;)
The Conversation -- May 30, 2024
DONALD TRUMP FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS
Michael Sisak, et al., of the AP: "Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes Thursday as a New York jury found him guilty of falsifying business records in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through hush money payments to a porn actor who said the two had sex. Jurors deliberated for 9.5 hours over two days before convicting Trump of all 34 counts he faced. Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read as cheering from the street below -- where supporters and detractors of the former president were gathered -- could be heard in the hallway on courthouse's 15th floor where the decision was revealed."
THERE'S A VERDICT in the Manhattan criminal case against Donald Trump. @4:38 pm ET, jury has asked for half an hour to fill out the verdict form. ~~~
~~~ Here's the latest from the New York Times liveblog: ~~~
Jonah Bromwich: "The judge says that he has received a note from the jury foreperson at 4:20. They have a verdict.... They request 30 minutes to fill out the forms."
Kate Christobek: "Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, is now in the courtroom, seated in the audience behind the prosecutors who tried this case for his office."
Maggie Haberman: "Justice Merchan is back on the bench."
** Benjamin Protess: "Donald J. Trump was just convicted of all 34 counts of falsifying business records. He is the first American president to become a felon."
Bromwich: "Trump is unresponsive, sitting slack at the defense table."
Jesse McKinley: "Trump now looking at the jury as each juror is polled to confirm their decision of guilty on all counts."
Bromwich: "All of the jurors have individually confirmed their verdicts.... The judge is thanking the jury. He tells them he admires and appreciates their hard work, and praises them for their engagement and their investment.... Justice Merchan tells the jurors they can discuss the case if they;d like, but do not have to. The choice is theirs, but they are no longer barred from discussing the case. He asks to meet with them to discuss their work, though not the facts of the case."
Haberman: "Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, is arguing, with the jurors gone, that the verdict is improper and should be tossed because it relied on Michael Cohen's testimony." ~~~
~~~ Bromwich: "The judge immediately denies the motion.... As expected, Trump will have to receive a probation report, as is standard in state court. That report typically takes four to six weeks."
McKinley: "Sentencing is set for July 11."
Michael Gold: "Trump looks fairly defeated as he walks up to the cameras and reporters stationed in the hallway outside the courtroom.... 'This was a disgrace,' Trump says. 'This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt.'... Trump is now listing a litany of complaints he has made for the last several months: that Justice Merchan was biased, that Alvin Bragg brought his case as an effort to keep Trump out of the White House, and that he should have gotten a venue change because of how liberal-leaning Manhattan is. 'The real verdict is going to be Nov. 5, by the people,' he says.... He closes by saying, 'We will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over.' Then, looking more somber than I have seen him at any point in the last several months, he walks away from the cameras and does not answer questions.... Trump spoke for less than three minutes in total. He did not answer a shouted question by a reporter who asked why Americans should vote for a convicted felon."
Reid Epstein: "President Biden's campaign spokesman said Trump's conviction shows 'no one is above the law.' 'There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box,' said Michael Tyler, the campaign's communications director. 'Convicted felon or not, Trump will be the Republican nominee for president.'"
Michael Grynbaum: "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said the jury 'deserves to be thanked for their efforts,' and warned that Trump and his allies would try to seed doubts about the guilty verdict, calling it a test 'of the rule of law in our country.'... Fox News pundits quickly denounced the verdict on air. 'It's inconceivable in New York that anyone else other than Donald Trump would be indicted in this way,' said Andy McCarthy, a legal analyst. Jeanine Pirro called the case 'riddled with errors' and declared, 'We have gone over a cliff in America.'"
Nicholas Nehamas: "Shortly after Trump's guilty verdict was read aloud in court, President Biden posted a fundraising appeal on X from his campaign account: 'There's only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: At the ballot box,' Biden wrote. 'Donate to our campaign today.'"
Shane Goldmacher: "The WinRed portal that Trump's campaign uses to process campaign donations appears to have gone offline shortly after his guilty verdict."
Ken Bensinger: "Tucker Carlson responded to today's verdict in what can only be described as an apocalyptic tone, stating on X that the jury's decision marked 'the end of the fairest justice system in the world.' The former Fox News host said that Trump would still win the election 'if he's not killed first,' and closed by saying that 'anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.'"
Zolan Kanno-Youngs: "While the Biden campaign responds to the guilty verdict by encouraging people to vote, the Biden White House is choosing to keep its reactions to a minimum. 'We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment,' said Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office. President Biden is currently in Rehoboth Beach, Del., with his family. He has no public appearances on his schedule the rest of the day."
Bromwich: "Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, will hold a news conference at 6:30 to discuss the verdict."
Gold: "Just minutes after the verdict was announced, the Trump campaign sent out a fund-raising email in which Trump said, in all capital letters, 'I am a political prisoner!'"
New York Times Editors: "The jury's decision, and the facts presented at the trial, offer yet another reminder -- perhaps the starkest to date -- of the many reasons Donald Trump is unfit for office.... The greatest good to come out of this sordid case is the proof that the rule of law binds everyone, even former presidents.... That 12 Americans could sit in judgment of the former and potentially future president is a remarkable display of the democratic principles that Americans prize at work.... Justice Merchan was scrupulous in ensuring that Mr. Trump received a fair trial.... And yet throughout the trial, the judge was forced to deal with Mr. Trump's attempts to undermine the legal system.... Justice Merchan put a limit on what Mr. Trump could say to prevent him from attacking and threatening jurors, witnesses, court personnel and even the judge's family.... Only the threat of a jail sentence finally seemed to keep Mr. Trump in line."
