;)
The Conversation -- May 13, 2024
New York Times reporters are liveblogging the Manhattan criminal trial of Donald Trump: ~~~
Maggie Haberman: "Trump has entered the room, wearing a blue-and-white striped tie, and Senator J.D. Vance and Eric Trump trailing him, among others."
Jonah Bromwich: "Also with him are Boris Ephsteyn, his legal adviser; Alina Habba, one of the lawyers from his civil fraud trial; Representative Nicole Malliotakis; Senator Tommy Tuberville; and the Iowa and Alabama attorneys general. This is the biggest entourage we've seen him with so far.... Susan Hoffinger, the head of investigations at the Manhattan district attorney's office, will handle the questioning [of Michael Cohen] for the prosecution and has been preparing for months.... Hoffinger starts by asking Cohen about his background, and he mentions he's a descendant of Holocaust survivors. He says he 'really didn't want to be a lawyer,' but that his family is filled with them.... Cohen says that he came into Trump's circle by purchasing Trump properties. Then, he says, Trump himself offered him an opportunity to work at the Trump Organization 'as his special counsel.'"
Haberman: "Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Cohen if Trump paid him for early legal work he did at a Trump building, Trump World Tower. 'No, ma'am,' he replies.... Michael Cohen is now testifying that he went to meet with Trump on a bill about another matter.... Trump asked if Cohen was happy at his 'sleepy old firm,' and Cohen ultimately went to work for Trump. The bill was never paid. Trump told Cohen that he would only report to him."
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen begins to describe the projects he began to undertake for Trump, saying that they were 'exciting' to him."
Jesse McKinley: "It was whatever he wanted,' Michael Cohen says when asked to describe his duties at the Trump Organization. Cohen leans into the word 'he.'"
Haberman: "Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, is eliciting testimony from Cohen that he didn't work in the general counsel's office at the Trump Organization -- he worked directly with Trump.... Michael Cohen is now describing talking to Trump every single day, multiple times a day, before the 2016 election. It was either in person or by cell phone, Cohen testifies.... Michael Cohen is now testifying that he 're-negotiated' certain bills Trump felt were too high. This testimony is significant to the case: it shows Cohen directly interacting with Trump on money, and Trump focused on what he paid and received.... Michael Cohen is now testifying about threatening lawsuits against people while he worked for Trump. One was a Miss USA contestant. In other cases, Cohen said, he would be antagonistic to reporters, warning them that Trump would sue them over specific stories."
Bromwich: "Susan Hoffinger ... asks if Michael Cohen interacted frequently with the press. Prosecutors are seeking to emphasize how much Trump cared about what was written about him, even before he ran for president. Hoffinger asks if Cohen worked to 'minimize negative stories' and enhance positive ones about Trump. That's the crux of the conspiracy that prosecutors say Cohen, Trump, and The National Enquirer entered into during the election: suppressing negative stories about Trump to aid his chances as a candidate."
Haberman: "Susan Hoffinger ... has Cohen recount conversations with Trump in which he explained why he didn't use email. 'He would comment that emails are like written papers. He knows too many people who have gone down as a direct result of having emails that prosecutors can use in a case,' he recalled."
Jonathan Swan: "Hoffinger used Cohen to testify how Trump didn't like leaving a written record of what he was doing, because, in Cohen's telling, he didn't want his words to get him into legal trouble. This helps prepare the jury for a gap in the prosecution's case: that they need to rely on Cohen's word -- and not a written record, like an email -- to prove that Trump himself was involved in the falsification of business records."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen says he lied to people on Trump's behalf. Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks him about being called Trump's 'fixer.' 'It's fair,' Cohen replies."
McKinley: "Cohen is describing a remarkably servile attitude towards Trump. 'The only thing that was on my mind was to accomplish the task, to make him happy,' he says.... Cohen says he had more than 30,000 contacts in his phone."
Haberman: "Cohen explains that part of the reason there were so many contacts is because Trump agreed to have his own contacts synced onto Cohen's phone for ease."
