Episode 35 - America's Hitler
It's Olbermann, so there's a general need to keep him at arm's length, but he's been saying this for quite a while now and I'm not sure I can point to when he was wrong about it.
Sep 19, 2022
Sep 18, 2022
Today's Obit
The most eloquent obituary ever - Bill Clinton on the death of Ken Starr.
Former President Clinton on Sunday offered a brief reaction to the death of Ken Starr, the independent counsel whose Whitewater investigation ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment.
“Well, I read the obituary, and I realized that his family loved him, and I think that’s something to be grateful for, and when your life is over, that’s all there is to say,” Clinton said during an appearance on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
“But I was taught not to talk about the people that I have nothing to say,” he continued.
Starr died on Tuesday at the age of 76 in Houston from surgery complications. He reportedly had been in the hospital for months leading up to his death.
“We are deeply saddened with the loss of our dear and loving father and grandfather, whom we admired for his prodigious work ethic, but who always put his family first,” Starr’s son, Randall Starr, said in the obituary.
Starr in the first Bush administration served as the U.S. solicitor general, arguing dozens of cases before the Supreme Court. He previously served as a federal appeals judge and a senior post in the Justice Department.
But Starr gained fame for leading the Whitewater investigation during Clinton’s presidency.
The investigation began with a probe of the Clintons’ real estate investments but eventually expanded to include the former president’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Lewinsky on Tuesday responded to Starr’s death on Twitter.
“As I’m sure many can understand, my thoughts about Ken Starr bring up complicated feelings… but of more importance, is that I imagine it’s a painful loss for those who love him,” Lewinsky wrote shortly after the news of Starr’s death broke.
The Starr Report, which he gave to Congress in September 1998, asserted that Clinton lied to the public and Congress about the relationship. Clinton was later impeached, though was ultimately acquitted in the Senate.
"...his family loved him."
Former President Clinton on Sunday offered a brief reaction to the death of Ken Starr, the independent counsel whose Whitewater investigation ultimately led to Clinton’s impeachment.
“Well, I read the obituary, and I realized that his family loved him, and I think that’s something to be grateful for, and when your life is over, that’s all there is to say,” Clinton said during an appearance on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.”
“But I was taught not to talk about the people that I have nothing to say,” he continued.
Starr died on Tuesday at the age of 76 in Houston from surgery complications. He reportedly had been in the hospital for months leading up to his death.
“We are deeply saddened with the loss of our dear and loving father and grandfather, whom we admired for his prodigious work ethic, but who always put his family first,” Starr’s son, Randall Starr, said in the obituary.
Starr in the first Bush administration served as the U.S. solicitor general, arguing dozens of cases before the Supreme Court. He previously served as a federal appeals judge and a senior post in the Justice Department.
But Starr gained fame for leading the Whitewater investigation during Clinton’s presidency.
The investigation began with a probe of the Clintons’ real estate investments but eventually expanded to include the former president’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Lewinsky on Tuesday responded to Starr’s death on Twitter.
“As I’m sure many can understand, my thoughts about Ken Starr bring up complicated feelings… but of more importance, is that I imagine it’s a painful loss for those who love him,” Lewinsky wrote shortly after the news of Starr’s death broke.
The Starr Report, which he gave to Congress in September 1998, asserted that Clinton lied to the public and Congress about the relationship. Clinton was later impeached, though was ultimately acquitted in the Senate.
Check This Out
Kari Lake is a bad person.
Toby Morton is not.
Kari Lake offered me $150 for her campaign domain. I declined and built her new website. She then blocked me. Here it is. https://t.co/sTHCJjend2
— Toby Morton (@tobymorton) September 18, 2022
Browse around - I especially liked the Endorsements.
And don't forget these:
Today's Tweet
Quick message diaper Don pic.twitter.com/a5EnfA05u6
— Irishrygirl (@irishrygirl) September 16, 2022
On Blanket Pardons
If you're about to find yourself under the thumb of some really bad guys, it's not unreasonable to look for just about anything that might ease the pressure.
