;)
The Conversation -- August 21, 2023
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Delaying Donald Trump's federal trial for his efforts to stop the peaceful transfer of power until 2026 would 'deny the public its right to a speedy trial,' federal prosecutors for special counsel Jack Smith wrote in a court filing on Monday.... Smith's team wrote that Trump's proposal is premised on the notion that lawyers will individually and manually review discovery, which is not consistent with modern practices.... 'In cases such as this one, the burden of reviewing discovery cannot be measured by page count alone, and comparisons to the height of the Washington Monument and the length of a Tolstoy novel are neither helpful nor insightful; in fact, comparisons such as those are a distraction from the issue at hand -- which is determining what is required to prepare for trial,' they wrote. 'To accomplish that, the discovery should instead be measured by its relevance, organization, accessibility, searchability, and reviewability. Here, the Government has organized and produced materials in a manner designed to ease and expedite the defendant's review and search, which allows for trial to proceed as the Government has proposed.'"
~~~~~~~~~~~
Trump Crime Family Blotter
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows has asked a federal court to order all charges against him brought by Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors last week to be dismissed, since he says the charges relate to his then-role in the federal government. In a weekend filing, Meadows argues he should have immunity from the state's 2020 election interference criminal case because he was carrying out his duties as a federal official working for ... Donald Trump. The filing argues that his actions arose only because he was serving Trump as a close White House adviser." MB: I doubt this motion will succeed. And personally, I think it's a bad "look" for Meadows to formally declare he should not be held responsible for his actions. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post explains several reasons that efforts of various Georgia defendants, including Donald Trump & Mark Meadows, should not be successful in their attempts to remove the cases against them from state to federal court. (Meadows has already filed to remove the case.) For one thing, "Neither Trump nor Meadows ... had any constitutional duties regarding state certification of Georgia's own election. The Framers parceled out election duties to the states, the electoral college and Congress, but not the president. Moreover, in seeking removal, a defendant must also show that he has a 'colorable' defense under federal law, such as immunity. [That is, they must have a federal defense against the charges, which they don't.]... Federal Judge Emmet Sullivan in Washington, D.C., held last November, 'If Former President Trump disrupted the certification of the electoral vote count..., such actions would not constitute executive action in defense of the Constitution.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "Appearing to contradict ... Donald Trump's primary public defense in the classified documents case, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows has told special counsel Jack Smith's investigators that he could not recall Trump ever ordering, or even discussing, declassifying broad sets of classified materials before leaving the White House, nor was he aware of any 'standing order' from Trump authorizing the automatic declassification of materials taken out of the Oval Office.... ABC News has also reviewed an early draft of the prologue to Meadows' book ... about his time serving as Trump's chief of staff..., which includes a description of Trump having a classified war plan 'on the couch' at his office in Bedminster, New Jersey, at a meeting attended by Meadows' ghostwriter and publicist, but not by Meadows himself. The reference to that document being in Trump's possession was removed before the book was published. Multiple sources tell ABC News Meadows acknowledged to investigators that he asked that the paragraph be changed, and that it would be 'problematic' had Trump had such a document in his possession. Sources tell ABC News that Meadows told special counsel investigators that he did not discuss making those edits with Trump." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jamie Gangel, et al., of CNN (Aug. 18): "In the days since the FBI seized classified and top secret documents from Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort, the former President and his allies have claimed that Trump had a 'standing order' to declassify documents he took from the Oval Office to the White House residence. But 18 former top Trump administration officials tell CNN they never heard any such order issued during their time working for Trump, and that they believe the claim to be patently false.... 'Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given,' said John Kelly, who served as Trump's chief of staff for 17 months from 2017 to 2019. 'And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it.' Mick Mulvaney, who succeeded Kelly as acting White House chief of staff, also dismissed the idea and told CNN he was 'not aware of a general standing order' during his tenure." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Summer Concepcion of NBC News: "Former Vice President Mike Pence ... said Sunday he did not know of any 'broad-based effort' by ... Donald Trump to declassify documents before he left the White House.... '... I don't have any knowledge of any broad-based directive from the president,' he [said]. 'But that doesn't mean it didn't occur, I just -- it's just not something that I ever heard about.'" MB: This "secret declassification" defense has never made a whit of sense. Everyone who has access to government documents has to know the current classification status of each document. Unless there was a general government-wide email announcement every day like, "Okay, the Prez took today's Presidential Daily Briefing to his residence so you can post it on your Facebook page and talk about it with Putin," then the PDB remained, as it should be, classified. (Also linked yesterday.)
