~~~ And this from Colbert: ~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
Every Single Member of Team Trump is corrupt -- from Trump- Wycoff & their $2BB cryptocurrency-for-chips shakedown right down to the grubby mush-faced bigot Tom Homan -- so busy vilifying brown-faced "illegals" -- they are all shameless crooks. ~~~
~~~⭐A Big Bag of Cash! Caught on Tape. Carol Leonnig & Ken Dilanian of MSNBC: “In an undercover operation last year, the FBI recorded Tom Homan, now the White House border czar, accepting $50,000 in cash after indicating he could help the agents — who were posing as business executives — win government contracts in a second Trump administration, according to multiple people familiar with the probe and internal documents reviewed by MSNBC. The FBI and the Justice Department planned to wait to see whether Homan would deliver on his alleged promise once he became the nation’s top immigration official. But the case indefinitely stalled soon after Donald Trump became president again in January, according to six sources familiar with the matter. In recent weeks, Trump appointees officially closed the investigation, after FBI Director Kash Patel requested a status update on the case, two of the people said.... The federal investigation was launched in western Texas in the summer of 2024 after a subject in a separate investigation claimed Homan was soliciting payments in exchange for awarding contracts should Trump win the presidential election.... In a statement provided to MSNBC, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, 'This matter originated under the previous administration and was subjected to a full review by FBI agents and Justice Department prosecutors. They found no credible evidence of any criminal wrongdoing.'...” First DOJ official to oppose investigating Homan: Emil Bove, who is not an appellate court judge. ~~~
~~~ Devlin Barrett, et al., of the New York Times: “The cash payment, which was made inside a bag from the food chain Cava, grew out of a long-running counterintelligence investigation that had not been targeting Mr. Homan.... The episode raises questions about whether the administration has sought to shield one of its own officials from legal consequences, and whether Mr. Homan’s actions were considered by the White House when he was appointed to his government role.” MB: No kidding. ~~~
~~~ Marie: This is a plain, old-fashioned, cash-in-a-bag fraud. Had Homan been in office at the time he was recorded accepting cash, it would have been a plain, old-fashioned, cash-in-a-bag bribe. But the corrupt Trump DOJ & the corrupt Trump FBI sez plain, old-fashioned, cash-in-a-bag bribe does not constitute lawlessness if a member of the administration does it, even when it is caught on tape. (BTW, the cash-in-a-bag -- as opposed to a cashier's check -- shows consciousness of guilt. ~~~
~~~ Tim Miller & Sarah Longwell of the Bulwark have quite a good take on this.
Alan Feuer, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump demanded on Saturday that his attorney general move quickly to prosecute figures he considers his enemies, the latest blow to the Justice Department’s tradition of independence. 'We can’t delay any longer, it’s killing our reputation and credibility,' Mr. Trump wrote in a social media post addressed to 'Pam,' meaning Attorney General Pam Bondi. 'They impeached me twice, and indicted me (5 times!), OVER NOTHING. JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!' Mr. Trump named James B. Comey, the former F.B.I. director; Senator Adam B. Schiff, Democrat of California; and Letitia James, the New York attorney general, saying he was reading about how they were 'all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done.'... Mr. Trump’s unabashedly public and explicit orders to Ms. Bondi were an extraordinary breach of prosecutorial protocols that reach back to the days following the Watergate scandal. His demands came a day after he ousted the federal prosecutor who failed to charge two of the adversaries he most reviles, Ms. James and Mr. Comey....” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: A couple of online commentators suggested that the post was another Trump screw-up: that he had meant to text Bondi but instead he published the planned text as a social media post. ~~~
