The Conversation -- June 5, 2024
** Georgia Court Halts Election Interference Case. Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The Georgia Court of Appeals on Wednesday stayed the criminal election interference case against ... Donald J. Trump until an appellate panel could resolve the matter of whether the district attorney in Fulton County should be disqualified from prosecuting the case based on a conflict of interest. In a one-page order, the court stated that any movement at the trial-court level pertaining to Mr. Trump and eight other defendants who have appealed a ruling allowing the prosecutor, Fani T. Willis, to remain on the case was 'stayed pending the outcome of these appeals.' Earlier this week, the appellate court set a tentative date for oral argument of Oct. 4. Legal experts expect the appeals will take months to resolve."
Nicholas Liu of Salon: "GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, placating Donald Trump and the right-wing of his caucus, appointed Scott Perry, R-Pa., and Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, to fill two open slots on the House Intelligence Committee, granting MAGA loyalists regular access to sensitive, highly classified government material. The selection of Perry, who is the target of a federal investigation over his and Trump's attempts to subvert the 2020 election, has set off alarms even among Republican politicians who see him as spoiled goods. Five anonymous lawmakers who opposed Perry's appointment told Politico that he was 'all but ineligible,' especially in light of the lawmaker's efforts to block the FBI from probing his phone records. The Intelligence Committee has oversight over the FBI.... In 2022, a Department of Defense investigation found that [Jackson] had gotten regularly drunk and abused subordinates during his service as rear admiral. Although the Navy demoted him to captain, Jackson continues to refer to himself as an admiral on his official bio." ~~~
~~~ Marie: These two jokers could not get security clear to be night watchmen at a landfill. They are walking national security risks who should never be given access to U.S. and our allies' secrets. Our intel agencies do require oversight. But the decision-makers inside those agencies likely are smart enough not to cooperate with subversives like Perry and Jackson.
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: Donald Trump's "lies about the F.B.I. being prepared to kill him during the search of Mar-a-Lago took his attacks on the justice system and the rule of law to another level.... According to court papers, there was little drama as they hauled away a trove of boxes containing highly sensitive state secrets in three vans and a rented Ryder box truck.... Even though the court-authorized warrant was executed while he was more than 1,000 miles away in the New York area, the former president in recent weeks has repeatedly promoted the blatantly false narrative that the agents had shown up that day prepared to kill him, when the instructions in fact laid out strict conditions intended to minimize any use of deadly force.... Mr. Trump's warped version of the Mar-a-Lago search has also triggered a new legal battle between his lawyers and prosecutors in the office of the special counsel, Jack Smith.... It remains unclear how Judge [Aileen] Cannon will rule on Mr. Smith's request [to rein in Mr. Trump]. In a prickly preliminary ruling, she temporarily rejected the move on procedural grounds last week. Mr. Smith then refiled his request to her after going through the necessary procedural steps. He repeated his assertion that Mr. Trump had lied and that 'the F.B.I. took extraordinary care to execute the search warrant unobtrusively and without needless confrontation.'... [Trump's] mischaracterizations provoked the ire of Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who rarely inserts himself into the cases filed by Mr. Smith...."
~~~ Good News! The New York Times lets on on its online front page that Donald Trump is liar.
More Good News! Akhilleus has come up with some more run-out-the-clock topics for hearings in Judge Aileen's court. See today's Comments.
New York Times reporters are liveblogging developments in Hunter Biden's criminal trial in Delaware. NBC News live updates are here. ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "For nearly four years, Republicans have delved into the darkest corners of Hunter Biden's life, seeking to tie his troubles to his father, President Biden. But as the younger Biden stands trial in Delaware on gun charges, the case's glaring political contradictions have rendered the G.O.P. largely mute, from ... Donald J. Trump on down.... The baseless claim that the Biden Justice Department is running a political persecution of Mr. Trump is somewhat undermined by the department's prosecution of the president's son. It is also hard to make much of allegations that Hunter Biden lied about his drug use to purchase a handgun when your party is sponsoring legislation to ease gun-purchasing restrictions for veterans struggling with mental illness, not to mention the case before the Supreme Court that could allow domestic abusers to buy firearms.
