The Conversation -- March 4, 2024

Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo: "The New Yorker [Monday] morning offers a peek behind ... closed doors. John Harwood tweets that the interview, like his own last fall, 'shows talk of his alleged mental decline as utter bullshit.' Evan Osnos writes: 'If you spend time with [President] Biden these days, the biggest surprise is that he betrays no doubts. The world is riven by the question of whether he is up to a second term, but he projects a defiant belief in himself and his ability to persuade Americans to join him.'... Republicans mean to fuck you over and gut your freedoms. What are you prepared to do about it? At a minimum, get off your ass." MB: If you can access New Yorker articles, this would be a place to do so.

Supreme Court Rules for Trump re: Colorado Ballot. New York Times liveblog: ~~~

Adam Liptak: "The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that ... Donald J. Trump should remain on Colorado's primary ballot, rejecting a challenge to his eligibility for another term that could have upended the presidential race by taking him off ballots around the nation. Though the justices offered different reasons, the decision was unanimous. The decision was the court's most important ruling concerning a presidential election since Bush v. Gore handed the presidency to George W. Bush in 2000."

Charlie Savage: "The essence of the majority per curium opinion is that in order to invoke Section 3 to disqualify people from holding or seeking federal office, it is 'critical' that Congress first pass legislation to implement how that enforcement works and under what standards."

Savage: "... the three liberal justices -- Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson -- filed their own joint opinion concurring in the judgment."

Abbie VanSickle: "The court's three liberal justices signed on to the decision, agreeing that a state cannot invoke Section 3 to keep a presidential candidate off the ballot because that would 'create a chaotic state-by-state patchwork, at odds with our nation's federalism principles.' But they noted that they disagreed with how far the majority went: 'We cannot join an opinion that decides momentous and difficult issues unnecessarily, and we therefore concur only in the judgment.'"

VanSickle: "In their separate concurring opinion, the three liberal justices ... wrote that although they agreed with the outcome, they thought the majority could have decided the case more narrowly." ~~~

~~~ Savage: "But they criticize the majority for going further and saying that Section 3 can only be enforced at the federal level via a congressional statute, arguing that it was unnecessary to decide that 'other potential means of federal enforcement' are not permissible."

Savage: "Even though she agrees with the three liberals, Justice Barrett has written a (very short) separate opinion rather than joining theirs because she did not like their tone."

     ~~~ The CNN liveblog of the Supreme Court's decision is here. Politico's report is here. The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ You can read the decision & concurring opinions here, via the Court.

Monday was a good day in court for others in Trump's insurrection gang, too:

~~~ Wisconsin. Sophia Tareen of the AP: "Two attorneys for ... Donald Trump orchestrated a plan for fake electors to file paperwork falsely saying the Republican won Wisconsin in a strategy to overturn Joe Biden's 2020 victory there and in other swing states, according to a lawsuit settlement reached Monday that makes public months of texts and emails. Under their agreements, Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis turned over more than 1,400 pages of documents, emails and text messages, along with photos and video, offering a detailed account of the scheme's origins in Wisconsin. The communications show how they, with coordination from Trump campaign officials, replicated the strategy in six other states including Georgia, where Chesebro has already pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the 2020 election. The agreements settle a civil lawsuit brought by Democrats in 2022 against the two attorneys and 10 Republicans in Wisconsin who posed as fake electors. The Republicans settled in December.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Allen H. Weisselberg, a longtime lieutenant to ... Donald J. Trump, pleaded guilty to felony perjury charges in a Manhattan courtroom on Monday, the latest twist in his tortured legal odyssey. Mr. Weisselberg, who for years has remained steadfastly loyal to Mr. Trump in the face of intense prosecutorial pressure, is not expected to implicate his former boss. That unbroken streak of loyalty has frustrated prosecutors and already once cost him his freedom. Mr. Weisselberg, who was led into the courtroom in handcuffs wearing a blue surgical mask and a dark suit, conceded that in recent years he had lied under oath to the New York attorney general's office when it was investigating Mr. Trump for fraud." This is an update of a story linked earlier today. The AP's report is here.

Marianna Spring of the BBC: "BBC Panorama discovered dozens of deepfakes portraying black people as supporting [Donald Trump].... But there's no evidence directly linking these images to Mr Trump's campaign. The co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a group which encourages black people to vote, said the manipulated images were pushing a 'strategic narrative' designed to show Mr Trump as popular in the black community.... Unlike in 2016, when there was evidence of foreign influence campaigns, the AI-generated images found by the BBC appear to have been made and shared by US voters themselves." MB: So gratifying to know we're in another post-Sputnik-type era, where U.S. "scientists" catch up with and eventually may surpass Russian technological advances. U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

Leslie Josephs & Rebecca Picciotto of CNBC: "JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines on Monday said they were terminating their merger agreement weeks after losing a federal antitrust lawsuit that challenged the deal."