** Supreme Court Chief Justice Gives Country the Finger. Abbie VanSickle of the New York Times: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday declined requests to have Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. recuse himself from cases related to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack after provocative flags flew on the justice's properties. The justices make those calls on their own, Chief Justice Roberts wrote in a letter to Democratic senators.... The chief justice also rejected a request to meet with Democratic senators to discuss ethics at the Supreme Court, writing that doing so would raise concerns about separation of powers and judicial independence."
Edward Wong of the New York Times: "The Biden administration has decided to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russia with U.S.-made weapons with the aim of blunting Russia's attacks in the Kharkiv area, senior American officials said on Thursday. The decision follows weeks of discussion with the Ukrainians after Russia began a major assault on Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine. Because Kharkiv is near Russia, in the northeast of Ukraine, the Russian military has been hitting the area around the city with artillery and missiles fired or launched from inside Russian territory, and the Ukrainians have asked the Americans to give them greater leeway in defending Kharkiv, an American official said. The permission from President Biden is intended solely for Ukraine to strike military sites in Russia being used to attack the Kharkiv area, U.S. officials said."
Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "False reports about the jury instructions in ... Donald Trump's hush money trial have been spreading across right-wing media, leading to threats against the judge overseeing the case. Several conservative news personalities, including some affiliated with Fox News, falsely claimed that Judge Juan Merchan, as one Fox News anchor put it in a viral post on X, 'told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict' Trump. That's not true.... Jurors have to agree unanimously that Trump committed a crime by engaging in a criminal conspiracy to falsify records with the intent to commit one or more other crimes in order to convict him. But jurors can choose from three options about what those other crimes were." ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "'IT IS RIDICULOUS, UNCONSTITUTIONAL, AND UNAMERICAN that the highly Conflicted, Radical Left Judge is not requiring a unanimous decision on the fake charges against me,' [Donald] Trump wrote.... 'Judge in Trump case in NYC just told jury they don't have to unanimously agree on which crime was committed as long as they all at least pick one. And that among the crimes the [sic] can pick from are ones Trump WASN'T EVEN CHARGED WITH!!! This is exactly the kind of sham trial used against political opponents of the regime in the old Soviet Union [-- Sen. Marco Rubio].... Rubio is a lawyer. He went to law school. He practiced law before beginning a lengthy career as a lawmaker.... Rubio -- who ... really should've known better -- pushed a wildly misleading claim that both undermines public confidence in the judicial system and seems likely to increase threats against the judge who did nothing wrong.... No one should want to be vice president this badly."
We're back on Trump jury watch, and New York Times reporters are keeping us apprised of developments: ~~~
Jonah Bromwich: "The judge says he believes that the jury wants him to repeat a significant portion of the instructions he read to the jury yesterday. He will start with page 6 of the 55-page document and read to page 35.... This will likely take about 35 minutes....
"The jury specifically asked in its note for the judge to repeat his instructions on what are called 'evidentiary inferences' -- that is, reasonable inferences that can be drawn from what they heard at trial. They asked to hear the following analogy, which he provided yesterday and just repeated: 'Suppose you go to bed one night when it is not raining and when you wake up in the morning, you look out your window; you do not see rain, but you see that the street and sidewalk are wet, and that people are wearing raincoats and carrying umbrellas. Under those circumstances, it may be reasonable to infer, that is conclude, that it rained during the night.'"
[MB: This could be good news for the prosecution; that is, the jurors want to make sure they can reasonably infer facts that may not be in evidence or are evidence only insofar as an accomplice -- Michael Cohen -- so testified. On the other hand, maybe some jurors need to be convinced that inferences and "common sense" are valid means of reaching a verdict.]
Jesse McKinley: "As the judge has re-read his instructions to the jury, Trump has had his eyes closed, and his chin has sometimes slumped to his chest. At other times, his head has been slightly pitched back, like a man tanning." [MB: Reporters have observed almost every day incidences that indicate Trump can't stay awake during his own trial. You may remember that when he was president*, briefers reportedly said he couldn't concentrate on the Presidential Daily Briefings, so they had to simplify the PDBs. I'm thinking now "couldn't concentrate" was their polite way of saying "slept through."]
Maggie Haberman: "Justice Merchan is now at the point of the instructions where he's describing 'accessorial liability,' the portion that suggests the defendant doesn't need to have actively participated in the commission of the crime to be found guilty, as long as he in some way directed or intentionally aided the criminal conduct of someone else. In this case, that relates to the alleged falsification of business records."
Bromwich: "The judge is concluding his readback..., and now we will hear the testimony again... Two court reporters will read these together. The first, sitting in her typical chair, explains that she is the 'lawyer' and that her colleague, on the witness stand is 'David Pecker.' They start with testimony pertaining to a phone call that Pecker and Trump had in June 2016, according to Pecker's testimony.... This testimony is fairly good for the prosecution's case. Trump acknowledges having spoken to Michael Cohen -- per David Pecker -- and knowing Karen McDougal, one of the women who was eventually paid to keep quiet during the 2016 campaign.... David Pecker testified that he recommended that Trump buy Karen McDougal's story....
