A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Continue reading “Enabler-in-Chief Lindsey Graham And The Echoes Of Fascism”Where Things Stand: Don’t You Dare Move On From 2020
He was several days late to the party, but the former president appears to have finally gotten wind of some remarks that Mark Zuckerberg made during a Joe Rogan podcast that had conservatives up in arms last week.
Continue reading “Where Things Stand: Don’t You Dare Move On From 2020”Five Points On How Republicans May Still Blow A Winnable Seat In New Hampshire
It’s hard to put a positive spin on the Republican Senate candidate class when the party’s Senate leader can’t even muster the energy to pretend.
Continue reading “Five Points On How Republicans May Still Blow A Winnable Seat In New Hampshire”Greenland Ice Sheet Is Shrinking Faster Than Forecast, Locking In Sea Level Rise: Study
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. It was first published at The Conversation.
I am standing at the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, mesmerized by a mind-blowing scene of natural destruction. A milewide section of glacier front has fractured and is collapsing into the ocean, calving an immense iceberg.
Continue reading “Greenland Ice Sheet Is Shrinking Faster Than Forecast, Locking In Sea Level Rise: Study”Parched
I want to recommend to you this piece on the global water crisis (a subset of the climate crisis) and how that plays out specifically in the American Southwest and the various areas fed by the fast depleting Colorado River. There’s so much that is easy to get horrified by as the climate crisis not only bears down on us but does so faster than even a lot of pessimists expected. It’s in our nature to think of politics as the present just indefinitely spread out into the future. But this piece, an interview with a water use expert, is a view into the radical changes coming for that whole part of the country. It’s certainly bad news for mega-cities like Phoenix which we’ve essentially built in the middle of the desert. But as this discussion makes clear cities aren’t even the main issue. Where the water really goes is to food production. And that’s about to change dramatically because no matter how politically powerful agro-business may be there simply isn’t enough water now to sustain it.
Meet The Sleazebags, Traffic Court Lawyers, Criminal Defendants And Even Some Normal Lawyers Who’ve Helped Defend Donald Trump
Rudy Giuliani
Rudy Giuliani
Jenna Ellis
Sidney Powell
Alina Habba
Christine Bobb
Ty Cobb
John Dowd
Jay Sekulow
Jay Sekulow
Alan Dershowitz
John Eastman
Pam Bondi
Pam Bondi
Pam Bondi
Marc Kasowitz
Michael van der Veen
Bruce Castor Jr.
Lindsey Halligan
Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen
Michael Cohen
Evan Corcoran
Martin and Jane Raskin
Joe DiGenova and Victoria Toensing
What Was He Doing? Readers Reply #2
TPM Reader TS has a different emphasis but a not dissimilar take to DP’s. Holding the documents is power, whether Trump actually uses them in some practical way in the future or not.
Continue reading “What Was He Doing? Readers Reply #2”Look at it from his perspective: he’s still the rightful president and a bunch of wimpy gnats of bureaucrats are trying to take away presidential stuff he put away and brought to Mar a Lago. Why? Just because he might enjoy it or find it useful — almost certainly to defend himself against imagined wrongs or to get back at or hold leverage over his enemies at home and abroad (so many of them)!
What Was He Doing? Readers Reply
I think TPM Reader DP captures a key element of the Trump documents story …
Continue reading “What Was He Doing? Readers Reply”I think that ‘selling classified materials’ is too narrow an understanding of what Trump does or could do. I suspect his world is characterized by all kinds of exchange relations and forms of reciprocity. Like many people, he builds relations by giving supposed gifts. Recipients know to give back in certain ways if they want to maintain or shape the relationship. And others advance gifts to him on the good chance of reciprocity. This is not specific to Trump. It is how business people, politicians and others make their way, doing what they do. No doubt many folks hope to get to money deals when the chance arises, but at this level of gifting, all kinds of things can be leveraged. Why else to join an expensive golf club?
Inside Trump’s Post-Presidential Hell Of Criminal Probes And Feeble Lawyering
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
Not Ready For Primetime
A flurry of new reporting over the weekend further cemented the impression that Trump and his legal team (to the extent there is a legal “team” … more on that in a moment) are walking blithely unprepared into what could be the most serious criminal culpability he has yet faced in his long and illustrious career of staying one step ahead of the law.
So about that legal team. Here’s how the two main figures on that team – Evan Corcoran and Jim Trusty – came to be hired, according to the NYT:
Mr. Trusty was hired after Mr. Trump saw him on television, people close to the former president have said. Mr. Corcoran came in during the spring, introduced by another Trump adviser during a conference call in which Mr. Corcoran made clear he was willing to take on a case that many of Mr. Trump’s other advisers were seeking to avoid, people briefed on the discussion said.
