Law, Power, and Justice

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  • WEDNESDAY 22 MAY 2024

    EARLY AFTERNOON NEWS NOTES: “If people would just pay attention…” Elie Mystal

    Notes:

    • It is still unclear to me what the United States gets out of this proposed grand agreement for Saudi to recognize Israel.  I understand what the Israelis get and what the Saudi’s get, but I don’t understand what we get.  I am not at all sure I want to see us join into a defense agreement with Saudi Arabia.
    • I saw our red-bellied woodpecker today.  He is so beautiful.

    News Notes

    • The recognition of Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic.
    • The families of several female soldiers released video of Hamas taking them hostage.  It is unclear when the families secured the video and unclear why they have released it now.  They are asking the Israeli government to renew the cease fire talks in hopes of having hostages released. New York Times (NYT) (Note: Some of these young women, lookouts on October 7, tried to warn the Israeli military that something was happening.  They were not listened to and then taken hostage.)  The young women have been hostages (if they are still alive) for 229 days.
    • One of the Jan 6 rioters has won a Republican primary in Georgia (MSNBC).  Book: Erik Larson “The Demon of Unrest.” Larson talks about how much the current political situation resembles the lead up to the Civil War. 

    Article Notes: Mystal, Elie (May 2024) “An Army of AGs,” The Nation.

    • In 1999, The Republican Attorneys General Association was created. 
    • It identifies Republican candidates, imposes Republican priorities at the state level, among other things.
    • Few people “recognize the horrors that lie in store when Republicans commandeer the machinery of the law.”
    • “…whichever rights the Supreme Court does not succeed in obliterating, Republican-controlled state courts and Republican attorneys general eagerly chisel away, state by state.”
    • Republican AGs can “bend the law to their will and weaponize it against vulnerable communities.”
    • There are 27 Republican Attorneys General.
    • Kansas AG Kris Kobach is suing to try to stop Biden’s student debt relief program.
    • “…hellish Republican policy idea, from destroying the environment to gutting voting rights to un-dermining vaccines, because apparently states need ‘defending’ from science, facts, and public health.”
    • They are incredibly well funded by Federalist Society “Svengali Leonard Leo” and the usual donor-class “supervillains.”
    • They work “hand in hand with preferred Trump judges to shape our national laws through targeted cases designed for appellate and eventually Supreme court review.”
    • “…if people would just pay attention…”
    •  

  • MORNING NEWS NOTES: TRUMP TRIAL 10:18 am

    Trump Trial: MSNC

    • Lanny Davis (Cohen’s lawyer).
    • Costello asked to testify before the grand jury after Cohen had finished.  “Very unusual.”  Little weight was given to the testimony by the grant jury.
    • Why is he a defense witness?  He has no evidence relevant to the case. 

    Trump Trial: CNN

    • Brennan: We still don’t know what that second crime is.
    • The instructions are crucially important.

    Other News Notes: Bannon (AMVO)

    • “Trump is unbeatable.” Steve Bannon.  Bannon has a TV channel and a show every week day.  He is a dangerous man.
    • A “delusional sociopath” in a case that is years in the making (the Trump trial).  “This is the Soviet System” and “nazis.”  “Illegitimate regime.”
    • The “cult of climate change.”  They are going to do everything to steal the 2024 election. 
    • Some of the people visiting the trial are not “MAGA people.”  They are more “performative.”
    • “Fiasco.”  You can see the shift in the media.
    • With Costello you saw the “nazi” prosecutors. 
    • Bannon is using Elie Honig’s statements on CNN.  (Note: Trump used a quote from Honig and Coates). 
    • “They laughed at us” about the idea of immunity. 
    • Note: Bannon plays clips from this video between his segments on AMVO.  Tell me what that’s about?
    • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXbwKf-2iB8
    • (Note: Listening to Steve Bannon talk about “revolutionary movements” makes my skin crawl.)
    • The War Room is the name of Bannon’s show.
    • “You are the vanguard.”  To his viewers.
    • Bannon is talking about prosecuting the prosecutors in the Trump case after they (MAGA) take over the Justice Department.
    • “We have to go on offense.” 
    • Rachael Maddow had Fani Willis on last night, this shows you how nervous they are.  Maddow had her on to “rehabilitate her.”
    • Mike Johnson is “not MAGA.”  He is “up to his neck in lobbyists.”
    • “They are already plotting and planning to, the whole world is doing this.  How do we defang Trump.” 
    • Bannon is GIVING PR ADVICE TO THE POPE.  He’s suggesting what the Pope needs to say in his next interview.
    • Hollywood needs to stop glorifying the FBI, Trump calls them the gestapo.  We need some shows glorifying the Jan. 6 people.
    • “Look at their hatred and contempt for, not only Trump, (pointing at the screen) you.”
    • “Their contempt for you is shown in that court.”  (At the Trump trial.)
    • Nobody has ever seen anything like putting Cohen on the stand in any case.  (Note: Well, Sammy the Bull?). 
    • (Note: Bannon is selling something called “Sacred Human” it’s a supplement.)
    • Bannon interviews Frank Gaffney: talking about “global governance”

