The Conversation -- September 13, 2024
Putin Has Another Puppet! Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Senator JD Vance outlined a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. But objectively, it sounds a lot like Vladimir Putin's.... Victoria J. Nuland, a former senior State Department official who helped shape the Biden administration's Ukraine policy, said Mr. Vance's plan was very similar to what Mr. Putin had repeatedly offered as peace terms.... In an interview ... that was posted on Thursday, Mr. Vance ... was asked about ... Donald J. Trump's plans to end the war.... He went on to outline what he thinks a deal would entail: The Russians would retain the land they have taken and a demilitarized zone would be established along the current battle lines, with the Ukrainian side heavily fortified to prevent another Russian invasion. While the remainder of Ukraine would remain an independent sovereign state, Mr. Vance said, Russia would get a 'guarantee of neutrality' from Ukraine. 'It doesn't join NATO, it doesn't join some of these sort of allied institutions,' Mr. Vance said. 'I think that's ultimately what this looks like.'"
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden angrily denounced ... Donald J. Trump on Friday for continuing to traffic in false rumors about Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, unfounded tales that have roiled a community in Ohio and inflamed the presidential campaign. At a brunch on the South Lawn of the White House billed as a 'celebration of Black excellence,' Mr. Biden noted that Haitian immigrants were 'under attack in our country right now,' a reference everyone in the audience understood even though he did not name Mr. Trump. 'It's simply wrong,' Mr. Biden said, his voice rising in indignation. 'There's no place in America. This has to stop, what he's doing. It has to stop.'... As he mentioned the new jobs for Black Americans, he leaned into the microphone and alluded to Mr. Trump's recent reference to 'Black jobs,' as the former president put it. 'By the way,' Mr. Biden said, 'the next Black job to be filled is as president of the United States of America.'" ~~~
~~~ Economic Times: "During a rally in Arizona on Thursday, Trump not only reiterated his false accusations that immigrants are stealing and consuming pets but also added geese to the mix. 'Haitian immigrants have descended upon Springfield, Ohio, and are destroying their way of life,' Trump told the crowd. 'A recording of 911 calls shows residents reporting that the migrants are walking off with the town's geese. They're taking the geese. You know where the geese are? In the park, in the lake. And even walking off with their pets.'" MB: And chickens. From the grocery store. Without any feathers.
Alicia Lozano & David Li of NBC News: "Bomb threats on Friday forced the evacuation and closure of [Springfield, Ohio,] public schools and municipal buildings for a second consecutive day, as the city continues to deal with sudden national attention due to false claims involving its Haitian population.... In addition to ... school evacuations, several city commissioners and a municipal employee were the target of an emailed bomb threat, city spokesperson Karen Graves said.... [JD] Vance has also said there's been a 'massive rise in communicable diseases' in Springfield, but Clark County Combined Health District Commissioner Chris Cook said Friday that's not accurate."
The Company He Keeps, Ctd. Steve Benen of MSNBC: "In theory, it seems utterly bonkers that a major-party candidate for the nation's highest office would bring a 9/11 truther to a 9/11 commemoration. In practice, Trump did it anyway, assuming he'd get away with it.... At a news conference, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries condemned Trump's choice of company, calling the decision 'shocking, irresponsible, and offensive.' The New York Democrat said the former president's actions 'should shock the conscience of all decent Americans.'" ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Allen, et al., of NBC News: "Throughout his third presidential campaign, aides and advisers have done their best to shield him from Loomer, a far-right social media influencer, and similar figures who stroke his ego and stoke his basest political instincts. They lost that battle this week.... Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., major Trump allies in Congress who represent opposite ends of the Republican ideological spectrum, are publicly pressing him to ditch her. Loomer fired back Thursday with a string of invective about Graham." MB: Imagine the response if credible reports emerged that Kamala Harris had a squad of babysitters to keep her away from toxic flatterers. Observers of every stripe would say she was unfit for office.
