;)
October 10, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Marc Caputo of NBC News: "Christina Bobb, the attorney who signed a letter certifying that all sensitive records in ... Donald Trump's possession had been returned to the government, spoke to federal investigators Friday..., according to three sources familiar with the matter. The certification statement, signed June 3 by Bobb, indicated that Trump ... no longer had possession of a host of documents with classification markings at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, according to the three sources.... Bobb, who was Trump's custodian of record at the time, did not draft the statement.... Instead, Trump's lead lawyer in the case at the time, Evan Corcoran, drafted it and told her to sign it, Bobb told investigators.... Bobb also spoke to investigators about Trump legal adviser Boris Epshteyn, who she said did not help draft the statement but was minimally involved in discussions about the records.... Before Bobb signed the document, she insisted [twice that] it be rewritten with a disclaimer that said she was certifying Trump had no more records 'based upon the information that has been provided to me.'..." ~~~
They should give me immediately back everything that they've taken from me, because it's mine. I';s mine.... Likewise, under the Presidential Record Act, everything should come back.... [The Archives] lose documents, they plant documents. "Let's see, is there a book on nuclear destruction or the building of a nuclear weapon cheaply? Let's put that book in with Trump." No, they plant documents. -- Donald Trump, in a speech Sunday
IOW, a confession/proof of intent. -- Marie Burns, not a lawyer ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's latest riff on his decision to keep government documents at his residence at Mar-a-Lago is chock full of ridiculousness and false equivalency to a degree remarkable even by his standards. Appearing at a rally in Arizona on Sunday, Trump repeatedly compared his retention of presidential records to the actions of his predecessors. Except most of the examples he cited involved those presidents setting up presidential libraries. (And his other arguments were almost complete non sequiturs.) He cited Barack Obama, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton having their presidential records moved to warehouses as their libraries were being built. But that's how the process works. And even if there were evidence that the records were handled improperly during those moves -- which there isn't -- they were in the custody of the National Archives...." Blake runs down some of Trump's assertions. MB: Hard to tell if he's crazy, lying or both. I'd guess both.
Sara Murray & Zachary Cohen of CNN: "An Atlanta-area prosecutor investigating Donald Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn the 2020 election has secured cooperation from former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN.... Prosecutors have called for [Hutchinson's former boss, Chief of Staff Mark] Meadows to testify before the special grand jury, but they are still working to secure his testimony."
California. Shawn Hubler & Jill Cowan of the New York Times: "The president of the Los Angeles City Council stepped down from her powerful leadership role on Monday after a leaked audio recording revealed racist and disparaging remarks that she had made about the Black child of a white council member, and about Indigenous immigrants in the city's Koreatown neighborhood." This is an update of a story linked earlier today.
Pennsylvania. Katie Glueck of of the New York Times: "Four years after the massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue..., Doug Mastriano, the Republican nominee for governor of Pennsylvania, has rattled a diverse swath of the state's Jewish community.... The race between Mr. Mastriano, a state senator, and his Democratic opponent, Attorney General Josh Shapiro -- a Jewish day school alum ... -- has also centered to an extraordinary degree on Mr. Shapiro's religion. Mr. Mastriano, who promotes Christian power and disdains the separation of church and state, has repeatedly lashed Mr. Shapiro for attending and sending his children to what Mr. Mastriano calls a 'privileged, exclusive, elite' school, suggesting to one audience that it evinced Mr. Shapiro's 'disdain for people like us.'... Mr. Mastriano has also spread the lie that George Soros, a Holocaust survivor and liberal billionaire often vilified on the right, was a Nazi collaborator. And Mr. Mastriano has baselessly accused Mr. Shapiro of holding a 'real grudge' against the Roman Catholic Church." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Of course I can't speak to Mastriano's personal opinions, but I can speak from personal experience that the type of remarks he is willing to make in public may only hint of the deep animus "people like him" holds toward Jews. I grew up in the midst of this type of prejudice, and it was widespread -- and incomprehensible to me. I imagine there are communities where this is still true.
