The Ledes

Saturday, March 8, 2025

New York Times: “Officials said [actor Gene Hackman and his wife Betsy Arakawa] died of natural causes, he of heart disease and she of a rare viral infection. But it was Ms. Arakawa — the caregiver, lover, protector — who died first, perhaps on Feb. 11, leaving Mr. Hackman, 95 years old with advanced Alzheimer’s, alone in the house for days. He is believed to have died a week later, on Feb. 18. Their decomposing bodies were not discovered for yet another eight days, when a maintenance worker called a security guard to the house after no one came to the door.... Ms. Arakawa died of hantarivus, which is contracted through exposure to excrement from rodents, often the deer mouse in New Mexico.”

The Wires
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To keep the Conversation going, please help me by linking news articles, opinion pieces and other political content in today's Comments section.

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OR here's a link generator. The one I had posted died, then Akhilleus found one, but it too bit the dust. He found yet another, which I've linked here, and as of September 23, 2024, it's working.

OR you can always just block, copy and paste to your comment the URL (Web address) of the page you want to link.

Note for Readers. It is not possible for commenters to "throw" their highlighted links to another window. But you can do that yourself. Right-click on the link and a drop-down box will give you choices as to where you want to open the link: in a new tab, new window or new private window.

Thank you to everyone who has been contributing links to articles & other content in the Comments section of each day's "Conversation." If you're missing the comments, you're missing some vital links.

Marie: Sorry, my countdown clock was unreliable; then it became completely unreliable. I can't keep up with it. Maybe I'll try another one later.

 

Public Service Announcement

Zoë Schlanger in the Atlantic: "Throw out your black plastic spatula. In a world of plastic consumer goods, avoiding the material entirely requires the fervor of a religious conversion. But getting rid of black plastic kitchen utensils is a low-stakes move, and worth it. Cooking with any plastic is a dubious enterprise, because heat encourages potentially harmful plastic compounds to migrate out of the polymers and potentially into the food. But, as Andrew Turner, a biochemist at the University of Plymouth recently told me, black plastic is particularly crucial to avoid." This is a gift link from laura h.

Mashable: "Following the 2024 presidential election results and [Elon] Musk's support for ... Donald Trump, users have been deactivating en masse. And this time, it appears most everyone has settled on one particular X alternative: Bluesky.... Bluesky has gained more than 100,000 new sign ups per day since the U.S. election on Nov. 5. It now has over 15 million users. It's enjoyed a prolonged stay on the very top of Apple's App Store charts as well. Ready to join? Here's how to get started on Bluesky[.]"

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

Democrats' Weekly Address

Marie (Feb 23): As far as I can tell, there isn't any. I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like Democrats are so screwed up, they can't even put together a couple of minutes of video to tell us how screwed we are.

Back when the Washington Post had an owner/publisher who dared to stand up to a president:

Prime video is carrying the documentary. If you watch it, I suggest watching the Spielberg film "The Post" afterwards. There is currently a free copy (type "the post full movie" in the YouTube search box) on YouTube (or you can rent it on YouTube, on Prime & [I think] on Hulu). Near the end, Daniel Ellsberg (played by Matthew Rhys), says "I was struck in fact by the way President Johnson's reaction to these revelations was [that they were] 'close to treason,' because it reflected to me the sense that what was damaging to the reputation of a particular administration or a particular individual was in itself treason, which is very close to saying, 'I am the state.'" Sound familiar?

Out with the Black. In with the White. New York Times: “Lester Holt, the veteran NBC newscaster and anchor of the 'NBC Nightly News' over the last decade, announced on Monday that he will step down from the flagship evening newscast in the coming months. Mr. Holt told colleagues that he would remain at NBC, expanding his duties at 'Dateline,' where he serves as the show’s anchor.... He said that he would continue anchoring the evening news until 'the start of summer.' The network did not immediately name a successor.” ~~~

~~~ New York Times: “MSNBC said on Monday that Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary who has become one of the most prominent hosts at the network, would anchor a nightly weekday show in prime time. Ms. Psaki, 46, will host a show at 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, replacing Alex Wagner, a longtime political journalist who has anchored that hour since 2022, according to a memo to staff from Rebecca Kutler, MSNBC’s president. Ms. Wagner will remain at MSNBC as an on-air correspondent. Rachel Maddow, MSNBC’s biggest star, has been anchoring the 9 p.m. hour on weeknights for the early days of ... [Donald] Trump’s administration but will return to hosting one night a week at the end of April.”

New York Times: “Joy Reid’s evening news show on MSNBC is being canceled, part of a far-reaching programming overhaul orchestrated by Rebecca Kutler, the network’s new president, two people familiar with the changes said. The final episode of Ms. Reid’s 7 p.m. show, 'The ReidOut,' is planned for sometime this week, according to the people, who were not authorized to speak publicly. The show, which features in-depth interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, has been a fixture of MSNBC’s lineup for the past five years. MSNBC is planning to replace Ms. Reid’s program with a show led by a trio of anchors: Symone Sanders Townsend, a political commentator and former Democratic strategist; Michael Steele, a former chairman of the Republican National Committee; and Alicia Menendez, the TV journalist, the people said. They currently co-host 'The Weekend,' which airs Saturday and Sunday mornings.” MB: In case you've never seen “The Weekend,” let me assure you it's pretty awful. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "Joy Reid is leaving MSNBC, the network’s new president announced in a memo to staff on Monday, marking an end to the political analyst and anchor’s prime time news show."

Y! Entertainment: "Meanwhile, [Alex] Wagner will also be removed from her 9 pm weeknight slot. Wagner has already been working as a correspondent after Rachel Maddow took over hosting duties during ... Trump’s first 100 days in office. It’s now expected that Wagner will not return as host, but is expected to stay on as a contributor. Jen Psaki, President Biden’s former White House press secretary, is a likely replacement for Wagner, though a decision has not been finalized." MB: In fairness to Psaki, she is really too boring to watch. On the other hand, she is White. ~~~

     ~~~ RAS: "So MSNBC is getting rid of both of their minority evening hosts. Both women of color who are not afraid to call out the truth. Outspoken minorities don't have a long shelf life in the world of our corporate news media."

As we watch in horror the rapid destruction of our democratic form of government, it is comforting to remember there is life outside politics. I took a break a while ago to enjoy a brief lesson in the history of the moonwalk: ~~~

But it may go back even further:

And this chronological account is helpful:

CNBC: “ CNN plans to lay off hundreds of employees Thursday [Jan. 23] as it refocuses the business around a global digital audience.... The layoffs come as CNN is rearranging its linear TV lineup and building out digital subscription products. The cuts will help CNN lower production costs and consolidate teams, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. Certain shows that are produced in New York or Washington may move to Atlanta, where production can be done more cheaply, said the people. For the most part, the job cuts won’t affect CNN’s most recognizable names, who are under contract, said the people. CNN has about 3,500 employees worldwide.... NBC News is also planning cuts later this week, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss nonpublic changes. While the exact number couldn’t be determined, the job losses will be well under 50....”

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Constant Comments

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts. — Anonymous

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolvesEdward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns

I have a Bluesky account now. The URL is https://bsky.app/profile/marie-burns.bsky.social . When Reality Chex goes down, check my Bluesky page for whatever info I am able to report on the status of Reality Chex. If you can't access the URL, I found that I could Google Bluesky and ask for Marie Burns. Google will include links to accounts for people whose names are, at least in part, Maria Burns, so you'll have to tell Google you looking only for Marie.

Friday
Feb092024

The Conversation -- February 10, 2024

The Report

I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing. I've been president and I put this country back on its feet. -- President Joe Biden, White House remarks, Thursday evening

Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. -- Special Counsel Robert Hur, report

When the markets crashed, Franklin Roosevelt got on the television and didn't just talk about the, you know, the princes of greed. -- Senator Joe Biden, to Katie Couric, 2008 ~~~

     ~~~ For a free subscription to Reality Chex, find two errors in Biden's 2008 remark. Yeah, fractured history is a Biden specialty. -- Marie

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The White House on Friday called the special counsel's report into President Biden's handling of classified material politically motivated, escalating its attempts to discredit a document that characterized the president as elderly and forgetful. Vice President Kamala Harris suggested that the report was more of a political attack than an unbiased legal document. Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, said the report was 'inappropriate' and 'troubling.'...

"'The way the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated,' Ms. Harris said in response to questions from reporters at the White House. She also said Mr. Biden had sat down for in-person interviews with the special counsel's office just a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. 'It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America,' Ms. Harris said. 'He was in front of it all, coordinating and directing leaders who are in charge of America's national security.'"

Kierra Frazier of Politico: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed Special Counsel Robert Hur's report that contained observations on President Joe Biden's memory. 'Special Counsel Hur report on Biden classified documents issues contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions,' Holder said in a post on X early Friday morning. 'Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised.'... Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts Pod Save America, said the report was filled with 'ad hominem attacks' and was 'just a right-wing hit job from within Biden's own DOJ.' 'Hur, a lifelong Republican and creature of DC, didn't have a case against Biden, but he knew exactly how his swipes could hurt Biden politically,' said Jim Messina, Barack Obama's 2012 campaign manager."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: Robert Hur's "extensive discussions of [President Biden's cognitive condition] were not merely gratuitous -- they constituted an egregious transgression of prosecutorial boundaries.... [Hur's] portrayal of Biden as a doddering old man is inconsistent with what I hear from those who have frequent interactions with him. But assuming its accuracy, the details go far beyond what is appropriate to explain the decision to decline prosecution, and far beyond Hur's brief.... Prosecutors are supposed to remain above the partisan fray, not embroiled in it.... A responsible prosecutor would have taken care to avoid what Hur has done, which is to let his report become a potent -- perhaps even lethal -- weapon in the coming campaign." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Yes, but if you credit Hur with writing, not a report, but a rambling, incoherent novel of the Look Homeward, Angel genre, then maybe it's a coming-of-aging story about a protagonist whom Hur decides to call "Joe Biden": ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "Hur spent a year trying to find facts that would allow him to charge Joe Biden, charge a President, doing backflips with the evidence along the way, and then writing up a report that provides far more evidence about 40 year old documents covered by Speech and Debate than we'll ever learn about the stolen documents at Mar-a-Lago. This was never an ethical prosecutorial pursuit. It was always about writing a novel for a rabid audience." MB: This is one of Wheeler's long proofs, but Hur gives her a lot of material to work through.

Paul Campos in LG&$: "It's difficult to overstate what an absolutely astonishing own goal Merrick Garland scored by appointing Robert Hur to lead the Biden documents case.... So why did Merrick Garland do this incredibly stupid and reckless thing?... Because Robert Hur was Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was a partner at Gibson Dunn, and somebody with that kind of impeccable legal pedigree wouldn't ever be a partisan hack, because if he was that would call into question the impeccable judgment of the other Elite Lawyers who anointed appointed him to those exalted offices, where Objective Legal Analysis always wins out over Partisan Political Considerations, because only the Very Best People get those kinds of jobs, because ... OK I can't do this any more.

"Merrick Garland should be fired immediately. He has one of the most important jobs in the United States, and he's absolutely terrible at it, which is a bad combination, especially when there's a little light sedition in the air.... This guy might as well be a Republican plant, but the really sad part is that I don't doubt for a second that he's as sincere as Linus in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Spirit of the Law to bring presents to all the good little boys and girls...." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Yesterday I wrote, "If Merrick Garland had any balls, he would make a public statement condemning the tenor of the so-called report." Apparently, President Biden thinks Garland should have gone further: ~~~

Jonathan Lemire & Sam Stein of Politico: "Joe Biden has told aides and outside advisers that Attorney General Merrick Garland did not do enough to rein in a special counsel report stating that the president had diminished mental faculties, according to two people close to the president, as White House frustration with the head of the Justice Department grows.... Biden and his closest advisers ... put part of the blame [for 'gratuitous and misleading' descriptions of Biden in the report] on Garland, who they say should have demanded edits to Hur's report, including around the descriptions of Biden's faltering memory.... Frustration within the White House at Garland has been growing steadily. Last year, Biden privately denounced how long the probe into his son was taking.... And the elder Biden, the people said, told ... confidants that Garland should not have eventually empowered a special counsel to look into his son, believing that he again was caving to outside pressure. In recent weeks, President Biden has grumbled to aides and advisers that had Garland moved sooner in his investigation into ... Donald Trump's election interference, a trial may already be underway or even have concluded, according to two people granted anonymity to discuss private matters." The story recount anonymous DOJ reactions. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This looks like one of those anonymously-sourced reports that the White House wants out there. "Confidants" don't rat on the President.

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "For veterans of Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign for president, [Thursday] brought back painful memories. The special counsel's report on the handling of classified documents by President Biden instantly recalled how James Comey, then the F.B.I. director, concluded his investigation of Clinton for her handling of classified documents when she was secretary of state.... Hur and Comey -- both Republicans investigating Democrats -- ... adorn[ed] their exonerations with harsh and damaging criticisms. Comey called Clinton 'extremely careless' in her actions. That fueled a flood of critical media coverage, including in The New York Times, and handed a cudgel to her opponent, Donald Trump. To this day, many Democrats blame Comey -- who went on to reopen briefly, and then shut down, that investigation 11 days before Election Day -- as well as the news media for her loss.... Hur ... appeared to offer a cudgel to Trump, and fueled fears among Democrats about Biden's fitness as a candidate."

David McAfee of the Raw Story: "Donald Trump Friday was hit with a stream of criticism for several verbal slip-ups at an event for the NRA in Pennsylvania. The former president slurred when saying the word 'subsidies,' said 'dino-dollars' instead of 'dollars'" and even said he doesn't like being frontpage news every time he 'said one word a little bit mispronunciation.' He also said that three years ago things were great, despite that being when Joe Biden became president, and he claimed twice there were no terror attacks during his tenure as president. He also said that Biden hasn't spoken in months despite him addressing press last night.... Trump also appeared to mistake what day it was, saying, 'If I wasn't here, I'd be having a nice Saturday afternoon.' He said that, of course, on a Friday. This one was also picked up by Biden-Harris HQ. 'It is Friday night,' the account wrote." ~~~

