August 21, 2025

This Sucks. Ben Protess & Jonah Bromwich of the New York Times: “A divided New York appeals court on Thursday threw out a half-billion-dollar judgment against ... [Donald] Trump, eliminating an enormous financial burden while preserving the fraud case against him, a remarkable turn in the battle between the president and one of his fiercest foes. 'While harm certainly occurred, it was not the cataclysmic harm that can justify a nearly half-billion-dollar award to the state' wrote Peter Moulton, one of the appeals judges whose lengthy and convoluted ruling reflected deep disagreement among the five-judge panel. While the court effectively upheld the fraud ruling against the president, several of the justices raised major questions about the case, which was decided by a state court judge. And their decision allowed Mr. Trump to move to New York’s highest court, giving him another opportunity to challenge the finding that he was a fraudster. Despite the complexities, Thursday’s ruling handed Mr. Trump a financial victory and a modicum of legal validation. It represented a setback for New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, who is one of the president’s foremost adversaries and a target of his retribution campaign.” An AP report is here.

 

~~~ Trump Says He Will Lead D.C. Clown Parade Tonight. Emily Davies & Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump said he will join law enforcement officials on D.C. streets Thursday.... 'I’m going to be going out tonight with the police and with the military, of course,' Trump said in an interview with talk show host Todd Starnes.”

Amy Wang of the Washington Post: Vice President “... Donald Trump is demanding the release of a former Colorado county elections official who was sentenced to prison last year after being found guilty of charges connected to sneaking someone into her office to search for evidence to try to prove Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. 'FREE TINA PETERS, a brave and innocent Patriot who has been tortured by Crooked Colorado politicians,' Trump wrote on social media Thursday morning, referring to the former Mesa County clerk serving a nine-year prison sentence on charges that include several counts of attempting to influence a public servant and conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation.”

Marie: JayDee is still the most obnoxious, smug, couch-humping prick I forever hope not to meet: ~~~ 

Karoun Demirjian of the New York Times: “As President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine headed into a high-stakes meeting in the Oval Office this week, Vice President JD Vance warned him to 'behave.' 'Mr. President, so long as you behave, I won’t say anything,' Mr. Vance recounted to Fox News in an interview broadcast on Wednesday, adding that the Ukrainian leader chuckled in response. It was not the first time that Mr. Vance had addressed Mr. Zelensky during a critical diplomatic summit with words more commonly spoken to toddlers than heads of state.” MB: I guess you can take the boy out of Appalachia, but you can't take Appalachia out of the boy -- at least if he's an obnoxious smug, couch-humping prick.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: “A federal judge has ruled that the State Department cannot use ... Donald Trump’s latest travel ban to deny visas to foreigners who apply for them. The decision issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Sparkle Sooknanan applies only to 82 would-be immigrants and comes with a major caveat: It still allows immigration authorities to deny the foreign citizens entry to the U.S. by turning them away at a port of entry or instructing airline officials to refuse them boarding.... The ruling came in a lawsuit filed in July on behalf of people from Afghanistan, Burma, Togo, Somalia and Iran who won the right to apply for visas under the so-called diversity visa program. The immigration lawyer who filed the case, Curtis Morrison, said he viewed the ruling as a mixed bag even though it doesn’t give his clients an immediate way to enter the U.S.”

Hurubie Meko & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: “The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced sweeping corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams’s former chief adviser and several of her associates on Thursday, unsealing four separate indictments that outlined a series of brazen schemes and painted a damning picture of a city for sale. Offering a troubling view of the mayor’s stewardship of New York City, the charges accuse the former adviser, Ingrid Lewis-Martin, and others of a range of crimes. Those include trading the approval of renovations of a residence for thousands of dollars in catering at Gracie Mansion and City Hall, and helping to fast-track permit approvals for a Queens karaoke bar. In exchange, prosecutors said, she and her son collected a range of benefits, including cash, crab cakes and an appearance on the television show 'Godfather of Harlem.'... The four unsealed indictments ... charged seven people, most of whom are associates and supporters of Mr. Adams....”

AND Robyn Pennacchia of Wonkette asks the existential question you probably have been asking yourself this morning: "Who Among Us Hasn't Tried To Make Friends Using Potato Chip Bags Filled With Cash?" Related story linked below.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “This occupation [of Washington, D.C.] ... tells the people of Washington — and of other, similar cities — that they’re less equal citizens under an elected government than subjects of a capricious ruler. It tells them that their freedom to live their lives free of harassment from masked federal agents is a function of their loyalty to that ruler.... It is all for show;... but just because it’s for show does not mean ... that it is a distraction. The president ... is indulging his grievances and pursuing, however impulsively, his political goals. And at the top of that list, as he’s made clear in many different ways, is seizing as much power as he can to rule the United States as a strongman.”

Kimmy Yam of NBC News: “Japanese American groups criticized the construction of a new immigrant detention center in Texas at a military base that was used during World War II to imprison people of Japanese descent. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center at Fort Bliss in El Paso, which opened this past weekend, will be able to hold as many as 5,000 detainees upon its completion in the coming months, making it the largest federal detention center in U.S. history.... 'It is inconceivable that the United States is once again building concentration camps, denying the lessons learned 80 years ago.'...  said Ann Burroughs, president and CEO of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.” MB: Of course its not “inconceivable” to those of us who have been paying attention. Thanks to RAS for the link.

 

     ~~~ Thanks to RAS for sending along this bit of Newsom trolling. Here's more from Chris Hayes.

AND here's where Hayes notices that Trump sidekick JayDee has gone on eight vacations in seven months on the job. MB: As you watch the video, I think you'll notice that JayDee isn't even slightly embarrassed about his constant slacking off: ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Delusional Don & His Band of Fools. Cat Zakrzewski, et al., of the Washington Post: “Just days after the White House celebrated splashy summits with the leaders of Russia and Ukraine as foreign policy victories, the Kremlin signaled Wednesday that its position has barely budged.... Since the summits, Trump repeatedly has touted security guarantees for Ukraine.... And the White House said Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Russian officials on Wednesday spoke against both of those ideas.... Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ... downplay[ed] expectations for a swift bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian president, and further block[ed] the prospects for any deal on security guarantees for Ukraine.... The statements laid bare the limits of Trump’s attempts to leverage his personal relationship with Putin to bring an end to the bloodiest European war since World War II. The disconnect has exacerbated concerns that Trump and his top advisers have failed to grasp central elements of Putin’s positions in Ukraine, which remain largely unchanged since Russia launched a full-scale invasion into the country three years ago.” ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, see also the Kiev Independent report at the bottom of the page. ~~~ 

