;)
The Conversation -- October 16, 2023
Holmes Lybrand, et al., of CNN: "A federal judge on Monday issued a gag order on ... Donald Trump, limiting what he can say about special counsel Jack Smith's federal prosecution into his alleged attempt to subvert in the 2020 presidential election. The order restricts Trump's ability to publicly target court personnel, potential witnesses, or the special counsel and his staff. The order did not impose restrictions on disparaging comments about Washington, DC, -- where the jury will take place -- or certain comments about the Justice Department at large, both of which the government requested. 'This is not about whether I like the language Mr. Trump uses,' Judge Tanya Chutkan said. 'This is about language that presents a danger to the administration of justice.'" ~~~
~~~ The New York Times is liveblogging Judge Tanya Chutkan's hearing on motions regarding a gag order against Donald Trump: "Federal prosecutors and lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump are squaring off on Monday over whether a gag order should be put on Mr. Trump to restrict his often threatening statements about his federal indictment on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.... During the hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Judge Tanya S. Chutkan drew a bright line between Mr. Trump the presidential candidate and Mr. Trump the criminal defendant. 'This trial will not yield to the election cycle,' she said."
Oh, there are little exchanges like this one. Charlie Savage: "Judge Chutkan tells John F. Lauro, a lawyer for Trump, to tone it down. Lauro suggests Chutkan is trying to censor his speech."
Alan Feuer & Savage: "A federal judge asked hard questions to lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump, repeatedly pressing them on Monday to explain why a gag order should not be placed on Mr. Trump to restrict his often threatening statements about his federal indictment on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election. The judge, Tanya S. Chutkan, seemed to be leaning toward imposing a limited gag order on the former president that would prohibit threatening witnesses, encouraging violence or disrupting the integrity of the proceedings."
Savage: "Chutkan is taking a brief recess to think about it."
Feuer: "Judge Chutkan just said she will share the 'basic contours' of her decision now and then issue a written order."
Feuer: "Chutkan is granting in part and denying in part the government's request for a gag order. Details are coming now. The judge said she will craft 'a narrowly tailored' gag order on Trump."
Savage: "Trump can still attack the Biden administration or the Justice Department and say that he thinks the prosecution is politically motivated. But he cannot attack Jack Smith, the special counsel, or his staff or family, nor can he attack court staff or witnesses. He can attack Pence, except he can't talk about Pence's role in the events that involve this case. She did not say she was barring Trump from attacking her personally." MB: Oh, noes! How will potential jurors find out Smith is a "deranged thug"?
Feuer: "Judge Chutkan did not immediately address the question of how she will enforce her gag order. She merely said she would assess any consequences for Trump if and when he violates it." MB: My advice? Put a muzzle on him, cuff him, strap him in leg irons & toss him in the D.C. jail.
Marie: So I was wonder if Trump would claim, "I won! I won!' or if he would whine that he was being persecuted. Here's my answer:
Savage: "The Trump campaign has released a statement from an unnamed spokesman denouncing the gag order: 'Today's decision is an absolute abomination and another partisan knife stuck in the heart of our Democracy by Crooked Joe Biden, who was granted the right to muzzle his political opponent, the leading candidate for the Presidency in 2024, and the most popular political leader in America, President Donald J. Trump. President Trump will continue to fight for our Constitution, the American people's right to support him, and to keep our country free of the chains of weaponized and targeted law enforcement.'" AND ~~~
Michael Gold: ... "Trump just responded to the gag order on Truth Social.... 'A TERRIBLE THING HAPPENED TO DEMOCRACY TODAY,' he said in one post. In another, he said he planned to appeal the order. 'WITCH HUNT!' he added." AND ~~~
Maggie Haberman: "Trump's campaign has sent out a fundraising email falsely claiming the current president is behind the gag. 'A GAG ORDER HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN IMPOSED ON ME AT THE REQUEST OF JOE BIDEN,' it says."