~~~ Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Marie: For a while yesterday (Friday), the New York Times' top online story, by Shane Goldmacher & others, was about this: "... at a last-minute news conference on Thursday night..., a visibly angry Mr. Biden made the exact type of verbal flub that has kept Democrats so nervous for months, mistakenly referring to the president of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, as the 'president of Mexico' as he tried to address the latest developments in the war in Gaza." But Biden did not "try to address" developments in Gaza. Rather, he addressed them at length, correctly as far as I know, and off-the-cuff as this was not a topic slated to be discussed at the presser. The story is 35 paragraphs long (albeit the grafs are short). Nowhere in those 35 paragraphs do the reporters mention Biden's recitation of the status of Gaza, a series of remarks that make it abundantly clear Biden knew exactly what he was talking about & that he had full command of the facts. (The report does, however, refer again to "Mr. Biden's mix-up of Egypt and Mexico.") Biden did not "mix up" Egypt & Mexico. He spoke lucidly about Egypt's, not Mexico's, participation in the Gaza crisis. He misspoke. Biden has been famous for misspeaking/making gaffes for decades. This is not a sign of old age; it's a sign of a persistent Biden quirk. ~~~

~~~ The next day (being Friday), Donald Trump -- the leader of the Insurrectionist/Putin party -- gave a prepared address to the NRA, where he "bragged ... that he 'did nothing' about guns during his term in the White House despite 'great pressure.'" So Trump didn't know what day it was and Biden said "Mexico" when he meant "Egypt." Biden was not confused. Trump was confused. But that is not worthy of so much as a NYT mention even in a story about Trump's NRA speech (also linked below) co-authored by the reporter who wrote the lead NYT story Thursday on Hur's report on how addled Biden is. ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, wow. This morning's online top-o'-the-page NYT story: Peter Both-Sides Baker asks, "How Old Is Too Old to Be President? An Uncomfortable Question Arises Again." In fairness to Mr. Both-Sides, he does also address Trump's cognitive impairment: "Mr. Trump, too, will have to quell concerns about his cognitive health, something that was a serious enough worry while he was in office that many of his aides privately believed he was not fit." And the Times' lead editorial?: "The Challenges of an Aging President." ~~~

~~~ digby: Joe Biden "has always been a gaffe machine. Always. Now it's attributed to his age, a lie promulgated by the right and aided and abetted by the media jackels, as we saw at the press conference [Thursday] night.... Biden's mental faculties are fine. he's no different than he always was in that way, which is a garrulous, rambling speaker whose mouth gets ahead of his brain. But he looks old and that's what people are reacting to. It's not relevant because all you have to do is look at his presidency to see that he is perfectly capable of doing the job. The Republicans know that which is why they are relying almost exclusively on this attack to neutralize the obvious problem they have with a corrupt, half-wit rapist at the top of their ticket.... I don't know what to say about the political press. They are beyond hope I'm afraid. Their performance [Thursday] night was as bad as any I've ever seen."

Marie: In today's Comments, Ken W. posits that Biden has made more misstatements about history than has Trump. Maybe. But there's this:


Robert Draper & Michael Schmidt
of the New York Times: "A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress. Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz's former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee related to claims Mr. Greenberg has made about Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Greenberg previously told federal investigators that he had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. 'Mr. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,' Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday."

The Trials of Trump

"Selective Persecution." Michael Gold & Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump ... blasted on Friday a special counsel's decision not to charge President Biden for his handling of classified material, accusing prosecutors of an unfair double standard. 'You know, look, if he's not going to be charged, that's up to them. But then I should not be charged,' Mr. Trump said at an event in Harrisburg, Pa. 'This is nothing more than selective persecution of Biden's political opponent: me.'... Mr. Trump said he had cooperated 'with the very hostile and unfriendly feds' more than Mr. Biden, a claim unsupported by any evidence.... Mr. Hur's report said the president fully cooperated with his investigation...."

Smith to Cannon: You Don't Know WTF You're Doing. Katherine Doyle of NBC News: "The special counsel prosecuting Donald Trump has asked the judge in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case to reconsider an order the government argues could identify more than two dozen witnesses and threaten their safety and testimony. Trump's lawyers have asked for unredacted documents to be turned over, which lawyers for special counsel Jack Smith want to block. In a 24-page filing in federal court in Florida, prosecutors for Smith said the court applied the wrong legal standard when U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing the case, ordered the unsealing of materials.... Smith argued that making the filings public would disclose the identities of witnesses prepared to testify against Trump, including career civil servants and former Trump advisers, and what they said to federal investigators and the grand jury.... Trump has lashed out at 'the Gestapo' agents who conducted the 'raid,' and at the time of the search.... Cannon issued an order in response on Friday that delayed her initial decision." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Joyce Vance said on MSNBC that "Smith may be on track to go to the 11th Circuit & request a writ of mandamus ordering Cannon to reverse her decision to expose these witnesses." ~~~

~~~ Zoe Richards of NBC News: "A Texas woman accused of making death threats against the judge presiding over ... Donald Trump]s classified documents case was sentenced Friday to three years in prison. Tiffani Shea Gish, of Houston, was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release, the Justice Department said in a news release.... According to court documents, Gish had admitted to federal marshals that she left messages for [Judge Aileen] Cannon, warning the judge that she was 'marked for assassination' and that she planned to shoot her in front of her family.... [Another] Texas woman was charged last year in connection with threats to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing Trump's federal election interference case."

Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "In a new motion, special counsel Jack Smith shredded Donald Trump's latest attempt to indefinitely delay the classified documents case in Florida before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, urging the court to resist the former president's efforts to 'stop at nothing' to delay facing a jury. '... the tactics they deploy are relentless and misleading -- they will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens...,' Smith wrote in the 9-page brief filed in Florida late Thursday.... Trump's lawyers were either simply unprepared or were flatly ignoring court orders, according to the special counsel, and now, three months on, as Trump's team has filed requests to adjourn the case completely, they still come asking for more time to file pretrial documents.... Most offensive to the special counsel is Trump's attempt to dismiss the 40-some charges he faces for alleged illegal retention of sensitive and classified documents by attempting to advance an argument of 'presidential immunity.' The conduct charged took place after Trump left office, Smith wrote."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "A lawyer for one of ... Donald J. Trump's co-defendants in the Georgia election case suggested on Friday that the two prosecutors leading the case had lied about when their romantic relationship started. The defense lawyer, Ashleigh Merchant, said that a witness she hoped to put on the stand could testify that the romantic relationship between Fani T. Willis, the Fulton County district attorney, and the special prosecutor managing the Trump case, Nathan J. Wade, had begun before Ms. Willis hired Mr. Wade. That would contradict Mr. Wade, who said in a recent affidavit that his relationship with Ms. Willis had not begun until 2022, after his hiring. The affidavit was attached to a court filing made by Ms. Willis. Ms. Merchant identified the witness as Terrence Bradley, a lawyer who once worked in Mr. Wade's law firm and for a time served as Mr. Wade's divorce lawyer.... Ms. Merchant, on Friday, wrote that Mr. Bradley had 'obtained information about the relationship between Wade and Willis directly from Wade when Wade was not seeking legal advice from Bradley.'... [Judge] Scott McAfee of Fulton County Superior Court, has scheduled a hearing on the allegations for Thursday." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Seems to me that if Merchant can establish that Wade lied in an affidavit & if Willis did not correct the lie, McAfee should remove them both from the case.

Presidential Race

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "A single day rarely encapsulates the fundamental issues of a presidential campaign, but the events of Thursday came close. Over a period of 12 hours, Election 2024 was vividly displayed as a choice between one candidate accused of criminal misconduct and the subversion of democracy, and another battling public concerns about his age and mental acuity.... After Thursday's events, it was also clear, as if it weren't before, that this campaign will be fought almost entirely on negative turf, a dispiriting prospect for an already sour electorate." MB: I don't often say this of Balz, but I do think he gets the basic points right, except for his claim that Biden "confused the president of Egypt with the president of Mexico."

Neil Vigdor of the New York Times: "In a federal election complaint filed on Friday, the Democratic National Committee accused Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a super PAC backing his independent presidential bid of illegally coordinating on a $15 million petition drive intended to qualify him for the ballot in several states that could be crucial to President Biden's re-election prospects. The 11-page complaint to the Federal Election Commission described the arrangement as an in-kind contribution to Mr. Kennedy's campaign by the super PAC, American Values 2024, one that violated federal campaign finance laws and breached long-established financial barriers between candidates and outside groups." A CBS News report is here.

Wisconsin. Alyce McFadden & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Elections officials in Wisconsin voted that the Green Party is eligible to appear on presidential election ballots, a move that could affect the result in a critical battleground state where the winner has been decided by narrow margins. At a meeting of the Wisconsin Elections Commission on Thursday, the commissioners voted unanimously to grant the party's petition, so long as the final paperwork requirements are met. Wisconsin state law guarantees ballot access to parties that receive 1 percent of total votes in a previous election and submit a petition to the elections commission.... Recent polls suggest a close race between President Biden and ... Donald J. Trump.... In 2016, the Green Party candidate Jill Stein won just more than 31,000 votes in Wisconsin, a total that left her fourth in the state but was more than the difference in votes between ... Hillary Clinton and Mr. Trump, who won by a margin of less than 1 percent and took all ten of the state's electoral delegates. In the 2020 presidential election, no Green Party candidate appeared on ballots in Wisconsin. Mr. Biden won the state by less than 1 percent. Ms. Stein has announced that she will seek the Green Party's nomination again this year." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If Green party members care about this country, they will select "None of the Above" and bow out of battleground contests.


News About the Terrible Biden Economy. Edward Moreno & Joe Rennison
of the New York Times: "Stocks rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 index closing above 5,000 for the first time amid a rally fueled by better-than-expected earnings reports. The move comes less than a month after the index returned to record territory, surpassing a high set in January 2022. The benchmark, which tracks the stock performance of the largest companies in America, is the foundation of many portfolios and retirement plans and is the most common gauge of sentiment on Wall Street. The rally in the stock market has come with inflation cooling, corporate profits growing and lower borrowing costs on the horizon." The NBC News report is here. ~~~