~~~ Alanna Richer & Meg Kinnard of the AP: “... Donald Trump said Saturday that he would be nominating senior White House aide Lindsey Halligan to serve as the top federal prosecutor for the Virginia office that was thrown into turmoil when its U.S. attorney was pushed out Friday. In a social media post..., Trump wrote he was nominating Halligan as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, writing that she 'will be Fair, Smart, and will provide, desperately needed, JUSTICE FOR ALL!' The announcement came as Trump pressed Attorney General Pam Bondi to move forward with pursuing cases against some of his political opponents, part of a vow for retribution that has been a theme of his return to the White House. The nomination would place one of the president’s legal defenders in charge of an office in tumult over political pressure by administration officials to criminally charge New York Attorney General Letitia James, a longtime foe of Trump, in a mortgage fraud investigation.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Also too, Halligan has adopted the MAGA Mar-a-Lardo look, which will look great in court! Whether she sat on Trump's knee & promised him she would prosecute James, Schiff & Comey is not known at this time. ~~~
~~~ ⭐Smith Speaks! Allison Gill of the Breakdown: "This week, [former Special Counsel Jack Smith] spoke at ... at George Mason University with a dire warning about the assault on the rule of law at the Justice Department. My co-host on the UnJustified podcast, Former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, was in the audience and described to me what he heard. Smith spoke about the rule of law being under attack in a way that he hasn’t seen in his lifetime, and that he’s saddened by the firing of selfless public servants, the government using its vast powers to target citizens for exercising their constitutional rights, and the loss of credibility with the courts and the people.” The GMU story is buried here. MB: I was unable to find a recording of Smith's address. ~~~
~~~ Andrew Tessman in a Washington Post op-ed: “As a former federal prosecutor who investigated and tried mortgage fraud cases, I know what it takes to prove bank fraud in court.... So I can say with complete confidence that the recent criminal referrals made by the Trump administration against Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California), New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook and other perceived political opponents are more than merely legally insufficient. They are a sham — a political hit job disguised as law enforcement.... Our system has inadequate safeguards to protect the Justice Department from the White House. For decades, norms and traditions kept presidents from directly interfering in prosecutorial decisions. Those norms are gone.... The Justice Department is being hijacked as a tool of presidential revenge.”
Scott Nover of the Washington Post: “Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s new mandate prohibiting reporters from obtaining military or defense information without Pentagon approval — or risk losing their press credentials — was met with condemnation from media organizations and lawmakers in Washington.... 'This is so dumb that I have a hard time believing it is true,' [Rep. Don] Bacon [R-Neb.] wrote on X. 'We don’t want a bunch of Pravda newspapers only touting the Government’s official position. A free press makes our country better. This sounds like more amateur hour.'... Rep. Gil Cisneros (D-California) wrote that 'The biggest threat to national security is our Secretary of Defense.'”
Most Transparent Administration Suppresses the Evidence. Again. Jason DeParle of the New York Times: “Two months after pushing through Congress the largest food stamp cuts in the program’s history, the Trump administration has canceled the government’s annual report measuring household food insecurity. The move by the Agriculture Department strips the government of its main gauge of Americans’ ability to access adequate meals, and will impede researchers’ efforts to track the coming cuts in nutritional aid. The department’s report has been published every year for three decades, and grew in part out of battles in the 1980s over President Ronald Reagan’s statements disputing that the United States had a hunger problem. The most recent report found that in 2023, 13.5 percent of households, with 47 million people, were food insecure, meaning that during some portion of the year, not every member of household had access to enough food for a healthy lifestyle.” The AP's story is here.
M. Gessen of the New York Times: “The indefinite suspension of Jimmy Kimmel’s show signaled ... a shift in landscape. The news tells us that we are moving from one country to a different, autocratic one.... What unites the many actions of the Trump administration, from the sledgehammer it has taken to government programs to the demonstrative cruelty it has built into immigration raids, is that they transform the daily physical, economic and psychic experience of life.... [Donald] Trump is remaking the country in his image: crude, harsh, gratuitously mean.... The feeling that I am on borrowed time in my own home is a familiar one. Twelve years ago, I was forced to leave Russia to protect my family from a campaign to take children away from L.G.B.T. parents.... The price of admission to Trump’s America is aggressive compliance, the sort demonstrated by more and more universities.”