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen is now describing his relationship with David Pecker, the former publisher of The National Enquirer, who was the first witness at this trial. Pecker testified that he, Cohen and Trump entered into a secret plan to suppress negative stories about Trump in 2015. Cohen will likely echo that testimony. Already, he has corroborated some of what Pecker said about when he first met Cohen. Cohen says he sometimes contacted Pecker using the encrypted application Signal -- one of the small pieces of corroboration."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now describing how Trump would try to get a 'good story,' a phrase Trump himself often uses about coverage, including by making a charitable donation and having articles written about it.... Michael Cohen is now explaining that he wasn't going to be a part of the 2016 presidential campaign -- he was 'just going to be a surrogate,' he says. This is the first in what is likely to be a series of humiliations by Trump that Cohen is expected to testify to.... Cohen says he still did some activities on behalf of the campaign, like putting together a so-called 'diversity' coalition, which he's describing here. He was also given a campaign email address, he says.... Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Michael Cohen if he ever talked to Trump about whether he was concerned that negative personal stories would come forward. Cohen describes a conversation before the presidential campaign kickoff, quoting Trump saying, 'You know that when this comes out, meaning the announcement, just be prepared, there's going to be a lot of women coming forward.'" [Emphasis added.]
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen has now testified that he, Trump and David Pecker..., entered into a plot to suppress negative stories about Trump. He says Pecker 'would be able to help us to know in advance what was coming out' and try to stop it from doing so. This is the conspiracy that prosecutors allege Trump participated in -- one of the potential crimes that transforms the charges Trump is facing into felonies."
Haberman: "The Enquirer also helped promote negative stories about Trump's G.O.P. primary rivals. Cohen is now describing them. Some of the smears were directed at Marco Rubio, the Florida senator who is currently a top contender to be Trump's running mate."
Bromwich: "Cohen says that he 'immediately showed' such material to Trump, who would greet it with praise like 'fantastic, unbelievable.'"
Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now laying out the first catch-and-kill story that he worked on with The National Enquirer. We heard about this in previous testimony. It was about an allegation by a doorman at a Trump building that Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock. Cohen is describing telling Trump about it.... Michael Cohen is now describing seeking 'credit' with Trump for 'accomplishing the task' of making sure the doorman's story stayed dead. Seeking the head-pat from Trump was a big part of Cohen's daily existence."
Bromwich: "I didn't expect this aspect of Cohen's testimony -- his motivation to keep Trump involved at all times. By painting it as a matter of self-interest, the prosecution makes Cohen more believable. He's not just pointing the finger at Trump. He's explaining why he himself would have wanted to keep Trump in the loop.... Michael Cohen has now moved on to the second catch-and-kill deal, which involved Karen McDougal, who said she had an affair with Trump. Cohen says he mentioned McDougal to Trump, and his response was: 'She's really beautiful.' Cohen says he warned Trump that McDougal was shopping her story, and Trump told him to 'make sure it doesn't get released.'... Michael Cohen is asked how he monitored the progress of the deal with Karen McDougal, and says he did so by text, phone and the app Signal. The prosecutor doesn't dwell on it, but that short list of three is essentially code to these jurors, who have heard from other witnesses, especially David Pecker, just how much of a pest Cohen made himself during that period in 2016." [Emphasis added.]
Haberman: "... Cohen is being walked through his text messages with Dylan Howard, the editor of The National Enquirer, about Karen McDougal."
Bromwich: "'I've got this locked down for you,' Howard tells Cohen of the McDougal story. 'I won't let it out of my grasp.'.. Cohen just said that Pecker had told him the agreement with McDougal was 'bulletproof.' That is exactly the same word that Pecker told the jury that he had used with Cohen. And how did Trump greet the news that the agreement had been made? 'Fantastic,' Cohen says."
Haberman: "Cohen is now recalling David Pecker applying pressure to get reimbursed for paying off Karen McDougal. 'It was too much money for him to hide from the C.E.O. of the parent company,' he says. He adds that he had several conversations with Trump about that fact."
