There’s no relief from the gnawing anxiety of this week and the grim news coming out of Southwest Florida, but a little schadenfreude provides welcome distraction. Here’s a tidbit for your consideration from WaPo:
A company that organized a lucrative series of post-White House paid speeches for former president Donald Trump is now struggling to pay vendors, investors and employees, angering Trump allies who supported the effort.
The American Freedom Tour, which struck a multimillion-dollar deal with Trump after he left office, has lost two top executives and canceled events in a number of locations as it has failed to pay its bills, according to people familiar with the activities and documents obtained by The Washington Post. Its founder and owner, who has a history of bankruptcy filings, recently sought bankruptcy protection again.
The group has promised events in a number of locales but canceled them before they began and appears to be banking on a large event at Mar-a-Lago in December to turn its financial position around.
So an outfit founded by a serially bankrupt owner who sets up hate-fests for a serially bankrupt conman is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and ripping people off? Well I never!
But there’s more! According to this NYT analysis, Trump’s special master gambit has been utterly shambolic — more than we knew, even:
But Mr. Trump’s apparent triumph [in getting a hand-picked special master appointed] would prove short-lived. An appeals court ruling last week and a letter the Justice Department filed late Tuesday about subsequent complaints his legal team had filed under seal to Judge Dearie suggest that the upsides to obtaining a special master are eroding and the disadvantages swelling…
Since that review is no longer delaying or diverting the criminal inquiry, it is not clear what benefits remain for Mr. Trump. For one, a special master will cost a lot of money. Judge Cannon rejected Mr. Trump’s proposal that taxpayers should foot half the bill of the review, instead saying he would be solely responsible…
And far from indulging Mr. Trump, as his lawyers likely hoped in suggesting his appointment, Judge Dearie appears to be organizing the document review in ways that threaten to swiftly puncture the former president’s defenses. For example, the judge has ordered Mr. Trump to submit by Friday a declaration or affidavit verifying the inventory or listing any items on it “that plaintiff asserts were not seized” in the search.
But if Mr. Trump acknowledges that the F.B.I. took any documents marked as classified from his personal office and a storage room at Mar-a-Lago, as the inventory says, that would become evidence that could be used against him if he were later charged with defying a subpoena.
TLDR version: Trump would have been better off if he’d soaked his crotch in lighter fluid and shoved a lit Zippo down his pants. (The Third Lady too!) On the other hand, if he promised to self-immolate in the courtyard of his Florida dump, Trump could probably bail out the event management company.
Open thread.
twbrandt (formerly tom)
Hmm, is Judge Cannon receiving new orders?
jl
Former jackal current lurker here.
I don’t understand why Trump didn’t sell the secret documents or use them for extortion (probably both) while he was in office. Or maybe he just couldn’t get all the inventory off the shelves in time? He’s always been a lousy manager.
Being more persecuted than Jesus is still unfair, though. I give him that.
From what I read, the special master is pushing back at the corrupt and incompetent judge as hard as he is at Trump, which is probably needed for a not corrupt and not incompetent proceeding
Edit: I wonder how many secret doc folders were empty before he left office and he took them because he could figure out a way to flush them down the WH toilets.
dmsilev
That Post story is hilarious; I read it earlier and was vastly amused. For starters,
made me think that Trump was the founder and owner…
Butch
So the company went bankrupt because Trump didn’t pay? Hard not to wonder.
jl
Trump should have used a cross-cut paper shredder and flushed half a cup or so every day.
RedDirtGirl
@Butch: Or not drawing the expected crowds?
Dan B
Rep. Spencer Roach (apt surname?) who championed the effort to remove Disney’s local governance, and who is a proponent of Don’t Say Gay, lost his home in Fort Meyers area to flooding.
Can we expect to hear about God punishing the wicked?
WaterGirl
@Dan B: What a shame.
Too bad his first name is not Kock.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Not gonna lie, I would pay for the pay-per-view, even if it went to a Trump organization.
WaterGirl
Can someone who has access to the NYT let us know whether Trump’s “taxpayers should pay half” proposal, and subsequent knockdown, is something new? Or was that the deal going into it?