"We have moved onto the second part of David Pecker's testimony that the jurors asked to hear, where he explains that he decided he did not want to be repaid for Karen McDougal's story after purchasing it. The implication was that he was concerned about the legal consequences of accepting a reimbursement.... We've moved on to the third and final portion of testimony that the jurors wanted to hear from David Pecker. This excerpt pertains to the August 2015 Trump Tower meeting in which prosecutors say, Pecker, Michael Cohen and Trump entered a conspiracy to suppress negative news about Trump during the 2016 election.... David Pecker's testimony here is key to the prosecution's case."
Haberman: "David Pecker was a very damaging witness for the defense. And the efforts to detract from his testimony during cross-examination only seemed to make him more defiant as a witness."
Bromwich: "The jurors just again heard David Pecker's testimony that the reason he was purchasing negative stories on Trump's behalf was to benefit his presidential campaign. That is the prosecution's theory of the election conspiracy in a nutshell....
"Emil Bove, a defense lawyer, cross-examined David Pecker, and jurors are hearing part of that cross-examination now. In the cross, Bove elicited testimony that Pecker misremembered the exact date of the August 2015 meeting, and more generally that Pecker was testifying about events from a long time ago.... During readbacks, we also see the importance of objections. Any objection that was sustained by the judge -- and several were in this cross examination of David Pecker -- is not read aloud as the jury considers a potential verdict....
"The end of the cross-examination of David Pecker -- when, as Maggie wrote earlier, the witness turned defiant -- was less good for the defense. It was just read aloud again. 'There was a discussion about that I was going to be the eyes and ears of the campaign,' Pecker testified. 'And there was a discussion that I would be notifying Michael Cohen of any women that were in the process of or going to be selling stories.'...
"We move on to the fourth and final portion of testimony that jurors asked to hear yesterday: Michael Cohen's recounting of that same Trump Tower meeting.... Michael Cohen's testimony matches David Pecker's account fairly closely. Pecker testified that he had said he would be Trump's 'eyes and ears' and watch out for negative stories. Cohen recalls him saying he would 'keep an eye out for anything negative.'"
"The readback is complete, and the jurors are being excused to continue their deliberations. They have asked to use both headphones and speakers to listen to evidence that includes an audio portion."
[Marie: While the jury is deliberating, Trump has to wait in a courthouse holding room so he will be available should the jury come back with a question or to render its verdict. According to MSNBC, Trump asked the court that a TV set be put in the holding room, and Judge Merchan agreed. How many criminal defendants do you suppose get TVs installed so they're not too bored waiting for the jury to come back? And Trump complains every day about how bent the judge is.]
~~~ Links to courtroom proceedings in the Trump criminal case, up through May 28, are here. Links to evidence are here. All via the New York courts system.
~~~~~~~~~~
Michael Sisak, et al., of the AP: "The jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial ended its first day of deliberations without a verdict Wednesday but asked to rehear testimony from key witnesses about the alleged hush money scheme at the heart of the history-making case. The 12-person jury was sent home around 4 p.m. after about 4 1/2 hours of deliberations. The process is to resume Thursday, when jurors are expected to rehear the requested testimony and at least part of the judge's legal instructions meant to guide them on the law." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. The New York Times story is here. ~~~
~~~ New York Times: reporters liveblogged Wednesday's proceedings in Donald Trump's 2016 election interference case. For details, see yesterday's Conversation.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Donald Trump's lawyers ended their defense of the former president in a way uniquely suited to their client: with a ludicrous and easily debunked lie.... Trump lawyer Todd Blanche told the jury that the revelation of the 'Access Hollywood' tapes -- Trump's 'grab 'em by the p---y' moment, which set off the fateful effort to buy Stormy Daniels's silence -- was not the earthshaking event we all remember it being for the 2016 Trump campaign. Rather, Blanche said, it was just one of those things 'that happens all the time in campaigns.'... Blanche was also suggesting that Trump's own former White House assistant, Madeleine Westerhout, perjured herself in the trial when she testified about conversations at the Republican National Committee, where she then worked, about replacing Trump on the ticket." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Milbank doesn't say so, but Trump fan-girl Hope Hicks also testified during the trial that the Access Hollywood tape put the campaign in crisis mode, and that the story knocked a Cat 4 hurricane off the top of the news. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass emphasized this in his closing. AND Jonah Bromwich wrote in yesterday's NYT liveblog: "Joshua Steinglass is showing the jurors video clips of Trump himself acknowledging that the 'Access Hollywood' tape and its aftermath could swing a very tight election. 'If 5 percent of the people think it's true, and maybe 10 percent,' Trump says in one clip, 'we don't win.'"
Tom Boggioni of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump's chief spokesman has lashed out at new revelations about Donald Trump's actions at the celebrity golf tournament he participated in where he met up with adult film star Stormy Daniels and had a brief sexual fling that has come back to haunt him. In an interview with the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger, a celebrity athlete who wished to remain anonymous described the former president boasting about having sex with the porn star the following day.... 'It was clear to me and everyone who heard him that he was talking about Stormy,' [the athlete] said and claimed that Trump 'encouraged other celebs to try to have sex with Daniels,' comments he called, 'crass,' 'gross,' and 'stupid.' 'He'd say all these things like, "You've gotta bang a porn star, it's incredible," and, "It added 20 yards to my drive today,"' he recalled."