~~~ Tom Nichols of the Atlantic: “[Tuesday] morning, the commander in chief made clear that he does not understand the largest war in Europe, what started it, or why it continues. Worse, insofar as he does understand anything about Russia’s attempted conquest of Ukraine, he seems to have internalized old pro-Moscow talking points that even the Kremlin doesn’t bother with anymore.” Thanks to akaWendy for this gift link. MB: Trump's profound ignorance is either a put-on on he for so long embraced bullying that it has made him crazy. Every normal person knows that an unprovoked invader causes a war -- when the invaded nation fights back. I suppose if a bully walks past you and punches you in the nose for no apparent reason, he might say that your very presence annoyed him enough to punch you. Trump may have grown up believing in the rectitude of that kind of power dynamic. (Also linked yesterday.)  

Good Grief! Jake Tapper of CNN: “US special envoy Steve Witkoff delivered a Russian medal to the grieving family of an American who was killed fighting for Russia in 2024, a senior administration official told CNN. Earlier this month, when Russian president Vladimir Putin gave the medal – the Order of Courage – to Witkoff, some observers saw it as something of a diplomatic dig, given that the American who was killed, Michael Gloss, 21, was the son of a senior CIA official. But that wasn’t how Witkoff saw it.... For Witkoff, who lost a son in the opioid epidemic, losing a child is a traumatic experience that transcends geopolitics. And he thought it worthwhile to give the medal to Juliane Gallina, the CIA’s deputy director for digital innovation, and her husband, according to the official.”