~~~ Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The prices consumers pay in the marketplace rose at an even slower pace than originally reported, according to closely watched revisions the government released Friday. Updates to the consumer price index showed that the broad basket of goods and services measured increased 0.2% on the month, less than the originally reported 0.3%, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics said. While the change is only modest, it helped confirm that inflation was moderating as 2023 ended, giving more leeway to the Federal Reserve to start cutting interest rates later this year."

Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "An academic journal publisher this week retracted two studies that were cited by a federal judge in Texas last year when he ruled that the abortion pill mifepristone should be taken off the market. Most of the authors of the studies are doctors and researchers affiliated with anti-abortion groups, and their reports suggested that medication abortion causes dangerous complications, contradicting the widespread evidence that abortion pills are safe. The lawsuit in which the studies were cited will be heard by the Supreme Court in March.... The publisher, Sage Journals, said it had asked two independent experts to evaluate the studies, published in 2021 and 2022 in the journal Health Services Research and Managerial Epidemiology, after a reader raised concerns. Sage said both experts had 'identified fundamental problems with the study design and methodology, unjustified or incorrect factual assumptions, material errors in the authors' analysis of the data, and misleading presentations of the data that, in their opinions, demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor and invalidate the authors' conclusions in whole or in part.'"

Marie: It's fair to say the odds were mighty low that I would link a Daily Mail column by Boris Johnson. But here ya go: ~~~

~~~ Boris Johnson in the Daily Mail: "Putin's interview with his fawning stooge Tucker Carlson was straight out of Hitler's playbook.... In his fawning, guffawing, slack-jawed happiness at having a ‘scoop’, [Carlson] betrayed his viewers and listeners around the world. He didn’t ask tough questions.... Not once did he even try to dam the flow of lies from Putin. Instead he gasped fanboyishly at Putin’s alleged erudition, boneheadedly accepting the Russian leader’s mixture of semi-masticated Wikipedia and outright falsehood...."

~~~~~~~~~~

Maryland Senate Race. Michael Bend of the New York Times: “Larry Hogan, the popular Republican former governor of Maryland, announced on Friday that he would run for the state’s open Senate seat, a surprising move that immediately made the state a top battleground for control of the chamber.... Mr. Hogan has been one of his party’s most vocal critics of ... Donald J. Trump and has endorsed former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina for the Republican nomination.... Senator Steve Daines, a Montana Republican and the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, welcomed Mr. Hogan into the race....”

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

Reid Epstein & Erica Green of the New York Times: “In a closed-door meeting with Arab American leaders in Michigan this week, one of President Biden’s top foreign policy aides acknowledged mistakes in the administration’s response to the war in Gaza, saying he did not have 'any confidence' that Israel’s government was willing to take 'meaningful steps' toward Palestinian statehood.... The remarks came after months of public and private admonitions from the Biden administration for Israel to take a more surgical approach in a conflict that has killed more than 27,000 Palestinians, according to health authorities in Gaza.... The Biden aide, Jon Finer, a deputy national security adviser, offered some of the administration’s clearest expressions of regret for what he called 'missteps' it had made from the beginning of the violence, and he pledged that it would do better.”

, et al., of the New York Times: “Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the Israeli military to draw up plans to evacuate Rafah, a Gazan city packed with more than a million people, in advance of an expected ground offensive that has set off international alarm.... Many civilians in Rafah are sheltering in rickety tents made of plastic and wood and say there is nowhere left in Gaza to avoid Israeli shelling.... On Friday, UNICEF warned against any escalation in Rafah, where, it said, more than 600,000 children and their families had been displaced.”

Ukraine, et al.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs & David Sanger of the New York Times: “President Biden and Chancellor Olaf Scholz of Germany used a meeting at the Oval Office on Friday to pressure Congress to pass billions more in aid for Ukraine, as legislative dysfunction and opposition among some Republicans have left the critical package in limbo. 'Hopefully Congress, the House, will follow you and make a decision on giving the necessary support because without the support of the United States and without the support of European states, Ukraine will not have a chance to defend its own country,' Mr. Scholz said in opening remarks before their meeting. Mr. Biden had a more blunt assessment of the congressional gridlock. 'The failure of the United States Congress, if it occurs, not to support Ukraine is close to criminal neglect,' Mr. Biden said. 'It is outrageous.'” ~~~

~~~ Before Likely Senate Passage, GOP Senators Demand Stunt Amendments. Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: “The long-stalled emergency national security package to send aid to Ukraine and Israel is back on track in the Senate and headed toward passage within days — but not before Republican senators try to take a few partisan shots at the legislation. The senators are slowing progress on the $95 billion measure as they seek votes on proposed revisions, particularly concerning border security — despite having voted this week to kill a version of the bill that included a bipartisan deal to crack down on immigration.... [Senate Republicans] are settling for staging a series of votes that aim to show the right-wing Republican base, the G.O.P.-led House and ... Donald J. Trump that they tried to muscle through tough new border policies — and blame Democrats for blocking them. Senators planned a rare weekend session to work through the bill, with a critical vote on the legislation expected Sunday. Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and minority leader who has been a vocal champion of aiding Ukraine in its war against Russian aggression, urged his colleagues to either fall in line behind the bill or at least allow it to advance to a final vote.” The Hill's report is here.

U.K. Your Royal Gossip Fix, Ctd. Mark Landl of the New York Times: “Prince Harry has settled his privacy claims against a British tabloid publisher, his lawyer told a London court on Friday, two months after a judge found the publisher guilty of 'widespread and habitual' hacking of the prince’s cellphone. The settlement with Mirror Group Newspapers — which his lawyer said would amount to at least 400,000 pounds, or $504,000 — brings to an end one battle in Harry’s long-running war against the press over its intrusive coverage of his private life.... In addition to paying for the costs of the case, the Mirror Group would pay additional “significant” damages, the prince’s lawyer, David Sherborne, said.... In his statement, Harry singled out Piers Morgan, a prominent TV personality and a former editor of The Daily Mirror, saying Mr. Morgan 'knew perfectly well what was going on.' Mr. Morgan’s 'contempt for the court’s ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgment,' Harry said.”

Friday
Feb092024

The Conversation -- February 9, 2024

I'm well-meaning, and I'm an elderly man, and I know what the hell I'm doing. I've been president and I put this country back on its feet. -- President Joe Biden, White House remarks, Thursday evening

Mr. Biden would likely present himself ... as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory. -- Special Counsel Robert Hur, report

Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The White House on Friday called the special counsel's report into President Biden's handling of classified material politically motivated, escalating its attempts to discredit a document that characterized the president as elderly and forgetful. Vice President Kamala Harris suggested that the report was more of a political attack than an unbiased legal document. Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, said the report was 'inappropriate' and 'troubling.'...

"'The way the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated,' Ms. Harris said in response to questions from reporters at the White House. She also said Mr. Biden had sat down for in-person interviews with the special counsel's office just a day after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel. 'It was an intense moment for the commander in chief of the United States of America,' Ms. Harris said. 'He was in front of it all, coordinating and directing leaders who are in charge of America's national security.'"

Kierra Frazier of Politico: "Former Attorney General Eric Holder slammed Special Counsel Robert Hur's report that contained observations on President Joe Biden's memory. 'Special Counsel Hur report on Biden classified documents issues contains way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with long standing DOJ traditions,' Holder said in a post on X early Friday morning. 'Had this report been subject to a normal DOJ review these remarks would undoubtedly have been excised.'... Tommy Vietor, a former Obama White House aide who now co-hosts Pod Save America, said the report was filled with 'ad hominem attacks' and was 'just a right-wing hit job from within Biden's own DOJ.' 'Hur, a lifelong Republican and creature of DC, didn't have a case against Biden, but he knew exactly how his swipes could hurt Biden politically,' said Jim Messina, Barack Obama's 2012 campaign manager."

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post: Robert Hur's "extensive discussions of [President Biden's cognitive condition] were not merely gratuitous -- they constituted an egregious transgression of prosecutorial boundaries.... [Hur's] portrayal of Biden as a doddering old man is inconsistent with what I hear from those who have frequent interactions with him. But assuming its accuracy, the details go far beyond what is appropriate to explain the decision to decline prosecution, and far beyond Hur's brief.... Prosecutors are supposed to remain above the partisan fray, not embroiled in it.... A responsible prosecutor would have taken care to avoid what Hur has done, which is to let his report become a potent -- perhaps even lethal -- weapon in the coming campaign." ~~~

~~~ Marie: Yes, but if you credit Hur with writing, not a report, but a rambling, incoherent novel of the Look Homeward, Angel genre, then maybe it's what you might call a coming-of-aging story about a protagonist whom Hur calls "Joe Biden": ~~~

~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "Hur spent a year trying to find facts that would allow him to charge Joe Biden, charge a President, doing backflips with the evidence along the way, and then writing up a report that provides far more evidence about 40 year old documents covered by Speech and Debate than we'll ever learn about the stolen documents at Mar-a-Lago. This was never an ethical prosecutorial pursuit. It was always about writing a novel for a rabid audience." MB: This is one of Wheeler's long proofs, but Hur gives her a lot of material to work through.

