;)
July 20, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Louis Caved. Somewhat. Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service pledged Wednesday to electrify at least 40 percent of its new delivery fleet, an increase that climate activists hailed as a major step toward reducing the government's environmental footprint. The Postal Service had been set to purchase as many as 165,000 vehicles from Oshkosh Defense, of which 10 percent would be electric under the original procurement plan. Now it will acquire 50,000 trucks from Oshkosh, half of which will be EVs, plus another 34,500 commercially available vehicles, 40 percent of which will be electric. The combined 84,500 trucks ... will go a long way toward meeting President Biden's goal for the entire government fleet to be EV-powered by 2035. The Postal Service's more than 217,000 vehicles make up the largest share of federal civilian vehicles.... Sixteen states plus four of the U.S.'s top environmental groups sued to stop the [original 10%-electric] contract in April." ~~~
~~~ Marie: You just have to drag Republicans kicking & screaming to do every partly the right thing.
The Washington Post is liveblogging Steve Bannon's trial for criminal contempt of Congress.
Rosalind Helderman of the Washington Post summarizes the findings, so far, that the House January 6 committee has presented to the public. "At each moment [in the weeks leading up to January 6, 2021,] when Trump could have soothed an agitated nation, he escalated tensions instead, the committee has illustrated through its presentation of 18 live witnesses, scores of videotaped depositions and vast documentary evidence. At each moment when longtime loyal advisers offered their view that his election loss was real, he refused to listen and found newcomers and outsiders willing to tell him otherwise. On at least 15 different occasions, the president barreled over those who told him to accept his loss and instead took actions that sought to circumvent the democratic process and set the nation on the path to violence, according to the committee's evidence."
David Siders of Politico: "The conventional wisdom about the Jan. 6 committee hearings was that no single revelation was going to change Republican minds about Donald Trump. What happened instead, a slow drip of negative coverage, may be just as damaging to the former president. Six weeks into the committee's public hearing schedule, an emerging consensus is forming in Republican Party circles -- including in Trump-s orbit -- that a significant portion of the rank-and-file may be tiring of the non-stop series of revelations about Trump.... The cumulative effect of the hearings, according to interviews with more than 20 Republican strategists, party officials and pollsters in recent days, has been to at least marginally weaken his support." ~~~
~~~ Oh Yeah? This guy is still a fan: ~~~
~~~ Jordan Green of the Raw Story: "After invoking the Fifth Amendment and executive privilege more than 100 times to refuse to answer questions from the January 6th Committee on Tuesday, former White House aide Garrett Ziegler opened a livestream to vent his frustrations to his followers in a nearly 30-minute rant laden with white nationalist grievance on Telegram. Ziegler complained that he has less resources to fight the committee than his older cohorts, including his boss former Trade Advisor Peter Navarro, who is suing the committee, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who is being prosecuted for contempt.... '[The committee members are] Bolsheviks so they probably do hate the Fifth Amendment, and most white people in general,' he said. 'This is a Bolshevist, anti-white campaign.... They see me as a young Christian who they can basically try to scare.'... I'm the least racist person that many of you have ever met, by the way. I have no bigotry. I just try to see the world for where it is.' Then, his rant veered into misogyny when he lamented that no one else in his generation was defying the January 6th committee, because 'the other people in the White House are total hos and thots.'"
Kate Brumback of the AP: "A judge in New York has ordered Rudy Giuliani to appear next month before a special grand jury in Atlanta that's investigating whether ... Donald Trump and others illegally tried to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia. New York Supreme Court Justice Thomas Farber on July 13 issued an order directing Giuliani, a Trump lawyer and former New York City mayor, to appear before the special grand jury on Aug. 9 and on any other dates ordered by the court in Atlanta, according to documents filed Wednesday in Fulton County Superior Court."
