;)
March 17, 2023
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has at least partially granted a request from U.S. prosecutors to force an attorney for Donald Trump to testify before a grand jury about the former president's possession of classified documents after leaving office, according to two people briefed on the decision. The lawyer, Evan Corcoran, had refused to answer investigators' questions about his interactions with Trump, invoking attorney-client privilege.... U.S. prosecutors argued that there are exceptions to the privilege, including when there is evidence that a client used the attorney's legal services in furtherance of a crime. In secret court filings and a hearing held behind closed doors last week, people familiar with the matter said, prosecutors sought to show Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington that there were grounds for a 'crime-fraud exception.' Howell agreed.... Trump's team is expected to ask incoming Chief U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg, who succeeds the term-limited Howell as of midnight Saturday, to stay her order while they appeal, the people familiar with the matter said.&" CNN's report is here. The New York Times story is here.
Thief-in-Chief. (Allegedly)!) Jacqueline Alemany & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Federal officials cannot find two gifts received by ... Donald Trump and his family from foreign nations, including a life-size painting of Trump from the president of El Salvador and golf clubs from the Japanese prime minister, according to a new report from House Democrats. The gifts are among more than 100 foreign gifts -- with a total value of nearly $300,000 -- that Trump and his family failed to report to the State Department in violation of federal law, according to the report, which cites government records and emails. The 15-page report, a result of a year-long investigation by the House Oversight Committee..., revealed that the Trump family did not disclose dozens of gifts from countries that are not U.S. allies or have a complicated relationship with Washington. That includes 16 gifts from Saudi Arabia..., 17 gifts from India..., and at least five gifts from China. Trump reported zero gifts entirely the final year of his presidency, according to the report....
"Trump repeatedly told advisers that gifts given to him during the presidency were his and did not belong to the federal government, former chief of staff John F. Kelly and other aides have previously told The Washington Post.... Any gifts to the Trump family that were not memorialized in written communications by administration officials could still be outstanding. Republicans did not appear to participate in the investigation, which began while Democrats controlled the House.... The report also raises concerns about whether the unreported gifts may have been used by foreign governments to influence U.S. policy positions toward those countries."
Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "When Donald Trump called Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in a now-infamous bid to overturn the 2020 election, he alleged that thousands of dead people had voted in the state.... But a report commissioned by his own campaign dated one day prior told a different story: Researchers paid by Trump's team had 'high confidence' of only nine dead voters in Fulton County, defined as ballots that may have been cast by someone else in the name of a deceased person. They believed there was a 'potential statewide exposure' of 23 such votes across the Peach State -- or 4,977 fewer than the 'minimum' [5,000 dead voters] Trump claimed. In a separate failed bid to overturn the results in Nevada, Trump's lawyers said in a court filing that 1,506 ballots were cast in the names of dead people and 42,284 voted twice. The researchers paid by Trump's team had 'high confidence' that 12 ballots were cast in the names of deceased people in Clark County, Nev., and believed the 'high end potential exposure' was 20 voters statewide -- some 1,486 fewer than Trump's lawyers said."
Jonathan Dienst of NBC News: "Local, state and federal law enforcement and security agencies are preparing for the possibility that ... Donald Trump will be indicted as early as next week, according to five senior officials familiar with the preparations. Law enforcement agencies are conducting preliminary security assessments, the officials said, and are discussing potential security plans in and around the Manhattan Criminal Court, at 100 Centre Street, in case Trump is charged in connection with an alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels and travels to New York to face any charges."
Mike Corner & Raf Casert of the AP: "The International Criminal Court said Friday that it has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for war crimes, accusing him of personal responsibility for the abductions of children from Ukraine. It was the first time the global court has issued a warrant against a leader of one of the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. The ICC said in a statement that Putin 'is allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of (children) and that of unlawful transfer of (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.'"
Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Hunter Biden has filed a sweeping countersuit against the computer repair shop owner who said that Biden dropped his laptop off and never claimed it, a legal action that escalates the battle over how provocative data and images of the president's son were obtained nearly five years ago. In the counterclaim, filed on Friday morning in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Biden and his attorneys say that John Paul Mac Isaac had no legal right to copy and distribute private information. They accuse him and others of six counts of invasion of privacy, including conspiracy to obtain and distribute the data.... The move is a response to a suit filed by Mac Isaac himself last year and amended several times since, alleging that Hunter Biden defamed him by saying he had illegally accessed the data -- when in fact, Mac Isaac contends, the laptop became his property when it was abandoned in his shop." Read on. The part at the end concerning Keith Ablow -- Hunter Biden's psychiatrist, who also was a friend of Steve Bannon's -- strikes me as. um, significant, considering that Bannon was one of the people who allegedly was passing around data from the laptop.
