;)
Wednesday
Jul052023
July 6, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Robyn Dixon & Catherine Belton of the Washington Post: "Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeniy Prigozhin was in Russia on Thursday, according to Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, raising further questions about the murky agreement under which Prigozhin avoided insurgency charges for a failed rebellion that posed a brazen challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin's authority.... On Thursday, 12 days after Prigozhin abruptly turned around columns of fighters that he had sent rolling toward Moscow, Lukashenko said the mercenary boss had been back in his home city of St. Petersburg and may have flown to Moscow on Thursday morning. Lukashenko said a final deal on the move by Prigozhin and his fighters to Belarus was still not settled.... In a sign of Prigozhin's potential vulnerability, pro-Kremlin media mounted an apparently coordinated campaign to discredit him and undermine his popularity, which had surged before his rebellion. They aired video and photos of his luxury home, showing bundles of cash, weapons, fake passports, and wigs used for disguises." The AP's report is here.
Adriana Licon & Eric Tucker of the AP: "Donald Trump's valet, Walt Nauta, made a brief court appearance Thursday as he entered a not guilty plea to charges that he helped the former president hide classified documents from federal authorities. He also hired a new Florida-based lawyer to represent him as the case moves forward. Nauta was charged alongside Trump in June in a 38-count indictment alleging the mishandling of classified documents. His arraignment was to have happened twice before, but he had struggled to retain a lawyer licensed in Florida and one appearance was postponed because of his travel troubles. Ahead of his arraignment, Nauta hired Sasha Dadan, a criminal defense attorney and former public defender whose main law office is in Fort Pierce, where the judge who would be handling the trial is based, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the court appearance." The Washington Post's report is here.
One Less Contender in the Miss Freedom Caucus Pageant. Brad Reed of the Raw Story: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is no longer enough of a hardline right-wing lawmaker for the House Freedom Caucus. Freedom Caucus Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) tells Politico reporter Olivia Beavers that it's his 'understanding' that Greene is no longer a member of the caucus after it took a secret vote on her expulsion last month. Beavers says that Harris also 'called it "an appropriate action,"' and cited her debt deal vote, support of [Kevin] McCarthy, and criticism of other HFC [Republicans."
Alasdair Pal of Reuters: "Australian Home Minister Clare O'Neil on Thursday called Donald Trump Jr. a 'big baby', after ... [he] cancelled a planned speaking tour. The younger Trump, who had been booked on a three-day tour of Australia that was scheduled to begin in Sydney on Sunday, cancelled the trip on Wednesday, with organisers suggesting the reason was visa issues.... But O'Neil, one of the highest-ranking ministers in the centre-left Labor government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, said Trump had been granted a visa, and poor ticket sales was the reason he called off his visit.... 'Donald Trump Jr has been given a visa to come to Australia. He didn't get cancelled. He's just a big baby, who isn't very popular.' Albanese also said the eldest son of former President Donald Trump had not been blocked from entering."
Graffiti Vandal Surprised Colosseum Is Old. Elisabetta Povoledo of the New York Times: "A man seen on video last month using his keys to etch his love for his girlfriend on a wall in the Colosseum in Rome has written a letter of apology, saying he had no idea the nearly 2,000-year-old monument was so ancient. 'I admit with deepest embarrassment that it was only after what regrettably happened that I learned of the monument's antiquity,' the man — identified by his lawyer as 31-year-old Ivan Danailov Dimitrov -- wrote in a letter dated July 4 and addressed to the Rome prosecutor's office, the mayor of Rome and 'the municipality of Rome.'... Mr. Dimitrov was eventually identified by Italian military police officers who crosschecked the two lovers' names with registered guests in Rome and found they had stayed in an Airbnb rental in the Cinecittà neighborhood. Roberto Martina, the police commander who oversaw the operation, said they tracked Mr. Dimitrov to England, where he and his girlfriend, who is not under investigation, live."
Annie Palmer & Rohan Goswami of CNBC: "Just sixteen hours after launch, Instagram's text-based social network Threads has already surpassed 30 million signups, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said early Thursday.... As of Thursday, the app is available for download from Apple's App Store, and it's free to use.... Users are required to have an Instagram account in order to use Threads."