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Presidential Race

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court announced on Sunday that it would issue at least one decision on Monday, a strong signal that it would rule then on ... Donald J. Trump's eligibility for Colorado's primary ballot. The announcement said Monday's opinion or opinions would be posted online starting at 10 a.m. 'The court will not take the bench,' it said. The court's usual practice, though one suspended during the pandemic, is to announce decisions in argued cases from the bench." The AP's story is here. MB: IOW, these bastards are so unwilling to face the public that they'll issue the Trump opinion not just behind closed doors but with the doors barricaded against us barbarians & with the justices themselves hiding out in undisclosed locations.

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has a dream. It's not gonna happen, and it's not gonna happen because no matter how decent a person is, unless he's a saint, once he's tasted power, he just can't relinquish it. And he's damned sure he's better at wielding that power than is anybody else.

Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley won her first contest in the Republican presidential nomination race on Sunday after triumphing in D.C.'s primary. It is not likely to change the contest's trajectory. After three days of voting, polls in the Washington race closed at 7 p.m. Eastern time on Sunday. Though only 19 delegates were at stake, Haley perhaps had her best chance of defeating Trump [in D.C.]... With all the votes counted, Haley got 63 percent of the vote to 33 percent for Trump == and she won all of the delegates." The AP story is here.

Gustaf Kilander of the Independent: "The crowd of Trump supporters gathered in Richmond, Virginia to hear Donald Trump speak on Saturday night went silent as the former president appeared to mix up Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama yet again. 'Shortly after we win the presidency, I will have the horrible war between Russia and Ukraine settled,' Mr Trump said on Saturday. 'I know them both very well and we will restore peace through strength. Get that war settled. It's a bad war. And Putin has so little respect for Obama that he's starting to throw around the nuclear word,' Mr Trump added, seemingly in the false belief that Mr Biden's former boss remains in charge." MB: On the plus side, the repeated slip-ups work toward proving Trump's point that he's "the least racist person in the world"; when even mockery doesn't stop a person from confusing a black President with a white one, that person must be color-blind.

Jonathan Cooper & Summer Ballentine of the AP: "... Donald Trump continued his march toward the GOP nomination on Saturday, winning caucuses in Idaho and Missouri and sweeping the delegate haul at a party convention in Michigan. Trump earned every delegate at stake on Saturday, bringing his count to 244 compared to 24 for former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. A candidate needs to secure 1,215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Allies Are Working to Rig the Election. Alexandra Berzon & Nick Corasaniti of the New York Times: "A network of right-wing activists and allies of Donald J. Trump is quietly challenging thousands of voter registrations in critical presidential battleground states, an all-but-unnoticed effort that could have an impact in a close or contentious election. Calling themselves election investigators, the activists have pressed local officials in Michigan, Nevada and Georgia to drop voters from the rolls en masse. They have at times targeted Democratic areas, relying on new data programs and novel legal theories to justify their push.... The ... activists are part of an expansive web of grass-roots groups that formed after Mr. Trump's attempt to overturn his defeat in 2020. The groups have made mass voter challenges a top priority this election year, spurred on by a former Trump lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, and True the Vote, a vote-monitoring group with a long history of spreading misinformation."

** Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "Allen H. Weisselberg, a longtime lieutenant to ... Donald J. Trump, has reached an agreement with Manhattan prosecutors to plead guilty to perjury charges as soon as Monday, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Ye Mr. Weisselberg, who for years has remained steadfastly loyal to Mr. Trump in the face of intense prosecutorial pressure, is not expected to implicate his former boss. That unbroken streak of loyalty has frustrated prosecutors and already once cost him his freedom. Mr. Weisselberg, 76, is now expected to concede that he lied on the witness stand in Mr. Trump's recent civil fraud trial -- but not cooperate against the former president. He might also admit to misleading investigators from the New York attorney general's office, which brought the fraud case against Mr. Trump." CNN's story is here; @7:45 am ET, this is a breaking story that will be updated.

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North Carolina Governor's Race. There's this: ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Even in a Republican Party that, under ... Donald Trump's leadership, has often rewarded crude insults, baseless claims and incendiary language, [North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark] Robinson stands out among candidates this year for the volume of his bigoted attacks and vicious diatribes[:]...: The deluge of offensive comments that made such a declaration necessary. There was the time he called school shooting survivors 'media prosti-tots' for advocating for gun-control policies. The meme mocking a Harvey Weinstein accuser, and the other meme mocking actresses for wearing 'whore dresses to protest sexual harassment.' The prediction that rising acceptance of homosexuality would lead to pedophilia and 'the END of civilization as we know it'; the talk of arresting transgender people for their bathroom choice; the use of antisemitic tropes; the Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a 'heifer' and Michelle Obama a man. Robinson is heavily favored to clinch the GOP nomination for governor in next Tuesday's primary and, at a Saturday rally with Trump, got the former president's formal endorsement." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ And there's this:

     ~~~ Phillip Nieto of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump described North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is Black, as 'Martin Luther King on steroids,' adding that he was 'better than' the civil rights leader." (Also linked yesterday.)

