrest, some conservatives, including Ohio's top prosecutor, cast doubt on the story.... In an editorial published before news of the arrest, The Wall Street Journal called the case 'an unlikely story from a biased source that neatly fits the progressive narrative but can't be confirmed.' The Journal later added an editor's note acknowledging the arrest.... 'It's always shocking to me that people are surprised to hear about these stories,' Dr. [Caitlin] Bernard, [the OB/GYN who first told The Star about the case,] said in an interview with The New York Times. 'The fact that anyone would question such a story is a testament to how out of touch lawmakers and politicians are with reality.'" ~~~
~~~ An AP story is here. A Law & Crime story, which provides details of the arrest, including a copy of the complaint, is here. Scott Lemieux, in LG&$, details some of the right wing's "skepticism." ~~~
~~~ AND this almost goes without saying, but we'll say it anyway: ~~~
~~~ Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "On Wednesday, Tucker Carlson criticized President Joe Biden for relaying the true story about a 10-year-old rape victim in Ohio even though Carlson himself had inaccurately proclaimed, 'The story was not true.'... On Tuesday's show, Carlson said that 'politicians are lying about this.'... 'Where is the rapist?' he asked.... [After the suspect was arrested,] Carlson made no mention of his [false] claim the night before. Instead, he attacked Biden for supposedly failing to vet the story.... 'Nobody seemed interested at all in learning who this person was,' Carlson added. 'And maybe there was a reason for that.' The host revealed the [alleged] rapist is a 27-year-old undocumented immigrant." MB: The post is a little confusing as to what Tucker said when. But inasmuch as TuKKKer's intent is always to obfuscate, that seems fair enough. ~~~
~~~ ** Judd Legum of Popular Information reports on the right-wing smear campaign against Dr. Caitlan Bernard, who performed the abortion, & Indy Star veteran reporter Shari Rudavsky, who was the lead writer to break the story of the 10-year-old victim. "There was never any reason to doubt the accuracy of this story."
Casey Parks of the Washington Post: "Nearly a year after the Department of Veterans Affairs promised to restore benefits to some former members of the military who were forced out for being gay, a nonprofit legal group that represents veterans says VA has refused to explain what its new guidance entails -- or whether it was implemented. The National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) filed a complaint in federal court late last month, alleging that VA has not responded to requests to release what the department called 'newly-issued guidance.'... Because many of those were booted from the military with 'less than honorable' or 'other than honorable' discharges, thousands of people ousted under [President Clinton's] 'don't ask, don't tell' do not have benefits, including access to health care, home loans and educational support through VA." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I do not understand why the VA, no matter the presidential administration, always does such a crappy job. Every president & president* talks about how much we owe our wonderful self-sacrificing military, all the while the VA is ignoring or downright mistreating our wonderful veterans. Are they not as wonderful once they have completed their service to the country?
Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "A former Central Intelligence Agency software engineer was convicted by a federal jury on Wednesday of causing the largest theft of classified information in the agency's history. The former C.I.A. employee, Joshua Schulte, was arrested after the 2017 disclosure by WikiLeaks of a trove of confidential documents detailing the agency's secret methods for penetrating the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists. The verdict came two years after a previous jury failed to agree on eight of the 10 charges he faced then.... [Mr. Schulte] was convicted on Wednesday on nine counts, which included illegally gathering national defense information and illegally transmitting that information."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here.
Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "U.S. regulators Wednesday authorized the nation's fourth coronavirus vaccine, a shot developed by Novavax, a Maryland biotechnology company that has been a straggler in the vaccine race. For a relatively small niche of people who want to be vaccinated, but can't or won't take existing vaccines, Wednesday's decision by the Food and Drug Administration has been impatiently awaited. Some people are allergic to an ingredient in messenger RNA vaccines or simply prefer the more traditional technology at the core of Novavax's shot, which is the United States' first protein-based vaccine." A Guardian report is here.