Shawna Mizelle of CNN: "Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy described the case against ... Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents as 'almost a slam dunk' and said he thinks Trump should drop out of the 2024 presidential race. '... He will lose to Joe Biden, if you look at the current polls,' he told CNN's Kasie Hunt on 'State of the Union.' 'I think any Republican on that stage in Milwaukee will do a better job than Joe Biden. And so I want one of them to win...,' the Louisiana senator said. The comments from Cassidy, who was one of seven GOP senators who voted to convict Trump in 2021 at his second impeachment trial, mark some of his strongest criticism of Trump to date. They come as the various charges against Trump continue to dominate the GOP primary, with the former president widely viewed as the party's front-runner." (Also linked yesterday.)
Blame It on the Supremes. Gregory Margarian, in a New York Times op-ed: The police raid of a small-town Kansas newspaper & its editor and the seizure of the paper's records & devices, supported by a local judge's warrant, "sounds like a lurid tale from Vladimir Putin's Russia.... But the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker documents dozens of government (as well as private) offenses against American journalists every year -- not just searches and seizures but also arrests, physical assaults by the police, prior restraints, intimidation and improper denials of access to locations and information.... Much of [the problem] owes to the [Supreme Court] justices'; disdaining of the social value of the press while fixating instead on the First Amendment rights of businesses, big electoral spenders and anti-abortion extremists. By abandoning the press, the Supreme Court has licensed law enforcement and lower courts to regard journalists with ignorance, laziness or malice. This problem is especially acute in smaller communities that get little outside scrutiny."
Presidential Race 2024
Arlette Saenz of CNN: "President Joe Biden is preparing to blanket the airwaves with a $25 million television and digital ad campaign in battleground states this month as Republicans are set to face off in their first presidential primary debate. The first minute-long ad, titled 'Fought Back,' which was first obtained by CNN, has an economic focus, marking the campaign's latest effort to improve voter perceptions about Biden's handling of the economy. It also makes explicit reference to ... Donald Trump, as Democrats attempt to tie GOP candidates at this week's debate to Trump's 'MAGA agenda.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
"A Weird Group of Folks." Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) on Sunday called the GOP presidential candidates heading to the debate stage a 'weird group of folks.' When asked by NBC's 'Meet The Press' moderator Chuck Todd about his working relationship with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R), who appeared earlier on the show, Walz said he was 'sad' to see Burgum dodge so many questions about former President Trump and his mounting legal troubles. 'I do believe that Doug is probably the most normal of these -- that's a pretty weird group of folks going to be on the debate stage...,' Walz said.... '[T]he minute they all step on the stage, the American people have lost. Are they going to debate who can ban the most books?'"
~~~~~~~~~~
California. AP: "A dispute over an LGBTQ+ pride flag at a California clothing store spiraled into deadly violence this weekend when a man shot and killed the 66-year-old business owner right in front of her shop, authorities said. The man ran away from the store after the shooting Friday night but was later found and killed in a confrontation with officers from the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department. The agency said Laura Ann Carleton was pronounced dead at Mag.Pi, the store she owned and operated in Cedar Glen. The small community in the San Bernadino Mountains is roughly 60 miles (96 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles." The New York Times story is here. MB: In Guns America, you can get shot dead for just being a decent human being. It's so disheartening.
Ecuador. Genevieve Glatsky, et al., of the New York Times: "An establishment leftist and a newcomer businessman appeared to capture the top two spots in Ecuador's presidential election on Sunday in a campaign cycle that has centered on voters' frustration with the country's soaring gang and drug cartel violence. Luisa González, who was backed by a former socialist president, and the political outsider Daniel Noboa received the highest percentage of ballots with 84 percent of the vote counted. They will compete in a runoff election on Oct. 15."
