;)
Monday
Jun262023
June 27, 2023
Late Morning Update:
Marie: I probably should have highlighted Josh Dawsey & Devlin Barrett's WashPo report (linked below) on the scope of Jack Smith's investigation into efforts to overturn the election because the reporters include quite a few details indicating that top Trump officials didn't believe what campaign operative Jason Miller called "the bullshit being beamed down from the mothership."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected ... the 'independent state legislature' theory ... that would have radically reshaped how federal elections are conducted by giving state legislatures largely unchecked power to set all sorts of rules for federal elections and to draw congressional maps warped by partisan gerrymandering. The vote was 6 to 3, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. writing the majority opinion. The Constitution, he said, 'does not exempt state legislatures from the ordinary constraints imposed by state law.' Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch dissented.... The case, Moore v. Harper, No. 21-1271, concerned a voting map drawn by the North Carolina Legislature that was initially rejected as a partisan gerrymander by the state's Supreme Court....
"The composition of the North Carolina Supreme Court changed after elections in November, favoring Republicans by a 5-to-2 margin. In what a dissenting justice called a 'shameful manipulation of fundamental principles of our democracy and the rule of law,' the new majority reversed course, saying the Legislature was free to draw gerrymandered voting districts as it saw fit. Many observers had expected the U.S. Supreme Court to dismiss the case in light of that development. But Chief Justice Roberts concluded that the Supreme Court retained jurisdiction over the case." The Washington Post's report is here. MB: Neither report makes clear where the decision leaves North Carolina.
Robert Barnes & Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Tuesday reversed the conviction of a man who made extensive online threats to a stranger, saying free speech protections require prosecutors to prove the stalker was aware of the threatening nature of his communications. In a 7-2 ruling authored by Justice Elena Kagan, the court emphasized that true threats of violence are not protected by the First Amendment. But to guard against a chilling effect on non-threatening speech, the majority said states must prove that a criminal defendant has 'disregarded a substantial risk that his communications would be viewed as threatening violence.' Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett dissented. The case concerned a Colorado law used to convict Billy Raymond Counterman of stalking and causing 'emotional distress' for Coles Whalen, a singer-songwriter he had never met.... The case now returns to the lower courts, where prosecutors could decide to retry the case under the new standards set by the Supreme Court's decision."
Justice Delayed. Blayne Alexander, et al., of NBC News: "Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will be interviewed by investigators from special counsel Jack Smith's office Wednesday in Atlanta, his office confirmed to NBC News. Raffensperger's interview with the special counsel's office will be his first with the Justice Department." MB: Well, that's just great. It's been more than two-and-a-half years since Raffensperger released audio of Trump's infamous call pleading with Raffensperger to "find" 11,780 Trump votes: enough to overturn Georgia's presidential election results and flip the win from Biden to Trump.
Philip Bump of the Washington Post recounts how Sean Hannity, having just received notice of the damning Bedminster tape, tried to explain away Trump's cavalier and unlawful dissemination of information contained in a classified document. (It's not clear from the tape whether or not Trump handed the doc to his little audience or held it up to them at a readable distance.) Hannity's original plan was to center his Fox show on The Great Hunter Biden Scandal. The pivot was, well, awkward. Bump admits that some of Hannity's rants and hypotheses will be lost in translation to those of us who live in the reality-based world. So it probably would help to read David Firestone's explanation -- linked below -- of how the right defines crime.
Hannah Rabinowitz, et al., of CNN: "Walt Nauta, an aide charged alongside ... Donald Trump for the alleged mishandling of classified documents from the White House, had an arraignment hearing rescheduled after his flight to Florida was canceled due to storms. Nauta had been set to be arraigned on Tuesday, but the judge postponed the date after Nauta did not make it to Miami for the court hearing.... In addition, Nauta still does not have a local attorney who can practice in the Southern District of Florida, [Nauta's lawyer Stanley] Woodward said. At Tuesday's brief hearing, the magistrate judge told Woodward to make July 6 'your drop-dead deadline to get somebody on board,' referring to the need for Nauta to hire an attorney who can practice in southern Florida." MB: Why can't Walt get a Florida lawyer? It's been two weeks since Trump's arraignment. Trump (or rather his small donors! [NYT link]) is paying Woodward; is he not paying for a Florida-barred lawyer for Nauta? This is odd.
