Salvador Rizzo, et al., of the Washington Post: “New York Attorney General Letitia James pleaded not guilty Friday to allegations of mortgage fraud brought by the Justice Department amid ... Donald Trump’s push to prosecute those who have investigated him. James, the highest-ranking Democrat to be indicted as part of Trump’s effort, entered her plea during a brief arraignment hearing in Norfolk federal court. U.S. District Judge Jamar K. Walker, who was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden, set a trial date of Jan. 26. 'We want the speediest trial we can get,' said James’s attorney, Abbe Lowell.”
Steve Benen of MSNBC: So now AG Pam Bondi is "investigating" Rep. Nancy Pelosi because before Trump called off the ICE dogs bound for San Francisco (which Pelosi represents), she suggested to a New York Times reporter "that local police could arrest federal agents if they break California law while conducting immigration raids that were expected this week in the San Francisco Bay Area." ~~~
~~~ Marie: We are going to see more and more absurd "investigations" and prosecutions. Because that's what fascists do. In today's Comments, RAS points to this Intercept story about the prosecution of a former policeman & deputy sheriff for posting an innocuous remark in which he linked Trump's dismissal of a mass school shooting -- “We have to get over it,” Trump said -- to the murder of Charlie Kirk. The "offender" was charged with threatening mass violence at a school & has been in jail on a $2MM bond ever since his arrest. This is the government's way of getting millions of people to be afraid to say anything that could be wildly misinterpreted as anti-administration or anti-Trump.
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Prices that people pay for a variety of goods and services rose less than expected in September, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics report Friday that keeps the door wide open for another interest rate cut next week. The consumer price index showed a 0.3% increase on the month, putting the annual inflation rate at 3%."
Trump's Army. Don Moynihan on Substack: "Trump says that he can determine if the armed forces get paid or not during a shutdown. This is an unprecedented threat to American democracy in two ways. First, Trump is dramatically escalating his Congressional power grab. He claims the right not just to impound funds Congress has appropriated, but also to spend funds for purposes Congress has not appropriated. Second, Trump is upending civil-military relations to encourage troops and other armed agents of the state view him as their personal patron.... It’s not just the military. Even as their civilian counterparts are not receiving a paycheck during the shutdown, FBI agents and parts of the Department of Homeland Security, such as Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Coast Guard, Customs and Border Patrol, Secret Service, and Air Marshals will get their paychecks on time.... Military loyalty, via payments, has been both a historical means of regime consolidation and occasional societal collapse. "
Lynsey Chutel & Ana Swanson debunk Donald Trump's claim that an ad produced by the Province of Ontario is fake. The ad extensively employs soundbites from one of President Reagan's weekly addresses, in which he warns of the dangers of tariffs. Trump has used the ad as an excuse to stop negotiating tariff rates with Canada. Related story linked below.
Who Was That Masked Man? Bora Erden of the New York Times distinguishes among the various federal forces purporting to enforce immigration laws. With pictures of their outfits.
~~~~~~~~~~
Tom Sullivan of Hullabaloo summarizes Trump's atrocities of the week. Of course he misses a few; there's only so much one can cram into one post. ~~~
~~~ So then digby herself posts this Presidential Palace News, with the note, "I think we know what he’s going for…" ~~~
Instead of pretending they're so scared of antifa terrorists, Republicans should admit that what they are really afraid of is the fascist terrorist in the White House, who -- among many vicious acts -- has done more damage to the People's House than any other domestic terrorist. The last time anyone so desecrated the Presidential Mansion was when an invading British army and navy burned it down 211 years ago.
The URL title for this next story? "east-wing-obituary". ~~~
~~~ Elisabeth Bumiller of the New York Times: “The East Wing, the entrance to the White House for millions of Americans on official tours, the site of offices for every first lady for nearly a half century and the home of calligraphers who prepared thousands of invitations for White House state dinners, disappeared into a pile of rubble on Thursday. It had stood for 123 years. Built in 1902 during the Theodore Roosevelt administration as an entryway for guests arriving in carriages, and rebuilt in the 1940s during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, the East Wing met its end under orders from ... [Donald] Trump. He dismissed it this week as 'a very small building' that was in the way of his planned 90,000-square-foot, $300 million ballroom. [MB: Actually, Trump upped the cost to $350MM Thursday afternoon, which he can do since no one is keeping a record of income and outlays.] A New York Times analysis of satellite imagery showed that the demolition included the Jacqueline Kennedy Garden and the East Colonnade, which connected the East Wing to the White House and included the president’s theater. The East Wing’s destruction prompted outrage from preservationists and Democrats, and mourning from those who once worked there.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: Jacqueline Kennedy Garden? As I noted the other day, that SOB is getting rid of every trace of women in his gaudy manosphere. ~~~
~~~ Jonathan Edwards, et al., of the Washington Post: “The East Wing of the White House is gone. Wrecking crews had completely removed the decades-old annex by midday Thursday, just three days after they started, to make way for a pet project of ... Donald Trump: a 90,000-square-foot ballroom. The teardown ... prompted a massive backlash from historic preservationists and Democrats, who accused Trump of destroying a national landmark and doing so under a cloak of secrecy.... The Trump administration has restricted the public from most vantage points, ordering employees of the adjacent Treasury Department not to share photos and escorting away journalists trying to shoot video....