Today's committee memo pulls back the curtain on this shameful conduct and shows clearly how the Trump administration secretly tried to manipulate the census for political gain while lying to the public and Congress about their goals. -- Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Oversight Committee chair ~~~
~~~ Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "A new stash of documents obtained by Congress has confirmed that the Trump administration pushed to add a citizenship question to the census to help Republicans win elections..., a House committee report concluded on Wednesday. The report from the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the culmination of a yearslong investigation, detailed new findings based on drafts of internal memos and secret email communications between political appointees at the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, and counterparts in the Justice Department. The documents provided the most definitive evidence yet that the Trump administration aimed to exclude noncitizens from the count to influence congressional apportionment that would benefit the Republican Party, the report concluded, and that senior officials used a false pretext to build a legal case for asking all residents of the United States whether they were American citizens.... The committee was expected on Wednesday to mark up a bill to enhance the institutional independence of the Census Bureau in order to prevent political interference in the agency." NPR's story is here.
U.K. The New PM Will Not Be a White Guy. Mark Landler & Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain's Conservative Party narrowed the field for its next leader on Wednesday, advancing two candidates to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson after a scandal-scarred tenure that ended with his government in disarray and the country adrift at a time of deepening economic crisis. Rishi Sunak, a former chancellor of the Exchequer, and Liz Truss, the current foreign secretary, emerged as the two finalists after five rounds of voting by Conservative lawmakers whittled the original field of 11 candidates. The two will now compete to succeed Prime Minister Boris Johnson in a vote of the party's rank-and-file membership, with the results announced in early September." An AP report is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
Amy Wang & Karina Tsui of the Washington Post: "Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska visited the White House on Tuesday, part of her high-profile trip to Washington.... Zelenska arrived at the White House just after 1:30 p.m. and was greeted on the South Lawn by President Biden and first lady Jill Biden. The president presented Zelenska with a bouquet of yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids -- reminiscent of the colors of the Ukrainian flag -- and the first lady hugged Zelenska. The group, which included Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova, posed for a photo at the south entrance to the White House, flanked by an American flag and a Ukrainian flag. They did not answer reporters' shouted questions about what they would discuss. Zelenska and Jill Biden had a private meeting, then held an expanded meeting [to include a number of U.S. leaders].... On Wednesday morning, Zelenska is scheduled to address Congress to give an update on the security, economic and humanitarian conditions on the ground in Ukraine." More on Ukraine linked under Way Beyond the Beltway below.
Ben Gittleson & Morgan Winsor of ABC News: "President Joe Biden is expected to announce on Wednesday a few executive actions to address climate change, with a focus on helping Americans facing extreme heat -- but the steps fall far short of the more sweeping measures climate activists are calling for. In fact, the directives largely appear to provide more funding to or otherwise strengthen existing programs."
Stephanie Lai of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday passed a bill that would recognize same-sex marriages at the federal level, as Republicans joined Democrats in support of a measure responding to growing concern that a conservative Supreme Court could nullify marriage equality. The Respect for Marriage Act would codify the federal protections for same-sex couples that were put in place in 2015, when the Supreme Court ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges established same-sex marriage as a right under the 14th Amendment. The legislation would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996, which defined a marriage as the union between a man and a woman, a law that was struck down by Obergefell but has remained on the books. The legislation, which passed in a vote of 267 to 157, faces an uncertain future in the evenly divided Senate, where most Republicans have opposed gay rights measures. But Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the minority leader, declined on Tuesday to state a position on the measure." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marianna Sotomayor, et al., of the Washington Post: The bill "also would protect interracial marriage." (Also linked yesterday.) Politico's report is here.
Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "The House approved a resolution on Monday that expressed support for Finland and Sweden joining NATO, exactly two months after the Nordic countries submitted applications to become part of the military alliance amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The resolution cleared the House in a 394-18 vote, with only Republicans voting in opposition. Two Democrats and 17 Republicans did not vote." The article lists the naysayers, who include the usual suspects. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. (Also linked yesterday.)
Ellie Silverman of the Washington Post: "Seventeen members of Congress -- including Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (N.Y.), Rashida Tlaib (Mich.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) -- were among dozens of abortion rights protesters arrested Tuesday outside the Supreme Court in a rally demanding immediate action to protect abortion following the court's decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade. Thirty-five people were arrested for crowding, obstructing or incommoding, a D.C. code often cited when arresting protesters during peaceful, planned and coordinated actions of civil disobedience such as the demonstration on Tuesday. Those arrested were ticketed and released on-site, as is standard practice during events such as this, said Capitol Police spokesman Tim Barber. Among those arrested were ... Assistant House Speaker Katherine M. Clark (Mass.) and Reps. Bush, Omar, Ayanna Pressley (Mass.), Barbara Lee (Calif.), Jackie Speier (Calif.) and Carolyn B. Maloney (N.Y.), according to their offices." An ABC News story is here.
