The Conversation -- March 28, 2024
Amy Wang of the Washington Post: "A Georgia Republican official who pushed false claims that the 2020 election was 'stolen' was found to have voted illegally nine times, a judge ruled this week. Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, was ordered to pay a $5,000 fine, as well as investigative costs, and be publicly reprimanded. Pritchard had been sentenced in 1996 in Pennsylvania to three years' probation for felony check forgery charges. His probation was revoked three times -- once in 1999, after he moved to Georgia, and again in 2002 and 2004. In 2004, a judge imposed a new seven-year probationary sentence on Pritchard, thus making him ineligible to vote until at least 2011 in Georgia, where state law prohibits felons from voting. Despite that, court documents showed that Pritchard signed voter registration forms in 2008 in which he affirmed that he was 'not serving a sentence for having been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.' He then cast ballots in four Georgia primary and general elections in 2008, as well as five special, primary and general elections in 2010.... Pritchard is a conservative talk show host and the owner of fetchyournews.com, which he has described as a conservative political news site."
CNN is liveblogging a court hearing on Trump's effort to dismiss the Georgia election interference case. "In a hearing underway now, a judge is considering whether the Georgia election subversion case against Donald Trump should be dismissed on First Amendment grounds. Trump’s lead attorney in the case is arguing in court that the indictment should be thrown out because the former president's political speech is protected. Trump is not attending the hearing." Both CNN & MSNBC currently (10:15 am ET) are airing the hearing live. ~~~
~~~ Marie: As far as I can figure out the Trumpy argument, it goes like this: you and I and anybody can organize, manage & direct any sort of criminal plot -- be it a terrorist attack or murder or a bank heist -- and be adjudged completely innocent because we were just exercising our First Amendment free-speech rights.
Ken Sweet & Larry Neumeister of the AP: "Crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday to 25 years in prison for a massive fraud that unraveled with the collapse of FTX, once one of the world's most popular platforms for exchanging digital currency. Bankman-Fried, 32, was convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy -- a dramatic fall from a crest of success that included a Super Bowl advertisement and celebrity endorsements from stars like quarterback Tom Brady, basketball star Stephen Curry and comedian Larry David. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan imposed the sentence in the same Manhattan courtroom where, four months ago, Bankman-Fried testified that his intention had been to revolutionize the emerging cryptocurrency market with his innovative and altruistic ideas, not to steal."
Chris Hayes on the MAGA Tax, Trump's brilliant plan to make most consumer goods more expensive. Thanks to RAS for the lead:
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Michael Sisak of the AP: "Donald Trump lashed out Wednesday at the New York judge who put him under a gag order ahead of his April 15 hush-money criminal trial, making a fallacious claim about his daughter and urging him to step aside from the case. In a social media post, the former president suggested without evidence that Judge Juan M. Merchan was kowtowing to his daughter's interests as a Democratic political consultant. He also made a claim -- later repudiated by court officials -- that she had posted a social media photo showing Trump behind bars. Trump ... complained on his Truth Social platform that the gag order issued Tuesday was 'illegal, un-American, unConstitutional.'... In a statement, a spokesperson for New York's state court system said that claim was false and that the social media account Trump was referencing no longer belongs to Loren Merchan[, Merchan's daughter]. It appears to have been taken over by someone else after she deleted it about a year ago, court spokesperson Al Baker said." ~~~
~~~ Jesse McKinley & Ben Protess of the New York Times: "It is hardly the only online hoax that Mr. Trump has promoted over the years, but unleashing apparently false claims concerning the judge's daughter just weeks before the trial begins represents an escalation on his part. It came a day after Justice Merchan imposed a gag order on Mr. Trump, barring him from attacking witnesses, prosecutors, jurors and court staff. Notably, the judge and his family are not included in the gag order." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Well, Donald, this is my account. ~~~
Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "A judge in California recommended on Wednesday that the lawyer John Eastman be stripped of his law license, finding he had violated rules of professional ethics by persistently lying in his efforts to help ... Donald J. Trump maintain his grip on power after losing the 2020 election. In a 128-page ruling, the judge, Yvette Roland, said Mr. Eastman had willfully misrepresented facts in lawsuits he helped file challenging the election results and acted dishonestly in promoting a 'wild theory' that Mr. Trump's vice president, Mike Pence, could unilaterally declare him the victor during a certification proceeding at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. 'In sum, Eastman exhibited gross negligence by making false statements about the 2020 election without conducting any meaningful investigation or verification of the information he was relying upon,' Judge Roland found, adding that he had breached 'his ethical duty as an attorney to prioritize honesty and integrity.' The ruling said Mr. Eastman would lose his license within three days of the decision being issued." ~~~
~~~ Katelyn Polantz & Hannah Rabinowitz of CNN: "The opinion serves as a recommendation to the California Supreme Court, which will ultimately decide whether to endorse or reject the punishment. Eastman will have the opportunity to appeal Roland's ruling."
