“Yesterday was a bad hair day.” John Buss, @Repeat1968
Happy Indictment Week Three, Sky Dancers!
We anticipate Fulton County, Georgia’s DA, will give us a week 4 shortly! So, I’ll start right out! What the fuck is wrong with one-third of the country? Tal Axelrod of ABC News reports on this new poll. “Nearly two-thirds of Americans think Jan. 6 charges against Trump are serious: POLL — Trump was indicted for the third time on Tuesday and has pleaded not guilty.”
Overall, 65% of adults think the charges are serious, including 51% who said they are very serious and 14% who said they are somewhat serious.
Only 24% said they are not serious, including 17% who said they are not serious at all.
Just over half — 52% — think Trump should have been charged with a crime in this case, while 32% said he should not have been. And a plurality of Americans (49%) said Trump should suspend his presidential campaign, while 36% said he shouldn’t.
At the same time, 46% think the charges against Trump are politically motivated, while 40% do not, per the ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel.
The results show that the public believes the latest charges are more serious than those in two other indictments: one federal case in Florida concerning Trump’s alleged mishandling of and refusal to return government secrets after leaving office and the other state case in New York City over his hush money payments to an adult film actress in the days before the 2016 election, for which he is accused of falsifying business records.
He has pleaded not guilty in both of those cases and denies all wrongdoing.
In ABC News/Ipsos polls in the wake of the previous indictments, 42% of Americans said the documents-related charges were very serious and 30% saw the hush money-related charges as very serious, compared to 51% in this most recent indictment.
The asshole staged a violent coup attempt at the People’s House. WTF are these complacent assholes thinking? It was televised! Some of his droggies are in jail for Seditious Conspiracy. What will it take to wake these jerks up? I agree with this Congress Critters. Let the Trial be televised! Let them resee how all the freaking witnesses against him are Republicans. Trump even got charged under the KKK Act and will now face a tough Black Woman as judge. How is that a political set-up by Democrats! Rebecca Shabad of NBC News has this story. “House Democrats call for live broadcasts of court proceedings in Trump criminal cases.”
More than three dozen House Democrats are calling on the policymaking body for federal courts to permit live broadcasting of court proceedings in the Justice Department’s cases charging former President Donald Trump with federal crimes.
In a letter led by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who served on the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Democrats asked that the Judicial Conference “explicitly authorize the broadcasting of court proceedings in the cases of United States of America v. Donald J. Trump.”
“It is imperative the Conference ensures timely access to accurate and reliable information surrounding these cases and all of their proceedings, given the extraordinary national importance to our democratic institutions and the need for transparency,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter, sent Thursday to Judge Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the secretary of the Judicial Conference.
The letter, whose signatories also included other members who served on the former Jan. 6 committee, noted that the Judicial Conference has “historically supported increased transparency and public access to the courts’ activities.”
“Given the historic nature of the charges brought forth in these cases, it is hard to imagine a more powerful circumstance for televised proceedings,” the letter said. “If the public is to fully accept the outcome, it will be vitally important for it to witness, as directly as possible, how the trials are conducted, the strength of the evidence adduced and the credibility of witnesses.”
The letter was sent on the same day that Trump was arraigned at the federal courthouse in Washington during a proceeding that was not televised or live-streamed. He pleaded not guilty to four federal counts over his alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which led to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. Federal prosecutors filed the grand jury indictment Tuesday.
Trump’s next court hearing in the case is set for Aug. 28. A trial date has not yet been set.
Before I continue, I should mention that the headline contains the number of years Trump could face so far, as calculated by the Washington Post‘s Philip Bump. You can get a great list of all the indictments and charges there with their individual number of maxium years for conviction.
Donald Trump was in a massive huff Thursday after he entered his not guilty plea to four charges stemming from his attempts to overturn the 2020 election, according to CNN. Sources told the outlet the former president was “pissed off” after departing the courthouse in Washington, D.C., and that he had been especially annoyed by one particular aspect of the hearings: namely, being referred to by Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya as “Mr. Trump.” He’s apparently grown accustomed to still being called “Mr. President” by supporters at his Bedminster golf club and Mar-a-Lago, despite being turfed out of the Oval Office over two years ago.
Trump was “pissed off” after he motorcaded through traffic, the sources said.
After the 27-minute legal proceeding, the former president did not take questions as he had planned to do at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport before his return flight to New Jersey.
Trump did speak briefly to the media, criticizing the charges and claiming he was being persecuted because he was running for office.
Trump had been fingerprinted and processed at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse before he pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
One aspect of the hearing that irked the former president — who is still referred to by his former title when at his Bedminster golf club or Mar-a-Lago resort — was when Magistrate Judge Moxila Upadhyaya referred to him as simply “Mr. Trump.”
I just hope it has serious agita from the experience and chokes on a grizzly, greasy over-cooked Big Mac.
Lawrence O’Donnell had me glued to the screen last night discussing two press concerence held by Trump Lawyer John Lauro. Instance one had his panel talking about a mistep. The second instance had them stumped. Was this simply a PR stunt to help find a hold out Trumper in the Jury? This is from The Daily Beast. “MSNBC Panel Stunned by Trump Lawyer’s ‘Admission’ on Fox News. Attorney John Lauro appeared on Fox News Thursday night to discuss the events of Trump’s latest indictment—but analysts say he said too much.” This is reported by William Vaillancourt.
An MSNBC panel was shocked by a pair of television interviews Thursday where Donald Trump lawyer John Lauro seemed to confirm an allegation contained within the Jan. 6-related indictment of the former president.
Lauro had told Fox News host Laura Ingraham earlier in the evening that, leading up to Jan. 6, Trump voiced his approval for Pence to send the election back to the states rather than have the Electoral College vote be certified.
“What President Trump said is, ‘Let’s go with option D,’” Lauro said on The Ingraham Angle. “Let’s just halt, let’s just pause the voting and allow the state legislatures to take one last look and make a determination as to whether or not the elections were handled fairly. That’s constitutional law. That’s not an issue of criminal activity.”
Lauro said basically the same thing on Newsmax a bit later.
MSNBC anchor Lawrence O’Donnell was surprised at the revelation.
“That is a Trump criminal defense lawyer quoting Donald Trump committing a crime,” he said. “Donald Trump’s criminal defense lawyer tonight added information to Jack Smith’s 42-page description of Donald Trump’s crimes. The conversation that John Lauro just described appears on page 34 of the indictment against his client.”
There was fun to be had when two Former Federal Prosecutors had to figure out what they had just seen.
MSNBC contributor and former Department of Justice lawyer Andrew Weissman considered Lauro’s statements to be “an admission,” as he wrote in a tweet.
“So, I don’t know why a defense lawyer is going to start giving facts about a critical moment,” he said on air, prompting O’Donnell to exclaim: “It’s the whole case!”
Weissman added: “It is such a damning thing when you put it in context because remember what the indictment alleges…[that] the reason this had to be done with the vice president is because prior to that, all the efforts that Donald Trump took with respect to the secretaries of state did not work.”
“I just don’t know why John, who is a good lawyer, didn’t just zip it and not say anything,” he continued.
“They don’t teach TV in law school,” O’Donnell quipped.
Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, also an MSNBC contributor, was stunned as well, saying bluntly, “It makes no sense.”
A few cartoon characters preening like stereotypical white men with big signs and not much else. Why do they all look alike?
My additional favorite headline came from The Washington Post. “Among MAGA extremists, Trump charges draw big talk, small crowds. The threat of pro-Trump political violence isn’t gone but has shifted from organized movements, analysts say.” They are all afraid of getting time in the Big House and that ain’t Mar-a-Lardo.
