The word to learn in your Word Power program is “dilatory,” from “dilate”: to expand, esp. with respect to time, delaying. It’s the polite, legal word one uses for rejecting the Donald J. Trump lawfare when he’s guilty. When courts refuse to reject his dilatory measures, we find ourselves looking at a Supreme Court ruling in 2019 saying that Congress can obtain his financial records in New York real estate (under valuing properties for taxes and over valuing them for loans and insurance) and Congress actually getting the records in 2022.
** First to read, and first to set fire to your day, just keep in mind that it didn’t have to be this way Aileen Cannon did not have to insert herself into the “documents case” in Florida. Initially, she told the Trump attorneys to go back to Reinhart. Then Something Happened, and her behavior changed.
She has invited the spotlight and begun hopping merrily down the bunny trail that leads to a politicized court and lack of confidence in the rule of law. She has said that the investigation into the theft of Ashley Biden’s diary, launched by Bill Barr, and the search of James O’Keefe’s apartment had to be a “political” strike, even though it was done by the Republican Christopher Wray at the behest of the America Fist Bill Barr.
But once, as Marcy Wheeler puts it, “Judge Aileen Cannon Thinks 64 Tax and Medical Records No Investigator Has Read are More Important than 11,282 Stolen Government Documents.” At Empty Wheel blog, Ms. Wheeler makes the case that everyone with eyes and mind should see. In fact, if we are just putting documents in the pans on either side of the fulcrum in a balance scale, it wouldn’t be just the 11,282 documents Donald Trump stole from you and me and Aileen Cannon vs. 64 tax and “medical” records. It would be the 11,282 and all of the presidential materials that were not secret, not “valuable” on the open market, the entire work product of one of the Presidents of the United States versus the tiny number of tax documents and medical documents.
Cannon didn’t just order a Special Master be imposed to review a subset of 520-pages of material set aside as potentially privileged . . . .
Those amount to 64 sets of documents out of the 11282 seized on August 8 — less than 4.6% of the seized documents (and likely close to .5%). [Note: these numbers relate ONLY to the 8/8 haul. When the 64 is weighed against the total from June and January, the percentage shrinks even more.]
She said that because the filter team worked better than mandated by the warrant, it was proof the filter team wasn’t working, and so a Special Master would have to go over everything again.
It would be comedy, if it weren’t so overtly corrupt. Here is what Cannon wrote. See if it shows A) careful reasoning, B) abundant caution, C) a conclusion to begin with that FBI witch hunt Garland witch hunt hoax?
In explaining these incidents at the hearing, counsel from the Privilege Review Team characterized them as examples of the filter process working. The Court is not so sure. These instances certainly are demonstrative of integrity on the part of the Investigative Team members who returned the potentially privileged material. But they also indicate that, on more than one occasion, the Privilege Review Team’s initial screening failed to identify potentially privileged material.
Empty Wheel is right: her argument is that the filter team was too conscientious, so it must not have been working.
Ready for fury?
According to her ruling, the government must halt their criminal investigation into 103 stolen government documents with classification marks, 11,179 stolen government documents that lack classification marks, and 1,673 press clippings (she gets these numbers wrong in her order), because 64 sets of documents that the investigative team has not seen yet includes potentially privileged information as well as, “medical documents, correspondence related to taxes, and accounting information” — details that she chose to make public for the first time even while premising the primary grave damage to Trump as leaks to the public.
She won’t let DOJ investigate a crime. But she will let the Office of Director of National Intelligence investigate the damage the crime did.
I’m warning you: take a Valium or a bottle of Jameson’s and then read Empty Wheel’s post. It’s clearly written, and it should be written in fire.
Only Marcy Wheeler has written on the subject yet. American journalists and law speakers are all locked into a notion of “beginning of the midterms” and “end of summer” that is based on an America of the 1960’s, when “everyone” got vacations and started school back in September. America’s productivity gains have come at the loss of all vacations, and our lack of desire to fix our “achievement gaps” while we promise to put the kids in school when the parents are working has meant that Labor Day is just a Monday off for most people.
Not for journalists.
The sole exception is Adam Klasfeld, one of the proprietors of Law and Crime, who has one of those patented headlines that obviates the need to read anything: “Experts Pan Ruling Appointing Special Master for Mar-a-Lago Docs as ‘Far Out of the Mainstream,’ But View Possible DOJ Appeal as Risky.” Far out of the mainstream is an understatement. What, exactly, is risked by an appeal? Making Cannon more biased toward the man who gave her her job? Provoking her to squat on more cases that aren’t hers?
NEVERMIND. Let’s move on, alright?
Elura Nanos, at Law and Crime, has one of those stories that isn’t much of a story but is fabulous for “made you click”: “‘Nirvana Baby’ Loses Child Pornography Lawsuit Against Band for Use of Naked ‘Nevermind’ Album Photo.” Fortunately, we don’t have to read it, because the headline did all the work! Effectively, the story is simply the resolution of a prior click-me story. Spencer Elden is the name of the baby photographed swimming on the cover of Nivana’s Nevermind album. He wanted some of the money the band made from the record, as his parents just got a modeling/photo payment. Because the various corporations controlling the band’s digital rights told him to go away, he decided to claim child pornography. He lost.
