… that we know of The Washington Post: Among many striking things about the July 2021 audio of Donald Trump seeming to discuss a classified document with guests is how casual it all was. In real time, the now-indicted former president seems to recognize that what he’s doing is not kosher, requesting that it be off the record and drawing an aide to comment with an apparently uneasy laugh, “Yeah, now we have a problem.” It’s as if those involved were familiar with the dance of Trump being cavalier with sensitive information. Which, even before this latest entry, is indeed what his full record demonstrates. Appearing on MSNBC over the weekend, former Trump White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said she personally witnessed the way Trump shared information at Mar-a-Lago during his presidency. Asked whether it was plausible that Trump was actually showing off classified documents in July 2021 — Trump has suggested it was mere “bravado” — Grisham said: “The short answer is yes. I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio.
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Alert the media Somebody’s regretting betting on the wrong horse: A top spokesperson for Ron DeSantis’ super PAC is sounding a decidedly dour note on the Florida governor’s presidential prospects, saying his campaign is facing an “uphill battle” and is trailing badly in the key nominating states. Steve Cortes, who previously supported Donald Trump, also heaped praise on the former president, calling him a “runaway frontrunner” and “maestro” of the debate. “Right now in national polling we are way behind, I’ll be the first to admit that,” Cortes said in a Twitter spaces event that was recorded on Sunday night. “I believe in being blunt and honest. It’s an uphill battle but clearly Donald Trump is the runaway frontrunner.” Calling the DeSantis campaign the “clear underdog,” he added: “In the first four states which matter tremendously, polls are a lot tighter, we are still clearly down. We’re down double digits, we have work to do.” DeSantis said the opposite last week.
Chomsky: Europe May Face Decline, Deindustrialization by Staying in ‘US-Dominated System’ Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Sputnik May 31, 2023. Sputnik. Europe will experience a likely decline and deindustrialization if it chooses to stay within the system dominated by the United States, renowned US academic and philosopher Noam Chomsky told Sputnik. “Europe has a major decision to […]
ChatGPT and human intelligence: Noam Chomsky responds to critics Noam Chomsky Interviewed by Ramin Mirfakhraie April 24, 2023. Monthly Review Online. The recent emergence of OpenAI’s ChatGPT (part of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer family of language models) has attracted a lot of attention throughout the world. It is a chatbot released in November 2022, […]
Southern Baptists double down on decline “No one could accuse the Baptists of excessive cheeriness,” David Siders begins in his Politico report from the Southern Baptist Convention conclave in New Orleans: “We are living in dark and perilous times in America,” read the billing for a night with former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, “as our culture descends into a spiritual abyss …” It is a stark change of mood for hundreds of pastors and church members from their Trump-years triumphalism. The U.S. has been both steadily secularizing and religiously diversifying for decades. This leaves Southern Baptists, once dominant in a region of churches on every streetcorner, unsettled at their declining ability to dictate local culture. Evangelicals of whom Southern Baptists are a fraction, saw Trump, the “thrice-married former casino owner” with his “two Corinthians” pandering as an imperfect champion. At least he was pandering. “Great again” for them meant more than white dominance. He represented renewal of their religious and cultural dominance. Since then, Siders explains, all seems to have gone to Hell.
It’s gonna be a summer Next week I head north to Chicago for Netroots Nation. Hopes for cooler, tamer weather to the north are just that. Axios: Torrential rains flooded Chicago’s streets and forced NASCAR officials to postpone a race through the city, as the National Weather Service issued hazardous weather alerts for over 110 million Americans during the extended July Fourth holiday weekend. State of play: Chicago train services were suspended, buses were temporarily rerouted and Illinois State Police said parts of Interstate highways 55 and 290 were shut due to flooding, per WLS-TV. The National Weather Service (a branch of the Commerce Department that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis promises to eliminate as president) reports: Meanwhile, the heat wave across the South will be less oppressive today, before confining southward even more on Independence Day. Nevertheless, heat indices could approach 105-110 degrees with high temperatures into the mid-90s, which can be dangerous if spending an extended amount of time outdoors.
Nobody likes him Former president Donald Trump held his first big rally over the weekend in a little town called Pickens, South Carolina. Reports of the crowd size vary, with Trump claiming 75,000 which is absurd, but it was a large and very enthusiastic crowd. He gave his usual spiel, whining “I am being indicted for you” and he once again delivered his creepy new mission statement, declaring that this 2024 election is the “Final Battle” against the “Communists,,” “globalists” “warmongers” and the “sick people” and “degenerates” who “hate our country.” It was the usual cheery, positive vision of the future we’ve come to expect from him and it was especially uplifting on the 4th of July weekend. It makes you proud to be an American. He was very well received which isn’t surprising since the district went for him in big numbers in both 2016 and 2020. The weather was very hot but they were ready to party: Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared as well, and was her usual ray of sunshine as well.
I should hope so The Wall St Journal reports: Special counsel Jack Smith’s team in recent weeks has taken a growing interest in the role of lawyers and other figures involved in legal efforts aimed at reversing Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, people familiar with the matter said. Prosecutors from Smith’s team have issued subpoenas and asked questions centered on several key figures in those postelection efforts, including Sidney Powell, a pro-Trump lawyer who spread baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. The subpoenas have also requested communications with Emily Newman, a lawyer who worked with Powell, and Mike Roman, a Republican operative who headed Election Day operations for the Trump campaign and dispatched lawyers to swing states before November 2020. Federal prosecutors also recently interviewed Rudy Giuliani, who served as Trump’s personal lawyer at the time, for roughly eight hours on topics including Powell, people familiar with the testimony said. They were interested, among other things, in a December 2020 meeting in the Oval Office, during which Powell pitched a plan to have the U.S.
DKos’s Laura Clawson reports on a Washington Post story about the very lame House “moderates” (who have just as much power as the MAGA winguts): The far-right House Freedom Caucus’s antics have gotten so bad that Republicans who represent districts won by President Joe Biden have actually started trying to affect what legislation comes to the House floor. They’re not trying very hard, mind you—whining to the media remains their main weapon, and they’ll get outsized credit for anything they accomplish, including the whining, but doing slightly more than nothing is a change. The Washington Post reports, “In recent weeks, these lawmakers have kept some abortion-related measures from being put to a vote and sunk an amendment that would have derailed a government oversight bill.” Okay, that’s a start, as is the successful effort by some first-term New York Republicans to sink anti-union amendments.
It’s a super great idea to crack down on immigrant labor during a time of full employment and a building boom in a big agriculture state. So smart. And that’s what Ron DeSantis has done so that he can pretend he’s a tough hombre in a border state (which he isn’t.) He’s already getting some great results: Florida’s agricultural and construction industries say they are experiencing a labor shortage because a new immigration law that took effect July 1 is leading migrant workers to leave the state. The law, signed in May by Florida Gov. and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, seeks to further criminalize undocumented immigration in the state. It makes it a third-degree felony for unauthorized people to knowingly use a false identification to obtain employment. Businesses that knowingly employ unauthorized workers could have their licenses suspended, and those with 25 or more employees that repeatedly fail to use the E-Verify system to check their immigration status can face daily fines. Business owners and workers alike say the ranks of laborers in Florida have grown noticeably thinner.