~~~ Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: Donald Trump "lashed out on social media ahead of the [hearing], including making false statements about the extent of the gag order. Trump said the order is trying 'to silence me, through the use of a powerful GAG ORDER, making it impossible for me to criticize those who are doing the silencing, namely Crooked Joe Biden, and his corrupt and weaponized DOJ & FBI.... They want to take away my First Amendment rights, and my ability to both campaign and defend myself,' Trump added in the post on his social media site. The order actually would allow Trump to criticize President Biden as well as the Justice Department, though the department asked that the gag order limit Trump's potential attacks on the team of special counsel Jack Smith. It also allows Trump to still talk about the case, including proclaiming his innocence." MB: Trump, the habitual bully, has become a real specialist in whining about fake stories about people bullying him. And I see where his lawyer John Lauro is following Trump's example, as noted above.
Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "Two of the grand jurors in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' investigation of the alleged election racketeering plot in Georgia have agreed to sit for interviews with attorneys representing Trump co-defendants Kenneth Chesebro and Sidney Powell, reported The Messenger. Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the case, made the announcement Monday, saying that the jurors 'expressed interest' in such an interview and that it 'would be on the record, but not a public proceeding.'"
Miriam Jordan of the New York Times: "Lawyers representing thousands of families separated at the southern border during a Trump administration crackdown have reached a settlement with the federal government that enables the migrants to remain in the United States and apply for asylum, putting them on the path to permanent legal residency. The agreement, filed on Monday in federal court in San Diego, concludes years of negotiations that were part of a class-action lawsuit to address the harm inflicted by family separations carried out in 2017 and 2018. The policy was a key component of the Trump administration's efforts to curb unauthorized immigration. Children were systematically taken from their parents and sent to shelters and foster homes across the country, and parents were criminally charged for entering the country unlawfully." An NBC News story is here.
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David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "... federal authorities and abortion rights groups said harassment, stalking and intimidation at abortion clinics have escalated since the Supreme Court's decision in the Dobbs case in June 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade -- the court's 1973 decision recognizing the federal right to an abortion. That behavior, they argue, has made the Justice Department's push for federal charges that come with harsh prison penalties more urgent.... Federal authorities are prosecuting several allegations of extremely dangerous behavior at abortion clinics that go well beyond being disruptive.... Some conservative groups, Republican lawmakers and defense attorneys have rebuked [Attorney General Merrick] Garland, accusing the department of going too far in aggressively pursuing members of antiabortion groups who have not necessarily been dangerous."
Coup de Vanilla Flambé Was the House Flavor of Last Week. Manu Raju & Jeremy Herb of CNN: "A number of House Republicans are in talks to block Rep. Jim Jordan's path to the speakership as the Ohio Republican tries to force a floor vote on Tuesday, according to multiple GOP sources. One senior Republican House member who is part of the opposition to Jordan told CNN that there he believes there are roughly 40 'no' votes, and that he has personally spoken to 20 members who are willing to go to the floor and block Jordan's path if the Ohio Republican forces a roll-call vote on Tuesday.... Republicans are expected to meet behind closed doors Monday evening." ~~~
~~~ Miranda Nazzaro of the Hill: "Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said Sunday if House Republicans cannot elect a Speaker soon then a 'deal will have to be done' with Democrats in order to get the chamber running again, as it nears two weeks since Rep. Kevin McCarthy's (R-Calif.) historic ousting.... Turner[, who supports Jordan,] said Jordan is 'working right now' to put a coalition together to get to the 217 votes needed."
Kelly Garrity of Politico: "Talks of a possible bipartisan solution to the House Speaker standoff that has created chaos in the Republican caucus are underway, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday. 'There are informal conversations that have been underway. When we get back to Washington tomorrow, it's important to begin to formalize those discussions,' the New York Democrat said during an interview on NBC's 'Meet the Press.'"
