July 14, 2023

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Melissa Quinn of CBS News: "The Biden administration announced Friday that it will wipe out $39 billion in student debt for more than 800,000 borrowers, relief that comes weeks after the Supreme Court invalidated a separate, broader effort by President Biden to address student loan debt. Unlike the broad forgiveness Mr. Biden originally attempted to provide, the forthcoming debt discharges by the Department of Education are narrower, stemming from 'fixes' announced by the administration in April 2022 to ensure borrowers enrolled in income-driven repayment plans have an accurate count of the number of monthly payments that go toward forgiveness. The new student debt plan also relies on a different law than the one that was struck down by the Supreme Court." A Washington Post story is here.

Flippity-Flip-Flip? Alexander Mallin, et al., of ABC News: "The special counsel investigating ... Donald Trump's handling of classified documents has taken new steps to examine possible efforts to obstruct the probe, threatening potential charge against a Trump Organization employee who is suspected of lying to investigators.... Special counsel Jack Smith in recent weeks transmitted a target letter to the staffer indicating that he might have perjured himself during a May appearance before the federal grand jury hearing evidence in the classified documents probe.... The target letter to the employee ... signals Smith's growing interest in the Trump Organization's handling of the surveillance footage and potential efforts to avoid sharing it with investigators.... Stanley Woodward, a lawyer who has represented the employee and who represents several other Trump advisers, declined to comment to ABC News." The New York Times story is here.

Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "In his latest legal maneuver, Donald J. Trump sought a court order on Friday that would throw out the work of an Atlanta special grand jury and disqualify Fani T. Willis, the prosecutor leading an investigation into election interference in Georgia. A decision on indictments looms in the investigation, which has been in progress for more than two years." CNN's story is here.

A billionaire using donor money to pay personal legal fees, and now paying his wife more than 2x what the average American makes just to pick some tableware. There's grifting and then there's Trump grifting. Undisputed champs. -- Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ~~~

~~~ Trump Pays Melanie Three Figures for Setting the Table at Home. Shane Goldmacher & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A super PAC aligned with ... Donald J. Trump paid Melania Trump $155,000 in late 2021, an unusual payment that was not visible in the group's initial federal reports and came to light only in a filing by Mr. Trump on Thursday.... It is rare for the spouse of a potential presidential candidate to be paid directly by a campaign or an outside group affiliated with the candidate.... [A] representative for the super PAC ... said that Ms. Trump had been hired through her agency for 'design consulting' for the old super PAC's dinner and that her responsibilities included choosing tableware, arranging settings and picking floral arrangements. The fee was $125,000, and the second $30,000 payment was for additional services rendered out of the scope of the first contract, the representative said.... The December 2021 payment to Ms. Trump coincided with a private fund-raising dinner that the super PAC held at Mar-a-Lago and that Mr. Trump attended."

Nicholas Fandos, et al., of the New York Times: "Representative George Santos, the New York Republican facing federal criminal charges, reported raising about $150,000 for his re-election campaign from April through June -- a modest sum that he mostly used to pay back money he had lent to his past congressional bids. The contributions came from roughly 50 donors, only four of whom reported living inside Mr. Santos's Queens and Long Island district, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission on Friday. A plurality of the donors said they lived in California, and, when reached for comment, some said they had given money to the congressman as a gag."

** Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "... watching Republicans vomit conspiracy theories at [FBI Director Christopher] Wray, the name that came to my mind was ... Timothy McVeigh, the right-wing terrorist who blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people. McVeigh and his co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, were motivated by anti-government conspiracy theories that sounded very much like the garbage being peddled by Republican congressmen during Wednesday's hearing.... McVeigh's views would have been right at home with what House Republicans were spouting Wednesday: That the U.S. government is being secretly run by a decadent 'elite' that wants to brainwash right wing Americans.... It's the same conspiracy theory [that] .. dates back to the overtly anti-semitic conspiracy theories that motivated the Nazis.... The anger was over federal authorities prosecuting white men who thought themselves above law." Marcotte links the conspiracy theory to Ron DeSantis' flying "the others" out of his domain of Florida & Tommy Tuberville's effort to "debate" white nationalism.

Senior Federal Judge Michael Ponsor, in a New York Times op-ed: "... if there will not be formal ethical constraints on our Supreme Court -- or even if there will be -- its justices must have functioning noses. They must keep themselves far from any conduct with a dubious aroma, even if it may not breach a formal rule..... You don't just stay inside the lines; you stay well inside the lines. This is not a matter of politics or judicial philosophy. It is ethics in the trenches."

Haley Talbot & Clare Foran of CNN: "The House voted Friday to pass a sweeping defense policy bill following a contentious debate and the adoption of controversial amendments that touched on hot-button social issues. The addition of amendments pushed by conservative hardliners related to abortion policy and transgender health care access as well as targeting diversity and inclusion programs infuriated Democrats and led to push back from some moderate Republicans -- and will now set up a clash with the Senate."