But you have to have been thoroughly hornswoggled to believe Biden is that really bad guy, or you have to know yourself to be a really bad guy, and you just want to be let off the hook, fearing others will do the same shitty things to you that you've been trying to do to everybody else.
These Republican bozos walk around knowing what shitty people they are (IMO), and they're absolutely convinced that everybody else would do exactly what they're doing, so they spend inordinate amounts of time rationalizing their shittiness, which evolves the whole thing downward into what looks for all the world like a non-stop soap opera-style every-man-for-himself knife fight.
But the missing piece in GOP thinking is that too many Republicans are doing shitty things almost solely for the sake of wielding power, while most Democrats are just trying to hold them accountable for the shitty things they do, which feels like persecution to a shitty-behaving Republican.
Because Daddy Staters do, in fact, persecute people, actual justice coming back on them feels like persecution.
(pay wall)
Testimony by a former White House aide is the first indication the congressman sought protection from the inquiry
Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) told a former White House aide that he was seeking a preemptive pardon from President Donald Trump regarding an investigation in which he is a target, according to testimony given to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Johnny McEntee, according to people familiar with his testimony, told investigators that Gaetz told him during a brief meeting “that they are launching an investigation into him or that there’s an investigation into him,” without specifying who was investigating Gaetz.
McEntee added that Gaetz told him “he did not do anything wrong but they are trying to make his life hell, and you know, if the president could give him a pardon, that would be great.” Gaetz told McEntee that he had asked White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows for a pardon.
Asked by investigators if Gaetz’s request for a pardon was in the context of the Justice Department investigation into whether Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, McEntee replied, “I think that was the context, yes,” according to people familiar with the testimony who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
The testimony is the first indication that Gaetz was specifically seeking a pardon for his own exposure related to the Justice Department inquiry into whether he violated sex trafficking laws. His public posture in the final months of the Trump administration was much less specific, repeatedly calling for broad preemptive pardons to fend off possible Democratic investigations.
McEntee testified that Gaetz met him briefly one evening and discussed the issue of a pardon but McEntee could not recall whether their conversation happened before or after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, according to people familiar with the testimony.
The Justice Department investigation into whether Gaetz paid for sex, paid for women to travel across state lines to have sex, and had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, was opened in the final months of the Trump administration with approval from Attorney General William P. Barr. The probe stemmed from a federal investigation of Gaetz’s friend who is now a convicted sex trafficker. Gaetz has denied paying for sex or having sex with a minor as an adult.
McEntee did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Neither Meadows nor his lawyer immediately responded to requests for comment. A spokesperson for Gaetz declined to address the testimony or whether Gaetz discussed a pardon with McEntee or Meadows and instead responded that Gaetz never directly asked Trump for a pardon.
What to know about the sex trafficking probe involving Matt Gaetz
“Congressman Matt Gaetz discussed pardons for many other people publicly and privately at the end of President Donald Trump’s first term,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “As for himself, President Trump addressed this malicious rumor more than a year ago stating, ‘Congressman Matt Gaetz has never asked me for a pardon.’ Rep. Gaetz continues to stand by President Trump’s statement.”
The House select committee also declined to comment.
Gaetz has not been charged with any crimes but Joel Greenberg, a Gaetz associate and former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., pleaded guilty in the spring of 2021 to six criminal charges, including sex trafficking of a minor. Greenberg agreed to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify in court, and has been providing investigators with information about Gaetz since 2020, The Washington Post previously reported.
“The last time I had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old, I was 17,” Gaetz has previously said. On Nov. 25, 2020, weeks after Trump lost the presidential election, Gaetz told Fox News that Trump “should pardon everyone from himself to his administration officials to Joe Exotic if he has to.”
Cassidy Hutchinson, a top White House aide to Meadows, told the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack that she recalled Gaetz and Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) both advocating for a “blanket pardon” for lawmakers who attended a Dec. 21, 2020, meeting at the White House to discuss efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In the previously aired testimony, she said they also advocated for pardons for “a handful of other members that were not at the December 21st meeting.”