Guatemala. Nic Wirtz & Mary Beth Sheridan of the Washington Post: "A political outsider who has vowed to fight corruption was headed for a landslide victory in Sunday's presidential election in Guatemala -- a vote that could mark a turning point for a nation with a faltering democracy. The big question as Guatemalans cast their ballots, though, wasn't just whether Bernardo Arévalo would win. It was whether he'd be allowed to govern. Prosecutors tried unsuccessfully to suspend his party after he finished as the surprise runner-up in the first round of voting on June 25. U.S. and European Union officials, as well as the Organization of American States, pressed the government to allow a fair race. With nearly 96 percent of the vote tallied, Arévalo had a 59 percent to 36 percent lead, according to provisional results -- crushing his opponent Sandra Torres, a former first lady seen as close to the traditional Guatemalan political and economic power brokers." MB: Gosh, sounds like the U.S., where a loser president* tried to negate the results of a presidential election.
Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia, Yemen. Sarah Dadouch of the Washington Post: "Saudi security forces have killed hundreds of Ethiopian migrants and asylum seekers attempting to cross the country's border with Yemen, Human Rights Watch said, shooting people at close range and firing explosive weapons at groups in the mountains in what could amount to crimes against humanity. In a report released Monday, the New-York based human rights organization detailed a pattern of killings it said was widespread and systematic, based on interviews with witnesses and an analysis of photos, videos and satellite imagery going back to 2021.... The report accuses Saudi forces -- including border guards and possibly specialized units -- of killing 'hundreds, possibly thousands' of Ethiopians in recent years while subjecting survivors and detainees to torture, rape and other inhumane treatment." MB: But, hey, let's be friends with Saudi Arabia. Is there no point at which the U.S. President & State Department will say enough is enough?
News Ledes
The New York Times live updates of developments from Tropical Storm Hilary are here: "Southern California residents on Monday were assessing the impact of Hilary, a powerful storm whose strong winds and lashing rains transformed roads into streams, broke rainfall records, downed trees and power lines and knocked out 911 systems in several places. Officials warned that the extent of the damage was not yet known, though initial reports indicated that Southern California had evaded the worst. Areas to the north and northeast were still at risk of heavy rain and flooding from the storm, which weakened to a post-tropical cyclone with winds that were expected to dissipate further as the day wore on." ~~~
~~~ AP: "Tropical Storm Hilary deluged arid parts of Mexico and then drenched Southern California from the coast to inland mountains and deserts, forcing rescuers to pull several people from swollen rivers. Millions expected more flooding and mudslides Monday, even as the storm begins to weaken. The storm first made landfall in Mexico's arid Baja California Peninsula on Sunday in a sparsely populated area about 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Ensenada. One person drowned. It then moved through mudslide-prone Tijuana, threatening the improvised homes that cling to hillsides just south of the U.S. border. The first tropical storm to hit Southern California in 84 years, Hilary dropped more than half an average year's worth of rain on some areas, including the desert resort city of Palm Springs, which saw nearly 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain by Sunday evening."
AP: "A moderate earthquake shook a large swath of Southern California on Sunday just hours after a tropical storm came ashore bringing torrential rain. The 5.1-magnitude quake struck at 2:41 p.m. about 4 miles (7 kilometers) southeast of the mountain community of Ojai, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of downtown Los Angeles, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was felt widely across the region and bookended by smaller foreshocks and aftershocks, the USGS said." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Maybe if I still lived in Southern California, I'd believe in powerful supernatural forces, and about now I'd believe the gods were extremely irritated.
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Reader Comments (18)
So what else is new: Republicans are furious that Pres. Biden is
selling off leftover border wall material that trump spent millions
of dollars on and never used. Wonder how many millions he made
on those deals with suppliers?
We could probably make much more profit if they were advertised as
trump memorabilia and sold to MAGA-nuts. I'll bet they'd pay lots
of money for a trump bolt (or screw).
https:www.newsweek.com/republicans-furious-biden-sells-border-
wall-millions-1821115
@Forrest Morris: As usual, you come up with the best solutions to ordinary problems, like how the U.S. can maximize profits from rusty nuts & bolts. The Treasury Department should put you on the payroll. You'd earn your first year's salary the day you got your I.D. card.
@unwashed: In response to a comment you made yesterday: for some reason, I don't get the YouTube ads featuring Hakeem Jeffries, and you'd think a New Hampshire resident would get every political ad. But I don't.