    This Week in White Supremacy (I have no idea what this is.)

    • Well, this was a collection of videos of people talking.  I have no idea.  This is on FSTV

    BBC News America

    • Singapore Airlines.  People not wearing seat belts were thrown to the ceiling. 
    • “No one believes this is real.”  Donald Trump, Jr. (Note: No, after all these years, finally, somewhat, a little, being held responsible?)

  • Trump Posts, Then Takes Down, Video Online With Headlines About a ‘Unified Reich’ – The New York Times

    The 30-second video shared from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account, which included references to “the creation of a unified Reich” was denounced by President Biden as using “Hitler’s language.”
    — Read on www.nytimes.com/2024/05/20/us/donald-trump-reich-video.html

  • Art

    getdailyart.com/en/24830/santiago-rusinol/hydrangeas-on-a-garden-path

  • TUESDAY 21 MAY 2024

    Morning News Notes: Trump Trial

    CNN

    • Costello being examined by the prosecution. 
    • The dreadful (full of himself) Elie Honig is back on CNN.  He spent yesterday along with Tapper, hawking the “bombshell” narrative of Cohen’s testimony.  Last night Norm Eisen just laughed at him for this theory Honig was still pumping.
    • Oh, great CNN has another Trump lawyer on the panel, William J. Brennan.
    • Costello told Cohen he had “friends in high places.” 
    • Ohhhh Goddddd Tapper is at it again, talking about the “stunning” admission by Cohen of “larceny.”  He just can’t stop it.  I bet he stayed awake all night arguing this to himself.  Please. 
    • There is criticism of the defense for even calling a witness, much less Costello.
    • Costello wants Cohen as a client.  Cohen distrusts him (as Cohen testified).   Costello is trying to keep Cohen quiet at the beginning of the investigation.
    • Costello says out job is to get Cohen on the right page without giving him the impression we are following orders from Giuliani or Trump.
    • “Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.”  This is how Brennan is describing this testimony by Costello.
    • Prosecution is going through Costello’s emails to other people.
    • Costello cross over.  Re-direct.

    Trump Trial: MSNBC

    • Pretty damning testimony for the defense. 
    • Prosecutor asked Costello about his close relationship with Giuliani.  Refuting what Costello said on stand, emails show Costello told Cohen he was very close with Giuliani.
    • You were upset that he was “playing you?”  No.  “Playing the president?”  No.  “He is playing with us and the President.  What should I say to this A-hole.”  This is an email from Costello to another. 
    • Costello tries to put himself on Cohen’s team, to direct action.
    • Commentator Charles Coleman: “They are trying to snatch a mistrial out of the jaws of a conviction.”  Attorneys can be too smart for themselves.   “this is all falling apart.”
    • “Costello lost control of Cohen for President Trump?” 
    • Documents are undercutting Costello’s testimony.  It was a mistake for the defense to go there.
    • Costello Re-direct: Costello emailed his son that he was all but in as Cohen’s lawyer.  The comments about being played were to Costello’s law partner.  Costello and Bove are implying that Costello thought he was the lawyer and that was the explanation of the “being played” email.  (Note: Right)
    • Coleman: When witnesses seem entitled and have something better to do, it usually offends the jurors. 
    • There will be a charging conference  to determine jury instructions.

