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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Still More Glitter in the Chicken Feed

Still More Glitter in the Chicken Feed

by @heymistermix.com|  August 12, 202210:21 am| 215 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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Last January I wrote a post about Maggie Haberman’s vaunted access getting her nada about 1/6 — no insider information, none of the information relayed to the 1/6 committee, nothing. The title of that post, and this one, is a reference to this great exchange in the 2010 movie version of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy where Gary Oldman, playing George Smiley, says this:

Minister: Witchcraft’s intelligence is genuine! It’s been gold!
George Smiley: It’s just enough glitter amongst the chickenfeed. Control didn’t believe in miracles, and he didn’t believe in Witchcraft. But you were lazy, and you were greedy, and so you hounded him out of the Circus and you let Karla in. 

At best, Maggie is a court stenographer. At worst, she’s an active PR agent for Trump:

Why the fuck (sorry NPR) would you take this liar at his word? Isn’t it bloody obvious that he could demonstrate his lack of opposition to releasing documents in his possession in a time-honored way? As a reporter, you would only post this with the airheaded “analysis” if your concern was continuing the Trump franchise that feeds you. And I don’t think I need to point out that Maggie, like the rest of the press, was blindsided by the search warrant, and subsequent to that warrant, she had no real idea of what was seized, unlike her competition at the Post. There’s very little glitter in this particular chicken feed, but still she “reports” it.

When the history of this period is written, a large part of it is going to be about the failure of the press, and specifically about the abject failure of the paper that was somehow considered partial to Democrats. This paper, in one of the worst political crises in US history, allowed its reporters to serve as courtiers, and to hold back reporting so they can profit from books. (Cheryl Rofer has a good post on this at LGM.)

They were lazy, and they were greedy, and their bosses let them get away with it.

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Reader Interactions

215Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    August 12, 2022 at 10:23 am

    Someone needs to be Trump’s surrogate on Twitter since he can’t do it himself.

  2. 2.

    Lacuna Synecdoche

    August 12, 2022 at 10:26 am

    mistermix @ Top:

    [The press] were lazy, and they were greedy, and their bosses let them get away with it.

    Given that their bosses are largely rich and lean right, I suspect it was less that their bosses let them get away with it, and more that their bosses encouraged and paid them to be lazy and greedy.

  3. 3.

    bbleh

    August 12, 2022 at 10:27 am

    They were lazy, and they were greedy, and their bosses let them get away with it.

    Possibly because said bosses are also lazy and greedy?  (Not to mention considerably more socially and politically sympathetic to Republicans.)

  4. 4.

    SoupCatcher

    August 12, 2022 at 10:33 am

    Millionaires who work for billionaires.  Someone called Chuck Todd that to his face and he blew a fuse.

  5. 5.

    The Moar You Know

    August 12, 2022 at 10:34 am

    a large part of it is going to be about the failure of the press

    The American press has been an abject and treasonous failure for the entire existence of this nation, with brief exceptions that have not lasted longer than a couple of decades.  Which is the inevitable result of failing to regulate something.

  6. 6.

    kindness

    August 12, 2022 at 10:35 am

    Maggie was a significant part of the NY Times Hillary Haters coalition.  How many But Her E-mails & Benghazi stories did she write in the lead up to the 2016 elections?  She & the Times then went full on Trump booster (ignoring Trump’s crooked past in real estate and casinos) because they thought they had better access to Trump.

    How she hasn’t been tarred, feathered and driven out of town I can not fathom.

  7. 7.

    hells littlest angel

    August 12, 2022 at 10:36 am

    This is Trump setting himself up to say, I wanted to release the documents but blah blah blah Obama blah blah persecuted blah.

  8. 8.

    Hilbertsubspace

    August 12, 2022 at 10:36 am

    So, I have a dumb theory.  What if the reason for the warrant’s urgency isn’t someone selling Trump out, but a foreign intelligence (Israel?) picking up a conversation about our nuclear secrets from a government that shouldn’t have them (Saudi Arabia?).  The intelligence agency contacts us and screams OMGWTFBBQ and the FBI has no choice but to act or the foreign government goes public with our dirty laundry.

    I give this maybe a 1% chance of being true, but it does explain the sudden National Defense and Counter-Intelligence interest.

  9. 9.

    insert clever nickname here mistermix

    August 12, 2022 at 10:37 am

    @kindness: When I went to her twitter feed to find her tweet about Trump’s statement, the top item was her lavishing praise on a Politico piece regurgitating some Bernie/Hillary drama from 2016.

    https://twitter.com/maggieNYT/status/1558082435602169857

    So, yes, the Hillary hate keeps coming.

  10. 10.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 10:38 am

    Look, Maggie has one job, it’s stupid, but she’s going to do it.

    (I assume 90% of our readers didn’t need to click through.)

  11. 11.

    Old School

    August 12, 2022 at 10:44 am

    @Ken: It’s still worth watching again though.

  12. 12.

    Josie

    August 12, 2022 at 10:46 am

    In a comment on an earlier post, Barbara made this prescient point:

    “Not releasing it allows for speculation of a parade of horribles that cannot otherwise be challenged let alone refuted by TFG or his minions. The new strategy will be release and minimize.”

    This statement from TFG proves her point, and his base will happily swallow it. Maggie is just helping him accomplish his message.​​
    ​
    ​

  13. 13.

    Fraud Guy

    August 12, 2022 at 10:47 am

    Shouldn’t this be considered an in-kind donation to his campaign and reported as such?

  14. 14.

    sukabi

    August 12, 2022 at 10:47 am

    @SoupCatcher: awww, musta hit a nerve…

  15. 15.

    Mike E

    August 12, 2022 at 10:48 am

    NPR getting ratio’d into oblivion is my 2nd favorite outcome next to Orange Stain getting caught red-handed for espionage.

  16. 16.

    MC

    August 12, 2022 at 10:55 am

    Ah, to be a depraved nihilist like Maggie.

  17. 17.

    WaterGirl

    August 12, 2022 at 11:02 am

    @Mike E:

    NPR getting ratio’d into oblivion…

    On the face of it, that looks like a good thing.  But if what matters to you is getting clicks and follows, etc, stuff like this actually HELPS them.

    We helped raise the profile of MTG and Boebart and others the very same way.

    Things are not always as they first appear to be.

  18. 18.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:03 am

    Every fucking article by Maggie Haberman should include a disclaimer pointing out her mother worked in PR for Trump.  It says something about FTFNYT that they think it’s just fine for her to continue covering Trump despite that family history.  Everything she says about Trump has to be seen through that lens, and everyone needs to understand just how distorting it is.

  19. 19.

    James E Powell

    August 12, 2022 at 11:03 am

    @kindness:

    Every time Haberman’s role a Trump conduit is exposed, the entire world of journalism rallies to her defense, calling her a great journalist. But they never cite any examples.

    Before Trump, no one had ever heard of her. During Trump, she was the number one producer of Trump’s inside gossip. After Trump, she has nothing much to say that isn’t already known.

    She is just the current best example of what a shitty newspaper the NYT is. There were others like her promoting & protecting the Bush/Cheney Junta.

    Remember that she called President Biden “a very flawed candidate running a flawed campaign.” Yet he somehow won the election by 4+ points with wins in Georgia & Arizona.

  20. 20.

    Ruckus

    August 12, 2022 at 11:03 am

    @Lacuna Synecdoche:

    I doubt that many of their bosses would encourage them to not produce.

    I don’t doubt that many of their bosses would encourage them to post more towards right wing bullshit or loose their jobs. Many of these jobs pay relatively well, many/most of the owners are rather wealthy and likely at least lean more conservative, at least economically. Money is a hell of a drug and those doing a Scrooge McDuck dance in their vaults on a daily basis are unlikely to want things to change, if for no other reason that they might make 1-3% less per year. I mean $900,000,000 is not the same as $1,000,000,000 a year….. Think of the shame of not getting paid that extra 100 million…..

  21. 21.

    Scout211

    August 12, 2022 at 11:04 am

    My take, for what it’s worth.

    Treating news the same way that gossip was treated decades ago in print media and television feeds the public’s apparent need to know. Celebrity gossip columns and television shows started bleeding into the local and nightly news many, many years ago. Viewers responded, so it continued and grew. Then “reality” television started a trend that continues to this day and it too is bleeding into the actual news*.

    Viewership eventually turned into clicks and clicks bring money for the media companies and earn raises and promotions for the access reporters. I don’t see this changing anytime soon.