~~~~~~~~~~
Katie Rogers & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Biden told Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson of Sweden on Wednesday that he was 'anxiously looking forward' to the country's acceptance into NATO, reiterating their shared goal of strengthening the Western alliance against the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In their meeting at the White House, both emphasized the potential benefits that could come from adding Sweden to the group: 'We also do think that we have things to contribute,' Mr. Kristersson told the president as they met in the Oval Office. But with less than a week until Mr. Biden and other NATO leaders are scheduled to travel to a summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, the inclusion of Sweden is still unlikely any time soon, given the continued opposition of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey."
Oren Liebermann of CNN: "The US Navy intervened to stop Iranian Navy ships attempting to seize two oil tankers in separate incidents in the Gulf of Oman early on Wednesday morning, according to a US defense official. An Iranian ship opened fire at the tanker in the second seizure attempt, according to the official." The story gives details. Both tankers were in international waters when the Iranian Navy tried to seize them.
Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "Sen Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) is under fire for a Fourth of July tweet that managed to include both a false claim and a false quote. Hawley tweeted a quote he claimed to be from Founding Father Patrick Henry saying the United States was founded 'on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.'... The quote is actually from a 1956 magazine article that discussed Henry's faith." See comments in today's thread. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC writes that the magazine that published Hawley's fake quote was "a white nationalist publication." Despite being roundly lampooned in social media, Hawley has let the tweet stand. MB: Perfect Hawley reading material, though I don't suppose Hawley read the citation in the "original fake." BTW, Hawley comes honestly to his sloppy work: he clerked for CJ John Roberts, whom Garrett Epps, linked yesterday, calls "openly, flamboyantly anti-intellectual." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "A federal magistrate judge unsealed on Wednesday additional portions of the affidavit that the F.B.I. used last summer to obtain a warrant to search for sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago..., revealing a few new details about how that extraordinary process had unfolded. The newly unredacted sections of the affidavit suggested that prosecutors had based their search, in part, on surveillance footage from cameras near a storage room in the basement of Mar-a-Lago showing Walt Nauta, a personal aide to Mr. Trump, moving dozens of boxes in and out of the room days before federal prosecutors arrived to collect any sensitive records still in Mr. Trump's possession.... Echoing the indictment, the unredacted affidavit also noted that between May 24 and June 1, 2022, Mr. Nauta took 64 boxes out of the storage room at Mar-a-Lago but put back only 25 or 30 of them.... A long section of the affidavit that follows the assertion by prosecutors that Mr. Trump had not returned everything he should have remains under seal.... The newly unredacted portions of the affidavit also say that [Trump attorney Evan] Corcoran told the government that he had been informed that there were no classified records 'in any private office space or other location in Mar-a-Lago' -- an assertion that the search of the property revealed to be untrue." MB: Passive voice: who informed Corcoran there were no other classified docs stashed elsewhere? CNN's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's astounding that a former POTUS* would be skulking about, conspiring with the help, to hide senstive documents from the government. This is so childish it's like Hardy Boys stuff though -- unfortunately for the Thief-in-Chief -- with security cameras.
Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "Former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff Miles Taylor is releasing his second book, 'Blowback: A Warning to Save Democracy from the Next Trump' -- and startling excerpts are already dropping. In a piece in RealClear News Wednesday, Taylor describes Donald Trump's desperation to have his own personal military group, an idea inspired by Russian President Vladimir Putin.... There were several options given to Trump [for a withdrawal from Afghanistan], but the one that he crafted himself was to privatize the war with Trump's own mercenary force. Instead of Putin's Wagner Group, it would be Erik Prince's Blackwater, which offers troops for hire.... Trump ultimately agreed [to drop his mercenary force idea].... But a year after that, the mercenary plan came back when Trump wanted to act to overthrow the regime in Venezuela. Trump wanted a 5,000-man team.... As Trump gains traction in the Republican primary, Taylor said it has become a very real concern that such an idea could return in a second Trump administration."
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A former top Republican official in Arizona, who rejected pressure from Donald Trump and his allies following the former president's 2020 election defeat, told CNN Wednesday night that he has spoken with the FBI as part of the ongoing criminal probe related to efforts to overturn the vote. Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers revealed the interview with investigators lasted four hours and took place a few months ago.... Bowers said he talked with the investigators about a call he had with Trump and Rudy Giuliani after the election, and a second call from just Trump."
