The Conversation -- May 8, 2024

** Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Joe Biden said for the first time Wednesday he would halt some shipments of American weapons to Israel -- which he acknowledged have been used to kill civilians in Gaza -- if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu orders a major invasion of the city of Rafah. 'Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,' Biden told CNN's Erin Burnett..., referring to 2,000-pound bombs that Biden paused shipments of last week. 'I made it clear that if they go into Rafah -- they haven't gone in Rafah yet -- if they go into Rafah, I'm not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities -- that deal with that problem,' Biden said."

Saving Speaker Mike. Catie Edmondson, et al., of the New York Times: "Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday easily batted down an attempt by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to oust him from his post, after Democrats linked arms with most Republicans to fend off a second attempt by G.O.P. hard-liners to strip the gavel from their party leader. The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359 to 43, with seven voting 'present.' Democrats flocked to Mr. Johnson's rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him. Members of the minority party in the House have never propped up the other party's speaker.... Lawmakers loudly jeered Ms. Greene as she called up the resolution and read it aloud. As she recited the measure, a screed that lasted more than 10 minutes, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Mr. Johnson's hand and pat him on the back."

Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The Georgia Court of Appeals will hear an appeal of a ruling that allowed Fani T. Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, to continue leading the prosecution of ... Donald J. Trump on charges related to election interference, the court announced on Wednesday. The decision to hear the appeal, handed down by a three-judge panel, is likely to further delay the Georgia criminal case against Mr. Trump and 14 of his allies, making it less likely that the case will go to trial before the November election. The terse three-sentence announcement reopens the possibility that Ms. Willis could be disqualified from the biggest case of her career, and one of the most significant state criminal cases in the nation's history." The AP's report is here.

"When You're a Star, They Let You Do It." Noah Berlatsky of Public Notice: "... [Stormy] Daniels's testimony is a reminder that contempt and mistreatment of women is a core theme of Trump's life and politics.... Daniels's testimony is intended to establish the background facts of the payment. It also, though, paints Trump as a liar, a bully, and a sexual manipulator. Daniels said while she was in Trump's hotel room, she went to the bathroom, and when he came out he was in his boxer shorts, a moment Daniels describes as 'like a jump scare.'... According to Daniels, [Trump] suggest[ed] that if she cooperated with him he could help her career through his connections and a possible appearance on the Celebrity Apprentice reality show, where Trump was the star.... Daniels has not accused Trump of sexual harassment or violence, and she says their encounter was consensual. Her testimony makes clear, though, that Trump was pressuring her for sex in return for business opportunities -- a variation on the ugly tradition of the Hollywood casting couch."

Susanne Craig of the New York Times on Robert Kennedy, Jr.'s medical records, including the worm that ate part of his brain (MB: which is not a joke but could help explain his passion for nutty ideas). Thanks to RAS for the link.

Ryan Reilly & Alex Seitz-Wald of NBC News: "A right-wing social media influencer hired by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s presidential campaign who previously said Jan. 6 was 'Democrat misdirection' appears to have himself been on the restricted grounds of the U.S. Capitol during the attack. NBC News first reported that Kennedy's campaign hired Zach Henry's firm, Total Virality, for influencer engagement' in March. Henry had worked as deputy communications director for Republican Vivek Ramaswamy's presidential campaign, as well as for Blake Masters during his Senate run in Arizona. Henry ... appears to have embraced conspiracy theories about the Capitol attack, including posting that 'antifa' was behind it, which is false."