I have heard Jeffries speak a few times, and I don't think he's copying President Obama specifically. There is a Black cadence & style of oration, which I find quite effective, and that's what I think Jeffries has "inherited." You hear it from a lot from Black preachers, for instance. It's not original to Obama, but he's good at it. I don't think Jeffries' adopting that style is necessarily "affected" any more than it is affected to perform "Swan Lake" in much the same way the dancers before you did.
Maybe what you really don't like is the repetition. When I hear the same ads over and over again, I get mighty tired of them.
Pay for Play
"Florida governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis was "personally involved" in "efforts to effectively auction off leisure time" to wealthy donors who were seeking to "influence" policies in the Sunshine State — and much of it was recorded in writing by DeSantis staffers, Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey reveal in Sunday's Washington Post.
After "DeSantis took office in 2019, his political team made a list of the state's top 40 lobbyists and about 100 of their 'Suggested Clients to target' for political contributions, according to a fundraising document reviewed by The Washington Post," the correspondents write. "Next to the name of each lobbyist was a dollar figure, an 'ask' that the DeSantis team hoped they would raise based on their book of clients, whose names were also listed in the document and included large corporations such as Disney and Motorola, as well as sports organizations, billionaires and interest groups with extensive business before the state."
"The 2019 document detailed other avenues for securing contributions. 'METHODS FOR FIRMS TO DELIVER SUPPORT: Golf, lunch, meetings, dinner, tours, events, etc. — Each have a threshold (ex. Golf $25k per person, which is a deal)"
We've been doing the new RC format for three weeks now. It seems to me that Marie is still doing a lot of work; I don't think she needs sleep.
And I have a question.
My normal linked post provides minimal summary of the linked text, because I'm thinking that I'm sending the reader to another place. But Marie and several others often post linked synopses that provide more direct quotes and summaries of the main points of the article.
The former method assumes readers can open the linked articles, but since many are from the NYT or the WaPo, does that pose a problem for those who have no subscriptions? Years ago I used to open articles in incognito to get around paywalls, but I haven't done that in a while. Is that still viable?
So ... is it better to keep the comment short and rely on the link to the actual article, or take up a bit more of the reader's time by writing a longer synopsis ... with the attendant risk of creatng some personal editorial bias (heaven forbid!!) ?
Marie: Another problem solved. Marie's salad dressings skyrocketed
in price, like 22 dollars for a 12 oz. jar.
I can make my own for about 1/10th of that and with the money I
save, I can buy beef fillets at 30 dollars a pound.
Guess I'll have to go back to work in my old age.
@Forrest Morris: First, I am not responsible for the rise in price of Marie's salad dressing. Second, the pricing is extremely weird. I just checked the Googles shopping, and someplace called "EveryMarket" is selling it for $115 for three 12-oz. bottles. But Walmart has it for $4/bottle and other stores are only a bit more.
So I think an easier solution might be to try a different supermarket.
Patrick—. I can never wholly open up those pieces—. Sometimes there is a strip covering them and I can scroll up and down and read around them. I am pretty sure I will never buy subscriptions, as their stubborn bothsideserism drives me insane, especially TNYT, who has been at this for as long as I remember and has facilitated the democracy downfall. Since I trust RC’s readers, I prefer the synopsis every time.
The Daily Beast has an article on those $25K golf excursions that
DeSantis takes to a 'lush' golf course in Georgia.
Seems he's not a member of that country club which charges thousands
of dollars for membership.
He's been told to pay up or stay out. Will he now be taking them to
a trump golf course?
I never thought of calling a golf course 'lush'. I know it has more than
one meaning so I must have a dirty mind.
@Patrick: When I post a link, I try to get to the gist of the article, and usually, I try to be even-handed. What I don't bother to do is waste the reader's time on Trumpy denials of a story's content. I guess that would make my summary more "balanced," but of course I think everything Trumpy is bull.
I try to keep my synopsis as short as possible while still conveying the gist of the story. But this means leaving out background info, citations from experts or interested parties and anecdotal material.
This forces me to give particularly short shrift to many opinion pieces: I can get across the writer's point, but an 800-word opinion piece will include arguments to back up the main point, and that very good argument winds up on my cutting-room floor. The reader just has to read the piece, and of course that's not possible where I link a subscription-only op-ed.