As for the rest of the NYT info that Betty shared, it’s exactly what I have been seeing on Lawfare and from other legal sources, but I am really surprised to see the NYT acknowledging it.
raven
@Dan B: There was a Sheriff in neighboring Oconee County named Terry Roach. A guy stole somewhat from a contractor and Roach let the contractor in the cell to beat the shit out of the perp. Roach got convicted and was in the joint and was still getting his paycheck from the county!!
WaterGirl
@raven: That’s fucked up!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
From the NYT article:
In other reporting I’ve heard, there are many companies who provide this service for law firms, always hungry for business. Yet TFG and his lawyers had to ask for an extension because not a single company wanted to do business with them, most likely because they figured they wouldn’t get paid. I believe Judge Dearie granted them an extension of about three and half minutes.
raven
@WaterGirl: It was many years ago. Here’s the case.
New Deal democrat
Remember, Trump’s strategy is never about finding winning arguments. His strategy is: delay, delay; litigate, litigate.
Unsurprisingly, because Cannon’s original order left the door wide open to litigating every single stage of the special master’s appointment and procedures, Trump is onjecting to every single stage of the special master’s procedures. And then he will get to do the same thing every time Judge Cannon is set to review anything done by the special master.
Delay, delay ; litigate, litigate.
Ella in New Mexico
Masterful wordsmithing, as always Betty 😄
frosty
@Ella in New Mexico: Seconded! BC is a master!
narya
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I think DOJ said they’d hire someone, with the intent that FPOTUS would pay up. And presumably DOJ has some ability to make that come true.
@New Deal democrat: And his strategies are biting him. At this point, DOJ likely doesn’t care much what he does–they once again have access to the 100 classified docs that are central to their work, so . . . knock yourself out on the other stuff.
The Moar You Know
the fucking unmitigated hypocrisy of this asshole.
Butch
@RedDirtGirl: The reports I’ve seen (at least the honest ones) have indicated that the crowds are a fraction of past attendance, and that many drift away when they realize it’s going to be another “greatest hits” speech.
Cameron
@WaterGirl: I’m pretty sure the deal was always that Trump was on the hook for the whole thing. He’s the one who wanted a special master so badly, after all.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@frosty:
Thirded. I’ve lost at least a dozen keyboards from the aftermath of a LOL-Spittake when reading a BC screed.
Dan B
The first images of Sanibel Island and Fort Meyers Beach are unreal. Ungodly is probably closer to the reality. The causeway approach to the only bridge is washed out. One aerial shot puzzled me until I realized it was the roofs and walls, and contents, of a hundred homes. Flattened.
Quiltingfool
“Trump would have been better off if he’d soaked his crotch in lighter fluid and shoved a lit Zippo down his pants.”
I’d pay good money to see that.
Ruviana
@jl: Is anyone ever a former jackal?
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: Hey now! No fair making fun of his mother’s maiden name… //
Baud
Cannon has given Trump more time to make his privilege claims. Won’t happen until after the election.
Captain C
@Baud: Does that give the Special Master more billable hours?
Elizabelle
When bad things happen to bad people … jackals are there to commemorate.
I’d wondered if something was up with the (latest) Alex Jones trial.
And: that photo of Tucker Carlson, having spoken at a memorial for late Hells Angel leader Sonny Barger.
Weird to see that, and revise your opinion of the Hells Angels downward. They are hanging with some bad company.
raven
@Dan B: They were saying it would look like Mexico Beach and it dies.
WaterGirl
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I read that Dearie gave them a break with $500 an hour, because the going rate is more like $1k or $1,500.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I had to file for bankruptcy a few years ago, and even for me as an individual with a relatively small amount of debt, it was a pain in the tuchus. I cannot imagine doing it multiple times due to your own stupidity, and honestly, I don’t think multiple filings should be allowed. Maybe twice for businesses, perhaps three times for an individual because shit happens, but for this fucker? No more.
WaterGirl
@raven: What do you mean “it dies” ?????
Sanibel just dies?
Baud
@Captain C:
I don’t know. I may have been wrong. DOJ could move more quickly, which would require Trump to act more quickly.