Ukraine, et al. Emily Rauhala, et al., of the Washington Post: “The string of strikes against Ukrainian cities and key infrastructure on Monday galvanized long-standing calls from the government to its allies for more sophisticated air defense systems and longer-range weapons. The Russian attacks appeared to signal a significant escalation, raising pressure on the United States and other European countries that have been slow to provide Ukrainian forces with the most advanced weapons systems. While a chorus of U.S. and European leaders condemned the attacks and declared their continued support for Ukraine, it was not clear that they would accelerate or expand their deliveries."
~~~~~~~~~~
Donald Trump Thinks Racism Is a Joke. Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post: "... two weeks ago at a rally in North Carolina for Rep. Ted Budd, the MAGA Republican candidate for U.S. Senate..., [Donald] Trump bellowed, 'You know Putin mentioned the n-word. Do you know what the n-word is?' Plenty of people shouted the answer they thought Trump was looking for -- because there is only one answer. Hardly surprised by the response to his purposefully provocative question, Trump jumped in and said, 'No, no, no, it's the "nuclear" word.' Doug Jones, the former Alabama senator who successfully prosecuted two of the Klansmen who bombed Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, called out Trump's tip of the hood to white supremacists for what it was. 'Folks, no one uses the term "n-word" when talking about nuclear weapons. That term refers to only one thing & Trump used it for a MAGA candidate running for the Senate,' Jones tweeted. 'This is the kind of white nationalist, dog whistle rhetoric that has no place in America.'"
Jennifer Solis of the Nevada Current: "In [a] speech [in rural Nevada] riddled with inaccuracies..., [Donald] Trump said, 'You know the biggest crowd I've ever seen? January 6. And you never hear that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: (1) The January 6 crowd was not the biggest he'd ever seen. (2) No one in his right mind would boast about the size of a crowd of insurrectionists. ~~~
~~~ Sen./Mr. Potato Head Goes Full Racist. Sarah Swetlik of AL.com: "U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Saturday said Democrats are in favor of 'reparations' because they are 'pro-crime.' Tuberville, R-Ala., made the comments while at a rally held by ... Donald Trump in Nevada. 'They want reparations because they think the people who do the crime are owed that,' Tuberville said as the crowd cheered behind him. 'Bullshit!' he added.... Reparations typically refer to 'financial recompense for African-Americans whose ancestors were slaves and lived through the Jim Crow era,' according to the NAACP." Thanks to Akhilleus for the lead. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ BUT what do Trump's Black friends say? Here's one now. ~~~
~~~ Hannah Getahun of Insider, republiced by Yahoo! News: "Rapper Kanye West faced more accusations of antisemitism on Saturday after posting a rant about Jewish people. In a tweet now removed by Twitter for violating its guidelines, the rapper and fashion designer said he was 'going death con 3 on JEWISH PEOPLE.' West defended himself by saying he could not be antisemitic because 'black people are actually Jew [sic].'... West returned to Twitter -- from which he had been on hiatus since Nov. 4, 2020 -- after his Instagram account was restricted amid a week of tirades on the platform. Instagram confirmed to Insider it had restricted West's account.... After photos and videos surfaced of West on Monday wearing a hoodie with the words "White Lives Matter," prominent Republicans like Candace Owens, former congressional candidate Lavern Spicer, and the GOP House Judiciary Committee came to his defense. West, a friend of ... Donald Trump, pulled the stunt as a part of his YZYSZN9 show at Paris Fashion Week. Critics pointed out that the phrase on West's hoodie is tied to white supremacist movements." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update. Stuart Thompson of the New York Times: "In a statement, a spokeswoman for Twitter said Ye's [i.e., Kanye West's] account was locked for violating Twitter's policies. A spokeswoman for Meta said it places restrictions on [Instagram] accounts that repeatedly break its rules." MB: Oh, and for those of you who just can't keep up, it's not Kanye West anymore; it's "Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West." Okay then. Maybe I'll change my name to the last two letters of my first name, i.e., "Ie," pronounced "Aiyee!"