Michelle Chapman of the AP: "The parent of Silicon Valley Bank filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy a week after the tech-focused bank failed and was seized by the U.S. government. The filing from SVB Financial Group on Friday is not a surprise, with much of the company now under the control of U.S. banking regulators."
France. Quel Désastre! Silvie Corbet & Barbara Surk of the AP: "Protests against French President Emmanuel Macron's decision to force a bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 through parliament without a vote disrupted traffic, garbage collection and university campuses in Paris as opponents of the change maintained their resolve to get the government to back down. Striking sanitation workers blocked a waste collection plant that is home to Europe's largest incinerator to underline their determination, and university students walked out of lecture halls to join the strikes. Leaders of the influential CGT union called on people to leave schools, factories, refineries and other work places."
~~~~~~~~~~
Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: "President Biden will designate a sacred tribal site in southern Nevada as a national monument in the coming days, according to two people briefed on the decision, creating the largest protected area of his presidency yet. Biden will sign a proclamation putting hundreds of thousands of acres around Spirit Mountain -- known as Avi Kwa Ame (ah-VEE-kwah-may) in Mojave -- off limits to development under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the two individuals said."
Leo Shane of the Military Times: "Veterans Affairs leaders are changing the department's mission statement from the current male-only focus to be more welcoming to women veterans, officials announced Thursday. The current motto -- in use by VA and the Veterans Administration since 1959 -- is based on an excerpt from President Abraham Lincoln's second inaugural address: 'To fulfill President Lincoln's promise "to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan" by serving and honoring the men and women who are America's veterans.' It's displayed prominently at about half of all VA hospitals, cemeteries and office buildings across the country. The new motto will still be based on Lincoln's words but instead reads: 'To fulfill President Lincoln's promise to care for those who have served in our nation's military and for their families, caregivers, and survivors.'"
Amy Wang & Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: "The Senate has advanced a bill that would repeal decades-old authorizations for use of military force for the Iraq and Persian Gulf wars, in an overwhelming show of bipartisan support for legislation that the White House has signaled it will back. The Senate voted 68 to 27 on Thursday to end debate on the bill, clearing the way for amendments and a final vote next week. If signed into law, the bill would repeal the 1991 Gulf War authorization and the 2002 Iraq War authorization. A bipartisan group of lawmakers who support the legislation argue that it is necessary to prevent abuse by presidential administrations that have -- and still could -- use the old authorizations to launch unrelated combat operations without congressional approval."
Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "House Republicans on Thursday released financial records showing that Hunter Biden and other relatives of President Biden received more than $1 million in 2017 from an associate who had entered into a business deal with a Chinese energy company, as they hunted for evidence that the president and his family have profited improperly from his position. The disclosure came as the House Oversight Committee ramps up its investigation into the international business transactions of Mr. Biden's family, obtaining more than a decade of bank records through subpoenas and drawing accusations from Democrats of intruding into the lives of private citizens."