Yesterday we learned that Republican law enforcement is harassing three Democratic officials: (1): New York State Attorney General Letitia James; (2) Texas State House Rep. Nicole Collier; and (3) Texas State House Rep. Sheryl Cole. (Thanks to akaWendy for the link to Cole's BlueSky skeet.) Besides being elected Democratic officials, these three public servants are Black women. Coincidence? I doubt it. Cole's skeet, BTW, attests to Collier's wisdom in choosing to refuse state police minders; Cole's "escort" made a scene in front of her constituents & threatened to arrest her. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ And Now. Trump Goes After Another Black Female Leader. Patrick Svitek & Andrew Ackerman of the Washington Post: “... Donald Trump on Wednesday demanded the resignation of Lisa Cook, a member of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, in his latest effort to bend the independent central bank to his will. The pressure campaign, if successful, could give Trump a majority of allies on the board and allow him to fulfill his goal of lowering interest rates, even as the Supreme Court has pushed back on his attempts to exert direct control over the independent and powerful body. 'This marks a new escalation in attacks on Fed independence,' noted Derek Tang, an economist at LHMeyer, an economic consulting firm.”  (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Allan Smith, et al., of NBC News: "In recent weeks..., Donald Trump’s administration has levied mortgage fraud allegations against three Democratic officials.... The move followed recent efforts targeting Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who was a leading figure in Trump’s impeachments, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued Trump and his company over what her office said were fraudulent misrepresentations of his wealth and financial statements that he used to get favorable rates on bank loans and insurance policies that he otherwise would not have been able to obtain.... Schiff, James and now Cook have all denied any wrongdoing.... Making an allegation of mortgage fraud has long been a common tactic in opposition research on political campaigns." ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Feinberg of the Independent: In his social media demand for Lisa Cook's resignation, Donald Trump “shared a Bloomberg News article about calls for the Department of Justice to investigate Cook’s mortgage application history by Bill Pulte, the head of the Federal Housing Finance Administration and of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Pulte ... sent a letter last week to Attorney General Pam Bondi and DOJ official Ed Martin alleging that Cook 'falsified bank documents and property records to acquire more favorable loan terms, potentially committing mortgage fraud under the criminal statute.'... Cook later fired back in a statement in which she said she’d learned about Pulte’s accusations “based on a mortgage application from four years ago, before I joined the Federal Reserve” from press reports and stressed that she had 'no intention of being bullied to step down from my position because of some questions raised in a tweet.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Jacob Plaza of the Revolving Door Project (updated March 17, 2025) reports some background on Bill Pulte. ~~~

     ~~~ Don Moynihan on Substack: "One trademark of an authoritarian regime is the use of the legal system to target political opponents and forgive friends. This has the effect of undermining our basic conception of the law as a set of rules that is fairly and consistently applied. It also centralizes authority and undermines government capacity. Trump’s call for Federal Reserve member Lisa Cook to resign, under the threat of a DOJ investigation, is a clear example of this type of authoritarianism.... Now it is not just Trump’s opponents who are potential targets. It is anyone who is in his way. Trump has fired career bureaucrats, and the heads of independent agencies, with the acquiescence of the Supreme Court. But the Supreme Court explicitly identified one exception to Trump’s purges: The Federal Reserve.... If he cannot fire them, Trump might be able to force their resignation, assaulting central bank independence via threats and intimidation.” Read on. (Also linked yesterday.) 