~~~~~~~~~~

Steve Holland & Essi Lehto of Reuters: "President Joe Biden on Thursday gave his assurance that the United States would stay committed to NATO despite 'extreme elements' of the Republican Party, in remarks during a visit to Finland to welcome it as the alliance's latest member. 'I absolutely guarantee it,' Biden told a press conference when pressed by a Finnish reporter about the U.S. commitment to NATO given political instability in the United States. Biden's predecessor..., Donald Trump, threatened to take the United States out of the alliance.... Concern lingers in Europe about the reliability of U.S. pledges and global alliances, years after Trump's norm-busting presidency ended. Trump clashed with NATO leaders over funding the alliance and threatened to reduce the number of U.S. troops in Germany." ~~~

~~~ Michael Mitsanas of NBC News: "President Joe Biden denounced Sen. Tommy Tuberville's blockade of hundreds of military nominations during a joint press conference with Finland's president on Thursday, calling the Republican's actions 'totally irresponsible.'... 'I expect the Republican party to stand up -- stand up and do something about it,' Biden [said].... Biden's remarks come as criticism of the Senator's blockade continues to mount and shortly after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told CNN on Thursday that the impasse is affecting both national security and military readiness." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Matthew Perrone of the AP: "U.S. officials have approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill.... The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it cleared Perrigo's once-a-day Opill to be sold without a prescription, making it the first such medication to be moved out from behind the pharmacy counter. The company won't start shipping the pill until early next year, and there will be no age restrictions on sales.... 'This is really a transformation in access to contraceptive care,' said Kelly Blanchard, president of Ibis Reproductive Health, a non-profit group that supported the approval.... Forcing insurers to cover over-the-counter birth control would require a regulatory change by the federal government, which women's advocates are urging the Biden administration to implement." Update: A New York Times report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Alisha Gupta of the New York Times has more on the over-the-counter pill. (Also linked yesterday.)

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Carol Leonnig & Peter Hermann of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Secret Service has closed its investigation into who may have brought a plastic bag of cocaine into the White House this month after lab results were inconclusive about possible suspects, according to two people briefed on the probe. The Secret Service sent the bag that had contained the powder to an FBI lab to look for traces of DNA and fingerprints, but neither form of testing yielded definitive results, the agency said. Nor was any surveillance video found that provided any investigative leads, officials added." CNN's report is here. MB: If only the Secret Service had asked Jim Comer's "investigators" for help, they probably would have found, right where the baggie was found, a leather razor blade case embossed Hunter." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The teevee pundits were not impressed. Andrew Weissmann said, "Those guys couldn't find a dead cow in a closet." ~~~

     ~~~ Donald Trump opines on who put the coke in the public cellphone cubby: "In my opinion, it's Hunter and probably Joe. Because you watch Joe at the beginning of a speech and he's got a little life -- not much -- but by the end of the speech, he's a disaster. He can't find his way off the stage. So, there's something going on there, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was for both of them. I think it's for both of them."

Marie: Speaking of teevee pundits, none of them I heard indicated they agreed with me that Trump's running for president* was no excuse for delaying his criminal trial schedule, but Jack Smith & his deputy David Harbach do: ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Special counsel Jack Smith's team sharply rebuked Donald Trump's bid to postpone until after the 2024 election his criminal trial for allegedly hoarding classified documents, characterizing the former president's call for delay as unfounded and one of his key legal arguments as 'borderline frivolous.' In an 11-page filing signed by assistant special counsel David Harbach, prosecutors said..., 'The Defendants ... should not be permitted to gesture at a baseless legal argument, call it "novel" and then claim the court will require an indefinite continuance in order to resolve it.'... [Prosecutors asserted that] federal law and the Constitution require the trial to be put on as soon as practical -- not with an 'open-ended' date built around Trump's political calendar.... The demands of Defendants' professional schedules do not provide a basis to delay trial in this case,' Harbach wrote. 'Many indicted defendants have demanding jobs that require a considerable amount of their time and energy, or a significant amount of travel. The Speedy Trial Act contemplates no such factor as a basis for a continuance, and the Court should not indulge it here.'