Texas GOP. David Goodman of the New York Times: "Rarely have intraparty battles between Republicans in Texas been as bitter, protracted and consequential as the primary contests culminating in Election Day on Tuesday. The fights have primarily focused on members of the Texas House who angered many conservative voters last year by impeaching the Republican attorney general, Ken Paxton, on charges of corruption and abuse of office. Mr. Paxton, who was acquitted in the Texas Senate, vowed revenge, and number one in his sights has been the house speaker, Dade Phelan. Gov. Greg Abbott has also been going after a number of Republicans in the Texas House, seeking to unseat those who opposed his plan to use public money to help families pay for private and religious schools. Aggressive campaigning by both statewide leaders is amplifying tensions that have simmered for years between the party's old guard and a more socially conservative faction aligned with ... Donald J. Trump...."

Texas. Colbi Edmonds of the New York Times: "A judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Texas attorney general from forcing an L.G.B.T.Q. organization to turn over documents on transgender minors and the gender-affirming care they may be receiving. In Texas, medical care for gender transition is prohibited for minors under a law passed last year. As part of an investigation into violations of the ban, the office of Attorney General Ken Paxton demanded early last month that the nonprofit PFLAG National, which supports families in accessing gender-affirming care for children, provide information on minors in the state who may have received such treatments. But on Friday, Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel of Travis County District Court issued an injunction against Mr. Paxton, just days after PFLAG sued to block the request, saying turning over the documents would cause 'irreparable injury, loss or damage' to the group. The judge added that such an ask would infringe on the group's constitutional rights and that its members would be subject to 'gross invasions' of privacy."

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France. Liberté, Egalité, Sororité. Karla Adam of the Washington Post: "Womens rights groups on Monday were gearing up to celebrate France becoming the first country in the world to explicitly enshrine abortion rights in its constitution -- an effort galvanized by the rollback of protections in the United States. On Monday evening, French lawmakers will vote in a special meeting at Versailles on whether to add abortion to the constitution as a 'guaranteed freedom.' The bill needs the approval of three-fifths of lawmakers. But because the lower and upper houses already overwhelmingly endorsed it in separate votes, there is little suspense about the outcome of the joint session." MB: Adieu, Freedom Fries.

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Monday in the Israel/Hamas war are here. The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

Daniel Wu of the Washington Post: "In a tonal shift for the Biden administration, Vice President Harris on Sunday demanded that Israel allow more aid into the besieged Gaza Strip and told Hamas to accept a deal for a six-week cease-fire that would allow such aid to reach people who are cut off from food, water and medical care.... Harris also rebuffed Israel over conditions in Gaza, showing signs that Washington's relationship with one of its closest allies has frayed as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens and President Biden faces opposition at home for his support of Israel as it conducts a punishing military campaign. 'The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid,' Harris said. 'No excuses.'" NPR's story is here.

The Conversation -- March 3, 2024

Sorry, forgot this: ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Cooper & Summer Ballentine of the AP: "... Donald Trump continued his march toward the GOP nomination on Saturday, winning caucuses in Idaho and Missouri and sweeping the delegate haul at a party convention in Michigan. Trump earned every delegate at stake on Saturday, bringing his count to 244 compared to 24 for ... Nikki Haley. A candidate needs to secure 1,215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination."

North Carolina Governor's Race. There's this: ~~~

     ~~~ Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "Even in a Republican Party that, under ... Donald Trump's leadership, has often rewarded crude insults, baseless claims and incendiary language, [North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark] Robinson stands out among candidates this year for the volume of his bigoted attacks and vicious diatribes[:]...: The deluge of offensive comments that made such a declaration necessary. There was the time he called school shooting survivors 'media prosti-tots' for advocating for gun-control policies. The meme mocking a Harvey Weinstein accuser, and the other meme mocking actresses for wearing 'whore dresses to protest sexual harassment.' The prediction that rising acceptance of homosexuality would lead to pedophilia and 'the END of civilization as we know it'; the talk of arresting transgender people for their bathroom choice; the use of antisemitic tropes; the Facebook posts calling Hillary Clinton a 'heifer' and Michelle Obama a man. Robinson is heavily favored to clinch the GOP nomination for governor in next Tuesday's primary and, at a Saturday rally with Trump, got the former president's formal endorsement." ~~~

~~~ And there's this:

     ~~~ Phillip Nieto of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump described North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who is Black, as 'Martin Luther King on steroids,' adding that he was 'better than' the civil rights leader."

~~~~~~~~~~~

Making American Small Again. Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley have spent the first months of this election year fighting losing battles -- separate but related. Their losses highlight the victory of Donald Trump's 'America First' over Ronald Reagan's 'tear down this wall' as the foreign policy doctrine of the Republican Party.... Nowhere ... has [Trump's] influence been more pronounced and potentially consequential than in what has become a full reversal of the internationalism that was central to Republican orthodoxy through most of the post-World War II era."