“Trump told reporters Thursday that private donors had given about $350 million for the project and that he had personally contributed 'millions of dollars. 'The East Wing will be replaced by the ballroom, offices for the first lady and her staff, as well as new 'guest suites for the 'President’s White House Guests,' according to a project description on the résumé of lead architect James McCrery II. White House officials said this week that the East Wing will be 'modernized and rebuilt' but did not immediately clarify whether the offices or guest suites are included in the 90,000-square-foot footprint Trump has described.” ~~~
~~~ Marie: IOW, a private club like -- I don't know -- Mar-a-Lardo, but with astronomically steep membership fees. No wonder they needed umbrellas on the patio. ~~~
~~~ Jennifer Bendery & S.V. Date of the Huffington Post publish the list of donors the Trump White House distributed.
~~~ Philip Kennicott of the Washington Post: “We don’t know [any of the essentials about the ballroom project]..., and we don’t know if the president knows, given how quickly his promises about this terribly reckless project ... are evolving. The American Institute of Architects asked for answers in August...; on Tuesday, the National Trust for Historic Preservation demanded that the White House pause the demolition and submit the ballroom plans to 'the legally required public review process.' But it takes almost no time to reduce history to rubble, and by Thursday afternoon Roosevelt’s wartime addition to the White House complex was gone. Yes, the pictures were shocking, but not so shocking as all the things we don’t know about this project, which is being paid for with private donations from some of the wealthiest people and corporations on the planet, all of whom can directly profit from access to the president.... In the premier authoritarian regimes of the 21st century — China and the gulf states — rapid construction of massive infrastructure establishes legitimacy and consoles the populace for its thorough disenfranchisement from power.”
And the Criminals Will Dance at the Billionaires' Ball: ~~~
(1) Corrupt Criminal Pardons Partner in Crime. David Yaffe-Bellany & Kenneth Vogel of the New York Times: Donald “Trump granted a pardon to Changpeng Zhao, the billionaire founder of the cryptocurrency exchange Binance, wiping away one of the U.S. government’s most significant crackdowns on crypto crime. Mr. Zhao had pleaded guilty to money-laundering violations in 2023 and served four months in federal prison, after a yearslong investigation by financial regulators and U.S. prosecutors.... The pardon was the latest example of how high-profile business partners of Mr. Trump and his family have benefited from his rollback of the wide-ranging crypto crackdown orchestrated by President Joseph R. Biden Jr. To seek the pardon, Mr. Zhao hired lawyers and lobbyists with ties to the Trump administration, while Binance struck a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto start-up.” Thanks to RAS for the link.
(2) Billionaire Buddies Get Criminal War Monger Not to Invade San Francisco. Heather Knight, et al., of the New York Times: Donald “Trump announced on Thursday that he has called off the deployment of federal immigration agents to San Francisco, just as they were beginning to gather at a Coast Guard base in the Bay Area. Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social that he had stopped the federal action in San Francisco at the request of friends who live in the Bay Area and who vouched for the work of the city’s Democratic mayor, Daniel Lurie. Mr. Trump specifically cited Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce, who set off a local firestorm for initially saying he wanted the National Guard in San Francisco, and Jensen Huang, the president and chief executive of Nvidia. Mr. Benioff later apologized and said he did not want Guard troops in the city. Mr. Trump said that federal officials were 'preparing to “surge” San Francisco, California, on Saturday,' until his friends asked him to stop because Mr. Lurie was making 'substantial progress.'”
