Here’s that obstruction case

I’m headed off early to get my car detailed and its annual rustproofing service. Very much for the moment, I’m caught up.


Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. Department of Justice photograph of seized materials, reportedly partially redacted, via the Washington Post, August 31, 2022, public domain.[1]

You know that case against Donald Trump for obstruction?[2] Seems like the government just laid it out in response to Trump’s motion for a “special master.”[3]

Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/

Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/trumpspecial-master-documents/

William Rivers Pitt, “An Enron-Inspired Law May Be a Sharper Legal Threat to Trump Than Espionage Act,” Truthout, August 30, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/an-enron-inspired-law-may-be-a-sharper-legal-threat-to-trump-than-espionage-act/

Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut, “Americans are starting to get it: we can’t let Trump – or Trumpism – back in office,” Guardian, August 30, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/30/trump-republicans-voters-midterms-democrats

Ishaan Tharoor, “The debate over American fascism gets louder,” Washington Post, August 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/30/fascism-biden-trump-american-history/

Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/


  1. [1]Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/
  2. [2]Renato Mariotti, “Espionage Isn’t the Strongest Case Against Trump. It’s Simpler Than That,” Politico, August 14, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/14/trump-classified-documents-doj-opinion-00051584; William Rivers Pitt, “An Enron-Inspired Law May Be a Sharper Legal Threat to Trump Than Espionage Act,” Truthout, August 30, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/an-enron-inspired-law-may-be-a-sharper-legal-threat-to-trump-than-espionage-act/; Marcy Wheeler, “Trump's Timid (Non-Legal) Complaints about Attorney-Client Privilege,” Empty Wheel, August 14, 2022, https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/08/14/trump-claims-the-ssa-receipt-includes-privileged-materials/
  3. [3]Devlin Barrett, “Justice Dept. says Trump team may have hidden, moved classified papers,” Washington Post, August 31, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/31/trump-documents-removed-storage-room/

Is the tide turning?

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. Original: The White House. Derivative work: J. J. Messerly, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

William Rivers Pitt[1] joins Renato Mariotti[2] and, I think, others, in arguing that the strongest case against Donald Trump may be the obstruction of justice charge.

I wouldn’t read too much into Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut’s article in the Guardian;[3] it’s not much less speculative than my own recent post. But it does appear, very much for the moment, that Trump’s support may be weakening. The questions remain first, to what extent this is an illusion and to what extent it is real; second, to what extent this is ephemeral and to what extent it will last to the November elections both in 2022 and 2024; and third, what impact, if any, this has on white Christian nationalism as a movement and on the longstanding project to establish a competitive authoritarian regime.[4] There are no shortcuts here: We’re just going to have to wait for the answers to these questions.

Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/

Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/trumpspecial-master-documents/

William Rivers Pitt, “An Enron-Inspired Law May Be a Sharper Legal Threat to Trump Than Espionage Act,” Truthout, August 30, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/an-enron-inspired-law-may-be-a-sharper-legal-threat-to-trump-than-espionage-act/

Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut, “Americans are starting to get it: we can’t let Trump – or Trumpism – back in office,” Guardian, August 30, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/30/trump-republicans-voters-midterms-democrats

Ishaan Tharoor, “The debate over American fascism gets louder,” Washington Post, August 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/30/fascism-biden-trump-american-history/


  1. [1]William Rivers Pitt, “An Enron-Inspired Law May Be a Sharper Legal Threat to Trump Than Espionage Act,” Truthout, August 30, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/an-enron-inspired-law-may-be-a-sharper-legal-threat-to-trump-than-espionage-act/
  2. [2]Renato Mariotti, “Espionage Isn’t the Strongest Case Against Trump. It’s Simpler Than That,” Politico, August 14, 2022, https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/14/trump-classified-documents-doj-opinion-00051584
  3. [3]Austin Sarat and Dennis Aftergut, “Americans are starting to get it: we can’t let Trump – or Trumpism – back in office,” Guardian, August 30, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/30/trump-republicans-voters-midterms-democrats
  4. [4]David Benfell, “More questions than answers as Donald Trump flags come down,” Not Housebroken, August 30, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/28/more-questions-than-answers-as-donald-trump-flags-come-down/

It’s a California thing that sounds like a California thing: Valley fever. Just not particularly the San Fernando Valley.