“Many people have really given up,” said Steve Corson, 66, of Fredonia, Ariz., standing alone outside the courthouse in a “We the People” hat, a starkly different experience from Jan. 6, 2021, when he marched to the U.S. Capitol alongside thousands of other Trump fans.
For all the online outrage, only a handful of Trump supporters turned out to protest the latest charges against the former president, continuing a shift in the right-wing fervor that once drew thousands to D.C. rallies, clogged lakes with boat parades and mobilized a de facto “MAGA militia” in the armed groups that took his extremist rhetoric to the streets.
So, that’s it for me today. I’m trying to beat the heat and do what I can around the house. Right now, it’s my ritual cold bath and blasting fan and something to read. Stay safe out there! Cross the street if you see any dude in his maga militia playsuit!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Did you like this post? Please share it with your friends:
Indictment watch is an ongoing activity these days. The Dog Days of Summer are ongoing. This week, every day will be authentically over 100 degrees, and the heat index will be way above that. I’m just glad I have very few reasons to leave my house, although I need a much better AC if this is a new reality. The dog and I barhop at night. I do it for the artic blast of all those window A/C units. Her motivation is the dog biscuits behind the bar and very dog-friendly bartenders. We feel better afterward, and I never complain about the boatload of ice in my Tanq and Tonic. Temple is actually quite good at navigating the Bywater Barumuda Triangle. She quickly learned the route and the whereabouts of the preferred biscuit jar. She also knows which bartenders will shower her with biscuits if she gives them the right look.
CNN analyst Ella Nilsen answers one of my ongoing questions. “Why Republicans can’t get out of their climate bind, even as extreme heat overwhelms the US.”
Deadly heatwaves are baking the US. Scientists just reported that July will be the hottest month on record. And now, after years of skepticism and denial in the GOP ranks, a small number of Republicans are urging their party to get proactive on the climate crisis.
But the GOP is stuck in a climate bind – and likely will be for the next four years, in large part because they’re still living in the shadow of former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.
Even as more Republican politicians are joining the consensus that climate change is real and caused by humans, Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric has driven the party to the right on climate and extreme weather. Trump has called the extremely settled science of climate change a “hoax” and more recently suggested that the impacts of it “may affect us in 300 years.”
Scientists this week reported that this summer’s unrelenting heat wave would have been “virtually impossible” were it not for the planet-warming pollution from burning fossil fuels. They also confirmed that July will go down as the hottest month on record – and almost certainly that the planet’s temperature is hotter now than it has been in around 120,000 years.
Yet for being one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century, climate is rarely mentioned on the 2024 campaign trail.
“As Donald Trump is the near presumptive nominee of our party in 2024, it’s going to be very hard for a party to adopt a climate-sensitive policy,” Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican from Utah, told CNN. “But Donald Trump’s not going to be around forever.”
When Republicans do weigh in on climate change – and what we should do about it – they tend to support the idea of capturing planet-warming pollution rather than cutting fossil fuels. But many are reticent to talk about how to solve the problem, and worry Trump is having a chilling effect on policies to combat climate within the party.
“We need to be talking about this,” Rep. John Curtis, a Republican from Utah and chair of the House’s Conservative Climate Caucus, told CNN. “And part of it for Republicans is when you don’t talk about it, you have no ideas at the table; all you’re doing is saying what you don’t like. We need to be saying what we like.”
With a few exceptions, Republicans largely are no longer the party of full-on climate change denial. But even as temperatures rise to deadly highs, the GOP is also not actively addressing it. There is still no “robust discussion about how to solve it” within the party, said former South Carolina Rep. Bob Inglis, who now runs the conservative climate group RepublicEn, save for criticism of Democrats’ clean-energy initiatives.
“The good news is Republicans are stopping arguing with thermometers,” Inglis told CNN. Still, he said, “when the experience is multiplied over and over of multiple days of three-digit temperatures in Arizona and record ocean temperatures, people start to say, ‘this is sort of goofy we’re not doing something about this.’”
Meanwhile, the impacts of a dramatically warming atmosphere are becoming more and more apparent each year. Romney and Curtis, two of the loudest climate voices in the party, both represent Utah – a state that’s no stranger to extreme heat and drought, which scientists say is being fueled by rising global temperatures.
“There are a number of states, like mine, that are concerned about wildfires and water,” Romney said, adding he believes Republican governors of impacted states have been vocal about these issues.
Great Peacock Moth, Vincent van Gogh,1889
NPR actually focuses on New Orleans for the kinds of problems that cities are facing with the heat and public health. “In broiling cities like New Orleans, the health system faces off against heat stroke.” I’ve actually had two episodes of heat sicknesses during July but have managed to find my way to a cold bath with a carefully placed fan where I rate how fucking hot it is by how many times I repeat this ritual. I can tell precisely hot it is by where Dinah is in the back part of the house. Right now, she’s here in my room, but that will be short-lived. She heads for the floor under the highboy, where the a/c can really cool her down when it’s peak hot. Kristal and Temple are fond of lying in front of the bathtub when I’m in there reading and chilling. Keely just hides under the bed near Dinah. The A/C manages to keep that bedroom fairly cool.
As the hour creeps past three in the afternoon, New Orleans’ streets are devoid of tourists and locals alike. The heat index is over 105 degrees.
At the city’s ambulance depot, the concrete parking lot seems to magnify the sweltering heat, circulating the air like a convection oven.
New Orleans Emergency Medical Services has been busy this summer, responding to heat-related emergency calls and rushing patients to nearby hospitals.
Capt. Janick Lewis and Lt. Titus Carriere demonstrate how they can load a stretcher into an ambulance using an automated loading system.
Lewis wipes sweat from his brow as the loading arm whirs and hums, raising the stretcher into the ambulance — “unit” in official terminology.
But the mechanical assistance isn’t the best thing about the new vehicle. “The nicest thing about being assigned a brand new unit, is it’s a brand-new air conditioning system,” Lewis says.
The new AC is much more than just a luxury for the hard-working crews. These days they need the extra cooling power to help save lives.
“The number one thing you do take care of somebody is get them out of the heat, get them somewhere cool,” Lewis says. “So the number one thing we spend our time worrying about in the summertime is keeping the truck cool.”
Like much of the country, New Orleans has been embroiled in an almost relentless heat wave for weeks. As a result, more people are falling ill with heat-related conditions than ever before. Just last week, EMS responded to 29 heat-related calls — more than triple compared to the same period last year.
As the city’s emergency medical systems deal with the influx of patients, scientists say these dangerous heat levels — and the increasing stress they put on human bodies and medical systems — may be the new norm.
At the same time, New Orleans EMS has struggled with funding and staffing challenges. It’s currently operating with only 60% of its needed staff. The city’s chief of EMS has called for increased funding for higher wages to attract more workers.
Lewis says they’re making do with the resources they have, and prioritizing one-time expenses like new ambulances to help them meet the challenges they’re facing.
“We’re going to provide the care everybody needs, regardless of how hot it gets,” Lewis says. “We’d love to have all the help in the world, but we’re getting the job done with what we have right now.”
If you’re feeling a bit brain-fogged these days, you might not be wrong to blame it on the heat.
Several summers back, researchers in Boston studied young adults living in college dorm rooms during a heat wave. Some had central AC and slept at a cool 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Others slept in rooms without air-conditioning, where the temperature hovered around 80 degrees.
Each morning for nearly two weeks, the students took a few tests, administered on their cellphones. The people who slept in the hotter dorm rooms performed measurably worse on the tests.
The tests included a math test requiring simple addition and subtraction and a second test, the Stroop test, that jumbles colors and words. “So, if I show the word ‘red’ in the color blue, participants have to respond ‘blue,'” says study author Jose Guillermo Cedeño Laurent, an assistant professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health.