Glenn Thrush & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead in a cell with a bedsheet tied around his neck in 2019, died by suicide, not foul play -- following a cascade of negligence and mismanagement at the now-shuttered federal jail in Manhattan where he was housed, according to the Justice Department's inspector general. The inspector general, who released a report on Tuesday after a yearslong investigation, found that the leadership and staff members at the jail, the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center, created an environment in which Mr. Epstein, a financier charged with sex trafficking, had every opportunity to kill himself. The inspector general, Michael Horowitz, referred two supervisors at the facility responsible for ensuring Mr. Epstein's safety for criminal prosecution by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York after they were caught falsifying records and lying to investigators. But prosecutors declined to bring charges." The AP's report is here.
~~~~~~~~~~
** Lordy, There Is a Tape! Jeremy Herb of CNN: "CNN has exclusively obtained the audio recording of the 2021 meeting in Bedminster, New Jersey, where ... Donald Trump discusses holding secret documents he did not declassify.... The recording, which first aired on CNN's 'Anderson Cooper 360,' includes new details from the conversation that is a critical piece of evidence in special counsel Jack Smith's indictment of Trump over the mishandling of classified information, including a moment when Trump seems to indicate he was holding a secret Pentagon document with plans to attack Iran." The article includes a clear audio recording of the brief conversation among Trump, an unidentified staffer and an unidentified writer. There is more to the conversation than appeared in the transcript, and the last line is pretty funny. MB Bottom Line: it sure does sound like Trump is sharing classified pages with the kids in the room. ~~~
~~~ This YouTube video has good-quality audio of the conversation: ~~~
~~~ Update: The New York Times currently (5:30 am ET Tuesday) has the audio on its front page. It also appears in this NYT story by Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer about the tape: "Last week, in an interview with the Fox News host Bret Baier, Mr. Trump insisted that he was not presenting classified material in the meeting, which was recorded at Mr. Trump's golf club at Bedminster, N.J. Mr. Trump said he was not referring to any 'secret' or 'highly confidential' documents, but was rather talking about 'newspaper stories, magazine stories and articles.' But the audio recording of the full encounter suggests that Mr. Trump was referring not to secondhand accounts, but instead to a specific piece of paper, or papers, in front of him.... 'Wow,' a woman in the room can be heard saying, followed by a rustling of papers. 'Let's see here,' Mr. Trump says, adding, 'Look.' There is a brief pause, during which he appears to show people in the room something, and they start to laugh.... The full clip undercuts arguments made by some of Mr. Trump's allies that he was simply blustering and exaggerating or mischaracterizing the material he described in the recording.” MB: Bear in mind that the classified document in question is an American plan on how to miliarily attack Iran. Apparently, the Pentagon routinely prepares such broad contingency plans against U.S. adversaries. ~~~
~~~ Update 2. Charlie Nash of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump claimed on Monday that a recording of him allegedly showing off 'highly confidential' and 'secret' Iran documents to guests was 'actually an exoneration.'... 'The Deranged Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, working in conjunction with the DOJ & FBI, illegally leaked and "spun" a tape and transcript of me which is actually an exoneration, rather than what they would have you believe,' he wrote. 'This continuing Witch Hunt is another ELECTION INTERFERENCE Scam. They are cheaters and thugs!'" MB: Lame "defense." Where's the "exoneration" exactly? Since no one in DOJ agreed to comment at all, Smith or others in the Department did not "spin" the audio tape. Also, it's highly unlikely Smith or his team leaked the recording. News media consistently get their scoops on the Trump cases from witnesses and Trump's allies and lawyers, except in the cases where Trump himself releases information, such as he did when the FBI executed a search warrant on Mar-a-Lardo.
Andrew Weissmann, appearing on MSNBC Tuesday night said that the prosecution could, but won't necessarily, introduce at trial some of the lies -- a/k/a "false exculpatory statements" -- Trump has told publicly in his shifting defenses.