Bromwich: "Pecker 'insisted' on being paid back, Cohen says. The publisher even met with Cohen at his favorite Italian restaurant to press the point. 'He expressed his anger that I need to get this money back,' Cohen says. Trump, Cohen says, kept insisting he would 'take care of it.' But he didn't.... Michael Cohen is saying that David Pecker intimated that he had known Trump for years and had essentially compiled a dossier on him, which he would use if need be. Cohen says he was worried that if Pecker were to remain angry at Trump, he might let some potentially damaging stories out of the bag as he was competing for a new position....
"Michael Cohen has now begun speaking about having recorded Trump directing him to pay David Pecker back in cash. As a reminder, the jury has heard this recording. It fits in nicely with Cohen's narrative that he was often updating Trump on the progress of the Karen McDougal hush-money deal -- on the recording, Cohen only has to mention Pecker's name and it seems as if Trump knows that he's referring to that deal. Cohen claims that this was the only conversation with Trump that he ever taped, and that he did it so that Pecker could hear that Trump planned to pay him back, thus retaining Pecker's loyalty.... We again hear Trump ask about financing and then advising Cohen to 'pay in cash.'...
"Michael Cohen has almost finished describing the recording, beat by beat. He says that when he insisted that David Pecker be paid, he made reference to Pecker's dossier on Trump."
Bromwich: [After a break,] "Michael Cohen says that the recording he made of himself talking to Trump cuts off because a bank employee called him and he 'must have believed' the call was important. But Cohen says he continued to speak to Trump about the hush-money deal with Karen McDougal after the recording ended. This is another piece of evidence that Trump's lawyers have sought to delve into, questioning why the call ended abruptly and seeming to suggest that Cohen may have manipulated evidence....
"Jurors are hearing Michael Cohen testify that he -- and everybody -- at the Trump Organization spoke to Allen Weisselberg, then the company's chief financial officer, about financial transactions. Weisselberg, currently in jail, was involved in coordinating the repayments to Cohen after Cohen paid hush money to Stormy Daniels. We may not hear from him at this trial. Prosecutors have tried to submit evidence showing he is still loyal to Trump, to suggest a reason to the jury why he isn't testifying. But this morning, as we reported, the judge rejected that evidence....
"[Cohen] says Weisselberg told him not to go through the Trump Organization [to pay Stormy Daniels] -- linking the payment to Trump's company would defeat the purpose -- but to come up with other more creative ways to pay.... We are now delving into the details of the complex set of financial transactions that Michael Cohen originally planned to use to reimburse David Pecker for the payment to Karen McDougal. But he would never pay Pecker, as the jury has been reminded, and instead these steps eventually led to Cohen's payment to Stormy Daniels."
"Michael Cohen is now explaining that after all that, David Pecker called him and told him that Trump would not have to pay him.... Pecker's explanation for his change of heart was that the McDougal deal had ended up being good for his company after all, Cohen says. But the jury has heard what they may find to be a more convincing alternative explanation from Pecker himself: During his own testimony, Pecker said that he had spoken to his general counsel and decided that he did not want to be repaid -- the implication being he was worried about committing a crime."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now talking about being in London when the 'Access Hollywood' tape came out shortly before the election. He says he got an email from Steve Bannon, who was the C.E.O. of the Trump campaign at the time. Cohen is looking at an email exchange about the tape that was forwarded to him by Bannon. Top campaign officials including the press secretary Hope Hicks, the campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and the deputy campaign manager David Bossie were also on it.... Part of the purpose here is making clear that Cohen is who the campaign staff members went to when they needed to address an issue related to a woman alleging misconduct by Trump.... Michael Cohen says Trump described the language heard on the 'Access Hollywood' tape as 'locker room talk,' and that Trump suggested that descriptor came from his wife, Melania."
Bromwich: "Trump, Cohen says, directed him to reach out to his contacts in the news media. And immediately, we see evidence of Cohen texting Chris Cuomo, then a CNN anchor."
Swan: "The final text we see in this series is Cuomo telling Cohen that it will be 'too late' if he waits until Tuesday to defend Trump on TV. Cohen was in London. Cuomo says of Trump: 'He is dying right now.'"