Perry Stein of the Washington Post: "Lawyers for Hunter Biden urged a federal judge on Wednesday to dismiss the nine tax charges filed against him, arguing that prosecutors botched some facts of the case and allowed politics to influence their charging decisions.... [U.S. District Judge Mark] Scarsi did not reveal how he would rule on each of the nine motions that Biden filed but pushed back the hardest on the motion claiming that the indictment is the result of 'selective and vindictive' prosecution. He said he would rule on all the motions by April 17.... 'One of the big hurdles that this motion has it that it's not filed with any evidence,' Scarsi said." MB: Um, I can see where that would be a problem.
Jamie Gangel & Gregory Krieg of CNN: "The Republican operative who accused American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp of sexual assault last year received a significant financial settlement in exchange for dropping his lawsuit against Schlapp, multiple sources familiar with the case told CNN. The $480,000 settlement was paid to Carlton Huffman through an insurance policy, according to a source familiar with the details. Schlapp's legal team did not respond for comment when asked about the financial settlement, but on Tuesday said that Huffman dropped the lawsuit and Schlapp claimed he had been exonerated.... Schlapp initially touted the end of the lawsuit on social media with a link to a Washington Examiner story headlined, 'CPAC's Matt Schlapp cleared in assault case, accuser apologizes.'... The original story is still online, but Schlapp's tweet has since been deleted."
Presidential Race -- Scams Edition
Molly Escobar, et al., of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump has spent more than $100 million since leaving office, on lawyers and other costs related to fending off various investigations, indictments and his coming criminal trials, according to a New York Times review of federal records. The remarkable sum means that Mr. Trump has averaged more than $90,000 a day in legal-related costs for more than three years -- none of it paid for with his own money. Instead, the former president has relied almost entirely on donations made in an attempt to fight the results of the 2020 election. Now, those accounts are nearly drained, and Mr. Trump faces a choice: begin to pay his own substantial legal fees or find another way to finance them." The article details how the Big Grifter pulled in cash, where he put it, and how he moved it to pay his lawyers. (Also linked yesterday.)
Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: "Trump Media & Technology Group -- the owner of Truth Social, the site Mr. Trump uses to rally his backers and blast his opponents -- could present a new, fairly straightforward route for foreign leaders or special interests to try to influence him. Should he retain his control of the company while in office, the ethical questions that arose from Mr. Trump's hotels and other properties in his first term as president would only multiply when applied to a publicly traded media company, they said. 'This will be a very easy vehicle for foreign governments that want to curry favor with the president to throw money at him in a way that benefits his financial bottom line,' said Jack Goldsmith..., a top Justice Department official under President George W. Bush. Corporations and other players wanting to sway Mr. Trump could buy advertising on Truth Social, other experts said. They could try to get on his radar by buying shares in the company. As the nation's leader whose every utterance is monitored around the world, Mr. Trump would also be in an extraordinary position to drive traffic -- and ultimately revenue -- by the habitual use of the site. Ethics experts see few legal obstacles to these scenarios."
