The Conversation -- January 17, 2024
Donnie Behaves Badly in Court. So Does His Lawyer. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: As journalist E. Jeanne Carroll testified during her second defamation case against Donald Trump, "Mr. Trump repeatedly shook his head and exhaled loudly, appearing to scoff as Ms. Carroll testified.... Mr. Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, interrupted Ms. Carroll's testimony several times with objections that were frequently overruled by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan.... Mr. Trump was expressive throughout the morning, showing impatience and anger as Ms. Habba and Judge Kaplan sparred, particularly over the judge's refusal to adjourn the trial on Thursday for the funeral of Mr. Trump's mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs.... (Mr. Trump attended jury selection on Tuesday but missed opening statements after, when he left for a rally in New Hampshire.) Mr. Trump slammed the defense table when the judge announced his decision. 'Man,' he said, then whispered angrily to Ms. Habba. Ms. Carroll's lawyer, Shawn Crowley, told Judge Kaplan that Mr. Trump was making audible statements from the defense table intended to undermine the testimony. She said she heard Mr. Trump mutter 'she has gotten her memory back' during Ms. Carroll's testimony." ~~~
~~~ Update. Ben Feuerherd of the Messenger: "The federal judge presiding over Donald Trump's defamation trial on Wednesday warned the former president that he has the right to throw him out of the courtroom if he continues making audible statements during the proceedings. 'Mr. Trump has the right to be present here. That right can be forfeited and it can be forfeited if he is disruptive,' U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan told the former president before the trial broke for lunch Wednesday. 'Mr. Trump, I hope I don't have to consider excluding you from the trial. I understand you are probably very eager for me to do that,' Kaplan said. 'I would love it. I would love it,' Trump responded and waved his hands. 'I know you would because you just can't control yourself in this circumstance,' Kaplan responded. 'You can't either,' Trump responded."
Judd Legum of Popular Information has more on David Smith, who purchased the Baltimore Sun, and whom Legum describes as "a wealthy conservative businessman with a history of using local media outlets to push an ideological agenda."
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished. Guardian: "Arnold Schwarzenegger was briefly detained by customs officers at Munich airport on Wednesday after allegedly failing to declare a €26,000 (£22,000) Audemars Piguet watch the Terminator star was planning to sell at an auction in aid of his climate crisis charity.... Schwarzenegger was taken aside by officers who searched his luggage and found the watch, which the actor had allegedly not declared on his arrivals customs form. A spokesperson for the main customs office in Munich said: 'We have initiated criminal tax proceedings. The watch should have been registered because it is an import.' Schwarzenegger said he tried to tell officials that the watch was being donated to his Schwarzenegger Climate Initiative, and is due to be auctioned off at an event in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel on Thursday night.... Officials charged Schwarzenegger €35,000, including €4,000 in tax and a €5,000 penalty, according to Bild. The actor is said to have offered to pay the charge with his credit card, but German customs rules require half of the charge to be paid in cash. Customs officials are said to have accompanied Schwarzenegger to a bank to withdraw cash, before he was allowed to continue his journey."
U.K. Mark Landler of the New York Times: "Two of the most senior members of Britain's royal family have been hit by health concerns, with Catherine, the Princess of Wales and the wife of Prince William, undergoing abdominal surgery in London on Tuesday, while King Charles III will receive treatment for an enlarged prostate next week. Catherine will be hospitalized for 10 to 14 days, according to the couple's office in Kensington Palace, and will convalesce for two to three months after that. The king's recovery is expected to be swifter, according to Buckingham Palace, which described his treatment as a 'corrective procedure' for a common, benign condition. Kensington Palace did not offer details on Catherine's diagnosis or prognosis, other than to say that the surgery had been planned and was successful, and that her condition was 'not cancerous.'"
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Erica Green & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden invited congressional leaders to a meeting at the White House on Wednesday to discuss his funding request for Ukraine, Israel and the border, which has been stalled for weeks on Capitol Hill. Mr. Biden's request for the $110.5 billion package has been held up by Republicans who are demanding a new crackdown at the border in exchange for their votes."