~~~ Un-effing-believable. Alexandra Marquez & Vaughn Hillyard of NBC News: “Donald Trump on Friday defended Laura Loomer after some of the former president's closest allies this week raised concerns about his relationship with the far-right activist. 'Laura has been a supporter of mine. Just like a lot of people are supporters, and she's been a supporter of mine. She speaks very positively of the campaign. I'm not sure why you asked that question,' Trump told reporters at a press conference in Rancho Palos Verdes, California.... 'I don't control Laura. Laura -- she's a, she's a free spirit. Well, I don't know. I mean, look, I can't tell Laura what to do,' Trump added on Friday.... Immediately following his press conference, NBC News asked Trump whether he'd been informed of Loomer's conspiracy theories. 'I don't know that much about it. No, I don't,' he said...." Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: We have to assume that Trump is so sick he sees nothing wrong with hanging out with malignant bigots.
Joseph Gedeon of Politico: "The State Department on Friday accused RT of having transformed from a state-backed propaganda outlet into a sophisticated arm of Russian intelligence, secretly operating a vast military procurement network to supply Russian forces in Ukraine. RT, formerly Russia Today, has been pulling this off by using a large online crowdfunding platform, promoted through social media, to buy military equipment and then channel it to Russian units in Ukraine, according to the State Department. The administration said the operations were administered by RT deputy editor-in-chief and head of international broadcasting for Sputnik Anton Anisimov and had avoided detection by importing small orders of weaponry and supplies."
Today's Art Lesson: Portraiture. Thanks to RAS for the link.
Bill Kristol in the Bulwark: "... it seems that Tuesday night's will be the only Trump-Harris debate. Multiple debates usually result in mixed verdicts, and a general blurring of any one encounter's impact. Trump's choice -- at least for now -- to reject any further debates turns Tuesday night's affair from a best-of-three series into a one-game elimination playoff. Trump lost that one debate. Bigly. And he's been losing as the aftershocks ripple through the political universe."
Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "For policy wonks like me..., the most remarkable moment in the debate probably came when Trump was asked whether he had a plan for health care reform, and his answer was: 'I have concepts of a plan.'... Trump ... has repeatedly insisted that Obamacare is 'lousy' and that he can come up with something much better.... Trump ... has been denouncing Obamacare [for nine years] and promising a superior alternative the whole time. Yet the only policy alternative he has ever proposed was 2017 legislation that would have more or less dismantled the A.C.A. without a viable replacement -- and which the Congressional Budget Office estimated would have increased the number of Americans without health insurance by 32 million within a few years.... The truth, I'd argue, is that he&'s blowing smoke when he claims to have even 'concepts.' That is, neither he nor anyone around him has any real clue about how to do better than the A.C.A."
Ivan Nechepurenko of the New York Times: "Russia announced on Friday that it had decided to expel six British diplomats from the country, accusing them of engaging in espionage and sabotage work, in a move that highlighted the deepening tensions between Moscow and London. The Russian Federal Security Service, or F.SB., said that the decision had been made in response to 'the numerous unfriendly steps taken by London,' a possible reference to signals from Britain that it was willing to allow Ukraine to use its 'Storm Shadow' long-range missiles against targets deep inside Russia. Speaking on Thursday about that potential shift on the use of missiles, President Vladimir V. Putin warned that such a decision would mean that NATO countries were 'at war with Russia' and that it would 'clearly change the very essence, the very nature of the conflict.'"
Here's a firewalled article about a firewalled article, but I can't find a "free" story anywhere, I guess I haven't used up my Beast freebies, so this is the best I can do: ~~~
~~~ Sean Craig of the Daily Beast: "Elon Musk secretly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars into an effort to turf a Democratic prosecutor in Texas, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The Texas resident and Tesla and SpaceX CEO was the chief financier of Saving Austin, a group that distributed incendiary material attacking District Attorney José Garza during the Democratic primary, including fliers that baselessly accused him of 'filling Austin's streets with pedophiles & killers,' the Journal reports. Alongside that tagline, the fliers contained an image of the Travis County DA next to a bloody teddy bear and the warning, 'The next victim could be your loved one.' Musk's participation may have been more personal than political due to one key factor: his reported hatred of investor and philanthropist George Soros, a supporter of the DA.... Garza won the March primary with two-thirds of the vote and is expected to win re-election in November."
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Presidential Race
It's Friday the 13th. Let's try to think of somebody who deserves a little bad luck.