Meg Kinnard of the AP: "Attorney Lin Wood, who filed legal challenges seeking to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss, is relinquishing his law license, electing to retire from practicing rather than face possible disbarment. Multiple states have weighed disciplining him for pushing Trump's false claims that he defeated Joe Biden. On Tuesday, Wood asked officials in his home state of Georgia to 'retire' his law license in light of 'disciplinary proceedings pending against me.' In the request, made in a letter and posted on his Telegram account, Wood acknowledges that he is 'prohibited from practicing law in this State and in any other state or jurisdiction and that I may not reapply for admission.'"
Charles Blow of the New York Times: "In the majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that affirmative action -- in this case, the use of race as a factor in university admissions -- cannot stand because 'eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.' But, of course, neither the court nor America itself has any desire to eliminate all of it. Reading that line was like having someone spit in my face. What the court was really signaling was that it intended to let racial imbalances born of both historical and current injustices be locked in and go unchecked.... In [Clarence] Thomas's unseemly attempts, in his concurrence, to clip the wings of the only other Black justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson -- who wrote a vigorous dissent -- and to deride what he calls her 'race-infused worldview,' he exposes the flimsiness of his argument.... 'And And [Black people's] race is not to blame for everything -- good or bad -- that happens in their lives.'... This is reductive absolutism meant to shut down debate." ~~~
~~~ Marie: I marvel at these cramped little wingers' self-control. I mean, they manage not to break down and run about screaming disorganized gibberish (as opposed to the organized gibberish that shows up in their opinions). If I were constricted to a worldview such as theirs, I would go mad. Like Donald Trump: he can't stand himself, he can't stand people who can't stand him, and he shows his madness almost daily by lashing out at everybody and everything. Not John Roberts. He may make sly, cutting remarks in his nasty little opinions, but there's no screaming; there's no running down the courthouse steps in insane rages. He is who he is, and he will not repent.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, recently made a point ... worth remembering as we consider evaluations of the Supreme Court and politics more broadly: A lot of Americans don't actually know enough to have informed opinions on the subjects.... '... 30% think there is a Dem appointed majority, l Franklin wrote."
Michael Shear & David McCabe of the New York Times: "... on Tuesday [a Trump-appointed federal judge] imposed temporary but far-reaching limits on how members of [President] Biden's administration can engage with social media companies. The government appealed the ruling on Wednesday. The case is a flashpoint in the broader effort by conservatives to document what they contend is a liberal conspiracy by Democrats and tech company executives to silence their views.... The case was brought by two Republican attorneys general and five individuals who campaigned against masks, argued that vaccines did not work, opposed lockdowns and pushed drugs that medical experts denounced as ineffective, like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. [MB: IOW, kooks.]... The judge's preliminary injunction is already having an impact. A previously scheduled meeting on threat identification on Thursday between State Department officials and social media executives was abruptly canceled by officials, according to two people familiar with the decision, which was reported earlier by The Washington Post." ~~~
This court decision further exacerbates that feeling of impunity social media companies operate under, despite the fact that they are the primary vector for hate and disinformation in society. -- Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate ~~~
~~~ Tiffany Hsu & Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "A federal judge's decision this week to restrict the government's communication with social media platforms could have broad side effects, according to researchers and groups that combat hate speech, online abuse and disinformation: It could further hamper efforts to curb harmful content. Alice E. Marwick, a researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, was one of several disinformation experts who said on Wednesday that the ruling could impede work meant to keep false claims about vaccines and voter fraud from spreading.... Several researchers, however, said the government's work with social media companies was not an issue as long as it didn't coerce them to remove content.... A larger concern, researchers said, is a potential chilling effect.... [The decision] is limited on paper to the government's relationship with social media platforms, [Prof. Bond Benton of Montclair State University] said, but carried a message that misinformation qualifies as speech and its removal as the suppression of speech."
Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A Navy veteran arrested with guns near former president Barack Obama's house in Washington had recently recorded himself making threatening statements regarding House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) and a federal facility housing a nuclear research reactor in suburban Maryland, prosecutors said Wednesday. U.S. prosecutors asked a judge to jail Taylor Taranto, 37, pending trial, saying that the QAnon conspiracy theorist showed up near Obama's home shortly after Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was Obama's address. Taranto was armed, dangerous and in the grip of delusional thinking, prosecutors said, and had successfully eluded law enforcement for nearly a day before his arrest June 29 in a wooded area near Washington's exclusive Kalorama neighborhood."