Kayla Guo of the New York Times: "Top Democrats and Republicans in Congress on Tuesday released a $78 billion compromise they have reached to expand the child tax credit and restore three popular expired business tax breaks, but the package faces a challenging road to enactment in an election year." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "The Senate on Tuesday took the first step in advancing a stopgap spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the week, buying time to enact a broader bipartisan funding agreement for the remainder of the year. By a 68-to-13 vote, senators voted to take up the legislation, which would temporarily extend funding for some federal agencies until March 1 and for others through March 8. It would keep spending levels flat...."
Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "The Senate voted on Tuesday night to table a resolution [introduced by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)] that would require the Department of State to produce a report about Israel's actions in Gaza since launching its military campaign in the territory. Its aim would have been to determine whether Israel has committed human rights violations.... The final vote tally was 72 to 11. Seventeen senators did not vote, as many of them experienced flight delays traveling back to Washington, D.C."
"The Incredible Shrinking Majority." Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "Day by day, thanks to a combination of coincidence, scandal, health issues and political turmoil, the G.O.P. majority [in the House] keeps getting smaller. This week, with lawmakers absent for medical reasons and the recent not-so-voluntary departures of the ousted former speaker Kevin McCarthy and the expelled [George] Santos, the best G.O.P. attendance that Speaker Mike Johnson can muster as he tries to avoid a government shutdown is the bare-minimum 218 votes. That is before factoring in the impact of rough winter weather across the nation. Another Republican, Representative Bill Johnson[*] of Ohio, is resigning as of Sunday to take a job as a university president, lowering the number to 217 if Representative Harold Rogers of Kentucky, the 86-year-old dean of the House, is unable to quickly return from recuperating from a car accident. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 Republican, is out until at least next month while undergoing cancer treatment. As a result, the G.O.P. could soon be able to afford just a single defection on any matter if Democrats remain united and have no absences of their own." ~~~
~~~ Fer Instance. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "When she arrived in Congress last year, Representative Anna Paulina Luna, a hard-right Republican from Florida, joined the rest of her party in staunchly opposing proxy voting, a practice adopted by House Democrats to allow for remote legislating during the pandemic. Then, in August, she gave birth to her first child and her perspective changed. Now, Ms. Luna is pressing to allow new mothers in Congress to stay away from Washington immediately after giving birth and designate a colleague to cast votes on the House floor on their behalf. Given Republicans' deep opposition to proxy voting, the bill Ms. Luna plans to introduce on Tuesday to make the change faces long odds to even be given a floor vote. But it raises a novel issue for a male-dominated institution where the average age is nearly 58 -- a place that is largely exempt from workplace laws and is still behind in bringing some of its arcane practices in line with modern expectations." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Luna's change of heart is not only an example of how likely it is that some House Republicans will break ranks in upcoming votes; it is also a perfect case of Republican's notion of "empathy": they favor liberal (or just plain humane or sensible) policies only when those policies affect them personally. Luna was horrified by the very idea of proxy voting -- till she herself had a health need to vote by proxy. They are selfish people, those Republicans. ~~~
~~~ * BTW, many Youngstown State students, faculty & alumni are not happy with the trustees' selection of election-denying Trumpist Bill Johnson to be the university's president.