** Recusal Refusal. "My Wife Is Fond of Flying Flags." Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. declined on Wednesday to recuse himself from two cases arising from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol after reports that flags displayed outside his houses appeared to support the 'Stop the Steal' movement. Justice Alito said in letters to Democratic members of Congress who had demanded his recusal that the flags, at his home in Virginia and a beach house in New Jersey, were flown by his wife, Martha-Ann. 'My wife is fond of flying flags,' the justice wrote. 'I am not. She was solely responsible for having flagpoles put up at our residence and our vacation home and has flown a wide variety of flags over the years.'... Their beach house, on Long Beach Island in New Jersey, he wrote, was Mrs. Alito's property....
"'I had nothing whatsoever to do with the flying of the flag,' he wrote. 'I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.' He said he had been powerless to remove the flag. 'My wife and I own our Virginia home jointly,' the justice wrote. 'She therefore has the legal right to use the property as she sees fit, and there were no additional steps that I could have taken to have the flag taken down more promptly.' Notably, Justice Alito's letter did not dispute that the upside-down flag conveyed support for the 'Stop the Steal' movement." Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Here are Alito's letters, via Politico. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ Marie: Do you think the reason Sam-I-Am wrote Dobbs -- which robs millions of American women of bodily autonomy -- is that he couldn't get his own wife to behave in a manner appropriate to the spouse of a federal judge? Or, as both Dahlia Lithwick & Melissa Murray posited on MSNBC, it was so maddening for Alito & Thomas to curb the rights of all American women while insisting that they own wives were independent feminists? ~~~
~~~ ** "No Man Can Be a Judge in His Own Cause." Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) in a New York Times op-ed: :Justices Alito and Thomas face a groundswell of appeals beseeching them not to participate in Trump v. United States, the case that will decide whether Mr. Trump enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution, and Fischer v. United States, which will decide whether Jan. 6 insurrectionists -- and Mr. Trump -- can be charged under a statute that criminalizes 'corruptly' obstructing an official proceeding.... Everyone assumes that nothing can be done about the recusal situation because the highest court in the land has the lowest ethical standards -- no binding ethics code or process outside of personal reflection.... [BUT] The U.S. Department of Justice ... can petition the other seven justices to require Justices Alito and Thomas to recuse themselves not as a matter of grace but as a matter of law. The Justice Department and Attorney General Merrick Garland can invoke two powerful textual authorities for this motion: the Constitution of the United States, specifically the due process clause, and the federal statute mandating judicial disqualification for questionable impartiality, 28 U.S.C. Section 455.... This recusal statute, if triggered, is ... binding on the justices, just as the due process clause is." Read on. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Raskin's solution is similar to what I suggested -- in much more rudimentary form -- a week ago when I heard Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse say on the teevee that there was a statute requiring justices to disqualify themselves when a case before the court presented an appearance of partiality or conflict of interest. The difference is that Raskin knows what he's talking about and I don't. Oh, and Raskin provides lots of case law to back up his solution. ~~~
~~~ Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: In his letters to Congress, Sam "Alito wrapped himself in an unconvincing blend of faux feminism and free speech, with an Alito-esque helping of victimhood. That is one weird marriage. A Washington marriage -- that is, a marriage involving one or more people in positions of authority or prominence -- is about respectful accommodation of competing needs in the public spotlight.... [In a letter to members of Congress, Sam Alito wrote,] 'I was not even aware of the upside-down flag until it was called to my attention. As soon as I saw it, I asked my wife to take it down, but for several days, she refused.'... His first few renditions of the incident had the flag flying 'briefly' (the statement provided to the New York Times) and 'for a short time' (his statement to Fox News host Shannon Bream.) As The Post reported, and Alito now acknowledges, it flew 'for several days.' In what world is that 'briefly'?... Why, exactly, did he think the flag was a problem?... If he was alarmed then, why doesn't the public have every reason to be alarmed now?"
Congratulations to United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for showing the INTELLIGENCE, COURAGE, and 'GUTS' to refuse stepping aside from making a decision on anything January 6th related. -- Donald Trump, in a social media post ~~~
~~~ Meredith McGraw & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Donald Trump praised Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for rejecting calls to recuse himself from two pending cases involving the former president or January 6 attack on the Capitol after the conservative justice faced criticism over flags his wife flew over their private residences that called into question judicial ethics.... Trump continued to applaud Alito as 'great' on The Dan Bongino show later on Wednesday and suggested that recent stories about controversial flags were efforts by critics to 'play the ref.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: One interesting thing about Alito's letter to Dick Durbin & Sheldon Whitehouse is this: McGraw & Gerstein: "Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Dick Durbin of Illinois last week wrote a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts questioning whether Alito could remain impartial in the upcoming cases and accusing him of engaging in political activity." What's wrong with this picture? The Senators wrote to Roberts. Roberts let Alito respond. Roberts seems to have completely abdicated his job as Chief Justice. The inmates are running the Roberts Asylum.
