Trump’s fear of automatic voter registration boils down to a fear of democracy​

The former president is blasting the RNC for holding debates instead of getting on board with new election lies.


Sept. 27, 2023, 5:00 AM CDT
By Zeeshan Aleem, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor

Another day, another screed from the GOP’s leading White House hopeful about how democracy is such a drag.

Former President Donald Trump ranted Monday on Truth Social, his social media platform, that Pennsylvania’s recent adoption of automatic voter registration, or AVR, was “unconstitutional” and “a disaster for the Election of Republicans, including your favorite President, ME!” In the same post, Trump complained that the Republican National Committee should focus on suing the state over the policy instead of hosting “meaningless” presidential debates that he refuses to attend. That diatribe came a couple days after an all-caps-lock post about how “Obama and his radical left thugs” were behind the policy and how it was a “scam” designed to “steal Pennsylvania again.”

As usual, Trump’s messaging is brimming with lies.

As usual, Trump’s messaging is brimming with lies: The many desperate lawsuits after the 2020 elections produced no evidence of impropriety in vote-counting in Pennsylvania. Former President Barack Obama has nothing to do with Pennsylvania’s new policy. AVR, which exists in some form in 23 states and Washington, D.C., isn’t unconstitutional. And voter registration is not only not a scam but probably one of the most scam-proof ways imaginable to establish registration.

Pennsylvania’s AVR policy, which went into effect last week, automatically enrolls people when they’re at the DMV — exactly the time when people are required to have substantial proof of their identities. “Residents of our Commonwealth already provide proof of identity, residency, age and citizenship at the DMV — all the information required to register to vote — so it makes good sense to streamline that process with voter registration,” Gov. Josh Shapiro said in a statement.

This isn’t, as Republicans often fear-monger about, a policy that lowers the threshold for proving one’s identity when voting. The process confirms a voter’s identity as rigorously as any other, and it simply makes it easier for people to vote. In Pennsylvania, about 1.7 million people who are eligible to vote aren’t registered, and visits to the DMV are prime opportunities to get them into the system.



To Trump — and the Republican Party more broadly — the idea of a fully enfranchised citizenry is a threat. Making voting more accessible and smoother allows for increased voter participation, and given that an outsize proportion of low-resource voters skew Democratic, that potentially benefits Democrats more than Republicans. But some experts are skeptical that AVR will necessarily benefit Democrats in elections. Both red states and blue states have passed AVR policies, and in certain purple states the benefits to either party could be toss-ups. A study in Oregon published by the Center for American Progress found that demographics that tend to swing Democratic and Republican benefited from the state's AVR policy. The real reason to support AVR is to support little-d democracy in a country that makes voting far too difficult.

That Trump also complained that the RNC is daring to hold a presidential primary debate while he faces the crisis of Pennsylvania’s daring to make it easier to vote is yet another sign of his disdain for the democratic process. Yes, he’s the dominant GOP front-runner, and at this rate he’s extremely likely to secure the presidential nomination again. But Trump thinks the party machinery should pivot away from frivolities like debating the policy issues of the day and devote itself instead to supporting his next Big Lie.

In a proper democracy, no party or politician would fear AVR — it would be seen as a sensible, secure practice to encourage civic participation. But we don’t live in a proper democracy. And Trump’s fear of automatic voter registration boils down to a fear of democracy itself.

Gentry with 9 tackles...Tackett with 7 tackles and 2 sacks...Mason Cobb - 1 tackle on the night.

I believe Mason started but don't know how many snaps he got. The injuries aside, I'm not sure Mason is what we thought he was.

And...did Raeshon play? He doesn't show up in the box score with any tackles.

This is rediculous. It's very hard especially for us seniors to make it to these late games.

Another witness disappoints the GOP as part of its anti-Biden crusade​

Fox News aired an interview with a former Ukrainian president who effectively knee-capped the Republicans’ corruption case against President Biden. Oops.