Erica Green & Maya King of the New York Times: "At her first post-debate campaign events, Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly challenged ... Donald J. Trump to a second onstage clash and sought to use her opponent's erratic performance as a springboard into the race's final stretch.... Despite Ms. Harris's sharp performance on Tuesday night -- her team quickly said she would be willing to debate again -- her campaign has indicated that it sees the race as virtually unchanged, and has tried to keep Democrats grounded by reminding donors and supporters that 'elections are not won by debates.' But at back-to-back rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro, Ms. Harris signaled that she would try to make some of Mr. Trump's debate remarks echo through the rest of the campaign.... Ms. Harris's visit came as Democrats make a serious play for North Carolina, which was home to President Biden's narrowest loss in 2020 but has a large and growing population of Black people, young people and college graduates." Harris drew a crowd of 7,500 in Charlotte & 17,000 in Greensboro.
Theodore Schleifer & Shane Goldmacher of the New York Times: "Vice President Kamala Harris raised $47 million in the first 24 hours following her debate with ... Donald J. Trump on Tuesday night, a sum that will likely expand a widening funding gap between the two campaigns. That tally, shared by the Harris campaign with The New York Times, included donations from 600,000 people. It is her largest 24-hour fund-raising period since an initial burst of donations when she entered the race in July and raised $81 million on the first day."
Hmmm. Kaia Hubbard of CBS News: "Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Thursday endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president, writing in an op-ed of the 'serious threat' Donald Trump poses to the rule of law.... The former attorney general, who resigned as attorney general in 2007 amid accusations that he had lied in front of Congress and a scandal over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, argued that the 'character of the person we elect in November' is of particular importance because members of Congress 'have proven spectacularly incapable or unwilling to check abuses of executive power.' He noted that while the Supreme Court has the ability to check presidential power, the high court's recent ruling in the presidential immunity case 'might allow a president to take official actions for personal, self-serving reasons.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
[BLAH, BLAH BLAH.] THERE WILL BE NO THIRD DEBATE! -- Donald Trump, in a post ~~~
~~~ ⭐ Trump Turns Tail. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Former President Trump said Thursday he would not participate in another debate with Vice President Harris.... Shortly after Trump's social media post, Harris took to the stage for a rally in North Carolina where she addressed her desire to face the former president again. 'I believe we owe it to the voters to have another debate, because this election and what are at stake could not be more important,' Harris told supporters.... A CNN rapid poll found 63 percent of debate watchers said Harris won Tuesday's debate, compared to 37 percent who said Trump won. Multiple polls released Thursday showed Harris widening her lead over Trump nationally." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Who can blame him? His debate opponent would be dumb as a rock, an ignorant chick from India, who suddenly turned Black, then stole the votes of 14 million people & forced Joe Biden to pick her for president, then acted real nice to everybody except Trump, then whupped his ass in a debate because ABC cheated & gave her the questions in advance and ordered both moderators to help her out. And he still won anyway 93% to 7%, according to a very fake poll. ~~~
~~~ Oliver O'Connell of the Independent, republished by Yahoo! News: "Karl Rove, the Republican political consultant and deputy chief of staff in the George W Bush administration, has pulled no punches in an op-ed saying that Donald Trump's debate against Kamala Harris was a 'train wreck' for him. Calling Trump's debate performance 'catastrophic', he goes as far as to say that he was 'crushed by a woman he previously dismissed as "dumb as a rock".' Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Rove says the former president's performance was 'far worse than anything Team Trump could have imagined' and Trump was 'visibly rattled' as Harris 'launched rocket after rocket at him.'" Here's a big piece of the op-ed, which Rove published on his own Website.
A Failure by Another Measure. Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, fell more than 10 percent by the market's close on the day after the debate between Mr. Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Trump Media's debut on Wall Street in March, the company's stock has traded as something of a proxy for Mr. Trump's prospects in the November presidential election.... Shares of Trump Media, which were down as much as 15 percent on Wednesday, have fallen to their lowest level since the money-losing company went public in March, after its merger with a cash-rich shell company, Digital World Acquisition Corporation."
Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "For years..., Donald J. Trump has tried to stir up fears about immigrants with claims of caravans full of criminals and rapists heading toward America's southern border. In Tuesday night's debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, he doubled down on the vitriol, promoting a debunked conspiracy theory that Haitian immigrants were killing Americans' house pets and eating them for dinner. Mr. Trump's political goals appear to be the same as they always have been: to stoke anger and give people someone to blame for their misfortunes. But the debate highlighted how Mr. Trump has escalated his assaults on immigrants in the 2024 presidential campaign, and how he uses the issue to overshadow other topic...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: I suspect that Trump, the quintessential bully, was bullied when he was a kid because his mother and his paternal grandfather were immigrants. Probably some of the rich kids he wanted to hang with traced their roots to the Mayflower or the Dutch colonists of New Amsterdam. And these mean boys let little Donnie know he could never be one of them. A sense of inferiority is what drives Donnie to try to give others a lower status than the one he feels he occupies. Sad! ~~~
~~~ AND now we find out that "They're eating dogs! They're eating cats!" was a planned attack on Harris! ~~~
~~~ Marc Caputo of the Bulwark: "Donald Trump had a plan for Tuesday night's presidential debate.... If the moderators hit him for spreading a baseless urban legend about Haitian immigrants eating cats in the small city of Springfield, Ohio, the ex-president was supposed to execute a classic rope-a-dope strategy: He would dodge the punch and place the blame for the story on town locals; then he'd pivot to attacking Vice President Kamala Harris and the media over the toll of rampant immigration on housing, healthcare, and crime in Springfield. It was all strategized in advance. There was just one problem: It required Trump to execute it.... But when the topic of immigration came up, the former president got sidetracked by taking umbrage with Harris's insistence that he had uninspiring rallies. He then mentioned the possibility of World War III.... [Then he said,] 'In Springfield, they're eating the dogs.... The people that came in. They're eating the cats. They're eating -- they're eating the pets of the people that live there.... The entire episode ended up being less rope-a-dope and more a dope who had hanged himself with some rope." ~~~
~~~ Azi Paybarah & Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "The mayor of Springfield, Ohio, said a bomb threat Thursday that led to the evacuation of City Hall and numerous buildings 'used hateful language towards immigrants and Haitians in our community.... Springfield is a community that needs help,' Mayor Rob Rue said in an interview with The Washington Post. The mayor added that national leaders should provide that help and not 'hurt a community like, unfortunately, we have seen over the last couple of days.'" An ABC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Haley Wilt of NOTUS collects some Congressional Republicans' reactions to Donald Trump's pet-on-a-spit claims. It's fair to say that some of the members' responses are as bizarre as Trump's myth.
digby: "Trump has a very small vocabulary for a supposedly educated person and speaks at a 4th grade level according to experts. There's nothing new in that. And repeating himself is part of his strategy to convince people his lies are the truth. His 'cognitive tests' (which he says he 'aced' like nobody's ever aced them before) notwithstanding, he is getting worse. He can't seem to keep a single train of thought and that's actually new. He's calling this rambling 'the weave' and says his English professor friends call it brilliant. (He has no English professor friends.)" digby cites at length an Atlantic essay by psychiatrist Richard Friedman, who points to some evidence of Trump's cognitive decline. Friedman "says that if he had a patient with the 'verbal incoherence, tangential thinking, and repetitive speech' that Trump shows, he would definitely refer him for a thorough neuropsychiatric evaluation. Also, those characteristics make him completely unqualified to be president of the United States. I'm not a psychiatrist but would just add that he's also a puerile, self-centered asshole who only cares about himself which is also disqualifying." MB: Yup.