Presidential Race

The Rantings of a Fascist. Bill Barrow & Jill Colvin of the AP: "... Donald Trump on Saturday further escalated his immigration rhetoric and baselessly accused President Joe Biden of waging a 'conspiracy to overthrow the United States of America' as he campaigned ahead of Super Tuesday's primaries. Trump has a long history of trying to turn attack lines back on his rivals in an attempt to diminish their impact. Biden has cast Trump as a threat to democracy, pointing to the former president's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Those efforts culminated in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as his supporters tried to halt the peaceful transition of power. Trump, who has responded by calling Biden 'the real threat to democracy' and alleged without proof that Biden is responsible for the indictments he faces, turned to Biden's border policies on Saturday, charging that 'every day Joe Biden is giving aid and comfort to foreign enemies of the United States.'"

Michigan GOP Convention(s). Neil Vigdor & Steve Friess of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump capped off a clean sweep of Republican delegates in Michigan on Saturday during a raucous convention, which further exposed a deep fissure in the state party that threatens to fester in one of the most important battleground states. Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner, amassed at least 90 percent of the vote in all but one of the state's 13 congressional districts against former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina.... A simple majority was needed in each district to win its share of delegates at the caucus-style event, giving Mr. Trump 39, to go along with the 12 that he won in Michigan's primary, which was held on Tuesday. Ms. Haley emerged from that contest with four delegates.... But a protracted fight over the state party's rightful leader spilled over into the proceedings, where an estimated 200 Republican stalwarts from about 20 of Michigan's 83 counties were denied credentials. Two other groups boycotted the event and held breakaway conventions, one more than 100 miles to the north in Houghton Lake, Mich., and another more than 50 miles southeast in Battle Creek, Mich." (Also linked yesterday.) The NBC News story is here.

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Georgia. Fear of Lesbians! Donald Padgett of the Advocate: "Republican state senators in Georgia on Thursday passed a bill that would force state libraries to cut ties with the American Library Association. Senate Bill 390 was passed by a vote of 33-20 vote with no support from Democratic senators. The bill's supporters cited the ALA's progressive policies and Emily Drabinski, the group's lesbian president, as motivation for the legislation. Several states including Missouri, Montana, South Carolina, and Texas have announced or enacted some form of disassociation from the ALA, but the Georgia bill passed by the Senate yesterday would be the first to effectively ban nearly all association with the group.

Georgia. Fear of Immigrants! Lauren Irwin of the Hill: "The Georgia state House passed a bill that allows for anyone suspected of being in the United States illegally to be arrested. The state House voted 97-74 to approve House Bill 1105, which would allow police to arrest anyone with probable cause who is suspected of being in the U.S. unlawfully and detain them for deportation.... The bill, passed Thursday, would require jailers and sheriffs to report to federal authorities when someone in their custody has been found to not have legal documentation. Local governments could lose state funding or state-administered federal funding if they don't report it, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution, which first reported the legislation passing."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.

Wafaa Shurafa & Samy Magdy of the AP: "Israel has essentially endorsed a framework of a proposed Gaza cease-fire and hostage release deal, and it is now up to Hamas to agree to it, a senior U.S. administration official said Saturday, a day before talks to reach an agreement were to resume in Egypt. International mediators have been working for weeks to broker a deal to pause the fighting before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins around March 10. A deal would likely allow aid to reach hundreds of thousands of desperate Palestinians in northern Gaza who aid officials worry are under threat of famine. The Israelis 'have more or less accepted' the proposal, which includes the six-week cease-fire as well as the release by Hamas of hostages considered vulnerable, which includes the sick, the wounded, the elderly and women, said the official."

Aaron Boxerman, et al., of the New York Times: "The Gaza aid convoy that ended in bloodshed this week was organized by Israel itself as part of a newly hatched partnership with local Palestinian businessmen, according to Israeli officials, Palestinian businessmen and Western diplomats.Israel has been involved in at least four such aid convoys to northern Gaza over the past week. It undertook the effort, Israeli officials told two Western diplomats, to fill a void in assistance to northern Gaza, where famine looms as international aid groups have suspended most operations, citing Israeli refusals to greenlight aid trucks and rising lawlessness.... Israeli officials reached out to multiple Gazan businessmen and asked them to help organize private aid convoys to the north, two of the businessmen said, while Israel would provide security."

Tara Copp & Seung Min Kim of the AP: "U.S. military C-130 cargo planes dropped food in pallets over Gaza on Saturday in the opening stage of an emergency humanitarian assistance authorized by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops. Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST (3:30 p.m. local). The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory's Mediterranean coast. The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had two food airdrops Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months." (Also linked yesterday.)