Racist/Misogynist-in-Chief. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: “Over the past seven months, Mr. Trump’s words and actions have revealed what he sees as an ideal picture of the United States, in which the concept of diversity is taboo; the traditional power centers in America — white and wealthy men — get the benefit of the doubt; immigrants are suspect or unwelcome; and people of color must set their grievances and outrage aside. In the view of his critics, Mr. Trump has used the power of the federal government to promote a vision of America that not only challenges the legitimacy of the Black experience, but also demeans and dehumanizes people of color. In the process, they say, he has elevated and even endorsed a version of American culture that venerates a white-dominated society of old, and casts the history and reality of race in the United States as unwelcome or suspiciously 'woke.'” ~~~

~~~ Heather Cox Richardson: "Trump is working to erase women and minorities from the public sphere while openly calling for a system that makes it impossible for voters to elect his opponents.... In forty years, Republicans went from opposing Democrats’ policies, to insisting that Democrats were socialists who had no right to govern, to the idea that Republicans have a right to rig the system to keep voters from being able to elect Democrats to office. Now they appear to have gone to the next logical step: that democracy itself must be destroyed to create permanent Republican rule in order to make sure the government cannot be used for the government programs Americans want.... When Trump says that our history focuses too much on how bad slavery was, he is not simply downplaying the realities of human enslavement: he is advocating a world in which Black people, people of color, poor people, and women should let elite white men lead, and be grateful for that paternalism."

Robert McCoy of the New Republic, republished by Yahoo! Finance: Donald "Trump and Melania’s Scammy Meme Coins Have Lost Almost All Value."

The People's House? Not Anymore, Suckers. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post: “Public tours of the White House have been suspended indefinitely because of planned construction on the massive ballroom ... Donald Trump expects to start building next month. About a half-million people tour the White House every year, and while cancellations happen frequently, a hiatus that could stretch months or years is rare. The administration canceled tours scheduled for September and is not accepting tour requests beyond that, according to multiple congressional offices and an email sent by the White House to congressional offices.... Long-term suspensions of tours are rare....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: You may recall that "the National Capital Planning Commission, which has yet to consider the massive project, has taken months or years to approve much smaller changes at the White House.... [and] records show the project has yet to be reviewed by the commission." Still no word -- as far as I know -- on how Mr. Article II plans to skirt the federal law requiring commission approval.

Naftali Bendavid of the Washington Post: “As Trump ramps up the military presence in Washington — and hints that he may move to take over other cities — his crackdown punctuates a frequent Republican message that American cities embody chaos, lawlessness and immorality, despite widespread recent drops in violent crime. With cities increasingly liberal and rural stretches ever more conservative, Republicans have a growing incentive to attack urban areas as the epitome of all that is wrong with America.... 'They are looking to exploit issues for political gain, not to solve them[,' says Quinton Lucas, the Democratic mayor of Kansas City, Missouri]. Brett Smiley, mayor of Providence, Rhode Island, said ... most cities would eagerly accept federal help..., but it should come in consultation with local leaders, not imposed by force.” ~~~

This is not a city that has had any safety for its Black citizens for generations, and President Trump is the one who is fixing that with his support of the Metropolitan Police Department, his support of the National Guard and our federal law enforcement officers. So we’re going to ignore these stupid White hippies who all need to go home and take a nap because they’re all over 90 years old, and we’re going to get back to the business of protecting the American people and the citizens. -- Stephen Miller, famed civil rights advocate, at Union Station yesterday ~~~

~~~ Amy Wang of the Washington Post: Vice President JD “Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Stephen Miller visited Union Station on Wednesday to greet troops and tout the presence of federal law enforcement there, as the Trump administration continues to portray D.C. as 'one of the most violent cities on planet Earth,' a depiction at odds with crime data.... A small group of protesters yelled 'Free D.C.' and other chants from the concourse in objection to the officials’ visit, attracting a crowd of reporters and passersby. Some travelers joined in as they hurried into the station.... Vance dismissed the protesters as 'crazy liberals,' while Miller later claimed without evidence that they had no connections to Washington and were communists.... Miller also claimed that the dramatic influx of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital was meant to protect the city’s Black residents, who he erroneously said make up a majority of Washington’s population.” A Guardian report is here. ~~~

~~~ Mike Lillis & Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: “Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) and other officials in Washington, D.C., say the Trump administration’s crime crackdown is really about exerting power and elevating immigration enforcement — not making D.C. safer.... Local critics are raising questions about both the geographic placement of National Guard troops and federal officers — who have been most prominent in tourist hot spots and other wealthier parts of the city — and the focus of the criminal crackdown. Of the 556 arrests tallied by the White House since it began increasing federal law enforcement presence on Aug. 7, nearly half of the arrests, 233, have been classified by the administration as migrants without legal status, a White House official said Tuesday.... The apparent focus on immigration has prompted protests around the city.” ~~~