Cannon Rules Against Prosecution. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The federal judge overseeing ... Donald J. Trump's prosecution on charges of illegally holding on to sensitive national security documents denied on Monday the government's request to keep secret a list of witnesses with whom Mr. Trump has been barred from discussing his case. The ruling by Judge Aileen M. Cannon, in the Southern District of Florida, means that some or all of the list of 84 witnesses could at some point become public, offering further details about the shape and scope of the case that the special counsel Jack Smith has brought against Mr. Trump.... Mr. Trump's lawyers had not taken a position on the request to seal the list. Then on Monday, a group of news media companies including The New York Times filed their own motion asking Judge Cannon to make the list public, saying that the case against Mr. Trump was 'one of the most consequential criminal cases in the nation's history.'... In her ruling, Judge Cannon said the petition by the news media was moot, given that she had denied the government's request to seal.... Judge Cannon also scheduled a hearing for July 14 for the parties to discuss how to handle the significant amount of highly sensitive material involved in the case under a law known as the Classified Information Procedures Act. That hearing will be conducted mostly, if not entirely, under seal."
Josh Dawsey & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department's investigation of efforts by Donald Trump and his advisers to overturn the 2020 election results is barreling forward on multiple tracks, according to people familiar with the matter, with prosecutors focused on ads and fundraising pitches claiming election fraud as well as plans for 'fake electors' that would swing the election to the incumbent president.... A key area of interest is the conduct of a handful of lawyers who sought to turn Trump's defeat into victory by trying to convince state, local, federal and judicial authorities that Joe Biden's 2020 election win was illegitimate or tainted by fraud. Investigators have sought to determine to what degree these lawyers -- particularly Rudy Giuliani, Jenna Ellis, John Eastman, Kurt Olsen and Kenneth Chesebro, as well as then-Justice Department lawyer Jeffrey Clark -- were following specific instructions from Trump or others, and what those instructions were...."
Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "About half a dozen Secret Service agents have testified before the grand jury that will decide whether to indict ... Donald Trump for his alleged role in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol and efforts to interfere in the peaceful transfer of the presidency, according to two sources familiar with their testimony. Roughly five or six agents have appeared, the sources said, in compliance with subpoenas they received. It is not known what the agents' proximity to Trump was on Jan. 6 or what information they may have provided to the grand jury.... Secret Service agents who were close to Trump on Jan. 6 may be able to confirm, deny or provide more details on a story first told by former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson to the now-defunct Jan. 6 committee in Congress."
Ryan Nobles & Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Democrats on the Senate Homeland Security Committee released a report Tuesday concluding that federal law enforcement agencies failed to correctly analyze a wide range of intelligence showing the potential for violence on Jan. 6, 2021. The report, authored by the committee's chair, Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., and staff, provides specific examples of threats of violence and plans for an attack on the Capitol, which were collected by agencies in the lead-up to Jan. 6, including the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). The report concludes that the agencies consistently downplayed the potential for violence and, as a result, the government did not prepare the proper security apparatus for Washington, D.C., that day.... 'What was shocking is that this attack was essentially planned in plain sight in social media,' Peters said in an interview, 'And yet it seemed as if our intelligence agencies completely dropped the ball.'... Tuesday's report ... does not absolve ... Donald Trump for his role in fueling the violence that occurred on that day." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's story is here. The New York Times story is here. The report is here.
Roger Parloff in Lawfare on why Donald Trump's theft and retention of classified documents is nothing like Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server on which some classified information was discussed. "... the crux of Clinton's case, unlike Trump's, was about gradations of carelessness, recklessness, and gross negligence -- states of mind that can constitute felonies only in rare situations.... Trump is accused of acting 'with intent,' 'knowingly,' 'willfully,' and 'corruptly,' and of doing so over a period of 18 months.... While that evidence [against Clinton] is by no means flattering, it is ... radically different [from Trump's].... Investigators [into Clinton's conduct] found that Clinton's 'extreme carelessness' did not meet [the] standard [required for prosecution]....
"The second factor favoring non-prosecution of Clinton, according to the [investigative] team, was that her emails were always used for official purposes. Every one of [the 337 documents Trump stole] was, by definition, removed for an unofficial, non-governmental purpose. Indeed, Trump has publicly emphasized this point, declaring in interviews that the documents were his personal property and that he had every right to take them. A third factor ... was the absence of direct proof that Clinton knew her emails contained classified information.... Trump or his surrogates have repeatedly admitted publicly that he knew he possessed documents that were marked as classified." Moreover, there's no evidence anyone expressed concern about Clinton's relaying or receiving classified information, whereas Trump was repeatedly warned he could not retain the classified docs. And Clinton did not set up her server for the purpose of conveying classified information, whereas Trump [allegedly!] engaged in an intentional and rococo 18-month scheme to remove and retain classified information from proper storage." Parloff gives a fairly detailed account of the Clinton email saga. ~~~
~~~ BUT Parloff totally misses the point! David Firestone of the New York Times provides "a handy guide to the Republican definition of a crime." With illustrative graphics. Firestone's helpful explanations would be funny if they weren't true.