Patrick Kingsley of the New York Times: "Israel's reluctance to fill the current leadership vacuum in northern Gaza formed the backdrop to the chaos that led to the deaths on Thursday of dozens of Palestinians on the Gazan coast, analysts and aid workers have said. More than 100 were killed and 700 injured, Gazan health officials said.... The immediate causes of the chaos were extreme hunger and desperation: The United Nations has warned of a looming famine in northern Gaza, where the incident occurred. Civilian attempts to ambush aid trucks, Israeli restrictions on convoys and the poor condition of roads damaged in the war have made it extremely difficult for food to reach the roughly 300,000 civilians still stranded in that region.... But analysts say this dynamic has been exacerbated by Israel's failure to set in motion a plan for how the north will be governed." In areas in North Gaza, where the fighting is essentially over, Hamas has fled and Israel has not taken over governance, so there is no governing group to "keep the peace," remove trash, etc. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Could scenarios like this happen in the U.S.? You betcha. Trump's plan to shrink the federal government will "catch on" in state and local governments, and basic services will stop functioning or will function under the fists of self-appointed thugs. I'm seeing a U.S. that looks like one Rand Paul would run: every person for himself. Unlike Mussolini, Trump will not make the trains run on time. There will be no trains. As for the food aid, maybe it will come from Canada. Or Russia.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Thousands of residents were left without power, and life came to a standstill for many in the Sierra Nevada region on Saturday after a winter storm dumped as much as two feet of snow overnight and created treacherous conditions. About 49,000 customers in Nevada and California were without electricity on Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. With whiteout conditions in the mountains, ski resorts in the Lake Tahoe area paused operations. And highway officials shut down Interstate 80, the main artery that traverses the Sierra Nevada over Donner Summit, a key trucking route from the San Francisco Bay Area." CNN's story is here.

New York Times: "Fires burning across the plains of Texas, Kansas and Nebraska have hit ranchers hard. Dry, windy weather threatens to make the fires worse.... Scores of cattle ranchers across the Great Plains looking at an uncertain future. Thousands of animals have been killed, and outbuildings and homes have been destroyed.... The Smokehouse Creek fire, near Mr. Homen's ranch outside the town of Pampa, has expanded to more than one million acres and threatens to grow further this weekend with windy, dry conditions expected."

The Conversation -- March 2, 2024

Michigan GOP Convention(s). Neil Vigdor & Steve Friess of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump capped off a clean sweep of Republican delegates in Michigan on Saturday during a raucous convention, which further exposed a deep fissure in the state party that threatens to fester in one of the most important battleground states. Mr. Trump, the Republican front-runner, amassed at least 90 percent of the vote in all but one of the state's 13 congressional districts against former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina.... A simple majority was needed in each district to win its share of delegates at the caucus-style event, giving Mr. Trump 39, to go along with the 12 that he won in Michigan's primary, which was held on Tuesday. Ms. Haley emerged from that contest with four delegates.... But a protracted fight over the state party's rightful leader spilled over into the proceedings, where an estimated 200 Republican stalwarts from about 20 of Michigan's 83 counties were denied credentials. Two other groups boycotted the event and held breakaway conventions, one more than 100 miles to the north in Houghton Lake, Mich., and another more than 50 miles southeast in Battle Creek, Mich."

Tara Copp & Seung Min Kim of the AP: "U.S. military C-130 cargo planes dropped food in pallets over Gaza on Saturday in the opening stage of an emergency humanitarian assistance authorized by President Joe Biden after more than 100 Palestinians who had surged to pull goods off an aid convoy were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops. Three planes from Air Forces Central dropped 66 bundles containing about 38,000 meals into Gaza at 8:30 a.m. EST (3:30 p.m. local). The bundles were dropped in southwest Gaza, on the beach along the territory's Mediterranean coast. The airdrop was coordinated with the Royal Jordanian Air Force, which said it had two food airdrops Saturday in northern Gaza and has conducted several rounds in recent months."

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** The Great Putin Puppet Show. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "... the House Republicans' year-long attempt to impeach [President] Biden, it now seems clear, was based on a Russian disinformation campaign -- and House Republicans went along with it, either as useful idiots or knowing accomplices. The Republicans' star witness, Alexander Smirnov, has been indicted by a special counsel for fabricating the claim that Joe Biden received a $5 million bribe. He was apparently doing the bidding of Russian intelligence.... Before that, the Republican sleuths' other key witness, Gal Luft, went missing. It turned out he had been charged in a sealed indictment with arms trafficking and illegal lobbying work -- for China. He remains on the lam. Republicans have also relied on the accounts of one of Hunter Biden's former business partners, who was sentenced to prison for defrauding a Native American tribe, and of a convicted fraudster House investigators went to visit last week at a prison in Alabama.... They have produced nothing that shows Joe Biden was involved in any way in the businesses of his son.

"Now, House Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and his House Republicans, some of them citing Russia's talking points, are blocking funds for Ukraine's war effort that the Senate passed overwhelmingly. Are they unwitting tools of Moscow? Or willing conduits? At the very least, they don't seem to care that they are serving as Vladimir Putin's pawns." Read on. (Also linked yesterday.)

Bad News for Bribable Bob. Larry Neumeister of the AP: "A New Jersey businessman pleaded guilty Friday to trying to bribe U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez, admitting that he gave the senator's wife a car to influence him and agreeing to a deal with prosecutors that calls for him to testify in the corruption case against the powerful Democrat. Jose Uribe, of Clifton, New Jersey, entered the plea in Manhattan federal court to seven charges, including conspiracy to commit bribery from 2018 to 2023, honest services wire fraud, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. As he described his crimes in court, Uribe told Judge Sidney H. Stein that he conspired with several people, including Nadine Menendez, to provide her with a Mercedes-Benz in return for her husband 'using his power and influence as a United States senator to get a favorable outcome and to stop all investigations related to one of my associates.'" The New York Times story is here.