Konstantin Toropin of the AP: “The U.S. military flew a pair of supersonic, heavy bombers up to the coast of Venezuela on Thursday, a little over a week after another group of American bombers made a similar journey as part of a training exercise to simulate an attack. The U.S. military has built up an unusually large force in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off of Venezuela, raising speculation that ... Donald Trump could try to topple Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Maduro faces charges of narcoterrorism in the U.S.” ~~~
~~~ Robert Jimison of the New York Times: Donald “Trump said on Thursday that he would bypass Congress rather than seek its approval to carry out military strikes against drug cartels that traffic narcotics to the United States, even as he vowed to expand the operation from attacks at sea to targets on land. 'I don’t think we’re going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war,' Mr. Trump told reporters of his campaign of deadly strikes against vessels in the Caribbean Sea near Colombia and Venezuela. 'I think we are going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country, OK? We are going to kill them, you know? They are going to be, like, dead.'” The NBC News story is here. ~~~
~~~ Aiding & Abetting. Stef Kight of Axios: "Senate Foreign Relations Chair James Risch (R-Idaho) has no plans 'at this time' to hold an oversight hearing on the Trump administration's deadly strikes on vessels off the coast of Venezuela."
~~~ Donald Trump, Serial Killer. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: “Since he returned to office nine months ago..., [Donald] Trump has sought to expand executive power across numerous fronts. But his claim that he can lawfully order the military to summarily kill people accused of smuggling drugs on boats off the coast of South America stands apart. A broad range of specialists in laws governing the use of lethal force have called Mr. Trump’s orders to the military patently illegal. They say the premeditated extrajudicial killings have been murders — regardless of whether the 37 people blown apart, burned alive or drowned in nine strikes so far were indeed running drugs.... The irreversible gravity of killing, coupled with the lack of a substantive legal justification, is bringing into sharper view a structural weakness of law as a check on the American presidency.... Even in closed-door congressional briefings..., administration officials have clammed up when asked for the legal analysis to support their assertion that there is a legal state of armed conflict that makes the killings lawful.” ~~~
~~~ Noah Robertson of the Washington Post: “GOP lawmakers who for years warned that Congress risked abandoning its constitutional right to decide whether the United States enters an armed conflict have now mostly gone silent as Trump directs unprecedented military action in Latin America. Their deference has allowed the administration to escalate what many legal experts say is a campaign of extrajudicial killings.... Many experts on the law of war have called the strikes patently illegal because the roughly three dozen people slain by U.S. forces since September aren’t enemy combatants but instead suspected criminals. Trump, meanwhile, has signaled he intends to further escalate. Last week, he acknowledged having signed a highly classified directive permitting covert operations inside Venezuela. This week, he suggested his administration is preparing to expand the drug-boat campaign to also hit targets on land, though he did not specify when or where that could occur.”
High tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars. Then the worst happens. Markets shrink and collapse. Businesses and industries shut down, and millions of people lose their jobs. -- Ronald Reagan, 1987, aired in Canadian TV ad ~~~
“[Doug] Ford, the Ontario premier, last week expressed disappointment with the decision of automaker Stellantis to move an SUV production base out of Canada and into the U.S., blaming Trump for the decision and calling for retaliatory tariffs from Ottawa. 'That guy, President Trump, he’s a real piece of work,” Ford [said.]... 'I’m sick and tired of rolling over. We need to fight back.'“ ~~~
~~~ Will Weissert of the AP: Trump's “post on [his] social media site came Thursday night after Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he aims to double his country’s exports to countries outside the U.S. because of the threat posed by Trump’s tariffs.“
Harry Cockburn of the Independent: “Steve Bannon has claimed 'there is a plan' for Donald Trump to secure a third term as president of the United States after the next election, scheduled for 2028.... He’s going to get a third term. Trump is going to be president in ‘28 and people ought to just get accommodated with that', Bannon told The Economist in a video interview.”