** Carol Rosenberg of the New York Times: "The last 30 detainees at Guantánamo Bay, including the men accused of plotting the Sept. 11 attacks, are being held by the United States under circumstances that constitute 'cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment under international law,' a United Nations human rights investigator said on Monday. Fionnuala Ni Aolain, a law professor in Minnesota serving as special rapporteur on counterterrorism and human rights, included the finding in a report drawn from a four-day visit to the prison in February, which included meetings with an undisclosed number of detainees and interviews with lawyers and former prisoners. She issued the report one month before her term as rapporteur ends. She specifically cited the cumulative effects of inadequate health care, solitary confinement, restraints and use of force to remove prisoners from their cells as contributing to her conclusions. She said the conditions at the prison 'may also meet the legal threshold for torture.'"
Nobody Loves Margie. Olivia Beavers of Politico: "House Freedom Caucus members took a momentous vote Friday on Marjorie Taylor Greene's future with the group, according to three people familiar with the matter -- but it's not yet clear whether she's been officially ejected.... Greene's close alliance with Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and her accompanying criticism of colleagues in the group, has put her on the opposite side of a bloc that made its name opposing GOP leadership. While her formal status in the conservative group remains in limbo, the 8 a.m. Friday vote -- which sources said ended with a consensus against her -- points to, at least, continued strong anti-Greene sentiment."
Tierney Sneed of CNN: "The Supreme Court on Monday allowed the Louisiana congressional map to be redrawn to add another majority-Black district. The justices reversed plans to hear the case themselves and lifted a hold they placed on a lower court's order for a reworked redistricting regime. There were no noted dissents. 'Today's decision follows on the heels of the court's 5-4 ruling earlier this month holding that Alabama also has to re-draw its congressional district maps to include a second majority-minority district,' said Steve Vladeck, a CNN Supreme Court analyst.... 'And like the Alabama ruling, it doesn't explain why the court nevertheless had issued emergency relief to allow Louisiana to use its unlawful maps during the 2022 midterm cycle,' Vladeck added. 'It puts the court's interventions last year into ever-sharper perspective.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Tobi Raji, et al., of the Washington Post: "Newly released and previously unreported court documents that belonged to Justice John Paul Stevens, who led the [Supreme Court]'s liberal wing, show just how aware the justices were of charges that the appearance of impropriety could shake the public's faith in the institution. They also show just how quick they were to push back against these concerns." MB: The reporters fail to point out one jarring difference between then and now: even when the confederate justices back then decided their own ethics were absolutely fabulous, they at least debated issues of recusal with their colleagues. Clarence & Sam take their filthy lucre in secret, then decide all on their own that they're above reproach -- at least as far as we know. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race 2024
President DeSantolini Would Order Border Patrol to Commit Atrocities. David Goodman & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida on Monday proposed a host of hard-right immigration policies, floating the idea of using deadly force against suspected drug traffickers and others breaking through border barriers while 'demonstrating hostile intent.... Of course you use deadly force,' Mr. DeSantis said after a campaign event on a sweltering morning in Eagle Pass, a small Texas border city. 'If you drop a couple of these cartel operatives trying to do that, you're not going to have to worry about that anymore,' he added. He said they would end up 'stone-cold dead.' He did not clarify how Border Patrol officers or other law enforcement authorities might determine which people crossing the border were smuggling drugs."
Will McDuffie & Hannah Demissie of ABC News: "Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that he would seek to eliminate the constitutional guarantee of citizenship to children of undocumented immigrants born in the United States. So-called 'birthright citizenship' has long been considered protected under the 14th Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to all individuals 'born or naturalized in the United States.'... In a detailed list of immigration objectives he released on Monday, DeSantis, who also spoke to supporters and reporters in the Texas border town of Eagle Pass, pledged to take action to end the idea that the children of illegal aliens are entitled to birthright citizenship if they are born in the United States.'... Donald Trump in 2018 promised an executive order to eliminate it, a threat on which he never followed through. Trump, the current frontrunner in the Republican primary, has again promised to strike the protection if elected." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: We get that you fascists don't think you have to obey the Constitution, your oath to protect the Constitution notwithstanding. But the clear language of the 14th Amendment on this point gives you no wiggle-room. You'll have to suspend the Constitution and declare marshal law to pull this off.