Georgia. Alex Traub of the New York Times: "The former mayor of Stonecrest, Ga., a small city outside Atlanta, was sentenced on Wednesday to four years and nine months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal money intended to help his city cope with the pandemic, the authorities said. The former mayor, Jason Lary, who pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Atlanta in January to wire fraud, stealing federal money and conspiracy, used the money he took to pay off his mortgage on his lakeside home and outstanding tax liabilities, prosecutors said. In addition to the prison time, he was ordered by Judge Thomas Thrash of U.S. District Court to pay nearly $120,000 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release."
Way Beyond the Beltway
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Thursday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has launched a global campaign to defund Russia's war chest. This week, she was in Japan promoting her plan "to create a new global price cap on Russian oil.... After visiting Japan, Yellen flew on Wednesday to Indonesia for meetings of finance ministers from the Group of 20 industrialized nations, where she will attempt to rally a much broader swath of countries to pledge to buy Russian oil only at a discount rate. If successful, her campaign could deliver a major blow to Russia's war effort and help prevent the United States and the rest of the world from plunging into economic recession."
Karina Tsui of the Washington Post: "Russia has deported 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine in a systemic 'filtration' operation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement Wednesday, in a loud condemnation of Moscow and affirmation of claims that Ukrainian officials have levied for weeks. Many of those 'forcibly deported,' including 260,000 children, some separated from their families, have wound up in isolated regions in Russia's far east, Blinken said. 'Reports indicate' that Russian forces have taken thousands of children from orphanages in Ukraine and placed them up for adoption in Russia, according to the statement." MB: Assuming this is true or substantially true, it's a vast humanitarian catastrophe.
Will Oremus of the Washington Post: "In the frantic first weeks of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. tech companies that control the world's largest information hubs sprang into action. Responding to pressure from Western governments, social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and YouTube banned or throttled Russian state media accounts, beefed up their fact-checking operations, curtailed ad sales in Russia and opened direct lines to Ukrainian officials, inviting them to flag Russian disinformation and propaganda to be taken down. As the war grinds toward its sixth month, however, Russian propaganda techniques have evolved -- and the tech firms haven't kept up. Ukrainian officials who have flagged thousands of tweets, YouTube videos and other social media posts as Russian propaganda or anti-Ukrainian hate speech say the companies have grown less responsive to their requests to remove such content. New research shared with The Washington Post by a Europe-based nonprofit initiative confirms that many of those requests seem to be going unheeded...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is hardly surprising. These companies are essentially unregulated, so there's nothing except public opinion -- or boycotts -- to curb their behavior. As long as Congress does nothing to establish a regulatory framework to harness these 21st century versions of robber barons, they will keep on keepin' on.
Sri Lanka. Niha Masih & Hafeel Farisz of the Washington Post: "Sri Lankan protesters withdrew on Thursday from three major government buildings they had occupied, just a day after violent clashes with security forces, and even as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa was yet to resign." A Guardian story is here.
U.K. Amanda Bryant of the Guardian: American actor "Kevin Spacey has pleaded not guilty to charges of sexual assault dating back 17 years in a hearing at the Old Bailey. The 62-year-old actor appeared in court one of the London court on Thursday to plead not guilty to four charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sexual activity without consent."
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Reader Comments (8)
Janet Yellen, that little lady with guts and fortitude, who weeks ago apologized for not realizing how dire the economic situation would become, set her sails on doing what she can to stick it to Russia while hoping to curb the U.S. and the rest of the world from going into a deeper recession. (see story above). This woman has been treated by some Republican congress critters with barely a nod and a firm handshake yet she is one of our bright stars in that galaxy we now can see more clearly.
I'm wondering whether those like the little foxes and Jimmy Jordon who debunked the story of the 10 yr. old girl who was raped and needed an abortion are now remorseful and will apologize, she asks with eyes upward.