Justin Jouvenal of the Washington Post: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's "successive explanations -- in a statement, an interview with Fox News and letters to Congress -- have raised additional questions, and in some cases conflicted with known facts. Alito has yet to fully explain some key aspects of the controversy.... Here are the major discrepancies in Alito's telling and what he still has not fully answered."
Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed limits on the use of N-Methylpyrrolidone, a solvent in many products used by both consumers and workers, ranging from arts and crafts supplies to paint remover, that is linked to serious health effects. The chemical, also known as NMP, is used to make semiconductors and lithium ion batteries, and is also found in plastics, paints and consumer cleaning products. It has been found to cause miscarriages, reduced male fertility and damage to the liver, kidneys and immune and nervous systems. If finalized, the E.P.A.'s rule would ban some commercial uses of NMP, such as in automotive and cleaning products, and limit the concentration of NMP allowed in some consumer products, such as glue. It would also establish safeguards, including requirements for protective equipment, for workers exposed to NMP."
Christian Davenport of the Washington Post: "Boeing's Starliner spacecraft finally carried a pair of astronauts into orbit Wednesday, a key milestone in the company's troubled quest to provide NASA with a spacecraft capable of flying crews to the International Space Station. An Atlas V rocket, operated by the United Launch Alliance,a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, lifted off from its pad at 10:52 a.m., lighting up the sky of Florida's Space Coast in what was heralded as a triumphant beginning to a test of how the spacecraft operates with a crew on board."
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Tuesday Primary Results
The New York Times' liveblog of results is here. ~~~
Kellen Browning: "Tim Sheehy, a businessman and former Navy SEAL, won the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Montana on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting him up for a November showdown against Senator Jon Tester, the Democratic incumbent." [He's the fake gun wound guy.]
Browning: "Montana also has a semi-competitive House race. Representative Ryan Zinke, a Republican, and Monica Tranel, a Democrat, will officially face off in November in a rematch of their 2022 contest, which Zinke won by 3 percentage points. Zinke is the favorite again, and the race is considered 'likely Republican."
Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Representative Andy Kim, a lawmaker who has turned New Jersey politics on its head since entering the race to unseat Senator Robert Menendez, won the Democratic nomination for Senate on Tuesday after a campaign marked by a watershed ballot-access ruling. The victory makes Mr. Kim, 41, a favorite to become New Jersey's next senator.... The results, announced by The Associated Press minutes after polls closed, capped a tumultuous campaign that began a day after Senator [Bob] Menendez, a Democrat, was accused in September of being at the center of a sprawling international bribery scheme.... The senator did not compete for the Democratic nomination, but on Monday he ... [filed] to run for re-election in November as an independent. Voters said Tuesday that they were skeptical he had any political future at all.... The senator's criminal case thrust his son, Representative Rob Menendez, 38, into a suddenly competitive race for re-election to a second term. But the younger Menendez managed to hold on, winning a Democratic primary over Ravi Bhalla, the mayor of Hoboken, N.J., by a decisive margin."
Kelly Cho of the Washington Post: "Rep. Donald Payne Jr. (D) of New Jersey won the Democratic primary election in the state's 10th Congressional District on Tuesday -- more than a month after he suffered a fatal heart attack. Payne was running for reelection unopposed in the deep-blue district, but because the filing deadline to run in the primary had already passed by the time of his death, his name still appeared on the ballot. The party has not yet declared a new nominee, and his name had already been printed on mail-in ballots.... Last month, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy ordered a special primary to be held on July 16 and a special general election to be held on Sept. 18 to fill the remainder of Payne's unexpired term."
Cleve Wootson, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden arrives in France on Wednesday to join world leaders in commemorating the 80th anniversary of D-Day, an election-year visit where he plans to draw on the memory of allies united against tyranny to highlight the stakes of his campaign and draw a pointed comparison with Donald Trump. Biden will join more than two dozen heads of state descending on Normandy along with dozens of World War II veterans, some more than a century old. They will honor troops from the United States, Canada and Britain who landed in France on June 6, 1944, in an offensive that laid the groundwork for the defeat of the Nazis. Biden is also scheduled to deliver a speech on democracy and freedom on Friday, according to the White House, giving him an opportunity to put the struggle against authoritarianism in a global frame. A day later, he will meet President Emmanuel Macron for his first state visit to France as president."