The Trials of Trump & the Trump Mob
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Lawyers for ... Donald J. Trump said in court papers filed on Tuesday night that they intended to place accusations that the intelligence community was biased against Mr. Trump at the heart of their defense against charges accusing him of illegally holding onto dozens of highly sensitive classified documents after he left office. The lawyers also indicated that they were planning to defend Mr. Trump by seeking to prove that the investigation of the case was 'politically motivated and biased.'... While the 68-page filing was formally a request by Mr. Trump's lawyers to the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith, to provide them with reams of additional information that they believe can help them fight the charges, it often read more like a list of political talking points than a brief of legal arguments.... Many of the requests in Mr. Trump's filing appeared intended to paint Mr. Trump as the victim of the spy agencies that once served him and of purported collusion between the Biden administration...." ~~~
~~~ Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Donald Trump's legal team is asking for access to Biden-era White House records, including from the National Security Council and the White House Counsel's Office, as he attempts to build a defense against charges he mishandled more than 30 sensitive national security records after he left the presidency. If the judge allows it, Trump's team would be aiming for sweeping access to core advisers around President Joe Biden and their communications, at a time when investigators were looking at Trump's cavalier approach to state secrets and demands by the federal government to return documents he kept." ~~~
~~~ Eric Tucker of the AP: The motion "offers a blend of legal analysis and political bombast that has come to be expected in Trump team motions. For instance, it references Trump's record victory this week in the Iowa caucuses and decries the charges as 'partisan election interference.'... Despite Trump's repeated claims, there is no evidence of any coordination between the Justice Department and the White House.... Defense lawyers said in their motion that they intend to dispute allegations that 'Mar-a-Lago was not secure and that there was a risk that materials stored at those premises could be compromised.'... Trump's lawyers also referenced what they said was an Energy Department action in June, after the charges were filed, to 'retroactively terminate' a security clearance for the former president." ~~~
~~~ Steve Reilly & Darren Samuelsohn of the Messenger: "Owing partially to the nature of the criminal case which centers on classified and sensitive government documents, much of the evidence the former president's legal team references remains hidden from public view. The Trump filing is pockmarked with blacked-out redactions, and references court filings or proceedings that haven't been put on the public record.... [Joyce] Vance, on Tuesday, said [on MSNBC] the new filings pertaining to classified discovery could present [Judge Aileen] Cannon with 'the opportunity to delay things even further' as the case moves toward its scheduled trial date." Includes copy of the motion. ~~~
~~~ Bradley Moss & Andrew Weissmann, appearing on MSNBC, characterized the filing as largely bonkers but agreed it could serve to delay the trial -- because Judge Aileen Cannon. Weissmann said the appeals court would likely overrule any efforts Cannon might make to acquiesce to the motion's demands. Moss was incensed by the allegation that the Energy Department had "retroactively terminated" Trump's security clearance inasmuch as Trump never even had a security clearance; a POTUS (or POTUS*) automatically has access to all government documents during his time in office, and no agency grants him a clearance.
Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "A federal appeals court said Tuesday it won't re-hear a case concerning executive privilege and Twitter after special counsel investigators in the 2020 election interference case were allowed to access data from Donald Trump's account without telling him. The case has centered around questions about protection of communication around the presidency, and if Trump should have been informed when the special counsel's office got court approval for a search warrant for his Twitter data. Ultimately, the courts decided federal investigators could access Trump's account for its criminal probe, and Twitter could be forced to keep the search secret from Trump. Both a trial-level judge and a three-judge panel in the Washington, DC, appeals court agreed that disclosing the Twitter search to Trump or his representatives could hurt the grand jury investigation. Eleven judges of the DC Circuit declined to look at the case again on Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ But the Trumpy Judges Are Outraged. Marisa Sarnoff of Law & Crime: "But four judges -- Trump appointees Neomi Rao, Gregory G. Katsas, and Justin R. Walker, along with George H.W. Bush appointee Karen LeCraft Henderson -- disagreed with the majority's decision, largely on executive privilege grounds.... 'The district court and this court permitted this arrangement without any consideration of the consequential executive privilege issues raised by this unprecedented search. We should not have endorsed this gambit.' Rao [-- who wrote the opinion, which the three other judges joined --] noted that [in her decision on the warrant, U.S. District Judge Beryl] Howell failed to recognize that Trump's Twitter file was 'presumptively privileged,' and that she should have allowed the former president to assert an executive privilege claim over the material.... Trump himself, however, did not assert such a claim when he learned of the search warrant.... Rao said that because Trump 'used his Twitter account to conduct official business,' the contents of that account could have contained privileged material -- a possibility 'vigorously maintained' by [Elon] Musk's company." ~~~
~~~ Andrew Weissmann, speaking on MSNBC, found the Rao's speculation about the substance of the tweets to be, well, out of order. It is not the job of an appellate judge to be a finder-of-fact, much less to try to guess what the facts might be, absent evidence in the record.