Sometimes, where I'm trying to make a point, I'm just going for a fact or opinion gleaned from a particular story, and the reader, I think, can generally tell what I'm up to.
When I post NYT & WashPo stories, I try to link an "alternative," too, though I don't always look for one or find one. Frankly, the NYT WashPo are usually -- but not always -- the best written & most informative stories on a topic, but I try to find alternate sites that at least give the basic facts.
One thing I keep meaning to do but don't get around to is checking with my community library to see if I can link from home through the library to subscription-only websites. Some libraries used to provide that service; I'm not sure if they still do. If anyone has experience with hooking up local library sharing, let us know. Obviously, libraries differ, but it may be worth a try.
Everybody seems surprised that DeSantis is selling face-time, but all politicians do that. (I do think it's hilarious that he's selling rounds of golf at a club where he's not a member. Maybe he misinterpreted the meaning of "droit du seigneur"; at any rate, he seems to be assuming he's the seigneur.)
@Forrest Morris: Very green, thick grass is often described as "lush." Golf courses usually maintain green grass even in dry areas or dry seasons, so they are comparatively "lush."
It was the hair all along!
Can we import some Supremes from Canada? We could use more people in the courts like former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada Rosalie Silberman Abella.
"We need to put justice back in charge, and to do that, we need to put compassion back in the service of law and law in the service of humanity. We need the rule of justice, not just the rule of law. Otherwise, what’s the point of law? Or lawyers? What good is the rule of law if there’s no justice? And to make justice happen, we can never forget how the world looks to those who are vulnerable. It’s what I consider to be the law’s majestic purpose and the legal profession’s noble mandate."
Points taken... I also like that Marie's links open in a new tab and will try that syntax in the future. And, given that I'm unlikely to post often, I tried to use the gift function when posting the NY Times link yesterday but got an error when previewing...likely a typo, or possibly the link needs a different syntax to accommodate the long line?
@laura hunter: Unfortunately, there's no way to open links in a new tab from the Comments section. I consulted the Squarespace people about this when I couldn't do it myself, and they said there just isn't the facility for it.
** HOWEVER, if you want to open a link in a new tab, whether it's in the Reality Chex Comments section or someplace else on the internet, simply RIGHT-CLICK YOUR MOUSE ON THE LINK, and a options box will open allowing you to open the page in a new tab, a new window, or new private (incognito) window.
I use this right-click feature all the time whether I'm wanting to open a news story or an ad for socks.
If you're consistently having the same problem in trying to link stories, try emailing to me -- constantweader@gmail.com -- the comment you originally wrote (not whatever comes up in the preview) and maybe I can diagnose what's gone wrong.
Fatty the famous chiseler, has bail set at $200,000.
Will he pay? He never pays anything else. According to the Times piece, the traitors, er, defendants in this case of election fraud (see? There WAS fraud in Georgia! At least a pretty good attempt at it…) only have to fork over 10% to stay out of jail until the trial, but 20,000 smackers is a shitload of Big Macs and Diet Cokes. I’m sure he’ll have one of his Free the Traitor PACs pay it.
Meanwhile, near indigent (according to him) traitor mouthpiece, Rudy Giuliani, is still scrambling to dig up carfare, martini, and hair dye money, because the guy he’s going to jail for has stiffed him. He might need to start collecting cans. Hey, at $0.05/can be can make fifty bucks for 1,000 cans! Not bad, right? He should have been collecting Fatty’s Diet Coke cans. He probably goes through a thousand a week. That oughta pay for a bottle of hair dye anyway. Might as well look good in the Off to Prison Bus.
@Akhilleus: You're all heart! Maybe we should start a national recycling program to help Rudy make bail: "Diet Coke Cans for Rudy." We could send all the cans to Mar-a-Lardo but Lardo would redeem the cans & keep the money so maybe Plan B would be to dump them in front of Rudy's Manhattan building -- at least until he has to sell his condo.
Marie,
Now that I think of it, the collecting cans idea is a non-starter. Collecting cans involves recycling. Recycling is an important step in protecting the environment, and traitors despise anything to do with environmental protection.
Might as well go back to the grift.