    However, I don’t see this as a reporter problem but as a sociological trend that has changed our entire culture.  And the change has been too quick for any correction in this trend toward accuracy, fact or truth.  It makes money, so it continues.  At least for now.

    *As an aside: Does anyone really believe that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson had a romantic relationship? The whole thing was likely a well-planned PR arrangement that benefitted them both.  But real or PR, it was treated as actual news on actual new sites because it brought clicks, and clicks brought money.  And that is a sad commentary.

  22. 22.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    August 12, 2022 at 11:08 am

    @Hilbertsubspace: I think it’s a given that foreign intelligence agencies, one way or another, have seen a bunch of that stuff.

  23. 23.

    Layer8Problem

    August 12, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @kindness:  I would really like to know what the rank and file Times staff think of the quality of Haberman’s journalism.  I have a vague recollection of an all-hands internal meeting in the Baquet days where reporters didn’t think much of the paper’s coverage and editorial choices.

  24. 24.

    Frank Wilhoit

    August 12, 2022 at 11:09 am

    Stupid trumps (and Trumps) both lazy and greedy.

  25. 25.

    different-church-lady

    August 12, 2022 at 11:09 am

    @WaterGirl: You got it. Nobody cares if the engagement is supportive or critical, as long as the raw numbers are increasing. Death by statistics.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    August 12, 2022 at 11:12 am

    @Scout211: I don’t even believe Pete Davidson actually exists.

  27. 27.

    delphinium

    August 12, 2022 at 11:14 am

    @James E Powell:

    Every time Haberman’s role a Trump conduit is exposed, the entire world of journalism rallies to her defense, calling her a great journalist. But they never cite any examples.

    Before Trump, no one had ever heard of her. During Trump, she was the number one producer of Trump’s inside gossip. After Trump, she has nothing much to say that isn’t already known.

    I never understood this either-folks pointing out a truth about her and journalists feeling they have to provide a protective barricade around her. She isn’t even doing any kind of investigative journalism, instead just waiting for someone else to feed her the latest tidbit. Which is why, as you point out, she doesn’t have anything original to say post Trump. It is all just so disgusting.

  28. 28.

    Mike E

    August 12, 2022 at 11:15 am

    @WaterGirl: I hold out hope that discerning purveyors of “news” media break the habit of listening to All Things Considered/Morning Edition (let alone CNN in its dizzying myriad) but hey, outrage is a helluva drug!

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    August 12, 2022 at 11:15 am

    @WaterGirl: What’s the proper response then? Ignoring bad behavior — from the media or toxic political figures — can make it seem as if the behavior is unobjectionable. Just relaying what they say, stenographer-like as Haberman does, is obviously dangerous. But calling them out on their bullshit can be seen as amplifying it. So what’s the right response? Honest question: I don’t know the answer, though I lean toward calling it out…

  30. 30.

    geg6

    August 12, 2022 at 11:15 am

    @Scout211:

    FWIW, I do believe they had a romantic relationship.  For a while.  He has apparently had several relationships with prominent, beautiful and accomplished women.  None of them last long, but he seems to attract a lot of them.  I don’t know what it is, but he has “it.”  I can’t believe I felt the need to weigh in on this.

  31. 31.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 11:16 am

    @Ceci n est pas mon nym: It’s not like the foreign agents would have had to bypass any state-of-the-art security measures like a padlock on the door.

  32. 32.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    August 12, 2022 at 11:17 am

    @Baud: I’ve noticed Maggie is hardly the only one.

  33. 33.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 12, 2022 at 11:21 am

    @Betty Cracker: Not WG but I think big accounts, media houses etc need to be called out. Preferably by quote tweeting with a  screenshot. But if small accounts are amplifying garbage it is best to ignore them.

    That’s what I do anyway.

  34. 34.

    narya

    August 12, 2022 at 11:23 am

    Alec Guiness is still the best Smiley, second only to the Smiley in my head when I read the books.

    As for Mags, I just refuse to read anything with her byline. I regard her as worse than unreliable and I don’t want to waste my time.

  35. 35.

    different-church-lady

    August 12, 2022 at 11:24 am

    Weighing the pros and cons of Beto O’Rourke dropping an f-bomb on a heckler

    Why not “Weighing the pros and cons of a sociopath finding amusement in the mass murder of schoolchildren”?

  36. 36.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:24 am

    @delphinium:

    I never understood this either-folks pointing out a truth about her and journalists feeling they have to provide a protective barricade around her.

    The media, especially the reporters at FTFNYT, have a very strong “circle the wagons” mindset.  They can’t stand criticism from outside their circle, and they’ll rally around anyone who’s being criticized, no matter how much they deserve it.  Their basic theory seems to be that nobody from outside the media deserves to be allowed to criticize them because they just don’t understand, and of course nobody from inside the media will criticize them- or their criticism will be mild to the point of tepidity- because of professional courtesy.  The net result is nobody is allowed to criticize them.

    I think this is the core behind the whole freakout over campus free speech and the like.  They’re so used to being protected from criticism, they freak out when they see powerful, serious people being criticized by (sniff) college students.  How dare anyone criticize extremely serious people like that!  If we let mere college students criticize important people, who knows what will happen next!

  37. 37.

    schrodingers_cat

    August 12, 2022 at 11:24 am

    @different-church-lady: Heh Nice Polite Republicans don’t call out other Republicans. That would hardly be polite.

  38. 38.

    Betsy

    August 12, 2022 at 11:26 am

    @Roger Moore: What!!?!?!!!

  39. 39.

    MattF

    August 12, 2022 at 11:28 am

    Note (as many others have) that Trump could simply release the search warrant, and that would be that. Remember that business, long ago, when he announced that he would make a statement about the birther stuff he’d been pushing? The media came running, he ran on for an hour about his greatness, and then added a sentence at the end about something something Obama. It’s his con, it’s what he does, expecting anything else is just foolish.

    ETA: About Haberman. Reporters care about their careers and their status in their profession. Period.

  40. 40.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @geg6: And right on time: Big drama-free energy: what makes Pete Davidson the ultimate rebound boyfriend? Arwa Mahdawi

    He doesn’t seem like the sort of man who would sweep some of the world’s most famous women off their feet – but there’s clearly something irresistible

    I love to read Arwa, not sure this time I will.

  41. 41.

    Mike E

    August 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @Betty Cracker: it’s interesting to me seeing gatekeepers at these influential outlets doubling down when called out for their naked exploitation of our overheated media environment, sorta like when bigots publicly flail when getting called ‘racist’… Jon Stewart on Crossfire only happened one time and yet we all crave more of those moments! My cynicism makes me conclude their lack of shame makes the exercise pointless, but I hope it reaches more and more listeners/viewers/voters to sway these razor-thin election cycles we seem to be stuck in.

  42. 42.

    Jager

    August 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    I was driving this morning, NPR referred to Mar a Lago as “president trump’s estate”. It’s not his fucking estate it’s a club he owns and has an apartment there. Mar a Lago was an estate when the Post Toasties Queen Marjorie Merriweather Post lived there. Donald turned it into a business when he bought it.

  43. 43.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think the key is making the existence of the bad behavior the story, not the substance.  When Trump is lying, the story is that he’s lying, not the lies he’s telling.  You may need to talk about the general kind of bad behavior (“Trump lies again about immigration”) but not the details (“Trump says illegal immigrants are rapists and murderers”).  This lets you cover the story without normalizing the bad behavior.

  44. 44.

    Betsy

    August 12, 2022 at 11:30 am

    @Betty Cracker: Lede:  “Former Pres T today made several false or self-serving claims regarding subject A …” (followed by explanation of facts and sources)

    ETA: In other words, what Roger Moore said ^^^

  45. 45.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 11:33 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Why not “Weighing the pros and cons of a sociopath finding amusement in the mass murder of schoolchildren”?

    THANK you! Fucking asshole was laughing as Beto was describing children being massacred. Story should be about who that psychopath was and WTF he thought was so funny. I saw that NPR story and had to go lie down for a minute the stupid hurt so hard.

  46. 46.

    Matt McIrvin

    August 12, 2022 at 11:34 am

    @James E Powell:

    Remember that she called President Biden “a very flawed candidate running a flawed campaign.” Yet he somehow won the election by 4+ points with wins in Georgia & Arizona.

    It’s always possible to argue that he should have won in a walloping landslide, were he better.

  47. 47.