Kyle Cheney & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "Donald Trump has injected himself into disbarment proceedings against former Justice Department ally Jeff Clark, raising the specter that the former president will attempt to assert executive privilege to block crucial testimony from senior administration officials -- or force months of litigation on the matter. In a letter to Clark dated Jan. 12, Trump attorney Todd Blanche urged Clark to ensure that neither he nor other witnesses talk about confidential conversations they had while Trump was in office. Those conversations, Blanche said, could be covered by 'Trump's executive privilege and other related privileges, including law enforcement privilege, attorney client privilege, and deliberative process privilege.'... In his new letter, [Trump lawyer Todd] Blanche ... said [Trump] reserves the right to 'intervene in any litigation involving these privileges.'"
Benjamin Weiser, et al., of the New York Times: summarize the first day in the second courtroom trial of E. Jeanne Carroll's v. Donald Trump. Trump has already been found liable in a previous trial, and this trial is to determine more damages. "Shawn G. Crowley, one of Ms. Carroll's lawyers, told the jury in an opening statement that 'speaking from the White House, Donald Trump used the most famous platform on earth to lie about what he had done, to attack Ms. Carroll's hard-earned integrity and to falsely accuse her of inventing a terrible lie.' Ms. Crowley said Mr. Trump had persisted in his attacks even as his supporters deluged Ms. Carroll with cruel insults about her looks and threats to her life. He continued to brand her a liar even after last year's trial in which he was found liable for abusing her, all the way through this week. Ms. Crowley noted that over the course of Tuesday, he posted more lies about Ms. Carroll -- by last count 22 social media posts, she said." A CNBC story is here. ~~~
~~~ Chutzpah. Lawrence O'Donnell said that Trump was sending defamatory social media posts about Carroll while he was sitting in the courtroom.
Alan Feuer & Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "The Capitol Police and the F.B.I. are investigating remarks reported to have been made by Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime Republican operative and informal adviser to ... Donald J. Trump, in which he expressed a desire for the deaths of two Democratic lawmakers in the weeks before the 2020 election.... The investigation into Mr. Stone was opened shortly after the website Mediaite released an audio recording in which someone sounding like him can be heard discussing Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York and Representative Eric Swalwell of California, who are among Mr. Trump's most vocal congressional critics. 'It's time to do it,' the speaker can be heard saying. 'Let's go find Swalwell. It's time to do it. Then we'll see how brave the rest of them are.... It's either Swalwell or Nadler has to die before the election. They need to get the message.' An article by Mediaite accompanying the recording claimed that Mr. Stone made the remarks to an associate, Salvatore Greco, a former New York City policeman, at a restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. But the recording itself does not make clear whom the speaker was addressing." CNN's story is here.
A Secret Ambulance for a Secret Emergency Hospitalization. Caryn Littler, et al., of NBC News: "A 911 caller seeking an ambulance for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Jan. 1 asked the dispatcher to have first responders arrive on the scene in a discreet manner before transporting Austin to a military hospital. 'Can the ambulance not show up with lights and sirens? We're trying to remain a little subtle,' said the caller, whose identity was redacted, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News through a Virginia Freedom of Information request."
** Very Fishy. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court will hear arguments on Wednesday over whether to overturn a key precedent, one that has empowered executive agencies and frustrated business groups hostile to government regulation. The court, which has in recent years rejected precedents on abortion and affirmative action and struck down regulations addressing climate change, student loans and coronavirus vaccines, will consider the fate of a foundational doctrine of administrative law called Chevron deference. The doctrine takes its name from a 1984 decision, Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the most cited cases in American law. Discarding it could threaten regulations in countless areas, including the environment, health care, consumer safety, nuclear energy and government benefit programs. It would also transfer power from agencies to Congress and the courts.... Under Chevron, judges must defer to agencies' reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes....