Zolan Kanno-Youngs & Hamed Aleaziz of the New York Times: "President Biden issued an executive order on Tuesday that temporarily prevents migrants from seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border when crossings surge, seeking to ease pressure on the country's immigration system and address a major concern among voters. The dramatic election-year move is the most restrictive border policy instituted by Mr. Biden, or any other modern Democrat, and echoes an effort in 2018 by ... Donald J. Trump to cut off migration that was blocked in federal court." Related story by the same reporters linked earlier. The NBC News report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Michael Shear of the New York Times: "'The simple truth is, there is a worldwide migrant crisis,' [President] Biden said in remarks at the White House, 'and if the United States doesn't secure our border, there's no limit to the number of people who may try to come here.' Mr. Biden's announcement is a stunning reversal for a president and a party that spent years arguing that America was a country of immigrants.... Critics say Mr. Biden is adopting the tactics of [Donald] Trump and Stephen Miller, his immigration czar, to end asylum, even using the same clause in the Immigration and Nationality Act that Mr. Trump cited to justify a travel ban on Muslim countries.... The president correctly notes that he has ruled out some of his predecessor's extreme policies, such as separating children from their parents at the border.... But the politics of immigration have shifted as record numbers of migrants have crossed into border communities and spread to cities far beyond. Mr. Biden has adjusted accordingly." ~~~
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said Tuesday it planned to sue the Biden administration over a newly unveiled policy that will restrict asylum claims at the southern border.... 'This action takes the same approach as the Trump administration's asylum ban. We will be challenging this order in court,' [the ACLU said on X]."
More Performative Outrage. These Are Not Serious People. Marianna Sotomayor & Liz Goodwin of the Washington Post: Donald Trump's "staunchest supporters are focusing on what they allege is a weaponized justice system by ramping up House investigations and stalling regular business in the Democratic-led Senate. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) broadly outlined a 'three-pronged approach' Tuesday during a weekly conference meeting on how the Republican majority can target the Justice Department, New York and other jurisdictions for investigating Trump -- vowing to use House oversight powers while cutting funds in the government appropriations process and taking other unspecified legislative measures.... Across the Capitol, a faction of 11 conservative senators led by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) pledged to slow down Senate business by voting against all of Biden's judicial and political nominees and refusing to speed up consideration of any 'Democrat legislation.'" Oh, and Miss Margie has decided to bring another impeachment resolution against President Biden.
Garland Finds His Inner Anger Translator. Glenn Thrush & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, facing the prospect of a contempt vote in Congress, lashed out at House Republicans on Tuesday, accusing his critics of seeking to undermine the rule of law, peddling 'conspiracy theories' and spreading falsehoods. The usually mild-mannered Mr. Garland pushed back against the false accusation that the Justice Department was somehow behind the prosecution and subsequent conviction of ... Donald J. Trump on 34 felony counts.... The case was brought by Alvin L. Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, who as a local prosecutor is not under the control of Mr. Biden or his administration. 'That conspiracy theory is an attack on the judicial process itself,' Mr. Garland said in an opening statement to the House Judiciary Committee.... Mr. Garland told Republicans that [their attacks] were feeding 'heinous' threats against individual career agents and prosecutors. 'These attacks have not, and they will not, influence our decision making,' he said." The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Jack Forrest of CNN: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said he sees a direct link between the rise in death threats made against him and his family and public figures connecting him to Covid-19 conspiracy theories, which he noted happened earlier Monday during a contentious House hearing about the government's response to the pandemic.... '... When you have performances like that unusual performance by Marjorie Taylor Greene in today's [Monday's] hearing, those are the kinds of things that drive up the death threats because there are a segment of the population out there that believe that kind of nonsense,' Fauci said." (Also linked yesterday.)