"The filing also provided a new glimpse into the volume of evidence prosecutors obtained, describing 4,500 pages of 'key' documents that they have flagged for Trump's attorneys out of a larger 800,000-page batch of unclassified evidence. About a third of those 800,000 pages -- a figure Trump cited as a basis to delay the trial -- are content-free email headers and footers, the special counsel team indicated.In addition, prosecutors have turned over the vast majority of unclassified information to Trump's legal team...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Schmidt & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors investigating ... Donald J. Trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election have questioned multiple witnesses in recent weeks -- including Mr. Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner -- about whether Mr. Trump had privately acknowledged in the days after the 2020 election that he had lost, according to four people briefed on the matter.... Others in Mr. Trump's orbit who interacted with him in the weeks after the 2020 election, who have potentially more damaging accounts [than may Mr. Kushner] of Mr. Trump's behavior, have been questioned by the special counsel's office recently. Among them is Alyssa Farah Griffin, the White House communications director in the days after the 2020 election. Repeating an account she provided last year to the House select committee on Jan. 6, she told prosecutors this spring that Mr. Trump had said to her in the days after the election: Can you believe I lost to Joe Biden? 'In that moment I think he knew he lost,' Ms. Griffin told the House committee.... Some aides and allies [-- including the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley --] who interacted with Mr. Trump in the days after the election have previously disclosed that Mr. Trump indicated that he knew he lost the election." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kaitlan Collins & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump aide Hope Hicks also went before the grand jury, according to two sources familiar, testifying in early June. Some of the questions being asked in the grand jury were about whether Donald Trump was told he had lost the election, according to one of the sources familiar."

Michael Kranish, et al., of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump disclosed new details about roughly $1 billion in earnings in a revised financial filing covering 2021 through part of this year, including money from foreign ventures, speaking fees and a Florida golf course.... Trump's detailing of the more than $1 billion came from sources including hotel sales, golf revenue and licensing fees in the July disclosure. His April filing, which did not provide exact numbers on his income, reported more than 25 sources of income over $5 million." The fact that the director of the Office of Government Ethics did not sign off on Trump's original April filing suggests that the original filing was not satisfactory. MB: Yeah, there's kind of a difference between $1BB & $5MM. (Also linked yesterday.)

Alan Feuer & Zach Montague of the New York Times: "A butcher from Maine who assaulted five police officers during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to more than seven years in prison. The butcher, Kyle Fitzsimons, arrived at the Capitol that day in ... a traditional white coat, a black apron and rubber boots. Mr. Fitzsimons, a recreational trapper, was also carrying a six-foot-long unstrung archery bow and a fur pelt draped across his neck. Approaching a tunnel at the Capitol's Lower West Terrace, prosecutors say, Mr. Fitzsimons, 39, hurled his bow like a spear at a crowd of officers, striking one in the head. Over the next several minutes, he attacked four more officers in a spree of aggression that led prosecutors to describe him in recent court papers as 'one of the most violent' rioters." ~~~

Patriot tourist Kyle Fitzsimons -- the Butcher of Maine -- visits the Capitol January 6, 2021.     ~~~ Tom Jackman of the Washington Post: "Fitzsimons, 39..., twice charged into the phalanx of officers protecting the upper West Terrace tunnel on the afternoon of Jan. 6, at one point grabbing the shield strap and wrenching the shoulder of Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. The officer testified that the pain was so bad he considered using his gun to shoot Fitzsimons before he was freed. He suffered a partially torn rotator cuff and labrum, and was forced to take a medical retirement." MB: I reckon the Butcher of Maine looks a lot more like the crazed maniac in a "B" horror movie than like a typical patriotic tourist visiting the Capitol of an afternoon. But hey, that's just my opinion.

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "On Jan. 6, 2021, Alan Hostetter and Russell Taylor were shoulder to shoulder in the battle they had predicted would come if the 2020 presidential election results unseating ... Donald Trump were not discarded.... But last week, the two squared off in a federal courtroom, with Taylor admitting from the witness box that what they had cast as a patriotic cause was a criminal conspiracy to keep Congress from doing its work. Hostetter, acting as his own attorney, was accusing his former friend of taking part in a much broader conspiracy orchestrated by the federal government. A police chief turned yoga instructor who helped organize a 'brigade' of Californians on Jan. 6, Hostetter was convicted Thursday of four felonies -- conspiring to obstruct and obstructing an official proceeding, and trespassing and engaging in disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon."

Extreme MAGA Republicans have chosen to hijack the historically bipartisan National Defense Authorization Act to continue attacking reproductive freedom and jamming their right-wing ideology down the throats of the American people. -- Reps. Hakeem Jeffries (NY), Katherine Clark (Mass.) & Pete Aguilar (Calif.), the top House Democratic leaders, who said they would vote against the bill ~~~