"Decimation!" Lauren Sforza of the Hill: "Former President Trump railed against the electric vehicle industry during a speech to Michigan Republicans on Sunday, warning them that the state's auto industry is at risk under President Biden. 'Biden is a catastrophe for Michigan and his environmental extremism is heartless and disloyal and horrible for the American worker and you're starting to see it,' Trump said in a keynote address to Oakland County Republicans in Michigan on Sunday. 'Driven by his ridiculous regulations, electric cars will kill more than half of U.S. auto jobs and decimate the suppliers that they decimated already -- decimate the suppliers, and it's going to decimate your jobs and it's going to decimate more than anybody else, the state of Michigan,' he added. 'It's is going to be decimation. It's going to be at a level that that people can't even imagine.... The state of Michigan is going to be decimation,'...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I'm sure Trump's "concern" about Michigan's "decimation" has nothing whatever to do with his and Jared's ties to Saudi Arabia and other oil-rich countries. Never mind that Michigan's auto workers are quite as capable of building EVs as they are of building gas-guzzlers. See also Forrest M.'s comment in yesterday's thread.
DAR Moves Slowly, Slowly Forward into the 19th Century. Corrine Dorsey of the Washington Post (June 25): "In 1980, Lena Ferguson [-- a Black woman --] ... aimed to join the Daughters of the American Revolution. But after multiple attempts, she was denied by a local D.C. chapter. It led to a fight to make the organization more inclusive of Black and other women of color.... Four decades later, Ferguson is being recognized with a tribute plaque in the memorial garden at DAR National Headquarters.... In addition, the DAR renamed a nursing scholarship this year in Ferguson's honor. Ferguson sought to join the DAR after being encouraged by a nephew, Maurice Barboza, who had connected the family's lineage to the Revolutionary War, a requirement for membership. Her ancestor is Jonah Gay, a member of the town committee of Friendship, Maine, that supported the war effort. But her attempts to become a member of a Washington chapter of the DAR were initially rebuffed because of her race. In 1983, Ferguson was admitted as an at-large member of the national DAR but was unable to join a local chapter until the next year. Ferguson's fight drew media attention and even a threat to revoke the DAR's tax-exempt status."
Beyond the Beltway
Arizona Book Report. Martin Pengelly of the Guardian: "In a new book, the Trump ally and potential running mate Kari Lake blows a 'birther' racist dog whistle to supporters, claiming Barack Obama had a 'mysterious past' when he ran for president -- but does not mention that she donated to Obama in 2008 and reportedly campaigned for him door-to-door." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This isn't a very important story, but I wanted to point to one sentence (the third paragraph) in the report: "Rightwing extremist Lake, who supports Trump's lie about voter fraud in 2020 and maintains despite repeated court defeats that her defeat for Arizona governor last year was also the result of cheating...." Oh why can't the U.S. MSM be more like the Guardian? I don't think I've ever read a U.S. MSM story about Lake (or similar loons, for that matter) that matter-of-factly describes her as a "rightwing extremist." And U.S. media seldom call Trump's lies "lies," even when the reports bother to refute the lies. By constantly portraying Lake and Trump and DeSantis, et al., as normal politicians, the U.S. media probably comprise the most significant factor in permitting & normalizing these "rightwing extremists." I blame the media for Trump's 2016 win, and they haven't learned much since. If our next president* is a Republican, blame it on the New York Times, CNN, the Washington Post and local straight-news papers throughout the country.
Florida. John Yoon of the New York Times: "A Florida woman accused of fatally shooting a neighbor after a dispute with her children this month will not face murder charges, a prosecutor said Monday in a carefully worded statement explaining his reasoning in the divisive case. The woman, Susan Louise Lorincz, 58, was instead charged with one count of manslaughter with a firearm and one count of assault, said Bill Gladson, the state attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida. She could face a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison if convicted on the charges. The family of the dead woman, Ajike Owens, 35, a mother of four, had asked for a murder charge, which would be punishable by up to life in prison. But Mr. Gladson said that there was not enough evidence to prove the crime."