Jim Comer Imported Weed from China. M.L. Nestel of the Raw Story: "A hemp deal that Rep. James Comer (R-KY) could hail as a win for Kentucky ended in a swiftly buried Chinese pot bust, according to a new report. The Daily Beast Tuesday revealed a sweeping expose about the House Oversight Committee chair -- known for lobbing accusations against President Joe Biden's son Hunter over ties to a Chinese energy company -- and his snafus importing Chinese hemp while running for the governorship of his state. Citing emails pulled from official state documents, the Daily Beast reveals the legal hemp Comer tried to import the country was 'essentially Chinese pot, containing illegally high levels of THC.'... Comer himself has lauded the hemp sourcing efforts when he attempted to sponsor 'Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2017.'..."
National Crime Blotter
Jonah Bromwich & Michael Gold of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trumps lawyers on Tuesday asked the judge who oversaw the former president's criminal trial to lift a gag order on their client as the presidential campaign intensifies. The lawyers said in a letter to the judge, Juan M. Merchan, that the end of the trial on Thursday nullified the need for the gag order, which bars the former president from attacking witnesses, the jury and others involved in the case.... During the seven-week trial, the judge found that Mr. Trump had violated the order 10 times, attacking jurors -- who the former president said were 'mostly all Democrat' -- and witnesses.... In an interview that aired Monday on ... a Fox News podcast, Mr. Trump also criticized the makeup of the jury, saying the jurors were 'you know, from a certain persuasion.'..."
Trump Travel Ban. Kyler Alvord of People: "Thirty-eight nations, counting the United States, bar felons from entry, according to World Population Review. Those bans stand regardless of whether someone is allowed to retain their passport after conviction. Countries that turn felons away include several of the United States' strongest allies, like the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada -- the final of which will host the G7 summit of world leaders in 2025. The list also includes a number of nations at the center of pressing foreign policy issues, such as China, Israel and Mexico.... George W. Bush, who was arrested for drunk driving in the 1970s, ran into issues with Canadian travel restrictions during his presidency while planning an official state visit and, after applying for a special waiver, he was ultimately allowed to enter.... crime happened decades [before he became president], was only categorized as a misdemeanor and was never tried in a court of law...."
Ian Millhiser of Vox: "On Sunday, Trump wrote on Truth Social ... that the Supreme Court 'MUST' intervene after a New York jury found him guilty of 34 counts of falsifying business records.... He appeared to float two separate theories that could justify tossing out his conviction: that the judge was impermissibly biased and that the prosecutor was out to get Trump.... It's hard to imagine a legitimate reason why the Supreme Court might get involved in Trump's New York case.... [But t]he Roberts Court also has a history of embracing legal arguments that were widely viewed as risible by the legal community after those arguments were adopted by the Republican Party. So, with a wide range of elected Republicans now calling for Trump's conviction to be tossed out, there is a real risk that the GOP-appointed justices will leap on this bandwagon." Millhiser examines the possibilities. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his remarks in yesterday's thread.
** Judge Aileen Keeps on Keepin' On. Dan Berman & Katelyn Polantz of CNN: "Judge Aileen Cannon is planning on holding a sprawling hearing on Donald Trump's request to declare Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel invalid, signaling the judge could be more willing than any other trial judge to veto the special prosecutor's authority. The planned hcearing also adds a new, unusual twist in the federal criminal national security case against the former president: Cannon on Tuesday said that a variety of political partisans and constitutional scholars not otherwise involved with the case can join in the oral arguments on June 21. It's an extraordinary elevation of arguments in a criminal case first filed a year ago this week that likely won't see trial until next year, if at all." MB: Cannon has scheduled a hearing in August on whether the temperature in the courtroom is suitable for a 77-year-old man of a certain girth, and another in September on whether or not the restrooms in the courthouse are of appropriate calibre to accommodate said gentleman. She is soliciting more ideas for frivolous hearings. Email her at JusticeAileen@TrumpMail.com.
Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Oral arguments in ... Donald Trump's appeal of a decision to allow an Atlanta area district attorney to continue prosecuting an election interference case against him is now scheduled for Oct. 4, virtually ensuring that a trial will not begin before the presidential election a month later. The Georgia Court of Appeals announced Monday that arguments would take place in October in the case. Trump and eight co-defendants are seeking to reverse the trial judge's decision to keep Fulton County District Attorney Fani T. Willis (D) and her office on the case despite their claims that she had engaged in an improper relationship with an outside attorney she had appointed to lead the investigation." (Also linked yesterday.)