~~~ Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "The fate of the annual defense bill was in doubt on Friday, after Republicans loaded the legislation with a raft of conservative social policy restrictions limiting access to abortions, gender transition procedures and diversity training for military personnel, alienating Democrats whose votes G.O.P. leaders had seen as crucial to passing the legislation. Democrats pledged to oppose the bill in a vote expected on Friday morning, accusing G.O.P. leaders of having turned what began as a bipartisan bill into a hyper-politicized salvo in a wider culture war to please a small, right-wing faction of their party."

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A divided House voted on Thursday to restrict abortion access, bar transgender health services and limit diversity training for military personnel, potentially imperiling passage of the annual defense bill as Republicans, goaded by their right flank, loaded the measure with conservative policy dictates. The House voted 221 to 213 to overturn a Pentagon policy guaranteeing abortion access to service members regardless of where they are stationed, with Republicans propelling it to passage over near-unanimous Democratic opposition. By a vote of 222 to 211, the House also adopted a measure to bar the military's health plan from covering gender-transition surgeries -- which currently can be covered only with a waiver -- and gender-affirming hormone therapy. And the chamber voted 214 to 213 to eliminate the Pentagon's offices of diversity, equity and inclusion, along with all of their personnel."

Mychael Schnell & Mike Lillis of the Hill: "A Republican lawmaker on Thursday referred to African Americans as 'colored people' on the House floor, prompting outrage from Democrats and a quick rebuke from the chamber's presiding officer. Rep. Eli Crane (R), an Arizona freshman, was reprimanded after he took to the floor to promote an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that he says will rein in Defense Department 'wokeness' -- a racially charged concept that has divided the parties and the country in recent years." Crane later said he "misspoke."

