;)
September 16, 2022
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
** Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: "Months before National Archives officials retrieved hundreds of classified documents in 15 boxes from ... Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club, they were told that none of the material was sensitive or classified and that Trump had only 12 boxes of 'news clippings,' according to people familiar with the conversations.... During a September 2021 phone call with top Archives lawyer Gary Stern, former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin ... said he had talked to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who made the assertion about the dozen boxes of clippings, the people familiar with the call said. Trump's team was aware of no other materials, Philbin said, relaying information he said he got from Meadows. The characterization made in the call vastly misrepresented the scale and variety of documents, including classified records, eventually recovered by the Archives or the FBI. Philbin said that Meadows also told him no documents had been destroyed.... Stern had sought the call because he believed there were still more than two dozen boxes of materials that Trump had.... In the year since the call, Archives and Justice Department officials have recovered 42 boxes of records from Trump's Palm Beach, Fla., property.... Some White House advisers had previously said Meadows was deeply involved in the final packing at the White House." ~~~
~~~ Marie: The good news for Marky-Mark is that he will not have to wait for a special-order orange jumpsuit; I think he'll fit right into a prêt-à-porter number.
Marie: I have no idea whether or not Akhilleus is an eminent immigration lawyer disguised as a Greek warrior in need of a podiatrist, but this comment (also below) sounds good to not-a-lawyer me: "Here's a thought: Section 274(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly transport undocumented persons across state lines. -- Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott should be immediately arrested." ~~~
~~~ Maria Sacchetti of the Washington Post: "Massachusetts authorities announced Friday that they will move approximately 50 migrants from the island of Martha's Vineyard to a military base in Cape Cod so they can find shelter and chart next steps. The move is voluntary for the migrants, the state said. Gov. Charlie Baker (R) said the migrants will be offered 'shelter and humanitarian supports' in dormitory-style rooms at Joint Base Cape Cod in Bourne. State and local officials will also ensure migrants have food, shelter and other services. Baker said he plans to activate up to 125 members of the Massachusetts National Guard to aid in the relief effort. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) surprised federal and state officials on Wednesday by sending migrants who recently crossed the U.S.-Mexico border to the affluent resort island.... In a speech at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute's annual gala on Thursday night, [President] Biden lashed out at Republicans. 'Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are playing politics with human beings, using them as props,' he said. 'What they're doing is simply wrong, it's un-American, it's reckless.'" The Hill's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: It's worth noting that a major reason the U.S. has not done a better job of dealing with immigration problems is that Congressional Republicans refuse to participate in realistic solutions. So when heartless Republican governors play games using human beings as pawns in order to curry favor with their racist, xenophobic base, it is heartless Republican members of Congress who have exacerbated the problems these governors think they are so brilliantly highlighting.
Crazier & Crazier. David Klepper & Ali Swenson of the AP: "After winking at QAnon for years, Donald Trump is overtly embracing the baseless conspiracy theory, even as the number of frightening real-world events linked to it grows. On Tuesday, using his Truth Social platform, the Republican former president reposted an image of himself wearing a Q lapel pin overlaid with the words 'The Storm is Coming.' In QAnon lore, the 'storm' refers to Trump's final victory, when supposedly he will regain power and his opponents will be tried, and potentially executed, on live television.... He's published dozens of recent Q-related posts, in contrast to 2020, when he claimed that while he didn't know much about QAnon, he couldn't disprove its conspiracy theory.... Trump's recent postings have included images referring to himself as a martyr fighting criminals, psychopaths and the so-called deep state. In one now-deleted post from late August, he reposted a 'q drop,' one of the cryptic message board postings that QAnon supporters claim come from an anonymous government worker with top secret clearance."
Ron Dicker of the Huffington Post: ?Hillary Clinton said Thursday that the classified documents ... Donald Trump allegedly hoarded at his home are the kind that required a military escort when she was secretary of state.... Clinton told 'Late Night' host Seth Meyers that when she read top-secret material, an officer 'would come into my office and would have a handcuff that was attached to a suitcase in order to show me something that was so secret he literally had to have it tied to his hand.' The officer would watch Clinton read it and sign that she had reviewed it, and then he would take it back, she recalled. The idea that Trump reportedly squirreled away top-secret information on a foreign government's nuclear capabilities and the like at a country club prompted Clinton to say: 'I don't care what political party you are.... This is a threat to our national security.'"
New Hampshire Senate Race. General Chickenshit. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Like a driver making a screeching U-turn, Don Bolduc, [a retired army general and] the Republican Senate nominee in New Hampshire, pivoted on Thursday from his primary race to the general election, saying he had 'come to the conclusion' that the 2020 presidential election 'was not stolen,' after he had spent more than a year claiming it was.... He continued to falsely claim there had been fraud in the election but acknowledged that the outcome was not in question.... Mr. Bolduc ran on an uncompromising right-wing platform.... [Sen. Maggie] Hassan's [D] campaign responded quickly to Mr. Bolduc's reversal, sharing a series of videos and quotes of the many times Mr. Bolduc had promoted the lie that the 2020 election was stolen.... At least 10 [GOP] candidates in competitive races, including the Senate nominees Blake Masters in Arizona, Adam Laxalt in Nevada and Ted Budd in North Carolina, have updated their websites to downplay endorsements from Mr. Trump or to soften anti-abortion language." MB: Vote Hassan!