Do Not Bother Boebert with Governing Stuff. Jessica Piper & Sam Stein of Politico: "Well before Rep. Lauren Boebert [R-Colo.] and her date got thrown out of a local theater showing of Beetlejuice for being disruptive and frisky, her campaign spent hundreds of dollars at his bar...., [the] Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar in Aspen, Co., according to her most recent campaign finance filings. That's the same bar co-owned by Quinn Gallagher, the man who accompanied Boebert to the theater that fateful September night.... Hooch is a gay friendly bar that has hosted drag shows, the latter of which Boebert has publicly criticized.... Boebert says she and Gallagher are no longer dating because he is a Democrat."
Michael Kunzelman, et al., of the AP: "Federal prosecutors and lawyers for Donald Trump will argue in court Monday over a proposed gag order aimed at reining in the former president's diatribes against likely witnesses and others in his 2020 election interference case in Washington. In pressing U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to impose the narrow gag order, special counsel Jack Smith's team has accused the Republican of using increasingly incendiary rhetoric to try to undermine the public's confidence in the justice system and taint the jury pool."
Robert Draper of the New York Times profiles Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over the federal case against Donald Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Presidential Race 2024
Biden v. Bobo. Chris Megerian of the AP: "President Joe Biden is visiting the Colorado congressional district of Rep. Lauren Boebert, a combative Trump loyalist, on Monday as he draws a sharper contrast between the Democratic and Republican economic agendas. Boebert has described Biden's Inflation Reduction Act, the president's signature domestic legislation and the source of hundreds of billions of dollars for clean energy incentives, as 'a massive failure' that 'needs to be repealed.' But Biden is out to demonstrate otherwise when he visits CS Wind, the world's largest facility for wind tower manufacturing, in the town of Pueblo. The company is undergoing a $200 million expansion that is expected to create 850 jobs by 2026 with help from the tax incentives in the law."
Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Climate Power, a liberal advocacy group, plans to spend $80 million on advertising to lift President Biden's standing on environmental issues and inform voters about the impact of legislation he signed last year. Polls show few voters are aware of the president's record on climate issues, and there is a broad dissatisfaction with his stewardship of the issue, a dynamic that mirrors voters' discontent with his handling of the economy and other concerns. This new effort also adds to the constellation of outside groups working to solve one of the Democratic Party's most vexing problems: how to make a president widely seen by his own party as too old to seek re-election just popular enough to win a likely rematch with ... Donald J. Trump."
Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "President Biden's campaign announced raising $71 million in the third fundraising quarter of the year, giving him a significant advantage over the current Republican field while falling short of the inflation-adjusted hauls of Barack Obama and Donald Trump at the same point in their reelection efforts." ~~~
~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden's reelection campaign boasted they have more cash on hand than 'the entire MAGA field combined' after 3rd quarter reporting -- including more than double what ex-President Donald Trump has on hand.... That prompted Trump to make a video appeal for more donations ahead of the Q3 FEC reporting deadline."
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Alabama. Driving While In Labor. Bracey Harris of NBC News: "By the end of the month, two Alabama hospitals will stop delivering babies. A third will follow suit a few weeks later. That will leave two counties -- Shelby and Monroe -- without any birthing hospitals, and strip a predominantly Black neighborhood in Birmingham of a sought-after maternity unit.... People in Monroe County ... could face drives between 35 to 100 miles to a labor and delivery department. Trekking that far to give birth is not unheard of in Alabama, in which more than a third of the counties are maternity care deserts.... The state has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the country.... Nationally, fewer than half of rural hospitals have labor and delivery services...." MB: This is not a developed country. (Also linked yesterday.)
Illinois. Johnny Diaz, et al., of the New York Times: "The authorities in suburban Chicago accused a man of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old boy on Saturday and seriously wounding the boy's mother because they were Muslim, an attack that officials tied to the violence in Israel and Gaza.... Investigators in Will County, Ill., southwest of Chicago..., said a 71-year-old landlord turned on the boy and his mother, who were his tenants, at their home in Plainfield Township on Saturday morning, stabbing them repeatedly with a serrated knife that had a seven-inch blade." The CBS News story is here.