And speaking of miscreants, seeing the clips of certain GOPee-ers during a hearing on the abortion issue, I was stunned at the ignorance of these men re: the bodily functions of the female. These are males who think with their dicks and think women are like chickens who lay eggs and then serve them for breakfast the next day. A uterus is in there somewhere but god knows where and who cares, anyway!
@P.D. Pepe: Yeah, I listened to a segment Joy Reid did yesterday on the ignorance of the male legislators deciding how they're going to control women's bodies. Reid opened the segment by saying something like, "I can't believe I have to say this, but a doctor had to explain at a legislative hearing that the stomach is not a reproductive organ." (paraphrase) It just galls me that these ignoramuses not only have no idea what they're doing, they also think they have the high moral ground here. And they get all huffy & "manly" should someone suggest otherwise.
Gotta love the arrogance, especially when it's stupid...
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/14/trump-2024-announcement-fall/
But there are two things going on here.
What's good for the Party?
And what's good for the Pretender?
Republican Party apparatchiks say an early announcement might hurt the R's in the midterms.
But hard to fund-raise when you're not a candidate, and after all what's more important to the Pretender?
That's an easy one.
Marie: most of the anti-abortion/anti/choice letters to the editor in our paper come from men. It is always thus. A-MAZ-ing how stupid they are. Yes, they know nothing about women's bodies, but hey, they also don't give a flying f***. It only shows how women are viewed solely as receptacles for cell clusters and sex partners. (Oh, and in the kitchen fixing dinner at 5pm for these lumps of gristle/men...) I watched with total 100% rage as they attempted, pitifully, to put the women being questioned in purgatory. The Judiciary committee has the worst brutes. Oh, and little tubby Lindsey is trying to say he talked to the GA officials as the chair of that committee. Legislative, don'tcha know... Gaacchh.
I would not be at all surprised to hear that the Orange Monster announces his candidacy for president** (two asterisks required this time around).
For one, whenever his fat ass is in trouble, his standard play is to distract with some new shiny object. He may think that this announcement might inoculate him against the very much deserved criminal charges (“They can’t charge me! I’m running for dictator!”). Of course, he needn’t worry about that. Merrick Garland will still be Rip Van Winkling it come this fall. And probably next fall as well. Terrible call by Biden installing that guy at Justice.
For another, Traitors in his party (almost everyone), should know by now that Fatty doesn’t give a shit about them or the party. He cares about Fat Donald. That’s it. If announcing before the midterms makes him feel good about himself (and lets that uppity dictator wannabe, DeSantolini, know who’s boss), that’s all that matters.
On the other hand, this could all be another ploy, kinda like “Tax returns? Sure. Any day now…”. If he senses there is a possibility that he loses—again—he wouldn’t be able to stand it. Of course he might be relying on the fact that should he only get 17 votes, fake electors will declare him the winner no matter what, and it will be time for another government overthrow.
There might be a handful of thugs who feel like they were set up by this piece of shit, but there are waaay more ready and waiting to break out the big guns. The ones the Supremes say are perfectly fine because didn’t James Madison own an AR-15? Probably some rocket propelled grenades and flash-bangs too.
No refunds. That's to all the Carolina folks who were planning on attending the Trump rally in Greensboro tomorrow. But there's good news; those tickets are good at the next rally in Milwaukee, as in Wisconsin next month.
Those who paid top dollar (3995$) might be able to afford the trip, bur Joe and Jane Sixpack who paid 9$ and up are probable out of luck.
But you've got to know it's that evil New York court that's to blame.
Did Vince Foster's ghost have Ivana assassinated?
People are saying ...
@Patrick: If I did not have this very responsible position (ha ha) here at Reality Chex, I would like to be in charge of the Who Killed Ivana? conspiracy site. I could be the Q of the left, though I suppose I would have to pick another letter. "X"? The ghost of Vince Foster is certainly a viable (well, maybe "viable" is the wrong word) candidate, but I'm thinking of a few suspects closer to home.
Meanwhile, my real condolences to the Trump family. No offense intended.