Marie: Gosh, I've missed hearing from Miss Margie for about two days. She's back. With a bomb. ~~~
~~~ Sandbagged. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "On Tuesday, [Marjorie Taylor] Greene and a GOP colleague floated sending the U.S. military south while citing ... [an 'explosive device' U.S. Border Patrol had found]. At a field hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee near the Texas-Mexico border, multiple Republicans pointed to the alleged explosive device. 'Chief Ortiz, are you aware that there was an explosive device found by border patrol agents on no man, in an area called no man's land?' Greene asked Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz. Rep. Morgan Luttrell (R-Tex.) cited 'this explosive device that was discovered by one of you border patrol agents.' Rep. Dale W. Strong (R-Ala.) labeled it an 'improvised explosive device being used against U.S. law enforcement.' Greene also tweeted a picture of the 'explosive,' accusing Mexican cartels of 'planting bombs.' Ortiz ... and another witness even seemed unfamiliar with what the Republicans were talking about. But by Wednesday afternoon, Ortiz tweeted that the item was merely a 'duct-taped ball filled with sand.'" Luttrell complained later that agents did not properly report the bomb. MB: I guess not. Finding a bag of sand, even one wrapped in duct tape, in a sandy desert probably doesn't merit an all-points bulletin. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Victoria Bekiempis of the Guardian: "Federal prosecutors in Washington have reportedly told court officials a thousand more people could be charged in relation to the deadly January 6 Capitol attack. Matthew Graves, the US attorney in Washington DC, sent a one-page letter to the chief judge of Washington DC federal court, apprising her of the potential deluge of defendants, Bloomberg News reported.... Graves said in the letter that justice department officials estimated that another 700 to 1,200 defendants could face charges.... The prosecutor also said he did not know the exact proportion of misdemeanor and felony cases to come but thought there would be a larger proportion of felonies, Bloomberg said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "At least two dozen people -- from Mar-a-Lago resort staff to members of Donald Trump's inner circle at the Florida estate -- have been subpoenaed to testify to a federal grand jury that's investigating the former president's handling of classified documents, multiple sources familiar with the investigation told CNN. On Thursday, Trump's communications aide Margo Martin, who worked in the White House and then moved with Trump to Florida, appeared before the grand jury in Washington, DC. One of special counsel Jack Smith's senior-most prosecutors was involved in the interview.... Many of the Mar-a-Lago staffers are being represented by counsel paid for by Trump entities, according to sources and federal elections records.... Meanwhile, Smith continues to pursue Trump defense lawyer Evan Corcoran. In an earlier appearance before the grand jury, Corcoran declined to answer questions about his conversations with Trump..., citing attorney-client privilege. Prosecutors are asking a judge to find that he must answer because the conversations may have been part of advancing a crime or fraud. A ruling is expected from the DC District Court on Corcoran as early as this week."
Holly Bailey of the Washington Post: Fulton County, Georgia, D.A. Fani Willis has at least three recordings of phone calls Donald Trump made to Georgia officials in an attempt to change the state's election results. Those are (1) the infamous call Trump made to Secretay of State Brad Raffensperger, where Trump threatened & cajoled Raffensperger into finding 11,780 votes for him. (2) "Trump also called Frances Watson, a top investigator in Raffensperger's office, urging her to uncover 'dishonesty' as she examined absentee mail ballots...." And (3) the call Trump made to Georgia's House Speaker "David Ralston (R), in which Ralston resisted Trump's requests to convene a special session of the legislature to overturn Biden's narrow election win," a recording grand jurors revealed this week to Atlanta-Journal Constitution reporters. MB: We'll have to leave it to Fox "News" to identify innocent explanations for these calls. Maybe TuKKKer can find snippets where Trump asks the officials about the weather or how the family is.
Sarah Ellison & Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: Sidney Powell made a dozen appearances on Fox "News," beginning November 8, 2020, a day after the major networks had called the presidential election for Joe Biden. In these appearances, Powell "helped inject far-fetched and debunked claims of widespread fraud into the mainstream -- and which are now at the heart of Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox, court documents show.... She would even appear on Fox programs after a Fox Corp. senior vice president said he had privately begged the White House to disavow Powell. 'We encouraged several sources within the administration to tell reporters that Powell offered no evidence for her claims and didn't speak for the president,' executive Raj Shah wrote to his bosses on Nov. 23 -- a day after Trump lawyers issued statements saying that Powell was not a member of their team. One day later, though, Powell was back in front of Fox's cameras, telling host Lou Dobbs that in Arizona, 'there were 35,000 votes added to every Democrat candidate just to start their voting off....'" Powell's source turned out to be an email from an artist who claimed in the same email that Antonin Scalia was murdered in a human hunting expedition, that she herself was capable of time travel and that 'the wind tells me I am a ghost.'"