Adam Wren & Madison Fernandez of Politico look at Tuesday's GOP primary races in Indiana, including the presidential race, where Nikki Haley -- who dropped out of the race two months ago -- is expected to get more tha 20% of the vote.

~~~~~~~~~~

Erica Green & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Biden on Tuesday condemned a 'ferocious surge of antisemitism' in the United States following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel and said people were already forgetting the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. Speaking at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's Days of Remembrance, Mr. Biden tied the anti-Jewish sentiment that led to the Nazi effort to exterminate Jews directly to Oct. 7. 'This ancient hatred of Jews didn't begin with the Holocaust,' he said. 'It didn't end with the Holocaust, either.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trials of Trump, Ctd.

Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: "... on Tuesday, [Stormy] Daniels took the stand at [a criminal trial of Donald Trump], bringing the former president face to face with the porn star at the case's center. The charges stem from her story of sex with Mr. Trump during that 2006 celebrity golf tournament in Lake Tahoe, a story she was shopping a decade later, in the closing days of the presidential campaign. Mr. Trump's longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael D. Cohen, paid her $130,000 in hush money before Election Day, and the former president is accused of falsifying business records to cover up reimbursements for Mr. Cohen.... After about a half-hour on the stand, she began to unspool intimate details about Mr. Trump, so much so that the judge balked at some of the testimony. He implied it was gratuitously vulgar, and the defense sought a mistrial.

"Ms. Daniels said the future president had invited her to dinner inside his palatial Lake Tahoe hotel suite. He answered the door wearing silk pajamas. When he was rude, she playfully spanked him with a rolled-up magazine. And when she asked about his wife, he told her not to worry, that they didn't even sleep in the same room -- prompting Mr. Trump to shake his head in disgust and mutter 'bullshit' to his lawyers, loud enough that it drew a private rebuke from the judge, who called it 'contemptuous.' Ms. Daniels then recounted the sex itself in graphic detail.... And she testified that she would have told the same uncomfortable tale in 2016, had she not taken the hush money from Mr. Trump's fixer." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: It sounds as if Daniels was describing her recollections of events, which is the essential job of a witness. If her testimony was "uncomfortable," blame it on the defendant, who -- according to the witness -- initiated the "uncomfy" conduct. Besides, he's the one who is using obscenity & acting out in the courtroom. However, in reading the Times' reporters' notes, I was struck by the prosecution's seeming failure to prep Daniels; consequently, she was a bad witness. She spoke too fast, she freelanced answers, she squabbled with the defense attorney & she angered the judge. We don't know the effect this all had on the jury, but I'd hazard a guess the jurors weren't positively impressed. This is likely to be the prosecutors' fault more than the witness's. ~~~

     ~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the Washington Post: "New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan called Trump's lawyer Todd Blanche to a sidebar during a midday break to say that Trump was 'cursing audibly' and possibly intimidating [Stormy] Daniels, who had begun testifying, according to a trial transcript. 'I understand that your client is upset at this point,' Merchan said to the defense attorney, according to the transcript, 'but he is cursing audibly and he is shaking his head visually and that's contemptuous. It has the potential to intimidate the witness and the jury can see that.'... 'I am speaking to you here at the bench because I don't want to embarrass him,' Merchan said. 'You need to speak to him. I won't tolerate that.'"

Stephen recaps the testimony:

     ~~~ Here's Jimmy Kimmel's take.

Jennifer Rubin of the Washington Post addresses the Don Snorleone problem.

The New York Times liveblogged Tuesday's trial developments in the Trump 2016 election interference case. See yesterday's Conversation for some of the reporters' observations. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Links to previous transcripts, via the New York courts, are here.

Adam Nichols of the Raw Story: "After weeks of complaining that his hush money trial would stop him attending his youngest son's high school graduation, Donald Trump's judge finally agreed to pause the trial for a day -- and the ex-president swiftly organized a fundraiser. Trump is now expected to speak at the Minnesota Republican Party's Lincoln Reagan dinner on May 17 -- the day Barron Trump graduates. It's not known if he will be at the graduation ceremony in Florida prior to his Minnesota appearance."

** Judge Aileen Drops the Gavel. Katelyn Polantz, et al., of CNN: "Judge Aileen Cannon has indefinitely postponed ... Donald Trump's classified documents trial in Florida, citing significant issues around classified evidence that would need to be worked out before the federal criminal case goes to a jury. In an order Tuesday, Cannon cancelled the May trial date and did not set a new date.... Cannon noted in her Tuesday order that there are eight substantive pending motions she has yet to decide." This is an update of a breaking story linked yesterday. ~~~

     ~~~ Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "But while Judge Cannon's stated reason for putting off the trial indefinitely was that a large number of legal issues remain up in the air, she never mentioned that she herself helped allow the logjam of motions to pile up.... Throughout the case, Judge Cannon has given Mr. Trump's legal team wide berth in defending him, often granting an audience to legal motions that many federal judges would have rejected out of hand or decided on the merits of written filings alone.... Her decision came directly after Mr. Trump's lawyers asked again for the deadline to be pushed back, saying they needed more time and raising allegations that [Jack] Smith's team had failed to preserve the integrity of the boxes of documents that sit at the heart of the case." MB: Yes, Jack, where are those boxes of classified documents I left in the public bathroom? You really have failed to "preserve their integrity." ~~~