Bromwich: "Stormy Daniels's name comes up for the first time, as Michael Cohen is questioned about the 'Access Hollywood' tape.... Michael Cohen says he spoke directly to Trump about Stormy Daniels early on, after learning she was shopping her story.... Cohen says Trump told him not only that he knew her, but that he had met her at a golf tournament. Trump, Cohen says, told him that Daniels liked him and that women preferred him even over football stars, like those who were at the tournament."
Swan: "The language seen in these Cohen conversations [in texts with Keith Davidson -- Karen McDougal & Stormy Daniels' attorney -- and Dylan Howard, then the editor of The National Enquirer,] is very opaque and very mob-like. The hush money is described a 'business opportunity.'... Michael Cohen says that Trump explicitly told him they needed to do whatever they could to suppress Stormy Daniels's story until at least after the election, because it wouldn't matter at that point."
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen says that Trump, upon learning that Stormy Daniels was shopping her story, was very angry with Cohen, calling it a 'total disaster' and saying 'women are going to hate me.' Cohen says he responded that he had no control over Daniels's story. 'Just take care of it,' he says Trump told him."
Swan: "Michael Cohen says that Trump explicitly told him they needed to do whatever they could to suppress Stormy Daniels's story until at least after the election, because it wouldn't matter at that point."
Haberman: "Cohen also recalls asking Trump how Melania Trump might take everything that was happening. He describes Trump's reply as follows: 'He goes, "How long do you think I'll be on the market for? Not long."' He wasn't thinking about Melania. This was all about the campaign.'"
McKinley: "Cohen says Trump also said of Daniels's allegation: 'Guys may think its cool, but this is going to be a disaster for the campaign.'"
Alan Feuer: "Michael Cohen's description of Trump expressing fear that the Stormy Daniels story could poison him with female voters is a potentially important, but uncorroborated, piece of testimony. It's the first time during the trial that a witness has attributed concerns about the scandal upending to the election directly to Trump." [Lunch break.]
Bromwich: "Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor..., shows [Michael Cohen] a series of emails with Keith Davidson, who was Daniels's lawyer in 2016. Davidson ... says in the email ... that he just wanted to be paid. Cohen responded that it was the Jewish holiday Yom Kippur.... Cohen ... says that the correspondence represented that 'we were losing control over the settlement of this agreement in order to prevent' Daniels's story from coming out. He says that loss of control was a 'direct result of my failure to wire funds.'... Michael Cohen says that he believed that at this point in the narrative, just weeks before the 2016 election, he could no longer delay making the payment to Stormy Daniels."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now describing Trump telling him that his friends had advised him to just pay Stormy Daniels the hush money, and reminded him that he was a billionaire. 'Just do it,' Cohen recounts Trump saying."
Bromwich: "Cohen is directly tying Trump to the hush-money payment right now, corroborating the testimony of others, including Keith Davidson and Hope Hicks, who both suggested that Cohen would never had made the payment without Trump's authorization. Cohen is now talking about Weisselberg helping him to think through how to make the payment."
Christobek: "Prosecutors are showing Cohen the same emails and bank paperwork they showed to [banker Gary] Farro on the witness stand. Farro previously testified about Cohen's urgency to open up an account for Essential Consultants L.L.C., which was ultimately used to pay the hush money to Stormy Daniels."
Swan: "Trump, who had been sleeping, wakes up, leans over, taps his lawyer Todd Blanche and whispers something in his ear."
Bromwich: "Michael Cohen says he then decided that he would pay the money, and that Allen Weisselberg said, 'I'll make sure you get paid back.' Cohen says he alerted Trump to that decision and that Trump was appreciative, saying 'good, good.' And he says that Trump, too, told him he'd be repaid.... 'I was doing everything that I could and more in order to protect my boss, which was something I had done for a long time,' Cohen says. But he adds that he would not, of his own volition, lay out $130,000 for a hush-money payment on someone else's behalf, indicating, again, that he was expecting to be repaid. The charges against Trump concern the repayment to Cohen.... After Michael Cohen decided to pay Stormy Daniels himself, we are seeing, he launched into a blitz of phone calls with both Keith Davidson and David Pecker.... This documentary evidence ... suggests, with incredible vividness given that it is simply metadata, the frenzy that Cohen was experiencing as he sought to suppress the Daniels story and pay her the hush money." Emphasis added.]