He’s still swimming after those dollar bills, I guess. I sympathize.
He’s told us who he is. He’s told us what he’ll do, too.
Jonathan Rauch, at The Atlantic, is not making the goofy hyperbole of David Frum or offering lifestyle advice, so that’s good. Instead, the Brookings Fellow writes, “Trump’s Second Term Would Look Like This” (or, “We Don’t Have to Speculate About a Second Trump Term”).
It’s a moderately fair article, but it’s not very good. It churns up the same stuff we’ve been churning for a while:
In a host of ways—including the overt embrace of illiberal foreign leaders; the ruthless behavior of Republican elected officials since the 2020 election; Trump allies’ elaborate scheming, as uncovered by the House’s January 6 committee, to prevent the peaceful transition of power; and Trump’s own actions in the waning weeks of his presidency and now as ex-president—the former president and his allies have laid out their model and their methods.
I had hoped for an article that would outline, for example, “an attack on counter-intelligence services in all agencies, weaponization of federalized law enforcement to serve a presidential order (the way that CBP sniper units and Border Patrol units were used in the Black Lives Matter response), Congress working against press freedom in law, national voting laws that work to disenfranchise minorities, etc. Instead, he offers what most of us know:
Begin with the model. Viktor Orbán. . . .
He enumerates the lessons that the Republicans have learned from Orban, true enough, and we tend to stop at the name, as if independents and right minded Republicans know better.
It’s good. It definitely sounds alarms we are not all ringing. It’s thoughtful.
I’m just hard to please. That disqualifies me from certain work in Washington, D.C.
Insurrection Is a Campaign Expense according to the Republican members of the FEC. At least that’s what Roger Sollenberger is reporting at The Daily Beast. In “Feds Let GOP Candidate Pay Jan. 6 Costs with Campaign Cash” Sollenberger talks about how laid back the Republican FEC members are about this whole “legitimate political discourse/tourist visit/constituent visit” thing.
First, let’s background this . . . dog. The Federal Election Commission is borked. The Republicans in the Senate will not allow it to have a quorum to actually issue any legal rulings, as they won’t approve any new members. (They’d rather advise against election rules and consent to unlimited money and ethical violations.)
Now, about the case:
Derrick Van Orden, the Republican congressional candidate from Wisconsin . . .dipped into donor funds to bankroll a trip to D.C., where, as The Daily Beast reported last year, he appeared on Capitol grounds during the Jan. 6 riot.
On Friday, the commissioners published their unanimous July 26 decision to dismiss allegations that Van Orden’s Jan. 6 travel expenses constituted unlawful personal use of campaign money—though they did not technically rule it was legal, either.
It isn’t the borking of the FEC that’s at issue here, though. Although Mr. Sollenberger is upset at it, the issue is de minimus lex non curat est:
the commissioners didn’t even take up the merits of the case, arguing that the amount of money involved was too small to move ahead with further enforcement action. The agency’s general counsel made the same recommendation in its report, writing that even if the expenses were personal in nature, the amount in question—a few hundred dollars—was so small that it “does not merit the expenditure of further Commission resources to pursue.”
“Laws do not deal with the most minimal/trivial of complaints” is longstanding. The problem with applying de minimis here is WHAT the de minimis funds were used for. If a candidate “only” spent $50 for a cut-rate hit man to eliminate an opponent, it would be a matter of concern. Similarly, election funds being used to violate the restricted space of the Capitol and protest the peaceful transfer of power is kind of non plus ultra, no matter the chump change involved.
It’s a matter of perspective, you know.
Right now, $600 is a lot of money to me. John Roberts says that “middle class” people make $400,000 a year on average. The FEC counsel can probably spend $600 on cab fare in a month, or subscriptions to Internet-connected microwave ovens.
Donald Trump also has perspective: Very Fine People Dress Like Adolf Hitler and Are Victims of Persecution When Arrested for Violence he says.
At his Pennsylvania “rally” (why that word? were there stock cars present? were people going to run a marathon? is he running for office?), he had the aunt of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli come up to plead for him, Huffington Post reports.
Hale-Cusanelli is the little Hitler who had a Hitler haircut and a Hitler moustache and who said to his co-workers, “Hitler should have finished the job” of killing every member of the Jewish ‘race.’ America Fist!
Convicted insurrectionist Timothy Hale-Cusanelli’s aunt pleaded for sympathy for her nephew from the stage at Trump’s rally Saturday in Wilkes-Barre.
“Tim went to the nation’s capitol to hear his president speak” last year, Cynthia Hughes told the crowd.
“He dressed in a suit and tie and his favorite hat. Tim wanted to take part in what he thought was going to be a historical event. Instead, he witnessed a horror show,” she added.
Aww. What was the horror? The police fighting back?