There is a new blog post entitled, “Racism as inevitable.”


I’m still finding everything that went wrong with the migration of The Irregular Bullshit. Yes, I know, images are missing. Yes, I know, the posts weren’t getting publicized on Twitter and Facebook. I think I’ve fixed the latter, now. We’ll see.

I managed to figure out how to find Dreamhost’s migration plugin for Not Housebroken, so that went a lot better. Take a hint folks: The WordPress export and import tools suck because it’s really too much data to move in a single file. If it happens you’re migrating to Dreamhost, use their damn plugin.


Climate crisis

Having lived in California for over fifty years, including in the Central Valley, I had, of course, heard of valley fever. I had not known that the climate crisis would exacerbate it. But it turns out that hot, dry conditions are just this particular fungus’ ticket.[1]

Dani Anguiano, “‘It took everything’: the disease that can be contracted by breathing California’s air,” Guardian, August 29, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/california-valley-fever-disease-climate-crisis


Gilead

Competitive authoritarian regime project

“What we’re seeing now is either the beginning or the death knell of an extreme MAGA philosophy,” [Joe] Biden said, referring to [Donald] Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. “It’s not just Trump, it’s the entire philosophy that underpins the — I’m going to say something — it’s like semi-fascism.”[2]

But what have the Democrats actually done about it? Nothing. Even when it would keep them in the electoral game.[3]

It will take actual action, not mere performance, to make my 2024 forecast[4] wrong,[5] but what we keep seeing is that the Democrats do not actually stand in opposition to white Christian nationalism or to the longstanding Republican project to establish a competitive authoritarian regime. They enable white Christian nationalism and they enable the competitive authoritarian regime.

Such action, rather, comes from the Republicans themselves, overreaching in their support for Donald Trump, overreaching in their opposition to abortion rights.[6] It’s all the Democrats ever ask for: That you vote against the Republicans. And the infuriating part is that it just might be working.[7]

Ishaan Tharoor, “The debate over American fascism gets louder,” Washington Post, August 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/30/fascism-biden-trump-american-history/

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/

Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/trumpspecial-master-documents/

Ishaan Tharoor, “The debate over American fascism gets louder,” Washington Post, August 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/30/fascism-biden-trump-american-history/


  1. [1]Dani Anguiano, “‘It took everything’: the disease that can be contracted by breathing California’s air,” Guardian, August 29, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/29/california-valley-fever-disease-climate-crisis
  2. [2]Ishaan Tharoor, “The debate over American fascism gets louder,” Washington Post, August 30, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/08/30/fascism-biden-trump-american-history/
  3. [3]Mike DeBonis, “Senate Republicans block debate on a third major voting rights bill,” Washington Post, November 3, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/senate-voting-john-lewis/2021/11/03/de00974e-3cc5-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; Mike DeBonis, “Senate Republicans block voting rights bill, dealing blow to Democrats’ effort to overhaul election laws,” Washington Post, January 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/democrats-brace-for-likely-defeat-of-voting-rights-push-due-to-gop-filibuster/2022/01/19/2f9a734c-792d-11ec-bf97-6eac6f77fba2_story.html; Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim, “Sinema and Manchin confirm opposition to eliminating filibuster, likely dooming Democrats’ voting rights push,” Washington Post, January 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-set-to-visit-senate-democrats-in-a-final-improbable-pitch-for-voting-rights-action/2022/01/13/fde533b6-7475-11ec-8b0a-bcfab800c430_story.html; Matt Ford, “The Democrats’ Voting Rights Bill Is Dead,” New Republic, July 13, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/162974/democrats-voting-rights-bill-dead; Sam Levine, “Voting rights advocates frustrated by ‘same-old, same-old’ meeting with White House,” Guardian, December 3, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/dec/03/voting-rights-advocates-frustrated-meeting-white-house; Greg Sargent, “Joe Manchin finally makes it plain: He is in favor of minority rule,” Washington Post, January 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/01/19/joe-manchin-filibuster-voting-rights-minority-rule/
  4. [4]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, August 17, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/
  5. [5]David Benfell, “I cannot yet tell you my 2024 forecast was wrong,” Not Housebroken, August 16, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/13/i-cannot-yet-tell-you-my-2024-forecast-was-wrong/
  6. [6]David Benfell, “The really, really, really wild wildcards in the 2022 and 2024 elections,” Not Housebroken, August 17, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/17/the-really-really-really-wild-wildcards-in-the-2022-and-2024-elections/
  7. [7]David Benfell, “More questions than answers as Donald Trump flags come down,” Not Housebroken, August 28, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/08/28/more-questions-than-answers-as-donald-trump-flags-come-down/