The cases the justices will consider were brought on behalf of two sets of fishermen, one in New Jersey and the other in Rhode Island. They objected to a maritime agency's interpretation of a 1976 law that requires them to carry observers to gather data to prevent overfishing.... Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is recused from the New Jersey case, Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, No. 22-451, having participated in it as a federal appeals court judge. In an unusual move, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a nearly identical case from Rhode Island.... That may have been a sign that the court wanted to have nine members in place as it considers whether to overturn a major precedent.... The fishermen are represented by two conservative groups, Cause of Action Institute and the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Both have financial ties to the network of foundations and advocacy organizations funded by Charles Koch...."
Presidential Race
Nikki Brushes off Ron. Neil Vigdor & Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "ABC News canceled a Republican presidential debate scheduled for Thursday in New Hampshire, after Ron DeSantis was the only candidate who had agreed to participate. Hours earlier, Nikki Haley said she would not participate in future debates unless either Donald J. Trump or President Biden also participated, after a lower-than-expected result placing third in the Iowa caucuses. Ms. Haley's statement also cast uncertainty over another upcoming Republican debate in New Hampshire, hosted by CNN and scheduled for Sunday."
Andrew Demillo of the AP: "Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson dropped his long-shot bid for the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday, ending a candidacy that was a throwback to an earlier era of the GOP but ultimately failed to resonate in a party now dominated by Donald Trump. Hutchinson's exit came a day after he finished sixth in Iowa's leadoff caucuses, well behind Trump and other top rivals but also behind Ryan Binkley, a pastor who failed to qualify for any of the debates. Hutchinson was the last GOP candidate remaining in the race who was willing to directly take on Trump."
Eva Surovell of the Messenger: "The Lincoln Project, a Republican anti-Trump political advocacy group, on Tuesday released a new ad comparing ... Donald Trump to dictators past and present. Titled 'God Made a Dictator,' the minute-long ad shows images of dictators, including Adolf Hitler and North Korean leader Kim Jung Un, as well as videos and still images of the former president." MB: Oddly, Surovell doesn't mentioned that the Lincoln Project ad is a parody of a video Trump recently promoted on his social media site. The fan-made video claimed God chose Trump to lead the country. "And on June 14, 1946, God looked down on his planned paradise and said, 'I need a caretaker.' So God gave us Trump," the voiceover on video begins. ~~~
Forrest M. points to this democratic underground entry, where the writer calculates that Trump "won" the Iowa caucuses by grabbing 2.7% of registered Iowa voters. Woo-woo! Marie: I checked the writer's sources and arithmetic, and it all looks correct to me. Great way to pick a president*. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Moreover, this is a piss-poor showing for a candidate running more-or-less as an incumbent because, you know, he won the 2020 election -- at least according to nearly two-thirds of Iowa caucus-goers. (WashPo link.)
digby relies a good deal on McKay Coppins' Atlantic essay about his impression of a Trump rally he attended. Thanks to RAS for the link. MB: My own impression of watching a very few clips of recent Trump rallies is that he is listless, muted, boring and incoherent. Coppins does make the point that he has lost his supposed charisma and h is appeal to all but the most plugged-in MAGAts. (Also linked yesterday.)
AP: "A federal judge is siding with the Biden administration and blocking JetBlue Airways from buying Spirit Airlines, saying the $3.8 billion deal would reduce competition. The Justice Department sued to block the merger, saying it would drive up fares by eliminating Spirit, the nation's biggest low-cost airline.... U.S. District Judge William Young, who presided over a non-jury trial last year, said in the ruling Tuesday that the government had proven that the merger 'would substantially lessen competition' and violated a century-old antitrust law." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "A deal to transfer medicine to Israeli hostages in exchange for aid to civilians in Gaza is underway, according to an Israeli official speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue. The rare diplomatic breakthrough, brokered by Qatar and France, is expected to provide medicine to at least 45 hostages, while a Hamas official said the aid would include 140 types of medicine, delivered to four hospitals in Gaza.... The Biden administration on Wednesday is set to put Yemen's Houthi rebels back on a global terrorism list, after the United States launched an attack against the group in retaliation for Houthi strikes on commercial ships in the Red Sea." ~~~
~~~ The New York Times' live updates for Wednesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.