Presidential Race 2024. Alec Hernández of NBC News: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis defended a controversial video Wednesday that went after ... Donald Trump over LGBTQ rights and was shared by his campaign.... The video, shared on Twitter by the DeSantis campaign's rapid response arm Friday, attacks Trump from the right and portrays him as a booster of LGBTQ rights. It features a clip of Trump saying he would 'do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens' in a speech at the 2016 Republican National Convention -- which took place shortly after the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando in DeSantis' own state -- and shows pictures of Trump with Caitlyn Jenner, the prominent trans Olympian-turned-celebrity. The second part of the video attempts to depict DeSantis as a more masculine figure, showing headlines of his actions restricting LGBTQ rights, accompanied by pumping music and photos of muscular men." MB: The video is reportedly quite weird. Several people have pointed out that video manages to be both homophobic & homoerotic.
Geoffrey Fowler & Naomi Nix of the Washington Post: "Mark Zuckerberg has taken the wraps off Threads, a clone of Twitter designed to lure people turned off by the social network's changes under owner Elon Musk.... Before Meta's free text conversation-focused app launched late Wednesday, we had a chance to try it and quiz its makers. We found Meta has some advantages over rivals to turn Threads into a major new hub for online conversations. Most of all, it arrives with a potential audience of billions who already use Meta's photo and video-oriented Instagram, which Threads is built on top of. After the launch, Zuckerberg posted on Threads that the new social network passed 2 million sign ups in the first two hours."
Ivan Mehta of Tech Crunch: "Days after requiring users to log in to view tweets, Twitter has silently removed these restrictions. This means you can open Twitter links in a browser without an account."
Beyond the Beltway
Iowa. Hannah Fingernut of the AP: "Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds on Wednesday called a special legislative session to pursue new abortion restrictions after the state Supreme Court declined to reinstate a 2018 ban after about six weeks of pregnancy. The court was split 3-3 last month and did not issue a decision on the merits of the law, leaving open the possibility that the GOP-controlled Legislature would try to pass a similar ban. In the meantime, abortion remains legal in Iowa up to 20 weeks of pregnancy. Lawmakers will meet on July 11."
Nevada. Noel Sims of the Nevada Independent: "A top-ranking Nevada Republican has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of four election observers challenging the recently passed state law making it a felony to harass election workers. The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal district court by attorney and Nevada Republican National Committeewoman Sigal Chattah, alleges that SB406 would criminalize actions Chattah says are legal under Nevada laws about election observation. Nevada lawmakers this year voted unanimously in both chambers to approve SB406, which was signed into law by Gov. Joe Lombardo, a Republican, on May 24. Under the law, those who harass, intimidate or use force on election workers performing their duties in Nevada could face a felony, fine and up to four years in prison."
New York. Jeffery Mays of the New York Times: "Yusef Salaam, one of five Black and Latino men whose convictions were overturned in the 1989 rape and assault of a female jogger in Central Park, cemented his victory in a highly contested City Council primary race in Harlem, according to The Associated Press on Wednesday. Mr. Salaam, 49, held a commanding lead on Election Day, with more than twice the number of votes over his closest rival, Inez Dickens, a state assemblywoman. The New York City Board of Elections began tabulating ranked-choice votes on Wednesday, and the new ranked-choice tabulation now shows Mr. Salaam with almost 64 percent of the vote to Ms. Dickens's 36 percent."
Wisconsin. A 400-year Budget. Scott Bauer & Harm Venhuizen of the AP: "Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers [D] signed off on a two-year spending plan Wednesday after gutting a Republican tax cut and using his broad veto powers to increase school funding for centuries. Evers angered Republicans with both moves, with some saying the Democratic governor was going back on deals he had made with them.... Evers reduced the GOP income tax cut from $3.5 billion to $175 million, and did away entirely with lower rates for the two highest earning brackets. He also used his partial veto power to increase how much revenue K-12 public schools can raise per student by $325 a year until 2425."