  • Afternoon News Notes: Trump Trial, MSNBC AND CNN COVERAGE, Robert Costello (Slime)

    20 May 2024

    Trump Trial: MSNBC

    • Katy Tur is saying that Cohen always blames somebody else. 
    • (Note: Even though Katy Tur was mentioned by Cohen as someone he could rely on if he wanted to place a story positive for Trump, she is still schilling for Trump.)
    • (Note: I like Catherline Christine, MSNBC, partly because she doesn’t obsessively smile.)
    • Tur is now raising the issue tat you can’t possible have a conversation containing two topics in 90 seconds.  Oh, yes you can. 
    • (Note: Somebody relaying the information that Eric Trump recommended Blanche to Trump – a post recommending a post.)
    • Wait, what happened to the CNN video or still?
    • Prosecution witness called: Daniel Sitco. Additional phone records.
    • Discussion about calling Costello

    Trump Trial: CNN

    • Phone calls between Cohen and Costello.  Commentators are saying that Trump wants Costello to testify.75 calls three months.
    • There’s another Trump former staffer on CNN.  Good Lord.  Bryan Lanza, Trump 2016 campaign.  Cohen “trying to make money off this prosecution.”  Lanzs is being asked and is stressing Cohen’s bad motives.  Glad we have some balance on CNN.  Jesus.
    • The CNN coverage is outrageous.

    Trump Trial: MSNBC

    • Tur thinks that people are saying they wouldn’t vote for Trump were he convicted because they don’t understand that he would still be eligible to serve.
    • Costello has already been before the grand jury so the prosecutor will be prepared for him.  Costello says Cohen did it himself without approval of Trump.  Costello told a reporter that Cohen told him that Trump didn’t know about the payment to Danield.
    • Costello is a mobster character.
    • Weissmann (hard evidence, phone calls, checks, create a time line, then talk about the witnesses, highly credible first then others.)
    • They have called Costello.

    Trump Trial: CNN

    • Jurors are being asked to stop outside.
    • (Note: Honig was at SDNY).
    • The judge is admonishing the defense for not telling them they were going to call Costello.  Essentially he is saying, don’t do this to me again.
    • (Note: I think this is Trump’s idea and a mistake.  Costello is a thoroughly distasteful person.)
    • Prosecutors want to keep Costello from testifying.
    • This will drag out time.  It could have been sorted out earlier.
    • Judge likely to say can testify about core issues, but not issues on the periphery.
    • Should Michael Cohen cooperate, a conversation about that. 
    • Costello calls Cohen just after he’s raided. 
    • Also “nothing on President Trump” conversation. 
    • Arguing about notification.
    • Costello maintains that he advised Cohen to consider flipping on Trump and Cohen said he had nothing on Trump. 

    MSNBC

    • Schemes to obstruct justice, according to Weissmann, something about Cohen and Costello.
    • Judge has gone into chambers. (3:41 PM)

  • PATHETIC CNN COVERAGE OF TRUMP TRIAL

    10:40:CNN

    • This is “prosecutorial misconduct.”  Says Elie Honig. 
    • Tapper: “There has to be reasonable doubt.”
    • CNN is making a deal breaker over this, but Cohen had already admitted he took this money. 
    • (Note: I would like to hear somebody take on Honig for this “prosecutorial misconduct.”)

    10:50: MSNBC

    • MSNBC certainly doesn’t seem to share CNN’s panic over the Cohen (second) admission.

