Alabama is on the hunt for the best killing ritual Horrifying: Alabama is seeking to become the first state to execute a prisoner by making him breathe pure nitrogen. The Alabama attorney general’s office on Friday asked the state Supreme Court to set an execution date for death row inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith, 58. The court filing indicated Alabama plans to put him to death by nitrogen hypoxia, an execution method that is authorized in three states but has never been used. [Oklahoma and Mississippi have also authorized nitrogen hypoxia.] Nitrogen hypoxia is caused by forcing the inmate to breathe only nitrogen, depriving them of oxygen and causing them to die. Nitrogen makes up 78% of the air inhaled by humans and is harmless when inhaled with oxygen. While proponents of the new method have theorized it would be painless, opponents have likened it to human experimentation. […] Alabama has been working for several years to develop the nitrogen hypoxia execution method, but has disclosed little about its plans. The attorney general’s court filing did not describe the details of the how the execution would be carried out.
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You knew they would: The former president has raised $7.1 million since he was booked at an Atlanta jail Thursday evening, according to figures provided first to POLITICO by his campaign. On Friday alone, Trump raised $4.18 million, making it the single-highest 24-hour period of his campaign to date, according to a person familiar with the totals. The campaign’s fundraising has been powered by merchandise it has been selling through his online store. After Trump was taken into custody, the campaign began selling shirts, posters, bumper stickers and beverage coolers bearing Trump’s scowling mugshot. The items bear the tagline “NEVER SURRENDER!” and range in price from $12 to $34. The mug shot literally documents his surrender. Trumpers’ brains would rattle in a thimble.
Michael Tomasky asks the question. And it’s chilling: It’s not just unprecedented that we now have an ex-president with a mug shot. It’s insanely, amazingly, staggeringly, chillingly unprecedented. It makes me think about the past—about how we got to this insane, amazing, staggering, chilling point. And it makes me think about the future—about what grim precedent Trump will drag us into next. We got here because Donald Trump, now also known as Prisoner P01135809, has never had any regard for laws of any kind. We’ve known this for decades. When I was a young reporter in New York, and Trump was not yet a wannabe dictator, and the working-class men of the heartland registered him in their minds (if at all) as a swanky Manhattan rich guy who had nothing to do with their lives, Trump’s habits and attitudes were well known in New York. Sometimes, people went at him, but no one ever got him. And often, the people with the power to do so didn’t even go at him. Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney for most of the years Trump was operating in New York, left his office in 2009 with a sterling reputation.
What is going on down there? This is truly stunning. They rounded up all the Black kids in the school for an assembly. You won’t believe what it was for: A Florida elementary school has prompted outrage for singling out its Black students to attend a special assembly identifying them, as a group, as a “problem” because of standardized test performances. Black fourth- and fifth-grade students at Bunnell elementary school in Flagler county, central Florida, were pulled from class last Friday and mandated to attend the presentation on improving test scores, the Washington Post reported. Students were chosen to attend the presentation based on race, Jason Wheeler, the communications coordinator for Flagler school district, confirmed to the Guardian. The nine- and 10-year-old students were shown a powerpoint entitled “AA presentation”, referring to African American, according to a copy of the presentation shared with the Guardian. A slide labeled “The Problem” claimed that “AA”, referring to Black students, have underperformed on standardized tests for the past three years.
Alleged co-conspirators find out Alleged coup plotters, election subverters, and concealers of classified documents now find themselves under state and federal indictment. After doing the bidding of former president Donald Trump they risk not just jail for themselves and ruined reputations, but also financial ruin for their families. Axios: Trump co-defendants Jenna Ellis (former Trump lawyer), Cathy Latham (former Republican Party chair of Coffee County, Georgia), John Eastman (former Trump lawyer), and Jeffrey Clark (former Department of Justice official) have all launched crowd-funding appeals to pay for their defense. Their piles are less than yooge. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani is so short on cash for his defense that his son is organizing fundraiser dinners: Andrew Giuliani, a former New York Republican gubernatorial candidate, told CNBC in a statement: “It is helpful that President Trump has agreed to headline two events, one on September 7 at Bedminster and another this winter at Mar-a-Lago, where we are getting strong donor interest.” He declined to comment further.