Teddy Amenabar of the Washington Post consults experts on how to debunk your friends' and families' false claims. For some reason, they seem to advise against telling Uncle Fred at Thanksgiving dinner that he's a certifiable lunatic. Yeah, but especially if you say it calmly, with your best smug, know-it-all expression, that's so satisfying.
Beyond the Beltway
California. Shawn Hubler & Jill Cowan of the New York Times: "The president of the Los Angeles City Council faced widespread calls to resign on Sunday after a leaked audio recording revealed racist and disparaging remarks about the Black child of a white council member and also about Indigenous immigrants in the city's Koreatown neighborhood. The comments, made during a meeting last year with two other council members and a labor official, exposed longstanding racial tensions in the governance of one of the nation's most multicultural cities as well as fault lines among the city's Democrats. In the profanity-laced recording, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times and which was first reported by The Los Angeles Times, the City Council president, Nury Martinez, who is Latina, compared the Black child of a white council member to a 'changuito,' Spanish for little monkey. She also called Oaxacan immigrants living in Koreatown 'short little dark people.'... The recording ... included Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León, council members representing parts of the city's East Side, and Ron Herrera, president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor."
New York. Michelle Price of the AP: "New York congressman and Republican candidate for governor Lee Zeldin says his family is safe after two strangers were shot outside his Long Island home on Sunday. Zeldin said in a statement that he does not know the identities of the two people who were shot but that they were found under his porch and in the bushes in front of his home in Shirley, New York. The congressman and his wife were not at home at the time of the shooting but their teenage daughters were in the home and heard gunshots and screaming, he said in the statement released by his office.... The Suffolk County Police Department issued a brief statement saying it was investigating the shooting, which appeared to have no connection to Zeldin's family."
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Monday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Monday are here: "Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted of a 'massive strike' across Ukraine at a meeting of his Security Council on Monday. Accusing Ukraine's special services of carrying out an attack on the Crimean Bridge, Putin warned of 'harsh' reprisal: 'Its scale will correspond to the level of threats.' The torrent of attacks -- including in the hear of Kyiv, the first major strikes there in months -- on energy facilities and civilian targets spurred Ukrainian officials to call for a 'resolute response' from allies. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky tweeted Monday that he had an urgent call with French President Emmanuel Macron to discuss 'air defense, the need for a tough European and international reaction, as well as increased pressure on the Russian Federation.' Ukraine's prime minister said 11 infrastructure facilities in eight regions and the city of Kyiv were damaged, warning of interruptions to electricity, water and communication -- in addition to attacks on a children's playground, museums and educational institutions. Attacks were reported in key areas including Kharkiv in the northeast, Lviv in the west, and Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro in the center.... Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko announced that he and Putin agreed to 'deploy a joint regional grouping of troops' in response to the 'aggravated situation' in Ukraine. It's not immediately clear where this grouping would be based."
North Korea. Hyung-Jin Kim of the AP: "North Korea's recent barrage of missile launches were the simulated use of its tactical battlefield nuclear weapons to 'hit and wipe out' potential South Korean and U.S. targets, state media reported Monday, as its leader Kim Jong Un signaled he would conduct more provocative tests." ~~~
News Ledes
AP: "Former U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke, who put his academic expertise on the Great Depression to work reviving the American economy after the 2007-2008 financial crisis, won the Nobel Prize in economic sciences along with two other U.S.-based economists for their research into the fallout from bank failures. Bernanke was recognized Monday along with Douglas W. Diamond and Philip H. Dybvig. The Nobel panel at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in Stockholm said the trio's research had shown 'why avoiding bank collapses is vital.'"
New York Times: "Heavy rains and landslides have left at least 22 people dead and 52 missing in a single town in north-central Venezuela, officials said Sunday. The authorities believe that an unknown number of other people in the town, Las Tejerías, remain trapped in their homes by the mud. The Venezuelan armed forces planned to deploy canines and drones to find the missing residents and to deliver food and medicine, one top military officer, Remigio Ceballos, said at the news conference in Las Tejerías, about 40 miles southwest of the capital, Caracas."