Thirty-four co-workers interviewed by Navy investigators as part of an internal probe said Hale-Cusanelli held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities and women.” Some said they were “afraid” of him.
But he’s the victim, because he was convicted of three counts, including 1512(c)2 and two counts of rioting. Donald Trump understands being a victim just because you broke the larwr.
I mean, he told federal investigators that he was looking forward to getting out and taking part in a civil war, said that he went to D.C. not to hear his President speak, but to stop Congress from acting, and he attacked Congress to stop the transfer of power, so perhaps his aunt needs to talk to him more than a crowd from a stage.
They think they’re at war.
When Cities Are Part of War, Fear Rules Every Heart
Radio Free Europe has a story that is hopeful and terrifying, “Kherson Referendum On Joining Russia Postponed, Official Says” comes from a collaborating service called Current Time.
Those of you paying attention to Russia’s war of aggression know that Ukraine is conducting a counter-offensive in the south aimed at Kherson. Russia, which has been in control of the city for a while, had been planning one of its lying “referendums,” where the people vote on whether or not to rejoin Russia. These are controlled by the Russian occupiers, and there are no thoughts of their being honest.
"We have prepared for the voting, and we wanted to hold the referendum in the nearest future, but due to the developments happening at the moment, I think we will pause [with the referendum]," the Russian-appointed deputy governor of Kherson, Kirill Stremousov, told the TASS news agency on September 5.
This suggests that Russian control is slipping, yes, but not that its occupation is. It suggests that all of the political assassinations and attacks have made administration of a falsified/coerced referendum impossible. But there’s another factor, an ugly one.
Stremousov, who said earlier in June that Kherson was now "a full-fledged" part of Russia and a referendum on joining Russia would be held in early September, said recent statements by Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk will not disrupt any possible referendum.
Vereshchuk said Kherson residents who take part in illegal referendums organized by Russian-imposed officials may face up to 12 years in prison and the confiscation of all their property.
The occupying Russians make voting in these referenda mandatory, while Ukraine makes it illegal. Once again, the pressure is on making the civilian population part of the struggle.
Russian troops and Moscow-backed separatists also now hold large swathes of territory in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region and in southeastern regions of Zaporizhzhya. Russian-installed officials in those areas have raised the possibility of holding referendums on joining Russia.
Ukraine has seen such moves by Russia before.
In 2014, Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula following a disputed referendum that was widely believed to be falsified, with results showing nearly 97 percent of voters supported joining Russia.
These fictions have consequences, so Ukraine makes them consequential to civilians trying to find the easiest path.
It’s terrible.
Concluding postscript
This is the first time I have done my ‘comments’ and readings as a “diary.” If you like it/prefer it, let me know. If you think I should go back to the bars of Abbreviated Pandit Rondeau, let me know. At least there I won’t affront with the effrontery of a joking tag.
Wandering spider of memory
Until Obama, JFK was probably the most well-read President. Others are extremely well educated, but those two were young enough and lively enough to read and to like reading.
John Kennedy quoted a bit of T.S. Eliot when on the stump, and it was obscure Eliot. It was from Eliot’s failed verse play in celebration of the 500th anniversary of a cathedral called The Rock. The Choruses (meaning the bits that the Chorus would recite) were published, but not the full verse drama for a long time.
The Chorus refers to The Wind, which is a symbol from the Old Testament (and, honestly, everything). The wind is a symbol of spirit (spiritus means “wind/breath,” in fact) and eternity/mystery for the ancient Greeks (flatus is the equivalent, and so we get afflatus for inspiration — the blowing of wind into a person by the gods) and the Romans and the Egyptians. In the Old Testament and New Testament, it is a symbol of the Holy Spirit (Pentecost, most clearly, has the sound of a mighty wind rushing in as the apostles were filled with the Holy Spirit).
This is what Kennedy quoted: (Chorus III)
A Cry from the North, from the West and from the South
Whence thousands travel daily to the timekept City;
Where My Word is unspoken,
In the land of lobelias and tennis flannels
The rabbit shall burrow and the thorn revisit,
The nettle shall flourish on the gravel court,
And the wind shall say: " Here were decent godless people:
Their only monument the asphalt road
And a thousand lost golf balls".
Eliot counts every syllable, and the usual formulation of “decent, God-fearing people” gets a serious undercutting in his image of post-war industry, commerce, and politeness, without morality.
I have always quoted something from Chorus I instead: The voices of the Unemployed.
No man has hired us
With pocketed hands
And lowered faces
We stand about in open places
And shiver in unlit rooms.
Only the wind moves
Over empty fields, untilled
Where the plough rests, at an angle
To the furrow. In this land
There shall be one cigarette to two men,
To two women one half pint of bitter
Ale. In this land
No man has hired us.
Our life is unwelcome, our death
Unmentioned in " The Times".
Or, as they sang in the 1970’s, “Couldn’t Get It Right.” Even that disco beat works.
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The sun is rising. Have a good day back at work, all, and keep the fires stoked.