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Can, Kicked. Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A federal judge in Florida held a hearing on Friday to consider a new date for ... Donald J. Trump's trial on charges of mishandling classified documents, but made no immediate decision about a choice that could have major consequences for his legal and political future.... Several decisions Judge [Aileen] Cannon has reached in recent months about the pacing of the case have made it all but impossible for the trial to start in May[, as originally scheduled].... Judge Cannon's decision about whether to go with a July date, an August date or something later in the documents case could have an effect on the timing of the election case, as well. Mr. Trump attended the hearing on Friday....

"Under questioning from Judge Cannon, [prosecutor Jay] Bratt, for the first time, publicly asserted that if a trial was conducted in September and October, the government would not be violating a Justice Department policy against holding proceedings too close to an election -- a provision known as the '60-day rule.' He said that the policy forbade prosecutors from bringing new charges in the run-up to an election, but did not stop them from prosecuting an indictment that had already been filed." Feuer provides some examples of Cannon's not knowing WTF she was doing. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Maybe you remember way back to Thursday night when Trump's lawyers reportedly submitted a filing in this case asking Judge Cannon for an August 12 date to begin the trial. Oops, never mind. ~~~

     ~~~ Devlin Barrett & Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Prosecutors are seeking to start in July, while Trump's lawyers say the trial should wait until after the election, or August at the earliest.... [Judge Aileen] Cannon was careful in her questioning to sidestep much discussion of the election calendar on Friday, even as Trump's lawyers brought it up frequently."

Richard Fausset & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "A judge in the Georgia election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump heard final arguments on Friday on a motion to disqualify the prosecutor who brought the case, Fani T. Willis, on the ground that a romantic relationship she had with a subordinate [Nathan Wade] created a conflict of interest.... Defense lawyers on Friday repeatedly asserted that the bar for disqualification should be relatively low, arguing that even the appearance of a conflict of interest should lead to Ms. Willis's removal from the case because her actions had undermined public confidence in it.... 'The defense has to show an actual conflict,' [Fulton County prosecutor Adam] Abbate said, adding that it had not done so in this case. [He cited case law to back up his assertion.] The question of whether the defense needs to show an actual conflict or just an appearance of one could prove pivotal.... [Judge Scott McAfee] said ... that he would rule within two weeks." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I listened to a chunk of the arguments, and I thought it was pretty clear the prosecutor's office had a far better case. The defense lawyers, if sometimes slick, seemed to be grasping at straws, especially since they provided no clear evidence that Willis had lied on the stand or in court filings. They hung their hats on the "appearance of impropriety," an appearance they largely conjured themselves & asserted without evidence. Willis, IMO, made a mistake in involving herself with another prosecutor, but -- as another Georgian has said -- the heart is a lonely hunter. In Georgia, romantic involvement, even marriage, is not unlawful or grounds for removal of attorneys, even those who represent opposing sides of a case.

Rachel Weiner & Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a sentencing enhancement used against Jan. 6 defendants charged with felony obstruction, a decision that means that over 100 convicted rioters may have to be resentenced. The decision came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on Friday when it upheld the felony conviction of a Jan. 6 defendant who stormed the U.S. Capitol, reaffirming a charge also lodged against ... Donald Trump that will soon be debated by the Supreme Court. It's not clear what benefit retired Air Force lieutenant colonel Larry R. Brock Jr. or any other Jan. 6 defendant will receive because of the ruling. Enhancements raise the range of suggested sentences judges must consider. D.C. judges usually sentence below those guidelines, and regularly make clear that their punishments would be the same without the enhancement. The ruling could have an impact in plea negotiations, eliminating one bargaining chip used by prosecutors when encouraging defendants to plead guilty without a trial. If the Supreme Court reverses or pares back the use of the obstruction charge, all of those cases would have to be reconsidered anew." (Also linked yesterday.) The AP's report is here.

Presidential Race

Alexandra Marquez of NBC News: "Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told NBC News' 'Meet the Press' on Friday that she doesn't know whether Donald Trump would follow the Constitution if elected president again. 'I don't know. I mean, you always want to think someone will, but I don't know,' Haley said."

Maine. Michael Shepherd of the Bangor Daily News: "U.S. Sen. Susan Collins voted for former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in Tuesday's Republican presidential primary, becoming only the third member of Congress to back the longshot challenger to ... Donald Trump. Collins, a longtime Trump skeptic who was one of seven Republicans to vote to convict him on a Democratic impeachment charge related to the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, backed Haley in a Friday statement in response to questions from the Bangor Daily News. She called Haley 'extremely well-qualified' to be the first female president."