Variety: "Nikki Finke, a tenacious journalist who revolutionized entertainment reporting with what became the Hollywood trade website Deadline, died Sunday morning in Boca Raton, Fla. after a prolonged illness. She was 68." ~~~
~~~ Update. Finke's New York Times obituary is here.
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Reader Comments (15)
Ohhh…is that what it’s called?
Uber narcissist and candidate for the loony bin, Kanye West or Ye, or whatever he’s calling himself now, launched a rant about Jews in a way that seems like he wants to kill them (death con 3??).
Now a casual observer might call this sort of thing textbook antisemitism. And pretty fucking bad antisemitism at that.
But not Todd Rokita. Attorney General for the state of Indiana. Ol’ Todd calls it “independent thinking”, which on the Horrible Euphemism Scale leaves “enhanced interrogation” in the Lost and Found.
Where do these people come from?
https://www.rawstory.com/amp/todd-rokita-kanye-west-anti-semitism-2658417301
But, Akhilleus, in this Land of Freedom doesn't everyone have a right to his or her own opinion? (asks the troll..)
In Ye' defense Rokita, obviously a Voltaire scholar, is likely employing the famous remark imputed to him ..."I disagree with what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it.".
My take? Voltaire's brave words mean he had a right to choose his own death, but whether he would have exercised that right in Kanye's defense we'll never know.
To the extent that I have the same right, it sure wouldn't be in defense of West's ignorance.
Though I wonder why anyone would give a lick what West says or thinks, on this one I'm with Twitter.
Instead of attacking free speech, they are ridding the world of some of its annoying background noise.
When I first read the "Ye" in today's texts, I thought we had a new pronoun, and hoped to see "Thee" and "Thou" coming around again. Then I found that "Ye" is the ass-end of "Kanye."
Unlike Ie, I will not buy into this concept. "Ick" just doesn't sound right.
And ... WRT Mr. Potato Head: when he refers to those who commit "the" crime, to what does the definite article refer? And do people in Alabam ... Nevada automatically know it?
@Patrick: I don't want to give Mr. Potato Head too much credit for an ability to (lamely) riff on idioms, but maybe he means "the crime" as in "If you commit the crime, you must do the time."
Happy Columbus Day everyone. Don't go to the post office like I
did this morning expecting another pile of junk mail.
My initial reaction (after thinking what a despicable asshole he is—no wonder Trump likes him) to Kanye West’s latest “Look at me, ye mighty, and despair” moment was that this new moniker, supposedly chopped off the ass end of “Kanye”, is his attempt to remind people that he once referred to himself as “Yeezus”, back when he fancied himself a god, an actual “Jesus”.
Again, no wonder Trump sidled up to this demented doink.
Forest: Well thanks a lot for reminding us it's Columbus Day–-we retired people forget those "day's off" celebrations. Didn't we change that to "Indigenous People's Day" knocking off Columbus for giving all those I.P.'s multiple diseases?
I agree, Patrick that "ick" would' not stick just as "Pe" would see a plethora of pontification.
Veering away from idiots for a spell let me tell you what happened this morning on the Pepe estate. A man in a car came down our driveway to pick up his runaway dog–-I think a German Shepard–--at the same time a small deer was munching away at a nearby bush. The dog attacked the deer and killed it; the man retrieved the dog and left. We are now waiting for the Animal shelter people to come and remove this beautiful creature who was just minding his own business on a Monday morning. The people in Ukraine can relate.
PD,
The deer couldn’t get away? Either that dog was really fast or the deer was very slow. Deer tend to be a little skittish and will take off if they don’t feel comfortable. My dog chases lots of critters but he gave up on deer. We once saw a small herd of white tail deer pop out from a wooded area on one of our walks. Rocket took off after them but when he noticed that they covered an open field of about 300 yards in what looked like five bounds, he turned around and came back. He looked up at me as if to say “Screw it. I’m stickin’ to squirrels”. Sorry to hear about that deer though. They are gorgeous animals.