Who is overseeing that team? So glad you asked:
The closest thing to a legal quarterback in Mr. Trump’s orbit is Boris Epshteyn, a onetime lawyer at the firm Milbank who was a political adviser to Mr. Trump in 2016, ultimately becoming a senior staff member on his inaugural effort and then a strategic adviser on the 2020 campaign.
Mr. Epshteyn has championed Mr. Trump’s claims, dismissed by dozens of courts, that the election was stolen from him, and has risen to a role he has described to colleagues as an “in-house counsel,” helping to assemble Mr. Trump’s current legal team.
Corcoran in particular seems in over his head:
Mr. Corcoran in particular has raised eyebrows within the Justice Department for his statements to federal officials during the documents investigation. People briefed on the investigation say officials are uncertain whether Mr. Corcoran was intentionally evasive, or simply unaware of all the material still kept at Mar-a-Lago and found during the Aug. 8 search by the F.B.I.
Not Much To Work With?
Mother Jones: Trump’s Lawyers Don’t Seem to Have Much of a Defense
Trump-Appointed Judge Signals She’ll Name A Special Master
U.S District Judge Aileen M. Cannon has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to consider President Trump’s request for a special master to review the documents seized by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.
The judge’s scheduling notice over the weekend suggested she’s inclined to appoint a special master, but it’s not clear what the special master’s brief would be. Reviewing seized materials for documents covered by attorney-client privilege would be a relatively routine role for a special master. Reviewing for documents covered by executive privilege, which is what Trump was asking a special master to do, would not be routine, especially since the privilege is not the ex-president’s to assert.
The judge gave the Justice Department a Tuesday deadline to respond.
Trump’s team treated the judge’s weekend actions as a win. Not so fast:
Clue On Timing
NYT: “Prosecutors working on the investigation into Mr. Trump’s handling of classified information are nowhere near making a recommendation to Mr. Garland, according to people with knowledge of the inquiry.”
More Missing Docs?
WaPo: “But the Archive’s work may not yet be done: Some NARA officials believe that there might still be more records missing, according to a person familiar with the matter.”
They’ve Already Shown They’ll Riot No Matter What
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warns of riots in the streets if Trump is prosecuted after the Clinton’s weren’t:
How Much Damage Did Trump Do?
The intelligence community along with the Justice Department will assess the damage done by Trump’s improper possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told lawmakers in a letter Friday.
I’ve Seen More Robust Defenses
You can see a little light emerging between Trump and some elected Republicans on the Mar-a-Lago document fiasco. It’s not a lot of light, and it would be easy to over-interpret it, but let’s note it for what it is … at least for now.
It’s Not Just Blake Masters
We have another one folks:
In case you missed it from late last week, Blake Masters, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Arizona, similarly scrubbed his campaign website of tough abortion restrictions and tried to pretend he hasn’t been a diehard abortion foe up til now.
GOP Still Gunning For Social Security
From Blake Masters in Arizona to Sen. Ron Johnson in Wisconsin, Republicans in key 2022 races have floated changes Social Security, TPM alum Sahil Kapur reports.
Beto Out Of Commission With Illness
Beto O’Rourke cancelled campaign events in his run against Texas Gov. Greg Abbott after being briefly hospitalized with a bacterial infection.
How’s It Gonna Play Out?
Politico: When an election denier becomes a chief election official
Truth Social Looking A Lot Like Trump Steaks
Trump’s fake Twitter platform “still has no guaranteed source of revenue and a questionable path to growth” according to the Washington Post. But this little nugget jumps out: Trump Social has stopped paying one of its key vendors:
There are signs that the company’s financial base has begun to erode. The Trump company stopped paying RightForge, a conservative web-hosting service, in March and now owes it more than $1 million, according to Fox Business, which first reported the dispute.
Ukraine Update
WSJ: Russia Moves to Reinforce Its Stalled Assault on Ukraine
NYT: The ‘MacGyvered’ Weapons in Ukraine’s Arsenal
WSJ: U.N. Inspectors Head to Ukraine Nuclear Plant as Safety Fears Grow
Countdown Delays
The first flight of NASA’s Artemis lunar program, which was scheduled for this morning, has hit some snags.
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Correction: This post originally misidentified Blake Masters as the GOP’s gubernatorial nominee. He is, of course, the GOP’s nominee for U.S. Senate from Arizona. We regret the error.
A Gripping Look At 2022’s Global Drought
China, Europe, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and parts of North America are all enduring record-breaking droughts.
Jinxian, China
Chabyish, Iraq
Jiujiang, China
Lone Pine, California
Nijmegen, Netherlands
Neijiang, China
Ubaye Serre-Ponçon, France
Nanchang, China
Lake Mead, Nevada
Chabyish, Iraq
Yvorne, Switzerland
Nanjing, China
Lone Pine, California
Ooyse Schependom, Netherlands
Lyon, France
Daoxian, China
Ooyse Schependom, Netherlands
Ouled Essi Masseoud, Morocco