Donald Trump isn’t playing twelve-dimensional chess

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

I forgot to mention a new blog post entitled, “More questions than answers as Donald Trump flags come down,” in the previous issue.

It looks like Donald Trump’s motion for a “special master” may already be moot. A big problem is that Trump waited two weeks to file suit,[1] perhaps because he’s having trouble getting real lawyers[2] to file a patently ridiculous suit that undermines a defense against the crimes he’s being investigated for.[3]

One thing is certain: Trump ain’t playing twelve-dimensional chess here. He’s mostly just desperate to do what he almost always does: stall.

Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/

Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/trumpspecial-master-documents/


  1. [1]Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s Mar-a-Lago documents already examined by FBI, Justice Dept. tells judge,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/29/trumpspecial-master-documents/
  2. [2]Isaac Arnsdorf et al., “Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No,’” Washington Post, August 16, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/16/trump-lawyers-fbi-raid/
  3. [3]Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/; Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/; Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/

The desperate Vladimir Putin, still with that nuclear arsenal

Ukraine

We might be seeing an answer to the question of “Where does Vladimir Putin stop?[1] And it might not be the answer Putin anticipated.[2] So ultimately the question becomes just how ‘existential’ is Russian success in Ukraine, really?[3]

Russia’s president keeps understandably schtum about his “special military operation”. But indefinite stalemate is not what he expected. He didn’t expect car bombs in Moscow and humiliating attacks on fortress Crimea, either.

Least of all did [Vladimir] Putin anticipate 80,000 Russian soldiers dead or wounded. Dying with them is his Peter the Great pipe dream of a “greater Russia”. Extinct already is his reputation as anything other than a killer and a crook.

An endless military quagmire is not a scenario Putin can afford as slow-burn western sanctions corrode his economy and his military’s manpower and materiel are steadily depleted.[4]

Probably the only way Putin can even save face is if western support for Ukraine is undermined. Simon Tisdall points out a great many fissure points he can exploit and, in some cases, already is. Tisdall doesn’t actually use the old trope of a cornered, wounded animal as being the most dangerous in reference to Putin, but his analysis certainly follows it.[5] Which is why I still worry, albeit a little less urgently, about this escalating to nuclear war.[6]

Simon Tisdall, “Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?” Guardian, August 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/putin-is-trapped-and-desperate-will-his-friends-in-the-west-rescue-him-russia-ukraine


Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

A judge seems set to acquiesce to yet another of Donald Trump’s stalling maneuvers.[7]

Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/


  1. [1]David Benfell, “Where does Vladimir Putin stop?” Not Housebroken, June 10, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/04/where-does-vladimir-putin-stop/
  2. [2]Simon Tisdall, “Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?” Guardian, August 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/putin-is-trapped-and-desperate-will-his-friends-in-the-west-rescue-him-russia-ukraine
  3. [3]Julia Ioffe, “Will Putin Get His World War III?” Puck News, February 22, 2022, https://puck.news/will-putin-get-his-world-war-iii/; Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s New Iron Curtain,” Puck News, February 24, 2022, https://puck.news/putins-new-iron-curtain/; Julia Ioffe, “Europe’s 9/11,” Puck News, March 3, 2022, https://puck.news/europes-9-11/; Luke McGee and Claire Calzonetti, “Putin spokesman refuses to rule out use of nuclear weapons if Russia faced an ‘existential threat,’” CNN, March 22, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/22/europe/amanpour-peskov-interview-ukraine-intl/index.html; Eugene Rumer and Andrew S. Weiss, “Ukraine: Putin’s Unfinished Business,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, November 12, 2021, https://carnegieendowment.org/2021/11/12/ukraine-putin-s-unfinished-business-pub-85771
  4. [4]Simon Tisdall, “Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?” Guardian, August 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/putin-is-trapped-and-desperate-will-his-friends-in-the-west-rescue-him-russia-ukraine
  5. [5]Simon Tisdall, “Putin is trapped and desperate. Will his friends in the west rescue him?” Guardian, August 28, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/28/putin-is-trapped-and-desperate-will-his-friends-in-the-west-rescue-him-russia-ukraine
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Nuclear survival,” Not Housebroken, June 10, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/13/nuclear-survival/
  7. [7]Mariana Alfaro and Eugene Scott, “Judge’s openness to special master for Mar-a-Lago documents raises new questions in criminal probe,” Washington Post, August 29, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/29/special-master-trump-biden-pennsylvania/

Housekeeping: Announcing a new, faster host

No real news today though stuff certainly continues to churn.

The real point of this post is to let you all know I have migrated Not Housebroken and The Irregular Bullshit to new, speedier hosting.

I had been really, really, really pissed off by WordPress.com for it’s “innovations” which made WordPress nearly unusable for me. It had ceased to be what I was paying for.

A friend from my days on Friendica, whose wishes about being identified I do not know, stepped in with his Contabo shared server, giving me the space to consider and find alternative hosting. That time was invaluable, allowing me to step away from the problem for a while.

But, as he was well aware, it was not the greatest performing hosting, and so I returned to the problem and selected a virtual private server with Dreamhost. This should be a little better.

Erasing history? Doug Mastriano accuses the Left of erasing history?

Pennsylvania

2022 election

I’m guessing that would be Doug Mastriano who appears at far left.


It’s possible that my pedagogical methods are insufficiently imaginative:

Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to [Doug] Mastriano’s campaign, mocked the brewing controversy on Twitter. Mastriano retweeted her comment.

“Media MELT DOWN that Mastriano apparently once posed as a civil war historical figure for a photo. And? He has a Ph.D in HISTORY. The left wants to erase history. Doug Mastriano wants us to learn from it,” Ellis tweeted.[1]

Please explain the pedagogy that entails wearing a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photograph. Would we teach the history of World War II parading around in a Nazi uniform, um, outside of class?

Oh, and by the way, about that bit about erasing Critical Race Theory history. . . .

Chris Brennan, “Doug Mastriano wore a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photo,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/doug-mastriano-confederate-uniform-photo-army-war-college-20220826.html


Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

The affidavit [filed in support of a request for a warrant to search Donald Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago] suggests that if some of the classified documents voluntarily returned from Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives and Records Administration in January had fallen into the wrong hands, they could have revealed sensitive details about human intelligence sources or how spy agencies intercept the electronic communications of foreign targets. Over the spring and summer, the affidavit states, the FBI came to suspect that Trump and his team were hiding the fact that he still had more classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, leading agents to want to conduct a search of the property.

“There is also probable cause,” the affidavit says, “to believe that evidence of obstruction will be found.” . . .