    Betsy

    August 12, 2022 at 11:34 am

    @Jager:

    @Mike E:

    NPR’s entire first story on the FBI Mag-a-Lardo search consisted only of reporting what various Republican leaders or politicians had to say about it.

    I waited for some actual reportage on the search. None.

    It was appalling.

  48. 48.

    Mike in NC

    August 12, 2022 at 11:34 am

    When Maggie’s shitty book about her love for the Fat Orange Clown comes out next month, I will be happy to totally ignore it.

  49. 49.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:35 am

    @Hilbertsubspace: This tracks. Five eyes would also be deeply concerned.

  50. 50.

    oatler

    August 12, 2022 at 11:36 am

    Good news! ABC News said they caught a Violent Extremist!

  51. 51.

    Baud

    August 12, 2022 at 11:37 am

    @oatler:

    ?

  52. 52.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 11:37 am

    @Roger Moore: Yep. The MSM headline algorithm for the past several years has been “Trump claims….” followed by some ludicrous stupidity and/or outright lie that leaked out of his brain that day, with the “fact check” buried three paragraphs down (“Air Force one can not, in fact, fly at light speed an Air Force spokesman confirmed…”).

  53. 53.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:37 am

    @Betsy:

    I know, right.  Maggie Haberman’s mother, Nancy Haberman, worked for Rubenstein Associates, a PR firm.  Among the firm’s clients, and one of the clients Haberman personally worked for, was Donald Trump.  Admittedly, it wasn’t as if Trump was her only client, but it seems like something a reader might want to know about when reading Maggie Haberman’s coverage of Trump.

  54. 54.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @Jager: I doubt Trump owns the club, either. I saw “Trump’s Florida residence” and I thought that was fairly accurate.

  55. 55.

    Betty Cracker

    August 12, 2022 at 11:39 am

    @Roger Moore & @Betsy: That’s a good formula for media outlets, but that’s not what I’m asking about. WG was responding to a comment that said NPR was getting ratioed and seemed to imply that people piling on them was a bad thing. She also said “we” helped raise MTG’s profile. Maybe I misunderstood her, but that’s my question — how should us regular people respond? Are we encouraging NPR, MTG, etc., by calling them out?

  56. 56.

    Chief Oshkosh

    August 12, 2022 at 11:40 am

    This paper, in one of the worst political crises in US history, allowed its reporters to serve as courtiers, and to hold back reporting so they can profit from books.

    This is exactly what was said about Shrub’s Iraqi adventure.

  57. 57.

    oatler

    August 12, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Baud:The FBI  Building shooter. That’s how ABC covers right wing terrorism, by appeasing it with soft words,

  58. 58.

    raven

    August 12, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Question, we are redoing  a fainting couch and there is a  1 x2 “fluted” piece that is missing. I cut a plain piece of oak to replace it but I wonder if it’s feasible to get it milled or find a piece that would match?

     

    Photo

  59. 59.

    MattF

    August 12, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Roger Moore: Except it would always be a one-sentence story– “Trump lied about XXX.” You don’t get Pulitzers for that.

  60. 60.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @jonas: O’Rourke’s audience clearly approved of his cussing. I think any analysis of how “politic” it was begins with that. Those neutral NPR reporters talk like they are the audience, and they may even believe this.

  61. 61.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 12, 2022 at 11:41 am

    Breaking: Salman Rushdie has reportedly been stabbed on stage at an event at the Chautauqua Institution in New York

  62. 62.

    geg6

    August 12, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Go ahead and read it.  A very good and plausible explanation.

  63. 63.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @Betty Cracker: The calling out is necessary. Linking directly to the offending material source is amplification. That is how I try to roll.

    Linking to Haberman is just, but doing what she is doing for Trump is amplification. Shit, she is trying to individually be responsible for re-platforming Trump on Twitter.

    Hate her!

  64. 64.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:42 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think something similar would work for the rest of us.  If MTG is lying again, it’s fine to point out that she’s lying and the subject of the lie, but don’t amplify the lie by responding, quote tweeting, or even tweeting a screen shot.  Just point out the existence of the lie, the topic, and what the truth is.

  65. 65.

    raven

    August 12, 2022 at 11:43 am

    @HumboldtBlue: Damn, I just did  comment on him a couple of days ago.

  66. 66.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 12, 2022 at 11:46 am

    NPR needs to die a horrible death in a fire.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 11:48 am

    @raven: There are a couple of mills in STL that will make custom stuff. I suspect they could probably sell you something off the shelf that would make you happy. Athens isn’t STL but I would be a little surprised if you couldn’t find such a mill near you.​
     

    ftr: I could make it for you myself, but I might have to buy a router bit specific to that pattern.

  68. 68.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:48 am

    There are so many bad takes on Trump’s security clearance status — whether made in ignorance or in bad faith. The most common one is that the President has a SCIF at his Florida golf shack so he can have whatever Top Secret info. he wants to.

    Sounds plausible, but Trump no longer has TS clearance, if I recall correctly from Biden’s earlier decision to not share briefings. Trump only got that level of clearance by election, not by vetting, so once he was no longer in office, his clearance, if any, was simply a version of noblesse oblige. Looking back, I suspect Biden’s move was probably a part of trying to get all the TS and TS+ stuff returned — he cut off a reason for Trump to continuing to hold anything. Trump played the delaying game — yes we will return — until this past June. Then, FAFO.

  69. 69.

    geg6

    August 12, 2022 at 11:48 am

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Fuck.  Fuck.  Fuck.

    Can’t say much else until I can see who did it.

  70. 70.

    JustRuss

    August 12, 2022 at 11:49 am

    @Roger Moore: The fact that the Times put Habs on the Whitehouse beat despite her mother’s connections to Trump tells you all you need to know about their “ethics”.

  71. 71.

    raven

    August 12, 2022 at 11:50 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: Yea, Randall Brothers. Now if I should tell her!

  72. 72.

    Mike E

    August 12, 2022 at 11:50 am

    @Betsy: I know! My radio/TV/film degree gotten all the way back during the Reagan Admin has served me well in lifting the curtains and kicking the tires, and opposite of ‘ruining’ media enjoyment it makes me appreciate the stellar content that happens these days despite getting drowned in a metaverse of sh¡t. One local example here in the Raleigh area is the local 99.9 The Fan sports programming slamming the LIV golf debacle … their format ditched listener call-in so they can go heavy on the snark and decision without having to pay lip service to the area mouth breathers. A real salve during the Orange Stain reign, too! I mean, it’s stupid sports content but subtly subversive.

  73. 73.

    trollhattan

    August 12, 2022 at 11:50 am

    @geg6: Not a stretch to guess who and “why” but you’re correct that we don’t officially know.

    Similarly, yesterday’s FBI attacker could have been Antifa.

  74. 74.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @Geminid: I said to somebody the other day that the audiences reaction speaks to just how perfect Beto’s response was.

  75. 75.

    James E Powell

    August 12, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @Betty Cracker:

    So what’s the right response?

    I used to respond with objections on twitter, but now I just complain about it on an almost top 10,000 blog.

    More seriously, the lack of any apparent & effective response is frustrating. Right-wing outrage usually gets immediate attention. Our side gets ignored or disparaged.

    I’ve suggested cancelling subscriptions with the belief that a 20-25% drop would send a message, but people who love the arts section refuse to consider that once the message is sent, they can always subscribe again.

  76. 76.

    MattF

    August 12, 2022 at 11:51 am

    @Immanentize: Also, a functioning SCIF requires significant staffing, record keeping, training, etc. The likelihood that Trump does that (or would pay for that) is zero.

  77. 77.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 11:52 am

    @geg6: ​On your recommendation, I will.

  78. 78.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:52 am

    @raven:

    My friend’s brother does custom carpentry in Charleston S.C., mostly for house renovations. I could check with Tom (my friend, not Ozark) to see if he might know someone in Athens area —

    But I would check with house reno folks because they have the blades….

    Also — cool fucking couch!

  79. 79.

    James E Powell

    August 12, 2022 at 11:53 am

    @Matt McIrvin:

    It’s always possible to argue that he should have won in a walloping landslide, were he better.

    That argument requires one to ignore the realities of the American electorate.

  80. 80.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 12, 2022 at 11:54 am

    @Josie:

    In a comment on an earlier post, Barbara made this prescient point:

    “Not releasing it allows for speculation of a parade of horribles that cannot otherwise be challenged let alone refuted by TFG or his minions. The new strategy will be release and minimize.”