Sept. 26, 2023, 8:23 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

The biggest problem with the congressional Republicans’ crusade against President Joe Biden is that the party simply can’t find any incriminating evidence, despite months of desperate searching. The second biggest problem with the GOP crusade is that key figures in the party’s investigation keep telling truths that Republicans don’t want to hear.

One of the more dramatic examples of this came last month, when the public first saw the transcript of Devon Archer’s Q&A with the House Oversight Committee. Archer was a former Hunter Biden business associate, which created real excitement among Republicans — right up until the witness discredited each of the party’s core claims against the president.

Eric Schwerin, meanwhile, was also a Hunter Biden business partner, which also created an opportunity for the GOP. But as we learned last week, Schwerin told Republican investigators that the president wasn’t part of his son’s private-sector work.

Perhaps former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko would tell the party what it wants to hear? As it turns out, no.

To briefly summarize, during his tenure as vice president, Joe Biden urged Ukrainian officials to fire the country’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin. This was the position of the United States government; it had bipartisan support; and it reflected international frustration that Shokin was lax in prosecuting corruption.

The GOP argument has long been that the then-vice president actually sought Shokin’s ouster as part of a plot to help his son and Burisma, but these claims were thoroughly discredited years ago, and Republicans have done literally nothing to substantiate them since.

Nevertheless, the party and its allies aren’t giving up. In fact, Fox News had Shokin on last month, and he voiced support for Republican conspiracy theories.

It was against this backdrop that Fox News also spoke to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, perhaps hoping that he’d help advance the case against Joe Biden. As The New Republic noted, he ended up doing the opposite.

Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on Monday completely — and hilariously — destroyed one of Republicans’ main arguments to prove that Joe Biden is corrupt. ... Fox News host Brian Kilmeade played Poroshenko a clip of Shokin saying Biden wanted him fired because he had been investigating the oil company Burisma Holdings while Hunter Biden served on the board.

Click to expand...

“First of all, this is [a] completely crazy person,” Poroshenko explained, referring to Shokin. “This is something wrong with him. Second, there is not one single word of truth.”

He then asked that Kilmeade “not use such person like Shokin to undermine the trust between bipartisan support and Ukraine.” Poroshenko went on to say that the ousted prosecutor plays a “very dirty game, unfortunately.”

In other words, Fox News aired an interview with a former Ukrainian president who effectively knee-capped the Republicans’ corruption case against Biden.

A Washington Post analysis added, “The news here is that Fox, which has been an essential platform for every unfounded allegation from [the GOP’s congressional investigators], accidentally stepped on its own messaging. Sure, Poroshenko is not the most reliable narrator himself. But his disparagement of the credibility of Shokin joins a hefty amount of other evidence on the lower side of a lopsided scale.”

Jack Smith Wants Trump Convicted by Super Tuesday​

TICK TOCK

The Department of Justice is suggesting that Trump's trial for trying to overturn the 2020 election should begin on Jan. 2, 2024—and last no more than six weeks.

Jake Lahut​

Politics Reporter

Jose Pagliery​

Political Investigations Reporter
Updated Aug. 10, 2023 5:14PM EDT / Published Aug. 10, 2023 4:04PM EDT

REUTERS/Sam Wolfe​

Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office wants to put former President Donald Trump on trial for his attempted coup in January next year—a move that, if approved by a judge, could brand him a felon before the biggest GOP presidential primaries.

In a filing on Thursday, the special counsel’s office proposed a trial date of January 2, 2024, which they say would take “no longer than four to six weeks.”

Should U.S. Magistrate Judge Moxila A. Upadhyaya approve that date, Trump’s trial could be done and dusted before the GOP’s primaries in South Carolina and Michigan, with plenty of time before the delegate-rich slate of Super Tuesday states in March.

Trump already faces two other separate criminal trials in March and May in New York and Florida, respectively.