Eric Schmitt & Saeed Al-Batati of the New York Times: "The United States carried out a new military strike against Houthi ballistic missiles in Yemen on Tuesday, the U.S. military said, but the latest salvo against the Iran-backed group left the White House grappling with how to stop a battle-hardened foe from disrupting shipping lanes critical for global trade. The strikes on Tuesday, the third overall against the group since a U.S.-led air and naval barrage hit dozens of targets last week, destroyed four missiles that the Pentagon's Central Command said posed an imminent threat to merchant vessels and Navy ships traveling through the Red Sea and nearby waters. But the pre-emptive American strike also came on the third day in a row the Houthis have defied the Biden administration and its allies by firing missiles at passing ships, damaging a Greek-owned cargo vessel on Tuesday. The Houthis damaged a U.S.-owned commercial ship on Monday after attempting to hit an American warship the day before."
Justin Moyer of the Washington Post: "About 130 demonstrators were arrested Tuesday on Capitol Hill at a sit-in organized by a Mennonite group calling for a cease-fire in Gaza, police and protest organizers said. Video circulated on a social media by a group called Mennonite Action showed protesters being arrested in the Cannon House Office Building as they sang hymns or chanted 'Cease fire!' and 'Let Gaza live!'" Video shows the protesters sitting on the floor, being led in singing together by one man standing among them. MB: It seems kind of embarrassing to arrest these peaceful protesters, who entered the building legally.
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Reader Comments (21)
See the Lincoln Project's latest ad here
Re: defamation trial.
It sure seems Donald just can't help himself, so best of luck to Ms. Carroll getting a few more bucks from the wealthy genius.
I wonder if she can get yet another trial out of yesterdays social torrent about previously adjudicated nonsense, or if that ammunition just piles onto the current one and pushes damages higher.
It really is too bad the maga voters just keep on, because he really deserves to retire. Preferably someplace called club fed.
One can hope, but really, what would it take to put this clown away?
https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7e5xm/democrats-propose-bill-to-
neuter-militias
The "Preventing Private Paramilitary Act" is beind introduced by Sen.
Markey of Mass. and Congressman Raskin of Md., both Democrats.
"Paramilitary groups such as Proud Boys and Oath Keepers pose a
serious threat to democracy and the rule of law" said Sen. Markey.
They'll probably reference the 2nd Amendment about "a well regulated
militia". Regulated by whom?
I'll have to admit, when I read the headline, I thought it was a medical
procedure, neutering militias.
@Forrest Morris: Hmm, neutering militias. Sounds like a good idea. Your misapprehension should be an added clause to the proposed legislation. I will volunteer to be an OR nurse for the procedures. I don't know anything about nursing or surgery, but why should that matter? It's my enthusiasm that counts.
The Pretender's slim victory margin in Iowa says a lot. Not only did his win reflect a small percentage of Iowa R's, but according to reports, his victory was forged in the rural areas of the state where patriarchal Evangelicalism is rife.
It's the Right's bent toward patriarchy that has always made the least sense to me, and the case before the Supremes about the fishermen objecting to the government looking directly over their shoulders brings the inherent contradictions of their attitude toward government to the foreground.
Here we have a bunch of men who want the right to tell everyone what to do. They even support a blowhard who repeatedly tells the world that he wants the position and power to tell everyone what to do.
Yet they object, even hate, anyone telling them how to behave, it's no stretch to see their war against the Deep State as a fight against a Daddy they don't like.
They like patriarchy, just not the one that tells them how many fish to catch...or how much they can pollute.