Madeleine Ngo, et al., of the New York Times: “Wall Street banks and tech companies big and small were scrambling on Saturday to figure out how their tens of thousands of employees would be affected by President Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 fee for visas granted to skilled foreign workers.... The Trump administration sought to address the confusion on Saturday by saying that the fee would only apply to new applicants, and renewals or current visa holders would not be affected. In a post on social media, the White House said the change would 'not impact the ability of any current visa holder to travel to/from the U.S.' Still, many executives, general counsels and human resources departments, as well as their immigration lawyers, said they were coming down on the side of caution this weekend. Several companies and attorneys had already urged workers to return to the United States as soon as possible.” Politico's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: At the top of yesterday's Comments, Akhilleus predicted the "confusion and chaos" the reports describe. I might say, "Wow, Akhilleus is brilliantly prescient!" But I won't, because it doesn't take a genius to figure out that you can't change a policy overnight when it affects tens of thousands of people and many companies, universities & hospitals. Also too, everything Trump does is stupid.
Annie Karni of the New York Times: “The two top Democrats in Congress on Saturday demanded a meeting with ... [Donald] Trump ahead of the Sept. 30 deadline to fund the government, warning him that Republicans would be blamed for a painful shutdown if he refused to negotiate with them. “It is now your obligation to meet with us directly to reach an agreement to keep the government open and address the Republican health care crisis,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York and Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the two minority leaders, wrote in a joint letter to the president. 'We do not understand why you prefer to shut down the government rather than protect the health care and quality of life of the American people.' They added: 'At your direction, Republican congressional leaders have repeatedly and publicly refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations to keep the government open.'” Politico's story is here.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times remembers Robert Redford -- and Paul Newman. The part where she says Redford sent her a handwritten note is entirely believable to me because he once sent my daughter a handwritten note when she was in grade school & won a contest for something like "best invention to help the environment." (Also linked yesterday.)
William Grimes of the New York Times: “Marian Burros, a journalist and cookbook author whose reporting for The New York Times and other newspapers gave new urgency to safety and health issues regarding food, died early Saturday in Bethesda, Md. She was 92.... Ms. Burros made consumer protection and food safety topics a focus, expanding the boundaries of traditional women’s-page food writing to include not just recipes but also reporting on nutrition, truth in advertising and government policy.”
~~~~~~~~~~
California. Soumya Karlamangla of the New York Times: “Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed legislation on Saturday that would prevent federal immigration agents from wearing masks in the state, a direct response to ... [Donald] Trump’s deportation crackdown in the Los Angeles region. The new law is believed to be the first such ban in the nation, though it is likely to be challenged in court before it can go into effect in January because it is unclear whether California can enforce such restrictions on federal law enforcement. The bill also applies to local law enforcement.” The AP report is here. ~~~
~~~ Acting U.S. Attorney Kisses Up to Trump in Ridiculous Referral. Ty Roush of Forbes: “Bill Essayli, the acting U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, on Saturday said he referred Gov. Gavin Newsom to the Secret Service for a full threat assessment,' after Newsom wrote on social media a jab targeting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.... Essayli responded to an earlier social media post from Newsom, who wrote, 'Kristi Noem is going to have a bad day today,' before signing a series of bills protecting California’s immigrant population, including a ban on face coverings for federal agents and a requirement for officers to identify themselves.”
Oklahoma. Where GOP Legislators Are Insane. Robert Mackey of the Guardian: “Republican lawmakers in Oklahoma introduced legislation this week that would require every public university in the state to construct 'a Charlie Kirk Memorial Plaza', with a statue of the assassinated Republican activist and a sign calling him a 'modern civil rights leader', or pay monthly fines. The proposed legislation comes as conservatives pay tribute to the murdered activist and podcaster, whose life will be commemorated by the president at a service in Arizona on Sunday, by comparing him to martyred political and spiritual leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr and Saint Paul.”