Pennsylvania. David Wildstein of the New Jersey Globe: "New Jersey is serving as an incubator for Republican candidates in Pennsylvania, with two statewide candidates being New Jersey natives and longtime residents. Gubernatorial candidate Douglas Mastriano was a registered voter in New Jersey for 28 years until July 2021 when election officials changed his status to inactive. Records show that Mastriano voted from his family's Hightstown home from 1982, when he turned 18, through the 2010 general election. He remained on the voter rolls until a sample ballot was returned roughly six months after the death of his mother last year. Dr. Mehmet Oz lived and voted in New Jersey until 2021, when he moved to Pennsylvania to seek a U.S. Senate seat. He remains on New Jersey's voter rolls as a resident of Cliffside Park and could legally vote in his home state this November if he chose to not vote in Pennsylvania." ~~~
~~~ Marie: If the name David Wildstein sounds familiar to you, it should. Think, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
~~~~~~~~~~
** Charlie Savage, et al., of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Thursday rejected the Justice Department's request to resume a key part of its inquiry into ... Donald J. Trump's handling of sensitive government records and appointed an outside arbiter to review thousands of documents seized last month from his Florida residence. The judge, Aileen M. Cannon, declined to lift any part of an order she issued last week that barred the department from using the documents, including about 100 marked classified, in its investigation until the arbiter, known as a special master, had completed a review. In her 10-page decision, Judge Cannon appointed a special master suggested by the Trump legal team and agreed upon by the government: Raymond J. Dearie, a semiretired judge from the Federal District Court for the Eastern District of New York.... But as part of her order, Judge Cannon permitted the government to continue using the documents for a national security risk assessment and a classification review.... The move was a blow to the Justice Department, almost certain to significantly delay its investigation into whether the former president unlawfully retained national defense records or obstructed repeated attempts by federal officials to retrieve them.... The department is now planning to appeal the decision, and top officials were meeting to discuss the timing of their filing, according to a senior law enforcement official." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Not mentioned in the NYT article: Cannon has also ordered that Trump & his lawyers could have access to all of the classified documents under review. As Barbara McQuade pointed out on MSNBC, that means that people without classified clearance -- including Donald Trump -- would be able to review documents that under any other circumstances, they could not view and potentially compromise. She noted that Trump could choose any lawyers he wanted, including, say, Rudy Giuliani. ~~~
~~~ Marie: In her opinion, Cannon responded to criticism that she had put too much emphasis on Trump's status as a former president* who could suffer "reputational harm" if the DOJ indicted him, by noting that "the principles of equity require the court to consider the specific context at issue, and that consideration is inherently impacted by the position formerly held" by Trump. Andrew Weissmann noted on MSNBC that Cannon came right out & said that the position that a litigant held gives him extra weight in any dispute. This, Weissmann notes, is an abuse of the U.S. legal system & the rule of law that everyone receives equal treatment. Ben Rhodes, also on MSNBC, noted that "There are two systems of laws: one for Donald Trump and one for everyone else." Trump & Cannon are playing right out of the authoritarian playbook, Rhodes said, in which a politician appoints judges to rule in his favor. Cannon's "main qualification is that she would be a rubber-stamp for Donald Trump," Rhodes said.