Michael Scherer, et al., of the Washington Post: "The biggest donors in Republican politics largely shunned Ron DeSantis after his presidential campaign began to falter last summer. So his allies turned to donors the Florida governor still held sway over because of his day job." The reporters provide many examples of the cozy relationships between DeSantolini & his donors who had business before the state. James Uthmeier, Gov. Ron's chief-of-staff, was indignant: "Anybody working closely with the governor, such as I do, knows he is a man of unwavering principle and he would be the last person to grant access or state favor in exchange for political support, as your article suggests." Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday.)
Other Presidential Race News
Chris Megerian & Colleen Long of the AP: "A fundraiser for President Joe Biden on Thursday in New York City that also stars Barack Obama and Bill Clinton is raising a whopping $25 million, setting a record for the biggest haul for a political event, his campaign said."
Chris Megerian of the AP: "When President Joe Biden needs advice, there are two people he can turn to who know what it's like to sit in his chair. Sometimes he will invite Barack Obama over to the White House for a meal or he will get on the phone with Bill Clinton. The three men share decades of history at the pinnacle of American and Democratic leadership, making them an unusual trio in presidential history.... [Biden also has close ties to former President Jimmy Carter.] Carter's relationship with Biden goes back several decades. When Carter was running for president in 1976 as a little-known former governor of Georgia, Biden took a political risk by becoming the first sitting senator to endorse him.... The display of solidarity is a sharp contrast to Donald Trump's isolation from other Republican leaders.... Not even his own former vice president, Mike Pence, is willing to endorse Trump's bid for another White House term. The only other living Republican president, George W. Bush, is not a supporter, either."
Michael Gold of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump attacked Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the independent presidential candidate, on Wednesday morning, casting Mr. Kennedy as a liberal Democrat in disguise while also seeming to back him as a spoiler for President Biden's campaign. Mr. Trump ... pointed in particular to Mr. Kennedy's views on climate change and the environment, writing on his social media site that Mr. Kennedy was more 'radical Left' than Mr. Biden. Yet he also professed support for Mr. Kennedy's campaign, claiming that Mr. Kennedy would be likely to siphon votes from Mr. Biden. 'I love that he is running!' Mr. Trump concluded.... Two Trump campaign officials said they had seen polling that showed Mr. Kennedy drawing support from independent voters in a way that could be equally detrimental to both Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden."
Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post: "Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s pick for the vice-presidential spot on his ticket is Nicole Shanahan, a 38-year-old philanthropist and tech entrepreneur who has never run for office before.... Whatever Shanahan's other virtues, the most important reason for her selection is that she is worth a fortune as the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who ranks as the 10th richest person in the world on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Their 2023 divorce settlement is confidential, but the Wall Street Journal reported that she was seeking more than $1 billion. Now that Shanahan is on the ticket with Kennedy, campaign finance law allows her to pour unlimited amounts of money into his campaign -- something he badly needs."
Michael Scherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie (R) has decided against running as the No Labels candidate for president after spending time and money gaming out the prospects of a centrist third-party bid.... 'While I believe this is a conversation that needs to be had with the American people, I also believe that if there is not a pathway to win and if my candidacy in any way, shape or form would help Donald Trump become president again, then it is not the way forward[,' Christie said in a statement to the Washington Post].... The decision leaves the group with few remaining high-profile options for candidates...." ~~~
~~~ Marie: This took guts -- and principle. Christie is a well-known egoist, but he put country before himself. You don't have to like Chris Christie to recognize his rectitude here.