However, those trials have been delayed enough that Trump still managed to snag key elections before risking the embarrassing reality of being convicted of felonies while asking voters to make him the Republican nominee.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-and-jack-smith-had-tense-courtroom-stare-down-reports-say
Prosecutors working on these different cases all wanted earlier dates, but judges gave into Trump’s demands for more time. While his lawyers cited the sheer amount of overwhelming work required to sort through millions of pages of evidence, the former president has used political rallies and online posts to accuse prosecutors of trying to derail his re-election campaign. In the end, judges gave Trump a little extra time.

U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, whom Trump himself appointed, was the most rewarding by scheduling the trial long after nearly every important primary election. Part of that delay may have to do with the fact that she is overseeing an expanding criminal case involving his mishandling of classified records at his oceanside estate of Mar-a-Lago, an investigation that also resulted in criminal charges against Trump’s Diet Coke valet and his estate’s property manager.

However, Smith’s decision to indict Trump—and none of his alleged Jan. 6 insurrection co-conspirators—was widely perceived by legal scholars as an attempt to streamline the case by making it faster to prosecute.

On top of the Trump legal team seeking delays, the Trump campaign has also been wary of a potential contested convention, readying for a floor fight next summer should factions within the RNC attempt to boot him from the ticket.

Ex-Trump Aide Cassidy Hutchinson Burns Matt Gaetz Over Dating Rumors​

William Vaillancourt​

Published Sep. 25, 2023 11:48PM EDT

In an interview Monday with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson denied dating Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), as Gaetz has alleged. “I will say on behalf of myself, I never dated Matt Gaetz. I have much higher standards in men,” said Hutchinson, while acknowledging the pair had an “amicable working relationship” and “were good friends at points.”

Maddow, reading from Hutchinson’s soon-to-be-released book, describes Gaetz seemingly trying to get with her while at Camp David, only to have Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) scold his colleague, “Get a life, Matt.” Hutchinson also alleges in her book that Gaetz groped her on two occasions, accusations which he denies.

In a statement to MSNBC, Gaetz claimed that he “did date Cassidy for a few weeks when we were both single years ago,” and that they remained friends after splitting up.

In her book, Hutchinson also accuses former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani of groping her on Jan. 6, which Giuliani has denied.

California governor signs law raising taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for school safety​

BY ADAM BEAM
Updated 5:59 PM CDT, September 26, 2023

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California will ban people from carrying firearms in most public places while doubling the taxes on guns and ammunition sold in the state under two new laws Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Tuesday that will test the limits of the U.S. Supreme Court’s new standard for interpreting the Second Amendment.

The federal government already taxes the sale of guns and ammunition at either 10% or 11%, depending on the type of gun. The law Newsom signed adds another 11% tax on top of that — making California the only state with a separate tax on guns and ammunition, according to the gun control advocacy group Brady.

The money will pay for security improvements at public schools and a variety of gun violence prevention programs, including those geared toward young people in gangs. The money from the federal tax, which has been in place for more than 100 years, pays for wildlife conservation and hunter education programs.

The laws were some of nearly two dozen gun control measures Newsom signed on Tuesday. But he acknowledged many of these laws might not survive legal challenges now that the U.S. Supreme Court has imposed a new standard on interpreting the nation’s gun laws. Just last week, a federal judge struck down a California law banning guns with detachable magazines that carry more than 10 rounds — one of three major pending cases challenging California’s gun restrictions.

“It may mean nothing if the federal courts are throwing them out,” Newsom said. “We feel very strongly that these bills meet the (new standard), and they were drafted accordingly. But I’m not naive about the recklessness of the federal courts and the ideological agenda.”

The California Rifle and Pistol Association has already sued to block one new law Newsom signed on Tuesday that bans people from carrying guns in most public places. The law overhauls the state’s rules for concealed carry permits in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

It specifically bans people from carrying guns in 26 places, including public parks and playgrounds, public demonstrations and gatherings, amusement parks, churches, banks, zoos and “any other privately owned commercial establishment that is open to the public” unless the owner puts up a sign saying guns are allowed.