It was actually much creepier than that. Here’s an excerpt from David Corn’s newsletter on that interview: [N]o one is more cynical than Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News golden boy. As you know, Trump eschewed the debate and instead sat down for an interview with Carlson that was posted on the Social Media Site Formerly Known as Twitter. It was tough to watch. Such profound toadyism is unnerving, even when coming from a champion charlatan, such as Carlson. As Donald Trump reiterated the same ol’ false complaint—“The election was rigged. It was a rigged election…. They used Covid to cheat…. We have so much on it. It’s like so easy”—Carlson gazed at him adoringly. There was no retort from the interviewer. But we know, thanks to the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox, that Carlson didn’t buy Trump’s bunk. In private messages revealed during that case, Carlson indicated he didn’t accept the Trump team’s claims that the 2020 election was marred by rampant fraud. He also repeatedly expressed his disdain for Trump.
Cohen points out the obvious problem with this idea that Trump is still liable for state charges even if he becomes president again. He asks, “how are they going to get him?Are they going to send local authorities to arrest him?” which is a good point. As he says it would cause a constitutional crisis — a local authority coming to arrest the president of the United States? Cohen believes that Trump is well aware of this — “he knows what he’s doing” — and fully recognizes that his only way out of this mess is to win the presidency. The Republican Party refuses to stop him, thinking the Democrats will get them out of this mess and they can preserve all the benefits of what Trump brings them without all the mucky muck. He’s not going anywhere. And if he is defeated once more, you can bet that he will attempt to raise his mob again as a last ditch effort to stay out of jail. If that happens our only hope is that they are tired of all this and don’t answer the call.
Shocker: Donald Trump was wounded, and Ron DeSantis was building a juggernaut. When POLITICO launched its 2024 Republican presidential candidate tracker in March, the GOP was still smarting over a weaker-than-expected midterm election thanks to Trump’s influence. DeSantis had emerged as Trump’s top challenger and was marshaling his resources to launch a giant-killing campaign. But five months later — a span that’s seen four indictments, three DeSantis layoff sprees and one Trump-less debate — it’s Trump unambiguously on top. And everyone else, DeSantis included, way behind. That’s why we’re reshuffling the candidates on the tracker. The biggest move: DeSantis drops down a tier, leaving Trump as the sole candidate in the “Frontrunners” category. I am really starting to think he won’t make it to Iowa. I guess he’s got a ton of money so maybe he’ll just brazen it out until he is forced out. But really, why bother?
This thread by Ben Rhodes echoes my thoughts: During my 20 years in politics, two destructive trends stand out: the steady radicalization of the Republican Party and the trivialization of politics, particularly the way it is covered by US media and how politicians respond to that dynamic. The Republican debate stands out for how unsurprising it was that a stage full of people acted like a bunch of kids trying to get admitted to some fascist costume party. Kill people at the border! Prohibit women from any agency over their bodies! Side with Putin! Etc. Etc. The bridge between radicalization and trivialization (as always) is Trump. Last night, a group of accomplished adults refused to condemn someone who has broken laws related to overthrowing the U.S. government, stealing classified information, violating campaign finance laws, etc If I told you 20 years ago that a guy who was facing 91 felony charges, including trying to overthrow the U.S. government, would be the overwhelming favorite for the Republican nomination and none of his opponents would dare to criticize him, well… There’s a lot to say about the radicalization of the Republicans.
You’re about to get hit with a barrage of propaganda from Fox News about Biden and Burisma (again.) In case you’re not sure of what this is all about, Media Matters offers a primer: On August 25, Fox News previewed an interview of former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin by network host Brian Kilmeade that is set to air in full on August 26. In the preview segment, Shokin accused President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden of “corruption” and “being bribed” to push for the prosecutor’s removal from office in 2016. In fact, there was widespread agreement at the time across the political spectrum in the United States and the European Union that Shokin should be fired for being soft on corruption, including State Department allegations that Shokin himself was corrupt. Additionally, at the time of his removal, Shokin wasn’t actively investigating Hunter Biden or Burisma, an energy company that had hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board of directors.