Patrick Marley of the Washington Post: "Wisconsin's attorney general filed charges Tuesday against a former aide and two attorneys who advised ... Donald Trump over a meeting of Republicans claiming to be the state's 2020 presidential electors even though Trump had lost the state. The charges are the first in Wisconsin related to the meeting of electors. Prosecutors have separately charged Republicans who were involved in similar efforts in Arizona, Michigan, Nevada and Georgia. Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul (D) charged Trump campaign aide Michael Roman and attorneys Kenneth Chesebro and James Troupis with one felony count of forgery each, according to online court records. Copies of the criminal complaints were not immediately available." CNN's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
Stakeout at the Steakhouse. Benjamin Weiser & Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "The extraordinary scene of a U.S. senator under F.B.I. surveillance in an upscale restaurant, Morton's The Steakhouse, not far from the Capitol was detailed by [F.B.I. investigator Terrie] Williams-Thompson in testimony at [Sen. Bob] Menendez's [D-NJ] federal corruption trial in Manhattan.... Mr. Menendez[, his future wife Nadine] and his group ... also included an Egyptian government official.... Williams-Thompson testified that at one point, she overheard Ms. Menendez, referring to the senator, ask the group, 'What else can the love of my life do for you?'... Prosecutors also presented testimony Tuesday from Anna Frenzilli, an F.B.I. special agent who had executed a court-authorized search of a safe deposit box belonging to Ms. Menendez at a New Jersey bank. Inside the box, she testified, agents found 10 envelopes -- some with 'Nadine' written on them -- containing nearly $80,000 in cash and expired passports for her and her two children.... One of Mr. Menendez's lawyers, Avi Weitzman, seized on her testimony in an apparent attempt to distance the senator from his wife's financial dealings...."
It Depends on What the Meaning of "Is" Is. Glenn Thrush, et al., of the New York Times: "The first day of testimony in Hunter Biden's trial on gun-related charges kicked off Tuesday with the surreal sound of the defendant's own voice ringing through the courtroom, narrating his descent into drug addiction, when prosecutors played the audiobook of his memoir. It ended with bitter written words: the introduction of expletive-laced, panicked texts to Hallie Biden, his brother's widow and his onetime girlfriend, berating her for disposing of his handgun and warning, perhaps presciently, that it might set off a federal investigation. The government's case against President Biden's son ... is fairly straightforward: proving that Mr. Biden was abusing drugs when he filled out a federal firearms application claiming he was not an 'unlawful user' of controlled substances. Prosecutors stressed that point in their 15-minute opening statement before a packed courtroom that included Jill Biden, the first lady....
"Mr. Biden's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said he would disprove the government's core contention that Mr. Biden 'knowingly' broke the law by answering 'no' on a question asking applicants whether they were using drugs at the time they sought to purchase a gun. He implied that the present tense of the question about drug use -- the verb 'is' -- meant the government must prove Mr. Biden was getting high at the exact time he bought the gun.... The law, he said, was not intended to punish 'mistakes.'... After Mr. Biden bought the gun, he never loaded it, never removed it from its lock box in his truck and never used it during the 11 days he owned it, Mr. Lowell said." An AP story is here.
Presidential Race
Trump Envisions Leading a Banana Republic. Hannah Knowles of the Washington Post: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday criticized his conviction in New York and suggested that his political opponents might face similar prosecution.... Trump made the comments Tuesday night on the conservative network Newsmax.... 'I said, "Wouldn't it really be bad? ... wouldn't it be terrible to throw the president's wife and the former secretary of state '' think of it, the former secretary of state &-- but the president's wife into jail?"' Trump mused Tuesday.... 'But they want to do it,' Trump said, appearing to refer to his opponents. 'So, you know, it's a terrible, terrible path that they're leading us to, and it's very possible that it's going to have to happen to them.' 'It's a terrible precedent for our country,' he said of the New York case against him at another point in the interview. 'Does that mean the next president does it to them? That's really the question.'" The NBC News story is here.