Susanne Craig: "This is moving quickly. Most of the questions from Susan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, are intended to elicit 'yes' or 'no' responses, and she is largely limiting Michael Cohen's testimony to corroborating that of others and establishing his direct conversations with Trump."
Christobek: "Cohen says that he laid out the Daniels deal for Trump because 'everything required Mr. Trump's sign-off.'"
Bromwich: "We are now seeing that Michael Cohen had a five-minute call with Trump on Oct. 28, 2016. Cohen says that on that call, having signed the non-disclosure agreement, he told Trump that the Stormy Daniels 'matter is completely under control and locked down.' Even testifying at this trial, Cohen still speaks cryptically when recounting his conversations with Trump. He didn't say Daniels, just called it the matter.... We are now seeing voluminous records of phone calls between Michael Cohen and Hope Hicks after the article about Karen McDougal came out. If anything, these records make Hicks look as if she underplayed the amount that she was speaking to Cohen and his involvement in the campaign....
"We are now seeing one of Michael Cohen's telephonic rampages in documentary evidence that shows he spoke to Keith Davidson, who was the lawyer for Karen McDougal and Stormy Daniels, after the story about McDougal being paid off was published. Cohen says that he suspected Davidson or people in his camp of leaking and that he was very angry. He also says that Trump himself was angry. The defense objected to the question that prompted that testimony as leading, but too slowly, and the jury heard what Cohen had to say about Trump before the judge sustained the objection."
Haberman: "We've moved on in testimony to Trump winning the presidential election. SUsan Hoffinger, the prosecutor, asks Michael Cohen if he still had a role at the Trump Organization after Trump won. Cohen says no, 'because my service was no longer necessary.' He says he turned down the role of 'assistant general counsel' in the White House. Hoffinger asks Cohen if he was disappointed that the job of chief of staff wasn't offered to him. Cohen says he didn't want it, but wanted his name to have been included in the conversation. This is meant to inoculate him on cross-examination, when Trump's lawyer inevitably says that Cohen was simply disgruntled about not getting a job."
Bromwich: "After Michael Cohen describes having wanted a position as a personal lawyer to the new president, which he didn't get, he begins to describe not having received a significant bonus. What prosecutors are leading into, in short, is that Cohen was very angry and disgruntled in late 2016.... Cohen, describing his anger at seeing his bonus cut by two-thirds, almost sounds angry all over again. 'I didn't expect more,' he says of his bonus that year, 2016. 'But I certainly didn't expect less.'... Cohen says he took his fury out on Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, and that Weisselberg told him that he'd be taken care of after the holidays."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen is now ... describing his notes with Allen Weisselberg..., working out what he was being paid for another matter, and how he would be reimbursed for it."
Swan: "Michael Cohen is explaining why he was owed $180,000, instead of simply $130,000 for the hush money. He says that he was owed $50,000 -- an amount he admits was exaggerated -- to pay a firm called Red Finch for 'tech services.'"
Bromwich: "Allen Weisselberg then doubled the $180,000 to $360,000. Weisselberg, Cohen says, expected that he would lose half of that money because it would be taxed as income, and was making him whole, even after taxes."
Haberman: "Michael Cohen testifies that Trump, as president-elect, was busy with meetings around time. Yet he and Allen Weisselberg went into Trump's 26th floor office to discuss the reimbursement plan, he says." [Testimony ends for the day.]