⭐And to Think that She Called Them “Deplorables.” John Ganz on Substack: “... ICE is a central part of the Trump regime’s overall organization of the mob. They are drawn from what Marx called the 'scum, offal, refuse of all classes,' Engels called 'the depraved elements of all classes,' and what Arendt identified as 'declassés of all classes.' In fact, a great deal of Trump’s political apparatus is drawn from those ranks. Arendt summed up the lives of mob leaders as characterized by 'failure in professional and social life, perversion and disaster in private life.' Semi or even open criminality and the adoption of mob attitudes and behaviors are practically job requirements for service in the [Trump] administration.... The corruption is the point.... MAGA is more of a kleptocratic demimonde or criminal racket than a political movement.... A career in MAGA is a pay-off system, a welfare state for the unemployable.” The link is a gift link from digby. Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) See also Ainley & Martinez' report, linked below. ~~~
~~~ Marie: Ganz touches on Senate Republicans (and specifically John Thune) when he writes, "A contradiction within the Republican Party is between the mob elements and relatively respectable bourgeois conservatives who are still uneasy with the overt presence of these disreputable characters." But he doesn't mention those other VIP Republicans: Johnny & The Supines. That's odd, because Ganz cites Marx's essay on Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte's 'independent executive authority.' And that, IMO, is another way of saying, "unitary executive theory," a theory of governance which lately has become a fave of the confederate Supremes. This has been particularly evident in their ruling in Trump v. U.S. (2024) -- in which they decided that the president* is immune from criminal liability for all 'official acts,' or anything he might do using the power of his office -- and in recent rulings allowing the president* to fire officials without Congressional approval, even when the law requires him to obtain that approval (or at least to notify Congress of his intentions).
There's No There There. Dan Mangan of CNBC: “The U.S. Attorney for Maryland had told superiors at the Department of Justice that she does not believe there is strong enough evidence to charge Sen. Adam Schiff of California with mortgage fraud, MSNBC reported Thursday.... Donald Trump has called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to criminally charge the California Democrat Schiff, a staunch critic of the president who acted as prosecutor in Trump’s first impeachment trial. MSNBC, citing three people familiar with the matter, reported that Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes, in recent days, met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche to update him on her investigation of Schiff. 'Hayes, an experienced federal prosecutor, told Blanche she did not think the case against Schiff was strong, two people said,' MSNBC’s Ken Dilanian wrote in a post on the social media site X. 'The two said Ed Martin, a controversial senior Justice Department official, is pressing to keep the case alive,' Dilanian wrote. One of the people who spoke with MSNBC said that the investigation of Schiff is continuing.” ~~~
Trump's Harassment of Tish James, Ctd. Jonah Bromwich & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: “Mr. Trump’s crusade against those he believes wronged him ... is ... creating the trappings of criminality — the headlines, the scrutiny, the reputational damage — [which] is as much a part of the formula as any realistic chance of conviction.... In recent days, Trump-aligned media outlets have run scathing headlines about [New York Attorney General Letitia James'] relatives’ criminal records, amplifying the specter of wrongdoing created by the Justice Department.... The escalating campaign against Ms. James shows the power and utility of a Justice Department in the grip of a vengeful president...[.] The criminal investigation into her office, meanwhile, could undermine the remaining consequences of the civil fraud lawsuit she brought against him.” ~~~
~~~ Again, There's No There There. Katherine Faulders, et al., of ABC News: "Prosecutors who investigated New York Attorney General Letitia James for possible mortgage fraud found evidence that would appear to undercut some of the allegations in the indictment of James secured earlier this month -- including the degree to which James personally profited from her purchase of the property -- according to a memo summarizing the state of the case in September.... Prosecutors who led the monthslong investigation into James' conduct concluded that any financial benefit derived from her allegedly falsified mortgage would have amounted to approximately $800 in the year she purchased the home.... The government lawyers also expressed concern that the case could likely not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt because federal mortgage guidelines for a second home do not clearly define occupancy.... Prosecutors detailed the findings to the previous U.S. attorney, Erik Siebert, in an internal Department of Justice memo.... Siebert was ousted by ... Donald Trump last month after refusing to seek charges against James amid what critics call Trump's campaign of retribution against his perceived political foes." ~~~
~~~ Yunior Rivas of Democracy Docket: "New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) escalated her defense against what she calls a politically driven prosecution, signaling plans to challenge both the conduct and the legitimacy of the federal prosecutor leading the case against her. In a motion filed Thursday, James’ legal team accused interim U.S. Attorney Lindsey Halligan — Trump’s recent appointee — of violating multiple ethics and secrecy rules through private communications with a journalist, Lawfare’s Anna Bower, about the ongoing criminal case.... According to the filing, Halligan used the encrypted messaging app Signal to contact Bower just two days after indicting James on two counts of bank fraud and false statements. The motion includes screenshots of Halligan berating Bower over her reporting." ~~~
~~~Marie: Last week, RAS linked the Bower's report on Halligan's weird "outreach." I had read Bower's story earlier, and couldn't make much of it other than its being additional evidence for the stereotyping of beauty queens as being eternal airheads. All Bower had done to invoke Halligan's pique was to write a tweet (or series of tweets; I forget) summarizing a NYT story on the James case. I couldn't figure out why Halligan would waste any time on that. Anyway, now I see that Halligan purportedly has violated various DOJ rules, maybe there is something to Bower's odd report.