Marie: (Yesterday): On her MSNBC show Monday night, Rachel Maddow flashed a memo from AG Merrick Garland instructing DOJ officials not to begin any investigations or bring any charges against any presidential candidates or their top staff after the candidates had announced their intentions to run, unless first cleared by the AG. Garland's order, he stated in the memo, was in keeping with a February 2020 order by former AG Bill Barr. So the sooner Trump declares, the sooner he can weasel out of any new investigation. It's almost as if Trump & Garland are colluding. Very distressing. ~~~
~~~ See Marcy Wheeler's comment, excerpted by unwashed in the Comments section yesterday, about the Garland memo. Wheeler's full post is here, linked yesterday by unwashed. Wheeler, in effect, sees the Garland memo as routine. (BTW, Maddow's guest for the segment was Andrew Weissmann, and the fact that he didn't jump out of his skin about the memo -- he didn't -- suggests he agrees with Wheeler.) ~~~
~~~ Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The Justice Department's investigation into various efforts by Donald Trump to undermine the 2020 election will continue regardless of whether the former president announces his intention to again seek office in 2024. 'We're going to continue to do our job, to follow the facts wherever they go, no matter where they lead, no matter to what level,' Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday in response to questions after speaking at a cybersecurity conference in New York. 'We're going to continue to investigate what was fundamentally an attack on our democracy.'" MB: I'm not as sure as Beitsch is that Monaco says the DOJ's investigation "will continue regardless of whether the former president announces his intention" to run for president in 2024. In any event, Monaco didn't say Trump himself could become the subject of an investigation after he announced his candidacy. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow broke the news of the May 25 memo on her show Monday night. The crux is that [Merrick] Garland has left in place a policy first instituted by his Trump-appointed predecessor, William P. Barr. The policy requires the attorney general to sign off on investigations involving presidential candidates and their staff.... Barr certainly earned his reputation as an exceedingly political attorney general, and it's understandable to balk at doubling down on a policy he forged. But those facts alone do not a bad policy make.... Some Trump critics will fear that an allegedly reluctant Garland might use this policy as an excuse to stifle such an investigation." MB: Blake's post is sort of an on-the-one-hand/on-the-other-hand analysis. Blake does acknowledge, as I felt, that Lisa Monaco's response to a question about the Garland memo was ambiguous (see Hill report linked above).~~~
~~~ Chris Hayes had a guest (whose name I didn't catch) who made the point that the problem here is that the Barr-Garland policy leaves the decision on whether or not to investigate presidential candidates to the department's top political appointee: the attorney general. Previous administrations (Bush II & Obama) had left the decision to the "public integrity unit"; i.e., career DOJ attorneys who operate under established procedures. It's easy to see that any attorney general could have an interest in influencing a presidential election. Investigating top politicians is always going to be a sticky wicket, but I can't help thinking Barr & Garland made it a bit stickier.