The warrant authorizing the August search said agents were seeking all “physical documents and records constituting evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed in violation of three potential crimes,” including a part of the Espionage Act outlawing gathering, transmitting or losing national defense information. The warrant also cites destruction of records and concealment or mutilation of government material.[2]

Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/

Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war

Amy B. Wang and Tom Hamburger, “Sen. Graham gets temporary reprieve in testifying before Ga. grand jury,” Washington Post, August 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/21/lindsey-graham-trump-grand-jury-georgia/

Jon Swaine et al., “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” Washington Post, August 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/

Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/

Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/

Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403

Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany, “Archives asked for records in 2021 after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/

Tierney Sneed, “Justice Department ordered to release redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit,” CNN, August 25, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-raid/index.html

Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Mar-a-Lago affidavit says many witnesses interviewed, 184 classified files returned in January,” Washington Post, August 26, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/26/trump-affidavit-released/


  1. [1]Chris Brennan, “Doug Mastriano wore a Confederate Army uniform in an Army War College faculty photo,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 26, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/pennsylvania/doug-mastriano-confederate-uniform-photo-army-war-college-20220826.html
  2. [2]Devlin Barrett and Perry Stein, “Mar-a-Lago affidavit says many witnesses interviewed, 184 classified files returned in January,” Washington Post, August 26, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/26/trump-affidavit-released/

Google now promises to distinguish between Crisis Pregnancy Centers and abortion providers. We’ve heard this before.

Pittsburgh

Infrastructure

Hannah Wyman, “Ed Gainey hears from residents on unsafe intersections by Fern Hollow Bridge,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, August 24, 2022, https://www.post-gazette.com/news/transportation/2022/08/23/ed-gainey-residents-unsafe-intersections-fern-hollow-bridge-listening-session-infrastructure-squirrel-hill-bike-pedestrian-paths/stories/202208230114

Ryan Deto, “$11.3M in federal funding to go toward infrastructure improvements in Hill District,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 25, 2022, https://triblive.com/local/11-3m-in-federal-funding-to-go-toward-infrastructure-improvements-in-hill-district/


Ukraine

Julia Ioffe, “Who Killed Dasha Dugina?” Puck News, August 25, 2022, https://puck.news/who-killed-dasha-dugina/


Gilead

Abortion

In a previous installment, Google had been lagging on distinguishing between anti-choice Crisis Pregnancy Centers and actual abortion providers in its search and Google Maps results:[1]

According to the New York Attorney General Office, Google was made aware of this issue and promised to address it as far back as 2018. However, a recent test search for local abortion clinics of Google Maps by the office in Binghamton, N.Y., produced a list that included several crisis pregnancy centers.[2]

Now, apparently:

The Alphabet Inc. . . . unit on Thursday said it has been working on the update for months and will rely on information provided by a business or authoritative data source to label what services a facility provides.[3]

I hope so. I’m pretty sure a bunch of folks will want to hear that this is in fact working.

Why so skeptical? Not merely because Google should be delivering accurate results but because Google had, at least according to the New York state attorney general’s office, promised to do so “as far back as 2018” and apparently, simply dropped the ball.[4] You know, pretty much like the Democrats who had decades to codify Roe v. Wade and didn’t,[5] because for all the fiery rhetoric they now deploy, and for all the electoral benefits they now reap,[6] they really didn’t really give a damn either.

Aaron Blake, “Buyer’s remorse could be creeping in for GOP on abortion,” Washington Post, August 25, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/republicans-abortion-politics/

Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

Molly Jong-Fast, “The People Who Can’t Stop Making Excuses for Trump,” Atlantic, August 18, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62fd7788da4cea0020f4345e/trump-fbi-search-rand-paul-espionage-act/

Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/

Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war

Amy B. Wang and Tom Hamburger, “Sen. Graham gets temporary reprieve in testifying before Ga. grand jury,” Washington Post, August 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/21/lindsey-graham-trump-grand-jury-georgia/

Jon Swaine et al., “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” Washington Post, August 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/

Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/

Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/

Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403

Josh Dawsey and Jacqueline Alemany, “Archives asked for records in 2021 after Trump lawyer agreed they should be returned, email says,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/trump-records-archives-2021/