Paul Campos in LG&$: "It's difficult to overstate what an absolutely astonishing own goal Merrick Garland scored by appointing Robert Hur to lead the Biden documents case.... So why did Merrick Garland do this incredibly stupid and reckless thing?... Because Robert Hur was Executive Editor of the Stanford Law Review, and clerked for the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, and was a partner at Gibson Dunn, and somebody with that kind of impeccable legal pedigree wouldn't ever be a partisan hack, because if he was that would call into question the impeccable judgment of the other Elite Lawyers who anointed appointed him to those exalted offices, where Objective Legal Analysis always wins out over Partisan Political Considerations, because only the Very Best People get those kinds of jobs, because ... OK I can't do this any more.

"Merrick Garland should be fired immediately. He has one of the most important jobs in the United States, and he's absolutely terrible at it, which is a bad combination, especially when there's a little light sedition in the air.... This guy might as well be a Republican plant, but the really sad part is that I don't doubt for a second that he's as sincere as Linus in the pumpkin patch, waiting for the Spirit of the Law to bring presents to all the good little boys and girls...."

Robert Draper & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A lawyer for the chief witness against Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida, said on Friday that the witness was cooperating with a House Ethics Committee investigation into whether Mr. Gaetz had sex with an underage girl while he was serving in Congress. Fritz Scheller, a lawyer for Mr. Gaetz's former friend and political ally Joel Greenberg, said he provided documents to the committee related to claims Mr. Greenberg has made about Mr. Gaetz. Mr. Greenberg previously told federal investigators that he had witnessed Mr. Gaetz having sex with a 17-year-old girl. 'Mr. Greenberg has and will cooperate with any congressional request,' Mr. Scheller said in an email on Friday."

Brandi Buchman of Law & Crime: "In a new motion, special counsel Jack Smith shredded Donald Trump's latest attempt to indefinitely delay the classified documents case in Florida before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, urging the court to resist the former president's efforts to 'stop at nothing' to delay facing a jury. '... the tactics they deploy are relentless and misleading -- they will stop at nothing to stall the adjudication of the charges against them by a fair and impartial jury of citizens...,' Smith wrote in the 9-page brief filed in Florida late Thursday.... Trump's lawyers were either simply unprepared or were flatly ignoring court orders, according to the special counsel, and now, three months on, as Trump's team has filed requests to adjourn the case completely, they still come asking for more time to file pretrial documents.... Most offensive to the special counsel is Trump's attempt to dismiss the 40-some charges he faces for alleged illegal retention of sensitive and classified documents by attempting to advance an argument of 'presidential immunity.' The conduct charged took place after Trump left office, Smith wrote."

Edward Moreno & Joe Rennison of the New York Times: "Stocks rose on Friday, with the S&P 500 index closing above 5,000 for the first time amid a rally fueled by better-than-expected earnings reports. The move comes less than a month after the index returned to record territory, surpassing a high set in January 2022. The benchmark, which tracks the stock performance of the largest companies in America, is the foundation of many portfolios and retirement plans and is the most common gauge of sentiment on Wall Street. The rally in the stock market has come with inflation cooling, corporate profits growing and lower borrowing costs on the horizon."

U.K. Your Royal Gossip Fix, Ctd. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Prince Harry has settled his privacy claims against a British tabloid publisher, his lawyer told a London court on Friday, two months after a judge found the publisher guilty of 'widespread and habitual' hacking of the prince's cellphone. The settlement with Mirror Group Newspapers -- which his lawyer said would amount to at least 400,000 pounds, or $504,000 -- brings to an end one battle in Harry's long-running war against the press over its intrusive coverage of his private life.... In addition to paying for the costs of the case, the Mirror Group would pay additional 'significant' damages, the prince's lawyer, David Sherborne, said.... In his statement, Harry singled out Piers Morgan, a prominent TV personality and a former editor of The Daily Mirror, saying Mr. Morgan 'knew perfectly well what was going on.' Mr. Morgan's 'contempt for the court's ruling and his continued attacks ever since demonstrate why it was so important to obtain a clear and detailed judgment,' Harry said."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Report

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The special counsel investigating President Biden said in a report released on Thursday that he had decided 'no criminal charges are warranted' against Mr. Biden over his handling of classified material after leaving the vice presidency in early 2017, but had found evidence that Mr. Biden had willfully retained and disclosed some sensitive material. Robert K. Hur, the special counsel, said in his highly unflattering report that Mr. Biden had left the White House after his vice presidency with classified documents about Afghanistan and notebooks with handwritten entries 'implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods' taken from internal White House briefings. The report said that Mr. Biden had shared the content of the notebooks with a ghostwriter who helped him on his 2017 memoir, 'Promise Me, Dad' even though he knew some of it was classified. While Mr. Hur decided not to prosecute Mr. Biden, some of his reasons for doing so are likely to raise new questions about the president's conduct and his mental state....' Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' Mr. Hur wrote."

"White House officials said Mr. Biden had fully cooperated with the investigation and that he took the handling of classified information seriously. 'We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the special counsel's report. Nonetheless, the most important decision the special counsel made -- that no charges are warranted -- is firmly based on the facts and evidence,' Richard Sauber, a special counsel for Mr. Biden, said in a statement.... In the report's introduction, Mr. Hur cited Mr. Biden's cooperation with investigators, in stark contrast with ... Donald J. Trump's behavior when documents were discovered at his resort in Florida, as one of the factors in his decision not to bring charges.... Mr. Hur could not establish whether classified documents discovered at Mr. Biden's house had been willfully retained, or whether they had been obtained during his vice presidency and sloppily stored." (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Betsy Swan, is here: "Biden's memory lapse was a common theme throughout Hur's report.... One of [Biden's] attorneys, Bob Bauer, took umbrage with the portrayal, accusing Hur of 'essentially, "trashing" the subject of an investigation' with 'extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.' Biden's attorneys also wrote directly to Hur and his team before the report's publication to complain about the focus on the president's memory lapses. As documented in the report, they called the focus 'gratuitous' and urged Hur to revise his summarizations, saying it was beyond his 'expertise and remit.'... Biden addressed the report during an appearance at a retreat for House Democrats on Thursday afternoon. 'I was pleased to see the special counsel make clear the stark differences between this case and Trump's,' he said, 'The special counsel in my case decided against moving forward with any charges. This matter is now closed.' He banged the podium with a fist." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The report, via the DOJ, is here. It begins with an executive summary. President Biden's statement, via the White House, is here.(Also linked yesterday.)