Way Beyond
Greece. Imogen Piper, et al., of the Washington Post: "... an investigation by The Washington Post ... casts doubt on the ... main claims by Greek officials and suggests that the deadliest Mediterranean shipwreck in years was a preventable tragedy. Contrary to the coast guard account that the boat was making steady progress and determined to get to Italy, The Post found the boat's speed fluctuated dramatically -- in line with passenger recollections of engine problems -- while circling back on its route. Maritime rescue veterans and legal experts said Greek officials exploited indications that aid wasn't wanted and failed in their obligation to launch an all-hands rescue effort as soon as the precarious boat was detected.... The Post examined satellite imagery, mapped ship traffic data and integrated coordinates from distress calls and official reports and testimony. To reconstruct what happened, The Post then compared official statements, accounts from the merchant vessels and interviews with survivors, activists and maritime experts."
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: Playing "Where's Yevgeny?": "The president of Belarus [Aleksandr Lukashenko] told reporters that the Wagner mercenary leader Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, who led a failed mutiny in Russia, is in St. Petersburg. The claim could not be confirmed." ~~~
News Ledes
CNBC: "The U.S. labor market showed no signs of letting up in June, as companies created far more jobs than expected, payroll processing firm ADP reported Thursday. Private sector jobs surged by 497,000 for the month, well ahead of the downwardly revised 267,000 gain in May and much better than the 220,000 Dow Jones consensus estimate. The increase resulted in the biggest monthly rise since July 2022."
AP: "[Wisconsin] state officials are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster -- some of them for more than three hours -- at a festival in Wisconsin. The roller coaster's cars got stuck near the top of a loop around 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Crandon International Offroad Raceway. Rescue workers arrived to find eight passengers hanging upside down from their safety harnesses. Firefighters used ladder trucks to reach them, securing each one before releasing their over-the-shoulder safety bars, the Crandon[, Wisconsin,] Fire Department said."
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (6)
When thinking about the latest Trump hack judge to impose conditions on the government extremely favorable to a would be dictator with violent supporters, it’s instructive to remember the outsize role played by social media in whipping up the frenzied fact free screaming about a stolen election as well as the planning and execution of an attempt to overthrow the government, right down to second by second coordination of the attack. Trump himself used social media to order his insurrectionist troops to the capitol with his infamous “Will be wild” message.
Clearly, this judge is laying the groundwork for more of the same. Yet another example of the right using the courts to manufacture victories they could not achieve legislatively, and thereby forcing the entire country to accept a new American order under their control.
Writer Don Winslow has made a terrific video exposing Trump's lifetime of lies. At one point he asks viewers "now that you know the truth/ facts why would you ever vote for someone who consistently lies to you?" Of course we know why the GOPees rally round, we know why nutcrackers out there in la la land do but how bout the great unwashed who may be ignorant of the details? HOWEVER–––anyone watching this video, whatever their political bent, has got to be effected.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/don-winslow-donald-trump-lies_n_64a69183e4b0b641763534bf
There are so many things wrong here....
But one of the things the Trumpy judge relied on in his injunction intended to keep the government from interfering in private social media business is the observably false distinction we have long made between private and public interests.
For any thinking person (not this judge, apparently), the lines between public and private ought to be blurred. What I do in my "private" capacity with "my" stuff often affects the larger public in small or great ways....
It is therefore in the public interest to distinguish between fact and fiction. When "private" entities spread fiction as fact they are doing harm, great or small to the public. They are making them dumber. And when "political speech" is only a euphemism for "lies," the act of protecting such "speech" also harms the public and its ability to make rational decisions, which would seem to be the basis for a functioning democracy.
Or: when lies kill people, the public (that would be me) has a legitimate interest in halting their spread.
Donald Trump Jr. planned a speaking tour of Australia?
People would pay money to hear Jr. spout lies, like father, like son?
And not enough Aussies bought tickets so he cancels and lies about
even that, blaming it on visa problems.
And he doesn't even speak the language.
Forrest,
It’s all about the grift, the con, the pocket picking, the self aggrandizement. No sense in going all the way to Australia if the take is small, the narcissism bolstering weak, and the percentage of gullible rubes not worth the gaslighting.
It would be a challenge to dream up a fictional character embodying as many nasty traits and despicable qualities as Junior. Well, Maybe Eric. No…Javanka…wait…
Talk about idiot celebrity spawn.
This could be interesting. A story in The Hill reports that the Florida GOP will require a loyalty oath, identical to the one the National GOP is requiring for the first debate but for a candidate to be placed on the Florida GOP primary ballot.