Julia Ainsley & Didi Martinez of NBC News: "Immigration and Customs Enforcement has placed new recruits into its training program before they have completed the agency’s vetting process, an unusual sequence of events as it rushes to hire federal immigration officers to carry out ... Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.... Staff members at ICE’s training academy in Brunswick, Georgia, recently discovered one recruit had previously been charged with strong-arm robbery and battery stemming from a domestic violence incident. They’ve also found as recently as this month that some recruits going through the six-week training course hadn’t submitted fingerprints for background checks, as ICE’s hiring process requires.... Since the surge began, ICE has dismissed more than 200 new recruits while they were in training for falling short of its hiring requirements.... Nearly half of new recruits who’ve arrived for training ... over the past three months were later sent home because they couldn’t pass the written exam ... in which officers are allowed to consult their textbooks and notes at the end of a legal course on the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Fourth Amendment." Via Heather Cox Richardson.
David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Under orders from ... Donald Trump, the FBI has started visiting the homes of innocent protesters, according to a report.... Last month, Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), which authorized the Department of Justice to treat 'extremism on migration' as an indicator of terrorism. Attorney General Pam Bondi cited Trump's memorandum in a Sept. 9 directive adding any necessary FBI agents to a 'temporary ICE Protection Task Force.'"
Riley Beggin & Theodoric Meyer of the Washington Post: “The Senate blocked a bill Thursday to pay federal employees who have been required to keep working during the shutdown. The bill, which failed to advance by a 54-45 along mostly partisan lines, was a political test for senators as the shutdown entered its fourth week. Only three Democrats voted with Republicans to advance the measure put forward by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin).... Democrats argued that Johnson’s bill gave White House budget director Russell Vought too much leeway to determine which workers would get paid and which would not because the administration decides which employees are furloughed or working. Many said they would prefer two alternative proposals from Sens. Gary Peters (D-Michigan) and Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland.)” Politico's story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)
RAS pointed out yesterday that Mike Johnson was "too busy" to know anything about anything. MB: This is particlarly odd right now, since not only is the government shut down, Mike sent the House home to play and he's doing nothing, by his own admission, to get the government back up and running. Why, he doesn't even have the time to swear in a duly-elected Member of the House. ~~~
Rick Maese & Jeremy Roebuck of the Washington Post: “Long-simmering gambling fears erupted into scandal Thursday morning as FBI agents arrested at least two high-profile NBA figures, including Hall of Fame guard and Portland Trail Blazers Coach Chauncey Billups, who authorities said was involved in a mob-run rigged poker scheme and also supplied information to sports bettors about his team. Billups was arrested in Portland, Oregon, just hours after his Trail Blazers team lost its season-opening game Wednesday night. He was charged with money laundering and wire fraud conspiracy for his alleged participation in rigged poker games that also involved members of Mafia crime families, also called La Cosa Nostra. Agents also arrested Miami Heat player Terry Rozier, a former first-round draft pick, in Orlando. Authorities allege he participated in a sports betting operation that involved sharing information with bettors that wasn’t publicly available. He was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. In all, 35 people were charged in connection with two cases, officials said.” The AP report is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: According to the WashPo, "... FBI Director Kash Patel said parallel investigations ... involved fraud that is 'mind-boggling' — 'tens of millions of dollars in fraud and theft and robbery across a multiyear investigation.'...” That funny because Kash's mind did not seem to get boggled by the tens of millions of dollars in fraud Donald Trump has copped to just this week.
Grapefruit Ladies. Thanks very much to Akhilleus for the link. Ah, sometimes we must go afar for inspiration. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~~~~~~~~
New York Mayoral Race. Nicholas Fandos & Michael Gold of the New York Times: “Former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo laughed along with a conservative radio host on Thursday who said that Zohran Mamdani, a Muslim mayoral candidate, would celebrate another Sept. 11-style terrorist attack on New York City. Within hours, the exchange ricocheted across the campaign trail, where Mr. Mamdani and a cross-section of Democrats denounced the conversation as Islamophobic and outside the bounds of even a heated campaign.... Late Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo’s campaign posted, and then took down, an A.I.-generated video depicting Mr. Mamdani’s supporters as trespassers, domestic abusers, pimps, drug dealers and drunken drivers, and showing a Black shoplifter in a kaffiyeh. The video called Mr. Mamdani an 'inexperienced radical' and portrayed him eating rice with his hands, a common practice among South Asians that has been frequently invoked by the right to mock Mr. Mamdani.”