Tierney Sneed, “Justice Department ordered to release redacted Mar-a-Lago search warrant affidavit,” CNN, August 25, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/25/politics/trump-mar-a-lago-fbi-raid/index.html


  1. [1]Darryl Coote, “N.Y. AG to Google: Stop directing people seeking abortions to anti-abortion centers,” United Press International, June 30, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/30/New-York-Google-Maps/9871656579373/
  2. [2]Darryl Coote, “N.Y. AG to Google: Stop directing people seeking abortions to anti-abortion centers,” United Press International, June 30, 2022, https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2022/06/30/New-York-Google-Maps/9871656579373/
  3. [3]Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587
  4. [4]Meghan Bobrowsky, “Google Says Maps, Searches Will Identify Clinics That Provide Abortions,” Wall Street Journal, August 25, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-says-maps-searches-will-identify-clinics-that-provide-abortions-11661457587
  5. [5]Scott Bixby, “Activists Tell Biden to ‘Do Your F*cking Job’ and Protect Abortion Rights,” Daily Beast, June 12, 2022, https://www.thedailybeast.com/activists-tell-biden-to-do-your-fcking-job-and-protect-abortion-rights; Anna North, “Abortion has been treated as a fringe issue by Democrats for decades. This is the result,” Vox, May 5, 2022, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/5/5/23057317/abortion-supreme-court-roe-v-wade; William Rivers Pitt, “Democrats Had 50 Years to Save and Protect ‘Roe.’ They Failed,” Truthout, May 6, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/democrats-had-50-years-to-save-and-protect-roe-they-failed/; Rachel Roubein, “Democrats don’t have the votes to scrap the filibuster for Roe,” Washington Post, July 1, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/01/democrats-dont-have-votes-scrap-filibuster-roe/; Meredith Shiner, “Democrats Can Go Scorched Earth on Abortion Rights, or Go Home,” New Republic, May 4, 2022, https://newrepublic.com/article/166293/democrats-abortion-rights-roe-2022; Karen Tumulty, “On abortion, Biden shows he is out of step with his party,” Washington Post, June 5, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/on-abortion-biden-shows-he-is-out-of-step-with-his-party/2019/06/05/e83ddc30-87cd-11e9-98c1-e945ae5db8fb_story.html
  6. [6]Aaron Blake, “Buyer’s remorse could be creeping in for GOP on abortion,” Washington Post, August 25, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/25/republicans-abortion-politics/; Annie Gowen and Colby Itkowitz, “Kansans resoundingly reject amendment aimed at restricting abortion rights,” Washington Post, August 3, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/08/02/kansas-abortion-referendum/; Jonathan Tamari, “What the Kansas abortion vote might mean for Pennsylvania’s key 2022 races,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 3, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/kansas-abortion-vote-pennsylvania-2022-midterm-elections-20220803.html; Julia Terruso and Jonathan Lai, “Women are registering to vote in Pa. in numbers far exceeding men since the Supreme Court abortion decision,” Philadelphia Inquirer, August 22, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pennsylvania-women-voter-registration-dobbs-20220822.html

So Joe Biden’s student loan relief is only all but useless

Be very, very skeptical of this. I’m setting it up. Yes, it’s me. But previous experiments have fallen flat on their face.

There’s supposed to be an iframe box here:

That would be above this sentence.

I’m still really, really fumbling about here and I don’t really understand the concept of a “virtual server” in this context. It has to actually live somewhere, but I have no idea where that is. It seems not to actually live on any of my machines, which, given my technical aptitude these days, is good.

The impetus is a rather serious doubt that entities like Twitter and Facebook can ever get content moderation right. I still hold to a view that people ought to be accountable for what they say. But if an artificial idiot is your only way of moderating content at scale, which may very well be the case, well, that’s just not going to work, and I’m seeing fairly regularly, with folks posting screenshots of ludicrously censored posts, that it indeed doesn’t work.