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Israel/Palestine
The New York Times' live updates of developments in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israel and Hamas on Monday denied that they had agreed to a humanitarian cease-fire, leaving it unclear whether emergency supplies would be allowed into the Gaza Strip to ease a mounting humanitarian crisis, or whether foreigners massed near the enclave's southern border would be allowed safe passage to Egypt. More than half a million people have fled their homes in Gaza in the past few days, according to the United Nations and Israel, many in response to an Israeli warning to head south as Israel prepares to invade the northern part of the strip.
"On Sunday, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said, after meeting with Egypt's president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, that the Rafah border crossing with Egypt would reopen, without giving details.... But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said in a statement on Monday that no cease-fire had been agreed to allow foreigners out of Gaza and foreign aid into the enclave. A senior official in Hamas's political bureau, Izzat Al-Rishq, also denied reports of a temporary cease-fire or the opening of the Rafah crossing. More than 500,000 Gazans have moved south after the Israeli military urged civilians to flee before a land invasion aimed at destroying Hamas...." ~~~
~~~ CNN's liveblog is here.
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden warned Israel in an interview aired on Sunday not to reoccupy Gaza, his first significant public effort to restrain America's ally in the wake of the Hamas assault that killed more than 1,300 people, including at least 29 Americans. Mr. Biden has offered staunch support for Israel since the Oct. 7 attack and refused to criticize Israel for its retaliatory siege of Gaza, the coastal enclave controlled by Hamas, even as U.N. officials have warned of a humanitarian crisis there.... 'Look, what happened in Gaza, in my view, is Hamas and the extreme elements of Hamas don't represent all the Palestinian people. And I think that it would be a mistake for Israel to occupy Gaza again.' But 'taking out the extremists' there, he added, 'is a necessary requirement.'" ~~~
~~~ The "60 Minutes" story, by Scott Pelley, is here. The transcript of Pelley's interview of President Biden, via "60 Minutes," is here. ~~~
Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "CNN anchor Jake Tapper capped off his show by wishing peace to 'all of us' after an unsparing video essay featuring relatives of Hamas victims who nonetheless strive for compassion and peace, and are unafraid to criticize the Israeli government if they see it as necessary." MB: This was an excellent segment/tearjerker, and I looked for it in vain on YouTube before I discovered Christopher had picked it up. Includes video & transcript.
Ecuador. Banana Repubic? Genevieve Glatsky, et al., of the New York Times: "Daniel Noboa, a center-right scion of a banana empire, was set to win Ecuador's presidential race on Sunday night with more than three-quarters of the votes counted, in a high-stakes campaign driven by an electorate frustrated with the country's surging violence and ailing economy. The political outsider was poised to defeat Luisa González, a leftist handpicked by former President Rafael Correa who ran on a pledge of returning to a time of prosperity and low homicide rates under the Correa government.The vote signaled a desire for change in a nation of nearly 17 million on South America's western coast that has seen a wave of violence from international criminal groups and local gangs that have turned Ecuador into a key player in the global drug trade and sent tens of thousands of Ecuadoreans fleeing to the U.S.-Mexico border."
Poland. Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: "Centrist and progressive forces appeared capable of forming a new government in Poland after securing more seats in a critical general election on Sunday, despite the governing nationalist party, Law and Justice, winning the most votes for a single party. Exit polls showing a strong second place finish by the main opposition group, Civic Coalition, and better than expected results for two smaller centrist and progressive parties suggested a dramatic upset that would frustrate the governing party's hope of an unprecedented third consecutive term. A jubilant Donald Tusk, Civic Coalition's leader, declared the projected results a resounding 'win for democracy' that would end the rule of Law and Justice, known by its Polish acronym PiS, in power since 2015." The AP's story is here.
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Reader Comments (13)
My Kevin’s demise? The Democrats’ fault. Hamas attack? Biden did it. The traitors never tire of blaming others, especially if they’re the ones responsible, or ones who benefit from something they’d rather not be directly connected to (election theft, insurrection, eg).