Hutchinson added that Gaetz, however, “was personally pushing” for a pardon “since early December.” But the focus of that pardon request was not clear from Hutchinson’s testimony. “I’m not sure why Mr. Gaetz would reach out to me to ask if he could have a meeting with Mr. Meadows about receiving a presidential pardon,” she added.
Brooks, who put a request for a pardon in an email to a White House aide at the time, defended his actions in a statement after Hutchinson’s testimony saying, “There was a concern Democrats would abuse the judicial system by prosecuting and jailing Republicans” for objecting in Congress to the certification of the election.
Eric Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer, told investigators that he also believed that Gaetz was seeking a pardon, according to an excerpt of the deposition played during one of the committee’s public hearings.
“The general tone was, we may get prosecuted because we were defensive of, you know, the president’s positions on these things,” Herschmann recalled. “The pardon that he was discussing requesting was as broad as you can describe, from the beginning — I remember he is — from the beginning of time up until today for any and all things. Then he mentioned Nixon. And I said Nixon’s pardon was never nearly that broad.”
Gaetz ultimately did not receive a pardon from Trump.
Sep 17, 2022
Today's Tweet
SC here. Lindsey Graham needs to stop dancing around it and just go down to GA. pic.twitter.com/lEM3zIOqf2
— GrandmaB🗽☮️🌊🌊🌊 (@MarionB07183865) September 17, 2022
Welcome To Smarmspace
Just as Mike Cohen testified, Trump never gives anyone any direct instruction as to what he wants done. Even on the phone calls where the conversations were recorded, there's always a way for him to wriggle around and deny that what he said actually meant what everybody knows he meant.
So when we're trying to track down what caused several dozen boxes - some holding classified material - to land at Mar-A-Lago, there's an obvious trail leading to Trump's gang, but the link that tags it all directly to Trump himself is blurry enough so as to leave a little smarmspace for him to maneuver.
Trump team claimed boxes at Mar-a-Lago were only news clippings
The 2021 assertion to the National Archives vastly misrepresented the scale and variety of documents, including classified records, later recovered from Trump’s property
Months before National Archives officials retrieved hundreds of classified documents in 15 boxes from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, they were told that none of the material was sensitive or classified and that Trump had only 12 boxes of “news clippings,” according to people familiar with the conversations between Trump’s team and the Archives.
During a September 2021 phone call with top Archives lawyer Gary Stern, former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin offered reassuring news: Philbin said he had talked to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who made the assertion about the dozen boxes of clippings, the people familiar with the call said. Trump’s team was aware of no other materials, Philbin said, relaying information he said he got from Meadows.
The characterization made in the call vastly misrepresented the scale and variety of documents, including classified records, eventually recovered by the Archives or the FBI.
Philbin said that Meadows also told him no documents had been destroyed, according to two people with knowledge of the call and a third person with knowledge of Stern’s contemporaneous account of the call. These and other people spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal details.
Stern had sought the call because he believed there were still more than two dozen boxes of materials that Trump had, and he also had concerns about whether digital records had been properly retained, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Top Archives officials continued to believe there was more material than they were being told about, according to people familiar with their thinking.
A spokeswoman for Philbin declined to comment. A person close to Philbin said he was unaware of the contents of the boxes and did not know there was classified material in them.
“Mr. Meadows did not personally review the boxes at Mar A Lago and did not have a role in examining or verifying what was or wasn’t contained within them,” Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Meadows, said in a statement Friday night after the article was published online.
In the year since the call, Archives and Justice Department officials have recovered 42 boxes of records from Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., property, including 15 boxes handed over by Trump’s representatives to the Archives last January and an additional 27 boxes retrieved by the FBI during a court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago last month.
The records recovered by the FBI included documents that detailed top-secret U.S. operations and information about a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities, The Washington Post has reported. Some of the documents retrieved by the Archives had also been torn up, which Trump had a habit of doing.
The new details about the Philbin call show that Meadows was more deeply involved in the communications with Archives officials than previously known. Some White House advisers had previously said Meadows was deeply involved in the final packing at the White House.
The Justice Department has conducted interviews with Archives officials and subpoenaed documents from the Archives as a part of their probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents. Officials are seeking to understand what the Archives was told and whether Trump’s representatives were honest, according to people familiar with the matter.