** Carol Leonnig & Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Secret Service has determined it has no new texts to provide Congress relevant to its Jan. 6 investigation, and that any other texts its agents exchanged around the time of the 2021 attack on the Capitol were purged, according to a senior official briefed on the matter. Also, the National Archives on Tuesday sought more information on 'the potential unauthorized deletion' of agency text messages. The U.S. government's chief record-keeper asked the Secret Service to report back to the Archives within 30 days about the deletion of any records, including describing what was purged and the circumstances of how the documentation was lost.... Many of its agents' cellphone texts were permanently purged starting in mid-January 2021 and Secret Service officials said it was the result of an agencywide reset of staff telephones and replacement that it began planning months earlier. Secret Service agents ... were instructed to upload any old text messages involving government business to an internal agency drive before the reset, the senior official said, but many agents appear not to have done so." (Also linked yesterday.) A Politico report on the National Archives action is here. A Guardian story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This looks like criminal obstruction of justice to me. It's possible -- but extremely unlikely -- that there was nothing more controversial in those text messages than weather condition updates. Those messages were not preserved for a reason, and I just don't see how "I forgot" is going to work as a defense. These agents -- and their bosses -- belong behind bars. For a while. This may turn out to be one of my "never mind" moments, but from today's vantage point, it looks really bad. Update: Lawrence O'Donnell is as outraged as I am; I feel better. O'Donnell is particularly pissed off at Secret Service director James Murray, a Trump appointee who will retire next month. ~~~
~~~ Stephanie Ruhle of MSNBC had a segment on this, too, and Carol Leonnig of the WashPo was a guest. Leonnig is a straight reporter, and she's careful not to verge into delivering opinions. But she did manage to make the point that Trump waited till his third year in office to appoint James Murray as Secret Service director, and by that time, Trump had learned how to bring on people who would do what he wanted. In addition, Leonnig said that Trump appointed Murray on the insistence of Tony Ornato, a Secret Service agent whom Trump liked so much he made Ornato a political appointee. IOW, both Murray & Ornato are Trump guys. ~~~
~~~ Jamie Gangel of CNN: "The Secret Service was only able to provide a single text exchange to the DHS inspector general who had requested a month's worth of records for 24 Secret Service personnel, according to a letter to the House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, and obtained by CNN.... 'The Secret Service submitted the responsive records it identified, namely, a text message conversation from former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund to former Secret Service Uniformed Division Chief Thomas Sullivan requesting assistance on January 6, 2021, and advised the agency did not have any further records responsive to the DHS OIG's request for text messages,' Assistant Director Ronald Rowe wrote in the letter to the January 6 committee." The agency left it up to individual agents to preserve their texts & sent them "step-by-step" instructions on how to do so, according to the letter, which stated that Secret Service personnel are responsible for preserving government records. The letter said the texts of 24 employees were lost.
Aishvarya Kavi & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "After weeks of legal wrangling and heated speeches on the courthouse steps, the criminal trial of Stephen K. Bannon ... opened on Tuesday.... Prosecutors insisted that Mr. Bannon had clearly violated the law [by ignoring a subpoena by the House January 6 committee].... Amanda Vaughn, a federal prosecutor, said..., 'The defendant decided he was above the law and didn't have to follow the government’s orders like his fellow citizens.'... M. Evan Corcoran, a lawyer for the defense, countered the assertion that Mr. Bannon willfully ignored the subpoena, saying that the committee had not mandated him to comply.... The defense also emphasized the political nature of the House committee and its members.... The government's first witness on Tuesday, Kristin Amerling, the deputy staff director and chief counsel to the Jan. 6 committee, outlined how the panel sought to provide a 'complete account' of what happened on Jan. 6 and the importance of the subpoena as a fact-finding tool."
Mychael Schnell of the Hill: "Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), the chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, announced on Tuesday that he has tested positive for COVID-19. The congressman, who is fully vaccinated and boosted, said he received a positive diagnosis on Monday and is experiencing mild symptoms.... Thursday's [committee] presentation, however, will proceed as planned, according to the committee's spokesperson." (Also linked yesterday.)
Thursday's Hearing Is a "Season Finale," Not the End of the Series. Kyle Cheney & Nicholas Wu of Politico: January 6 committee "members describe Thursday's hearing as only the last in a series. Committee members, aides and allies are emboldened by the public reaction to the information they're unearthing about the former president's actions and say their full sprint will continue, even past November.... The committee is pursuing multiple new avenues of inquiry created by its investigation of Trump's scheme to seize a second term he didn't win, from questions about the Secret Service's internal communications as well as leads provided by high-level witnesses from his White House.... The new open-ended timeline is a marked shift in the public posture of a committee that once eyed a conclusion as early as springtime, then looked to a September wrap-up."
Still Crazy. Dan Mangan of CNBC: "... Donald Trump this month called Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and urged him to decertify President Joe Biden's 2020 election win in that state, Vos said in a new interview Tuesday.... '... I explained that it's not allowed under the Constitution,' Vos said. 'He has a different opinion.'... One ... Republicans, state Rep. Timothy Ramthun, submitted a resolution calling on the state legislature to 'reclaim' those electors.... After speaking with Vos, Trump posted a message on Truth Social that called the speaker 'a long time professional RINO.... The Democrats would like to sincerely thank Robin, and all of his fellow RINOs, for letting them get away with "murder." A Rigged & Stolen Election!' Trump wrote."
Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in Atlanta have informed 16 Trump supporters who formed an alternate slate of 2020 presidential electors from Georgia that they could face charges in an ongoing criminal investigation into election interference, underscoring the risk of criminal charges that Donald J. Trump and many of his allies may be facing in the state. The revelations were included in court filings released on Tuesday in an investigation being led by Fani T. Willis, the district attorney of Fulton County.... Ms. Willis, in court filings, has indicated that a number of other charges are being considered, including racketeering and conspiracy, which could take in a broad roster of Trump associates both inside and outside of Georgia.... 'She's made clear that she has a sharp eye on Trump,' [Norm] Eisen [of the Brookings Institution] said of Ms. Willis, adding that there were indications 'that this first salvo of target letters will be followed by additional possible targets, culminating in the former president himself.'"Politico's report is here.
Kevin Breuninger & Dan Mangan of CNBC: "Sen. Lindsey Graham agreed Tuesday to accept service of a subpoena for his testimony before a Georgia grand jury investigating possible criminal meddling in the 2020 election by ... Donald Trump. But Graham, R-S.C., still retained his right to challenge the legality of the subpoena, a court filing showed.... Graham's agreement to accept the subpoena likely will streamline his dispute with Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis over the demand for his testimony. Asked Tuesday afternoon about the development, Graham told NBC News that Fulton County hasn't 'even tried to subpoena me. I just want to get it done.' The Republican lawmaker ... had asked a federal judge in South Carolina last week to quash the subpoena. But Willis in a court filing Monday told the judge that Graham's challenge was both too early, and not filed in the right court.... Any future challenges to the subpoena will be pursued in Georgia, either in Fulton County Superior Court or U.S. District Court in Atlanta." (Also linked yesterday.)
Triumph Triumphs. Colbert Staff Beats the Rap. Mike Ives of the New York Times: "Federal prosecutors said late Monday that they would not prosecute staff members of 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' who were arrested last month at the United States Capitol complex on charges of unlawful entry. When members of a production team for the CBS show were arrested on June 16, they had been filming a segment featuring Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, a cigar-chomping canine puppet that is voiced by the comedian Robert Smigel, who was among those arrested. Mr. Colbert later said on his show that they were guilty of 'high jinks with intent to goof.'... The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia said in a brief statement on Monday that it would not move forward with misdemeanor charges against the nine people arrested by the Capitol Police because the case wasn't strong enough. The crew members had been invited to enter the building on two separate occasions by congressional staff who never asked them to leave, although the Capitol Police did tell some members of the group that they were supposed to have an escort, the statement said." (Also linked yesterday.)
GOP Stunt Strains D.C. Charitable Orgs. Vanessa Sánchez of the Washington Post: "Ten D.C. Council members are calling on the District government to direct local resources to support migrants who have been arriving in buses from Texas and Arizona for months, taking a toll on city organizations that are relying on donations and one federal grant. It's been more than three months since Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) and two months since Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) started offering what they have said are voluntary bus trips to the nation's capital for migrants caught crossing the border from Mexico, a measure in response to President Biden's decision to lift an emergency health order that allowed immigration authorities at the border to deny entry to migrants. In the last few weeks the number of buses arriving a day has increased from two to four, sometimes five, sometimes late at night, exhausting donations and exceeding the ability of volunteers and mutual aid networks in the city to respond." (Also linked yesterday.)
Rebecca Kern of Politico: "A Delaware judge granted Twitter's request for an expedited trial in its lawsuit seeking to force Elon Musk to uphold his agreement to buy the social media company for $44 billion. Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick said the case will proceed with a five-day trial in October, favoring Twitter's request for a speedy trial to avoid the irreparable harm delays might cause. The lawsuit marks the latest in a monthslong back-and-forth between Twitter and Musk over his April offer to buy the platform for $54.20 per share and take the company private."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Tuesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday recommended that a newly authorized vaccine from Novavax be used as an option for adults seeking a primary immunization against the coronavirus. Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the C.D.C.'s director, signed off on the recommendation of a panel of vaccine experts that had unanimously endorsed the vaccine on Tuesday afternoon. The decision removes the final regulatory hurdle for the fourth Covid-19 shot authorized in the United States. The Novavax vaccine is expected to play a limited role in the country's immunization campaign, at least initially."