~~~ Goldfinger, Trump Edition. Brittany Shammas, et al., of the Washington Post: “Immigration and Customs Enforcement is seeking to spend millions of dollars on SUVs and custom, gold-detailed vehicle wraps emblazoned with the words 'DEFEND THE HOMELAND,” according to a contractor’s social media post and records that describe the decked-out fleet as urgently needed in ... Donald Trump’s stated mission to improve safety on the streets of the District [of Columbia].... The documents detailing the proposed spending of millions on customized vehicles come days after ICE’s and the Department of Homeland Security’s social media accounts pumped out stylized images of souped-up SUVs and pickups.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: This reminds me of the film "Goldfinger," where the villain Auric Goldfinger -- played by the former Nazi Gert Fröbe, so there's that -- paints a woman in gold in a splashy show of revenge. She dies of "skin suffocation." If Trump's takeover of the District were a necessary effort to fight rampant crime, he would not be wasting money on gold wraps, flashy vehicles & ridiculous promotional videos. According to the WashPo report, “In a video posted last week on X, a Ford Raptor and GMC Yukon rolled down D.C. streets, passing the Lincoln Memorial and other iconic sites. With a DaBaby rap song pounding in the background — 'Better not pull up with no knife/ ’Cause I bring guns to fights' — the footage cuts to shots of the vehicles parked in front of the White House and the Capitol and pans over the president’s name in gold.” This is a show, a spectacular diversion from Epstein & Alaska & the failing Trump economy & the big, bad bill & whatever other Trump screw-ups most disturb voters. ~~~

~~~ Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro has ordered federal prosecutors in her office to seek the toughest possible criminal charges for people arrested in D.C., a move that curtails her staff’s autonomy as the Trump administration ramps up federal law enforcement activity in the District. The directive, issued this week and first reported by The New York Times, restricts line prosecutors’ discretion over how to build and prioritize the new wave of cases stemming from D.C. arrests. But it could ensure that defendants get longer custodial sentences if they are convicted.” ~~~

~~~ On the Other Hand. Salvador Rizzo of the Washington Post: “Federal prosecutors in D.C. have been instructed not to seek felony charges against people who are carrying rifles or shotguns in the nation’s capital, regardless of the strength of the evidence, according to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and an email reviewed by The Washington Post. The new policy, which Pirro said was crafted by the Justice Department and its solicitor general [-- John Sauer, a former Trump lawyer --] marks a break with past practice. Prosecutors have used the D.C. law at issue — which prohibits carrying shotguns or rifles, with narrow exceptions for permit-holders — to charge defendants in several high-profile incidents, including a 2019 shotgun attack in Northeast Washington and the 'Pizzagate' shooter who targeted a restaurant in the city’s Chevy Chase neighborhood with an AR-15 rifle and a handgun in 2016.” Well, wouldn't wanna sweep up any bona fide conspiracy buffs, would we? ~~~

     ~~~ The ABC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Ryan Reilly of NBC News: "Twenty members of the Defense Department are set to begin working as special assistant U.S. attorneys — federal prosecutors — in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia next week, two people familiar with the matter told NBC News. Tim Lauer, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office, confirmed the move, saying members of the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps would be joining the office, though he did not know how long the detail would last.... Steven Vladeck, a law professor at Georgetown University, noted that in 1983, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel said JAG lawyers could not serve as special assistant U.S. attorneys because it violated a statute barring military officers from exercising the duties of a civil office. But just a few months later, Congress authorized them to do so."

Casey Parks & David Ovalle of the Washington Post: “The Justice Department is demanding that hospitals turn over a wide range of sensitive information related to medical care for young transgender patients, including billing documents, communication with drug manufacturers and data such as patient dates of birth, Social Security numbers and addresses, according to a copy of a subpoena made public in a court filing this week.... Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month that the Justice Department had issued more than 20 subpoenas seeking to hold 'medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology' accountable. It is highly unusual for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer to announce such legal activity.... Jacob T. Elberg, a former federal prosecutor specializing in health care fraud, said Bondi’s statement suggests the government 'is using its investigative powers to target medical providers based on a disagreement about medical treatment rather than violations of the law.'” A report by Chris Geidner, the Law Dork, is here. 