     ~~~ "Motion to Remove Judge in the matter of United States of America vs. Donald J. Trump: Get Out! S/Jack Smith" ~~~

     ~~~ Marcy Wheeler: "... none of this is surprising. But it is Cannon's commitment to let a man accused of stealing hundreds of classified documents potentially regain the White House with no accountability for his alleged theft." ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Cannon understands her commission, which was not to be a judge in any recognizable sense, at least in any case of personal or political importance to the Republican Party in general or Donald Trump in particular."

** Not That It Matters, But. Katelyn Polantz & Tierney Sneed of CNN: "Donald Trump's valet told investigators before the FBI searched Mar-a-Lago in 2022 that he randomly chose boxes of documents to return to the National Archives and Trump himself directed that dozens more boxes located at the resort wouldn't be returned, according to recently unsealed court filings. The filings reviewed by CNN shed new light on the critical role that Walt Nauta, now Trump's co-defendant in the classified documents case, played in giving the FBI justification to execute the search warrant on the former president's Florida resort.... Nauta's account was corroborated by a second witness, whose identity is not publicly known. Both said that Trump gave the direction not to give the National Archives any more boxes."

Presidential Race

When Even Both-Sides Baker Gets It. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "These were the images Americans were presented on Tuesday about their two choices for president: One taking his grandchildren to Dachau to bear witness to the horrors of Nazi death camps, the other sitting on a hotel bed in his boxer shorts waiting for sex with a porn star.... But the surreal synchronism of the disparate events 182 days before the election captured the sometimes unreal reality of a presidential race like none before it, at once profound and tawdry, a contest with momentous consequences and a circuslike surround sound. A nation grappling with two wars overseas and campus unrest at home is also being asked to parse through the unseemly details of a married man's purported dalliance with a woman who had sex on camera professionally."

Chris Cameron of the New York Times: "The grandson of President John F. Kennedy this week savaged his presidential-candidate cousin, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in a series of mocking, meant-to-be-funny videos that were, inarguably, uncharacteristically un-Kennedyesque, escalating a civil war within America's most storied political dynasty. In a series of Instagram posts, the grandson, Jack Schlossberg, 31, variously called Mr. Kennedy, 70, a 'prick,' suggested he was using steroids, said he was 'lying to us' and portrayed him as a Russian stooge and a stalking horse for Donald J. Trump."

** Remember the Corruption. Donald Trump Has Been Asking, "Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago?" Let's Check. New York Times editorial, May 8, 2020: After Donald Trump fired Michael Flynn for lying to Vice President Mike Pence, after Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators, after Flynn twice admitted under oath he had lied, after a federal judge had refused to throw out his conviction, along comes Attorney General Bill Barr and "suddenly dropped all criminal charges against Mr. Flynn.... The attorney general is supposed to work for the American people, not as a personal fixer for the president. Instead, from the day he took the job, Mr. Barr has worked to provide cover for Mr. Trump."

Haleluya Hadero, et al., of the AP: "TikTok and its Chinese parent company filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a new American law that would ban the popular video-sharing app in the U.S. unless it's sold to an approved buyer, saying it unfairly singles out the platform and is an unprecedented attack on free speech. In its lawsuit, ByteDance says the new law vaguely paints its ownership of TikTok as a national security threat in order to circumvent the First Amendment, despite no evidence that the company poses a threat."

Jamie Stengle of the AP: "The Boy Scouts of America announced after 114 years that it will change its name and will become Scouting America in an effort to emphasize inclusion as it works to move past the turmoil of bankruptcy and a flood of sexual abuse claims. The rebrand is another seismic shift for an organization steeped in tradition that did not allow gay youths or girls to begin joining its ranks until relatively recently. Seeking to boost flagging membership numbers, the Irving, Texas-based organization announced the name change Tuesday at its annual meeting in Florida."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Dan Froomkin of Press Watch: "Joe Kahn, after two years in charge of the New York Times newsroom, has learned nothing. He had an extraordinary opportunity, upon taking over from Dean Baquet, to right the ship: to recognize that the Times was not warning sufficiently of the threat to democracy presented by a second Trump presidency. But to Kahn, democracy is a partisan issue and he's not taking sides. He made that clear in an interview with obsequious former employee Ben Smith, now the editor of Semafor...: 'To say that the threats of democracy are so great that the media is going to abandon its central role as a source of impartial information to help people vote -- that's essentially saying that the news media should become a propaganda arm for a single candidate, because we prefer that candidate's agenda.' But critics like me ... [are] asking the Times to recognize that it isn't living up to its own standards of truth-telling and independence when it obfuscates the stakes of the 2024 election, covers up for Trump's derangement, and goes out of its way to make Biden look weak."