Beyond the Beltway
Indiana/Ohio. Ava Sasani & Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "An Indianapolis doctor who provided abortion care to a 10-year-old rape victim is preparing to sue Attorney General Todd Rokita of Indiana for defamation after he said he would investigate her actions in the case, according to a statement released on Tuesday by her lawyer. Dr. Caitlin Bernard earned the ire of conservative lawmakers and pundits after she told The Indianapolis Star about her patient, a 10-year-old girl who crossed state lines from Ohio to receive an abortion. Ohio is one of nearly a dozen states with abortion restrictions that do not make exceptions for rape or incest.... In a tort claim notice sent on Tuesday to Mr. Rokita and filed with the City of Indianapolis, Dr. Bernard's lawyer, Kathleen A. DeLaney, said a quick check of Indiana's electronic licensing registry showed that Dr. Bernard's license was 'active with no disciplinary history.' 'Mr. Rokita either knew the statements were false or acted with reckless disregard of the truth or falsity of the statements,' the claim notice says."
Maryland Primary Elections. The New York Times is live-updating Tuesday's results in Maryland's primary elections: "Delays in learning who won in Maryland's primaries for governor and a few House races are expected, because the counting of mail-in ballots won't begin until Thursday. But a few contests have been called by The Associated Press." ~~~
~~~ Reid Epstein: "Republican voters in Maryland on Tuesday nominated for governor Dan Cox, a state legislator who was endorsed by ... Donald J. Trump and who wrote on Twitter during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol that Vice President Mike Pence was a 'traitor.' The Associated Press called the race late Tuesday. Mr. Cox defeated Kelly Schulz, a former cabinet secretary under Gov. Larry Hogan, an ambitious term-limited governor who has sought to present himself as a potential alternative to Mr. Trump in 2024. But Mr. Hogan's inability to push through his political protégé in his home state will put a significant damper on his chance of galvanizing a national movement in the party against Mr. Trump."
New York. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "Brooklyn film location for a ripped-from-the-headlines television crime show became a murder scene early Tuesday when a man who was enforcing parking restrictions connected to the production was fatally shot while he sat in a car, the police said. The killing happened ... in the Greenpoint neighborhood as a crew working on the crime show, 'Law & Order: Organized Crime,' was preparing to film on the block, according to the police and fliers posted there. The police identified the victim as Johnny Pizarro, 31, of Queens. Mr. Pizarro, whose job was to make sure the street was clear so that vehicles affiliated with the show could park, was sitting in a car when a lone assailant approached the vehicle, opened the door and shot him in the head and neck, the police said." The neighborhood is relatively crime-free.
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Wednesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Wednesday are here: "Putin received support for his war in Ukraine from Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Karoun Demirjian & Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "The White House on Tuesday doubled down on its assertion that Russia will try to annex additional Ukrainian territory, warning that Moscow intends to claim as its own large swaths of the country's east and south sometime later this year. 'Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an "annexation playbook,"' said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, citing what he called 'ample evidence' gathered by Western intelligence and already 'in the public domain' indicating that... Vladimir Putin wants to take Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and the Donbas region 'in direct violation of Ukraine's sovereignty.'"
Europe. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "For the first time on record, Britain suffered under temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius -- 104 Fahrenheit -- on Tuesday, as a ferocious heat wave moved northwest, leaving a trail of raging wildfires, lost lives and evacuated homes across a Europe frighteningly ill-equipped to cope with the new reality of extreme weather. While the heat's effects cascaded from Greece to Scotland, the greatest damage was in fire-ravaged France. More than 2,000 firefighters battled blazes that have burned nearly 80 square miles of parched forest in the Gironde area of the country's southwest, forcing more than 37,000 people to evacuate in the past week." ~~~
~~~ U.K. Nadeem Badshah of the Guardian: "Major incidents have been declared by fire services across the country as services endured immense pressure dealing with multiple blazes on the hottest day in the UK since records began.... The Metropolitan police advised people not to start a barbecue or bonfire, avoid leaving broken bottles or glass on the ground and dispose of cigarettes safely."