Marie: You are not mistaken. This report was Jim Comey on steroids. Remember when Comey released the FBI's report recommending no charges against Hillary Clinton for her home server blunder but then trashed her in a press conference ostensibly called to clear her? (Not to be confused with the "October Surprise," which arguably cost Clinton the election.) Joy Reid pointed out on MSNBC last night that at the bottom of the first page of the executive summary (p. 5 of the linked report), Hur writes, "Mr. Biden has long seen himself as a historic figure.... He believed his record during decades in the Senate made him worthy of the presidency...." This is not how a factual DOJ report is supposed to be written. As President Biden's attorneys wrote, Hur went beyond his "expertise and remit." An analogous Mueller report might have begun, "Mr. Trump is an ignorant, narcissistic sociopath with autocratic tendendies who should never have ascended to any public office, let along the presidency*." It didn't. ~~~

~~~ As to Biden's being "a well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory," his interviewers asked him questions going back 40 years. I sat for a deposition when I was "a well-meaning 50-year-old woman" with no cognitive problems. When I was asked about a letter I had written when I was 21 years old, I did not remember the letter. At all. Ari Melber of MSNBC pointed out that lawyers usually advise their clients to say, "I don't recall" when asked about something they couldn't remember. And you don't have to be a doddering old codger with a faulty memory to forget dates and specifics. Most of us don't remember much about uneventful matters that occurred decades ago. Hur's characterization of President Biden is over the top, politically-motivated and in extremely bad form. It reflects poorly on him more than it does on Biden. P.S. If Merrick Garland had any balls, he would make a public statement condemning the tenor of the so-called report.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The investigation into Mr. Biden’s handling of the documents ... [made] such startling assertions that they prompted a fiery and emotional attempt at political damage control from the president within hours. Speaking to the cameras from the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, Mr. Biden on Thursday evening blasted the report by Robert K. Hur, the special counsel, accusing the report's authors of 'extraneous commentary' about his age and mental capacity.... The president's lawyers, Bob Bauer and Richard Sauber, took exception in a Feb. 5 letter with Mr. Hur's description of the president's memory. 'It is hardly fair to concede that the president would be asked about events years in the past, press him to give his "best" recollections and then fault him for his limited memory,' the lawyers wrote. 'The president's inability to recall dates or details of events that happened years ago is neither surprising nor unusual.'...

"The tough language by Mr. Hur could set the stage for Mr. Trump and his allies to launch a fresh round of political attacks on Mr. Biden for doing the very same kinds of things Mr. Trump is accused of doing.... Republicans began using the report to attack Mr. Biden almost immediately, sometimes going much further than the prosecutor's actual conclusions. Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida, said on social media, falsely, that 'the special counsel decided not to bring charges against Biden because they believe he has age related dementia.'" NPR's report is here. ~~~

Josh Marshall of TPM: "... this is another example of the universal rule: Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Democrats. And Republican special counsels are chosen to investigate Republicans. It may not have been a great idea for Merrick Garland to have a two-time Trump appointee investigate Joe Biden. But here we are. Robert Hur totally slimed Biden with these gratuitous comments about his mental acuity and memory.... Even if you assume they are the product of a good faith evaluation they are still wildly inappropriate. DOJ guidelines make clear that if you're not bringing charges you don't bash the subject of the investigation in your announcement (a la James Comey). You certainly aren't supposed to affirmatively attempt to demean the subject of the investigation with clearly political attacks that aren't even related to what you're investigating." MB: On the other hand, Hur did not find a blue dress. ~~~

~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: Ditto. "It's very bad, but at this late date it has to hang on Garland at least as much as Hur himself. He was doing what anybody should have expected him to do."

Samantha Latson of Politico: "Donald Trump and his GOP presidential rival Nikki Haley each slammed a Justice Department special counsel decision Thursday not to charge President Joe Biden for mishandling classified documents.... 'THIS HAS NOW PROVEN TO BE A TWO-TIERED SYSTEM OF JUSTICE AND UNCONSTITUTIONAL SELECTIVE PROSECUTION! The Biden Documents Case is 100 times different and more severe than mine,' Trump, who faces criminal prosecution for deliberately retaining classified material, said in a statement. 'I did nothing wrong, and I cooperated far more. What Biden did is outrageously criminal.'... Haley also used the decision to take a jab at both Biden and her rival Trump: 'Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump were reckless with classified documents,' she wrote on social media platform X. "If Biden's defense is old age and forgetfulness, Trump can easily make the same claim....'" ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Maybe the upside of narcissism is that it doesn't require any coordination with facts. A narcissist can lie with alacrity, as Trump does here. He doesn't have to read; he doesn't have to study; he doesn't have to rationalize or make excuses; he just flips off the world and presents his own fantasies as reality.

Presidential Race

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court seemed poised on Thursday to issue a lopsided decision rejecting a challenge to ... Donald J. Trump's eligibility to hold office again. Justices across the ideological spectrum expressed skepticism about several aspects of a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that Mr. Trump's conduct in trying to subvert the 2020 race made him ineligible to hold office under a constitutional provision that bars people who have sworn to support the Constitution and then engaged in insurrection.... The ruling is likely to resolve not only whether Mr. Trump may appear on the Colorado primary ballot but also whether he is eligible to run in the general election. Indeed, the decision in the Colorado case will almost certainly apply to any other state where Mr. Trump's eligibility to run has been challenged, including Maine, where the state's top elections official ruled he should be excluded from the ballot. There was very little discussion of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol or of Mr. Trump's role in it. But a majority of the justices indicated that they were prepared to rule that individual states may not disqualify candidates in a national election unless Congress first enacts legislation allowing them to do so. Some justices also seemed open to two other arguments: that the post-Civil War prohibition at issue, Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, bars candidates from holding office, as opposed to running for it, and that the president is not among the officials to whom the provision applies."

Traditionally the idea of state's rights has been the purview and preponderant obsession of the wingers on the court.... But of course if that means states get to decide stuff the wingers don't cotton to, then that state's rights stuff is right out. The only thing consistent about them is the belief that their side needs to win no matter what. -- Akhilleus, in yesterday's thread

They are textualists only when textualism provides a means to and end -- like when they say, "Well, we have to give everybody a gun because it says so right here in the Second Amendment." But when a purported 'close reading' does not suit them, suddenly they are pragmatists. -- Chris Hayes of MSNBC, Thursday (very loose paraphrase)

You do have to wonder how the Supremes would have reacted had Hillary Clinton led a motley army into the Capitol to try to prevent Joe Biden from counting electoral votes in 2016. Would she still be eligible to run for president? Just asking. -- Marie

Chris Geidner of Law Dork: "... the U.S. Supreme Court appeared all but certain to rule that, at least under current federal law, Donald Trump can appear on Colorado's Republican presidential primary ballot, reversing the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to the contrary.... The justices appeared to be more concerned about what removing Trump from the ballot would do rather than whether the Constitution says he is disqualified."

Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post: "After saying he'd listened to the Supreme Court oral arguments Thursday..., Trump reverted to one of his signature falsehoods.... Trump ... referred to what his detractors 'kept saying about what I said right after the insurrection ... if it was an insurrection.' He claimed that what he really did was offer 'very beautiful, very heartwarming statements' during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. He also suggested people should view the video he posted late in the day -- or as he put it, 'very shortly after.' That would be hard. The video was removed from YouTube and other social media shortly after being posted, on the grounds that it violated the terms of service by spreading false information about the 2020 election." Kessler provides a timeline of the events of the day and Trump's responses. It's a useful and shocking reminder of what a horrible human being Trump is. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: CNN played live bits of Trump's remarks after the hearing. They kept cutting out because, as Jake Tapper said, Trump was lying so much and just giving a campaign speech. What was more startling than the lies was how infantile Trump is. If he listened to the hearing, why didn't he say any more about it than "they did a good job," or words to that effect. Instead, he rambled on about extraneous matters: "We're at 90% in Nevada, I think we're at 90% everywhere, Joe Biden sucks, blah, blah." Don't tell me Joe Biden is off his game when Trump is totally out of it, reduced to toddler babble. I suspect his aides tell him how good his poll numbers are the way you tell a severely intellectually disabled person that the stick figures he drew are great, and the poor fellow is able to parrot back, "I did good, didn't I?"

Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump glided to victory in Nevada's Republican caucuses on Thursday, an outcome all but guaranteed because he was the only major candidate on the ballot. The Associated Press declared Mr. Trump the winner shortly after caucus sites closed in Nevada, giving him his fourth straight triumph in a Republican nominating contest that awards delegates this year."

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Hannity Promotes Violence Against Strangers on Live TV. Jake Offenhartz of the AP: "Members of the Guardian Angels roughed up a man during a live interview on Fox News Tuesday night, then misidentified him as a 'migrant' in a primetime segment meant to highlight disorder and crime caused by new arrivals to New York City. The bizarre altercation played out as Curtis Sliwa, founder of the anti-crime patrol group, was speaking to Sean Hannity from Times Square, flanked by volunteers in their signature red berets and bomber jackets. As some Guardian Angels began leaving Sliwa's side to attend to an off-screen disturbance, the camera panned to show them confronting an unidentified man, pushing him to the sidewalk and placing him in a headlock. 'In fact, our guys have just taken down one of the migrant guys...,' Sliwa told Hannity.... The man is not a migrant, but a New Yorker from the Bronx, police said Wednesday afternoon. Though Sliwa claimed the man had been caught shoplifting, police provided no evidence to support the allegation.... Police said the man was issued a disorderly conduct summons because he was acting in a loud and threatening manner on a public sidewalk.... Sliwa said he had believed the man was a migrant because he was 'speaking Spanish.'..." ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Hannity "welcomed Sliwa back at the end of the show to explain what happened. 'Well, he had been shoplifting first,' Sliwa claimed. 'The Guardian Angels spotted him, stopped him. He resisted. And let's just say we gave him a little pain compliance.' Hannity chuckled. 'His mother back in Venezuela felt the vibrations. He's sucking concrete. The cops scraped off the asphalt.'... That Fox News carried the scuffle live was a function of a number of bad decisions, certainly. But all of them were downstream from the same point of origin: wanting to cast New York City, once again, as collapsing metropolis overrun by criminal immigrants."

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Igor Derysh of Salon: "Legal experts sounded the alarm after the judge overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case rejected special counsel Jack Smith's bid to keep government witnesses secret. Smith's team opposed making information public that could reveal the identity or any personal identifying information of any potential witnesses in the case or any transcripts or other documents they may have provided, citing concerns about witness intimidation. Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ruled in Trump's favor on the matter, writing: '... the Special Counsel has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue.'... Longtime Harvard Law Prof. Laurence Tribe said he hopes Tuesday's order 'will trigger a motion to remove her.... The 11th Circuit might well agree this was the last straw. Compromising national security is a bridge too far,' he tweeted. 'It is impossible to overstate how awful and unethical is Aileen Cannon,' added Norman Ornstein, emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. 'Clearly has no business being a judge at any level.'" ~~~

~~~ So Then.... Mike Levine & Katherine Faulders of ABC News: "Federal authorities are currently investigating a series of threats made online to a potential witness related to special counsel Jack Smith's classified documents case against ... Donald Trump, according to a new court filing from Smith's team. In the filing late Wednesday in federal court in Florida, Smith's team asked U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon ... to let them file an exhibit under seal because, they wrote, 'The exhibit describes in some detail threats that have been made over social media to a prospective Government witness and the surrounding circumstances, and the fact that those threats are the subject of an ongoing federal investigation being handled by a United States Attorney's Office.'"

They're Going to Take Him Away, Away. Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro to begin serving a four month-prison term for ignoring a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack, rejecting his request to stay free while he appeals his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.... In a 12-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta said that none of Navarro's claims posed a 'substantial question of law' or a close call. Unless the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia stays his sentence imposed Jan. 25, Mehta ordered, Navarro 'shall report to the designated Bureau of Prisons ('BOP') facility on the date ordered by the BOP.' Navarro has not received a reporting date and is expected to ask the circuit court to intervene."


Dino Grandoni
of the Washington Post: "Michael Mann, a prominent climate scientist, won his long-standing legal battle against two right-wing bloggers who claimed that he manipulated data in his research and compared him to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, a major victory for the outspoken researcher. A jury in a civil trial in Washington on Thursday found that the two writers, Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn, defamed and injured the researcher in a pair of blog posts published in 2012, and awarded him more than $1 million. 'I hope this verdict sends a message that falsely attacking climate scientists is not protected speech,' Mann said in a statement[.] Mann's victory comes amid heightened attacks on scientists working not just on climate change but also on vaccines and other issues." The AP's report is here.

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: President "Biden's comments [that Israel's attacks on Gaza are 'over the top'] follow National Security Council spokesman John Kirby saying 'we would not support' a major Israeli military operation in crowded Rafah under current conditions, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken saying he had conveyed 'profound concerns' to Israel about inflammatory rhetoric and actions, calling for it to address the high civilian death toll. Biden also issued a memorandum laying out standards for countries that receive U.S. weapons and, for the first time, requires the administration to submit an annual report to Congress about whether they are meeting the requirements. It comes after Democratic lawmakers raised concerns about the extent of Israels campaign in Gaza." ~~~

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

Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Biden on Thursday said Israel's military campaign in Gaza has been 'over the top' in his sharpest rebuke yet and said he hoped the current negotiations over a release of hostages in exchange for a long-term pause could lay the groundwork to change the course of the war.... Biden, who has been resistant to speak in detail about the suffering in Gaza, also spoke in the most visceral terms yet about the desperation in the enclave. 'I've been pushing really hard to get humanitarian assistance into Gaza. A lot of innocent people are starving. A lot of innocent people are in trouble and they're dying and it's got to stop,' Biden said. The comments mark a stunning turnaround for Biden, who has an emotional attachment to Israel and has largely refused to criticize the country even as anger grows among left-leaning parts of the Democratic base over the war in Gaza and its enormous civilian toll."