Now, This Is Originalism. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) suggested on the House floor that because the phrase 'humanitarian aid for women and children in Afghanistan' is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, such aid is unconstitutional." MB: Never underestimate the stupidity of Congressional Republicans. I've been waiting for someone to espouse such a preposterous, uh, "literal reading" of the Constitution. I do want to thank Rep. Luna for not letting me down. I would like to suggest to her that many bills are hundreds of pages long and contain nary a phrase nor clause lifted from the Constitution.

Republicans Use Another Hearing to Prove They're Ignorant Boors. Lisa Friedman of the New York Times: "Republicans on Thursday accused John Kerry, President Biden's special envoy for climate, of being soft on China as he prepared to travel to Beijing to restart discussions between the world's top two polluting countries. In a contentious hearing before a House Committee on Foreign Affairs panel, Republicans attacked Mr. Kerry for not doing enough to persuade China to cut its greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, several also sought to portray Mr. Kerry as putting Chinese interests above those of the United States by negotiating with America's top economic rival. Mr. Kerry expects to arrive in China on Sunday for three days of climate talks. He told lawmakers that he believes the Chinese government must reverse its growing use of coal-fired power plants, which has helped to make it the world's biggest polluter. But he also made a point of praising China for deploying more wind, solar and other renewable energy than the rest of the world combined....

"Representative Brian Mast, Republican of Florida, told Mr. Kerry he was 'not representing the United States of America' but rather a 'far-left radical agenda.' Representative Cory Mills, also a Florida Republican, sarcastically thanked Mr. Kerry for taking the time to fly in on his 'private jet.' Mr. Kerry called Mr. Mills's comment 'pretty stupid' and said he does not own a private jet but flies commercial. Representative Scott Perry, Republican of Pennsylvania, showed charts he claimed proved the world is not warming. That prompted Mr. Kerry to call the lawmaker's views, which run counter to the conclusion of scientists around the globe, 'shocking.' Mr. Perry retorted, 'They're grifters, like you are, sir,' eliciting gasps from both sides of the aisle." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It is hardly surprising, but well-illustrated here, that Congressional Republicans understand nothing about diplomacy or negotiating tactics. The idea of speaking respectfully to those with whom you disagree is as foreign to them as China itself. In any event, I, for one, am relieved. Until I read Scott Perry's ludicrous assertions, I was beginning to lose faith in Republicans' propensity to deny climate change. So thanks, Scott. You're "pretty stupid," too.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Democrats in Congress are making a fresh push for the nearly century-old Equal Rights Amendment to be enshrined in the Constitution, rallying around a creative legal theory in a bid to revive an amendment that would explicitly guarantee sex equality as a way to protect reproductive rights in post-Roe America. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Representative Cori Bush of Missouri are set to introduce a joint resolution on Thursday stating that the measure has already been ratified and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution. The resolution states that the national archivist, who is responsible for the certification and publication of constitutional amendments, must immediately do so.... While almost 80 percent of Americans supported adding the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution in a 2020 Pew Research Center poll, there is little chance that the effort will draw the 60 votes necessary to overcome a Republican filibuster in the Senate.... In April, Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution that sought to remove an expired deadline for states to ratify the amendment." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I get that a lot of Republicans -- especially men, but not only men -- are misogynists, but like racism, that's something elected politicians usually try to hide. What rationale can they say out loud to oppose equal rights for women?