Laura Meckler & Justine McDaniel of the Washington Post: “The Trump administration has quietly rescinded long-standing guidance that directed schools to accommodate students who are learning English, alarming advocates who fear that schools will stop offering assistance if the federal government quits enforcing the laws that require it. The rescission, confirmed by the Education Department on Tuesday, is one of several moves by the administration to scale back support for approximately 5 million schoolchildren not fluent in English, many of them born in the United States. It is also among the first steps in a broader push by the Trump administration to remove multilingual services from federal agencies across the board, an effort the Justice Department has ramped up in recent weeks.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Yet another reminder that even your children are not safe under Trump's administration. 

Aamer Madhani, et al., of the AP: “The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will dramatically reduce its workforce and cut its budget by more than $700 million annually, the Trump administration announced Wednesday. The move amounts to a major downsizing of the office responsible for coordinating the work of 18 intelligence agencies, including on counterterrorism and counterintelligence, as ... Donald Trump has tangled with assessments from the intelligence community.... 'Over the last 20 years, ODNI has become bloated and inefficient, and the intelligence community is rife with abuse of power, unauthorized leaks of classified intelligence, and politicized weaponization of intelligence,' Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement announcing a more than 40% workforce reduction.”

Lena Sun & Grace Moon of the Washington Post: “Hundreds of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention employees have received permanent termination notices, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter, marking the latest blow in the Trump administration’s sweeping purge of the agencies that oversee government health programs. Between 500 and 600 employees at the agency were terminated as of Monday, said one CDC employee.... Several CDC employees said the timing of the termination notices ... has added to the anger and frustration of CDC employees, many of whom are upset that ... Donald Trump has made no public comment since a gunman fired hundreds of bullets at the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta earlier this month, killing a police officer.” MB: And that's the word from the Sun & the Moon. 

It's quite a different story at the Department of Homeland Security. ~~~

~~~ Kristi Noem, CEO of Adios Airlines, Inc.? Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is pushing for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to use an influx of funds to buy, own and operate its own fleet of airplanes to deport immigrants.... Former officials said that ICE owning and maintaining its own planes would be costly but could make it easier for the agency to potentially double the number of people it deports each month. ICE uses charter planes to deport immigrants and has done so for years. The agency has typically chartered eight to 14 planes at a time for deportation flights, according to Jason Houser, who served as ICE chief of staff from 2022 to 2023." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Kristi will look great in a spiffy pilot's dress uniform. The jaunty brimmed cap, the double-breasted navy blue jacket with its golden wings, stripes and buttons.  

Carl Hulse of the New York Times: “Top Republicans and Democrats in the Senate, alarmed by ... [Donald] Trump’s moves to withhold funding approved by Congress, have teamed up to add new safeguards to next year’s spending bills that would ensure the Trump administration allocates federal dollars as lawmakers intend. The little-noticed moves are part of a quiet escalation in the battle between the legislative and executive branches over federal spending powers.... The changes may not survive negotiations with the House, where Republicans have been far more deferential to Mr. Trump.... The changes come as the White House Office of Management and Budget and its director, Russell T. Vought, have sought to assert extraordinary executive branch control over spending, arguing that the levels set by Congress are a ceiling, not a floor.” (Also linked yesterday.) 

The Judge Was Not Amused. Hurubie Meko of the New York Times: “A Manhattan federal judge on Wednesday denied the government’s request to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution of the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.... In his 14-page opinion, Judge Richard M. Berman said that the only witness presented to the grand jury had been a single F.B.I. agent. The information in the transcripts, Judge Berman said, 'pales in comparison to the investigation information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice.'... [He wrote that the government's] request to unseal the meager transcript 'appears to be a “diversion” from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the government’s possession.'... Judge Berman’s opinion about the transcripts came about a week after a different Manhattan judge denied the government’s request to unseal grand jury transcripts from its investigation into [Epstein's partner in crime] Ghislaine Maxwell....”  (Also linked yesterday.) 

The Quislings. Michael Schmidt, et al., of the New York Times: “At least two large law firms that struck deals with ... [Donald] Trump to avoid punitive executive orders have committed to doing free legal work for the Commerce Department.... The firms — Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison and Kirkland & Ellis — are working on a range of matters for the Commerce Department, according to one of the people briefed on the matter.... For Paul Weiss, the arrangement is a dramatic turn from where it stood during Mr. Trump’s first administration, when it prided itself on fighting him in court. The firm has also had a long history of fund-raising for Democratic candidates.”

David Goodman of the New York Times: “The Texas House passed an aggressively partisan congressional map on Wednesday after weeks of legislative combat, giving ... [Donald] Trump the gerrymander he requested — and possibly five new Republican seats in the U.S. House next year. After more than eight hours of at-times tense and emotional debate, the final vote, 88-52, fell along party lines. It capped bitterly partisan political wrangling, with a Democratic walkout and Republican retaliation, and set off a redistricting fever that has spread from Austin to Sacramento to Albany, N.Y. The State Senate is expected to vote on the map as soon as Thursday evening, then send it by the end of the week to Gov. Greg Abbott for his promised signature....

“[Earlier this week, the Republican speaker forced Democratic members to allow state police officers to 'escort' them everywhere they went.] One state representative, Nicole Collier of Fort Worth, refused to sign the permission slip. She slept in the brown leather chair at her legislative desk on Monday, along with two others who joined her. On Tuesday, the group had grown to about a half dozen, as several members tore up the slips they had signed and went into the chamber. Ms. Collier was then told by a senior Republican House member on Wednesday that she could be arrested after other female lawmakers complained that she was conducting a video call inside a bathroom in the Capitol. The call was organized by the Democratic National Committee and included Gov. Gavin Newsom of California.Texas law prohibits photographing or recording a visual image of another person in a bathroom without consent. Ms. Collier abruptly left the call.” The Texas Tribune report is here. ~~~