    10:53: CNN

    • The CNN overreaction is exactly what happened last week, representing this implication that Cohen and Trump talked about something other than Danels (prank calls) as proof that they didn’t talk about Daniels.
    • CNN likes to create a controversy
    • (Note: CNN repeated the defense claim that the disjointed beginning of the cross, first day, was a strategy.)
    • Tapper is now claiming that the prosecutor was at fault for Cohen’s “stealing” from the company and not bringing it out fully enough. (rewrite)
    • Tapper, is trying to repair the damage of the panel-wide panic over the Cohen admission.
    • Tapper is blaming the prosecutor for the fact that he (Tapper) missed it.  She didn’t “underline” it.  “connect the dots.”  “explain to the jury”
    • Coates is now joining “fatally undermine the prosecution’s case.”
    • Coates pointing out that what Cohen did was a crime.
    • Coates: The prosecution has to rehabilitate its own reputation.
    • Tapper: “They should have hit his harder a week ago.”  Describes himself as a “caveman.”
    • Trump’s lawyer: the prosecution misled this jury, they should say in closing.
    • Honig: I didn’t think Trump deserved the difference and I stole from them is different.
    • Another former Trump lawyer: Tapper frames the question about a “revelation.”  (note: It was already admitted.) Tapper: “devastating”
    • Van der Veer: They are painting Cohen as thieving.  Did he use is own money to pay Daniels because he was a thief?  There are going to be a few more bombshells about shading in the direct testimony.  “Blanche is hitting it home.”
    • Tapper: The documents are now called into question. 
    • Van de Veer: Raises the heat for Trump to testify. Cohen’s testimony is still the same. 
    • Emails from the (mobster) Costello.  Costello represented Cohen, formally or informally.
    • Cohen has a lot of communication with Costello.  Cohen says they were trying to dangle pardons.  (Parlatore):
    • Costello says that Cohen was begging for a pardon. 
    • Haberman seems to imply that the jurors are pulling at their aces and shifting around.”
    • Costello elicited from Cohen that he had no criminal information against Trump.  (He might not have known it).
    • Costello testifying opens a lot of not so great doors (Giuliani)
    • Attorney: Kobe: “Now I have found out that he is a thief, my opinion has totally not changed.”  Underboss has skimmed from the boss that the boss neverlearned out.  I don’t think it’s the “bombshell.”  Cast doubt on content of phone call.  That’s one hole.  (Long pause after Kobe ends.)  Kobe says he wold have ended this about an hour ago.
    • “too long”  “Yeah, Michael Cohen is a thief also.”
    • Collins keeps hitting the stealing thing.  Work to the opportunist argument and enrich himself.
    • Kobe: I don’t think that story is in doubt…exactly what Michael Cohen is…how…explain shellin out $130,000” why?  How do you explain that?
    • Defesne” admitted stealing from the Trump organization.”
    • 11:57
    • Tapper again refers to the theft as a “revelation.”  Guest prosecutor says  it’s not much of a revelation.  Maybe the prosecutors could have made it a better story, but it was taken for granted.

    Redirect from Prosecutor

    • Honig maintains that the phone call was a lie by Cohen, that the phone call was about prank calls.  This is not what was established.
    • I’m not sure where shes going maybe that he had every right to steal $40,000.  Pathetic obsessive attempt to rehabilitate their own mistake.  Create controversy.
    • “None of these are sufficient justifications for larceny.” Tapper.
    • Tapper, especially spent over an hour this afternoon trying to make Cohen’s statement that he overcharged Trump for the polling company bill into a bombshell.  It was pathetic. 