Isaac Arnsdorf of the Washington Post: "After an initial period of relative restraint, [Donald Trump] has begun blaming [the assassination attempt in Butler, Pa.,] on his opponents and amplifying conspiracy theories.... 'I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me,' Trump said at Tuesday's ABC News debate.... 'It is creating a permission structure for at least some people to want to take matters into their own hands,' said Matt Dallek, a George Washington University professor...." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Company He Keeps, Ctd. Ken Bensinger of the New York Times: "Before Donald J. Trump traveled to Philadelphia for this week's debate, he invited one of the internet's most polarizing figures along for the ride. Laura Loomer was backstage with the Trump entourage.... She was in the spin room with the former president immediately after [the debate]. And the next day, she flew with him to New York City and Shanksville, Pa., to commemorate the anniversary of Sept. 11. A far-right activist known for her endless stream of sexist, homophobic, transphobic, anti-Muslim and occasionally antisemitic social media posts and public stunts, Ms. Loomer has made a name for herself over the past decade by unabashedly claiming 9/11 was 'an inside job,' calling Islam 'a cancer,' accusing Ron DeSantis's wife of exaggerating breast cancer and claiming that President Biden was behind the attempt to assassinate Mr. Trump in July. Just two days before the debate, Ms. Loomer, 31, posted a racist joke about the vice president, whose mother was Indian American.... For many observers, including some of Mr. Trump's most important allies, the Republican presidential nominee's choice ... to platform a social-media instigator ... was stunning." ~~~
~~~ Natalie Allison & Meredith McGraw of Politico: "Two loyal allies of Donald Trump are feuding over a bigoted post about Kamala Harris' Indian heritage, the latest sign of discord among MAGA surrogates as the former president seeks to regain his lead in the presidential race. Laura Loomer, a right-wing activist and close Trump ally, was rebuked by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on social media Wednesday evening after referencing racist and offensive cultural stereotypes about Harris, whose mother was Indian." (Also linked yesterday.)
Yes, this guy. Really. This guy.The Company He Keeps, Ctd. Tom Dreisbach of NPR: "Twice this past summer, Donald Trump's golf club in Bedminster, N.J. has featured speeches from a rioter convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, who has a well-documented history of extreme antisemitic and racist rants. One of those events -- a fundraiser for a controversial nonprofit group that supports Capitol riot defendants -- was personally endorsed by Trump himself in a video message that was played for the room. 'All of the people there, you're amazing patriots,' Trump said in the video. 'Have a great time at Bedminster.' As part of his criminal case over Jan. 6, federal prosecutors described the rioter, Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, as a 'white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer,' who told his coworkers at a naval weapons station that 'Hitler should have finished the job' and 'babies born with any deformities or disabilities should be shot in the forehead.'"
It saddens me to see the former president bring his hate show to Tucson, a town with deep Mexican American roots and a joyful, tolerant spirit. -- Linda Ronstadt, in a statement
Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "The singer Linda Ronstadt denounced Donald J. Trump on Wednesday night in a statement released before his scheduled visit to Tucson for a campaign rally on Thursday, saying she had felt compelled to speak out because his event would be held at a venue named after her. Her statement, which also endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, took aim at the former president on a range of issues, including the rape allegations against him -- he was found liable for sexual abuse in a civil case last year -- and his felony convictions in New York. She particularly objected to the policy during his presidency that separated thousands of migrant families...." (Also linked yesterday.)
How Low Can They Go? Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "A super PAC that appears to have Republican ties is targeting Michigan residents -- including those in Detroit-area ZIP codes that are home to many Muslim Americans and Arab Americans -- with YouTube advertisements that highlight Vice President Kamala Harris's support for Israel and, in some cases, the Jewish faith of her husband, [Doug] Emhoff. As the narrator cheerfully notes Mr. Emhoff's religion, an image of the Israeli flag appears onscreen, a dog whistle conjuring the antisemitic trope of dual loyalty. 'Kamala Harris is a strong leader for these difficult times -- and joining Kamala will be her husband and top adviser, Doug Emhoff,' the narrator says, as images cycle across the screen of Mr. Emhoff wearing a yarmulke; visiting Oskar Schindler's factory; and lighting Hanukkah candles with Ms. Harris.... That group, which is scheduled to host an event for ... Donald J. Trump in Pennsylvania later this month, is led by Richard Grenell, who held a number of senior jobs in the Trump administration, and former Representative Lee Zeldin of New York, a Republican."
Joe DePaolo of Mediaite: "A viral clip has been making the rounds on the Right -- purporting to show music superstar Usher, during an appearance on The View, declining to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris.... Turning Points USA founder Charlie Kirk posted the clip on X... Prominent Right-wing accounts shared Kirk's clip -- and applauded Usher for his comments.... But the full video tells a very different story.... 'So you're supporting Kamala Harris in this election, I understand?' Behar asked Usher. 'Yes!' Usher replied, enthusiastically." MB: It's no wonder that no one on the right know what's going on. (Also linked yesterday.)