“These laws will not make us safer. They are an unconstitutional retaliatory and vindictive response to the Supreme Court’s affirmation that the Second Amendment protects an individuals’ right to choose to own a firearm for sport or to defend your family,” said Chuck Michel, president of the California Rifle and Pistol Association. “They are being challenged, and the second they are signed, the clock starts ticking towards a judgment striking them down.”

Newsom — a potential Democratic candidate for president beyond 2024 — has a reputation as one of the country’s most liberal governors. But he has often refused to raise taxes, even for causes he supports like combating climate change. However, Newsom said he viewed this tax differently than the other general increases he tends to oppose. He argued that gun violence already costs taxpayers a lot of money in health impacts and in the criminal justice system.

“I think this is a pretty modest investment in prevention and reducing those costs, ultimately,” he said, later adding, “The carnage, it’s too much. We can’t normalize it, we can’t accept it. This is a small price to pay.”

California has some of the lowest gun death rates in the country, ranking 43rd out of 50 states with 9 deaths for every 100,000 people, according to 2021 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But violent crimes have increased recently. The violent crime rate increased by 6.1% in 2022, according to the California Department of Justice.

No other state has a special tax just for guns and ammunition, although some local governments do. Tennessee once had a 10-cent tax on shotgun shells, but that tax was repealed in 2019. Pennsylvania collects a $3 surcharge on gun sales to pay for background checks. Fees on California gun purchases currently total more than $37, with most of that money paying for background checks.

“Taxing firearm sales to fund violence intervention programs is essential to interrupting the cycle of violence and stopping gun violence before it begins, and we encourage other states to follow suit,” said Kris Brown, president of Brady.

The tax has some exceptions. It would not apply to police officers and it would not apply to businesses with sales of less than $5,000 over a three-month period. State officials estimate it would generate about $159 million annually.

The law says the first $75 million of that money must go to the California Violence Intervention and Prevention Grant Program. The program has funded projects targeting young people in gangs, including sports programs, life coaching and tattoo removal.

The next $50 million would go to the State Department of Education to boost security at public schools. That includes things like physical security improvements, safety assessments, after-school programs for at-risk students and mental and behavioral health services for students, teachers and other school employees.

That brought comfort to state Sen. Catherine Blakespear, a Democrat from San Diego, who said she was on the Senate floor earlier this year when she got a text message from her ninth-grader saying they were hiding under their desk. No one was injured.

“I know that there are thousands of families that are going through this and normalizing the hardening of our schools,” she said. “The reality that we have to protect people by doing things like that is something that we don’t want in this state and in this country.”

New York judge rules Trump committed fraud and lied about his net worth for years​

The judge, Arthur Engoron, also denied Trump's bid to dismiss the New York attorney general's $250 million lawsuit against him and his company.


Sept. 26, 2023, 4:11 PM CDT / Updated Sept. 26, 2023, 7:30 PM CDT
By Adam Reiss, Chloe Atkins, Jonathan Dienst and Dareh Gregorian

A New York judge ruled in the state attorney general's $250 million lawsuit against Donald Trump and his company Tuesday that the former president committed repeated acts of fraud for years.

According to the ruling, which allows the civil trial to begin next week, Trump lied to banks and insurers by both overvaluing and undervaluing his assets when it was to his benefit while exaggerating his net worth to the tune of billions of dollars.

In his 35-page ruling, Judge Arthur Engoron said Trump continually lied on his financial statements and was able to get favorable loan terms and lower insurance premiums as a result. Trump's legal arguments defending the statements are based in "a fantasy world, not the real world," Engoron wrote.

He went on to say that the case was essentially a "documents case" and that "the documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business, satisfying [the attorney general's] burden to establish liability as a matter of law against defendants. Defendants’ respond that: the documents do not say what they say; that there is no such thing as 'objective' value; and that, essentially, the Court should not believe its own eyes."