After a while, they’ve blamed pretty much everyone else and now have to get creative. But there’s one problem they’ve had a hard time getting around: slavery, and the stench of racial injustice they’ve promoted for decades. They usually try saying things like “Slavery wasn’t so bad…three squares a day, free housing, watermelons…” Or else we get the whitewashing (literally) of daily life for African-Americans in the Jim Crow south: “All the nee-groes in our town were happy and content to just sit on the porch and wave to all the nice white people.”
But now we’ve got the Mother of All Bullshit Finger Pointing. Pretend historian (I’m sorry, but guys who make shit up can maybe be called hack fiction writers but not historians) and bible thumping ass crack, David Barton, takes on the job of where to put the blame for slavery.
You see, his contention that Jesus created the United States through the offices of Christian holy roller founders runs into problems when one considers that some of those founders owned slaves.
So how to get around what Barton calls “the slavery thing” (sounds like he’s talking about chronic backache, not the torture, mutilation, enslavement, and murder of human beings. “Honey, what are we gonna do about that ‘slavery thing’?”).
Here’s what: liberals did it!
Yup. Progressives are to blame for the “slavery thing”. See, the pilgrims at Plymouth were good holy roller types. They were responsible for “…intelligence, obedience, law, equal rights, love of country, philanthropy, benevolence, happiness, patience, charity, faith, hope, peace, honor, truth, virtue, all that good” (Not for nothin’, but do intelligence, law, honor, and truth sound like standard MAGA virtues?).
But down in Jamestown! Hoo boy! Those lib’rul bastards were up to no good: “…avarice and lust and ignorance and superstition and rebellion and secession,” Barton said. “And you got things like the Dred Scott decision, Kansas-Nebraska Act, all these negative things. That’s what swept across the South. That’s where the biggest slavery thing was, and that impact of Jamestown spread all throughout that area, and it was not a biblical impact, it was a money impact. That’s what motivated them do what they did.”
Wow. Ignorance, superstition, rebellion, secession? Now THAT sounds a lot more like MAGAts. And about that “money impact”…sounds kinda funny for a multi-millionaire like Barton to be getting high and mighty about the evils of money.
He continues:
“They [the Jamestown colonists] were very elitist. They were very socialistic. They were pro-slavery. They were definitely big government, and they were very group conscious. That’s the way progressives are.”
Clearly someone who knows zip-zero-nada about Jamestown. Were there differences between Jamestown and Plymouth? Absolutely. But those distinctions require actual historical research, not yank it out yer ass crapola.
I’m surprised he couldn’t somehow work in Hunter Biden’s laptop or Pocahontas’ emails to John Rolfe.
Hey, points for creativity. Either that or acid flashbacks. That Orange Sunshine was some crazy shit.
Insurrection Gym is trying to force a floor vote thinking he can bully his way to the Squeaker’s gavel, but just a couple of weeks ago, when it looked like KKK Steve was the favorite, Gym was all about proceeding cautiously.
He told Hannity on Faux that they had to slow things down!.
His position then was that “…Republicans should already have a Speaker chosen before they proceed to the floor, citing the drama surrounding the Speaker election back in January, when Rep. Kevin McCarthy needed 15 votes in order to claim the job.
‘We shouldn’t go to the House floor until we have 218 votes for the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives,’ Jordan said. ‘We shouldn’t have to go through what we did back in January.’”
Of course circumspection becomes vivisection when ol’ Gym stands to benefit.
Opportunistic, nasty, lying sack of shit supporter of treason and political violence.
Wait, you mean those aren’t the qualities we should look for in someone third in line from the presidency? Crap.
Until this morning I had never heard of David Barton.
Those were happy times.
This post by Marcy Wheeler makes it even more imperative to me that Jungle Gym never gets close to becoming Speaker. This is serious.