Presidential Race. Gloves Off. Nicholas Nehamas & Maya King of the New York Times: "Speaking alongside Vice President Kamala Harris at a rally in Philadelphia, [President] Biden pressed home a series of arguments about why Black voters should choose him over Mr. Trump, who has been trying to court Americans of color. 'This is the same guy who wanted to tear-gas you as you peacefully protested George Floyd's murder,' Mr. Biden told the predominantly Black crowd.... 'The same guy who still calls the Central Park Five guilty even though they were exonerated. He's that landlord who denies housing applications because of the color of your skin.' Invoking the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, and nodding to Mr. Trump's remarks about pardoning the rioters, Mr. Biden said: 'What do you think would have happened if Black Americans had stormed the Capitol? I don't think he'd be talking about pardons.'" ~~~
~~~ Maya Ward of Politico: Also, "He's that guy who won't say Black lives matter and invokes neo-Nazi, Third Reich terms. We all remember, Trump is the same guy who unleashed the birtherism lie against Barack."
digby on some of Republicans' anti-democracy schemes: "With all the violence and vandalism on January 6th it's easy to forget that Trump and his henchmen's real game plan was to send the election to the House and let them decide the winner as the constitution anticipated would happen in case of a tie.... Had they persuaded Pence to twist the constitutional process for a tie vote into a process for resolving (fake) competing slates of electoral votes and had the House taken it up, Trump would have won because votes are counted by state delegation and there are more Republican delegations than Democratic.... [Last week, the Texas Republican convention adopted a platform advocating for ] a system in which every county has exactly the same vote, whether the county has 20 people in it or 5 million.... In Missouri where their ballot system was allowing some progressive policies to be passed by a majority of citizens, they tried to change the law to require that ... [policies] have a majority in five of their eight congressional districts which gives rural GOP districts the upper hand. Arizona has proposed a similar initiative."
Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Baseball history will change forever Wednesday. Major League Baseball plans to officially incorporate Negro Leagues statistics into its record book.... The move comes 3½ years after MLB said it would consider the Negro Leagues as major leagues, meaning all Negro leaguers would be considered major leaguers from that point forward. On Wednesday, the players from Negro Leagues in operation from 1920 to 1948 will be fully incorporated into MLB's statistical record. Just one example: When looking up the highest career batting averages in MLB's record book, the leader will be Josh Gibson, whose average of .372 in Negro Leagues play is higher than the .367 Ty Cobb posted to lead all MLB players." (Also linked yesterday.)
Shannon Osaka of the Washington Post: "There is one big thing holding the United States back from a pollution-free electricity grid running on wind, solar and battery power: not enough power lines. As developers rush to install wind farms and solar plants to power data centers, artificial intelligence systems and electric vehicles, the nation's sagging, out-of-date power lines are being overwhelmed -- slowing the transition to clean energy and the fight against climate change. But experts say that there is a remarkably simple fix: installing new wires on the high-voltage lines that already carry power hundreds of miles across the United States. Just upgrading those wires, new reports show, could double the amount of power that can flow through America's electricity grid."
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Florida. Andrew Atterbury of Politico: "The Florida Board of Education approved several tweaks Wednesday to the state's standards for teaching social studies, but left intact controversial pieces on Black history that sparked widespread backlash last year.... Florida's new teaching standards include the same language that scored national blowback last year for requiring middle school students to learn 'how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.'"
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Israel/Palestine, et al. CNN's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The Israeli military said it had established 'operational control' over the Philadelphi Corridor, a 14-kilometer (8.7-mile) buffer zone on the Egypt-Gaza border, risking a decades-old peace treaty. At least 66 people, including children, have been killed in safe zones across Gaza over four days, according to Save the Children. Aid entering Gaza has dropped by 67% since May 7, the day after Israel began its assault on Rafah, according to a UN report. The war in Gaza will likely continue until at least the end of the year, an Israeli official warned, seemingly dismissing the idea that fighting would end after the military offensive in Rafah." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here.
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Maybe being a Supreme means that you not only get to divine the meanings of what a bunch of people who have been dead for two hundred years meant when they cobbled together a constitution but that you are also untouched by them yourself.
From the digby article,
"In the 2020 election, 11,315,056 votes were cast for president in Texas. Fifty percent plus one of the votes cast in the smallest 128 counties (almost all of which Trump won) produces a total of 191,978 votes. Which means that under the GOP proposal, a candidate could win a statewide race with less than 2 percent of the vote.
That’s right: You could get blown out 98%-2% and become governor, attorney general, or any of the other statewide offices. The candidates who did this would inevitably be Republicans, because they’d be the ones winning all those small rural counties. Which of course is the point."
Now that is rigging the system.
Speaking of rigged systems digby reproduced Media Matters' charts on the media's coverage of Hillary's deplorables vs Donald's vermin comments.
Texas being Texas
"Some wild news out of Texas (I know, not surprising): The New Republic reports that professors at the University of Texas at Austin are suing for the ability to punish students who take time off for abortion. The complaint, brought by America First Legal [Stephen Miller], needs to be read to be believed. Philosophy professor Daniel Bonevac and business and finance professor John Hatfield sound downright petulant in their declarations, refusing to offer an “excused absence” for students who obtain abortions—whether they’re traveling out-of-state or taking medication there in Texas."