18 comments:
The Price fot not invading San Francisco?
"The MAGA curious billionaire owner of TIME magazine has appeased Trump by green-lighting a more flattering cover photo after the president melted down over the last portrait. In a surprisingly self-conscious Truth Social post, Trump, 79, exploded in anger at TIME’s first attempt."
Do you think they got all the history and artifacts out of the East Wing before they started destroying it? This administration has always had a huge problem with leaks, but it wasn't reported beforehand that Fat Hitler would in fact be tearing down a huge portion of the White House? No one noticed boxes being packed up or all the pictures being taken away? They have obviously rushed this demolition. So it makes one wonder what kind of shortcuts they took. I wouldn't be surprised if people searching through the rubble were to find pieces of many Democratic administrations and a portrait or two of Obama or Biden.
Mrs Betty Bowera speculates anyone searching rubble would also find - Asbestos and lead paint?
RAS,
Good point. Give the fact that the orange blob, famously uninterested in details of any sort, is surrounded by equally incurious and incompetent sycophantic subalterns and dregs level ethical and moral potted plants, the idea that anyone at all was concerned about historical artifacts, artworks, or even documents kept in the East Wing of the People's House is risible.
Anyone who has ever moved knows it can take weeks to properly box up and move everything in a house, never mind one with the historical legacy of the White House. Special care is taken with irreplaceable items, photographs, family heirlooms, important documents and paperwork, kids drawings, etc. It seems like it was only a couple of days from the decision to destroy a third of the White House to satisfy the latest ephemeral whim of the fat infant, that the wrecking ball was swinging. So much for special care.
Nothing in the White House, except for certain personal items belongs to the Fat Fascist no matter what he thinks. Anyone who believes special care was taken with OUR belongings before the wrecking crew was brought in is welcome to comb through the rubble (while it's still there) looking for them. Oh, and watch out for the asbestos (thanks, Wendy).
David Cole, in The New York Review on t**** getting away with premeditated murder
"There was no conceivable legal authority for these killings. We are not at war with drug traffickers. The “war on drugs” is a metaphor, not a legal term of art that authorizes killing the “enemy.” The human beings on these boats were civilians, and even if there were an actual war going on, the laws of war prohibit targeting civilians unless they are directly engaged in hostilities. Even if the boats’ occupants were, as the administration alleges, carrying illegal drugs, that offense would at most have authorized their arrest, trial, and, if convicted, incarceration for a period of years. It would not authorize the death penalty, much less their summary execution without trial.
....
In the absence of any conceivable military justification for these acts, it is difficult to view them as anything but premeditated murder, pure and simple. Federal law makes it a crime to kill a human being “with malice aforethought” on the high seas, and to conspire to do so.
....
Maybe “most alarming,” in [Georgetown Law colleague Marty] Lederman’s estimation, is how dramatically these killings break from the Defense Department’s stated commitment, required by international law, not to target civilians, even in wartime.
....
But since long before the founding of this nation, the law has recognized that in the hierarchy of illegal and immoral acts, premeditated murder sits at the very apex"
Realpolitick, kindergarten edition...
Canada has had enough with Fat Hitler's temper tantrum tariffs and blustering bullshit. They decide something has to be done. Fatty responds with the usual screehes and high chair tray banging, cuz that's all he knows how to do.
Vladimir Putin plays the easily gotten orange git once again. You have to hand it to him, Putin knows just how to con this lifelong con man, who should recognize a slick move when he sees it, except that he's too enthralled with his own kingly importance to notice, or care, or to do anything about it.
So here's the scene. First, word of Fatty's meeting with Zelensky gets out. Tomahawk missiles enter the conversation. Putin picks up the phone and lures the Fat Moron with promises of another SUMMIT that will make Fatty look good to the Nobel people, but first, he has to nix any plans for long range missiles delivered to Ukraine. Fatty, of course, says "Sure, Mr. Putin, whatever you say." He then goes back to Zelensky and says "No missiles", Then he calls a press conference and sez "Missiles can cause damage". No shit, moron. That's their raison d'etre. They're not there as paperweights. So, Putin one, Zelensky zero, Fatty minus one (loss of an extra point for stupidity).
Fatty runs to the press (the ones still allowed into the briefing room, mostly far-right stenographers) and announces a YUUUUGE SUMMIT, HE, King Donald has decreed that the WAR MUST STOP! Big deal summit in Budapest, home of Fatty's pal, the Hungarian dictator, Viktor Orbán. MSM eats it up. "King Donald is great!" just like they raced to declare his sainthood after the bullshit Gaza "peace plan" which is falling apart after a week.