    This statement from TFG proves her point, and his base will happily swallow it. Maggie is just helping him accomplish his message.​​

    So the search warrant shouldn’t be unsealed/released then? If the search were truly bad news for Trump, why would he want it unsealed?

  81. 81.

    geg6

    August 12, 2022 at 11:55 am

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    He sounds like a pretty good guy.  I know he has issues due to his dad being killed in the Twin Towers on 9/11.  He was just a kid when that happened and it really seems to have given him troubles throughout his life since.

  82. 82.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:56 am

    @MattF:

    You can do a bit more than the 1 sentence story.  Rather than just “Trump lied about X”, you can point out how frequently he lies on the topic.  You can get commentary from neutral (e.g. academic) sources who talk about how dangerous that kind of lie can be.  You can also do occasional articles about how frequently he lies about the topic, etc.

    But the main point is not to let someone shape the whole media landscape with their bad behavior.  It’s a matter of incentives.  As long as the media gives free publicity to politicians in direct proportion to how outrageously the behave, we’ll get politicians tripping over each other to be ever more outrageous.  We need to change the focus back to policy.  The media should write more articles about it and give time to politicians able to talk about it competently.  Until we do that, the outrageous behavior will keep getting worse.

  83. 83.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 11:56 am

    @OzarkHillbilly: I need such advice! I hear Charlize Theron is still complaining that she doesn’t meet kind, interesting men ….

  84. 84.

    delphinium

    August 12, 2022 at 11:58 am

    @raven:

    we are redoing a fainting couch…

    Will it be sent to NPR so they can lay down and clutch their pearls in the event Beto (or another Democrat) swears again when some heckler laughs about school shootings?

  85. 85.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 11:58 am

    @JustRuss:

    My gut feeling is it’s “because of” not “despite”.  They wanted someone who would have some kind of in with Trumpworld, and they didn’t care if that was likely to bias the coverage even more than court gossip is always slanted.

  86. 86.

    geg6

    August 12, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    My take is that he’s cornered.  Damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t.  Perhaps he’s betting the judge won’t allow it.  Perhaps he think it’s better to try to spin what’s there.  Not releasing it is the worst option as it definitely makes it look like he’s hiding something very bad.  I think he has no other choice than to try to power through it.

    Could totally be wrong, of course.  I often am.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 11:59 am

    @Immanentize: I’ve heard that Amy Adams has the same problem. Hmmmm… I wonder if my wife might object?

  88. 88.

    Scout211

    August 12, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    well, that commentary still sounds like Pete is open to a PR agreement to me: link

    Ultimately, however, what might really be the key to Davidson’s appeal as the ultimate rebound guy is that he perfectly understands his role. He runs into new relationships at top speed and throws himself into the part of the Good Celebrity Boyfriend with aplomb. He’ll get a tattoo to commemorate your relationship! (He got at least four tattoos in honour of Kardashian West.) He’ll hang out with your kids! He’ll take you to dinner at his favourite place in Staten Island. He’ll provide lots of photo ops for your PR people! And then, when the relationship has run its course, he backs away without any drama. He’ll quietly get the tattoos removed. He won’t say anything nasty to the press. He’ll move on without any venom. The real key to Davidson’s BDE, it seems, is that he knows when to pull out.

  89. 89.

    clay

    August 12, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @James E Powell:

    Remember that she called President Biden “a very flawed candidate running a flawed campaign.”

    Sheesh.  Every candidate is flawed and every campaign is flawed.  Some of them still manage to win.

    For this kind of banal analysis she gets the NYT byline?

  90. 90.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Trump does not want the search warrant and return unsealed. He was relying on the general integrity of the DOJ (c.f. Comey) to keep their mouths shut during the investigation phase of any case. But Trump started lying (usual) and besmirching the FBI and the judiciary. So Garland called his bluff. Now Trump really cannot oppose release, although if I were his attorney, I would certainly get him to agree to file motions to do so.

    As I said last night (translation):
    Garland: “Ima finna cut da bitch.”

  91. 91.

    raven

    August 12, 2022 at 12:01 pm

    @Immanentize: Here’s the part we finished.

  92. 92.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​ One of the first articles to characterize what did or might have prompted the warrant suggests that it was related to nuclear weapons related materials. This is where rational people say things like, “Oh my fucking God, what is he doing with that kind of stuff in his basement!” For all we know, the next one might be like, “Trump took the transcripts of phone calls with foreign leaders for the last four years raising serious concerns among our allies that they might be misused.”

    You can’t resist the turning of the narrative unless you put something out there. My guess is that even if these kinds of things were the basis for the warrant, the warrant is almost certainly not stated in quite such inflammatory language, and therefore open to obfuscation and minimization.

  93. 93.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    @Immanentize: trump of course is fully capable of doing a U-turn. “On the advice of my attorneys, I have decided to bigly not cooperate with the very unfair…”

  94. 94.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    Author Salman Rushdie attacked at New York event

    Hello Guardian readers, there’s breaking news regarding the renowned novelist Salman Rushdie and we are going to bring you developments and reaction as it happens, so please join us and we’ll keep you up to date, live.

    Rushdie has been attacked onstage at an event in upstate New York, according to the Associated Press who had a reporter at the event.

    Onlookers said he was stabbed as he was about to give a speech in Chautaqua, which is about seven hours’ drive from New York City, near the southern shore of Lake Erie.

    Rushdie, the author whose writing led to death threats from Iran in the 1980s, was attacked on Friday morning as he was preparing to give a lecture.

    An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being introduced.

    The author ended up on the floor and could be seen with a first responder crouching over him and organizers rushing to help.

    A man was apprehended, according to the news agency.

  95. 95.

    Betty Cracker

    August 12, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    @Roger Moore: Not sure that would work on a practical level. Take MM’s current post as an example. There’s a screenshot of Haberman’s tweets. If he had omitted that and summarized what Haberman said and described what was wrong with it, I’d probably head over to Twitter and read her tweets for myself because I’d want to see exactly what she said in context.

    It’s not that I would distrust his description, and Haberman is a hack with well-known patterns of hackery, but in some cases, there are nuances I’d want to assess for myself.

    I’m also not convinced that pushing back on media figures is a net positive for them. Sure, it’s an increase in engagement, but you can tell by their responses that some of the criticism lands. And I have seen coverage change. Not soon enough, but it does evolve. Remember when reporters wouldn’t even use the word “lie” to describe Trump’s constant lies?

    In short, I don’t think there’s a neat and simple answer. 

  96. 96.

    zhena gogolia

    August 12, 2022 at 12:03 pm

    @Immanentize: Good translation!

  97. 97.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:04 pm

    @Scout211: Gotta say that description somehow instantly reminded me of Sex and the City and “Mr. Pussy.”

  98. 98.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    @raven: swoon!

    That is gorgeous.

  99. 99.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 12:08 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): trump says he wants the warrant unsealed, but his lawyers may sing a different tune at today’s 3pm deadline, and file a motion to oppose.

    Even if trump objects, I think that warrant will be unsealed by August 24, the date the judge gave. The trump camp has accused the FBI of planting evidence, and the magistrate who issued the warrant has been getting death threats as well as vile antisemitic abuse, two more reasons for a judge to want to get the warrant out there.

  100. 100.

    different-church-lady

    August 12, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @Scout211:

    He’ll get a tattoo to commemorate your relationship! (He got at least four tattoos in honour of Kardashian West.)

    Look, I know I’m getting old, but that sounds a lot more like a description of a sick person than an ideal boyfriend.

  101. 101.

    MattF

    August 12, 2022 at 12:09 pm

    @Geminid: I was mildly surprised by how many elected R officials went for the ‘FBI planting evidence’ claim. It’s… a rather serious claim.

  102. 102.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @raven: Job well done.

  103. 103.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @Barbara: The affidavit would be quite clear about the detailed types (and maybe numbers) of documents the DOJ was seeking. They need to be explicit to get to the probable cause standard for a magistrate to sign it. Especially in this case.

    The warrant and the attached search order would not be so specific and might just say, “classified documents” among other listed items. The return, however, will still not be super detailed, but will be specific about quantities (327 pages of classified documents, three computers, four phones, etc.)

    Trump (and his attorneys) and DOJ know exactly what was seized. The court docket regarding the unsealing already includes the assumption that more will be sought by the Gov’t. By Trump getting to DOJ to release things, he also is making them do the redactions. But I assume the warrant and search orders were already written with release in mind (Trump could always release them). But the affidavit will need LOTS of redaction before public release.

  104. 104.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 12, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @MattF:

    That you can be surprised by anything these traitorous fucks do at this point is beyond me.