How they plead poverty, that they're losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their C.E.O.s. It is disgusting. Shame on them! -- SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher ~~~

~~~ Brooks Barnes, et al., of the New York Times: "The Hollywood actors’ union approved a strike on Thursday for the first time in 43 years, bringing the $134 billion American movie and television business to a halt over anger about pay and fears of a tech-dominated future. The leaders of SAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 television and movie actors, announced the strike after negotiations with studios over a new contract collapsed, with streaming services and artificial intelligence at the center of the standoff. On Friday, the actors will join screenwriters, who walked off the job in May, on picket lines in New York, Los Angeles and the dozens of other American cities where scripted shows and movies are made."

2020 Presidential Election. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "On Wednesday, CNN teased an upcoming interview between host Chris Wallace and Ronna McDaniel, the ... chair of the RNC. In the clip, Wallace asks McDaniel when she stopped being an 'election denier' -- that is, someone who espouses skepticism about the validity of the election results. And, surprise! McDaniel never stopped.... 'I think there were lots of problems with 2020. Ultimately [Joe Biden] won the election, but there were lots of problems with the 2020 election,' she said [after Wallace pressed her]. 'I don't think he won it fair. I don't. I'm not going to say that.'" Since Republicans have never been able to produce any evidence of significant fraud, their fallback response is that Biden won, but only because he cheated somehow. MB: This is pathetic projection.

Beyond the Beltway

Arizona. Yvonne Sanchez of the Washington Post: "Arizona's top prosecutor is ramping up a criminal investigation into alleged attempts by Republicans to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the state by signing and transmitting paperwork falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner, according to two people familiar with the investigation. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes (D) assigned a team of prosecutors to the case in May, and investigators have contacted many of the pro-Trump electors and their lawyers, according to the two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly describe the probe. Investigators have requested records and other information from local officials who administered the 2020 election, the two people said, and a prosecutor has inquired about evidence collected by the Justice Department and an Atlanta-area prosecutor for similar probes." (Also linked yesterday.)

Florida. Sam Levine & Andrew Witherspoon of the Guardian: "Florida Republicans have hit dozens of voter registration groups with thousands of dollars of fines, the latest salvo in an alarming crackdown on voting in the state led by Governor Ron DeSantis. At least 26 groups have cumulatively racked up more than $100,000 in fines since September of last year, according to a list that was provided by Florida officials to the Guardian. The groups include both for-profit and nonprofit organizations as well as political parties, including the statewide Republican and Democratic parties of Florida. The fines, which range from $50 to tens of thousands of dollars, were levied by the state's office of election crimes and security, a first-of-its-kind agency created at the behest of DeSantis in 2022 to investigate voter fraud. Voter fraud is extremely rare.... There has already been a drop in voter registrations this year compared with 2019 -- the last full year leading into a presidential election.... A crackdown on third-party voter registration groups is also likely to disproportionately affect Floridians of color, who are about five times more likely to register with third-party groups than white voters are."

New York. Maegan Vazquez of the Washington Post: "A New York appeals court on Thursday ordered an independent commission to redraw the state's congressional map, signaling an opportunity for Democrats to regain House seats after redistricting contributed to Republicans flipping four districts in 2022.... But Thursday's ruling is expected to be appealed to the state's top court, the Court of Appeals, which will make the final decision."

Way Beyond

Ukraine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "U.S.-provided cluster munitions have arrived in Ukraine, U.S. and Ukrainian officials said Thursday, a week after President Biden said he had made the 'very difficult decision' to provide Kyiv with the widely banned weapon." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Friday is here: "The Pentagon has assessed that Wagner, the Russian mercenary group that conducted a brief but dramatic mutiny against the Kremlin last month, is not 'participating in any significant capacity in support of combat operations in Ukraine.'... Ukrainian forces will seek to use cluster munitions 'in a tactical environment,' unlike Russia, which has employed the munitions 'against civilian communities,' [U.S. Lt. General Douglas A. Sims II, the Joint Chiefs of Staff's director of operations,] said. Ukrainians also 'understand the potential for duds,' Sims added.... [President] Zelensky's tweet this week challenging NATO leaders on the pace of his war-torn country's admission into the alliance so roiled the White House that U.S. officials considered scaling back the 'invitation' for Kyiv to join, according to six people familiar with the matter, The Post's Michael Birnbaum reports.... The U.S. House voted against measures aimed at halting U.S. assistance for Ukraine..., The Post reported. The International Olympic Committee confirmed that Russia and Belarus will not receive formal invitations to the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics." ~~~