Noah Berlatsky in Public Notice: "All indications are that Tuesday's bridge collapse in Baltimore [was an accident,] but ... the bridge collapse..., for many on the right, [is] an opportunity to spread conspiracy theories, encourage chaos, push bigotry and resentment, stoke fears, and do Donald Trump's bidding by smearing [President] Biden.... The right's go-to response of panic and paranoia makes us all less safe by sowing confusion and promoting a reactionary brand of politics.... Georgia congresswoman and reliable conspiracy theorist goon Marjorie Taylor Greene rushed to her keyboard to call for a 'serious investigation' into what she said might be 'an intentional attack.'... South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace on Newsmax incoherently blamed the collapse on Biden's infrastructure bill, alleging it only devoted '$40 billion for traditional roads and bridges.' (Mace voted against the infrastructure bill but then tried to take credit for it anyway.)... American Conservative Union Chairman Matt Schlapp suggested the container ship failure was somehow caused by 'drug-addled' employees and covid lockdowns. Fox host Maria Bartiromo, meanwhile, linked the disaster to 'the wide open border.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Charlie Nash of Mediaite: 'Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott accused his critics of not having 'the courage to say the N-word' after he was branded the 'DEI mayor' following the fatal Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse this week. After Scott was blamed by some social media users for the collapse, with one of Elon Musk's favorite accounts calling him 'Baltimore's DEI mayor' -- an abbreviation for diversity, equity, and inclusion -- [Scott told] MSNBC host Joy Reid..., 'I know, and we know, and you know very well that Black men, and young Black men in particular, have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy White men should have a say in anything.'"
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.
Oh My Stars, a Hostile Work Environment. Rachel Bade of Politico: "The ramifications of NBC' decision yesterday to part ways with former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel just two days after her paid network debut on 'Meet the Press' are just starting to shake out. But they could be expensive. McDaniel expects to be fully paid out for her contract -- two years at $300,000 annually -- since she did not breach its terms, according to a person close to McDaniel. That means that her single, not-quite-20-minute interview Sunday could cost NBC more than $30,000 per minute, or $500 per second. That might be just the beginning of the fallout following yesterday's announcement from NBCUniversal News Group Chair Cesar Conde that the deal, first announced on Friday, would be canceled. McDaniel spoke yesterday with Bryan Freedman, renowned lawyer to the estranged cable-news stars, to discuss legal options even beyond recouping the dollar value of her contract.... McDaniel ... is exploring potential defamation and hostile work environment torts after MSNBC's top talent -- momentarily her colleagues -- took turns Monday blasting her on air." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Patrick suggested a way for NBC to deal with Ronna if she forces the network to pay out on her contract: make her fulfill her obligations, too, by giving her a relatively menial job -- like green room hostess. I suppose the contract specifies what she is to do for that $600K, so maybe producers would have to stop by to "interview" her or whatever. And I reckon they should be right friendly so as not to create a "hostile work environment." ~~~
~~~ Sarah Ellison & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "MSNBC President Rashida Jones participated in recruiting former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel earlier this month and McDaniel was offered a more lucrative contributor contract after she agreed to appear on MSNBC and not just NBC News, according to people familiar with the matter.... McDaniel was concerned she would face particularly harsh interviews, and the liberal-leaning viewers would not respond to her positively.... In a friendly call between Jones and McDaniel, the two spoke about American politics, their young children and the need to have differing views on the airwaves.... McDaniel agreed to appear on both networks after a series of informal discussions and the improved contract, the people said.... As of Tuesday afternoon, a person close to McDaniel said she still had not been notified of her termination.";
Jim Rutenberg of the New York Times: "... the question of how to cover Trump is no closer to being solved.... NBC executives indicated that they simply couldn't stand by her given the passionate reaction her hiring produced internally, but defended their intentions while saying they would try to find a new Trump surrogate." MB: I have a newsflash for all news publishers, executives, editors, columnists and reporters: IN A DEMOCRACY, YOU DO NOT GIVE EQUAL TIME TO FASCISTS, LIARS OR OTHERS WHO WORK TO DESTROY DEMOCRACTIC FOUNDATIONS & INSTITUTIONS. YOU FIGHT AGAINST THESE PEOPLE. If this is too difficult for you to grasp, ask yourself, would we hire Joseph Goebbels as a talking head? Would we invite him into Americans' livingrooms? Would we politely nod our heads when he was pushing violent antisemitic extremism & spouting hate? Argumentum ad Hitlerum? Yes, and sometimes that is not a fallacy.