  • CNN AND TRUMP’S FORMER LAWYER ACQUIT TRUMP

    • 10:00 AM
    • Discussion about jury consultants, watching the jurors during the testimony.  They are trying to spot reactions by individuals they can appeal to. 
    • (Note: Our woodpecker is back at the birdfeeder.  He is so big.)
    • There are lawyers on the jury.  Lawyers have looked at social media of jurors and people close to them. 
    • Tim Parlatore (CNN).  Boston bomber, death penalty overturned because of a social media post of one of the jurors who had prejudged the verdict?  (Note: Check)
    • Blanche making point that there was a lot going on in October 2016.
    • Cohen admits he doesn’t remember the specifics of something.
    • (Note: One of the King children supported and endorsed Trump.  Jesus.)
    • Blanche trying to make argument by asking about things that Cohen doesn’t remember, that Cohen can’t possibly remember specifically about the payment to Daniels.
    • Blanche uses the language Do you still maintain that “you only spoke to trump about the Stormy Daniels issue.” (Reporter’s words).
    • Cohen says yes, because it was important to me.
    • (Note: There are two woodpeckers, one more brightly colored than the other.)
    • Cohen was shorted $100,000 on his bonus that year.
    • Red Finch, $20,000 in a brown paper bag, Cohen gave. (Note: As one does.)
    • (Note: Titmice, is that the plural of Titmouse?)
    • “You stole from the Trump Organization?”  Blanche to Cohen.
    • (Note: Chickadees)
    • “You did steal…” based on an expected reimbursement.  “Yes, sir.”
    • Trump is shaking his head.
    • You lied to Weisselberg? Correct.
    • This makes a point of Cohen lying to Weisselbreg.
    • Appears Cohen lied to Weisselberg about how much he needed for Red Finch. 
    • (Note: They are red-bellied woodpeckers).
    • Weisselberg talking about a “bro hug”?  to Cohen? Jesus. 
    • (Brilliant male red cardinal.)
    • Red Finch goosed the polls to favor Trump.
    • Defense might be saying that Trump has no idea what was going on with the money.  Commentators are surprised this is the first time we’ve hears about Cohen lying to Weillelberg.
    • Tapper is asking a Trump lawyer whether there is not reasonable doubt on guilt.  Lawyer is questioning the credibility of the DA’s office.  Prosecutors knew that Cohen was guilty of larceny. (Note: Of course.)
    • CNN has now acquitted Trump.  (Note: Jesus).

  • Trump Trial: News Notes

    MONDAY 20 MAY 2024

    Morning News Notes

    Trump (9:37 AM): CNN

    • It’s only nine Am and Trump is hitting Blanche on the arm. 
    • Blanche has begun.
    • (Note: Both CNN and NPR are reporting that Cohen’s credibility was seriously questioned last week. What actually happened was that Cohen was confronted with texts that indicated that one, one subject of a particular call was about prank calls being received by Cohen.
    • Blanche asking Cohen how many times he met with prosecutors. 
    • CNN has another day full of Trump attorneys on.  Michael van der Veen is on this morning.  (Note: Van der Veen’s law firm followed me on Sunday).  Lawyer says, Cohen is a “pathological liar.”
    • Blanche is hitting on the fact that Cohen was prepared for his testimony.
    • Van der Veen is recommending that the defense call an election law expert. 
    • Blanche pointing out how much Cohen was dealing with in the run-up to the election.
    • Blanche brings up that Cohen was dealing with a potential extortion issue over photographs of Tiffany Trump.

  • ESSENTIAL PODCAST:israel

    podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/call-me-back-with-dan-senor/id1539292794

  • What Ukraine Needs From NATOAdvanced Weapons—and Clarity on What Membership Will RequireBy Ivo Daalder and Karen DonfriedMarch 26, 2024 foreign policy magazine

  • The New Moral Resistance to Putin | Foreign Affairs

    Today, the status of Russian civil society has never looked more precarious. Since the war in Ukraine began in February 2022, the state has relentlessly increased the number of laws criminalizing various forms of public expression—and with them, the number of prosecutions for antiwar activities. Anyone showing critical or nonconforming views might also face unofficial pressure and threats from the workplace or in public. Moreover, Putin is not content simply to revert to Soviet tactics to silence the public: he seeks to outdo them.

    some might be tempted to argue that such forms of solidarity are senseless. But as the Soviet era shows, this misunderstands the intent. Acts of resistance, even if they have no practical result, show society that there are people who openly oppose state violence and injustice

    They have in droves signed their names in support of Boris Nadezhdin, the opposition candidate who tried to run for president this year on an antiwar platform but was disqualified a month before the election. And they are honoring Navalny at sites associated with other victims of state repression: the Solovetsky Stone on Lubyanka Square in Moscow; the Wall of Grief on Academician Sakharov Avenue; and the Bolshoi Moskvoretsky Bridge, colloquially known as Nemtsov Bridge, where another man who might have become president, the liberal politician and Putin critic Boris Nemtsov, was killed nine years ago.

    Larisa Bogoraz, one of the seven dissidents of the 1968 Red Square protest, said in her final statement in court, “I faced a choice: to protest or to stay silent.” She elaborated on her decision: “To stay silent for me meant to lie.”