It’s easy to get tripped up if your attention or reaction time is slowed, he says, and that’s exactly what heat appears to be doing. “The magnitude of the effect was really striking,” Cedeño Laurent says. “We saw reductions in the order of 10% in their response times and also their accuracy.”
Part of this effect may be explained by interrupted sleep. It can be hard to get a good night’s rest if you’re not accustomed to the heat, and a lack of sleep could certainly impair reaction time and focus. But there’s a body of evidence suggesting it may be something about the heat itself that interferes with cognition.
Anastasiya Markovich, Effect of Butterfly (date unknown)
Yup. That would be me. A lot of service industry folks rely on buses and streetcars. It can be a long wait in the sun followed by a street car with fans or a bus with the A/C. This is the worst we’ve ever seen things down here.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is speaking just ahead of potential charges being filed against former President Donald Trump and his allies.
It’s still unclear if Trump will be charged by D.A. Willis, but 11Alive is getting a little more insight into what we can expect in the coming days after speaking with Willis at a back-to-school event in Sandy Springs.
Willis said her back-to-school events are her favorite time of the year. And it’s bringing her joy before the big decisions she has to make in the next few weeks.
“I was a single mom,” Willis said. “And I can remember at the beginning of school years, that’s one more financial hit. We want to relieve that stress for parents.”
Mother-of-three Amiria Otiti said she hadn’t even started back-to-school shopping yet. However, events like this take the load off.
“It helps tremendously because everything is priced high,” Otiti said. “And anything I can do to save, I want to save.”
Willis was all smiles giving away free school supplies at Morgan Falls Overlook Park in Sandy Springs, but after this, it’s back to business. While the kids prepare for school, Willis is preparing for a potential indictment of former President Trump and his allies for attempting to overturn the 2020 election.
“Some people may not be happy with the decisions that I’m making,” Willis said. “And sometimes, when people are unhappy, they act in a way that could create harm.”
She didn’t give many details, but Willis said another way she’s preparing is by upping security. She explained she wrote a letter to the Fulton County Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat.
“I think that the sheriff is doing something smart in making sure that the courthouse stays safe,” Willis said.
That includes the grand jury.
“I’m not willing to put any of the employees or the constituents that come to the courthouse in harm’s way,” Willis said.
Willis said she’s holding true to her commitment to giving the American people an answer by Sep. 1. This could be Trump’s third indictment case of the year.
Saturday students got what they needed to do their homework. And Willis said she’s doing hers too.
“The work is accomplished,” Willis said, “We’ve been working for two-and-a-half years. We’re ready to go.”
The newest Donald Trump indictment dropped last week, and above all it is ridiculous.The spectacle of the two gormless henchmen creeping around the basement pointing flashlights at security cameras and the servers they’d been dispatched by to wipe — all the while being captured by those very same cameras! — is almost too ludicrous to bear. Who knew there could be something more preposterous than that photo of the tacky bathroom with the boxes stacked in the shower?
The excitement started last Thursday morning with reports that Trump was about to be indicted in DC for his role in the January 6 Capitol riot. Instead, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment in the Florida documents case, introducing us to a new defendant: Carlos De Oliveira, the Mar-a-Lago property manager. Like Walt Nauta, De Oliveira started as a valet before being promoted in 2022. And like Nauta, De Oliveira participated in the shell game with the former president’s “beautiful mind boxes” to avoid the prying eyes of the FBI, as well as Trump’s hapless lawyer, Evan Corcoran.
The original indictment laid out the scheme by which Nauta allegedly moved the boxes of swiped presidential records in and out of the storage locker near the Mar-a-Lago pool, allowing Trump to cull what he planned to keep before Corcoran could conduct a search on June 2, 2022, for the documents subpoenaed by the grand jury. Mindful that classified documents require certain protocols, the lawyer placed 38 records with classified markings in a Redweld folder sealed with clear duct tape supplied by Nauta, and then delicately ignored suggestions from his client that he “pluck” out anything too incriminating.
The next day, Corcoran and attorney Christina Bobb, previously a reporter at One America News, met at Trump’s club with Jay Bratt, the head of the Justice Department’s Counterintelligence Division. During the meeting, they handed Bratt a false declaration, prepared by Corcoran and signed by Bobb, representing that “a diligent search was conducted of the boxes that were moved from the White House to Florida” and “any and all documents responsive to the subpoena accompany this certification.” This scheme, which was (of course!) documented in a long voice memo Corcoran dictated the next day, forms the basis for counts 34 through 38 of the newest indictment.
But during that visit, Corcoran showed Bratt the storage locker, inadvertently revealing a security camera in the corridor outside it and setting off the chain of events which constitute the four new counts in the superseding indictment.
On June 22 of last year, prosecutors told Trump’s lawyers that they planned to subpoena the camera footage, at which point it dawned on Trump that the feds were going to figure out that he’d pulled a fast one on his own lawyer. The next day, Trump had a 24 minute phone call with Carlos De Oliveira.
Two days later, when the subpoena actually dropped, Trump and his minions sprung into action. Trump, who was then at his Bedminster club in New Jersey, summoned Nauta for a confab, after which the valet abruptly changed his plans to accompany his boss to Illinois, sending a flurry of conflicting text messages which might just as well have shouted, DON’T LOOK IN THE TRUNK OFFICER, BECAUSE THERE’S DEFINITELY NO BODY IN THERE.
Earlier this month, there was a brief flurry of agitation on the right over what was presented as an effort to silence testimony from someone with information damaging to President Biden. The Justice Department unsealed an indictment against a man named Gal Luft, who, the government claims, had aided Chinese government interests and worked to evade sanctions on Iran as he served as a director at a D.C.-area think tank. Luft had previously been identified as a potential anti-Biden witness by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
It’s not clear what evidence Luft was prepared to offer against Biden and his son Hunter, though New York Post columnist Miranda Devine, reporting about a videotaped statement from Luft, didn’t find much that was new. But still: Here was a potential witness against the government, facing criminal charges! Weaponization of the legal system … just like they’ve been doing to Donald Trump!
As you may by now be aware, this wasn’t actually the story. The Justice Department unsealed the charges this month, but the indictment had been handed down in November. Luft’s claims about Biden came to the attention of Comer and Devine, it seems, only after he’d been arrested on those charges earlier this year and began claiming that he was being targeted because of what he knew.
The argument from Comer and his allies was either misinformed or dishonest. But they appear not to have internalized any lessons from it.
On Sunday, Devine had a new report: In a letter, Devine said, the Justice Department was trying to imprison Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, before he could offer testimony to Comer’s committee on Monday.
“The DOJ is trying to arrest Devon Archer ahead of his bombshell testimony Monday about Joe Biden’s involvement in his son Hunter’s Ukraine business when he was VP,” Devine wrote on social media. The letter, she claimed, sought to send Archer “to jail immediately.”
Comer dutifully showed up on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday morning Fox News show, where the host asked him about the letter. (Bartiromo, like Devine, is often at the center of these discussions. It was to Bartiromo that Comer had in May admitted losing track of a witness — a witness who turned out to be Gal Luft and who had gone missing because he skipped bail on the charges that Comer earlier this month pretended were new.)
Well, there’s crazy from the heat and crazy just because that’s the Republican Party Schtick these days.
So, I’m just going to lay low this week. I’m not sure if I can take another summer like this one. Denver and Seattle are looking better every day. It’s too darn hot!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
My Bar buddy Temple agrees!
Temple and I listen to the Blues at BJ’s. Temple rates it five stars for the biscuits and pats. Oh, and the band was great!