Bankers Saving Bankers. Rob Copeland, et al., of the New York Times: "In an extraordinary effort to stave off financial contagion and reassure the world that the American financial system was stable, 11 of the largest U.S. banks came together on Thursday to inject $30 billion into First Republic Bank, a smaller peer on the brink of collapse after the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank last week. Hatched on Tuesday during a call between Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen and Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, the plan has each bank depositing at least $1 billion into First Republic. It is meant as a show of support for First Republic and a signal to the market that the San Francisco lender's woes do not reflect deeper trouble at the bank." An NBC News story is here.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Rebecca Crosby, et al., of Popular Information: "Tuesday night on Fox News, host Jesse Watters asserted that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) 'donated $74 million to Black Lives Matter.' That was why, Watters claimed, federal regulators did not pursue more aggressive oversight of SVB's business practices. According to this theory, SVB was treated with kid gloves because it was 'woke.' Watters' claim is false. The actual amount that SVB donated to Black Lives Matter was zero. But that didn't stop similar claims from being made repeatedly on Fox News, conservative websites, and social media.... The [fake] reports are based on a database produced by the right-wing Claremont Institute." The reporters explain how Claremont came up with its fake numbers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
The Pandemic, Ctd. Benjamin Mueller of the New York Times: "An international team of virus experts said on Thursday that they had found genetic data from a market in Wuhan, China, linking the coronavirus with raccoon dogs for sale there, adding evidence to the case that the worst pandemic in a century could have been ignited by an infected animal that was being dealt through the illegal wildlife trade. The genetic data was drawn from swabs taken from in and around the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market starting in January 2020, shortly after the Chinese authorities had shut down the market because of suspicions that it was linked to the outbreak of a new virus. By then, the animals had been cleared out, but researchers swabbed walls, floors, metal cages and carts often used for transporting animal cages.... The new evidence is sure to provide a jolt to the debate over the pandemic's origins, even if it does not resolve the question of how it began."
Presidential Race 2024. Why are Republican voters so enamored of men who behave like little babies, throwing their food at the wall (Donnie) and eating pudding with their fingers (Ronnie)? ~~~
~~~ Dinner with Ron. Ken Meyer of Mediaite: "A new report on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) provided further detail on his well-documented struggles with personal public engagement, a quirk that reportedly includes unorthodox table manners. A new Daily Beast report on DeSantis ... tackled concerns about his aloof persona, aversion to public interactions, and the distance he keeps from voters and reporters alike. The reporting on the governor's personality and social graces delved into 'unflattering stories' that the Beast uncovered about him from over the years...: '"He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people," a former DeSantis staffer told The Daily Beast, "always like a starving animal who has never eaten before ... getting shit everywhere."... During a private plane trip from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., in March of 2019, DeSantis enjoyed a chocolate pudding dessert -- by eating it with three of his fingers, according to two sources familiar with the incident.'" The Beast report is firewalled. ~~~
~~~ Unpresidented. Marie: This could be the first time in American history we get a genuine food fight for a major party presidential nomination rather than than the usual metaphorical one.
Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "... much of the rhetoric from the declared and potential Republican candidates [for president*] so far is remarkable for its dystopian tone. In many high-profile moments, these Republicans portray the nation as locked in an existential battle, where the stark combat lines denote not just policy disagreements but warring camps of saviors vs. villains, and where political opponents are regularly demonized."
Beyond the Beltway
Florida. Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime: "Public university professors in Florida may continue to share their opinions about racism, sexism, and discrimination in the classroom -- at least for now -- after three federal judges upheld a [lower-court] ban on enforcement of a controversial [anti-'woke'] law.... [The] panel upheld an injunction against the so-called 'Stop W.O.K.E. Act,' which [Gov. Ron] DeSantis has said provides teachers with 'tools to stand up against discrimination and woke indoctrination.'" Two of the appellate judges are Trump appointees.
North Dakota. Ava Sasani & David Chen of the New York Times: "North Dakota's Supreme Court upheld a lower court's decision to block a ban on abortions in the state, and said the state Constitution protects abortion rights in some situations. The ruling means abortion in the state remains legal until nearly 22 weeks after a women's last period, while the case proceeds in a lower court.... In a majority opinion, the ruling said that [the lower-court] judge was within his rights but added that the state Constitution protects 'the right to enjoy and defend life and a right to pursue and obtain safety,' which includes the right of a pregnant woman to 'obtain an abortion to preserve her life or her health.'" A CBS News report is here.
Ohio. Tom Perkins of the Guardian: "Newly released data shows soil in the Ohio town of East Palestine -- scene of a recent catastrophic train crash and chemical spill -- contains dioxin levels hundreds of times greater than the exposure threshold above which Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists in 2010 found poses cancer risks. The EPA at the time proposed lowering the cleanup threshold to reflect the science around the highly toxic chemical, but the Obama administration killed the rules, and the higher federal action threshold remains in place.... The levels found in two soil samples are also up to 14 times higher than dioxin soil limits in some states, and the numbers point to wider contamination, said Linda Birnbaum, a former head of the US National Toxicology Program and EPA scientist.... The data likely confirms fears that the controlled burn of vinyl chloride in the days after the train wreck in the town created dioxin and dispersed it throughout the area, experts say, though they stressed the new data is of limited value because only two soil samples were checked."