Marie's Favorite Sentence of the Day (maybe of the Week, but it's only Monday!): I'm sure Medieval Sam will be able to find a 'precedent' for upholding white supremacy in some Pictish runes carved in a rock by Eldritch priests, found in the basement of the British Museum. -- Akhilleus, in today's Comments
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Two trials being held a block away from each other: ~~~
~~~ Witness for the Prosecution. Stephen Collinson of CNN: This week, Michael Cohen "will be the star witness for prosecutors trying to prove Trump illegally falsified business records after paying off adult film actress Stormy Daniels as part of an alleged election interference scheme in 2016.... His appearance [in court] will mark the zenith of a bitter personal feud between two brash New Yorkers obsessed with betrayal and revenge." ~~~
~~~ Tracey Tully & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: Sen. Robert "Menendez, a Democrat, is to go on trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan [on Monday], charged with taking part in an elaborate, yearslong bribery scheme. It will be his second corruption trial in seven years, but unlike the first, which ended in a hung jury, there is a volatile and surprising new element: charges against Mr. Menendez's wife.... The U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York has depicted Mr. Menendez and his wife as collaborators who took bribes in exchange for the senator's willingness to steer weapons and government aid to Egypt, prop up a friend's halal meat monopoly and meddle in criminal investigations involving allies.... The senator's lawyers appear to be preparing a defense that pins much of the blame on his wife." ~~~
~~~ Here's an updated story by the same writers, same subject, different URL. And here's a CNN story on Bribable Bob.
Léonie Chao-Fong of the Guardian: "Katie Britt, the Republican US senator from Alabama best known for delivering a widely ridiculed State of the Union [rebuttal] speech in March, marked the run-up to Mother's Day on Sunday by introducing a bill to create a federal database to collect data on pregnant people.... Although Britt's communications director said the site would not collect data on pregnant people..., the bill states that users can take an assessment through the website and provide consent to use the user's contact information' which government officials may use 'to conduct outreach via phone or email to follow up with users on additional resources that would be helpful for the users to review'.... The ... act proposes to establish an online government database ... listing resources related to pregnancy..., except for those that provide abortion-related services." Thanks to Jj for the link. (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump leads President Biden in five crucial battleground states, a new set of polls shows, as a yearning for change and discontent over the economy and the war in Gaza among young, Black and Hispanic voters threaten to unravel the president's Democratic coalition. The surveys by The New York Times, Siena College and The Philadelphia Inquirer found that Mr. Trump was ahead among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup against Mr. Biden in five of six key states: Michigan, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden led among registered voters in only one battleground state, Wisconsin."
I'm guessing the Times got plenty of criticism for its plain-vanilla coverage of Trump's speech at his New Jersey rally. After linking Michael Gold's initial NYT report yesterday, in which Gold described Trump's remarks as "largely repeating" his standard criticisms of President Biden, I read Marianne Levine's Washington Post report, where she led with the personal attacks, coarse language and vulgar expressions used by Trump and his supporters. So I linked that, too. The difference was not lost on monoloco, who commented on it in yesterday's thread. So now we get this:
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "In an extended riff at his rally on Saturday in New Jersey..., Donald J. Trump returned to a reference that has become a staple of his stump speech, comparing migrants to Hannibal Lecter, the fictional serial killer and cannibal from 'The Silence of the Lambs.'..." After describing the fictional Hannibal as a "wonderful man" and "the late, great Hannibal Lecter," Trump segued into a riff on "unvetted immigrants" who "are destroying our country" and will doom it unless Trump is elected president*.
Meet Trump's Personnel Manager. What would a second Trump administration look like? Well, Trump is planning to hire his former body man John McEntee to implement his 2025 personnel policies: i.e., firing "deep-state" bureaucrats & hiring Trump toadies. McEntee was goose-stepped out of the White House in 2018 when his security clearance was denied, reportedly because he was under investigation for financial crimes. Immediately after his ousting, the Trump campaign hired him, and Trump brought him back to the White House in early 2020 as head of personnel. His job then was to ID & remove officials insufficiently loyal to Trump. Now, he's an advisor on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, the detailed plan to turn the federal government into an operation that serves only the president*. He also runs a dating service for wingers. On a video for the dating service, he boated that he carries a wad of movie-prop $5 bills to give to panhandlers in the hopes that's they'll be arrested later when they try to pass the counterfeit cash. What a fun guy! Thanks to RAS for the lead.
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Kristi, the Movie:
~~~ The original film, "We Bought a Zoo," sounds a bit more upbeat, in a heartrending, tearjerker kind of way.