Did you like this post? Please share it with your friends:
While we were waiting for the big January 6th Indictment, a superseding indictment popped out of the Secret Documents Case. We can stop feeling sorry for the little guy now. It appears that Walt Nauta is the consigliere of the Mar-a-Lago branch of the Trump Family Crime Syndicate. The details drive coffin nails through every outrageous Trump attempt at a defense case tailor-made for the public. It also demonstrated, once again, that everything Trump accuses a political rival of, he’s already done in spades.
The attempts to remove all the videotapes of the goings on at the Trump’a Giant Douche Club in Florid’uh. Anyone who has seen an aerial photo of the place knows exactly what I mean. Here’s the headline from the Washington Post. “Trump charged with seeking to delete security footage in documents case Unsealed indictment charges second aide at Mar-a-Lago and brings new counts against the former president and longtime valet Walt Nauta.”
Prosecutors announced additional charges against Donald Trump on Thursday in his alleged hoarding and hiding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, accusing the former president and a newly indicted aide of trying to keep security camera footage from being reviewed by investigators and bringing the number of total federal charges against Trump to 40.
Trump already faced 31 counts of illegally retaining national defense information, but federal prosecutors led by special counsel Jack Smith have added a 32nd to the list. That count centers on a now-infamous conversation Trump allegedly had at his golf club and summer residence in Bedminster, N.J., in July 2021, focused on what has been described by others as a secret military document concerning Iran.
In that conversation, which was recorded, Trump said: “As president I could have declassified it. … Now I can’t, you know, but this is still secret.”
The new indictment also levels accusations of a broader effort by Trump and some of those around him to cover their tracks as the FBI sought to retrieve highly classified documents kept at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s home and private club, long after his presidency ended. The indictment charges that Trump and two aides, Waltine “Walt” Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, requested that another Trump employee “delete security camera footage at the Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.”
While Trump has publicly claimed he was happy to hand over the footage in response to a grand jury subpoena, others close to him have said he was upset about it, and the indictment suggests a scramble among his aides soon after they received the demand for the footage. Prosecutors say that Nauta, Trump’s longtime valet, changed plans to travel with Trump to Illinois around the time the subpoena was sent, instead traveling to Florida to talk to other Trump employees about the camera footage. He appeared to try to keep the reason for the trip to Mar-a-Lago under wraps, the indictment says, telling others he was going there for different reasons.
With reporters clustered at the DC federal courthouse awaiting a possible Trump indictment in the Jan. 6 case, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team dropped a new bombshell in Florida in the Mar-a-Lago case: a superseding indictment that adds new charges against Trump himself, co-defendant Walt Nauta, and a new third defendant.
Let’s run through the top points quickly:
The number of counts in the indictment swelled from 38 to 42.
Trump was hit with an additional charge of willful retention of national defense information (now 32 counts on that charge, up from 31) for the Iran war plan document he allegedly flaunted at Bedminster.
The new defendant, a MAL worker named Carlos De Oliviera, was added to the existing conspiracy to obstruct justice count, so now all three defendants are charged in this count. In addition, De Oliviera gets his own false statements count.
All three men were charged under a new count of altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object.
All three men were charged under a new count of corruptly altering, destroying, mutilating or concealing an object.
A sample of some of the allegations of Trump’s direct involvement in the security footage deletion scheme (these separate excerpts cover multiple days of communications and aren’t intended as a timeline):
76. On June 23, 2022, at 8:46 p.m., TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and they spoke for approximately 24 minutes.
78. … At 3:44 p.m., NAUTA received a text message from a co-worker, Trump Employee 3, indicating that TRUMP wanted to see NAUTA.
87. At 3:55 p.m., TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and they spoke for approximately three and a half minutes.
91. … That same day, TRUMP called DE OLIVEIRA and told DE OLIVEIRA that TRUMP would get DE OLIVEIRA an attorney.
114. … TRUMP, NAUTA, and DE OLIVEIRA requested that Trump Employee 4 delete security camera footage at The Mar-a-Lago Club to prevent the footage from being provided to a federal grand jury.
A Straight Up Mob Boss
Here’s more from The Guardian. “Ex-Trump lawyer says evidence against him ‘overwhelming’ in Mar-a-Lago case. Ty Cobb, who represented Trump in Mueller investigation, says classified documents case is ‘tight’ after new charges filed.”
A former Trump White House lawyer said the evidence against the former president over his handling of classified documents was now “overwhelming” and would “last an antiquity”, after new charges were filed in the case on Thursday.
“I think this original indictment was engineered to last a thousand years and now this superseding indictment will last an antiquity,” Ty Cobb told CNN. “This is such a tight case, the evidence is so overwhelming.”
…
Trump told Fredericks he will not end his campaign even if he is convicted and sentenced.
“They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people,” Trump said. “They’re trying to intimidate people so that people go out and make up lies about me. Because I did nothing wrong.”
Cobb represented Trump during the investigation by another special counsel, Robert Mueller, into Russian election interference in the 2016 election and links between Trump and Moscow. The attorney later told the Atlantic he did not regret working for Trump, saying: “I believed then and now I worked for the country.”
On Thursday, he told CNN: “It’s very difficult to imagine how Trump said that his lawyers met with Jack Smith today to explain to him that he hadn’t done anything wrong [Trump’s claim in the election subversion case], on the same day that Jack Smith produces this evidence of overwhelming evidence of additional wrongdoing.
“So this is, I think, par for the course.”
Cobb also said he was sure Trump had been advised by his own lawyers “not to destroy, move [documents] or obstruct this grand jury subpoena in any way.
“So this is Trump going not just behind the back of the prosecutors, this is Trump going behind the back of his own lawyers and dealing with two people” – Nauta and De Oliveira – “who are extremely loyal”.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is seeking to tamp down speculation about his future and make clear that he’ll stay on the job after a health incident earlier this week.
“Leader McConnell appreciates the continued support of his colleagues, and plans to serve his full term in the job they overwhelmingly elected him to do,” a McConnell spokesperson said in a statement, which was first reported by Politico.
McConnell’s two-year term as Senate GOP leader ends in early January 2025, and beyond that it would be up to his colleagues to decide whether to re-elect him. He became the longest-serving Senate party leader in U.S. history earlier this year.
McConnell, 81, is not up for re-election to his Senate seat in Kentucky until 2026, as he won a six-year term in the 2020 election.
Concerns about McConnell’s health have intensified since Wednesday when he suddenly stopped speaking during a weekly Republican leadership news conference, appearing to freeze, and then went silent and was walked away.
A few minutes later, McConnell walked back to the news conference by himself. Asked about his health, he said he was fine. Asked whether he is fully able to do his job, he said: “Yeah.” His office said he felt lightheaded and stepped away briefly.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., appeared confused during a vote on a defense appropriations bill Thursday, prompting a fellow Democratic senator to step in.
During a Senate Appropriations Committee markup of bills Thursday morning, Feinstein seemed to stumble on a vote. Instead of saying the expected response of “aye” or “nay,” she began to deliver a speech expressing her support of the measure: “I would like to support a ‘yes’ vote on this. It provides $823 billion …”
About 15 seconds into Feinstein’s speech, an aide whispered in her ear. Committee chair Patty Murray, D-Wash., then told Feinstein: “Just say aye.”
“Aye,” Feinstein said.
Feinstein, 90, was later heard voting against another measure before she was corrected and switched to “yes.”
A Feinstein spokesperson said Thursday’s markup “was a little chaotic” as members work to wrap up government funding bills before they leave for a six-week break, with senators “constantly switching back and forth between statements, votes and debate and the order of bills.”
“The senator was preoccupied, didn’t realize debate had just ended and a vote was called,” the spokesperson continued. “She started to give a statement, was informed it was a vote and then cast her vote.”