Ukraine, et al.

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A sweeping emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel inched ahead in the Senate on Thursday, providing glimmers of hope for the measure after a series of setbacks. But hurdles remained as Republicans slow-walked progress, demanding changes and feuding internally over whether to back it. In a bipartisan show of support, the Senate voted 67 to 32 to advance the bill, with 17 Republicans joining Democrats to move it forward. The legislation would provide $60.1 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in global conflicts. But many Republicans were still withholding their backing as they demanded changes to the package, and many others opposed it outright. 'We hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues on amendments,' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said. 'We are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done.'" (Also linked yesterday

Andrew Kramer & Mark Santora of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday removed his top general as part of a sweeping overhaul of his military command, the most significant shake-up in Ukrainian leadership since Russia invaded almost two years ago. The dismissal ended weeks of speculation about the fate of the commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, whose relationship with Mr. Zelensky had deteriorated as Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough in its counteroffensive last summer and fall. Mr. Zelensky was prepared to fire the general 10 days ago before temporarily backing off, Ukrainian officials have said. The upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Ukraine in the war, amid intensified Russian attacks, partisan wrangling in the United States over providing aid to the government in Kyiv and the tensions between Ukraine's civilian and military leadership. General Zaluzhny will be replaced by Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine's ground forces, the president said." (Also linked yesterday.)

Anton Troianovski of the New York Times: "Speaking to Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host, [Vladimir] Putin called on the United States to 'make an agreement' to cede Ukrainian territory to Russia in order to end the war. He sought to appeal directly to American conservatives just as Republican lawmakers are holding up aid to Ukraine on Capitol Hill, echoing the talking points of politicians like ... Donald J. Trump who say that the United States has more pressing priorities than a war thousands of miles away.... Much of the interview constituted a familiar Kremlin history lesson about Russia's historical claim to Eastern European lands, beginning in the ninth century, that Mr. Putin made little effort to distill for American ears.... Mr. Carlson pressed Mr. Putin to release [Evan] Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal correspondent whom Russia arrested last year on espionage accusations that The Journal and the U.S. government vehemently deny. Mr. Putin said 'the dialogue continues' on his fate, hinting that the Kremlin was holding out for a favorable offer from the United States to release him as part of a prisoner swap."

News Lede

New York Times: "Seiji Ozawa, the high-spirited Japanese conductor who took the Western classical music world by storm in the 1960s and '70s and was music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002, died on Feb. 6 in Tokyo. He was 88."

Thursday
Feb082024

The Conversation -- February 8, 2024

Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "The special counsel investigating President Biden said in a report released on Thursday that he had decided 'no criminal charges are warranted' against Mr. Biden over his handling of classified material after leaving the vice presidency in early 2017, but had found evidence that Mr. Biden had willfully retained and disclosed some sensitive material. Robert K. Hur, the special counsel, said in his highly unflattering report that Mr. Biden had left the White House after his vice presidency with classified documents about Afghanistan and notebooks with handwritten entries 'implicating sensitive intelligence sources and methods' taken from internal White House briefings. The report said that Mr. Biden had shared the content of the notebooks with a ghostwriter who helped him on his 2017 memoir, 'Promise Me, Dad' even though he knew some of it was classified. While Mr. Hur decided not to prosecute Mr. Biden, some of his reasons for doing so are likely to raise new questions about the president's conduct and his mental state.... 'Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview with him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,' Mr. Hur wrote.

"White House officials said Mr. Biden had fully cooperated with the investigation and that he took the handling of classified information seriously. 'We disagree with a number of inaccurate and inappropriate comments in the special counsel's report. Nonetheless, the most important decision the special counsel made -- that no charges are warranted -- is firmly based on the facts and evidence,' Richard Sauber, a special counsel for Mr. Biden, said in a statement.... In the report's introduction, Mr. Hur cited Mr. Biden's cooperation with investigators, in stark contrast with ... Donald J. Trump's behavior when documents were discovered at his resort in Florida, as one of the factors in his decision not to bring charges.... Mr. Hur could not establish whether classified documents discovered at Mr. Biden's house had been willfully retained, or whether they had been obtained during his vice presidency and sloppily stored."

     ~~~ Politico's report, by Betsy Swan, is here: "Biden's memory lapse was a common theme throughout Hur's report.... One of [Biden's] attorneys, Bob Bauer, took umbrage with the portrayal, accusing Hur of 'essentially, "trashing" the subject of an investigation' with 'extraneous, unfounded and irrelevant critical commentary.' Biden's attorneys also wrote directly to Hur and his team before the report's publication to complain about the focus on the president's memory lapses. As documented in the report, they called the focus 'gratuitous' and urged Hur to revise his summarizations, saying it was beyond his 'expertise and remit.'... Biden addressed the report during an appearance at a retreat for House Democrats on Thursday afternoon. 'I was pleased to see the special counsel make clear the stark differences between this case and Trump's,' he said, 'The special counsel in my case decided against moving forward with any charges. This matter is now closed.' He banged the podium with a fist." ~~~

     ~~~ The report, via the DOJ, is here. It begins with an executive summary. President Biden's statement, via the White House, is here.

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: "A sweeping emergency aid bill for Ukraine and Israel inched ahead in the Senate on Thursday, providing glimmers of hope for the measure after a series of setbacks. But hurdles remained as Republicans slow-walked progress, demanding changes and feuding internally over whether to back it. In a bipartisan show of support, the Senate voted 67 to 32 to advance the bill, with 17 Republicans joining Democrats to move it forward. The legislation would provide $60.1 billion for Ukraine, $14.1 billion for Israel and $10 billion in humanitarian aid for civilians in global conflicts. But many Republicans were still withholding their backing as they demanded changes to the package, and many others opposed it outright. 'We hope to reach an agreement with our Republican colleagues on amendments,' Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, said. 'We are going to keep working on this bill until the job is done.'"

Andrew Kramer & Mark Santora of the New York Times: "President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine on Thursday removed his top general as part of a sweeping overhaul of his military command, the most significant shake-up in Ukrainian leadership since Russia invaded almost two years ago. The dismissal ended weeks of speculation about the fate of the commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, whose relationship with Mr. Zelensky had deteriorated as Ukraine failed to make a breakthrough in its counteroffensive last summer and fall. Mr. Zelensky was prepared to fire the general 10 days ago before temporarily backing off, Ukrainian officials have said. The upheaval comes at a difficult moment for Ukraine in the war, amid intensified Russian attacks, partisan wrangling in the United States over providing aid to the government in Kyiv and the tensions between Ukraine's civilian and military leadership. General Zaluzhny will be replaced by Gen. <Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine's ground forces, the president said."

Marie: The seat-of-the-pants analyses I'm hearing on the teevee re: the Colorado disqualification case is that the Supremes will rule, perhaps 9-0 against Colorado. I'm having oral surgery again this afternoon, so I won't be around to post links to relevant commentary. On the up side, I think oral surgery will be more fun than reading how the Supremes are horrified by the idea of kicking an insurrectionist leader off the ballot.

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CNN is liveblogging developments in the Supreme Court's hearing of Colorado voters' effort to keep Donald Trump off the state's ballot on the basis of his disqualification under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment. ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's live updates are here. The New York Times' liveblog is here.

Marie: The Supreme Court has announced on its main Web page that it will livestream an audio feed of oral arguments this morning. Update: The livefeed is up on the Supremes' main page. The Constitution Center has a list of page URLs where you can hear the livefeed, which is set to begin at 10 am ET. ~~~

     ~~~ The AP will have live audio on this YouTube page. (MB: uh, supposedly -- when I linked to the page the WashPo listed for carrying the audio, the feed had been removed). Looks as if MSNBC & CNN will carry the audio live, too.

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday will confront the critical question of Donald Trump's eligibility to return to the White House, hearing arguments in an unprecedented case that gives the justices a central role in charting the course of a presidential election for the first time in nearly a quarter-century.... The justices will have to weigh untested legal issues against the backdrop of broad concerns about democracy. Put simply, should the ramifications of disqualifying the leading Republican candidate in the midst of the primary election outweigh the consequences of allowing a candidate to run again after he tried to subvert the outcome of the last election" ~~~

~~~ Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Thursday in an extraordinary case that could alter the course of the presidential election by deciding whether ... Donald J. Trump's conduct in trying to subvert the 2020 race made him ineligible to hold office again.... The sweep of the court's ruling is likely to be broad. It will probably not only resolve whether Mr. Trump may appear on the Colorado primary ballot, but it will also most likely determine his eligibility to run in the general election and to hold office at all."

Marie: Ever since (or maybe even before) Colorado decided Donald Trump was disqualified from appearing on the state's presidential ballot, I have been wondering if this couldn't be a state-by-state decision. Comes now law professor Akhil Amar and says, well, yes. ~~~

~~~ ** Akhil Amar, in a New York Times op-ed: "A 50-state solution allows each state to use its own distinct procedures and protocols for applying Section 3 [of the Fourteenth Amendment].... Section 3's authors actually had not one but two recent insurrections in mind. Before the bloody insurrection that began when cannons roared at Fort Sumter in April 1861, there was the first insurrection of the 1860s, led by cabinet members of outgoing President James Buchanan, including John B. Floyd, the war secretary, and Philip Francis Thomas, the treasury secretary, among many others. A shadowy network of affiliates and co-conspirators aimed in several and nefarious ways ... to prevent the lawful counting of President-elect Abraham Lincoln's electoral votes and to thwart his lawful inauguration in early March 1861.... In 1860, Lincoln was not on the ballot in every state; ditto for Ralph Nader in 2000. Welcome to the Electoral College.... The Constitution is best read to safeguard intricate federalism over pure nationalism -- and the Supreme Court's ruling should reflect that principle." ~~~

     ~~~ BTW, Hillary Clinton, in an interview on MSNBC, more-or-less endorsed Amar's approach and hypothesized that the Supremes might go along with it, too, in order to avoid making the larger decision on Trump's self-disqualification.

Meet the Lawyers! Ann Marimow of the Washington Post profiles the two lawyers who are leading the arguments the Trump disqualification case before the Supreme Court, Jonathan Mitchell for Trump and Jason Murray for the Colorado voters.