~~~~~~~~~~

Indiana Gubernatorial Race. Mitch Smith of the New York Times: "Senator Mike Braun of Indiana won the Republican nomination for governor of his solidly conservative state, The Associated Press said on Tuesday, positioning him as the strong favorite in this fall's general election. Mr. Braun defeated several other candidates, including Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch, in the primary. Mr. Braun, who received the endorsement of ... Donald J. Trump, has presented himself as a fiscal conservative and has pledged to take a tough stance on crime. Indiana's current governor, Eric Holcomb, a Republican who has occasionally bucked the right wing of his party on public health and cultural issues during his tenure, was barred by term limits from seeking re-election. Mr. Braun, a businessman and first-term senator, will face Jennifer McCormick, the former state superintendent of public instruction, in November. Ms. McCormick, who was unopposed in the Democratic primary, was elected to her prior position as a Republican but fell out of favor with that party."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Wednesday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "The United States believes negotiations on a cease-fire and hostage release deal 'should be able to close the remaining gaps' between Israel and Hamas, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, as talks continue in Cairo. The Biden administration has paused the shipment of thousands of bombs to Israel as U.S. concerns grow about the long-planned ground operation in Rafah -- the first known delay in U.S. arms to Israel since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.... Israel reopened the Kerem Shalom border crossing, Israeli officials said Tuesday, after a deadly Hamas rocket attack led to its closing. The crossing is one of the few entry points through which aid can be delivered to Gaza.... Israeli troops seized the Rafah border crossing in southern Gaza, disrupting the flow of aid into the Strip. Hamas accused Israel of trying to 'exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Strip by closing' the crossing. Wael Abu Omar, a Gaza border official, said travel and the flow of aid into the Strip had 'stopped completely.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates Wednesday are here. CNN's live updates are here.

** Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden paused an arms shipment to Israel last week to prevent the U.S.-made weapons from being used in a long-threatened assault on the city of Rafah, administration officials said on Tuesday night, a sign of the growing rift between Washington and Jerusalem over the conduct of the war. The president withheld 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs that he feared could be dropped on Rafah, where more than one millio Gazans have taken refuge, the officials said. The administration is reviewing whether to hold back future transfers, including guidance kits that convert so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided munitions. The decision to delay the delivery of the 3,500 bombs was the first time since the Oct. 7 Hamas-led terrorist attack that Mr. Biden has used his power to curtail arms as an instrument to influence Israel's approach to the war that followed. A number of Mr. Biden's Democratic allies in Congress have for weeks urged him to limit or halt arms shipments to Israel, something he had refused to do until now because of his strong support for the effort to destroy Hamas." An ABC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ellen Knickmeyer of the AP: "Facing heat over its military support for Israel's war, the Biden administration is due to deliver a first-of-its-kind formal verdict this week on whether the airstrikes on Gaza and restrictions on delivery of aid have violated international and U.S. laws designed to spare civilians from the worst horrors of war. A decision against Israel would add to pressure on President Joe Biden to curb the flow of weapons and money to Israel's military. The administration agreed in February at the insistence of Democrats in Congress to look at whether Israel has used U.S.-provided weapons and other military assistance in a lawful manner. Additionally, under the same agreement, it must tell Congress whether it deems that Israel has acted to 'arbitrarily deny, restrict, or otherwise impede, directly or indirectly,' delivery of any U.S.-supported humanitarian aid into Gaza for starving civilians there."

Ukraine, et al. Constant Méheut of the New York Times: "Ukraine's security services said on Tuesday that they had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate President Volodymyr Zelensky and other top military and political figures. Two Ukrainian colonels accused of participating in the plot have been arrested on suspicion of treason. The Ukrainian domestic intelligence agency, the S.B.U., said in a statement that the plot had involved a network of agents -- including the two colonels -- that was run by Russia's Federal Security Service, or F.S.B., the main successor agency to the K.G.B. According to the Ukrainian agency, the agents working at Russia's direction were tasked with identifying people close to Mr. Zelensky's security detail who could take him hostage and later kill him." (Also linked yesterday.)

Ishaan Tharoor of the Washington Post places Vladimir Putin at the center of a movement to push anti-democratic sentiments, not just in Russia but in Western nations. MB: I would say those sentiments long pre-date Putin and have prevailed throughout most of the history of this country. Just look at Joseph Kahn, the NYT's executive editor, who believes that democracy is a partisan issue (see Froomkin essay linked above). I doubt Kahn is a Putin puppet; he is simply too naive to grasp the threat the Grand Oligarch Party poses.

News Lede

New York Times: "The body of the sixth and final victim who died in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore was found on Tuesday, officials said, bringing to a close a difficult salvage mission after the country's deadliest bridge collapse in more than a decade. The victim, José Mynor López, 37, was a member of a work crew that had been filling potholes on the bridge when it was struck on March 26 by the Dali, a container ship on its way to Sri Lanka that apparently lost power after leaving the Port of Baltimore."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

“Cannon noted in her Tuesday order that there are eight substantive pending motions she has yet to decide.”

Yeah. Eight motions she has to look up in “Law for Dummies”. This stuff has been before her for almost a year now. She’s had plenty of time to figure things out.

Jack Smith needs to demand that a competent judge, not an in the bag Trump lackey, replace this clown so she can go back to traffic court and take nine months to rule on speeding tickets. “I see here, Mr. Democrat, that you have not paid your bribe yet. We’ll be holding this over until you cough up the thousand smackers. Judgey needs a new pair of shoes.”

[Akhilleus]

The truly astonishing thing (and it still is) about the Trump judges, Cannon, that far right judge shoppers’ favorite in Texas, Kacsmaryk, the stooges on the Supreme Court, is how blatantly hyper partisan they are. They’re like KKK judges in the Jim Crow south. “Your honor, 258 eyewitnesses have testified that the defendants lynched that 15 year old black boy and set his body on fire, after beating him for five days.”

“Are the defendants white?”

“Yes, your honor.”

“Not guilty.”