~~~~~~~~~~
Israel/Yemen. Cate Brown of the Washington Post: “Thirty-one journalists and media workers were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a newspaper complex in Yemen last week, according to a report released Friday by the Committee to Protect Journalists. The attack was the deadliest against journalists since the Maguindanao massacre in the Philippines 16 years ago and the second-deadliest the New York-based press freedom group has recorded. Israeli strikes hit a government press complex at 4:45 p.m. local time on Sept. 10, as staff of the Yemeni army’s official news outlet were finalizing a weekly print edition, the publication’s editor in chief, Nasser Al-Khadri, told CPJ. The timing contributed to the high death toll in the attack, which killed journalists and media workers at three Houthi-connected media outlets in the heart of Yemen’s capital, Sanaa.” (Also linked yesterday.)
16 comments:
Sunday Sermon, Pt. 1
I had just made a few notes for a piece on our nation’s culture wars when the assassination of Charlie Kirk, a popular young conservative activist, deflected the discussion I had in mind. Suddenly, our culture wars took a brutal, violent turn.
Culture wars are far from new. They were going on long before Charlie Kirk and his Culture War banner arrived on the Utah campus where he was shot, and far before I knew what “culture” was.
`
It might have been my fourth-grade geography book that introduced me to the idea that people in other lands dressed, lived, and believed differently than the people I knew. Later, when I heard “culture" used to describe music and art outside of my experience, I gathered there was another meaning of culture I knew little about. That other culture was described as “high” or “low” and was somehow associated with how much money your family had, where you lived, and the kind of music you listened to. It wasn’t until much later, as I learned more and my world grew, that I understood culture wasn’t confined to geography books, concert halls or museums. My culture was all around me. As a member of it, I had been recruited at birth as an unwitting soldier in cultural contests I didn’t know existed.
Today, many of our cultural divisions are easy to see. In addition to its recognizable ethnic and racial cultures, America has a teen culture, gun culture, gay culture, “woke” culture, and more. Each has its adherents and critics. Even the relatively tame school culture where I spent most of my life has generated multiple public squabbles. Charlie Kirk cultivated the soil of these controversies, making provocative opinions his business model.
Kirk tooled his opinions to appeal to the white Christian, mostly male, culture that feels itself under threat. A proponent of Christian Nationalism, he said we have too many immigrants, especially those of the wrong color. He said that since guns might someday be our only bulwark against tyranny, tens of thousands of gun deaths each year is a reasonable price to pay for our Second Amendment rights (motherjones.com). Feminism is bad, and in a marriage the man is in charge. Trump won the 2020 election. The Black Lives Matter movement is America’s Hamas. He railed against what he called “sexual anarchy” (msn.com) and was “critical of gay and transgender rights and the separation of church and state” (nytimes.com).
Kirk’s assassination has brought calls for lowering the political temperature. I’m all for that. Unfortunately, we can’t look to our president to lower it. Violence and the image of war-like strength obviously appeal to him. He arranged a military parade to honor his birthday. He regularly employs violent speech against his political opponents (newsroom.ucla.edu). He renamed the Department of Defense the more belligerent Department of War and ordered that Department of War to assassinate (so far) fourteen alleged drug smugglers in open, international waters. In his effort to calm the nation, Trump rushed to blame the entire “radical left” (whatever that might mean to him besides Democrats) for Charlie Kirk’s death. Perhaps the best measure of how little Trump really abhors violence was his presidential pardon of all those who stormed the Capitol on his behalf nearly five years ago.
