The Justice Department’s starting to play hardball in its bid to take back the government records that ex-White House adviser Peter Navarro continues to clutch onto via his non-official email account.
Continue reading “DOJ Escalates Effort To Get Govt Docs From Navarro’s Private Email”Watching Russia
Over the weekend I started thinking about a hypothetical: is there anyone in the Russian national security apparatus who thinks to themselves, “Yep, decision to pull the trigger on the invasion back in February … great call!”
I emphasize “think” rather than “say” since the mood in Russia doesn’t seem like one where doubts are likely to be expressed openly, at least at the upper levels of the national security establishment. People find ways not to ask themselves these questions, even in the privacy of their thoughts. But it is hard to imagine many managing to say yes. The suffering is overwhelmingly in and to Ukraine; they are the victims. But it is hard to imagine a greater self-inflicted wound than the one Russia brought on itself back in February, entirely at a time and place of its choosing.
I raise this question because, as you likely know, President Putin recently declared a “partial mobilization” in Russia, the first since the Second World War, which gives the state power to draft about 300,000 new recruits, though there are signs on the ground that the mobilization is actually far from partial.
Continue reading “Watching Russia”They Still Won’t Say It In Court
The Trump team’s misinformation campaign about the Mar-a-Lago raid continues, as does the disparity between what they say in media interviews and what they say in court:
Continue reading “They Still Won’t Say It In Court”Texas AG Paxton Flees Home To Avoid Subpoena
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Cue The Benny Hill Theme Music
A newly filed affidavit describes how Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) and his wife fled their home in a truck on Monday morning when a process server tried to serve the attorney general a subpoena in a lawsuit by nonprofits working to help Texans receive out-of-state abortion care.
Here’s how part of the scene played out, according to the process server in the affidavit:
“I walked up the driveway approaching Mr. Paxton and called him by his name. As soon as he saw me and heard me call his name out, he turned around and RAN back inside the house through the same door in the garage.”
- The process server said he put the documents near the truck on the ground, only for Paxton to drive away–but not before the process server told the official he was being served.
- Paxton claimed later via Twitter that he ran away out of “concern about the safety and well-being of my family.”
Historic Oath Keepers Trial Begins
Today marks the first day of the criminal trial against Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes and four other members of the far-right militia facing seditious conspiracy charges over their roles in the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.
- Jury selection in the trial begins today, and opening statements are expected to come on Thursday.
- All five Oath Keepers have pleaded not guilty. They face up to 20 years in prison.
Oath Keeper Indicted Over Jan. 6 Texted Andrew Giuliani About Election
Kellye SoRelle, the general counsel to the Oath Keepers militia who’s been indicted for participating in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, texted former White House public liaison staffer Andrew Giuliani (who’s also ex-Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani’s son) in November 2020 about the election, NBC News reports.
- SoRelle also attempted to text a White House number on Dec. 20 (which couldn’t be delivered because she sent it to a White House switchboard line), according to a new book by former House Jan. 6 Committee adviser Denver Riggleman and reporter Hunter Walker.
Sinema Gets Mavericky With McConnell
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) unrolled the red carpet for Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) on Monday at his eponymous McConnell Center at the University of Louisville, where the Arizona senator bragged that not only was she “committed” to keeping the filibuster’s 60-vote threshold, she also had an “incredibly unpopular view” about the threshold.
- Are you ready to hear it, America? Are you? Okay, here it is: The 60-vote threshold ought to be restored for votes where it’s been eliminated (and now only require a simple majority), like judicial confirmations, because doing so would create “middle ground” in “all parts of our governance,” Sinema argued as McConnell salivated several feet away from the podium.
- Sinema also boasted that she’s “never really wanted to fit in, not in Washington, and not anywhere else.” In other words:
- It’s still not clear who exactly Sinema’s trying to win over by proudly stonewalling her own party’s agenda (assuming it has anything to do with running for president or reelection instead of just pleasing donors). According to this new AARP-commissioned poll, her disapproval figures are at double digits across every Arizona voter demographic that got included in the survey (so hey, she’s definitely succeeding in bringing all sides together!):
Kyrsten Sinema: unpopular among everyone.