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: Typo for “does”?
trollhattan
Sounds like a 21st century version of “I know, we’ll fix up the old barn and put on a musical!”
Elizabelle
@trollhattan: Funny. “White Christmas” not looking so good in that context. LOL.
JWR
Saw this over at CNN this morning, and while I don’t fully grok what all is going on, it just sounds like another attempt to squeeze the courts for every last ounce of delay they can get.
I truly hope the fat fart is indicted and convicted, because if he’s not… grrr!
HumboldtBlue
Judge Cannon decides to no longer hide the fact that she’s explicitly ruling for Trump.
NEW: Judge Aileen Cannon rules that Trump does not have to submit a declaration or affidavit about whether FBI supposedly planted any docs at Mar-a-Lago, at least until the review of the seized materials
Gin & Tonic
@Dan B: I attended a business conference in (on?) Marco Island in November-ish of 1992. This was a couple of months after Hurricane Andrew, which I think was the only(?) Cat 5 landfall in Florida. It had spared the southwest portion of the state, but just completely wiped out parts of Miami-Dade. I drove through there and was just flabbergasted. Huge, hundreds of yard long mounds, 50-60 feet high that I realized were just the contents of people’s lives, piled up.
Anonymous At Work
I wonder who inside teh Trump legal team decided on Dearie. The reason for Dearie himself was obvious but who wanted to select a judge rather than another professional Republican political operative? If DoJ and Trump couldn’t agree on a special master, The Youthful Federalist, Cannon, would have made the pick herself and would have picked a candidate likely to fluff Trump as well. The only reason I can see for picking Dearie, as a result, was to avoid the DoJ trying to appeal the entire special master request.
Rabbit hole or legit question?
WaterGirl
@Gravenstone: Oh, I hope that was just a typo.
Chetan Murthy
superfluous
Anonymous At Work
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: You did it yourself with a lawyer helping, right? You need “people” to do it for you, then it’s a matter of giving the order and going out to play golf or get a massage or something else relaxing. That’s how the rich do it.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@HumboldtBlue: Well screw that. Trump gets to keep accusing the FBI while not having to produce any evidence
Gravenstone
They tried one of those too. The DoJ shot them down as unacceptable. Dearie was the only name proposed that ended up acceptable to all parties.
HumboldtBlue
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
Tony G
Ever since Trump launched his career as a failing real estate developer, more than 40 years ago, he’s been ripping off anyone who’s dumb enough to do business with him. I’m pretty sure that anyone who still does business with that parasite are people who are hoping to pass the ripoff along to others. At a certain point I’d have to think that he’ll run out of marks, but there are an awful lot of dumb people in this country.
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: More likely that anything seized that looks particularly damning for him will be “not mine! Damned FBI musta planted it.”
Captain C
Judge Cannon is a loud outfit away from being the (Republican) Kyrsten Sinema of the bench.
CaseyL
@Dan B: When Hurricane Andrew hit Miami in 1992, I had the same reaction to seeing photos from that area. Miami was part of my stomping grounds when I lived in Florida: I was looking at places where I’d lived, worked, and strolled, and didn’t recognize any of them.
trollhattan
Joe Manchin arrives to see if he can help out.
pluky
@Dan B: which is graphic evidence why these locations should NEVER have been developed in the first place.
Mike in Pasadena
US Border patrol saved about four Cubans from the sea after their boat sank in Ian. Twenty or more others reported missing. A few swam ashore. Which raises a question, why did Gov. De Satan go to Texas to fill a plane of immigrants to Martha’s Vineyard? I am sure he could fill a couple 757s wiith undocumented Cubans by just walking down the streets outside his office and home in Floriduh.
Geminid
Marcy Wheeler just screenshot a court filing in another case and tweeted:
Mr. Ali was one of two men arrested last April for impersonating Homeland Security personnel and giving gifts to four Secret Service agents who lived in their DC condo. The other man, Arian Teherzadeh, pleaded guilty to crimes on August 1 and promised cooperation. He faces up to 48 months in prison.