As someone who just spent the week coming to terms with her old eyes and old brain at two doctor’s appointments, I can tell you that this year has me wondering if I should stay out of the classroom at this point. I’m hoping new glasses help with the grading that seems awkward these days. I’m still waiting on the bottom line of the MRI results from Wednesday. I’m relying on my Son-in-Law, the radiologist, to be both kind and brutally honest with me.
Both McConnell and Feinstein have served their country ably. That comes with the disclaimer that I think McConnell is not a person I could ever vote for or support. I remember Senator Byrd being wheeled in to vote for the Health Bill Cloture vote in 2009. Many of us remember Ol’ Strom from 1998. I’m not sure we can amend the Constitution quickly to remove members that are way past their prime, but at some point, a leader should know when it’s time to retire. Feinstein is not running for reelection and is an important vote with seniority in this Senate. It’s just difficult for me to watch her like this, knowing what a shero she’s been to me since her days as a San Francisco mayor. A while-timed exit just shows some class. Donald Trump is another one that’s been showing his dotage for years. Biden has his moments, too, but he is nowhere near these kinds of episodes. It’s just something to think about. I’m sure it will be something to talk about in 2024.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Did you like this post? Please share it with your friends:
It’s a race to the bottom for Republican Governors in the efforts to decimate Constitionally granted civil rights and liberties. We’ve heard a lot about Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. However, his flop of a Presidential run has left him out of the state and speaking about his war on “woke” in rhetorical terms these days. He appears to have quit his asylum seeker kidnapping flights for the time being. Today, we must take a good hard look at what is happening in Texas.
For years, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton used his office to allegedly inappropriately help a campaign donor, a group of investigators working for a Texas House panel revealed Wednesday.
The panel’s report comes as part of a months-long investigation into Paxton’s settlement of a lawsuit brought by four whistleblowers who were fired in 2020 after making accusations about the Republican’s misdeeds.
“To be negligent is just one thing,” Donna Cameron, one of the House-hired investigators, told the House General Investigating Committee. “But malfeasance is when you are actively and intentionally doing things to the detriment of the office and to your oath and to the responsibility that you have to the state of Texas and the public.”
Cameron and three other investigators spent over three hours Wednesday morning detailing Paxton’s alleged illegal acts, most of them related to Austin real estate investor Nate Paul, who made a $25,000 contribution to Paxton’s campaign.
The investigation primarily centered on what the whistleblowers alleged and the $3.3 million settlement they were ultimately awarded. Payment on that settlement has not yet been funded by the Texas Legislature.
Investigators stated the evidence they uncovered shows multiple violations of the law and Paxton’s oath of office. They include: Gift to a public servant, abuse of official capacity, misuse of official information, and retaliation and official oppression. Some of the violations carry jail time.
Many of the allegations discussed by investigators were already known, but Wednesday’s House panel was the first time investigators spoke on them in a public forum. The level of detail was also unusual.
Paxton is currently under indictment for alleged securities fraud. He was indicted in 2015 and also faces a separate federal investigation over alleged abuse of office.
The committee hearing — which was previously scheduled — comes less than a day after Paxton accused House Speaker Dade Phelan of being intoxicated on the House floor and called for his resignation.
In a statement posted on Twitter, Paxton said Phelan was trying to “sabotage my work as Attorney General.”
“Every allegation is easily disproved, and I look forward to continuing my fight for conservative Texas values,” Paxton wrote.
According to investigators, Paxton asked his top deputies in 2019 for legal counsel on a disputed records request involving Paul, who wanted access to sealed information concerning a search warrant by federal agents against himself.
After Paxton’s staff searched Paul on the internet — finding Paul was under investigation from the FBI and had multiple bankruptcies — they advised Paxton not to release the documents.
Erin Epley, the lead attorney in the group of House investigators, said the decision “was the correct one under the law.”
Texas has become the epicenter of runaway state government. Rule of Law means nothing in Texas. Nowhere is this clearer with the current controversy surrounding Governor Abbott’s use of barrels wrapped in razor wire and denial of basic human aid to those coming to the Texas Border. The DOJ is now on the case. This is from Democracy Now! “DOJ Threatens to Sue Texas Gov. Abbott for Installing Barrels Wrapped in Razor Wire in Rio Grande.”
The U.S. Justice Department is threatening to sue the state of Texas after Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed barrels wrapped in razor wire in the Rio Grande in an attempt to block migrants from crossing the river. This comes just after a whistleblower state trooper at the Texas Department of Public Safety recently protested the state’s inhumane policies in a letter to superiors. “What’s happening at the border in Texas right now is criminal,” says Democratic Texas Senator Roland Gutierrez. “There’s state crimes, there’s federal crimes, and there’s international crimes.”
AMYGOODMAN: The U.S. Department of Justice is threatening to sue Texas after Republican Governor Greg Abbott installed barrels wrapped in razor wire in the Rio Grande in an attempt to block migrants from crossing the river and entering the United States. Texas has also placed large coils of razor wire in the river. The Justice Department has given Abbott until 2 p.m. today to begin removing the floating barriers and related structures. Humanitarian workers and local news outlets report numerous migrants, including children, have suffered from lacerations after being cut by the razor wire oftentimes they couldn’t see — it was underwater.
A whistleblower state trooper at the Texas Department of Public Safety recently decried the state’s inhumane policies. In a letter to superiors, Nicholas Wingate wrote, quote, “The wire and barrels in the river needs to be taken out as this is nothing but a in humane trap in high water and low visibility,” he wrote.
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department sent a letter to Texas stating, quote, “The State of Texas’s actions violate federal law, raise humanitarian concerns, present serious risks to public safety and the environment, and may interfere with the federal government’s ability to carry out its official duties,” unquote.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott responded by writing on social media, “Texas has the sovereign authority to defend our border, under the U.S. Constitution and the Texas Constitution.” Abbott went on to say, “We will see you in court, Mr. President.”
We’re joined right now by Democratic Texas state Senator Roland Gutierrez. He recently announced he’ll run against Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Welcome back to Democracy Now!, state Senator, at least for now. It’s really important to have you with us on this critical day. Can you talk about these flesh-ripping razor wire barriers in the water and what you think needs to be done at this point?
SEN. ROLANDGUTIERREZ: Well, thank you, Amy, first off.
I mean, it’s obvious that what’s happening on the border is inhumane, as Trooper Wingate suggested, that these people are made in the eyes of God and that no one should have to go through this kind of torture. And it is torture, let’s be very clear. The wire that is in the water cannot be seen. It’s lacerated people. It’s caused problems. And worse yet, Trooper Wingate describes a situation where people have tried to get beyond the buoys and beyond the razor wire, sadly, in deeper parts of the river. He talks about a mom who lost her child underwater. Her and her other child succumbed at that point. They rescued the mom and the daughter, but they, sadly, died at the hospital.
And so, we have to understand that what’s happening at the border in Texas right now is criminal. There’s state crimes, there are federal crimes, and there’s international crimes. We have to understand that what’s happening right now is of such a degree that troopers are acting under the color of law, and that not only are taking people’s rights, but people are dying or being injured very seriously from this. Greg Abbott needs to stop this flippant attitude and understand that what he’s doing is harming people, and nothing he is doing has anything to do with any kind of immigration policy, because they have shown no metrics under Operation Lone Star. It has been stunt after stunt after stunt. And unfortunately, this one is leading into the deaths of migrants and migrant children.
AMYGOODMAN: There were a number of other incidents that were described in the email: the 4-year-old migrant girl and a pregnant woman having a miscarriage found with severe injuries as they crashed into the barbed wire barrels while crossing the river. The young girl had also passed out from heat exhaustion. Wingate also wrote that the migrant mother, as you described, and one of her children drowned. It looks like the other one is not found. A child being pushed back into the water by one of these Border Patrol?