  105. 105.

    Edmund Dantes

    August 12, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @Roger Moore: considering women weren’t allowed to be reporters on certain sexual assault stories, abortion, etc. it is kind of a big tell how selective the media is about this whole who and who isn’t allowed to be a reporter when they are “personally “ involved and thus not “objective”.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    August 12, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @Geminid:

    Do you know if what the court would unseal is more than the warrant that Trump received?

  107. 107.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 12:13 pm

    @Roger Moore: Maybe I’m misremembering this or confusing it with someone else, but didn’t Ivanka and Habs attend the same swanky Manhattan prep school together or something? At some point, they had known each other pretty well, iirc.

  108. 108.

    Scout211

    August 12, 2022 at 12:14 pm

    @different-church-lady: that sounds a lot more like a description of a sick person than an ideal boyfriend.

    You made my point.  Whatever the motivation is on either side, it’s not a real romantic relationship.

    You know, just like Trump and Melania.

  109. 109.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:16 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Sorry transparency people — for the sake of my client, that is absolutely what I would advise he say. And then tell him to keep his mouth shut.

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 12, 2022 at 12:17 pm

    @James E Powell: To be fair (gag!), there were a lot of people on this site talking about how flawed a candidate Biden was and how flawed a campaign he was running.  Then they stopped.

  111. 111.

    Redshift

    August 12, 2022 at 12:18 pm

    @Scout211:

    Viewership eventually turned into clicks and clicks bring money for the media companies and earn raises and promotions for the access reporters.

    That’s… not how it works. I work for a news company (not on the the news side, but I hear about where the money comes from.)

    Clicks bring in zero money directly. They bring in some advertising if you scroll entire ads into view, but digital ads pay very little compared to what print ads do/did, and “one and done” click-throughs from search or social media pay the least from advertisers, which is why there’s so much emphasis on subscribers and registration these days.

    No disagreement our political media suck, but I think it’s important to understand that the reason posting clickbait online isn’t big money for journalists or news outlets.

  112. 112.

    Scout211

    August 12, 2022 at 12:19 pm

    @Redshift: Thanks for the correction.

  113. 113.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 12, 2022 at 12:20 pm

    @Redshift:

    This is useful to know.  Thank you!

  114. 114.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:21 pm

    @Geminid: If I were the magistrate, I would recuse and turn the matter over to whoever is the Chief Judge of the Southern District of Florida. Magistrates are not Article III judges (no lifetime tenure), so the man has done his duty, but is vulnerable. Also, any ruling against Trump would just further inspire the claims of bias.

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    @Baud: I don’t. That info might be in Garland’s statement yesterday. Marcy Wheeler may have covered it in an article on her Empty Wheel website. If she did she probably tweeted about it also, but Wheeler  tweets so prolifically you’d have to skim through a lot of tweets to get to the pertinent ones.

  116. 116.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:24 pm

    @different-church-lady: I once faced an expert on the stand (coroner and prison and gang tattoo expert) who famously testified:

    “I’ll spot anyone one tattoo — you get drunk, your buddies push you — but more than two tattoos? Mutilation.”

  117. 117.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Barbara: I agree — “nuclear secrets” could mean just about anything, from highly technical specs (which I seriously doubt Trump would even know what they were) to spy satellite images of Iranian nuclear facilities or something. I don’t know for sure, but I simply can’t imagine the DOD or DOE just leaving documents with the nation’s most sensitive nuclear secrets lying in the Oval Office after a briefing or something and then going home. I suspect whatever Trump took was more mundane, albeit still highly classified. Remember: *he* had to think it was nifty and worth pinching to ameliorate his bruised ego when he left the WH and he doesn’t read. To me that says “top secret photos of some kind.” Or maybe charts, large pie graphs and the like showing nuclear capabilities, etc. that he could amend as necessary with his Sharpie.

  118. 118.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 12:25 pm

    @Immanentize: I think that as of yesterday a district judge is already in charge of the unsealing process.

  119. 119.

    The Lodger

    August 12, 2022 at 12:26 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t Arwa Mahdawi a pseudonym for Erma Gerd?

    (No, I’m not following up the link.)

  120. 120.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    August 12, 2022 at 12:27 pm

    @Baud:

    @Geminid:

    I thought that Garland said they were requesting release of the same piece of paper that was served to Trump. Should be the same, but IDK for certain.

  121. 121.

    Kristine

    August 12, 2022 at 12:28 pm

    @narya:

    Alec Guiness is still the best Smiley, second only to the Smiley in my head when I read the books.

    QFT

    Some of the actors are among my favorites, but I did not like that movie.

  122. 122.

    Baud

    August 12, 2022 at 12:28 pm

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:

    I don’t know why there would be redactions them. They wouldn’t give Trump something that couldn’t be released to the public.

  123. 123.

    raven

    August 12, 2022 at 12:28 pm

    @Immanentize:

     

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    I did the wood part with spar urethane and she covered it. She’s got a gift!

  124. 124.

    MattF

    August 12, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    Latest Trumpism:

    President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them
    classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!

  125. 125.

    The Lodger

    August 12, 2022 at 12:29 pm

    @Betsy: Just run it as the TFG  Bullet List of the Day. (Feel free to substitute a similar word for “bullet.”)

  126. 126.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @jonas: There is the possibility that someone in trump’s circle took the responsibility of picking out what they wanted to save. Maybe several. They may have had their own agenda. I think that in the long run we’ll get a lot of the story.

  127. 127.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Baud: See what I wrote at 103. The DOJ is proposing immediate release of the warrant, the search order (list of items to be searched for), and the return (which is an inventory list of what items were seized)

    The warrant affidavit (and any further testimony to the Magistrate) were not included in DOJ’s request to unseal, but may be the subject of future motions to release.

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    August 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Print a lot of info on policy and most people’s eyes glaze over. That doesn’t sell a lot of papers or get people to purchase web time. Print juicy stuff or crap that looks like it might be juicy and that sells. Now a reasonable journalistic endeavor might work on at least a balance. One more interested in profit alone is going for the money.

  129. 129.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 12:30 pm

    So I was checking my other news source (Balloon Juice is of course my primary), and:

    • PopeHat is LightReadingMaterialHat today, and has quite a lot about the warrant and documents
    • Nixon mentions a few similar incidents where people went to prison after taking home classified information, and posted a picture of the Rosenbergs without comment (but I can read subtext)
    • The DPRK News Service has nothing about the documents

    I find the last highly suspicious, and am treating it as evidence for my pet theory that Trump was going to send nuclear secrets to his good buddy and correspondent Kim Jong-Un.

  130. 130.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    @Geminid: good. The original motion and docketing went to the Magistrate, which is the proper place to start the process.

  131. 131.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 12, 2022 at 12:32 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Don’t get wound around the axle about it.  There is no good result for Trump in this.  He has a choice of bad or worse.

  132. 132.

    Kent

    August 12, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @MattF: Latest Trumpism:

    “President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them
    classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!”

    Trump was president right after Obama.  He even signed into law an act that made this a felony.  If this is actually true, why didn’t Trump’s justice department go get them back?

  133. 133.

    cmorenc

    August 12, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @Scout211:

    *As an aside: Does anyone really believe that Kim Kardashian and Pete Davidson had a romantic relationship? The whole thing was likely a well-planned PR arrangement that benefitted them both.  But real or PR, it was treated as actual news on actual new sites because it brought clicks, and clicks brought money.  And that is a sad commentary.

    That anyone outside e.g. the Kardashian family/close friends thereof gives enough of a flying fork about their social antics, and news sites such as CNN consider their antics worthy of inclusion in their articles is but another facet of the problem with Trump coverage – what both Trump and the Kardashians have in common are they are glamorous rich assholes whom too many regular folks are enviously interested in, wishing they could be like that, too instead of their dull, striving to pay the bills selves.

  134. 134.

    Redshift

    August 12, 2022 at 12:33 pm

    @Baud:

    Do you know if what the court would unseal is more than the warrant that Trump received?

    From what I understand, what Garland has asked the court to unseal is exactly what TFG has and could release – the warrant and the inventory of items seized. Since it’s the court’s decision, I guess they could unseal things no one has requested, but it seems very unlikely.

  135. 135.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:34 pm

    @raven: no joke. I need an on-call reupholsterer myself. Gifted is optional.