The Texas story reminds of a thorny path I had to negotiate back in the day.
We had eliminated most of the popularity element from cheerleader selection, so that appearance became less of a determinant. (Hard to write about this without talking about appearance, tho'....). At any rate, the young girl who would have likely been judged the least attractive if such a vote were held turned out to be the one who had to take a brief leave from school to have an abortion.
It was all very quietly done but the word got out, and the two purse-lipped women from the community who acted as cheerleader advisors were not pleased. They thought the girl should be given the scarlet A treatment and removed from the squad.
For various reasons, I didn't agree, and she was not removed.
I guess I figured that if notions of sin and punishment applied at all, life had punished her enough.
Ophiology 101
It’s become depressingly obvious that every single one of the Party of Traitors (in)Justices on the Supreme Court—every one— lied to get there. Through their teeth. Up one side and down the other. From Little Johnny Roberts’ risible bullshit about being an umpire and “calling balls and strikes” (I’m always reminded, when I see Roberts calling balls in the dirt strikes, especially whenever there’s a party the wingers don’t like, of my favorite imprecation against willfully blind umpires: “Hey Blue, wipe the sweat off your glass eye!”), to the fingers-crossed promise they all made to leave Roe alone and honor precedence and established law.
Lies, lies, lies.
But one liar in particular required a battery of PR specialists, hyper-partisan pols, extreme religious groups, the Federalist Society (natch), and a shamefully complicit press to slither his snakey way onto the high court. He bullshitted almost everyone. Others were attacked and brought to heel, except for one senator. After listening to Hit Man Sam in a private meeting, Ted Kennedy decided he was not buying Alito’s lies.
He warned that “If you are concerned and you want a justice that’s going to stand for the working men and women in this country—it’s not going to be Judge Alito. If you are concerned about women’s privacy rights, about the opportunity for women to gain fair employment in America—it’s not Judge Alito. If you care about the disabled … the Disability Act that we have passed to bring all of the disabled into our society, if you are looking for someone that is going to be a friend of the disabled—it’s not going to be Judge Alito.”
He was right on all counts. Unlike Susan Collins and others who were Concerned™ that nominees might lie about leaving Roe alone, Kennedy wasn’t just going with his gut. The warning signs about Alito’s mala-fides were everywhere:
“Early in the Alito nomination fight, Democrats uncovered a memo the judge wrote while he was working for the Reagan administration in 1985 that articulated his opposition to legal abortion. He advised against waging a ‘frontal assault on Roe’ only because such a maneuver would prove politically unpopular, and instead advocated for a steady demolition of access to reproductive health care at the state level. Until the 2022 Dobbs decision overturning Roe, the Alito playbook is exactly what many Southern and heartland states followed to make abortion all but impossible within their borders.”
He was a sneaky, lying bastard then and he’s only gotten worse. Except now he doesn’t have to sneak around anymore. Oh, unless he’s blaming his wife for flying not one, but two MAGA battle flags.
And about his refusal to recuse? It ain’t the first time.
“Democrats would later learn that, as an appellate judge, Alito failed to recuse himself in two cases involving companies with which he had financial interest, even after he pledged to do so.”
Hmmm…surprised?
There’s more. Lots more. As for the media, well, consider this:
“Earlier this month, Nicolle Wallace, the MSNBC host, said the photos of Alito’s upside-down flags ‘stopped her in her tracks.’ She likened them to a ‘body blow,’ and wondered how we ‘got here.’ Wallace was working for Bush when he nominated Alito to the court. Unlike most Americans living in what Gore Vidal called ‘the United States of Amnesia,’ she should remember the deceitful strategy to install Alito on the court. Decades of right-wing subterfuge, media obsequiousness, and Democratic cowardice explain exactly how we ‘got here.’”
Teddy was right on the money about this snake.
I’m happy to see that jurors in the Trump election interference and fraud case are moving along and asking pertinent questions, but I can’t get that one possibly MAGA juror out of my mind. If a pro-Trump saboteur was able to sneak under the radar, he doesn’t need a rational reason for rejecting a guilty verdict. He can scuttle the whole thing. I hope I’m just being a Nervous Nellie, but we’ve gotten screwed too many times to blow this off. That fat fuck has slithered out of accountability too often for me to believe that this time, we got him.
Hope isn’t dead, but it ain’t feelin’ too well.
@Akhilleus: Yes to all that. Though I would suggest an alternate spelling of ophilogy: "oafiology."
The biggest oaf, however, is not Insufferable Sam. It's not pathetic wannabe Grand Wizard Clarence, either. It's John Roberts, the "ball and strikes" liar who has no balls. Only he has the power to wrangle a full Court press and make his insurrectionist colleagues behave as if (okay, pretend) they are more-or-less nonpartisan jurists. As you point out, they're not even trying anymore.
I can't figure out why Roberts hasn't acted (or if he has, why he's been so ineffectual). You would think he would care about his place in history. Right now, I'd say comparisons to the Taney Court will prevail.
Marie,
You are so righty-right-right about Little Johnny. I was making this same case to an old friend of mine just last week. He believes Alito is the worst, and in some ways he’s correct, but my contention is similar to yours. This is not a great analogy, but it’s close: it’s like a man with attack dogs. The dogs (in this case, Alito and Thomas) do the rending and tearing of the flesh of those they set are upon, but the man holding their leashes can decide whether or not to release them. In this instance there are no leashes. There aren’t even any freakin’ collars.