SEN. ROLANDGUTIERREZ: Yes, Amy. I mean, all of those actions that you just described are absolute crimes that need to be prosecuted. I have talked to the local district attorney. As you know, I’ve asked the Justice Department to step in. They have suggested that they’re indeed doing that. They have asked the governor to remove the obstacles in the water.
The Department of Public Safety’s director, Steve McCraw, I spoke to him immediately as these reports came out, which was last Monday. And he suggested there’s going to be an audit. I don’t think he understands the severity of the situation. This is not about an audit. We need to have an investigation as to who gave what commands and when, how high from the Department of Public Safety did those commands come from, who knew about it. He claims, of course, that he didn’t know anything about it. But, you know, any kind of audit or investigation of any sort from this agency is — I just question, because this is the same agency that failed all of those kids in Uvalde, Texas, a year ago, over a year ago, and here yet, we have no accountability from this agency at all in the last year and a half on that incident.
I think that we have to take a very serious look at what’s considered immigration policy and what isn’t. The last two months, we have seen a success in the reimplementation of Title 8, cutting down crossings about down to half. The fact is, Greg Abbott doesn’t want to have that discussion. He simply wants to talk about the chaos that he’s created.
This latest bus included 44 migrants from Mexico, Colombia, China, Haiti, Honduras, Peru, and Venezuela — 14 of whom were children between the ages of two and 14 years old, according to a Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights’s spokesperson. Los Angeles received its last migrant bus a week ago.
According to Abbott’s office, over 160 migrants have been sent to Los Angeles since June 14. In total, over 27,000 migrants have been sent to Denver, Chicago, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and New York City. Abbot claimed he’s sent thousands of migrants because Texas towns on the border are “overwhelmed and overrun” with migrants.
“Los Angeles is a major city that migrants seek to go to, particularly now that its city leaders approved its self-declared sanctuary city status,” Abbott said in a statement at the time he sent the first bus. “Our border communities are on the front lines of President Biden’s border crisis, and Texas will continue providing this much-needed relief until he steps up to do his job and secure the border.”
Mayor Karen Bass said her office cooperated with “city departments, the county, and a coalition of nonprofit organizations, in addition to our faith partners” to engage in its plan that it has previously utilized toward the influx of migrants.
“Actions ordered by Texas Gov. Abbott against migrants and refugees are outrageous, if not criminal,” CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas said in a statement to ABC News. “We condemn the dehumanization of migrants and refugees anywhere, and we remind Governor Abbott that every life is precious and protected under the United Nation’s Human Rights Charter.”
Texas installed a floating barrier of large buoys on the Rio Grande river near the border town of Eagle Pass earlier this month as part of Abbott’s multibillion-dollar effort to secure the U.S. border with Mexico.
The barrier, as well as the state’s use of razor wire to deter migrants, has prompted a warning from Joe Biden‘s administration. Abbott has said the measures are within his authority because of what he says is a state of emergency caused by migrants crossing illegally into Texas.
Critics have said using disaster declarations to implement tougher border policies isn’t legally sound.
“There are so many ways that what Texas is doing right now is just flagrantly illegal,” David Donatti, an attorney for the Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told The Associated Press. Abbott’s office has been contacted for comment via email.
Jessie Fuentes, the owner of a Texas kayaking company, has sued Abbott and other state officials over the buoys, arguing that they have hurt his business and that border crossings aren’t covered by the Texas Disaster Act.
“The definition of disaster cannot be read so broadly to allow Governor Abbott to create his own border patrol agency to regulate the border and prevent immigrants from entering Texas by installing a buoy system in the Rio Grande,” the lawsuit states. An attorney for Fuentes has been contacted for comment via email.
One woman could barely get words out through her tears. Another ran to the restroom as soon as she was done, wordless, wretched sobs wracking her tiny body. A third threw up on the witness stand.
These are believed to be the first women in the country since 1973 to testify in court about the impacts of a state abortion ban on their pregnancies. They almost certainly won’t be the last.
Speaking to a packed Travis County courtroom Wednesday, three women detailed devastating pregnancy losses and said medically necessary care was delayed or denied due to their doctors’ confusion over Texas’ abortion laws.
They’re challenging a clause in the state’s abortion ban that says a doctor can perform an abortion only if they believe the patient has “a life-threatening physical condition aggravated by, caused by, or arising from a pregnancy” that puts the patient “at risk of death or poses a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function.”
Doctors have reported delaying necessary pregnancy care for fear of violating the law, which allows doctors to be punished by up to 99 years in prison, a $100,000 fine and the loss of their medical license. The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, asks a judge to temporarily block the law from applying to medically necessary abortions and ultimately clarify when a medical emergency justifies an abortion.
The bill requires the state’s Library and Archives Commission to adopt standards that schools must follow when purchasing books, and a rating system that would be used to restrict or ban some material.
“What we’re talking about is sexually explicit material … that doesn’t belong in front of the eyes of kids,” said the bill sponsor, Sen. Angela Paxton, a Republican. “They shouldn’t be finding it in their school library.”
Abbott, a Republican, previously joined a former GOP lawmaker’s campaign to investigate the use of books in schools covering topics of race, gender identity and sexual orientation. That inquiry included a list of more than 800 books.
In April, leaders of a rural central Texas county considered closing their public library system rather than follow a federal judge’s order to return books to the shelves on themes ranging from teen sexuality and gender to bigotry and race.
Under the measure passed Tuesday night, book vendors would have to rate books based on depictions or references to sex. “Sexually relevant” material that describes or portrays sex but is part of the required school curriculum could be checked out with a parent’s permission.
A book would be rated “sexually explicit” if the material is deemed offensive and not part of the required curriculum. Those books would be removed from school bookshelves.
I will continue to cover the Red States and their White Christian Nationalists policies as this election year continues. I think it’s essential to emphasize that states set the tone for what goes on in courts and the District. Governor Abbott and Texas Republicans are definitely leading the attack on our Constitution and Rule of Law. The Late, Great Texas Governor Ann Richards would be appalled. Watch as these things make their way to the Supreme Court and the Sicko Six.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
“The problem with Irony is not everybody gets it.” Ray Wyllie Hubbard.
Did you like this post? Please share it with your friends:
So my granddaughters turn 2 today. I keep reading things that make me worry about what sort of life they will lead as they grow. I’m glad they are relatively safe in terms of culture war crazies. But, it’s difficult to imagine what climate change horrors will await them when they head to university and grow into adulthood. Maybe I need a few hobbies that will send me down different rabbit holes. I could be this granny that crochets huge cats. I wish I could just detach more gently from the events of the day, but I cannot.
A Nebraska teenager who used abortion pills to terminate her pregnancy was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail after she pleaded guilty earlier this year to illegally concealing human remains.
The teenager, Celeste Burgess, 19, and her mother, Jessica Burgess, 42, were charged last year after the police obtained their private Facebook messages, which showed them discussing plans to end the pregnancy and “burn the evidence.”
Prosecutors said the mother had ordered abortion pills online and had given them to her daughter in April 2022, when Celeste Burgess was 17 and in the beginning of the third trimester of her pregnancy. The two then buried the fetal remains themselves, the police said.
Jessica Burgess pleaded guilty in July to violating Nebraska’s abortion law, furnishing false information to a law enforcement officer and removing or concealing human skeletal remains. She faces up to five years in prison at her sentencing on Sept. 22, according to Joseph Smith, the top prosecutor in Madison County, Neb.
The police investigation into the Burgesses began before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022.
But the case gained greater attention after the court issued the ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, fueling fears that women, and those who help them, could be prosecuted for abortions, and that their private communications could be used against them.
At the time, Nebraska banned abortion after 20 weeks from conception. In May, Gov. Jim Pillen, a Republican, signed a 12-week ban into law.