Nothing to See Here, Folks. Climate Change Is a Hoax. Joel Achenbach of the Washington Post: "The melting of polar ice due to global warming is affecting Earth's rotation and could have an impact on precision timekeeping, according to a paper published Wednesday in the journal Nature.... In just a few years it may be necessary to insert a 'negative leap second' into the calendar to get the planet's rotation in sync with Coordinated Universal Time. 'Global warming is managing to actually measurably affect the rotation of the entire Earth,' said study author Duncan Agnew, a geophysicist at the University of California at San Diego. 'Things are happening that have not happened before.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Joseph I. Lieberman, Connecticut's four-term United States senator and Vice President Al Gore's Democratic running mate in the 2000 presidential election, which was won by George W. Bush and Dick Cheney when the Supreme Court halted a Florida ballot recount, died on Wednesday in Manhattan. He was 82." MB: As you may know, I have a general policy of not speaking ill of the dead. Right away, at least.
Eewww! Jennifer Schuessler & Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "... a 19th-century French treatise on the human soul in a Harvard University library is bound in human skin. "On Wednesday, after years of criticism and debate, the university announced that it had removed the binding and would be exploring options for 'a final respectful disposition of these human remains.'... Harvard also said that its own handling of the book, a copy of Arsène Houssaye's 'Des Destinées de L'Ame,' or 'The Destiny of Souls,' had failed to live up to the 'ethical standards' of care, and had sometimes used an inappropriately 'sensationalistic, morbid and humorous tone' in publicizing it.... A report released in 2022 identified more than 20,000 human remains in Harvard's collections, ranging from full skeletons to locks of hair, bone fragments and teeth. They included the remains of about 6,500 Native Americans, whose handling is governed by the 1990 Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, as well as 19 from people of African descent who may have been enslaved."
Weaselworld! A Scientific Theory of the Course of Human Events. Ciarán Daly of the (U.K.) Daily Star: "The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is responsible for some of the most groundbreaking scientific discoveries ever made, from the Higg's Boson to quasars.... In April 2016, the £4bn Hadron Collider was forced to shut down for a number of days after a weasel got inside a high-voltage transformer and was 'fried to death'.... Conspiracy theorists on the Internet believe that the weasel's intrusion set off a chain of events which have doomed civilisation as we know it, starting with the death of Harambe gorilla less than two weeks later and culminating in the election of ... Donald Trump." RAS hails this as a conspiracy theory that makes sense. I agree. Any theory that links Donald Trump to a weasel and a violent gorilla can't be wrong (although, admittedly, there's evidence Harambe may have meant no harm, which cannot be said of Trump).
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Arizona. Fredreka Schouten, et al., of CNN: "Kari Lake, a Republican Senate candidate from Arizona who has advanced election conspiracy theories, is asking a judge to decide whether she must pay damages to a top county election official who sued her for defamation -- after opting not to defend her statements in the case. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer last year sued Lake -- who ran unsuccessfully for Arizona governor in 2022 -- arguing that her repeated false claims of election malfeasance made him and his family the targets of relentless threats. Richer and Lake are both Republicans, and his lawsuit marked an aggressive step by Richer to confront Lake's election claims -- which have been rejected by the courts.... 'After months of doubling down and defending their lies across Arizona, in the media, and on social media, when push came to shove, the Defendants decided to completely back down and concede that their lies were just that: lies,' [Richer] said." Lake claims she's not conceding that she has been spouting lies. MB: She is.