News Lede
Washington Post: Muriel Engelman, a World War II U.S. Army nurse who served on the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge and other battles, died June 30 in Laguna Niguel. She was 101. The French appointed her to the Legion of Honor for her services. Her memoir Mission Accomplished: Stop the Clock (2008) was well-received.
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Reader Comments (13)
"The agency left it up to individual agents to preserve their texts & sent them "step-by-step" instructions on how to do so, according to the letter, which stated that Secret Service personnel are responsible for preserving government records. The letter said the texts of 24 employees were lost."
Would be interesting to compare the phone records of those 24 with their duty records at the time. Were "out of town" agents'' records also mishandled? Or is the phone record black hole for Jan 5 and 6, 2021, centered on D. C.?
Would also like to think all those secret service employees who did not preserve their phone records will be or have already been fired and charged with any crimes relevant to their dereliction.
Would like to, anyway, but we seem to live a in world that never levies consequence on the privileged....which I would take as the worst of society's failures.
Yeah, Rowe did seem to throw all his Secret Service agents working those days under the bus and accused them of incompetence and criminality. I also wonder if the one exchange they submitted even came from their people or from the capitol police's records.
And one of society's failures is that A.G. from Indiana, Todd Rokita, a baby faced extreme right wing bully who targeted the physician who treated that 10 yr. old rape victim and is now being sued. Will he be one of Ken's privileged who slip through the system unscathed?
And the heat is on all over the world: Chubby buddy here is one of many who deny that climate change is due to human intervention–-God's will, maybe? says Toddy. He be pissed by all those Lib-er-alls goofy mandates.
And then there's science that some would ignore to their peril. Was just reading about mosquitos: No animal on earth has touched so directly and profoundly the lives of so many human beings and like humans, it's the female that's the vector here. Although she may like to feed on human blood, a more likely source of food is the sugar plant nectar–-blood is only necessary to help drive egg production. There are over two thousand species of mosquito.
We human females want some sugar–-if not, it's blood sucking ––BIG time!
According to their website, the Secret Service employs approximately 3,200 special agents, 1,300 Uniformed Division officers, and more than 2,000 other technical, professional and administrative support personnel.
I’d be very interested to find out if all of those special agents and officers, 4,500 in all, deleted their text messages as well while doing “routine phone upgrades”.
First, there is no way an upgrade should automatically delete text messages. I can retrieve all my text messages which are stored on an Apple server somewhere. Second, doing a factory reset is about the stupidest way to upgrade a smart phone. This means you lose not just text messages, but photos, contacts, and any apps loaded on the phone that weren’t there when it was new.
Now, you can restore all of those elements if (as should be the case), that stuff is stored in the cloud. I’ve gone through this process several times. Having to try to remember all the other stuff you had loaded, downloading everything from scratch and trying to restore other things in this way is incredibly time consuming. And stupid.
I can’t believe this is the process taken by a highly specialized law enforcement and protection operation. Plus, think of it. What about specialized apps, photos perhaps taken in the course of reconnaissance or investigations, and all the vital phone contacts these guys rely on to do their job. But all of a sudden, Oops! They all go Rose Mary Woods all at once?
Sorry. Not even remotely believable. And, as Ken suggests, if it turns out that the only agents who deleted text messages were working the day Fatty tried out his version of the Reichstag fire, then people need to be arrested, fired, and prosecuted. Plus!! All this deletion bullshit happened AFTER the service was put on notice by a congressional committee to turn over exactly those materials. “Oops” is not an excuse.
The Secret Service, over the years, has suffered a rash of nasty episodes, drinking on duty, partying on the taxpayer’s dime, hookers, etc., not to mention revelations about clear racism during the Obama years. And that’s just the stuff we know about.
Every operation develops its own particular culture. We’re all aware of how secretive law enforcement cultures can get toxic and dangerous in a hurry. Secrecy is their friend.
In the case of these secretive agents, it appears that the ones they protect and serve, in many important ways, are themselves. Congress cannot let this shit pass.
I've solved the marriage debacle in 6 words.
Marriage is between two consenting adults.
Too simple? Yeah. congress will rewrite that and it'll be book size
and nothing will be accomplished, as usual.