Greer Donley, an associate professor of law at the University Pittsburgh School of Law, said in an interview on Thursday that the case was a “harbinger of things to come,” as a flurry of Republican-led states have enacted abortion restrictions and more women in those states have sought abortion pills as a workaround.
“This case is really sad because people resort to things like this when they’re really desperate,” Professor Donley said, “and the thing that makes people really desperate is abortion bans.”
Since Texas enacted its abortion restrictions, it has seen a spike in infant mortality, according to preliminary data from the Texas Department of State Health Services.
According to the DSHS data, 2,200 infants died in Texas last year. That’s 227 more than the year before, or an 11% increase.
At the same time, infant deaths caused by severe genetic and birth defects rose by 21%, DSHS said.
This comes after a nearly decade-long decline between 2014 and 2021. According to the data, deaths had fallen by 15%.
The Justice Department has warned Gov. Greg Abbott that Texas’ use of razor wire and floating barriers to deter illegal migration across the Rio Grande is illegal. And Democrats in Congress pressed President Joe Biden on Friday to halt the state’s efforts, after reports of drownings and of young migrants being sliced.
Federal authorities told Abbott they may seek a court order “requiring the removal of obstructions or other structures in the Rio Grande River.”
In their letter, the congressional Democrats expressed “profound alarm” at the injuries, including at least one pregnant woman who became entangled in the 60 miles of concertina wire installed by Texas forces in recent months.
A Department of Public Safety trooper recently raised an alarm about migrants being pushed back into the river and denied water despite scorching heat.
“We urge you to assert your authority over federal immigration policy and foreign relations and investigate and pursue legal action, as appropriate, related to stop Governor [Greg] Abbott’s dangerous and cruel actions,” says the letter to Biden, led by Rep. Joaquin Castro of San Antonio and signed by nearly 90 other Democrats in the House, including all 13 Texans.
“As Governor Abbott continues to escalate his efforts on the border, we urge you to …stop this horrific abuse of power,” they wrote.
Abbott launched Operation Lone Star two years ago, sending National Guard and state troopers to the border when Biden took office, halted construction of the border wall promoted by predecessor Donald Trump, and began to dismantle many of Trump’s harsh immigration policies.
Democrats asserted in their letter that the state’s actions are “putting asylum-seekers at serious risk of injury and death, interfering with federal immigration enforcement, infringing on private property rights, and violating U.S. treaty commitments with Mexico.”
Mexico’s president denounced the “inhumane” treatment of migrants by Texas this week.
Meanwhile, the “pro-life” Justices on the Supreme Court love promoting death penalty politics. This is from Lawrence Hurley at NBC News. “Liberal justices blast Supreme Court majority for allowing Alabama execution. The high court allowed the execution of James Barber despite botched attempts to execute other inmates last year.”
The three liberal Supreme Court justices took aim at their conservative colleagues for allowing the early Friday execution of an Alabama death row inmate who had raised claims about the state’s history of botching the lethal injection process.
The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority, declined to block the execution of James Barber, who was put to death at about 2 a.m. local time.
“This court’s decision denying Barber’s request for a stay allows Alabama to experiment again with a human life,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a dissenting opinion joined by her liberal colleagues, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Barber had argued that the execution would violate his right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment under the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment.
His claim was raised in light of the state’s problems executing three inmates last year. Two of those executions, those of Alan Miller and Kenneth Smith, were ultimately called off when prison officials could not access a suitable vein. Another inmate, Joe James, was put to death only after a three-hour delay.
The state subsequently reviewed its procedures, which was enough to convince the Supreme Court and lower courts that the execution could go ahead.
The Supreme Court’s brief order did not explain its reasoning in allowing Barber’s execution.
Sister Helen Prejean and me in my hood in June. I’m still not crocheting gigantic cats, and she’s still fighting the death penalty.
It gets to the point where you just don’t know what to say about the Sicko Six. However, there are 3 very strong women on the court that can call out the bullshit when the read it.
The Florida Board of Education approved a new set of standards for how Black history should be taught in the state’s public schools, sparking criticism from education and civil rights advocates who said students should be allowed to learn the “full truth” of American history.
The curriculum was approved at the board’s meeting Wednesday in Orlando.
It is the latest development in the state’s ongoing debate over African American history, including the education department’s rejection of a preliminary pilot version of an Advanced Placement African American Studies course for high school students, which it claimed lacked educational value.
The new standards come after the state passed new legislation under Gov. Ron DeSantis that bars instruction in schools that suggests anyone is privileged or oppressed based on their race or skin color. DeSantis has used his fight against “wokeness” to boost his national profile amid a national discussion of how racism and history should be taught in schools.
The new standards require instruction for middle school students to include “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” a document listing the standards and posted in the Florida Department of Education website said.
When high school students learn about events such as the 1920 Ocoee massacre, the new rules require that instruction include “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” The massacre is considered the deadliest Election Day violence in US history and, according to several histories of the incident, it started when Moses Norman, a prominent Black landowner in the Ocoee, Florida, community, attempted to cast his ballot and was turned away by White poll workers.
“Our children deserve nothing less than truth, justice, and the equity our ancestors shed blood, sweat, and tears for,” Derrick Johnson, president and CEO of the NAACP, said in a statement condemning the new standards. “It is imperative that we understand that the horrors of slavery and Jim Crow were a violation of human rights and represent the darkest period in American history.”
“We are proud of the rigorous process that the Department took to develop these standards,” Alex Lanfranconi, director of communications for the Florida Department of Education, said in a statement, noting the standards were created by a group of 13 educators and academics.
“It’s sad to see critics attempt to discredit what any unbiased observer would conclude to be in-depth and comprehensive African American History standards. They incorporate all components of African American History: the good, the bad and the ugly. These standards will further cement Florida as a national leader in education, as we continue to provide true and accurate instruction in African American History,” Lanfranconi said.
I was a history major and an American history explorer with my family. My mother made sure we saw every unblemished historical fact about our country, from sea to shining sea. She also became the family genealogy expert and hid nothing from me about the slave owners in our family tree. She could crochet up a significant number of things too. However, she never soft-peddled the ongoing US genocide of our First Americans. She also didn’t hold back on the slave uprising that ended the life and career of one whatever great Uncle back there on the side branches. He was an expert in breaking uncooperative slaves. That fits right in with the white-washing of American History. Sorry folks, there’s a newspaper out there that reports his death and the whys and hows of everything. I’d like to send that to every kid in Florida to take to their teacher who tries to teach that bullshit.
Did I feel good about any of this? No. That’s the point. It caused me to fight bullies twice my size as a kid when I saw what I saw. It caused me not to want to be like them. That was the lesson. This brings the fight I fought for at least 3 decades, starting five decades ago. It’s back, and I’m not about to give up on it now. This is from The Conversation. I’m sure unisex bathrooms will once again be a scare factor. “U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney speaks during a press conference in December 2022, calling to affirm the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution. Alex Wong/Getty Images. Democrats revive the Equal Rights Amendment from a long legal limbo – facing an unlikely uphill battle to get it enshrined into law.” This was my first big civil rights fight and we’re still fighting today.
Democrats in Congress are making a new push to get the long-dormant proposed Equal Rights Amendment enshrined into law. As legislation, it would guarantee sex equality in the Constitution and could serve as a potential legal antidote to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which removed the federal right to an abortion.
“In light of Dobbs, we’re seeing vast discrimination across the country,” said U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York in an interview July 13, 2023. “Women are being treated as second-class citizens. This is more timely than ever.”