Idaho. Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs & Mike Baker of the New York Times: "Prosecutors in Idaho said they planned to seek the death penalty against the man accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in a home near campus last fall.... Bill Thompson, the top prosecutor in Latah County, wrote in a court filing on Monday that the nature of the November killings -- stabbings that occurred in the middle of the night and went unsolved for several weeks -- met the standard for the kind of aggravating factors that warrant seeking the death penalty. Among them, he said: The suspect, Bryan Kohberger, is charged with committing multiple murders; the killings were 'especially heinous, atrocious or cruel'; and Mr. Kohberger had 'exhibited utter disregard for human life.'"
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Tuesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here: "Russian authorities dropped an investigation into Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, for leading an armed rebellion that saw his troops get to within 125 miles from Moscow on Saturday before he abruptly called off his short-lived mutiny, Russian state media reported on Tuesday. Mr. Prigozhin's whereabouts remained unclear early Tuesday.... President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, who visited frontline positions on Monday, projecting unity with his troops, said Ukrainian forces had 'advanced in all directions' over the past day. 'This is a happy day,' he said." ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefing for Tuesday is here: "In a televised address Monday, [Vladimir Putin] confirmed earlier reports that Russian jets had been downed and pilots killed by Wagner's mercenaries." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Tuesday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Joe Biden on Monday sought to distance the United States from the weekend rebellion in Russia, insisting in his first public remarks since the episode that the West had nothing to do with the mutiny. Speaking from the White House, Biden suggested it was too early to say how the situation would unfold going forward. And he said he may speak again with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to coordinate their response after conferring in a phone call Sunday.... Biden's statement reflected a carefully calibrated American response to the brief uprising by the Wagner Group that amounted to the biggest threat in years to Russian President Vladimir Putin.... In his remarks Monday, Biden laid out the thinking behind his approach, which some Republicans have criticized as overly cautious. 'We had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO. We made clear that we were not involved. We had nothing to do with it. This was part of a struggle within the Russian system,' Biden said." (Also linked yesterday.)
AP: "Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday blasted organizers of a weekend revolt as 'traitors' who played into the hands of Ukraine's government and its allies.... Putin said the nation had stood united, and he praised the rank and file mercenaries for not letting the situation descend into 'bloodshed.' Earlier in the day, the rebellion's leader, mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, defended his short-lived insurrection. He taunted Russia's military, but said he hadn't been seeking to stage a coup against Putin. Putin did not name Prigozhin in his televised address but said organizers of the mutiny had tried to force the group's soldiers 'to shoot their own.' Putin blamed 'Russia's enemies' and said they 'miscalculated.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times: "A visibly angry Vladimir V. Putin on Monday denounced as 'blackmail' a weekend rebellion by the Wagner mercenary group even as he defended his response to the mutiny and hinted at leniency for those who took part, saying that 'the entire Russian society united' around his government.... Throughout the day, the Kremlin had sought to project an air of normalcy, unity and stability, despite Mr. Putin's absence from public view after perhaps the most serious crisis of his two-decade rule. When he finally emerged, the Russian leader skirted a host of unanswered questions left by the revolt....
"[Yevgeny] Prigozhin, until recently a vital ally of Mr. Putin, said in an 11-minute, stream-of-consciousness voice memo posted on the messaging app Telegram on Monday that the government was trying to destroy Wagner, which he said would effectively have to disband by this coming Saturday.... It was not clear where Mr. Prigozhin was, or how he would be handled by a system that criminalizes mere dissent, much less armed rebellion. The Kremlin statement over the weekend that he would be allowed to go into exile was contradicted on Monday by reports in multiple state-controlled news outlets that he still faced investigation and a very real possibility of prosecution. Nor was it clear what would happen to his tens of thousands of fighters...."
News Lede
New York Times: "A teenage boy and his stepfather hiking in Big Bend National Park in Texas died as temperatures there rose to 119 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday -- the second-highest mark ever recorded in the state -- during a triple-digit heat wave that was forecast to spread to the Southeast this week. 'We are in extreme heat right now,' said Thomas VandenBerg, a park ranger at Big Bend, near the U.S. border with Mexico, where another hiker recently died of heat-related causes. The dangerous early-summer heat wave has broken daily temperature records across Texas and strained the state's independent power grid. In Oklahoma, the heat scorched a state battered by storms that left tens of thousands, mostly in the Tulsa area, without electricity for much of last week.... The system is forecast to shift slowly to the east during the week, extending the brutally hot weather to Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama."