~~~ Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... Cannon refused to accept department officials' contention that the records they are trying to review as part of an ongoing criminal investigation remain highly classified or contain extraordinarily sensitive defense information that could damage national security if released.... In a signed filing released by the court on Thursday night, [Judge Raymond] Dearie accepted the [special master] task. Cannon urged him to complete his review by Nov. 30 -- more than a month after the Oct. 17 deadline the Justice Department had most recently asked Cannon to set. While Cannon's timeline appears to extend Dearie's review well past the November midterm elections, she did instruct him 'to prioritize review of the approximately 100 documents marked as classified (and papers physically attached thereto).'... The judge also emphasized that she was giving Justice Department personnel some leeway to participate in the national security assessment even as she maintains her order blocking the use of any of the documents in the criminal probe.... In one nod to the Justice Department, Cannon ordered Trump to shoulder the full cost of Dearie's review, as well as that for any staff or associates he hires." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Cannon's refusal to accept that the documents the DOJ asked to except from her order were classified or "highly classified" is a fairly amazing "alternative-fact" take. It may be true that some of the documents are not as sensitive as the government contends -- perhaps they're nothing but John Podesta's tips for creamy risotto -- but they are clearly classified. (BTW, I make risotto the way Podesta makes risotto [although I usually make it with porcini], and that's the way to do it.) Just look at the photo of the jackets. Also, so unfa-a-a-ir Trump has to spend his own money on a special master, attorneys, etc. Oh, wait ~~~
~~~ Betsy Swan of Politico: "Donald Trump's outside spending arm has paid $3 million to cover attorney Chris Kise's legal work representing the former president, according to three people familiar with the arrangement.... Kise is representing the former president on both the Justice Department's probe of the Jan. 6 attack and on the investigation of the sensitive documents Trump brought with him to Mar-a-Lago after his presidency ended.... Kise left the firm Foley and Lardner and set up his own firm, Chris Kise & Associates, in order to take Trump as a client.... Save America itself is facing scrutiny from the Justice Department. Last week, numerous grand jury subpoenas asked people in Trump world about the PAC's fundraising and spending activities.... In the [House January 6] panel's second public hearing, as NPR detailed, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) noted that Trump urged donors to support an 'Official Election Defense Fund.' She said the committee learned that the fund did not exist, and that instead much of the money Trump raised in the wake of the election went to Save America.... [Lofgren said,] 'So not only was there the Big Lie, there was the Big Rip-off.'"
Azi Paybarah of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump warned that if he were indicted on a charge of mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House, there would be 'problems in this country the likes of which perhaps we've never seen before.' Trump, speaking Thursday to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt, added, 'I don't think the people of the United States would stand for it.'... Trump's comments Thursday came hours before officials from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security briefed Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee about threats against federal officials. After the briefing, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), the committee's chairman, described Trump's rhetoric as dangerous." Politico's report is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: So what we have here is (1) a Trump-appointed judge expressing great skepticism about the DOJ's integrity and asserting that Donald Trump is above the law & would unfairly suffer "reputational harm" if he were indicted, and (2) Donald Trump himself promising some sort of massive rebellion against the government if he is indicted. This looks less like a normal legal dispute than a conspiracy to undermine the federal government & foment revolution unless the DOJ backs off its investigations. P.S. Don't know why the WashPo & Politico overlooked this part of Trump's interview with Hewitt: ~~~
~~~ The Magic Wand. Tierney Sneed of CNN: "... Donald Trump claimed on Hugh Hewitt's radio show Thursday that he declassified the government records that were taken to Mar-a-Lago -- an assertion that his attorneys have avoided making in the litigation around the FBI's seizure of the materials. Hewitt asked Trump about an account given by his former White House aide Kash Patel that Patel witnessed Trump's giving a verbal order to declassify the documents taken to Mar-a-Lago. (Patel, in an interview with Breitbart, said the materials Trump declassified had to do with the Russia probe, the Ukraine impeachment proceedings and 'major national security matters of great public importance.') 'That's correct,' Trump said. 'And not only that, I think it was other people also were there. But I have the absolute right to declassify, absolute -- a president has that absolute right, and a lot of people aren't even challenging that anymore.' Trump added later in the interview that 'everything was declassified.' In a court filing earlier this week, the Justice Department drilled down on the absence of any such assertion from Trump's legal team in court, while also arguing to the court that, even if he did declassify the materials, it would still be irrelevant to the legal dispute over the search." MB: Uh, apparently Trump's own lawyers are "questioning that." Keep talking, Donald; with any luck, the DOJ is taking notes.
Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "Dozens of subpoenas issued last week show that the Justice Department is seeking vast amounts of information, and communications with more than 100 people, as part of its sprawling inquiry into the origins, fundraising and motives of the effort to block Joe Biden from being certified as president in early 2021. The subpoenas, three of which were reviewed by The Washington Post, are far-reaching, covering 18 separate categories of information.... Taken together, the subpoenas show an investigation that began immediately after the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has cast an ever-widening net, even as it gathers information about those in the former president's inner circle. 'It looks like a multipronged fraud and obstruction investigation,' said Jim Walden, a former federal prosecutor.... Trump's team is arranging lawyers for at least some of the aides under subpoena, according to a person familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation. Trump himself has not received a subpoena, according to a person close to him, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the matter." ~~~
~~~ Meredith McGraw & Jonathan Lemire of Politico: Donald "Trump's allies and aides have been left angry and a bit shaken this week over the Department of Justice's issuance of some 40 subpoenas targeting people in Trump's inner orbit over their efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and their connections to events on Jan. 6. Cell phones were confiscated from at least four people. A few trusted text chains among Trump vets were ignited with speculation about shoes soon to drop, while others went quiet. 'Every day feels like something else is piling on,' said one former Trump official. Gone, for most in Trump World, was the bravado that this probe too would pass and that the 45th president would emerge stronger. Instead, there was growing anxiety about what could be next, as well as fears that those in the inner circle may flip on their friends to save themselves."