There goes my dinner plans for Friday. The guests are stuck in
Chicago with their EV (Tesla). It seems batteries aren't charging due
to the extreme cold and wind chill.
Who knew?
Here's my chance for a new business: heating pads for EV batteries.
But, but...
Iowa is The Donald's favorite state -- he can spell it. That and Ohio.
Melania's favorite state is I da Ho. She thinks it was named for her.
Johnson's majority gets slimmer
"Tom Keen flips HD 35 from red to blue in critical Special Election
Aerospace entrepreneur Tom Keen is headed to the House after flipping a red seat blue.
The Orlando Democrat came out on top in a critical Special Election in House District 35, besting Republican Erika Booth."
Don't know much about Youngstown State but noticed that its retiring president James Tressel is a former Ohio State football coach.
Reminds me of the transition I think I noted here before. Back in the 1950's and 60's, high school principals were often former football coaches. That changed in the ensuing decades.
Say what you will for football coaches and the organizational skills and other talents they might have brought to the position, academic performance was generally not high on their list of interests.
As far as I know, though, whatever their weaknesses might have been, they were not election deniers.
@RAS: The Florida Politics story is kind of misleading. It never specifies that the house seat Keen flipped is in the Florida house, not in the U.S. House. I had to figure that out, and did so only because I had never heard there was a Congressional seat up for grabs.
@Ken Winkes: My tenth-grade history teacher was the school's basketball coach. He was quite a good coach.
@Marie: Thanks for the correction. I saw a number of headlines touting the win. I guess it shows how desperate democrats are for any good news that everyone is celebrating a state House flip in Florida.
In Florida it's a cause for celebration when a Democrat is eected to anything higher than a municipal or county office.
It's a complete reversal from the time I first registered to vote in January 1966.
Those State University boards in Ohio are really really good at trying to destroy the institutions they are supposed to be protecting. At the end of the '90s, the board at University of Toledo installed a president they thought they could control. He did his best to dismantle the institution and was sent back to his department in about 18 months. During his reign, there was talk of tracking down faculty members who were not "loyal to the institution" and firing them. Staff members with institutional knowledge were fired, and university-run services like computer labs were disbanded. Sub-colleges were told to set up their own computer labs, with no funding to make that happen.
@Bobby Lee: Yeah but in 1966 a lot of those Florida Democrats were Dixiecrats. Any who are still around are Republicans now.
MB: Can't argue with that at all. If anything, the switch from Right to farther right was a commentary on LBJs overly optimistic "We've just lost the South for a generation" statement.
and I don't see any change coming, at least for the better.
If I behaved like Donald Trump is doing in court, I'd probably be in
handcuffs with a duct taped mouth by now.
Why don't they do with him? Safer than a taser.
What are those mystery cuts on the donald's hand?
Could he be bleeding, maybe caused by something like syphilis?
Or maybe just touching up his make up with an orangish sharpie?
Maybe it's just catsup from those 12 hamburders he had for lunch.
https://www.meidastouch.com/news/mystery-cuts-on-trumps-hand-
spark-speculation-about-his-declining-health
He probably cut himself shaving his palm.
I'd bet that the razor slipped from his knuckles.
@Forrest Morris: Thanks. Those marks don't look like cuts to me. They look like some kind of puss-y (not pussy) lesions. It's very curious that the marks seem to have showed up overnight.
A lesion caused by an illness would likely have developed slowly and would have been somewhat visible the day before. But in a photo published of his New Hampshire visit yesterday, his hand appeared to be free of blisters or other sorts of lesions.
In the largest photo, you can see that there also appear to be smaller lesions on the side of the base of his forefinger.
Since I get all my general medical information from the Internets, I checked with them, and here's what I learned: "The most common causes of blisters on the hand include eczema, friction injury, irritation from chemicals or allergens, medication reaction, infections, burns, or diabetes." Or they could be "stress blisters." But I'll go with the suggestion that Trump has "hand, foot and mouth disease."
Thanks, Googles!