Both Ali and Teherzadeh were released on bail April 13. They have public defenders, and people wonder where the money came from to buy the $90,000 worth of guns and tactical gear they gave the Secret Service agents. An April CNN story about their bond hearing noted that the four aAgents were suspended but this story has not gotten much attention since.
Anonymous At Work
@HumboldtBlue: She didn’t get into the “We’d have to admit to possessing classified documents” as a Fifth Amendment issue, which is a legitimate concern. TFG will have to object to missing or added items to the inventory, so TFG will have provide evidence. TFG will also have to provide support for any use of privilege detailed enough for Dearie to rule upon in each instance.
Not 100% behind TFG or DoJ but seems like it is forcing TFG to go through the process that he requested.
Anonymous At Work
@Gravenstone: They named 1 and Dearie as the alternative. DoJ agreed to Dearie. So, why Dearie in the first place rather than naming 2 professional Republican operatives?
Gravenstone
@Mike in Pasadena: Because he doesn’t want to piss off the Cuban community in Florida. Apparently he’s less concerned about doing so to the Venezuelan cohort.
Jeffro
I swear, how do these MAGAts look at the orange monstrosity and think to themselves, “now THERE is a leader, by gosh – I want to put my trust in THAT man!”
(rhetorical question, of course: I know it’s the white supremacy)
But seriously, do these people have any respect for themselves at all?
(also a rhetorical question, the answer to which is NO)
Absolutely everything the guy touches, has ever touched, ever will touch, turns to complete (bankrupt) shit.
Gravenstone
@Anonymous At Work: *shrug* Maybe they intended the other name as a stalking horse to make sure they bit on Dearie? In any event, he’s not performing down to what appear to have been their low expectations of him. More’s the pity for them.
JustRuss
My ex used to sell advertising for a newspaper. Rule No. 1 when dealing with politicians was Payment Up Front. How does anyone in business not know this?
louc
@Gin & Tonic: I was a reporter in S Fla back then and went to Homestead after Andrew. It looked like a giant tornado had destroyed the town (and I’ve seen the aftermath of tornadoes too).
What I vividly remember is the heat and smell. It’s always cool after a hurricane or tropical storm. That lasts only a day or so. The smell was rotting and moldering materials, chemicals and dead critters.
Baud
@Anonymous At Work:
So far, it’s just a delay. She hasn’t completely shielded him yet.
C Stars
@pluky: There was an interview on the radio this morning with someone from the Yale Climate Project (I think that was it) and he stated that barrier islands should never be developed, nor rebuilt, because they are not permanent land masses and never will be. Some of my family vacations on a barrier island in N.C. and the house we stay at has been rebuilt (well, various parts of it, always lower floor/pool area) three times in less than15 years. Fed. Gvt. is responsible for 75% of rebuilding costs, and then the owners turn around and rent it out for $20k per week. Good deal for them!
HumboldtBlue
@Anonymous At Work:
K, thanks for the explainer.
Jeffro
Our snooze media at work
Meanwhile, WaPo hack Marc Thiessen has a piece up called “SEE?? A POPULIST CAN BE PRESIDENTIAL!!!” (kissing DeSantis’ ass, of course)
MattF
Re: Dearie. It’s been reported that the competent lawyer Trump hired a month ago (for an up-front $3M fee) has been pushed aside. Maybe he’s on his way back to the law firm he left when he signed up with Trump. I’d guess he was the one who put Dearie’s name forward.
Jeffro
@Jeffro:
Yes…he’s just amazing presidential material, doing the very things that governors have been expected to do for their citizens since time immemorial (eyeroll)
Speaking of pretenders, here in VA, Gov Youngkin issued a state of emergency oh something like two days ago and it looks like we’re going to get… a little rain. Way to go, Glenn! Totally makes up for the way you’re turning schools into political battlefields instead of, you know, governing.
Mike in Pasadena
@JWR: Fat fart doesn’t want to go on the record saying stuff was planted because he knows the FBI can prove that every item on the inventory came from Mar a Lardo.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Anonymous At Work: Yes, me and a lawyer. I didn’t have the benefit of massive enough debt to have others handle it for me, LOL
HumboldtBlue
@Jeffro:
Yeah, imagine doing the bare minimum and getting applauded for it despite a history of nastiness, hate, division and fraud.