In an email to Trump lawyers in May 2021 previously reported by The Post, Stern wrote that there were roughly two dozen boxes that were kept in the White House residence that had yet to be returned to the Archives, “despite a determination by [former White House counsel] Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be.”
And before we get down to arguing that link, he will have thrown everybody and their uncle under the bus.
My conclusion is that it'll do no good to subpoena Trump because he'll drag that out forever, and while there's no doubt in my mind that his legal beagles will work like demons to fight it, he has to be indicted for us to get this fuckin' circus on the sawdust.
(pay wall)
Trump team claimed boxes at Mar-a-Lago were only news clippings
The 2021 assertion to the National Archives vastly misrepresented the scale and variety of documents, including classified records, later recovered from Trump’s property
Months before National Archives officials retrieved hundreds of classified documents in 15 boxes from former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club, they were told that none of the material was sensitive or classified and that Trump had only 12 boxes of “news clippings,” according to people familiar with the conversations between Trump’s team and the Archives.
During a September 2021 phone call with top Archives lawyer Gary Stern, former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin offered reassuring news: Philbin said he had talked to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who made the assertion about the dozen boxes of clippings, the people familiar with the call said. Trump’s team was aware of no other materials, Philbin said, relaying information he said he got from Meadows.
The characterization made in the call vastly misrepresented the scale and variety of documents, including classified records, eventually recovered by the Archives or the FBI.
Philbin said that Meadows also told him no documents had been destroyed, according to two people with knowledge of the call and a third person with knowledge of Stern’s contemporaneous account of the call. These and other people spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose internal details.
Stern had sought the call because he believed there were still more than two dozen boxes of materials that Trump had, and he also had concerns about whether digital records had been properly retained, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Top Archives officials continued to believe there was more material than they were being told about, according to people familiar with their thinking.
A spokeswoman for Philbin declined to comment. A person close to Philbin said he was unaware of the contents of the boxes and did not know there was classified material in them.
“Mr. Meadows did not personally review the boxes at Mar A Lago and did not have a role in examining or verifying what was or wasn’t contained within them,” Ben Williamson, a spokesman for Meadows, said in a statement Friday night after the article was published online.
In the year since the call, Archives and Justice Department officials have recovered 42 boxes of records from Trump’s Palm Beach, Fla., property, including 15 boxes handed over by Trump’s representatives to the Archives last January and an additional 27 boxes retrieved by the FBI during a court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago last month.
The records recovered by the FBI included documents that detailed top-secret U.S. operations and information about a foreign government’s nuclear capabilities, The Washington Post has reported. Some of the documents retrieved by the Archives had also been torn up, which Trump had a habit of doing.
The new details about the Philbin call show that Meadows was more deeply involved in the communications with Archives officials than previously known. Some White House advisers had previously said Meadows was deeply involved in the final packing at the White House.
The Justice Department has conducted interviews with Archives officials and subpoenaed documents from the Archives as a part of their probe into Trump’s mishandling of classified documents. Officials are seeking to understand what the Archives was told and whether Trump’s representatives were honest, according to people familiar with the matter.
In an email to Trump lawyers in May 2021 previously reported by The Post, Stern wrote that there were roughly two dozen boxes that were kept in the White House residence that had yet to be returned to the Archives, “despite a determination by [former White House counsel] Pat Cipollone in the final days of the administration that they need to be.”
In court filings, the Justice Department has released an email from the Archives to Trump’s counsel stating that NARA officials had “ongoing communications” with Trump’s representatives “throughout 2021” to try to secure missing presidential records, which resulted in the transfer of only the first 15 boxes.
Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that there would be “problems in the country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before” if he were indicted on charges of mishandling classified records.
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it,” Trump said.