Was on the 2024 GOP convention website and saw it used a background image that... does not look like Milwaukee. Which makes sense because it's actually a photo of Ho Chi Minh City. pic.twitter.com/EoC92NOTcd
— Sam Brodey (@sambrodey) June 4, 2024
~~~ Thanks to RAS for the link. Marie: This seemed so preposterous I checked for photos of the Ho Chi Minh City skyline, and sure enough, that's it. It appears the RNC has since removed the Scene from Vietnam from its main convention Webpage.
Are We Better Off Now Than We Were Four Years Ago? Let's Check. New York Times, June 4-5, 2020: "Mr. Trump's threat to use the 1807 Insurrection Act to send active-duty troops on American soil against protesters has laid bare the chasm in the national security community that was forming even when he ran for office in 2016. Back then it was only a limited group of 'Never Trumpers' -- establishment Republican national security professionals repelled by Mr. Trump's description of how American power should be wielded around the world -- who wrote and spoke of the dangers. He 'lacks the character, values and experience' to be president, they wrote, and 'would put at risk our country's national security.' This week, it was his former defense secretary [Jim Mattis], a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff [Adm. Mike Mullen] and a range of other retired senior officers who were saying in public what they previously said only in private: that the risk lies in the fact that the president regards the military, which historically has prized its nonpartisan, apolitical role in society, as just another political force to be massed to his advantage."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Oh, Why Can't We Get Better Journalists? Colby Hall of Mediaite: "President Joe Biden is ... starting to show signs of mental decline, according to a damning Wall Street Journal report that relies heavily on criticism from House Republicans. Published late Tuesday evening, the article's thesis is stated clearly in the headline, 'Behind Closed Doors, Biden Shows Signs of Slipping.'... The WSJ reporters and editors made a curious decision, however, in reporting for this piece in that they heavily relied -- almost exclusively, in fact -- on anonymous House Republican criticism."
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Michigan. Maria Paúl of the Washington Post: "Last week, Corey Harris became an internet meme after he attended a court hearing about his suspended license via Zoom while driving. The clip, featuring a befuddled judge and Harris sighing as he said, 'Oh, my God,' quickly went viral. But the case that made Harris famous online -- which was covered by The Washington Post, the New York Times, CNN and Fox News, among others -- is more complicated than it first appeared. As local ABC affiliate WXYZ first reported, the 44-year-old Michigander's license suspension, which was tied to a child-support case, had already been lifted by a judge in 2022, court records show." But Harris had not paid the fee that goes with reinstatement, and it isn't clear that he knew about the fee. MB: Whatta way to wreck a good story: with facts.
Texas. David Montgomery of the New York Times: "A Texas prosecutor said on Tuesday that he would seek to have a court overturn Gov. Greg Abbott's pardon of a man convicted of fatally shooting a Black Lives Matter protester in Austin in the summer of 2020. The Republican governor's pardon last month of the man, Daniel S. Perry, who had argued that he was acting in self-defense against an armed protester, was cheered by conservatives as a recognition of the state's 'stand your ground' protections. But it was also met with outrage by the protester's family, civil rights groups and José Garza, the Travis County district attorney whose office had secured the conviction. On Tuesday, Mr. Garza, a Democrat, said he would petition the state's highest criminal appeals court to overturn the pardon on the grounds that the governor had violated the constitutional separation of powers doctrine by intervening with a court's actions."
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
Alexander Ward of Politico: "There is 'every reason' for people in Israel to conclude their prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is prolonging the war against Hamas to stay in power, President Joe Biden said in a Time interview published Wednesday.... Asked whether Netanyahu wanted the war to continue for his own political self-preservation, Biden initially replied, 'I'm not going to comment on that.' But then he said: 'There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion.'... Biden also said that Israel made the 'mistake' of conducting a Gaza campaign in destructively similar ways to the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.... Those are among the harshest comments Biden has leveled at Netanyahu since Israel's retaliation for Hamas' Oct. 7 attack. The interview with Biden, conducted on May 28, days before he called on Israel and Hamas to broker a cease-fire, confirms the president no longer reserves his broadsides for private phone calls." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Sarah Dadouch, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Biden said he was 'uncertain' whether Israel was committing war crimes in Gaza, telling Time magazine in an interview published Tuesday that 'a lot of innocent people have been killed' and that Israel was investigating alleged war crimes itself."