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "For the second time in eight months, a top Donald Trump ally has, extraordinarily, declined to try to prove that they didn't defame an election worker. Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake (R) has joined former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani in that distinction. The news comes even as Trump owes more than $86 million after losing a pair of defamation cases against E. Jean Carroll, whom he has arguably continued to defame. Throw in the $787.5 million Fox News agreed to pay a voting machine company over bogus theories that it aired bolstering Trump's stolen-election claims and the $148 million judgment against Giuliani, and the combined bill is north of $1 billion -- and potentially growing.... The Trump political movement has long had a truth problem. That has now manifested itself as a very expensive defamation problem. As well as anything, these defamation cases lay bare just how careless and demagogic the MAGA movement has become."
Florida. Edward Moreno & Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "The Walt Disney Company and Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida have reached a settlement over control of a special tax district that includes the Disney World theme park in Orlando, the company said on Wednesday.... In response to Disney's criticism of a Florida education law that opponents called 'Don't Say Gay,' Mr. DeSantis took over the tax district, appointing a new board and ending the company's long-held ability to self-govern Disney World as if it were a county. Before the takeover took effect, however, Disney signed contracts -- quietly, but in publicly advertised meetings -- to lock in development plans worth some $17 billion over the next decade. An effort by Mr. DeSantis and his allies to void the contracts resulted in Disney suing Mr. DeSantis and the tax district in federal court. The new appointees then sued the company in state court." This is a breaking news story & will be updated. The AP's report is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
New Hampshire Congressional Race. Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: "Rep. Ann Kuster (D-N.H.), chair of the influential New Democratic Coalition, will not seek reelection this year.... Kuster has led the centrist New Democratic Coalition in a thinly divided House, which gave the group more influence in the chamber." In a statement, Kuster said she was retiring because she was sick of one of her constituents and neighbors, Marie Burns, sending her all those emails urging her not to be such a wuss. (Also linked yesterday.)
Montana. Patrick Svitek of the Washington Post: "Montana's highest court on Wednesday struck down four laws that the state's Republican-led legislature passed in 2021 to restrict voting. The Montana Supreme Court declared the laws unconstitutional, siding with a district court judge who ruled against them in 2022. The laws 'violate the fundamental right to vote provided to all citizens by the Montana Constitution,' according to a summary of the majority opinion that was signed by four of the seven justices. The laws ended same-day voter registration in most cases, eliminated student ID cards as a permitted form of voter ID and sought to curtail paid ballot-collection efforts. They also outlawed absentee ballots for people who would be 18 years old by Election Day."
Virginia. Machine Gun Youngkin. Gregory Schneider & Laura Vozzella of the Washington Post: "Gov. Glenn Youngkin has vetoed an assault weapons ban and a slate of other gun-control bills passed by the Virginia General Assembly, but he signed a pair of firearm-related measures into law: One bans a device that turns a semiautomatic firearm into a machine gun, and the other allows a parent or guardian to be charged with a felony for allowing a child who has been deemed a threat to have access to a gun." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Israel/Palestine, et al. The Washington Post's live updates of developments Thursday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office agreed to reschedule a visit by an Israeli delegation to Washington, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, to further discuss U.S. concerns about Israel's planned ground invasion of the southern Gaza city of Rafah. Israel previously canceled the delegation after the United States abstained from a U.N. Security Council vote on a cease-fire resolution, allowing it to pass.... Netanyahu told members of Congress visiting Jerusalem on Wednesday his military has 'no choice' but to plan for a ground offensive into Rafah. Israel says Hamas militants are hiding alongside remaining hostages in Rafah."
News Ledes
The Washington Post's liveblog of developments in the Francis Scott Key bridge collapse is here: "Divers recovered the bodies of two construction workers who died when a massive cargo ship struck and collapsed a Baltimore bridge, as investigators revealed Wednesday that hazardous material was leaking from breached containers on the stranded vessel and state and federal lawmakers rushed to begin the recovery from the disaster that crippled the Port of Baltimore. Rescue crews found the victims shortly before 10 a.m. trapped in a red pickup truck in about 25 feet of water in the Patapsco River near the mid-span of the hulking wreck of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Maryland State Police Secretary Roland L. Butler Jr. said at a news conference. The conditions were treacherous for the divers, so Butler said they were suspending the search for the bodies of four other construction workers who plunged to their deaths when the container ship in distress struck the bridge shortly before 1:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing it to fall.