Been reading about a colloquy involving certain House Democrats and so-called “moderate” Republicans who don’t see Gymbo as the savior of the current, and latest, GQP chemical factory fire. I think I read that there were 10 moderate R types? 10? Really? Where the hell have they been? Why haven’t we heard from them before? But that’s exactly the problem.
The plan is for these two groups to put forward a more moderate choice than No Jacket Boy, and by agreeing on certain incentives that Democrats might like, vote this other guy in.
Yeahhhh…sounds…not good. Oh sure, in theory it sounds eminently reasonable, but remember, we’re talking about trusting Republicans…Party of Traitor Republicans! to follow through on these agreements.
Which brings us back to these chimerical moderates. To my mind, moderates in THIS party are probably not down with extra-judicial public hangings preceded by several days in medieval torture chambers (run with inquisition-like glee by Matt Gaetz). The hangings are okay, but not the torture stuff. And on a slightly more pragmatic note, we haven’t heard much about these people because they have NO POWER. Their House mojo is about on a par with the kid who makes coffee and gets the donuts for committee members. Which means whatever agreement they broker will be met with howls of derisive laughter from the Bobos, MTGs, and the Gyms (that is when Bobo isn’t perfecting her hand job technique in public theaters).
And seriously, what could they promise Democrats? We won’t turn the underside of your desk into a booger farm? We promise not to breathe on your food in the congressional dining room?
How about they get those “moderates” to vote for Hakeem Jeffries? I guess in return they’d want 24 hour protection against assassination from Gym’s thugs.
Ben Meiselas
"It is worth reflecting on how people in democracies abroad admire President Biden’s temperament & his careful, deliberative, precise, intelligent, & compassionate approach of an elder statesman, while the incentive structure in America and our media rewards the exact opposite."
Rejecting hate
Patrick,
Yeah, Barton is one of those crackpot fringe types held in great esteem by Party of Traitors movers and shakers and serves to bolster the idea, also spread by such as Leonard Leo, that religion—the evangelical type—should control the country.
Barton is worth knowing about (sorry about that) because he turns up regularly when the crazy is hot, not so much like a bad penny, more like a recurrent case of virulent herpes
His special area of interest is white Christian nationalism, and to that end, he has published his pseudo-history to “prove” that the founders were sent by Jesus and the separation of church and state is an evil liberal lie.
“From the outset, Christian nationalism has always been a con, sold to its followers on the false claim that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. David Barton…is the foremost purveyor of this myth;[but] the publisher of Barton’s 2012 book, The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson, felt compelled to withdraw it after National Public Radio checked Barton’s biblical citations only to find that ‘not one of them checked out.’”
Not a one. But no matter, people like Cancun Ted and Sam Brownback love this guy.
As distasteful as it is, it’s worth knowing about vermin like Barton.
I think of Barton as galloping historical (or not) smegma— you can’t get away from it/him. They never die, lonely and sick, except Rush. There needs to be a vaccine against toxic lying charletons. I will look for one at Rite Aid—. And will add to our collection of flu, Covid, RSV and next week’s shingles and pneumonia.
Picture of Trump after his hearing today
A fat guy in an orange wig whined “A terrible thing happened to democracy today”. Yeah. It’s called Donald Trump. And it happened years ago.
As if that bloated fascist knows anything about democracy.
Does anyone think the MAGA knuckle draggers are astute enough (or at all) to pick up on this contradiction?
Prior to ruling:
“I won’t be able to talk about those silencing me, namely Joe Biden!”
After the ruling:
“Crooked Joe Biden is gagging me! Aieeee!!”
So which is it? You can’t tell bullshit lies or you can tell bullshit lies.
This is like saying “AT&T killed my phone service!” and you let everyone know this by calling them up.
Seriously, this isn’t even Logic 101. This is pre-school “is it black or is it white?”
Pretty sad when millions of voters can’t tell the difference.
The Donald makes me gag every time I see him.
In case you want to read more on the craziness, Molly Jong-Fast, writing in Vanity Fair, provides a summary of the recent house circus The "burn it all down" caucus'