Zachary Cohen, et al., of CNN: "The Justice Department is seeking information about at least seven people in connection with a breach of a Colorado county's voting system as part of efforts to subvert the 2020 election results, according to subpoena documents obtained by CNN that reveal new details about the breadth of the investigation. The subpoena issued to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell earlier this week lists the names of people considered 'subjects' in the investigation -- including people involved in efforts to seize voting machine data in several states as ... Donald Trump and his allies tried to overturn his electoral loss. Lindell has not been charged with any crimes or wrongdoing."
McKenna Oxenden of the New York Times: "A Virginia man who wore a sweatshirt with the words 'Camp Auschwitz' across his chest as he breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Thursday to 75 days in prison, officials said. Robert Keith Packer, 57, of Newport News, was arrested about a week after the insurrection and pleaded guilty in January to one count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol building. In addition to his prison time, which aligned with what prosecutors had requested, Mr. Packer must pay $500 in restitution. Judge Carl J. Nichols of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia said during a virtual court hearing that although there was no evidence that Mr. Packer had used violence against officers, his sweatshirt was 'incredibly offensive,' according to NBC News. The judge also said he felt that Mr. Packer's apology was lacking, compared with those of other defendants who were charged in the riot." Politico's report is here.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden convened a summit meeting at the White House on Thursday to denounce white supremacy and other forms of bias, calling on Americans to speak out against prejudice and taking a veiled swipe at former President Donald J. Trump for in his view countenancing hate-fueled violence.... While Mr. Biden did not mention Mr. Trump by name, he derided his predecessor's response to the Charlottesville violence. 'When the last guy was asked what did he think, he said he thought there were some fine people on both sides,' Mr. Biden said."
Josh Boak & Zeke Miller of the AP: "President Joe Biden announced Thursday that a tentative railway labor agreement has been reached, averting a nationwide strike that could have been devastating to the economy before the pivotal midterm elections.... The president brought business and union leaders to the Oval Office on Thursday morning, then hailed the deal in remarks in the White House Rose Garden. 'This agreement is validation of what I've always believed, unions and management can work together -- can work together -- for the benefit of everyone,' Biden declared." (This is an update of a story linked early yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post describe how President Biden, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg & Labor Secretary Marty Walsh engaged in the negotiations to avert an impending rail strike. "Four decades after President Ronald Reagan fired thousands of striking air traffic controllers, Biden took a markedly different tack, often defending the workers' demands in private discussions."
Republicans Afraid to Guarantee Same-Sex Marriage Rights. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate Democrats decided on Thursday to postpone a planned vote on legislation to provide federal protections for same-sex marriage until after the midterm elections in November, amid dimming hopes of drawing enough Republican support to ensure its passage with tight races on the line. Senator Tammy Baldwin, Democrat of Wisconsin and the lead sponsor of the Respect for Marriage Act, said that delaying action would increase the chance of getting the 10 Republican votes needed to push it through the evenly divided Senate, where 60 would be necessary to move it forward. The decision to do so came as a relief to Republicans, the vast majority of whom oppose the measure and were worried that voting against it so close to the elections would alienate voters."
Mariana Alfaro & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) appeared to kick an unarmed demonstrator during a confrontation outside the Capitol on Thursday afternoon. Videos posted to Twitter by Greene and the Gen Z activist group Voters of Tomorrow show Greene leaving a news conference while being questioned by activists about gun violence. As Greene approaches a crosswalk, she appears to kick one of the activists, who was walking in front of her.... 'Excuse me,' Greene says while at first appearing to step on demonstrator Marianna Pecora's foot. 'Excuse me,' Greene says again, this time after appearing to intentionally draw back her foot and aim for Pecora's leg. 'Oh my God,' Pecora, 18, is seen saying in the videos. 'You can't block members of Congress,' Greene's communications director, Nick Dyer, told Pecora, even though Greene was engaging her in conversation." Includes video.
I thought I was coming to Boston. I ended up on this little island. -- Ardenis Nazareth, a migrant from Venezuela, dumped on Martha's Vineyard ~~~
~~~ Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, et al., of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday defended flying migrants from Texas to a Massachusetts resort island unprepared to receive them.... In interviews with The Washington Post on Thursday, several migrants who had recently crossed the southern border said they boarded the planes after a woman approached them in San Antonio, offering work and a place to stay. They said they did not know they were headed for Martha's Vineyard -- a tiny island where wealthy vacationers spend the summer months -- and believed instead that they were going to large cities. Authorities in Massachusetts said they received no heads-up and scrambled to help. Two charter flights took dozens of migrants from San Antonio to the island on Wednesday afternoon, making stops in Florida and other states along the way, according to local officials on Martha;s Vineyard.... Democratic leaders denounced DeSantis's move Thursday, with Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.) calling on the Justice Department to investigate." A New York Times story is here. A second, related, New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Former HUD Secretary [& Joaquin's twin brother] Julián Castro also has called on the Department of Justice to investigate Republican governors dumping immigrants in blue states. Castro agrees with me that these governors are engaging in human trafficking for their own political gain. Castro appeared on MSNBC to discuss his concerns. No link.