Gillibrand, U.S. Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri and other Democratic lawmakers are arguing that the Equal Rights Amendment, often referred to as the ERA, has already been ratified by the states and is enforceable as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
Efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution to recognize women’s rights have faced major challenges for the past century. Most recently, in April 2023 Senate Republicans blocked a similar resolution that would let states ratify the amendment, despite an expired deadline.
“Nearly 100 years since the Equal Rights Amendment was first introduced, our broad, diverse, and intersectional movement is using every tool available to get the ERA over the finish line and enshrine gender equality into our Constitution,” said Rep. Pressley. “Our Republican colleagues have the opportunity, once again, to stand on the right side of history and support the dignity, humanity, and equality of every person who calls America home. They must meet the moment.”
“The Equal Rights Amendment is all about equality—the most fundamental of American values. After 100 years, we are closer than ever to realizing the vision of the ERA,” said Senator Cardin, lead sponsor of S.J. Res. 4, the Senate companion resolution. “The required 38 states have already ratified the ERA, and it is long past time that Congress formally recognized the ERA as a part of our Constitution. I’m committed to pushing forward on all fronts until we finally see equality enshrined into our Constitution. There should be no deadline on equality.”
“This week marks the 100th anniversary of the unveiling of the Equal Rights Amendment at Seneca Falls. Seeing the ERA through to publication will require bold and decisive action, which Rep. Pressley is taking today by launching a discharge petition to bring HJ Res 25 to the House floor for a vote. Today’s ERA movement is multi-generational, multi-racial, multi-ethnic, intersectional, and inclusive, led by Black and brown women, LGBTQ+ people, and youth,” said Zakiya Thomas, President and CEO of the ERA Coalition/Fund for Women’s Equality. “We’re grateful to the leadership of Representatives Pressley, Bush, Dean, Garcia, Kamlager-Dove, and Spanberger for advancing equality of all women, especially women of color, and LGBTQ+ folks; making sure we are all represented and seen in our Constitution. This fight won’t end here! We are in this, along with our nearly 300 partner organizations, until we’ve achieved true equal protection under the law for all.”
I have to admit I’d love to have a hobby, but I’m not sure it’s really me. Meanwhile, I’ll go tilt at a few more windmills and hopefully, enough people will join they will topple. I’m not leaving a mess for my grandchildren to pick up if at all possible. I’d rather they not have to wait another 100 years before the ERA is ratified.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Did you like this post? Please share it with your friends:
The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
The asshole staged a violent coup attempt at the People’s House. WTF are these complacent assholes thinking? It was televised! Some of his droggies are in jail for Seditious Conspiracy. What will it take to wake these jerks up? I agree with this Congress Critters. Let the Trial be televised! Let them resee how all the freaking witnesses against him are Republicans. Trump even got charged under the KKK Act and will now face a tough Black Woman as judge. How is that a political set-up by Democrats! Rebecca Shabad of NBC News has this story. “House Democrats call for live broadcasts of court proceedings in Trump criminal cases.”
Before I continue, I should mention that the headline contains the number of years Trump could face so far, as calculated by the Washington Post‘s Philip Bump. You can get a great list of all the indictments and charges there with their individual number of maxium years for conviction.
I just hope it has serious agita from the experience and chokes on a grizzly, greasy over-cooked Big Mac.
There was fun to be had when two Former Federal Prosecutors had to figure out what they had just seen.
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Here’s more from The Guardian. “Ex-Trump lawyer says evidence against him ‘overwhelming’ in Mar-a-Lago case. Ty Cobb, who represented Trump in Mueller investigation, says classified documents case is ‘tight’ after new charges filed.”
Mitch McConnell is vowing to stay in office despite that moment in his speech this week where he was unable to speak and displayed odd eye movements. This is from NBC. “Mitch McConnell vows to serve his full term as Republican leader. Concerns about McConnell’s health intensified after he suddenly stopped speaking during a GOP news conference this week, appearing to freeze, and then went silent and was walked away.”
Dianne Feinstein had a similar moment this week. This is also from NBC News. ‘Sen. Dianne Feinstein told to ‘just say aye’ in awkward Senate committee moment. Feinstein, 90, began delivering a speech in support of a bill during a vote Thursday, instead of the expected response of “aye” or “nay.”‘
As someone who just spent the week coming to terms with her old eyes and old brain at two doctor’s appointments, I can tell you that this year has me wondering if I should stay out of the classroom at this point. I’m hoping new glasses help with the grading that seems awkward these days. I’m still waiting on the bottom line of the MRI results from Wednesday. I’m relying on my Son-in-Law, the radiologist, to be both kind and brutally honest with me.
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Texas has become the epicenter of runaway state government. Rule of Law means nothing in Texas. Nowhere is this clearer with the current controversy surrounding Governor Abbott’s use of barrels wrapped in razor wire and denial of basic human aid to those coming to the Texas Border. The DOJ is now on the case. This is from Democracy Now! “DOJ Threatens to Sue Texas Gov. Abbott for Installing Barrels Wrapped in Razor Wire in Rio Grande.”
Yes. That’s the same agency that failed all of those kids in Uvalde, Texas. Let’s list just a few things this Republican Governor has been up to recently. This is from today’s Washington Examiner. “Greg Abbott sends fifth bus of migrants to Los Angeles.”
There are, as there should be, a lot of questions about the legal basis of Abbott’s actions. This is from Newsweek. “Greg Abbott’s Disaster Declaration Against Migrants Raises Questions.” The analysis is provided by Khaleda Rahman.
The lawsuit against the state by women who have been severely injured by the Texas Anti-Abortion law saw testimony starting July 19th. This is from the Texas Tribune. “Tearfully testifying against Texas’ abortion ban, three women describe medical care delayed. The women, believed to be the first to testify about an abortion ban’s impact on their pregnancy since 1973, are seeking to clarify when a medical emergency justifies an abortion.”
Also, Texas is leading the charge on Book Bans. This is from May 23rd. According to statistics, Texas has banned more books than any other state. This is from the AP. “Texas lawmakers set new standards to ban books from schools for sexual content.” Texas is a huge consumer of books for its numerous students and frequently sets the standard for textbooks and books made for children.
Sky Dancers!
No kidding. Plus, the death of infants and pregnant women is on the rise. This is about control of women and reverting them to chattel status. This does not promote life in any manner. This is from Austin TV station KXAN. “Texas sees spike in infant mortality after enacting abortion restrictions, DSHS data says.” It’s reported by Erica Pauda and Cora Neas.
Meanwhile, the “pro-life” Justices on the Supreme Court love promoting death penalty politics. This is from Lawrence Hurley at NBC News. “Liberal justices blast Supreme Court majority for allowing Alabama execution. The high court allowed the execution of James Barber despite botched attempts to execute other inmates last year.”
I was a history major and an American history explorer with my family. My mother made sure we saw every unblemished historical fact about our country, from sea to shining sea. She also became the family genealogy expert and hid nothing from me about the slave owners in our family tree. She could crochet up a significant number of things too. However, she never soft-peddled the ongoing US genocide of our First Americans. She also didn’t hold back on the slave uprising that ended the life and career of one whatever great Uncle back there on the side branches. He was an expert in breaking uncooperative slaves. That fits right in with the white-washing of American History. Sorry folks, there’s a newspaper out there that reports his death and the whys and hows of everything. I’d like to send that to every kid in Florida to take to their teacher who tries to teach that bullshit.
The piece was written by Professor of Sociology at Florida State University. DeSantis will probably come for her job. She studies gender and politics. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), Co-Chair of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) Caucus, leads the fight that started 100 years ago. This happened on July 19th.
peej
Carissa
bostonboomer
dakinikat
ecocatwoman
jjlo
mablue2
Mama Lopez
peggysue22
quixote
skydancingguestblogger
Mona (aka Wonk the Vote)
Sky Dancing 
Recent Comments