Okay, that’s not the best analogy. Chief justices don’t typically have that amount of control, but they should be able to exert SOME control.
Here’s maybe a better example. We’re at the end of the NBA season and pretty well into the Major League Baseball season. Plenty of teams have talented players, but often it’s the well coached teams that have the most success. We’ve all seen teams loaded with great players descend into chaos and flame out because the coach/manager couldn’t control them. Things get out of hand and it’s every player for themself.
Then there are the teams with a strong hand on the rudder, a leader who knows how to control the various forces and personalities on the team. Those are the teams that win championships. The NBA has seen a number of so-called dream teams built to win that fizzle out because the coach is unable to control the gigantic egos on the team.
Again, not a perfect analogy, but in this case, the Supreme Court doesn’t just have a bad coach-leader. It doesn’t have anyone at the top. There have been other courts with strong personalities that didn’t go off the rails like this one, because they had a Chief who was able to exert a certain amount of control.
Several factors, with the current court, work in favor of chaos and against orderly professionalism and ethical behavior.
The PoT members of this court were not selected for professionalism or ethics, or adherence to precedence or the rule of law. They were chosen for their ability to ignore those things in favor of “Our Side Wins” mentality. And Roberts? John Roberts is not, and never was a leader of any kind. Roberts has always been a company man. Go along to get along. Do what you’re told, climb the ladder, lie when necessary, and don’t make waves. Real leaders stand up and do the right thing even when it’s hard, even when it seems impossible.
The company man puts his head down, punches out, and goes home.
That’s John Roberts.
Little Johnny, pt. 2
So one thing Roberts could do-but never will—would be to draft a code of ethics for the court that does more than his current pinky-swear guidelines (which no one pays attention to anyway). He could appeal to the senate to come up with some type of enforcement regulations that would make recalcitrant, criminal justices (Alito and Thomas) step the fuck back on cases they should obviously have no part in.
A silly idea, I know, but…Company Man Roberts ain’t that kinda guy.
As for his legacy? I’m sure he’ll write a book extolling his personal wonderfulness and make no mention of the havoc his absenteeism and cowardice have helped wreak on the nation. Hear no evil, see no evil…
I have nothing to add. Am terrified that Fatso will slither out from this one, also. After all, he hasn't had to pay any sort of price, monetary or otherwise, since being docked for running all those fake businesses. He hasn't paid in any way yet for sexual assault. He has half the country of dunces behind him, and regardless of the erudite prosecution, no one will be nervy enough to convict, I'm afraid. I am also afraid of a hung jury, courtesy of the reported--upon MAGA juror. Ugh. Must let this go for now.
Cell phone cameras are everywhere. Every Nosy Parker and her brother has one. It’s getting harder and harder for cops to put a solid beat down on uppity nigras and other layabouts. I mean, those cops gotta stay in shape, know whatamean? But then along comes these “citizens” with their cell phone cameras and next thing you know, it’s that George Floyd bullshit all over again.
What to do?
Red states know what to do! If Nosy Parkers get too close and try to video cops beating on someone, throw them in jail!
Yup.
“Critics of a new Louisiana law that makes it a crime to approach within 25ft (7.6 meters) of a police officer under certain circumstances fear the measure could hinder the public’s ability to film officers – a tool that has increasingly been used to hold police accountable.
Under the law, anyone who is convicted of ‘knowingly or intentionally’ approaching an officer who is ‘lawfully engaged in the execution of his official duties’, and after being ordered to ‘stop approaching or retreat’, faces a fine up to $500, as many as 60 days in jail or both. The law was signed by Governor Jeff Landry, a Republican, on Tuesday and goes into effect on 1 August.”
DeSantolini has already instituted one of these so-called “Halo bills” in his fascist state. Other red states are doing the same. The excuse is that nice police officers fear for their safety and so they can order bystanders not to video them and to stay far away.
Otherwise: clang! Jail time!
The procession to a full fledged fascist police state continues.
Jeanne,
The other day, Junior (aka Eight-Ball) made a backhand threat to jurors. He said something along the lines of how decent ‘mericans on the jury would fear for their lives if they don’t return a guilty verdict because they would be doxxed, followed around, threatened with bodily harm to themselves and family members. But this sort of thing is only carried out by MAGAts. What he meant was that jurors who vote to convict dear old dad could expect exactly this type of abuse.
They’re not subtle about it at all. Go against our wished and you’ll be sorry.
The Law and Order Party (*snigger*)
Looks like those tough guy lawnorder MAGAts have a suggestion for the Dear Leader:
Run away!!!
This Todd Starnes person from NewsAss is pleading with Fatty to get on a plane and run and hide before the jury returns a verdict. He’s suggesting finding a state that will grant the First Crook “safe harbor”. As with most MAGA geniuses, this Starnes idiot has no idea what he’s talking about. If Fatty flees to Florida to avoid paying for his crimes in the State of New York, he can be sent back. Florida follows the Uniform Criminal Extradition Act (UCEA) and is not a non-extradition state.
Oops. But interesting, in’it? The first thing they think of is “Run away! Aieee!”