@Ken Winkes & @Akhilleus: Thanks for your thoughts on Secret Service phones. I have a feeling we'll find out that the agents don't update their own phones and that one person (or a few people) were in charge of making sure those 24 phones were updated.
Olivia Troye was on the teevee this morning; she used to work in pence's office. She said she was in charge of doing all the phone "migrations" for pence's staff & that there was an established protocol for doing it. The protocol, of course, included archiving text messages.
It seems unlikely that all agents, including those up the hierarchy chain, were responsible for doing the actual work of updating their own phones. Instead, some "specialist" or "specialists" would have done the work. And the specialists would have had protocols quite similar to what Troye had in the veep's office. So did that person decide on her own to delete the text messages? Or -- more likely, it seems to me -- did some honcho tell her to delete them?
Troye seemed to think some funny business led to the erasure of those text messages, and I think so, too. There were things somebody thought should not get out to law enforcement (or to the January 6 committee or to history), and that somebody launched a cover-up.
What passes for legal reasoning on the right…
Oh, yeah, besides “Because I say so”, the rationale most favored by members of the Trump Wing of the Supreme Court.
So I was reading something about the trial of Three Shirt Bannon the Blowhard and I see’s where his legal beagle guy sez to the court that ol’ Three Shirt didn’t know he had to show up after being subpoenaed because the committee didn’t explicitly tell him he had to comply.
Right. This is their defense? Stupidity? Great. Get the jumpsuit ready. And no, I don’t think they’ll let him wear three at once.
First, the whole idea of a subpoena is to show up—or else. The word comes from the Latin “sub poeana”, meaning under penalty. In other words:
“…a writ ORDERING a person to attend a court…’a subpoena may be issued to compel their attendance’” Or else we put your rumpled ass in the hoosegow.
I’m pretty sure there is no legal requirement that a subpoena be issued with the tagline “And we really, really mean it! No kidding this time!”
But okay, Bannon’s defense is “Hey, I’m a moron.” Just another example of the deep rooted belief on the right that they are not subject to any rules or laws they don’t like or that they consider personally inconvenient. Also the idea that responsibility is for others, not them.
“Gee…I didn’t know they meant it” is not a valid legal defense. But if that’s all they got, adios, asshole.
Oh, and as a plus for Bannon, I hear prisoners in the federal pen are allowed showers twice a week. That’s an improvement on his current hygiene which looks closer to twice a month.
Like I said before, Bannon will plead the filth.
Bannon also got a subpoena from the FBI during the Mueller probe so the "I didn't know" defense might not fly with a jury that isn't brain dead/Trump supporters.
Maryland in-person primary voting was yesterday. A huge percentage of mail-in votes will not even start to be counted until tomorrow -- Maryland is unique in that. We have been told to expect it will take a while -- polling workers shortage, machine-reader bottlenecks, etc.
I voted by mail a few weeks ago.
Still, with a reported 60% of statewide votes counted, the goober candidate for whom I voted is already counted down and out by election analysts. And he was one of the three viable prospects in a field of eight. Also, too, with that verisame 60% statewide counted, my pick for AG came in second.
This cannot be. I'm thinking of assaulting Annapolis, if the heat abates a little, and the price of crabs drops. After all, what right do those other voters have to "nullify" MY vote just by them voting more in favor of other candidates??? We all think Maryland is so honest* and on the up and up, but there is the evidence, right in front of you ... two of my candidates did not win because they haven't even counted my vote yet!!
But, in good news, DiJiT's goober pick won the R primary, and he is such a fascisti you can expect a D governor this time around. Md R's are not exempt from the crazy, but there just aren't that many of them -- and Md Indies are pretty much "not crazy."
*Since Spiro "Ted" Agnew left.
To clarify: in MD, mail-in votes are a huge % of the total. No mail-in votes can be counted before tomorrow. "Mail-in" now legally means all ballots dropped through USPS, drop boxes, or not voted in-person at your designated polling place, prior to close of polls. (E.g. the term "absentee" no longer is used.) Voters do not need to justify using mail-in. Voters must request mail-in ballots, the state does not send them unsolicited. Voters must be registered to receive a ballot.
Garrett Ziegler, Peter Navarro, Rudy G. S. Bannon...."All the best people."
Definitely all the best...who better?