  136. 136.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 12, 2022 at 12:36 pm

    I have no inside information but my gut tells me the classified docs Trump illegally took and kept over subpoena were about Iran’s past nuclear program, and were kept so if US rejoins Iran nuclear deal, he could have them leaked. Just a guess.

    Also:

    Temple Beth David has canceled its Beach Shabbat this week under a deluge of antisemitic threats about Bruce Reinhart, the judge who signed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant and sits on the synagogue’s board.

  137. 137.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    @MattF:President Barack Hussein Obama kept 33 million pages of documents, much of them
    classified. How many of them pertained to nuclear? Word is, lots!

    Wait, isn’t this a tacit admission that the feds *were* looking for nuclear stuff among the documents he had? “But Obummer did it!!” is a dead giveaway. Also, next tweet: “Secret Service agents told me, sir, with tears in their eyes, how they had tried but failed to keep Obama from stealing over 100 train cars worth of top secret documents when he left!”

  138. 138.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 12:39 pm

    @Kent: If this is actually true

    Well, see, that’s the thing….

  139. 139.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 12, 2022 at 12:40 pm

    @Kristine: The movie was okay, as someone who has reread the book 20 or so times, I had some issues with it.  The Guinness tv series was about as good as you can get.

  140. 140.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 12:40 pm

    @The Lodger: Damned if I know. She is a columnist at the Guardian who largely opines on women’s issues and LGBQT+, tho will meander into the mundane from time to time just to lighten things up.​

    ETA also she is of Indian descent so she talks about being an immigrant and India from time to time.

  141. 141.

    trollhattan

    August 12, 2022 at 12:42 pm

    @MattF: It reads best as “thirty-three MILL-yun pages” which, double-sided is 33,000 cases of copy bond.

    Right, Donny, right.

  142. 142.

    Redshift

    August 12, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    @jonas:

    but I simply can’t imagine the DOD or DOE just leaving documents with the nation’s most sensitive nuclear secrets lying in the Oval Office after a briefing or something and then going home

    The thing I always come back to, though, is do they have the authority to say no to the president? There’s the case of the security clearances for Jared and Ivanka, for example. How much of this is dependent on not having a president who’s massively corrupt and doesn’t care about the good of the country?

  143. 143.

    JaySinWA

    August 12, 2022 at 12:43 pm

    @Geminid: I think it is a near certainty that much of what was taken was picked out by T’s close associates. Jared and Ivanka particularly having a hand in it. T may have had personal favorites, but there were plenty of scumbags around him who would see something they could use. The family and associates are a criminal enterprise IMHO.

  144. 144.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    @narya: @Kristine:

    Alec Guiness is still the best Smiley, second only to the Smiley in my head when I read the books.

    Hear, hear. While Twitter-Nixon, who in real life is a playwright, makes a (I think) valid point when he says that you can see in Oldman’s face that his Smiley has seen and done some things, I think one of Le Carré’s main points about Smiley is that while he has seen and done some things, has been utterly ruthless, you would look at him and see a middling civil servant, or an Oxbridge don who never quite made it. That’s Guiness.

    And let’s not even mention Lady Ann Smiley, née Sercombe, half a Sawley!, being transformed into a giggly tart in a cheap red dress.

  145. 145.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 12:44 pm

    @raven: ​ It’s beautiful. That fabric is stunning.

  146. 146.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 12:45 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: if US rejoins Iran nuclear deal, he could have them leaked. Just a guess.

    I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t something related to Iran — he definitely had a bee in his bonnet about that — but you can’t simply “leak” highly classified documents and not, you know, go to jail.

  147. 147.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 12, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    Something is rotten at the top DHS.

    Late yesterday and this morning, 2 big stories broke on Homeland Security watchdog Joe Cuffari

  148. 148.

    Subsole

    August 12, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @delphinium:

    Not just her.

    Remember when Obama (displaying an iron-shod restraint almost unkown in our current, benighted age) made the simple observation that Fox news wasn’t as fair and balanced as their promotional materials might have initially indicated?

    Remember ALL the networks – every single one of those vapid, Tuck Chodd-esque millionaire buffoons – clutching their civility pearls to powder over that? Remember Jake Tapper falling clean through his fainting couch, stopping just long enough to put on the cape for Bill’o the Fucking Clown, of all people? All in the name of professional solidarity.

    That never made sense to me, even then, that circling of the journalistic wagons. Because Fox makes it impossible to do journalism.

    Journalism depends on the establishment of basic facts and a contextual matrix in which to interpret them. The purpose of journalism is to establish a baseline reality against which our various social hypotheses can be evaluated.

    Fox spins a vast complex of delusions for GOP voters to retreat to, so they don’t have to deal with facts. They peddle the negation of consensus. Anti-reality. Don’t like the fact your vote for California’s discount-rack Lonesome Rhodes ended up with your factory job shipped to Mexico? Well, here’s a nice comforting story to help focus your anger. A story about drug-dealing immigrant hordes, entitled Millennials, and uppity black pointy-headed lesbian college professors who stole your dream from you. (Because you certainly didn’t steal it from yourself with your votes. Nosir. Nuh-uh.)

    The entire point of Project Conservatism is to make everyone but yourself responsible for your choices, and the results they produce. Fox news does exactly that. They make everyone else responsible for what you chose. (And then they hand you a meth-infused pacifier to suck on when you end up living in the same hell you damned everyone else to.)

    This is, as noted, antithetical to reality. As long as that parallel mental complex exists, there is no baseline of experience we all adhere to. Without acknowledgement of that shared baseline, journalism is impossible.

    Obama gently proffered these people an opportunity to stand up to the florid, pinch-faced little homonculi who were wrecking the shop their grandparents had built from sweat, blood and discipline.

    Jake and Chuck and Chris and Wolf and Joe and all the rest slapped it out of his hand, and stood there blurbling and chubbling about professional solidarity.

    I am no journalist. But if I were, I would feel compelled to ask: in what universe do I owe people who make doing my job impossible professional courtesy, let alone solidarity?

  149. 149.

    OzarkHillbilly

    August 12, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    @cmorenc: ​what both Trump and the Kardashians have in common are they are glamorous rich assholes

    WHoa whoa whoa…. Glamorous? trump???

  150. 150.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Ok, minority opinion, clearly — I prefer Gary Oldman’s Smiley. I think he did Grey Man perfectly.

    Don’t @me.

  151. 151.

    misterpuff

    August 12, 2022 at 12:50 pm

    I did enjoy TFG’s tweet construction of “the unAmerican, unwarranted and unnecessary raid and break-in” with the “un” alliteration (No way TFG wrote that) with the great capitalization, the fact the FBI did have a warrant, it was necessary due to his ignoring the previous subpoena and it wasn’t a raid or a break-in as his lawyers let the FBI in. It’s a superfecta of Trumpisms.

  152. 152.

    Captain C

    August 12, 2022 at 12:51 pm

    @Geminid:

    There is the possibility that someone in trump’s circle took the responsibility of picking out what they wanted to save.

    Weren’t there reports of Princeling Jared demanding many top secret docs that weren’t even remotely under his too-wide purview?

    Along those lines, any chance that at least some of the docs are honeypot docs?  That is, fake, but real-looking, designed for the purpose of ferreting out a spy.

  153. 153.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    @JaySinWA: I can’t see Jared or Ivanka being that stupid or careless. But yeah, there was probably any number of other sycophantic and/or moronic aides who didn’t give a shit who went and gathered up a bunch of docs Trump and/or Meadows told them to grab and threw them in a box for the movers to take.

  154. 154.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 12:52 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: Glamorous?

    Maybe in the older sense of the word, “illusory”.  Pratchett plays on this in Lords and Ladies:

    Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
    Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.
    Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
    Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
    Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
    Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

  155. 155.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 12, 2022 at 12:53 pm

    @Barbara:

    It sounds like you think Trump will be successful?

    @Immanentize:

    @Geminid:

    @geg6:

    Thanks, guys

  156. 156.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 12:55 pm

    @Immanentize: a defensible opinion. I like the Oldman movie for the most part.

  157. 157.

    Scout211

    August 12, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    The first two procedural votes passed in the House 219-208.

    Sounds like a trend.

  158. 158.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 12:56 pm

    @jonas: @Immanentize:

    I don’t think Trump actually sat around picking and choosing what he was taking.  For all I know, he asked for everything in some kind of file category to be taken and figured he would go through it at his leisure (or someone else would).  My main point is that the warrant and the redacted affidavit, once they are released, are unlikely to be specific enough to preclude Trump and his minions from saying that the documents were no big deal.