Utah. Mary Kekatos of ABC News: "Utah Gov. Spencer Cox has signed a bill into law banning abortion clinics in the state, making it the latest to restrict the procedure since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Cox, a Republican, signed
Virginia. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. Christine Hauser of the New York Times: "A Virginia judge relied in part on a 19th century law that defined enslaved people as property in a recent decision to allow a divorced woman to pursue using embryos that she shared with her former husband -- a ruling that has drawn criticism.... 'It is logically possible that he could treat [sharing the embryos] as a distribution of property, but he doesn't have to go into the slave law. So that was a jump, [U.C. Davis bioethics professor Lisa] Ikemoto said. 'In a sense, he is reviving the use of a law that treated humans as property, in the 21st century. It is reprehensible and offensive.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Washington. Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "A train derailed and spilled diesel fuel on tribal land in Washington, state officials said Thursday. The BNSF train derailed on the Swinomish Reservation in Anacortes, Wash., around midnight. Though it occurred next to a bay, the spill did not appear to have affected water or wildlife, the Washington Department of Ecology said Thursday afternoon. Crews installed a boom on the shoreline to contain potential pollution and were emptying and removing rail cars."
Way Beyond
Jennifer Hassan, et al., of the Washington Post: "In the past few months, numerous countries have already put restrictions on TikTok, fearing that it could be used to gain access to their citizens' data or to spread pro-Beijing propaganda. But the bans have run into free speech concerns, as well as opposition from the Chinese government. ByteDance has denied claims it is controlled by a government entity, pointing to its founding by entrepreneurs and its funding from international institutional investors. Here are some other countries that have moved to restrict or ban TikTok at home."
France. Sylvie Corbet of the AP: "French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a highly unpopular bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 on Thursday by shunning parliament and invoking a special constitutional power. Lawmakers were shouting, their voices shaking with emotion as Macron made the risky move, which is expected to trigger quick motions of no-confidence in his government. Riot police vans zoomed by outside the National Assembly, their sirens wailing. The proposed pension changes have prompted major strikes and protests across the country since January. Macron, who made it the flagship of his second term, argued the reform is needed to keep the pension system from diving into deficit as France's population ages and life expectancy lengthens. The decision to invoke the special power was made during a Cabinet meeting at the Elysee presidential palace, just a few minutes before the scheduled vote, because Macron had no guarantee of a majority in France's lower house of parliament." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Libya. Euan Ward of the New York Times: "More than 2.5 tons of natural uranium is missing from a site in war-torn Libya, the director general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Wednesday, telling member states that the agency was searching for the material. The uranium ore itself poses little radiation hazard, said Sinead Harvey, a spokeswoman for the U.N. watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. But she said the material, contained in 10 drums, still requires safe handling and may present 'a radiological risk as well as nuclear security concerns' if it were not found. The nuclear material was discovered to be missing on Tuesday during an inspection in Libya by the U.N. watchdog, Ms. Harvey said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Ukraine, et al.
The Washington Post's live briefing of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine is here: "Chinese President Xi Jinping will travel to Moscow next week and meet with ... Vladimir Putin.... Slovakia has joined Poland in announcing it will supply Kyiv with fighter jets, Slovak Prime Minister Eduard Heger said Friday. Heger said his government approved a decision to send 13 Soviet-era MiG-29 jets, a day after Poland said it would send four in the coming days. Agreement to transfer the fighter jets marks a new level of Western aid to Ukraine, and Poland and Slovakia have called on other countries to follow their lead as part of an international coalition.... Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu gave state awards to the pilots who forced down a U.S. drone earlier this week, according to his ministry, which claimed the pilots had prevented the drone from 'violating' the airspace of Russian military activity in Ukraine.... Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is in Turkey for the second day, where he is expected to hold talks with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Finland requires Turkey's approval to join NATO...." ~~~
~~~ The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here.