Trump’s legal team has said the documents seized include some personal records. They have argued that the former president has “an absolute right to access” to his presidential records and suggested that it is possible that some of the documents marked classified may have been declassified by Trump before he left office. However, his lawyers have not formally asserted any were declassified or otherwise addressed concerns that Trump might have been improperly storing national security secrets at his Florida club.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former chief federal judge in New York, as a special master to sort through the documents seized by the FBI to see whether any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges. The Justice Department is barred from using any of those documents in its criminal probe until Dearie reviews them, significantly slowing down the inquiry.
Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Thursday that there would be “problems in the country the likes of which perhaps we’ve never seen before” if he were indicted on charges of mishandling classified records.
“I don’t think the people of the United States would stand for it,” Trump said.
Trump’s legal team has said the documents seized include some personal records. They have argued that the former president has “an absolute right to access” to his presidential records and suggested that it is possible that some of the documents marked classified may have been declassified by Trump before he left office. However, his lawyers have not formally asserted any were declassified or otherwise addressed concerns that Trump might have been improperly storing national security secrets at his Florida club.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon appointed Raymond J. Dearie, a former chief federal judge in New York, as a special master to sort through the documents seized by the FBI to see whether any should be shielded from criminal investigators because of attorney-client or executive privileges. The Justice Department is barred from using any of those documents in its criminal probe until Dearie reviews them, significantly slowing down the inquiry.
Seeming Hypocrisy
But then they turn around and ignore their own stated principle when it comes to a mandate from a centralized state government that negates county and local jurisdictions' rights to self-determination.
And that really does seem to be the problem. Broad, sweeping pronouncements are made about how this or that principle is so universal that it's crazy-stupid obvious, and only a complete dolt would argue with it, but when something they demand everybody go along with pops up, then it's all "let the cherry-picking and goal-post-moving commence".
(pay wall)
Virginia will block schools from accommodating transgender students
In a major rollback of LGBTQ rights, the administration of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) will require that transgender students in Virginia access school facilities and programs that match the sex they were assigned at birth and is making it more difficult for students to change their names and genders at school.
Under new “model policies” for schools’ treatment of transgender students released Friday evening, the Department of Education is requiring that families submit legal documentation to earn their children the right to change names and genders at school. The guidelines also say teachers cannot be compelled to refer to transgender students by their names and genders if it goes against “their constitutionally protected” free speech rights.
And the guidelines say schools cannot “encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information about a student from the student’s parent, including information related to gender” — raising the prospect that teachers could be forced to out transgender students to their parents.
School districts must adopt the new state guidelines or “policies that are more comprehensive,” after a 30-day comment period that will begin on Sept. 26, the Education Department said. The Board of Education will not have to vote to adopt the policies.
Do we really need any more evidence that Republicans know their shit policies are shit? If your ideas for better education are so fuckin' great, let's hear what the pros on the board have to say about them.
“These 2022 Model Policies reflect the Department’s confidence in parents to prudently exercise their fundamental right under the Fourteenth Amendment and the Virginia Constitution to direct the upbringing, education, and control of their children,” the guidelines state. “This primary role of parents is well established and beyond debate. Empowering parents is essential to improving outcomes for children.”
The model policies reverse guidelines published in 2021 by the administration of Gov. Ralph Northam (D). Those guidelines mandated that transgender students be allowed to access restrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities that match their gender identities, stipulated that schools let students participate in sports and programs matching their gender identities and required that school districts and teachers accept and use students’ gender pronouns and identities without question.
In their own guidelines, Youngkin administration officials wrote that Northam’s guidance sought “cultural and social transformation in schools” and “disregarded the rights of parents.” The Youngkin guidelines state the Northam-era policies are dead: they “have no further force and effect.”
The Northam guidelines were developed in accordance with a 2020 law, proposed by Democratic legislators, that required the Virginia Education Department to develop model policies — and later required all school districts to adopt them — for the protection of transgender students. The law does not define the specific nature of these policies but says they should “address common issues regarding transgender students in accordance with evidence-based best practices” and says they should be designed to prevent bullying and harassment of transgender students.
But — in a move that is likely to draw legal challenges — the Youngkin administration has used that same law to issue its own version of the Education Department guidelines. The 20-page document released Friday states it is being issued “as required under” the 2020 legislation.