"The workers are believed to be the only victims in the disaster.... The victims recovered were identified as Alejandro Hernandez Fuentes, 35, of Baltimore, and Dorlian Ronial Castillo Cabrera, 26, of Dundalk, Md. Other victims identified Wednesday were Maynor Suazo Sandoval, 38, from Honduras, and Miguel Luna, from El Salvador, who was the father of three. The names of the remaining two victims have not been released." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates are here.
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Reader Comments (13)
Two Corinthians walk into a bar…
It’s a hard fact that Fatty has no shame, but this latest money making scheme beats all.
Trump authorized Bibles. I kid you not.
Yup. For $60 you too can bring home the “only Bible endorsed by Donald Trump”.
So, MAGAts, that old family Bible you’ve had for years? Toss that sucker. It’s not endorsed by a thrice married rapist, serial fraudster, lifetime liar, traitor, and defendant awaiting four trials on 91 separate felony counts.
So, black people, put on your Trump sneakers (we know you all love sneakers, right?) and run out and get your Trump endorsed Bible.m
Trump Bibles. Wow.
Chutzpah doesn’t come close.
Joe Lieberman is dead?
Hey, I have something good to say about him.
Umm….
Okay. I lied.
More Ronna McTreason bullshit…
So now she’s exploring defamation and hostile work environment torts? What happened to that right wing fatwa against torts? Hasn’t tort reform been a top priority for wingers? Gotta make sure those snowflake workers who get hurt on the job can’t sue their employers, right?
Oh, but if the snowflake is a Trump treason monger, oh, well, that’s different. And defamation? Please…since when is telling the truth about someone libelous? She assisted Trump’s attempt to steal an election. This is true. How is raising that issue defaming her? She has been a screeching mouthpiece for the destruction of democracy and in support of a rapist and would-be dictator. Oh, that’s ruining her good name? How about Trump laughing at her and making fun of her? That’s okay?
And here’s another thing. I don’t know contract law from brain surgery, but I know enough to understand that contracts are there to protect both parties. The NBC lawyers didn’t have something in there that says “if you suck, we can get rid of you”? or “if you lie on the air…”? She went on Meet the Press and claimed that there were all kinds of problems with that election. No. That is patently false. It was the cleanest election in modern history. But now they’re gonna have to pay this yippy snowflake $600,000 plus millions in damages? Get rid if those fucking guys.
What a cluster fuck. When will these stupid suits realize that getting into a hole with a snake, you’re gonna get bit?
And one more thing. That idiot loudmouth Hugh Hewitt is yapping about how horrible this whole thing is because poor Ronna is just a “normal person”.
She helped a fascist try to steal an election. This is normal?
I guess in TrumpWorld it is.
And at NBC too, apparently.
Marie, your side job is getting rid of congressional deadwood? Wow. Cool! Can I send you a list?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/28/robert-kagan-trump-ukraine-america-first-isolationism/
Kagan, with whom I have had my disagreements (tho not so much this time around), describes America Firster's second (or is it third?) act.
Always the same people with different faces. To summarize, in my words, not Kagan's. Mostly greedy racists. The current crop fits right in.
Don Moynihan
"Biden deserves more credit on student loan reduction"
Chris Hayes talked about the Trump Tax that would make us all pay more for so much. Here is just the video.
""We don't know exactly how much everything would cost," said Hayes, but "just add 10 percent on the back of the napkin. Here's the cost of living under the Trump Tax."
"Start with groceries," he said. "A dozen eggs cost about $3. Once you apply the Trump Tax, that is up to $3.30, with the U.S. importing over 4 million eggs a year, but cost consumers over $1.2 million. If you like oranges, they currently go for about $1.53 per pound. With the Trump Tax, that would be $1.68 per pound, which would cost American consumers almost $71 million for the nearly half a billion pounds of the import..."