They’ve just replaced “white” with “Trump”.

[RAS]

Republicans

"Bernie Moreno closed down local roads to test drive $3.4M imported car

In 2015, Ohio Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno used taxpayer dollars to shut down local roads so he could take a joy ride in an Aston Martin car that he purchased for $2.3 million.

Mother Jones’ Abby Vesoulis first reported on the incident last Friday. Video from Cleveland.com shows at least three police cars blocking traffic in the Cleveland suburb of North Olmsted so Moreno could privately use the roads in his luxury Aston Martin Vulcan, which his dealership would later list for $3.4 million. In a separate video from 2016, Moreno admits that he had the vehicle shipped to the United States in parts to avoid Environmental Protection Agency emissions restrictions on foreign vehicle imports. Moreno also japed, “Nobody’s here is from the EPA, right?”"

[RAS]

Can you tell, real or fake? It shouldn't be hard, but when it comes to Republicans you never know.

[RAS]

New York Times

"R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain
The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain."

[Akhilleus]

Veddy interesting…

In the Republican presidential primary in Indiana, someone not even in the race got got almost 22% of the vote.

Although the Don Snoreleone is the only one still up for election, almost 22% of voters said “This for you, and this for your horse” and put their check mark next to Nikki Haley’s name. In blood red Indiana, home to the half pence.

This might not mean they’ll vote for Biden in the general, but at least some voters have had enough of Fatty’s bullshit.

[Akhilleus]

RAS,

Fake. Gnome would have shot the kid.

[Akhilleus]

I saw that the Boy Scouts changed their name to Scouting America.

The full name is Scouting America for Young Boys to Molest.

It’s still a right-wing groomer operation.

[Marie Burns]

@RAS & Akhilleus: Maybe if I didn't have a dead worm in my head, I would get the joke about Kristi Noem. (Okay, really I laughed out loud.)

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: As soon as I saw the Boy Scout story, my dead-worm-infested brain went right from "Scouting America" to "Stalking America." It just seems like that's what they're up to.

[Akhilleus]

I don’t suck. Really!

As all kinds of horrible weather races across the country today (tornado warnings in my town), inquiring minds want to know if Ted Cruz will be heading back to Cancun to escape incipient global warming calamity and not have to deal with pesky constituents whose homes have been destroyed.

But if he doesn’t skeedaddle, Cancun Ted has other concerns. For one, he needs to get re-elected to his do-nothing, bomb throwing, Trump ass kissing “job” as senator. And surprisingly, Ted must need votes from constituents who aren’t MAGA morons because he’s got a new campaign slogan. Ready?

Vote for me! I’m really not an asshole!

Oh, Ted, c’mon. Yes you are!

“The internal polling of Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas must be atrocious. It's the only reasonable explanation for the divisive GOP flamethrower suddenly trying to sell himself to voters as a bipartisan dealer on the path to winning a third term.”

So what does ol’ “Bipartisan” Cancun Ted have to say for hisself?

“‘I try very much to have my focus be on the policies and substance rather than going into the gutter with personal or character attacks,’ Cruz told The Wall Street Journal.”

Hang on….bwah-hahahaha….Ted! Yer killin’ me!

“Let’s not forget that last year, Cruz released a book titled "Unwoke," billed as a ‘realistic battle plan for defeating the woke assault on America.’

Also last year, as MAGA Republicans turned raising the debt ceiling to pay bills into a political football, Cruz said the only reason President Joe Biden hadn't yet brokered a compromise on the matter was because ‘his mental faculties are too diminished right now.’”

Whereas Ted’s are, as always, focused on saving his own ass.

Right. Ted…unwoke is the same as asleep. So my advice is go back to sleep…

And fuck off.

[Akhilleus]

Wait…RFK, Jr. is missing part of his brain? And…a worm ate it?

Who says shit like this? Even in a divorce deposition.