    CONSTITUTIONAL PATRIOTS

    In the Soviet Union, the rise of dissident culture was initially driven by the insight that the authorities were failing to respect the Soviet constitution and the basic rights enshrined in it. The demand that officials rectify their ways, first formulated in 1965 by the political activist Alexander Esenin-Volpin in response to the arrests of Sinyavsky and Daniel, marked the beginning of the movement.

    In December of that year, Esenin-Volpin organized a meeting in Red Square calling for a “fair and open trial” of the two writers. More actions followed. The next year, dissidents staged a protest calling for adherence to the constitution, again in Pushkin Square. Then, in January 1967, after Soviet authorities arrested the poet Yuri Galanskov and his friends for publishing and distributing a samizdat journal, several more dissidents set up at the square. A year after that, the so-called Trial of the Four—the case against Galanskov and three other dissidents, Alexander Ginzburg, Alexey Dobrovolsky, and Vera Lashkova—sparked a further wave of petitions and protests. By calling on the regime to follow the letter of the Soviet constitution, these people laid the foundation for human rights activists in Russia today. Indeed, the appeal to adhere to the law can be made even more strongly now, since every day the state is trampling the rights and freedoms of the people that are guaranteed in the Russian constitution.

    The Soviet state’s immediate response to the protests of the late 1960s, however, was to pass new laws making it easier to crack down on dissent. Although the Soviet Penal Code already included a famous provision against “anti-Soviet” activity, it did not have provisions that specifically applied to some dissident actions, so in 1966, two more articles were concocted: Article 190-1, prohibiting the spread of knowingly false statements that defame the Soviet state and social system, and Article 190-3, banning group actions that violate public order. In the early 1970s, prosecutors made particularly wide use of Article 190 to charge dissidents, and the quality of the judicial process gradually deteriorated. Whenever dissidents were being tried, otherwise competent judges disregarded arguments, laws, and even common sense.

    Relearning a Soviet-era art amid repression and war.
    — Read on www.foreignaffairs.com/russia/new-moral-resistance-putin

  • What Ukraine Needs From NATOAdvanced Weapons—and Clarity on What Membership Will RequireBy Ivo Daalder and Karen DonfriedMarch 26, 2024 foreign policy magazine


    The Kremlin seeks to make sure that Ukraine’s future is decided in Moscow, not Kyiv. Ukraine is fighting for the freedom to chart its own future—and a vast majority of Ukrainians want their country to become a member of NATO and the European Union.


    But NATO countries are divided over when Kyiv should join. Some members, led by the Baltics, Poland, and France, want the alliance to issue a formal invitation at this July’s Washington summit. They believe that the persistence of security vacuums in Europe entices Moscow to fill those gray areas militarily—as it has in Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova. Other members, including the United States and Germany, are not prepared to move that fast. The outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, who may well be NATO’s next secretary-general, captured this perspective at the Munich Security Conference last month: “As long as the war is raging, Ukraine cannot become a member of NATO.”


    NATO leaders need to step up their support for Ukraine’s defense by supplying advanced weapons, such as long-range missiles, that some NATO members have been reluctant to provide.

    At the Washington summit, NATO leaders should agree to invite Ukraine when the fighting has effectively ended, either through an unlikely Ukrainian victory or through a durable cease-fire or armistice. At the conclusion of active conflict, Kyiv need not accept any loss of territory to Russia as permanent, only that any change to the status quo would need to be achieved politically, not militarily.


    No longer-term efforts will matter, however, if Ukraine loses the war. That is why NATO must fortify Ukraine’s defenses and consider supplying Kyiv with weapons that are currently off the table, such as U.S. ATACMS and German Taurus long-range missiles. At the outset of the war, NATO members sought to balance support for Ukraine with the need to avoid a direct confrontation with Russia. NATO countries restricted the kinds of weapons they would send and limited the ways in which Ukrainian forces would be permitted to use them (for example, no attacks on Russian soil).