Lonely are the brave.
Not so free speech
"New College of Florida set to punish student protesters following boos at commencement
New College President Richard Corcoran said the school could withhold degrees from students who protested.
New College President Richard Corcoran said in a statement that students could face consequences ranging from withholding degrees until they issue an apology letter or take mandatory classes on civil discourse to suspension or expulsion from New College. Rescinding an issued diploma in higher education is rare — typically reserved for instances of plagiarism or cheating.
”We support and protect the right of free speech while resolutely insisting upon civil discourse,” New College’s statement read. “Disruptive activities by a few individuals at a ceremonial event attended by hundreds is not representative of either of these principles.”
During the college’s graduation ceremony, the student section erupted in boos, chanted “free Palestine” and expletives as Joe Ricketts, the billionaire founder of TD Ameritrade, spoke. Students also wore stoles bearing the flag of Palestine, following a national trend of higher education protests against the war in Gaza."
"Lonely Are The Brave" immediately brought to mind Kirk Douglas being run over by a truckload of toilets, which then provided the gratifying image of golden commodes raining down on DiJiT.
Sometimes we can't be held accountable for the images our brains pop up.
Threats
"False right-wing reports about Trump trial jury instructions fuel threats against judge
False reporting and social media commentary about the jury instructions in Trump's hush money trial has spurred calls for the assassination of the judge overseeing the case.
Several conservative news personalities, including some affiliated with Fox News, falsely claimed that Judge Juan Merchan, as one Fox News anchor put it in a viral post on X, "told the jury that they do not need unanimity to convict" Trump.
That's not true. Merchan instructed the jury on Wednesday that they "must conclude unanimously that a defendant conspired to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means," adding that they "need not be unanimous as to what those unlawful means were."
Trump continued making social media posts about the jury instructions on Thursday morning, quoting a Fox News commentator who called the Trump prosecution "an ‘Alice in Wonderland’ case with a Mad Hatter judge" where the "cherished principles of fairness" had been turned upside down.
In response to inaccurate reporting that Trump could be convicted without unanimous agreement that he committed a crime, one user on Gab, a site popular with far-right extremists, said Wednesday it was "time to find out where that judge lives and protest as the left calls it." Another user posted: "I hear bad stuff happens to judges in their driveways." On Telegram, one user called for "a military tribunal" for Merchan and on the official Telegram channel of Steve Bannon’s WarRoom, a user said Merchan “and all involved” should be hanged."
Patrick,
And don’t forget who was driving the truck: Carroll O’Connor, soon to become famous as the right-wing TV bigot, Archie Bunker. The script was by blacklisted Hollywood Ten screenwriter, Dalton Trumbo. And to add to the weird bits of that film’s Americana, the horse Kirk Douglas rode was owned by a rancher named John Philip Sousa.
LATB also has one of my favorite bits of dialogue (from Trumbo, who knew whereof he spoke), a line delivered by Douglas’ iconoclastic cowboy:
“ Have you ever noticed how many fences there're getting to be? And the signs they got on them: no hunting, no hiking, no admission, no trespassing, private property, closed area, start moving, go away, get lost, drop dead!”
Good stuff.
So the jury found Trump to be the GLOAT to use his lawyer's parlance. The greatest liar of all time.
We now have a FAT FASCIST FELON!
This asshole is GUILTY on ALL counts!!
Yesssssssssss!!!
Fantastic!
The appeal will be based only on process, not on facts.
Until it is a successful appeal (if so), he's a convicted felon.
I don't care if he never dons a jumpsuit. The title of felon suits.
Let the traitors and liars start their engines!
But fuck every last one of them.
Look for Fatty to demand that his appeal is heard next week and the Supreme Court exonerate him the next.
@Patrick - and in his home state of Floriduh, as a felon, Trump is now disqualified from voting
The Orange Monster is now calling for civil war. “Waaaahhhh!” (The big baby sounds like he’s going to cry.)
He claims to “fight for the Constitution”!
He’s never even read it.
Things are gonna get crazy.
@RockyGirl: Sadly, I heard twice on the teevee today that Trump will likely still be able to vote. Florida recognizes New York State law as prevailing, and unless Trump is actually in jail on November 5 (which he won't be because of appeals, etc.), NY law allows him to vote. Even if by chance Trump were in jail come election day, Floriduh Gov. Ron DeSantis could grant (and likely would) him a special dispensation to vote.
@Marie - bummer.
We can now add arrogant, disdainful, contemptuous, and cowardly to the sorry, Federalist tattooed carcass that is Company Man John Roberts. Yes. A sullen, obsequious, obedient company man. But the company he works for is not Justice, not the United States, not the rule of law. The company he serves is the Party of Traitors and its authoritarian, fascist overlords.
They always tell us what they are going to do.
"Sean Davis, the CEO and co-founder of the the right-wing website The Federalist, called on Republicans to draw up lists of Democrats to “put in prison” in a social media post reacting to Donald Trump’s conviction on Thursday evening.
“In 2016, the presidential race was decided based on candidates releasing lists of potential Supreme Court nominees,” wrote Davis. “In 2024, I want to see lists of which Democrat officials are going to be put in prison.”
“This is what happens when you cross the Rubicon,” he added."