Share Article
Comments for this entry have been disabled. Additional comments may not be added to this entry at this time.
Reader Comments (20)
Mary Trump made an eloquent two word statement about her uncle.
The second word is traitor. You can guess the first word as it starts
with F.
https://democraticunderground.com/100218043567
@Akhilleus: From yesterday. "Betsy's Cottage".
The "cottage" just north of here was a remodel of an existing cottage.
The application for building permit to remodel was listed in the
local newspaper as 24 million dollars. She also bought the cottage
next door and had it removed to make room for more parking for
the servants and worker bees.
There is a stream running through the 2 properties which was then
totally lined with stones hauled in from all over West Michigan. We
were in the landscaping business at the time and couldn't buy stones
for months.
And this cottage is only an hour from her hundred million dollar
compound east of Grand Rapids.
After all the remodeling, they discovered that the big yacht couldn't
be brought in because the area was too shallow where their dock was,
so they bought a house (a former bed and breakfast inn) on the street
over from me. It has a deep water entrance but I've yet to see a big
yacht brought in there.
She also has pull with the FAA. The flight pattern from East Michigan
to points west was directly over the "cottage". She had it moved
south, so now I get to see lots of jet trails.
The rich are different than you and I. They have more money.
Would-be Emperor Trumpius Lardus sez electric vehicle production will “decimate” the auto manufacturing workforce. Hmmm…so one in ten might lose their jobs? Not terrible, and nowhere near the number of Americans who lost jobs during the Lardus’ last reign of terror.
I’m guessing Lardus heard a new word, “decimate”, and like any good third grader, makes sure to use it in a sentence, especially in an attempt to make himself sound a lot smarter than he is.
Here’s another new word for the Fat One:
Sciolist.
Sciolist. He might be able to handle the synonym 'dabbler',
but he'd have real trouble with 'dilettante'.
Forest: Your comments reminded me of something Jill Lepore said quite a few years ago:
"Polarization in Congress maps onto one measure better than any other: economic inequality. The smaller the gap between rich and poor. the more moderate our politicians; the greater the gap, the greater the disagreement between liberals and conservatives; the greater the disagreement between liberals and conservatives, the less Congress is able to get done; the less Congress gets done, the greater the gap between the rich and poor."
Do Putin's unfocused, even contradictory, comments on the "rebellion" remind you all of anyone else?
Hint:
They remind me of the tidal wave of explanations/exonerations that followed the perfect phone call, that Covid being just like the flu, or those classified or not classified documents that weren't really purloined that have flooded our own national news for six years.
Breaking Great News:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/06/27/moore-v-harper-supreme-court-rejects/?
Forrest,
Quite. But he’d have no problem with “diddler”. It’s one his missions in life. And what a horrible life it’s been. Not for him maybe, but everyone he comes into contact with, including the US and many countries around the world. Except, of course, those run by criminals and dictators. His kind of people.
Ken,
Good news indeed, and very surprising. Not surprising, however, is that Gorsuch, Alito, and Thomas were all in on sticking a knife in the neck of democracy.
It makes sense that Fatty, or one of his myrmidons, might have leaked that audio tape of him waving around top secret documents in front of people with clearance levels on a par with some guy in a diner eating his over easies.
In a way, it’s very much like his habit of trying to dominate a news cycle by getting his version of events out to the droolers and both-sides “journalists” (you just know that some of these idiots will say “He claims exoneration…maybe he’s right!”) as quickly as possible. They must have listened again to the tape, realized that it definitely shows him committing a crime and decided to pull a Bill Barr, who, just before the Mueller report went public, said “Complete exoneration. Nothing here.”
And it worked.
Trump has gotten away with so much through bluster, bullying, and lying through his teeth. This is a big one, and even though he’s got the judge in his pocket, he wants to make sure to give the traitor press something to scream about to muddy the waters.
This isn’t much different than that other crook Alito bleating that he did nothing wrong in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.
Plenty will believe.