  • SATURDAY 18 MAY 2024

    News Notes: Worst Russian Propaganda Podcasts, Cuba, Israel, Slovikia, Speculations on Trump Trial

    Slovikia: (BBC)

    • (Note: Even though NPR evidently identified the victim of the Slovidian assassination attempt, Robert Fiso, as a left-wing politician, he is not.  He has provoked division in the society, is rabidly anti-immigrant, supports Putin and opposes aid to Ukraine.)
    • One of the political parties has suspended campaigning.

    Cuba: (BBC)

    • The Cuban sugar industry is almost defunck.  The island now is importing sugar, something unthinkable in the past.
    • The BBC reporter blames this on the American boycott, mismanagement, and investment in the tourist trade as a key economic activity which has resulted in neglect of the sugar industry.
    • Problems in the sugar industry are affecting the rum trade.
    • There are private entrepreneurs in Cuba. The BBC reporter raises the notion that only people who are very much involved with the Communist Party are able to start private businesses as compex as his.
    • The reporter calls sugar a “ghost industry.”

    Israel (BBC)

    • Many have fled from Rafah as it seems likely that Israel will launch a ground invasion.
    • Areas of Gaza thought to be controlled by Israel (north Gaza) are now become a problem as Hamas moves back in and sets up activity.
    • Jebala is a focus.  Israel has gone back into Jabala Refugee Camp.  They say they found a machine to make rockets and that there have been attacks from the area. 
    • If this continues is will result in a long running insurgency. 
    • In the West Bank, there was an air strike in Jenin Refugee Camp.  Local militant groups not affiliated with the larger groups.  One of them Palestinian Jihad. 
    • The bodies of three hostages have been recovered.  The longer this goes on, the less hostages are likely to be alive.  Louk is thought to have been dead since October. 
    • (Note: They took her body back to Gaza, paraded it – half naked and distorted – so that men could celebrate over it and spit on it.)
    • The American pier has gotten some aid into Gaza but it is a drop in the bucket compared to what is needed.
    • Aid going into Rafah has almost stopped.

    Israel (CNN) 4 PM

    • Gantz (part of War Cabinet) threatens to quit if Netanyahu does not lay out Gaza plan by June 8.
    • David Sanger, reporter, NYT, Netanyahu has publicly refused to give a plan.  “The relationship with the prime minister couldn’t be worse.”  (with Biden).  Biden administration would be happy if Gantz quit.
    • Protests in Tel Aviv, Israel demanding hostage release.
    • Israel is going toward a permanent military occupation of Gaza, which would be a disaster. 

    Navalny: (BBC)

    • A former aid of Navalny, living in Lituania, was attacked with a knife. 
    • (Note: New Yorker article about murders in London virtually ignored by the police because they are connected with Russia.)

    Trump Trial Speculations

    • Ari Melber has an ax to grind with Michael Cohen who refused to appear on his show anymore after Melber whored around and interviewed Avantti in prison.
    • So, Melber is presenting an image of Cohen as a liar and maintaining that the defense made significant damage to Cohen’s testimony and credibility.
    • Melber is playing his interview with Avanatti and bragging about being the first one to get a prison interview. 
    • Avanatti is crazy.  Who tries to extort Nike and who steals money from somebody like Stormy Daniels?  Jesus.
    • Well, they are having a conversation about the representatives showing up at the trial and sitting there glaring at the prosecution witnesses.  They are undermining the rule of law. 

    Podcasts: One of the Worst Russian Propaganda Podcasts

    • If you want to hear a pathetic discussion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, try The Duran Report.  Featuring a British disbarred attorney and a military expert who describes himself as being trained in realpolitik, which means politics without morals. 
    • They are arrogant, completely misguided, spouting arguments that reveal they are willing to admit in no part the real nature of Russia under Putin. 
    • To give an example of the Kremlin propaganda, these two are seriously arguing that the Russians are really nice people and if the US would just talk to them everything would be alright.  The problem, according to them, is that the US administration refuses to talk to Russia.

  • Masterpiece Story: The Tribuna of the Uffizi by Johan Zoffany | DailyArt Magazine

    Read the story behind the Tribuna of the Uffizi by Johan Zoffany, a painting of the famous treasury of masterpieces in Florence.
    — Read on www.dailyartmagazine.com/tribuna-of-the-uffizi-by-johan-zoffany/