Charlie Savage of the New York Times profiles Seth Barrett Tillman, a professor at the University of Ireland, who asserts that "the particular phrase 'officer of the United States' refers only to appointed positions, not the presidency.... With Josh Blackman, who teaches at South Texas College of Law Houston, Professor Tillman submitted a friend-of-the-court brief and asked to participate in arguments, but the court declined. Still, his hobbyhorse will be on the Supreme Court's agenda, and it has drawn as much zealous backing as it has ferocious pushback.... Akhil Reed Amar, a Yale Law School professor who submitted a brief siding with Colorado's top court, portrayed Professor Tillman's theory as a 'gimmick' that relied on tracing words in "all these interesting little ways that makes no sense of the thing as a whole." He predicted it would get at most three votes on the nine-member court."

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Marie: It looks like the new leader of both the House and Senate is Donald Trump, (maybe with an assist from aide Vladimir Putin).

Seth Meyers comments on Wednesday's House debacle. Thanks to RAS for the link:

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The Senate bogged down on Wednesday over a bill to send tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine and Israel after Senate Republicans blocked a compromise that would have paired the aid with stringent border security measures, adjourning without moving forward on the emergency national security spending package. Democrats, pressing to salvage the aid from becoming a casualty of ... Donald J. Trump's political campaign, promised a Thursday vote to advance a stand-alone foreign aid bill stripped of the immigration measures. But after a day of stalemate on Capitol Hill, Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, announced that senators needed more time to agree on how to move forward on that alternative, which Democrats and Republicans alike said they hoped would be successful.

"Mr. Schumer had hoped for a quick vote on Wednesday on what he called his 'Plan B for reviving the aid package after the border deal failed. But by Wednesday evening, action had stalled, as Senate Republicans slow-walked business on the floor while they regrouped. They held open a procedural vote for hours as they sought assurances from Democrats that if they voted to allow the stripped-down aid bill to move forward, they would be allowed to propose changes. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, told reporters that there were ongoing discussions about how the money to Ukraine and Israel would be distributed." ~~~

~~~ The AP report on the Senate fail is here. CNN's report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The NYT, AP & CNN reports do not mention this: Alex Wagner reported on MSNBC on-air that the stripped-down foreign aid bill failed a cloture vote Wednesday 58-41, "and Democrats have till tomorrow to convince two more Republicans to vote for cloture." Wagner put up a graphic showing the 58-41 count. ~~~

~~~ Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked a bill to pair tens of billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and Israel with stringent border security measures, thwarting a compromise they had demanded in the latest setback to the emergency national security spending package. But Democrats quickly moved to salvage the aid, with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, pivoting to advance a stand-alone foreign aid bill stripped of the immigration deal. A vote on that alternative was expected later on Wednesday." This is the pinned item in a liveblog.

Sahil Kapur & Frank Thorp of NBC News: "Within 48 hours of the release of a long-awaited immigration and foreign aid bill he had championed, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's Republican conference rejected his pitch to support it, knifed the deal and left it for dead. Just four Republicans voted for it. In the end, even McConnell backtracked and voted against the package that he had helped develop. It was a jarring moment on Capitol Hill that pointed to a changed landscape: The Kentucky Republican, a one-man power center for more than a decade, is seeing his influence with fellow senators wane as his party continues to transform into the right-wing populist mold of Donald Trump."

Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "As Republicans tanked their own bid to impeach Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the homeland security secretary, [Speaker Mike] Johnson, who minutes before had been buttonholing holdouts on the House floor, was the face of the failure, a slightly panicked look on his face and his cheeks flushed as he announced the loss. Then the House moved on to a second vote Mr. Johnson had orchestrated, on a $17.6 billion aid package for Israel that he knew would not muster the votes it needed to pass. It also failed. The back-to-back defeats highlighted the litany of problems Mr. Johnson inherited the day he was elected speaker and his inexperience in the position.... The next phase of that game could be even more challenging." ~~~

~~~ Brett Meiselas of Meidas Touch: "Speaker Mike Johnson and House Republicans were shocked as their impeachment resolution against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas went down in flames on Tuesday by a vote of 214-216. Republicans Ken Buck, Tom McClintock, Blake Moore, and Mike Gallagher voted against the measure. Moore changed his vote to a 'no' at the last second for procedural reasons, after Democratic Rep. Al Green arrived straight from the hospital in a wheelchair and scrubs to make what would be the deciding vote. Johnson and House Republicans were infuriated by Green's presence at the vote, and apparently had not counted on this possibility. In fact, the vote was planned with Green's absence in mind. Speaker Johnson planned the vote for Tuesday because he thought the Democrats would be down a vote while Green was in surgery.... On Wednesday, when asked about the failed vote, Speaker Johnson acknowledged that House Republicans were not prepared for Green's presence." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't rely on the Meisalas boys for factual reporting, but Brett is right about this. Nancy Pelosi, who is famous for knowing how to count votes, appeared on MSNBC yesterday and told Andrea Mitchell that a leader has to count her own votes and not worry about how many votes the other side thinks it has. Catie Edmondson wrote (report linked above), "Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a famed vote counter, couldn't help but offer unsolicited advice to Mr. Johnson. 'You have to have your votes. Don't worry about the other side -- you have to have your votes.... You know what's a majority. If you don't have that -- don't bring it to the floor.'"; Obviously, Mike Johnson was unaware of (or ignored) that arithmetical principle. ~~~

~~~ The Implosion of the GOP. Jacqueline Alemany, et al., of the Washington Post: Wednesday's House meltdown "was the latest in a tenure marred by chaos and frustration, with members starting to lose patience with an inexperienced leader who they feel has made serious tactical missteps overseeing an unwieldy conference that even Republicans admit may be impossible to corral. The dysfunction in the House Republican conference was rivaled only by that of its counterpart in the Senate.... The GOP leaders' shaky hold over their conferences has led Democrats to fret about whether the House can again avert a government shutdown ahead of a March 1 deadline -- as well as whether Congress may abandon key U.S. allies during wartime. The chaos that has plagued congressional Republicans has intensified as Trump has tightened his grip on the party in his bid to lock up the GOP presidential nomination. Johnson and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have applied dramatically different approaches to Trump.... But Trump's influence has minimized their credibility with and sway over their colleagues. It has also caused some members to fear that the emerging leadership vacuum and their inability to govern could cost them politically."

Garcia Gets the Better of Miss Margie. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "... during a hearing on crime..., [Rep. Marjorie Taylor] Greene ... went on a lengthy rant on everything from crime in the nation's capital to gun rights to Donald Trump to Black Lives Matter and beyond.... Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) ... pointed out what he found 'ironic' about Greene talking about crime in Washington, D.C. 'She literally supported an insurrection and attack on the Capitol,' Garcia said. He said Greene 'coddled' the insurrectionists when she visited them last year in jail, where she offered them handshakes and pats on the back and said they were 'political prisoners.... They actually tried to overthrow our government,' Garcia reminded her. That caused Greene ― who last month called Hunter Biden a 'coward' for leaving a hearing when she was speaking about him ― to walk out of the hearing." (Also linked yesterday.)

Joe Davidson of the Washington Post: "The Democratic chairman of a powerful Senate committee on Wednesday called on President Biden to fire the lead watchdog for the Social Security Administration, pointing to stalled investigations and plunging staff morale. In a letter sent Wednesday to the White House, Sen. Ron Wyden (Ore.), chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said promises by Inspector General Gail Ennis to 'establish a culture that welcomes debate, collaboration, and transparency ... appear to have been hollow.... I urge you to remove her.'... Wyden's letter comes as Ennis, a 2019 Trump administration appointee, faces multiple long-running investigations into her leadership.... Ennis has drawn particular scrutiny for an anti-fraud program run by the inspector general's office that leveled large penalties against disabled claimants -- and for allegedly retaliating against staffers who raised alarms about that practice, which began under Ennis's predecessor and continued on her watch."

Surprise, Surprise! Expedient-Friend-of-Clarence Harlan Crow Is [an Alleged!] Tax Cheat. Paul Kiel of ProPublica: "A key congressional committee is pressuring billionaire Harlan Crow for answers after investigators turned up additional evidence that he misrepresented his yacht as a business to score a tax break.... Drawing on the trove of leaked tax data that was the basis of our 'Secret IRS Files' series, ProPublica reported that, from 2003 to 2015, Crow and his father reported nearly $8 million in net losses from operating the ship, with about half flowing to Harlan Crow.... Yacht owners who regularly lease out their ships can write off losses related to chartering, but ProPublica could find no evidence of the [yacht] Michaela Rose being chartered. In fact, former crew members said the ship was used solely by Crow's family, friends and executives of his company, along with their guests. Congressional investigators found the same thing when they spoke to former crew members, [Sen. Ron] Wyden [D-Ore.] wrote.... The committee's investigators were able to confirm that the ship lacked the proper registrations [in the U.S. & U.K. for chartering]." Thanks to RAS for the link.

Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "A congressional committee examining campus antisemitism accused Harvard on Wednesday of obstructing its investigation, saying that the university failed to submit documents it had requested while flooding the committee with publicly available pages containing 'inexplicable' redactions. Representative Virginia Foxx, a Republican of North Carolina, said Harvard was providing a 'limited and dilatory' response to her investigation of the school's handling of alleged campus antisemitism. Ms. Foxx, chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee, threatened to use subpoena power to force Harvard to submit more documents.... Harvard said that it was cooperating with the inquiry and that it 'has provided extensive information.'..." MB: Foxx is a well-known right-wing rabble-rouser, and Harvard, generally speaking, is the Snob Center of America, so I withhold judgment on who's in the right here.

The Trials of Trump & the Trump Gang

Holmes Lybrand & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team is outlining how he intends to fight the classified documents case against him in Florida, including by claiming presidential immunity, despite a significant defeat on that issue in the election subversion case in Washington, DC. In a filing Tuesday, Trump's attorneys asked Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over the Florida case, for more time to follow certain pretrial motions they're considering, including to suppress discovery and allege prosecutorial misconduct. The attorneys also say they expect to file arguments on presidential immunity in the case, a defense that was decidedly tossed out by the DC Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday, the same day as Trump's filing in Florida.... Trump has said he intends to appeal the DC Circuit Court's ruling. The former president's attorneys indicated in the filing they may argue special counsel Jack Smith's prosecution in Florida has been selective and vindictive, that prosecutors violated Trump's due process rights and are misusing information gathered during the investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I heard some expert on MSNBC (sorry, can't recall who) say that Trump's bringing an immunity claim to the documents case could force the Supremes to hear the D.C. case because two separate courts in two different judicial districts would be ruling on immunity. Seems to me the Supremes could simply affirm the lower court's ruling without elaborating in one of their "shadow docket" type rulings. This would more-or-less require Cannon to reject whatever immunity claim Trump's lawyers assert in the case she's overseeing. But we all know I'm no expert.