Very happy that the SC cut down the NC fascists, but do not trust the SC any further than they can be tossed. I suspect Gorsuch would have gone with the majority if somehow some native Americans were involved. That seems to be the sole group he likes.
Another reason the wordsmith Orange Toadflax was flinging the word decimate around (besides he just heard it--) is that if he can downgrade Michigan and make it dread the possibility that his words might become true, he can produce more militias and wrest the state back from Democratic women. He is trying to strike fear into the hearts of Repugnican men, the traditional autoworkers and their families. What a pigasaurus.
Also, what's with the Russians taking a page from the book of North Koreans and wearing the stupidest big hats in the universe?? Do they realize no one respects anyone wearing gigantic "military" headgear...
@Jeanne: Aw, c'mon. Take a look at the right-hand column here and tell you me you just love the bearskin topper King Charles is wearing -- the same headgear the palace guard wear every day, even in a heat wave. Stupid or not?
And yeah, the bearskins are real bear skins. If they must keep wearing those Marge Simpson-style chapeaux, I think the guard should switch to alpaca. I recently bought an alpaca hat, its texture is about the same as the bearskins, and no alpacas were harmed in its production.
The latest pro-Trump ruling by Aileen (Loose) Cannon, to make public the list of witnesses that could be testifying against her boss, the Fat Fascist, is a clear notice to Trump apparatchiks, hangers-on, Proud Boy thugs, and other assorted pro-fascists that it’s open season on attacking and intimidating any on that list who might confirm the Dear Leader’s guilt and status as a danger to the country’s security.
Look for many more such helpful rulings.
My sense is that this trial will never really get going. And by the time all the preliminary delaying tactics have been dealt with, it will be time for the election, at which point Garland will pull the plug. If the Orange Monster succeeds in stealing the election, all federal investigations and trials will be ceased and the records shredded.
By the way, those big hats look remarkably like those worn by the green monster guards working for the Wicked Witch of the West in the “Wizard of Oz”.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0432/1981/files/winkie_2_medium.jpg?v=1571674589
I dunno-- I find the bearskin hats charming and historical, so I guess I will stick with "ridiculous" for Russian hats! One advantage of the bearskin hats: impossible to tell who is whom, so one can be sorta anonymous.
@Jeanne: My mother's name was Isabelle, and when I was a small child, my father taught me part of Ogden Nash's charming poem "The Adventures of Isabel," in which Isabel "quietly ate the bear up." I don't share Mom's taste for bear, but they scare the hell out of me -- especially as I've seen one near my current home and because it may have been a bear that ate my cat.
That said, the slaughter of Canadian bears for the purpose of keeping the Grenadier Guards in bearskin sort of disconcerts me. The Canadian government claims that the bears killed for their skins are part of a licensed, approved cull. But animal rights groups say that's not really so, and that "the UK government does not know the details of the supply chain for the fur it buys.... Rather than being a by-product of wildlife management, bear pelts from Canada mostly come from recreational hunts."
I'm not at all a dyed-in-the-ethically-harvested-wool PETA person, but the animal rights groups do have a point here. PETA has come up with a faux-fur alternative for use in making the hats, but the U.K.'s Ministry of Defense has rejected their product.
Never been chased by a bear (thank god), but have had several encounters during mountain climbing/hiking expeditions.
We came back once to our base camp after a two day climb to find one of the tents shredded. One of the guys left an empty soda can inside the tent and a bear (they have an amazing sense of smell) took it apart like the Hanson brothers going at a Coke machine in the movie “Slap Shot”. Poles bent in half, sides torn up. Made for a great photo though.
Another time, my brother and I, backpacking in W Virginia found ourselves confined to our tent during an ice storm. As we always did, we put all our foodstuffs in a sack and tied it up in a tree on a slender branch. That night, a black bear wandered into our campsite smelling food. When he realized it was out of reach, he came over to us and started whacking the sides our tent. My brother suggested we stay quiet so maybe he wouldn’t know we were there. I said “He knows. He just doesn’t care.”
We grabbed our stuff in the morning and slid down some icy trails. Bears are cool, but not when they’re hungry and you have food.
Still, I wouldn’t kill one to make a weird hat.
Just in case some of you aren’t fans of hockey movies: the Hanson
Brothers meet Paul Newman.
https://youtu.be/GuuUX-4_K-A