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

Ellen Mitchell of the Hill: "Five House Republican-backed initiatives to curtail aid to Ukraine using the annual Pentagon policy bill were shot down Thursday afternoon in votes that saw a consensus from both sides of the aisle to keep money flowing to Kyiv. The Ukraine-related amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would have effectively limited or rolled back U.S. involvement in Ukraine, but a majority of Republicans joined Democrats in opposition to the proposals. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) put forth one amendment to strike $300 million in Ukraine funding that failed 89-341, with 130 Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against it. Another proposal from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), which would have prohibited all security assistance for Ukraine, similarly failed 70-358 on the House floor, with 149 Republicans opposing it."

Popov Pop-off. Paul Sonne & Anatoly Kurmanaev of the New York Times: "A top Russian general in Ukraine has lashed out at his bosses after being fired from his command, accusing them of undermining the war effort with dishonesty and politicking, in the latest sign of turmoil within the Kremlin's military leadership. In a four-minute recording released late Wednesday night, Maj. Gen. Ivan Popov addressed his troops.... His firing, and the unusual public airing of his grievances, reflected the disarray that has roiled Russia's military command since a failed mutiny three weeks ago.... Since the mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group and its boss, Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, several senior officers have been detained or pushed out of their posts, according to a person close to the Russian military, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons." The Guardian's story is here.

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

"Diversity, equity and inclusion."

Can't have none of that in a democracy.

The Founders obviously intended a monochrome culture only. They crafted a government exclusively for rich, white males. Period.

The all men are created equal thing? Just political persiflage. The Bill of Rights they eventually came up with? Mere sops to the stirring, ignorant masses.

The Civil War and government of by and for the people? A temporary, misguided aberration.

Now we're back on track. No diversity. No equity. No inclusion. Just the way the Founders always intended.

[ForrestMorris]

Warren Buffett has a great plan to end all future deficits. It would
have a difficult time getting through Congress though since most
of them would be out of a job after passing his proposal.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CucLs0Pgqex?

Not sure if that letter before the P is a zero or a capital O. Must be a
zero after typing that O.

[P.D.Pepe]

I don't know why all the fuss about the cocaine stash when Mr. "I am the Greatest" knows exactly the owner of the stuff. Here he is once again telling us what went down:

Donald Trump piled on to his wild claim that the cocaine found in the White House belonged to Joe Biden, suggesting the president took the drug to pep himself up before speeches.

“Because you watch Joe at the beginning of a speech and he’s got a little life ― not much ― but by the end of the speech, he’s a disaster,” Trump told “Real America’s Voice” host Wayne Allyn Root on Thursday. “He can’t find his way off the stage. So, there’s something going on there.”

“I think they bump him up, and we can’t have a president on cocaine who’s dealing with nuclear weapons and everything else.”

Trump then tailed off into saying Biden has never been at the top of the game mentally compared to other world leaders.

S0–––there you have it folks. It's quite an amazing feat that a man so inept, so dangerous, so utterly contemptible finds it perfectly acceptable to voice his stupidity with such swagger.

And the people clapped and threw flowers in his path.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: In the past, if a leading presidential* candidate had said that about a sitting president, it would have made front-page news. It would have been considered so beyond-the-pale, that commentators would have talked about it for days or weeks. Columnists would have deemed the candidate unfit for office for that comment alone. The President himself might have weighed in, the remark being so egregious.

Now, a rival candidate accusing the President of snorting blow barely makes a mention in the third-tier press and is nowhere to be seen in the MSM. When you think Donald Trump can't go any lower, he does.

[Ken Winkes]

This, appropriately enough, posted in the Times thread along with news about a serial killer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/us/trump-georgia-election-investigation.html

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/14/technology/biden-social-media-order.html

A pause that might be refreshing...