~~~ P.S. If Ron DeSantis & Greg Abbott were hoping their crimes against humanity would prove that liberals don't care about immigrants any more than the governors do, they've been disappointed. People on the Vineyard, Massachusetts authorities & Washington, D.C., charitable groups rushed to the aid of the immigrants the governors dumped in Martha's Vineyard & near the Naval Observatory in D.C., despite the fact that DeSantis & Abbott dropped off the immigrants without warning (well, except to Fox "News").
Beyond the Beltway
Texas. Priscilla Alvarez, et al., of CNN: "Two buses carrying migrants arrived Thursday at the US Naval Observatory -- the vice president's residence in Washington, DC -- from Texas, surprising volunteers who were not prepared to receive them there, volunteers in the district said. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has been busing migrants to the nation's capital to protest the Biden administration's immigration policies, said Thursday in a tweet that his state intentionally sent the buses to Vice President Kamala Harris' residence.... Thursday's passengers included families and young men. Around 70% to 80% of the migrants are from Venezuela, according to volunteers. They had a few belongings in trash bags and some documents.... SAMU First Response, one of the groups helping migrants in Washington, was not provided a heads up, according to the group's managing director, Tatiana Laborde." A photo accompanying the story shows migrants left sitting on the sidewalk outside the Observatory. MB: Republican cruelty knows no bounds. P.S. Vote Beto! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Friday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates for Friday are here. The Guardian's summary report is here. ~~~
~~~ The Washington Post's live briefings for Friday are here: "A mass grave discovered by Ukrainian authorities in the recently liberated city of Izyum appears to be the lates atrocity left by retreating Russian troops, adding to apparent war crimes in Bucha and Mariupol. Officials are expected to announce more details Friday on the burial site, which reports indicated could contain hundreds of bodies.... A top police official for the Kharkiv region told Sky News that more than 400 bodies were discovered at the burial site.... Also on Friday, President Biden is expected to meet with family members of two U.S. citizens held in Russia, WNBA player Brittney Griner and security consultant Paul Whelan. The United States considers them wrongfully detained though the White House indicated that negotiations on their release had not advanced.... The International Atomic Energy Agency called on Russia to 'immediately cease all actions against, and at'the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in a resolution passed by its Board of Governors on Thursday. Twenty-six countries voted in favor, while only Russia and China opposed it, according to Reuters."
Anton Troianovski & Keith Bradsher of the New York Times: "... Vladimir V. Putin acknowledged on Thursday that China had 'questions and concerns' about Russia's war in Ukraine, a notable, if cryptic, admission that Moscow lacks the full backing of its biggest, most powerful partner on the world stage. Mr. Putin met China's leader, Xi Jinping, on Thursday in their first in-person meeting since Russia invaded Ukraine, and as Mr. Xi traveled abroad for the first time since the start of the pandemic. But rather than put on a show of Eurasian unity against the West as Russia struggled to recover from last week's humiliating military retreat in northeastern Ukraine, the two leaders struck discordant notes in their public remarks -- and Mr. Xi made no mention of Ukraine at all.... It was a moment, on the sidelines of a regional summit in Uzbekistan, that showed the daunting political straits Mr. Putin finds himself in nearly seven months into his invasion of Ukraine.... The Russian president on Thursday saw Mr. Xi -- who had pledged a friendship with 'no limits' just three weeks before Russia invaded -- conspicuously withhold any public support for Mr. Putin's war." MB: Apparently Xi doesn't like a loser.
Siobhán O'Grady & Anastacia Galouchka of the Washington Post: "About 10 days before Ukrainian forces retook the city of Izyum last weekend, Russian troops stationed here were so demoralized that they drafted letters begging their superiors to dismiss them from their roles. The 10 handwritten letters, dated Aug. 30, were left behind in a two-story residential house where Russians were squatting and later found by Ukrainian soldiers who provided the letters to The Washington Post for review. They paint a portrait of dejected troops desperate for rest and concerned about their health and morale after months of fighting."
Mary Ilyushina of the Washington Post: "To address Russia's shortage of soldiers to send to war in Ukraine, the Wagner mercenary group seems to be making an offer that it hopes convicted criminals can't refuse: a get out of jail card. 'After six months [at war] you receive a pardon, and there is no option for you to return to prison,' a man dressed in tan-colored fatigues said, addressing a crowd of Russian inmates.... 'Those who arrive [at the front line] and say on Day 1 it's not for them get shot,' the man added. The recording pitch, captured on video, surfaced Monday night on Russian Telegram channels, and the man in fatigues making the offer appears to be Yevgeniy Prigozhin, the billionaire nicknamed 'Putin's chef' who is also the reputed financier of the Wagner private military company.... Russia's shortage of reinforcements was apparently part of the reason Moscow's troops were unprepared for a Ukrainian counteroffensive in recent days that ousted Russian occupying fosters from most of the northeast Kharkiv region." Putin is afraid to impose a military draft, "a move [which] would be politically toxic."