AP: "Poland's president said Thursday that his country plans to give Ukraine around a dozen MiG-29 fighter jets, which would make it the first NATO member to fulfill the Ukrainian government's increasingly urgent requests for warplanes. President Andrzej Duda said Poland would hand over four of the Soviet-made warplanes 'within the next few days' and that the rest needed servicing and would be supplied later. The Polish word he used to describe the total number can mean between 11 and 19. 'They are in the last years of their functioning, but they are in good working condition,' Duda said of the aircraft." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Erin Banco & Sarah Aarup of Politico: "Chinese companies, including one connected to the government in Beijing, have sent Russian entities 1,000 assault rifles and other equipment that could be used for military purposes, including drone parts and body armor.... The shipments took place between June and December 2022, according to the data provided by Import Genius, a customs data aggregator. China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, one of the country's largest state-owned defense contractors, sent the rifles in June 2022 to a Russian company called Tekhkrim that also does business with the Russian state and military. The CQ-A rifles, modeled off of the M16 but tagged as 'civilian hunting rifles' in the data, have been reported to be in use by paramilitary police in China and by armed forces from the Philippines to South Sudan and Paraguay."
Rebecca Wright of CNN: "Guiding us through [an eastern Ukraine] woodland on foot, Ukrainian soldiers eventually brought us to a clearing where they showed us the wreckage of a weaponized drone which they said they shot down with their AK-47 automatic weapons over the weekend. The drone was a Mugin-5, a commercial unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) made by a Chinese manufacturer based in the port city of Xiamen, on China's eastern coast. Some tech bloggers say the machines are known as 'Alibaba drones' as they have been available for sale for up to $15,000 on Chinese marketplace websites including Alibaba and Taobao. Mugin Limited confirmed to CNN that it was their airframe, calling the incident 'deeply unfortunate.' It's the latest example of a civilian drone being retrofitted and weaponized since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, a sign of the rapidly shifting patterns of warfare."
Luis Martinez of ABC News: "U.S. European Command has released dramatic declassified video taken by the MQ-9 Reaper drone that shows the moment that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with it after attempting to spray the drone with jet fuel. The video was taken from a camera on the drone's underside and shows two different passes taken by the jets to spray the drone, the second one being the collision with the propeller at the rear of the drone, which is visible in the footage.... Communications with the drone were down for a minute [where] the image can be seen pixelating into color bars.... When the video feed resumed one of the propeller blades can be seen damaged from the collision with the Russian fighter. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
Tim Lister of CNN: "A secret plan drawn up by Russia's security service, the FSB, lays out detailed options to destabilize Moldova -- including supporting pro-Russian groups, utilizing the Orthodox Church and threatening to cut off supplies of natural gas. The document appears to have been drawn up to thwart Moldova's tilt to the West, which includes closer relations with NATO and an application to join the European Union. It repeatedly refers to the importance of preventing Moldova from joining NATO. It was obtained and first disclosed by a consortium of media, including VSquare and Frontstory, RISE Moldova, Expressen in Sweden, the Dossier Centre for Investigative Journalism, Yahoo News and Delfi." MB: Putin definitely wants his Soviet Union back.
U.K. Stephen Castle of the New York Times: "Britain on Thursday became the latest Western country to prohibit the use of TikTok on 'government devices,' citing security fears linked to the video-sharing app's ownership by a Chinese company. Speaking in Parliament, Oliver Dowden, a senior cabinet minister, announced the ban with immediate effect, describing it as 'precautionary,' even though the United States, the European Union's executive arm, Canada and India have already taken similar steps." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
News Lede
New York Times: "Lance Reddick, a prolific actor who gained fame playing a police commander on the Baltimore crime drama 'The Wire' and later had prominent roles in the 'John Wick' movie franchise and the Amazon series 'Bosch,' died on Friday. He was 60."
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Reader Comments (10)
Marie wrote: “We'll have to leave it to Fox ‘News’ to identify innocent explanations for these calls. Maybe TuKKKer can find snippets where Trump asks the officials about the weather or how the family is.”
Hey! He found it! A part of these calls where Trump isn’t demanding state officials break about a dozen laws to save his fat ass from the consequences of a fair election: the dial tone.
@Akhilleus: You're right. That's where the officials Trump called hung up on him.