Geminid
@MattF: It could be that Mr. Kise, the attorney with the $3 million retainer, was not pushed aside but rather chose to stay out of this particular case, at least when it comes to court filings. He did not bring it and it’s turned into a tar baby. He’ll get to earn his pay later, cleaning up the mess trump and his lawyers have made in future proceedings.
Jeffro
@HumboldtBlue: he’s just terrified that someone might snap a pic of him and Biden hugging a la Obama/Christie
THAT would be the end of him in a nanosecond
…which opens up all sorts of comedic possibilities!
(Biden, stepping close to DeSantis at a news conference)
(DeSantis, sliding several steps to the side)
(Biden, quickly glancing in DeSantis’ direction)
(DeSantis, taking another step back and feebly waving)
“NOOOOOO…PLEASE DON’T CALL ME UP TO THE PODIUM, OR TRY TO SHAKE MY HAND…OR…GOD PLEASE DON’T TRY FOR A HUG!!!”
Mike in Pasadena
@Gravenstone: Bingo.
CaseyL
The speakers and vendors get stiffed; Trump and the event company owner make off with all the money. A typical Trump operation, now spread to the entire GOP.
Anonymous At Work
@Geminid: I think MattF’s probably on the money. Were I repping TFG, aside from daily “contemparenous memos” and always wearing 2 wires, I’d have tried to find a compromise candidate to avoid having the DoJ appeal the entire ruling to the 11th. The partial appeal of the rejected partial stay got The Youthful Federal Cannon’s @$$ kicked by conservative justices.
Dearie was probably the best pick among senior or former federal judges that the DoJ wouldn’t reject out of hand. That and Kise not willing to commit perjury for TFG would get him sidelined quick.
StringOnAStick
@C Stars: I suspect that inability to get insurance for these structures is going to be what finally limits building on the barrier islands, because anyone who proposes that the federal government should no longer provide flood insurance coverage will be voted out immediately. Unfortunately. Because rebuilding looks a lot less attractive when it won’t be insured against the next big storm. I figure it will only change when the amount of sea level rise puts the final thumb on the scale, and the insurance companies completely walk away.
Anonymous At Work
@Jeffro: Obama threw one arm over Christie’s shoulders. That was an Obama Hug. In contrast, imagine a Biden Hug.
Obama once quipped that there are bakeries in Colorado that won’t serve him and Biden because of Biden’s hugs and shoulder massages.
Cameron
@Jeffro: “Today Ron DeSantis became Presidential material….” My ass.
HumboldtBlue
@Jeffro:
Too funny.
catclub
also for any organization with Christian in the name.
Cameron
@StringOnAStick: I’m not an owner, but I’m told insurance is insanely high already in Florida. Allegedly the governor and legislature are hard at work addressing the problem. Just like the governor and legislature of Texas addressed the power problem, no doubt.
Joe Falco
@Jeffro: “Today is the day DeSantis became President.”
prostratedragon
@Dan B: One can bite her tongue, but not her mind.
catclub
@StringOnAStick:
There has been extremely limited success in slowly adjusting Federal flood insurance rates to the reality of the size of claims.
LA senators have one job – to delay that reckoning.
Captain C
@Jeffro:
I still can’t figure out how Christie snarfing Jerry Jones’ armpit at a Cowboys game didn’t get him voted out of office in Jersey (home to many Giants and Eagles fans).
lollipopguild
@Jeffro: He hates on all of the right people/companies/institutions. He gets a pass on all of the failures moral or money.
trnc
@HumboldtBlue:
Here is a bit more info from Marcy W.
https://www.emptywheel.net/2022/09/29/aileen-cannon-stomps-on-the-scales-of-trumpy-injustice/
prostratedragon
@Gravenstone: The stalking horse part could be true. Fits with a lame story making the rounds when Dearie was selected, that someone on the TFG team “thought” Dearie would look like a respectable choice but really be favorable to them because of some funny business someone at the FBI did as a small part of the Carter Page case. Never heard any conjecture about who this jeeneeus was.