"The defenses Donald Trump attempts to articulate in his sworn deposition are wholly without basis in law or fact," Engoron added.

At one point, Engoron pointed to Trump's having exaggerated the size of his New York apartment to pump up its value, repeatedly claiming it was over 30,000 feet when it was a third of that size.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

He found Trump, his sons Don Jr. and Eric and their companies liable for fraud.

He also denied Trump's motion for summary judgment that argued New York Attorney General Letitia James' lawsuit should be dismissed. Engoron sanctioned Trump's attorneys $7,500 apiece for making legal arguments that had already been rejected twice.

The ruling would dissolve numerous limited liability companies, or LLCs, associated with Trump, including the Trump Organization LLC, an entity that’s been been used to expand the Trump brand through use of his name. Each side was given 10 days to recommend three potential receivers to manage the dissolution of the LLCs identified in the court filing.

While the New York-based LLCs will need to be dissolved, it will be up to the receiver to determine what that looks like.

Former judge Barbara Jones will continue in her role as a court appointed monitor of financial activity at Trump Organization Inc., which is separate from the similarly named LLC.

Engoron further ordered that the outstanding issues in the case will get resolved at trial.

The trial is scheduled to start Monday. Because it is a bench trial, the case will be decided solely by the judge, with no jury.


In a statement Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump blasted the state attorney general and the judge and said, "My Civil Rights have been violated, and some Appellate Court, whether Federal or State, must reverse this horrible, un-American decision."

Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and insisted that the lawsuit is part of a partisan “witch hunt.” In a social media post Monday, he called Engoron a “Trump Hater beyond even A.G. James.”

Trump's lead attorney in the case, Christopher Kise, called the ruling "outrageous" and said it was "completely disconnected from the facts and governing law."

He said in a statement that Engoron had "disregarded the viewpoint of those actually involved in the loan transactions who testified there was nothing misleading, there was no fraud, and the transactions were all highly profitable."

"While the full impact of the decision remains unclear, what is clear is that President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice,” Kise said.

Another Trump attorney, Alina Habba, focused on Engoron's determination that Trump's Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, had been grossly overvalued.

Engoron noted that from 2011 to 2021, the Palm Beach County assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at $18 million to $27.6 million. Trump's financial statements, meanwhile, put the club's value at almost $427 million to $612 million.

She said the judge's findings, including the one "that Mar-a-Lago is worth approximately $20 million," is "an affront to our legal system."

In a tweet, Eric Trump said after the ruling that he had "lost all faith in the New York legal system."
"We have run an exceptional company — never missing a loan payment, making banks hundreds of millions of dollars, developing some of the most iconic assets in the world. Yet today, the persecution of our family continues," he said.

James' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Engoron's ruling.

UAW Leader Has No Desire at All to Talk to Trump in Michigan​

Trump’s expected appearance Wednesday at a non-union auto plant is a “pathetic irony,” Shawn Fain said on CNN.

William Vaillancourt​

Published Sep. 26, 2023 9:55PM EDT

The United Auto Workers union’s president derided GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as being out of touch with the striking workers, claiming in a CNN interview Tuesday that the former president “serves the billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”

On the same day that Joe Biden became the first sitting president to join a picket line on behalf of the United Auto Workers, Shawn Fain, who has not yet given an endorsement in the 2024 race, said that he has no desire to discuss the strike with Trump.

“I see no point in meeting with him because I don’t think the man has any bit of care about what our workers stand for, what the working class stands for,” he told The Situation Room anchor Wolf Blitzer. “He serves the billionaire class and that’s what’s wrong with this country.”

After Blitzer commented that his remark “effectively sounds like an endorsement for Biden,” Fain pushed back.