  159. 159.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​ Umm, no, I am just predicting how he will try to slither out of the corner he now finds himself in.

  160. 160.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    Regarding Tinker Tailor, I’ve always been impressed that they managed to get either a series or a film out of it. Half of the novel is George Smiley reading old reports, and much of the rest is meetings and bureaucratic infighting! I’m sure that’s what real spy-craft looks like, but people have come to expect more sports cars, tuxedos, and gunfire.

  161. 161.

    Subsole

    August 12, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus: And now he knows what it was like having his ass as president.

  162. 162.

    zhena gogolia

    August 12, 2022 at 12:59 pm

    @Ken: I have never made it more than 1/4 of the way through any John Le Carré novel. I find them a combination of bewilderingly unclear and stultifyingly boring.

  163. 163.

    different-church-lady

    August 12, 2022 at 1:01 pm

    @jonas: To me it reads as a tacit admission that he had no idea what is going on.

  164. 164.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 12, 2022 at 1:01 pm

    @Barbara:

    Oh, my bad

  165. 165.

    Villago Delenda Est

    August 12, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @trollhattan: And I could be Marie of Romania.

  166. 166.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 1:02 pm

    @Ken: ​ I went to the movie with my husband and agreed with some of the simplifying choices they made and disagreed with others, but overall felt like they got the gist of it correct. Still, people should read the book. The book is so layered, and so compelling, in my view LeCarre’s best after A Perfect Spy. Although they are very different, so I don’t think they should be compared.

  167. 167.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    Ron DeSantis pushes back hard against mischaracterization of law enforcement doing their jobs!

    How dare you call it a raid! (Yes it’s a different context and he’s being a hypocrite and no meaningful number of his supporters will care)

    I did notice MSNBC seems to be taking some care to call it a “search”

  168. 168.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 1:04 pm

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): ​ I resist trying to predict the future. In fact, I hate that so much I don’t read articles that have “could” or “might” in their titles. “XYZ Could Change the Trajectory of the Midterms” might as well read “Our speculative predictions about the midterms are even more speculative than we first realized.”

  169. 169.

    Brachiator

    August 12, 2022 at 1:05 pm

    So, if by some chance, Trump goes to prison, does that mean that Maggie H will go in with him?

  170. 170.

    ian

    August 12, 2022 at 1:06 pm

    @Ken:

    • The DPRK News Service has nothing about the documents

    You do know that is parody, right?

  171. 171.

    Frankensteinbeck

    August 12, 2022 at 1:06 pm

    @jonas:

    I can’t see Jared or Ivanka being that stupid or careless.

    Bear in mind, Jared is himself phenomenally, hard-to-believe-someone-could-be-that stupid, and if the Saudis had not just bailed him out was looking at losing the vast fortune he’d inherited – and that is hard to do.  Trump and Jared are two peas in a pod in being shit-for-brains ignorant while being convinced they’re the world’s greatest geniuses.  People pay attention to Jared deliberately shafting blue states during Covid and forget how wildly he fucked up everything else.  This was the guy who said he would fix government’s inefficiencies by putting it on The Cloud.  I don’t know how smart Ivanka isn’t, but she’s the daughter of an idiot and married an idiot.

  172. 172.

    Omnes Omnibus

    August 12, 2022 at 1:06 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly: To my mind, the Trumps and the Kardashians are both classic new money.  The difference is that the Trumps want to be accepted by old money society but never will be because they are tacky and don’t actually donate to charity as they promise.  The Kardashians, otoh, aren’t interested in old money society and are enjoying their money.   The Ks win.  The Trumps are joyless, bitter, and awful.  The Ks are merely awful.  On the whole though, I’d rather be me.

  173. 173.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 1:07 pm

    @Barbara: it may be true he did not pick and choose what he was taking — but TS documents are very carefully monitored. At least a few months after he left, the archives and, I assume, the intelligence committee knew exactly what he took. It is not like clearing off your desk and taking a memo you shouldn’t have. So Trump and his attorneys knew exactly what he posessed.

    And certainly by this year, when some, but not all, documents were returned and there were continued negotiations about returning them, Trump and his attorneys knew exactly what he had. Precisely. Beyond peradventure. They were in detailed negotiations about getting the secret stuff back. Then in June, those discussions broke off, and a warrant was issued. There is no ignorance here.

    So maybe the “Trump is too stupid to use toilet paper” theory works for some, but that defense expired at least a year ago, in the summer of 2021. And certainly by June of 2022 could not be sustained.

  174. 174.

    cmorenc

    August 12, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    WHoa whoa whoa…. Glamorous? trump???

    I am referring to the kind of folks who think Trump is glamorous, whose impression of him and his talents as a businessman was formed by the “Apprentice” and occasional news articles about his lush lifestyle (which you and I would consider tacky rather than glamorous).

  175. 175.

    zhena gogolia

    August 12, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    @Frankensteinbeck: In the Jan6 hearings, she doesn’t come off as a bright bulb.

  176. 176.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    @ian: I thought Ken was himself making a joke?

  177. 177.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 1:08 pm

    @Brachiator: No, but she will visit him often.

  178. 178.

    HumboldtBlue

    August 12, 2022 at 1:09 pm

    The Daily Show brings us Fox News (lots of ice cream)

  179. 179.

    Barbara

    August 12, 2022 at 1:10 pm

    @Immanentize: ​ I agree with you, and really, Trump is responsible even if he doesn’t know with precision. He likely knows what categories are included, and that’s enough detail.

  180. 180.

    WaterGirl

    August 12, 2022 at 1:10 pm

    @Betty Cracker:  That’s a good question.

    What I have read says to mock them and call it out, but to NOT do it by “liking” the tweet, or retweeting it , or retweeting it with your mockery.

    The suggestion is to take a screen capture and make your mocking comment or your “calling out” comment – because that way it doesn’t increase their “engagement” stats.

    The more “engagement” you get – positive or negative – the more likely your tweets will get promoted to more people.

    If you do the screen capture thing, it does not increase their engagement score, so you are not contributing to the cycle that shows more people their awful stuff.

  181. 181.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 1:11 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I would guess not as smart as they think they are (understatement) but smart enough to sense danger and listen to a good lawyer, and if you’re smart enough, and can afford to corrupt I mean hire Abbe Lowell, you’re probably smart enough to listen to him

  182. 182.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 1:11 pm

    @Immanentize: I was, but that’s the third time this week someone has misread one of my attempted jokes, so I’m thinking I need to re-calibrate.

  183. 183.

    WaterGirl

    August 12, 2022 at 1:14 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I think the key is making the existence of the bad behavior the story, not the substance.  When Trump is lying, the story is that he’s lying, not the lies he’s telling.  You may need to talk about the general kind of bad behavior (“Trump lies again about immigration”) but not the details (“Trump says illegal immigrants are rapists and murderers”).  This lets you cover the story without normalizing the bad behavior.

    Yes!  That’s the other piece that I neglected to include.  Thank you for catching that.

  184. 184.

    Immanentize

    August 12, 2022 at 1:19 pm

    @Ken: Well, then that means I do too. Which is almost always a possibility.

  185. 185.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 1:23 pm

    @jonas: Or, some ally of trump with knowledge of national security matters and an eye for what might have future value. Kash Patel comes to mind here. He was one of trump’s Pentagon allies in the attempted coup. Recently trump authorized him and quasi-journalist John Soloman to review the materials at Mar-a-Loco. That may have precipitated the FBI search. Patel may have known just what to look for.

  186. 186.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 1:26 pm

    @Immanentize: trump’s no Professor Moriarty, but he has the low cunning of a career criminal.

  187. 187.

    jonas

    August 12, 2022 at 1:27 pm

    @Geminid: Patel? Oh good grief. If he’s out of government now, would he even still have clearance to view this stuff? I can’t imagine Solomon does. Maybe that’s what triggered the search: “Holy crap, we know Trump still has incredibly sensitive information at Mar-a-Lago and he’s letting some rando journalist flip through it???”

  188. 188.

    Elizabelle

    August 12, 2022 at 1:28 pm

    @raven:   That is so beautiful.  Can only be improved by having Artie lounge near it.

    You and the bride both have an eye and talent for beauty.

  189. 189.

    JPL

    August 12, 2022 at 1:30 pm

    @raven:  Just started reading the blog and I saw your pictures.   That is going to be gorgeous.

  190. 190.

    Ken

    August 12, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    @jonas:  “Holy crap, we know Trump still has incredibly sensitive information at Mar-a-Lago and he’s letting some rando journalist flip through it???”