“Yup. I’m not all here. Worm got into my brain. Ate a bunch of it. I’m pretty fucked up. Can’t remember stuff. Hey…did I ever tell you about that worm in my head? It affects my memory. I never told anyone about that. Did I? Ya know, there’s a worm in my brain…but now…

I’m gonna run for President! Did I tell you about the worm?”

Umm…wow.

And are we sure that worm really is dead? Today’s Blue Plate Special: Raw Hippocampus with a side of fried ganglia.

“A worm ate my brain. Did I tell you…?”

[Ken Winkes]

The tragic irony at the heart of the NYTimes commitment to both- siderism is that the side it continues to treat as a legitimate political party in a constitutional democracy has proved time and again that it has no intention of honoring the very constitutionally enshrined rights that make possible the Times' existence as anything but a propaganda-spouting mouthpiece for those in power.

My suspicion is that the Times gets it, but lives in fear of the Right. They just won't admit it.

[ForrestMorris]

There's an interesting article about the Donald in this months Vanity
Fair titled Running for His Life.
It claims that the reason his campaign is running so smoothly is that
he is so involved in the court proceedings that he doesn't have much
time left for the campaign. He's leaving it to other crackpots.
The Heritage Foundation is coming up with a list of 50,000 civil servants to purge and replace with political appointees (Magats?)
The article ends with the statement "God help us."

[Jeanne]

Forrest: I read that VF piece yesterday. The replacement of civil service employees with bona fied trumpists fits in with everything we have read about the Fed Society AND heritage organizations. Nothing like installing your own know-nothings and expecting the trains to run. Actually, they are cunningly doing it on purpose so the trains will fall off the tracks on a regular basis. We know all this stuff is deliberate. And the SC is in on it. Brings new attention to the "Great Replacement Theory" all right-- replacing experience with stupidity. Which of course does describe the Mango Moron's entire administration and regime. Have an R after your name? You cannot be entrusted with anything of import. Idiots R Us, from the local level clear up. As there is one delay or win for any effort made by Rs, we are in dire trouble. Thanks, appeals court in GA and Infant Judge in FL.

I swear to god...(muttering).

[ForrestMorris]

@Jeanne: It's almost cocktail hour here in West Michigan. That
helps forget the news of the day, mostly the news of the donald.
But we only have cocktail hour on days ending in 'y'.

[Jack Mahoney]

The 2025 GOP filling offices with incompetent toadies will be nothing new. The Bush administration applied an abortion litmus test to candidates whose jobs would have nothing to do with healthcare.

Furthermore, Bush sent Christian zealots barely out of college to Iraq to do jobs for which they weren't qualified, thus transforming an immoral invasion into a public relations nightmare, notwithstanding the live bombing of other people on CNN, which apparently was really popular.

According to the Democracy Now! web site, "In 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone,' Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor and former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran provided a behind-the-scenes account of the Bush administration appointees who ran Iraq after the US invasion. Invoking the embattled ex-Director of FEMA, Chandrasekaran calls them 'Michael Brown x100.' [For anyone who's forgotten, Michael Brown was the Bush horse-show crony who was inexplicably put in charge of the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.]

"[In Congressional testimony, a government] inspector, Stuart Bowen, criticized three companies in particular: Parsons, Bechtel and the Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Bowen said that of the fourteen major projects built by Parsons in Iraq, 13 of them were substandard with construction deficiencies and other serious problems. At the police college in Baghdad, the plumbing done by Parsons was so poor that the pipes burst, dumping urine and fecal matter throughout the college’s buildings. Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman said: 'This debacle is not just a waste of taxpayers' funds, and it doesn’t just impact the reconstruction. It impedes the entire effort in Iraq. This is the lens in which the Iraqis will view America.'”

Those who don't remember the past ...

[Joy N.]

🙏🙏
The Bible prophesied 7-year Tribulation is at humanity's doorstep & the time to escape is very short. To read more, pls visit https://bibleprophecyinaction.blogspot.com/