“It’s not an endorsement for anyone. It’s just flat-out how I view the former president.”
Trump is expected to skip Wednesday's primary debate and instead speak at a non-union automotive parts manufacturer in Michigan—a move that Fain called a “pathetic irony.”

“All you have to do is look at his track record. His track record speaks for itself.”

Meanwhile, Biden, whose appearance outside a General Motors facility in Michigan was at the invitation of Fain, told onlookers that they “should be doing just as well” as the auto companies, The New York Times reported.

“You’ve heard me say many times: Wall Street didn’t build this country,” Biden said. “The middle class built this country. And unions built the middle class. That’s a fact. Let’s keep going. You deserve what you’ve earned, and you’ve earned a hell of a lot more than you get paid now.”

The UAW gave its support to Biden 2020, but this time around has taken issue with the administration’s goal of having two out of three new passenger cars be electric by 2032. (Electric cars currently comprise 5.8 percent of cars on the road, and they’re getting more popular by the year, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.)

Biden said Tuesday that he’s “not worried about” what it would take for the union to endorse him again. Fain, for his part, said on CNN that endorsements will come “at the appropriate time.”

Hillary Clinton Shades Trump at Official State Department Portrait Reveal​

‘THE LAST ADMINISTRATION’

Chaya Tong​

Breaking News Intern
Updated Sep. 26, 2023 8:39PM EDT / Published Sep. 26, 2023 8:34PM EDT

Alex Wong/Getty Images​

Hillary Clinton was fêted at a swanky State Department event Tuesday, during which her official portrait was finally revealed.

The former Secretary of State used the opportunity to swipe at former President Donald Trump without ever saying his name, suggesting at one point that she delayed the event to avoid doing it during the “last administration.” She added of current Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who introduced her with a glowing speech: “We had burned so bridges with our allies and our friends, so reinstating a foreign policy that plays to the best of American values, that puts our interests and security front and center but does it in a way that actually brings people to us, not pushes them away—would have been thought to be extremely difficult, and indeed it was,” she said. “But it was accomplished.”

Michigan ‘Fake Electors’: We Aren’t Guilty—We Were ‘Brainwashed’​

Brett Bachman​

Night Editor
Published Sep. 27, 2023 12:10AM EDT

Rebecca Cook/Reuters​

Two Republican “fake electors” in Michigan are using a novel legal strategy in an attempt to weasel their way out of criminal charges stemming from their involvement with former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election in the state. Lawyers for Clifford Frost and Mari-Ann Henry argued that the pair were effectively “brainwashed” by Trump into believing the stolen election conspiracy—and therefore did not possess the correct state of mind to be convicted of fraud. The argument is an attempt to throw state Attorney General Dana Nessel’s words back in her face, after she described the pair of Republicans as “brainwashed” by the former president’s lies. The next hearings in the case are scheduled for next month—and it remains unclear what chances the strategy has of working.

The Fraud speaks out!​

​

Trump Goes Off the Rails in Response to Devastating Fraud Ruling​

AJ McDougall​

Breaking News Reporter
Updated Sep. 26, 2023 9:54PM EDT / Published Sep. 26, 2023 7:53PM EDT

Scott Morgan/Reuters​

A judge ruled that Donald Trump and members of his inner circle were liable for fraud thanks to their efforts to systematically inflate property values while constructing his family’s real estate empire—and naturally, the former president is less than happy about the decision.

On Truth Social, Trump railed against the “new, un-American depths” to which the “radical attack” against him had sunk. Calling the judge “DERANGED” and New York Attorney General Letitia James “completely biased and corrupt,” Trump observed that the decision was “a terrible reminder that the Radical Left Democrats will stop at nothing in trying to prevent me, and the American people, from winning the 2024 Presidential Election.”

Mid-rant, Trump took an abrupt detour to grouse about the fact that the judge valued Mar-a-Lago at $18 million, “when in actuality, it could be worth almost 100 times that amount.”