I may never have an adequate answer here. But it would be good if some of you would join me in this experiment and “boost” this server, because otherwise I might actually have to actually buy more “boosts.” Ick.


Student loans

I’m learning a bit more about Joe Biden’s student loan relief plan. There are a couple pieces that do after all marginally—very marginally—apply in my situation.

[Joe] Biden also announced a four-month extension of the moratorium on student loan repayments, as well as plans to allow borrowers with undergraduate loans to cap repayments at 5% of their monthly income. . . .

The proposed rule says that borrowers who make less than 225% of the federal minimum wage — roughly $30,577, or what a full-time worker earning $15 per hour earns — are not required to make payments on their federal undergraduate loans, according to the Department of Education.

The rule calls for the government to forgive loan balances of $12,000 or less after a borrower has made 10 years of payments. Currently, borrowers must pay their loans for two decades and have a balance below that amount to have debt forgiven.[1]

I have both undergraduate and graduate student loans amounting to something under $400,000. Because my repayments are already zero, because my income is so low, because I still can’t get a real job,[2] neither the moratorium extension nor the repayment cap nor the income threshold changes affect my financial situation in the near term.

The proposal also would restrict unpaid monthly interest from accruing as long as borrowers are making payments, so those who are benefiting from capped loan payments won’t see their overall balances grow.[3]

As I understand it, zero payments still count as payments, so this means the balance that will never be repaid will not actually grow beyond what it already is. It is already set to be forgiven after twenty years, probably meaning in 2036, which means this last bit is utterly meaningless:

The student-loan forgiveness will qualify as non-taxable income until 2025 under the American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed in March of 2021.[4]

And yes, I understand that for tax year 2036, or whenever it is, I’ll suddenly have something under $400,000 in taxable income from the forgiven debt and I still won’t have the money to pay the taxes on it.

The psychological impact is another story. This is supposed to help people. It hardly helps me at all. It’s assumed that college graduates go on to great careers. Six years after graduating, I’m fucking driving for fucking Uber. The message here is that I’m alone, I’m the only college graduate, or at least one of a very, very few, let alone with a Ph.D., who can’t get a real job.

I know that message isn’t entirely true. I hear otherwise from university faculty and administrators who occasionally get in my car. But the political message is what counts for its failure to acknowledge my situation and that of others like me and because it promises at best negligible relief.

And that messages like the political even exist hurts. With help like this, it won’t just be white Christian nationalists chanting, “Let’s Go Brandon.”[5]

Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months

Phil Mattingly, Katie Lobosco and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000,” CNN, August 24, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html


Gilead

Abortion

I cannot condemn strongly enough a claim to be “pro-life” when the mother’s life and health do not matter.

In a ruling late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill said the statute [which abortions except in cases involving rape, incest or when a woman’s life is in danger — and does not contain an exception for when a pregnant person’s health is at risk] violates a federal act that requires hospitals participating in the federally funded Medicare program to provide medical care when a person’s life or health is at stake. The “trigger” law was written by Idaho state lawmakers long before the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June, with the expectation that it would automatically go into effect soon after the court made that landmark ruling. . . .

The ruling sets up a potential clash in the federal court system, with a Texas court ruling Tuesday that the federal statute in question does not require states to allow abortions in instances when it could protect a pregnant patient’s health. With many states passing increasingly stringent abortion bans, legal experts expect the litigation over the health-exception issue to continue, potentially reaching the Supreme Court.[6]

Perry Stein, “Judge blocks part of Idaho’s abortion law from taking effect,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/


  1. [1]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months
  2. [2]David Benfell, “About my job hunt,” Not Housebroken, n.d., https://disunitedstates.org/about-my-job-hunt/
  3. [3]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months
  4. [4]Nancy Cook, Josh Wingrove, and Jennifer Jacobs, “Biden Unveils Plan to Free Students from ‘Unsustainable Debt,’” Bloomberg, August 24, 2022, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-08-24/biden-set-to-freeze-student-loan-repayments-for-four-more-months
  5. [5]Ben Smith, “Brandon Just Wants to Drive His Racecar,” New York Times, December 19, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/19/business/brandon-brown-lets-go-brandon.html
  6. [6]Perry Stein, “Judge blocks part of Idaho’s abortion law from taking effect,” Washington Post, August 24, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/24/idaho-abortion-ruling/

Chickenshit student loan relief from a chickenshit administration in a chickenshit political party

I am not caught up.