Nandika Chatterjee of Salon: "During Wednesday's 'Cavuto: Coast to Coast,' the eponymous host bashed [Donald Trump], saying that 'he decisively lost' the debate with Harris. 'This was the first occasion where it wasn't just a close call, it was a lopsided one.'... Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume ... agreed, saying: 'Trump had a bad night. He rose to the bait repeatedly when she baited him, something I'm sure his advisers had begged him not to do.'... Trump was not happy with Cavuto's remarks and responded on Truth Social, writing: 'Neil Cavuto, Fox's Lowest Rated Anchor, is one of the WORST on Television. I actually prefer the losers at CNN and MSDNC!'"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "Is [Donald Trump] competent to be president? That's a question journalists should be asking, prominently and relentlessly, until Election Day. After the June debate that so clearly exposed Joe Biden's cognitive decline, news coverage questioning his competence to hold office for another term was seemingly never-ending, and for good reason.... Now Trump has had a debate that raises serious questions about his competence. And although his party remains solidly behind him, leading Democrats are increasingly willing to raise the issue. In the wake of the debate, for instance, House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries called for Trump to take a cognitive test.... There are some signs that journalists may rise to the occasion. The day after the debate, in an NPR article that went viral (thanks to me) Domenico Montenaro wrote boldly [linked in the Comments here] -- and accurately -- that 'The spotlight should now be on Trump's incoherence and general lack of any serious grasp on policy.'... The first thing reporters can do is stop covering up for the crazy."
Marshall Cohen, et al., of CNN: "A judge on Thursday threw out three charges in the sweeping Georgia election subversion case, including two charges that ... Donald Trump faces. The decision hasn't yet been formally applied to Trump because his case has been paused pending appeals. In a separate ruling, Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee also upheld the marquee racketeering charge in the case, which Trump is also facing." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Thursday charged two men with assaulting a New York Times photographer on Jan. 6, 2021, accusing them of pushing her to the ground and stealing her camera as they participated in the storming of the Capitol. The two men, Philip and David Walker, are brothers who authorities say were part of the mob that breached security around the Capitol that day and pushed their way into the building...."
Steve Karnowski of the AP: "Package delivery company DHL is suing MyPillow, alleging the company synonymous with its founder, chief pitchman and election denier Mike Lindell owes nearly $800,000 for unpaid bills. The lawsuit is the latest legal dispute to emerge against MyPillow and Lindell, a prominent supporter of Donald Trump who has helped amplify the former president's false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him.... [Lindell is] being sued for defamation by two voting machine companies. Lawyers who were originally defending him in those cases quit over unpaid bills.... A judge in Februaryaffirmed a $5 million arbitration award to a software engineer who challenged data that Lindell said proved that China interfered in the 2020 election."
Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "Attorney General Merrick Garland slammed efforts to turn the Justice Department into a 'political weapon' during a fiery speech Thursday to department staff and US attorneys from across the country amid attacks from ... Donald Trump and his allies. Garland decried the 'escalation of attacks' against its career staff in years through 'conspiracy theories, dangerous falsehoods, efforts to bully and intimidate career public servants by repeatedly and publicly singling them out, and threats of actual violence.' The attorney general's comments come as Trump has claimed that the Justice Department has been weaponized against him amid his criminal prosecutions and suggested that he would politicize the department should he return to the Oval Office.... 'Our norms are a promise that we will not allow this nation to become a country where law enforcement is treated as an apparatus of politics,' Garland added to applause. Trump and his associates have publicly discussed plans to dismantle the department and its law enforcement components like the FBI, or to prosecute his political enemies.... Neither Trump nor his allies were mentioned by name." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: Sorry, it's not a gutsy speech if you don't explicitly finger the perp, something Garland should have done years ago. Merrick the Unready remains unready. See Akhilleus's and Jeanne's commentary in yesterday's thread on Merrick's "fiery" speech.
Stephen Neukam of Axios: "Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) has given Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a potentially easier path to helping President Biden beat former President Trump's record on judicial nominees.... Manchin backtracked Thursday on a March promise to vote 'no' on any purely partisan nominees. That's a huge win for Schumer, who was previously looking to capitalize on GOP absences or rely on Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties. In a surprise, Manchin voted to advance the nomination of Kevin Ritz for the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, even though it picked up no Republican support. One lingering question: Manchin's team didn't say whether he'd abide by that standard in the future."