The Youngkin administration is also attempting to repurpose the period of public scrutiny the Northam-era rules were subjected to. Those guidelines, as is typical, were posted for weeks online so the public could share their reactions.
The Friday document states that Youngkin’s guidelines were developed by “taking into account the over 9,000 comments received during the public comment period” for the Northam-era policies.
“The 2022 model policy posted today delivers on the governor’s commitment to preserving parental rights and upholding the dignity and respect of all public school students,” Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a written statement. “It is not under a school’s or the government’s purview to impose a set of particular ideological beliefs on all students.”
The reaction from Democratic lawmakers was swift.
“These new policies are cruel and not at all evidence based,” tweeted Del. Marcus Simon, who was a co-sponsor of the Northam-era law. “If enacted these policies will harm Virginia children. Stop bullying kids to score political points.”
Allies of the governor praised the proposal. “Thank you @GovernorVA for fixing one of the most overreaching and abusive uses of a ‘model policy’ that I’ve seen,” tweeted GOP Del. Glenn Davis. “This new standard ensures all students have the right to attend school in an environment free from discrimination, harassment, and bullying.
There is no language more deceitful than what Glenn Davis has used for stating his position in favor of denying students their rights, disguising obvious potential for subjecting those students to the very discrimination, harassment and bullying he's pretending to protect those kids from.
What's happening here is the attempt to force kids into strict social compliance because some parents can't handle the reality of progress.
Sun Tzu Illustrated
Warthog Defense - Ukraine's kick-ass operation.
- "Sunshine Forces"
- Whenever practicable, isolate and bypass
- Don't press a desperate adversary too hard - leave him an out
Times Radio - Putin's failures
Putin met with Xi, probably expecting China's help, if not some kind of supportive rhetoric, which he didn't get.
Putin says Xi has questions and concerns over Ukraine
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said he understood that Xi Jinping had questions and concerns about the situation in Ukraine but praised China's leader for what he said was a "balanced" position on the conflict.
Russia's war has killed tens of thousands of people and pushed the global economy into uncharted waters with soaring food and energy prices amid the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the Cold War.
At their first face-to-face meeting since the war, Xi said he was very happy to meet "my old friend" again after Putin said U.S. attempts to create a unipolar world would fail.
"We highly value the balanced position of our Chinese friends when it comes to the Ukraine crisis," Putin told Xi, whom he addressed as "Dear Comrade Xi Jinping, dear friend".
It's not unreasonable to think "balanced position" can be translated to mean "neutral", which means "Nope - you're on your own". Putin needs allies, and he's not getting them.
"We understand your questions and concern about this. During today's meeting, we will of course explain our position, we will explain in detail our position on this issue, although we have talked about this before."
- more -
SAMARKAND, Uzbekistan, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday that now was not a time for war, directly assailing the Kremlin chief in public over the nearly seven-month-long conflict in Ukraine.
Locked in a confrontation with the West over the war, Putin has repeatedly said Russia is not isolated because it can look eastwards to major Asian powers such as China and India.
But at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), concerns spilled out into the open.
"I know that today's era is not an era of war, and I have spoken to you on the phone about this," Modi told Putin at a televised meeting in the ancient Uzbek Silk Road city of Samarkand. read more
As Modi made the remark, Russia's paramount leader since 1999 pursed his lips, glanced at Modi and then looked down before touching the hair on the back of his head.
Putin told Modi that he understood the Indian leader had concerns about Ukraine, but that Moscow was doing everything it could to end the conflict.
"I know your position on the conflict in Ukraine, the concerns that you constantly express," Putin said. "We will do everything to stop this as soon as possible."
He said Ukraine had rejected negotiations.
- more -
It grows more likely that Putin will not survive this war.
Sep 16, 2022
The Stunts
Keep in mind that Republicans have had more than a few chances to sit down with the Democrats and hammer something out that at least updates an immigration "system" that's admittedly cumbersome and clunky and badly in need of overhaul. They refuse.
And I think that refusal is not because they're "playing hardball". If that was the case, we'd almost have to have something that works better by now.
So I'm left thinking that Republicans don't want to make it better.