He followed up with another post incorrectly asserting that violent crime in New York is at “record levels,” adding: “Can you imagine ruling against me for having done business perfectly, and yet letting people go on a rampage on the sidewalks of New York?”

US military announces it captured ISIS official in Syria helicopter raid​

By Haley Britzky, CNN
Published 3:44 PM EDT, Mon September 25, 2023



The US military captured an ISIS official in a helicopter raid in northern Syria on Saturday, US Central Command announced Monday.

“U.S. Central Command forces successfully conducted a helicopter raid in northern Syria, Sept. 23, 2023. Abu Halil al-Fad’ani, an ISIS Syria Operational and Facilitation official, was captured during the raid,” the CENTCOM release said. “Al-Fad’ani was assessed to have relationships throughout the ISIS network in the region.”

According to the release, no civilians were killed or injured in the raid.

“The capture of ISIS officials like al-Fad’ani increases our ability to locate, target, and remove terrorist from the battlefield,” CENTCOM spokesperson Lt. Col. Troy Garlock said in the release. “USCENTCOM remains committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS.”

In August, CENTCOM forces and coalition partners conducted eight partner operations in Syria, in which seven ISIS operatives were detained and an eighth was killed, according to CENTCOM. In Iraq, 18 operatives were detained and six were killed throughout operations in August in Iraq.

Another ISIS operative — Hudayfah al Yemeni, an “ISIS attack facilitator” — and two of his associates were captured in a helicopter raid in Syria in April.

The US has roughly 900 troops in Syria as part of the ongoing mission to defeat ISIS.

Spitting out a lot of coach speak and tortured rationalizations regarding the state of our defense.

Is it fair yet to start wondering aloud as to what degree he understands what it takes to play sound D? Not exploit a defense, but play it.

Lots of strong thoughts from Tajwar this week:

27 teams remain undefeated.

Utah @ Org St - Will Cam start at QB? Can DJ rebound with a huge victory?

Clem @ Cuse - can they deliver the knockout punch to Clem?

Kan @ Tex - undefeated match up. Will TX be challenged?

LSU @ Ole Miss - will Ole Miss rebound?

ND @ Duke - undefeated matchup. Would be great to see Duke win.

Wash @ Ari - p12 after dark???

This young man is balling...

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In docs case, Trump falsely claims he was ‘allowed to take’ materials​

Chances are, one of Trump’s lawyers has tried to explain the Presidential Records Act to him. If so, he probably should've have paid closer attention.


Sept. 15, 2023, 8:24 AM CDT
By Steve Benen

When Donald Trump sat down with Hugh Hewitt last week, the conservative host asked about some the details surrounding the classified documents scandal. The former president, realizing that he’s under criminal indictment, didn’t seem overly eager to address the subject. “I don’t talk about anything,” the Republican initially said.

Trump did, however, go on to make the case for his perceived innocence. “I’m allowed to do whatever I want,” the former president declared. “I come under the Presidential Records Act. ... I come under the Presidential Records Act.
I’m allowed to do everything I did. ... I am totally protected by the Presidential Records Act.”

This week, he sat down with a different conservative media figure, and peddled a similar pitch. The Hill reported:

Megyn Kelly in an interview published Thursday pressed former President Donald Trump over his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House and questioned why Trump would not comply with a subpoena for the sensitive materials.

Click to expand...

The SiriusXM host, who used to practice law, was willing to make all kinds of concessions to her guest, including the idea that the criminal cases against him are politically motivated. But Kelly also reminded Trump that he was nevertheless required to comply with subpoenas.

Eventually, the Republican shrugged off the details and declared, “All I know is, I’m allowed to have those documents. ... I have the right to have those documents.”

And where, pray tell, does this “right” come from? “This is all about the Presidential Records Act,” Trump added. “I’m allowed to have these documents. I’m allowed to take these documents — classified or not classified.”