Kara Scannell of CNN: “A federal judge denied Donald Trump's motions for a mistrial in the defamation case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll saying the former president's arguments had no 'merit.'... Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Trump's motions from the bench during the civil trial and said a written order would follow. In the written order on Wednesday, the judge said granting a request for a mistrial 'would have been entirely pointless' because it would only mean that the case would start over.... He also denied Trump's request for sanctions and criticized Trump's attorneys for first making the motion for a mistrial in front of the jury during Carroll's cross-examination when they had known about the deletion of messages for over a year. He said if he were to grant any remedy to Trump, which he was not inclined to do, it would consist of cross-examining Carroll about deleting messages, which his attorneys did at trial."

Joseph Harvey of the Huffington Post: "MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell was flabbergasted by a detail in a new court filing from special counsel Jack Smith in the classified documents case against Donald Trump and two co-defendants. According to the Friday filing, an attorney for Carlos De Oliveira, a co-defendant and maintenance supervisor at Mar-a-Lago, said he was unable to review CCTV footage the prosecution had obtained from the Trump Organization and provided during discovery because he did not own or have access to a laptop or desktop computer. De Oliveira's attorney said he had been attempting to review the entirety of the government's discovery documents on a handheld tablet, the filing stated. To resolve the issue, the government offered to loan the attorney a laptop, and 'hand-delivered a computer to him,' according to the filing. The prosecution said it has since offered assistance to the attorney, 'providing tips and examples, and offering to set up calls,' whenever he has flagged technical issues.' The unprofessionalism and incompetence of the Trump team of lawyers continues to amaze,' O'Donnell said Monday...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I don't own a tablet, but I'm pretty sure you can review documents on one. Maybe this is a ploy to get De Oliveira off in an appeal based on incompetence of counsel. It could work!

More on the Presidential Race

Katie Rogers of the New York Times: "President Biden traveled to New York on Wednesday to headline three fund-raisers, where he presented himself as the last line of defense against the re-election of Donald Trump and as a dedicated -- if imperfect -- leader who had been around long enough to recognize the existential threat Mr. Trump poses to democratic institutions, including the presidency.... At all three events, Mr. Biden largely stayed away from the war in Gaza, and though protests were barely visible from the presidential motorcade, people angry over his support for Israel's campaign against Hamas had gathered to demonstrate at different points throughout the city."

When a Self-help Guru Gives Up. Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "Marianne Williamson, the self-help author, is suspending her long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, she said in a video address on Wednesday.... Ms. Williamson on Tuesday placed a very distant third place in Nevada's primary election, behind President Biden -- who won nearly 90 percent of the vote -- and behind 'none of these candidates,' a ballot option that earned less than 6 percent of the vote. She had put significant effort into campaigning in the state before the primary, but ultimately drew under 3 percent of the vote." The AP story is here.

Another Loser to "None of These Candidates' Soldiers On. Jazmine Ulloa of the New York Times: "Nikki Haley on Wednesday blasted Donald J. Trump for his backroom effort to twist delegate and primary rules in his favor, calling it 'ironic' that a former president who fueled lies about his 2020 election loss was now trying to 'bully' his way to the 2024 Republican nomination.... She went on to say that the reason he was trying so hard to win the election was because he needed 'to get off all these court issues that he's dealing with.... And I think Americans need to see this for what it is,' she said. The rebuke is among the sharpest attacks Ms. Haley has aimed at Mr. Trump yet...." MB: Sorry, I see no irony here. Rather, Trump is behaving consistently: he tried to bully his way to staying in the White House in 2020/21 by fomenting an insurrection; he's bullying his hoped-for path back to the White House by intimidating Republican officials at every level of government and rigging some state primary procedures to favor him.

Hawaii. Daryl Huff of Hawaii News Now: "A proposal that would allow Donald Trump to be disqualified from the Hawaii ballot for causing an insurrection survived a close vote in a state Senate committee Tuesday. While other states have tried to block Trump because of his role in sparking the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol. Hawaii law doesn't provide for that. The measure, Senate Bill 2392, would establish a process through the chief elections officer. The bill drew more than 300 pieces of negative testimony and only about 20 testimonies in favor. The small conference room was dominated by Trump supporters, who often cheered each other's testimony.... The committee voted 3-to-2 to send the bill to the full Senate."


Glenn Thrush
of the New York Times: "The final report of Robert K. Hur, the special counsel investigating President Biden's handling of classified documents retained from his vice presidency, has been sent to the White House and to Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, two of the final steps before its public release, officials said on Wednesday. Mr. Garland received the report on Monday, he told congressional leaders in a letter on Wednesday. He said that Mr. Hur had previously sent a copy to the White House Counsel's Office for possible revisions based on claims of executive privilege, and that the White House was still reviewing the report. Ian Sams, a spokesman for the White House Counsel's Office, said the review would be completed by the end of the week.... Mr. Garland's letter contained no indication that the department would pursue an indictment, and people around Mr. Biden have said they do not expect one."

You Do Not Have a Constitutional Right to Spit Your Germs & Viruses at Others. Mike Catalini of the AP: "A federal appeals court shot down claims Monday that New Jersey residents refusal to wear face masks at school board meeting during the COVID-19 outbreak constituted protected speech under the First Amendment. The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling in two related cases stemming from lawsuits against officials in Freehold and Cranford, New Jersey. The suits revolved around claims that the plaintiffs were retaliated against by school boards because they refused to wear masks during public meetings. In one of the suits, the court sent the case back to a lower court for consideration. In the other, it said the plaintiff failed to show she was retaliated against." MB: But, but how can speech be free if you're forced to speak through a device that muffles speech? (Also linked yesterday.)

Hecho en Mexico. Anna Swanson & Simon Romero of the New York Times: "New data released on Wednesday showed that Mexico outpaced China to become America's top source of official imports for the first time in 20 years -- a significant shift that highlights how increased tensions between Washington and Beijing are altering trade flows. The United States' trade deficit with China narrowed significantly last year, with goods imports from the country dropping 20 percent to $427.2 billion, the data shows. American consumers and businesses turned to Mexico, Europe, South Korea, India, Canada and Vietnam for auto parts, shoes, toys and raw materials.... Economists say the relative decrease in trade with China is clearly linked to the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration and then maintained by the Biden administration." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So how about this? Trump's radical China tariffs improved U.S. trade with Mexico. This, in turn, means there are more jobs in Mexico, so immigration to the U.S. from Central and South America may decrease by the increase in the number of jobs these would-be U.S. immigrants can get in Mexico. So in one fell swoop, Trump has not only cut trade with China but also solved the border crisis. The guy is a stable genius.

Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Robyn Dixon & Natalia Abbakumova of the Washington Post begin with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov's takedown of a blatant lie TuKKKer Carlson told about his interview of Vladimir Putin. Then they write, "The Kremlin's decision to allow the interview demonstrated Putin's interest in building bridges to the disruptive MAGA element of the Republican Party, and it seemed to reflect the Kremlin's hope that Donald Trump would return to the presidency and that Republicans would continue to block U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Halting aid from the United States, which is Ukraine's biggest Western supporter, could provide Russia with a path to victory in the nearly two-year war.... Putin portrays himself as a guardian of traditional conservative values, showing common cause with MAGA conservatives.... Pro-Trump Republicans are a natural ally for Putin on LGBTQ+ and other issues but also because the Kremlin has long sought to exploit divisions in American society and interfere in U.S. politics.... Carlson has often echoed Kremlin propaganda about Russia's war on Ukraine, by attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and opposing U.S. military aid to help Ukraine defend itself."

Trolling Racists -- A Half Century Ago. Noah Berlatsky, in a CNN opinion piece, remarks on how the right wing misunderstands Mel Brooks' presentation of race in the 1974 film "Blazing Saddles." Berlatsky writes a useful review of the film. "Blazing Saddles," Berlatsky writes, "presents everyday good White townspeople, as racist -- and as irredeemable fools because they are racist.... Gene Wilder as Bart's (Cleavon Little) fast-drawing friend Jim, is ... explicit. 'You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers,' Jim reassures Bart after he's endured racist insults from a nice White grandma. 'These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know .. morons.'... You're really not supposed to outright say that rural White MAGA voters -- the 'people of the land' -- are deplorable racist dunderheads. You're supposed to be respectful. But 'Blazing Saddles,' 50 years ago, said that treating racists with respect is BS -- even if those racists look like your grandma, even if those racists live in small towns and hang out in diners." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link to the video:

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Voter Suppression, Campus Component. Maddie Kasper of the Washington Post: "After voting rules were loosened in many states for the 2020 election, which was held in the depths of the coronavirus pandemic, GOP lawmakers have sought to tighten restrictions for 2024. Although the efforts have been ostensibly aimed at curbing fraud, elections experts say voter fraud is already exceedingly rare. Democrats say they believe the real objective is to limit voting among college students, who voted in historic numbers in 2020 and overwhelmingly supported Joe Biden, helping to power his victory.... Voters in Idaho, for example, can no longer use student ID cards at the polls.... Numerous other forms of identification, including concealed weapons licenses, remain acceptable.... Students at public universities in Ohio could previously vote with their student ID card if it met certain criteria.... The new Ohio law would require [students] to give up [IDs issued by other states] for one issued by Ohio.... In Democratic-led states such as New York or Colorado, for instance, lawmakers have passed bills that will likely lead to easier access to polling places on college campuses. Several Republican-led states have moved in the other direction."

Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "The Florida Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday regarding a proposed amendment enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, the last hurdle in getting the issue before voters after a successful grass-roots signature drive. The group Floridians Protecting Freedom gathered more than 1.5 million signatures in less than nine months to put the proposal on the ballot -- far more than the 891,523 needed. But Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has objected to the language in the proposed amendment and asked the state's high court to reject it.... Legal analysts said it was difficult to gauge how justices might rule based on the questions asked and comments made."

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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Hamas's response to a proposed cease-fire deal in exchange for the release of hostages included some 'non-starters' but creates space to 'pursue negotiations,' U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in Israel, in contrast with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who called the militant group's demands 'delusional.' In Iraq, a U.S. military strike Wednesday in Baghdad killed a key commander of a militia group that has plotted attacks on American troops throughout the region, officials said.... Blinken met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday in the West Bank, where Abbas called for an immediate halt to Israel's war in the Gaza Strip, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported."

U.K. Your Royal Gossip Fix. Jesus Jiménez of the New York Times: "Prince Harry did not meet with his brother, Prince William, during a roughly 24-hour trip to Britain after Buckingham Palace announced that their father had cancer, an indication that relations between the siblings remain tense.... The king's eldest son [William] resumed his duties as the Prince of Wales, carrying out an honors ceremony at Windsor Castle and attending a charity fund-raiser. It was unknown what Harry and King Charles, 75, discussed during a visit that lasted between 30 and 45 minutes at Clarence House, the king's residence in London."