Couple of days go by and Putin says "Ya know what? Fuggeabout that summit, I ain't stopping this war for anything. Ukraine is mine". Of course he said as much in Alaska but Fatty was too busy being pissed having to listen to stories about Russian medieval fairytales.
So, no summit, no peace talks, no Nobel.
Putin two, Fatty minus two. Skunked again!
Waaaaaahhhh! More high chair tray banging. "SANCTIONS!" the fat infant cries. Why? Because he has no idea what else to do. He's been played more often than the Funky Chicken at bad wedding receptions. But still, he falls for Vlad the Impaler's tricks. He's an idiot. A child. And he reacts accordingly.
Realpolitick, wet diaper edition.
Cheryl Rofer has a list of the Morally Wrong of Trump inspired by
Joseph Margulies in the
The Boston Review
"The Moral Stupefaction of the American Public
Trump’s actions are illegal, yes. Worse than that, they are wrong—precisely what the legality debate is meant to obscure."
Juries
"As the Trump administration’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids continue to ransack communities across the country—leaving destruction and a strong sense of distrust in their path—the government appears to believe that it can embrace aggressive tactics, sow fear, and purge juries of anyone skeptical of its actions.
Another prospective juror told the judge, “I don’t trust government like I used to,” and admitted they would “have a hard time believing their integrity” if ICE officers testified. But lying to cover their tracks has become so commonplace among ICE and DHS officials that a healthy dose of wariness is well deserved.
When the government acts aggressively, its agents lie, and the community witnesses the erosion of justice, that community’s informed distrust of the government’s actions is not a bias to be purged. It is the very voice the Framers yearned for engaged citizens to bring to the jury box. That community skepticism of arbitrary and unjust government action forms the bedrock of the constitutionally prescribed mechanism by which we adjudicate criminal cases.
Proponents of the unchecked exercise of state power might say that it is worth trying to find the best jury to hear a case. But they have it backward: If the government time and again finds juries that are not naturally sympathetic to its case, that is because it is measuring real community sentiment, not corrosive bias. If weeding out jurors for representing their community interests is the policy, trials will be staffed by juries that are less informed, not more."
Debt
"US hits $38 trillion in debt, after the fastest accumulation of $1 trillion outside of the pandemic"
So much for all that tariff money paying down the debt.
Better be careful with the memes.
"The Absurd Prosecution of a Man Who Posted a Charlie Kirk Meme
Larry Bushart Jr. posted trolling memes on a Facebook thread about a vigil for Kirk. He’s been in a Tennessee jail ever since.
But it was a more innocuous post that would soon send Bushart’s life spiraling out of control. It was an image he had previously posted to his own feed to little response: a photo of Trump alongside a quote, “We have to get over it.” The meme, which had been circulating for more than a year, drew from remarks Trump made after a January 2024 school shooting in Perry, Iowa. Beneath the quote was a line providing context: “Donald Trump, on the Perry High School mass shooting, one day after.” Above the image were the words “Seems relevant today.”
“Just to clarify, this is what they charged you with,” he told Bushart, pointing and reading aloud: “Threatening Mass Violence at a School."
His bail was set at $2 million — a shocking amount, wildly beyond his financial capacity. Under Tennessee law, Bushart would have to pay at least $210,000 to get out of jail, under onerous conditions."
Kyle Khan-Mullins, for Forbes, on the billionaires spending big to oppose Mamdani
"In all, these billionaires have donated over $22 million to back opposition campaigns, flooding the airwaves and mailboxes of Big Apple residents with anti-Mamdani messages.
Over half of those donations, about $13.6 million, came before Mamdani won the Democratic primary on June 24. More than half of that was donated by former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, who endorsed Cuomo and flooded a group called Fix The City, Inc. with $8.3 million in cash in June. "
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The article lists the top donors (where Bloomberg is #1), an Austinite, Joseph Gebbia, is #2, the Lauder family is #3, and on through about 25 names.
South African billionaire troublemaker brings brings his chainsaw (and drill) to Nashville.
Elon Musk, he of the exploding rocket ships, Nazification of Twitter, and destruction of the US federal government, is bringing his genius for fuckups to Nashville, Tennessee.
"Elon Musk's Boring Company started work on an underground tunnel in Nashville without approval from Nashville officials. State Republicans in Tennessee found a way to sidestep the Democratic-leaning city where people are concerned about the impact to the environment and the lack of transparency. "
Wow....no permission and no transparency, a business only MAGAts could love. But it gets better...