Investimagation-like stuff…
Gee, looks like traitors on the House Oversight Committee are working hard to try to fulfill their promise* to find some kind—any kind—of maybe, could be, might be corruption in Hunter Biden’s receiving a whole million dollars from someone who knows a guy who might be connected to someone who once had lunch with someone connected to a company in China when his dad was a PRIVATE CITIZEN.
You think this means they’ll be investigating how it was that Jared Kushner received TWO BILLION DOLLARS directly from the Saudi crown prince (not some guy who knew a guy, etc.) for favors done while his father-in-law was PRESIDENT?
Nah.
It doesn’t matter that Hunter Biden had zero official connection to his dad while he was Vice President and had nothing to do with policy or campaign decisions during Biden’s presidential run, as compared to Kushner who held an immensely powerful position in the Trump White House, setting administration (ie, national) policies, making numerous trips to confer with the Saudis on issues of vital concern to them, concerns that turned out to be heavily supported by Trump and Kushner, to the tune of a $2 billion quit pro quo payment the day after leaving the White House.
I guess that’s what they mean by “oversight” committee.
*Just wondering how you can promise the outcome of an investigation before the investigation has even begun. Isn’t that what’s known as, whatchamacallit, actual corruption?
Breaking news! Trump BFF, invading marauder and authoritarian dictator Vladimir Putin has an answer to the video released by the DoD proving that the Russians lied when they denied directly striking a US drone over the Black Sea.
“That video was edited by TuKKKer KKKarlson. It must be a lie!”
Nuff said.
Whither the Whiner?
Marie has noticed that the usual demented detritus from Miss Margie has been on the wane of late, engendering no small amount of morbid curiosity and a certain, oh, je ne sais quoi, nostalgia of sorts for the good old days of Jewish space lasers and protestations of successful insurrections under her leadership, when mirabile dictu! Here she comes with a duct taped Piggly Wiggly sack full of sand as the latest crackpot casus belli! Ah…idiocy restored!
Myself, I’ve been pondering the strange disappearance of whiny, woozy Sen. What About Meeee?, the littlest fabricator of egotistical demands for attention, like a two year old whose bowl of chocolate pudding has taken a fist pounding tumble off his high chair tray.
What with train derailments, chortle inducing House “investigation” fails, TuKKKer fuckings, Trump fraggings, drone downings, and abortion pill pillorying (try saying that three times fast), there must be SOME fruit fly brain storm he can dream up for some much needed snarling attention grabbing. Could it be another mad as hell and ain’t gonna take it no more neighbor has taken it upon him or herself to open field tackle this simpering little penile implant? We should be so lucky…
Not that I’m yearning for a “Shane! Come back, Shane” moment. Just wondering.
Perhaps he’s working on a sort of magnum opus of narcissistic noodling, a kind of Biggus Dickus redux, if you will (apologies to the Pythons).
Whatever it is, it’s sure to be face palmingly stoopid. And little.
Always willing to lend a hand to the disabled, I'm offering this old news to the House Oversight Committee should they ever tire of Biden Bank Record Bashing:
https://www.opensecrets.org/trump/trump-properties
And it looks like my county made the national news again. No bridges over I-5 collapsed, but that train engine derailed very near the west coast's largest blue heron rookery...My wife reported a few herons looking with interest on all the activity surrounding the site. The train was likely hauling Bakken Crude to the local refineries...
And Happy St. Patrick's Day!
@Ken W: Thatsa link to a lot of grifting. Hope it's all legal,
otherwise some Republican committee will be investigating it (ha!).
Last night Lawrence had a segment called "The Anointed One" in whch he compared Trump with Alvin Bragg, the man who might be the first one to bring Fatty down. This is good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orn8UHDcmm0
The mention of Miss Margie suddenly reminded me of the Three Little Pigs––the one with three bags full and it appears that our little lady of the space age has conjured up another zinger to add to her portfolio.
Ken: Remembering St. Pat's Day this year brings a bit of sadness. My brother, always accentuating his Irish roots while ignoring his German, would, on this day, send me cards or emails that made a big deal of the day. Now that he's dead, St. Pat's Day will be just a pleasant memory of my brother Bill's love of his heritage.
As Florida runs headlong away from sex, race, and sanity in the public schools here is an example that amazes me. House Bill 1069 in banning all sexual education except in grades 6-12 would expressly forbid girls in lower grades from discussing their periods. No mention of little boys discussing masturbation, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/17/florida-bill-girls-periods-school-gop/