Student loans

The benefit I’ll personally see from this[1] appears nonexistent to negligible.

Phil Mattingly, Katie Lobosco and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000,” CNN, August 24, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html


Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt

The 700 pages of classified documents mentioned in a Wall Street Journal headline refer to papers recovered in January,[2] well before the search on August 8.[3]

Hannah Knowles, Josh Dawsey, and David Weigel, “Trump’s dominance in GOP comes into focus, worrying some in the party,” Washington Post, August 17, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/08/17/trump-cheney-wyoming-republicans/

Jordan Libowitz and Lauren White, “Secret Service held onto Pelosi threat until after insurrection,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/secret-service-held-onto-pelosi-threat-until-after-insurrection/

Jordan Libowitz and Sara Wiatrak, “The Secret Service knew about Jan 6 threat. They dismissed it,” Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, August 17, 2022, https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-investigations/the-secret-service-knew-about-jan-6-threat-they-dismissed-it/

Molly Jong-Fast, “The People Who Can’t Stop Making Excuses for Trump,” Atlantic, August 18, 2022, https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/wait-what/62fd7788da4cea0020f4345e/trump-fbi-search-rand-paul-espionage-act/

Cat Zakrzewski, “Lawmakers demand data about online threats against law enforcement,” Washington Post, August 19, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/08/19/fbi-social-media-law-enforcement/

Chris McGreal, “US political violence is surging, but talk of a civil war is exaggerated – isn’t it?” Guardian, August 20, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/aug/20/us-political-violence-civil-war

Amy B. Wang and Tom Hamburger, “Sen. Graham gets temporary reprieve in testifying before Ga. grand jury,” Washington Post, August 21, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/08/21/lindsey-graham-trump-grand-jury-georgia/

Jon Swaine et al., “Files copied from voting systems were shared with Trump supporters, election deniers,” Washington Post, August 22, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/22/election-system-copied-files-trump/

Igor Derysh, “‘Lawyers are giggling’: Legal experts scratch their heads at Trump’s ‘very strange’ new DOJ lawsuit,” Salon, August 23, 2022, https://www.salon.com/2022/08/23/lawyers-are-giggling-legal-experts-scratch-their-heads-at-trumps-very-strange-new-doj/

Jennifer Rubin, “Trump’s risk of indictment for his document snatch just skyrocketed,” Washington Post, August 23, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/08/23/trump-documents-indictment-risk-skyrocket/

Asawin Suebsaeng and Adam Rawnsley, “Trump Tells His Lawyers: Get ‘My’ Top Secret Documents Back,” Rolling Stone, August 23, 2022, https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-tells-lawyers-get-my-top-secrets-documents-back-1234580501/

Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403


  1. [1]Phil Mattingly, Katie Lobosco and Maegan Vazquez, “Biden announces student loan relief for borrowers making less than $125,000,” CNN, August 24, 2022, https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/24/politics/student-loans-joe-biden-white-house/index.html
  2. [2]Jan Wolfe, Alex Leary, and Sadie Gurman, “Mar-a-Lago Boxes Had More Than 700 Pages of Classified Papers, National Archives Letter Says,” Wall Street Journal, August 23, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/letter-to-trump-lawyer-highlights-national-archives-concern-over-sensitive-materials-before-mar-a-lago-search-11661271403
  3. [3]Eric Tucker and Michael Balsamo, “Trump says FBI conducting search of Mar-a-Lago estate,” Associated Press, August 8, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-mar-a-lago-government-and-politics-9e8d683afe87389407950af7ccfdbdd6