U.K. The Guardian's live updates of events & developments related to memorials to Queen Elizabeth II are here.
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Reader Comments (21)
Will be Wild Redux
The Fat Fascist threatens violence if anyone dares to indict his royal person.
“My thugs will not stand for this!” he promised.
Garland should not stand for being threatened by a criminal. He (and probably Letitia James) has to indict this son of a bitch. You simply can never trust that Trump won’t go any further in his treasonous, criminal, dangerous, and self-serving antics.
But one way to look at this is that he must be feeling the heat. That mobster meeting on the golf course wasn’t just to check out the greens. Someone must be telling this fat fuck that his ass could be indicted for one or more of his many crimes.
Lock him up.
I simply cannot believe that the DoJ has no recourse to appeal the outrageous ruling of this hand picked Trump hack. She needs her own impeachment.
@Akhilleus: I don't think a judge can be impeached for stupid, but I can see where Cannon could be impeached for declaring -- in two opinions -- that the person who appointed her to the court deserves super-special consideration, consideration that would not be given to other litigants or defendants. To me, that looks like corruption.
Right at the top of the federal judicial code of ethics, it says, "The integrity and independence of judges depend in turn on their acting without fear or favor." I don't know about "fear," but Cannon quite obviously was guided by "favor" in these orders, and she admits it.
Marie,
I agree, stupid, by itself might not get you tossed, but its cousin incompetence might. Nonetheless, what we have here looks like 100% corruption. Trump appointed an attorney with practically no experience. She was however a Federalist hack who could be counted on to do his budding when necessary, which she did. Not once, but several times. She even announced her intention to give Trump what he wanted (a special master) before each side was heard. Her ruling them disallows the Justice Department from pursuing a case with clear national security importance and one on a serious timeline, thus letting Fatty run out the clock. Then she sez “Oh yeah, and anybody Trump wants can rummage through top secret documents. Finally, she goes with Trump’s hand picked dejection for the special master, declaring that Trump, because of his position as TFG, deserves special treatment. Corruption like you read about.
And make no mistake, Trump and the rest of the GQP crooks now have plenty of other implanted stooges on federal benches when they go shopping for similarly inclined “judges”.
https.//news.yahoo.com/rep-taylor-greene-r-ga-211753480.html?.tsrc-
daily_mail&uh_test=0_00
Marjorie Taylor Greene wants a government shutdown until all of
this investigating of her friends and allies stops. They're coming after
all of us, she says.
Well, probably only the guilty ones. Does she have a guilt complex?
One of the MSNBC legal experts said last night one of the purposes of Cannon's appointment of a Special Master might have been desire for cover, that she was thinking primarily of her own safety.
The alternative to a SM would have been for her to look through the trove herself and make decisions. This way she avoids them all.
She doesn't have to decide what's classified or not or why. What might be protected by attorney-client privilege or not. What might qualify as executively privileged?
She doesn't even have to decide if any of these concerns are real or mere figments of the Pretender's fevered imagination.
One pundit, in fact, called her a "chicken."
Now she can live in the hope this mess is out of her hands until after the fall elections (tho' I could easily go through at least a thousand pieces of paper a day and be done in under two weeks...How hard could it be?).
Cannon's failure of nerve aside, DOJ might well appeal the shakier parts of her decision.
And according to some of the same talking heads, the appeals court is likely to emphasize her opinions' many legal shortcomings---
which would then leave us with a judge that both chicken and stupid.
Forrest,
Projection, my man, pure projection. The traitors have been coming after all of us for a long time now, and Greene is one of the chief coming after types.
GOP Jesus
Once again the bulk of the news is about Trump. He is like an ill wind that sweeps across the plains, turns into a tornado that hits the whole of the states and refuses to let up. His warning that if he is convicted there will be a backlash "like you've never seen anything like it" is exactly what he always says––-nothing he is involved with is ever presented as "normal"––another indication of his need to be ABOVE it all–-the great wizard of Oz behind the curtain but always pretending to be front and center. When he finally gets convicted–(of how many crimes?) will he continue to incite his lemmings to "stand back and stand strong" or will he finally find the strength to admit his wrongs. Bets now on the table––pick a card.
The immigrants dumped on Martha's Vineyard and on D.C. by the spiteful twosome of the worst governors in the U.S. MUST be a criminal offense. The fact that in both these cases we had people that cared and rallied round to help. On the island they even had school kids who had taken Spanish help with translations.
And speaking of judge shopping…
The other day I listened to a jaw dropping interview with The NY Times Business Investigation Editor, David Enrich, on Terry Gross’s show Fresh Air. I listened while walking the dog and several times he turned around to see why daddy had stopped in his tracks. I tried to explain that I was looking for something heavy to throw, but he was more interested in squirrels.