Part 2
History tells us that culture wars are often very deadly. Europe’s Thirty Years War (1618-1648) began as a conflict between the Catholic Church and the upstart Christian denominations breaking away from its control. Four to eight million Europeans died (Wikipedia.org). By 1890 the European immigrants’ march from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts of America left only about 300,000 of the original 10 million Native Americans alive (hmh.org). Our Civil War that killed 650,000 or more was in large part a conflict about the economic and moral shape our culture should take. Were we going to extend the promise of “liberty and justice for all” to everyone, or reserve its benefits to rich, white men who held Black people in bondage? The Civil War and the political decisions that followed it seemed to settle that question, but Kirk’s career and death remind us that they did not. Our centuries-long argument about whether all races and genders should enjoy economic and personal freedom remains America’s great cultural divide.
We don’t pick the culture we’re born into, but we’re not trapped in it. How we fight our culture wars is up to us: Will we fight them with reason and restraint--or with guns?
Violence is far too common, but it is not inevitable. Violence is a cultural choice.
An excellent essay, Ken. Thank you for sharing it with us.
Thanks, Marie
And the paper printed it. Wondered if it would....
Every evening at dinner time, I light a candle for those who have passed away
lately. Mostly friends since we're all getting up in years (way up).
I also light one for Donald, in hope. So far it's not working. Maybe I'll
double up on his.
I recently read somewhere that t**** still enjoys support from 80% of republicans(?). Thankfully, overall support is definitely fading.
David Frum, in The Atlantic, suggests Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
"President Donald Trump is worried that Attorney General Pam Bondi is moving too slowly to prosecute his political adversaries on fake charges. Trump has good reason to be concerned. He is carrying out his project to consolidate authoritarian power against the trend of declining public support for his administration and himself."
Fat Hitler is tired of waiting for full induction into the Dictators Club. He's trying to go full Uncle Joe Stalin: No investigations, no trials, just arrest 'em and stick 'em in a gulag. Better yet, just shoot them. I'm wondering is this is a headache for Eva Braun Bondi, trying to keep up the pretense of being an actual Attorney General who has the teensiest concern for law, order, the Constitution, her oath of office, and just plain ol' human decency, while at the same time feeding, burping, changing the colicky infant screeching at her at all hours. His only pacifier is the arrest and imprisoning of everyone on his enemies list, evidence of wrongdoing be damned.
Know what?
On one hand I was thinking that a reasonably decent person would just resign and save herself the angst and ass whippings. But Bondi is nothing but another MAGA crook. She wouldn't have been hired as Fatty's AG if she was honest and decent. So the only sad she's probably having right now is trying to figure out how to jimmy the system. Again.
Maybe a bag full of cash would help. Hey, it worked for her before.
Speaking of bags of money....'member when the Supine Court sed gratuities don't constitute a quid pro quo, that there had to be a big bag of money (💰) handed to someone in order for it to be a crime?
'Member that?
What happened to that?
My calendar says today is Peace Day. I haven't Googled it, but I'll bet
Donald knows what it means and he's just sitting there waiting to be nominated
for that Peace Prize.
Setting the record straight
"Straight", as opposed, I guess, to icky gays who need to be stoned to death. Or do they?
Just considering the fact that this idea should be even discussed as a serious topic is more than a bit eye-popping, but since we're now living in a world where states are demanding that Charlie Kirk statues and Charilie Kirk Plazas, and, I dunno, Charlie Kirk candy bars? are being touted as a new shibboleth on the right, it's worth looking at exactly what he did say as his every horrible idea is currently being taken through the car wash to make sure all that mud on the undercarriage is cleaned off.
So here's Snopes, the site that hands down it's True or False determinations as the arbiter of questions of great moment, saying that NO, CHARLIE KIRK NEVER ADVOCATED FOR STONING TEH GAYS.
You can read the whole exposition, but the quick version is that Charlie quotes the Bible, Leviticus, to be exact, which says that, um, yeah, gays SHOULD be stoned. Snopes sez that merely quoting the Bible isn't advocating that its tenets be obeyed. Okay, fair enough. And had Kirk followed up his quote by saying something like "Yeah, that's what it says, but I don't go along with that", then Snopes would be correct. No advocacy for people picking up rocks and stoning their gay friends and neighbors.