"Everyone hates when you have to pay more for things," he added. "Inflation is one of the biggest liabilities for a sitting president. Yet here is Donald Trump, in the Year of our Lord 2024, running against President Biden, promising to make things more expensive for every American.""
An actor walked into the Public Theater in New York many years ago and said, "I'm here for my audition with Joe Papp."
The man at the front desk replied, "I'm sorry, but Mr. Papp passed away yesterday."
The actor left. The next day, he came back. "I'm here for my audition with Mr. Papp."
The man at the front desk seemed peeved, but stayed civil. "I told you yesterday that Mr. Papp had died."
The actor left. The next day, he came back. "I'm here for my audition with Mr. Papp."
The man at the front desk raised his voice. "I told you yesterday and the day before that Mr. Papp is dead! Why do you keep coming back?"
The actor replied, "I love to hear it."
Bon voyage, Joe L. May you get what you deserve.
Crooks all around
The behind the scenes chicanery in the run up to Trump’s latest scam, this Truth Social IPO, is a sine qua non QED that nothing this guy does is ever on the level. Like a MacGuffin in a Hitchcock movie, there’s always some underlying crookedness, always a dirty trick, a sleazy move. It wouldn’t be Trump if honesty and transparency were involved.
Lost in the hoo-hah about how Fatty just made billions on his broke-ass cheap Xitter imitation, is the fact that the sleazy shell company, DWAC, or Digital World Acquisition something or other (but “dwack” sounds about just right for a Trump partner in fraud) was hit by the SEC on charges of fraud in their scheme with Trump.
DWAC is a SPAC (special purposes acquisition company), a company you go to if big investment banks think your company stinks. A SPAC will merge with your loser company and try to scam investors into thinking it’s something worth putting money into. But the scamming can only go so far, legally. They’re not supposed to be conferring with the company’s owners to mislead investors, but that’s what DWAC and Trump were up to.
Per the SEC:
“The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled fraud charges against Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), for making material misrepresentations in forms filed with the SEC as part of DWAC’s initial public offering and proposed merger with Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. (TMTG). The Commission finds that DWAC misled investors and the SEC by failing to disclose that it had formulated a plan to acquire and was pursuing the acquisition of TMTG prior to DWAC’s IPO.”
Yeah. And there’s more…
“The SEC’s order further finds that, while DWAC’s CEO and Chairman initially pursued these discussions with TMTG on behalf of another SPAC, he created a plan in the spring and summer of 2021 to potentially use DWAC to pursue a merger with TMTG and used this plan to solicit certain pre-IPO investors. The order also finds that DWAC failed to disclose that the CEO had a potential conflict of interest based on an agreement he had signed with TMTG.”
The idea was that Trump and DWAC were trying to scam investors. Unpossible, right? But because it was DWAC making the filings with the SEC, they were the ones who had to pay the $18 million fine. Dwack got whacked. Trump, as he always does, skated away.
There’s always a chisel, always some bit of sneaky bullshit.
It’s Trump. It’s what he does. And he only mingles with other sneaky chiselers.
Completely off the subjects discussed.
The art near the end of todays column definitely has DeSantis and Mickey, but did anyone else look at it and see early 1950s puppet Howdy Doody looking st you?
@Bobby Lee: I didn't, but I do now that you mention it. Howdy Doody seems smarter, though.
And just like Howdy Doody, DeSantolini is a puppet with someone (Trump) pulling his strings and making him dance around in his go-go boots. The fact that Howdy Doody was more authentic and far more human than Rhonda is a plus for the original puppet.
Side note: Howdy Doody first appeared on NBC. That network is still enamored of puppets controlled by others.
Go figure.
@Bobby Lee & @Akhilleus: Yeah, with wooden heads & sawdust for brains.