Geminid
@Anonymous At Work: I’m not certain, but I think Kise was hired after trump and his lawyers filed their motion for a special master. Easy enough to find out. But Kise may not have been involved in proposing special master candidates. I read that someone latched onto Dearie because of his role in a FISA case, and that sounded like an amateur move that someone in trump’s orbit came up with and sold the boss on.
This proceeding is only the opening move of a long chess game, a “light horse attack,” so to speak. Of course, just because Kise is the best lawyer trump has yet hired (and maybe can hire) doesn’t mean the orange churl won’t fire him, but I’m figuring Kise is in it for the long haul, at least until it’s proven otherwise.
prostratedragon
@Jeffro:
Gin & Tonic
This fits with the post topic:
The answer to “mobilization” is “demobilization.”
hueyplong
Every time some GOP hack takes a five minute break from finger painting the wall with his own feces some GOP pundit hack points out how these five minutes prove how presidential he can be.
I can no longer tolerate the sight of Trump so I would not pay to watch his Zippo-driven self-immolation. But I might pay to read Betty Cracker’s account of it.
hueyplong
@Gin & Tonic: I hope he was demobilized … with extreme prejudice.
Gin & Tonic
@hueyplong: Um, yes. He will not be seeing action in Ukraine again.
hueyplong
@Gin & Tonic: Good. Just making sure I was following along.
Jeffro
@Anonymous At Work: I had not heard that quote but LOVE it – so true!
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic: Hey, somebody took out the trash! Now do Erik Prince.
These maps are separated by 19 hours.
https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1575305932590010368/photo/1
https://twitter.com/ChuckPfarrer/status/1575584216829423616/photo/1
Quite a difference, and easy to see what Ukraine’s trying to accomplish. (Before the gramps brigades arrive.)
Dan B
@Gin & Tonic: The answer to “living” is de-living.
Ruckus
@jl:
Wondering how many were empty is not that hard, he had access to people easily willing to pay for the contents, and I imagine pay they did. SFB has been a grifter his entire life. He was taught by the worst, his father, the slumlord. He stole inheritance money from his siblings. He cheated his way through school, especially college. He’s been shit for brains since he was old enough to go out of the house on his own. Those missing papers didn’t get destroyed by SFB, they got sold. Unless they were specifically about him, then they might have been destroyed. But mostly they were likely sold, given all the wonderful people that would knowingly work for him, or within a thousand feet of him without being paid to be is a very small number. I didn’t honor him with the moniker SFB for no reason.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
He requested the Special Master and I believe that the party that does that and has not gotten the other side to put their name on the request normally pays. It puts a reasonably neutral person(s) in a review situation to determine issues. In this case the request was one sided and therefore, in my understanding that would require payment by that side. IANAL so grain of salt and all that……
Shana
@catclub: My father was the only Jewish architect in his smallish midwestern community. Somehow he became the go-to guy for churches in the surrounding farm communities when it came time for remodeling or additions. He had So Many stories about churches having been scammed buy congregants when it came to previous attempts at remodeling or additions. “How could nice guy Joe have cheated us like that?”
WaterGirl
@Ruckus: Yeah, I get that. But I hadn’t realized that the corrupt judge had actually come down with a ruling that Trump had to pay the whole thing.
She has bent (to the point of breaking) every other rule/custom that she has come across.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: What does demobilized mean in this instance?
Captured? Killed? Is that a casket with a flag? So he was killed and Ukraine gave that pig back to the Russians as if he is something special? Though I supposed that could be Ukraine taking a victory lap.
hueyplong
@WaterGirl: killed
Brachiator
Didn’t Trump once suggest this as a Covid remedy?
WaterGirl
@hueyplong: Thank you. It’s probably bad that my first thought up on reading your short reply was “good”.
MomSense
COVID sucks.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Tony G: I mean he keeps finding GOP PACs to pay his legal bills for him. Most gullible dumbasses on the planet those guys must be. Or Trump has dirt and is extorting them, which is it, or both?
Ruckus
@Tony G:
All of this.