But that's not what he did. What he said was that this was "God's perfect law":
"It is true... that Kirk did not 'directly advocate for stoning gay people to death.' And yet the straightforward way to read a self-professed Christian—and biblical literalist—characterizing a chapter of the Bible as 'affirm[ing] God’s perfect law' is as an endorsement of the laws in that chapter—in this case, condoning the stoning to death of non-celibate gay people."
But as is happening across vast swathes of the online landscape, Snopes uses highly specious reasoning (they must be reading Supine Court decisions) to whitewash Kirk's truly despicable advocacy of murdering people whose lifestyle he disagrees with.
If you really want to set the record straight, how about some straightforward analysis, not bending over backward to not piss off the MAGAts.
Akhilleus: the paper bag and the cash are but two elements necessary for SCOTUS-defined bribery, necessary but not sufficient. The act (some call it "crime", but we can talk ...) of bribery ALSO requires:
-- the bag needs to be cinched, with the top edges splayed out in a flower-like pattern;
-- the bag itself must bulge so as to indicate being stuffed with paper; or, for the old fashioned, it can display crescent dents as if loaded with gold coins;
-- there MUST be a large dollar sign ($) printed on the side of the bag;
-- either the giver or the taker must be dressed in a pullover with large horizontal stripes, and must be a bulbous male with a five o'clock shadow and a burglar's mask (like the Clayton Moore Lone Ranger, not like a stage coach bandit pull-up kerchief).
When ALL of these requirements are met, and observed by a recording cartoonist, SCOTUS will concede that bribery could be involved, if one of the parties is a Democrat.
Cancelled
"ABC suspended Jimmy Kimmel Live! on September 17 after the late-night host commented on the killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
The suspension triggered strong responses across social media and beyond. Hashtags like #CancelDisneyPlus and #CancelHulu trended as users shared screenshots of their canceled subscriptions. Lawmakers, unions, and advocacy groups joined the conversation, framing the move as an attack on free expression rather than a programming choice.
With cancellations surging, many subscribers reported technical issues. On Reddit’s r/Fauxmoi, one post read, “The page to cancel your Hulu/Disney+ subscription keeps crashing.” Others said they faced looping logins and stalled forms. These firsthand accounts suggest Disney’s systems struggled under the unusual traffic volume."
"Hugging A Flag And Carrying A Grudge
Over at Vox, Zack Beauchamp considers where all this is heading:
The kind of authoritarianism I fear is emerging in the United States, which political scientists call “competitive authoritarianism,” doesn’t involve the outright criminalization of the opposition or formal martial law. Instead, it depends on perverting the law, modifying and twisting it with the intent of incrementally undermining the opposition’s ability to compete fairly in elections.
Such a government can be constructed along the lines of what Princeton University’s Kim Lane Scheppele calls a “Frankenstate:” that is, “an abusive form of rule, created by combining the bits and pieces of perfectly reasonable democratic institutions in monstrous ways. … No one part is objectionable; the horror emerges from the combinations.”"
Business Euphemisms
Diplomacy
"President Donald Trump promised to reform American diplomacy. Insiders say he’s breaking it instead, to the point where he’s undermining his own global influence. Eight months into Trump’s second term, more than half of U.S. ambassadorships, an unusually high amount, are vacant. Most top State Department roles are filled on an acting basis, often by people with little relevant experience.
Many U.S. diplomats, especially those overseas, are largely cut out of policy talks while struggling to implement administration orders they say are confusing. Many also are too afraid to speak up because they could be fired or lose a promotion under new rules that measure their “fidelity.” They’ve already seen thousands of their colleagues pushed out and many offices dismantled."
Partrick,
By yiminy, you're right! I went back and Googled Tom Homan and this is what I found.
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