And speaking of rodents…
Enrich’s new book is called “Servants of the Damned: Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice”. It’s more than worth a listen for the insider background on how a huge right-wing law firm helped Trump win, and helped themselves to easy court victories for their clients. The firm, Jones-Day, had partners and lawyers dug in like ticks in the Trump administration. Don McGahn, a Jones-Day senior partner, was Fatty’s White House Counsel. Trump’s Solicitor General also came from Jones-Day.
And right off the bat, the devils went to work reshaping the American judiciary and the Supreme Court to their liking, a Jones-Day plan in conjunction with Mitch McConnell and their Federalist buddies (something I never knew, Antonio Scalia was a Jones-Day alum).
Here’s how it worked. McGahn had a meeting with Mitch McConnell before the inauguration in which the Evil Turtle told McGahn that he should jettison the standard procedure for selecting and vetting judges, for all federal courts, but especially the Supreme Court. He trusted that McGahn would stick to the plan of getting lists supplied by the Federalist Society, an agreement with Trump that got him the backing of a lot of the GOP power brokers. Plus, by streamlining the process, McGahn could set up a rapid fire conveyor belt for selected candidates who could be trusted to do their bidding directly into the justice system. Which is how Aileen Cannon got to be a judge.
But even better, for McGahn and his firm, which he returned to after a few years, whenever Jones-Day and one of their evil-ass clients needed a friendly judge, McGahn could steer them directly to people he had hand picked. This isn’t just judge shopping, this was judge cultivation.
This was also the epitome of the swamp Trump promised to drain: Judges selected for their reliably winger rulings so that right-wing clients of Jones-Day and other GOP friendly firms could use them to guarantee big money, no stress wins.
A quick Swamp Anecdote…
One longtime lawyer at Jones-Day, a guy named Don Ayer, who worked for a time for Reagan, and who was mostly an old school conservative who actually believed in such a thing as principles, was recruited to work for Dick Thornburgh when Poppy Bush slid into the White House off Reagan’s coattails. Thornburgh, the AG at the time, tasked Ayer with the job of kneecapping some of Thornburgh’s enemies. Ayer refused. Thornburgh booted him and brought in a thoroughly unprincipled young lawyer who had no problem with underhanded ratfucking: Bill Barr.
Ayer went back to Jones-Day, but after the firm went all in on Trump, whom Ayer found appalling, he was forced out.
But now we’re stuck with the McGahn-McConnell-Trump judges for decades.
The rodents have stocked up on nuts. I’d point Rocket their way if I could. But even after an ass-biting, they’d still be screwing the nation over in service to the traitors.
Oh, by the way, the title of Enrich’s book, “Servants of the Damned” reminded me of a movie called “Devil’s Advocate” in which Al Pacino plays the founder of a Jones-Day type law firm. He’s also actually Satan, who makes sure that his evil-ass clients always win. One of the subplots involves a narcissistic NYC billionaire real estate developer (clearly modeled after Trump) who murders his mistress. The producers needed a location to show off this character’s faux regal sense of himself, a gaudy, cheesy, gold covered apartment that said “Rich Asshole”.
They used Trump’s penthouse for a meeting where the devil sets up a defense for the murderer. Check it out.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MovieDetails/comments/hjia8j/the_billionaire_accused_of_murder_in_the_devils/
And here’s a piece Enrich wrote for Vanity Fair. But also listen to the Fresh Air interview. The damage that Trump and these fuckers have inflicted on the United States in just a few years is truly astounding.
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/09/heavyweight-law-firm-hitched-the-gop-establishment-to-donald-trump/amp
KELLY COMES FORWARD–--but late––in a book:
Trump administration chief of staff John Kelly studied experts’ dire assessments of Donald Trump’s mental health to help him learn how to cope with the erratic behavior of his boss, according to a shocking revelation in an upcoming book by Baker and Glasser that we talked about yesterday:
"Trump’s behavior was so disturbing that members of his own Cabinet tentatively discussed utilizing the 25th Amendment to force him out of office just months into his term, according to “The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021.”
But Cabinet members opted not to take action because they feared flaws in the amendment could make Trump more dangerous if they failed to get him out of the White House.
As for Kelly, he secretly purchased “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump” the first year Trump was in office. The book featured 27 mental health experts who warned that Trump was unfit for the presidency.
Kelly, a retired Marine general, consulted the book as he “sought help to understand the president’s particular psychoses” as he ran the White House, which Kelly referred to as “Crazytown,” according to “The Divider,” a copy of which was obtained by The Guardian.