SFB has been an asshole his entire life. He moved up to Sir Asshole when he “graduated college.” (It’s more like they gave him a diploma to leave than he actually graduated…likely figured that they’d soaked the old man for as much as he’d pay.)
eachother
@Gin & Tonic:
Yeah. I saw that. Foundation pads wiped clean of the house. Blue tarps. Years had passed. I believe republicans were in charge of recovery.
Bleak. I may have gasped.
Geminid
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Trump is definitely extorting them in at least one way. Republicans desperately want to win back one or both houses of Congress this November. They saw how angry, stay-at-home trump loyalists probably cost them two Senate seats in the Georgia runoffs. Republicans will bend over backwards to placate trump and his base, at least until the midterms take place.
Ruckus
@louc:
I had to work in Homestead a bit after Andrew and yes it looked like a gigantic bulldozer had driven through there and wiped out most everything. By the time I got there they had started to rebuild but the damage was extensive.
Feathers
@catclub: The other terrible part is that the Feds work with each owner individually on their choice, rather than rebuilding a community as a whole. After Sandy, some houses were on stilts next door same as it was. Complicates things terribly.
Money would be far better spent building newer, safer neighborhoods, with increased flood mitigations.
Pushing home ownership of tiny lots has proven to be a disaster in so many ways. It’s making things very brittle for climate and also not increasing the housing stock to meet the needs of a rising population.
Gin & Tonic
@WaterGirl: Killed. That is somebody else’s casket, shown for dramatic effect.
NotMax
Couple of items which caught the eye. Have not been checking in as frequently as usual so may already have been discussed.
Frankensteinbeck
@New Deal democrat:
On the surface, this looks exactly the same as “Have no strategy, scream No No No like a toddler but be rich enough to pay lawyers to do it for you.” I believe you tell the difference by how competent those lawyers are and whether any of your delays are so badly chosen they make your case worse.
@Ruviana:
I would say Angry Black Lady evolved into a dire wolf, and Freddie evolved into a chihuahua.
Gin & Tonic
More for the topic. Pavel Pchelnikov, head of the logistics division of russian railways, has “committed suicide.”
gwangung
I regret I cannot muster the five minute standing o that you deserve for this remark.
Frankensteinbeck
@Gin & Tonic:
Someone told Putin the “That’s not physically possible” truth.
Geminid
@NotMax: Speaker Pelosi’s caucus should be able to “git-er done” without Republican help. Special election victories in New York and Alaska and the death of Indiana’s Jackie Warlowski have increased their advantage to 7, I believe. They have been very cohesive throughout this Congress. The permitting bill favored by Manchin has been dropped, and that will make it easier for the more liberal Reps to vote for the CR.
Martin
I have but one demand for Florida disaster relief – that DeSantis is *required* to stand next to Biden at a press conference in Martha’s Vineyard, where Biden can hand him a comically large check after he apologizes to the people of the island for being such an asshole.
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
I think she has at least some idea of how far off the rails she has fallen and that really in some things she doesn’t have as much sway as she thinks. Like every thing else in life there are limits.
hueyplong
@Ruckus: Today’s ruling leaves room for an inference that she doesn’t feel shackled by the bonds of middle class morality.
Ruckus
@hueyplong:
Feel shackled? I’d bet she doesn’t think they even exist for her.
Like a lot of conservative people in the law area, they seem to think they exist to get whatever they want. They often find out the hard way that they don’t. She seems likely to find out sooner than later.
hueyplong
@Ruckus: If they don’t care whether the circuit court of appeals whacks their opinions periodically, there is never any “finding out” for federal district court judges.
karen marie
I don’t know what this means. Was this a “deal” to pay multimillions of dollars to Trump or something else?
(The quote says “individual-1” because I have that thing that changes “Trump” to “individual-1.” It always makes me laugh.)
smedley the uncertain
@prostratedragon: Muy Bueno. Gracias
prostratedragon
@smedley the uncertain: De nada. Love’em!
Paul in KY
@louc: I had lived in Homestead in mid 80s and went back to check it out in 1995. Just amazed at the devestation that had occurred. Whole neighborhoods wiped out. Used to be 300 houses here, and now it is just an overgrown field. Every palm tree dead, etc. etc.