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
CNN's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "At least 360,000 people have fled Rafah ahead of Israel's planned invasion of the city, the UN says. Top US officials have repeated stark warnings against a Rafah invasion, predicting that a major ground offensive would lead to widespread civilian casualties. More than 35,000 people have already been killed in Gaza during the war, according to the Health Ministry. In northern Gaza, people are trying to flee intense shelling and gunfire that have targeted the Jabalya refugee camp, where Israel is trying to stop Hamas from regrouping in an area that Israel previously said it controlled. Almost half of the agricultural land in Gaza has been destroyed, and recovery could take years, an expert studying satellite images told CNN."
Josh Boak of the AP: "Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday delivered some of the Biden administration's strongest public criticism yet of Israel's conduct of the war in Gaza, saying Israeli tactics have meant 'a horrible loss of life of innocent civilians' but failed to neutralize Hamas leaders and fighters and could drive a lasting insurgency. In a pair of TV interviews, Blinken underscored that the United States believes Israeli forces should 'get out of Gaza,' but also is waiting to see credible plans from Israel for security and governance in the territory after the war."
Your child is having a temper tantrum. You (a) take remedial action; or (b) wait to see if he comes up with a plan to behave better. Marie: Maybe this isn't a valid analogy, but I'm having trouble seeing Blinken's logic -- although I sort of get it. There does need to be a post-war plan, and Israel's back-of-the-napkin plan isn't a sustainable one.
Russia. Anna Chernova, et al., of CNN: "Russian President Vladimir Putin has replaced his defense minister and a long-time close ally Sergei Shoigu with an economist, a major reshuffle of military leadership.... Andrey Belousov, a civilian who served as former first deputy prime minister and specializes in economics, was appointed to the top defense post, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. Peskov tried to downplay the move, but the reshuffle comes amid speculation about infighting at the highest echelons of power. Just last month, one of Shoigu's long-time protégés at the defense ministry was arrested and charged with corruption. Shoigu was 'relieved' of his position by presidential decree, Peskov said, but he will remain an influential part of Putin's administration as secretary of Russia's Security Council, replacing Nikolai Patrushev, a former head of the Federal Security Service (FSB), who would 'transfer to another job.'"
News Lede
CNN: "Thousands across Canada have been urged to evacuate as the smoke from blazing wildfires endangers air quality and visibility and begins to waft into the US. Some 3,200 residents in northeastern British Columbia were under an evacuation order Saturday afternoon as the Parker Lake fire raged on in the area, spanning more than 4,000 acres. Meanwhile, evacuation alerts are in place for parts of Alberta as the MWF-017 wildfire burns out of control near Fort McMurray in the northeastern area of the province, officials said. The fire had burned about 16,000 acres as of Sunday morning. Smoke from the infernos has caused Environment Canada to issue a special air quality statement that extends from British Columbia to Ontario.... Smoke from Canada has also begun to blow into the US, prompting an alert across Minnesota due to unhealthy air quality. The smoke is impacting cities including the Twin Cities and St. Cloud, as well as several tribal areas, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said."
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Fairness, schmairness
Whether or not the Fat Fascist and his army of democracy hating election-rigging thugs are successful in stealing the November contest, a cohort of MAGA judges will make sure Trumpism rules.
While the media is mesmerized by horse race polls that don’t mean jack at this point, and consumed by conclusions that Stormy Daniels’ testimony has destroyed the prosecution’s case in Trump’s election interference and business fraud trial, in other parts of the country, election rigging continues at rocket sled speed.
Down in Louisiana, a state run by KKK Steve Scalise and Bible Mike Johnson, three Trump appointed judges have put the kibosh on a newly created district map designed to address the outrageously gerrymandered map created to ensure that black voters—33% of the voting population—get only one out of six representatives that state sends to Congress.
A district court judge ordered a more representative map be drawn up, but the MAGA “judges” said “Ixnay to airnessfay”.