“Kelly told others that the book was a helpful guide to a president he came to consider a pathological liar whose inflated ego was in fact the sign of a deeply insecure person,”
Other unnamed senior officials reportedly shared Kelly’s view. “The Divider” quotes one as saying: “I think there’s something wrong with [Trump]. He doesn’t listen to anybody, and he feels like he shouldn’t. He just doesn’t care what other people say and think. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
And yet––and yet we never had a peep from Kelly at the time and like others we allowed this mad man take over and overtake this country unearthing all the evil weebles waiting in the wings ready to "make it great again" by destroying its very fiber of democracy.
RAS,
Jesus, that was funny.
AK: Thanks for the Jones Day comments. I put this on sometime last month but no one commented on it. I found it to be revelatory and am glad you brought it to our attention again.
I can’t even comment adequately re the new evils in the country, brought to us by repugs and judges. Am speechless. Have a nice weekend.
PD,
It’s become an epidemic, people harboring secrets that might have made a difference, stockpiling them instead to sell books a few years on.
It’s like someone in 1945 writes a book in which he reveals that so and so, some low level schmoe at the Japanese embassy in Washington, let on, during a binge at some DC bar, that Pearl Harbor was going to be attacked. “Hmmm…should I put this in the papers? Nah…save it for the book.”
There has, in fact, been speculation for years that people in the FDR administration knew about the attack beforehand but let it happen in order to bring the US into the war. Similar speculation has it that Churchill knew about the Coventry bombing, via decoded Enigma messages, but let it happen so as not to give away that hole card.
If so, at least he never put it in a book later.
Here’s a thought:
Section 274(a)(1)(A)(ii) of the Immigration and Nationality Act makes it a federal crime to knowingly transport undocumented persons across state lines. — Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott should be immediately arrested.
But, but DeSantis and Abbott didn't do it. They just paid to make it
happen. The airlines did it, not we. We be innocent bystanders.
Send more money so the airlines can do it again.
Or send more money because we may need high powered lawyers,
like Rudy (ha, ha).
@P.D. Pepe & Akhilleus: How is it that John Kelly, a retired Marine general who has stuck with the tough-guy look & demeanor, didn't have the guts to warn the nation that Trump was crazy as a loon? Why is it that relatively low-level staffers like Miles Taylor, formerly known as "Anonymous," & former Pence staffer Olivia Troye have more strength of character than Mr. Semper Fi?
Sure, Kelly & others did a lot of leaking to Maggie Haberman, et al., about some of Trump's antics, but that's not nearly enough. If just half the Cabinet had managed to find some honesty bone for a few short minutes and come out before the cameras to tell the truth about Trump, we might not be in quite the mess we are now. But no. They're all a bunch of chickens, and worse: they're dangerously unpatriotic. The military should strip some of "Trump's generals" of a star or two for subordination. And Michael Flynn should lose his pension.
I suppose it's a good thing that the bus lines are a shadow of what they were in the 60s, or Abbott would surely be using them as a cheaper alternative. Better yet, I'm sure that a state like Texas can round up a slew of cattle cars for transport. The cruelty is there for all to see...and they're oh so proud of it.
Trump and the Lawyers
A link above detailing how Trump is getting other people to pay his legal fees reminded me of an anecdote recalled by David Enrich in his book about Jones-Day, mentioned in an earlier comment.
Back in the 90’s when Fatty was just a run-of-the-mill grifter and con man, he had a visit from a lawyer to whom he owed millions of dollars. The lawyer called Trump out, demanding to know why he hadn’t returned his calls or paid his bill. Trump told him flat out that he simply wasn’t going to pay for the work he had gotten. But, he said, in a true con-man switcheroo, he would give the stiffed lawyer something better and worth much more (I thought at this point he was going to offer an autographed picture of himself).
He pulled out a piece of paper from a desk drawer and handed it to the guy. “This is the deed to a horse. A really great horse, worth more than $5 million!”
The lawyer declined. “This is not the 1800’s. You can’t pay me with a horse!”
A scamming deadbeat from way back.
An extra bit of cruelty inflicted by the DeSantis-Abbott human trafficking scheme? Many of those sent up to the Vineyard have immigration hearings in TEXAS on MONDAY!!! (Per report on NPR.)
Oops. You guys couldn’t make it? Too bad…bwahaha!
These people were lured onto a plane by some Abbott or DeSantis operative who told them they were going to Boston where their immigration papers were being processed and where they’d have a place to live and jobs. All lies. Just to FUCK these poor people and get an attaboy on Fox.
This is the most evil kind of shit imaginable. Well, I shouldn’t be so definitive about that, these fuckers are likely capable of much worse.
Once more, if you have a problem with immigration policy, develop a workable and humanistic plan of your own and let’s sit down and hammer out something that everyone can live with. But no, Republicans have no interest in policy. They’re only interested in stunts and humiliation of people on their last legs, trying to stay alive. How fucking horrible is that? Seriously!
And yet these same fucking people consider being asked to wear a mask during a worldwide pandemic the most outrageous attack on human rights one could think of.
No. This IS pretty fucking evil shit, just to corral votes from bigots and traitors.