The crazy just keeps taking things to the next level. One of Trump's buddies is a wanna be cannibal and imagined a fantasy reality where it would be okay for him to eat another human being.
"“I’d eat an Indian, no problem at all,” Jair Bolsonaro bragged to a foreign journalist in 2016, as he described a trip to an Indigenous community where he had purportedly been offered the chance to consume human flesh.
“There was this time I was in Surucuru … and an Indian had died and they were cooking him. They cook Indians. It’s their culture,” Bolsonaro claims to the correspondent’s apparent befuddlement.
“Their bodies?” the journalist replies.
“Their bodies,” Bolsonaro confirms.
“But not to eat?” the journalist asks.
“Yes, to eat,” answers Bolsonaro, then an obscure congressman. “They cook it for two or three days and then eat it with banana. I wanted to see an Indian being cooked but the guy said if you go, you have to eat it. ‘I’ll eat it,’ I said. But no one else in my group wanted to go … so I didn’t go. But I’d eat an Indian, no problem at all. It’s their culture.”
Yanomami leaders and anthropologists denounced Bolsonaro’s “delirious” and prejudiced claims. “My people aren’t cannibals … This doesn’t exist nor has it ever existed, not even among our ancestors,” the Yanomami activist Júnior Yanomami told the Folha de São Paulo newspaper."
AK: I was not a witness to the kill––-trees blocking the view but perhaps the deer was not well to begin with because a few days ago we spotted him in the yard and wondered why he wasn't with his family. He is--was–-a very young deer and I thought it odd he was by himself. Yes, most dogs give up the chase–-deers be REAL fast–--like a Rocket! as your Rocket discovered early on.
Guess I shouldn't vie for office with Mr. Mastriano either.
Admit I'm developing a real grudge against the Catholic Church. Certainly against some Catholics...
No, no, Ken, it's not the CHURCH it's ITALIANS, probably the ones from Abruzzo. They're nothing but western Albanians!
(Ie: per favore perdonami, I could have used other ethnic slurs, but the Abruzzo ref just popped up out of nowhere! I can change it to Hibernians just as easily.)
No, no, Ken, it's not the CHURCH it's ITALIANS, probably the ones from Abruzzo. They're nothing but western Albanians!
(Ie: per favore perdonami, I could have used other ethnic slurs, but the Abruzzo ref just popped up out of nowhere! I can change it to Hibernians just as easily.)
PD,
That animal might have been injured. About 10 years ago, I noticed a young deer limping into our yard to eat seeds spilled from our bird feeders. Then I noticed that the poor thing had only three legs. It looked like the leg was lost through some kind of injury. I went out and got some deer food for it. The deer came by every morning for a week but then we never saw it again.
The natural world is beautiful but ruthless. Only among humans do Darwinian laws not affect the losers, the morons, the mentally damaged, and the garden variety idiots (see Trump administration) whose genes, in a more natural setting, would be quickly deselected.
There are plenty of examples of three legged dogs and cats (even two legged) who live relatively good, happy lives, but they are mostly pets whose families care for them. Out in the wild, ain’t no one looking out for you if you become severely injured. We only hoped that he or she had a quick ending. Maybe your deer was similarly burdened.
If politics were strictly Darwinian, idiots who voted for crooks whose policies screw them over year after year, would soon either adjust their voting patterns (which would curtail those political schemers and liars) or die out. But oops, the people they hate (democrats and liberals) have established safety measures to keep these idiots afloat when the policies of those they vote for endanger their continued economic or physical existence.
In other words, three legged voters, metaphorically speaking, wouldn’t (shouldn’t) last much longer than our three legged deer. But because progressive policies over the last century refuse to let these people sink, they’re still out there, voting.
You’re fucking welcome.
Can we pay Mexico to annex Arizona, wall included?