“‘We are undeterred in our fight for a fair map in Louisiana,’ said Ashley Shelton, president and CEO of Power Coalition for Equity and Justice, a litigant in the case that established the new district. ‘We will continue to fight for a map that reflects our communities, that honors the promise of the Voting Rights Act, and that respects the voices of thousands of Louisianans who have engaged throughout the redistricting process.’
Liz Murrill, the Louisiana attorney general, a Republican [!], also plans to appeal the decision to the supreme court. She slammed the court’s decision yesterday in a statement.
‘Today, three federal judges who never spent a day running an election have ignored uncontradicted testimony that we need a map by May 15, and once again turned Louisiana’s congressional elections upside down,’ Murill said. ‘At a time when concerns about election integrity* are higher than ever, this ruling threatens the ability of the secretary of state to conduct a stable and fair** election in a presidential election year in Louisiana.’”
The Supreme Court could get involved, but ruling in favor of black voters (and potentially tipping the balance of the power in the House to the Democrats) and fair representation has never been high priority for this court. In fact, the opposite has been prioritized.
I’m sure Medieval Sam will be able to find a “precedent” for upholding white supremacy in some Pictish runes carved in a rock by Eldritch priests, found in the basement of the British Museum.
*however, election integrity in MAGA speak means “We win, no matter what”.
**again, in MAGA world: stable and fair…whazzat?
Re: whatever post-war plan Israel might have.
First things first. There won’t be any post-war. Not as long as Bibi believes bombing more Palestinians will a.) keep him in power, which b.) ensures he won’t be going on trial for corruption anytime soon, which in turn c.) makes sure he stays out of jail. So…bomb’s away.
Also, the continued pummeling of a civilian population makes it a lead pipe cinch that future Palestinian opposition will be violent. I mean, look at this way. Your home was bombed. Your family goes to stay with relatives. Their home is bombed. Your father dead, your mother dead, two brothers killed, your sister maimed, then Bibi says you have to go to Rafah. You do. Then Rafah is bombed and your best friend is killed. You don’t know anyone in Hamas. Never met anyone in Hamas. But now, what do you do? Go back to school? Nope. It doesn’t exist anymore. Go to the library, read a book? Nah. Library was burned last week. Suspected terrorist literature. What next?
Learn to fire a rifle. And join Hamas.
So there ain’t gonna be any post-war. But maybe this is what Bibi wants. He’s always benefited from violence. Maybe more is not so bad.
But if there were a “post-war” plan in place it might look something like the post-Saddam plan the Decider and Darth Cheney had for Iraq.
Now, let’s see. Where did I put that plan? I know it’s around here somewhere…oh here it is. Next to the dog food. Hang on. Lemme get my reading glasses. Okay…here we go. “Post-war plan for Iraq:
Hope for the best.
Yup. That’s it.
Bibi’s is a bit different:
Hope for the worst.
And that’s what he’s gonna get.
Crowd Size:
https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-crowd-size-questions-1899634
The biggest inauguration crowd ever? Oh, yeah, I remember that.
Whatever anyone might think of Michael Cohen (back when he was Trump’s attack dog, calling anyone daring to criticize his Orangeness and screeching that he would “end them”, many of us out here in RC Land—oh…not me…nevah!—routinely hung him up in the RC piñata room and had at it), there is no disputing the FACT (a thing MAGAts despise) that he went to jail for lying at Trump’s direction.
Think of the hundreds of MAGA insurrectionist thugs who have been hoosegowed because they followed Fatty’s orders.
No possible universe where logic prevails exists in which one can defend the incarceration of followers while exonerating the leader who put them up to it. Trump ordered Cohen to participate in a fraudulent scam. Cohen went to prison, but his boss should be exonerated?
It doesn’t matter how many crooks, incompetents, liars, and malevolent MAGA chiselers show up at this trial to bolster the eggshell ego of their weak, fragile, fascistic Dear Leader, or how many sycophantic Qanon headlines he is fed.
He put this entire seamy circus into motion with his aging lothario narcissism, fear of exposure, and illegal business maneuvers.
He’s guilty as child diddling parish priest, and no attacks against Michael Cohen can change that, no matter how many Both Sides fairy tales the MSM concocts to save him.