~~~ Maeve Reston of the Washington Post: “California Democrats are rushing Thursday to advance a plan to draw a new congressional map, aiming to counter Texas Republicans in a national fight between the two parties to seize an advantage in next year’s midterm elections.... California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is pushing his state to retaliate by adding five Democratic-leaning districts. But the process in California has more hurdles, because the state constitution requires that an independent nonpartisan panel draw its congressional maps. Voters must approve any constitutional amendment.... The California House and Senate Elections committees approved three bills Tuesday along party lines that would ask voters to amend the state’s constitution in November. The amendment would replace the independently created maps with more Democratic-leaning maps for elections in 2026, 2028 and 2030. The changes would only take effect if Texas or another Republican-controlled state gives final approval to their more partisan maps. Democrats in the state legislature are hoping to vote on all three bills by as early as noon Thursday and get them over to the governor for his signature.”  ~~~

~~~ Obama on Board. Kellen Browning of the New York Times: “Former President Barack Obama has offered his approval to Democrats’ mid-decade redistricting attempts, praising Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to reapportion California’s House districts as a 'responsible approach.' Speaking on Tuesday at a fund-raiser on Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts, Mr. Obama said he had 'tremendous respect' for Mr. Newsom’s decision to tie his efforts to substantially alter five districts held by Republicans to a similar, Republican-led redistricting plan in Texas, and for the governor’s insistence that he was reluctant to gerrymander his state.... He [said], 'I think that approach is a smart, measured approach, designed to address a very particular problem in a very particular moment in time.'... The fund-raiser, which former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the attorney general under Mr. Obama, Eric H. Holder Jr., also attended, raised $2 million for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, a Democratic-aligned group that, in fact, works to fight gerrymandering.” ~~~