Tennessee PoT guv, Bill Lee, sez Musk is a genius and not to worry, no problems will ensue and it won't cost taxpayers a dime....Heh-heh...and the check is in the mail...
"But state lawmakers from Nashville say there will be a cost. The city's Statehouse delegation has argued that the development will only serve tourists, and locals stand to lose if the project fails but won't see any of the benefits if it succeeds. City officials have had little input on the plan - by design, according to internal memos. The tunnel traces a careful arc of state roads, allowing The Boring Company to circumvent local approval altogether. Lawmakers on the State Building Commission, none of whom represent Nashville, voted unanimously to give Musk's company access to state-owned land at no cost."
But it gets worse. Musk has filed no permits and has conducted no environmental impact studies, and this in an area with limestone caves running under the city like a huge slab of underground Swiss cheese. Not the best envirorment for digging another tunnel, weakening an already porous environment. Musk has already tried one of these tunnels in Las Vegas, but it flooded. A flood. In Las Vegas, where they average about 4 inches of rain a year. That number in Nashville is 45 to 50 inches. But, hey, no worries. Musk is a genius!
In 2010, Nashville had a flood that closed schools for a week, the interstate surrounding the city was under water and took months to repair. But here's where the South African Chainsaw monster wants to dig a tunnel through already cave riddled limestone. Can you say "Sinkhole"?
Nothing to worry about. Don't forget, this is the same unelected prick who decimated the federal government.
Yeah, a list of the outrages of the week, let alone a day, (if we only knew all of them and I fear we're dealing with an iceberg of them) is hard to cram into a short article or even a blog.
Marie, you have my sympathy. I just crashed into my word limit on the latest piece I'm trying to put together for the paper....and I felt I was only getting started.
Of course, it should help that we don't know much about the details of the ballroom construction and from now on won't know anything about what's really happening in the Pentagon.
Fat Hitler's decision to pay the military and let the vast majority of federal workers go without, is an ancient ploy for retaining not only their loyalty, but making sure that loyalty was strictly to the leader and not to the country. Caesar, in his "Civil Wars" makes a point several times of explaining how necessary it was to share booty with his men, both to keep them in line and to engender their loyalty.
Roman legionaries never actually swore an oath to Rome. In the days of the Republic, they swore an oath to their commanding officer, typically a general, and they considered themselves a special breed above the Roman populace. There's a famous story in Suetonius related to a delay in payment of the troops. Caesar, sensing that there could be a mutiny afoot, came out of his tent and suggested the army might be disbanded. He addressed the soldiers with one word that turned the whole thing around: Quirites! (Citizens) to which the legionaries protested mightily that they were soldiers and were united with Caesar (basically, Caesar was calling them civilians, which royally pissed off battle hardened troops).
After Caesar's death, and for several centuries on, no matter how bad things got in Rome, the army was always paid, with one big change. When Augustus took over and declared himself both emperor and a god, he changed the oath of loyalty legionaries would take. From then on, they swore allegiance to him alone, not to a general or to Rome or to SPQR, the motto on so many Roman banners (senatus populusque Romanus--the Senate and the people of Rome), their oath of allegiance was to the emperor.
Sound familiar?
Fatty is just doing what emperors of old always did: take care of the military with the expectation that they will take care of you. We've all heard Fat Hitler talk about "his" generals. He might not be consciously copying the actions of Roman emperors and authoritarian leaders since, but he hopes singling out the military for payment when others get nothing will purchase him, not the country, not the Constitution, their undying loyalty.
I've seen over reaction and over escalation before but send the CVN Gerald Ford to the Caribbean in a supposed anti drug offensive takes the cake. This is the sledgehammer to swat a flea.
With more power than any nation in the region it is a floating dare to any and all. But 130 years ago it was pretty much the same picture.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10/24/us/trump-canada-news
A private donation to fund the military?
Oligarchies' answer war bonds...
So, some rich asshole who couldn't be bothered to pay his fair share of taxes pulls out his pocket change of $130 million to pay for the troops? I guess this once again proves the point that the rich CAN afford to pay more to the country and people that made them so obscenely rich.
RAS,
Exactly....very much related to the oligarch money that founds and funds Right Wing "think" tanks whose sole purpose is to construct a country in which they won't have to heed their workers' safety, pay them a living wage, or pay any taxes themselves. Our two-tier justice system is a consequence of our two-tier economic system, more bifurcated by the day.
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