— Jacob Rubashkin (@JacobRubashkin) September 22, 2022
Sometimes it seems like she’s trying to please nobody, and if so, she’s succeeding. Sinema is 20 points underwater among Democrats, 10 points underwater with Independents, 18 points underwater among Republicans. pic.twitter.com/dOgsTqP8LW
Must Read
“‘They Have Nothing to Lose’: Why Young Iranians Are Rising Up Once Again” – The New York Times
Putin Grants Russian Citizenship To Snowden
In what’s almost certainly meant to be a troll move aimed at the U.S., Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday granted Russian citizenship to ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who’s been living in Russia since 2013 to escape criminal charges after exposing U.S. mass surveillance.
- Snowden won’t have to go fight in Ukraine under Putin’s partial mobilization order (which applies to dual citizens), according to Snowden’s lawyer, because he hasn’t previously served in the Russian military.
- Snowden announced in 2020 that he and his wife were applying for Russian citizenship so they could cross borders more freely with their soon-to-be-born son.
Tracking Hurricane Ian
The Washington Post is following Hurricane Ian’s movement as the storm barrels toward Florida.
NASA Spacecraft Successfully Smashes Into Asteroid
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft plowed into an asteroid on Monday, a major breakthrough in scientists’ study of how to defend the Earth from a potential asteroid crash.
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The Key Ingredients Of Christian Nationalism
Christian nationalism has been all over the news lately, but it is neither a new term nor a new phenomenon in American politics. The label gained greater usage during former President Donald Trump’s presidency because of his mobilization of the Christian right around his strongman politics. Interest in the ideology — and the term — grew even more following the January 6 insurrection, where Christian nationalist rhetoric and symbols were on full display, sometimes violently. As Trump acolytes Michael Flynn and Roger Stone enthrall crowds with their Christian nationalist “Reawaken America” tour, and Pennsylvania Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano fuses Trump’s stolen election lie with Christian nationalism, its threat to democracy has never been more vividly apparent.
Continue reading “The Key Ingredients Of Christian Nationalism”Where Things Stand: Sinema Doesn’t Just Love The Filibuster. She Wants To Strengthen It
One of the two most thorn-in-Democrats’-side senators rather brazenly planted her flag on the filibuster today — and she did it at a … Mitch McConnell event of all places.
Calling Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) the “most effective first-term senator” he’s seen in his decades in the upper chamber, McConnell introduced Sinema ahead of her speech and Q&A at the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.
“She is, today, what we have too few of in the Democratic Party: a genuine moderate and a deal-maker,” he said.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Sinema Doesn’t Just Love The Filibuster. She Wants To Strengthen It”How Interesting Is The J6 White House Rioter Call?
Over the weekend, a former member of the Jan. 6 Committee’s investigative team revealed something potentially explosive: the panel had found a record of a brief phone call from the White House to an unnamed rioter.
Continue reading “How Interesting Is The J6 White House Rioter Call?”DeSantis Still Mum
The Post has another updated narrative of the events surrounding Florida’s shipment of migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. It is mainly more human detail about the journey of one Venezuelan migrant named Jose. But it does give a bit more flavor or “Perla’s” MO, including offering McDonald’s voucher to migrants who’d gone without food in exchange for signing a transport waiver most of which hadn’t been translated into Spanish. The other thing that is clear is that reporters seem to have more detail than made it into this article about the contracting arrangements by which Florida paid for these operatives in Texas to run their operation for them.
Continue reading “DeSantis Still Mum”Vos Sues To Quash Jan. 6 Panel’s Subpoena For Testimony
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R) launched a court battle on Sunday to quash the House Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoena, which seeks his testimony on ex-President Donald Trump’s phone call to Vos pushing the state lawmaker to somehow decertify his state’s 2020 election results.
Continue reading “Vos Sues To Quash Jan. 6 Panel’s Subpoena For Testimony”Meadows Was Kept Updated On Plot To Seize Voting Machines, Texts Show
A key player in MAGA World’s plot to have the federal government seize voting machines to undo the 2020 election made sure then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows knew about the status of the plan, according to texts obtained by CNN.
Continue reading “Meadows Was Kept Updated On Plot To Seize Voting Machines, Texts Show”