Marie: Over the years, we have looked in wonder at the insane "opinions" of Trump and his followers, opinions that have no grounding in facts. Perhaps we should stop making fun of these wackos, and we should definitely stop being surprised. Although these people may be able to function in some situations that others with mental illnesses cannot, in general, I think they're suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. And that's not a joke. It's a thing. ~~~

     ~~~ However, in fairness to your run-of-the-mill Trumpbots, many may present as suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome when their symptoms result from reading only right-wing outlets and social media. For instance, the New York Post, a Murdoch owned-and-operated enterprise in running a story today sporting this headline: "Joe Biden got $40K from China funds, brother James admits in bombshell impeachment interview." I looked around the Internets and could find this story only on right-wing sites. According to the Hill, which is itself rather rightish (Feb. 21): "Republicans have specifically zeroed in on two checks James Biden paid his brother -- one worth $200,000 and another $40,000 -- that GOP lawmakers allege played a role in a bribery scheme. No evidence, however, has been provided to prove those claims, and the Bidens have described them as loan repayments.... '... They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks. He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him,' James Biden said in his opening statement."

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "The Biden administration issued new rules on Friday designed to prevent disasters at almost 12,000 chemical plants and other industrial sites nationwide that handle hazardous materials. The regulations for the first time tell facilities to explicitly address disasters, such as storms or floods, that could trigger an accidental release, including threats linked to climate change. For the first time, chemical sites that have had prior accidents will need to undergo an independent audit. And the rules require chemical plants to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders.... Former President Barack Obama had tried to strengthen the rules, proposing safeguards after a deadly 2013 explosion at a fertilizer plant in Texas killed 15 people. The Trump administration rolled back most of those rules before they took effect, part of a slew of environmental and safety regulations that it unraveled."

New Covid Guidelines. Brenda Goodman of CNN: "People who test positive for Covid-19 no longer need to routinely stay away from others for at least five days, according to new guidelines from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued Friday.... The agency says it's updating its recommendations for Covid-19 to bring them in line with its advice for other kinds of respiratory infections.... Namely, the CDC now says people who have Covid-19 should stay home until they've been fever-free without medication for at least 24 hours and their symptoms have been improving for 24 hours. After that, it's fine to resume regular activities, agency experts say. But they recommend that people take additional precautions for the next five days -- including improving ventilation, masking and limiting close contact with others -- to lower the risk of spreading the virus."

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "The two largest pharmacy chains in the United States will start dispensing the abortion pill mifepristone this month, a step that could make access easier for some patients. Officials at CVS and Walgreens said in interviews on Friday that they had received certification to dispense mifepristone under guidelines that the Food and Drug Administration issued last year. The chains plan to make the medication available in stores in a handful of states at first. They will not be providing the medication by mail. Both chains said they would gradually expand to all other states where abortion was legal and where pharmacies were legally able to dispense abortion pills -- about half of the states. President Biden said in a statement on Friday that the availability of the pill at pharmacies was 'an important milestone in ensuring access to mifepristone, a drug that has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration as safe and effective for more than 20 years.'" The Huffington Post's story is here.

Mystery at Sea. Katie Lillis & Evan Perez of CNN: "Commercial fishermen off the coast of Alaska have found what officials are concerned could be another spy balloon and are bringing it to shore with them, three sources familiar with the matter told CNN. FBI agents will meet the fishing vessel when it comes into port, which is expected to be sometime over the weekend. The bureau will then transport the unknown object to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia, to be analyzed, as has been done with previous surveillance balloons. The fishmen shared photographs of the object with law enforcement upon encountering it, the sources said. All three sources emphasized that it wasn't clear exactly what the object was and that it may not be a balloon at all -- but that the FBI determined that it was similar enough in appearance to a foreign-government owned surveillance balloon that it warranted further investigation."

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Alabama. Molly Hennessy-Fiske of the Washington Post: "The Alabama legislature voted Thursday to protect providers and patients doing in vitro fertilization from criminal or civil liability if embryos they create are subsequently damaged or destroyed. The fast action by both the House and Senate on bills to shield IVF came less than two weeks after the state's Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are people and that individuals could be liable for destroying them. The unprecedented decision, which gave fertilized eggs the same protection as babies under the state's Wrongful Death of a Minor Act, threw IVF treatment in Alabama into turmoil. Within days, nearly every clinic in the state either suspended IVF or halted embryo disposal."

New York. Michael Hill of the AP: "A man who fatally shot a 20-year-old woman after the SUV she was riding in mistakenly drove into his rural driveway in upstate New York was sentenced Friday to more than 25 years to life in prison. Kevin Monahan, 66, was convicted of second-degree murder in the death last April of Kaylin Gillis. She was riding in a caravan of two cars and a motorcycle that was trying to leave after pulling into Monahan's long, winding driveway while looking for a party at another person's house in the town of Hebron. 'I think it's important that people know that it is not OK to shoot people and kill them who drive down your driveway,' Judge Adam Michelini said. Apart from the wider deterrent effect, Michelini said it's important that Monahan remain behind bars rather than be free to harm more people."