    Maybe not just rando journalists, but rando anybody who was at Mar-a-Lago. To steal a line from Popehat, “We think the missing document is with some kids from the Markowitz bat mitzvah.”

    Though if they do have evidence Individual 1 (who has no current security clearance) showed classified documents to individual 2 (who has no security clearance), well, that would be very bad for individual 1.

  191. 191.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    @jonas: Patel worked at the Pentagon until January 20. Patel  wouldn’t neccesarily need to visit the White House if there was an inside man trump authorized to him liase with .

    The story about his and Solomon’s prospective review of tbe papers has been well reported, by Marcy Wheeler and others including Patel himself.

    Patel says trump declassified the papers before he left office. That’s bullshit of course, but the papers were not secured until the FBI came three days ago, and there was no one at Mar-a-Loco to stop Patel and Solomon making a review that trump authorized.

  192. 192.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    @Immanentize:

    I think the right move for Trump right now is to move for release of a redacted version and provide redactions that make the whole thing either incomprehensible or like much ado about nothing.  That’s even a plausible approach, since it sounds as if the really damaging stuff is so secret they can’t even talk about it openly.

  193. 193.

    GrannyMC

    August 12, 2022 at 1:35 pm

    Trump can’t release the warrant and inventory because the IRS are still auditing them.

  194. 194.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 1:37 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yes, ultimately the onus is on us to not click on clickbait.  This is genuinely hard, since the stuff is engineered to be hard to resist, and they’re really good at it.

  195. 195.

    Geminid

    August 12, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    @Roger Moore: Redactions will done by Justice Department lawyers and trump will have no say in them.

    I think we’ll see the redacted search warrent and return by the deadline set by the judge hearing the case, which is August 24. My hope is that the unredacted parts will be bad enough, and that people will assume that the redacted parts are even worse.

  196. 196.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    August 12, 2022 at 1:40 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    You’re probably right, Omnes

  197. 197.

    JPL

    August 12, 2022 at 1:41 pm

    @Geminid: Patel was placed in Defense in order to help trump pull off the heist.   IMO

  198. 198.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    @Edmund Dantes:

    I think a lot of this is blindness to how things look.  Our society treats “straight, White, cis male” as the default, and anyone who doesn’t mean one or more of those criteria needs to be on the lookout for how their identity might interfere with their work.  Similarly, I’m worried that FTFNYT is now so full of people who rub elbows with the rich and famous that it’s seen only as a positive (they might have insider access) rather than a negative (they might lack objectivity).

  199. 199.

    JPL

    August 12, 2022 at 1:43 pm

    BREAKING FROM
    @WSJ
    : “FBI agents who searched Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home Monday removed 11 sets of classified documents, including some marked as top secret and meant to be only available in special government facilities.”

    Spiro Agnew’s Ghost (@SpiroAgnewGhost) / Twitter

  200. 200.

    Baud

    August 12, 2022 at 1:46 pm

    Is the House still on schedule to vote at 3 pm?

  201. 201.

    Elizabelle

    August 12, 2022 at 1:48 pm

    @Geminid:   That reminds me, I wonder if we will ever see a less redacted Mueller report.  There has to be a lot of information in there that is useful and valid, even now.

    What has been going on with that??

  202. 202.

    Expletive Deleted

    August 12, 2022 at 1:49 pm

    I have zero tattoos but now lots of folks with multiple, ranging from beautiful  and personally significant full sleeve ink to fully casual stuff – it is very common in lots of demographics nowadays, if you’re making assumptions just based on numbers you’re probably wrong.

    Re PD, I recommend The King of Staten Island, which is semi-autobiographical and genuinely good.

  203. 203.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 1:50 pm

    @Kent:

    If this is actually true, why didn’t Trump’s justice department go get them back?

    That “if” is carrying a lot of weight.  I don’t doubt there are literal tons of classified documents in the Obama presidential library, but they’re not in Obama’s personal possession.  They’re in a properly secured facility run by the national archives, which is what a presidential library is.

  204. 204.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    @HumboldtBlue: ​
     

    Something is rotten at the top DHS.

    It’s not just the top.

  205. 205.

    Expletive Deleted

    August 12, 2022 at 1:54 pm

    My second favourite bit of PD media is when he and John Mulaney reviewed The Mule on Weekend Update;

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5TEsdb918c

  206. 206.

    JPL

    August 12, 2022 at 1:57 pm

    Apparently, trump’s lawyer gave the warrant to WSJ in order to get ahead of the story.   Tha’s what twitter thinks anyway.

  207. 207.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 2:01 pm

    Daniel Dale  @ddale8 35m

    National Archives website has a whole page about how Obama is handling presidential records. 1) “NARA continues to retain legal and physical custody of the records”; 2) “The classified records have been relocated to the National Archives at College Park”

  208. 208.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    @Geminid:

    My understanding is that the stuff with Solomon and Patel was material Trump had properly declassified and was related to the Russia probe.  He’s still desperately trying to prove any investigation of him or his campaign was unjustified.

  209. 209.

    Betty Cracker

    August 12, 2022 at 2:09 pm

    @WaterGirl: That makes sense.

    @Roger Moore: The screenshots solution WG mentioned above makes sense to me. I agree with your point that the social media companies make it difficult on purpose. Sooner or later, we (as a society) are going to have to address the fact that these platforms have a monetary incentive to amplify the most toxic and dangerous views.

  210. 210.

    Roger Moore

    August 12, 2022 at 2:13 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    Clickbait extends beyond social media.  A huge amount of what’s in the news these days is essentially clickbait.  It may be based on real news, but it’s formatted to draw people in rather than to inform them.  That’s the essence of how Trump was able to take advantage of the media; he provided them with material that was premade clickbait.  Even people who are tired of him felt the need to click on articles to figure out what he was up to today.  We need to figure out how to get over that urge.

  211. 211.

    J R in WV

    August 12, 2022 at 2:46 pm

    @raven:

    My paternal grandmother’s family was one of the very early pioneer families in SE West Virginia long before the Civil War, and  one of them had an old family farm with the original pioneer log cabin, still reasonably intact — made of big walnut logs from the virgin forest.

    The family had the cabin taken down, gently, and milled the logs to have furniture made, evidently lots of furniture. Grandmother had a fainting couch, which she called a divan, made from those logs… now I have no idea which cousin wound up with that, it was quite similar to the one you’re working on, but had more of a right angle to the rise so you could sit on it and lean back or recline, if you felt faint…

  212. 212.

    Kristine

    August 12, 2022 at 2:48 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    And let’s not even mention Lady Ann Smiley, née Sercombe, half a Sawley!, being transformed into a giggly tart in a cheap red dress.

    One of my major issues with the movie.

    Also, Smiley’s smile at the end, as though he’d finally made it to the top of the greasy pole when that flavor of ambition was never one of his drivers. I watched the movie for the first time on TV and almost sidearmed my shoe at the screen.

    So, um, yeah. Not a fan of the movie.

  213. 213.

    J R in WV

    August 12, 2022 at 2:57 pm

    @Immanentize:

    I have an acquaintance with (so far as I know) one large tattoo, a set of fairy wings in extremely fine and detailed lines across her shoulder blades and upper back.

    Very subtle and surprisingly attractive, I’m not usually into tats that much.

  214. 214.

    VOR

    August 12, 2022 at 5:04 pm

    @Jager: NPR referred to Mar a Lago as “president trump’s estate”. It’s not his fucking estate it’s a club he owns and has an apartment there. Mar a Lago was an estate when the Post Toasties Queen Marjorie Merriweather Post lived there. Donald turned it into a business when he bought it.

    My recollection is the City of Palm Beach put a limit on the number of days which DJT could stay there per year because it is not classified as a private residence. And I have little doubt he routinely violates that restriction.  Ah yes, Wikipedia agrees:

    The legality of this has been disputed because, in 1993, Trump signed a “use agreement” with the town of Palm Beach, Florida, that changed Mar-a-Lago’s designation from a single-family residence to a private club and specified that guests, including Trump, could not stay there more than three non-consecutive weeks per year.

  215. 215.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    August 12, 2022 at 5:44 pm

    @Kristine:

    Also, Smiley’s smile at the end, as though he’d finally made it to the top of the greasy pole when that flavor of ambition was never one of his drivers. I watched the movie for the first time on TV and almost sidearmed my shoe at the screen.

    Good catch! Canonical Smiley viewed that job like Hercules looked at the stables!

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