~~~ Jeremy White of Politico: “Democratic voters loathe partisan redistricting, but support California doing it to counter Texas, according to a new national poll on Gavin Newsom’s high-stakes gerrymander. The POLITICO-UC Berkeley Citrin Center survey conducted by TrueDot found that 70 percent of Democrats believe gerrymandering is 'never acceptable.' But a strong majority of Democratic voters across the country think California Democrats should 'fight back' and create more favorable House districts if Texas Republicans do, embracing the exact idea likely to go before California voters.” ~~~

~~~ Zach Schonfeld of the Hill: “The California Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a petition filed by state Republican legislators seeking to halt Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) plan to redistrict California’s congressional map.” ~~~ 

Full-Time Governor, Part-Time Troll. Heather Knight & Laurel Rosenhall of the New York Times: “Last week, the [X] account [of California Gov. Gavin Newsom] morphed into a Democratic imitation of Mr. Trump’s Truth Social musings, hyping Mr. Newsom as 'AMERICA’S MOST FAVORITE GOVERNOR.' Dismissive nicknames, grandstanding boasts and long, winding tangents ARE WRITTEN IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. They are peppered with an inordinate number of exclamation points!!!... The posts have been written in a scathing tone and at times have been intentionally offensive.... The [governor's communications] team has also mimicked Mr. Trump’s fondness for posting images of himself created by artificial intelligence.... [Gov. Newsom] and his supporters see his social media posts as highlighting the ridiculous nature of the president’s bombastic, bare-knuckles, grammar-flexible communications.”

Saving Public Media from Trump, Inc. Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “Major philanthropic organizations said Tuesday that they are committing nearly $37 million in emergency funding to keep public media stations afloat after Congress passed ... Donald Trump’s rescissions bill, which eliminated $1.1 billion in federal funding from PBS and NPR stations over the next two years. The names are already ones you might hear on an underwriting announcement on your local public radio station: the Knight Foundation, MacArthur Foundation, Ford Foundation and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, plus the Schmidt Family Foundation (co-created by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt) and the Melinda Gates-led group Pivotal Ventures.”

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New York. Some Extra Grease on Them Potato Chips. Bianca Pallaro, et al., of the New York Times: “A close adviser to Mayor Eric Adams was suspended from his re-election campaign on Wednesday after giving a journalist cash tucked inside a potato chip bag. The adviser, Winnie Greco, who was the mayor’s former director of Asian ... and one of his best fund-raisers, had returned to the campaign trail as a volunteer during Mr. Adams’s run for a second term.... On Wednesday, Ms. Greco attended an event with Mr. Adams in Harlem and gave more than $100 in a red envelope stashed inside the snack bag to a reporter for The City.... The City promptly reported the incident to the city’s Department of Investigation, and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn contacted the newspaper’s lawyers, according to the newspaper’s account.” The City's report is here.

Texas. Anumita Kaur & Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: “A federal judge on Wednesday partially blocked Texas from requiring every public classroom to display the Ten Commandments, despite a law set to take effect next month.... The temporary injunction prohibits 11 school districts named as defendants in a lawsuit from displaying the Ten Commandments, religious and ethical tenets of the Abrahamic faiths. More than 600,000 students attend districts affected by the decision.”

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Israel. Lara Jakes of the New York Times: “Israel on Wednesday approved new settlements in the West Bank and announced that it was moving ahead with plans to take over Gaza City, bucking international criticism and defying growing support for the creation of an independent Palestinian state.... Experts said the two moves suggested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was bending to the ideologies of extremists in his coalition in order to remain in power — even at the cost of isolating Israel internationally. The idea of a Palestinian state 'is being erased from the table,' Bezalel Smotrich, the hard-line finance minister, declared after the government approved a settlement project of 3,400 housing units in the heart of the occupied West Bank.”

Ukraine/Russia, et al. Kateryna Denisova of the Kiev Independent: "A massive Russian attack struck the U.S.-owned Flex factory in the western Ukrainian city of Mukachevo, Zakarpattia Oblast, overnight on Aug. 21. 'This was an ordinary civilian facility with American investment. They produced everyday household items, such as coffee machines,' President Volodymyr Zelensky said after the attack. According to Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha ... [and] an employee at Flex..., the plant does not produce any military equipment. Russia launched 574 drones and decoys, and 40 missiles across Ukraine overnight, mostly targeting western regions far from the front lines." MB: Still think Vlad is your friend, Donald? How stupid are you?