Pennsylvania. Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: "A 54-year-old Philadelphia man who spent nearly 30 years in prison was exonerated and freed this week. The Philadelphia District Attorney's Office dropped all charges Wednesday against Daniel Gwynn and said that he had been wrongfully convicted of murdering a woman named Marsha Smith in 1994. Gwynn, who had maintained his innocence since his conviction and death sentence, was ordered by a judge to be released from a state prison on Wednesday, according to the district attorney's office, which announced the exoneration in a statement.... Gwynn's case is among dozens that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has sought to revisit; 41 wrongfully convicted people have been exonerated under his administration, according to his office."

Wisconsin Congressional Map. Scott Bauer of the AP: "The liberal-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday rejected a Democratic lawsuit that sought to throw out the battleground state's congressional maps, marking a victory for Republicans who argued against the court taking up the case. The decision leaves the state's current congressional district boundaries in place for the November election.... The court declined to take up the case. It did not give a reason in the unanimous unsigned order. Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose election last year gave liberals a majority on the court, did not participate. There was a request for her to recuse, but Protasiewicz said she didn't participate because she wasn't on the court when the case was originally brought."

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Israel/Palestine, et al.

CNN's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Aid agencies have criticized US plans to drop food aid into Gaza. Oxfam said the plans "mostly serve to relieve the guilty consciences of senior US officials whose policies are contributing to the ongoing atrocities and risk of famine in Gaza.... There are growing international calls for an investigation into the carnage at the aid convoy. The UN says many survivors suffered gunshot wounds. Israel said its forces fired warning shots after seeing people trampled but witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire, triggering panic." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Saturday are here.

Marie: Early this morning ET, CNN International reported on air that Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu had made a "surprise announcement" that Israel would begin halting hostilities for two hours each day to allow for humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza. I haven't found a print story on that. Update: At 8:25 am ET, there's no mention of this on CNN's liveblog, either.

Alex Marquardt, et al., of CNN: "Ongoing talks to reach a ceasefire agreement to halt the fighting between Hamas and Israel in Gaza by Ramadan appear to still be on track, even after more than 100 Palestinians were killed on Thursday as they tried to access food in Gaza City, according to officials familiar with the discussions. US officials on Friday said there are no indications that the discussions had been significantly derailed but much hinges on an expected Hamas response to what has been discussed in Paris and Doha in the past week between the other countries involved: Qatar, Egypt, Israel and the US. On Thursday, a Hamas official warned the negotiations could be impacted.... On Friday afternoon, President Joe Biden called for an 'immediate ceasefire.' 'We're trying to work out a deal between Israel and Hamas on the hostages being returned and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza for at least the next six weeks and to allow the surge of aid to the Gaza Strip,' Biden said during a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni."

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: "The U.S. will begin airdropping humanitarian assistance into Gaza, President Joe Biden said Friday, a day after more than 100 Palestinians were killed during a chaotic encounter with Israeli troops. The president announced the move after at least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured, according to Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry, on Thursday when witnesses said Israeli troops opened fire as huge crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy. Biden said the airdrops would begin soon and that the United States was looking into additional ways to facilitate getting badly needed aid into the war-battered territory to ease the suffering of Palestinians." (Also linked yesterday.)

Meh. Jonathan Swan, et al., of the New York Times: "In the nearly five months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, igniting the most divisive foreign policy crisis of the Biden presidency, Donald J. Trump has said noticeably little about the subject. He criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, before quickly retreating to more standard expressions of support for the country. And he has made blustery claims that the invasion never would have happened had he been president. But his overall approach has been laissez-faire. 'So you have a war that's going on, and you're probably going to have to let this play out. You're probably going to have to let it play out, because a lot of people are dying,' Mr. Trump said in an interview with Univision a month after the attack. His main advice to Mr. Netanyahu and the Israelis, he said then, was to do a better job with 'public relations,' because the Palestinians were 'beating them at the public relations front.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: One of the most under-mentioned aspects of Trump's "America First" rhetoric is how it would -- or does -- shrink the U.S.'s power and influence around the world. As much as he portrays himself as a big man -- with cheesy digital trading cards to make the point -- his goal is to be the big man in a smaller and smaller pond. To "Make America Great Again," in Trump's "vision," is to shrink it. Isolationism is not only a version of "doesn't play well with others"; it is inherently defeatist.

Russia. Francesca Ebel, et al., of the Washington Post: "Thousands of Russians who risked arrest Friday to attend the Moscow funeral of opposition leader Alexei Navalny were thwarted by a huge force of riot police, deployed to ensure that President Vladimir Putin's charismatic rival was buried with as little fanfare as possible. But the throngs of supporters who braved the security presence sent a powerful message that many Russians still support Navalny's vision of a free, democratic Russia -- and showed his pivotal role as a man who fearlessly defied Putin from prison, even as the Russian leader led his nation into war with Ukraine and a new era of repression and intolerance."

News Lede

Weather Channel: "California's Sierra Nevada is on high alert as residents and visitors prepare for what is potentially the season's strongest storm. Snow totals are expected to be measured in feet, not inches, in many areas. Authorities and local services are taking significant steps to ensure safety and manage the anticipated challenges. Here's what's happening so far[.]"