Sheera Frenkel of the New York Times: "Israel organized and paid for an influence campaign last year targeting U.S. lawmakers and the American public with pro-Israel messaging..., according to officials involved in the effort and documents related to the operation. The covert campaign was commissioned by Israel's Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.... The ministry allocated about $2 million to the operation.... The campaign began in October and remains active on the platform X. At its peak, it used hundreds of fake accounts that posed as real Americans on X, Facebook and Instagram to post pro-Israel comments. The accounts focused on U.S. lawmakers, particularly ones who are Black and Democrats, such as Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader from New York, and Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia, with posts urging them to continue funding Israel's military."
Lebanon. Kareem Chehayeb of the AP: "A gunman was shot and captured by Lebanese soldiers after a shootout outside the U.S. Embassy outside Beirut on Wednesday morning, the military said.... The Lebanese military in a statement said that soldiers shot an assailant, who they only described as a Syrian national. The gunman was wounded and taken to a hospital. The shooter's motives were not clear. However, Lebanese media have published photos that appear to show a bloodied attacker wearing a black vest with the words 'Islamic State' written in Arabic and the English initials 'I' and 'S.'"
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Reader Comments (13)
Biden says the simple truth is that the migrant crisis is a worldwide crisis.
By saying it's simple, I suspect he was hoping to appeal to Republicans, who like things simple....
Think it will work?
Probably not. Because it's not just simple. It's real and true..
Mediaite
"On Wednesday morning’s edition of MSNBC’s Morning Joe, Scarborough, and co-host Mika Brzezinski went off on the piece [WSJ] and pointed out that the paper’s main source — McCarthy — had praised Biden in private and in public at the time of those meetings even as he tried to mock the president"
Trump human pocket veto, “Judge” Loose Cannon has a number of wicked serious hearing thingies planned with regard to special counsel Jack Smith. Even though the case involves the theft, retention, concealment, and refusal to return top secret documents related to National security, Cannon has other fishy things to fricassee.
Thus, rather than address the criminality of the Booster in Chief, she is intent on getting to the bottom of issues of great moment in Magastan.
First: why does Jack eat no fat? And does his wife eat no lean? Seriously? WTF!
Also, what did he do with the magic beans? Why is he hiding the beanstalk? Dinesh D’Souza has a planned seventeen hour documentary on why Jack killed the Giant (R).
Second: after he went up the hill to fetch that pail of water, did he really fall and break his crown, or is that a Democrat cover story? Gym Jordan will demand months of hearings. And that strumpet, Jill! Where is she? Subpoena! Impeach!
Third: Democrat flunkies are saying she doesn’t know jack. Of course she does! He’s making her look bad! Two years of hearings.
I’m sure there are further burning questions.
She’ll get to those presently. In a few years. Oh, the wheels of Justice grind slowly in Magastan. And if Fatty is the defendant…not at all.
Thus sayeth the Loose Cannon.
In short, tho' by far not so amusingly, Akhilleus, Cannon is doing all she can to make the case about Jack Smith and the prosecution, not about the alleged criminal who had all those boxes in his bathroom.
Guess she thinks any official attempting to bring to justice someone who steals public property is by definition practicing prosecutorial overreach.
Because in a Federalist's mind there is no such thing as public property?
" One Person One Price
Digital surveillance and customer isolation are individualizing the prices we pay.
Businesses have always wanted to maximize what they can induce people to pay, trying to walk right up to the limit before a customer says no. But everyone has a different pain point, and companies were deterred from purely individualizing what they charge, because of publicly posted prices and consumer anger over the unfairness of being charged differently for the same product.
Today, the fine-graining of data and the isolation of consumers has changed the game. The old idiom is that every man has his price. But that’s literally true now, much more than you know, and it’s certainly the plan for the future.
Corporate America has figured out that not everything should be on display. If they have their way, only their algorithms get to see the Credit Pole scores; only they know what goes into your personal price. Whether this becomes reality depends on whether policymakers open the backroom door, and reveal the whirlwind of activity going on inside."
Speaking of Loose Cannon, a recent piece in The NY Times proves once and for all that it’s not concerned with Both Sides. It’s only worried about protecting one side.
The headline in this piece about Cannon trumpets her as “PREPARED! Prickly! And slow.”