For decades, part of their election strategy has been to keep the rubes amped up, so they'll turn out to vote for the guys who make life miserable for people they don't like - so they'll think they're OK, cuz "at least I've got it better'n them brown folks".
MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass., Sept 15 - Some migrants who were flown to the wealthy island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, said on Thursday they were duped about their destination, and Democratic leaders called for a probe of the move by Florida's Republican governor to send them there from Texas.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is up for re-election in November and seen as a possible presidential contender in 2024, took credit for the two flights, which originated in San Antonio, Texas, and stopped in Florida on the way to Martha's Vineyard.
The White House and residents of the vacation enclave called it a "political stunt," as DeSantis joins Republican governors from Texas and Arizona in sending migrants north. The governors have sought to highlight the two parties' differences on immigration policy and shift the burden of caring for immigrants to Democratic areas.
For months Texas and Arizona have sent busloads of migrants to the Democratic-run cities of New York, Chicago and Washington.
Florida now joins the campaign. Details of how the flights were arranged and paid for remain unclear, as well as an explanation as to why Florida was moving migrants in Texas. The Florida legislature has appropriated $12 million to transport migrants from the state to other locations.
The two flights on Wednesday carried about 50 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, a Martha's Vineyard Airport official said.
Hours after the planes landed, two buses sent by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, another Republican facing re-election, dropped off migrants in a Washington neighborhood not far from Vice President Kamala Harris' official residence on Thursday.
One Venezuelan migrant who arrived at Martha's Vineyard identified himself as Luis, 27, and said he and nine relatives were promised a flight to Massachusetts, along with shelter, support for 90 days, help with work permits and English lessons. He said they were surprised when their flight landed on an island.
He said the promises came from a woman who gave her name as "Perla" who approached his family on the street outside a San Antonio shelter after they crossed from Mexico and U.S. border authorities released them with an immigration court date.
He said the woman, who also put them up in a hotel, did not provide a last name or any affiliation, but asked them to sign a liability waiver.
"We are scared," he said, adding he and others felt they were lied to. "I hope they give us help."
Residents of Martha's Vineyard rallied to aid the confused migrants and offered housing at St. Andrews Episcopal Church.
Martha's Vineyard is best known as a summer retreat populated mostly by affluent liberal Americans, including former President Barack Obama, a Democrat who owns a multimillion-dollar vacation home there.
Locals stopped by to donate money and children's toys, while attorneys mobilized to offer free legal help.
"It's a stunt to make political points and not caring about who gets hurt," said Mike Savoy, 58, a nurse at Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.
DeSantis defended the flights, telling a news conference that Democratic U.S. President Joe Biden "has refused to lift a finger" to secure the border.
"We've worked on innovative ways to be able to protect the state of Florida from the impact of Biden's border policies," DeSantis said.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Republican governors were using migrants as "political pawns."
LEGAL QUESTIONS
Several Democrats, including Charlie Crist, DeSantis' opponent in Florida, and California Governor Gavin Newsom, called on federal authorities to investigate.
Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said at a news conference her office would be "looking into that case" and speaking with the Justice Department.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security developed a plan last year to fly migrants to interior cities in coordination with aid groups to ease pressure on border regions, a Biden administration official told Reuters, requesting anonymity to discuss internal planning.
The White House never adopted the idea, according to a second U.S. official familiar with the matter.
The use of resources from Florida to move migrants from Texas to Massachusetts raises legal concerns, including about what information was relayed to the migrants before they boarded and whether they were coerced, said immigration law expert Pratheepan Gulasekaram of Santa Clara University School of Law.
U.S. border agents have made 1.8 million migrant arrests at the U.S.-Mexico border since last October. Many are quickly expelled to Mexico or other countries under a public health rule implemented in 2020 to curb the spread of COVID-19.
But hundreds of thousands Cubans, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans and others cannot be expelled because Mexico refuses to accept them, or because they can pursue asylum claims.
Many migrants who are released from U.S. custody in border states seek to move elsewhere to join relatives or find jobs. They often must check in with U.S. immigration authorities or attend court hearings to obtain legal status.
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