Right off the bat, it’s worth emphasizing that Trump should probably stop saying stuff like this in public. He is, after all, a criminal defendant. After clips from the interview started circulating online, several lawyers predicted that excerpts would be played at his trial — by prosecutors, not defense counsel.

But just as notable is the Republican’s eagerness to reference the Presidential Records Act as some kind of trump card that makes the entire scandal disappear. He’s pushed the line in interviews, and he’s been equally enthusiastic about using his social media platform to push the same talking point.

The repetition hasn’t made a bogus claim true. As a Washington Post analysis explained in April:

Under Trump’s version of reality, the Presidential Records Act (PRA) is an all-purpose security blanket from prosecution for holding onto the documents that NARA says belong to the American people. He suggests that the law gives him unique status to negotiate over which documents he can keep — and that he has acted no differently from any other occupant of the Oval Office. None of this is correct.

Click to expand...

What’s more, as my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin wrote in July, the Presidential Records Act isn’t even “relevant to the federal indictment charging Trump with violating the Espionage Act and other criminal statutes.”

In all likelihood, someone on Trump’s legal defense team has tried to explain to him how little sense his rhetoric makes, and if so, he probably should've paid closer attention.

Right here:

A look at how five-stars in the 2022 class are performing:

Russian Naval Commander and 33 Officers Obliterated in Biggest Blow Yet, Says Ukraine​

DIRECT HIT

The commander of Russia’s infamous Black Sea Fleet was killed along with more than 30 officers in Friday’s missile attack on the fleet’s HQ, according to Ukraine.

Nico Hines​

World Editor
Updated Sep. 26, 2023 10:37AM EDT / Published Sep. 25, 2023 9:58AM EDT



In one of the most devastating blows of the war so far, Ukraine says it took out a whole chunk of Russia’s naval leadership in a single missile attack, which killed the commander of the notorious Black Sea Fleet.

Vice Admiral Viktor Sokolov was allegedly killed in Friday’s missile strike on the Black Sea Fleet’s HQ in Crimea, which was illegally occupied by Russia in 2014.

Sokolov, who was drafted in to beef up the faltering navy last year, was attending a meeting of top naval and military figures when the missile crashed into the building in Sevastopol, according to the Special Operations Forces of Ukraine. The Spetsnaz unit claims that 34 officers in total were killed in the explosion.

A huge plume of black smoke was seen billowing from the building last Friday in one of Ukraine’s most stunning missile assaults of the war. The direct hit on the naval command center was a symbolic blow for Russia as the Black Sea Fleet has been a source of national pride since it was established by Catherine the Great in 1783.

President Vladimir Putin fired the commander of the fleet last year after it suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks including the sinking of its lead warship, the Moskva, and an attack on its air base in Crimea that saw eight warplanes destroyed.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-wi...issiles-to-ukraine-as-crimea-attacks-escalate


Sokolov, who previously held a prestigious role as the head of a military academy, was brought back into active service to reinstate pride in the Black Sea Fleet.

His death—compounded by those of so many of his colleagues—in the heart of the fleet’s operation would represent a severe blow to that pride.

Over the weekend, rumors on social media began to suggest that Sokolov had been caught up in the explosion. The Special Operations Forces posted its confirmation on Telegram on Monday.
“After the attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet headquarters, 34 officers, including the Commander of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, lost their lives, with an additional 105 occupants sustaining injuries. The headquarters building is beyond repair,” the Telegram statement read.

The special forces unit did not name any of the other victims of the attack by one of the Storm Shadow air-launched missiles donated by Britain and France earlier this year.

Lt. Gen. Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s military intelligence, previously said Col. Gen. Alexander Romanchuk, the commander of Russian forces on the southern front, and Lt. Gen. Oleg Tsekov were seriously wounded in the attack.

Ukraine has been desperate to prove that it can make serious gains in the remainder of the fighting season before winter sets in and, in particular, Kyiv wants to show the skeptical West that it is capable of retaking Crimea.