Right. Prepared? Okay, if by “prepared” you mean ready at a moment’s notice to drop everything to help a felon evade further consequences of his life dedicated to crimes that increase his power, his bank account l, and puff up his already elephantine ego, then I guess such a descriptor is accurate. But to everyone else it’s a puffing up of Cannon’s fantasy bona fides:
“If you read the actual piece, it contains one (1) example of judge Aileen Cannon being prepared—set against half a dozen where she was confused or mistaken. But the main thing the story makes clear is that practically everything Cannon does is to Donald Trump's benefit. The headline says nothing about this.
A more accurate hed would have been, "Inexperienced, Slow, and Always On Trump's Side." Why run the article at all if you're going to bury it under an innocuous and misleading headline?”
Why indeed? What’s next? “Freedom Fighter Donald Victimized by Judge “Look where he’s from”?
As to that, might as well call the Times what it’s become:
The “Republicans Daily Puff Piece Newsletter”
Or maybe “A.G.’s Helpful Nostrums for Fascists”
Ending the American Experiment
Authoritarians on the alert!!
Ya know how Fatty is always describing others in possessive terms, “My Kevin”, “My juror” (a yuuuge disappointment at the trial. No Marred a Lardo invite for him!), “My generals”?
This must be a dictatory sort of thing, cuz in Vladistan, formerly known as Russia, they refer to the Fat Fascist as “Our Donald”. I am nyet even kidding. And they are having a very big sadski:
“On Friday morning, Dmitry Kulikov, host of Solovyov Live, the self-described ‘most patriotic channel’ in Russia, said on-air, ‘They wronged our Donald Trump!’ Malek Dudakov, a political scientist who specializes in America, said that the hope for a miracle—meaning a hung jury—was extinguished. He said, with Russia’s affectionate middle name usage, ‘The miracle did not happen. Our Donald Fredovych was found guilty on all 34 counts.’ For that, Dudakov blamed the judge and the jury and baselessly claimed that all of them were prejudiced against Trump.”
Now he is felon. Waaahhhski!
Trumpskyev describes his guilty verdict as brought about by Joe Biden. His Russian America-hating pals say it was a lawsuit brought by Stormy Daniels.
Birdskis of a feather.
Judge Cannon appears to have joined the ranks of cosplay aficionado in scheduling those August hearings. Giving Trump a mini preview and a nudge for that SCOTUS appointment as a replacement for Thomas or Alito. Right age, gender helps, scenario ripe for Trumpesque exploitation and definitely the correct political mindset.
I note that Ken was kind and called Cokeblossom an "alleged criminal." He's indicted, he's a felon for sure, there are photos of the boxes and boxes of stolen documents in the bathroom and he has the potential to be incarcerated. How is that not beyond alleged?
And why would he be regarded in any way as "innocent," as he states? All I can figure is that as long as the media insists that he is somehow "normal," they go on trying to insert him into that description, no matter which outrage we have witnessed.
After poor Merrick got roasted, it didn't seem to have made much difference. Thanks, Merrick. Not only did you not respond strongly, but you may have made it all worse. Gaetz was a stinky mess. I only heard a clip, because that is all I can bear to see or hear that rancid oily piece of crap.
Politico
"Byron Donalds expresses nostalgia for the Jim Crow era, when ‘the Black family was together’
The Trump surrogate’s comments, made during a Black voter outreach event in Philadelphia, sparked outrage from Democrats.
Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) suggested that Black families were better off during an era of racial segregation in America than they are today under President Joe Biden.
“During Jim Crow the Black family was together,” Donalds said during a Black GOP outreach event in a gentrifying part of Philadelphia on Tuesday, when he was making the case that Black voters are increasingly open to conservatism thanks to its emphasis on family values. “During Jim Crow, more Black people were — not just conservative, because Black people always have always been conservative-minded — but more Black people voted conservatively.”"
Family values??? In what world are the GQP interested in families or children??? Or women??? Byron Donalds is a lying nitwit.
Do you see the hypocrisy of a felon convicted of paying a porn star over $100K hush money and trying to cook the books to pass it off as corporate expenses being the leader behind an attempt to disqualify a DA using an "inappropriate relationship" as the main offense?