Niraj Chokshi of the New York Times: "Thousands of Boeing workers walked off the job on Friday after rejecting a contract offer from the company, a potentially costly disruption as Boeing tries to increase airplane production after a safety crisis. The strike, the first at Boeing in 16 years, is expected to bring operations to a halt in the Seattle area, home to most of Boeing's commercial plane manufacturing. The slowdown could also further disrupt the company's fragile supply chain."
Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: "Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul whose conviction for sex crimes in New York was overturned in April, is facing a new indictment, Manhattan prosecutors said in a hearing on Thursday. Mr. Weinstein, 72, was not in court on Thursday morning. He was still in Bellevue Hospital after being rushed from the Rikers Island jail complex for emergency heart surgery on Monday morning, according to jail records. The new indictment is still sealed and awaiting Mr. Weinstein's recovery so he can be arraigned, prosecutors said." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Molly Hennessy-Fiske, et al., of the Washington Post: "An unprecedented number of abortion initiatives are on state ballots this November, nearly all seeking to protect reproductive rights, but opponents are trying to defeat them even before the start of voting through legal challenges, administrative maneuvers and, critics say, outright intimidation. In Missouri, the Republican secretary of state pulled an abortion rights measure from the November ballot until the state's highest court ordered him to include it. In Florida, the governor's election police arrived at voters' front doors to question them about signing a petition for an abortion referendum -- encounters that one man said 'left me shaken.' And in Arizona, the state's Supreme Court allowed government pamphlets on the proposed constitutional amendment there to describe a fetus as an 'unborn human being.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
More Voter Suppression. Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: A GOP lawsuit to reject mail-in ballots with minor errors "is part of a nationwide legal campaign that the GOP has waged since 2020 to reject mail-in ballots. Republicans say the litigation is aimed at enforcement of election law, down to the letter. But critics see a strategy that has nothing to do with election integrity and everything to do with disqualifying voters who cast ballots by mail, an overwhelming majority of whom support Democrats.... Republicans have engaged in similar legal battles to throw out mail-in ballots over technical reasons in other states, including those, like Pennsylvania, considered crucial to the outcome of the presidential vote." The article cites efforts in Wisconsin, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan and Nevada. (Also linked yesterday.)
New York. Maria Cramer, et al., of the New York Times: "Edward A. Caban, the New York City police commissioner, announced his resignation in an email to the Police Department on Thursday, eight days after federal agents seized his phone as part of a criminal investigation. Commissioner Caban, 57, had been under pressure to resign from Mayor Eric Adams's administration, which had asked him to step aside on Monday, according to two people with knowledge of the matter." (Also linked yesterday.)
North Dakota. Kate Zernike of the New York Times: "A North Dakota judge overturned the state's near-total abortion ban on Thursday, saying that the State Constitution protected a woman's right to abortion until the fetus was viable. 'The North Dakota Constitution guarantees each individual, including women, the fundamental right to make medical judgments affecting his or her bodily integrity, health and autonomy, in consultation with a chosen health care provider free from government interference,' wrote Judge Bruce Romanick of the district court in Burleigh County. The judge, who was elected to his position, also ruled that the law violated the State Constitution's due process protections because it was too vague in how it defined exceptions to the ban. The North Dakota attorney general has vowed to appeal the decision. And while the judge's order means that abortion will become legal soon, the procedure will remain largely unavailable because the only clinic in the state has moved to Minnesota, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights, which brought the suit in 2022 on behalf of that clinic." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Condemnation of a deadly Israeli strike on a school turned shelter in central Gaza mounted on Thursday, as Israel said that the complex crowded with people driven from their homes had become a headquarters for militants. The site, once known as Al-Jaouni School, had been home to around 12,000 displaced people from the Gaza Strip, mainly women and children, according to the United Nations, which operated the school. Israel has struck the compound five separate times since the war began last October, it said. The Palestinian authorities said the Israeli strike on Wednesday killed 18 Gazans. Among them were six U.N. employees, including the shelter's manager, the most U.N. employees to die in a single strike in Gaza since the war began, the organization said." (Also linked yesterday.)
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